Fund to Restore the Scholarship

Olin’s scholarship is an important tradition of this school. It recognizes all of Olin’s students as meritorious, and puts them on equal ground. It gives the students of Olin a fierce loyalty to the institution and the freedom to experiment with their education and education style.

The scholarship affects me, personally, very strongly; it’s not why I came here, but it is how. I know I’m not the only student who couldn’t afford Olin without the full scholarship. And having more pressure on a job through the college years would hurt the experience and grades of any student.

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The “Anonymity” Policy

The anonymity of the Taboo and Therapy mailing lists at Olin has been sacrosanct in the minds of students for years. Until recently, it appeared that the security of the lists was impenetrable. However, on the weekend of March 5th, an Olin student discovered that the unfiltered archives of all Olin mailing lists (including senders email addresses) had been openly accessible to the world for several years.

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April Fish

Although April Fools’ day is not an official holiday, that doesn’t stop it from being celebrated all over the world. Here in America, it is a day for pulling pranks, both elaborate and simple, on friends and enemies, but other parts of the world have twists on the tradition.

In other countries, according to april-fools.us, the April Fools’ Day takes on different twists and traditions.

In Scotland, April Fools’ Day is known as Taily Day and it is dedicated to “spoofs involving the buttocks.”

In some places, like England, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, it is considered bad luck to play pranks after noon, so all the jokes are pulled early in the day. Some newspapers in these places even have a morning “joke” edition and a serious edition that comes out in the afternoon.

In France, Italy and French Canada, along with other pranks, it is tradition to try to affix a paper fish to people without them noticing, making them “April fish.” The term also refers to the recipient of other pranks played on that day.

So where did these silly traditions come from?

While it is uncertain, they may have originated around 1582 when the Gregorian calendar was introduced and the start of the new year was moved from the week of March 25th-April 1st to January 1st.

Some people who were reluctant to follow the new calendar and were thought “foolish” by the rest of society. They often had practical jokes played on them, such as being sent on silly or impossible errands or being invited to fake parties.

People who fell for these tricks were labeled “poisson d’avril” or “April fish” because a “young, naïve fish is easily caught” which is where the tradition of the attaching a paper fish is thought to have come from.

People around carry on the tradition of elaborate pranks and silly jokes on the unwary today- so watch your back, or you might find yourself an unwitting April fish!

Olin to Set World Record!

It’s been almost a week since my friend Oren and I e-mailed our plea to all students: Please save your one-sided print jobs; we want to put them to good use! We plan to break a world record – that of the largest ‘rasterbated’ image – for an Expo project. Preparation work is nearing its conclusion. Paper collection aside, all we need to do is to scrape our team of paper caper tapers together in order to assemble our masterpiece in the week before Expo.

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A Candid Conversation with Lawrence Neeley

Lawrence Neeley has been teaching at Olin for four years. He grew up in Oakland, California before crossing the country to go to the honors college in Maryland, where he decided to be a mechanical engineer. He earned his master’s and PhD at Stanford, and then came to MIT for postdoctoral mechanical design work.

The MechE side of him was clear stepping into his office; he had various small metal parts lined up neatly on his desk, and elegant, magnetized carabiners hanging from his shelf. His bookshelf was full of rapid prototyping and design theory, and a vinyl cutter in a case rested under his clean desk.

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A Few Thoughts

I would like to challenge some of the underlying assumptions upon which much of the argument in “The Meaning of Empowerment” was based.

The author states that much violence is due to greed or hateful religious beliefs. This is a gross oversimplification of reality. The reasons that people commit acts of violence are complex, but I believe that people are driven to violence because they have needs that are not being met, whether those needs be physical, emotional, social, etc.

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Smooth Moves

Walking through West Hall late at night, you’re likely to encounter a crew of satisfied patrons of FBE’s newest venture. You don’t even have to leave the privacy of your room to order up something sexy out of Smooth Moves’ diverse— and colorful— catalog. Whatever your tastes—light, sweet, rich, or saucy—Smooth Moves delivers. Literally.

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‘Like’ This, ‘Like’ That

If you have ever had a teacher who was picky about conversational grammar, chances are they have commented on everybody’s usage of the word like.

Of all the common grammar mistakes we make daily, ‘like’ is the worst of them.

Unfortunately, even the most cautious speakers end up slipping the word incorrectly into their sentences, often not even noticing they have done so. We use it so frequently, we have become desensitized to its incorrect usage and accept it in any conversation.

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