Business

THE DISMAL SCIENCE | Venezuela Can’t Feed Its Cats

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Long lines and empty shelves plague Venezuela’s grocery stores as its economic crisis shows no signs of stopping. Pets are also feeling the effects of the prolonged food shortages as residents are struggling to spare a single morsel, according to a report by CBS. The South American nation traditionally relies on foreign goods to stock its stores, but imports are down 40% from last year, according to a report by NPR. The reason for such a sharp cut is simple: the government is running out of money. It is easy to blame the problem on a worldwide slump in oil prices.

Life

IN LOWERCASE | 50 and Relevant

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I have always had a dumbfounded expression whenever a Star Trek reference has been made around me; I am not the most avid sci-fi fan, nor do I even understand what the Star Trek craze is all about (yes, I have received questioning looks). When my Residence Hall Director, Eric, announced we would be watching an episode at our RA staff meeting, I didn’t qute understand how this related to the usual theme of our discussions, which usually revolve around raging social debates and issues. He mentioned the series turning fifty this year, and I assumed this meeting would be a tiny break from our usual motif. We watched “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, where the ship encounters two duo-chromatic aliens who bring their own conflict onboard. The overly theatrical acting and lack of fancy special effects aside, the subtle social and political connotations that still hold for the present day political scenario quite frankly, left me astonished.

Life

SUIT DU JOUR | PINK-Y PROMISE

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Welcome to mi casa, — suit du jour —the place where fashion governs everything. While I am half-kidding, I am also half-not. I love fashion and believe it can change you. It can transform your mind, even your soul, if you let it. Are you willing to find your, suit du jour, the one subject that rocks your world daily?

Entertainment

KYLIE’S ROOM | Podcasting: No Country for Old Men

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An old man drives angrily back home from the supermarket, shouting in disagreement with what seems like no one. He’s shouting a podcast playing over the in-car stereo system. In the past, I’ve always imagined the average podcast listener as an angry old man, listening to [what seems to me] some dry topic, like economics. That assumption was wrong. Podcasts are for everyone — not just angry old men in their cars — but literally anyone.

Politics

WELCOME TO THE ZOO | Minimum Wage

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With an open mind and two sides of the story, you’re bound to learn something new. Welcome to the zoo! This is a blog where both the Republican and Democratic viewpoints are represented. The blog is not meant to sway you either way necessarily, just present both sides of the story. You may not agree with the whole article, but hey, you’re likely to agree with half!

Culture

COMMON SENSE | Your Weight Is Not Your Worth

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In the Indian community it often feels as though your worth is derived from your weight. Six months before I’m due to see my family in India again I’m already dreading the opening greetings which will undoubtedly revolve around how much weight I’ve gained or lost since the last time I’ve seen them. Either way it’s not a pleasant experience. This dread was reinforced a few days ago when I was went home for the weekend, visited a family friend’s house and was greeted by the exclamations of how much weight my sister and I had lost since the last time we’d seen these people. Outrageously one of the ladies at the house started to talk about how her 11-year-old daughter was “healthy” for her age (aka overweight) — and trust me she looked perfectly fine.

Politics

CULTURALLY SHOOK | Donald Trump is Actually Kind of Right, For Once

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In an interview with ABC this Sunday, Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate, likened Donald Trump’s encouragement of Russia to hack into Hillary’s emails to the infamous Watergate scandal. Kaine’s comment was his way of deflecting negative attention off Hillary by pointing out just how much worse Trump is. And it’s true. I hope you don’t need me to tell you this, but Trump really is so much worse than Hillary. That’s why it’ll surprise you to hear that he was actually kind of right.

Culture

IT’S ONLY LOGICAL | The Tragedy of Diversity

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On its diversity and inclusion webpage, our ever enlightened university boldly regards itself as “a place where intercultural skills are developed and enacted among diverse campus constituencies”.  Cornell bumptiously claims that more than 39 percent of undergraduates identify as students of color, and each year the admissions office touts “the most diverse class to date”. Yet the stark reality stands in opposition to the propagandized malarkey that is smeared across administrative outlets. Student life at Cornell remains largely segregated. Under the guise of special interests and cultural celebration, cowardice for sake of comfort has been condoned.

Politics

MOSKOWITZ | How Free is our Press?

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On August 22nd, Gawker, a blog that had over 800 million page views in the last year, and posted more than 200,000 articles in its lifetime, was destroyed. Some in the media have argued argue that this came about because of Gawker’s own sins and that Gawker’s posting of “non-journalistic” material such as sex tapes and its public outing of powerful people led to its downfall. Yet I believe the truth is much more complicated and sinister. Gawker was destroyed because a billionaire wanted it destroyed. It was destroyed because an avid Trump supporter and tech billionaire decided that the website had done him too much harm and so he bankrolled a number of lawsuits which eventually made the website impossible to operate.

Politics

BETWEEN BARS | Inside Maximum Security

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Auburn Correctional Facility is less than an hour’s drive directly north of Ithaca, in a city whose population is comparable to that of total enrollment at Cornell. Sitting atop one of the Finger Lakes, it looks like any other town to pass by on the rolling hills of Upstate New York. But if obscurity has different degrees, Auburn is not a place without a name. It’s where Underground Railroad heroine Harriet Tubman lived and died. It’s also home to one of the nation’s oldest prisons, one that pioneered the practice—the “Auburn system”—of daytime penal labor followed by solitary confinement at night, all under enforced silence.