It keeps happening. Just when you think the government's $700 billion stimulus package can't have any more delicious benefits left to give us, it surprises us with more chocolatey goodness! It's the gift that keeps on giving! It was announced a few days ago that KINBER (the Keystone Initiative for Network-Based Education and Research. Wow) has been awarded $99 million from the American Recovery and Revitalization Act to create a statewide, super-fantastic broadband network.
Read on to learn how the Stimulus package is being used...
Today Penn State celebrates its 155th birthday (making it almost as old as its football coach. Just kidding)! 155 years ago to the day (February 22, 1855 for anyone not too good at math), Governor James Pollock signed the charter for a state-sponsored school whose goal was to further scientific agricultural research.
While we still have an excellent agricultural program, Penn State has become one of the largest and most diverse public schools over the last 155 years, with majors ranging from Forest Science to Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management. Did Governor Pollock envision a school boasting dozens of campuses, tens of thousands of students, and the largest student-run philanthropic organization in the country? Did he envision football championships, legendary coaches, a three-peat volleyball team, or raising over $7.8 million for cancer research?
Probably not. But since 1855, because of students like me and you, Penn State has become more than its founders could ever have imagined and something that we can all take pride in.
(Check out a cool gallery of photos from Penn State's history here).
We all know what everybody REALLY comes to the football games for. It's not the team, PJ, DC, or the NL. It's the BB's performances (PJ Maierhofer, Daryll Clark, Nittany Lion, and the Blue Band for those of you slow at acronyms). With 4 dancers, the Blue Band shows its spirit just as much at THON, and I was able to sit down with Moira Davies, the Blue Band THON captain.
Read on for my interview with Moira...
The Penn State Alumni Association has a section on their website called the Online HUB. Despite what you may assume, this site has nothing to do with the Hetzel Union Building and not a whole lot to do with Alumni. What the website does offer are "fun downloads". This includes desktop themes, digital copies of various Penn State songs, ringtones, and the lyrics to many Penn State songs.
Thanks to this website, it appears that washed-up alumni can now relive their college glory days - on their computer! I decided to try out one of the desktop themes, so I downloaded it, unzipped the contents, and saw this text file:
This is the new Penn State University theme for Microsoft Windows 95 under the use of PLUS!
Apparently, PLUS! is a program that Microsoft discontinued with the introduction of Windows XP. So unless you're running Windows 95 (anyone?), these desktop themes aren't very much use to you. Oh well, at least their site doesn't look like a 90's Geocities page.
For many people, Valentine's Day brings up a lot of questions. What is love? Is there such a thing as destiny? What's the best way to dance on a pole? This year, this reporter decided to tackle the toughest of these questions. To get the answers I needed, I knew that I would have to go to a definitive expert. A Gentleman of State College.
Who are the Gentlemen of State College, you may ask? They provide a service many people may be needing around this time of year:
We are Central Pennsylvania's newest and hottest male escort service for men and women who want the best escort service in Central Pennsylvania. [...] The Gentlemen of State College proudly presents the best, most outrageous, charming, sexy and sophisticated gentlemen in Central Pennsylvania.
I knew that this is where I would find answers, so I sat down for a straight-shooting interview with Russell Wilson, one of the Gentlemen's finest. Read on for that interview.
Yesterday, the Collegian wrote an article discussing the widespread use of Facebook at Penn State. The article discussed how popular Facebook is on campus, and how the Penn State fan page is used to deliver alerts to students (today it's being primarily for students to complain about classes not being canceled).
Come on, Collegian, this is breaking news? It's not 2006, EVERYONE has a Facebook, and in all aspects of life it's become common practice to use Facebook as a means of communication. It must have been a slow news day when they had to resort to running this deprecated social commentary. If only a local Congressman had died, or there'd been a massive snow storm, or a White House aide had mocked Sarah Palin. Oh wait.
Read on to find out what other "breaking" news stories the Collegian could have run...