Red Cups Won’t Scare Off RAs Anymore

By Pascal Uttinger

For those of us returning to campus this fall expecting to relive the hall parties in Lyon, drunken madness in Walker courtyards, a friendly game of Caps in Mudd-Blaisdell, or perhaps a round of Kings in Oldenborg, let it be known that red cups no longer fool the public at large. As of Monday, September 6th, a beer is a beer is a beer. As a concerned citizen of the Pomona community, it is much to my dismay that I must inform you of the new policy. [con't]

Black Widows Colonize Student Laundry Rooms

I am not a fear-mongerer. As with many things in life, this could merely be a function of the epoch in which I have been reared. Stalin and Hitler have been replaced by Clinton and Yeltsin; genocidal totalitarians have been interchanged with the pathetic, yet essentially harmless, spectacle of the vice-sodden, philandering Commander-in-Chief. [con't]

Kids Demand Place to Hang Out, Get Down

By Elizabeth Mokyr

The Claremont Colleges are a bubble in which we are encouraged to expand our minds and enjoy our youths. It is no surprise that after a full day of attempting to do the former, we only begin to do the latter around eleven in the evening. Studious scholars by day, party animals by night. Or so we would like to be. . .

Many have found the school’s less-than-strategic location less than satisfying. Most people will agree that while the average age on campus is probably about 20, the average age in the village is about 65. The village’s lifestyle reflects this, and thus, the culture clash begins! [con't]

We’re Too Clean to Have Fun: Climb Trees, Make More Jungle Noises

Peter Cook

I have now completed one month of my freshman year at Pomona College, and, with the wealth of experience that this time has afforded me, I feel capable of making one slightly critical observation. Namely, that the general atmosphere at this college lacks a certain jocularity; it is generally devoid of the laid-back grubbiness that bespeaks to the more visceral part of the soul. That may seem somewhat convoluted, so bear with me as I expound upon this point. [con't]

Genetic Manipulation Promotes Uniformity

By Ephraim Ross

Scientists at MIT, headlines claim, have finally accomplished what parents have always strived to do: breed smarter little rats.

Well, mice, actually. And despite the headlines, these tiny Doogie Howsers aren’t necessarily any brighter. After splicing the a few genes, the scientists found themselves with a strain of mice that, equipped with a tricked out memory and subwoofers, can more than outperform the average mouse.

But it’s hard to say whether Doogie is actually any smarter than normal. Definitions aside, intelligence must draw constantly upon memory, and a mouse that can remember its last ten turns as opposed to the last four will seem much brighter in comparison. [con't]

Tuxedos, Alcohol Waste Money

By Josh Tulkin

People here are pretty smart. It is actually refreshing to be in a class that makes me feel stupid. However, considering the intelligence of the average person at Pomona, student and administration alike, there are some areas where I expected more. While the school grows grass that stays too wet to use and pays people in white tuxedos to serve cookies and punch, students are usually waiting in line for salmonella poisoning, hiding in their rooms studying, or crawling back to their dorms after parties. There has to be a solution. [con't]