The Bowdoin Orient

Pem Schaeffer keeps a blog that has earned him a reputation as a man who hates Bowdoin. He doesn’t see it quite that way.

“I don’t have an axe to grind per se with Bowdoin,” he said. “I have an axe to grind with certain principles and positions.”

Schaeffer, a politically conservative Brunswick resident, is in the political minority around town. “That makes you notice things often, more than those in the majority will,” he said.

A short power outage triggered prolonged network downtime today when a system enabling a smooth transition to backup power failed to cope. E-mail, campus telephones, wi-fi, and Bowdoin websites were all offline for several hours — from around 10:30 a.m. to, in the case of wi-fi, 3:30 p.m. The Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) system in the Hubbard Hall data center had been known to be in need of new batteries for about a week. Parts were ordered and shipped, and the replacement was scheduled for this morning. People were onsite to replace the batteries when, around 10:30 a.m., a fallen tree branch took out a power line on Maine Street.

Our Friday article on the upcoming revival of “Winter Weekend” incorrectly stated that the last such event was in 2006. In fact, there was a two-day “Winter Carnival” (or “Frozen Ivies”, or “Winter Ivies”) the weekend of Friday, January 30, 2009. Several alumni have reminded us of this fact, with varying color and fondness. If the 2009 and 2011 events are understandably forgettable, the unintended consequences of the 2005 event should not be. The lengthy account of crime beat reporter nonpareil Joshua Miller ’08 should be read in its entirety, but this is the gist of it: three violent confrontations at Ladd House, leaving the wall blood-stained (see photo above), and one at Super Snack.

The Bowdoin mascot is turning 100 this week, and everyone wants a piece. Madison Whitley ’13 recently spotted a hat in a SeaWorld San Diego store bearing the current incarnation of the College’s polar bear logo. The issue is now before the Treasurer's Office, which handles trademark and copyright issues, according to Vice President for Communications Scott Hood. “Tell Shamu to sleep with one eye open,” tweeted @BowdoinCollege.

The parodic Twitter account @notbowdoin began drawing attention with its late-October mockery of official Bowdoin communications: “The College is taking Hurricane Sandy as a serious threat. Please stay indoors and tag your Instagrammed hurricane photos with #bowdoinfall.” Since then, it has attracted 123 followers. The Orient was granted an interview with the student behind @notbowdoin on the condition of preserving the individual’s anonymity.

The Orient spent the night reporting from the Pub, Shannon Room, and Angus King's victory event in Freeport. With video, photos, and more tweets than you can stand.

An hour before Clint Eastwood took the stage, Bowdoin trustee, alumnus and parent Bob White ’77 spoke at the Republican National Convention yesterday. Currently Chairman of Romney for President, Inc., White recounted his long experience with Romney's character and business acumen.

"For 30 years, I have been at Mitt Romney's side when he did extraordinary things," said White. "As Mitt says, I'm his wingman."

Yesterday, as the first man to walk unearthly soil returned dust to dust, a small fleet of his country’s finest flying machines climbed sunward to “touch the face of God” in the skies above Brunswick.

The 2012 Great State of Maine Air Show, which took place this Saturday and Sunday, featured the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, a Navy F/A-18 Demo Team, stunt performers, parachuters, pyrotechnics, walk-in active-duty Stratotanker and B-1B supersonic bomber (“the Bone”), and a lot of recruiters.

It also featured concession stands (with $7 beer) as far as the eye could see, with each corner of each concession tent topped with its own American flag. The BMI of attendees Saturday was radically bimodally distributed, with most of the low mode currently employed by the Department of Defense and most of the high mode never far from their folding lawn chairs.

The elevator cab had drawn up to the sixth floor of Coles Tower with a shudder and was at rest. Its doors slid aside, ready to accept me, but I did not enter. I only knelt at the threshold, just barely tripping the sensor, and unceremoniously dumped my two captives down the dark steel chasm between cab and shaft. They made no sound.

There's not much that hasn't been long since said. You've seen his Stanford commencement speech, of course.

Sometime this past February, a self-proclaimed "doddering alum" of the Class of 1976 joined the elite club of individuals who have clicked the "Ask Us Anything" button on the Orient Express.

Netflix's original business finally has a name that doesn't contradict its nature.

Compared to the past's hopes for the present, ours is a disappointingly dull period in the advance of man. Our quest to escape this backwater rock is stagnant, even regressing—a vision increasingly starved for resources by petty terrestrial concerns. Having split the atom, we now find ourselves too petrified and mistrustful of our capacity to justly wield such power to continue developing it.

For most students, the lure of Web sites like Facebook, YouTube and ChatRoulette presents a compelling distraction from their homework. For the students in sociology professor Dhiraj Murthy's first year seminar, however, such browsing often is their homework.

Being bumped from a class that has hit its enrollment cap is a frustration known all too well by most Bowdoin students. While course registration is a subtle, complex beast, some insights might be gained from the enrollment data published every semester by the Office of the Registrar. Readers should note that data is currently only available for the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters, and the Spring 2010 data is somewhat warped by the fact that the add/drop period has not yet ended. This data looks at class sections—that is, each offering of Economics 101 is examined separately, as if they were different courses. Classes that are one or two seats shorts of their gap are counted as "full," to account for last-minute fluctuations that the course market could not fill.

The latest milestone in the meticulously planned closure of the Brunswick Naval Air Station (NASB) will come tonight, at 10 p.m., when its two massive 8,000-foot runways close. The base—the last active-duty Department of Defense airfield in the northeast—was a casualty of the 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission Report (BRAC). It will close entirely in May 2011.

Around 400 students braved a quarter-inch of rain on Saturday to cast their vote for the November election early. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., town officials aided by student volunteers set up shop in Morrell Lounge of Smith Union for Early Vote Day. The turnout was comparable to last year's, when 409 students voted early. According to Brunswick Town Clerk Fran Smith, last year was the first time the town organized an Early Vote Day during the past nine years.

It's time to boogie down. On Wednesday, the Campus Activities Board (CAB) finally made the official announcement that Santigold and Sean Kingston will be headlining this year's Ivies celebration. The two stars will perform on the Quad Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Student bands Mr. Suds and the Phunky Fresh All-Stars will open.

On Sunday, CyberLANd employee James McKernan told the Orient, "We hit a rough patch, but we're picking ourselves back up. Things are picking up." By Wednesday, a "Going Out of Business" banner had been draped across the storefront. Inside, the news was still sinking in for patrons and staff.

For the third year in a row, the Senior Class Council will likely be forced to raise additional funds for Senior Week in May. The exact amount remains undisclosed since the council is still calculating expenses. Last year's Senior Week cost approximately $50,000; the current senior class has roughly $20,000 at its disposal. The past two classes have charged up to $60 per student.

The dining hall traffic charts that appeared in Moulton Union two weeks ago offer many students a glimpse at a side of the Dining Service they might not normally see. The eight charts, which Dining Services Business Manager Steve Cole called "eye-opening," are the beginning of a wider effort by the Dining Service to understand dining traffic patterns, and to inform curious—or aggravated—students accordingly.