'Activities'

Mason Knaub Anecdote

For some marching band is just a way to pass time in high school, a way to make friends and learn to play music. This was not the case with Mason Knaub.

Mason went to a high school with a competitive marching band program, but still managed to be ahead of his peers. He pushed himself to get on the drum line during his Sophomore year, training from February to August over hundreds of hours and countless drills.

This practice paid off, as the drum line went on to set a state record, winning all but one state competition and securing their reputation as one of the top schools in the state.

Science Scavenger Hunt

Stanford researchers claim to have taught a machine to detect sexual orientation.

The controversial study, authored by Michal Kosinski and Yilun Wang, works by analyzing photos from dating profiles and detecting key facial features.

When analyzing five clear photos of a person’s face, the machine had an 83% accuracy for women and 91% for men in the study.

Though the intention of the study was to bring awareness to privacy risks and the danger of facial recognition software, according to the New York Times the authors of the study have received several death threats for their publication. Critics have called the study “racism by algorithm” and suggested that the theory behind it “is a mess”.

Scavenger Hunt 1

As I stepped out of the library and into the windy campus mall I realized what it meant to be the last person to leave the classroom on the scavenger hunt assignment. I saw a horde of journalism students spreading out in front of me, the lucky ones already interviewing their marks.

I followed the trail of students with papers and pens in hand, barely managing to keep my own paper from flying off with the wind, as I desperately searched for someone to interview. Realizing that I would find no interviewees by following the other students, I turned around and walked to the Plex, hoping that someone would be waiting in the common room watching TV.

No such luck.

I returned to the campus mall, where I saw yet more journalism students walking around with sheets of paper at the ready. I noticed a student leave the library with a backpack slung over her shoulders and approached her, asking if she had time for a quick interview for my journalism class, which she agreed to.

Just as I began the interview, the wind picked up and I had to fight to straighten the paper enough to write down her name: Angela. I then moved on to the first and only question: a movie recommendation. I asked her to recommend me a movie, possibly her favorite one.

“A movie?” Angela asked, thinking it over for a moment before deciding on Forrest Gump.

I wrote her answer down and, having only one other task, asked if I could take a selfie with her.

She seemed somewhat surprised by this request. “A selfie?” She asked, again seeking confirmation that she had heard me correctly, and asked if I had a phone I could use for it.

I took my phone from my pocket, and after a moment of aligning it properly to get us both in the frame, took the photo. After making sure it had saved properly, I thanked her for her time and concluded the interview, returning to the classroom.