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Prof Challenges Univ. To Limit Use of Bottles

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Sparked by recent debate over bottled water and its environmental implications, Prof. James Quest ’56, the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the School of Hotel Administration has devised a competition to encourage students to look for alternatives to bottled water.
The objective of Quest’s H2O Competition is “to invent the best concept for finding a solution to the multi-faceted issue of U.S. consumption of bottled water and its resultant impact on the environment.”

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Community Flocks to Commons For Ithaca Apple Harvest Festival

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This weekend’s rain did not stop Ithaca residents from indulging in the 26th Annual Ithaca Apple Harvest Festival.
According to Downtown Ithaca’s website, the three-day festival has been known to attract an audience of around 30,000 people.
The festival has been a long-time favorite of Cornell students, living up to its motto: “Tempting to the Core.”
“We’ve been counting down for weeks,” said Jamie Goldstein ’10. [img_assist|nid=32161|title=An apple a day|desc=A student purchases apples from a vendor on the Commons at the Ithaca Apple Harvest Festival on Saturday.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
“We abstained from eating apples until Apple Fest so we could be fully prepared,” Jamie Hacker ’10 said.

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Student Start-Up Facilitates Group Collaboration Online

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Listserves, planners and cell phones are all necessities to Cornell students. But with so much information bombarding us from all directions, digesting it often becomes difficult. So, Lance Polivy ’08 came up with a free way to streamline everything: Wiggio.com, a free website geared toward facilitating collaboration among student groups.
Polivy took an entrepreneurship class in the Johnson School of Management during his senior year, which required students to come up with an idea for a high-growth start-up. While at Cornell Polivy served on the Interfraternity Council, played in jazz band and was a part of various sports teams. He had been frustrated that various student groups were so disjointed and wished there was a way to organize everything going on.

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Prices at Cornell Eateries Reflect Soaring Food Costs

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Big Red Bucks have long been regarded as play money. Many students barely even notice how much we are paying for lunch when some cashiers merely refer to them as “points.” However, Big Red Bucks are going a lot quicker this semester due to an increase in food prices.
A sign on a Pepsi vending machine in the Straight reads: “Cornell Vending Prices are being adjusted for Fall 2008 semester to reflect rising costs for products and vending machine services. Prices on items offered in this machine have been adjusted accordingly. Thank you for your continued patronage.”
However, not every campus eatery is being as up front about their price increases.

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Cornell Welcomes Playboy Rep to Campus

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The Big Red Bear has finally met the Playboy Bunny and sparks are flying. This year, the cold weather at Cornell will usher in the University’s very own Playboy “Campus Representative.”
After coming to Cornell as a transfer in the spring, Louis Friend ’10 applied for the position with Playboy, thinking that Cornell could use the influence of the company best known for its infamous gentleman’s magazine. Playboy is working to appeal to college students by sponsoring parties on college campuses nation-wide.
“Cornell students deserve a Playboy Rep. We work too hard and we need to party,” Friend said.
Cornell is the second Ivy to get a campus rep, following in the footsteps of Yale. In his position, Friend will research the lucrative college student demographic.

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Students Scramble to Sign Leases Early

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While college students across the country settle into their new apartments and dorms this fall, many Cornellians are scrambling to sign leases for the next academic year.
Many students feel pressure to sign leases for apartments in Collegetown early in the year, sometimes before being able to compare different properties.
Elizabeth Truax ’11 said she was concerned about signing her lease as early as September.

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Study Finds That NBA Refs Make Biased Calls

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In a split second, a basketball referee has to make a call: to foul or not foul a player. In a recent study done by a former Cornell graduate student, it was found that these quick decisions are affected by more than just the game.
Joseph Price PhD ’07, who studied economics, worked with Prof. Justin Wolfers, Wharton, to examine nearly 13,000 National Basketball Association games between 1991 and 2002 to find evidence of an inherent racial bias in referee calls.
Price became interested in racial biases after reading a book on the topic as an undergraduate and from there went on to study the NBA.

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Team Competes to Build Most Fuel-Efficient Car

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While most students are complaining about rising gas prices, others are working to compete for the Automotive X-Prize, a competition challenging participants to create a car that is both more financially sound and fuel-efficient than any other vehicle on the market.
Cornell is one of only two universities to have a team competing. The team is up against nearly 60 companies to create an automobile that exceeds 100 miles per gallon.

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Fire Dept. and IFC Assess Safety of Student Housing

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Fraternity parties being cancelled because the house did not pass fire inspection is not uncommon at Cornell.
In Cayuga Heights, a village north of Cornell’s campus where many Greek houses are situated, Fire Lieutenant Joe Lisi works with the village engineer’s office handling code enforcements.
“Basically in Cayuga Heights the sort of things we look for [are] that the building is up to building code standards, village zoning that is a livable, habitable space with no mold and mildew in the bathrooms and kitchens and that everything works with no issues,” Lisi said.

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Robot Breaks Record for Distance Walking

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With four thin metal legs, the Cornell Ranger gradually hobbles forward by swinging its outer legs forward, followed by its inside ones. At first glance, one might not think that this pioneering Cornellian is a robot, but the creature went down in robot history last Thursday when it walked a record five hours and 45 laps around Barton Hall.
The Biorobotics Lab works to try to understand the motion of human beings and how they walk so effortlessly. The information from the research could result in advanced prosthetic body parts or rehabilitation. [img_assist|nid=29711|title=Mr. Roboto|desc=The Cornell Ranger walks around Duffield Hall at Bits of our Minds Expo in February.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]