The Wind Rises: Miyazaki’s Swan Song Falls Flat

By ZACH ZAHOS

Any aspiring screenwriter has read Pixar’s “22 Rules of Storytelling” by now. Rule Six reads, “What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?” Pixar enjoys a sterling reputation because it tells tight, satisfying stories, wherein an unlikely protagonist braves a mountain of intensifying conflict and emerges victorious.

Students Oppose State Partnership With Data Collector

By SOFIA HU

The Cornell University College Republicans and the Cornell Democrats have come together to oppose New York State’s adoption and funding of inBloom, a non-profit that seeks to consolidate student information into a single database. “This is a strong show of bipartisanship and makes it explicit that we, as students, believe in standing up for our rights to data privacy and nondiscrimination,” said Michael Alter ’16, the organizer of Cornell campaign against inBloom. Those behind inBloom plan to collect and store up to 400 data fields of information on students in New York State schools, according to The New York Times. These data fields include K-12 students’ grades, attendance records, disciplinary information and family relationships.“inBloom has not given assurances that if data breaches ever did occur that they would be required to notify those whose privacy was violated.” — Michael Alter ’16

Cornell students from both sides of the political spectrum have criticized the organization, alleging that it intrudes on student data privacy rights and collects information that may be irrelevant to improving students’ quality of education. “Why are certain data points collected… and what purpose do they serve in creating these individualized educational experiences?” said Kyle Ezzedine ’14, chair of the Cornell Republicans.

Student Startup Provides All-Natural Jerky

By HELEN DONNELLY

Cornellians behind startup Worthy Jerky are looking to find success by selling all-natural steak snacks — which have more protein and fewer calories than a serving of yogurt — to big name grocery stores such as Wegmans and Whole Foods. According to Alex Krakoski ’16, founder and CEO of Worthy Jerky, he came up with the idea while attending the Leysin American School in Switzerland. While in the ski resort town, he said he noticed that there was a demand for snacks that could be taken on the ski slopes.“We don’t use nitrates or preservatives or any artificial ingredients at all. What you taste is what you get.” — Alex Krakoski ’16

“I asked my mother to make her homemade beef jerky and send it to me so I could sell it from my dorm room,” Krakoski explained. “It was incredibly successful because I was able to tweak and expand the product line to fit the community’s demands all while using only all-natural ingredients.”

Krakoski said he expanded the business when he came to Cornell and now has a team of Cornell students working for the startup.

STALEY | On the Genealogy of Musicality

By HENRY STALEY

To make the argument that the intellectual quality of popular song lyrics is plummeting, I could easily use this space to reprint any lyric by Rick Ross or Miley Cyrus. However, I’d like to make a positive point: that the rock music of yesteryear was rich with references to philosophy and literature. Of course, I understand that references do not equal depth and that literary references can still be found in the music of Modest Mouse, Vampire Weekend and Radiohead. But below I seek to show the degree to which the memorable pop musicians of the ’60s and ’70s were engaged in conversations with former thinkers or writers. I organize these conversations by thinker or movement.

PARANDEKAR | Four Technology-Related Strengths Offered By New Veterinary Graduates

By NIKHITA PARANDEKAR

Veterinarians who are looking for a job immediately after graduating often face hurdles that are familiar to many young professionals — their lack of experience means that their appointments may take longer, which results in less revenue to the practice, they will need to be mentored along the way and if they’ve gone to vet school straight after college, their apparent youthfulness might make it harder for clients to trust them. That being said, there are several unique assets that young veterinarians can offer potential employees, one of which is their familiarity with the Internet and social media. So this column is formatted in the spirit of that theme as one of those omnipresent Internet lists. 1.       Facebook.

NEWCOMB | College Football Unions: Student Athletes, Now Student Employees

By ANNIE NEWCOMB

On Wednesday, the Chicago district of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Northwestern football players qualified as employees of Northwestern University and had the right to form a union. This is the first step of many in challenging the ruling hand of the NCAA and its growing power over the world of college sports. The misconception being thrown around by the media, and the NCAA itself, is that Northwestern players are fighting to be paid. Rather, the ruling shows that they already are paid — in the form of their scholarship — and deserve a chance to represent themselves and establish workers’ rights in connection with their scholarship. The NCAA, the governing body for college athletics, was formed in 1906 as a nonprofit association, and is currently made up of 1,281 institutions.

MEN’S LACROSSE | Laxers Battle Dartmouth Looking For Ninth Straight

By SYDNEY ALTSCHULER

The Cornell men’s lacrosse team looks to keep its undefeated streak alive this weekend when it travels to Hanover, N.H. to take on Dartmouth. The Red (8-0, 2-0 Ivy League) dominates the all-time series record, 48-15, and has won the last three consecutive contests against the Green (1-4, 0-1). Michelle Feldman / Staff PhotographerSenior Doug Tesoriero is now Cornell’s career ground ball leader.

Divergent: A Dystopia of Dystopian Cliches

By CALVIN PATTEN

Take a cliché dystopian society, a touch of teenage angst, a female protagonist and a strong-jawed love interest and voilà: instant box-office-topping series. Such is the case, at least, for Divergent, an action movie based on Veronica Roth’s popular book of the same name. Pandering, unoriginal and over-extended, Divergent alienates its viewers while attempting to ride the coattails of recent box office smashes, most obviously The Hunger Games. Directed by Neil Burger, Divergent is set in a dystopian Chicago after “The War.” To protect themselves and ensure peace, the citizens have essentially walled themselves into the city and split into five groups, each of which has a set job based on personality. 16 year-old Trish, played gamely if plainly by Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), takes the required test, only to find that she is “divergent,” fitting into none of the groups specifically.

BERRY PATCH: It’s Spring Break!

With the changes to the calendar, spring break was moved back later this semester to accommodate the addition of February break. Like everyone else, we are excited to get a break from our prelims and papers, so we at The Sun wanted to find out where Cornellians will be traveling to next week. So we enlisted our best Berry Patch reporters — who were packing their bathing suits and sunscreen — and sent them to find out the hottest spots for Spring Breakers this year. The Smithsonian: Since our fearless leader President David Skorton will be leaving at the end of next year, certain students have decided to beat him to the punch and take a road trip to Washington D.C. to see his future workplace. They claim they also want to be a bit more cultured and will actually take in some of the sights of the museums, but off-the-record sources say they really just want to party on the White House Lawn.

WECHSLER | My Post-Spring Break Predictions

By DAVID WECHSLER

This week, there was influx of people trying to get a workout in at Newman. On Monday when I walked in and saw a string of sorority tanks occupying the treadmills, I just thought it was a mere coincidence. Plus, there was an open treadmill right in the middle of the crew and I wasn’t going to let the opportunity to show off my once athletic frame pass. As the week progressed and the number of sorority girls on elliptical machines increased, I realized what was going on; people were making their last second efforts to tone their bodies before Punta Cana, the Bahamas or, in my case, Israel. Why work out for a family trip to Israel?