Another thing I’m working on is called Sneuth, which stands for snoop and sleuth (and maybe snark) all put into one clunky yet surprisingly cool-sounding neologism. Our first project is Alternatournell, an alternate look at Cornell in video form as above. Check it out, and tell prospective freshman about it PLEASE. The first installment will be out Monday. Even if you don’t like the video content (it’s jerky at times :/ ), Get Low is involved. TO THE WINDOWWW. TO THE WALLLL.

Indecipherable spam jargon! On a clearly library-affiliated page! The horror! I forwarded my findings onto the tipster, telling myself that the Xanax peddlers were crazy Canadian webtards and not, as I had hoped, Johnson and Johnson or Pfizer or even Bayer. He responded back five minutes later that he didn’t see anything wrong with the page I’d sent him. I renavigated back, and thank God I took that screenshot, because the page is altogether pedestrian now:

Look at the URLs. They’re both the same. I called the library to see what’s up and talked to a guy at the Circulation Desk, who wasn’t aware of the whole Xanax thing. He said he’s send the tip on to the people upstairs. Bored by the whole matter by now, I didn’t feel like doing the journalist thing and talking to them.

Since Peter Fritch and I have already covered the ongoing campus debate about the recent flare-up in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict here and here, we’re going to present the following pictures of the new, “pro-Israel” Arts Quad display without comment. A note: I’m not sure if I got all of the signs, but my fingers were about to freeze off and lose grip of my precious, precious camphone, so take it or leave it.

Cornell University today announced that it is ending its business relationship with Russell Athletic on March 31, 2009. The decision was made after a review of the facts surrounding the closure of a Russell apparel factory in Honduras on Jan. 31, 2009. Investigations by the Worker Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association both concluded that the closing of the factory, Jerzees de Honduras, which was described by Russell as an economic decision, was also due in part to anti-union animus.

The University’s words might seem devoid of emotion, but trust me, they’re just holding back. The mark-up on the Store’s items is already ridiculous, and with Russell’s cheap cheap love/goods, they were making oodles upon oodles of love/profit. Anyway, the Store probably just doesn’t want to admit an organization as rabblerousing as COLA was the homewrecker/informant. Here’s what COLA’s Stephanie Knight had to say:

I think the banner protest absolutely had an influence on Cornell’s decision to sever their ties with Russell.  COLA has been putting pressure on the administration in various ways these last few weeks to cut Russell, and the banner protest was just the latest action we organized.  We had asked the administration to give us an answer as to how they were going to respond to Russell’s labor violations, and as soon as we did the banner drop, they did.  COLA is thrilled that Cornell has chosen to stand up for workers’ rights and abide by their own Code of Conduct.

The administration doesn’t want the public to think their decision was swayed by anything other than “a review of the facts,” but obviously they only responded to the issue once it had received ample negative attention and student protest.  Unfortunately, COLA has a bad rap among the Cornell administration, but you can’t deny that our tactics are effective!

COLA and MEChA are hosting workers from HEI Hotels and Resorts this coming Tuesday, 2/24, who have been denied their right to organize a union free of intimidation and fear.  The CEO and other top executives of HEI are Cornell alumni, and HEI maintains close ties with the Hotel School/Johnson School through a practicum currently being taught.  More info about the event/back story is below.

—-

Cornell Organization for Labor Action (COLA) and MEChA de Cornell invite
you to listen to the experiences of workers at HEI Hotels and Resorts
Corporation, a company that prides itself for being one of America’s
largest hotel management corporations, but forgets to share its wealth
with its workers.

When: Tuesday Feb 24 at 5:30pm
Where: 115 Rockefeller Hall

As the Alma mater of HEI Executive Management and academic associates of
HADM 6690: Sustainable Global Enterprise in Hospitality, Cornell
University has an obligation to address worker intimations at HEI. The
company was founded in 1985 by Cornell Alum: CEO Gary Mendell, his brother
Steve Mendell (Executive VP of acquisitions), and Steve Rushmore.

For any questions, please contact Stephanie Knight (sck73) or Chirs Brown
(cb459).

MEChA meets every Monday at 5:00pm in the LSP center (4th floor
Rockefeller).COLA meets every Thursday at 4:45pm in 108 Ives.

Cookbooks Make You Fat: Says Brian Wansink, the professor who loves sending his press releases to the media. Also, foods like these make you fat.

Collegetown Council Proposal: Solid summary and analysis by the Ithacator.

Review blog discovers gay people kiss: And that they believe in this totally crazy idea that heterosexuality is normative. Crazy gays!

A Purposeful Ellipsis’d NYTimes Quotes: “Two decades ago a 23-year-old Cornell University graduate student brought the Internet to its knees…”

Cotton Candy Cure: It just might help labs grow tissue yay!

A New Low for Sun Blogs: “Allow me to preface this entry by letting the reader know that I am abroad in Scotland for the semester. Without that information, you may find yourself terribly lost. I have stepped outside of the culture I know all too well and revel in all too often, and have embarked on a journey to the birthplace of the bagpipe.”