We all love the Olympics. It’s fun to watch young international athletes compete in figure skating, freestyle skiing, and (yeah duh) bobsleigh, among other sports. But, when the location for the 2014 Winter Olympics was announced, Google’s top hit instantly became: “What is Sochi?” Subsequent Google-y findings clarified that it is a) not a Mochi flavor and b) quite a worrisome spot for this year’s Games.

Here are all the things that are not Sochill about Sochi:

It actually has a humid, subtropical climate that averages in the 60s in winter. Is this not the Winter Olympics? There needs to be, like, a lot of snow on the ground, and this seems like one of maybe three places in Russia that are not freezing cold.

You are not allowed to talk about homosexuality there. That’s been true ever since Russia passed this absurd legislation. Putes, its 2014, Putes.

The Sochi Games have cost about $51 billion, but the sources behind the funding are shrouded in mystery and controversy, unlike all of Russian history, ever.

The tricked-out facility looks like the brainchild of a Hunger Games Gamemaker and James Cameron. But there are no aliens and/or avatars (that we KNOW OF!).

Obama isn’t going. Neither are the French or German Presidents. Neither are many EU officials. But the Head of the Russian Olympic Committee is “not really concerned about it.” <– TOO cool fer school !

There have been numerous terrorist threats. This is the most recent one.

In all seriousness, we hope that the Games are safe and successful. Sochi seems like a problematic choice for various reasons, but may the odds be ever in their favor.

Earlier this week, CNN assumed a tragic doodie: reporting the theft of the rare Nymphaea thermarum, or as I like to call it, a fucking flower.

The African water lily actually went extinct circa 2008, much to the chagrin of about 6-7 people. But experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew discovered the pesky plant only grows in warm mud! Yum. According to the Kew Gardens’ website, it “has always been so rare that no uses have ever been known”. That didn’t stop one lonely botanist from playing with poop  cultivating warm mud for years to bring the lily back to life.

Unfortunately, an evil mastermind plucked the plant from its goopy digs in an act of sheer sin. Quelle horreur!

This obviously led to musings about what the villain’s motivations etc were. Let’s call our villain Thief Keef.

– It was a crime of passion: Thief Keef killed it upon exiting (maniacally laughing).

– Thief went to the Gardens inebriated: “Dude, what if I stole this fucking flower?”

– Thief went to the Gardens sober: “Dude, what if I stole this fucking flower?”

– Thief is romantic, and thought only the rarest flower in the world could appease his or her rare flower. <3

– Thief is actually an evil genius and plans to breed these plants into snapping death traps. “DEEDEE! GET OUT OF MY LEETLE SHOP OF HORRORS!!!”

It looks like the public may never know, because Thief Keef unsurprisingly got away. Police are scrambling, trying desperately to find the goodfanuthin Keef.

The Upbeat

We Will Rock You by Queen

Re: Harvard. That is all.

The Downbeat

Boris by Boy

Boy is actually composed of two young ladies: a Swiss singer and a German bassist. The duo met at a folk festival in 2007 and have been making music since then. They’ve released a few albums that are worth exploring, but “Boris” is just grand. Singer Valeska Steiner has such a sincere tone, and you can tell they don’t touch that retouch– the sound is nice n’ flawed. There’s a great remix, but it doesn’t include the sweet bass notes in the original. I have to say, for two gals that call themselves “Boy”, they sound pretty effin sexual. Be on the lookout for them!

Typhoon Haiyan is the second-deadliest typhoon to have hit the Philippines on record. Thousands have been killed and millions displaced. In the wake of this tragedy, many students have been wondering how to help.

Don’t wait around! Donate now!

CARE is acting quickly, and you can count on the well-established humanitarian organization to put the money towards imperative supplies and workers. If not CARE, then research more donation opportunities, but act quickly! Immediate disaster relief is hugely important to the rebuilding of these cities, homes, and lives.

Donate through CARE

Once upon a time, a naive lil freshmen was studying in the warm, well-windowed, and high-ceilinged Starr Reading Room of the Sterling Memorial Library. The library smelt of dusty books and angel farts; the scene was serene. Upon its closing, she meandered downstairs to study in Bass, only to be confronted head-on by a bare-ass tit!!! (I later learned about the naked run tradition). It honestly felt like leaving the gates of a Starry, quiet heaven and descending into the loud fornications of its hell-like Bassment.

Since then, it’s been hard to return.

But there are a few loyal students who chose to hunker down underground to do their p-sets and reading. A strange choice, methinks. And so my research was born: who are those regulars that actively go to Bass and are aware that it’s their thing?

This is a brief directory of The Bass-Dwellers and their reasons for always Bassing. You’ll prob see em on @BassLibrary’s instagram soon enough… (#Protip: search #studyshots)

Danielle Ellison, DC ’15

Favorite study spot in Bass: The main floor. The more main the better. Table if I’m doing Econ, couches if it’s PolySci. Anywhere that is the opposite of private and hidden.

Reasons why you love Bass: We spend so much of our time working/studying (or at least we should be…what are we paying 5 figures a year for?!), so studying in any way other than a social way is something I cannot understand. Studying for an exam is painful enough without having to do it in solitary confinement. Oh, and there is a cafe without having to leave the building! Basically, Bass can meet all my weekday needs in one place.

Will you ever study in another library: Nope. No, never.

Additional comments/questions/concerns: I am really happy that Yale has this library that is very social but is also a place that is quiet and focused enough that you can get work done. That isn’t an easy balance to achieve, and it is nice that there is enough of a culture at Yale for such a lifestyle that there is a huge library for it.

P.S. I am writing this from the main table of Bass.

Michael Henry Ressler, PC ’14

Favorite study spot in Bass: Obviously, the long table on the top floor. Prime people watching and you can shower the rest of the room with your presence. I pretty much use my studying to make everyone’s lives just a little bit better.

Reasons why you love Bass: There are too many reasons to count. The mild smell of sewage, the odd grad students who yell at you to be quiet, Constantin having a nervous breakdown. But, if I had to choose, it would be the ever increasing number of freshmen who I will never recognize.

Will you ever study in another library: I have to admit that I have tried A&A a few times this year. But, to be real, its chairs are way less comfortable and the artsy hipsters make me uncomfortable.

Caroline Birasa, SY ’14

Favorite study spot in Bass: Next to the windows on the main floor on the left facing the entrance

Reasons why you love Bass: It’s good for spying/seeing people/makes me feel like I’m semi-accountable for being productive, and it has sunlight.

Will you ever study in another library: The only other library I go to is the Saybrary; I prefer to study in my bed.

Additional comments/questions/concerns: I can check out books for class instead of buying them. Also, Bass Café can be a great Durfee’s alternative when you need to have a study lunch

Maia Eliscovich, TD ’16

Favorite study spot in Bass: A cubicle, but not when people in the cubicle next to you act like they are the only people in the entire library (i.e. play music, talk, or fart). When no cubicles are free, the tables at the left of the entrance.

Reasons why you love Bass: No sense of time: you don’t feel guilty for wasting all your day away studying. No phone service (I do have internet but my dad can’t call me). The lighting at night makes everybody look tired so nobody can actually tell you are hungover. The guard at the door is super nice and sometimes offers cookies!

Will you ever study in another library: Yeah I do go to Sterling

Well fine. Maaybe I’ll give the old fish another stab… Especially if I want to lose any sense of time or sanity in one of those cell-like cubicle rooms!

Stay tuned for Directories of The Starr Angels and The A&A Individuals (they don’t conform to the label, “student”).

We know you’re in Bass, but just LIKE US and it won’t be that bad!

I KNOW RIGHT?! Grad students actually live in that looming gothic tower in the middle of the Hall of Graduate Studies. When I first heard this, I instantly doubted it, as I’m sure all of you are. But why do they live in that thing? And since when? And what’s with the pinnacle at the top—is that for lightning or broadcasting or whut! A brief investigation ensued…

Here are my findings:

This “elevator.” I hope no one still uses it. Shit looks janky—I don’t trust any electronic lift system that has a doorknob.

This turd. Wish I were kidding. In a shadowy corner of the 5th floor stairwell, this petit turd was chilling. Too small for human feces yet too big for bird poop… Possible explanations include a grad student who’s lost their shit (literally) and decided to reside permanently in the tower to haunt and menace law students (Creature of HGS: I mean no disrespect, if this article is insulting I will provide company and/or food as libation).

This beautiful dining hall, which is apparently open to all students for meals. Anyone lookin’ to date a grad student: chill by the pumpkin-themed desert table and prepare jokes about representations of autumn in Whitman, Irving, or Frost.

I could not get into any of the bedrooms (for obvious reasons) but according to the grad housing website, it seems similar to any other college rooming layout. Except that they’re in a TOWER! Like an apartment building, but grim; a skyscraper, yet brick; a mystifying citadel of learning and I guess living… (still hard for me to understand).

Now I ask you, my fellow classmates, to investigate. Research, explore, question your discoveries, and spy some more! (and plz get back to me!) We at the Bullblog have just scratched the surface of the mysterious underworld of the graduate students.

Who knows, the architecture students probably live in Loria!! Well actually, we all know that’s pretty much true…

If you liked this post, why not LIKE THE BULLBLOG???

I KNOW RIGHT?! Grad students actually live in that looming gothic tower in the middle of the Hall of Graduate Studies. When I first heard this, I instantly doubted it, as I’m sure all of you are. But why do they live in that thing? And since when? And what’s with the pinnacle at the top—is that for lightning or broadcasting or whut! A brief investigation ensued…

Here are my findings:

This “elevator.” I hope no one still uses it. Shit looks janky—I don’t trust any electronic lift system that has a doorknob.

This turd. Wish I were kidding. In a shadowy corner of the 5th floor stairwell, this petit turd was chilling. Too small for human feces yet too big for bird poop… Possible explanations include a grad student who’s lost their shit (literally) and decided to reside permanently in the tower to haunt and menace law students (Creature of HGS: I mean no disrespect, if this article is insulting I will provide company and/or food as libation).

This beautiful dining hall, which is apparently open to all students for meals. Anyone lookin’ to date a grad student: chill by the pumpkin-themed desert table and prepare jokes about representations of autumn in Whitman, Irving, or Frost.

I could not get into any of the bedrooms (for obvious reasons) but according to the grad housing website, it seems similar to any other college rooming layout. Except that they’re in a TOWER! Like an apartment building, but grim; a skyscraper, yet brick; a mystifying citadel of learning and I guess living… (still hard for me to understand).

Now I ask you, my fellow classmates, to investigate. Research, explore, question your discoveries, and spy some more! (and plz get back to me!) We at the Bullblog have just scratched the surface of the mysterious underworld of the graduate students.

Who knows, the architecture students probably live in Loria!! Well actually, we all know that’s pretty much true…

If you liked this post, why not LIKE THE BULLBLOG???

The Upbeat

Face It by Curtis Williams

Curtis Williams is Atlanta-born and clearly, herbally bred. He’s a member of a new group called Two-9 that you should for sure look out for. It’s been a while since Atlanta has turned out this big of a rap group at this level of energy (recall Crime Mob and T.I.’s crew). While it’s hard to categorize this song as anything other than a nice track to chill to, because the lyrics aren’t exactly dealing with riotous subjects, its sound is pretty effin’ good. Williams has an effortless tone– he shows serious promise, and so do the other members of Two-9. The music video below is cool, but form definitely matches content: the day in LA is characterized by trippy shots and inebriated angles. Don’t watch this and drive!!

The Downbeat

Lies by CHVRCHES (Tourist Remix)

It takes a while for this beat to pick up, but when it does (around 2:45 for you impatient mothertruckers) it is quite nice. Quite nice. CHVRCHES is a an awesome Scottish band. They’re pretty new (formed in 2011) but they are carving a promising path out of the constant, confused influx of synthetic pop. Tourist is the British DJ that remixed this track, but the original is great too! Also, check out the babe in the vid!! Am I right or am I wrong? Or am I right…? Am I doing this right?

Laura Wexler is an American Studies and a Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies professor at Yale, but also an amazing photographer!

“The Tenderness of Men in the Suburbs” is an exhibition of Wexler’s photos that documents a certain type of routine characteristic of suburban men, specifically in Brookline and Newton, Massachusetts. The photographs depict the mundane, even gentle schedules that these men maintained in the face of the atomic and social violence in 1968.

It’s at 53 Wall Street in the creatively named Gallery at the Whitney.

For more details, click this Link in this Article.

Go see it! Signed,

A Student at Yale.

The Bullblog is on Facebook: If you liked this, then LIKE US!

The Biebs has been MIA for the past few months, much to everyone’s chagrin. Oh where, oh where has this Bieb-y been?

The Bullblog knows where.

Justin bebe aka bieb aka Bieber has been on tour! And at his most recent locale, Rio de Janeiro, this beb was caught at a BROTHEL. Taking home TWO ladies no less. Although the Biebaleebs tried to leave incognito by throwing a sheet over his entire body (unoriginal btw, that ghost costume was so 90s), reporters caught notice of his trendy arm tats and knew it was no Jasper– it was Justin! Let’s hope he doesn’t get put in prison cause then he’d be MIA for good! And “Jailhouse Rock” is already a song. Let’s pray 4 JB, and understand this imperative lesson:

Who ya gonna call? Biebs-busters!