Effective July 1, Georgians with concealed carry permits will be able to lawfully carry their weapons on most of Tech’s campus.

Since the law, previously known as House Bill 280, was signed into law on May 4 the University System of Georgia (USG) has been working to create guidelines for all 28 of its public institutions as they work to accommodate the change within their existing security departments and disciplinary procedures.

On a fundamental level, the law allows those with concealed carry permits to bring their concealed handguns onto public college campuses; as is the case in other carry-friendly areas, only handguns are permitted and they may not be openly displayed.

Several areas of campuses have been identified as exempt areas in which concealed weapons are not permitted. These include sports venues, such as McCamish Pavilion and Bobby Dodd Stadium; student housing facilities; preschool and daycare facilities, including the Children’s Campus on 10th Street; faculty, administration and staff office spaces; areas which are used for disciplinary proceedings, though only when such a proceeding is taking place; and any classroom in which high school students are enrolled in a class.

State law identifies it as the carrier’s responsibility to determine where their weapons are and are not permitted. Violating the law results in a misdemeanor crime for the license-holder, as well as potential violations of institute-level rules.

GTPD plans to hold numerous information sessions on the new policy for students and faculty throughout the summer and into the fall, and held the first one on June 14 with Pat McKenna, Vice President for Legal Affairs and Risk Management.

Many attending the session expressed concerns about potential gray areas in which guns may be carried — laboratories and common spaces outside of faculty offices, for example — and areas in which they may not be carried. The latter category includes most Greek houses, which are privately owned and thus may make their own rules about weapon possession, and the Biltmore, which although now owned by the Georgia Tech Foundation is not technically on-campus.

For Tech’s part, the most tangible changes will be in the training and responses within the Georgia Tech Police Department (GTPD) for reports of armed persons on campus. Robert Connolly, Chief of Police for GTPD, stated at the information session that officers are receiving altered training to safely accommodate people carrying weapons on campus.

“Before, we get a weapon call and we immediately rush to the scene,” Connolly said. “Now we have to ask lots of questions, and a lot of those questions are: What type of weapon does the individual have? Is the individual displaying the weapon? What is the mannerism behind that [display]? … When you call in, the dispatchers are trained now to ask these questions so we understand exactly what we’re coming to.

“We are coming, I promise you. We are going to respond but we have to do it appropriately. … We cannot violate the second amendment right. I think this is very similar to our first amendment right: we have the right to speech, and sometimes we don’t like the content, but we still have to allow it. This is no different.”

Unless a person without a permit is carrying, it is no longer legal for law enforcement to detain a person simply for carrying a handgun on Tech’s campus. That said, Connolly reiterated that seeing even what appears to be an intentionally-displayed handgun is sufficient reason to contact GTPD. He advised that especially those who were concerned about being able to discretely report such incidents should download the LiveSafe app, which is able to share users’ locations and texted reports with GTPD dispatchers.

According to John Stein, Dean of Students and Vice President of Student Life, the student code of conduct will be revised slightly to accommodate the change: the non-academic conduct violation currently reading “unauthorized possession of weapons” will likely be changed to “unauthorized possession of authorized weapons.”

It is thus possible to face consequence from both law enforcement and the Institute for violating the campus carry law in some capacity.

By June 28th, 2017’s NCAA Baseball Champion will be crowned. Unfortunately, Tech baseball has already lost its chance at being best in the nation. For the first time in his 24-year tenure with the Jackets, Coach Danny Hall finished the season with a sub .500 winning percentage.

The season was the epitome of what Tech baseball has become for the past few years: a strong start followed by subpar play in conference due to injuries and other factors. Additionally, Tech failed to qualify for postseason play for the fourth time in Hall’s years at Tech and the third time in the past ten years.

This year, the Jackets started the season off hot with a record of 9-2 before conference play began. In that time, the bats were hot and freshman catcher Joey Bart was leading the way to what seemed like a good year.

Much like the past few seasons though, that energy was short-lived. The main problem for the Jackets was a distinct lack of quality pitching, something that is beginning to show itself as the most valuable commodity in college baseball.

With sophomore Tristin English being lost to the dreaded Tommy John surgery in January, Tech’s rotation was already looking thin heading into the season. It did not help that of the top four pitchers by innings pitched last season, three graduated and the fourth, senior Ben Parr, only threw 8.2 innings this season.

After the first few games however, doubters were silenced as the pitching staff seemed to not allow too many runs so the powerful Tech offense could outscore opponents easily.

That optimism came to a screeching halt when Tech entered conference play. As one of the top athletic conferences in the country, the ACC continues to bring some of the strongest baseball competition to the table. It was here that it became obvious that Tech’s shortcomings with pitching would not be offset by the characteristically good hitting.

The reason for this is twofold; Tech’s hitting always starts strong against weaker, non-conference opponents and hitting is more inconsistent than pitching.

What is clear is that Tech continues to rely on hitting, and that the pitchers usually feed off good hitting. In games where the Jackets scored at least 10 runs this season, they were a perfect 12-0, and in all of those games they never gave up runs in the double digits.

On the other hand, in games where their opponent scored 10 or more runs, the Jackets were a meager 0-11. Another point of note: of the 12 games where the Jackets scored 10 or more runs, only two came against conference opponents, and in the 11 games where they gave up 10 or more runs, nine came against ACC opponents.

Since 2011, the ACC slate has continued to plague Tech. That year they finished tied for first in the Coastal division with a 22-8 record, and since then they have not been able to clear the .500 mark and continue to slip down the standings.

These issues may stem from a variety of factors including the addition of teams like Louisville, the steady increase in difficulty in recruiting in the college-dense south and the introduction of the BBCOR bats.

The first, the addition of other colleges to the ACC has not played too much of a role; in fact, it should help Tech. Louisville, the toughest of the recently added schools, is in the Atlantic division of the conference, meaning Tech does not play them every year like they do against division opponents.

The reason this addition of teams should help Tech is the addition of Pitt to the coastal division, a team supposedly worse than Tech every year, should lead to another series win every year for the Jackets. This year, Tech swept the Panthers 3-0 in their series, one of the lone bright spots in Tech’s conference season.

The second issue at hand is the increased difficulty of recruiting in the south. Gone are the days when it can be expected that local athletes will attend local schools. Now, it is up to coaches to market their and their school’s brand to recruits.

Lucky for Tech, they sit in the middle of a hotbed of talent that has attracted baseball organizations such as Perfect Game, responsible for most general scouting one on player, to the area. This means that Tech should be seeing more and more talented players, allowing for more opportunities to recruit high quality players.

The problem gets larger when considering the barriers that Tech faces. First, it is competing against all other universities in the southeast. Furthermore, it is a technical school with more rigorous requirements and fewer stereotypical athlete majors.

The last, and probably one of the most important issues that has plagued Danny Hall and the Jackets over the past few years, has been the introduction of the BBCOR bat.

BBCOR stands for ball-bat coefficient of restitution and refers to how much “give” a bat has when it makes contact with a baseball. Prior to the 2011 season, in which the BBCOR bat was made standard, college baseball was all about hitting. This environment fit Hall’s coaching style quite well since he recruits and has developed many quality hitters over the years.

BBCOR bats were introduced in response to the epidemic of too many home runs. Per data obtained by the NCAA, the number of home runs per game between 2010 and 2011 decreased from 0.94 to 0.52, the largest drop found in the data which went back to 1970. Additionally, the amount of runs per game dropped from 6.98 to 5.58, also the largest drop seen in the data.

While Tech did manage to stay afloat and tie for first in the conference in the 2011 season, the effects of the new bat standard on Tech baseball have grown over the years. As less runs are scored, the focus on good pitching grows, something, it seems, that the Jackets have yet to catch onto.

At this point, something needs to change if Tech has any hope of returning to its winning ways. Hall and his coaching staff must either adapt or continue to stagnate at the bottom of the Coastal Division.

The new college baseball landscape has shown that pitching is king. If Tech is to return to the form it saw in the late 90s and early 2000s, it will require a major shift in the way the team recruits and goes about playing the game; pitching must be the new focus. Hall has proven his ability in developing quality hitters; however, in recent years, he has been lacking in developing a consistent pitching rotation.

With a hotbed of talent in Georgia concentrated around the East Cobb area, Hall should have no trouble finding the players he needs to return Tech to the top of the ACC. Hall’s five year extension he signed last year will come into effect soon, and with AD Todd Stansbury opting to hire a new softball coach, he must adapt or risk being let go.

At the end of the spring semester, you might have noticed several bright blue bike racks pop up around campus. They are a part of Relay Bike Share, a program partnered with the City of Atlanta to help make bicycles more accessible to residents.

It is a bit like ZipCar for bicycles. The student membership costs $7.50 a month, and includes 90 minutes of free time per day. Getting a bike is relatively straight-forward. You can book a bike through the app or on the bicycle’s keypad. Then, you enter your 4-digit PIN on the keypad on the bicycle. When your trip is over, you can return the bike to a Relay station (or a rack within 100 feet if the station is full). For a small fee, you can lock the bike to any other public bike rack.

Relay Bikes is owned by a private company called CycleHop and was launched in Atlanta in June 2016 with 100 bikes and 10 stations. In April, they expanded to 500 bikes and 65 stations in various areas such as downtown, midtown and West End. For Tech, this meant new locations including Tech Square, Tech Parkway, the Transit Hub, Bobby Dodd Stadium, Clough Commons and the CRC.

“We had to find locations that would serve a great number of people while still being feasible as part of the campus landscape fabric — we worked with several GT departments to determine the locations. We attempted to space the stations where they would be easily accessible and meet demand but we can move them in the future if data supports this,” said Lisa Safstrom, Georgia Tech Campus Transportation Planner.

“The city has shown increased support for cycling in the past few years and has made great progress to improve bike infrastructure. Georgia Tech had concurrently been looking at implementing bike share on campus. We evaluated a few options but when we heard about the City’s program coming along, that seemed like a great fit,” said Safstrom.

Timberley Jones, Marketing and Community Outreach Manager for Relay Bikes, said “A lot of people rode the bikes and then they always ended up somewhere close to Tech over there by Barnes and Noble in the Tech square area. So we realized both Tech and the students at GSU really like to ride the bikes and it’s great for getting between classes and just having fun date nights and something to do that’s affordable for students. So that’s why with our second expansion we added some virtual hubs. We just said, ‘Hey you can park your bikes here because you’re already doing it anyway.’ And we’re not going to charge you.”

In deciding between owning a bike or using a bike share, Relay might not be the first option that comes to your mind, but Jones explains, “You don’t have to worry about lugging it inside of a house or storing it in the garage. And you only have to worry about one way trips… With Relay Bike Share you leave them outside to lock them up and access it with the app on your phone. They’re hard to steal and it’s trackable.”

With Relay Bikes, there’s no need to worry about maintenance or locking up your bike. The program serves as a complement to the already existing BuzzBike program.

Safstrom said, “BuzzBike offers semester-long bike rental, while Relay is great for short trips. Both programs are very inexpensive for the user, which allows them to try out biking with little investment or initial commitment and see if they like it.”

One of the biggest aspects for improving cycling infrastructure is to get more bikes on the road. “This was our intention with the BuzzBike program — offer students an opportunity to ‘own’ a bike for a few months, to get used to commuting by bike. Ideally, they would realize what an efficient, cheap and fun way to travel this is — and they would then purchase their own bikes and continue to bike as part of their lifestyle. The Relay bikes, on the other hand, are great for folks that may not want to commit to biking but appreciate that it’s very handy on some occasions. Using Relay bikes to get to meetings, to go to lunch, ride to MARTA or to see the sights downtown or at Piedmont Park is easy, since there are Relay stations located at many destinations throughout the city,” said Safstrom.

When Relay Bikes first started, many doubted that the program would take off.

“It’s a hilly city and it is known for its cars, so it’s not somewhere that you would think that bikes would do well or you would want to ride,” said Jones. “But there’s a whole culture of people that want to use their bikes more and enjoy living downtown.”

“Biking in the city and on campus has been increasing every year and we’ve all been working to improve infrastructure and programs to encourage and support this. We all want a safe and accessible network for biking, and offering Relay Bike Share on campus is a great way to increase the numbers of people using bikes,” said Safstrom.

“RideShare is important because public transportation and public access to getting to MARTA stations, getting to class and getting the bus is something that’s fun. It’s good for your health in the city. Atlanta has a lot of green space for a city which is really beautiful to look at and you get to get a different view of the city when you bike as opposed to sitting in a car,” said Jones.

The construction along Tech Parkway is another initiative to improve bicycle infrastructure on campus and in the city. With expected completion in July, the project converts one side of Tech Parkway (from Northside Drive to North Avenue) to a bike path and new sidewalk.

“This will serve as a bicycle connection from new and coming infrastructure northwest of campus to the new Luckie Street cycletrack (a two-way bike path protected by a concrete curb) that leads downtown to Centennial Olympic Park, where it will meet other bike paths extending east,” said Safstrom.

“Studies show that more people biking creates a safer environment for cyclists, as people get used to seeing bikes. Relay is also great for encouraging Tech students to perhaps venture off campus. By viewing the station locations on the Relay app or website, users can see other popular biking locations and destinations. Knowing they have a convenient transportation option to get there and back might encourage people to expand their horizons, by bike.”

Relay Bike Share staff will be on campus in the Fall providing outreach and looking for student ambassadors in trade for free membership.

Engineering and Biology and Adjunct Associate Professor of Physics at Tech, David Hu originally intended to pursue a career in the field of creative writing after he graduated from MIT, but instead ended up earning a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering.

Like many undergraduate students, Hu was unsure where his passions would lead him in his career.

“I don’t think people are willing to admit that basically at 22, people don’t know what they want to do,” said Hu. “Even at 37, I still don’t know exactly what I want to do. I just know that I really like working with the students, and I like making discoveries and I do like telling people about the discoveries.”

Originally a pre-med student, Hu invested himself in that route working as an EMT and at a phone student counseling service. However, he found that biology on a microscale wasn’t that intriguing to him. He found that studying microscopic subjects had limitations where his current research did not. Studying animals and insects allowed him to use high-speed cameras for analysis and ignore small intramolecular forces.

Like his career path, Hu’s work is very interdisciplinary in nature, an amalgam of the fields of engineering, biology and robotics. As a leading researcher in the field of biomechanics of animal locomotion, he works with a range of animals including frogs, elephants, dogs and different insects.

“Nature has been around for a while; it requires tools from everybody,” said Hu. His undergraduate advisor was also interdisciplinary, and his first major foray in biolocomotion began as a homework assignment. His project studied how water striders moved and he discovered that the insects do not walk but instead they row on water. That homework assignment blew up in fame and attracted the attention of big media outlets such as The New York Times and NPR.

“Since then, my work has been featured almost yearly on The Times,” said Hu. “Discovery Channel comes by once or twice a year.” The “Van Gogh”-esque photograph he took of the water strider on food coloring-dyed water has been featured on the cover of the Fluid Mechanics textbook used at Georgia Tech since he first started as faculty.

Hu believes that scientists have a duty to pursue the truth. Hu takes finding the truth a step further by spreading the truth using a concept he calls “science communication.” This is the concept of presenting scientific topics to the public. “I like figuring out how people think and working with students. I do care if people understand the science.”

Since his project, Dr. Hu has been featured on a plethora of other media platforms and his work has earned numerous accolades over the years, some unconventional such as the Ig Nobel prize and the Pineapple Science Award, which claims to “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.” Hu notes, “My projects usually start out as a fun question.”

He has not only been published in high-impact scientific journals such as Nature, but he has also written for Physics Today and American Scientist. Although Hu’s creative writing career is on the backburner, he is still producing content that reaches huge audiences.

“I think it’s nice to have the scientific stuff,” said Hu. “I think I’m a good non-fiction writer — I wasn’t good with coming up with characters and a whole world.”

Hu took his science communication or “sci-com” skills further than the written word and has appeared on numerous television shows ranging from The Discovery Channel to a Chinese game show where he was the only scientist to compete.

In addition, after learning Chinese by taking classes at Tech, Hu gave a televised five-minute presentation completely in Chinese. He currently has a book about animal movement for Princeton in the works which is expected to be published in 2018 and an interview with another Ig Nobel Prize recipient that is due to be aired on national Argentinian television.

Science communication has a dark side in today’s society, however. Just last year, Hu and a trove of other scientists were cited in Arizona senator Jeff Blake’s yearly list of wasteful scientific studies. Hu asserts that “it’s terrorism on scientists,” because negative publication like this can ruin a scientist. In fact, he knows of budding scientists whose careers were ruined by this publication. “Science communicators are not seen as real scientists,” said Hu. “We spend our whole lives trying to show the truth, and sci-com is not about showing the truth, it’s just about showing how cool [science] is and getting people really interested.”

Currently, Hu hopes to establish a science communication class at Georgia Tech, so he can encourage other budding scientists to not only discover the truth, but also to wield it as a tool to educate others.

Famed emcee, producer and musician Antwan Patton, also known as Big Boi, has been around for quite some time, though most people might have not even noticed. At the age of 16, he moved from Savannah up to Atlanta in 1993, and ever since, he has been making music both in a group and by himself. Of course, the reason he moved to Atlanta at that age was to begin making music with his good friend, Andre “Andre 3000” Benjamin, and the rest is history.

Six critically-acclaimed albums later, Big Boi was one half of the most successful and most well-received hip-hop group to come out of the South. At this point in the saga, the duo split, but there is no reason to believe that Big Boi’s talent ever left. Outkast released their last album, “Idlewild,” in 2006. Then, in 2010, they released an album that garnered twice the attention and twice the acclaim but only required half the effort.

After this project, titled “Sir Lucius Leftfoot: The Sun of Chico Dusty,” Big Boi did it again with “Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors” in 2012. Now, five years later, Big Boi simply relays the same message with “Boomiverse” — he may be an old school rapper, but he is definitely not too old.

Big Boi’s fourth post-Outkast project “Boomiverse” is an enjoyable album mainly because it is so transparent. Big Boi is unapologetically Southern, expressive and lighthearted, and “Boomiverse” is exactly the same way. At no point does the music on the album attempt to be anything other than what Big Boi is, and the album is better for it.

The album’s introductory song acts as an homage to Big Boi’s earliest days with Outkast. A conspicuous beat, produced by longtime friends and frequent collaborators Organized Noize, serves as the background while Big Boi raps over the music. Then the album launches into two of its most enjoyable songs: “Kill Jill” and “Mic Jack,” which also serve as the album’s two singles.

Jeezy and Killer Mike each have verses on “Kill Jill,” and fellow Dungeon Family member Sleepy Brown joins Adam Levine as they both sing the hook to “Mic Jack.” Additionally, the album’s pace never seems to slow down. Appearances by Snoop Dogg, Gucci Mane and Pimp C keep listeners on their toes.

Going through the album while hearing Big Boi’s collaborations with fellow hip-hop heavyweights and veteran contributors is incredibly enjoyable. Even though Organized Noize, Killer Mike and Adam Levine do give the album a definitive sound, “Boomiverse” reaches its peak with “All Night.”

This light-hearted, Southern rap masterpiece has a jazz-influenced, piano-driven beat that gives the song the capacity to be a summer anthem in 2017. “All Night” was produced by Dr. Luke, a longtime collaborator with Katy Perry, Flo Rida and Usher, and the track benefitted heavily from Dr. Luke’s experience with pop and R&B acts.

Interestingly enough, the day that “Boomiverse” was released also happened to be the day that two other Atlanta-bred trap artists released their long-anticipated albums. 2 Chainz, the rap artist behind “I’m Different” and “Birthday Song,” released a quintessential southern trap album called “Pretty Girls Like Trap Music.” Young Thug, a member of the ever-polarizing cohort of young “mumble rappers,” released his long awaited album “Beautiful Thugger Girls.”

Ironically, even though Big Boi essentially invented the term trap and the understanding of it as a form of music, these younger artists may not even wholly understand how much of their career they owe to him. In fact, people rarely give either member of Outkast enough credit for their unparalleled contributions to southern hip-hop.

Despite this lack of recognition, Big Boi successfully reminds people who the true king — or at least creator — of the Atlanta trap scene is by releasing critically-acclaimed project after critically-acclaimed project. As Atlanta trap music was designed to be, “Boomiverse” is Southern, expressive and loud, but it never loses its purpose or sense of fun, which recent trap artists have at times forgotten to incorporate into their music.

With Migos, Future, Yachty and half of the XXL Freshman class of 2017, the past two years have proven to be huge for mainstream trap, but with “Boomiverse,” Big Boi says to everyone that sometimes the new school can never beat the old school.

Dreezy had just finished her set under the blistering summer sun at the Rolling Loud festival in Miami on May 6 and was cooling down in her trailer, yet she remained in her performance outfit which included tight red leather bottoms. She displayed a level of comfort to be expected from a seasoned veteran of the game, no matter the fact that to most, she was a newcomer.

Of course, “newcomer” is a tricky term when it comes to rappers, and Dreezy is no exception. Having made waves in her hometown of Chicago for years before signing to Interscope, it was clear early on that within the local scene, she had no problem “keeping up with the boys.”

It is slightly ironic then that her biggest record to date is an R&B song with Jeremih. But in a time when singing is becoming a fundamental aspect of rap, Dreezy has played her cards right by not putting herself in a box. She was also one of few female artists to perform at Rolling Loud, even though the annual three day festival was the single most important hip hop festival of the year, representing seemingly every significant subgenre. This achievement indicates that Dreezy is at the beginning of her rise.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Technique: I know you just finished up a month-long tour with Gucci Mane. Are you planning to take a break now?

Dreezy: Hell no, I’m not taking a break! I’m ready to go even crazier. I think I’ve built a lot of momentum with the last album, so it’s only right that I keep consistent. I’m just waiting for my next project.

Technique: Will you be working on a mixtape or a full album?

Dreezy: I mean, I’m always working toward the album. I’m going all the way with it. But it’s just about always working, building music, making new raps.

Technique: Do you feel like you have more expectation put on you to grind and just go hard because you’re a female rapper, and that’s somewhat rare?

Dreezy: Well yeah, definitely. I definitely gotta keep up with the guys because they eat, breathe and live this shit, you know? But it’s twice as hard for a girl because of my image. Like, my hair, makeup, my body. They’re ready to judge off every little thing, so I gotta work double time. But it’s OK, I’m not bad at it.

Technique: Do you feel like that means you have to fill a certain role or that you have a sort of extra responsibility because of that?

Dreezy: I think they judge girls a bit harder, but I also feel like they give girls a lot of props too. Like I said, I have to work double time and people see that. They see me putting in that work. When you’re holding yourself up, if you’ve got the full package and you really have talent, it’s a lot of work, but you get recognized. There’s a lot of female rappers coming up now too, so I definitely think it’s more open.

Technique: One of the very interesting things about you as an artist is that you could easily be a full fledged R&B singer while still being a rapper’s rapper who can spit.

Dreezy: My early fan base, they love it when I rap. They get so mad when I’m singing, but the newer fans, they want me to sing on it. On my features nowadays, I’m like “OK, I guess I’m gonna sing it now.” So I’m learning I got to do a little bit of both, and I’ve got to get my niche with that shit.

Technique: And not put yourself in one lane?

Dreezy: Yeah. Because, it’s like, maybe one day I could get an R&B song and win an award off that, and at the same time have something else in the hip hop category.

Technique: I noticed your catalog doesn’t include much drill music, which surprised me for someone young coming from Chicago. Why didn’t you pick it up?

Dreezy: I used to do it! That’s what I mean about my old fans. If you listen to my early music, that’s what I was doing. I was doing drill. I got up out of it quick though. I’m glad you don’t even know that I used to do that shit. Like if you go back to all my early music, I was actually like, hard, and my core fan base, they love that shit.

Technique: The first time I heard you was on the “Chiraq” remix, but I didn’t know there was more that you made.

Dreezy: And “Chiraq” was the song I took off on, but it was never, you know, the beginning.

Technique: In a previous interview, you said you felt like you needed to get out of Chicago. Why do you feel that way?

Dreezy: Because Chicago violent as f***. … A lot of people dying. A lot of people who I know dying. And it’s not a lot of people, it’s like crabs in a bucket. N***as just hate on you, and you can’t flex out there even if you do come up.

If you really wanna be successful – I feel like, you could do it in Chicago but it’s – I don’t feel like you’ve reached real success until you make it out of Chicago. When people see you out of the city, then you’re not local no more. When you stay around like that, long, then people start thinking, like, you’re just like them, and you just a local ass motherf***er. You gotta get out of the city.

Technique: Do you still feel like you represent Chicago then?

Dreezy: Hell yeah! I got so much in store for Chicago that I’m working on. And everywhere I go, it’s Chi. We got the best food. We turn up the hardest. We got the best delivery in rap, and it’s like real motherf***ers, you know? We got the best finessers, and we got tough skin. A lot of people came from nothing, so we hold our own. I rep Chicago all the way through.

Following the critical disappointments “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad,” the DC Extended universe needed a win, especially leading up to their “Avengers” equivalent, “Justice League.” Enter Amazon goddess and fearless warrior Wonder Woman, played by Israeli actress Gal Gadot.

Set toward the end of World War I, Princess Diana of Themyscira leaves her homeland with WWI fighter Steve Trevor (Chris Pine, “Star Trek”). A long-held belief on Themyscira maintains that ridding the world of Ares, the God of War, will bring about peace, so Diana seeks to eliminate Ares and travels with Trevor to the front lines to do so.

Joining them is a ragtag team consisting of con artist Sameer (Saïd Taghmaoui, “Three Kings”), Native American smuggler Chief (Eugene Brave Rock, “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice”) and Scottish sniper with PTSD Charlie (Ewen Bremner, “Black Hawk Down”). The group sets out to destroy a horrific chemical weapon created by German general Erich Ludenoff (Danny Huston, “American Horror Story”) and chemist Dr. Isabel Maru (Elena Anaya, “Van Helsing”).

After Trevor prevents Diana from killing Ludenoff at a gala, Diana confronts the general at a military base, convinced that he is Ares and ending him will end the war. When the war continues after his death, Diana is forced to confront how one-dimensional her view of good and evil is in order to defeat the true God of War. “Wonder Woman” is the kind of movie that will leave audiences with the urge to fight something and protect the innocent.

Gadot is fearless and determined as Diana, battling her way through villages and the front lines, all with an almost childlike naivete that she can save the world. She proves herself multiple times over the movie, even as men around her ask her to stay behind or try to keep her back until she earns their respect.

Director Patty Jenkins uses these instances to highlight the disconnect between Diana’s strength and potential and how people viewed women in the early 20th century. However, having Diana be the only woman to positively change the course of the plot (the other Amazons do little to affect the final conflict, and the only other female “good guy” is plucky comic relief) misses opportunities to empower girls of more diverse backgrounds. Despite this shortcoming, the success of “Wonder Woman” paves the way for future female-led superhero movies.

Beneath all the action and witty dialogue, the emotional core of the film is Diana’s character transformation. Upon leaving her homeland, Diana is every bit the idealistic do-gooder that graced the pages of early Golden Age comics, where the distinction between good and evil was clear-cut, and the solution as simple as taking out the main villain.

However, after fighting in World War I and confronting the war god Ares, Diana’s outlook falls more in line with modern superheroes: the lines between good and evil are blurred, even within heroes, but what matters is protecting what one believes in. Such a transformation echoes how comic books themselves have evolved and matured to reflect how people view their heroes.

“Wonder Woman” not only understands what modern audiences want to see — more women, more multifaceted characters — but also that viewers want their heroes to face wrenching sacrifices, even for an ungrateful populace. At the film’s climax, Ares tempts Diana to rule with him over weak-willed humans who commit evil in self-interest regardless of their side. Ultimately, “Wonder Woman” is less about Diana defeating Ares and more about the modern definition of a hero.

The High Museum of Art recently unveiled its newest temporary exhibit featuring the works of pop art icon Andy Warhol. The exhibit, which contains over 250 of Warhol’s works, traces the artist’s incredible career from his beginnings as a marketing illustrator in the late 1940s through his rise to become one of America’s most famous and controversial artists.

The collection contains mostly silkscreen prints, a type of photograph reproduction that belongs traditionally to the advertising world and that Warhol pioneered as a serious art form. Warhol used this process to create his most famous works of art, and it gave his works their striking, vibrant — at times even harsh — character.

Visitors to the exhibit can find the full range of Warhol’s works, from prints of Civil Rights era photos to images of Mick Jagger to Warhol’s ubiquitous Campbell’s soup cans. Some of the most interesting items in the collection are Warhol’s darker and lesser known pieces.

A macabre 1971 series of prints of an empty electric chair features intense distortion and discoloration, producing a chilling, disturbing effect for the viewer and making the prints difficult even to look at.

Equally disturbing is a 1964 reproduction titled “Birmingham Race Riot” which depicts police brutally beating African Americans at a peaceful protest march. These pieces remind the visitor that the period in which Warhol worked was not all about bright colors and big parties — it was also one of the most turbulent eras in American history.

Still, the majority of the exhibit is filled with the bright, poppy images that are more well known and closely associated with the artist: the iconic 1967 print “Marilyn Monroe,” 1975’s “Mick Jagger” and, of course, plenty of Campbell’s soup cans. Among the most memorable works in the collection is a series of prints produced in 1972 titled “Mao.” The prints are reproductions of a portrait of communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong that recolor and distort the tyrant’s face, making him appear grotesquely phantom-like and ill.

The exhibit is housed in a relatively small space, making the experience of walking through it overwhelming and at times disorienting. At first it seems odd that the museum’s curators would do this to their guests. There are plenty of massive exhibition spaces at the High where the 250 works in this collection could be housed comfortably.

The sense of disorientation produced by the exhibit’s densely packed walls, however, is the whole point of going to a Warhol exhibit. A person walking through the gallery would have trouble focusing on any given work for very long. It is not that the works are not eye-catching and engaging; rather, each work is so flashy and exciting that it is nearly impossible to look at one without being distracted by all the others.

Warhol made his prints this way because he wanted the observer to feel distracted, lost and disoriented. He confronts Americans with what should be familiar icons of their culture — Campbell’s soup cans, Marilyn Monroe and Mick Jagger — and twists, distorts and discolors them in a way that makes them feel like travelers in a foreign land.

In disorienting his consumers, Warhol makes many different points about commercialism and American culture, which are open to interpretation, but undoubtedly he wants them to feel lost. The curators of the exhibit are certainly aware of this and did an excellent job of creating an exhibit that Warhol would be proud to visit.

The exhibit runs through Sept. 3, and visitors can attend for free on the second Sunday of each month. For those willing to pay for admission, the museum offers an enticing bonus on the third Friday of every month: a live four-hour jazz performance in the main atrium. After all, there exists no better complement to an exhibit on one of America’s greatest native artists than America’s greatest native musical form.

It is only a matter of time. It could be seconds, days, or even weeks after meeting someone before I hear the question: “So why did you choose LMC at Tech?”

It is a fair question, and one I get at least monthly without fail. Students majoring in Literature, Media and Communication are few and far between, and are accustomed to jokes at their expense. Some of the jabs, I admit, are funny and simply playful teasing.

The world is unmistakably and rapidly developing with a technology-focused mindset, and Tech is certainly the place to be as that happens. I am blessed with a passion and talent for writing, and I think that Tech offers the perfect opportunity to combine technically advanced concepts with liberal arts.

Sure, I could also develop my communication skills somewhere else, but as a writer I am desperate to find a great topic to write about. I think that there is nowhere else that so conveniently and perfectly gives me something to write about as Tech does. I love learning about virtual reality or nanotechnology and being able to tell people what it is and why they should care.

I want to communicate these technical concepts in a way that people can understand and get behind things. I want governments to hear about new technology and be willing to implement it because it will make people’s lives better. I hope that people can read what I write about science and be inspired to learn more. If investors read about an engineer’s ideas, I want them to be able to envision how it might be the next big thing.

Maybe if the world better understood what happens behind the scenes, people could see the incredible things that are happening and be a little more hopeful about the future. This aspiration of mine is a daunting one, but I can’t think of a better place to be with that goal.

I took the incredible chance I was given to study at one of the most highly-regarded institutes in the world. I am so excited to collaborate as part of diverse community to create incredible, innovative solutions to the world’s greatest problems. I am endlessly inspired by being constantly surrounded by great minds.

When I walk into the LMC classes I have taken so far, I am surrounded by a group of people who are endlessly positive, passionate and unafraid to stand out in a crowd. They are willing to speak up and fight for what they believe in, and they fight equally hard for their place at Tech.

They are as diverse as you could imagine, and their interests vary widely from mine. Some are nerds for classic literature, others for social justice and still others for graphic design.

In the end, why did anyone choose to go anywhere for college? It is a combination of various factors that all must be painstakingly considered, all while desperately hoping that the college you decide to attend is where you belong.

I am certain I made the right decision.

Benjamin Zander, conductor, piano teacher and captivating orator, breaks society into three distinct groups.

The first group includes the people who absolutely adore classical music, who go to the symphony and have their children play a classical instrument. The second is those who don’t mind it— “a little Vivaldi in the background doesn’t do any harm”—as they kick back after a long work day, and finally the third group is people who never listen to classical music and are indifferent to the genre.

However, I think there’s a fourth category.

I don’t think I need to convince anyone that a good portion of adolescents in today’s society believe that classical music is stuffy and old-fashioned. Even in my own experience, when posed with the question, what is your favorite genre of music, my response, “classical music” is often met with either a scoff or a snicker at my seeming pretentiousness. Maybe I am a little pretentious and old-fashioned at times, and people can snicker and scoff all they want at that, but to depreciate classical music is ignorant.

The ignorance has turned into something of an automatic distaste, a conditioning effect inducing a general negative opinion about classical music.

In a Ted Talk on the transformative power of classical music, Zander described an interaction with a boy when he was working with students on conflict resolution—these students were your stereotypical inner city street kids, tough exterior and seemingly tough interior.

In his usual routine as he demonstrated in his Ted Talk, Zander asked the group of kids to imagine a person in each of their lives whom they loved and who was no longer with them. Zander then went on to play Chopin’s Prelude in E Minor on the piano.

The next morning one of the students approached Zander and explained that his brother had been shot the year prior. “I didn’t cry for him,” explained the boy according to Zander. “I’ve never listened to classical music in my life, but last night when you played that piece he was the one I was thinking about and I felt the tears streaming down my face, and it felt really good to cry for my brother.”

So what’s the deal? Why is there a portion of society that detests classical music? Is it because we’re afraid of being touched by raw emotion? That we might find it silly to be moved to tears by a few notes on a page? Or that we don’t want to put the effort to reach that raw emotion?

As a person coming from a background of classical music, it’s probably unfair for me to come to that conclusion, but it’s unfathomable to me that people can be so put off by a genre as rich and powerful as classical music.

Perhaps the lack of lyrics makes immersing oneself in music difficult. It’s analogous to falling into a good book. When you read a book and conjure visuals in your mind, you allow yourself to be more invested and more immersed in the subject, and therefore access a greater depth of personal emotion. It’s a depth of emotion that perhaps movies (or music with lyrics) can’t reach.

This isn’t to say that classical music is any better than another genre. Everyone is entitled to his or her own preferences, but to rule out a genre for its reputation for being snobbish and pretentious is not only ignorant but also hypocritical.

While it might take a bit more effort than listening to Ed Sheeran or Alt-J, sit down and allow yourself to be vulnerable to Beethoven’s pastoral symphony, Mozart Concerto No. 5, or Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C major—enjoy the complexity and nuances. No matter what your current tastes in music are, in the words of Zander, “classical music is for everybody.”