Photograph courtesy Dean812 Flickr

Anxiety is a term that we are probably all familiar with. It’s a feeling that every person will confront at some point, but not everyone knows exactly how to cope with it.

Allow me to first acknowledge that there is a difference between being anxious and having an anxiety disorder. Feeling anxious  — while unsettling — is normal, especially before giving a lengthy speech or socializing with new people. However, if feelings of anxiety begin to affect one’s daily life, this may indicate that one is suffering from an anxiety disorder. About 40 million Americans live with anxiety disorders. They are among the most common mental illnesses in the United States.

Although I have not been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, it is safe to say that anxiety has affected my life in several ways. It strips away my self-confidence and my will to seize opportunities and to speak up. I’ve auditioned for plays with the hopes of landing a role, but my anxiety would sabotage me the second I got on stage; I would stutter, forget my lines and tremble. Raising my hand in class is often an issue because I am sometimes not confident enough in my answer to say it in front of the whole class. Anxiety has simply made everything more difficult than it needs to be.

Coping with anxiety is very personal; everyone has their own strategies and solutions that make them personally feel better. For some with serious anxiety disorders, the only way to cope is through medication and therapy. For anyone suffering with any kind of anxious feelings, I encourage finding coping tactics that make them personally feel happy and relaxed. I also hope to help people in that search by giving some tips that have absolutely helped me conquer my constant anxious feelings.

A tactic that I have found personally helpful is to challenge myself to speak up more. This quarter, I am taking both a public speaking and an acting class. Both have already helped me tremendously in overcoming my social anxiety.

One of the first lessons in my public speaking class was about overcoming communication anxiety. My professor acknowledged that mostly everyone, including herself, suffers from anxiety and gave suggestions on how to overcome it. This lesson made me feel more comfortable in the class and made me respect my professor greatly for acknowledging this. For so long, I have felt ashamed of my anxious feelings that I can’t control, but it is comforting to know that no one is alone in this.

So far, acting class has helped me incredibly in overcoming anxious feelings. My instructor has been sure to assert that acting is all about what makes humans, well, human. My classmates and I are always doing some kind of exercise that is designed to help us be more comfortable on stage, work together, have fun and relax. Any time our instructor catches us not smiling or laughing, she exclaims, “Come on, this isn’t cancer research! Have fun with it!” In this class, I feel embraced by a group of classmates who feel just as anxious as I do about performing, and they inspire me daily to overcome my anxious, self-sabotaging feelings.

Being anxious is part of being human, so nobody should ever feel ashamed or defeated by their anxiety. I recommend anyone who has issues with feeling anxious should challenge themselves to be above it. You never know what you are truly capable of overcoming.

However, if you feel that anxiety is affecting your everyday life, it may be smart to see a doctor about anxiety disorders. There is absolutely no shame in this; in fact, it takes a tremendous amount of courage to take initiative with your mental health. Treatment can be helpful and is available, yet only one-third of people with anxiety disorders receive it.

It is important to act and put your health first so that you can continue to be the wonderful person you are, without being weighed down by your nerves.

Photograph courtesy MARIAJONER Wikimedia Commons

At first glance, Putin looks like a Communist. He was a former KGB agent before the collapse of the USSR — known as the Committee for State Security in English, the KGB was the security agency for the Soviet Union — he leads an authoritarian regime, and he has publicly lamented the collapse of the USSR.

However, a closer look at his actions shows that he has more in common with the extreme right than the left. His vision for Russia is actually better described as a resurrection of the Tsarist empire that existed prior to the 1917 Communist revolution.

Tsar Nicholas I developed an official ideology of “Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationalism.” As an emperor, Nicholas I was wary of revolution. He was well aware of the wave of liberalization occurring in Europe that had granted elections and a constitution; especially the French revolutions.

To safeguard his power, he instituted a set of reforms that would consolidate all power towards him. The Russian Orthodox Church was given privilege as the official religion of Russia — grand cathedrals were built while the clergy was granted respect and patronage from the state, as long as its leaders fell in line with the the Tsar’s policies.

Meanwhile, Russia’s aristocrats were forced into unquestioning obedience towards the Tsar — any attempts at gaining additional autonomy for one’s state was crushed with force, and an attempt by military officers to implement a constitution resulted in the arrest of those officials.

The intellectuals and universities that dared to criticize the Tsar were censored, and sometimes imprisoned. All of this was done under the guise of Russian exceptionalism — the idea that a unique Russian identity was superior to that of the rest of Europe, and that a strong, centralized government was necessary to protect and defend it.

In Putin’s eyes, stability and the consolidation of his own power are the end goals. What he sees in the West is a continuation of the liberalization that challenges autocratic and centralized leadership. The clergy no longer holds significant political power, traditionalism is a choice instead of a mandate and LGBTQ rights are becoming mainstream.

These changes, like the demands for a constitution, seek to liberalize society at the cost of autocrats by removing a pillar of their control. It is no surprise that Putin, like the Tsar of old Russia, would oppose these measures.

The relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church’s believers and Putin is a symbiotic one — the devoutly religious are, for the most part, focused first and foremost on maintaining a socially conservative society, are apolitical or uninformed on other issues and will defer to the orders of the patriarch without question. For Putin, catering to their demands gains him a strong support base, without offering much resistance to his cronyism, corruption or human rights and civil liberties violations.

Popular uprisings against dictators that fail to satisfy the needs of the people are becoming increasingly common in the Arab world. In the past, the printing press was the catalyst for change.

Nowadays, social media and the Internet act as the reagents for revolution, while the support of the middle class and elites has always been helpful. The Egyptian uprising was aided in part by the consent of the Egyptian military, while Twitter and Facebook played a pivotal role in organizing protests and spreading dissent in every Arab Spring uprising from Tunisia to Syria.

Again, Putin realizes that the media and social elite are forces that have the power to topple him. He responds by putting all major TV stations under full or partial control of the government. Journalists are routinely killed for dissenting views, while social media is tightly monitored and “anti-corruption” raids target businessmen who aren’t pledging complete loyalty.

It is no surprise that Russian media is espousing propaganda that touts it as the last defender of true Christianity and the bastion of traditional morality. Several anchors from RT, the state-owned Kremlin propaganda outlet, have gone on record to chide the West for its decadence in tolerating LGBTQ individuals, and frame pro-gay demonstrations in Russia as a conspiracy to undermine Russia and its values. Nationalism is strongly emphasized in youth camps, stressing loyalty to the state and indoctrinating youth with ultra-conservative ideology portraying the social tolerance of the West as weak and portraying dissidents as traitors.

Modern day commentators are often quick to compare Putin to the Soviet regime. Both are authoritarian, but it is clear that the USSR lacks the nationalist and cultural underpinnings that modern Russia uses to maintain control. The USSR abhorred religion — Putin is enthusiastic to use it for his own ends. Stalin crushed ethnic nationalism, while Putin sees it as a peg to his power.

If the West — and NATO — wants to challenge Putin’s power, then they need to realize that they are fighting a cultural war of modernism against reactionary traditionalism, and that the latter is Putin’s most powerful weapon in his arsenal.

Sebastian Weigand: Wikimedia Commons

At a time when talented students have many excellent college and university choices, and families are, more than ever, expecting a return on their educational investment, we at Drexel University have implemented a new student enrollment and retention strategy and it is already paying dividends.

Our goal is to recruit and enroll right-fit students who know us well and who will contribute as much as they gain from the Drexel community. It is also our priority to support our students so they graduate and go on to do great things as Drexel alumni. And, there are ways you can help us build upon our success.

Telling the Drexel story well and continuing to develop a culture of student success is a collective effort. That is why I was so pleased to hear that Triangle editors — while meeting recently with President John A. Fry — asked how students themselves could help the cause.

Here is the best thing I can suggest by way of advice: Tell your Drexel story broadly and help us make the Drexel experience the best it can be. Hold us, and each other, accountable in the classroom, in the residence halls, in Drexel Central, with community building, through your co-op experience and in any other way that will support you to be successful. Look to your own experience. What were the factors that influenced your decision to attend Drexel? How can we improve the experience for you and future Drexel students?

When you gather a mental checklist of the factors that influenced your decision to attend Drexel, I imagine it might include a number of common factors. Drexel’s rigorous academics combined with professional experience, professional development and networking through co-op, likely attracted you. Philadelphia is such an integral part of the Drexel experience, and I’m sure being an urban university — with all the excitement that comes from living in a major city, and the talent Philadelphia attracts — also was a factor in your decision making.

Think about how you discovered Drexel. If you’re like most students, your high school counselor provided some information, and maybe you had a friend or family member who attended or knew something about Drexel. You probably did some of your own research by checking out our website. You likely ran into a friend at your high school homecoming and asked, “So, how do you like Drexel?” And I believe that what they said — especially if they raved about their experience — made a big impression.

Sharing your Drexel story with future Drexel students can make all the difference. So, yes, it’s important to volunteer for campus events organized to acquaint prospective students with Drexel. Serving in our student admissions ambassador program and conducting campus tours or volunteering during our on-campus events are great ways to help.

Not everyone’s schedule can accommodate those roles, but everyone at the university can tell their own story, and that’s what I would encourage you to do. When talking about your experience, you become a goodwill ambassador. It could be on a trip home, when you’re working at your co-op, meeting friends or sharing your Drexel experience through social media.

And if I can make a few suggestions, share how your classroom experience positions you to succeed in a professional environment when you are on co-op, and vice versa. Co-op is really a unique form of professional development with critical networking and work-ready skill development opportunities. In other words, it’s so much more than a job. As you tell your story, whatever the narrative, I only ask that you make sure it’s the complete story of how the combination of a world-class academic experience combines with professional work experience through co-op to prepare you well for your future.

Enhancing a culture of student success is also a critical part of our new approach, so don’t only talk to your peers; talk to me, especially if you have ideas on how we can improve your experience and this University. My door is always open, and as I said, hold us accountable. Become engaged in, and help us shape, what’s happening on campus. Your feedback is critical to our continued improvement.

What’s in it for you, figuring out how to make this enrollment strategy a success? Well, it’s about continuing to have incredibly talented students, like you, join the Drexel family. It’s about continuing to raise the bar for your experience and the experience of those Dragons who come after you. It is about developing and sustaining all the resources a great university needs. And, ultimately, it’s about how you will look back with increased pride on your alma mater when you become Drexel alumni and pursue your career and personal goals and do great things.

I want you to beam with Drexel Dragon pride, and nothing less.

3dggirl18: Flickr

Since Donald Trump was elected president Nov. 8, America has gone amazingly topsy turvy, as he has followed through on his numerous campaign promises and attempting to eliminate many of the groups of people he previously ostracized.

He has instituted a travel ban that has affected millions of Americans, is currently in the put up a wall, well, segments of a wall, on the border between the United States and Mexico, and is currently in the process of defunding Planned Parenthood.

Now, Trump has decided to eliminate a new enemy — one that has influenced the minds of both children and adults for 46 years. One that has taught people to be open minded and caring, unlike a certain president of the United States. I am, of course, talking about “Sesame Street”.

When President Donald Trump announced his 2018 budget March 16, the main point he was trying to make was that he was going to follow up on his campaign pledge on making America great again.

He could’ve improved America’s future by investing more well-deserved money into America’s educational system, but instead he decided not only to allocate $45 billion into defense spending but also shut down 19 governmental organizations.

These include the National Endowment for the Arts, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and, most importantly, the Center for Public Broadcasting — the non-profit government organization that provides funding to networks such as PBS and NPR, both of which produce programs watched and listened to by more than 65 million people per week in the United States alone.

So, to rephrase this, Trump’s idea of making America great is not encouraging the future generations of America to make peace and help develop artistic and educational development, but creating a violent people who will become more ignorant and stupid as time goes on since not much emphasis will be put on learning basic things that everyone else in the world knows.

This is, of course, an amazing shame, in light of the recent announcement made by children’s television institution “Sesame Street” March 20, that after nearly 50 years on the air, it will be introducing the first-ever autistic character, with her debut episode entitled, “Meet Julia,” airing April 10.

Regarding the introduction of the character, “Sesame Street” puppeteer Stacey Gordon, who will be pulling Julia’s strings for the foreseeable future, said in an interview with “60 Minutes” to correspondent Lesley Stahl, “It means that our kids are important enough to be seen in society. Having Julia on the show and seeing all of the characters treat her with compassion and like her. Yeah, it’s huge.”

Most of the world seems to think so too, with Julia’s introduction becoming a trending topic, with the original tweet from “Sesame Street” being retweeted over 9,300 times, almost all of them positive.

“Very important to have this character. Congrats America for having little gems like this in a time of despair,” one person commented on Twitter.

Personally, as someone on the autistic spectrum who has two nieces and a nephew, both of whom are very young, the introduction of the character Julia eases a very personal fear of mine regarding how I will potentially broach the subject of my condition.

However, the character of Julia will not last very long, since Trump’s budget will go into effect in 2018.

On top of that, Trump’s infamous comments and views on autism and mental disabilities could bring the development of the American mind back by decades.

“So what’s going on with autism? When you look at the tremendous increase, it’s such an incredible, it’s really a horrible thing to watch, the tremendous amount of increase. You have any idea?” Trump said at a parent-teacher conference Feb. 14.

Keep in mind that Trump called the spike in autism prevalence rate “horrible”, when, in reality, this is not. Yes, high-functioning autism could cause a lack in basic verbal skills; however, it is not the end of the world. Some of the greatest artists and personalities in the world have been diagnosed with autism, many of whom are non-verbal.

In fact, that’s exactly what “Sesame Street” is trying to prove with the introduction of the character of Julia. By placing an autistic character on children’s television, younger audiences can better understand those on the autistic spectrum, which eliminates any possible stigma autistic children may have.

As far as it goes towards those who are on the spectrum, such as myself, it comes across as a major social victory, one that should not be dismissed so easily.

Trump’s actions, not as a person, but as the leader of this country, one built on the foundation of equal opportunity and embracing the differences of others, is hypocritical and beyond sickening to those who do not embrace his vision, including those on the autistic spectrum.

Like many others, I want to have an America that is peaceful, focused on advancing the future of tomorrow, rather than poking metaphorical sticks at others just because they are “different” from us.

Sadly, President Trump doesn’t seem to care about a potentially peaceful future, and instead wants to equip the United States with more weapons that it needs.

I’m not sorry to say this, Donald, but if you’re trying to make America great again, then you’re doing it wrong. Terribly wrong.

Photo Courtesy Thomas Sharpe

Sole, a mobile game produced by Drexel University students, recently qualified as one of 150 finalists for the 2016 International Mobile Gaming Awards. The game was one of 3,000 total entries and was up against world-renowned mobile games such as Pokemon Go.

Thomas Sharpe, who graduated Drexel last June with a degree in game art & production, was the project lead for the game. He is also one of the founders of Gossamer Games, a Philadelphia-based independent game studio that formed through Drexel University’s Entrepreneurial Game Studio.

This was the first game from Gossamer Games, which made this accomplishment even more exciting, Sharpe said.

“When the nominees were first announced, I had to refresh the page three times before I could believe we were actually on the list,” Sharpe said.

“It’s hard to describe how humbling it is to see what started as a small passion project in the same conversation with some of the biggest mobile games in history,” he continued.

Sharpe described that in the game, the player travels through somber, desolate landscapes as the only source of light, leaving behind illuminating trails. There is no risk of failure or death and instead, players are rewarded for discovering secrets that are scattered throughout each level.

Most games consist of vivid, fast-paced visuals and are driven by social interactions with other players, but Sole is the opposite of that, which is what made the game stand out, he said.

He explained how the game is an allegory for the internal struggles we face in our lives. The player travels without an explicit direction or goal in mind, which represents the process one goes through when figuring out his or her life and who they are as a person.

“Ultimately, your goal is to discover who you are, where you are, and what your purpose is in this mysterious world,” Sharpe said.

“There is a zen-like meditative quality to the game. What is also most exciting to me is that this game is born out of Tom and the rest of the Gossamer Game team’s personal vision. For me, it is very close to art in that sense,” Frank Lee, director of EGS, said.

EGS assisted Sharpe and his team with the creation of Sole. The development studio started with a vision of bringing Drexel students who are passionate about games together to form startup game companies, and Gossamer is one of the incubating teams that EGS supports through access to software, hardware and technical and professional mentorship.

Sharpe said none of this would be possible without the endless support from EGS and the Drexel community in general.

The creation of Sole was certainly not an easy process, Sharpe said, so they needed all of the support they could get.

“Working on Sole is by the far the hardest creative endeavor I’ve ever undertaken. We’ve seen a tremendous amount of rejection over these past few years and working on such an ambitious game has been the ultimate test in perseverance,” he explained.

Over the past two-and-a-half years of development, the number of people working on Sole has varied, but there are currently four part-time members working on the game.

Nabeel Ansari, a junior studying a custom-designed major he created called applied mathematics and music, created the music that accompanies the game.

Sharpe and Ansari were also joined by Nina DeLucia, who graduated last June from the animation & visual effects program at Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, and Vincent De Tommaso, who is currently on leave from the game design & production program.

While the small size of the team has been beneficial to the creative process, it has also caused development to take longer than expected, Sharpe said.

Sharpe and his team are currently developing new content for Sole, and in the following weeks they will showcase the game at several local events in Philadelphia. EGS continues to work with Gossamer Games to finalize the game, which Sharpe hopes to release to the general public later this year.  

“Though there are many challenges ahead, we couldn’t be more excited to see where they lead us,” Sharpe said.

US Air Force: Flickr

Is it possible for a brain scan to tell whether a criminal committed a crime knowingly or unknowingly?

Brain scan technology has come a long way since the first ever CAT scans in the early 1960s. These days they can certainly give us a lot of useful scientific information. But I’m still not sure it would be completely ethical to use them in a legal trial.

A recent neuroscience study containing 40 participants at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University investigated whether neuroimages based on brain activity show a difference between reckless behavior and actively criminal behavior. Half of the participants were given a suitcase containing contraband items and asked to carry it through a simulated security checkpoint, while others were given five suitcases and told that only one of them contained contraband items. They were then asked to choose a suitcase at random and carry it through the security checkpoint.

The results of the study showed that researchers could accurately predict whether a participant had consciously engaged in slightly reckless behavior such as carrying a suitcase with a small probability of containing contraband, or in actively criminal behavior by carrying a suitcase which they knew definitely contained contraband.

There were several significant differences between the scans of each group. For example, a part of the brain called the anterior insula, which is believed to play a role in perception, showed a lot more activity when the participant knew for sure they were breaking the law.

The researchers hope that after more investigation and refining their techniques, this idea could someday be used in a court of law to determine the intentions of a suspect. This is important because a defendant who made the knowing decision to commit a crime, such as smuggling drugs on an airplane, may receive a long prison sentence, while a defendant who unknowingly smuggled drugs that somebody else smuggled into their bag may receive a less severe sentence.

However, although the majority of scans followed this pattern, there were a small number of false positives in the study — where the brain activity appeared to show criminal intent, but in fact, the participant had been in the reckless group and were unsure if the suitcase contained contraband.

In the case of a criminal trial, guilt needs to be proven beyond reasonable doubt, and currently, there’s still a significant amount of doubt. In a study of just 40 people, even one false positive equates to 2.5 percent error.

Of course, the researchers acknowledge that further studies with larger, more diverse groups of participants are required before this even comes close to being common practice. But even if the technique was refined, I don’t think that brain scans alone should ever be acceptable evidence in a court of law — certainly not when it comes to establishing guilt.

In criminal law, Blackstone’s formulation states that “it is better to let 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer” and be put away for their crimes. I think that definitely applies here. A brain scan providing evidence that a defendant committed a crime recklessly rather than intentionally could possibly be used to prove a person’s innocence, but only once this research has been more widely tested and accepted.

And perhaps if there was already evidence to suggest that a person was knowingly guilty, a brain scan could be admitted as supplementary evidence to further make that point. But I think the justice system would be making a mistake if it ever allowed one brain scan to be used as the sole indicator of a person’s guilt.

Omallca: Wikimedia

Being involved in a Drexel University student organization is something that can have all kinds of different benefits.

Being part of an organization is one of the most surefire ways to meet new people and develop new friendships. It can be challenging to strike up a conversation with a stranger in a public place. Why even bother with that when you have all of these different clubs at your fingertips?

When you mingle with someone in the same club as you, it’s more than likely that you will meet people who have the same interests you do. Even if you don’t find a club to be particularly interesting, you could meet somebody and build a connection at that club, and from there, the two of you can hang out both at the club meetings and in your freetime.

As a member of a student organization, you will also start to feel more attached to the university. For some people, Drexel is just a place where they are studying for a degree in some field and nothing more. Why have that kind of mindset when there is so much more to the school than just that? If all you’re doing is going to class, studying and then spending the rest of your day in your room having “you time,” then you are missing out on more than half of the fun.

It’s also been shown that some students do better when they are involved in school clubs and organizations in both grade school and college.

A study led by the University of Missouri at Kansas City reported that 71 percent of fraternity and sorority members continue to graduation , but half of students outside of Greek life don’t complete their degrees. The study also mentioned that those in Greek life maintained higher grade point averages compared to those unassociated with a fraternity or sorority.

This doesn’t apply to everyone of course, but if you think that joining a club might hinder your studying habits, then you should strongly reconsider. You can’t be sure about that sort of thing until you actually join something and see how it goes. And most organizations don’t even require their members to come to every meeting or event. It’s not as if you will be penalized just because you don’t show up. Almost every person that is involved in an organization is also a student at Drexel, so they will understand exactly what you mean when you have to study.

To put it simply, joining a student organization will make you a more diverse person. You’ll build a bigger network of friends and people that you know; you’ll become more attached to Drexel, and it will start to feel like more of a home and less of a school. You’ll have one more thing that you can add to the list of interesting stuff that you’ve done in college. And who doesn’t want to add more stuff to that list?

Nidan: Pixabay

Environmental activism has shifted away from the notion of post-materialism, the idea where people will inherently impact the environment less as their basic needs are met, to that of sustainable materialism.

The term, sustainable materialism coins the effort of people across the globe attempting to change how they interact with the environment and supply basic needs from the environment in light of recent social and ecological realizations about the industrialized world.

Sustainable materialism is founded on the idea that people have taken battling the world’s growing environmental concerns, from global warming and climate change to pollution and air quality, upon themselves. The pluralistic setting in which this has occurred is not centered around a specific social problem or environmental concern such as climate change, but rather incorporates numerous movements in a broad context that share similar end goals.

The most intriguing analysis in this line of thought is the concept of transition towns and the ability of many local movements to operate outside of the industrialized circulation of power as well as their commitment to the increasing submersion in what they call the non-human. The non-human realm is understood as nature and natural ecosystems, and for sustainable materialism, human submersion in the non-human realm is imperative to engaging in a sustainable lifestyle.

Transition towns or transition initiatives are organized grassroots projects that attempt to manage the adverse effects of climate destruction and economic instability by promoting autonomy through sustainable living and building ecological resilience. These efforts are a direct response and critique of endless economic growth and reliance on fossil fuels.

They play an important role in the locally driven social and ecological political transformations going on today. Transition towns are also physically creating new economies that work for the people that participate in them, not the CEOs and mega-circulators of industrialized, modern capitalist economies.

Through community and employee empowerment, engagement and cooperation, sustainable economies are being designed outside of the corporate market economies. This movement, while deemed by many as radical socialism, is nothing more than true democracy and should be treated as such. Examples take shape in many places, often most notably in Britain, going as far as literally changing currencies like the Exeter currency.

What becomes abundantly clear is that people want to act in a sustainable manner. Relentless, obsessive, material consumer based economies are not necessarily what the people want. In fact, economies focused on the collective, ones that shy away from measuring a person based on his or her monetary value or a society on its annual growth, can and will thrive in the future.

Equally imperative in the development of sustainable materialism is the immersion in the non-human. The development between humans and their identification with the larger ecosystem or their connectedness to nature is crucial to sustainable materialism.

Some assert that humans are in the processes of mending their severed ties and understanding of nature, something literature for decades has cried out for.

Moreover, humans and their immersion in nature is a driving force behind these local movements transforming the political and economic atmosphere in present day. Rather than the need to dominate every aspect of life, a key ingredient found in post industrial market capitalist societies, sustainable materialism is actively recognizing the larger ecosystem that humans operate within.

Sustainable materialism is present and powerful. To some, it is empowered community ownership, collective communal ownership that goes local. To others it is the creation of an entirely new economy, the overthrow of an oligarchic capitalist system through the establishment of true democracy.

But regardless, they both aim to achieve the same ends.

Gemma Longman: Flickr

Unless you’ve spent your whole life living on the International Space Station, you probably know that cars emit toxic gases.

These gases include carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, as well as carbon particulates and hydrocarbons (unburnt fuel). In general, it’s pretty obvious that this combination isn’t something you want to go near or risk breathing in. And you certainly wouldn’t expect it to be something you could draw a pretty picture with.

A team of MIT engineers found a solution and invented a device that collects up to 95 percent of harmful fumes from cars and turns them into a totally usable ink.

In the late 1970s, cars started to become equipped with catalytic converters after regulations on exhaust fumes tightened. However, as well as being difficult and expensive to make (they contain rare metals platinum and palladium), these can’t eliminate all of the gas emissions, and they serve no function other than removing some of these gases.

The same can’t be said of the Kaalink device, a small, easy to use, piece of equipment that clips onto a car exhaust pipe to trap emissions. It works by stripping electrons from the exhaust gases, leaving them with a positive charge, so that they are then attracted to a negatively charged chamber within the device that holds particulates and larger molecules, but allows air and water vapor to filter through (meaning that the device does not affect engine performance).

The only problem is that converting the soot to ink isn’t something that happens automatically — it has to be done in a lab. While the idea of the device is great, the fact that users would have to empty their devices into a “soot deposit bank” at a specified location when full and would not personally get to use the rewards, could be discouraging to some.

That said, the ink production is a more sustainable process than traditional ink production, which is made by burning carbon (which itself creates even more emissions). And this has the potential to make a huge difference, since ink isn’t only used by artists — it’s used on a huge scale every day in book and newspaper printing, home printing, and on the packaging of almost every consumer product.

And this ink isn’t just a gimmick to trick people into being more environmentally friendly either — the ink itself is great. It conforms to all regulations for artists’ ink, and is currently available in 2 mm, 15 mm, 30 mm and 50 mm marker pens. Some artists have already used the ink for upwards of six months without complaint, and the good feedback goes beyond simply praising how environmentally friendly the ink is — artists also commented on the strong black color, thick texture of the ink and its ability to be used effectively on rough surfaces.

A final positive is that the device already works and is already in use, though only on a small scale. The team behind Kaalink has already captured around 220 pounds of emissions that would otherwise be polluting our atmosphere. Instead, they’ll become markers, screen printing ink and oil painting ink.

I think it’s kind of terrifying that we’ve let the world fall apart enough that a device like this one is necessary. However, since that’s the situation we’re in, I think it’s amazing that people like these scientists are coming up with such creative, innovative projects.

And right now, the idea of going out to the local soot deposit bank each week might seem completely alien — but before long, it’ll feel as natural as charging your phone, which not too long ago was a new idea too.

Photo courtesy Drexel University

It’s no secret that dining halls suck — at least 95 percent of the time. Alas, the Drexel dining hall was no exception; eating at Urban Eatery or the Hans wasn’t usually something students look forward to, but a task done in an effort to use their thousands of dollars of meal swipes.

I mean let’s be real: we just try to convince ourselves that we’re putting our money to good use by using our daily swipes and dining dollars for endless plates of crappy pizza, uncooked pasta, and bland salads where tofu isn’t a protein, but rather, a topping.

So you can understand our excitement when we got an email from the president saying that we’d be switching to Aramark, a company that promised an enhanced dining experience and diverse course options. Needless to say, we weren’t disappointed; the Hans went through a makeover like no other.

One day there were subpar burgers and mashed potatoes, the next exotic falafels and crunchy tostada bowls. My personal favorite, the waffle bar, got new flavors of ice cream and desserts — some you wouldn’t even think to find in a dining hall. I mean, chocolate mousse cake? Really? There is a wide variety of options, so no matter what mood you’re in, chances are you’ll be able to find something that looks and tastes good.

For those who want to be healthy, there’s an endless salad bar with every topping you could possibly want, including a nice side of pasta salad. For us tofu-lovers, the Asian station always has delicious stir-fry and spring rolls just waiting to be eaten. And of course, there’s a station dedicated to breakfast food, because what kind of makeover would it be if there weren’t one?

This diversity is perhaps the biggest improvement at the Hans — each day there’s something new to try, if you’re feeling adventurous, and still good ol’-fashioned meals, like the omelets and salads, if you want something familiar. It’s basically getting as close to travelling the world with a styrofoam box as one can get.

These enhancements have made it easier to be healthy and make students want to use their meal swipes. And let’s not forget about the burgers — just when you thought all hope was lost, here comes Aramark with their garden burgers and crispy fries (do you hear the happy cries of the vegetarians?). The quality of the food has gotten significantly better because this food doesn’t go right through you anymore — you can actually enjoy it.

But it’s not just the food that’s seen an improvement; it’s the workers. Aramark has taken customer service to a whole new level. As an avid ketchup eater, it’s no surprise that when I went to refill my condiment cup, there was no ketchup left. Instead of being ignored (which, and I’m speaking truthfully, has happened to me before), not one, but three people came over to try and help me with my ketchup struggle.

The hall hygiene has improved greatly as well. The tables are cleaned within minutes of being emptied, the condiments and toppings are almost always filled and easily accessible, and the employees have no problem addressing any dietary questions and concerns. The employees are helpful, kind, and make your food taste even better because of that little bit of extra love. What’s not to like about that? If you haven’t gotten it already, I’ll spell it out for you: the Hans is awesome. Words can only go so far to try and explain away the enhancements that Aramark has provided. So if you haven’t checked it out yet … my advice? Text your friends and get eatin’.