Columns

Columns

Stress-less: Tips to reduce your everyday stress

By Katie Pflieger | October 20

As the leaves begin to change and the word “midterm” begins to be synonymous with “Monday” instead of “next month,” it feels appropriate to address the collective feelings of stress and anxiety rising around campus. Whether your current preferred method of dealing with stress is locking yourself in the Hirsh Reading Room chugging Celsius drinks, or choosing to ignore the ever-looming assignments ahead of you, here are some scientifically backed practices that can help lower cortisol levels and foster a more calm and collected state.

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Columns

Inside the MFA: What can the MFA do for you?

By Claire Wood | October 20

Although all Tufts students have free access to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, many forget to utilize the museum. The MFA houses almost 500,000 works of art across a multitude of ancient and modern collections. You can find art ranging from 6,500 B.C.E to even the 2000s. The museum is open every day except Tuesdays and is eager to welcome visitors with a variety of interests and needs. Regardless of what you’re looking for, the MFA has an incredibly diverse and expansive collection available to students.

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Column

From Classroom to Clinic: Rethinking the name ‘heart failure’

By Deeksha Bathini | October 20

I looked at my patient’s wistful brother as he asked, “How long does he have left?” We had just told him that our patient, his brother, was experiencing “heart failure.” I stood there as a medical student, wishing I could tell him that, despite its name, heart failure is not necessarily a death sentence. But that’s the thing about “medicalese”: The language we use doesn’t always directly translate into what we mean. There is nothing hopeful or optimistic about hearing that your heart “failed.” For most people, that sounds like you’re already dead.

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Columns

In the Crease: More NHL standings predictions

By Zachary Gerson | October 20

The Montreal Canadiens are clearly continuing their rebuild, which began at the start of last season following their appearance in the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals. Apart from their two young star forwards Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, Montreal does not have any notable pieces, emphasizing the fact that they are eyeing future success, keenly focused on developing their young prospects. The Canadiens finished last season with 68 points. Since the front office did not make any key improvements during the offseason and is focused on their rebuild, the club will finish in about the same spot they did last season.

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Column

Antisemitism Unpacked: Solidarity is the key to collective liberation

By Ben Choucroun | October 19

As a pernicious threat to our communities, antisemitism demands resistance wherever it appears. However, true liberation from antisemitism will only occur when we acknowledge racism and colonialism within our communities and stand in solidarity with other oppressed groups.

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Columns

Sports and Society: Somebody find me a quarterback

By Oliver Fox | October 19

I simply do not believe NFL quarterbacking is this hard.Using my highly-sophisticated data collection system known as recency bias, Week 6 of the 2023 NFL season was the worst single week of quarterback play ever. I have never seen more game-killing interceptions, more ill-advised throws and more boneheaded decisions than I did this past week, and I’m staging an intervention.

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Columns

The Power of the Pen: What happens with the delays?

By Odessa Gaines | October 19

Although the writers’ strike has come to an end, its lingering effects, as well as the ongoing SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike, have caused many delays in television and movies. The strikes have not only caused delays in writers’ rooms, but also on sets and in promotional activities. By going on strike, the actors agreed to walk out of their current projects per SAG guidelines. As such, the cast of “Barbie” (2023) cut their promotional tour short on July 14 when the strike officially began.  

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Columns

T Time: North Station

By Jeremy Bramson | October 19

I want to begin by crediting Kevin Zhang for inspiring this column. Before graduating from Tufts, Zhang wrote a column called “Tales from the T,” which I seek to now continue with “T Time.”

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Columns

MisCONceptions: To be strong abroad, we need to be strong at home

By Trent Bunker, Nicholas Rishi, João Ribeiro and Katherine Brown | October 17

The attacks last week in Israel are likely to drag the U.S. into another prolonged proxy war. President Biden has already indicated that the U.S. will provide ‘unwavering’ support for Israeli security. Before Hamas’ attack last week, the U.S. had already provided nearly $3 billion to fund Israel’s iron dome defense system. And with the war in Ukraine still showing no signs of ending soon, it is likely the U.S. will find itself further entangled with allies across the world. A growing number of Americans of various political affiliations have begun to question U.S. foreign aid to Ukraine, arguing the money could be better spent at home, closing our own border, reducing crime and uplifting the U.S. economy. If the U.S. government is serious about confronting threats abroad, it must maintain a united front at home and secure support for foreign aid by tackling the pressing issues that are at the forefront of many Americans’ minds.

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Columns

Tok the Talk: Ruby Franke, the reality behind family vlogging channels

By Annika Pillai | October 17

Ruby Franke probably would not have seen the lights of superstardom, at least in the world of YouTubing, if it wasn’t for the major influx of family vlogging channels in the 2010s –– oh, and of course, the six children she paraded across the face of the internet, ignominiously, for years. Perhaps the strangest concave curve of the last decade is the rapid rise and painfully slow fall of family vlogging channels. For better or for worse, it’s hard to argue that there wasn’t a huge audience supporting family channels, including “The ACE Family,” “Bratayley” and “The LaBrant Fam.”

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Columns

Compost in the Daylight: A dead squirrel

By Sadie Leite | October 16

There’s a note on my phone and it’s titled “What’s Important.” I think every writer or young person who’s thought they’ve had a great idea has something similar. It’s tucked away on their phone or in a journal or on scraps of paper floating in an accessible area. Those pieces of words never get off that list though, so I thought it was time they did. Or at least mine did. Here are some of the things I’ve written down:

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Columns

Munching with Max: The sandwiches of Pax et Lox

By Max Druckman | October 16

According to the National Institutes of Health, “hedonistic hunger” is defined as “one’s preoccupation with and desire to consume foods for the purposes of pleasure and in the absence of physical hunger.”

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Column

The Policy Perspective: Designing effective climate policy

By Keshav Srikant | October 16

On Saturday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared thatSeptember 2023 saw the hottest global temperatures for any September everon record. This shift was partly due to El Niño, but also largely due to climate change. This heat negatively affected people across the world. Although July and August were not as hot statistically, record heat alsocaused many deaths and hospitalizations in the U.S. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the effect of human-caused climate change.

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Columns

I Can’t Think Straight: From the top

By Cole Reese | October 16

I’m gay. For anyone who has ever seen me in person, that’s probably not that much of a shocker. But even though I’ve been out since high school, there’s still a part of me that doesn’t feel right saying it. The part of me that hides itself deep down, protected by a flimsy fortress of blue nail polish from the Davis Square CVS and a Tinder account which I’ve deleted several times over.

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Columns

Cabinet of Curiosities: The basement bathroom of Houston Hall

By Jake Ren | October 16

If you turn right on the basement floor of Houston Hall, you’ll see a signless grey door with a metal plate where the handle is supposed to be. Inside, you won’t find the popular ’70s R&B disco band Earth, Wind & Fire, but rather the stalls where Houston basement residents flush, brush and shower, surrounding you left, right and center.

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Columns

Moments ‘til Madness: The battle of conferences

By Owen Short | October 13

With the season just weeks away, I created my rankings of the Power-6 conferences for the 2023-24 college basketball season. 6. Pac-12As most would expect, the Pac-12 found itself at the bottom of my rankings. Although none of the conference realignments will affect this season, the conference was already struggling mightily, finishing with just two teams in the top 40 of the 2023 KenPom rankings.

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Columns

The Hard Count: Brock Purdy and the 49ers distinguish themselves from the top of NFC

By Reece Christian | October 13

In October 2022, the San Francisco 49ers traded four mid-round draft picks for dual-threat running back Christian McCaffrey. A year later, and that trade seems like more and more of a bargain. The Niners destroyed NFC rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, 42–10 on Sunday Night Football, as McCaffrey notched his 14th straight game with at least one touchdown (including four in one game a week ago).

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Columns

In the Crease: NHL standings predictions

By Zachary Gerson | October 13

The Boston Bruins are in a vastly different position to start off this season than they were last. The retirement of legendary centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci leaves Boston with a gaping hole at the center position, where they clearly lack NHL-caliber center depth. Pavel Zacha, the team’s new first-line center, is a solid player, but not an adequate replacement.

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Columns

Extra Innings: Baseball isn’t fair

By Henry Blickenstaff | October 12

The Miami Marlins made the playoffs this year. The San Diego Padres did not. The story could end there, and you’d probably walk away thinking the Marlins were a better team than the Padres. But you’d be mistaken.

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Column

Ukraine at War: The war-torn worlds of Ukraine and Israel in crisis

By Mariia Kudina | October 12

The Ukrainian media has been publishing in-depth coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas, as well as “end-of-the-day” summaries of key events of the last 24 hours. Some Ukrainian newspapers have been doing similar synopses of the main episodes of the war Russia has led against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. To state the obvious, observing two deadly wars happening simultaneously is unbelievable and heartbreaking.

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