For the 90% of you undergrads that weren’t present in Sanders Theater for CS50 today: you missed quite a lecture. Well to be fair, even those in attendance probably missed most of what was going on due to a number of outbursts in the orchestra section.

A rather scruffy looking individual sitting in the lower section (pictured above), shouted intermittently at Professor David Malan over the course of the 1.5-hour lecture.

Most noteworthy among his loudly spoken outbursts were things that made us blush and giggle uncomfortably. Phrases like: “C**k!“, “WTF?“,  and “This is crap, this is total crap!“ At around the middle of the lecture about pointers and RAM, he even shouted, “ZUCKERBERG!” 

Within an hour, this man’s seating row was completely vacated of students, leaving him more or less free to lay across the bench, make unnerved faces, and make wild, rhythmic hand gestures (what was described by one individual as “a crazy swap dance”). David Malan to his credit, handled the situation rather equanimously, even entertaining the man’s inquiry as to why he kept using the phrase “sanity check.” During a break in the lecture, Malan came down from the stage  to speak to the disruptive individual. And that was pretty much that.

We won’t speculate as to who or what this man was about, but we can say this: he sure as heck wasn’t taking any notes.

If you wanna see how it all went down, listen carefully for the expletive exclamations on the Week 5, Monday video at cs50.net.

Post-Season Athletics

Men’s Basketball

After a heartbreaking loss to Princeton for sole possession of the Ivy League Championship, Harvard men’s basketball sought to continue their season in the NIT tournament on March 15th, but fell to Oklahoma State in the first round. Losing 54-71, it was no close contest, but the men’s team did finish with league recognition of Keith Wright, Kyle Casey, and Christian Webster.

Wrestling

Harvard wrestling had two members go on the the NCAA Championships at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA March 17-19th. Steven Keith wrangled out one win in the 125 pound weight class before his series was cut-short. Keith finishes his sophomore campaign with a 23-17 overall record and a 1-2 mark at his second NCAA Championships. While Keith’s run for All-America honors ended before arriving at his goal, Walter Peppelman managed a seventh place match and won All-America honors as Harvard’s 25th All-American wrestler–the 17th in the last 7 years. Another impressive point to add to Peppelman’s accomplishments from the tournament is that he was the only wrestler in the tournament that managed to turn No. 1 seed of Boise State, Adam Hall, for backpoints twice in a single match.

Diving

The Crimson diving team continued their season past their swimmer counterparts at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships. Two men’s divers, Michael Stanton and Joe Zarrella, qualified for the one-meter final, placing 13th and 16th, respectively. Stanton also qualified for the three-meter final placing 16th alongside teammate Zac Ranta, who placed 13th. On behalf of the women divers, Brittany Powell led the Crimson by qualifying for the three-meter final and taking 16th overall. Leslie Rea made it to the one-meter final and garnered 16th place.

Fencing

Fencing had a spectucular showing at the NCAA Regionals at Vassar College over the break and earned 11 NCAA nods to head to the championships at Ohio State March 24-27. On the women’s side, freshman Alexandra Fiefer and junior Noam Mills won gold in their respective events. Other notable performaces came from sophomore Katherine Chou, junior Shelby MacLeod, sophomore Felicia Sun, freshman Dakota Root, and Junior co-captains Hayley Levitt and Carolina Vloka. Leading the men’s team, Junior co-captain Valentin Staller won silver, while Thomas Kolasa won bronze, and Eric Arzoin won fourth place in the men’s saber. There were three top six finished in the epee as Michael Raynis earned the bronze, James Hawrot won fourth place, and Ben White received sixth. Additionally, Tommasso di Robilant won bronze in the men’s foil.

Spring Athletics

Baseball

Men’s baseball has come off to a more-than-rocky start as they finished their tour of South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina with a 1-13 record. They managed to scrounge out one win at Kennesaw St. with Zach Hofeld awarding the win due to his performance on the mound. They will take on New York Institute of Technology, who also holds a losing record of 1-9, this coming weekend with two double headers.

Softball

Women’s softball fared better in their Southern California route playing at UC Riverside, Loyola Marymount, San Diego State, and University of San Diego. Winning five of their eleven games over the course of the break with stand-out pitching by Ivy-League renown player, Rachel Brown, they headed into their first games on the Northeast with an even 8-8 record. They took on Boston University this Tuesday, March 22 with a 2-1 win, giving head coach Jenny Allard her 400th career victory. They will head to Quinnipiac and Iona this weekend for a pair of double headers.

Men’s Volleyball

The men’s volleyball team undertook quite the competition as they traveled to Southern California for games against Cal State Northride, No. 13 Pepperdine, and No. 1 USC. While they did not manage to win any of the matches, they did manage to scrap one set from USC, winning the third set 25-22. In that match alone, Chris Gibbons tallied 11 kills while Matt Jones was close behind with 10. Jones leads his squad with an impressive 202 kills, followed by Gibbons with 142 and freshman Kyle Rehkemper with 125. The Crimson will travel to Springfield on March 23 for a 7 pm match, but pick-up conference play when they take on NYU at home on March 25 at 7 pm in the MAC.

Women’s Waterpolo

Women’s waterpolo hit the West Coast with a Northern California tour. They work their way around the Bay starting with a win at Santa Clara, loss at California State Monterey Bay, win over Fresno Pacific, loss at UC Davis, loss at San Jose St., loss at California State East Bay, and a loss at Cal Berkeley. Even with such a competitive schedule, their overall record is at 10-9 and 1-0 in conference with a win over Brown back in February. They begin conference play again with a trip to Bucknell at the beginning of April but have their next game at home versus Wagner this Sunday, March 27 at 2 pm.

Tennis

Both men’s and women’s tennis made it out to California, but only the men’s team was able to compete in all their scheduled matched as they made the wise choice to stick with the sun of San Diego while the women’s team scheduled a tour of the Bay area of Northern California. Of the three matches scheduled, women’s tennis was only able to complete its match against San Francisco and easily toppled them 6-1. The men’s team also had a three-match schedule at the University of San Diego, and came out with wins against Denver and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Their only loss of the week at the hands of Eastern Tennessee State with the score of 5-2.

Track and Field

While it often seems that the Track Season is all year around, they began their outdoor season at the Meeting of the Minds and the Shirley Crowe Multi Meet at Rice University. The women’s team earned wins in the 400 meter dash (Christina Twicken), hurdles (Melissa Bellin), and shot put (Shannon Watt) at the Meeting of the Minds while their counterpart, Nicole Silva, placed third in the heptathlon. The men had fine showings from John Dingus, Jared Kadich, and Brian Hill in the solo running events and bested Rice in the 4×400 relay by almost three seconds. Harvard took the titles in the pole vault (Nico Weiler), hammer (Eric Clayman), and javelin (Nick Farnsworth) as well. Both sides of the team hope to continue the winning trend at the Stanford Invitational this weekend.

Women’s Golf

Women’s golf made their spring debut at Cal Berkeley dropping a 289-315 decision at the Ruby Hill Golf Club in Pleasanton, CA. Bonnie Hu tied for the individual medalist while Mia Kabasakalis (81, 8th) and Christine Cho (83, 10th) placed in the top ten. Kabasakalis, Hu and Jane Lee all tied for the best marks of the day at -1.

Men’s Lacrosse

Men’s lacrosse has come out with a bang as it has already garnered a 5-1 record and ranking of 17th in the nation. Although they have been playing since late February, the team started its conference play against Brown, winning 11-7. Over spring break they gathered wins against both Bellarmine and Holy Cross at Soldiers Field Stadium. These performances have garnered goal keeper Harry Krieger both COOP Athlete of the Week and NEILA Player of the Week honors. Looking to keep their winning streak alive, the lacrosse team will travel to Dartmouth to take on the Big Green this Saturday at 2 pm.

Women’s Lacrosse

Women’s lacrosse has come off to a promising start, with a win against Johns Hopkins during spring break. While their record is 2-3, they have been neck and neck with ranked teams such as Stanford. 1-1 in Ivy League play, they take on Yale this weekend at 1 pm at home in Harvard Stadium. Leading the Crimson in goals are Danielle Tetreault with 15, Jennifer Vandermuelen with 13, Melanie Baskind with 11, and Jessica Halpern with 10.

Sailing

Sailing had quite the week by competing in both the St. Mary’s Women’s Intersectional and the Truxton Umstead Trophy, a coed competition. The women’s team took ninth out of 18 teams at the St. Mary’s Women’s Intersectional and the coed squad finished ninth out of 19 teams at the Truxton Umsted Trophy. At the St. Mary’s Women’s Intersectional, juniors Emily Lambert and Alexandra Jumper had a total of six top-three finishes over the course of 14 races and even managed to sail past beat Georgetown to win the division. The teams set sail again March 26 with the women’s team competing at the Women’s Duplin Trophy Race at Tufts and the coed squad at the Owen, Mosbacher & Knapp Trophies at Kings Point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul3a5nSMo68

Oh and yeah, we definitely saw you get that celebrity hug, Ben Smith ’12. Get it, get it.

The source material, for your enjoyment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weRHyjj34ZE

First video courtesy Alexios Nicolaos Monopolis

OMG MOOSE!

Unless you have been living under a rock, are Amish, or were raised by wolves, you must be aware of the phenomenon that is Twitter and how it is taking the world by storm. Everyone from professional athletes to to acne-covered tweens is tweeting, but there is one particular account that caught our eye at the Voice.

The account name is “Harvard Hoochies” and the bio reads that the account holder(s) are “BU biddies, hooching and husband hunting at Harvard Final Clubs. We ward off RUHGs (random ugly Harvard girls)…frequently.”

One gem of a post reads, “when you slip a final club man your number, make sure it’s not on a piece of historical paper with their founders’ story#oopsydaisies” while another boasts, “Owl, ad, fly… All conquered last night”.

BU Biddies talking after a successful night of Final Club raging...

To follow the BU biddies on their search for love, money, and men, simply visit https://twitter.com/harvardhoochies and let the amusement begin!

Hamburgers or hairy girls...that is the question...

While Harvard has record numbers of applications coming in year after year, its competitiveness is no match for numbers of McDonald’s managers vying to be trained in this prestigious program. In addition, there is NO tuition to attend Hamburger University, while tuition at Harvard has steeped to approximately $54,000. McDonald’s pays approximately $1,500 per person for them to partake in this intensive 5-day program.

Why are so many Chinese vying to learn the ways of Ronald McDonald? As of July 1, 2010, 26 percent of China’s 6.3 million college graduates were unemployed, and the fast-food giant offers the possibility of employment as well as opportunity to move up through the hierarchy of the system.

So ditch your psets, burn your books, and give away your winter coat–it’s about time we all head to China for a lesson off the Dollar Menu. How’s that for food for thought?

NOMNOMNOM food for thought NOMNOMNOM

For the ugly sweater party…

santa stuck in a tree!

For the Naughty Christmas Shindig…

oh la la!

And last, but not least…

too much milk and cookies?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from THE VOICE!

Let this be a lesson to all – when carrying around your bottles of mercury (!?!?!), caution is everything.

photo credit: as if!

Take THAT, Westboro Baptist Church!

Absurdist responses to the hatred of the WBC have precedents in several major cities, most notably in San Francisco, where church members canceled a demonstration in front of Twitter’s local headquarters but the anti-protesters carried on with their randomness anyway.

While many suggest that acknowledging the WBC’s protests is just giving them more of the attention they want, Hillel members insist that this anti-protest is actually a part of a much larger movement toward peaceable activism. In a message to attendees of the Facebook event, Harvard junior Chelsea Link wrote,

“…remember that, really, this event isn’t about the Westboro Baptist Church. They are not worth our attention. But their message of hatred and intolerance is all too common in our country today. We are using them as a foil to the world we want to create – a means to achieve real change in our own communities. This is a movement of acceptance, of support, of engaged pluralism, and of radical love.”

FINAL COUNT: WBC – 6 members. Harvard Supporters – ~300 members.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IMAGE MAY BE TOO FRIGHTENING FOR YOUNGER AUDIENCES.

Image courtesy of YouTube

A 300-pound, 7 foot tall man belting out Beyoncé? It’s either entertainment or fear-inciting, but we’re not quite sure yet.

Sadly, we could have seen an repeat performance of  the phenomenon now called Shaq-randomly-appearing-somewhere-and-announcing-it-on-Twitter but “somebody important” called to say that was a bad idea.

What a shame. Maybe this following video could have been done in our very own Harvard Square.

And don’t worry – he didn’t win our Halloween costume contest! One more day to submit to thehvoicemail@gmail.com!

10:52 PM:

There currently is a girl across from me in Lamont who has been taking off article of clothing by article of clothing while studying.  This has taken place over more than a half hour.  She is now down to literally just her underwear.

Nobody has reacted.  I actually don’t think many people have noticed.

Oh, wait…there are multiple girls doing it.

I think, at least five.  This girl across from me is the least afraid and got down to bra and panties first.  But another one just took her shirt off and three more are definitely on their way.

Anybody know what is happening?

Shit, paper due in an hour.  Focus, focus, focus…

Reply:

I think what’s happening is that you’re getting mentally tired and hallucinating what you want to see.

10:59 PM:

Ah, must be a Primal Scream.

From where I’m sitting, I see five girls partaking.  Super funny.  Very few reactions.

I give them props.  That is intense.

Right in the middle of the first floor reading room.

The one that started it just got up to go to the cafe or bathroom or something…in an effing thong.

Okay, I’m no longer the only one noticing.  Finally the shocked reactions you’d expect.

Reply:

Get pictures.  Cell phone pics.

11:08 PM:

I am not taking cell phone pics.  I would rather join them than take pics of them.  That is super creepy…ESPECIALLY as a guy.

They’re right in the first floor reading room.  Five I can see, four down to underwear, one halfway there.  I think there may be one more behind me from the glances they’re giving each other.

Alright, I need to finish this paper.

Reply:

I think its a Dudley Co-op thing.

11:16 PM:

Cops here…clothes on.

HUPD asking the girls for ID’s.

I know there are at least six girls involved.

By now, everyone knows and finds it hilarious.

A scream: “Yeah, Co-op!”

And a round of applause from the first and second floors of Lamont.  The awkward silence of everyone pretending not to notice is broken.  Loud whispers from all around.

Reply:

Hahaha.  That has got to be one of the best Primal Scream things I have heard yet.

Wrap-up:

Seven or eight girls total.  Possibly one guy as well.  They didn’t actually have to hand over their ID’s.

Great success.

Paper finished.  Time to go watch Primal Scream.