CGI vs Practical Effects: The problem of replacement over incorporation
Computer Generated Images (CGI) have taken over Hollywood in the last 50 years. Gone are the days of ketchup being substituted for blood in schlocky movies. No longer are directors destroying massive, expensive set pieces to get a single shot, unless they’re Christopher Nolan. Why would a studio bother spending the money to hire those […]
#WeLiveInASociety: Why you’re not awful for laughing at terrible things
If you haven’t heard or told a 9/11 joke, I am going to assume you died on or before Sept. 10, 2001. 9/11 jokes have become deeply rooted in youth culture and especially comedy. This seems to intrinsically make sense to most people. Whether they justify the jokes by acknowledging that Gen-Z doesn’t remember the […]
Everyone Should be Watching Women’s Hockey Right Now
Women’s Hockey, represented officially by the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), has caught a lot of media attention after Team USA’s recent Olympic gold medal win. The team managed to win all seven of their tournament games with a combined score of 33-2. Now, many Brandeisians, like myself, will not be convinced to watch a […]
Rain, Rain, Go Away
The desert isn’t kind to its inhabitants. The summers are scorching. The winter night is freezing. The dust clings to the back of your throat when your lungs ask for too much. But, it’s the rain that always scared me the most. It warns you days in advance. The dark clouds roll over the northern […]
How Epstein Created the Modern Political Environment
4chan is an image board created in October 2003. It has been linked to multiple mass shootings, including the Christchurch mosque shootings, which killed 51 people. The site functions as an anonymous space with a variety of forums that center around various topics: My Little Pony and other pop culture properties, music, and politics. The […]
FAB: The Newest Activist Group on Campus
Some students might have noticed a set of protests at the beginning of the semester. These protests were not organized by any of the usual groups associated with activism on campus; instead, they were held by a new group, Fight Authoritarianism Brandeis (FAB). FAB was originally started by Professor Sabine von Mering, Professor of German […]
Brandeis Professors Defend Language Requirement
Things at Brandeis are in a phase of change, and many aspects of the university are being subject to attempts at innovation. As a part of these alterations, there have been proposed changes to academics, especially The Core. The Core is the set of requirements that all undergraduate students at Brandeis must complete before graduation. […]
ChatGPT Might be Making Your Vibrator More Expensive
Nothing has captured the stock market quite like the advent of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). It is being integrated into almost every website the average internet user visits. Predictions put the percentage of internet content that was A.I. generated at 50% or more. 32% of the S&P 500 and 41% of the total market capitalization is […]
So Grok lets you make porn of strangers now
If, for some reason, any of my readers still have an X (Twitter) account, they might have noticed the new capabilities of Grok, the X A.I. model. On the first release of this new X-rated update, the abilities were available to all X users. These capabilities included being able to request Grok place ANYONE in […]
Why did music suck last year?
What happened to music last year? This is a question that has been asked by people after the recent 68th Grammy Awards. After rising viewership between 2021 and 2024, the number of views for this year’s Grammys dropped by a million after an already substantial drop last year. This is a sign that many no […]
We’re taking the wrong message away from Mamdani’s win
Zohran Mamdani is a force of nature. Denying that simple fact is the first wrong move anyone can make when considering his historical win. He is the youngest mayor of New York in over a century. He’s the first Muslim mayor of New York. He came out of nowhere and won the election in a […]
So you’re Pre-Law: The Pre-Law Society
Brandeis University has a substantial number of students on the pre-law track and, as such, has collected a number of pre-law-focused clubs across campus. With a variety of options for students in this area of study, The Hoot sat down with one of the Co-Presidents of the Brandeis Pre-Law Society, Jenna Lewis ’26, to get […]
A new bike share program is coming to Brandeis
DeisBikes is a club that has been attempting to gain the attention of the student body. From posts on Fizz to roaming the Club Involvement Fair with flyers, DeisBikes has made it clear that they want Brandeis students to pay attention. So, what is DeisBikes? Speaking to Allan Feldman ’26, one of the founding members […]
Why political debates are little more than stupid fun
Everyone has seen clips of the recent New York Mayoral debate, or at least has heard about it; if you haven’t, I’m sorry about the coma. Now, this debate has had the far-reaching effect of giving people funny lines to quote and more ammunition to hate on Andrew Cuomo; beyond that, the actual political effects […]
A Brandeis Tradition: All Languages Dinner
While Brandeis doesn’t have many traditions, a conversation that seems to be at the forefront of the collective mind, the All Languages Dinner, is certainly an event that falls into this category. Starting in 2013, the event consists of a dinner with all 13 languages offered at Brandeis coming together to speak in any language […]
Can we go back to calling people jerks: The proliferation of therapy speak
Have you ever been sitting around the lunch table in the middle of Usdan and heard one of your friends suddenly start talking like a psychologist? “Gaslighting” this, “boundaries” that. You might even use phrases like “intrusive thoughts” or “psychopath” in your daily vocabulary. These words and phrases are all examples of therapy speak, the […]
The Purple State Problem
Sometimes it feels like being from a semi-rural area and a purple state is equivalent to being from the moon. The majority of American Brandeis students come from blue states, with the top five states students come from being Massachusetts, New York, California, New Jersey and Connecticut. To assist those who think the phrase “socially […]
“Ride the Cyclone”: An almost perfect performance
“Ride the Cyclone” is a show that is near and dear to many theatre and theatre-adjacent kids’ hearts, mine included. With some challenging vocal performances and a dreamlike setting that gives the show the option to experiment visually, “Ride the Cyclone” can be a difficult show to attempt. However, Director Greg Roitbourd ’26 and Assistant […]
News Made Small 12/4
Some stories don’t need entire pages to get their message across. Still, we must find some way to get the information from our brains to yours. For this purpose, we bring you News Made Small. Brandeis reportedly accepting no midyears for Spring 2026 With the end of the fall 2025 semester approaching, The Brandeis Hoot […]
Nov. 14 Chloe Ballew Art #3
