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November 13, 2007
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Vol. 80 Issue #11
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Facebook Offers Carpool Opportunities For College Students By Mike Simeone Anchor Staff Having trouble finding a ride home for Thanksgiving? Well, finding one has now gotten a lot easier. For the first time ever, students will be able to share rides home for Thanksgiving Day. Students will be able to do this using a new application on Facebook called Carpool. Launched this summer, Carpool has quickly become popular. It is the most popular online ride sharing service in North America. Carpool has become especially popular with students, as it has replaced the traditional ride boards at student centers. In the four months that Carpool has been operating, it has had over 10,000 postings on it. Logan Green, creator of Carpool, had this to say about the recent growth: “The growth is unprecedented. It shows that not all popular Facebook applications have to involve ninjas or vampires. An application like Carpool helps students find safe rides in addition to cutting their gas expenses and reducing CO2, and its clear students value that.” Using Google Maps, Carpool tries to match students whom are traveling in the same direction. In order to make ride sharing a more social experience, users are encouraged to leave feedback after the trip. Meredith Hoffman, a junior at Cornell University, said of the application, “It really feels like I’m part of a community. I could never trust an anonymous service like Craig’s List because I wouldn’t know anything about the other users. Using Carpool on Facebook, I can choose to ride with people in my school who I know I can trust.” Craigslist.org’s ride sharing applica-
tion lists a number of postings of rides going to certain places; listing only the person’s name (if they decide to post it) and nothing else more. Carpool, unlike craigslist.org, first asks you to import the city you live in or your zip code. It then lists people in your area are who are looking to give rides, need rides, or both. It lists where the person is and where they
need to go as well as the day that the ride is needed. Also included are whether or not the person is willing to pay for the ride, how far the ride is, and how far they are willing to go. The application also allows you to look at the person’s profile to find out more about them if you choose. Rajat Suri was one of the developers on a diverse team of students who created
Carpool. Of the project, he said, “We’re students, so we know what students need in terms of ride sharing. And we’re thrilled that they’re responding to our application and helping ride sharing become a part of main stream culture on college campuses.”
Rhode Island Raves about Red Jumpsuit -An Arts & Entertainment Concert ReviewBy Barry Nickerson and Joe Roberge Anchor Editors On Saturday, Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence once again hosted an incredible rock show, bringing the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Hawthorne Heights to town. The chilly air inside quickly warmed up as hundreds of fans filed in to this rock and roll concert, ready to rock out to some of the hottest bands of the year. Opening bands are usually new bands that a label or artist is impressed by, so they bring them along for a tour to get them some national exposure. This show’s opening act, New Year’s Day, was by far the most impressive opening band that we had ever seen. Bands with female singers tend to be a little more poppy, but New Year’s Day was definitely just as intense—if not more—than the other bands. With their hard-rock base with a twinge of emo mixed in, this band had the music to get the crowd dancing and rocking out early on. The band was very aesthetically pleasing as well; and we’re not saying that just because they were good-looking people! Everyone was moving around on the stage, tak-
ing an active part in filling the club with energy. We were taken aback by this in-your-face, incredible rock act. We’ll definitely be catching New Year’s Day the next time they’re in town. The next band to play was Amber Pacific. This wasn’t our first time seeing this band, but the first thing that we noticed was how much they improved since they came to town on May 8 with local band Monty Are I (who were supposed to be on this tour as well, but dropped off a while back). Nevertheless, they put on a great show. They had drawn a large crowd to the floor, and we were crushed behind the weight of people cramped together to make room for a circle pit. The vocals have noticeably improved a great deal since last time. To think we weren’t crushed up and involuntarily intimate with the surrounding strangers enough during Amber Pacific, Hawthorne Heights brought a different type of mood to the stage. Their music was a little harder and a little more emo at times. However, one thing that stood out was that they just stood there. The band didn’t move around a whole lot but their crowd certainly did! We
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