by Ashley Bingham | Feb 21, 2019 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
Hidden Figures is a story about breaking the mould — about progress and about bravery. It’s a story that has been hidden for years but now has been heard by millions. This past Tuesday, the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering partnered with the English Department’s annual Landiss Lecture Series to bring in author Margot Lee Shetterly to talk about her book, Hidden Figures, in honor of Black History Month. Hidden Figures has been named the 2018-19 Nashville Reads book by the Nashville mayor’s office and the Nashville Public Library Foundation, as well as the Common Read by Lipscomb University’s LIGHT program. Hidden Figures is a story about three women, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson (formerly known as Katherine Goble), and the work they contributed during the Space Race to launch astronaut John Glenn into space. Shetterly’s father spent his career at NASA Langley in Hampton, Virginia, where Shetterly grew up and where the story takes place. Her father worked with many of the women that she wrote about in Hidden Figures, including Johnson and Jackson. In her lecture, she discussed the how the public, along with the publishers and producers who helped share her story, have received Hidden Figures, and how it became more than anyone could have envisioned. The shocking response started fairly early in the works, as a film producer contacted her about turning the book, which was simply a proposal at this stage, into a movie. “The response to this story has been beyond anything I could have imagined, that the publishers imagined, that the movie people imagined, that NASA imagined, and most certainly, that the women at the core of this...
by Ashley Bingham | Feb 20, 2019 | News Slider
The Honors College has officially moved on from the basement of Elam and into a new home. A house on campus that was once used as a place for storage has been redone as a relaxing study environment for Lipscomb’s honor students. Director Paul Prill said the Honors program has been in need of more space as more students joined, as it currently has 600 students enrolled. “We finally got a space where we can do things, so now we’re going to try and actually do some of those things,” Prill said. Prill added that he wanted this to be a space for honors students to come and study or hang out. There are plenty of rooms, both upstairs and downstairs, where students can relax or study for their upcoming exam. Prill also said he hopes to hold get-togethers for honors students and possibly sponsor certain events, giving students within the department an opportunity to get to know each other better. “I’m hoping that if we can have some activities here, then people will start to meet other people in different classes,” Prill said. He also noted that the freshman Lipscomb Experience classes will be meeting in the new building, so that freshman will know that the house is available to them. Prill said he hopes this will encourage them to come back throughout their time at Lipscomb. “Students will see this as their space from day one,” Prill said. To help the space feel more like their own, Prill said the Honors College has tried to be intentional about bringing in student-made art — and not just from...
by Ashley Bingham | Jan 28, 2019 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
Netflix decided to remove the blindfold on its viewers by revealing statistics on its well-known Bird Box film. In December 2018, the company announced that Bird Box garnered over 45 million account views within the first seven days of its release, setting a new company record. This was a strange sight from Netflix, as the company normally keeps its viewership statistics private. Many have questioned why the company decided to reveal the number, and if it may have been skewed in some way. According to Netflix, an account has to watch at least 70 percent of the running time before it counts as a view. This means that 45 million accounts have watched most of Bird Box. This revelation might not be as troubling if Netflix hadn’t had issues with statistics in the past. In 2017, the company was accused of falsifying some of its ratings. The ratings seen by each viewer varies based on individual viewing habits, and Netflix only allowed people to see the ratings from other viewers with similar habits instead of seeing ratings from everyone who had reviewed the film. Netflix is not required to reveal their data to the public. In some cases, doing so could damage the company and restrict its negotiation power with other media companies when acquiring licensing rights. However, some Lipscomb students are buying that the numbers are accurate, despite the company’s lack of transparency. “It makes sense that movies on Netflix would do better than movies in a theater,” junior Brianna Burch said. “As a college student, I can’t always afford to go to theaters to watch a movie. But I have...
by Ashley Bingham | Jan 18, 2019 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider, Opinion
Glass is a movie full of thrill and shocking twists and turns, but does it live up to the hype? Many people have been anticipating this sequel to Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2017). Director M. Night Shyamalan, who also served as a writer for Glass, has been working on this film for almost two decades — 19 years to be exact. In this movie, we see the return of the hero and villain of Unbreakable, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), who also goes by Mr. Glass. The overpowered hero and the brilliant mastermind meet Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), who suffers from DID, and whom the audience was introduced to in Split. These three men are held in a psychiatric ward for their supernatural abilities, where psychiatrist Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) attempts to convince them that their “abilities” can be explained scientifically. She has each of them recall the first moments they felt like they were different than others, and explains how each of their miraculous feats were simply in their heads. The beginning of the movie starts out very slow, with odd pacing and a hard-to-follow storyline. The viewer is thrown into the movie and, unless the audience knows the storyline of the previous two films, it can be a bit confusing to watch. There are also several points with some very strange cinematography choices, as well as some plot holes that are difficult to look past. Towards the end of the movie, however, are when things get interesting. The story picks up, and the audience can’t help but sit on the edge...
by Ashley Bingham | Dec 27, 2017 | News Slider, Sports
George Brammeier has always stood out from the crowd. Part of this can be attributed to his 6-feet-10-inch stature, but also, Brammeier does not fit the mold of a typical college athlete. The senior doubles as a forward for the basketball team and as a philosophy student at Lipscomb. Brammeier said his passion for philosophy even came as a surprise to him, as he started college thinking he would go into the medical field. “I did not expect to start out as a philosophy major,” Brammeier said. “I had no idea what philosophy was as a freshman, and I didn’t know much about the discipline.” As challenging as the major can be, Brammeier said he thinks he made the right decision, although he admitted that some of the concepts will “blow your brains out.” Brammeier added that even though he doesn’t see a job in philosophy as ideal, he believes the degree will help him in his professional career. The Florida native plans to get a Masters in conflict management, which he will start working toward next spring. Brammeier said that finding a balance between academics and basketball can be difficult, but that he wants to put forth the effort in order to make college a beneficial experience. “Just like anything else, you get out what you put in,” Brammeier said. “I could’ve been in the easiest major here – whatever that may be – but I wanted to put in enough that I could get something out of it.” According to Brammeier, time management and discipline have been crucial to finding this balance. His “ambitious, cerebral and logical” personality –...
