By Anna Waugh

Bard CollegeIcelandic guy makes Bard a “Parliament of Reality.” Can I get a what what! Or should I say, what what? No seriously, what is it?

Dubbed “Althing” by the artist, Olafur Eliason, it is “a place where students, teachers, and visitors can gather to relax, discuss ideas, or have an argument,” according to the Bard website. The $1.2 million art project will include 24 planted trees and a circular pond, 135 feet in diameter. In the pond’s center is an island that can be accessed by a stone bridge covered with a steel latticework tunnel. Individual stones mark the meridian lines. A ring of boulders around the outside of the island provide seating.

The parliament sits in the middle of a large field on the north side of campus where it will “reflect Bard’s mission to locate critical engagement and artistic expression at the heart of democratic society.” First the Greeks, then the Romans, the French, the Brits and the Bardians – it’s one of the greatest monuments of all time. For real.

Rutgers University

This New Brunswick, N.J., university has broken the record for the “Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” in the Guinness World Book of Records. More than 700 students participated, dressing as their favorite sewer dwellers: Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael. Cowabunga dude!

“Our first idea was the record for ‘Largest Gathering of Smurfs’ but that record is at 900 . so one of my Resident Assistants came up with the idea of Ninja Turtles,” residence life counselor Matt Ferguson told The Daily Targum, the Rutgers student newspaper.

To break the record, students had to be videotaped for 15 minutes while dressed in long-sleeved ninja shirts, face paint and turtle masks. The college funded the bill for the costumes.

“I grew up with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the staple of my morning,” sophomore Glen Karnas said. “I don’t mind that I’m 20 years old and dressed like a turtle.”

During the event, students were asked trivia questions about the series and received Slinkys and Silly Putty as prizes, and students talked about their turtle watching days.

“My brother and I used to make a ninja turtle van out of couch cushions,” said Amy Miele, a Livingston College junior.

Hundreds of students showed up who weren’t able to attend the event because of a lack of costumes, but they still got to chow down on pizza. No word on whether or not it was Pizza Hut.