Draft:Mathnews

Mathnews, stylized as mathNEWS is the freeform student publication of the undergraduate mathematics students of the University of Waterloo as represented by MathSoc (the Mathematics Society of the University of Waterloo). Labeling itself as "Waterloo's Bastion of Erudite Thought", mathNEWS is published biweekly, with occasional deviations and special editions. The paper is varied in its content, with think pieces, local updates, and exercises in creative writing, usually through a humorous lens. Though it has a cult following, the paper gained worldwide attention in February 2024 after publishing an article exposing the usage of facial recognition in on-campus vending machines.

Founding
mathNEWS has been in publication since January 25, 1973, when it was published on a weekly basis, and was technically a club under MathSoc. On February 14th, 1975, it switched to a biweekly publication schedule, which it maintains as of April 1st, 2024.

Vending Machine Article
On February 16, 2024, mathNEWS published an article titled "THE M&M’S MACHINES ARE WATCHING YOU", written by regular contributor River Stanley under the pseudonym molasses. The article discussed a Reddit post by user u/SquidKid47, who had discovered a system malfunction for an app titled "Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognitionApp.exe" on the on-campus Invenda vending machines selling Mars Inc products. The article was picked up by multiple well known publications, such as Business Insider, CBC , The Guardian , The Verge , and WIRED.