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- AMS? But what does it mean???
AMS? But what does it mean???
In which I examine and rank multiple different meanings of the initialism AMS
Quyen S
May 14, 2025
As we all know, the Alma Mater Society (AMS) is UBC’s beloved student union. However, AMS can and does stand for much more than just our student union. Today, I rank the top ten non-Alma Mater Society meanings of AMS.
Almonds Matter Society. A name originating (to the best of my knowledge) from most kissable organization on campus The Ubyssey, this is the perfect AMS. Referential to the Alma Mater Society yet irreverent. And despite being a nut allergy haver myself, almonds are among the only nuts I can eat without choking to death (there are other ones, but frankly I can’t be bothered to remember which nuts won’t kill me). I have had a couple chocolate covered almonds in my time and they’re… fine.
American Meteorological Society. Dare I say, meteorology is a pretty important discipline. People oft complain about the chance of rain being inaccurate or the temperature off. However, I’d say it’s vitally important to know when… suppose… a hurricane is coming. Advance warning for those type of disasters provided by meteorologists are a life saver. Good thing no one would cut funding to an agency that tracked critical storms like those.
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. Apparently these nerds “provide the agriculture industry with valuable services to ensure the quality and availability of wholesome food for consumers.” Which seems helpful. I like high quality wholesome food being available. Anyways, this service definitely deserves the DOGE branded woodchipper for reasons (citation needed).
American Musical Supply. Who doesn’t like music (like that of Hopeslide’s Summer tour 👀). Presumably this AMS sells various instruments and musical acountremount. Art is great — even more so now in AI land — so this is a pretty good AMS to me.
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. This sounds like some chemistry nerd stuff. But science is pretty cool, tbh. And spinny things do make brain go brrr.
American Mathematical Society. I’m not the biggest fan of math. I took two math courses in university (MATH 200: Calculus III and MATH 221: Matrix Algebra) and both scared me down to the bone. I don’t ever want to think about partial derivatives in respect to z or six dimensional eigenvalues ever again in my life. But they’re fun lil nerds and aren’t hurting anyone.
Bambu Labs’ Automatic Materials System. Who doesn’t love a silly little 3D printing device? This one allows you to use multiple colours on your 3D prints? I think. That sounds super fun! But it is $369 USD which… in this economy? Yikes. That takes it down a couple pegs
Austria Micro Systems Osram. They’re like some Austrian computer chip company. Computer chips are fine I guess. Also, they have visualizations of some of their products and they look almost exactly the same.
Automotorsport Performance. Yes, it is all one word. Freak behaviour, I say. They make high performance car parts. Now I don’t know about y’all, but I’m a bit of a car hater. If you’re not in a car, they’re not fun to coexist with. And the type of cars AMS Performance deals in seem the type to burn fossil fuels spinning around in a circle. In this climate crisis? Get out of here!
Alma Mater Society (of Queen’s University). My understanding of the history is we stole our name from this AMS (well, technically, we stole it from McGill who in turn stole it from Queen’s). But we’re obviously wearing it better than Queen’s is :)
Other News
y’all. Y’all! Y’ALL!!!!!
Holy shit.
What an absolutely wild start to the week. Never happier to have both Drédyn and Riley on this newsletter (hey y’all! :D).
I hope the next issue of A Presidential Affair has the part where Fontana hand delivers the notice of claim to Huntley.
(also I’m not going to make a full subheader about this, but Saturday AMS Council is low key freak behaviour. Not as freak as moving the meeting to your birthday, but still.)
Not to yoink from Spencer’s Bluesky
The idea that people just ChatGPT news is absolutely frightful to me. I’d say that my primary concern with AI news would have been the tendency towards hallucinations under the journalistic guise of objectivity and truth. But Preston also writes about how the generative models present stories from the centre:
Many news outlets framed the story as a frightening escalation of Trump’s authoritarian tactics, and offered unsparing quotes from lawyers, activists, and politicians. But ChatGPT was never in the mood to give me an assortment of human voices, as real journalists do. Instead, it was an averaging machine, dragging every voice to the center, softening the focus, and presenting a middle-of-the-road take—even when, as in this case, there is no middle-of-the-road take to defend.
Not Quite PR Glory…
I know it’s not the same, Sam, but perhaps this can partially make up for not being able to make a PR.
LOOK AT THE CODE EVERYONE!!!!! THIRTY GLORIOUS LINES!!!!!
From the Archive
We’ll start off with another clipping from the March 15, 1963 issue
Which leads into the March 18, 1963 clipping, where the President joins up with UBC students!
Imagine being on a picket line with president kevin bacon
That’s All!
Another newsletter done and dusted. Back in Van for summer courses which is a fun time.
I promise Elena, I’m going to get a podcast pitch in to you before the deadline (also, I’m realizing that maybe I should finally go buy The Hundred-Year Trek)
Until Sunday at 10:03 pm, buzz on, my busy bees!
One month of “last day of classes” since 2025
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