diff --git a/common/djangoapps/student/views.py b/common/djangoapps/student/views.py
index 2115088f6b..2e48f50bd9 100644
--- a/common/djangoapps/student/views.py
+++ b/common/djangoapps/student/views.py
@@ -47,17 +47,17 @@ def csrf_token(context):
 def index(request):
     ''' Redirects to main page -- info page if user authenticated, or marketing if not
     '''
-    entries = None
-    if settings.RSS_URL:
-        feed = cache.get("students_index_rss_feed")
-        if feed == None:
-            feed = feedparser.parse(settings.RSS_URL)
-            cache.set("students_index_rss_feed", feed, settings.RSS_TIMEOUT)
-        entries = feed['entries'][0:3]
-        for entry in entries:
-            soup = BeautifulSoup(entry.description)
-            if soup.img:
-                entry.image = soup.img['src']
+    feed_data = settings.RSS_URL if hasattr(settings, 'RSS_URL') else render_to_string("feed.rss", None)
+    feed = cache.get("students_index_rss_feed")
+
+    if feed == None:
+        feed = feedparser.parse(feed_data)
+        cache.set("students_index_rss_feed", feed, settings.RSS_TIMEOUT)
+
+    entries = feed['entries'][0:3]
+    for entry in entries:
+        soup = BeautifulSoup(entry.description)
+        entry.image = soup.img['src'] if soup.img else None
 
     if settings.COURSEWARE_ENABLED and request.user.is_authenticated():
         return redirect(reverse('dashboard'))
diff --git a/lms/envs/common.py b/lms/envs/common.py
index e9755c01bf..4447bcc246 100644
--- a/lms/envs/common.py
+++ b/lms/envs/common.py
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ LIB_URL = '/static/js/'
 # Dev machines shouldn't need the book
 # BOOK_URL = '/static/book/'
 BOOK_URL = 'https://mitxstatic.s3.amazonaws.com/book_images/' # For AWS deploys
-RSS_URL = 'https://github.com/blog.atom'
+# RSS_URL = r'lms/templates/feed.rss'
 RSS_TIMEOUT = 600
 
 # Configuration option for when we want to grab server error pages
diff --git a/lms/templates/feed.rss b/lms/templates/feed.rss
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4056275342
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lms/templates/feed.rss
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+<%namespace name='static' file='static_content.html'/>
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<feed xml:lang="en-US" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/">
+  <id>tag:mitx.mit.edu,2012:/blog</id>
+  <link type="text/html" rel="alternate" href="http://mitx.mit.edu/blog"/>
+  <link type="application/atom+xml" rel="self" href="https://github.com/blog.atom"/>
+  <title>The GitHub Blog</title>
+  <updated>2012-07-16T14:08:12-07:00</updated>
+  <entry>
+    <id>tag:mitx.mit.edu,2012:Post/3</id>
+    <published>2012-07-16T14:08:12-07:00</published>
+    <updated>2012-07-16T14:08:12-07:00</updated>
+    <link type="text/html" rel="alternate" href="#"/>
+    <title>Online Classes Cut Costs, But Do They Dilute Brands?</title>
+    <content type="html">&lt;img src=&quot;${static.url('images/courses/space1.jpg')}&quot; /&gt;A Description</content>
+  </entry>
+  <entry>
+    <id>tag:mitx.mit.edu,2012:Post/3</id>
+    <published>2012-07-16T14:08:12-07:00</published>
+    <updated>2012-07-16T14:08:12-07:00</updated>
+    <link type="text/html" rel="alternate" href="#"/>
+    <title>Online Classes Cut Costs, But Do They Dilute Brands?</title>
+    <content type="html">A Description</content>
+  </entry>
+</feed>
diff --git a/lms/templates/index.html b/lms/templates/index.html
index 77a07a11dc..d06c62de45 100644
--- a/lms/templates/index.html
+++ b/lms/templates/index.html
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@
         <section class="blog-posts">
             %for entry in entries:
             <article>
-                %if hasattr(entry, 'image'):
+                %if entry.image:
                     <a href="${entry.link}" class="post-graphics">
                         <img src="${entry.image}" />
                     </a>