Thursday, July 14, 2011 Print Edition

COLLEGIATETIMES

july 14, 2011

what’s inside News .............2 Features ........9 0pinions ........4 Sports ...........6 Classifieds ...11 Sudoku ........11 108th year issue 66 blacksburg, va.

Tech opens new research center

Professor, student publish book

JOSH HIGGINS news staff writer A new Virginia Tech research facility has opened in Arlington, Va., providing university students and faculty the opportunity to begin new research projects in collaboration with public and private companies and organizations.

The Virginia Tech Research Center—Arlington, a new seven floor, 144,000-square-foot research establishment, recently opened to faculty and companies studying cybersecurity, bioinformatics, alternative energy, and other research areas.

The center includes many amenities for researchers, workers and visitors at the facility, along with the newest network technologies, making it one of the best connected research facilities in the world, according to the center’s official website. The research facility is equipped with direct fiber access to National LambdaRail, a 12,000mile high-speed network run by

PAUL KURLAK / SPPS

STEVEN SILTON / SPPS

Researchers at the new Arlington, Va. center will study cybersecurity, bioinformatics and alternative energy.

U.S. researchers and the educational community, along with Internet 2, a non-profit consortium involving researchers, educators, companies, and government agencies.

The state-of-the-art network technology will connect with the Blacksburg main campus and other major universities, as well see RESEARCH / page three

Bus connects NRV to DC JOSH HIGGINS news staff writer A new form of transportation will make traveling easier for students and residents going to Washington, D.C. and beyond.

The Smart Way Connector, a bus service that has been running to provide transportation for NRV residents to Roanoke, will begin offering a new service that will connect Roanoke to the Lynchburg Amtrak station.

The service will run from Roanoke to Lynchburg every weekday, and extended service will be provided on the weekends for NRV residents traveling to the Amtrak station.

NRV residents will be able to use the Lynchburg connector during the weekdays by traveling on the NRVRoanoke connector and then transferring to the Roanoke-Lynchburg shuttle. The new shuttle service is expected to provide an easier form of transportation for Virginia Tech students traveling home for the weekend or for breaks. Tech sophomore Jackie Florio believes the new service will make traveling home to New Jersey easier on her and her parents.

PAUL KURLAK / SPPS

The SmartWay Commuter Bus will extend its services to connect Roanoke to the Lynchburg Amtrak station.

“The Amtrak system would definitely help me out because my parents don’t like to drive eight hours to pick me up,” Florio said. “I would most likely take the train if we got that service.” Florio also said that traveling via Smart Way Connector and Amtrak would likely be cheaper.

“The bus is only four dollars, and I think that the bus to Richmond is $60 and airfare from Roanoke to Newark, NJ, is about $300 dollars for going there and back.” said

Florio. “I’m pretty sure that the train is far less expensive.” Tech student Nikita Chadha also believes that Amtrak travel would be simpler for her travel home to the Washington, D.C. area.

“I think that this would be convenient for students who have to travel long distances,” Chadha said. “I would definitely use this form of transportation – taking the Amtrak would be a more comfortable and direct way of getting home.”

Wornie Reed, a professor of African Studies and Sociology, stands in his office in the Center for Race and Social Policy Research.

BOOK REVEALS NEW RESEARCH INTO RACIAL PROFILING IN NATION’S POLICE DEPARTMENTS ELIZABETH HAYDU news staff writer Wornie Reed, director of the Virginia Tech Center for Race and Social Policy Research reveals stereotypes with his new book on racial profiling.

“Racial Profiling: Causes & Consequences” was written by Reed in collaboration with Ronnie Dunn, a former graduate student of Reed’s.

“What we try to show is that individual racism is not all that important relative to institutionalized racism,” said Reed. The book discusses three main points. It first showcases a study that addresses the “driving while black” phenomenon, racial profiling by police on our nation’s highways.

Then they analyzed data to compile the facts on drug arrests and the consequence of racial profiling.

“It is a series of studies in which we wanted to demonstrate three things,” said Reed. “One is the nature of racial profiling and we wanted to demonstrate that scientifically. We also wanted to demonstrate the nature of profiling and the consequences of it.”

The first study showed that police departments, due to profiling, assign more officers to predominantly black streets.

“We go further. Most people who discuss this issue discuss it in terms of individually bad cops,” said Reed.

“We demonstrate that it is not the individual officer but rather the policy and practices of the police depart-

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ment, which is institutional racism not individual racism.”

This is highlighted in the second study within the book, where the authors collected data on thirteen states and how often these states stopped and searched cars for guns and drugs by race of the driver.

The data from federal records showed that, where blacks are about 14% of all illegal drug users and sellers, they are 35% of all people arrested for drugs. This data also showed the one-third of all black males in this country are in the criminal justice system.

Currently, the center is working on two more books, one which Reed is co-editing.

This book, “Handbook of African American Health: Social and Behavioral Interventions,” is slated to be relased this fall.

The second book is on AfricanAmericans in Virginia. This book will be a comprehensive overview of things such as health, economics, and education.

The Center for Race and Social olicy was formed in April 2001 as a research center.

It is meant to fulfill two primary goals: to conduct and disseminate original research in the area of public policy with a direct emphasis on race and ethnicity, and to prepare promising graduate students to think and speak critically, plan quality research, and contribute to publicpolicy discussions related to race and ethnicity.

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NEWS

2

what you’re saying //comments from online readers...

blacksburg

On U.S. debt ceiling:

Tech sweeps world cup of robotic soccer

Anonymous>> They have been talking about the debt ceiling for the past year. How much time do you want to give these clowns to come up with a rational solution? Our country will default. It is only a matter of if we will do it the honest way (tell everyone we are bankrupt and they are not getting the money we owe them), or if we will do it the dishonest way (continue to print money so that it devalues our dollar). If we go the honest way, the private Federal Reserve bankers, China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia are screwed out of the money they lent us (or in the case of the Fed, printed). If we go the dishonest way, we will pay all these people back with devalued money but it will be poor Americans on fixed incomes to bear 90% of the brunt of the inflation. Grandma will still get her social security check, but won’t be able to buy anything with it. I expect our government to default the dishonest way.

On Planking craze: Anonymous>> Stupid, stupid, stupid.... Yet, idiots today will do anything to try and be “cool”...

On Virginia wine law: Fred F.>> Restaurants typically overcharge customers for wine 300-500%. This is for opening the bottle, having a license and owning glasses. They do the least in the chain from farmer to the consumer but demand the most. $15 corkage fees would not surprise me at all. If they charged a reasonable fee for wine, the wine would be considered a common drink with a meal instead of perpetuating wine snobbery. Flame on.

Mechanical engineers from Virginia Tech swept the world cup of robotic soccer Sunday and are bringing home a major technology trophy on behalf of the United States.

Video recordings of the for day RoboCup 2011 held in Istanbul, Turkey, show two adult-size humanoid robots chasing and kicking an orange ball on a small yellow court.

In the final match, the Tech robot CHARLI-2 beat a robot from Singapore 1-0.

Tech, the only team from the United States to enter, won first place in the adult division and another division in which minibots up to 18 inches high competed in teams.

Six students from VT’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory and its director, Dennis Hong, will bring home the event’s top trophy—a crystal globe that has been held by either Germany or Japan every year since the award was first presented in 2002. The Tech team was assisted by students and staff from the University of Pennsylvania. Tech spokesman

Steven Mackay said the win is a major accomplishment for the school, students and staff.

“For the robotics program at Virginia Tech, this is as good as it gets,” Mackay said.

The winning robots—the adultsized CHARLI-2 and miniature bots called Darwin-OP—were built in Blacksburg by students and staff versed in artificial intelligence and funded by with corporate and government grants and student dollars, Mackay said.

They are fully autonomous and can spot, pursue and kick the ball on their own and not are controlled by any adult on the sidelines, he said.

The RoboCup was first held in 1997 and has become a major annual event of the global artificial intelligence community.

The contest challenges inventors to create a team of robots good enough to beat a team of human soccer players by 2050 and by doing so create technology that could be used in industry, health care and other fields.

-jeff sturgeon, mcclatchy newspapers

nation & world

collegiatetimes.com july 14, 2011

Groupon privacy policy to collect, share more personal info Groupon is changing its privacy policies to allow it to collect more information as it offers more deals targeted to users based on their locations.

The Chicago-based deal site announced the changes in an email to its 83 million subscribers Sunday, saying that the new policies are part of an effort to provide greater transparency about the way it handles private information about users.

The announcements come as the company seeks to go public and on the heels of its launch of Groupon Now, a mobile service that provides instant deals based on a user’s location.

“In short, if you use a Groupon mobile app and you allow sharing through your device, Groupon may collect geo-location information from the device and use it for marketing deals to you,” the company said.

The company broadened its definition of “personal information” to include “interests and habits” and said a partnership that provides travel deals with Expedia means that personal information can be shared with the travel site if users subscribe to receive travel deals.

Groupon said other information it collects and shares with Expedia and for use on Groupon Now could include relationship information, transaction information, financial account information and mobile location information.

The deal company said customers can control what is shared and collected by Groupon.

Consumers can manage their email preferences and subscriptions through their account setting, how cookies are handled through their browsers and can opt out of being targeted by certain third-party advertising

companies by clicking links provided in the Groupon’s privacy policy.

Users who wish to opt out of receiving offers from Groupon’s business partners can follow opt-out instructions that come in emails those companies send out.

Users can also stop their mobile devices from sharing location information with Groupon by adjusting the privacy settings on their phones.

Jeffrey Johnson, a partner specializing in digital media with New York law firm Pryor Cashman, said Groupon’s decision to email consumers about the changes and explain them in plain English is an attempt to ward off potential controversy.

Past privacy changes on Facebook, for instance, led some consumers to leave the site after the changes took them by surprise.

“I think this is driven as much, if not more, by public relations as much as anything else,” he said.

Darren Cahr, a partner at DrinkerBiddle in Chicago, said the policy is a good indication about the direction Groupon is headed.

“Geo-location is becoming increasingly important in general,” he said. “But I think that to Groupon in particular, this is evidence that it will be an important part of its business model in the years to come.”

Johnson said that while the policy seems to be appropriate to the business model, consumers should be aware of a few areas that provide Groupon with wiggle room that some people may find uncomfortable.

For instance, he said, the policy allows Groupon to collect and share information you provide about your friends.

“You should be thinking about whether it’s ‘polite’—for lack of a better word—to share someone’s information with another website,” he said.

At the same time, it isn’t clear whether the service providers Groupon uses are expected to abide by the same rules or what information merchants may receive to foster a relationship with consumers once they purchase Groupons.

In the event Groupon files for bankruptcy, it isn’t clear whether the rules would still apply.

But by its nature, the convenience of social commerce requires privacy trade-offs, said Cahr.

“Realistically speaking, in the end, you don’t have to do Groupon,” said Cahr. “You don’t have to do any of these things.”

-julie wernau, mcclatchy newspapers

CARA MCBROOM news editor The Graduate Record Examination is one of the first steps students must take to receive their graduate or business degrees and take the work force by storm. After eight years of revision, the revised GRE will be introduced on August 1 replacing the current GRE general test.

According to the Educating Test Service, the added perks to the revised test will benefit students in a number of ways by giving them the advantage of a better test experience—and new types of questions that help show readiness for graduate-level work.

[

on the web For more information on the revised GRE visit www.ets.org/gre/

]

from page one

as serve as an access point to international peering locations in New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.

The new center will also provide user amenities, including retail establishments, an outdoor terrace restaurant and greenery.

The facility will be equipped with business and research space, which will include new computational laboratories, offices, and conference rooms that can be used for company meetings and forums. The top two floors of the building will be leased out to private corporations. Tech decided to build this new facility to “serve as a nucleus for discovery in expanding the university’s capability for new scientific inquiry, extending Virginia Tech’s footprint in the National Capital Region, and providing a benchmark for other universities,” according to Virginia Tech President Charles Steger in a brochure about the new facility.

The Virginia Tech Foundation played an active role in the design and construction of the new facility. Raymond Smoot, chief operating officer and secretary-treasurer of the foundation said that the

project “represents a major commitment not only to advancing the university’s research agenda but to engaging further with significant corporate and government communities in the National Capital Region.”

The state-of-the-art facility is located geographically close to companies that Tech often works with on research, providing Tech faculty and graduate students the location and resources needed to perform research alongside companies in the public and private sector in the Northern Virginia region.

“It’s an opportunity to be very close to the funding agencies that we work with, so it’s simply the matter of being close to the customer,” said Larry Hincker, Tech spokesperson.

The new center is expected to generate a lot of new research for university faculty and students to get involved with, although most of the projects will involve graduate students rather than undergraduate students. “Many of those operations will have graduate students working them,” Hincker said.

“It isn’t to say that there

won’t be that opportunity (for undergraduate students to get involved), but I don’t believe I have seen a lot up until this point.”

Vice President and Executive Director of National Capital Region Operations for Tech, James Bohland, believes that the new center will provide university faculty and outside participants the chance to work together and create more opportunities for groundbreaking research.

“They’re (public and private sector industries) all our neighbors now, so we’re quite excited about having them nearby and working with us, which allows us to bring folks in to work with our faculty both here and on campus,” Bohland said.

Bohland also said the center could lead to further growth in the National Capital Region. “We’ve had lots of inquiries and opportunities because of the building and what we have up here to develop good relationships with the industry, and we think those will continue to grow as we grow up here,” Bohland said. “It’s a real opportunity for the region to grow.”

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collegiatetimes.com july 14, 2011

The scoring will be much different compared to the 200-800 scale in 10point increments.

Verbal and quantitative reasoning scores will be reported on a 130 – 170 score scale, in 1-point increments.

The test time will also be increased by 30 minutes.

Analytical writing scores will continue to be reported on the same 0 – 6 score level, in half-point increments.

With 10-point increments, it looked like a vast difference when comparing two students scores.

However, with 1-point increments, it will be easier to tell if two candidates performed similarly on the revised test.

As for the new test, I expect some confusion since the score scale is changing dramatically,” said Mark Schaefermeyer, Associate Dean at the Graduate School of Virginia Commonwealth University.

“We’re making changes to measure skills that the kids are more likely to be using when they are graduate students,” said Dawn Piacentino, program director of the GRE, in an interview with the Washington Post.

According to Piacentino, grad students are “not likely to be doing analogies but more likely to be reading and interpreting reading passages.”

On the current GRE, approximately the first eight questions were the ones that were the most crucial to a student’s score.

If a student did poorly on those first eight, then the chances of them doing well were slim.

Computer adaptivity has been mildly changed to give students an

advantage.

Questions will get harder or simpler based on how a student does on a section, rather than each individual question.

ETS has made it so answers can be skipped, reviewed, or changed.

Analytic writing prompts will now be very specific.

Students will have to pay attention to what they are being asked, whether it is to address both views presented, how a view could be challenged, the consequences of adopting a view, or how it shapes their position.

According to the the ETS website, they hope to make it harder to write and memorize an essay or strategies before the exam.

The test is designed to give the student more freedom, in that each person can use their own test-taking strategies.

There will be harder question types, like open-ended questions and questions with two answers.

According to their website, the ETS said that in life there is more than just one answer.

While some question sets, such as analogies, are being removed from the test altgother, the ETS decided to add another feature: an on-screen calculator.

Students have adjusted to using calculators, and this will allow students to solve problems realistically.

In addition to the calculator, the revised test will have new types of questions in the verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning sections, featuring real-life scenarios that reflect the kind of thinking students need in order to pursue a graduate or business program.

Another feature of the new GRE is the 50 percent off discount when a student takes the GRE revised general test between August 1 and September 30, 2011.

Also, if a student takes the GRE revised general test during the special discount period of August to September, their scores will be sent by mid-November.

“Since widespread testing of the new format has not started yet, I’m not sure if anyone (especially test takers) can say if it is easier or harder than the current test,” said Schaefermeyer.

“Here at VCU, we caution all programs to assess the ability of the applicant based on multiple factors—the GRE is only one measure of potential. Some programs give the scores less weight than other programs. Some programs rely more on one part of the test than the other.”

3 NEWS

GRE takes new Research: Tech reaches out format in August further to Northern Va.

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Economic change needed

OPINIONS

4

ur leaders are completely clueless about economics. Or they O are liars.

Either way, there is one thing that is for certain: their “solutions” continue to fail because they continue to follow the flawed philosophy of Keynesian economics.

If you have been at Tech more than a semester, you have no doubt already encountered Keynesianism—the economic school of thought named after John Maynard Keynes.

In history classes we are told that it MCT CAMPUS was the Keynesian policies of spending and central planning that helped us out of the Great Depression.

Our economic classes teach us that when private citizens fail to spend money on consumer goods, the government, via deficit spending, must step in and “prime the pump” to get the economy jumpstarted again.

In political science classes we learn that Keynesian economics are often synonymous with big government or nizations or clubs or choose another socialism, and rarely advocated by path. those who favor small, limited govWe also have alumni that treaernment. sure their experiences and will subTwo words sum up this economic sequently encourage their sons or school of thought nicely: spending daughters to attend Tech. and debt.

This legacy is a strong one in many The Keynesian believes that it is families. We can learn a lot about spending, or consumption, that drives college by reading the Harry Potter an economy. books.

When we ignorant masses fail to While the books focus on magic, blow our hard-earned money on we see that magic takes place in the electronics, SUVs and granite counlearning and discovery at Tech. tertops, Keynesians claim that the From the university library to the benevolent government must step in science labs, from the classrooms and spend for us. to the Math Emporium, there is an This usually happens during a recesexcitement that takes place. sion or depression, which means the We may not see it as exciting at the government engages in deficit spendtime, nor consider it “magical” but it ing. does make a difference. I also realize Spending money the government that there are those that view the does not have causes the national debt books as demonic and evil. to grow by leaps and bounds.

These individuals are entitled Of course, we are always told that to their view as we embrace the differwhen times are better the debt will be encesamongus. Weacknowledgeand paid down—something we all know respect that viewpoint while we never happens. may disagree with that perspective.

Keynesianism is a joke that our leadIn the end, the Harry Potter pheers have played on us since the 1930s. nomenon has touched us in different It goes against common ways. For some it will as powersense and everything each of ful as the Star Wars Trilogy back in us knows to be true—that hard its day, while for work, producing goods to sell others it will come to others, and saving a portion of to represent the what you earn is the key to future end of a childhood prosperity. experience. We Yes, Keynesians actually claim that may not be Harry the key to prosperity is taking on debt Potter fans, but to consume products. like Hogwarts, we Because the Keynesian worldare a part of RAY view defies common sense and a special and PLAZA the laws of economics, they magical place regular espouse elaborate language and called Virginia macroeconomic technical jargon columnist Tech. to confuse Joe six-pack and soccer

Virginia Tech serves as Hogwarts for its students

collegiatetimes.com july 14, 2011

week ago, Trafalgar Square in London was the site of the A world premiere for the last Harry Potter movie.

For the thousands that were there and for those watching around the world, it was the culmination of the final movie experience.

For over 10 years, the Harry Potter phenomenon has helped to shape and guide a generation of both young and old.

This incoming Class of 2015 has grown up with the vivid characters that were created by J.Kk Rowling.

As I reflect about the Harry Potter legacy, I think about the value of our institution and the experiences that we face as part of the Virginia Tech community.

We have our Hogwarts, which could be symbolic of Tech as a whole.

While we don’t have houses such as Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, we do have academic colleges as these become the focal point of the academic experience.We have our own Quidditch in the form of our respective collegiate sports and intramurals.

We get dressed up in our school colors and cheer for our teams.

We have mentors, advisors and professors like Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Lupin. We also have some figures like Professor Umbridge or even Professor Trelawney.

We have a Dumbledore figure in terms of the Dr. Steger as university president and the Ministry of Magic could be seen with the Board of Visitors and the State Council for Higher Education (SCHEV).

We get to know and build relationships with the staff on the campus, similar to the relationship that the students have with Hagrid.

You have the enforcers like Filtch or those that serve as Head Boys such as Percy.

While we don’t have one grand dining facility, we are fortunate to have a number of different food options on campus like D2, West End, and the Squires Food Court.

We have an outside village like Hogsmeade with the Town of Blacksburg.

While we can’t get butterbeer, those students of age can get other similar types of beverages.

While we won’t be fighting Death Eaters or Voldemort, we will be fighting against the daily challenges that we may encounter whether it is with our academics or with outside issues.

While we may not have a Harry, Hermione or Ron, we do have our close friends that we will share both the joys and sadness of the experience. We have a supporting cast that includes the Nevilles, Luna’s and Dracos.

The Harry Potter experience is a vivid example of the transformational experience that can take place in an institution of higher education.

For those new students that are joining the Tech community, they will face their own Sorting Hat experience as they begin to learn the ropes and get more involved in their community.

They may decide to pursue membership in a fraternity or sorority, be a part of one of many student orga-

moms across America.

The net effect is that the average person wants nothing to do with economics and finances because they are tricked into thinking that only our wise overlords in the government are smart enough to tackle the nation’s economic problems.

The truth of the matter is that it does not take a college degree to understand economics.

Deep down each of us already knows what it takes for an individual, family or society to prosper.

What it takes is production—making goods to sell to others—and what it takes is saving money.

The antithesis of Keynesian economics is Austrian economics. Odds are pretty good that you will never learn about this school of thought at Tech.

Whereas spending and debt sum up Keynesian economics, the foundation of Austrian economics is production and savings.

Advocates of the Austrian school know that savings are important because they fuel investments.

Savings do not sit idly by in our bank accounts.

What the bank does is lend the money out for consumption— home loans, car loans, others— and, more importantly, for production—capital improvements for businesses, loans to start a new business, school loans for degrees in a productive field, etc.

Since all investments in capital and increased productive capacity come from savings, it benefits the citizens of a society to save their money—something the Keynesians try to prevent.

With an improved productive capacity, such as new factories, machines or tools, society is then better equipped to make products to sell to people of other nations.

It is how America became rich and prosperous. Savings create production, and production creates wealth.

Keynesianism ruins a nation because the country goes into debt to consume, and consumption is the destruction of wealth.

Because Austrian economists understand these basic principles they are able to predict economic trends years in advance.

Go to YouTube and watch videos from Peter Schiff, Jim Rogers and Marc Faber.

These guys predicted the bursting of the housing bubble and financial crisis years in advance.

Similarly, from day one they see ECONOMICS / page five

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he current crisis regarding the debt ceiling has T proven itself well at illustrating a disturbing feature in our contemporary political culture; the inability of our government to compromise.

With congressional Republicans fueled by ‘Tea Party’ extremists digging in on their “principles,” President Obama has been unable to establish a compromise between both parties.

The closest our government came to having a solution to this crisis was eradicated this past Saturday when House Speaker John Boehner called the president to inform him that he would no longer support the compromise he and the president had made.

A signal of the speaker’s inability to control the members of his party, perhaps, but more importantly this stunt shows the downfall of a compromising spirit in our government.

In our charged political atmosphere where each side looks at the other as being some sort of evil being, a concessionary spirit is absent from our government.

Us modern Americans sometimes forget that the structure of our government and most of its major accomplishments throughout its history have been the result of compromise.

Our Constitution which the Tea Party so blindly clings to is itself the result of a series of compromises no one absolutely loved at the time.

The abolition of slavery, the extension of voting rights to different sectors of our populace, civil rights litigation and a myriad of other major victories in our government’s history have all been at the price of compromise.

Why is it now, therefore, that this compromising spirit seems to be absent?

It appears to me that the most vital asset a political leader has in our current environment is the appearance of strength.

President Bush illustrated this well during his administration when he consistently called himself “the decider” and acted the part in his dictatorial fashion.

When President Reagan fired 12,000 members of the Air Traffic Control Organization for striking in 1981 he was appealing to this concept.

The list of examples can continue back to President Johnson, President Roosevelt, President Lincoln, and so forth but consistently the strength of a president has often been the depth of

his appeal.

Today, however, the importance of strength for our politicians has been extended beyond what it was in the past.

Whereas the strong leaders in our history have often been thought to be so for their ability to compromise while still maintaining their principles, now our leaders are expected to hold fast to certain beliefs and make no move to work with those they disagree with.

With the weakness of our economy and the growing feeling Americans have that the age of this nation’s supremacy on the world stage is coming to an end it seems relatively easy to understand why so many people try to find absolute strength in their leaders.

Perhaps this can explain some of the reasons why President Obama has been consistently falling in the polls since he took office.

Whereas President Bush would normally go ahead with what he wanted in defiance of those who disagreed with him, President Obama has always tried to compromise and act the part of arbiter for both factions of our political establishment.

But he has often been painted as weak and incompetent for this because many people see this as a lack of personal conviction.

The loss of a compromising spirit in our political sphere is a dangerous development for our nation.

Compromise is, after all, as equally a part of the foundation of our republic as our principles and convictions are.

Beyond this, compromising can in many ways be considered one of the absolute principles of our democratic spirit.

Staying true to our beliefs is important but we must remember that this is a nation of over 300 million minds who do not think alike and it is essential for us all to act with civility, respect, and tolerance for those with whom we disagree. We as a people must learn to see the strength of our leaders through their compromising spirit, as is the case with President Obama, and not simply strive for some idol-like leader to say “no” to everything they disagree with.

The stakes are simply too high and time is running out.

JASON S. CAMPELL regular columnist

pointed out that the TARP banker bailout, Cash for Clunkers, Obama’s stimulus and printing of money by the Federal Reserve would not only fail to fix the economic situation, but make it worse.

Then go to YouTube and watch clips from our Keynesian leaders: George Bush, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and Timothy Geithner.

These guys and every other Keynesian failed to see the housing bubble and financial crisis until the day it hit.

They all told us that the TARP banker bailout was necessary to save the economy, which it did not.

Most of them supported Obama’s stimulus and we were told that it would give Americans jobs.

Of course that did not happen because unemployment is at an all time high.

For approximately 70 years Keynesian economics has failed this country.

It has left the United States the most indebted country in the history of the world.

Our leaders who continue to follow these failed policies are clueless

and ignorant.

If they are not ignorant then they are lying to us when they say we need all these spending programs—lying because they are drunk with power as they spend trillions of dollars.

It is time to go back to our roots.

Now is the time to give the Austrian school another look.

Take an hour out of your day and watch videos from the aforementioned Austrian economists.

For those who prefer to read, pick up a copy of Peter Schiff’s “How and Economy Grows and Why it Crashes”.

The book takes three hours to read and encapsulates the Austrian school in an easy to understand manner.

You can also download free MP3s and videos from the media section of mises.org, an organization devoted to advancing scholarship in the Austrian school.

PresidentNixon once stated, “we are all Keynesians now.”

If we are ever so lucky, a future CHRIS president will DUNN exclaim, “we regular are all Austrians columnist now.”

we’re YOUR newspaper. send a letter to the editor and express your views.

send an e-mail to opinionseditor@collegiatetimes.com with your letter or guest column attached.

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from page four

5 OPINIONS

Collegiate Times Editorial Staff Editor-in-Chief Sarah Watson Managing Editor Kelsey Heiter News Editor Cara McBroom Features Editor Ally Hammond Sports Editor Zach Mariner Head Copy Editor Kayla St. Clair Photo Editor Paul Kurlak Online Director Jamie Chung

Goverment fails New economic to compromise outlook will help

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SPORTS

6

US women’s soccer heads to World Cup BRENTON LAING sports staff writer The Americans saved their best for last, just when all looked lost for the U.S. women’s soccer team.

Megan Rapinoe hit the cross from 30 feet out to the left of the goalkeeper.

“I took a touch and smoked it,” said Rapinoe. “I don’t think I’ve ever hit a cross with my left foot that well. And then that beast in the air got a hold of it.”

This set up Abby Wambach to head the equalizer in the 122nd minute of the game – the latest goal in World Cup history. She had held up one finger throughout the game, letting her team know it only takes one chance for them to create a score.

In the end though, “it’s not about one save or one goal. It’s about how you can all do it together” said Wambach.

America did need that exceptional goal

Sunday night, overcoming a major deficit and sending one of the best teams in the tournament to penalty kicks.

“This is our time, I know we are going to fight until the end,” said Wambach.

Ali Krieger hit a right footed shot to the bottom left corner of the net to seal the victory 5-3 in penalty kicks.

“Everything seemed to be on the safe side, but it wasn’t,” Brazil coach Kleiton Lima said. “Unfortunately there was the goal.”

They were able to play it safe because the Americans were playing with only 10 players. Rachel Buehler was ejected from the game in the 65th minute as she competed for a ball that Marta had just flipped over her head in the penalty box. Despite not getting whistled for any fouls earlier in the game, she was given a red card on a play that is almost never called. This was the first red card of Buehler’s soccer career, including youth and college ball. Hope Solo, arguably the world’s best goalkeeper, blocked

Cristiane’s penalty kick that resulted from the situation. However, Australian referee Jacqui Melksham called for the kick to be retaken due to an encroachment violation.

Solo didn’t appear to come off of her line early, and even if she did it was enough to meet the standard for what is usually called. Marta stepped up and equalized at 1-1.

They were able to play it safe because Marta, who has five times been named the world’s best player, scored her second goal of the game two minutes into overtime. The refs appeared to miss an offside on Maurine Goncalves, who assisted on the play.

America endured through it all with one less player by knocking Brazil out of yet another tournament. The U.S. team also beat Brazil in the 2008 Beijing Olympics while on path to the gold.

The match drew a 2.6 overnight rating, the highest scoring women’s soccer game since the 1999 World Cup.

WOLF / MCT

Rachel Buehler, 19, celebrating after scoring during the team’s win over North Korea in Group Play, was ejected from the quarterfinal match.

The summer never ends for Panthers’ Cam Newton Celebrating our

20th Anniversary with a

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JOSEPH PERSON mcclatchy newspapers Cam Newton is struggling with his wireless microphone.

As Newton goes through warm-up drills on a hot, humid morning on Florida’s Gulf Coast, the microphone strapped to his waist for an upcoming ESPN “SportsCenter” segment keeps jabbing him in the back.

Wearing the gear of his new sponsor and training on the field of his new marketing agency, Newton leaves the mic in place as long as he can.

But as he moves to a bigger field, the Panthers’ rookie quarterback takes it off so he can more easily move and throw and do the other things that drew the interest of Under Armour, IMG and ESPN in the first place.

Newton experienced both the glory and horrors of a national spotlight last season while winning a Heisman Trophy and national championship at Auburn in the midst of an NCAA investigation.

Newton found his safe place for three hours every Saturday at an SEC stadium.

To be sure, the photo shoots for GQ and TV commercials with Tom Brady are a different type of distraction than the No. 1 overall draft pick faced last year at Auburn. But Newton is dealing with

them the same way: by putting football first.

“It was brought to my attention that if you take care of your number one goal, two, three, four, five_they will be taken care of,” Newton said. “My number one goal is to be a great football player.”

“

It was brought to my attention that if you take care of your number one goal, two, three, four, five_they will be taken care of [...] My number one goal is to be a great football player.”

CAM NEWTON PANTHER’S QUARTERBACK

As he prepares for his first NFL season, Newton said his goal includes winning Super Bowls. Plural.

So in addition to diving into the Panthers’ playbook, Newton studies Brady, Peyton Manning and other championship quarterbacks.

“I look up to the guys like Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger.

They’re great at what they do,” Newton said. “I really love how Peyton Manning controls the whole game. He is the dictator out there on the field. He doesn’t

let the defense dictate him. Aaron Rodgers is a machine as far as his mechanics.”

“Tom Brady is the ultimate leader.

Drew Brees is a savvy guy in the pocket. Why not take a little something from everybody and apply it to your own?”

For parts of the past four months, Newton has honed his skills in Bradenton,aquietcommunityof53,000 _ not counting 1,000 or so teens and preteens enrolled at IMG Academies in the hopes of becoming the next Maria Sharapova or Jim Courier, both of whom trained in tennis there under founder Nick Bollettieri.

Newton could have prepped for his Auburn pro day in a training hotbed such as Miami, Phoenix, even his hometown of Atlanta. But he enjoys the privacy of IMG, where he can work out without the distractions inherent in a bigger city.

Bradenton has beaches. It does not have South Beach.

“You’re down here and it’s like 485 acres of just straight work, basically,” Newton said of the sprawling IMG campus. “You’ve got three football fields you can pick from.

You’ve got every opportunity to be successful. You don’t have any media out here to critique everything you do: ‘Look, Cam’s going to get lunch. Look, he ate a Honey Bun today.’ “ see NEWTON / page seven

Newton: Stays busy in spite of lockout from page six

CODY OWENS

There are no Honey Buns at the IMG cafeteria, or any other sweets.

For dessert, the choices are fruit or fruit.

Newton, who has little or no fat on his 6-foot-5, 248-pound frame, appears to be avoiding the Honey Buns.

“He sees the big picture of sports,” said Trevor Moawad, director of IMG’s Performance Institute. “How you eat, how you think, how you train_all of those elements.”

Moawad, a sports psychologist who has worked with Alabama and Florida State’s football teams, met with Newton before the NFL combine to help prepare him for the psychological tests.

Newton impressed Moawad with his willingness to learn and “his desire to be great.”

Moawad also noticed Newton didn’t arrive at IMG with a bunch of friends or hangers-on.

His entourage consists of his father and two brothers, who stay with him in the on-campus villas and eat with him at the cafeteria.

“We’ve been with him for four months. The only people that have

sports staff writer

POKRESS/ MCT

Derek Jeter smiles several innings before notching his 3,000th career hit. Jeter marks only the 28th player in history to accomplish the feat. and waving to the crowd after the game if we had lost,” said Jeter. “So that was going through my head in my last at-bat today.”

Jeter hit a single into center field, bringing Eduardo Nunez in to grasp the Yankees’ 5-4 victory against the Rays.

Jeter’s road to his 3,000 hit was prolonged this season when a right-calf injury put him on the disabled list with only six hits left toward his goal.

“

Derek stands for the good stuff in baseball.”

JOHNNY DAMON RAY’S OUTFIELDER FORMER NEW YORK YANKEE

He got three hits in a series in Cleveland, followed by a single hit on July 7 against Tampa Bay. After Friday’s game was canceled due to rain, Jeter was anxious to bat again, wanting to get the hit while playing at Yankee Stadium.

“I was excited, but to be honest with you, I was pretty relieved,” said Jeter.

“There was a lot of pressure to do it here.” Jeter’s accomplishment has seen

praise from many, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who stated that Jeter has “made all of New York City proud.”

Another praiseworthy story arises from the fan who caught Jeter’s 3,000 hit and subsequently gave it back to Jeter, despite the enormous price tag that such a souvenir could fetch.

However, while Jeter is certainly at the height of his popularity, he has recently received heavy criticism for his decision to not attend the All-Star Game. The player told Foxsports.com that his reasons stem from “emotional and physical exhaustion” from the 3,000 hit chase.

While both players and sports commentators have expressed the honor that comes from being invited, others, including the New York Yankees president Randy Levine, have stood behind the player as he comes out of his injuries.

Whatever lies in his future, Jeter remains one of the greats in this generation of baseball as well as being of the most likeable figures in the sport.

Keep an eye on Cooperstown; Jeter will no doubt have a spot there in the future.

see ROOKIE / page eight

Give the gift of memories!

Frame memorable moments or print them onto tshirts, posters, coffee mugs and more!

Visit our website for more gift ideas for Hokies! collegiatetimes.com july 14, 2011

In the world of baseball, few individual achievements measure up to getting 3,000 hits.

Members of the club are nearly all given entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot and enter the ranks of the greatest batters in the game’s rich history.

The actual moment of the achievement is both captivating and beautiful, as games will pause while fans cheer and players revel in what they have done.

The only way that such a moment could be marred is if the player’s team lost.

Derek Jeter made sure that did not happen.

The Yankees shortstop and team captain became the 28th player to reach 3,000 career hits on July 9 during a home game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

While the likelihood of him attaining his 3,000 hit during that game was assumed, the way he did it only added to the grandeur of the feat.

Starting the game with an air of nervousness, Jeter hit a single during his first at-bat to raise his count to 2,999.

In the third inning, he sent a ball from Rays’ pitcher David Price into the left-field stands, earning his 3,000 hit by way of a homerun. The Yankees’ no. 2 sent the hit into the bleachers right around 2 p.m., adding to the moment’s wonder.

Jeter’s hit makes him one of two players to reach the hit summit through a home run, the only other being former-Yankee and teammate Wade Boggs, who got his 3,000 hit while with Tampa Bay. “Hitting a home run was the last thing I was thinking about,” said Jeter.

As a culmination of many Yankee fans’ hopes and a highlight in an already illustrious career spanning over fifteen years, Jeter’s homerun sent the game into a stand-still as those present recognized his achievement.

As Yankee players celebrated around their captain at home plate, Rays’ players both on-field and in the dugout cheered on Jeter.

“Derek stands for the good stuff in baseball,” said Rays’ outfielder and former-Yankee Johnny Damon.

“Everybody in this clubhouse respects Derek Jeter.”

However, a game was still to be played, as evidenced by the close score throughout. The eighth inning saw the Rays tie up the score, 4-4. With one man on base, Jeter came up to bat to a situation he is familiar with.

“It would have been really, really awkward to be out there doing interviews

been around him are his family,” Moawad said. “They mean a lot to him.” Some of those family ties frayed last fall when a Mississippi State booster said Cecil Newton asked for $180,000 in exchange for his son’s commitment to the Bulldogs.

The NCAA ruled that neither Cam Newton nor Auburn knew about Cecil Newton’s pay-for-play scheme.

But not before Cam Newton endured several weeks of a constant media barrage and uncertainty about his eligibility.

The questions and allegations tore at Newton, who managed to block them out on game days while becoming the first player in SEC history to run for at least 1,000 yards and pass for 2,000 in the same season.

“I’d wake up in the morning, cut on the TV, ‘Well, Cam Newton is this.’ Go on campus and read the newspaper and ‘Cam Newton is that.’

Put my iPod on and you’re looking at people and they’re looking back at you,” Newton said. “But I knew none of that was going to go down in that little hour or two hours that I had on that football field. It was like I was

7 SPORTS

Derek Jeter homers to reach 3000 career hits

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SPORTS

8 ......radio for everyone

Rookie: Newton taking it all in from page seven

at recess. I was like a little kid. . .

My escape was football. I knew everything (else) had to wait.”

Cam Newton said he had friends and family members who questioned his role in the controversy. But his relationship with his father has never been stronger.

“It’s the definition of a person how he reacts or how she reacts when that (difficult) time comes.

The funny thing about life is you don’t know when that’s going to come,” he said. “It takes you looking back at it like, ‘Dang, we came through that.’ And if we can go through something as serious as that was, we can go through anything.”

“

We’re fine-tuning his mechanics, whether it’s foot placement or level shoulders or whatever it is.

There’s little things that we tweak with him.”

collegiatetimes.com july 14, 2011

CHRIS WEINKE DIRECTOR OF IMG’S FOOTBALL ACADEMY Newton will be at the ESPYs on Wednesday night in Los Angeles, site of last month’s Under Armour shoot with Brady.

IMG has tried to keep Newton’s appearances to a minimum and limited his sponsorships to blue-chip companies in Under Armour and GMC. “Our goal is to not really do too much too early,” said Carlos Fleming, Newton’s marketing agent. “We want him to focus as much as possible on his on-field performance and not do too many endorsement deals that would have the potential to distract him while he’s making his transition into the NFL.” Under Armour will launch an Auburn/Cam Newton apparel collection this summer; Newton’s shoe series will debut next spring.

But to build his brand, Newton knows he and the Panthers have to succeed.

“I love challenges in my life.

And one of the main challenges I have right now is how am I going to affect this team to go from worst to first?” Newton said.

“In my career, I’ve never been satisfied with losing. That’s never been in my vocabulary.”

Newton’s vocabulary is expanding as he learns the NFL verbiage.

When he runs plays with former Panthers quarterback Chris Weinke at IMG, they come straight from the Panthers’ playbook.

At the recent workout attended by an ESPN crew and the Charlotte Observer, Newton showed off his arm strength. Before throwing a 20-yard out to Detroit rookie Titus Young, Newton advised an IMG employee taking pictures from the sideline to step back.

Newton then dropped back and threw a ball on a rope that hit Young in the hands at shoulder level, a few feet from where the IMG staffer had been standing.

Newton also displayed some of the inaccuracy he struggled with at the combine, overthrowing tight end Alex Smith over the middle on back-toback plays.

But Weinke said most of his mechanical work with Newton has been minor.

“We’re fine-tuning his mechanics, whether it’s foot placement or level shoulders or whatever it is.

There’s little things that we tweak with him,” said Weinke, director of IMG’s football academy.

“The biggest thing with him was he was not used to being under center in college. So the footwork is new to him. He’s been able to grasp that. He’s doing a great job now.”

Newton was diplomatic when asked about the possibility of the Panthers signing a veteran quarterback after the lockout is lifted.

Despite missing out on minicamps and getting no work with coach Ron Rivera or his first-year staff during the lockout, Newton said he would try to be ready whenever he’s called upon.

In his study of successful quarterbacks, Newton also has kept an eye on San Diego’s Philip Rivers, the league leader with 4,710 passing yards in 2010.

Panthers offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski was on Norv Turner’s offensive staff four of the past six seasons, serving as the Chargers’ tight ends coach and assistant head coach in 2010.

Newton has spent only one day around Chudzinski, the 24-hour window when the lockout was lifted the day after Newton was drafted.

He is eager to get to work. “There’s an old saying, ‘Men lie. Women lie. But statistics don’t lie.’ And when I look at the statistics as far as coach Chudzinski and his offense and his philosophy, it works,” Newton said.

“I’m looking at Philip Rivers, year in and year out he’s in the top five, if not the top three. And I hink this past year he was the top passer in the NFL. And for me to see that and know that, that’s some impressive stuff. “I’m pumped. I’m excited.

Because I feel like if Philip can do it, I can do it, too.”

Today, on July 14 draws nearer, a chapter of many of our lives will close forever.

For all you avid Potter-readers out there, you know exactly what I’m talking about; for those who aren’t, the final installment of the Harry Potter series movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, premieres in theaters at midnight, July 14.

I, like a lot of my classmates, started reading the Harry Potter series around age 11.

We were all jealous of Harry getting his Hogwarts letter at age 11, while we were stuck in a non-magical, lame middle school.

Each year, we anxiously awaited the new book, and each year we aged along with Harry.

He was learning new spells and fighting off dementors, while we were waiting for our first kisses and muddling through chemistry.

We were totally jealous of the Hogwarts castle and his adventures.

I remember the day the final book came out: I was on a small island, and the bookstore had the nerve not to stay open until midnight to release the book.

I had to wait until 8 a.m. the following day to retrieve my precious copy, only to then spend the entire day and night anxiously reading, my friends had already finished and I was dying to know what was going to happen to Harry.

2007, with the Deathly Hallows, was the beginning of the end.

After that, we couldn’t wait outside bookstores in long lines anymore: Harry’s story, as well as schooling, was completed.

However, the entertainment industry had already realized that this Potter kid was a smashing hit in 67 languages, and had started releasing movies in

2002.

Now, almost a decade later, the final movie is about to be released.

After this, there is nothing new left

Google joins the social network with Google + A huge benefit of using Google+ is the ability to separate contacts into different Circles, which is not available on Facebook.

Another advantage would be the improved quality of pictures on G+ over the current photo features provided with Facebook.

Overall, the information about privacy and content sharing is much more concise and understandable with G+.

As the Facebook network is not an invite only service, membership is more common and users may find that Facebook is preferential when contacting friends and family.

When compared to Twitter, G+ is much more complex in its ability to communicate with others.

Though Twitter is fun and personal, G+ provides completely different types of networking tools.

My first impression has me more intrigued than anything.

As a brand new network, it is slightly annoying that so few people are currently using this new service but perhaps as G+ becomes more available, this issue will fix itself.

It is nice being able to combine all of my Google services in one profile, keeping everything organized and easily accessible.

My favorite feature is the ability to

separate contacts into circles.

There are just some things I do not need to share with my parents or co-workers that I would like to share with my friends.

Technology has never come easy to me but Google+ has been relatively straightforward and easy to use.

There are still some features that I need to play around with to fully understand but that is the case with all new networks.

After speaking with other new G+ users, many seem to think that this may be the next big social network.

After all, Facebook and Twitter have been cluttered with comments advertising Google+ invites and recommendations to join.

Speculations on whether G+ will take the throne from Facebook, as Facebook did to Myspace, have been circulating on news feeds across the spectrum.

Will G+ be able to compete with Facebook? I think so, but Facebook will continue to be the main social networking service as long as G+ remains private.

CARA DISILVIO -features staff writer -junior -biochemistry major

his bravery as he constantly battles Voldemort, but we get to watch the 11-year-old boy grow up into the dueling young adult.

Yeah, of course we’re all jealous of Hogwarts, that’s why we all dress up as our favorite characters for midnight premieres (and/or Halloween…) but we also grew up with Harry and his friends, making them near and dear to our fantasy loving hearts.

This Thursday at midnight, I can (almost) guarantee, every Potter-watching fanatic will be gripping their seats when the final battle between Harry and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named begins.

ALLY HAMMOND -features editor -senior -English major

Ruby Red Sunrise An invigorating and sweet cocktail to zest up your summer.

- sarah watson, editor-in-chief

CT Recipes Serves:

2

Ingredients: 3 ounces vodka 1 ounce triple sec 6 ounces red grapefruit juice 4 teaspoons raspberry liqueur Directions: 1. In a shaker, combine vodka, triple sec and red grapefruit juice with ice.

2. Shake and pour into cocktail glasses.

3. Slowly add the raspberry liqueur, letting it fall to the bottom of the glass.

collegiatetimes.com july 14, 2011

Goggle launched their social networking service on June 28, 2011. This invite-only project is still in its testing phase, allowing existing users to invite friends to create their own accounts.

Because of the incredible interest in the new networking service, the only way to join Google+ is by receiving an invite from a current member.

After stalking my contact list for any new members, I finally obtained my very own Google+ account.

So what’s the big deal with this new social service?

After many hours playing around on my new profile, the benefits of Google+ started to unfold.

Google has integrated services such as Google Profiles, Google Search and other features common to a social network.

Users are able to organize their contacts into groups called Circles, allowing members to share information with specific Circles.

New communication services similar to instant messaging are available with the Huddle feature, allowing messaging within Circles.

Instant Upload, Streams and other features are also available.

Obviously many of these elements have been modeled after Facebook and Twitter. So what’s the difference?

in the Harry Potter world.

The books are written, the theme-park opened, and now, the final movie is about to show.

As we grew up with the books, we also watched Harry, Ron, and Hermione (actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, respectively) grow up on screen.

I cannot think of a single other film in which this has happened.

We, as the audience, were allowed to bond with our favorite characters all over again. We got to watch them change, become more dynamic, and grow up.

Emma Watson as Hermione, made the biggest impression on me, as she changed in the films from the obnoxious know-itall, to the brainy, lovable friend we all want.

The movies allow us to not just read about Harry’s first day at Hogwarts, and then later experience

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It’s the end of Harry Potter

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collegiatetimes.com july 14, 2011

FEATURES

10 Texting changes the way we interact with eachother NINA METZ mcclatchy newspapers While performing in Chicago last month as part of the Just For Laughs festival, comedian Bill Burr spotted an audience member texting in the front row.

It was far from an isolated incident.

In fact, it happens so much that Burr now incorporates a whole bit about texting in his act. “I call it the new style of heckling. It used to be that they would yell out at you. Now they just sort of zone out on their phone. I’ll say, ‘Do you understand that I’m up here dancing like a monkey and you’re two feet away like a stenographer? ... it’s really messing with my ego.’ “ People are silently firing up their smartphone screens in darkened theaters everywhere. At the movies. During plays. At concerts. And it shows no sign of going away.

“I always ask, ‘What are you texting right now?’ “ said Burr by phone from Los Angeles. “One guy said, ‘I just texted someone and told them you were funny.’ It’s like, well, can’t you do that after the show? It’s like they have to –in real time –talk about what’s going on their lives.”

That compulsion is real, and there are a number of societal, psychological and physiological reasons more and more people are reaching for their smartphones without giving it a second thought - frequently to the irritation of those around them.

“I always say, ‘You’re lit up like you’re

in “Avatar” all of a sudden,’ “ said Burr, prompting him to wonder during his act why “half the world is acting as if they’re documenting events for a magazine they’re not working for.”

Those little LED screens can break the spell in a darkened theater, and it doesn’t matter that you’re not making a sound. “Anything intrusive is a noise, and the light is intrusive,” said Charles Coleman, who is the programmer at Facets Multimedia. “Using a phone in a darkened movie theater is like lighting a road flare.”

Even audience members who are firmly against texting midshow (or tweeting or checking in on Foursquare) people who would never dream of leaving their ringer on or (gasp!) talking on the phone during a show can find themselves falling victim to the lure of the smartphone vibration.

“I do think it’s a kind of Pavlovian response, a primitive response,” said Nicholas Carr, a writer based in Boulder, Colo., who explores this phenomenon in his book “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.” “The sense that there might be a message out there for us is kind of hard to resist.

In all sorts of situations people find it harder and harder not to glance at their smartphone.

And what starts to happen is that things that used to be considered incredibly rude will, as more and more people start doing it, suddenly become normal.

And then it just feeds on itself.”

To text or not to text? For every person annoyed by the proliferation of

texting, you’ll find another who thinks we need to quit being such Luddites and deal with it. As a society, we’re still negotiating the rules of etiquette for this relatively new advancement in technology.

The debate hit the national radar last month, thanks to the Alamo Drafthouse, a small brew-and-view theater chain in Texas. The Alamo has a strict notexting policy: Moviegoers who ignore the rule are kicked out. An audience member disgruntled by this policy left an incensed (and hilariously incomprehensible) voice mail recently, which the Alamo has since incorporated into its pre-show announcement; it’s also posted on YouTube.

“We were getting customer complaints about texting starting about three years ago,” said Tim League, Alamo’s founder and CEO. “We decided that it’s every bit as distracting as talking.”

Most of the movie theaters surveyed for this article, as well as live performance venues, said they prohibit texting but acknowledged that they do not necessarily make it clear during pre-show announcements.

Dave Jennings, general manager at the Music Box in Chicago, said he has kicked out repeat offenders.

“I’ll be sitting in my office and I’ll get an email notification that someone has checked in on Foursquare at the Music Box Theater, or tweeted something about the movie that they are watching inside our auditorium. That is shocking, and I will go in and try to find that person and watch to see if their

phone comes back out. Three years ago it wasn’t nearly this bad. Even six months ago it wasn’t this bad.”

AMC relies on its “Silence Is Golden” policy, which seems ripe for interpretation where silent smartphone use is concerned. A general “turn off your phone” is the language frequently used by venues, although many people simply put their phones on vibrate. But the Alamo’s policy is clear: “For the record, texting totally counts as talking.”

“People still text,” said League, “and we kick people out all the time. Maybe once or twice a month, but we issue the first warning a lot. And that’s usually all it takes, because it’s usually somebody who says, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize I was bothering anybody.’ “ That ignorance is what Manhattanbased manners and lifestyle expert Thomas P. Farley has observed, as well.

“People are extremely distracted. They’re not deliberately doing something that may be offensive to other people, but they’re not thinking about it. They’re not taking a moment to think about how they’re actually affecting the experience of other people.

“I think it’s also the no-big-deal phenomenon,” said Farley, who addresses these types of issues on his website WhatMannersMost.com. “It’s the idea that, ‘Everybody’s doing it, what’s the problem with me doing it?’ But that’s just not an acceptable way of looking at things. If you’re offending one person in that theater, you’re doing the wrong thing.”

Many venue owners and performers said they started noticing a change in audience behavior about three years ago. In 2009, 11 percent of mobile phone users in the U.S. had a smartphone, according to Stephanie Lyn Flosi, senior marketing communications analyst with comScore Inc., a company that tracks digital markets. By April of this year that number tripled.

The Blue Man Group responded to this pop cultural shift by adding new material to its show in February that specifically addresses the texting phenomenon.

The show even includes a “No Smartphone Oath”: “I promise not to take photos or videos or text my BFFs until after the show.” And yet, according to Chicago-based Blue Man Group performer Matt Ramsey, people still do it.

“It’s a testament to how deeply these smartphones have got their hooks in us,” he said. “I can’t speak for Blue Man Group, but I personally think smartphones have become so useful and important to people that I don’t know if there is a sacred place anymore where a person wouldn’t feel comfortable to just sneak a peek if you feel your phone buzz.”

The compulsion, however, is more than just bad manners.

“There are deep physiological reasons why we find it so hard to resist the temptation to not glance at our smartphones every five minutes,” according to Carr.

“There are studies about the craving we have for new information. It’s pretty

clear that when we get a new little piece of information, our brains release some dopamine - which is the neurotransmitter chemical that is how the brain encourages us to do things; it’s also the chemical implicated in most addictions.

And as you get rewarded by that kind of pleasure of getting a new piece of information, you want to repeat that. ...

There is something very deep and very primitive in our minds that wants us to gather every little bit of information around us.”

Steven Zecker, an associate professor of communication sciences and disorders at Northwestern University who studies the role of attention and auditory processing skills in learning, further noted: “When some individuals feel that vibration of the phone, it provides them with a little surge, a little flow of neurotransmitters. It’s like an adrenaline rush, and there is the desire to experience that more. A pattern of behavior has been established, and that pattern has some neurological basis.”

In a recent article for the British newspaper the Daily Mail, neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, a senior research fellow at Lincoln College at the University of Oxford, pointed out that our brains are actually being modified in response to our constant interaction with technology, including smartphones.

“The brain is not the unchanging organ that we might imagine,” she wrote. “It is also substantially shaped by what we do to it and by the experience of daily life. When I say ‘shaped,’ I’m not talking figuratively or metaphorically; I’m talking literally. At a microcellular level, the infinitely complex network of nerve cells that make up the constituent parts of the brain actually change in response to certain experiences and stimuli.”

Reached by phone, Greenfield explained the potential downside of all that dopamine. “You’re on constant high alert, your adrenaline is rushing because you’re clicking and you’re texting and as soon as you respond a new thing flashes up.

In terms of human beings up until now, this is an unusually fast-paced interactive activity. And we know that dopamine dampens an important frontal part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex,” which can cause people to behave more recklessly and with less empathy toward others, she said.

“What our mobile screens seem to encourage is going into a mode that is a rather early stage for the human brain—it’s one that small children are in, which has a strong sensory focus and it’s very exciting and arousing. This is very different from adult human cognition normally.”

But both Greenfield and Zecker point to psychological factors relating to selfworth. Or as Greenfield put it: “One can point to things like Twitter and wonder why people say, ‘Look at me doing this’ and so on. It reminds me of a small child: ‘Look at me, mummy.’ Because if you don’t look at me and give me feedback, I won’t exist.”

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Thursday, July 14, 2011

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ACROSS 1 Doughnut shape 6 Doofus 10 “Hi” sign nicknames 14 Furniture wood 15 Circle dance 16 Does a bakery job 17 *Moscow park eponym 19 “__ we forget” 20 Palm Treos, e.g., briefly 21 Tailless primate 22 School orgs.

23 Article for Adenauer 24 Upside-down frown 26 __ De i 28 __ Andreas Fault

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7/14/11 29 Bit of dogma 30 Poppycock 31 Opera setting, for short 33 Outs partners 35 Hops-drying oven 36 Animals who often bear twins 38 Evokes wonder in 40 Asian sea 43 It’s not known for MPG ef ficiency 45 Soak up 49 Din in the library?

51 One of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” 53 Big suit, briefly 54 About the eye 55 Elect to take part 56 Hoo-ha 57 Option for Hamlet

58 Exxon Valdez cargo 59 Short run, for short 60 Wimple wearers 61 *“What’ s Going On” singer 64 Élan 65 Kindergarten staple 66 Courtroom demand 67 Quite a long time 68 Pair in bunk beds, perhaps 69 Burden bearer DOW N 1 Violent storm 2 Shortest book in the Hebrew Bible

3 Steve Martin film based on “Cyrano de Bergerac” 4 Colleges, to Aussies 5 Mozart’ s “Jupiter ,” e.g. : Abbr.

6 Noted composer of études 7 Rhine sire n 8 Mork’ s plane t 9 “And God called the light __”: Genesis 10 *20th-century cartoonist who wrote “He Done Her Wrong,” a 300-page pantomime tale 11 “1984” setting 12 Goofs 13 Old JFK arrival 18 Spermatozoa, e.g.

22 Frisk, with “down” 24 Crock-Pot potful 25 Sicilian mount 27 Collector ’s goal 32 *“Mad Max” star 34 East African language

37 Sport for heavyweights 39 Israeli diplomat Abba 40 In days past 41 Burst 42 Actor Banderas 44 Vicks ointment 46 Anthem for “eh” sayers 47 Overnight flights 48 Leader of the band with the 1962 hit “Green Onions” 50 Impeccable service 52 “As I was going to __ ...”

59 Fairy tale baddie 60 Hoops org.

61 With “the,” 48Down ’s band (which sounds as if it could have included th e answers to starred clues) 62 Poetic boxer 63 San Francisco’s __ Hill

Thursday’s Puzzle Solved

Complete the grid so that each column, row and 3x3 box contains the numbers 1-9.

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collegiatetimes.com july 14, 2011

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