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may 24, 2012
what’s inside News .............2 Opinions........5 Sports ...........6 Features ........9 Classifieds ...11 Sudoku ........11 105th year issue 54 blacksburg, va.
Helmet safety improves
Living A Flavorful Life BY CHELSEA GILES | features editor A young food enthusiast, who cooked in a Copenhagen restaurant voted best in the world for 2012, now works in a Blacksburg wine and beer store. Collin Wagner, 21-year old Richmond native, has traveled and worked in various restaurants in Europe since graduating high school. He has also cooked in New York City and Richmond as a head chef for pop-up restaurants. Since moving to Blacksburg, Wagner said that he has found a group of friends who share his passion for cooking and the art of fine cuisine. While in France, Wagner worked on a vineyard, which sparked his interest in wine. He said that he felt deprived living in America, because he could not try or learn how to appreciate and work with wine when he was under 21-years old. Now, he said, wine is all he drinks, and he loves how it compliments the food. Wagner works at the Vintage Cellar on South Main St, which allows him to use the skills he obtained in France. “I get to meet and work with all kinds of distributers,” he said. “Even though a lot of them don’t make their way all the way down here.” Wagner’s experience made him an easy hire for his current employer. “Collin walked into the store around November, and we hired him right on the spot,” said Hunter Davidson, a manager of the Vintage Cellar. “He has tremendous experience for his age, and is very much in-tune with the alternative interests of the food community,” he said. Wagner did not attend a culinary institute after high school, instead he cooked in his home town until he saved enough money for a plane ticket to Spain. “In Europe, days are planned around meals,” Wagner said. “Everybody in America doesn’t have time; it’s all about the convenience.” Wagner also said that he learned how to forage and focus on seasonal cooking while he was in Europe, which is why he advocates the use of local food in all dishes. “I never liked tomatoes until last year when I had one that
was grown in the town during summer,” he said. “Now, I love tomatoes, because I know how they are supposed to taste.” Davidson said Collin expresses his love of organic food and a farm to table style of production while at work. “Collin isn’t interested in a big corporate kitchen or getting food from a Cysco truck,” Davidson said. Most of the cooking jobs Wagner had in Europe were invitations to experience highranked kitchens and work with chefs who use with the trendiest ingredients. In Copenhagen, Wagner cooked at Noma as one of the 40 chefs in the kitchen working from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. to serve what was voted the best food in the world. The restaurant also had a research and development team, which Wagner worked with. “They are always looking for what’s new,” Wagner said. “They develop new dishes with new ingredients and do a dish over 20 times to tweak it just a little every time.” He said that his favorite research finding was adding a certain ingredient to a chicken’s diet flavors their meat. When he was assisting the head chefs in this project, he said the seaweed fed one was the best. He said there was an irresistible greenness flavor to the meat. Noma won first place on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, which is sponsored by S. Pellgrino and Acqua Panna water. Wagner said that chefs, reporters, and regular restaurant goers vote for the best by the region they are from. Wagner left Europe and returned to the U.S. with only five Euros to his name, he said. His sister resides in Blacksburg, and some of his high school friends attend Virginia Tech. He said he moved here to be with them until he finds where he wants to go next. “It always falls into place,” he said. “I’m apprehensive to being committed.” Wagner wants to open a popup restaurant like Meddle, the one in Richmond, while in Blacksburg. One looked like a birds nest with an egg resting inside, while the dessert plate resem-
IESH LAL news staff writer
advance to taste dishes the chefs have chosen to showcase. Wagner uses social media such as his blog, Twitter and Facebook to network with other chefs and foodies. He met famous chef and Travel Channel’s “No Reservations” star Anthony
The Virginia Tech–Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences has recently released the results of its annual ratings of adult football helmets, which includes helmets worn by NCAA players, NFL players and some varsity high school teams. After over 2,000 tests and 1.8 million measured impacts, the 2012 Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings expanded to include 15 helmets in its overall evaluation in comparison to the inaugural 2011 study, which only included 10 helmets and about 1,200 tests. Since the initial May 2011 evaluation, five new helmet models have been released by Rawlings, Riddell and Xenith and were included in the 2012 evaluation. The study was initially designed to determine which helmets offer the most protection from the cranial impacts that the average collegiate football player might experience in a season. Helmet safety is assessed through a series of 20 drop tests where a large metallic drop plate is raised and lowered at different speeds to represent the different impact energies seen on a football field. An accelerometer fitted to the test helmets record the head acceleration, which is measured through these scenarios and then related to the following injury that would occur. The Rawlings Quantum Plus and Riddell 360 were both given a rating of five stars, the highest rating possible. Previously, only one helmet, the Riddell Revolution Speed, had that rating. A team of researchers comprised of Stefan Duma, the head of SBES, Steven Rowson Jr, a research assistant professor and Joel Stitzel Jr, the director of the Wake Forest Center for Injury Biomechanics, officially released the results on May 1. In addition to the three five-star helmets, the 2012 Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings concluded that seven helmets were worthy of four stars, two helmets deserved three stars, and three other, separate helmets each earned ratings of two stars, one star, and not recommended, respectively.
see COOK / page ten
see HELMET / page two
COURTESY OF SARA ADUCCI Collin Wagner shows off his chicken tattoo outside of Meddle pop-up restaurant.
bled earth with plants growing from the beet ice cream. Pop-up restaurants typically offer five course meals and are only in business for either a few days or about two weeks. These restaurants operate in an existing restaurant’s space, so there is already a food permit to serve the public. Customers purchase tickets in
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Helmet: Scientists test safety More students stay for summer school from page one
Rowson is optimistic that these findings will help teams and manufacturers make better decisions in the design and purchasing process. "The three lowest rated helmets from last year are now all off the market,” he said. “It is encouraging to see this positive shift towards better head protection." Helmets are rated according to a Summation of Tests for the Analysis of Risk system, wherein a helmet is exposed to a series of experiments testing the durability and protectiveness that helmet has to offer. Rowson developed the STAR system as a part of his Ph.D. dissertation. "Four of the five new helmet models introduced in the last year earned a four or five-star rating. This helps demonstrate that a datadriven approach can be utilized to optimize helmet design to reduce concussion risk," Rowson said. “The STAR value represents a generalized concussion incidence… the number of concussions that one player may experience through the duration of playing one complete season with a specific helmet,” according to the official methodology published in the study. “The lower the STAR value, the better the helmet at reducing the risk of concussion, and subsequently the higher ‘number of stars’ in the rating system.” The Virginia Tech football program incorporates the combined use of the four-star Riddell Revolution and the five-star Riddell Revolution Speed. Before the initial 2011 helmet ratings, Tech was using the one-star Riddell VSR4. This same helmet was found to be used by over 40 percent of NFL players,
KELSEY JO STARR news editor
PAUL KURLAK / SPPS
Steve Rowson tests helmets by dropping them from various heights. according to Rowson. Plans for future research include the evaluation of youth football helmets, as well as protective gear in other sports, such as catchers’ masks and chest plates in baseball. “This past year, for the first time, (we) started collecting from a local youth football team,” Rowson said.
“Youth players hit heads at different severities and locations; before rating youth helmets, you have to understand how they impact their heads. A couple hundred players are going to be instrumented this fall, and that information will help develop a youth-specific rating system.”
Blacksburg will be experiencing one of its busiest summers ever, with an increase of summer session enrollment as well as the launch of new summer programs available to incoming freshmen. According to Wanda Dean, assistant vice president for enrollment and degree management, the increase is in large part to do with the increase of in-major courses being offered by professors in both an on-campus and online setting. “We are looking for opportunities to identify courses that are major specific to help students progress towards a degree, specifically at the upper division,” Dean said. “As well as courses that students may have difficulty enrolling in in on their first attempt.” While total on-campus enrollment by current students has not increased significantly, online enrollment for summer courses has increased by about 300 students. Moreover, summer session two enrollment for both oncampus and online campus is still open. Michael Herndon, director of university summer sessions, is predicting a further increase in students. A difficulty that arises when trying to get more students to stay on campus is finding professors to teach over the summer as well, a time most often spent working on research. Herndon said that professors are slowly starting to find
ways to include more and more teaching time during their summer schedules in a way that does not impede their research process. “A lot of faculty are seeing that they can teach in the summer either online or face-to-face and they can still reach their tenure and promotional goals to conduct research,” he said. “For example, a lot of faculty will teach during summer one. Then during summer two, they may not teach, but they may work on their own research.” As a way to compensate and make it easier on themselves, many professors are moving their classes online, according to Dean. However, Scott Hendricks, associate professor for the department of engineering science and mechanics – who is teaching on campus this summer – says that students do not benefit the same from online classes and, as a result, he will never teach that way. “The students need to have a live person to talk to and to answer questions,” Hendricks said. “It’s very frustrating to try and learn online.” Although not included in his normal nine-month salary, Hendricks has been teaching over the summer every year he has been at Tech. Faculty who wish to teach over the summer have to volunteer, and then can be eligible for pay. Some professors also use research grants as their salary over the summer. Along with current Tech students, the campus is expecting a large increase of students on campus with the launch of the Summer Academy, a pre-college immersion orientation which allows incoming freshmen to take two courses that are set up together as a module. For example, there is a nutrition and life science track where students can take principles of biology lecture and lab along with human nutrition and foods. Dean said that the courses are chosen together and are designed to have overlapping concepts. The Academy is modeled after Penn State’s Learning Edge Academic Program, a successful pre-college program for 18 years. According to Dean, students who completed LEAP before entering their first fall semester were more likely to graduate with honors, attend graduate school and become more successful overall. She hopes to bring that level of success to Tech via the Summer Academy.
KELSEY JO STARR
assistant professor of architecture. One student from a third year architecture studio, one second year archiSix teams of three students from tecture and a third-year landscape various departments in the college of architecture studio were selected to architecture were invited to design a work in teams of three. The teams then September 11 Memorial in Marion, had 48 hours to design a proposal that Virginia. would eventually be presented to the Students were asked to take part in town of Marion. the design competition after Marion Prior to the competition, the students was successful in securing a beam that had not met each other. The aim was was part of the World Trade Center, for the students to develop interdisciaccording to Ken Heath, executive plinary skills and learn how to create a proposal in a short period of time. “I think it was great to A memorial is going to far do the interdisciplinary work,” said Catherine exceed each of our lives in- Ives, a third-year archidividually. They’re really a tecture student who was a member of the team gift towards the future. whose design was selected. “Also, doing it in 48 Jim Bassett hours, I learned a lot. I how to do an Assistant Professor of architecture learned entire program in one day.” According to Bassett, the proposal allowed studirector for Marion Downtown!. dents to work on a real-world project, “There was a survey for people to which is rare for the students, who norapply for artifacts from the World mally are working on thought exercises Trade Center,” Heath said. “So we sent and theoretical designs. the application in, and we really didn’t “When you think about the differhear anything about it for a long time.” ence of a memorial versus buildings It was a few years before Marion or landscape ones makes, a memorial heard anything about the artifact. is going to far exceed each of our lives “I was always excited about the pros- individually,” he said. “They’re really a pect, but I thought there were a lot gift towards the future.” of communities applying and Marion The winning proposal, which only wasn’t high on the list,” Heath said. won by a two-point margin, is centered "Then one day, there was a huge pack- around two concrete pools differing age that had all the legal documents.” in size, according to Ives. Connected Marion ended up receiving a 4,000 by the beam from the World Trade pound H-beam, which they wanted Center, the pools will continuously flow to incorporate into a memorial for the water between each other. The memotown. rial will also have 324 cubic spaces, Students from different years and commemorating the 324 first response disciplines were selected by their pro- units who lost their lives that day. fessors to come up with a design for the town, according to Jim Bassett,
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Graduates cope with debt in weak economy LARRY GORDON mcclatchy newspapers College graduation is typically a time to tally accomplishments and to look ahead. But for many graduates, it is also a time to tally student loans and figure out how to repay them. About two-thirds of college graduates have some student loans to pay off, and their average debt is about $25,000 to $28,700, according to estimates by education experts and organizations. (About 10 percent of those with loans owe more than $50,000 or so.) Many college seniors say they had not thought much about their debt until they received summaries just before graduation. Their reactions ranged from complete panic to a calm sense that their degree will help them get well-paying jobs to cover the loans. “While you are in college, it doesn’t seem real,” said Ben HerringtonGilmore, who will graduate Sunday from Occidental College. The weak economy compounds graduates’ worries about payments on many federally backed student loans that come due six months after graduation. “It’s clearly another stress in a tough job market,” said Lauren Asher, president of the Institute for College Access & Success, an Oakland-based group that works on issues related to student loans. “These are challenging times, and the one thing worse than graduating with a lot of debt is not graduating and still having a lot of debt.” She and other experts urge graduates to explore their options to consolidate loans and to apply for programs that could reduce and stretch out their payments, and possibly forgive portions in the long run if their incomes are low enough.
Some public service and teaching jobs also help with reducing debt. The Times recently interviewed graduating seniors at several California campuses about their loans and how paying them off figures into their post-college plans. For some, the path ahead seems clear and secure; for many, uncertainty is the only certainty. But all said they valued their college experience and do not regret taking out loans even if they now pose serious challenges. ——— Ben Herrington-Gilmore, 22, feels “pretty up in the air at this point.” An Occidental international relations major from Minnesota, he has applied for about 20 jobs at law firms as a legal assistant or administrative aide. But so far, even though he had two unpaid legal internships during school, he has no solid prospects. Meanwhile, his almost $27,000 in education loans will start to come due in the winter. “Now that unemployment is more and more a realistic possibility, it makes me feel a little more on edge,” he said. “They are not incredibly monstrous and not predatory loans. But it is definitely looming over me.” His loans come from the federal Perkins and Stafford programs and include both subsidized ones that carry no interest during school and unsubsidized ones that build up interest debt before payments start. He had financial aid and merit scholarships at Occidental, where undiscounted tuition this year was $41,860, not including room and board. He was employed six hours a week in campus work study jobs, most recently in the admissions office. With the lease for his offcampus apartment ending in June, he is preparing to move in with his father, who is a Presbyterian
MCT CAMPUS
Natasha Sumabat will have $29,000 of student loans to pay when she graduates next month from UCLA minister in Connecticut, and apply for work in the New York City area. “It will be easier to be at home instead of staying on a friend’s couch,” said Herrington-Gilmore, who wants to apply to law school or graduate school in religious studies in a year or two. He is adjusting to the idea that he probably won’t land a job immediately. “The value of my education is much more than getting a job after graduation,” said HerringtonGilmore, who spent a semester abroad in Brazil. “But it is frustrating that I will be paying back all this for at least 10 years.” ——— Beginning in her freshman year at Whittier College, Brianne O’Doherty worried that her student loans could turn into a big
problem. She received substantial financial aid, got some help from her parents and often worked 20 hours a week at campus jobs, but she still managed to accrue about $35,000 in federally backed Stafford and Perkins loans. With the economy struggling, the prospect of that debt was “alarming” and she said she intensely felt the need to quickly get a job. A marketing and visual communications major who graduated recently, she began looking for a job in January, well before many of her classmates. She said she searched online, at job fairs and through alumni connections. “The loans were a big part of that and the need to be independent,” said O’Doherty, 21. Her fallback was to move in with her family in a Chicago suburb
and search for work there. But she was recently offered a well-paying job in business development at a high-tech firm in Austin, Texas, and she is preparing to move. She said she intends to live frugally so she can pay off her loan in chunks larger than required; her goal is to repay them in five years, half the usual time. “My loan payments will come before fancy apartments,” she said. O’Doherty, who was on the swim team at Whittier, said she does not regret passing up state schools for a private liberal arts college where the tuition this year was listed at $36,632. “All the opportunities I’ve had at Whittier have been amazing. I know it’s a big cost and education is not cheap. But it’s the price you have to pay.”
collegiatetimes.com may 24, 2012
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Underage Possession of Turner St/ Alcohol/ Possession of False ID Price’s Fork Rd
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sense.” But there’s a contrarian view too: that a defeat in the court could turn into a political victory for Obama. “It could be a great mobilizing event for liberals and Democrats,” argues William A. Galston, a former aide to President Clinton. “A bitter loss mobilizes people in a way that success does not.” Democratic strategists have been working on their talking points too, and here’s what they suggest Obama would say in the event of defeat: A Supreme Court dominated by conservative Republican appointees has deprived Americans of protections they liked, such as the guarantee that people with preexisting health conditions could still get insurance — and Romney’s
that everyone obtain health insurance or pay a fine. Depending on what other provisions the court strikes down, the result could be chaos in policy land. If the court overturns the individual mandate but keeps the rule guaranteeing coverage to sick people, insurance companies will warn that their costs will go through the roof, and they might hike their rates to prove it. If the court overturns both the mandate and the insurance guarantee, the insurance companies will dodge that bullet, but Obama and Romney will be plunged into a furious debate over whether the truncated program that remains can be made workable. It’s not clear who would win that fight. In one sense, it would put Obama on friendly ground: Most of his healthcare plan would still be in place, but the part voters disliked most — the One side or the other will gain mandate — would be an advantage from this fight, gone. “The public will say, but at this point, it’s still (and ‘Phew.’ They didn’t think the mandate was essenthis is frustrating for this pun- tial,” Lake predicted. dit) impossible to say which “The consequences of pulling the mandate out one. are not well understood,” agreed McInturff. “It’s going to be messy and Doyle McManus hard to explain.” The Republican Republicans don’t have anything to put response, he predicted, would be that in its place. “Obamacare” without a mandate won’t “It’s a great argument to mobilize the work, and they have a point: Without base,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake a mandate requiring healthy young said. “It would be great for turnout.” people to purchase coverage, the ecoBut there’s a third, more complicated nomics of the president’s plan don’t scenario: The court could uphold most quite pencil out. of the law but strike down the “individBut Republicans have a problem ual mandate,” the federal requirement too. No one thinks the current sys-
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tem is working, but the GOP hasn’t agreed on an alternative to put in Obamacare’s place. Romney has promised to repeal and replace the president’s law, but his current proposal is an unfinished framework. Republicans in Congress have nibbled around the issue, but they’re nowhere near agreement on a full-scale alternative either. And here’s a wild card: Voters could resent any candidate who spends too much time talking about healthcare; that’s not the issue that’s at the top of their concerns. “Voters want to hear the candidates tell them how they’d fix the economy,” Republican pollster David Winston said. “They don’t want to watch a rerun of the 2010 healthcare debate.” There’s something to that. During the week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments, Obama’s standing in the polls dropped a point or two, probably because news coverage was reminding voters about an issue most of them dislike. About the only part of the public reaction that’s predictable is this: Many voters will interpret the Supreme Court’s actions as political, not as the product of dispassionate legal judgments. Big majorities, as high as 67 percent, have told pollsters they think the court’s decision will be based on politics, not on the law. One side or the other will gain an advantage from this fight, but at this point, it’s still (and this is frustrating for this pundit) impossible to say which one.
DOYLE MCMANUS - mcclatchy newspapers
Prostate cancer screenings must improve Amid the many messages you will hear about screening for prostate cancer in the coming days, I hope these stand out most prominently: Science finds that there is at best a small potential benefit from prostate cancer screening and there are substantial known harms. We need a better test, and we need better treatment options. We can do better. The panel that I chair, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, has just issued a recommendation against screening men of any age for prostate cancer using the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test. The draft of this recommendation was posted for public comment in October. Since then, we have read the many comments received, reviewed newly released evidence, and arrived at this conclusion: Many men are harmed as a result of prostate cancer screening and few, if any, benefit. The evidence shows that at most one man in 1,000 screened will avoid a prostate cancer death over the course of 10 years, and in the best and largest study done in the United States, no
benefit was shown. Of the same 1,000 men screened, two to three will have a serious complication of treatment such as a blood clot, heart attack or stroke, or even death, and up to 40 will have erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence or both. About 30 to 40 men in 1,000 will also have less serious but bothersome harms from a prostate biopsy, such as infection. We need a better test, and we need better treatment options. Cancer is a frightening word, but not all cancers are deadly. Prostate cancer is rarely aggressive enough to cause death within the course of a man’s natural lifespan. Three-quarters of men older than 80 and a third of men between ages 40 and 60 have cancer cells in their prostate, and yet men have only a 2.8 percent lifetime risk of dying from the disease. Currently, there is no way to know which men have a cancer that may benefit from treatment. Until we have a better test and better treatment options, the USPSTF has recommended against screening for prostate
cancer. Whether or not to be screened for any condition is a decision each person must make with his or her clinician based on individual values and preferences, but we are urging all health care professionals to be forthcoming about the facts around prostate cancer risk, the relatively small benefit of detecting the cancer, and the significant known harms of screening and treatment. To be sure, there are gaps in the existing evidence on this topic. One particular area of concern is that black men have a higher risk of developing prostate cancer and dying from it. The same is true for those with a family history of the disease. There is no evidence to suggest, however, that these men have an increased benefit from current prostates cancer screening or that the balance of benefit and harms is any different for them. We need more research to improve the health of men at high risk for prostate cancer and to eliminate health disparities. Some critics of our recommendation have suggested that we based our decision
on an urge to cut costs for insurance companies and government programs such as Medicare. Cost is not a consideration in our evaluation of the scientific evidence. Our mission is to improve the health of all Americans by sharing evidencebased recommendations with them and empowering them and the clinicians who serve them to make informed decisions. The members of the USPSTF are human; we face the same concerns and fears about health challenges that you do. This topic is not something we take lightly, and this decision was not reached in a cavalier fashion. It is based on science and rooted in the knowledge that while we all want to help prevent deaths from prostate cancer, we need to recognize that current methods of PSA screening and treatment of screen detected cancer are not the answer. We can do better.
VIRGINIA A. MOYER - mcclatchy newspapers
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The Supreme Court is about to toss a judicial bomb into the middle of the presidential campaign, and nobody knows what impact it will have. The bomb, of course, is the court’s ruling on President Obama’s health-care law, which is expected next month. At first glance, the political implications might look simple. If the court upholds the law, Obama’s biggest legislative achievement, the president wins; if the court declares the law unconstitutional, he loses. But as with many things in politics, it may not be that simple at all. If the court upholds the law, Obama will hail the decision as proof that he was right all along. But that won’t change the unpleasant truth (for Obama) that the law is widely unpopular; polls show that more Americans want to scrap it than keep it. If Obama wins in the court, he’ll have to spend precious campaign time defending a law that most of the electorate dislikes. That would be good news for his GOP rival, Mitt Romney. Or take the contrary scenario: What happens if the court strikes down the law entirely? At first glance, that would be a stinging defeat for the president; it would make him look like, well, a loser. Romney and other Republicans already have their talking points drafted: They’ll say Obama should have been working on the economy but wasted time passing a law that turned out to be unconstitutional. And “unconstitutional” isn’t a compliment. “For most voters, ‘unconstitutional’ is synonymous with ‘bad,’” Republican pollster Bill McInturff told me. “They’re not going to look at it in a narrow legal
OPINIONS
Collegiate Times Editorial Staff Editor-in-Chief Michelle Sutherland Managing Editor Zach Mariner News Editor Kelsey Jo Starr Features Editor Chelsea Giles Sports Editor Alex Koma Head Copy Editor Luther Shell Photo Editor Trevor White Online Director Alex Rhea
Effect of health care decision is unknown 5
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ACC faces PR crisis after SEC-Big 12 pact DAVID TEEL mcclatchy newspapers Another weekend, another PR crisis for the ACC. Another weekend, another chorus of tweets, blogs and columns forecasting the conference’s demise. All of which bring to mind the following lines. “Lighten up, Francis,” Sergeant Hulka said to Psycho in the movie “Stripes.” “’I don’t know’ is one of the most exciting sentences in the English language,” writer Anna Quindlen told Bucknell’s graduates Sunday. Alas, lightening up and conceding the unknown don’t play in the Twitterverse. So “Florida State might consider leaving the ACC for the Big 12” becomes “Florida State is leaving, according to my sources.” And if FSU is bailing, then by God, Clemson must be, too. And if the Seminoles and Tigers are out, then the ACC loses all national football relevance, which will force Virginia Tech, Miami and perhaps others to exit as well. Could any or all of that happen? Absolutely. Nothing short of Tech and Virginia in the Pacific 12 seems off the table in a realignment circus driven by fear and ambition. Has anyone in charge at Florida State or Clemson agreed to leave
the ACC? I don’t believe so for a second, but I certainly don’t know. Igniting the latest tempest was Friday’s agreement between the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference to pit their football champions in a new postseason game. If one or both of those champs is otherwise preoccupied in the four-team national playoff expected to emerge in 2014, then others from those leagues will participate. Combine the SEC-Big 12 hookup with the Big Ten-Pacific 12 marriage in the Rose Bowl, and you have the ACC and Big East appearing to lag far behind. On-the-field performance says that’s where they belong, but the reality is unpleasant nonetheless. The SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 could go nuclear by attempting to make the Rose Bowl and the new SEC-Big 12 bowl the de facto national semifinals, but such a move almost certainly would prompt anti-trust claims by those excluded. Naturally, the Big 12 and SEC plan to award their event to the highest-bidding venue and television network, widening the money gap between the ACC and the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12. The ACC’s new, 15-year media rights contract with ESPN is worth approximately $17 million
SPPS / FILE 2011 Coach Frank Beamer talks to reporters after last season’s game against Duke. Beamer and the rest of the athletic department will have to decide if staying in the Atlantic Coast Conference is right for the program.
annually per school, a 30-percent increase. By summer’s end, the Big Four conferences all figure to have arrangements worth $20 million-plus per school. USA Today reports that the Pac-12 could approach $30 million. The Big 12-SEC partnership comes a week after Florida State’s Board of Trustees chairman ridiculed the ACC-ESPN deal and said the Seminoles need to look elsewhere. No matter that the
basis of his rant, third-tier rights, was incorrect. In the Twitterverse, facts are for chumps and perception becomes reality frighteningly fast. And the perception right now among many media and fans is that ACC football programs can’t compete nationally because of the financial disparity. Is money the reason Florida State has won as many ACC championships (one) as Wake Forest in the last eight years? Is money the reason Clemson went 20 years (19912011) between conference titles? I don’t think so. Moreover, this incessant money chatter strikes me as a lame excuse for programs that haven’t coached and/ or recruited well enough. But Florida State and Clemson, and Georgia Tech for that matter, also compete against in-state rivals from the SEC. Will longterm ACC membership relegate the Seminoles, Tigers and Yellow Jackets to permanent second-class status within their own borders? It’s a question the schools have every obligation to analyze. This they should do soberly, away from the cyberspace hysteria. Meanwhile, commissioner John Swofford and the ACC’s leadership have questions to ponder. Can the conference afford to lose Florida State and/or Clemson? If not, how to ease their apparent angst? Abandoning the ACC’s equal division of revenue from media rights, bowls and NCAA tournaments would risk the resentment that helped cause the Big 12, where Texas ruled with an iron fist, to splinter. The Big 12 has since returned to equal revenue sharing, excepting the Tier 3 rights Texas monetized with the
Longhorn Network. The SEC, by the way, also distributes revenue equally. So yes, 2-10 Mississippi cashed in handsomely on Alabama’s nationaltitle conquest of SEC West rival LSU. Would reversing the decision to play a nine-game ACC schedule once Pittsburgh and Syracuse bring membership to 14 help? That would make it easier for schools to play seven home dates every season. The difference between six and seven home games helped increase Virginia Tech’s ticket revenue $2.24 million from 2009-10 to 2010-11 _ those numbers courtesy of a USA Today data base. The Pac-12 and Big 12 play ninegame league schedules. The Big Ten and SEC play eight, the latter even with Missouri and Texas A&M bringing membership to 14. How about tweaking the ACC divisions and/or crossover partners to create more attractive matchups for not only fans but also TV? Or is that like prescribing two aspirin for a torn ACL? The ACC’s cure-all would be luring Notre Dame to join the conference. Absent that, an Orange Bowl tie-in with the Irish would help. But given the ACC’s current uncertainty, those options may not be viable. No matter, Swofford and the ACC can’t risk inertia. The stakes are too high. How will the ACC play its weakened hand? How will others respond? My hunch is that Swofford will not be idle and that any malcontents will conclude that the ACC remains the best avenue for their football programs and athletic departments. The truth is, I don’t know.
Suspects in fan beating face weapons charges mcclartchy newspapers Federal weapons charges have been filed in Los Angeles against two men accused of brutally assaulting a San Francisco Giants fan at Dodger Stadium during opening day 2011, the Associated Press has reported. The criminal complaint filed Monday against Louie Sanchez and Marvin Norwood charges both with being a felon in possession of firearms. If convicted, they each face up to 10 years in federal prison. Several weapons were recovered from Norwood’s home and authorities said they believe he was hiding them for Sanchez. Both men made a brief court appearance Tuesday and were ordered to return to court next week, AP said. Sanchez and Norwood previously pleaded not guilty to mayhem and assault charges in connection with the beating
of Bryan Stow. The two were arrested in July. Stow, who was a Live Oak, Calif., paramedic at the time, attended the March 31, 2011, season-opening game and was walking through the parking lot when he was attacked. According to reports, a man chased him down and began punching him from behind in the side of the head. Stow’s head hit the ground, and he suffered a severe skull fracture. After undergoing rehabilitation at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for several months, Stow was transferred in late February to a center designed to aggressively help him learn how to gain as much independence as possible. At the new center, he shares an apartment with two other traumatic brain injury patients and has someone with him at all times helping him. In the latest post on the website the family set up, sup-
port4bryanstow.com, dated April 30, family members wrote “While Bryan seems to be settling into his new ‘home,’ he needs round-the-clock care. Luckily, the employees at the health care facility are amazing.” Eventually the 43-year-old father of two likely will move in with his parents in Capitola, Calif. Several local contractors and businesses have donated labor and supplies to help with making the home more handicapped-accessible. Last month, Stow was honored at the Giants’ home opener. Though he wasn’t able to attend the game himself, his son Tyler Stow threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Stow appeared via video on the Jumbotron at AT&T Park and “handed” the ball to his son. Stow’s mother, Ann, appeared with him and thanked all the fans for showing their love MCT CAMPUS and support during the past L.A. Police Chief Charlie Beck addresses the media about the case. year.
7 SPORTS
JESSICA M. PASKO
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Golf team advances to national championship ALEX KOMA sports editor
al tournament in my last year means a lot, especially because of how prestigious the course is,” Redmond said. The Riviera Country Club does certainly have plenty of history, as it has hosted three PGA Tour major championships over the years, and will pose a unique challenge for the Hokies. “We’ll definitely have to prepare to deal with some different grasses, since they’ve got stuff out there that we don’t have on this coast,” Hardwick said. Despite the difference in terrain, the team insists that its preparation will remain largely the same. “Even though it’s the national championship, we’re going to prepare for this like it’s any other tournament,” Redmond said. While much of the team’s practices will stay the same, the fact that it’s summer will help the team concentrate on performing well. “It helps that we’re not in school and go and practice so much more,” Chalkley said. “It gets the team out of the school COURTESY OF HOKIESPORTS.COM environment and really lets us Blake Redmond shoots at the NCAA regional in Bowling Green, Ky. focus on golf.”
collegiatetimes.com may 24, 2012
For the first time in a decade, the Virginia Tech golf team will advance to the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship, held from May 29 through June 3 at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Ca. The Hokies finished in fourth place at the NCAA South Central Regional in Bowling Green, Ky. this past weekend to advance to the national tournament. “Normally a couple guys play well and someone has a rough week, but this time we all really came together at the right time to advance,” said senior Blake Redmond. Freshman Scott Vincent finished tied for third overall in the regional, which was his best overall finish as a college player and one of the better finishes for Tech all year. “We started playing better at the end of the year and peaked at the right time,” said sophomore Bryce Chalkley. “The course (at regionals) really played in our favor and we just ground it out.” The team has been building towards this success all season, as it’s only finished outside the top seven of one tournament all year and has
finished ahead of many highly ranked teams. “We’ve been beating top 25 teams all year and it shows that we’re a lot stronger than people might think,” said Jay Hardwick, head coach. “We’re still a young team, but I think we showed something this weekend.” This is the team’s first NCAA tournament berth since 2002, and team members are excited to represent Tech on the national stage. “This has been one of our goals all year long since we only missed it by three strokes last year,” Chalkley said. “We lost two seniors from last year’s team, but the freshmen have come in with great passion and helped us out.” The team has come close to making it back to the tournament for several years, so it’s a big step for it to finally break through. “We’ve made the regionals six years in a row, so we’ve gotten really close,” Hardwick said. “We may be just one of thirty teams to make it, but it’s still a huge accomplishment for us.” Competing for a national title is especially meaningful for the seniors on the team. “Going out on the nation-
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OPINIONS
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Zoos are not for partying What do blaring techno-pop, psychotropic drugs and zoos have in common? The answer, of course, should be “nothing,” but in an effort to keep revenue flowing in, zoos and aquariums around the world are welcoming events ranging from raves to weddings at their facilities — at a high cost to the resident animals. It’s bad enough that animals are confined to these facilities in the first place. They shouldn’t also be reduced to party props. Recently released toxicology reports suggest that two dolphins at a Swiss zoo died after ingesting a heroin substitute shortly after a weekend-long rave was held near their tank. Reports speculate that the drug had been dumped into the tank during the rave “accidentally” or as a practical joke, but Shadow and Chelmers died slowly and in agony. Chelmers’ keeper described his last hour: “He was shaking all over and was foaming at the mouth. Eventually we got him out of the water. His tongue was hanging out. He could hardly breathe.” Zoos are marketing their facilities for birthday parties, corporate receptions and nighttime “safaris,” even though the commotion and noise can leave animals anxious and unsettled. Three guides at a rave at the Georgia Aquarium
admitted that music at such parties upsets the animals and causes them to fight. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency that inspects zoos, has acknowledged that allowing nighttime visitors can agitate primates. At the San Diego Zoo, an inspector asked zoo officials to reevaluate nighttime display of the gelada baboons, as they appeared to be stressed out. Aren’t zoos and aquariums supposed to be focusing on the comfort and well-being of the animals? It seems we haven’t progressed much in the years since a former zoo director admitted, in a 1984 article, that the animals are “the last thing I worry about with all the other problems.” By their very nature, zoos leave animals vulnerable to the whims and wishes of zookeepers and visitors. Animals in zoos have been poisoned, left to starve, deprived of veterinary care and burned alive in fires. They’ve been beaten, shot, pelted with rocks and stolen by people who were able to gain access to the cages. Many have died after eating coins and trash tossed into their cages. A giraffe who recently died in an Indonesian zoo was found to have a wada of 44 pounds of plastic in his stomach made up of food wrappers thrown into his cage by visitors.
It’s no wonder that zoos are increasingly desperate to attract visitors: Parents who still take their children to the zoo are becoming as rare as the dodo bird. Most people are starting to agree that sentencing animals to life behind bars is ethically indefensible, and in response many zoos are adding trains, sky rides, carousels and water attractions to entice visitors to come through the gates. Visitors to Disney’s Animal Kingdom are “educated” about threatened wildlife on a thrill ride once called “Countdown to Extinction.” And let’s not forget coyly named fundraisers such as “Woo at the Zoo” and “Jungle Love,” at which visitors pay to watch animals have sex. Accompanied by candles and Barry White tunes, tourists sip and sup while awaiting “action.” How does this foster even a scintilla of respect for animals? Zoo events may be a novelty for visitors, but for the imprisoned animals, it means that their alreadylimited period of peace and quiet has been stolen from them. Parties and picnics belong in the park or in backyards, not outside the bars of a caged animal who can’t decline to attend.
JEFFINER O’CONNOR -mcclatchy newspapers
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Government must learn from Deepwater The second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster passed with little fanfare last month. But with our government on the brink of allowing the oil industry to explore in America’s remote Arctic Ocean this summer, it is worth revisiting some of the lessons learned from the biggest oil spill in the nation’s history. Stopping that spill took three months, even though it occurred in the relatively calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico near Coast Guard stations, cleanup equipment, and abundant shoreside support. Subsequently, I was asked to chair a panel of federal, state, industry and environmental experts to review our nation’s response. Our recommendations are especially important for the Arctic. The Arctic Ocean has one of the harshest climates on Earth. Even in the summer, conditions are volatile, with sudden, violent storms and shifting sea ice. The shoreline is sparsely populated, with no roads connecting the eight main villages to each other or to the rest of Alaska. The nearest major seaport is 1,300 nautical miles away; the nearest Coast Guard air station is 950 air miles. A spill cleanup effort could take weeks to mount and then could suffer endless delays because of foul weather. Although preventing and containing an oil spill in these extreme conditions is the priority, we must also have a plan for response. After the Gulf, we witnessed firsthand that the middle of an emergency is not the time to come up with one. Fully developed and detailed procedures, agreed to in advance, are essential to an effective response. These must address the impact of a spill on environmentally sensitive areas and species, as well as on local economies. This requires a great deal of scientific research along with full and early consultation with indigenous peoples. After all, it is their livelihood that is at risk. Even then, response plans are only as good as the men and women who will implement them. So it is critical that they
provide for an adequate number of trained personnel and proper equipment to deal with a worst-case scenario. If this was a problem in the early going of the Gulf spill, imagine what a challenge it could be in the Arctic. Finally, such contingency planning must be tested in reallife conditions. Although we learned from the Gulf disaster what is needed for an effective
“
We all hope that nothing like the Gulf spill will ever happen again. But to ensure that, we need to be ready. And as the Deepwater Horizon disaster taught us two years ago, hope is not a plan. Roger T. Rufe spill response plan, we are on the brink of drilling in a much more remote and extreme location without these hard-won lessons in place. Important habitat and key subsistence areas in the U.S. Arctic Ocean have yet to be set offlimits. The U.S. Coast Guard’s two heavy-duty icebreakers — needed for search-and-rescue missions and to support oil spill response and recovery — have outlived their original life span; the only remaining ice-capable vessel was built for scientific research and is not adequate for heavy icebreaking. No agency has yet required Arctic-specific standards for drill rigs, booms, skimmers and other equipment. To date, no one has tested such operations in the Arctic Ocean’s extreme conditions. The fact is that we do not know how equipment, personnel and chemicals will work in these harsh, ice-laden seas. We all hope that nothing like the Gulf spill will ever happen again. But to ensure that, we need to be ready. And as the Deepwater Horizon disaster taught us two years ago, hope is not a plan.
ROGER T. RUFE -mcclatchy newspapers
“Bully” is intense, but barely scratches the surface features editor
collegiatetimes.com may 24, 2012
I never go to see a documentary expecting to leave uplifted or happy, which was an appropriate attitude for watching “Bully,” directed by Lee Hirsch. “Bully” is a raw and artistic showcase of a gutwrenching issue. It is compelling, stirring and eye-opening, especially for those of us who are not well connected to kids of the middle or high school age. School faculty and parents should see it to be aware of a nationwide issue that they or their children could help prevent. The film begins with the story of one boy who was bullied and eventually committed suicide to take his stand. The heavy start was needed to prepare the audience for what else was to come. “Bully” follows five kids and their families for one school year to show what they struggle through. The film shows that bullying is such a broad problem that it is hard to know how to begin ending it. The film is a mixture of interviews, video footage inside buses and classrooms with artistic transition shots. These bring a sense of peace that is much-needed after each scene. Instead of using facts and statistics of how many kids commit suicide or skip school on a regular basis to avoid other students, “Bully” uses characters and their emotional situations to stir the viewer. A surprising element of the movie is the kids have more sense about the situations than the adults from the school systems. I was constantly shaking my head at how school administrators and public officials handled certain situations. After one student brought a gun onto a bus after being pushed to the limit by mental and verbal abuse, a police official said that he did not think the defense was justifiable unless she had been physically abused day after day, as if a certain type or amount of bullying is worse than another. Another aspect of modern bullying is that anyone can be the victim. The main characters range from an honors student and basketball star, to a teenage lesbian in a very conservative town, to a boy who was too kind to fight back and includes a boy who wanted to become the bully himself, because he had endured it for so long. “Bully” does not provide a closure or total grasp of the various situations. One of the kids could have been enough to focus an entire documentary on. Each type of bullying, the family response to the abuse, how each school handles the situation and whether or not the child progresses to better mental health is different in every story. The movie leaves you wanting to know more. After I left the theatre, I looked up the documentaries website. It is part of a nationwide movement to make schools safer and even has a guide for how to use it in the classroom. I would be hesitant to show “Bully” to kids younger than high school level, because of the language, violence and intense theme of suicide or suicidal thoughts. However, this film gives the term “kids will be kids” a new meaning. The film unveils what students experience on a daily basis, which often goes under the radar of many adults. If you want to be shaken to your core with honest stories that rivet with the pain of these kids lives, “Bully” has two more showings at the Lyric tonight. Change starts with one, which can begin by knowing what happens in today’s school systems.
9 FEATURES
CHELSEA GILES
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FEATURES
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Cook: traveler Online ratings spark debate brings experience WALTER PACHECO mcclatchy newspapers
from page one
Bourdain, who may pitch an event Wagner wants to host. Wagner’s brother is in the Army, stationed in Germany and serving in Afghanistan. Wagner knows they are planning to have a cookout when they return to Germany, and he wants to be there. “They shouldn’t be cooking for their own barbecue,” he said. “They should be cooked for.” Wagner said that he would like to own a restaurant one day, but his real dream is to be able to serve those who don’t
have enough food. “I am not a chef, and I get very upset when some people call themselves chefs,” he said. “I am a cook. I love food, and I love feeding people things that make them happy.” “One day, I may call myself one,” he said. “But it won’t be anytime soon.” Perhaps the chicken tattoo on his right arm will assist him to attain these goals. “It symbolizes good luck and hospitality in the kitchen,” he said. “I kiss it the times that I really need the luck.”
Tech students design ampitheater in Clifton KELSEY JO STARR news editor This Friday, Clifton Forge, Va. will be dedicating its new amphitheater, which was designed by a group of 16 Virginia Tech architecture students from a class taught by Keith and Marie Zawistowski, both assistant professors of practice in the college of architecture as part of a two semester design-build lab. The building was part of Clifton
Forge’s plan to increase the town’s art presence. Students spent the first semester talking to residents about their ideal plan and how they wanted the amphitheater to look. Second semester was spent with the actual design and project proposal. The amphitheater is scheduled to open its first performance in June, which will be free to the public. The dedication ceremony will feature distinguished faculty from the college of architecture.
An Orlando, Fla. plastic surgeon's defamation lawsuit against a patient could be a sign of legal struggles that will test the boundaries of freedom of speech as rating sites flourish on the Internet. Domingo Rivera, attorney for Dr. Armando Soto, said the patient's comments on RateMDs. com are not opinions protected by the First Amendment but a "malicious campaign of unlawfully defaming and spreading lies" about his client and business. But the lawyer representing the patient, whose name is not in the lawsuit, warned the suit could have a chilling effect on users of sites such as Angie's List, RateYourDoctor.com and others that rate professionals and services. "The terror created by this lawsuit will squelch freedom of speech," said David Muraskin, a Public Citizen attorney representing Soto's critic. The anonymous online comments were posted on RateMDs. com in 2011 about breast-augmentation surgeries that the patient contends Soto botched. Rivera said comments stating the "end result is horrible" and "Dr. Soto did a poor job" are opinions. But comments about unevenness, extra scarring and other issues are defamatory because they are not true, he said. "If a patient is unhappy, they
can use constructive criticism, or return to the surgeon to fix it," Rivera said. "This person has a vendetta, and my client has to use the court system to remedy that." Rivera originally filed the lawsuit in December in a Virginia court because his client believed the patient who posted the online complaints might be in that state. The Henrico County Circuit Court granted Soto a subpoena in April to force Comcast of Georgia/Virginia, a subsidiary of Comcast Corp., to divulge the Internet IP address, identity, mailing and billing addresses of the person who posted the comment. Rivera said he most likely will drop that subpoena because he has independently learned that patient is an Osceola County, Fla., schoolteacher. He suspects she has posted multiple comments on the website, posing as another unhappy patient. He did not identify the patient and has not transferred the lawsuit to Florida yet. "It is almost a certainty that we will file there," Rivera said. "This person will be dealt with." Rivera said Soto wants the posts removed and is seeking $49,000 in damages. Markita Cooper, associate dean at Florida A&M University's College of Law, said cases like these pop up because most people do not know the difference between opinion and defamatory speech and some "courts struggle with it from time to time."
"The more figurative, colorful, and hyperbolic the speech, the more likely it is not liable," Cooper said. "But when the opinion becomes a factual statement, then you are dealing in some murky areas." Cooper said anonymity is a problem for service providers because there is no one to hold accountable for the comments and they can't always force the Internet provider to divulge the identity of the posters. She added most people have "gotten comfortable with expressing themselves online" and doubts these types of lawsuits will have a major effect on freedom of speech, unless a highly publicized case draws attention to the issue. The Communications Decency Act of 1996 grants immunity against lawsuits to most rating sites themselves, stating that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." Some rating sites, such as Angie's List, which rates contractors and other household-service providers, avoid the pitfalls linked to anonymous posters by registering all their users. "We expect our Angie's List members to tell us a truthful account or experience," said Cheryl Reed of Angie's List. "We also remind our members that their identities will be known if that person or company asks."
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XKCD by Randell Munroe
Regular Edition Today’s Birthday Horoscope: Focus on career, service and wellness this year. Relationships expand, and commitments deepen with care and nurturing. Strive for balance between work and play; prioritize wellness through diet and exercise. Notice what makes you happy, and schedule time for that. Your word is your greatest asset.
Crossword 42 Scout uniform accessory 43 Depression era migrant 44 Graph line 46 Snobbish mannerisms 48 Maine mail order giant 50 Halfback’s maneuver 54 __-mo replay 55 High-speed PC option 56 Broth-making aid 60 Two-tone treat 61 Oodles 62 Long skirt 66 Leave out 67 Modern kind of phone 68 Voltaire’s “with” 69 Topeka’s st. 70 Versatile blood donor 71 Green stone
Grab a partner and another paper and duke it out over the rough Hokie seas. Setup: Each player places their ships on “My Board” by filling in the required number of cells. Ships may not be placed diagonally or on top of each other. Gameplay: Each player takes one shot at a time. If the player calls the coordinates of a space where a ship is located, his opponent tells him so by saying "hit." If he missed, his opponent says "miss." Players mark the shots they take on their "Opponent" grid, a circle for a hit and an ‘x’ for a miss. A ship is sunk when all of its squares have been hit. When this happens, the player whose ship was sunk says, for example, "You sank my battleship." The first person to sink all of their opponent’s ships wins.
Carrier:
My Board By Andrew Bannem
5/24/12 ACROSS 1 Effervescence 5 Orange container 10 Afterthoughts 14 Mine, in Marseille 15 Where dos are done 16 Chimney buildup 17 Blessing 18 Words spoken while tossing in cards 19 One may be dogeared 20 Microprocessor
Submarine:
Destroyer:
My Opponent’s
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1
31 Prefix with culture 34 Skunk’s defense 36 Take a __ at: try 37 Put a levy on 38 Assumed name 40 Ryder competitor 41 Shout at from below 45 NBC show with Baba Wawa skits, briefly 47 At the bottom of the standings 49 Soft shot 50 Kindle download 51 “__ Rae” 52 Expected at the terminal 53 Mob outbreaks 54 Alarming situation 57 “That’s a surprise!” 58 Twice-monthly tide 59 Key of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 63 Gardner on screen 64 Crossed (out) 65 The ends of 20-, 39- and 56Across are forms of it
Unscramble the letters to solve the category “Day at the Pool” Have a set of words you want to see in puzzles section? Email your lists to studybreak@collegemedia.com.
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Complete the grid so that each column, row and 3x3 box contains the numbers 1-9. Copyright 2007 Puzzles by Pappocom. Solution, tips and computer program at www.sudoku.com
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Check out next week’s paper on pg 11 for the answers!
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FEATURES
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Town gets decorated for art nonprofit JENNA SMITH features staff writer College Avenue was closed from Draper Road to Main Street last Saturday for the community to paint the street, now a mural of bold colors and handprints. The Blacksburg Regional Art Association, the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech and the statewide MINDS WIDE OPEN initiative sponsored “Color College Avenue,” a free public event for children and community members to coat the road. MINDS WIDE OPEN is a statewide collaboration of artists and organizations to produce and present events that engage children in the arts. People of many ages attended the event and covered the street in designs. “I love the coming together of the community, first and foremost,” said Susan Mattingly, the Executive Director of the Lyric who came up with the initial idea. Steven Ross, Blacksburg’s Deputy Town Manager, said that his favorite part of Color College Avenue was that it brought families out to be together, which makes for a healthy community. He also said that it’s a good outlet for young people to channel their energy in a positive direction.
Mattingly said there are limitless possibilities as to what could be painted in the town. Both parents and college students were there to interact with the children as they painted. Blacksburg resident Julene Rice said she was excited to bring her children to the event because it fostered their creativity on a larger scale than what they could do at home. “The freedom of it is amazing,” she said. “They will remember this, because any experience that is different changes how you view the world. They’ll be more open to new things. I hope they do something like this regularly.” “I don’t think any of us are particularly artistic,” said Nadia Tuck, a senior human development major. “I like seeing the creativity people are expressing.” Local school teachers also attended to paint with their students and be with their families. “It gets them to see that art is everywhere,” said Rebecca Gove, Harding Avenue Elementary School’s art teacher. Gove said the event provided an opportunity for people to express what they have inside of them and lay it out on College Avenue. “Art is about expressing your inner soul,” Gove said. “No one hesitated to grab a brush.” The paintings will remain until construction of College Avenue begins later in the summer for College Avenue Promenade.
JENNA SMITH / COLLEGIATE TIMES
Families, students and teachers painted the avenue for statewide MINDS WIDE OPEN.
Upside-down tomatoes grow in popularity CHELSEA GILES
collegiatetimes.com may 24, 2012
features editor Tomato growers are turning their plant’s world upside down this summer. Gardeners are using an alternative growing system for their tomato plants to save money and space in the garden by hanging them upside down. Tomato plants require a large amount of ground space, with a recommended two feet distance between each plant. The vines also need a type of support to cling to, which should to be sturdy enough to hold the heavy fruit. Some growers, however, are abandoning this system and letting the vines hang down, roots up. Nino Ceritano, owner of Ceritano’s Ristorante, is growing his tomatoes from the sky down in his storefront. “It’s our first year growing them upside down,” he said. “We started in February with the seeds, growing them at my house, and then moved them here.” The plants small yellow flowers are blooming, and the tomatoes will be out in a few days, he added. The tomatoes he planted are like Romas but much bigger, and will be used in the restaurant when they are harvested later this summer. Ceritano’s tomato plants are growing in Topsy Turvy tomato planters. According to the Topsy Turvy website, this style of growing does not require the hard labor of tending to a ground grown plant and reduces ground fun-
gus. Hanging plants in the air also saves space in the garden, said Phillip Hanbury, manager of Blacksburg Feed and Seed Inc. Hanbury said the benefit of growing tomatoes upside down is that less work is needed for them to thrive. When tomatoes grow from the ground up, the vines need support such as a stake or wire and require weeding. He said the downside of growing tomatoes this way is buying the product to plant them in, however it can be reused year after year. Since this is no new phenomenon, gardeners are beginning to create their own planters instead of buying the Topsy Turvy. Hanbury said the Feed and Seed used to sell the Topsy Turvy tomato planters when they first came out, and they were really popular. However, very few people have asked about them this year. This may be because gardeners are making their own upside down tomato planter out of five-gallon buckets. “Anybody can do them, and they’re basically the same thing,” Hanbury said. “All you have to do is cut holes in the bottom.” The do-it-yourself bucket’s open top can also be used to grow smaller plants. “Marigold doesn’t have a very big root system, so they could go on top,” Hanbury said. Henry Wakley, local gardener and tomato grower, is using the bucket system to grow his plants.
“I heard about it by word-of-mouth and wanted to experiment,” he said. Wakley said it is more economical to use the buckets instead of the Topsy Turvy, because he obtained the buckets for free and started from seeds, which is cheaper. He is cutting the holes in the buckets in a particular way to prevent soil from running out of the bottom. “We have to cut a star in the bottom or a two-inch hole,” he said. “You can do either.” Wakley said the buckets need to be hung at least six feet from the ground, because the plants grow anywhere from three to four feet long. “The point is not to have the tomatoes lying on the ground where they can rot,” he said. “We’re hanging our buckets under the side deck on the south side of the house, and we will spin them every other day for full sunlight.” Wakley said tomatoes are full sun plants, and the buckets also need to be hung from something strong to hold all of the weight. “The buckets can way more than 50 pounds with the soil and plant,” he said. “It’s important to have soil that drains well and isn’t too heavy.” Though Wakley is using the bucket system to just experiment, he said this way of tomato growing is good for city gardeners who do not have land to grow tomatoes on. He said that all you need is a deck or porch, and it could also be used to plant peppers.
CHELSEA GILES / COLLEGIATE TIMES
Ceritano’s has three Topsy Turvy planters to grow their tomatoes in.