COLLEGIATETIMES
july 5, 2012
what’s inside News .............2 Opinions........4 Features ........6 Sports ...........9 Classifieds ...11 Sudoku ........11 108th year issue 65 blacksburg, va.
Local festival seeks volunteers
For some, power is still out MICHELLE SUTHERLAND editor-in-chief
COURTESY OF HALF ACRE PROMOTIONS
“The Black Twig Pickers” is one of many regional bands performing at the Catawba FARM Fest, a locally produced festival in August.
BY CHELSEA GILES | features editor Food, arts, renewal and music will be the melodic focus of the Catawba FARM Fest 2012. This local festival will be held on Labor Day weekend, August 31 through September 2, and its organizers are reaching out for community support and volunteers to make its first year a success. Half Acre Promotions, a local marketing, production and event planning partnership, has partnered with Virginia Tech to host the event in a location that is accessible to neighboring communities in the valley. Catawba FARM Fest will be held on Tech’s Catawba Sustainability Center property with the intent to showcase local produce and raise awareness for the Sustainability Center, according to the festival’s website. Anita Bevins, a partner and founder of Half Acre Promotions, said the festival has been in the works since September 2011. FARM is an acronym for
food, arts, renewal and music, which are all the spotlights for this festival. The intention is to bring local communities together in support of regional arts and produce. “In a lot of ways, it’s like
Convention and the Newport Jamborees in the local area with the to encourage the community to become more involved. The aspiration for Catawba FARM Fest is that it will be more than just a weekend about music and food. Bevins said that It’s all about sustainability, it’s an opportuto get the whether it’s sustaining your nity locals excited to home, your garden, your show off their community. community or yourself.” Before Tech would proceed Anita Bevins with Half Acre’s Partner of Half Acre Promotions proposal to host the FARM Fest on the Catawba property, however, Bevins said neighbors helping neighbors,” they were asked to meet with Bevins said. “We wanted to leaders in that community to have that feel of something gain their approval. that’s grassroots and homeBevins explained to the grown.” Catawba community leaders Half Acre Promotions has the benefits of and why it was produced other music events essential to host the festival at such as the Giles Fiddler the Sustainability Center.
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She said there has been concern in the town of the property being converted to a golf course or developed into a subdivision, but if the festival is a success, then it could be a reason to preserve that area. She also said that being able to use the community for a weekend would have a positive economic impact. “It’s going to come back to them,” she said. “Especially using their produce and their goods to highlight the food and the crafts.” The variety of music, vendors and activities is what Bevins said could attract a lot of people to Catawba for the weekend. The festival’s line up of local bands is diverse in genres, and Bevins said they are planning to have a band each night that would appeal to the different groups of people attending, whether it is rockers, bluegrass fans or reggae lovers. “There are so many people see FARM / page six
As devastating storms sweep through the region, thousands are still without power after Friday’s first round of inclement weather. As of yesterday, Appalachian Power reported more than 9,500 outages in Montgomery County, down from more than 10,600 on Friday. But for some residents in Montgomery County, power may not be back until Friday night and others in the region may have to wait as late as Sunday, according to its website. Lack of air-conditioning and electricity can be lethal. The storms and their aftermath have already claimed the lives of 11 Virginia residents, one of which was in Montgomery County, according to Robert Parker, a spokesman for the the Virginia Department of Health in the Southwest region. VDH recommends finding an air-conditioned shelter, such as the cooling center at the Blacksburg Community Center on Patrick Henry Drive, and advises against using a fan as a primary cooling device. Virginia Tech opened airconditioned dorms for university faculty and staff that are vital to operations or serve oncampus students and guests. However, the service is being “phased out,” due to low demand, according to Ken Belcher, senior associate director for housing services. “The time has passed,” he said. Eighteen people took advantage of the service, and people are starting to check out as electricity comes back or housing with friends and family become available. The temporary housing was not offered to students. However, students can use the showers at McComas Hall if they present their Hokie Passport.
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collegiatetimes.com july 5, 2012
NEWS
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Oak Lane house progresses MICHELLE SUTHERLAND editor-in-chief The university is making headway on the new Sigma Phi Epsilon house at Oak Lane, the first of many new houses in the latest stage of the community’s development. Phase IV of Oak Lane is a university initiative to bring Greek life on campus, something that Charlie Badawy and his brothers quickly took advantage of. “Being on Clay Street is great, and I will certainly miss it, but being at Oak Lane will let us work on relationships with the rest of the Greek community,” said Badawy, president of the fraternity and a human nutrition, foods and exercise major. The Phase IV development includes plans for up to 18 new fraternity houses over the next decade or so, with the cost shared by the house corporations and the university. If the fraternity can raise a third of the cost, which it does by making tax-deductible contributions to the Virginia Tech Foundation, the university will foot the rest of the bill. But, so far only Sigma Phi Epsilon has been able to raise enough funds, according to Ed Spencer, the now-retired
COURTESY OF VIRGINIA TECH
An artist’s rendition of the new Sigma Phi Epsilon house at Oak Lane. vice president for student affairs. Spencer attributes this to the relatively young alumni bases. The current Greek life system did not exist before the 1970s at Tech, so other schools with 100-year traditions find it easier to raise large sums of money. With each house costing $2-4 million, alumni support is vital to the construction. Spencer said that it is not necessarily a bad thing that the fraternities cannot raise the money initially. From the beginning planning stages, the university expected only one to be ready at the start
of the phase. He also noted that the university would have a hard time financing so many houses at once. Badawy said Sigma Phi Epsilon’s alumni base wanted to donate something lasting, like a house, which would last for 100 or 200 years. The new house will house 35 undergraduates and one graduate student, who will serve as a resident adviser. The new house will open in mid-September, and the students will be living in study-loungesturned-dorms for the first part of the school year, according to Spencer.
The Lyric Theatre 135 College Avenue ~ Movieline: 951.0604 www.thelyric.com
Judge subpoenas ‘Occupy’ tweets LOS ANGELES — Be careful what you tweet. Those 140-character missives may be used against you in a court of law. On Saturday, Criminal Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino in New York said Twitter must hand over tweets and account information belonging to Brooklynbased writer Malcolm Harris, one of the 700 people arrested for disorderly conduct during an Occupy Wall Street march on the Brooklyn Bridge in the fall of 2011. Prosecutors in the case subpoenaed tweets posted by Harris from Sept. 15, 2011, to Dec. 30, 2011, because they say they will demonstrate that he knew that police had ordered protesters not to walk on the bridge’s roadway. Twitter had argued that it would be violating Harris’ privacy if it handed over the tweets, which are no longer publicly available, but Sciarrino disagreed. “If you post a tweet, just like if you scream it out the window, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy,” the judge wrote in the decision made public Monday “This is not the same as a private email, a private direct message, a private chat, or any of the other readily available ways to have a private conversation via the Internet that now exist.” He said those private exchang-
es would require a warrant based on probable cause in order to access the relevant information. That’s not how Twitter sees the situation. “Twitter’s terms of service have long made it absolutely clear that its users ‘own’ their content,” Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner wrote in an email to Reuters. “We continue to have a steadfast commitment to our users and their rights.” She added that the company was disappointed by the ruling and would consider its legal options. But the judge said that people who use Twitter have no reasonable expectation of privacy for tweets that they make public. “Even when a user deletes his or her tweets there are search engines available such as ‘Untweetable’, ‘Tweleted’ and ‘Politwoops’ that hold users accountable for everything they had publicly tweeted and later deleted,” he wrote. “Therefore, the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights were not violated because there was no physical intrusion of the defendant’s tweets and the defendant has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the information he intentionally broadcast to the world.”
DENNIS MCLELLAN mcclatchy newspapers
collegiatetimes.com july 5, 2012
Andy Griffith, whose folksy portrayal of the wise and good-humored sheriff of Mayberry in the classic 1960s situation comedy “The Andy Griffith Show” made him one of television’s most beloved stars, has died. He was 86. Griffith, who decades later experienced another round of TV popularity starring as a crafty Atlanta defense attorney on “Matlock,” died Tuesday morning at his home in Manteo, N.C., his friend and former president of the University of North Carolina, William C. Friday, told the Los Angeles Times. The cause was not immediately determined. As Sheriff Andy Taylor, his most famous role, he was just plain good. Griffith was starring in the Broadway musical “Destry Rides Again” in 1959 when he told his agent that he was ready to try a TV series. Sheldon Leonard, the producer of “The Danny Thomas Show,” teamed with a writer to develop an idea for a series that would exploit Griffith’s homespun image: having him play the small-town sheriff of a mythical North Carolina town called Mayberry. Serving as the series’ pilot was a guest spot by Griffith in early 1960 on CBS’ “The Danny Thomas Show” in which Sheriff Taylor picked up nightclub entertainer Danny for speeding through Mayberry on his way to Miami. “The Andy Griffith Show” made its debut that fall with Ronny Howard as the widowed Taylor’s young son, Opie; and Frances Bavier as his matronly Aunt Bee. The series quickly became one of the decade’s most popular shows and ran for eight seasons. Comic actor Don Knotts, who had played a supporting role in the Broadway and film versions of “No Time for Sergeants” that Griffith had earlier starred in, had seen his “Danny Thomas Show” episode and called to suggest that Andy Taylor should have a deputy. The addition of Knotts as the incompetent but full-of-bravado Barney Fife quickly shifted the balance of the show. “I was supposed to have been the comic, the funny one,” Griffith told the Times in 1993. The series, he said, “might not have lasted even half a season that way, but when Don came on I realized by the second episode Don should be funny and I should play straight to him.” The unflappable Andy and the all-tooexcitable Barney became one of television’s greatest comedy duos. The show’s laughs came not from the characters telling jokes back and forth but typically, as in real life, out of ordinary conversations. As a TV Guide reporter put it in a 1963 article on the show’s popular-
ity: “Such dialogue — read with sly amusement by Griffith, unflinching earnestness by Knotts — demands an extraordinarily high degree of comedy acting and a solid grasp of the subtleties of character.” Considered the driving force behind the series, Griffith was heavily involved with the show’s production and helped shape the scripts and characterizations. George Lindsay, who joined the series in 1965 as Goober, told the Times in 1993: “He is probably the best script constructionist that ever was.” Griffith, he added, “made you operate at 110 percent because you brought yourself up to his level.” Ron Howard, who grew up to become one of Hollywood’s top directors, considered Griffith to be “like a wonderful uncle to me.” that I try to bring to my movies.” When Griffith and most of the major cast members reunited for “Return to Mayberry” in 1986, it was one of the highest-rated TV movies of the year. “The backbone of our show was love,” Griffith once said. “There’s something about Mayberry and Mayberry folk that never leaves you.” The small-town atmosphere depicted in Mayberry wasn’t far from Griffith’s own boyhood in Mount Airy, N.C., a small town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he was born on June 1, 1926. After graduating in 1949, Griffith taught music at a high school in Goldsboro, N.C. But he and his first wife, Barbara, a singer and musician who had been a member of the university drama group, continued acting in North Carolina’s famous annual outdoor drama, “The Lost Colony,” on Roanoke Island. In 1983, two years after receiving an Emmy nomination for his supporting role in the TV movie “Murder in Texas,” Griffith was stricken with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. “In a matter of hours, my legs were paralyzed,” he later told People magazine. After six months of extensive physical therapy, however, he fully recovered and returned to acting — including a role in the 1984 miniseries “Fatal Vision” before launching “Matlock” in 1986. Griffith, who was inducted into the TV Academy Hall of Fame in 1992, received a 1997 Grammy for his album “I Love to Tell The Story — 25 Timeless Hymns.” When Griffith received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civil award, at a White House ceremony in 2005, President George W. Bush thanked him for being “such a friendly and beloved presence in our American life.”
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Comedian Andy Griffith dies at 86
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OPINIONS
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Tech could do more for powerless students On June 29, severe thunderstorms and high winds swept across the United States. Millions of people in 10 different states lost power and many of these states declared a state of emergency, which is still in effect today. As of Tuesday, June 3, Appalachian Power still estimates more than 10,000 people in Montgomery County alone still have no power. Their crews are working around the clock, but restoration estimates are still anywhere from Friday to as late as Sunday. Following these storms were record-setting temperatures, leaving those without power to seek alternate shelters during the day and sweat through the nights as best they can. Local and state governments have opened cooling shelters and many local businesses are welcoming people to hang out in their establishments during operating hours. But what has been Virginia Tech's response to the plight of the community and many of its own students? The answer is not much. Some dorms were opened for university staff considered
“vital” and their families, free of charge and including basic accommodations like air conditioning, showers and clean water. A discount on food at D2 was similarly provided. No such offer has been extended to any off-campus students or members of the community. Classes continue this week as normal, with students still expected to attend regardless of
Library, Squires Student Center and the academic buildings have not had their hours extended. These same places will be closed on July 4, which is understandable under normal holiday situations, but still does not help anybody who will be without power on that day. There are no university programs to pass out bottled water, or offer off-campus students, many of whom had to dispose of spoiled food, a discount on Even someEverywhere on campus meals. thing as minor as there are signs proclaiming easing up on parking restrictions seems to the Hokie Nation or Hokie be out of the reach of university; if you Pride. It seems that this only the are looking to hang applies though when the out in one of the that does university is ready to accept buildings have air conditionyour money for tuition or do- ing during the day, make sure you either nations, not when you are take public transportation to camactually in need.” pus or keep an eye on the time to refill their housing and power situ- your parking meter, as Parking ation. Services will give you no Facilities with air condition- breaks. ing and water, such as Newman Now this is not to say Tech
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has not been affected by the power outages. When Summer II classes started on July 2 and engineering transfer students went to purchase and pick up their software bundles from Software Distribution, several of them found that their access to the software was denied. Due to the weather-related problems of the past weekend, some of the Tech servers apparently had a backload of data to process, and the Summer I session was “extended” to include Monday. The end result of this is that some systems did not see some of the students in Summer II as enrolled, thus preventing them from downloading the software they had purchased and needed for their classes that were already in session. It seems as though weather-related problems can be an excuse for the university, but not its students. The University of Virginia opened its recreation centers for local residents to take showers and find some relief from the heat. The town of Blacksburg has opened the community center as a cooling shelter. Tech
however, seems disappointingly oblivious to the plight of the community and its offcampus students, unless you are a vital staff member of the university. Everywhere on campus are signs proclaiming the Hokie Nation, or Hokie Pride. It seems that this only applies though when the university is ready to accept your money for tuition or donations, not when you are actually in need. So for those of you who have slept little this past week due to the heat, disposed of the expensive contents of your refrigerators, gone over your monthly budgets on food eating at restaurants because you have no way to cook, struggled to keep your laptops and phones charged to keep up with your assignments and looked around for even a short relief from the heat, good luck. Don't expect any help from Virginia Tech, though.
MATTHEW WHITEMAN -guest columnist -computer science -senior
collegiatetimes.com july 5, 2012
Health care to remain in contention in politics Early this past Thursday morning, countless politicians, protesters and members of the media surrounded the Supreme Court eagerly awaiting a ruling on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or simply ACA), more recognizably known as "Obamacare."As the court approached its last day in session, June 28, perhaps the most politically charged discussion in the chambers focused on the health care law, which had undergone dispute beginning in Florida shortly after passing and had finally reached the highest court in the land in late March. At the center of the assault against the law stood the individual mandate, a clause in the bill that declared that any American that did not purchase health care starting in 2014 would be subject to a penalty — either a direct fee or a percentage of their income, whichever was greater. Specific guidelines provided by the language of the bill were spelled out to ensure that regardless of your financial situation, you would be able to afford health care — people making up to 400 percent of the national poverty level would have access to subsidies offered by the government in order to reduce costs for various health care policies.
Low-income families that met certain qualifications could benefit from Medicaid, the elderly are typically covered by Medicare, and middle-income Americans can keep the insurance they have if they so choose. Regardless of class, you have the ability to get some form of insurance and are required by law to do so. Detractors of the law, however, wondered about the constitutionality of forcing Americans to purchase health insurance. It seemed like a direct assault on constitutional law and individual liberty. So as the case made its way up the judicial ladder, political speculation assumed that upon reaching the Supreme Court, the individual mandate would be struck down and since it was seen as being an integral part of the entire law, the law would crumble with it. The court, up until the June 28 ruling, had decidedly presented a conservative front in face of the law, and a 5-4 vote against the mandate was expected by expert and amateur analysts alike. Defying expectations was Chief Justice John Roberts, whose decision to side with his more liberal colleagues was a surprise move and has been considered by many in political circles to be a direct betrayal to his conservative
roots. Justice Roberts and his vote are considered especially critical in many Supreme Court decisions, particularly when one considers how the Court is otherwise divided along party lines — when cases reach his desk, the ruling is often four against four and Roberts is left responsible for making the final decision. And since his decisions hold the most weight considering the circumstances, the scrutiny is never higher than when he rules against his party. The first few minutes after the Court's decision can accurately be described as media bedlam and extraordinary television. Major media outlets CNN and FOX News took the first words out of the court and immediately broadcast them as headlines — that the individual mandate was unconstitutional as improper application of the powers granted by the "commerce clause." Political pundits from both conservative and liberal circles expressed praise or lamented the decision. Minutes later, when the Court declared that the law was in fact constitutional under the rhetoric that the mandate was a tax, experts scrambled to save face and correct their misrepresentation of the events on hand. The "tax" rhetoric and its political consequences is where the
controversy settles in. As we inch ever closer to the general election, both candidates will have to field questions surrounding the surprise ruling. Conservative pundits have decidedly pursued an aggressive "win-win" approach to the decision — if the law fell, they were right the whole time, and now that it has stood as a tax, they are slamming President Obama about his support of the bill as it made its way through Congress.President Obama is on record saying that the individual mandate was absolutely not a tax. And now that it is a tax, the Obama campaign has an interesting road ahead of them trying to both defend their position on taxing the middle class and going on the offensive with how they believe the ACA actually works. Particular attention will have to be paid to how the public understands the bill, and conflicting statements from the President does not make clarification an easy task. Conservative criticism will undoubtedly take advantage of such a circumstance. Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, however, will have to defend his position on health care as well — it is generally understood or at least advertised that "Obamacare" was modeled
after "Romneycare," a similar health insurance policy that was enacted in Massachusetts under guidance from the governor. It will be difficult for him, as it has been already, to attack legislation he championed himself in Massachusetts—regardless of whether the law stands as a tax or not. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see how both candidates assess the controversial ruling handed down by the Supreme Court. The White House will struggle to try to put the legislation behind them as attacks against past rhetoric continue to surface, and the Romney campaign will continue to struggle to achieve a convincing argument that separates "Obamacare" from "Romneycare." And it will be even more interesting to see how Americans react in the long run, as it remains to be seen how the health care law and the individual mandate will actually affect average Americans. We will have to wait, it seems until 2014 to see whose politics strike the right chord in the end.
ERIC JONES -regular columnist -junior -psychology major
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a Baptist and became a Methodist in Vernon, Texas. Barack Obama, the father of the future president, was not a Muslim but an atheist,” Maraniss writes. He concludes the same about Obama’s mother. Time and again, Maraniss uncovers never-before-revealed information, including the case of the president’s birth. Not long after Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, delivered the future president, Maraniss writes, an obstetrician-gynecologist named Rodney T. West dined with a friend who asked, “Well, Dr. West, tell me something interesting that happened to you this week.” West was a colleague of David A. Sinclair, who delivered Barack Obama. In response to the question, he responded: “Stanley had a baby. Now that’s something to write about.” Writes Maraniss: “He went on to explain that Stanley in this instance was a young woman, of course, no miracle birth. Stanley was white. The baby was black. The father was an African with an interesting name too.” The friend at lunch was Barbara Czurles, then a journalist at the Honolulu StarBulletin, who shared the funny story in a letter she sent to her own father. Yes, the president told us himself in “Dreams” that he’d smoked pot, but there had been no airing of stories such as Maraniss tells about the Choom Gang, complete with a photograph of this informal club of pot smokers. Who, outside his tight-knit circle, knew that young Barry Obama started the “total absorption” method, which held that “if you exhaled precious pakololo ... instead of absorbing it fully into your lungs you were assessed a penalty and your turn was skipped next time the joint came around.” We also learned from Obama himself that he had a white girlfriend while living in Manhattan during his Columbia years, but he referred to her only as “a woman” or “my friend.” Maraniss not only found Genevieve Cook, but enticed her to share diary entries she wrote about their relationship, many of which are prescient and some of which are borderline salacious. In our polarized world, many will parse the vignettes and reaffirm their admiration or antipathy for the president. Some will say it confirms a lack of vetting in 2008. But the takeaway on which all should agree is that the volume of coverage of our modern political debate should not be mistaken for quality. If the two were synonymous, Maraniss would not have had so much to write about, with a second volume in the works. We are all paying a price for eviscerated newsrooms.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH -mcclatchy newspapers
It’s official! A new study by the Pew Research Center proves the old trope true: Asians are the new Jews. All those essentially positive stereotypes you’ve heard about — the hard work and the Tiger Moms — have made Asian Americans the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States. Not only that, in the last few years, Asians have overtaken Latinos as the largest group of new immigrants to the United States. This is all good news — both for Asian Americans and the United States — but the Jewish comparison has a dark side. Once the cheering over this study, titled “The Rise of Asian America,” has subsided, we might remember it as the dawn of a new era of anti-Asian bias. Americans tend to view race and ethnic relations as a linear progression. The triumphant narrative of the civil rights movement has us convinced that things get better over time: Economic status rises as prejudice decreases, and vice versa. We also like to tell ourselves that bias is always targeted downward, at the weakest and the most vulnerable in society. But neither assumption is true, and the sooner we recognize that, the better position we’ll be in to manage race relations in a rapidly changing America. We should start by getting rid of the canard that modern anti-Semitism is primarily a form of religious bigotry. Christopher Hitchens was one of the few contemporary figures who openly argued what I have long suspected: distrust or disdain of Jews can sometimes be motivated by envy and resentment of an identifiably separate group that’s significantly wealthier than the population at large. A decade or so ago, a prominent conservative political writer went so far as to tell me off the record of his suspicion that a large portion of Jewish philanthropy is motivated by a desire to defuse envy over the income disparity between the Jewish and Gentile populations. All of this suggests that invidious comparisons between groups are alive, that they’re stoked by economics and that, though not particularly venomous in the U.S. right now, they have the potential to become dangerous under the wrong circumstances. Chinese merchants throughout Asia have known this for a long time. In Southeast Asia, they make up something of a creditor class that has, from time to time, faced persecution and political attack. Nowhere is this more true than in Indonesia, where the Chinese are known as “the middle race.” In 1959, the Indonesian
government implemented anti-Chinese legislation that forced Chinese merchants to abandon their businesses. In 1973, a riot in West Java led to the looting and destruction of more than 1,500 Chinese Indonesianowned shops and houses. In 1998, as Indonesia’s economy imploded amid the broader Asian financial crisis, rioting with a strong anti-Chinese element took the lives of at least 1,000 people, costing $250 million in damages. I’m not predicting that any of this will happen to Chinese Americans, who make up nearly a quarter of Asians in the U.S. But you’d be naive not to see the flip side of last week’s Pew study, which states that the median household income of Asian Americans is 33% higher than that of the general public. Here in California, we’ve long heard grumbling about the number of Asians gaining admittance to the public university system. UC Irvine, whose undergraduate student body is 49 percent Asian, has been nicknamed the “University of Chinese and Indians.” UCLA, which had a 2011 freshman class that was 41 percent Asian American, has been dubbed “University of Caucasians Lost Among Asians.” The “rise of Asian Americans” coincides with China’s emergence as a global power. As competition with China heats up, Asian Americans may feel the brunt of any anti-China sentiment. And history tells us that bigots don’t really care about your actual background as long as you look the part. Case in point? Last week saw the 30th anniversary of the killing of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American in Michigan who died after he was beaten by two out-of-work autoworkers who blamed him for competition from the Japanese automobile industry. It’s tempting to ascribe the success of Asian Americans to our beloved ragsto-riches narrative, and to believe that they have achieved the old-fashioned American dream. But that’s not quite true, and that too could feed resentment. Six in 10 adult immigrants from Asia arrive in the United States with at least a bachelor’s degree. So while activists have spent the last generation demanding an end to low-skilled immigration, we shouldn’t be surprised if we start hearing calls for the end of highly skilled immigration from Asia. More than anything else, race relations Americanstyle have always been about sharp elbows and hunger for a piece of the pie.
GREGORY RODRIGUEZ -mcclatchy newspapers
collegiatetimes.com july 5, 2012
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David Maraniss reminds us that there is no substitute for primarysource reporting in his new book, “Barack Obama: The Story.” Last week, Maraniss told me that he spent nearly four years researching and writing the book, during which time he logged 50,000 miles, conducted close to 400 interviews, and searched libraries on three continents. The result is a biography of more than 600 pages that ends with Obama’s acceptance to Harvard Law School. While Maraniss told me that his goal was not to vet the president’s own memoir, many readers will be tempted to focus on the contradictions between “The Story” and “Dreams From My Father.” The bigger story is what Maraniss’ revelations say about what others missed or did not seek. “As a journalist for 35 years, and now author for 20, I’ve learned that there’s always more,” he told me. “There always is. And the first thing that I have to overcome with most of my books is, ‘Don’t we already know this?’ Well, no. ... If you start with the mind-set that you know nothing, you will learn a lot that nobody knew before.” In the introduction, Maraniss writes: “I believe that life is chaotic, a jumble of accidents, ambitions, misconceptions, bold intentions, lazy happenstances, and unintended consequences, yet I also believe that there are connections that illuminate our world, revealing its endless mystery and wonder.” He justifies that with details of the president’s youth and his ancestors. One example is Obama’s great-greatgrandmother Gabriella Clark Armour, who cared for Obama’s grandfather (Stanley Dunham) after Stanley’s mother committed suicide in 1926. Had she not decided to keep Stanley home on a Monday night in 1935, he would have been in a car with friends that swerved to miss a cow on a Kansas road, thereby driving into the lane of an oil-transport truck. He would have been among the four dead and, presumably, Obama would never have been born. Then there is Obama’s Kenyan grandfather, Hussein Onyango, often the subject of speculation that he participated in the Mau Mau revolt against the British in Kenya. Maraniss doesn’t buy that conclusion, nor the president’s contention that his grandfather was tortured by the British. Onyango has also been viewed as an important link between Obama and Islam, but again, Maraniss documents a different conclusion. He argues that Onyango was a Muslim who did not follow all its precepts. “His life was more directly shaped by Christian missionaries, and he had no qualms sending his own son, Barack Obama (Sr.), to Christian schools. Moreover, Barry never met Hussein Onyango, but spent most of his childhood with his white grandfather, Stan Dunham, who was raised
OPINIONS
Collegiate Times Editorial Staff Editor-in-Chief Michelle Sutherland Managing Editor Zach Mariner Features Editor Chelsea Giles Sports Editor Alex Koma Head Copy Editor Luther Shell Online Director Alex Rhea
Questions still loom New immigration 5 about Barack Obama brings new problems
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FARM: food, arts, renewal and music fest from page one
we can appeal to, and that it will ensure how successful we are,” she said. The festival’s location will provide more than just a weekend about music. The Catawba Sustainability Center could be a haven for outdoor enthusiasts, because it is close
the Appalachian Trail for hikes and is also near a lake. “It’s going to be a true camping experience,” Bevins said. “There’s lots of room to spread out, and it’s a beautiful valley. It’s going to be a nice package deal.” The festival is also being tailored to be a fun family trip. There will
be puppeteers, a storyteller, as well as a sand sculpture contest to entertain the younger attendees. Bevins said even though tickets increased in price, it is still affordable. “For most people, (Labor Day weekend) is the last hurrah before they get back into the school year, and they can’t afford to take the
kids to Disney World or off to the beach for a long weekend,” she said. No matter who attends, there will be a common theme throughout the festival for all to enjoy. The Catawba FARM Fest will be promoting a sustainable lifestyle, an aspect that will also attract slow food supporters and local famers. “It’s all about sustainability, whether its sustaining your home, your garden, your community or yourself,” Bevins said. According to the festival’s website, there will be recycling and compost bins available, and the participating vendors will use earth friendly products and promote locally sourced crafts. The website also said there will a Sustainability Tent where workshops, discussions and presentations will be held by people who have personal sustainability stories or projects. There will also be a fresh foods tent named “El Huerto” (the garden), which will feature meals made with local produce. A food pass can be purchased with a ticket to include six meals throughout the weekend created by Chef Tim Bevins from Craft Restaurant in Dallas, Texas, according to the website. “Trying to organize a farm to table experience is such a big job, but I think it’s going to increase our appeal to demographics of people who are in the slow food movement,” Anita Bevins said. “We’re reaching out to those who are really interested in supporting their community and fresh food.” 40 bands, sustainability workshops, a local foods menu and a growing list of craft vendors may seem like a lot for a festival’s first year, but Bevins said the community support has influenced her to prove they can do it. “You can’t look at it as a big thing, you have to look at it in small pieces or it would be so overwhelming,” she said. “The biggest message would be community support, because at the end of the day, this is the pilot event. “This is going to determine if we’re going to pull this off year after year.” To be able to do this, Half Acre’s is seeking volunteers to tie it all together. Bevins said there are around 20 volunteers now, but they need a minimum of 100 and would prefer to have 150. Volunteers can sign up for shifts then receive a festival pass for a day or the weekend depending on how many hours they work. Michele Canterbury, a Catawba
FARM Fest staff member, said this festival would have more of a homegrown feel than the bigger ones, so one could see first hand how these types of events are run. “You will probably get to be around the musicians more,” Canterbury said. “It’s a smaller scale, so there will be more opportunities for volunteers and somewhat of a choice of what you’re doing in volunteering.” There will be a variety of jobs from setting up for the festival to cleaning up after, or working during the event from anything to trash duty, recycling, parking and kitchen duties. “I would say that any music lover, any person that enjoys live music and going to festivals, or if you’re at all interested in trying to get your foot in the door in that environment, volunteering would be
collegiatetimes.com july 5, 2012
“
You will get to be around the musicians more. It’s a smaller scale, so there will be more opportunities for volunteers. Michele Canterbury Catawba FARM Fest staff member a great first step,” she said. “If you want to be involved in the town, it’s also a great idea.” Bevins said that volunteers will report to a certain staff member depending on which area they are working. The staff consists of a tight group of friends who have been working together for years to reach a common goal of spreading live music in the area and bringing communities together, Canterbury said. “We’re looking for people we can add to that community of people, people who want to put their hearts into events and are in love with music,” she said. Though Half Acre Promotions is expecting around 1,000 attendees, Bevins said they must prepare for 5,000, because that is the amount they are able to accommodate. The quality of services is what can make or break the experience, regardless of the festival’s size, she said. “Our intention is to make this an annual event without a hitch, and that takes a lot support, a lot of staff, a lot of volunteers,” Bevins said. Volunteer, vendor, food and ticket information is on the festival’s website, www.catawbafarmfest.org.
Tatum’s past, not so magical In the half dozen years that he's been a movie star, Channing Tatum could be excused for skipping the exercise of reading his reviews. He's been in several box office hits: "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," "Step Up", but the good notices have been few and far between."Tatum makes what use he can of his two expressions," critic Derek Malcolm might crack about Tatum's turn in "Dear John." Or The New York Times might call his work as a guilt-stricken cop in "The Son of No One" "one of the year's most wooden, expressionless star turns."The ex-model, onetime stripper seemed written off as just another big screen six-pack, a guy famous for turning up shirtless in almost everything he did. But 2012 has changed all that. At 32, Tatum is on a roll, with commercial hits ("The Vow" and "21 Jump Street"), the attention of a name director (Steven Soderbergh) and critical acclaim for his newly discovered gift for comedy ("Haywire" and "21 Jump Street"). "It's the '10,000 hour rule,'" he says. "It takes that many hours to master something. I don't know if I'll ever master it, because every role is a totally new experience. But ... I'm closing in on 10,000 hours. I'm just starting to understand the whole thing." The cherry on the top of this year's coming-out party for Tatum is "Magic Mike," a dramatic comedy that Soderbergh and screenwriter Reid Carolin built around Tatum's first job in show business — taking it all off for screaming female fans at a Miami strip club. "This movie has almost nothing to do with my experience in that world," he says. "It's ficti-
tious. I only danced for about eight months. But the stuff that happened was so crazy and outrageous that you couldn't put it into a movie without somebody going, 'You're making that up just to sell tickets.'"I was 18 at the time. I was living in Florida. I dropped out of college where I had played football. And I have a sister. That much of the film is true. But I never OD'd or any of that other stuff." In the film, which opens Friday, Tatum has the title role, playing the star stripper of an all male dance revue who takes an 18 year old (played by Alex Pettyfer) under his wing, courting the younger guy's sister (Cody Horn) as he does. "The first half of 'Magic Mike' really captures my experience of what exposure to this world was like," Tatum says. "Soderbergh told me, 'I can't believe an 18 year-old kid went into this world, where the other guys were grown men — guys who had been doing this dancing for years.' This kid doesn't know what he's getting into. I didn't." Tatum made no secret of this part of his background, and had been talking up a movie on this subject for a few years, before his rising star power and the attention of Soderbergh made that dream a reality. "The one thing I really wanted the movie to capture was the wildness of it all," he says. "We know what the female stripping world is like, thanks to a lot of movies. But men go to see a strip show for different reasons than women. Men go for a carnal experience. Visual sexual stimulation. "I think women just go to laugh, and embarrass the friend sitting next to them — laughing at their friend's red-face as
she's getting (ground) on. That's been my experience, anyway. They're not there to get turned on." The secret to taking it all off, in public? It's not just about the gym time, the oil, about the dance moves (Tatum was an accomplished dancer, even at 18). "Committing is the key," he says. "It's like acting, in a way. You've got to sell it. My thing was the dancing part of it. I didn't like taking off my clothes. I wasn't very big, not some big muscle-bound meat head who could flash the muscles and everything. I could dance. So I got to the younger girls." For the film, which was shot and set in Tampa, Tatum became the on-set truth-detector. He was the guy who had lived this life. "There wasn't a power point presentation that he gave or anything," says costar Joe Manganiello of TV's "True Blood." "But his experiences were in the script. He was open and frank about his past, with us. He says he did do this and there's no shame to it. That was all the rest of us needed." And preparation? There was the gym time, of course. And rehearsing with a choreographer. And for some, getting used to appearing in the buff. "I didn't think I could get more naked in a movie," Tatum laughs. "They proved me wrong!"But it was more fun, this time. Stripping was my first performance. My first time up on stage. And it's very funny that it's come around to this, after all these other movies, me stripping again, performing that way again, in a movie."
oo LP in the
Thursday July 5
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel The Lyric Theatre 7 pm, 9 pm
Friday July 6
Blacksburg Farmers Market Market Square Park 8:00 am New Life’s Family Movie Night “How To Train Your Dragon” 130 Jackson Street 7:00 pm Moonrise Kingdom The Lyric Theatre 7 pm, 9 pm Friday Night Out Concert: Panjammers (steel drums) Henderson Lawn 6:00 pm
Saturday July 7
Moonrise Kingdom The Lyric Theatre 7 pm, 9:15 pm
Sunday July 8
Moonrise Kingdom The Lyric Theatre 3 pm, 7 pm, 9:15 pm
Monday July 9
Moonrise Kingdom The Lyric Theatre 10 am, 7 pm, 9:15 pm
Tuesday July 10 Moonrise Kingdom The Lyric Theatre 7 pm, 9:15 pm
Wednesday July 11
Blacksburg Farmers Market Market Square Park 2:00 pm Moonrise Kingdom The Lyric Theatre 7 pm, 9:15 pm Celebrate 150 Years of Land-Grant Universities Newman Library Study Café 4:30 pm
crimeblotter date
time
offense
location
status
6/28/2012
6:45 pm
Follow up to larceny for a cell phone
Torgersen Hall
Unfounded
7/1-2/2012
2 pm - 7 am
Larceny of wire spools
Schultz (Construction site)
Active
6/2122/2012
10pm - 5:30 Larceny of bicycle pm
Outside Torgersen Hall
Inactive
6/25/2012
1 pm - 2:30 Larceny of wooden hanger pm
Newman Library
Inactive
arrestees
7 FEATURES
ROGER MOORE mcclatchy newspapers
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FEATURES
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Authors reveal the town from then to now IESH LAL features staff writer Two local authors have released a publication detailing the historic preservation and alterations occurring to architectural structures in the town of Blacksburg since its inception. The publication, titled “Blacksburg: Then and Now,” was released through Arcadia Press on June 25 by authors Terri Fisher, an outreach programs coordinator at the Community Design Assistant Center at Virginia Tech, and Terry Nicholson, the museum administrator for the town of Blacksburg. Fisher has also authored two publications about Giles County and co-authored Lost Communities of Virginia. “It’s a comparison of historic photographs to modern photographs to explore how buildings have changed or how they’ve stayed the same over time here in Blacksburg,” Nicholson said. “We wanted to make that connection to the historic buildings and the stories of the people that lived in them.” Nicholson, originally a chemist by trade, and Fisher, originally a computer scientist, have always had an interest in history and specifically in historic buildings. Both were students of architecture at Tech and both of their interests are in preservation. “We look at those (buildings) as kind of triggers of memories and sto-
ries about people,” Nicholson said. “You know, the building itself is pretty fascinating, but when you tie that in to the people that lived in it or the people that worked in it…it makes it much more interesting and gives it much more depth than it has.” Nicholson said the book explores how the buildings or their uses have changed over time, which brings the stories to light. The main focus of the book is more or less the preservation of these buildings. The town of Blacksburg owns nine historic buildings, and all of those buildings are in some kind of adaptive use. The authors pointed to the Blacksburg Motor Company building on South Main Street as a specific example. “The (BMC) building itself is a really neat example of how you can do things historically sensitive; they restored that building to look very much like it did when it was built in the 1920s…but it’s energy-efficient; it’s a lead platinum certified building, meaning all of the technologies that makes a building energyefficient were used in that building,” Nicholson said. He also said that despite what most people complain about when discussing old buildings, the original architects thought about how they would perform ecologically and economically. Another aspect of the book the authors highlight is being able to identify traces between historic and
modern buildings in architecture. “(We’re) making sure people are aware of how old some of the buildings are,” Nicholson said. “A lot of the buildings here – in Blacksburg especially – are well-hidden as old buildings and people drive by them or even go into them and don’t realize how old they are, or that they may have had some kind of previous function.” Fisher said that they also wanted to give the reader recognition using landscape in the town. “For example, the 7-11 (off downtown Main Street) is sunk down into a parking lot there, but the parking lot was once the basement of a church,” Fisher said. “So that’s why the 7-11 is where it is, and there’s some other examples of that around town where you’ll find traces of things – a set of stairs going to nowhere, for example – that were previously buildings that aren’t there anymore.” Other buildings the authors point to that have been significantly altered are ones such as Squires Student Center and Cabo Fish Taco. Cabo Fish Taco was previously a Presbyterian church, evidenced by its interior architecture, exemplifying another well-hidden historic building that people are going into all the time. Squires is another example of a blend of both the historic and modern counterparts of a building. “When you look at the historic
collegiatetimes.com july 5, 2012
The authors compare historic photographs to the modern buildings. photograph of Squires, many people are going to think it’s not even the same building, but it really is, and the original façade is still inside the existing building, and they just added a new façade on it,” Nicholson said. “People walking through the halls of Squires now might think those arches are just kind of a grand entrance into an interior space, but that really used to be the exterior of the building.” On the other hand, an example of a building staying the same is the Smithfield Plantation, built in 1774, and it looks almost exactly it did (when it was built), said Nicholson. Diane Hoover, the manager of the Smithfield Plantation Museum store, said that the museum store carries books on history that pertain to the interpretation of the house and also local books of historical significance. She will be hosting authors Fisher and Nicholson for another book signing today, July 4th, at the museum’s store. In compiling and comparing the photographs for this book, the process was three-tiered. To begin, Fisher and Nicholson started looking for historic photographs. Then, they would try to capture the vantage point of a modern picture to its historic counterpart. Finally, they would write corresponding captions
and descriptions for the modern/ historic comparison. “Special collections at Virginia Tech in the library there was one of our major resources,” Nicholson said. “We had several local collectors and private collectors, who gave us access to their collections. “And then the museum itself has some of its own collections that we were able to use, some of which had not been published before.” Nicholson said that when finding the vantage of some of the buildings, it was challenging to capture the same one as the historic picture due to trees or buildings that are there now. “So what we did in those cases was if something was in the way, we would try to take a photograph from similar vantage point so that you can at least recognize the changes and why that vantage point was different,” he said. The authors’ final step was writing captions for the photographs to explain the transition of the buildings’ use over time. “Blacksburg: Then and Now” can be found in various local bookstores, the Tech bookstores and other local vendors, such as the Smithfield Plantation’s museum shop and the Blacksburg Museum.
World cup could replace Olympic competition National pride is an important element of the games to be sure, and while there’s something unique about the Olympics, these players would still get the chance to wear “USA” on their uniforms in a world cup. Furthermore, as Chris Bosh’s withdrawal from the team last week demonstrates, it’s hard for these players to justify extending an already brutally long season for no reimbursement. The notion of patriotic pride is a certainly a noble one, but it seems to be a quality that few players have very much of these days. When it comes down to it, the risk of injury or fatigue often overcomes any desire to wave the flag. In the proposed world cup, it would make sense that the players could be offered some form of reward for their efforts, in addition to playing for their country. Additionally, the concept of going abroad for exposure is becoming antiquated as well. While players like Charles Barkley basked in the glow of Barcelona in 1992, and opened himself up to a whole new contingent of fans in the process, stars these days are often already a global enterprise. If people like Bosh or Dwyane Wade weren’t already international brands, then they might be able to justify playing through injuries to earn the marketing dollars associated with such a journey. Instead, it’s highly doubtful that fans in China or France aren’t already intimately familiar with most of the players that would comprise the Olympic team.
MCT CAMPUS
Squads like the “Redeem Team” that took home the gold in 2008 may soon be a thing of the past in the world of international basketball. There are certainly still problems associated with a world cup format, however. One major problem that has also plagued the Olympics is a lack of international talent depth. The United States will always be a contender and although countries like Spain, Argentina or France have all achieved some success on the international stage, there isn’t the same kind of talent throughout the rest of the world. In soccer’s version of the world cup, it often seems as if there are a dozen nations with a legitimate shot at win-
ning. In this new basketball version, the number of contenders might be more of a handful, and if this new system is depending on fan interest, then this lack of competition might be a real problem. There’s also the very real possibility that players still won’t have the incentive to participate. The NBA’s 82-game season is a grueling one, and injuries are a reality of the sport. No matter how much money they’re offered, it’s not as if crippled players like Derrick Rose can just walk off a late-season injury. All that being said, this world cup
is an exciting possibility that deserves to be explored. Cuban is in favor of an even more radical solution, where the league itself would create its own international tournament rather than partnering with FIBA, but this current proposal at least deserves to be examined. It wouldn’t be ideal to go back to the way things were in the Olympics pre-Dream Team, with only collegeaged players taking the court, but the prospect of an exhilarating new competition like this is too great pass up. Besides, these days, players are entering the league at the age of 18 or 19, so by the time the summer games role around, they could have three or four years of league experience and be ready to compete with the rest of the world. If the world cup does become a reality, then presumably many international players would also skip the Olympics in favor of this new competition, so the playing field should remain fairly even. So here’s hoping that the 2012 USA team can bring home the gold this time around- it may be their best chance for a long while.
9 SPORTS
The “Dream Team” of 1992 and the “Redeem Team” of 2008 may be some of America’s proudest Olympic memories, but these star-studded basketball teams in the summer games may soon be a thing of the past. As the London incarnation of the games draws ever closer, there’s growing rumblings that the NBA is considering partnering with FIBA to create a “World Cup of Basketball,” while preventing professional players over 23 from competing in the games. While there may be plenty of fond memories of the USA’s gold medals in basketball, there’s one thing that is even sweeter to basketball officials: money. The tournament would likely bring in millions, or even billions, of dollars through advertising support and TV contracts for the NBA. The International Olympics Committee provides the league with no compensation for its players participating in the games, and this has been a sore spot with many influential people in the industry, such as Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. This effort may seem like pure greed on the part of the NBA, but as America’s Olympic team for 2012 starts to take shape, it seems more and more like this might be the more practical suggestion. The Olympics has always been attractive for players as both a way to represent their country and gain international exposure, but both of these factors appear to be growing less significant.
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ALEX KOMA - sports editor - junior - communication
collegiatetimes.com july 5, 2012
sports editor Most of Virginia Tech’s athletes receive accolades for their performance on the field, but their exploits in the classroom are starting to garner attention as well. Players on eight Hokie sports teams were recently named to the ACC’s All-Academic teams, while several of Tech’s squads also excelled in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate (APR) program. The golf team, men’s tennis team and men’s cross-country team all accrued perfect scores, while the football team tallied its highest score since the metric was introduced in 2004. “Academics is our number one priority,” said Jay Hardwick, golf head coach. “The athletics is what everyone sees, but we’re really focused on ensuring that everyone graduates.” These current APR scores reflect academic results from the teams’ past four seasons, and are determined by comparing how many students remain in school and how many remain academically eligible to compete, showing that Tech has maintained a high academic stan-
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dard for awhile now. “We treat academics the same way we do tennis,” said Jim Thompson, men's tennis head coach. “We set goals for the team at the beginning of the year, and much like tennis, we check in frequently to help them achieve them.” Between the coaches’ focus on schoolwork and the assistance of Student-Athlete Academic Support Services (SAASS), Tech’s athletes are consistently prepared to perform well scholastically. “We try and take a proactive approach towards (athletes’) performance in the classroom,” said Jermaine Holmes, director of SAASS. “We provide counseling, tutorial and mentor support and even arrange for learning specialists to work with students with learning disabilities." This work by the athletes, in partnership with SAASS, has generated some impressive numbers besides APR. “Tech is sixth in the conference in graduation rate, and our athletes have a cumulative GPA of 3.0, which are both strong numbers,” Holmes said. “We’ve provided over 10,000 tutorial sessions, and I think
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quirks of the system, it doesn’t quite read that way,” Hardwick said. “We had one player eligible for a fifth year of participation after a medical redshirt year, but he chose not to return, so that might make it seem like we haven’t been excellent for a while now.” Coaches agree that their players’ hard work isn’t always accurately reflected by measures like APR. “APR is certainly calculated in some interesting ways,” Thompson said. “It might’ve indicated we weren’t as good some years as others, and it doesn’t always show the kind of commitment our athletic department has to academics.” The athletic department’s support, in conjunction with the rest of Tech’s faculty and staff, is undoubtedly a crucial part of this sustained success. “The academic side of campus and athletic side of campus really work together well,” Hardwick said. “We all have a terrific working relationship, and the fact that our athletes graduate at a higher rate than the rest of the student body is amazing.” Tech’s faculty also plays a large
role in helping athletes flourish, as the rigors of games and travel often make scheduling difficult. “During the season, it’s a reality that student-athletes are going to miss classes,” Holmes said. “But the faculty and staff here are extremely supportive about working to help accommodate them.” Many coaches credit an emphasis on academics during the recruiting process as what has helped them build and sustain these accomplishments. “A lot of times, academics is the reason we get in the door with recruits,” Hughes said. “We attract kids that care about school, and I think that speaks volumes about the university.” As academically focused students continue to join these programs, Tech’s scholastic performance should keep on rising. “Recruits know what’s expected of them when they come here,” Hardwick said. “Academics and sports go hand in hand, and if they can demonstrate commitment in the classroom, they can on the field as well."
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that has a lot to do with our results.” This academic success has also paid dividends in the recent selection of the ACC’s All-Academic teams. Athletes on the baseball, softball, lacrosse, men’s and women’s tennis and men’s and women’s track and field teams have all earned recognition for their good grades. “It’s a great tribute to these athletes that they can dedicate themselves both on the field and in the classroom,” said Pete Hughes, head baseball coach. “It’s really impressive to see them perform at such a high level in two different arenas.” A total of 31 Hokie athletes made the teams, and this honor has proved very meaningful to both the players and others. “I think it means everything to them,” Hardwick said. “I’ve even heard from alumni about how proud they are of these guys.” While the APR results demonstrate that the teams have achieved some significant progress, the vagaries of the metric may make the All-Academic teams a better representation of the athletes’ academic proficiency. “We should’ve had a perfect APR score every year, but through some
“Fourth of July” 1) fireworks 2) sparklers 3) patriots 4) cookout 5) flags
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Blacksburg Farmers Market: Every Wednesday (2 -7 PM) and Saturday (8 AM-2 PM) 6 6:00-7:30 PM Friday Night Out Concert Series: PanJam, Henderson Lawn, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
A basket contains 5 apples. Do you know how to divide them among 5 kids so that each one has an apple and one apple stays in the basket?
Try to solve the riddle! All information is given to successfully answer it. Good luck!
JULY
ALEX KOMA
4 kids get an apple (one apple for each one of them) and the fifth kid gets an apple with the basket still containing the apple.
SPORTS
Hokie athletes accumulate academic accolades
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UNSCRAMBLER
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7 9:00 AM-5:00 PM Annual New River Valley Garden Tour, Downtown Blacksburg, Blacksburg
9 11:00AM- TBD 9th annual Special Olympics Golf Tournament, Blacksburg Country Club, Blacksburg 11 4:30-5:30 PM Reception & Opening: Celebrate 150 Years of Land-Grant Universities, Newman Library, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
*have an event you’d like listed on the Collegiate Times Community Calendar? Send your event with the date, time, and short description to studybreak@collegemedia.com.
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Thursday, July 5 2012
XKCD by Randell Munroe
Regular Edition Today’s Birthday Horoscope: Practice makes perfect, and the spotlight is on. Keep up the action, and consider accepting new responsibilities. You can handle them. Stay focused on the job at hand to see past confusion or chaos. Listen to your coach.
Crossword 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.
Battleship:
My Board
Carrier:
Submarine:
Destroyer:
My Opponent’s
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
word UNSCRAMBLER
2 6 8 6 3 7 1 5 9 8 9 7 4 7 5 3 9 9 5 1 7 3 4 8 9 7 6 3 8
Unscramble the letters to solve the category “Video Games” Have a set of words you want to see in puzzles section? Email your lists to studybreak@collegemedia.com.
1. ohal
l
2. aultdc foyl 3. om rrciata
o r
4. zdlae 5. orruepsi ma
d r
Check out next week’s paper on pg 10 for the answers!
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SPORTS
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It’s time to stop giving every team an All-Star PHIL ROGERS mcclatchy newspapers Suck it in, MLB. It's time to squeeze into those pants you take off the hanger once a year. You wouldn't think a 34-man AllStar roster would be the equivalent of skinny jeans. But when you examine the process that will lead to the teams from the National and American leagues that will play July 10 in Kansas City, you realize that, once again, a price will be paid for not giving this more thought all year. Alfonso Soriano, who was homerless until May 15, could be an AllStar. Ditto the highly debatable likes of Giancarlo Stanton, Tommy Milone and Chase Headley or Huston Street. Courtesy of fan voting, Derek Jeter, Mike Napoli, Buster Posey, Dan Uggla and Rafael Furcal are positioned to qualify for the trip to Kauffman Stadium even though they haven't been one of the best at their positions this season. Who is going to get left off? Carlos Ruiz, who entered the weekend leading the NL with a .362 average, is one of the most prominent players walking a tightrope. He will be a lock if Yadier Molina makes up a narrow deficit on Posey in fan balloting. Given the respect for Molina, Ruiz probably wouldn't win player voting, so he would be a third catcher, at best, on Tony La Russa's roster. The best leadoff man, Austin Jackson (.413 on-base percentage, .946 OPS), is borderline. Unless the eye-black lobby is very powerful, there won't be room for Bryce Harper. Others on the bubble are the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw along with studs Cole Hamels, Zack Greinke, Gio Gonzalez, Yu Darvish, Dustin
Pedroia, Mark Trumbo, Edwin Encarnacion, Jimmy Rollins, Hanley Ramirez, Elvis Andrus and Ian Desmond. Trying to predict All-Star teams can be like trying to catch snowflakes in a blizzard. Logic is sometimes elusive. But players and coaches historically do a good job picking guys having the best seasons, not just the most popular guys, so it is possible to have at least a decent idea how the teams will shape up. For instance, look for large delegations from some surprising teams. The Reds could have five All-Stars: Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce, Johnny Cueto and the tumbling Aroldis Chapman. Even with Tim Lincecum in a funk and Brian Wilson out for the year, the Giants also could have five _ Matt Cain, Ryan Vogelsong, Santiago Casilla, Melky Cabrera and Posey. The White Sox deserve to have four All-Stars. Chris Sale and Jake Peavy have been among the league's best eight starters — top five, really, which means they both could be elected by the players — and both Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski have been the AL's best at their positions. But Konerko and Pierzynski understand how easily they could be victims of a squeeze play. In large part, that's a result of the outdated rule that says every team must have an All-Star. The Cubs are one of about five teams that probably shouldn't have an All-Star this year (along with the Padres, Marlins, A's and maybe the Rockies and Mariners, once you hold park advantage against Carlos Gonzalez and Felix Hernandez). Let's get rid of the every team-
MCT CAMPUS
Rafael Furcal is one of several major leaguers who made the All-Star team solely based on fan voting. gets-a-guy rule. It worked before the MLB package and the MLB Network, before everyone played fantasy baseball, but fans follow 30 teams now, not just the one in their markets. Desperate times: What would it be like to be a Rockies fan these days. You have been told for years that the humidor has made Coors Field a relatively safe place for pitching, but general manager Dan O'Dowd says that's not true. He says it's impossible to build a pitching staff the traditional way at Denver's altitude, so he has resorted to extreme pitch limits for a constantly changing cast of starters. The early results aren't encouraging, but neither was the pitching before O'Dowd and man-
ager Jim Tracy decided on this radical idea. The collapsing Rockies had surrendered double-figure runs in seven of their last 21 games entering the weekend _ a trend that caused pitching coach Bob Apodaca to say uncle. "I'm fried," said Apodaca, who sought and received a new role within the organization this week. "He said for a lack of a better word that he was tired and needed a break," O'Dowd said. "I will have him do some special assignment work that I have been kicking around. And this will give him a chance to catch his breath." Writer Tracy Ringolsby points out Apodaca coached 138 pitchers during his 9 seasons as the Rockies' pitch-
ing coach. No wonder he was worn out. On the other hand: While the Cubs are thrilled with Anthony Rizzo, the Padres don't want him back. They believe that Andrew Cashner, whom they acquired for Rizzo, will develop into a top-of-the-rotation starter. Cashner opened the season in the bullpen, with Padres GM Josh Byrnes explaining that would be an easier way for him to transition to the big leagues after missing much of 2011 with shoulder problems. But the Padres changed plans in early June, sending Cashner to Double-A as a starter, and he was lights out Thursday in his debut in the new role. He had pitched well in three starts with San Antonio, going 2-0 with a 1.88 ERA, including 10 strikeouts in six shutout innings in his last tuneup. "We felt the timing was right," Padres manager Bud Black said. "It just didn't make sense to thrust a starting role on him right from spring training. Because he pitched (102/3) innings last year, and the year before that, he had 53 games (in relief). Doing this now, you're looking at possibly half a season of starts for him." Cashner took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in Houston. He was throwing 99 mph in the seventh but came out after a couple of singles, having hit his limit of 99 pitches. He's thrilled with the new plan. "It definitely caught me by surprise," he said. "I didn't think I'd get a shot (to start) this year. ... When they asked me if I wanted to, I was excited." The last word: "He reminds me of Sammy Sosa." Dodgers chief scout Logan White, on Cuban outfielder Yasiel Puig, whom the team signed for $42 million.