Thursday, July 12, 2012 Print Edition

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july 12, 2012

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

Tech celebrates land-grant act CHELSEA GILES features editor On Wednesday, July 11, Virginia Tech celebrated the 150-year anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln signing the Morrill Act into law, which established the land-grant school system from which Tech was founded.

The land-grant system was an initiative, beginning in 1862, to make higher education available to people who could not usually afford it by giving states the responsibility of land on which to establish schools.

The celebration event — which was in the Newman Library Study Café and was open to the public — was one of two exhibits scheduled to spotlight President Lincoln and his political accomplishments.

Dr. Tom Ewing, Tech history professor and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, coordinated the celebration.

Ewing said that one of the reasons it is important to highlight the signing of the Morrill Act is because it shows the connections of past actions to the present.

He said that at the time, one year into the Civil War, Congress passed and Lincoln signed a number of crucial acts that shaped not only the immediate experience of the United States, but the subsequent years as well.

“The Morrill Act is one of those CHELSEA GILES / COLLEGIATE TIMES in understanding how the actions Pictures of President Lincoln and more were shown at the exhibit. of 1862 had a long-term effect on

American history,” Ewing said. “The system has grown and evolved and transformed since then and Virginia Tech is a really good example of that.”

Events such as the celebration on Wednesday, Ewing said, are also a way for people to learn more about the origins of their university to appreciate the significance of why it was established.

“It’s a good reminder for people, not only why history matters, but how actions taken in the past continue to reverberate in the present,” he said.

“Certainly, no one at the time realized the significance of what would come out of it, but they did understand that (education) was an important investment in society.”

Stephen O’Hara, recent Tech masters graduate of history with focused research in 19th century U.S. history, was asked by Dr. Ewing to research the Morrill Act and was one of the speakers of the celebration.

O’Hara said that one of the most interesting aspects of the act being passed was how many things that seemed unlikely had to happen the right way, yet they did and that is why Tech stands where it is today.

“The overarching theme of the unlikelihood of the act, from the timing in July 1862, which the Civil War is still going on and Stonewall Jackson has an army in the Shenandoah Valley a few miles away and yet, this revolutionary policy bill gets passed,” O’Hara said. “It just seems like timing that you would not expect.”

O’Hara said that many Virginia

schools were vying for the land-grant status, most notably the University of Virginia and Virginia Military Institute. The General Assembly, he said, debated whether the status should go to an established school or a new one.

“They eventually decided to go with something a little more off the radar,” O’Hara said. “It was a school that was able to say that ‘We can adopt to these programs in agriculture and mechanics that’s required of the new school, and we’ll change our name.’”

Preston and Olin Institute in Blacksburg received the land-grant, due to its willingness to revamp itself and acceptance to change its name to The Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, O’Hara said.

According to “The War of the Colleges and the Birth of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College” by O’Hara, there were 132 students that enrolled the first year, which some attended for free while others paid less than $200.

The school had three departments: literary, scientific and technical. The college consisted of five acres of land that was then a 245-acre experimental farm.

Laura Purcell, communications manager for the university libraries, said that before the Morrill Act was passed, education was far from what it is today. Not only in the sense of who could or could not afford it, but see LINCOLN / page six

Tech email is ‘going Google’ on Sunday MICHELLE SUTHERLAND not expire, as they did after editor-in-chief On Sunday, July 15, students, faculty and staff will be able to switch their email from the WebMail system to Google Apps for Education.

Google will provide students with a Gmail-based client system, as well as Google Docs and Google Calendar.

“With Google Apps for Education, we hope to improve the flexibility of electronic communications, while increasing the ability for faculty, staff and students to collaborate with one another at Virginia Tech,” said Michael Daugherty, executive director for network infrastructure and services.

The service will also provide users up to 25GB of data storage, so emails will

30 days in the WebMail system.

Another benefit of Google is its cost: Google offers the service for free. WebMail, which was custom built inhouse, was also a “free” service, but Tech spent $100,000 in maintenance for servers and scanners.

The decision to switch to Google is a culmination of a year-long search and decision process. But, alumni have been using a Google mail system for two years.

While using the three main services, Mail, Docs and Calendar, users are subject to a slightly different privacy policy. Google will not mine this data, so advertising partners will not have access to it.

“It’s your content, not ours.

Your Apps content belongs to Education will provide the your school, or individual users Tech community with Gmail at your school.

Not Google. We don’t look at your content. Google With Google Apps for Eduemployees will only access concation, we hope to improve tent that you store on Apps when the flexibility of electronic an administrator communications, while infrom your domain grants Google creasing the aility for faculty, employees explicit students and staff to collabpermission to do so for troubleorate with one another...” shooting.

We don’t share your Michael Daugherty content. Google does not share Director for Network Infrastructure personal informaand Services tion with advertisers or other 3rd parties without your consent,” but without the advertisements the policy says. and data mining.

Basically, Google Apps for While users will be able to

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BREAKING NEWS, MULTIMEDIA, UPDATES AND MORE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT COLLEGIATETIMES.COM

use other Google services with their PID, such as YouTube and other apps, a different password will be required, and users on those features will be subject to Google’s general privacy policy. This allows Google to use your data for advertising purposes.

Overall, students at Northwestern University are satisfied with their switch.

“Students are thrilled, and we feel comfortable that security and privacy issues have been met,” said Wendy Woodward, director of Technology Support Services.

Students, faculty and staff will have to manually switch their email services by logging into my.vt.edu. A detailed list of instructions can be found at http://answers.vt.edu/kb/ entry/3531/.

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NEWS

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Phone GPS ......radio for everyone goes indoors KERSTIN NORDSTROM

collegiatetimes.com july 12, 2012

mcclatchy newspapers RALEIGH, N.C. — Everyone knows the feeling: You enter a hospital to visit a sick friend. The receptionist points and tells you the number, but soon you’re lost in a maze of identical white hallways, the room numbers seeming to increase and decrease randomly. You are lost.

Romit Roy Choudhury, a computer engineering professor at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, has developed a system that could prevent this feeling. Called UnLoc, it makes use of existing technology in your smartphone to do indoors what GPS can do outdoors.

GPS, short for “global positioning system,” works by beaming a signal from your phone to a satellite in space. The satellite uses the signal to pinpoint your position, then sends your location to your phone using another signal.

But GPS doesn’t work in buildings.

The signals aren’t strong enough to get through roofs. Plus, GPS is accurate only to about 15 feet, and that precision won’t cut it indoors.

And in a multi-story building, GPS wouldn’t know what floor you’re on.

He Wang, a graduate student in Choudhury’s lab, has been working on UnLoc as part of his Ph.D. He says the technology, unveiled last month at the Mobisys Conference in the U.K, takes advantage of existing stuff already in your smartphone.

Your smartphone can tell you where you are going, even without GPS. It comes equipped with motion sensors such as a compass, to show direction, and an accelerometer that records spikes with each step you take.

“The phone can count steps to get an estimate of distance traveled,” says Wang. But over time, this estimate becomes slightly inaccurate and must be corrected. Knowing the distance to a fixed landmark would provide the needed course correction.

“Just like when your friend gives you directions to her house: ‘You know you’re almost there if you pass a big store on your left,’ ” Wang said.

UnLoc uses two kinds of landmarks.

There are “seed landmarks,” which are physical features with obvious signals, such as stairways, elevators and corners. The accelerometer in your phone can recognize when you’re on an elevator; there will be two shocks, one at the start and one at the stop, the same ones we feel in our bones.

The second sort of landmarks are

called “organic,” invisible signatures we can’t see or feel but are very real. Your phone, in addition to the motion sensors, has a Wi-Fi antenna and a magnetometer. If there are lots of electronics in a room you walk by, your phone’s magnetometer can pick up the room’s magnetic flavor.

Or there are areas where certain combinations of Wi-Fi networks are seen, like an Internet fingerprint for that spot.

Wi-Fi fingerprinting of locations is not new. It’s usually called wardriving. People record the unique Wi-Fi features of an area, and map in detail where the pattern occurs, creating a database.

But the UnLoc team’s technology differs from wardriving, because the system learns landmarks with each user who passes nearby. Eventually the location of the given landmark becomes more accurate, using the data collected from the crowd. The system learns.

In turn, once the system knows the location of a landmark, it can be used to guide people.

Since the system can learn, it requires no reprogramming, if, for instance, a wall is knocked down. It would learn on its own. It can also identify temporary structures, such as a long line for the elevator every day around 5 p.m.

The team has tested the system in a mall and two Duke engineering buildings, showing accuracy to 5 feet, which far outperforms GPS. It also eats less battery than GPS, a notorious hog that requires bouncing signals from the Earth to a satellite.

Users concerned about privacy may opt to simply load the current building map on their device, and not send their data back to teach the system.

There is no set date for when UnLoc will be available for consumers. But the competition is fierce, with behemoths such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple also pursuing indoor location technologies, so the UnLoc team expects fast development. The Duke researchers developed UnLoc in collaboration with a team from the EgyptJapan University of Science and Technology.

In addition to indoor navigation, the technology also breeds possibilities for entirely new applications.

“If you walk by a store in the mall, it can send you a coupon,” Wang said. “Or even if you walk by a specific product in the grocery aisle.”

Digital advertising meets new demand LOS ANGELES — Old notions of advertising are being scrambled on the Westside, inside boutique agencies with names like Blitz, Ignited and Omelet.

The hot shops are pushing bigbrand clients beyond the familiar confines of radio, television, magazines and newspapers and onto the Internet, smartphones, game consoles and tablets.

With more than 42 percent of the country’s TV homes equipped with digital video recorders, which allow users to fast-forward through commercials, and some younger viewers leaving TV altogether, advertisers are rushing to build Internet infrastructures, create Web videos and funnel content to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

It’s a boom-time business. Ten

years ago, companies spent an estimated $6 billion advertising their products and services online, according to eMarketer, which tracks advertising dollars.

This year, that number is expected to reach $39.5 billion. Within five years, it could top $60 billion.

It’s not that advertisers are abandoning TV. Last year they spent $68 billion on television commercials, and in two weeks last month they placed orders for $9.1 billion worth of primetime network spots. But marketers recognize that affluent and younger consumers are as likely to be found glued to their cellphones or the Internet as the TV screen.

At the end of a crowded cul-desac in Culver City, Calif., more than a dozen young workers cluster around common tables in a warehouse. A makeshift sign on the door reads: Omelet.

“We were at this diner … eating

omelets, and thought, ‘Why not?’ ” company co-founder Ryan Fey said. “We didn’t want to take ourselves too seriously.”

“And you’ve got to break some eggs to make an omelet,” cofounder Steven Amato added.

Omelet’s founders met a decade ago while working at Los Angeles’ leading ad agency TBWA\Chiat\ Day, just as the Internet was becoming a viable vehicle for advertising. Amato, 39, was a former playwright turned ad copywriter from Connecticut. Fey, 36, was an Ohio native who started his career as a page for “Late Night With David Letterman,” then worked as a music writer for Spin magazine before joining a large ad agency in New York.

Over months of breakfasts at Nichols diner in Marina del Rey, Calif., they plotted how to create their own “storytelling” firm built for the Internet age. The pair and a third co-founder, Shervin Samari, each chipped in $200, which covered one month of office rent.

The agency opened in 2004 and quickly made a splash with silly spoofs created for Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. “Mascot Roommate,” featuring a man in an oversized iced-coffee costume, notched more than 1 million views and spawned sequels, including one so effective that CNN’s Headline News aired it as

the real thing and wondered on the air whether the coffee chain would fire the out-of-control mascot.

This year Omelet is on track to triple its 2011 revenue of $23 million. The firm, which has about 45 full-time employees — only two over the age of 40 — has created ads for AT&T Inc., HarleyDavidson Inc., HBO, Microsoft Corp. and NBCUniversal. It designed Internet advertising campaigns and television spots for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Earlier this year it won a large account with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s corporate headquarters.

Omelet has company. El Segundo, Calif.-based Ignited exploded onto the scene 13 years ago.

The digital agency now boasts 120 employees and has annual billings of nearly $140 million.

The firm, which specializes in Internet display ads, occupies a 55,000-square-foot warehouse that previously hosted a shortlived Internet incubator set up by former basketball star Shaquille O’Neal. Its clients include NBCUniversal, Sony Corp. and Zico coconut water.

“The dollars are clearly shifting this way,” said Eric Johnson, Ignited’s founder and president.

A former top executive at the video game company Activision,

Johnson recognized more than a decade ago that young people — particularly young male gamers — were consuming much of their media through nontraditional channels. He figured that eventually mainstream audiences would become heavy Internet users and that established ad agencies would be slow to respond. He was right.

“There has been a fundamental shift in behavior that is shaking the underpinnings of the whole media and marketing industry,” Johnson said. “Everything needs to be digitally connected.”

One of Ignited’s first clients was the U.S. Army, which needed a new way to inspire potential recruits. In 2001, Johnson’s firm helped create “America’s Army,” an Internet video game that turned the adrenaline rush of simulated combat into a recruitment tool.

The game was downloaded 12 million times, Johnson said. “It was a watershed marketing experience.”

Now the challenge is to stand out amid the clutter. Sixty years ago, consumers were exposed to about 100 brand impressions a day.

“Today, the average person sees between 1,500 and 2,000 brand impressions a day: company logos, commercials and billboards,” Johnson said.

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MEG JAMES mcclatchy newspapers

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collegiatetimes.com july 12, 2012

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OPINIONS

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Obama enthusiasts must make it to polls There was a palpable energy felt by nearly everyone, it seemed, during the months that led up to the 2008 election.

While all elections are exciting and critically important to the nation’s future, the 2008 election electrified the country in a way that is rarely seen in politics.

Even many devoted Democrats doubted a nation that had, until relatively recently in its history, forbidden African-Americans the right to vote could elect an African-American to become commander-in-chief.

Others looked at his name alone and believed no one with the “now-ominous” name Barack Obama stood a chance of being elected to national office. But the Democrats overcame their doubts and rode that energy to victory in November.

Sixty-three percent of Americans who were able to vote voted that year—the largest percentage in 50 years.

Sixty-six percent of those

under the age of 30 voted for Obama.

Passions can erode over time, though.

Certainly not as much was known about Obama before he began serving his term. He was young and relatively inexperienced in politics. Those who voted for him undoubtedly agreed with many of his policies, but were unsure of his skill in implementing them.

Many knew he had gone to Harvard and was president of the Harvard Law Review. Others knew that he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago.

But what gave rise to the passion, it seems, has nothing to do with what we knew.

It had to do with what many felt — that we needed a change from the leadership of the last eight years. And that if Americans could swear in an African-American as President of our nation, almost anything is possible.

In April of this year, however, a nationwide poll of voters showed that 64 percent of those among 18-29 supported Obama, while only 29 percent supported Romney. But only 56 percent of this age cohort said that they were confident that they’d vote in the 2012 election – a significantly lower percentage than had voted in 2008.

While young voters still are showing more support for Obama than other groups, they still are not expressing a deep and abiding commitment to a second term.

This is an interesting change — they have more information by which to judge him — a whole term of his presidency to take note of and evaluate; and yet they’re not all confident they’ll vote in this

election.

Perhaps, while the young voters still care about the elec-

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But what gave rise to the passion, it seems, has nothing to do with what we knew. It had to do with what many felt--that we needed a change from the leadership of the last eight years. tion, the excitement has worn off.

For those of us who have applauded Obama’s courage with health care legislation and the winding down of two tragic wars, we can only hope that our excitement will be rekindled during the next few months.

It’s disappointing to think

that people’s feelings of excitement — rather than their thoughts about what they value — may hurt Obama’s chances of being elected for a second term.

Perhaps there are ways to make people realize — people who are no longer feeling the excitement of the 2008 election and who may not otherwise vote — that their vote is important (particularly in a swing state like Virginia).

Visibility — the showcase of posters and bumpers-stickers, the thousands of volunteers who help to support Obama’s reelection; this can help others to see all the effort put forward and really begin to think about the significance of the 2012 election and their single vote.

KATHERINE SEYMOUR -regular columnist -senior -psychology

‘Can women have it all?’ is the wrong question

collegiatetimes.com july 12, 2012

Can women have it all? A recent essay in the Atlantic Monthly has unleashed a furious debate.

I actually have an answer to offer, but before I give it, I want to suggest that the focus is on the wrong question. A more urgent one at this juncture is: Can blue collar men have anything?

That may sound like a loaded question, but it’s difficult to overstate the long-run economic cataclysm affecting this particular group (and, by extension, working-class women).

The recession that followed the collapse of the housing bubble took a terrible toll on these guys; overall, it cost twice as many men jobs as it did women.

But the problem goes back much further.

The economists Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney report that, from

1969 to 2009, median earnings of men 25- to 64-years-old fell by an inflation-adjusted 28 percent. For those lacking a high school diploma, the drop was 66 percent. The declines are so large partly because so many men fall out of the workforce when the blue collar jobs they once held vanish. Many men also lost pensions and health insurance.

Women, meanwhile, have seen dramatic economic gains as more of them entered the workforce and their wages increased.

Women also entered fields such as health care and education, which have proved more resistant to imports and recession than such male redoubts as manufacturing and construction.

Education is crucial to economic success, and women are now getting more bachelor’s degrees than men.

The demolition of blue-collar

male earning power has hurt family formation among less educated Americans. In 1960, according to the Pew Research Center, the least educated Americans were almost as likely to be married as the most educated.

Half a century later, 64 percent of college graduates were married but, among those who never went beyond high school, just 47 percent were.

Less educated Americans marry less, divorce more, and have less stable cohabitations.

In other words, while we debate whether the best educated women can reach the pinnacle of their profession and also raise perfect children, working-class Americans of both sexes often find themselves in dead-end jobs and broken homes. Or worse still, jobless.

What’s more, our country has less class mobility than Canada or much

of Europe, particularly at the top and the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

That means too many American children born into lower-rung families are likely to grow into lower-rung adults. They won’t be worried about having it all, because they won’t have much of anything either.

As to the other question — can women have it all? — the answer is, sure.

Millions of women already have great families and great careers. If some of them find it impossible to become chief executive, spend a lot of time with their kids, bake brownies for the soccer team, sustain a youthful romance with their spouse and train for a triathlon, all while pounding away on a BlackBerry, that should not be surprising.

Most men can’t do all that

either, as Harry Chapin pointed out in 1974 with “Cat’s in the Cradle.”

Consider the aging workaholic in the iconic 1987 film “Baby Boom.”

Diane Keaton plays an advertising executive having trouble balancing work and baby, but gets little sympathy from her hard-charging boss, a man who doesn’t even know his own grandchildren’s names. Nobody can say this pathetic guy “has it all.”

The triumph of feminism was that it gave people so many more choices. But having choices means making choices. The challenge for society, meanwhile, is to push some of those choices down below the top rungs of the economic ladder.

DANIEL AKST -mcclatchy newspapers

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This recruitment technique has proved incredibly successful. Ivy League graduates brag about their employment with TFA. But will this ultimately be good for the teaching profession and for America’s students?

Being a great teacher has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world. I knew I had found my passion the first time I stood at the front of a classroom at Jordan High School in South Los Angeles during my TFA summer training five years ago. But it took me several years of teaching psychology, government and world history to feel truly competent. Those first couple of years in the classroom are a huge learning curve for any teacher, and it seems arrogant to think that just because the TFA kids went to good schools and got good grades, they’ll instantly be able to teach. It’s no wonder the longtime teachers at some schools resent these upstarts. The two-year commitment means that many of the program’s participants leave just as they’re getting to the point at which their students will really benefit.

Last October, Kappan magazine reported on a survey in which 60.5 percent of the 2000-’02 cohorts of TFA teachers reported that they continued teaching after their two-year commitment. But after five years, only about 28 percent remained in teaching. More recently, a study of TFA teachers in Jacksonville, Fla., found that only about 22 percent continued teaching after their two-years.

Ultimately, TFA needs to change its

recruitment model and the two-year commitment contract. TFA should sell the teaching profession to college graduates rather than the prestige they will gain from their brief stints as educators. The best way to change the focus would be to increase the commitment to four or five years with the emphasis on long-term teacher development and not the two-year quick stop on the way to more “prominent” careers. But that doesn’t seem likely.

Wendy Kopp, CEO and founder of TFA, addressed this issue last month in an interview with NY1 news: “Our applicant pool fell in half when we asked for a three-year commitment. It doubled if we asked for one year. The reason this plays out is that 22-yearolds think that two years is the rest of their life.”

But Kopp misses the point by focusing on the number of applicants rather than on potential longer-term benefits to public education. Rather than bend to the student’s perception that teaching is not prestigious enough to do long term, TFA should instead use its vast resources to encourage students to see teaching as the end goal, and TFA as a viable means to that end.

TFA was started with the best of intentions as a way of improving the quality of education for all children.

But dropping new teachers into classrooms for a couple of years isn’t going to achieve that. Nor will it promote collegiality between the TFA teachers and the rest of the staffs at their schools.

Initially, there was considerable tension

between TFA and non-TFA teachers at my school, and the leading cause of the tension was that TFA teachers weren’t seen as having a long-term stake in the profession or, more important, the students.

Many of my teaching colleagues are still torn on how to view TFA teachers.

There is rarely a question about the passion with which corps members approach their two-year commitment.

Many TFA-ers end up coaching a sport that was previously without a coach or staying after to tutor students well past their contract hours. Call it idealistic, but the TFA teachers I know truly believe in their students and that great things are possible for them.

TFA makes the case that its alumni will remain committed to furthering education even when they move on to other professions, and that it’s crucial for the nation’s professionals in all fields to have knowledge of the public school system and its needs and challenges.

OK, great. But the achievement gap that TFA says it is committed to closing will require new, gifted teachers to join the profession and stick with it for far more than two years. TFA has built up impressive financial support and an incredible reputation among college graduates. Here’s hoping they use those assets to improve the esteem of all teachers, not just those with TFA attached to their names.

JARED BILLINGS -mcclatchy newspapers

Small businesses will create more jobs In an American Express ad promoting Small Business Saturday, a man in a cowboy hat declares: “Small businesses are the lifeblood of our community.” A woman sitting in a clothing store declares such enterprises “absolutely crucial, vital.” Over a montage of shops, a young woman explains how local shops “make you happy to live where you live.”

American small businesses may still be struggling in a tight economy, but they are also basking in a rash of good publicity.

Portrayed as modern-day underdogs, they are seen as symbols of independence, self-reliance and perseverance, virtues that hark back to the days when Thomas Jefferson celebrated “free men in pursuit of industry and improvement” who would shape the nation.

And politicians of both parties are vying to prove that it is they rather than their opponents who are the true champions of today’s small-business entrepreneurs.

At the core of the almost universal admiration of small business is an assumption: that ultimately it will be such enterprises that revive the economy and create needed jobs.

But is small business really the solution to the nation’s economic woes?

Probably not. In a recent Harris Poll of more than 1,400 small businesses, two-thirds said they would not increase hiring this year. And even when small businesses hire, they tend to hire small numbers of people.

However hostile Democrats like me may be to the excesses of Wall Street, and however much everybody admires the small, independent businesses in our neighborhoods and communities, big business remains the primary driver of economic growth and job creation.

Consider Europe’s crisis. Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy — the countries with the most profound economic problems — are among the countries with the largest percentage of workers employed by small businesses.

Meanwhile, as the New Yorker’s financial analyst, James Surowiecki, recently pointed out, the countries with the lowest percentage of workers employed by small business — Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the United States — are some of the strongest economies in the world.

The correlation is not a coincidence, according to Surowiecki. “It reflects a simple reality: small businesses are, on the whole, less productive than big businesses,” he writes in the magazine.

And people who run small companies aren’t necessarily interested in owning big businesses. “Most are people who simply want to run a small company, do the work they enjoy, and have some control over their own financial lives. ...

Small may be beautiful. It’s just not all that prosperous.”

Moreover, there are some things small businesses just can’t do. You may favor the homemade pastries at the bakery down the street, but it’s unlikely you’ll ever buy a car made by your local machinist, and if you could, the cost would be astronomical. Some things just require economies of scale. People also are more likely to buy their televisions from the nearest big-box merchant than from an independent store.

Why? The cost. Large sellers can negotiate more competitive prices, and they can make up for smaller profit margins through greater volume.

Still, there is a reason small business has such a claim on the American imagination. To understand the roots of the small businessman’s political ideas and concepts, one needs to begin with the struggle between Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton — or, more specifically, with the conflict between the agrarian spirit (the heritage of the pre-

Industrial Age) and the cosmopolitan spirit.

This is not to say that small businessmen would prefer to live in a pre-industrial society. But their enterprises are a contemporary embodiment of many pre-industrial ideals still cherished by small business and trumpeted by politicians today.

There is no analytically rigorous or reliable data on which of the parties is most likely to be supported by smallbusiness owners, and no accurate indication of whether they will vote for President Obama or Mitt Romney in November. But polling does suggest that small-business owners are far from satisfied with the status quo. Not surprisingly, their political beliefs tend to reflect highly individualistic values and a skepticism of big government. In a recent Harris Poll of small businesses, 84 percent of respondents said the economy was on the wrong track. “The voices of these Main Street businesses,” declared U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue, “are telling us plain and simple, we need a change of course in Washington.”

JOHN H. BUNZEL -mcclatchy newspapers

collegiatetimes.com july 12, 2012

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When I meet new people, I like to do a small social experiment. When asked what I do for a living, I sometimes say “I work with Teach For America.”

Other times, I leave that out entirely, and just say “I’m a teacher.”

The responses often are vastly different. As a kid right out of college, I thought using the Teach For America line was great. Girls would actually talk to me and even seemed impressed by my association with TFA. But when I told people I was a teacher and left out that piece, you could almost see them start to wonder just how bad my LSAT must have been for me to have ended up teaching.

According to a recent news release, TFA is now the top employer of graduating seniors from schools such as Yale, UC Berkeley, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Howard University. At first glance, it seems encouraging that so many of America’s brightest young graduates are going into teaching. But I worry that the prestige and selectivity TFA uses to sell itself to high-achieving college graduates may be doing more harm than good in terms of how recent graduates view the teaching profession as a whole.

For one thing, TFA attracts top graduates in part by requiring only a twoyear commitment. And when the two years are up, the prestige of the organization, along with TFA’s connections with graduate schools and businesses, will help them as they pursue their real long-term careers.

5 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

Teach for America needs rethinking

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collegiatetimes.com july 12, 2012

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6

Lincoln: Expanding education from page one

also the focus of studies.

“Agricultural education and mechanic arts was just not something that was taught in the higher education,” Purcell said. “It was more of this is what your family did, so you might be an apprentice to someone and learn that way."

Purcell also said that the Morrill Act was one among many legislations passed to encourage agricultural understandings.

“When (Lincoln) signed the Morrill Act, he also, a few days before, had created the department of agriculture and also signed the Homestead Act,” she said. “If you went west and were able to work your plot of land for a certain amount of years, the government essentially gave it to you for free, so that really opened up westward expansion of our country."

The Morrill Act was also critical to sustaining a self-governing society, according to Margaret Merrill, librarian of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Merrill said that it was a foresighted act to have recognized the importance of educating all citizens.

“Getting people to think is what the Morrill Act gave the U.S.,” Merrill said.

“Up to that time, only wealthy people could get an education,” she said. “The land-grant system’s whole purpose was to provide education to ordinary people.”

Not only did the act allow more people to study at higher levels, but the land-grant system also established universities that maintained respectable reputations, according to Ewing.

Every state has at least one landgrant school, which most of are now the leading university in their state.

Even if schools were not formed out of the land-grant system, they were dramatically changed during that period and given a specific purpose.

Tech Senior Vice President and Provost Mark McNamee said he has been involved in one level or another for about a year with the planning of events to celebrate the anniversary. He said it has been a national conversation for plans to take place.

McNamee attended the event Wednesday and gave brief remarks about the importance of Tech being

the distinguished land-grant school of the state. They recognized that having universities to do research would have positive and valuable benefits for society, he said.

“You’re providing an education for people that would not normally have had it and doing good work in service to improving the country, and I think that spirit is very pervasive,” McNamee said. “The universities who have that distinction take it very seriously.”

McNamee, like O’Hara, said the timing of the act was unusual, however that is one aspect that makes it so remarkable.

“Right in the middle of the Civil

space.

Ewing said this exhibit will showcase Lincoln as a decision and policy maker in the context of the Civil War. The Morrill presentation will show the connection between Tech and the president during that time, Purcell said.

Tech has also organized the Lincoln Lectures series to compliment the touring exhibit while it is on campus.

“Each of the speakers will come in September and October and will talk about Lincoln as a transformative political leader both in relation to the Morrill Act and his other kinds of influence,” Ewing said.

James I. Robertson, a retired Tech history faculty member, will a lecture about The system has grown and present Lincoln as a decision evolved and transformed since maker and as a leader, and historians from then and Virginia Tech is a re- other universities will be speaking as well. ally good example of that.”

Ewing said there will be other events to tie in Dr. Tom Ewing the lecture series with Associate Dean of the College of the exhibits.

“We have some partLiberal Arts and Human Sciences nership with the public library and Radford University, so they are War, the country had the wisdom also developing some programs to conceive of something so bold, that will be related to the Lincoln for every state to have a public and the Constitution exhibit,” research university that would open Purcell said. its doors to the public and do meanIn Purcell’s personal interest in ingful research and provide people presidential history, she has found with both the liberal education and Lincoln to be interesting in parpractical education,” he said. “It’s a ticular because he was the quintesgreat concept, and no other country sential American self-made man. has ever done anything like this.”

“If you just learn a little bit about The 150-year anniversary hap- him, he was so interesting and compened to coincide with the same plicated,” Purcell said. “He grew year a national traveling exhibit of up really poor without any kind President Lincoln will be hosted of advantages, but he was smart at Tech. and funny and he worked really The Morrill Act exhibit will be hard and really believed in what he moved around campus throughout did.” the summer and fall semester until Ewing and Purcell both said it accompanies the second exhibit Lincoln strived to help the counin the library, according to Purcell. try recover from one of its darkest The second exhibit, "Lincoln: The eras by building it up and focusConstitution and the Civil War," ing on areas outside of the diswhich opens in Newman Library putes. The Morrill Act, which led on September 5, is a collabora- to the establishment of Tech, is one tion between the American Library example.

Association Public Programs Office “Again, it was an act that was and the National Constitution passed during a war when the federCenter. Its tour began in 2009 al government had other priorities and will continue until 2015, for but they realized the importance which each host had to apply for of investing in education,” Ewing the exhibit to be displayed in their said.

“

Readers believe in lucky numbers JEN WEIGEL mcclatchy newspapers In honor of Friday the 13th, we asked readers, Do you have a lucky number?

If you are a perfectly rational person, yet you continue to buck statistics and gravitate toward certain digits, you aren't alone.

"People have been doing this for centuries," said B. Sidney Smith, a mathematician and founder of the website PlatonicRealms.com.

"Numbers underlying reality is an ancient tradition that pops up in all civilizations historically."

He cited Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and mathematician whose theories are still used today.

"Once Western civilization became a faith-based society, numbers had this mystical tinge and it became a dangerous thing, like it was secret and naughty," he said. "My degree is in mathematical logic, so I'm a doctor of rationality.

(Believing in lucky numbers) has nothing to do with mathematics, which is all logic and reasoning _ but that doesn't make it any less beautiful or interesting."

Smith thinks it's simply another way to find meaning through life's many uncertainties.

Here are some of the reader responses: "The number that follows me is 11," wrote Adam."During a critical juncture in my life I looked at a bank clock and it was 11:11 and 11 seconds. It was a moment of epiphany for me. Now I always look at the clock at 11:11, see 1111 on license plates, addresses, dates. . . . For me it represents change, growth, and a reminder of where I have come from."

Kim also feels 11 is her lucky number.

"What could be better than two ones and better than a 10?" she wrote. "It was my jersey number for soccer too."

"I had a party on 11/11/11 and I took my college loan out on 8/8/88," wrote Heather. "My favorite number of all time is and will always be five! I will be on high alert this Friday for sure."

"The number 17 has followed me forever," wrote Andrew. "Back in 1987, I was 17 and everything in my life seemed to work out perfectly.

Never had a year like that ever since."

"My lucky number is nine," wrote John. "Ever since I saw it on Randy Hundley's Cubs jersey in 1969. I'm always on the lookout for it."

"Lucky number is seven for me," wrote Alison.

"It's in my original home address and twice in our phone number. And it was my dad's lucky number. I have it on my license plate now."

"There is the Jewish tradition of offering gifts and donations in multiples of 18," wrote Jodi. "That number corresponds alphabetically with 'chai' in Hebrew, which means 'life.' " "I was born on the 13th and it's always been my favorite number," wrote Diane. "Tried to get married on the 13th but it was a Sunday. We always celebrate Friday the 13th. My husband surprised me with tickets to a show (on a Friday the 13th)."

"I went into labor on a Friday the 13th," wrote Nora. "Myself and every maternity ward staffer made sure the baby came on the 14th." Michelle wrote.

"I don't necessarily have a lucky number, but have always had good things happen to me on Friday the 13th. Let's hope it continues."

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“Bad” fans will get their fix on last season 7

“

With each episode we chip a little more away at his soul.

But we always try to make him human. “ Vince Gilligan “Breaking Bad” creator and executive producer tagonist evolves into an antagonist, from very good guy to very bad guy?

Gilligan, 45, a Virginia native with a fine arts degree in film production from New York University, got his "Bad" idea after a solid run directing and writing a few dozen episodes of "The X-Files."

Naturally he had trouble selling it. TNT wanted to make Walter a counterfeiter. HBO was almost repulsed by his pitch. FX bought the show, then sloughed it off.

In hindsight, part of his challenge was obvious. Stasis rules in television. Special agent Jethro Gibbs is squeaky-clean-good and will remain squeaky-clean-good even if "NCIS" runs to 2045. Tony Soprano was born bad, stayed bad and maybe died bad, too.

From a TV perspective, stasis is preferable because it means the hit show can return year after year. Flux implies an endpoint.

Gilligan made his hero/antihero a chemistry teacher slogging through one whale of a midlife crisis _ bereft, broke and facing a terminal illness (lung cancer, even though he had never smoked).

And even though Gilligan knew

nothing about chemistry, that would be the guiding metaphor.

"Chemistry is growth, then decay, then transformation!!!"

White enthusiastically told his students in the series' opener.

They sniggered, then turned away. Walter then decided the universe, and God, had sniggered and turned their backs on him, too. There are comic as well as cosmic touches here, in a "the gods must be laughing" kind of way. But Gilligan always had a tragedy in mind, and a puzzle he didn't have a solution to: Was Walter born bad or did he become bad through the choices he made?

Gilligan and his stable of writers knew from there it was just a short hop to one of the enduring puzzles of the nature of evil. Do people "break" bad — or are they born bad?

"I can't ultimately tell you what the point of it all is," says Gilligan.

"But we do strive to keep him recognizable despite how dark he is.

With each episode we chip a little more away at his soul. But we always try to make him human.

Maybe it's a cautionary tale, or a 'there but for the Grace of God' one, but he's a character who has fascinated me from day one."

Does even Walter White's creator know how he will meet his end? Gilligan won't — or can't — say.

collegiatetimes.com july 12, 2012

In the opening seconds of the "Breaking Bad" fifth-season opener (Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT on AMC), viewers will stare straight down into a plate of eggs.

Sunny-side up. Two sallow disapproving eyes looking right up into the camera, and into the blighted soul of the blighted man who is about to eat them.

Walter White (Bryan Cranston) grabs a mound of crispy bacon, and places each piece in such a way on the plate so that the bacon spells out the numbers 5 and 2. It is Walter's joyless 52nd birthday, and as true-blue "Bad" fans will recall, this is almost a flashback to the opening seconds of the series four years ago, when his beloved wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn), placed a plate of eggs before him on his 50th birthday, with the bacon spelling out 50.

Much has changed over those 24 months in the life of the former highschool chemistry teacher. The fleeting pathos of next week's opening scene is that Walter knows this, too: He has gone from loving family man to undisputed meth king of the Southwest, after dispatching rival Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) in a wildly violent explosion that blew off half of Fring's face at the end of last season. Yet the metamorphosis of Walter White is still very much ongoing.

There are 16 episodes to go in the final season, leaving viewers to wonder how much worse can Walter get.

"There's a new sheriff in town, is one way to put it," said show creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan in a recent interview. "And in the absence of one drug king controlling the Southwest, and in the absence of one main meth dealer, Walt may want to fill that power vacuum.

We've seen what it takes to win that."

By critical if still not quite popular consent (about 3 million viewers on average have watched this series since its launch), "Breaking Bad" is one of the three or four finest U.S. television dramas of the past dozen years, standing shoulder to shoulder with "The Sopranos," "Mad Men," "The Wire" and — on their really good days — "Lost," "The Shield," "The Good Wife" and "The West Wing."

Cranston's evil Walter Mitty portrayal is one of the most cel-

ebrated in TV history: Three straight Emmy wins for best actor in a drama, a feat matched only

by Bill Cosby back in the mid'60s for "I Spy." What makes "Bad" so good (besides writing, acting, editing and cinematography, to cite four superlative production elements here)? One answer lies in that plate of eggs. Eggs are all about becoming — either becoming someone's breakfast or becoming a chicken. They are about transformation. Walter White and "Breaking Bad" are all about transformation, too.

Great series can hatch from modest starting points. What if the core character was a good family man who murdered people on the side ("The Sopranos")?

What if the cops were far worse than the criminals they were after ("The Shield")? What if your wildest dreams came true and they made you miserable ("Mad Men")? Or, what if the series' pro-

FEATURES

VERNE GAY mcclatchy newspapers

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FEATURES

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Stones began rolling on tour 50 years ago ANDY EDELSTEIN mcclatchy newspapers The Rolling Stones played their first gig 50 years ago this week _ July 12, 1962, at London's Marquee Club.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones were joined by soon-to-be-replaced bandmates Ian Stewart (piano), Dick Taylor (bass) and Tony Chapman (drums).

To celebrate the band's golden anniversary, here are five TV nuggets: Their first U.S. appearance was on the ABC variety show "The Hollywood Palace" on June 13, 1964. Host Dean Martin mocked their hair ("It's just an optical illusion. They just have low foreheads and high eyebrows") and cracked true to character: "I've been rolled while I've been stoned."

The boys played "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "Not Fade Away." Hard to believe, but the Stones appeared on "The Mike Douglas Show" (June 25, 1964), whose viewers were mainly middle-aged housewives.

"Do you know The Beatles?," Douglas asked the guys. "Well, you certainly have them in the hair department."

Between songs, Douglas invit-

ed three teenage girls from the audience on stage and they practically collapse in the presence of their idols. Songs played: "Oh, Carol," "Tell Me" and "Not Fade Away."

The Stones' first of six appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" was Oct. 25, 1964. When the band left the stage, an increasingly miffed Sullivan had difficulty quieting the unruly, shrieking audience. After the show, he vowed never to book them again.

(Cooler heads _ or perhaps the prospect of losing high Nielsen ratings _ prevailed.)

They played "Around and Around" and closed the show with "Time Is on My Side."

Their most infamous Sullivan appearance took place on Jan. 15, 1967. CBS and Sullivan had asked the band to change the lyrics of "Let's Spend the Night Together" to "Let's Spend Some Time Together."

When the boys balked, Sullivan warned them, "Either the song goes, or you go." So Jagger complied as best he could _ during the live performance, he rolled his eyes and sarcastically uttered the revised lyric.

The Stones never COURTESY OF BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF appeared on "American Bandstand."

The Rolling Stones debuted on July 12 in London before touring in America and inspiring a music craze.

Halo films “Forward” without a studio BEN FRITZ

collegiatetimes.com july 12, 2012

mcclatchy newspapers Microsoft's blockbuster "Halo" franchise has sold more than 42 million video games and been featured in novels, comic books, trading cards and an animated series.

But Master Chief, the "space marine" protagonist who wields two guns and takes no prisoners, got his butt kicked on his first foray into the live-action world, when 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures' 2006 attempt to develop a big-budget "Halo" movie fizzled over budget concerns.

Now "Halo" has gone in front of the cameras, but without any movie studio assistance. Microsoft has produced a Web series, called "Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn," which will premiere this October in five episodes leading up to the release of the "Halo 4" video game.

The segments will then be collected, along with 15 minutes of additional footage, into a 90-minute feature film.

Microsoft will announce "Forward Unto Dawn" and preview it to fans at Comic-Con International in San Diego during a panel Thursday.

Financed at a cost insiders pegged as between $5 million and $10 million, "Forward Unto Dawn" represents the

technology giant's first significant step forward into the traditional entertainment world.

Its backers hope the step will allow 343 Industries, the Microsoft subsidiary that oversees everything "Halo," to tell new types of stories and reach new audiences.

"We want this piece to do all the things that a game, by virtue of being a game, can't," said producer Lydia Antonini, a former Warner Bros. executive who is one of several experienced Hollywood hands Microsoft hired. "When you have real people, you can have real stakes and make connections."

Produced over five weeks this past spring in Vancouver, "Forward Unto Dawn" is a prequel story that portrays the first invasion by the Covenant, an alien force that has been the primary enemy in "Halo" games thus far.

Set in a military academy, the futuristic science-fiction series focuses on a young trainee who will also appear in "Halo 4" and other upcoming games.

The cast includes Australian actor Tom Green, relatively unknown in the U.S., as its lead. Daniel Cudmore, who played Colossus in two "X-Men" movies and was in the most recent "Twilight" film, costars as Master Chief.

Other cast members aren't household names but have appeared in everything from "Footloose" to "Supernatural" to "The Chronicles of Narnia."

Director Stewart Hendler, who previously made the horror movie "Sorority Row" and science-fiction Web series "H+," said his goal was to temper a franchise known in the game world for over-the-top action and grandiose plots.

"I wanted to bring a sense of reality and gravity to the world," he explained while editing the series in a North Hollywood office. "Everything from the performances to the aesthetics should be tethered to a sense of authenticity and grittiness."

Key to that ambition, the filmmakers said, was using computer effects as little as possible. All the "Halo" hardware _ from Master Chief's armor to the "MA5" gun, Warthog vehicle, and Pelican drop ship _ was made with real materials.

"Our hope is that nobody will look at a frame of this and go, 'Oh, that's a green screen,'" said producer Josh Feldman. "We built a disproportionate amount of our sets and brought in a visual effects supervisor who won an Emmy for 'The Pacific.'"

An inspiration, the filmmakers said,

has been the popular live-action commercials used to promote previous "Halo" games. An ad for 2009's "Halo 3: ODST" helped to win director Rupert Sanders the director's job on this summer's big-budget tentpole film "Snow White and the Huntsman."

In producing "Forward Unto Dawn," Microsoft is putting itself among a small group of video game companies expanding into the live-action world.

After producing several live-action Web videos based on its "Assassin's Creed" franchise, French game publisher Ubisoft recently recruited "X-Men: First Class" star Michael Fassbender to play the lead character in a movie version it is developing.

Like "Halo," the "Assassin's Creed" movie is being developed without a Hollywood studio. While the primary business of "Halo" is still selling video games, Microsoft executives say they don't see their foray into live action as a purely promotional move.

"It's really important to us that this is a stand-alone product that can make money on its own," said Matt McCloskey, director of franchise business management for 343.

Toward that end, Microsoft licensed 343 to Machinima.com, the game website and YouTube channel.

That will be the only place to watch "Forward Unto Dawn" webisodes, beginning Oct. 5, save for Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles connected to the Internet.

When put together into a film, the "Halo" movie will be given away free with limited editions of "Halo 4," and be available to rent or buy on DVD, Blu-ray and in digital stores.

Millions of hard-core "Halo" fans are sure to stream the episodes and scrutinize whether every detail is exactly right.

Hendler said he exchanged hundreds of emails with staff at 343 during preproduction.

"They were checking every costume stitch, the placement of LEDs on the guns, and the bevels on the visors," he said.

But if "Forward Unto Dawn" meets the ambitions of its makers, it will also draw viewers who think warthogs are animals and a Master Chief can be found at Camp Pendleton.

"One of the things we're trying to do is reach new audiences," said 343 franchise development director Frank O'Connor. "If Mom watches, she'll completely understand it."

Nets’ pursuit of Howard seems irrelevant

MCT CAMPUS

The Nets have tried to land Howard for a while, but it might not matter.

But perhaps the greater cause for concern is the demeanor of the players the Nets are looking to assemble.

Aside from their lack of tangible

playoff results, as a Finals appearance for Howard and a conference finals berth for Williams are the trio’s only notable achievements, it would

seem that each player’s personality is ill-suited for winning titles.

Howard’s childish attitude and contract flip-flops are well documented, but the others aren’t exactly Michael Jordan either. Johnson is renowned for his cool detachment, while Williams was a key part of longtime Jazz coach Jerry Sloan’s dismissal.

None have ever exactly been characterized as leaders in the locker room. When the Celtics and Heat assembled their powerful triads, they had vocal generals like Dwyane Wade and Kevin Garnett to keep everyone in line.

Of these three, Johnson would seem to be the most veteran presence, but most analysts seem to paint him as a player happy to get his 20 points per game on jumpers, rather than as an aggressive leader driving to the basket. It’s entirely possible that the reduced pressure on him to be the team’s star may change his conduct, but this remains to be seen.

Instead, the burden of becoming the team’s “alpha dog” would most likely fall to Williams. Howard seems to be looking to leave Orlando in part to avoid being his team’s go-to guy, while Williams would relish such an opportunity, for better or worse.

He often seemed to float through games in his first two seasons as a Net, and while the quality of the team around him undoubtedly played a role in this attitude, the

results of a team centered around Williams aren’t pretty.

Beyond the team’s three proposed “stars,” the cupboard in Brooklyn would look awfully bare after these projected trades. While no can be certain of the exact terms, the team would almost certainly stand to lose center Brook Lopez, promising guard MarShon Brooks, and several first round picks.

Boston and Miami certainly experienced similar roster issues as they built their teams around max-contract players. However, it’s one thing to add supporting players to a cast of three future Hall of Famers and the best player in basketball, respectively, versus building around three sometime All-Stars.

Perhaps more than anything, Howard’s talents themselves are what create such uncertainly about the value of a team built around him.

He’s proved he block shots with aplomb, as well as throw down monstrous dunks in transition, but he’s never developed a consistent offensive game. The truly effective centers in basketball have had an arsenal of low post moves that Howard has never seen any interest in developing.

This makes any team’s championship prospects with Howard as an offensive lynchpin shaky. It’s all well and good for a team to ask him to protect the rim and score off

9 SPORTS

In the barren desolation of July, everyone in the sports world is completely, excruciatingly, dreadfully bored.

There is absolutely no other reason for the media and fans alike to obsess over the offseason moves of the newly-dubbed Brooklyn Nets, especially the team’s pursuit of maligned Magic center Dwight Howard.

After LeBron’s “Decision,” it’s probably inevitable that any superstar’s movement from a small-market team to a big-market one will draw attention, but the frenzy surrounding the most recent round of trade talks for Howard verges on ridiculous.

As baseball took its All-Star break and other sports enter the offseason, it’s inevitable that these rumors would gain traction, but the attention they’ve garnered belies one very simple fact — Howard joining the Nets may mean absolutely nothing.

Many have been quick to dub Brooklyn’s proposed trio of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Howard as the next “Big Three” in the NBA’s growing trend of super teams, but it seems no one has paused to consider if such a team could truly contend for a title.

With Miami’s recent championship breakthrough, it’s hard to imagine any other team being successful in the Eastern Conference in the near future, let alone coping with other contenders like Chicago, Indiana and Boston.

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see NETS / page twelve

collegiatetimes.com july 12, 2012

sports editor Hokie athletes may grab headlines during the season, but as many of Virginia Tech’s sports teams move into the offseason, several coaches have been celebrated for their achievements.

Last week, the National Fast Pitch Coaches Association named softball head coach Scot Thomas and the rest of his staff as the Mid-Atlantic region’s coaching staff of the year, while the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association also focused on the Hokies, naming track and field head coach Dave Cianelli the southeast region’s coach of the year.

“Our efforts helped the team have a successful season, and I’m really proud of how we maintained our efficiency from top to bottom,” Thomas said.

This was the staff ’s third time receiving the award and associate head coach Al Brauns, assis-

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tant coach Barb Sherwood, volunteer assistant Whitney Davis and student assistants Kenzie Roark, Misty Hall and Ashton Ward all received recognition for their efforts. The staff guided the team to 42-21 record this season and made the ACC title game, despite having just two seniors on the squad.

“We definitely rode a rollercoaster early on, but as we gained experience in big games, things definitely got better,” Thomas said.

Cianelli was also able to guide his team to conference success, as they claimed first place at the ACC outdoor championships, which surely influenced his coaching recognition.

“Any credit for an individual award like this has to go to our whole staff,” Cianelli said.

“

son is over, several track athletes are still competing with the help of coaches.

Both Keith Ricks and Darrell Wesh were selected to compete in this past week’s North American, Central American and Caribbean Under-23 Championship.

“There’s no one else out there

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SCOT THOMAS softball head coach

most important,” Thomas said.

“It’s just a matter of us showing them the way and taking a solid approach all year long.”

The team is set to return its entire starting lineup next season and coaches hope this experience will pay off in a big way.

“We really want to win the ACC and make regionals,” Thomas said. “We want to see Oklahoma City again, and I think we’ve got the skill set to do so, as long as the stars align.”

Their situations may be very different, but one thing the honored coaches agree on is their optimism for the future.

“We’re always looking to improve, so it’s an ongoing process for us, but we’re really excited to see what we can do next year,” Cianelli said.

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WE DEFINITELY RODE A ROLLER COASTER EARLY ON, BUT AS WE GAINED EXPERIENCE IN BIG GAMES, THINGS DEFINITELY GOT BETTER

working as hard as we are,” Wesh said. “It’s been a lot of work, but the coaches have all been so supportive."

After Ricks placed third in the 200-meter race and Wesh’s team finished first in the 4x100 meter relay in the event, Cianelli and the rest of his staff should feel confident that their methods are working.

“Between my family and the coaches, I really have a great support system,” Wesh said.

“Competing at the international level like this just means so much.”

The softball team may be further removed from its season, but the results it posted were certainly had a big effect on the staff ’s award. Aside from the impressive finish, the team also posted school records in home runs, sacrifice flies, double plays turned and fielding percentage.

“We try to maintain our fundamentals all year, but these players had the talents to get it done, that’s

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“We really think of this as a team effort, and I’m glad to see that recognized.”

Although the team’s sea-

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Thursday, July 12, 2012

XKCD by Randell Munroe

Regular Edition Today’s Birthday Horoscope: Socialize to have fun while accomplishing goals in teamwork. You’re called to leadership. Balance making a difference for others with time for yourself. Network people with shared interests, and delegate. Renovate at home and throw a fabulous party.

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.

My Board

Battleship:

Carrier:

Submarine:

Destroyer:

My Opponent’s

8 1 7 3

6 9 8

7 8

7 6

9 6 5

8 4 1 3

9 1 5 8 7

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

9 2 1 3 5

Unscramble the letters to solve the category “Board

Have a set of words you want to see in puzzles section? Email your lists to studybreak@collegemedia.com.

r

1. yorsr 2. yonpmloo

n f

3. e eoi amffgl l

4. eluc 5. aebrlsbc

Games”

a

Check out next week’s paper on pg 10 for the answers!

page

SPORTS

12

Nets: Lakers need a scare to improve Howard bad fit KEVIN DING

mcclatchy newspapers

from page nine

turnovers, but putting him on the low block and asking him to make something happen seems foolish.

In Brooklyn, he would most likely be asked to do just that. Williams can certainly get to the basket, but his true value lies in creating for others.

Johnson is a jump shooter that hasn’t been able to create his own shot for a couple seasons now, and that leaves a lot of responsibility on Howard’s broad shoulders.

He wasn’t able to succeed with a vaguely similar situation in Orlando while playing with Jameer Nelson and Hedo Turkoglu, which doesn’t leave a lot of hope for his future in Brooklyn.

If Howard leaves for another team, like the oft-rumored Lakers, then most of this discussion is irrelevant.

He can absolutely be successful if he doesn’t have too much asked of him, but it just doesn’t seem like it would be the case in Brooklyn.

It would seem that many are tiring of Howard’s on-again, off-again relationship with the Nets and wish it would simply go away, and it would seem that there’s no better case for granting their wish than the fact that Brooklyn may remain irrelevant with or without him.

collegiatetimes.com july 12, 2012

ALEX KOMA - sports editor - junior - communication

Even with all the jazz from Steve Nash coming and the ongoing anticipation about Pau Gasol going, only one transaction truly changes everything for the Lakers.

The lingering stale air of championship satisfaction, the stink from the Chris Paul trade hangover, the sense that uncrowned Mike Brown can't connect deeply with his stars ... it would all be replaced by a new energy, even if it's a little unstable, by now making the trade of Andrew Bynum for Dwight Howard.

For sure, Howard isn't clamoring to come to the Lakers at the moment and isn't banking on the road here turning everything to gold. It's just as well. The too-complacent Lakers have had enough assumptions lately. Their titles are in the past, and they've felt the sting of the first strike from Oklahoma City with the promise of many more to come. There is no reason for anyone to come here and expect everything, including championships, to take care of itself.

It's time for the Lakers to get back to the pioneer spirit that brought Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal together and enabled the Lakers' brass to hold but not fold until Bryant was so frustrated he was bouncing off the planets before pulling the Gasol trade on the river.

The Lakers need a healthy dose of gambling's fear to bring out the best in them _ and the prospect of trading for Howard and losing him for nothing in a year is certainly plenty scary. But the reality is that there are benefits awaiting the Lakers even in that worst-case scenario that could easily be explained

by Dwight again being a loon who fails to listen to reason: What can you do if the goofy dude walks away

from far more money from the Lakers because he wants to dress up like a cowboy in Dallas or curl all the way up into the fetal position in hometown Atlanta?

The Lakers are already absolutely opposed to paying monster salaries to Bryant, Gasol and Bynum in 2014-15, when Nash will also now be on the books, so even if it's just Bryant and Gasol (or whomever Gasol is traded for) left in 2013-14, the Lakers get a head start on major change and their necessary evil of getting under the luxury-tax plateau. The Lakers are already determined to avoid paying the overwhelming repeater tax that comes into play in this post-lockout NBA era in 2014-15 if clubs paid luxury tax in 2012, '13 and '14.

The Lakers will curtail player spending in 2014-15, one way or another, but it's actually a pretty easy and sensible transition if Howard re-signs after next season with the knowledge that he'll be the cornerstone of the league's glamour franchise in 2014, when Bryant's and Gasol's contracts expire and Howard is still only 28.

In the more immediate future, the Lakers get a new vibe without Bynum's know-it-all assuredness and with Howard determined above all to re-establish his good-guy image.

The best way to do so? Play great and win big, which the Lakers would do with Gasol reclaiming his standing as the offensive creator in the low post and Howard's incomparable defense accentuating Brown's greatest coaching skill. For how many ill-conceived decisions Howard has made in a rather sad testament to how trying to be loved isn't half as fulfilling as loving, he has become completely underrated _ at a time when Bynum's value has never been higher or healthier. Back before Bynum's All-Star last season, I wrote: "The Lakers' sweet spot for

MCT CAMPUS

The Lakers’ front office must manage Kobe Bryant’s last years well. trading the still-blooming Bynum is out there somewhere. It's not here yet."

In that same column was this: "I love CP3 and believe completely that he is a truly special gamer. He has more winning character in his bad left knee than Dwight Howard has in his whole cartoonish body. Yet there's still no way you can pick Paul over Howard." Let's put it this way now: Paul, 27, is a crazy feisty and brilliant little man. Howard, 26, is already one of the greatest centers in NBA history.

The Lakers' real plan in December (and it looks as if the retooling Atlanta Hawks are now thinking the same thing for next summer) was to pair Howard with Paul after first going

small by trading Gasol and Lamar Odom. Who knows if the second shoe would've dropped perfectly into place had David Stern not untied the first one, but the reality is that Howard is truly the bigger catch: He is the only one in the game who can compare to LeBron James as a physical marvel.

Jim Buss' first days in his job featured follies that the Lakers would scoop up James, Yao Ming or Amar'e Stoudemire via free agency to play with Bryant. Even though all three superstars re-signed with their teams back then, it was an indication of how big the junior Buss does dream.

Landing Howard now after the Brooklyn Nets finally tired of waiting for both Howard and the Magic is the sort of bold stroke artfully turned time and time again by Jerry Buss, the Lakers' owner whose health has been very poor recently. A visionary, however, isn't needed here to identify the benefits for both sides.

Trading Howard for a bunch of expiring contracts or unspectacular potential, mostly what everyone but the Lakers is offering, is hardly the means to renewing any optimism in Orlando. And it was clear from new Orlando general manager Rob Hennigan's tone during a news conference Monday that he appreciates his community's need to move forward as soon as possible with players who are committed to the cause and understand winning.

For all his quirks, Bynum does know what it takes, has no qualms about leaving the Lakers and is sincerely eager for a team to call his own. He is predisposed to knee injuries, but he is getting his second consecutive healthy summer to build himself up. ances.

Only the potential for greatness all over again.