Thursday, July 19, 2012 Print Edition

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july 19, 2012

what’s inside News .............2 Opinions........4 Features ........6 Sports ...........9 Classifieds ...11 Sudoku ........11 108th year issue 67 blacksburg, va.

Summer designers learn first CHELSEA GILES features editor Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture and Design studios are still bustling 24 hours a day, even in the summer, with firstyear students participating in the summer studio track.

The track is comprised of two courses, Design Thinking and Seeing Design, which are a combination of workshops, field trips and discussions, to introduce students of the program to the school.

Associate Professor and Foundation Chair of the School of Architecture and Design, Kathryn Albright, established the summer track in the summer of 2010, with 11 students, and she was the only professor.

The 2012 cohort has 24 students who study under a team of faculty from the various disciplines of the school over a fiveweek course.

Albright said the courses are offered as an opportunity for the students invited to have an introduction to the studio environment and how to use the basic see STUDIO / page seven

Robert Riggs works in the studio. BY CHELSEA GILES / COLLEGIATE TIMES

Hokie SPA updates service with new video CAMERON AUSTEN news staff writer A new video tutorial may make Hokie SPA as easy as getting a massage.

However, to new students, Hokie SPA can be sometimes overwhelming for students to navigate through all the options and links. This fall though, students now have the option of watching an “Introduction to Hokie SPA” video tutorial.

Barry Simmons, director of university scholarships and financial aid, started the project to decrease the number of phone calls the office was getting regarding Hokie SPA.

“We were being swamped by phone calls and visits and regarding the SPA, and it just seemed to me that it would be so much more convenient and efficient for their families to just watch the video,” he said.

The video was a collaboration among the bursar, registrar and financial aid and scholarships office.

The video is just under five minutes long and guides students step by step through everything Hokie SPA offers, from explaining FERPA to how to view your financial aid information. So far, the video has around 240 views.

“We realized that there were

no good resources for Hokie SPA. If students needed help, they had to call various offices.

There was no central help system,” said Noah Schoenholtz, the former project manager for the tutorials. The team received feedback from different focus groups composed of students and parents who all agreed a video would be the most convenient way to reach people.

The project is meant to be a customer service to the incoming students who were having troubles figuring it out and improving the other functions of the SPA. “It empowers the student so much more to have knowl-

edge of what is on the website,” Simmons said.

Sebastian Habermehl, an incoming freshman, was one of those students who had to call the university for help when trying to use Hokie SPA. “Hokie SPA is so hard to navigate because it’s outdated," he said. "It takes forever (to figure out) because there are tabs upon tabs to go through. I think if they just cleaned it all up and gave it a new interface it would be fine."

The Institute for Distance and Distributed Learning helped Schoenholtz and colleagues train on a screen shot

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software called Camtasia that allowed them to tape what they were doing on the computer and narrate step by step.

“It was a fun project to work on. The key was the various people involved throughout the university who all provided different perspectives,” Schoenholtz said.

Currently students can reach the video tutorial from the main page on Hokie SPA. The team plans to create more videos on specific functions of the website, and intends on this being a long-term project.

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NEWS

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U.S. keeps wary eye on China’s space program ALEX KANE RODANSKY mccltachy newspapers WASHINGTON — China launched an anti-satellite test in 2007 and an anti-ballistic missile test in 2010 without alerting the international community beforehand. Now the Beijing government has moved a step closer to its goal of building a space station by 2020: In June, China completed a successful manned docking test, keeping on track to execute the three-step space plan it announced in the 1990s.

As China quickly carves out its place in space, American experts are beginning to question what its moves mean for the United States at a time NASA is undergoing a fundamental shift in its own mission. That’s partly because China’s agenda remains unclear, despite official claims that the program’s intentions are peaceful.

“Peaceful is in the eye of the beholder,” said Dean Cheng, an expert on Chinese political and security affairs at the Heritage Foundation, a policy research center in Washington. “The Chinese military is thinking of space in ways that would threaten U.S. space assets.”

China’s space program does have civilian applications, and a nation can make significant technological advances from knowledge gained through space exploration. The United States also remains the international leader in space. But as the American program shifts direction and China’s advances, should the United States be worried about a threat to its security?

According to an April report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressional commission, the answer is: maybe. “While the overall level of its space technology may not match that of the United States and other spacefaring nations, China’s relative advances are significant,” it said. “Even relative increases in Chinese space capabilities could present challenges for the United States.”

The report, by Cheng and Mark A. Stokes, said China “is emerging as a space power.”

June’s launch involved sending three Chinese astronauts into space to complete the country’s first manual docking of a spacecraft with another space module. The expedition means that

China is one of just three countries to have docked successfully with orbiting stations.

“It does reflect a fair degree of sophistication on China’s part,” said Jonathan Pollack, a China expert at the Brookings Institution, a research center in Washington.

It also might signal China’s military ambitions. While the Chinese say their program is peaceful, Cheng of the Heritage Foundation said the United

collegiatetimes.com july 19, 2012

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Even relative increases in China’s space capabilities could present challenges for the United States.”

Congressional report on China’s space program

States couldn’t ignore the 2007 anti-satellite test, in which China destroyed one of its own weather satellites without prior notice.

Space technology and military capability are deeply connected. Satellites give China access to a global positioning system, which can be used to collect intelligence on other countries’ military ships and bases, creating the potential for China to target and attack those assets, said Dan Blumenthal, a China expert at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington; he’s also a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

In addition, satellites can be used to blind or destroy other nations’ satellites, Cheng said.

That’s a threat to U.S. security because most American military operations cannot be conducted without a robust satellite system.

As military and national power increasingly relies on space dominance, so will future wars, he said. “The Chinese military has concluded that winning the next war requires the ability to establish space dominance and superiority,” he added.

Part of China’s warfare strategy is not only finding a place for itself in space, but also working to deny space to any potential enemy, he said.

“The United States … has had a monopoly on power in space,” Blumenthal said. “Now it has a competitor in that realm.”

In recent years, NASA’s mission has been modified. Its manned space program has been slowing steadily since the George W. see SPACE / page three

from page two

with an advancing space program. Nations undertake spaceflight — particularly human spaceflight — for national interest, Stanford’s Hubbard said.

“It’s a badge of accomplishment on the international stage to have a human spaceflight program,” he said. “They want to be seen as a major player, not an emerging nation. Having your own space program gives bragging rights that you’ve joined the club that previously only the United States and Russia were members of.”

China depends heavily on nationalism for its legitimacy, deLisle said.

“Of course, anything that stokes nationalism could be construed as threatening,” he said, and could be a source of increased tension with the United States.

As with any nation’s space program, China’s can have civilian applications, noted John Hansman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Technology such as telecommunications infrastructure and devices such as cellphones and small cameras all resulted from space technology, specifically satellites, he said. This has the potential to boost the Chinese economy by giving the Chinese the skills to manage a large, complicated technological-development project.

While the world can easily see China’s space advancements, the country’s opaque agenda for its space program leaves little for experts to work with as they try to piece together how these recent advancements will affect the United States and the world.

“Beijing’s lack of transparency over military budgets, and potential risks associated with the military applications of space technology, remain major causes for concern,” the U.S.China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its report.

Despite its advancements, China isn’t in a space race with the United States. Its Asian neighbors might see things differently, however.

“The Chinese aren’t in much of a space race, certainly not with us,” Cheng said. “They are building their space program on their own timetable. … Both India and Japan are looking at the Chinese very nervously.”

collegiatetimes.com july 19, 2012

Bush administration, which started the shutdown of the space shuttle program. Its planetary science program has changed as well: In a 2010 address at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, President Barack Obama stated his commitment to NASA and pledged to continue funding the agency, but he also detailed plans to scale back on NASA’s studies of planets.

This leaves the potential for China to surpass the United States in that field, said Scott Hubbard, a consulting professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University.

“Obama has cut everything (but) the kitchen sink in terms of planetary science, which I think is the wrong thing to do,” he said.

Even so, NASA’s recent partnership with the private company SpaceX has received mostly positive reviews from the astronautics community. “This is absolutely the right way to go,” Hubbard said. “The privatization of space is not unlike what happened in the early days of aviation.”

A NASA spokesman said such private partnerships allowed the United States to focus on other endeavors.

“In order to explore beyond where any man or woman has ever been, we’re partnering with private industry so we can focus on the truly difficult missions, like sending humans to Mars,” David Weaver, the associate administrator for communications at NASA, said in an email.

In many ways, China is following in American footsteps, executing projects that the U.S. completed 50 years ago.

China’s recent emergence as a space power is a result of years of development since its space program launched in 1956, the Heritage Foundation’s Cheng said.

That’s bolstered by the exponentially increased wealth the country is experiencing now, as well as its Soviet-style methods.

“Authoritarian systems … tend to be very good at mobilizing resources to achieve relatively narrow goals, including in the realm of military technology,” said Jacques deLisle, the director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Just as the military potential of China’s space program is viewed as a threat, so is the strengthened sense of nationalism that comes

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Space: China poses problems

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OPINIONS

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Construction will benefit all in long run Juniors and seniors are no strangers to construction at Virginia Tech. So many projects have been announced, initiated and finished over the past few years that it seems like Virginia Tech is making a serious run at an extreme makeover.

Development has been strategic and it aims to improve the school’s impact on education and research on a national level, according to many of the project summaries online.

Infrastructure and program improvements past and present lure research grants and opportunities, star faculty and boost the university’s image with companies looking for new hires.

Faculty, staff and locals have big expectations for the new face-lift. Many initiatives set into motion by the university have been well-received and should boost the schools image locally and nationally.

The new Center of the Arts at Virginia Tech is perhaps the main attraction, situated on Main Street and Alumni Mall.

The $94 million project is slated to equip Tech with a strong influence in creative and performing arts education, with a performance hall with seating for 1,300 attendees, various art galleries, and an update for the Center for Creative Technologies in the Arts. The

new building is scheduled for completion in September of 2013.

The school’s aim with the project is to make Tech a national force in creative arts, developing a strengthened student body with skills in creativity and critical thinking, and attracting

and 150 offices - all supporting several disciplines including the aerospace, mechanical, chemical and ocean engineering schools, as well as an expansion of the engineering education program.

The engineering department, already a strong representation of the university’s image, is looking to boost its rapport with The engineering department, national prestige. In 2010, the engineering already a strong representa- department ranked nationwide in tion of the of the university’s fifth a poll conducted to image, is looking to boost its see how companies value recent grads rapport with national pres- looking for entrylevel jobs. Virginia tige.

Tech as a whole was ranked No. 13. Much of the university’s success stems from higher-profile faculty and larger the success of the engineering research and development fund- department, which also serves ing. as an economic engine for the Also turning heads is the new region, responsible for numerSignature Engineering Building, ous jobs and strong money which is planned to become flow. the flagship building for Tech's Particularly popular among engineering department. The students is the construction of $95 million project is intend- Turner Place, the new dining ed to expand multiple facets hall on the academic side of camof the university's engineer- pus. Most major tasks involving ing program, with the project construction have already been boasting state-of-the-art ameni- completed and the building is ties in one large auditorium, a set to open at the start of the Fall cafe, eight classrooms, 40 labs semester. The $36 million project

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is ready to offer students eight new dining options, including both national brands and unique venues. More than anything, the new dining hall will offer a convenient place for students to dine on campus when trekking across the Drillfield cannot be allocated time. Congestion at existing dining facilities should also see a dramatic reduction.

Other projects on campus include the renovation of Davidson Hall, a $31 million project to offer state-of-theart upgrades to the Chemistry Department, infrastructure projects related to the power plant ($51 million), continued renovations on the exterior wall at McComas Hall ($3 million) and large expansions of the Oak Lane Community ($23 million). These projects are just a comprehensive overview of the construction happening around campus - many other projects have made substantial progress as well. The aforementioned construction examples, however, total $333 million on their own. Students wonder year after year why tuition costs are rising, and how their money is being put to use. And as a public institution, tax payers wonder how their funding is being used as well. It would seem a more responsible use of taxes

and tuitions in such an economy to strengthen core programs instead of expand them and use dollars for necessary programs that are being cut at alarming rates, not just state-wide but nation-wide.

It should come as a relief then, that a stunning portion of the projects on campus are being privately funded. The Center of the Arts has seen $28 million in donations, and funding for the new engineering building was aided by a $25 million donation, the largest single cash gift ever given to the university. Other non-general funding (revenue from earmarks on laws and federal funding) make up significant portions of project costs, and the university only has to provide for a handful of the remaining sums.

As these projects come to a close over of the next couple of years, students and locals should greatly benefit from the strong investment that the school and community has committed to expansion and renovation, and these large dollar amounts should prove worth the effort for years to come.

ERIC JONES -regular columnist -senior -psychology

collegiatetimes.com july 19, 2012

‘One size fits all’ fits far too few in education Deciding what to teach children based on how old they are makes no more sense than basing their lessons on how much they weigh, or how tall they are.

The folly of relying on such irrelevant metrics was highlighted this week when a national study was released by the Center for American Progress.

According to the researchers who compiled it and the media that reported on it, the study showed kids find school too easy.

But that’s not the important conclusion to be drawn from the data, and that interpretation is so political it makes my head not just swim, but drown.

The headline read, “School is too easy, students report.” Of fourth graders, 37 percent did say their math work is often or always too easy, but 49 percent said it sometimes is, and 14 percent said it never is.

Of eighth graders surveyed, 29

percent said math is often or always like falling off a log, but 54 percent said sometimes yes, sometimes no — while 17 percent said their math class was Greek to them.

Yet in the 25-page study, the idea that the kids in these varied situations should be in separate classes, learning different things, at different speeds, never came up.

Welcome to the current educational model: “No Child Can Be Allowed Ahead, or Left Behind, So Let’s Just Sit Here.”

I exaggerate. The 49 percent of fourth graders and 54 percent of eighth graders who say their classes are sometimes too easy are in the right classes with the right curriculum. But the kids who always or never find their lessons too easy are being taught the wrong lessons.

They are prisoners of a onesize-fits-all educational system in which tracking has pretty much been banned before high school.

Years ago, students were divided into classes by aptitude and competence, so they could learn at the pace best for them. This has largely fallen by the wayside.

who are falling behind get special help, and the gifted kids get screwed.

Last year my daughter tested in the 92nd percentile of eighth graders in Language Arts. But she was in the fifth grade. In she’s only just Years ago, students were math above average, but divided by aptitude and again, for a class years older. competence so they could three By law and practice, learn at the pace best for my daughter is not allowed to learn in them. This has largely fallen school.

Now I do care that by the wayside. when we divide gifted kids out, minorities and the poor don’t make up as much Too many of the “gifted” kids of that group as they should, came from white families with but I’m pretty sure the inequimoney. And besides, we now ties of society are not my kid’s know that all children are special fault. and talented, even if only at starIf I find out they are, I’ll see ing uncomprehendingly when she’s grounded, but as things faced with a curriculum beyond stand I’m not sure why she’s being their ken. punished.

So what happens now? Everyone I’m also sympathetic to the has the same lessons, the kids idea that kids who’ve fallen

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behind do better when they have classmates like my daughter, but I’m only a wee tad sympathetic.

My daughter is not some kind of tiny teacher’s aide who exists in the school system to provide free tutoring which, let’s face it, the teachers unions would never stand for. She has a right to learn things.

What all students have a right to are classes appropriate to their current education level and aptitude. The gifted and advanced kids have just as much right to this as the average achievers and those who aren’t quite up to speed.

Deciding they’ll all be taught the same thing based on age is as foolish and abusive as making everyone born in the same year wear identical shoes.

The fit’s fine for many, but wrong for the kids behind the curve, and crippling for the one’s who’ve outgrown their peers.

LANE FILLER -mcclatchy newspapers

The Collegiate Times is an independent student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903

Collegiate Times Business Staff Business Manager Travis Neale College Media Solutions Staff Advertising Director Brandon Collins Asst Advertising Director Sarah Brown Creative Director Casey Stoneman Creative Services Staff Ashley Marlowe, Molly Vinson Account Executives: Katherine Buitrago Asst Account Executives Laura McBride, Mandy Atkinson, Amanda Gawne Student Publication Photo Staff Director of Photography Luke Mason

Collegiate Times does not support controversial ad, encourages readers to voice opinions The Collegiate Times does not support the messages presented in the FLAME ad on page two. Although the ad is factually accurate, the underlying message of cultural hatred is not one that we condone.

However, the CT is totally dependent on advertising revenue, because we receive no financial support from the university. It is not as simple as saying, “We do not support this message, and we will not collect your money.”

We depend on people paying us to get their message out— especially in these economic times.

The money we collect allows us to deliver quality journalism to Blacksburg and the Virginia Tech community. It also allows us

to provide a forum for our readers’ voices.

We fully understand the abusive nature of these ads.

However, refusing to publish them does not solve the larger problem of cultural prejudices that exist in our country. Bringing issues like this out in the open and starting a dialogue is what will help in the long run.

I encourage you to share your opinion with us. Send letters to the editor. Write guest columns. We are more than happy to share your voice with the rest of the community. Please send all commentary to editor@collegiatetimes.com.

Sincerely, Michelle Sutherland Editor in Chief

Voice your opinion. Readers are encouraged to send letters and comments to the Collegiate Times.

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Our three boys have outgrown a small ATV given to them a few years ago by their grandmother. When the middle son asked me if they could sell it on Craigslist with an eye toward a larger model, I said fine, thinking that letting him handle the transaction would be a learning experience. It was, for both of us.

Wilson, age 14, sampled the market and concluded that 5-year-old models like ours were selling for around $1,500. So he decided to list ours for $1,450. There was immediate interest, first from a neighbor looking for an ATV for his daughter. He made plans to come and take a look, but while he was in transit, another inquiry arrived via text: “Just went through your ad on craigslist and am ready to make a purchase. ... Get back to me at my email. John.”

Getting hyped in this seller’s market, Wilson dutifully responded and offered to show him the ATV that day. Instead, “John” replied with three questions: “I would like to know the following; The present condition and the reason why you are selling it. I also need to know the final asking price as am looking to purchase it outrightly. Do get back to me with the above requested so we can make further arrangements.”

Wilson: “Hello. The condition is very good. The reason I’m selling it is because I am too big for it. ...”

John: “What’s the final asking price?”

This is what I’d hoped for: a lesson in negotiation.

Wilson stuck to the asking price of $1,450, and John agreed, with a few caveats. A marine engineer at sea, John said his phone and Internet access was limited and he wouldn’t be able to pay for or pick up the ATV himself. He suggested we complete the transaction using PayPal and promised to arrange for his “private courier agent” to get the ATV. “Don’t bother about shipping, no shipping,” he wrote.

He requested a PayPal account to which the money should be sent. With my approval, my son provided mine.

And I suggested he tell the neighbor that the ATV was sold.

Then, within minutes, another e-mail arrived. John’s pickup agent wouldn’t retrieve the ATV until an “agent commission fee” was sent to the “pick up agent Head Quarters” in North Carolina. Of course, headquarters only accepted Western Union money transfers, and John’s lack of credit history necessitated that we help him pay in cash.

Ever the accommodating buyer, John offered to send us $2,200 via PayPal and requested that we head to our nearest Western Union — “there is always a western union agent in most post offices or online,” he helpfully noted — and send $690 to the pickup agent.

Whoa. Way too much information and a bit unnecessarily complicated.

A marine engineer? With limited Web access? Paying full price? But requiring payment of $690 via Western Union?

“Dad, this doesn’t sound right.”

John was teaching my son a much more valuable lesson than I’d first imagined.

Before we could fashion a response, my iPhone buzzed with three e-mails in quick succession. The first, seemingly from “service@paypal.com,” said my account was being credited with $2,200. The second clarified that the funds would be officially credited after we went to Western Union and sent the $690, along with a scanned copy of the receipt.

Finally, a third e-mail arrived within five minutes of the first. “We hereby inform you that he is a verified premier user and we can testify that this is a legitimate transaction and which is the reason why we are writing back to you for you to know that you are 100 percent safe and that you are covered by our Seller Protection.”

By now I was growing alarmed.

If John had my email, maybe there was a way he could manipulate my PayPal account. I called PayPal and explained the situation to a customer service representative. Not surprisingly, none of the three emails had come from them. After I supplied the email name of the scammer, she told me that PayPal “never uses Western Union and doesn’t have anything to do with Nigeria,” not that I had asked. She also said that several of its customers had called demanding payment from John, meaning that they had already paid the “shipping” and were left holding the (empty) bag.

When I mentioned the incident on radio, I was overwhelmed with calls from people who had similar encounters. This, it seems, is the latest online scam.

I told the story to Alex Stone, author of the new book “Fooling Houdini.”

Stone was pursuing a Ph.D. in physics at Columbia when he decided to take a career detour and delve into the world of magic, the nature of perception, and the power of the mind.

“So-called advance fee fraud is one of the most common confidence schemes, a venerable old racket that probably dates back to Shakespeare’s day,” he told me. “Remarkably, it still works.

Scams of this sort cost Americans hundreds of millions of dollars each year.”

We still have the ATV. The price is now $1,250.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH -mcclatchy newspapers

5

collegiatetimes.com july 19, 2012

The Collegiate Times, a division of the Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech, was established in 1903 by and for the students of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

The Collegiate Times receives no funding from the university.

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

Lessons emerge from online scam

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

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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collegiatetimes.com july 19, 2012

FEATURES

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Community talks at Lyric Theatre JENNA SMITH features staff writer Blacksburg community members gathered at the Lyric Theatre Thursday for the first installment of “TED — Being the Change,” a free monthly series that is intended to inspire an open communication of ideas.

TED Talks are presentations that showcase people’s passions and thoughts. TED is an acronym for technology, education, design. The TED Talks website says, “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world.”

The Lyric committee plans to show one relevant TED Talk each month and encourage community dialogue about the issues raised in the presentation.

“The origin of the idea kind of came from students at Virginia Tech who were working on the TED talks happening on campus,” said Executive Director of the Lyric Theatre, Susan Mattingly.

“There seemed to be a desire to broaden the opportunities for dialogue about issues that impacted both the town and gown community,” she said.

Mattingly said that the

Lyric is positioned to be a bridge organization, and that she feels the Lyric is the go-to place for community dialogue.

“It gets you thinking, and that’s really the whole point,” she said. “We want to bring people together and have a conversation about things that affect our community.”

project demonstrates the potential of creative collaboration as community members take the initiative to rapidly transform their areas.

“If you’re passionate about something, you’re probably going to be a leader,” Roberts said.

He said that everyone has skills to offer, and he provided a list of four steps to facilitate change: show up, give it a set a date and We want to bring people to- name, publish it. the gether and have a conver- Following screening, a panelist sation about things that af- of community members who are pasfect our community.” sionate about change in Blacksburg disSusan Mattingly cussed their projExecutive Director ects. The audience The Lyric Theatre was invited to join the dialogue after.

Beth Loman of the The Lyric plans to keep the New River Bicycle Association TED talks going for several was one of the panelists. Loman months after Tech’s fall semes- explained why community was ter starts. integral to the NRVBA’s motto, “We hope there is a good “Building community through re c e pt i on ,” Matt i ng ly bicycling.” said.

“The word community was Thursday’s talk was titled really important to us because “How to Build a Better Block” it meant different things to difand was presented by Jason ferent people. It meant partRoberts, who founded the nership, it meant interaction, Better Block project. Roberts’ introduction, social engage-

“

ment, synergy on projects, so those are the types of things we are trying to convey,” Loman said.

John Bush of the Blacksburg Town Council was also a panelist. He said one cannot evoke change without the help of others.

“You can’t do anything by yourself, you certainly need lots of help and assistance, and I’ve certainly had that,” Bush said. “I think we are going to see in the next year or two, some really amazing things happen in our town.”

Founding Chair of the Lyric Council Lindsay West, also a panelist, described how the Lyric began as a volunteer effort with no money and became a cornerstone of downtown Blacksburg. West emphasized that a strong core of committed people was the cause of the Lyric’s success.

She said that people want

to see something happen, and she wants the community to keep growing, not only in population but also in vibrancy.

“We have a lot to be proud of, but you only keep that momentum going if you keep working at it, keep looking at what you can do a little bit better,” Mattingly said.

Two community members that are striving to make the area better are Janine Kniola and Paula Bolte. They said they are committed to establishing a Children’s Museum in Blacksburg.

The Children’s Museum is a non-profit organization that focuses on hands-on learning through play. Kniola said it would be a wonderful kind of education and a place for kids to grow.

The next Blacksburg TED Talk at the Lyric will be August 9.

Give the gift of memories!

Surfers help rebuild lifeguard towers mcclatchy newspapers Among the torn roofs, toppled trees and beach-front shops blasted in June

by Hurricane Carlotta, the city of Puerto Escondido, Mexico, also lost all eight of its wooden lifeguard towers.

The town's powerful waves are some of the most popular in the surfing world _ and it has been a frequent destination for many of Santa Cruz, Calif.'s big-wave riders.

As a gesture of support, a handful of Santa Cruz surfers with ties to the break recently raised money to help rebuild the towers.

"I heard about it right away," said Shawn Dollar, a Santa Cruz big-wave rider and longtime visitor to Puerto Escondido.

"I wanted to be able to contribute a good amount. I love those guys," he said of the lifeguards. "I go down there and surf and they watch over me."

Dollar, a Reef sandals sales representative, held a sample sale of sandals and other items on June 30 in Pleasure Point, Calif. Ten percent of its proceeds went to the relief effort, and he raised $300. Some people also kicked in $10 or more when they heard about the cause. A few surfers from Mexico who now live in Santa Cruz also showed up at the sale and thanked him.

"I told them what we were doing and they were stoked," Dollar said. Ken "Skindog" Collins, a fellow Santa Cruz big-wave rider, also pledged to match

COURTESY OF PLAY ZIPOLITE

Big-wave surfers have rallied together to fund the reconstruction of Puerto Escondido’s lifeguard towers. the $300 donation.

The yellow, wooden lifeguard stands are important because they make it easier to see surfers who wipe out or get caught in rip currents on the wide beach, supporters said. Lifeguards often spot surfers from the towers and launch jet skis or slap on swim fins to save them.

Dollar said the Mexican government might have paid for the towers' reconstruction, but private funds would get

them rebuilt faster. Supplies such as lumber are available, so raising money was more important than donating materials. Residents in the Mexican state of Oaxaca said the June 15 hurricane caught many off-guard.

Two children died when a mudslide collapsed on their home elsewhere in the state, and a 56-year-old woman was killed after the storm flipped her car, according to the Associated Press.

When the storm reached land as a Category 1 hurricane in Puerto Escondido, the wind toppled billboards and shattered windows. Homes were damaged by mudslides, and some areas lost power and water for days.

"Saturday morning was really sad and awful to see all kinds of people who had lost everything the night before," photographer Edwin Morales wrote on Surfline.com.

"Hundreds of trees had fallen all over the town. Dogs were running like crazy, as if they were wild dogs on the streets. All (the) streets were still flooded. I can't even imagine how they were when the rain was at its strongest point on Friday night."

Morales, who lives in Puerto Escondido, said the yellow wooden lifeguard towers were built in 2010 with public money. On July 12, he wrote in an e-mail that construction is expected to start this week on a tower with money donated by big-wave rider Greg Long of San Clemente, Calif.

Long was nominated for a Billabong XXL Ride of the Year award this year for a wave at Puerto Escondido. In 2009, he won the award and $50,000.

Several websites have sprouted up in recent weeks that claim to be raising money for the lifeguard towers, but Morales said there have been some questions about where the money is going.

Morales said there is no longer a public appeal for donations except for a Hurricane Carlotta Relief T-shirt designed by big-wave rider Derek Dunfee.

Dunfee, of La Jolla, Calif., can be reached at derekdunfee@hotmail.com.

The Mexican Red Cross also is collecting donations for wider relief efforts in Puerto Escondido. Donations can be made online at www.cruzrojamexicana.org.

7 FEATURES

STEPHEN BAXTER

page

Studio: First-year students get a head-start from page one

students as they learn the process and culture of studio designing.

“It’s a big team of people, and that’s normal for design education that you would have a lot of intimate contact in terms of ratio of faculty and students,” Albright said.

One of the leading faculty of the track, Associate Professor of Interior Design Helene Renard, said there is a lot of emphasis from the faculty that the students need to take risks and the initiative to improve something.

Renard said that thinking and making are the two basic areas they start with, which the students must be responsible for channeling the information the faculty gives them into the excitement they have in designing their work. This responsibility is part of the freedom of a design-based field, which Renard said most students are not used to after a high school academic model.

According to visiting professor Chris Pritchett, design education has a lot of freedom as to what the student creates, which can be challenging for the first-year participants.

“I think we treat our undergraduates like graduate students,” Pritchett said. “They have a lot of freedom,

and sometimes that is really intimidating the amount of freedom that you have.”

The initial intimidation of the open studio and all of the projects surrounding one in the design labs is what the summer track students are learning to overcome, which could be beneficial to them when other students arrive.

“I think they will have a heads up come the fall,” Pritchett said. “They will have a little more of an edge, will have acclimated to the space, and they will know to go around and check the other studios and see what other people are doing.”

This includes the students who are not architecture or design majors, according to Pritchett. Even the students who are in other majors but learning through this program will be able to return to Cowgill and Burchard Halls to use the space and expand their understanding of design.

“As far as I know, this is the only major where after these guys leave, they will come and set up a desk in this building even though they are not a student in this major,” Pritchett said. “They will start coming to class

just to let us know that they are serious about this program.”

This collaboration of different fields, between students and professors, is what Albright says is key to design education.

“I think the collaborative teaching is an inherent aspect of the summer academy that doesn’t happen in other areas of the university,” she said. “You’re getting someone to help you with your ideas and show you a skill.”

Pritchett said that he usually works with second-year students, but the first-year ones are fun due to their dedication and excitement to do what they love.

“There is this anxiousness that they come in with,” he said. “I love it, because they are not indifferent about anything, and they’re willing to learn which is fun.”

Savannah Mills will be a freshman interior design major in the fall and said the summer track has her more excited for the upcoming semester, because now the students know each other and all of the faculty have been so helpful.

She said she did not have any expectations of the course, but she

was anxious just to be in the studio.

“I really like being in the studio,” she said. “I like the openness and the chaos, and I like how everyone has their own desk.”

Besides enjoying the freedom and energy of the space, Renard said the students are learning the diction of the environment.

She said design elements and principles are introduced in the course, which is the framework they use to talk about things such as composition, movement or rhythm in a piece. For the students to be able to contribute to this process, they must first learn how to discuss it.

“So, you build an awareness of your own thinking process and develop the vocabulary and the way to talk about work, your own work and other peoples work in a critical way, so you can help them improve,” Renard said.

In more ways than one, Renard said it has been amazing how quickly her students have understood their own progress, and their work shows transformation from day to day and week to week.

collegiatetimes.com july 19, 2012

design programs they will need.

Some of the students are not majoring in architecture or design but are either considering architecture as a future field of study or the workshops are relevant to work in their major.

Albright said that no matter the students’ field, they all do the same projects. Also, the summer track is focused on adjusting the students to the freedom of design education.

“It’s very different than anything they have done before,” Albright said. “It’s getting them to have confidence in experimenting and failing or (projects) not turning out the way they wanted it to, then learning how to re-think it or discover something in a failure that is actually really good.”

The studio environment and education can be discouraging to the new students, Albright said, but the summer track can help them adjust to it.

“Hopefully after the first two weeks, they realize that their successes come in their discoveries, not in their outcomes,” she said.

The faculty works closely with the

page

FEATURES

8

Bands revealed backstage in “Rituals” JESSICA GELT mcclatchy newspapers Backstage at a show in Guadalajara, Mexico, in March, Foster the People did vocal warm-ups and yoga stretches before crafting a set list. Then, just before the Los Angeles indie-pop band headed out to the stage, they touched one another's shoulders lightly and said, "Bless."

"There's a small moment before every show where we bless each other _ we've done that since Day One," says frontman Mark Foster, 28, over the phone. "That's a superstitious ritual _ it's the one thing we can't go on stage without."

Fans are privy to that ritual now thanks to a documentary short that chronicles the moment and has garnered more than 100,000 views on YouTube since being posted a little over a month ago. The film is part of a new series of shorts called "Rituals" produced by Ashton Kutcher's Katalyst Media for its YouTube channel, Thrash Lab. The goal of the series is to let viewers in on the intimate moments artists have before going on stage _ the routines, and idiosyncratic superstitions that fuel the performance the fans will see.

"Rituals" creator Kashy Khaledi calls

the films his "love letter to rock journalism for the digital era." To date, Katalyst has made six films, ranging from five to nine minutes, and featuring up-close-and-personal footage of legendary bassist Mike Watt, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros just before heading out on stage.

Shorts have also been made of popculture curiosities like the controversial street artist Mr. Brainwash and of the comedian Patton Oswalt.

"From the beginning I tell people, 'Let's be clear. This is documentary, not reality television,'" says Khaledi, sitting with the prolific music video and commercial director Ace Norton and director Brinton Bryan in Norton's Venice living room.

Norton directed the piece on Mr. Brainwash, and Bryan directed the ones on Foster the People and Edward Sharpe. Khaledi, who founded the edgy arts and entertainment magazine Mean when he was 22, has long had a knack for recruiting savvy talent for his projects.

He has also secured directors Julien Nitzberg, Tony Kaye and Christopher Storer to work on "Rituals." All are directors whom Khaledi chose for their devotion to the art of storytelling. And all are fast workers _ they have only one day with their subjects

to gather as much material as possible.

"It's all about getting in touch with the humanity of the artist," says Bryan.

"The unglamorous side of being a rock star is not something you get to see very often."

Last year Katalyst became one of nearly 30 companies to enter into a partnership with YouTube, which invested $100 million to help these companies create premium content channels for the site. The idea is to launch YouTube into competition with traditional cable and sites like Hulu.

Since YouTube gained superstar status on the Web via its user-generated content, the move was considered risky and was not received too kindly by the site's community. However, the channels are slowly picking up viewership and Khaledi hopes that "Rituals" will help attract subscribers to Thrash Lab. "Rituals" shorts generally end when the band begins playing its first song. It's an interesting choice, one that makes the viewer feel privileged for having hung out with the band backstage. There are dozens of shaky smartphone videos of those live performances, but only one showing Foster standing alone in the dark at the side of the stage _ a look of intense concentration on his face as he psychs himself up to play.

"'Rituals' approaches the whole thing from the underside," says Foster. "I think it captured a part of this band that hasn't been put in front of the public before."

That's certainly the case of the segment on Watt, the deeply unconventional co-founder of the seminal SoCal hard-core punk band the Minutemen who now plays with the Stooges.

Directed by Kaye, Watt's story transports us to Watt's hometown of San Pedro, where Watt engages in the activities of his typical day: Kayaking in a yellow sweatshirt; eating a breakfast burrito; reading lyrics from one of his rock operas and nearly tearing up about the accidental death of his dear friend and Minuteman frontman D. Boon.

"That piece started off as a 'Rituals' but it ended up being about how the death of D. Boon affected Mike Watt forever," says Khaledi. "We want to tell a great story without letting the rituals part dictate the form it wants to take."

"I really wanted them to be in Watt world," says Watt of the film crew during a Skype interview. "They asked me, 'What do you do? What's your day like?' I'm Watty, bass man, son of a sailor, and I have to get through the day _ one life is made of many days."

Following artists through their normal routines is far from routine, how-

ever, says Norton, so as a director you have to be flexible.

"It's a bit scary," he says. "I'm used to having storyboards and a shot list and with Mr. Brainwash he was like, 'No, no, this is not going to work.' He just wanted to entertain the crew with this off-the-wall stuff so we just kept the camera rolling."

Where Mr. Brainwash seems to live for the spotlight, Alex Ebert, the singer of Edward Sharpe, appears to barely notice he's being filmed.

Tall and lanky with long hair, Ebert roams around his messy house in Echo Park, which has blankets tacked over the windows and an unmade bed on the floor. He is also mystified by how to get a wine stain out of a cream-colored jacket. He tries bleach, but that only creates another stain, so he gives up.

Minutes before he goes on stage at the Santa Barbara Bowl, he puts the jacket on anyway and is filmed from behind with both stains on prominent display.

It's a small but telling moment, and it's what makes "Rituals" shorts so unique in the cluttered field of music-related media.

"We don't want this to be VH1 'Behind the Music,'" says Khaledi.

‘Dark Knight Rises’ exceeds expectations ROGER MOORE

collegiatetimes.com july 19, 2012

mcclatchy newspapers It's something to see, all right — this "Dark Knight Rises." An epicfinale to the Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale "Dark Knight" trilogy, it has the summer's best effects, the summer's highest stakes — Gotham City Armageddon — the summer's sexiest villain and the biggest comic book movie thrills and best comic book movie chills of this cinema season.

It's a film of awe inspiring set pieces and jaw-dropping stunts — less of this "Avengers/Spider-Man/Transformers" digital effects overkill. It's topical, morphing the "Occupy" movement into a few choice messages about the few who take from the many, and the many who take anarchy to its logical extremes.

No expense was spared, all the stops were pulled out and a lot of effort went into tidying up this phenomenally successful film trilogy, tying up loose ends, sending it and everyone involved off with a bang. And it's wonderfully acted.

The regulars are sharp, the new pieces in the puzzle interesting and Anne Hathaway is so good as Catwoman that this long film drags when she's not on the screen. But then, the character has been, for decades, so sexy and

idiot proof that you wonder where Halle Berry went wrong. The story — The Batman (Christian Bale) went into retirement eight years ago after losing his lady-love (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and killing good-man-gone-bad Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), who is now celebrated as a hero.

Gotham City has been cleaned up.

Only crotchety old Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman, terrific) is still on a "war" footing. Something wicked this way comes. That something would be Bane, a hulking, meaty-mitts-

on-his-lapels terrorist who breathes through a mask and preaches anarchy.

He will "free" the people of Gotham City by blowing it up — either in bits, or all at once.

Sassy Selena Kyle (Hathaway) is cat-burgling the 1 percent who warns Bruce Wayne (Bale), "There's a storm coming," that the rich soon will rue the day that the few "left so little for the rest of us."

Funny how the Bat keeps complaining to Alfred, "The Batman isn't needed any more." Funny how Alfred won't

have his boss going out, risking death again. Funny how that would make a very short movie is both those things were true. Funny — that's something the Nolan Bat-movies haven't been, but "Dark Knight Rises" is.

Hathaway has a crackling way with a line. "No guns," orders the Batman when he comes to her rescue. "Where's the fun in that?"

Director Nolan fills the screen with returning players — Butler Alfred (Michael Caine), Morgan Freeman as the gadget guru, from Batman's mentor, Liam Neeson, to Cillian Murphy as the unnamed "Scarecrow." Newcomers include Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a righteous cop, Matthew Modine as an inept one and Oscar winner Marion Cotillard as an energy tycoon.

The script gives them all plenty to do and say. But that makes for a bulky, bloated movie. For the third film in a trilogy, there are all these clumsy moments where characters blurt out long speeches of exposition.

What really needs explaining, after all this? Hardy is so big you'd swear he ate Kevin Smith to bulk up. But the posh voice he chose to send through that breathing mask sounds like Sean Connery imitating Darth Vader. Not that he's coherent, much of the time _ lines muffled by the mask and sound mix.

And for a movie that aims for a certain tidiness, this one has a lot of random moments, unexplained and inexplicable actions by heroes and villains alike.

I don't know about you, but I kind of like my screen heavies to have motivation or their villainy, and maybe an exit strategy. Then again, did the 9-11 hijackers have those? That seems to be what Nolan was going for here, a film equal to the scale and messiness of the history we're living through.

He's pro-Occupy Wall Street and anti-anarchy, pro police and against the "1 percent." He takes this "Have it Both Ways" thing all the way to the climax, and beyond.

As summer entertainments go, Nolan and his co-writers have delivered one with a lot to chew on, and a lot more to see and hear. The effects put "2012" and even "The Avengers" to shame.

The sound will overwhelm you, the huge set pieces _ one at the beginning, another in the middle, a third at the end — are jaw-dropping. And if you have any soft spot in your heart for this rich guy with a cape, a temper and a serious Messiah complex, you will be moved — maybe even to tears. This is what summer popcorn movies were meant to be.

New assistants bring talent to Tech

Hoffman and Huss are set to join Hokie coaching staffs next season after prominent playing careers ALEX KOMA sports editor

ducted themselves,” Huss said. “All of them needed balance to be successful, and I think that really applies to the life of a studentathlete.”

While working with current athletes is important, recruiting will also be an essential part of both of

The Lyric Theatre 135 College Avenue ~ Movieline: 951.0604 www.thelyric.com

collegiatetimes.com july 19, 2012

What does a former wrestling All-American and the 2005 Wimbledon doubles champion have in common?

The answer may seem complex, but it’s actually pretty straightforward; they’re both on their way to Blacksburg to join Hokie coaching staffs.

David Hoffman, a Tech wrestling alumni, and Stephen Huss, an 11-year professional tennis player, will be coming aboard as assistant coaches for their respective sports after they were both hired in late June.

“We always want to keep Hokies in Blacksburg, and it’s great to get a guy that has such a tremendous passion for wrestling,” said Kevin Dresser, head wrestling coach.

Hoffman graduated from Tech in 2006, but spent his first six years out of college as an assistant coach at Bucknell. He primarily coached lightweight wrestlers for the Bison, in addition to recruiting responsibilities, and he plans to continue this kind of work with the Hokies.

“I spent the first part of my career at a small school, so it’s been great to see all the things a big school like Virginia Tech has to offer,” Hoffman said. “It’s a real privilege to be part of something we started a long time ago.”

Huss, a native of Bendigo,

Australia, had no previous ties with the university, but is looking forward to joining Tech all the same.

“I stopped playing professionally last year, so the thought of coaching in a team environment really appealed to me,” Huss said.

“When the Virginia Tech job came open, I was drawn to such a good program in such a competitive conference.”

Tennis coaches found his professional experience particularly enticing. “(Huss) knows people all over the world, and he understands what college tennis is about,” said Jim Thompson, the men’s tennis head coach. “When he expressed interest in this opening, we really went after him hard.”

Hoffman’s playing experience will be similarly valuable for his new role, considering that he qualified for the NCAA Championships four times and compiled a career record of 11632. His knowledge should prove particularly helpful as he mentors players like 2012 ACC champion Devin Carter.

“I’m a little guy, so it’s natural for me to work with the lighter weight guys,” Hoffman said. “Devin is unbelievably talented, so I just hope that I can help him improve technically.”

In addition to his international experience, Huss is also intimately familiar with the collegiate game. He was twice named an

All-American during his days at Auburn and he hopes that his time there, in addition to his pro career, will help prepare him for coaching at Tech.

“Over my 11 years at the sport’s highest level, I got a chance to see the way the best players con-

9 SPORTS

AUSTEN MEREDITH / SPPS

Devin Carter, the 2012 ACC champion at 133 pounds, is one of several wrestlers that new assistant coach David Hoffman will tutor next year.

the new coaches’ roles.

“I’m from Pennsylvania, and considering that the state is arguably the best state for wrestling, I’ll be spending a lot of my time there to help get ‘blue chip’ recruits to Tech,” Hoffman said.

Huss will be similarly occupied with building the tennis program.

“After 11 years on the tour, he has tremendous experience internationally,” Thompson said.

“He’s a great coach, but a great recruiter as well, which is huge for us.”

Both coaches also have the good fortune to join programs that are coming off successful seasons, so they’ll be charged with keeping things on the right track.

“Our guys realize just how much work it takes to succeed at the NCAA level,” Dresser said. “We’ve really got a lot of guys bought in, spending 10 months here, and I can’t wait to see what we can do next year.”

It may be challenging for these newcomers to step in to these teams that have already tasted victory, but they plan to do their best to fit in quickly.

“I really want to get everyone on the same page as soon as we can,” Huss said. “It’s important to bring intensity to the court, and I want to try to instill that in all the players here.”

page

AL IANNAZZONE mcclatchy newspapers

$

MCT CAMPUS

Jeremy Lin signed a three-year deal with Houston to leave the Knicks.

Influential People in the World. In 25 starts for the Knicks, Lin averaged 18.2 points and 7.7 assists.

The Knicks could be taking a

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issues in the locker room. Lin was cut by Golden State and Houston last season, and was nearly waived by the Knicks. But former coach Mike D'Antoni put him in against the Nets on Feb. 4 out of desperation and Lin-sanity was born.

He saved the Knicks and their season, scoring 25 points off the bench to start a seven-game winning streak. Lin became the first player in NBA history to score at least 20 points and pass for seven assists in his first five starts. He ultimately played his last game for the Knicks in their win over Detroit on March 24.

He suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee that he decided to have surgery on and missed the rest of the regular season.

Lin appeared close to returning in the playoffs, but he declared himself "85 percent" healthy and didn't feel comfortable playing on the knee so he remained a spectator. The Dolan family owns controlling interests in the Knicks, Madison Square Garden and Cablevision. Cablevision owns Newsday.

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gamble with Felton, who was not in shape last season, 39-year-old Jason Kidd and Argentine Pablo Prigioni, 35, handling the point

guard duties. But they have more experience leading a team than Lin, and won't cost nearly as much.

It was considered a given Lin would return to the Knicks after he and Houston originally agreed to a guaranteed three-year, $19.5 million deal that paid him $9.3 million in the final season.

Last week, Knicks coach Mike Woodson said he "absolutely" expected Lin back. When he was asked if the Knicks blinked at Houston's offer, Woodson said, "never once," and went on to say Lin would be his starting point guard going into training camp.

That was before the Rockets changed the offer.

The nearly $15 million Lin is due in Year 3, and the additional $28 million that the Knicks might pay in luxury-tax penalties had to be a major factor in letting him go. Carmelo Anthony called the contract "ridiculous," but said he wanted Lin back.

J.R. Smith, however, told Sports Illustrated.com that if Lin, who has played 64 games in his career, returned his contract could have led to jealousy and chemistry

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“Board Games” 1) Sorry 2) Monopoly 3) Game of Life 4) Clue 5) Scrabble

RM? IEDTDHLI?SE? Q:

? ? ?

word

?

?

?

?

?

Brothers and sisters I have none but this man's father is my father's son.

Who is the man?

Try to solve the riddle! All information is given to successfully answer it. Good luck!

JULY

The Jeremy Lin era ended Tuesday night. Lin is a Houston Rocket, after the Knicks opted not to match his three-year, $25.1-million offer sheet.

The contract will pay Lin $5 million and $5.2 million the first two years and about $14.89 million in Year 3.

The Knicks announced their decision about 90 minutes before the midnight deadline. Despite his extreme popularity with fans and the revenue he generates with his off-the-court appeal, it was doubtful Lin, 23, would be back.

After Houston changed the original contract terms, the Knicks acquired point guard Raymond Felton in a sign-and-trade from Portland, effectively ending Linsanity in New York.

Lin, undrafted out of Harvard, enjoyed an improbable and magical run with the Knicks that led to him becoming an international phenomenon and Garden favorite.

He graced the cover of Sports Illustrated twice and was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most

Tthe man is my son.

SPORTS

Knicks refuse to match Houston’s offer for Lin

A:

10

UNSCRAMBLER

page

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Community

Calendar

Blacksburg Farmers Market: Every Wednesday (2 -7 PM) and Saturday (8 AM-2 PM)

23-27 12:00 PM Adventure Days 2012, Smithfield Plantation, Blacksburg

19 9:30 PM - 12:30 AM Live Irish Music, The Cellar, Blacksburg

26-29 2012 FloydFest

21 12:00 - 8:00 PM Summer Ski and Snowboarding, Blacksburg Community Recreation Center, Blacksburg

Blue Cow Pavilion, Floyd

26 4:00 PM 27-28 8:00 AM 29 9:00AM *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.

page 11

Thursday, July 19, 2012

XKCD by Randall Munroe

Regular Edition Today’s Birthday Horoscope: The care you’ve taken with home and work is beginning to pay dividends. Your focus has been with family, and that continues until an autumn shift into new educational opportunities arises.

There’s no underestimating the value of health.

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

2 9 4 1

6 9

1 9 7 8

2 7

1 9

2 3 7 3 8

5 6 4 3

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

7 9 5

1.

odelamne

2.

aramiargt

3.

iquarid

4.

giraasn

5.

ettes aew

Unscramble the letters to solve the category “Summer Drinks” Have a set of words you want to see in puzzles section? Email your lists to studybreak@collegemedia.com.

m a i a e

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

page

collegiatetimes.com july 19, 2012

SPORTS

12 Freeh report raises questions for big football programs Even in the wake of the progressively awful news emerging from Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, I remained a Joe Paterno defender.

Make no mistake; I’m no Nittany Lions fan. In fact, as the son of two University of Pittsburgh graduates, I was raised to despise Joe Pa’s program, and I was perfectly content to root against them for all of my life.

But when the facts emerged about Sandusky’s crimes, a part of me refused to believe that Paterno was the villain that some had made him out to be.

While I may have hated his teams, he had always struck me as an unassuming Western Pennsylvania guy, much like most of my family. I rationalized that he hadn’t known the full extent of Sandusky’s deeds, or that he refused to believe Mike McQueary’s reports about a man that he’d known for over 20 years.

If anything, I thought his greatest fault was in not urging his superiors to act more strongly and that the majority of the blame rested on their shoulders.

However, after the results of the Freeh report went public last Thursday, my illusions about Paterno’s guilt were pretty much completely destroyed. After document after document seemed to indicate the coach was heavily engaged in covering up these accusations of child abuse to protect the football program, it was impossible for me to justify defending him any longer.

While it’s troubling enough that these new findings revealed some disturbing things about a widely-respected football figure, what’s really disturbing is what it means for other schools with big football programs.

Every school with any kind of prominent athletics department knows that there’s the danger of compromising academic principles for the sake of the revenue and attention that sports can bring to a school. However, most people would like to believe that, when

MCT CAMPUS

Joe Paterno had his legacy shattered by the new evidence of his actions to cover up the Sandusky scandal.

faced with such a serious problem within a football program, all of the petty squabbles over money and reputation would be set aside in favor of helping protect the innocent.

But what these documents revealed is that there was no such consideration of the greater good by Paterno and the rest of the university’s administration. When faced with letting some children suffer versus bringing shame to the football program, they chose the former.

This has to be concerning for any big program, including Virginia Tech.

While Penn State and Tech are hardly identical, they share many similarities.

They both have huge football programs, a charismatic and long-tenured head coach, and a rabid fan base.

I would personally like to believe that athletic director Jim Weaver is enough of a force within the institution to not bend to Beamer’s wills the way Penn State executives did.

Nonetheless, Hokie fans have to wonder how Beamer and Weaver would’ve responded had they been confronted with such a situation. By all accounts, they seem like decent and conscientious men, but then again, who was more beloved than Joe Pa before all this came to light?

More than anything, the Freeh report eats away at my confidence in the humanity of college football administrators everywhere. We’ve seen plenty of examples of people covering up the misdeeds of athletes to shield a football program, but nothing was as widespread and horrifying as the cover up of Sandusky’s deeds.

It’s popular to rail against the evils of college sports, and there are certainly plenty to consider, but this is something different. It’s one thing for university presidents to operate greedily, or for the system to exploit the profits generated by its athletes, but what big business doesn’t feature greedy executives or exploited workers in its climb to the top?

Some have lumped the shocking results of this report in with these kinds of misdeeds as further evidence of the sport’s corruption. Instead, this lack of concern for these children seems to be something else entirely. If we can accept that many corporations treat their employees unfairly, then this incident stands as a parallel to Enron’s pension misdeeds in its unprecedented nature.

Regardless of the circumstances, this scandal means that every employee of a big football school needs to think about their actions very carefully, and perhaps this can be the one positive outcome of this whole mess.

Maybe, if there are other coaches and managers out there wrestling with similar choices, this will at least jolt them into action in a way that Penn State never was.

ALEX KOMA -sports editor - junior -communication major