Northern Lights to screen independent films
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Governor Rick Snyder: revisited
Men’s basketball rebounds
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Michigan Tech Lode Michigan Tech hosts 2011 Trouble in Tokyo Chem-E Car regional continues The
March 31, 2011
ERIKA PEABODY Lode Writer Michigan Tech will be hosting the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) North Central Regional Conference on Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9. Schools from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Canada will be traveling up here to participate in the events. The largest event is the Chem-
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E Car Competition. In this event students build shoebox-sized cars that must travel a specific distance while carrying water weight to test the car’s reliability. The cars are powered by chemical reactions and the students must calculate how much of a reaction is needed to make the car run and stop within their assigned distance. Teams must work together on the spot to come up with solutions for any problems that may arise during competition. For
many teams, getting their car to run at all could be an issue. To ensure total safety during the Chem-E Car Competition, all students participating must attend a safety brief before the competition. There is also a Poster Competition as part of the Chem-E Car event where teams present posters that describe how their car is powered, unique features of the car, and environmental and safecontinued on page 3
Undergraduate work: This year Michigan Tech will be hosting the Chemi-Car regional competition for Chemical Engineers. Above is a rendered image of the Chemi-car the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) will be using to compete. The event is aimed towards Chemical Engineers, but stands open for everyone on campus to attend. Photo courtesy of the Michigan Tech AIChE Team
How Japan is coping MICHAEL FRIESEN Lode Writer On March 11, Japan was hit by the infamous earthquake, rated at 9.0 on the Richter Scale, that devastated the nation. As of March 28, the death toll stands at 10,901 with another 17,649 unaccounted for. The human toll of the natural disaster was great, and the quake and resulting tsunami hit several nuclear reactors, creating a disaster ranking a five out of seven on a severity scale of instituted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, where each increase represents a tenfold increase in seriousness. The aftermaths of the quake produced three partial meltdowns and forced Tokyo Electric Power Company to pour seawater into some reactors; four of their six reactors are now unusable because of the resultant corrosion damage and will need to be decommissioned. Current indications point to a partial meltdown in at least three reactors, with breaches to the containment systems. Even with safety precautions taken, some of the Tokyo Electric Power Company reactors were still thrown into partial meltdown in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. The reactors were shut down as soon as the earthquake hit, but the chain reaction
Local community plans to protest Snyder’s proposals students. Specifically, Democrats object to provisions of Gov. Snyder’s proposed budget that would eliminate the The Houghton County Earned Income Tax Credit for Democratic Party and labor Michigan’s working poor, tax unions of the Upper Peninsula seniors’ pensions and elimiwill rally together at the Bridge nate tax breaks on charitable for Unity Walk in downtown donations to public universiHoughton on Saturday, April ties, while extending $1.8 billion in tax breaks to corporations. According to Michigan Department of the Treasury data, taxpayers in Baraga, Ontonagon, Keweenaw and Houghton counties saved a combined $1,716,366 with the EITC in the 2009 tax year; an estimated 3,975 filers qualified for the credit. “Snyder’s Where to meet: For those who want to participate in the Houghton protest on budget placApril 2, meet with the Houghton County Democratic Party at the Boat Launch near es an unfair the foot of the lift bridge on W. Lakeshore Drive by noon, Saturday. burden on Photo courtesy of the Houghton County Democratic Party Michigan’s
ELISE MATZ Guest Writer
2. Common citizens will unite in protest against Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to starve rural communities, close schools, cancel labor contracts, and sell out Michigan’s government to the highest corporate bidder. Demonstrators will march in support of seniors, working families, union members and
most vulnerable groups, many of whom live in the Copper Country. I think it’s important to tell State Rep. Matt Huuki and State Sen. Tom Casperson that they need to represent their constituents, not Republican bosses in Lansing,” said protest organizer Elise Matz. Additionally, the HCDP, teachers and public employees are angry about the new Michigan law that allows Gov. Snyder to appoint a financial manager to cash-strapped school districts, cities and municipalities. The financial manager has unilateral power to dismiss elected officials, break union contracts and sell public assets without oversight or voter approval. The law is particularly unfair given that the governor wants to drastically slash education spending and state contributions to municipal budgets. Participants are encouraged to gather at the boat launch on W. Lakeshore Drive in Houghton, across from the Powerhouse at the foot of the Portage Lift Bridge at 12:00 p.m. At roughly 2:30 p.m. the rally will adjourn to the Keweenaw Brewing Company on Shelden Ave. for more rallying, camaraderie and warmth.
in the reactors continued. The reactors were cooled properly and would have been safe until the tsunami caused the backup generators powering the coolant system to go down. Ultimately, the company had to resort to using seawater and boric acid, pumped through firehoses and dropped from helicopters, to cool the reactor cores. Despite the containment and measures taken, a considerable amount of radiation escaped, much of it from the water used to cool the cores which has seeped into groundwater and is suspected of making way to the ocean, where levels of radioactive iodine atoms is at 1,250 times normal levels, raising concerns of contamination in seafood. Japanese officials have ordered progressively farther evacuations from the site, the last order for citizens within 20 to 30 km of the reactors to voluntarily evacuate, but noted that the radiation levels in that zone were not yet of a level necessitating immediate evacuation. Contamination has spread to some areas of agriculture, including nearby farmland, which has been forbidden from selling its produce, and radiation has been detected in 99 products, including milk and vegetables. Japanese officials also had to warn continued on 2
Running for the Rowing Team KIMBERLY GRIGG Lode Writer
Breanna Cornell is currently a freshman here at Michigan Technological University. She is an avid runner and has quite the run planned for next semester. Before the fall semester, Cornell is planning on running all the way from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Michigan Tech. This is a total of 517 miles she will have to travel. Cornell is planning on running 50 miles a day so she can be back up at Michigan Tech before classes start. This isn’t a run she just decided to do on a whim though. Cornell has been thinking about doing this run ever since a friend told her to “run up to Tech” back continued on 2
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