TECHNICIAN
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Schoolkids relocating down street Record store to relocate closer to Bell Tower
Schoolkids Records is moving to 2114 Hillsborough Street Sunday in an effort to reduce overhead and increase traffic. The store will close its present location alongside Kinko’s and Gumby’s on Hillsborough Street and reopen in what was formerly half of Buddha’s Belly on Monday. Ric Culross, Schoolkids’ general manager since 1991, said the move is due to the lower rent at the new location and the increased visibility to both the traffic at the intersection it will face and students on foot. “Our toes need to touch some form of student life itself,” he said. Located on Hillsborough Street for 37 years, Schoolkids may be one of Raleigh’s last independent record stores. The Chapel Hill location closed last year due to decreasing sales, which Culross said was due in part to the online streaming music service available to UNCChapel Hill students. The National Association of Recording Merchandisers, an industry trade group, stated album sales decreased 14 percent in 2008, to 428 million, in a report on its Web site. Eric Tschudi, a senior in communication who has worked at the store for three and a half years, said the shopping center where Schoolkids has been located for the past five years was not a good fit. “This used to be a drug store, it never really had a great vibe to it,” he said. “I think the new location will have more character, it will feel more like a record store.” Culross said the shopping center the store is moving to is already a “counter cultural area,” which is favorable for the store’s success. Having a pawn shop which specializes in musical instruments two doors down was also a plus, he said. The new site, located directly across from the Bell Tower, should also make students more aware of the store’s presence, Tschudi said. While students are now more likely to buy concert tickets and posters than compact discs at the store, high profile releases such as the recent Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy CDs are still in demand, Tschudi said. “People know how to download music, but they still want to RECORDS continued page 3
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Businesses seek answers BUSINESS DISTRICT AWAITING APPROVAL OF BOARD BUCKS ON HILLSBOROUGH Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Raleigh, North Carolina
Annie Albright
Alex Vaughn
The Hillsborough Street Business District, which is responsible for making improvements to the street and surrounding area, has petitioned the city of Raleigh and the University to allow students to purchase meals at restaurants on the street through University meal plans. According to the petition, the businesses would be willing to provide a service to allow students to use their Board Bucks at various locations on Hillsborough Street in addition to those already provided on campus.
Alan Lovette, a representative for the business district and owner of Melvin’s Hamburgers, said the University would collect all of the immediate profit and then return a percentage to the businesses bimonthly. “Like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C. State Dining could set up the meal plan card in restaurants of interest and receive all of the purchase and then pay the restaurants a percentage back at the end of every two weeks,” Lovette said. “Also, Raleigh Take Out could be involved by taking the food to students who might be sick or are studying for exams.” Ellen Anne Curtis, a freshman in mathematics education, said she was impressed by the variety of options offered at other Universities.
“It would be nice to have a wider variety of dining options like Duke and UNC students have,” Curtis said. Tiffany Brown, a sophomore in agriculture education, said she believed adding Hillsborough Street to the meal plan would improve the quality of student life while also helping to revive the local business district. “I interviewed like 50 people for a project and all but one said they’d love to have it,” Brown said. “This is especially true since the Atrium closes so early and the Dining hall can get old after a while.” Lovette said he agreed the plan would help both students and area business. DINING continued page 3
ARCTIC WOLF
DAVID MABE/TECHNICIAN
A snow wolf outside of Polk Hall on the Brickyard melts Thursday afternoon as a snow plow looms in the background. The snow wolf was constructed from snow that had partially refroze from the day before.
Fuel research continues Centia technology could redefine the effectiveness of biofuels James Cox Staff Writer
The U.S. Department of Defense began searching for a biorenewable source of jet-fuel in 2007. Shortly after, N.C. State professors Henry Lamb, William Roberts and Larry Stikeleather met and submitted a proposal to the Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency. While companies such as General Electric and UOP received grants, research began on a one-year project funded by the Biofuel Center of North Carolina, according to Tim Turner, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering who came up with the overall process steps for Centia. The results were revolutionary. “Centia is a process that can
convert any fat or oil into a reuseable fuel. It can convert soy bean oil into gasoline or jet fuel,” Lamb said. Centia has three complex steps. “You take lard, animal fat of any kind, soy bean oil, grease, any fat and you can convert it into fatty acids,” Lamb said. Lamb said the next step in the process is to remove oxygen from the fatty acids by deoxygenation. “What is left is a hydrocarbon,” Lamb said. The hydrocarbon can then be refined to make jet fuel, he said. “If you want to use it as jet fuel, then you can perform some catalytic chemistry similar to what you find in a petroleum refinery,” Lamb said. He said the hydrocarbons can also be used to make diesel fuel and gasoline. The quality diesel Centia produces is better than biodiesel, he added. “It has a higher energy content
Carmichael program to offer incentives
NECESSARY STEPS IN CENTIA PROCESS
Program designed to give students incentives for being active is open for registration
r Convert animal fats or veg-
etable oils into fatty acids
r Remove oxygen from the
fatty acids by deoxygenation r Refine what is left into fuels that can be used in jets or other engines
Courtney Bolin Staff Writer
SOURCE: HENRY LAMB
because you don’t have the oxygen in it,” Lamb said. Lamb also said the process is reasonably cost effective, but it depends on the cost of the raw material. He said gasoline produced by the process would compete with naturally found gasoline if the price of oil goes back up. “The selling point is estimated to be between two and three dollars a gallon,” he said. Turner estimates that deFUEL continued page 3
HealthySTATE World Tour, a program designed to motivate students to be more active by awarding with incentives, kicked off this semester. Stephanie Sobol, director of Health Promotion for the University, said she was excited about the HealthySTATE World Tour getting started. The tour, which kicked off Jan. 12, is an incentive program that allows students to earn prizes for logging their activities and getting active. The tour starts in Europe and students will “travel” to each continent by the time it is finished.
Students and faculty log their activities online and receive “miles” for each minute they work out. The goal is to accumulate the number of “miles” needed to “travel” Europe over the course of the semester. The tour is a online log book that allows students and faculty to log their activities and receive incentives, Sobol said. She also said that after registering people will receive biweekly e-mails with recipes and tips to be healthier and more active. Some of the prizes offered through the program are gift cards to Dick’s Sporting Goods, Board Bucks from University Dining, and massages. The Web site lists activities that will earn “miles”. Some of the activities listed include yard work, Wii Fit, and sailing. Sobol said Student Government is trying to have competiTOUR continued page 3
Inauguration Special
25% Off Obama/Biden Books
Catalyst Bookshop Jan 14-24
@ NC State Bookstores