HISTORY LESSON
SAY CHEESE As a part of Ally Week, students will take photos and pledge to support the LGBT community on campus. / UNIVERSITY, PAGE 3
TUESDAY FORUM Contributors weigh in on this
Junior forward Jonelle Filigno of the Rutgers women’s soccer team is two goals shy of setting a new school record for scores in a season with one game left. / SPORTS, BACK
week’s election topic: foreign policy. OPINIONS, PAGE 8
Serving the Rutgers community since 1869. Independent since 1980.
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2012
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ELECTIONS 2012
Panel stresses weight of economy in race Economics faculty members advise students to pay attention to numbers BY LISA BERKMAN CORRESPONDENT
With the presidential elections looming on the horizon and unemployment rates high in the United States, how each candidate plans to boost the economy could decide who wins the race. A panel of faculty from the Department of Economics spoke to a crowd of about 100 people at the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus yesterday about what is at stake when the nation’s unemployment rate is the highest since the Great Depression. Voters should pay close attention to the numbers and figures of detailed policies so they can make informed decisions, said Rosanne
Althshuler, professor in the Department of Economics. “It’s your tax dollars,” she said. “We need to be concerned with how much money we’re taking in because we have deficits and a federal debt that are projected to be extremely big over the future, to the extent that it’s probably going to be a drag on the economy.” Economics Professor Mark Killingsworth said the issue of financial inequality concerns most of the population and should star t being discussed among the candidates. The phenomenon of incomes rising progressively has dropped, he said, with the aftertax-income only growing 1 perSEE
ECONOMY ON PAGE 5
NBC’s Chuck Todd explains last night how public opinion of Romney’s first debate performance could produce a change in the outcome of the presidential race on Douglass campus. NELSON MORALES, SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Todd shares election updates Chuck Todd, NBC’s chief White House correspondent, considers shift in polls BY HANNAH SCHROER CORRESPONDENT
Economics professor Rosanne Althshuler discusses how President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney’s tax reforms are worth looking into. LIANNE NG, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Mitt Romney can still change the course of the presidential race going into tonight’s presidential debate, said Chuck Todd, NBC chief White House correspondent. The first debate let Romney break through to the American public, Todd said last night to a crowded Trayes Hall in the Douglass Campus Center. “There’s still some shifting that could go on,” Todd said. He said Romney’s biggest difficulty in the final weeks of campaigning is still in relating to the average American because of the Obama campaign’s relentless portrayal of Romney as out of touch.
What changes first is a candidate’s favorability rating, Todd said, and Romney’s advantage is increasing among suburban women, but it is not reflected in the polls yet. Tonight’s debate is Romney’s chance to blow up the stereotype that he is a rich businessman who cannot relate to the lower or middle classes, Todd said. “If you’re Romney — and Obama — it’s an opportunity and a danger staring [at] you in the face,” he said. He said this is the most important debate since the last debate. Obama was ahead going into the first debate and, had he come out ahead, the public would not be talking about Romney’s chance, Todd said. “The potential [for Romney to win the election] is there, but when you fire an incumbent, it’s never by a quarter of a point,” Todd said. He said while people can forecast the election’s outcome by looking at historical trends, public anxiety SEE
UPDATES ON PAGE 4
U. professor studies reasons for food, drink pairings Paul Breslin’s research uncovers why balanced palates depend on meal’s chemical structure BY AMANDA GOMEZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Before a football game, some students flock to the grease trucks to order a fat sandwich. When asked what they want to drink, a common choice might be a soda. Though the reason could be taste, they might actually choose an astringent, like soda, to pair with their fatty sandwich to cancel out
the sensation it leaves in their mouths, or “mouthfeel,” which University professor Paul Breslin is learning through his research. Astringent foods are able to cut though fatty foods by removing the proteins in the saliva, said Breslin, a professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. Breslin said astringency is the sensation of a dry and rough feeling, even while the mouth is physically moisturized.
“We care about this because our mouth is a machine,” Breslin said, “When our mouth is very dry we can’t speak, when teeth are not lubricated, they will grind together.” He said lubrication comes from the mucinous proteins in the saliva. Astringent foods remove these proteins, making the mouth feel dry, according to Breslin’s research. “Foods can’t be both creamy and dry,” he said. “Any astringent with [fat] should combat each other.” Astringency counteracting fattiness also works in the opposite way, Breslin said. During a wine tasting, cheese and crackers
are available to remove the dry sensation the wine leaves in the mouth. “Our mouth has the sensations broken down,” Breslin said, “even though [our] mouth is wet when we say it feels dry.” The professor and his fellow researchers tested a hypothesis that astringency and fattiness are on two opposites sides of a mouthfeel spectrum by asking volunteers to alternate bites of salami with sips of tea, a drink with low astringency, he said. Researchers had subjects taste the tea without salami as well. They rated levels of SEE
PAIRINGS ON PAGE 5
TODAY, OCT. 16, IS THE LAST DAY TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN NEW JERSEY. VOLUME 144, ISSUE 31 • UNIVERSITY ... 3 • ELECTIONS ... 6 • ON THE WIRE... 8 • OPINIONS ... 8 • DIVERSIONS ... 10 • CLASSIFIEDS ... 12 • SPOR TS ... BACK