A rivalry’s legacy The Battalion wants to know what the A&MUT rivalry means to its readers. Send your favorite memory from a game against the Longhorns to mailcall@thebatt. com or tweet @TheBattOnline and you might read your experience in Wednesday’s newspaper.
thebattalion ● tuesday,
november 22, 2011
● serving
texas a&m since 1893
● first paper free – additional copies $1 ● © 2011 student media
coming wednesday
UT comes to town The last A&M-UT football game until at least 2018 is Thursday. Pick up a copy of The Battalion on Wednesday to read what the rivalry means to students at both universities.
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Fade to black
One and two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Fade To Black, a Texas A&M student dance organization, performed on Friday in their “NYC: The Concrete Jungle” show. Catch dance and interview video clips of the New York City themed production at thebatt.com.
Photos by Josh McKenna — THE BATTALION
Student Bonfire workers put the finishing touches on stack Sunday evening at the off-campus location near Hearne.
Burning desire Students continue Bonfire legacy with off-campus cut, stack Drought halts burn Tuesday’s scheduled Student Bonfire burn was postponed due to a local burn ban in the wake of severe Texas droughts. The organization plans to burn the stack when the ban is lifted.
Luz Moreno The Battalion
B
onfire was among Texas A&M’s oldest and most recognizable traditions. It was a symbol of the Aggie Spirit and every Aggie’s burning desire to “Beat the hell outta t.u.” Bonfire no longer burns on campus, but Student Bonfire has maintained the tradition for the student body since 2002. “There’s so much passion, power, momentum and personal courage by putting themselves out there,” said Dion McInnis, Class of 2003 and
member of the Student Bonfire board of directors. “You can’t hit the brake on that.” Since Bonfire’s 1999 collapse, Texas A&M has neither recognized the tradition nor sanctioned the event on See Bonfire on page 7
Walton crew members rest during the final day of stack on Sunday.
research
Ancient bone weapon sheds light on human origins Artifact believed to be at least 13,000 years old Jessica Orwig
COURTESY PHOTO
A&M students take part in an archeological dig during the summer.
The Battalion Recent reexamination of a Manis site — excavated bones of a mastodon — in Washington State has sparked reevaluation of when the first humans inhabited the Americas. Using
current technology, researchers were able to put the site’s controversial age ambiguity, which has been contested since the late 1970s, to rest. Michael Waters, anthropology and geography professor and lead author of the paper that appeared in the academic journal Science on Oct. 21, dated the site and its “key artifact” — a bone projectile weapon — to approximately 13,800 years of age. Past research led scientists to
believe that the first inhabitants of the Americas, known as the Clovis people, existed around 13,000 to 12,800 years ago. Not only does this weapon’s age suggest that humans were present in North America nearly 800 years earlier than the Clovis, but it also indicates these early Americans hunted with bone fashioned points. This differs from traditional stone weapons found in Clovis sites throughout the continent.
“The reason I wanted to reinvestigate was because it was always one of those sites that looked like it had really great potential for being an early site and giving us useful information about the first Americans,” said Waters, who is director of the University’s Center for the Study of First Americans. “This is the first time we’ve seen bone weapons this early on in America.” See Bone on page 8
bryan-college station
campus
Capitalism broken, instructor says
Feed the Spirit to offer Aggie community Thanksgiving feast Emily Davis The Battalion
Barrett House The Battalion In a time of economic woes and Wall Street protests, many solutions have been proposed to fix the bleak conditions, both in the U.S. and around the globe. One speaker visited A&M with the theory of distributism, a response to capitalism and socialism. John Médaille, author of “The Vocation of Business: Social Justice in the Marketplace” and assistant instructor of theology at the University of Dallas, presented the theory Friday in Rudder Tower. “[The] key principle of distributism is that ownership should be as widespread as possible, rather than being concentrated in the hands of a few owners or in the hands of state bureaucrats,” Médaille said. Médaille advocated distributive justice,
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David Godinez — THE BATTALION
John Médaille presents the theory of distributism and current economic times on Friday at Rudder. the instrument of distributism. He said without this principle, consequences inevitably lead to the U.S.’ current situation. “In the absence of distributive justice, it is not productivity, but power that gets See Distributism on page 4
Texas A&M Traditions Council cooked up a tradition for Aggie students and families this year: Feed the Spirit, an on-campus Thanksgiving dinner. Jessica Junek, director of Feed the Spirit, said Thanksgiving is the opportune time for Aggies to gather before A&M’s rivalry with the Longhorns and to remember the Bonfire collapse of 1999. “It’s a way for us to celebrate being a part of the Aggie family and a part of the Aggie community that supports each other,” Junek said. “This is an important time for us to come together, to remember the spirit that brought us together in ‘99.” Former A&M head football coach R.C. Slocum and members
of the 1999 Texas A&M football team will be in attendance, along with country music singer Aaron Watson. The proceeds from the event are going to Bonfire Memorial to raise money for a visual representation of Bonfire. “It’s important to continue spreading the tradition of Bonfire because it’s so influential and to remember those 12 Aggies who died,” Junek said. “They were a part of our family and they are Aggies still today.” This will be the first year Traditions Council has put on Feed the Spirit. Taryn Tipton, chair of Traditions Council, said that she hopes Feed the Spirit will become a yearly tradition. “I foresee it continuing,” Tipton said. “We’ll have to see how it develops and changes over the years.”
Ticket required Feed the Spirit is scheduled for Wednesday at 5 p.m. on Simpson Drill Field. Tickets for the event are available for $15 and can be purchased in person or by phone at the MSC Box Office or online at boxoffice.tamu. edu. For more information, visit feedthespirit. tamu.edu.
11/22/11 1:00 AM