March 27, 2017

collegiatetimes.com

March 27, 2017

COLLEGIATETIMES

An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 FROM MARKET TO TABLE Follow our lifestyles editor step by step on how to make a farm fresh meal. page 6

CODE COLLABORATION Computer science students create Virginia Tech organization on GitHub . page3

SPRING FOOTBALL The Hokies will be missing several players for spring practice this year. page 4

Consoling public, Rordam assures ‘I’ll be around’ Long-time mayor of Blacksburg Ron Rordam announced that he will retire, opening space for a newcomer.

ALY DE ANGELUS news editor

SAMANTHA SMITH / COLLEGIATE TIMES Ben Wilke sells different meats from the Glade Road Growing, March 25, 2017.

Harrowing harvest

Radical weather challenges farmers Due to the fluctuating temperatures, it is difficult for plants to know what phase of life they are supposed to be in, causing problems for farmers across the region.

KATELYN MEADE assistant lifestyles editor

We have all experienced a true Blacksburg winter. No, I’m not talking about whatever season that just passed — but a real Blacksburg winter, one when every day you’re just trying not to have to cross the Drillfield when the temperature is in the single digits. But, as we all know, this winter was different. We only had one real snow that lasted a whole

day without melting, and it went from being in the 60s to being in the 30s in just a matter of a single day.

For students, the most this weird winter has affected us is that we now triple check the weather before heading to class to decide between wearing flip flops or a parka. However, local farmers have felt the effects of this mild, extreme-filled winter much more.

During a typical winter, plants begin to adapt to the colder temperatures. With

shorter days and fewer hours of sunlight, they cannot photosynthesize — in turn, they shed their leaves. When the temperatures drop below freezing, water can no longer circulate within the plants. Because of this, plants normally go into a dormant stage during the winter months.

However, wit h t he weather going from very warm to extremely cold within a matter of days, it becomes difficult for plants to know which phase of

their life they are supposed to be in, which can become problematic.

Many local farmers have been struggling to help their plants get through the winter, but some crops got so used to the warm weather that they budded early.

“Our peach trees budded out early, then we got that cold snap and they all froze over … they can’t take the cold,” said Bruce Caldwell of Cavalier Farms in Pilot, see HARVEST / page 6

Wednesdays are notorious for disappointments, but for last week in particular, Blacksburg citizens shared a rocky couple of days that resembled less of a hump and more of a mountain.

Natives in the area are flushed by Mayor Ron Rordam’s news of his prompt retirement come the end of his term in 2017 and look to the Blacksburg Town Council for closure and reassurance.

Unfortunately, Rordam lost his voice to the unfavorable effects of allergies at the time of interview; however, the Collegiate Times opted to solicit responses through email.

Rest assured, Rordam’s fun, humorous spirit was well-kept and readily apparent in his written responses.

Considering Rordam has been a constant figure in the overwhelming majority of residents’ lives, holding his position as mayor of Blacksburg for nearly 12 years and with more than 25 years of Town Council expertise under his belt, people are naturally gravitating toward the same pivotal question — why?

“Every four years we have to make a decision on whether to seek another

term. Leading up to that decision, it is good to look back and see what has been accomplished and the health of the organization,” Rordam wrote. “We have a great staff, good council and policies and procedures in place to guide future development. It is the right time to pass the baton to the next mayor.”

Although Rordam’s news felt sudden to the people in Blacksburg, he made sure to alert his fellow colleagues a day before his public declaration, a decision he modeled after former Councilwoma n Joyce Lewis, who he felt handled the matter with class.

Despite fo r m a l ly leaving his leadership role, Rordam would like to assure the public that he will still be around and that the community will forever be molded by the body of people residing in the town. Therefore, Rordam speculates that the people should see relatively small changes, if any, following his discontinuation as mayor.

Blacksburg’s “young whippersnapper” and Counci l ma n M ichael Sut phin ulti mately believes that several things are going to change for the structure of Town Council and denotes this as “the see MAYOR/ page 5

Spring absences create opportunities for rookies

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Tech’s coaching staff will have to adjust its game plan for spring practices due to injuries and academic suspensions.

CHASE PARKER football beat reporter

CAT PIPER / COLLEGIATE TIMES

Tinder troubles: Nice guys really do finish last

No

, I am not referring to the burn that causes an itch or a rash in those sensitive areas. Tinder has probably lead to a lot of those also, but that is a discussion best left for another time in the sanctuary of the Schiffert Health Center.

What I would like to point us all toward is the prevalence of young single men despite the ubiquitous presence of dating apps. Our phones are 24/7 bars with promises of access to other singles from all over the world — well, more specifically, within 100 miles of our current location, in the case of Tinder. But still, many guys who would love nothing else but to have a partner they can text at night are left disappointed and frustrated. So instead they respond to the call of Tinder again, spending the night alone swiping; left, right, right again. Because all single men know the motto nature and society has imprinted on them: “If you are not trying, you are dying.”

Men have been wired by evolution to always be on the lookout for the next mate to procreate their genes, and to actively

pursue that mate. It is one of our most primal instincts and is as ingrained into our psyche as fear and anger. Tinder, though, slants the fulfillment of that desire to those men who are already blessed with good mom and pop genes.

Tinder rewards superficiality, as all that matters are attributes that are only skin deep. However, the average guy has not been groomed or exposed to resources to help him in that regard.

Our agrarian history has rewarded men for what they can do, not how they look. This means most guys are not conditioned to pay close attention to their looks, clothing, accessories and so forth. So the average single guy doesn’t know how to apply makeup or hair extensions to help him accentuate certain features on his face or body. The average single guy also doesn’t have access to outfits that make him that much more flattering to the opposite sex. I can guarantee you he isn’t shopping for jeans with his buds see DATING / page 2

T he Vi rgi n ia Tech football team is going to be without some key players for spring ball. Several of them will have to miss due to medical reasons and another because of academic issues.

The players not participating in spring practices include: wide receiver C.J. Carroll, linebacker Sean Huelska mp, defensive lineman Joe Koshuta, defensive end Vinny Mihota, tackle Parker Osterloh, defensive back Seth Payne, defensive back Mook Reynolds and corner back

Greg Stroman.

While the coaching staff has yet to provide an official timeline for their return, there has been no indication that they will be sidelined for an extended period of time past the spring.

The injury report is especially alarming for defensive coordinator Bud Foster, as six of the eight players listed on it are on his side of the ball.

“Right now we have, as you guys see on the injury report, four potential starters out this spring with Mook (Reynolds), Greg Stroman and our two ends being Mihota and Trevon Hill.

So with that being said, the cupboard’s not bare, but it makes us a little thin for the spring,” Foster said.

While Hill isn’t listed on the inactive injury report shown above, the 6-foot-3 pass rusher will be a limited participant throughout the spring.

Hill is the early favorite to replace defensive end Ken Ekanem in the fall. Last season he recorded 37 total tackles, 2.5 of which were sacks.

On the offensive side of the ball, running back Deshawn McClease (who see INJURIES / page 4

ZACK WAJSGRAS / COLLEGIATE TIMES Houshun Gaines (11) prays in the endzone before taking on the Irish in Notre Dame Stadium, Nov. 19, 2016.

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CROSSFIRE

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Calling for an eradication of the Math Emporium A case for why Tech’s chosen method of math instruction is ineffective for the majority of college students.

T

he math emporium here at Virginia Tech offers basic level math courses for students to take as an online course. Although this center was built for students to come in to take their quizzes and also to receive help, I believe that the math emporium is not the best way for students to take their math courses.

Most students may recall the benefits of learning math from a high school teacher, as a majority of these in person instructions were taught by working through problems step by step. In all of our classes here at Virginia Tech, we have educated professors teaching us their material and making time for questions. So, why does math have to be any different and be an online class?

The students taking a course at the emporium are not engineering majors, suggesting that most of these students don’t necessarily have strong math skills.

Math is already one of the subjects most students struggle with because it is not a class of memorization but of understanding concepts. Having to learn calculus through an online textbook with no instructor makes it even more difficult than the subject already is for many students.

Each unit in the math emporium courses has online text of about a page long, about five examples, and one lesson problem. Then, there are optional practice problems available and practice quizzes to work through before taking the unit quiz. Usually, the questions in the online text are a lot less difficult than the actual problems in the practice quizzes, quizzes and exams. It sometimes even feels like learning the material over again when taking the practice quiz and not knowing how to approach the problem.

When an individual needs help at the emporium, there are tutors walking around, a room for individual tutoring, help sessions and also times to meet with the instructor. Most students sit on the computers and put their cups up once they need help from a tutor. However, when

there are over a hundred students at the emporium and only about ten tutors, the wait time can be ridiculous. I personally have waited for about forty-five minutes for a tutor to come to me, and I had one simple calculator question. A solution to this could be holding scheduled math emporium sessions with about fifteen students, and having one tutor assigned to this group to teach and help with the material.

The concept of the math emporium is understandable: not having to hold multiple scheduled classes for hundreds of

“

Math is one of the core subject requirements and should be taught in a classroom similarly to other courses.”

students, and therefore not having to hire and schedule professors, which may be a great benefit to the university. But, at a school with the word “tech” in its name, you would think there would be a plethora of math professors willing to hold classes to teach material step by step, answer questions and hold office hours.

Aside from having to choose a time out of your day to go to the math emporium, catching a bus over, sitting in that huge and colorless room, then having to wait a while to receive any help, the math emporium overall does not seem to sufficiently teach the subject of math due to it being an online course. Math is one of the core subject requirements and should be taught in a classroom similarly to our other courses.

AINY AKHTAR • regular columnist • freshman/neuroscience

column

Mastering the empo: The merits of an online education

O

ne of the most feared concepts to incoming Virginia Tech freshmen is the idea of taking a course at the Math Emporium. A redesigned department store filled with hundreds of Mac computers, the Math Emporium is easily intimidating and cold, but one would do well to look past the initial vibe of the place and consider the positive aspects of taking a course at the emporium.

Of course, the only obvious reward of taking a Math Emporium course is that it offers flexibility. Since the emporium is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, students can visit the emporium to do their work at any time.

Unfortunately, tutoring lab hours are limited to a block of time during the mid-evening, and the Math Emporium tutoring staff checks out after 10 p.m. This means that those students too busy to make it to the emporium during the day, or who prefer to work on homework during the late evening, are often without help from emporium staff.

Despite the limitations to students posed by those limited hours, there are still ample opportunities during the week for students to come into the Math Emporium and receive help on their coursework. Students can either attend question and answer sessions, which are weekly periods of time when instructors and tutors answer student questions, or they can attend the tutoring lab on any weekday afternoon between 4 and 9.

And, unlike our many years of math in grade school if you ever had a terrible math teacher, if you have a hard time understanding your tutor, you can easily find a different one. During my course, I’ve found that there are some tutors who I just can’t understand well, but there are others who are so helpful that I can grasp the concept easily.

Another point of contention for students who have Math Emporium courses is the fact that the tests, quizzes and textbook are all online. For those of us accustomed to learning math from a paper book and being able to physically take our assessments, this is jarring and foreign, but once you get working, it is easy to get past that inconvenience. After all, we use technology for nearly everything today.

We read the news online, we read e-books and we often take online courses or assessments in other courses. The format might take some getting used to, but students should take comfort that the format is not actually as

foreign as it seems.

Another positive aspect of taking a Math Emporium course is that you learn in increments. Students are tested weekly on a certain topic, giving them a concrete goal for that week and only a small amount of information to master for each weekly deadline. For example, for my most recent quiz, I was only required to master about five or six different types of questions. One of the most challenging parts of math when I was in high school was that we would spend more weeks on a given subject, but were only usually tested on it once, making it difficult to track my progress and even harder to master all of the content at once over those weeks.

While the constantly creeping deadlines can get exhausting, the format of the courses forces students to manage the content and their time wisely. Not only that, but it lets students get ahead in the course if they want to by having most of the assignments open at all times.

The Math Emporium may seem like an insane concept to incoming students, but it is actually a fairly common strategy among college campuses. For example, Liberty University and Kent State are among other campuses across the nation who follow a similar structure for introductory math courses.

While I do believe that the Math Emporium could benefit from offering online teaching videos, virtual tutoring of some kind or even just more applicable example problems during the lessons, the truth is that taking a Math Emporium course is exactly what you personally make of it. If you give it the same time and planning that you do with your other courses, you are very likely to succeed at the emporium. But waiting until the last minute to learn your quiz material or cramming a week’s worth of material into a time block of a few hours is a recipe for failure.

The next time you dread walking into that hollow, buzzing room full of computers, I hope you will remember that you do not have to be set up to fail. There are actually hundreds of employees at the emporium whose jobs are to make sure that you learn the lessons and are successful in your course.

CARSON BARTLETT • opinions editor • senior/political science

DATING: Stoking the fire: Tinder singes single men from page 1

at Macy’s, and he is definitely not asking his friends how his shorts look on him.

Furthermore, our culture idolizes the quintessential man’s man: rugged and confident. So for instance, if he has photos taken of him, it is unmanly for him to ask for a retake because that shows a lack of confidence. He isn’t supposed to have a bad side, or care that he has a bad side.

So when it comes to selecting those four to six Tinder profile photos, most guys have to resort to picking the best from the worst. They also dare not ask for advice on photos from another guy — it’s not manly to ask for help. But the average guy is the leader of the nearby intramural flag football team or the whiz kid in your engineering class. So instead of impressing those possible Tinder matches, he can only impress his male friends.

Rather, Tinder rewards those guys that are born with the height, skin tone and a head full of hair that make them naturally attractive.

These are the 10 percenters, as I will call them, and they are immune to competition from the other guys. Add to this that these same men are choosing to remain single, and it is apparent that being a single guy is the new norm.

A decade ago, a very attractive guy would exercise his efforts on only very attractive women because searching and finding a mate is very time consuming, expensive and awkward.

Did I mention awkward? When he eventually finds such a woman, he would be inclined

to stay with her because he remembers how difficult the dating process can be. But now these guys are choosing to return to the singles pool, wading and fishing in the same waters as the average guy, sending messages and swiping right for women they probably wouldn’t have bothered with a decade ago.

Because just with a swipe, they can approach girls they would never consider dating; but these girls are interested in them because they are the 10 percenters. This is a girl that in any other era would take notice of the average but funny guy next to her in chemistry class but instead she has the butterflies for her recent match on Tinder. Her Tinder alert notification from Johnny Handsome, the one she superliked, says, “Your smile lights up my night.”

It’s the same pickup line he googled two days ago and has rehashed to all his other matches, but she doesn’t know this. Johnny Handsome seems nice and caring also. He is holding a cute golden retriever in his profile picture.

It seems her little black dress that showed just enough cleavage worked as her profile picture, especially since her friend took the photo from an angle where you couldn’t see the pushup bra.

Combine that with the spring break bathing suit photo where she is lying on her back to give the impression of a flat stomach she never had, Johnny Handsome became interested — even if for one night. So, as he is thinking about tonight, she is thinking about forever, along with his 15 other matches. And next to her, the funny chemistry student tries his luck again but

to no avail.

If you are a single guy and this depresses you, be warned: it only gets worse. Society has also made it acceptable for men of a wider age range to approach women in that small childbearing age, the college student age. Therefore, the typical college girl can be approached by guys anywhere between the ages of 20 to 30 and will constantly be approached by such men.

To reiterate, men are biologically wired to actively pursue women. So even when a match is made and Tinder does ignite a spark, that same woman is most likely conversing with a multitude of other men. And you can bet that on her way to meet you at Starbucks, she is responding to yet another guy that thinks her smile lights up his night. When she asks to go use the bathroom, she is inundated with messages from other Johnny Handsomes that all think her hummingbird tattoo is very intriguing. When she eventually comes back from the bathroom to finish your conversation on Game of Thrones, even as you discuss your love of Tyrion Lannister, she is thinking, “I want someone taller.”

Because on Tinder, she knows that all she has to do is swipe right to find a match that is taller.

Unfortunately for men, the effort required to maintain conversations and matches is highly skewed. The dating and Tinder scene still puts most of the onus and pressure on the guy to be witty, funny, smart, interesting, not creepy — on top of being handsome, athletic, caring, loyal and all the other traits of Prince Charming.

On the other hand, a girl can put up three pictures along with a caption that says, “I like Nutella,” and then complain that the men that approach her on Tinder are not original. It becomes quite apparent who the app favors.

This means for most males, relating to the girl is even more difficult and requires that much more effort to connect with multiple matches.

Because if he isn’t ridiculously handsome, he better find innovative ways to make an impression. So despite being one of her many matches, and she being one of his only active matches, that male still has to find ways to be all those things Prince Charming should be in 250 characters or less.

As I reflect back on my previous dating experiences, I remember the moments I had with partners that at first glance I wouldn’t have swiped right to. Those relationships were quite special. They were born from knowing the people first, then appreciating their looks later on. Those types of relationships are for another app developer to figure out.

I can’t fault Tinder for this plight on the single male though. It is only trudging down the same path that other digital advancements have paved. That is, taking from the have-nots and giving to the have-it-alls, while leaving those in the middle with just enough hope to not turn against it. Because everyone knows that one shy guy who found his current girlfriend on Tinder.

TOMILAYO KOMOLAFE • regular columnist • Ph.D. student/industrial systems engineering

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March 27, 2017 PAGE 3

news

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Criminal injustice: Leniency in laws for repeat offenders

W

hen it comes to criminal justice in the United States, a concern for equal representation, fair opportunity and financial benefits are among the initial concerns evaluated.

The United States has the largest and most expensive incarceration system in the world.

Surprisingly, there has been wide bipartisan support for reforming the criminal justice system in various ways in many states, as an effort to ensure the rights of every accused individual and to reduce taxpayer dollars flowing to incarcerations.

Certainly, recent legislation has proposed specific types of reforms across states that will demonstrate a potentially strong effectiveness for fulfilling its intentions. But many of these proposals are only allowing more leverage for criminals.

Reducing sentencing laws, reclassifying some felonies as misdemeanors and rehabilitating educational institutions in prisons are all potential methods for improving the behaviors of criminals and reducing taxpayer dollars, but their effectiveness might not be strong enough to discipline the individuals being convicted to stop them from performing the same actions again.

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Mandatory minimum sentences are the main driving force behind the mass numbers of people housed in incarcerations, but these sentences appear to not be the most effective actions taken to ensure these criminals will not engage in repeated offenses.

Minimizing the penalties for minor felonies, such as drug offenses, minor theft offenses and trespassing, or even downgrading criminal offenses to misdemeanors could be reasonable for fiscal savings or ensuring proper justice for the offender. But the punishments still need to be disciplinary enough to prevent people from committing the crimes again once released from probation or their sentence. Long-standing prison sentencing for nonviolent crimes is often a waste of money for resources and is frankly unnecessary for these types of offenses.

On the contrary, consequences do lie in the reformation for demoting criminal offenses to misdemeanors. For example, an essay from Governing Magazine explains California’s Proposition 47, which reduced drug possession and some theft crimes to decrease prison populations. This was successful in that it allowed previously convicted felons to obtain jobs and benefits by clearing their records. But Proposition 47 has allowed repeating offenders to continue breaking the law with minimal consequences.

If states are going to introduce propositions such as these, then there should be penalties for repeated crimes. Other measures such as the number of times an offender can repeat the crime before he or she faces harsher punishments should be taken into consideration

before implementing a law that might be good for the majority, but continues demonstrating the flaws that are injuring the community fiscally and socially.

However, sanctions for larger felonies should not be reduced as drastically.

Criminals should be rightly punished, not granted more leverage to give them a second chance or subdue the image of the crime for ultimately seeking justice. People know right from wrong. Legislators might consider being softer on keeping people out of prisons in recent proposals, but offenders who committed violent or more serious crimes should not be given any leniency.

This does not mean that criminals should not have a chance to seek justice. Rather, it illustrates that if they committed the crime, then they must deal with the consequences that follow their decisions.

Proposals for rehabilitation centers in prisons could also reduce the cost of prisons, while also aiding the persecuted in living a better lifestyle after serving their sentence.

If prisons introduced more mental health or counseling programs to prison populations, criminal offenders would be given the opportunity to reshape their lives after prison.

An increase in productivity and job growth in states could potentially alleviate the financial crises that states are experiencing partially caused by incarcerations, while also improving the lifestyles that shape our society.

But this issue of individual progress leads to another concern — the ability for a persecuted victim to obtain a well-grounded job or career.

State legislatures are attempting to influence employers to not initially avoid job applications that indicate an individual is a convicted felon. Though Congress cannot directly control the policies of these employers, they can attempt to influence them to give potential employees a chance for an interview, without initial judgement on paper.

However, we all live with the decisions we make. If someone commits a crime that hinders them from obtaining a certain job, then their record that affects their eligibility to be hired at a specific company should not be re-evaluated if it goes against the employer’s policy. Employers often view criminals as dangerous to their institution or company and its working community, which is a just reason enough to avoid hiring someone who has been convicted of a felony.

This isn’t to perpetuate the idea that criminals should not be given second chances, but there are employers in our society who will hire criminal offenders, and there are others who will not.

The system might be broken, and these ideas and proposals discussed in legislature are a few of many other propositions that have been introduced. But our state leaders must form legislation with conceptions that will alleviate the crisis that the criminal justice system is in, while also ensuring that those convicted receive the treatment they deserve.

Every human possesses an inherent right to seek justice, but if the conviction is too extreme to be considered for anything other than a severe prison sentence or the like, then they should not be given other outlets to avoid the penalties, regardless if it is to save tax dollars or show empathy.

It is largely up to the states to determine the reformation standards and policies of an improved system, but it must entail bipartisan support and include rational decisions.

The Fourteenth Amendment ensures that every citizen has equal protection under the law. But this does not mean allowing transgressors of the law to get away with their actions. We must reform the system to ensure the liberty, safety, thriving health and economic benefits of all citizens and institutions nationwide.

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Students launch Virginia Tech coding repository Students create Virginia Tech organization within GitHub to allow for collaboration between coders.

IZZY ROSSI news editor

At his first State of the University address this past fall, President Tim Sands introduced a series of initiatives for the university including “Cross-Sector Partnerships,” or increasing the amount of cross-disciplinary interaction between departments. Two students are now taking that goal into their own hands by bringing different areas of the Virginia Tech community together through coding.

Fresh ma n computer science majors Teddy Todorov and Matt Petracca have created a Virginia Tech organization on GitHub, a website that allows users to store, share and collaborate on coding projects. The site uses Git, an open-source version control system, to keep revisions straight and store the modifications in a central repository.

“A good way to think of it is like, people use Google Drive to collaborate on documents together, like written documents,” Petracca said.

“Google Drive is a great way because it’s a cloud service so you don’t really have to worry about backing up any of your files, you can bring it down from anywhere. And so that’s great for actual written documents, but with code it’s not so good. So basically GitHub is sort of the equivalent of Google Drive, but it’s targeted for coding resources.”

The students stress the importance of Git and GitHub as a coding resource both as a student and beyond Virginia Tech.

“All of my coding projects, all of my homework, all of my independent things that I’m doing on the side, they’re all up there,” Todorov said.

“It’s because companies love to see that you use Git and GitHub because especially today, I think it’s 70 percent of programmers (who) use Git as their control system.

“So, the fact that as a student you’re able to use this service really shows employers that you know

?

“Git” is the open source distributed version control system that facilitates GitHub activities on your laptop or desktop.

Blacksburg, VA, 24061 opinionseditor@collegiatetimes.com Letters, commentaries and editorial cartoons do not reflect the views of the Collegiate Times.

Editorials are written by the Collegiate Times editorial board, which is composed of the opinions editors, editor-in-chief and the managing editors.

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on GitHub where we can invite all these different Virginia Tech accounts, like users, and sort of aggregate everyone to one organization where then people could add their own pet projects into the organization,” Petracca said. “Then other students who might be interested in getting together and collaborating on the project would have a good avenue because everything is together in one spot, and they wouldn’t have to search on GitHub for other people who might be at Virginia Tech.

“One of our main goals was to sort of aggregate the coding community at Virginia Tech and see that like, ‘Hey, you like working on this type of project, you’re also doing something similar, you could probably collaborate, especially because you both go to Virginia Tech.’”

The team also emphasizes that GitHub is not just for computer science majors, but for anyone who is interested in coding or learning how to code.

“In the day we live in now, there’s computational aspects to any field, so that was definitely one of our main goals to bring people together and have them collaborate,” Petracca said.

“We also wanted to teach people why they sort of need Git and GitHub and why it’s useful for them. We’ll be hosting Git and GitHub workshops and maybe someone within another department who doesn’t really know why they need Git or GitHub would come to this workshop and learn and maybe it could help them. Also, we didn’t want this to be all CS students; we wanted to reach out to the other fields within the university.”

The team hopes to have the project complete within the coming months. Students can access the Virginia Tech Organization GitHub website at virginiatech. github.io.

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what you’re doing. If you go to a company, if you go off to do programming somewhere, I can almost guarantee that they will be using some sort of version control system, and in the off chance they’re not using Git, they’ll be using something very similar that would be easy to learn if you already know Git. It gives you such a big step up just having that knowledge of using something like a version control system with code.”

As Hokies across campus continue to innovate, Todorov and Petracca wanted to provide a place where they could share their ideas and projects with the greater Virginia Tech community.

“We know a lot of people, at least a lot of computer science people, are doing things on the side just for fun. Like just a few days ago on the Virginia Tech Reddit, this student was like, ‘Hey, look at this thing I made,’ and he made this thing called P-Scheduler,” Todorov explained. “Basically, you put in the courses that you want to take, and you put in that you don’t want to wake up before like 10 a.m., and you press ‘Create Schedules’ and it generates all the possible schedules of those courses for you, and you can go through and see all your options with times and teachers and see what you want.

“And someone from VT made this. So, we want people to see that and see that his code is on GitHub, like for people who are in the CS program, and if they want to learn how to do this, they can just go on GitHub and look at the code and see like, ‘This is how you do something.’”

Many students throughout Virginia Tech already have GitHub accounts, Petracca explains. The hope is that creating a Virginia Tech organization within GitHub will increase collaboration between students and make it easier for students to find each other.

“What we wanted to do was make an organization

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PAGE 4 March 27, 2017

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INJURIES: Key Robie eyes continued success for Tech After serving as an assistant coach for Tech’s wrestling program for 11 years, athletic players out director Whit Babcock announced that Tony Robie has been promoted to head coach. for practices HUMBERTO ZARCO wrestling beat reporter

from page 1

doesn’t appear on the inactive injury list above, either) is in the same boat as Hill, as he is more progressed in his recovery than expected, but still not ready to be a full participant in practice.

McClease suffered an upper extremity injury early last year, which ended his season after only participating in one game. He is expected to play the role of scatback and use his speed and agility to his advantage in both the rushing and passing game come fall.

Defensive end Houshun Gaines won’t be participating this spring, either, due to academic reasons.

In 2016, Gaines was suspended after the spring game through week one of the regular season due to an arrest in which he was charged with possession of marijuana and underage possession of alcohol. Once his suspension was lifted, the 6-foot-4 pass rusher appeared in 12 games and recorded one-half a sack on the season.

While the spring absences aren’t ideal, the situation provides an opportunity for younger players to get more reps and develop in the spring. To add depth to the depleted defensive end position and give younger players some extra reps, linebackers Emmanuel Belmar and Raymon Minor will be moving to the defensive end spot. Former tight end Xavier Burke has been moved to the defensive line as well.

In the defensive backfield, there has already been some shuffling around to add depth. The most notable of the switch-ups has been former wide receiver Divine Deablo flopping from offense to defense to play safety.

“We’re going to find out who can play. We’re going to evaluate their strengths and their weaknesses. We’re going to put them in the right spot that’s going to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Some of them are going to be learning new positions, and they need to learn the expectations of those positions and what we expect as coaches,” Foster said. @ChaseParker_VT

Athletic director Whit Babcock announced Tuesday that longtime Virginia Tech assistant wrestling coach Tony Robie has been named head coach after guiding the team to a sixth-place finish at last week’s NCAA Championships.

“It’s always been a goal of mine to be a head coach,” Robie said at his introductory press conference Wednesday, “and to be able to do that at Virginia Tech, a place that I call home, is incredibly exciting to me.”

Robie served as interim coach since Kevin Dresser left for Iowa State on Feb. 20. During that time, Robie also guided the Hokies to their first ACC tournament title since 2014 in dominating fashion. Six Hokies won ACC individual titles, the most for any team since the NCAA went to 10 weight classes in 1999.

Their sixth-place finish at the NCAAs last week — their fifthstraight top 10 finish — was two spots below last year’s programbest fourth-place finish under Dresser. Five Hokies earned All-American honors, one fewer than last year’s program-best six All-Americans.

Rega rd less, R o b i e’s promotion got the stamp of approval from his predecessor.

“He’s put in a lot of time and effort into Virginia Tech wrestling,” Dresser said. “He’s done everything it takes to be a coach at this level, from recruiting to teaching and coaching.” One of the first things Dresser did when he took the Virginia Tech job in 2006 was hire Robie as one of his assistant coaches.

Robie plans on spending the coming weeks solidifying his

AHMED MUSTAFA / COLLEGIATE TIMES Coaches Tony Robie (LEFT) and Mike Zadick (RIGHT) eagerly watch as Zach Epperly turns UVA’s Tyler Askey, March 4, 2017.

staff. Whether assistant coaches Mike Zadick and Derek St. John will stay remains to be seen.

Babcock’s decision to replace Dresser, who built Tech into a national wrestling powerhouse, with his top assistant showed Babcock’s desire not to mess with Dresser’s success. “We hope with the continuity here, they’ll stay,” Babcock said.

“We’re never going to force anybody to be here.” As of now, no Tech wrestlers have asked for their release so they can transfer, perhaps to join Dresser at Iowa State.

Senior Joey Dance, who earned All-American honors at 125 pounds last week, believes it will stay that way. “He was a guy the whole team really respects and looks up to,” Dance said.

“No one’s going to leave Robie.”

Fou r t h -ye a r junior Jared Haught, who earned All-American honors at 197

pounds last week, also believes no one will transfer. “I really don’t know what is going on in the other guy’s heads,” Haught said Thursday, “but we have a family bond, so I believe we will stay together.”

Robie said Thursday the program’s goals remain the same: to win a national championship. He emphasized the importance of recruiting the best wrestlers in Virginia and continuing to recruit in hot bed states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio.

He can expect competition from top coaches like Dresser on the recruiting trail, but Robie believes the sustained success of the Hokies will be a huge selling point to recruits. No signee has asked to be released from their letter-of-intent either. That includes 2017 commits John Borst, the 16th best prospect in the country, of Sherando,

Virginia, and Hunter Bolden, the 47th best prospect in the country of Christiansburg High School, where Dresser won five consecutive state titles.

Haught said Robie, an NCAA runner-up in 1997, has been running the practices for years after Dresser took more of a CEO role overseeing the program.

Robie will have to replace Dance, Sal Mastriani (157 pounds) and Ty Walz (heavyweight) — a talented group of seniors with six All-American nods between them.

But if Robie can keep the team together, he will return A l l-A mer ica ns Solomon Chishko (149 pounds), Zach Epperly (174 pounds), Zack Zavatsky (184 pounds), Jared Haught (197 pounds) and David McFadden, who earned All-American honors at 165 pounds as a true freshman in 2016, but missed the 2017 season with a knee injury.

Despite the Hokies sustained success, Robie recognizes there is still a lot of work to be done to consistently compete against the nation’s top teams like Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Penn State, the 2017 national champions.

But Robie believes he has everything he needs to bring a national championship to Blacksburg in time.

“There are some great teams, great programs and great coaches out there, but I am very comfortable with the resources that we have,” Robie said. “I think we have everything in place to make that next step.”

@CTSportsTalk

study break Today’s Birthday Horoscope: Compromise and work together for shared commitments this year. Try new things. Travel and explore. Changing team priorities this August comes before you fall in love (again). Family resources grow after October. December brings a two-year phase of rising professional status. Collaborate for what you love.

LIVE IN Y UR W RLD DVERTISE IN URS WORDSEARCH: Weather Locate the list of words in the word bank in the letter grid.

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March 27, 2017 PAGE 5

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Food for thought: Banquet ponders trust in government

The School of Public and International Affairs stresses need for open-ended problem solving at its yearly banquet.

MIKE LIU news reporter

The School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech hosted the annual Ridenour Faculty Fellowship Conference on March 24 and 25. The first day of the event took place at The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center, while the second day took place at the ThomasConner House.

This year, the central theme of the conference was to explore trust in government, and the School of Public and International Affairs invited several noteworthy guest speakers to discuss this matter, including Marc Edwards, a Charles P. Lunsford professor of civil engineering at Virginia Tech.

The first speaker of the event, Edwards, who has pursued science as a public good throughout the years, is known for investigating the D.C. Lead Crisis in 2001 and the Flint Water Crisis in 2015 with his research team; his team discovered that iron and lead corrosion in the water of Flint, Michigan, affected 100,000 residents for more than a year.

Edwards shared his experience of fighting against the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect people in D.C. and Flint on the first day of the event and used his first accounts to allude that there is still hope in government practices.

“We avoided a catastrophe by getting the state to mobilize, and the governor to apologize. You got a bottle of water. There’s a filter in there to protect the kids just when the lead was really starting to come off,” Edward said. “This (Flint Water Crisis) would have been a disaster, but it was a success.”

Edwards participated in a discussion panel about the role of academics and scientists in the public arena following his speech with panelists: Jonah Fogel, adjunct professor of the Center for Public Administration and Policy and director of the land use education program at Virginia Tech, Max Stephenson, professor in the School of Public and International Affairs and director of the Institute for Policy and Governance at Virginia Tech, and Susan Sterett, professor in the Center for Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech.

Later in the day following lunch, Virgil Wood, former dean of the African American Institute at Northeastern University, fires up a conversation about the nation’s economy and believes that the government can be doing more for the public’s sake.

“I’d like to suggest that if there is something exceptional about America,” Wood said, “it is the possibility that we can show the world how to have a beloved community and a beloved economy, so that’s what (Martin Luther) King (Jr.) said his dream was, that ‘people everywhere could have three meals a day without blood on their bread, without having to sell their soul.’”

Wood is a church leader, educator and civil rights activist.

He committed much of his life’s work to the struggle for economic and spiritual development among the nation’s disadvantaged. Wood is a former associate of Martin Luther King Jr., and he worked alongside King for 10 years.

The event closed on day one of the event with Joyce Rothschild, professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia

Tech, and Christian Matheis, visiting assistant professor of government and international affairs at Virginia Tech, who discussed the future of work and income in an era of economic inequality. On day two of the event Foreman provided lasting remarks, giving the High Table lecture about his public affairs research odyssey and wrapped the event off in a neutral manner.

This event combined two great traditions: the Ridenour Faculty Fellowship and the High Table Celebration in the Center for Public Administration and Policy.

The Ridenour Faculty Fellowship was initiated by the school of Public and International Affairs to honor Minnis Ridenour’s service to Virginia Tech and the Commonwealth of Virginia, helping scholars gain a different perspective on problem solving, and the High Table Celebration was adopted by the Center for Public Administration and Policy to bring faculty and students together for a meal to listen to a lecture by a distinguished scholar.

Anne Khademian, director of the School of Public and International Affairs, stressed that there is no greater time to unite as a student body than the present.

“This is a time for us to all come together and focus on a common topic that we can use our different forms of expertise and live (and) learn from each other about key challenges,” Khademian said. “It’s also an opportunity for us to connect with the rest of the university, and to really stimulate our thinking around problem solving from an interdisciplinary perspective.” @KacheeMMM

University predicts 2021 to be most diverse class With a staggering number of applications brought in since last year, Virginia Tech suggests possible accommodations.

MIKE LIU news reporter

Virginia Tech received more than 27,000 undergraduate applications for admission to the Class of 2021, which marks a record number of applications for the third year in a row for Virginia Tech.

The number of applications this year is 8 percent higher than last year’s number along with the highest number of in-state and out-of-state applications that Virginia Tech has ever received.

The application pool for the Class of 2021 is the most diverse class that Virginia Tech has ever had in terms of students’ ethnicities, including Native American, African American, Hispanic, Latino and so on.

“By having a more diverse pool, we are actually strengthening the student body in terms of who comes,” said Mark Owczarski, assistant vice president for news and information.

“But it’s always important to understand the yield. Those who accept our offer is really the critical factor in all of this.”

According to Owczarski, Virginia Tech is planning a long-term modest growth for enrollment.

“The goal is over time, over an extended period of time, to increase enrollment for undergraduate students and for graduate students,” Owczarski said. “I don’t have specific numbers, but if we increase a few more extra students this year, that will be consistent with our goal.”

According to Owczarski, the growth of enrollment will not be an issue for student housing because the overall Virginia Tech enrollment is not limited

only to Blacksburg. There are opportunities for students to study abroad and in different regions of the United States, such as the National Capital Region in the D.C. area.

“The idea and the concept is that we grow the program in other locations, including the opportunity to study abroad,” Owczarski said. “It is possible to have more students enroll at Virginia Tech without a tremendous additional number here in Blacksburg.”

“

By having a more diverse pool, we are actually strengthening the student body in terms of who comes.”

Mark Owczarski assistant vice president for news and information

The Department of Housing and Residence Life closely watched and monitored the student housing to make sure there is enough housing for the incoming first-year students.

“Well, the good news is that the increase is a planned increase which is always helpful, and as a result, we managed the number of students that we permitted to return to housing this year to make sure that we had adequate space for the incoming first-year students,” said Frank Shushok, senior associate vice president for student affairs and associate professor of higher education.

“We’ve been planning for the larger class size, and we’ve

adjusted our ratios of upperdivision students versus firstyear students.”

According to Shushok, Jason Hall, the former name of Brodie Hall, will be renamed New Cadet Hall and will be ready for students to move in next semester.

“The construction is currently wrapping up. It’s actually almost done, and we’re doing punchlist kinds of things at this point,” Shushok said.

“New Cadet Hall will be open next fall, and that’s an additional 500 beds.”

Virginia Tech is also planning on increasing the diversity of what students seek to study by informing student applicants about the different programs Virginia Tech offers.

“We believe in (increasing the diversity of what students seek to study), not only increasing the number of applicants, but increasing the diversity and strength of those applicants,” Owczarski said.

Owczarski also mentioned the number of underrepresented student applicants is up from last year.

“That’s something we are very pleased about. We are making very concerted efforts on that front, through the beyond boundary scholarship program,” Owczarski said. “It’s an opportunity for the university to provide extra support to help yield a more diverse student body so that we can have diversity that will help really elevate the culture here at Virginia Tech, to really help elevate the strength of our student body I should say.”

@KacheeMMM

MAYOR: Rordam bids farewell from page 1

first kind of big contested mayoral election that we have had in a long time.”

“First it will have a big impact on election seasons but also ... Krisha Chachra, who is currently on Town Council and up for re-election, is running for mayor, and if she’s running for mayor that means she can’t be on the ballot twice,” Sutphin said. “That means that someone is going to have to run for her seat as well on the Town Council, so it will have a big impact on the composition of Town Council.”

RON RORDAM At this moment, there are three candidates for mayor — Blacksburg Town Council members Chachra and Leslie Hager-Smith, and businessman Ed Lawhorn — however, Sutphin thinks it is likely that others will run as well and states that he will not publicly endorse a candidate until he receives a formal list, although he believes Hager-Smith might have an edge against her competitors.

“I will say, of the three candidates that are running, if you just look at resumes and experience, Leslie Hager-Smith has the most experience. She’s served on Town Council since 2008, and she’s served two different terms as vice mayor, meaning that every time she ran for office she got the most votes,” Sutphin said. “I think she definitely has an advantage in the mayoral race, which will be interesting

because if her or if Krisha Chachra were elected, we would have our first female mayor in Blacksburg.”

Regardless, Sutphin praised Rordam’s abundance of labor for the Town of Blacksburg and admires Rordam as both a local government official and long-time friend.

“I think he has been a great mayor; we’ll miss him on the dais in the council chambers, but I’m friends with him,” Sutphin said. “I’m sure I’ll still see him after his retirement.”

Rordam’s high spirits paired with an inspirational work ethic is what has made him a lead activist for the community. Pulling from countless memories to find one he deemed most distinguishable, Rordam mentions the striking success with improvements made downtown. Rordam alludes that the streets harness much more excitement now than ever before.

“College Avenue and North Main Street are much more inviting. After several years under our belt, I will still turn the corner on College Avenue, stop, and say, ‘Isn’t this a great place,’” Rordam wrote. “People who don’t know me look at me a little funny.”

In addition, Rordam points to Market Square Park and his meet with both Barack Obama and Joe Biden to discuss gun violence as moments he will forever cherish during his mayoral term.

Rordam says his frequent interaction with community members and his ability to solve problems are a few things he will miss most as he readies himself to leave at the end of the year, but offers best wishes and wise words to whomever his successor may be.

“One thing I learned and advice I can give is that, while being mayor is defined as a part time job, it is a job with full time responsibilities,” Rordam said. “Be prepared to have your phone with you at all times, answer questions gracefully in any situation, and always try to listen.”

For more information on Ron Rordam and his achievements throughout the years, visit Blacksburg Town Council’s website for weekly updates and information on voter eligibility.

@RealSlimAD

collegiatetimes.com

PAGE 6 March 27, 2017

lifestyles

editor@collegiatetimes.com

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Farmers market to kitchen table

For those looking for a way to eat clean and feel good about where their food comes from, the Blacksburg Farmers Market offers a variety of fresh and easy options.

SAMANTHA SMITH lifestyles editor

With the temperature in Blacksburg in the 70s, I was in search of some way to embrace the unexpected nice weather. It was about 12 p.m., and with my evening plans looming at about 4:30 p.m., there wasn’t much time to find someone to go on a hike with and then drive to a trail.

Suddenly, it hit me — I hadn’t tried cooking in a pretty long time, and what better way to celebrate a beautiful day in Blacksburg than by supporting local farmers at the Blacksburg Farmers Market?

I grabbed a tote bag, $30 in cash and embarked on my mission. My cooking skills are somewhat laughable if I am being honest with myself, so I decided to take it slow this time around. However, after seeing all of the amazing varieties offered at the market, I hope to slowly venture out of my comfort zone and try some more advanced dishes.

After some thought, I decided that my best bet for an easy and delicious meal would probably be something that was pasta based. I didn’t think there would be many options for pasta — maybe some linguine or penne — but I was overwhelmed with the choices.

Fine Artisan Pasta This booth has been a part of the farmers market since October 2016, making it one of the newer booths at the market.

What initially drew me into this booth was its sauces. Many of the pasta booths had plenty of pasta and sauce varieties, but the sauces offered at this booth sounded absolutely delicious.

I decided on the gnocchi mix, which came with traditional gnocchi as well as spinach gnocchi. For those who aren’t familiar with this type of pasta, it is typically a soft and thick dumpling made out of dough.

For some more information on how Fine Artisan Pasta’s gnocchi mix was made, I talked

with Frannie Gilvary, who makes all of the food offered at this booth fresh as her full-time job.

“The gnocchi mix is done with potatoes, semolina, egg and flour mixed up and then refrigerate it, let it sit, and then we roll them,” Gilvary said.

For the spinach gnocchi, they juice the spinach to get the juice and fibers and then mix it in with the dough.

According to Gilvary, it takes a couple of hours to make each batch of this pasta.

As for the sauce, all of the ingredients are simply mixed together and put on the stove for three hours.

For both the gnocchi mix and the tomato basil sauce, it ended up running me $13.

Reliant Farm, LLC After I acquired my pasta and sauce, I decided that I needed some meat. I took a look at all of the different booths that offered meat, and decided on Reliant Farm since it offered ground chorizo (I am a sucker for chorizo).

I am generally clueless when it comes to the production of sausage, so I talked with Brent Strange to gain some insight on how he makes the ground chorizo.

Current USDA laws do not allow anyone to make the sausage at home and sell it to consumers.

In order to follow USDA rules, Reliant Farm, LLC, must take the animal to a slaughterhouse that is USDA approved. The animal is inspected by a veterinarian before being slaughtered, and there must be a USDA inspector on sight.

“Once the animal has been slaughtered and skinned and halved, we look at the entrails to make sure there are no diseases in the liver,” Strange said.

“They also make sure that the animal is healthy and I haven’t beat the animal. If you are rough with your animals it will bruise the meat and they’ll be able to see.”

Once the animal has been USDA slaughtered and halved, they will grind it to the purchaser’s

specifications — for Reliant Farm, LLC, that is usually sausage since that is its biggest seller.

The facility that Reliant Farm, LLC, uses is also animal welfare approved in Highland County, Virginia. What does that mean? Strange explains the qualifications.

“They make sure that the animal has had enough to eat and drink prior to slaughter, that no animal sees another animal being slaughtered,” Strange explained. “The animals go through the shoot one at a time so there’s no type of stress on that animal. It’s humanely killed and then immediately bled, so that gives you a carcass that is very clean.”

The ground chorizo came frozen in a vacuum sealed package and ended up costing $7.75 per pound.

Sweet Water Baking Co. What meal is complete without a nice loaf of bread? Since I purchased bread from Sweet Water in the past and really enjoyed it, I decided to try a different variety this time.

I chose the sesame french bread, and Sam Siller was nice enough to explain to me how the bread is made.

“It’s a three day process. I mix the dough on Wednesday night, shape it on Thursday,” Siller said. “It’s mostly white flour but it’s got a whole wheat starter because it’s sourdough. It’s a real staple of the business.”

The business itself is 20 years old, but has been a part of the farmers market for the past 13 years.

Sweet Water’s bread is also available in Owens Dining Hall at Farm & Fields Project, and has been for the past seven years.

One loaf of the sesame french bread ended up costing me $7.75.

The finished product The end result of this visit to the farmers market was probably the most delicious dinner I’ve had in a while. It’s one thing to cook something for yourself that is delicious. It’s another to cook something that is both tasty and makes you feel good about the food you’ve chosen, all while supporting the local economy. @smith992_CT

SAMANTHA SMITH / COLLEGIATE TIMES

Sweet Water Baking Co. baker Sam Siller poses near his table, March 25, 2017.

REVIEW: LIFE BRADY TICKLE movie columnist

Ridley Scott, you better really bring your A-game with this summer’s “Alien: Covenant,” because right now, “Life” is the space-set horror movie to beat. Sure, director Daniel Espinosa has created a blatant rip-off of Scott’s classic masterpiece, “Alien,” but it is such a good rip-off that I genuinely didn’t mind all that much. It’s entertaining, filled with topnotch actors and, above all, it is actually terrifying.

The fact that “Life” is as good as it is came as a bit of a shock to me, particularly when considering Espinosa’s repertoire up until now. Espinosa’s most notable work prior to “Life” was 2012’s Denzel Washington-led action flick, “Safe House.”

While “Safe House” was by no means a bad film, it wasn’t exactly great either, so it was surprising to see Espinosa so comfortable helming such a radically different film; perhaps this is a sign that horror is his genre.

Of course, it helps that he had two of my favorite Hollywood screenwriters scripting this movie: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. For those of you who don’t know, Reese and Wernick are the two heroes behind two of this generation’s great comedy classics, “Zombieland” and “Deadpool.”

With that in mind, it was also quite shocking that these two writers, mainly known for their comedic works, were so at ease

writing a horror flick. This just goes to show that Reese and Wernick are easily some of the best screenwriters at work today.

Speaking of the screenplay, the story itself revolves around a six-member crew working at the International Space Station. After retrieving some soil samples from Mars, the crew is amazed to discover a new life form that has been quietly chilling on the planet, undisturbed for millions of years. Unfortunately, things go south when the life form feels threatened and begins violently killing off the astronauts.

Yes, it is a story we have seen a million times before; however, it shows why these kinds of stories work. Every nook and cranny of the space station feels like it could be concealing the creature, and the vast emptiness of space makes the whole situation seem hopeless for the crew.

This creates a sense of dread and unease throughout the majority of the picture that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Any horror movie worth two cents has to have good characters, because otherwise no one will care who lives and who dies, which ultimately kills any and all tension. While the characters in “Life” are not as fleshed out as, say, Ellen Ripley, the actors portraying them make the most out of their roles, making them feel just believable enough to make the audience care.

Jake Gyllenhaal is, as usual, great as Dr. David Jordan, the chief medical officer on board who is about to break the record

for most consecutive days in space; his chief character trait is that he generally doesn’t like people, which is why he has chosen to stay up in the space station for so long.

Ryan Reynolds steals the show as Rory Adams, the wisecracking engineer. Everything that comes out of Reynolds’ mouth is hysterical, and it probably helped that Reynolds was surrounded by people who had worked with him previously and therefore knew his acting style (he also starred in Espinosa’s “Safe House,” and he was of course the titular antihero in “Deadpool”).

Rebecca Ferguson is also solid as Dr. Miranda North, an extra-cautious representative of the CDC, and Hiroyuki Sanada gives the most sympathetic performance as Sho Kendo, a father-to-be once he gets back to Earth. Olga Dihovichnaya also stands out as the crew’s captain, and Ariyon Bakare is excellent as the crew’s curious biologist.

“Life” also delivers the necessary creeps with its alien creature, which it wisely avoided showing in the trailers. Without spoiling anything, the creature comes off as the love child of a Xenomorph and the Thing from John Carpenter’s 1982 hit.

Needless to say, it gave me the willies. While “Life” is far from original, it is a good time for horror fans, which is why I give it four out of five stars.

@bradytickle

HARVEST: Mild winter strains local farmers from page 1

Virginia, noting that peach trees normally don’t begin to bud until late April.

According to Ben Wilke of Glade Road Growing, they utilize greenhouses during the winter. Wilke said that when crops are grown in greenhouses, the focus is more on the light levels (the amount of sunlight) than the temperature.

“Really you don’t get growth in the winter anyway because of light levels; everything we grow in the winter is able to deal with the cold. But the light levels are what make it grow or not grow, so we choose varieties that will grow some, which is more than none,” Wilke said. “For instance, spinach and Asian greens will grow; kale will not. They will all live through the winter, but the other two will grow.”

Andrew Schenker of Greenstar Farm said that he felt the effects of the extremes more than anything else, saying that the weather switching between warm and cold so quickly is hard on his bees and the figs.

In addition to the Indian summers and the cold snaps, according to the U.S. Climate Data, Blacksburg normally gets about 27 inches of snowfall a year, but this year we only accumulated a little over six.

“Snow actually will act as a blanket. You know, igloos are basically houses made of ice, yet they stay above freezing. So they’re going to insulate everything … if there is a 6-inch blanket and crops can handle that temperature, it’s going to be warmer than the air so the crops can stay warm. You’re not going to be able to pick it, but it will stay alive,” Wilke said. @meade_katelyn