Issue 8

Page 1

Volume 1.

Issue 8.

The Falcon

A Keen Eye For News

IN THIS

ISSUE

thefalconat.tumblr.com

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Election 2012: VP Debate

Theater

page 3

Review of The Heidi Chronicles page 4 arts

News

South Alabama shot and killed. page 2 news

TO INFINITY AND BACK CAMPUS

CROSS

Resonate Worship (BCM) October 16, 8pm – 9pm BCM SGA Senate Meeting October 17, 4:30pm –5:30pm Morgan 203 COMMS Day October 18, 1pm – 4pm

College Night Mixer October 18, 8:30pm – 9:30pm SAC UPC Stuff a Friend October 19, 5pm – 6pm Anna Irvin

Movie October 20, 7pm – 9pm Student Life Center

Submit announcements facebook.com/ thefalconmontevallo

byAndrew Meechum Associate Editor ROSWELL, NM Felix Baumgartner stepped out of the Red Bull Stratos pod Sunday afternoon and into the history books by breaking the sound barrier and reaching a speed of 833.9 mph (that’s Mach 1.24!) with nothing but a flight suit, a helmet and a parachute. Breaking records for highest manned balloon flight, highest skydiving attempt and fastest free fall, Baumgartner successfully completed a mission that began in 2005 when he and Red Bull began planning for a stratospheric free fall. Despite two previous aborted attempts earlier in the week, the Stratos pod successfully took flight at 9:30 am local time. Rising at an average rate of 1000 feet per minute the pod and balloon rose past the planned jump altitude of 120,000 feet. After a two hour bal-

Baumgartner jumping from 24.4 miles up. loon ride into the stratosphere and completing a long list of flight checks, Baumgartner stepped out of his pod at 128,100 ft (24.4 miles) and onto the skateboard sized ledge. After flashing a peace sign with his right hand, he gingerly stepped off the edge of the platform and into the edge of space. Baumgartner, a 43-yearold native of Salzburg, Austria, has been skydiving since he was 16 and is the holder of several world-records for BASE jumping. BASE stands for buildings, antennas, spans (bridges) and earth (cliffs). His parents were present in Roswell for their sons historic

jump, marking the first time either had travelled outside of Austria. During a late afternoon press conference after the jump, Baumgartner described falling at great speed in his pressure suit as, “Swimming without touching the water.” He sighted none of the usual tactile cues skydivers use, such as wind on his skin and the flapping of his suit, were present, making corrections difficult. The Red Bull Stratos team consisted of many talented and experienced professionals. Perhaps no one was more suited to help in Baumgartner’s endeavour as Colonel Joe Kittinger, USAF (Retired).

Kittinger acted as mission control’s “Capcom I” (capsule communications) for the mission and at Baumgartner’s request was the only one in radio contact with him throughout the ascent and jump. Kittinger held the record, (until yesterday that is) for highest free fall attempt after his record jump in 1960 at an altitude of 102,800 feet. Kittinger’s jump helped NASA develop systems used in the space program during the great space race of the 1960s. At the press conference, when asked what his feelings were about losing the world record, Kittinger said, “Records were meant

Photo:Red Bull Stratos to be broken,” and that he, “would like to give a special one finger salute to all the folks who said he [Baumgartner] would come apart when he went supersonic.” Telemetry and data gleaned from Baumgartner’s jump will be used to develop life saving systems to prevent lose of life in accident’s like the one that killed all seven crew members aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. When asked what his next step is Baumgartner said, “I want to inspire the next generation.” He says he wants to be sitting next to a young guy in forty years giving him

Immigration Worldwide Part Three by Kyle Jones Editor-in-Chief In our series on immigration worldwide we’ve looked at human trafficking lines for Northern Africans into Europe, the economic promised land of Norway for Polish workers and discussed the similarities of the two to our own immigrant work-

force here in America. In this article we look at a region of the world that has so much money due to the benefits of their oil-rich governments that they have no real need to work. The GCC or the Gulf Cooperation Council is a political and economic union similar to the EU or the EC referenced in the previous article. The GCC consist of namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE). The countries that make up the GCC are extremely

wealthy due to their abundance of crude oil and natural gas, these countries main export. Due to the abundance of wealth and very strong ties to the Western World, this region is experiencing a boom of economic prosperity. Dubai is home to the Burj Khalifa, now the tallest man-made structure on Earth, and as we’ve seen before when there is a job to be done and money to pay for it, it will get done. In 2009 there was an overall unemployment rate of about 0.8 percent in

Dubai. That leaves only 11,152 people 15 years old and over who were unemployed at the time of the survey. There are 15 million immigrants living and working in these countries. Where are they coming from? The majority of the immigrant workforce comes from India and Southeast Asia, and also includes workers from Pakistan and Kenya. What draws many to these GCC countries is that they share the same religion of Islam and it is more accessible for them cul-

turally. Many of them are young and or have little education, so they are less qualified for acceptance as workers in Western countries. Once again the main jobs for these immigrants include service and manual labor work. Wealthy Arab women consider staying home to tend to the house and take care of their children beneath their dignity, thus they require maids for such tasks. For the men, the city of Dubai is flourishing into a major tourist destination, someone is going to

have to build all the luxuries and amenities. This all seems like any other system, especially ones we’ve talked about before with Hispanic or Polish workers coming to a country to work to support their families back home. The problem is that these GCC countries and the people that live in them have more than enough money to pay these migrant workers an average wage, but they choose not to, reports Jay Johnson of http://www. gcchumanrights.org/. continued page 7


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