The Pitt News T h e in de p e n d e n t st ude nt ne w spap e r of t he University of Pittsburgh
Bucs booted, but future is bright pg. 9
October 8th, 2015 | Issue 37 | Volume 106
BUSINESS SCHOOL CELEBRATES 20 YEARS Cristina McCormack For The Pitt News
A diehard buccaneer waves a Jolly Roger at PNC Park Wednesday. See pg. 3 Theo Schwarz | Senior Staff Photographer
GIVE IT THE SNIFF TEST With a $6.4 million grant, Pitt is leading a multi-field study to understand how animals use their sense of smell to recognize and navigate toward odors. | by Megan Tingley A rescue dog approaches a building collapsed into a pile of rubble. It has one mission: find a missing person. How does it know where to walk? The goal of a Pitt-led, multi-institutional project is to understand how animals use their sense of smell to recognize and navigate toward odors. On Sept. 21, the National Science Foundation awarded the team a three-year, $6.4 million grant as part of President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative, which provides federal funding for research aimed toward understanding
the brain. Bard Ermentrout, a mathematics professor at Pitt, and one of the study’s principle investigators, said the project could lead to advancements in emergency rescue procedures. The grant and the study will run until 2018. The team’s ultimate goal is to determine how animals can recognize the smells of mates and food sources to see how the brain processes these signals. Ermentrout said he will develop algorithms to describe these behaviors. According to Ermentrout, if there’s a
more intuitive way to find landmines in Africa than by following rats on leashes, he’s determined to find it. “If you want to find a body in a building or landmines it would be nice if we could develop a more mechanical way of doing so,” Ermentrout said. At the Ideas Lab, a branch of the National Science Foundation that debuted in 2014 in Virgina, researchers from diverse backgrounds collaborated to resolve scientific questions by tackling them from different See Scents on page 2
On its 20th birthday, Pitt’s College of Business Administration has 2,000 more students, three more majors and three more certificate programs than when it first started. Pitt’s CBA meets the occasion, celebrating its growth as a school and focusing on the accomplishments of its alumni. For its 20th anniversary, the CBA is offering students a chance to reconnect with alumni and learn from their experiences. Yesterday at noon, faculty and notable alumni from the school took part in a webinar to celebrate this milestone. The webinar included an interview with Arjang Assad, the dean of the Katz Graduate School of Business. The webinar, which Audrey Murrell, the associate dean of the CBA, conducted, included a slideshow. The slideshow focused on the current obstacles business schools face and how both Pitt’s undergraduate and graduate business schools are tackling those obstacles. One of the obstacles Assad mentioned was whether or not business students receive a well-rounded education. The undergraduate and graduate business schools at Pitt offer students double-degree programs with the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and have increasingly focused on taking advantage of learning opportunities outside of the classroom. Deborah Good, a clinical assistant professor in the CBA, said over the past 20 See Business on page 2
News Business, pg. 1
years, she witnessed firsthand the growth of the school. “We are bulging at the seams here,” Good said. “I remember when we were just a small office in the basement of Mervis Hall, and now we have a whole floor of Sennott Square and classes all over campus.” Assad and Murrell stressed the need for the business school to connect to organizations within the University and to connect with the wider community. Over the past 11 years, Pitt’s business students have participated in a total of 10,000 hours of service learning with various organizations in Pittsburgh. Within Pitt’s community, students from the CBA helped Residence Life organize its charity basketball game against the Pittsburgh Steelers last year. The CBA currently has 25 student organizations and conducts several research projects. Recently, student teams from the David Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership studied food deserts — communities that experience low food security — to create a Food Abundance Index scorecard. The purpose of this research was to better define the term food desert and to find business solutions to address the problem. To celebrate the anniversary, the CBA will also host events in five cities in what it calls the “Associate Dean Roadshow.” Murrell said students will meet with alumni in those cities and have the opportunity to do site visits with alumni. In November, the roadshow will visit Washington, D.C., Boston and Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Murrell, who has been a faculty member for 28 years, said experience-based education is essential to the way the CBA teaches its students. “Over the past 20 years, I have seen an increase in the school’s global focus,” Murrell said. “It’s about taking students to the class, to the city and to the world.”
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Scents, pg. 1
Officer Steven Piel and his bomb-sniffing dog, Radar, in Detroit. | TNS angles. The researchers met at a workshop focused on olfaction and later submitted a formal interdisciplinary research proposal for the project. According to co-principal investigator Justus Verhagen, associate fellow of the John B. Pierce Laboratory, a health lab at Yale, the researchers will determine properties of odors in an environment, including the way odors move through the air. The researchers will use this information to examine animals’ receptors and the olfactory bulb to see how it affects animals’ navigation. Because each step of the project requires a different area of expertise, the team is composed of researchers with a variety of backgrounds, including psychologists, engineers and mathematicians. “It takes a lot of folks from different strokes,” Verhagen, a neurobiologist primarily focused in food flavor neuroscience, said, adding that the researchers “could all
complement each other in solving this important puzzle.” In the future, more efficient machines could track odors in situations where search and rescue missions currently rely on ani-
of the researchers working with Pitt, said the researchers could also use their work to prevent problems related to insect activity. “Understanding how insects use odors to navigate may lead to new strategies in control of insect-borne diseases and improved agriculture,” Victor said. Most of the researchers met for the first time at the National Science Foundation’s Ideas Lab initiative when they submitted proposals for projects on olfaction. Other workshop topics have included providing a more precise measurement of gravity and improving teaching in STEM fields. “Most of us only met for the first time during the Ideas Lab, and it’s hard to imagine a collaboration like this forming in any other way,” Victor said. “It’s a particularly exciting way to develop ideas and collaborations, and I am optimistic that it will achieve its promise.”
It takes a lot of folks from different strokes. -Justus Verhagen
mals — like using bloodhounds to find missing bodies in a disaster zone, according to Ermentrout. Jonathan Victor, a neuroscience professor at Weill Cornell Medical College and one
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the bucs stop here The Pittsburgh Pirates fell to the Chicago Cubs 4-0 Wednesday evening, but the Buccos faithful came out in droves to support their team. Fans with Pirates swag pose for a photo outside PNC Park. Theo Schwarz | Senior Staff Photographer
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October 8, 2015
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buctober: ONE NIGHT ONLY
John Rawski pats the statue of Bill Mazeroski for luck before entering PNC Park. Theo Schwarz | Senior Staff Photographer
A Cubs fan stands among Bucco Nation. Theo Schwarz | Senior Staff Photographer
A steady stream of fans crosses the Roberto Clemente Bridge. Theo Schwarz | Senior Staff Photographer
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Opinions
The Pitt News
from the editorial board
Want better health? Toughen up on restaurant standards Upon entering one of Pittsburgh’s many eateries, you’ll probably find a bright green sticker smacked on the front window, signifying the Allegheny County Health Department’s approval. Most county restaurants have earned the green sticker — nearly 4,200 restaurants are adorned with the badge — and the ACHD reports issuing only 11 consumer alerts and 11 restaurant closings in the past year. So, health violations must be rare among Pittsburgh restaurants, right? Not necessarily. According to a report Wednesday by PublicSource, a Pennsylvania investigative news organization, there’s actually “a wide spectrum of cleanliness in the kitchen among restaurants operating with a green sticker.” In fact, among green sticker restaurants, only 18 percent had zero health violations over the past year, while 12 percent had at least two high-risk violations in a single inspection, according to the report. Therefore, the sticker system “basically operates as a pass or fail method,” writes Eric Holmberg for PublicSource. If the sticker is yellow, this marks an ACHD alert of poor health conditions, while a red sticker is a sign of the restaurant’s closing because of poor health. Lenient standards like the county’s sticker system only help to undermine the health of consumers — especially when considering that one in six Americans suffer from a foodborne illness each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pittsburgh needs to set the bar higher for the restaurant industry — simply because, with such easy requirements for gaining a green sticker, there is less of a reason for them to strive to have perfect health conditions. As long as customers see that a restaurant has “earned” a green sticker, they will most likely assume that it is safe. Pittsburgh needs to be more transparent
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regarding restaurant health conditions — not only for the sake of public health, but also for the sake of restaurants where no health violations currently exist. After all, why should the city reward restaurants that may have high-risk violations the same as it does those that don’t? Keep in mind that a high-risk violation can involve something as simple as not storing food at the right temperatures or not preparing food on clean surfaces, according to the ACHD. These are simple things all restaurants can — and should — do. There is no reason to reward those that don’t with a green sticker. Ultimately, the county needs to ditch the sticker system and adopt an A-B-C restaurant grading system. The grades in this system would start at 100, and then each violation would dock points, with A ranging from 90-100, B from 80-89, and C from 70-79 — anything lower would result in an alert or closure. Inspectors would then place the specific numbered score on the restaurant. Cities such as New York and Los Angeles already utilize such a system. In fact, since implementing the A-B-C restaurant grading system, the number of A’s that New York City restaurants have received has increased from 50 percent in 2011 to 80 percent in 2014, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, a data-based news site. If Pittsburgh currently had such a system, a total of 57 restaurant grades “would’ve fallen below a ‘C’ and warranted an alert or closure by the health department,” according to the PublicSource report. This is a much higher number than the 11 alerts and 11 closings that occurred under the current system. Nonetheless, the Pittsburgh city council has considered passing the A-B-C system before and has failed to pass it twice, losing 12-1 in the most recent vote in May. If the city is waiting for people to get sick to upgrade the system, it might just get its wish.
Editor-in-Chief DANIELLE FOX
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Elizabeth Lepro | Assistant News Editor Lauren Rosenblatt | Assistant News Editor Nick Voutsinos | Assistant Opinions Editor Chris Puzia | Assistant Sports Editor Jeff Ahearn | Assistant Visual Editor Danah Bialoruski | Assistant Layout Editor Sydney Harper | Multimedia Editor Jenna Stearns | Social Media Editor
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Editorial Policies Single copies of The Pitt News are free and available at newsstands around campus. Additional copies can be purchased with permission of the editor in chief for $.50 each. Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the students, faculty or University administration. Opinions expressed in columns, cartoons and letters are not necessarily those of The Pitt News. Any letter in tended for publication must be addressed to the editor, be no more than 250 words and include the writer’s name, phone number and University affiliation, if any. Letters may be sent via e-mail to letters@pittnews.com. The Pitt News reserves the right to edit any and all letters. In the event of multiple replies to an issue, The Pitt News may print one letter that represents the majority of responses. Unsigned editorials are a majority opinion of the Editorial Board, listed to the left. The Pitt News is an independent, student-written and
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Culture
BURR TALKS COMEDY, CAREER
Dan Sostek
Contributing Editor As a stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster, amateur drummer and now animated series star, Bill Burr is a bit of a renaissance man. The edgy comedian will show off the first of those talents in Pittsburgh on Oct. 22, as he’ll perform two stand-up shows at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at Heinz Hall. Tickets are $49.25. The Pitt News spoke to Burr about his comedy, his career and the perils of high-definition cameras. The Pitt News: You’ll be performing at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 14. How did this gig come about, and what kind of honor is it as a comedian to perform there? Bill Burr: Well, it came about at the New York Comedy Festival, which every year they select someone to try and do it. This year they picked me, and I was obviously very flattered
that they picked me. You know, then there’s always that, “Dude, I don’t know if I can fill that place” — that thought. Then there’s also, “What the hell joke do I have that’s worthy of telling in that building?” And the answer is none of them. So I will be trying extra hard to justify the fact that I am there that night. That venue to me is sports and music, two of my favorite things. So, to become part of that history is pretty amazing. Sinatra had his comeback there. [Led] Zeppelin did “Song Remains The Same” there. I mean everybody, even if they’re not from this country — playing this place is a huge deal. I opened for Dane Cook there one time, and I remember in the back they had pictures of all the people that sold it out. His picture was up there because he became part of it, and so was Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Billy Joel and then a guy I started off with doing stand-up with. It was pretty awesome. It was something I was staring at saying, “That is so crazy.” I think there will be a lot of that feeling, but I’ve got this huge tour coming up, which is why I’m calling
you, but added a week to it. I was just going to go out for a week, but I added a week to it because of the Madison Square Garden show, and I just wanted to make sure I was on point that night. So hopefully, I’m funny. TPN: You’re currently working on an animated Netflix show based on your stand-up act called “F is For Family.” How has the experience been working with Netflix?
BB: It couldn’t be any better. Netflix has been a dream to work See Burr on page 7
Koury Angelo
DAILY RHYTHMS Brady Langmann Staff Writer
TNS
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It was 3 a.m., and Alex Oraschewsky had just returned to his apartment from clubbing in Ireland. It was Saturday — he didn’t have to report to Celtic Collections the next day, an Irish record label he interned with during his study abroad program in summer 2014. Good thing, too — Oraschewsky, a senior marketing and supply chain major, had had too many Red Bulls. He couldn’t sleep. So he plugged his headphones in and indulged in his newest musical obsession — traditional Irish music. As Oraschewsky rocked out to metal flutes and manly dudes crooning about their hardships, he thought: Why not share it? After shipping some songs overseas to his buddies at home, he figured it’d be easier to make a Facebook page, invite them to like it and post his favorite tracks there. Oraschewsky called it “A Beat A Day.” “I was playing music and I was like, ‘I’m loving [it], I’m just in the moment, like, jamming to the music,’” Oraschewsky said. “And I’m like in this little tiny-a** jail cell, like Tower C kind of room, just jamming to the music. I’m sure my roommate hated me.”
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When Oraschewsky woke up later that morning, his page had 100 likes. Encouraged, he kept it going, posting Irish jams until he returned to the United States. He then began sharing tracks from his other favorite genres — hip-hop, electronic, acoustic — for the next year. After running the A Beat A Day Facebook page for the duration of his trip, he had another idea: Why not turn A Beat A Day into a music blog? Oraschewsky approached his friends about writing for the website. They agreed, and A Beat A Day made its first entry on June 29, 2015 — a quick write-up of rising New York pop star and rapper Jon Bellion. Since then, Oraschewsky and his rotating staff of six writers have posted their favorite tracks and playlists, usually adding some commentary to each. Oraschewsky said the site, which he hopes will eventually be “the college website people go to in the East Coast,” receives anywhere from 50 to 200 page visits per day. For senior accounting major T.J. Curtis, who is Oraschewsky’s roommate and a regular contributor to A Beat A Day’s house music section, the freeSee Beat A Day on page 8
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Burr, pg. 6 with. My whole career, any time I got into business with someone trying to create a show, a lot of the notes were “tone it down, tone it down,” which I get, because they have advertisers. You can’t get too crazy. People aren’t going to lose their job over your dumb pilot — they’ve got a mortgage and kids to feed. I get that. But with Netflix, because they have the freedom of people just getting a membership, they don’t have the advertisers. They were actually the exact opposite. They were going “push it further, push it further.” They were the ones that came up with the idea to have the show be serialized, which at first I thought that wasn’t a good idea. The second I gave into it, I realized the genius of it. Like, the show went to a whole other level as far as the way we were writing. So Netflix had a major creative idea that I felt made the show better. And even when they gave notes, which was very rare — but the notes that they gave were always like, “You know, that’s a good point!” They’re the exact opposite of every cliche. When artists get in business with businessmen, we tend to look at things in a different way — not saying one person is more right than the other, but it’s definitely “The Odd Couple.” This hasn’t been like that. It’s really just felt like you’re on the same page. We’ve been on the same page. I hope that continues, because it’s been a dream so far.
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TPN: You appeared on the hit show “Breaking Bad.” Have you revisited that show yet? BB: I have not. At some point I will sit down, with all great shows like that, “The Wire,” “Breaking Bad.” You love it once, then you go back and revisit them. This Christmas break or something coming up — that might be a nice one for when I get off the road, to sit down with my wife, get the fire going. Great idea, man! That’s another good note. I’ve been getting good notes all year. TPN: Your last special, “I’m Sorry You Feel That Way” was in black and white. Is that something you’d consider doing again, or is it a one time thing? BB: It was a one time thing. I like the way black and white looks, and I think it’s really beautiful, and I think stand-up is a beautiful art. I’m not the first guy that’s done that. I plan on putting out specials every two, two and a half years for the rest of my career. I feel like each one of them, I want to incrementally improve as a comedian and the way they’re shot. I want each one of them to have their own look. Let’s say if I live long enough, and I’m lucky to do another 10 of them or so, when I guess I’ll be some old guy in a tuxedo, when you look at the whole body of them — to have one that was shot in black and white will be really cool. But I’ve got to be honest with you, HDTV is so clear that you kind of have to mess with it, because if I saw you in real life,
I couldn’t see the pores in your face, but I could if you were on TV. That’s why on ESPN I can see the cartilage in this guy’s nose. It’s this weird thing where it’s shot with HD cameras, and the black and white is HD, but what we did with it was we kind of, like, took some of the gloss off of it. I just feel that comedy is sort of a nighttime thing, it’s a little bit seedier. Some of the stuff I watch, the people just stand there and it’s so clear and so bright, it looks like a tropical fish tank. And I’m a big fan of the comedians, which is why I was watching it. But it took away from the material being delivered. TPN: As a comedian, do you think there’s an overemphasis on political correctness today? Are there certain areas that are touchier about sensitive issues than others? BB: People really don’t. That’s just completely blown out of proportion. That’s just like clickbait crap. The fact that California is getting this biblical-level drought in one of the biggest states in the union should be a way bigger story than some jacka** like me doing a Donald Trump bit or whatever at a strip mall. But it’s an easy story. What comedians need to do is they need to start donating to politicians’ campaigns, and the minute they started donating to them, magically no one would be offended anymore. This would not get on TV anymore. TPN: I know you’ve performed in Pittsburgh a
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fair amount. Are there any place you make sure to stop by, whether it’s food, drinks or something else? BB: Well, there’s Primanti Brothers — I definitely go there. I just think it’s one of the most beautiful cities. When you come through the tunnel, you can’t see a thing at all, and then, boom! It’s just this panoramic view. I know there’s a couple other places I go. I actually have a list in my phone called, “places to go” in each city and I write that stuff down so I don’t forget. I try to go to a Pirates game if they’re playing, since I’ve been a Pirates fan since ’79. Probably a local bar or something. I used to love going to The Igloo. The new arenas are all right, but that old one — it looked like half a golf ball. That was the coolest thing ever. Those old hockey barns and basketball stadiums — the only places they are now are at the college level. [My places I stop] are usually sports related. Sports, food and boozing. TPN: You’ve been doing your weekly Monday Morning Podcast since 2007, all by yourself. Are there days you struggle to fill up an hour, or does it just come naturally? BB: There are days [I struggle to fill it up], but they’re few and far between. At this point, I just have a list of things I want to talk about, like NFL or microchips or travel, and I just sort of do it like that. I usually don’t even get to most of the subjects. I start talking and it leads somewhere, sort of meandering. But it’s been fun.
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Beat A Day, pg. 6 dom of writing whatever he wants is one of the best parts of the unpaid gig. If he finds the right song for his readers to party to, he’ll let them know. “Honestly, I write how I would speak to my friends,” Curtis said. “So I kind of, like, do a conversational thing — I know my good friends who read it, they say they can kind of, like, hear me saying it, which is kind of what I’m going for.” That’s how it is for most of the posts, where writers will toss in anything from a Taylor Swift GIF to photos of red solo cups. With the blog only a few months old, Curtis said they’re “just
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feeling it out and seeing how it goes so far.” Most of A Beat A Day’s writers’ ideas are spontaneous — like the one time Curtis watched “Remember the Titans” with his mom, remembered it had an awesome soundtrack — Marvin Gaye and all — and posted it along with a list of his favorite characters from the movie. “I don’t think about it like, ‘Oh, I, like, I have to write a blog today,’” Curtis said. “It’s something I look forward to doing at the end of the day. And I try to do work for a few hours [before writing for A Beat A Day] — it takes my mind off of everything.” Although Oraschewsky doesn’t have plans to monetize A Beat A Day with advertisements, he hopes to start promoting it to a larger audience,
partnering with The Pitt News to give away free tickets to the Thrival Innovation and Music Festival last September. Oraschewsky and company even started throwing parties, where they hand out A Beat A Day stickers and feature DJ sets from their writers, to endorse the blog. Dani Monaco, a senior finance and business information systems major, regularly checks A Beat A Day and said the blog’s social events “feel like a real party, not a college party.” She’s been friends with Oraschewsky since her sophomore year, and A Beat A Day’s playlists have served as her go-to study and workout soundtracks. “I think they’re doing a great job. They’re re-
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ally getting the word out,” Monaco said. “I see A Beat A Day stickers everywhere, so they just need to keep sharing it and get it everywhere else.” Regardless of the website’s popularity, Oraschewsky, who hopes to become a band manager, wants A Beat A Day to continue to be an outlet for young writers and a place where music lovers can find new jams. “The coolest thing for me is hearing people say, ‘I love that song that you just posted on that playlist, like, where did you find that?’ And get them interested in that band and that song,” Oraschewsky said. “I listen to a lot of music, and I just love finding that one song that that person’s going to love.”
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Sports
PIRATES’ SEASON ENDS, OPTIMISM SHOULD ENDURE Dan Sostek Sports Editor
Before you look at the Pittsburgh Pirates’ season-ending loss to the Cubs Tuesday night, you have to look at who they lost first. Put the early playoff exit aside — before losing 4-0 at home in the NL Wild Card game, the Bucs had mountains upon mountains of obstacles to overcome. And they did just that. The 98 wins the Pirates racked up this season wasn’t just a signifier of overcoming odds — it showed the last two seasons weren’t flukes. The Pirates have shifted from lovable underdog to perennial contender. This was a team that saw starting catcher Russell Martin bolt in free agency to Toronto
and key starting rotation member Edinson Volquez head midwest to Kansas City. The team lost the valuable and versatile Josh Harrison to a thumb injury in July, and the infielder missed more than six weeks. It lost defensive wiz shortstop Jordy Mercer to a knee injury that an errant slide by Milwaukee Brewers’ Carlos Gomez caused. It lost wily veteran pitcher A.J. Burnett, who started the year hot but cooled off dramatically, to right elbow inflammation on July 31 and didn’t see “Batman” back on the mound until September. And, of course, they lost Jung Ho Kang, the beloved rookie infielder from Korea who See Pirates on page 10
Pirates fans march on the Roberto Clemente Bridge for the Wild Card game against the Cubs. Theo Schwarz | Senior Staff Photographer
RULE CHANGES NEEDED AFTER MONDAY FIASCO Dan Sostek Sports Editor
TNS
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Not many people like Bill Belichick — even Sports Illustrated said so. But there’s one thing Belichick has been pining for — and no, it’s not advanced spy equipment or discrete ball-deflation tools. During the 2014 NFL winter meetings, the longtime New England Patriots head coach pitched a rule change that would deem every play — namely penalties — reviewable by instant replay, striking the inane limitations that are currently in place. Monday night’s game between the Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions illustrated the need for this change. With his team trailing by three points and just over
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a minute remaining in the game, Detroit wide receiver Calvin Johnson fumbled at the goal line. As the ball rolled farther from the goal line, Seattle linebacker K.J. Wright swatted the ball out of the back of the end zone, not wanting to risk fumbling the recovery. Back judge Gregory Wilson ruled it a touchback, and Seattle’s fans rejoiced, as the turnover essentially sealed a last-second victory for Seattle. However, according to Dean Blandino, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, Wright’s actions, which were clearly and admittedly intentional, should have constituted a penalty for an “illegal bat.” The proper ruling, according to Blandino, would have given the Lions the ball back See NFL on page 10
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Pirates, pg. 9
NFL, pg. 9 at the goal line, with a great chance at grabbing the lead and winning the game. Instead, an official’s botched call decided the game, sending the Lions home 0-4. Like Johnson did fumbling the football, Wilson also made a mistake in a crucial spot. The issue in this circumstance is not human error. The issue is meaningless and avoidable inconsistencies in the NFL’s reviewing of plays procedure. It’s baffling that certain mistakes referees make are eligible for a second look and others aren’t. If a coach notices a clear hold and a referee misses it, why is that any less viable of a play to challenge than seeing if a player was potentially bobbling a football while trying to drag a second toe in bounds? Plenty of teams have fallen victim to blown calls in bigger spots than a weekfour contest involving 1-2 and 0-3 teams. The addition of reviewing penalties could shift who wins Super Bowls. Maybe replay officials would have seen Jimmy Smith
holding Michael Crabtree in the end zone in Super Bowl XLVII, and maybe the currently sputtering Colin Kaepernick has an inexplicable Super Bowl ring. Some might not want that type of judgement call to be subject to instant replay review. But there’s no real sensible rationale, as anyone can potentially oppose judgement calls on penalties. These plays are crucial game changers, potentially just as seismic as a turnover or incomplete pass and catch debates. Adding more plays to the scope of review won’t slow down a game. Coaches will still have two challenges a game and will still have to use them just as wisely. It won’t hurt any viewership numbers or in-game attendance marks. It won’t make Aaron Rodgers’ spiral any less beautiful. There’s no downside to increasing the ability of referees to get more calls right. With inexplicable calls like this arising in games of greater significance in the past, Batgate — as pundits have uncreatively dubbed it — seems to be a potential tipping point for change and not just another blip on the radar.
The Pitt News crossword 10/8/15
burst onto the scene with a scorching first campaign in the big leagues. His season ended in September when a slide by Cubs’ outfielder Chris Coghlan tore Kang’s MCL. Kang’s injury proved the biggest blow to the Pirates’ season, as the team lost a valuable protector for Andrew McCutchen — but all of the aforementioned medical casualties piled on. A flaky team would have succumbed. As teams like the 2011 Boston Red Sox and 2007 New York Mets have proven, no team is immune to a late-season collapse. The Pirates, with all these holes, either filled them or found ways around them — something that good franchises, like their rival, the St. Louis Cardinals, do constantly. Under the direction of Neal Huntington, general manager, the Pirates provided answers to all of these questions. They did an admirable job of replacing the immense production of Martin by trading for Yankees’ catcher Francisco Cervelli in the offseason. Cervelli hit .296 and cemented himself as a fan favorite with his energy and passion — and did so on the cheap. Burnett came back to the Steel City
after an unsuccessful season in Philadelphia and pitched like a number one starter for the first three months of the year, while being paid like an end-of-the-rotation pitcher. They replaced Burnett’s stellar first half production with a shockingly good turn by trade deadline acquisition J.A. Happ, who went 7-2 with 1.85 ERA and 69 strikeouts. Joe Blanton and Joakim Soria helped stabilize a bullpen that had some inconsistencies outside of studs in Jared Hughes, Tony Watson and Mark Melancon. The Pirates were dealt a bad hand by running into the unstoppable and unhittable buzzsaw of a pitcher that is Jake Arrieta in a win-or-go-home game. Fans shouldn’t let that dampen how great of a season it was in Pittsburgh. Thanks to their dynamic outfield of Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco, as well as a young ace in Gerrit Cole, the Pirates were as fun to watch as any team in baseball. Combine that with their impressive resilience, and baseball in the ’Burgh will continue to be as vibrant as it’s been these past three years. The Bucs might not have corralled a World Series ring this year, but that achievement looks like it’s a matter of “when,” not “if.”
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-NORTH OAKLAND -SOUTH OAKLAND -SHADYSIDE -SQUIRREL HILL -SOUTHSIDE -NORTHSIDE -BLOOMFIELD -ROOMMATES -OTHER
3 & 4 bedroom apartments. Available immediately. Newly remodeled. Air conditioning. Bigelow Blvd, N. Neville St. Call 412-287-5712 3 BR. Newly updated. 115 Morewood. $1650+ all utilities. Available now. 412-551-0094. 1-2-3-4-5 Bedroom Houses & Apartments. 376 Meyran, 343 McKee, & Atwood Street $1,095-$2,000. Call 412-969-2790 2 & 3 bedroom houses, Lawn & Ophelia. Available Now. Please call 412-287-5712. 4 BR. 3217 Joe Hammer. $1600 a month+ all utilities. Available now. 412-551-0094. 5 BR, 2 BA house. Available now, Bates St. $1300 plus utilities. Parking available. 412-559-3079
August & May 2016 1,2,3,5,6, & 8 bedroom houses. Please call 412-287-5712
Retired teacher needs housekeeper/driver. 10 hrs/wk. Please call 412-781-0815.
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Bigham Tavern is now hiring! Servers, Barbacks, Hosts, Cooks Voted “Best Bar” in Pittsburgh by Pittsburgh Magazine. Apply in person or send resume to info@bighamtavern.com 321 Bigham Street, Mt. Washington Little's Shoe Store looking for Cashier, part-time/full-time. Must be professional, customer oriented and available days, nights and weekends. Ask for Gina 412-521-3530. HELP WANTEDTYPIST: Downtown Law Firm. Set your own schedule! Interesting work. Good for your resume. 15-20 hours/week. Typing speed at least 50 wpm. Knowledge of WordPerfect for Windows, Word and basic office equipment helpful. Freshman/sophomore preferred. Fax 412-2816302, e-mail to assist@gislaw.com or mail to Gismondi & Assoc., Ste 700, The Grant Bldg., 310 Grant St, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.
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Female Promotional Staff Liquor brand is seeking PT promotional staff in Pittsburgh. Please apply with candid photos and resume if you are 21, outgoing, reliable, have transportation, flexible schedule (week-ends, holidays -available on Halloween). Heatherchadneylewis@gmail.com. TRAUMA VICTIMS The University of Pittsburgh Radiology Department is seeking women ages 1825 who experienced sexual violence during or after high school for research studies. The study involves questionnaires, interviews, brain scanning. Subjects will be compensated up to $700 upon completion. For details, call 412-5869888 or visit www.addictionstudies.pitt.edu. The University of Pittsburgh’s support resources for sexual assault and/or sexual harassment including instructions and contact information for reporting can be located at www.SHARE.pitt.edu and www.safety.pitt.edu
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ATTENTION OCCASIONAL SMOKERS! UPMC seeks healthy adults ages 18-65 who occasionally smoke cigarettes. This research is examining how smokers respond to cigarettes that are low in nicotine. There are up to seven sessions lasting about three hours each. Research participants completing the study will be compensated up to $60 per session, or $20 per hour. For more information, call 412-246-5393 or visit www.SmokingStudies.pitt.edu SMOKERS NEEDED! Researchers at UPMC are looking to enroll healthy adult cigarette smokers ages 18-65. This research is examining the influence of brief uses of FDA-approved nicotine patch or nicotine nasal spray on mood and behavior. The study involves a brief physical exam and five sessions lasting two hours each. Eligible participants who complete all sessions will receive up to $250, or $20 per hour. This is NOT a treatment study. For more information, call 412-2465396 or visit www.SmokingStudies.pitt.edu
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