9-28-2015 by The Pitt News

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

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September 28, 2015 | Issue 31 | Volume 106

Pittsburgh gathers to hear pope

Jeff Carpenter Staff Writer

Pitt women’s soccer has never had more than eight wins in a season. Now, it has an eight-game winning streak. Coming off a 2-1 overtime victory against Wake Forest, which Pitt head coach Greg Miller described as “the biggest win since I’ve been here,” the Panthers (9-1-1, 3-0-0 ACC) traveled to Kentucky on Sunday to take down another ACC opponent. The Louisville Cardinals (4-5-1, 1-2-0 ACC) played victim this time to the Panther’s sturdy defense and late goals.. “I feel really happy and proud for the team ... they’re doing a great job,” Miller said. “All I’m doing is trying to steer the ship in the right direction, and these kids are the ones rowing the boat.” The 1-0 victory on the road against the Cardinals gave Pitt nine wins on the year, a program record. The Panthers have seven games remaining on their conference See Women’s Soccer on page 8

A son hugs his mother as they watch the Pope speak through a broadcast. Theo Schwarz SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Mark Pesto

Senior Staff Writer

As the Steelers game came to a close Sunday, Pittsburgh’s faithful turned away from their televisions and toward someone more holy than any quarterback — Pope Francis. About 130 people gathered yes-

terday afternoon at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in the Strip District to watch a live broadcast from Philadelphia of Pope Francis’ final Mass before he left the United States. St. Stanislaus Kostka was the only church in Pittsburgh to broadcast the event. Three-hun-

dred miles east, 30 Pitt students traveled with the Ryan Catholic Newman Center to Philadelphia to attend the speech. Pope Francis concluded his first six-day tour of the United States Sunday night as he left Philadelphia and returned to Rome. See Pope on page 2

News

Pope, pg. 1

“The Steelers game was at 1, and the Pirates game is at 8, so we hoped this would fit in,” Bob Butter, a member of the St. Patrick-St. Stanislaus parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, said. EWTN, an American Catholic-sponsored television network, broadcast the Mass, which drew a crowd estimated in the hundreds of thousands to a temporarily closed section of Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The prospect of hearing Francis’ address drew a crowd that nearly filled the historic St. Stanislaus Kostka Church. At the entrance of the sanctuary, a life-sized cutout of Francis greeted the congregation. Some gasped when they saw it, mistaking it for Francis himself. During the Mass, the congregation was serene and one boy quietly put his arm around his mother. Butter, who helped organize the event, said he hoped the live stream filled an important need — letting Catholics hear their Pope — in Pittsburgh. “We just wanted to invite people. No one else [in Pittsburgh] was doing this, so we thought we should,” Butter said. While people watched the speech from afar at St. Stanislaus Kostka, a group of 30 Pitt students got to experience the event firsthand. Pitt’s Newman Center took 30 students to Philadelphia on Friday to listen to Francis speak. The stuAbout 130 people gathered yesterday afternoon at St. Stanislaus Kostka dents paid for the trip out of pocket Church in the Strip District. Theo Schwarz SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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September 28, 2015

and had been planning to go since the spring, according to club president Brittney Brueggman, a senior speech language pathology major. “It was an amazing experience, just being a part of such a momentous occasion,” Brueggman said. “There were millions of people there, which should create chaos but it was so calm.” Brueggman said everyone took away something different from the speech, but for her, it was about being a part of the Catholic community. “It’s such a unifying thing to be there with so many people interested in this public figure,” she said. “To some extent, [the pope is] a celebrity, but to most of us, it was that he stood for more than himself.” For Ana Pomales, another Catholic Pitt student, Francis’ visit and his speeches to minority populations were important because it showed he cared about everyone, regardless of their faith. Even for non-Catholics, Pomales said, the pope asking people to pray for him showed his humility. “I think it’s cool he’s reaching out,” Pomales, a junior psychology major, said. “I think he’s demonstrated he’s the pope [for] everyone.” Father Harry Nichols, pastor of St. Patrick-St. Stanislaus Parish, said the pope’s American journey was historic. “We thought we’d have a Pittsburgh connection with Philadelphia,” Nichols said. See Pope on page 5

Pitt to publish first-ever academic journal for bitcoin Annemarie Carr Staff Writer

The world’s first peer-reviewed journal of Bitcoin research will soon call Pitt home. Christopher Wilmer, assistant professor in the chemical and petroleum engineering department, has co-founded a peer-reviewed scientific journal on cryptocurrency called Ledger. Crypotcurrency refers to any kind of digital currency that is both created and regulated by encryption software and is used independently of a central bank. Wilmer will also serve as the journal’s co-managing editor. Peter R. Rizun, a physicist and entrepreneur living in Vancouver, Canada, co-founded the publication with Wilmer and will serve as its other co-managing editor. Researchers have submitted more than 200 papers on Bitcoin and crypto-

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currency to various journals in the past year, but Wilmer said they have not been able to publish their work. Wilmer said the papers’ content did not fit in with the articles in other computer science journals, which have deemed them unfit for publication. Research on “cryptocurrency,” as researchers commonly call it, and the technology it is based on has grown, according to Wilmer, creating the need for a new cryptocurrency journal. “The demand for a journal like Ledger was clear,” Rizun said. According to Rizun, the journal, which put out a call for submissions on Sept. 15, received five submissions within the first few days. The editors hope to publish six to 12 research papers and one to three review articles in the inaugural issue in March. Wilmer and Rizun plan to make the journal open access.

Users can trade and spend cryptocurrency like regular money — though only in online stores like Amazon and Tigerdirect. Bitcoin, an encrypted payment system that allows users to spend digital currency without a third-party control — like a bank — is the most known form of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin gained popularity because it is decentralized, meaning that all users contribute to the flow of capital, and a single person or company can’t throw the currency into a meltdown. According to Bitscan, a Bitcoin news site, more than 1 million people worldwide currently use Bitcoin. Wilmer said the journal will include

September 28, 2015

Aby Sobotka-Briner STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

original research articles on cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and blockchain technology as well as legal commentary, economics and game theory. The journal will accept articles from researchers across those fields, publishing reviews See Bitcoin on page 4

Bitcoin, pg. 3 and original research. The editorial board, which will peer review articles, has eight members from multiple schools and disciplines, including professors from MIT, Stanford, Cornell, NYU and Oxford. Rizun said authors will submit their manuscripts online through the journal’s online submission form. If the author meets Ledger’s guidelines, the editors will send his or her manuscript to three researchers for peer review. Campbell Harvey, a professor at Duke University and a member of the Ledger editorial board, said the reviewers will decide whether they will accept, reject or revise research articles. Elaine Shi, a Ledger editorial board member and a professor at Cornell University, said digital currency networks like Bitcoin might be the way of the future. “I believe that this technological trend [digital currency] will be transformative

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and revolutionize the future of e-com- first in the world to publish peer-reviewed merce and financial transactions,” Shi scholarly research in this emerging field said. “It will be useful for everyone, in- of study,” Deliyannides said. Wilmer organized the creation of the cluding college students.” Shi said Bitcoin is a useful alterna- journal starting last year The biggest chaltive for people who want to avoid banks, lenge, Wilmer said, was organizing an sell with lower fees than credit cards of- editorial board and finding a publisher. “Ledger fer, transfer has a great idea money for to connect illegal subthe academic stances, pull research in off low-cost cryptocurrenborder remitcy with practitance, and intioners, as well vest. as legal and Pitt’s Uni-Peter R. Rizun, co-managing editor policy people,” versity Library System’s will publish the inaugural Shi said. According to Harvey, cryptocurrency issue of Ledger.. Timothy Deliyannides, head of infor- research has practical implications for avmation technology for the ULS, said the erage Americans as well. “The technology has the potential to ULS seized the chance to publish Ledger. “When Wilmer approached us last play a key role in a new financial system,” year, we were immediately struck by the Harvey said. Shi said Bitcoin is not the only cryptoimportance of the opportunity to be the

“The demand for a journal like Ledger was clear.”

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currency that will be popular in the future — there are newer cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, which is also based on blockchain technology. Cryptocurrencies rely on blockchains, which are automatically updated databases stored in many computers to prevent hacking and tampering. According to Deliyannides, the ULS now publishes 37 peer-reviewed journals for less than a commercial publisher would charge. “The technology behind Bitcoin could add transparency and objectivity to our global monetary system and in doing so improve the quality of life for people all over the world,” Rizun said. “I hope that, in some small way, the research published by Ledger helps to spread awareness of this possibility.” Together, the editorial board hopes the publication will serve as a platform and source of information for the world’s newest form of currency. “The technology could affect everyone — kind of like the Internet,” Wilmer said.

Pope, pg. 2 Derris Jeffcoat, St. Stanislaus Kostka’s sacristan and historian, said without the event, many people who wanted to hear the pope’s message would have missed out — even those who watched it at home would have missed the important experience of coming together to worship. “The community is essential,” Jeffcoat said. Community, especially worshiping as a group in Mass, is one of the most important parts of Catholicism. According to Jeffcoat, Monday’s event wasn’t the first time St. Stanislaus Kostka has hosted a pope — virtually or otherwise. In 1969, he said, then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who later became Pope John Paul II, visited the church to pray during a visit to the United States.

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In his homily, Francis repeated that the Holy Spirit can work in the themes of openness and accep- outsiders and members of margintance of outsiders that also charac- alized groups is a “dangerous tempterized his earlier public statements tation” and a “perversion of faith.” “Our common house can no londuring his visit to the United States. “The temptation to be scandal- ger tolerate sterile divisions,” Francis said. i z e d Franby the cis delivfreedom ered the of God, homily in w h o his native sends Spanish, rain on one of four the righlanguages teous he used and unduring r i g h -Brittney Brueggman, the Mass. teous alike, President of Catholic Newman Center F r a n c i s also spoke by p a s s ing bureaucracy, officialdom and in English and Latin, while hymns inner circles, threatens the authen- and readings alternated between ticity of faith,” Francis said. “Hence, English, Spanish and Vietnamese. According to Butter, because it must be vigorously rejected.” Francis said to refuse to believe EWTN published guidelines for

“It’s such a unifying thing to be there with so many people interested in this public figure.”

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those who wanted to live stream its broadcast, he and his fellow organizers faced no technical difficulties when setting up. “We didn’t know what to expect,” Jeffcoat said. “We’re just glad we were able to have an open door and open it to everyone.”

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Pope’s visit: A learning Political disorder: Confessions of an opportunity for Congress accidentally ethnocentric American Yesterday marked the last day of Pope Francis’ U.S. tour. As the hundreds of thousands of revellers are now leaving our state with visions of the popemobile and kissed babies still fresh in their minds, we hope a few of the Pope’s lessons stick around. Francis’ six-day tour included stops in Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia where cheering crowds sporting Pope Francis merchandise lined his path. Francis’ ability to charm a crowd stems from his emphasis on people of every class and kind— he doesn’t shy from the poor, needy or pained. Congress could learn a lesson from the Pope on how to appeal to this nation’s constituents and take more direct approaches to identify the people’s needs. Rather than dine at the White House, Francis chose to head over to St. Maria’s Meals, a food program run by Catholic Charities in D.C. to place a prayer blessing on a meal for its homeless clients. Before flying to New York, Francis made a stop in St. Patrick’s Church in D.C. to address the plight of the homeless — wading into a crowd of mostly homeless men and women, felons, mentally ill people, victims of domestic violence and substance abusers. On Sunday morning, Francis visited a Philadelphia detention center pittnews.com

to offer encouragement to about 100 male and female inmates and to rebuke society for not doing enough to rehabilitate prisoners. It would do our representatives well to get more fresh air and to visit its people when they need our opinion — not just our vote for re-election. Before Congress voted to freeze funding for Planned Parenthood, they could have gone out to meet the minorities who need the public health services most instead of acting with narrow input. While Congress still needs to play “progressive catch-up” to match the pope’s level of attention to the needs of his people, Congress and the Church have a matching problem area — integrating women. The Catholic Church continues to limit the role of women. For the upcoming October Synod on the Family, Francis has appointed 30 women as auditors to hear the challenges facing Catholics with regard to family life — but these women can neither speak nor vote. Female representation in Congress is similarly lacking. While women make up 50.8 percent of the U.S. population, only 19.4 percent make up the current 114th U.S. Congress. Re-evaluating the role of women in leadership — and their needs — is something that the Catholic Church and Congress can learn together.

Courtney Linder Senior Columnist

LONDON – On my first day of orientation in London, a presenter pulled up a photo of a decent looking man in his late 40s and stared out at the room of Americans before her. “Do any of you know who this handsome devil is?” the presenter asked. No one raised a hand or offered any suggestions, and I silently concluded that his expensive suit meant he had to be a television star or a BBC reporter. “It’s all right, I’ll tell you. That’s David Cameron, our prime minister.” I had never been so embarrassed. If a tourist came to the United States without a clue who President Obama was, I’d consider them a complete buffoon. Yet there I was, without any idea who Britain’s leader was, about to start work in the commentary secSeptember 28, 2015

tion of a London newspaper the following week — bloody hell. Turns out, I’m not the only uninformed foreigner — and I’m certainly not the only uninformed American. Americans — as a whole — are less inclined to care about their government’s politics than U.K. citizens. In a study by the Pew Research Center titled “U.S. voter turnout trails most developed countries,” only 53.6 percent of those able to vote cast a ballot in 2012. Comparatively, 65.8 percent of the English voted in the 2015 general election, according to U.K. Political Info. Whatever happened to the taxation without representation uproar? I’m not a political science major — and nearly 300 years have passed since the Revolutionary War — but isn’t it a bit ironic that so many of us don’t use the rights our Founding Fathers

fought over? When Americans do decide to be active voters, they only support candidates along party lines. Why? Because researching individual platforms requires effort and political savviness. That’s too much effort for most. I didn’t have to be Nancy Drew to uncover why Londoners, specifically, care so much more about politics than the average American. The only thing more omnipresent on the Tube than a chilly female voice warning me to “mind the gap,” was the sheer volume of commuters reading newspapers. It makes sense — the only thing the British hate more than loud foreigners talking on the underground railroad system is accidentally making eye contact with them. Newspapers even advertise to this point. Plastered to the walls at nearly every See Linder on page 7

Courtesy of Courtney Linder SENIOR COLUMNIST

Linder, pg. 6 platform, you can find a London Evening Standard ad that basically reads, “Hey, you need something to look at on the train to avoid eye contact with other humans? Read our paper to avoid embarrassing acknowledgements from the people next to you.” And it works — about 1.7 million people read the Star’s free paper each day — whether online or in print — with about 900,000 copies circulated in the heart of London every evening, according to News Works. So not only are most people reading some form of newspaper on the Tube, but they also leave them all over the seats. Even if I tried my hardest to be politically uninformed, these litterbugs ensure that I’d still see some shining faces of the Labour Party staring back at me, pulling me to read about the latest scandal. And then there’s exiting the Underground station. If you think religious parties shoving mini Bibles at you in front of the Cathedral is a pittnews.com

nuisance, the paperboys outside the Tube station are the real Messiahs. “Get your Evening Standard,” they wail, shoving free newspapers in your face as if they’re trying to deliver paper cuts and not the news. Then, in the morning, you’re bombarded with the free Metro. At home, free newspapers — like the Pittsburgh City Paper — exist, but news giants — like The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review — cost money, which is an instant turn-off for the apathetic commuter. Wannabe Londoner that I am, I immersed myself in local politics via these free, ever-present papers . Embarrassingly, I wasn’t even the least bit educated in the names of the political parties. I just assumed everything was Democrat and Republican like at home. That was the first flaw in my accidentally ethnocentric lifestyle. By my third week in London, I was so invested in the Labour Party — the liberals and the Tories and the conservatives — that I wished I was able to vote here. The recent con-

troversy over England’s new Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn — his left-leaning views are considered to be dividing his party — enthralled me. I loved hearing the banter between my co-workers at The Independent. I still don’t always know what I’m talking about. Sometimes, I opt for a smile and put my “Miss Congeniality” face on — and of course, eavesdrop until I finally comprehend the political jargon. As an American learning about international politics, I’m bound to embarrass myself. And embarrass myself I did. I was most dumbfounded one day at work when I was proofreading an article about former Prime Minister Tony Blair of the Tory Party. I thought I had ingeniously discovered a typing error — the sentence said something about “Tory Blair” — so I pointed it out to my editor. Turns out, it was a pun. I didn’t blame her when she laughed at me. “Oh it’s OK, you’re just an Ameri-

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See Linder on page 10

Sports

Women’s Soccer, pg. 1

Taylor Pryce scored the deciding goal in the 70th minute, maintaining the team’s winning streak. Emily Klenk STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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schedule. With the win, Pitt also now has more ACC victories than it did all of last year. It finished with two wins over Syracuse and North Carolina State last season, and it has tallied three so far this year. Traveling for just the second time in seven games, the Panthers traded scoring opportunities with the Cardinals throughout the match. It was an evenly played game that saw both teams finish with 12 shots. Senior forward Roosa Arvas led the Panthers with three shots, and each team also took four corner kicks. The lone goal of the match came off the foot of sophomore forward Taylor Pryce. Junior defender Emily Pietrangelo set up Pryce with a through ball and finished on the opportunity past Louisville goalkeeper Taylor Bucklin. Bucklin would finish the game with six saves. The goal came in the 70th minute and is Pryce’s fifth goal of the season. Pryce has also registered the game-winning goal in backto-back victories, as she scored the overtime winner against Wake Forest on Thursday, which Pietrangelo set up. “This year the connection between the front three [Pryce, Arvas and Jarena Harmon] is a lot stronger than in the past,” Pryce said. “We play in similar ways. We’re very mobile and connect really well.” No matter the obstacles thrown its way, this team doesn’t allow excuses.

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“The biggest thing for me today about this team was the gut check,” Miller said. “We’re traveling, we’re tired from Thursday, it’s alumni day, a Sunday — a lot of factors where we could make excuses. Today was one of those days where they had to find a way.” A solid backfield performance protected junior goalkeeper and captain Taylor Francis and helped the team grab the win. “The defense was really good today,” Miller said. “They took a lot of pressure off Taylor Francis and played together as a unit. That was a huge reason why we won the game.” Francis tallied four saves in the win, which stands as her sixth clean sheet of the season. The Panthers have now allowed just five goals in 11 games this year, a goals against average of .44 — good enough for top 20 in the country. Pitt and the University of North Carolina are now the only undefeated and tieless ACC teams in conference. The Panthers’ record will be put to the test when they travel to Tallahassee to take on the No. 3 Florida State Seminoles (9-11, 2-0-1 ACC) Saturday, Oct. 3. The road game begins a stretch that sees four of Pitt’s final seven road games — five of which are against teams that sit top 20 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Poll. “Right now we’re on a high, but we have Florida State coming up,” Pryce said. “We need to stay focused and not get ahead of ourselves because it only gets tougher from here.”

Pitt sweeps first weekend of acc action David Leftwich Staff Writer

A raucous house full of dancing, cheering fans watched Pitt open its ACC schedule with two impressive wins this weekend at the Fitzgerald Field House. The Panthers (12-2, 2-0 ACC) faced off against the NC State Wolfpack (11-3, 0-2 ACC) Friday, winning 3-1. Pitt finished up the weekend against the University of North Carolina Tar Heels on Sunday, winning 3-0. “We basically crushed them,” Mariah Bell, a sophomore outside hitter, said. The Wolfpack came in with a nine-game winning streak, but the team couldn’t phase the Panthers as they burst out to a quick start. Pitt held leads as large as 10 points in its 25-12 first set win. NC State rallied in the second set, keeping the score close throughout. The Wolfpack won the last two points from a 24-24 draw and took the second set 26-24. Following a 1-1 start, the Panthers picked up Kadi Kullerkann has dominated since her transfer as a graduate student from Houston. Heather Tennant STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

T P N S U D O K U

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their defensive intensity in the third and fourth sets to wrap up the match. NC State’s below .200 attacking percentage in each set of the match demonstrated how thoroughly Pitt dominated. The third and fourth sets of the match had Pitt gain an early lead, which it never gave up. Pitt wound up winning the two sets 25-21 and 25-19, respectively, also handing the team its first conference win of the season. Pitt used the momentum from NC State in its next match against North Carolina in a Sunday matinee at the Fitzgerald Field House. The Panthers jumped out to an early 7-2 first set lead, exhilarating the home crowd. Despite the initial setback, the Tar Heels crawled their way back into the set, tying the score 19-19. After a few back-and-forth points, the score remained knotted at 23, followed by two Pitt points to win the first set 25-23. The second set required more finesse. The Tar See Volleyball on page 10

Today's difficulty level: Easy Puzzles by Dailysudoku.com

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Volleyball, pg. 9 Heels increased their defensive pressure and stifled any middle offense from Pitt. Instead, the Panthers found success from the outside portions of the court. Pitt graduate transfer middle hitter Kadi Kullerkann had seven kills and hit for a .636 kill percentage. “They had a really good block, which we played really successfully against,” Kullerkann said.

UNC felt the presence of the Houston transfer at the end of the second set. Kullerkann made four straight kills to close with a 25-18 Pitt victory. In the third set of the match, the Panthers stumbled out to a 7-3 deficit marked by sluggish play. Even with the bad start, the team didn’t feel overwhelmed. “From a confidence standpoint, every point we were confident in each other and ourselves and we never had any doubts,” Orchard said.

The team surged to take the lead back from the Tar Heels and pushed the score to 16-13. From there, the match was back and forth, with the Panthers eventually capturing a 25-23 third set victory and a signature win in the process. Pitt head coach Dan Fisher said the signature win will aid Pitt’s NCAA Tournament hopes at the end of the season. “This was a big step for us because we believe at the end of the year UNC will be

a top 50 RPI team,” Fisher said. The more high-RPI team wins a team accumulates before the end of the season, the better the team’s resumé looks to the NCAA Tournament selection committee. After last season’s snub, Fisher is focused on building a stronger tournament case. “Player for player we’re more talented and we’re more physical [than last year’s team],” he said. Pitt’s next match is Wednesday at Virginia Tech. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.

Linder, pg. 7 can.” Not exactly the cop-out I’d like to have to rely on, especially when almost every other day a Londoner says, “Explain your country to me,” in jest. Mostly after reading something asinine about Donald Trump or gun-related violence that day. I don’t want to have to “explain my country.” I want it to speak for itself. Millennials need to start voting more and questioning the government seated over them. If we don’t, we’re only contributing to our own stigma of “lazy, stupid Americans.” The Brits care about politics more than tea. That political fascination should be their new stereotype. But I also think Americans need to rebrand themselves in politics. Otherwise, other countries will always remember us as the country who voted Trump into office — or at least gave him the platform to do so. In which case, I’m moving to England — permanently. Courtney Linder is a senior columnist at The Pitt News, primarily focusing on social issues and technology. Write to her at CNL13@pitt.edu. pittnews.com

September 28, 2015