LIVING HIS
Why we should all be more like Leonardo da Vinci
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DREAM
THE MASSACHUSETTS
DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Serving the UMass community since 1890
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‘You could just count on him’
Family, friends remember UMass student Evan Jones as fun and reliable By Mary reines Collegian Staff
W
hether he was building a computer, or playing a pick-up game of basketball or even painting his face for a scavenger hunt, Evan Jones was up for anything. “No matter what, he’d always say yes,” friend Sam Taugher said of Jones, the 19-year-old University of Massachusetts student who was found dead by campus police in his Washington Tower dorm room on Sept. 7. “You could just count on him to always be there.” Officials have yet to determine Jones’ cause of death as they continue to conduct an autopsy. Jones, a Milton native, was survived by his mother Kristan Bagley Jones, father Don Jones and younger sister Ally. Jones grew up loving sports and became captain of his high school’s lacrosse and football teams. He was a competi-
tive athlete who enjoyed powerlifting, CrossFit training and a steady intake of chicken and rice. “He was determined to be a healthy, strong kid,” Jones’ mother said. Taugher, a sophomore at UMass who met Jones in the first grade, said that he and his friends used to make fun of Jones for his particular eating habits. “His diet was always hilarious,” he said. Taugher met Jones on the local soccer team when he moved to Milton in 2000. Both their fathers were coaches for the team, and the families enjoyed cookouts together. Among his happiest memories with Jones is a trip to Taugher’s Cape Cod house during their senior year of high school. There they were, 12 guys hanging out at the beach, golfing and having a good time. He remembered Jones lifting in the backyard and eating chicken and rice, as usual. Jones was Taugher’s
go-to companion for all kinds of situations. When Taugher’s girlfriend roped him into attending a concert at the Fine Arts Center, Taugher called up Jones to accompany them. Julia O’Brien, a UMass junior who went to Milton High School, had a similar experience with Jones during a senior scavenger hunt at the school. One of the tasks was finding a face-painted sophomore wearing a special outfit. She and her friends recruited Jones for the job, and although he was caught off-guard, he didn’t disappoint. “He’d do crazy things,” she said. O’Brien remembered Jones as a funny kid who was genuinely nice and always smiling. She often saw him with his group of close friends. According to his mother, Jones was both physically and emotionally intellisee
COURTESY FACEBOOK/EVAN JONES
Evan Jones with his younger sister Ally at a Red Sox game.
JONES on page 3
Just throwing it out there
Biochar to aid climate change New fuel making waves in agriculture By Gavin Portwood Collegian Correspondent
ARAZ HAVAN/COLLEGIAN
The women’s frisbee team practices on Wednesday afternoon on the athletic fields on Commonwealth Ave.
Music association gains members By Kristin LaFratta
who now plays a minimal role in the club. President Mitch Bordage now leads the The Association for group in what he calls its Musical Performance is comfirst year truly up and runprised of a diverse range of ning. musicians, which includes “The problem is there’s a flute players, rockers and lot of musicians but there’s beat boxers. Relatively not really a platform to show new to the University of your stuff,” Bordage said. Massachusetts, AMP is a net- “We try to give the opporwork for musicians across tunity musicians might not campus to get together to otherwise necessarily have.” share, expand and showcase The leaders of AMP their musical talents. describe their weekly meetThe idea for AMP origi- ings as an informal place nally came from student for members to show and Omar Wahid two years ago, help each other with their Collegian Correspondent
music. One goal of the group is for members to meet other musicians and potentially create projects or bands. “I was looking to add a music minor my freshman year,” AMP Secretary Lance Brozdowski said. “I looked into it and it wasn’t really what I was looking for. You had to perform and actually present very formal stuff to a board. I just want to meet people and jam.” Amateurs are also welcome to the group. This year, there will be workshops offered at weekly meetings,
which are held Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at room 119 in Herter Hall. These lessons will teach beginners in different areas of focus such as singing, guitar and music theory. “We hope to be the ultimate utility for all musicians both prospective and current,” Bordage said. Besides musicians, AMP welcomes those interested in working as event planners, sound technicians, video recorders and photograsee
AMP on page 2
Biochar has made waves in academic and agricultural circles within the past decade as a solution to climate change, soil fertility and energy production. Biochar is created from biomass through a process called pyrolysis – high temperature heating within an enclosed environment – similar to the way that charcoal is made. The result is a highcarbon soil enhancer along with various byproducts. Syngas, or synthesis gas, a combustible hydrocarbon is given off by this process. It has been used as fuel for power plants and vehicles. The long-term introduction of biochar into agricultural soil allows for greater nutrient and water retention. Migration of soil contaminants and runoff is significantly minimized. As an environmental consequence, the carbon contained in these biomasses is put into a more chemically stable form. Proponents describe biochar as carbon ‘negative’ instead of carbon neutral. “Instead of chipping trees into the wood, we should take some of those chipped trees and make biochar out of them,” said Dr. Stephen Hebert, director of the Center for Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts. Despite enthusiasm, large scale and practical field studies do not yet exist. “Farmers are not going to take biochar and dump it on their fields if they don’t know what it’s going to do,”
Herbert said. He encourages skeptical farmers to perform small-scale experimentation on their own fields. This lack of real-word field trials have led Emily Cole, a graduate student at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, to begin a test of the biochar in a cornfield in South Deerfield with various concentration of char. While not yet ready for empirical data, her biochar fields have demonstrated very encouraging results in the past two years. “We are beginning to see promising results even in the first year of data collection,” she said. New England is a prime testing ground for such studies. The effects of biochar are discriminating based on soil types and on contents. Different types of biochars are to be created based on the needs of the soil, encouraging the development of designer biochar. “In 10 years I think we can get to a point where we know general characteristics through a specific feed type,” Cole said. Added Cole: “Just like farmers send in soil to the lab to get its characteristics, I think we can start sending biochar into the lab.” According to Cole, these engineered biochars are a next step in agricultural proliferation. Professor Baoshan Xing at Stockbridge is one such professor who seeks to write a biochar prescription for a given soil ailment. “You make biochar with see
BIOCHAR on page 2