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PAGE 11A, 14A T H E
E D I T O R I A L L Y
Friday, April 27, 2012 Issue 70
Vol. 119
I N D E P E N D E N T
S T U D E N T
PUBLISHED SINCE 1906
PAGE 7A
http://utdailybeacon.com N E W S P A P E R
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Volapalooza ups ante with five acts Lauren Kittrell News Editor The night of much anticipation is finally here. Volapalooza 2012 will be held Friday at 6 p.m. in ThompsonBoling Arena. The event will host Ziggy Marley, Big Gigantic, Three 6 Mafia, the Black Cadillacs and DJ Hailstorm. Andy Garber, chairman of the Campus Entertainment Board and Volapalooza Director for 2009–2010, said that this is one of the largest events in Volapalooza history. “I think that the diverse array of artists is the biggest highlight of Volapalooza 2012,” Garber, senior in English, said. “We always try to bring in artists that represent the tastes of the student body, and we are appealing to the fans of four different genres this year. We have never had more than four acts, nor have so many student organiza-
tions contributed to the event.” Student tickets are $5 in advance and $10 at the gate. Public tickets are $20 advance and $30 at gate. Ticket prices may appear steep, but Garber said the prices are vital towards the success of the event. “This is only the second year that we have decided to charge students for tickets to the event,” Garber said. “Nearly 70 percent of the students who responded to our survey last fall indicated that they would be willing to pay a small fee for tickets if it allowed us to continue to bring in well-known artists. We felt that charging students was our only option if we wanted to live up to the expectations students have had for the event.” Michelle Swing, senior in marketing and co-chair for Volapalooza, said one difficulty with the event has been budgeting. With continuous budget cuts, Volapalooza counts on student and student organization support to continue each year.
“Unfortunately the Volapalooza budget continues to be cut every year,” Swing said. “For example, our total budget that was given to us for 2012 compared to 2010 has decreased by 50 percent. It is hard to put on a quality concert with big brand name acts when you have a pretty dismal budget. The budget comes from the $5 student activities fee that is part of everyone’s tuition and divided among various student programming committees within the Central Program Council. Sound, lighting and stage usually takes up the majority of that budget. The only way for us to be able to bring in bigger and better acts is to charge for tickets or procure some amazing sponsors who want to help out the cause! But we try to do our best with the resources that we are given, and we want the students to understand it is going to be a little difficult to get Red Hot Chili Peppers when we don’t have the funds, but we hope for the best every year!” See Volapalooza on Page 3A
George Richardson • The Daily Beacon
The Knoxville skyline shows behind the Volapalooza crowd on May 1, 2010. This year’s show has been moved to Thompson-Boling Arena because of possible inclement weather.
to Titan offers Lecturer accuses politics Trip organic potential Blair Kuykendall
Editor-in-Chief
America has no comprehensive plan to address the environmental problems plaguing our future, and Christine Todd Whitman blames politicians. “There is an ongoing need to craft an energy policy that respects our environment, providing clean air and water,” Whitman said. “We won’t get the thoughtful discussion we need, unless we demand better. Political polarization has developed. Politicians ... if they can’t get everything they want, they do nothing.” Whitman, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush, resigned her commission in 2003. Her lecture on Wednesday evening, “The Need for Climate Change in Washington: How Hyper-Partisanship Has Paralyzed Policymaking,” was standing room only. Whitman is a realist when it comes to environmental policy. She supports regulations that can coexist with economic development. “We are told now we can’t protect our air and water without crippling our economy,” Whitman said. “That’s simply not true. If you
look back to the early days of the environmental movement, Republicans and Democrats came together to work on these issues. It was a time of enormous upheaval, yet our representatives realized they had to come together and create solutions. Our economy didn’t collapse, it grew.” The former director sees an immediate need for reasonable individuals to work through these problems. “It’s no question the U.S. faces a host of environmental problems today,” Whitman said. “We yearn for thoughtful discussion about how to return our economy to health. We need thoughtful discussion about how we protect this country here and abroad.” Whitman blames the activists themselves for some of the stagnancy. “What has happened to our environmental movement?” Whitman said. “Why haven’t we seen progress? So much of the environmental movement has gone too far with its rhetoric. The American people are smarter than that. Both sides now are doubted by the American public.” See WHITMAN on Page 3A
• Photo courtesy of John Seyfried
Dan Hiergesell Staff Writer Exploration has served as a main contributor in molding mankind into the advanced entity it is today. From Christopher Columbus to Neil Armstrong, humans have been occupying the forefront of discovery for hundreds of years. This tendency to become more involved with our surroundings has never played a more significant role than when it comes to space exploration. The proposed 2016 mission to Saturn’s moon Titan is potential for another groundbreaking notch in mankind’s expansive belt. For many, the Titan Mare Explorer mission doesn’t seem like a necessary step in space exploration considering its need for massive NASA funding, but scientists have been researching the distant celestial being for many years. This proposed mission to Saturn’s largest moon, which sits roughly 800 million miles away from Earth, could finally shed light on one of the only objects within our solar system besides our own world that possesses stable bodies of surface liquid. While Titan’s lakes and rivers are composed of mostly ethane and methane, the moon’s geographical and atmospheric makeup mimic some of Earth’s distinct characteristics. Devon M. Burr, an assistant planetary science professor at the University of Tennessee, specializes in researching the fluvial systems and organic structures of Titan. “People are really interested in Titan as an astrobiological target,” Burr said.
“People call it a frozen early Earth. There’s a lot of organic materials which are carbon based. We consider the methane that flows in the rivers on Titan, as well as the sediment that makes up the sand dunes, organic. So because of this organic material flowing and floating around the surface, people have spent a fair amount of time looking at Titan as sort of a laboratory for prebiotic chemistry.” Burr’s research over the past few years has revolved around capturing the surface changes on Titan through studying its tectonic features and subsurface faults, more specifically the effect it has on the moon’s river systems. “We rigorously and quantitatively categorize different drainage patterns on Titan,” Burr said. “From those patterns we infer different controlling factors like rectangular networks, which are controlled by joints or faults in the subsurface.” There are three major patterns that comprise Titan’s rectangular networks, which are also found on earth. Dendritic, which is comprised of many contributing streams that converge into one main river, is the most common pattern. Parallel is another common drainage system on Titan, but this one functions via swift moving streams that are sloped but often skewed. The most revealing pattern is the trellis system, which is the kind of drainage system that we have on earth in North America’s Appalachian Mountains. This system consists of smaller tributaries feeding into a river from steep slopes on the sides of mountains. See DR. BURR on Page 5A