THE OREDIGGER

The student voice of the Colorado School of Mines

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Volume 94, Issue 16 February 10, 2014
KATERINA GONZALES / OREDIGGER

News

Resource companies recruit at CSM.

Features 4

Asian Cultural Festival: culture and fun.

American Chemical Societys Colorado School of Mines Student Chapter entices new members with dramatic explosions and mad scientist antics.

ACS demos boom Girls as leaders

Katerina Gonzales Content Manager
Chemistry demos are not only a thing of freshman year General Chemistry. The student chapter of the American Chemical Society mixes, burns, explodes, and displays chemistry for anyone to enjoy and learn about. On Tuesday, February 4, ACS treated Mines students to a BBQ dinner and chemistry demo to attract students who want to know what ACS does on campus. The purpose of ACS here on campus is to bring chemistry and science to as many people as we can and really just get people interested in looking at the world in a scientific perspective, said Trevor Stanley, who is a senior in Chemistry. I would say my favorite thing about being a part of ACS is all of the interesting things Ive learned about. There are so many eclectic topics that I just never would have considered before. Its a lot of fun. You get to learn a lot, you get to blow things up. Dr. Mark Seger, the faculty advisor of ACS cut in, I can confirmsome of these things he knows more about than I do. ACS is one of the smaller clubs on campus, and though its members are passionate, they will not be around forever. All of the officers are graduating this May. We are looking for younger members to take over next semester, said Carly Paige, the ACS secretary. This opportunity is not only open to Chemistry majors, but to anyone with a deep passion of chemistry. The openings in leadership positions for the upcoming year present opportunities for members to really make the club their own. That is not to say that ACS has not fared well under the current leadership, but rather it has thrived. ACS is not only a society that meets for the benefit of its members, but also seeks to serve the campus and community. Said Stanley, We have done some volunteer work at a local elementary school judging their science fair. It is a lot of fun and it is really great to involve the younger generation. On campus, we also offer free tutoring for the underclassmen, for the intro level chemistry courses. We really try to help out the students and bring the knowledge base that we have gained and try to distribute that out to everyone because we believe that everyone should understand chemistry because it is a subject that a lot of people have trouble with and struggle with. And because it is something we love, we want to kind of package it in a way that says it is not a scary subject, this is not something that you should be like, Aw, man, I have to do chemistry. It should be something that is fun and relevant to your life. Those holding an interest in chemistry or wanting to explore more about the subject should check out CSM ACS. Their next event will be Tuesday, February 18, as ACS will host Dr. Paul Oggs talk about fermentation in Coolbaugh 219. ACS will likely have more demos this semester, hopefully with more delicious ice cream made from liquid nitrogen. The club encourages students to get in touch with the officers if they are interested in becoming a key part of ACS in the future.

Sports 6

Jessica Deters Staff Writer

Currently, women comprise approximately 28 percent of the student body at the Colorado School of Mines and make up an even smaller percent in technical industry. Organizations such as the Society of Women Engineers aim to encourage more women to pursue degrees in engineering in order to increase the percentage of women in what are currently maledominated fields. Mines chapter of the Society of Women Engineers hosted the second annual Girls Lead the Way Conference on Feb. 8 at CSM. The conference invited high school girls interested in engineering to spend a day at Mines and learn the ins and outs of being an engineering student. The conference featured an Engineering Student Panel full of current Mines students who answered various questions the high school girls had about engineering, Mines and college in general. Attendees also received advice on how to choose a major, how to write an effective resume and how to dress for success. Christin Mastracchio delivered a keynote address to attendees encouraging them to pursue a degree in engineering. Mastracchio grew up in Houston, Texas with a desire to become an astronaut. She attended the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado and received a degree in astro engineering. Mastracchio proceeded to obtain a masters degree from MIT and currently serves as an Air Force Bomber pilot.

COURTESY CSM ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT

Softball has a rough tournament.

Opinion 8

Minds at Mines asks: hot or cold?

Pursuing a degree in a technical field opens the door for so many more opportunities than a degree in a non-technical field, according to Mastracchio. Mastracchios advice applies not only to future engineering students but current students as well. During your study in college youre going to go through all kinds of struggles and late nights working on problem sets, but stay the course, Mastracchio said. If you are having trouble staying motivated, keep in mind that just because you major in engineering does not mean that you will be doing strictly engineering for the rest of your life. So, use your interests to further your success in engineering. In addition to offering advice to all engineering students, prospective and current, Mastracchio strongly encouraged the room of girls to go for a degree in engineering. Girls are well suited for engineering, so go for it. Girls tend to focus better and can put in the hours of studying and doing problem sets at a desk whereas boys often times prefer hands-on learning. This statement is of course a generalization, but many class standings have shown that women outperform men academically. Women are born problem solvers and often have more common sense and intuition for readily finding a better way to do things. Women also have a heart to improve the world. Combine that compassion with the engineering smarts to be able to make a difference and theres no limit to the good you can do.

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New Evidence of Pre-Historic Human Migration, United Kingdom - Researchers at Queen Mary University of London, the British Museum, and the Natural History Museum discovered evidence that suggests human movement in northeast Norfolk in the United Kingdom over 800,000 years ago. Scientists believe the footprints were imprinted into the bank of an ancient river at a time when Britain and continental Europe were still connected. These footprints provide the first-known evidence of humans in northern Europe and offer insight into the movements and migration of people over 800,000 years ago.

Jessica Deters, Staff Writer

Quantifying the Gender Height Gap, Finland - A study from the University of Helsinki found correlations between the X chromosome and height. Dr. Taru Tukiainen of Massachusetts General Hospital said, Studying the X chromosome has some particular challenges. The fact that women have two copies of this chromosome and men only one has to be taken into account in the analysis. We nevertheless wanted to take up the challenge since we had a strong belief that opening the X files for research would reveal new, interesting biological insights. The study did, in fact, reveal new biological insights in its finding that the variant in the X-chromosome between men and women accounts for anywhere between one to two percent of differences in height between genders in the Finnish population.

Cure for Diabetes on Horizon, San Francisco, CA - Living with type one diabetes currently equates to frequent injections of insulin to make up for the bodys inability to produce insulin. A research team from the Gladstone Institutes found a method by which to reprogram animals skin cells into endoderm-like cells, which eventually mature, mimic pancreas-like cells and produce insulin. The study found a direct link between the transplanted, reprogrammed cells and a decrease in the animals glucose levels. Matthias Hebrok, PhD and one of the authors of the study, believes this discovery is an important step toward a much-needed cure for type one diabetes.

Step Closer to Beginning of Time, Israel - A major breakthrough made by researchers at Tel Aviv University may hold answers pertaining to the origin of the universe. When the first stars formed, the universe was filled with hydrogen atoms. This study suggests that the black holes that formed from these first stars heated the hydrogen gas that filled the universe later than previously estimated. According to Professor Rennan Barkana of Tel Aviv University, the discovery of the delayed heating of the universe results in a new prediction of an early time at which the sky was uniformly filled with radio waves emitted by the hydrogen gas.

Oredigger Staff
Deborah Good Editor-in-Chief Emily McNair Managing Editor Taylor Polodna Design Editor Connor McDonald Webmaster Lucy Orsi Business Manager Arnaud Filliat Copy Editor Katerina Gonzales Content Manager Jared Riemer Content Manager Karen Gilbert Faculty Advisor

Headlines from around the world

Ramiro Rodriguez, Staff Writer
As of Tuesday February 4, the Committee to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Alaska received enough valid signatures to place a measure on a ballot before voters. If the initiative passes, Alaska would be the third state to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana behind Colorado and Washington. According to a poll by Public Policy Voting, 55% of registered voters in Alaska support the measure. The measure will also call for a $50 per ounce excise tax on marijuana coming from cultivation facilities and stores. The Kentucky Senate passed measure Senate Bill 16 which would allow for students in high school to use computer programming courses to satisfy foreign language requirements to pass high school. Supporters of the bill say it will help prepare students for well-paying jobs in the computer industry and point to a figure saying that less than 2.4% of students graduating from college in the nation are graduating with a degree in computer science despite high national demand. After one of the longest droughts in decades, the Cantareira water system, which supplies 10 million people in the Campinas region of Brazil, is at less than a quarter of its capacity. If there is no rain, then the water system is projected to run dry in approximately 40 days. A spokesperson from Brazils largest water utility, Cia. de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paulo, claims that once it falls below 20 percent, there may be difficulties transferring waters between reservoirs. Following a series of complaints about the conditions in Sochi before the 2014 Winter Olympics, a deputy prime minister in Russia claimed that Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage the event and cited video coming from surveillance cameras that either are able to see into or are in the showers of assigned hotel rooms. A spokesperson for deputy prime minister Dmitry Kozak later denied claims that there are any surveillance cameras in either hotel rooms or bathrooms. The National Energy Authority in Iceland has unveiled the worlds first magma-based geothermal energy system in Krafla, Iceland. According to a document by Iceland Deep Drilling Project, the available power was sufficient to generate up to 36 megawatts electricity, compared to the installed electrical capacity of 60 megawatts in the Krafla power plant. This project breaks the world record for geothermal heat and power. The Guardian, the UK newspaper which reported on the Edward Snowden leaks, reveals that the British government threatened to jail editor Alan Rusbridger and close the paper over reporting the Snowden leaks. On July 20 of 2013, the government sent two agents to oversee the destruction of memory cards and hard drives containing the encrypted files sent by Edward Snowden. Footage detailing the destruction was released by The Guardian on Friday, February 7. Furthermore, David Miranda, a partner of the journalist who published the leaked information, is currently being investigated under espionage charges following an illegal detention at Heathrow Airport and the seizure of personal items to check for encrypted data.

Local News
Dr. Cindy Stevenson, the superintendent of the Jefferson County School District, announced her retirement. She is leaving the district just a few months before her planned retirement on June 30. Stevenson has served since 2002. 66-year-old Harold Easton has pleaded no contest to reckless endangerment. Easton reportedly hit a 10-year-old boy in the face with a book at a Grand Junction elementary school. Easton explained that he lost his temper. A dog woke its owner and saved her from a mobile home fire on Friday Morning. The dogs barking woke up Rene Hickmon at 6:30 am. Hickmon managed to escape the fire and thanked employees at the Department of Corrections for pulling over and a Fremont County firefighter who turned off her propane tank. The mobile home is a total loss. U.S. Representative Cory Gardner, R-District 4, is urging President Obama to change policies so that the price of propane can continue to drop. Many of Gardners constituents complained that they were having trouble affording propane to heat their homes. 27-year-old Carissa Koch of Broomfield has pleaded not guilty to appearing with evidence and being an accessory to a crime. Koch is accused of trying to remove blood stains after a deadly argument at her home. Kochs husband, 32-year-old Matthew P. Burnett, has been charged with first-degree murder.

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february 10, 2014

Changes to HE program Industry options

Ramiro Rodriguez Staff Writer
The Humanitarian Engineering Program held an open house to discuss changes to the curriculum, a refocus of their efforts, introduce their faculty and staff, and announce scholarship and internship opportunities. The event was centered around the programs transition, as program director Dr. Juan Lucena out it, from compassionate help to serving sustainable community development. The purpose behind this revamping is to transition from a unilateral model of community development where engineering students try to directly solve the problems of a faraway community that has very little input on the projects in mind to a system where Non-Governmental Organizations mediate between the two so that communities can help define their problems and have that be presented to engineers. As of Fall 2014, the Humanitarian Engineering minor is now an eighteen credit program divided into a three credit introductory course: LAIS 377 - Engineering & Sustainable Community Development, six credits from the topic of Community Culture and Social Justice, six credits from the topic of Engineering by Doing, and a capstone course. Community Culture and Social Justice comes in the form of six three-credit LAIS course which include: Service Learning, Cultural Anthropology, Corporate Social Responsibility, Engineering Culture in the Developing World, Engineering and Social Justice, and Energy and Society. Engineering by Doing is made up of the two three-credit courses Human-Centered Problem Definition and Human-Centered Design. The capstone will be a senior design project centered around community development or assistive technology for people with disabilities for students of the College of Engineering and Computational Sciences or CEEN 477 - Sustainable Engineer Design for students that are not under the CECS. A third of the credits for the minor are now coming from Community Culture and Social Justice, two out of six LAIS courses designed to explore the interactions between society and engineering including the new course, LAIS 430 - Corporate Social Responsibility. Corporate Social Responsibility is an exploration of the idea of corporate social responsibility as the relationship between engineering firms and communities local to their projects with a focus on the extractive industries. The class aims to teach how to access opportunities for participation in corporate social responsibility as well as how to create a strategy for community engagement. Engineering by Doing is made up of two EGGN courses centered around teach how to design around people as well as how to access where problems are coming from to better tailor human-centered solutions. EGGN 301 - Human Centered Problem Definitions is designed to be a practical exploration of how to access how things considered to be problems or solutions for engineering are those things when designing with people and communities in mind through practical lab methods as well as exercises made to teach empathy with people projects are designed for. EGGN 401 - Projects for People is a class made to bridge the techniques learned in Human Centered Problem Definitions with technical skills to address problems brought to the class by community partners. The Humanitarian Engineering Program encourages membership in Engineers Without Borders/ Bridges to Prosperity for its students to put to practice the sustainable community development techniques learned within the program for the betterment of communities both locally and abroad. The student run organization is devoted to sustainable community development through the process of designing and assembling bridges for communities in need. The possibility of needing to take an additional semester at Mines because of taking a minor exists; however, the costs can be mitigated by a newly announced scholarship from the Shultz Family Leadership in Humanitarian Engineering Fund. The scholarship is for students involved with the humanitarian engineering program and wish to explore connections to humanitarian engineering in the extractive industries. For a student to be eligible for the scholarship, they must: have a minimum 3.0 GPA; be enrolled in the Humanitarian Engineering program; have taken one or more of the following: Engineering and Sustainable Community Design, Engineering and Social Justice, Projects for People, or Human-centered Problem Definition by the end of Spring 2014; register to take Corporate Social Responsibility in Fall 2014; and submit an essay in response to two prompts on an interest in humanitarian engineering or linking humanitarian engineering to the extractive industries. The scholarship will be officially announced in March of 2014, with selection occurring during the Summer of 2014, and funding in the form of $8000 will be made available for the Fall 2014 semester. Students wanting to sign up for the humanitarian engineering minor or area of special interest can start the process by meeting with program director Dr. Juan Lucena to map the minor and fill out the minor declaration form. Further information on the program and contact information can be found at humanitarian.mines.edu.

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Evan Ford Staff Writer

Colorado School of Mines celebrated the third annual GEEE Industry Panel with a remarkable industry representation in attendance. Companies in attendance were CH2MHILL, ARCADIS, and Tetra Tech. These companies were invited to present mission statements and a brief synopsis of their company culture, which has a large bearing on what is desired for potential hires. Students were able to ask these industry professionals specific questions regarding work environments, job searches, and were even given the opportunity to network near the conclusion of the event. GEEE catered specifically to careers in Mining, Geology, Civil and Environmental Engineering. A light dinner was provided before each company presented. The first business to present was CH2MHILL, a global and wide-reaching enterprise. The company name comes from the initials of the founders in 1946. CH2MHILL employs 30,000 in 60 countries worldwide. The company is a client based firm, and their services span from accounting, human resources, engineering, and construction. A representative from human resources informed the students in attendance about CH2MHILLs history and purpose. The company receives many resumes a day electronically, so students at the career fair should expect a similar experience in submission for their credentials, as opposed to a hard copy. The next presentation came from Tetra Tech, a company with 330 offices worldwide and large projects around the globe, including mining in New Mexico and Australia. The vision of the company is to achieve max economic performance throughout the life cycle of a particular resource, with an emphasis on

Ukrainian revolt continues during Olympics

Leah Hill Staff Writer
Some have probably seen the apocalyptic scenes of the Ukrainian protests. With smoke and fire in the background, people wearing gas masks or with bloodied faces, and the police with their shields and full body armor bracing for an angry crowd. What started as peaceful protests in late November escalated when police started using tear gas and batons to control the protesters as they seized government buildings, broke windows, and toppled a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Kiev. As the government took greater measures to stop the protesters, the protesters fought harder to be heard. On January 21, unknown men abducted Igor Lutsenko, a Ukrainian activist and journalist, along with Yuriy Verbytsky, a prominent protester known by the people, from a Kiev hospital. They left Lutsenko in a nearby forest to find his way back to the city while Verbytsky was found dead in a city suburb. Though there were also reports of protesters stabbing three police officers, one of which died later of his wounds, protesters have reported being tortured by the police. Elsewhere, security forces killed three more protesters as security forces moved against Ukrainian protest camps. Ukraine has begun to look like a war zone. But what started it all? Ukraine originally meant borderlands and is the largest country separating Russia from Western Europe. Going through Ukraine is the easiest way for Russia to trade with western countries due to the forests that cover much of northwestern Ukraine and the countries to its north. Throughout history, Ukraine was conquered and divided by neighboring powers. Then about 250 years ago, during Russias Golden Age, Catherine the Great controlled southeastern Ukraine after colonizing it. This part of the country is home to some of the most productive farmland in the world and was used to gain access to the rest of Europe. Eventually Ukraine was occupied by so many Russians that the Russians started calling it New Russia hoping to make the territory permanently Russian. Then, in the 1930s, when Joseph Stalin led Soviet Union, Ukraine was part of Russia. During his rule, the Ukrainian peasants were collectivized into state-run farms and their lives were controlled by Soviet Russia. Several million Ukrainians died of starvation as their food was restricted and crops taken away. Stalin then repopulated the devastated eastern farmlands by shipping in ethnic Russians. This act of genocide took more lives than the German Holocaust. It was not until 1991 that Ukraine became an independent country again. Modern day Ukraine is divided into two sections: the Ukrainian speaking Northwest which dislikes Russia, and the Russian speaking Southeast which sees no problem in receiving help from their neighbor. Now to the issue at hand: the man in the middle of all the conflict is Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. Born in 1950 in Soviet-controlled eastern Ukraine, Yanukovych is culturally Russian, shares opinions with many other Russian-speaking Ukrainians, and did not speak Ukrainian until he was in his 50s. In 2004, there were mass protests against him when he won the presidential election under widespread suspicions of fraud. Those protests, which succeeded in blocking him from office, were called the Orange Revolution. But now, he is back. Since winning the 2010 election, Yanukovych and his government have mismanaged the economy and have been viewed as corrupt. The protests started when Yanukovych reversed a decision to sign a trade deal for greater economic integration with the European Union. This deal, which was popular with Ukrainians, was more than just a trade deal. After Yanukovychs neglect, the deal could have helped revive the struggling Ukrainian economy. Symbolically, Yanukovychs decision was seen as a turn away from Europe, and towards Russia. Putin then rewarded the Yanukovychs decision with a stimulus worth billions of dollars and a promise of cheaper gas exports. The protests had begun to die down until January 16 when Yanukovych signed anti-protest laws which restricted free speech, the media, driving in a group of more than five cars, slandering government officials, and wearing a mask or helmet. While half of the Ukraine wants to join the European Union, about a third of the country would prefer integrating with the Russian-dominated Eurasian Customs Union. The huge crack in Ukraine has even started whispers of civil war which is why nobody dares to take any sort of military action in Ukraine. A push from any side, Russia, the US, any European nation, or Ukraines own military could result in war. On January 28, Ukrainian officials repealed nine out of the twelve anti-protest laws and tabled the stimulus offer from Russia. The government has also offered amnesty to detained protesters provided that the occupied government buildings are vacated. Then, in an effort to calm some of the

the final restoration portion. It was pointed out that when working with sensitive job sites, companies must realize that environmental permitting is for life; something contracting companies can forget. Tetra Tech also emphasized the importance of fine-tuned networking skills. With the right attitude and approach, along with the necessary abilities to back it up, the company representative delivered the notion that any job can be attained. An environmental engineer represented ARCADIS on Thursday night. Like CH2HMILL, ARCADIS is a large international company. The companys US headquarters is located in Highlands Ranch, here in Colorado. ARCADIS has catered to many commercial since the 1800s, and has experienced many mergers and plenty of growth throughout the years. ARCADIS breaks down their company into four pillars, including TKI (Technical Knowledge Information) and safety. The company stresses safety, as this leads to a complete reduction of injuries at work. ARCADIS believes that students seeking a job need to be able to solve complex problems with a strong core knowledge, but also a diverse interdisciplinary approach in the application of critical thinking. It is also important for engineers to practice and refine communication and writing skills, which can be overlooked in a math and science focused curriculum. A common theme from all of the companies presentations was a focus on work-life balances and finding the job that was the correct fit for an individual and the company. The night presented a valuable learning experience for the students in search of internships and specific careers in geology and civil engineering. The companies that attended the GEEE Industry Panel presented a wide range of career paths and avenues for potential success.

protests, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and Yanukovychs presidential cabinet resigned and offered senior jobs to the opposition. Yet all offers were rejected as protesters continue to demand the presidents resignation. Yanukovych made a statement saying, the opposition continues to inflame the situation calling on people to stand in the cold for the sake of the political ambitions of a few leaders. I think this is wrong. He also added, From my side, I will show more understanding to the demands and ambitions of people, taking into account the mistakes that authorities always make... I think that we can together return the life of Ukraine and its people to peace. But the people do not seem to want to return to their old lives. The unrest even spread into eastern Ukraine and Yanukovychs homeland, where he previously experienced unhampered support. People protest because their president rejected what they saw as an opportunity to improve their lives and their country and instead made an attempt to further relations with a country that has a history of starving them to death. Their demand for his resignation still fuels their protests, and the cruel treatment of the protesters has convinced some Ukrainian citizens that a new government is absolutely necessary.

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NSF award for Computing exponentials Mines MME prof

Chris Robbins Staff Writer Courtesy of Mines Newsroom
Corinne Packard, Colorado School of Mines Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering assistant professor, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for her research Controlling Pressure-Induced Transformation in Rare Earth Orthophosphates. Packards study is looking at how to improve the properties of high temperature ceramic components such as combustors, nozzles and thermal insulation in aircraft engines, turbines and rockets. Cracks in those components can lead to catastrophic failure. Some unique ceramics undergo a change in shape and volume when they are deformed; researchers want to harness this crystal structure change to increase a materials toughness by absorbing energy caused by an impact or propagating crack. Researchers will determine how to use chemistry to control the point at which this change occurs. Information and new materials discovered through this research could be useful in designing coatings to improve the performance of ceramic components used in high temperature aerospace applications. Undergraduate and graduate students studying materials science and engineering at Mines will be involved in the research. The project will also develop science-learning modules for local elementary school teachers and the Rocky Mountain Camp for the Dyslexic. The NSF CAREER award is the most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. matrix, which returns the probability of each path length between node pairs within a network, and an adjacency matrix, which finds the number of possible same-length paths between any two nodes. With this data, a single column of the original exponential matrix (with one column representing one node within the network) can be used to calculate link prediction scores for the node, which according to Gleich represents the likelihood of getting

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Honors director on Civil Rights

Courtesy of Mines Newsroom
Kenneth Osgood, associate professor and director of the McBride Honors Program, recently published a collection of essays that explores the history of civil rights policies in the postcivil rights era. His book titled, Winning While Losing: Civil Rights, the Conservative Movement and the Presidency from Nixon to Obama, addresses the common perception that the civil rights movement ended in triumph a half century ago. Osgood wants to challenge that notion. When Obama was elected, everyone was ecstatic. But half of the prison population was black; poverty rates for African Americans were double those of whites, Osgood said. This summer, Americans will commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, which ended segregation. No doubt many Americans will describe Obamas historic presidency as the ultimate victory, Osgood notes. But the reality is much messier. During the previous half-century, there were successes in some areas, but set-backs in others. Osgood hopes his readers walk away with the picture that civil rights politics can be more complicated than originally understood. Everything we think we know about the past is oversimplified and distorted, Osgood said. To me thats what I love about the study of history. We develop these really simple pictures, but when we really look at it, we find out how wrong we are. Almost everything we remember, we remember badly, simplistically, or incorrectly. So I hope people will read this and think: thats not quite how I thought it was. Osgood is currently working on his sixth book, The Biggest Lie, which connects propaganda and intelligence. The book will be published around 2016.
COURTESY MINES NEWSROOM

was able to convert these massive networks into much simpler linear systems, which allowed for the As technologies improve, access setup of the relaxation method to to technology improves, and the be implemented. Due to the error number of people available to use analysis step of the relaxation methtechnologies increases, the sizes od, it has also come to be known and complexities of various kinds as the push method, because it of networks continue to grow at an will essentially push the residual alarming rate. From literal networks error from one node and spread such as those of communication it out across all of its connecting and information to more abstract neighbors through a series of spedefinitions such as social networks, cific computations and key assumpdealing with these large and comtions. This process repeats plex webs can be more than several times until the error Compared to other methods used for a little intimidating. In his prepresent on the original node sentation at this weeks AMS this and similar purposes, the relax- in question is basically zero, department colloquium, titled and the error transferred Relaxation Methods for the ation technique described by Gleich across the other nodes are Matrix Exponential on Large so spread out across a wide Networks, David F. Gleich of not only maintains decent accuracy area that they are essentially Purdue University explained zero as well. and precision levels, but shortens through the results of his joint Compared to other methwork with Prof. Kyle Kloster of ods used for this and similar runtime nearly by a factor of ten. purposes, the relaxation Purdue how the level of complexity of these networks can technique described by Gleibe greatly reduced to a point where to one node in the network begin- ch not only maintains decent accuthey are much simpler to work with. ning from another. But with modern racy and precision levels, but shortTo do this, Gleich worked with the networks being as massive in size ens runtime nearly by a factor of ten. exponentials of rather large square as they are, this could take a very Aside from finding more applications matrices (often millions to billions long time to compute exactly, and of this methodology (as variants are of rows and columns) representing by then the network in question has already in use in social networking, these complex networks, and used likely changed significantly. So, Glei- network centrality in computer scithe columns of these resulting expo- ch placed more emphasis on speed ence, and network alignment in binentials to find localized solutions. of the calculations while sacrificing a ology), Gleich explained that he and While this method will technically small level of accuracy, resulting in his colleague Prof. Kloster would produce thousands to millions of a method that will quickly produce like to further refine the relaxation solutions, the vast majority of these localized estimates around results. method as well. As part of their are small enough to be deemed The goal was to achieve suffi- ongoing research, they would like insignificant and the emphasis is cient results in less than the amount to find better linear systems to use placed on the handful of significant of work to calculate one matrix vec- for faster convergence (and therefor solutions. Once these significant so- tor, or matvec (this was used as the faster computation) of the system, lutions are in place, the exponentials standard measure of efficiency for as well as scaling the process up to of the two more related matrices are this study). Based on an underlying deal with even larger networks and also found. These are the transition method of direct expansion, Gleich matrices.

A new way to store cores

Chris Robbins Staff Writer
In geophysical exploration, one of the most expensive aspects of research tends to be the storage and archiving of rock samples from the field and their corresponding data. In particular, the storage of numerous cores within sheds and warehouses can cost businesses a rather large sum of money, and that cost only grows as more research is done and more core data needs to be stored. Even worse than the cost, however, is the fact that the vast majority of these stored cores will only be temporarily useful as time in storage exposes the samples to potential damage or alteration. As much as 80% of a companys exploratory budget can be spent on these eventually-useless cores, an issue Brigitte Martini of Corescan services addressed in this weeks edition of CSMs Van Tuyl lecture series. Martini, a volcanologist, geothermal expert, and now employee for Corescan, presented on how her company is aiming to minimize the amount of money and data lost to trying to store core samples, and that is through the use of hyperspectral core scanning. She explained how even though this technology has existed for roughly 40 years, Corescan is one of only two companies in the world implementing it for this particular purpose. This is due to the rapid growth of computational power available over the last several years, as nowadays there are computers capable of handling the vast amounts of calculations and data involved with core sampling. The basic goal of this technology, as Martini put it, is to allow researchers to digitally archive both images and data from core samples in an effort to minimize and possibly even eliminate the need to physically store large quantities of rock. The process for these automated core scan imagers is based upon infrared spectroscopy and works similarly to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. The device pushes samples within a core-box through, gathers data, and constructs a digital image of the core one row at a time. The resulting data and visualizations are highly accurate, more detailed, and more descriptive than that of earlier technologies. These significant improvements do come at a cost of taking slightly longer to scan than earlier methods (roughly five to ten minutes longer per scan according to Martini), but seem to be well worth the extra wait. How Corescan managed to increase these accuracies were changes to two key ideas. First, the possibilities for precision were greatly improved, as models of this device can be found with precisions ranging from several millimeters per image pixel down to only a few microns per pixel. In addition, while most past programs were set to label each pixel of a samples image with whatever mineral filled up the majority of that pixel, Corescan will instead record all traces of mineral in a pixels worth of space and label that pixel as such. This process does throw off the total figures of minerals by percentage within a sample, or semi-qualitative data (meaning that totaling percentages of mineral A, B, etc. will result in a number slightly above 100%), but it allows for a much more intricate and descriptive map of the samples structure to be formulated. In order to handle this massive increase in data and precision, as well as the highly detailed images of cores, Martini explained how Corescan has turned to cloud storage for its vast capacity. With their own cloud-shared servers, companies using Corescan devices can permanently store any amount of data and imagery from cores and access them at any time. In addition, these servers also allow companies and researchers to put together multiple data sets and run tests and visualizations for surprisingly large areas of samples. This effectively allows one to accurately map out the composition and structure of a sizeable area rather than just a single core site. While the technologys use for this purpose is still a very young idea according to Martini, several mining companies around the world have already discovered its usefulness and made these devices integral parts of their operation. Martini also stated that work is already in development for a Corescan device more specifically geared towards properties of interest to oil and gas companies and that, in a few years, these devices will have the same level of functionality and use within that field as is already present in the mining field.

McBride Honors Program director Ken Osgood poses with his new book, Winning While Losing: Civil Rights, the Conservative Movement, and the Presidency from Nixon to Obama

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february 10, 2014

Frozen warms the heart Flap no more

Hope Sisley Staff Writer
While Disney has closed down their animation department, that does not mean the end of the delightful fairy tales they have long been known for. The latest Disney feature is a CGI musical set in eighteenth-century Scandinavia, starring two sisters, a love triangle, a reindeer, and a talking snowman. While the plot has a few unresolved holes (to be discussed momentarily), the overall story is good and the characters are likable and fun. Supposedly the film is based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale of the Snow Queen, but those familiar with the (rather dark) source material will not recognize any of it in this cheerful, wholly un-depressing picture. The scene opens on a pair of little princesses who are best friends. The older sister, Elsa, has magical powers that allow her to create snow and ice with a wave of her hands. The younger sister, Anna, has a playful spirit and eagerly eggs her sister on. After a tragic accident, however, Elsa and her parents become convinced that her powers are a curse rather than a blessing, and that she must hide them away lest anyone else get hurt. Because strong emotions exacerbate the chill, Elsa shuts herself in her room and shuts Anna out. After both girls are orphaned (this is Disney, after all), Elsa becomes a complete recluse. The turning point in the story comes at Elsas coronation. This is the first time that she and her sister have been outside of the castle in years, and Anna, still playful as ever, decides to take full advantage. She immediately meets, falls in love with, and agrees to marry one of the party guests. For some reason Elsa seems to think that this is a bad idea. She refuses to bless the marriage, Anna gets pushy, Elsa gets flustered, and the transition from figurative to literal ice queen is complete. The kingdom is plunged into winter; Elsa flees to a mountaintop where she figures she can be who she is without having to worry about hurting anyone. Probably the best part of the whole film is a baby reindeer named Sven who appears during the opening song, which is based on Norwegian folk music. Sven, now a very large adult reindeer, and his owner, an ice-seller named Kristoff, return to the plot to help Anna track down her sister before the magical winter becomes permanent. They are later joined by an enchanted snowman named Olaf, who seemed in the previews like he would be obnoxious, but in fact is endearing as the only snowman in the world who dreams of lying on a warm tropical beach and getting a sun-tan. The interactions between Kristoff and Anna, who bicker rather than make lovey eyes at each other, are also quite entertaining. For instance, as Anna tells him about how unfair and awful it is that she is not allowed to marry the man that she met about twenty minutes earlier, Kristoff is, astoundingly, in agreement with her sister. In fact, at no point in the story does anyone besides Anna - who is somewhat lacking in common sense, having been stuck in a castle most of her life - and her beau, Hans, think that marrying someone he just met is a particularly brilliant plan. This is almost like a recanting on Disneys part since movies like Snow White have long established that love at first sight is a perfectly valid reason for jumping into a long-term relationship in search of a happily ever after. Contrast Love is an Open Door, a duet between Anna and Hans, with one of the old classic Disney love themes, such as Once Upon a Dream or A Whole New World. The lyrics are pretty similar. Love is an open door / Life can be so much more / With you is not too different from A whole new world / A new fantastic point of view... Now Im in a whole new world with you, but the message is quite different in Frozen. Without delivering any spoilers, suffice it to say that, by the end of the movie, Anna will find that the people telling her not to marry the stranger shes known for a couple of hours were right all along. This is a departure from the Disney romance model and a refreshing perspective from Hollywood. In many ways, in fact, this is a feminist film. [Warning: spoilers ahead.] After Anna is struck in the heart with a piece of magic ice, shes told that she must perform an act of true love to melt it and prevent her becoming an ice sculpture before the day is out. Naturally, like many a Disney heroine before her, Anna assumes this means true Loves kiss, so she high-tails it back to the palace to find Hans, her fiance of three hours, and give him a smooch. When that does not work, she realizes that it must be Kristoff who is her true love since he had a less superficial connection with her and seems to actually return the feeling. But ultimately, it is not a kiss from a man she met that day that saves Anna - its an act of self-sacrifice done protecting her sister. Which, really, makes considerably more sense. The bond between close family members is much stronger than most other relationships; hence the saying Blood is stronger than water. How on earth could Anna have found true love with someone she has spent a mere afternoon with, and how could that have been more powerful than her love for her sister, whom she has known her whole life? This is Disneys way of saying, Actually, we lied. The whole meaning of a womans life is not wrapped up in her romantic relationship with a man. A woman can actually have other relationships, too! And they can be way more important than romance! Is not that revolutionary? Ariel might have given up any chance of ever seeing her family again so that she could be with some prince she saved from a shipwreck, and Cinderellas horrific upbringing might cease to have any effect on her as soon as she meets some guy at a dance, but Anna and Elsa understand that there are more important things than so-called true love. In fact, Elsa does not even have a love interest. Shes too busy running a kingdom and dealing with her issues and her broken family to worry about that just yet. Disney seems to have entered a new era, at least for now. The only real problem with the plot of the movie involves Elsas deus-ex-machina discovery of how to control her powers. Its something that there is no reason she should not have discovered already, and it is expressed in so abrupt and nebulous a fashion that it feels like the Disney writers got to the end of the script and realized that they had not figured out how to resolve the problem of the kingdoms being frozen, so they quickly added in something that sort of sounded okay and called it good. Otherwise, the ending is satisfactory, the characters are well-rounded, and the message is wholesome and uplifting. The music is quite good as well - another thing viewers have come to expect from Disney - so its no surprise to see it nominated for the best song Oscar. A high point in the film is the costume and set design, which give a strong sense of place. If the magic were removed, this could be a documentary of daily life in old-timey Norway, complete with folk art and music. All in all, its a wonderful spectacle both visually and musically, and well worth seeing. 4 out of 5 stars. Rated PG for... no reason at all, actually. There is nothing in this movie that would make it more than a G. A preschooler might be scared of the trolls.

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Creator to take down viral game

Katerina Gonzales Content Manager

to elementary-aged kids around the world have been engrossed as the game spread like `wildfire through In tweets Saturday, February 8, social media and word-of-mouth. Nguyen undoubtedly has had Don Nguyen, creator of the insanely popular game app Flappy Bird, trolls plaguing his inbox and timeline, revealed his intentions to take the so the removal is understandable. The creator maintains game off app stores. I will take Flappy classiness by replying to fans who give good The Hanoi based Bird down. I cannot take reviews of the game, despite the amount developer this anymore. of attention from trolls has been and haters. He also programconfirmed the removal ming for ten years, but never thought the has nothing to do with legal issues. It will not be game over for the game would take off like it did. Said Nguyen on Twitter, I will take developer, however, as he plans to Flappy Bird down. I cannot take make more games. On his website this anymore. He also does not dotgears.com, the independent intend to sell Flappy Bird, despite company states, Everything is pure, its popularity and social media atten- extremely hard and incredibly fun tion. People are overusing my app, to play, so users can expect future tweeted Nguyen. I can call Flappy games from Nguyen to be of the Bird a success of mine. But it also same simple, retro style and graphruins my simple life. So now I hate it. ics. Included in .GEARS list of availSince its creation, Flappy Bird able games are Smashing Kitty, has generated feelings of both love Droplet Shuffle, Shuriken Block, and hate from its many users. The Ninjas Assault, and Super Juggame is simple yet seemingly impos- gling, which is also a top download sible to do well in. College students on app stores.

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Asian Cultural Festival photo recap

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ALL PHOTOS COURTESY AMOS GWA / OREDIGGER

The CSM Asian community celebrated the new year.

Students celebrated the Lunar New Year, complete with a twisting dragon dance.

In addition to food, the Asian Cultural Festival had other events to intrigue attendees.

#idigmines PHILANTHROPY DAY FEBRUARY 27

CELEBRATE THE DONORS WHO SUPPORT 1/3 OF YOUR EDUCATION!

PHOTO CONTEST
THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE $500 TO SUPPORT A MINES AREA OF THEIR CHOICE!
Asian hip-hop gave variety and a modern flair to the evenings performances.

Participate by using #idigmines to post a photo on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook that thanks donors for supporting your education and shows how much you dig Mines. The photo contest winner will be determined on February 27 by DigNITARIES Mines student philanthropy group. For more info visit giving.mines.edu/students.

Martial arts demonstrations showcased amazing feats, which captivated audiences. w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t

february 10, 2014

The joys of snow

Jacqueline Feuerborn Staff Writer
As the students of Colorado School of Mines have all undoubtedly noticed, there has been a little bit of snow lately. While snow can be pretty to look at, surely everyone can but in agreement that is hasnt been the nicest thing to trudge through on the way to class. Anyone who has experienced pulling off wet freezing socks in a futile attempt to save a couple frostbitten toes should know that they arent the only student on campus to endure them; others can commiserate and share in the pain. The ice is cold, wet, annoying and yet for some reason it is still possible to love it a little bit (well some of us do), for no other reason than the wind seems to disappear while it is snowing. Almost all little kids idolize the snow. There were a variety of reasons for this but the most prominent was because it was seen as a chance of freedom. With snow comes snow days, something even adults look forwards to. Who wouldnt rather be spending their afternoon building snowmen and pelting their friends with lumpy chunks of cold wet snow? However, this is something that Mines students can only dream about. After the false alarm a few months back, everyone has been forced to come to the conclusion that the school refuses to let us live out our childish dreams of the snow. Instead, students have been packed into cage like rooms to listen to teachers drone on about something not nearly as interesting as the snow. Meanwhile outside, children

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YakTrax a slick trick

With snow all around, life has become a little more exciting and a little more dangerous. With the ground icy or covered in slippery packed snow, everyone is forced to take a little more care unless they want to end up flat on their back, staring up at the sky. One solution for the slick ground is YakTrax. These remarkable inventions are like tire chains for shoes and provide extra traction against the ground to prevent slipping and falling. They are incredibly useful when there is ice or packed snow but they also help when walking across loose gravel. Additionally, they also make really cool foot prints that look like criss-crosses. The YakTrax are easily attached to any type of shoe and come in a variety of sizes for different size feet. They attach using a combination of rubber edging and a Velcro strap. The strap can be removed depending on how they need to be used. They can be worn with any kind of shoes from womens boots to tennis shoes to hiking boots. Within the packaging for the product there is a detailed explanation of how they can be fitted for a variety of uses. Different positions make them optimal for walking, running, trekking, and mountain climbing. This allows both versatility and convenience for whatever uses that they may be required for. The one downside of these miraculous inventions is that they only work when walking outside on rough

can be seen running across Kafadar Commons, whether or not these children are real or just part of a remembered childhood is a mystery. Growing up somewhere warmer, perhaps inside a volcano or in Texas, can make the snow seem completely and utterly perplexing, well then...get use to it because the state could be getting more snow as late as May. Welcome to Colorado, the land of bipolar weather, where it can go from snowing to 80F in just a few hours. Anyone that does not understand how that can even be possible shouldnt worry because plenty of people are also wondering the exact same thing. Colorado was blessed (or cursed) with this crazy weather so unless someone figures out how to control the weather (dont forget, this is Mines -- there is a chance it could actually happen) everyone is just going to have to put up with it. So head outside and make something of it, but not a snowman because it is to dry for that...or snowballs because they wont stick together. Basically, our snow is pointless for anything other than blowing around and making us all cold and miserable. In a search for better snow? Then there are only two choices: either wait a few days for the snow to soften into a weird squishy mush or move to Canada. There is nothing anyone can do to avoid the snow without leaving Golden so just keep on going and hope it will disappear soon, hopefully without taking your extremities with it. So with snow all around there is just one thing left to do: go fill a travel mug with warm hot chocolate or coffee and head off to class.

Jacqueline Feuerborn Staff Writer

or icy ground. The YakTrax also grip quite well on carpet so when indoors and walking across carpet they seem no different than normal except there is a little extra spring in each step. However, when going down the hallways of Meyer Hall, for example, they are too slippery on the tile floor which results in tumbling to the floor and some bruising. So while the YakTrax work exceptionally well in the outdoors, they are not well suited for the indoors. This can be fixed by removing them from the bottom of the pair of shoes when entering a building but it can be a bit of a pain to do each time. Another possible solution to this is to only place them on the bottoms of the shoe when walking around in the snow for quite awhile. It is not worth CO UR taking them on and off TE SY just to walk around YA KT in the snow for RA X a few minutes but if for some reason it is necessary to walk for quite a while over slick ice or snow then they would be very handy. All in all, while the YakTrax are incredibly useful for walking around in the snow with a decreased chance of slipping, they are not practical for everyday use. If they are to be used everyday then there has to first be an understanding that they take some time to put on and take off. Also, there is some risk to the wearer if they are worn indoors, especially on tile. With all of those recommendations in mind, the YakTrax are an amazing invention that make walking in the snow less of a chore.

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Justice League: Rise and Fall: Disappointing

Jordan Francis Staff Writer
There are plenty of poorly written comics and plenty of potentially great stories that fall into the hands of mediocre writers, but rarely does one see a story with such potential fail so hard at living up to what it could have been. There was a good premise here. The main players were well-established and interesting characters. There was some excellent history behind all of the motivations in the story. This should have been a compelling, dramatic epic of a story, focusing on the relatable struggles of dealing with personal demons and the impotence of being to fix someone elses problems, even for those who can see exactly where the troubles are headed. Instead, it comes off as a lackluster, sloppy piece of work thrown together by a writer who started with an outline of where the story needed to go and did not progress much beyond that point. But, before tossing this work aside as the sloppy and frankly insulting drivel that it is, readers and fans should actually take a look at this comics story. Rise and Fall was a pre-52 story from 2010. It is a direct sequel to Cry For Justice, which told, among other subplots, the story of Prometheus, a super intelligent villain from Batmans rogue gallery, attacking the Justice League of America. In his attack, he managed to surprise the JLA in their watchtower, sever one of Red Arrows arms, and destroy much of Star City, the home base for most of the Arrow clan. Red Arrows daughter, Lian, was among those killed in the destruction. Prometheus escaped from the League, but Green Arrow tracked him down and killed him with an arrow to the face. These comics took place during a time when DC was attempting to make many of its iconic, idealistic heroes and their stories much darker than they had previously been. Some of these attempts actually led to decent and sometimes good comics, but, as is often the case with editorial mandates, some of the stories were just dark for the sake of being dark and thus the content of the comics often fell flat on its face. Unfortunately, despite its interesting premise, Rise and Fall entrenches itself firmly in the latter category. Rise and Fall is really a comic split into two halves for two separate stories that are supposed to be intertwined but really just end up co-existing in the same timeline: the Fall of Green Arrow and the tragic Rise of Arsenal from the ashes of Red Arrow. Green Arrows tale begins with a recap of the events from the end of Cry For Justice followed by Green Arrow returning to Star City to hunt down Electrocutioner, the supervillain who helped Prometheus devastate the city and who Green Arrow blames for Lians death. The other heroes attempt to track down Prometheus and eventually find his body with a green arrow sticking out of it. Flash (Barry Allen) and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) go twice with Black Canary to confront the Emerald Archer about the murder, only to have Green Arrow evade them both times. He eventually meets up with the current Speedy (Mia Dearden), who has caught the Electrocutioner and who asks for the chance to kill him herself, as she feels guilty for letting Lian die while under her supervision. Green Arrow has a strange and fairly unconvincing change of heart and refuses to let Mia or himself kill Electrocutioner. Arrow turns himself over to the authorities, leading to an unintentionally hilarious scene where Green Arrow is arrested, yet nobody recognizes him as the former mayor, Oliver Queen, until his incredibly small domino mask is pulled from his face. Arrow then spends some time in jail where Black Canary breaks up with him. In an impossibly quick manner, he is given his day in court where the jury finds him not guilty of the murder he committed. The judge disagrees, but instead of overturning the verdict, simply banishes Queen from Star City with the threat of incarceration should he ever return. And so Green Arrows story ends, with Queen supposedly learning a lesson but not appearing to have changed at all and having managed to get away with literal murder scott-free. Green Arrows story, while uncompelling and poorly executed, at least avoided having any major consequence. While Roy Harpers tale is not handled any better, he unfortunately does not escape his mess of a plot without permanent damage to his character. The second half of the comic begins with a more detailed look at the fight between Roy Harper (Red Arrow) and Prometheus, which Cry For Justice skipped over. Roy gets his arm chopped off and wakes up in the medical facilities, surrounded by members of the League. As the realization hits him that his arm is really gone, he learns about the destruction in Star City and the death of his daughter. Understandably distraught and medicated, he begins hallucinating a conversation with Corey, his old drug dealer. (For those who were unaware, in 1971 DC published a storyline that revealed teenage Roy Harper as a heroin addict. Harper eventually managed to kick his addiction with help from Green Lantern and Black Canary.) In pain, Roy swipes some pain pills from Dr. Mid-Nite and, after seeing Lian in the morgue and convincing himself that she is really dead, returns to his home. He rejects the company of his friends and continues hallucinating encounters with Corey alongside nightmares about Lians death. He later finds out that Green Arrow killed Prometheus and gets even more angry at being denied his revenge. Roy stops by S.T.A.R labs to attach a new robotic arm to his stump before attending Lians funeral. A few heroes attempt to offer comfort but Roy lashes out at all of them and leaves for home. There, he is attacked by Chesire, Lians mother. They fight, blaming each other for not protecting Lian, which somehow leads to them attempting to get intimate. Roy later hits the streets in his old Arsenal costume, beats up some thugs, and scores some heroin. He then fights a few druggies and Batman, hallucinating that they are all Prometheus. Batman subdues him and alongside Canary, dump him in a rehab facility for villains. Unsurprisingly, this is not a very helpful move and once he starts hallucinating visions of Lian urging him to kill the other man responsible for her death (Electrocutioner), Roy breaks out of rehab and breaks into the jail where Electrocutioner is currently being held. This is the same jail where Green Arrow is incarcerated, so Queen fights Roy in an attempt to stop him. Roy, however, manages to evade him long enough to kill Electrocutioner. He then leaves, burns down his house, and strikes out to bring justice to the streets once more as Arsenal. There are so many things wrong with this story that it is hard to know where to start. However, what ultimately ruins what could have been a salvageable, possibly even good, comic is the way the characters are written. Good storytellers should know their characters and their world well enough to come up with a scenario, drop the characters in, and let the resulting character actions and interactions dictate or at least guide the direction of the story from there. In this book, the characters serve as little more than cardboard cutout mouthpieces for the writer, saying and doing whatever was needed to move the story along in the direction the author and editorial team thought it should go. This is straight-up lazy writing that really hurts what could have been a really interesting story. As a result of this lack of effort, the characters come across as wooden, hollow, cliched, and often irrational or nonsensical. The way most of them are written flies completely in the face of established character traits and spits in the face of the long, in-depth history of personality and experiences each of them have accumulated over their years of existence. Roy goes from understandably angry and in pain over his daughters death to a raging, deliberately spiteful jerk for no adequate reason. Most of the other heroes consistently behave like idiots and even Black Canary, who helped Roy through his original addiction and withdrawal, does a complete turnaround and dumps him in a rehab clinic to deal with his problems alone at the first sign of drug abuse. Expecting anyone to believe real people, much less these characters, behave this way is a slap in the face to longtime fans and an insult to the intelligence of new readers. Most of the other problems stem from this. It is really hard to get invested in the pain of a character who is not acting like the person fans know him or her to be. It is hard to enjoy the fight scenes when characters are not acting like themselves and the audience has no reason to believe that there is really anything at stake in these clashes. Even the deaths in this story fall flat, carrying none of the emotional weight or significance they should. The reader has no reason to care whether or not a boring and unlikable character will kill one that the audience did not get a chance to know. The cover and between issues art is actually pretty good but the actual artwork featured in the comics is inconsistent as all get-out and shifts from acceptable to distracting to annoyingly bad on a regular basis. Readers could be forgiven for assuming that the artists were going for a superheroes with scoliosis theme in this book, what with all the odd and impossible angles between the characters torsos and hips. Proportions in this comic are all over the place and after seeing the fifth or sixth hero standing or moving in a way that would make professional contortionist do a double-take, one starts to believe that the artists either have no concept of basic human anatomy or are under the impression that all superheroes are made of bionic rubber. Additionally, while it is unfortunately somewhat expected that women in comics tend to be drawn in a sexual way more often than men, this book is blatant and bad about it. Every panel that features a female that has gone through puberty finds a way to show off her chest or rear, even when the artists have to twist her spine to do so. Girls get dialogue in this book largely

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COURTESY DCCOMICS

when the author needs someone to have a brief lets talk about feelings interlude and they are usually silenced quickly after. No female in this comic does anything significant to the plot; though, to be fair, few of the men drive the plot much either. In fact, for all the action this book seems to contain, the plot does not go much of anywhere. Point being, women in this book are drawn and written here as little more than talking blow-up dolls. Heck, Roys hallucination of Lian is a more interesting and better-drawn character than any of the other girls in the comic. The art is flat-out terrible at its primary job: supporting and enhancing the story being told in the comic. Exaggerated detailing often give dramatic moments a ludicrous feel while a complete lack of detail in other scenes prevent the reader from understanding what is going on or how a character is reacting to a situation. When facial expressions and body language are readable, they are usually clash with the tone of the scene. The most obvious example of this is during the scene where Roy finds out about Lians death. As he collapses onto the floor, one would expect his friends to want to comfort him, or perhaps to be angry and sad on his behalf, or maybe even uncomfortable and uncertain of what to do. But when Roy Harper falls to the floor in pain, a broken man realizing he has lost everything, almost all of the others strike some sort of heroic pose in the background. It is stupid, distracting, and subtly takes the reader out of the drama of the scene, greatly reducing its impact. Overall, this comic hits every negative stereotype that gives comic books a bad name. It is poorly written, mindless drivel that is gritty and violent for the sake of shock value instead of story. The characters are flat and unbelievable, the story that could have actually been really good and compelling is reduced to a poorly-translated mess of a summary of what could have been, and the art is overall sloppy. It seems like the comic is trying to re-create the magic that made the (admittedly flawed but still way better) Identity Crisis but with far less effort. The attempt falls on its face so hard, that this comic is still trying to surgically remove pieces of the ground from its forehead. Diehard DC fans might want to give this book a quick look if only to say they have read it. Everybody else should take a pass. There is no shortage of quality stories about these characters; there is no need to waste time on a comic that attempts to make them more generic than off-brand aspirin.

Lee Daniels The Butler a spectacular film

Ramiro Rodriguez Staff Writer
Lee Daniels The Butler is a 2013 historical film directed by Lee Daniels and starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, and John Cusack. The Butler is a fictionalized version of the life of Eugene Allen (Cecil Gaines in this film) who acted as head butler for the White House between 1952 and 1986. The film paints the story of Cecil and his family within the backdrop of the changes to the political and racial landscape between this time period. The film opens to a day in Cecil Gaines childhood where his father is murdered by the plantation owner who had also raped his mother. This event lead to him being taken to serve inside of the house instead of as a field hand by the other owner of the plantation. Cecil eventually leaves the plantation and finds work as a butler in a restaurant he stole cake from in the middle of poverty induced starvation. This would set the stage for his life as he progresses from the restaurant to a hotel in Washington D.C. where he would meet his wife (played by Oprah Winfrey) and eventually be asked to become a butler in the employ of the White House. The rest of the film follows and juxtaposes the events in Cecils family life, the actions of the sitting president and his administration, the promotion of the civil rights movement by Cecils oldest son Louis, and various moments in US history such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, and the King assassination riots. Throughout this stretch of time both Cecil and Louis go through life and perception changing events that shape and mold their images of themselves and each other. The film closes with Cecil meeting Barack Obama after his inauguration as president of the United States. The Butler is a spectacular retelling of the American civil rights movement through a set of viewpoints that historical retellings often are not told by: a servant to the men responsible for responding to the events as well as the view of a family man who has no battles or crusades and merely wants to live a peaceful life. Forest Whitaker gives a masterful performance that creates a deep level of empathy with Cecil through the best and worst parts of his life and makes Cecil Gaines a character to root for throughout the film. While John Cusack as Richard Nixon and Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan gave rather good performances, it can be rather immersion breaking if the twos political views are known. While there were no bad performances in The Butler, it sometimes feels like the presidents and first ladies were chosen purely based on who the film crew wanted to work with that week. Furthermore, the film has a complete lack of subtlety which, depending on the part of the movie, can be hit or miss. Ultimately, Lee Daniels The Butler is a powerful portrayal a turbulent part of this nations history that should be seen by the masses.

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february 10, 2014

Geek Week
of the
the head off chickens. I may kill small game, but I dont bite heads off of chickens. In a more modern sense, [yes because I have] Linux computers lying around all over the place, SAS hard drives and processors, [I] build my own computers, [and] have Solidworks stuff. I did McBride and got a minor in Public Affairs. Oh, and I have Eberharts books. What do you do with that precious resource known as free time? I read a lot of books, I have certainly been known to engage in backroading activity. I do hunting or target shooting, depending on time. I do some video games, but I generally prefer things that are not twitch-fests, so no Call of Duty or Warcraft. [I like] good single-player role-playing games and obscure detailed strategy titles that cannot be finished in a couple hours, such as Europa Universalis IV, Hearts of Iron III, and Victoria II. So, basically any game that will let you be Bismarck. And there happens to be a pickelhauben (a spiked Prussian helmet) and Prussian flag on my wall. What is your favorite thing about Mines? Its hard to define a single one best thing about Mines. I think its a combination of the academic rigor, the student body thats attracted to the rigor, and an excellent faculty. What are your greatest accomplishments? Well, I graduated twice and I paid for undergrad through commercial fishing. When a sock disappears in the laundry, what do you think happens to it? If one of my socks is missing, it probably means it is soaked somewhere in Hoppes 9. If you could be dropped into any fictional universe, what would it be and why? [The universe of] Star Trek because anybody who likes Game of Thrones could conquer the whole galaxy. Which would you rather have: a tool kit full of tools that will never break or a never-ending supply of duct tape? The tools because I actually fix things right. What is your best nerd moment story? There was a time when my housemates were quite into Mass Effect. I thought we needed to do some calculations on the center of Mass versus engine location on the Normandy. I did the math and posted it for them to see. They did not like the trajectory it would immediately reach. Either that or the denial of service act I launched on them when they were playing Halo. Do you have any plans for the future? To avoid the fate of Mike Slackenerny.

f e a t u r e s

page 9

Jordan Francis Staff Writer

Plenty of Mines students go through the school with a goal of running through their academic gauntlet as quickly as possible. Others take a bit longer to leave this haven of geeks, either by choice or by trial and error. However, only a privileged few can claim the honor of knowing the campus as well as Erik Charrier, who, after wresting both a Bachelor of Science and a Masters degree from Mines, continues to do battle with the school in pursuit of a PhD in Mining Engineering. [Oredigger]: Why did you pick Mining Engineering? Its an application of Mechanical Engineering [my Masters degree] in an interesting area. Ive always been fascinated by mining equipment...Here, I am doing what I always thought would be wonderful fun as a kid. What has been your favorite class so far? Either Technology and Social change with Mark Eberhart, Machine Design, one of Steeles Robotics classes, or Turners Design class. We decided to build a robot in Design class and ended up equipping a ten pound robot with BattleBots-grade drive motors. Are you a geek and why? By the Eberhart definition of a geek, absolutely not. I do not bite

...Eric Charrier, PhD Student: Mining Engineering

Do you have any advice for fellow geeks and Mines students? The world doesnt care how smart or how special you are or what you may feel you are entitled to. Instead, it cares about your ability to get results. Part of what you will learn here, and it is every bit as valuable as your engineering education, is to buckle down and do what needs to be done. Do you have a favorite quote? He who is not a Socialist by nineteen has no heart and he who is not a member of the Establishment by thirty has no brains. -Otto von Bismarck.
JORDAN FRANCIS / OREDIGGER

Eric Charrier, PhD mining engineering, boasts a pickelhauben.

Jacqueline Feuerborn Staff Writer

Snowfall is intriguing
As Charlottes time in Switzerland comes to an end, she braces herself for her inevitable return to England and her marriage to Mr. Carstairs. Peyton makes it incredibly easy to sympathize with Charlotte and her return to that fate is almost palpable. The others on the trip all sympathize with Charlotte. None of them are eager to return to the lives they left behind. Milo, one of the incredible people she had met on her adventures in Switzerland, was the one to offer a solution. After purchasing a small manor house, Milo admits that he has no one to run it and he hates the idea of living there alone. This leads to an offer to his companions. He offers each of his friends a position in his household that suits their preferred interests. Charlotte finds herself taken on as a housekeeper and friend, the perfect escape from her dreary life with Mr. Carstairs. From there the story continues on to their lives and experiences living together in Milos home. There are new characters and interactions paired with tons of new drama. The reader gets to read all about the conclusion of Mars criminal accusations and see Milos interactions with his aristocratic family and his lover. It is fascinating watching their new lives develop and the plot remains interesting throughout the entire novel. Up to the very end, the reader will be fascinated until the last pages where Peyton throws in a new twist that will leave the reader reeling. Snowfall by K. M. Peyton is an intriguing story all about life and how to change fate. The novel tells the alluring tale of a woman who would do anything to escape her dreary life and, in the end, found a life that she never even could have imagined. This is a great book for anyone who loves to cheer for the underdog or seeks an exciting adventure filled with romance and excitement. This book has aspects that would appeal to almost any audience. So to fill these snowy days, why not pull Snowfall off of a shelf and give it a go?

In K. M. Peytons novel, Snowfall, readers find themselves thrown back to Victorian England. In a small village, Peyton introduces the main character of the story. Charlotte is a sixteen-year-old girl who dreams of being anywhere but the vicarage that she feels trapped in with her grandfather. With no parents or dowry, her grandfather has arranged for her to marry the man who will replace him as the village vicar, Hubert Carstairs. Charlotte feels that this arranged marriage with Mr. Carstairs is bringing an end to her life. It is a little over-dramatic, but the author successfully conveys Charlottes sixteen-year-old emotions. In order to avoid her arranged marriage, Charlotte arranges with her brother Ben, an Oxford student, to go away on one incredible vacation. Her brother, while hesitant at first, helps convince their grandfather to let her go with on a trip to the Alps that Ben was already planning with several of his Oxford friends. From there the reader jumps aboard an adventure in the Swiss Alps. Upon arriving in Switzerland, Charlotte is introduced to a range of new characters. Bens friends include Milo, the dashing aristocrat who feels more at home on a mountainside than at a fancy party; Mar, a man hiding from the law for a crime he did not commit; Roland, a gardener and several other fascinating characters. During her time in Switzerland, Charlotte embraces a variety of new experiences that she never would have encountered in Victorian England. She falls in love and has her heart broken. She helps her maid who has fallen pregnant and climbs all over the Swiss mountains. The way that Peyton describes all of the scenery makes the reader feel as though they are actually in Switzerland with the characters. The characters are also very well done with hidden depths and almost constant character development.

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No. 11 falls by three to No. 1 Ladies vs. Metro

Jared Riemer Content Manager
In front of a near capacity crowd of close to 2,000, the No. 11 Colorado School of Mines mens basketball team hosted No. 1 ranked Metro State Friday night. Their upset bid fell just short, as Metro capitalized on a couple key turnovers to win a thrilling game by the score of 5754. The first half was a back and forth affair, with neither team gaining control through the halfway point of the first, but with 2:36 left in the half, Mines had jumped out to a seven point lead (27-20). Metro then scored five straight to cut into the lead and, at halftime, Mines led 29-26. The Orediggers led by eight, 38-30, less than six minutes into the half and looked to be in control, but the top-ranked team in the country was not going to be discouraged that easily and managed to keep close. With 6:52 left in the game, the score was tied at 40. Metro had not led since 14:29 left in the first half, but with just under three minutes remaining, they took the lead with two free throws. Mines quickly recaptured the lead with free throws of their own, but after Metro made a three pointer with 35 second left, the lead was 54-52. Another free throw pushed the Metro lead to three points, and with only 17 seconds left, Mines had some work to do. Trevor Ritchie quickly cut the lead to one with a layup, and after a foul and two freethrows, Mines had the ball back down just three. However, as they had done all night, turnovers plagued the Orediggers and the Roadrunners stole the ball before Mines could take a last second three. Mines (17-3, 13-3 RMAC) outrebounded Metro (19-1, 16-0 RMAC), but thanks to an 18 turnovers and a 19 point margin in turnovers, the Orediggers fell just short of an upset. The Orediggers played well and were clearly motivated by the massive student section, but to beat the No. 1 team in the nation, it takes a nearly perfect game, and the Orediggers simply made a few too many mistakes despite holding Metro to 33.3% shooting while shooting 42.1% of their own. Mines held Metro to 26.7% from three and shot 40.0% themselves, but Metro went 21-of-25 from the stripe and overcame their shooting from the field to make their free-throws. The Orediggers went 16-for-18 from the line for 88.9% and had three players in double digits. Luke Meisch led the Orediggers with 12 points and eight rebounds, Brian Muller added 11 points, four rebounds, and two assists, and Trevor Wages grabbed seven boards, scored 10 points and recorded a block. Gokul Natesan led the Mines bench with eight points, three assists, and three boards, and Trevor Ritchie led the team with five assists and one steal and added five points.
COURTESY CSM ATHLETICS

s p o r t s

february 10, 2014

Jared Riemer Content Manager

The Colorado School of Mines womens basketball team squared off against Metro State Friday night at home. The large crowd, given white t-shirts to support the team and create a white-out, did their best to will the Orediggers to victory, but they came up short as the buzzer sounded losing to rival Metro State 46-44. The Lady Orediggers (7-13, 6-10 RMAC), in front of a raucous crowd, jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead and controlled the play for the first 10 minutes of the half, leading 11-7 halfway through the first. Metro (10-10, 9-7 RMAC) took their first lead with 5:36 remaining and led by four at halftime, 23-19. Starting the second half just the way they did the game, Mines scored the first five points of the half to lead 24-23. Both teams continued to trade the lead for the middle part of the second half with both teams taking six point leads. With Mines leading 34-28, Metro went on a 12-0 run to take their own six point lead with just

Stings for softball

Katerina Gonzales Content Manager
The CSM softball team opened up their season in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Desert Stinger Tournament as their would-be season opening series at UCCS was postponed due to snow the previous week. The Lady Orediggers suffered tough losses throughout the tournament, falling to Cal State San Bernardino 9-0; California Baptist 16-6; Western Washington 13-5; and Texas Womans 10-0. In her first start of her college career, sophomore righty pitcher Kristen Prudhomme took both losses on Friday, allowing a total of 13 earned runs. Freshman Angela Eickelman relieved Prudhomme in both games on Friday, and Senior Jessica Lewis pitched to the final two Cal State batters in her pitching debut at Mines. Mines fielders played errorless softball against Cal State. Junior Cassie Ford and senior Morgan Anderson provided both hits in the Cal State game, both singles. Mines had a better offensive showing against California Baptist, striking first with two runs in the top of the first inning with a pair of doubles from Cassie

over five minutes remaining. With just 38 seconds left, Courtney Gallo made a three to bring Mines within two points, Metro missed the first half of the one-and-one, Allie Grazulis snatched the rebound and Mines called a timeout with just eight seconds left. With time enough for one final shot, the Orediggers got a shot off with two second left, but it fell just short, rimming out at the buzzer and the Lady Orediggers suffered a tough two point defeat at the hand of rival Metro, 46-44. Grazulis led the way for the Orediggers with 14 points and 14 rebounds; she added three assists, two steals, and a block. Taylor Helbig scored eight for Mines and Tory Langas and Laura Tyree chipped in six points and Katie Clements added five rebounds. Mines shot 31.5 percent from the field and held Metro to 32.7 percent in what was a defensive battle. Metro just edged the Orediggers in rebounding 3937, and both teams committed 16 fouls. Mines forced Metro into 16 turnovers, but had 13 of their own and only converted those turnovers into eight points.

Mines nearly landed a home court upset against No.1 Metro State on Friday evening.

Orediggers rebound with win over Regis Rangers

Chris Robbins Staff Writer
After just falling short of pulling the upset over No. 1 Metro State on Friday night, the Mines mens basketball team looked to rebound on Saturday evening against Re gis. The Orediggers did just that, and in strong fashion as they defeated the Rangers 8358. CSM opened the game on a roll, scoring the games first eight points and eventually building up a 14-2 lead over the Rangers. Despite falling so far behind so quickly, though, Regis put together a strong end to the first half, pulling within two at one point and only down 28-34 headed to the locker rooms. Any momentum Regis had built up seemed to disappear over the break, as Mines came out scoring points in bunches in the second half. The Orediggers hit seven of their first eight shots in the second 14. The Orediggers easily outperiod, racing out to a 47- shot the Rangers 52.5% to 31 lead before five minutes 37.5% (including a 47.1% to had even passed in the half. 30.4% edge beyond the three CSMs defense was complete- point arc), and outrebounded ly overwhelming the Rangers them 35-28. Mines was also at this point in the contest, able to limit their mistakes, with Mines putting up another committing both fewer turndozen points to take a 59-31 overs and fewer personal fouls lead before than Regis. Regis was fi - Four of CSMs five startThe elevnally able to enth ranked make a shot. ers reached double digit O r e d i g g e r s By then, the scoring in the contest, (18-3, 14-3 outcome of RMAC) will the game had including Brian Mullers 19 remain here pretty much in Golden been decided points to lead all scorers next weekend barring a miras they host acle from the Rangers. That Black Hills State on Valen miracle never turned to reality, tines Day and Chadron State and the Orediggers coasted to on Saturday. The BHSU con the 83-58 victory. test on Friday tips off at 8pm Four of CSMs five starters in Lockridge Arena, while Sat reached double digit scoring urdays game against Chadin the contest, including Brian ron tips off at 7pm. Saturdays Mullers 19 points to lead all game is also Senior Day and scorers. Luke Meisch added the final home contest of the Trevor Wages added 13 each season for the Oredigger basand Brett Green contributed ketball team.

Wrestling loss
Chris Robbins Staff Writer
The Oredigger wrestling team went on the road this Saturday to challenge Chadron State, but fell to the Eagles 50-0. Chadron State took a free 18 points from the beginning as CSM left the 125-pound, 133-pound, and 184-pound classes open and thus had to forfeit. In the bouts that did take place, the Eagles tended to dominate. Jacob Gerken lost by pin in the 141-pound group, as did Josh

Ford and senior Courtney Derus. Derus also hit a three-run homer in the fifth and final inning to make the score 16-6. Prudhomme started again for the Orediggers on Saturdays game against Western Washington. She allowed five runs in one inning before being relieved by Lewis, who also gave up five runs. Eikelman also pitched in relief, allowing only one run in 2.2 innings while fanning two. On the offensive side, senior catcher Sami Springer hit a two-run homerun in the bottom of the first, and Cassie Ford followed her by homering again. Ford would end up going 2-for-3, with freshman Paige Noering putting up two hits as well. The offense was silent against Texas Womens, however. Ford led the hitting again with two singles, but the Orediggers gave up 10 runs on 7 hits, and committed 4 errors. The loss was given to Eickelman, who gave up 7 earned runs in 1.2 innings. Lewis came out in relief again, giving up two earned runs. The Orediggers hope to get in the swing of things when they kick off their home schedule next weekend against Southwest Minnesota State.

Brown in the 174-pound and David Gifford in the 285-pound classes. Justin Ray was edged by major decision in the 149-pound class, and Ashton Krajnovich lost by decision in the 157-pound class. Losses by decision were also the results for Lawson Fiss in the 165-pound group and Paul Wilson in the 197-pound group. Wilson is now 15-3 on the season and 6-1 in divisional bouts. Mines will play host in their next contest against Adams State at 7pm on Friday in Volk Gymnasium.

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february 10, 2014

s p o r t s / c r o s s w o r d
ACROSS

page 11

1 Fruit drink (6,6) 9 Member of Tinners Parliament requires tin to be brought to a height (9) 10 One is left nothing (5) 11 Terribly rude filth (6) 12 Operatic heroine gives thanks (8) 13 Ex-president of Yugoslavia doesnt start in the usual manner (6) 15 About-turn can be employed more than once (8) 18 The enemys returning old silk to the front of the ship (8) 19 Turn over hotel heartlesly (6) 21 The privileged can use it to pay for diamond perhaps (4,4) 23 C-convexity of surface (6) 26 Out of practice for a year (5) 27 Birnam Wood marched to here? S absurd (9) 28 Drivers end up here, of course, having drunk up dry gin mix (7,5) DOWN 1 Greek hero lost doughty exterior, having swallowed ring of bone (7) 2 Give notice over conflict (5) 3 Turning traitor, initially, renegade is produced (9) 4 Bristle at extremely egregious upset (4) 5 Held aloft... plutonium? (8) 6 Part of plant could become petals with time (5) 7 Leaderless town in Beds is liable to flare up (8) 8 Writer embracing revolting militia movement ends up in the soup (6) 14 Pupil has ordained learning experience cut short, no master (8) 16 Browning in Australia, giving offensive snub to a monarch? (9) 17 Attribute good character to a church leader (8) 18 Work out to keep or improveit (6) 20 Old dish for 8 - could be casserole, we hear (7) 22 Shy bear were told - or another animal (5) 24 Minor poet like Wordsworth? Hardly! (5) 25 Nameless woman in Massenets opera gets beheaded (4)

Ladies B-ball comes close Birds and Bees

Chris Robbins Staff Writer
Only a day after their heartbreakingly close loss to Metro State, the Lady Oredigger basketball team took to the court on Saturday night trying to rebound and pull off a win against Regis, but fell in another tight contest 66-63. Regis raced out to an early 15-2 lead less than five minutes into the contest, and it appeared as though Mines would be in for a rough evening. But key shots from Allie Grazulis, Courtney Martin, and Courtney Gallo helped the Orediggers begin to reel in the Rangers. Soon the Regis lead was cut to just four points, and after hitting five successive shots late in the half Mines had managed to grab the lead 31-25. Regis put together their own short run to end the opening half, heading into the locker room down only 32-33 to the Orediggers. CSM came out of the break on their own streak, hitting their first three shots of the period and building their lead back up to 40- as Martin (12 points) and Tyree 34. This six point edge would (10 points) off of the bench. prove to be the largest lead either Despite outshooting the Rangteam would have for the remainder ers 43% to 41% (plus a 39% of the game, 27% edge Four Orediggers reached to though, as from the three the game double digit scoring on the point range), the remained Orediggers comclose til the night, including starters mitted more very end. Afturnovers and ter giving the Grazulis (14 points) and fouls than Regis lead away which wound and retaking Gallo (10 points), as well up playing a key it numerous part in the loss, times, Mines as Martin (12 points) and as the Rangers found themshot from the Tyree (10 points) off of free throw line selves down 66-63 with 11 more times the bench. three secthan CSM. onds left in the game with one Mines (7-14, 6-11 RMAC) will more opportunity on offense. This stay here in Golden next weekwould wind up being the final end as they host Black Hills State score though, as Laura Tyree was on Valentines Day next Friday not able to connect on a three and Chadron State on the 15th point attempt as time expired. next Saturday. Four Orediggers reached Fridays game tips off at 6pm, double digit scoring on the night, while Saturdays contest, which including starters Grazulis (14 is also Senior Day and the final points, seven rebounds) and Gallo home game of the season, be(10 points, four rebounds), as well gins at 5pm.
COURTESY CSM ATHLETICS

COURTESY ALBERICH CROSSWORDS

Jared Riemer Content Manager

This past weekend, the Colorado School of Mines men and w o m e n s

with a leap of 5.49m, and third in triple jump with a jump of 11.19m. Cassie Ratzlaff placed third in the weight throw with a heave of 15.09m and in the womens indoor pentathalon, Kayla Johnson placed third.

Sophomore Courtney Martin put up 12 points against the Regis Rangers on Saturday.

track teams competed at two different meets and came home with some quality finishes and a few provisionals. At the Wide-Track Classic in Hillsdale, MI, six Orediggers provisionaled in their respective events, the men and womens 5000m, and the mens 800m. Chloe Gustafson placed first in the womens 5000m with a time of 17:32.89, and Andrew Epperson, Derek Alcorn, and Marty Andrie finished one-two-three in the mens 5000m with respective times of 14:36.90; 14:45.91; and 14:47.28. In the 800m, Patrick Weaver finished second in 1:54.70, and Garrett Hoch came in fourth with a time of 1:55.04. In the mens mile, Frank Socha and Andrew Chumich finished 1st and 2nd with times of 4:17.16, and 4:18.95. At the Birds and Bees Invitational in Gillette, Wyoming, Mines came away with some quality performances. McKenzie Zeman finished first in the womens 200m in a time of 26.22 and in the womens 3000m, Nicole deMontigny finished second in 10:57.78 and Kirsten Farquar placed third with a time of 11:04.51. Zeman also won the 400m in 56.68. Michelle Rigsby placed second in the long jump

O n t h e m e n s side, Dan Mahoney and Kit Mayer finished fourth and fifth respectively in the 300m and Ian Rozier placed fifth in the 200m and first in the 400m with a time of 50.06. Kodi Burns finished fifth in the 800m, and in Pole Vault Justin Gildmeister vaulted his way to second place. Mines finished 1-2-3 in the 5000m with Seth Topper placing first, Ed Mulhern second, and Nathanael Williams third. Mines placed second in the 4x400m relay and in the weight throw, Ryan Ewen placed second and Nico Redfern fourth with throws of 17.92m and 16.00m respectively. Both men and womens teams return to competition January 21 in their final tune-up before the RMAC championships, at the Joe Davies Collegiate open hosted by your Orediggers.

COURTESY CSM ATHELTICS

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o p i n i o n
Jessica Deters Staff Writer

february 10, 2014

Outrage to Coke ad outrageous

Though the Super Bowl is notorious for its incredibly funny and entertaining commercials, rarely do the million-dollar ads stir up controversies powerful enough to make viewers engage in a dialogue about what it really means to be American. As soon as the Coca-Cola ad featuring people of different ethnicities singing America the Beautiful in their first languages appeared, there could be no doubt that controversy would follow. For some reason, despite the fact that the United States is a country built on immigration, some Americans find it difficult to respect new immigrants, especially those who retain pieces of their home nations culture, religion, or language. Let us take a step back to the fact that this nation was built on immigration. Technically speaking, the only people who are native, real, warm-blooded Americans are those native to this landthe Native Americans. Everybody else EVERYBODY ELSEis an immigrant. Even the founding fathers, the men who built this country on the idea that all men are created equal and promised various unalienable rights to the citizens of this nation, were immigrants. To ostracize new immigrants to a country that formed as a melting pot is not only ignorant but hypocritical as well. Now to language. English may be the most prevalent language in the United States, but it is most certainly not the only one. English is not the official language of the U.S. In fact, no official language exists in the U.S. Sure, learning English should be a goal for people who decide to move to the U.S. and build a life here, but can immigrants be expected to speak fluent English the second they step into this country? No. Why must people ostracize those who do not talk like them or have the same background as them? If Americans only associated with those from our home nation, this would be a drastically different country. Why not embrace other cultures? Why not encourage new immigrants to take on American traits by modeling to them what it means to be American? Being American means embracing diversity, not ostracizing those who are different. CocaColas ad depicted a beautiful, diverse country filled with people from different backgrounds with various lifestyles. What is so despicable about that?

Minds at Mines Weather preferences

Katerina Gonzales Content Manager
The weather can never be perfect, and in a place like Golden, Colorado, it frequently oscillates between extremes, satisfying one sort of people while annoying the other sorts. The Front Range of Colorado experienced another cold spell last week with temperatures in the single and negative digits Fahrenheit. A happy normal seems to lie somewhere in the double digit realm, but the low temps do occur, even if it hurts to breath. This week, Minds at Mines asked students, Would you rather it be below zero, or in triple digit temperatures?

Triple digits...I dont really like the cold. Megan Broek

How to get back into the grind

Monica Patterson Staff Writer
Maybe it seems like most people are on top of things like grades and jobs and friends, and maybe it seems like most people have achieved this perfect balance. Perhaps some people have not quite figured it out yet, and maybe some people are having issues getting back into the groove. Do not fear! Here is a quick guide with a few steps to help the some get to a place where they are comfortable: 1. Office hours are a must. Attend them, or set up a separate time to meet with each teacher if their pre-set times do not work. 2. Study groups! Classmates can help, so let them. 3. Start homework early. Get stuck? Not a problem, go to office hours or TA hours or ask classmates. 4. TAs are pretty awesome too. They can help, and in fact, it is what they are there for. 5. Use a planner. It does not have to be fancy, just a small something that important dates or assignments are written down in. 6. Set aside blocks of time for work, schoolwork, social times, eating, exercising, etc. i.e. a study schedule. 7. Sleep, please: 6-9 hours ideally. After six hours the fourth sleep cycle is completed and the
Sudoku Puzzle - Hard

I would say negative temperatures because you can always wear more layers. If it is in triple digits, you eventually run out of layers to take off. Jessie Burckel

subject will begin to feel rested. Five to six sleep cycles is ideal. 8. Exercise: this will help with endorphins and energy and overall health. 9. Eat healthily, stay hydrated. Essential nutrients are well, essential. 10. Allocate leisure time appropriately. Time should never be wasted. Dedicate it to de-stressing, studying, forming a hobby, perfecting said hobby, etc. 11. Last but not least, it is okay to ask for help. Obviously this list is neither exclusive of other tactics nor inclusive of every possible tactic. Just breath, rely on friends and teachers, and keep on keeping on.

Triple digits! Hashtag: Texas. Mollie Murray

Im more fond of triple digit temperatures because honestly I feel..I just can put up with them better than negative temperatures...it doesnt feel like youre freezing from the inside out. Jay Peterson

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