NOTABLE QUOTABLE “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” ~Alexander Pope

Berliners go greenGermany focuses on new eco-friendly toys. (12)

Basketball victoriesRoyals clinch first place in Landmark Conference. (16)

Oberst’s Bright ReturnThe singer returns as Bright Eyes. (8)

Volume 83, Issue 13 The Student Voice of The University of Scranton February 17, 2011

INSIDE Forum...................5-7Arts & Life........8-9

Business...........10-11Sci & Tech.............12

Weekly Digest.......2News......................3-4

Faith........................13Ads & Comics...14

Sports..............15-16 WEATHER Tonight: Mostly cloudy High of 51.

Want to write for The Aquinas?Contact aquinaseditors@gmail.com

B.o.B to play Spring Concert Facebook event leaks concert performer

After being forced to push back the reveal date of this year’s spring concert, The University of Scranton’s Programming Board announced today that the GRAM-MY-nominated rapper B.o.B. will headline this year’s spring concert.

B.o.B, or Bobby Ray, is coming off the biggest year of his career with the release of his first LP, “B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray.” The album includes the hit singles: “Airplanes” ft. Hay-ley Williams, “Magic” ft. Rivers Cuomo, “Airplanes Part II” ft. Emi-nem and Hayley Williams and the GRAMMY-nominated “Nothin’ On You” ft. Bruno Mars.

B.o.B. is a turn in a different direction for USPB. The spring concerts from the last four years were headlined by alternative-rock bands, Lifehouse, Jack’s Man-nequin and Brand New respective-ly. Assistant Director of Student Activities and Orientation/USPB Advisor, Michael Baumhardt, and Head of Publicity, Liz Klassner, stressed that B.o.B was an art-ist that stayed true to this year’s poll results, the majority of which

were artists of the hip-hop, rap and R&B genres.

“From the survey it seemed that that was the genre the students wanted,” Klassner said. “They wanted more of R&B, hip hop, rap. If that’s what the students want

then I think that we need to at-tempt to give them what they want or something like it.”

Even though B.o.B was not on this year’s survey, he was most similar to the artists that ranked in the top five.

“He was one that kind of popped up for us” Baumhardt said. “He was a really good if not better alternative for us.”

When asked for the results of

See “B.o.B,” Page 4

The University’s new Unified Science Center, scheduled for completion in the fall of 2011 will be a welcoming place for all the students at The University.

Dr. George Gomez, a biology professor at The University, has been given the title of “project shepherd.” His duties include overseeing the project and report-ing to The University on the prog-ress of construction.

During a guided tour given Wednesday, Feb. 16, Dr. Gomez said that the main theme of the building is student spaces. This theme can be seen throughout the building, with countless areas dedicated to student research and studies.

The Unified Science Center, however, is not being built ex-clusively for students in the sci-ence departments. Dr. Gomez hopes that students from all de-partments of The University will take part in the breathtaking new building. He hopes that this will help to take science out of the laboratory and into the world.

“Science is not going to be re-stricted to the laboratory,” Gomez

said. “Science is largely a human endeavor.”

The most exciting charac-teristic of the new building is that for the first time in the his-tory of The University, all science

departments(biology, chemistry, computer sciences, mathematics and physics) will be united under the same roof.

Dr. Gomez feels that the unifi-cation of these departments will

lead to more collaboration be-tween faculty and more learning opportunities for students. The layout of the building is designed to encourage people from differ-ent departments to work together and learn from one another.

“Common spaces tend to unify sciences,” Gomez said. “With the completion of the new science center, we will unify five depart-ments normally separated at The University.”

These common spaces include an administrative suite, with the secretaries from each depart-ment in one shared office, and faculty offices, in blocks of five, on each floor, but not designated by department. Dr. Gomez hopes this will force professors to walk around the building and partici-pate in discussion with faculty from other departments.

Technology integration was one of the most important aspects during the design of the building.

“From the ground up, we’re col-laborating a lot with technology,” Gomez said.

The entire building is Wi-fi ready, and many of the classrooms within the building are being de-signed to allow for live-stream

See “SCIENCE,” Page 4

Science Center to unify studentsBy PAul liOTTA

Staff Writer

Courtesy of MCt CaMpusRAPPER B.O.B (left) performs with Bruno Mars (right) at the GRAMMY Awards Feb. 13. B.o.B is scheduled to perform at The University’s Spring Concert May 13.

By COnOR FOleyEditor-in-Chief

A leak of a concert at The University in the spring prompt-ed hundreds of students to join a Facebook event Wednesday.

The event, titled “B.o.B @ University of Scranton – Scran-ton, PA,” suggested that rapper B.o.B was scheduled to perform at The University April 10 at 7 p.m., seemingly confirming ru-mors that were circling around the campus.

The event page was generat-ed by a third-party application called Bandsintown, which was responsible for posting the tour dates in a link off of B.o.B’s of-ficial Facebook page and, along with the suspicion surround-ing the Feb. 15 postponement of The University of Scranton Programming Board’s (USPB) Spring Concert Reveal, led stu-dents to believe that the infor-mation they were viewing was for a real event.

“Is this our spring concert?” one “wall-post” of the event said.

“That’s the miscommunica-tion. That’s a process on their side,” Michael Baumhardt, the assistant director of student activities and orientation/USPB advisor, said.

According to Baumhardt, this was the second time that the information was leaked on the Internet, the first being an appearance on B.o.B’s official website.

“[That time] I was able to work with my agent who talk-ed to William Morris Agency to talk to [B.o.B’s] manager to take that down,” Baumhardt said. “But apparently this Facebook thing, it didn’t catch that.”

The Facebook event seemed to surface around noon Wednes-day, and by 11 p.m. that night, 721 people — both University students and non-University students — had responded as planning on attending the event.

“Once everything goes viral, it just explodes,” Baumhardt said.

At the time the event was no-ticed on Facebook, USPB could neither confirm nor deny the

See “FACEBOOK,” Page 4

NiCk ChiNMaN / staff photographerUNIFIED SCIENCE Center construction is well underway, with interior construction moving along at a rapid pace.

By JOe wOlFeArts & Life Editor

2 THE AQUINASWEEKLY DIGEST THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Administrative Staff

Editor-in-Chief...................................................Conor Foley aquinaseditors@gmail.com

Managing Editor.......................................Kathleen Hudson aquinaseditors@gmail.com

Advertising Manager...................................Michael George AquinasAdvertising@gmail.com

Archive Manager.........................................James TroutmanFaculty Adviser....................................................Scott Walsh

FOUR-DAY FORECAST

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Staff Directory

Editorial Staff

News Editor................................................Tim McCormick news.aquinas@gmail.com

Business Editor...............................................Michael Dwier dwierm2@scranton.edu

Forum Editor..............................................Rosemary Shaver shaverr2@scranton.edu

Arts & Life Editor...................................................Joe Wolfe wolfej3@scranton.edu

Faith Editors........Andrew Milewski and Amanda Murphy milewskia2@scranton.edu, murphya5@scranton.edu

Sports Editors.............................Joe Baress and John Lund aquinas.sports@gmail.com

Photography Editor...................................Jessica Rothchild rothchildj2@scranton.edu

Science & Tech Editor...........................Catherine Erbicella erbicellac2@scranton.eduChief Copy Editor....................................Rose Marie Wong wongr2@scranton.edu

BOX-OFFICE TOP 5

Figures courtesy of yahoo.comPhotos courtesy of MCT Campus

and yahoo.com

“Just Go With It”

“Justin Bieber: Never Say Never”

“Gnomeo and Juliet”

“The Eagle”

“The Roommate”

$30.5 million

$ 29.5 million

$25.3 million

$8.6 million

$8.1 million

By JAMeS nOOne1966 Aquinas

University of Scranton stu-dents with satisfactory grades stand virtually no chance of being drafted—if they fill out the proper form at the right time.

That was made clear to The Aquinas in separate interviews recently with Mrs. Virginia Walsh, university registrar, and G.M. Har-ris, head of the Scranton draft board.

Mr. Harris noted that practi-cally all of the classification prob-lems involving university students are the result of “student laxity.”

“If they would only fill out Form 109 which is available from the registrar, and return it to the registrar’s office at the proper time, there would be no problems whatsoever,” Mr. Harris said.

Mr. Harris explained that these forms have to be filled out at the beginning of each school year and must be returned to the regis-trar—who immediately forwards them to the local draft board—by

the end of October.“If we come to a person’s fold-

er and there is no Form 109, we have no way of knowing if he is a student and he is consequently processed for a pre-induction physical examination,” Mr. Harris stated.

“Once a student receives a 1-A classification, he has 10 days to appeal to the local board, through the university registrar,” he said.

Mr. Har-ris pointed out that un-derclassman d e f e r m e n t s generally run from October to October, but that se-niors lose their 2-S student clas-sification around the end of June.

A senior planning to attend graduate school is required to fill out Form 103, which is obtained from the registrar of the graduate school he is planning to attend, it was explained.

The two chief criteria for de-ferments are that a student be

“full-time” and “satisfactory.” For a student to be considered “full-time” at the university, he must be taking at least 12 credits.

Although day school and grad-uate school students need only apply for a deferment once a year, part time and evening college stu-dents must apply each time they re-enroll, Mr. Harris said.

The fact that a student has 1-A classification does not make him

immune to re-classifica-tion. Lt. Gen. Lewis B. Her-shey, Selec-tive Service director, in laying down student de-

ferment guidelines, has said:“The Selective Service System

understands that institutions ex-pel and suspend for other than ac-ademic reasons. Violation of insti-tutional rules results in a student becoming less than satisfactory to the institution. When this is re-ported to the local board, it causes his re-classification. Currently, this

re-classification is likely to result in very early induction.”

Mrs. Walsh echoed the advice of Mr. Harris. She has issued the following “three-point plan” for students to follow, which is post-ed on the bulletin board in the Student Center:

If a student has reached the age of 18, has submitted his question-naire, and has received a Selec-tive Service number, but has not received a student classification (2-S) for the academic year 1965-1966, he is to fill out Form 109 im-mediately. These forms are ob-tained from and returned to the registrar’s office.

(2) If during the school year, a student receives notice of re-clas-sification to 1-A, he should realize that his appeal period lasts only 10 days from the date of mailing of notice of reclassification; hence, it is important that you make your appeal immediately. You are ad-vised to see the registrar in this

February 11, 1966

Draft dips into university campusThe Aquinas Archives: This week in 1966

IntersessionProvided by

The University Police Office

Offense: Disturbance Counts: 2 Date: Dec. 11, Jan. 15 Location: Vine Street and Quincy Ave., Tioga House Offense: Burglary Counts: 2 Date: Dec. 29 Location: North Webster Ave.

Offense: Public Drunkeness Counts: 1 Date: Jan. 1 Location: On Campus Offense: Criminal Mischief Counts: 2 Date: Jan. 3, Jan. 5 Location: On Campus Offense: Underage Drinking Counts: 2 Date: Jan. 7, Jan. 8 Location: GLM Patio, Driscoll Hall

SEE “DRAFT” PAGE 14

NEWS 3THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011

People Profile: Forum Leadership StaffStudent leaders from across

the campus community gathered Wednesday night to participate in Cross Campus Collaboration, an event hosted by the Student Forum Leadership Staff as part of the Leadership Series. Shannon Murphy Fennie, Director of Student Activities and Orientation, led the event, which took form as a inter-club discussion of ways to improve programming on campus. Fennie pointed out that there are many events on campus, but attendance

is often minimal because The Uni-versity is over-programming.

“Our goal is to give you a broad-er view of everything going on on campus,” Fennie said.

The meeting began with an op-portunity for clubs to post their events on a calendar of the se-mester. This calendar will then be distributed to the leaders of clubs across campus, so that event dates and times can be scheduled with a bit more knowledge about what else will be going on at that mo-ment.

“It’s a living document,” Fennie said, when asked if student-leaders could add events at later dates.

The calendar will be posted on bulletin boards in the student fo-rums, where club leaders can add their own events to it.

After, students sat to discuss ways to better collaborate with other clubs. Clubs ranging from the Royal Television Network and Colleges Against Cancer to Liva Arts Company and Student Gov-ernment contributed to the con-versation and helped each other in areas where they were struggling.

“The goal was for representa-tives from different clubs to learn how to collaborate,” Lucy Cumber-land, a senior from Ardmore, said. “I think it was helpful for new offi-cers who didn’t learn the ropes yet.”

“It was also helpful for upper-classmen, too, because we were discussing ways to hand down po-sitions to underclassmen and col-laborate with other clubs,” Jamie Mariani, a senior from Philadelphia, added.

Cumberland and Mariani are two of the six students who repre-sent the Student Forum Leadership Staff. These students work at the desk in the Student Forum, on the second floor of the DeNaples Cen-ter, at night after the professional staff leaves. They also run weekly programs on different topics that help clubs throughout the semes-ter.

“These events are for the whole student body, not just leaders,” Mariani said.

The Forum Leadership Staff also

includes Alex Rizzi, a junior from Orange Park, Fla.; Cristina Pontori-ero, a sophomore from Edison, N.J.; Shawn Washart, a junior from Bell-mawr, N.J., and Caitlin Cunning-ham, a senior from Pearl River, N.Y., who serves as leadership coordina-tor of the Forum night staff.

The staff is chosen through an application process, including an interview, through the Office of Student Activities and Orientation. This is the second year of the pro-gram.

“The first year was a trial run,”

Cumberland said. “They did it, but they didn’t have

as many presentations,” Mariani followed. “We’re still getting our grounding, but hoping to make it bigger in years to come.”

Favorite Song (to dance to as a group): “Waka Waka” by Shakira

Favorite Food (to eat as a group): Pizza

Favorite Dessert (to eat togeth-er): Cookies

Favorite Color (to wear as a group): Purple

CoNor foley / editor-iN-ChiefSTUDENT FORUM Leadership Staff members include, back row, Alex Rizzi, Shawn Washart and Caitlin Cunningham, Leadership Coordinator, and, front row, from left, Lucy Cumberland, Jamie Mariani and Cristina Pontoriero.

LBS visits University’s Chapman Lake Retreat Center

To kick off its second year as a club and as part of The Uni-versity’s Campus Ministries, the campus group Leaders for a Brighter Scranton hosted a re-treat at Chapman Lake.

With Sr. Carol Tropiano, Uni-versity Minister, and Fr. Rick Malloy, Vice President of Uni-versity Ministries, there to greet them, 27 students found them-selves in front of a frozen lake this past Friday evening into Sat-urday afternoon.

Once settled in the lake house, the first presentation began: Finding God in All Things. This section of the program was presented by Timothy Weber, a sophomore from Wycombe, and Mollie Vita, a senior from Mel-ville, N.Y. Weber and Vita sent students on a mission around the building to find items in which they could see God, returning minutes later with lamps, pea-nut butter jars and hangers just to name a few. These items went from ordinary to extraordinary

in minutes. Jonathan Schall, a sophomore

from Wyoming, chose a bar of soap.

“Soap reminds me of God be-cause both should be applied by everyone daily,” he said.

Students were further chal-lenged to see God in times of destruction and depression, such as the floods in Nashville, Tenn. that occurred in May of 2010.

The second presentation con-

cerned cura personalis, the Je-suit ideal of “care for the whole person.” An activity was run by presenters Maggie Coyne, a ju-nior from Stony Point, N.Y., and Robert Gadomski, a junior from Plains. Riddles were presented to the group, where each riddle pertained to an area of cura per-sonalis. Among the areas were healthy eating, exercising, self regulation and sleep. With the riddles came another scavenger hunt for items which demon-strated all of the areas.

The final presentation was given on discernment. It was defined by the presenters, Kath-ryn Rigby, a senior from Hicks-ville, N.Y., and Shawn Washart, a senior from Bellmawr, N.J., as “a habitual decision-making pro-cess through which an individual centers him or herself and finds answers through self-awareness and trust in God.”

“We have to look at discern-ment as the headlights of a car. All we should be focused on is what is immediately in front of us and a little ahead. Our fear of the unknown stems from think-ing of things beyond that” Sr. Tropiano said.

After each presentation, members separated into small groups under the leadership of Kristin Leccese, a senior from Lyndhurst, N.J., William Thom-sen, a sophomore from Bethle-hem, Vita and Coyne, the LBS Core Members. The purpose of the small group time was to dis-cuss the presentations, and what thoughts the members might have on the ideas and ideals pre-sented and how they could be implemented in their own lives.

When students were not meet-ing with their small groups, there was independent journal writing time, music accompanied reflec-tion in the chapel, snack time and one night where The Exa-men was presented and guided.

Leaders for a Brighter Scran-ton is a club that enables stu-dents to embark on a spiritual journey in order to find who God is to them and to implement the Jesuit ideals into their lives. If you are interested in apply-ing for the following session in Spring 2012, visit Campus Minis-tries on the second Floor of the DeNaples Center or contact Sr. Carol Tropiano at tropianoc2@scranton.edu.

By niCOle lOPez-iSAStaff Writer

By TiMOThy MCCORMiCkNews Editor

stoCk photoTHE UNIVERSITY maintains a retreat center at Chapman Lake, where the Leaders for a Brighter Scranton held their first retreat as a club.

Courtesy of Maggie CoyNeSTUDENTS GATHER in groups to discuss the cura personalis exercise at the LBS Retreat.

The University’s Student Gov-ernment is in full swing pre-paring for upcoming elections. General information meetings re-garding the election process, the election timeline and rules and regulations will be held Monday, Feb. 21 and Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the DeNaples Center Student Forum. Any rising sophomore, junior or senior inter-ested in running for office must attend at least one of the infor-mational meetings.

Student Government is open to anyone in the student body who is willing to make a commitment to The University. Patricia Cermi-gnano, Director of Communica-tions for the Student Government Executive Cabinet, described a strong student senator as one who is “responsible, ambitious, pro-active, open-minded and willing to represent their peers.” Cermignano went on to explain the commitment involved in holding a position on Student Government: “Students must be willing to attend bi-weekly meet-ings on Friday afternoons, attend all student government spon-sored events and be part of one of the five Student Government sub-committees including Safety and Crime Prevention, Student Life & Dining Services, Academic Affairs, Ignatian Awareness and Appropriations.”

Open positions for the 2011-2012 school year include Student Senate positions for each grade, Off-campus, Resident and Com-muter Senators and the executive cabinet, including the President and Vice President of the student body. No previous experience is required to run, but a student must be in good academic stand-ing and have a clean judicial re-cord with The University.

The Student Government Elec-tions will be held March 16, 2011 via electronic voting through my.scranton.edu.

Elections

tiMothy MCCorMiCk / News editorSHANNON MURPHY Fennie, Director of Student Activities and Orientation, led the Cross Campus Collaboration event. Forum leader Shawn Washart is also pictured.

4 THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011NEWS

and podcast capabilities.Another vital part of the design

aspect is energy efficiency. The University hopes the Unified Sci-ence Center will achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environ-mental Design) Silver certification when the building is completed.

The designers are achieving energy efficiency throughout the building with windows to allow natural light in, reducing lighting costs. The heating and cooling sys-tem is also designed to cut down building with windows to allow natural light in, reducing lighting on energy costs by retaining the hot or cold air it produces.

“On a day like this,” Gomez said Wednesday, “the system can recap-ture almost a hundred percent of its heat.”

Faculty hopes to use the design of the building to teach students about sustainability in construc-

tion.The new building has numerous

features which make it poised to become the primary building for many activities within the Scran-ton community.

There is a public lecture hall which will hold 150 people, with ac-cess for the press, a feature missing in other University lecture halls.

The main entrance of the build-ing will be a three floor atrium with glass walls allowing light in. The atrium will include a New York style café where students can eat, gather and study.

While a large portion of the out-side walls of the building will be glass, the stone used on the other portion of the building is com-ing from the same quarries as the stone used on the estate building, adding to the theme of unifying not just the science departments but The University as a whole.

“SCIENCE” CONTINUED FROm PAGE ONE

NiCk ChiNMaN / staff photographerJOSEPH ROBACK, Associate Vice President of Enrollment and Undergraduate Admissions, attended the tour of the Unifed Sci-ence Center Wednesday.

NiCk ChiNMaN / staff photographerA CONSTRUCTION worker, on the roof of the Unified Science Cen-ter, performs his work with a view of the city. On the roof is an Outreach Space, including a telescope and a greenhouse.

the poll to see how stu-dents voted, the committee would not release the num-bers.

“We don’t want to release the numbers because we don’t think that it’s fair that way, that we were not able to get the top artist the students wanted. So we’re uncomfort-able with releasing the num-bers for it,” Baumhardt said.

As most students know, USPB postponed the unveiling of this year’s spring concert due to complications with the artist. The committee re-leased this statement Feb. 14, via the committee’s Facebook page and website: “The USPB’s 2011 Spring Concert Reveal has been POSTPONED until a later date! There has been a slight hold-up with our Spring Concert artist/band, and a final detail is needed before the release. The artist/band is on their way back from the Grammy’s and unable to get ahold of, please stay tuned for the NEW REVEAL DATE!”

The issue with the artist first arose Feb. 11.

“When we got a call last week on Thursday it was be-cause he cancelled our origi-nal date,” Baumhardt said.

The issue was hoped to have been resolved by the

end of the weekend to allow for Tuesday’s announcement to go on as scheduled. When Tuesday came, Baumhardt “re-ally didn’t know” what was happening with the concert.

USPB was prepared to have the concert Sunday, April 10.

“Our initial plan from the beginning – we had this artist locked in place since Novem-ber – so our goal was to re-lease it in the 15th and ticket sales this coming Monday,” Baumhardt said.

A final agreement was reached Wednesday night, with B.o.B scheduled to per-form at The University May 13. The date pushes the spring concert back more than a month and places it on the Friday of Dead Week.

“The concert date is going into the weekend of finals, which the administration is fine with. Last Friday morn-ing we had a meeting with Dean McShea to make sure it was fine to have a concert the Friday of dead week,” Baum-hardt said.

With the date of the Spring Concert set, USPB now turns its attention to selling tickets to its big event.

According to the B.o.B flier, ticket sales will begin March 30. For the first two weeks,

students will have the exclu-sive right to purchase up to two tickets for $20 apiece. After the first two weeks, tickets sales will be extended to the general public for $25. With limited space in the By-ron Center, tickets are expect-ed to sell out, so it is advised that students purchase their tickets while they can.

Also, as usual volunteer op-portunities will be given to students who want to par-take in the preparation for the Spring Concert. There will be positions available in public-ity, security and hospitality.

Stay tuned to USPB an-nouncements to see when information meetings regard-ing these positions will take place.

Now that USPB has its Spring Concert in place fol-lowing a tumultuous weekend that placed the life of this year’s concert in jeopardy, the committee will have to show students that it made the right decision with its artist and hope that this spring con-cert will leave those of year’s past in its dust.

However, to the dismay of many University students, it has been confirmed that Emi-nem will not be appearing at this year’s spring concert.

“B.O.B” CONTINUED FROm PAGE ONE

accuracy of the event as B.o.B’s management had not given them the final date.

“When people were asking us questions today, it was like ‘We can’t confirm, we don’t know,’” Baumhardt said. “It’s not correct information, but we don’t know what’s going to be right — the date could be right, the artist could be right, or nothing could be right.”

As it turned out, the date listed on the Facebook event, April 10,

was incorrect. April 10 was the original date that USPB had booked B.o.B for, but learned last week that the artist was backing out of it, forcing USPB to postpone its “Re-veal” event.

“That’s what was frustrating to us. It was like we couldn’t control the situation, what was going on,” Baumhardt said.

USPB announced earlier today that the official date will be May 13.

Though the leak let students

know who the artist was before USPB planned on announcing it, the organization was pleased with the results that it was bringing back.

The more than 700 people listed as “attending” on the event page trumps the estimated 400 people that attended last fall’s free Augus-tana concert.

“We’re proud of the numbers. I love the numbers,” Baumhardt said.

“FACEBOOK” CONTINUED FROm PAGE ONECourtesy of faCebook

Thinking of a career in journalism?

Curious about what goes into putting out

a newspaper?

This event is open to all University of Scranton & Marywood University students. For more information contact :

Kim Pavlick (pavlickk2@scranton.edu)

Want to brush up your writing and reporting

skills? S ign up for The Times-Tribune “Boot Camp.”

A one-day series of workshops with working journalists to discuss writing, layout, working a beat, on-line journalism, and reporting ethics.

The workshop runs April 30 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Don’t miss out!

No experience necessary.

5

Editorial Board

Kathleen HudsonEditor-in-ChiefConor FoleyManaging Editor

Serving The University and

community since 1931

THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Rosemary Shaver Forum EditorForumEgypt’s ‘last pharaoh’ falls amid popular uprising

Statists espouse monopoly of forcePride, Passion, Positivity:

Do you like to argue?

Write for Forum!Contact the editor: shaverr2@scranton.edu

Let’s get high on life

COMMenTARy

By OliveR

STRiCklAnD

Staff Writer

Courtesy of MCt CaMpusCELEBRATIONS CONTINUE Feb.12 in Cairo, Egypt, following eighteen days of reformist protests which culminated Feb. 11 in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak after a three decade reign.

COMMenTARy

By DR. williAM PARenTe

Political Science Department

I was in Chicago when the me-dia reports on the disturbances in Egypt started appearing. In the last week of January, deadly con-frontations with the police had caused the people of Cairo to go on a rampage, attacking "758 es-tablishments."

The man who had ruled Egypt for almost thirty years was being pressured to leave. He had been "manipulated by Western pow-ers," he had failed to remove the Zionists from Israel, he had failed to help the Palestinians, his gov-ernment was rife with corruption.

The secular opposition parties – notably the Wafd – had joined the Muslim Brotherhood in demand-ing his departure.

He tried to buy time by firing his Prime Minister (Nahhas) but it did not satisfy the protestors in the square who now marched on the palace.

The military eventually took over and stated their objectives: "the abolition of martial law, the lifting of censorship, the release of political detainees, the proclama-tion of an amnesty for all politi-cal prisoners, and the abrogation of all previous reactionary laws." And of course, an end of corrup-

tion was promised, a new consti-tution was to be produced and the return of democracy was guaran-teed.

This of course was l952. The evil ruler was King Farouk. The "military council" established to produce democracy was led by Mohammed Naguib and Colonel

Gamal Abdul Nasser. We all know how that experiment in democ-racy turned out.

Churchill during a speech in Commons famously mused that "Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pre-tends that democracy is perfect or

all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

We usually focus our criticism on "all those other forms of gov-ernment": autocracy, authoritari-anism, anarchism, totalitarianism,

dictatorship, tyranny, etc. But Churchill, who had been booted out of office by an ungrateful people two years earlier, was doubtless sincere when he termed democracy "the worst form of government . . ."

The Middle East of course regularly proves Churchill's point. Democracy has brought us a He-zbollah government in Lebanon, a Hamas government in Gaza, a theocracy in Iran, an Islamist gov-ernment in Turkey and the Netan-yahu-Likud coalition government in Israel which has squandered the peace overtures made by Ol-mert's Kadima party and replaced Tsipi Livni as foreign minister with Beiteinu, leader of the "Israel Is Our Home" party – something like sending Ian Paisley to Rome to broker a peace with Northern Ireland's Catholics.

What is likely to come out of this latest "military council," which now runs Egypt?

There are several possible sce-narios:

1) The Iranian scenario: Cart-er's abandonment of the Shah al-lows the Iranian people to elect the regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the takeover of our embassy in Teheran, the hostage crisis and our consequent growing enfeeble-ment in world affairs, as well as

See “EGYPT,“ Page 7

COMMenTARy

By iAn SAggeSe

Staff WriterIn our country today the de-

bate rages on over the scope of government. While liberals seek to expand the role of the state for the “common good” in areas such as health care, real conservatives seek to cut taxes and spending and limit government. The de-bate often stays within this lim-ited spectrum, with mainstream conservatives still accepting the general role of the state and its right to collect taxes and provide certain services.

When I look at the state and taxation in general, regardless of the extent of taxation, I see noth-ing but force and theft. If I decide that I need food, and break into my neighbors house to take his at gunpoint, no one would argue that I violated the law and some-how did something wrong. How-ever, if a group of people chose me to go into my neighbor’s house and take what he has at gunpoint, we call this taxation. Society justi-fies this use of force by claiming that taxation is necessary to prop up the state and provide essential services like roads and police forc-es, but what if there was a way to provide these things without the violent use of force?

Statists often glorify the great moral value of the state in pro-viding services for the poor and those who could otherwise not afford them. They claim that the free market “fails” this group of people and that some redistribu-tion of wealth through taxes is morally necessary. Does providing services for the poor and “societal

good” really justify the state as a forced monopoly on many essen-tial services and is the state really the most efficient system to pro-

vide these services? My answer to this question is a

resounding NO. Let’s contrast the market with

the state with a hypothetical situ-ation. If I live in an inner city with a government-run police force and this force constantly abuses my constitutional rights or does noth-ing to actually protect me, then I have two choices. I can lobby the government to change something and get people active in my com-munity or I can violently oppose the police force and risk death and jail time.

Either way I will spend this en-tire time paying the same officers who are ruining my life and my community. If the same situation arose in a free market system, I would simply stop paying these officers. I could even get together with others who felt this way and start my own defense group with-in my community to offer a com-peting service. If we could offer our service in a better way (less violations of rights than the other police forces in the area) or for a cheaper price, the community will naturally chose us over others.

Again, statists would argue that the same choices exist in a demo-cratic republic and would claim that we elect our government and therefore have just as fair of a say as a market system. They make the mistake of applying personal choice with majority choice. In our current form of government, elected officials are supposedly bound to respect the rights of the minority, but a market system seems much better at providing this.

Courtesy of MCt CaMpus

See “mONOPOLY,“ Page 7

As I write this, I am high on life. I am tripping on positivity; it is the best feeling in the world. I have been like this for weeks and it’s unreal.

I hope at least some of you know what I am talking about. This feeling is

not to be confused with a retreat-high. Although they are similar, a retreat-high is that great feeling that lingers for several days after a retreat, but a life-high is simply feeling great just because of your current life situation.

There are many ways to get high on life. Here is a list of tips that will help you get high on life:

•Avoid Debbie Downer – We all have them in our lives. You may know them by their usual com-ments: “Ugh! Is it Friday yet?” or, even worse, “This semester is hor-rendous. I already feel sick. I didn’t sleep well last night. I am getting fat, and my back hurts.” This per-sonality type can take you from frolicking down the commons with the biggest smile on your face to being the blandest person-ality on campus. Please avoid all Debbie Downers at any cost. They will snatch the personality right out of you. In addition to avoid-ing these people in person, be sure to dodge them in cyberspace. Facebook offers a great feature to clean up your newsfeed. You can “hide” people that post pesky sta-tus updates from your newsfeed. Try it out. I love it.

•Breakdown inner barriers that keep you from enjoying life – For instance, try looking at circum-stances in life that would nor-mally yield negative thoughts and

replace them with positivity. For instance, let’s say that you have a huge midterm paper due that you are dreading. Turn your thoughts around by thinking about that big midterm paper as a challenge and an opportunity to succeed and better your chances of getting an A in the class. You’ll feel great once you overcome that obstacle and achieve your goal. It is all about your perspective on life. Is the glass half full or half empty? Avoid nega-tive outlooks on life, and think posi-tive in every circumstance.

•Avoid drama – Nothing takes the happiness out of a good day like the stress of drama. Keep these no-win negative situations to a mini-mum and it will make the biggest difference in your overall mood. I haven’t dealt with drama in weeks and I have been high on life for weeks. Coincidence? Absolutely not.

•Get in touch with your spiritu-ality – Daily prayer and reflection will keep you grounded and ulti-mately be the only thing you can always count on. If you haven’t tried this yet, take a literal leap of faith in my advice and give it a shot. In addition to Sunday mass, I highly recommend attending The Examen in the Chapel of the Sa-cred Heart every Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. It is a twenty-minute prayer service involving reflection and conversation with God. Come try it out. I’ll see you there.

•Get in shape – Getting in shape contributes to your confi-dence and self-esteem, which will ultimately only add to your high on life. Daily exercise will not only benefit your health in the long run, it will give you more energy in the day. Part of being high on life is having the energy to be happy.

So, there you have it, my spiel on how to get high on life. Now that you know how to get high,

6 THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011Forum

The content of The Aquinas is the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief and Executive Staff and does not necessarily reflect the views of The University, its staff or faculty. The University adheres to the principle of responsible freedom of expression for its student editors.All letters become the property of The Aquinas and will be considered for both print and online editions unless the writer explicitly states otherwise. The Aquinas will not print anonymous or pseudonymous letters, except in unique circumstances.Letters will only be edited for style.

Forum Policy

‘U’views

Courtesy of MCt CaMpus

Is it America’s place to champion democ-racy in foreign coun-tries through financial aid, military interven-tion or other means?

Mark Wehrenberg Saylorsburg Class 2012

“Yes, but only if we are consistent in our efforts and do not turn a blind

eye to countries that we rely on.”

“Yes, given our place and pow-er in the world we cannot sit by and allow threats to freedom to

overcome others in the world.”

Steve Conlon Danbourg, Conn. Class 2011

Nonviolent action viable option in Middle East

CPAC award to Rumsfeld not deserved

I n h a b i t i n g the streets of Cairo and Al-exandria for eighteen days, Egyptians of unique reli-gious back-grounds and i d e o l o g i e s were united in their common want for po-

litical reform during a string of protests that culminated in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak Feb.11. Although first a reaction to Tunisia popular-ly-demanded power transfer, Egypt’s revolution ultimately took on a character of its own.

With the success of this non-violent, peaceful revolution, voices have cried out across the Middle East, from Yemen to Bahrain, and most recently Iran, demanding change. It is thus worthwhile to explore nonviolence as a viable means of exercising popular will in or-der to produce effective politi-cal change.

In fact, several studies on political power have recognized the people as a viable control over government. Refusal to acknowledge subjects as the source of power has histori-cally led to the weakening or

disillusionment of governing structures. Theorists, including Emmanuel Comte and politi-cal scientist Gene Sharp, have further concluded that the con-sent of the governed is a pre-requisite to political power.

Once in possession of pow-er, it follows that a ruler must maintain the obedience of the governed. Until recently, Mubarak was successful in this pursuit for thirty years.

It is easier for a public to obey ruling structures than to confront them. Habit, fear, moral obligation and self-inter-est often serve as barriers for direct opposition to the power-structure. However, in all soci-eties there is a tipping point. Along with Sharp and others, I suggest nonviolent noncoop-eration as a viable, and even ideal, means by which a people discontented by an unrespon-sive ruler could exercise their power as the collective.

Under the leadership of Gan-dhi, in India political noncoop-eration took the form of civil disobedience. Egyptians took up a similar mantle in recent weeks, successfully forcing the resignation of a thirty-year-old reign under Hosni Mubarak. Their actions has since served as an example for nonviolent popular uprisings throughout

the Middle East. President Obama praised

the value of nonviolent resis-tance in a nationally televised reaction to Mubarak’s resigna-tion, Feb. 11, congratulating the Egyptian people on success-fully seizing their “universal rights.”

“Egyptians have inspired us, and they’ve done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence. For in Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence – not terrorism, not mindless kill-ing – but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of his-tory toward justice once more,” Obama said.

Obama further praised the Egyptian military for acting responsibly as the “caretaker” of the Egyptian people in its refusal to shoot as or use force against protesters. In saying such, he offered Egyptians the continued friendship and support of the U.S. as their military guides them in the construction of a new govern-ment.

In a scheduled press confer-ence Tuesday, Obama also ad-dressed the outbreak of pro-test in Iran Monday, noting the “direct contrast” to Egypt’s people’s revolution. Iranian of-ficials reacted violently to the

protests, shooting at the crowd and calling for the execution of two opposition leaders.

Data from Iranian media re-ports suggests at least sixty-six persons were executed in Iran last month. Despite having praised the Egyptian revolution as in the Iranian, Islamist mod-el, Iranian officials reacted to rumblings of discontent within its own borders violently.

Human nature compels us to react with force when pre-sented with the threat of fir-ing guns and sometimes non-cooperation proves the more effective alternative. Although Egyptians protesters did not have to battle with the moral questions that arise upon being pushed back with force, their example remains relevant.

“We are peaceful,” Egyp-tians repeatedly chanted dur-ing their near three week saga from the end of January through Feb.11. Egyptian Mus-lims and Christians prayed and stood together, showing the world if a people can be unit-ed by those things they share, then all the differences become illusionary. Perhaps, in this, a shared humanity, nations can put particular differences aside and rise up in defense of justice under a common social vision.

On Feb. 11, the biggest con-servative convention of the year awarded Donald Rums-feld, the former Secretary of Defense, the “Defender of the Constitution” award. Howev-er, I’m convinced he read the title of the constitution and stopped because he thought he was wasting time when he could be planning a pre-emptive strike against a third world country. Having Don-ald Rumsfeld in a position of power and expecting him to uphold his oath to defend the constitution is kind of like having Charlie Sheen run a rehab center; it’s not a very good idea.To make matters worse, Dick Cheney was the presenter of the award. That is like having Charles Man-son give out the Nobel Peace Prize, though at least Charlie admits his crimes.

What some people have forgotten is that Donald Rumsfeld was not only in of-fice during the Bush admin-istration, but in the 1980s as well. When he considered running for president in 1988 he touted that one of his big-gest accomplishments was restoring full relations with Iraq. In reality, he gave weap-ons to Saddam to battle the “Iranian revolution Islamist influence.” After 9/11, Rums-feld investigated Saddam Hussein. Eventually, America did go to war against Iraq for weapons of mass destruction without an official declara-tion of war. This is like giv-

ing the mob weapons to fight the Crypts and then arresting the mob for possessing those weapons.

He didn’t stop violating the constitution there, however; there was much work to be done. He sti l l had to prove to the other members of the Bush administration that he didn’t just misinterpret the constitution, but that he was blatantly ignoring it so he could fit in with them. After al l , it was George W. Bush who described the consti-tution by saying “it’s just a goddamned piece of paper.” Rumsfeld was the man who authorized the torture and abuse of detainees at facil i -t ies in Afghanistan and Iraq. But they are only terrorists r ight?

They have no rights, nor should they, according to Rumsfeld supporters. What they fail to acknowledge is that there have been doz-ens of cases where innocent people were jailed, tortured, and later released. Khaled al-Masri is a perfect example of such an atrocity. Despite be-ing a German citizen, he was wrongly incarcerated in a secret facility located in Af-ghanistan, tortured for sev-eral months, and eventually released without an apology or means to return home. I don’t know about you, but I feel safer already.

The list of constitutional violations that was a direct result of Donald Rumsfeld himself could go on and on. I could talk about how he sup-ported the P.A.T.R.I.O.T act, secret military bases across the world and much more. If

I wanted to list all of them then it would be as long as the amount of kids Madonna adopted, so I will save ev-erybody the time. I’ll end on this note: When Dick Cheney

describes somebody as “the finest secretary of defense this nation has ever had,” you start looking to see how and when he made our country worse.

COMMenTARy

By DAviD PeRez

Staff Writer

“Yes, but I think an additional focus needs to be on humanitarian aid and military invention should

be a last resort.”

Moira McGinn North Wales Class 2012

“It’s a balance between pro-moting democracy on supporting democratic movements, whether they be by the government or the people and how many resources we can back that up with consid-ering the state of our economy.”

Cathy Seymour Clarks Summit University Minister

Question and column com-piled by Bryan Heinlen.

COMMenTARy

By ROSeMARy

ShAveR

Forum Editor

7THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011 Forum

Prenatal surgery successful, prevention keyThe outcome

of a clinical trial describing the re-sults of prenatal versus postnatal surgery was pub-lished last week in The New Eng-land Journal of Medicine. The trial sought to de-termine whether performing sur-

gery before birth would lessen the manifestation of life-altering con-sequences of abnormal spinal cord development.

Spina bifida is caused by an incomplete closing of the embry-onic neural tube. The resulting lesion allows a section of the spi-nal cord, namely the portion that controls lower body function, to protrude and improperly develop throughout the remainder of the term. Spina bifida is one of the most common birth defects, with an average worldwide incidence of 1 in 800 births. Throughout the last decade, the primary rem-edy was postnatal surgery to close the lesion on infants’ backs. This measure however, does not restore normal function to the section of the affected portion of the spinal cord. Prenatal, or in utero, surgery is thought to provide better results because when the spinal cord is fixed the fetus is still developing and assimilating.

The trial was made possible in part due to technological advances that allow physicians to monitor fetal development. All but three U.S. hospitals were asked to stop performing prenatal surgery. By limiting the number of hospitals that were performing prenatal sur-gery, despite the need for the pro-cedure, the efficacy of the surgery could be assessed; this was a nec-essary evil. In the trial, about 80 babies were randomly assigned for surgery after birth and another 80 would have the lesion closed in the womb between weeks 19 and 26 of pregnancy. It was determined that, although the infants who received

prenatal surgery actually had more severe spinal lesions, they still had better outcomes.

Those who received the sur-gery were half as likely to need a shunt to drain excess fluid in the brain, another effect of spina bifi-da. Moreover, they were also eight times as likely to have a normally positioned brainstem. Dr. Scott Adzick, a co-investigator of the tri-al and chief of pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said there was “much better motor function of the legs.” At 30 months old, nearly two times as many tod-dlers who underwent prenatal sur-gery for spina bifida were able to walk without the use of crutches or leg braces. By performing the surgery, Dr. Adzick said that in utero surgery helps “stop exposure of the developing spinal cord and perhaps avert further neurological damage.” Furthermore, Dr. Cathe-rine Spong, chief of pregnancy and perinatology at the Child Health Institute, said that although the ba-bies that underwent prenatal sur-gery were born an average of three weeks earlier, there was no differ-ence in cognitive development.

With the success of the surgery, the likelihood for similar invasive

procedures will increase when the techniques are perfected. Bu pre-natal surgery should not be relied on as the primary remedy for spi-na bifida and other developmen-tal diseases. Invasive procedures come with risks to both the mother and the child and should only be used in extreme cases. The trial had eligibility requirements; obese women and babies whose condi-tion did not meet the specifications were excluded. It may appear that manipulation of a developing fe-tus will lessen the manifestation of disease, but the fear is that the possibilities of a stillbirth are still relevant.

The best treatment for all dis-eases is prevention. Although spina bifida has no singular root cause, daily supplementation of folic acid, a nutrient found in whole grains, fortified cereals and dried beans, before conception has been shown to reduce its incidence. New di-agnostic techniques may afford physicians the ability to make in utero diagnoses, but whether spina bifida or any birth defect is diag-nosed, planning pregnancies and proper prenatal nutrition will en-sure the development and birth of a healthy child.

Courtesy of MCt CaMpusDR. JOSEPH BRUENER, a surgeon who operates on fetuses with spina bifida, is plays with patients at a reunion in Nash-ville, TN.

Letter to the Editor:USPB ‘could really use a wish right now’

“EGYPT“ CONTINUED FROM PAGE FIVE the democratically elected (two terms) President Ahmadinejad, the builder of nuclear power, the denier of the holocaust, the sworn enemy of peace with Israel. We can label this the worst-case scenario which pre-sumes the Muslim Brotherhood will come to power in Cairo.

2) The Soviet satellite scenar-io: the evil rulers of Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Lithua-nia, Estonia, Latvia and Hunga-ry are driven out and competing political parties and democratic elections flourish and these countries join the EU and every-one is more or less as happy as we are in America. This is the best-case scenario.

3) An alternate pattern is the Yugoslavia scenario: the evil rul-er, Tito, goes to his reward and shortly thereafter the passions of religion, ethnicity and sepa-ratism are unleashed. Croatian Catholics, Bosnia muslims, Ser-bian Orthodox all have the op-portunity at last to massacre the “other” communities. We also see this pattern in the former Belgian Congo, in Sri Lanka and various other countries around the world. In Egypt, the first victims would be the Christian Copts. Constituting somewhere between six and eight percent of the population, a partially merchant people somewhat bet-ter off than most Egyptians, much like the maronites in Leb-anon, the last several months have seen increasing atrocities perpetrated by Muslim extrem-ists against Coptic communities in Alexandria, Cairo and in the

rural areas of Egypt. It remains to be seen in these attacks will now grow fiercer and if the emi-gration of Copts out of Egypt accelerates just as it has done with the maronites in Lebanon.

4) Another possible scenario is the Turkish one. An Islamist party gains a plurality of only 20-30 percent or so, and much like the National Socialist party in Germany in the early 1930 elections, manages to capture the Prime Ministership, do a bit better in the next election and, eventually, reduces Turkey’s tra-ditional alliance with America and Israel, and removes the military and judicial supports of Ataturk’s secular state. Egypt could follow this scenario: the Islamic parties already hold 88 seats in a legislative assembly of less than 466 seats and this was the result of an election rigged by the Mubarak regime. Real democracy will produce

real results for the Islamist par-ties.

5) A final scenario is the “domino” one: will the fall of authoritarian rulers in Tunisia and now Egypt, topple mon-archs in Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and President Saleh in Yemen? What effect would this have on the supply of oil to the West? Is even King Mohammed VI in Morocco, another ally of America and relatively friendly to Israel, now safe upon his throne? There is of course the possibility of revolution in Iran but the authorities there exceeding even the Shah in their ruthlessness, seem likely to suppress these stirrings of revolution.

Unfortunately, the eventual resolution of the Israeli-Pales-tinian conflict depends, as does American security, on which of these scenarios eventually ob-tains.

Courtesy of MCt CaMpus

USPB’s postponement of the Spring Concert Revealing is just another example of how the performance is not living up to its billing as the premiere USPB event of the year. Let me list the three artists who headlined for this event during my time at this school: Lifehouse, Jack’s Manne-quin and Brand New. I occasion-ally listen to these three bands, that is to say I listen to them when I’ve run out of skips on my Pandora channel and I’m too lazy to open my ITunes.

The selection of talent is not even the major shortcoming of the USPB’s Spring Concert. Other school’s have all day, even week-end long affairs that lead up to their eventual concert. Rutgers (Yes, I understand it is a state school and has almost 20 times our enrollment) has Rutgerfest. Loyola Maryland has Loyola-palooza. We have a spring con-cert. Just a spring concert. And then we follow it up with another, smaller, Spring concert. Why is USPB seemingly wasting their money on two spring concerts when neither has been a success in recent memory?

My suggestion is this; don’t just have a spring concert. Have an event in the spring. Have a pro-gram. That is what you do right? You create programs for The Uni-versity. Create something that brings the student body out in full force. Offer the students, fac-ulty, staff and Scranton commu-nity something that they will look forward to all year long. Parade Day is the closest event we have that meets these criteria. Howev-er, Parade Day is not a University program. We partake in an event that is looked forward to by thou-sands of people each year and is a great source of pride and joy for the entire community. Let’s cre-ate that same atmosphere with a spring concert/festival.

People will look forward to a concert even more if it caps off an entire day of food, fun and games. We have amazing re-sources that our school communi-ty has invested in and built for us. Let’s use them! The Dionne Green would be a spectacular venue to watch a performance. Fitz field would be a great place to have carnival rides and games for people to play or for a barbeque. Don’t bring people indoors during Spring, it’s a time to be outdoors after we’ve been inside all winter. The Spring Fling has the potential to be a fantastic event, but move it outside. Let people enjoy the ac-tivities you offer and the warmer temperatures that we are all sore-ly missing right now. Combine the concert and the battle of the bands

The turnout for Spring concerts in the past has been lackluster at best. Ultimately, I believe it has not been a problem of the talent that has been selected (although I would like to see a bigger, more college friendly name appear this year. Sam Adams can be had for $20,000 according to concertid-eas.com, or were you unaware that 95 percent of the school listen to him on weekends or through his/her ipods. B.o.B was available, and then he went to the Grammy’s). I believe turning the spring concert into an event that consists of more than simply an opening act and a headliner will create a buzz around campus and get people excited to come. I also believe that the more excite-ment we, as a University, create the more excited artists will be to perform and thus will make the selection process easier because there are more names to choose from.

Robert Cole is a senior commu-nications majot at The University.

While in a market system the majority may decide on the equilib-rium price of a good, the individual still has the ultimate choice of pur-chasing that good or service at all. An overall contrasting of the state and the free market reveals some-thing disturbing. The nature of the state is to limit our activities and freedom while the market only ne-cessitates demand for a product or service exists. The state claims to be a great arbiter of morality, pro-tecting us from each other and de-fending our rights while it by very nature robs us of the fruits of our labor by using the same force they deny the individual the right to use.

I seem to have come to the same conclusion about the state and its use of force as Ayn Rand’s fictional character John Galt.

"To interpose the threat of physi-cal destruction between a man and

his perception of reality is to negate and paralyze his means of survival. To force a man to act against his own judgment is like forcing him to act against his own sight. Whoever to whatever purpose or extent initi-ates the use of force is a killer,” Galt said.

When choosing between the market and the state we are mak-ing the distinct choice between the freedom and choice the market pro-vides or the monopoly that the state forces us to accept. While I may not have all of the answers, I fail to see how the state can justify the same use of force to help others that I as an individual cannot. Statists always oppose monopolies in the private sector and use the state to smash them, why can we not then use the choice of the private sector to smash the monopoly that is the state?

“MOnOPOly“ COnTinueD

FROM PAge Five

COMMenTARy

By niChOlAS

SeRniAk

Staff Writer

“Miracle at the Staples Center,” one press title read the morning after Canadian rockers Arcade Fire took home the GRAMMY for Album of the Year for its latest work “The Suburbs,” performing twice during the event and once immediately af-ter receiving the award. The long-time indie darlings beat out main-

stream artist the likes of Eminem, Lady Gaga, Katie Perry and Lady Antebellum.

Cue the malign egomaniacal comments from the Twittervese in response: “How can a group I’ve NEVER heard of win Album of the Year? Who is #Arcade Fire?”

Thousands of angry/confused comments flooded the web from watchers more perplexed than Jen-nifer Lopez after witnessing Bob Dylan’s raspy performance with

Mumford & Sons, or better yet, Justin Bieber watching Esperanza Spalding collect the award for Best New Artist (both reactions are equally hilarious and available on Youtube).

But who is this seven-piece Canadian band that has eluded GRAMMY watchers until Sunday night? And how surprising is its GRAMMY win? According to at least one credible music site, not that surprising at all.

“I was surprised that [“The Sub-urbs”] was nominated, but consid-ering the competition, I was not surprised it won,” Scott Plagenhoef, Editor in Chief of the notoriously critical Pitchfork Magazine, told MTV.

And why shouldn’t he be? “The Suburbs” appeared in numerous best of the year lists, charting in the top five or better in Rolling Stone, Spin, Time, NME, Triple J and Q Magazine. This year’s projected GRAMMY favorite, Eminem’s “Re-covery” didn’t even come close to matching the critical acclaim.

In terms of popularity — the GRAMMY’s number one judging cri-teria — Arcade Fire stacks up mod-erately well considering it doesn’t receive nearly the amount of ra-dio airplay or commercial promo-

tion compared to the likes of Katy Perry or Lady Gaga. Arcade Fire’s last album, “Neon Bible” is certified platinum worldwide, and its recent GRAMMY-winning release shot to number one the Billboard Top 100, moving roughly 500,000 copies.

The band has sold out large venues, toured with Bruce Springs-teen and next year Arcade Fire will headline one of the largest musical festivals in the country at Bonnaroo with GRAMMY rival Eminem.

So, to the legion of GRAMMY

watchers outside of the 18-34 listen-ing demographic Arcade Fire has been putting out fantastic and ac-claimed work for years now, and it deserves this award.

GRAMMY viewers witnessed a rarity on Sunday, but don’t expect indie bands to become a staple in the top award categories, especially if the ratings dip next year.

As for Arcade Fire, pay close at-tention to it if you aren’t already. The most lasting bands are often the ones that transcend.

Arts & Life Arts & Life EditorJoe Wolfe

COMMenTARy ByTOM nOBile

Writer

Arcade Fire take home gRAMMy

8

This week’s “Download of the Week” comes from yesterday’s entry on Somekindofawesome.com, a music website that features the newest leaks and live videos on the web. According to the site, Kanye West has remixed Katy Perry’s track, “E.T.,” the fourth sin-gle from Perry’s “Teenage Dream.”

The remix keeps the electronica feel of Perry’s original version; however, West’s additional vocals to the song’s beginning and end gives the song a structure that is similar to Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie” and T.I. and Christina Aguilera’s “Castle Walls.” As stated on the site, West adds a stronger bass drum to the track that gives it more of an attitude than its original. Also, West’s introduction to the song plays perfectly into Perry’s opening lyrics in which she asks if the person in question, “Could you be the devil? Could you be an angel?” The rhe-torical questions plays on the love/hate relationship that many people have with West.

Lyrically, the song follows in the “head over heals” content as the track “Teenage Dream,” but just as the elec-

tronica sound brings an attitude far greater than the princessy-pop sound of “Teenage Dream,” so do its lyrics. Such is evident in the song’s chorus when Perry sings “Kiss me, k-k-kiss me / infect me with your love, and fill me with your poison / take me, t-t-take me / wanna be your / victim, ready for abduction / boy, you’re an alien, your touch so far away / its supernatural, extraterrestrial.”

West also adds to the shedding of “Teenage Dream’s” innocence with his part at the end, when he sings “I’m gonna disrobe you then I’ma probe you. I abducted you so I tell you what to do.”

Although the “E.T.” remix is far from the poppy radio hits of Perry’s other singles from “Teenage Dream,” “Cali-fornia Gurls,” “Teenage Dream” and “Fireworks,” it is one of those songs whose attitude brings with it a guilty pleasure of becoming immersed in the song. “E.T.” may not be the most suc-cessful single from “Teenage Dream,” but it will easily be the only single that doesn’t play its way from addicting to plain annoying.

Download of The Week

“E.T. REmix” by

KaTy PERRy fT. KanyE WEsT

“What would you do if all the tech-nology in the world just disap-

peared?”Ademola Giwa

Junior, Brooklyn, N.Y.

“Do you prefer on-campus housing or renting from a landlord

in the surrounding area?”Nicholas Schilling

Grad, Cochecton, N.Y.

Campus Comment if you could pick Campus Comment, what would it be?

Courtesy of MCt CaMpusMEMBERS OF Arcade Fire rejoice following its GRAMMY win.

“If you could pick one candy bar what would you be?”

Jamie MarianiSenior, Philadelphia

“If you could drop out of school and become an olympic athlete

would you?Kamila Malinowska

Senior, Brooklyn, N.Y.

“Why B.o.B and not Drake for the Spring Concert?”

Nick HollisterFreshman, Elk Lake

After a nearly four year hia-tus from the Bright Eyes moniker, Conor Oberst returns to the name that made him famous with the re-lease of “The People’s Key.”

During this four year hiatus, Oberst dropped the Bright Eyes name and adopted his birth name on two albums: “Conor Oberst” (2008) and “Outer South” (2009). Oberst also joined forces with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, singer-songwriter M. Ward and fellow Bright Eyes mate, Mike Mogis in the supergroup, Monsters of Folk. The band released its first self-ti-tled full length to positive reviews in 2009.

Where Oberst’s previous two “solo” albums expanded his musi-cal horizons, entering him into a more folk sound and leaving the indie feel behind, fans that had fol-lowed Oberst from his early Bright Eyes days didn’t feel that this new-er Oberst lived up to the hype that was Bright Eyes.

With “The People’s Key” how-ever, Oberst silences all critics and proves that he can return to the

sound that had brought him his fans since his debut in 1998 with “Letting Off The Happiness.”

“The People’s Key” is a vast improvement upon the sound of 2007’s “Cassadaga” and a return to Bright Eye’s most popular album, 2005’s “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morn-ing.”

So far, reviews have been overly positive, to the point that Rolling Stone said “The People’s Key” “con-tains some of his [Oberst’s] most weighty songwriting.”

This aspect of “The People’s Key” is no more apparent as it is in the album’s first single, “Haile Selassie.”

The song begins with a strong guitar rift as it leads into Oberst’s trademark vocals. Oberst’s lyrics do not disappoint, such as when he sings “I’ll take in some comfort in knowing the wave has crested / Knowing I don’t have to be an ex-ception.”

The album’s best song is easily “Shell Games,” which sounds like a track that could have been featured on “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.” The song’s playful piano clashes with the sound of Oberst vocals that gives the song an uncomfort-able feel in the beginning. It is not until the first round of the chorus

that the vocals join with the melo-dy to create an addicting track.

“The People’s Key” is an obvious return to glory for Oberst, whose music has been placed under a mi-croscope since the early success of “Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground” in 2002.

More importantly, “The People’s Key” is Oberst’s return to what he does best, the genius behind Bright Eyes.

Oberst’s bright returnCOMMenTARy By

JOe wOlFeArts & Life Editor

Courtesy of wikiMediaCONOR OBERST returns to the Bright Eyes moniker for 2011.

Courtesy of MCt CaMpusARCADE FIRE accepts the GRAMMY for Album of the Year.

THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011

“What is the most useless major?”

Matthew PortoJunior, Roslyn, N.Y.

“Best memory about City Slice?”

Mike JoachimSenior, Newtown

9

“What fast food restaurant would you pick to replace Chick-

fil-a?”Aimee Miller

Sophomore, Lancaster

“How fast did it take for Star-bucks to take all of your flex?”

Fabiana VargasSophomore, Milford

“Where’s errr’ body going for spring break?”

Taryn FogartySenior, Staten Island, N.Y.

uSA network shows impress all USA network has been rising in

popularity. These elevated ratings can be attributed to its numerous original series. The hit movies and marathons of popular shows, such as “House,” that run on USA have also garnered USA popularity.

USA network has been on the air since 1971, but only in the early 2000s has it come to be appreci-ated. Its rising rating started with USA’s original series “Monk,” a hit detective series that in 2009, after an eight year run on air. “Monk” was show about an OCD detective solving crimes and ultimately look-ing for the murderer of his wife. A few years after “Monk” premiered, “Psych” debuted in 2004. “Psych” is also a detective-style show. This dramedy is about fake psychic de-tective Shawn Spencer and his best friend, Burton “Gus” Guster, work-ing together to solve crimes and the antics they get into along the way.

With the popularity of “Monk”

and “Psych,” USA started to crank out more original series. “Burn No-tice” is a spy show and was next to come from the creative minds of USA. The show follows Michael Westen, a burned spy; burn no-tices are issued by intelligence agencies to discredit or announce the dismissal of agents deemed unreliable. When spies are burned, their connection to an espionage organization is terminated, leaving them without access to cash or in-fluence. As the opening narration states, a burned spy has no prior work history, money and support network, so, in essence, he has no identity. Left with nothing, Westen must rely on an ex-girlfriend, Fio-na, a friend who used to inform on him, Sam, and his mom. “In Plain Sight” came out next; it is about U.S. Marshalls Mary Shannon and her partner, Shannon, placing peo-ple into witness protection and the trials that come along with the job.

The next hit show USA network churned out is “Royal Pains.” Hank Lawson is a doctor who actually cares about his patients’ wellbe-ing and this got him fired from

his high paying job when he let a wealthy benefactor die while try-ing to save the life of a shot street kid. Hank’s brother, Evan, takes him to the Hamptons to get Hank to relax after the ordeal of getting fired; however, this recreational trip turns into a job opportunity when Hank becomes known as an excellent doctor. Borris, a rich and private man supports, him as Hank, Evan and a physician’s as-sistant named Divya create Hank Med, a concierge doctor service for the rich. “White Collar” is about Neil Caffery, a former white collar criminal who consults for the FBI on combating criminals like him-self. With the FBI agent that caught him, Peter Burke, other friends and his tracking anklet, Neil goes up against some of the greatest white collar criminals. “Fairly Le-gal” is USA’s newest show. Kate is a mediator and former lawyer; although she comes from a fam-ily of lawyers, she detests lawyers because they burn bridges instead of mending them. Her job is to me-diate conflicts, but sometimes it is easier to mend others problems

than her own. In wake of her fa-thers’ death she must reevaluate her life as she tries to help others against all odds.

Each day of the week there are marathons of a specific show: Monday is “Law and Order: Crimi-nal Intent,” then “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” “NCIS,” “House” and the weekend’s mara-thon “CSI.” In addition, the net-work also runs many popular mov-

ies, such as “Hairspray,” “Semi-Pro,” “The Break-Up,” “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” and all the “Indiana Jones,” “Pirates of the Ca-ribbean” and “James Bond” movies.

This network that started in the 1970s as a minor channel has now come to be considered a major ca-ble channel. It has a multitude of shows that reach out to all types of viewers – hopefully there is some-thing for you.

COMMenTARy ByMiChelle D’SOuzA

Staff Writer

Courtesy of wikiMedia“PSYCH” IS just one of the many shows USA has to offer its viewers.

THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011 10

Business Michael Dwier

Business Editor

MAJOR U.S. INDEXES

DOW

NASDAQ

S&P

NOTABLE GAINERS

MCD

PCS

PWR

NOTABLE LOSERS

FSLR

HD

BAC

COMMODITIES

OIL

GOLD

SILVER

CURRENCIES

EUR/USD

GBP/USD

USD/JPY As of press time Wednesday night

$78.37 +0.95

$11.84 +0.55

$17.73 +0.68

$80.95 +0.51

$1346.20 +9.30

$26.05 +0.539

12307.88 -15.62

2476.01 +6.17

1178.59 +0.25

$122.83 -7.86

$30.83 -0.88

$11.62 -0.32

1.3579 +0.0054

1.5905 +0.0002

83.35 +0.16

Students involved in global investment Research ChallengeBy kevin TuOhy

Business Correspondent

Students eager for trading experience

In search of f inding prac-t ica l exper ience for Kania Bus iness School s tudents , The PRISM Organiat ion s tumbled upon an interest -ing oppor tuni ty that a l lows for par t ic ipants to interact with commodity futures t rad ing exper ts , whi le ana-lyz ing l ive market act iv i -t ies with Wal l St reet t rad-ing software. Th is rea l wor ld appl icat ion of c lass -room theor ies wi l l prove v i ta l in supplement ing pr i -or internships and bui ld -ing a marketab le resume for f reshman and sopho-mores. Patak Trading Par t -ners , LLC, a Chicago-based t rading f i rm and a cer t i -f ied member of the Chi -cago Mercant i le Exchange (CME) Group, has recent ly created a t rader deve lop-ment program spec i f ica l ly geared towards co l lege s tu-dents who have an interest in t rad ing .

The d iv is ion of the f i rm is ca l led TopstepTrader and was created to scout for po-tent ia l t raders at the co l le -g iate leve l . TopstepTrader i s an educat iona l too l that g ives s tudents a chance to test the i r t rad ing s t rateg ies in a four week t ra in ing ses -s ion on a s imulated t rad-ing account , g iv ing them

the chance to exper ience what i t i s l ike to be a rea l t rader with Patak Trading Par tners. Us ing a profes -s iona l t rad ing p lat form, the s tudents wi l l l earn to read char t ing software, execute t rades , manage t rading ac-counts and learn , deve lop and ref ine the i r t rad ing techniques.

This market exper ience has he lped many students bui ld the i r conf idence and t rading foundat ion . It has a lso a l lowed Patak Trading Par tners to provide fu l ly funded t rading accounts to successfu l s tudent t rad-

ers by pa i r ing them with interested t rading groups for fu l l t ime t rading pos i -t ions. Co l lege s tudents and recent graduates can put th is exper ience on the i r re -sume as an internship with Patak Trading Par tners , LLC as they wi l l be working c lose ly with the f i rm, whi le ga in ing va luable market and t rading exper ience and knowledge. This i s the f i rs t program of i t s k ind ava i l -ab le to asp i r ing t raders and i t i s the hope that a l l s tu-dents invo lved wi l l f ind i t as a very new and unique learn ing exper ience.

By Mike DwieRBusiness Editor

Courtesy of yahoo iMagesASPIRING TRADERS from The University may find themselves on UBS’s trading floor someday, the world’s largest.

This year The University has four students participating in the Global Investment Research Challenge. The competition is sponsored by the CFA Institute which is a Global, not for profit organization comprising the world’s largest association of investment professionals. The Institute is dedicated to develop-ing and promoting the highest level of educational, ethical and professional standards in the investment industry. The Global Investment Research Challenge consists of university teams of three to five students who are mentored by industry profes-sionals in writing an equity research report on a publicly traded company. Spearheading the group is faculty moderator Dr. Murli Rajan, Matthew Hajduk, Ryan Omensetter, Daniel Parisi and Kevin Tuohy. Collectively they will be representing The Univer-sity this year in the challenge. The team submitted the report

and qualified as a finalist for the local competition which is being held in Philadelphia Feb 24. Ur-ban Outfitters Inc. was the com-pany assigned to the team for analysis. If successful, the team will advance to the regional competition for the Americas in Omaha, Neb. and then the global finale which will also held in Nebraska. This is a very unique opportunity for students to learn the inner workings of a publicly traded company. It allows stu-dents to report on a company as if they are practicing analysts in the real world. The Global Investment Re-search Challenge consists of five stages: The challenge compo-nents analysis of a public com-pany, mentoring by a profes-sional research analyst, writing a research report, presentation of research to a high profile panel of experts and advancement to the CFA Institute Global Chal-lenge. Teams researched the publicly traded company and were given a brief presenta-tion by company management. Throughout the writing of the research report, each team worked with a CFA charter holder who mentored the team

by reviewing and critiquing the report. Each team produced a final written report for the cho-sen company which was then reviewed and scored by a group of judges. If considered a final-ist, the team will present their research to a panel of experts in the financial industry. The team with the highest combined

report and presentation score is the winner. The winners of local competitions advance to com-pete against teams within their geographic region, resulting in the global finale competition.This is the second year that The University will be participat-ing in the competition. Last year’s team gave an excellent

performance, but unfortu-nately placed second behind the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business in the local competition in Phila-delphia. We are feeling very confident this year that we will perform to our best capabilities and will keep you posted on our progress.

Courtesy of the uNiversity LAST YEAR’S CFA Investment Research Challenge participants take time for a photo with faculty advisors and Dean Mensah.

11THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011

On Monday, Feb. 15, President Barack Obama submitted his 2012 budget proposal. Obama, facing a current budget deficit running close to $1.5 trillion or about 10 percent of gross domestic prod-uct, plans to cut this deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years with his $3.7 trillion budget. The proposal, which is the third bud-get proposal Obama has sent to Congress since taking office, looks to put a five-year freeze on discretionary spending, exclud-ing spending on national security. This freeze will significantly help reduce our current budget deficit, which has reached 50 year highs. Programs like Medicare and So-cial Security, which are deemed as mandatory, will see continued contributions as spending in these

areas will continue to rise. Cuts in spending will also hit the Environ-mental Protection Agency (EPA), the defense department and low-income home energy assistance, and will terminate more than 200 federal programs over the course of next year. Investments will be made in education, especially in areas of math and science, and in transportation and research.

The proposal seems to be on the way to reducing the federal government’s enormous budget deficit, but it does come at high costs. The government will need to sell about $7.2 trillion in new Treasury bonds to fund the deficit over the next ten years. For this to occur, the overall perception of the U.S. political system must be an ambiance of confidence and assurance, especially for foreign investors who regularly buy U.S. debt like Japan, China and Rus-sia. At this point, Obama has no real solution to the problem and is making a huge bet on bond mar-kets.

Though reducing the federal deficit by $100 billion a year for the next decade sounds like a good plan, many people were not happy with the results of President Obama’s proposed bud-get. “Instead of fresh ideas and a bipartisan way forward, the proposed budget feeds Wash-ington’s addition to more taxes,

more spending and more debt,” Republican Congressman Justin Amash stated. The announce-ment, coming on Valentine’s Day, left Arizona representative Paul Gosar “heartbroken” and Mick Mulvaney, a representative from South Carolina said, “I thought it was a joke. It’s hard to explain how detached from reality this is.”

The problem of such a budget relies in the increasing of federal spending. The $3.7 trillion that will be spent in 2012 is expected to increase to $5.7 trillion in 2021. This is a 17 percent increase when adjusted for inflation. Also, prob-lems with Medicare and Medicaid haven’t readily been addressed. This proposal will decrease the budget deficit to as low as 4.6 percent of GDP by 2013, but the budget deficit could easily rise to levels even higher than those we are experiencing now. Spend-ing on Medicare and Medicaid will continue to heighten, espe-cially with the aging baby boomer population. Also, Obama is going to have to rely heavily on newly imposed taxes. Unfortunately, the total amount of taxes that will need to be imposed was not listed in the proposal. The good comes with the bad in Obama’s budget “blueprint” and only time will tell if his proposal is one that can suc-cessfully keep the budget deficit at permanent lows.

To many on campus, the name CISCO may only mean the “stu-pid screen” you must sign into when accessing the internet from your laptops. To others, CISCO is known as the “The Hu-man Network.” To those in the business field, CISCO Systems, Inc. may be better identified by the stock ticker CSCO. Regard-less of how you recognize CISCO, it is important to understand the significant change in this multi-national corporation’s stock price. It is within human nature to have the ability to make mistakes. Is CISCO, “the human network” be-coming too human? It seems as if they may be making mistakes as competition continues to surge past. There are many factors one must recognize before jumping to this assumption.

CISCO Systems, Inc. recently announced Q3 outlook which was much below investor’s ex-pectations. In today’s ever chang-

ing market, investors are looking for short term returns and secu-rity in their investments. The announced outlook resulted in a substantial drop in the corpo-ration’s stock price. Many may look at other consumer electronic and networking corporations and view a recent increase. It is sim-ple to assume that the increase must mean that they are doing something better than CISCO. In greater detail, it is apparent that this assumption would be too im-pulsive.

CISCO recently acquired LineSider Technologies Inc., a smaller consumer networking corporation. Despite acquiring the assets of this organization, CISCO also acquired the liabili-ties surrounding LineSider. In addition to LineSider Technolo-gies, CISCO has announced interest in acquiring Inlet Technologies as well as Pari Networks. Ultimately these actions would continue to add liabilities to CISCO’s already falling stock. With the increase in liabilities, investors who are not looking at the long-run will continue to sell their shares of CISCO. In following CISCO one

could conclude an assumption that the stock will continue to fall. In that circumstance, the smart investor could take the action to sell short. This ac-tion means that the investor is putting money on the belief that the stock price will fall in the future.

Just as more and more Americans are planning for the future, it appears CISCO is following this trend. CISCO may be known as “the human network”, but it will take time to determine whether or not “the human network” was ‘too human’ by having the capabil-ity of making mistakes, or if “the human network,”is ‘too human’ in having the capabil-ity of planning for the future and becoming an industry leader.

If you are interested in learning more about invest-ments and the markets, be sure to contact Mike Dwier, dwierm2@scranton.edu or Ryan Omensetter, omenset-terr2@scranton.edu to inquire about P.R.I.S.M. (Portfolio of Responsible Investments Un-der Student Management).

Cisco Systems may be ‘too human’

Emotions mixed after budget announcement

COMMenTARy By: SeAn MCkeveny

Business Correspondent

This past week we have seen a few key global events. I’d like to start off with the Egypt situation; President Mubarak has officially decided to step down and hand over the reigns to the countries’ military. Other countries in the Middle East are watching, and have been inspired by Egypt’s rev-olution. As a result, there is a great deal of unrest in the Middle East, which means oil futures will be directly impacted. With the uncer-tainty in the region and the sum-mer months coming up, oil prices are likely to steadily increase.

Speaking of the continuity of global uncertainty and commodi-ties, Gold prices hit a 4 week high nearing at the $1375/oz mark. Ag-ricultural commodities are likely to continue to rise for a variety of reasons. More specifically as a result from increasing global de-mand and China’s wheat drought in about 80 percent of its wheat product

With rising food and energy prices, inflation looms in many

countries. Although it is still very low in the U.S., it is rising rapidly in China. They have been taking less-than-impressive measures to combat it, so China’s ongoing infla-tion situation is something to pay attention to. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have warned that Chinas inflation: 4.6 percent year over year in December was likely to top 5 percent in January – some

analysts expect inflation may reach 6 percent in the first half of 2011. Emerging economies like China and Brazil are experiencing very high inflation levels, I do not believe they are an attractive in-vestment at the moment as they are overvalued and inflation eats into a great deal of profits. Many of these emerging economies still retain expansionary policies in

place and are running out of ex-cess capacity growth will slow as these countries realize and tighten their monetary policy, reduce bud-getary stimulus and reform and modernize their economies. How-ever, Chinese trade data remains stellar as they continue to hold the Yuan back, their exports went up 38 percent in January from a year earlier, and their imports went up 51 percent as well. This good news has seemed to settle some fears, but is it sustainable?

Last week we saw US Treasur-ies (10 yr) reach their highest level since April at 3.721 percent, now we see US Treasuries still hovering pretty high at 3.638 percent. There is a degree of fear in the world right now, despite the gradual US economic recovery.

U.S. Retail sales have increased 0.3 percent in January as we spent more on gasoline, autos and on-line items. This increase of 0.3 percent fell short of Wall St. ex-pectations and was the smallest increase since last July. I think it is safe to say that the spending growth in the U.S. has lost some momentum. The solution to sus-tain an increase in spending is to add more jobs and lower our un-

employment levels. Until we can do that, economic data will re-main rather stagnant.

The Jobs report in January did not meet expectations either, at 36000 jobs added in the U.S. This is mainly due to the harsh weath-er had a large impact on those em-ployment figures.

In my opinion, the Dow Jones is overvalued at the moment. Earn-ings reports for Q4 were for the most part lukewarm for many companies, as we can only stretch margins so thin. Employment in the U.S. needs to keep increasing at a steady rate for the markets to see real increases. For now, I be-lieve that 12,000 will be the base, and we will not stray away from it too much till we see some more promising employment figures. I actually believe there will be a short term correction in the mar-kets, at that point I believe we should spend some of our cash. My forecast for the week is that if there is a more stable situation in Egypt and the Middle East, the markets should see some opti-mism. However with the weaker retail results, and stagnant unem-ployment, I don’t see much action happening in the near term.

equity markets tick upward amid improvements

COMMenTARy By DAn PARiSi

Business Correspondent

By DAn kRAJewSkiBusiness Correspondent

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” - Warren Buffett

Courtesy MCt CaMpusPRESIDENT OBAMA’S budget proposal shakes Wall Street.

Courtesy of MCt CaMpusTRADERS JOSTLE to place orders on the Nasdaq last week.

Have you been following a relevant business issue, industry trend, or a company stock? If so, write

Been following a relevant busi-

ness issue, industry trend, or

a company stock? If so, write

about it for the Aquinas. It looks

great on a resume and helps de-

velop critical writing skills for

the business world.

Please contact Mike Dwier

(Dwierm2@scranton.edu)

Catherine Erbicella

Science & Technology EditorScience Tech12 THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Want to write for Science and Technology?Contact the editor at

erbicellac2@scranton.edu

For those of you that re-member the days of Super Nintendo, you’ll remember “Donkey Kong Country.” The 800 pound gorilla will be back in the room Nov. 21, when Nin-tendo releases “Donkey Kong Country Returns.”

Fans of DK will be happy to know that the Nintendo icon will once again be joined on screen by Diddy Kong. The dy-namic duo will need your help as they attempt to regain their bananas, stolen by the evil Tiki Tak Tribe.

In the tradition of its DK predecessors, “Donkey Kong Country Returns” sticks to its side-scrolling roots. DKCR will require gamers to guide the Kongs through various levels of platforms and pitfalls, col-lecting bananas and taking out

Tikis along the way.Along your journey Ninten-

do expertly induces nostalgia as the game returns you to your DK filled childhood: col-lecting KONG letters, shooting yourself skyward out of barrels and ground pounding enemies.

The Ground-Pound in par-ticular has taken on new life. By waving your Wii remote up and down as fast as pos-sible gamers will be able per-form increasingly more pow-erful ground pounds, and the rewards for honing your skills will be limitless. The Ground-Pound is a vital tool in combat, as well as collecting rewards.

Expect simple game play and bright vivid maps, but don’t be put off by the 2.5 di-mension animation. The game is said to feature intricate plat-form levels that will leave even the most experience gamers screaming in frustration.

This game was reviewed for the Wii console.

By SeAn hOgyAStaff Writer

Video Game Review with Sean:“Donkey Kong Country Returns”

Got a video game you want to tell us about?Email us at erbicellac2@scranton.edu

With all the scandal surround-ing the safety of toys and plas-tics in today’s market, toymakers in the United States and Germa-ny are trying to provide parents with safe toys. They also have another mission: to raise aware-ness of the environment.

In recent years, Germany proved itself a pioneer in the realm of renewable energy, and this year they plan to bring toys into that market with the intro-duction of high-tech green toys. They are not ‘green’ in the sense of being manufactured from or-ganic or recycled materials, rath-er, they are powered by sources of alternative energy.

According to the Associated Press, some of these toys were on display at the Nuremburg toy fair this month. Among the toys showcased were toy cars run by hydroelectric power, doll houses run by wind turbines and rain-water, and space-themed sets containing solar panels. Environ-mentally-friendly toys, such as toys bikes made from renewable bamboo, were also showcased at

the six-day event. Apparently, sustainable manufacturing is the future for toys.

The concept behind these toys is to teach children about alter-native energy sources, so that they can image a future with such sources. Also, the toys are meant to raise awareness about the environment and how the consumption of energy affects it.

The toy market is not just erupting in Germany, for eco-

friendly toys were also on dis-play in the New York fair, as well. Green Toys Inc., a company based in San Francisco, had been man-ufacturing toys from recycled products since 2008, and sales have continued to grow as the environmentally-conscious trend catches on among the masses.

The only thing holding back a lot of the green toy movement, it seems, is the fact that green toys cost 25 to 30 percent more than

conventional toys. According to the Associated Press, Wild Toys, which manufactures organic stuffed animals, found that con-sumers are not ready to pay the extra money for green or organic products.

The sticker-shock phenom-enon may soon end, for a poll conducted at the Nuremburg toy fair suggests that about a third of Germany’s consumers claim they would pay up to 20 per-cent more for environmentally-friendly and sustainable toys. They would do so under the as-sumption that green toys are of a higher-quality and are worth the investment.

Also, the recent concerns over cadmium-contaminated paint from Chinese-made toys, as well as concerns over BPA-leeching plastics from conventional plas-tic sources, have led parents to search for safer toys to give to their children. For now, green toys are not dominating the toy market, for it is a new field; how-ever, their future looks promis-ing. The environmental research firm Earthsense, from Syracuse, N.Y., surmises that green toys will account foot about five per-cent of U.S. toy sales within the next five years. That is, if par-ents decide they will pay the price.

Germany hopes green toys will prove profitable worldwide

By CATheRine eRBiCellASci/Tech Editor

On Thursday, Feb. 17 into Friday, Feb. 18, there will be a full moon, at exactly 3:36 a.m. Friday morning. Look left or lower left of the Moon after dark for Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. Farther left of them is Gamma Leonis, a binary star system also in Leo, not much fainter than Regulus. Look farther to the moon's lower right for orange Alphard, the brightest star in the constellation Hy-dra.

On Friday, Feb. 18, you should look for Regulus, about a fist-width above the moon. Regulus marks the bottom-right end of the Sickle pattern in Leo, at the bottom of the Sickle's handle.

On Saturday, Feb. 19, Orion stands at his highest due south in early evening. Upper right of him is Taurus with orange Aldebaran and, farther on, the Pleiades cluster, also called the Seven Sisters. Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation Taurus. Lower left of Orion is Canis Major, the “greater dog,” with bright Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.

Information about the con-stellation forecast is reported according to skyand telescope.com.

Redbox may soon come to a mobile phone near you. The company announced this week that it has launched a new An-droid application that would al-low customers to browse avail-able titles, locate a kiosk within the United States and reserve movie titles for pick-up.

Redbox already has an app .for the iPhone, but the com-pany announced that it has up-dated and improved the current iPhone app. to be more respon-sive to users.

The Redbox iPhone app. was launched in Dec. 2009, and has since been downloaded over two million times, leading Red-box to declare the endeavor a success.

In addition to these two apps., Redbox also re-vamped its website, allowing customers to reserve up to five movies at once, which will be available for pick-up at their respective kiosks located around the Unit-ed States.

There are 26,000 Redbox ki-osks located around the United States, all of them owned by Coinstar. According to Cnet, the Redbox and Coinstar com-pany lost forecasted revenue and projected profits in the

fourth quarter due to the im-pact rental delays had on its operation.

This rental delay is the 28-day waiting period that Redbox must take in order to rent con-tent owned by Warner Brothers, Universal Studios Home Enter-tainment and Twentieth Cen-tury Fox. The aforementioned 28-day delays worked out great for the studios, because they in-creased sales during the fourth quarter. These increased movie sales left less consumers look-ing to rent movies, thus leaving Redbox and its rental business

to fall short by 14 million units of projected rentals.

Apparently, this holiday was a rough one due to the 28-day waiting period, especially since the company underestimated the impact that the delayed titles would have on the rev-enue and profits for the fourth quarter.

Redbox is hoping that the two free apps. available in both the App, Store and the Android Market, in addition to their new website, can try to recover from the poor fourth quarter performance.

This week in the sky: Astronomy forecast for Feb. 17-19

Redbox launches mobile app. for rental service

By CATheRine eRBiCellASci/Tech Editor

By CATheRine eRBiCellASci/Tech Editor

Courtesy MCt CaMpusMATT FOSTER of Danville, California, makes a selection at the Red Box DVD rental kiosk outside a 7-11 Store in San Ramon, California. Redbox has launched a mobile application that would allow customers to browse movies, locate kiosks and reserve titles on their phones.

Courtesy yahoo.CoMAN EXAMPLE of the environment friendly toys being made and marketed in Germany, this toy helicopter, shown at a press con-ference in Nuremburg, is made of bamboo.

13THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Faith Andrew MilewskiFaith Editor

Amanda MurphyCo-Editor

mass Schedulemonday-Friday

12:05 p.m. & 4:40 p.m.Chapel of the Sacred Heart

Sacrament of Reconciliationmonday-Friday 11:30 a.m.

Chapel of the Sacred Heart, Reconciliation Room

Sunday11 a.m., 7 p.m. & 9:30 p.m.

madonna Della Strada ChapelRock Hall, 419 monroe Ave.

By AnDRew MilewSkiFaith Editor

“I don’t pay attention to Church,” said one student of The University, “It’s just not that important to me.”

For many college students, religion rarely penetrates the peripherals. Even at a Catho-lic and Jesuit University, how many people do you know whose last touch with God in-volved T/RS 122?

Yet, religion occupies at least a small fracture of a person’s times. At least college students of Catholic universities will know the dogma and credo they’ll later reject. More than a quarter of adults have left the faith in which they were raised for another religion, according to “The Pew Forum.”

Dev Prana, known as Safir Ahmed, explains a similar jour-ney from Islam to Christian-ity in his new book, “Spiritual Quest of a Baby Yogi: Journey through Islam, Christianity and Beyond.” In the book, Prana explores the truth of other reli-gions, which, he says, is a very important idea.

“I consider myself a Muslim on Fridays, a Jew on Saturdays, a Christian on Sundays and a Buddhist on Mondays,” Prana-said. “I’m a student of religion.”

Prana left Pakistan when he

By TiM TOwnSenDMCT Campus

Ever since Mel Gibson’s Ara-maic flog-fest “The Passion of the Christ” brought in $84 mil-lion on its opening weekend in 2004, en route to a $612 million worldwide box office draw, film marketers have sought to emu-late Gibson’s courtship of the al-mighty Christian dollar.

“The Chronicles of Narnia” movies have since trod similar marketing waters, and did “The Nativity.”

But film studios hedge their bets on most movies, preferring to tap several distinct audiences for the broadest possible reach.

When it comes to the new concert documentary “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” which opened Friday, the packs of tween girls guaranteed to buy multiple tickets to see their idol in 3-D and 50-feet tall might make attracting the Christian audience something of an after-thought.

Or maybe Paramount Pic-tures’s push for a more righ-teous Bieber Fever is aimed at polishing a 16-year-old’s already squeaky-clean image into some-thing even more reverent.

multi-faith author argues spiritual reform

was seventeen years old. In Pakistan he lived as a Ahmadi Muslim. The Ahmadiyya Mus-lim Community is a reformed sect of Islam originating in the seventeenth century. Upon ar-riving to America in an attempt to further his education, Prana ended up becoming more con-fused. He began questioning his life’s purpose. In the book, Prana reveals to have had a revelation one night in a dream. Here, he received the message to become a born-again Chris-tian so that he could spread the word of God.

Prana writes his beliefs about the “true religion in his book.” He believes all religions center

around one universal God. This becomes problematic when dis-cussing new-age cults and re-ligions such as Wiccanism and so on. Still, he affirms, they are built on similar foundations of unconditional love, nonvio-lence and inner peace.

“Unconditional love is the ultimate answer, nonviolence is its absolute armor, and abun-dant peace and prosperity for all is love’s definite reward,” Prana writes.

In “Spiritual Quest of a Baby Yogi,” Prana discusses many re-ligions, including Bhakti yoga, Pranayama, Hinduism and Bud-dhism just to name a few.

Bhakti is one of the types of

yoga mentioned in Hindu phi-losophies which denotes the spiritual practice of fostering loving devotion to a personal form of God. Pranayama is another type of yoga, which means “extension of the life force”. Hinduism, translated from “Santana Dharma,” mean-ing “the eternal law,” is the predominant and indigenous religion of south-east Asia. Bud-dhism is is a religion and phi-losophy encompassing largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, com-monly known as the Buddha.

Prana’s website includes prayers from Christian, Muslim and Hindu origins. In addition,

Bieber documentary taps into Christian audienceThe face of this angle of the

movie’s marketing is Pattie Mal-lette. And it’s a face that looks a lot like Bieber’s own. She’s Jus-tin’s mom, and she’s an evangeli-cal Christian.

In a telephone interview Fri-day, Mallette said she found her faith after “a rough childhood” during which she “got into a lot of the wrong things.” At age 17, she ended up in the hospital af-ter a suicide attempt.

“I cried out to God,” she said.“If you’re real, if you have a

purpose and plan for me, it’s got to be better than what I’ve fig-ured out for myself,” Mallette, now 35, told God. “I have to try it your way.”

She said her pleas worked. Like many born-again Chris-tians, Mallette felt a sense of eu-phoria in the aftermath of sur-rendering herself to what many evangelicals call “a relationship” with Jesus Christ.

“I was on a high for like a week,” she said. “It was some-thing I’d never experienced be-fore, outside of drugs. I could see a living God.”

Mallette — a single mom —brought Justin up in a nonde-nominational Christian church in their native Canada, where

he experienced the upbeat, con-temporary worship music native to evangelical congregations.

When Justin turned 12 and said he no longer wanted to at-tend church on Sundays, Mal-lette didn’t force him.

The marketing materials for the movie point out that “Bieber recently released a video called ‘PRAY’ which demonstrates his faith with footage from earth-quake-torn Haiti and post-Ka-trina New Orleans, as well as clips of the star visiting the sick and identifying with military families and the poor.”

Mallette is participating in Paramount’s Christian market-ing angle and said she thinks the filmmakers saw an opportunity in mother-and-son’s lifestyle.

“Faith is such a big part of our lives,” she said. “You can’t cut it out of the movie, so they might as well make it work for them.”

In recent weeks, “Never Say Never” has been screened for pastors around the country, in-cluding in St. Loui — a page torn from the “Passion of the Christ” marketing playbook.

A press release for the film claimed Mallette was “serene” on the verge of her 16-year-old’s massive world tour “knowing

that she and her son are fol-lowing God’s purpose for their lives.”

Asked on Friday what she thought God’s purpose for Jus-tin’s life was, Mallette didn’t pause.

“His purpose is to be the voice of an entire generation,” she said. “To raise up the stan-dard.”

The moral standard?“Yes,” she said. “To raise the

standard in a moral way, what-ever that may mean.”

Being the moral voice of a generation is a lot to put on the shoulders of a 16-year-old kid, just three years from being dis-covered via YouTube.

But Mallette said there are plenty of Christians who would like Justin to use his megafame to bring young souls to Jesus.

“I know a lot of Christians want to evangelize and bring people to God, but I believe that parts of Justin’s own spiritual journey may not look the way religious organizations want them to look,” she said.

Mallette is very aware that her son’s age is a factor in the way he sees his own faith today. The family employs a “travel-ing pastor” while on tour, she

said, and mother and son go to church together now and again. “Honestly, I think he’s up and down,” Mallette said of her son’s current state of seek-ing. “He’s trying to find him-self and find God. He’s 16. But God has hooks in his heart. He’s still on his own journey. Mine is mine, and he can’t have mine. He needs his own.”

Paramount was also pushing a clip this week from “Never Say Never” in which Justin and his friends say grace over a slice of pizza, very much in the manner that most teenage boys would say grace over pizza.

“Thank you, Lord, for this pizza,” one of Justin’s buddies says. “This cheese, pineapple, bacon, pepperoni...and thank you to Hawaiian people, for making my pizza.”

Justin laughs, but then — red hoodie hood reverently perched atop a baseball hat — restates the prayer more seriously, ex-pressing the eternal gratitude for what is most important to 16-year-olds everywhere.

“Thank you, Lord,” says Justin Bieber. “Thank you that we have great friends, and we’re able to hang out together and have a good time.”

he includes self-empowering affiraisms, prayers for peace, a photo album and links to his facebook and twitter. Just like his message, Prana’s website presents a synthesis of reli-gions, modern and ancient, as well as a message of peace and togetherness for humanity.

“Unconditional love is the ultimate answer, nonviolence is its absolute armor, and abun-dant peace and prosperity for all is love’s definite reward. Love for All and Hatred for None,” Prana’s website says.

Prana’s book attempts to convince its readers to become devout students of spiritual-ity. Only when a person under-stands true spirituality can he have true happiness and peace. With knowledge the empow-ered person can help all people to seek enlightenment through God and through self-realiza-tion and diligence. Then, in turn, the person will purpose-fully and with fulfillment.

“We absolutely need God’s divine presence, grace and mercy in our lives to realize and achieve the purpose of our earthly existence, but we don’t necessarily need any religion to get to God,” Prana writes.

For more information visit Dev Prana’s website at

http://www.pranayogi.com/.

Courtesy of MCt CaMpusIN “SPIRITUAL Quest of a Baby Yogi: Journey through Islam, Christianity, and Beyond,” Dev Pra-na agrues for a harmony of diffrent religious and spiritual traditions, a view many people express through the use of the popular “coexist” sign.

14 THE AQUINASCOmICS/CROSSWORD THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011

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case as soon as you receive notice of re-classification.

(3) Students who are re-classified 1-A and receive a notice to report for induction before the end of a semester may make a request for 1-S classification which will be granted only once but will automatically be given on request to full-time students in good standing to allow them to complete the current term.

Mrs. Walsh said there would be little difficulty with student classification if stu-dents would follow thye guideposts.

Although it is expected that aptitude

tests and class standing requirements for college students seeking draft deferments will be reinstated by the Selective Service System, there is “no difficulty” anticipated with University of Scranton students.

G.M. Harris, head of the local draft board, said that there was “no problem” with uni-versity students when the program was last in effect – May of 1951 for the Korean War.

“Although we do expect the national headquarters to adopt the plan, I don’t see any real problem with university students as long as they have passing grades,” he said.

“DRAFT” CONTINUED FROm PAGE FOUR

Courtesy of MCt CaMpus

Courtesy of MCt CaMpus

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15 THE AQUINAS

IN THIS ISSUE

AlSO inCluDeDLakers reach out to LatinosKansas St. defeats Kansas

Men’s baksetball on top Lady Royals fight for one seedSwin team places third Sports

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010

Scranton still on topA 17-point loss is rarely a reason

for a team to celebrate. However, the Royals managed to remain in command of the Landmark Con-ference standings despite their defeat.

The Royals clinched the top seed in the Landmark Conference after splitting back to back road games, winning against Susque-hanna University 86-77 Friday and falling to Juniata College 86-69 Sat-urday.

Scranton entered Friday’s game at Susquehanna on a two-game win streak and holding a one-game lead for first place. Susque-hanna, however, was on a two-game losing streak and needed a win to keep their playoff hopes

alive. The game was close through-

out the first half, with neither side able to gain the upper hand. Both teams tallied the same number of field goals and turnovers, and Susquehanna held a slim rebound-ing advantage 17-16. The Crusad-ers held a slim 41-40 advantage heading into halftime.

Zach Ashworth came out strong in the second half, scoring 17 of his 25 points after halftime. Senior Luke Hawk and sophomore Travis Farrell contributed 22 and 19 points respectively as the Roy-als took control of the game.

A 24-8 run over the first eight minutes of the second half gave Scranton a 15-point advantage and seemingly ended the game. The Crusaders managed to come back, cutting the lead down to three before Ashworth made four

consecutive free throws to ice the game. Sophomore J.T. Wilson managed a double-double with 16 points and 15 rebounds for Susquehanna.

With the win over Susquehan-na, a win against Juniata would assure the Royals the top seed in the Landmark Conference. How-ever, Saturday’s game would not end in the Royals’ favor.

Juniata jumped all over the Roy-als in the first half, dominating in virtually every facet of the game while racing to a 13-point halftime lead. The Eagles shot 56 percent from the field, including four of their seven 3-point attempts, while holding Scranton to 30 per-cent shooting. Juniata also held a 20-15 rebounding edge and con-verted all 13 of their free throw at-tempts. Ashworth hit three of his 10 shot attempts to lead the Roy-

als in scoring with 11 points.Scranton would fight back and

narrow the gap in the second half. Hawk scored 13 points, while Ash-worth and freshman Michael Barr added seven second-half points apiece to cut the Royals’ deficit down to six.

Juniata responded with a 20-10 spurt to prevent any chance of Scranton pulling off a come-back. Four Juniata players ended with double-digit points, includ-ing freshman Brian Scholly, who posted a game-high 21 points.

Fortunately for the Royals, a 64-62 win by Catholic University over Merchant Marine Academy assured Scranton the top seed in the Landmark Conference.

Scranton will finish the regular season with a home game against Moravian College Saturday at 4:00 p.m. at the John Long Center.

By CORy BuRRellStaff Writer

Courtesy of NJ sportsSENIOR GUARD Luke Hawk scored 22 points in Scranton’s victory over Susquehanna. The Royals remain atop the conference standings.

The Royals broke a slew of school records and got plenty of strong individual performances to finish third at the Landmark Con-ference meet at Merchant Marine Academy. Merchant Marine won its fourth straight conference title, and Susquehanna came in second. Scranton set records in the 100 free, 200 free relay, 200 medley re-lay, 400 medley relay and 400 free relay.

David Hovey was the lead indi-vidual scorer for the Royals with 35 points. He was a runner-up in the 200 breaststroke and was part

of the record setting relay team in the 400 medley. Steve Nicolosi was the only individual champion from Scranton after winning the 100 fly in 52.34 seconds, but the overall team effort by Scranton was impossible to ignore.

“Honestly, we swam out of our minds,” Nicolosi said.

Joseph Clifford and Marc Dezii had individual fourth-place fin-ishes, and Andrew Kelly and Paul Vignati had fifth place finishes in the meet. Dezii’s performance set one Scranton’s records with a time of 48.1 seconds in the 100 free, breaking Vignati’s previous mark of 48.2 seconds.

“This was a great meet all around and we had great swims from everyone,” Dezii said. “Hav-ing three of the top six in the fly, breast and 200 free matches was huge. We will definitely be looking forward to next season.”

Later in the day, the relay team of Andrew Urban-Dezii-Clifford-Vignati set a school record in the 400 Relay with a time of 3:31.95, giving the Royals a third place fin-ish in the event.

After an up-and-down season, the Royals remain optimistic head-ing into next year and will look to build on this year’s successes.

“We’ll be losing some senior leadership, but our youth will turn into experience,” Nicolosi said. “Our core group of swimmers are juniors and sophomores, which will give us depth and make us very strong up top. This year I’m proud that our hard work and dedication paid off and we have proven that we can swim with the best in the conference.”

Most of Scranton’s record set-ters this year will return next sea-son, and the solid performance by the freshmen on the team also shows promise for the future.

By JACk hAMBROSeStaff Writer

Ranked third in the Mid-Atlan-tic region, Juniata College snapped the Lady Royals eight game win-ning streak with a 68-67 victory in overtime Saturday afternoon at the Kennedy Sports & Recreation Center.

Juniata’s win gives them sole possession of first in the Land-mark Conference and pushes the Lady Royals back into second.

Scranton can still win the Land-mark Conference with a win over Moravian College and a Juniata loss to Susquehanna University this weekend.

Although Juniata halted the Lady Royals’ winning streak, Scranton still managed to set a record-breaking performance. Freshman guard Alison Sweeny scored a career high 31 points, the most points by a first year player in program history. Sweeny shot 13-20 from the field off the bench

in only 29 minutes and beat her previous high of 25 points against Merchant Marine Academy Jan. 9. She is now tied for 11th place for the highest single-game total in Scranton history.

The game proved to be a back and forth battle that remained un-decided at the end of regulation. Scranton led 67-65 with only 1:25 left in overtime after a baseline jumper by sophomore forward Shernai Bentley. Juniata was un-able to score from the field, but cut the lead to one after sopho-more guard Jordan Speck hit one of two free throws with 51 sec-onds remaining. After a missed Lady Royals layup, Juniata came up with a crucial offensive re-bound and converted a foul by Scranton into two free throws with 22 seconds left to give them the 68-67 win.

The Royals almost had a chance to put the game away in regula-tion. With 44 seconds left, Lady Royals senior guard Jennifer King nailed a 3-pointer with 44 seconds remaining to give Scranton a 61-60 lead. Mere seconds later, a foul by Scranton sent Eagles junior guard Ashton Bankos to the foul line where she hit one of two free throws to tie the game and send it into overtime.

Senior guard Megan Kopecki had 16 points, nine rebounds, six assists and five steals for the Lady Royals.

Saturday’s home game against Moravian will tip-off at 2:00 p.m. Kopecki, King and fellow seniors Colleen McLane and Courtney Roselle will be honored as part of Senior Day festivities prior to the game.

Courtesy of NJ sportsJUNIOR SWIMMER David Hov-ey finished second in the 200 breaststroke at the Landmark Conference Championships. The Royals finished third.

By PAT CASSiDyStaff Writer

Courtesy of NJ sportsFRESHMAN GUARD Alison Sweeney scored 31 points in an overtime loss to Juniata College, giving her the Lady Royal record for most points scored in a single game by a first-year player.

lady Royals drop to second in landmark conference after loss

Swim team finishes third in conference at championships

16 THE AQUINAS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010