the oredigger issue 16 - feb. 10, 2014
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T H E O R E D I G G E RVolume 94, Issue 16 February 10, 2014
The student voice of the Colorado School of Mines
w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t
Sports 6
Opinion 8
Features 4
News 2
Resource
companies
recruit at CSM.
Asian Cultural
Festival:culture and fun.
Minds at Mines
asks: hot or
cold?
Softball has a
rough
tournament.
Katerina Gonzales
Content Manager
Chemistry demos are not only
a thing of freshman year General
Chemistry. The student chapter
of the American Chemical Society
mixes, burns, explodes, and displays
chemistry for anyone to enjoy and
learn about. On Tuesday, February
4, ACS treated Mines students to a
BBQ dinner and chemistry demo to
attract students who want to know
what ACS does on campus.
The purpose of ACS here oncampus is to bring chemistry and
science to as many people as we can
and really just get people interested
in looking at the world in a scientic
perspective, said Trevor Stanley, who
is a senior in Chemistry. I would say
my favorite thing about being a part
of ACS is all of the interesting things
Ive learned about. There are so many
eclectic topics that I just never would
have considered before. Its a lot of
fun. You get to learn a lot, you get to
blow things up. Dr. Mark Seger,
the faculty advisor of ACS cut in, I
can conrmsome of these things
he knows more about than I do.
ACS is one of the smaller clubs
on campus, and though its mem-
bers are passionate, they will not bearound forever. All of the ofcers are
graduating this May. We are looking
for younger members to take over
next semester, said Carly Paige, the
ACS secretary. This opportunity is
not only open to Chemistry majors,
but to anyone with a deep passion
of chemistry. The openings in leader-
ship positions for the upcoming year
ACS demos boom
American Chemical Societys Colorado School of Mines Student Chapter entices new members with dramatic explo-
sions and mad scientist antics.
KATERINA GONZALES / OREDIGGER
present opportunities for members to
really make the club their own.
That is not to say that ACS has not
fared well under the current leader-
ship, but rather it has thrived. ACS is
not only a society that meets for the
benet of its members, but also seeks
to serve the campus and community.
Said Stanley, We have done some
volunteer work at a local elementary
school judging their science fair. It
is a lot of fun and it is really great to
involve the younger generation. On
campus, we also offer free tutoring
for the underclassmen, for the introlevel chemistry courses. We really try
to help out the students and bring
the knowledge base that we have
gained and try to distribute that out
to everyone because we believe that
everyone should understand chemis-
try because it is a subject that a lot of
people have trouble with and struggle
with. And because it is something
we love, we want to kind of package
it in a way that says it is not a scary
subject, this is not something that you
should be like, Aw, man, I have to do
chemistry. It should be something
that is fun and relevant to your life.
Those holding an interest in chem-
istry or wanting to explore more about
the subject should check out CSM
ACS. Their next event will be Tuesday,February 18, as ACS wil l host Dr. Paul
Oggs talk about fermentation in Cool-
baugh 219. ACS will likely have more
demos this semester, hopefully with
more delicious ice cream made from
liquid nitrogen. The club encourages
students to get in touch with the of-
cers if they are interested in becoming
a key part of ACS in the future.
Jessica Deters
Staff Writer
Currently, women comprise ap-
proximately 28 percent of the student
body at the Colorado School of Mines
and make up an even smaller percent
in technical industry. Organizations
such as the Society of Women Engi-
neers aim to encourage more women
to pursue degrees in engineering in
order to increase the percentage of
women in what are currently male-
dominated elds.
Mines chapter of the Societyof Women Engineers hosted the
second annual Girls Lead the Way
Conference on Feb. 8 at CSM. The
conference invited high school girls
interested in engineering to spend a
day at Mines and learn the ins and
outs of being an engineering student.
The conference featured an En-
gineering Student Panel full of cur-
rent Mines students who answered
various questions the high school
girls had about engineering, Mines
and college in general. Attendees also
received advice on how to choose
a major, how to write an effective
resume and how to dress for success.
Christin Mastracchio delivered a
keynote address to attendees en-
couraging them to pursue a degreein engineering. Mastracchio grew up
in Houston, Texas with a desire to be-
come an astronaut. She attended the
U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado
Springs, Colorado and received a
degree in astro engineering. Mastrac-
chio proceeded to obtain a masters
degree from MIT and currently serves
as an Air Force Bomber pilot.
Girls as leadersPursuing a degree in a technical
field opens the door for so many
more opportunities than a degree in
a non-technical eld, according to
Mastracchio.
Mastracchios advice applies not
only to future engineering students
but current students as well. During
your study in college youre going to
go through all kinds of struggles and
late nights working on problem sets,
but stay the course, Mastracchio
said. If you are having trouble stay-
ing motivated, keep in mind that just
because you major in engineeringdoes not mean that you will be doing
strictly engineering for the rest of your
life. So, use your interests to further
your success in engineering.
In addition to offering advice to
all engineering students, prospective
and current, Mastracchio strongly
encouraged the room of girls to go
for a degree in engineering.
Girls are well suited for engineer-
ing, so go for it. Girls tend to focus
better and can put in the hours of
studying and doing problem sets
at a desk whereas boys often times
prefer hands-on learning. This state-
ment is of course a generalization,
but many class standings have
shown that women outperform men
academically.Women are born problem solvers
and often have more common sense
and intuition for readily nding a better
way to do things. Women also have a
heart to improve the world. Combine
that compassion with the engineering
smarts to be able to make a difference
and theres no limit to the good you
can do.
COURTESY CSM ATHLETICS
DEPARTMENT
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Oredigger Staff
Deborah Good
Editor-in-Chief
Emily McNairManaging Editor
Taylor PolodnaDesign Editor
Connor McDonaldWebmaster
Lucy OrsiBusiness Manager
Arnaud FilliatCopy Editor
Katerina GonzalesContent Manager
Jared RiemerContent Manager
Karen GilbertFaculty Advisor
Headlines from around the worldLocal News
Dr. Cindy Stevenson, thesuperintendent of the Jeffer-
son County School District, an-nounced her retirement. Sheis leaving the district just a fewmonths before her planned re-tirement on June 30. Stevensonhas served since 2002.
66-year-old Harold Eastonhas pleaded no contest to reck-less endangerment. Easton re-portedly hit a 10-year-old boy inthe face with a book at a GrandJunction elementary school.Easton explained that he lost histemper.
A dog woke its owner andsaved her from a mobile homere on Friday Morning. The dogs
barking woke up Rene Hickmonat 6:30 am. Hickmon managedto escape the re and thanked
employees at the Department ofCorrections for pulling over anda Fremont County reghter who
turned off her propane tank. The
mobile home is a total loss.
U.S. Representative CoryGardner, R-District 4, is urgingPresident Obama to changepolicies so that the price ofpropane can continue to drop.Many of Gardners constituents
complained that they were hav-ing trouble affording propane toheat their homes.
27-year-old Carissa Kochof Broomeld has pleaded not
guilty to appearing with evidenceand being an accessory to acrime. Koch is accused of try-ing to remove blood stains aftera deadly argument at her home.Kochs husband, 32-year-old
Matthew P. Burnett, has been
charged with rst-degree mur-der.
Ramiro Rodriguez, Staff Writer
Jessica Deters, Staff Writer
Step Closer to Beginning of Time, Israel - Amajor breakthrough made by researchers at Tel Aviv
University may hold answers pertaining to the origin of
the universe. When the rst stars formed, the universewas lled with hydrogen atoms. This study suggests
that the black holes that formed from these rst stars
heated the hydrogen gas that lled the universe later
than previously estimated. According to Professor Ren-nan Barkana of Tel Aviv University, the discovery of the
delayed heating of the universe results in a new pre-diction of an early time at which the sky was uniformlylled with radio waves emitted by the hydrogen gas.
As of Tuesday February 4, the
Committee to Regulate Marijuana
Like Alcohol in Alaska receivedenough valid signatures to placea measure on a ballot before vot-ers. If the initiative passes,Alaskawould be the third state to le-
galize the sale of recreational
marijuana behind Colorado andWashington. According to a poll byPublic Policy Voting, 55% of regis-tered voters in Alaska support themeasure. The measure will also call
for a $50 per ounce excise tax onmarijuana coming from cultivation
facilities and stores.The Kentucky Senate passed
measure Senate Bill 16 whichwould allow for students in highschool to use computer pro-gramming courses to satisfy
foreign language requirementsto pass high school. Supportersof the bill say it will help preparestudents for well-paying jobs in thecomputer industry and point to agure saying that less than 2.4% of
students graduating from collegein the nation are graduating witha degree in computer science de-spite high national demand.
After one of the longestdroughts in decades, the Cantar-eira water system, which supplies
10 million people in the Campinasregion of Brazil, is at less than aquarter of its capacity. If there isno rain, then the water systemis projected to run dry in ap-
proximately 40 days. A spokes-person from Brazils largest water
utility, Cia. de Saneamento Basicodo Estado de Sao Paulo, claimsthat once it falls below 20 percent,there may be difculties transfer-ring waters between reservoirs.
Following a series of complaints
about the conditions in Sochi be-fore the 2014 Winter Olympics, adeputy prime minister in Russia
claimed that Western visitors
are deliberately trying to sabo-
tage the event and cited videocoming from surveillance camerasthat either are able to see into orare in the showers of assignedhotel rooms. A spokesperson fordeputy prime minister Dmitry Ko-zak later denied claims that thereare any surveillance cameras in ei-ther hotel rooms or bathrooms.
The National Energy Authorityin Iceland has unveiled the worldsfrst magma-based geothermal
energy system in Kraa, Ice-
land. According to a document byIceland Deep Drilling Project, theavailable power was sufcient to
generate up to 36 megawatts elec-tricity, compared to the installedelectrical capacity of 60 megawatts
in the Kraa power plant. This proj-ect breaks the world record forgeothermal heat and power.
The Guardian, the UK newspa-per which reported on the EdwardSnowden leaks, reveals that theBritish government threatened
to jail editor Alan Rusbridgerand close the paper over report-ing the Snowden leaks. On July 20of 2013, the government sent twoagents to oversee the destructionof memory cards and hard drivescontaining the encrypted les sent
by Edward Snowden. Footage de-
tailing the destruction was releasedby The Guardian on Friday, Febru-ary 7. Furthermore, David Miranda,
a partner of the journalist who pub-lished the leaked information, iscurrently being investigated underespionage charges following an il-legal detention at Heathrow Airportand the seizure of personal itemsto check for encrypted data.
Cure for Diabetes on Horizon, San
Francisco, CA - Living with type one dia-betes currently equates to frequent injec-tions of insulin to make up for the bodys
inability to produce insulin. A researchteam from the Gladstone Institutes founda method by which to reprogram animals
skin cells into endoderm-like cells, whicheventually mature, mimic pancreas-likecells and produce insulin. The study found
a direct link between the transplanted, re-programmed cells and a decrease in theanimals glucose levels. Matthias Hebrok,
PhD and one of the authors of the study,believes this discovery is an importantstep toward a much-needed cure for typeone diabetes.
New Evidence of Pre-Historic Human Migration, United King-
dom - Researchers at Queen Mary University of London, the British
Museum, and the Natural History Museum discovered evidence that
suggests human movement in northeast Norfolk in the United King-dom over 800,000 years ago. Scientists believe the footprints wereimprinted into the bank of an ancient river at a time when Britain andcontinental Europe were still connected. These footprints provide the
rst-known evidence of humans in northern Europe and offer insightinto the movements and migration of people over 800,000 years ago.
Quantifying the Gender Height Gap, Finland -A study from the Universityof Helsinki found correlations between the X chromosome and height. Dr. Taru
Tukiainen of Massachusetts General Hospital said, Studying the X chromosome
has some particular challenges. The fact that women have two copies of this chro-
mosome and men only one has to be taken into account in the analysis. We nev-ertheless wanted to take up the challenge since we had a strong belief that open-ing the X les for research would reveal new, interesting biological insights. The
study did, in fact, reveal new biological insights in its nding that the variant in the
X-chromosome between men and women accounts for anywhere between oneto two percent of differences in height between genders in the Finnish population.
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Ramiro Rodriguez
Staff Writer
The Humanitarian EngineeringProgram held an open house todiscuss changes to the curriculum,a refocus of their efforts, introducetheir faculty and staff, and an-
nounce scholarship and internshipopportunities. The event was cen-tered around the programs transi-tion, as program director Dr. JuanLucena out it, from compassionatehelp to serving sustainable com-munity development. The purposebehind this revamping is to transi-tion from a unilateral model of com-munity development where engi-neering students try to directly solvethe problems of a faraway commu-nity that has very little input on theprojects in mind to a system whereNon-Governmental Organizationsmediate between the two so thatcommunities can help dene their
problems and have that be present-ed to engineers.
As of Fall 2014, the Humanitar-ian Engineering minor is now aneighteen credit program divided intoa three credit introductory course:LAIS 377 - Engineering & Sustain-able Community Development,six credits from the topic of Com-munity Culture and Social Justice,six credits from the topic of Engi-neering by Doing, and a capstonecourse. Community Culture andSocial Justice comes in the form ofsix three-credit LAIS course whichinclude: Service Learning, Cultural
Anthropology, Corporate SocialResponsibility, Engineering Culturein the Developing World, Engineer-ing and Social Justice, and Energyand Society. Engineering by Doingis made up of the two three-creditcourses Human-Centered ProblemDenition and Human-Centered
Design. The capstone will be a se-nior design project centered aroundcommunity development or assis-tive technology for people with dis-
Changes to HE programabilities for students of the Collegeof Engineering and ComputationalSciences or CEEN 477 - Sustain-able Engineer Design for studentsthat are not under the CECS.
A third of the credits for the minorare now coming from CommunityCulture and Social Justice, two out
of six LAIS courses designed to ex-plore the interactions between so-ciety and engineering including thenew course, LAIS 430 - CorporateSocial Responsibility. CorporateSocial Responsibility is an explora-tion of the idea of corporate socialresponsibility as the relationship be-tween engineering rms and com-munities local to their projects witha focus on the extractive industries.
The class aims to teach how to ac-cess opportunities for participationin corporate social responsibility aswell as how to create a strategy forcommunity engagement.
Engineering by Doing is madeup of two EGGN courses centeredaround teach how to design around
people as well as how to accesswhere problems are coming fromto better tailor human-centeredsolutions. EGGN 301 - HumanCentered Problem Denitions is
designed to be a practical explora-tion of how to access how thingsconsidered to be problems or so-lutions for engineering are thosethings when designing with peopleand communities in mind throughpractical lab methods as well asexercises made to teach empathywith people projects are designedfor. EGGN 401 - Projects for Peopleis a class made to bridge the tech-niques learned in Human CenteredProblem Denitions with technical
skills to address problems broughtto the class by community partners.
The Humanitarian EngineeringProgram encourages member-ship in Engineers Without Borders/Bridges to Prosperity for its stu-dents to put to practice the sustain-able community development tech-
niques learned within the programfor the betterment of communitiesboth locally and abroad. The stu-dent run organization is devotedto sustainable community develop-ment through the process of de-signing and assembling bridges forcommunities in need.
The possibility of needing to takean additional semester at Mines be-cause of taking a minor exists; how-ever, the costs can be mitigated bya newly announced scholarshipfrom the Shultz Family Leadershipin Humanitarian Engineering Fund.
The scholarship is for students in-volved with the humanitarian engi-neering program and wish to ex-plore connections to humanitarianengineering in the extractive indus-tries. For a student to be eligible forthe scholarship, they must: have aminimum 3.0 GPA; be enrolled inthe Humanitarian Engineering pro-gram; have taken one or more ofthe following: Engineering and Sus-tainable Community Design, Engi-
neering and Social Justice, Projectsfor People, or Human-centeredProblem Denition by the end of
Spring 2014; register to take Cor-porate Social Responsibility in Fall2014; and submit an essay in re-sponse to two prompts on an inter-est in humanitarian engineering orlinking humanitarian engineering tothe extractive industries. The schol-arship will be ofcially announced in
March of 2014, with selection oc-curring during the Summer of 2014,and funding in the form of $8000will be made available for the Fall2014 semester.
Students wanting to sign up forthe humanitarian engineering minoror area of special interest can startthe process by meeting with pro-gram director Dr. Juan Lucena tomap the minor and ll out the minor
declaration form. Further informa-tion on the program and contact in-formation can be found at humani-tarian.mines.edu.
Leah Hill
Staff Writer
Some have probably seen theapocalyptic scenes of the Ukrai-nian protests. With smoke and re
in the background, people wearing
gas masks or with bloodied faces,and the police with their shieldsand full body armor bracing foran angry crowd. What started aspeaceful protests in late Novemberescalated when police started us-ing tear gas and batons to controlthe protesters as they seized gov-ernment buildings, broke windows,and toppled a statue of VladimirLenin in Kiev. As the governmenttook greater measures to stop theprotesters, the protesters foughtharder to be heard. On January 21,unknown men abducted Igor Lut-senko, a Ukrainian activist and jour-nalist, along with Yuriy Verbytsky,a prominent protester known bythe people, from a Kiev hospital.
They left Lutsenko in a nearby for-est to nd his way back to the city
while Verbytsky was found dead ina city suburb. Though there werealso reports of protesters stabbingthree police ofcers, one of which
died later of his wounds, protest-ers have reported being torturedby the police. Elsewhere, securityforces killed three more protestersas security forces moved againstUkrainian protest camps. Ukraine
Ukrainian revolt continues during Olympicshas begun to look like a war zone.
But what started it all? Ukraineoriginally meant borderlands andis the largest country separatingRussia from Western Europe. Go-ing through Ukraine is the easiestway for Russia to trade with west-
ern countries due to the foreststhat cover much of northwesternUkraine and the countries to itsnorth. Throughout history, Ukrainewas conquered and divided byneighboring powers. Then about250 years ago, during RussiasGolden Age, Catherine the Greatcontrolled southeastern Ukraineafter colonizing it. This part of thecountry is home to some of themost productive farmland in theworld and was used to gain accessto the rest of Europe. EventuallyUkraine was occupied by so manyRussians that the Russians startedcalling it New Russia hoping tomake the territory permanentlyRussian. Then, in the 1930s, whenJoseph Stalin led Soviet Union,Ukraine was part of Russia. Dur-ing his rule, the Ukrainian peasantswere collectivized into state-runfarms and their lives were controlledby Soviet Russia. Several millionUkrainians died of starvation astheir food was restricted and cropstaken away. Stalin then repopulatedthe devastated eastern farmlandsby shipping in ethnic Russians.
This act of genocide took more
lives than the German Holocaust.It was not until 1991 that Ukrainebecame an independent countryagain. Modern day Ukraine is divid-ed into two sections: the Ukrainianspeaking Northwest which dislikesRussia, and the Russian speaking
Southeast which sees no problemin receiving help from their neigh-bor.
Now to the issue at hand: theman in the middle of all the con-ict is Ukrainian president Vik-tor Yanukovych. Born in 1950 inSoviet-controlled eastern Ukraine,
Yanukovych is culturally Russian,shares opinions with many otherRussian-speaking Ukrainians, anddid not speak Ukrainian until hewas in his 50s. In 2004, there weremass protests against him when hewon the presidential election underwidespread suspicions of fraud.
Those protests, which succeededin blocking him from ofce, were
called the Orange Revolution. Butnow, he is back. Since winning the2010 election, Yanukovych and hisgovernment have mismanaged theeconomy and have been viewed ascorrupt.
The protests started when Ya-nukovych reversed a decision tosign a trade deal for greater eco-nomic integration with the Euro-pean Union. This deal, which waspopular with Ukrainians, was morethan just a trade deal. After Ya-
nukovychs neglect, the deal couldhave helped revive the strugglingUkrainian economy. Symbolically,
Yanukovychs decision was seen asa turn away from Europe, and to-wards Russia. Putin then rewardedthe Yanukovychs decision with a
stimulus worth billions of dollarsand a promise of cheaper gas ex-ports. The protests had begun todie down until January 16 when
Yanukovych signed anti-protestlaws which restricted free speech,the media, driving in a group ofmore than ve cars, slandering
government ofcials, and wearing a
mask or helmet.While half of the Ukraine wants
to join the European Union, abouta third of the country would preferintegrating with the Russian-dom-inated Eurasian Customs Union.
The huge crack in Ukraine has evenstarted whispers of civil war whichis why nobody dares to take anysort of military action in Ukraine. Apush from any side, Russia, the US,any European nation, or Ukrainesown military could result in war.
On January 28, Ukrainian of-cials repealed nine out of the
twelve anti-protest laws and tabledthe stimulus offer from Russia. Thegovernment has also offered am-nesty to detained protesters pro-vided that the occupied govern-ment buildings are vacated. Then,in an effort to calm some of the
protests, Ukrainian Prime MinisterMykola Azarov and Yanukovychspresidential cabinet resigned andoffered senior jobs to the opposi-tion. Yet all offers were rejected asprotesters continue to demand thepresidents resignation. Yanukovych
made a statement saying, theopposition continues to iname the
situation calling on people to standin the cold for the sake of the po-litical ambitions of a few leaders. Ithink this is wrong. He also added,From my side, I will show moreunderstanding to the demands andambitions of people, taking into ac-count the mistakes that authoritiesalways make... I think that we cantogether return the life of Ukraineand its people to peace.
But the people do not seemto want to return to their old lives.
The unrest even spread into east-ern Ukraine and Yanukovychshomeland, where he previouslyexperienced unhampered support.People protest because their presi-dent rejected what they saw as anopportunity to improve their livesand their country and instead madean attempt to further relations witha country that has a history of starv-ing them to death. Their demandfor his resignation still fuels theirprotests, and the cruel treatment ofthe protesters has convinced someUkrainian citizens that a new gov-ernment is absolutely necessary.
Evan Ford
Staff Writer
Colorado School of Mines cel-ebrated the third annual GEEE In-dustry Panel with a remarkable in-dustry representation in attendance.Companies in attendance were
CH2MHILL, ARCADIS, and TetraTech. These companies were invitedto present mission statements anda brief synopsis of their companyculture, which has a large bearingon what is desired for potential hires.Students were able to ask these in-dustry professionals specic ques-tions regarding work environments,
job searches, and were even giventhe opportunity to network near theconclusion of the event.
GEEE catered specically to ca-reers in Mining, Geology, Civil andEnvironmental Engineering. A lightdinner was provided before eachcompany presented. The rst busi-ness to present was CH2MHILL, aglobal and wide-reaching enterprise.
The company name comes fromthe initials of the founders in 1946.CH2MHILL employs 30,000 in 60countries worldwide. The companyis a client based rm, and their ser-vices span from accounting, hu-man resources, engineering, andconstruction. A representative fromhuman resources informed the stu-dents in attendance about CH2M-HILLs history and purpose. Thecompany receives many resumes aday electronically, so students at thecareer fair should expect a similarexperience in submission for theircredentials, as opposed to a hardcopy.
The next presentation came fromTetra Tech, a company with 330
ofces worldwide and large proj-ects around the globe, includingmining in New Mexico and Austra-lia. The vision of the company is toachieve max economic performancethroughout the life cycle of a particu-lar resource, with an emphasis on
Industry optionsthe nal restoration portion. It was
pointed out that when working withsensitive job sites, companies mustrealize that environmental permit-ting is for life; something contractingcompanies can forget. Tetra Techalso emphasized the importance ofne-tuned networking skills. With the
right attitude and approach, alongwith the necessary abilities to backit up, the company representativedelivered the notion that any job canbe attained.
An environmental engineer rep-resented ARCADIS on Thursdaynight. Like CH2HMILL, ARCADIS isa large international company. Thecompanys US headquarters is lo-cated in Highlands Ranch, here inColorado. ARCADIS has catered tomany commercial since the 1800s,and has experienced many merg-ers and plenty of growth throughoutthe years. ARCADIS breaks downtheir company into four pillars, in-cluding TKI (Technical KnowledgeInformation) and safety. The com-
pany stresses safety, as this leadsto a complete reduction of injuriesat work. ARCADIS believes that stu-dents seeking a job need to be ableto solve complex problems with astrong core knowledge, but also adiverse interdisciplinary approachin the application of critical thinking.It is also important for engineers topractice and rene communica-tion and writing skills, which can beoverlooked in a math and sciencefocused curriculum.
A common theme from all of thecompanies presentations was a fo-cus on work-life balances and nd-ing the job that was the correct t for
an individual and the company. Thenight presented a valuable learning
experience for the students in searchof internships and specic careers in
geology and civil engineering. Thecompanies that attended the GEEEIndustry Panel presented a widerange of career paths and avenuesfor potential success.
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Chris Robbins
Staff Writer
As technologies improve, access
to technology improves, and the
number of people available to use
technologies increases, the sizes
and complexities of various kinds
of networks continue to grow at analarming rate. From literal networks
such as those of communication
and information to more abstract
denitions such as social networks,
dealing with these large and com-
plex webs can be more than
a little intimidating. In his pre-
sentation at this weeks AMS
department colloquium, titled
Relaxation Methods for the
Matrix Exponential on Large
Networks, David F. Gleich of
Purdue University explained
through the results of his joint
work with Prof. Kyle Kloster of
Purdue how the level of com-
plexity of these networks can
be greatly reduced to a point where
they are much simpler to work with.To do this, Gleich worked with the
exponentials of rather large square
matrices (often millions to billions
of rows and columns) representing
these complex networks, and used
the columns of these resulting expo-
nentials to nd localized solutions.
While this method will technically
produce thousands to millions of
solutions, the vast majority of these
are small enough to be deemed
insignicant and the emphasis is
placed on the handful of signicant
solutions. Once these signicant so-
lutions are in place, the exponentials
of the two more related matrices are
also found. These are the transition
Computing exponentialsmatrix, which returns the probability
of each path length between node
pairs within a network, and an adja-
cency matrix, which nds the num-
ber of possible same-length paths
between any two nodes.
With this data, a single column of
the original exponential matrix (with
one column representing one node
within the network) can be used to
calculate link prediction scores for
the node, which according to Gleich
represents the likelihood of getting
to one node in the network begin-
ning from another. But with modern
networks being as massive in size
as they are, this could take a very
long time to compute exactly, and
by then the network in question has
likely changed signicantly. So, Glei-
ch placed more emphasis on speed
of the calculations while sacricing a
small level of accuracy, resulting in
a method that will quickly produce
localized estimates around results.
The goal was to achieve suf-
cient results in less than the amount
of work to calculate one matrix vec-
tor, or matvec (this was used as the
standard measure of efciency for
this study). Based on an underlying
method of direct expansion, Gleich
was able to convert these massive
networks into much simpler lin-
ear systems, which allowed for the
setup of the relaxation method to
be implemented. Due to the error
analysis step of the relaxation meth-
od, it has also come to be known
as the push method, because it
will essentially push the residual
error from one node and spread
it out across all of its connecting
neighbors through a series of spe-
cic computations and key assump-
tions. This process repeats
several times until the error
present on the original node
in question is basically zero,
and the error transferred
across the other nodes are
so spread out across a wide
area that they are essentially
zero as well.
Compared to other meth-
ods used for this and similar
purposes, the relaxation
technique described by Glei-
ch not only maintains decent accu-
racy and precision levels, but short-
ens runtime nearly by a factor of ten.
Aside from nding more applications
of this methodology (as variants are
already in use in social networking,
network centrality in computer sci-
ence, and network alignment in bi-
ology), Gleich explained that he and
his colleague Prof. Kloster would
like to further rene the relaxation
method as well. As part of their
ongoing research, they would like
to nd better linear systems to use
for faster convergence (and therefor
faster computation) of the system,
as well as scaling the process up to
deal with even larger networks and
matrices.
Chris Robbins
Staff Writer
In geophysical exploration, one
of the most expensive aspects of
research tends to be the storage
and archiving of rock samples from
the eld and their corresponding
data. In particular, the storage of
numerous cores within sheds and
warehouses can cost businesses a
rather large sum of money, and that
cost only grows as more research
is done and more core data needs
to be stored. Even worse than thecost, however, is the fact that the
vast majority of these stored cores
will only be temporarily useful as
time in storage exposes the sam-
ples to potential damage or altera-
tion. As much as 80% of a com-
panys exploratory budget can be
spent on these eventually-useless
cores, an issue Brigitte Martini of
Corescan services addressed in
this weeks edition of CSMs Van
Tuyl lecture series.
Martini, a volcanologist, geo-
thermal expert, and now employee
for Corescan, presented on how
her company is aiming to minimize
the amount of money and data
lost to trying to store core sam-
ples, and that is through the useof hyperspectral core scanning.
She explained how even though
this technology has existed for
roughly 40 years, Corescan is one
of only two companies in the world
implementing it for this particular
purpose. This is due to the rapid
growth of computational power
available over the last several
years, as nowadays there are com-
puters capable of handling the vast
A new way to store coresamounts of calculations and data
involved with core sampling. The
basic goal of this technology, as
Martini put it, is to allow research-
ers to digitally archive both images
and data from core samples in
an effort to minimize and possibly
even eliminate the need to physi-
cally store large quantities of rock.
The process for these auto-
mated core scan imagers is based
upon infrared spectroscopy and
works similarly to a magnetic res-
onance imaging (MRI) scan. The
device pushes samples within acore-box through, gathers data,
and constructs a digital image of
the core one row at a time. The re-
sulting data and visualizations are
highly accurate, more detailed, and
more descriptive than that of ear-
lier technologies. These signicant
improvements do come at a cost
of taking slightly longer to scan
than earlier methods (roughly ve
to ten minutes longer per scan ac-
cording to Martini), but seem to be
well worth the extra wait.
How Corescan managed to
increase these accuracies were
changes to two key ideas. First,
the possibilities for precision were
greatly improved, as models of this
device can be found with preci-sions ranging from several millime-
ters per image pixel down to only a
few microns per pixel. In addition,
while most past programs were set
to label each pixel of a samples
image with whatever mineral lled
up the majority of that pixel, Cores-
can will instead record all traces of
mineral in a pixels worth of space
and label that pixel as such. This
process does throw off the total
gures of minerals by percentage
within a sample, or semi-quali-
tative data (meaning that total-
ing percentages of mineral A, B,
etc. will result in a number slightly
above 100%), but it allows for a
much more intricate and descrip-
tive map of the samples structure
to be formulated.
In order to handle this massive
increase in data and precision, as
well as the highly detailed images
of cores, Martini explained how
Corescan has turned to cloud stor-
age for its vast capacity. With theirown cloud-shared servers, com-
panies using Corescan devices
can permanently store any amount
of data and imagery from cores
and access them at any time. In
addition, these servers also allow
companies and researchers to put
together multiple data sets and run
tests and visualizations for surpris-
ingly large areas of samples. This
effectively allows one to accurately
map out the composition and
structure of a sizeable area rather
than just a single core site.
While the technologys use for
this purpose is still a very young
idea according to Martini, sev-
eral mining companies around the
world have already discovered itsusefulness and made these de-
vices integral parts of their opera-
tion. Martini also stated that work
is already in development for a
Corescan device more specically
geared towards properties of inter-
est to oil and gas companies and
that, in a few years, these devices
will have the same level of function-
ality and use within that eld as is
already present in the mining eld.
Kenneth Osgood, associateprofessor and director of the Mc-
Bride Honors Program, recently
published a collection of essays
that explores the history of civil
rights policies in the postcivil
rights era. His book titled, Win-
ning While Losing: Civil Rights, the
Conservative Movement and the
Presidency from Nixon to Obama,
addresses the common percep-
tion that the civil rights movement
ended in triumph a half century
ago. Osgood wants to challenge
that notion.
When Obama was elected, ev-
eryone was ecstatic. But half of the
prison population was black; pov-
erty rates for African Americans
were double those of whites, Os-good said.
This summer, Americans will
commemorate the ftieth anniver-
sary of the landmark 1964 Civil
Rights Act, which ended segrega-
tion. No doubt many Americans
will describe Obamas historic
presidency as the ultimate victory,
Osgood notes. But the reality is
much messier. During the previoushalf-century, there were successes
in some areas, but set-backs in
others.
Osgood hopes his readers walk
away with the picture that civil
rights politics can be more compli-
cated than originally understood.
Everything we think we know
about the past is oversimplied
and distorted, Osgood said. To
me thats what I love about the
study of history. We develop these
really simple pictures, but when
we really look at it, we nd out
how wrong we are. Almost every-
thing we remember, we remember
badly, simplistically, or incorrectly.
So I hope people will read this
and think: thats not quite how Ithought it was.
Osgood is currently working on
his sixth book, The Biggest Lie,
which connects propaganda and
intelligence. The book will be pub-
lished around 2016.
Courtesy of Mines
Newsroom
Honors directoron Civil Rights
COURTESY MINES NEWSROOM
McBride Honors Program director Ken Osgood poses with
his new book, Winning While Losing: Civil Rights, the
Conservative Movement, and the Presidency from Nixon to
Obama
Corinne Packard, Colorado
School of Mines Department ofMetallurgical and Materials Engi-
neering assistant professor, has
been awarded a National Science
Foundation Faculty Early Career
Development (CAREER) Award
for her research Controlling
Pressure-Induced Transformation
in Rare Earth Orthophosphates.
Packards study is looking at
how to improve the properties of
high temperature ceramic com-
ponents such as combustors,
nozzles and thermal insulation
in aircraft engines, turbines and
rockets. Cracks in those com-
ponents can lead to catastrophic
failure.
Some unique ceramics un-
dergo a change in shape andvolume when they are deformed;
researchers want to harness this
crystal structure change to in-
crease a materials toughness by
absorbing energy caused by an
impact or propagating crack. Re-
searchers will determine how to
use chemistry to control the point
at which this change occurs.
Information and new materialsdiscovered through this research
could be useful in designing coat-
ings to improve the performance
of ceramic components used in
high temperature aerospace ap-
plications.
Undergraduate and graduate
students studying materials sci-
ence and engineering at Mines
will be involved in the research.
The project will also develop sci-
ence-learning modules for local
elementary school teachers and
the Rocky Mountain Camp for the
Dyslexic.
The NSF CAREER award is the
most prestigious award in sup-
port of junior faculty who exem-
plify the role of teacher-scholarsthrough outstanding research,
excellent education and the inte-
gration of education and research
within the context of the mission
of their organizations.
Courtesy of Mines
Newsroom
NSF award forMines MME prof
Compared to other methods used for
this and similar purposes, the relax-
ation technique described by Gleich
not only maintains decent accuracy
and precision levels, but shortens
runtime nearly by a factor of ten.
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Spectranetics teammates are dynamic and
truly global in composition and perspective.
Joining this fast-growing business means
tremendous career opportunities coupled
with the satisfaction of being part of a team
that developslife-saving productsthat help
transform the medical industry.
visit us at: www.spectranetics.com/careers
{There are really good jobs, and then there are
save the world kind of jobs.}
BE INNOVATIVE.
Hope Sisley
Staff Writer
While Disney has closed down
their animation department, that
does not mean the end of the de-
lightful fairy tales they have long
been known for. The latest Dis-
ney feature is a CGI musical set ineighteenth-century Scandinavia,
starring two sisters, a love triangle,
a reindeer, and a talking snowman.
While the plot has a few unresolved
holes (to be discussed momen-
tarily), the overall story is good and
the characters are likable and fun.
Supposedly the lm is based on
the Hans Christian Andersen tale of
the Snow Queen, but those familiar
with the (rather dark) source ma-
terial will not recognize any of it in
this cheerful, wholly un-depressing
picture.
The scene opens on a pair of lit-
tle princesses who are best friends.
The older sister, Elsa, has magical
powers that allow her to create
snow and ice with a wave of herhands. The younger sister, Anna,
has a playful spirit and eagerly eggs
her sister on. After a tragic acci-
dent, however, Elsa and her parents
become convinced that her powers
are a curse rather than a blessing,
and that she must hide them away
lest anyone else get hurt. Because
strong emotions exacerbate the
chill, Elsa shuts herself in her room
and shuts Anna out. After both girls
are orphaned (this is Disney, after
all), Elsa becomes a complete re-
cluse.
The turning point in the story
comes at Elsas coronation. This is
the rst time that she and her sis-
ter have been outside of the castle
in years, and Anna, still playful asever, decides to take full advantage.
She immediately meets, falls in love
with, and agrees to marry one of the
party guests. For some reason Elsa
seems to think that this is a bad
idea. She refuses to bless the mar-
riage, Anna gets pushy, Elsa gets
ustered, and the transition from
gurative to literal ice queen is com-
plete. The kingdom is plunged into
winter; Elsa ees to a mountaintop
where she gures she can be who
she is without having to worry about
hurting anyone.
Probably the best part of the
whole lm is a baby reindeer named
Sven who appears during the open-
ing song, which is based on Norwe-
gian folk music. Sven, now a verylarge adult reindeer, and his owner,
an ice-seller named Kristoff, return
to the plot to help Anna track down
her sister before the magical winter
becomes permanent. They are later
joined by an enchanted snowman
named Olaf, who seemed in the
previews like he would
be obnoxious, but in fact
is endearing as the
only snowman in the
world who dreams of
lying on a warm tropi-
cal beach and getting a
sun-tan. The interac-
tions between Kristoff
and Anna, who bicker
rather than make lovey
eyes at each other, arealso quite entertaining.
For instance, as Anna tells
him about how unfair and aw-
ful it is that she is not allowed to
marry the man that she met about
twenty minutes earlier, Kristoff is,
astoundingly, in agreement with her
sister. In fact, at no point in the story
does anyone besides Anna - who
is somewhat lacking in common
sense, having been stuck in a cas-
Frozen warms the hearttle most of her life - and her beau,
Hans, think that marrying someone
he just met is a particularly brilliant
plan. This is almost like a recanting
on Disneys part since movies like
Snow White have long established
that love at rst sight is a per-
fectly valid reason for jumping into
a long-term relationship in search ofa happily ever after. Contrast Love
is an Open Door, a duet between
Anna and Hans, with one of the old
classic Disney love themes, such as
Once Upon a Dream or A Whole
New World. The lyrics are pretty
similar. Love is an open door / Life
can be so much more / With you
is not too different from A whole
new world / A new fantastic point
of view... Now Im in a whole new
world with you, but the message is
quite different in Frozen. Without
delivering any spoilers, sufce it to
say that, by the end of the movie,
Anna will nd that the people telling
her not to marry the stranger shes
known for a couple of hours were
right all along. This is a departurefrom the Disney romance model
and a refreshing perspective from
Hollywood.
In many ways, in fact, this is a
feminist lm. [Warning: spoilers
ahead.] After Anna is struck in the
heart with a piece of magic ice,
shes told that she must perform
an act of true love to melt it and
prevent her becoming an ice sculp-
ture before the day is out. Naturally,
like many a Disney heroine before
her, Anna assumes this means
true Loves kiss, so she high-tails
it back to the palace to nd Hans,
her ance of three hours, and give
him a smooch. When that does not
work, she realizes that it must be
Kristoff who is her true love sincehe had a less supercial connec-
tion with her and seems to actually
return the feeling. But ultimately, it
is not a kiss from a man she met
that day that saves Anna - its an
act of self-sacrice done protecting
her sister. Which, really, makes con-
siderably more sense. The bond
between close family members is
much stronger than most other
relationships; hence the saying
Blood is stronger than water. How
on earth could Anna have found
true love with someone she has
spent a mere afternoon with, and
how could that have been more
powerful than her love for her sister,
whom she has known her whole
life? This is Disneys way of saying,
Actually, we lied. The whole mean-
ing of a womans life is not wrapped
up in her romantic relationship
with a man. A woman can actually
have other relationships, too! And
they can be way more importantthan romance! Is not that revolu-
tionary? Ariel might have given
up any chance of ever seeing her
family again so that she could be
with some prince she saved from a
shipwreck, and Cinderellas horric
upbringing might cease to have any
effect on her as soon as she meets
some guy at a dance, but Anna and
Elsa understand that there are more
important things than so-called
true love. In fact, Elsa does not
even have a love interest. Shes too
busy running a kingdom and deal-
ing with her issues and her broken
family to worry about that just yet.
Disney seems to have entered a
new era, at least for now.
The only real problem with theplot of the movie involves Elsas de-
us-ex-machina discovery of how to
control her powers. Its something
that there is no reason she should
not have discovered already, and
it is expressed in so abrupt and
nebulous a fashion that it feels like
the Disney writers got to the end
of the script and realized that they
had not gured out how to resolve
the problem of the kingdoms be-
ing frozen, so they quickly added
in something that sort of sounded
okay and called it good. Otherwise,
the ending is satisfactory, the char-
acters are well-rounded, and the
message is wholesome and uplift-
ing. The music is quite good as well
- another thing viewers have cometo expect from Disney - so its no
surprise to see it nominated for the
best song Oscar. A high point in
the lm is the costume and set de-
sign, which give a strong sense of
place. If the magic were removed,
this could be a documentary of dai-
ly life in old-timey Norway, complete
with folk art and music. All in all, its
a wonderful spectacle both visually
and musically, and well worth see-
ing.
4 out of 5 stars.
Rated PG for... no reason at
all, actually. There is nothing in this
movie that would make it more than
a G. A preschooler might be scared
of the trolls.
COURTESYWALTDISNEYHOMEENTERTAINMENT
In tweets Saturday, February 8,
Don Nguyen, creator of the insanely
popular game app Flappy Bird,revealed his intentions to take the
game off
app stores.
The Ha-
noi based
developer
has been
p r o g r am -
ming for
ten years, but never thought the
game would take off like it did. Said
Nguyen on Twitter, I will take
Flappy Bird down. I cannot take
this anymore. He also does not
intend to sell Flappy Bird, despite
its popularity and social media atten-
tion. People are overusing my app,
tweeted Nguyen. I can call Flappy
Bird a success of mine. But it alsoruins my simple life. So now I hate it.
Since its creation, Flappy Bird
has generated feelings of both love
and hate from its many users. The
game is simple yet seemingly impos-
sible to do well in. College students
Katerina Gonzales
Content Manager
Flap no moreCreator to take down viral game
to elementary-aged kids around the
world have been engrossed as the
game spread like `wildre through
social media and word-of-mouth.
Nguyen undoubtedly has had
trolls plaguing his inbox and timeline,so the removal is understandable.
The creator maintains
classiness by replying
to fans who give good
reviews of the game,
despite the amount
of attention from trolls
and haters. He also
conrmed the removal
has nothing to do with legal issues.
It will not be game over for the
developer, however, as he plans to
make more games. On his website
dotgears.com, the independent
company states, Everything is pure,
extremely hard and incredibly fun
to play, so users can expect future
games from Nguyen to be of the
same simple, retro style and graph-ics. Included in .GEARS list of avail-
able games are Smashing Kitty,
Droplet Shufe, Shuriken Block,
Ninjas Assault, and Super Jug-
gling, which is also a top download
on app stores.
I will take Flappy
Bird down. I cannot take
this anymore.
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#idigminesPHILANTHROPY DAYFEBRUARY 27CELEBRATE THE DONORS WHO
SUPPORT 1/3 OF YOUR EDUCATION!
Participate by using #idigmines to post a
photo on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook that
thanks donors for supporting your education
and shows how much you dig Mines.
The photo contest winner will be determined
on February 27 by DigNITARIES Mines
student philanthropy group.
For more info visitgiving.mines.edu/students.
PHOTO CONTESTTHE WINNER WILL
RECEIVE $500
TO SUPPORT A
MINES AREA OF
THEIR CHOICE!
Asian Cultural Festival photo recapALL PHOTOS COURTESY AMOS GWA / OREDIGGER
The CSM Asian community celebrated the new year.
Students celebrated the Lunar New Year, complete with a twisting dragon dance.
In addition to food, the Asian Cultural Festival had other events to intrigue attendees.
Asian hip-hop gave variety and a modern air to the evenings performances.
Martial arts demonstrations showcased amazing feats, which captivated audiences.
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With snow all around, life has be-
come a little more exciting and a little
more dangerous. With the ground
icy or covered in slippery packed
snow, everyone is forced to take a
little more care unless they want to
end up at on their back, staring up
at the sky. One solution for the slick
ground is YakTrax. These remark-
able inventions are like tire chains
for shoes and provide extra traction
against the ground to prevent slip-
ping and falling. They are incredibly
useful when there is ice or packedsnow but they also help when
walking across loose
gravel. Addition-
ally, they also
make really
cool foot prints
that look like
criss-crosses.
The YakTrax are
easily attached to any
type of shoe and come in a variety
of sizes for different size feet. They
attach using a combination of rub-
ber edging and a Velcro strap. The
strap can be removed depending
on how they need to be used. They
can be worn with any kind of shoes
from womens boots to tennis shoes
to hiking boots. Within the packag-ing for the product there is a detailed
explanation of how they can be tted
for a variety of uses. Different posi-
tions make them optimal for walk-
ing, running, trekking, and mountain
climbing. This allows both versatility
and convenience for whatever uses
that they may be required for.
The one downside of these mi-
raculous inventions is that they only
work when walking outside on rough
Jacqueline Feuerborn
Staff Writer
YakTrax a slick trickor icy ground. The YakTrax also gripquite well on carpet so when in-
doors and walking across carpet
they seem no different than normal
except there is a little extra spring
in each step. However, when going
down the hallways of Meyer Hall, for
example, they are too slippery on the
tile oor which results in tumbling to
the oor and some bruising.
So while the YakTrax work ex-
ceptionally well in the outdoors, they
are not well suited for the indoors.
This can be xed by removing them
from the bottom of the pair of shoes
when entering a building but it can
be a bit of a pain to do each time.Another possible solution to this is
to only place them on the bot-
toms of the shoe when walk-
ing around in the snow for
quite awhile. It is not worth
taking them on and off
just to walk around
in the snow for
a few min-
utes but if for
some reason
it is neces-
sary to walk for
qui te a while over slick
ice or snow then they would be very
handy.
All in all, while the YakTrax are in-
credibly useful for walking around in
the snow with a decreased chanceof slipping, they are not practical for
everyday use. If they are to be used
everyday then there has to rst be an
understanding that they take some
time to put on and take off. Also,
there is some risk to the wearer if
they are worn indoors, especially on
tile. With all of those recommenda-
tions in mind, the YakTrax are an
amazing invention that make walk-
ing in the snow less of a chore.
COURTESYYAKTRAX
As the students of Colorado
School of Mines have all undoubt-
edly noticed, there has been a little
bit of snow lately. While snow can be
pretty to look at, surely everyone can
but in agreement that is hasnt been
the nicest thing to trudge through onthe way to class. Anyone who has
experienced pulling off wet freezing
socks in a futile attempt to save a
couple frostbitten toes should know
that they arent the only student on
campus to endure them; others can
commiserate and share in the pain.
The ice is cold, wet, annoying and
yet for some reason it is still pos-
sible to love it a little bit (well some
of us do), for no other reason than
the wind seems to disappear while
it is snowing.
Almost all little kids idolize the
snow. There were a variety of rea-
sons for this but the most promi-
nent was because it was seen as
a chance of freedom. With snow
comes snow days, somethingeven adults look forwards to. Who
wouldnt rather be spending their af-
ternoon building snowmen and pelt-
ing their friends with lumpy chunks
of cold wet snow? However, this is
something that Mines students can
only dream about. After the false
alarm a few months back, everyone
has been forced to come to the con-
clusion that the school refuses to let
us live out our childish dreams of the
snow. Instead, students have been
packed into cage like rooms to listen
to teachers drone on about some-
thing not nearly as interesting as the
snow. Meanwhile outside, children
Jacqueline Feuerborn
Staff Writer
The joys of snowcan be seen running across Kafa-
dar Commons, whether or not these
children are real or just part of a re-
membered childhood is a mystery.
Growing up somewhere warmer,
perhaps inside a volcano or in Texas,
can make the snow seem com-
pletely and utterly perplexing, well
then...get use to it because the state
could be getting more snow as lateas May. Welcome to Colorado, the
land of bipolar weather, where it can
go from snowing to 80F in just a few
hours. Anyone that does not under-
stand how that can even be possible
shouldnt worry because plenty of
people are also wondering the exact
same thing. Colorado was blessed
(or cursed) with this crazy weather so
unless someone gures out how to
control the weather (dont forget, this
is Mines -- there is a chance it could
actually happen) everyone is just
going to have to put up with it. So
head outside and make something
of it, but not a snowman because
it is to dry for that...or snowballs
because they wont stick together.
Basically, our snow is pointless foranything other than blowing around
and making us all cold and miser-
able. In a search for better snow?
Then there are only two choices:
either wait a few days for the snow
to soften into a weird squishy mush
or move to Canada. There is noth-
ing anyone can do to avoid the snow
without leaving Golden so just keep
on going and hope it will disappear
soon, hopefully without taking your
extremities with it.
So with snow all around there is
just one thing left to do: go ll a travel
mug with warm hot chocolate or cof-
fee and head off to class.
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Jordan Francis
Staff Writer
There are plenty of poorly writ-
ten comics and plenty of potentially
great stories that fall into the hands
of mediocre writers, but rarely does
one see a story with such poten-
tial fail so hard at living up to what
it could have been. There was a
good premise here. The main play-
ers were well-established and in-
teresting characters. There was
some excellent history behind all
of the motivations in the story. This
should have been a compelling,
dramatic epic of a story, focusing
on the relatable struggles of deal-
ing with personal demons and the
impotence of being to x someone
elses problems, even for those who
can see exactly where the troubles
are headed. Instead, it comes off as
a lackluster, sloppy piece of work
thrown together by a writer who
started with an outline of where
the story needed to go and did not
progress much beyond that point.
But, before tossing this work aside
as the sloppy and frankly insulting
drivel that it is, readers and fans
should actually take a look at this
comics story.
Rise and Fall was a pre-52
story from 2010. It is a direct sequel
to Cry For Justice, which told,
among other subplots, the story
of Prometheus, a super intelligent
villain from Batmans rogue gallery,
attacking the Justice League of
America. In his attack, he managed
to surprise the JLA in their watch-
tower, sever one of Red Arrows
arms, and destroy much of Star
City, the home base for most of the
Arrow clan. Red Arrows daughter,
Lian, was among those killed in thedestruction. Prometheus escaped
from the League, but Green Arrow
tracked him down and killed him
with an arrow to the face. These
comics took place during a time
when DC was attempting to make
many of its iconic, idealistic heroes
and their stories much darker than
they had previously been. Some of
these attempts actually led to de-
cent and sometimes good comics,
but, as is often the case with edito-
rial mandates, some of the stories
were just dark for the sake of be-
ing dark and thus the content of
the comics often fell at on its face.
Unfortunately, despite its interesting
premise, Rise and Fall entrenches
itself rmly in the latter category.Rise and Fall is really a comic
split into two halves for two sepa-
rate stories that are supposed to
be intertwined but really just end up
co-existing in the same timeline: the
Fall of Green Arrow and the tragic
Rise of Arsenal from the ashes
of Red Arrow. Green Arrows tale
begins with a recap of the events
Justice League: Rise and Fall: Disappointingfrom the end of Cry For Justice
followed by Green Arrow returning
to Star City to hunt down Electrocu-
tioner, the supervillain who helped
Prometheus devastate the city and
who Green Arrow blames for Lians
death. The other heroes attempt to
track down Prometheus and even-
tually nd his body with a green ar-
row sticking out of it. Flash (Barry
Allen) and Green Lantern (Hal Jor-
dan) go twice with Black Canary to
confront the Emerald Archer about
the murder, only to have Green Ar-
row evade them both times. He
eventually meets up with the cur-
rent Speedy (Mia Dearden), who
has caught the Electrocutioner and
who asks for the chance to kill him
herself, as she feels guilty for letting
Lian die while under her supervi-
sion. Green Arrow has a strange
and fairly unconvincing change of
heart and refuses to let Mia or him-
self kill Electrocutioner. Arrow turns
himself over to the authorities, lead-
ing to an unintentionally hilarious
scene where Green Arrow is ar-
rested, yet nobody recognizes him
as the former mayor, Oliver Queen,
until his incredibly small domino
mask is pulled from his face. Arrow
then spends some time in jail where
Black Canary breaks up with him.
In an impossibly quick manner, he
is given his day in court where the
jury nds him not guilty of the mur-
der he committed. The judge dis-
agrees, but instead of overturning
the verdict, simply banishes Queen
from Star City with the threat of in-
carceration should he ever return.
And so Green Arrows story ends,
with Queen supposedly learning a
lesson but not appearing to have
changed at all and having man-
aged to get away with literal murderscott-free.
Green Arrows story, while un-
compelling and poorly executed,
at least avoided having any major
consequence. While Roy Harpers
tale is not handled any better, he
unfortunately does not escape his
mess of a plot without permanent
damage to his character. The sec-
ond half of the comic begins with
a more detailed look at the ght
between Roy Harper (Red Arrow)
and Prometheus, which Cry For
Justice skipped over. Roy gets his
arm chopped off and wakes up in
the medical facilities, surrounded
by members of the League. As
the realization hits him that his arm
is really gone, he learns about thedestruction in Star City and the
death of his daughter. Understand-
ably distraught and medicated, he
begins hallucinating a conversation
with Corey, his old drug dealer. (For
those who were unaware, in 1971
DC published a storyline that re-
vealed teenage Roy Harper as a
heroin addict. Harper eventually
managed to kick his addiction with
help from Green Lantern and Black
Canary.) In pain, Roy swipes some
pain pills from Dr. Mid-Nite and, af-
ter seeing Lian in the morgue and
convincing himself that she is re-
ally dead, returns to his home. He
rejects the company of his friends
and continues hallucinating en-
counters with Corey alongside
nightmares about Lians death. He
later nds out that Green Arrow
killed Prometheus and gets even
more angry at being denied his re-
venge. Roy stops by S.T.A.R labs
to attach a new robotic arm to his
stump before attending Lians fu-
neral. A few heroes attempt to offer
comfort but Roy lashes out at all of
them and leaves for home. There,
he is attacked by Chesire, Lians
mother. They ght, blaming each
other for not protecting Lian, which
somehow leads to them attempting
to get intimate. Roy later hits the
streets in his old Arsenal costume,
beats up some thugs, and scores
some heroin. He then ghts a few
druggies and Batman, hallucinating
that they are all Prometheus. Bat-
man subdues him and alongside
Canary, dump him in a rehab facility
for villains. Unsurprisingly, this is not
a very helpful move and once he
starts hallucinating visions of Lian
urging him to kill the other man re-
sponsible for her death (Electrocu-
tioner), Roy breaks out of rehab and
breaks into the jail where Electrocu-
tioner is currently being held. This
is the same jail where Green Arrow
is incarcerated, so Queen ghts
Roy in an attempt to stop him.
Roy, however, manages to evade
him long enough to kill Electrocu-
tioner. He then leaves, burns down
his house, and strikes out to bringjustice to the streets once more as
Arsenal.
There are so many things wrong
with this story that it is hard to know
where to start. However, what ulti-
mately ruins what could have been
a salvageable, possibly even good,
comic is the way the characters are
written. Good storytellers should
know their characters and their
world well enough to come up with
a scenario, drop the characters in,
and let the resulting character ac-
tions and interactions dictate or
at least guide the direction of the
story from there. In this book, the
characters serve as little more than
cardboard cutout mouthpieces for
the writer, saying and doing what-ever was needed to move the story
along in the direction the author and
editorial team thought it should go.
This is straight-up lazy writing that
really hurts what could have been
a really interesting story. As a re-
sult of this lack of effort, the char-
acters come across as wooden,
hollow, cliched, and often irrational
or nonsensical. The way most of
them are written ies completely in
the face of established character
traits and spits in the face of the
long, in-depth history of personal-
ity and experiences each of them
have accumulated over their years
of existence. Roy goes from under-
standably angry and in pain over his
daughters death to a raging, delib-
erately spiteful jerk for no adequate
reason. Most of the other heroes
consistently behave like idiots and
even Black Canary, who helped
Roy through his original addiction
and withdrawal, does a complete
turnaround and dumps him in a re-
hab clinic to deal with his problems
alone at the rst sign of drug abuse.
Expecting anyone to believe real
people, much less these charac-
ters, behave this way is a slap in the
face to longtime fans and an insult
to the intelligence of new readers.
Most of the other problems stem
from this. It is really hard to get in-
vested in the pain of a character
who is not acting like the person
fans know him or her to be. It is
hard to enjoy the ght scenes when
characters are not acting like them-
selves and the audience has no
reason to believe that there is really
anything at stake in these clashes.
Even the deaths in this story fall
at, carrying none of the emotional
weight or signicance they should.
The reader has no reason to care
whether or not a boring and unlik-
able character will kill one that the
audience did not get a chance to
know.
The cover and between issues
art is actually pretty good but the
actual artwork featured in the com-
ics is inconsistent as all get-out and
shifts from acceptable to distractingto annoyingly bad on a regular ba-
sis. Readers could be forgiven for
assuming that the artists were go-
ing for a superheroes with scolio-
sis theme in this book, what with
all the odd and impossible angles
between the characters torsos and
hips. Proportions in this comic are
all over the place and after seeing
the fth or sixth hero standing or
moving in a way that would make
professional contortionist do a dou-
ble-take, one starts to believe that
the artists either have no concept
of basic human anatomy or are
under the impression that all super-
heroes are made of bionic rubber.
Additionally, while it is unfortunately
somewhat expected that womenin comics tend to be drawn in a
sexual way more often than men,
this book is blatant and bad about
it. Every panel that features a fe-
male that has gone through puberty
nds a way to show off her chest
or rear, even when the artists have
to twist her spine to do so. Girls
get dialogue in this book largely
when the author needs someone
to have a brief lets talk about feel-
ings interlude and they are usually
silenced quickly after. No female in
this comic does anything signicant
to the plot; though, to be fair, few of
the men drive the plot much either.
In fact, for all the action this book
seems to contain, the plot does not
go much of anywhere. Point be-
ing, women in this book are drawn
and written here as little more than
talking blow-up dolls. Heck, Roys
hallucination of Lian is a more inter-
esting and better-drawn character
than any of the other girls in the
comic.
The art is at-out terrible at its
primary job: supporting and en-
hancing the story being told in the
comic. Exaggerated detailing often
give dramatic moments a ludicrous
feel while a complete lack of detail
in other scenes prevent the reader
from understanding what is going
on or how a character is reacting to
a situation. When facial expressions
and body language are readable,
they are usually clash with the tone
of the scene. The most obvious
example of this is during the scene
where Roy nds out about Lians
death. As he collapses onto the
oor, one would expect his friends
to want to comfort him, or perhaps
to be angry and sad on his behalf,
or maybe even uncomfortable and
uncertain of what to do. But when
Roy Harper falls to the oor in pain,
a broken man realizing he has lost
everything, almost all of the others
strike some sort of heroic pose in
the background. It is stupid, dis-
tracting, and subtly takes the read-
er out of the drama of the scene,
greatly reducing its impact.
Overall, this comic hits everynegative stereotype that gives com-
ic books a bad name. It is poorly
written, mindless drivel that is gritty
and violent for the sake of shock
value instead of story. The charac-
ters are at and unbelievable, the
story that could have actually been
really good and compelling is re-
duced to a poorly-translated mess
of a summary of what could have
been, and the art is overall sloppy.
It seems like the comic is trying to
re-create the magic that made the
(admittedly awed but still way bet-
ter) Identity Crisis but with far less
effort. The attempt falls on its face
so hard, that this comic is still trying
to surgically remove pieces of the
ground from its forehead. DiehardDC fans might want to give this
book a quick look if only to say they
have read it. Everybody else should
take a pass. There is no shortage of
quality stories about these charac-
ters; there is no need to waste time
on a comic that attempts to make
them more generic than off-brand
aspirin.
Lee Daniels The Butler is a
2013 historical lm directed by Lee
Daniels and starring Forest Whita-
ker, Oprah Winfrey, and John Cu-
sack. The Butler is a ctionalized
version of the life of Eugene Allen
(Cecil Gaines in this lm) who acted
as head butler for the White House
between 1952 and 1986. The lm
paints the story of Cecil and his
family within the backdrop of the
changes to the political and racial
landscape between this time period.
The lm opens to a day in Cecil
Ramiro Rodriguez
Staff Writer
Lee Daniels The Butler a spectacular flmGaines childhood where his father
is murdered by the plantation owner
who had also raped his mother. This
event lead to him being taken to
serve inside of the house instead of
as a eld hand by the other ownerof the plantation. Cecil eventually
leaves the plantation and nds work
as a butler in a restaurant he stole
cake from in the middle of poverty
induced starvation. This would set
the stage for his life as he progress-
es from the restaurant to a hotel in
Washington D.C. where he would
meet his wife (played by Oprah Win-
frey) and eventually be asked to be-
come a butler in the employ of the
White House. The rest of the lm
follows and juxtaposes the events in
Cecils family life, the actions of the
sitting president and his administra-
tion, the promotion of the civil rights
movement by Cecils oldest sonLouis, and various moments in US
history such as the assassination
of John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam
War, and the King assassination ri-
ots. Throughout this stretch of time
both Cecil and Louis go through life
and perception changing events
that shape and mold their images of
themselves and each other. The lm
closes with Cecil meeting Barack
Obama after his inauguration as
president of the United States.
The Butler is a spectacular re-
telling of the American civil rights
movement through a set of view-
points that historical retellings often
are not told by: a servant to the menresponsible for responding to the
events as well as the view of a family
man who has no battles or crusades
and merely wants to live a peaceful
life. Forest Whitaker gives a master-
ful performance that creates a deep
level of empathy with Cecil through
the best and worst parts of his life
and makes Cecil Gaines a character
to root for throughout the lm. While
John Cusack as Richard Nixon
and Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan
gave rather good performances, it
can be rather immersion breaking if
the twos political views are known.
While there were no bad perfor-
mances in The Butler, it sometimesfeels like the presidents and rst la-
dies were chosen purely based on
who the lm crew wanted to work
with that week. Furthermore, the
lm has a complete lack of subtlety
which, depending on the part of the
movie, can be hit or miss. Ultimately,
Lee Daniels The Butler is a power-
ful portrayal a turbulent part of this
nations history that should be seen
by the masses.
COURTESY DCCOMICS
-
8/13/2019 The Oredigger Issue 16 - Feb. 10, 2014
9/12
f e a t u r e sfebruary , page 9
w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t
Jacqueline Feuerborn
Staff Writer
In K. M. Peytons novel, Snowfall, read-
ers nd themselves thrown back to Victorian
England. In a small village, Peyton introduc-
es the main character of the story. Char-
lotte is a sixteen-year-old girl who dreams
of being anywhere but the vicarage that
she feels trapped in with her grandfather.
With no parents or dowry, her grandfather
has arranged for her to marry the man who
will replace him as the village vicar, Hubert
Carstairs. Charlotte feels that this arranged
marriage with Mr. Carstairs is bringing an
end to her life. It is a little over-dramatic, butthe author successfully conveys Charlottes
sixteen-year-old emotions. In order to avoid
her arranged marriage, Charlotte arranges
with her brother Ben, an Oxford student,
to go away on one incredible vacation. Her
brother, while hesitant at rst, helps con-
vince their grandfather to let her go with on
a trip to the Alps that Ben was already plan -
ning with several of his Oxford friends. From
there the reader jumps aboard an adventure
in the Swiss Alps. Upon arriving in Switzer-
land, Charlotte is introduced to a range of
new characters. Bens friends include Milo,
the dashing aristocrat who feels more at
home on a mountainside than at a fancy
party; Mar, a man hiding from the law for a
crime he did not commit; Roland, a garden-
er and several other fascinating characters.
During her time in Switzerland, Charlotteembraces a variety of new experiences that
she never would have encountered in Vic-
torian England. She falls in love and has her
heart broken. She helps her maid who has
fallen pregnant and climbs all over the Swiss
mountains. The way that Peyton describes
all of the scenery makes the reader feel as
though they are actually in Switzerland with
the characters. The characters are also very
well done with hidden depths and almost
constant character development.
Snowfall is intriguingAs Charlottes time in Switzerland comes
to an end, she braces herself for her inevi -
table return to England and her marriage
to Mr. Carstairs. Peyton makes it incredibly
easy to sympathize with Charlotte and her
return to that fate is almost palpable. The
others on the trip all sympathize with Char-
lotte. None of them are eager to return to
the lives they left behind. Milo, one of the in-
credible people she had met on her adven-
tures in Switzerland, was the one to offer
a solution. After purchasing a small manor
house, Milo admits that he has no one to
run it and he hates the idea of living there
alone. This leads to an offer to his compan-
ions. He offers each of his friends a positionin his household that suits their preferred in-
terests. Charlotte nds herself taken on as a
housekeeper and friend, the perfect escape
from her dreary life with Mr. Carstairs.
From there the story continues on to
their lives and experiences living together in
Milos home. There are new characters and
interactions paired with tons of new drama.
The reader gets to read all about the conclu-
sion of Mars criminal accusations and see
Milos interactions with his aristocratic family
and his lover. It is fascinating watching their
new lives develop and the plot remains in-
teresting throughout the entire novel. Up to
the very end, the reader will be fascinated
until the last pages where Peyton throws in
a new twist that will leave the reader reeling.
Snowfall by K. M. Peyton is an intrigu-
ing story all about life and how to change
fate. The novel tells the alluring tale of a
woman who would do anything to escape
her dreary life and, in the end, found a life
that she never even could have imagined.
This is a great book for anyone who loves to
cheer for the underdog or seeks an exciting
adventure lled with romance and excite-
ment. This book has aspects that would ap-
peal to almost any audience. So to ll these
snowy days, why not pull Snowfall off of a
shelf and give it a go?
Geek Week...Eric Charrier, PhD Student: Mining Engineering
ofthe
Plenty of Mines students gothrough the school with a goal of
running through their academic
gauntlet as quickly as possible.
Others take a bit longer to leave this
haven of geeks, either by choice or
by trial and error. However, only a
privileged few can claim the honor
of knowing the campus as well as
Erik Charrier, who, after wresting
both a Bachelor of Science and a
Masters degree from Mines, con-
tinues to do battle with the school
in pursuit of a PhD in Mining Engi-
neering.[Oredigger]: Why did you
pick Mining Engineering?
Its an application of Mechanical
Engineering [my Masters degree]
in an interesting area. Ive alwaysbeen fascinated by mining equip-
ment...Here, I am doing what I al-
ways thought would be wonderful
fun as a kid.What has been your favorite
class so far?
Either Technology and Social
change with Mark Eberhart, Ma-
chine Design, one of Steeles Ro-
botics classes, or Turners Design
class. We decided to build a ro-
bot in Design class and ended up
equipping a ten pound robot with
BattleBots-gr