Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Â
Citation preview
CMYK
Monday, April 18, 2011
TODAYH 81 L 70
The
TUESDAYH 92 L 73
WEDNESDAYH 87 L 68
Volume 90Issue 18
Next Publication:Thursday, April 28, 2011
Visit us online atwww.thepinelog.com
The Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State University
Page 4
.
Trump’s quest continues
Page 6
PINE LOG The
The Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State University
PINE LOG Ladyjacks drop 2, but win 1
against UTA
The Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State UniversityThe Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State UniversityThe Independent Voice of Stephen F. Austin State University
PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG Ladyjacks drop Trump’s quest
continues PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG PINE LOG
By Adrian DelgadoCONTRIBUTING WRITER
For the last two years, Ingleside senior Stephanie Higgins (right) has been leading one of SFA’s oldest student organizations and has broken records at regional timber-sports competitions.
Her dedication has made her a stand-out student at Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture’s (ATCOFA).
Sylvans is a forestry social club and is SFA’s unofficial timbersports team.
Higgins feels her team is among the most respected in the Association of Southern Forestry Club’s Conclave competition, an annual event where forestry clubs from 15 southern universities compete in both technical events, such as wood identifica-tion, and physical events such as pole fell-ing.
“Sylvans is one of the strongest and well rounded clubs in the forestry depart-
ment.” Higgins said. She feels confident that she will pass the Sylvan’s torch into good hands.
“I know whomever is president next year will continue the traditions we have as a club and our recognition within the college, community, and at the Southern Forestry Conclave. We are one of the most well known teams at Conclave, and we are proud to carry the tradition of representing SFA in the highest regards.”
Higgins herself, practices for and com-petes in Conclave every year. She recently broke two records: The first at the wom-en’s crosscut event in 2010, where she and Lampassas sophomore Stefanie Welker ripped through an 8 inch by 8 inch sweet-gum cant in 5.41 seconds. The second was at this year’s Conclave, where she set a new bowsaw record of 11.4 seconds. Many athletes never surpasses their predecessors enough to break a record, much less do it twice.
Higgins promotes the Sylvans in a video of Conclave 2010 on the ATCOFA website, which features her and Welker’s record-breaking moment.
SFA placed second overall out of 15 schools last year and this year.
Higgins credits her maturity to the chal-lenges she faced as a Sylvan’s president, as a competitor in timbersports, and as a student in forestry. Membership in Sylvans provides opportunities for future forestry professionals to make contacts and friend-ships that last.
Higgins is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in forest recreation management on May 14.
She is also involved in a project install-ing a Spanish colonial garden at SFA’s Stone Fort Museum, as part of her internship class. The garden project will allow her to leave a lasting impact on SFA as a whole.
Local student sets records at timbersports competition
By Samantha EmersonCONTRIBUTING WRITER
On Thursday former NASA as-tronaut Alan Bean came to cam-pus as a part of the 2011 install-ment of the Archie McDonald Speaker Series.
The Wheeler, Texas, native is one of 12 people to have ever walked on the moon, and he now spends his time as an award-winning painter, capturing the surrealism of his experience in space through his one of-a-kind artwork.
Bean graduated from high school in Fort Worth and re-ceived an ROTC scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin where he studied aerospace engineering. He then joined the Navy and was trained as a test pilot until his se-lection as a NASA astronaut.
Bean said he wasn’t a stellar student in high school, but after realizing that the Navy only ac-cepted the diligent, he began fo-cusing more on grades and his performance.
“I realized, if I don’t perform, somebody else will. Survival of the fittest happens every day,” Bean said.
His persistence became a hall-mark of his character when he wasn’t selected to become a part of the NASA elite. But, Bean stayed true to his values, reapplied and was admitted after proving him-self to the NASA program.
He then went on to man the Apollo 12 spacecraft, and as mil-lions watched, he and close friend Pete Conrad took their first steps on the moon.
When asked whether or not his lunar landing was terrifying, he stays true to his Texas roots and
relates the situation to football. “Situations are scary for a high school quarterback—he’s in a game-winning situation, and he’s terrified, trying to focus. That’s high school. That same quarter-back makes it to the Super Bowl; the game is still on the line, but he
can think.”After returning back to Earth, and
completing just one more 59-day mission with Skylab Mission II, Bean hung up his space suit and switched his profession to art. The switch didn’t come easy though; Bean faced much criticism from peers who
didn’t understand his motive. Just as he did with his Navy
and NASA stints, Bean remained persistent and put every ounce of effort into his craft.
“I wanted my paintings to be as good as I can make them,” he said. “The most difficult things require
you to just be yourself, that’s all you can do.”
Bean still paints today and has won awards for his unique impressions of his experience in space. So what makes his paint-ings different from every other piece of work? Bean maintains that every piece of work has some-thing unique that came from his space mission:
“I thought to myself, ‘I love tex-ture.’ Why not use my space boots, hammer, maybe moon dust? I’ve never heard of a cowboy painter using corral dust.”
Bean implied that space travel isn’t profitable enough, and his countenance lit up when he ex-plained that he envisions the fan-tasy of space travel becoming a reality for Americans in the near future.
“The problem with space flight is that it’s not profitable. Richard Branson of Virgin Airways, Steve Jobs of Apple—those are the peo-ple who would come back from space with great ideas. I’d sent Oprah Winfrey into space! She’d get things done.”
Alan Bean is an iconic American hero: coming from humble roots in small-town East Texas to tak-ing one giant leap of faith onto a lunar spacecraft, there’s much to say about the persistence he has maintained throughout his careers in both space and art. So what would Alan Bean say is his greatest satisfaction?
“I’m 79, but I still do the abso-lute best I can every day. I’ve got a great life. Life was meant to be hard, but if you can make life work for you, then life is wonderful.”
Dr. Archie McDonald (left) speaks with former astronaut and artist Alan Bean (right) Thursday evening as part of the ongoing speaker series hosted by the former. A native of Wheeler, Texas, Bean is one of 12 people who have walked on the surface of the moon. He has been painting throughout the years after his career at NASA and has won awards for his unique impressions of his experience in space.
THOMAS MOTYKA/THE PINE LOG
Alan Bean gives insight into life, career at speaker event
All four spirit teams competed this past week in the NCA and NDA (National Cheerleading Association and National Dance Association) Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships held in Daytona Beach, Fla. Both large co-ed and small co-ed took home the Division I national championship title. This is the large co-ed’s 12th national title since 1994 and the small co-ed’s second title since 2009.
Tony Castro, Bastrop junior, and Candace Hoernemann, Lewisville junior, placed first in the national partner stunt competition. Alec Heffron, Emporia, Kan., senior, and Alli Pagnotta, Canyon Country, Calif., junior, placed second. Dustin Moore, Hoover, Ala., senior, and Missy Bolman, Colorado Springs, Colo., senior, placed third at the national’s in the partner stunts competition.
The Pom Squad placed third in the Open Dance Division I, and Jack Attack placed fourth in the Dance Hip Hop Division I. This was Jack Attack’s second year in existence and its first year to compete nationally. Their hip hop division combined both division IA and division I teams from across the nation.
Hollie Smith, interim director of student affairs and director of orientation, said she is pleased with all of the SFA teams’ performances and is proud of the members’ and coaches’ dedication to the SFA spirit program.
Cheerleader team tryouts begin on May 6, and pre-tryout workshops were held this past weekend, followed by team tryouts on April 29 and 30.
F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n v i s i t w w w. s f a s u . e d u /spiritprograms.
COURTESY PHOTO
Spirit teams take national titles at national dance, cheer competitions at Daytona Beach
COURTESY PHOTO/THE PINE LOG
CMYK
Page Two Monday, April 18, 2011PINE LOGTHE
• Minutes from SFA campus • Free Internet and Cable
• Free Hot Water and Trash • Large Swimming Pool
• Decks and Patios • Assigned Parking Spaces
• Large 2 Bedrooms • Washer/Dryer in most units
• Furnished units avalable • Resident Security Gaurd
Two Months Rent Free!!
Two Months Rent Free When You Sign Your Lease For 14 Months
Woodforest, a student apartment community, is situated in a lovely woodland setting with 156 units and four spacious floor plans to fit your lifestyle and budget complete with free individual expanded cable and high speed broadband internet connections in each unit
2614 North University Drive Nacogdoches, TX 75965 936.564.7238Woodforest Apartments
PART-TIME HELP
$15 base-appt., No experience necessary Customer sales/ service
Flexible scheduleAges 17+
Conditions apply936-569-1400
APPLY NOW!!
every day any 32 oz. tea is
92¢
Try our $5 Combos3 tenders or 3 piece dark
Reg side & Med drink $5
*Coupon good at both locations in Nacogdoches*Expires may 3, 2011
tuesday special is back! leg and thigh for 99¢
Try our $5 Combos
Musicians neededPianist, guitarist and/or cantor needed for 10:30 a.m. service one or two Sundays each month at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, a small church just off U.S. Hwy 7 West of Nacogdoches at 1422 CR 724 (four miles outside of Loop 224).
An “experienced-amateur” skill level or greater is adequate; familiarity with the Mass is preferred. $25 per service.Call 936.552.1453 for audition or more information.
America’s
Student Discount!
NO Deposits or Admin • Fees!All Sizes 5’x6’ to 12’x40’• Gates Open Everyday• Complete Mailing Services•
Boxes & Locks• Climate Controlled Units• Surveillance Cameras, • Fenced and Lighted
USE OUR
TRAILER
FOR FREE!
Mention you’re an SFA student and get 10%off your
fi rst 3 months. *(Not valid with any other offers)
936-560-37282903 South St., Nacogdoches
YOU LOAD IT, WE MOVE IT!
Self Storage& Mail Center“NACOGDOCHES’ LARGEST & FINEST”
Hours: M-F 9-6, SAT: 9-3, SUN By Appt.
Reserve online at: www.americasmailandstorage.com
N. Stallings Loop North Street
Nacogdoches Medical Center
Russell Blvd
Kevin Tomsic MD DC627 Russell BlvdNacogdocohes, TX 75965936.205.5965Open Monday-SaturdayCall for available hours.
Allmed Family Care CenterWe Treat the Skin and All Within
STEPH
ENF.
AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY
1 9 2 3
OPEN MEETING NOTICEStephen F. Austin State University Board of Regents
8 a.m. Monday, April 18 (committee meetings)9 a.m. Tuesday, April 19 (board meeting)
Austin Building, Room 307
Complete agenda may be viewed atwww.sfasu.edu/regents/agendas.asp
By Andreya StephensonFEATURES EDITOR
Students, as a whole, tend to be addicted to cell phones, making it the one of the best ways to reach us.
That is why the SFA Information Technology Services Department has come up with a new way to reach stu-dents— JackText.
JackText is an informational system that will notify stu-dents, faculty and staff of information relevant to them via text message. It is completely voluntary and does not re-place email as the official means of communication.
This may sound familiar, because SFA already has a Campus Alert system that warns students of inclement weather, crime dangers, school closures and other emer-gency situations. But, JackText is a completely different system and has a different purpose.
JackText will keep students aware of the business affairs and extracurricular activities each student is interested in.
“A lot of the offices on campus are using Twitter and Facebook and encouraging students to follow them. This is intended to be just another one of those methods. The only difference is it is more customizable,” said Rich Barnhart, assistant director of applications at ITS and one of the cre-ators of JackText. JackText can send messages personalized to your needs and wants.
Anyone who has a mySFA account can sign up for JackText. Students will sign in, register a phone that has text messaging capabilities and then select what they would like to receive texts about. JackText can inform students about when sporting events are or what the score was, when a computer is ready to be picked up from Technical Support, events happening all around campus, when Stone Fort yearbooks can be picked up, Rec Center information, caf-eteria and Jack Bucks information, when parking permits from UPD can be purchased, when to apply for graduation, when grades are posted, and much, much more. Professors can also use JackText to communicate with students. SFA employees can receive a JackText notifying them of the direct deposit date and the amount of their paycheck. The same for difference checks. Even after graduation, JackText will keep alumni updated about sporting events and events put on by the Alumni Association.
Students can register up to five cell phones if they choose. This is also completely customizable. So, student can choose to sign up parents, guardians, spouses, or grandparents for JackText, but they can only see what the student signs them up to see. Since, it is through mySFA, students have complete control.
Also, it can be changed at anytime by logging into mySFA and altering the settings. The changes will immediately take effect immediately.
The JackText system is a fairly cutting edge system. Universities communicating through text messaging sys-tems are not widely used for the purpose of business and extracurricular information.
“It’s all about the way students are communicating and uni-versities have to learn to adapt to the new type of student that is walking through their doors,” said Elizabeth Ross, promo-tions, sponsorships and special events Coordinator for Campus Recreation, who is helping with the promotions for JackText.
According to Ross, SFA is on top of adjusting to this new student generation. “The University has been wanting an informational text messaging system for some time to reach students for the business office, financial aid and those sorts of things. So, ITS, Informational Technology Services Department, is building a system that’ll reach stu-dents, faculty and staff,” Barnhart said.
JackText will be kicking into full swing this fall but has
some limited use now. “Students will be able to receive a JackText within sec-
onds of having their semester grades posted in Self-Service Banner (inside of mySFA) beginning with Spring grades this May,” Barnhart said.
SFA hopes to get students at Orientation signed up with JackText so they can know about things like registration, when bills are due and such, but also, so they can get in-volved early on in college.
“Students need to be involved. They need to know what’s going on on the business side, they need to know what’s going on in their classes, but at the same time, they also need to get involved, and this is going to be a great way to do that,” Ross said.
JackText also helps during a time of budget cuts. It saves on manpower, and it was built at no cost to the University. ITS staff built the system during their regular work day and there is no software licensing required.
It is also at no cost to students who use it. There is no registration fee. The only fee students may be charged is the regular text message rate on their cell phone plan, if they do not have unlimited texting.
Students can follow JackText on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JackText or on Facebook by typing in JackText into the search bar. For more information check out the website www.sfasu.edu/jacktext.
To sign up for JackText, go to the myServices tab in mySFA, click on “Self-Service Banner”, click on the “Personal Information” tab, click the “JackText” link, or click on the “Student” tab, and click the “JackText” link.
IT Services introduces JackText to keep students awareFeatures updates information on business office issues, extracurricular activities relevant to student’s interests
CMYK
Monday, April 18, 2011 PINE LOGTHE Page Three
Save time for a little fun this summer!
Register now! Summer sessions begin May 13, June 6 and July 12.
In 5 weeks you can:• Take core courses online or on campus
• Earn credits guaranteed to transfer
• Pay a lot less for your degree – tuition as low as $45 per credit hour
Get more info at www.dcccd.edu/summer11
SFA’s Only Alumni Owned Bookstore!
Prices starting at $92Design Your Diploma Frame
Shop online 24/7 at www.jackbackers.com
2301 North Street • www.jackbackers.com
The Crime Log
The rules of Sudoku are simple. Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces.
Every row must contain one of each digit, as must every column and every
3x3 square. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically
without guessing.
Look in the next issue for the answers.
Sudoku puzzle sponsored by Student Activities Association
Level of Difficulty:easy
SUDOKU
Random Fun Fact: It takes approximately 12 hours for food to entirely digest.
(www.randomfunfacts.com)
298174536
463258179
751936428
176829345
582643917
934517682
819362754
645781293
327495861
Puzzle by websudoku.com
3
75
18
54
97
2
1
647
9
7
7
5
3
3
1
519
3
7
48
52
47
56
9Puzzle by websudoku.com
On 4-13-2011 an officer was dispatched to the stairs behind the Rusk Building in reference to criminal mischief. Upon arrival the officer observed blue spray paint on a wall of the stairs on the south end of the Rusk Building. There are no suspects.
On 4-14-2011 an officer was dispatched to Lumberjack Village Parking Garage in ref-erence to criminal mischief. Upon arrival the officer made contact with the complain-ant, who advised between 4-13-2011 and 4-14-2011 an unknown person wrote on her vehicle with shoe polish in Lumberjack Village Parking Garage.
On 4-15-2011 an officer was dispatched to Hall 20 in reference to assault. Upon ar-rival the officer made contact with two complainants, who advised on 4-15-2011 they were struck with water balloons at Hall 20 by two unknown subjects.
Download app from www.thepinelog.com, return completed app to Student Publications,
Room 2.308 BPSC by 5 p.m. Wednesday
APPLICATIONS DUEFOR THE PINE LOG, STONE FORT FALL STAFFS
The Traditions Council of SFA is host-ing its annual Run for the Ring 5K. The event, scheduled for April 30, will begin with registration at 7 a.m. in the com-muter parking lot across from William R. Johnson Coliseum. The run will be open to SFA students as well as community members.
The Run for the Ring is in its second year on the SFA campus and will have a start time of 8 a.m. The 5K begins and ends in the commuter lot, running through cam-pus and past SFA landmarks such as the Stone Fort Museum, Austin Building and Homer Bryce Stadium. All student partic-ipants will be eligible for raffle prizes and the chance to win their SFA ring through a random drawing. Community members who participate will be eligible for the raffle prizes.
Meagan Reed, Traditions Council vice president, said there is “a lot of excitement from members about this year’s run” and the chance to promote both the run and organization.
“Some of our members were not here last year for the first Run for the Ring, so they don’t know what to expect,” Reed said. “Our returning members loved the event, though, and have great ideas on how to get a more participants.”
Traditions Council hopes this year’s
run will not only have a bigger turn out, but also promote the SFA ring to more students on campus. Last year, about 40 students and community members par-ticipated in the event. Traditions Council wants the event to continue to grow in size and become a tradition in its own right.
“I think it is a great opportunity, not only for Traditions Council but for the students as well, to learn more about the SFA ring and take part in an up-and-com-ing tradition,” Reed continued.
The SFA ring is a symbol of commit-ment and dedication to the university. Students who have reached 60 credit hours can order their rings through the Alumni Association every fall and spring semester. Once rings have been ordered, students can participate in the Big Dip ceremony, also held at the end of every fall and spring semester.
Traditions Council will host a variety of games and activities on campus through-out the month of April to promote the run. Registration forms are located in the Involvement Center, on the first floor of the Baker Pattillo Student Center, and the event is free for students and commu-nity members. For more information, call Traditions Council at 936-468-6721.
Second annual Run for the Ring chance for students to win free SFA ring
CMYK
Page Four Monday, April 18, 2011PINE LOGTHE
Commentarythe pine log
✓ Write a letter to Grinding the Ax. Follow the guidelines on at left. Bring the letter to Room 2.308 BPSC.
✓ Or use our Web site to submit a letter to Grinding the Ax. It’ll save you a trip to the student center.
✓ Post feedback to our stories online. Hit the “Feedback” button at the end of a story, and let us have it. We can take it.
FEEDBACKOpinions expressed in this section of The Pine
Log are those of the individual writer or cartoon-ist and do not necessarily reflect those of the University, its administrative officers or Board of Regents.
Letters to the Editor should include the student’s hometown, classification and phone number for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit letters for space, spelling, grammar and potential-ly libelous material. Letters should not be longer than 300 words. Any letter that does not follow this criteria will not be published.
Opinions PolicySpring 2011 Editorial BoardEDITOR • Jonathan Garris
MANAGING EDITORAudrey SpencerCOMMENTARY EDITORGarrett CookSPORTS EDITORStephanie SlabaughFEATURES EDITORAndreya Stephenson
ENTERTAINMENT EDITORGarrett CookPHOTO EDITORThomas MotykaCOPY EDITORJessica GilliganADVERTISING MANAGERJerret Swierc
Two weeks ago, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino moved to ban the sale of sugary drinks on state property. All non-diet sodas, sweet teas, energy drinks and sugary juices will be phased out from city departments over the next six months.
In an interview with The Boston Globe, he said, “I want to create a civic environ-ment that makes the healthier choice the easier choice in people’s lives, whether it’s schools, worksites, or other places in the community.”
This is about the time people start com-plaining about an intrusive government, trying to tell people how to live their lives. But the mayor of Boston has made a good
decision here.Sodas and other sugary drinks, as most
people should already know, offer zero nutri-tional value and are completely unhealthy. In a time when healthcare costs have been spiraling out of control, something needs to be done to combat the unhealthiness that permeates through American culture.
The idealist in me wants to believe that the right way is to increase efforts to edu-cate people on the dangers of a bad diet. But even with all of the money spent on public service announcements and programs that attempt to get children involved in learning the benefits of a healthy diet, obesity rates have still been skyrocketing.
The sad thing is that there seems to be a considerably large portion of society that doesn’t want to be educated in the first place. To make matters worse, the growing unhealthiness of society and rising obesity rates affect everyone else.
In that same news article about the ban, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, stat-ed that economists estimate that medical costs for an obese patient are about 42 per-cent higher a year than for a patient with
healthy weight.That’s nothing to shrug at, especially
given that our country spends more on healthcare than any other nation with only mediocre results.
There’s also the issue that certain corpo-rations play on people’s health worries, of-fering products that claim to have zero calo-ries. What they never mention, however, is that calories aren’t the problem, nor are they inherently bad. The lack of exercise, combined with a laundry list of chemicals that goes into sodas, are the real detriment to people’s health.
Granted, a prohibition style ban of soda and other sugary beverages would do lit-tle to curtail unhealthy behavior. The re-moval of such drinks from city property is, however, a step in the right direction, even amidst mislead cries of socialism and nanny states.
How unreasonable would it be to tax clearly unnecessary and unhealthy food and put that money to good use? Following in the footsteps of other nations, the gov-ernment could always help develop health and exercise centers and focus on providing healthy foods for low-income areas. Having
a healthier, more fit society means less healthcare costs for the rest of us.
It would be unreasonable, of course, to people belonging to lobbyists, specifically those who fight for corn subsidies and work for the soft-drink industries. We not only enjoy putting corn in our soft drinks while food costs keep rising, we also enjoy put-ting it in our fuel, but that’s another can of worms.
And as much as people enjoy new fields, stadiums, and uniforms, having corporate sponsorships for high school and even el-ementary teams makes our situation even worse. When youngsters should be focusing on nutrition, why do we find it acceptable to have Coke and Pepsi machines in school cafeterias? If parents won’t educate their children on how to eat right, and schools have little to no effect on their eating habits, then who is left? Especially when the par-ents themselves don’t know what’s right?
Jonathan is a senior majoring in journal-ism from Beverly City, New Jersey.
Shocking news suggests that Americans are fat blobs
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
JonathanGarris
Axes Up to warm weather. Catching all this sun has changed the white, pasty, zom-bie-like student popu-lation into bronze gods and goddesses, myself included. Hoo-rah!
Axes Down to Nacogdoches night life being lame these days. A few years ago, you could hardly find a place to stand when you went out. Now, these places are empty. Glory days have passed.
This letter was written in response to Matt Sims’ piece about Texas House Bill (HB) 548 and in light of the recent drug bust arrests on the SFA campus. Let me start by saying that I am speaking exclusively of marijuana in this article. I do not encourage the use of cocaine, ecstasy, or the illegal use of mari-juana, alcohol, or prescription medication. First, we must examine exactly what it is that is bad about marijuana: the death rate.
The herb is not harmless, but neither is it deadly. Stephen Sidney, MD, wrote in the Sept 20 issue of The British Medical Journal:
“It’s been feared that marijuana smoke, like tobacco smoke, causes cancer and heart disease. The evidence argues otherwise. Although the use of [marijuana] is not harm-less, the current knowledge base does not support the assertion that it has any notable adverse public health impact in relation to mortality.”
What? I was told that marijuana was a dangerous substance (DARE, anyone?). However, Dr. Sidney mentioned that two large scientific studies looked at the mor-tality rate of marijuana users. One study, conducted in California, looked at 65,177 men and women age 15-49. The results of the study indicated that, over the course of the ten years in which the study took place, marijuana users died no sooner than nonusers. The second study looked at over 45,000 Swedish army recruits. They were 18-20 years old when initially asked about their personal marijuana use. Fifteen years later, the marijuana users were just as likely to remain alive as nonusers.
But surely marijuana is more harmful than substances which the government has cleared for human consumption. Wrong again. The following information, for 2007, was taken from the CDC’s website (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/alcohol.htm):
Number of alcoholic liver disease deaths: 14,406
Number of alcohol-induced deaths, ex-cluding accidents and homicides: 23,199
The CDC, a governmental organization, has indicated that alcohol is more danger-ous than marijuana. No freaking way. It gets better. The following data, also from 2007 and on the CDC’s website (http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/), indicates that:
More deaths are caused each year by to-bacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, sui-cides, and murders combined
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.
Please note I am not suggesting that ciga-rettes be made illegal but, rather, urging the American people to tear down the double standard. Half of all arrests in the state of Texas are due to marijuana possession. Are you kidding me? Opponents to Texas HB 548 state that by reducing the penalty for marijuana possession, the citizens of Texas will be “going easy on dangerous criminals”. Indeed. According to a recent Time maga-zine article (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1821697,00.html), “42% of Americans have tried pot at least once.” That’s a lot of “dangerous criminals”. Would you like to hear about some of those criminals?
A political rebel, who lost more battles than he won, grew marijuana on his farm. That’s right, George Washington grew marijuana and promoted its growth. (http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepresidentandcabinet/a/
gwtheman.htm)Thomas Jefferson grew hemp. Ben Franklin
owned a mill that made hemp paper. Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper. (http://naihc.org/hemp_infor-mation/hemp_facts.html)
Barack Obama admits to have inhaled the herb (Mr. President, you’re bogarting). “That was the point,” he is quoted as saying in a NY Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/world/americas/24iht-dems.3272493.html). Hey, at least he didn’t waste it like Clinton.
That’s right, America. If you smoke mari-juana, we will send you to jail. Or make you
Commander-in-Chief. Whatever. Enough with the satire, I’ll move to my final point: Not enough is known about the long-term effects of marijuana. The American Medical Association (AMA) has “urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled substance (prohibiting both medical and recreational use), so that researchers could more easily conduct clinical trials.” (Harvard Mental Health Letter, April 2010; http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Mental_Health_Letter/2010/April/medical-marijuana-and-the-mind).
Many previous studies have not been sci-entifically valid as a recent meta-analysis has indicated (Wang, Collette, Shapiro & Ware, 2008). In several of the studies which the authors examined, the researchers noted that nonserious adverse affects of marijuana use include nausea and vomiting; however, many of the studies were using a sample population of people who were using me-
dicinal marijuana to relieve nausea and vomiting that the participants were already experiencing due to chemotherapy. For the less scientifically inclined, this presents a serious confound: at best, we can conclude nothing and to do otherwise is scientifically irresponsible. In actuality, there is research to indicate that not only is marijuana use not deadly or seriously harmful, but that it could provide some benefit and can even fight brain cancer without the risk of toxic side effects http://www.webmd.com/can-cer/brain-cancer/news/20090401/marijua-na-chemical-may-fight-brain-cancer). This means a potential cure for cancer can be grown in your backyard (don’t let the lobby-ists for Big Pharma find out). Critics say that smoking marijuana can lead to certain types of cancer (throat, esophageal, mouth, etc.); however, THC does not have to be smoked in order to receive the benefits. Marijuana can be consumed as a food or drink or can be vaporized with special equipment.
Other possible medicinal uses of mari-juana include treatment of various other cancers, PTSD, anxiety, AIDS wasting syn-drome, chronic pain, and eating disorders. This is why the AMA is urging the federal government to lift the ban on scientific re-search. There is a bill in the Texas House (HB 1491) which allows for the medicinal use of marijuana in the state of Texas and protects doctors who prescribe marijuana to patients. Without scientifically valid studies to inform us, how will we know? It’s not the government’s job to inform us; it’s supposed-ly the responsibility of the media (the same media which started the marijuana prohibi-tion movement). I urge all responsible Texas citizens to write their Texas House represen-tatives, encouraging them to support Texas House Bills 548 and 1491.
T.J. GreeneGraduate StudentPsychology
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Grad student argues against the harm of marijuana
CMYK
Monday, April 18, 2011 Pine LogThe Page Five
the pine logentertainmentBy Ken Tucker
EntErtainmEnt WEEkly
The daunting task of turning an epic fantasy series into a merely huge fantasy TV show has been met with bravery by the makers of Game of Thrones. And by bravery, I mean that writer-pro-ducers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have taken George R.R. Martin’s capacious, wordy prose and adapted it with fidelity for his large fan base. Which in turn poses a challenge to an HBO-size mass audience: Will viewers who haven’t read the tomes — A Game of Thrones is the first volume in a series titled A Song of Fire and Ice — be willing to follow multiple story lines, each packed with numerous important characters, set in a vast imaginary realm? Will a big audience care to know Westeros from Winterfell, Cersei from Sansa?
I think they will. The series stars actors as striking and varied as Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent), and Lena Headey (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles). Just as impressive, it nearly always maintains a nar-rative pace that keeps you engaged even during the talky parts, and Game of Thrones is loaded (like the books) with talkiness. After all, it re-quires a helluva lot of explanation to lay out the geography of the kingdoms of Westeros, as well as the various families and dynasties that are fighting for control of this world. True, there are stretches where Thrones gets mired in visual cli-chés from other fantasy or medieval-times dra-
mas. I could have done with fewer sword fights and tedious slogs through ancient mud. (The series was filmed largely in Northern Ireland.)
Game of Thrones has had a lot of advance hype for being full of sex and violence, and I don’t want to deny the pleasure those things can bring us in entertainment. But the sex ’n’ violence is also better grounded in plot and motivation than in other recent TV efforts such as The Borgias and Spartacus — that’s where working with quality source material helps a lot.
If I had to single out a few performances among many excellent ones, I’d say that Bean’s Lord Eddard Stark, an almost Hamlet-like, brood-ing man of action, makes a wonderful pairing with Stark’s old friend, now the king, Robert Baratheon (Still Standing’s Mark Addy). Among the women, young Maisie Williams is a little star in the making as Eddard’s plucky tomboy daughter. And if Dinklage doesn’t get an Emmy for his clever, rude Tyrion Lannister, I’ll be gob-smacked.
You may find yourself beginning Game of Thrones and getting lost in its thicket of who’s related to whom and remembering what grudge one clan holds against another, but I implore you: Stick with it. Free your eyes to take in the spectacle, and your brain will magically start following the intricate storytelling. And there’s a magical realism to Game of Thrones.
www.ew.com
HBO scores again with fantasy epic Game of Thrones
1. Rio--$40 million2. Scream 4--$19.3 million3. Hop--$11.2 million4. Soul Surfer--$7.4 million5. Hanna--$7.33 million6. Arthur--$6.94 million7. Insidious--$6.86 million8. Source Code--$6.3 million9. The Conspirator--$3.9 million10. Your Highness--$3.8 million11. Limitless--$3.7 million12. The Lincoln Lawyer--$3 million13. Diary of a Wimpy Kid--$2.1 mil14. Atlast Shrugged--$1.6 million15. Win Win--$1.3 million16. Jane Eyre--$1.02 million17. Rango--$705,00018. Sucker Punch--$625,00019. Born to Be Wild--$624,00020. Battle: LA--$500,000
PHOtO By cOdy derOuen
Legendary singer-songwriter robert earl Keen played to a packed house at Banita creek Hall Saturday night. Keen, a native of Houston, came up on the live music scene in Austin and has since become a favorite among fans of traditional country-western music, folk music, the college crowd, and alternative country.
“The road goes on forever, the party never ends” Weekend Box Office
Owen GliebermanEntErtainmEnt WEEkly
Few, at this point, would dispute that the 1970s is the single greatest decade in American filmmaking after World War II. If you were to list the landmark movies that were central to the decade’s pop-cultural identity, that list would surely include the following three films: Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and Network (1976). Those three classics — made, bang bang bang, more or less right in a row — were all directed by the same man, Sidney Lumet, who died today at 86. Yet Lumet, one of the most exciting American filmmakers who ever lived, occupies, to this moment,
a unique and slightly idiosyncratic place in the history of the New Hollywood.
The filmmakers who iconically define the ’70s — Coppola, Scorsese, Altman, Spielberg, De Palma, Lucas — were self-conscious pop artists from more or less the moment they became famous. Lumet, by contrast, made his first film, 12 Angry Men, in 1957, and he had his roots deep in the studio system. He was older than the film school brats who had taken over Hollywood, and a lot squarer, too. Robert Altman was just as old as Lumet, but he never really enjoyed suc-cess until M*A*S*H (1970), and Altman, as a personality, lived a lot younger than his years: He was a middle-aged hipster who smoked dope and cultivated a countercul-ture outlaw image. So did Sam Peckinpah, another quintessential ’70s director who also predated the ’70s.
Lumet, by contrast, was a hardboiled straight shooter who came up in the 1950s (he was born in 1924), and he had that utili-tarian studio heat in his blood. Trained dur-ing the Golden Age of Television, he was fa-mous for working fast, and he was only too happy to take on commercial Hollywood projects as assignments, in a way that the new young visual whippersnappers would never have deigned to. He made Murder on the Orient Express, an entertainingly dry Agatha Christie thriller, in 1974, right in between Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. Can you imagine the Altman, Scorsese, or Coppola of the time doing that?
Because of his defiantly unpretentious attitude, Lumet made it easy to regard him as a craftsman rather than as an artist. And
something about his movies did, too. He was obsessed with police corruption, and with the tribal urban warfare between law enforcers and criminals, and he dug into those subjects more deeply than any other American filmmaker — but that still lent his movies a down-and-dirty genre tinge, a cops-and-crooks streetwise grittiness.
But here’s the thing: Lumet went into the New York streets… and he made them elec-tric. The first time I saw Dog Day Afternoon, with its botched bank robbery that feels like it’s happening, in its hair-trigger mad-ness, in real time, I felt as if I finally under-stood what a criminal really was. In movies, crooks were usually “bad guys,” or maybe, in a heist movie or even Bonnie and Clyde, they were “good guys” — but Al Pacino’s Sonny was so far beyond those categories, such a desperate, sweaty force of broken humanity, that I realized: This is what a criminal, a real criminal, so often is — not a guiltless operator but a flawed man who has sunk low, and then sinks himself lower.
In Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico, Lumet became famous for how he caught the teeming, squalid energy of New York. It was a working class outer-borough ener-gy. Lumet’s streets were just as mean as Scorsese’s, but Lumet’s seemed plain rather than poetic. He channeled that New York skeezy vitality with such natural force that it was easy to overlook what was truly in-volved in the achievement. He captured that New York vibe like no one else because he saw it, lived it, breathed it — but then he had to go out and stage it, or re-create it, almost as if he were staging a documentary, letting
his actors square off like random predators, insisting on the most natural light possible, making offices look as ugly and bureaucratic as they were because he knew, beneath that, that they weren’t just offices but lairs, and that there was a deeper intensity, almost a kind of beauty, to catching the coarseness of reality as it truly looked.
The words “Sidney Lumet” and “energy” have often been treated as synonymous. His other defining stamp is that he was known, from the outset, as a quintessential director of actors. What possesses me now, in thinking about Lumet, is that those two bravura aspects of his filmmaking are really two sides of the same creative coin. For the energy he was famous for wasn’t just a mat-ter of actors pelting each other with spiky dialogue or slamming each other against walls. The energy was there in the quietest moments. It was an inner energy, a hum of existence that Lumet observed in people and brought out in them.
If I had to choose Lumet’s greatest film, I guess I would say Dog Day Afternoon, but a part of me is tempted to choose his very last movie, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007), an astonishingly tricky and power-ful tale of family ties and petty crime (talk about criminals who aren’t, you know… criminals) that Lumet made when he was in his early 80s. It is feverishly alive with the perils, and wages, of sin. I also think it’s the most virtuosic film ever directed by a senior citizen.
www.ew.com
Legendary filmmaker Sidney Lumet dies at age 86
CMYK
sportsPage Six Monday, April 18, 2011Pine LogThe
Please join us at noon on Friday, May 6 for the
presentation ceremony.
Invitations will be mailed to students eligible to participate in the Big Dip.
Please RSVP by May 4 onlineat www.sfaalumni.com or by calling
the Alumni office at 468-3407.
Ladyjacks drop 2, win 1 vs UTA
The SFA Men’s and Women’s Track and Field team recorded four individual titles, and a relay title Saturday afternoon at the NSU Invitational in Natchitoches, La. The Ladyjacks won three titles, while the SFA men posted two.
Groveton junior Mary Dickerson domi-nated the women’s 400-meters with her time of 54.72 to win the 400-meter dash. Senior Meredith Blocker followed with an individual title in the 3,000-meter steeple-chase. Blocker clocked a time of 11:45.31 to win the event. It is the second con-secutive season that Blocker has won the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NSU Invitational. Blocker’s closest competition came from teammate Laurie Byrd who recorded a time of 11:49.46. Senior Alicia
Jackson closed out the titles for the SFA women with her victory in the long jump (19-4.25).
The Jacks 4X400-meter relay team of Hampton Hawkins, Torin Crowder, Donavon Sammons and Cass Brown post-ed a time of 3:12.40 to win the first title for the men. Freshman Jamal Peden followed with a title in the long jump. Peden record-ed a jump of 24-2.25 for the title.
SFA also had several athletes record run-ner-up finishes Saturday. Freshman Chelsea Stephen missed an individual title by 14 one-hundredths of a second with her time of 13.77 in the 100-meter dash. Teammate Christian Donald followed that up with a runner-up finish in the 400-meter hurdles. The Ladyjacks’ team of Paige McCutcheon, Arteria Sterns,
Brittany Shorter and Stephen crossed the fin-ish line with a time of 47.79 missing a relay title by less than a second in the 400-meter hurdles. Freshman Heather McPherson cleared a height of 5-5.00 to finish second in the high jump. McPherson cleared the same height of the individual champion, but was awarded second based on the tiebreak. Junior Macy Wade cleared a height of 11-5.75 to record a runner-up finish in the pole vault. Senior Kaitlyn Andrews added a runner-up finish in the women’s shot put (51-1.75). On the men’s side, junior Jon Arthur recorded a throw of 178-8 to finish second in the hammer throw.
SFA will return to action Saturday, April 23rd, when they travel to Houston, Texas to compete in the Rice Twilight Invitational.
Track and field records five titles ThomAs moTykA/ThepineLog
The SFA Ladyjack Softball team scored three runs in the sixth inning to knock off University Texas-Arlington, 5-2, Sunday afternoon at the SFA Softball Complex.
The Ladyjacks improved to 11-30 for the sea-son and 6-15 in Southland Conference play.
SFA took advantage of some UTA miscues in the third inning to take an early 2-0 lead. After Lacy Liles led off the inning with a walk, fresh-man Nicole Wooten hit a chopper to third, but the Mavericks didn’t cover second and Taylor Zink’s throw went all the way to the wall, allow-ing Liles to score from first. Wooten came around to score on Elizabeth Arana’s sacrifice fly.
Senior Monika Covington made the lead hold until the top of the fifth when UTA rallied for two runs on three straight singles. Covington was able to retire the next two batters stranding the Mavericks’ Charne Office at third base.
Ladyjacks took the lead for good in the bot-tom half of the sixth inning. SFA opened the inning with three hits, including two doubles. SFA reclaimed the lead when junior Amber Price doubled down the left field line to score Lauren Luetge from second. Junior Krista Hallmark and freshman Charlotte Singleton drove in the final two runs of the inning.
SFA then put the game in Covington’s hands who retired the Mavericks in order in the sev-enth. Covington went the distance surrendering two runs on four hits, and striking out five.
The Ladyjacks lost both games of its double-header Saturday to UTA. The Mavericks held on for a 3-2 victory in the first game, and recorded an 11-6 decision in the second.
Trailing 1-0 in the home half of the second, the Ladyjacks tied the game when junior Krista Hallmark doubled to left center to score Bethany Brown from first. The Ladyjacks found them-selves in a similar position heading into the bottom of the third and were able to scratch out another run to tie the game. SFA loaded the bases and sophomore Bethany Brown was able to draw a two-out walk to plate the tying run.
UTA scored the game-winning run in the top half of the fifth when Charne Office, who reached on double down the left field line, scored on an error that would have ended the inning, but the Ladyjacks didn’t go quietly. Following a pinch-hit single by Cadie Weaver to open the bottom of the seventh, the Ladyjacks loaded the bases with two out. The Mavericks’ Callie Collins recorded her 12th strikeout to end the game and preserve the victory.
Carly Thomas, huntington freshman, looks to first base as Lauren Luetge, new Ulm senior, throws for the out.
