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The holiday classic returns to the Fox for

the 51st year413

Friday, December 3, 2010 • Volume 96, Issue 18 • nique.net Nostalgic Nutcracker

boNjour FraNce-atlaNtaPhoto courtesy of Communication and Marketing

Longtime professor

passes awayDegreeWorks tool launches

By Emily CardinContributing Writer

From Nov. 29 through Dec. 12, the Institute is co-sponsoring “France-Atlanta 2010: Together Toward In-novation” in partnership with the Consulate General of France in Atlanta. This pro-gram features a series of 20 different events focused on the arts, business, science and humanitarian efforts. These events are taking place all around Atlanta, though Tech is hosting nine on campus.

Organized under the High Auspices of the Ambassa-dor of France to the United States, Governor Sonny Pur-due and Atlanta Mayor Ka-sim Reed, this initiative was intended to unite American and French experts in vari-ous fields in order to facilitate

an academic and cultural ex-change of ideas.

According to Pascal Le-Deunff, consul general of France in Atlanta, nearly one hundred prominent French figures have temporarily re-located to Atlanta in order to participate in this occasion.

“Many have crossed the Atlantic to join us in Atlanta for ‘France-Atlanta 2010’, including the vice-president of the Lorraine region, the vice-president of the Conseil général de la Moselle, the president of Metz Métro-pole, the mayor of Metz and a delegation from the City of Toulouse,” LeDeunff said at the opening ceremony, held on Monday, Nov. 29 at The World of Coke. “They came to Atlanta with top scien-tists, business leaders, artists and NGO leaders. Tonight,

I would like to salute them.”Institute President G.P.

“Bud” Peterson also spoke at the occasion and made his enthusiasm for collaboration with the French delegation clear to all in attendance.

“The events of these next two weeks are about increas-ing awareness, building bridges, increasing collabora-tion and celebrating our cul-tures,” Peterson said.

The partnership between Tech and France began 20 years ago with the establish-ment of Georgia Tech Lor-raine, Tech’s first internation-al campus, located in Metz, France. Since its inception, more than 2500 graduate students have studied at the campus, and American and French scientists conduct on-going joint research.

On June 15 of this year,

Peterson traveled to the cam-pus in Metz, France to cel-ebrate the 20th anniversary of the GT Lorraine program, and it was established that a celebration in Atlanta would be appropriate as well.

“The Georgia Tech-Lor-raine campus offers students from around the world the opportunity to take under-graduate and graduate courses taught in English by Georgia Tech faculty,” Peterson said.

Plans are also underway to expand Tech’s presence in the northeast region of France. On Tuesday, Nov. 30, Tech officials and representatives from Lorraine signed a let-ter of intent to establish the Lafayette Institute, a new re-source center for industry and academic research laborato-

By Siddharth Gurnani Contributing Writer

W. Marshall Leach, Jr., ECE professor, passed away on Saturday, Nov. 20 at the age of 70. He received his PhD in EE from Tech in 1972 and became a professor in the ECE de-partment that year. He was a four time recipient of the Richard and Bass Eta Kappa Nu award for outstanding teacher in ECE, the most by any ECE professor.

Leach primarily taught electromagnetics, microsystems and electronic design. He was also the advisor for Tech’s Institute of Electri-cal and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) student branch between 1972-82 and 2003-06.

During his tenure he taught hundreds of stu-dents and sponsored numerous team projects. He was continuously consulted and contacted about construction plans for amplifiers and speakers he designed and constructed.

His death came as a shock to the ECE de-partment.

“He had been treated for congestive heart problems for five years but was absolutely fine the Wednesday before his death. He called me Thursday night complaining of pain, and I took him to the emergency room Friday morning. That was the last time I had a conversation with him,” said Thomas Brewer, ECE lab director.

Brewer was a close associate and friend of Leach’s. Both arrived to Tech at the same time 40 years ago.

“I saw him for five-six days a week over 40 years, so it’s going to be a big vacancy in my life,” Brewer said.

He was respected by professors, students, faculty and administration alike. His students characterized Leach as an approachable profes-sor with a passion for teaching.

“His overall goal was to teach. It didn’t mat-ter if his final was coming up. You knew he was going to be fair. People loved his classes. He even made the difficult classes nice,” said James Steinberg, ECE electronics engineer.

Steinberg couldn’t recall any bad reviews of Leach during his nine years at Tech.

“Marshall was the consummate educator [and] one of the best teachers that we had,” said Gary May, Chair of the School of ECE.

There has been an outpouring of grievances from former students on Leach’s website. For-mer students remember Leach as a professor who was always willing to sit down and talk with students, sometimes for hours.

“As long as a student needed help, [Leach] would sit with him,” May said.

By Maddie CookContributing Writer

Tech is making an effort to simplify students’ registra-tion efforts with a new online program, DegreeWorks. The Registrar’s office has recently decided to upgrade to a new program.

Under the same operat-ing system as Banner and Buzzport, DegreeWorks is a program that aims to assist students and advisors in aca-demic organization, academic performance and to plan fu-ture academic coursework.

“[The Registrar is] really committed to improving the technology of our business

processes, practices and up-dating for the 21st century while staying in line with the strategic vision of Georgia Tech,” said Robert Simon, as-sistant registrar.

DegreeWorks is a web-based program that allows students and advisors to view all past, present and future coursework. Like degree checklists distributed by aca-demic advisors, DegreeWorks plugs in a student’s specific coursework and allows the student see what is completed and what is not.

Based on a student’s pro-gram, he or she can also view how an additional major or minor will affect his or her

current schedule. Future in-stallments to the program include a graduation planner and online petition degrees.

“I’ll definitely need it to keep track of classes. I’ve ac-tually been needing some-thing like this because I’m a co-op student. This program will help me decide what to take and when to take certain classes,” said Russell Ralston, third-year ME major.

By being able to plan out future coursework, Degree-Works enables students to view the necessary classes and prerequisites for programs.

In Spring 2011, the Reg-istrar plans to release other parts of the program like ad-

visor training and a curricu-lum planning assistant. Once all 36 programs agree to use the program, DegreeWorks will increase advertising and add links to its site on other Tech sites like BuzzPort.

Alabama and UGA are among several other univer-sities who have this program for students.

“I think [DegreeWorks] is going to help the student-ad-visor relationship a lot. What the advisor sees is what the student sees,” Simon said.

One feature that the ad-visor and the student share is the notes feature. The fea-

See Leach, page 3See France, page 5

See DegreeWorks, page 5

Photos by Basheer Tome / Student Publications

Above: Jean-Yves Le Deaut, 1st Vice-President of the Regional Council of Lorraine speaks about the Lafayette Institute.Left: President Peterson discusses newly founded Lafayette Institute. Right: Conference leaders take notes.

Tech unveils multifaceted international exchange

2 • December 3, 2010 • Technique NEWS

POLL OF THE WEEKWhat is your opinion of the Student-Facul-ty expectations agreement?

22%It could work, but it needs some work

29%I’m happy that an agreement is in place.

18%It lacks the necessary depth to make it useful

31%What happened to the Bill of Rights

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Founded in 1911, the Technique is the student newspaper of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and is an official publication of the Georgia Tech Board of Student Publications. The Technique publishes on Fridays weekly during the fall and spring and biweekly during the summer.

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Copyright © 2010, Hahnming Lee, Editor-in-Chief, and by the Georgia Tech Board of Student Publications. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the Editor-in-Chief or from the Board of Student Publications. The ideas expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Board of Student Publications, the students, staff, or faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology or the University System of Georgia.

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news editor: Vijai Narayanan / news@nique.netopinions editor: Matt Hoffman / opinions@nique.netFoCus editor: Kamna Bohra / focus@nique.netentertAinment editor: Zheng Zheng / entertainment@nique.netsports editor: Alex Mitchell / sports@nique.net

http://nique.netTwitter: @the_nique

By Matt SchrichteAssitant News Editor

From the files of the GTPD...

Campus Crime

Cold Streak At 6:00 a.m. on Nov. 20, a

pack of naked males was spotted running near the Fourth Street sidewalk. The pack quickly fled into the Lambda Chi Alpha Fra-ternity House after spotting the reporting officer.

The “Initiation Officer” of the fraternity house later stated that the streakers had completed their initiation and volunteered to streak around the area. The issue was given to the Dean of Students’ Office for further consideration.

Down Hemphill A student was found intoxi-

cated while driving with alcoholic beverages and marijuana at 1:50 a.m. on Nov. 21.

He was pulled over while per-forming an improper turn at the intersection of Hemphill Avenue and Ethel Street.

At first, he stated he had one drink prior to driving, but later changed his story to consuming two to three drinks along with possessing an improvised mari-juana pipe. He was also not wear-ing required contacts while driv-ing.

The student then failed sev-eral sobriety tests, including an eye test and multiple walking tests.

He refused to take a Breatha-lyzer test, saying “I told you al-ready that I had two or three beers so there’s no point.” He was trans-ported to Fulton County jail.

Alpha BetasAt 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 20,

an intoxicated male was found passed out behind the Beta Theta Pi faternity house.

The underage male became conscious and had blood on his face. He claimed that three males had assaulted him without reason or provocation.

Members of Beta Theta Pi stat-ed that the male had attempted to break-in to their party through a side window. After being asked to leave, he proceeded to punch one of the members through the win-dow.

The brothers then asked him to leave several times after which he hit another member in the face. The male was then placed in a headlock and escorted off the premises.

At this point, unknown mem-bers of the house proceeded to hit him several times. The man was issued an arrest warning and es-corted to Grady for medical treat-ment.

www.nique.netsliver

If u(sic)ga is the cesspool of the south then what is the cesspool of the north???While you all were at the premiere of HP, I was at the Pink Pony. You decide which was more fun.running girl, i picture you as an arrogent jerk who isn’t as hot as you think you are.Person who was playing “Melodies of Life” on piano in the Couch building - you made my day!I know where everything light goesI threw up all over myself while driving because my girlfriend didn’t understand what, “I think I’m going to throw up” meansWater fountain kegs? Genious.GT Parking & Transporation is stealing our money every game day!I think I’m going to have to live in the library until the end of finals week :(i hate peopleWhy? Some rich mathematician threatened him.to the bio major coping with zombies: they teach engineers to to propagate them via matlab/java sims. Why is the wireless on my plane faster than the wireless in Wood-ruff?here’s my summary of gt dining: brittain sucks! wodruff sucks!I should write a Python code that writes this essay for me...we need more diversity here. bring in more caucasians!Two beavers are better than one. They’re twice the fun, ask any-one. A second beaver is second to none - himymMy cousin just got into Tech. Should I still encourage her to come here?Tech should buy happiness for their students... We all know they have the money to do soDoes anyone else think Professor Jacobs is a badass... He’s the Chuck Norris of Engineering!!! Propsi know you’re avoiding meomg how can these freshmen be so cute damnGirl at the flag building: see you again next Monday at noon?.To the guy reading Super Effective in Calc. III, you’re awesomelots of kumars here, but no harolds. lame.If the only jokes I do are puns, does it make me a pun-dit?Home is the place I yearn to belong.I thought I was in love once, then I realized it was gas.Everytime you go away you take a piece of me with you.Domo arigato Mr. Roboto

techniq eall we’re missing is u!

pizza meetings on tuesdays 7 p.m., flag building, room137

Save a tree! Read us online!nique.net

Technique • December 3, 2010 • 3 NEWS

Bill Amount GSS UHR

Bill Summary

You can follow Mike at the Nique’s blog, The Pulse. Check in at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday for updates from UHR sessions at nique.net/pulse.

Council ClippingsThis week in Student Government

By Mike Donohue, SGA Editor

Each week, this section includes coverage of different aspects of Student Government, including the Undergraduate House of Representatives, Graduate Student Senate and the Executive Branch of both governments.

Hospital ConnectionUHR and GSS failed to pass

a bill funding Georgia Tech Stu-dent Hospital Connections dur-ing their Nov. 23 meetings. UHR passed the bill 34-10-0, but GSS failed it 8-21-2 preventing the bill from meeting the required enact-ment ration.

This bill asked for $516.82 to pay for Zip-Cars to transport stu-dents to two service projects per week for eight weeks. Previously, JFC policy prohibited funding for any travel to locations closer than 150 miles. This changed when GSS and UHR amended the pol-icy to allow for service organiza-tions to apply for funding if the travel is recurring and happens over a period of 10 weeks. Howev-er, because the funding was only for eight weeks, the bill did not meet policy.

Also Senators debated whether the service projects counted as professional development activi-ties, something they believed vio-lated JFC policy. However, in a clarification released on Nov. 30, Graduate Executive Vice Presi-dent Kathy Schnure said that pro-fessional development activities are only prohibited for non-Tech students.

Also, several Senators ex-pressed concern over the way Hos-pital Connections had spent their

budget, in particular over the fact that half of the organization’s dues had been spent on T-shirts.

In UHR, several representa-tives raised concerns over the ambiguity of the line items which only asked for transportation. They also raised the option of using MARTA or another lower-priced alternative.

Many other representatives spoke in support of the bill, how-ever, pointing out that it is an ideal use of the amended JFC policy, despite being in technical violation of the policy. In contrast to GSS, the undergraduates wel-comed the organization’s poten-tial to encourage the professional development of its members.

Because of the wide margin by which GSS failed the bill, UHR needed 36 votes to pass the bill, two more votes of support than the bill eventually received.

JacketPagesGraduate Student Body Presi-

dent Anthony Baldridge an-nounced a new initative to reeval-ute the use of JacketPages for bill submissions to SGA on Nov. 30.

First brought up in a meeting between members of the graduate executive branch and new Sena-tors, this ad-hoc committee will seek to decide whether to continue to use JacketPages and explore al-

ternatives such as a student design competition for a replacement.

JacketPages was first imple-mented in the spring of 2009 as a platform for organization fund-ing requests and as a method to facilitate communication between SGA, Student Involvement and various organization presidents members.

Tech paid $20,000 to develop the platform and pays $10,000 each year to maintain the site.

SGA sends BME to conferenceBoth UHR and GSS ap-

proved a bill on Nov. 30 provid-ing $200 to Olivia Burnsed, third year BME, to attend TERMIS, a conference focusing on tissue en-gineering and regenerative medi-cine.

While GSS has a dedicated fund to provide conference mon-ies, the undergraduates do not have a similar fund. CHEM & BCHEM Sen. Aaron Washing-ton, also the Director of the Grad-

uate Conference fund, expressed regret that there was no dedicated mechansim for undergraduates like Burnsed to recieve funds and spoke in strong support of the bill.

GSS and UHR passed the bill by large margins, 24-1-1 and 39-2-1, respectively.

GT Day at the CapitolUndergraduate Director of

Academic Affairs Elle Creel and Student Lobby Board Chair Kris-ten Grieg submitted a bill on Nov. 30 to provide funding for the GT Day at the Captiol to be held in January. The bill requested $486 to pay for transportation and a Technique ad.

The transportation portion of the bill did not meet JFC policy, but for the third time this year, both UHR and GSS voted to waive policy and fund the bill regardless. Like the GT Night at the High and Six Flags Night, students will be transported across town via Stinger.

TERMIS RegistrationWrestling Club

Men’s LAXGT Day at the Capitol

$200$1,647 $1,733$486

24-1-122-4-025-2-1 25-2-1

39-2-140-0-140-0-2 37-3-1

Prior Year: $150,180.96 Capital Outlay: $507,637

Attn: Student Organizations

This space could be your ad for only

$36nique.net/ads

Leach from page 1

Outside of Tech, Leach was re-garded as an international author-ity in the fields of electromagnet-ics and audio engineering.

“He got inquiries from around the world on some of the stuff he built years ago,” Brewer said. He conducted most of his research in speaker and audio amplifier de-sign.

“His legacy was left through his classes. For the students who are coming in, it wouldn’t hurt to have a permanent remembrance so that every now and then some one will ask who that was,” said Allen Robinson, Leach’s last PhD student. “I took everything he ever taught. He had an infinite amount of patience and absolute willingness to help.”

Leach’s passing creates a gap in the ECE curriculum. He was the only professor who taught low noise electronics.

“We’ll have to find other fac-ulty members who can pick up the courses that he taught like audio engineering and operational am-plifier design,” May said.

The ECE department is still determining what will happen with all of his current semester’s classes. The lab professor for this semester’s low-noise electronics lab is going to take over the entire class.

Born in Abbeville South Caro-lina in 1940, he got his B.S. (1962) and M.S. (1964) in Electrical En-gineering from the University of South Carolina.

A memorial service for Leach will be held on campus on Thurs-day, Dec. 16 at 3 p.m. in the Mar-cus Nanotechnology Building, Room 1116.

Technique • December 3, 2010 • 5 NEWS

ture allows the advisor to record thoughts on a student’s course decisions or other academic deci-sions. It is also a feature that the student has access to and can add his or her own notes.

The program is in its begin-ning stages and will gradually add on new features throughout the next several semesters.

Currently, 27 of the 36 campus departments at Tech have agreed to implement the program into their department. The students and advisors within these 27 de-partments can now use the new online program.

Several different organizations, including the Board of Regents and SGA, are footing the initial costs for the program. Tech’s Ath-letic Association has contributed as well. Usage of the program will be free to all students and advi-sors.

DegreeWorks from page 1

Write for us!

No experience necessary!

Just show up!

Tuesdays @ 7Flag 137

France from page 1

ries. The agreement was signed at the “Investing in France-Focus on the Lorraine” event, held at Tech in the Wardlaw Center.

This new $30-million facility will facilitate the commercializa-tion of innovations in optoelec-tronics, a branch of physics that deals with the interactions be-tween light and electric fields. This includes invisible forms of radiation such as gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet and infrared as well as visible light.

“By providing our industrial partners and academic research laboratories access to state-of-the-art facilities, we will be creating an environment where solutions to global challenges, ranging from energy to medical technology, can be developed,” Peterson said. “This Institute also underscores Georgia Tech’s commitment to expand our global partnerships.”

The institute will provide ac-

cess to state-of-the-art nanofabri-cation facilities and will focus on technologies at the intersection of materials, optics, photonics, electronics and nanotechnology. French authorities will finance the costs of this groundbreaking facil-ity, which will amount to around 23 million Euros, or $31 million.

“This European innovation hub will strengthen Georgia’s global footprint in technologi-cal innovation and serve as a link between research laboratories and industry, where technologi-cal solutions and prototypes can be developed rapidly to stimulate economic development,” said Yves Berthelot, president of Georgia Tech-Lorraine.

Tech is hosting numerous other events for the “France-Atlanta 2010: Together Toward Innovation” occasion, including the humanitarian presentation “Bringing Awareness to Haiti Aid Relief,” which will be held in the Student Center on Dec. 6.

News Briefs

Nobel objectionOn November 17, Tech Physics

Professor Walter De Heer wrote a letter to the Nobel Prize office in Stockholm. DeHeer wrote to the office noting that there were mis-takes in the scientific background document of the research of 2010 Nobel Prize Winners in physics.

Winners Andre Geim and Konstatin Novoselov of Manches-ter University, U.K. were awarded for their research on graphene, a carbon structure that has poten-tial in the electronics field.

De Heer is a well-known phys-icist who has also completed ex-tensive research on graphene. The Nobel Prize physics committee has responded to De Heer’s letter by making a change to the online information regarding this prize.

Tech to offer new sup-ply chain degree

Tech has unveiled a new Mas-ter of Science Program in Supply Chain Engineering, commencing on Aug. 2011. Tech has already developed multiple degrees relat-ing to logistics but this new degree will allow for a specific focus on designing logistical processes.

Unlike other programs that prepare students to be manag-ers, this program is designed to provide a more engineer-oriented focus on designing supply chain networks.

It will also address the increas-ing complexity found in infor-mation systems and data supply-chains.

The courses will feature lec-tures from supply chain experts in industry and give students the chance to work with different companies to gain practical skills. It is set to have 40 to 50 students in its first year.

Photo by Dean Liao / Student Publications

Philippe Yvergniaux, president of Invest in France Agency, speaks at the France-Atlanta Investing in France session at Tech.

Screenshot by Jarrett Skov / Student Publications

The DegreeWorks program will guide students on what classes they can take in the upcoming semesters. One of its features will be to allow for notes to be saved between advisors and students.

President Lincoln said it best when he etched these words. While the context is vastly dif-ferent now, they ring particularly true today. In Oct., a bright young man at Rutgers University took his life because of two hate-filled, negligent, ill-mannered peers who invaded his privacy and broad-casted to the world that he was G-A-Y. The thought of the world knowing his secret was too much for him to handle. Now an entire nation mourns his loss, and a stu-dent body sits wondering what could have been done to prevent a vibrant, talented young man from ending his own life.

Unfortunately, this young man’s story is not unique. Accord-ing to the Human Rights Cam-paign, “gay men are six times more likely to commit suicide than their straight counterparts.” This Oct. alone, there were five cases in which young men took their lives because they were ridiculed for being different. One person is too many; two is astonishing, but five is an abomination. With that said, the part that is most concerning is that this incident could easily have happened anywhere, especially Tech. In the weeks after these un-fortunate incidents, I was asked, “Corey, what is Tech going to do about this?” My response was simple, “Turning a blind eye and not speaking out is unacceptable.” After all, silence makes cowards out of men.

In response to the unfortu-nate events plaguing the LGBT community, SGA is hosting the first-ever Tech United event. Tech United is an initiative developed by SGA’s Vice President of Cam-pus Affairs, Kaitlyn Whiteside. The first of what we hope to be a series of events, Tech United aims to engage the campus in an open dialogue surrounding issues that have not typically been at the forefront of campus discussion and shed light on many issues in the LGBT community that some may be unaware of.

On Dec. 9, the conversation will revolve around LGBT issues on our campus, and we will host one of Tech’s most illustrious al-ums, Alex Wan. While this event is a phenomenal step in the right direction, the discussion cannot end here. In fact, it is only the beginning. The movement starts with events like this. It ends when every facet of this campus from the student organizations to the Alumni Association recognize that our LGBT community de-serves to have an equal seat at the table.

To ensure that nothing like a “Rutger’s Incident” happens on

Tech’s campus, we the Tech Com-munity, must stand up and break the long silence. We must come out as allies for our fellow LGBT Jackets. According to the Berkley Center for Gender Equity, “…an ally is someone who supports members of a community other than his or her own.”

Becoming an ally does not mean renouncing one’s faith or turning one’s back on legitimate-ly held beliefs. It simply means breaking the silence and showing support for a community that you do not belong to.

If you are reading this column, you have indeed come in contact with someone who is a part of the LGBT community—whether you are aware of it or not. Now, ask yourself, “Would this person feel comfortable sharing this portion of his or her life with me?” If not, it is time for you to “come out” as an ally.

Imagine if someone at Rut-gers, in Cal., in Ind., or in Texas had “come out”. If someone had broken the silence, five families would enter the holiday season with lighter hearts. Five campuses would end the semester with a reason to celebrate. The men and women who remained silent and allowed tragedy to befall the five young men mentioned above are cowards as defined by President Lincoln. In my opinion, they showcase the epitome of coward-ice.

Nearly three months after these unfortunate tragedies, break its silence. At 7 p.m. in the LeC-raw auditorium on Dec. 9, we have an opportunity to show our LGBT community that it indeed gets better and that we are here to support them.

Administration, Alumni Asso-ciation, faculty, staff and students this is my official “coming out”. I challenge each of you to follow suit.

OpinionsTechnique

6Friday,

December 3, 2010

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. —Thomas A. Edison

Opinions Editor: Matt Hoffman

“”OUR VIEWS Consensus opinion

JacketPages: exit stage rightSystem needs replacement with a more apt option The JacketPages site in its current form

fails to fulfill intended tasks, delivers little in comparison to the cost associated and should be replaced by a system developed from within the Tech community. When adopted a few years ago, JacketPages was supposed to be a social networking tool for student organizations to link them with potential new members and an easy bill-submission system. Unfortunately, neither has come to fruition as the system lacks wide-spread campus use and many aspects, especially the important SGA bill submission feature, are over-complicated. The few organizations that have truly used the system in any meaningful way have likely done so out of necessity to submit a budget or to get funding, not for convenience or usability reasons.

JacketPages also drains five-figure funds from the budget every year and delivers little for the cost. Many of the social aspects the program attempts to accommodate can be fulfilled for free

on other social networking sites such as Facebook. A simple website that lists campus organizations and links people to their sites would be just as effective as JacketPages and would come with far less cost. Since many organization are already on such social networking websites or maintain their own sites, most people on campus would not notice if the system was discontinued.

A new system with more limited use, mainly for SGA bill submission, could be easily developed on campus through an open completion with a financial reward for the winner. Tech has tons of talent in waiting, and failing to put them to use is a simple waste of resources. Such a site developed in house could also be maintained more efficiently and more economically using student employees to simply watch over the code and address issues as needed. Outsourcing such a task to a third party only undermines Tech’s purpose of developing future innovators.

EDITORIAL CARTOON By ROSE PENg

Come out, stand up, break the silence

The Consensus Opinion reflects the majority opinion of the Editorial Board of the Technique, but not necessarily the opinions of individual editors.

Technique Editorial BoardHahnming Lee, Editor-in-Chief

Vivian Fan, Managing EditorKate Comstock, Business Manager

Jennifer Aldoretta, Layout EditorKamna Bohra, Focus EditorSteven Cappetta, Advertising ManagerMike Donohue, SGA EditorMatt Hoffman, Opinions EditorReem Mansoura, Outreach Editor

Alex Mitchell, Sports EditorVijai Narayanan, News EditorNishant Prasadh, Online Sports EditorChris Russell, Online EditorJarrett Skov, Photo EditorZheng Zheng, Entertainment Editor

“To stand in silence makes cowards out of men.”

—Abraham Lincoln

Corey T. BooneUndergraduate Student Body President

Write to us: letters@nique.net

We welcome your letters in response to Technique content as well as topics relevant to campus. We will print letters on a timely and space-available basis.

Letters should not exceed 400 words and should be submitted by Tuesday at 7 p.m. in order to be printed in the following Friday’s issue. Include your full name, year (1st, 2nd, etc.) and major. We re-serve the right to edit for style and length. Only one submission per person will be printed per term.

Technique • December 3, 2010 • 7 OPINIONS

The Ratio. TBS. “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.”

These three phrases encom-pass a huge portion of the cul-ture at Tech. The male to fe-male ratio at Tech has been the butt end of a number of jokes for as long as women were even allowed in universities. It also goes without saying that in this day and age, Tech is still one of the few top tier public universities where the students can count the number of class-es they’ve had with an equal distribution of males and fe-males with only one hand.

This year’s freshman class, however, has shown female enrollment at its highest in history, with a 36 percent to 64 percent female to male ra-tio. Yet the numbers neglect to paint a full picture of the academic demographics in the freshman class.

While growth may be oc-curring, it is only happening within one sector of the in-stitute. The number of female engineering and computing students has been growing at a snail’s pace. Comparatively, the Colleges of Architecture, Liberal Arts and Sciences all have seen much larger in-creases in their percentages of female enrollment. In particu-lar, the percentage of under-graduate females in the Col-lege of Engineering has only fluctuated by an approximate-ly positive 0.7 percent by each class year (going from seniors to freshmen). The College of

Computing has even demon-strated a decrease of enrolled undergraduate females by 0.6 percent. As well, both sets of numbers demonstrate incred-ibly low standard deviations (fractional at best). This only goes to underline that female presence in these disciplines are at a stand still with no in-clination of going up or down by any large means.

This begs the question, if female enrollment at Tech has been on a positive trend, then why can’t the same be said of the Colleges of Engineering and Computing?

Lack of female engineers and scientists is not just a problem that plagues Tech, but instead one reflected across the nation as a whole. In 2003, the National Science Foun-dation reported that only 11 percent of the engineering work force was female. Not to mention that there is a general idea of a gender gap between disciplines. As past studies have shown, engineering and the sciences are for boys, and liberal arts are for girls.

Even the film The Social Network, which details the

development of Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, exemplifies the lack of female presence of the industries of engineering, computing and the sciences. In one scene that hits almost too close to home, Zuckerberg and his partner Eduardo Saverin plot to ex-pand their creation. When their female “groupies” ask if they can contribute, they are met with a simple, “No.” Thus, the point was made. Innova-tion is a boy’s club.

This is not to say that the Tech administration, faculty or student body purposely acts this way concerning women in the sciences. With organi-zations such as the Women’s Recruitment Board and the Society of Women Engineers, I was even skeptical on whether or not discrimination in en-gineering existed. However, it was not until I entered the workplace when a coworker stated outright that my being “young and a woman” would “work against [me]” that I real-ized the gender gap was indeed a problem.

The solution may lie in par-ties outside of women’s recruit-

ment organizations. There needs to be a general attitude change from the administra-tion, faculty and male student professional/academic organi-zations. After all, how often does one hear a male student complaining about the Ratio, and how often does one hear about a male professional stu-dent organization actually working with female profes-sional organizations in a truly collaborative setting? More so, according to the Georgia Tech 2007 Fact Book, only approximately 14 percent of Tech engineering faculty is female.

The institute’s faculty and administration should push themselves to find, reward and maintain relations with female faculty. Encouraging more apt and qualified female professors and researchers can be the first step in creating a positive environment for up-and-coming female engineers. As well, male students can make an effort in cultivating that positive environment in more than just a social setting but a professional setting as well.

Rather than observing and commenting that Tech has a “girl problem”, perhaps a little more effort and consideration from male students, the ad-ministration and faculty is necessary. Just because some-thing is a “girl problem” does not mean the weight of fixing it should be doled on the tar-geted minority.

Lack of women at Tech more than joke“Just because something is a ‘girl problem’ does not mean the weight of fixing should be

doled on the...minority”

Vivian FanManaging Editor

Bin Bin ChenSecond-year BME

“Going home to China and spending time with my

family”

Joe RienziSecond-year ME

“Having a nice break and preparing myself for spring

break.”

Jameil BaileySecond-year ECE

“Enjoying the weather of Florida and catching up on

MMO’s.”

Megan HaysThird-year STAC

“Snowboarding.”

What are you doing over the break?

BUZZAround Campus

You hear it every semester, the tone of voice depending en-tirely on who you’re hearing it from. Whether it’s in the pan-icked confusion of a doe-eyed freshman, the stressed tone of sophomores worrying what number they’ll be putting on their resumes when applying for internships, or the gruff resignation of upperclassmen wondering if they’ll have to retake a class again, everyone’s said it: “I don’t have a clue how I’m doing in that class.”

Tech professors grade on curves. It’s just a fact as ines-capable as gravity, magnetism, and the lateness of blue route buses. We’ve all had a test or two where we’ve celebrated the fact that we scored in the double digits. We’ve all had that test where the professor walks in and says, “I don’t un-derstand why the grades are so low; I thought it was easy.” And we’ve all experienced the joy of explaining to parents how we’re not failing out de-spite the stack of sub-sixty scores on our desks.

Honestly: I don’t mind this. It lets professors correct for tests they misgauged the difficulty, and leaves room for the top one percent to learn as much as they want without trashing everyone else’s grades. It’s easier on the grading staff, makes for more consistent grading over the years, etc, etc.

Basically, there’s a lot of reasons why curving is useful. So why are people always com-

plaining about the curve?My guess is that students

don’t mind the curve, they mind when they don’t know the curve. You never hear someone complaining about having a B in a class where they got a 56. You do hear people complaining about working day and night all se-mester long to bring up their 56, only to find out it’s a B at the end of the semester. Then the complaining starts.

In other words, it’s the un-certainty that drives us up the wall. We don’t mind getting a good grade for a bad average, so long as we know what to ex-pect. If we’re expecting a B and we actually have a B, great. If we’re expecting an F and actu-ally have a B, we’re going to spend hours frantically cram-ming, trying to improve a grade that is just fine.

So what’s the problem? We spend a bit more time than we need to on a class. Big deal.

Problem is, every hour we spend on that class is an hour we don’t spend studying for another class that really does

need it. So, what do we do? We cut back on sleep, start guzzling caffeine and lock ourselves away in our study area of choice, not really sure what needs work and what is perfectly fine as-is. Stress rises, sleep goes out the window, and all that fun people say we should be having in college dries up and floats away.

In a nutshell, so long as the grading process is transparent enough that we can say “I have a mid B” or “I have a low A,” there’s not a problem. Profes-sors get to curve, we get to sleep, and everyone gets to go home happy.

But it’s typically not that easy. Typically, you’ll get a mean and standard deviation, and are lucky to get that. In a perfect world, where everyone graded on a bell curve, this would be fine. You’d look up the professor’s past classes, do a bit of math, press the button on your calculator, and you’ve got your grade. But what if the syllabus changed? Or you have a new professor? Or if your professor had a bad day when

he was assigning grades?Take one of my classes this

semester. The professor breaks down test scores point-by-point into what letter grade it will translate to. I know I’ve got a low A on one test, and a mid B on the other. Through-out the semester, I know how I’ve been doing, how much I needed to study for the next test, and how much time to spend on the homework. I know what I need to get on the final for an A, what I need to get for a B, and what happens if I bomb it spectacularly. No muss, no fuss and no stress.

The administration is al-ways trying to come up with new ways to make us happier, but at the end of the day, that’s going to depend on how much time we have to do things we enjoy and how much time we’re spending stressed about classes. If we actually know how we’re doing in classes, we can spend less time on the lat-ter and better plan our time to maximize the former.

Obviously this wouldn’t stop students from griping en-tirely, but it would certainly cut down on it if the admin-istration encouraged profes-sors to share this information. Compared to all the effort that goes into programs aimed at making Tech students hap-pier, making sure students understand how they’re doing requires very little effort for how much it would affect our quality of life.

Open grading process would relieve stress “In a nutshell, so long

as the grading process is transparent... there is not a

problem.”

Chris RussellOnline Editor

Photos by Benny Lee

8 • December 3, 2010 • Technique OPINIONS

SGA continues to balance needs of students against available funds

In today’s times, one would be hard pressed to find a situation where fiscal responsibility isn’t one of the main points discussed. Entities ranging from business to government to academia are feel-ing the pinch of a lagging econ-omy and are faced with difficult decisions on what to cut and what to maintain to ensure their re-spective operations are able to sur-vive. This effect has made its way to SGA where we are faced with these same issues and elected and charged to make some of these same decisions.

Recently, to address fiscal re-sponsibility across all aspects of our governance, I established an ad-hoc committee chaired by the Graduate Vice President of Inter-nal Affairs Michael Ellis to exam-ine various aspects of our fiscal nature and to look into ways that both graduate and undergradu-ate SGA can exhibit the highest levels of fiscal responsibility. This committee will consist of various members of GSS and UHR along with any member of the student body who would like to partici-pate.

Simply put, SGA is a massive operation with a budget of $4.8 million, coming from the collec-tion of the Student Activity Fee, which is allocated to over 300 dif-ferent student organizations, cam-pus facilities and campus initia-tives throughout any given year. Recently in some research for a separate topic, I looked through the operations of how other SGAs within the University System of Georgia work and much to my surprise other SGAs have much less control concerning how their fees are allocated and work with significantly smaller budgets, of-

ten times not being able to deliver the same student experience that we have at Tech. From this, hav-ing the student body entrust SGA with the allocation of the Student Activity Fee is a major responsi-bility and one that every member within SGA takes seriously and with honor.

Within all of this, questions often arise from SGA and student body members including: “Where does my money go?”, “Should we fund this allocation?” or “Will we run out of money before the end of the year?”. These questions lie at the heart of the reason as to why the ad-hoc committee was created and for that matter lie at the heart of any debate concerning the spending of public money.

The motivation establishing this new push within SGA has always existed yet in the past has not been the center issue in almost every debate. These sen-timents and this motivation are not surprising since they are the same core issues that face the na-tion on an everyday occurrence. What cannot happen is a situation where the idea of saving money dominates the debate while valu-able programs, ideas and initia-tives that may need generous sup-port might fall to the wayside thus jeopardizing the optimal student experience that we strive to create.

As the SGA legislative session continues, one of the most chal-lenging tasks, as has been a chal-lenge for SGAs of the past, will be to determine when we put re-sources behind something regard-less of the size of the request. The delicate balance of being fiscally conservative while at the same time exercising some liberalism in funding campus activities is diffi-cult to achieve and will prove to be a mighty task for all of SGA. From all of the issues presented, the purpose of this committee will not be a catch-all to fix every problem or to answer the limited questions posed earlier but rather will act as a step in the right di-rection and will bring the impor-tance of fiscal responsibility to center stage.

One of the greatest things SGA owes to student body is determin-ing the answers and practical solu-tions to the fiscal questions posed and applying them to our every-day operations. The marks left from these economic times and the atmosphere of cutting and conserving will dictate how we as a society function. SGA must find a balance between conserv-ing enough while at the same time funding important initiatives for the benefit of the community thus continuing to make Tech a great place to be.

OUR VIEWS Hot or not

Free harmonyThe Tech mixed a cappella

group Infinite Harmony is giving away free tickets to its performance by distributing them in parking ticket en-velopes and placing them on cars. While this method may infuriate some people, it is sure to get the group some atten-tion. Their last performance is tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Stu-dent Center Theater. Tickets at the door are seven dollars.

HOT– or –NOT“The marks left from these

economic times and the atmosphere of cutting...will

dictate how we as a society.”

Anthony BaldridgeGraduate Student Body President

Construct, obstructFor those on campus who

enjoy walking up and down Skiles Walkway and receiving leaflets for events that few to nobody will ever attend: you should get your fix over the next two weeks because Skiles will be closed upon the return from break. The other random construction sites popping up around campus like pimples in a middle school are also quite tedious and annoying.

Stand unitedTech United signifies a ma-

jor leap for the campus com-munity as it addresses issues that often are disregarded or overlooked. This is a chance for members of the Tech cam-pus to show solidarity with the LGBT community. The recent tragic events across the country underscore the need to support all members of our campus and to stand united against harassment.

Downed by dogsThe unfortunate outcome

of the football game in Athens on Saturday leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of Tech fans at the end of this tough football season. While the team played valiantly and coaching staff out witted their UGA counter-parts, ultimately injuries and season-long infirmities in cer-tain units proved to be the un-doing for the Jackets in their regular season finale.

techniquem

aking friday lectures more interesting

Focusfocus@nique.netFocus Editor:Kamna Bohra

Technique

9Friday,

December 3, 2010

Vaden plans to patent, commercialize inventionBy Chris Russell

Online Editor

At last year’s InVenture Prize competition, Sarah Vaden, a third-year AE major, took the second prize for her invention: the Pneumatically Elevated Pitch (PEP) Pedal. Though the compe-tition’s over, the invention process is still rolling as Vaden starts to wrap up the paperwork and look toward releasing a working proto-type to the market.

The PEP Pedal is a foot-pow-ered pump that used pneumatics to change the pitch of a drum by changing its internal pressure.

“It’s a way for drummers to change the pitch of their drums while they’re playing. It lets them take a five-piece drum kit and make it sound like a 12 or 13 piece kit,” Vaden said.

Vaden, an avid drummer her-self, said money is not as impor-tant to her as shifting the role of drums in music.

“My main goal isn’t to sell hundreds of thousands of units so much as to change the way music is played,” Vaden said.

Since the competition last semester, Vaden’s product has changed dramatically. Originally designed as a pedal in which the user manually pumps air into the drum, Vaden hopes the final product will have more of a digital

component.“My earlier prototype—the

one I won at InVenture with—was all mechanical. It was a push-pedal/pump system. I’m trying to make that more digital and make the playing experience easier. I want to let people dial in how they want to play,” Vaden said.

According to Vaden, even with a new largely-digital interface, a foot-pedal element will still al-most certainly be involved, since it will be the kind of control drum-mers are used to.

Despite this, Vaden said her final product will likely be much different from what viewers saw at

the InVenture finals. “The design has changed,

but the prototype isn’t there yet. I’m trying to make it look like something someone would actu-ally buy. My prototype was really rough. Really, it was just a proof of concept,” Vaden said.

As for a deadline, Vaden hopes

to have a prototype ready to dis-play for a convention in Jan.

“I’m hoping to be ready in time to take it to the NAMM show. It’s a big trade convention where all the big companies, like Yamaha and Pearl, and a lot of big musi-cians come. It’s a good place to get out there, explore and hopefully get picked up by one of the com-panies,” Vaden said.

Since InVenture, in addition to working on the digital redesign, Vaden has been wading through the patent application process in order to protect her rights to her intellectual property.

According to Vaden, the real work came after InVenture.

“[The patent process] has defi-nitely been the most difficult part of the process. InVenture wasn’t so hard in comparison. I got my patent application done about three or four weeks into the se-mester, and since then it’s been a lot of trying to get the computer work done. Right now, we’re in the drafting stage and are trying to find a reasonably priced proto-typer in the US,” Vaden said.

Vaden said that being “an en-gineer by day, musician by night,” in addition to planning her up-coming wedding has been a tricky balancing act.

Vaden interned at Boeing in

By Kamna BohraFocus Editor

In a barren icy land at 50 de-grees below zero with black speck-les of penguins and white dots of polar bears, scientists can step away from the rush of labs and conduct their research in peace. One can hardly imagine that this land is on the same planet as the lush vegetation of the jungles in South America or the vehicle-filled roads of the urban cities in Europe.

However, Institute President G.P. “Bud” Peterson will see this flipside to the lifestyles of other continents, as he travels to Ant-arctica on Dec. 4 to review several research projects being conducted under the United States Antarc-tica Program.

As a member of the National Science Board (NSB), Peterson received a recommendation for the trip from NSB chairman Ray Bowen. Along with a limited number of government officials, Peterson will visit the McMurdo Station and the Admunsen-Scott South Pole Station to review the ongoing research endeavors in such environmental topics as earth sciences, astrophysics, eco-systems and glaciology.

“There will be discussions about the research currently going on [in Antarctica] and how the research that’s being done there is of value to the scientific commu-nity,” Peterson said.

The projects Peterson will eval-

uate fall under the United States Antarctica Program (USAP), which is, in turn, under the um-brella of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Including over 3000 Ameri-cans, USAP has scientists from global universities and research institutions engaging in year-round, collaborative work in Ant-arctica.

These scientists focus on un-derstanding the characteristics of Antarctica’s ecosystems and how they will affect the rest of the planet in the case of climate change.

Researchers also use the South Pole as a foundation for their studies of the upper atmosphere.

Research projects include anal-yses of the hole in the ozone layer, upper atmospheric conditions and stratospheric chemistry. Scientists also specifically conduct studies on the ionosphere and the magne-tosphere.

In addition to tours of the sci-ence and technology facilities, Pe-terson will take a helicopter tour of the Dry Valleys and will also visit local field projects and his-torical huts.

While Peterson recognizes the importance of the projects al-ready being conducted in earth and atmospheric sciences, he also believes studies should be carried out in other non-geographic re-search areas, such as supply chain and logistics.

Peterson cited medical atten-tion and transportation as a few

of the nec-essary re-search areas to allow other research to con-tinue in Antarctica.

In discussing and evaluating the projects, Peterson must distinguish between the research goals of the U.S. and the Institute, as he is a representative of the NSF.

“I’m going down as a represen-tative-at-large, not just a represen-tative of Georgia Tech…[but]…a lot of the things that people do [at Tech] utilize some of the informa-tion that’s developed [in Antarc-tica],” Peterson said.

Beyond the man made research projects, the natural world of Ant-arctica includes over 9000 feet of mountainous elevation, hundreds of glaciers, thousands of creatures and subzero temperatures, even in the current summer season.

The living conditions are not ideal either.

“The McMurdo Station is not really like a hotel; it’s more like a dormitory. The living conditions are a little tough. The temperature ranges from 20 to 50 below at the South Pole, [so] when we fly into McMurdo Station, they’ll provide complete outfits,” Peterson said.

Peterson had to take a com-

plete physical and stress test be-fore receiving clearance to travel to the South Pole.

However, while he is analyz-ing the research projects in Ant-arctica, Peterson will continue to remember the research programs in Atlanta at Tech.

“I’m going to take a Georgia Tech flag and fly it in the South Pole,” Peterson said.

See Vaden, page 11

Peterson schedules visit to Antarctica for USAP

Photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Communications and Marketing

After taking second place in the InVenture Prize Competition last year, Sarah Vaden plans to use the patent she won to commercialize her invention, the Pneumatically Elevated Pitch (PEP) Pedal.

@georgepburdell: Q: Did you hear about the University of Georgia fan who locked his keys in his car? A: He couldn’t get his family out. #thwg

Technique • December 3, 2010 • 11 FOCUS

Essen shares adventures in natureBy Divya Varahabhatla

Contributing Writer

Many people gathered in the Student Center Ballroom to lis-ten in on Marty Essen’s “Around the World in 90 Minutes” lecture, hosted by the Student Center Pro-grams Council (SCPC).

Essen’s Lecture was full of sto-ries about his adventures trekking through the globe.

Essen, a self-taught photogra-pher, decided to go backpacking with his wife and ended up loving the occupation so much that he kept returning.

Eventually, he decided to col-lect all his experiences in a book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Ex-ploring the Seven Continents.

The lecture was accompanied by Essen’s colorful photography slide which showcased a myriad of beautifully shot photos of ani-mals and wildlife from all over the world.

“Get down and appreciate the little things,” Essen said as advice for travelers.

He showed the audience pic-tures of creatures from his travels, including a little poison dart frog.

He recounted his firsthand tales of facing caimans, lace moni-tors, which are a kind of lizard he encountered in Australia, wolves in Canada and glaciers in North America.

“[It was] an interesting dis-cussion on the misconceptions of ‘dangerous’ animals. He talked about how many animals stereo-typed to be extremely dangerous are actually not as harmful as rumored and beneficial for our environment,” said Christianna Madson, a second-year BME ma-jor who attended the event.

One of the more extreme expe-riences that Essen mentioned was when he and his wife were canoe-

ing down the Zambezi river, and their boat was attacked by a hip-popotamus.

he animal lifted the boat high in the air, dumping the vessel and the Essens on the riverbank. Though it was a near-death ex-perience, both the Essens were relieved to be alive and laughed it off.

In the spirit of exploring the little novelties in such new areas, the Essens traveled through Spain visiting castles as well.

They also discovered that many of the generally accepted facts were actually incorrect. In fact, red belly piranhas which are “known as the most ferocious” are actually fin eaters.

The Essens tested this by jump-ing into a lake full of red belly pi-ranhas without any injuries.

Marty Essen was also the first person to ever photograph a spe-

cies of spider in the Amazon which he called an Orchid mimic spider.

Essen is now promoting his new travel book by traveling around colleges and venues across the country.

Originally, Essen wrote stories of his adventures in newspapers in Montana where he lived.

In his book, Essen said that not only did he get to see the planet and its wildlife, he also was able to see and meet people of different nationalities.

He developed a sense for both the environment and the political nature of protecting wildlife. The novel was published in 2007.

Apart from photographing natural life across the seven con-tinents, Essen travels to colleges and universities to deliver lectures about his travels and the photog-raphy from his book.

Image courtesy of Tasha Myers

In preparation for Marty Essen’s lecture on his adventures in nature, students created animal masks in the Student Center.

Vaden from page 9

Seattle this summer, meaning that much of the work on the pat-ent had to be done long-distance.

Law firm Sutherland and Co. has been handling a lot of the legal footwork involved in patenting an invention. In addition to the ac-tual paperwork associated with applying for a patent, Sutherland and Co. also handled the research into prior art that is more or less required for a successful patent application.

Vaden’s actual patent applica-tion is for a “pneumatic drum tuning device.”

Assuming all goes well, the patent will be approved in two to three years. In the meantime, Va-den can begin labeling her device as “patent pending” and listing the patent number, which will go a long way towards protecting the rights to her intellectual property.

The next InVenture Prize Com-petition, to be hosted by Miles O’ Brien, will be held on March 9, 2011.

Image courtesy of Georgia Tech Communications and Marketing

While “selling” her invention to the judges, Vaden practiced her entrepreneurship skills during the InVenture Prize Competition.

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Technique

13Friday,

December 3, 2010

THENUTCRACKERmesmerizes, excites crowds

By Christ ErnstStaff Writer

For its 51st year, the Atlanta Ballet is putting on the holiday classic, The Nutcrack-er. A perfect holiday show combining the holidays themselves and fantasy, the At-

lanta Ballet again augments the wonder of the spectacle with awe-inspiring sets, costumes and, of course, danc-ing at the always fabulous Fox Theater. The spectacle is a holiday tradition (with good reasons), and the Atlanta Ballet’s own version dazzles the senses.

The Atlanta Ballet actually dances their very own ver-sion of the show. This version is set in St. Petersburg, Russia. Choreographed by John McFall, the artistic di-rector, this version premiered in 1996. Before this, the company performed the famous Balanchine version, which was performed for the first time outside of the New York City Ballet by the Atlanta Ballet. Trying to remem-ber the story of The Nutcracker proves difficult mainly because there is surprisingly little story. Compared to opera, ballet generally has much simpler stories, and The Nutcracker is no exception. There is not a plot or story and really, no resolution at the end. The classic moment when the Rat King is taken down by a shoe is not here. The story can be summed up as follows: At a party, a brother and sister receive gifts which, along with a little imagination, entertain the children. It is very simple, and there is nothing to follow.

While the story is not that interesting, the costumes and sets are very attention-worthy. Both are lavish and very detailed. It was a pleasure to look at the decoration on the stage and the large crowds of people are almost entertainment in itself. This makes this production of The Nutcracker really a spectacle and not a story-based show. It is about the feast for the eyes and enjoying just watching the stage without having to think too much. The combination of live music, scenic eye candy and feats of dancing make an easily-enjoyed show, especially for

those without much of an attention span.The Atlanta Ballet performs The Nutcracker at the fab-

ulous Fox Theater in Midtown, just a stone’s throw from The Varsity. The theater is almost as interesting as any show that passes through. Originally opened in 1929, the Islamic/Egyptian-styled edifice is unique. Even from the street, it screams lavish luxury from yesteryear. During intermission, it is easy to miss the beginning of the second act while exploring the many nooks, crannies (and bath-rooms) and details of the historical landmark.

For the past two years, the Atlanta ballet used live mu-sic only on the show’s opening weekend. However this year will feature live music at all 23 performances for the first time since 2006. There is an indescribable something that live music brings to a multifaceted production like The Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s romantic (and then quite experimental) score sounds much more nuanced and en-grossing live than any recording can produce. The Atlanta Ballet Orchestra is one of the highlights of the show.

The only aspect of the show that seemed lacking was, ironically, the dancing. While at times virtuosic, there were at least commensurate occasions of strikingly bad footwork or timing. The arms and upper half of the danc-ers was almost always approaching perfection. Arms and their positioning definitely got much more attention than footwork or synchronization. However, with a show that has as many children it is much harder to maintain a high level of execution.

The Nutcracker is a tradition, especially with parents and children, and it is very easy to see why. The show is a spectacle with scant story which is easily digested by any-one of any age. The live music, costumes, scenery and feats of dancing make a visual and auditory feast. The Fox is a fantastic venue that only adds to the wonder and unique-ness of the experience. While the dancing is at times shaky, the show is a solid success. The show’s sparkle is hard to resist and gets anyone in the holiday spirit.

The Atlanta Ballet will host The Nutty Nutcracker, which will be “unchoreographed by the Atlanta Ballet Dancers.” It is rated PG-13 and is one night only, Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

SHOWS

The NutcrackerPERFORMER: Atlanta Ballet

LOCATION: Fox Theatre

DATE: Nov. 27 - dec. 26

OUR TAKE: «««««

ASO Disney astonishes

CONCERT

Disney in Concert: Magical Music from the

MoviesPERFORMER: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

LOCATION: Woodruff Arts Center

DATE: Nov. 26, 2010

OUR TAKE: «««««

By Kristina SharifiContributing Writer

On Friday, Nov. 26, Disney in Concert: Mag-ical Music from the Movies was performed at the Woodruff Arts Center. The concert consisted of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra joined by a quartet of singers and the Atlanta Symphony Gospel Choir. The show used images and music from the famed studio’s film releases and car-toons to salute the accomplishments of Walt Disney.

The night of the performance, the audience sat with anticipation as the first violinist and Concertmaster, David Coucheron, tuned and prepared the orchestra for the conductor. Guest Conductor and Principal Pops Conductor to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Micheal Kra-jewski was greeted with an excited applause as he bowed and raised his baton, ready to begin the show.

The Disney Classics Overture began the show with a bang and excited the audience. Next, vocalist Candice Nicole sang songs from The Little Mermaid such as “Under the Sea.” The orchestra went on to play “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas and an Orchestral Suite from Beauty and the Beast. Singer Aaron Phil-lips entertained the audience with a song from The Jungle Book, “I Wanna Be Like You.” Before the piece began, conductor Micheal Krajewski revealed a fun fact about it: The Jungle Book was the last movie that Walt Disney himself actually supervised.

Before the ntermission, the last pieces from Mary Poppins were played and they happened to be my favorite. The orchestra played “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and asked the audience to sing along with projections of the lyrics as an aid. This was one of the highlights of the show as the audience was more than happy to be engaged.

Before beginning the next two selections, conductor Micheal Krajewski admitted that he thought they were the best pieces from Disney movies. The orchestra stunned the crowd with a beautifully played piece from Pirates of the Ca-ribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Still, what was to come was better. The next selection was by far the best of the whole con-cert; the orchestra was joined not only by the quartet of singers but also the Atlanta Sym-phony Gospel Choir for a Lion King song suite. The audience was mesmerized. “The Circle of Life”, especially, was executed perfectly by all three contributing parties. This part of the per-

See Disney, page 14

Image courtesy of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Images courtesy of A

tlanta Ballet

14 • December 3, 2010 • Technique ENTERTAINMENT

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Turismo 5 offers realistic driving experienceGAMES

Gran Turismo 5CONSOLE: PlayStation 3

GENRE: Racing

DEVELOPER: Polyphony Digital

RATING: E

RELEASED: Nov. 24

OUR TAKE: «««««

By Andrew AkkerContributing Writer

The driving simulator genre of video games has seen no better se-ries than Gran Turismo since the first one landed on shelves in 1997 on the first PlayStation console. Since then, numerous sequels and spin-offs have continued its great name and gameplay that we’ve all come to know and love. Gran Tur-ismo 5 (GT5) is no different.

GT5 builds upon what de-velopers Polyphony Digital have been creating and improving on for the past 13 years, which is to be a great driving simulator.

The handling with the cars is just as you would expect from re-al-life physics. The elements, such as rain, will have an effect on your driving. All the factors added into to how the gameplay works with the driving really do make this a great driving simulator.

The graphics really do look as good as the developers claimed they did in demonstrations of the game. However, the best looking cars are labeled “premium” cars, and you have to purchase these with in-game money.

The cars you win from races and such are non-premium and do not look quite as good as premium ones. However, once you take a spin in one of the premium cars,

you will be blown away.The menu layout has changed

since Gran Turismo 5: Prologue a smaller game released earlier that was supposed to be an introduc-tion to what GT5 was to be when finished. In the main menu, you have Arcade Mode, which is for playing a normal single-player race, Two-Player Mode, Drifting Challenges or Time Trial Chal-lenges. There is also access to a course creator where users can create their own custom courses with the tools available. There is also access to the GT News and “My Home.”

“My Home” mode is what has most of the gameplay modes such as A-Spec (racing), dealerships to purchase cars or license tests to learn the basics of the Gran Tur-ismo world. Also accessible from this menu is information about your community image.

You can set a personal avatar, information about yourself and with what kind of people you would like to play online with. The game does a very good job of setting all of this up for you the first time you access the My

Home menu.There is tons of stuff to do in

this game. You can do straight racing in the A-Spec mode or you can also do a manager mode called B-Spec in which you create a player and act as their crew chief to direct them on what kind of racing style they should use dur-ing the race. Completing sets of races in these modes will win you cars, credits for purchase and ex-perience to level up.

License tests are a good way to train for the big races if you are not very familiar with the world of Gran Turismo. They will teach you how to take turns like a pro and how to drive to win. It is an easy way to get started with cred-its and experience.

Probably the most intricate mode of the game is the photo mode. The player can take his or her car to anyone of the four designated cities. Anything from shutter speed to exposure to filters can be changed to fit the exact kind of picture you want.

There’s a “special challenge” mode where you can take on chal-lenges from popular icons in the

racing field such as doing a NAS-CAR challenge with Jeff Gordon, or racing around in the Top Gear track. Each one requires you to reach a certain level to take part in the challenge.

The online community is very prevalent in this game as well. Players are allowed to create their own rooms with their own cus-tomizations in types of race cars allowed or even to use their own custom tracks.

It is a good idea not to go on-line until you’ve gotten yourself a decent car. Most of the online races deal with high-level cars.

Polyphony Digital has done a fantastic job with the newest in-stallment of the Gran Turismo franchise. The gameplay is realis-tic and the graphics are crisp. The amount of cars to choose from is very vast, and the brands are ex-tremely varied.

But above all else, the game is very fun and there is a lot to do. I’d recommend this game to any-one who enjoys realistic driving simulators and to everyone who was ever a fan of the Gran Turismo franchise.

Image courtesy of Polyphony Digital

formance was by far the most im-pressive and elaborate.

Finally, the last piece and finale from the Atlanta Symphony Or-chestra was a small selection from Hercules. It ended the show with a perfect blend of excitement and satisfaction.

Before attending the show, however, I talked to one of the performing singers, Whitney Kaufman. Kaufman, a native from Los Angeles and a natural on stage, has been performing since the age of eight. She was most re-cently on tour with the Broadway hit, Mamma Mia!.

“The show is not very challeng-ing because it is so fun but we are performing with visuals on the screen and we have had to work hard with the conductor to listen for musical cues and visual cues,” Kaufman said about the challeng-es of the show.

Kaufman did not have to do any special preparations to take part in the show.

“No, we didn’t do anything like that but everyone was very familiar with the Disney music. We did several rehearsals to stay true to the original music. That was very important to everyone— staying true to the original pieces and performing them exactly as they originally were,” Kaufman said.

Along with Kaufman were three other vocalists, Candice Ni-cole, Aaron Phillips, and Terron Brooks.

Since Kaufman worked with several famous conductors, she talked about how she had actually worked with Micheal Krajewski before. She had nothing but good things to say.

“I worked with him last time we performed in Atlanta. He is fantastic: nice to singers and al-ways listening. He is always on his toes and a great conductor,” Kaufman said.

Disney from page 13

Technique • December 3, 2010 • 15 ENTERTAINMENT

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Disney’s Tangled succeeds FILM

TangledGENRE: Family Comedy

STARRING: Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi

DIRECTOR: Nathan Greno & Bryon Howard

RATING: PG

RELEASE DATE: Nov. 24

OUR TAKE: «««««

By Michael Valente & Andrew Nelson

Contributing Writers

This week we visited one of three Pure Taqueria locations in Inman Park—one of Atlanta’s most fiercely dedicated communi-ties and home to a myriad of small shops, restaurants and, of course, the glorious hipsters.

The first note we made as we walked up to Pure Taqueria in the cold, drizzly rain was that this place was made for warm summer evenings.

Walking in, it was apparent that the building may have been a converted auto shop. All the ta-bles were packed with boisterous guests, and the bar was stocked

RESTARUANTS

Pure TaqueriaLOCATION: 300 North Highland Avenue

CUISINE: Mexican Food

COST: $8 - $10

HOURS: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

PHONE: (404) 522-7873

OUR TAKE: «««««

with warmer-still patrons.After a thirty-minute wait

(even on a weekday night, reserva-tions are recommended) we were led through the throng and past a brilliantly tiled food service coun-ter that shone even in the low light of the dining room. Chips, salsa and water were all almost instan-taneously delivered to our table while it took our actual server a little bit to introduce herself and ask if we needed anything else.

Michael went for the corn masa stuffed with pulled pork, Andrew ordered a traditional dish, chicken mole enchiladas and our compan-ion and photographer Cassie opt-ed for the chicken taquitos.

The two large stuffed masa cakes laid imposingly over a ma-jority of the plate and were piled high with toppings. The cakes were at first a bit hard to cut into, but the pork’s moisture and salti-ness offset the dryness and touch of sweetness, respectively, from the corn.

Mole is a Mexican sauce that varies enough to be the signature of a particular cook, and at Pure it was particularly chocolatey and nutty. In fact, if Nutella were to

By Daniel FullerContributing Writer

Tangled takes long hair to the extreme, transforming the tale of Rapunzel into an exciting ad-venture. The original Rapunzel story is evident, but Tangled adds its own flair. The presentation of script, scenery and sound creates a compelling film out of something as simple as a girl with long hair trapped in a tower. Even though Tangled is Disney’s first 3D de-parture from their roots in classic 2D animation, it stands strong as proof that that Disney still knows how to make good animations.

The combination of talent in-volved in Tangled comes together nicely. The voice acting is excel-lent, especially by leads Mandy Moore as princess Rapunzel and Zachary Levi as the handsome thief Flynn Rider. Donna Mur-phy and Ron Perlman provide a striking villainous presence, voicing the manipulative Mother Gothel and the rogue Stabbing-ton brothers, respectively. Most impressively, all of the voice actors perform their own singing roles.

The soundtrack is well-done thanks to Alan Menken, a long-time Disney movie composer responsible for classics such as Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.

Following the tradition of Disney animated features, characters in Tangled will spontaneously burst into song. The number and pac-ing of these songs feels just right, delivering emotion and character development through smooth transitions into music. Rather than being overwhelming and dis-tracting, all of the music contrib-utes to the narrative. Rapunzel’s first song is especially charming, describing the daily rituals she employs to counteract the bore-dom of being trapped in a tower for her entire life.

The animators involved in Tangled also deserve special praise. The animation is flowing, the visuals are beautiful, and the character design is unique and in-teresting. The resulting art style is vibrant, colorful and scenic. Not surprisingly considering the sub-ject matter, the hair is especially well-rendered.

With the great vocal talent, music and visuals, the story of Tangled is the final component that brings everything together.

It is full of action, comedy, ro-mance, and villainy. Extreme lib-erties are taken with the source material, but such has always been the case with Disney’s fairy tale adaptations. In this case, the replacement of the classic-yet-boring “prince charming” with a witty rogue opens up interesting narrative possibilities and creates a more complex relationship dy-namic between his character and the princess. The Disney formula is clearly evident throughout the film, even down to the quirky animal companions (in this case, a horse and a chameleon). How-ever, while the formula is old and predictable, it is unashamedly so, delivering a happy, fun adventure for audiences to enjoy.

Tangled is delightful in its light-hearted charm. It is not par-ticularly deep, yet it is not shallow either. The characters and story are interesting, and the execution is superb from music to art style. More than most, Tangled is sim-ply a fun movie, and that makes it worthwhile.

See Food, page 16

Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Eating AtlantaCuisines around Atlanta

Photos by Cassandra Xie / Student Publications

16 • December 3, 2010 • Technique ENTERTAINMENT

Weepies returns strong, wows VarietyCONCERT

The WeepiesPERFORMER: The Weepies

LOCATION: Variety Playhouse

DATE: Nov. 17

OUR TAKE: ««««

By Jessica SwaffordContributing Writer

Two weeks ago on Wednesday, Nov. 17, Variety Playhouse hosted The Weepies, an indie pop-folk group of six based out of Los An-geles. Led by husband and wife musicians Steve Tannen and Deb Talan, The Weepies, while still be-ing lesser known by the masses, has steadily gained notoriety in the last few years. This can be at-tributed to several songs that have been featured on shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother.

The duo, who had solo proj-ects before joining together, write their own lyrics and until the past few years, toured the country in a compact Toyota. Their first album was released in 2003, and they now have a total of four (Happi-ness, Say I Am You, Hideaway, Be My Thrill) with the most current being released earlier this year.

The crowd on Wednesday, unexpectedly ranging from high school students to middle aged adults, made small talk amongst strangers like old friends while waiting on the show to start. Small bright stage lights, fitting to the band’s persona, were turned on around nine, and were im-mediately followed by fan excite-ment. Soon after, The Weepies took the stage.

During the concert it was com-mon for a single fan to yell a one-

liner to the band, but between songs everyone was unusually quiet. This was noted by trendy dressing lead singer Deb Talan who commented that down time was so quiet she could almost hear a pin drop.

It can’t be for sure, but perhaps this silence was due to the fact that no one had heard The Weep-ies live in so long. They haven’t had a show, much less a tour, in four years. In this time Talan and Tannen wrote their album Be My Thrill, expanded their family and switched from a compact to a tour bus.

In the quaint setting of Variety Playhouse, fans were told stories about the inspiration for many songs which range from drinks to arguments to children’s say-ings. The tour bus inspired a song called “Antarctica” which is what the duo’s oldest child calls it.

As a matter of fact, fans ate

up all stories told between songs. Most popular was the story of how Talan and Tannen met while both on separate tours. “Riga Girls” was inspired by it, but those inter-ested will have to look the song’s colorful background themselves.

“Please Speak Well of Me,” a slower song about an ex, en-hanced the folky aspect of the band by including several band members clapping and snapping in rhythmic sync to make much of the music for the song. Fans soon joined in to make things louder thus adding quality to the song. In order to speed things up and keep excitement The Weepies fol-lowed with “Can’t Go Back Now” which was well received proving that fans appreciate different song styles made by the band.

Throughout the night The Weepies kept true to their untra-ditional genre and used not only typical drums and guitars but also

incorporated the afore mentioned clapping as well as a ukulele, cel-lo and tambourine. Solidifying themselves as musicians, almost every member played at least two instruments before the night came to a close. Other crowd pleasing songs were “Gotta Have You,” “Nobody Knows Me At All” and two singles that seemed to be known by everyone in the crowd, “Be My Thrill” and “World Spins Madly On.”

Variety Playhouse turned out to be the perfect venue for the concert. Fans missed The Weepies and surely appreciated the small, personal setting of the venue where they could make new friends and seemingly “catch up” with the band who themselves treated the audience like old friends. With any luck, they’ll come back soon for those who missed out. If not, it can only be hoped it won’t be four years until the next time.

find its way to a sauce pan with an entourage of chilies, you would have this mole. Toss in some softened peppers and onions and spread over three stuffed enchila-das, and it makes a hearty, earthy dish.

All dishes were accompanied by sides of rice and a choice of black, refried or charro beans. The rice was a strange side dish: while the taste was done well, the tex-ture seemed almost waxy but curi-ously we ate every last grain.

Pure’s version of charro beans tasted excellent and came in a small side cup, much preferred over the usual splatter on the side of your plate as in many other restaurants. It also pays tribute to the original, using an unmis-takable presence of pork among other spices and chilies commonly found in traditional charro bean recipes.

Other food options are the usual suspects for Mexican cui-sine, although it certainly sur-passes the typical Mexican dive in both atmosphere and style. Pure’s founders based their recipes on family recipes from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, and the feature cheese here is, surprise, Oaxaca cheese. They also offer a gluten-free menu that isn’t too bad.

Perhaps the highlight of the restaurant was the shiny ethanol centerpiece. Stacked on all sides by liquor, especially their proud tequila selection, the bar seemed almost too retro despite the rest of the modern-retro mix of interior decoration. On the wall opposite the windows was a large tv pro-jection screen showing a football game at the time.

Overall the experience of Pure was nice. Perhaps a little dimmer than necessary, but loud and fun. The food was good and plentiful and the price more than reason-able.

Food from page 15

Photos by Austin Foote / Student Publications

««

Technique • December 3, 2010 • 17 ENTERTAINMENT

Theme Crossword: Fashion sTaTemenTBy Robert ZimmermanUnited Features Syndicate

ACROSS1. Pinch-hit4. Boorish9. Inundate14. Tennessee’s flower18. Place for fishermen19. Cotton thread20. Float21. Cut22. Old covered walkway23. The bounding main24. Developed25. Aswan’s river26. Start of a quip by Julia Roberts: 6 wds.30. Foil relative31. Yucky32. Spoil33. Set apart36. Ceremonial wear38. Pelted43. Clues44. Physique45. Puts an end to

46. Baseball stat.47. Division word48. Black, in heraldry49. Speaks angrily50. Caution51. Turn sharply52. Mind53. Foundation54. Glacial ridge55. Two-wheeler57. -- -percha58. Governmental body59. An article61. Part 2 of quip: 3 wds.65. Pop66. Unit of angular measurement68. Sharp69. Poem of a kind71. Unconcealed72. Overact73. Strikes sharply75. Hibernia78. Christie’s Miss Marple79. Pirouettes

DOWN1. Something to eat2. Quite a while3. Path4. Sickened, in a way5. Nouveau --6. Lost7. Mini blinds part8. Levelheaded9. Cuts of meat10. Verbose11. Affirm12. Interlock13. Takes precedence over

14. Snub15. Kind of dance16. -- of Man17. Haggard title18. Penultimate Greek letter27. Uncloses, poetically28. Did well on29. Rests33. Inmate’s blade34. Long35. Forebears36. Rustic37. Like a garage floor38. Outcast

39. BPOE members40. Navy man: 2 wds.41. Typos42. Moved rhythmically44. Innocents45. Rash48. The gannet49. Clean oneself up50. Cyst53. Steep hill54. Antitoxins56. Online activity57. Oversupplies58. Actress -- Spacek

59. Destructive kind of horse60. An island capital62. Third biblical horseman63. Pictures64. Put on67. Wrath70. Command72. Monumental73. Horse’s color74. Savoy or Lepontine

76. Frost77. Bridge position79. Like some beaches80. Weight83. Edible part84. Get out!85. OT book87. Make loud demands88. Breathes in an annoying way89. Black Sea port91. -- provocateur

80. Tom Sawyer’s aunt81. Song82. Farm denizen83. Pipes84. Like a bubble bath85. First VP86. A coming to be88. Eschews89. Brunch order90. Youth91. Before long92. Scent93. End of the quip: 6 wds.102. An astringent103. Avid104. Eastern servants105. Time106. Certain first flight107. Jewel108. Heredity units109. Roadhouses110. Get word111. Simple shelters112. Newsboy’s cry113. Dollop

92. Iron-ore pigment93. Succulent plant94. Dance form95. Fill96. Old Greek contest97. Wall Street acronym98. Jargon99. Chaplin’s wife100. Litter’s littlest101. Periods: abbr.102. Fraxinus

www.nique.netsliver

PEOPLE! QUICK THE ZOMBIES ARE COMINGuga fan: “i can’t wait for y’all to eat your words this weekend.” and i can’t wait to start making 30k more than you after gradu-ationmy gpa sux!Solve for i: 9x-7i > 3(3x-7u)Prufrock was right. How will I know if it would have been worth it, after allWe watched Harry Potter sing the Elements song in chemistry. Thank you Tech for making me feel less nerdy!Has anybody every asked someone out on sliver? I kinda want to try?Dear Tech, for Christmas I’d like a beautiful red head please who doesnt have TBS. thanks.my roommate is so loud. I wonder if he can hear himselfWASHINGTON! WASHINGTON! Taking out dook, ‘cause he’s the one!you’re a jerkhate weekthwgMine eyes have seen the glory Of the N.C. Double-A They’re investigating GA players To see how much they’re paid After counting all the cars And the loans Alumni made, They out pay F.S.U.“It’s a Jeep thing... you wouldn’t understand” you make my day. Go Wranglers!YAY INTERGRATION!i love my munchetteblue buses are ninjasI see you eating in Woody’s with the girl I love, and I`m like F*** Youuu, F*** YoouuuIs Caldwell Co-ed on every floor??? Feels like it.Closing the center of campus? How will I find the G-Spot?Clermont Lounge is not terrible for the pricesGT sucks out your soul everyday you study hereThe Walking Dead should film campus on finals weekTHWgi am scared of my impending doom of my 1803 testI wish Infinite Harmony would come sing me to sleep every night.facilities: please use the money spent on fueling your leafblowers to pay for bonuses to get your guys to use nice quiet rakeswhats up with guys modeling transformers/gun s/guitars in 1770?im too drunk to taste this chickenjackie moon,”budlight. .im horny.”I know where everything light goesYou’re 4’ 10” of cute! Love hanging with ya!

The economy sucks.Free pizza rations on Tuesdays.

7 p.m., Flag 137, Technique

techniquethe south’s liveliest college newspaper.

18 • December 3, 2010 • Technique COMICS

non sequiTur by WileyPiled higher & deePer by Jorge Cham

Crossword soluTion from page 17

Technique • December 3, 2010 • 19 COMICS

dilBerT ® by SCott adamSnon sequiTur by Wiley

ANAKEstablished in 1908

�e ANAK Society would like to congratulate and thank the following members who are graduating in Fall 2010

Sean Boudreau BedfordRyann Margaret KopackaMichael Anthony Toney

Kathryn Carolyn (K.C.) Young

and in loving memory of our alumni

John Stewart HunsingerJames Frank Stovall Jr.

Founded in 1908, �e ANAK Society recognizes Junior and Senior students for their outstanding leadership ability, personal achievement, strong character, and true love for Georgia Tech. Membership is considered by many to be the highest

honor a Tech student can receive.

Technique • December 3, 2010 • 21 SPORTS

Seniors from page 24

run to extend their lead, but Tech came back within reaching dis-tance of the lead, 21-17. Clemson scored one more point than Tech over the rest of the set, and won the set, 25-20.

In the game’s final set, Tech raced out to a 5-1 lead before Clemson took a timeout. Not wanting to get too far behind early, Clemson used its timeout wisely and soon found themselves with the lead at 6-5.

The Jackets used a timeout of their own to get the lead back. Tech had two chances to finish Clemson off, but the Tigers won both of those points to extend the match. Finally Tech won two points in a row to win the set 17-15, and the match, 3-2.

“I knew it was going to be a battle. If we went in thinking that it wasn’t, then we are crazy. We told our kids to go out there and play every point, and I just thought that we did a good job of coming up with the big play when we needed it,” Johnson said.

Along with their seniors, the Jackets used a great game from Mead to help in the win. Mead continued her stellar play throughout the season by adding 19 kills and had a career-high 21 digs.

“[Mead] did a great job. I chal-lenged her defensively to start picking up some tips, and make some big plays, and she certainly did that… I think she is going to do some great things for this pro-gram just like our seniors,” John-son said.

Allen gets stronger in season’s second half

Photo by Joey Cerone / Student Publications

Anthony Allen stiff-arms a UGA defender in Saturday’s game. Allen rushed for 166 yards, his fifth 100-yard game of the season.

By Alex SohaniContributing Writer

The B-back, generally con-sidered as the main “fullback” in Head Coach Paul Johnson’s spread option offense, is supposed to get a significant chunk of the carries and keep the chains mov-ing throughout the whole game. Senior B-back Allen, however, started the year slow, only averag-ing 66 yards per game in his first five outings, and things did not seem to go as planned for a typical B-back’s season.

The B-back is an important staple of the spread option as his primary job is to take the ball from a short distance in the back-field and essentially “dive” into the holes that the offensive line can provide, usually resulting in short yardage. At times, the play can seem ineffective as most de-fenses prioritize stopping this run, but it is necessary to opening up big plays throughout the game.

If the B-back is gaining good yardage (around four to six yards per carry), the defense will have to accommodate for this, and pull in more defenders to the box to con-tain the running threat. By doing this, more one-on-one oppor-tunities are created between the defenders and the offensive weap-ons, and the quarterback can dis-tribute the ball to wherever he sees the best mismatch on the field.

However, if the dive play is getting stopped on a regular ba-

sis, the opposing defense can put more priority on stopping the oth-er phases of the offense, creating a much greater challenge for the offense.

In Tech’s season opener against South Carolina State, Allen only had six carries for 28 yards, which was very atypical for a B-back in the spread option. SCSU’s prima-ry defense was to defend the dive play at all costs, and this resulted in big yardage being gained by the rest of the offense. However, after two good outings at Kansas and at UNC, Allen struggled to make big plays against N.C. State and Wake Forest. Allen had yet to score a touchdown after his first five games, something that was causing Tech coaches and fans to

speculate if there was a problem.This, however, is not much dif-

ferent from the results from the previous two years with former B-back Jonathan Dwyer at the helm. Dwyer started both the 2008 and 2009 seasons fairly slowly, end-ing both years with exactly 1395 yards. Through his first five games in 2009, Dwyer only had 409 yards, not a huge step up from where Allen started the 2010 sea-son. Dwyer, however, improved and finished strong with six 100+ yard outings in his final nine games at Tech.

Johnson has repeatedly said that the B-back almost always sur-passes the 1000 yard threshold in any given season, yet at the begin-ning of the year Allen was on pace

to be well under that. However, after a win at Wake Forest this season, Johnson challenged Allen to finish his runs and punish de-fenders. Allen took the advice to heart, and in his last homecoming game at Tech against Virginia, he carried the ball 25 times for 195 yards and three touchdowns.

“When you get the ball that many times, you feel like you’re getting stronger, and that’s what I felt like happened,” Allen said.

The trend continued through-out the rest of the regular season. Allen averaged 127.9 yards per game and a much higher 5.8 yards per carry. Allen has managed to continue the trend of B-backs in Johnson’s system rushing for over 1000 yards.

Allen now has 1225 yards this season, averaging 5.6 yards a car-ry. If he keeps on his current pace in his final game, he could finish with over 1300 yards to add to the list of typical offensive season totals for a B-back.

Allen has taken his fair share of hard hits, getting tackled essen-tially on every play, but he always manages to get up and take a few more hits.

“You definitely feel [the hits] while you’re in a game, but Coach Johnson does a great job of pre-paring us for stuff like that. Dur-ing camp and during practice he makes sure we stay in shape, and when it gets down to it, we have our legs fresh and are ready to go,” Allen said.

22 • December 3, 2010 • Technique SPORTS

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Football from page 24

drive when he ran for a score on a fourth down play from Tech’s one-yard line.

“[Green] has changed most of the games that he has been in this year. He is obviously a high qual-ity player… He is hard to guard, but Murray made some [good] throws under pressure… That is usually the difference in the game when a quarterback steps up and makes plays,” said defensive coor-dinator Al Groh.

Tech got the ball back, but on the second play of the drive, Washington tried to pitch the ball to Jones on the option. Unfortu-nately, Jones was not able to catch it and fumbled.

“The defender got there at the same time as the pitch. I got my hands on it, and I should have probably caught it, but the guy just made a good play,” Jones said.

UGA’s defensive end Justin Houston recovered the fumble and ran 18 yards for a touchdown to give the Bulldogs a 14-point lead.

The Jackets needed to score on their next drive, and after 12 plays, Washington scored another

one-yard touchdown to cut the lead to seven. Washington ended the game with 73 yards on 23 car-ries.

Georgia had to punt on its next drive and Tech got the ball with eight minutes left in the game.

Allen ran five times on the next drive including what would have been a game tying touchdown. Blair lined up for the extra point that would have tied the game at 35, but Blair missed the kick wide left.

“That’s the way football goes. You are always one play away from winning the game, and if a [missed PAT] happens, it hap-pens. You just have hope that it doesn’t happen… We depend on Scott a lot this year, and we want him to keep his head up,” Allen said.

Tech let Georgia score another touchdown later in the game to keep the game within one-score, but Tech could not get the score needed to tie the game. Georgia went on to win the game 42-34, their fifth win in six years in the rivalry.

Tech will next play in a post-season bowl game that has yet to be determined.

Photo by John Nakano / Student Publications

Orwin Smith fumbles the ball on the five-yard line in Saturday’s game versus UGA. Smith’s fumble was one of four by the Jackets.

Orange from page 24

shooting]… It’s just a matter of us being mature,” said Head Coach Paul Hewitt.

Rice led the team with 19 points and 11 rebounds, but the main reason the Jackets won is that they shut down UTEP’s star player, Randy Culpepper, who only had 13 points.

Oliver also helped lead the team with 15 points and 12 boards.

“[Oliver and Rice] played like mature players today, and that is something that we have been talk-ing to them about in this young season,” Hewitt said.

Tech’s next game was against the Syracuse Orange, and it was Tech’s first game against a nation-ally ranked opponent.

The Jackets started strong as Oliver hit a three on the game’s opening possession. He added a layup later in the half to give Tech a 5-2 advantage. Oliver hit an-other three, then hit a long-range jump shot to extend Tech’s lead to five.

Holsey and Udofia dominated the next few minutes of the game by snagging rebounds and scoring easy jumpers. Oliver hit another three at the 12:21 mark to give Tech the lead at 19-12.

Oliver, Miller and Rice all made threes to round out the half, but Syracuse’s C.J. Fair hit a three with nine seconds left in the half to give Syracuse a three-point lead going into halftime.

Just like the first half, Oli-ver hit another three to start the second half and another one two minutes later to give Tech a com-manding seven point lead, 47-40. Oliver finished the game with a career-high 32 points.

“I saw they played out higher, so I knew that I could hit deeper threes than what I usually take, but I just saw the opportunity at times. I got hot,” Oliver said.

Later in the half, Syracuse went

on a 15-2 scoring run that lasted almost seven minutes. Udofia fi-nally ended the run, but Syracuse extended their lead to 13 shortly after.

Tech fought to get back in the game and went on a 10-3 thanks to Shumpert’s first five points in the game. In the end, Tech just ran out of time. Syracuse hit five of six free throws down the stretch to end Tech’s hopes of a come-back.

The Jackets continued their road trip on Nov. 30 by taking on Northwestern.

The Jackets jumped out early with Rice leading the charge. He made the first basket for Tech when he dunked the ball with one hand, and finished off an 18-5 run with back-to-back threes.

Northwestern would come back with a 10-2 run that was highlighted by open three-point-ers from Drew Crawford and John Shurna. That would be a recurrent theme throughout the contest.

Tech and Northwestern traded baskets for much of the first half, and Tech held a small lead until

the 7:45 mark when Crawford hit another three to tie the game at 30. Shurna followed with a three and then Morris cut the Wildcat’s lead to one.

Tech would not score for the next three minutes, and North-western added nine points to their lead.

The second half started slowly for both teams but within six minutes, Crawford had extended Northwestern’s lead to 14 at 60-46.

Later in the half, freshman center Nate Hicks slammed down a dunk to cut the Wildcat’s lead down to six, but Tech could never get closer than that.

“I thought the young player [Nate] Hicks came in and estab-lished [the post]. We started going in there, we actually gave our-selves a chance with the pressure, but we just didn’t make enough shots,” Hewitt said.

Tech started fouling North-western’s shooters at the five-min-ute mark. The shooters kept mak-ing their free throws to ensure a win for the Wildcats.

Photo by John Nakano / Student Publications

Jason Morris dribbles down the court in a recent home game. Morris had a career-high 10 points against No. 8 ranked Syracuse.

Technique • December 3, 2010 • 23 SPORTS

CLASSIFIEDSplace your

techniquewith the

classifieds.nique.net

Staff PickS Week of december 3, 2010

Prasadh(71-52)

Cappetta(66-57)

Hoffman(66-57)

Lee(69-54)

Mitchell(70-53)

Staff(69-54)

#1 Auburn (-7) v. #19 South Carolina AU AU AU AUSCAU

OSU OSU Ore. Ore.#2 Oregon (-16) @ Oregon State OSUOre.

OK OK Neb. Neb.#9 Oklahoma (Pk) v. #13 Nebraska Neb.Neb.

Ut. St. Boise Boise Ut. St.#11 Boise St. (-43) v. Utah St. Ut. St.Ut. St.

FSU VT VT FSU#15 Va. Tech (-4) v. #21 Florida St. FSUFSU

Nev. Nev. Nev. Nev.#17 Nevada (-14) @ Lousiana Tech LTNev.

Rutgers Rutgers WVU Rutgers#24 West Virginia (-21) v. Rutgers RutgersPush

NIU NIU NIU NIU#25 Northern Ill. (-14.5) v. Miami (OH) MiamiNIU

USF UConn UConn USFSouth Florida (Pk) @ UConn USFUConn

USC USC USC USCUSC (-7) @ UCLA UCLAUSC

West Virginia has choked away its chances to win the Big East in the past, and it may happen yet again. Still, Rutgers is middle of the pack once again, and they will not be able to take advantage of the opportunity to play spoil-er. When you have a choice between West Virginia and Rutgers, do you really have to choose one of them? Luck-ily, in picking these games, it is possible to not choose either.

Gene Chizik continues to use the most amazing smoke and mirrors trick I have ever seen, even mystifying the great Nick Saban. Steve Spur-rier is a good enough coach to know what to do a second time against an opponent. He will likely be able to know how to stop Cam Newton this time and be able to ruin the SEC’s chance of another national championship. Take the Gamecocks for the win.

The Big East is a very weak conference this year, and any-body is eligible to go to a pret-ty big bowl, even with a bad record. South Florida will be looking for this win to boost its bowl status and will come out playing hard to support its case. USF is a team full of bigger, stronger and faster Florida athletes. The Bulls will win a close one due to their roster’s tough nature and su-perior athleticism.

PuSh SOuTh cAROlinA SOuTh FlORidA

Ramblin’ WithAlex Montgomery

Photo courtesy of Tech Athletic Department

Senior Guard Alex Montgomery

By Wayne BishopContributing Writer

Technique: When did you first start playing basketball?

Alex Montgomery: I started in the 4th grade with my older sister Jasmine.

Technique: Who’s your fa-vorite pro basketball team?

Alex Montgomery: The Phoe-nix Suns. I love Steve Nash.

Technique: Are you a fan of music? Do you have a favorite genre?

Alex Montgomery: I only lis-ten to rap. A little R&B here and there. Some country music too.

Technique: Do you have a favorite song to listen to before games?

Alex Montgomery: “Bill Gates” by Lil Wayne.

Technique: Do you have a food you like to cook?

Alex Montgomery: I love to cook pork chops, fried chicken,

macaroni and cheese. More of soul food type dishes.

Technique: Do you have any hobbies?

Alex Montgomery: Not really, just shopping.

Technique: Are you a reader? Do you have a favorite book?

Alex Montgomery: No. I skim through magazines. I don’t really like to read.

Technique: Do you have a fa-vorite board game?

Alex Montgomery: I love playing Monopoly with my little brother and sister. We’re real com-petitive.

Technique: Are you a bicyclist or a walker?

Alex Montgomery: Walker, I can’t do the bike.

Technique: If you could go on vacation anywhere, where would it be?

Alex Montgomery: I’d like to go to Jamaica and enjoy the water and the weather.

Technique: So you’re a fan of warm weather over cold weather?

Alex Montgomery: Oh yes, warm weather over anything.

Technique: If you could de-scribe yourself with one word, what would it be?

Alex Montgomery: Competi-tive.

Technique: Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?

Alex Montgomery: I see my-self having a successful job and still playing basketball some-where. But a successful job is one of my dreams.

Sportssports@nique.netSports Editor:Alex Mitchell

carrying the loadSee who has been the key player on offense for Tech's football team this

season421

Technique

24Friday,

December 3, 2010

Tech football falls to uGA, 42-34 Men’s basketball loses two of three non-ACC games

Volleyball beats Clemson 3-2 on Senior Night

Photo by John Nakano / Student Publications

Tevin Washington gets stuffed at the line by a group of UGA defenders. Washington performed well in his third game as a starter with 101 yards passing and 73 yards rushing.

By Alex MitchellSports Editor

On Nov. 27, the Tech foot-ball team traveled to Athens, Ga. for its annual game against rival Georgia. In a sloppy game where each team fumbled four times, UGA came away with the victory, 42-34.

The game could not have started better for the Jackets, as senior kicker Scott Blair’s kickoff hit the ground without being returned. The Jackets dove on the loose ball, setting up great field position for the offense’s first drive.

Tech ran three different running backs with little suc-cess on its opening drive and ran into a fourth down. The Jackets called a timeout to talk over whether they should go for the first down or kick a field goal. Head Coach Paul Johnson elected to go for a first down, and sophomore A-back Orwin Smith got stuffed at the line, giving UGA the ball and early momentum.

UGA could not take advan-tage of the turnover on downs and punted three plays later. Junior safety Jerrard Tarrant returned the punt 19 yards, giving the Jackets great field position again. After a long drive, Smith fumbled inside UGA’s 10-yard line, and UGA recovered.

This time, UGA took ad-vantage of Tech’s lack of focus. After two catches by receiver A.J. Green, quarterback Aaron Murray hit receiver Kris Dur-ham on a crossing pattern on third down. After scampering 66 yards down the sideline, Durham was in the endzone, and UGA held an early 7-0 lead.

A block in the back penalty halted Tech’s ensuing drive, and the Bulldogs got the ball back. Murray delivered two more accurate passes before throwing to his tight end Orson Charles who was in one-on-one coverage. Charles

By Alex MitchellSports Editor

On Nov. 26, the Tech men’s basketball team traveled to Atlantic City, N.J. for two games in the Legends Classic at Boardwalk Hall. Tech beat UTEP, 71-61, but fell to No. 9 ranked Syracuse, 80-76. On the following Tuesday, the Jackets traveled to Northwest-ern to take on the Wildcats in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Northwestern used its 63 percent shooting from behind the arc to dominate the Jackets, 91-71.

Tech’s first opponent of the week was against the Miners of UTEP. Tech started the game off slow and trailed the Miners, 6-2. Sophomore guard Mfon Udofia then hit a three to cut UTEP’s lead down to one be-fore UTEP hit a three of its own to spark a 7-0 run for the Miners.

Sophomore Kammeon Holsey got an offensive rebound following a missed three from sophomore guard Glen Rice Jr. Holsey then passed the ball to junior guard Iman Shumpert, who layed the ball in. The hustle play led to an 8-0 run for the Jackets that Rice capped off with a dunk.

The two teams traded baskets and the lead for the next few minutes, but then UTEP broke open the game with a 10-0 run.

More traded buckets throughout the half saw the Jackets down by eight with two min-utes left to go in the half. The Miners got into foul trouble for the remainder of the half, and Tech made the free throws allow-ing the Jackets to get within four before the half ended.

Tech came out strong to open the second half and actually took the lead at the 17:57 mark. Rice led the charge with another dunk, and a free throw that gave the Jackets the lead at 38-37. Freshman forward Jason Morris added a dunk of his own and Shump-ert had a layup before UTEP finally scored for the first time in the half.

UTEP re-took the lead at 48-47 when Christian Polk hit a three. Tech then went on a 12-point run consisting of three pointers from sophomore forward Brian Oliver and lay-ups from Shumpert.

Tech played good defense down the stretch and made its free throws to ice the game.

“We can do [defense and free throw

Photo by John Nakano / Student Publications

Jordan McCullers celebrates a point in her last game at Tech. McCullers had six assists.

By Alex MitchellSports Editor

On Friday, Nov. 26, the Tech volleyball team hosted Clemson on Senior Night in the team’s final home game of the season. It took five sets, but the Jackets sent off their se-niors with a win, 3-2.

Senior libero Jordan Mc-Cullers had six assists in the game and finished her Tech home career by recording 13 digs, moving her into fourth place in Tech’s record books. Senior setter Mary Ashley Tippins, who was named to the All-ACC team the day before, was also instrumental in the victory as she had 52 assists and 15 digs. The 52 as-sists moved Tippins into third

caught the pass behind senior cornerback Mario Butler and found himself with an open path to the endzone.

“We were trying to put pressure on Aaron Murray, but we had to drop guys into cov-erage. Hats off to Murray for stepping up and making the plays with our defenders in his face,” Butler said.

Six strong runs from senior B-back Anthony Allen set up a one-yard touchdown run by sophomore quarterback Tevin Washington, cutting the lead to seven with 13 minutes left in the half.

Murray found Charles with another long pass on UGA’s next drive. The gain put the Bulldogs in the redzone for the first time, but they could not capitalize as Murray was

stopped on a fourth down play on Tech’s five-yard line.

Feeding off of the defense’s big stop, Washington orches-trated a 14-play drive that in-cluded a 22-yard run from ju-nior A-back Roddy Jones and a 12-yard pass to Smith. Jones finished off the drive with a rushing touchdown to tie the game.

The game was not tied for long as UGA found a running attack for the first time in the half. Running back Washaun Ealey ran for 47 yards on only two carries, and Murray passed for his third and final touchdown of the first half.

Tech got the ball to start the second half and junior A-back Embry Peeples scored a 19-yard touchdown that was set up by a 44-yard pass to

sophomore receiver Stephen Hill.

“We had been running the toss and running the ball inside all night, and that was the first play-action pass that we threw. They bit on it re-ally hard, so it was wide open,” Washington said.

Georgia got the ball back but fumbled the ball away two plays later. Tech only managed one first down on its next drive before punting the ball away. Georgia fumbled the punt, but then Jones fumbled again for Tech four plays later.

UGA took the ball at its own 36-yard line, and Mur-ray connected with Green on three straight passes for 48 to-tal yards. Ealey capped off the

See Football, page 22 See Orange, page 22

place on Tech’s all-time assists list.

“It was very important for us as a coaching staff to let [McCullers and Tippins] be-lieve that they were great play-ers. They have done that and ,most importantly, they have passed that down onto the younger [players]. The [play-ers] just thrive on that,” said Head Coach Tanya Johnson.

In the match’s first set, Tech jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but the Tigers came roaring back with a 5-1 run of their own. An impressive 7-2 run for the Jackets extended their lead to 13-8. The two teams traded points for the remainder of the set, but Tech’s seven-point cushion allowed them to win the first set 25-19. The Jack-

ets used their superior hitting (.303) to dispatch the Tigers who only hit .226 for the set.

Clemson dominated the match’s second set en route to a match tying 25-18 set vic-tory.

Clemson jumped out early in the set, scoring the game’s first six points. The Jackets went on a small four-point run of their own, but Clemson used its four blocks in the set to extend its lead out to nine at one point in the set.

From this point, it was clear that the match would become a back-and-forth like match similar to the two teams’ 3-2 match earlier this season.

“I knew it was going to be a typical Georgia Tech versus Clemson match with the game

coming down to five sets. I’m just proud that our players could [continue to] bounce back after a tough weekend last weekend,” Johnson said.

Tech started the third set in similar fashion to the way the Tigers started the sec-ond set. With the match tied, Tech started the crucial third set with a quick 5-0 run that included kills from sopho-more rightside hitter Monique Mead. Clemson tried to come back, but a 15-5 run from the Jackets closed out the match at 25-12, in favor of Tech.

The fourth set was a back-and-forth type set until Clem-son took the lead at 10-6. Clemson went an eight-point

See Seniors, page 21