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A3 | MACE & CROWN | wednesday 11/3/10
Mace & Crown staff Stuart Miller Editor in Chief smill073@odu.edu
Megan Morrow Assistant to the Editor in Chief mmorr032@odu.edu
Chynna Steve Copy Editor cstev016@odu.edu
Christian Ernst News Editor cerns002@odu.edu
Chelsea DeAngio Arts & Entertainment Editor cdean006@odu.edu
Garrison Cole Sports Editor gcole015@odu.edu
Nick Liedel Advertising Director nlied001@odu.edu
Sarah Nadeau Design Director sarah.nadeau7@gmail.com
Danielle Buxton Photography Editor dbuxton08@gmail.com
Jessica Starr Interim News Assistant Alyssa Odango Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor Rachel Chasin Photography Assistant Staff Writers: Matthew McCracken Ben Decowski Donnell Coley Leslea Kuhrt Kevin Hollister Diane Dougherty Donnell Williams Jessica Piland Robbie Ciara Travis Kennedy Amanda David Janah Stokes Dustin Jensen Katie Davis Jillian Baylor William Channel Siaga Johnson Ka’Lyn Banks Staff Photographers: Jake Zimmerman Loni Earley Anna Nguyen General Information: The Mace & Crown is a newspaper published by and written for the students of Old Dominion once a week throughout each semester and once in the summer. Originally founded in 1930 as the The High Hat, the paper became the Mace & Crown in 1961. The Mace & Crown is a primarily self-supporting newspaper,maintaining journalistic independance from the university. All views expressed in this collegiate paper are those of the author, not of the University, Mace & Crown, or the editors. Contact Information: Phone: 757-683-3452 Fax: 757-683-3459 Advertising: 757-683-4773
Walkman walks off shelves Sony retires classic device by Amanda
David Staff Writer
On Oct. 25th, Sony announced that the once-popular cassette Walkman is set to retire. The Walkman was introduced in 1979 as the first affordable, portable music player. Sony says that their last shipment was sent to Japan in April of this year. After they are sold out, new Walkmans from Sony will not be available. Many ODU students are surprised to find that the Walkman is still around. Junior Christine Wetzler says, “Seriously? They were still making those? I don’t believe it.” Wetzler replaced her Walkman long ago and now depends on her iPhone to get her music fix. “I think they’re just making a big deal about this official retirement because they want their names in the paper so people don’t forget about them.” Anna Ray, 14, never owned a portable cassette player. She says, “I honestly don’t think many people my age even know what a Walkman is.” When
asked if she knew Sony was still manufacturing Walkmans she responds, “No, I can’t imagine them making a profit these days.” The older generation remembers the Walkman much more fondly. “I remember buying my first one to use while jogging,” Jeff Bailey, 48, says, “It was a big deal for me to have a cassette instead of an 8-track.” Music formats have evolved over the years. First, the 8-track replaced records. Then, cassettes took over the 8-track market. Next, cassettes were slowly replaced by CDs. Now, Mp3 trump CDs. The introduction of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad has made other portable music players all but obsolete. The cassette Walkman is a hefty plastic box that comes with headphones, not ear buds. To skip a song you have to fast forward and consequently rewind to find the beginning of a desired song instead of just tapping the next button. Plus your entire music collection isn’t available at the touch of the screen; not only do you have to carry around a music player ten times the size of an iPod, you have to carry your music collection around
with you too. The Walkman isn’t rechargeable. Portable cassette players practically eat AA batteries, so you have carry around extra batteries too. Nicole Sanders, mother of two, is reluctant to say goodbye to the Walkman. “I still use mine and if you go to the public library you will find a ton of books on cassette tape for the adults!” Sanders continues, “Also in the kids section they have a ton of ‘kits’ that contain the book, the cassette tape, and usually a stuffed animal of the characters in the book, my kids love them! They are great kits to use on a road trip with a Walkman!” This announcement follows a trend in the obsolete technology market. In March, Sony officially retired the floppy disk. At the end of 2009, Polaroid stop producing their famous instant film. JR Raphael of PC World ranks VCRs and using a public phone booth as being “on life support” in today’s technological world.
It seems that cassette tapes and cassette players still exist in this multimedia world. So if you still own a Walkman, hang on to it and in a few years it might be considered an antique. Maybe you’ll be able to sell it on Ebay for 20 bucks and be able to buy yourself a few of Apps from the iTunes store.
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Norfolk to be “Twinned” with Tema, Ghana
City seeks international ties by
Siaga Johnson Staff Writer
On Wednesday, October 27 a ceremony was held at Waterside Norfolk to commemorate the official twinning between Norfolk, and Tema, a city in Ghana. This marks the first twinning between Norfolk and a city in West Africa. The Norfolk Sister City Association seeks to connect with cities abroad to foster global understanding as well as cooperation. This is done primarily via people to people communication and teamwork. Not only does this enable a richer relationship between Norfolk and cities abroad, this also serves as a good opportunity for trade and commerce, especially with cities that have ports. Cooperating with port cities also enables easy delivery of goods from a port abroad to a port here in Norfolk. Old Dominion president John Broderick involved the ODU community in this event by hosting a luncheon with the Norfolk Sister City Association. The luncheon was held at the Webb center, and also served as an opportunity for increased partnership between the cities. Considering the similarities between Norfolk and Tema, pairing them was appropriate. Tema grew from what was a small fishing village to what is now Ghana’s largest seaport. Tema is also one of Ghana’s leading places where manufacturing of goods takes place. Goods manufactured and exported from Tema include textiles for garments, as well as cacao for chocolate products and other food products that are exported abroad. Cacao is especially an item of trade that generates a lot of revenue, due to the rich quality of the cacao found in Ghana. Tema is not only a port, but an oil refinery as well. Tema also offers a lucrative tourism business, due to the fact that it is a coastal city. Tourists often visit Tema for its white and sandy beaches. A railway
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connects Tema to Accra, Ghana’s capital city. This therefore serves as an immensely efficient way for traded goods to travel from the port to the capital city to be sold to markets. This also implies that goods manufactured in Accra are also transported to Tema to be shipped off to an abroad location. This therefore shows how pairing Tema and Norfolk is also a strategic way of enriching trade opportunities not only between the United States and Ghana, but also to other countries abroad. This certainly ensures that partnerships and a good network of coastal cities is created. Currently, Tema is also twinned with San Diego, and Greenwich, England. As part of the ceremony the Mayor of Tema, Robert Kempes Ofosuware led a delegation from Tema to downtown Norfolk. Their arrival was welcomed with a band performance by the Norfolk State University Spartan band team. After this welcome ceremony a reception took place where refreshments were served followed by entertainment such as dances and cultural presentations by members of the Hampton Roads Community. The end of this event was marked with a celebration dinner hosted at the Half Moon Cruise Center.
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