Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio
{SINCE 1981}
Revenge
PORN
Alyssa Gonzales Contributing Writer @ThePaisano news@paisano-online.com
Of the 2.1 million acres of land the UT system owns across the region of West Texas, 95 percent has been leased for the purpose of fracking or high-volume hydraulic fracturing, according to a report by the nonprofit organization Environment Texas Research and Policy Center. Approximately 4,132 wells have been fracked on. Joined by the UTSA Green Society, UT Student Government and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, Environment Texas called on the UT Board of Regents in the report to enforce stricter leasing and fracking regulations on these lands. The process of fracking is as such: drilling a well approximately one mile deep into shale rock, pumping a highly pressurized combination of water, sand and other chemicals to create micro-fractures into the shale rock and then extracting the shale gas through the well system. Shale gas is a natural gas that is used to generate about 25 percent of the electricity and heat in the United States.
Science The first titanium rib cage in the world has been implanted by a surgery team at Salamanca University Hospital in Spain in a 54-year-old cancer patient who lost part of his rib cage in the process of removing a large tumor. The metal prosthesis was designed by Australian engineers using CT scans from the patient’s chest and using a $1.3 million 3-D metal printer in a government lab.
Health
What do grapes, chocolate and red wine all have in common? Resveratrol is an antioxidant that is found in all of these delicacies. A recent study shows that Resveratrol is a possible antidote to Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes and many other conditions.
Other than the problem of leasing land for fracking, the report billboarded the amount of water used during the entire fracking process. Environment Texas reported that between Feb. 2010 and Dec. 2014, the wells used at least six billion gallons of water. Those six billion gallons of water being used for fracking could instead be used for human consumption. Fracking threatens local water supplies because the water used for fracking is no longer potable and ultimately dumped into toxic waste wells. Water contamination is a main concern to these environmental groups, who called for the installation of a system that tracks toxic chemicals with hopes of preventing leakage into neighboring aquifers. Speaking on the subject of water usage, Secretary of the UTSA Green Society Eleni Pancheco said, “We are calling for Texas to adopt best management practices (BMP’s) that other states have adopted. There are other people that are doing this, and they are doing it safer and healthier. Ultimately, we want to limit the number of wells that are being drilled, and of course have no wells at all. But we have to start
Volume 52
Issue 6
Rob Avila Staff Writer
@rockets100 news@paisano-online.com Texas’ first law criminalizing revenge pornography went into effect Sept. 1, 2015. Texas joins 24 other states in banning the practice. small.” Environment Texas reports that 92.5 million pounds of hydrochloric acid and 8.5 million pounds of methanol have been used during the ten-year process of fracking. Hydrochloric acid is a highly acidic solution that is known by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to lead to irritation in the respiratory tract and pulmonary edema if inhaled. Methanol is a colorless solution that is known to cause blurred vision and nauseous in humans and birth defects in animals according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. University Lands CEO Mark Houser said, “We are leaders in environmental standards and stewardship and as the drilling technology evolves, our practices will evolve as well. We are committed to maintaining our reputation as leaders and stewardship and we will continue to set the standard for oil and gas ex-
September 22 - September 29, 2015 Revenge porn is the distribution of sexually explicit media without the consent of the individual involved. It is generally used to describe content uploaded onto the internet by intimate partners with the intent to humiliate or seek revenge on the partner after the end of a relationship. The images are often accompanied by information identifying the
individual such as name and location, which can negatively impact the life of the victim. Under Texas Penal Code 21.16., any unlawful disclosure or promotion of intimate visual material can be punished as a class A Misdemeanor, which can result in up to a $4,000 fine and possibly a year in jail. See Victims ,Page 2
UT system leases West Texas land for fracking
Urub Khawaja , The Paisano ploration across the state.” Forty-one endangered and threatened species– including the gray wolf, whooping crane, Pecos sunflower and the black bear– live on university owned land, and the fracking process has expended their water sources, putting them at a greater risk of extinction. The University of Texas stated at a press conference that the university would
carefully consider the solutions provided by Environment Texas. Scott Kelley – Executive Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs at UT System – stated, “With the caveat of not being an engineer or a geologist, we certainly are not casual in our stewardship responsibilities for these lands. We understand that they were given to us in perpetuity and we want to preserve them.”
The endowment produced from the leasing of the West Texas land generates approximately 600 million dollars a year. Last year’s endowment helped fund the infrastructure of the Dell Medical School at UT Austin’s campus as well as a medical school at the UT Rio Grande Valley Campus.
UTSA selected to set national standards in cyber security Anelia Gomez-Cordova Staff Writer
@ThePaisano news@paisano-online.com UTSA is already well known as a powerhouse in cyber security education and research. Now, the university has yet another reason to be recognized. The Department of Homeland Security has selected a UTSA led team to receive a grant in order to develop standards and guidelines for students and faculty wishing to participate in a cyber security information sharing program. Although the overall process for selection was not disclosed, it is known that the grant proposal was made in collaboration with the Logistics Management Institute (LMI) and the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center (R-CISC). “We would not have received this award had we not had the partners that we have, LMI and the R-CISC.” Dr. Greg White, director of the UTSA Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) and professor of computer science, said, “Both bring their own expertise to the team and to-
gether we created a propos-
in the current numbers of
al that addressed all aspects required in the submission.” The project’s end goal is a set of voluntary standards that will allow organizations to create their own Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAO) and give way to an increase
ISAOs from a couple dozen to the hundreds. The grant, which will bring $11 million to UTSA over the next five years, is not the first to come to CIAS, though it certainly appears to be the largest and it has had quite an impact. The initiative has
brought not only industry,
Fabian DeSoto, Paisano
but federal attention to the university. Not to mention, the bonus of knowing that the DHS feels confident the UTSA - led team has the knowledge and ability to meet said goal. “I believe that the selec-
tion of the UTSA team is an indication of both the strength of the assembled team and our proposal as well as the growing confidence in UTSA’s cyber security program at a national level,” said White. “The reputation the university is earning comes about as a result of three things: our graduates, our faculty and our security outreach program.” This reputation is increasing on a national level, and so is the university’s visibility. In fact, the program is already getting plenty of calls from interested individuals across the country. With the level of interest that the concept of information sharing commands, Dr. White hopes more people will begin to learn about UTSA’s cyber security program and thus increase the reputation the university has as a tech savvy institution to aid researchers. White says, “It is always good for researchers when those deciding whether to award a grant know something about the university the researcher is from and know something about their reputation.”
It’s about time, to fix all the broken clocks Matt Frost Staff Writer
@ThePaisano news@paisano-online.com S Sometimes classes feel like they drag on for hours. Students will look
at the clock after what feels like thirty minutes, only to see that the clock has not moved. Has no time elapsed, or is the real issue the clocks, and not the students’ perception of time? At UTSA, many students and faculty have com-
plained that the clocks inside various campus classrooms have led to classes running over the allotted time, or starting late, while some believe that they have an effect on the learning en-
vironment. Psychology professor Dr. Mary McNaughton-Cassil points out that, “When a clock is set five to ten minutes fast, it can cause students to think class is over, See Clocks ,Page 3