thebattalion ! tuesday,
april 17, 2012
! serving
texas a&m since 1893
!"first paper free – additional copies $1 !"© 2012 student media
Beneath the ocean floor A&M oceanographers discover Earth’s mysteries in the depths Jessica Orwig
The Battalion From the balmy waters near Hawaii to the frigid seas around Antarctica, researchers with the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program have sailed to the ends of the Earth with a mission to collect samples of rock and sediment from beneath the ocean floor. These samples, or cores, are then
delivered to one of three repositories in the world. “The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program is the largest international earth science program that exists, and it makes A&M exceedingly visible in many different ways,” said Adam Klaus, associate research scientist for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. A&M’s core repository, the only one in the Western Hemisphere, houses more than 100,000 meters of subsurface cores — enough sediment to reach from Col-
lege Station to Conroe, Texas. Some of the sediments in these cores have been locked beneath the sea floor for millions of years — a regular wealth of information in the See Ocean on page 5
Osa Okundaye — THE BATTALION
athletics
Equestrian team wins national title Aggies claim second collegiate championship in dominant fashion Chandler Smith
COURTESY PHOTO
The Texas A&M equestrian team won the National Collegiate Equestrian Championship Friday evening in Waco, Texas. It is the program’s second overall title.
The Battalion For the second time in program history, the A&M equestrian team clinched the overall National Collegiate Equestrian Championship Friday at the Extraco Events Center. Competing in both the hunter seat and western brackets — designating the
agriculture
Faculty say ‘pink slime’ beef scare unfounded Craig Letch of Beef Products, Inc. shows the beef product and cuts from which it is made to governors, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Maegan Valdez
The Battalion For 20 years, Americans have consumed lean, finely textured beef, also called “pink slime,” a term coined by a Department of Agriculture scientist in 2002, and further propagated by news and social media in the past few months. Lean finely textured beef, or LFTB, was developed by Beef Products, Inc. to increase domestic lean beef. The process involves heating beef trimmings, sending them through a centrifuge to separate the fat from the
meat, and using ammonium hydroxide as a processing aid. It is not sold by itself, but the USDA allows up to 15 percent of the processed beef to be mixed in with ground beef. Gary Acuff, director of the Center for Food Safety and professor of food microbiology in the animal science department at A&M, was a member of the group of governors and officials that visited one of the four processing plants that produce LFTB to research the safety of the product and investigate the media’s reports of the See Slime on page 7
respective styles of equestrian competition — the Aggies recorded a pair of semifinal victories in both categories on Friday, making A&M the first program to advance to the finals in both brackets in one year. Although the competition didn’t conclude until Saturday, this performance secured the overall national championship Friday evening. The Aggies proceeded to finish the weekend by claiming their ninth — and fourth consecutive — national title in the western discipline on Saturday. The overall national title is the program’s first since 2002. A perennial contender for the overall title, A&M took
inside voices | 3 Restoring America Ron Paul drew more than 3,000 students and supporters at A&M last week. But why is the politician such a hit with young voters?
campus calendar Muster One of A&M’s most storied traditions, the Campus Muster Ceremony begins at 7 p.m. Saturday in Reed Arena. John Hoyle, Class of 1957 and professor emeritus, will be the Muster Speaker.
MSC reopening The Memorial Student Center opens on Saturday. Pick up a copy of The Battalion on Thursday to learn about the MSC’s sparkling new features.
charge in both equestrian disciplines to win it all down the stretch. “There really are no words for it — it’s terribly exciting,” A&M head coach Tana McKay said. “It’s one of those things that had always been in our grasp. It’s definitely been a goal of the whole team for a while.” Already favorites to claim the western competition — A&M’s strongest suit — the Aggies received a boost from its seventh-seeded hunter half to stay in contention for the overall title. After shocking second-seeded South Carolina, See Champions on page 4
lifestyles
‘Unsinkable’ tells Titanic survivors’ stories 100 years after tragedy Playwright, actress steals show performing as multiple characters Paige Kuznar The Battalion Two days after the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s tragic collision with an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, MSC OPAS is holding a production based on actual diaries, letters and interviews from six women who survived the Titanic. This performance brings nine famous figures to the stage, including Madeline Astor and Margaret Brown. Playwright and New York actress Deborah Jean Templin makes the stories of the surviving women come alive, bringing the audience into the tragedy’s emotional aftermath with era-appropriate costumes, wigs and props. “I wrote ‘Unsinkable Women: Stories and Songs from the Titanic,’ to give the women who survived in the lifeboats a voice,” Templin said. Templin has been acting for 35 years, including work on more than 30 TV shows and movies, notably “All My Children,” “Law and Or-
Commemorate the 100th Anniversary of The Titanic!
TONIGHT & TOMORROW APRIL 17 & 18 7:30 PM Rudder Theatre
COURTESY PHOTO
Playwright and actress Deborah Jean Templin plays multiple characters in ‘Unsinkable.’ der” and, most recently, “Smash.” Templin wrote the script during a 21-month tour during which she played major roles in the TonyAward-winning, first class national play, “Titanic.” She began researching the after lives of the surviving women, which ignited the writing and script of “Unsinkable Women.” See Titanic on page 8
Great Seats Available to Both Performances! - Ê ÝÊ"vv ViÊUÊ Ç n{x £ÓÎ{ MSCOPAS.org
Sponsored by Sterling Auto Group and Ashford Square Realty Inc.
Pg. 1-04.17.12.indd 1
4/16/12 11:31 PM