October 2, 2012

THENORTHERNLIGHT OCTOBER 2, 2012

UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE

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Board of Regents approves construction projects

By Keldon Irwin Contributor

The Board of Regents held a meeting Sept. 27 in Juneau where they approved funds for campus renovations across the University of Alaska system, most of which on the Anchorage campus.

According to the Board of Regents website, $123,200,000 were approved at this campus.

Plans for the new engineering building from the Board of Regents website.

These renovations include a new engineering building and two new parking garages.

The engineering building will be about 150 yards south of the Student Union cafeteria.

One parking garage will be attached to the new engineering building, while the other will be freestanding.

No timeline was discussed

for when these buildings will be added to the campus.

“We want to help students in any way that we can. And if parking is a hindrance on their education, we want to fix that,” said Bruce Shultz, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, explaining the reason behind the

See PARKING on Page 2

MAC residents face bad smells and busted pipes

By J. Almendarez Managing Editor

Last weekend, leaks were reported in the Main Apartment Complexes two and three.

Jody Inman, associate director of housing, said the leak in MAC 4 was caused by pinhole leak in the piping of a domestic waterline and a toilet that overflowed throughout Saturday evening caused the leak in MAC 2.

Inman said pinhole leaks are a problem with piping in general and are not limited to the MACs or caused by old piping.

He said the pipes in the MACs are copper and can last between 50 and 70 years.

The MAC housing was built in 1985.

“No matter where you are at or how old your building is, you’re going to have problems,” he said.

The leak in MAC 2, however, was responded to by facilities maintenance.

Tom Sternburg, interim director of maintenance and operations, said his crew was contacted Sunday morning after housing maintenance was unable to respond immediately to the situation.

He said the problem was

See MAC on Page 2

A student doucuments water in the crawl space of MAC 4 caused by a pinhole leak Sept. 23.

COURTESEY PHOTO

Author takes on poverty Recreation and Activities cut doesn’t have

David Shipler talks perceptions of the American working poor

By J. Almendarez Managing editor

David Shipler, Pulitzer Prize winning author and former foreign correspondent for The New York Times, liked to play connect the dots as a child.

For the perhaps unfamiliar, technological era, connect the dots is a children’s game played where one connects dots on a page to form a complete drawing of something.

That is exactly what Shipler did among the working poor in this country in an attempt to understand their circumstance.

Shipler gave a speech

News 2 INDEX Features 4 News A&E 8 2 Features 13 3 Opinion A&E Sports 17 6 Sports Comics 18 9 Opinion 10 Comics 11

addressing issues in his book, “The Working Poor: Invisible in America,” to a standing room only crowd in the UAA Fine Arts Building recital hall, which holds 250 people.

He said those living in poverty in America, legally defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a single person earning $11,170 or less, are hiding in plain sight.

They’re the cashiers at local stores, restaurant workers and cashiers.

He said all of these people, and society in general, fall victim to

See POVERTY on Page 3

to stop students from using equipment

By Shannon Burgoon Contributor

This spring, the university cut the Recreation and Activities program because of budgetary concerns. “We looked at the budget this year and there just wasn’t enough money to continue the program,” Bob McDonnell, director of business services, stated in the April 17 issue of The Northern Light.

The 7-year-old program organized hikes and other outdoor activities, such as advanced glacial ice climbing and skiing on Alyeska.

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Food Quest: FilipinoBest: American cookie in history month Anchorage.

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The program also offered yoga, rock climbing and movie nights at Bear’s Tooth.

But now that the program is gone, what happened to all of the equipment? Was it put to rest along with the dreams of adventureseeking students?

McDonnell said, “When the Recreation and Activities program ended, thousands of dollars worth of gear was boxed up and now is stored at the university housing.”

All-year equipment including camping gear, climbing equipment and outdoor winter gear, such as sleds and snowshoes, remain

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FEATURES

Cooking in The price college of being an

artist

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unused in storage.

He said that if any departmentsponsored group, including all students, not just residential, were interested in using the equipment, they can contact him.

“There is no intention for profit from the gear,” McDonnell stated.

The eliminated Recreation and Activities program appears to have a lot of loyal fans.

They even have a Facebook page with 105 “likes.” Their goal is to revive the cut program.

Inquiries about equipment usage can be directed to McDonnell at 907-786-1153.

SPORTS

Seawolves Goodbye, rallyMichael to take outPhelps Nanooks

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October 2, 2012 NEWS n

NEWS BRIEFS

PARKING: New parking garages OK’ed Continued from cover

Ash borer found in NY’s Southern Tier ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — An emerald ash borer has been found in another trap in New York’s Southern Tier, bringing the number of counties with confirmed findings to 13.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation says the invasive beetle that has been attacking ash trees across New York was found in a purple trap in the southwestern corner of Tioga County, near the Pennsylvania border.

The pest was first found near Detroit in 2002 and has been spreading east, with recent findings in New England for the first time.

Authorities continue to warn campers about moving untreated firewood around the state. Pests like the borer can hitchhike in wood to colonize new areas.

State and federal crews are trying a variety of tactics to slow the spread of the beetle.

ONTARIO (The Canadian Press) — Public sector unions say they’ll fight legislation giving the provincial government the power to impose contracts with wage freezes on nearly 500 thousand workers.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan says he expects the court challenge, but believes the Liberal attempts at negotiating wage freezes will satisfy any legal concerns.

Smokey Thomas of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union says the workers will kick the Liberals’ “collective butts” when it comes to a legal challenge.

Municipalities are exempt from the legislation, which means the wage freeze will not apply to police, fire, ambulance, public transit or other local workers.

Voting machines had wrong programming NASHVILLE (AP) — An election official says that problems with electronic voting machines in Metro Nashville during the primary election were caused by inaccurate programming.

Several prominent Democrats were given Republican ballots in the primary in some precincts.

Election Commissioner Steve Abernathy told The Tennessean that the vendor had programmed the electronic poll books for a closed primary instead of an open one.

Abernathy said the company has changed the software to prevent the problem from occurring again. Even so, the election commission has opted not to use the electronic machines in November’s general election.

Web Editor

parking garages.

Another possible addition to the campus will be provided through a program referred to as “Green and Gold H2O” — its objective is to install water faucet “hydration stations” in various locations around campus. This would allow students to refill bottles of water, and, in turn, save money and consume less plastic.

These are estimated to cost $1,600 each.

USUAA also voted on a referendum that promotes a 25 percent student fee increase.

Senator Johnnie Templeton, Senator Andrew Lessig and Senator Seen So proposed this as a means to support some student life groups that are currently struggling financially.

While the proposition would accumulate $40,000 to $60,000 annually, directly from students’ pockets, the committee deferred the vote to Oct. 4 because of lack of research to determine how much money is actually needed by those clubs.

If the referendum is passed at the USUAA level, UAA students will have one month’s worth of advertisements to make an informed decision regarding the increase. In the end, the decision is entirely up to the UAA student body.

The Board of Regents also approved $12,132,000 to upgrade the existing six building apartment complexes and surrounding grounds by replacing finishes, fixtures and equipment.

The money also goes toward updating buildings to local, state and federal codes and laws.

Shultz discussed a new student assistance division for first-year students, called the “First-Year Students” division.

It will encompass registration, admission, advising and on-campus housing for all firstyear students.

At the USUAA meeting, Shultz asked the student body for an informal show of hands to see who felt that their transition into their first year at UAA was smooth and stress-free. Not one hand was raised.

Shultz elaborated on the reasoning behind the new division.

“The goal for us is to help transfer students into the university, to help them be successful and to help them graduate.”

Shultz went on to explain that student affairs start as early as fifth grade for possible future UAA students. He shared that he thinks this program will be a great addition of support for incoming and new students.

There was discussion of the role of advising and whether or not it should be mandatory.

The advising role is being put on the staff of each individual department. UAA does not want to implement mandatory advising for the sake of students who live in rural areas.

Shultz was sure to emphasize that 40 percent of UAA students are first-generation college students, and, while he does see

advising as beneficial, he does not believe it should be mandatory.

Regarding the Stay On Track program, he made a comment reflecting UAA’s revised campaign.

“Instead of a two- or four-year plan, make a plan and stick to it,” Shultz said.

“Class of 2014” through “Class of 2017” beanies are now available to help keep students motivated to stay faithful to their educational goals.

USUAA Vice President Andrew McConnell said, “I think this program (Stay on Track) is very effective, and I know many students feel the same way.”

Also, a graduate student survey was recently conducted amongst the UAA student body and the results were discussed.

Most graduate students agree that they do not feel there are enough upper-level courses.

As a result, some upper-level psychology classes were added and other departments are likely to follow suit.

A page specifically for graduate students is being added to Blackboard as soon as it is prepared. It is currently being plotted out.

There was also talk of an on-campus studying room for graduate students only. Several feel that they study during different hours than the average underclassman, and the room is planned to be open 24 hours a day, if arrangements are successful.

Healthy eating on campus became much easier this week with the opening of the new Commons Market in Gorsuch Commons.

Offering reasonably priced fruit, vegetables and bread, the store provides fresh food for students that may not have access to a car or grocery store.

“Now we have fruit! We can plans our meals!” squealed MAC resident Katie Bailey as she looked through the produce.

The program was created

by Bob McDonnell, director of business services, after he noticed that students were renting cars at Parking Services to drive to grocery stores and buy produce.

He then approached Seawolf Dining about the possibility of offering basic grocery items on campus.

“I thought, we have a full kitchen. We have a bakery crew that comes in and works all night. What if we had some kind of market where we could offer students that were living in the apartments a way to get at least some of their food and not have the hassle of driving?” McDonnell said.

The Commons Market provides fresh bread and about a dozen fruits and vegetables such as apples, oranges, celery, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, onions and zucchini.

All of the items will be stocked from Dining Services and any unsold items will be returned to inventory to avoid waste.

“I wanted it affordable and I wanted as much choice for students as possible,” McDonnell said. “If we get special requests we may be able to expand a little bit.”

Students can pay for their produce inside the Bear Necessities convenience store using cash, credit or a Wolf Card.

The Commons Market will be open from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday

MAC: Janitorial service available for residents Continued from cover

COURTESY PHOTO

Compiled from the Associated Press

by J. Almendarez

program brings produce to UAA

By Shawna Sweeney

The plan for a new parking garage is laid out on the Board of Regents website.

Ontario workers vow to fight pay freeze

02 Commons Market

Water leaks into the hallway of the affected room in MAC 4 Sept. 23 Reports from occupants state that the dorm has begun to smell of mold as of Sept. 24.

solved, and AMB, a janitorial service contracted through the university, responded to clean the carpets that same day.

Sternburg also said that is where facilities maintenance involvement ended, but Inman said ABM returned to MAC 2 sometime between Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon to shampoo the carpets in all three rooms affected by the leak.

The leak in MAC 4 was temporarily handled by housing maintenance. Inman said rubber

stoppers have been put on the pipes to slow the water flow and carpets have been vacuumed.

He said ABM has not been called to the dorm room involved because the leak has not been fixed yet.

There was confusion about whether housing maintenance contacted facilities maintenance about fixing the leak, and Inman did not contact TNL about the details of that confusion by press time.

“If you think about how many

miles of pipes we have, the amount of leaks we have is pretty minimal,” Inman said.

Several students reported that the overflow in MAC 2 left carpets smelling like an open drain and the leak in MAC 4 smelled like mold last week, but no students were willing to go on the record about those claims.

Inman suggested for students to call their resident adviser or resident coordinator in the case of a facilities emergency or to request a service from ABM.

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NEWS October 2, 2012 SAY WHAT?!

POVERTY: Author debunks American dream myth Continued from cover

In Sweden, man does time for convict friend STOCKHOLM — A man convicted of smuggling in Sweden outwitted his jailers by sneaking in a friend to serve most of his yearlong sentence, prison officials said Friday.

The identity of the false convict was discovered only when he’d been released on probation after serving about two-thirds of his friend’s sentence “sometime in 2008 or 2009,” Elisabeth Lager of Sweden’s Prison and Probation Service said.

Lager said the in-lieu convict came to serve the sentence with a false ID — a driver’s license in the name of the smuggler friend but with his photograph. She declined to name either man or give more details about the switch.

An international arrest warrant was issued for the real convict earlier this year, Lager said, but declined to comment on why it took police more than three years after the switch was discovered to issue the warrant. It was not clear if the smuggler’s friend would be punished for misleading prison authorities and assuming a false identity.

The convict, who never served his term, was sentenced for a series of smuggling offences in southwestern Sweden in 2008. Several media reports said he had fled to Asia and had paid his friend for his “prisonsitting” service.

Crickets causing a stink in Central Texas city WACO, Texas — Several businesses in the Central Texas town of Waco (WAY’-koh) are dealing with a smelly problem that won’t go away: decaying cricket carcasses.

A bank, a drugstore and other businesses have been inundated with the odorous onslaught of dead crickets that have been trapped inside walls and have collected on sidewalks.

Jani Rodriguez, the branch manager at Synergy Bank, tells the Waco Tribune-Herald (http://bit.ly/ QcSOLs) that scented products have been unable to get rid of the smell.

Using air-scrubbing machines hasn’t worked either.

Fred Huffman, an entomologist who runs a local pest control business, says the cricket problem has been worse this year because mild winter conditions resulted in the insects appearing earlier than normal.

Health officials say the crickets don’t pose any direct health risks.

Compiled from the Associated Press

by J. Almendarez

what he calls the American myth: the idea that those who work hard will succeed economically in this country, and those that are poor do not work hard.

Shipler talked about the culture of poverty, a phrase coined by American anthropologist Oscar Lewis in 1961 as usually being thought of as the traditions of a lifestyle passed from one generation to another.

But he said he disagrees with that idea.

Instead he observes poverty as being similar to an ecological system.

He said poverty operates through failures within the interconnectedness of schools, government programs, neighborhoods, friends and family that perpetuate a cycle limiting upward social and economical mobility.

Shipler said he interviewed impoverished school children about what their plans were for their future, and many said they wanted to be astronauts, doctors, lawyers and sports stars.

When he interviewed impoverished high school students about the goals for their future, the high aspirations were gone.

“Somewhere between elementary and high school, the dreams die,” he said.

He said one of the successful actions he’s seen, which connects people to programs to fight poverty, is the creation of gateways to multiple services.

For instance, Shipler told a story about a child who suffered from chronic asthma.

The child lived with his family in an apartment unit with old carpets, heavy drapes, roaches which shed their skin into ventilation systems and a leaking pipe that was causing mold growth.

The apartment resident had little luck asking the landlord to fix the problem. That was until the doctor spoke to the landlord.

That physician’s office now employs five attorneys on staff to work with low-income patients to ensure they have suitable housing.

The interconnectedness of that service has created long-term health benefits for the doctor’s patients.

“Poverty is not just that still photograph of income,” Shipler said.

In addition to creating health problems, poverty also effects people’s ability to succeed in job markets.

For instance, he said there is an embedded self-perception in people who have failed repeatedly in life that suggests they cannot succeed outside of the world they are familiar with.

He said in work training programs, he’s seen success where those teaching the courses teach not just job skills, but people skills as well, such as looking someone in the eye when speaking.

He said the claim by many that there are not a lot of skilled workers in this country is generally true.

He cited statistics for the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy data file that indicate 55 percent of people cannot read the directions on a medication bottle clearly or pick items from an office supply catalog and total the price of the items; 33 percent of people cannot summarize job expectations in the want ads of a publication; and 22 percent could not calculate what their weekly earnings would be, given the hourly rate of pay and hours worked.

The test is administered every 10 years.

“The alarm bells should be sounding,” said Shipler.

As a country, he said there needs to be a way to view the realities of poverty and create policy to combat it as a whole.

“We have to keep remembering to connect the dots,” he ended.

After the speech, Shipley answered questions from the audience.

Writer Caroline Bolar told an anecdote rather than asking a question.

She said in 1956, when she was 12 years old, she went out on Halloween night to collect money for a charity.

She said when she walked through the well-to-do neighborhood, her pitch that every cent buys a glass of milk for a needy child grudgingly eared her charity a dime from a woman in one of the houses. The same pitch, she said, earned her a dollar from a woman in a low-income neighborhood wearing a dress she recognized to be made from a flour sack.

“At 12, I saw a huge discrepancy of spirit between those who have and those who didn’t have,” she said.

In her opinion, the country cannot continue to sustain itself on the, “To hell with them; I have mine,” mentality.

Shipler confirmed her suspicion that the middle and low economic classes give more to charity than the wealthy, but many do so through church organizations.

While not a religious person, Shipler said he observed a sense of wellbeing and belonging among low-income people who attended a church over those who did not.

He also said churches help people in need through food drives and sometimes in monetary ways.

“It makes a big difference,” he said.

Dawn Macon, peer support specialist at Alaska Mental Health Consumer Web, compared lowincome people from low-income education systems being released into the workforce to a time when slaves were freed but unable to work because they weren’t educated.

“At some point people just need to eat,” she said, but then asked Shipler what should be done to help people help themselves.

Shipler said he advocates the devlopment and support of vocational schools and work training facilities. “That’s the key

PHOTO BY J. ALMENDAREZ

Pulitzer Prize winner David Shipler answers questions from the audience at his speech Thursday night about income inequality in this country.

here.”

Bethany Brunelle, journalism and public commutations and music junior, asked, “I want to know what happened to the American dream?”

She said she sees many people in poverty who are there because they have an unwillingness to work hard.

“If more people would be determined (to work hard), we wouldn’t have so much poverty,” she said.

“I disagree with you on every point,” Shipler said. “This sweeping generalization about people in all categories is really not accurate.”

Brunelle disagreed and recounted her story of being stricken with cancer and bouncing back enough to work two jobs and take 14 credits this semester.

There was a smattering of applause for Brunelle and a student in the crowd shouted that she completely agrees because she is in a similar situation.

However, when Shipley asked how she could hold those views steadfastly after hearing about his research into the ecology and relativity of poverty, she said she was not in attendance for the speech because she was taking a midterm.

After the question and answer session, Shipler signed books and took photos with people in the main entrance of the fine arts building.

Megan Olson, Vice Chancellor for University Advancement, said Shipler was able to come to the university as part of the Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program.

According to their website, the program encourages its fellows to visit campuses for a week to discuss complex social issues in an in depth way.

She said Shipler was an obvious choice to bring to campus because his book, coincidentally, is also a UAA and Alaska Pacific University book of the year.

Olson also said Shipler has, throughout the week, met with students and various clubs, spoke in classes and lectured in the community.

Current Events and Perspectives

In an interview after the lecture, Shipler discussed his experience as a journalist for The New York Times in Moscow from 1975-1979.

He said the time spent in a country that radically suppressed its people opened his eyes to some aspects of American life.

“You see your own country more clearly and more vividly,” he said.

After reporting out of Moscow, Shipler served as the Bureau Chief of The New York Times in Jerusalem form 1979-1984.

He went on to write “Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land,” which explored the relationship between the two cultures in Israel and along the West Bank.

The book won a Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction in 1987.

When the Arab Spring took place in the winter of 2010, he said, “I felt excited and hopeful and worried all at the same time.”

He said when a country is ruled by a dictator for a long time and has a movement to overthrow that dictatorship, it’s a lot harder than just replacing a leader because the ideology of the ruling class still lingers.

Shipler said those countries will face a long, hard struggle before they’ll have a democracy, if they ever create one at all.

His opinion about last year’s Occupy Wall Street movement was twofold.

On one hand, he said he appreciated it because it touched on an important part of wealth disparity in this country.

On the other, he said it was frustrating because it was formless.

He said he talked to some of the protesters in Washington D.C. for an afternoon and, while they were interesting people, they did not want to put faith into a leader or rally for specific policies.

“What do you do with all that sentiment?” he asked.

Shipler said, there needs to be, “an intersection between the street and policy.”

For more information about Shipler and to stay up to date with his work, visit his blog at http:// shiplerreport.blogspot.com/.

October 2, 2012 FEATURES f

The roommate who wasn’t there

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One act, two settings

By Evan Dodd Contributor

I have a problem.

I’m not talking about my television obsession, my chemical addiction to caffeine or even my complete inability to interact with people in a social setting.

(Though I will be addressing those problems in my next group session.)

No, I have a far more serious problem. An invisible problem.

You see, it’s recently come to my attention that I may have a fifth roommate haunting my living room.

The man is a specter of sorts — never appearing directly, but instead lurking in the shadows, unbeknownst to us all.

The signs are subtle, but to the trained eye they are unmistakable evidence that something nefarious is afoot.

Roommate number five, or “The Phantom” as he will henceforth be known, has left several distinct traces over the last week. But today it appears the trail has gone cold. Perhaps he feels me pursuing him, drawing ever nearer to discovering his dastardly secret. And, like all phantoms, he has gone to great lengths to cover his tracks for reasons unknown.

I’ll start from the beginning.

It all started during an unfortunate cooking incident, in which I inadvertently redecorated my kitchen with the remains of vaporized egg matter. The spontaneous explosion engulfed every wall, appliance, and surface within a 10-foot radius.

As I spun in panicky circles, attempting to catch the gooey egg drips as they slowly oozed from the ceiling, an innocuous pile of debris caught my eye.

A small pile of clothing topped by a lone bag of beef jerky, which would have gone unnoticed by a lesser man, had appeared in the midst of our broken, run-down dorm furniture. Not being prone to paranoia, I initially ignored this new discovery, instead returning my focus to the egg-coated kitchen.

But in the days that followed,

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY VICENTE CAPALA

signs of The Phantom began to pile up like awkward similes in an amateur-ish humor column.

Soon the clothes were joined by a rumpled sleeping bag, a pair of shoes and a sinister looking laptop.

As the days progressed the entire apartment began to smell of beef jerky as the vapor from the empty bags began to permeate every crevice of the dorm. The signs of life — unmistakable, yet just out of my grasp — had begun to appear with startling regularity.

But still no sign of The Phantom.

Yesterday a fifth toothbrush appeared amongst our cluttered counter, taunting my inability to find its owner. “Show yourself!”

I roared with frustration as my terrified roommates peered nervously out of their rooms, no doubt as frightened by The Phantom as I was.

Still no sign of the clever beast.

It’s been weeks now. Weeks of fruitless searches and late-night hunts. I’ve gone nearly insane through the feverish attempts to find The Phantom, and I’ve come to wonder whether his existence might be my own subconscious playing tricks upon my weary mind.

I’ve yet to make contact with The Phantom, but when I do, I have but one message for him: “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills — skills I have acquired over a long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for phantoms like you.”

Hey, it worked for Liam Neeson. But I will find him. I must.

And I’ve got to get my hands on some of his damn beef jerky.

By Vicente Capala Multimedia Editor

So you’ve had regular intercourse and feel bored with it. You now feel like you’re ready for bigger and better, shall I say, “achievements.” I will touch on two “kinky achievements” various couples attempt to perform.

Now, before you try to attain such “achievements,” make sure you consult your significant other about whether they’re comfortable with performing such acts. If you do not have a significant other, then let your “friend with benefits” know and ask the same thing.

The two styles of “kinky achievements” I will cover are automobile intercourse and shower sex. Before you continue reading, I must inform you that I am only writing this to provide a brief insight on the troubles and mishaps associated with such acts, as well as the potential awkward or funny scenarios that go along with them.

Let’s first start off with automobile intercourse, better known as car sex. You’ve probably thought about doing it once or twice — and if you’re that much into it, perhaps twenty times. Car sex is defined as any sexual act performed within a vehicle. And, no, car sex would probably not be car sex if it was on top of the car, at least I think so.

One term that’s very closely associated to car sex is “road head.” Road head is the act of oral sex by one partner to another who is driving. I personally suggest not to perform this act since it could cause accidents similar to those caused while texting and driving.

You do not want to be caught by a cop crashing your car because of road head. It would just be an awkward confrontation. Usually the partner who is giving the oral

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY VICENTE CAPALA

is seated in the passenger’s seat — an instance in which the driver does it to the passenger would just end up horribly wrong.

I suggest that if you commit to any sexual act, you should park your vehicle.

You should always remember three things when “achieving” in the car. First, use the car handles.

Somehow it just adds tension to the moment. Second, make sure you cover your seats if they are not a leather-like material, as things will stain. Better yet, just always cover your seats. And third, make sure you turn your lights off. The last thing you’d want is someone coming to your window wondering if someone is being attacked.

Next is the fantasy we all have probably had when we do this daily activity: shower sex.

Everything just seems to scream “sex” when you think inside of the shower. It just feels right. The water is hot. Everything is steaming. You might have some sort of music you listen to in your alone time. I listen to Adele. Why resist it, right?

Well, here are some helpful tips to not slip and fall during the intimate act.

Make sure you don’t waste shampoo. Shampoo should be used to lather the body or the scalp.

If it goes to waste on the shower

floor, it becomes an accident waiting to happen. The same goes for soap, unless of course it is an intention for you to drop the soap — cue laughter.

There are many blunt surfaces you probably could hit your head or certain body parts on, such as the faucet head, shower head, loofa handle and the floor itself.

Be mindful of these things so you don’t get hurt.

A benefit of the shower is the many tools you can use for pleasing your partner.

The way you use them should be explored since every individual is different. One handy tool that I consider useful is the detachable shower head with settings. Just think about it, you could point the head in any direction you want.

You can let the water flow as much as you want. Just make sure you don’t fire water bullets at your partner.

Those are just two basic sexual acts you can perform in the common locations of daily life.

Probably after experimenting thoroughly with shower sex and car sex, you can upgrade to bathroom floor sex and kitchen sex — but that is another topic for another time.

One thing to always remember when having sex, though, is to always wear a condom.

Now go off and “achieve” safely.

UAA student culture comes to homecoming week

By Meghan Lackey Contributor

The Board of Cultural Awareness is bringing something new and exciting to this year’s homecoming festivity.

The event will give UAA students the chance to share unique aspects of their culture, such as poetry, dance, food tasting, traditional folk dances,

folk music, “cultural expression talks” and more.

Mabil “Mo” Duir, who is appointed to the Diversity Action Council as well as the Chair of the Board of Cultural Awareness, is assisting Multicultural Center Director Andre Thorn in planning the UAA Nations Cultural Extravaganza.

The Board of Cultural

Awareness is a part of the Union of Students at the University of Alaska Anchorage (USUAA) that has been out of action for some time. The absence of the Board of Cultural Awareness is partially because it no longer receives funding from USUAA. Duir stresses that more than funding, the most important thing needed for restoration and

expansion is student participation, inviting things to launch from there.

Duir says he hopes to “make our student union the place it’s supposed to be” and consume the building with student activities that promote cultural education and new experiences.

“We live in a international city,” he said. “We’re in a very

diverse school, and I feel people should know about cultures.”

He invites students to attend these events invite friends and be part of one of the biggest things on campus.

The Cultural Extravaganza will be taking place from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 8 in the upper level of the Student Union.

FEATURES October 2, 2012

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Making strides toward breast cancer awareness

By Katelyn Jones Contributor

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and some great strides are being made against the disease through local events.

Making Strides is a walk on Oct. 6 to raise money and awareness for the early detection and subsequent treatment of breast cancer. This event not only works to honor the survivors of breast cancer, but also raises money to help the American Cancer Society with research and increasing access to mammograms for women.

Betty Bang, family nurse practitioner at the UAA Student Health and Counseling Center, emphasized the importance of catching the disease early on.

“I would encourage anyone who has questions or concerns to come in. It can be anything from a lump to skin irritation, dimpling or puckering of the skin,” she said.

Bang also stressed the role of keeping a healthy diet and exercising regularly in lowering one’s risk of developing breast cancer, a commonly lauded tip that can go a long way in helping to combat many other ailments as well.

Many people come in with the mentality that because the disease may not run in their family, they aren’t at risk she said. In reality, genetically inherited breast cancer accounts for 5-10 percent of cases.

According to the Susan G.

Komen for the Cure foundation, even if an individual has no family history of cancer, is young and doesn’t smoke, breast cancer is still a risk. No one knows the exact causes for breast cancer, but catching the early signs of the disease is the key to increased survival.

While the month of October is sure to have its fill of little pink ribbons and Save the Ta-Tas T-shirts, a commonly forgotten fact is that more than just half the population has breast tissue. Men can also get breast cancer — their pectorals are susceptible to the disease.

Unfortunately, most men don’t know that this is a disease that can affect them, so the warning signs may go ignored, or they might not tell their doctor what it is they are experiencing out of embarrassment. Many will wait too long to get help, and raising awareness is key in preventing the disease for everyone.

According to the Centers for Disease Contorl and Prevention website, people should pay attention to any changes in their body and know what’s normal for themselves. Warning signs of breast cancer include a lump or hard knot on the chest; swelling, warmth or color changes; a change in size or shape of the breast tissue; dimpling or puckering of the skin; an itchy, scaly score or rash on the nipple; pulling in of the nipple or

other parts; sudden discharge; and new pain in one spot that doesn’t go away.

The website also states that up to four out of 100 women currently 60 years old will develop breast cancer by the time they are 70.

However, Bang made it clear that while the fight against breast cancer has been and continues to be an important one, people’s efforts should not be entirely focused there alone.

“We’re doing a good job of catching it,” she said. “Breast cancer isn’t the number one killer of women. We need to be aware of things like heart disease.”

She said if someone has concerns they might be at risk for breast cancer, follow the golden rule of early detection, never hesitate to go in and discuss concerns with a doctor.

For more information about breast cancer prevention, the Student Health and Counseling Center, located in Room 116/120 of Rasmuson Hall, can provide information and guidance on the matter. Providence Hospital also provides genetic counseling, useful for those who have a family history of the disease.

The 2012 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk is 9 a.m. to noon Oct.6, at 300 W. 9th Ave. on the Delaney Park Strip downtown, Registration can be done online at http://bit.ly/QsNoxI.

Filipino-American population thrives in Alaska October is Filipino-American History Month — a time to recognize accomplishments and contributions.

By Nita Mauigoa

Assistant Features Editor

All it takes is one. Like other Asian and Pacific Islander groups, one Filipino-American in Alaska today could turn into one FilipinoAmerican with dozens of relatives in Alaska the next.

“A recent US census report said that by 2025, one in four people in Alaska will be Filipino,” said EJ David, UAA assistant psychology professor.

Recently released U.S. Census figures indicate that there are 19,394 Filipinos in Alaska, with about a 53 percent increase since 1990. They are the largest Asian population statewide. Alaska has the fourth-largest Filipino population in the United States.

There are more than 2.5 million Filipinos in the United States today, a 38 percent increase from 10 years ago.

These figures, however, only represent counts of “Filipino alone” responses to the 2010 census survey.

With “mixed-race Filipino” figures added, the total estimated number of Filipinos in the US tops 3.5 million.

David is part of a group called Alaskero Partnership Organizers (APO), American Filipinos who are UAA faculty and community members focused on increasing

vitality and visibility of AsianAmericans and Pacific Islanders.

They are gearing up for their “Alaskero Fiesta,” a celebration of Filipino-American History Month set for Oct. 5 in the UAA Student Union.

The acronym APO spells out the Filipino word “apo,” which

Filipinos first came to Alaska in 1788 as crew aboard fur trade vessels.

Filipino sailors first came to the continent in 1587 before the United States was a country.

Still, even with a long history in both Alaska and the other United States, some often wonder

country. Young Filipinos are as equally surprised to learn this about their own people.

Mariecris Gatlabayan is a young Filipino who is an assistant professor archivist in Library Science with Archives and Special Collections at the UAA/ APU Consortium Library. She

PHOTOS ILLUSTRATIONS BY VICENTE CAPALA

means both elder and grandchild in the Tagalog dialect.

“It’s the whole idea of past and future. We’re highlighting our deep roots and then we’re in the present when we talk about our research and how we are trying to bridge the gap and pave the way for the future,” said Joy Mapaye, UAA assistant journalism professor and member of APO. The deep roots Mapaye refers to is the long history Filipinos have in Alaska and other states.

why Filipinos would leave the lush tropical islands for such distant lands.

Simply put, family and

recalled an experience while studying a “Filipino-American History” course taught by an older Filipino-American couple, Fred

“A recent US census report said that by 2025, one in four people in Alaska will be Filipino,” -Professor EJ David opportunity are amongst some of the main reasons.

Some people are surprised to learn that Filipino-Americans have such deep roots in the

and Dorothy Cordova.

“My mind froze. The Cordovas had no accent — in fact, they sounded very much like the people on ‘Leave it to Beaver,’”

Gatlabayan said. “I was used to my generation being the first generation to grow up in America.

And here were these old Filipino people who looked more Filipino than me and felt as American as apple pie.”

Christine Marasigan, legislative staffer to Senator Kevin Meyer and treasurer for the Filipino-American National Historical Society, always remembers to recognize her Filipino elders while looking toward the future.

“We wouldn’t be able to do this if there weren’t people before us to knock down closed doors, and we have to hold that door open for someone else,” Marasigan said.

“People have done it before; we can do it again.”

The idea of connecting past, present and future comes fullcircle with many thriving FilipinoAmericans of all generations in Alaska and the other states.

No matter where they are in life, many Filipinos remember an old Tagalog proverb by late Filipino writer, Jose Rizal.

“Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makararating sa paroroonan,” which means, “He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination.”

FEATURES October 2, 2012

06

PHOTO BY J. ALMENDAREZ

Culinary arts freshman Derrick Canfield hands the controller to economics junior Christopher Lynch after losing in “Persona 4 Arena” to German freshman Alyson Mercer during the video game club meeting Wednesday night.

Video Gaming Club: A place to game and to belong

By Jacob Holley-Kline Contributor

From the south cafeteria of the Student Union every Monday and Wednesday beams the bright light of a projector.

On the screen, influential video game characters battle it out at the whim of game night participants.

This is one of many evenings where students of all varieties socialize over “Super Smash Bros.

Brawl.”

In November 2011, Sean Skitt, former Student Union staff

member, facilitated a tournament for the video game “Starcraft II.” David Murdoch, student commuter services coordinator, saw the tournament’s potential as a community-building tool.

The first game night was held on Aug. 27.

“I want to use the technology to create a sense of belonging,” said Murdoch. Game nights are now held from 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m every Monday and Wednesday in the Student Union south cafeteria.

“Initially, we started out getting five (people) on Mondays and about 10 or 15 on Wednesdays,” remarked Balogun Bishop, Student Union staff member, “Everybody has their comfort zone ... the main part is belonging.”

The nights first began as biannual competitions.

Two semesters ago, the first tournament was held in collaboration with the UAA Video Gaming Club, which meets from 2 p.m.-8 p.m. Wednesdays in

the Lyla Richards Room of the Student Union.

The following semester, the video gaming club provided technical assistance at the talent show in exchange for exposure.

“A lot of student clubs aren’t accustomed to collaborating. But you can start to see the success of events when we work together.”

The talent show was a hit and video gaming club attendance jumped from there.

One such attendee is freshman

Jack Butto. A lifetime gamer, Jack has been attending since Aug. 29.

He’s finds the gatherings to be socially beneficial for his campus life.

“The nights have helped me adjust,” Butto said. “It’s a time for fun and to meet new people.”

For more information about the UAA video gaming club, visit their website at http://life.uaa.alaska. edu/organization/video_gaming.

“Can I still eat food after the use-by date has passed?”

By Kate Lindsley Contributor

I’m impressed you can even find the use-by date. More often than not, I find myself turning canned corn over and over, only to find a few faint numbers printed between the rungs of the tin can.

But, if you are lucky enough to find a use-by date, it doesn’t mean much.

That ruling actually comes to us from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Safety Inspection Service. The USDA website states, “‘use-by’ dates usually refer to the best quality and are not safety issues.” The line to be drawn between “quality” and “safety” is a bit hazy.

For example, if you leave milk

on the counter, you can bet it’ll lose quality. Chunky milk is not quality milk. But is it unsafe to drink it on a dare? Not particularly.

Milk chunks are the precursor to cheese and yogurt. It’s just nasty to eat milk chunks before they get to the yummy stage.

The chunky milk debacle brings me to another topic in food safety: shelf-stable foods versus foods that require refrigeration.

Certain foods, like raw meat, carry the fairly large consequence of potential food poisoning if you don’t treat their “use-by” or “sellby” date with respect. Bacterial growth is also possible if you leave the raw meat on the counter for too long.

On the other hand, shelf-stable

foods can be safe for 2-5 years sitting in a pantry. They’re more likely to be fine a few months after their “use-by” date, as long as the cans don’t have dents and the cartons of shelf-stable milk haven’t been opened or broken in any way.

In fact, labeling a “use-by” or “sell-by” date isn’t even a federal law, except on infant formula. It’s required by 20 states, but besides that there is a lot of variation in food labeling.

This piece of advice should go for all Guru Kate articles, and particularly when it comes to food safety: use your best judgment.

If the Italian salad dressing no longer looks or smells like it should, don’t use it. If the can of

PHOTO BY VICENTE CAPALA

chili from the back of the pantry has so much dust on it that you can barely read the label, maybe it’s time to throw it out. If the orange

juice starts to smell like it belongs in a flask, put it in a flask — just kidding!

When in doubt, toss it out.

FEATURES October 2, 2012

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Cooking in college Time: 45 minutes Servings: 6 Price: $5.60 per serving Difficulty level: Easy

Curry Pumpkin Soup 2 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons curry powder 4 cups vegetable broth 1 (29-ounce) can pumpkin 1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 tablespoon white sugar salt and pepper to taste

Stuffed Portobellos 1 (9.6-ounce) package ground Italian sausage 2 cups shredded Italian cheese blend, divided 1/2 cup ricotta cheese 2 green onions, thinly sliced 12 baby portobello mushroom caps 2 tablespoons olive oil

For all the first-time cooks out there

Warm and hearty meal for autumn

By Heather Hamilton A&E Editor

When we think of fall, pumpkins are one of the first things to come to mind. Soup is another. Clearly, these two things should marry and have a delicious pumpkin soup baby — with a kick.

Curry pumpkin soup is a fantastic chilly-weather dish, and when paired with a couple stuffed baby portobellos, it’s filling enough to get you through the night.

The stuffed portobello mushrooms are supposed to take 20 minutes from start to finish, and the soup is supposed to take 30, but both ended up taking close to an hour. Either way, start with the mushrooms.

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, because if it’s anything like my oven, it’ll take nearly 10 minutes to get that far. Next, clean each of the mushrooms with a paper towel or brush under running water. This gets the dirt off the heads better than simply rinsing them. Then put them on a paper towel and take out the stems, since you will be stuffing the caps.

The recipe doesn’t initially call for the stems, but my boyfriend and I decided that we’d rather not waste them when we experimented with this, so we (or rather, he) chopped them up as finely as possible and put them in a mixing bowl.

Finely chop two green onions and throw them into the bowl.

Toss in your cheese and ground Italian sausage as well.

Here’s where it pays to have two sets of hands in the kitchen. While I started working on the soup, my boyfriend finished prepping the mushrooms so the soup and the mushrooms would theoretically be done cooking at the same time.

After mixing everything thoroughly, brush a little olive oil on each mushroom head and place them on a shallow baking dish, empty side up. From there, stuff each mushroom with the mixture, as equally as possible.

With the addition of the mushroom stems, you will definitely have overflowing portobellos, but this is ok.

Everyone knows that if the mushroom isn’t overflowing, it isn’t stuffed adequately. Be careful when you do this so you don’t break the caps. When you’re finished, sprinkle the tops of each portobello with more of the Italian blend cheese until you’re satisfied (or run out). Then, place them in the oven for fifteen minutes.

To start the soup, melt your butter in a large pot over medium heat and then stir in your curry powder

and flour. This creates a pasty substance that serves as half of your soup base. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll end up throwing twice the butter in because the curry powder and flour will start to burn before you get it into a paste. Then, slowly whisk in your vegetable broth to complete the base. Cook the base down until it thickens.

Or just start stirring in your canned pumpkin puree and halfand-half cream, because honestly, the pumpkin is thick enough to do the trick almost on its own.

Once you’ve got a creamy, smooth mixture, stir in your soy sauce and sugar. Then taste test it.

Your recipe has likely failed you and your pumpkin soup is bland — pleasant, but bland.

Where’s the curry-induced kick?

Right about now, your mushroom timer will probably be beeping. Take them out and slice one open. If there’s no pink, you’re good. If there is pink, put it back in the oven for another three minutes. Trust me, there’ll be pink.

Back to the soup, suck it up and dump extra curry in. It’s probably so bland it hurts, and there’s supposed to be a kick. Taste it again. Still too bland? Mine was, so my boyfriend and I tried adding more soy sauce to it. Still, nothing.

We weren’t about to cook large quantities of food that neither of us would want to eat, so we tossed some red pepper seasoning in it.

Something was still missing. We tossed in generous amounts of salt and pepper, but then the pumpkin flavor was gone.

The oven will probably be beeping again. Chances are, your mushrooms may still be

undercooked (we did overstuff them, after all) so toss them back in for another five minutes after checking to make sure.

Your soup has lost its pumpkin flavor but has a little bit more of a kick. What to do? Oh look, there’s pumpkin pie seasoning right there on your stove; grab it and dump a generous amount of it into the soup. You stir it, taste it, and something is still missing. Back to bland, but with more pumpkin than ever? This really shouldn’t be rocket science, but apparently it is.

Try adding more red pepper.

Just dump a bunch of it on there.

And some more curry. Then, when you realize you’ve probably overpowered the pumpkin flavor again, dump more of that seasoning in there, taste testing it with each new ingredient until you are finally satisfied. By the time you are, your oven will beep again, and this time, your mushrooms will finally be fully cooked.

Two stuffed portobellos and a generous bowl of soup are all you’ll need to fill up. It’s all warm and, once you’ve nailed the soup thing, delicious. The recipes make about six servings each and together, they cost roughly $5.60 a serving (not including the added spices you’ll have laying around).

That’s not too shabby, considering that you’ll have butter, green onions, flour, sugar and spices left over to use in other things.

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H E AT H

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ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

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MOVIE REVIEW

‘Hotel Transylvania’ good for Halloween

Not a masterpiece, but still worth a watch

By Heather Hamilton A&E Editor

Fathers are known for being protective of their daughters, but Dracula (Adam Sandler, “That’s My Boy”) takes the cake in “Hotel Transylvania.” In order to provide a safe place for his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez, “Spring Breakers”) to grow up in, he opens a human-free spa-resort for monsters. On Mavis’ 118th birthday, a human named Jonathan (Andy Samberg, “Saturday Night Live”) accidentally strolls into their midst and ends up disguising himself as a monster. Dracula takes it upon himself to put a damper on the boy’s developing interest in his daughter. At least, he tries to.

There’s a very “Finding Nemo” feel to Dracula’s relationship with Mavis. Much like how Marlin babies and overprotects Nemo, Dracula fights the necessity of Mavis growing up and following her own path in life, thinking he needs to protect and hide her.

Mavis, as suggested by the movie’s trailers, wants to travel and explore the world, feeling cramped in the hotel after so many years. This movie, like “Finding Nemo,” has a basic theme of parents “growing up,” so to speak, enough to let their children have the chance to do the same.

There are other basic plot similarities between the two movies as well, but they won’t be given away here.

The movie’s voice acting isn’t necessarily Oscar-quality, but it isn’t bad either.

No reason could possibly exist for someone to ever think that Adam Sandler would make a good live-action Dracula. An animated

Dracula, however, is well within his kooky range. He pulls of the iconic movie-Transylvanian accent surprisingly well and never abandons it. He does alternate between thicker and lighter versions to help the movie flow along, though. There are times when it gets a bit annoying to listen to, but kids will love it. And he gets bonus points for making a dig at “Twilight” early on in the movie.

Speaking of annoying things that kids will love: Jonathan. His manner of speech is irritating, the various inflections of his voice are cringe-worthy and his personality evokes the spirit of a five-year-old more than a grown man. Samberg does a good job with the voice acting, changing it up with various emotions in a fairly convincing performance, but he acts out a dumb character.

Jonathan has his moments where you’ll respect and like him, but overall, he’s obnoxiously young in attitude for his age.

Gomez is a good fit for Mavis.

The character is, like Gomez’s other notable roles, a stereotypical teenager prone to various levels of drama. However, she isn’t as bad as some of the others she has played. There are fewer instances of whining, stupid mistakes and general awkwardness in this role, and Gomez is able to conform herself to the differences. She’s fun to listen to, and somehow just fits as Dracula’s relatively mature daughter.

The minor characters in the movie are fun too, each with a distinct personality and some witty (if not generally humorous) lines. Fran Drescher’s (“The

Nanny”) voice as Eunice is unmistakable, even if it begins to grate relatively quickly.

The dialogue is clever and enjoyable, and while there’s humor geared more to adult viewers, kids have plenty to laugh at too. Many of the jokes are funny at different levels, so no one feels left out if they don’t “get it.” There are little inside jokes that float around as well, such as Jonathan’s name.

In Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” one of the main characters to face the iconic vampire is Jonathan Harker, so the fact that a character named Jonathan is at odds with the Dracula character in this movie is deliciously clever.

The movie is fun, and better than expected, but it’s no animated masterpiece. See it for the lively and youthful animation, Halloween-like charm and generally good acting, but don’t expect a “Toy Story” quality plot or “Finding Nemo” levels of charm and endearment, despite the similarities.

Movie: “Hotel Transylvania” Director: Genndy Tartakovsky Release Date: Sept. 28, 2012 Genre: Animation, Family Starring: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg

DRINK REVIEW

A tasteful and memorable beverage for fans of non-alcoholic drinks

By Emily Hodson

PHOTO BY EMILY HODSON

Contributor

If sweet and sour are mixed together, it becomes wonderful in many senses. The flavors complement each other well. It’s often unusual to make a sour face from a drink that has some sort of sweetness to it, and the Margarita Tropical Fruit Island beverage is one of those drinks.

To make a Margarita Tropical Fruit Island beverage, you will need the following beverages and mixers to make it perfectly. This drink is very hard to mess up if a step is done wrong, since it is exactly half-sour, half-sweet. If not mixed properly, it either tastes too sour or too sweet. Each step to take is crucial because it takes a little bit of skill and just the right amount of each ingredient.

Here is the procedure: Scoop

some ice first about halfway into the drink shaker. Fill a quarter of the cup with Welch’s Mango mix. The other quarter is for the watermelon juice. For the pomegranate mixer, pour it a quarter way in the cup. Lastly, pour in a shot and a half of margarita mix. From there on, use a cocktail shaker to shake ten times, and pour it into a cup with additional ice.

The unique texture of this drink is memorable and makes the flavor all the more enjoyable. It’s not a typical sweet and tropical drink. There is just enough sour and just enough sweet, which blends into a calming aftertaste.

There is a sour, bitter flavor when swallowed, but the sweet stuff kicks into the stomach a few minutes later.

This drink will not only quench

your thirst, but it also has a certain texture and dimension to its taste.

It sparkles a bit and has a hint of fizzy pop. The drink is similar to tasting like a Limeade Italian drink — sweet, sour and full of surprises, depending on the flavor.

To change up the flavor of this particular drink, try adding apple mixer flavor instead of pomegranate, and substitute the watermelon juice with apple juice.

Drink: The Margarita Tropical Fruit Island Ingredients: Welch’s Mango mix, Minute Maid watermelon juice, margarita mix, pomegranate mixer, ice

A&E October 2, 2012

9

APP REVIEW

Dishonored: Rat Assassin

By Heather Hamilton A&E Editor

While gamers endure the pure, unadulterated torture of waiting for “Dishonored” to be released next week, the game publishers have generously gifted the eager masses with a teaser game so they can get their assassination fix in the meantime.

Available as a smartphone app is “Dishonored: Rat Assassin.” In “Rat Assassin,” players obliterate untold numbers of rats with a range of collected knives and magical enhancements, similar to “Dishonored” itself.

You can slow time, utilize a massive rat-slicing machine and even go into bloodthirsty mode (similar to “god mode”) to kill the rats.

The more you kill, and the fancier your kill combos, the more points you get.

Points, kills and stars add up and gain you rewards, like better knives, new backgrounds, music and new stages.

Speaking of stages, there are

different ways to play the game.

In “assassination mode,” you just kill rats. There’s nothing special to it outside the fact that the round ends when you either run out of stamina or health. You lose health by accidentally slicing up bombs. Don’t do it. Two hits without slicing a vial to regain health, and you’re done.

Challenges are another way to go. In “challenges mode,” you are given an assassination task, such as obtaining a certain amount of points (through kills and combos), or protecting a bomb, within an allotted time limit. The rats are usually falling or running amongst bombs and appear in different formations for each challenge, so precision is key. Once you reach your goal, you have to keep going until time runs out, and you are still vulnerable to bombs.

In challenge mode, one hit with a bomb kills you and fails the mission.

The higher the score over your required quota, the more stars you

earn.

Stars add up to earn new difficulty levels and new in-game gear.

“Timed mode” is another play option. You have a minute and 30 seconds to rack up as many points and rat kills as you can. Spring traps are your best friend here.

If you collect one or two of them (by slicing them when they appear on screen) and save them until you have large amounts of rats on screen, you can get huge combo credit.

The game app is also free. You heard that right: free. If you can’t wait for the main game to come out next week, or you just want to get your aggressions out in a socially acceptable manner, “Dishonored: Rat Assassin” is a fantastic steal.

App: “Dishonored: Rat Assassin” Maker: Bethesda Softworks LLC. Release Date: Aug. 30, 2012

A&E October 2, 2012

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OPINION

Online opinions: When humor leads to threats in real life

By Heather Hamilton A&E Editor

Everyone has an opinion, and everyone has a right to express any opinion they have. Comedians, singers, artists, actors, authors and every other form of artist tend to express their opinions through their work, like we explored a few weeks ago with the anti-Islam video that led to protests in the Middle East. When they do this, they open themselves and their opinions up to critiques and criticisms.

What they do not open themselves up to is death threats, even if it’s a YouTube spoof of Ann Romney.

Braden “Mimi Imfurst” Chapman, a drag queen who has been on television shows such as “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and has performed across the country (including in Anchorage) recently dressed up as Ann Romney and whined in front of a poor-quality

camera about how Mitt Romney was going to lose the election and that they “only” had millions of dollars to support themselves with.

The video, called “Ann Romney: Stop It! You People Leave Mitt Alone!” has been shared all over YouTube and Facebook, and it has gained the performer a first: a death threat.

A screenshot of the entire short email, which Mimi posted to her Facebook page, shows the message, written entirely in capital letters.

“IF I FIND YOU I WILL KILL YOU. WATCH YOUR BACK.” That’s the final line of the three-line message. The beginning of the message berates Mimi for attacking Mrs. Romney, and claims that it proves Mimi lives a life without morals. Her homosexuality is also brought up, and the sender declares that he or she hopes that Mimi’s flesh rots off her bones in hell, and suggests that

she probably has AIDS because of her “abomination lifestyle.”

That’s some fairly strong language over a YouTube video spoof.

Sure, the sender may never find out Mimi’s real name (unless they do a 30-second Google search or read this piece) and home address — and it could be an empty threat — but the fact that it was even made is extreme enough.

Mimi is an entertainer. She is a comedian, a singer and an actor. Her routines are snarky and pointed. This particular video is in line with a current trend of spoofs parodying a 2007 video

by Chris Crocker called “Leave Britney Alone,” which features Chris sobbing under a blanket and yelling at the camera about how terrible people are for making fun of Britney Spears. There are countless other videos like it.

Here’s the deal: Mimi, and every other person who spoofs

a public official or celebrity, is a person with an opinion and a sense of humor. Many find her videos hilarious, as well as the other countless anti-Romney and antiObama videos on the web. Most people who dislike the videos say cruel things in the comments, but most also realize that wishing death on, or claiming that you will kill, someone is more than a little excessive.

The person who wrote the email to Mimi also clearly disagrees with her sexual orientation and choice to perform female impersonatons.

This is also no reason to wish death on someone.

If you disagree with the idea of drag queens so much, why watch one’s YouTube Channel?

If you support Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, why watch spoofs involving a negative impersonation of his wife?

Whoever wrote this message chose to do these things, and send

a hateful message (and there is no debate that the message is hateful) to Mimi’s fan account.

Negative feedback is fine, but violent threats are not.

Saying, “I don’t like your topic choice and found it offensive,” is a more professional method of getting the point across.

Vowing to kill someone is not, nor is it an acceptable behavior in any environment, no matter what political beliefs the people involved may have.

Mimi blacked out the email address of the sender when she shared the message on Facebook, preventing her fans from sending hate mail back to the individual.

Many have publicly asked for it, but she has refused. Someone threatened her life, and instead of spreading hate back to that person, she chooses to protect him or her from it.

Which example do you support?

A&E October 2, 2012

12

Local anime convention storms UAA

Senshi-Con 2012 guests gather in the Student Union cafeteria to watch day one’s “cosplay walk-on” event, where cosplayer show off their costumes modeled on media characters.

By Heather Hamilton A&E Editor

Once a year, UAA’s Student Union floods with hundreds of television personalities.

No, you won’t find Snooki or Kim Kardashian, but you will find Batman, Avatar Aang and, if you’re lucky, some of the original Power Rangers.

Senshi-Con is Alaska’s longestrunning anime convention. It began in 2005 in West High School’s cafeteria with only about 150 attendees. Since then, the convention has grown into a two-day event that completely takes over the Student Union for a weekend. Last Saturday and Sunday were that weekend for Senshi-Con 2012.

Anime conventions are gatherings of those who enjoy Japanese animated movies and series. Similar to what people think of when they imagine “Star Trek” conventions, people often dress up as their favorite anime and video game characters (though any television or movie character is acceptable), participate in panel discussions, viewing groups, cosplay (short for “costume play”) contests and skits. There are also several vendors to purchase items from, as well as video game contests to watch and participate in.

Usually, there’s also a special guest brought in who has starred in an iconic show, game or both. This year’s guest was Robert Axelrod, the voice actor of Lord Zedd and Finster in the “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” television series, various characters in the “Digimon” franchise, and many other roles as well.

“I started (attending conventions) towards the end of 2008,” said Axelrod. “I love it. I love traveling and being in new places. It’s my first time in Alaska, so it’s exciting.”

After introducing himself to the crowd at Senshi-Con, Axelrod sat at a booth for most of the day signing autographs and talking

to fans about everything from his favorite characters to how he happened into his career.

“Besides Lord Zedd, ‘cause that’s got to be my favorite, and Finster, I like Wizardmon, from ‘Digimon.’ He was a character who was only around for four episodes, but I was able to make a big impression with the fans with the character. He was a lovable character,” said Axelrod.

Axelrod first ventured into voice acting in 1980, when he landed the starring role of a cartoon.

“I always fooled around with voices as a kid,” said Axelrod. “I was doing a show on camera in 1980, and the studio next door was doing a cartoon show. Since I was there, I asked if I could audition.

I auditioned and got the part; it was a show called ‘Banner the Squirrel,’ and I got the lead part of Banner the Squirrel. That’s how I started in, and the rest just snowballed.”

Jasmine Wyrick, public relations manager and vendor coordinator for Senshi-Con, has been with the Alaska convention since its first event in 2005.

“I was actually the president of the anime club at Dimond, and I heard tell of a group at West that wanted to start an anime convention. They collaborated with a bunch of clubs all around Alaska and Anchorage and we all got together and made it happen,” she said. “We had things like ‘Dance Dance Revolution,’ classics like ‘Mario’ and not so much as far as selling. We had a few displays, like the Japanese Language Club and video game clubs. Basically, it was like a really big get-together. There couldn’t have been more than 150 people.”

According to Braxton Bundick, UAA culinary arts alumnus and president of the Alaska Asian Association of Cultural Learning (AAACL) which oversees SenshiCon, the convention increases in size every year. Last year, there were 1,400 attendees total, and

this year, they estimated they’d have 2,000. In an announcement at the end of Sunday’s festivities, it was said that Senshi-Con would be switching venues to accommodate the larger crowds.

“We already have contract ready to go for the Egan Center,” said Bundick. “We are going to be talking with them on Tuesday. It’s going to be an epic thing for us.”

The Egan Center housed another anime convention, Aurora-Con, in 2007 and 2008.

That convention no longer exists, due to low volunteer numbers and other complications, according to Bundick. He is happy that SenshiCon is sustainable to take over the space.

“It has been way too long for us,” he said. “People didn’t want to come back here because “oh hey, the venue’s too small,” or “oh man, I can’t wear my mask.” We always have that trouble. The thing is, it’s with UAA policy ... which is fine by me; I’d rather go by the rules than get a slap on the wrist or be told that we can’t come back.”

Bundick went on to explain that the Egan Center will have its own rules for the convention staff and attendees to abide by, but hopes that they will be different enough to make more people happy.

“Hopefully, next year, we’ll have a lot more leeway, and people can do more with their costumes,” he said.

For more information about Senshi-Con, visit their website at http://www.senshicon.org or scan the code below to see more TNL photos.

Vendors in the artists’ alley sell commissions, comics, and other merchandise.

PHOTOS BY VICENTE CAPALA

Cosplay interpretations (from left to right) of Jade Harley (“Homestuck”), Pinkie Pie (“My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”), Riku (“Kingdom Hearts”) and Italy (“Hetalia: Axis Powers”).

A guest dressed as a nurse from the “Silent Hill” franchise.

A cosplay group of characters from Nickelodeon’s animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (Katara, far left) and “The Legend of Korra” ( left to right: Ikki, Korra, Mako and Bolin).

oOPINION

13

October 2, 2012

LETTER TO EDITOR

TNL has no understanding of finance or economics, doesn’t seem to care

By Matt Brown In both the Sept. 8 and Sept. 20 issues of The Northern Light, the paper has run an Op-Ed by “TNL Staff” displaying an astounding lack of education about, quite frankly, very simple facts about finances and economics.

That the editorial staff not only apparently wrote the article themselves, and then didn’t bother to vet the article through any of the dozens of staff members working at our university who might be able to clarify their concerns raises significant questions about the efficacy of its current editorial staff.

First, let’s look at the first paragraph of the Sept. 8 article, “’Not enough money’ is a poor excuse for tuition hikes,” which I quote in its entirety: “The tuition increase proposed for the University of Alaska system is unwarranted.

While most people can understand and appreciate the fact that the proposed 2 percent increase is the lowest in ten years, what can’t be understood is why the increase is necessary.”

Not only is this statement flatout false, it displays an outrageous lack of even bothering to investigate the underlying cause of the increase.

In The Northern Light’s own interviews with Bruce Schultz in the July 25 issue, he explains outright what the increase is covering: “It’s important for students to understand that at UAA, tuition accounts for about 33% of the cost to provide educational service,” explained Schultz. “Just like everything else, our costs increase over time with inflation. If you look at the consumer price index increase from last year, we are actually on par nationally.”

Since this apparently needs to be literally spelled out to TNL’s purposely-ignorant staff, what this means is that the tuition increase is not “real,” to you and I because the increase is only accounting for the fact that the dollars is your wallet lost its value by the same percentage.

Everything you buy is getting the same percentage increase in price!

Food, gas, movie tickets, clothes, beer, you name it. To call out the UA system as trying to somehow “rob” students of an extra whopping $4 to $5 per credit (which, let’s be honest here, is complete pocket change that you would have no worries blowing on some unneeded expense anyways) to complete garbage and sensationalism to the highest degree.

I’m actually paying for you to print this? Allegedly, these staff members are (or were) students here and would at least know what the term “homework” means, even if their current classes may not require much of it.

I would hope you could spend 2 minutes on the Wikipedia reading what inflation means instead of printing an article blasting something you obviously know nothing about nor care to.

Next, we tackle the recent article from the Sept. 20 issue titled, “Permanent Fund Dividend amount disappoints Alaskans.”

Let’s again take a look at the very first sentence of the article: The announcement Tuesday of the first dividend payment below $1,000 in many years caused recipients to question the fairness of this amount. This article stuns me on two levels. Let’s get the obvious out of way: TNL staff decided to interview four people for this seven-paragraph article,

three of which are UAA staff, none of which were members of the Economics, Accounting, or Finance department. Are TNL staff members really so stupid?

Is this just pure laziness? Is there some malice at play? A grudge

by TNL staff members against people who might actually know what they’re talking about?

Second: the first staff member chosen to be interviewed (poorly chosen as he might have been), Bill Hogan, explains the reason for the decrease in the PFD amount, and I quote: He noted, however, that the dividend is figured at the average of five years of fund income and that this included some years of the economic downturn.

Yet, TNL staff completely blows off this explanation as if it’s not correct or even relevant.

Once again, let me spell it out for you: This is how the system is set up.

You aren’t Tom Brokaw and this isn’t The Fleecing of America.

If TNL staff spent 3 minutes researching before running their mouth off (roughly the amount of time I just spent finding the PFD website, downloading the pdf form of the guide sent to every Alaska resident every year and copying this next quote) they would have found this paragraph: Each year, the dividend distribution is calculated using a formula set in state law. The formula is based on an average of the Fund’s income over five years in order to produce a more stable flow of dividend amounts from year to year.

There is nothing “unfair” about your PFD check this year.

The only thing unacceptable here is your feeling of entitlement to a certain minimum of “free” money that is be collected from

sources that are, I’m confident is saying, highly ironic considering how often TNL staffers rail on big business, big oil, and land investments (hint: that’s where the yearly gains of the Permanent Fund come from). If you have to blame someone, blame the stock market, blame the economy, blame TNL staffer’s hero Barack Obama (to ward off ad hom attacks, I voted for Obama and considering how Romney is doing, will most likely do so again).

This analysis also demonstrates that there is someone just as equally to blame for this shameful display of pathetic journalism: UAA staff. The Journalism department and TNL editorial staff are obviously not doing their jobs if this crap gets published in a print newspaper. Isn’t the adage: “Check, check, and check again?”

Do you really expect me to believe that your writers couldn’t find the time to put forth even the most basic efforts in researching before writing your articles? I put more effort into this article, and I’m just sitting in RH on a break between classes, and I’m not even getting paid for this.

Next: I’m both blaming and calling out our Economics department especially. For a field of social science that so loves to proclaim that it is the oldest and most essential of them all (despite myriad intra-field disputes), and espouses the need to make sure that what happens in theory is actually what happens “on the ground” (i.e. in real life), they sure don’t know what happening on the ground on their own campus.

I waited until now to submit this article hoping that any UAA staff member would submit their own response; after two subsequent issues since the tuition increase and no such response, I

have to do it myself it seems.

Finally, I call out the UA system, UAA department heads, and Economics departments in all the UA schools: This ignorance of incredibly basic financial and economic institutions displays your failures. The viewpoints portrayed in the TNL articles are the norm, even while being false. You pack our degrees with years and thousands of dollars in coursework that doesn’t apply to our fields with the justification that it makes us “more wellrounded individuals,” yet you obviously miss a curriculum that would provide a demonstrable level of necessary education to the student body.

We need a course entitled “Economics for Everyday Life,” it needs to be required for all degrees, and it needs to be taken the first semester of school for every student. Full Stop. It won’t address Macro or Microeconomics on anything more than a superficial level.

The goal will be to educate students on the fallacious arguments that are so common in society: obviously, inflation and how our wallets are actually affected; supply and demand in terms of the “necessity” of big business; how the stock market and actually helps you and me overall, even when things that get bad are really bad; how both outsourcing and the illegal immigrants in the southwest are making our economy stronger.

These are things that will actually make people change their views, and promote the general welfare of everyone.

If TNL staffers really want to help its peers, put your anger where it’s most productive, put this dead center front page, and prove it.

OPINION

14

October 2, 2012

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

By TNL Editors In regard to Matt Brown’s letter to the editor, we appreciate the concern regarding the quality of our writing. We, too, worry about how to best perform our duties as writers and editors. In fact, we invite all concerned readers to contribute to making TNL the best newspaper it can be by submitting letters to the editor, opinion pieces and informing staffers of news events throughout the campus. As a quick point of interest, however, there were several inaccuracies within Brown’s letter that TNL staffers would like to clarify.

TNL staffers do have economics professors look over statistics from time to time.

An economics professor was consulted for the recent story concerning sequestration, though it was not reported in the article. It is also common practice for people to peer edit and check the math for

each other’s stories prior to print.

Any errors should be reported to TNL as soon as possible.

Also, the letter questions whether or not TNL staffers are students. Yes, this is an entirely student-run newspaper.

All staffers, volunteers and contributors must be enrolled in at least six credit hours and have a minimum GPA of 2.0 — and there are even higher GPA requirements for upper-level positions.

We ran a piece on the proposed tuition increase Sept. 4. The story in question is an “op-ed” piece, meaning that it expressed the opinion of the staff. We fully welcome anyone’s right to disagree with us; you’ll find that, as journalists, we’re pretty big on that “freedom of speech” thing.

However, the op-ed contained additional information not included in the previous story about tuition. It was our hope that we could offer students a more

EDITORIAL

Poop and mold should open communication

By TNL Staff There are a lot of smells that could make a student living in on-campus housing not want to go home.

A roommate’s funky culinary extravaganzas, incense that smell like a smoke shop and the overwhelming, wafting scent of a roomie’s cologne or perfume choice can be daunting for some.

But there are two smells all people can whole-heartedly agree are bad: poop and mold.

For those living in Main Apartment Complex 2 or 4, they were greeted with one of those two smells for several days.

It’s true that maintenance responded in a timely manner to both of those incidents.

Anyone speaking to Jody Inman, associate director of housing, or Tom Sternburg, interim director of maintenance and operations, would quickly come to the conclusion that the men were aware of the problems and quickly worked solve them.

That is appreciated and commendable.

But what were MAC residents

supposed to do about the smell?

Inman suggested students contact their resident adviser or resident coordinator about the smell in the carpet caused from the leaks. The adviser should then contact housing maintenance to fix the problem.

But that’s not what happened.

Where did the breakdown in communication happen?

Were the students to blame for not taking the initiative to complain about the smell? Were the advisers to blame for not keeping track of the status of leaks in building they’re responsible for? Was maintenance to blame for not following up or failing to leave students instructions for caring for the carpet when they know mold can develop?

Perhaps blame can be distributed to all these people.

But one thing is for sure: for the sake of future residents, there should be a system in place involving maintenance, housing and students that keeps a line of communication open for an financial, ecological and general wellbeing.

complete picture of our financial situation by comparing UAA to its peers and listing the recent salaries and major expenses our university. The question was then, and remains now, “How can this university claim to have insufficient funds when it can shell out the cash for a new sports complex and continue to pay its administration such fat salaries?”

There are some who would reply that the new sports stadium is a complete necessity to this university, and there are others who would say the administration deserves those large salaries. They are welcome to their opinions, but so are we.

In response to the complaints about the Permanent Fund Dividend story, there seems to be confusion about what this piece is supposed to be. It is considered a public opinion piece. If one reads it, they will find that it features interviews with students who

were happy or unhappy about the announcement. Though we fully understand the process by which the PFD is calculated (it’s included in the story), our focus was on public perception of the announcement.

We were also disturbed by the claim that staffers view Barack Obama as some sort of personal hero. TNL rarely covers national news (unless we can localize it) and the last time there was any coverage on a national topic it was in opinion pieces penned by Shana Roberson, a occasional contributor for TNL. Both of those articles, one published July 24 and the other Aug. 7, were critical of the president.

Said articles, however, do not necessarily reflect the political views of all TNL staffers, as we are a team with diverse ideas that would perhaps never come to an opinioned consensus within a

single article. The opinion section of this paper is a place to include all opinions on a subject, including yours. The individual who wrote those articles felt that particular way about that particular topic, and we thought it would be informative to our readers if we shared that viewpoint.

Finally, to address the suggestion to introduce a new mandatory course entitled “Economics for Everyday Life” — we believe that such an applied theory course is an interesting idea that could benefit UAA students in the longrun. We wish you luck in pursuit of such a course, and look forward to reporting on its creation if and when it is eventually implemented.

We thank all readers for critiques of the newspaper and look forward to receiving more.

TNL contact information is printed in every issue on the Puzzles and Comics page.

OPINION

15

October 2, 2012

Ethically sourced bodies on display at anchorage museum

By Kate Lindsley Contributor

Consider this: What if you spent most of your professional career developing an art form that was later copied and displayed via unethical means? The public, not knowing the difference between the pieces of art, confuses the two and assumes all pieces of this type of art, including yours, are unethical.

This was the predicament Dr. Gunther von Hagens, found himself in after his development “Body Worlds,” anatomical exhibits of real human bodies preserved using plastic (through a process known as plastination), toured the world. His art form had been taken over by Chinese copycats displayed in a similar manner to his throughout the world.

Dr. von Hagens developed the plastination technique in 1977, and is used today to display real human bodies in the Body Worlds exhibits around the world, to 34 million people — or 68 million eyeballs, the exhibit reminds visitors.

The bodies in the exhibits are in their full and real flesh. Plastics, such as silicone or polyester, have

replaced the bodies’ water. Dr. von Hagens’ wife, Dr. Angelina Whalley, noted that the bodies have been preserved in such a way that they would outlast the methods that the Egyptians used when they mummified bodies.

Dr. Whalley is the conceptual planner and creative designer for the Body Worlds exhibit and is also the director of the Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg, Germany. During her tour of the exhibit with volunteers, she described the main goal of the exhibits: education.

This is the first time a Body World exhibit has been in Alaska.

On its first pass through, Alaskans will see the Body Worlds Vital exhibit.

The Vital exhibit focuses on the harms that can plague the human body. Most notable in the exhibit are the effects of smoking and obesity.

Some of the black lungs on display are so moving that some smokers leave their cigarette packs behind, signifying that Dr. von Hagens and Dr. Whalley’s work turned their lives around.

However, what happens when the general public thinks that the

bodies in the Anchorage Museum were Chinese prisoners, rather than ethically donated bodies?

More likely than not, they’ll go into the exhibit with a different perception.

One notable copycat exhibit made its way through Alaska last month at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. The bodies on exhibit there were not part of the Body Worlds program. In an article published by Anchorage Daily News on Saturday, Aug. 25, Studio 2, the company that brought the exhibit to the fair, could not confirm with certainty that the bodies were ethically obtained.

In fact, the precise details about medical ethics in China are hazy at best.

According to a graduate thesis written by Jessica Neagle of Georgetown University, the copycat exhibitors are unable to prove that their plastinated bodies are not executed Chinese prisoners.

Before 2007, China had a history of distributing prisoners’ organs for transplant without consent, so the issue of full body plastination and executed

prisoners must be clarified before any questionable exhibits can continue touring the United States.

When asked about her position on the copycat exhibits, Dr. Whalley explained, “I think there’s nothing really wrong about copycat exhibits. They finally tried to teach people about the beauty of the body’s interior, but what I think it disturbing is that people are getting confused. Body Worlds is an exhibition that is solely relying on body donations, which these copycat exhibitions are normally not, and they are also clearly different in the quality of the exhibitions.”

According to Dr. Whalley’s explanation, the difference between the bodies originating from Chinese prisons and the bodies ethically donated to Dr. von Hagens and his team is similar to that of an art forgery — but with much greater implications.

Art forgeries don’t typically involve real human bodies. Very rarely can art teach us about our own internal health and the impacts life decisions have on our organs. However, in the case of Body Worlds versus the “copycat”

world, the ethics debate is more important than ever.

According to chinaculture.org, improper burial rituals in some aspects of Chinese culture can “wreak ill fortune and disaster on the family of the deceased.”

Therefore, if the Chinese exhibits really do rely on bodies obtained without consent, the cultural consequences to the family can be disastrous.

Don’t support unethically obtained bodies exhibits. Though they are still educational, they are morally corrupt. Instead, visit exhibits where the guests are assured of the source of the bodies.

Luckily for Alaskans, the opportunity is finally here, following on the coattails of a questionable State Fair appearance.

Kate Lindsley is a columnist for The Northern Light but also volunteers at the Anchorage Museum and attended the volunteer orientation for the Body Worlds exhibit. The exhibit is slated to be on display at the Anchorage Museum until Jan. 6, 2013.

?

e N ws T A t o ip G

Contact Jolene Almendarez Managing Editor 786-1313 or content@thenorthernlight.org

SPORTS September 25, 2012 17 SPORTS BRIEFS Seawolves rally to take out Nanooks

By Thomas McIntyre Sports Editor

ILLUSTRATION BY NICK FOOTE

Tickets for Seawolves hockey game are on sale now ANCHORAGE – Tickets are on sale now for the University of Alaska Anchorage hockey exhibition game against the University of Regina Cougars on Oct. 6 at the McDonald Center in Eagle River. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7:07 p.m.

Individual tickets for the game are priced at $10 and can be purchased in Anchorage at the UAA Athletic Department (Room 220 of the Wells Fargo Sports Complex), online at http://mustanghockey.us or at the door of the event.

Seating for the event is limited.

Sarah Johnson, a freshmen outside hitter, dives for the volleyball during Saturday’s game.

Roger Goodell apologizes to fans for replacement games NEW YORK (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apologized to the fans who fretted through three weeks of replacement officials calling their favorite teams’ games.

“Obviously when you go through something like this it is painful for everybody,” he said on a conference call Thursday, about 12 hours after the league reached a deal to bring back the regular officials. “Most importantly, it is painful for our fans.”

Goodell said, “We are sorry to have to put our fans through that, but it is something that in the short term you sometimes have to do to make sure you get the right kind of deal for the long term and make sure you continue to grow the game.”

Two days after a missed call on the final play cost the Green Bay Packers in their loss to the Seattle Seahawks, the NFL and the officials’ union announced a tentative eightyear agreement to end a lockout that began in June.

Goodell insisted the timing of the deal was not a reaction to the outcry over “Monday Night Football.” The two sides had been in “intensive negotiations” the last two weeks, he said, though he acknowledged that game “may have pushed the parties further along.”

NHL cancels the rest of preseason games NEW YORK (AP) – The NHL canceled the rest of the 2012 preseason Thursday, just a day before negotiations were set to resume in an effort to end the lockout.

The league announced its second cancellation of preseason games in a two-sentence statement. NHL owners locked out players on Sept. 16 when the collective bargaining agreement expired.

The NHL had already called off all the exhibition games scheduled in September. The regular season is supposed to begin Oct. 11.

The two sides have scheduled talks on Friday in New York — although they are on secondary economic issues as opposed to the core of the dispute, which is how to split more than $3 billion in annual revenue.

The NHL and the union last met for formal negotiations on Sept. 12, three days before the labor pact that ended the previous lockout in 2005 ran out.

If a deal isn’t reached soon, regular-season games will be the next thing to be called off, and players will begin to miss paychecks.

Briefs compiled from GoSeawolves.com and the Associated Press by Thomas McIntyre

Siobhan Johansen, setter and defensive specialist vollies the ball.

UAA fans cheer exuberantly for the Seawolves at Saturday’s volleyball game.

The Seawolf volleyball team put their heart on display Saturday night. Down two sets to none, they rallied back to defeat the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks in a thriller.

The Seawolves didn’t let a poor start decide the game. After giving up the first two sets, they pushed the Nanooks into deep water and claimed a 25-22, 25-22, 17-25, 20-25, 10-15 victory.

Freshman outside hitter Sarah Johnson had a monster outing, racking up 24 kills and 24 digs.

Freshman outside hitter Katelynn Zanders finished second on the team with 14 kills.

The Seawolves lapped the Nanooks in blocks, totaling 11 to the Nanooks’ 5. They also bettered the Nanooks in kills, assists, and digs.

Senior setter Kimya Jafroudi tallied 59 assists and 12 digs.

But one of her most important contributions didn’t show up on the stat sheet.

Freshman outside hitter Julia Mackey, who had 13 kills for the Seawolves, said Jafroudi helped keep her stay focused during the close game.

“Our setter Kimya keeps me in the game,” said Mackey. “She’s always saying get this next point.

You get (the win) one point at a time.”

In such a tight game, having a vocal leader like Jafroudi is essential. Reminding the players to take things one step at a time can be the difference between the Seawolves falling to a 0-3 loss instead of their 3-2 win.

Beating the Nanooks has put the Seawolves at 9-4 overall and 4-1 in conference play. Mackey believes the come-from-behind win over their in-state rival has given the Seawolves something to build on.

“We’re going to go into the next conference game and play like we played in the last three sets,” said Mackey.

If the Seawolves can maintain the level of play they showed in the last threes sets, there’s no reason the GNAC title can’t be theirs.

The Seawolves continue their home stretch with a game against Simon Fraser University Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center at 7 p.m.

They will then meet Western Washington University Saturday at the same time and place.

PHOTOS BY CAITLIN TAYLOR 50

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overtime My ‘beautiful dark twisted’ fantasy advice 4

5

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By Thomas McIntyre Sports Editor

Accepting an invite to play fantasy football is a lot like accepting an invite to stick your face in a bear trap. The pain is guaranteed. No one can avoid fantasy football’s wrath. Fantasy football is Rambo and you’re a Tatmadaw soldier in Burma.

Good luck.

I’m here to offer some tips that could help you survive the onslaught. And they’re all free, so you can’t complain when I’m wrong.

1. CJ2K is dead. Chris Johnson’s addiction to the homerun hit has made him one of the biggest busts in fantasy football history.

Johnson is now playing running back like I do in video games. He doesn’t let off turbo and scoffs at holes that will yield five-yard gains. But unlike in video games, a real life running back can’t survive with this mindset.

If you have Johnson, it’s time to pull the plug. Trade him for a back that can gain over two-yards a carry.

2. C.J. Spiller is the Buffalo Bills running back to own. If there’s an owner in your league that is smashing the panic button on Spiller, pounce.

The Buffalo Bills’ running back situation reminds me of Alabama’s in 2010.

“Yeah, Mark Ingram is nice but wait until we can unleash Trent Richardson,” warned every Crimson Tide fan.

Just like Richardson was better

GRAPHIC BY NICK FOOTE

than Ingram, C.J. Spiller is better than Fred Jackson. Before hurting his shoulder, Spiller gave the world a glimpse of his potential and now there’s no way Buffalo can go back to Fred Jackson — at least not all the way back.

3. Try not to laugh, but Shaun Hill is actually a solid quarterback option while Matthew Stafford is out. Sometimes good fantasy players are born out of opportunity, and Shaun Hill has a great one.

Hill is also somewhat proven; the Lions air attack didn’t slow down too much when he took the reins in 2010. Knowing how to throw in Calvin Johnson’s general area could make Hill a better fantasy start than Michael Vick.

4. “Scared money don’t make money,” said the dudes I once played dice with behind a Burlington Coat Factory.

They’re right. Don’t be afraid to make big moves. For instance, owners who gambled by trading for Jamaal Charles last week are now bathing in their riches.

Buying low on Cam Newton could make you just as wealthy.

5. Bail on Steven Jackson.

The St. Louis Rams have already lost their starting left tackle and center. This is status quo for the Rams, but that hasn’t made them any more prepared to deal with such crippling injuries. They’re currently starting 2011’s two worst rated tackles. My goodness.

The offensive line isn’t the only issue. Jackson has had recurring injuries to his legs and is now spelled by Daryl Richardson, who’s capable of stealing carries.

A guy who has done so many inhuman things on the football field is finally starting to look mortal.

Jackson’s reckless dump truck style of running has reached its breaking point. He is no longer the same back and you have to react accordingly.

6. Kyle Rudolph should be your top waiver wire target.

Rudolph can be described as “Rob Gronkowski Lite.” He blocks as well as he catches, which gives the Minnesota Vikings no reason to take him off the field.

Rudolph’s week three playtime numbers back this up: Rudolph was used in 67 of the Vikings’ 79 offensive snaps. To put that in

perspective, Adrian Peterson got 49 snaps while Percy Harvin saw 53.

Christian Ponder’s arm only makes Rudolph more attractive.

Ponder has shown this year that he can rip it. And when he does, Rudolph is clearly his second option. Add in the red zone love Ponder gives him and you now have the makeup of a top seven fantasy tight end.

7. Are there trade offers for Robert Griffin III in your inbox?

Go ahead and reject those. Also, include a snarky response in the rejection email. “Bite me” is always a very funny and effective comeback.

The Washington Redskins have had no problem figuring out ways to use Griffin. An example of the Skins adapting to Griffin’s unique skill set: they’re running a ton of stuff out of the pistol formation. The pistol puts Griffin in a position to run read-option and designed run plays more effectively.

The Carolina Panthers made similar adjustments to their offense last year for Cam Newton.

In result, Newton had the best rookie season of any quarterback ever. Griffin could challenge Newton for that title.

8. You know your league is full of suckers if owners are holding onto multiple defenses and kickers.

If you’re one of those owners, it’s time to make some cuts.

Please have your second kicker and second defense return their playbooks.

18

COMICS October 2, 2012

The Northern Light

COMICS

3211 Providence Drive Student Union 113 Anchorage, AK 99508 Phone: 907-786-1513 Fax: 907-786-1331 info@thenorthernlight.org EXECUTIVE EDITOR Vacant

MANAGING EDITOR 786-1313 content@thenorthernlight.org J. Almendarez COPY EDITOR copy1@thenorthernlight.org Kierra Hammons NEWS EDITOR Vacant

HOROSCOPE The coming week is likely to see many individuals transitioning quickly from one major project to another, leaving behind what was a labor of love, and jumping into something that will require much more in the way of commitment and tenacity. This doesn’t mean, of course, that there is little to gain from this new endeavor; on the contrary, it can ultimately prove to be quite beneficial in many ways -- but at first it may seem to be nothing but hard work for very little gain. Now is no time to give up prematurely; he who calls it quits before hitting his stride is sacrificing much!

There is little room for emotion this week, when it comes to work. “Feeling” can actually prove a liability at first. Many will find it necessary, therefore, to make a concerted effort to keep their emotions out of play at this time, and to view things in a purely intellectual way.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 7) -- How you spin a certain story this week will make all the difference -- but take care that you don’t simply promote fiction.

(Nov. 8-Nov. 21) -- You may be facing a crisis of confidence at this time. Focus on what you know you can do.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 7) -- A competition is likely to heat up this week as a rival hits you with a plan that seems, at first, to be more exciting than your own. (Dec. 8-Dec. 21) -- A major decision is to be made this week, but you may not feel its effects for a while; be patient.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 6) -- Others may be expecting you to solve a major problem in one fell swoop -- but you know that it’s not possible to do it that way. (Jan. 7-Jan. 19) -You may have trouble convincing those around you this week that your plans can lead directly to results.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 3) -- You’ll have to make one or two key compromises as a result of a surprise that hits you just as the week begins. (Feb. 4-Feb. 18) -- You may find your stress levels rising because certain money matters are not being resolved as hoped.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 5) -- You can educate yourself in a way that gives you a distinct advantage over the competition this week. (March 6-March 20) -- You are being asked to do

SUDOKU things in a way that does not come naturally -- but that can, indeed, yield the desired results.

ARIES (March 21-April 4) -- It’s time for you to go after what you want with more dedication and tenacity. You don’t want to quit before you’ve done all you can. (April 5-April 19) -- A simple matter of personal taste will evolve into a major issue that many will have to contend with.

TAURUS (April 20-May 5) -- You may be facing quite a task as you try to sell your ideas to those who have never been quick to buy what you have to offer. (May 6-May 20) -- You understand that a current problem can be solved in a new way -- but those around you may be resistant.

GEMINI (May 21-June 6) -- You are feeling as though no one has been taking you seriously lately. This week you’ll have a chance to state your case -- in a new way. (June 7-June 20) -- It’s time to present examples of your work so that others will know what to invest in when the time comes.

CANCER (June 21-July 7) -- You’re facing quite an obstacle this week, and you’re not likely to overcome it entirely on your own. It’s time to assemble a team. (July 8-July 22) -- No matter how specific you are, there will be those who doubt that you can get it all done as described.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 7) -- It’s time to let others know precisely what you are going to do -- before the time has come to do it. Your ideas are certainly valid.

(Aug. 8-Aug. 22) -- There is more to think about than economics; style and substance vie for your attention.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept.

7) -- You are ready to put a plan into motion, but before you do you’ll want to be sure that your timeline is complete and errorfree. (Sept. 8-Sept. 22) -- You’re likely to achieve a certain level of celebrity this week -- just in time to enjoy it fully.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 7) -- You may fear that you haven’t done everything possible to ensure your own success -- and this week the returns will start coming in.

(Oct. 8-Oct. 22) -- You’ll want to avoid anything that might distract from the messages you are trying to convey.

FEATURES EDITOR Vacant A&E EDITOR 786-1512 arts@thenorthernlight.org Heather Hamilton SPORTS EDITOR 786-1512 sports@thenorthernlight.org Thomas McItyre PHOTO EDITOR Vacant WEB EDITOR 786-1506 web@thenorthernlight.org Shawna Sweeney LAYOUT EDITOR layout@thenorthernlight.org Nick Foote ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Vacant ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR features2@thenorthernlight.org Nita Mauigoa ASSISTANT A&E EDITOR Vacant ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR Vacant

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GRAPHIC DESIGNER Vacant GRAPHIC DESIGNER Vacant ADVERTISING MANAGER 786-4690 ads@thenorthernlight.org Chelsea Dennis ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Vacant MULTIMEDIA EDITOR multimedia@thenorthernlight.org Vicente Capala STAFF REPORTERS Vacant CONTRIBUTORS Shannon Burgoon Evan Dodd Emily Hodson Jacob Holley-Kline Keldon Irwin Katelyn Jones Meghan Lackey Kate Lindsley Caitlin Taylor MEDIA ADVISER Paola Banchero ADMINISTRATIVE ADVISER Annie Route

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