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“Captain America” a franchise cornerstone

Vols jockey for position as season looms

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

PAGE 6 T H E

Issue 16

E D I T O R I A L L Y

Partly cloudy 10% chance of rain HIGH LOW 93 71

PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://utdailybeacon.com

Vol. 117

I N D E P E N D E N T

S T U D E N T

N E W S P A P E R

O F

T H E

U N I V E R S I T Y

PAGE 5 O F

T E N N E S S E E

Student assists in NASA asteroid job Career Fair offers national appeal Robby O’Daniel

Mission attempts to answer astronomical questions through asteroid study involved since 2002. The mission is set to launch in 2016 and will yield samples in 2023. According to NASA, this is the first mission to carry samples from an asteroid back to Earth. Michael Drake, a cosmochemistry professor at the University of Arizona and principal investigator of OSIRIS-

Jamie Cunningham

News and Student Life Editor

look at asteroids to see these organic materials.” NASA said asteroids can provide scientists with vital clues to the formation of our solar system. “Asteroids are leftovers formed from the cloud of gas and dust — the solar nebula — that collapsed to form our sun and the planets about 4.5 billion years ago,” a NASA press release said. “As such, they contain the original material from the solar nebula, which can tell us about the conditions of our solar system’s birth.” The RQ36 asteroid, discovered in 1999, is roughly the size of five football fields and presents NASA with the possibility of discovering organic molecules, such as carbon, which are crucial for life. Emery said the asteroid can provide scientists with a blueprint for the makings of our solar system. “One of the things that scientists don’t have a lot of information about is the abundance and types of organic material that was around when the solar system was taking form,” Emery said. “We see the material all over space, and it’s found on some meteorites that fall to Earth.”

UT students generally know about job fairs when they take place on campus, While NASA is famous for its shuttle since a classmate or friend missions and its astronauts, it is also might dress up in a suit or filled with detectives attempting to find dress that day and head clues about the formation of Earth. UT’s over to a main gathering own Josh Emery is helping NASA displace on campus. cover new things about the planet. But an opportunity for Emery, assistant job seekers UT students professor in the might not know about is the Department of Earth Job News Knoxville Career and Planetary Fair, taking place at the Sciences, is part of a Knoxville Expo Center on NASA mission called Aug. 3 from 10 a.m. to 2 Origins, Spectral p.m. Interpretation, Job News Knoxville R e s o u r c e sponsors the event. Job Identification, News Knoxville is a branch S ecurity-Regolith of Job News USA, which Explorer (OSIRIShas offices in 26 cities and REx) that seeks to services 95 cities nationally, obtain samples of an said Job News Recruitment unnamed asteroid, – Josh Emery, UT’s assistant professor in the Consultant John Cylc. 1999 RQ36. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, “We’re one of the leading Emery was first on the blueprint for the makings of our solar system recruitment advertisers in introduced to the projthe country,” Cylc said. “We ect when his former don’t do staffing. We strictprofessor from the ly do recruitment.” University of Arizona The fair takes place quarREx, said the mission will answer scienapproached him at a conference. terly. The last one was on tists’ many questions about the solar “I got involved through a prior May 4, with 41 companies system. acquaintance with the program’s principarticipating and between “Where did life come from? Why are pal investigator, Michael Drake,” Emery 1,100 and 1,200 job seekers said. “Drake is a former professor of you and I here?” Drake said. “We have attending, he said. mine, and I ran into him at a conference. many questions like this. Imagine 4.5 “Tougher times make it a And it turned out I had observing tech- billion years ago, as the rocky planets lot more popular, so we niques he wanted to use on the target were growing, objects the size of Mars were crashing into Earth. Any organic should do pretty well at the asteroid.” event,” he said. Emery has been working on the pro- material there at the time had no chance The range for job seekers gram for approximately a year and a to survive because it would vaporize See NASA on Page 3 half, but some scientists have been from the energy. Therefore, we must attending the fairs is between 1,000 and 1,400, he said. “This is a very generalized event,” Cylc said. “It’s going to attract all types of different industry, from manufacturing to engineering to retail and everything in between. And a lot of those companies are looking for those straight-out-ofcollege, those career-type candidates.” The main thing that separates the Knoxville Career Fair from career fairs at UT, he said, was the Knoxville Career Fair’s emphasis on national companies, rather than local ones. The fair has 26 companies signed up right now, but Cylc expects over 30 companies once the day comes. “There’s a few we’re just waiting for the registration George Richardson • The Daily Beacon forms (from),” he said. Employers that will be at Piotr Luszczek, researcher in the EECS department, works from his office in the Claxton Education Building on the job fair include places Monday, July 25. Luszczek is working to pass the one-gigaflop mark in a UT-developed application on the iPad like Captain D’s, Home 2. Staff Writer

One of the things that scientists

don’t have a lot of information about

is the abundance and types of organic

material that was around when the solar system was taking form.

Depot, H&R Block and CVS. Other employers are Woodmen of the World, an insurance company, and Securewatch, which is looking to hire a sales position in contract sales for security companies. “It seems like we’re really picking up on the construction industry, due to the storms,” he said. “We have a few companies coming out who are looking for the construction site workers, project managers, things like that.” To solicit employers to take part, Job News sends out local sales people and contacts everyone it does normal Web and print ads with. Job News also utilizes flyers and social media to get the word out. He said this year’s crop of employers is quite diverse, and he suggests students prepare for the fair. “Make sure they get their suits pressed or their dress ready,” he said. “It’s very important to look like you put some effort into this event, and you’re not just showing up.” Besides dress, the other point of emphasis for job seekers is the all-important resume. Cylc suggests contacting a professional resume company to lay one out. “Even if they’ve only had part-time work through college, any experience would look good to show that you make an effort to get out there and earn your living,” he said. For someone who has never attended the job fair before, Cylc advises to be bold. “Don’t hesitate to go up and speak to someone,” he said. “You have to be confident and sure of yourself. ... Find out what the company is about and what type of person they are looking for.” Reggie McElhaney, Job News regional vice president, called the job fair a unique experience. “It gives the job seeker an opportunity to make a first impression versus just being a resume that is emailed over to a company or faxed over,” McElhaney said.

States across U.S. shrewdly raise fees, fines The Associated Press NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — Twenty dollars for a parking place wasn’t going to ruin Ellen Majka’s day at the beach. But she was still taken aback when she arrived at Rhode Island’s popular Scarborough state beach and learned that parking fees had nearly doubled. “It seems a little steep to me,” said Majka, of Westfield, Mass. “Add in the price of gas, and it starts to add up. But I didn’t come two hours to turn back over $20.” As states and municipalities continue to grapple with the recession’s fallout, few turned to big, noticeable tax hikes this year. Instead, they’re slashing spending and turning to more modest, narrowly crafted increases in fees and fines — nickel-and-diming their way to a balanced budget. Louisiana and South Dakota raised state park fees, while California increased vehicle registration costs and Wisconsin started charging more to retake the state driving exam. Georgia raised fees on day care licenses, fireworks permits and traveling circuses. Oregon raised fees on medical marijuana, while Rhode Island imposed taxes on overthe-counter drugs, sightseeing tours and smartphone applications. Fines are going up in many places too. Tennessee lawmakers increased traffic fines. Wyoming raised fines for trucks exceeding weight limits. New York city increased

fines for taxi drivers caught talking on a cellphone while driving. In Maryland, fee increases were common solutions this year as lawmakers struggled to balance the books without across-the-board tax increases. Not even newborns went unaffected, as birth certificate fees doubled from $12. The fee for a vanity license plate doubled from $25. A surcharge on filing land records will double from $20. Kim Malle, who lives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, isn’t only unhappy about the recently approved fees; she’s also concerned about rising tolls that are under consideration. The Grasonville resident may have to pay more to take the Bay Bridge across the Chesapeake Bay when the toll rises from $2.50 to $5 on Oct. 1 and up to $8 by 2013. “I think this state has too many fees, definitely,” Malle said after walking out of a Motor Vehicle Administration Office, where she was returning tags for a vehicle that she had sold. “I don’t mind certain things, but I just think the state overdoes it.” Julio Reyes, who was at the same office to pay the certificate of title fee, said the recent jump from $50 to $100 to title a new car was too much, too fast. “I think maybe $20 more; that’s O.K.,” Reyes said. “100 percent? Too much.” Fee increases can be an attractive alternative for lawmak-

ers worried about losing political points or increasing hardships by raising income or sales taxes across the board. Professional license fees are a cost of doing business. Recreational fees are paid only by users. Don’t want to pay a tax on a new smartphone app? Don’t download it. “The folks who run government weren’t born yesterday,” said Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University. “When they see a fee that has a built-in user base, in times of difficulty they’ll do whatever they can to extract revenue from that base. Raising fees is often easier than raising taxes. They can avoid the controversy and the public backlash.” Or, as Maryland Democratic state Sen. Richard Madaleno of Montgomery puts it: “Politically, it does appear that fees are certainly something that are more feasible — no pun intended.” But some lawmakers are tiring of the practice of using fees to avoid the dreaded T-word. Texas state Rep. Richard Peña Raymond proposed a bill this year that would require lawmakers to officially label any proposed fee increase a tax increase. “They say, ‘Look, it’s not a tax, it’s a user fee,’” said Raymond, a Laredo Democrat. “I say that’s bull. The public is cynical already. We have to be honest and call it what it is: a tax.” See BUDGET on Page 3


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