Vol. XCXI No. 12

Uunewsonline.com

Thursday, November 29, 2012

University Newsthe

A student voice of SLU since 1919

NEWS

>> Syrian student talks revolt

2

INSI

DE: OPINION

>> Life after Majerus

4 ARTS 7 SCIENCE 9

>> A new life under the sea

Kristen Miano/ News Editor

The row of Laclede houses are set to be closed this summer.

Engineering and Innovation Parks seniors work to turn plans into products

SLU’s Laclede Houses may face wrecking ball

By WOLF HOWARD Associate News Editor

Faculty Senate plans for Board meeting

Our mission is to get in the door that Satur-day and plead our case to the Board members so we know the Board members have heard us.

“”

-Mark Kneupfer

Speaker addresses plague of body parts market

Just across from McDonnell-Doug-las Hall is a giant block of a building called Oliver Hall. It remains unfamil-iar to the majority of students at Saint Louis University, but for Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technol-ogy students, it stands as a vital place for their continued education.

Essentially, Oliver Hall is a giant workshop where engineering students put their hours of computer design training and their plethora of fluid dy-namics equations to practical use. It is where seniors in Parks College spend a large amount of their “free-time”; that is, the time they don’t spend in class-rooms, computer labs or lining the halls of MDH with a laptop and a note-book brimming with graphs and data.

Every engineering student must complete a senior design project, which is a year-long process done with a team of students. The teams come up with ideas that they want to see be-come reality, then put the entirety of

their education to work in an attempt to design, construct and implement an innovative product.

While all share in the realm of en-gineering, the breadth of the various goals and disciplines of Parks seniors is vast and deep.

From solar-powered boats to battle robots, turbo-chargers to air-surveil-lance devices, designs put forward by students span land, sea and air, some even going so far as outer space.

For many groups, the primary inten-tion of their project is competition. For instance, the team of Joe Lewandowski, Angela Schilt, Chris Eberhardt and An-der Robinson is building a robot to en-ter in the 2013 RoboGames, an interna-tional robotics competition held in San Mateo, Calif.

According to Lewandowski, the group plans to build a pneumatic flip-per, which is a device that extends for-ward 5 to 7 inches from the robot and pushes up at the same time in an at-tempt to launch other competitors.

A 250-psi air tank will be used to power the flipper. Lewandowski com-pared this level of power to the drills

used by NASCAR mechanics, which op-erate under 150 psi. The group will be constructing the robot from scratch.

“The problem is finding components that can withstand that particularly high pressure,” Lewandowski said. The team will compete with another SLU group that is designing a robot with a wedge device. The winner of that competition will move on to the RoboGames.

Another project currently underway is a solar energy-powered boat. The team, comprised of Ram Pokhrel, Hasta Monger, Huaqi Lu and Sufeng Shi, plan to attach two solar panels measuring 5.5 feet by 3.3 feet to the back of a 19-foot-long boat. The solar panels extract en-ergy from sunlight and use it to charge lead acid batteries, which are used to run a DC motor connected to the pro-peller of the boat. One person will pilot the boat.

 “Our main goal for this project is to complete a well-functioning boat and take it to an intercollegiate competition that’s going to happen in Iowa in June By KRISTEN MIANO

News Editor

A main concern of the Faculty Senate meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 27 was the upcoming meeting of the Board of Trustees on Satur-day, Dec. 15.

“At this point, our mis-sion is to get in the door that Saturday and plead our case to the Board members so we know the Board members have heard us,” Mark K n e u f e r , president of the Faculty Senate, said.

Since the vote of no confidence a g a i n s t L a w r e n c e Biondi, S.J., president of Saint Louis Univers i ty on Oct. 30, the Executive Commit-tee has reached out to the Board of Trustees, meeting once with several members confidentially and inviting them to attend the Senate meeting on Nov. 13. Ac-cording to the Executive Committee, it is likely that another confidential meet-ing will be held before the actual Board meeting.

Since the last meeting, the Faculty Senate have begun a University As-

sessment Task Force to be charged with gather-ing information to compile reports for the Executive Committee to use when meeting with the Board. In addition, a forum is being held to assist chairs and de-partment heads in finding ways to fulfill their obliga-tions in light of the current situation at the University.

Senate also went over the work done so far by

the Faculty M a n u a l Task Force ( F M T F ) , a group of faculty m e m b e r s w o r k i n g to evaluate and revise the policies within the m a n u a l . When the draft poli-cies pro-

posed by the Vice Presi-dent for Academic Affairs, Manoj Patankar, were re-leased, the Faculty Manual Task Force authored a let-ter to the Vice President de-tailing the manual revisions needed to make the propos-als viable.

Since the policies have been withdrawn, the Fac-ulty Manual Task Force has been specifically looking at

See “Senate” on Page 3

See “Design” on Page 3

See “GIC” on Page 3

By KRISTEN MIANO News Editor

Saint Louis University recently announced the planned closure and demo-lition of the Laclede Hous-es at the end of the 2013 spring semester. The move has been met with resis-tance from residents of the Laclede Houses in the form of a petition.

The Laclede Houses are a group of three apartment buildings located at 3741 Laclede Ave.

Easily identified by the blue awnings sitting above each doorway, they were originally acquired by SLU in 1999.

According to Joshua Walehwa, director of the Department of Housing and Residence Life, the main issue with the houses is quality, and the build-ing was never intended for long-term housing. The houses experienced many

renovations last summer. However the expense of constantly renovating the houses would be much greater than the worth of the building.

“At this point, the houses are in good enough condi-tion to live in,” Walehwa said. “But the value of the houses compared to what it would cost to truly reno-vate them and put them on par with what our standards and expectations for hous-ing are is way more expen-sive than the value of the houses.”

The apartments initially existed as a learning com-munity for foreign language students. They were first used as housing for stu-dents in the Micah program in 2008.

The Micah program, which is the service-learn-ing community on campus, provides housing for fresh-men and sophomoroes in

See “Micah” on Page 3

Investigative journal-ist Scott Carney began his speech on Nov. 28 saying that he likes talking to col-lege students for a very spe-cific reason.

“It’s always an honor to speak in front of college stu-dents,” Carney said. “Espe-cially since you’re getting to these issues before you get horribly jaded by them.”

Carney was brought to Saint Louis University by the Great Issues Com-mittee to speak about his book, “The Red Market.” He spent roughly six years researching and travel-ing for the story, and said that the Red Market can be summed up in a simple quote from anthropologist Richard Titmuss.

“If blood as a living hu-man tissue is increasingly bought and sold as an arti-cle of commerce and profit improves from such trans-actions, that follows that the

laws of commerce must in the end prevail,” Titmuss said.

The Red Market is the trade of not only human body parts, but also human people as commodities. Carney’s book explores these markets, ranging from the sale of organs to the sale of children, and exposes just how prevalent and illustrious such a trade is in modern times.

Carney spoke about visit-ing a tsunami refugee camp in India where he saw first hand what happens when things become so desolate, the body is the only thing a person has left. In the camp, every woman in residence had sold a kidney.

This is not an isolated in-cident, according to Carney, and it manifests itself across the globe in any number of ways. Despite the variety in the Red Market, Carney said that he found one thing in common among all the kinds of transactions he en-countered.

“It’s taken me inside the

respected glass and steel in-stitutions of the first world, like where we are right now, and into the back dens of criminal hide outs in the third,” Carney said. “I’ve met with police and lawyers and victims and ordinary business folk just trying to make their livings and in all the markets I’ve explored, one thing has stood out:

that everyone, no matter who they are, is convinced they are doing the right thing.”

From there, Carney delved into the flaws in the medical system. While a large number of body parts are in fact donated and ob-tained in legal ways, any

By WOLF HOWARD Associate News Editor

Kristen Miano/ News Editor

Left: Senior Eric Held holds the turbocharger that will increase the power output of the group’s engine. Top right: A race car designed by past engineering students. Bot-tom right: A graphic of the turbocharger, along with the engine and a dynamometer.

Scott Carney speaks in the Wool Ballrooms on Nov. 28.

Kristen Miano/ News Editor

>> The Ho! Ho! Holidays

NOVEMBER 29, 2012unewsonline.com2 NEWS

Let Us Introduce You: Michael MegarbaneStudent celebrates Syrian identity despite the growing conflict

John Schuler/Photo Editor

By HANNAH WILEY Staff Writer

Sophomore Michael John Megarbane may be a U.S. citizen, but his heart is Syrian. Raised in Damas-cus, Megarbane’s child-hood memories are filled with the richness of Syrian tradition and cultural val-ues. While he planned to attend an American univer-sity once he graduated from high school, Megarbane’s route to the United States was unexpected.

As a freshman at Saint Louis University, Megar-bane immediately declared an international business major and joined Sigma Phi Epsilon. He said his experi-ence as a SLU student has been nothing short of wel-coming and enjoyable, and the University has become Megarbane’s new home.

But things have changed this year. Megarbane’s homeland is engaged in a civil war, and his mother and family remain overseas, experiencing the war first-hand. While he speaks with his mother almost every-day via text or phone calls, Megarbane worries for her safety. His mother stayed in Damascus to take care of the family business, and will stay until the danger is no longer avoidable.

Since the revolts in Syria in March of 2011 provoked the civil war between the Alawite government and Sunni army, Megarbane has watched his country destroy itself over reli-gious hatred and oppres-sion, something he said has forced the him to mature quickly.

In Syria, Megarbane’s perception of his govern-ment was a positive one: his minority group of Syriac Christians was protected by the government, since the government was also con-trolled by a religious minor-ity. Now, Megarbane’s opin-ions have changed, given the recent situation in his country.

“It’s not a perfect world. The president [of Syria] has made a lot of mistakes, but he was the only source of stability,” Megarbane said. “But I don’t support any side that kills, and both sides have now balanced out. People don’t under-stand that it takes one trig-ger and this could become World War III.”

Megarbane was born in the United States, but his family immediately moved back to Syria to raise their

children. His love for the country began as a child, a love that he didn’t know he possessed until he had al-ready left.

“I never realized how much I love Syria, how much I respected it,” Mega-rbane said.

Megarbane’s only home had been in Syria, up until his sophomore year of high school when the tensions began. The revolts started, and his American Embassy high school quickly emp-tied. He said his friends fled to neighboring countries such as Jordan and Leba-non, and the rest headed for Canada and the United States.

Megarbane moved to Kansas City and finished high school in the United States at an all-boys Catho-lic school.

As the fighting continues in Syria, Megarbane said he hasn’t picked a side in the matter.

“I can’t say what side I’m on. Who cares if I pick a side?” Megarbane said. “For it to stop, it doesn’t take picking a side.”

Megarbane believes that the key to peace lies in pro-ductive conversation and avoidance of any interna-tional intervention.

“As long as there are for-eign hands in the issue, it won’t stop. It takes sitting down and talking peace-fully,” Megarbane said. “I don’t know, it might be an-

other Ground Zero before it stops...and then we will rebuild.”

The country’s war may be frontline news every-day and the pressing is-sue in presidential debates and foreign concerns, but Megarbane remains proud to be a Syrian, something he attributes to the kind na-ture of his people and beau-tiful history of the land.

He wants to return to Syria after graduation to work for his family’s busi-ness. Megarbane hopes Syria can one day return to being the only Middle East-ern country that allowed the practice of any religion, the Syria he grew up loving and respecting.

Megarbane and his friends, who have become refugees, wish they could go back to their homeland, but Megarbane remembers the words of his best friend from childhood: “We are all in the United States for a reason: to educate our-selves so that we may go back and rebuild Syria.”

Megarbane plans to return to Syria during De-cember to visit his mother, family and friends, but also to see the war and experi-ence it firsthand. The plans are not definite, however, due to the increasing risk associated with visiting.

“If nobody would stop me, I would go,” Megar-bane said. “My blood is Syrian.”

Be a Responsible

Billiken

STOP. CALL. REPORT.

314-977-3000witness.slu.edu

dps.slu.edu

All Information Provided by Department of Public Safety

and Emergency Preparedness

Tuesday, Nov. 207:30 a.m. - STEALING OVER $500

A parent and his son parked their vehicle behind Hotel Ignacio. Sur-veillance cameras revealed the vehicle was broken into by several unidentified males. The suspects broke the window and removed a laptop, hard-drive, three suitcases and tools. SLMPD responded and filed a report.

Tuesday, Nov. 209:22 a.m. - STEALING UNDER $500

A SLU student stated that on Nov. 16 he parked his vehicle at the load-ing dock with the engine running. He left his wallet on the roof of the car. When he returned the wallet was gone.

Thursday, Nov. 221:13 p.m. - FIRE ALARM

A student was cooking fried chicken and set off the smoke detector. There was no smoke or fire. The alarm was reset.

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Work with this guy!

Apply to be Associate Opinion Editor or other

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For more information visit unewsonline.com.

Monday, Nov. 261:00 p.m. - HARASSMENT

A student is harassing her roommate via phone and internet over another student. Residence Life was notified. This is an ongoing problem that Residence Life is aware of.

Tuesday, Nov. 272:42 p.m. - PROPERTY DAMAGE

A DPSEP officer received a call about a refrigerator that malfunctioned a week ago. The refrigerator compressor failed, destroying the antibodies and cultures that were contained inside.

Tuesday, Nov. 277:53 a.m.- FOUND PROPERTY

A student identification card was turned into DPSEP. The owner of the yeard was contacted and responded to the Wool Center to claim the card.

Tuesday, Nov. 271:56 p.m. - STEALING UNDER $500

A student reported that while her car was parked on the street, unknown person(s) smashed the window of her vehicle. She was

uncertain if anything was stolen from the vehicle.

Tuesday, Nov. 276:35 p.m. - BIAS INCIDENT

DPSEP responded to Reinert Hall regarding a bias incident. An RA was a victim of a bias incident. The victim stated that she left her room and noticed bias remarks written on her name tag on the door to her room.

NEWS 3unewsonline.comNOVEMBER 29, 2012

GIC: Journalist speaks on the problems of the Red Market

been specifically looking at section III.H.4 of the manu-al that deals with the defini-tion of shared governance.

Proposed adjustments to this section include a clear shift from top-down governance, more empow-erment of and input from faculty units and changes in the process of making aca-demic decisions that more readily include participa-tion from the groups most affected by such decisions.

Chair of the FMTF, Mir-iam Joseph, noted that the task force has been looking at the shared governance model of Santa Clara Uni-versity, an institution that received an award from the American Association of University Professors specifically for their style of shared governance.

“[Santa Clara] is just one example of a possible ap-proach. Just a thought.” Jo-seph said. “We have a lot of homework to do to see what is out there and see how we will adapt in our situation.”

Any changes to the Fac-ulty Manual must be ap-proved by the Faculty Sen-ate before they become of-ficial.

Senators will make decisions based on feed-back from their respective schools and departments.

Another concern ad-dressed at the meeting was what the next step would be following the upcoming Board of Trustees meet-ing. The next official meet-ing of the Faculty Senate will not be until January 29,

2013. Since that meeting is the annual budget meeting and would not leave much time for discussion of other business, a motion was pre-sented to hold an additional meeting on Dec. 18 to dis-cuss the next step.

“If we want to pass any motion following the Board meeting before our meeting in February, a December 18 meeting would be a good time to do it,” Steven Har-ris, a senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, said.

Ted Vitali C.P., a member of the Faculty Senate Ex-ecutive Committee, agreed that the decisions of the Board would likely dictate the need for timely action.

“I’m not a proponent of meetings, but I don’t want to wait.” Vitali said. “De-pending on the decision, we may need to form additional committees.”

Many senators voiced concern about how in-formed the Board would be going into their meeting about the current situation.

The interactions so far have been mostly between the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate, but giv-en the gravity of the issue, it is likely any actions taken by the Board of Trustees will be decided upon by the entirety of the Board.

“We need to communi-cate to the Board that real and lasting damage could be done to the University depending on their deci-sion, especially with budget planning coming up for next year.” Gregory Beabout, a faculty representative, said.

The Executive Commit-tee encouraged the sen-ate to continue collecting evidence from all aspects of the University in order to ensure that the positions presented in the Board meeting will be a reflection of SLU faculty concerns.

“When the whole Faculty Senate voted no confidence, that was representative of the whole faculty of the whole of Saint Louis Univer-sity,” Executive Committee member Douglas Williams said.

Senate: Task force aims to revise the Faculty Manual

Continued from Page 1

Design: Novel projects from Parks seniorsContinued from Page 1

Continued from Page 1

Micah: Cost of renovation outweighs worthContinued from Page 1

We just wanted the people making the decision to know what the houses mean to us.

“”

-Allison Walter

houses or statements from underclassmen about why they were looking forward to living in the houses.

Members of the Micah program submitted a peti-tion to Housing and Resi-dence Life against the closure of the Laclede Houses in an attempt to demon-strate the importance of the build-ings to the Micah com-munity.

“We just w a n t e d the peo-ple making the decision to know what the houses mean to us,” Allison Walter, a Micah member and resi-dent of the Laclede Houses, said.

Dawn Aldrich, the as-

sistant director of Housing and Residence Life, along with Micah Program Coor-dinator Debbie Wilson and Micah Program Director Donald Stump, have been communicating with the

s t u d e n t s t h r o u g h emails and meetings about the future of the hous-es and potent ia l Micah liv-ing spaces to replace the hous-es.

Accord-ing to Wal-

ter, Residence Life has been very responsive to students’ concerns.

“While it seems that sadly, the houses cannot be saved,” Walter said, “We are hopeful to come to a

solution that will allow the community we have put so much of ourselves into to continue to flourish.”

Many different options have been discussed as to what the Micah program can do for housing in the future.

“We’re committed to working closely with stu-dents to find the best op-tions that can support their needs and that they’ll be satisfied with,” Walehwa said.

One new option that is in conversation is the West Lo-cust Master Tenant build-ing. Located near the Flying Cow on Locust Street, the space has potential to hold over 45 beds, Walehwa said.

The fate of the Laclede Houses space is still un-certain, though the plan is to have them closed once students move out in May and to eventually demolish te building.

turbocharger for a 600cc motor racecar. Turbocharg-ers are used to increase the potential power out-put of an en-gine.

“ W e ’ r e trying to make it so the race cars can be a little bit more power-ful and we can get them out of the corners faster,” Held said. The design considerations

for the team is not so much getting the greatest horse-

p o w e r possible, but maxi-m i z i n g h o r s e -p o w e r at lower s p e e d s to get the car to acceler -ate more q u i c k l y out of t u r n s . T u r b o -

chargers operate based on airflow, and for the competi-

tions in which the team they are restricted to sending air through holes smaller than a nickel.

As students move into the spring semester, their projects will move from de-sign stages to construction and implementation, which is certain to come with a whole new set of obstacles. Yet at the end of all the frustrations and problems inherent in any design of man, those most dedicat-ed, talented and fortunate engineers will have added their very own piece to the collection of human techno-logical innovation.

duction occurred and even-tually, the skeleton trade was outlawed. Most produc-ers went out of business, but a few managed to sur-vive. It was these produc-ers Carney meant to track down, stumbling upon his larger story in the process.

The more Carney looked into the trade of human parts, the more incarna-tions of the trade he found. He expanded his focus from corpses and organs to the exploitation of international adoptions. He noticed that in areas that have suffered from natural disasters or other kinds of hardship, these sorts of trades appear with greater frequency.

“In these sorts of emer-gencies, brokers come in,” Carney said. “With such concentrated destitution, you’ll have people who want to take advantage of that in any way they can.”

Carney’s goal with his speech was to take a mostly ignored problem and frame it as a social issue. His re-search is far from over, as he stated, he learns about a new market or trade practi-cally every week.

At the end of the lecture, Carney took several ques-tions from the audience and held a brief book signing.

Kristen Miano/ News Editor

Pokhrel’s team plans to power the 19-foot-long boat with solar panels attached to its back end.

Kristen Miano/ News Editor

After his speech , investigative journalist Scott Carney, signed cop-ies of his new book, The Red Markert.

excess demand is what con-tributes to the transactions occurring on these Red Markets. Too often, donors and recipients of body parts accept that privacy of medi-cal records keeps them from learning where these transactions begin and end.

“Medical privacy be-comes the perfect cover for some of the most despi-cable crimes humanity has invented,” Carney said.

Carney’s goal, however, is not a critique of medical systems. Instead, his aim is to create awareness about where the human com-modities that have allowed our medicine to become so advanced come from.

The trade of human bod-ies is as old as the study of medicine itself. As early as the 1700s, medical students bought cadavers to study. The cadavers, it turned out, were not always obtained ethically, as some providers resorted to murder in order to have a product to sell.

When a demand for skeletons for studies arose, methods of obtaining them went oversees. The same problems of unethical pro-

2013,” Pokhrel said. The group also hopes to demon-strate the potential for alter-native energy in the form of solar power.

A similar project was at-tempted in 2010, but the group working on it ran into problems and never got the boat running.

Looking to the skies, Kevin Keadle, Jeremy Payne, Ellen Pifer and Grant Spencer are design-ing an unmanned air vehi-cle for a competition being held by the Department of Homeland Security.

The goal is to provide a platform that would allow Homeland Security to sur-vey the border and watch for illegal drugs or illegal immigrants.

According to Pifer, the team’s design is somewhat innovative in that it’s a UAV without a tail, something like a B-2 Bomber.

Should their design re-port be chosen to continue in the competition, the group will be given $30,000 to create a working model prototype.

“We have a 55-pound aircraft with a wingspan of about 16 feet,” said Pifer, concerning the designed aircraft. The group has de-signed UAVs of comparable size over the last few years, but felt that attempting to create an aircraft without a tail would be more chal-lenging and give a “more re-al-life flavor to the design.”

In the area of land-based racing, Jaime Burgos, Eric Held, Greg Pasken, Shengyang Yi, and Manuel Tertsch are designing a

Marguerite Hall. The Mi-cah students living in the Laclede Houses are all up-perclassmen.

Since the Micah pro-gram took over the houses the number of Micah resi-dents in the houses has in-creased, and currently all of the residents of the Laclede Houses are Micah students.

The Department of Housing and Residence Life hopes to have the Laclede Houses closed by the end of the academic year. Laclede Houses residents were first informed of the planned closure in a meet-ing in October.

A message was posted on the Micah program’s Facebook page on Oct. 31 asking students to sign a pe-tition and send in a memory that demonstrated students’ positive experiences in the

Vice President of Diversity and Social Justice Sean Worley and VP Emeritus Kripa Sreepada give an analy-sis of a survey concerning the Oath of Inclusion. Some thought the Oath was a step in the right direciton but needs to be followed up with more steps to improve inclusion at SLU. Others were largely indifferent to the document. Still others considered it a front by the administration to improve the University’s image. Worley and Sreepada found that those in the minority due to inward diversity, specifically socio-economic status and sexual orientation, considered SLU less welcoming than other students.

SGA examines effects of Oath of Inclusion

John Schuler/Photo Editor

The problem is finding components that can withstand that particularly high pressure

“”

-Joe Lewandowski

unewsonline.com

UOPINION

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

Editorials are opinion pieces written by the Editorial Board of The University News. The editorials printed in this space represent the opinion of The University News. Commentaries and Letters to the Editor represent the opinions of the signed authors but do not necessarily represent the opinions of The University News.

Editorials

The departure of Rick Majerus from Saint Louis Uni-versity’s men’s basketball team has created a host of questions concerning the Billikens. Most of these ques-tions are centered on the court—how will the team fare without Majerus at the helm?

Beyond the loss of his talent in tactical decision mak-ing, how will the absence of Majerus affect the perfor-mance of the players? But perhaps the biggest questions surrounding the Billikens belong not on the court, but in the offices of the administration.

Majerus is one of college basketball’s greats, a brilliant strategist and a skilled leader. Finding a head coach to replace him will be a challenge. How the athletic depart-ment responds to this challenge will have repercussions not just for the basketball team, but for the University as a whole.

Majerus has worked hard to build up a solid men’s hoops program at SLU. A worthy successor will continue and even build upon that success. Obviously no one can foresee how a given candidate will perform, but what the department can do is devote the necessary resources to the recruitment process. It would be a travesty to the Uni-versity and to Majerus’ legacy to allow the Billikens to descend into obscurity by selecting an unqualified coach.

The importance of the basketball team extends well beyond the athletic department. Like it or not, men’s bas-ketball is the most popular NCAA sport in which SLU par-

ticipates. A strong basketball team does more than just win flags to hang in the Chaifetz Arena rafters; it creates a brand name for the SLU. Judging by the billboards popu-lating the highways around St. Louis, the administrators at SLU clearly understand the importance of creating a memorable brand name for the University.

A strong basketball season will bring students into the school, allowing SLU to become more selective in admis-sions and thereby gain rankings nationally. Moreover, athletic success is self-catalyzing; a good season brings in more recruits, which further improve the program. On top of that, the men’s basketball team can be a significant source of income for the school, helping to fund academic programs as well as other athletic teams that may not en-joy the same financial success.

Furthermore, a university’s athletic teams are the most tangible link between the school and its alumni. Keeping the basketball team relevant will improve alumni support for the University and hopefully bolster the alumni dona-tion rate. Putting the basketball team in the national spot-light could do more to encourage alumni support than a year of cold calling.

Majerus will be missed, but the show must go on. The basketball Billikens are at a turning point, and it is up the administration to point them in the right direction. And when the athletic teams are victorious, the entire univer-sity wins.

Nearly a week after Black Friday the merchandise mad-ness continues unabated. Originally, there was just Black Friday, but that has now extended into Black Thanksgiv-ing as the deals encroach on America’s beloved holiday. For the Internet inclined and those who aren’t broke from the more traditional varieties of shopping frenzy, there is also Cyber Monday.

This year, Cyber Monday extended into what Amazon calls “Cyber Monday Deals Week.” At the current rate of expansion, most Saint Louis University students can ex-pect the bargains to reach the Fourth of July sometime in their lifetimes.

In all seriousness, Black Friday has grown to become something of a holiday in itself. It’s a common criticism that the entire affair is indicative of the rampant consum-erism in American society, and few would argue against such an insight. But like it or not, it seems that Black Fri-day is here to stay, and the best that can be done is to consider the materialistic mania in as objective a light as possible.

The scary thing about Black Friday isn’t that Ameri-cans go out and buy things, or even that Americans go out and buy things they don’t need. That is a well-established and rather unremarkable phenomenon. Given the insatia-bility of our consumer culture, the shopping rush makes a lot of sense; it’s a great time to get deals on holiday desirables.

Consumers save money; retailers make money. Mostly everyone seems to benefit. The economy certainly does, and the very name “Black Friday” comes from the ten-dency of retailers to begin turning profits for the year on

that date—to go from “in the red” to “in the black.” No, the scary thing about Black Friday is the utterly an-

imalistic behavior displayed by so many of the otherwise-normal shoppers. On Black Friday, Walmart and Best Buy become the gladiator arenas of the United States. Shoot-ings and tramplings are not unheard of, and slaps and vio-lent verbal exchanges are a dime a dozen, to appropriate the language of the ubiquitous bargain signs.

What in the world could drive people to act so inde-cently? Apparently, children’s toys and flat screen TVs. The mass hysteria of the malls seems to feed on itself, creating a hurricane of hurrying housewives with no re-gard for anything in their paths.

Even for those who survive with their bodies intact, it’s not clear that Americans always benefit from Black Fri-day. Many people take off work in order to go shopping, which probably neutralizes a large portion of their sav-ings. Moreover, saving money on unneeded goods isn’t really saving money at all.

The illogic of Black Friday indicates that maybe it isn’t about the deals after all; it is an event in itself, a retail adventure that millions of people enjoy for their own rea-sons. Many people have decried the commercialization of Christmas and wish that crazy consumerism would be separated from the sacred Christian holiday.

Well, here it is, a holiday dedicated to commercialism and consumerism and all the material goods America loves, unencumbered by association with any previously established feast day. It’s not going away; so happy Black Friday, or at this point, happy Cyber Monday Deals Week.

Questions about Billikens’ future after Majerus

Black Friday: A celebration of consumerism

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Lettersto the editor

Quotesof the week

”“

“You never want your season to end, but it’s going to sometime, and today we left it too late.

”-Alex Sweetin, men’s soccer midfielder, after losing to Fairleigh Dickinson in the NCAA tournament. See Page 11.

“Medical privacy becomes the perfect cover for some of the most despicable crimes humanity has invented. ”-Scott Carney, investigative journalist

and Great Issues Committee speaker.See Page 3.

I am bothered by the infantile outcries coming from self-serving pseudo-wanna-be–intellectuals that are overly critical of Fr. Lawrence Biondi’s leadership and development of SLU. It is precisely his leadership that has bolstered the value of SLU and a SLU degree. Unknown to his critics, their attitude and criticism is detrimental to the value of a SLU degree. If you examine the methodol-ogy of the various college rankings, an aspect of the ranking always involves student, faculty and alumni satisfaction with the school and adminis-tration. Students and alumni at other schools are fully aware of this subjective factor, and, sadly, our malcontents are contributing to the devaluation of a SLU degree. This is beyond ironic; the malcon-tents are condemning the leader that has increased the value of a SLU degree and school prestige for fear of the opposite effect, devaluation, which is what the malcontents are accomplishing.

While I was there (1996-2000), there were also protests by the usual stereotypical malcontents up-set at Biondi for one delusional reason or anoth-er, such as the grumbling against building gates around campus because “it makes our school ap-pear elitist.” Never mind such concepts as safety, beautification and alumni donations given for such purposes.

My advice to the malcontents is to be merci-ful to the man who has the long-term interests of SLU at heart and in mind. Feign your support to bolster the value of the degree, as most other stu-dents and alumni already understand and do else-where. Graduate and go do something worthwhile in life unlike your current myopic shenanigans. As alumni, give to the school the way you choose, if not money an endorsement. Remember that you decided to go to a private university, and being civil means following their rules and being respectful to a good authority figure. If you don’t like it, there are other schools available. Finally, regardless of what your collective animosity towards Fr. Biondi is, his good legacy, SLU and the Jesuit order will be here for many more centuries. I recommend contributing to it in a positive and supportive way because it is in your best long-term interest.

A call for a sensible response from discontents at SLU

OPINION 5unewsonline.comNOVEMBER 29, 2012

Lessons from Abe Lincoln

When in search of a mo-tive, the narrative of the Democratic Party seems

to rely solely on an over-uti l ized strategy of infus-ing the n e c e s -s a r y “-ism” or p h o b i a on what-e v e r

disagreement it may have with opposing ideologies. This pattern continues with the recent secessionist movement talk in Southern states. The main arguments used to denounce such se-cessionist movements are that they are racially mo-tivated and that they go against the logic of Ameri-cans past and present.

By most accounts, when

secession is mentioned it has an obvious and long-lasting link to our Civil War that was fought over one central disagreement. The popular (and simplistic) culture of history will claim (with full confidence) that it was over the freedom of slaves. As Americans, we naturally want that to be the cause – that there was the morally right North and the morally evil South. How-ever, it wasn’t that simple. This conflict was (more broadly) about the idea of states’ rights and diverging views on the economy. Spe-cifically, the southern states felt that the northern Re-publicans had a flawed view of the differences between the northern industrial economy and the agricul-ture-dominated southern economy.

To the very core of moral logic, the South was wrong

Stephen Spielberg’s his-torical drama “Lincoln” has received much attention

from the p r e s s r e c e n t -ly, and not just from the u s u a l cultural c r i t i c s c r o w d . P o l i t i -cal pun-dits and

even politicians have been chiming in on the film, which depicts the political wrangling involved in pass-ing the 13th Amendment and ending the Civil War. Analogies have been drawn between that historic strug-gle in the House of Repre-sentatives and the current debate over the approach-ing “fiscal cliff.”

Republicans and Demo-crats alike claim that the film shows the need for leadership and compromise in the legislative process — usually with the implication that their party should do the leading and the other guys should do the com-promising. The movie also depicts some backroom political deals that someone unschooled in Washington tact might be tempted to call “bribery,” but the poli-ticians seem to have dozed off during those scenes.

At any rate, it isn’t sur-prising that politicos would express interest in the film. Ever since the United States was founded under the principle of “separation of church and state,” Ameri-cans have been creating a pantheon of our own. To garner public support, poli-ticians love to invoke the names of beloved American heroes, comparing them-selves favorably with the likes of Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Ron-ald Reagan (but not both) or any of the Founders. So with Lincoln in the public spotlight, everyone and their lobbyist is taking the opportunity to appropriate his name and life story for their public relations needs.

But before our repre-sentatives go trotting into upcoming budget debates with “What Would Lin-coln Do” bracelets on their wrists, maybe they should take a closer look at the actual events of the film, or better yet, the histori-cal record. It’s undeniable that in his tenure Lincoln exhibited many traits that all leaders would do well to emulate. Likewise, Honest Abe himself certainly drew inspiration from the lead-ers and thinkers of the past, from the Founding Fathers to Euclid. But ultimately, Lincoln gained much of his current fame for push-ing through an anti-slavery agenda that a large portion of country did not agree with, using methods that would likely have made the Founders wince.

There’s a strain of think-ers in American politics to-day who like to attribute the Founding Fathers with al-most supernatural wisdom and foresight. They seem to argue that government policy should stay in line with the vision of those who wrote and signed the Con-

stitution. Never mind that the Founders could never have foreseen a host of chal-lenges presented by 21st century technology and pol-itics. Never mind that the Founders disagreed greatly among one another about their vision of the nation. And certainly never mind that the Founders were radicals themselves, rebels against the venerable tra-dition of monarchy. They advocated one of the most groundbreaking concepts in the history of political science: that no one in the country would be above the law; that a document, rather than a person, would be sovereign in this nation.

The point here is that sometimes it is necessary to break with tradition. There is much to be learned from the great men and women of history, but greatness requires forward vision as well as an awareness of the past. If we as Americans really want to live up the example of our nation’s he-roes, then we should emu-late their ability to dream of a better future even as they lived amidst the obstacles of their own times. Lincoln and the Founding Fathers alike were forward think-ers; to simply imitate them would be contrary to their progressive ideals.

Progress isn’t always a straight road, however, and this is why the demo-cratic process in the coun-try involves more than just casting votes. The end of slavery and the enfran-chisement of women and people of all races are just a few examples of undeniably positive steps in our na-tion’s history. And yet, not so long ago, the majority of Americans opposed such measures. Fortunately, the opinions of the electorate aren’t set in stone.

The optimism of democ-racy lies in the belief that, with time, a large popula-tion of people will make the morally right decision after public discourse and debate. This is why free-dom of speech and press are so vital to democracy. In the arena of public opinion, leaders can battle one an-other with ideas, not weap-ons, and the hope is that the successful ideas will be the best ones for the country. Likewise, education is es-sential to the democracy, because each citizen needs to have the knowledge to make informed decisions about the nation’s direction.

I won’t argue that any one side of our country’s political spectrum has all the right answers; that’s the job of the pundits. I will argue that argument is good. And I will argue that sometimes, it takes a strong leader to make progress happen, and that such a leader might possess a vi-sion of the future which the rest of the country can only later be brought to compre-hend. So don’t let our coun-try stagnate in its obsession with a glorified and possibly fabricated vision of the past. Like Lincoln, let’s fight for our own visions of the future with reasonable debate, and yes, maybe with some po-litical maneuvering. And as the arguments continue, may the best America win.

It’s an unpopular ques-tion because, try as we base-ball fans might, it’s hard

to deny t h a t football is truly A m e r -i c a ’ s pastime. Baseball u s e d to be; football is now. But, as

I sat and watched hours of football with relatives this Thanksgiving weekend, I began to wonder if the vio-lence on the screen was a product or a cause of the violent attitude of the Amer-ican psyche.

There is little room to deny that America is a vio-lent nation. Among afflu-ent nations, America ranks embarrassingly high in gun violence statistics, with around 9,000 people per year murdered through the use of firearms. But surely gun possession cannot be isolated as the sole cause of violence in America. Other countries have guns – you know, lots of those social-ist countries over there on the continent. They just don’t shoot them. There’s a popular pie chart floating around Facebook right now that suggests that America has been at war for 214 of its 235 years in existence. That is, of course, only true if you count the Vietnam War, which was, in fact, a “conflict.”

But what constitutes something as intrinsically violent? How violent is too violent? And is it OK to have violence in our culture instead of merely pretend-ing it does not exist? Sure. But the case I am making against football is not one confined solely to the easily identifiable consequences. If I did, it would look some-thing like this:

Football is the most dangerous sport for a kid to play. According to the National Center for Sports Safety (NCSS), 28 percent of all football players aged 5 to 14 will sustain an injury, higher than any other popu-lar sport. Nearly 413,620 injuries occur every year as a result of playing foot-ball. This is second only to basketball. However, the basketball injuries mostly involve strain on ligaments from constant starting and stopping while running. Most of the football injuries involved collision contact. The average career of a football player in the NFL is 3.3 years. While a short football career can also be attributed to retirement or being cut from one’s team, injuries are a common cause. MLB players aver-age 5.6 years; NBA players average 6.1 years. Golfers and bowlers play until they die. The leading contributor of this is old age.

But rather than focus-ing just on the injury sta-tistics, I’m concerned with the attitudes engendered by the sport. Football is ensconced in an extensive war metaphor. As George Carlin once brilliantly paro-died, much of the language around the sport resembles battle banter. The games are played in places called “Soldier Field” and “War Memorial Stadium.” Foot-ball, as Carlin says, “has hitting, clipping, spearing, blocking, piling on, late hit-ting, unnecessary rough-ness and personal fouls.” It has a two-minute warning, which, if tied, goes to sud-den death. Carlin, again: “In football, the quarterback, otherwise known as the field general, launches an aerial assault with deadly ac-curacy, in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use the shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into en-

emy territory…with a sus-tained ground attack.”

Carlin was a joker and a satirist, but I wonder if the language of football does not indicate or enforce the attitude of the game. In fact, this arrives precisely at my point. The question, is foot-ball too violent, is not really a matter of the safety of the players. There are ways that can be fixed. It took a few broken hands to bring gloves into baseball. But what kind of effect does the violent voyeurism of foot-ball have on the audience? What attitudes are being cultivated in people who treat football games like ceremonies or religious rituals, who gather at spe-cific times weekly with their loved ones, break bread to-gether, share libations and engage in superstitious be-havior? And furthermore, what happens to us when we cheer a man tackled to the ground?

I do hope none of this sounds too preachy. I don’t know what the answer is. Despite my tone, this com-

mentary is inquisitive in nature. It’s a strange phe-nomenon, don’t you think? Or don’t think about it, it’s rather uncomfortable to do so. It’s much more comfort-able to drink beer and shov-el in turkey while watching the game, but don’t think you’re not being condi-tioned. When I broached this topic briefly with a relative this weekend (Well, you can’t talk about politics, so what else was I going to say?), he quickly, defensive-ly fired back, “Well, they choose to play the game.” Do they? Or, like most of us, are football players victims of and products of their en-vironment, of a culture who cheers when they tackle and jeers when they blitz? And while fame and fortune await those who find suc-cess on the turf, can you blame them for trying?

No, football is a distinctly American sport because it tickles a distinctly Ameri-can ethos. Professional foot-ball took to the gridiron in 1920, but we’ve been at this since 1776.

in its system and utilization of human slavery to further economic means. Though, in context, the only reason that we can label the North as morally superior is that industry found its home in the New E n g l a n d states ear-lier than it did in the Carolinas.

T h e South was being forced to make a foundation-al change to their way of life in which they would undoubtedly fail economically. Legisla-tion passed making their necessary laborers free, au-tonomous beings. Though it hardly gives them any excuse, it provides context for their secession. The South was pushed between

a rock and a hard place and they responded in the only logical way that they could envision.

Secession is a drastic leap from reason. Secession happens when one side

feels as though rea-son or com-promise is not plausi-ble – which is a rare oc-cur rence . That is why secess ion is and has been used

only as threatening rheto-ric for most of American history, yet this is not new. Talk of secession has al-ways been in the American blood ever since its con-ception. Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Inde-pendence, made it so that we as a people would never

Mike Hogan

Patrick Olds

Taboo inquiry in America: Is football too violent?

Perspective on secession: An American tradition that often comes to nothing

The popular vote of the 2012 election, of which 62 million went to President

O b a m a and 59 mi l l ion w e n t to Gov-e r n o r R o m -n e y , c a l l e d i n t o q u e s -tion the t r u e r e p r e -

sentative ability of our de-mocracy. Hundreds of thou-sands of people across the country began signing peti-tions at whitehouse.gov in a futile plea for their home states to secede from the Union. Politics in this na-tion have turned down right ugly. No candidate runs on morals, ideals or principles; campaigns are about slan-dering the opponent and thus, no one wins an elec-tion without losing dignity. In light of the recent win for the Democratic Party and liberals alike, millions are beginning to fear that our nation is transforming into

a welfare state. Realistically, the very idea of seceding from the Union, regardless of its legality, has no prac-tical impact on changing our nation’s course. A large number of states would pre-serve the Union, and the re-maining states would most likely become independent territories.

Perhaps these petition-ers hoped that if their states were to secede, they could collectively cripple the fed-eral government. Unfortu-nately, the previous seces-sion of 1774 sparked a war with Britain as an effort to wrest control of the original 13 colonies from the King of England; and the secession of 1864 led to the Civil War. Therefore, if a third seces-sion were to occur, it would certainly result in a second civil war. Many local and na-tional media outlets ran sto-ries on the petitions, stating that the White House has a policy to respond to a peti-tion when 25,000 individu-als sign it. Unfortunately, the federal government is not going to recognize these petitions, largely be-cause they hold no legal

ground. In fact, secession talks arose following the 2008 election, but nothing came of that either. While the figures differ, a recent press release by the Daily Caller claimed that 675,000 people nationwide have signed these petitions.

Many people seem to have failed to realize that it would be substantially eas-ier to disband the federal government. Article V of the Constitution authorizes two-thirds of Congress or 33 of the state legislatures to amend the Constitution.

There is no doubt that Americans, fundamentally, stand alongside conserva-tive principles for govern-ment. If 33 states were to hold an emergency session to abolish the federal gov-ernment, Washington, D.C. would no longer be the na-tional capital, at least for a short while.

All federal laws would be disbanded, all federal gov-ernment regulations would be abolished and all federal government departments and bureaucracies would cease to exist. Consequent-ly, millions of government

Constitutional amendment an alternative to secession

Andrew Sova

employees would have to seek jobs in the private sec-tor, meaning they would no longer depend on your tax dollars to earn a living. We would not have to worry about the fiscal cliff be-cause government spend-ing would plummet, but the Constitution, the Declara-tion of Independence and the Bill of Rights would still be preserved.

Imagine a nation without excessive federal income taxes. We would finally be free from supporting pro-grams like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. Everyone would have the freedom to choose where to invest their savings for their retirement and ev-eryone would be able to purchase private sector in-surance policies for retire-ment, which would come at a much lower cost than existing government pro-grams. More importantly, a new federal government would only be authorized to carryout Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, which promotes the common de-fense of the state from for-eign invasion.

Talk of secession has been in the American blood ever since its con-ception.“

”

TJ Keeley

be forced to feel helpless under any tyrannical gov-ernment: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the gov-erned, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.”

The American people of-ten have over-utilized this strategy to prove points of dissatisfaction, yet it is in the bloodline to threaten secession. Therefore, when consuming the context and history of secession in the United States, it is reason-able to associate the polar-izing political attitudes of the times with this live, but unthreatening secessionist movement.

The movement, most

certainly, is not derived from racism but rather a mood of post-election blues. Those that sign the peti-tions will likely stridently disagree with President Obama’s policies and ide-ology but to claim racism as a cause seems like a stretch (who claims this as a cause?). Granting that a state, such as Texas, se-cedes, what would happen to the minority populations that reside there? The state of Texas would be seceding — not just the white people of Texas.

These secessionist movements are related to the polarization of politics, the current state of the country’s financial vital-ity and the uneasy times overall. Besides, Gov. Rick Perry said Texas will, at no point, secede from the Union. You got it from the horse’s mouth.

Mike Hogan/ Opinion Editor

NOVEMBER 29, 2012unewsonline.com6 GAMES

CROSSWORDLAST WEEK’S SOLUTIONS

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unewsonline.com NOVEMBER 29, 2012UARTS

November 30The Highway CompanionThe Firebird8 p.m.$5

OUTOn The

TOWnArTs ediTOr’s Picks

MusicNovember 29

Gaither Christmas HomecomingFamily Arena7 p.m.from $29.50

Until December 1John Pizzarelli QuartetJazz at the Bistro in Grand Center7:30 and 9:30 p.m.$37

December 5Holiday Concert at the Old CourthouseOld Courthouse12 p.m.free

Until December 2Blue Man GroupFox TheatreThurs: 1 and 8 p.m., Fri: 8 p.m., Sat: 1 and 8 p.m., Sun: 2 and 7:30 p.m.from $15

Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian NutcrackerPeabody Opera House7 p.m.from $32

Until December

The ForeignerRepertory Theatre of St. LouisTues: 7 p.m., Wed-Fri: 1:30 p.m., Sat: 5 p.m., Sun: 2 p.m.from $16

December 5

Theatre

November 29St. Louis Historic House TourVarious venues3-8 p.m.$30

Until December

Winter Jewels: A Holiday CelebrationSophia M. Sachs But-terfly HouseTues-Sun 9 a.m.-4 p.m.$6

St. Louis Sympony Orchestral Program: Heroic StaussPowell Symphony HallFri: 10:30 a.m., Sat: 8 p.m.tickets from $27 (stu-dent tickets $10)

November 30-

Celebrating the holidays in the cityDecember brings fesitivities throughout St. Louis

By MAGGIE NEEDHAM Associate Arts Editor

Photo courtesy of Mary Lou Olson

Plants and trains on display at the Missouri Botanical Garden during last year’s 2011 Gardenland Express Flower and Train Show.

Another round of ‘Food and Liquor’

Other

December 1-229th Annual Cherokee Antique Row Cookie SpreeCherokee Antique Row11 a.m.-5 p.m.free

By WOLF HOWARD Associate News Editor

With Thanksgiving now behind us, December is ready to unfold with its own holidays filled with bright lights, delicious food and even snow. In order to help Saint Louis Univer-sity students pack as much holiday cheer into the last few weeks of the semester, we’ve put together a list of festivities happening in St. Louis during the coming month.

Wild Lights at the St. Louis Zoo

More than 500,000 lights decorate the St. Louis Zoo for the holidays during its annual Wild Lights cel-ebration. Trees and plants adorned with lights guide the way through the Gin-gerbread Village, Snowfall Flurry and other locales. Throughout the month, puppet shows, fireside sto-ries and on select nights, lo-cal choirs add to the holiday atmosphere.

Visitors see animals such as penguins in para-dise, swan lake and fantasy butterfly garden. Souvenirs are available at the Holiday Zootique. Wild Lights is open 5:30-8:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays un-til Dec. 23 and daily from Dec. 26-30.

Entrance is $5 ($4 for zoo members), and tickets can be preordered online or by phone, as well as pur-chased on site.

Santa’s Magical Kingdom

Santa’s Magical King-dom in south St. Louis County is home to Candy Cane Village, the Waterfall of Lights and Kringle’s Gen-eral Store.

Visitors take wagon rides across 35 acres of land decorated with Christ-mas lights. During the ride, visitors see Santa’s help-ers—the flying reinder. Lo-cated in Jellystone Park in Eureka, Mo., Santa’s Magi-cal Kingdom is open until Jan. 6 from 5:30-10:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5:30-11:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Admission is $19 per car or $12 per per-son for wagon or train ride tickets.

Missouri Botanical Garden

The Missouri Botanical Garden has holiday cel-ebrations galore during the

month of December.The Gardenland Express

Holiday Flower and Train Show features g-scale train models from different eras travelling a 900-foot-long track throughout a minia-ture holiday landscape.

This year’s “Merry Bo-tanical Traditions” theme puts plants of the holiday season on display, such as poinsettias, holly and Christmas cactus, as well as silk flowers from the Chi-nese Lantern Festival held at the Botanical Garden this past summer.

Orthwein Floral Dis-play Hall becomes a winter wonderland with a fairy tale cottage for this seasonal event. Gardenland Express is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m until Jan. 1.Missouri Botanical Garden will also host the Deck the Halls wreath exhibit and Christ-mas caroling on Dec. 8; both are included with gar-den admission.

On Dec. 9, the Missouri Botanical Garden is hosting the Chanukah Festival of Lights.

The traditional Jewish celebration runs from 1-4 p.m. and includes Israeli music, dance and a meno-

rah-lighting ceremony, all included with garden ad-mission.

Central West EndThe Central West End is

hosting Holidays of Light this Saturday, Dec. 1 from 1- 5 p.m. It is the neighbor-hood’s own multicultural event showcasing diverse holiday events from around the world.

Attractions include Santa and his sleigh, Bob Kram-er’s marionettes at Biss-inger’s Handcrafted Choco-latier, pony rides, a petting zoo, the lighting of the tree and holiday refreshments. The annual Window Walk throughout the neighbor-hood starts at 1 p.m. to view holiday themed window dis-plays, which will be up until Dec. 22.

Way of LightsThe Way of Lights at Our

Lady of the Snows Shrine in Belleville consists of more than a million lights that tell the story of Jesus’ birth. Entry is free, with a small charge for the laser light show, camel rides and oth-er attractions. The Way of Lights is open from 5-9 p.m. nightly until Dec. 31.

Jewel Box Poinsettia Show

The Jewel Box in Forest Park has a seasonal poinset-tia show with red, pink and white poinsettias decorat-ing the city’s largest park. It is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Ad-mission is $1 every day, but Mondays and Tuesdays be-fore noon is free.

Christmas Candlelight Concert

The classic St. Louis tradition of the Christmas Candlelight Concert will be held at Powell Symphony Hall on Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Music from Bach’s “Mag-nificat,” hosted and per-formed by the Bach Soci-ety Chorus and Orchestra, will be accompanied by a candlelight procession and the St. Louis Archdiocesan Children’s Chorus. Tickets start at $20.

JCC Hanukkah EventThe St. Louis Jewish

Community Center is host-ing a Hannukah celebration on Dec. 9 from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Marilyn Fox Building in Chesterfield, Mo. This fam-ily-friendly event includes

Photo courtesy of Brian Moghadam / www.lupefiasco.com

Rapper Lupe Fiasco performs onstage in New York City in 2010.

America the Brutal

See “Album” on Page 8

By T.J. KEELEY Managing Editor

In his opening lines on “Touch The Sky” I became an instant fan of Lupe Fi-asco. I obsessed over the “Food & Liquor” album as a teenage girl might her Facebook page. I treated “The Cool” like a scuba div-er would his oxygen tank; I consumed everything Lupe as if my very life force de-pended upon it. So it was

incredibly disappointing when “Lasers,” a highly commercialized affair filled with big name features and pop-rock rhythms, replaced the Lupe Fiasco I knew and loved with a man guided by record executives. It was a fine pop album, better than a lot of modern hip-hop, but it didn’t capture my heart.

So with the release of “Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1,” I was hesitant. I ap-

proached it with a much calmer mindset and I lis-tened to it with caution, wondering if Lupe Fiasco could demonstrate the same unique and brilliant mind that I had experienced as a teenager.

The opening track, a spoken-word performance by Fiasco’s sister Ayesha Jaco, is the first sign of a

In the opening moments of Andrew Dominik’s new darkly comedic crime thrill-er “Killing Them Softly,” a man smoking a cigarette wanders through an empty parking lot of an abandoned broken-down city, trash askew across the ground. He’s gritty and grimy. He walks in slow motion. On the soundtrack, we hear President Barack Obama’s reiteration of the promise of the American dream. “We are community,” he says. But these words are cross cut with the title of the film. Obama says, “Now is the time for…” before a giant title card with “Killing “pops up on the screen. “Killing Them Softly” is too cyni-cal for Mr. Obama. Like its characters, “Killing Them Softly” is a gritty and dirty film, just out for itself.

The man in this open-ing scene is Frankie (Scoot McNairy from “Argo”). He recruits another low-life (Ben Mendelsohn) to help knock over a high-stakes card game. Markie (Ray Liotta from “Goodfellas”) is running the game after rob-bing his own game years ago. The idea is that if the game is robbed a second time, Markie will be blamed again, and Frankie and company will get off easy.

But, as always, corporate

interest is involved. A char-acter known only as “Driv-er” (Richard Jenkins from “The Visitor”) hires Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt), a hit man and one of the best in the business, to take down the robbers.

From its plot descrip-tion, “Killing Them Softly” likely sounds a Guy Ritchie film, but it fiercely tries to be something greater – and succeeds in this. Written and directed by Dominik, whose “The Assassina-tion of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” was one of the criminally under-rated films of 2007, the film is scathing indictment of capitalism and American in-dividualism. While it strays off course a few times, the film remains an excellent example of the crime thrill-er genre.

Some might complain that Dominik’s anti-Ameri-can message is heavy-hand-ed. Audio from speeches by George W. Bush granting tax breaks to the wealthy or Barack Obama reciting hopeful rhetoric play be-hind so many scenes that they become their own sort of narration. I think that after several uses of this audio, it begins to turn on itself. Political language saturates the film. We are watching people concerned

See “Killing” on Page 8

Hanukkah activities such as dreidel spinning, candle making and storytelling. Latkes, helly donuts and other delicious traditional holiday food is available, as well as mitzvah projects for the community. Attendees help to light the giant Agam menorah outside.

Brothers Lazaroff 2nd Annual Hanukkah Hul-

labalooPopular local band

Brothers Lazaroff started their Hanukkah tradition last year, and this year it continues on Dec. 8 at 9 p.m. at Off Broadway in the Historic Cherokee Lemp Distrcit. Music is a strong tradition of Hanukkah, and the Brothers Lazaroff cel-ebrates this tradition with a performance filled with Hanukkah-inspired songs. Other musicians make guest appearances through-out the night, making for an interesting and festive eve-ning. Tickets are $8-11.

Staying indoors with a mug of hot cocoa and a blanket seems inviting as the weather gets colder, but St. Louis offers events these events to help put everyone in the mood of the season.

December 1

23

30

Album: Fiasco releases part one of new album

NOVEMBER 29, 2012unewsonline.com8 ARTS

The Weeknd drops 30 track debut

By TIM WILHELM Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of www.clclt.com

Canadian artist Abel Tesfaye, also known as The Weeknd, has sold 115,000 copies of his debut album “Trilogy” as of Nov. 25, 2012.

Singer Abel Tesfaye opens up about love, drugs and infidelity

Killing: ‘Smart’ and ‘taut’ thriller comes to theaters

Continued from Page 7

Continued from Page 7

A cappella groups sing all over St. LouisBy KRISTIN MCGUIRE

Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Angie Hawf / Fabulous Fox Theatre

Straight No Chaser sang at the Fabulous Fox Theatre on Nov. 10. They are currently recording their fourth album.

return to form. Jaco’s poem captures the plight of the lower class in America with the same revolutionary tint that sits over most of Lupe’s music.

The album title is appro-priate, as “Food & Liquor II” is simply a grown-up it-eration of “Food & Liquor.” Times have changed since 2006, and America faces problems both new and old; Lupe has changed with it, maturing in his sound and vision. The youthful exu-berance and hope isn’t as promi-nent here as it was in Lupe’s ear-lier days.

The be-ginning of the album sounds a lot like a sim-ple follow up to “Food & Liquor.” He touches on many of the same issues as his earlier work such as sexism, racism, ignorance and violence. “B*tch Bad” is a clever shot at illustrat-ing how the abuse of a word can alter the mindset of the next generation, and it would feel right at home on “The Cool” or “Food & Liquor.”

However, one can tell that the repetition is start-ing to wear on the rapper. This idea is most explicit on “ITAL (Roses),” where he says, “I know you’re saying Lupe rapping ‘bout the same [stuff], well that’s ‘cause [nothing’s] changed.”

Indeed, his call for an intellectual and spiritual revolution amongst the lower class has been met with a constant progres-sion towards more violence and crime, very notably in his hometown of Chicago

where shootings are at a re-cord high in 2012.

There is a clear depar-ture toward darker territory at the midpoint of the album with “Lamborghini Angels,” a dark and biting commen-tary on the corruption of morality and the evils plagu-ing Americans in the mod-ern day.

From here, Lupe flexes his lyrical muscle before presenting a vignette of his fight for a woman’s love, ending with “Battle Scars,” the album’s most successful single, featuring Guy Sebas-tian.

“ B r a v e Heart” and “Form Fol-lows Func-tion” show Lupe at his most conf ident , d e m o n -strating his s u p r e m e lyrical wit and one-of-a-kind flow

while he boasts about his talents and his come up from nothing to a rapping great.

This bravado is quickly quieted by the introspection of “Cold War.” The song serves as Fiasco’s memorial to his brother and it is the most honest and personal he has ever been.

“Unforgivable Youth” highlights Lupe’s version of American history – one of barbarism, first aimed at the Native Americans and then our own people – and ends with a vision of a future peo-ple finding our artifacts and misinterpreting the reality of our existence as a peace-ful and organized existence.

The album closes with “Hood Now,” which serves as a playful nod to Fiasco’s hometown and the people with whom he grew up, as well as the bits of the hood permeating today’s pop cul-ture.

with only their lives, their money and the violence they use to get or protect it. So, in a way, the politi-cal sound bites serve as the film’s voiceover and main narration. Listen closely as they describe the events of the film as it unfolds.

Another important char-acter in the film is New York Mickey, played by James Gandolfini from “The So-pranos.” Mickey is brought in to help Jackie, but soon proves incapable of whack-ing guys like he used to. But Mickey serves more as a mouthpiece for anecdotes further extrapolating from Dominik’s hard-earned anti-capitalist message. Gandolfini plays Mickey with such obnoxious larger-than-life gusto that he truly seems out of place next to the subdued performances by Pitt and Jenkins, but per-haps that is the point.

Finally, many critics have complained that “Kill-ing Them Softly” is too cyni-cal, and that its cynicism is really just fashionable nihil-ism. Yet, I think it’s braver than that. Here is a film that is so political it becomes anti-politics. In the begin-

ning scene, Frankie passes a double billboard in the background. On one side is a campaign poster for John McCain; Obama is on the other – two sides of the same coin.

Yet, aside from boast-ing great performances by Pitt and McNairy, “Killing Them Softly” succeeds as a smart and taut thriller. It is essential also to note how Dominik links capitalistic greed with violence via in-dividualism. The scenes of pummeling in this film are among the most intense and disturbing I have seen. As with many elements of the film, Dominik ups the style. Each punch lands with such a heightened thud they seem to be punching Amer-ica’s voyeurism of violence as well. It’s a perfect match of style and content.

Later, a character walks into a bar while, in the back-ground and out of focus, a gun fight breaks out on the street. It appears that one man is killed, but the cam-era and the character do not flinch. Just another day in Anytown, America. It’s a truly remarkable gesture and a dark statement about America’s attitude toward violence.

Photo courtesy of guardian.uk.co

Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) carrying out a hit in one of the many “pummeling” scenes throughout the film.

“You don’t know what’s in store.” Thus begins The Weeknd’s 30-track debut album “Trilogy.” Released in November, it is a com-pilation of three mix tapes — “House of Balloons,” “Thursday” and “Echoes of Silence” — all released individually last year. The man behind the moniker, Canadian singer and pro-ducer Abel Tesfaye, entices us with those opening lyr-ics of “High for This” and goes further with a chorus that advises, “trust me, girl, you wanna be high for this.”

The next 29 songs are a perilous landscape of drugs, alcohol, dips in and out of reality and highs and lows dotted with episodes of infidelity, volatile love and faint glimmers of hope. Tesfaye’s voice sings of a man addicted to both sub-stance and self-destruction. In “Wicked Games” he makes a deal: “Bring your

love, baby, I can bring my shame / Bring the drugs, baby, I can bring my pain / I got my heart right here / I got my scars right here.”

This beleaguered man is our guide in this descent into the underworld of the human pursuit of a good time. He acknowledges the dangers — “Higher that I climb, the harder I’mma drop,” from “The Morning” — but rejects responsibility — “Blame it on the weed, on the booze, on the nightlife / Just don’t blame it on me,” as he sings in “XO/The Host.” His recklessness (“I’m living for the present and the future don’t exist,” from “Loft Music”) and his conceit (“they say they want heaven, they say they want God / I say I have heaven, I am God!” from “Heaven or Las Vegas”), however severe, are offset by an un-expected sort of wisdom; in the forlorn “Montreal,” he asserts that “happiness ex-ists when you don’t know a thing.” In the same song his voice can be heard in the

background murmuring “Leave the Girls Alone” by Serge Gainsbourg.

The theme of getting what one deserves is rather pervasive, although you wonder if our host ever learns anything. “I know ev-erything,” he claims in “The Knowing,” an accusatory/consolatory song with a layered vocal harmony that turns Tesfaye into his own choir. Yet the next song, the tenor-heavy “Twenty Eight,” finds him admitting “I’m so wrong…to let you in my home / Now you know where I sleep.”

As a vocalist, Tesfaye has masterful control over his voice and possesses a range that roams the musi-cal scale freely throughout the album, from the lightest trills of his signature tenor — “High for This,” “Twen-ty-Eight,” “Rolling Stone,” “The Fall and Next,” reach-ing angelic tones in “The Morning” — to the deeper intensity found in “Ini-tiation,” “Gone” and “The Birds, Pt. 2.” On several

occasions he sounds aston-ishingly similar to Michael Jackson, as in “Twenty Eight,” “Lonely Star,” “Life of the Party,” “Valerie” and “D.D.” Aside from his sinis-ter, seductive, or downright alien sounds, Tesfaye in-corporates vocalization (no lyrics, just sounds) heav-ily into the album, as heard in “Same Old Song” (feat. Juicy J) and “Loft Music.”

His lyrical style is in-tensely introspective, verg-ing on the poetic -- in this respect it resembles that of Frank Ocean. Both art-ists are also grounded in R&B and hip-hop themes but occasionally branch off into the realms of pop and techno.

“Trilogy” offers the kind of complex journey you would expect in 30 songs. From the intense beginning of “House of Balloons,” through the nearly monot-onous (albeit panoramic) “Thursday,” to the fiery denouement of “Echoes of Silence,” this is a mind-blowing party you should

During the last weekend of November, every a cap-pella nerd in the area was in a state of elation. Both Pentatonix (PTX), of “Sing-off” fame, and Straight No Chaser (SNC), from Indi-ana University, performed shows in St. Louis. While these groups are two of the most popular a cappella groups in the country, their styles and appeal could not be more different.

Straight No Chaser be-gan at Indiana University in 1996 when ten guys real-ized they had one interest in common: girls.

Oh, and singing.After excelling as an a

cappella group at IU during their studies, the members graduated and moved on to careers mostly outside of music. But ten years later, when their video of “12 Days of Christmas” reached over 7 million views in one year, Atlantic Records contacted them about getting back to-gether. Since then, the ten men have traveled around the country performing in concert and on television and recording multiple al-bums.

“We take our music very seriously. We just don’t take ourselves seriously,” Ryan Ahlwardt, a tenor in the all-male a cappella ensemble said.

This group functions best as a goofy, entertaining a cappella group, covering popular songs and includ-ing generic dance moves. Highlights of the concert included the “Fix You, I’m Yours/Somewhere Over the Rainbow” mash-up and “12 Days of Christmas.” The arrangements were

overall incredibly elaborate and appealing. Many of the tunes interwove two com-pletely different songs, cre-ating an entirely new feel-ing and sound.

“People respond most to […] hearing songs in a completely different way,” said Ahlwardt, who writes some of the song arrange-ments for SNC. “Some people even like that better. That’s very rewarding as an arranger!”

Between songs, the men entertained the au-dience with funny bits. Charlie Mechling, one of the impressive basses in the group, gave a hilarious monologue about what it’s like to go to the movies. The group followed with a song consisting entirely of epic movie theme songs. Straight No Chaser by no

means bends the rules of a cappella, but you are sure to be entertained at their shows as they combine top-notch singing with comedy.

Pentatonix, on the other hand, has only five mem-bers. This young group was formed last year, winning the popular NBC reality show, “The Sing-Off.”

They won’t have you roaring with laughter, but this group truly under-stands how to arrange music to incorporate the theatrically of a song. Their song arrangements sound almost computer-gener-ated, although the group performs everything live with only their voices. PTX performed many of their famous songs from “The Sing-Off,” with several new ones, including Beyonce’s “End of Time” and “Nature

Boy.” Highlights from the

night include an interactive a cappella session with bass Avi Kaplan and vocal per-cussionist, Kevin Olusola. Although the impressive vo-cal gymnastics of the three main singers are part of the appeal of the group, the risks and choices made by Kaplan and Olusola are tru-ly Pentatonix’s foundation. When the three main sing-ers took a break, Kaplan and Olusola took center stage and led the audience in their own arrangement.

Each group has its own gimmick, and both Straight No Chaser and Pentatonix delivered solid shows. To read more about Straight No Chaser, visit sncmusic.com. Visit pentatonix.org to learn more about Penta-tonix.

The youthful exu-berance and hope isn’t as prominent here as it was in Lupe’s earlier days.

“”

UMYTH:

“The squeak of snow will the temperature

show.”

It might sound like an elementary proverb, but it does hold some truth. The pressure you apply to snow when walking can potentially melt it.

If the snow temperature is lower than 10 below zero degrees Celsius,

the pressure will silently melt the snow. However, if the snow temperature is higher than that, the pressure from your shoes will not melt the snow, compacting the ice crystals of the snow

that causes a crunching noise. Trust.

MYTH:It can be too cold to

snow.

This is probably the most popular myth about snow. And a myth it remians. It

is true that snow starts falling around 2 degrees Celsius

and can continue to do so until around

minus 40. However, the temperature is not

what is important; snowfall is dependant

on the amount of moisture in the air. When temperatures fall below minus 40, there is very little air moisutre, resulting in little snowfall.

However, the only time that snowfall can be

absolutely impossible is at absolute zero ( minus 273 degrees Celsius),

but so is everything else at that temperature.

Bust.

MYTH:Snow is white.

Or if you’re using crayons, the snow

would be blue. In fact, snow is colorless. It

appears white because snowflakes scatter the light that hits it and reflects back all the colors in light.

Depending on where you live, snow can

appear red, blue, green or even purple.

Bust.

unewsonline.com NOVEMBER 29, 2012

TRUSTor

BUST?

Snow

Christmas season sparks the use of electricy

John Schuler / Photo Editor

Each strand of Christmas lights uses about 1 amp, the equivalent of a 100-watt light bulb running on 120 volts. It is tough to say how much this costs in terms of electricity, but as with any light, you don’t want to have it running all night long. So set your lights on timers and purchase LED lights to conserve energy.

Species swims to discoverySCIENCE

Richard Mayden, of Saint Louis University’s biology department, and Steven Layman, of Geosyntec Consultants in Kennesaw, Ga., discovered five new species of fish in the U.S. this past month.

Mayden holds the W.S. Barnickle Endowed Chair of Natural Sciences at SLU and has netted nearly $4 million in federal funding this past year. This was used to conduct an inventory of Cypriniformes. These fish are found on nearly every continent and are similar to minnows, shiners and carp that are in most freshwater ecosystems. They range from small, no bigger than a mosquito, to 100 pounds.

“As we discover and describe new species over the next few years, we’ll find they are more important than we ever thought,” Mayden said.

The species were previously considered to be mere isolated populations

of a speckled darter fish, but are recognized as separate species based on their male breeding colors and morphology, the form and structure of organisms.

Named by Mayden and Layman, the scientific names of the fish are: Etheostoma obama  (spangled darter), Etheostoma teddyroosevelt  (highland darter), Etheostoma gore  (cumberland darter), Etheostoma jimmycarter  (bluegrass

darter), Etheostoma clinton (beaded darter).

According to the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, the fish are named after political figures that worked to support environmental issues and scientific advances.

“The spangled darter is named after President Barack Obama for his policies on promoting clean energy, energy efficiency, environmental protection and humanitarian effort

during challenging economic times,” the Institute said. “The highland darter is named after former president Theodore Roosevelt for his enduring environmental conservation legacy, the designation of national forests and wildlife refuge.”

The highland darter species resides in the Arkansas drainages on the Ozark Plateau in Missouri, Arkansas and corners of Kansas and Oklahoma.

The species can be found throughout river drainages just west of the Appalachian Mountains. They are part of the group darters, perch-like fish found in freshwater streams in North America.

Mayden said his latest discoveries are further evidence that there are plenty of new species waiting to be found in our own “backyards.”

Drawings done by Joseph Tomelleri

From top moving clockwise: Etheostoma obama, Etheostoma gore, Etheostoma jimmycarter, Etheostoma teddyroosevelt, and Etheostoma clinton.

The fish were named after presidents that have emphasized and supported environmental issues.

Science Center, an attraction for all agesBy KATHLEEN KAYSEN

Staff Writer

By ADNAN SYED Religion Editor

St. Louis offers its residences and visitors many free, exciting attractions. One of those is the St. Louis Science Center. Located at 5050 Oakland Ave., the Science Center sits in Forest Park along with other free attractions like the St. Louis Zoo, the art museum, the history museum and the Muny.

Named one of the top five science centers in the U.S., this St. Louis attraction has a lot to offer and continually changes various exhibits. Additionally, it made the list of Top 10 Science Centers for Families by Parents magazine and was also namedw one of America’s most visited museums by Forbes Traveler Magazine.

Home to over 700 exhibits, the Science Center offers its visitors knowledge and entertainment in every possible subcategory of science. The center consists of several buildings, including the OMNIMAX Theater, the EXPLORADOME and the James S. McDonnell Planetarium.

The OMNIMAX Theater regularly plays several different shows, such as the current movies, “To the Arctic,” “Rocky Mountain Express” and “Born to Be Wild.” This theater differs from others in that it creates an atmosphere that lets the audience believe they are part of the scene. As the picture and sound

Black Friday: A bag full of trickeryIn recent years,

Christmas lights and wreaths appear in stores at the same time as Halloween jack-o-lanterns. As anticipation for the Christmas season builds earlier every year, Black Friday gains more importance in American culture. Advertisements boast huge sales and crazy deals, and Americans continue to feed into it all.

Relatively speaking, though, this boom has occurred fairly recently, especially when considering

the importance of the Internet in all of it.

Before Black Friday existed, there was an unwritten rule that Christmas advertisements didn’t start until after the Thanksgiving Day parades. Traditionally, Santa Claus was at the end of these huge parades put on by major department stores, and his presence signaled the beginning of the shopping season. Originally, Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November, but after concerned retailers asked for an extra week in the shopping season, Franklin D. Roosevelt

moved up the holiday. The urgency

surrounding what came to

be known as Black Friday has gradually increased over the years. In the 1990s,

the day ranked as one of the busier shopping days of the year but it only recently topped the list in 2002 as the pinnacle of shopping days. What creates the intensity that surrounds this well-known day? What keeps people coming back for more?

Retailers use the psychology of shopping to create a sense in people that they must have the items right now or it will be too late. By advertising very low prices on only certain items, offering special sales during specific hours, limiting the number of items on sale and racing to be the first store open,

retailers of America have created a new culture for shoppers. It’s become more of a race than ever before, and shoppers aren’t even sure what exactly they’re racing for.

A large part of the race involves price. Price ultimately drives people to this madness, but many other strategies are used to mentally attract consumers, without them even knowing. No matter what it is you’re buying, the price ending in “99” will always look less expensive than it does without it. This is due

See “Shopping” on Page 10

By KATHLEEN KAYSEN Staff Writer

Death: The beginning of another journey

Yes, it’s way past Halloween. The only candies left are those that you usually end up donating to the dog. Costumes are destroyed, ripped from too much trick-or-treating. However, the scary skeletons linger—in fact, they never leave.

Many wonder what happens when we die; is there a heaven and will I get there? That’s for the religious folk to fight about. But the physical body, what happens to that?

Well, first one has to pass away. With the progression of technology, this process is reshaping. Simply put, though, the ability to breathe defines death and once that skill is lost and the brain loses necessary oxygen, dying begins.

Cells will begin to die at

different rates, so the pace of death may be longer or shorter depending on which cells are dying. Any cutoff of oxygen to the brain will result in quick cell death; heart attacks are also capable of quick destruction. Those passing of old age incur a more drawn out, degenerative type of death.

While no one lives to tell the tale of death, many of those suffering near-death experiences agree that the process isn’t painful. In fact, many say it is a peaceful, light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-type of sensation. Practitioners pinpoint the release of endorphins at the actual moment of death as the trigger of these feelings.

Feelings aside, the corpse needs tending at this point. The body will begin to chill, dropping 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit every

By GABBY GEERTS Science Editor

See “Death” on Page 10

No matter what it is you’re buying, the price ending in “99” will al-ways look less expen-sive than it does with-out it.

“”

See “Center” on Page 10

SCIENCE 10unewsonline.comNOVEMBER 29, 2012

Recent studies conclude hangovers are not the only downsides of a night out.

Binge drinking has al-ways been a concern and a topic of discussion across college campuses.

A study published on Sept. 2, 2012 by the jour-nal Nature Neuroscience shines light on a new end result to binge drinking: post-traumatic stress disor-der.

A c c o r d -ing to Sci-enceDai ly, “ D o c t o r s have long recognized a link be-tween alco-holism and anxiety dis-orders such as PTSD.”

Scientists conducted the study at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol-ism on a group of mice.

Throughout the course of the one-month-long study, the scientists ob-served the reactions of groups of mice with both chronic alcohol exposure and no alcohol exposure.

The scientists gave one group of mice the equiva-lent to double the legal limit of alcohol, while the other

group was given no alcohol.Scientists then measured

anxiety levels in the mice when shocked with electri-cal currents.

The mice with no alcohol exposure overcame the fear of the electric shocks; while the mice with the excessive alcohol exposure had in-tense anxiety long after the experiment ended.

“Basically, our research shows that chronic expo-sure to alcohol can cause a deficit with regard to how our cognitive brain centers

c o n t r o l our emo-t i o n a l brain cen-ters,” Dr. T h o m a s K a s h , study au-thor, said. Kash is theassis-tant pro-fessor of p h a r m a -cology at the Uni-

versity of North Carolina School of Medicine.

According to ScienceDai-ly, “The pattern is similar to what is seen in patients with PTSD, who have trouble overcoming fear even when they are no longer in a dan-gerous situation.”

The results of the study will help scientists in find-ing drugs to better help those with anxiety disor-ders.

Binge drinking can bring more than just a hangover

By KATHERINE KELLIHER Staff Writer

Continued from Page 9

Photo couresy of AfricanGeo

Left: A dinosaur diorama at Saint Louis Science Center. This is one of the many exhibits that the museum has to offer.

Below: A photograph of the Saint Louis Science Center’s James S. McDonnell Planetarium. Visit the Planetarium for star shows and space exhibits.

Center: Entertainment and learning bundled into one package

Photo courtesy of Steven M. Ley

surround the audience, the incredible detail greatly affects the experience.

Another example, the planetarium, offers numerous interactive exhibits, such as demonstrations on the way in which eclipses and meteor showers work, a projection in the dome that imitates the starry sky and the SBC Learning Center that shows visitors what living in a space station really is like.

In addition to its free and regular exhibits, the Science Center offers day and overnight activities for elementary school-aged children. Adult programs include Science Around Town, which are daylong trips that focus on scientific discoveries made in the St. Louis area. Participants visit the mines of Missouri or hunt for fossils. Information on these events can be found on their website.

The adult flight academy offers interested participants the opportunity to be trained to use a flight simulator and end the program in an actual airplane to test your skills.

While some of the more specific programs and outside activities require an additional fee, the entire museum complex is free to all visitors.

With more than 700 exhibits, it takes more than just one visit to cover all that the Science Center has to offer.

This is due to the way humans view numbers, reading $29.99 as “20-something” and $30 as “30-something.” Ultimately, the lower number wins.

Additionally, prices ending in nines are viewed as discounts while zeros dictate quality. Fast food uses nines; high-end restaurants use zeros. Even the amount of numbers and characters will affect how the mind values the number.

Simply removing the comma from $3,000 will make it appear cheaper while adding decimal points, as in $3,000.00, tricks the consumer into believing it is more expensive.

Before despising the deceptive pricing strategies though, realize that these tactics do make it easier on the consumer. Round numbers are cognitively more accessible and tend to stick in our heads longer, according to Tim Smith, a managing principal at Wiglaf Pricing.

Walmart employs a different technique. The don’t use whole dollars for pricing but instead price things at odd values like $4.38 and $9.62 to give consumers the impression that they have saved you

every possible penny. According to a report

from CNBC, Black Friday’s excitement has built up because it is becoming as much of a Thanksgiving tradition as the ubiquitous pumpkin pie.

Tradition feeds off the culture that retailers have created and continue to improve upon because of so much feedback from consumers. Following tradition regularly promotes bonding, an important component of what makes the entire season enjoyable and memorable.

However, reports of injuries and deaths resulting from trampling or fighting on Black Friday show that this day is not all about the bonding. Psychologically, groupthink takes over. People feel that they can get away with trampling inside a store as it opens because everyone else is doing it; why does one more person joining in make a difference?

While Black Friday’s basis in shopping and consumerism may be superficial, it can promote family bonding rooted in spending time together and enjoying the thrill of the crazy day. As for the prices, don’t stress too much about them; stores are doing all they can to please you. It’s not worth stampeding down your neighbor for.

Continued from Page 9

Shopping: A mind game

hour until plateauing at room temperature. The body stiffens within two to six hours, a process called rigor mortis.

While the body may be dead, there are a few things still alive. These surviving organisms reside

in the intestines and aid in the putrefaction, or decomposition, process. The bacteria and enzymes begin the process of breaking down their specific host. In fact, the pancreas is so densely populated with bacteria that it basically digests itself.

As these bad boys work, the body will discolor,

Continued from Page 9

Death: The body reacts beyond last breath

Photo courtesy of Riya Anandwala

going from green to purple and finally to black. Even a blind person will experience the sensory changes; the bacteria emit a putrid gas. The build of said gas causes the body to bloat, eyes to bulge and tongue to swell.

About a week after death, the skin will have blistered and will fall off with the slightest touch. Months later, hair, nails and teeth whither and wriggle free.

And to clear all rumors, hair and nails do not continue growing postmortem; they only appear larger as the skin dries out, giving the appearance that the nails are larger. Internally, organs and tissues eventually liquefy and swell the body to the point of bursting. In the end, only a skeleton remains.

This process is hidden from us since law mandates that something must be done with the body after death. The possibilities are quite endless. A coffin can carry our body to a grave; an urn could host our ashes.

To slow the disintegration process described above, bodies can be mummified or embalmed for preservation. Embalmment is showcased at funerals and can be broken down to three steps: sanitization, presentation and preservation.

Eventually the body will be groomed and dressed for appropriate public display.

Finally, bodies can be donated to science. Medical training and research wouldn’t be nearly as advanced if it wasn’t for body donation.

Typically, medical schools are the ones to receive the bodies and use them as cadavers for dissection and surgery practice. And nobody wants surgeons practicing for the first time on a live body, specifically your own.

Remains are usually cremated, and in some cases, ashes can be returned to the family upon special request.

Saint Louis University recently honored the people that donated their bodies to the Medical School at Saint Francis Xavier College Church on Nov. 16.

“This service gives our students an opportunity to think about what the individuals have done in donating their body, and how that will help them learn and become a better physician,” Margaret Cooper, professor of anatomy at SLU and associate director of the Gift Body Donor program, said.

Now, who said dead people can’t be helpful? If only knowing about death, meant being able to avoid it.

Students commemorate those that have donated their bodies to science during a service held at College Church.

The brain’s diet and how mindless eating is causing growing waistlinesBy GABBY GEERTS

Science Editor

Even though Thanksgiving may be done, the feasting has just begun. Holiday season is notorious for adding a bulge to waistlines everywhere, a fear for those watching their weight.

Recently, research has been conducted concerning where and how we eat, and the affect that this has on what and how much we decide to eat.  

Our nation is filled with overeaters, and some scientists are reasoning that this over-consumption stems from a problem in our own heads.

Recently, a Hardee’s restaurant in Champaign, Ill. mellowed out a section of their restaurant --

decorating the place with indirect lighting, white tablecloths, candles and even soft music.   This section was soundproofed and separated from the loud music and bright lights of the regularly decorated portion of the restaurant.   The only common thing between the two settings was the menu.  

Findings from the study were published in the academic journal Psychological Reports, determining that while food selection did not differ between the two groups, food consumption did.  

The customers in the fine dining setting ate an average of 775.3 calories, while those in the regular section of the restaurant others took in 949.2 calories.  This boiled down to eating 86 percent of the food on their plates for the

fine diners in comparison to the 95 percent by those in the regular dining area.

Author of the study, Koert van Ittersum, said, “You create a nice atmosphere, people talk more, they concentrate less on the food.”  Additionally,   “They leave the place more satisfied.”

Rally’s won’t likely follow this trend but it isn’t a coincidence that new McDonald’s franchises are now more pleasant than sterile.   Companies are realizing that they can satisfy their customers with less food simply by changing the setting.

Brian Wansink, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, labels this situation as “mindless eating.”

However, our surroundings aren’t the

only things shaping our dietary habits.

A study conducted by Wansink shows that the larger the plate is, the larger serving of food someone will eat.  And with the mantra of “clean plate club” echoing internally, we consume more.  

When looking at a serving of spaghetti on an eight-inch plate, it appears to be a normal size.   Take that same serving and move it to a twelve-inch plate and it appears smaller, making us dish out more food.

So size matters.   But what about shape?

Children and adults have both demonstrated that when given a short, wide glass they pour and consume more juice than when given a tall, narrow glass.   This is due to the vertical-horizontal illusion, stating that we focus

on heights rather than widths.   In fact, the wide glass group in the study poured 76 percent more juice than the slender glass group.

Another issue causing over-consumption is distractions.   For many of us, eating is usually paired with some other sort of task.  Whether it be television, homework or music, it all leads us to eat more.

Wansick discovered that people eat over 40 percent more food when they are distracted by watching television.  This is caused by one of two things: either we eat until the show is over or we eat to the pace of the show.  

The faster the pace, the more we consume.   The stomach does not keep an accurate account of how much we have eaten, as it

takes roughly 20 minutes to realize that we are full.   Instead, we rely on our visual cues -- an empty bowl, a clean plate-- to determine when we are finished eating.  

Combating mindless eating may seem like an overwhelming task, but little changes can be done to slow our food intake.  Put snacks into a separate dish, rather than eat from the box.   Move healthier foods to eye level in the cabinet.   Eat meals in a dining setting, not in front of a television.

This isn’t to say that what we eat isn’t important; that glazed donut still packs a lot of calories even when it is served on a small plate.   However, being aware of what causes overeating can help us to stop eating before we go overboard.          

The pattern is similar to what is seen in patients with PTSD, who have trouble overcoming fear even when they are no longer in a dan-gerous situation.”

“”

UNOVEMBER 29, 2012unewsonline.com

SPORTS

By TONY TRAINA Associate Sports Editor

Historic season ends in heartbreak

Roll Tide vs fighting Catholics

By CHARLES BOWLES Sports Editor

Tony Trina / Associate Sports Editor

Tai Chi is just one of 32 unique sports clubs offered at Simon Recreation Center. Jintao Chen teaches the class, which is open to all interested in learning about the ancient Chinese art.

See “BCS” on Page 12

After three months of defending home turf, gruel-ing road wars and cycling

through four dif-f e r e n t n u m -ber one t e a m s , c o l l e g e footbal l has final-ly come d o w n to this month of waiting.

Notre Dame retains the title of Bowl Championship Se-ries (BCS) No. 1 after a beat down of Wake Forest for their first shutout of the sea-son in sacred South Bend. They took the momentum into Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles and beat down the battered University of Southern California to stake their claim as the only bowl-eligible undefeated team of the 2012 season.

Of course, Braxton Miller and the rest of the Ohio State Buckeyes went into Ohio Stadium this past weekend and beat “That Team from Up North,” the University of Michigan, to complete Urban Meyer’s first year undefeated but they can’t play in a bowl this year thanks to NCAA-imposed sanctions. Cross your fingers for an Associ-ated Press Championship, Buckeyes.

While Notre Dame will be playing in the BCS Na-tional Title Game in Miami on January 7th (lament the 46-day wait), the real ques-tion is: who is the actual No. 2 team in the country? Alabama rebounded after its sole loss of the season against SEC-newcomer Tex-as A&M and the fabulous Johnny Manziel, rolling over Western Carolina and Auburn before setting their sights on the SEC Champi-onship Game against Geor-gia. Georgia kept its end of the bargain after getting blown out by South Caro-lina early in the season, go-ing on to beat their last six opponents by an impressive 141-point difference.

And what about the team out west, quacking for their spot in the title race?

BILLIKEN BRIEFS

Kristo named Semifinalist

SLU forward Rob-bie Kristo was a semi-finalist for the Hermann Tro-phy, the most pres-tigous individual award in intercol-legiate soccer. Kristo is one of 15 semifinalist for the award. The three finalists will be named on Thurs-day Dec. 6.

Men’s Basketball

The Billikens add-ed Sean Duff to the men’s basket-ball roster as a walk-on. Duff was a walk-on at Drake University during the 2009-2010 season. Duff’s uncle played for the Billikens from 1988-1991. Duff is the second walk-on on the roster.

BILLIKEN SCHEDULE

Women’s Basketball

Men’s Basketball

Academic Excellence

During the Val-paraiso game on Sunday Dec. 2, 138 student-ath-letes will be hon-ored for earning a 3.0 GPA during the Spring 2012 semester. Also, 99 were named to the Atlantic 10 honor roll

Follow us @TheUNewsSports for the latest Billiken sports coverage

Swimming & Diving

Dec. 1 Valparaiso

Dec. 3 Illinois- Chicago

Dec. 2 Valparaiso

Dec. 5 North Texas

Nov. 29 Mizzou Invite

John Schuler / Photo Editor

Robbie Kristo and teammates were heartbroken after los-ing to Farleigh Dickinson in the NCAA tournament.

Heartbreaking is the only appropriate word to describe Jack McVey’s goal that knocked the Saint Louis University men’s soc-cer team out of the NCAA Tournament.

After the golden goal, the Billikens stood in shock on the field, heads down, angry and sad. The real-ization began to dawn that their season was over.

The Billikens, Atlantic 10 champions and overall No. 8 seed, lost at home in double overtime against the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights 2-1 at Robert R. Hermann Stadium on Sun-day, Nov. 18.

“You never want your

season to end, but it is go-ing to sometime and today we left it too late,” Alex Sweetin, midfielder, said.

The teams battled hard in the first half. Neither team managed to break through on offense, and the game remained score-less at halftime.

The Knights broke through with the first goal in the 56th minute. Jan Au-bert scored off an assist by Antony Moore. The Bills responded in the 73rd min-ute with a goal from Robbie Kristo that was scored off a header.

The game was tied at 1-1 going into overtime.

The Bills applied a lot of pressure in the first over-time, but could not get a goal. Although there were a few scoring opportuni-

ties, the team failed to put the ball away.

The Knights won in second overtime on a one timer goal. Antony Moore crossed the ball into the box where Jack McVey headed it into the net to end the match.

The Bills’ season was over.

The Bills finished the season with a 16-5 overall record. That is a 10-win im-provement from the previ-ous season when the Bills finished 6-10-1 in the 2011 season. Next season, the team will have a number of players returning from this year’s team.

The team opened the

See “Soccer” on Page 13

Deck the Rec with healthy living

My time with Majerus, a coach and friend

Michael Johnson / The University News

SLU announced Majerus will no longer coach the Billikens on Nov. 18. Majerus leaves SLU with a 95-69 record.

I always thought this day might come, but I had never hoped to type these words:

Rick Ma-jerus is now the f o r m e r h e a d coach of the Saint L o u i s Universi-ty men’s b a s -k e t b a l l team.

My relationship with Majerus began my sopho-more year when I became the basketball beat writer for The University News. I heard the stories and read the profiles. I expected to encounter a sour man who had no intent on making

my job as a student journal-ist easy.

In fact, I was so nervous about asking him a question that it took three post-game press conferences for me to speak up. I asked him if he was encouraged by the performance of one of his players.

“Yeah, sure,” he said. “But we lost.”

Thanks for the quote, Coach.

But, over the years, I collected great bits of wis-dom, parody and mockery from the coach. Very few of his words ever made the paper simply because while Majerus was on the record, the quotes weren’t really for public consumption. I’ll always remember him say-ing he would kiss Kyle Cas-

sity’s behind to get him to take open shots.

I often joked with his secretary that I could write a great coffee table book, “Big Thoughts on Life, by Rick Majerus.” It would have been a best-seller, ala “Sh*t My Dad Says” and “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.”

But what pains me more about the end of Majerus’ career at SLU is the per-sonal relationship I devel-oped with Majerus. I was shocked that he knew me by name, even one time calling me just to talk about school and my future plans. I remember once he told me that my parents should

See “Majerus” on Page 13

How to stay in shape during the holiday season

It’s that time of year again. Students are drown-ing in tests, haven’t slept in days and mountains of gingerbread cookies and other tempting Christmas treats will soon be staring students in the face. What’s a college student to do?

Unbeknownst to many, there are many resources at Saint Louis University to help students stay healthy, even at the end of the se-mester.

This past August, the first SLU Student Health 101 online magazine was

sent to SLU students.The purpose of the mag-

azine was “[to encourage] students to tap into a wide variety of campus and na-tional sources to better educate themselves on all aspects of healthy living,” Khannie Dastgah, aquatics and wellness coordinator, said.

Many groups on campus that have tried to promote wellness and healthy living have had trouble spreading their message. This initia-tive was yet another way for students to connect to other like-minded students. One of the biggest challenges for incoming students is See “Health” on Page 13

the lifestyle adjustment and making healthy choices in their new, hectic lifestyle.

“The fitness programs are hard to fit into my sched-ule, and it’s all too easy to ignore my body when medi-cal school applications are breathing down my neck,” junior Karena Nguyen said, echoing the sentiments of many students trying to bal-ance healthy living with a frenetic academic schedule.

According to Dastgah, the most prevalent dif-ficulties for new college students include, “sleep de-privation, stress relief, time management, budgeting money and financial stabil-

ity, peer pressure and mak-ing healthy choices regard-ing alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs.”

While Simon Recreation Center offers access to an array of equipment and amenities, its offerings go well beyond the physical resources many students enjoy.

Besides the traditional weightlifting, treadmill-run-ning and elliptical-prancing, Simon Recreation Center offers a plethora of alterna-tives for students not inter-ested in subjecting

Nate Creech

Derrick Neuner

NOVEMBER 29, 201212 SPORTS unewsonline.com

By TONY TRAINA Associate Sports Editor

When Butler Univer-sity guard Rotnei Clarke drained a three-pointer at the buzzer to beat Mar-quette last week, then fol-lowed up the shot with a 17-point effort to help take down the No. 9 ranked North Carolina Tarheels, rest assured his biggest fan was watching.

Saint Louis University senior setter Cassie Clarke often lived in the shadow of older brother Rotnei, but came into her own after transferring to SLU before her junior year. The broth-er-sister duo have been competing on and off the court since they were kids growing up in Oklahoma.

Cassie led the volleyball team in setting in both of her seasons with the squad, wrapping up her senior season on Nov. 21, when the Billikens lost to the University of Kansas. Her teammates viewed her as a leader, on the court and off.

“We always play so hard and work well together on and off the court… I love my teammates and these two years that I have gotten to spend with them,” Cassie said after the season ended.

Now, a new season be-gins for Cassie – that of fan, as she watches her brother lead Butler in its first sea-son as a member of the At-lantic 10 Conference.

Rotnei originally signed with the University of Ar-kansas, but after leading the Razorbacks in scoring during his junior season, he decided it was time for a change amid coaching and philosophy changes within the basketball program.

He finally decided to transfer to Butler, sitting out the ensuing season because of NCAA rules. Cassie had followed Rotnei to the Uni-versity of Arkansas, accept-ing a scholarship to play

volleyball in Fayetteville, as the family had moved there after Rotnei decided on Ar-kansas.

Cassie is no basketball slouch herself -- she was the MVP of the Arkansas state tournament her senior year of high school, when she led her team to a 32-0 season en route to a state championship.

“She’s going to play Divi-sion I basketball, there’s no doubt about that. There are a lot of Division I schools af-ter her,” Cassie’s uncle and one-time high school bas-ketball coach Rocky Clarke said during Cassie’s high school career. However, Cassie wasn’t quite as inter-ested in basketball as she was in another sport.

“I loved playing the ac-tual [basketball] games, but the training and consis-tently working on my shot I didn’t enjoy as much [as volleyball],” Cassie said.

As her Division I athletic career comes to a close,

Cassie is excited to cheer on her brother as he takes to the court again, this time against Atlantic 10 competi-tion.

“Words cannot express how excited I am for Rotnei to come to Chaifetz. I will definitely be making the trip to Indianapolis when SLU plays there as well,” Cassie said of the opportu-nity to see her brother in action.

For a family so close, it was difficult for Cassie to part ways with her brother after spending two years to-gether at Arkansas, but she could not be happier with where she ended up.

“I knew right when I got on campus here [at SLU] that this is where the Lord wanted me to be. If Rotnei would have transferred first, that might have altered my decision, so it’s probably a good thing that I went first. It’s very hard that we are in different places now; I was so used to seeing and hang-

Continued from Page 11

Stanford upset Oregon in overtime, 17-14, but the Ducks dominated every other game they played. Even if they missed out on the Pac-12 title game, they deserve a chance to prove themselves against the rest of the country.

The simple answer is this: No one really knows who the No. 2 team is.

Thanks to a couple more years of the BCS system, we may never find out. In 2014, there will be a four-team playoff system, but for now, a few well-deserving teams will be left out. Florida, per-haps the hottest team in the country, will be shunned by the system. They won their last four games and crushed rival Florida State on Satur-day, but will have no shot at a national championship. They’ll have to ask last sea-son’s Southern California team, who missed the title game due to sanctions, how to deal with the feelings of exasperation.

So who is this year’s number two going to be? Al-abama should be in because of their dominance of the No. 1 spot nearly all season and the fact that they won the BCS title last year, right? Georgia deserves a shot be-cause they recovered from a blowout loss and trampled the competition to end the season and are set to play in the SEC Championship, right? Oregon deserves it because of their dynamic running back duo, Kenjon Barner and De’Anthony Thomas, and because the only game they didn’t put up 42 points or more was against probable Stanford, right?

Arguments can be made for every team in the top five of the BCS standings, and that is true every year. There will never be an agreement among everyone as to who should play, so why not throw out one more opinion as to who should play Notre Dame in the title game?

Let’s start at the bottom with No. 5, Oregon. They shouldn’t make it because of the mediocre strength of their schedule and the fact that they couldn’t even qualify for their own confer-ence championship game, losing to Stanford in their biggest game of the season. They were able to sustain an onslaught of injuries throughout the season, only losing to a superior Stanford team. They will likely finish their season playing Kansas State, as former No. 1 and No. 2 play each other in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Too bad, Ducks, the Pac-12 just isn’t the SEC and you can blame yourselves for that loss to Stanford in overtime.

Florida, No. 4, won’t be lucky enough to go to the championship game in Mi-ami thanks to its sloppy 17-9 loss to Georgia earlier in the season. The Bulldogs ran through the rest of the SEC East, and finished the regu-lar season by blowing out rival Georgia Tech, keeping Florida from the SEC cham-pionship game.

No. 3, the Georgia Bull-dogs, will face No. 2 Ala-bama on Dec. 1 for the right to play Notre Dame in the title game. I don’t see the Bulldogs putting up enough offense against the Tide’s top-ranked defense, which is allowing the least amount of points in college football. Sorry Bulldogs, but tough love; enjoy the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

We’re left with the Crim-son Irish Bowl. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Two traditional powerhouses re-capturing their glory days. Alabama has returned to its status as a perenial power-house, second only to Bear Bryant and Forrest Gump in the annals of Alabama football. They are poised to play the team everyone loves to hate.

And so another SEC foot-ball team will be featured in this year’s championship game. I for one will have my TV tuned to that game come January.

Keeping up with the Clarke familyFor the Clarkes, family matters when it comes to athletics

Photo courtesy of Butler Sports

Cassie (left) and Rotnei (right) Clarke, after transferring from the University of Arkansas, have both had great athletic success at their respective Atlantic 10 institutions.

ing out with him whenever I wanted,” Cassie said.

Rotnei and Cassie aren’t the only athletes in the Clarke family.

Both of their parents were college athletes as well, and uncles Kelly and Rocky coached Rotnei and Cassie in high school. Needless to say, the house-hold was competitive when the two younger Clarkes were growing up.

“That would be an un-derstatement,” Cassie said. “Everything was a com-petition with my brother and me. It was a lot of fun and has shaped me to be the person that I am today. My parents always taught us good values and that sports weren’t everything, though.”

When asked which sib-ling is the better athlete, Cassie replied that it’s “ob-viously me,” before quickly adding that she’s only kid-ding.

“This absolutely kills me

to say and I would never tell Rotnei this, but yes, he is pretty good at volleyball,” Cassie said. “We would al-ways play one-on-one bas-ketball and I knew I didn’t really have a shot at beating him at that. I did take him in HORSE every once in a while, though.”

Cassie’s 5-foot-11 frame was never quite enough to match the stronger Rotnei in one-on-one matchups in the backyard and at the gym.

So what colors will Cassie be sporting when Rotnei comes to Chaifetz Arena on Jan. 31 to take on the Billikens?

“I am friends with some of the basketball guys and they are great people, but blood is thicker than water. I will probably be sporting my Butler Bulldogs shirt at the game while cheering for SLU, too,” Cassie said.

“If you can’t tell, we are very close,” Cassie added with a smile.

WHO TO

CHEERCory Remekun

WHO TO

JEERThe Injury Bug

CHEER, JEER, FEAR

BCS: Crimsonvs. Catholicsfor the crystal

WHO TO

FEARCody Ellis

After sitting out the first two games of the year due to an in-jury, Cory Remekun kicked off his season with a bang against Texas A&M, registering 12 points (one off his career-high set in 2010 ver-sus VCU) and three blocks (SLU had just one entering the game).

When fouls forced Dwayne Evans to sit down early in SLU’s games versus Texas A&M and SIU, Reme-kun did an admirable job shoulder-ing the extra work in the paint.

Remekun, who averaged less than two points per game last season, is already on pace to set a new career-high in scoring with 30 points through three games played.

“Obviously, having this guy out there really helps us,” interim coach Jim Crews said of the senior forward.

“He gives us energy, he gives us knowledge out there in a lot of dif-ferent ways and he’s done a really great job for us…He gives us a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score that we really need.”

Remekun is developing into ex-actly the type of down-low threat the Billikens will need to compete in a grueling Atlantic 10 season. Remekun is in his senior year as a Billiken.

There are injury-plagued teams—and then there are the Saint Louis University Billikens. It started in October when senior captain Kwamain Mitchell broke his foot during the first practice of the year.

However, the injury created an opportunity for freshman Keith Carter, until he went down with a leg injury against Santa Clara.

With Carter sidelined, the Bil-likens entered the CBE Hall of Fame Classic with just two healthy guards, Mike McCall Jr. and Jor-dair Jett - who went down against Kansas. Of course, Jett logged 26 minutes against SIU, but it was ob-vious he was playing through some pain.

SLU’s depth at forward took a hit as well, with Remekun and Grandy Glaze (who played 20 seconds against Texas A&M before dislo-cating his shoulder) both missing time.

“I think these guys have been very resilient with a lot of adversity this year,” Crews said. “We’ve had more than our share with a lot of different things. It is what it is and these guys understand that. We can only do the things that we can do. They’ve responded very well under some very difficult times.”

Senior Cody Ellis has been lethal off the bench for the Billikens, av-eraging 12.8 points per game. The 6-8 forward has shown a willing-ness to battle for rebounds (4.8 re-bounds per game) to compliment an improved shot.

In addition to the strong num-bers he’s posted thus far, Ellis has embraced his role as team cap-tain, slowly emerging as an on-the-court leader.

“I like being a leader. It’s awe-some,” Ellis said. “I was captain of the Australian team, which was a lot of fun, so being a co-captain with Kwam this year has been a lot of fun…I think everyone’s hold-ing each other accountable from the freshmen even through the se-niors.”

Midtown’s favorite Aussie hit four three-pointers en route to a season-high 19-point performance against Kansas. His fourth trey of the night cut the deficit to nine late in the second hal, capping the Bil-likens’ comeback attempt.

As if his abilities as a dual-threat forward with an awesome Australian accent were not enough, the blue streak through Ellis’ hair (which is slowly but surely gaining national attention) has his oppo-nents on high alert.

John Schuler/ Photo Editor Emily Diehl/ Multimedia Director Emily Diehl/ Multimedia Director

Photo courtesy of Billiken Media Relations

NOVEMBER 29, 2012 unewsonline.com SPORTS 13

It’s a great group, I love everyone of them, they are great kids and have great upside...

“”

-Mike McGinty

Courtesy of Billiken Media Relations

Mallory Eggert (50) has scored in double digits the past two games. She scored 12 points against Nebraska-Omaha and 11 points against Western Illinois.

Stone’s Billikens off to a rolling start

By DJ BARGER Staff Writer

Excellence Awards

2013 Arts & Sciences Excellence Awards

Excellence in Undergraduate and Graduate Teaching Awards

Excellence in Undergraduate and Graduate Mentoring Awards Excellence in Adjunct Teaching Award Arts and Sciences Staff Excellence Award

Faculty from the College of Arts & Sciences as well as undergraduates with majors in the College and graduate students pursuing an advanced degree are encouraged to submit nominations for the College's Annual Excellence Awards. One full-time professor in each of the College divisions (humanities, sciences, social sciences) will be chosen for an Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. An Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring Award will be given to one full-time faculty member from the College.

An Excellence in Graduate Teaching and an Excellence in Graduate Mentoring will be awarded to a faculty member in Graduate Education. An Excellence in Adjunct Teaching Award and an Arts and Sciences Staff Excellence Award are also being offered this year. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to submit nominations for the Staff Excellence Award.

While many Saint Louis University students re-laxed over Thanksgiving weekend, the Women’s Basketball team got down to business, playing games on Wednesday, Nov. 21 and Saturday, Nov. 24.

SLU beat the Mavericks of the University of Ne-braska at Omaha in Omaha, thanks in part to strong efforts from junior Lor-real Jones and senior Mal-lory Eggert; both scored 12 points. Jones narrowly missed a double-double, collecting nine rebounds.

The offensive effort was not the only part of the Bil-

liken’s play that was impres-sive. Their defense limited UNO to 42 points in the game, far lower than their previous low of the season (58 points), and their sea-son average (72 points). SLU also led on the boards, doubling the rebound total of the Mavericks, 46-23.

Jamie Nash and Paige Frauendorfer both led the

Mavericks with 11 points in the game. The victory for the Billikens was the first of the season and the first for new head coach, Lisa Stone. The final score was 51-42.

Saturday was the home opener for SLU, and the Bil-likens delighted the crowd with a victory over Western Illinois, 55-44. Leading the way for SLU was red-shirt senior Courtney Webb with a game-high 16 points. Lor-real Jones added 12 points and Mallory Eggert con-tributed 11.

SLU’s defense was on display as the Billikens forced the Leathernecks to spread the ball around and use a variety of players. Ashley Luke led the Leath-ernecks with six points.

In this game, Western Il-linois used a total of 14 play-ers, none of whom played even 30 minutes while SLU used only nine players. The Billikens’ starting five all re-corded over 30 minutes.

In the upcoming week, the Billikens will play Indi-ana State on Thursday, Nov. 29 at 7:00 p.m. in Chaifetz Arena. The Bills will then travel to Indiana to play Val-paraiso on Saturday, Dec. 1, and will return to play Uni-versity of Illinois-Chicago on Monday, Dec. 3.

Majerus: Leaves a personal legacy on and off the court

Continued from Page 11

be proud of the son they raised. He had hoped to get the chance to tell them that.

Before the 2011-12 sea-son, Majerus took me out to dinner on the Hill. We talked ball, yes, but also politics, family and love. He told me about the various charities he was involved with, different people who have touched his life and how he hoped to be remem-bered.

At the 2011 NCAA Tour-nament, in front of ESPN and the like, before answer-ing a question from me, he asked me if I had been partying in New Orleans at Mardi Gras with Brett Fa-vre, and he told me he wish he lived my life.

He also told the audience what he thought of me as a reporter.

I received a letter follow-ing my undergraduate grad-uation from Majerus. While I won’t give you the full con-tents, he complimented me on my success as a student, a college reporter and as a man. He promised to take me out for Italian when he returned to St. Louis in the fall.

It can be considered ta-boo in the world of journal-ism to be personal friends with the subjects you cover. Sure, a reporter can and should have a respectable professional relationship with the people he or she covers – it helps build trust – but there are boundar-ies where that relationship ends.

So, you could say it was wrong of me to befriend and be befriended by Rick Majerus. And maybe it was.

But my friendship with Majerus has been a defin-ing part of my college ca-reer. Some of my colleagues have accused me of being a “homer,” of not challeng-ing Majerus enough on his decisions. There may be some truth to that, though I always did my very best to uphold my journalistic integrity.

It has been my pleasure to work with Coach Rick Majerus the last four years. While you may miss seeing Coach on the floor, each game reminds me that I may never see him again or hear him joke about Mitt Romney and even my sex life.

I always thought this day would come, but I hoped it wouldn’t be so soon.

season with a 2-1 loss to a nationally-ranked Indiana team, but the team bounced back with two consecutive wins.

The Bills got its first taste of success in national competition after the Uni-versity of Louisville visited Hermann Stadium.

The No. 18 Cardinals lost against the Billikens thanks to a late Adnan Gabeljic-goal. It was the first nation-ally-ranked opponent that the Bills defeated this sea-son.

After the Louisville vic-tory, the team suffered its worst defeat until the NCAA tournament loss in an over-time match against the Uni-versity of Denver Pioneers. They lost 2-1.

However, the Bills re-sponded with three victo-ries, including a key road victory against Creighton who was No. 7 at the time.

After an opening confer-ence loss against Xavier, the Bills col-lected five s t r a i g h t conference v i c t o r i e s , i n c l u d i n g a dramatic 3-2 double o v e r t i m e m a t c h against Vir-ginia Com-monwealth University. The Bills had a 5-1 conference record go-ing into a key matchup on Oct. 26 against Charlotte. The Bills claimed first place in the Atlantic 10 confer-ence standings.

The Charlotte game was the only shut out game against the Billikens all year. Charlotte claimed vic-tory at 1-0.

The Bills easily won its next two A-10 conference matches and claimed a No. 2 seed in the A-10 confer-ence tournament.

The high point of the Bills season was the A-10 tourna-ment. The team opened the tournament with a 3-1 win against La Salle. The Bills then faced Xavier, one of the four teams that defeated the Bills earlier in the sea-son.

The Bills got their re-venge against Xavier with a 1-0 victory and moved onto the A-10 conference finals where faced VCU.

The Bills jumped out to an early lead and won the A-10 title. Their win got them a first-round bye in the NCAA tournament. The Bills’ NCAA tournament run ended early.

For next year, the team loses three key players

Soccer: Bright lights, big expectations for next year

Continued from Page 11 from this year’s squad— Alex Sweetin, Michael Rob-son and Nick Maglasang. Robson and Maglasang both graduate this year, and Sweetin is not return-ing. Despite these loses, the team has nine players returning from the starting squad this season.

Robbie Kristo, the team’s leading goal scorer, will return for his junior year. Kristo had 11 goals and five assists this season for a grand total of 27 points and was named to the all-conference first team. Ad-nan Gabeljic and Kingsley Bryce will also return. They were the team’s second and third leading scorers, re-spectively. Bryce was also the MVP of the A-10 confer-ence tournament.

David Graydon, who led the team with seven assists, will return for his sopho-more year. Graydon was named to the all-freshman team in his rookie season. Jon Roeckle will return for his senior year; he had three goals and six assists

for the team this season.

On the d e f e n s e , A n t h o n y Manning will return as a cen-ter back. Manning r ece ived s e c o n d team all-c o n f e r -ence hon-ors this s e a s o n .

Besides Manning, Roeckle and Tyler David will return on the defensive line for the Bills. Marco Heskamp, who started the majority of the year, will also be another returning defender for the Bills.

Goalkeeper Nick Shack-elford will also return for his senior year. Shackelford had a 0.85 goals-allowed average, posted seven shut-outs last season and had a .798 save percentage. Due to the collective work of both Shackelford and the defense, the Bills ranked second in goals allowed and fourth in shutouts this sea-son.

“It’s a great group, I love every one of them, they are great kids and have great upside,” Head Coach Mike McGinty said of the team. “I’m blessed to be a part of the group.”

Next season marks a ma-jor change in A-10 soccer. Temple and Charlotte will no longer take part in the A-10 conference. Charlotte was a perennial contender in the A-10 conference.

Though the Bills season is over, the future is very bright for the team.

Tony Traina / Associate Sports Editor

Dodgeball is just one of the many intramurals offered at Simon Recreation Center.

Health: ’Tis the season to live wellContinued from Page 11

themselves to the monoto-nous white noise of a spin-ning treadmill.

Currently, 32 club sports teams are registered with the Student Government Association and Depart-ment of Recreation. Club swimming was added this past August and recently had their first meet at the University of Missouri.

These clubs provide stu-dents “with an interest to practice and play competi-tively” and an opportunity to compete at a more com-petitive level, as club golf founder Joe Valentine said.

The club sports range from the usual, such as vol-leyball and lacrosse, to the borderline obscure, like Tai Chi and the Wilderness Adventure Club, the latter meant for “camping, hik-ing, cycling, rock climbing, canoeing, skiing, caving—whatever activities our members choose,” accord-ing to their website.

Simon Recreation Cen-ter also offers numerous intramural sports for ca-sual competitors. They are even divided into multiple leagues for Greeks, coed teams and varying levels of competitiveness. The com-petitive “A” leagues are not for the faint of heart though; some intramural referees say they have even dis-qualified teams for bringing back superstars that gradu-ated long ago.

In additional to intramu-

ral, Simon Recreation Cen-ter offers a variety of pro-grams and classes.

“There’s something for everyone, from aquatics classes, to yoga, pilates, spinning, hip-hop, zumba, ballroom and salsa,” Dast-gah said.

Simon Recreation Cen-ter has instituted a more inclusive class fee. Regis-trants pay a one-time fee for an all-access pass to any fitness classes offered dur-ing the season. This gives those unsure of what class to participate in the oppor-tunity to do a bit of shop-ping and sampling, figuring out which class best suits their interests and abilities.

The most well-known problems facing college stu-dents, though, are the diet issues resulting from the new environment. No lon-ger can moms force their children to eat their peas, and those chicken nuggets at Griesedieck Dining Hall are all-too-inviting, even for breakfast.

“In terms of obtaining fresh produce, you’re lim-ited to bananas, oranges and apples… everything you get for your meal plan is pretty much processed food,” Nguyen said.

Multiple associations on campus have been work-ing to remedy this though, the first being Billiken Din-ing Services, promoting events like “National Eating Healthy Day” at Griesidi-eck, highlighted by spe-cial promotions and “heart healthy meals” like spinach

and strawberry salads and fresh fruits.

Simon Recreation Center now works with Chartwells, the provider of dining ser-vices on campus, to pro-mote healthier choices and provide more options for health-conscious students. The two collaborate to orga-nize events to achieve their common goals. Profession-als from Simon Recreation Center provide health, fit-ness and wellness infor-mation to students, while Billiken Dining Services cooks up healthy, alterna-tive meals.

“In the past five years,

the healthy options on campus have drastically increased and improved. Many people believe that campus food or cafeteria food isn’t always going to be the healthiest; however, taking an active role in your nutrition can help you real-ize that healthy options are available at all SLU dining facilities,” Dastgah said.

Of course, one of the most chic culinary offer-ings on SLU’s campus is Fresh Gatherings Café in the Doisy College of Health Sciences, which is operated by the Department of Nutri-tion and Dietetics. The goal of the café is to be “eco-friendly, support local farm-ers and provide the patrons with menu items using lo-cal products,” according to their website. The café also operates an organic farm on campus. The menu has di-verse offerings, from grab-and-go salads to smoothies. The most unique of these offerings is the Harvest Market that Fresh Gather-ings hosts on Fridays dur-ing the fall.

One of the largest co-operative events among groups at SLU is the an-nual “Good Eats, Good Health,” which will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 30. The free event brings together a variety of on- and off-cam-pus organizations to make students aware of “healthy businesses and food alter-natives around SLU,” as Dastgah phrased it.

While it is easy for stu-dents to dismiss their cul-pability in making healthy choices, the new reality is that college campuses na-tionwide have gone to great lengths to provide the re-sources to live a healthy lifestyle.

The responsibility for making good decisions and utilizing the available re-

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