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SEADOG / PBR / and more 18 november – 01 december 2009
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Editorial Editor-in-Chief Ali Jaafar
Mind’s Eye Editor John Oen
Managing Editor Sage Dahlen
Sound & Vision Editor Eric Brew
Cities Editor Trey Mewes
Humanities Editor Ross Hernandez
Voices Editor Matt Miranda
Bastard Ol’ Dirty (Jonathan Knisely)
I’ve been noticing a trend in the mainstream media that I don’t like - a new trend, I should say, be cause I rarely like anything about mainstream media. Specifically, I’ve been pissed off by their tendency to label ongoing rights movements as “over.’
Production Production Manager Ben Alpert
Photography Editor Ben Lansky
Graphic Designers Ben Alpert, Tarin Gessert, Jonathan Knisely
Art Director Keit Osadchuk
Distributors Ben Alpert, Maggie Foucault, Matt Miranda, John Oen, Pammy Ronnei
Copy Editors Katie Green, Brady Nyhus
The meme took off when Obama was elected and every hack journalist decided that racism was over. I mean, seriously? I don’t even have to explain that one. More recently, though, Maria Shriver took it upon herself to declare the battle for women’s equality won. Her news special entitled “It’s a Woman’s World” was comprised of men living in “a woman’s world;” stay-at home dads and others who she thought were ceding control to women.
Business Business Manager Colleen Powers
This Issue Cover Artist Angela Frisk Illustrators Danielle Attinella, Talia Carlton, Meher Khan, Jonathan Knisely, Lucy Michel, Rachel Mosey, Guy Wagner
Advisory Board James DeLong, Kevin Dunn, Courtney Lewis, Eric Price, Morgan Mae Schultz, Gary Schwitzer, Kay Steiger, Mark Wisser
Contributing Writers Andrew Bergstrom, Eric Dolski, Maggie Foucault, Amelia Franceschi, Ross Hernandez, Kaitlin Lange, Liz Lorge, Zach McCormick, Tony Morimoto, Matthew Noyes, Brady Nyhus, Andrew Penkalski, Kevin Tully
The special was so asinine it’s hard to know where to start critiquing. It’s definitely not a woman’s world; not when women still make less than men and occupy fewer positions of power the higher you go up the chain. Furthermore, finding a few “stay at home dads” doesn’t mean that men are becoming primary child carers in droves. Truthfully, women are still treated as inferiors to men in all the places where it matters most - in the media, the workplace and most public spaces. But when you’re Maria Shriver, I guess things are different. I mean, she’s famous for being married to a famouser guy. Real inspiring stuff. This kind of irresponsible journalism isn’t just stupid, it’s harmful. Movements that are gaining greater public awareness and traction can be killed off by these erroneous messages. When the media flashes the “all clear” sign, people stop being uncomfortable and stop caring. In my mind, the job of the media is to make people uncomfortable and shed light on problems that need solving. Or it’s to subsidize Maria Shriver’s new hybrid Escalade. You know, either way.!
Photographers Meredith Hart, Matt Miranda
8:4 ©2009 The Wake Student Magazine. All rights reserved. Established in 2002, The Wake is a fortnightly independent magazine and registered student organization produced by and for the students of the University of Minnesota.
Ali Jaafar Editor-in-Chief
The Wake Student Magazine 1313 5th St. SE #331 Minneapolis, MN 55414 (612) 379-5952 • www.wakemag.org The Wake was founded by Chris Ruen and James DeLong.
The Wake is published with support from Campus Progress/Center for American Progress (online at www.campusprogress.org).
disclaimer The purpose of The Wake is to provide a forum in which students can voice their opinions. Opinions expressed in the magazine are not representative of the publication or university as a whole. To join the conversation email aJAAFAR@wakemag.org.
voices
Long-Growing Media Malaise:
Tobacco by John Oen
As the United States nears the completion and disclosure of its 2010 census, it will become abundantly clear how public health has responded to a decade of policy change. The writing is on the wall through interstitial studies, however: public health is horrendous on a national scale. Obesity and its associated ailments increasingly characterize the American populace - largely through a failure of government to conduct due diligence. Tobacco usage, in particular, has been the bane of the health movement for decades. After billions of dollars in corporate payouts, federal ad campaigns, and products capitalizing on the social stigma of tobacco smoke, the practice remains a widespread health concern for the population. In a time defined by an oversaturation of information competing for attention, has the immediacy of this harm been discounted like so many other issues? In a climate of discourse as recursive as today, it only stands to reason that the longstanding dismissal of tobacco would reach its asymptote. While the information exists to be consumed, it seems that there has been a post-modern rejection of long-standing dismissal by certain segments of the population. To this portion, roughly 20 percent of the population by some estimates, the very notion that tobacco is harmful is seen as an anachronism. Smokers of today are generally younger, and this is striking because smoking’s effects have been well-documented and studied for over 60 years.
If consumers are so worldly, and the subset of tobacco users are universally aware that smoking is harmful, why does such a large proportion of the country continue to do so? The government has made lurching progress in regulation in the decades since, but the nation has reached a point where dissemination of information simply is not enough to bring about appreciable societal change. Government cannot fulfill its mandate of societal protection if it allows such widespread dismissal of scientific evidence to continue. Far from allowing people to make their own questionable choices that risk their life with no externalities, the incorporation of stricter tobacco laws is akin to legislating the use of harmful industrial chemicals. Demographically, the usage of tobacco is overwhelmingly young and impoverished in varying measures. The general disenfranchisement of these sets may be to blame for the lack of progress in reducing smoking, but there seems to be a diminishing effectiveness as the population increasingly sequesters itself in media cul-de-sacs. Far from the parasitic leeching of resources of the impoverished, modern tobacco
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18 november – 01 december 2009
benis
debate has been framed as an issue of personal liberty rather than a patently dangerous product capitalizing on its own physiologically addictive nature and an impressionable public. Media confusion is integral to the sustenance of the tobacco industry, and it has thrived against all odds. The issue is increasingly seen as a matter of public health -- unclouded by the business-interested language focused on consumer choices. In another sense, this issue reflects a larger problem of disregard for healthy choices in other sectors. Even as reviled as obesity is today, a cocktail of unmonitored factors will continue to result in poor public health until real, material change takes place. The public health concern is the inevitable culmination of short-sighted advertising and encroachment on the public’s free time. It’s difficult to expect to incur no harmful side effects when the entire economy has been predicated on the endless cannibalization of consumer money and time. Consumers are bombarded with thousands of ads every day, and it is utterly confusing to bookend commercials with renouncement of the materially excessive mantra they have come to know and love. This is well-noted, even in popular culture itself, although these assessments are often vague pronouncements about how much more “on the go” today’s populace has become. Bundled into these writings are declarations that consumers are more savvy than ever before; a strange claim to make when receipts suggest that literally anything marketed will be trusted implicitly. If consumers
are so worldly, and the subset of tobacco users are universally aware that smoking is harmful, why does such a large proportion of the country continue to do so? When the discursive environment becomes hopelessly congested, the population becomes paralyzed into complete reliance on what has been explicitly condoned by government. Consumer boycotts are non-existent, and the process for recall and consumer advocacy are patchwork at best. Far from being more worldly and educated, we are hamstrung by confusion and the insistence of business that consumers can be stared down into complacence. The revelation that smoking is literally poison was not met with a vast and epic collapse of the tobacco industry, and this implicit endorsement seems to be the only factor keeping tobacco viable worldwide. In a country that has prided itself on the correction of unnecessary harms, the continued existence of legal tobacco is a slap in the face. The year 2010 will undoubtedly find the American population in the worst physical condition yet documented by modern health statistics. The writing has been on the wall for decades: no matter how far a scientific issue can be spun in the media or rebranded in the public eye, at the end of the day nothing has changed. Our government can either support the health of its citizens at the short-term expense of corporate revenues or opt to protect the revenues of ultimately-harmful industries. The choice has been taken out of consumers’ hands.
voices
by Eric Brew
In his revisions of the expression ‘ideology’ and his propos al for a theory of ideolog y ‘in genera l,’ Althusser makes two assertions. First he says ideology is a representation of “the imagin ary relation ship of individuals to their real conditions of existence.” Imagine an old flatbed projector that is capable of producing a complete image of an essentially incoherent reality – the “real conditions of existence.” This complete experience could then be projected onto a wall (the wall and the projector are both within the projection as constituents of the world, but we will ignore this paradox for purpose of abstraction). To make sense of these incoherent real conditions, every individual and institution creates a map – a transparency to lie down on the projector bed that will then connect and explain the real world. Each individual may have his or her own transparencies or may prescribe to a institutional transparency – religions, corporations, schools of thought, governments, et al., all have their own transparencies or ideologies to put forth and explain the world (the nihilist throws his transparency onto the ground, blindly struggles to open the nearest door, walks out, and finds himself back in the same room complete with projector and wall – the lack of an ideolog y is, after all, an ideolog y). These “world outlooks,” according to Althusser, are imaginary because we can admit – partly due to the number of potential ideolog ies – that they do not exactly “correspond to reality” but instead structure the way we perceive the world. Second , Althusser presents the notion that these ideolog ies have a material existence. It isn’t a difficult leap; each individual has his or her own transparency (the nihilist relucta ntly pulls his from the trashbin) that takes hold in the material world throug h the action and practice of an individual’s prescribing ideolog y. Where do I find problem s with this? In his ideological apparatus, Althusser fails to account for how the actions of an individual or group do not always reflect its imaginary represe ntations of what is real, thus losing its asserted “material” holding. How is an individual’s ideolog y represented when external forces narrow options and harrow the opportunity to express? Does ideolog y instead morph like silly putty might into whatever you next want it to be? What happens to ideolog y when it encounters a thought experiment—does it implode? How many revisions can you make to a transparency before it becomes unusable?
An individual with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder acts outside of an intended action by means of inescapable thought pattern s. Does failure to act as intended—in accordance with an ideolog y—mor ph that ideolog y (i.e. when a throat massage gets out of hand)? Or is the individ ual simply being “possessed” by another, divergent ideolog y? What of individuals that cannot move, cannot act? Do they still have ideolog ies? Althus ser might arg ue that there is an environme nt—a contex t—for ideolo g y: The interaction or existe nce of other ideolo gies. Each ideolog y and holder of that ideolog y (are they disting uishab le?) is subjec t to the existen ce of anothe r ideolog y. An individ ual can then becom es a constit uent and subjec t of any ideolog y. It seems that Althus ser sugges ts the individ ual cannot look at the real condit ions of experi ence without ideolog y. From this develo ps his always -interp ellated subjec t. As an individ ual approa ches the project ed world, s/he creates his/her self in their own ideolog y – thus transforming him or herself and others as subject s. This oppose s most other philoso phical thought, which creates the subjec t first. Instea d Althus ser says that an ideolog y constit utes individuals as subjec ts. This not only confou nds where the individual/sub ject begins , but also where the ‘real’ begins . We could imagine that Althusser’s conditions of experie nce are essentially without meaning once the ideolog ical apparatus has been put forth; if ideolog y is essential to being human , then can individuals know anything beyond their ideolog ies – can they see these conditi ons without ideolog y? Individuals use their ideolog ies to relate to the real conditions of experience but additionally the creation of the individual in their own imagin ary or artificial world, thus creating a loop of imagin arily relating to the imagin ary. Foundation in this logic would be endless ly filled with ideolog ies and no reality even though it was from these supposed ‘real conditions’ that ideolog ies are to relate. Althusser’s thought can be neither confirmed nor rejecte d, as he states himsel f in the beginn ing of his section “On Ideolog y” from Ideolog y and Ideolog ical State Apparatuses, except by “thorough study and analysis”— the prospect of which is ludicrous given the cyclica l nature of the ideas he has put forth.
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voices
The Inner Thoughts of a Smoker By Andrew Penkalski There is a great “no-smoking” public service announcement by John Waters that used to play before B-movies in the 80s. Waters sits in front of the camera with a cigarette dancing between his hand and mouth. He emphasizes the theatre’s no-smoking policy before tearing the rule apart. As Waters sees it, smoking keeps the ushers employed. All the while, the director continues with his deep, cancerous drags. To a smoker such as myself, Waters’ message exists as a hellish taunt. The words and images of the director tease like an older sibling holding a toy just out of reach. However, this instance of craving frustration has grown into a larger reality for my community of sociable smokers. These limits now extend past a dingy theater. While recent legislation continues to limit the activity, our tobacco addiction remains enjoyably cathartic. After a year of steady tax increase on tobacco products and a prospective campus-wide ban at the University of Minnesota, many of my hardy-smoking friends continue to pontificate over their unfair losses in the situation. Yet, I have finally started to wonder why we are still all smoking at all. Old habits die hard, so let me at least give a fair defense for those unwavering smokers of the world. To me, there has always been a fascinating culture around smoking. The activity’s ability to encourage conversation and role as a communal practice has helped in making it my favorite exercise of oral fixation. I also think it makes a person look cool. Call me juvenile, but the ripples of drifting smoke only enhance the semblances of people like Humphrey Bogart or Edward R. Murrow. For such reasons, it has become a vice that I indulge in frequently with great disregard for personal health. After all, being in the prime of one’s youth does bring about a certain sense of invincibility. Throughout this celebration of my de facto wild years, I have made lengthy arguments for the rights of smokers. I vehemently fought against the campuswide smoking ban at several symposiums or meetings regarding the matter. I’ve fought for the rights of the bar owners. I’ve even fought for the heavy agricultural economy of tobacco farming. But recently, I have realized that these arguments will never benefit me on a personal level. I am starting to think about a bigger picture. It is one that transcends the thrill I get from looking like a troublemaker with a Marlboro between my lips. It is true that I am young, and I still consider myself only a boy, but I will not be forever. I am now more gravely conscious of this habit’s consequences than ever before. I think I am going to spend some time exploring the effects of anti-smoking legislation more deeply. Did you know heart attack rates in the U.S. dropped after the implementation of smoking bans? I purchase a product that could very likely be responsible for my death someday. Going into 2009, 43.4 million other Americans still smoke. It is a habit that takes 443,000 premature lives annually in the U.S. Regardless of my love for the habitu-
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18 november – 01 december 2009
Lucy Michel
al weakness, the benefits have begun to be outweighed by the costs. The prices have yet to discourage me. I still liberally bum cigarettes to friends and strangers who request them. I’m convinced that it is one of the simplest ways to build up a bit of good karma before the habit buries me. However, my newfound mixed feelings rise from the budding acknowledgment that I may not be as invincible as I often insist upon. It is an argument that I had always perceived as largely political, but it has recently become personal. I have chronic bronchitis from habitually smoking. About four times a year, I will go through violent coughing fits that last about a week or two. I am just coming out of a particularly bad one that arrived with the fall. Last week, I had an especially bad episode during a cigarette. I became extremely light headed and stumbled into a chair on my porch. It became the first time I ever truly questioned the worth of my habit.
I tried to quit once. I spent three days without smoking over winter break last year. By the second day, I was angry with anyone who would speak to me. I ate an obscene amount of junk food in an effort to curb the effects of my withdrawn vice. By the fourth day, I decided that smoking was the easiest solution to my new problems. This all defines the smoker’s dilemma: How do we sacrifice a horrid vice that brings us such immediate joy? My friends and I have had wonderful conversations over cigarettes. They often last long after the smoke is finished. It is difficult to imagine having a cup of coffee or driving in my best friend’s car without the habit. In my life, the two experiences are bound. Regardless, there must be a personal point for each smoker where the social love for the activity becomes shadowed by the harsh reality of its health effects.
voices
Fiscal Democracy and U: Let’s Rock Bruiniks’ Boat By Matt Miranda “In all of its activities, the University strives to sustain an open exchange of ideas in an environment that embodies the values of academic freedom, responsibility, integrity, and cooperation; that provides an atmosphere of mutual respect...” So reads, in part, the mission statement of the University of Minnesota. It would seem that our fair University is founded on strong democratic principles, and the free exchange of ideas, even those some might find irritating or disruptive. So why then, is the University’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society facing sanctions for displaying several banners critical of the administration as part of their Save our School campaign during convocation last fall?
For the record, I find SDS’s tactics to be ill-conceived; it can almost certainly be said that such disruptions have very little value in spreading the group’s message, and may, on the contrary, diminish it. This is unfortunate, because the message of the Save our School Campaign is an urgent one. Tuition has doubled in a decade, and is set to rise by another 7 percent next year. The General College is closed. Thousands of workers and teachers have been laid off. Students have no representation in the University power structure, and major decisions are made without us. And University President Bob Bruiniks has the third highest paycheck of any college president in the country. Does this sound like an open, free, responsible, and cooperative environment? In a recent piece published in The Minnesota Daily, President Bruiniks made clear where his priorities lie saying, “the idea that we should cut research and outreach and instead focus on education in order to save money is a false choice,” and that “Minnesota has numerous colleges and universities that focus primarily on teaching and leave research and outreach to us, yet more than 50,000 students choose to enroll here each year… as we seek to focus our mission in order to set priorities and control costs, it is important that we not change our mission. We must
$613,743,692
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Percent of Budget from Fees and Tuition
49%
38%
Percent of Budget from State Legislature
Funding from State Legislature
Must we be content to accept decrees from on high, to watch as our futures are subjugated to an agenda of national recognition and corporate-driven research? The University’s mission statement contains strong, democratic words like integrity, responsibility, and cooperation. But every major decision is made by a single man, and is duly approved by his rubber-stamp Board of Regents. It is hard to see how there can be integrity and responsibility when he is accountable to no one, least of all the University community at large. While tuition and student fees account for 20 percent of the school’s operating budget, this year surpassing state grants as the University’s largest funding source, we have no real representation or voice in decision-making process. We have no power to select those who will spend our money, and no recourse when our interests are ignored. It’s clear that we have been shut out of power, relegated only to perfunctory and limited “input” in the course of the institution in which we have a vested interest. Appeals within the current grievance system have been ignored. Dissenting voices are silenced. Must we be content to accept decrees from on high, to watch as our futures are subjugated to an agenda of national recognition and corporate-driven research? No, but we’ve got to turn off Facebook and get pissed and involved to change it.
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not abandon our roots or surrender our future to address a challenging present.” The future isn’t found in research laboratories, but in today’s students, who are tomorrow’s leaders and innovators. The U of M is a public university, beholden to the public interest, and tasked with providing affordable education to our state’s citizens. These are our roots, and every tuition increase to fund a PR agenda or to raise the U of M’s (or Bruiniks’) national profile is one more step away from those roots.
7.25%
Average Tuition Increase in 2009
7.5%
The time has come for students to resolutely declare that we want a voice in this institution, and we’re going to rock the boat if we don’t get it. While I don’t necessarily agree with SDS that disrupting convocation is the most effective means to rock said boat, I do believe the time for action has come. We need to act in the vein of our nation’s historical bedrock and refuse to let authority spend our money without our input. It’s time to organize and band together. It’s time to demand the right to share in the decision of who serves on the Board of Regents. It’s time to make the budget process transparent and inclusive. It’s time to demand fiscal democracy at the U of M. It’s time to send a message to the President and Board of Regents that we’re pissed, and we’re sick of shouldering the debt for their ambitions. It’s time to fight back.
Avg. Tuition Increase proposed for 2010
www.wakemag.org
07
cities
Hangin’ with UMPD
by Maggie Foucault
photos by matt miranda
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18 november – 01 december 2009
cities
T
he University of Minnesota Police Department is the subject of frustration for many University students, particularly those that like to write opinion pieces. For that reason, when I signed up for a ride along on the UMPD website, I was not expecting a response for quite a while. Surprisingly, the next day I was contacted with a message that one officer in the entire squad willing to take me. I jumped at the chance, and after a few emails back and forth, my ride along was set. While working on questions, I came to the realization that the only interaction that I’ve had with the UMPD has been watching them place parking tickets on my car when I’ve forgotten to feed it quarters. Many other students have had the same experience, while others know the UMPD through their first experience receiving a minor consumption ticket. It seems that every day there are more and more crime alert emails filling up my inbox. However, the UMPD is very proud of the fact that serious crime on campus has gone down 13 percent from 2007 to 2008. We met Officer Randolph on Saturday morning behind Coffman Union. Before the ride along begins, we have to sign away their liability in case we get shot. He warns us that typically on ride-alongs he gets one good call before the ride along begins, and one good call after they leave, and nothing in between. “Just when you called me I was walking out of an apartment this morning that was an attempted suicide. Female got in a domestic with her husband and tried to slash her wrists.” The UMPD consists of about 50 officers, all employed by the University. While the UMPD technically has statewide jurisdiction, squad cars tend to stick around an area that covers all of the Twin Cities’ campuses and nearby neighborhoods. They do traffic detail, noise complaints, domestic disturbances, and everything in between including homicide. Any 911 calls originating from or nearby campus routes directly to the UMPD’s own dispatch center. With a bare minimum of three cars per shift, one for each campus, coverage seems a bit sparse. As we drive around in the cruiser, Officer Randolph gives us the lay of the land. We begin on the west bank, where the Community University Health Care Center marks the southwest corner of their usual patrol. As we circle the building, Randolph offers us a description of the area, “This gets a lot of lower income people, there’s a big Native American population over here, so we get a lot of alcohol related incidents and a lot of mental illness related incidents over here.”
Most of the students don’t recognize the value that we provide to them and they really don’t want us around. They see us as an impediment to having a good time. One of the first calls that comes through on the radio is a disturbance call in the south east neighborhood: two girls lifting their shirts with four or five boys grabbing at them. Later on our tour of headquarters, one of the women working in dispatch asks Randolph if he heard that call: “I’m surprised every officer on duty didn’t respond to that one.” As we continue our ride, we head north on Cedar Ave., which roughly marks the western border on the west side of the
river. “Cedar Riverside. Very large Somali population, lots of problems with youth gangs, a lot of alcohol, narcotics, weapons, fights. But again you have college students living in the area, walking through here at all times of the night, so those incidents often interrelate.” It’s interesting to listen to his descriptions of the area, using very statistical and general terms, not colored by opinion but by facts.
around who aren’t making the best choices. If somebody is looking for victims of any kind, theft or whatever, you’ve got a lot of people around who aren’t making good choices, they may not be from Minneapolis, they may be from small town Iowa, small town northern Minnesota, they come here and they go to the ATM and get out a whole bunch of money for drinking for the night.”
We continue cruising closer to campus, moving up Washington onto the East Bank. Because it is Saturday the number of people on campus is small. As we move past the stadium and towards the St. Paul campus, I begin to understand how big of an area they really patrol. At any one time, there are at most four cars out on the streets, patrolling not only all the campuses, but everywhere in between that the Minneapolis Police Department can’t get to. As we move through Prospect Park, a call comes through the radio about a burglary report. A resident found two people in their garage sitting in a stolen car. The two suspects had fled on foot, leaving behind the stolen car. “I wonder if it was a nice car,” quips the officer.
“Here, most of the students don’t recognize the value that we provide to them and they really don’t want us around. They see us as an impediment to having a good time. They see us as the people who are going to break up their party, give them a ticket if they’ve been drinking.”
From the St. Paul campus we take Hennepin Ave. back towards the East Bank. As we’ve covered all the technical and tactical information, we begin to talk about information more specific to Randolph himself. Though he has only worked at the University of Minnesota as a cop, he has also worked outside of law enforcement. “This was a career change for me. I didn’t become a cop until I was 35. It’s not rare, but it’s not the norm. Most cops, that’s what they start out doing. I was a health and safety consultant. I always wanted to be a cop when I grew up, didn’t like what I was doing, and switched. A lot of people, especially cops, look at me funny. Certainly made a lot more money as a consultant, and had really a lot less hassle. It’s not your normal profession.” As we head through Dinkytown, the talk quickly turns to his seven years of working night shifts. “I’m actually kind of surprised we don’t have more crime than we do. Any given Saturday night you’ve got a lot of intoxicated people walking
Officer Randolph recognizes there are other differences between working during the day and working at night. “Anybody who’s committing crimes during the day, they know when the cops are coming, whereas at night we can shut off all our lights and sneak around a little more. It’s difficult to get there quickly and to be able to make an apprehension, and someone on a bike when you’re in a car, it’s an easy get away.” “We’re going after the people who are really drawing negative attention to themselves. To be walking around here on a Saturday night and get stopped by the cops, you really have to put some effort into it to have that happen.” Near the tail end of our ride, a call comes in from the west bank. A man was found sleeping in Hanson Hall. The call is categorized under DNK, the police short hand for drunk. Since this is the first call that we are anywhere in the area for and our ride along is coming to a close, we respond and head towards Hanson. When we arrive, we meet another officer and a campus security worker. As they try to ascertain whether this man has an address, he only responds with “yeah” and “maybe.” Finally, after he seems to barely pass a field sobriety test, they decide to take him to detox. As we leave, the campus security guard asks if we know the score for the gopher game.
www.wakemag.org
09
cities
Banning BASE Jumping in St. Paul By Liz Lorge BASE jumping: diving off of a building, an antennae, a span (otherwise known as a bridge), or pieces of the earth towering above the ground, armed with only one parachute and a wish that it deploys in time. Joining the ranks of extreme sports in the 1980s, BASE jumping is growing in popularity, and adrenaline-seeking enthusiasts are covertly attempting this daring act within our very own Twin Cities. So much so, in fact, that St. Paul is proposing to ban the sport before most of us even know it is happening. The City Attorney’s Office of St. Paul wants to put the law through to make it easier to prosecute BASE jumpers and charge them with a misdemeanor. If you are like most people in the metro area, you are probably wondering where all of these BASE jumpers are. After all, are people who simply like to feel the wind in their hair, while dropping off a skyscraper, really St. Paul’s number one concern? “It’s an uncommon problem,” says St. Paul City Attorney, Kyle Lundgren. “There was an incident where a couple people wanted to jump off the High Bridge in St. Paul a few years ago, though.”
Thirty-eight people in America are recorded as having died from BASE jumping, none of whom died in St. Paul or even Minnesota. It may seem logical to want to prevent the possibility of something going awry during one of these jumps into the streets of downtown St. Paul, but most of the reason for the proposed ban lies elsewhere. Instead of having the safety of the jumpers, or possibly the safety of the unfortunate souls below them, as the driving force behind this proposition, Lundgren states “it’s a safety concern for the first responders who might have to get them out of dangerous situations.” Lundgren also says there is really “no law in place right now that is a good fit. And St. Paul isn’t the only city trying to prevent this from happening. When a man tried to BASE jump off of the Empire State Building, New York banned it, too.” A person can make a safe jump from heights lower than 200 feet, making the Twin Cities a prime arena for such a sport. The tallest building in St. Paul is Wells Fargo Place. At 472 feet, a jump would be easily accomplished. Although Lundgren says this is an “uncommon thing,” it obviously happens or else no ban would be necessary. It appears as though local BASE jumping crews are, in addition to being fearless extreme athletes, also masters of stealthily scaling buildings and jumping from them without leaving a trace of evidence behind. If this ban passes, though, these fanatics might have to travel to legal BASE jumping events around the country instead of covertly jumping from the St. Paul skyline.
guy wagner
Don’t Crash Your Bike by Zach McCormick As part of its plan to turn Minneapolis into one of the nation’s top biking cities, the Public Works Department recently unveiled changes to its bike lanes on Hennepin and First avenues. The design, produced in concert with the recent transformation of Hennepin Avenue into a two-way street, incorporates a right lane shared by bicycles, buses, and cars taking an immediate right turn. First Avenue also received dramatic changes to its bicycle lanes, with the city planners taking a page from more bike-friendly European cities to create a “cycletrack”-style design. These cycletracks place painted bicycle lane between parked cars and the curb, thereby creating an artificial barrier to separate cyclists from moving vehicle traffic. In addition to these measures, the city has also promised to incorporate a “bike box” (protected turn lane) at intersections where cyclists are likely to be turning left. Unfortunately, few developments in urban planning make a smooth transition from the drawing board to the streets, and Minneapolis’ bicycle community is up in arms about what they see as a significant setback to cycling facilities on these two major thoroughfares. Mike Jones, an Uptown resident, commutes using Hennepin and First avenues daily and expressed disappointment in the design, citing the tendency for taxis and limousines to ignore the markings and block bike lanes by parking along First Avenue. He calls the Hennepin Avenue bike lanes “make believe” and complains of the lack of police enforcement of these new regulations. “Minneapolis cannot become a world class city until a policy of complete streets is the norm,” he says.
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Many drivers currently seem to be unaware or actively ignoring the new laws on Hennepin despite signs and large paint markings indicating the changes, while the new cycletrack design presents its share of dangers as well. Leo Padron, another downtown bike commuter, notes that the new lanes “present a real danger to commuters.” Due to the relative narrowness of the cycletracks, even small errors by parking drivers can drastically reduce the road space for the biker, forcing them ever closer to the dangerously uneven surface of the gutter. Curiously enough, the cycletrack design was one of the few plans expressly pointed out as dangerous in the American Association of State and
Highway Transportation Officials’ 1999 Guide to the Development of Bicycle Facilities. The guide states “Bike lanes should never be placed between the parking lane and curb lane. Bike lanes between the curb and parking lane can create obstacles for bicyclists from opening car doors and poor visibility at intersections and driveways and they prohibit bicyclists from making left turns.” The changes are even being felt in the University area: patrons and employees of Varsity Bike Shop in Dinkytown complained that the changes were “awful” and “all around dumb.” The city urges cyclists to report any violations of the posted regulations to 311, but so far the outlook in the city’s bike community remains skeptical at best.
meredith hart
cities
Shame on U
talia carlton
By Matthew Noyes For anyone who follows University of Minnesota athletics, it has been a season of highlights and disappointments. Aside from what the box scores say, there is another trend forming that’s causing concern amongst the University faithful. The recent string of suspensions and criminal activities of student athletes plaguing several programs is a troubling occurrence that begs inquiry into what is happening to the behavioral development of student athletes this year. As the rosters begin to shrink, one is left wondering what actions the University Athletics department is doing to curb these types of behaviors in its student athletes. Establishing team rules and expectations is one thing, but who is ultimately responsible for keeping athletes on the straight and narrow? Athletics Director Joel Maturi states that “the University of Minnesota begins with a bridge program for most of our atrisk students – it is a University eight-week program in the summer prior to their initial enrollment.” Maturi also stated that there are required freshman courses for all student athletes that address a variety of topics including conduct, time management, and drugs. Ultimately, responsibility falls on the shoulders of an individual for any action, but there is also a level of commitment that the University has to its student athletes as they are in a privileged position to represent the University on a grand scale. In conjunction with required courses and counseling, Maturi says that the U of M provides “seminars for all students on a variety of subjects.” “Obviously we have extensive academic support,” Maturi says, consisting of “additional counseling, study time, tutors, etc. Finally, coaches address issues on almost a daily basis.” With all these measures in place, it is baffling that misbehav-
ior in student athletes would be such a recurring problem. Maturi went on to say, “We, like all schools, have issues with some of the 750 young adults we have here at the University of Minnesota.” On Nov. 11, the trend of student athlete misconduct was again cast into the spotlight. Minnesota basketball players Devron Bostick and Royce White were suspended indefinitely by head coach Tubby Smith as White faces misdemeanor charges of theft and fifth-degree assault in relation to an incident where White allegedly attempted to shoplift clothing from Macy’s at the Mall of America in Bloomington on Oct. 13. The alleged incident involved White attempting to shoplift a pair of jeans from a Macy’s department store. When confronted outside of the store, White allegedly forced a security guard to the ground several times before Bloomington police apprehended him without incident. White was then forced to return the stolen items, which were reported to be worth approximately $100. White is also facing accusations of theft in an incident where a laptop was stolen from Territorial Hall on Nov. 7. Smith also announced that senior guard Devron Bostick would face indefinite suspension for violations of unspecified team rules. The suspensions should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the recent behavioral history for many high profile players at the University. The recent suspension of touted basketball transfer recruit Trevor Mbakwe, who is out while he faces felony aggravated battery charges, is just another example of Minnesota athletes dropping the proverbial ball. Minnesota football head coach Tim Brewster recently suspended a pair of players, Cedric McKinley and Tim Danridge, for violations of team rules on Sept. 28. In another recent
event, touted defensive back Nathan Tow-Arnette is being listed as a suspect in an Oct. 31 assault that occurred at an offcampus party. These infractions come as some of the more recent incidents after the highly publicized April 28, 2007 suspensions of three football players for allegations of criminal sexual misconduct. Some may also recall the incidents surrounding the Minnesota men’s hockey team and allegations of underage drinking occurring at Blarney’s Pub in Dinkytown in 2005. The violations were exposed by an undercover report by KMSP Fox 9 News that displayed underage members of the men’s hockey team consuming alcohol at the bar. The report was met with divisive responses from the University community as many accused Fox 9 News of being overzealous in its attempts to catch players in the act.
The insular nature of being a part of a team lends credence to the hope that misconduct would be primarily addressed within the team. In light of sheer number of infractions, it becomes clear that the responsibility for the behavior of student athletes has to be a shared endeavor. The University owes it to the athletes to provide not only athletic and academic guidance, but also opportunities for assistance in learning how to adjust to a new lifestyle where independence and personal choice carry new weight. The insular nature of being a part of a team lends credence to the hope that misconduct would be primarily addressed within the team. But it appears that in many ways the teams take care of themselves as short-term suspensions appear to do little to deter breaches in behavior.
www.wakemag.org
11Liz
waku BETA
UPDATE
Wednesday 18 NOVEMBER 2009
Zing is what sells, and Google News has no zing. It’s the dull-looking kid who’s the son of illustrious pa
Getting News Ten Mouthfuls at a Time By Eric Dolski
News aggregators are the middlemen in an Internet filled with producers and consumers. You want news about horse races? Grisly murders? Escaped orang utans? News sources create and aggregators provide. The purpose of a news aggregator is to consolidate news content in one place, much like a newspaper with its multiple unrelated sections. However, most aggregators display the content instead of producing it. Ideally, a news aggregator scours the web for the quality content and leaves the junk to rot. In practice, the process often breaks down into a jelly of mediocrity. For a crash course in aggregation, let’s head over to one of the reigning barons of news aggregation: Google News (a.k.a. news.google.com). The place is clean, but not sparse. I can see section links to my left, a pillar of print stories down the middle, and headlines to my right. Links to video are interspersed among the text when available, but print is the brunt of the information presented. Maybe it’s my devotion to Google as a search engine that makes me feel at home here on Google News. Maybe it’s this sensation of being at home that makes me want to leave as quickly as I can. Google News is one of many news aggregators that offers content but not the zing. The content is there, truckloads of it, but news content on the Internet isn’t worth the fiber-optic filaments that it travels through. We can get our Internet news from anywhere; a major media site, an analyst’s blog, a journalist’s twitter and other, hipper places besides. We can even get off the Internet entirely if we dare to be so contrarian. News is everywhere for the time being and cheap to boot, so while Google News may provide a decent service, the sustainable economic model simply isn’t there. As a tentacle of the greater Google Inc. octopus, Google News gets along fine. However, Google News is unsustainable without the name. Zing is what sells, and Google News has no zing. It’s the dull-looking kid who’s the son of illustrious parents but has few prospects of his own.
UPDATE 12
At the opposite en gators have the ne scope of a service one such novel app story by different arguably more bal cast format. For in Opts to Keep Opel” Russia Today, Der Journal, and Deuts same as the pro in story thoroughly c cient, which News key element for ne fundamentally lim coverage of other n news format. The this regurgitating, More Views” simp ute headline news ries about Univers three different pub Daily, and the Star ferent perspective arrests. Will these ses retain their un com aggregates th be hit and miss, bu the novelty of new with something ak briefs. Note, howe pose of Newsy.com in American societ days, so perhaps s time will tell.
Let’s shift the focu necessary content
We in American society are told that people are busy these days, so perhaps speed over depth is market
18 november – 01 december 2009
VOICES
arents but has few prospects of his own.
d of the spectrum, some news aggreecessary zing but not the panopticon like Google News. Newsy.com takes proach. Rewrap coverage of the same news organizations to produce an anced piece of journalism in a broadnstance, the Newsy.com story “GM ” cites six different sources: the BBC, Speigel, CBC News, The Wall Street sche Welle. The con, however, is the Newsy.com’s case: One three-minute covers each topic. It’s fast and effisy.com founder Jim Spencer touts as a ews consumers, but it’s also rigid and mited. At its core, it regurgitates the news organizations into a headline site itself looks good while it’s doing , but the site slogan “The News With ply doesn’t lend itself to a three-minformat. Imagine reading three stosity of Minnesota campus arrests in blications: The Wake, The Minnesota r Tribune. Each story may have a dife and a different way of analyzing the e different perspectives and analyniqueness when a website like Newsy. hem into one mass? The results will ut if the uniqueness disappears, then ws has disappeared as well, replaced kin to the dullest of Associated Press ever, that speed over depth is the purm, though not of all aggregators. We ty are told that people are busy these speed over depth is marketable. Only
us to something that offers both the t and the fabled zing, albeit with-
table.
CITIES
MIND’S EYE
SOUND&VISION
HUMANITIES
BASTARD
Zing is what sells, and Google News has no zing. It’s the dull-looking kid...
out a shred of the English language for the discerning monolingual American to read. 2424actu.fr has a dark, sports-car sleek design uncommon in most mainstream news sites, perhaps to draw in that younger crowd who’s already getting sick of the black on gray with a little bit of white around the edges style that the reigning French news sites already offer. In addition to the design, though, 2424actu.fr has content—and not just content, but depth of content. Say I want to know more about the story of Michael Jackson’s death. I click on the video link for the story and I’m brought to an AFP (French equivalent of the Associated Press) video news brief. However, I also have the choice of hearing the story through video or radio from ten or fifteen other sources, plus scores of print sources besides. In American terms, this would be the equivalent of being able to see, hear, and read CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, the AP, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the LA Times all in one place. The problem? The site only streams video for those with a French IP address. But an American version may come someday soon; and the news aggregator landscape may develop yet another wrinkle because of it. After all, entrepreneurship steals from many places. Aggregators are one more answer to the challenge of making journalism more accessible and more profitable. Everyone in the Internet news biz takes a different approach. Some get as many sources as they can, some simplify as much as they can, and some seek to make their site a one-stop shop for every conceivable development. MSNBC tries for the latter with their “Spectra Visual News Reader.” Imagine a Nintendo Wii game where all you do is read news; that’s what this is. Choose your feeds and watch the stories come and go. As hip and trendy as the Spectra Visual News Reader seeks to be, it’s still a profoundly inelegant piece of software—a Segway in the world of news aggregators. Spectra would
make a great screensaver, but to think that anyone would use this thing as their primary news source is unlikely. The issue with news aggregators overall is this: Whether they have the zing, the content, both or neither, there’s still little demand for them. Aggregators today are a niche product. Who needs ten different sources for the same story? If I want to listen to Fox News coverage of something, by golly, I’ll go to Fox News. If I want to listen to MSNBC coverage of something, by golly, I’ll go to MSNBC. If I want both, I’ll go to both—why should I go to a middleman first? Speaking not as a student or a consumer of news but as the average hypothetical layman, what does a news aggregator offer me? Not much that I don’t already have. Aggregators may provide varied coverage of an event or offer coverage of something that would otherwise have gone unheard had I gone to a major news site instead, but, for better or worse, these are things that laymen have afforded themselves to lose. Aggregators don’t break the big stories and they don’t nab enough small ones. Some aggregators like Newsy.com and 2424actu. fr are certainly pretty things in pretty packages, but do we need our news to be pretty? Or is news supposed to remain what it is today, whatever it is today? We, the people, whether we realize or not, will decide with our wallets and our habits.
We in American society are told that people are busy these days, so perhaps speed over depth is marketable. www.wakemag.org
13
mind’s eye
keit osadchuk
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18 november – 01 december 2009
mind’s eye
hen God created the Internet, it was a marvel of decentralization. Here was a system that could theoretically sustain heavy damage to several different parts, and go on working uneffected. The implications for knowledge networks and national defense were obvious—it was the Cold War, after all—and the first such iteration of the Internet, known as “ARPAnet,” was established in 1969. Since then, we have only expanded on this concept of might-achieved-through-decentralization. If you’ve read Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, you have some idea of what I’m talking about. The power structures of the world began to adopt thinner profiles, as work-related tasks could now be farmed out around the world by means of fiber optic cable. Furthermore, free flowing information, an open source movement, the attention paid to lessening the “digital divides” that exist between age and socioeconomic categories, and the constant fight to preserve “network neutrality”—the idea that information should flow freely, no matter whose infrastructure bits of data cross—in some ways make the Internet more of a democracy than our own.
Internet-based applications (or “Apps,” in the common vernacular), to their mobile operating system, to their estimated two to five petabytes—roughly 2 million to 5 million gigabytes—of total data storage, Google is an Everything-as-aService force to be reckoned with. Having already made their mark amongst consumers through groundbreaking initiatives such as Gmail and Google Earth (and, of course, the search engine), they are now turning their attention toward making major partnerships with organizations. Paradoxically, the unabashed scanning of content and subsequent data mining that goes on at the consumer level to create targeted marketing messages—a chief component of Google’s business model—is seldom tolerated at the business-to-business (or “b2b”) level. Free Apps are something we, as consumers, have come to expect, and, similarly, the advertisements on them are a now-anticipated, if not totally necessary, evil.
The truth is, this technology has the power to undermine the fundamental democracy of the Internet.
But there is a new danger on the horizon. Cloud computing, which encompasses “Software-as-a-Service,” “Infrastructure-as-a-Service” and “Platform-as-aService,” is a new way of thinking in the digital era. Closely aligned with neoclassical economic theory, cloud computing allows producers and consumers to participate in online economies of scale like they’ve never before dreamed of. Essentially, by giving up the managing of one’s own data center, no longer designing or supporting software in house—if it is not that business’s core competency—and passing the responsibilities on to businesses that do specialize in these functions, a firm is made ready to start computing “on the cloud.” Organizations large and small, from cleaning supply company JohnsonDiversey to Morgans Hotel Group (compliments: Official Google Blog), the City of Los Angeles to the Federal Government (USA.gov portal), are taking advantage of huge cost savings gained by transferring all or part of their IT functioning to services provided through cloud computing. Even the University of Minnesota is (cautiously) hopping on the Everything-as-a-Service bandwagon. If it wasn’t clear before, enabling cloud computing from the service-side is what Google is all about. From their suite of
But cloud-based b2b technologies are a different story. Regarding the U of M Google initiative, pages and pages of help documentation written by the University’s Office of Information Technology define the parameters for institution-level use of Google’s applications. The paragraph “Acceptable Use” clearly states: “Highly sensitive information, including student grades, should never be placed in Google Apps.” This problem of trust is not exclusive to only the U of M. For their part, a signed contract states the company will hold University data to the “‘same standard of care with which it protects its own confidential information.’ Google will disclose University information only when required by law, and then only after giving the University the opportunity to challenge the disclosure request.” Yes, cloud computing can be more environmentally friendly than having separate companies maintain their own data centers; it’s more cost-effective and perhaps more strategic. But when companies export their entire IT functioning to outside parties—and with it, reams and reams of confidential data— they must remember that “information is everything,” and that total process security is mission-critical, or they could risk losing their entire organization.
“It’s about information risk management,” says Medtronic IT professional Bill Aerts, who heads up the division with a similar name for the Minneapolis-based corporation. When asked about the City of Los Angeles’ switch to Google for their employees’ email, Aerts said Google can probably do it safer, and more efficiently than L.A. could, adding, “It’s inevitable. You can’t just say no,” and, “they’re doing it to save a ton of money.” Another industry that Aerts says he thinks could benefit from Software-as-a-Service is health care: “Hospitals don’t have a dime to spend on data security,” he says. Add to this the newfound pressure to make data more accessible or appealing, thanks to a recent “consumerization of IT,” and truly mobile “Electronic Health Records” quickly become an absolute business necessity. Concerning the potential for attack, however, Aerts wasn’t exactly reassuring. Referencing the Google “cloud,” Aerts says “there’s no way you can manage an environment that big and be that reliable…Because of its size, it’s easier, more appealing, to hit.” The same goes for all centralized databases, with regard to logical (cyber-) or even physical attack. For its part, Medtronic does implement some cost-saving SaaS measures. But, Aerts says, the proprietary information outsourced is of little consequence to the organization, isn’t patient-related, and doesn’t carry great potential for harm if somehow compromised. “We secure it as best we can,” Aerts says. “If someone broke into that database, I wouldn’t lose a lot of sleep over it.” Considering the overall state of Internet security, the frailty of most users’ passwords and the need for significant reeducation in order to assure the safe passage of data from cloud to end customer and back again, perhaps this is the model we should all be following. Though the potential benefits from wholly embracing cloud computing are high, the truth is, if done incorrectly or haphazardly, this technology also has the power to undermine the fundamental democracy of the Internet.
www.wakemag.org
15
mind’s eye
The SEADOG Pump was tested by Texas A&M for its energy efficiency. What they found was that even with the small waves in the Gulf of Mexico, it outperformed INRI’s expectations. Of course with bigger waves, like in California, it can produce even more energy. Texas A&M also discovered that fish and other oceanic animals flourished under the pumps, to the relief of environmentalists. The second major product that the SEADOG Pump produces is desalinized water without the use of outside electricity.
The SEADOG Pump overcomes the two major drawbacks that have plagued every other alternative energy source: it produces no harmful byproducts and it can store energy.
The SEADOG Pump:
To show investors that the SEADOG Pump can both desalinize water and create energy, the company is building an 18pump site off of the coast of Freeport, Texas. Because of the way the pumps are designed, on top will rest a 75 by 150 foot platform, very similar to an oilrig platform. There, the company will boat in visitors to their “tiki hut” bar, powered by its self-sufficient power plant. The platform will also have one major export: bottled water.
Like Coal but Clean, Like Solar & Wind but Efficient
Renew Blue plans to desalinize and bottle 3,000 gallons of water a day. This is a part of its marketing campaign to show the world that mass water shortages are only a blemish in the world’s history.
By Tony Morimoto
Danelle Attinella
There has been little press and even fewer believers embracing a new technological innovation. It might be compared to the reaction people had toward Google in 1998, the Internet in 1962, the submarine in 1864, or other countless inventions where the majority said, “That will never catch on.” There’s a reason no one has heard of Independent Natural Resources Incorporated, their subsidiary Renew Blue, and their world-changing invention the SEADOG Pump, and it’s not because every other wave energy before it has failed. It’s because every alternative form of energy has failed. Nuclear power is extremely reliable and clean, if the radioactive nuclear waste is ignored. Wind power is fantastic too. Except its wind isn’t very dense, causing plants to run at 30 percent efficiency at best – meaning a 500 gigawatt plant can only produce 150 GW on its best day, and that’s only when the wind is blowing (pun intended). Solar power is excellent as well. Except this only runs at a 12 percent efficiency, and
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There is still one question: why hasn’t anyone heard about this company yet? If it was any other renewable energy company with a breakthrough invention, the president would probably have a photo-op with them, declaring “the age of the solution to global warning—or, if not the president, at the very least Al Gore. But, this company isn’t like the others because it won’t need government subsidies to operate.
that’s only when the sun is shining (pun intended). The rest of the heat energy that is not turned into electricity is emitted The SEADOG Pump is revolutionary because it is competiback into the environment, contributing to global warming. tive with coal on a per kilowatt-hour basis. In a country The SEADOG Pump overcomes the two major drawbacks that that is the Saudi Arabia of coal, that’s saying a lot. In fact, the only cheaper form of energy than the SEADOG Pump is have plagued every other alternative energy source, according to Solarhome.org: it produces no harmful byproducts and nuclear energy. But, this pump has no waste, no emissions it can store energy. Let me say that again: it can store energy. that are dangerous to the environment, and its only byproduct is fresh drinking water. The SEADOG Pump is essentially “just a pump that is fueled Renew Blue has already secured a $2 billion project in Ireby the waves,” Mark Thomas, CEO of Renew Blue, said in an land. Think of the possibilities: California’s power and water interview in the October 2009 issue of Popular Mechanics. But what makes this pump so great is that it can store energy problems solved. Not to mention Maine, New York, Hawaii, and any third world city on the coast where one pump could at night and then increase its capacity during peak hours. Just 3.2 square miles of pumps would be able to meet all of the satisfy all energy needs, as well as fresh water. The potential of this company is so grand it is downright scary. You will UK’s energy needs. To put this in perspective, the 500 GW wind farm (150 GW of actual production) requires 62.5 square hear about this pump, but, I’m sorry to say, not until they’re collecting tips at the “tiki bar” on a self-sufficient island they miles to operate. INRI only needs 6 square miles to accombuilt in the middle of the ocean. plish the same feat.
mind’s eye
Riding the Radio Waves By Andrew Bergstrom Much as the very air we breathe, radio waves exist all around us. Whether they are floating through our homes, or bouncing off the ionosphere to reach around the world. This vastly and undeniably useful discovery provided us with thousands of inventions that we use every day. Since this technology is so widely used, it’s certainly worth further exploration. Experiments performed by Heinrich Hertz in 1887 generated the first electromagnetic waves. Soon, a whole world of new innovations emerged as we harnessed the capability of radio communication. The most notable and possibly most recognized use is AM/ FM radio. Many others include: cell phones, wireless remotes, GPS navigation, radar, microwave ovens, satellite communications, and the master of distraction, television. Most sources tell us that this technology leaves no pollution. Could this be true? There have been several collective articles, web pages, books, and international scientific conferences, all dedicated to the subject of electrical pollution and subsequent radio wave sickness. Yet even this subject seems to elude and confuse the vast majority of people that hear about it. If you wish to study up on your own, I recommend Google. A few key words are: radio waves, HAARP, and radio wave sickness. Documentation on the subject dates back to 1868. George Beard, an American physician, coined the term “Neurasthenia.” This referred to the illness that sprung up after the construction of the railroad and telegraph systems. Not surprisingly, it was most common in the workers of these fields. The
Major Changes to Psychiatric Bible
term “Neurasthenia” itself evolved to “Electrical sensitivity” near the twentieth century when the number of symptoms dramatically increased. The list of symptoms associated with electromagnetic field sickness includes headaches, dizziness, nausea, tingling and insomnia, as well as “flu like” symptoms. Epidemiologic studies show correlation between electromagnetic field sickness and birth defects, childhood leukemia, and tumors in the brain and reproductive organs. There have also been reports of abnormalities in the growth and development of both plants and animal living in close proximity to radio towers. This would be consistent with lab tests of low-level electromagnetic fields substantiating these claims. However the lab also noticed changes in stress response, immune response and neurological functions. This brings us to the program called HAARP, High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program. It began in 1990 north of Gakona, Alaska. The purpose of this project is to study the “properties and behavior” of the ionosphere. The two particular reasons listed on the project’s Web site (www.haarp. alaska.edu) are “to enhance communications and surveillance systems for both civilian and defense purposes” by focusing radio waves into the ionosphere, essentially heating up a portion of the atmosphere. This is achieved using a high frequency antenna array consisting of 180, powered by 3.6 million watts. The project has not gone without its critics over the years. Since the early 90s various concerns have been expressed about the possible uses and side effects of such a program. Due to the potential health concerns, this should come as no surprise.
If you have ever taken a Psych class, chances are you are very familiar with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM for short. Outside of the Psych 1001 classroom, the DSM is used all over the world to diagnose mental illness and influences how mental illnesses are accepted in society. For example, many people feel that the removal of homosexuality as a mental illness from the 1974 version greatly improved the world’s view on homosexuality.
By Maggie Foucault
Rachel Mosey
that include multiple disorders, ranked in severity. For example, under the new diagnostic tools, the diagnoses of schizoaffective disorder, a disorder that includes features of both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, will no longer be included. Instead, patients that have previously been diagnosed with the disorder would be diagnosed with “schizophrenia with a strong mood dimension.”
Currently the DSM is in its fourth edition, which was published in 1994. In 1999 meetings began to organize beginning research for the fifth edition, due out in 2012. Even though work on the fifth edition began ten years ago, controversy over the process has just recently begun receiving press. A recent New York Times article brought to light the argument currently happening between researchers on whether or not to include Asperger’s syndrome and another Autism-related disorder, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (P.D.D.-N.O.S.), in the new version. The two disorders would be lumped in with autism under the label autism spectrum disorder, with varying degrees of severity.
Another major argument is whether or not to include gender identity disorder. The condition is diagnosed when people realize that their physical genders do not agree with how they feel mentally. Currently gender identity disorder is included in the DSM-IV under sexual dysfunctions. (Also included in sexual dysfunctions are pedophilia and sexual sadism). Many transgender individuals are lobbying to have the classification removed from the DSM, but kept in the International Classification of Diseases system as a condition. If successful, the move would encourage more insurance companies to cover gender transition treatments, like hormones and surgery. The AMA has already called for insurance companies to fully cover treatment for the condition.
The change to autism spectrum disorder highlights the DSMV’s focus on the gray areas of mental illness. Instead of only using cut-and-dried checklists to assess one disorder in a patient, the new DSM will include dimensional assessments
Although to laymen these changes may seem sweeping, in reality they are fairly minor. The majority of diagnostic criteria will remain the same, and the number of disorders being added is also very small.
Keit Osadchuk
www.wakemag.org
17
sound & vision
Brute Heart Brass Beads By Amelia Franceschi
Teleportation via the turbulent twist in sound waves may be possible. As one jams to Brass Beads, the debut record conceived by innovative MSP locals Brute Heart, a journey unfolds. One moment the traveler is suspended in an ethereal space of ambient female vocals and lush reverberation – wading in dense plasma and soothing waters. Then, in a flash of spectral flames, they’re pummeled with passionate, sporadic viola patterns and pulsing rhythm-dancing disjointed steps in an ancient world or howling and thrashing around some blazing forest fire. Throughout the album, the vocals often resemble tender wolf howls as each band member sings in winding notation to form a fluid cry or sigh of longing. Brass Beads contains a varied collection of tracks that all bleed originality and unique composition. The nine-song collection was originally released on 12” vinyl, and two songs are re-recordings from the band’s EP. The tune “Talebearer” drives and soars with PJ Harvey-esque lyrical lines and layers of orchestral reverberation, while driving snare taps resonate like the
Chuck Klosterman: Eating the Dinosaur By Ross Hernandez
Lymbyc Systym Shutter Release by Kevin Tully
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18 november – 01 december 2009
Chuck Klosterman’s new book, Eating the Dinosaur, is a series of fragmented cultural studies essays that reads like a mix tape. The logic in all of the essays relies on the reader’s previous knowledge of Klosterman’s work in order to get to his admittedly convoluted points. About an eighth of the book is Klosterman’s apologies to the reader for the “irrelevance” (a topic that is discussed thoroughly in the essay “ABBA 1, World 0”) or farfetchedness of the theses he presents. It’s a quirky book that only Klosterman could have written due to the writer’s already established list of penchants: Kurt Cobain, (professional, American) football, (professional, sometimes international) Basketball, Marketing, and Reality Television. The best essay the book is about the liberalism that pervades professional football through the flippant changing of rules and gameplay. I’m not a football fan. Because of this I was warned three times in the text that I would not be interested in an essay that began with an in-depth
“You know why they’re good? Because they’re brothers – they understand each other, man...” Thus began a conversation I once had with a friend about brother-bands. And, although he was referring to the Bee Gees (seriously), upon listening to instrumental postrock band Lymbyc Systym’s new album Shutter Release, I finally know what that guy was blathering about. Lymbyc Systym consists of Jared and Mike Bell, two brothers from Arizona, but from the way Shutter Release sounds, you’d swear the band couldn’t possibly be just a duo. I haven’t heard such a grandiose sounding record all year, yet I also haven’t heard such an elegant one. The thumping drumbeat backed by droning guitar and bouncy synth of the album’s opener “Trichromatic” sets a mood for the entire record. Although the tracks vary, from the gorgeous, expansive landscape of “Interiors” to the fast, loud, horn section of the album’s title track, there is a feeling present in every song that forms Shutter Release into one distinct, cohesive wave of sound. The band’s instrumental post-rock sound is comparable to that of bands like Explosions in the Sky; in fact, one could say that the whole album sounds as if they added synth and a tinge
psychotic pound of typewriter keys (almost a terrifying recap of psyche in The Shining) and pleasantly haunt the unexpecting listener in “Scritch Scratch.” Of course, a few tracks, such as “Flat Land” and “Reflection” become a bit repetitive and sloth-like with uncertain, crooning vocal patterns that may leave the listener unsettled, unsatisfied and lost. However, drummer and expressive vocalist Crystal Brinkman keeps most jams afloat with steady, pulsing rhythmic patterns. Brute Heart comprises three passionate female musicians on bass, drums, and viola. Their record comes with a digital download and is available at Treehouse Records, Electric Fetus, Extreme Noise, the Seward Cafe, and Hard Times Cafe. Anticipate bright innovations and more connotative tunes from these original locals- this threesome successfully blends haunting, subtle “brutality” with all that dwells in the swelling ventricles of a tender ‘heart’—what a fitting name.
description of a play coincidentally called the “read option,” but I was fascinated by how rapidly NFL strategy changes despite its cosmetically conservative politics. Eating the Dinosaur is a frustrating book; beyond its scatterbrained and contrarian’s logic Klosterman manages to make a handful of excellent cultural observations. Here’s a list in Klosterman’s borrowed style (RIP David Foster Wallace): a) Back to the Future will never be considered an “oldie”; b) Rivers Cuomo is and always has been a sincere artist; c) Kurt Cobain is nothing like David Koresh (although an entire essay is dedicated to this subject); d) “Millenials” is a stupid word; and e) Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window portrays an wholly unrealistic idea of what it’s really like to be a Peeping Tom, as does reality TV. The problem with Eating the Dinosaur is its resistance to a specific market demographic. NFL fans and those patiently waiting for an (unlikely) ABBA reunion tour are probably not the same people.
of happiness to The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place. Lymbyc Systym uses the same sort of minimalist-to-epic climax approach that has become commonplace in the post-rock scene; but at the same time, they have found a way to twist that norm and make it their own. This is in part due to the band’s masterful use of electronics on Shutter Release. It is heavy in synthesizer, blips, boops, white noise, and drum machine, but these elements are used in the most tasteful of ways. They are simple, subtle layers and textures accentuating the brilliant lead guitars (both acoustic and electric) and drums that make up the majority of the record’s sound. The band seems to perfectly understand the less-is-more philosophy and uses it to maximum effect. Shutter Release is not perfect. It has a couple of sore-thumb tracks (namely the quick, chirpy “T-Ball”), which are not bad, necessarily, but don’t seem to fit in with the rest of the album. However, that doesn’t change the fact that Shutter Release is one of the most surprising albums I’ve heard all year, not to mention one of the best.
sound & vision Over what may well be the most questionable of foodstuffs, the two discuss life, music and, most importantly, their record label. Personal Best was intended to be a way for Afternoon to still sign local artists as the main label moved in a national direction. Anderson emphasizes that the label will feature artists from the Twin Cities area exclusively and hopefully serve as a launching pad for relatively unknown bands by providing all of the services a larger label might offer. Afternoon has imparted Personal Best with “the philosophy of halvsies,” an arrangement in which Afternoon will match any amount of money that the band raises for it’s own record, effectively doubling the band’s resources in what can be a very costly process for young musicians. In addition, Salyer (called a “booking whiz” by Anderson) hopes to do in-house booking for all of Personal Best’s bands, while Vader, a sound-engineer who recorded the forthcoming We Valedictorians album, hopes to mix and master all of the label’s records in-house. Personal Best will also take advantage of Afternoon’s national distribution connections to put its bands’ albums in record stores across the country. Matt Miranda
Local Upstart Label Gets a Precocious Kid Brother
Salyer and Vader are aware of the challenge of being 17-year-old managers of a subsidiary of a label that some claim still has dues to pay in the scene, but the two are determined to take their “amazing opportunity” humbly, and plan to forego signing new groups in order to spend the next year focusing on making their three bands as successful as possible. “We just want to make great records,” says Vader, and with the duo’s outpouring of positivity and charm, you can’t help but believe him.
By Zach McCormick Shane Vader and Clara Salyer engage in the proudest of high school band traditions for their weekly meetings: the Taco Bell run. Over what may well be the most questionable of foodstuffs, the two discuss life, music and, most importantly, their record label: the recently established Afternoon Records subsidiary Personal Best Records (and yes, they are aware of the irony of their acronym relative to their age). Personal Best Records was the brainchild of Ian Anderson, who founded local indie label Afternoon Records while he was still in high school. Vader and Salyer had been friends with Anderson for several years, and the two seemed to be a natural fit for the new business venture. “The hope here is that with a little push from Afternoon, they can have the tools and resources that I wish that I had when I was their age…to get their label off the ground,” Anderson says. Vader and Salyer’s bands (brainy rock outfit The Shoe Shiners and indie-popsters Total Babe, respectively), along with the eight piece electro-influenced We Valedictorians (Salyer’s bandmate Jordan Gatesmith’s other project) will comprise the label’s starting roster. But Vader is quick to point out that “we’re not just trying to release our friends’ bands here.” The owners seem to have a real interest in helping other high school and so-called underage artists, having first hand knowledge of how difficult it can be for bands that can’t rely on alcohol sales at their shows.
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sound & vision
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Mark Thomson Sunset frontman Bill Baird is not impressed by your iPhone. Baird is interested in what he can do, what he can feel. He makes an effort to swim in the creek by his house daily and he’s always on the lookout for a quality watering hole to dip into. Pictures of him always tend to take place in the woods or on the beach. But before you dismiss Baird as another goddamn hippie with a guitar, you owe it to yourself to check out the sounds that come out of his admittedly abnormal head. Sunset’s new album, Gold Dissolves to Gray, was recorded on analog tape, and you can feel it in the sound. It’s one of the warmest records you’ll hear this year. The album rollicks and rambles and rolls along at its own pace, rarely finding reason to push outside the comfortable ambiance of Baird’s contentment. One of the album’s best songs, “Fishtown,” is really not so different from the rest of the record. It’s anchored by steadily plunked piano chords that hold the song in place when other instruments threaten to wrest control away. Baird sings naturally, as if he’s making up the words as he goes along. Softly toned electric guitar floats above the melody, while acoustic guitar enters with occasional flourishes. When the song finishes, it’s as if it had just floated through your head, nodding hello but certainly not making a disturbance. You get the feeling that that’s what Baird is looking for in his music. A man with a unique conception of people’s place in the world, he is simply looking to find sounds that fit together. Baird has talked about working at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired with lower functioning students who are suddenly invigorated by a Nick Drake or Simon & Garfunkel harmony, as if the beauty and brilliance of the sounds penetrated something deep inside them. On a more modest level, this is what Gold Dissolves to Gray does. Without ever sounding like their trying to, the songs seem to naturally coalesce as new instruments ease into the mix and melodies become stronger. “Our Dreams Did Weave A Shade” and “Gold Dissolves To Gray” are also standouts, with the former incorporating a friendly female presence to harmonize with Baird, and the latter experimenting with twangy guitar over an omnipresent piano. Both songs feature wandering, nonlinear lyrics that reflect the complacent happiness of the music. Gold Dissolves To Gray is an album that will slip through the cracks if you don’t give it the time it deserves. But after a few spins, you’ll find a group of songs that would like nothing better than to settle down and make friends.
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18 november – 01 december 2009
humanities
His Smile By Kaitlin Lange
He was nothing but a smile, the kind of smile that slid on and off every couple of minutes without any reason; just two rows of orthodontically ordered teeth that created a contagious pandemic of unwarranted happiness. Lucy could already feel her lips beginning to part. She hated it. How could he be the happy one? After all he had gone through with the cancer, he was still the one with the smile. Even the nurses left his room in a better mood. And now, when there were no more options, she was just supposed to pretend that everything was all right? “So,” he said, “Batman or Superman?” “Superman, of course.” She picked up the plastic fork off his tray, and began to poke rows into the cubes of red jello he had not managed to eat. Her parents had decided it would be better this way, having him not know. They said it would give him a chance to just live a little. A chance to not be afraid. Lucy did not know if she could do it. She was a horrible liar in the best of times. Every bit of her insincerity always appearing on her face until she knew there was no other option but to run. If she couldn’t lie to a stranger how was she suppose to lie to him? “Superman can do anything.” “But he has no personality. He’s so boring. All he does is fly around in tights and get sick from a green rock.” Clear liquid slid down his IV tube and through the needle into his skin. “And Batman doesn’t wear tights?” “Yeah. But it’s different.” Lucy looked at her brother. He smiled. It was a big one that filled out the space where his cheeks use to be. He used it as an intentional challenge meant to goad her into a reaction that only he knew how to get, causing Lucy to fall deeper into their intimate cycle of redundant arguments where there were only two sides: his and hers. It amused him, watching her face grow redder as her arms and hands jerked in scrambled emphasis, knowing that with one smile he could break through the Lucy’s façade that made her an ideal candidate for Law School. With anyone else her rapid responses remained calm and sincere, logical to their core. But he was different.
Lucy’s nose started to itch, but that was all. No red burst across her face turning her into an undignified, temperamental lobster. No elbows threatened anyone with intentions of personal contact. No antagonistic thoughts piled up in her head. Instead Lucy felt her voice box sink into her stomach, away from her throat and the high pitched register that initiated her fighting spirit. It was too hard. The truth was on the tip of her tongue, ready to be released into the room where it would finally become something real. You’re dying. There is nothing they can do. They say there is nothing they can do. They’ve tried everything. They say they’ve tried everything, that we should just be happy that you had extra time. You had extra time to live, always in and out of surgery and connected to machines, all because they caught it by chance. Because of the surgery. Because just a routine hernia operation gave you more time, saved your life. Instead she smashed the jello beneath her fork before she said, “But why? Why do you like Batman?” “Because, with his technology he could, like, actually be real.” The electric pump in one of the machines by his bed hummed, and fluid rushed though one of the tubes that stuck out from under the grey hospital sheets. With all the technology around him he was still going to die. “But Batman’s inconsistent, and busy. He’s inefficient.” There was nothing left on the tray but gelatinous red flecks. “Superman always saves everyone.” “Yeah. But that’s boring.” He smiled again, each tooth another prod at the sleeping lion. She stared at him, her contacts stiff and dry from the sterilized air. Their parents would be done with the paper work soon. Then they’d come in and tell him he was going to be fine, that there was going to be no more surgery. They’d tell him that he would just have to stay here a little while longer until he was strong enough to go home. A different smile would spread across his face, one of relief. A smile that celebrated the news that he would no longer be a burden. Lucy’s hand relaxed and the fork dropped on to the destructed jello. He was right. The story would be boring, but it wouldn’t hurt as much. She wanted to tell him that, wanted to see his smile go away. She wanted to know that he was as afraid as she was. But she didn’t. His smile was all that was really left of him, and she wasn’t going to be the one to take it away.
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humanities
Jonathan Knisely
Meher khan
talia carlton
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18 november – 01 december 2009
Djävel På S
ven
ska
v S å P
a k s en
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Ett korsord! över 1.) En mustig brun efterrätt 2.) Sveriges huvudstad 3.) En söt röd bär
ner 1.) Vad barn vill ha på allhelgonaafton 2.) Sveriges högsta berg 3.) stark svensk alkohol
På S vensk a! svaren
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