This has been deep thoughts with Ben Catus

Due to construction taking place on Morningside campus, classes in room 111 of the Library have been forced to move to the ICN room in Roadman Hall. The transition, so far, has been fairly smooth, with little to no complaints. “It’s an issue, but it’s not a huge issue.”

I managed to speak with Dave Madsen, the department chair of Morningside’s Mass Communications program. He helped share some information about the construction. “… [It’s the] Academic Building, that is for nursing and education and advising center and our new program that’s going to be coming on campus next fall…”

But that’s not the major reason why students are changing classrooms, “… In addition to the work on that new building, they’re working on the façade of the library on the west side of the building, which is where our offices are… And our classroom is for the Mass Comm department…” Madsen explains how this move is for the students’ and faculty’s own safety, “The potential is, that, you know, a big piece of steel could come crashing through the window. They don’t want us sitting here when that happens. Same thing on the classroom side: they don’t want students here when they’re working in there.”

Fortunately, this ‘minor inconvenience’ is not going to last for too long. “So when we come back after Christmas break, we should be able to come back into our space again.” Though, construction will return during the summer. “In May, during the summer, they don’t want us in there again. Because, I think, that’s probably doing the final work on the project.”

The project is due to be finished by October of 2014. According to Marc Curl, the General Foreman of the project, that’s when the college wants construction finished. “… a year from now. There’s a lot of steps to get to that point.” The construction crew is doing anything everything to ensure that they finish the project on time. Lately, the crew has been working 10 hour days, “Just to get ahead of winter, you know? Usually, if it’s an 8 hour day, we do what we need to do in 8 hours. But when winter comes, we usually turn on the hours because it’s going to get cold…” This is including weekends. “… same deal: just trying to beat the weather.” Needless to say, the crew is hoping for a late winter, “Yeah, like none at all.”

Fortunately, there haven’t been any hiccups down the road yet. “So far, smooth sailing… No mistakes there. Everything’s happenin’ so fast that they ain’t keepin’ up with us. We’re waitin’ on red iron. Particular pieces, ‘cause you can’t build without ‘em.” Despite the heavy load up ahead, Curl and his team are optimistic about this project. “So, we got a lot of work here… It’s an awesome project to be part of.”

All in all, any inconvenience will be proven worthy once the project is complete. For all of us here  on 92.9 KMSC News, I’m Ben Catus.

Due to current health conditions and the fact that I cough up a lung if I speak too long, I will put together the broadcast version of this when my voice is ready*. In the mean time, I have the sound files with all of the information.

As seen from the Mass Comm Dept.

Interview with Dave Madsen    Interview with Marc Curl

*I know, I should have gotten to that before I got sick. But I’m a procrastinator, not a psychic. Sincerest apologies.

A woman was shot by her husband, Saturday, at 5 p.m.  The couple had just been married 3 hours earlier. A neighbor had called the police. “I heard the sound of a shot, at least I think I did.” By the time the police arrived, the groom had fled.

This came as a shock to the neighbors. “I’d never seen him violent, never heard them yelling. It blows me away.”  The shooting took place after the wife had thrown a plate of macaroni salad at him. The wife was shot in the abdomen and is in “satisfactory condition”, according to the hospital she was checked into.

A statement by one of the neighbors

Believe it or not, it is not possible to make up for lost hours of sleep. The adverse affects of sleep loss cannot be undone by putting in extra hours over the weekend. Alexandros N. Vgontzas ([insert phonetic spelling here]) discovered this during a 13-day study at the Penn State University College of Medicine.

The study involved a group of 30 individuals. The volunteers slept for 8 hours for the first 4 nights. During the next 6 nights, the volunteerss would be woken up 2 hours earlier. The volunteers were then allowed to sleep for 10 hours in the final 3 nights.

At 3 points during the study, the researchers tested the subjects on the physiological (FIZZ-eeh-oh-LODGE-ick-al) and psychological (SY-co-LODGE-ick-al) effects the study had. The results showed that even though certain hormone levels had re-balanced, their attention span did not improve after the final 3 day period. This means that certain adverse health effects were not improved from recovery sleep.

Due to inability to settle on an agreement over a bill, Congress shut down the government as of October 1st, meaning that many government agencies, namely congress, will be sending their employees home. Agencies that are deemed essential will continue their workload.

This has been the 40^th attempt by Republicans to defund Obamacare, allegedly the bill in dispute. Nick Brincks, a politically involved Morningside Student, says that the Republicans are “acting like babies.”

So far, the shutdown mostly just affects Washington D.C., but if the shutdown continues for a couple weeks, it could begin to affect more.

“I’m not worried about it right now,” says Michael Lewis, another Morningside Student, “but if it goes on, to the point where they stop funding financial, I might start worrying a little.” If the shutdown lasts for more than a week, it could severely curtail the cash flow to federal financial aid.

Brincks had stated that the Republicans are “putting the economy on the line” by using the shutdown as a means to defund Obamacare. He suggests that everyone gives Obamacare a chance.

Brincks also states, “Because they keep trying to repeal it… The republicans are looking like brats.” When asked about his political views, he said that he leans more toward the Democratic side.

Article In Question

So I figured since the last article I read might not be considered news to some (at least not pressing news), I figured that I would go back to Reddit as a news source. Fortunately, I found an article that, as some redditors might say, gave me some feels.

The story was about an English boy in Kenya that had called a terrorist a “bad man” for shooting his mother in the thigh. The terrorist seemed to understand this little boy’s unhappiness, proceeded to give him and his sister each a mars bar, and let the family leave. There are more details in this story that tug on your heartstrings, but I do not feel it appropriate to share them here.

What I find most interesting, though, is that whilst the family is leaving (with two other children), the gunman pleaded for forgiveness, saying that he and his companions “are not monsters.” For me, this really showed a different perspective.

This man was not killing simply for the sake of killing; he was doing his religious duty. Yes, his religious duty was extreme and very considerably immoral, but that’s not how he viewed it. I can’t imagine the pain that this man must have felt when he saw how negatively people reacted to what he thought was the right thing to do.

Now I’m not saying that Islam is a good religion and we should all be Muslim jihad extremists, but maybe we should stop to think that they have feelings too. All in all, though, I would have to say that the little boy is the hero of this story. He was not afraid to stand up for what he thought was right (in a peaceful way), even if it cost him his life, and he managed to produce some fine results. I highly suggest reading this article.

 This month’s Morningsider Highlight shines on Kevin Pottebaum, a Sioux City native and Morningside graduate that that now works as the “Voice of Morningside”. Pottebaum is the Digital Communications Manager at Morningside College, where he works with social media as well as Public Relations. “They’re paying me instead of me paying them, so that’s nice,” Pottebaum commented on his job at his Alma Mater.

One of the major projects that Pottebaum is currently working on revamping the college’s website. He said that even though it’s been pushed back for quite some time, the new layout for the website is expected to appear around the end of this calendar year. “It’s mostly been pushed back because so many people have to approve it,” he explains. It has been about 6 or 7 years since the site has had an updated appearance. His goal is to have it refreshed every 4 or 5 years.

Though, this was not his original choice of workplace. Initially, Pottebaum worked in Mitchell, South Dakota, as a sportswriter. “My dream job was to be a sportswriter, but not in Mitchell, South Dakota,” he shared in a recent group interview, “if you think there’s nothing to do in Sioux City, try living in Mitchell.” He worked in Mitchell for around 10 months before he came back to Sioux City.

 As chance would have it, Pottebaum’s wife, Amanda, was offered a teaching position at Bryant Elementary in Sioux City that gave a higher wage than his own job in Mitchell. Pottebaum decided that it would be better for them if he searched for a job in Sioux City, which his new father-in-law announced at his wedding, while his then employer was present. Pottebaum laughingly described it as “probably one of the worst two week notices ever.”

 Pottebaum went to East High, and graduated from Morningside College, where he majored in Mass Communications and minored in Sports Management. He and his wife, a Bishop-Heelan and Briar Cliff University graduate, currently live in Sioux City with their two dogs, Tazz and Riley. In his spare time, he enjoys going outdoors with his dogs and hiking as well as playing for the amateur baseball team, the Sioux City Saints. 

 Article

My computer has this neat little app that allows me to find news, and I am kicking myself for not thinking about using it earlier. I found a particularly interesting article about the psychology of infants and their innate knowledge of basic biology. Don’t worry, I didn’t believe it at first either.
Apparently, infants as young as 8 months were subject to experiments in which toys were opened to reveal that they were hollow. There was a mix of toys that moved, were fuzzy, both, and neither. When the moving/fuzzy toys were opened up, the infants stared longer at the toys as opposed to the ones that were not moving/fuzzy.
This is based on the assumption that the babies are assuming the moving/fuzzy toys are animals, which would make sense when considering biology. The article also went on about how infants knew basic physics and such, but that was not the main point. Scientists are still trying to figure out what evolutionary advantage exists within knowing that animals have guts.

Cactus out.

For this assignment, I was required to acquire a breath mint. Now, being that I already had two breath mints in my lunch bag from Vonda, I felt it was irrelevant to get one, but alas, I searched anyway.

I initially made my way for the Caf, hoping to get the same breath mint I from where I got the last two, but then I realized that the paper said someone you don’t interact with on a daily basis. I decidedly settled on people in the student center. Fortunately, there was a group of Political Science students with a table in the lobby of the student center, conducting citizenship tests. I spoke with Joelle Kruger, who was sitting at that table.

She mentioned she had a breath freshener when I asked the entire group if any of them had breath mints. Though, her statement about lending me the breath freshener was “can I have it back?”. I was unsure about how much time I would have to take it down to the library and back, so we just took a picture to prove that I found it. Joelle was nice, and open. She managed to coerce me into taking the citizenship test, which I scored 9/10. Joelle told me that she would have made the same wrong answer that I did.

Tension continues to rise between the Stone Temple Pilots and their former vocalist, Scott Weiland.  The band has been touring and recording with new vocalist, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park.

In February of 2013, Weiland, the original vocalist of the band, was dismissed, according to an NME article. Not too long afterward, Bennington was hired to fill. Since then, there has been conflict between Weiland and the remaining three members.

Weiland currently tours under the name of Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts.  Initially, though, he attempted to tour the US as a solo artist, singing the same songs and using the same name as Stone Temple Pilots, according to another NME article. The band filed a lawsuit in order to stop him from doing so.

In response, Weiland filed a counter-suit, claiming that they have no right to the name, saying that the band will have to buy him out of the “company”, according to a Loudwire article. Both suits are yet to be resolved.

Currently, the band is going under the name “Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington”. The band is now touring and has their latest EP, High Rise, due to be released in October. So far, Bennington has been generally well –received as the new front-man of the band, according to another Loudwire article.

Article found here

Kenya is predicted to have access to huge water source for the next 70 years.

I liked this article, mostly because it was quick and easy to read. But at the same time, this is something that’s revolutionary for the East Africa region. In the attached video, it was mentioned that the soil of Kenya is rather fertile. Now that there’s this water source, Kenya may as well become a lush utopia now. Altogether, I’m glad to finally find some good news out of all the outcries about Syria and Miley Cyrus.