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Soup For You (revised)

“Would you like a cup of Zuppa Toscana or chicken and dumpling soup?” asked a friendly face serving soup into small Styrofoam cups for a nominal fee.  That friendly face belonged to the president of Morningside College’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, Danielle Dahlkotter.

Sigma Tau Delta (STD) is an international honor society founded in 1924, which confers distinction for high achievement in English language and literature in undergraduate and professional studies.  They also provide cultural stimulation on college campuses and promote interest in literature in surrounding communities, as well as, foster all aspects of the discipline of English.

Sigma Tau Delta means a lot to Dani.  Since being invited to STD her sophomore year, Dani has worked hard fundraising and spreading the word about their honors society.  Her hard work has propelled her to a vital leadership role, in which she aids the group by preparing meetings and events.

“STD has helped me improve my Leadership skills as well as expand my knowledge on literature and how to present research on it.  I run meetings, organize events like cup of soup and poetry slams, prepare for conferences and also take care of the day to day duties which need to be tended to.”

“So, what does soup have to do with all of this?” one might ask. This past Wednesday was the Cup Of Soup For You fundraiser event held on campus sponsored by STD.  Unlike sports teams on campus, STD cannot rely on the money of boosters or the small amount of money granted to them by the Student Government.  To make up for this, they must fundraise and make up a large portion of their treasury themselves.  Soup is the answer to STD’s problems.

This special event held several times throughout the year in the main lobby of Lewis Hall supplies a plethora of great tasting soups. The selections of soup were zuppa Toscana, chicken and dumpling, broccoli and cheese, chicken tortilla, and chili, alongside breadsticks and cinnamon buns.  Each pot of soup was homemade by active members of STD or on occasion donated by friends of the English Department.

Another supporter and active member of STD, student body President Kelci Tuet, donated a pot of her homemade chili to support the cause.

“This a unique fundraiser which no other organization can replicate, all of our soups are homemade and it has become a tradition for us to come out and dish out some of the best soups for miles around”

“This is our original fundraising event, held a few times throughout the year, most departments have a bake sale or sell t-shirts, but we have the tradition of selling soup,” explained Dahlkotter.

The money raised goes towards helping students go to an annual STD international conference where students and professors can share their past years work amongst English enthusiasts

“It is also is a fun opportunity to travel! Last year’s conference was held in New Orleans.”

This year the STD conference is going to be held in Portland, Oregon.  The Morningside chapter of STD will be taking at least 5 people who all have submitted papers intending on presenting work at the conference.  In January they will find out whether or not they might have the opportunity of being selected to present.

first draft

“Would you like a cup of zuppa Toscana or chicken and dumpling soup?” asked a friendly face serving soup into small Styrofoam cups for a nominal fee.  That friendly face belonged to the president of Morningside College’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, Danielle Dahlkotter.

Sigma Tau Delta (STD) is an international honor society founded in 1924, which confers distinction for high achievement in English language and literature in undergraduate and professional studies.  They also provide cultural stimulation on college campuses and promote interest in literature in surrounding communities, as well as, foster all aspects of the discipline of English.

“So, what does soup have to do with all of this?” one might ask.  This past Wednesday on December 5, 2012 was the Cup Of Soup For You fundraiser event held on campus sponsored by STD.  This special event held several times throughout the year in the main lobby of Lewis Hall supplies a plethora of great tasting soups.

The selections of soup were zuppa Toscana, chicken and dumpling, broccoli and cheese, chicken tortilla, and chili, alongside breadsticks and cinnamon buns.  Each pot of soup was homemade by active members of STD or on occasion donated by friends of the English Department.

“This is our original fundraising event, held a few times throughout the year, most departments have a bake sale or sell t-shirts, but we have the tradition of selling soup,” explained Dahlkotter.

The money raised goes towards helping students go to an annual STD international conference where students and professors can share their past years work amongst English enthusiasts

“It is also is a fun opportunity to travel! Last year’s conference was held in New Orleans.”

This year the STD conference is going to be held in Portland, Oregon.  The Morningside chapter of STD will be taking at least 5 people who all have submitted papers intending on presenting work at the conference.  In January they will find out whether or not they might have the opportunity of being selected to present.

 

Gaming Triad

This weekend Chicago will be hosting a Magic: the Gathering Grand Prix Tournament, in the Modern Format.  This event comes just one week after the last Grand Prix (GP) held in Lyon, France on November 3rd and 4th.

GP’s are very valuable tournaments, dishing out prize money anywhere from $200 to $3,500.  Another part of the prize for top the 4 players is invitation and airfare to the Pro Tour Gatecrash tournament held in Montreal, Canada later in the year and a set amount of Pro Points for this season of gaming.

Looking forward to GP Chicago, held on the weekend of the 10th, Starcitiygames.com’s Reid Duke reported his thoughts on the surprise decks which he projects to dominate the tournament.

“Those three decks [Affinity, Infect, Eggs], were pretty good decks for a reason. Part of it was their overall power and their specific strengths against Jund.  I do feel that  Affinity and Eggs are both unfavorable matchups, barring some pretty extreme sideboarding. I feel that I would be fine playing Jund against Infect, but Infect definitely has some big strengths.”

GP Chicago is estimated to draw over 1,000 hopefuls to the day one event.

It’s as if all of the nerds cried out at once…and then were silenced. If you haven’t heard by now, the Walt Disney Company has bought out Lucasfilm Ltd. from Star Wars creator George Lucas for a huge undisclosed amount.

The multimillion dollar deal includes Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker sound, as well as rights to the Star Wars franchise.

This development allows the Star Wars films to open the possibility for episodes 7, 8, and 9 to now be put into production.  The Star Wars literature and source material is so vast for the inspiration of these movies that they are ready to go and projected to be released before 2020 rolls around.

It is an interesting page to be turned to in the Lucas/Star Wars history, as the guys at IL&M will be able to team up with Disney’s Pixar corporation.  This means ginormous special effects will be had at the disposal of these two industry powerhouses.  This titanic turn of events is just one of the multimillion dollar deals Disney has dealt with in the past few years.  Others include buying rights to ESPN and the major sports shows that are associated with the cable company as well as the purchase of Pixar.

3storiesaudio

 

Mickey meets the Force

It’s as if all of the nerds cried out at once…and then were silenced. If you haven’t heard by now, the Walt Disney Company has bought out Lucasfilm Ltd. from Star Wars creator George Lucas for a huge undisclosed amount.

The multimillion dollar deal includes Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker sound, as well as rights to the Star Wars franchise.

This development is huge in the Star Wars films because it now opens the possibility for episodes 7, 8, and 9 to now be put into production.  The Star Wars literature and source material is so vast for the inspiration of these movies that they are ready to go and projected to be released before 2020 rolls around.

It is an interesting page to be turned to in the Lucas/Star Wars history, as the guys at IL&M will be able to team up with Disney’s Pixar corporation.  This means ginormous special effects will be had at the disposal of these two industry powerhouses.  This titanic turn of events is just one of the multimillion dollar deals Disney has dealt with in the past few years.  Others include buying rights to ESPN and the major sports shows that are associated with the cable company as well as the purchase of Pixar, which as to date has not produced a single flop movie.

This is very newsworthy in my opinion for a  few reasons.  One of them being I’m a total nut for Star Wars.  Another being that again we can see this huge homogenization of different media under the Disney Corporation’s umbrella and it just keeps getting more and more.

Scientific Breakthrough

Science has had it’s foothold in cloning for some time now, but actually recreating the process of something biochemically is another story.

According to the ACS journal Accounts of Chemical Research, scientists have actually decoded the DNA of plants and synthesized an artificial plant using the information.  The plant comes complete with the ability to photosynthesize.

This is a ginormous breakthrough in the vision of a famous Italian chemist from 1912 who predicted that sciences would one day find out the “secret of plants”.

Discovering this phenom creates the ability for people to use the results of this study and mimic the photosynthesis by dividing the hydrogen and oxygen elements in water.  This process releases the hydrogen gas which can be used in fuel cells in electricity.

The artificial plant was originally made up of platinum, noble metal oxides, and semiconducting materials.

Daniel Nocera, a scientist on the artificial plant project devised a way in order to produce the artificial leaves in a more cost effective way, using a less-expensive nickel-molybdenum-zinc compound and a cobalt film which generates oxygen gas.

Nocera explains, “Considering that it is the 6 billion nonlegacy users that are driving the enormous increase in energy demand by midcentury, a research target of delivering solar energy to the poor with discoveries such as the artificial leaf provides global society its most direct path to a sustainable energy future”

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Soundbyte Shooting Story

Yesterday, a wedding reception went horribly awry when a newlywed husband shot his wife. Richard Brunson, 50, shot his wife, Laurette Kenny Brunson, 38, police reported.

The Brunson’s were married 2 P.M Saturday on the front porch of their home where about 30 relatives and friends attended.   A witness who lives across the street, Vicki Holmes, recounts the wedding unawareof the events  that would follow.  Vicki

Police spokesman Sgt. Mann Sgtmann, reported the gun used was a .22-calibre handgun after an altercation at the wedding reception between the newlyweds.  Brunson is still at large, but the macaroni salad has been taken into custody and is under investigation.
The bride leaves behind three children who were at the couple’s home at the time of the incident.  Neighbor Micheal Micheal Martin reflects on his account.MichealMartin

The MoMa is “Screaming” Over it’s New Loaner

Probably one of the most iconic pieces of artwork in history, one of the versions of “Der Schrei, der Natur” or “The Scream of Nature” (or more casually known in pop culture as “The Scream”)  is being loaned to the Metropolitain Museum of Modern Art (MoMa).

“The Scream” was made by Norweigen painter and artist Edvard Munch.  “The Scream”  has been used in many advertisements, cartoons, films, and television programs to convey the feeling of desperation and fear.

This particular version of “The Scream” was sold at auction for  nearly $120 million at Sotheby’s auction house in May.  The previous record for amount of money spent at auction for a painting was on a Picasso piece entitled ” Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, which sold for $106 Million.

During the 1994 Winter Olympics, a version of this painting had been stolen from a Norwegian Museum.  In fact it, other duplicates of the painting have been stolen on two other occasions from other museums around the world.

The MoMa in Manhattan, New York City is a Mecca for all that is modern art and is visited by millions of people.  For the next six months while “The Scream ” calls the MoMa home, millions more are expected to pass through the halls in order to gaze upon this world renowned iconic piece of art.

CNN Report on the Munch Painting’s movement.

This story is news because it fulfills a small niche in news reporting.  The report caters to the Art world and the people who are interested in it.  It’s not very often that multimillion dollar paintings are put on loan, shipped over the Atlantic, and displayed in one of the most iconic museums in American history.  Although this report may not effect the entire world,  there is a broad and diverse audience that would wish to be made aware when things like this happen.  Also, many people upon learning that this painting is available to view in America, would probably be willing to just go see what all of the hubbub is about.  Though it may seem that this information is trivial, it generates talk amongst people (art enthusiast or not) and also provides a pallet for particular advertisers  to stroke their brushes upon their demographic audience (i.e. the art student/teacher).

 

Gaming Article Final

It’s about time that the gamers “come out of the closet”.  Aside from the activities which supply bulk amounts of social interactions for students (the sports and clubs), there are many people on campus that feel there is a certain group on campus that has been misrepresented for a long time now.  The aforementioned group of course is the Morningside campus gaming community.

There are many people on campus who play either strategy turn based games or Role Playing Games (RPG’s).  RPG’s are games in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting.  In these games players take on responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development.  Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. [1]

            Local Gamer and Vice Chair of Magic and Gaming Entertainment Society (M.A.G.E.S) on campus, Sam Cunningham, chimed in on factors he feels affect the local gaming community.

“People on campus are too scared of the social stigma that revolves around being a gamer.  They are “closet gamers” mostly because they are afraid some football bro is going to come and make fun of them and call them stupid.”

It is very common for people to feel insecure about their own interests, especially when it involves something which is deemed as nerdy as RPG’s.   The complex rules, the 20-sided die, and the turn based play all make very appealing characteristics for intellectual people to be interested in.

On the flip side, some people might feel that all of the rules and complexities of the game might be too much to be worth getting into.  Others are just afraid of what people might think, though.

“There are people on campus, insecure about being into stuff like World of Warcraft, but if you talk to them on an individual basis they will tell you that they were into it once and ask would for help and opinions about certain points in the game and what your favorite part of the gameplay is,” Sam said.

When asked about this secret shame gamers have, local game store co-owner James King alluded to an easily overlooked concept concerning the social norms of gamers.

“Some people are just awkward.  Most gamers have an interest in gaming and RPG’s because it allows them to be different in their own unique way, to be a hero or villain or just a Bad Ass in general.  Only some people can aspire to be like that in real life, but in gaming, anyone can accomplish that.”

Sam also addressed problems between the interactions of athletics and gaming.

“Athletics creates a problem because they form social cliques, M.A.G.E.S fights against this by allowing everyone to come share a gaming experience and effectively shatter the social stigmas go along side gaming.”

If you are an aspiring gamer or you just want to make a judgment for yourselves, M.A.G.E.S. is an outlet which one might find inner Zen with the dormant gamer you might just very well be.

“A great place to give gaming a chance and see what it’s all about is at our weekly M.A.G.E.S meeting right here on campus. We have a Facebook page. Otherwise, it isn’t hard to find a local game shop nearby by utilizing resources like the Internet,” Sam says.

Island Dispute

The ongoing dispute between China and Japan apparently has more impact on the world than one would think.  Since Japan Nationalized a tiny group of islands off the coast of China, the Chinese have been boycotting products coming from China.

The economists from a Japan have said that car sales have cratered in the month of September.  Economic fall backs in the Asian market could potentially in turn have a detrimental impact on the European as well as the US economies, which are already hurting to say the least.
This story is most definitely newsworthy because the subject potentially affects more than just Japan and China.  However, the article doesn’t focus on the bad blood and woes from the wars of the past and only slightly mentions some hostility between them concerning the underwater oil that could be accessible.

There are historical reasons for the ill views the Japanese and Chinese people have toward each other.  The fact that NBC failed to recognize that in it’s article is surprising to me to say the least.  There has been a lot of bad blood between the two countries for hundreds of years and reinforced by the Japanese invasion and occupations of China in the past.

Here’s the Story

Gaming on Campus

Aside from the athletic and academic parts of college, which supply bulk amounts of social interactions for students, there are many people on campus that feel there is a certain group on campus that has been misrepresented for a long time now.  The aforementioned group of course is the Morningside campus gaming community.
There are many people on campus who play either strategy turn based games or Role Playing Games (RPG’s).  RPG’s are games in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting.  In these games players take on responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development.  Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. [1]

            Local Gamer and Vice Chair of Magic and Gaming Entertainment Society (M.A.G.E.S) on campus, Sam Cunningham, chimed in on factors he feels affect the local gaming community.

“People on campus are too scared of the social stigma that revolves around being a gamer.  They are “closet gamers” mostly because they are afraid some football bro is going to come and make fun of them and call them stupid.”

It is very common for people to feel insecure about their own interests, especially when it involves something which is deemed as nerdy as RPG’s.   The complex rules, the 20-sided die, and the turn based play all make very appealing characteristics for intellectual people to be interested in.  On the flip side, some people might feel that all of the rules and complexities of the game might be too much to be worth getting into.  Others are just afraid of what people might think, though.
“There are people on campus, insecure about being into stuff like World of Warcraft, but if you talk to them on an individual basis they will tell you that they were into it once and ask would for help and opinions about certain points in the game and what your favorite part of the gameplay is,” Sam said.

When asked about this secret shame gamers have, local game store co-owner James King alluded to an easily overlooked concept concerning the social norms of gamers.   “Some people are just awkward.  Most gamers have an interest in gaming and RPG’s because it allows them to be different in their own unique way, to be a hero or villain or just a Bad Ass in general.  Only some people can aspire to be like that in real life, but in gaming, anyone can accomplish that.”

Sam also addressed problems between the interactions of athletics and gaming.  “Athletics creates a problem because they form social cliques, M.A.G.E.S fights against this by allowing everyone to come share a gaming experience and effectively shatter the social stigmas go along side gaming.”

If you are an aspiring gamer or you just want to make a judgment for yourselves, M.A.G.E.S. is an outlet which one might find inner Zen with the dormant gamer you might just very well be. “A great place to give gaming a chance and see what it’s all about is at our weekly M.A.G.E.S meeting right here on campus. We have a Facebook page. Otherwise, it isn’t hard to find a local game shop nearby by utilizing resources like the Internet,” Sam says.