It's not a day off; it's a day on

Classes at Ursinus College are cancelled on the 23^rd of April due to an annual student event. The third annual Celebration Of Student Achievement (COSA) will be taking place. Individual students who either volunteer to present or are selected by their professors give presentations and performances throughout the
day. The presentations will range from performances by the a capella choirs B-Naturals and Bearitones to presentations of scientific research.

Junior Biology major Laura Ng spent the fall 2007 semester abroad with the UC in Florence program. She wants to share all her adventures with the campus as an extension of her Italian language independent study with Professor Giovanna Steyaert. The main focus of her presentation will be on cultural differences between America and Italy. Two main differences are transportation and eating habits. For example, when it came to transportation, she said that it was very easy to get around. In Florence, there was an elaborate bus system, and that plane travel around Europe was very cheap, unlike here. “I also want to practice my Italian.” Her entire presentation will be given in Italian.

What would you get out of a French short story class here at Ursinus College? Student Matt Whitman is getting a lot out of this class as he relates his presentation to areas of interest in his own life. His COSA topic ris in regards to a French novel called Jonas Ou L’artiste qui travaille which translates in English to Jonas or artist at work. He will be presenting the themes, characters, and plots of the story at 1:00 PM. The story is about an unknown French painter who becomes successful and loses his passion for the art. Whitman connects the artist to small time bands he enjoys listening to. Such bands display much originality when they are unknown but tend to lose it when they become famous and conform to ideasa the media presents. Whitman has good reasons for taking this task of presenting on. He says, “It’s a way for me to practice giving presentations. I’m not a great public speaker and this can only help.”

Feminist research reflects the earlier intentions of feminism to raise consciousness for the purpose of understanding and making change possible. Ursinus College student, Danielle Langdon feels that through her COSA piece, Dance Feminism, she can make way and open the door for a world Ursinus never seen before. “I have been studying feminism all through college so I had a lot to say. Katie Fritz and I choreographed and cut and edited a video clip. We both have been a part of Escape Velocity here at Ursinus all 4 years so we just wanted to do a senior project. We combined forces to make a stronger piece together.” said Danielle Langdon. The methodology of feminism is to examine critically the social and cultural forces and discourses of power and construct our (women) being in the world. Langdon does not consider herself to be a feminist but fights for feministic issues because she is a woman. “The woman’s body has been objectified for years. I don’t see myself as an object. I believe and intend to be a dancer so that’s what I am. I have created a piece that is avant garde and risqué- to shock the audience and open the door here for others at Ursinus College,” Danielle concluded.

These COSA presentations seem promising and appealing to students because of their original and interesting topics. These are only three of the many presentations that will go on throughout the day. It’s not a day off; it’s a day on.

Crikey!

A Michigan woman was killed on Thursday, March 20^th, when a 75-pound stingray flew out of the water and struck her in the face as she rode in a boat in the Florida Keys.

According to AOL news, Jorge Pino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said that Judy Kay Zagorski of Pigeon, Michigan, was sitting in the front seat of the boat, which was going 25 mph when the spotted eagle ray leaped out of the water. The impact knocked the 57-year-old woman back onto the floor of the boat and most likely died from the impact since no barbs were found on her body. The stingray also died after landing on the floor of the boat.

"It's a bizarre accident," said Pino. Zagorski’s father was driving the boat on the Atlantic Ocean side of Vaca Key. "He had absolutely no warning. It just happened instantaneously," Pino said. Zagorski's sister was standing next to her when the stingray appeared but was not injured.

While they may not purposefully attack people, people do suffer injuries from stingrays. According to CBS News, in Lighthouse Point, Florida, 81-year-old boater James Bertakis received a foot-long barb in his chest after a stingray flopped onto his boat and stung him in October 2006. Bertakis was apparently trying to remove the ray from his boat when it stung him.

Lighthouse Point’s acting fire chief David Donzella described it as a “freak accident” and “very odd.” “We still can’t believe it.”

Bertakis underwent surgery to remove the barb, which lodged in or near his heart. While he was in critical condition, he has since fully recovered.

Bertakis’ accident was less than two months after what may be the most publicized stingray attack in the world, the death of TV presenter Steve Irwin, better known as the “Crocodile Hunter.” According to cnn.com, the 44-year-old Irwin was killed when a stingray barb pierced his heart while he was filming an underwater documentary off the north shore of Australia.

Spotted eagle rays can grow to be one of the largest rays in the world, growing up to 17 feet and 500 pounds.

Stingrays are generally docile creatures that use the venomous barb on the end of their tail for defense. While stingrays are known for jumping, they leap from the water for other reasons than aggression. According to AOL news, Lynn Gear, the supervisor of fishes and reptiles at Theater of the Sea is Islamorada, explained that stingrays jump to escape predators, give birth and rid themselves of parasites. “They do not attack people,” Gear added. According to Wikipedia, if a stingray is threatened, their primary instinct is to swim away. However, if they are stepped on or feel trapped, they whip their tail up.

Stingrays will often bury themselves in the sand on the ocean floor. If you are in an area where stingrays are common, it's advised that you slide your feet through the sand since stingrays can detect this movement and swim away.

NUMBER FOUR

All over the world, American television shows are devoured. From Heroes to Zoey 101, these forms of entertainment are a worldwide commonality.  On November 5^th, 2007, however, The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) went on strike, leaving most shows in the lurch with half-seasons.

On February 12^th, 2007, the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached an agreement. The strike is over.

The full cost of the strike is still under debate. Estimated losses range anywhere from $380 million to $2.1 billion.

Negotiators for the writers reached a tentative agreement on February 8th, and the boards unanimously approved the deal on February 10th. The writers voted on February 12th on whether to lift the restraining order, and 92.5% voted to end the strike. The writers will vote again later in February on whether to accept the new agreement.

Networks are now deciding on what to do with their shows. For example, ABC’s Lost has five pre-strike episodes remaining, and five more are expected to be aired in April and May. Their fledgling hit Pushing Daisies, however, isn’t expected to air any more episodes until fall 2008. For more information on the fate of your favorite shows, visit TV Guide columnist Michael Ausiello’s Strike Recovery Chart.

Welcome Back, Writers!

On Tuesday, February 12^th, 2008, the third Writer’s Guild of America strike ended after 14 weeks and two days (100 days). Although this makes it the shortest WGA strike, it still felt like an eternity to those devoted television watchers who had to endure week after week without their favorite show(s).

The 2007-2008 WGA Strike was actually a strike made up of two different unions. The WGA East (WGAE), which represents film, television and radio writers working in or around New York City, and the WGA West (WGAW), which represents film, television and radio writers working in Hollywood and southern California. Over 12,000 writers joined the strike, which began on November 5^th, 2007. The cost of the strike is still under debate. NPR filed a report that estimated the loss at $1.5 billion. The UCLA Anderson School of Management estimated the cost at $380 million, while economist Jack Kyser’s estimation was $2.1 billion.

The previous strike in 1988 lasted 21 weeks and 6 days, costing the entertainment industry about $500 million dollars, which is equal to $870 million today.

The strike was against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), a trade organization representing American film and television producers. There are eight corporations in the AMPTP that are the most influential: CBS, MGM, NBC, News Corp/Fox, Paramount, Sony, Disney and Warner Brothers.

Negotiators for the writers reached a tentative agreement on February 8th, and the boards unanimously approved the deal on February 10th. The writers voted on February 12th on whether to lift the restraining order, and 92.5% voted to end the strike. Most writers returned to their keyboards that very same day. The writers will vote again later in February on whether to accept the new agreement.

Networks are now deciding on what to do with their different shows. For example, ABC’s Lost has five pre-strike episodes remaining to air, and five more are expected to be aired in April and May. Their fledgling hit Pushing Daisies, however, isn’t expected to air any more episodes until premiere season in the fall of 2008. For more information on the fate of your favorite shows, visit TV Guide columnist Michael Ausiello’s Strike Recovery Chart.

What shows are Ursinus students looking forward to having return? “I’m glad Lost isn’t getting gypped any more than it already was,” said senior Psychology major Brittany Fernandez. “We already had to wait nine months; only seeing six episodes after that kind of a wait would be really bad.”

Of course, not everyone currently has pre-strike episodes to keep them entertained. Senior MCS and Theatre major Grey Johnson can’t wait until April 10^th when NBC’s The Office begins airing six new episodes. “I was curious [about] where they were going to go with [the story],” said Johnson.

Though Spring Break is in March, most students will be more eagerly looking forward to April when they can once more enjoy an hour with their favorite cast of characters in the fictional world of their choice.

Internet Outage in the Middle East

Early last Wednesday, much of the Middle East was completely cut off from the Internet due to damage done to two undersea cables near Alexandria, Egypt. On Friday, a third cable had been damaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. One of the main ISPs, DU, was completely cut off. This outage led to disruptions in business and telecommunications across much of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar also experienced disruptions or slow Internet.

By early afternoon on Wednesday, the ISP had found alternate routes, but an official from the customer care department of DU said “there is slowness while browsing on the Internet.”

In the United Arab Emirates, businesses were faced with two week s of outages. Repair ships were expected to arrive at the site of one of the cable’s damages on Tuesday, February 5^th. The operator of the other cable planned to carry out repairs on Friday, February 8^th. However, bad weather has held up the repair of these cables, and the Middle East is still

And what if that were to happen in the U.S.?

Over the last decade, The Internet has rapidly developed from new-fangled contraption into something that many of us can’t live without. With online shopping, e-mail and managing one’s bank account online, it has certainly made our lives easier. For college students, research is much less hassle and it also gives all of us a wonderful way to keep in touch…and waste our time (hello, Facebook).

The Pew Internet & American Life Project studied the average Internet use of American college students, and found that three-quarters of college students use the Internet for four or more hours per week, while one-fifth uses it for 12 or more hours per week. This is significantly higher than the amount of time most students spend studying.

According to Matt Miller, Technical Specialist at Ursinus College Information Technology, the Ursinus network has gone down before, usually because of reasons beyond the control of Computing Services. Although he says that the likelihood of such a thing happening is very small, there is a chance. The service runs from here to Philadelphia, so there is always the chance that someone could hit the wrong telephone pole.

Perhaps we Ursinus students should begin to lessen our dependence on the Internet. One never knows...

For more information, visit these sites:

Gabe's Blog
ArabianBusiness.com

There’s an infection right here at Ursinus College. It's right here on campus. An antibiotic-resistant, highly communicable infection that could be fatal. It’s hospitalized three of your fellow students already, and afflicted at least a dozen more. What’s more, you—yes, YOU—are at risk.

Are you listening? My friends, let me introduce you to MRSA.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a strain of staph infection that isn’t able to be killed by the normal antibiotics used to battle staphs, such as penicillin and methicillin. MRSA is spread through skin-to-skin contact, as well as contact with items or surfaces that have come into contact with the infection. A few examples are weight-training benches, beds or even shower floors (and you thought your feet were safe once you got out of the freshmen dorms!). Because it is so highly communicable, everyone is at risk, particularly in a cramped college environment.

MRSA manifests itself in a red pimple-like bump, or abscess, that grows. It’s usually filled with pus and doesn’t grow like a regular pimple. It could also be seen in an existing cut or scrape that becomes red, swollen, painful or even starts to ooze. If you suspect you have MRSA, you should cover it with a clean, dry bandage and seek medical attention. Make sure you don’t squeeze or pick at it, since it could release the infection and allow it to spread.

As of November, there were seven recorded cases of MRSA right here at Ursinus, two of which required hospitalization for surgical drainage of the infection. According to Todd Bartley, the athletic trainer who worked with the afflicted football players, a third has since required hospitalization, and there have been at least six more cases of staph infections.

Bartley says that that the players were found to have developed MRSA in early September and were immediately removed from play. The first player had an abscess on his left forearm, and the others developed MRSA on their left elbows. One of the players even had a reoccurrence of MRSA in the same area after surgical drainage of the infection.

More athletes developed staph infections or cellulitis. Left untreated, these infections could easily develop into MRSA. According to Bartley, the students are clear of infection now, but that's no guarantee that the danger has passed.

Now that you know it’s close to home, you must be wondering how you can protect yourself. First off, make sure you practice good hygiene by washing your hands and covering cuts with bandages and antibiotic ointment like Neosporin. Use a barrier (clothing, towels) between commonly used surfaces like weight benches. Also, don’t share personal items that touch your bare skin, such as brushes or razors. Keep an eye on your skin, particularly areas that are often covered, such as the back of your neck, arms and legs.

For further information on MRSA, visit the following sites:

Ursinus College MRSA Information Page
Center for Disease Control MRSA Page
American Academy of Family Physicians MRSA Site
Frequently Asked Questions about MRSA

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