Monthly Archives: April 2013

Scientific discoveries this week: 4/29/13

Orlando, Florida
Researchers from the University of Central Florida demonstrated that species can evolve over generations regardless of whether they have to compete for food, habitat, or other factors. They used a computer model to mimic how organisms evolve and their results indicated that competition is not necessary for evolution to take place. According to Kenneth Stanley, a professor with the research team, evolvable organisms separate themselves from other less evolvable organisms over time simply by becoming more diverse. Their results do not correspond with commonly held beliefs and indicate that the traditional selective and adaptive explanations for increasing evolvability deserve more scrutiny.

Headlines from around the world: 4/29/13

On Sunday April 21, the London Marathon went off without a hitch. The story of the marathon was the touching tribute paid to those who were killed by two bombs at the Boston Marathon. A moment of silence preceded the race and the organizers of the race donated two British pounds to the One Boston fund for each runner who crossed the finish line. In all the total was around $100,000.

Absolute Relativism: Exposing the Dictatorship

Students gathered on Tuesday, to listen and debate moral relativism, a philosophy that denies the existence of absolute truth. The lecture invited students to redefine tolerance, to seek absolute truth with compassion, and to find purpose outside of themselves and their desires. The question and answer session afterwards briefly touched on a diverse range of subjects including homosexual marriage, abortion, and religious acceptance.

The Spring Thaw

CSM slacklining club put on their annual slackline event called spring thaw this past weekend. The event took place on kafadar commons and featured music, free food, and free drinks. Additionally, there were two slacklining competitions held on kafadar. Slackline members arrived at seven Saturday morning to start setting up the equipment that would be used all day. In total eighteen slacklines were set up. These lines varied in difficulty from beginner lines under fifteen feet in length and under two feet above the ground, to lines as long as 180 feet in length, to a variety of one, one and a quarter and two inch tricklines. Less conventional lines were available as well. These included rodeo lines and a space anchor. Rodeo lines are classified as non-tensioned lines. At this year’s spring thaw the rodeo lines had about ten feet of sag in them. The space anchor refers to a system where three or more lines are anchored in space to an O-ring. This system allows multiple slackliners to walk separate lines and feel actions of the other slackliners through the line, but without being too difficult to walk because the motions of the slackline (especially side to side motions) are greatly dampened by the other slacklines attached to the space anchor.

Book Review: Statistics for Engineers and Scientists Third Edition

At first glance, Statistics for Engineers and Scientists Third Edition may seem like an ordinary overpriced textbook crammed full of far more information than any one class could possibly use, but as it turns out, this text can actually serve as a highly useful tool for those who own it. Students in Probability and Statistics this semester might particularly notice that this book has a wide variety of uses which can help ease one’s passage through the course.

Greeks and Finals

As finals week steamrolls towards Mines students, even the most diligent are frantic to prepare for exams. The houses on greek row are no different in feeling this pressure. While most houses have academic/scholarship chairs, members charged with the difficult duty of keeping other members on track in their classes, greek members of every kind are scrambling to prepare for upcoming tests. A few of those greek members shared their habits and advice to get through finals.

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Geek of the Week: Ben Johnson

Some students rush to get out of Mines as fast as possible, while other students choose to meander and take in everything they can possibly get from their education at Mines. Ben Johnson, a chemistry major, tends to fall into the latter category. When not hard at work with his endeavors to graduate, Johnson is gaming, discussing the various aspects of elements in culture, and occasionally, interviewing with the Oredigger newspaper.

A beginner’s guide to slacklines

Summer is just around the corner and it brings with it many outdoor activities that everyone enjoys. For those considering getting into slacklining the type of line a person buys can have a large influence on the type of slacklining they will be able to do. As with many sports, slacklining has several genres such as, long lines, high lines, trick lines, and primitive set ups.

Comic Corner: Tek Jansen Case Files

Presumably by this point, most people know who Stephen Colbert is, and those who do not are advised to go look up some of his work online. As a brief summation though, Stephen Colbert is best known for his satirical news show, The Colbert Report, wherein he has previously featured the animated adventures of Tek Jansen. Jansen is a fictional hero who battles alongside the futuristic Alpha Squad Seven as a patriotic space freedom fighter who bears a strong resemblance to Colbert. Apparently, this series was popular enough to expand upon and since the premise of the character seemed perfect as the basis for a comic. Thus was born the Oni Press’s short series of Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen comic books. This review focuses on the Case Files, a collection of secondary stories released individually alongside the main issues.

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