Features

The night sky is a vast tapestry that covers us for about half of our lives. Surprisingly, for such a prevalent image, very few people can identify anything more than a handful of well known constellations and our satellite, the Moon. While these are elegantly familiar, there is so much more to the stars, which can be found with a small amount of guidance. That is where this column comes in. The cosmos is an inspiring sight and hopefully after a few articles, you too will be able to find the beauty of the universe above you.
So if this is the beginning, what will we need to move on? Depending on how serious you are, there is a wide array of tools that can help to unveil the stars. If you are reading this, you already have the first few: eyes and an inquisitive nature. Most of what this column will cover can be easily seen by the naked eye.

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Growing up in Timisoara, Romania, a small town in western Romania near the border of Serbia and Hungary, a young Professor Farca knew at an early age that she wanted to become a professor of linguistics and literature. “In first grade, I realized I was not good at math at all, I got too many Cs in physics and chemistry. I have always enjoyed reading and writing, so I understood at an early age that literature and teaching would come naturally to me. I was not wrong.” For the last ten years, Professor Farca has been living stateside with her husband.

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Two Wednesdays ago, Google took their Google Voice concept a step further, adding voice calling to and from standard phone numbers to their GMail web interface. Twenty-four hours later, the company stated that they had completed over one million phone calls through the system, which allows users to call locations in the United States and Canada for free, and international locations for very low per-minute rates.

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On the beautiful Mines campus, there is a quiet, subconscious competition. In fact, this competition is so quiet that contestants rarely know that they are in the running for the title. Despite the stealthy nature of the beast, competition is fierce, and occurs on a minute-to-minute basis. Its battlefield involves socks with sandals, entire comic book stores shoved into one back pack, and students that spontaneously burst into flame upon contact with the great outdoors. This week, it was Mr. Tim Weilert, self-professed “word nerd,” Atari master, and vinyl record connoisseur (not to mention his “fascination” with Star Wars) that garnered him the coveted title of: Geek of the Week.

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Last Wednesday Apple refreshed its digital media lineup, ranging from revised iPods to a new music-focused social network to a revamped Apple TV home theater box. Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted during the event, staged at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center, that over 120 million iOS devices (iPhones and iPod touches) had been sold, with 230,000 new devices being activated via their iTunes companion software every day.

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When it comes to Mines, sports are not the first thing that comes to mind. When a discussion comes to sports, you usually hear something along the lines of football, basketball, or other national favorites. One sport, however, remains under the radar for many people - tennis. And among the extensive extracurricular activities offered on campus, there is a club that is devoted to tennis.

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