Articles by: sonya hudson

 

• Technology gods: One man’s personal battle

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:23 am Comments are Disabled

  By Brandon T. Minister, Staff Writer The technology gods hate me. Somewhere, I offended their sensibilities, and ever since the deities of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have cursed me to a Luddite hell, where every piece of electronic equipment malfunctions straight out of the box. Customer support is provided by the departed souls of cavemen who insist the only way to cure my Blue Screen of Death is to bury alive a kinsman in peat. Where did I go wrong with the gods? I’m not sure, but it might have been in 1995 when I declared the Internet to be “sort of worthless.” Since that day, my fate has been sealed. Items I buy routinely become obsolete while I cross the store parking lot back to my car. Clamshell packaging severs my fingers. User instructions appear in every language except English, including Slovenian and Slovakian. Required battery sizes are obscure, or occasionally non-existent, like the single-A or B batteries. Proof of my cursedness can be found in the situations where electronics don’t fail. When my daughter was a newborn, she had a toy which needed only to be moved to play the opening notes of “Shave and a Haircut” […]

   

• Supreme Court approves corporate funding of presidents: Will the corporations of America now have control over who is elected?

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:20 am Comments are Disabled

  By Justin Lalputan, Staff Writer The Supreme Court of the United States has recently approved unlimited corporate funding of presidential campaigns by way of a case called Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. This has come as quite a shock to many citizens who feel that this will give corporations too much power over presidential elections. I also feel that there are simply too many downsides to this ruling for it to properly work in our democratic system, however there are some that disagree with me. Before the recent Supreme Court decision, there were limitations on funding and all donations had to be monitored and documented. There was very little that people could do to get around the corporate funding regulations. Sometimes presidents would be questioned about exactly where they got their funds from. Now that there is unlimited funding, some key problems arise. First and foremost, I believe that this unlimited spending gives corporations too much power. Imagine what it would be like if presidential candidates had the ability to simply appeal to one or two companies to get all the campaign finances that they needed. First, they wouldn’t have to pander to the needs of interest groups anymore. […]

   

• Hail to the Redskins: Why our local football team should never change it's mascot

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:18 am Comments are Disabled

  By Alan Moore, Staff Writer As a long-suffering Washington Redskins fan, I know there are many things to be offended by from the team, but their mascot most certainly is not one of them. A select few have made the argument that the term “Redskins” is racist against Native Americans. Some have even called for all sports teams’ names that refer to Native Americans to be changed. Last month, a new court battle ensued to strip legal protection for the trademarked name of the Washington Redskins. In the politically correct and postmodern world that we live in, this really comes as no surprise, but these attacks are baseless. The Washington Redskins were known as the Boston Braves until they changed their name on July 8, 1933. They had adopted the name “Braves” because they played in the stadium of the Boston Braves National League baseball team. They moved from Boston to Washington on February 13, 1937. Owner George Preston Marshall changed the name to “Redskins” to honor their first coach William “Lone Star” Dietz, who was an Oglala Lakota Sioux. Dietz had been a student at Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Indian Industrial School and got his start playing football under Glenn “Pop” […]

   

• Let’s focus on the big picture: Like the fact that global warming does exist

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:13 am Comments are Disabled

  By Susan Crate, and Chris Parsons, Guest Columnists If these words sound like words from a concerned adult when you were growing up, they are. We repeat them here because it seems that we need such reminders throughout our adult life. It is easy to slip into pettiness and squabbles, and thereby lose sight of the forest through the trees. Let us show you the forest in the context of global climate change. ­­We are disheartened to see Alan Moore’s recent Opinion piece in Broadside on March 1 using the mistakes in the IPCC and hacked climate e-mails as an excuse to deny the firmly established science of climate change. Mr. Moore is mainly echoing the words of many opinion and editorial writers in the past months, all of whom have lost sight of the big picture. As members of a department with research in this area, we’d like to remind our campus community of the big picture. Ice cores from Antarctica show that the earth’s atmosphere has not had the levels of CO2 that we have today in the last 600,000 years. The same ice cores show how temperature directly correlates with those CO2 levels — the higher the […]

   

• Letter from student government

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:10 am Comments are Disabled

  By Jennifer Mancini, Student Government Senator and James Nance, Student Government Senator Student Government would like to welcome everyone back from what was hopefully a relaxing and fun-filled Spring Break. We hope you all are ready to finish out the semester as strong as we are. The inevitable Student Government elections are going to be held March 30 – 31. Remember, this is an opportunity for your voices to be heard and we encourage everyone to take a few moments and vote through e-mail. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain. The candidates on the ballot for the prestigious position of Student Body president and vice president are as follows: D’Leon Barnett and Jackie Yoo, Lynn Gold and Dominic Pody, Sean Hobaugh and Evan Massengill and last but not least, Shane Smith and Richard Everett. Elections are expected to be competitive this year with 44 candidates running for 30 senate seats. Good luck to everyone. University Services has been working hard to institute a Housing Town Hall and the honorable Chairman Shane Smith would like everyone to be aware that there will be a meeting Tuesday, March 23 from 5 – 6 p.m. in the Johnson Center Cinema. It will […]

   

• MLB Season Preview

  Sports March 1, 2010 at 2:48 pm Comments are Disabled

  Donald O’Mahony, Staff Writer Brian T. Chan, Sports Editor AL East: New York Yankees The defending champions will be difficult to dethrone this season. Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Melky Cabrera are all gone along with a few pitchers from the bullpen. But, as usual, the Yankees did not shy away from new player acquisitions. They upgraded their pitching staff with Javier Vazquez, who has pitched over 200 innings in five consecutive seasons, finishing second in the 2009 Cy Young voting. They also brought in Curtis Granderson, who hit 30 home runs for the first time in his career last season, to replace Johnny Damon. The key for the Yankees this season will be to find the chemistry they had last year again. With so many changes on the roster, it may be difficult at first. It has become their tendency to get off to a slow start. However, you can count on the Yankees being in a good position at the end of the season. AL Central: Detroit Tigers The Tigers have developed one of the best young pitching rotations in baseball. They will count on their young guns to carry them deep into the season once again this […]

   

• Powell's Playbook: Anyone's Game

  Sports March 1, 2010 at 2:45 pm Comments are Disabled

  John Powell, Asst. Sports Editor So Mason’s loss may just come back to bite them. They had a shot at Northeastern on Saturday, but the late foul by Ryan Pearson may have cost the Patriots the game. It was one of the lowest-scoring contests I’ve ever witnessed. No doubt it was because of the referees’ tendency to allow contact everywhere — on offense and defense, on shooting and dribbling — without blowing the whistle. I don’t blame Ryan for the contact. First of all, on a fast play like that, it is, as Coach Larranaga said, “a mad scramble.” Second of all, the referees had not been calling many shooting fouls on the Patriots; Northeastern only shot eight free throws the entire game. Finally, Chaisson Allen made a good play. Instead of attempting to drive to the basket with under a second to go, he pulled up for the trey, probably hoping to make it or get fouled like he did. Ryan should have figured the referees game-calling out by that point. There were only two Patriots with more than one personal foul: Luke Hancock with two and Pearson with four. The referees may have just had an eye out […]

   

• Previewing the Field

  Sports March 1, 2010 at 2:43 pm Comments are Disabled

  Cody Norman, Staff Writer The Old Dominion Monarchs clinched their first regular season title since the 2004-05 season with a win over the VCU Rams on Saturday afternoon. After Northeastern Huskies’ close victory over the George Mason Patriots, the Huskies have secured the number two seed heading into this weekend’s Colonial Athletic Association Tournament. The Patriots and William & Mary Tribe claim the final two first round byes. The tournament will be held in Richmond from Mar. 5-8. The Top Four: The Monarchs concluded their 2009-10 regular season campaign with a tough win over the VCU Rams. Much of their success this season has come due to an impressive +7.8 rebounds margin per night as well as a league-best 15.6 assists per game. They are led by senior forward Gerald Lee, who is posting more than 14 points and five rebounds per night. Lee recorded 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting on Saturday evening to lead all scorers and give his team a momentum-shifting win heading into the conference tournament. Junior forward Frank Hassell averages 8.7 points and a team-high 6.5 rebounds for the Monarchs. Old Dominion has won five of their last six matchups heading into the postseason. The Huskies […]

   

• Patriots Clip Blue Hens 61-59

  Sports March 1, 2010 at 2:42 pm Comments are Disabled

  Cody Norman, Staff Writer The night was plagued by extremely poor free throw shooting and a stagnant offense, but outstanding defense down the stretch allowed the George Mason University men’s basketball team (17-12, 12-5) to outlast the Delaware Blue Hens (7-22, 3-14) on Wednesday night. After trailing for much of the first half, the Patriots used a 9-0 second half run to upstage their Colonial Athletic Association opponent in a thrilling 61-59 victory. Sophomore guard Andre Cornelius made four of seven 3-point attempts for 16 points, and junior guard Cam Long followed up with 14 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Freshmen reserves Sherrod Wright and Luke Hancock continued their strong play and contributed a solid effort in the contest. Wright shot a perfect 3-of-3 from the field to chip in 10 points in the winning effort. Hancock added nine points, four rebounds and four assists. Despite shooting 55.6 percent in the first half, the Patriots trailed 38-32 at halftime after committing 10 turnovers. In the second half, Mason shot just 32 percent from the field and made 11-of-20 free throws, but ended up outscoring the Blue Hens 29-21 in the latter half. The defense stepped up in the second […]

   

• Team America Strikes Again: Americans Conclude Winter Olympics with 37 Medals

  Sports March 1, 2010 at 2:40 pm Comments are Disabled

  Jerry Holy, Broadside Correspondent Four years after Torino in 2006, the world turned its attention to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for the 21st Winter Olympic Games. Vancouver witnessed many triumphs, defeats, successes, disappointments and redemptions. The United States currently leads the medal count at 37 medals, seven medals in front of Germany. This year’s Olympics started with a tragedy. The death of 21-year old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili on the luge track was a sad moment for everyone. A moment of silence was held in honor of Kumaritashvili during the Opening Ceremony on Feb. 12th, where his fellow Georgian athletes wore black in remembrance. In spite of this tragedy, each Georgian athlete went on to compete in their events, and the Games began. Team USA got the early lead in the medal count when Apolo Anton Ohno and teammate J.R. Celski took the silver and bronze medals in the men’s 1500-meter short track event. Ohno went on to win the bronze medal in the men’s 1000-meter short track, making him the most decorated USA short-track skater. On the same day, Hannah Kearney and Shannon Bahrke won the gold and bronze medals in the women’s moguls event. Kearney, the favorite to […]