Mount Hood

Off my mind

BenColor

By: Ben Bergerson 
Designer

I’m known around the office as the Timbers fan. And there aren’t many of us in the world of American sports fans. Most of the time I wish more people watched soccer, just so that people could feel the excitement that surrounds the sport during the post-season.

These matches aren’t just thrilling for someone “in the know” with soccer; anyone who watches will find themselves wrapped up in the drama and excitement too.

Take, for example, the Portland Timbers’ road to the playoffs.

The Timbers had come off a long stretch where they just couldn’t score a goal. They were creating chances and were one of the best teams in the league defensively, but they couldn’t convert those chances into actual goals.

The Timbers went into the last three games needing to win and draw at least one each in order to get into the playoffs.

Many in the press said that the Timbers’ goal draught was going to see them miss the playoffs, especially with matches against tough teams like Real Salt Lake and the LA Galaxy.

Then something crazy happened.

Timbers Coach Caleb Porter made one adjustment, and like a breached dam, the goals came flooding in.

On Oct. 18, facing an away game at LA Galaxy, Porter moved Darlington Nagbe up out of the central midfielder role. This allowed him to run the ball deep and combine with other forward moving players, including Fanendo Adi, Diego Chara, and stiker Maxi Urruti.

That night, the Timbers destroyed the reigning MLS Cup champions 5-2, and they have gone on to win every match since, including an insane knockout match versus Sporting Kansas City.

The soccer of the last few weeks would make a fan out of anybody that watched.

I’d argue that the Timbers have a really good chance at making it to the MLS Cup match this year, so when the next match starts on Nov. 22, come join the crazed throngs of fans and find out what soccer’s about.

In the meantime, don’t drown this weekend if you head out of town, it’s supposed to be the end of the world by flood or something.

Misery in Missouri

By: Jenna Beresheim 
News Editor

After years of unaltered courses of action in the event of discrimination, the University of Missouri’s president and chancellor both resigned within a few hours of one another on Nov. 9, 2015.

“I take full responsibility for this frustration, and I take full responsibility for the inaction that has occurred,” stated Tim Wolfe, the University’s president to CNN during his public resignation.

Racist events have taken place on the campus for years. In 2010, two white students scattered bags of cotton balls outside the campus Black Culture Center.

In 2014, Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, sparking the Black Lives Matter movement as well as race-based issues discussions across campuses nationwide.

University of Missouri’s Student Government President, Payton Head, posted on Facebook during September this year about individuals driving around campus yelling slurs based on race and LGBTQ+ discrimination.

Still in September, the University’s Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin said that recent racial biases and discriminative occurrences are “totally unacceptable,” according to CNN.

That same month, students began to protest based on the aforementioned issues, and much more.

By October, students held a second “Racism Lives Here” rally on campus and on a separate day, a purportedly drunken Caucasian student disrupted and yelled racial slurs at a Legion of Black Collegians group meeting.

Swastikas were drawn on campus using feces and ash, Tim Wolfe was confronted and demanded to change the campus’ culture around diversity inclusion, and demands were made but unanswered by the student body.

One key demand was the list of demands offered to Wolfe by the student body titled “Concerned Student 1950.” The date attached to the name was the official date African American students were initially accepted into the university.

Social media quickly flooded with students, staff, and supporters using the hashtag #concernedstudent1950 to start a dialogue around the subject matter.

As November rolled in, a student boycott began and a student began a hunger strike. Soon, the University’s football team refused to play an upcoming game that could cost the school over one million dollars, joining the protest.

“The athletes of color on the University of Missouri football team truly believe ‘Injustice Anywhere is a threat to Justice Everywhere’” tweeted the Mizzou football team on Nov. 7.

“We will no longer participate in any football related activities until President Tim Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence towards marginalized students’ experiences,” the tweet continued.

Sports Illustrated reported that the football team was not the only high-stakes opposition.

Multiple state legislators, such as Sen. Kurt Schafer, House Higher Education Committee Chairman Steve Cookson, and Assistant House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty all called for Wolfe to step down.

With outside forces from the state, national news coverage, and protesting students and staff, it was not long before Wolfe backed away from University of Missouri.

“Use my resignation to heal and start talking again,” Wolfe pleaded in his five-minute speech addressing his resignation.
However, it appears there has already been some racist backlash.

Yahoo! News reported online threats through YikYak on Nov 10. These threats were made by Hunter M. Park, who posted that he would “shoot every black person I see.”

“Some of you are alright. Don’t go to campus tomorrow,” read another threat that resembled the theme of posts made on 4chan before the shootings in Oregon last month.

According to the New York Times, police arrested a man on Nov 11 after making a “terrorist threat” while false rumors of Ku Klux Klan on campus were dispersed.

Ultimately, change is coming slowly to Mizzou, with both positions for President and Chancellor hoping to be filled by Jan. 1, 2016.

Magma chambers mapped under Mount St. Helens

By: Alvin Wilson 
Staff Writer

It has been more than 35 years since Mt. St. Helens, the most active volcano in the Pacific Northwest, erupted in 1980, and scientists are still discovering more about it.

According to a report released Wed. Nov. 4, 2015, a series of large magma chambers have been mapped miles underneath the volcano. Researchers believe the way these magma chambers are aligned could explain the 1980 eruption.

Researchers have mapped two significant chambers: a large chamber 5 to 12 kilometers below the mountain, and an even larger one 12 to 40 kilometers below the mountain.

Scientists are able to map deep magma chambers by using sensitive instruments called seismometers.

Seismometers are extremely sensitive to vibrations, and can pick up movement miles beneath the Earth’s surface.

Since vibrations travel more quickly through hard rock than through magma, scientists are able to map out the size of the chambers by taking note of where the vibrations slow down and speed up.

In order to get an accurate picture, researchers had to use 2,500 seismometers to record the vibrations from 23 large explosions.

According to the images the researchers have compiled, Mt. St. Helens isn’t the only volcano supplied by these large magma chambers. Mt. Adams and a group of dormant volcanoes called the Indian Heaven volcanic field are also likely supplied by these chambers.

The researchers will leave 75 seismometers in pace near Mt. St. Helens in order to collect more data.

Even though it hasn’t fully erupted since 1980, Mt. St. Helens is still considered a high-risk volcano, but researchers believe these new findings will help them find earlier signs of a possible eruption.

Freebie Friday fun resumes

By: Brianna Bonham
Staff Writer

Freebie Friday happens every week on campus and it is a chance for students to play games, win prizes, and even get discounts and freebies.

The event is put on by the Werner University Center (WUC) in collaboration with the Student Leadership and Activities Board (SLA).
The first Freebie Friday was Bingo Night during New Student Week.

Students collected stamps from many different clubs and organizations at Western and turned them in for Bingo cards. They then competed in a few rounds of Bingo to win various prizes.

Each prize had a theme such as “Netflix and Chill pack” which contained popcorn, candy, movies, and blankets. The “Game Night” pack had board games and candy. Students relaxed and had fun while earning free prizes.

This weekend is a scavenger hunt themed Freebie Friday where students can compete to win prizes for being the game’s champions.
The Grill, located on the second floor of the WUC, offers penny fries until 3 p.m., and Cafe Allegro offers penny espresso shots until 4 p.m.

The bookstore will also be offering a 30 percent discount on WOU imprinted items to those who participate in the scavenger hunt.

Students who want to be reminded each week about upcoming events that will be happening around campus can text “WOUWKND” to 71441 to receive updates by text weekly.

More information about Freebie Fridays and other student events can also be found on SLA’s webpage as well as in their office in WUC.

China to lift one-child policy for continued economic prosperity

By: Alvin Wilson 
Staff Writer

China announced late last month that the government will lift their one-child policy, which was put into place 35 years ago in order to prevent rapid population growth.

The one-child policy was introduced in China in 1980 and was implemented to reduce the strain on resources as the country’s population and economy continued to grow exponentially.

According to the Chinese government, the one-child policy helped prevent 400 million births, which they credit with raising millions of people out of poverty. Now, however, they risk running out of young workers to support their aging population.

Data from the U.N. shows that by the 2030, a quarter of China’s population will be older than 60.

The country’s leaders made the decision to lift the policy in order to counter the risk of losing their powerful workforce, but some demographers fear it is too late to completely prevent it.

The new policy will allow all Chinese women to have up to two children.

According to the Population Reference Bureau, the new policy will result in an estimated 23 million more births by the year 2050. If almost every woman in China decides to have two children, however, the number of new births could be as high as 100 million.

This won’t stop the change in China’s worker demographic, but it will give the Chinese government more time before they see a shortage in workers.

This new policy has been implemented slowly over the past few years.

Starting in 2013, couples could have two children if either parent had no siblings. Rural couples in China were already able to have two children if their first child was a girl, and certain ethnic groups were exempt from the one-child policy.

Lifting the child limit to two is seen by some as a big step forward, especially because the one-child policy had been in place for such a long time, but others think China’s government hasn’t gone far enough, claiming that the government shouldn’t control reproductive rights at all.

The future of music is self-distribution

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By: Darien Campo (Staff Writer)

I discovered Snowmine largely by accident.

Browsing the plethora of music on Bandcamp.com led me to their page, where I found a free download to their first album “Laminate Pet Animal” (a palindromic title.)

Curious, I downloaded it and found that Snowmine was just the right amount of ambient indie-pop I’d been looking for my whole life. I’ve since bought all of their music and consider myself a lifetime follower.

It was luck that I found Snowmine, since back then there was hardly any mention of them on the internet. See, Snowmine isn’t signed to a major record label – in fact, they’re not signed to any record label at all. It’s not that they can’t get a label contract, they’re actively avoiding signing on to a label.

If it’s only going to lower their exposure, why would a band decide not to try and get a record label? Isn’t that the ultimate goal of any musician?

Not quite, anymore. In more recent years it’s actually becoming quite common to see musicians around the globe sharing their music without ever seeing a record contract — all thanks to the internet.

With websites like Bandcamp and Soundcloud, it’s easier than ever to upload and share your music without major backing. Thousands of indie artists choose a more direct way of selling music to their fans, using the internet to grow their fan base.

But it’s not just indie artists that have spurned labels, major bands are trying it as well.

In 2003, Radiohead, one of the world’s biggest bands, finished their six-album contract with EMI and they’ve never looked back. Since then they’ve released two albums, “In Rainbows” and “The King of Limbs” on their own website, with a “pay-what-you-want” pricing model.

Though it doesn’t guarantee as much exposure, bands like Snowmine appreciate the personal relationship to their fans self-distribution can give.

Their “from-us-to-you” campaign in promotion of their second album “Dialects” was a huge success. Fans enjoy dealing directly with their favorite artists instead of buying through a label.

The future of the music industry is coming fast, and it’s hard to tell if record labels are going to be a part of it anymore.

Like Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke told Time in a 2005 interview, “I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one.”

“No Man’s Sky” preview

By: Ashton Newton 
Staff Writer

During E3 2014, I watched a live stream of the Sony press conference with hope that I’d see something breathtaking.

My wish was granted when I saw a space ship lift off of an orange planet lush with grass, trees, and dinosaurs, and blast off into space. The ship flew into battle; colorful ships zoomed by, followed by explosions and asteroids hurtling around.

A reddish planet appeared in the distance and the ship moved closer, right into the planet’s atmosphere, ready to touch down. This was my first glimpse at “No Man’s Sky” (NMS), and I was hooked. I became “No Man’s Sky’s” biggest fan.

Hello Games, a small British developer known for the iPhone game “Joe Danger,” is developing NMS.

At its core, “No Man’s Sky” is a game about exploration. The vast universe contains 18 quintillion procedurally generated planets for players to explore, some containing life and some not; “procedurally generated” meaning that not one planet is the same as another; each planet is unique and ready to be explored.

All life in the game is procedurally generated too, and when players make discoveries, it’s their duty to name the planets, creatures, and plants they find.

The overall goal of NMS is to reach the center of universe, and the closer to the center players get, the more difficult it gets to stay alive. No one knows what happens there, but Head Developer Sean Murray promises something amazing.

“No Man’s Sky” is officially due to be released in June 2016 on Playstation 4 and PC.

Hello Games has kept the majority of gameplay features and lore under wraps to make the experience for the player more enjoyable.

I’m eagerly waiting for June; NMS is looking to be the biggest and most ambitious game ever created.

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