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Transcript of The Oredigger Issue 19 - March 19th, 2014
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8/12/2019 The Oredigger Issue 19 - March 19th, 2014
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T H E O R E D I G G E R Volume 94, Issue 19 March 17, 2014
The student voice of the Colorado School of Mines
w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t
Sports 10
Opinion 12
Features 6
News 2
Mines hosts frack-
ing documentary
and discussion
Learn how to
make chocolatemouse cake!
Minds at Mines
asks about Spring
Break activities
MLB Spring Train-
ing Preview for the
National League
Henry Ted Kernan
Staff Writer
It is spring time at the Colorado
School of Mines and, for many people,
that means looking for or looking for-
ward to starting a job in a few months.
For those of us looking to work in
the petroleum industry, it is quite a
time! Although our age group has
massive unemployment, that hides
the fact that our industry is booming.
Any graduate that wants to work,
will. Freshmen that have expressed
an interest in petroleum engineeringare offered internships and paid three
times the countrys average salary. Its
a good place to be, and we should all
be thankful of the paths that brought
us here.
At the same time, however inflated
salaries might appear, they still do
not reflect the true value that a recent
CSM graduate could bring to a com-
pany. This is because we are at the
nexus of two tremendous booms:
technological breakthroughs in oil
extraction, and a massive growth in
computing power and the ease with
which it can be accessed. Everyone
here has heard of hydraulic fracturing
and how it has unlocked reservoirs
once thought uneconomic. At the
same time, Amazon now has serversthat offer literally unlimited computing
power to anyone with a desktop,
tablet, or smartphone at scalable pric-
ing. Even more importantly, the code
needed to harness this power is being
taught to grade school children. It is
no longer the domain of specialists,
but of the masses.
Our generation is unique. Many
The potential of a Mines degree
Nearly 50,000 attend March for Peace in Moscow to protest Russias recent invasion of Ukraine.
COURTESY DHARMIKATVA
of us were born before Windows 95
was rolled out. We may remember
our first website visit, or life before the
iPhone. Our generation is the driving
force for the transformation of the
world into digital space, and often-
times the first users of technologies
that have fundamentally changed the
way we live and communicate (Face-
book, Skype, Kayak, Pandora, etc.).
How does this relate to our jobs in
a few months? Very simply, we have
the experience and ability to remake
an industry that in many ways has not
changed since the last oil boom fortyyears ago. There is a massive amount
of value at stake: trillions of dollars of
not only physical oil and gas molecules
that the world will use to live on, but
also billions of dollars of effi ciency
hours that can be saved and used to
increase productivity.
One concrete example is right
in our backyard: Wattenberg Field.
This oil field in the Denver Basin has
been producing since the 1970s, but
amazingly it will produce more oil this
year than ever before. The reservoir
that is driving that production today is
the Niobrara Formation. The Niobrara
exists throughout the Rocky Mountain
basins, but it is only truly economic in
Wattenberg Field. What characterizes
the Niobrara in Wattenberg Field is asubsurface measurement of resistivity.
High resistivity indicates the Niobrara
will produce millions of barrels of
oil; low resistivity is not (currently)
economic.
Millions of wells have been drilled
in the United States over the decades,
and each has electric logs that were
run to test the rocks for certain
properties like resistivity. These logs
are public property held by the state
where the well was drilled. Geologists
interpret logs, traditionally by look-
ing at printed sheets that fold on to
each other inches thick. Computer
programs today allow geologists to
interpret on a screen instead, but the
process is mostly the same-- look at
each individual log and note its proper-
ties. It is time consuming and repetitive
work. Worse, every company looks at
the same logs every time. Yes, differ-
ent interpreters and shifts in geologic
thinking affect outcomes. But the bulkof the work is repeated over and over
again. This space is ripe for disruption.
In Wattenberg it is clear what the
winning strategy was for the compa-
nies that positioned themselves in the
best parts of the field. All available logs
were loaded into a computer interpre-
tation program. Each log was brought
up, the Niobrara interval identified, and
the average maximum resistivity value
captured. A map was then made of
these values, and the sweet spots
identified.
To those not famili ar with US
onshore oil and gas exploration it is
diffi cult to illustrate how much clicking,
zooming, resizing, and squinting is in-
volved. Each company that looked at
Wattenberg exerted massive amountsof human energy. However, only three
companies dominate Wattenberg be-
cause they were the fastest at identify-
ing its potential and acquiring leases.
Speed made the difference between
billions of dollars, so it is necessary to
ask, Where was the maximum effort
exerted? Part of it was in identifying
high resistivity as the driving force in
Niobrara production. This thought
process takes experience, and a
geologist with twenty or more years
in industry came up with the resistiv-
ity cutoff that defined Wattenberg
Field. But the bulk of the process, the
examination of thousands of wells and
capturing of thousands of values, was
a repeatable set of steps with clear
inputs and outputs. Quality control is
necessary but involves skills that are
basic to any young petroleum geolo-
gist. With minimal computing power
and programming, the identification
and delineation of Wattenberg couldhave been automated once the re-
sistivity cutoff was established. The
company to have done so would have
been first to the prize.
This is why our generation has
unprecedented value to petroleum
companies today. We have the skills
to take a process that has remained
unchanged for forty years and use the
experience and creativity we gained
by playing on and helping design
the internet to increase efficiency
a thousand fold. We still need the
experience and guidance of the gen-
erations before us; that knowledge
should not be lost! But we have at our
fingertips computing power that was
unimaginable when we sent men to
the moon. And we have the flexibilityto put it to use.
Unfortunately, companies do not
always see this potential. Hiring and
pay scales are still based on years of
experience, roughly the amount of
time someone chose to interact with
an HR department.
Continued at Jobson page 3
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Oredigger Staff
Lucy Orsi
Editor-in-Chief
Emily McNairManaging Editor
Taylor PolodnaDesign Editor
Connor McDonaldWebmaster
Lucy OrsiBusiness Manager
Arnaud FilliatCopy Editor
Katerina GonzalesContent Manager
Jared RiemerContent Manager
Karen GilbertFaculty Advisor
Headlines from around the worldLocal News
Dallas resident Tracy Gooddied in a sledding accident in
Marble, which is 35 miles southof Glenwood Springs. Good suf-fered a head injury while sleddingwith her family.
The six-year-old Denver stu-dent, Connor Johnson, thatstarted an online petition to saveNASA was invited to the KennedySpace Center Visitor Complex.Johnson enjoyed various activi-ties including the Robot RocketRally, lunch with an astronaut,and a presentation from the Ken-nedy Space Center director Rob-ert Cabana. Cabana presentedJohnson with a bolt from the ISSand a mission patch.
Sandy Nyugen of Aurora wasarrested for running a scam with
her six-year-old son. Nyugenconvinced her family and com-munity that her son had beendiagnosed with cancer in Sep-tember 2012. The communitycollected over $25,000 for Nyu-gen. Investigators say that thefamily used some of that moneyfor a vacation to Disneyland.Nyugen has since admitted thather son does not have cancerand is being charged with felonycharges of theft and criminal im-personation.
A raccoon caused a poweroutage in Woodland Park. Theraccoon got into a transformer.It took about an hour for powerto be restored. The raccoon was
injured in the incident.Neighbors are complaining
after a Colorado Springs womanhung two toilets and a sink on atree in her front yard. She saysthat it is to express her creativity;however, the neighbors do notshare her opinion. The installa-tion is described as nasty andneighbors are worried that thetoilets and sink are not properlysecured.
Ramiro Rodriguez, Staff Writer
Emily McNair, Managing Editor
Ann Arbor, Michigan- Ecologists at theUniversity of Michigan have found that ma-laria becomes more prevalent at higher eleva-tions during warmer years. The study ana-lyzed malaria cases in Ethiopia and Colombiaand suggests that global warming may result
in more cases of malaria in densely populatedareas of Africa and South America. The studyalso suggests that climate change explainsthe changes in malaria trends in the high-lands. Malaria was identified as a disease that
would be sensitive to climate change overtwenty years ago. The Plasmodium parasitesand the Anopheles mosquitoes that carry thedisease thrive in warmer temperatures.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, headof the Senate Intelligence Commit-tee, has publicly accused the CIAof illegally searching the Senatecomputer system and delet-
ing files relating to an IntelligenceCommittee study and investigationof interrogation and detention tech-niques during the George W. Bushadministration. CIA offi cers could
face criminal prosecution if an inves-tigation was launched by the JusticeDepartment. CIA Chief John Bren-nan says his agency acted appropri-ately and had not violated any laws.
NASA has made funding plansto build a robot to explore the
possibility of life on Europa, oneof Jupiters moons. The speculationfrom NASAs planetary science chief,Jim Green, is based around thespotting of a large geyser from theHubble Telescope on the dominantlyice-covered moon. Green says, Ifwe can find life there, either past life
or current life, then that tells us lifehas to be everywhere in this galaxy.
The Australian governmenthas been accused of misleading
the UN in an attempt to remove theWorld Heritage listing from tracts ofthe Tasmanian forest for the purpos-es of developing the land there. Theformal request for protected status
removal claimed that the 4.7% of theforest sought to be developed hadalready been degraded and shouldnot have protected status; however,former Greens party leader BobBrown has released photographyof the in-question region showingthe forest to not be in any degradedcondition.
Hampton, Florida is being
threatened with dissolution of
the 500 person townafter accusa-
tions of corruption. The small townlays claim to a small stretch of high-way a mile outside of town and hasits police force almost entirely therewith radar guns. The corruptioncharges came after part of the rela-tively large amount of revenue com-ing from the speed trap went miss-ing and its mayor was arrested in anoxycontin dealing sting operation.
Americas ambassador to Ukrainehas said that the US will refuse torecognize a referendum in the
Crimeaand will take further actionsagainst Russia if a poll is used to le-
gitimized military action in Crimea.The statement comes after similarstatements by German chancellor
Angela Merkel and UK prime minis-ter David Cameron. At the moment,this is suggested to mean strongersanctions as the three countries stillstrongly favor diplomatic and eco-nomic routes to solve the issue.
Soon some offi cers of the Den-
ver Police Department will be
beginning a six month pilot pro-
gram in which they will wear
body cameras in an attempt torestore credibility in the eyes of thepublic. The cameras will automati-cally upload to a police serve andbe unable to be deleted. Similar pro-grams have begun all over the coun-try and have led to reductions in thenumber of filed complaints against
offi cers.
The Inspector General of thePost Offi ce has released a statementproposing the Post Offi ce offer
low-fee banking services.Histori-cally, this service has been done bypost offi ces before and is seen as
a way to serve the roughly 10 mil-lion Americans who currently do nothave any formal banking account.
The proposed expansion of serviceshas gained national attention afterendorsement by Senator ElizabethWarren.
Edmonton, Canada- A team of scientists led by Graham Pearson from the University of Alberta have foundthe first water-rich gem which provides new evidence of large amounts of water deep within the Earth. This gem,
made of a mineral called ringwoodite, shows that water is 1.5% of the samples weight. This finding helps to
confirm theories that a large amount of water exists between the upper and lower mantle. Ringwoodite is a form
of peridot that, until now, had not been found on Earth. The mineral had previously been found in meteorites.
Garching, Germany - The EuropeanSouthern Observatorys Very Large Telescope(VLT) has spotted the largest known yellowstar, which has been named HR 5171 A. Thisstar is among the ten largest stars discoveredand is more than 1300 times the diameterof the sun. The star is a part of a binary starsystem where the second star touches themain star. Observations from the past sixtyyears show that this is a rapidly changingstar system. The star is 12000 light-yearsfrom Earth and has been growing for the pastforty years. Scientists used interferometry tostudy the star. This technique combines thelight collected from many telescopes, whicheffectively created a telescope 140m in size.
St. Lucia, Australia - Scientists at the University ofQueensland and the Australian Research Council Centre ofExcellence in Vision Science have found that budgeridarshave a predisposition to favor the left- or right-hand side.
This allows flocks of birds to better navigate around obsta-
cles. Researchers flew the birds through a tunnel with an
obstacle. There were paths on both the left and right sides,and thus researchers could then see a birds preferences.While some birds always flew through the wider opening.
others always selected the path on one side.
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Henry Ted Kernan
Staff Writer
Jobs continued
Continued from page 1
When interviewing, companies want
to know the specic skills you bringto the advertised position, rather than
the creativity potential you may own.Senior workers are given the most
dicult projects, while young mindsare made to languish with plug-and-chug assignments meant to trainthem. Managers and team leads areskeptical about new processes theydo not understand.
This is one reason we have seen
a rise in entrepreneurship. Thou-sands of people have quit jobs (or
never taken them) because the cor-porate structure sties their potentialto create value.
As you take that new job thissummer, remember you have abili-ties that may be incomprehensibleto your bosses. Push the limits. Donot accept to sit there repeating a
process over and over again when a
simple macro would solve the prob-lem and scale to the whole company.Companies should realize that yearsof experience no longer correlatewith a persons value. Those willing toditch the HR rules and motivate theiryoung employees to automate theidentication of the next Wattenburgfaster than the competition will be theones to succeed.
In todays world where the ex-pansion of technology is basedlargely upon the development ofnew materials, the demand formaterial innovation is constantlygrowing alongside the demand
for newer and faster technolo-gies. So, how are these materialscreated and tested for possibleindustrial uses? At this point intime, the answer to that is essen-tially by trial-and-error: repeatedhypothesizing, fabrication, andimplementation, which is con-tinuously getting costlier in termsof both time and money. In thisweeks installment of the Phys-ics departments colloquia se-ries, Prof. Abram van der Geestof SUNY-Binghamton explaineda recently developed process topredict the formulation of newmaterials and their properties bycomputational methods and anal-ysis.
At rst, van der Geest ex-plained, it seemed a bit of astretch that the properties of
materials not yet created couldbe accurately hypothesized by acomputer without actually havinga physical sample to work with.Since the methods of material de-velopment rely heavily upon mul-tiple trials or iterations, computingclusters seemed appropriate asthey excel at implementing re-petitive and iterative calculations.Regarding what these computerswould actually be calculating, vander Geest described how the sci-ence behind material structuresand surfaces was based upondensity functional theory (DFT),which states that all crystallinematerials (the focus of this formu-lation) are innitely periodic. Fur-thermore, it explains that thesecrystalline structures are com-posed of a basis and series ofBravais lattice, which are vectorsof a given cell with six degrees offreedom (an important feature inlater calculations).
The end goal of this computa-tional DFT method was to denethe stability (or in some cases,metastable points, which are ex-plained later) of a hypothesizedmaterial. These computations dif-
Chris Robbins
Staff Writer
Future of materials sciencefer slightly from the lowest-ener-gy-seeking, single-system ideasof quantum mechanics, as mate-rial surfaces do not generally havea single low-energy point. Pointsof minimal energy for materialstructures change in unison withexterior conditions such as tem-perature and pressure, leading to
several points of metastability,or stability at a specic set of cir-cumstance
The rst step in this method-ology, as with most computa-tional methods, was to dene theneeded parameters. In this case,these parameters were the ma-terials atomic computations, thenumber of formula units, the ma-terials lattice parameters, and theatomic positions within the mate-rial. Once these parameters areadequately set, van der Geest ex-plained, the prediction calculationcan then be run, and its compu-tational cost (in CPU hours) var-ies depending on how far into the
prediction process one wishes to
go with zero experimental input(meaning an entirely predicted re-sult). Generally, a basic character-ization of the proposed materialrequires on the order of 100 CPUhours to compute, and a moreprecise solution takes on the or-der of roughly 1000 CPU hours.
At both of these levels, mostcomputer clusters can handle thework with little diculty. However,for a thorough, highly detailed,true prediction of the materialand all of its properties, an orderof about 100,000 CPU hours isrequired for a complete predictionwith absolutely no experimentalinput. At this computational cost,a limit of feasibility proposed byvan der Geest is materials with nomore than 32 atoms in its compo-sition. Any more than this and thebenets of predicting a materialover simply producing and testingmaterials repetitively are virtuallygone at the current level of avail-able computing power.
Another major part of DFTis the provable fact that crys-tal structures are widely reusedthroughout nature, and that overtime scientists have discovered
and validated the existence ofnumerous structures. Thus, vander Geest proposed that to de-
termine the structure of a hypoth-esized material, dierent knownstructures are iteratively testedon the composition until one ts,or has the lowest stability energy.Once again, computing clus-ters are great for quickly runningall of these repetitive structure-composition combinations. The
only drawback that van der Geestpointed out, however, was thatpredictions using DFT are limitedto known structures. This processdoes not have any means of ex-perimenting with new crystallinestructures, and merely applies thebest tting structure to the hy-pothesized material, which up tothis point has been successful.
An example of how this newand growing idea has already im-pacted the world of technologyis in the development and appli-cation of metal borides. At thispoint, up to 41 metal elementsare known to be able to formmolecules with boron atoms andcreate materials with a wide vari-ety of properties. Some of thesemetal borides have been pre-dicted to be used as supercon-ductors, superhard materials, andrefractory materials, which remainstable in extremely challengingconditions (high pressures, tem-perature, etc.). Several of theseremain only predictions to thisday, but some predictions havealready been shown to be true,including the superconductorsiron tetraboride (FeB4), cadmiumhexaboride (CaB6), and man-ganese tetraboride (MnB4). Andeven for those that have yet to bephysically proven true the predic-tions hold astounding possibilitiesif they are able to be proven trueexperimentally, as in the case ofrhenium diboride, which predictsto be the worlds hardest material(even stronger than diamond).
While DFT is already intriguingto those in the study of materialsciences, van der Geest hopes tosoon improve upon the methodfurther. He plans on eventuallynding ways to apply the theoryto a wider range of surfaces andinterfaces, as well as modifyingthe functions involved within thecomputations to accommodatea wider range of material proper-ties.
Relay for Life comes to ColoradoSchool of Mines for the second timeon April 25. Circle K, an on-campusorganization dedicated to service andmaking an impact on campus and inthe community, is hosting the event,which is slated to run from 6 p.m. Fri-day evening to 6 a.m Saturday morn-ing.
The event will take place on Kafa-dar Commons and feature numerousbands, deejays and music through-out the night along with other activi-ties. Circle K president Kaitlyn Martinshared some of the exciting activities
planned for the event. We will havemidnight Zumba, and Katie Schmal-zel will be holding a willPower andgrace class. There will be sports go-ing on all night such as soccer, foot-ball and Frisbee, Martin said. Prizeswill be given out throughout the night,and there will be raes to win evenbigger prizes. There will also be lots offree food at the event. A designatedtrack will be set up outside of Kafadarfor walking.
Everyone is encouraged to form ateam and participate in this years Re-lay for Life. Teams can sign up aheadof time by going to www.relayforlife.org/SchoolofMinesCO. Each team isencouraged to raise $1000, and ev-ery individual participant who raises$100 will receive a free shirt. T-shirtsare only guaranteed the day of the
event to teams that sign up and raisethe money before April 11. However,teams can continue raising money upto and at the event and extra shirts
will be available for teams who raisemoney after April 11. All funds raisedfrom the event will go toward support-ing cancer research in Colorado.
Relay for Life is an overnight fund-raising walk that raises money to sup-port the ght against cancer. The rstlap in Relay, known as the SurvivorsLap, provides an opportunity for allcancer survivors in attendance to cel-ebrate their victory over cancer. Sinceits conception in 1985, Relay for Lifehas raised nearly $5 billion to fundand support the ght against cancer.
Circle K hosted Relay for Life atMines for the rst time last spring.Last year, as a Circle K club, wedecided we wanted to try to make abig impact both in the campus andin the community, Martin said. Wedecided that a great event we couldbring to campus that would both helppeople and be fun at the same timewould be Relay for Life since theyhave experience holding events atcolleges. We contacted people at the
American Cancer Society throughouttheir volunteer match center and goappointed someone from their organi-zation to help us coordinate the event.Last year we raised over $10,300 sowere hoping to raise more this year.
Questions about the event canbe directed toward [email protected].
Jessica Deters
Staff Writer
Relay for life 2014
Dr. John Warme, a professor ofgeology here at Mines from 1979-2002 and a professor emeritus sincethen, came to give a special talk aboutsome of his more interesting research
projects from the past. The unifyingconcept of the three dierent projectsthat he presented on was the idea
that anomalies in the geologic recordoften record great catastrophes, and
following up on these anomalies canlead to striking discoveries. A geo-logic catastrophe signies something
that happened rapidly on a grandscale, rather than something destruc-tive (though the two denitions oftengo hand in hand).
The rst catastrophe Warme de-scribed is a unique landslide in theGrand Canyon that Warme nick-named Panchos Radical Runup,because of its proximity to a raftingcampsite named Panchos Kitchen.
Along the Grand Canyons three hun-dred kilometers, there are many doc-umented landslides, especially where
the Bright Angel Shale is exposed.The Bright Angel is a weak unit whichsits between two strong, cli-formingrock units; because of this, manywater seeps form at this point in the
stratigraphy, which in turn instigatethe landslides. These landslides havesignicantly aected the geographyof the canyon walls; for instance, theonly waterfall in the canyon at riverlevel, Deer Creek Falls, is the result ofa young landslide which blocked thecreeks original route to the ColoradoRiver. At a spot called The Narrows,where the Grand Canyon is at its nar-rowest, Dr. Warme (who used to lead
rafting eld trips down the canyon)noticed something odd about theway the bedding on the high bankswas weathering. The location wasfairly inaccessible, located atop a twohundred foot cli, but Warme wasdetermined. After making it up to thestrange bedding to look at it up closeand taking photos from an airplanewith a good camera, he found some-thing surprising: the same rock unitswere overlying more of themselves, atan angle. Furthermore, the overlying,
Hope Sisley
Staff WriterVan Tuyl explores geologic catastrophestilted section of the units was shat-
tered but not dispersed, as if it hadbeen pulverized in situ, and containedrelaxation faults, as if it had been inmotion and settled back down. Con-versely, normal talus - chunks of rockthat broke o of the clis and rolleddown the slope - remained in chunkscalled boxcars, which maintainedinternal cohesion, not showing any ofthe breakage structures of the anom-alous beds.
After examining all of these clues,Warme realized that this was a land-slide deposit... from the opposite sideof the canyon. Such a phenomenon,
called a runup, occurs when a par-ticularly high-powered landslide formsan air cushion under itself when it hitsthe bottom of a slope and continuesforward, up the opposite side of thevalley, much as water poured downone side of a bowl will splash up theopposite side. This particular runupconsists of ve separate slabs ortongues, covers a few square kilome-ters of area, and went about sevenhundred feet up the canyon wall: thehighest cross-canyon runup in the
lower 48 states. At 750 thousand to1.25 million years old, this is also oneof the oldest landslides in the canyon.
The frictional heat of the slide was sogreat that it naturally converted thelimestone into quicklime, so that whenit came to a halt and the pore water inthe rocks bubbled out, the shatteredslide acted like man-made cement,freezing itself in place for Dr Warme tond it and unlock its secrets.
Next, Warme spoke of a landslideon the opposite side of the world,in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.During the Jurassic period, this wasa rift zone (a place where a continent
is breaking in two). Rifts often exudebasalt lavas and form depressed ar-eas called wrench zones which tendto catch water. The rhomboid wrenchzones in this area were rst dry rifts,lled with basalts, evaporite mineralsand redbeds, but once subsidencewas deep enough, the ocean wasable to ow into the zone and a car-bonate shoal developed. Later, whenthe Alps formed, the compressionforced the rift faults to reverse direc-tion, creating mountains out of a sea.
In the midst of these mountains arethree jebels, or ridges, separated byfaults, which comprise pieces of a sin-gle large carbonate grainstone blockthirty kilometers in length. The blockrepresents a former reef, with manyfossils in it. Reefs require sunlight, sothe jebel bedrock must have formedin shallow water... but there are deep-water landslide deposits, or turbidites,over the top of the reef. The turbiditesare themselves full of coral fragments,as well as chunks of dark deepwa-ter sediments and debris ows. Inthe past, researchers were baedby what appeared to be a reef that
had somehow sunk to the bottomof the ancient sea. After Dr Warmeexamined the rocks, however, he
determined the true story behind thejebels. This is not a reef but a piece ofa reef shed from the shelf edge in onecoherent block, called an olistolith,which fell down the continental slopeinto deep water.
Continued at Geologists discover
crater using rock records on page
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Hope Sisley
Staff Writer
FrackNation, a lm made in re-
sponse to the popular HBO docu-
mentary Gasland, was shown on
campus by the Coloradans for Re-
sponsible Energy Development, or
CRED, a community outreach orga-
nization put together by Noble Energy
and Anadarko to educate the public
about fracking and other industry
processes. The lm was introduced
by Mike Dickinson, from Noble, and
Mike Weaver, from Anadarko, both of
whom are Mines alumni. Dickinson
mentioned that in the last ten years
alone the number of CSM students
graduating from the petroleum engi-
neering department has increased
from thirty to over two hundred.
Weaver asserted that the industry is
under a threat and emphasized the
number of jobs created in the state
by the oil and gas industry. A panel
of CSM professors was held after the
showing for community members
to ask questions of experts. Manypresent at the showing were not stu-
dents, and the auditorium was all but
lled to capacity.
FrackNation is an eminently
frustrating lm. On the one hand, it
is undeniably propaganda. On the
other hand, the lm itself points out
that propaganda is the only thing that
gets heard in modern media. As a
rebuttal to Gasland, it is extremely
eective, managing to discredit Josh
Fox (the maker of Gasland), a pair
of his key interviewees, and much of
his data. When the lm diverges from
its refutation of Gasland, however, it
falls into absurdity.
In order to assess FrackNation,
it is helpful to watch the movie it re-
futes. Gasland, an Oscar-nomi-
nated 2010 documentary about the
Marcellus Shale, makes FrackNa-
tion look like the PBS News Hour:
it is full of artsy out-of-focus estab-
lishing shots; intolerably obnoxious
shaky-cam eects; pointless per-
sonal anecdotes; and Foxs slurring,
stilted, overly-theatrical narration. It is
profoundly unscientic, more art lm
than documentary. (Josh Fox should
really have stuck to banjo playing.)
Summarized, Gasland takes
Fox from Pennsylvania to Colorado,
Texas, and Wyoming in search of
water contamination caused by
gas drilling. He does not distinguish
between well drilling, completion,
or stimulation, instead lumping all
three together as a nebulous sort
of environmental disturbance. The
movie relies mainly on interviews
with people living near gas wells and
storage tanks. No scientic facts are
presented, except as a scare tactic;
Hydraulic fracturing debate comes to Minesthe word chemicals is treated as
synonymous with poisons. It com-
prises a vague, simplistic moral state-
ment along the lines of gas produc-
tion bad. Yet it proved so popular
that HBO nanced a sequel - not to
mention it sparked public opinion to
turn against fracking in many parts
of the country, without explaining inany detail what fracking actually is
or any other facts that might be help-
ful to the viewers in determining their
stance towards the process or the
industry at large.
In watching Gasland, it be-
comes clear that Phelim McAleer,
the director of FrackNation, was
either unable to, unwilling to, or unin-
terested in providing a direct rebuttal
to each and every one of the claims
in Gasland. Nor did FrackNation
have to address every point brought
up. Several telling points were dis-
cussed. For one, the gas develop-
ment lease in Gasland that Fox
claims was sent to his Pennsylvania
home is revealed to be a copy of a
lease negotiated with ChesapeakeEnergy by a citizens cooperative in
a neighboring rural township. This
is not the rst time McAleer catches
Fox in a lie, but it is the most com-
pelling. When McAleer requests an
interview with Fox, Fox hangs up
on him, refusing to answer any fur-
ther calls. Fox even goes so far as to
eject McAleer and his camera crew
from a showing of Gasland rather
than address McAleers questions,
suggesting that Fox has no interest
in debate, much less any discussion
of the errors or misinformation in his
lm. Craig and Julie Sautner - citizens
of the town of Dimock, PA, where
much of Gasland takes place -
were among some of the most vo-
cal opponents of fracking, claimingthat their water had turned black and
undrinkable after fracking in the vicin-
ity of their home. They, too, refuse
to speak to McAleer once they real-
ize he doubts their claims, behaving
with hostility towards him. (They have
since left Dimock for good.) There
are a number of other interviewees
in Gasland, however, who do not
show up in FrackNation; in fact, the
Sautners are the only complainants
interviewed in both lms. This could
mean the rest of Foxs contacts in Di-
mock did not wish to be in being in-
volved in FrackNation. It could also
mean that McAleer chose to show
only the most unreasonable of the
interviewees so as to demonize the
opponents of fracking.
One of McAleers main points is
that methane gas is naturally found in
water in the Dimock area, that it was
present long before people were and
that it has done them no harm. He
points out that methane-rich waters
have been set alight in many places
where no oil and gas development
has occurred. While it is true that
Gasland fails to mention even once
that methane can occur naturally in
groundwater, the famous scene of a
man lighting his tap water on re was
actually lmed in Colorado, not Penn-
sylvania, as McAleer would have
viewers believe. According to The
Denver Post, it is inconclusive wheth-
er the methane in the water is linked
to local drilling or not, but a few things
are known which both lmmakers
neglect to mention. First, drinking
water with methane in it is not harm-
ful to humans so long as the gas that
bubbles out of the water does not
collect in a poorly-ventilated area,
where it could explode if ignited. Sec-
ond, the energy company in Dimock
which Gasland focuses on, Cabot
Energy, was found to be responsible
for some water contamination there,
not because of fracking, but thanks
to faulty well casings. FrackNation
ignores Cabot altogether, insteadfocusing on Chesapeake, which is
presumably more diligent about up-
holding their well completion qual-
ity standards. Indeed, the Colorado
contamination, if connected to gas
production in the area, is probably
linked to faulty casings as well, as
normal migration of gas through in-
duced fractures into peoples water
wells would take far longer than has
been observed.
This leads to the real heart of the
matter. Fracking, or hydraulic fractur-
ing, has been in use since 1947. By
setting packers in a well to allow
pressure buildup, then pumping frac
uid into the well, the operator can
initiate a microquake, with the pres-
sure causing old natural fractures inthe rock to reopen or new fractures
to form. The induced fractures allow
the well to drain from a larger area,
since the fractures act as conduits
for gas to ow through. The propa-
gation distance of induced fractures
from the well, however, is 300 feet
on average and no more than 1500
feet, according to two 2011 studies.
Since the Colorado aquifer is a mile
and a half from the reservoir being
produced, it is unlikely that induced
fractures could have formed a path-
way between the rock units. Yet nei-
ther Fox nor McAleer seems to think
it is reasonable to blame contamina-
tion on the far more likely possibility
of leaky well casings. On Foxs part, it
is likely because bad well casings is
not scary-sounding, while fracking
sounds ominous to the unlearned
ear. On McAleers part, he prob-
ably avoided mentioning the lawsuit
against Cabot because, even though
fracking was not related to the inci-
dent, to suggest that the operator
was responsible for the pollution in
any way, even in an isolated circum-
stance, could be seen as anti-indus-
try, or perhaps used as ammunition
in the ght to ban gas production.
So the facts get glossed over in both
instances, and the truth McAleercontinually refers to remains hidden,
at least in part, from the public eye.
For anyone knowlegeable in oil
and gas processes, natural or arti-
cial, Gasland is obviously blatant
misinformation. FrackNations at-
tack on Gasland is systematic and
put forward in terms digestible to
the average uneducated American.
But FrackNation does not stop at
exposing Gaslands inaccuracies.
FrackNation attempts to change
public opinion, as Gasland did.
Josh Fox demonized the natural
gas industry; Phelim McAleer paints
it as a benevolent savior. He makes
three points: 1. the leases paid to
rural farmers in Pennsylvania by the
gas companies allow the farmers tocontinue their way of life, as the extra
money keeps them from the verge of
bankruptcy; 2. American natural gas
is an important alternative to Rus-
sian gas, especially for the European
countries in thrall to Russia because
they have no other source of gas;
and 3. energy is important, so natural
gas, as an energy source, is neces-
sary for a comfortable, civilized stan-
dard of living.
The rst point is true and valid.
When a moratorium was placed on
gas production in the Dimock area,
drilling was halted and many citizens
in the vicinity lost their monthly lease
checks. Having a gas well on ones
property ensures a sizable amount
paid to the owner by the well opera-
tor, which for a struggling farmer re-
ally can mean the dierence between
making it and going bust. The people
of Dimock were upset at the stigma
that Gasland pinned on their town,
no doubt losing precious tourist dol-
lars as well. The simple fact is, people
have to get by, and having drilling on
their property is an easy way to get
them extra cash without giving them
extra work. Perhaps a solution to this
would be to pay an added premium
for risk of air or water pollution, thus
satisfying the landowner and allaying
peoples fears, while still allowing pro-
duction to proceed.
McAleers second point, however,
is a stretch. American gas production
will do little to help the little old Pol-
ish widow interviewed in the lm, and
should gas production here decrease,
it will not lead to Russia controlling
America any more than American
dependence on Saudi oil has led to
Saudi Arabia controlling the U.S. As
for McAleers third point, it is here that
FrackNation falls to the same level
as Gasland. Besides being phrased
in the most childish of ways, the ar-
gument contains two oensive and
harmful sub-points. First, McAleer
takes the opportunity to attack clean
energy, saying that geothermal plantscause earthquakes, and that both
windmills and solar panels will make
the U.S. dependent on China and re-
sponsible for the deaths of workers in
Chinese factories with low health and
safety standards. Then he shows a
map of the world at night and makes
the claim that the poorly-lit areas (ie.
Africa) are hotbeds of violence and
starvation, where life is cheap and
disease runs rampant. The implica-
tion that hydraulic fracturing will solve
all the worlds problems is laughable.
Notwithstanding that most power
plants burn coal, electricity does
not mean an end to war and hard-
ship, nor does the lack thereof mean
that people might as well be dead.
To end on such a note is detrimen-
tal to FrackNations credibility, not
to mention it does little to combat
the emotionality and propagandistic
problems of the media that this very
lm itself laments.
One more thing worth noting is
the fact that Phelim McAleers other
lm credits consist of a pro-mining
documentary, Mine Your Own Busi-
ness, and a movie claiming that an-
thropogenic climate change has no
scientic basis called Not Evil Just
Wrong.
This leaves the educated, politi-
cally-aware viewer discouraged. On
one side of the debate is Josh Fox,
an extremist out of touch with the
economic concerns of real people
and the safety standards of local in-
dustry, and on the other hand is a
climate-change denying extremist
who imitates the very thing he de-
rides. Where is the voice of common
sense? Yes, there is no reason to
ban fracking any more than there is
to ban any other production method.
But at the same time, attacking clean
energy as a way of defending frack-
ing is absurd. In order to meet the en-
ergy needs of a modernizing world,
humankind needs every source avail-
able. This includes fossil fuels, but it
also includes wind farms, solar pan-
els, geothermal plants, and nuclear
energy. As a Pennsylvania politician
tells Fox in Gasland, Theres no
such thing as a perfect source of
energy. Technological progress and
increased eciency in all areas is the
only sustainable solution.
But then, that would hardly win a
lm producer an Oscar, now would
it?
Hope Sisley
Staff Writer
Geologists discover crater using rock records
Continued from page 3
As it fell, the block destabilized the
sediments it ran over, which then
came tumbling down after it, lled in
the space behind it, and topped over
it, spilling across and over. The coral
fragments in the turbidites are olisto-
stromes - small broken pieces of the
reefs edge knocked o during the col-
lapse - and the dark bits were ripped
up from the seaoor as the landslide
passed. This simple explanation failed
to be recognized based merely on the
sheer size of the olistolith.
Finally, Warme discussed the larg-
est of his catastrophes: the breccia
(or broken rock) left behind by a De-
vonian meteorite impact in present-
day Nevada. At the time of the im-
pact, Nevada was the Pacic coast, a
tropical carbonate ramp. Subsequent
compression caused a thrust belt to
form along the former seacoast, and
the area is now made up of hundreds
of subparallel mountain ranges. The
Alamo impact breccia is found in at
least twenty-ve of these ranges, and
had long stumped researchers before
Warme began his investigation. As
he explained, the broken rocks were
variously interpreted as coral-reef ta-
lus, karst cave-llings, and fault or so-
lution-collapse breccias. The thick-
ness of the breccia varies, but gets up
to three hundred meters in places.
The breccia contains many unique
characteristics which are signa-
tures of a bolide (or meteor) impact.
Shocked quartz, for instance, which
records the pressure wave from an
impact, is the classic sign of a meteor
strike. There are also carbonate im-
pact lapilli - rock hailstones - which
form the same way as volcanic lapilli,
aggregating about some nucleus in a
superheated debris cloud and falling
back to earth. The lapilli have fossil
fragments as their nuclei; the process
by which they were cemented is the
same quicklime formation phenome-
non seen in Panchos Radical Runup.
The unit contains intraformational fold-
ing and a smashed fallback layer be-
tween unbroken, undeformed rocks,
an unusual observation that records
the debris from the impact falling back
to earth. All of these clues pointed
Warme and his students towards an
impact, so they began searching for a
crater. Sure enough, they found one.
Though the crater has since been dis-
rupted by tectonics (the whole area
is now heavily faulted), it can be seen
in the rock record. The bolide struck
about 150 km north of present-day
Las Vegas. Because the impact was
underwater, it caused a tsunami,
which also left a record in the geology.
Successive graded beds, each thin-
ner than the last, signify successive
tsunami waves as water sloshed from
the crater to the seacoast and back.
Desiccation cracks in the tsunami de-
posits show that the wave travelled
inland far enough to get above sea
level. Graded resurge beds record
the same sloshing phenomenon be-
low sea level. Slumped normal sedi-
mentation records the collapse of the
oversteepened crater walls back to
a stable slope after the turmoil had
ended. Finally, a reef which grew atop
the breccia suggests that the sea in
this area was deepened enough by
the impact to make room, or accom-modation space, for corals to grow.
Warme concluded his talk by
pointing out that he was only able to
recognize these strange anomalies in
the rock record because he had seen
so many rocks and had so much
geological experience that he knew
what was normal and what was not.
In other words, he said, One must
understand the expectable in order to
recognize the anomalous.
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Courtesy Mines Newsroom
Mines students are working
with Mechanical Engineering (ME)
professor John Steele and Elec-
trical Engineering and ComputerScience (EECS) professor Qi Han
to build and develop a system to
automate oil and gas processes
through unmanned robots. Blast-
er, the original prototype, will be
deployed to the Petroleum Insti-
tute (PI) in Abu Dhabi to increase
the safety in oil and gas refineries.
Currently, refinery operators
are exposed to potential explo-
sions, gas leaks and extreme
weather conditions.
We are trying to get robots to
do the same operations humans
can do, but by taking the human
out of harms way, we are increas-
ing safety, Steele said. Abu
Dhabi can reach up to 130 de-
grees Fahrenheit, so people areexposed to extreme heat as well
as sand storms and possibly gas
leaks. If the robot is harmed, you
Mines builds robot to increasesafety in Abu Dhabi refineries
can always build another one.
The robot is equipped with a
methane gas sensor, video cam-
era, microphone, thermal imaging
camera, GPS, digital compass,
laser-range finder and Wi-Fi cli-ent-bridge. Each of these sen-
sors will help it navigate, avoid
collisions and transfer information
back to the control room opera-
tor.
EECS students Adewole Ayo-
ade and Marshall Sweatt are
collaborating to develop applica-
tions that will take readings from
the sensors to determine the ro-
botic location and remotely log
those readings for analysis. Alex
Yearsly, a ME student, designed
and manufactured the 5-degrees
of freedom robotic arm after tak-
ing over from Dan Albert, a recent
graduate. John Steuben, a grad-
uate student in engineering sys-
tems, designed and 3D-printedthe sensor housing for the robots
head.
Ayoade emphasized the im-
portance of testing the robot in
conditions similar to the refinery.
Because we are working on a
real life project, we have to un-
derstand the environmental con-
ditions of where we are sendingthe system, Ayoade said.
Once Blasters build is com-
pleted, Ayoade and Sweatt will
travel overseas to test its func-
tionality and transfer the technol-
ogy to faculty and students at the
PI.
Im really excited; Ive never
been to the United Arab Emir-
ates before, Sweatt said. It is an
honor to be invited.
Blasters capabilities will dem-
onstrate Mines ability to develop
a robotic system for inspection
and operations. The robot will be-
come the basis for a proposal to a
French robotic competition called
ARGOS Challenge, sponsored by
TOTAL, in which contestants fromall over the world will develop ad-
vanced robotic capabilities for oil
and gas environments.
Mines student select-ed for Arecibo Obser-vatory researchCourtesy Mines Newsroom
If you have seen the James Bond
movie, GoldenEye, or played the
Nintendo 64 video game, you might
remember the radio telescope at the
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
Mines mechanical engineering stu-
dent Alexis Humann was selected
for a 10-week summer research pro-
gram, during which she will working
on building an autonomous robot to
clean the world's largest single-dish
telescope.
Right now when people clean it
they put on giant snowshoes to even
out their weight; the weight of a per-
son would collapse it, Humann said.
We will need to build a robot that is
really light and well distributed.
The observatory telescope is
used to study the properties of plan-
ets, comets and asteroids. Scientistswho want to use the telescope are
required to submit proposals for an
independent scientific board. It will
be a unique opportunity for Humann
to work with the telescope firsthand.
Everyone in the aerospace in-
dustry knows about this observa-tory and it has a great reputation,
Humann said. I will be working with
some of the top scientists in the
world. I am so excited to be able to
meet them and learn all about their
work.
Humman is also looking forward
to the opportunity to combine her
mechanical engineering skills with
her interest in aerospace.
I think space exploration is go-
ing to move away from man explora-
tion and go into the robotics side of
things, Humann said. There is so
much technology to improve upon
there, and the possibilities are end-
less.
Currently Humann is working on
an undergraduate research fellow-ship with Dr. Douglas Van Bossuyt
to build a robot that can analyze its
health and make its own decisions.
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Geek Week... Andrew Hyde, Senior: Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
of
the
Jordan Francis
Staff Writer
Enjoyably nerdy as Mines canbe, many geeks spend their time
here trying desperately to escape
this school as fast as possible.
Some succeed, some do not. Oth-
ers take their time in the academic
realm, get the most they can out
of their education, and pass on
as much hard-earned wisdom as
they can to underclassmen. Some-
where in the middle of those lies
Andrew Hyde.[Oredigger]: What made
you choose Chemical and Bio-
chemical engineering as a ma-
jor?
[Hyde]: Originally, I wanted to go
to medical school. The real ques-
tion is why did I stay with that ma-
jor? The answer to that is...I dontknow. Something about bioscienc-
es and making peoples lives better
through biotechnology.What has been your favorite
class so far?
Possibly Genetics with Dr.
Ogg. Not only...[are] both lecture
and lab...applicable to most bio-
technology...unlike so many other
courses at this school, [but] you
get to make mutants! And grow
them in a petri dish while listening
to Oggs sarcasm and general at-
titude of sunshine.
Are you a geek and why?
Lets parameterize geek for
a start. A nerd is someone with
above average intelligence, in my
view, who gets wrapped up in his
own intelligence. A geek is some-
one who is obsessive about a
certain individual, non-mainstream
concept. I guess the fact that I dis-tinguish between the two makes
me a geeks. The fact that I work [at
the Geology Museum] as a Chem-
E says Im a geek because this is a
hobby and a line of work that is be-
yond my own personal intelligence
or line of work.
Do you know what free time
is and if so, how do you spend
it?
Free time is time that is not
taken up by homework, classes,
or exams. I spend my free time
working two jobs, taking care of
my family, sleeping, playing classi-
cal guitar, [doing anything involving]
rocks. I write poetry, I compose
classical music, I make jewelry, and
I write calligraphy.What is your favorite thing
about Mines?
Hah! Yeah, next question.
What are some of your great-
est accomplishments?
Ive designed, prototyped, and
eld tested an intra-arterial stent.
Ive supervised a team that came
up with a new formula and deliv-
ery system for a thrombolytic drug
used to replace surgical treatments
in patients with heart failure. Ive
helped revamp the club sports pro-
gram at Mines. I created their side-
line medical protocols [and] trained
over eight hundred people in the
program in CPR and rst aid. Ive
kept myself alive.
If you could have any super-
power, what would it be and
why?
The ability to turn o my emo-
tions because [the ability to evalu-ate] an option completely rationally
is a valuable tool in life for making
decisions that benet others.
Who would win in a fght
between a Star Wars storm-
trooper and a Star Trek red-
shirt?
The stormtrooper because al-
though he cannot hit the redshirt,
the redshirt is gonna die anyways.
[Speaking realistically,] the storm-
troopers going to win because he
has armor and training...Storm-
troopers have six years of training
at the Academy whereas redshirts
have approximately one semester
of tactical training, so yeah, the
stormtrooper wins.
If you could be dropped intoany fctional universe, what
would it be and why?
Probably the Lego universe sim-
ply because the way its portrayed
in all of the games, movies, com-
ics, etc, malice exists, but it has
no major impact on people, which
makes [that universe] one of the
most free places you can be. You
can be what you want to be and
feel what you want to feel and really
its only the positive things that are
long-lasting and matter. Ultimately,
you can only do so much damage
before you reduce [someone] to a
pile of bricks, which you cant hurt.How would you handle
things if Mines was invaded by
a horde of rabid Bronies?
With prejudice. Friendship is
bullets.
Do you have any plans for
the future?I plan to work in biotechnology
and medicine because they oc-
cupy my time and I enjoy them. [I
plan to] live frugally, care for others,
[and] not die for a little while.
Do you have any advice for
fellow geeks and Mines stu-
dents?
Dont go to Mines.Do you have a favorite
quote?
If you wake up and youre not
in pain, youre dead. -Russian
proverb.
Elizabeth Starbuck McMillan
Staff Writer
This cake takes a lot of precision,
patience, time and love. The ingredi-
ents are simple considering the com-
plexity of the cake.:
Cake:
* cup boiling water
* 2 oz unsweetened chocolate,
chopped
* cup unsalted butter, cut into
pieces* 1 large egg, at room tempera-
ture
* cup sugar
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 cups all-purpose our
* 1 tsp baking powder
* tsp baking soda
* tsp salt
* cup hot, strongly brewed
coeeMousse:
* 3 cups whipping cream, di-
vided
* 12 oz semisweet chocolate,
chopped
* 3 large egg yolks, at room
temperature
* cup sugar
* 1/3 cup waterChocolate Glaze:
* cup water
* 1 cup sugar
* cup whipping cream
* cup Dutch process cocoa
powder, sifted
* 1 Tbsp unavoured gelatin
powder
1. For the cake, preheat the oven
to 325 F. Grease 2 8-inch round
Decadant chocolate mousse cake recipecake pans, line the bottoms with
parchment paper and then lightly
dust the sides of the pan with our,
tapping out any excess.
*Please note that only 1 cake
layer is needed for this recipe, but it
is easiest to make this recipe in its full
measure and freeze the second cake
for a later use.
2. Whisk the boiling water, choc-
olate and butter together until melted
(it will be visibly grainy) and set aside.
3. Whip the egg, sugar and vanilla
until the mixture doubles in volume(about 2 minutes on high speed) and
then fold in the chocolate mixture by
hand.
4. Sift the our, baking powder,
baking soda and salt over the batter
and fold in, then stir in the hot cof-
fee (this will make the batter become
uid).
5. Divide the batter evenly be-
tween the 2 pans.
6. Bake the cakes for about 25
minutes until a tester inserted in the
centre of the cake comes out clean.
Allow the cakes to cool completely
in the pans.
7. For the mousse, have ready
a 9-inch springform pan, lining the
bottom with parchment paper (in or-
der to make the mousse-lled cakeeasier to remove from the pan).
8. Whip 1 cups of the whipping
cream until it holds a medium peak
when the beaters are lifted and chill.
9. Heat the remaining 1 cups
of cream to just below a simmer
and then pour it over the chopped
chocolate. Let this sit one minute,
then gently stir until incorporated.
Set aside.
10. Place the egg yolks in a bowl
and whip for a minute on high speed.
11. Place the sugar and water in
a small pot over high heat and boil
(occasionally brushing the sides of
the pot with water) until it reaches
250 F on a candy thermometer.
12. Start whipping the egg yolks
on medium speed and then carefully
pour the hot sugar down the side
of the bowl to avoid splashing, and
then increase the mixer speed until
high and whip until this has doubled
in volume and cooled to about 105
F.13. Measure the temperature of
the ganache to ensure it is close to
105 F as well and fold the ganache
into the whipped yolks.
14. Let this cool for 15 minutes
or until just above room tempera-
ture, then fold in the chilled whipped
cream in 2 additions.
15. Pour half of the mousse into
the ungreased springform pan. Slice
one of the cake layers in half horizon-
tally and place this over the mousse,
as centred as possible.
16. Pour the remaining mousse
over the cake layer and gently place
the other half of the cake layer on top,
pressing gently just so the mousse
covers the sides of the cake, but not
so that it sinks in.17. Wrap the pan in plastic wrap
and freeze the cake to set it, at least
4 hours, or overnight.
18. While the cake is setting, pre-
pare the glaze. Bring the water, sug-
ar, and cream to a boil in a medium
saucepan.
19. Once boiling, whisk in the
cocoa powder and simmer (reduc-
ing the heat if needed) for 4 minutes,
stirring often, (the consistency will
not change).
20. Remove from heat.
21. Soften the gelatin in cup of
cold water and then whisk this into
the hot cocoa mixture until dissolved.
Cool the glaze to room temperature,
then chill completely, at least 3 hours.
22. To nish the cake, remove it
from the freezer invert the pan onto
a cooling rack placed over a parch-
ment-lined baking tray.
23. Use a hair dryer on a low,
hot setting to gently warm the pan
so that it releases from the pan, thesides rst and then the top.
24. Warm the chilled glaze while
whisking occasionally until just melt-
ed and smooth and pour this over
the torte, spreading gently with a
spatula to ensure that it covers the
top and sides of the torte evenly.
25. Chill the cake for at least 30
minutes, then lift it onto the presenta-
tion plate and store chilled until ready
to serve.
To make peanut butter icing, use
1 cup of peanut butter for cup of
powdered sugar and a 1 tsp of va-
nilla. And as the nal touch, put mini
Reese cups around the edge. Makesure to store the cake in the fridge
and it can keep up to four days.
Chocolate mousse cake is sure to please any sweet tooth.
ELIZABETH STARBUCK McMILLAN / OREDIGGER
Andrew Hyde looks forward to graduating from Mines and
starting work in the elds of biotechnology or medicine.
JORDAN FRANCIS / OREDIGGER
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In late 2008, Ubisoft released
Prince of Persia, which wasmeant to be a reboot of the
original series released in 1989.
While the later reboot, Prince of
Persia: Sands of Time, was met
with more acclaim, Prince of
Persia is definitely a game that
can stand on its own.
The game itsel f i s no thing ex-
tremely special. The story follows
an unnamed warrior (who will be
referred to as the Prince) who
stumbles upon a lost woman
while searching for his missing
donkey. The woman explains that
her name is Elika, she is a prin-
cess, and she must return to the
temple. The Prince follows her
and watches as her father de-
stroys the Tree of Life. Ahriman,the god of darkness, is trapped
within this tree, and breaking the
tree releases him. This corrupts
the world, and Elika explains that
the only way to stop the corrup-
tion from spreading is to heal the
fertile grounds.
While this
seems
to be
a sim-
ple task,
it is quite
d i f f i cu l t , as
v a r i o u s m o ns t e rs
g u a r d the fertile
g r o u n d s and many re-
quire special powers granted by
Ormazd, the god of Elikas peo-
ple. To access these powers, the
player must collect light seeds
and take them to the temple.
The light seeds then unlock pow-
ers that are used to reach more
fertile grounds. After healing all
of the fertile grounds, the Prince
and Elika return to the temple to
fight Ahriman himself.
Sadly, the game builds up to
what could have been a great,
satisfying ending, but instead
leaves players angry. Essentially,
all of the players hard work goes
to waste and the world is left in
a corrupted state. While Ubisoft
did release DLC to add more to
the ending, the DLC costs much
more than the game and adds
very little to the story.
The character development
mostly occurs through optional
Emily McNair
Managing Editor
Prince of Persia is asimple, fun game
conversations between Elika and
the Prince. These conversations
mostly focus on the background
and the future of the characters
and do little to advance the sto-ry. At times, the dialogue feels
forced and unrealistic, which
takes away from the game. Ad-
ditionally, there are only two
notable quotes from the entire
game: I could have had carpets
*this* thick, which is what the
Prince says when he explains the
significance of losing his donkey
to Elika, and if you would have
your wish, then give me mine,
which Ahriman says at the end of
every one of Elikas flashbacks.
The fact that there are only two
memorable quotes shows how
boring most of the dialogue re-
ally is. At times, the Prince and
Elika are amusing; however,
most of their dialogueseems to be filler
to help reduce
the repetitiveness
of the game.
T h e
gameplay
leaves much to be
desired. It is extremely re-
petitive and, once players under-
stand how to defeat each of the
monsters, the battles are of little
challenge. The worst battles take
place between the Prince and
the Warrior King, a large mon-
ster made of stone. In the PS3
version of the game, it is nearly
impossible to mash buttons fast
enough to defeat the monster.
Many players have resorted to
using pencils to push the but-
tons as fast as possible. This has
made the battles with the Warrior
King little more than a nuisance
and adds very little to the game.
One of the most interesting
aspects of the gameplay is that
the player can never die. Instead,
Elika saves the Prince whenever
he takes off more than he can
chew by falling off a wall or jump-
ing into a chasm. This is extreme-
ly helpful as the landscape is filled
with jumps, wall running, and all
sorts of various dangerous acts.
However, at the same time, it can
be frustrating as Elika returns
the Prince to his last location on
solid ground. There are many se-
quences where the Prince does
not touch the ground for nearly
a minute, so if the player fails to
navigate a ledge, all of that workis lost. This aspect becomes es-
pecially important on the quest
for light seeds.
Light seeds are often placed
along the route used to reach
the fertile ground. These are the
easiest to collect and only require
a small amount of the players
time. However, collecting all of
these light seeds is not enough
to unlock more powers - in fact,
many of the more remote light
seeds have to be collected in or-
der to finish the game. This pro-
vides an interesting challenge to
players as some light seeds are
in locations that require
powers , w h i c h
makesco l -
lect-
ing them that
much more difficult.
This game really
excels in the environments.
The landscape requires players
to use all of their skills to navi-
gate the world and collect light
seeds, and this often requires a
bit of creativity on the part of the
player. While the rocks, water,
sand, and other environmental
features are not the most realis-
tic, the level of detail fits well with
the style of the game. Areas with
healed fertile grounds can be
quite beautiful with lots of foliage
and light. However, corrupted ar-
eas are extremely dark and the
environments can be difficult to
navigate at times. The corrup-
tion, a black slime, reaches to
grab the Prince as he runs past
it, which can block the players
view. However, it is extremely fit-
ting and gives those areas the
dark ambiance expected of an
area covered in evil.
Even though the gameplay is
quite lacking, Prince of Persia
is an interesting game. The story
itself is not very complex, but it is
engrossing enough to keep play-
ers asking for more. Specifically,
this game is perfect for those
who love to collect everything in
the world and those that want a
casual, inexpensive game to play
between new releases.
giving.mines.edu/studentsMines Senior Gift on
Your gift will be matched 1:1 by Mines alum and
Board of Trustees member, Tim Haddon 70!
Make a gift to The Mines Fundor to the area that means themost to you.
An Invincible
Mines Tradition!
DEADLINE
APRIL 26
COURTESY WALLPAPERSHD1080P
What Prince of Persia lacks in combat it makes up for in environmental detail.
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COURTE
SYUB
ISOFT
-
8/12/2019 The Oredigger Issue 19 - March 19th, 2014
8/12
f e a t u r e s march , page
w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t
Jessica Deters
Staff Writer
One choice, two lives. If/
Then, which opens on Broadway
on March 30, follows Elizabeth,
a 30-something who recently
If/Then: The power of choices versus fatemoved back to the Big Apple after
a failed, decade-long marriage in
Arizona. Elizabeth plans to meet
up with an old friend at Madison
Square Park to begin her new
life in New York City. One friend,
Kate, played by Tony award win-
ning actress LaChanze for her
role in The Color Purple, says
Liz returned to the city to nd her
true love. Another friend, Lucas,
played by Broadway veteran An-
thony Rapp, believes Beth came
to the city to advance her career
as an urban planner. In that mo-
ment, Elizabeth, played by TonyAward-winning best actress Idina
Menzel, must choose whether to
follow Kate, becoming Liz and
discovering a new love or to fol-
low Lucas and eventually become
successful urban planner Beth.
What dierence does one choice
make anyways?
Each path unfolds and Eliza-
beth lives out the next years of her
life having made each respective
choice. Down one road Beth nds
herself in a dream career, leaving
her mark on the New York City
landscape, but her love life is quite
simply a hot mess. Down the oth-
er Liz nds lovereal, true love
but advancing her career falls by
the wayside.This original musicalthe only
musical opening this spring with
a completely new and authentic
story and scorecrafted by Tom
Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Pulitzer
winners for their musical Next to
Normal, opened at the Richard
Rodgers Theater on Broadway for
Previews on March 5.
The new-age concept coupled
with the immense star power of
Idina Menzel make If/Then a
must-see. Menzel is best known
for voicing Elsa in the new Dis-
ney lm Frozen as well as for
originating the role of Elphaba in
Wicked, for which she won a
Tony. Menzel and If/Then costar
Rapp play old friends in the newmusical, which is quite accurate
as the two also co-starred in the
original Broadway production of
Rent 18 years ago.
If/Then explores the power
of choices. A choice as simple
as deciding to answer the phone
or deciding to go to Starbucks
in the morning can change the
course of a persons life. If/Then
is not the rst work to explore this
ideathat of one choice altering
a persons life course. Sliding
Doors, a 1998 lm starring Gwyn-
eth Paltrow, depicts the power of
a simple event in the course a
persons life takes. As Helen Quil-
ley (Paltrow) rushes to work, she
barely catches (or barely misses) asubway train. Her making or miss-
ing that train completely alters her
life. One road takes her to a new
love. The other keeps her with a
cheating ance. The plot unfolds
the two parallel universes, explor-
ing the power of one train ride to
alter Helens life.
Though the idea of parallel lives
has been explored before by other
works, If/Then is the rst to do
so in a musical format. If/Then
portrays life. Nothing is sugar-
coated. Nothing is brushed over.
Nothing is o-limits. The produc-
tion proves to be an incredibly
moving and thought-provoking
work, portraying gay, lesbian, and
biracial relationships, the chal-lenges of becoming attached to a
soldier and the eeting nature of
time in an eortless manner. If/
Then manages to portray each
relationship as simply another as-
pect of life--not something to be
debated or even something worth
dissenting over.
The incredibly powerful musi-
cal holds nothing back and even
brings its audience to tears. It ex-
plores the idea of all of the other
versions of self who are living dif-
ferent lives because one thing
went dierently along the way. If/
Then resonates with audience
members in a way most musicals
cannot because it tackles a con-
cept that impacts everyone as wellas featuring challenges that most
face throughout their lives.
As daunting as it may be to
think that every choice leads away
from one life and toward another,
If/Then oers a little piece of sol-
ace to viewers. Perhaps, despite
the choices made, both good and
bad, everyone ends up where they
belong.
If/Then explores the idea of all other versions of self who are liv-
ing different lives because one thing went differently along the way.
Some people argue that older
movies are classics and there-
fore better. This isnt always true,
but in the case of The Breakfast
Club, they might be right. The
Breakfast Club tells the story
of ve teenagers who
discover friends in the
most unlikely of places.
The Breakfast Club
is the story of ve teen-
agers who are attending
an all day detention on a
Saturday. The story de-
picts their experiences
as a brain, an athlete, a
basket case, a princess
and a criminal. This un-
likely group of teenag-ers are forced into each
others company due to
their detention and nd
in each other things that
they never expected.
The students partici pat-
ing in the detention are
Andy, the jock; Brian,
the brain; Allison, the
basket case; Claire, the
princess and Bender,
the criminal. Presiding
over the detention is
Richard Dick Vernon,
the schools assistant
principal.
The ve students are
left in the library and in-
structed to each writean essay about who
they are. They have the entire
day to complete a single page
essay so, inevitably, they get up
to all sorts of mischief. Bender
has a very dysfunctional relation-
ship with Vernon so he speci-
cally tries to incite mischief and
chaos. He primarily does this by
trying to rile up the other stu-
dents, mostly Claire and Andy,
Jacqueline Feuerborn
Staff Writer
A classic that never agesbecause their stereotypical jock
and princess personalities easily
clash with Benders. While thereare some stereotypical portrayals
of characters at the beginning of
the movie, by the end the audi-
ence sees that none of them are
as simple and one dimensional as
it originally seems, they all have
deeper character development.
The primary example of how
each of them are not what they
seem is when all of the charac-
ters sat around discussing why
they are in the Saturday deten-
tion. This is an incredibly moving
scene as viewers see more into
who each character is and how
they act and why. The especial-
Sherlock Holmes has been
brought to life onscreen most re-
cently by the BBC in the popular
drama series Sherlock. Audiences
around the world have been enter-
tained by this 2010 xture, now at
the conclusion of the third season.
Benedict Cumberbatch brilliantly
stars as Sherlock Holmes with Mar-
tin Freeman as Dr. John Watson
accompanying him on his journeys
through London and beyond.
(Movie connection! Interestingly
enough in The Hobbit: Desolation
of Smaug (2013), Cumberbatch
provides the voice for the dragon
Smaug, while Freeman plays Bilbo
Baggins. Sherlock fans may nd
the irony of their encounter giventhey work so closely in Sherlock
as partners, rather than adversar-
ies.)
For those unfamiliar with the
Sherlock Holmes novels penned by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creators
of Sherlock have prioritized the
importance of maintaining details
unique to the novels. There are four
original Sherlock Holmes novels
and fty-six short stories. Collec-
tively, these pieces create the world
in which Sherlock Holmes lives and
environment where readers are able
to envision that he solves mysteri-
ous and distinguishing crimes. Ob-
viously, the time setting diers be-
tween the Sir Arthur Conan Doyles
work and the work of the modernadaptation. The creators of Sher-
lock place this legendary character
in the modern streets of London,
where he is able to communicate
using mobile devices and the inter-
net, as well as travel in taxis or by
means of the tube.
The original Sherlock Holmes
novels have remained popular since
their publication beginning in 1887.
Readers in Europe, the United
Sarah Dewar
Staff Writer
Holmes lives onStates, and beyond are intrigued
by Sherlock Holmes rst as a char-
acter and second as a player in thecrime scene. This is apparent even
today, as crime movies and televi-
sion dramas are consistently the
most protable and popular genre
of entertainment. However, the at-
tractiveness of Sherlock Holmes
originates from the fact that he is
not a police ocer but rather an
independent private detective. He
is made out to be smarter than the
police force, to be more cunning
and observational than the authori-
ties. To state is simply, Sherlock
Holmes is a crime-solving genius.
Sherlock Holmes is a man that
transcends time. His character
is just as eective when placed in
the late 19th century as in modern
times. He is supremely individu-alistic, neither adapting to current
standards or adopting appropriate
social protocol. He is quirky, sar-
castic, and working for good. He
is a mental powerhouse, who uses
his fascination with science and his
profound abilities of observation to
solve implausible crimes.
The format of many original
Sherlock Holmes novels and short
stories is retrospective, meaning
that the events have already taken
place and either Sherlock Holmes
or Dr. John Watson is retelling the
succession of preceding phenom-
enon. This gives the reader insight
into each criminal case so that lit-
tle clues piece together with each
page and the reader can solve themystery right along with Sherlock.
For readers intrigued in reading the
original works, the novels are quite
easy to nd digitally for free. Even
though there is quite a bit of read-
ing to get through, these novels and
short stories are immensely enter-
taining and recommended for all
readers looking to immerse them-
selves more into the wonderfully il-
legal world of Sherlock Holmes.
ly prominent part of this scene
is the outside knowledge that
none of their reasons for beingthere were scripted. The director,
John Hughes, told all of the ac-
tors to improvise the scene and
so each actor or actress was able
to imagine their own reason why
there character was there. This
allowed the actors and
actresses to make their
characters even more
compelling and intri-
cate.
As the audience
watches the characters
actions, they become
more and more relat-
able which is one of the
things that makes this
movie so good. Every-
one who watches themovie can nd some
part of one of the char-
acters that they can
connect with. By the
end of the movie, all of
the characters are seen
in a new light. While the
overall plot isnt very
intricate or particularly
attention grabbing, the
movie does an incred-
ible job of showing peo-
ple, real people, and
how they interact. The
Breakfast Club also
successfully disarms
stereotypes and shows
people that humans
are much more com-plex and confusing than
people might initially assume.
All in all, it is an incredible
lm that will make any audience
watch in fascination. Anyone
looking for a good classic movie
to watch should pull The Break-
fast Club o of the shelf or go on
Netix and take a look. Watching
this movie is not something that
will be regretted.
The Breakfast Club is a fascinating lm.
COURTESY UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
JESSICA DETERS / OREDIGGER
-
8/12/2019 The Oredigger Issue 19 - March 19th, 2014
9/12
f e a t u r e s / s p o r t smarch , page 9
w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t
Karen Gilsdorf
Staff Writer
Short Hair, No Cares has
become the motto of Morgan
Halls 3rd floor after eight of its
residents donated their hair to
Locks of Love and Pantene Beau-
tiful Lengths. As of late, the group
has been working on finding waysthat college students can make a
difference in the world on a low
budget. Carmella Caltagirone, the
Resident Assistant of Morgan 3rd,
explained that previously they had
done a day of silence, working on
how to change the world as a col-
lege student when you dont have
any money. Now, they continue
this trend with the donation of
their hair.
One of the girls on the floor
came to me last semester to see
Short Hair, No Caresif it was something we all could
do, explained Colista West, the
community service chair of the
floor. This semester it actually
happened, and it was something
we could do all individually, she
continued. And now, every girl has
at least 8 inches less of hair and
wears it proudly. It is kind of weird
to get double takes, but its prettyawesome, West said.
As many can imagine, cutting
off this much hair was no small
feat (10 inches for Locks of Love,
8 inches for Pantene). Hair is a big
security blanket and a big comfort
item, but as women, donating
your hair in a group is a really cool
and empowering experience, ex-
plained Caltagirone. And this truly
seemed to be the case. When the
eight women went to Aprils Sa-
lon, they booked the entire salon
for a two hour block. All of the
stylists that cut [the girls] hair had
such a fun time, exclaimed Cal-
tagirone. But even though it was
a scary process, it was a surpris-
ingly simple decision for some.
We were making a contribution to
raise awareness by getting a hair-
cut, which would have happened
anyways, Caltagirone continued,Its been an awesome community
builder, and everyone that went
through it relied heavily on the
moral support of her floor mates.
These women are truly an in-
spiration at Mines, and a phe-
nomenal example of what can be
done with a little bit of willingness.
Though sacrificing something like
hair is not always easy, the ben-
efits far outweigh the downfalls,
both for the participant and the
persons being aided.
(pictured left to right) Petra Atwood, Hayley Armstrong, Emily Echelberger, Dale Mathisen, Stephanie
Panza, Hannah Wysocki, Colista West, and Carmella Caltagirone all donated their hair to Locks of Love.
KAREN GILSDORF / OREDIGGER
The CSM Baseball team finally
got to play a series on their own
grass the weekend of March 8.Mines went against the Color