TechNews STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SINCE 1928 McCormick Tribune Campus Center Room 221 3201 South State Street Chicago, Illinois 60616 E-mail: editor@technewsiit.com Website: http://www.technewsiit.com TECHNEWS STAFF Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor Karl Rybaltowski Hannah Larson Campus Editor Utsav Gandhi ABE Editor Ryan Kam- phuis Sports Editor Graeme Port Art Editor Adin Goings Financial Advisor Vickie Tolbert Faculty Advisor Gregory Pulliam GENERAL INFORMATION TechNews is written, managed, and edited by the students of, and funded in part by, Illinois InstituteofTechnology.The materialherein does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Illinois Institute of Technology orthe editors, staff, and advisorofTechNews.Therewillbe no censorship of TechNews publication by the faculty or staff of IIT. Sole authority and responsibility for publication and adherence to the values set forth inthis policy restswiththeTechNews staff. This paper seeks to bring together the various segments of the Illinois Tech community and strives through balance and content to achieve a position of respect and excellence. TechNews strives for professionalism with due respect to the intellectual values of the university and its community. All material submitted becomes the property of TechNews, and is subject to any editorial decisions deemed necessary. SUBMISSIONS TechNews is published 0 n the Tuesday of each week of the academic year. Deadline for all submissions and announcements is 11:59PM on the Friday prior to publication.Articles , photos, and illustrations must be submitted electronicallytotheTechNewswebsiste at technewsiit.com. EDITORIAL POLICY The editors reserve the right to determine if submitted material meets TechNews' policy and standards. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor may be submitted by anyone, but are subject to review by the editor-in-chief. All letters-to-the-editor become the property of TechNews upon submission. TechNews does not accept or publish anonymous letters. ADVERTISING Legitimate paid advertisements, from within or outside the IIT community, which serve to produceincomeforthe paper,areaccommodated. TechNews holds the right to deny any advertisement unsuitable for publication. Media Kits are available upon request. Ad space is limited and is taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. Contact the Business Officer at business@ technewsiit.com for more information. LOCAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. NATIONAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact Mediamate at orders@mediamate.com CLASSIFIEDS To place a classified ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. opinion@technewsiit.com ”‘4 Ai Sex Tech THE SEX AND RELATIONSHIP ADVICE COLUMN Sweet Pseudonym SEXTECH EDITOR o . My girlfriend and I have been together : for a few years. Now that I’m at IIT, though, - we’re living apart. My friends are all telling me : to end it now because long-distance relation- : ships never work. I know where they’re com- : ing from, but I just don’t know; I think we can ' make it. What do I do? Longedistance relationships are brutal. When I first left for college, I was in a similar situation. I was about to move 1000 miles away from mypartner, and wasn’t sure what to do. My partner and I had a discus, sion about it, and agreed that we would try to make it work. We continued to date for a semester before ending the relationship, but still remain close friends. If I could go back, I wouldn’t change my decision, but that isn’t to say Id be in a hurry to try another longedistance relationship. I would recommend that you talk to your girlfriend about it and see how she’s feeling. Chances are she’s considered the challenges of dating longedistance too, and because it sounds as though you’ve been dating for some time, it might be inconsidere ate to take others’ advice without listening to hers as well. More than anything I think you should take an inventory of your feelings toward her and how well the two of your handle conflict. Have you been able to eas ily overcome obstacles together in the past? How well do you communicate with each TechNews Tuesday, August 30, 201 1 other, even when you’re upset? It can be easy to misunderstand each other over text, on the phone, or on the internet when you can’t al ways observe bodylanguage or show physical affection. On that note, if the two of you have sex, you need to consider how long you can go without it. The way you interact physie cally is a big part of a relationship, so I would suggest trying cyberesex or phone sex. If that isn’t enough, would you consider an open re, lationship with specific boundaries? Would either ofyou be jealous? Don’t just end a good thing be cause your friends want you to. Bring it up with your partner, and allow yourself a test phase. If it doesn’t work, don’t frustrate your, selves and ruin your schoolwork and social life. Take a good look at the way you inter, act, and what you need from a relationship. If you can get that over the phone or via Skype, greatl Just don’t underestimate the hurdles of a longedistance relationship and make this choice knowing it’s what is best for you. .u..-o-..-o-.. Submit your question through http:/ltinyu rl.comlsextech2 Confessions of a cynic: ‘Clinging to hope' By Chris Roberts TECHN EWS WRITER Humans are utterly insane, aren’t they? DO you ever sit back and take stock of all the ridiculous things people believe? Oh sure, you can try to dissuade them with facts and sta tistics to try to open their eyes to how things really are, but they stubbornly adhere to irrational beliefs. Sadly, I have found that I am not immune from such think, ing. Despite what I have learned about science, history, and psye chology, I cannot resist cling, ing to a belief which, for many people, all but flies in the face of common sense:I have hope in the American political system. The strange thing is that I am neither an idealist nor particularly optimistic. I have developed a healthy amount of cynicism and have no illusions about politicians being free of corruption or of their corporate patrons having the same interests as the gen eral public. However, I value my rights and ac cess to information highly enough that I make an effort to stay updated, keep track of bills and politicians’ positions on issues, participate in elections, and generally pay close attention to the news. I know what you may be thinking: How could he be so deluded? After years of hearing about (nonexistent) death panels, tere ror babies (again, nonexistent), rape victims being accused of milkng the healthcare sys tem (via birth control and counseling cover, age), attempts to erase Thomas Jefferson from history textbooks for religious reasons, and accusations that the president is secretly an Is, lamofascist illegal alien of socialist doom, not to mention the undeclared wars that the nation has been waging, how could he stomach pay, ing attention to politics, much less seriously think that it will lead to something good? THE TREE OF LIFE Well, I could make dramatic claims of fulfilling civic obligations or give fulsome praise to the Founding Fathers (a rather popue lar pastime these days). However, I have more practical reasons for keeping hope. For one, the nation has been through much worse than it is currently dealing With. Think the job market is bad now? Look up the Great Depression; unemployment was be tween 2537%. Can’t stand how long America has been at war in Afghanistan? The Vietnam War lasted for two decades and soldiers were drafted. Secondly, I am growing to, grudge ingly, accept that political news coverage has become melodramatic political theater and that most of the actors involved feel compelled to overact. As such, I am learning not to give much credence to uninformed, hyperbolic commentary Third, while it is frustrating to have the political spectrum of the nation swing so far to the right that I find myself lineevoting Democrat, def spite not having strayed from the middle myself, I do not feel as alien, ated by the current political climate as many others do. Iwas not among the Dem, ocrats who expected Barack Obama to be some sort of leftist messiah and were disappointed to find that his presidency can be thought of, in many ways, as being George W. Bush’s third term of oflice (bailouts, military spending, government see crecy, the list goes on). I am also not a member of the endangered species known as liberal Republicans. Polarization and internal purging has left consere vatives who are proechoice and pro, gay marriage on the fringe of the Republican Party. lrreligious Republicans face even worse alienation. The few atheist consere vatives that I know have found themselves left without any meaningful representation in ei ther party. Overall, the situation could be much worse. It is often said that a cynic is just a disappointed optimist. I prefer to look to the combined wis dom of Voltaire and Winnieethee Pooh: “...things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end..." “But, I don’t suppose I’m right." Photo courtesy of conservationbyfes. 50m Chicago's summertime stunning, short-lived By Sukrit Mishra TEC H N EWS W RITE R I had heard a lot about the fun times that Chicago promises in the summer, so when my first summer here happened, I knew it was time to make the most of it. Six months of the very chilly winter season does make life mun, dane and despite the exciting winter events that one can enjoy, the heart longs to welcome the summer sun. MideMay was when summer officially began and the plans started getting made. As an international student plan ning to make the most of the three months, a perfect balance between work and play had to be struck. S0 school and classes made their way into the summer schedule. For the tough school that IIT is known to be, the fast paced summer classes can be a challenge. However a little bit of sincere work can be enough to get one through. S0 with the summer classes going, the warm weather outside was too wele coming to ignore. Taste of Chicago, where not only the city but people from other far off places come to enjoy the myriad food options that they can avail, free admission days to the Museum of Science and Industry, the Art Institute of Chi, cago, film festivals, shoreline firework cruises, Chicago blues festival, the MP3 Experiment Chicago, camping opportunities in the neigh boring states, the recent Air and Water show were a few exhilarating events that this sum, mer brought along. 4th of July brought amaze ing fireworks display at Navy Pier that was a real treat to the eye. Even the campus seemed abuzz with conferences like Teach America that brought hundreds of people from differ, ent parts of the world together, students doing research work, projects, IPROs and orienta tion events, new faces and excitement around livened up our spirits. In the midst of these invigorating events that were not just fun and exciting but educational and informative, there was the lake where hiking or simply sitting by the water for hours, reflecting and catching up with friends never seemed to grow old. On the one hand when there are ample things to do in Chicago and explore the city that you may still be new in, the absence of summer upass for students even enrolled in summer classes can become a constraint that restricts the fun activities. However there is a lot more to be happy about than complain in this season So there is absolutely no doubting that summer in Chicago is truly a fun time that everyone should experience.