There are more than 23,000 bear in the State of Maine and 3,000 to 4,000 killed every fall season, the population of bears is still steadily rising. According to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, 80 percent of the bear harvests in 2001 occurred over bait. People that are not familiar with bear hunting may not understand how incredibly hard it is to hunt bear with simply a rifle. Bears can smell people, can detect human movement, and live in areas up to 100 square miles wide. These three factors make the use of bait very important. If the proposed law passed, there would be substantially fewer bears killed per year; therefore, the population of bears would grow considerably.

The overpopulation of bears will serve as a nuisance to humans. Black bears will take advantage of almost any readily available food source. Once bears learn about human food sources, it is not easy to recondition them to the wild and this can lead to conflicts between bears and people. An example of this type of conflict is that in 1996, the Massachusetts legislature passed a ban on the use of body-gripping traps. In the seven years since, the beaver population in the state has tripled to 70,000. With flooding and property damage out of control, Massachusetts was forced to spend millions of dollars on professional beaver trappers. Maine stands to make the same mistake with black bears.

According to Maine IFW, overall participation in hunting in Maine is declining. Nearly 50 percent of last year’s bear permits were issued to nonresidents of our state. Bear permit revenue was $1.4 million in 2002. If the proposed referendum passes, Maine IFW’s budget and Maine’s economy will both be drastically affected because fewer people will hunt bears. On top of that, Maine’s economy will be furthermore affected because out-of-staters will no longer bring business to Maine every bear season. If the proposed referendum passes, tourists will soon realize that Maine is no longer “the way life should be,” and it would also no longer be “vacationland.”

The MFOA is dedicated to ending animal cruelty and promoting the humane treatment of animals in Maine. However, virtually all scientific tests confirm that regularly tended and properly sized foothold traps do not cause significant, permanent, or life-threatening injuries. Foothold traps are recognized, accepted and endorsed by the conservation community. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, The Wildlife Society and a whole host of conservation organizations support the use and need for foothold traps.

You should oppose the Bear referendum because hunters can not keep the bear population at a manageable level without bait, dogs and traps. If we cannot effectively hunt bear, we will have fewer hunters and the state will lose permit revenue. Even Gov. John Baldacci supports George Smith, the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine. Smith described the MFOA’s position best when he said, “Let’s understand what they are after. They are after every one of us and everything we enjoy about hunting, fishing and trapping in Maine. It’s all on the line, folks. This is our defining moment.”

Ryan Peters is a sophomore construction management technology major.

Third-year student Jason Arsenault was quoted in a Maine Campus article Nov. 24 as saying that the roadblocks were “an excuse to interrogate law-abiding citizens.” He said he felt his rights were violated by the checkpoints. He said, “While I want to stop drunk driving I am not willing to be subjected to such sneaky tactics in order to do so.” How, then, does Arsenault and others who whined with him after the checkpoints suggest Public Safety officers handle the problem of drunk driving on a large college campus such as this one? If there are better ways than checkpoints, please lead the way Arsenault.

There obviously is a problem even here at UMaine with drunk driving. Public Safety Lt. Jeff King said in the same article, “We have seen double the OUIs and it’s only three-quarters of the way through the semester.”

Forty-one percent of the people who died in all traffic accidents last year were victims of alcohol-related crashes. The number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities rose to 17,419 in 2002 – which is nearly the equivalent of losing two jetliners of people every week for a year, according to the chairperson for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Now, those of you who complained about having been stopped for no more than a minute, pretend for a moment that one of those fatalities was your sister, brother, best friend, parent or significant other. Now was the time it took to make sure you were not endangering others worth it?

Public Safety had reason to conduct its checkpoints. In what way is that a “sneaky tactic?” People who are guilty of drunk driving feel it is sneaky and unjust if they perhaps have been at fault in the past or that particular night. It is only rude, annoying, frustrating, irritating, wrong or stupid in the eyes of those whose friends were the ones charged with OUI and punished for those offenses. It is only a hassle to those who don’t think twice about abusing alcohol and getting behind the wheel.

For me, however, it was a blessing to see those officers. Student-saviors with their flashlights and smiling faces who took no more than 30 seconds of my Friday night to ask me where I was coming from as if to say, “Hey did you have a good night tonight?” Then they brushed me on my way after having found nothing to be of concern.

I felt safer that night on this campus than I’ve felt in a long time. I commended the officers for spending several cold and dark hours outside to make sure that nobody was killed or put in harm’s way because other people were stupid and incompetent at realizing the dangers of mixing alcohol and vehicles.

To complain about such a simple, yet generous, act of helping is beyond irritating to me and probably many other students out there. We should be thankful we have people who care about us instead of whining that we couldn’t get to the next party one minute faster that Friday night. Honestly, what age are we? I thought we were all adults here. Apparently I was wrong.

Angela Fiandaca is a senior journalism major.

*”Send this instant message to 20 people so American Online will know you’re still active. Otherwise they’ll shut down your screen name, and beginning on this date, you will have to start paying for AIM.”

*”Seriously! Bill Gates is sharing his fortune! Send this e-mail to 15 people and you’ll get $159.65! in the mail next week! My friend’s an attorney, no joke! She wouldn’t lie!”

*”Warning: delete all files called “C:/”. They could be a dangerous virus that slowly takes hold of your computer and will make it shut down forever.”

Are you kidding me? In the last week I’ve received more than one of these e-mails/IMs, and every time I do I feel like reaching for the nearest sharp object and jabbing it through my face. Are people seriously this gullible? Or do you just like annoying your friends with stupid things they’ll just delete anyway? They’re not dumb enough to send it to their friends and start a war of stupid junk mail, so why would you do it?

Listen up people. AOL has made so much money from being an Internet Service Provider that they’ll never have to charge for AIM, and they could care less who’s using an active screen name. It’s nearly impossible for them to check the number of people you instant message to see whether you use your screen names or not. I can still log on to my first screen name ever from 1998 – think about it.

Bill Gates, that greedy man, is not, nor will he ever, share his fortune, especially with the likes of us just because we send him an e-mail. While I commend his fortitude in wealth, he has yet to share it with anyone you know.

And finally, are you really dumb enough to follow the advice of some random forward-and-delete-something that could be vital to your system because an e-mail says so? That last quote was a parody, but there have been e-mails I’ve gotten telling me to delete my video card and my master volume because “they might be dangerous viruses.” I realize some of you don’t know much about computers, and that’s perfectly fine. But for god sakes, before you delete anything off your computer because some moron sent you a forward, ask someone who knows something about computers.

Forwards are stupid, and 99 percent of the time they’re as fake as Michael Jackson’s skin color. You won’t be charged for free services because of lack of use, you won’t get any money from an e-mail, and you certainly won’t have luck in love or any other aspect of your life because you forward an e-mail and annoy the hell out of 25 people in your address book.

I’m asking everyone to take a stand. I propose you lift your right pinkie from the keyboard and hit the delete key if you get an e-mail like this, or hit the escape key if someone sends you an IM about one of these topics. And don’t forget that the cute boy or girl you’ve been talking to for a few weeks, the one that sent you a picture of him/her in a tiny bathing suit, is probably some 47-year-old balding man sitting at his computer in his underwear, laughing his ass off at you.

Aerin Raymond is a sophomore new media major who gets flustered with people who know nothing about computers.

The recent University of Maine decision to discontinue recognition of the Phi Eta Kappa fraternity has dealt the Greek system on campus another hit.

While Phi Eta Kappa is certainly guilty of violating University regulations – providing a place for minors to drink, chief among them – the community reaction will likely favor the fraternity. In many minds, another vacant house along College Avenue calls into question the University’s policies regarding fraternities. But while conspiracy theories and anger will likely follow the Dec. 20 lockout of another group of “frat boys,” it is important for the University community to remember personal responsibility.

While we can’t condone Phi Eta Kappa’s actions, we certainly empathize with the University of Maine students who fear the death of their beloved Greek system. UMaine may be doing the right thing by cracking down on so-called “rogue” fraternities, but they should be cognizant of what their actions may do to student morale and student life on this campus.

Hopes for 2004 voting process

Students at the University of Maine found a new icon on their FirstClass desktops on Monday, Nov. 4, but due to bad timing and poor publicity, only 21 percent of them decided to click on it and vote for the new student body president and vice president.

A recent challenge to overturn the election results by write-in vice-presidential candidate Dan O’Brien has called into question the voting procedures. The elections were held the day after Thanksgiving break and lasted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Many students were traveling back to campus that day, and may not have had access to FirstClass.

We ask that next year, GSS hold the election in the middle of a week and allow the voting to continue for a full 24 hours. We would also like to see better publicity of candidate debates, which were held this year two days before break and could not be covered by this paper.

But considering the production featured all local dancers, including students from River City Dance Center in Bangor and Ellsworth, Thomas School of Dance in Bangor, and the University of Maine, and further considering the MCA stage is not large enough to perfectly execute a production as grand as “The Nutcracker,” the Robinson Ballet did a fair job.

And although most of the dancers were not perfect in terms of technique, it didn’t really matter: the audience loved the show.

Maybe it was the children: the ballet featured 30 youngsters from the Bangor Area Children’s Choir who sang during “A Winter Scene in a Pine Forest,” which included beautiful dances by the Snow Queen (Stevie Dunham of Bangor) and Snow Prince (Caleb McGary of Brewer). Many audience members pointed in delight at the names they recognized on the program.

“It’s sort of a sense of family and community,” Brewer native Rebecca Breau said in a Bangor Daily News article on Thursday, Nov. 27. Breau, who danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy, is currently studying dance at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Breau and Ian Robinson (also of Brewer, and also studying dance at the Tisch School), who danced the role of the Cavalier, were the most professional-looking dancers in the production. Their Grand Pas De Deux was the highlight of the show.

Other crowd favorites were the performance by Clara (Jessica Speed) and the “Coffee from Arabia” dance, performed by Katrina Smedal and Daniel Martin. Smedal, 19, is a junior at the University of Maine majoring in kinesiology. Her portrayal of the Arabian princess was mysterious and sensual.

Most of the production’s strengths were in the second act – which is surprising for a show that is often renowned for its delightful first act. Although the “Winter Scene in a Pine Forest” was magical as always, the second scene, “Home of the Silberhaus Family,” featured simple choreography that might have worked if the stage had not been so crowded. As it happened, most of the dancers were lost on the stage.

The ballet left out scenes that one normally sees in “Nutcracker” productions. For some reason, the Nutcracker doll in Clara’s dream never materialized to look like a human man. Instead, he kept his oversized wooden head, clumsily dancing with only minimal stage time. Whether this was to keep the show shorter or to simply minimize the role of the Nutcracker himself is a mystery.

The music for the production was provided by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. Led by conductor Xiao-Lu Li, world-renowned symphonic conductor and concert violinist from China, the musicians were flawless.

Keith Robinson and Maureen Lynch, co-Artistic Directors for the Robinson Ballet, were ambitious in their decision to produce “The Nutcracker.” Thanks to a few strong performances, they pulled it off. There are few ballets that could get away with this, and “The Nutcracker” is one of them. When the audience came to the MCA Saturday night, they weren’t looking for perfect dancing. They wanted to see holiday magic, filled with dolls that come to life, a battle with the King Rat, dancing sugar plums, princes and queens, and Clara’s Christmas dream that is Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece. Mission accomplished.

Lindenfeld teased the curious crowd by introducing the speaker as her husband’s friend, who took up drums and joined a college band that was “kind of sucky at first.” Lindenfeld said that though the band is well-known, “they’re not part of the mainstream music industry.”

Lindenfeld, referencing a Rolling Stone cover, announced to the class “The drummer in the dress, Jon Fishman from Phish.”

Fishman wasn’t wearing a dress for this appearance. Instead, he looked pretty normal, with New Balance sneakers and a “Vote Regime Change 2004″ T-shirt.

This was his second visit to the University of Maine.

“The first time, I played with Phish at this place called the Oronoka,” he said.

Lindenfeld had invited Fishman to talk to her CMJ 100 class about the music industry.

“I guess it starts with 14-year-old girls and plastic,” Fishman said.

He went on to say that Phish – America’s greatest jam band according to Rolling Stone – has existed for 20 years “outside the industry’s 14-year-old girl plastic-selling machine.”

Without a prepared presentation, Fishman had the audience ask him questions.

When asked if Phish tried to get its music into the mainstream, Fishman said “That was always the battle.” He explained that “If you can get 14-year-old girls to like your music, they’ll bring the boys and you’ll sell your music.”

Fishman cited Madonna as the “Queen of the 14-year old girls,” and said that Phish never got a bite from that demographic.

Fishman balanced speaking to the crowd with paying attention to his toddling daughter, Ella, who preferred exploring the room over sitting with her mother and baby brother, Jack.

“There’s an inherent contradiction in the term ‘music industry,’” Fishman said. “On one hand, there’s the word ‘music,’ which means to me art for art’s sake. Music, in its purest form, reaches for the highest part of the human spirit. Then, there’s the word ‘industry,’ which implies mass-production and money, limits and hooks and sales.”

Someone in the crowd then asked what the industry most pressured Phish to change.

“Time,” Fishman said with a laugh. “We have the hardest time getting anything down to five minutes.”

When asked if he wanted Phish to become such a big name, Fishman said, “I think everyone wants to make their mark in this world, to be good at what they do, and to get recognition from their peers. I always wanted to be a drummer’s drummer – someone who other drummer’s looked at.”

Near the end of the hour, an audience member asked Fishman for his opinion on the record industry cracking down on file-sharing.

“For Phish,” Fishman said , “I think it’s the greatest thing in the world. Napster made us look huge. File-share all you want.”

Fishman then described Phish’s file-sharing service, which allows fans to download music from past shows for $10.

“Our philosophy [for live shows] is that you paid for it already. You own it. It’s out in the world,” he said.

The service’s proceeds go to the Mockingbird Foundation, which provides musical instruments for underprivileged children.

“But we can afford to [give away the money raised from file-sharing],” he said.

Fishman’s presentation gave Lindenfeld’s students insight into some topics they have discussed in class. At one point, Fishman apologized for his scattered train of thought. He just had a lot to say – and a few distractions from Ella.

“Forgive me. I’m not a lecturer. And usually I have a big drum set to hide behind.”

Both teams found that out to be definitely true as they combined for only five goals this weekend. Fortunately for the Black Bears, they scored three of the five as they took three points from the Huskies with a 1-1 tie and 2-1 win.

In Sunday’s game, neither team scored in the first period. The Black Bears outshot the Huskies 8-4 in the period but couldn’t capitalize on anything.

“We had a bad first period,” coach Rick Filighera said. “I didn’t feel we played with any energy and I went into the locker room and pleaded with them that I really wanted to see better energy. You need to play a lot harder than that if you want to win. This is for first place.”

The Black Bears came out in the second period and took control of the game by getting on the board first at 9:19 of the second period when senior forward Karen Droog scored off a rebound from senior forward Meagan Aarts’ slapshot from the left circle. Sophomore defenseman Vicky Johnstone also assisted on the goal.

At 1:09 of the third period, freshman forward Sonja Corriveau put the Black Bears up 2-0 when she found the right side of the net for the goal. Junior forward Andrea Steranko and freshman forward Brigit LaFlamme assisted on what would be the game-winning goal for the Black Bears.

Northeastern got their only goal of the game on a 2-1 advantage at 10:32 of the period when sophomore forward Cyndy Kenyon scored in front of the net past Smart. Freshman forward Stephanie Wood assisted on the goal for the Huskies.

That would be all the scoring in the game as the Black Bears held off everything thrown at them and earned themselves first place in Hockey East with a total of nine points to New Hampshire’s seven in conference play.

Smart made 19 saves for the Black Bears while Gunn stopped 23 for the Huskies.

“I liked the way the kids played this weekend,” Filighera said. “I really thought Brigit LaFlamme had a great weekend. She had two assists and she was involved with a lot of the offense for us. I thought Lara Smart played really well and Sonja [Corriveau] played really well. There were a lot of positives from kids that are contributing this weekend that we needed to contribute. It put us into position of 4-1-1 in Hockey East that we’re very excited at where we are.”

In Saturday’s game, both teams skated to a scoreless first period, but with two minutes remaining in the second period, Corriveau scored a breakaway goal on Gunn. Steranko stole the puck from a Huskie defenseman that led to the goal for Corriveau.

Northeastern tied the game when Stephanie Wood tipped Theresa Wood’s shot from the blueline at 7:02 of the third period.

That would be all the scoring in the game, as neither team was able to finish on the scoring chances they had.

“That wasn’t our best effort,” Filighera said. “It was OK effort and at times we controlled the play. That third period they got the goal I thought we were back on our heels a little bit, but part of adversity is weathering through it and that point will allow us to be in first place [in Hockey East] at the break.”

Smart made 27 saves for the Black Bears while Gunn stopped 25 shots for the Huskies. Both goaltenders earned the first two stars of the game for their outstanding play in the game.

The Black Bears will now end the 2003 portion of their schedule when they go on the road to play Union in Schenectady, N.Y., next weekend. The next home series for the Black Bears will be Jan. 23-24, when UMaine hosts the Connecticut Huskies.

“We have two more games left and they are important games for us because we want to get to the .500 mark,” Filighera said. “We got to take control of those games. We are going to have to figure out ways to keep creating offense, but we got to figure out some ways to take care of business. We got a lot of work to do still.”

The Sox want to trade Manny Ramirez to Texas to acquire reigning AL MVP Alex Rodriguez, then trade Nomar to the Angels or Dodgers so A-Rod can play shortstop here. There’s no arguing that Rodriguez is one of the best players in baseball, and may even be better than Garciaparra, and that moving Ramirez wouldn’t be such a bad idea. But the idealist in me says that this deal is bad news.

If you’re a college-age fan, odds are you’ve spent the last six years ignoring statistics and blindly arguing that Nomar was better than Jeter and A-Rod. Nomar was the first superstar you knew, and he’s your boy. He always says the right things about playing hard everyday, and he works his tail off in the off-season. He does a lot for the kids in Boston. Heck, Ted Williams was his mentor. Does he really belong anywhere other than Fenway Park?

Boston fans have also spent years bashing George Steinbrenner and his Yankees for buying championships, but now we’re about to do the exact same thing. This town loved the Super Bowl Patriots because they were an army of blue collar men, and we love this year’s Patriots because there’s no high-priced talent – just solid, unselfish football. Where’s that mentality with the Sox?

What if Rodriguez gets hurt, and winds up the next Ken Griffey Jr.? Not only that, but is Rodriguez really that good? The Sox have to give up two all-stars to get him; is any player on the planet as good as Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez combined? Do we really need all this high-priced talent to win? Look at last year – was there any fanfare around the signings of Kevin Millar, David Ortiz and Bill Meuller? That worked out just fine, didn’t it?

The Sox aren’t being fair to Garciaparra, either. Imagine how he’ll feel if this deal doesn’t go through, coming into spring training knowing he was the team’s second choice, that the team he helped build wanted to throw him out with yesterday’s trash. He’ll play hard everyday because that’s the type of player he is, but it might make him think twice next year when his contract is up.

We all know the number one goal is to win, but shouldn’t there be a little loyalty left in sports? It’s time for the fans to step up and reject this trend of shuffling players from team to team every year. You used to be able to count on stars being with their team for the long haul, you could get to know The Red Sox broke my heart in October, but I would rather have my heart broken every year by a team whose players I know and love than win one with a bunch of imports we bought.

In the last four months we’ve seen two team captains and city icons go, and Garciaparra is likely next. There’s a serious problem in sports when a guy who has done as much for a team as Nomar has for the Red Sox is left wondering if we still want him around. There’s a serious problem when a fan is afraid to shell out sixty bucks for a jersey because he’s afraid that name on the back won’t be around next month.

But in today’s big market, big money world the only thing left to say is watch out Joe Thornton, best player in hockey and team captain, because you’ll probably be the next one on a bus away from Bean Town. Good grief.

No report is available as of press time to confirm whether or not residents’ accounts concerning a possible suspect are accurate. Some residents have come forward with accusations while others are merely disgusted by the lewd act.

“We were really angry, it’s gross,” said Meredith Mcewen, Hancock Hall resident. “It was offensive and very annoying because we have to pay for it,” she said.

Hancock Hall President Susan Barnes said that the damages would definitely be paid for, but not by hall residents. Barnes declined to comment on where the money for repairs would come from.

Resident Ben Pottle described the damages as “mostly scribbles” appearing on the first and second floor hallways and in a basement stairwell. The writing was done with a marker stolen off a resident advisor’s marker board.

“Its probably just some drunk people being stupid,” said Jared Bernard, Hancock Hall resident. “It’s inappropriate and it’s too bad that stuff like that has to happen in a dorm.”

Among the topics they will discuss is evidence from Antarctica, Greenland and elsewhere for the global distribution, timing and forcing of Holocene age (the past 11,500 years) abrupt climate change events. Growing scientific evidence supports the idea that significant climate shifts within a decade or less have affected civilizations around the globe and could occur again.

Among UMaine speakers participating in the 2003 AGU fall meeting are the following:

2,500-YEAR CLIMATE BEAT

Kirk Maasch et al. will summarize results from a global synthesis of 50 well dated, well resolved Holocene length paleoclimate records that demonstrate the near-synchronous timing of quasi-2,500 year spaced abrupt climate change events. While significantly subdued relative to their glacial age counterparts, these events are still of significant magnitude and rapid onset and decay to be of significance to humans and ecosystems.

LITTLE ICE AGE

Eric Meyerson et al. will present evidence from two of the most accurately dated polar ice cores (GISP2 in central Greenland and Siple Dome in West Antarctica) to demonstrate that both regions have experienced similar timing for major abrupt climate change events during the Holocene. Examination of the most accurately dated portion of both records, the last 1,500 years (dating error +/-2 years), demonstrates that the most recent abrupt climate change event (nominally the Little Ice Age) was the most dramatic of the last 7,000 years. Utilizing a unique mixture of geographic location and boundary conditions available through the Siple Dome record, researchers have shown that this most recent abrupt climate change event propagated from the Antarctic toward the middle latitudes. The work suggests that the polar regions may be the initial receptor for abrupt climate change events on the order of the Little Ice Age.

SUNNY CLIMATE

Paul Mayewski et al. will present evidence demonstrating that instrumentally calibrated proxies (indirect records) for major features of high latitude circulation developed from ice cores across Antarctica and Greenland reveal strong associations with proxies for solar variability from ice cores. These ice core proxies also offer insight into the potential changes in atmospheric chemistry that link changes in solar output to climate change.

GLASS FROM AFAR

Andrei Kurbatov, et al. will present an analysis of volcanic material, or tephra, from the Law Dome ice core in Antarctica. Focusing on 15 different ice layers holding volcanic glass shards from the past 700 years, Kurbatov and his colleagues have begun to link volcanic eruptions with past atmospheric circulation patterns. Shard composition does not match material from Antarctica, and potential sources include volcanoes in New Zealand and South America. Greg Zielinski, Maine State Climatologist and research professor in the Climate Change Institute, is principal investigator of a National Science Foundation grant for this project.

Other UMaine speakers will include: Blue Spikes, snow accumulation rate distribution in Antarctica; Leigh Stearns, ice dynamics of Byrd Glacier, Antarctica; Phaedra Upton, tectonics of Taiwan; Dan Sandweiss, geoarcheological evidence of climate change; Shichang Kang, snow chemistry on Mt Everest; Gordon Hamilton, satellite calibration studies, and scientific outreach.

Created in 1919, AGU is a nonprofit scientific organization serving a community of more than 41,000 scientists in 130 countries. Its mission is to promote the scientific study of the Earth and the space environment.