Equestrian
Continued from Page 1
The team is supported by Club
Sports and funded partially
through the University. Much of
its funding comes from fund rais
ing and donations, Robinson said.
Receiving the donations and the
funding helps the team compete
and travel, but in such an individ
ual sport, caring for a horse, pay
ing for lessons and buying the
needed gear adds up for each rid
er. Franklin said.
In the English style of riding, a
helmet, an undershirt, britches
and tall boots may all add up to
thousands of dollars, Franklin
said. In the Western style, the usu
al cowboy attire is needed to com
plete the show.
“It’s nice to be on a team be
cause if you don't have the stuff
you need, there’s usually someone
else on the team you can borrow it
from,” Franklin said.
To keep the team's expenses
down and because the University
doesn’t own its own horses or
bam, the team has established af
filiations with a few barns that
teach English and Western riding
in the Eugene-Springfield area.
The team’s “home” barn is at Day
Star Farms in Pleasant Hill, where
their trainer gives lessons on how
to ride in the different styles.
“Many of the members come
out and practice there, but there
are a few that have their own train
ers at other barns,” Robinson said.
The love for riding is seen in the
arena and in the way riders relate
to the horses, said Lori Forge, a
Day Star Farms trainer.
“The ones that rise to a really
top level are the ones that have a
real love for horses,” she said.
The same love keeps students
involved in the team itself, Robin
son said.
“There are people who join be
cause they just want to ride, so I af
filiate them with a barn,” she said.
"There are others that join because
they’re just in to win, but they
don't last long. True horse lovers
just keep on riding. They know
they want to keep riding. They got
to ride — it’s such an integral part
of their lives.”
Equestrian team co-coordinator Megan Robinson and a horse jump an obstacle during a competition last spring.
Courtesy ffboto
Student teams test their brains in College Bowl competition
The four teams that place
the highest will go on to
the finals on Thursday
By James Scripps
Oregon Daily Emerald
Do you know how many steps
lead up to the Lincoln memorial?
Maybe you know what that red
dot on Jupiter is called.
To most of us these questions
only matter when you are watch
ing Jeopardy or playing Trivial
Pursuit, but for 24 student teams
competing in the College Bowl,
these are the types of questions
that mean the difference between
advancing to the next round or
going home early.
The College Bowl, a collegiate
tournament that hails from as far
back as the 1950s, pits four-mem
ber teams against each other in a
game-show format. Teams listen
to trivia questions read by moder
ators and have to buzz in and give
the correct response to win
points.
The number of participants in
this year’s competition is better
than in years past, College Bowl
coordinator Laura Wallace said,
“This is the fourth year that I have
been involved with the competi
tion, and this first time that I have
seen all 24 team slots fdled. This
year we hope to have 10 teams in
the regional competition.”
Out of 24 teams, four advanced
to the College Bowl campus fi
nals, which will be held Thurs
day in the EMU Ballroom. The
winning team will represent the
University in the regional tourna
ment, hosted by the University on
Feb. 19-20 of next year.
Depending on how the team
performs in February, they may
have the opportunity to advance
to the finals, which will be held at
the University of Florida in April.
The last time a University team
advanced that far was in 1993.
After her team’s first-round vic
tory, ASUO senator Selena Brew
ington, a member of “The Grrrls,”
was brimming with excitement.
“If I win a trophy, I’m giving it to
my mom,” she said.
The tournament’s format favors
competitors who are able to think
quickly.
A moderator reads a question to
both teams. The team member
who buzzes in first answers that
question and, if the question is
answered correctly, the team is
given a bonus question. If a team
member answers the first ques
tion incorrectly, the bonus ques
tion goes to the other team. Each
correctly answered question adds
to the team’s point total.
Business student Willie Bronsh
vag, a member of team Pi Kapp (Pi
Kappa Phi), reeled from a first
round loss. “We got beaten pretty
bad, something like 170 to 5," he
said. "It seems like something more
for the history , English and science
majors. But I like the free T-shirt.
It’ll push laundry back a day.”
The College Bowl is held each
year and is sponsored locally by
the EMU, the Athletic Depart
ment and Coke.
“It has always been really big
on the East Coast, but this year
has been bigger than usual for us,”
Wallace said. “We are pretty ex
cited that students are getting in
volved.”
_-J
l/ium Goss /Emerald
Competition was stiff at the first round of this year’s College Bowl.
OSU anti-gravity research could help Mars astronauts in the future
The Associated Press
CORVALLIS — Gravity’s still the law
around these parts, but standing in chest
waders with the nozzle of an industrial vac
uum cleaner stuffed down his back, Tyson
Harty felt light on his feet.
The Oregon State University graduate
student was demonstrating the latest in
anti-gravity wear: Mars pants.
The space slacks, developed by OSU re
searchers, will help astronauts learn to
walk in the low gravity they’ll face on Mars.
Researchers created the trousers at the
NASA Ames Research Center in California,
where scientists have been studying how to
send humans to Mars in 2011.
One of the challenges is helping astro
nauts walk while feeling 38 percent of the
Earth’s gravity. The space explorers will
feel lighter, and scientists suspect they’ll
have difficulty balancing themselves, walk
ing and even grasping objects.
“Their issues are, ‘What do I do when I
step out of the spaceship and I’m on this
different world?’” said Gene Korienek, di
rector of the Biological Control Lab in
OSU’s College of Health and Human Perfor
mance and who is overseeing the project.
The invention could also help accident
or stroke victims who need therapy but
can’t support their weight.
OSU scientists will use the waders to
find out how Martian gravity affects the as
tronauts’ balance.
Moon astronauts encountered gravity
that is about 16 percent of Earth’s, but they
left after only a few hours.
Mars astronauts will have to endure low
gravity for a much longer time because the
planet is about 47 million miles from Earth
at its closest point.
The astronauts will land on Mars at its
closest point in orbit and will have to wait
500 days until the two planets are that close
again to leave.
The pants simulate Martian gravity with
air pressure. Air from a vacuum is forced
into the pants, which are sealed at the
waist. The air puts pressure on the lower
part of the body and pushes the center of
gravity up.
“We’re creating a high-pressure envelope
from the waist down,” Korienek said.
The Mars pants are still in the prototype
stage.
The pants reduce the ground reaction
force, or the pressure of the person on the
ground, by about 20 pounds by supporting
part of the body weight on a high-pressure
cushion of air.
Korienek said that while the pants don't
bring on an actual weight loss, a person
would register 20 pounds less if he or she
stood on a scale.
Scientists hope to develop a mobile mod
el within the next two months, perhaps
with a backpack air compressor.
Besides the pants, OSU scientists also
have been experimenting with robotic
arms.
By simulating human limbs, researchers
are hoping to develop arms for amputees.
By using a series of computer chips, design
ers hope the arms can make precise move
ments such as picking up a cup of coffee or
switching a remote control. The same tech
nology could be used on the space shuttle
to create a new arm that would make pre
cise movements to help construct the inter
national space station.
Yugoslav government takes over radio stations, confiscates newspapers
The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — In
an ongoing purge of Serbia’s inde
pendent media, the government
Tuesday took control of a popular
radio station, and police im
pounded all 100,000 copies of a
leading daily newspaper.
Radio Index, a student-run Bel
grade station, was first shut down
last month for allegedly broad
casting without a license. On
Tuesday, the Belgrade university
board, complying with govern
ment demands, announced it was
replacing the station’s team of edi
tors, B-92 radio reported.
The station’s editor in chief,
Nenad Cekic, who already faces
criminal charges, protested the
board’s decision, and Radio Index
later issued a statement rejecting
it. Cekic said the state-run body
had given up any editorial control
over the radio a long time ago.
Earlier, police raided the head
quarters of the Dnevni Telegraf
(Daily Telegraph) and confiscated
its Tuesday edition. The action
came after the daily failed to pay
a fine of $120,000 to the state for
allegedly breaching a restrictive
media law.
Despite the crackdown, the
owner of Dnevni Telegraf vowed
to keep publishing.
The moves against the two me
dia outlets, both known for their
criticism of President Slobodan
Milosevic’s autocratic regime, are
the latest in a series of crack
downs against Serbia’s fledgling
independent media following the
adoption of the restrictive infor
mation law last month.