The Wake

Nanaboozhoo took the piece of Earth from Muskrat’s paw. Just then, the turtle swam forward and said, “Use my back to bear the weight of this piece of Earth. With the help of Kitchi-Manitou, we can make a new Earth.” Nanaboozhoo put the piece of Earth on the turtle’s back. Suddenly, the wind blew from each of the Four Directions, The tiny piece of Earth on the turtle’s back began to grow. It grew and grew and grew until it formed a mi-ni-si’, or island in the water. The island grew larger and larger, but still the turtle bore the …

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Student-athletes across campus are being punished for their great academic work. Sound confusing? It is. And it’s giving coaches headaches.The NCAA, which has set the aid standards, split all athletics at the Division-I level into two categories. Sports are either labeled as “headcount” or “equivalency” sports. Headcount sports on campus include football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, gymnastics, tennis, and volleyball. In headcount sports, athletes are either offered a full scholarship or they must try to make the team as a walk-on, receiving no aid. The football team has the ability to give out 85 full scholarships. So, 85 players on …

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The mayhem is inevitable. The upsets are shocking. With a simple flick of the wrist, ordinary human beings transform into legends. And a simple mistake, such as an inopportune timeout or turnover, can leave a player’s legacy, no matter the skill level, tainted forever. The Big Dance, or the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, is the climax of college basketball and is one of the most anticipated events in American sports. Fortunately, for Minnesotans, the Midwest Regional portion of the NCAA tournament will be held at the Metrodome for the first time since 2003, which means you can be a part …

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What’s in a team name anyway? To many fans and alumni at universities around the country, it means tradition and pride. To Native American activists, they see Native American symbols used in sports as offensive and racist. It’s fairly easy to understand the activists’ point of view when watching a Florida State football game on television. During their famous pre-game ritual, fans cheer loudly as the school’s mascot, Chief Osceola, rides his horse and plants a burning spear into the ground. This tradition was given the approval of Seminole tribes, but still disturbs activists across the country. Last year, the …

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In the past few weeks we all have heard of and possibly seen a series of cartoons published by the Danish paper, Jyllands-Posten. The set of 12 cartoons, depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in various scenes was published by the paper on Sept. 30, 2005, after a Danish author complained he could not find an illustrator for his children’s book about the Prophet.The Copenhagen Post wrote: “Jyllands-Posten called for and printed the cartoons by various Danish illustrators, after reports that artists were refusing to illustrate works about Islam, out of fear of fundamentalist retribution. The newspaper said it printed the …

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It has been fifteen years since the United States’ government has seriously discussed illiteracy in America. President George W. Bush’s recent “No Child Left Behind” campaign hinted at the issue, but turned out to be merely a slogan to gain votes instead of a solution to help Americans. It was in fact during George H.W. Bush’s administration in the early 1990s that modern America was introduced to its startling illiteracy problem. In 1991, Congress passed the National Literacy Act to put an end to illiteracy in America. The bill states that “[in 1991] nearly 30,000,000 adults in the United States …

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Film fans and filmmakers—opportunity has officially knocked. I recently attended the third offering of “Fearless Filmmakers” and was not only blown back by the quality of the local films shown but also by the potential connections available to those who attend. Hobnobbing at the after-party were directors, producers, actors and investors of all levels. I’d call this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, except it’ll be happening once a month.“Fearless Filmmakers” is an event put on at the end of each month by Project Spotlight, a local non-profit group “dedicated to enhancing the lifestyle of creative artists within fashion, film, music and arts.” …

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Despite the weather, a full house braved the frigid temperatures on Feb. 17 to see The Pines at the Cedar Cultural Center. The venue, as always, had an intimate feel and the weather outside only made it warmer. The bartenders told jokes about bartenders and the crowed milled around with steaming cups of tea and cider. Conversations about the weather filled the chilly concert hall until the first note was heard from the opening act, The Spaghetti Western String Company.The avant-garde ensemble wowed new and old fans alike with their unique style. The band, which defies an easy definition, played …

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Amidst an intricate network of cables, switches, laptops and blinking lights, VJ Neverwas leans over and picks up a very low-tech, half-empty Culligan water jug. The microphone captures the faintest taps and rattles as Neverwas delicately explores the clear plastic with his fingers, testing its percussive potential. What begins as curiously crisp and hesitant consideration of the container’s surface quality, seamlessly melds into an enchanting swell of deep tribal beats. Every slap and every slosh is then fed into a soundboard where electronic musician James Patrick recombines and loops them into a larger, shadowy sculpture of sound. It’s suddenly clear …

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Kiki Smith’s A Gathering exhibit at The Walker Art Center is a morbid fairytale—part horror, part beauty.Smith works in an impressive number of mediums. From the terra cotta and wax sculptures in the first rooms of the gallery to the installation and drawings at the end, few forms of expression go unrepresented in this show. The subject matter of her work is predominately the human body, represented either as a whole or in fragments. A lithograph of ears, eyes, and other body parts stares from one wall at a sculpture of a woman curled in the fetal position on the …

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If one cannot revolt then what does one have? A perfect state? A perfect life? Equality? Perhaps, in revolutionless societies life is more pure and consequently more perfect because there is less death, and the lack of death causes people to know what life is really about. In such societies life would be seen as the ultimate goal, the ultimate reality and thus would not openly invite death to their door. However, with that written a question lay unanswered; namely, can such a society actually exist? Many have written books, articles and screenplays about these societies, but as of late …

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I did it again today. I stole from the union. It was amazing, that flawless theft that can only be for food. That dance with abnormal morals which effects one from lack of nourishment. Some hollow, bitter, cold outside that’s enough to make a man’s guts hungry for anything to take away the feeling; but not hungry enough to drain the check card on essentially cafeteria food. Not seven-dollars hungry.I should really feel terrible. Committing this unthinkable deed, this sin of universally bad karma. Stealing from the institution that is so graciously handing me a future. But when you really …

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As spring break approaches, many students will head to local tanning parlors for that perfect “base tan” to get the best bronze glow possible while on vacation. Many students continue to tan and take advantage of tanning specials this time of year, even though the dangers of tanning are widely known. “Our business increases about 50 percent [around spring break],” says Grant Vaith, owner of the Planet Beach tanning salon on Como Avenue in Dinkytown. “People start tanning for spring break in February and tan for the months afterward to maintain their tan,” he says. Vaith says that spring break …

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Spring break in today’s culture can mostly be summed up by MTV, where (on its “Essential Spring Break Guide”) the mega-channel geared towards college students touts Cancun, a popular spring break destination, as “rightfully known as a netherworld of debauched frat dudes and raunchy girls where you may drunkenly sign a release and then everyone and your parents can see you on the latest ‘Girls Gone Wild’ commercial.” For some students, though, spring break can be anything but your typical vacation.For students involved with the University of Minnesota chapter of Habitat for Humanity, this third week in March is all …

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It’s happened to the best of us. Just hanging in Coffman, waiting in line for a bagel, we’ve cast a curious sideways glance and spied a television airing images of overcrowded, bloody, dirty and downright unhappy hens. Some of us might have canceled the egg on our bagel and maybe others just grinned and reminisced about that scene in Napoleon Dynamite where he works in a hen barn … haha, oh Napoleon.But these images are no laughing matter to Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA), the student organization that has been showing the documentary “Meet your Meat” in Coffman. The group …

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