Win Tuition With Women’s Bball

By Landon Hommy

The NAIT women’s basketball team is giving away $2000 worth of tuition!

The Ooks Women’s Basketball Prize Book is available soon, the star attraction of which is the bonus packs, which will be drawn randomly at two of the four remaining home games.  The first is a semester’s tuition up to $2000 – paid for.  A Nest package, which includes two Oilers tickets, a Nest dinner-for-two and Ooks/Oilers apparel, is the other big-ticket item.

Nest coupons, campus discounts, more apparel, and gift cards are some of the other great prizes that are available to win.

I want to have the student body a little more involved in our athletics program,” says Head Coach Curtis Nelson.  “From a player’s perspective it’s great to play in front of a full gym, but I also think we’ve got a great product for student’s to get involved with.”

The price?  Cheap.  Nine bucks cheap (with your student ID of course).  For your parents/partner it’s $12.

Along with missing out on the game-night coupons, if you don’t go to the game you won’t be able to claim the big prize should they draw it.

As mentioned, the theme nights will continue.  Last month, the team kicked off their year with “Philipines Community Night,” a great promotional event that raised nearly $2500 for those affected by the typhoon that devastated the Philipines this fall.  The next week the ladies brought in professional boxers to take on fans in a Wii version of fisticuffs, with one lucky patron walking away with a PS2.

Future themes include Breast Cancer and DJ Hero night.

Samantha Lloyd, who helps MC the events, feels “It’s a great way to get more people out to the games.  We can get the entire NAIT population pumped up.”

The team already draws quite well, but Coach Nelson wants to sell it out, making NAIT the Canadian version of Duke’s Cameron Crazies. “Let’s see if we can pack the gym and make it a place that nobody wants to come in and play at,” he says.

The first chance to attend, with prize book in hand, will be January 8 when the Ooks host Concordia College.

For more information visit NAIT Athletics website at www.http://www.nait.ca/athletics/

Do it yourself..Or Don’t

By Craig Ryan

With the current recession slowing the pace of the economy, the Federal government is offering you money back to improve your home.  The home renovation tax credit is your chance to refinish and renew, and that can payoff in the future. Real estate agencies predict significant returns on these investments if you’re ever interested in selling.

• %100 – %110 return on bathroom and kitchen renovations
• %100 returns on paint
• %70 return on flooring and other renovations

NAIT’s Got Talent

by Colleen Nuc

“I surprised myself a lot tonight, and I’ll probably be spending my money on beer and groceries.”

 That’s what Cillian Cross, a first year Pre-Tech student said after winning the grand prize of $500 for being NAIT’s most talented student, well, at least until next year’s talent show. Cross showed off his talent on the drums, taking a unique approach by turning is back to the audience which he says gives the audience a chance to “see what I’m doing with both my hands and my feet. It adds to my performance.”

Fifth At The Break

BY TRAVIS ZIEGLER

The Ooks Men’s hockey team had the opportunity to take fourth spot in the standings going into the Christmas break. They had to get two straight wins over the Augustana Vikings in the final two games of the semester.  It started off great in Camrose last Wednesday where the Ooks controlled the whole game.  The power play was the difference as NAIT went four for six and Augustana did not capitalize on the man advantage. 

Saturday night was a different story as the Vikings strolled into the NAIT arena and crushed the Ooks 7-4.  Stephen Cavanagh and Torrie Dyck of the Vikings potted two goals a piece leading the way for the Vikings.  Topilko matched their efforts but there was not enough secondary scoring to bypass the potent offense of Augustana.

More Shoppers Means More Thieves

by Lindsay Harvey

Christmas is upon us once again which means there’s lots of shopping being done. This season more valuables are being left in vehicles, making them more readily available to thieves.  The Edmonton Police Service officers are reminding shoppers to remove all valuables from their vehicles this holiday season, before the thieves do it for them.

Kurt Rackel, a local resident has been a three-time victim of car break and entering in our city.

 Rackel said, “ The first time was on Whyte Ave. It was a soft top Tracker. They just ripped the top right off and got in there.”

Results are in!

By Clayton Brown

The Alberta Reasearch Council, ARC, was part of a pilot project that turned in great and exciting results. The pilot project, ran in Whitecourt, was a test to see how pulp mills across the province and Canada would be able to salvage pine beetle-infested or beetle-killed wood for newsprint. There are two main problems with the dead trees making them unusable for newsprint:

1. Trees sap to the affected areas much like the human body sends blood to clot a cut.  When getting continually attacked by the beetle the tree soon becomes dried out and the wood becomes too brittle to run through pulp mills.
2. The trees start to turn a blue colour which is too dark for newsprint paper.

The ARC has made some changes to the production. They’ve added sensors on the belt and changed the consistency of the infected wood by adding different chemicals to it. These chemicals made the wood stronger and not nearly as dark.  Making it possible to use, otherwise, worthless wood. This is a huge accomplishment as many pulp mills were looking at laying off workers or worse closing their doors.

Gary Smith of the Alberta Newspaper Council explained it will increase production significantly. “Right now we’re running between nine and 15 per cent blue stained wood in the plant. We expect it to go up to about 35 percent blue stain content.”

This wasn’t the only good news for the province in its battle against the infestation. Minister Morton made an announcement earlier this week. “The federal government will be giving 10 million dollars to Alberta to assist in the fight against the mountain pine beetle infestation.” The 10 million dollars will be added to the already 25 million the province has allocated.

Gearing Up For Gold

BY TRAVIS ZIEGLER

The Women’s National Hockey Team has travelled all over Alberta facing off against Midget AAA hockey teams in hopes of gaining an edge for the Olympic Games in February.  From Grande Prairie to Lethbridge the women have fared very well boasting a 9-5 record against the young men.  Just recently they dropped two straight to the likes of Red Deer, and the Calgary Buffaloes. 

On Saturday December fifth they will be in Calgary and will take on the Calgary Canucks of the Alberta Junior A Hockey League.  This will be a real test as Junior A is a much higher level of hockey than Midget AAA. The game will also serve as the Canucks annual charity event in support of the Salvation Army. 

Men’s Ooks hockey

by Curtis Binkowski

The Ooks mens hockey team’s winning steak of six smacked into a giant wooden horse. A home and home series against the SAIT Trojans from Calgary began on Friday at NAIT, where SAIT ran away with an 8-2 victory. The six goal margin certainly didn’t tell the entire story.

“Jeff Topilko beat the goaltender cleanly and hit three goal posts in the first period alone,” said head coach Terry Ballard, “if those go in, it’s an early 3-1 or 4-1 lead for us.”

Iphone Application Taking Over ETS

by Jen Muranetz

One U of A student is making public transportation in Edmonton simpler with just the touch of a screen. His name is Andrew Vilcsak, and he is one of the rare iPhone application developers in our Capital city. He is part of a team called Grayscale Apps, which consists of three developers who create applications for Apple products. Their most successful app so far? MyStops.

The week’s top 5 sports moments

5. KOBE’S SHOT
Bryant’s bucket against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night at the Staples Center is rarer than low-fat gravy at an American Thanksgiving dinner. Kobe was driving to the net and was angled out-of-bounds right behind the backboard, where he let an unorthodox jumper go that arched over top of the backboard and landed smoothly in the rim. Youtube worthy.
4. HORC BEATS THE CLOCK
On Saturday night against the Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Oilers forward Shawn Horcoff appeared to have scored with 0.1 seconds remaining in the second period. Under further review, time had expired. The very next game against the Coyotes, Horcoff again scored with 0.1 seconds left in the second period, this time, beating the clock.
3. MORE THAN GLASS SHATTERED
Swedish Elite League, Leksand vs. Bjorkloven, Henrik Andersen skates through a couple defenders, dekes the goaltender and scores. He then attempts the crowd pumping celebration by jumping into the glass, but goes right through and disappears behind the boards. Funniest thing about it: it was his first goal of the year. Stone Cold Steve Austin’s theme music will likely be played if he ever scores again.
2. 59 YEARS LATER
Since the NFL increased their season schedule from 12 games to 14 in 1961(they went to a 16 game schedule in 1978), the Detroit Lions have won more than 10 games only twice. In 1962 they went 11-3 and in 1991 they went 12-4, which was sandwiched by 6-10 and 5-11 seasons. They haven’t had a winning season since 2000 and infamously went 0-16 last year. 21 First overall pick for the Detroit Lions, 21-year-old QB Matt Stafford, is expected to be the building block for the franchise. Despite a slow start to the season, Stafford threw five touchdowns this weekend against the lowly Cleveland Browns in a 38-37 last second win. In fact, due to a pass interference call, the final play of the game had :00 seconds left on the clock. According to NFL.com, Stafford’s 5 TD passes is the most by a rookie QB since 1950 and the second most yards thrown(422), since ’50.
1.THE FIGHTING IRISH
These are a few scenarios that have likely happened in Ireland in the last week. One soccer fan holds the door open for an old man and he doesn’t say thank you, so he gets punched in the face! A man late for work who almost misses his exit on the freeway signals and sort of cuts off an old lady, the old lady dangerously swerves in front of him and gives him two middle fingers while yelling, “$!#& you pr*&%!” Ireland got completely left out of the World Cup because of a blown call by officials. French star and captain, Thierry Henry, clearly used his hand to control the ball at the side of the net before passing up the game winning goal in the 103rd minute. France won the game 1-1 on aggregate, consequently eliminating Ireland. World Cup executives will not grant the Irish’s demands to replay the match. Which really makes your wonder: why won’t they just use replay and get every play right.