Want to win tickets to see Adam Savage and Michael

"VSauce" Stevens? Solve the riddle on

the back cover!

Paydirt

Paydirt Staff:Editor-in-Chief: Alan GrossLayout Editor: Allie ArningJournalism & Photography: Melba Tajallieh Aguilar, Dennis Trujillo, Lina Virgo, Joseph ApodacaGraphic Design: Garrett Massey

Special Thanks to Student and University Relations

Community Event Calendar

PAS: Shall We Dance, Socorro? Fri. 3/24

Spring Break Begins Mon. 3/13Officially Midsemester Wed. 3/8

For more details on events check out: socorronm.org and nmt.edu.

Spring Fling! Wed. 3/22

NM Science and Engineering Fair Fri. 3/31

March 8, 2017Next Issue: March 29

Dis-COVER Your Inner Artist

Submit an original photo or

illustration inspired by springtime to paydirtnmt@gmail.com.

Our favorite image will be used as the cover for the March 29th issue, and the

author will be paid $100!**Eligible entrants must be an NMT Student or employee.*Paydirt employees and NMTSGA Executive Cabinet members are ineligible.*Friends & family of Paydirt employees will be excluded unless no other entries are received.

APPLICATIONS FOCUS INTERNSHIPSMONEY POLITICS SCHOLARSHIPSLEEP SOCIALIZE STUDY

Very Stressful Word Search

Uncle Savage Wants YOUfor Brain Candy Live!

Send your answer for this riddle to paydirtnmt@gmail.com. The first 3

students with the correct solution will win a ticket to the show!*

Though you can't see me,I block your sight;

Because I'm impulsive, You perceive the light.

We all know about partying, drinking, and having a good time, but we are also constantly reminded that

underage drinking is dangerous. Furthermore, buying alcohol for minors can get you a fourth degree felony and some pretty hefty fines to boot. Since spring break, spring fling, and the spring carnival are all inching their way closer, make sure you make safety a priority! If you are going to be drinking, be smart about it; eat before and after and drink water while you’re at it. As fun as it can be, drinking can be dangerous, especially if it is in large quantities. Instead of blacking out, try a little moderation, and you might even like remembering the night. If you ask any upperclassman, or anybody over the age of 21, they will definitely say it is more fun to remember the night instead of having to find out about it over Snapchat the next day. There are all sorts of statistics out there that people can throw around at college, but the biggest influencing factor in our drinking habits are our friends. Instead of egging someone on, maybe try offering them some water, and always try to find a designated driver if you have to get in a car for any reason (or maybe be the designated driver). One benefit to living in Socorro is that you can walk just about everywhere! Tech is hard enough as it is, so treat drinking like studying (and that doesn’t mean all night drinking sessions, who studies all night anyway?). That means helping to take care of your friends, avoiding drinking alone, and always drinking in moderation with breaks in between each bout. Stay safe out there everyone!

Dennis Trujillo

Drink the Right Way As Party Season Rolls In

Just under a year ago, New Mexico Tech transitioned from SquirrelMail to Gmail. It was a transition that excited everyone

on campus. At last, nobody had to deal with the horrors that were the old email system. What was surprising to some after the switch wasn’t how manageable email suddenly became, but was the fact that we now had access to the Google App Suite. For those unfamiliar, the Google App Suite includes programs across a wide range from Gmail and Drive to YouTube and Keep. One of the biggest advantages of being able to access the Google App Suite is the ability to keep everything in your Google profile. You can now log into a Chrome browser anywhere in the world and pick up your schoolwork where you left off. When you log into a Chrome browser, it does more than just give you access to your email and documents. It imports your search and browsing history, your preferences, and your extensions. With that in mind, we have compiled a list of the top five most useful Google Chrome extensions for students.

Apogee - Citation CreatorApogee is a small Google Chrome extension capable of auto-citing sources you paste into the UI in either APA or MLA format. It gives you the ability to edit the finer details of the citation after its generation and it also displays a credibility score. This extension helps students spend more time writing their papers and less time worrying about the format of their citations.

Google Dictionary / KeepWhile each of these are independent Chrome extensions, they are all made for Google, by Google. Keep works seamlessly with your Google profile to allow you to save notes quickly and easily to the Google Keep platform (where you can later access them via the app, or the website, or your Drive). Dictionary lets you highlight words, text, or even phrases to search for context and meaning (helpful for those long research papers you have to read the 30 minutes before class).

Grammarly - Spelling and Grammar CheckWhile most of don’t write extensively every day, it’s still important to take the time to craft a well-written response to an email, or a well written introductory phrase on a cover letter or resume. While all of Google’s apps have spell check built in, Grammarly adds a level of depth for grammar suggestions and corrections Google doesn’t have (yet). It can save you time and embarrassment in the future.

Google Mail CheckerThis simple extension is a lifesaver for people who frequently forget to check their email for important updates. As long as you are signed into a chrome browser, a tiny mail widget appears next to the URL bar, notifying you of how many unread emails you currently have in your Gmail inbox. Never miss an email again with this extension!

AdBlock PlusIf you didn’t know about AdBlock Plus before, this will change your life. AdBlock Plus is a Chrome extension (also a FireFox and Safari add-on) that blocks ads, third party tracking, intrusive audio and video clips, analytic software, and much more. AdBlock Plus claims to save time, data, and bandwidth by reducing the amount of information pages need to load before displaying important content. You can even choose which sites to enable the service on, allowing you to still support sites you enjoy by allowing non-intrusive ads and content to load. Beware that AdBlock violates the Terms of Service of many sites, so use at your own risk!

Garrett Massey

San Diego is definitely one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. From the amazing beaches for soaking in the

sun, to the tour boats that let you see sea lions up close, the city offers some great opportunities for ocean lovers. I enjoyed visiting Coronado beach, which has silky smooth beach sand and is a great spot to get a nice tan. Unfortunately, the cold ocean water fooled me into thinking I was cooling down; in reality, I was not wearing enough sunscreen, which resulted in my skin turning a vivid red. I could barely move my body for 2 weeks after. However, I kept riding the beach-side roller coasters at Mission beach and got myself a typical tourist t-shirt with a big San Diego logo on the front. Hopefully you'll enjoy your spring break so much that you will be talking about it for weeks, until your friends get annoyed and tell you to shut up. I know New Mexico is well known for its sunsets, but ocean-side sunsets are equally impressive. The photo on top was taken at Old Point Loma, where I got to explore the lighthouse and witness breathtaking views. Be sure to submit some cool photos from your spring break for our March 29th cover. Hopefully you will win $100, and I can get some photo tips from you!Joseph Apodaca

Capturing San Diego

Extending Possibilities: Top 5 Chrome Extensions for Students

NM Tech students, faculty & staff may purchasetickets to Brain Candy Live! at a special price.

GO TO: www.unmtickets.com/Brain-Candy-Groupor call: 505-344-1779

MARCH 31 • 8PMPOPEJOY HALLON UNM CAMPUS ALBUQUERQUE

www.BrainCandyLive.com

NM TECHSPECIAL OFFER

Coming Soon!New Mexico Tech Cards Against Humanity

Expansion Pack

Everyone's favorite overplayed game is coming to you NMT style, brought to you by Paydirt.

Keep your eyes peeled for this techie exclusive so that you can share jokes that only people here will understand.

We want your ideas, and we'll pay for them!!!Send as many inappropriate jokes as you want to paydirtnmt@gmail.com, if we use them we'll give you

$1.00 per joke!We recommend sending: 1 Black Card to 4 White Cards

Make sure your jokes are play-ready.

With the SRS coming up, those of you who aren’t participating may be wondering, “How can I get me a sweet research gig

like those guys?” I remember when I was a freshman, back in the bright days before the Bieber Fever epidemic; I had no idea how to find opportunities at tech. I was lucky enough to stumble upon one of the few labs that solicits applications and conducts interviews, but most positions at Tech are not filled in this way. As you likely know, internships and research are the best insurance against post-graduation unemployment. In addition to demonstrating your real-world experience, recruiters see these as evidence you are serious about your field. The warm fuzzy feeling that others have judged you to not be a waste of time helps also. Employment aside, doing real research gives you a far more thorough education than any class ever could, and it’s fun. I mean, doing this stuff is why you’re here, right?

DON’TStart with the tech job boards. These are great for off-campus employment, but on-campus labs very rarely publicly announce

openings.

Show up unannounced and unprepared.

Be discouraged by radio silence or curt replies. Remember, these folks are extremely busy.

Feel limited to your department.

Neglect your human resources.

Underestimate your value.

Wait until you’re an upperclassman.

Refuse to work for free.

DOApproach professors with interesting research directly. Department

secretaries often know who is hiring as well.

Read through the professor’s publications to get an idea of what they’re currently working on before sending a brief but informative

email.

Send a follow up email, or drop by their office to ask for an appointment.

Ask around in related departments. You bring unique knowledge to an interdisciplinary team.

Find out who already works in your target lab, and chat with them about what it’s like and how to best approach the professor.

No experience, you say? This is how people get experience, guys. Labs need humans around to do the actual work.

Many labs actually prefer to hire students in their first year, so that they can be trained early.

Consider: normally I pay tuition, but I’m getting this experience for free. This can sometimes become exploitative, but it’s a solid

way to get started. Use your judgment.

WHY ISN’T ANYONE HIRING AT TECH?!A guide for the lab-less among us

Yes, cold calling (emailing) someone you admire is intimidating, but it’s also fantastic training. The best way to get hired anywhere is to make a human connection with the person who will supervise you. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there! Best wishes.

Melba Tajallieh Aguilar

To everyone who misses MythBusters, I have good news: Adam Savage is coming back to New Mexico, and he’s

bringing everyone’s favorite YouTube scientist Michael “VSauce” Stevens with him. Together, they’ve put together an epic live show full of the dubious inventions, spectacular science, and nerdy dancing they’re known for. How epic is it? Well, hauling the literal metric tons of equipment needed for the show requires several loaded down 18 wheelers (do you feel like a Hobbitling watching Gandalf roll into town, or is that just me?) Brain Candy Live! is sure to entertain, inform, and delight. Think the Magic School Bus meets Willy Wonka, but with more puns and weird smells. Unfortunately Adam and Michael won’t be back on M Mountain, but at Popejoy hall. The show is one night only, on Friday March 31st at 8:00 pm. Tickets are still available, and NMT students, faculty, and staff can score them at a special discount. To reserve yours go to www.unmtickets.com/Brain-Candy-Group or call 505-344-1779 or take a shot at solving the riddle on the back cover, and you could get your ticket for free!

Melba Tajallieh Aguilar

Fuel Your Tired Brain with Brain Candy Live!

Photos by Matt Christine Photography

The Weather ColumnAfter a few cold days and a few windy days, the pattern appears to be settling down for the

next two weeks. There is virtually no chance of rain statewide and temperatures will remain pleasant. Part of the reason for this is the location of the polar jet. During the spring, it dips south to form troughs and ridges, due to uneven surface heating and fluid mechanics of a spinning planet. As luck would have it, these ridges and troughs are forecasted to occur to our north and east, never dipping into New Mexico over the next ten days. Therefore, the transitional weath-er (cold fronts, precipitation, and so on) that occur with these boundaries are not expected to impact New Mexico. The GFS 300 mb chart shows a seasonally turbulent atmosphere- just not over New Mexico. The temperature will remain warm during the day as well. We will likely reach the upper 70s and low 80s this upcoming weekend. The GFS 850 mb chart shows warm daytime tempera-tures for at least ten days out. However, just to demonstrate the uncertainty of the springtime, notice the sharp thermal gradient across western Nebraska: the temperature changes drastically across just a few miles change in latitude! We will see a similar boundary near the Texas state line off and on over the next few days, but this boundary is not expected to be anywhere near Socorro. Overall, I am expecting a pleasant spring break. We may see some cloud cover this weekend, but that will only raise the nighttime temperatures, and is not expected to produce any precipitation. Sources: weather.unisys.com & weather.gov.Seth Price

Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) School

Air Rifle Practice and the CMP School are made possible by Jim McLemore, a machinist in the PRRC, who has been running these programs for over 30 years. Some of the supplies are provided by the Tech Shooting Sports Club, and others are made possible through the Socorro Gun Club.

Seth Price

score for their own benefit. Through the stages, shooters will fire a total of fifty shots, with the best score being 500 with 50 X, where “X” is a bull’s eye. In the National Matches, scores are often 500, and the number of bull’s eyes breaks the tie. During the CMP School, average hunters and casual shooters score around 150-250 and people who regularly attend weekly Air Rifle Practice score 250-350. Scoring much above 450 may require lifestyle changes like practicing multiple times a week or quitting smoking. A typical “point” on the firing line is shown in the photo. A shooter has a rifle, at least two magazines for ammunition, ammunition, a mat (for the sitting and prone stages), a spotting scope, a sling, an Empty Chamber Indicator (ECI), hearing protection, sunglasses/safety glasses, and a shooting coat. In order to participate, students should first attend weekly Air Rifle Practice on Monday nights from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm in the Gym Basement. Most importantly, Air Rifle Practice is structured to emphasize safety and firing range commands. It will also show shooters how to get into each shooting position, and highlight the finer points of marksmanship. Students, faculty and staff do not need to bring anything to Air Rifle Practice- rifles, pellets and targets are provided. Once a student has attended Air Rifle Practice, they can attend a CMP School. Dates and times are announced at Air Rifle Practice. Students should wear long pants, closed-toe shoes, and dress for the weather. Often, the CMP Schools are scheduled for the morning, so dress in layers. All of the supplies listed above will be provided for students for the nominal fee of $15, basically to replace the ammunition and targets.

This past weekend, eleven people from the NMT community participated in a Civilian

Marksmanship Program (CMP) School. The school teaches people how to shoot and how to compete in marksman competitions, such as the National Matches, which are held each year in Port Clinton, OH. The CMP schools are held at the Socorro Gun Club Range south of town about once a month during the warmer months. In the CMP School, students shoot in several stages. First, they shoot ten rounds in the standing position, shooting one round, reloading, and shooting another round (called “slow fire”). Then, students shoot ten rounds from the sitting position, loading one magazine with two rounds, and one with eight (called “rapid fire”). The third stage requires shooters to lay down in prone position, and shoot ten rounds rapid fire. The final stage is twenty rounds, slow-fire from the prone position. In the National Matches, the competitors shoot each stage from progressively longer distances. The first two stages are shot from 200 yards away, then the third is shot from 300 yards away, and the final stage is shot from 600 yards away. In the CMP School, all targets are shot from 100 yards, but the target gets smaller during each stage to simulate shooting longer distances. As it turns out, shooting longer distances is much more challenging; the effect of wind, mirage, and bullet drop weigh heavily on the scores. However, if a shooter does well on the smaller targets, they are ready to shoot long distances. While the CMP School is not a competition, shooters are encouraged to keep

Typical firing line "point."

The firing line.

Tallying scores.

From the vault, we bring to you an ancient horror story about NMT. It is called the “The Death Meal” (cue the dramatic

music)! It happened back in the old days before Google, before Chartwells ever set foot on to campus, and before the concept of social networking. NMT students who had eaten at the cafeteria suffered a debilitating case of food poisoning so bad that supposedly some students died from it. Now there are many speculative rumors about this specific date in time, and we here at Paydirt have spent some time trying to sift through as many sources as we could find. We have come to learn that there was not just one “Death Meal” on campus during the 1980’s but upwards of 3. The first so called “Death Meal” took place in late 1981, the second in 1985, and the third some time in 1989. Whether these students were being a bit melodramatic or their concerns were warranted has been difficult to clarify. Different sources report hearing different things and the amount of tangible evidence about the "epidemics" is sparse. However, one cryptic clue was carved in to the sidewalk near Fitch with the message saying “I survived, Death Meal 1985” signed “DFS.” Due to all the recent construction, the sidewalk near Fitch has been replaced, so that carving is now lost to time.

The most dramatic version of the story goes that one day the food company - which, while we won't name them, was not Chartwells - had a power shortage for their refrigerators and had to store their raw chicken in buckets of ice. Unfortunately for the Tech students, that day somebody forgot to clean out those buckets, and the ice was later dispersed in to the soda machines on campus; this caused a widespread epidemic of salmonella poisoning throughout the school. There were so many students sick at the same time that the gym had to be converted in to a makeshift infirmary to house all of the sick students. Again this is all speculation, with some people claiming that there was loss of life, while others claim it was nothing but an elaborate hoax. Some of the only places you can find out anything about the “Death Meal” are a few blogs on line and the ‘talk’ portion of NMT’s Wikipedia page. Author Doug Powell of Barf blog had a source that stated:

I was around for "Death Meal 82" and "Death Meal 85" (no one actually died) living in town, but I suspect a lot of people have either forgotten those events or are hoping to avoid bad publicity for the school/town. Death Meal 85 was eventually identified as a bucket full of raw chicken that was subsequently used to carry ice to the ice machine.

Despite scouring our archives and the library's archives of Paydirt issues from the 1980s, we found only two articles referencing any sort of food poisoning in late 1981 and early 1982. Any news about the raw chicken incident of '85 was nowhere to be found, including a rumored photo of hundreds of students lying in cots being treated in the gym. According to the articles, 130 students came down with

educating people and more about churning out graduates with ‘high’ GPAs so as to attract the next crop of students. In some cases, Ivy League schools like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Rice had a reputation to uphold. If other universities had students with high grades, then these Ivy League schools needed their students to have even higher grades to ensure the massive amount of money they were charging per semester was justified. You might be wondering, "what is the average GPA at Harvard?" Well, it is sitting right about 3.66 on a 4.0 scale; in more simple terms, the Average grade given out at Harvard is an A-. Is it true then that Harvard is comprised only of genius students? This is most likely not the case. Ivy league schools like Harvard have found tricky ways of making their GPA statistics better than other universities by ‘convincing’ students to transfer rather

than drop out. This helps to keep their retention rates up, along with a high GPA average. There are some solutions to the grade inflation problem; at least for Tech, one solution could be adding a plus system to go with the minus system we have. This might make it possible for students to differentiate their academic performance a little bit more. However, if Tech uses a 4.3 scale, this could potentially worsen grade inflation. The best solution would be to incorporate the plus system in the 4.0 scale, making an A+ worth 4.0, an A worth 3.85, an A- 3.66, etc. That would actually make techies work harder (like we need that!) for their GPA and might make Tech GPAs more competitive for internship and scholarship opportunities that usually pass techies because they have a “low GPA”. However, there is also the argument of "who would that actually help?" There are some students who could definitely get the A+ here at Tech, but what about the majority of students who are struggling to just get or keep the regular old A? That would actually put them at a disadvantage, because if they got straight As at Tech then their cumulative GPA would only be a 3.85, despite all of the hard work. In the end, NMT might have been subject to some grade inflation over the years but not nearly as much as other universities have. So be proud to be a techie because, as it stands, Tech students really are held to higher standards for their grades.

Dennis Trujillo & Alan Gross

has significantly occurred at NMT without data spanning back to about 1980. However, we can certainly compare NMT to other schools. The average GPA of degree seeking undergrads at State is 3.39 and UNM is 3.38 - both on a 4.0 scale. Where does NMT fall on the average GPA scale? Well, NMT’s Average is a whopping 3.04. So if Tech is “where the smart kids go” according to an old Pandora ad, why is our average GPA so much lower than the other colleges in our state? Grade inflation could be to blame. Grades being given out at universities across the nation have been steadily increasing since before the 1980s. Doesn’t that just mean the newer generations are getting smarter? Not necessarily. As colleges started to realize they could start making money from their students in terms of retention rates and average GPAs, college became less about

As midterms approach, and many techies struggle to keep their GPAs up, one can't help but feel curious when reading that the average undergraduate GPA at many Ivy League schools is near or above 3.7. Grade inflation is blamed as the usual culprit, especially as recent studies have found increases of almost a whole grade point in college GPAs across the nation since 1980.

Grade inflation occurs when professors give students better grades than they deserve, either to maintain a school's academic reputation or due to inadequate instructor expectations. Now all the Tech students are saying "yeah right who has heard of grade inflation at Tech? Every grade I have gotten has been at the cost of blood, sweat, tears and a ton of coffee!" We looked into this issue at NMT and, despite not being able to get access to average GPAs of techies, we did compile data of average high school GPA and ACT Composite scores of incoming freshmen since 2001, which can be seen in the center figures. While there is a general trend upward, the data is questionably significant, with incoming high school GPAs remaining within roughly a tenth of a point for the past 15 years and a fairly significant standard deviation being visible in the ACT Composite scores; plus, as a scaled test, the ACT shouldn't be very prone to score inflation. The bottom figure is a metric that is also important in determinations of grade inflation: proportion of degrees awarded per year at NMT to the number of degree-seeking students during that same academic year. Over the past 15 years, the this proportion has barely changed at NMT and has even trended down. If Tech isn't awarding a plethora of degrees relative to students, and (as many of us can attest) it certainly doesn't seem like techies are receiving inflated GPAs, is it really a problem? While techies pride themselves on surviving through a notoriously tough grading scale, we can't say if GPA inflation

symptoms of stomach flu in October 1981. Doctors from New Mexico's Health and Environment Division spent several months testing blood and food samples and distributing surveys about the illness to the students. The most notable finding was that some of the students who had fallen ill had not eaten at the Tech cafeteria during the epidemic. The final report issued by the state Health and Environment Division classified the epidemic as a strain of Norovirus (stomach flu) that had gotten spread through both the cafeteria food and among students. However, none of the stories have been able to be completely verified, and even the Paydirt articles and student accounts from '81/'82 seem to have opposing information and dates about the incident. Considering that there were no reported deaths of salmonella poisoning at NMT reported from the CDC during those years, it is safe to say that at least nobody died from tainted chicken ice in their drink. However, hoax or actual food poisoning event, Tech may never know.

Dennis Trujillo & Alan Gross

Is an A really an A Anymore? The Impacts of Grade Inflation

This week's sidewalk sighting is no longer in existence, but is well remembered. It was previously found just outside of Fitch, but has since been torn up. Rumor has it the gym was a make-shift infirmary, which may have to do with the location of this carving. We do know one thing for sure: Tech was a weird place in the 80s.

Sidewalk Sightings

The Death Meal of 1985

Photo courtesy of Bill Weiss

"Whether these students were being a bit melodramatic or their concerns were warranted

has been a bit difficult to clarify."

" Doesn’t that just mean the newer generations are getting

smarter? Not necessarily."