Vol. 2, Issue 2: Spring 2012 The University of Utah’s Science and Engineering Literary Magazine

Poetry Water Week Poetry Contest 3-4 Fear and Other Four Letter Words 9 Nucleolus 9Articles Water Waste in Utah 2 Business on a Student Budget 7

Photography Water Week Photography Contest 4-6 True Story 9 Miscellaneous Photography 10Other Works Outdoors 10 The Execution 11

The Sponge was founded in Fall 2010 to encourage and showcase the creative interests of the science and engi-neering community at the University of Utah. We publish anything from poems to scientific reviews, short stories to opin-ion articles, photography to cartoons, as well as ads for student organizations and events and practical articles helpful to students, once per semester.

This Spring 2012, we were fortunate to be able to collaborate with the Inter-mountain Section of the American Water Works Association (IMS-AWWA) to host a poetry contest and a photography con-test with $350 in cash prizes! All submit-ted photos and the winning poems are featured in this issue, and you can find all the other poems (along with more on-line-only content) at http://thesponge.eng.utah.edu/.

We hope you enjoy this issue!

Cover photo: “Cross Over” by Scott Hudson, Bioengineering.

The Sponge is made possible by the Uni-versity of Utah Student Media Council. Views expressed in The Sponge do not represent the views of our staff or the University of Utah.

The People of The Sponge:

Jason Cooperrider, Staff Writer Graduate Student, NeuroscienceJohn Dymon, Staff Writer and Web Guru Graduate Student, BioengineeringDallin Hubbard, Staff Writer Graduate Student, BioengineeringHans Knecht, Editor and Staff Writer Graduate Student, Chemical EngineeringSourav Kole, Editor Graduate Student, BioengineeringNicholas Nolta, Editor in Chief Graduate Student, BioengineeringMonir Parikh, Editor Graduate Student, BioengineeringStephanie Prochaska, Editor and Staff Writer Undergraduate, Materials Science and EngineeringCheyenne Schmid, Staff Writer Undergraduate, Exercise and Sport ScienceGeorgia Sinimbu, Editor Graduate Student, Biology

Peer Presentation Practice

The only way to become a confident presenter is to practice. But what if you could practice with your peers, instead having to go through “trial by fire?” Please contact me if you are in-terested in joining a peer presentation practice group!

Howard Lakougna: h.lakougna@utah.edu

On March 8, the Humanists of Utah, a local chapter of the American Humanist Association, hosted speaker Zach Frankel, founding director of the Utah Rivers Council, a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to the conser-vation and stewardship of Utah’s rivers, sustainable clean water sources, and natural ecosystems for both Utah’s people and wildlife. Much of the information Frankel pro-vided was very interesting and surprising, and regarded the extent of water waste in Utah and the politics behind it. What follows is a general summary of the talk he gave, which is relevant to all Utah residents and taxpayers.According to the pie charts Frankel drew to begin his talk, 80% of the water used in Utah is for agriculture, with the remaining 20% for municipality and industrial use.After emphasizing that he is proagriculture, he pointed out that water is used very inefficiently for agriculture, with around 8 gallons being wasted as runoff for every 1 gallon that waters crops. He went on to say that of the 20% of water used by municipality and industry in Utah, 75% is used outdoors, mostly for watering grass in the summertime. According to Frankel, the average amount of water used each day in Utah comes out to 305 gallons/person, which makes it the number one state in the nation for highest per capita water usage.Despite being the second driest state in the nation (Nevada being the first), Utah has the cheapest water rates of all the states, which Frankel said accounts for the figures he had given, due to the fact that consumers tend to consume more when the price of a resource/good is lower. He went on to suggest that these incredibly cheap water rates are due to the fact that Utah uses property taxes to subsidize its water rates, which encourages water waste and requires that property owners who waste relatively little water help pay for the water that others waste extensively. He pointed out the irony of that setup in such a politically conserva-tive state as Utah and of the fact that conservative mem-bers of the Utah legislature are in favor of maintaining the property tax subsidies, arguing that those subsidies and the low water rates they create do not lead to increased water usage. An article out from KUER on March 7th, titled “Water, Water Everywhere, but not a Drop to Appropri-ate” (Smardon, 2012) described a Utah House attempt to earmark state General Fund money for a water project to divert the Colorado River to Washington County, in order to compensate for the incredible amount of water being used there.The Utah Department of Natural Resources (UDNR) pre-dicted recently that Utah will run out of water for munici-pal and industrial use by around 2025 if the state imple-ments a 25% total conservation rate over a 50-year period of time, beginning in 2000, which amounts to a conserva-tion rate of 0.5% per year. The UDNR concluded that if no conservation takes place, Utah could run out of water by 2017. Frankel says that Utah actually will not be running out of water anytime soon, but highlighted the fact that

significant damage to the environment could be incurred in an attempt to divert water from existing natural resources, such as the Bear River, to fuel continued high rates of water consumption. In order to get an idea of the disproportion-ately large amount of municipal and industrial water use in Washington County, he said that it uses more water and pays significantly less to do so than such large cities as Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Seattle. In fact, St. George residents will use about 28,000 gallons of water per day in July, at a rate of just $1.11/gallon, which is much cheaper than that of many large cities. When efforts were made to encourage water conservation in St. George and to stop a water project to divert water from Lake Powell to the city, a misinforma-tion campaign was waged to convince residents that all outdoor plants would be prohibited and destroyed by the 90% conservation rate that would be necessary if the diver-sion failed to occur. Frankel closed his talk by mentioning the environmental impacts of a few types of water projects and how to best conserve water at the individual level. First, a planned development in West Jordan would be fueled by a diver-sion from the Bear River, which would put the Salt Lake wetlands and all the wildlife they contain in danger. Build-ing new dams, like the one proposed for the Green River, and other massive water projects are seen by politicians as more glorious than less expensive and less environmentally damaging endeavors, such as lining existing highly inef-ficient canals throughout croplands with concrete to greatly reduce water waste. He said that the best way for citizens and industry to conserve water is to reduce outdoor water use, such as by only watering lawns when necessary, before dawn and/or after dusk, and by using a water schedule so as to not overwater. Finally, Frankel recommended every-one read Cadillac Desert (Reisner, 1993) for more informa-tion about water use in the desert west.Frankel’s talk was very enlightening for me and I hope the information it provided, as I have summarized it here, will be beneficial to many others. While Utahns are not in ap-parent danger of going thirsty anytime soon, it is important to realize and bear in mind the impact our quest for more water has on our local environment and to do our best to avoid losing the amazing natural beauty that Utah has to offer. Thanks to the water cycle, no water is ever truly wasted, but fresh water certainly is not always where we want it, when we want it, and in the condition we want it to be, so it is a scarce natural resource and should be treated as such.

ReferencesSmardon, A. (2012) Water, Water Everywhere, but not a Drop to Appropri-ate. Retrieved April 19, 2012, from http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuer/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1910822

Reisner, M. (1993) Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappear-ing Water. London: Penguin Books.

Water Waste in UtahJason Cooperrider, Staff Writer, Neuroscience

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FIRST PLACE POEMThe Wonder in these Drops

Sharon George, BioengineeringWhy look around, high and lowDuring times of confusion and strife?Stop spinning too fast. Wait! Go slow.Learn from Water, the ways of life.Attitude, like that of a Spring,Rising against nature’s law,Against storms that times may bring.In a hurricane, like a piece of straw.And just like love, the First RainPaints life with a euphoric shade,Undying and wildly insane,Never to diminish, never to fade.Let wisdom like a great River flow.Adding from the past, moving ahead.Tinged with humanity’s glow,To lead one and not to be led!Anger like a Flood, a roaring SeaBrings forth calamity in its wake.Dark and fearful, it may be.The very foundations of existence it can quake.Finally consider a drop of tear.Silent, yet more than words can explain.Countless emotions are portrayed here,Sorrow and joy, laughter and pain

SECOND PLACE POEMWater: A Natural Wonder –the Forgotten Lessons and the

Lessons to LearnImit Kaur, Pharmaceutics and Pharm. Chemistry

In the year of twenty ninety in IsraelSat an old man revering his past longing for rain and hail.His grandson came up and gave him a soda,“Oh! Get me some water,” said the old man, “this thirst is unquenchable with this artificial soda.”“Water? Oh yes, they say the salty oceans are made of water.Long time back there were some natural streams flowing with non-salty water.My teacher said, in Iceland snow is made of water!But how could you ask for it when we cannot reach,As we neither have money nor are we close to glacier, snow, river or beach?”Tears filled up in the old man’s eyes,

“Mother Nature warned, and now the world is paying its price.”“Price? What price is the world paying now?Am I missing some valuable lesson of life, if so, please tell me how.”The old man stood up and told his grandson a beautiful story,A story of his own past when he was enjoying his youth’s glory.“The world was completely different from what it is now,The grass was green grazed by the cows,The forests were filled with the trees and animals,The nature was perfect with no artificial and man-made cannibals.The rivers, the oceans, the glaciers and the snow,Maintained a consistent harmony with impeccable water flow.The trees helped in getting rains,The rains filled up the water table and helped farmers produce the grains.The fresh water added up in summer from the snow and the glaciers,Every living being was happy and with normal behavior.But, Mother Nature was warning us then,Water, air and soil pollution was rising up by scales of ten.She said, ‘If you do not take drastic measures now,You will regret it later and I will show you how.’Water, in its pure form can do wonders,But man kept continuing his blunders.The water cycle affected the rains and the seasons,Around the world were floods, storms and tsunamis be-cause of these reasons.The desert was showered with snow,And the coldest regions faced heat stokes and blows.The Earth cycle changed,With human’s failed attempts, the natural system got deranged.Now we are living in a world of artificiality,Here kids like you do not know the water importance in totality.We have to buy water and pay for somethingThat was free once but we considered it worth nothing!Farming is affected which affects the production of food,Fresh produce is rare and expensive and everyone survives on canned food.The seasons are not specific and credible,As when they were, we did not appreciate and considered it incredible.We have to take showers with such frugality,As when it was plenty we wasted the water with insolent brutality.Even now, a lot could be done,If not for this, the next generation will have water fun.Save water my child,As mother Earth gave us this unique prizeSo do not waste it and use it wise.”

Water Week Poetry and Photography ContestsIn collaboration with IMS-AWWA

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THIRD PLACE POEMEntrenched In Thought

Trevor Dick, Mathematics and PhysicsEntrenched in thoughtTorrential floodPassions ride the airNucleating dropsCloud the mind; release the bloodThe fluid stalls, does not stop The lucid calls, do not stopThe flow of life liquid knowsThe supply of strife, viscous lowsMore wall than waveI have wandered in Lost in damp, collective breathGlides us through and releases stressEchoed veils conceal and formMotion harnessed in gentle stormSoothing oil in sheets amassRun forever along the glassVanguard blood, the fiercest loveAlastor’s sublimation, the pure breathHope’s indoctrinationAll bodies nourishSymbols of us, drown in selfPoor image cast, ripples on ripplesMirage the force, first and last.

Water Week Contest Photos1. FIRST PLACE PHOTO: For Instant Beauty Add Water.

Photo taken at Utah Desert near Santaquin. Kristy Thane, Mechanical Engineering.

2. Wet Desert. Photo taken at Great Salt Lake near Tooele. Kristy Thane, Mechanical Engineering.

3. Peace in the Sawtooths. This picture was taken during a 7-day hike in the Sawtooth Wilderness Area in Idaho. The lake is called Sawtooth Lake and the easiest way to get to it is through the Iron Creek Trail. It’s one of my favorite places on Earth. Christian Polar, Bioengineer-ing.

4. Survival. This picture was taken in Utah last year dur-ing a high water Spring season. The section of the river shown in the picture is called “Ogden Narrows” and it is north of the city of Ogden. The picture was taken with a gopro camera. Christian Polar, Bioengineering.

5. Untitled. Wahclella Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Or-egon. Johanna Varner, Biology.

6. Untitled. The Routeburn Track, New Zealand. Johanna Varner, Biology.

7. SECOND PLACE PHOTO: Captured Glory. Since the theme for the contest is “Water: a Natural Wonder,” we came up with the idea of doing something related to water’s natural property of high refractive index.

We power set up the experiment platform in the lab with high power lasers of three different colors: red (647nm), green (532nm) and blue (427nm). And then we used mirrors to guide laser beams to incident and meet at the center of the water-air interface inside a large beaker containing pure water. At the interface, due to the higher refractive index of water compared to air, the laser beams experience total internal reflection (TIR), which means light is totally reflected back into the incident medium (water), instead of partially trans-mitted to the air. This phenomenon is caused by the very nature of water, and is widely applied in modern engineering, such as fiber-optic communications. Thus, we can say this photo production is a combination of the arts of water and basic science, which is realized by optical engineering. Peng Wang, Farhana Masid, and Aprantim Majumder, Electrical and Computer Engi-neering.

8. Untitled. Water just seals the deal! Brady Houston, Neuroscience.

9. The Road to Spring. Taken on campus (President’s Circle). Hui Xu, Neuroscience.

10. Mirror Picture. Taken in Blue Hill, Massachusetts. Hui11. Wonders, Everyone Contributes. Xing Lingyan, Neuro-

science.12. See Your Power, Feel Your Beauty. Xing Lingyan, Neu-

roscience.13. Reflections. Marsa Taheri, Bioengineering.14. Collision – Caspian Sea. Marsa Taheri, Bioengineering15. Snow. Justin Boyer, Mathematics and Physics.16. Lightning. Justin Boyer, Mathematics and Physics.17. Evidences. Each dew-adorned plant is evidence that

water is both bringer of life and beauty. Brian Busath, Mechanical Engineering. Xu, Neuroscience.

18. THIRD PLACE PHOTO: Narrows. A long shutter speed enhances the sensation of movement in this shot from the Narrows at Zion National Park.

19. Reign the Windows. Scott Hudson, Bioengineering.20. IMG_1715. Taken in La Jolla, California in 2011. Justin

Jenson, Bioengineering.21. IMG_3514. Taken at Diaz Point, Luderitz, Namibia in

2008. Justin Jenson, Bioengineering.22. Sea of Wonders. Carina Maron, Biology.23. Depths of Paradise. Water flows, shapes, and extends

into the eternity of Earth, Serenity, and its Immortality. While seeing the waters down below and the Ocean’s obscurity reaching into eternity, a peaceful but pro-found sense of humility settles over you for being able to witness the one of the greatest beauties on this Earth. Amie Bitter, Mechanical Engineering.

24. At World’s End. My favorite part of this breathtaking experience was a close friend sweetly describing how the sun is just rising to bring forth a brand new day somewhere else in the world while we are able to see this beauty of the sun’s “Goodnight” to us. Amie Bitter.

25. Untitled. Abhijit Mondal, Bioengineering.26. Transparent Shadows. Abhijit Mondal, Bioengineering.27. Reflections. Christine Abraham, Bioengineering.

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Business on a Student BudgetNotes from a Student Entrepreneur: My Successes, My Failures, and My Future…

An anonymous penguin

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As students we rarely have time to do anything besides go-ing to class or working on our research. What little time we have left after all this is usually spent winding down and hanging out with friends. This may be true for the average student, but for an entre-preneur, this is absolutely unacceptable. To be an entrepre-neur you have to dream about your business all day, every day. Class is that time when you write down your ideas i.e. your “thinking time.” Hanging out with friends is almost al-ways interspersed with conversations about your business strategy and advice on whether your friends would ever use your product i.e. your “networking time.” And while everyone is asleep or winding down, it’s your “work time.” Sounds fun doesn’t it? Well… it is! At least for me JThis article is mostly about what I’ve learned from the few businesses that I’ve started and my perspectives on what it takes to be an entrepreneur. If you have a great idea that you are itching to try out but haven’t yet taken the first step, read on... most of what I’m about to tell you is first hand experience as a Ph.D. student trying to juggle re-search and business.Students are the best entrepreneurs - There’s a brilliant TV show called “Shark Tank” where fledgling entrepre-neurs come to investors and make their elevator pitch hop-ing to grab a “shark” as an investor in their business. Usu-ally, this is associated with lots of cash and almost sure-fire success because of the extensive contacts and strategy that sharks bring to the business. However, watching this TV show, you can see that students can succeed where most “experienced” or “mature” entrepreneurs cannot. And this is all because we have some qualities that very few people have:- Time: believe it or not, students don’t study all waking hours of the day! We have more time than most people who work full-time jobs. - Contacts: the members of the University TCO (Technol-ogy Commercialization Office) and the Lassonde Student Entrepreneurship center are an amazing resource for fledg-ling entrepreneurs. We also have tons of professors who are experts in their fields and a variety of students who can teach you anything you need!- Adversity: having so little money actually works out to our advantage. We always choose the best value for our money and we rarely make expensive buys unless we abso-lutely have to. We also know how to live cheaply and run a business on a shoe-string budget. - Lack of Fear: when you’re in college, you have barely any responsibilities except for school. If you fail at your business, so what? It’s not like you sunk $100,000 dollars into it. At worst, you’re probably a few thousand dollars in debt.

Now you understand don’t you? We have the potential to be serious entrepreneurs, if only we take the first step and go for it.

My first business:A food stall selling Indian-Mexican foodStartup Cost: $600 My first business was a restaurant concept that my friend and I dreamed up while eating lunch together. We realized that Indian res-taurants in Utah were rather boring and that the people here hadn’t ever been ex-posed to Indian street food. So, we started brainstorming ideas and came up with an Indian-Mexican food menu that was based on street food from both cultures. Together with one more friend, we put up $600 each into getting all the permits and equipment to be able to do a food stall at the Earthwell Festival in Park City. If you were there in 2009, you probably remember Masala Salsa JThe festival was a GREAT success…we had HUGE lines at lunch and could barely keep up with the demand. We then went on to do several events and generated profits from each one until we did one in Payson which put us at a loss of $600. OUCH! Long story short, we eventually dissolved the idea because we realized that even though it had great potential, we couldn’t keep it up because of our Ph.Ds. So basically what I learned from this business was:- If you have a good idea, then go for it! Just keep your costs low and always get your friends to back you up. If they’re willing to help you, then it’s like a vote in your favor saying that your idea may actually be worthwhile! - Even though your idea may be good, success is hugely dependent on your market. Park City and Salt Lake have a lot of tourists and well-travelled people – this translates to people who are willing to try out your food. Payson, on the other hand, is mostly composed of subsistence farmers and the majority of customers we found were completely against trying strange new foods. We couldn’t even give our food to them for free!

My second business:A social network which recaptured the original FacebookStartup Cost: $36After my first busi-ness, I realized that starting a business that required so much work during business hours (9-5) would be too dif-

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ficult. So, about one year later, I was chatting with a friend and came up with an idea for a social network just for the University of Utah. We thought of a place where students could rant, swap notes, sell stuff, and make new friends as opposed to Facebook where they just kept up with the old ones. This was the birth of The Undergrad, a social network which was specific to the U, just like the original Facebook was specific to Harvard. Facebook was specific to Harvard. As an internet-based idea, this was easy to make and I didn’t need to work on it during business hours! I quickly used my newfound confidence as an entrepreneur, learned how to program using WordPress (I’m a hobbyist program-mer), and made a functional website within four months. I launched it in 2011 and started marketing it using flyers at Crimson Night, posters in the dorms, and by posting on student groups for international students (because I was trying to get people to sell on the marketplace first). I thought this would be a great idea with huge potential for local businesses to advertise to students at the U.But, nobody came! And it failed really fast…So, what I learned from this business:- Don’t launch a business unless you know exactly how to reach your customers. This was my main weakness… mar-keting this social network was really hard because there was no clear way, besides direct marketing to students, to get this website off the ground. - Think about how you’re going to make money from Day 1. Google has deep pockets and it can afford to have “free” tools such Google+ and YouTube. Usually, they wait until a critical number of people and only then they start to adver-tise and get some profit. This doesn’t work in most cases… from Day 1 you should have a way to make money from your website. - Fail fast. I’m glad I already knew this and didn’t even try to use my money to market the website. You should always know whether you will succeed within 3 months of launching your product. Otherwise, take it, have a nice dinner with it, say goodbye, and then burn it. (Very good advice from Shark Tank J)

My third business:A new way to search for local businesses onlineCurrent Startup Costs: $20Estimated cost before first full product launch: $4000 After coming this far and approach-ing the end of my Ph.D., I think I finally have the experience to make it somewhere as an entrepreneur. Early indications with this business are looking great! Etch A Deal.com is a new way to search for local businesses online. While Yelp, Google, and YellowPages answer the question, “Who is the most highly rated local mechanic,” Etch a Deal answers the question “Who is the cheapest & most highly rated mechanic.”

Three features really set this website apart from others: - Etch a Deal.com has prices for all local businesses.- With it, you can search for multiple businesses all together (“package deals”) as well as “single deals.” (Imagine plan-ning your entire wedding with one click… yes it’s pos-sible… and it’s really cheap!) - You can also ask for special requests with one click to have businesses call you back. (What if you wanted to find a mechanic who could fix your ‘76 Mustang? Would you really want to call and ask each mechanic on the Yellow-Pages?) Currently we are filling our database with wedding-related services and we are growing really quickly at about 1,200 businesses/month. With an amazing business partner/adviser (10 years of tech startup experience), seed capital, and great consultants (40 years of combined experience in Google and Red Hat), I can see our website growing by leaps and bounds. We’re also ranking really highly on Google searches for “wedding deals in Utah” and other such keywords. What I have learned thus far from this business:- Choose your business partner wisely: Networking and finding the right startup-minded people makes all the dif-ference early on.- Be willing to adapt: A few months back we found a com-petitor to Etch A Deal and were really depressed because we had worked on it diligently for so much time. We almost gave up because we thought competing with a gi-ant would be a waste of our time. But our consultants told us we shouldn’t give up and that we should just change our model. They told us the story of FarHeap, a printing company that gained significant market share away from Vista Print even though Vista Print was 100x larger. After adapting our business and slightly changing our selling point, our new business is growing MUCH faster than our competitor and our potential for profit is much larger than before.- Learn as much as possible from every experience: Ma-sala Salsa gave me confidence. The Undergrad taught me WordPress and also how to cope with failure. Now with Etch A Deal I’m learning more about online marketing, managing a team of telemarketers, writing business plans, and also a lot of business strategy from my consultants. It’s really exciting! So what? Concluding remarks to my story - Being an entrepreneur is quite a unique experience. In my opinion, it’s the most fun you can have in the business world and there’s this really amazingly small possibility of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg (J). So, if you’ve got an idea that you want to pursue, if you want to be your own boss one day, or even if you’d like to join a startup (hint hint…Etch A Deal), go ahead and take the first step! I’ve shown you that even on a student’s budget you can get a lot of great experience. Starting a small business is a long and bumpy ride, but I can guarantee that you will never regret it.

P.S. You are welcome to contact me at info@etchadeal.com or by visiting our website at www.EtchADeal.com

Fear and other four letter wordsStephanie Prochaska, Staff Writer, Materials Science and Engineering

Fear isn’t the only four letter word that runs through my mind when white-long-coat, stethoscope gives me what seems like a monthly state of the unionmy quarterly photo shoot does not do much to suppress the Fear (only my bad angles are photographed anyway) but instead bring them out as white-long-coats, stetho-scopes study my headshots in bewildermentmy heart stops when I am told of the discrepancies be-tween the months, the intruders overtaking my brain—now my thoughtsFear and other four letter words.reluctantly I take the medicine that comes in the package covered with people’s smiling great-grandparents and the one with the accompanying dvd that shows a cringe-wor-thy amount of some old guys stomach as he, too happily, stabs himself with a needle (I’m terrified of needles)and yes, I know it’s a learning experience, but next time i get a spinal tap I would prefer if I were asked first before half the medical school crowded around me (I was bare-assed, mind you) while a five inch barb was jabbed into my back: thanksFear and other four letter words.although my life is tough, and although it’s painful, and although my corrosion constantly looms in the back of my mind like the inexorable sun setting—through Fear emergesHope.sometimes four letters is all it takes.

NucleolusAlex Eldredge, Bioengineering

In the mindWe are blindSo to regretAll that we feelFor all we knowThis is the only filled cupTalking mice, feeling niceThe produce is falling away When the time finally deterioratesWe are left with nothingAmbulatory instinctTakes care of the restAs you feel the bullet through your chestMake the IV’s needle knownWhere did I falter?Looking back with no connectionFrom microwave to an unknown slaveCannot walkout from the doorVenir makes its chuckleAs I walk backSitting on the chair, the noise becomes ambientTaking a word from the electric shamanFemoral ArteryFilled with enjoyable fluidTaken from the hindsightWe cannot feel For words will not connectNephron is depressedWhat’s the use?What’s the use? Cannot escapeForget to payLet this be it

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True Story: A Day in the Life of Afsheen BanisadrMeme by Andrew Voyles, Chemical Engineering

With summer on the way now is as great a time as any to get out and explore Utah. With so much to do close by, some people forget about Antelope Island, part of Utah’s State Park System, out in the Great Salt Lake. The island, di-rectly north of Salt Lake City, is about an hour away by car and offers much beautiful scenery along with some great hikes, sandy beaches and other fun outdoor activities.

Even though the island may seem barren, once you are traveling around the island you will realize that there is much wildlife, especially bison that can be found almost ev-erywhere just roaming around and enjoying themselves. The sandy beaches and Great Salt Lake are a great way to cool down on a warm day and have some fun in the lake. If you want to steer more off the beat-en path, there is plenty more of

the island that can be explored by hiking or horseback rid-ing, offering some great views of the island. You can even stop at Lagoon Theme Park along the way to the island and

make a weekend trip out of it. Of course, if you decide to check out Antelope Island, do some research and plan it out, and of course bring a camera. If you do plan on doing some camping on the island and are new to the whole camping and hiking thing, you can always rent some gear from the Cam-pus Recreation Services.

We are excited to hear from you so submit some photos or a hiking trail you just found to uusponge@gmail.com and put “Outdoors” in the subject line. We at The Sponge take no re-sponsibility for anything that may happen to you out there so do your homework and be prepared.

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Just some of the art that can be found on Antelope Island. You can see the Great Salt Lake in the background, along with mainland Utah.

OutdoorsMr. D, Staff Writer, Bioengineering

Miscellaneous PhotographyDallin Hubbard, Staff Writer, Bioengineering

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The Sponge has more content online! Please visit http://thesponge.eng.utah.edu for:“The Astonishing Ant-Man” video by Iaia Sinimbu, Biology“Religion and Politics: When is it Appropriate?” by Hans Knecht, Staff Writer, Chemical EngineeringFull version of “The Execution” by Becca Parker, NeuroscienceHigh-resolution Water Week photography submissionsAll submissions to the Water Week poetry contest

The ExecutionBecca Parker, Neuroscience

Once upon a time, in a place that would eventually become the western desert of the United States, there was a town called Enfuego that sheltered some two hundred souls. Of these, only two were young, unmarried women; this was to be expected, because women of that age were practically a currency in such settlements.The first of these women was named Helen, and she was a saint. A migrant from Back East, she had devoted her life to educating the unfortunates that straggled their way west-ward in hopes of raising themselves out of their condition. As an added bonus, she was also a missionary of sorts, sim-ply by her way of using the only book that had travelled with her, a battered King James Bible, to promote literacy. She thought nothing of herself and lived only on water and bread and beans. She was as spare a person as can be imag-ined, she wore no costly raiment, spoke no ungodly thing, and some even suspected her of being Mary reborn.The second of these women was named Angela, and she was a sinner. Also a migrant from Back East, she had devoted her life to raising herself up from her condition by amusing the unfortunates that straggled their way west-ward. She was also a feminist of sorts, simply by virtue of choosing a career (using the only skill she had) over the more common practice of marriage and childrearing. She thought everything of herself and lived only on red meat and whiskey and tobacco. She was as robust a person as can be imagined, she wore ridiculously opulent garb, swore like a goddamned sailor, and some even suspected her of being Jezebel reborn.In these settlements, it often happened that there was no formal law, for there was no one who wished to formally claim the blasted desert places of the earth. Those that lived there found an absolute freedom from human structure, and obeyed the more natural laws of hunger, thirst, searing sun and freezing night. Because they knew so much peril from their surroundings, they were not prone to commit outrages on one another, and so aside from Miss Helen’s morality and Miss Angela’s liberality, they really had no guiding precepts. The women of the marrying sort (what few there were) were more objects than people and had no opinions on the sorts of things that should and should not be done, and the men were too worn with hard travail to pass judgment on their fellows. If one of them were to transgress upon another, it would be widely ignored by

the rest of the populace, and it would fall to the injured and injuring parties to work it out amongst themselves. These things were usually settled with whiskey and stac-cato violence and ended there, and it worked as well for passers-through as the settlers themselves. In short, all were contented by their unregulated lifestyle, and so things passed for many years.Young, unmarried women of either Helen or Angela’s disposition have a way of developing into middle-aged, unmarried women of identical disposition, and so things progressed for these ladies both. Helen grew (or shrank, if anything) more austere with the years, and thus more saint-ly ever. As the rest of the town bred in the way settlers are wont to do, Helen helped them in the raising of their chil-dren and the economizing of their lives to meet the harsh demands of the frontier. Angela grew always plumper and jollier. Angela helped the husbands forget what they had sacrificed for a clean slate, and kept the young men and migrants out of trouble. For these services the townspeople were very grateful, and they gave Helen money which she refused and praise in which she basked, and Angela money in which she basked and praise which she refused. The two remained in close proximity without so much as a thought of conflict between the two of them, for both were only making a lonely path through a difficult world.But such times are prone to end, and end they did. Early one summer morning, as Angela was just falling asleep to whiskey-scented slumbers and Helen was arising from an-other cold and meager night, a group of dusty travelers of all ages came into the town, over the ridge that just barely concealed the rising sun in the East. There must have been just over four hundred of them, and they looked all of them thirsty and weary and discontented. These were the new Americans come to turn the lawless West into a proper country, to bring it into the civilization that had so enriched the lives of their peers back home. They were all of them good, staunch, moral, breeding and feeding beings. Their leader was the staunchest, breedingest of them all, and it was he that now addressed the few townspeople that had roused to greet the incipient flood sent to quench Enfuego.“Good People” orated the leader, for he knew no other mode of communication, “We have travelled Here from Elsewhere, and we are Wanting of Shelter and Bread.”(continued online at http://thesponge.eng.utah.edu)