BUSTED: Will it be a knockout?

Season 12 of BU's BUSTED opens Monday, Oct. 1, at 9 p.m. in the Kehr Union Ballroom. Photography intern Lee Patton covered the auditions at the beginning of the semester for 8 to 10 new members to round out the cast of 24.

BUSTED, organized by residence life staffer George Kinzel, has presented 78 shows so far, both for the college audience and performances at high school conferences. In addition to the cast, another half dozen students work behind the scenes in production.

From left: current BUSTED members Samantha Polichetti, Kyle Boyes and Rich Viteritto.

Fold your own Husky

Anh Tran — international student from Vietnam, business major, and student worker in the College of Liberal Arts —is skilled in origami. After the tsunami struck Japan a year and a half ago, she led a fundraiser to benefit relief efforts. We featured her in the Bloomsburg magazine and in a video.

Last spring, I asked her if it was possible to make an origami husky. Drawing upon this pattern, she came up with a cool husky. It's challenging piece —at least for me — but very cool on your desk.

Old reflected in new

File under: "Keep your eyes open."

BU technology services staffer Judy Ohl walked out of her office in Ben Franklin Building and saw the building reflected in the windows of Hartline Science Center across the street. She noticed. And she took the photo, which I think is a cool contrast of the turn early 20th century style of Ben Franklin and the early 21st century style of Hartline.

Ohl cropped the photo (left) very deliberately to emphasize the contrast of the wavy reflected architecture with the clean grid of the window surrounds. The uncropped photo is below.

Click on any photo to make them larger.

Stage ready

We've got a guest photographer for the semester, Lee Patton, a senior photo student who is interning with the marketing and communications office. Patton shot this series of the BU Players' dress rehearsal of Jack and Jill. Theatre is interesting, but a little abstract to shoot because you've got these slices of life that have been lifted out of life.

Field hockey generations

In athletics, sometimes the preparation is just as interesting as the game. The story behind the story. A shoot at an afternoon practice several days ago showed BU's field hockey team has a story that runs generations deep.

Head coach Nikki Rhoads (black shirt in the center at right) is 2004 BU alumna and standout player for the Huskies, helping the team to two NCAA championships and two Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference titles. As a coach, she's continued the winning tradition by guiding the Huskies to a 19-1 record and their fourth straight PSAC Championship in 2011.

At practice, Rhoads is joined on the field by her former coach Jan Hutchinson (pink shirt at right), who has returned as a volunteer assistant. Retired since 2010 after 33-year career at BU, Hutchinson doesn't miss the pressure and stress of being a head coach, but loves to stay involved with helping students. "I can't get it out of my system," she says simply.

The magic of band camp

The amplified metronome pumps out a continuous beat of 158 clicks a minute. Nearing weeks end, BU's band is breathing in time. Welcome to the Husky Marching band camp. To get ready for the fall semester, the band arrives on campus a week early and gets to work ... spending more than 40 hours over the next five days getting in synch.

Marching band director Gifford Howarth works with the students just outside the stadium. In addition to directing the band, Howarth is a well-known mallet percussionist whose conducted clinics around the world.

Below: One of the band's drum majors, Brittany Baselice (center, neon shirt), directs marching from the field. Senior Nathan Hawk works with the drum corps. Color guard captain Kayla Pipas demonstrates a routine.

Celebrating peak human performance

The summer Olympics will begin in London this July and the international press is already speculating about whether we'll see more records broken in track and field. Particularly because Usain Bolt of Jamaica in 2009 smashed his own world record in the 100-meter dash by over a tenth of a second with a time of 9.58 seconds. 

Japanese television station NHK recently sent a news crew to Bloomsburg to interview mathematics professor Reza Noubary about his formula for predicting the ultimate record in the 100 meters. Based on current data, Noubary pegs the ultimate 100 meter record at 9.40 seconds with a 90 percent confidence rate.

The news crew, which included a journalist, sound technician, camera operator and producer/director, had already interviewed Bolt in Jamaica. They spent hours with Noubary and went over the math in detail ... taping the professor explaining his work at a white board and in his office. For track and field aficionados, this is serious business.

I photographed discreetly, not wanting to interfere with their work. When the crew was finished, I asked, "Reza, what's your record for the 100 meter?"

"11. 3 seconds," he said, but shrugged it off ... it's unofficial and he was never able to duplicate it. His official best in 11.4.

What the news crew didn't know and what Dr. Noubary was too modest to mention is that he's an extraordinary athlete in his own right. He played professional soccer for a year before going to college. And he remains a exceptional athlete. (Just ask members and alumni of the Bloomsburg soccer team with whom he's played and scrimmaged over the years.) 

Science is helping us understand how to improve peak human performance, but athletics is still a very human endeavor. The human focus has been a consistent touchstone of Noubary's work. He was one of the first people I interviewed when I came to Bloomsburg 20 years ago as a writer. 

A native of Iran, Noubary was working on mathematical models to help engineers simulate earthquakes and design stronger buildings. The interview touched on the challenges of solving a problem, but the thing I recall after 20 years is that this was also personal. Iran often experiences earthquakes and they can be deadly. Noubary had a sense of urgency, passion, to use his knowledge to help make earthquakes less deadly.

PS. 

Noubary is also a beloved professor and teacher who often brings cookies to class on test days to help student performance.