Articles written by Julie Clark

Whitney Haddox: a senior in exercise science, cringes at the thought of seven years of bad luck after breaking a mirror. Kyle Cooper / ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

What do rabbits’ feet, pennies and horseshoes have in common?

They all bring good luck, according to Auburn students who say they believe and follow superstitions.

Most students say they pick and choose the superstitions they follow, but they say they think almost everyone believes in at least one superstition.

Cody Clark, a freshman in fiber engineering, said he isn’t sure whether superstitions are real, but he doesn’t want to take any chances.

“I believe things happen for a reason, and I don’t want to cause anything bad to happen,” Clark said. “I believe they are mostly just in your head, but better safe than sorry.”

Clark said he has heard seeing black cats, breaking mirrors and spilling salt mean bad luck.

Clark also believes eating certain foods before an athletic event is bad luck.

“Back in high school, a buddy of mine and I would never eat hamburger meat on Thursday or Friday because we believed it would throw our (football) game off come Friday night,” Clark said. “We even went to a team grill out and would not eat anything but hotdogs.”

Emily Venglarik, a sophomore in secondary science education, said she believes in a number of superstitions.

TigerMail: is a frequently accessed page which requires a password. Students should use a password that is easily remembered, but is also difficult to guess.

Passwords are meant to keep private information secure, but with the increasing availability of spyware and the growing number of fraudulent e-mails, individuals are finding it harder than ever to protect themselves with passwords.

Office of Information Technology specialist Seth Humphrey advises students to carefully select their passwords.

“We recommend having a mixture of upper and lowercase letters and numbers,” Humphrey said. “If your system allows you to use special characters, we recommend that, too. And the longer it is, the stronger it is.”

Humphrey said routinely changing passwords may also prevent strangers from accessing your accounts.

The U.S. Supreme Court determined April 16 that Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol, which is similar to that of Alabama, does not violate the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Facebook introduced yet another feature last week to aid its users in spending hours at a time on the social networking Web site.

Facebook Chat will allow users to have real-time conversations, either in a separate window or on the bottom of the page.

Users can click the “Online Friends” button to see which friends are available for a chat. Users can choose to appear offline.

Facebook Chat is the Web site’s only official instant messaging system, and it will automatically appear on Facebook members’ profiles.

HERSHEY’S ‘N’ PEANUT BUTTER: Brittany Jackson: sophomore in human development and family studies/early childhood education, doesn’t like golf because she’s not good at it, and she refuses to pay $20 to see a rodeo. She doesn’t mind a little facial hair on guys, but she doesn’t like her man to look gri

Brittany Jackson / sophomore, human development and family studies / early childhood education

ABOUT JANE:
Age: 20
Hometown: Athens
Availability: Single
Sign: Capricorn
Greatest fear: Snakes
Hobbies: She enjoys going to church, shopping and spending time with her friends.
Random fact: Her summer job this year will be working at a camp.

Did you have a treehouse when you were little?
No, but I always wanted one. I did have a kitchen playhouse. But we always mowed the grass around it, and the grass grew too tall inside the playhouse for me to get in it.

Did you watch The Masters last weekend?
No. I don’t really like golf. I’ve tried to play before, and I wasn’t really good at it.

People are generally attracted to people similar to themselves in looks, personality in romantic relationships

Research published in the Journal of Family Psychology suggests women who marry less attractive men have better marriages, while men who were more attractive than their wives were unhappy about their marriages.

But the Auburn psychology department’s assistant professor Richard Mattson said these findings may not hold true for unmarried college students.

More Personalized Options

A bill that would allow people to personalize their “God Bless America” license plates is one step closer to becoming a law after its approval by a Senate committee April 2.

If the bill gets final approval, drivers can have their tags personalized for an additional $50, which will benefit the Alabama Veterans Living Legacy at Montevallo. The “God Bless America” plates cost the same as the “Stars Fell on Alabama” plates.

The Senate Education Committee voted down bills by Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, March 26 that would have allowed professors and ROTC students to carry guns on college campuses in Alabama.

Committee Chairwoman Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, said she was pleased with the committee’s decision, and she thinks the public is as well.

“I received calls from people requesting we not pass these bills (prior to the vote),” Figures said. “I had received several calls from college presidents and security personnel saying they did not support these bills.”

The Britnell Family: Helen, Sullivan, Allie and Rich, will be participating in Laps for CF April 12. Sullivan, 6, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis two years ago. Laps for CF, created by 15-year-old Emily Schreiber, has raised over $1 million for research. Julie Clark/ ASSOC

Fifteen-year-old Emily Schreiber, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 9, will swim laps at Auburn University’s Martin Aquatics Center April 12 to raise money for cystic fibrosis research as part of her Laps for CF fundraiser.

In addition to Emily swimming the final four of her 100 laps, the event will feature exhibitions by the Auburn swimming and diving teams, a live band, a raffle, children’s activities and food.

The event will begin at 11:30 a.m., and admission is a $5 donation, which includes lunch.

Many organizations on Auburn’s campus, including several Greek organizations, will participate in the event.

Emily started Laps for CF in 2003, only six weeks after she was diagnosed with CF, a frequently fatal genetic disease of the mucus glands that causes complications in many of the body’s organs, especially the lungs and the pancreas.

Emily’s fundraising idea was to have individuals pledge money for each lap she could swim.

“I thought, ‘Well, I really like to swim, and it’s fun, so I’ll just do a swimming fundraiser,’” Emily said. “Now it’s become an annual thing, which is just awesome.”

The United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced Auburn University’s Jacob Dunkleberger as the NCAA South Region Indoor Field Athlete of the Year March 10.

Dunkleberger won the weight throw at all three meets in which he competed this season, placed first in the weight throw and sixth in the shot put at the SEC Championships March 1 and got second in the hammer throw at the NCAA Indoor Championships March 15.

Dunkleberger’s top mark of 21.87 meters ranks fourth in the nation this year.