Over The Edge Page 6 Killer Library Fines Beatles Classics with Jeans and Classics Not Quite the Fab Four Continued from Page 4 introduction of the increased the number of late~ fine, returns diminished at SFU. But there are some who are skeptical about the “fines-as- deterrent-to-late-returns’” the- ory, such as Concordia’s Sendek. “Students, in spite of information to the contrary, have money to pay fines,” she argues. “They prefer to pay fines rather than bring books back.” There is, of course, another side to the world of library fines beyond the return slots and the cash register just what happens to the money that is collected? At about half-a-dozen universities unscientifically polled by the Link, a clear answer emerged maintaining collec- tions. Acquisition budgets at many libraries have not kept pace with rising costs, especially for periodicals, and the money brought in by fines LOOK UP...WAY UP...OBJECTS goes to mending old tomes and buying replacement copies of books that have been ‘permanently — bor- rowed.’ But don’t kid yourself that you're doing the library a favour by keeping your books past the due date. “It's most important that we get material back,” Suzy Slavin, a librarian at McGill University, states. In other words, you've had your turn, let somebody else have theirs. In the meantime, if you do happen to forget those books under that pile of laundry in the corner, you can always try negotiating with your friendly librarian. They're human, after all. Finn offered to wash the librarian’s car to avoid paying his $100 fine, but to no avail. “| realized it was futile to resist,” Finn says. In order to graduate, he had to pony up the dough. TO LOOK FOR IN THE NIGHT SKY (NORTHERN LATITUDES) Prepared for Print By Arron Oberman NOTE: For the first time in six years, you can see all five naked-eye planets at the same time shortly after sun- set. Use the extremely bright Venus to orient yourself, then look for the other naked-eye planets as described below. VENUS looks like a bright star in the south-southwest. It is so bright this month that it can be seen shortly before sunset if you look carefully, as well as easily seen shortly after sunset. MERCURY lies very low in the west-southwest, and looks like a faint yellow star. It can be glimpsed far to the lower right of Venus 20 to 30 minutes after sunset. MARS is in the southwest in the early evening close to the right of the much brighter VENUS. It looks like a yel- lowish-orange star. JUPITER, looking like a very bright white star, is in the the left of VENUS. It moves to the southwest later in the evening. SATURN is high in the south- east shortly after sunset and is in the south by mid- evening. It looks like a rela- tively bright yellowish star. The GEMINID METEOR SHOWER is expected to peak on the night of Dec. 14, and should also be visible at least one or two days before and after that. Meteors appear as streaks of light zip- ping across the sky. Meteors, often referred to as shooting stars, occur when material, generally dust or sand sized, collides with the Earth’s atmosphere and burns up due to friction. As many as a few dozen Geminid meteors are typically visible per hour, but moonlight will blot out all but the brightest meteors this year. HUBBLE SPACE TELE- SCOPE UPDATE The Hubble Space By Nicole Larson The program presented by the Prince George Symphony Orchestra with special guests Jeans and Classics was _ definitely geared toward an older audi- ence, even though the crowd was an eclectic mix of young and old. This was by no means a rock concert, but that is to be expected from the symphony, whose perfor- mance was magnificent. The program presented by Jeans and Classics was very mel- low, and featured most of the Beatles’ ballads, the only exceptions being “Help” and “Hey Jude”. The stirring lead vocals of Jean Meilleur were enough to bring tears to the eyes dur- ing “Imagine” even if his between song banter was not as witty as he evidently thought it was. Katalin Kiss’ vocals soared, whether as back-up or lead, especially during her rendition of “Got to get you into my life’. Donald Paulton, the other back-up vocalists, had an excellent ability to provide the vocal several important solar sys- tem observations in recent months. JUPITER: Hubble’s NICMOS (Near Infrared Camera / Multi-Object Spectrometer) instrument has been used for the first time to study the Jovian atmosphere. The NICMOS camera can take pictures at infrared wave- lengths. Methane gas in Jupiter’s high altitude clouds absorbs infrared light, mak- ing the clouds stand out in NICMOS images. URANUS: Hubble has been used to detect two previously unknown satellites orbiting the planet Uranus. The two satellites orbit Uranus well outside the orbits of the plan- et's other satellites, and were undetected by the Voyager 2 spacecraft when it flew past Uranus in 1986. COMET HALE-BOPP: Recent Hubble images of comet Hale-Bopp, now near- ly 400 million kilometers from the Sun, show that the comet harmony needed. The other two members of Jeans and Classics, John Regan, the pianist and Peter Brennan, the lead guitarist and arranger were the glue that bound the group together. They provided the sparkle to this performance. Special mention of the sym- phony soloists has to go out. Greg Prosser’s trumpet solo during “Penny Lane” was phenomonal. Gordon Lucas’ violin solo during “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was truly a unique rendition for those used to the same piece played by Eric Clapton and, while it seems odd to say this about a classical violinist, that guy can really wail. There was a certain ambiance accompanying this performance. The civic cen- tre is in actuality a gymnasi- um but with the tables and dance floor, which one cou- ple took advantage of, it was transformed into something so much more. There was a specific air which accompa- nied this presentation, but it and dust in jets emanating from its nucleus. The jets are currently emitting around nine tons of water vapor per second. SPACE SHUTTLE UPDATE CURRENT SHUTTLE MIS- SION: The space shuttle Columbia continues to con- duct a wide variety of sci- ence experiments in Earth orbit, and is also testing con- struction techniques for the International Space Station project. The first elements of the space station are scheduled to be launched next year. Astronauts launched the Spartan-201 solar observing satellite from the shuttle cargo bay last week, but the satellite went into a slow tumble shortly after it was released, and was unable to make its intended observations. Two shuttle astronauts donned spacesuits and successfully retrieved the $10 million satellite by literally grabbing it in their gloved hands. After the astronauts stabilized was too formal for a group with the name ‘Jeans’ and Classics. There was not the sense of fun one would have expected from a_ perfor- mance of Beatles Classics. This was one of the few flaws in this tightly run event. The arrangement of these pieces by Peter Brennan was flawless. He truly understood the underlying theme of the Beatles music and arranged these pieces in such a man- ner that did not stray from that focus. The orchestra’s background performance was definitely the highlight of this event, they had a full grasp of the actual music and provided what there was of an air of pleasure and whim- sy. There is no way to criticise the performance of the Prince George Symphony . Orchestra _ itself because technically they were flaw- less, but the atmosphere was just not quite correct for the fun event this should have been. arm was able to lower the satellite back into the cargo bay. STS-87 is commanded by Kevin Kregel, and includes pilot Steve Lindsey, mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, Winston Scott, and Takao Doi, and payload spe- cialist Leonid Kadenyuk. It is scheduled to land at Cape Kennedy on Friday, Dec. 5 at 4:20 a.m. PST. THESE WEEKS IN SPACE HISTORY Dec. 7, 1972: Apollo 17, the last manned lunar landing mission, blasted off from Cape Kennedy. Apollo 17 was the first manned space- craft to be launched at night. Apollo 17 returned to Earth on Dec. 19 with 243 pounds of lunar rock and soil sam- ples. RANDOM SPACE FACT If you suspend three grains of sand in a large sports arena, such as Madison Square Garden in New York, the arena will be more close- ly packed with sand than our south shortly after sunset to Telescope (HST) has made _is still actively releasing gas __ Spartan, the shuttle’s robotic _galaxy is with stars.