Womanless Beauty Pageant at Winthrop

Feel like a woman.  Wear a bra!

The Mass Communications Department at Winthrop University hosted a womanless beauty contest Thursday night at Tillman Auditorium. 

Six male students dressed up in drag and competed in pageant events to a cheering audience the week before Thanksgiving.

Pageant events included evening dress, talent show and question-answer competitions.  Over 60 students attended this event.  Audience members voted for their favorite contestants by throwing spare change into containers with contestants’ pictures on them. 

The winner: Ava Zaire

Laurie Wood is a senior, Spanish major.  “A few of the guys were dressed for laughs, but two of the contestants were so realistic I couldn’t believe they were actually guys!” she said.  “Their outfits, routines, and mannerisms were so wonderful, it was unreal!”

“The one in red with a short wig was especially beautiful and elegant!” Brianna Dukes said, “I applaud his preparedness to go something so unmasculine.”

That contestant, “Ava Zaire,” was crowned the pageant winner after impressing the audience with a choreographed dance routine to Janet Jackson’s "Feedback”.                                                                

Bonnye Stuart, the organizer of this event, said, “This event raised money for the Mass Communication Department’s annual Recognition Dinner in April.  We successfully raised over $300.” 

Obama closed out the campaign season 


President Obama was on the campus of Cleveland State University to close out the campaign season.  The Democratic National Committee staffers crowded there estimate from fire: 8000 in a hall built for 13,000.




Joe Miller still be trailing the race?


Joe Miller is heading into the final two days of the campaign in Alaska.  Only 36% have a positive opinion of him while 59% view him in a negative light.

Three-Ways light the hope for Democrats in Alaskan

The three-ways in Alaskan has lighten the hope for democrats against the two Republican candidates in the race battle each other.

Long-nose dogs to be protected against passive smoke

A Colorado State University professor, John Reif, Using the dogs as models to study the environmental tobacco smoke increases the risk of human lung cancer.  

Reif found that dogs with short noses are 50% more likely to develop lung cancer when they live with owners who smoke; also the researchers studied 83 dogs with other forms of cancer.  

The country's first solar-powered vehicle

The solar-powered cars come equipped with air conditioning and other options.  The vehicles get their energy from the sun; the vehicles have solar panels mounted in a carport roof.

"Florida does not have any energy resource of its own expect the sun, so it makes sense to use it," Lee Stefanakos said, chairman of USF's electrical engineering department of University of South Florida. The university received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study ways to make motorists less dependent on gasoline.

The vehicles cover up to 60 miles on a charge and can research speeds up to 55 miles per hour.  The cost of operating the vehicles is about 4 cents per mile.  The cost of operating a gasoline-powered car is about 40 cents a mile.