With 7:30 to play in the half, it appears that the majority of the ticket-holding student population has shaken its collective hangover and waddled down to Kenan Stadium to find their seats. There are still a few places to sit, but all-in-all most of the student population has arrived — right on time.

WAIT! It’s not what you think! North Carolina strong safety Kareen Taylor just intercepted a Daniel Evans pass — one that was thrown beyond the line of scrimmage (penalty declined) — giving hime two on the season. Interceptions have been extremely hard to come by for UNC this season. Taylor’s pick was only the Tar Heels’ third of the year.

After accumulating 80 yards and a score on 11 carries through the first eight minutes of the game, starting running back Ronnie McGill was replace by Barrington Edwards for a few plays, only to return to the backfield in a split back formation. So far, both backs have been quite effective against the NCSU front that has done little to stop the Tar Heels. UNC has amassed 11 first downs (to the 30-second mark in the first quarter) to the Wolfpacks’ zero. The Tar Heels have 147 yards of total offense to NCSU’s eight.

If you’re a student, anyway. As both teams line up for the opening kickoff of the North Carolina vs. N.C. State football game, the seats behind the east endzone are sparsely filled, leaving one to wonder how effective the ticket distribution policy was for this game. The game sold out and all student tickets have been accounted for. That means that the fear of the students who weren’t fortunate enough to get tickets — the fear that those who did wouldn’t use them — seem to have transpired. But who shows up before the end of the first quarter anyway?

Brandon Staton, Sports Editor

A lot of good inventions have come out of the fine country of Finland over the years. But I think the Finns have finally topped their previous number one gift to the world (it’s the sauna, if you don’t know as much about Finnish innovation as you should, and you don’t like being taken to random Wikipedia articles).

That’s right: Last Monday, Finnish mathematician Arto Inkala announced he had created the world’s hardest Sudoku. It’s called AI Escargot, after the 37-year old’s initials and the fact that it kinda looks like a snail. It took three months to create.

Feeling like giving it a spin? Well, print it off and give it a go. Best of luck to you! It requires the solver to consider eight casual relationships at a time (whereas your normal “Evil” level puzzle might have three at most). I’ll post the solution in a week or two.

By Reuben Baker
Public Edtior

I sat down this afternoon with Editor-in-chief Joe Schwartz and Managing Editor Kavita Pillai to discuss some readers’ concerns that Ben Pittard’s arts column was insensitive to the issue of sexual assault. The column was not read by Joe before printing, but by another editor. Joe said, however, that he read the first paragraph and questioned the editor on whether the column was appropriate. He said he also regrets not having a fuller discussion at the time. Editors hesitate to edit columns too much because they don’t want to encroach on a columnist’s ability to voice his personal opinion, however in this case Joe said the offensive material should have been left out because it was not vital to the meaning of the piece. Schwartz offers his apology to anyone who was offended by the work.

The DTH does not wish to offend any of its readers. Both Kavita and Joe recognized the insensitivty of the column, particularly to anyone who may have experienced sexual assualt. Joe plans to meet with the editors, as well as the columnist to question their choices and see if anything further needs to be done to prevent similar instances from occurring in the future.

From the desk of David Ely:

Are you excited about the upcoming college basketball season, but haven’t had the time to keep track of who is supposed to be good and what freshmen are supposed to make the biggest impact?

Well, consider yourself lucky.

Coming out tomorrow (Friday), the Daily Tar Heel will be providing you the most comprehensive preview of the UNC men’s and women’s basketball in the whole entire world — I kid you not. It’s the only place where you’ll learn about the real Reyshawn Terry while at the same time get inside information about the No. 1 freshmen class in the nation.

If that doesn’t peak your curiosity then there’s also a breakdown of each position on the men and women’s hoops teams.

So be sure to pick up the tab. It will shock you, make you laugh and possibly even make you cry. And after you take a couple hours to reflect on everything you just read, you’ll be ready for some hoops.

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, D-NC, ran a tough race against his Republican opponent Vernon Robinson and held his seat with 63.7 percent of the vote. Robinson launched a flurry of television and radio campaign ads against Miller that earned national attention for their strong stance supporting tightening U.S. borders and opposing same-sex marriage. But the conservative viewpoint did motivate some of the electorate who felt Miller was too liberal.

Eighty-year-old Mark Henderson walked more than 100 miles in five days through the 13th district to show his support for Robinson. Residents in Guilford, Rockingham, Caswell, Person and Granville counties did not agree on whether the effort was successful, and some were unaware of Henderson’s walk.

Robinson acknowledged that Henderson has generated a lot of press interest and that his walk is fairly effective, but said he will not be joining in anytime soon.
“I’d have to get in a lot better shape first.”

Read more about the background of the Robinson-Miller race here:

http://www.dailytarheel.com/media/storage/paper885/news/2006/09/18/StateNational/U.s-Congress.Race.Getting.Ugly-2281673.shtml?norewrite200611081222&sourcedomain=www.dailytarheel.com

Read about the beginning of Henderson’s walk here:

http://www.dailytarheel.com/media/storage/paper885/news/2006/10/26/StateNational/Political.Power.Walking-2402988.shtml?norewrite200611081206&sourcedomain=www.dailytarheel.com

-Erin France

North Carolina voters showed their support for the underdogs Tuesday, with certain races seeing a victory, or at the very least a competitive showing, against incumbents.

Heath Shuler, a former NFL player for Washington and New Orleans, took the seat from eight-term incumbent Rep. Charles Taylor by 17,221 votes. The race is being herald as one of the significant turning points that allowed the Democrats to take the U.S. House.

Rep. Robin Hayes’ seat in the 8th district still is hot. Larry Kissell, the Democratic challenger, and four-term representative Hayes currently are neck and neck. CNN reported each having 50 percent of voters’ support, a mere 468 votes separating the two candidates. Kissell used a grassroots campaign to advertise his issues and hoped to join Shuler in ousting their respective region’s incumbents.

Provisional ballots will be counted in the following days to clearly determine the winner in these races. Stay tuned to The Daily Tar Heel for further information about these and other important statewide races.

-Erin France

Pulling off of Weaver Dairy Road into the parking lot of Fire Station #4, very little room is available for parking. And inside, people said, voters have found the same story of cramped spaces.

The small red trailer, which sits adjacent to the fire house, has a holding capacity of a little more than 30 people. Only 25 voters are alowed inside at one time.

The precinct is understaffed, as some people registered to work today never showed up, said Deborah Shaw, the chief judge.
But despite the limited space, 688 ballots cast had been cast by 5:10 p.m., out of 2,834 total registered voters.

Five people stood outside in the dark and in the rain. They included representatives for superior court judge hopefuls Charles Anderson and Allen Baddour, as well as for Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass’s campaign and the Orange County Democratic Party.

This is Mark Williams’ seventh election working for Pendergrass, who is his father-in-law. Williams arrived here from Mebane at 7 a.m. to stand under his black-and-white umbrella with an orange sign sporting Pendergrass’s name.

“It’s all for the family,” he said.

Allison Standard, who gave out sample ballots for the county’s Democratic Party, is a first year law student at UNC, and said she is volunteering her time because she wants voters to be informed when they mark their ballots.

“It’s important that people know who to vote for especially for smaller races,” she said. “It’s just about making sure other people are informed.”

-Lindsay Michel