Friday, September 19, 2003 by The Brown Daily Herald

F R I D A Y SEPTEMBER 19, 2003

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 75

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

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New workshop brings study of female sexuality to Brown

New Windows vulnerability means campus at risk again

BY ALEXANDRA BARSK

BY JONATHAN ELLIS

It is a rare class at Brown where the syllabus includes pornography screenings and a fieldtrip to Miko Exoticwear. Female anatomy as well as sexuality, body image, masturbation and contraception are all among the topics addressed in the female sexuality workshop offered at Brown this semester. Femsex, as the workshop is most commonly called, originated at the University of California at Berkeley in 1994 as part of the school’s Democratic Education program, in which students create and instruct their own original courses called deCals. The workshop was brought to Brown last spring by Keira Wallman GS and Rhode Island native Anne Montgomery, both of whom participated in Femsex at Berkeley. Femsex has generated positive responses from its participants and has doubled in size since its first semester. Two sections of this not-for-credit workshop offered through the Student Activities Office are currently being offered at Brown to both male and female students. Each section meets twice a week and is led by two or three facilitators. There are currently no males participating in Femsex, although men have attended in the past. Men are accepted into the workshop as “supportive observers” whose insights are welcome in discussions, Wallman said. These facilitators are all women who have previously participated in the course. They said that they do not view themselves as teachers but rather as resources who aid in the process of self-reflection and learning. “Female sexuality is all about selfexploration. It’s not about research,” said Wallman who, along with the other facilitators, does not claim to be an authority on an issue she says is personal for every individual. Although the workshop is discussion based, it also includes readings, films, guest speakers and journal writing assignments. The workshop provides its participants with a safe forum in which to share, learn and “navigate through the labyrinth that is female sexuality,” Montgomery said. It is meant to serve as “an outlet to talk about things that in general in academia are avoided,” said Susan Scarlata GS, a Femsex facilitator. The hope is that female sexuality participants will gain a comfort and willingness to talk about and explore issues of female sexuality, said Emily Hunt ’04, one of the facilitators. According to the Femsex syllabus, the ultimate object of this exploration is female empowerment. “When I took the class I underwent a radical self-acceptance. … I was very empowered to be a better student, to be a better sister, to be a better daughter, to be a better lover,” said Wallman, who said she

Windows users who installed the free antivirus software distributed by Computing and Information Services may be living with a false sense of security. A new vulnerability discovered in Microsoft’s flagship operating system has the potential to wreak havoc similar to that caused last month by the malicious worm, W32.Blaster.Worm. Users of the Brown network must update their computers through Windows Update again, said Connie Sadler, director of information technology security. She said the flaw was announced around 10 days ago. “It looks like the exploits are starting to come out,” Sadler said, “although we haven’t seen anything at Brown yet.” Another worm, W32.Swen.A@mm, has just been discovered on campus, according to the CIS Web site. It spreads via e-mail or file-sharing programs and claims to be a patch from Microsoft. Once opened, it attacks antivirus software. The security holes caused by worms may have serious consequences for individual users and the University as a whole. The sheer amount of traffic generated by Blaster and its related worms caused two campus network shutdowns Aug. 26. At any given time, about 50 percent of the computers on the Brown network are vulnerable, Ellen WaiteFranzen, vice president for CIS, wrote in a campus-wide e-mail. CIS planned to scan the network Thursday night for computers that had not yet been patched, said Pamela Vogel, CIS associate director for communications and documentation. The department will send e-mails to the owners of those computers to alert

see FEMSEX, page 4

Sara Perkins / Herald

Boston-based Dominican band Grupo Fantasia entertained a hungry crowd at SPEC’s Carnivale.

Carnivale festivities light up Brown’s Sciences Park BY SARA PERKINS

Students heading towards the SciLi on Thursday night met with some unexpected obstacles: an eight-piece band and a crowd of salsa dancers in feathered masks and face paint. Carnivale, the first event of the semester from the Special Events Committee, featured empanadas and rice from Cuban Revolution and face painting and music from Boston-based Dominican band Grupo Fantasia. The event lit up the underused maze of paths and shrubs between the SciLi and MacMillan Hall with strings of colorful lanterns. SPEC, formed two years ago by thenUCS Campus Life Chair Anna Stern, was responsible for last fall’s Live on Lincoln concert and spring’s Heaven and Hell party at Faunce House. This is the first of six events planned for this year, SPEC member Ari Savitzky ’06 said. “There aren’t enough social events on campus that serve the entire student body,” Savitzky said. The band was located through members of MEZCLA, Savitzky said, who also showed up to dance. “We wanted to do something different,” said Rachel Lauter ’06, another event organizer. “We wanted a fun, simple event that’d bring out a lot of peo-

ple. “(Sciences Park) is a great space, but pretty underused,” she said. The area includes the wide concrete plazas in front of the SciLi and the CIT and the green space behind MacMillan. SPEC’s next event will be a repeat of Live on Lincoln, probably in October, Savitzky said.

Brown biomedical researcher chosen as one of 20 Pew Scholars BY MONIQUE MENESES

Tricia Serio, assistant professor of medical science at Brown, is one of 20 Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences for 2003. The goal of the Pew Scholars Program is to identify and support young investigators who show promise in research leading to advances in health care, according to the program’s Web site. The four-year program is a way for Pew Scholars to exchange ideas and talk about their research. It is specifically geared to junior members of the faculty who are starting their independent careers, Serio said.

I N S I D E F R I D AY, S E P T E M B E R 1 9 , 2 0 0 3 PW opens season with “The Skriker,” a nonsense show that entertains arts & culture,page 3

Brown ordered to create database of foreign students by Patriot Act 2001 news,page 5

Sarah Chiappinelli ’06 explains why you should pray for the extinction of dolphins news, page 7

see NETWORK, page 4

“It’s like college, but smaller,” she said. Brown nominated Serio for the program last fall, but it wasn’t until the beginning of the summer that she found out she was selected to be a scholar. A native of Belleville, N.J., she won the award for her proposed investigation of the Sup35 protein and its control of the production of other proteins. It does this by stopping the translation of a protein from RNA — a template for protein expression. A gene is transcribed from DNA into RNA and then translated from RNA to a protein. see PEW, page 4

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Modern art, like Magic Bars, is a love or hate affair, says Laura Jane Martin ’06 opinions, page 11

Adom Crew ’04 rebounds from injury, leads men’s soccer with style and grace sports, page 12

rain high 73 low 64

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2003 · PAGE 2 Coup de Grace Grace Farris

W E AT H E R FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

High 73 Low 64 rain

High 77 Low 56 partly cloudy

MONDAY

High 74 Low 53 sunny

High 77 Low 59 mostly sunny GRAPHICS BY TED WU

Three Words Eddie Ahn

MENU THE RATTY LUNCH — Vegetarian Six Bean Soup, Clam Bisque, Hot Ham on Bulky Roll, Vegetable Strudel, Oregon Blend Vegetables, Chocolate Chip Cookies, White Chocolate Cake, Banana Cream Pie.

V-DUB LUNCH — Vegetarian Chick Pea Soup, New England Clam Chowder, Chicken Fingers, Vegetarian Grinder, Sugar Snap Peas, Chocolate Chip Cookies. DINNER — Vegetarian Chick Pea Soup, New England Clam Chowder, Pot Roast Jardiniere, Shells w/ Broccoli, Baked Potatoes, Zucchini, Carrot & Garlic Medley, Asparagus Spears, Honey Wheat Bread, White Chocolate Cake.

DINNER — Vegetarian Six Bean Soup, Clam Bisque, Batter Fried Fish, Baked Stuffed Chicken Breast, Vegetable Stuffed Peppers, Italian Roasted Potatoes, Spinach with Lemon, Summer Squash, Honey Wheat Bread, Chocolate Chip Cookies, White Chocolate Cake, Banana Cream Pie.

Greg and Todd’s Awesome Comic Greg Shilling and Todd Goldstein

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Exhausts, in slang 6 For fear that 10 It’s an act 14 Mob scene member, e.g. 15 Turquoise relative 16 Fond of 17 Computer mettle? 19 Meddlesome 20 Passing stat 21 “Look __...”: “Misty” opening 22 Heels 25 Frequent reorderer? 26 Spoiled 28 “This is not __ time” 30 PAC elephants? 32 Really get down? 33 Spa features 35 Paramount issues? 39 LAPD advisory 40 Meditative discipline 42 Friday, maybe 43 Breadbasket item 44 Bubbly drinks 47 Philosophical opening 49 Electric fish 50 Plus 52 One with a fork 53 Mouthed off to 56 Sportscaster Cross 58 Counting-out word 59 Cal. entry 60 Personal business 63 Scottish hillside 64 Starbucks? 68 N.Y.C. commuter line 69 Stop 70 Oft-trimmed item 71 Some lodge members 72 Porters 73 Woodworking tools DOWN 1 Workout target 2 __-10 (acne medication)

3 Racing form site, briefly 4 Victimizes 5 Franklin’s mother 6 Cuddly pet 7 It goes around the world 8 Like some telegrams 9 Selfish sort 10 “Learnin’ the Blues” singer 11 Backache? 12 “Who’s there?” response 13 Trifled 18 Many AARP members 22 Some adobe abodes 23 Wide open 24 Twice the pizazz? 27 Spotted cat 29 Wow 31 Place to hang your hat 34 “Told you so!” 36 Fond du __ 37 Absorbed, as an expense 38 Fabrication 1

41 Second Amendment focus gp. 45 Market research consultants 46 Cold symptom 48 Took a shot 51 Pub quaffs 53 Mercury model 54 Month in which Secretaries Day occurs

55 Russian villa 57 Contend 61 Stable babe 62 “__: My Story”: C&W autobiography 65 1990 Literature Nobelist Octavio 66 Vein pursuit 67 Raider points: Abbr.

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ARTS & CULTURE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2003 · PAGE 3

PW begins its season with a “Skriking” production BY ZOE WEINGART

Imagine a world that exists somewhere beyond the looking glass through which we often find ourselves peering, in search of objectivity, in search of answers, in search of ourselves. Imagine a world where cannibalistic fairies, draped in sackcloth and torn lace, break away from their orgies only to find themselves starving for knowledge of humanity — the mundane as well as the catastrophic. This is the world of Caryl Churchill’s “The Skriker.” As a spectator and guest in this world, it’s hard not to find oneself pressed to locate the nebulous line that separates sanity from madness. “What gets me,” said Erica Saleh ’04, the talented director of Production Workshop’s first play this year, “is that this play acknowledges that people do things and think things that we’re not proud of.” The characters in Caryl Churchill’s play speak in a sometimes charming, sometimes lewd dialect of rhyming nonsense, comparable to Lewis Carroll’s “The Jabberwocky,” that gently coaxes the audience out of their tendency toward cerebral understanding and into a realm of heightened emotional sensitivity. Gentle lighting by Nina Mamikunian ’04 and a minimalist set by Adam Griska ’04 add to the play’s subtle and clever seduction, and sharp and tinny sound effects by Nick Rosenblum ’03.5 assist the audience’s entry into the universe of “The Skriker.” Aside from a distracting and seemingly unmotivated excess of motion, sporadic and inaudible execution of lines and a sometimes unclear sense of location, the ensemble cast gives a collectively spectacular performance. Most notable among the talented cast is Emma Rebhorn ’06 as the Skriker. She is eerily ethereal, speaking in alluring rhymes or spitting curses and epithets, and chillingly vindictive, administering words like bee stings. Sarah Goldstein ’05 is a bit inconsistent in her portrayal of Josie, but as the difficult character falls deeper into psychosis and inner peril, Goldstein seems to fall deeper into her character’s inner world with all the commitment and wild abandon of a psychologically troubled and occasionally murderous individual. As Lily, Diana Fithian ’04 is ambiguously acted yet charged. While “Lily” equivocates and vacillates, one is left wondering what exactly is occurring behind the façade of Fithian’s sparkling eyes and mysteriously appearing and disappearing smile. For what it lacks in humor and surefoot-

BY MASHA KIRASIROVA

Legend has it that when the god Thot brought hieroglyphic writing to the ancient Egyptians, their king, Thalamus, worried it would cause people to suffer from forgetfulness. Instead it may have sparked a trend, with warriors and kings eventually trying to portray themselves as glyph-painting scribes. The story of the rise of writing in Ancient Egypt, as told by Leonard Lesko, chairman of Brown’s Egyptology Department, kicked off the Kirk Lecture Series on the Origins and Functions of Writing in Ancient Civilizations. After quickly inscribing columns of hieroglyphics on the blackboards of Soloman 001, Lesko introduced Thot, the god of writing and knowledge, credited by ancient Egyptians with inventing their hieroglyphic writing system. But at first King Thalamus wasn’t interested, Lesko said. “Readers would appear to be omniscient, but know nothing,” the King warned. Thot claimed to have discerned an infinite number of vowels in the human soul, though his written language contained none. Many Egyptologists claim literacy never reached beyond one percent of the population, but Lesko said writing may have had a greater impact on society than once thought. Kings and warriors would have themselves depicted as scribes carrying paintbrushes to demonstrate their literacy, according to Lesko. Some women may also have been literate, he said. Lesko said many Egyptian hieroglyphs changed function, from signifying particular ideas to instead becoming identified with certain sounds. An elongated oval shape, proJudy He / Herald

see “STRIKER,” page 6

New lecture series focuses on origins of writing

"The Skriker" is at Production Workshop through Monday.

see EGYPT, page 6

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002

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Network

“Anyone who has

Femsex

Pew

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not updated their

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them to the problem, she added. But Sadler warned of harsher consequences for users who do not take action by this weekend. “Anyone who has not updated their machine by Sunday night — we may unregister those machines with myConnection, effective Monday morning,” she said. That would require disconnected users to repeat the myConnection registration system, which would ensure they had updated their computers, she said. Sadler stressed that users should set up automatic Windows Updates to ward off similar problems in the future. “It looks like this is a pattern,” she said. “I mean, that’s no surprise to anybody, with the Microsoft code right now.” Instructions on setting up automatic updates were included in Waite-Franzen’s e-mail. CIS will continue to e-

machine by Sunday

wishes to inspire that same selfacceptance in other students through Femsex. The lessons learned in Femsex do not pertain exclusively to female sexuality and selfempowerment. Participants are also encouraged by the facilitators to challenge themselves to think in new ways and to be respectful of the reactions that different people have to these issues. “It’s refreshing and it’s always energizing to keep being made aware that people have fundamentally different views on things,” said Becky Hurwitz ’06, a participant in the workshop who also praised the enthusiastic and accepting group environment that she found at Femsex. The next assignment for Hurwitz and the roughly 40 other participants will be to create a “body image collage” that depicts how it feels to be inside their bodies. That same week they will tell three women they are beautiful and write about the experience.

Serio said the larger

night — we may un-register those machines with myConnection, effective Monday morning.” Connie Sadler Director of Information Technology security mail students the instructions, Sadler said. Users should also enable automatic virus definition updates, Sadler added. Herald staff writer Jonathan Ellis ’06 covers technology at Brown. He can be reached at jellis@browndailyherald.com.

implications of her research stretched as far as its impact on humans. When cells are healthy, genes like Sup35 limit protein production. Sup35 helps prevent buildup, or aggregates plaque formation in cells and tissue, like what occurs in the brain during mad cow disease. The Sup35 gene is responsible for this protein translation termination, Serio said. But, when the Sup35 protein is inactive, it can become a prion protein — one that allows for excessive and abnormal production of another protein. Prion proteins have been implicated in diseases from mad cow disease to Alzheimer’s. “What we are really interested in studying is the fact that the Sup35 is regulated in a unique way,” Serio said. The uniqueness of the Sup35 protein is that it can exist in more than one physical shape in a cell. Most proteins in a cell can only exist in one shape, she said. Because the Sup35 protein can exist in more than one shape, its function can be altered. “It’s active in one form and (its ability to stop translation of a protein) is compromised in another form,” Serio said. Sup35 is also considered a prion protein because of this ability to switch from one form to another. Serio uses yeast cells to study the functional effects of Sup35 by putting the gene into yeast and having it express Sup35 protein. In mammals, the protein switches between active and inactive states, which can cause neurological problems that can lead to death. In yeast, however, the protein’s change in form does not kill the yeast cell. “In yeast, we’re lucky because it doesn’t cause a disease state,” Serio said. “We can study the fluctuations from one form to the other and try to understand how that process is regulated.” One of the things Serio has proposed to do with her research funds is to develop a series of “monitors” to look at the protein as it goes from one state to another. “One example is locating a single cell where we can mark the protein, for example, with a florescent tag and watch the protein in real time convert from one state to another,” she said. By watching the process occur, Serio said, researchers can find what other proteins or factors in the cell are controlling when and how the Sup35 protein changes in form. Serio said the larger implications of her research stretched as far as its impact on humans. “If we can understand how these forms convert back and forth between each other, that may be applicable to higher organisms such as cows and people,” she said. Herald senior staff writer Monique Meneses ’05 can be reached at mmeneses@browndailyherald.com.

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CAMPUS NEWS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2003 · PAGE 5

Brown met federal database deadline BY PAISID ARAMPHONGPHAN

The University successfully completed a database that contains information about foreign students at Brown and submitted it to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System before its Aug. 1 deadline. SEVIS, an internet-based, automated system, was first initiated after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and made mandatory by the USA Patriot Act of 2001 in response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The system helps the government track foreign students and facilitates communication between the U.S. Department of State and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to the BCIS Web site. The University already had a database containing information about foreign students, according to John Eng-Wong ’64, director of Foreign Students, Faculty and Staff Services. But, he said, the database was incomplete and needed corrections. Last semester, foreign students were contacted and asked to correct their information. Although there was some confusion because many students were not aware of the federal database, EngWong said nearly all of the information is now accurate. “Still, there are ongoing questions,” Eng-Wong said. “It’s a continuing process of collecting data and correcting the existing database.” “It is naïve to believe that (SEVIS) will prevent terrorist attacks,” he said. As a tracking tool, though, he said he Judy He / Herald

see DATABASE, page 6

GET OFF:The College Democrats sponsored a Soap Box Debate on the steps of Faunce House Thursday afternoon.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD lecture series presents “I Used to Be a Committee: Standards and Values at The New York Times” Allan Siegal, Standards Editor and Asst. Managing Editor talks about Talks about post- Jayson Blair fallout at the Times October 4

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002

Egypt continued from page 3 nounced “ri,” which once signified the mouth, became the pictographs for the “R” sound with any vowel. A horizontal squiggly line, pronounced “nu” and signifying water, became the pictograph for the consonantal sound of “N.” This practice of assigning sound to pictographs was called acrophony and was the first step in the development of an actual alphabet otherwise known as the “one sign-one sound” system of writing. By 660 B.C., Hieratic, the more formal pictorial writing, was abbreviated, and a new cursive, Demotic, emerged as the dominant script. Hieratic was still used in traditional or religious writings, but the shorthand Demotic was now used for all economic and literary purposes. It’s last recorded usage was in 425 B.C. before being

Database continued from page 5 believes it will accomplish its goal. He added that the government, when instituting the system, did not realize how mobile students are and how difficult it is to keep tracking them. “If you go to Texas tomorrow, the University wouldn’t know,” he said. Eng-Wong said he thinks the system is not a welcoming gesture for students new to the United States. “We need to think about the values presented by this kind of system,” he said. “It’s just a regulation,” said Chin Lin Wong ’07, who hails from Malaysia. She did not have any problem getting a visa or

“Skriker” continued from page 3 edness, “The Skriker” more than makes up for with its sincere exploration of the less commonly

completely replaced by Greek. Egyptian writing was multifaceted. Some believed it was magical, leading to the practice of inscribing names of enemies on plates and then smashing them. It was also used for legal and medical purposes as many surviving documents show. Some of the tomb writing studied by Lesko and his colleagues is impressive even by today’s standards. While most of the glyphs are usually read from left to right, some could also be read from right to left. Occasionally, they could be read in both directions. One especially complex engraving can be read both horizontally and vertically. “It’s the great-grandfather of all crossword puzzles,” Lesko said. The next lecture in the Kirk Lecture Series is Piotr Michalowski’s lecture on “The Origins of Literacy in Ancient Mesopotamia.”

travelling by air. But she said that in her home country it usually takes a long time to apply for a visa, especially for men. “(SEVIS) has no application to my life here, so I don’t feel that anything’s wrong,” said Supaprat Panyarachun ’05, a student from Thailand. Radhika Dhariwal ’04 from India said her experience did not change much since the implementation of SEVIS. She said she had to get a new I-20, but did not face any difficulty at the airport, although she said she knows a lot of people who did. Dhariwal feels that the system is a “hassle” but said she can understand it. “(The U.S.) has been facing a lot of animosity, so it makes sense for them to want to protect themselves,” she said.

frequented alleyways of loneliness, longing and psychological doubt. The cast and crew of “The Skriker” have taken a challenging script and produced a play that is honest and evocative, fanciful and engaging.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2003 · PAGE 7

Isabel’s winds hit area in force WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — Powerful winds and lashing rains from much-anticipated Hurricane Isabel smashed through a shuttered Washington region Thursday night, tested the preparations — and nerves — of residents and officials alike. Fallen trees blocked major commuter routes as work crews hurried to clear them. Winds gusted above 50 mph, rain fell in sheets, and tree branches littered roadways. Residents in low-lying areas were urged to abandon their homes; everyone else was warned to stay inside. The National Weather Service said at 10 p.m. that the storm was heading on a northwesterly route from Farmville, Va., toward the central mountains and river basin areas of West Virginia and Western Maryland. The storm center would miss the immediate Washington area but could drop from 3 to 6 inches of rain altogether. The forecasters were monitoring the potential for flooding of the Potomac, Shenandoah and Rapphannock rivers. “It’s kind of a double-barrel effect,” said Jim Travers, a National Weather Service meteorologist. “We could be sitting there with pretty decent weather, and the rivers are going to be coming up.” The storm shut down public transportation throughout the region, including Metro bus and rail service and the suburban commuter lines, MARC and Virginia Railway Express. By 3 p.m., the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was closed to all traffic because of increasing winds; a couple of hours later, airlines stopped flights into and out of the Washington area, and airport terminals took on a deserted look as concession stands closed and passengers stayed home. The federal government closed Thursday and will be closed again Friday, as will most schools and local government offices. Metro, which stopped running at 11 a.m. Thursday,

said it would examine the condition of the rails and roads this morning before deciding when to restore train and bus service. By Thursday night, more than 700,000 electric customers in the Washington area had lost power, and many traffic lights had gone dark. Even the Maryland Emergency Management Agency command center in Reisterstown briefly lost electricity, but it was restored with a generator. The Washington Post lost power at its Springfield, Va., printing plant. As conditions deteriorated, evacuations were ordered in the afternoon and evening in St. Mary’s County, Md., and in lowlying areas of Fairfax County, Va., along the George Washington Memorial Parkway just south of Alexandria. Calvert County, Md., ordered evacuations of six communities. Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced that he had activated 630 National Guardsmen, citing concerns about Allegany and Washington counties in western Maryland. Although the brunt of the storm was felt after nightfall in Washington, its signs were visible early, as skies darkened and thewinds rose. By Thursday afternoon, Isabel’s outer bands had already wreaked havoc on eastern Virginia roads and power lines. Virginia Gov. Mark Warner was urging motorists to stay off the highways, warning of flash floods and falling trees. The White House granted Warner’s request to declare 31 localities including Alexandria, a disaster area. Two people were reported killed on wet roads Thursday. In Anne Arundel County, a 50year-old man was killed when his car slammed into a utility pole on Shore Acres Road near Olmstead. In Virginia, a Richmond motorist died when his vehicle skidded in high water on Interstate 95. Another person was killed when a tree fell on a car in Albemarle County, Lt. John Teixeira of the county sheriff’s office told the Associated Press.

Punch cards fight a losing battle WASHINGTON (L.A. Times) — When

Congress enacted legislation designed to avoid a repeat of the Florida voting debacle of 2000, one of the bill’s chief sponsors predicted the dreaded punchcard machines soon would be found only “in the Smithsonian.” But now, less than 14 months away from the next presidential contest, more than half the states still use the machinery that produced the notoriously dimpled, pregnant and hanging chads. And the vast majority scarcely have begun to upgrade their balloting systems, unable to access most of the $3.9 billion Congress allotted for the effort a year ago amid great fanfare and a promise that Florida would “never, never happen again.” “This is the cruelest of all jokes,” said R. Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center, a nonpartisan group in Houston that works with U.S. election administrators. “We promised the voters we would do something about this. They passed legislation to fix it. But because they have not yet funded what they promised, we have high expectations and low ability to deliver.” California gave the issue a shove earlier this week, when a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals postponed the Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election because voters in six counties would be using punch-card ballots that the secretary of state has declared obsolete and error prone. All that was supposed to end with the Help America Vote Act, which President Bush signed in October. The act was designed to force states to examine their voting machinery, replace antiquated equipment and create databases of registered voters that would ensure accurate, secure elections. The act created an Election Assistance Commission, to be made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, to guide states through the process and — most importantly — hand out the money to help pay for it. But the commission, which was supposed to be up and running seven months ago, has yet to be see a single member nominated by Bush, much less confirmed by the Senate. Meanwhile, all 50 states have

drawn up their plans for reform but have nowhere to submit them. And hundreds of millions of dollars sit idle in the Treasury as states from Nevada to Massachusetts struggle to meet a 2006 federal deadline, unable to front the money because of their own paralyzing deficits. “States don’t have enough money to fund all the requirements mandated by the federal government, and the federal government promised the states they would help share the burden,’” said Kay Albowicz, spokeswoman for the National Association of Secretaries of State in Washington. “So far, they haven’t kept that promise.” The process of constituting the commission has faltered at every turn. The parties sent the names of their candidates to the president only recently. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said that Bush intended to nominate all four members soon. While Help America Vote was enacted with noble aims — to make it easier for citizens to vote and harder for politicians to cheat — a string of disasters, from terrorism to recession, moved the comparatively mundane matter of voting reform to Washington’s back burners. Now the appellate judges’ decision, if upheld by the Supreme Court, has many states worried that they could be forced to move more quickly than they feel is possible to overhaul their election procedures. “We’re already facing problems with time and money in complying with federal directives on election reforms,” Barbara J. Reed, the Douglas County, Nev., clerk-treasurer, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “If this decision holds, it could prompt very swift action.” Some states and cities have made progress on their own. Florida, which suffered 36 days of national embarrassment during the 2000 election, has already replaced old equipment with updated technology and has at least one touch-screen machine that is accessible to disabled voters in every polling place. Boston plans soon to scrap the 900-pound lever machines it has used since 1946 in favor of optical scanners.

And Georgia has been held up as a model for voter education, putting prototypes of its new electronic voting devices in malls and shopping centers so that citizens could become acquainted. But progress has come too slowly, according to two of the reform law’s main sponsors — Rep. Robert W. Ney, R-Ohio, and House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md. They sent a letter this week urging Congress to appropriate immediately $1.9 billion for election reform. “Without sufficient funding, the important reforms imposed by the bill will not be realized,” they wrote. “We’re ready to do the work. We in the states are geared up. But we need the funding,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, president of a national group of state election officers. She met with White House officials here Thursday and said afterward that they had promised to do their best but made no commitments. While the law requires the reforms be put in place in stages by 2006, most states were eager to finish before the presidential contest in November 2004. But of 33 states that were using punch-card ballots last time around, only six have done away with them entirely: Georgia, Maryland, Florida, Hawaii, New Jersey and Wisconsin. Of the 27 states still using them, it is all but certain that 15 will continue to rely on the controversial machinery when the country next elects a president, experts who study election reform said. The task of overhauling balloting systems that vary not just by state but by county has proved daunting, even for the most ambitious election officials. Maryland was preparing to install state-of-the-art electronic voting machines when computer scientists at Johns Hopkins University warned the system was so flawed that a savvy teenager could hack in and tamper with election results. “I don’t want a situation where some 15-year-old kid could elect Ben Affleck to county executive,” one local official protested recently. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich has ordered a review of the machines’ security.

PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002

Now that’s big: fossil find is 9-foot rodent Declassification aims to (Washington Post) — Scientists

have found fossils of what they say is the largest rodent that ever lived, a nine-foot long, buffalosized creature with a long tail and powerful teeth that foraged along the riverbanks of Venezuela about 8 million years ago. Scientists said Phoberomys pattersoni probably weighed up to 1,545 pounds, about 10 times the size of today’s largest rodent, the South American capybara, and nearly 2,500 times bigger than a 10-ounce rat. “We like to say they are like guinea pigs, to mention something that people are more likely to recognize,” said Marcelo Sanchez-Villagra, a zoologist from Germany’s University of Tubingen and a member of the Venezuelan-led team that unearthed the remains three years ago in the fabled Urumaco fossil fields east of Maracaibo. But Sanchez-Villagra said that among rodents, a huge mammalian order that includes field mice, hamsters, squirrels, beavers and chinchillas,

Phoberomys is most closely akin to the pacarana — a rare, 33pound foraging animal from the western reaches of the Amazon jungle. Sanchez-Villagra said the find, reported in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, provided further evidence that Urumaco, today an arid desert town near the Caribbean coast hard by Venezuela’s western oilfields, was once part of a lush tropical delta fed by an ancient river that flowed north along the eastern slope of the Andes. “The environment was very diverse,” Sanchez-Villagra said in a telephone interview. “There were lagoons and forested areas very near the seashore and fauna from a large river,” probably connected to today’s Orinoco, which flows east from the Amazon. Urumaco sits on the site of an old oilfield where a petroleum geologist in 1952 discovered a rock layer rich in fossils — especially of turtles, crocodiles and other reptiles. In 1970 zoologist Roger Wood, then a Harvard

graduate student, saw the exhibits at Venezuela’s Central University and enlisted the university’s help in mounting an expedition with his worldrenowned mentor, Harvard mammalogist Bryan Patterson. Urumaco “had a special attraction, because it was the northern-most paleontological site in South America at the time,” recalled Wood, who teaches at New Jersey’s Richard Stockton College. Thus it offered a unique desert exposure in a latitude where a blanket of tropical forest makes systematic excavation unfeasible. The expedition yielded spectacular reptile finds, including several huge crocodile species and a turtle shell 8 1/2 feet long — still the largest turtle ever found: “We didn’t find much in the way of mammals,” Wood said, but a later expedition unearthed several teeth from a very large mammal. Investigators named it Phoberomys pattersoni, in honor of Patterson, who died in 1979.

quell Patriot-Act criticisms (L.A. Times) — The provision, known as Section 215, empowers law-enforcement authorities in terrorism investigations to obtain individuals’ business records and other information through a secret tribunal — known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — without first having to establish probable cause that a crime was committed. Librarians, civil-liberties groups and others have decried the provision, saying it gives the government too much power to investigate the lives of people not directly involved in suspected terrorist activities. The American Library Association has been a particularly vocal critic, calling the section a license for the government to check out the reading habits of innocent people. Justice officials previously indicated that they had used the law sparingly, but had declined to release specific data, citing national-security concerns. On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft decided to declassify the number of times Section 215 had been used “to counter the troubling amount of public distortion and misinformation’” surrounding the law, according to a memo from Ashcroft to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. “The number of times Section 215 has been used to date is zero,” the memo said. In a speech Monday, Ashcroft chided the library association for engendering “baseless hysteria” about how the provision was being implemented. Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the library association’s Washington office, said the group was pleased that Ashcroft chose to release the data, but that the lack of use of the provision proves the group’s point — that it is unnecessary and represents a dangerous threat to civil liberties with little law-enforcement upside. “We do think this ‘zero’ means there is no need to have the law on the books as it is,” she said. Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has introduced legislation in the House that would exempt librarians from the reach of Section 215, and Sheketoff said she hoped the Justice Department would throw its weight behind the amendment. “We are sort of surprised by the number,” Sheketoff said. “They fought for two years not to talk about what they were doing in libraries,” she said, adding the government has other powers to investigate library records and may well be using them. The American Civil Liberties Union, which in July filed a lawsuit in federal court in Detroit alleging that Section 215 violated First Amendment guarantees of free speech and religious association, said the fact that Ashcroft and the Justice Department had not yet used the law would not

“The risk is still as much a risk as ever. ... He could begin using it this afternoon,” said Ann Beeson, the ACLU’s associate legal director.“The case will not become moot until Congress repeals the law or John Ashcroft certifies in writing that he will never use it against our clients or anyone else.” affect the lawsuit. “The risk is still as much a risk as ever. ... He could begin using it this afternoon,” said Ann Beeson, the ACLU’s associate legal director. “The case will not become moot until Congress repeals the law or John Ashcroft certifies in writing that he will never use it against our clients or anyone else.” The Justice Department’s disclosure comes as the Bush administration is seeking additional terrorism-fighting powers beyond the Patriot Act, which was approved overwhelmingly by Congress six weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. In a speech last week, President Bush called on Congress to approve legislation that would permit the Justice Department to issue administrative subpoenas to gather information in terrorism cases. That proposal is even more controversial than Section 215, because there is no requirement that the subpoenas be reviewed by a judge before they are issued. In the wake of congressional and other studies this year raising questions about lawenforcement and intelligence breakdowns before Sept. 11, and the Justice Department’s treatment of hundreds of illegal immigrants in the weeks after the attacks, members of Congress seem generally lukewarm to the idea of giving the department added authority any time soon. In a prepared statement Thursday, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., RWis., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that “regardless of today’s disclosure, the House Judiciary Committee will continue aggressive oversight of the Justice Department and how it implements the USA Patriot Act.”

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2003 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

Troy

Jim Fassel may file a

Crew

continued from page 12

lawsuit for the way he

continued from page 12

by October 13, with just enough time to get his team to lose in the first round of the playoffs. Chiefs (-8) over the TEXANS – The Chiefs scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams last week and more impressively, Priest Holmes accounted for only three of them. Just to clear things up about the year the Rams won it all, Dick Vermeil was the genius and Mike Martz was the guy who just got lucky. At least Houston has allowed significantly fewer sacks this season. REDSKINS (-2.5) over the Giants – Following the MNF loss, Jim Fassel may file a lawsuit for the way he has been violated by the New York papers. If only the Post could come up with something clever to rhyme with Fassel. Plus, with one more loss, I will win the “Guess How Many Games It Will Be Before Fassel Getting Fired Talk Starts” pool. Packers (-8) over the CARDINALS (LOCK OF THE WEEK) – Let me introduce you to Arizona, the NFL’s version of the Detroit Tigers and the first legitimate shot to go 0-16 since the Jets were led by Rich Kotite. Brett Favre should pad his season stats with this game and help out fantasy football owners everywhere. SEAHAWKS (-3) over the Rams – Marc Bulger is just not good. He just seems good by comparison, when placed next to the suddenly inept Kurt Warner. Just because R. Kelly seems normal when compared to Michael Jackson, it does not mean you would want him babysitting your kids. Mike Holmgren is finally living up to his potential in Seattle and if all goes according to plan, the Seahawks will make the playoffs before the Mariners. CHARGERS (+1) over the Ravens – This is my “The NFL Makes No Sense” pick of the week. Baltimore dominated Cleveland last week and San Diego looked terrible against Denver, so naturally the Chargers will win this week. Just for the record, Ladainian Tomlinson is a week away from giving back the L.T. nickname to Lawrence Taylor. 49ERS (-7) over the Browns –

has been violated by

Bears, the team has regained the form and confidence it showed through half of last year. With Crew as captain, he leads by example and is very motivational when he needs to be. “I was cramping up badly against Stanford and he just told me to keep pushing and keep striving. He gave me the last 15 minutes of that game,” Romaniero said. Crew is a selfless player that his teammates truly admire. No matter how many goals he scores he always puts the team in front of individual accomplishments. “Individual goals come and go, but they mean nothing if the team doesn’t win. Everyone is happy whoever

the New York papers. If only the Post could come up with something clever to rhyme with Fassel. Plus, with one more loss, I will win the “Guess How Many Games It Will Be Before Fassel Getting Fired Talk Starts” pool. Breaking news: San Francisco released its kicker. Since that should have little to no impact on the game, I will stick with the 49ers. Terrell Owens is due for a breakout game and since the Browns appear to be due for a quarterback change, give up the points and take the home team. Bills (+3) over the DOLPHINS – This pick is based solely on the Testaverde ratio. If you can give up over 370 yards and a touchdown to a 40-plus QB, you will give up 1.25 times as many yards and twice as many touchdowns to a number one overall pick. Buffalo is so hot right now and assuming they can avoid getting into a break-dance fight, they should pick up the victory. Raiders (+5) over the BRONCOS – Almost losing to Cincinnati is liked being kicked in the groin. You will not forget the pain for a few weeks. When Oakland travels to Mile High, it will be hungry for another win. As for Denver, Mike Shanahan would like to add that Jake Plummer is not injured, was never in San Diego, and did not have sexual relations with that woman. Joshua Troy ’04 hails from Stamford, Conn. and is a political science concentrator.

Perlmutter continued from page 12 around the bases. He’s even made Theo Epstein and James happy by taking his usual bases on balls. Simple Manny knows this: when he plays well, people will like him, and when he doesn’t, people won’t. The off-season decision to trade him or not will boil down to his performance — if he does his part to help the team win, the events of early September will be forgotten about. If not, well, they will stay fresh in fans’ memories. So in the end, his antics take a backseat to his play, which is exactly how it should be in a competitive city like Boston. It’s as clear as it has ever been that the Boston obsession with the Red Sox distorts fans’ and the media’s vision of players and their actions. Manny didn’t exacerbate the team’s struggles — we did. He knows the way to our hearts, and it’s unfortunate that fans often ignore the way to his.

scores, on this team we’ll all root for each other,” Crew said. He has definitely been supportive of the seven freshmen that have come to play for the team. “The freshmen have been competitive and have great energy. The freshmen and sophomores are playing well in practices and all the competition is a good sign.” The respect Crew has gained has come from all places. “Adom is a great captain. He is exemplary of what a captain should be on and off the field,” Noonan said. There is something beyond the skills of Crew that just makes him great to have around. Crew is obviously a vital cog in the Bears’ offense but even beyond the soccer field he has had an impact on his team. “Adom is not only our captain. He is social and really good to be around. He will still

be part of our team even when he graduates” Romaneiro said. It is that nature that has made Crew unique to play with. Without him the team struggled and with him they have looked very promising. Even though the team has played well, there is still a long way to go. “The first two games were awesome. The fans really helped us through the first game against Stanford, but they are only two games. There is still a lot of work to do if we went to achieve our goal of winning the Ivy League and making the NCAA tournament,” Crew said. Crew is a true model of what a Brunonian should be on and off the field. If a player with half his talent, but the same attitude comes along, Noonan should be very pleased for another four years.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2003 · PAGE 10 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

Diamonds and coal A diamond to the Farmers Market, for the best peaches (and peach salsa) we’ve had in a long time. And a special diamond to pick-your-own apples, which always taste better. Coal to the new, utterly useless EAB. If it ain’t broke… A diamond to the new athletic fields by the stadium. And the new squash courts. Now if only we could get some decent exercise space so we don’t embarrass ourselves out there. Coal to the lack of New York Times at the Ratty. That just leaves us with table slips and that worthless rag of a tabloid. A diamond to Brown’s emergency preparedness Web site (featured prominently on the Brown homepage), for keeping us informed that, “There is currently no emergency on campus.” Coal to the LiSci construction, for removing the key Main Campus-Pembroke thoroughfare. When you’re trying to make it from Barus and Holley to Smitty B in 10 minutes, every second counts. ANDREW SHEETS

A diamond to recent breakthroughs in machine-brain interface. Soon there won’t even be a dash separating the two. Coal to Allegra for making the narcissist’s dream of a plate glass window utterly useless. But a diamond to the side of the Bio-Med Center, now officially the best building on campus to check yourself out in. A diamond to the RISD Nads. Go Nads! Hey ... we just got that. Coal to the kid who took “Dump and Run” a bit too literally on our back porch. A diamond to the fem sex workshop. Females, sexuality, what’s not to like? And a diamond to James. He knows what we’re talking about.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Elena Lesley, Editor-in-Chief Brian Baskin, Executive Editor Zachary Frechette, Executive Editor Kerry Miller, Executive Editor Kavita Mishra, Senior Editor Rachel Aviv, Arts & Culture Editor Jen Sopchockchai, Asst. Arts & Culture Editor Carla Blumenkranz, Campus Watch Editor Juliette Wallack, Metro Editor Philissa Cramer, RISD News Editor Jonathan Skolnick, Opinions Editor Jonathan Meachin, Sports Editor Maggie Haskins, Sports Editor

BUSINESS Jamie Wolosky, General Manager Joe Laganas, Executive Manager Joshua Miller, Executive Manager Anastasia Ali, Project Manager Jack Carrere, Project Manager Lawrence L.Hester IV, Project Manager Bill Louis, Project Manager Zoe Ripple, Project Manager Peter Schermerhorn, Local Accounts Manager Elias Roman, Local Accounts Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Sr. Advertising Rep. Elyse Major, Advertising Rep. Kate Sparaco, Office Manager

PRODUCTION Zachary Frechette, Chief Technology Officer Marc Debush, Copy Desk Chief Yafang Deng, Copy Desk Chief Grace Farris, Graphics Editor Andrew Sheets, Graphics Editor Sara Perkins, Photo Editor

P O S T- M A G A Z I N E Alex Carnevale, Editor-in-Chief Dan Poulson, Executive Editor Morgan Clendaniel, Senior Editor Theo Schell-Lambert, Senior Editor Micah Salkind, Features Editor Ellen Wernecke, Features Editor Abigail Newman, Theater Editor Doug Fretty, Film Editor Jason Ng, Music Editor Colin Hartnett, Design Editor

Pater Behrens, Night Editor Marc Debush, George Haws, Copy Editors Senior Staff Writers Zach Barter, Danielle Cerny, Dana Goldstein, Lisa Mandle, Monique Meneses, Joanne Park, Meryl Rothstein, Ellen Wernecke Staff Writers Kathy Babcock, Hannah Bascom, Carla Blumenkranz, Philissa Cramer, Ian Cropp, Jonathan Ellis, Stephanie Harris, Hanyen Lee, Julian Leichty, Allison Lombardo, Jonathan Meachin, Sara Perkins, Melissa Perlman, Eric Perlmutter, Cassie Ramirez, Lily Rayman-Read, Zoe Ripple, Emir Senturk, Jen Sopchockchai, Adam Stern, Stefan Talman, Joshua Troy, Schuyler von Oeyen, Juliette Wallack, Jessica Weisberg, Brett Zarda, Julia Zuckerman Accounts Managers Laird Bennion, Eugen Clifton Cha, In Young Park, Jane C. Urban, Sophie Waskow, Justin Wong, Christopher Yu Pagination Staff Lisa Mandle, Alex Palmer Photo Staff Marissa Hauptman, Nick Mark, Alex Palmer, Cassie Ramirez Copy Editors Emily Brill, George Haws, Katie Lamm

LETTERS Readers question whether McAuliffe does in fact set the record straight on Iraq To the Editor:

To the Editor:

Re: “Setting the Record Straight on Iraq,” Sept. 18. I wish to thank Mr. McAuliffe for finally “setting the record straight.” I personally opposed the war for many reasons, some of which you ridiculously exaggerated, and some of which you failed to mention. The precedent we set by violating sovereignty without good pretext is the one that bothers me most. When the United States violates the U.N. charter and nobody calls them on it, what meaning does international law have? That, aside from horrible fiscal policy, reckless militarism, abandonment of diplomacy, gross exaggeration of fact and the terrible human cost, was enough to convince me to oppose the war. And we do it in the name of democracy — never mind that when any oppose our recklessness with their vote in the United Nations, we threaten them with unspecified “consequences.” We buy approval and punish dissent — that’s democracy for you. I don’t like feeling my country is run by thugs.

Among Christopher McAuliffe’s arguments in favor of the unilateral war in Iraq (“Setting the record straight on Iraq,” Sept. 18) is the assertion that antiwar advocates were wrong in arguing the war would mobilize more “angry young Muslims” into attacking Americans. Let’s look at that. McAuliffe calls the war in Iraq a “three week war.” If this is in fact the case, the final day of war can be calculated to have been April 11, exactly 21 days after the first coalition casualties. Between April 12 and the time I am writing this letter, there have been 76 confirmed hostile-fire deaths of American troops. If this is not evidence of new mobilization, one of two things must be true: Either not one of the attacks in that period was carried out by “angry young Muslims” or McAuliffe does not consider our troops to be Americans. The first possibility has been openly refuted by our own State Department, which has acknowledged that many of the attacks can likely be attributed to religious fundamentalists, not Baath loyalists. I can only conclude, then, that the 76 soldiers murdered in supposedly postwar Iraq did not fit into McAuliffe’s rubric of what constitutes American citizenship. The most salient argument against the unilateral war is one that McAuliffe never addresses but inadvertently proves: that the pro-war camp treats our mostly working-class armed forces more as action figures than as Americans. If the war is indeed over, these 76 deaths cannot be written off as expected casualties. They are terrorism deaths, undeniably made possible by the war. Eli Swiney ’04 Sept. 18

Aaron Fritschner ’06 Sept. 18

COMMENTARY POLICY The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns and letters reflect the opinions of their authors only. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. ADVERTISING POLICY The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement in its discretion.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2003 · PAGE 11

Magic bars and modern art — two reasons to vomit Modern art’s obsession with the medium takes away from its value MODERN ART: LIKE A RATTY MAGIC BAR, and translates an image. But when an artist people either love it or hate it. Modern focuses solely on the medium, splattering artists concern themselves with the medi- paint or profoundly “not using paint,” it um, not with theme. This parallels the proves hard to feign any respect for his or infamous magic bar. Although Ratty work- her alleged “skill” or “vision.” To quickly betray the dessert analogies, ers may throw together many delicious consider a parallel between art ingredients, the result is neiand literature. Any literate ther masterful nor satisfying. LAURA MARTIN person could focus on the Talent does not lie in the mediGUEST COLUMNIST medium and spell out a um itself, but in the successful plethora of words. However, it blending of these ingredients is the artist, the writer, who to form a product that evokes emotion and contemplation. There is little can combine these media to create a hope of a magic bar or a completely coherent work that stirs the reader. Big playground disease wanting grass under orange canvas achieving either. Take a moment to imagine the follow- horticulturalist martinis. The previous sening picture. There is a singular blank can- tence displayed the medium of the English vas; in one corner there is nothing, in language, but does not merit as much another corner: nothing. Wait, the whole respect as Shakespeare’s words, “What’s canvas is blank. It could be argued the Montague? It is not hand, nor foot, nor piece “comments on the void that society arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging creates in the souls of the individual and to a man. What’s in a name? That which we the hope that lies in defying the con- call a rose by any other word would smell straints of modernity.” Conversely, it as sweet.” Poetry is another artistic realm that has could be said, “Wow, that is the stupidest been tainted by modernism. There is thing I have ever seen.” Some artists exhibit competence by something to be said for experimenting proving they have mastered skills of refine- with uncharted rhythm and style. There ment through pieces that are realistic or are also many criticisms against completeinduce pathos. Let’s deem these artists the ly abandoning all flow and rhythm. Poetry Meeting Street cookies of the world. This is exists to alter the reader. It should appeal not to say styles such as impressionism are to emotion and imagery. Spacing and “bad” because they are not refined; punctuation should be used as tools — impressionism still considers the subject they should not be the main point of the poem. Poetry is similar to music in that it appeals to the human attraction to tone and rhythm. Many modern poems sacriLaura Martin ‘06 hails from Manville, R.I.

Many modern poems sacrifice flow, as well as any larger artistic vision. The sentence “Cows are; hot!” contains additional spacing to draw attention to the hesitation of the narrator, and a semicolon to leave the reader momentarily questioning the certainty of the future. Is this art? fice flow, as well as any larger artistic vision. The sentence “Cows are; hot!” contains additional spacing to draw attention to the hesitation of the narrator, and a semicolon to leave the reader momentarily questioning the certainty of the future. Is this art? Paint itself is pretty. So is the word “plethora.” The person who points this out is not an instant artist. One could easily say, “hey, trees are pretty,” and take credit for something which is innate in the medium and in no way related to skill or imagination. It is unfair to take credit for a splatter of paint. The paint itself was not made by the “artist,” nor was the pattern — that would be good old physics at work. An artist should use the medium as a tool to craft either an image or a concept that is not lost upon the viewer. Picasso and his contemporaries contrast those who cut up dead cows and display them, give pretentious names to piles

of trash, or indulge in similar projects. There are varying degrees of modern art, just as there are various qualities of Ratty desserts. There are artists who revolutionize their field, using lines and colors in novel ways while still maintaining artistic integrity and aesthetic quality. Picasso, for example, is more of a fudge brownie than a magic bar. His paintings make visual statements about transcending dimensions, use colors that complement each other, and have an actual physical subject. Like a brownie bar to the overstressed college student, his mastery ensures the viewer’s admiration, or at least vague interest. What does the future hold for the realm of art? Shall we all paint our butt cheeks blue and stamp them on the Main Green sidewalk, making a collective statement that people come in all shades of the rainbow? It seems the choice between the Meeting Street cookie and the magic bar is not a complicated one.

Save the humpback and let the dolphins die Eventually we rationalize even our most trivial preferences FOR SOME BRIGHT REASON, WE’RE ALL er. Well, maybe you and I couldn’t, that is. supposed to have a favorite animal. It’s Because my Nana certainly had no trouone of those widely accepted yet highly ble. Stuffed animals, posters, fashion rings, judgmental activities we force children to embrace so they’ll have something to base perfume bottles, necklace pendants, their identity on when they get older. You stained glass wall hangings, blown-glass figurines, birthday cards and see, children are fairly decisive then some, were eagerly purpeople. They don’t deliberate SARAH chased by my grandmother over what to eat, what to wear, CHIAPPINELLI GUEST COLUMNIST whenever she proudly spotted what species to use as a cataa dorsal fin and flippers. She’d lyst for biological discriminagive each of these seemingly tion. They’re at the perfect age for favoritism. I mean, can you imagine if endless oceanic gifts to me with that you had waited until you were 20 to excitement in her eyes a la Rosie from choose a favorite animal? “Well, I don’t “The Wedding Singer” when she watches really think that the classification system Robbie Hart eat a meatball — “Now I get imposed upon worldly organisms into to watch you eat them! That’s my favorite quote-unquote ‘distinct’ catalogs of fauna part.” Well, as endearing as all this was, gives an observer of such a system any an overshadowing confusion about basis for value judgment, outside of his or cetaceans on Nana’s part made, “Oh, her own insensitive extrication of blah Nana, you shouldn’t have,” all too true. blah blah . . .” Yes, it’s best we leave such What she had taken to be whales were challenging inquiry for the kiddies to fig- actually dolphins. You know, those giddy, screechy, bulbous porpoise cousins who ure out. So, anyway, the humpback whale. get stuck in fishing nets and the opening That’s my favorite. It’s a mysterious little acts at Sea World. “Sarah, there’s tons of mammal you can observe only at sea. It stuff with whales,” Nana righted me as I sings, it breaches, it catches food by mak- “fawned” over a “Flipper” VHS tape. Yeah, so, dolphins. They are my least ing “bubble nets” — obviously the coolest animal ever, right? Well, back in the ‘80s, favorite animal. I really do hate them. this was apparently not supported by “Because they’re not whales?” a friend enough of my grade school peers to once asked. Yes, precisely. My sister, who majored in bio, also has a encourage a demand for useless (but highly desirable) humpback whale para- least favorite animal. As with me and the phernalia. Nowhere could you find so dolphins, my sister would just as soon see much as a humpback whale pocket-fold- this species go extinct, provided it could be done without any drastic consequences to the rest of the animal kingdom. Her source of frustration is the infamously Sarah Chiappinelli ‘06 hails from northlethargic giant panda, and I must admit eastern Vermont and invites you to disher basis for hatred is much more sensible agree with her confusion.

ON PANDAS: So, do we pity them? Help them? Hybridize their local bamboo with one of those sketchy metabolism accelerators they advertise in the back of Us magazine? Nah, decides my sister, let’s just wish extinction upon them. (in a weird evolutionary-psychology kind of way) than my personal grudge toward the dolphin. You see, pandas, cuteness aside, aren’t a very proactive or self-sufficient species. In fact, the average panda bear’s metabolism is so (embarrassingly) low that they are perpetually too exhausted to . . . well, we all know how endangered they are. Note, as well, that they can’t so much as eat a meal without needing to take a nap before they’re finished. So, do we pity them? Help them? Hybridize their local bamboo with one of those sketchy metabolism accelerators they advertise in the back of Us magazine? Nah, decides my sister, let’s just wish extinction upon them. The panda, coincidentally, is also a source of classification confusion within my family. Is it a huge raccoon or a finicky bear? Vegetarian, opposable thumbs — could go either way, right? Not even the San Diego Zoo knows for sure, and they have two nice, big, sleepy ones. So, categorical confusion — does that drive one to hate? In the case of dolphin and panda lovers (which I am told exist), the mystique seems to have quite the opposite effect, attracting a certain glorification. Let’s consider some other (per-

haps more universally divided) examples: 1. The tomato: Either you love them or hate them, and many people switch sides sometime around adolescence. But are they a fruit or a vegetable? 2. Blink 182: Are they pop or punk? The need to ask, in itself, has left them hated by many (some lines dare not be blurred), yet equally many praise them for diversifying mainstream music. 3. Sporks and skorts: The intent was “best of both worlds.” Some say success, some say weird and unnecessary. 4. Ron Howard’s “The Grinch,” Prelutsky and Smith’s “Hooray for Diffendoofer Day”, Bo Welch’s “Cat in the Hat:” Either very passionately loved or very passionately hated. Is the reinvention of Seuss a form of flattery or disrespect? As the cases in point stack up, the lovehate debates intensify. And that’s just it. Having something straddle the line or buck the system is an occasion to take sides. It’s picking favorites, adult-style. When you’re a kid, your favorite color is blue. No necessity for reason. But with time … you like that blue sweater because it’s a very trust-me-it’s-blue-not-purple hue of blue.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 19, 2003 · PAGE 12

Manny Ramirez: a simpleton at heart

Getting rid of fumblitis in NFL’s Week 3 These picks have been made against the Skybook odds and as always are for recreational purposes only. For the past year and a half I have just been calling Hank Goldberg and asking him what he thinks. (Home team in CAPS) Last Week – 9-61 Season – 19-11-2 Lock of the Week – 2-0 PATRIOTS (-6.5) over the Jets – For the Jets, seeing Laveranues Coles have over 300 yards receiving in his first two games is like JOSH TROY finding out your EMERITUS ex-girlfriend is now a supermodel, is dating Colin Farrell, and is telling everyone that leaving you was the best decision she ever made. On the bright side, Curtis Martin almost ran for 20 yards last week. New England should win this game, unless they get antsy and cut Ty Law, Tom Brady and the team doctor before the kickoff. Steelers (-4.5) over the BENGALS – Because of their history, the Bengals’ record is actually 0-1-1, zero wins, one quality loss and one bad loss. If all goes well, they will be 0-2-1 after this weekend. Peter Warrick’s performance to this point in his career makes me wonder if his shoplifting arrest in college was not indicative of more serious problems. With two straight 100-yard games, Plaxico Burress has now almost made up for spiking the ball after a reception and having the other team recover his fumble. COLTS (-7.5) over the Jaguars – Apparently Peyton Manning and Edgerrin James recovered from their respective amnesia and remembered how to play football last week. Unlike the screenwriter in “The Majestic,” they were not charged with being communists following the game. Considering Jacksonville has no receivers who you can recognize by name, the team has a better chance of winning the Fox’s look-alike contest, then winning this game. Vikings (-3.5) over the LIONS – Although his team is 2-0, Daunte Culpepper has still managed to maintain his record of being the only NFL player to AVERAGE more than a fumble a game. What did his case of fumblitis get him this off-season? He picked up a $100 million extension and a chance to play infield for the New York Mets, who would really play anyone at this point. When Detroit can run for more then 50 yards, it will win again. Saints (+4.5) over the TITANS – Aaron Brooks has more options then Justin Timberlake has groupies. On any given play he can run himself, hand off to Deuce or throw bombs to Horn and Stallworth. As for Tennessee, Eddie George, just like P. Diddy, has regressed in skill level. It now seems like he has no talent at all, and it makes you wonder whether he was any good in the first place. Buccaneers (-4) over the FALCONS – In Madden 2004, it is impossible to miss an extra point. Somehow Tampa has two field goals and a game-winning extra point blocked in the same game. With that motivation, Warren Sapp could very well kill one of the Falcons. The good news for Atlanta is that Michael Vick could be back see TROY, page 9

the team with three goals and was an honorable mention All-Ivy selection. As a freshman in 2000 Crew played in all 20 games and earned 13 starts. His first career goal came against Clemson — the lone goal his team scored that game. Originally from Columbia, Md., Crew lettered for four years in soccer at River Hill High School. He earned Maryland’s Gatorade Player of the Year honors in 1999 and was the 1999 NSCAA player of the year. Crew cocaptained his high school team his junior and senior years, leading them to the Maryland state soccer title in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Crew was not all about soccer. He was a member of the National Honor Society as well as the American Technology Honors Society. Due to all those academic accolades he was selected into Brown’s seven-year medical program. Crew’s junior season ended early, but he did not rest on his laurels. He worked hard during rehabilitation and still attended practice and watched the team. But, “Watching the team and not being able to go out and play with them was very difficult,” Crew said. The absence of Crew was also felt by his teammates. “When he went down the team went down. We were just in shock without him,” said midfielder Marcos Romaneiro ’05. With Crew having rejoined the

MANNY RAMIREZ IS A SIMPLE MAN. Maybe there is more to his recent conflicts than meets the eye, sure, but from what I can tell, it amazes me that people continue to harp on Manny’s attitude, calling him impossible to understand or a headcase. Manny’s simple actions are over-interpreted and put through the media machine, emerging in a far more twisted and mischievous light than he probably expected. There is nothing compliERIC PERLMUTTER cated about PERLMUTTERS Manny, but rather with the lens through which people see him. About two-and-a-half weeks ago, Manny was declared too sick to play in a series against the Yankees. On the eve of the final game, he was spotted in the lobby of the hotel adjacent to his apartment, chatting it up with Yankee Enrique Wilson. He was chastised, benched for a game by coach Grady Little and incurred the wrath of the media and the common fan. I think it’s useful to discuss this now because time has put the incident at a far enough remove. So from a rational, distanced standpoint, was what he did so wrong? He basically lived in that building, and I assert that he has a right to go downstairs. Should we have sent Bill James over there for a babysitting job, to see to it that Manny didn’t so much as leave his room? Maybe he could have read him a little bit of his Baseball Abstract before bedtime, or counted Barry Bonds’ career win shares to put him to sleep. Perhaps it was the fact that he was talking to Enrique Wilson that angered people, that he was sleeping with the enemy, so to speak. But I find this a bit ironic — do we think that Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Jeter’s friendship gets put on hold during a series between their two teams? That lasting, deep friendship that crosses the border between Red Sox and Yankees, apparently valuable enough to transcend the rivalry, doesn’t seem to generate nearly as much angst toward Nomar as a single conversation between Manny and a low-profile Yankee like Wilson. Granted, Enrique has done damage to the Sox, both this year with a clutch performance in a 4-3 Yankee win and last year, when he hit a grand slam in a 10-2 rout. But surely, Jeter is the player Red Sox fans should, and in their more rational moments, do hate more. I don’t see any hateful references to Wilson on t-shirts, whereas the “Jeter Sucks” tee has been a staple in New England for years. Yet despite the fact that most people, when the incident happened, saw it as a big transgression, fans are not still ranting about him in the same tone, if at all. People are rooting for him because they want to, not because they have to. He hasn’t left a bad taste in fans’ mouths, and but for that little itch in the back of their minds, everything is back to goodness. And do you know why? Because he has played well. Since that fateful weekend, he has performed as we expect him to and been the player we signed 33 months ago. He hit a monster jack the other night and smiled his way

see CREW, page 9

see PERLMUTTER, page 9

dspics

Adom Crew ’04 had a ridiculous weekend scoring two goals and adding an assist

Crew ’04 is healed and already decimating opposing defenses BY JUSTIN GOLDMAN

In one tournament alone this year he’s had an electrifying assist to bring the crowd to their feet in game one and the decisive goal with 19 seconds left in game two, while also taking home the offensive player of the tournament award. To the average fan, these actions are a reason to get excited. For Brown’s senior men’s soccer captain Adom Crew ’04, they are just a great starting point to a season that has much promise. Crew’s humility as well as great skills and an incredible drive are what separates him from other players in the Ivy League. Crew’s work ethic and resilience are infectious within the Brown soccer team. But this resilience was tested last year, when he was fourth in the nation in scoring only to go down with an ACL tear that sidelined him for the rest of the season. “It was obviously devastating. Not having Adom on the field was very hard,” said Head Coach Mike Noonan. “I think that is why we had so many one goal losses last year.” Crew kept working though. He was motivated to get back on the field and help his team. Before the abrupt end to last season, Crew had a very bright career both at Brown and before Brown. In 2001 Crew played in all 16 games while ranking second on the team in points with 11. In addition, he was second on