Wednesday, January 23, 2008

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, J anuar y 23, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 1

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

RISD selects new president

Chuck Norris doesn’t cry, but he does sue

By George Miller Senior Staf f Writer

The Rhode Island School of Design has announced its next president — and he’s coming from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

John Maeda will take up his new job on College Hill this June, coming from his post as associate director of research at the MIT Media Laboratory. His work has been covered in the New York Times, the Economist and the International Herald Tribune, and he was named one of the 21 most important people for the 21st century by Esquire magazine.

Though he’s been internationally recognized for his work in design and technology, he said he’s not necessarily a fan of technology.

“I’ve had my doubts about it,” Maeda told The Herald. “Today we’re stuck in a catch-up game,” he added, as computers and gadgets get more complex and “bloated” every year. Simplicity has been the subject of his most recent research, including a book called “The Laws of Simplicity.” RISD, he said, is able to address the question of integrating technology with traditional art and design. He said he thought the idea of simplicity resonated with the presidential search committee, which unanimously recommended Maeda to RISD’s board of trustees.

The search committee’s work took nine months, but members said they are satisified with the result.

“Couldn’t be happier,” said RISD senior Angela Manes-Muir, one of two student representatives on the search committee, which also included members of the board of trustees, faculty, the RISD museum and the school’s administration. “He just has this incredible vision of where art and design can go.”

Manes-Muir said she was impressed by his vision, sense of humor and, of course, his resumé.

Since all RISD faculty members are required to be practicing artists, it’s good to have a president who is one too, she added.

Student reaction to Maeda has been very positive, with only a few negative comments on RISD’s Daily Jolt Web site, she said. A Jan. 9 meeting at which Maeda spoke was packed with students, she said.

Maeda has made an effort to communicate with the RISD community, even six months before he’s due to take over.

“My plan right now is to understand RISD,” Maeda said. “I’m on a fact-finding kind of journey right now.”

An internal blog, viewable only

by RISD students and faculty, came out when Maeda’s selection was announced in December. There, he said, he talks about “everything,” asks about Providence, and gets input from students and alums. The blog — the first of its kind, according to Maeda — averages about ten comments a day, he said. Maeda has continued on page 4

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CAMPUS NEWS

Stargazing Set your watch by the stars at the soon-to-be renovated Ladd Observatory

By Simon van Zuylen-Wood Senior Staff Writer

did not return a message seeking additional comment.

Other schools included in the investigation are Harvard, Columbia, Northwestern, Cornell, American, Brandeis, Fordham, Alfred and Pace, along with Alfred State, Manhattanville, Siena and Hobart and William Smith colleges and the College of New Rochelle, Benjamin Lawsky, a spokesman for the attorney general, told the Associated Press. It was not yet clear why Brown was among those schools subpoenaed for the investigation.

A spokesman at the attorney general’s Albany, N.Y., office did not return a message left Tuesday.

Four of the five study abroad providers that were initially subpoenaed at the beginning of Cuomo’s investigation currently offer their services at Brown’s Office of International Programs, The

If you believe the online “Chuck Norris Random Fact Generator,” then you know that the martial arts expert and actor “does not read books.

He stares at them until he gets the information he needs.” In the case of Ian Spector’s ’09 new book, he’s locked in more than a staring match.

In December, Norris sued Penguin Group in an attempt to stop publication of “The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 Facts About the World’s Greatest Human.”

Norris, the “Walker, Texas Ranger” star, was denied a temporary restraining order against Penguin to stop book sales, according to Stacy Noble, Spector’s publicist.

Spector created the “Chuck Norris Random Fact Generator” on his website, http://4Q.cc/, in the summer of 2005. The Web site also includes “Fact Generators” about the actors Mr. T and Vin Diesel. The satirical “facts,” which poke fun at Norris’s tough-guy persona, are submitted by Web site visitors. Some of the highestranked “facts” include “Chuck Norris can speak Braille,” and “Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he never cries.”

Norris once publicly recited “facts” from Spector’s website on the “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” a show on Fox Sports. More recently, Norris appeared in a television ad endorsing Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who recited some “facts” similar to those found on Spectors’ site.

The “Random Fact Generator” became a Web sensation, and publishers began approaching Spector in the spring of 2006.

When the book was published on Nov. 29, Norris asked the U.S. District Court in New York City to suppress

continued on page 6

continued on page 6

Min Wu / Herald File Photo

Brown’s Office of International Programs is among those involved in an investigation of study abroad practices.

U. subpoenaed in study abroad inquiry New York AG’s investigation now includes four Ivies

By Michael Bechek News Editor

Brown has been subpoenaed by New York’s attorney general in connection with an investigation into college study abroad programs, the University confirmed in a statement Tuesday.

Andrew Cuomo, the New York attorney general, has expanded his investigation of colleges’ study abroad practices to include 15 schools, the New York Times reported Monday. Cuomo began his investigation in August after a Times article revealed practices at some schools in which university representatives steered students toward “preferred” programs in exchange for cash, travel perks or

seats on program advisory boards from the providers of those programs.

Kendall Brostuen, associate dean of the College and director of international programs, told The Herald in November that Brown had no such agreements with study abroad providers and that he would condemn such practices as unethical.

“We’ve been very transparent,” he said then, adding he did not expect “any contact whatsoever” from the attorney general’s office.

Brostuen did not immediately respond to a request for comment left Tuesday afternoon.

Michael Chapman, vice president for public affairs and University relations, said in the statement that the University “has received” a subpoena and that it is “currently reviewing (it) and will be responding to the attorney general’s office.”

A spokeswoman for the University

Brown professor defends evolution in South Carolina Biology textbook stirs controversy

by Melissa Shube Staff Writer

One professor’s critique of the presentation of evolution in a textbook written by Professor of Biology Ken Miller ’70 and Joseph Levine almost prevented the book from appearing in South Carolina classrooms.

The textbook “Biology” was up for approval by the South Carolina Board of Education when retired Clemson professor Horace D. Skipper wrote a four-page review of the book, critiquing its treatment of evolution.

“In the view of this retired professor, what was wrong with

5

CAMPUS NEWS

our book was that we presented evolution to be true,” Miller told The Herald.

Skipper’s critique was presented to the South Carolina Board of Education, which has the last word on what books can be offered to the state’s schools.

“The textbook under review fails to provide the necessary evidence (for the Darwinian theory of evolution),” Skipper wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “It seems reasonable to offer additional theories including creation and intelligent design, since all theories on origin are outside the scientific method.”

The sales representative for Miller’s book received word of

research update Prof.’s drug promises to help muscular dystrophy patients

Chris Bennett / Herald File Photo

continued on page 4

15

OPINIONS

Professor of Biology Ken Miller ‘70, who has advocated teaching evolution, recently found his popular textbook up against creationist critics.

political insider Adam Cambier ’09 observes the antics at the Iowa caucus

tomorrow’s weather Gray skies and snowflakes as white as Chuck Norris’ teeth

snow 29 / 12 www.browndailyherald.com

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T oday Page 2

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Menu

But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Couscous Croquettes with Cider Pepper Sauce, Buffalo Chicken Wings with Bleu Cheese Dressing, Meatball Grinder, Vegetarian Cream of Broccoli Soup, Cheesecake Brownies

Lunch — Chicken Andouille Shrimp Jambalaya, Spinach Strudel, Mandarin Blend Vegetables, Cheesecake Brownies

DINNER — Vegan Warm and Spicy Dhal, Herb Rice, Italian Vegetable Saute, Orange Teriyaki Salmon

Dinner — Roast Turkey with Sauce, Shells with Broccoli, Herb Bread, Orange Delight Cake

Dunkel | Joe Larios

Sudoku Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

Nightmarishly Elastic | Adam Robbins

Puzzles by Pappocom RELEASE DATE– Wednesday,©January 23, 2008

Los Angeles Times Crossword Puzzle C r o sDaily sword Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 Trigger, for one 6 Pollster Roper 10 One with 63Across 14 Like a crowd after a hometeam touchdown 15 Get off the ground 16 Advantage 17 Not-so-great explanation 20 Skin softener 21 Some legwear 22 Belgian battle site of WWI 23 Mae West accessory 25 Some MD’s 26 Not-so-great thought 35 Rodney of “The Best Damn Sports Show Period” 36 Red-carpet event 37 Great Seal word 38 Union at the docks: Abbr.

39 Lose steam 42 Song 43 Construction shapes 45 One’s partner?

46 Seated yoga position 48 Not-so-great plan 51 Wanted-poster letters 52 Math prof’s funding org.

53 Courage 56 One often takes place in a bar 59 High-rise locales, briefly 63 17-, 26- and 48Across 66 Tinsel holder 67 Rah-rah 68 “Come __?”: “Huh?” 69 Avoid an obstacle, in a way 70 “Memory” musical 71 Cheesy sandwiches DOWN 1 “Very funny” 2 Like some postgrad exams 3 Caramel candy brand

4 Sure thing 5 Tarzan creator’s monogram 6 Nevada’s northeasternmost county or its seat 7 Sediment 8 Fabricated 9 Decide 10 Sticks with 11 Trash can emanation 12 Shrek or Fiona 13 Florida attraction 18 Monomaniacal skipper 19 Serum holder 24 Ran a tab 25 Chew like a rodent 26 Emulated a 29Down 27 Instruments for Ma 28 King’s domain 29 Bond, for one 30 Server used with a big pot 31 London insurance pioneer 32 More than sore 33 Disgust 34 Like Eric the Red 40 Letter after theta

41 Pre-World Series event, for short 44 More posh 47 Euphemistic exclamation of disappointment 49 Furnisher of many dorm rooms 50 Snick-or-__ 53 1970s-’80s John Candy vehicle, familiarly 54 Skin opening

55 Popular frozen drink 56 Joe in an urn 57 Forget to mention 58 Au pair’s charges 60 Honest-togoodness 61 Can of worms, say 62 IRS info 64 Apple for the teacher?

65 Dr. Seuss’s Sam__

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Classic WBF | Matt Vascellaro

xwordeditor@aol.com

1/23/08

Classic Deo | Daniel Perez

By Bruce Venzke & Stella Daily (c)2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

1/23/08

T he B rown D aily H erald Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372

Join The Herald. First info session Jan. 29 at 8 p.m at 195 Angell St.

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C ampus N ews Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Ladd’s timekeepers to come back to life

By Sophia Li Senior Staf f Writer

Watched the skies lately to set your watch? If you find some time to head over to Ladd Observatory, it’ll soon be possible to set your clock by the stars with the observator y’s timekeeping system.

In December, the observatory received a $46,970 grant from the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission to update the system, which hasn’t operated since the 1960s. The University and anonymous private donors matched the grant, bringing the total to about $100,000, said the obser vator y’s director, Adjunct Associate Professor of Physics David Targan.

The money will fund the restoration of Ladd Obser vator y’s timekeeping facilities, which were built in 1891. Targan estimated it would take a year to a year and a half to complete the restoration.

Many obser vatories kept time before it became a function of the federal government, said Targan, also associate dean of the College for science education. When the nation moved from an agrarian lifestyle to an industrially based economy, keeping exact time became more vital. Train accidents occurred in the 1800s because the conductors’ watches were on different times, Targan said.

Since then, new technology such as computers and navigation systems have made precise timekeeping even more important. The science of timekeeping has kept up with the technology, Targan said.

Ladd’s two telescopes are less advanced than the atomic clock at the National Institute of Science and Technology in Boulder, Colo., which sets the international standard for time, but they still allow people to learn about the science and histor y behind timekeeping.

“We lose track of how we determine time in the first place,” Targan said. “When people look at their watches, what does that mean and what does that come from?”

With the restoration, Targan hopes to educate the public and answer those questions.

So, where do clocks get their time?

“The Earth itself is the most reliable timepiece we have,” as-

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

BRUnet connects alums and job-hunting students online The new system helps students contact alums more easily, though fewer are available

By Chaz Kelsh Senior Staf f Writer

Kim Perley / Herald

The Ladd Observatory will receive a new timekeeping system, thanks to a grant and matching donations. tronomy concentrator David Eichhorn ’09 said.

Astronomers use the rotational period of the earth to keep time.

“By looking at the stars entering above, you can time those stars as they cross key imaginar y lines across the sky,” Targan said.

In Ladd Obser vator y’s transit room, an obser ver can press a key that makes an extra mark on the chronometer, which is already marked to show when cer tain stars move across the sky. By measuring the difference between the marks, an obser ver can calibrate clocks accordingly, Eichhorn said.

Fixing this telegraph system is one of the many repairs planned, Targan said.

Sarah Zurier, special projects

coordinator at the Rhode Island Historical Preser vation and Heritage Commission, which awarded the grant, listed other intended tasks including fixing slits in the roof that provide the telescope with a view of the sky, repairing windows and upgrading the electrical system.

Zurier cited the obser vator y’s histor y of ser ving the public as one of the reasons for its selection for the grant.

After the restoration’s completion, the timekeeping facilities will also be open to the public on Tuesday nights, when the obser vator y is currently open.

They will also be available to school groups from Providence and astronomy courses at Brown, Targan said.

www.browndailyherald.com

As the Brown Alumni Association transitions from ACCess, its previous online database that put students in contact with alums, to BRUnet, fewer alumni contacts are available, though listings are more detailed and allow for more informed searches.

ACCess was introduced in 2000 as an electronic replacement for a simple list of alums who were willing to talk to students, allowing users to search the list for the first time, Vice President of Alumni Relations Todd Andrews ’83 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. BRUnet was introduced in June 2007 as a replacement for ACCess after the the alumni association conducted student focus groups, which indicated that students wanted more responsive contacts and more detailed information on the contacts’ histories—both professionally and at Brown.

The approximately 6,000 ACCess alumni contacts had to reregister for the new system and were invited to do so via postal mail and e-mail last February and March, before the launch of the new BRUnet site, according to Andrews. About 2,000 alums have since registered for BRUnet, and

the site is “on track to reach 3,000 by the end of the academic year,” said Andrews, adding that this amount is a milestone, not the final goal. The alumni association is advertising BRUnet to alums through the Brown Alumni Magazine and a newsletter and will continue to reach out to alums aggressively, according to Andrews.

Alums were also asked to complete a profile of themselves, including their activities at Brown and their career histories, allowing for more detailed searches than ACCess permitted. For example, a female student interested in finding out more about gender issues in a particular field could search for a female alum with experience in that field, Andrews wrote.

The office solicited the entire body of alums in addition to those who had registered for ACCess.

“We’re tr ying to reach a whole new audience of alumni,” said Andrews.

Although there are fewer contacts in the new database, Andrews said they are more valuable and more likely to respond to students’ inquiries.

“I think it’ll be more effective if (the alumni) have to go out of their way a little more,” said Smita Gupta ’08, who has only used ACCess, after hearing about BRUnet.

“They’ll be the ones that are most willing to respond.”

“It gives people a basis to identify with those people,” Gupta said.

“It’s hard to realize that you actually have a lot in common with them.”

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

MIT’s Maeda to take RISD’s reins in June continued from page 1 also made his presence known on the Daily Jolt forums and ManesMuir said he is an “avid Facebook member.”

Maeda has also been in contact with current university presidents, including President Ruth Simmons, as part of his preparation, a process he called “Being a University President 101.” But the most important of the presidents he has spoken to is the man he’ll be replacing: Roger

Mandle.

Mandle said he has been speaking daily to Maeda, planning for the transition on June 2, right after RISD’s commencement.

“He’s the ideal person for RISD at this time,” Mandle said of Maeda, citing his unique combination of artistic talents and technological skills.

Mandle will be leaving after a 15-year term, the longest for a RISD president in more than 50 years.

He said he’s particularly proud of

improvements to RISD’s facilities and curriculum, as well as lowering the student-teacher ratio. Mandle announced his decision to leave last February, months after a no-confidence vote by department heads, though he has said that vote was not the reason for his departure.

Concerning his own plans, Mandle would not be specific but said an announcement would be made in February. He said only that he’ll do “something very exciting and very different.”

Miller’s textbook dodges objections in South Carolina continued from page 1 Skipper’s criticisms and sent them to Miller on Dec. 11, the day before the decision about the textbooks was to be made. “So what I did when I got this critique, the night before the meeting ­— I didn’t exactly pull an all-nighter but I stayed up pretty late — was that I answered all of his criticisms point by point,” Miller said.

The following day one of the education board members introduced a motion to approve all of the books except for Miller’s. “According to people who were there, it looked like our book would in fact be rejected on the basis of that one letter by a retired professor,” Miller said. The sales representative then handed out copies of Miller’s rebuttal.

“They were stunned,” Miller said of the education board, and since no one on the committee had seen the book yet, they decided to postpone the decision until January.

Miller went to the board meeting in South Carolina on Jan. 9. Seventeen people spoke, including Miller, Skipper, and Jerr y Waldvogel, a Clemson biology professor and a member of the South Carolinians for Science Education’s executive committee. Miller defended evolution and his textbook’s treatment of it. “One of the things I pointed out to the board, if I had revised our textbook to meet (Skipper’s) criticisms, our book would not meet their state standards for evolution, for earth science because of the age of the earth and for genetics.”

Skipper maintained that speakers failed to provide sufficient evidence to support evolution and expressed his disappointment. “Anyone that questioned the Darwinian theory of evolution was labeled anti-science, anti-intelligent and against education of students,” Skipper wrote.

Thanks for reading!

“This kind of nonsense does not hold water in light of my 30 years of teaching.”

Out of the seventeen people who spoke, only two suggested the book be rejected, and the board voted ten to six for approval.

“The approval process, because it’s done by a political body, becomes open to political influence,” said Miller. The board’s approval of textbooks affects history as well as science, Miller said, pointing to contentious topics such as the Vietnam and Civil wars.

Waldvogel said Skipper’s critiques “were really quite wild and crazy, many taken straight from the creationist literature. For example, he was questioning the statement of the age of life on earth as being measured in billions of years.”

Waldvogel also said Skipper implied that evolution led to ideas such as Nazism and racism. “That’s not only scientifically incorrect, it’s socially offensive,” he said.

“Hitler was developing the superior race by survival of the fittest, Margaret Sanger of Planned Parenthood was removing the ‘human weeds,’ eugenics was removing the weak, Stalin and Marx were removing the competition, and the Columbine students who wore T-shirts with Natural Selection on them on the day of the massacre were using natural selection to remove those they thought less fit,” Skipper told The Herald. “Thoughts and philosophies do have consequences.”

Waldvogel brought a letter to the meeting signed by 130 members of the Clemson faculty in favor of approving the textbook. The individuals who signed the letter “actually work with evolution on a daily basis (and) felt that the state board should know that we did not think his critique was valid,” Waldvogel said.

Waldvogel was relieved that the

book was approved but worried by the behavior of the school board.

“I am concerned that there is some evidence that some individuals are pushing a social agenda that is not the best interests of the students,” Waldvogel said. “This isn’t about individuals. This isn’t about personal opinions. This is about defending the integrity of scientific education.”

Waldvogel added that he thought Skipper was encouraged to object to the textbook in order to single out Miller because of his role as the lead witness in the Dover trial, in which a U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania ruled that teaching intelligent design as an alternative theory to evolution is unconstitutional. He remarked that all of the biology books up for approval teach evolution. “This is an attempt to try to discredit (Miller),” Waldvogel said. “Why was his book picked out when these others were not?” Waldvogel asked.

Miller said intelligent design should not be taught in schools.

“It became very clear in the Dover, Pennsylvania, intelligent design trial that intelligent design is a religious idea and not a scientific one, and a federal court in Pennsylvania ruled that teaching intelligent design is a violation of the First Amendment,” Miller said.

“Intelligent design has never garnered significant support of any kind within the scientific community,” Miller added.

Miller is on sabbatical this year.

He is using the time to write three books: one on evolution titled, “Only A Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul”; an updated version of his biology textbook; and a currently untitled book about the second chromosome, which, according to Miller, “carries the most absolutely definitive evidence of our common ancestry with other primates.”

C ampus n ews Wednesday, January 23, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

i n

Br

Prof.’s muscular dystrophy drug shows promise

i e f

Yale’s Stern to fill new library position After a nine-month nationwide search, Brown has hired Yale librarian David Stern as its first permanent associate university librarian for scholarly resources.

The University created the new position to oversee its $8 million library collection budget. Stern will devote his time to working with journal subscriptions, magazines and other scholarly materials acquired by the library — a responsibility currently shared by more than 30 librarians.

“I’m hoping that what I could do is make it easier for people to find all of the relevant and related information that we might be purchasing,” Stern said.

As well as being in charge of journal subscriptions, Stern intends to “improve the seamless access” to resources available through other universities. He also hopes to make it easier for students to utilize non-textual materials, such as photos and videos.

Stern, who will start his new job on March 1, has been the director of science libraries and information services at Yale since 1995. In addition to being a librarian, he has worked as a professor, magazine editor and member of the board of directors of the Special Libraries Association. He holds degrees from the University of Connecticut and Indiana University.

University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi told The Herald she had wanted to create the new position since she had arrived at Brown in 2005. She said that Stern stood out as the right candidate after she interviewed a wide range of applicants.

“He has dealt with the issues that are so important as far as the expenditure of journals,” Hemmasi said. “Overall, what he will bring to us is important as far as understanding … the kind of spending we have to do.”

Hemmasi said that science materials, Stern’s area of expertise, comprise about 40 percent of the library’s collection budget.

During the search to fill the new position, Director of Special Collections Sam Streit served in the role on an interim basis.

Josiah gets a facelift

— Seth Motel

Students returning to campus this week will see the benefits of “MyJosiah,” an addition to Josiah, the University’s online library catalog.

The new features will allow users to save searches, spell check and improve word search results, among other changes, said Bonnie Buzzell ’72, senior knowledge systems librarian.

The library implemented the changes on Jan. 7, but the site is a “work in progress,” Buzzell said. “The functionality is there, but it needs a lot more work before it can become something we’re truly proud of,” she said as she explained Josiah’s new features to a room full of librarians at the Rockefeller Library.

Some of the new features already in place include a change in Josiah’s appearance, more available links on the homepage and the ability to save both searches and a list of books that have been checked out, she said.

Buzzell also said the program will undergo further changes and will look different when finished.

“The implementation of many of the functionalities are in place, but we’re still working on the presentations,” Buzzell told the Herald.

Also, students and librarians will find more accurate search results.

For example, in the future, when searching for books, students may be able to select an option that allows them to block books they have already checked out from their search results, though Buzzell isn’t sure when the change will be made. Buzzell said she hopes to have most changes fully developed by the end of the month.

— Marielle Segarra

By Sophia Lambertsen Staff Writer

Justin Fallon, professor of medical science, began researching Duchenne muscular dystrophy in 1985 and currently heads a lab developing a treatment for the disorder. But with the help of a Brown alum’s business and medical expertise, that treatment could be in pharmacies within five to seven years.

Along with his lab, Fallon has developed a drug called Biglycan, which stimulates the cells affected

by DMD, forcing them to continue producing an important protein people normally lose around the age of four or five.

While Biglycan has proven successful in diminishing muscle degeneration in lab mice, making it available for human use requires “a complicated, expensive process with many demands,” Fallon said.

The drug needs to undergo rounds of testing to ensure its safety before it receives approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Biglycan must be produced in “highly controlled conditions” outside of his lab space to ensure its safety, Fallon said. By the end of last spring, Fallon had reached a roadblock, putting further development of Biglycan “beyond the expertise and capabilities of (his) lab.”

When Fallon was asked in June to give physician John Nicholson ’72 a tour of the new Sidney Frank Hall for Life Sciences, he explained his research and Nicholson agreed to return to Brown to look further into the project.

“I appreciated his passion for it more than anything else, his intellect and his passion,” Nicholson said. The two formed Tivorsan Pharmaceuticals, a company dedicated to further development of the Biglycan treatment.

“The whole purpose of the company was to surround this incredible protein scientist with a network of necessary scientists and regulatory people and organizational people… to get this one-man band playing in an orchestra,” Nicholson said.

“John has an extensive network of people who are on the development and business side, which is what we needed,” Fallon said.

Help from “finance types and other operational people” has garnered more support for Tivorsan’s

Kim Perley / Herald Professor of Medical Sciences Justin Fallon is working to develop a new treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which could give back patients some of their muscle function.

work on Biglycan by bringing in business development expertise, drawing investors and forming a successful company, he added.

“Together we’ve built a team, and we’ve gotten support from patient advocacy groups, which are very committed to getting this therapy done,” Fallon said.

Two particular patient advocacy groups, Parent Project MD and Charley’s Fund, are enthusiastic about Fallon’s research because of their own close connections to the disease. In addition, the lab continually applies for government grants to supplement advocacy aid.

DMD is the most common form of muscular dystrophy, representing 80 to 90 percent of cases. The disease affects only boys, slowly destroying their muscles until their late teens or early twenties, when they become paralyzed and require respiratory assistance, Fallon said.

“Over the course of this disease, picked up when you’re four or five, you can write the script about what’s going to happen to these kids for the next twenty years of their life,” Fallon said. “It’s remarkably predictable.”

The disease is caused by the absence of dystrophin, a protein that enables muscle movement.

This makes muscle cells unable to perform common functions such as walking and, later on, breathing. Symptoms first appear when

boys are four or five years old, not at birth or in prenatal stages, because the protein utrophin does dystrophin’s work in early childhood, Fallon said.

Fallon’s lab, which employs undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, researches the details of the disease and possible treatments.

“It’s going very well,” Fallon said of the search for a DMD treatment.

Biglycan works by stimulating muscle cells to produce utrophin, which can give DMD patients muscle function.

While Fallon researches Biglycan, other labs are researching alternate treatments, he said. Because DMD is a rare disease, affecting 1 in 3,000 boys, funding is limited.

Both Fallon and Nicholson stress how early in the development process Biglycan currently is. “This still remains a one-mouse model opportunity,” Nicholson said. “The translation of this to the human is still very, very risky.”

Fallon told The Herald he hopes to have Biglycan tested clinically, on real patients as opposed to mice, within two years. If it is safe, he hopes it can be through clinical trials and available to DMD patients within five to seven years.

“We are working extremely hard to make that happen,” Fallon said.

“As fast as we can move, consistent with safety, we will.”

Join The Herald Our first info session is Jan. 29 at 8 p.m. at 195 Angell St.

Page 6

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Oona Curley / Herald File Photo

Ian Spector ‘09, brainchild of the online “Chuck Norris Random Fact Generator,” has been sued for his book of jokes about the action star.

Chuck Norris sues over junior’s joke book continued from page 1 publication of the book on Dec. 21, according to a Penguin press release.

The release also said Norris would probably file another motion in February to enjoin the book’s sale and publication. Norris’ case is based on trademark infringement, according to a clerk at the federal court. Reuters reported on Dec. 21 that Norris is suing for unjust enrichment and privacy rights. It is unclear what Norris

is seeking in damages.

The book has sold over 70,000 copies so far, according to the Penguin press release, which was issued Tuesday. The book is currently the No. 1-selling “Jokes and Riddles” book on Amazon.com.

Penguin doesn’t seem worried about its dispute with Norris. In the press release, the company said it expected him to be unsuccessful “in his effort to suppress what is an obviously

humorous commentary on the iconic status that Norris enjoys, and which he unabashedly exploits when campaigning for Mike Huckabee.”

Spector declined to speak to The Herald about the lawsuit, but commented about the case in a Jan. 13 article in the New York Times.

Norris “takes himself very seriously,” Spector told the Times. “Maybe because he takes himself so seriously, it makes it all the more ridiculous.”

U. caught up in study abroad scandal continued from page 1

www.browndailyherald.com

Herald reported Nov. 29.

The Center for Education Abroad at Arcadia University, the Danish Institute for Study Abroad, the Institute for the International Education of Students and the Institute for Study Abroad at Butler University were all among those subpoenaed by Cuomo in August.

Brostuen sits on the advisory boards of IFSA Butler’s Latin American Advisory Committee and the National Advisory Council for CEA Arcadia, but he told The Herald in November that his positions were unpaid, “as they should be,” and that his positions did not imply “any sort of exclusivity with Brown.”

On its Web site, the OIP has added information about its practices in selecting and approving study abroad programs.

“Brown has never received discounts or commissions from, nor has it ever entered into exclusivity contracts with approved program providers,” according to the Web site, and “has never participated in, supported or promoted the practice of offering special pricing or incentives to increase enrollments with program providers.”

The OIP lets students choose a study abroad program from among Brown-sponsored programs, select from approved third-party programs or petition for the approval of any other program.

In March 2006, the University instituted a policy requiring students graduating in 2010 or later to pay full Brown tuition for any semester abroad program, regardless of whether it is sponsored by the University, in order to avoid running deficits, The Herald reported Sept. 24. Previously, students could avoid paying Brown’s generally higher tuition by choosing programs that were not sponsored by the University.

W orld & n ation THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Page 7

Actor Heath Ledger found dead at 28

“Blood,” “No Country” lead Oscar nominations

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

By Adam Bernstein and David Segal Washington Post

Heath Ledger, an Australian-born actor of considerable charm and dramatic dexterity who earned a best actor Academy Award nomination for playing a sexually conflicted cowboy in “Brokeback Mountain,” was found dead Tuesday in New York. He was 28.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger was discovered by the housekeeper and a visiting masseuse at a Lower Manhattan apartment where the actor lived.

Police said prescription sleeping pills were found near the body but added they had not drawn a conclusion about the cause of death, which was pending further tests by the medical examiner.

At nightfall, as the site of Ledger’s death gradually became known, the sidewalks nearby were bulging with television crews, paparazzi and reporters.

As journalists and a few fans watched, the body was removed from the building by police and placed in a medical examiner’s van. Later in the evening, admirers of Ledger began to place flowers at the scene.

A brooding blond with a deep voice, Ledger initially excelled as a teen heartthrob in movies such as “A Knight’s Tale” (2001) and “10 Things I Hate About You” (1999).

He also had a supporting role as Mel Gibson’s rebellious son in “The Patriot” (2000), set during the Revolutionar y War, and returned to costume drama as a 19th-centur y British soldier who tries to undo a tarnish of cowardice in “The Four Feathers” (2002).

Ledger expressed boredom with such fanciful parts and sought more nuanced roles — the suicidal son of a racist prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton) in “Monster’s Ball” (2001) and as one of the half-dozen actors playing versions of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes’s “I’m Not There” (2007).

He played Dylan as a philandering hipster in a cast that included Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale and Richard Gere.

But it was director Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) that cemented Ledger’s reputation after years in the front rank of promising young stars.

He played Ennis Del Mar, a lonely and laconic ranch hand whose affair with a rodeo rider (Jake Gyllenhaal) in 1963 sparks a lifelong passion for each other.

Critic Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times that “Ledger brings this film alive by going so deeply into his character you wonder if he’ll be able to come back” and said the film “could not have succeeded without it.”

Heath Andrew Ledger was born April 4, 1979, in the western Australian city of Perth. He was named after Heathcliff, the brooding hero of Emily Bronte’s novel “Wuthering Heights,” his mother’s favorite book.

He started acting at 10, as a donkey in a Christmas play, while attending an all-boys school. An older sister talked him into joining an amateur theater group in Perth, for which he landed the starring role of “Peter Pan.” He said of the par t, which

required him to don pea-green tights: “It took a lot of guts. For a 12-year-old kid, that can be damaging amongst your peers.”

At school and in the club, he gradually won parts that took advantage of his romantic appeal and athleticism (he was a field hockey standout).

Ledger left high school at 16 and traveled cross-country to win spots in two prominent Sydney acting companies, one of them specializing in Shakespeare.

He was cast in Australian films and short-lived television sitcoms.

He also won the lead as a Celtic warrior in the TV series “Roar” (1997), an adventure show set in medieval times. It was a part that brought him to Hollywood’s attention.

As best as possible, he tried to reject the industr y’s ef forts to make him a hunky teen idol.

He expressed concern about being typecast in heroic parts and returned to Australia to make the small-budget dark comedy “Two Hands” (1999), as a young man who stumbles into organized crime.

He spoke with resentment about how Columbia Pictures, which made “The Patriot,” tried to lure him into the title role of its big-budget adventure film “Spider-Man” (2002). The part went to Tobey Maguire.

“I was their investment,” Ledger said of Columbia. “They saw me and they invested money in me in `The Patriot’ and said, `OK, let’s pop him out in that, let’s get another product, and let’s bring in the bucks.’ “ He had earlier blown off his audition for “The Patriot,” walking out with the quip: “Good luck with your movie. I’m wasting your time and my time. I’m gonna go home now.” He returned, he said, “to prove to them that I was hav-

ing a bad day and actually do something good.”

Director Gregor Jordan, who had earlier directed Ledger in “Two Hands,” cast him as the eponymous 19th-centur y Australian outlaw in “Ned Kelly” (2003).

His decision to return to Australia and accept a $50,000 paycheck for “Ned Kelly” — a $2.5 million cut from his Hollywood salary — was viewed as an example of his dedication to craft over ego.

Ledger’s desire for a nontraditional career also led to his appearance in several films released in 2005: Terr y Gilliam’s “The Brothers Grimm,” in which he and Matt Damon played 18th-century German con men; “Lords of Dogtown,” as California skateboarding impresario Skip Engblom, founder of the Z-Boys team; and Lasse Hallstrom’s comedy “Casanova,” as a fictionalized version of the Venetian bed-hopper.

At his death, Ledger had recently completed playing the villainous Joker in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman movie “The Dark Knight.”

Ledger told the New York Times he interpreted the Joker as a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy,” far different from Jack Nicholson’s earlier performance as the same character.

Ledger was self-taught and often castigated himself in interviews about his perceived shortcomings as a performer. “I feel the same way about ever ything I do,” he said last year. “The day I say, `It’s good’ is the day I should start doing something else.”

Ledger had a daughter, Matilda, with actress Michelle Williams, who played his wife in “Brokeback Mountain.” The couple separated last year.

An autopsy is to be conducted Wednesday.

By Jan Stuart Newsday

“There Will Be Blood,” and there will be Oscars. Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic-sized battle between an oil baron and a preacher led the field of best picture nominees, announced in Los Angeles Tuesday, along with the Coen brothers’ violent suspense drama, “No Country For Old Men,” each picking up a total of eight Academy Award nominations.

Anderson, who rose to prominence with his debut film, “Boogie Nights,” scored two nominations for his direction and adapted screenplay, while his lead actor, Daniel Day-Lewis, earned a nod in the best actor categor y for his incendiary performance as California oil magnate Daniel Plainview.

“No Country For Old Men” also earned direction and screenplay nominations for Joel and Ethan Coen, as well as a supporting actor tap for Javier Bardem as a sinister serial killer.

“Atonement” took second place in the best picture race with seven nominations. A romantic drama set against World War I, “Atonement” picked up its sole acting nomination in the best supporting categor y for 13-year-old Saorise Ronan, in the role of a young aristocrat who wreaks havoc with the lives of others.

Rounding out the best picture categor y were Tony Gilroy’s corporate thriller “Michael Clayton,” with a total of five nominations, and Jason Reitman’s eleventh-hour comedy hit “Juno,” with four nominations, including a best actress opening for its 20-year-old Canadian star, Ellen Page.

The best actress field also included Julie Christie (“Away From

Her”), Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”), Laura Linney (“The Savages”) and double nominee Cate Blanchett (“Elizabeth: The Golden Age”), who also received a supporting actress nomination for her phenomenal portrayal of folk icon Bob Dylan in “I’m Not There.”

Former supporting actor Oscarwinner George Clooney bagged a best actor nomination for his subtle portrayal of the titular legal problem-solver in “Michael Clayton.” Also nominated were Tommy Lee Jones (“In the Valley of Elah”). Viggo Mortensen (“Eastern Promises”) and Johnny Depp, as the murderous Sweeney Todd.

Tim Burton’s blood-spattered adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical received only two other nominations after winning the Best Picture Golden Globe in the comedy/musical categor y.

In addition to Blanchett and Ronan, the supporting actress contest is open to Ruby Dee (“American Gangster”), Amy Ryan (“Grace Is Gone”), and Tilda Swinton (“Michael Clayton”). Oscar veteran Philip Seymour Hoffman returns for a supporting actor run against Bardem, Hal Holbrook (“Into the Wild”), Tom Wilkinson (“Michael Clayton”) and Casey Affleck (“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”).

The American military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan dominated the documentar y field, which included “No End in Sight,” “War/ Dance,” “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience: and “Taxi to the Dark Side.” Firebrand humorist Michael Moore went on a diet while making his health care indictment “Sicko,” but managed to add another Oscar notch to his growing belt of nominations and awards.

Page 8

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Fed heavily cuts key interest rate

By Neil Irwin and David Cho Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve slashed a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point Tuesday, a bold action designed to prevent steep losses in world stock markets from spiraling into an all-out panic.

The rate cut, the largest in 24 years, soothed financial markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.1 percent, far less than the drops of 7 percent and more that staggered Asian and European markets this week. After the cut was announced, stock prices moderated in Europe and Asia.

Investors in futures markets are betting there is a strong likelihood that the Fed will cut rates again at its regularly scheduled meeting next week.

The cut in the federal funds rate, to 3.5 percent, should make it cheaper for consumers to borrow money with credit cards or through home-equity loans, or for businesses to take on loans to expand. It should also lead to lower rates on most adjustable-rate mortgages, though it is less likely to affect rates for long-term, fixedrate home loans.

But the cut did not immediately restore confidence to key segments of the debt markets, which are at the root of the problems threaten-

ing the economy with recession.

There is also increasing concern in the markets that the tax cuts and other stimuli being discussed

by President Bush and Congress will not ease the underlying credit crunch.

“The financial system has been infected,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy. com. “Providing tax cuts and lower rates gives policymakers more time to solve the problem but it doesn’t heal the infection.”

Tuesday’s rate cut was dramatic for its scale; after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Fed cut rates by only half a percentage point.

Fed leaders decided not to wait until next week’s meeting.

Although they worried that they might be seen as overreacting to stock-market volatility, they figured there was even greater danger if they did not move aggressively.

Left unchecked, a hard-to-reverse cycle could set in with giant worldwide losses leading to a severe recession in the U.S. economy.

The central bank cut the rate “in view of a weakening of the economic outlook and increasing downside risks to growth,” the Fed’s policymaking committee said in a written statement. Credit is becoming less available, the housing contraction is worsening, and so is the labor market, the statement said. It said that Fed leaders expect inflation to moderate in the coming quarters and that they “will act in a timely manner as needed to address” financial and other risks, both signals that the central bank is inclined to continue cutting rates.

The latest rate cut was on top of a full percentage-point reduction that the central bank enacted over its previous three meetings.

In the view of Fed leaders, the U.S. economy is slowing to such a degree that a large interest-rate cut was justified by conventional economic analysis. But it was the crisis in financial markets and mounting gloom that created a reason to enact the cut between meetings, a practice that Chairman Ben Bernanke resists.

In the view of Fed leaders, a decline in the stock market is not, in and of itself, a reason to cut interest rates. In this case, the policymakers viewed the declining stock prices around the world not so much as an inherent problem but as emblematic of declining confidence in the financial system.

Lower rates, in addition to making it less expensive for consumers and businesses to borrow, have other ef fects that stimulate the economy. They cause weakness in the price of the dollar, which helps U.S. expor ters. And they make banks more profitable, which in the current crisis could allow banks to rebuild their capital positions and get on solid footing more carefully.

The rate cuts, coupled with proposed tax cuts and spending increases, could shore up confidence among companies and consumers.

But they do not directly address the root cause of the crisis — a set of bad bets made by financial players all over the world over many years that roiled the fundamental business of lending money.

Those who trade in complicated debt securities based on mor tgages or other kinds of loans said those markets generally remained troubled despite the rate cut.

“Everyone is still pretty spooked right now. People are still in a waitand-see mode,” said Kerry Kantin,

who covers the trading of buyout loans for Standard & Poor’s Leveraged Commentar y & Data.

Policymakers have struggled to contain the credit crunch because so many financial firms tied their fortunes to the housing industr y by buying mortgages, packaging them and trading them like securities. That business star ted to spread the risk of making the loans across many parties and, for years, it generated huge profits and fees for Wall Street’s biggest banks.

Financial firms, hedge funds and investors around the world rushed to get a piece of the action.

Now, as defaults and foreclosures soar to record levels in the United States, these mortgage securities are plummeting in value and even the most savvy investors aren’t sure what they are worth.

Firms around the world, facing huge losses, can’t sell the securities and their ability to support all kinds of loans is threatened. The cash spigot is closing.

“Financial engineers for the past five years created a whole bunch of defective products that are nothing but blind pools of bonds and loans that are of very poor credit quality, but through the magic of financial alchemy were sold as good credits,” said Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research.

This “credit recession,” as some Wall Street analysts call it, is in some ways more dangerous than other downturns the nation has faced because it threatens both consumer and business spending.

Fed of ficials are par ticularly concerned about the financial health of bond insurers, some of which may be close to failing.

Those firms help municipalities and companies with weak credit borrow money, but over the past few years they also delved into the business of providing insurance for mortgage-backed securities.

Now the insurers have to cover more losses than they can afford.

If any of them fail, the value of the municipal and corporate bonds they insure would suffer a huge drop.

Nearly 5,000 bonds insured by Ambac Financial Group were downgraded Tuesday and have dropped in value. On Friday, Fitch Ratings downgraded Ambac itself.

The rating of another bond insurer, ACA Capital Holdings, was cut from investment grade to near junk by Standard and Poor’s last month after the company revealed that it faces $60 billion of mor tgage-security insurance losses that it can’t pay. Tuesday it won a month’s grace to unwind these contracts from the people who bought the insurance.

New York insurance regulators, of ficials of the Federal Reser ve Bank of New York, and many of the biggest firms on Wall Street are discussing how to infuse new capital into the bond-insurance companies to prevent the losses from rippling through the financial system.

The New York State Insurance Depar tment has persuaded billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, to enter the market for municipal bond insurance. (Buffett is a director of The Washington Post Co.).

“What’s going on is the unwinding of probably the biggest credit bubble in history,” said David Shulman, senior economist at the UCLA Anderson Forecast. “It will take a while to undo this, and it could get ver y messy.”

W orld & n ation Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Presidential hopeful Thompson leaves race Major world powers draft more

By Michael D. Shear Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Former Tennessee senator Fred Dalton Thompson, whose candidacy fizzled after a summer of expectations, pulled out of the Republican presidential race Tuesday after disappointing finishes in all of the primar y contests.

In a terse, three-sentence statement, the former actor and senator abandoned a candidacy that once seemed like it had ever ything a Republican could want: solid conservative credentials, Washington experience, Hollywood panache, southern charm and a commanding personality.

“Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States,” he said. “I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people.”

The statement was a diminutive end to a campaign that was born of hype. It was the image of Thompson as commander in chief -- a part he played in a movie once -- that seemed to hold such promise when the real-life former senator contemplated running for the White House last spring and summer.

Instead, the campaign became roiled in staff disputes and was dogged by allegations that Thompson did not have the desire or energy to mount an aggressive presidential campaign.

That narrative was offered as soon as Thompson entered the race just after Labor Day. And as the campaign progressed, Thompson’s actions affirmed it.

Last October, he took the stage at Florida’s state GOP convention after his three main rivals gave energetic stemwinders before a throng of 4,000 conser vative activists.

But when his turn came, Thompson mumbled for about five minutes and departed abruptly, leaving a stunned crowd to wonder whether he was even interested in running for president. The Miami Herald wrote the next day that “dozens of people asked: ‘Is that it?’”

As the men competing for the GOP nomination head back to Florida before the state’s primar y on Jan. 29, Thompson will not go with them.

Thompson had said repeatedly that he needed a strong finish in South Carolina to stay in the race.

He failed, ending up with 16 percent of the vote, behind Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, and just a point ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

In an election-night speech to supporters in Columbia, the normally laid-back Thompson thundered for 10 minutes about the

Recycle The Herald

less obvious accomplishments of his run for the presidency in what sounded much like a valedictory.

“We will always be bound by a close bond because we have traveled a ver y special road together for a very special purpose,” he told supporters. “We’ll always stand strong together ... We’ll always stand strong together, and I can’t thank you enough for that.”

The road for Thompson began last March, when he assembled a small group of advisers to help him consider a presidential campaign. He began to raise money and formed an explorator y committee.

The former star of “Law & Order” and several big movies effectively teased the country for months in spring and summer while he considered whether to begin a White House campaign, becoming for a time the great hope for conser vative Republicans frustrated with their other choices.

But his campaign was chaotic from the start, losing its manager and many of its senior staff members even before the Labor Day weekend announcement. And Thompson turned in a lackluster effort once in the race, making infrequent appearances and never lighting a fire under voters.

His best moment came when he launched his campaign. At the end of that week, he took the lead in the Republican field in national polls.

But Thompson saw his poll numbers plummet from the high 20s and low 30s in early September to single digits by the end of the year.

His support in early-voting states such as New Hampshire declined so far that he barely campaigned in those battlegrounds.

He campaigned in Iowa more aggressively at the end, mounting a two-week bus tour of the state.

He tied for third.

Campaign aides often worked hard to cover for their candidate’s

lack of enthusiasm, explaining his lack of campaign appearances -- he often had just one public event a day -- by saying Thompson was running a different kind of campaign that would harness the power of Internet communications and conservative talk radio.

Yet in the five minutes of that October speech in Florida, Thompson did the most to validate the chief criticism of his 2008 presidential bid: that he never had the fire in his belly to be a serious contender.

“His rivals would do more in a day than Fred would do in a month,” said one disaffected Thompson insider. “He created the perception, fairly or not, that he was just going through the motions.”

“Thompson never filled those huge shoes from last summer’s polls, but he did manage to score well in the debates and get a respectful vote in South Carolina,” said Scott Reed, who managed Robert J. Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign.

Thompson was unable to unite the party’s right wing around his candidacy. His refusal to support a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and questions about his lobbying for an abor tion rights group raised questions for social conser vatives. And his laid-back style and several early flubs on the campaign trail made others question his chances against an energized Democrat.

After Thompson’s South Carolina loss, advisers privately suggested that their candidate could throw his suppor t to McCain, boosting McCain’s hopes of defeating Huckabee, Romney and Rudolph W. Giuliani in the fractured GOP field. In the Senate, Thompson helped McCain pass campaign finance legislation, and the two are friends.

But one senior Thompson aide said he did not expect an endorsement of McCain anytime soon.

moderate resolution on Iran

By Robin Wright Washington Post

The United States and five other major powers agreed Tuesday on a new draft U.N. resolution on Iran, but the compromise incorporates weakened language that only calls for “vigilance” or “monitoring” of financial and militar y institutions without most of the tough economic sanctions sought by the Bush administration, according to European officials familiar with its text.

To break an eight-month deadlock, the Bush administration accepted a plan that includes largely voluntar y monitoring of transactions involving two banks and calls for restraints on export credits, cargo traf fic and business involving individuals or institutions linked to proliferation. The toughest restriction is a travel ban on key officials, the European officials said.

The final talks in Berlin were dominated by intense negotiations between Secretar y of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to U.S. and European officials. Announcing an agreement afterward, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier acknowledged that the lengthy diplomacy to get a draft “was not always all that easy.”

The U.N. Security Council passed two earlier resolutions, in December 2006 and March 2007, calling for Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium, a process that can be used for peaceful energy as well as deadly weapons.

It promised a third resolution if Iran did not comply in 60 days.

Washington hoped new sanctions would add more meaningful pressure.

But Russia and China, which do significant business with

Iran, resisted earlier British and French drafts — inspired

by Washington — that called for asset freezes on Iranian banks and parts of the militar y, including the elite Quds Force, as well as a ban on arms sales to Iran.

All these measures were either dropped or watered down.

At this stage, the draft itself is the primar y achievement, diplomats say. “This will come as a rude shock to the Iranians,” Undersecretar y of State Nicholas Burns said in an inter view.

“They had been predicting that the Security Council was no longer unified enough to pass a third resolution, and they were wrong.

The council will pass this resolution in several weeks and it will add to the international pressure on Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment.”

European envoys say the main impact of a new resolution may be the psychological ef fect on international financial transactions and institutions, which have already cut back their dealings with Iran. The new draft calls for U.N. member states to “monitor” financial activities with Bank Melli and Bank Saderat, two of Iran’s biggest banks. It also calls for vigilance on export credits to Iran, a measure dropped from a previous resolution at China’s insistence, diplomats say.

“It’s going to be more difficult for Iran to do business,” said a European diplomat. “It sends a useful political message that Iran is not off the hook and at a good time in the electoral cycle.” In March, Iran is due to hold parliamentar y elections, usually a harbinger of what happens in the next presidential election, due next year. The U.S. goal is to isolate the Tehran regime in ways leading the population to turn against it at the polls.

Page 10

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Abortion foes rally in D.C. on anniversary of Roe decision Under pressure,

By Sue Anne Pressley Montes Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of abortion opponents took to the cold, gray streets of Washington on Tuesday, buoyed by a recent report that the number of abortions in the United States had hit the lowest level in years and vowing to continue the fight.

Many of the participants in the March for Life were young people, many from religious clubs and church-run schools from as far away as Ohio, Texas and Tennessee.

The march has been held each year since 1974 to protest Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s Jan. 22, 1973, decision that most laws against abortion violate a constitutional right to privacy.

In many ways, the march resembled a gigantic pep rally, with smiling teenagers in matching scarves or sweat shirts holding school banners high as they moved along Constitution Avenue NW toward the Supreme Court. But the individual signs they clutched told of their

commitment to a cause: “Give Life, Don’t Take It” and “Your Mother was Pro-Life.”

“It’s illegal to kill someone walking down the street, so it should be illegal to kill someone in the womb,” said Topher Boehm, 17, a member of the Pro-Life Club at the Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas.

“This is the social justice issue of our era, and I want to do something about it.”

Kelsey Wilson, 16, and Michelle Caulder, 17, along with their group from a Catholic church in Indianapolis, waved “Defend Life” signs as they maneuvered through the crush of people. This was their third Washington march, and they plan to keep coming, they said, until abortions are outlawed.

“I think abortion is wrong. People have reasons why they think it’s right,” Caulder said. “But it’s wrong all the time.”

The march capped three days of antiabortion events, including a Luau for Life at Georgetown University, prayers at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate

Conception and a candlelight vigil at the Supreme Court.

At a youth concert and Mass at Verizon Center on Tuesday morning, a message from Pope Benedict XVI was read to more than 20,000 youths. The pope, who will visit the United States in April, thanked them “for promoting respect for the dignity and inalienable rights of every human being, including the smallest and most defenseless members of our human family.”

At a noon rally, President Bush spoke to the crowds via a telephone hookup from the White House, in what has become an annual greeting. “Thirty-five years ago today, the Supreme Court declared and decided that under the law an unborn child is not considered a person,” Bush said. “... Today, we’re heartened — we’re heartened by the news that the number of abortions is declining. But the most recent data reports that more than one in five pregnancies end in an abortion.”

According to the report released last week by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health research

organization, the number of abortions performed in the United States dropped to 1.2 million in 2005, the lowest level since 1976. But many of Tuesday’s marchers said that that is not good enough and that they will not stop until all abortions are illegal.

“We make the journey every year — this is a very important part of our commitment to saving lives,” said Mike Conroy, 67, a retired pilot from Wexford, Pa., who was attending his ninth March for Life with a Knights of Columbus group.

Attached to his baseball cap was a tiny pair of gold feet, three-eighths of an inch long, that he said was the size of an unborn child’s feet at 10 weeks.

“We hope we’re making progress,” he said, “but even one abortion is wrong.”

Viola Eichner, 70, also was attending her ninth march in as many years. “Abortion is a very violent act,” said Eichner, who runs a farm market in Wexford. “That’s where the violence starts in the world, with abortion.”

Israel loosens grip on Gaza

By Ellen Knickmeyer Washington Post

GAZA CITY — Israel eased its blockade of Gaza City for at least a day Tuesday, allowing the European Union and United Nations to truck in the first food shipments to Gaza in five days, along with fuel to restart the Palestinian territor y’s idled power plant.

Gaza Strip, with 1.5 million people, had been cut off since Friday, when Israel closed entr y points in response to increased rocket barrages last week from Gaza toward southern Israel. About a half-million Gaza residents had been without power for most of Sunday and Monday, after the territor y’s power plant exhausted its fuel reser ves.

Some water plants also exhausted fuel supplies, leaving 40 percent of Gaza’s people without running water, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Tuesday. Equipment failures during the blockade forced Gaza sewage plants to pump 30 million liters of untreated sewage into the Mediterranean, the U.N. organization said.

U.S. Secretar y of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday she had expressed concern to Israel.

“Nobody wants innocent Gazans to suffer, and so we have spoken to the Israelis about the importance of not allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold there,” Rice told reporters.

Israel has said since it began the blockade that it would allow in shipments only after individual review. Palestinians launched at least 17 rockets at Israel from Gaza on Tuesday, causing no damage, the Israeli militar y said.

Israel gave the European Union permission to bring a week’s worth of EU-fund industrial fuel on Tuesday for the power plant.

The plant’s director, Derar Abu Sissi, told news agencies that plant workers restarted one of the plant’s two turbines as the fuel arrived, restoring electricity to outlying areas of Gaza City.

Israel said it would also allow in 132,000 U.S. gallons of diesel to run generators, as well as some cooking gas, food and medicine.

Gas stations in Gaza have run out of fuel and closed since the blockade begin, and Israel said it did not intend to immediately allow in more gasoline for vehicles.

A U.N. refugee agency operating in Palestinian territories said it was able to bring seven trucks of rice into Gaza on Tuesday.

However, protests that broke out at Gaza’s border with Egypt led Israel to close its Kerem Shalom crossing earlier than planned Tuesday, delaying shipments of rice, milk and nylon bags.

Thanks for reading

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Page 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Colombian military’s power comes with some casualities

By Chris Kraul Los Angeles T imes

FLORENCIA, Colombia -- Seven years and $4.35 billion since the advent of a U.S. aid program, the Colombian military has been transformed from an outmatched “garrison force,” which had yielded huge swaths of terrain to leftist guerrillas, to an aggressive force that has won back territory.

The transformation, however, has had a dark side. Soldiers and police of ficers have committed rising numbers of human-rights abuses, even as U.S. training intensifies, rights groups charge.

During the five-year period that ended in June 2006, extrajudicial killings increased by more than 50 percent over the previous five years, according to figures compiled by human-rights groups.

The military also has fallen victim to spectacular security breaches, a result of too-rapid expansion, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos acknowledged. “It’s like a child who grows too fast. There are going to be problems,” Santos said, adding that to clean house, his ministry has dismissed 360 officers in the past two years.

But even critics don’t dispute that the military has become more professional and capable. And that’s quite a turnaround for an institution that a decade ago was dismissed by Colombian and U.S. observers as no match for the leftist Revolutionar y Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. In the late 1990s, the army was best known for its disasters. Half a dozen bases, mostly in southern jungle and border states, were overrun by the FARC, resulting in the killing or kidnapping of hundreds of soldiers. The names of the bases, such as Patascoy, Las Delicias and El Billar, became emblematic of the military’s ineptitude.

When President Alvaro Uribe took of fice in 2002, rebels had encircled the capital, Bogota, and the militar y seemed impotent to do anything about it. His predecessor, Andres Pastrana, had ceded a Switzerland-size chunk of Colombian jungle to the FARC in the vain hope the move would lead to a peace agreement.

Now the military seems to have the upper hand, say analysts at the Pentagon’s Southern Command headquarters in Miami.

In a recent interview, Santos said the militar y had “fundamentally been transformed. ... Before, the Colombian army was only on the defense. Now it’s totally on the offense and gaining great prestige.”

Here at Fort Larandia, a plantation-turned-army base in the southern state of Caqueta on the edge of the Amazon basin, Joint Task Force Omega embodies the new Colombian military.

Teams of commandos trained

by U.S. Army Special Forces and who deploy aboard Black Hawk helicopters take the fight to the guerrillas using satellites, special listening devices and high-tech “smart” bombs.

Among recent strikes was the killing in September of Tomas Medina “Negro Acacio” Caracas, a top FARC commander in charge of drugs and weapons logistics. In June, an Omega unit killed Milton Sierra, a FARC commander believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of a dozen state legislators in 2001 and for the rebels’ Pacific Coast drug trade.

That Fort Larandia functions at all is a sign that the militar y has turned a page. A former cattle ranch donated to the nation by the family of Olivero Lara, himself killed by rebels in 1965, the base is in the heart of what used to be termed “The Republic of the FARC.” Many of the base’s 14,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen were involved in a militar y campaign launched in 2004 to reoccupy this zone of Caqueta, and rooted out many FARC units from the area.

The operation also deprived rebels of what for decades was their combination storehouse, backyard and training and recreation area, said militar y analyst Alvaro Valencia Tovar, a retired army general and columnist for Bogota’s El Tiempo newspaper.

“The campaign may have produced a strategic turnaround,” Valencia Tovar said.

Although the FARC by no means has been defeated, it is on the run and has been for the past few years, Colombian and U.S. military analysts say. They cite rising rebel casualties and defections, decreased rebel attacks, fragmentation of guerrilla fighting units and the killings of several “high-value targets” in 2007 such as Caracas and Sierra.

Statistics provided by the Southern Command show that across the country homicides have declined 40 percent and kidnappings by 75 percent since Uribe, a strong U.S. ally, took office. Drug seizures and raids on drug-processing labs are up.

Boosters here and in the United States cite the successes in urging the continuation of Plan Colombia, a U.S. taxpayer-funded effort to counter drugs and terrorism that has been in effect since 2000. Even under more skeptical Democratic leadership since 2006, Congress has continued to fund Plan Colombia, although it has reduced direct militar y aid in favor of economic programs to fight drugs and terrorism.

But Plan Colombia critics say that the invigorated militar y is committing an increasing number of human-rights abuses, despite promises in 1999 by Washington that the aid package would bring about a reduction. They highlight cases known as “false positives” of soldiers who, pressed for results, killed civilians and then labeled them as insurgents killed in action.

According to statistics compiled by the Colombian Commission of Jurists, a human-rights group, the armed forces committed 1,035 extrajudicial killings in the five-year period that ended in June 2006, compared with 685 in the previous five years.

Lisa Haugaard, executive director of the Latin America Working Group in Washington, said that as right-wing paramilitary groups were demobilized, they committed fewer human-rights abuses. But at the same time, the number of abuses by the military increased.

“You can speculate why: that the demobilized paramilitaries aren’t doing the dirty work anymore, or as much of it, and so the army has to do it. Or that they are being pressured for results,” Haugaard said.

“We found a number of cases where people were taken from their homes in civilian clothing and later found dead in guerrilla clothing,” she said. “I was shocked by the quantity and pattern that seemed

Chris Kraul / L.A. Times

Colombian army Capt. Ivan Noriega at Fort Larandia stands next to one of Joint Task Force Omega’s helicopters, a key element in rapid attacks and intelligence-gathering efforts that are helping the U.S.-trained military keep leftist guerrillas off balance or on the run.

to exist.”

And security lapses have made headlines. In May 2006, soldiers killed 10 U.S.-trained anti-narcotics police officers near the town of Jamundi, allegedly on orders of drug traffickers. Last year, a highranking admiral was charged with having sold the coordinates of vessels to drug traffickers so they could avoid interdiction.

For average Colombians, the militar y’s successes in restoring some measure of security outweigh the abuses and scandals. Recent polls show that 80 percent of respondents have a favorable image of the army.

But the military faces daunting challenges if it is to triumph in the four-decade conflict with guerrillas.

It has to gain control over the lawless areas bordering Venezuela and Ecuador, where rebels freely cross over to rest and resupply. It has to bring down human-rights abuses and build an officer corps that has not kept pace with recruits.

“Before, the FARC always seemed one step ahead of the good guys,” said a U.S. military attache at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, who asked not to be identified for security reasons. “But little by little, we’re seeing the army’s momentum build.”

Page 12

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Despite rebounds, w. hoops loses to Hoyas continued from page 16 and Jan. 6, respectively.

Although the Bears were strong on the glass again, out-rebounding Georgetown 36-35 overall and 25-20 defensively, they couldn’t get good shots off against the Hoya defense, shooting just 34.1 percent (15-44).

Despite an early lead of 13-11 and a close game at the half, where the Bears only trailed 25-24, Brown’s many turnovers and poor shooting sabotaged any chances of pulling ahead. The Hoyas overcame a team-leading 12 points and six rebounds from Alexander to bur y the Bears 65-46.

Brown’s recently improving defense couldn’t match up to No. 19 George Washington two days later and they fell 98-22 at the Smith Center in Washington, D.C. The Colonials stormed out to an early 23-0 lead with the Bears’ first basket finally coming at 11:42 mark on a lay-up by Alexander. George Washington continued to rack up points in the second half with 67 percent shooting compared to Brown’s 23 percent, and with 5:55 left in the game led 85-19.

Leading the Bears scoring was O’Neal with seven, followed by guards Shae Fitzpatrick ’10 and Sadiea Williams ’11 with four each.

Fitzpatrick also had a team high of four rebounds.

Despite the team’s recent losses, it had ample time to regroup and was prepared to play in its first Ivy League game of the season against Yale at home on Jan. 19.

“Our main goal during the winter session was to focus and prepare for the beginning of our Ivy League games. Our overall team goal this year is to win the Ivy League Championship,” Betsy Jacobson ’11 said. “We came back from break Dec. 26 and have been working extremely hard to reach all our goals.”

It was finally the Bears’ chance to shine and they came into the game strong and ready to play.

Even with a sound first half, and a solid game overall, out-rebounding and out-shooting the Bulldogs, Brown couldn’t hold an early lead and lost to Yale, 52-45.

Brown took the lead early, 11-9, with 7:52 left in the half. It continued to dominate and by halftime was up 27-19.

The Bears’ lead was short-lived, however, and with “a loss of concentration,” as Jacobson put it, the Bulldogs crept up from behind, getting within six points with ten minutes to play in the game. With under three minutes left, Yale took the lead for good 43-40.

The Bears kept it close, but with decisive free-throws from Yale’s Melissa Colborne and Lindsey Williams, the Bulldogs assured their win 52-45.

Williams led Bruno in scoring with 11, while Alexander almost had another double-double with nine points and ten boards.

Still ready to prove themselves in the Ivy League the Bears with get another chance at Yale this weekend, Jan. 26 in New Haven, Conn.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

M. hoops beats American and Army, falls to Baylor over break continued from page 16 18-8 run and never looked back, eventually winning 87-54. Huffman scored 21 points and became the 20th player to score 1,000 points in Brown history.

Jan. 2, at Army: With Brown down four points with 22 seconds left, Huffman scored five points to lead the Bears to a stunning 79-78 win. Down 78-74, Huffman completed a three-point play with 15.2 seconds left. After Army missed the first shot of a one-and-one, Huffman hit a 10-foot jump shot with 1.7 seconds left to win the game.

Jan. 4, vs. American: Huffman continued his hot shooting, scoring 29 points as the Bears won 68-55.

Brown led for nearly the entire game.

Jan. 8., at Baylor: Brown couldn’t stop freshman LaceDarius

Dunn, who scored 27 points as Baylor, who are also the Bears, beat their Providence cousins, 72-62.

Robinson said he was happy with how the Bears finished their non-league schedule, saying that the team “just got better and better” with each game.

Now, he believes his team is ready to compete for the league championship.

“That’s a lot to shoot for,” Robinson said, “but at the beginning of the season, I didn’t see us competing for the championship. I figured we go from fifth in the league to maybe third. But if we can play the way we’ve been playing, we should compete for the league.”

The Bears will have a chance to avenge their loss at Yale on Saturday, when the Bulldogs visit the Pizzitola Center. The game is scheduled for 3 p.m.

M. icers continue winless streak over winter break continued from page 16 Bruno in the game with 30 saves, including a save on a break-away shot late in the first period, to hold Army’s lead at only one goal. With just under nine minutes left in the game, Chris Poli ’08 beat the Army goaltender for a wrap-around goal to force overtime. Neither team scored in the extra frame, and the game ended in a 1-1 tie.

On Jan. 5, Brown carried a 2-1 lead over Yale into the third period, after goals from Timberlake and Ryan Garbutt ’09 erased an early 1-0 deficit. Once again, though, Bruno failed to protect its lead late in the game, allowing a Yale goal with just 1:08 remaining in regulation. In overtime, it took the Bulldogs just 51 seconds to find the net again for the 3-2 victor y over Brown.

On Jan. 11, the Bears surrendered four goals to Quinnipiac University in the first period en route to a 6-3 home loss, and the next day told a similar story, when Princeton out-shot Brown 58-25 in a 6-2 loss for the Bears. One bright spot in those two games, however, was the play of David Brownschidle ’11, who scored a goal in each game, giving him three goals on the season.

The Bears took the ice again on Sunday, with the start of the game moved up from 4 p.m. to 1 p.m., in order to allow fans to see both the hockey game and the American Football Conference Championship game between the Patriots and the Chargers.

In a tight game with Merrimack College, Brown suf fered another frustrating loss, 4-3, in a game where the Bears held the lead twice. Garbutt got the scoring started 7:24 into the second period, but midway through the frame Merrimack found the net twice in a span of 2:10 to take the lead. The Bears struck back, though, as Pietrus tied the game on a power play goal with 5:44 left in the second period, and Timberlake scored on a man advantage, for his fifth goal of the year, to regain the lead at 6:17 into the final frame. But Brown’s defense again faltered late in the game, allowing goals at 12:31 and again at 15:37, to give Merrimack the 4-3 win.

Brown is now 1-12-4, with a 1-6-3

Page 13

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

record in Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League play.

The team has not won a game since its 5-2 win over Colgate University on Nov. 9, but the Bears will look to change that when they head to upstate New York this weekend to face off against Cornell on Friday and Colgate on Saturday.

After winter wins, squash will face Bowdoin continued from page 16 players from abroad, but the Bears are able to get victories because it takes five individual matches to win.

“Its hard for our top-one or-two players to compete with international players who have played in international competition,” Fadaifard said.

Against Amherst, it was a different story. Brown dominated up and down the ladder, and each of the players who lost against the Lyons, with the exception of Steel who did not play, bounced back for a decisive win against the Lord Jeffs. The rest of the team stayed strong, dropping only one game against Amherst (5-6). The bottom six players dropped only five points combined to their opponents.

“Ever yone had played well the past three matches,” said cocaptain Cerullo. “Nobody underestimated their opponents. We had a couple of people injured who thought about sitting out (the second match) but didn’t.”

Breck Haynes ’09 squeezed out a 9-2, 9-5, 4-9, 9-5 win in her second match despite limping slightly on a tender left leg.

The Bears’ first victory came last weekend at home against Cornell, 6-3. Brown played one other match over intersession, falling 9-0 to No. 5 ranked Trinity College.

The men’s team also showed its depth against the Lord Jeffs. Adam Greenberg ’10 and Ross Harrow

’11 lost at the second and third positions 1-9, 6-9, 9-3, 10-9, 9-4, and 9-6, 9-0, 9-6 respectively. Greenberg dominated early on, but a blister opened up on his left foot in the third game. His opponent, Mark Rapisarda, took advantage by moving Greenberg around with a number of drop shots, and came back to win in five games.

Fortunately, the back end of the ladder picked up the slack again.

Pat Davis ’10 came back from a 7-0 deficit in his first game to win 10-8. The comeback gave Davis confidence and spurred him to a 10-8, 9-1, 4-9, 9-5 victory at No. 7.

“I’m a very streaky player,” Davis said. “It’s not that infrequent that I get down. It’s taken a long time (for me) to get to the point where (I) can be down 7-0 and come back.”

Davis’ mental victory is reflective of the team’s mental toughness which will be important as Brown heads into the meat of its schedule in the next few weeks.

“At this point in the season, the technical side of the game is done,” Davis said. “We have been playing for three or four months and technically, we are where we are going to be. We just have to keep focused. Squash is the most mental game besides golf that I’ve played.”

Head Coach Stuart leGassick also pointed out the importance of mental toughness, especially since Bruno always starts its season with some of the best competition in the countr y. The men’s

team pulled out just one individual match win in its five losses early in the season, including two 9-0 losses to Trinity and Cornell over the intersession. Bruno played national top-five teams in each of its first four matches.

“It’s not easy (starting with such tough competition)” leGassick said. “It’s okay as long as they don’t look at the outcome and just compete even if it’s to just get four rallies in a row.”

The players sometimes have a hard time dealing with early blowouts.

“It’s so demoralizing when you start out playing the best teams in the country every year,” said a frustrated Davis.

Still, the staunch competition is crucial for building up to the competitive matches later in the season. Cerullo, Brown’s No. 1, has played some of the best players in the country and feels that helps her game later in the season.

“I always like playing tough competition” Cerullo said. “It gets you playing at a higher level and it’s easier for more competitive matches.”

The Bears will look to take the momentum gained by the wins and continue improving as they head into their very competitive matches in the next few weeks.

Both men and women will travel to Bowdoin on Saturday. The men will face Bowdoin and Colby while the women will square-off with Bowdoin, Bates and St. Lawrence.

E ditorial & L etters Page 14

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

Signing On Spring semester always starts off quietly at Brown. No Orientation Welcoming Committee, few parents helping their students to unpack and nearly no one chatting on the Main Green as winds rise and temperatures dip.

But while many students are trickling back onto campus just in time to start classes, we, the members of the 118th editorial board of The Herald, have been working over the break to ready another year’s coverage of our community’s day-to-day news.

Taking over the reins from a successful group of editors, we aim for the highest standard of journalism, just like more than a century of our predecessors.

We’re as thrilled as they were to cover this dynamic community and its varied interests. Brown students spend most of their time between Jo’s and the Gate, making them naturally focused on new campus construction and the latest dining hall recipes. But they pay as much attention to local schools they don’t attend, a national immigration plan that may not affect them and crises in countries they’ve never visited.

As Brown’s paper of record, we seek to mirror the full breadth of our readers’ passions and concerns. We’ll tell you about everything from renovations to our aged observatory to a wholesale review of the undergraduate College to your roles in national elections.

We know that by the time you’re reading this, you’ve probably already seen dozens of international headlines on your news Web site of choice. But no other source will tell you about the Spring Weekend lineup and the housing lottery. As a small, independent newspaper, it’s our responsibility to tell you what’s happening at Brown and in Providence and to give you the local perspective on those grander stories. We recognize the importance of that role, and we’ll be as thorough, impartial and dedicated as we possibly can.

The upcoming year promises to be exciting. As you start up another semester, Brunonians, ever the movers and shakers who keep our newsroom buzzing and our pages full, we hope you will use The Herald to keep up-to-date on the news around you. You give us plenty of fascinating stories to tell. We’re honored to tell them.

Simmi Aujla ’09, Editor-in-Chief Ross Frazier ’09, Editor-in-Chief Taylor Barnes ’09, Senior Editor Chris Gang ’09.5, Senior Editor

T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Simmi Aujla Ross Frazier editorial Arts & Culture Editor Robin Steele Asst. Arts & Culture Editor Andrea Savdie Higher Ed Editor Debbie Lehmann Features Editor Chaz Firestone Metro Editor Rachel Arndt Metro Editor Scott Lowenstein News Editor Mike Bechek News Editor Isabel Gottlieb News Editor Franklin Kanin News Editor Michael Skocpol Opinions Editor Karla Bertrand Opinions Editor James Shapiro Sports Editor Whitney Clark Sports Editor Amy Ehrhart Sports Editor Jason Harris Asst. Sports Editor Benjy Asher Asst. Sports Editor Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Megan McCahill

Senior Editors Taylor Barnes Chris Gang Stu Woo Business Darren Ball General Manager Mandeep Gill General Manager Susan Dansereau Office Manager Sales Manager Alex Hughes Lily Tran Sales Manager Emilie Aries PR Director Jon Spector Accounting Director Claire Kiely Account Manager Account Manager Ellen DaSilva Darren Kong Account Manager Katelyn Koh Account Manager Ingrid Pangandoyon Technology Director photo Rahul Keerthi Meara Sharma Min Wu Ashley Hess

Photo Editor Asst. Photo Editor Asst. Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor

A dam robbins

Letters Israel must stop its siege of Gaza To the Editor: A U.N. emergency humanitarian appeal published earlier this month described Israel’s stranglehold on Gaza as a “feudal siege.” This week, Israel pressed its thumbs further into the throats of the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, escalating restrictions on access to basic food and medical supplies and finally, on Sunday, flipping the switch on Gaza’s single power plant.

The “only democracy in the Middle East” now offers Gazans like Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain the democratic choice to, as Hassanain put it, “cut electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms.” This fuel cutoff is (like the rest of the siege) an act of collective punishment illegal under the Geneva Conventions. Yet when confronted with Oxfam and the United Nations’ urgent condemnations of the crisis, Israel’s response is simple: there is no crisis. According to Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel, the blackout is a “ploy” to “attract international sympathy.”

Israel chokes Gaza, and Gaza’s gasp is in a vindictive Palestinian PR move. Mekel’s framing of the siege is illogical, but it jives with common characterizations of Israel as the besieged party; indeed, Mekel has defined the fuel blockade as a retaliatory gesture, insisting, “if they stop the rockets today, everything would go back to normal.” The American term for this type of distortion, which classifies resistance to oppression and occupation as aggressive rather than defensive and desperate, is

“blaming the victim.”

This week, as we commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr., and reflect on our own relationship to racist oppression, it’s worthwhile to consider both the words of South African law professor and U.N. human rights investigator John Dugard, who asked of Israeli policy, “Can it seriously be denied that the purpose of such action is to establish and maintain domination by one racial group (Jews) over another racial group (Palestinians) and systematically oppressing them?” and the lesser-known words of King himself. Generally depicted in contraposition to Black Power, King understood the validity of the anger he saw in those struggling for justice in an apartheid system that demarcates Black defensive violence as aggressive. He wrote, “Many of the young people proclaiming Black Power today were but yesterday the devotees of black-white cooperation and nonviolent direct action…If they are America’s angry children today, their anger is not congenital. It is a response to the feeling that a real solution is hopelessly distant because of the inconsistencies, resistance and faintheartedness of those in power.”

If they are Palestine’s angry children today, Mr. Mekel, their anger is not congenital; their anger is not a ploy; their anger is a response to apartheid and strangulation, and it’s our hands on their necks.

Margaree Little ’08.5 Jan. 21

post- magazine production Steve DeLucia Production & Design Editor Chaz Kelsh Asst. Design Editor Alex Unger Asst. Design Editor Catherine Cullen Copy Desk Chief Adam Robbins Graphics Editor

Matt Hill Rajiv Jayadevan Sonia Kim Allison Zimmer Colleen Brogan Arthur Matuszewski Kimberly Stickels

Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor

Steve DeLucia, Chaz Kelsh, Designers Ayelet Brinn, Catherine Cullen, Ted Lamm, Copy Editors Sophia Li, Simon van Zuylen Wood, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Sam Byker, Nandini Jayakrishna, Chaz Kelsh, Sophia Li, Emmy Liss, Max Mankin, Brian Mastroianni, George Miller, Alex Roehrkasse, Caroline Sedano, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Simon van Zuylen-Wood Staff Writers Stefanie Angstadt, Amanda Bauer, Evan Boggs, Caitlin Browne, Marisa Calleja, Zachary Chapman, Joy Chua, Patrick Corey, Catherine Goldberg, Olivia Hoffman, Ben Hyman, Erika Jung, Sophia Lambertsen, Cameron Lee, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, Anna Millman, Evan Pelz, Sonia Saraiya, Marielle Segarra, Melissa Shube, Gaurie Tilak, Matt Varley, Meha Verghese Sports Staff Writers Han Cui, Evan Kantor, Christina Stubbe Business Staff Diogo Alves, Steven Butschi, Timothy Carey, Jilyn Chao, Ellen DaSilva, Pete Drinan, Dana Feuchtbaum, Patrick Free, Sarah Glick, Soobin Kim, Christie Liu, Philip Maynard, Mariya Perelyubskaya, Viseth San, Paolo Servado, Kaustubh Shah, Saira Shervani, Yelena Shteynberg, Robert Stefani, Hari Tyagi, Lindsay Walls, Benjamin Xiong Design Staff Ting Lawrence, Aditya Voleti, Wudan Yan Photo Staff Oona Curley, Alex DePaoli, Austin Freeman, Emmy Liss, Tai Ho Shin Copy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Rafael Chaiken, Erin Cummings, Katie Delaney, Jake Frank, Jennifer Grayson, Ted Lamm, Max Mankin, Alex Mazerov, Ezra Miller, Seth Motel, Alexander Rosenberg, Emily Sanford, Elena Weissman

Correction An article in the Dec. 5 Herald stated that the Bush administration claimed Iraq had sought Nigerian uranium.

In fact, the Bush administration had claimed Iraq sought uranium from Niger.

C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

C ommentary P O L I C Y 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, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

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O pinions Wednesday, January 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Page 15

When politics and free T-shirts collide: an Iowa caucus adventure ADAM CAMBIER Opinions Columnist As a longtime political junkie and resident of the great state of Kansas, I have been blessed with high-school friends who decided to pursue the lofty goal of higher education in the nearby state of Iowa. With little to do at home in early Januar y, a friend and I packed up and shipped north in search of adventure at the nation’s first presidential contest. Before I left, I pondered my role as a firsttime visitor to the Iowa caucuses. My love for politics has always sprung less out of conviction and more from my appreciation for a good train wreck. Nothing warms the cockles of my heart more than that magical period ever y four years when other wise-dignified adults turn into petulant children as they claw and scratch their way to the top of the ticket. My lack of zeal for any particular candidate dovetailed nicely with the apparent illegality of any attempt on my part to actually vote, so I decided to set my sights on Iowa with the cold, steely demeanor of a dispassionate obser ver.

On the drive north, my friend and I settled on attending the Democratic primar y.

Although I self-identify as a borderline Republican, we decided to pay a visit to the par ty in blue because their caucus’ set-up fostered a more dynamic process— while Republicans simply meet, discuss and then cast ballots, the Democrats segregate themselves into preference groups, ultimately left to recruit the disappointed supporters of candidates who couldn’t muster the requisite 15 percent of voters. Not

ones to pass up the opportunity to argue with despondent strangers, my traveling buddy and I met up with our friend in Des Moines and headed for the Democratic caucus hall.

Once the precinct leader had read out the rules and recited letters from the candidates pleading for our votes, we were dispatched to split into initial preference groups. I embarked on a tour of the auditorium, surreptitiously collecting campaign materials that had been taped to the wall and nabbing a hideous yellow “Firefighters

eclipsed the 15 percent viability threshold, Clinton was a handful of votes shy of the mark, and the few Biden, Dodd, Kucinich and Gravel kids were sitting quietly in the back eating paste.

That’s when the fun began. For the next half hour, the room was a flurr y of activity.

The Obama contingent sat grinning broadly, almost as if they were surprised that their candidate of choice had done so well on a aliberal college campus. The Edwards and Richardson precinct captains tried to bring in enough new voters to garner an extra del-

Nothing warms the cockles of my heart more than that magical period every four years when otherwise-dignified adults turn into petulant children as they claw and scratch their way to the top of the ticket. for Dodd” T-shir t that ran two sizes too large. Once I had gathered enough swag, I followed my Des Moines friend to the corner of the room earmarked for Hillar y supporters, while my travel buddy migrated to the back of the room and promised his non-existent vote to Joe Biden in exchange for an “I caucus for Dar fur” shir t. After initial counts, Obama had garnered the suppor t of nearly half the people in the room. Edwards and Richardson had barely

egate to Iowa’s state convention, while the Clinton folks begged and pleaded with the losing candidates’ crowds in order to bring enough voters into the Hillar y fold to push her over the 15 percent benchmark. While most of the people whose candidates had fallen out of the running decided to stick together in an uncommitted group, one poor undecided soul in a blue fleece jacket ventured down the aisle and indicated that his vote might just be up for grabs.

Instantly, this poor innocent man was attacked by hungr y vote vultures from all sides like an ant colony swarming over a lollipop dropped in the dir t. A pushy Obama precinct captain got so loud and so close to the undecided voter that I’m sure I saw flecks of spit hit the guy in the face. Ultimately, the guy picked the utter desperation of Hillar y supporters over the Sylvester J. Pussycat-style spitting of the Barack captain, pushing the Clinton contingent over the edge and giving her a delegate. In the end, our precinct sent two Obama delegates to the state convention, along with one apiece for Clinton, Edwards and Richardson.

What, then, had I learned as an obser ver at a caucus? After careful consideration, I decided that the caucus system is the best reflection of what defines American politics.

America isn’t about silently and secretly voting your conscience in a secluded booth.

Secrecy is for weenies. In America you’re right, God damn it, and ever yone around you should know it. A caucus requires that you know what you’re talking about because you’re forced to defend your stance in front of your friends and neighbors. If you don’t have the iron temperament and strength of will to stick to your candidate, someone with more passion (or more free Chris Dodd or Darfur T-shirts) can sway you. Boss Tweed would be proud. I imagine that the Iowa caucus is like the town hall meetings held by our Puritan forerunners, acting as a natural continuation of what set our great nation apart from its peers in the first place — except, of course, for the fact that this time women and minorities were allowed inside.

Adam Cambier ‘09 hopes that Aunt Marilyn enjoyed the baked beans and cornbread

Work is needed to make RISD cross-registration a reality

BY JONAH FABRICANT Opinions Columnist Countless first-year students have arrived on College Hill anticipating the opportunity to cross-register at RISD, only to find that although the schools’ close relationship is often used as a selling point to prospective students, the cross-registration process can often be arduous and unworkable. In anticipation of the first class of Brown-RISD dual-degree students this fall, it makes sense for us to consider what the nascent program reveals about the collaborative relationship the two schools already share. The new program clearly tries to address the flaws that have plagued the process in the past, but it also serves to make those flaws painfully apparent to the vast majority of Brown students who will never see the benefit of a specialized dual-degree track.

The main hurdle to registering at RISD is the logistical nightmare of attempting to fit a RISD course into a Brown semester. First, studios at RISD often meet once a week for five hours at a time, conflicting with most of Brown’s courses. In addition, academic calendars at the two schools differ, and RISD spring courses do not start until late February. RISD instructors have assured me that my best chance at getting into a class is persistently showing up to the first few sessions and showing interest. The strategy is familiar to anyone who has shopped an over-enrolled seminar at Brown, but since one can’t attend the first few sessions of a RISD spring course before March, the risks are much higher.

Replacing a RISD course that falls through would be nearly impossible.

The administrative process for cross-

registering is relatively simple. After picking up a pink add/drop slip from University Hall (which evokes nostalgia for pre-Banner days), all that is needed is a signature from Brown and RISD’s respective registrars and the course instructor, which is where the difficulty arises. Brown students are never given slots over RISD students and cannot register in advance. Each RISD instructor handles inquiries differently, but on many separate occasions I have been told that it’s

are drawn to Brown by the breadth of the curriculum and the purported facility with which students here can explore secondary areas of interest. With our varied backgrounds, many Brown students are qualified for specific studios at RISD although they do not choose to concentrate in Visual Art at Brown.

By creating the dual-degree program, the administration is in effect conceding that logistical complications preclude most Brown students from registering down the hill.

The main hurdle to registering at RISD is the logistical nightmare of attempting to fit a RISD course into a Brown semester. more or less “tough luck” that I won’t be able to enter a class. I’ve been told to try again in another semester, but I am left scratching my head wondering what I might do differently in the future.

The dual-degree program will skirt these issues by moving the Brown/RISD students from campus to campus, never requiring them to enroll at both institutions at once. While this may be a fantastic solution for the small minority that want to pursue a joint A.B./B.F.A., the administration should consider where that leaves the rest of the student body. Students

Prospective students will be forced to make an all-or-nothing decision. Instead of having the freedom to explore classes on one’s own terms, as Brown proudly boasts, students will need to choose from the outset how important the opportunity to study at RISD is. The group of artists who don’t want to pursue a bachelor of fine arts will lose out.

While over the years the Brown/RISD cross-registration process has become more streamlined (it once involved petitioning the Committee on Academic Standing to take any course), additional steps are needed to

make it easier for students to incorporate both Brown and RISD coursework into their schedules. Brown should start a dialogue with RISD about reserving some small amount of spots for interested Brown students, or at least formalizing a pre-registration process that would give Brown students a better idea of their chances of getting into a RISD course during the beginning of the Brown semester.

If students at Brown want access to RISD courses, we need to speak up lest the BrownRISD partnership, and its dual degree, become a selling point to prospective students and parents that yields no practical benefit to the vast majority of students.

Brown students can have wonderful experiences in RISD classes. As the system works now, it prioritizes assertive Brown students who are willing to reorganize their liberal arts schedules, are interested in the larger and more accessible RISD departments and are fortunate enough to contact RISD instructors who make the effort to accommodate their interests. Brown needs to answer the question: Is the reciprocal relationship with RISD only for students pursuing a degree in art or design? In order to make the collaboration more consistent with Brown’s stated curricular goals—freedom of exploration and breadth of academic choice—measures must be taken to restructure the process, to provide students with more information about their options at RISD and to open a dialogue between the two schools regarding strategies to open up slots in RISD studios, giving every Brown student a fighting chance to enroll in them.

Jonah Fabricant ‘10 is thinking of blowing glass and throwing ceramics outside University Hall.

S ports W ednesday Page 16

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Winless streak continues for men’s hockey

By Benjy Asher Assistant Spor ts Editor

Despite the stellar play of several individuals, the men’s hockey team struggled over the winter break, continuing what is now a 13-game winless streak. In the team’s seven-game stretch dating back to Dec. 8, Devin Timberlake ’10 has scored a team-high four goals, while assistant captain Jeff Prough ’08 led the way with five assists.

Following an emphatic 8-0 Dec. 4 loss to Providence College, the Bears looked to rebound against Yale on Dec. 8. Timberlake notched his second goal of the year to break a scoreless tie 7:36 into the second period, but just 2:45 later the Bulldogs countered with a power play goal to tie the game. The score remained at 1-1 until the final minute of the game, when Yale found the net on a five-on-three advantage to seal the win over Brown, 2-1.

After a three-week break, the Bears traveled to Connecticut to compete in the Toyota UConn Hockey Classic. In their first round game against Ferris State University, Bruno came out strong, when just 2:11 into the game, Jordan Pietrus ’10 picked up a loose puck in the slot and beat the goaltender to grab the early 1-0 lead. In the second period, Brown withstood two five-on-three advantages from the Bulldogs, but with 9:03 remaining in the period, with the Bears at full strength, Ferris State scored a breakaway goal to tie the game.

Under five minutes later, Ferris State scored again to take a 2-1 lead. Brown, who was out-shot 41-19 in the game, failed to come up with an equalizer and took the loss despite a career-high 39 saves from goalie Mark Sibbald ’09.

In the third-place game, the Bears fell behind against Army with five minutes left in the first period, but Dan Rosen ’10 kept continued on page 13

After setting RPI high, m. hoops loses W. hoops

keeps busy over break

By Stu Woo Senior Editor

For the past five weeks, while most Brown students were at home for winter break, the men’s basketball team was on a bit of a hot streak. The Bears went 3-2 in non-league games over the break, winning six of their last nine games in all. They set a Brown all-time high — No. 86 — in the Ratings Percentage Index, the system that helps the NCAA Tournament selection committee pick its teams.

But in a small league that will send only one team to the tournament, the Bears need to win the league if it wants to be that team.

On Saturday, the Bears started off on the wrong foot, losing their league opener at Yale, 66-63, in overtime.

The Bears (8-7 overall, 0-1 Ivy) led 57-55 with 1:22 left in regulation after guard Mark McAndrew ’08 hit a three-pointer, but Yale forward Caleb Holmes tied the game by hitting a pair of free throws with 25 seconds left.

Brown and Yale (7-8, 1-0 Ivy) traded baskets to begin overtime.

With the score tied at 61, Yale’s Eric Flato hit a three-pointer.

Guard Damon Huffman ’08 made a lay-up to bring the score to 64-63, but Flato hit two free throws to bring the lead back to three. After a McAndrew foul, Holmes missed two free throws giving Brown a chance to tie, but Huffman missed a three-pointer, and Peter Sullivan ’11 missed another after an offensive rebound.

Despite making just 17 precent of their three-pointers, the Bulldogs, who were picked to finish second in a preseason media poll (the Bears were picked fifth), kept the game close by out-rebounding the Bears, 40-28. Yale took advantage of 12 offensive rebounds for 16 second-chance points.

“We kept their three outside shooters from beating us,” Head Coach Craig Robinson said. “Unfortunately, we had two other guys who were killing us on the boards and putting back easy lay-ups.”

The Bears led 31-25 at half-

By Whitney Clark Spor ts Editor

Pyne ’10, and Charlotte Steel ’09 (9-2, 9-3, 9-3), (9-3, 4-9, 9-4, 9-4), and (9-7, 9-1, 9-3), respectively.

Fortunately for the Bears, the bottom two-thirds of their squad was very strong, and the scores became more lopsided in Bruno’s favor as the matches moved down the ladder. Lily Cohen ’11 looked particularly strong, dominating her opponent, 9-1, 9-0, 9-1, by dictating play completely.

“Our team’s depth has always been notable about Brown,” said co-captain Minoo Fadaifard ’08, who won both her matches handily. “We rely on the bottom of our team for close matches.”

Depth is important for Bruno because they do not recruit internationally. Other schools, like Mount Holyoke, are able to recruit a good top-two or -three

While most of Brown’s students relaxed during the winter recess, the women’s basketball team was working hard on the court. Back to Brown on Dec. 26, the Bears prepared for their games with their first contest only three days later on Dec. 29 against Lehigh in the Mountain Hawks’ Christmas City Classic. At the tournament in Pennsylvania, Brown also played Stony Brook in the consolation game.

Since then, the team has played three more games against notable opponents, including No.19 George Washington University, Big East foe Georgetown and the Bears’ first Ivy League match against Yale.

Although the Bears struggled to achieve a winning record over the break, they focused their energy on defense and the upcoming Ivy League games. The Bears came out of the break 0-5, but they say they are not focusing on their losses, but rather the improvements they need to make.

“We’re always disappointed when we lose, but we never get discouraged,” wrote forward Natalie Bonds ’10 in an e-mail. “We just come to practice ready to work.

We feel that we have a really good chance of winning Ivies.”

The Bears fell to Lehigh 68-38, in scoring by captain Annesley O’Neal ’08 and guard Jaclyn Goldbarg ’09 with 11 points each. Guard Christina Johnson ’10 was close behind with ten points.

Even with three players scoring in double digits the Bears couldn’t get ahead. The team came within 11 points with 8:30 remaining in the first half but the Mountain Hawks pulled away with 10:09 left in the game, scoring ten uncontested points.

In the Bears’ second game of the tournament, they lost to Stony Brook 64-52. Although they didn’t come out on top, Brown did improve in the areas they were focusing on.

“The team’s goals were to improve in all the statistical categories. Our main focus however was on defense. We want to out-rebound teams and have good defensive rotation,” O’Neal said.

From their game against Lehigh, the Bears improved their stats. Bruno improved from a minus-six rebounding margin against Lehigh to a plus-one against Stony Brook, pulling down a total of 40 against the Seawolves. Most of the difference came on the defensive end, where Bruno picked up an extra ten boards. The Bears’ quality defense also kept the Seawolves to 27 percent shooting.

Guard Karly Grace ’11 had a team and career-high of 12 points, while O’Neal added 11 and forward Ashley Alexander ’10 had a doubledouble with ten points and ten rebounds.

After the tournament the team had a few days to rest and re-energize for their trip to Washington, D.C. to play Georgetown and No. 19 George Washington on Jan. 4

continued on page 13

continued on page 12

Ashley Hess / Herald

Peter Sullivan ‘11 was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week. time, but Yale went on a 10-0 run to start the second half. Brown then trailed for the rest of the half until Huffman sank a free throw to make it 54-53 with 2:19 left.

Losing the Ivy opener was a disappointment after what Robinson considered a successful nonleague season. Brown’s eight nonleague wins were the second most since it began Ivy League play in 1954, and its RPI led the league entering the Yale game.

“The non-conference part of our schedule was really tough and I thought that we really did a pretty god job of handling ourselves,” Robinson said. “If you had told me that at the end that we’d be eight and six, I would have been like, ‘Nah, no way.’”

Some highlights from over winter break: Dec. 22, at Hartford: Swingman Chris Skrelja ‘09 scored a career-high 29 points to lead the Bears to a 79-61 victory. The game started at 11 a.m., and the Bears’ comfort in the morning might have had something to do with their daily 5 a.m. practices last semester. The Bears big upset of the season so far — beating Northwestern at their arena — also started at 11 a.m.

Dec. 29, at Notre Dame: The Big East team just “overmatched” the Bears and “took it right to us,” Robinson said. The Fighting Irish started off on an continued on page 13

Squash’s depth downs Mt. Holyoke, Amherst

By Jason Harris Spor ts Editor

Ashley Hess / Herald

Minoo Fadaifard ‘08 helped Brown beat Cornell, 9-0, 7-9, 9-5, 9-6 over break. The team also lost to Trinity, 9-0.

It seems too cliché to call a win a team effort, but Tuesday’s squash matches at the Kate Brodsky Squash Pavilion were a reminder that each member of a team plays an equal role in the team’s success as depth proved to be the deciding factor. The women’s team defeated Mount Holyoke College 6-3, followed immediately by a 9-0 rout of Amherst College. The three-game win-streak gives the Bears a 3-4 record for the season. Meanwhile, the men’s team defeated Amherst (7-2), for their first victory in six tries during this season.

Against the L yons (7-2), Brown’s strength came from the bottom of the ladder. Mount Holyoke’s top three players, all from Sri Lanka, handled Bruno’s top three, Megan Cerullo ’08, Laura