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The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 129, No. 55

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2012

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FOUR MORE YEARS

Forward | Cornellians and Ithaca residents celebrate at the downtown Holiday Inn as President Barack Obama’s reelection is announced.

FIONA MODRAK / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Obama Trounces Romney, Wins Second Term Cornell celebrates as youth propel President’s victory

By SUN STAFF

Relief and joy swept through much of the Cornell and Ithaca communities late Tuesday night as President Barack Obama fought off challenger Gov. Mitt Romney to win a second term.

The campus euphoria that accompanied Obama’s 2008 election was largely subdued, but jubilant students celebrated in North Campus dormitories, Collegetown apartments and viewing parties across Cornell.

For many students, Obama’s reelection revived the excitement they felt four years ago, when a campaign built on lofty rhetoric ushered much of America’s youth into political consciousness. That generation turned out across the nation in staggering numbers for Obama on Tuesday, according to preliminary poll results.

Cornellians appeared to be no exception. Students voted in the hundreds, according to poll workers at Collegetown’s St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. They journeyed to battleground states, like Ohio and Virginia, to give Obama a better chance. And when the work was done late Tuesday night, some still made it to Collegetown bars to celebrate.

At the Cornell Democrats’ viewing party in Collegetown, cheers reverberated throughout the room the second Fox News declared the race over.

“Four more years! Four more years! Four more years,” the crowd of about 70 chanted, rising to its feet.

“I’m beyond ecstatic,” started Talia Fiano ’14, See OBAMA page 6

“One of those millions of votes is mine.”

Carolyn Sussman ’16 DOUG MILLS / THE NEW YORK TIMES

Making history again | President Barack Obama and his family greet supporters in Chicago, Ill., early Wednesday morning.

Obama triumphs; Democrats retain Senate WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama rolled to reelection Tuesday night, vanquishing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and triumphing despite a weak economy that plagued his first term and put a crimp in the middle class dreams of millions.

“This happened because of you.

Thank you,” Obama tweeted to supporters as he celebrated four more years

in the White House. Romney telephoned the president to concede.

After the costliest — and arguably the nastiest — campaign in history, divided government seemed alive and well.

Democrats retained control of the Senate with surprising ease.

Republicans were on course for the same in the House, making it likely that Speaker John Boehner of Ohio,

Obama’s partner in unsuccessful deficit talks, would reclaim his seat at the bargaining table.

At Obama headquarters in Chicago, a huge crowd gathered waving small American flags and cheering.

Supporters hugged each other, danced and pumped their fists in the air.

Excited crowds also gathered in New

SEE PHOTOS OF CORNELLIANS VOTING ON ELECTION DAY | PAGE 5

See ELECTION page 4

2 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Today

DAYBOOK

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Weird News

Umpteen speedy televisions perused two sheep, then umpteen tickets towed Jupiter, and Dan untangles five progressive orifices. Umpteen quixotic aardvarks annoyingly bought two Macintoshes. Umpteen bureaux tickled two extremely putrid botulisms. Paul sacrificed one lampstand, then Jupiter marries the very quixotic pawnbroker. Five purple poisons laughed, yet umpteen chrysanthemums kisses five aardvarks. Batman noisily untangles one Jabberwocky. Two Macintoshes laughed, then one extremely schizophrenic Jabberwocky drunkenly untangles two sheep, however Quark telephoned umpteen obese Jabberwockies. Five irascible botulisms slightly lamely auctioned off the subway, and five chrysanthemums easily untangles one mostly speedy Klingon. Five dogs drunkenly perused Minnesota, however the mats ran away cleverly, although one partly progressive subway quite comfortably sacrificed

Daybook

of the Week

Today Propensity Score Analysis 9:30 - 11 a.m., Stone Computing Lab, Mann Library

Ex-Mayor Erects Statue Of Himself at Michigan Home

Show Me the Money: Funding Beyond Cornell 3 - 4:30 p.m., 106 G, Olin Library, Veterinary Senior Seminars 4:30 - 5 p.m., Murray Lecture Hall 1, Veterinary College Now That They’ve Won, What Will They Do? 4:45 - 6 p.m., 305 Ives Hall

Tomorrow Animal Rights: A Lunchtime Discussion With Professor Sherry Colb 12:15 - 1:15 p.m., G85 Myron Taylor Hall

DAVISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The former mayor of Flint, Mich., who resigned in 2009 while facing a recall has erected a bronze statue of himself outside the gated entrance to his home.

The Flint Journal reports that the statue of Don Williamson in Genesee County’s Davison Township, near Flint, is surrounded by six bronze lions.

On the base of the statue are the words: “The Colonel's Inc. Founded by Donald J. Williamson May 10, 1984. His motto ‘Success is the best revenge.’”

Williamson says the statue was made 20 years ago and was originally displayed at The Colonel's Inc., the auto parts firm where he made his fortune.

Williamson says the lions were imported by his wife. Of the lion statues, he joked: “Careful, one of them is alive.”

Targeted Killings and the Duty to Capture 12:15 - 1:30 p.m., G08 Uris Hall Brazilian Food Festival at Okenshields 4:30 p.m., Okenshields, Willard Straight Hall Book Reading: Song of the Vikings 4:30 p.m., Rare and Manuscript Collections, Room 2B48, Kroch Library Yum Yum Dinner at North Star 4:30 - 8 p.m., North Star Dining Room, Appel Commons

Halloween-Colored Lobster Caught Off Mass. Coast

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts fisherman has caught a creepy-looking lobster that’s colored to match Halloween.

The New England Aquarium says the 1-pound female lobster has an orange side and a black side, with the colors split perfectly down the middle.

Marine officials say such coloration is estimated to occur once in every 50 million lobsters.

The fisherman who caught the seasonally colored crustacean in a trap last week is from Beverly, a seaside com-

munity 20 miles northeast of Boston.

The rare lobster is known as a split. Aquarium officials said Wednesday splits have been caught in Maine, Rhode Island and Nova Scotia in the last 10 years.

Wind Kicks Up 100-Year-Old Volcanic Ash in Alaska JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A smog-like haze that hung over part of Alaska’s Kodiak Island this week was courtesy of a volcanic eruption — 100 years ago.

The National Weather Service said strong winds and a lack of snow Tuesday helped stir up ash from the 1912 eruption of Novarupta, the largest volcanic blast of the 20th century.

The ash drifted up to about 4,000 feet and traveled over the Shelikof Strait and across Kodiak Island, prompting an aviation alert. The news was first reported by KMXT radio.

Weather service meteorologist Brian Hagenbuch said it isn’t unheard of for ash from Novarupta to create a haze, but it isn’t very common either. Winds in the area were blowing about 35 to 40 mph, with gusts of more than 52 mph.

Officials first picked up the haze on a weather camera Tuesday when the sun was rising. “It looked very foggy. ...

It was kind of a curious thing,” Hagenbuch said. “We didn’t expect fog there.”

As the day got lighter, the haze took on a “brownish, smog-type look,” he said.

A satellite image showed a “milky white plume” spreading out from the northern Alaska peninsula, and authorities later confirmed the existence of ash particles, he said.

Don’t be a fool!

Read the comics every day.

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SAT. NOV. 10, 2012 • 10AM-5PM 123 E. State St. • On The Commons Next to Funky Junk DEALERS SELLING & BUYING ALL TYPES OF MUSIC: 100,000 CDs, DVDs, RECORDS, etc. FOR SALE Bargains & Rarities

nyrecordfairs.com

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012 3

NEWS

Rep.Reed Ekes Out Victory Over Shinagawa’05

Reelected Congressman promises to be ‘strong voice in Washington’ for Tompkins County residents

By MATTHEW ROSENSPIRE Sun Senior Writer

In a hard-fought election decided by a margin smaller than any poll had predicted, incumbent Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y. 29) edged out Democratic challenger Nate Shinagawa ’05 M.A. ’09, clinching 51 percent of the vote and winning the race for New York’s 23rd Congressional District.

James Drader, chairman of the Tompkins County Republican Party, said he was confident that Reed would continue to be an effective advocate for not only “fiscal responsibility,” but also for Tompkins County in general.

“Reed has represented the district well for two years, and I think he’ll continue in the same vein,” Drader said. “We’re headed down the path to Greece, and I think Tom Reed is going to be one of the ones to stop it.”

The mood at Reed’s headquarters in Corning was ecstatic, as Reed addressed his

supporters late Tuesday night.

“These campaigns are grueling, but it was a team effort that was successful tonight, and I really do appreciate it,” he said.

Reed pledged to “be a strong voice in Washington [D.C.] for this area, for our state [and] for this region,” emphasizing the need for national unity and a focus on the issues.

“It’s time to come together as a country to solve these problems,” he said, citing the unemployment rate and debt crisis. “First up, we need to put the political rhetoric and the political bickering aside.”

He also promised to fight for the needs of his constituents.

“We’re [going to] get out there every day like we have in the 29th Congressional District,” he said.

Despite his loss, Shinagawa spoke optimistically in his concession speech.

“We did a very good job,” Shinagawa said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t come close enough. And unfortunately, we lost this race 49 to 51. But that’s okay, because we showed

FIONA MODRAK / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Tracking results | Supporters of Shinagawa ’05 surround a computer to follow the election.

DYLAN CLEMENS / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Concession speech | Shinagawa ’05 addresses supporters after announcing his electoral defeat. in this race that, even though we were out- just two generations later, [I was] able to spent three to one, we could come within run for Congress,” Shinagawa said.

Local Democrats echoed Shinagawa’s just a few thousand votes of victory.”

Shinagawa thanked his family, campaign statements and praised the efforts of his camstaff, Democratic officials and organizations paign in narrowing the race against significant odds. who assisted his campaign “I think Nate ran an –– as well as Reed. excellent campaign in a “I would like to thank district where Congressman Reed for this Republicans outnumber campaign, for this very, Democrats and where he very hard-fought battle, was outspent three to and I wish him success as a one. For him to close Congressman. I hope that that gap and almost pull he will be able to represent off this upset is someeverybody inside of this thing special,” said district,” Shinagawa said.

Ithaca Mayor Svante Shinagawa also struck Myrick ’09. an emotional note when Myrick also criticized he reflected on the connational Democratic versation he had with his organizations, particugrandfather, who was larly the Democratic the first person he called REP. REED Congressional after the election.

“My grandfather said to me ... isn’t it Campaign Committee, for ignoring amazing that just two generations ago he Shinagawa’s race.

“Nate got outspent three to one, but lost was in the Japanese-American internment camps as a 10 year old and thought by fewer than 5,000 votes,” Myrick said. of as a traitor to this country. .. isn’t it See CONGRESS page 4 amazing that just two generations that

Smith Captures Fourth Ward Common Council Seat going to look into affordable quality housing in Ithaca and what we Sun News Editor can do to increase that,” Smith and MANU RATHORE added.

Sun Senior Writer Multiple city officials celebratCapturing more than 84 pered Smith’s victory Tuesday night. cent of the vote, Stephen Smith “Our voters had a clear choice (D-N.Y.) was elected Fourth Ward between a pragmatic, balanced representative for the Ithaca approach and a more conservative Common Council Tuesday night, approach. Voters chose the prodefeating Republican opponent gressive, Democratic way in a Misha Checkovich ’13. landslide,” said Myrick, who Gathered in a packed room at endorsed Smith in the race. the Holiday Inn in Alderperson Graham downtown Ithaca, Kerslick (D-4th Ward) city officials, Ithacans “Voters chose the progressive, echoed Myrick’s sentiand Cornell Democratic way in a landslide.” ments.

Democrats greeted “I think it was a fairly news of Smith’s elec- Svante Myrick ’09 convincing win,” he said. “I tion with loud think it is very clear that applause and cheers. people have a very strong “My first priority right now is announced, Smith pledged to fol- choice in the ward and that is engaging in conversation that will low through with several initiatives great.” bring the permanent residents and he has said he would support.

Kerslick said he is looking forstudents [in the Fourth Ward] In a debate against Checkovich ward to working with Smith to together so that we can work last month, Smith praised Mayor increase student involvement in toward some common goals,” Svante Myrick’s ’09 proposed bud- the Fourth Ward community.

Smith told The Sun after his win get, saying he believes the plan will Cornell students comprise 97 was announced. reduce the city’s deficit. He also percent of constituents in the Smith won the seat for one threw his support behind Josh Fourth Ward, which includes year, serving out the remainder of Lower’s ’05 Collegetown Crossing Cascadilla Park, West Campus and the position’s term after project and proposed abating most of Collegetown. Although he Alderperson Eddie Rooker ’09 Collegetown’s housing crunch by did not attend Cornell, Smith has abruptly vacated the seat in mandating a two-month waiting said that he “understands a lot of September. He will need to run period between the start of a lease what it is to be a student in a comagain in November 2014 to secure and the showing of apartments.

See SMITH page 4 a full four-year term on the “Moving on from there, I am

By REBECCA HARRIS

Common Council.

Checkovich, a history major at Cornell, wished Smith luck after the race was called Tuesday night.

She received the news after taking her second prelim of the day.

“I wish Steve Smith the best on Common Council and that I hope he can represent the Fourth Ward well and accomplish all that he set out to accomplish,” she told The Sun. After his victory was

CHRIS PHARE / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Fourth Ward victor | Democrat Stephen Smith was elected the Fourth Ward’s representative to the Common Council Tuesday.

4 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012

NEWS

Obama’s Focus on Battleground States Boosts Him to Victory ELECTION

Continued from page 1

York’s Times Square, at Faneuil Hall in Boston and near the White House in Washington, drivers joyfully honking as they passed by.

With votes counted in 75 percent of the nation's precincts, Obama held a narrow advantage in the popular vote, leading by about 25,000 out of more than 99 million cast.

But the president's laserlike focus on the battleground states allowed him to run up a 303-203 margin in the competition for electoral votes, where the White House is won or lost. It took 270 to win.

Obama captured Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado and Nevada, seven of the nine states where the rivals and their allies poured nearly $1 billion into dueling television commercials.

Romney was in circumstances than Obama did my is on the mend, but more Massachusetts, his long and gru- after nearly four years in office. than that said it was stagnant or eling bid for the presidency at an That bode well for the presi- getting worse more than four unsuccessful end. dent, who had worked to turn years after the near-collapse of He won North Carolina the election into a choice 2008. The survey was conducted among the battleground states. between his proposals and for The Associated Press and a Florida remained too close to Romney's, rather than the simple group of television networks.v call, a state where there were long referendum on the economy durIn the battle for the Senate, lines of voters kept the polls open ing his time in the White House. Democrats won seats currently in some areas well held by Republicans in past the appointed The president’s laserlike focus on the Indiana and Massapoll close time. chusetts.

In Maine, indepenThe election battleground states allowed him to run dent former Gov. Angus emerged as a choice up a 303-203 margin in the competition King was elected to sucbetween two very difceed retiring GOP Sen. ferent visions of gov- for electoral votes.

Olympia Snowe. He has ernment — whether not yet said which party it occupies a major, front-row place in American lives Unemployment stood at 7.9 he will side with, but or is in the background as a less- percent on election day, higher Republicans attacked him in obtrusive facilitator for private than when he took office. And television advertising during the enterprise and entrepreneurship. despite signs of progress, the race, and Democrats rushed to The economy was rated the economy is still struggling after his cause.

Polls were still open in much top issue by about 60 percent of the worst recession in history. voters surveyed as they left their There was no doubt about of the country as the two rivals polling places. But more said for- what drove voters to one candi- began claiming the spoils of a brawl of an election in a year in mer President George W. Bush date or the other. bore responsibility for current About 4 in 10 said the econo- which the struggling economy

put a crimp in the middle class dreams of millions.

The president was in Chicago as he awaited the voters' verdict on his four years in office. He told reporters he had a concession speech as well as victory remarks prepared. He congratulated Romney on a spirited campaign.

“I know his supporters are just as engaged, just as enthusiastic and working just as hard today” as Obama's own, he added.

Romney reciprocated, congratulating the man who he had campaigned against for more than a year.

Earlier, he raced to Ohio and Pennsylvania for Election Day campaigning and projected confidence as he flew home to Massachusetts. “We fought to the very end, and I think that's why we'll be successful,” he said, adding that he had finished writing a speech anticipating victory but nothing if the election went to his rival.

Dems: Shinagawa’s Campaign ‘Remarkable’ Smith Focused on Connecting district is remarkable,” Stein said. “[Nate] certainly has a chance in a future race. If Tom Reed continues on the road he’s been on, we’ll challenge him again and I hope it will be with Nate Shinagawa.”

Matthew Rosenspire can be reached at mrosenspire@cornellsun.com.

With Students in Campaign SMITH

Continued from page 3

munity and [to try] to have a positive relationship with that community.”

Kerslick backed Smith, saying he believes that Smith has proven himself to be an effective communicator.

“I think Stephen did an excellent job of meeting students that was reflected in the very clear decision by the ward,” Kerslick said. “He has talked to students and got involved with the student body of the 4th Ward, which brought him a strong poll from the student constituents of the ward.”

The celebration for Smith’s victory was muted, as Smith quickly turned his attention to the ongoing race of Democrat Nate Shinagawa ’05 M.A. ’09, who is running to represent New York’s 23rd Congressional District.

Smith is the finance director for

Shinagawa’s campaign.

“I work for Nate Shinagawa full time. After I check in with a couple of people here ... I am going to go upstairs and wait for the numbers to come up for Nate,” Smith said after his win.

“Back to work.”

Shinagawa conceded to Reed Tuesday in a speech to supporters at the Holiday Inn in downtown Ithaca.

Smith, a 2009 graduate of the State University of New York at Geneseo, was appointed to serve out the remainder of the position’s term after Rooker cut his term short by a year. Rooker decided to leave the Common Council after he was accepted off the wait list at the New York University School of Law, prompting the Tompkins County Democratic Committee to nominate Smith to run for the seat.

The Sun’s News Department can be reached at news@cornellsun.com.

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“The DCCC ignored this race from the beginning. They thought a Democrat didn’t have a chance in this district.

They didn’t know this Democrat. With no national support, he lost 49 to 51.

They’ll pay attention next time.”

Irene Stein, chair of the Tompkins County Democratic Party, agreed with Myrick’s assessment of the race.

“It was incredibly close. For a Democratic challenger to come so close to beating an incumbent Republican in this

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CONGRESS

Continued from page 3

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012 5

PHOTO FEATURE

GINA HONG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Cast your vote | People vote at St. Luke’s Church in Collegetown, one of four polling locations near campus, Tuesday.

MICHAEL GREENE / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Glued to the TV | Students watch election results in RPCC Tuesday.

GINA HONG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Civic rights | Students prepare to vote Tuesday.

TINA CHOU / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER GINA HONG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Mayoral vote | Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 arrives at the polls Tuesday.

MICHAEL GREENE / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Voting this way | RPCC opened polls Tuesday.

GINA HONG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

MICHAEL GREENE / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Civic rights | People cast votes Tuesday afternoon.

Anticipation | Students wait for election results Tuesday.

Election Day In Ithaca

Meet and greet | Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 talks with a volunteer at the polls at St. Luke’s Church Tuesday.

JOY CHUA / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Working hard | Volunteers work at the polls at St. Luke’s Church Tuesday.

GINA HONG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Ready to vote | Students arrive at the polls at St. Luke’s Church Tuesday.

GINA HONG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Free sticker | People received a sticker for casting their votes at polls at St. Luke’s Church Tuesday.

MICHAEL GREENE / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Viewing party | People gather at CTB Tuesday to watch election results unfold.

6 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012

www.cornellsun.com

NEWS

Campus, C-Town Reflect on Election OBAMA

Continued from page 1

before cries of “Obama! Obama!” drowned her out.

Not everyone, however, was celebrating Tuesday night. At Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, where the Cornell Republicans gathered to watch the election results, the atmosphere was somber. Once CNN announced that Obama won the election, silence filled the room and shock washed over many of students’ faces. “[The results are] pretty much in line with my expectations,” said Jess Reif ’14, chair of the Cornell Republicans. “Of course, [I] was hoping Romney would win, but I guess that is not the case. I am glad we kept the House, though.”

Elsewhere on Tuesday, students like Isabel Stonehouse ’15 expressed skepticism over whether Obama’s reelection will propel the country forward.

“I honestly don’t expect much to change in the next four years. I think that it’ll be pretty much the same,” Stonehouse said.

In Ujamaa Residential College, the mood was almost the exact opposite. More than 60 students gathered in front of the television in Ujamaa’s main lounge, erupting in cheers when blue-colored states appeared and groaning loudly with red-colored states flashed on the screen.

Fernando Quiroz ’16 said that the tension was palpable as residents watched election results pour in.

“It’s one of the best experiences to be here with a lot of other students, seniors, sophomores, juniors, and just being able to watch the election,” Quiroz said.

For Shannon Cohall ’14, the reelection of the country’s first black president marked another “historic moment” for the U.S. “It means that all things are possible for us, if someone can look up to [Obama] to emulate not only his tradition as president, but also his academic success and career success,” she said. “We can all emulate him — black, white, anyone. He’s not just a role model for black people.”

Four years ago, the election of America's first black president changed what Prof. Margaret Washington, history, thought about her country. In an interview before Obama’s reelection was announced, Washington, who studies the history of black Americans, said the results would test the lessons she drew from that night. “[This election] means a lot in terms of my assessment of the American people and their willingness to choose a good leader and forget about the color of his skin,” Washington said. “It’s emotional; it’s historical; it’s personal.”

Watching media outlets announce Obama’s victory in a Donlon Hall lounge, freshmen broke into celebration. But on Tuesday, many of them celebrated more than Obama’s reelection.

One first-time voter, Emily Decicco ’16 — who woke up “really early” to vote — said she was “really excited” as she camped out in RPCC with friends to watch the elections.

“Words cannot describe how happy I am, and I am glad to be a part of history,” said Alex Dopico ’16, another first time voter.

Donna Hibbert, a poll worker who has volunteered in that capacity for the past 25 years, said seeing students vote for the first time was one of the reasons she did not mind getting up at 5:30 a.m. and staying late into the night.

“Many of the students are voting for the first time, and they’re excited about it,” Hibbert said.

At a lounge in Robert Purcell Community Center, where dozens of students multitasked — eating popcorn, doing homework and watching CNN — several freshmen expressed pride over being part of the election.

“One of those millions of votes is mine,” Carolyn Sussman ’16 said.

While emotions ran high on both sides Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, Cornell’s professors were also prepared to analyze the historic election from a political perspective.

“The GOP faces a bleak future at the national level if it cannot address its pressing demographic problems. The gender gap was big again tonight, and Romney ran very poorly among hispanic and African American voters,” said Prof. Fredrik Logevall, history.

“Whites are making up a smaller percentage of the electorate with each passing presidential election. How will Republicans respond?”

Prof. Ross Brann, near eastern studies, cautioned that despite the excitement, Americans have cause to be worried about the future of their democracy.

“We should all be concerned about voter suppression, long wait lines for voters and the realization that tens of millions of Americans do not bother to vote,” he said. “Something is very wrong with American democracy.”

Even professors, however, were not immune from the election night euphoria that captivated many on Cornell’s campus.

“I think it’s wonderful that he won re-election,” Prof. Mary Beth Norton, history, said.

Noah Rankin, Tajwar Mazhar, Rudy Yoder, Olivia Dang, Caroline Flax, Sylvia Rusnak, Jonathan Dawson, Justin Rouillier and Akane Otani contributed reporting to this story.

The Sun’s news department can be reached at news@cornellsun.com.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012 7

NEWS

At Least 5 C.U. Alumni Win Congressional Races Joe Rooney ’80

Jim Bridenstine MBA ’09

LOSS: Four-year incumbent Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Penn.) toppled Joe Rooney ’80 (R-Penn) in Tuesday’s election for Pennsylvania’s 13th Congressional District seat. He had 68.8 percent of the vote as of 1 a.m. on Wednesday.

Rooney attended Cornell on a Navy ROTC scholarship and received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

A self-proclaimed fiscal conservative, he has called for a balanced budget amendment, the simplification of the national tax code and the elimination of the national deficit according to the Wall Street Journal.

He has also criticized President Obama and the Democratic Party for what he said is their opposition to the military.

Pennsylvania 13th “The current Democrat administration proposes cuts in our Army and Marine Corps as a way to transfer money for their far left pet projects,” Rooney said on his website. “There is waste in the Department of Defense and it must be weeded out, but manpower cuts to our fighting forces are unwise.”

Rooney served for 23 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, retiring from the Marine Corps Reserve in 2003 as a lieutenant colonel.

WIN: After defeating a six-term incumbent in the Republican primary, Lt. Cmdr. Jim Bridenstine became the Congressional representative for the 1st District of Oklahoma, holding 63 percent of the vote two hours after the polls closed on Tuesday.

After serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bridestine completed his M.B.A. at Cornell before returning to Tulsa to serve as the executive direction for the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium. Bridenstine also works at various consulting firms.

Oklahoma 1st Strongly backed by the Tea Party, Bridenstine defeated his opponent Sgt. John Olson (DOkla.), a small-business owner from Tulsa.

According to the Oklahoma State Election Board, Republicans nearly had a 38 percent registration advantage in the district going into the election.

Rob Andrews J.D. ’82 WIN: Rob Andrews J.D. ’82 (D-N.J.) the incumbent for New Jersey’s 1st Congressional District, defeated his opponent, Greg Horton (R-N.J.). As of 1 a.m. on Wednesday, Andrews had 67.9 percent of the vote.

Andrews has served on Congress since 1990.

In 2008, 206,453 ballots were cast in his favor — more votes than any other Congressional candidate from New Jersey has received in history.

As a student at Cornell Law School, Andrews was selected to be on the Board of Editors for the Cornell Law Review.

New Jersey 1st

Nan Hayworth M.D. ’85 LOSS: Nan Hayworth M.D. ’85 lost re-election in New York’s 19th Congressional District, to Sean Patrick Maloney (DN.Y.), who served as an aide under President Bill Clinton and former New York governors David Paterson and Eliot Spitzer. Maloney defeated Hayworth by a margin of 51.7 to 48.3, as of 1 a.m. on Wednesday.

According to the Hudson Valley Magazine, pundits in Washington identified Hayworth as one of the Republicans in the House of New York 18th Representatives most vulnerable to defeat this year, although polling showed she began this fall with a lead over Maloney.

Her platform called for cutting government spending, decreasing energy costs, and repairing the nation’s infrastructure to generate growth.

Hayworth graduated top of her class from Cornell University Medical College, where she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honors Society.

Gibson M.A. ’96 Ph.D. ’98 WIN: Rep. Chris Gibson Ph.D ’98 (R-N.Y), who received two masters’ degrees from Cornell, defeated Dem. Julian Schriebman (D-N.Y.) in the race for his second term as the representative for New York’s 19th Congressional District. In 2010, Gibson was elected to represent the 20th district, which includes Washington County and the city of Saratoga Springs.

Gibson, a retired Army colonel and recipient of many military decorations, won New York 20th with about 54 percent of the vote as of 1 a.m. on Wednesday. Gibson ran successfully for Congress in 2010, beating incumbent Scott Murphy (D-N.Y.) with 55 percent of the Vote.

Though the district is traditionally conservative, Gibson, who received his Ph.D from Cornell in government, and Schreibman went head to head in a closely contested race.

Kurt Schrader ’73 WIN: Rep. Kurt Schrader ’73 (D-Ore.), a self-proclaimed budget hawk, was reelected as representative of Orgeon’s northwestern fifth ward, defeating his opponent, Fred Thompson (R-Ore.). He led with 54.2 percent as of 1 a.m. on Wednesday. Schrader graduated from Cornell in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts in government.

Since his election in 2008, Schrader has worked on legilation regarding agriculture and natural resources — two key issues for Oregon, which boasts a sizable voting bloc.

Schrader, whose district is considered fairly conservative has a reputation as a political moderate and has voted with the Democratic party only 63 percent of the time, according to an analysis conducted by The Oregon 5th Washington Post.

OPINION

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

On Loneliness, Lavatories and Lamb Vindaloo

Independent Since 1880 130TH EDITORIAL BOARD JUAN FORRER ’13 Editor in Chief

HELENE BEAUCHEMIN ’13

JEFF STEIN ’13

Business Manager

Managing Editor

RUBY PERLMUTTER ’13

JAMES CRITELLI ’13

Associate Editor

Advertising Manager

LAUREN A. RITTER ’13

JOSEPH STAEHLE ’13

Sports Editor

Web Editor

ANN NEWCOMB ’13

ESTHER HOFFMAN ’13

Design Editor

Photography Editor

ELIZA LaJOIE ’13

BRYAN CHAN ’15

ZACHARY ZAHOS ’15

DAVEEN KOH ’14

Multimedia Editor

Blogs Editor

Arts & Entertainment Editor

Arts & Entertainment Editor

ELIZABETH CAMUTI ’14

KATHARINE CLOSE ’14

City Editor

News Editor

AKANE OTANI ’14

REBECCA HARRIS ’14

News Editor

News Editor

ELIZABETH PROEHL ’13

DANIELLE B. ABADA ’14

Associate Multimedia Editor

Assistant Sports Editor

HALEY VELASCO ’15

SCOTT CHIUSANO ’15

Assistant Sports Editor

Assistant Sports Editor

REBECCA COOMBES ’14

AMANDA STEFANIK ’13

NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR ’13

SYDNEY RAMSDEN ’14

Assistant Design Editor

Assistant Design Editor

Science Editor

Dining Editor

JOSEPH VOKT ’14

MAGGIE HENRY ’14

Assistant Web Editor

Outreach Coordinator

JACQUELINE CHAN ’14

AUSTIN KANG ’15

Marketing Manager

Assistant Advertising Manager

ERIKA G. WHITESTONE ’15

HANK BAO ’14

Social Media Manager

Online Advertising Manager

JESSICA YANG ’14

T

his weekend Jacob Kose lost his partner in crime Jason Goldberg on Saturday night but found him Sunday morning, buried in a vat of curry and lamb vindaloo. The Indian delicacies had congealed and Jason very badly had to go to the bathroom, but still hoped to preserve the vat, which would have amounted to at least a month of sustenance. The quandary induced a spirited debate over the question everyone’s been debating since November 7, 1861: Did Thomas Crapper’s patent of the flush toilet — with separate water tank and pull chain — revolutionize shitting as we know it? I retrieved a hoe, four shovels and a cannister of whipped cream to dig Jason out of the vindaloo while we unclogged our thoughts.

KATERINA ATHANASIOU ’13

Human Resources Manager

J.K.: Alright, but it’s time we admit that it used to be so much worse before toilets and be grateful instead of making such a krazy kerfuffle.

J.G.: I think we are grateful, especially when we travel to parts of the world where you have to take ass-aim at a cup.

But we’ve also become used to the privacy of our own bathrooms, or at least our own stalls.

J.K.: So we’re at a crossroads, and I’m not sure we can cross this road until we lick that whipped cream off your face.

J.G.: As you wish.

Jason eats his own face.

J.K.: We’ve got to get to the bottom of what prompted the solitary nature of

Senior Editor

DAVID MARTEN ’14

JACOB KOSE ’13

Senior Editor

Senior Editor

JAMES RAINIS ’14

Jacob Kose

PATRICIO MARTÍNEZ ’13

Senior Editor

Senior Editor

DANIEL ROBBINS ’13 Senior Editor

Scrambled Eggs

WORKING ON TODAY ’S SUN DESIGN DESKER PHOTO NIGHT EDITOR NEWS DESKERS SPORTS DESKER ARTS DESKER NEWS NIGHT EDITOR ARTS NIGHT EDITOR SCIENCE EDITOR

Amanda Stefanik ’14 Hannah Kim ’14 Brian Murphy ’16 Fiona Modrak ’13 Dylan Clemens ’14 Akane Otani ’14 Kerry Close ’14 Lauren Ritter ’13 Daveen Koh ’14 Zach Zahos ’15 Utsav Rai ’15 Henry Staley ’16 Nicholas St. Fleur ’13

Letters

Make an impact with sustainable investments To the Editor: Re: “Letter to the Editor: The Path Toward Sustainability,” Opinion, Nov. 1 In a recent Sun Letter to the Editor, “The Path Toward Sustainability,” P. Ming Wong ’86, M.B.A. ’89 writes about his visit to Ithaca — “to speak with a number of faculty members to explore starting a new program that promotes impact investing, including the possibility of creating a new student-run social venture fund to provide hands-on experience for students (both undergraduate and graduate) to work with local social entrepreneurs, as well as the global Cornell community, to design sustainable and scalable solutions to our world’s most pressing social and environmental problems.”

According to Wikipedia, “Impact investing refers to investments made based on the practice of assessing not only the financial return on investment, but also the social and environmental impact of the investment.”

I applaud this effort and hope P. Ming Wong’s proposed Impact Investing Program is implemented at Cornell because there are two locations in Ithaca that could use multi-functional interdisciplinary studies.

Tompkins County’s largest brownfield site is one of these locations. The vacant Emerson plant is situated on 100 acres of land that is only a few blocks from the Downtown Commons. The Emerson site has attracted a recent study from a team of Engineering Management students in Cornell’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The title of their study is, “Feasibility Study Of Renewable Energy Sources at the Emerson Plant in Ithaca, N.Y.” However, due to the extensive pollution on the Emerson site, a further multi-functional interdisciplinary study is needed to make the case for repurposing the Emerson plant in an environmentally responsible manner.

The Carpenter Business Park area, which includes the Ithaca Area Waste Water Treatment Facility (IAWWTF), the Farmers Market and other properties along the Inlet, is the other location that could use a multi-functional interdisciplinary study team to examine the feasibility for impact investing. Specifically, a feasibility study that focuses on converting sludge from the IAWWTF into heat and electricity for the undeveloped Carpenter Business Park area, the Farmers Market and other properties along the Inlet, including the IAWWTF. Owners, managers and operators of all these properties have voiced interest in pursuing a District Energy system for this area of Ithaca.

To quote again P. Ming Wong, “With the University wide business minor initiative that has just been launched, the time is ripe to open a dialogue on what exactly a modern business education should include. If we merely succeed in teaching finance and accounting to a few more graduates, then surely it would be an opportunity lost.”

Many in the Ithaca community, including the South Hill Civic Association, implore Cornell to follow P. Ming Wong’s path towards sustainability.

John Graves President, South Hill Civic Association Co-founder, Ithaca Community Environmental and Brownfield Remediation Group (ICEBRG)

Disclaimer: As always, Scrambled Eggs strives to adequately approximate what was said and who said what, but may at times mess all of that up.

JACOB KOSE: And you have no idea how you woke up in vindaloo?

JASON GOLDBERG: Nope.

J.K.: Did you mistake Mehak or Sangham grill for my house at three in the morning? Cause they can get pretty weird after closing hours on Saturdays.

J.G.: How do you mean? Pass me that hoe and four shovels.

J.K.: They play paintball with the leftover meat. Last time I went I got a black eye from a chunk of chicken tikka masala.

J.G.: Definitely the best Indian dish to get a black eye from. I haven’t had breakfast yet; can you spray that Miracle Whip all over my face?

J.K.: Of course. Do you know what’s crazy to me? There’ve been so many cool inventions: liquid soap, those little stoppers you put on wine bottles to pour samples, the chair, but I think Thomas Crapper is the only dude to die on the 50th anniversary of his invention. He just wanted to be known for the flush toilet so badly. Do you feel nothing towards this bastion of sanitation?

J.G.: I literally can’t tell you how badly I have to take a shit. There couldn’t be anything I’d rather not talk about more.

J.K.: Do you think people hate talking about going to the bathroom because they hate going to the bathroom?

J.G.: I mean, does the fact that everyone does it make it less gross?

J.K.: Why wouldn’t it? You’re pretty desensitized when you walk into a public bathroom because you know to fear the worst, eh?

J.G.: No, you’re pretty sensitized because it smells like shit.

the act of shitting — the smell, or the invention of the toilet slash outhouse?

J.G.: Dude, think of the Neanderthals. Even the richest Neanderthals were doin’ their business in the ground, so do you think they all just popped a squat mid-conversation? No, it was the stank. It was the stank all along.

J.K.: It has to be the toilet though, because before the outhouse there was never a confined, solitary space you had to go as if you were being punished, when in reality you’re just punishing your food and being all, “What, I ate you, get OUT of me.”

J.G.: That’s really aggressive. But I guarantee you it’s not the toilet because, I’ll let you in on a little real-man secret here: You know how girls go to the bathroom in groups to put on makeup and watch each other pee? Well, real dudes take shits in groups. Think about it: guys like to be funny, and shitting is the most ridiculous thing to do, so the socio-comical effects of shitting in groups are — J.K.: — Unimaginably amazing.

J.G.: Unimaginably amazing.

J.K.: So, I’m assuming that the best environment to live and prosper in should have bathrooms with multiple stalls and substantial space between the stalls, sinks and door to linger so that shitters never feel as alone as they’ve felt in the last century and a half; that the toilet’s only an alright invention and we still haven’t reached the apex of modern shittery as we know it?

J.G.: That’s right.

J.K.: You know, for a dude covered in curry, you’re kind of a genius.

Jacob Kose is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He may be reached at jkose@cornellsun.com. Scrambled Eggs appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

CORRECTION A news article Thursday, “The Cornell Store Gets a Redesign,” incorrectly stated that the upper level entrance to the Cornell Store will not be accessible from Oct. 29 to Nov. 26. In fact, the only entrance that will be closed is the one adjacent to the store’s loading dock. The main upper level entrance will remain open.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012 9

OPINION

The City That Never Seeps L

ast week I was glued to the Internet even more so than usual. Since Sunday night, when preparations for Hurricane Sandy began across the tristate area, I have been constantly online cycling through all New York related newspapers, magazines and blogs. On Monday night, as the hurricane edged ever closer to the coast, I was glued to constant updates like a diehard football fan watching the Superbowl. I have followed the fallout just as closely, knowing exactly which subways are up and running, when power returned to downtown Manhattan and

at this time of crisis. Looking at photos of familiar streets now flooded or littered with debris and reading Facebook updates from friends without power and damaged homes, I felt extremely despondent that I was not in New York bearing the burden with them. I was here in Ithaca, facing the typical cold and rain, while my brothers, both without power, were forced to squeeze into my parents’ one bedroom apartment uptown, which still had heat and electricity. I was strolling to class as usual when the subway I would take to get to my high school was completely flooded.

My brother was going to decimated Staten Island to volunteer while I was watching a movie on Netflix. This guilt, however, feels very odd and uncomfortable. Why am acting like a martyr, Smell the Rosen Iwishing I were experiencing the aftermath of a disaster? Shouldn’t I be thankful that I was away from all the chaos, that I still had heat and power, that I was spared a massive interruption to my daily routine unlike so many of my family and friends?

I haven’t been homesick at all in my three plus years at Cornell, but this disaster reminded me of how important New York City is in my life. It’s where I grew up and where I will undoubtedly end up.

There is a certain snobbery attached to people who

Dan Rosen

the second the marathon was canceled. The results have been even more devastating to me, a native New Yorker, than they would be to somebody simply watching the news. Entire communities destroyed, people losing their jobs because they couldn’t make it to work, restaurants that may be forced to close due to losses and galleries in Chelsea flooded.

As a New Yorker, born and raised in Manhattan, I latched onto anything that let me feel like I was home

grew up in New York, where we feel like no other place can match up, or fulfill us in the same way. This has nothing to do with the quality of other cities, but entirely to do with the enigmatic draw and power New York has. And so imagining my home going through an event that could challenge its very infrastructure was incredibly nerve racking and surprisingly emotional.

I must have called or texted half of my friends from home, asking them not just how they were doing, but what conditions in the city were like during and after the hurricane. “How did you get to work today?”

“Until what avenue did the water come to by your house?” “What have you been eating since everything is closed?” I asked countless of these inane, hyper-specific questions that to my friends seemed ridiculous and irrelevant. But I needed to feel like I was there, that I could hear the wind howl as the storm drew near, or that I could wait an hour and a half to catch a bus in the days after the storm hit. In years to come, when people find out that I am from New York City, they will ask me where I was and what happened when Sandy hit, much like they do with September 11. “I wasn’t there,” I’ll respond. And I’ll feel like less of a New Yorker for it. It makes little sense and is selfpitying but who cares? It’s true.

Dan Rosen is a senior in the College of Art, Architecture, and Planning. He may be reached at drosen@cornellsun.com. Smell the Rosen appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

When You Grandstand My Newsfeed F

or someone who generally writes about politics, running a column the day following Election Day is a bit awkward. When I write my column, I’ll have no idea who is going to win any election. When you read my column, you’ll have a pretty good idea who is going to win most of them — including the presidency, and the senatorship and basically anything else that matters. So, how do I champion this day? How can I, like an impending presidential victor, capture your hearts and minds?

Definitely not by posting a Facebook status about it.

Something I and all of you have probably noticed and hated in the past couple of years is the notable uptick in political postings on social media sites. When I was on Myspace in eighth grade, I was concerned with getting the most posts out of anyone on my Top 8. Today on a whole platform of different social media sites that I subscribe to (sorry, Myspace,) I’m concerned with avoiding a tsunami of political tweets, retweets, tags and — of course — the omnipresent status update.

These posts — “GObama!” “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!” (Thanks, Coach Taylor) — generate an equal number of the obligatory, oh-so-counter-cultural, complaint posts: “if 1 more of my friends posts about obama, im moving to canada,” “can facebook ban political statuses?!!!!!!!” I’ll be honest; the jig is up.

The anti-political status joke has been made — many, many times. But still, people post them, accounting for much of the politically-related activity that clogs up my feed, multiplying the problem.

The number of Facebook “likes” that

these complaint posts on my newsfeed get usually vastly outweighs the number of likes on sincere political posts. I’m left to conclude that many people, like myself, feel irritated when, around election time, our news and Twitter feeds explode with a sudden collection of opinions we never even knew our friends had.

Complaints about the pervasive and widespread presence of political Internet activity is backed up by the numbers.

Sixty-six percent of social media users read or post political content. As of noon on Tuesday, 22 percent of registered voters had announced their vote over a social media platform. It’s safe to say that among friend groups and Twitter followers of university students and graduates like us, the percentage is even higher than that of the general population.

That’s not to say that all that online political activity is based on academic proof. A great deal of it is “shared” or “liked;” people reinforcing opinions stated by others regardless of the facts.

Additionally, the majority of political content posted on social media sites is overwhelmingly negative. I know that I’ve defriended or unfollowed people in the last couple of months after being subjected to a deluge of emotionallycharged, counterfactual posts that they cite to other people or generated after skimming the web.

What we can take away from all of this political hoopla is that many people using the Internet (and that means most of us here in the United States) are really politically informed these days — just not always by reliable and diverse sources. The wide variety of Internet functions that news outlets have developed — “recommended for you,” “most

THE SUN THRIVES ON YOUR FEEDBACK.

emailed,” “most viewed” — have allowed consumers to be highly selective in what news they are exposed to.

Even the most basic ideological split between news options, such as that between CNN and Fox, means that your choice limits your exposure to a specific perspective. Even if facts play a role in newscasting and article-writing, they are served up to us in a platter heavily deco-

This online political activity, however damaging to real, fact-based opinions, is here to stay. We won’t get sick of talking, joking and promoting misinformation because we think it’s true or because it’s funny. The best thing to do is to accept this reality and not defriend or unfollow other online relationships because someone’s posts are far from our personal opinions.

Maggie Henry Get Over Yourself rated with political biases. The Internet means more choices, and social media gives people an opportunity to jockey for their choices to be heard. We’re not hearing fact-based interpretations of political events — we’re hearing whichever interpretation is communicated the most.

Our relaying politically-biased information via social media promotes polarization. Our accounts are virtual representations of our personalities; funniness is encouraged and jokes and political jabs are witty ways to expose sides of our preferences. But at this very moment, I’m looking at six politically-charged statuses on Facebook uploaded by friends who I know aren’t even voting. They post political content because it’s relevant to their reputations or their images or because it’s funny to their friends. This, in turn, makes other people mad and the split between political views gets even wider.

SEND 200-500 WORD SUBMISSIONS TO OPINION@CORNELLSUN.COM.

Posting one of the complaint posts that I mentioned above only dismisses peers for taking an interest in politics, something we should promote even if much of that exchange is polarized or misinformed. Posting genuine responses that point out an absence of fact-based information might seem cheesy or lame, but only because of those complaint posts that mock people for being politically active. Social media sites provide an awesome opportunity to expose ourselves to a diversity of opinions. Join me in sucking it up, letting other people say their piece and getting what value we can from Internet grandstanding.

Maggie Henry is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She may be reached at mhenry@cornellsun.com. Get Over Yourself appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

ALL OPINIONS AND POINTS OF VIEW WELCOME.

10 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012 11

SCIENCE

Ornithology

3-D Printing

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: How Do Birds Weather the Storm?

C.U. ornithologists track birds during hurricane, make rare sightings

By SHAUNTLE BARLEY Sun Senior Writer

The legacy of Hurricane Sandy has been, unquestionably, one of loss, uncertainty and devastation for many people throughout the northeastern United States. But amidst the chaos and destruction, ornithologists have found the hurricane’s silver lining — a rare glimpse of seldom-seen birds soaring after the storm.

As climatologists have gotten better at understanding and predicting the courses of hurricanes, ornithologists everywhere have noticed a pattern: when hurricanes sweep from coastal areas inland, they bring with them sea birds that are rarely seen on land. The birds may be preemptively fleeing northward in search of shelter from the strong winds. Others may be pushed from the sea to the coast by the hurricane’s winds or pulled along in the eye of the storm until it dissipates. In the latter phenomenon, known as entrainment, it’s safest for birds to stay in the eye of the storm and avoid the harsh weather surrounding them, according to ornitholo-

gists. As movement inland continues and the winds weaken, birds will also frequently drop down onto lakes and wait for the rest of the storm to pass.

At this point, many birds will remain perched until the storm has passed over them, before journeying back to their natural ranges. This method proves tough for coastal birds, which cannot easily survive away from the ocean. Once the weather is clear, these birds follow rivers and streams back toward the coast as quickly as they can.

Although storms like Sandy present unique opportunities for bird enthusiasts, they can alter migratory patterns of birds, in some cases, delaying their schedules. When birds are entrained by storms and deposited hundreds of miles inland, they are frequently exhausted and don’t have the energy to make it back to the ocean. In these cases, the birds inevitably perish.

Marshall Iliff, Laboratory of Ornithology, said that everything changes very quickly after the storm, and birds are often gone by a day after. Their exodus gives

COURTESY OF LUKE SEITZ

bird enthusiasts a very brief window in which to view the rare creatures.

“A lot of the birds that get steered off course in hurricanes, if they can’t fly back to the ocean, may die where they end up,” said Andrew Farnsworth, a New York City-based researcher at the Lab of Ornithology, said in a The World PRI interview.

“A lot do return to the ocean, but the birds that are exhausted end up on lakes, or ball fields or river valleys, and are exhausted enough so that they’re really not able to make the flight back,” he said.

Last year’s tropical storm, Irene, and more recently, hurricane Sandy, both created rare and unique opportunities for bird watchers in the Northeastern United States. Farnsworth said that in Manhattan he was able to see a Leach’s Storm Petrol and a Pomerine Jaeger, both of which are rarely seen on land but were, after Sandy, dispersed throughout the northeast. Both a Ross’s Gull and a group of Northern Lapwings were displaced inland by winds and a Red-billed Tropic

COURTESY OF LUKE SEITZ

Soaring unsoaked | The Pomarine Jaeger was one type of rare bird that ornithologists got the oppurtunity to see in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Bird, usually found in the Caribbean, was found in New Jersey, suggesting entrainment.

These birds are seen so seldom because they live out in deep parts of the ocean.

According to Iliff, people can go on trips in order to see the birds, but these trips are frequently expensive, and never guarantee a good glimpse. He said that the

COURTESY OF LUKE SEITZ

Gale gliding | Ornithologists throughout the Northeast recording sighting of birds like the Leachs Storm Petrel (left) and the Pomarine Jaeger (right) following Hurricane Sandy. Many of these birds were seen outside of their usual migratory locations.

COURTESY OF LUKE SEITZ

Sandy’s storm | Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, hit the U.S. East Coast in late October and caused an estimated $20 billion in damages. Despite the devastation the storm gave ornithologists across the northeast an oppurtunity to see rare birds in the sky.

reason people get so excited about bird movement during hurricanes, is that extreme weather creates once in a lifetime opportunities for bird enthusiasts, such as catching the landing of a Leech’s Storm Petrol on Cayuga Lake — an event that has only happened once or twice before.

When birds are pushed by winds northward or to the coast, known as displacement, they frequently gather in groups near the shore. It’s a combination of them being blown there, and preemptively flying to shore for shelter, said Iliff. He said that, in the wake of Sandy, these birds were difficult to observe, if at all, due to the dangerous storm surge, and that Sandy was an extremely unique situation, with winds coming from many directions and converging on the northeast. It was exciting for ornithologists to be able to see the effects because storms like Sandy are a rarity, said Iliff, so it would be interesting to observe the consequences.

Many of the ornithologists have shared their pictures of these rare sighting through eBird, an online checklist made in collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Orni-thology. eBird allows recreational and professional bird watchers to share bird sightings with the national birding community. On the site, there is a compilation of data on the whereabouts of birds across the country. This can be accessed and analyzed by researchers who use the information to understand the way that birds move around and where certain birds are most likely to be found.

Farnsworth uses the data that is compiled by eBird to generate information for his own site, Birdcast. He uses modern computation to correlate eBird data with extreme weather events and radar predictions, generating predictions for where to find birds locally and in the face of extreme weather. This is a helpful tool for bird watchers who want to know what birds will be in their area, and where exactly they should go to see them.

Shauntle Barley can be reached at sbarley@cornellsun.edu.

12 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012

SCIENCE

Jeff Clune Simulates Natural Selection In Robots,3-D Printing Unlike traditional robotic programming, this natural selection process generates more efficient and natural gaits Close your eyes and imagine a world according to Clune. Also, there is less where engineers could grow robots that work involved because in cases where the learned and evolved on their own. Jeff programmer would be required to write Clune, a visiting scientist, and his team in out an entire gait, basic brain evolution Hod Lipson’s Creative Machines Lab have achieves a better result with less work. made progress towards that futuristic Along with Jason Yosinski, a Ph.D. world through mechanical simulations student, Prof. Hod Lipson, mechanical that utilize natural selection in robots. and aerospace engineering, and Suchan Jeff Clune, mechanical and aerospace Lee ’13, mechanical engineering, Clune engineering, said that he gained extra took the next step and incorporated natinterest in science after learning about ural selection into a physical, 3-D robot evolutionary encoding. which they printed using the 3-D printer “I’m interested in trying to evolve arti- in the Creative Machines Lab. To create ficially intelligent robots. I want to know the robot, they first generated it on a how natural computer then selection on sent it to a earth produced “When you put a human in printer, which all the wonderful then crafted complexity that charge of programming, you’re the robot layer you see — like by layer using jaguars, hawks, limited by the creativity and a type of hard and the human knowledge of the programmer. plastic. Using mind.” the same idea Evolution is However, when you put evolution as the simulatoften difficult to ed table robot, study because it in charge, the sky is the limit.” the printed is a phenomenon robot started that takes place Jeff Clune, mechanical and out with a over a long time aerospace engineering basic brain frame and it and eventually requires a lot evolved a data to produce creepy, spidery useful results. Whereas these potential gait. studies may take many years to conduct, “No human designed this—evolution simulations such as those Clune works did,” Clune said. with can run in a matter of minutes.

In addition to evolving movement in Using evolutionary encoding, Clune robots, Clune is also interested in evolvhad created a “grown brain” and input it ing the physical shapes of the robot. into a simulated table robot. The robot is “All of those gaits were with the body then asked to learn to develop a gait. At being fixed, but we also wanted to evolve first, the table robots were not able to the body and see things flying and crawlachieve lateral movement. However, using ing,” he said. distance as a measure of fitness, Clune Clune then ran simulations based on managed to evolve a natural gait out of an dynamic bodies as well as the evolving initially incoherent four-legged table. The brains to create counterintuitive gaits. final generation that was evolved moved The results were synchronized, but also much like a horse would gallop, with modeled natural movement. Some simuthree of their four legs in synchroniza- lations scooted across the screen much tion. like a walrus would, and some hopped like a rabbit or kangaroo. By evolving the body and mind simultaneously, Clune creates models which exhibit characteristics that traditional engineering could not achieve.

Clune along with Yosinski, and Lipson, have created EndlessForms.com, a website that allows any one with time to spare the chance to create and share new designs for things evolved through natural selection.

“The website really helped people understand evolution. They witness each step of the journey and can look up the lineage of every object online. Many universities and elementary schools have used this to try to teach evolution.”

Upon visiting the site, the user can choose to either evolve designs already manipulated by other users or start with a panel of randomly generated variations of a block. The website has produced designs such as butterflies and complex chess pieces — all of which would have been difficult to engineer without a substantial background in 3-D programming. However, through the natural selection simulation process, even ten year olds can generate stunning 3-D renderings of natural objects.

“When you put a human in charge of programming, you’re limited by the creativity and knowledge of the programmer,” Clune said. “However, when you put evolution in charge, the sky is the limit. This is going to change how engiCOURTESY OF JEFF CLUNE neering will work,” he said.

In the making | After manipulating designs

By YVONNE HUANG Sun Contributor

of items on the computer, users can 3D print their items.

Yvonne Haung can be reached at yyh4@cornell.edu.

COURTESY OF JEFF CLUNE

3-D printer | Jeff Clune applies combines Darwin’s theory of evolution with modern-day 3-D printing to create items created from natural selection on a computer screen.

COURTESY OF JEFF CLUNE

Hand models | Items from EndlessForms include lamps, furniture, butterflies and simple designs which can be printed from steel, silver ceramic or sandstone.

COURTESY OF JEFF CLUNE

Computational selection | EndlessForms.com allows users to create their own designs for lamps, butterflies, furniture and other items under the biological guidelines of evolution.

A&E

Wednesday, November 7, 2012 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | 13

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Oscar viewership is down while summer blockbuster incomes are up, a casualty of an increasing divide between elite and mass cinema. The Oscars no longer reward films that are commercially successful, and movies with commercial success are rarely worthy of awards and positive critical recognition. Whether this is symptomatic of a more inequitable American society or the product of producers tailoring films for either award ceremonies or box office buckets, these two types seldom reconcile.

One series has bridged this gap and risen between the divide like a gallant cavalier: The Dark Knight trilogy.

Christopher Nolan’s gloomy rendition of the popular DC Comics hero has grossed a total of $1.8 billion and achieved an overall average of 88.6 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The series is both critically and commercially successful and breaks multiple divisions in the industry.

Like many others in the film community, I believe that The Dark Knight (2008) is the strongest of the three. Cornell Cinema already featured Batman Begins (2005) in October and will be screening The Dark Knight tomorrow and Friday.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) will follow, running December 6 to 8.

Of all these screenings, you should not miss this week’s showings. For this review, I had to revisit the amazingly cinematic film on a small-screen, glitch-prone computer, and I can assure you that the choice to bear the cold weather to go see this movie through Cornell Cinema’s projector is one you will not regret. The Dark Knight is a landmark achievement in sound, cinematography and performance that deserves a grand theater.

Christopher Nolan is the director of this film, and his ability to combine complicated plot lines with shocks and suspense is unrivaled. He is the shaman of modern cinema, and The Dark Knight permanently solidified his reputation.

Despite its mass appeal, the plot is still complex and needs a magician like Nolan to present it clearly. His Batman, played by an always-keen Christian Bale, is an inversion of most superhero clichés. Beneath his arrogance and anti-social tendencies, Batman reveals an intricate hybrid of altruist and anti-hero. His fight to rid Gotham of its multiple mob families is aided by the squeaky clean District Attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), who (spoiler alert) gains an equally intricate Manichean complex of killer or savior and uses a coin toss to decide between the two.

From this pairing of Dent and Batman, the complica-

BY MARISSA TRANQUILLI Sun Staff Writer

Omigod you guys — I know it’s cliché to begin a review of Legally Blonde with that phrase, but I couldn’t resist. Why? Since I viewed the show at Ithaca College on Thursday night I have been that strange girl walking around campus singing the songs to myself. It was so gaudy. It was so blonde. It was so fun!

For anyone who has been living under a rock since the movie was released in 2001 or has been bitten by the sophistication werewolf, here’s a brief summary of the plot: Elle Woods, president of the sorority Delta Nu, is convinced that her boyfriend Warner (Richard Lindenfelzer) is about to propose. Elle is played by Megan Ort and Chloe Tiso in alternate performances.

When Warner dumps her instead, Elle decides to follow him and enroll in Harvard Law School to win him back, and like a rock in a pond, dropping a blonde into an Ivy League school is bound to create a splash. There, she meets Warner’s new girlfriend Vivian (Katie Drinkard) and geeky, sweet Emmett Forrest (Joseph DiPietro). Through song, dance, sparkles and pink, Elle’s journey into a “serious” life begins and challenges everyone’s perceptions of law, love and blondes.

The Ithaca College production of Legally Blonde was like a giant frosted cupcake: Each bite tasted better and I found myself liking it more every moment. Once you get over the fact that it will not be

tions arise. The two are COURTESY OF both vying for the love of WARNER BROTHERS Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and as she deliberates between the two heroes, so does Gotham City. Dent acknowledges that “Gotham needs Batman,” while Bruce Wayne (the true identity of Batman) pledges to quit, saying that “Gotham needs a hero with a face” (referring to Dent, a more public figure). The two show the different faces heroes can wear: one opportunistic and agreeable (Dent) and one dark and unpredictable (Batman).

However layered these two are, a superhero movie is only as good as its villain. Heath Ledger’s Joker is tops. Although he is the antagonist, he guides this movie and watches over it like a ubiquitous gargoyle, always introduced by a creeping violin slide in the remarkable score provided by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. His monologues, mixing nihilist philosophy and sardonic humor, add gravitas to the film, but his most remarkable input is his sinister persona. His erratic and ingenius attacks allow Nolan to resuscitate the action with many surprises. From hanging a Batman impersonator from Gotham City Hall to crashing Commissioner Loeb’s funeral in police uniform, the Joker always finds a way to show up and ignite chaos. the villain of The Dark Knight Cornell Rises,Bane, and the Scarecrow, the offender of Cinema Batman Begins (with a cameo in the other two), do not reach the level of mastery and anarchy that the Joker does. The two movies the other villains haunt pay the price for it. Both are subpar in comparison.

The latest, The Dark Knight Rises, also flaunts a not-soinconspicuous political agenda. From Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman making a plea for gun rights (“I don’t know if I’m as enthusiastic about the whole ‘no gun’ thing as you

The Dark Knight That Saved Cinema

Henry Staley

are”), to Nolan’s usage of Ayn Rand imagery (the ‘escape hole’ for the oppressed at the bottom of the pit), to a villain who stands for anti-capitalist revolution, to a ‘police riot’ that clearly references the Occupy Movement, Rises espouses a severely right-wing attitude. In a series that can be cherished for its near universal viewership, the film’s language is much more divisive and emblematic of a comparably schismatic election four months after the film’s release.

I plead with you to watch this movie in a theater. Modern day entertainment provides us with so many opportunities to divide: Some of us watch on small-screen computers, some on 72-inch LCD screens. Some of us take it with a grain of left-wing bias, some with a spoonful of right-wing partiality. Some of us watch for the Oscars, some for the popcorn. Inevitably, however, we are watching the same product. I think you’ll be surprised to revisit this series in its full cinematic splendor, and I think you’ll be comforted to watch a movie that makes our divisions disintegrate into unanimous cringing at a common villain and united applause for a common hero.

Henry Staley is a freshman in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning. He can be reached at hstaley@cornellsun.com.

Blonde Ambition

COURTESY OF ITHACA COLLEGE THEATER ARTS

Reese Witherspoon bawling her eyes out in a crowded restaurant as Warner breaks up with her, you can truly begin to appreciate the casting. The scenes in between the songs were average; you realized exactly why the actors won their roles — their voices. I hesitated in liking Elle, Emmett, Brooke Wyndham (Grace Stockdale) and Paulette (DeAnne Stewart) when they first took the stage, but once each actor sang I submitted to the sensory overload.

While the actors were very talented, if I had bouquets to hand out at the end of the performance, all of them would have gone to the production staff. Tom Burch and

Roy Lightner, along with their assistants Amanda Perry and Ryan J. MacConnell, stole the show with their set designs and choreography. Transitions between scenes were flawless, largely due to the design of the backdrops and set pieces. But what I don’t think anyone in the audience could get over, myself included, was the immense, over-the-top style of nearly every song. Each musical number was a production in itself; the audience actually cheered during each song because of the spectacular choreography. For anyone who has seen this musical: the choreography for “Whipped into Shape” will not disappoint.

For anyone who hasn’t seen it, the show is worth seeing if just for that single scene.

The choreographers deserve all the praise I can bestow and then some; the musical numbers were simply amazing The pit orchestra of the production was perfect, in that you never noticed it. Their playing was excellent, not overstepping the actors or overshadowing important moments. They provided the perfect background for the production. The costuming was incredible — so many sparkles, so much pink. I suppose my mind is still simply boggled and blinded by Elle’s outfit in the song “What You Want,” but I do give the costuming designers a great deal of props even once I have clear vision back without pink sparkles around the edges.

I will not attempt to deny that Legally Blonde (the movie) is one of my guilty pleasures. While I like to pretend I sit around and watch things like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Godfather all the time, I have seen Legally Blonde more times than I would like to admit. Liking the movie as I do, I was impressed to find the musical “So Much Better” than I had expected. It is not a profound musical, but for anyone looking for an entertaining night to escape from the pressures of life, the Ithaca College production is worth every moment.

Legally Blonde is now playing at Ithaca College.

Marissa Tranquilli is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at mtranquilli@cornellsun.com.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

A&E

14 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | Wednesday, November 7, 2012 presidents.

There are moral presidents who carry the burden of many on their broad shoulders.

Then there are bad presidents who come to power via Machiavellian foul play.

The best of the good, the idealized liberal concoction propelled by the score of Aaron Sorkin, is President Josiah Edward

BY TAJWAR MAZHAR Sun Staff Writer

Every four years, Americans play casting director for the most anticipated role of all.

(No, not Christopher Nolan’s newest cerebral thriller. Everyone knows that is going to Christian Bale.) They decide who plays the part of President of the United States.

Follow the metaphor with me, if you will. While, in theory, the position is an open call to any actor, you already know a candidate from a top talent agency is going fill the role (*cough* political party).

Like everything in Hollywood, there’s a President typecast. Looking presidential can get you far. Broad shoulders, steady eyes and a strong jaw come to mind. Romney’s primary motivation throughout his campaigns must be that he looks so right for the part.

COURTESY OF COLUMBIA PICTURES AND NBC UNIVERSAL When casting a biopic about real presidents, there are natural limitations. Bartlet.

Regardless, over 50 actors have portrayed The Democrat from New Hampshire is Lincoln and everyone plays Nixon — from what progressives dream about: a Ph.D.Anthony Hopkins to Frank Langella to wielding intellectual with righteousness John Cusack in the upcoming The Butler. coursing through every syllable he utters.

However, it is the fictional presidents Martin Sheen’s sturdy and piercing Jed where the fun really is. Entertainment is Bartlet stares down Congressional filibusters truly the best gauge of popular opinion and and throws scriptures at homophobic televithe public’s mindset. (This is always my jus- sion personalities. tification when I’m on Netflix instead of He is kind of a rock star, but nothing working on my paper). compared to the world of action movies There is a real dichotomy in the portray- where we hold our leaders to a higher stanal of presidents in television and film. In a dard. In Independence Day, President way, it reflects the polarized view of the role Whitmore (Bill Pullman) hops on a jet to of government in America. There are good fight aliens. Harrison Ford’s James Marshall guy presidents, and then there are bad guy does what everyone essentially wants from

their POTUS: He kicks ass in Air Force One. Morgan Freeman’s voice alone qualifies him access to the nuclear code in Deep Impact.

Of course, we also have our evildoers who made it to the highest office in the land. Our bad presidents often have the same broad shoulders, strong jaw — but

presidents. 24’s President Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin) goes from asinine to full-on villainous. Prison Break’s Caroline Reynolds (Patricia Wettig) seizes power through ties to an elusive covert organization. Don’t you hate it when power is not in the hands of the people, but that of select power brokers?

In a subtler version of evil, Love Actually casts a sleazy President Billy Bob Thorton (who must be known for other things, but was at one time Angelina Jolie’s husband).

In everyone’s favorite romcom, the British have their chivalrous Hugh Grant-ish Prime Minister stand up against the bullying American.

Politics are unfortunately a shallow game. A well-tailored suit or sleeves rolled in exactly the right way can make all the difference to an undecided voter, apparently. Back in the day, press respected President FDR so much that they never took awkward photos of him struggling in his wheelchair. They allowed him to keep his powerful image. Today’s media is not so kind, and a candidate’s image is far more carefully constructed for your convenience.

Of course, there is so much more to deciding on the next President. You want your leader to be a reflection of your values and dreams for the future. You want them to be able to deter aliens and avoid harassing British household staff. And, if that is too much to ask, at least they should look like they could.

casting the president

there is an evil gleam in their eyes and an ominous camera angle that lets us know otherwise.

In The Day After Tomorrow, Vice President Cheney — sorry, I mean “Raymond Becker” (Kenneth Walsh) who happens to look startlingly like the former veep — does not buy into climate change research and smirks at a call to action. Cue global warming-induced, apocalyptic storms resulting in a mass exodus to Mexico. Don’t worry, moralistic Hollywood makes Cheney amend with a humbled speech to the world following the destruction.

Television just loves its conspiracy theory

Tajwar Mazhar is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at tmazhar@cornellsun.com.

The Morning After the Non-Election T

his morning, I will stumble from a thrice-snoozed alarm towards my coffee grinder and wait awkwardly for the annoyingly loud noise to produce coffee grinds. I will then pack the coffee into a filter and wait for my espresso machine to squeeze out a cup of espresso. As I drink my espresso, I’ll think, “Oh yeah, Obama was reelected.”

I drink coffee not because I stayed up all night to see whether Obama or Romney won Alaska, but because this is my daily routine and I have an unhealthy obsession with coffee. Unlike the nail-biting 2000 and the electrifying 2008 elections I feel strangely calm today, and many others do too.

Romney wrote off 47 percent of the population and riled up the Obama base, but then it faded away. Obama’s lackluster performance at the first debate gave the Romney base some momentum, but that disappeared too.

Pundits surface every four years to explain why this or that election is the most important yet, but they are actually right this time, like how a stopped watch is correct twice a day. The bifurcation of political ideology, at the price of centrism, means that this election would vindicate which way we go as we set sail upon a sea of doubt. Why, then, is there a crisis in enthusiasm?

It is not just that the election presents, as The Economist magazine wrote, an “unedifying choice.” Rather, there seems to be no election.

Blogs like FiveThirtyEight run complex statistical models to predict with alarming accuracy the results, the margin of winning and the demographic breakdown of the voters. Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, run by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, correctly predicted 97 percent of the 482 races in 2008.

But we don’t even need the statistics models to see this.

New York will always vote Democratic. Ohio, Florida and Virginia are the swing states that decide the election. “It is the camera lens that, like a laser, comes to pierce lived reality in order to put it to death,” the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard writes. In this case, it is the incessant data gath-

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

ering and the supercomputers running election simulacra that put the election to death.

In 1948, President Truman was up for reelection against Thomas Dewey. Virtually every prediction, scientific or otherwise, predicted that Truman would lose by a wide margin.

The Republicans played it safe, and Dewey avoided any type of risk taking. Meanwhile, Truman toured the country, making fiery stump speeches from a constantly moving railway car. He ridiculed the Republican-controlled Congress as obstructionist and attacked Dewey for being a distant New York elitist who would do anything to get elected.

On election night, the pundits noted that Truman had an early lead but were still confident that Dewey would overtake Truman eventually and win. The Chicago Tribune was so confident that Dewey would defeat Truman that they published their now infamous headline “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.” For the rest of his life, Truman gleefully mocked the media for its unwarranted hubris.

But as polling science has become more sophisticated, the contentious nature of the electoral process has inevitably disappeared. $5 billion have been spent, SuperPACs have appeared and one million ads were aired, but on Tuesday night the states fell into place in an orderly fashion. The chaos that we heard about — the ballot stuffing, the voter disenfranchisement, the close race and the undecided voters — edged You’ve Got to Be towards implosion until Kitsching Me it was quickly interrupted.

In one fell swoop, election coverage broadcasts imposed normalcy last night and turned the 50 states red or blue, as if that chaos had never existed: The reported reality gives way to the predicted reality in a controlled manner. Baudrillard once notoriously declared that the Gulf War didn’t happen, because it was meticulously planned with “suffocating and machinic performance, virtual and relentless in its unfolding” as a media spectacle. In this view, the election becomes a nonevent: Candidates win simulations. They are not elected like Truman; they are constructed through prophecy and

Kai Sam Ng

SANTI SLADE / SUN STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

defaulted towards.

Of course, these are not excuses to abstain from voting, even if someone correctly predicted who you voted for.

When you step into a voting booth or you mail off your absentee ballot, the spectacle disappears. A third reality emerges: Someone will still become president, and your vote still counts.

Claiming that the election is a non-event means just that: You should vote based on the issues. You shouldn’t vote based on reports that Obama is a secret Kenyan or that Romney is controlled by the Mormon church. Statistical models may have put the election to death, but they paradoxically give us some breathing room to repudiate the reported reality. It is the breathing room to puff away Donald Trump’s thinning coiffure, to ignore the outrageous discourse and to maybe, just this once, seriously elect a president.

Kai Sam Ng is a junior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He can be reached at kng@cornellsun.com. You’ve Got To Be Kitsching Me appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012 15

16 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Dash, e.g.

5 Head-hanging emotion 10 Altoids alternative 15 Fan favorite 16 Earthling 17 Absorbed the loss 18 Tropical headgear 20 Passover ritual 21 Dix halved 22 Calendar abbr.

24 Prior to, in verse 25 Low-tech note taker 27 Deal-closing aids 30 Unblemished 31 Line winder 32 Baking byproducts 33 Creative enterprise 34 On the fence 35 Six-stringed instrument, usually 36 UrbanaChampaign NCAA team 41 Two pages 42 “Zip-__-Doo-Dah” 43 Tram car filler 45 Totally absorbed 48 Hon 49 Pontiac muscle cars 50 Powerful pin cushion?

52 “It __ hit me yet” 53 Mao follower?

54 Scientology’s __ Hubbard 55 Sushi bar soup 56 Cook-off potful 58 False 63 Mixer for a mixologist 64 Boyfriends 65 Couple in a rowboat 66 Run through a reader, as a debit card 67 Footlocker 68 Sandstorm residue DOWN 1 Split 2 Org. concerned with crowns 3 Mozart works

4 Pal of Jerry Seinfeld 5 Retired sevenfoot NBAer 6 “Say that again?”

7 “I __ Rock” 8 Fisher-Price parent company 9 Follow logically 10 Potluck staple 11 Summer on the Seine 12 Turn in for cash 13 Spain’s __ de Campos 14 Underline, say 19 Trio on a phone keypad 23 Online shopkeeper 25 Place for pampering 26 Area of expertise 27 Calligrapher’s flourish 28 Question of time, to Telemann 29 __ me tangere 31 Barbecue spit, e.g.

34 “Every Breath You Take” band

35 “Myra Breckinridge” author 37 Tickled pink 38 Scottish Celt 39 “As of yet, no” 40 Pressing need?

44 Inexact fig.

45 Throws out 46 Reservation waster 47 Spiral pasta 48 One of Dancer’s partners

49 Far-from-efficient vehicle 51 Reservations 52 Best-seller 55 Perfumery scent 57 Blistex target 59 Frat house letter 60 Flee 61 The Rams of the NCAA’s Atlantic 10 Conf.

62 D-Day vessel

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

xwordeditor@aol.com

11/07/12

Sun Sudoku

Puzzle #0841114

The CorneDaily Sun

Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1-9 exactly once.

Each number in the solution therefore occurs only once in each of the three “directions,” hence the “single numbers” implied by the puzzle’s name.

(Rules from wikipedia.org/wiki /Sudoku)

Circles and Stuff

By James Sajdak (c)2012 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

COMICS AND PUZZLES

by Robert Radigan grad

11/07/12

Doonesbury

by Garry Trudeau

Mr. Gnu

by Travis Dandro

Strings Attached

by Ali Solomon ’01

www.cornellsun.com

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012 17

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18 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012

SPORTS

Hopes for Strong Home Show Despite Sandy, Jets EQUESTRIAN

Continued from page 20

stayed home covered a lot of chores for everybody … [with] these shows, even if we don’t win it takes a whole team to just go to them.”

With four shows already under the team’s belt, the Red now has to focus on competing in but also hosting its next show. Cornell typically hosts two shows a year — one each semester — at the Oxley

“I think with the girls that we have on this team and the amount of dedication that they have I think that its going to run very smoothly … I don’t have any doubts about that,” said Hilton.

In equitation, home field advantage comes with the perk of being able to compete on the same horses that the team uses in practice.

“We have really the good team horses, better than most of the schools we’ve competing been against. So I think we’re gonna see a little different outcome at our own show,” said Karn.

Overall, the squad is looking forward to the weekend and hopes to improve on its performance at Nazareth. “[Nazareth] was a good learning experience,” said Sevcik.

“I had to win the class in order to point out,” said Steinberger. “I was really, really happy that I went out and pointed out of intermediate with such [a] positive and successful ride.” “[It] was really nerve wracking because I needed six [points] to point up and if I had gotten “We’re working on representing second I would have school in a strong way.” been a point off so I had to get first,” Todd Karn Botelho said.

While equestrian is designed as an individual Equestrian Center. While it sport, Botelho pointed out that can be difficult to perform well in the Intercollegiate Horse at a show while running it at Association teamwork is very the same time, the team is conimportant. The team is respon- fident that things will go sible for the care of its four smoothly. “[Running the show has] horses, and if some riders did not stay back to help out at the always been a huge stress barn the others would not have before but we have a great been able to travel to the show. group this year [so] I’m not as “It takes a whole team,” said worried about it,” Kowalchik Ariel Cooper can be reached at acooper@cornellsun.com.

Botelho. “The people who said.

Promise Comeback

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — As the New York Jets gathered for their first day of work in a week, they insisted their focus was on football, on their next opponent, the Seattle Seahawks.

Even players such as Nick Mangold, who didn't have power in his New Jersey home, said there would be tunnel vision for everyone on the roster. Coach Rex Ryan and his staff are insisting on it, with Ryan noting that he used "blunt force trauma" to get the message across.

"Where we are, where we want to be, and how we plan on getting there," was what Ryan explained to his players Monday morning as they came off their bye week.

While Ryan acknowledges the importance of dealing with the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, he also recognizes there is no way of dealing with football in a halfway manner.

Mangold agreed that the Jets

(3-5), coming off two straight losses, will "put all our efforts into Seattle."

"I think guys got that message," the center said. "We haven't helped ourselves much in the first half of the season."

No, they haven't, particularly in ugly home losses to San Francisco and Miami. Ryan gave them the entire bye week off in great part because of the hurricane, but maybe he wanted them to get away from the game, recoup and come back with a new sense of purpose.

There's lots to fix on the Jets: a leaky run defense, inconsistent rushing offense, too many turnovers in the red zone, bad decision making by quarterback Mark Sanchez. And, surprisingly, sloppy special teams play, usually a strength.

It adds up to a distressing record so far.

But not one to stress, veteran safety Yeremiah Bell said "We definitely have the resources to get back into this thing. We have the players, we have the coaching staff and we have the 'want to.'

The thing is, it's going to be just us on Sundays just going out there and executing.

"We can't help teams get a shot here, get a shot there and kind of stretch the game a little bit. So we're going to have to be a lot more disciplined in that area."

The Jets did some good things in the first eight weeks, including wins over Miami and Indianapolis, and a close defeat at New England that, with more imagination and less conservatism in the late going also could have been a victory. But the lopsided defeats to the 49ers and Dolphins in which New York couldn't have been more mistakeprone seem to erase memories of the positives.

Ryan wants to change up some of the things the Jets do on the field, perhaps sensing they have become too predictable. He wasn't giving away any trade secrets Monday, nor will he at any other time. So when asked if Tim Tebow and the wildcat — or variations of it — will become a bigger part of the game plan, Ryan was mum.

He communicated daily with his coaching staff even as the hurricane and its aftermath left Ryan and many other Jets employees without power. The coaches offered options on how to improve the team's performances.

"We got a bunch of suggestions, so I hope they're good," Ryan said. "We're certainly looking at them. It's kind of a tough thing, because you have to put all your focus in on this one opponent, but we have to be open for different suggestions, which we have taken in.

"We will be doing some different things. Again, I don't want to get into the specifics of it. I hope you understand that if there's an advantage to be gained, I want to gain that advantage without letting our opponent know. We'll be looking at a lot. There are several things to improve and I'm excited about trying to implement some of these things."

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 7, 2012 19

SPORTS

VOLLEYBALL

Cornell Finishes Fall Season

Team beats Dartmouth, falls to Harvard in weekend matchups

By SCOTT ECKL

Junior outside hitter captain Kelly Marble and Young combined for 21 kills.

The Crimson was able to hit .367 and have 43 In its final road weekend of the year Cornell’s total kills in the match. women volleyball team won big at Dartmouth, but “We did not come out as strong as we would have lost to Harvard. The Red (7-16, 3-9 Ivy) took all three liked against Harvard, so that was a disappointing loss sets against the Big Green (2-19, 1-10) in its first road because we know we can play better,” Reinke said.

Ivy win of the year, but lost all three sets against the Cornell is going into this weekend, its final of the Crimson (9-14, 6-6).

2012 season, with nothCornell earned its first ing to play for except Ivy League sweep since “The Dartmouth match was a good pride. The Red hosts 2009, as it won 3-0 in Princeton (12-10, 9-3 Hanover on Friday night game for our team.”

Ivy) on Friday at 7pm 25-19, 25-21, 27-25. Junior Kelly Reinke and Penn (13-10, 8-4 middle blocker Rachel Ivy) on Saturday afterD’Epagnier recorded 14 noon at 5pm at kills while hitting .560 with seven digs and eight Newman Arena. blocks as she continued her hot streak. Junior outside “We are going into this last weekend ready to give hitter Sierra Young had five aces with nine digs and all we can to end the season with two wins,” Reinke three blocks. said.

“The Dartmouth match was a good game for our Against the Tigers and the Quakers on the road team because we showed we could really fight and back in October, the Red was only able to get one set close out a match in three,” said sophomore setter and (Princeton) during the weekend. captain Kelly Reinke.

Harvard’s match did not go the Red’s way on Scott Eckl can be reached at Saturday afternoon losing, 22-25, 18-25, 19-25. seckl@cornellsun.com.

Sun Staff Writer

MEN’S SOCCER

Reisert Earns Ivy Player of Week

By HALEY VELASCO Sun Assistant Sports Editor

Junior midfielder Stephen Reisert was named the Ivy League Co-Player of the Week on Monday. He shared the honor with Yale goalie Bobby Thalman who 11 saves against Brown helped Cornell take first in the Ivy League conference once again.

“It feels great. All I ever wanted to do was make an impact on this team, and it's great to get recognition. But above anything else I want my team to win. I would be content not receiving any individual recognition as long as we're doing well,” said Reisert. “The only thing on my mind right now is winning the ivy league and then making a run in the tournament. Whatever happens along the way is great, but all that matters is how we, as a team, finish the season.”

Senior forward Tyler Regan and senior goalkeeper Rick Pflasterer were also named to the Ivy Honor Roll on Monday.

After Dartmouth went up, 1-0, in the first half, Reisert had Cornell’s first goal of the game 93 seconds after. Thanks to a long cross from junior midfielder Ben Williams, Reisert cut inside the penalty box and beat Dartmouth goalie Noah Cohen to tie the game, 1-1, for the Red. He also assisted Regan’s game winning goal in the second overtime to take down the Green after taking a shot that was deflected by a Dartmouth defender and bounced to Regan who capitalized on the opportunity for the goal.

The win — in addition to the Brown vs. Yale tie — put Cornell back in first in the Ivy League with 15 points, compared to Brown’s 14, heading into the final matchup of the season against Columbia.

CONNOR ARCHARD / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Team focused | Junior midfielder Stephen Reisert helped Cornell win against Dartmouth this past weekend in double overtime.

“There is no way I could have won that game by myself.

Everyone behind and in front of me had an incredible game, and all of our teammates on the sidelines did a great job motivating us and preparing us for the game. We’ve been having an amazing year and it is absolutely a credit to our work ethic and the cohesive bond we have as teammates.

All we're looking forward to is beating columbia on saturday night. I don't care what Brown does. I don't care what Columbia does. We are going to take care of business and

there is nothing to worry about as long as we remain level headed and focused,” Reisert said.

The honor is Reisert’s first Ivy League Player of the Week award of his career so far and is the sixth for Cornell players this season.

Reisert also earned a spot on College Soccer News’ National Team of the Week and was named the Ivy League Player of the Week by CollegeSportsMadness.com.

Haley Velasco can be reached at hvelasco@cornellsun.com.

CONNOR ARCHARD / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Splitting the weekend | Junior outside hitter Sierra Young along with junior outside hitter Kelly Marble combined for 21 kills against Harvard this past weekend.

Preparing for the Playoffs LIAO

Continued from page 20

despite all three having their games revolve around speed and sharp cuts, exactly what a ACL tear should affect. As for the commonness of the injury, Darrelle Revis, Brian Cushing and Lardarius Webb are all Pro Bowl-caliber players who have suffered from torn ACLs this year and I’m sure there will be more and the season goes on. This trend is worth noting and we should remove the stigma of ACL tears affecting a player’s career.

As for the contenders, the one team that has risen to the top is the Chicago Bears. They are dominating teams in all facets of the game: defense, offense and special teams.

Chicago’s defense is far and away the best in the NFL. They have given up the second least amount of points (just 15 points allowed per game), but where they really shine is their ability to force teams into turnovers. Sometimes, teams will get lucky fumbles and interceptions, but the sheer volume of turnovers the Bears get is no accident; they have, for years, taught how to force fumbles and ball hawk and this year is the result of their work. They lead the league with 17 interceptions (and have somehow returned seven (!) for touchdowns) and 17 forced fumbles in eight games. Factoring in their points allowed and dominance in both turnover categories, we may be looking at one of the best defenses of all-time. As for the offense, Matt Forte remains a top-tier running back and the Cutler-Marshall connection picked up exactly where they left off in Denver, when they put together two straight 100reception seasons. On special teams, they still have Devin Hester, one of the most dangerous returners in league history. The Bears are the perfect example of a complete team; they do everything well and if they face no significant injuries, it’s hard to see them not making the Super Bowl.

Speaking of the Super Bowl, everything is pointing to the Broncos representing the AFC this year.

After starting 2-3 with a terrifyingly hard schedule (they lost to the

Falcons, Texans and Patriots, a ridiculous combined 20-4), they have won their last three games convincingly (including one absurd 24-point comeback). During this streak, Peyton Manning looks to be getting more and more comfortable with his young receiving corps led

by Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker. Although at this point Manning’s arm could be mistaken for Chad Pennington’s, he still hits his targets and his incredible football IQ compensates for the loss in arm strength. I feel like I could be a starting quarterback with my arm and Manning’s football IQ; it’s that incredible. As for their defense, it may not be elite, but they cause enormous problems when they have the lead. They have two of the top pass rushers in the league in Elvis Dumervil and Von Miller and feature ballhawks Champ Bailey and Tracy Porter; it’s hard to find a defense better built to hold a lead than the Broncos’. Don’t be surprised to see them make a serious run in the playoffs this year.

The other two teams I see challenging for a title are not performing at the level of the Bears or Broncos, but their past success makes them dangerous; I am speaking about the last two Super Bowl Champions, the Packers and Giants. This season is oddly reminiscent of both teams’ runs to the Super Bowl. When the Packers won, they were ravaged by injuries, but did just enough to get into the postseason to make a run.

This season, they are again struggling with injuries (Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, Charles Woodson and Cedric Benson have all missed games), but still finding ways to win games. The Giants situation is even more familiar; last year, the Giants started 6-2 and proceeded to look terrible for the next 4 games, losing them all, before putting it together at the very end to make a run. This season, they started 6-2 and proceeded to look just as terrible against the Steelers this weekend. Neither team looks great right now, but just keep them in mind when the playoffs approach; you’ve been warned.

Albert Liao can be reached at aliao@cornellsun.com.

Sports

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 7, 2012

20

EQUESTRIAN

Red Ties For Third in Rochester

By ARIEL COOPER Sun Staff Writer

The Red traveled to Rochester this weekend to compete in its third and fourth shows of the season. Coming off of another double header from the weekend before, the team struggled to perform to the best of its ability. The squad tied for third place on the first day behind Alfred and Ithaca, and finished in eighth on the second, according to senior tri-captain Emily Kowalchik.

“It’s difficult to have four shows in eight days,” said senior tri-captain Emily Webster. “There’s not a lot of time to improve on the mistakes that we’re making in [these] shows because they are so close together … and everyone’s exhausted by the eighth day.”

“We’ve never, at least in our time on the team, had two double headers back to back so obviously exhaustion played a part,” Kowalchik agreed.

With a new coach and some new team members — both human and equine — there have been a lot of changes to the squad this year. Last season, the Red was undefeated until the very last show. Cornell took home the regional champion title and sent the team to Zones as well as two riders to Nationals. However, it will take time for the team to adjust this season.

“It’s been a big transition year for us with the new coach and we’re not seeing the same success that we were last year, but I don’t think that reflects anything about our riding,” said sophomore Renee Botelho. “I think we’re all getting better but it’s just a learning process for everybody.”

New head coach Todd Karn has been working to build his relationship with the team and bring everyone together.

“We’re just really working on representing the school in a

strong way and getting our personalities adjusted to do that,” he said. “We’ve been working on that because we’re all pretty new to one another. We’re just trying to make it a stronger unity.”

Despite the fact that the Red was not thrilled with its results, it did not let its performance bring down the squad.

“Throughout the whole weekend the team did have a positive attitude,” said senior tri-captain Zofia Hilton. “We kept up that team spirit even though things might not have been as good [as we wanted].”

“You’re never gonna win if you keep doubting yourself,” Webster said.

Although the team as a whole did not have much success this weekend, four of the riders earned enough points to begin competing in a higher division. Sophomores Renee Botelho and Sofia Steinberger, junior Amanda Sevcik, and senior Erika Hooker all moved up a division as a result. In addition to being able to compete at a higher level, they also automatically earned spots at Nationals, according to Kowalchik.

“We had a lot of girls point out … and it was really great to see that because a lot of them have been trying [to point out] for a long time,” said Hilton.

For Hooker, moving up is something that she has been working on for awhile.

“For me its been a long time coming,” she said.” “I’m a senior this year and I started out in novice — flat and fences — and I lost all of last year because I went abroad. I was gone in the fall [and] that’s when our show season is. So [it] was really difficult for me to come back into it this year from being abroad and not showing last year.”

Hooker and Sevcik both moved up from the novice to the intermediate division — Hooker for the flat classes and

ESTHER HOFFMAN / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Moving ahead | After a tough doubleheader, the Red struggled in Rochester and ended up tying for third place.

Sevcik for fences. According to both Hooker and Sevcik, the Red is currently lacking intermediate riders on the team.

Steinberger and Botelho both needed to win their classes this weekend in order to move up.

See EQUESTRIAN page 18

NFL Midseason C.U. Starts New Season at Home Review SWIMMING AND DIVING

By JOHN McGRORTY

Sun Staff Writer

I

n the blink of an eye, the NFL is now more than half over.

Although it’s hard to say exactly how the season will turn out, we do know more than we did at the start of the season. Some teams have clearly differentiated themselves from the competition and some trends have clearly formed.

in the city of Cleveland. In the past, the common convention was to let quarterbacks develop on the bench, but we have seen a complete shift recently.

Teams now throw rookie quarterbacks out there and see what they can do and I don’t see this mentality changing the future.

Another trend I’ve recently

Albert Liao

This upcoming weekend, on Saturday, the Cornell men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will head into the water at Teagle for the first competition of the season going up against Dartmouth and Harvard.

The divers for the men will begin at 9:30 a.m., followed by the women. The swimmers will take the water at 1:45 p.m. for the women and at 4:30 p.m for the men.

Both teams are looking forward to the upcoming seasonto establish a

stronger presence in the Ivy League. Coming off of a difficult season last year, the men’s team looks to position themselves back at the top of the league. A win this weekend could establish a positive momentum going into the rest of the season.

Sophomore freestyle swimmer Timothy Satterthwaite when asked about Dartmouth and Harvard said, “Its our chance to get a little revenge for our first defeat to Dartmouth in 35 years last year. Harvard has always been quite fast, however there will definitely be some good

races.”

For Statterthwaite, this race will be unique in the fact that he will be racing his older brother who swims for Harvard.

The team has made significant developments in the preseason and hopes that this effort made leading up to the season will help this Saturday.

“We have put in a lot of effort both in the pool and in the gym. Every person has given their all in practice and I think the team is ready to compete and wants to perform well,” said sophomore diver Thomas Hallowell.

With a new training

Playing the Field One huge trend has been the great play of the rookie quarterbacks in the league.

We’ve heard gushing reviews of Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck, but even the quarterbacks taken later in the draft have played well all season.

Russell Wilson has kept free agent signee Matt Flynn glued to the bench and has his Seahawks sitting at 5-4. Ryan Tannehill has kept the 4-4 Dolphins in the playoff hunt with a mediocre team. And even Brandon Weeden is playing as well as humanly possible

noticed has to deal with torn ACLs. It has long been known as a rare, terrifying injury that had career-altering implications; however, now, it has become a very common injury that will knock a player out for a year, but beyond that, have no lasting effects. This may sound strange but there’s information to back up that claim. Wes Welker, Adrian Peterson and Jamaal Charles have all torn their ACLs, but have all returned to play at All-Pro levels, See LIAO page 19

BETH SPERGEL / SUN FILE PHOTO

Ready to race | Both the men and women’s swimming and diving teams will begin the season this weekend in a matchup against Dartmouth and Harvard at Teagle.

regimen and strong leadership, the Red looks to start the season with a win over Ivy rivals.

On the women’s front, the Red looks for the chance to open the season at home positively.

“Having our season opener be at home is a big advantage for us and we are very excited as a team” said junior freestyle swimmer Melissa Mrozinski.

The Red has had strong improvement recently, in part due to a wide variety of new talent in the freshman class.

“The team started preparing for this meet from the very first day of preseason and at the team meetings in August ... We have been working extremely hard both in the pool and in the weight room to try and improve and prepare for competition,” Mrozinski said.

“Opening up with one of our more anticipated meets will be really good to start off the season, as it gives us a good baseline to work from,” said Satterthwaite.

“This race give us a chance to make a statement in the Ivy League,” Hallowell said.

John McGrorty can be reached at jmcgrorty@cornellsun.com.