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CiscoSystems’ urban prototype
‘City in a box’ to benefit developing world
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Helmsman Vol. 77 No. 116
n see page 6
Independent Student Newspaper of The University of Memphis
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Jefferson guilty, gets life BY MEGAN HARRIS Editor-In-Chief Former University of Memphis student Devin Jefferson filed a motion for a new trial less than three weeks after a jury convicted him on Mother’s Day of the felony murder of Tigers football player Taylor Bradford. The first of four defendants to be tried in the case, Jefferson, now 23, was automatically sentenced to life in prison, where he must serve 51 years in the state penitentiary before he can be considered for release. He will be 72 years old. An amended motion will be
filed June 28, giving defense attorneys more time to prepare for appeal before a hearing can be set. In the days following Bradford’s murder in 2007, the former sophomore psychology major admitted orchestrating the robbery that resulted in Bradford being shot to death, but said he was not present and never intended for the 21-year-old lineman to be killed. Defense counsel Greg Carman said he was still optimistic about the case. “We have some good issues for appeal,” Carman said. Co-defendants Daeshawn
Tate and Courtney Washington testified for the prosecution. Tate said Jefferson contacted them about a man with money and showed them where he lived at Carpenter Complex the night of the murder. Bradford was shot in his right side in front of Carpenter Complex at approximately 9:30 p.m. Sept. 30, 2007, after Tate, Washington and Victor Trezevant, three of Jefferson’s high school friends, attempted to rob Bradford of the $7,400 he won that weekend at Horseshoe Casino in Tunica. Bradford, a business major, drove off, crossed Central and
lost consciousness while heading south on Zach Curlin and crashed into a tree. The shell casing found in the Lincoln Town Coupe was the same caliber as the 9mm Lugar slug taken from Bradford’s body. Prosecutors Reginald Henderson and Ray Lepone said Jefferson’s guilt was justified because he set the robbery plan in motion, thereby making him criminally responsible for the actions of others. Defense attorney Charles Mitchell said that in choosing to kill Bradford, the three men were
see
Devin Jefferson was found guilty in the case of slain U of M footbal player Taylor Bradford.
Jefferson, page 3
Budget Woes
Can’t afford an education? Blame TBR
Anita Vaughn, administrator and CEO of Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women, moderates “Healing the Community: The Impact of Women in Healthcare.”
Women in healthcare discuss making a difference at U of M BY BETH SPENCER News Reporter
Years of medical service in the Memphis community made them doctors, nurses and educators, but first, they were women. Anita Vaughn, administrator and CEO of the Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women, moderated yesterday’s event at the Ned R. McWherter Library, dubbed “Healing the Community: The Impact of Women in Healthcare.” Vaughn and other community professionals discussed ways women overcame inequality in the field, started healthcare movements and increased the quality of life for the underprivileged.
“Today we have prominent women with us who have succeeded in the workplace, where once they would have been considered unsuitable,” she said, citing sectors such as administration, education, oncology, private and public practice, nursing, pediatrics and hospice care. “These women have influenced and enhanced the practice of medicine.” Most medical schools consist of half men and half women – a giant leap from more than a century ago, when Elizabeth Blackwell became the first female doctor in the U.S., said Marcia Bowden, doctor of internal medicine and owner of Bowden Internal Medicine. “We are making great strides
in medicine, policies and everything,” she said. “In the next 20 years I can see us cheering for a woman as president.” Angela Watson, doctor of internal medicine at Complete Healthcare Center, said that although women have moved forward in the medical field, some patients still visualize doctors as men in white coats. “You’ll walk into a patient’s room, introduce yourself (as a doctor), and they’ll be on the phone and say, ‘My nurse just walked in,’” Watson said. “One lady told me, ‘Go get the real doctor.’” Watson said it is important for
see
Healthcare, page 3
by Beth Spencer
BY MEGAN HARRIS Editor-In-Chief Students at the University of Memphis can expect less bang for their buck this fall under a plan passed unanimously Tuesday by a Tennessee Board of Regents committee. Though not final until full board approval June 25, the hikes will raise tuition costs locally between 5 and 9.3 percent for the 2010-2011 academic year, on top of the $29 per semester fee increase already in place at The U of M. In-state undergraduates taking 12 hours will see a 5 percent increase, paying an additional $161 per semester, $3,390 e have tried total, not including to balance on-campus residence fees. Students cost-cutting and taking 15 hours will TBR’s tuition pay $233 more, 7.1 percent, for $3,495. increases, keeping Undergrads takthe timely ing 18 hours will pay the most. A 9.3 graduation of our percent increase will equal $305, or $3,600 students as our total. primary goal.” The plan includes a second fee increase — Shirley Raines for the 2011-12 University President school year at the same levels. Memphis students will receive the lowest percentage increase, but will ultimately pay more than any other TBR university or community college. Designed by the TBR’s Business and Finance Committee, the fee plan was proposed to make up for 80 percent of state tax money appropriated from higher education funding over the past three years.
“W
see
TBR, page 3
• Thursday, June 10, 2010
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Grad Non-Acknowledgement
Helmsman Dear Daily Helmsman: Volume 77 Number 116
Editor-In-Chief
Megan Harris Managing Editor Scott Carroll General Manager Candy Justice News Editor Brent Fisackerly Sports Editor Joseph Russell Copy Editors Amy Barnette Christina Hessling Advertising Manager Bob Willis Admin. Sales Sharon Whitaker Adv. Production Rachelle Pavelko Adv. Sales Robyn Nickell
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I am one of your 2010 M.A.T graduates. I am contacting you in regards to the graduation ceremony that took place on May 8th, 2010. As an honors student, I left the ceremony feeling as if my accomplishments, over the last two and a half years, had been diminished. I assume that this is not the school’s intent, so I felt I would bring it to your attention so that modifications can be made in the future. During my time at U of M, I was able to achieve a 4.0 in the M.A.T. program. As a working adult, I felt proud to be the first in my family graduating with an advanced degree. My parents, grandfather, brother, husband, and mother and father-inlaw, came from out of town to help celebrate these accomplishments. My first surprise came when I was not offered any honor or recognition cords. Every semester I received a letter from one of the honor clubs asking me to join. Not once did I receive a letter from the school acknowledging my achievements. Come to find out, if I had paid to join
one of these clubs I would have received a cord, or a drape, for graduation. I could have bought my own honors or club cords, but at that point it was principal. I shouldn’t have to buy something I worked so hard for. My school should have been proud of me, and want me to represent them well, by giving me these cords. My second surprise came when I opened the commencement book; undergraduate honors were listed, but nothing for the advanced degrees. It was explained to me that everyone who was in an advanced degree program was already an honors student because they must maintain a 3.0 to be in the program. In my opinion, there are still large leaps between a 3.0 and 4.0 that should be highlighted. My third surprise occurred when; at commencement, they asked all of the undergraduates with a 4.0 to stand. I believe there was only a handful. I figured that they would at least do the same for the advanced degree candidates. This never happened. I
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“Pre-internet college must have really sucked.” — by snarkolepsy “Saying that you like to ‘laugh and have fun’ on your dating profile is about as useful as putting your kindergarten graduation date on your resume.” — by dustinyo
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Down 1 Knievel prop 2 Diva’s solo 3 Chaste kiss 4 Offer from a flier distributor 5 Like old television signals 6 Fries, e.g.
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Across 1 Lost in a good book, say 5 —— prof. 9 Attacker of seals 13 Length times width 14 In the freezer 15 Blockhead 16 Jagger of the Stones 17 *Losing ground quickly 19 Farmer in a ‘40s-’50s film series 21 Golfer Els 22 Nabisco cookie 23 None 25 *Seeking a municipal office 32 Disney toon who traded her voice for legs 33 Astronomical time span 34 TV’s kid explorer 35 “The —— is up!” 36 Southern Calif. daily 40 The Sunflower St. 41 Poker “bullets” 43 Hearty holiday quaff 44 Letter before iota 46 *Extreme introvert 50 Color akin to aqua 51 “Auld —— Syne” 52 Knock out 55 Notified 59 When the accidents at the starts of the answers to starred clues are apt to occur 62 Atlas section 63 ——-skid brakes 64 Whirlpool brand 65 Dalmatian, e.g. 66 Gone by 67 Shaggy Tibetan beasts 68 Inedible doughnut part?
was not sure if there were just so many of us with 4.0’s (in which case, the university should step up the level of its classes), or if we just weren’t worth calling attention too. I paid a lot of money and put a lot of sweat in to my diploma and GPA. At my graduation dinner, with family, they questioned, “I thought you had a 4.0. Why weren’t you recognized?” It’s a little embarrassing when I later had to email them my final grades so that they could see my accomplishments. Of course they were already proud, but it was nice for them to see it in black and white, since no one else was acknowledging it. I am disappointed that my University would treat me, and my fellow deserving graduates, this way. I think it’s time that someone look in to how you are treating your graduates as you send them out into the work force as your advocates.
“If girls could actually like each other half as much as they pretend to in pictures, the world would be a much happier place.” — by fakepeterman “My two-month-old was kicked back in her chair, drinking a bottle, sleeping and farting simultaneously. I’ve never been more jealous in all my life.” — by whatsmells “Hey pop culture magazines, you wanna know the real secret celebrity diet that helped these stars drop x amount of pounds in x amount of time? They have loads of money, a fabulous gym, personal trainer, cook and nutritionist. Puzzle solved.” — by perardua
7 ——-fi 8 Hamilton is on it 9 Designed for rough terrain 10 Palomino’s stablemate, perhaps 11 Mozart’s “—— fan tutte” 12 Old, to Oskar 14 Time and again 18 Idea’s start 20 Coloratura’s vocal effect 23 Camera function 24 Seaside flier 25 Indian princes 26 Robert of “Spenser: For Hire” 27 African river or country 28 Pretend 29 Bumpkin 30 Spout speeches 31 Charged
37 “(You’re) Having My Baby” songwriter 38 Hard work 39 Time in the Army, e.g. 42 “Happy Days” catchphrase 45 Bunk 47 Jock’s antithesis 48 Learns bit by bit 49 Chekhov title uncle 52 Exercise, as wings 53 Turner of “Ziegfeld Girl” 54 Exposes 55 Pierre’s home: Abbr. 56 Norwegian capital 57 Iranian capital 58 “I’m sorry, ——”: “2001: A Space Odyssey” line 60 Flat fish 61 Singer Sumac
S u d o k u
Complete the grid so that each row, column and 3—by—3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9.
Solutions on page 5
The University of Memphis
TBR
from page 1 At The U of M, state funding has been reduced nearly 27 percent, or more than $33 million, over the past three years. David Zettergren, vice president for business and finance, and University President Shirley Raines released a statement yesterday reiterating The University’s past measures to minimize the effect of dwindling state dollars, including a voluntary faculty buyout during the first year and campus-wide budget reductions. “We have tried to balance costcutting and TBR’s tuition increases, keeping the timely graduation of our students as our primary
HealTHcaRe from page 1
women in healthcare to try to overcome sexism in the medical field to achieve success and happiness with their careers. “The thing we as women have to understand is that not much has changed,” she said. “We have to make the change in ourselves and be consistent, because the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” Linda Lazar, professor of pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, said focusing on treating patients instead of feeling pressured to compete with male doctors is of the utmost importance for women in the medical community.
Thursday, June 10, 010 • 3
goal,” Raines said. “At the same time, we are trying to maintain our current jobs, doing our part in the Memphis, Midsouth and state economy.” She asked for the monetary support of friends, alumni and the community to help offset funding cuts, noting that faculty members have received no pay raises in the last three years. U of M director of budgeting Sharon Hayes offered little hope for students. She said her office is still reviewing the committee’s recommendations but that hopefully The University would be able to offer some type of supplementary support. “But at this point, we have no idea what that might mean.” “When taking care of human beings, you have to make sure that you’re always better than you were the day before,” she said. “I don’t worry about being better than a man.” Panel members also discussed how women have made a positive impact locally by imploring innovative ways to approach patient treatments, communication and teamwork. Dean of University Libraries at The U of M Sylverna Ford said she enjoyed learning about how the seven discussion participants worked, both past and present, to make changes within the Memphis healthcare community. “One of the things that impressed me was all the different efforts underway to address issues in the Memphis area,” she said.
Student Achievement
U of M law student joins Harvard journal BY BETH SPENCER News Reporter Third-year University of Memphis law student Meredith Alston Lucas will spend her summer with the National Symposium Editorial Board of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. “I’m honored to have been selected for the position,” Lucas said. “I think it’ll be a
JeffeRson from page 1
acting on their own and not on behalf of Bradford. Tate, Washington and Trezevant are each being held on bonds at or exceeding $1 million and will face their own first-degree murder charges individually. Trezevant, who was implicated as Bradford’s actual shooter, will be first on the docket this winter. Criminal Court Judge Chris Craft gave jurors the option of convicting Jefferson of several lesser offenses including sec-
wonderful experience.” Working with the senior editor at the journal, Lucus will work from Memphis, submitting writings electronically, while working with lawyers and students from around the country. “It’s all from right here this summer,” she said. “In law school there are a lot of different opportunities. I just submitted a writing sample,
resume and cover letter and got it.” Lucus said she was looking forward to learning more about the national legal community through working with the journal. “I’ll be learning new writing skills and getting to work on some legal documents,” she said. “I’ll be editing documents by some amazing legal professionals.”
ond-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and criminally negligent homicide, for which Jefferson could have received as a sentence of “time already served” and immediately released. After 10 hours of deliberation, the jury of six men and six women said they’d reached a decision, but when questioned separately, one juror stunned the courtroom when he said he did not agree with his fellow jurors. Craft immediately sent the 12 back for deliberation, and moments later the group indicated a new unanimous guilty verdict against Jefferson as charged.
Bradford’s parents, who filed a $4 million wrongful death suit against The University of Memphis, Jefferson and his codefendants more than two years ago, were present when the final verdict was read. Jimmie Bradford rubbed a thumb across the large ring given to him as a surprise by his son’s teammates after the New Orleans Bowl in 2008 as his wife clutched a small bouquet of crimson roses. Marva Bradford lamented the loss of her son that Mother’s Day. “I will always be Taylor’s mother,” she said.
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• Thursday, June 10, 2010
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Technology
4.7 million EV charging units expected by 2015 BY MELISSA HINCHA-OWNBY Mother Nature Network The first affordable mass-produced electric vehicles will hit the streets of America later this year. Once the Nissan Leaf begins to make its way from dealerships to consumers, the electric vehicle charging revolution will begin. A new report by Pike Research reveals that there will be an estimated 4.7 million EV charging units in operation worldwide by 2015. Of these 4.7 million units, about 1 million will be located here in the United States and the remainder elsewhere around the world. One primary difference between the national and international markets is location. The majority of charging stations in the United States will be located at individual residences. Americans are expected to prefer the convenience of charging their vehicles at home. The Pike Research report indicates that about two-thirds of EV charging equipment sales will be in the residential sector. At this time, there is no clear financial benefit for retail outfits to purchase an EV charging station. In order to recoup their investment, retailers will need to charge a usage fee. However, it will typically cost consumers less than $2 to fully charge a vehicle at home. With most trips falling within the initial 100-mile range of an EV like the Nissan Leaf, there is little incentive for commercial entities to invest in charging equipment. In contrast, charging stations in Europe, Asia and other regions will be primarily found in public locations because there will be less access to convenient and easy-touse residential charging systems. Not surprisingly, the report predicts that countries in the Asia Pacific region, including China, Japan, and Korea, will be the largest electric vehicle market in the world. Naturally, the region will also be the largest EV charging market in the world. These three countries have pledged
to invest in building the charging infrastructure in the region as well as to provide consumer incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles. The potential influx of electric vehicles on the road in China is not without controversy, however. A new study suggests that an increase in electric vehicles manufactured at facilities powered by coal is more harmful to the environment than keeping the same amount of gasolinepowered vehicles on the road. In the study, Environmental Implication of Electric Vehicles in China, researchers report that hybrid electric vehicles would be a better choice than all-electric vehicles in some regions of China, including the cities of Beijing and Shanghai. These two cities are
in regions that receive the vast majority of their electricity from coal-powered facilities. Overall, the study reveals, “EVs do represent a very promising solution to energy issues due to their solid merits in substituting for petroleum fuels. But for now the high pollution levels of coal-fired power plants will trade off EVs’ potential energy benefits in China.” While this study suggests that EVs may not be the best longterm solution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, one thing is certain — electric vehicles are coming soon to a neighborhood near you. With the increase in EVs comes an increase in charging stations, to the tune of 4.7 million units installed worldwide over the next five years.
(Top) The Nissan Leaf, an affordable, zero-emissions electric car, will be released to consumers later this year. (Above) The interior of the Nissan Leaf. photos courtesy of Nissan
Correction: The Feb. 1 article, “Republicans ready to ‘kick ass,’” incorrectly labeled University of Memphis alumnus Shannon Glisson as a Democrat and intern for Congressman Steve Cohen. Glisson was president of the U of M chapter of Young Republicans for two weeks while the group reorganized.
The University of Memphis
Thursday, June 10, 010 • 5
Science
n Research may help explain how we exist BY RON GROSSMAN Chicago Tribune By the logic of science, things simply shouldn’t exist. The best scientific minds of several generations have reasoned that shortly after the Big Bang created the universe, matter and antimatter should have wiped each other out. So that explains the global chain reaction of excited e-mails among physicists last month, after scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory “opened the box” — their jargon for taking a peek at newly crunched data — and raised hopes of some day solving the riddle of existence. “It’s like looking back to the instant where everything began,” said Joseph Lykken, a theoretical physicist at the sprawling research facility near
Batavia, Ill. Simply put, the Fermi team sent protons and antiprotons around its underground Tevatron accelerator ring into a head-on collision, which produced slightly more tiny fragments called “muons” than tiny fragments called “antimuons.” It was a laboratory victory of matter over antimatter, and a minuscule replication of what scientists believe must have happened shortly after the Big Bang, though exactly how matter won out has long confounded them. Previous tests slamming such infinitesimal particles together — a proton is one one-hundred-thousandth the size of an atom — have produced similar results. But they never have risen above a statistical shadow of doubt for physicists working with computer calculations about particles and interactions they can’t see. By contrast, the latest discov-
see
PaRTicle, page 8
by Lane Christiansen
Particle collision thought to replicate Big Bang forces
Theorist Joseph Lykken in the Theoretical Physics Department poses for a portrait in his office in Wilson Hall at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, May 20.
Science
Physicists unlock mystery of subatomic particle BY THOMAS H. MAUGH II Los Angeles Times For the first time, physicists have confirmed that certain subatomic particles have mass and that they could account for a large proportion of matter in the universe, the so-called dark matter that astrophysicists know is there but that cannot be observed by conventional means. The finding concerns the behavior of neutrinos, ghost-like particles that travel at the speed of light. In the new experiment, physicists captured a muon neutrino in the process of transforming into a tau neutrino. Researchers had strongly believed that such transformations occur because they have been able to observe the disappearance of muon neutrinos in a variety of experiments.
Solutions
But the research announced Monday marks the first time that the appearance of a tau neutrino has been directly observed. Physicists from CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva and the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics’ Gran Sasso National Laboratory were involved. “This is an important step for neutrino physics,” CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer said in a statement. “We’re all looking forward to unveiling the new physics this result presages.” Astrophysicists have inferred the existence of dark matter from their observations that the
total amount of visible matter is insufficient to account for gravitational effects. It is estimated that dark matter accounts for 80 percent of the mass of the universe and visible matter only 20 percent. The new finding is important because in the theories now used to explain the behavior of fundamental particles, called the Standard Model, neutrinos have no mass. But if they have no mass, they cannot oscillate between muon and tau forms. The fact that they do oscillate indicates that they have mass and that the fundamentals of the Standard Model need some reworking, at the
very least. Neutrinos interact with matter so weakly that they can travel through the entire Earth with the ease of a light beam traveling through a windowpane. They have no electrical charge — hence the name, meaning “little neutral one.” Physicists generally don’t see neutrinos. Instead, they observe the debris left behind on the very rare occasions when a neutrino strikes an atom head on. They now know that there are three types of neutrino: electron, muon and tau, each named for the particle that is produced in the collision. The new discovery comes from
the infinitely patient and creative researchers in an experiment known as OPERA, for Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus. The project’s source of neutrinos is a proton accelerator at CERN in Geneva that slams protons into a graphite target, producing particles called pions and kaons that quickly decay into muon neutrinos. Because the neutrino beam that is created is not affected by electrical or magnetic fields, the proton accelerator must be pointed directly at detectors in the laboratory under Gran Sasso mountain
see
neUTRino, page 8
• Thursday, June 10, 2010
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Insta-city
Asian urbanization begets supermodern boom towns BY JOHN BOUDREAU San Jose Mercury News It’s a product like no other — a complete city for a million people. As tens of millions of people across the developing world migrate from the countryside to new cities, Cisco Systems is helping build a prototype here for what one developer describes as an instant “city in a box.” Cisco is wiring every tech nook and cranny of the new city, making it one of the most technologically sophisticated urban centers on the planet. Delegations of Chinese government officials looking to purchase their own cities of the future are descending on New Songdo City, a soon-to-be-completed metropolis about the size of downtown Boston that serves as a showroom model for what is expected to be the first of many assembly-line cities. In addition to state-of-the-art information technology, Songdo will emit just one-third of the greenhouse gasses of a typical city of similar size. Cities of a million-plus population are popping up across the developing world, but the foremost market for the prototype here is China, where a massive demographic shift from rural to urban already is underway, requiring hundreds of new cities. “They come in here and say, ‘I’ll take one of these,’ “ said Richard Warmington, the former head of Hewlett-Packard’s Korea operation and Saratoga, Calif., resident who is now president of Chadwick International School, which is setting up a campus in Songdo. The potential is so big that executives at Cisco, the key tech partner for the development, get giddy talking about what could be a $30 billion business over coming years for the San Jose, Calif., networking giant. Just a year ago, the usually buttoned-
down Cisco CEO John Chambers engaged in a night of “love shots” — locked-elbow drinking toasts — with President Lee Myung-bak to seal the Songdo deal Korean-style. It’s easy to see why Cisco is intoxicated with the possibilities: According to a study by investment bank CIBC World Markets, governments are expected to spend $35 trillion in public works projects during the next 20 years. In Songdo alone, Cisco sold 20,000 units of its advanced video conferencing system called Telepresence — a billion-dollar order — almost before the ink had dried on the contract, said developer Stan Gale, the chief visionary of the project. “Everything will be connected — buildings, cars, energy — everything,” said Wim Elfrink, Cisco’s Bangalore-based chief globalization officer. “This is the tipping point. When we start building cities with technology in the infrastructure, it’s beyond my imagination what that will enable.” The audacious plan is rising up from former mud flats along the Yellow Sea. Cisco and New York City-based Gale International hope the privately funded $35 billion Songdo project leads to at least 20 similar developments in China, India, Vietnam and other countries in coming years. Much of Songdo will be completed in 2014. “Five hundred cities are needed in China; 300 are needed in India,” said Managing Partner Gale, an exuberant, arm-waving developer who believes Songdo will be his legacy. The project calls for wired everything — an urban center where networking technology is embedded into buildings from the ground up and every home, school and government agency is equipped with sophisticated Telepresence video technology — what in Cisco mantra is called Smart+Connected Communities. The idea was 10 years in the
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(Above) Women pick weeds in Central Park in Songdo IBD (International Business District), Incheon, Korea, May 12, 2010. A green oasis in the in the middle of the city, Central Park comprises almost 10 percent of Songdo IBD’s total acreage. The six mixed-use towers and hotel in the background are designed by HOK New York. (Right) An iPhone app controls the lights in Gale International’s First World residential unit, in Songdo IBD (International Business District), Incheon, Korea, May 12, 2010. First World is the first completed residential project in Songdo IBD. photos by LiPo Ching
making for Gale, though Cisco signed on just two years ago. The concept was inspired not just by mass demographic shifts but also new technology that can significantly reduce energy use and pollution while transforming how people interact with the world around them. For Cisco, Songdo represents more than a chance to sell hardware. The San Jose-based company envisions its technology as the connector for all aspects of urban life: government services, utilities, entertainment, health care, education. The company envisions new business models built around its Telepresence technology — say a yoga class beamed into living rooms or medical checkups done remotely. All of these would be managed through a single Internet network, and Cisco would collect a recurring fee for maintaining the services, almost like a utility. “It will be like paying a maintenance fee once a month,” said Christopher Khang, a Cisco vice president based in Singapore. “It’s a radically new business model for the company.” Building this technology into new construction adds relatively little to the overall construction
costs, he said. “But the benefits are going to be huge. I believe we are the only company that can provide this holistic (technology) environment.” It looks good on paper. But will those Chinese officials buy this tech utopian vision? “It seems a little speculative,” Broadpoint AmTech analyst Mark McKechnie said. Still, he added, “If you want to be around, you have to have a 10year plan. If this doesn’t develop, at least they’ll learn something new they can apply to different businesses.” There’s also a question of how many whistles and bells developing countries are willing to pay for. For some local officials from China and elsewhere, Songdo, which has a 100-acre park and Jack Nicklaus golf course, is a bit like visiting a luxury auto dealer when all you can afford is a Honda Civic. Now Cisco is using its Shanghai World Expo pavilion, which displays a compel-
ling video detailing a totally linked city, to sell its technology. Government officials are then invited to hop on a plane for the hour-and-a-half flight to Incheon. “There will be at least 100 new cities with a minimum population of one million each being built in China in the next three years,” said Anthony Elvey who, as director of Cisco’s Expo pavilion, gives tours to Chinese provincial officials, each hoping to out-do the other in creating an instant city that will attract jobcreating investments. So far, Cisco has signed deals with two Chinese municipalities. It will be the main networking infrastructure provider for Chongqing, which has a population of more than 31 million in southwestern China. And Cisco and Gale will provide a cityscale development in Changsha in Hunan Province. “These guys can snap their fingers and put all this infrastructure in place,” Elvey said.
The University of Memphis
Thursday, June 10, 2010 •
Film Review
BY ROBERT W. BUTLER McClatchy Newspapers The good news: “The A-Team” is better than this spring’s similarly-themed “The Losers.” The bad news: Not by much. Based on the hugely popular ‘80s TV series about ex-black ops types who turn mercenary, the film hits the big screen running. Which is to say that director Joe Carnahan (“Narc,” “Smokin’ Aces”) tries to have a ball in the air at all times, to keep us diverted with frantic action or eccentric humor. It works intermittently, but after a while it becomes all too obvious that the sleight of hand masks the absence of anything truly interesting. Carnahan and his co-writers (Brian Bloom, Skip Woods) make their film an origins story of sorts. As it begins, the thoughtful, cigar-loving Col. John “Hannibal” Smith (Liam Neeson) and his cohort, Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck (Bradley Cooper), are still with the U.S. Army. They’re on assignment to clean up a Mexican drug cartel. Along the way they meet a former Army Ranger, B.A. Baracus (Quinton “Rampage” Jackson), and spring from a mental hospital their fourth member,
pilot “Howling Mad” Murdock (Sharlto Copley). The plot proper has the four betrayed and framed by a rogue CIA agent (a pleasantly smarmy Patrick Wilson). Caged in various military prisons, our four heroes must escape and then get to work to clear their names and trap the bad guy. Their goal is to recover plates for counterfeit $100 bills which, in the wrong hands, could bring down the U.S. government. Oh, yeah ... they’re being tracked and, eventually, abetted by Faceman’s old flame, military intelligence gal Charisa Sosa (Jessica Biel). There’s lots of action, most of it so badly edited you can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys. More successful are a couple of performances. Cooper, a hot property since last summer’s “The Hangover,” cements his reputation as a sexy leading man oozing wise-guy attitude. All buffed up (the film gives him plenty of opportunities to go shirtless) and his mug plastered with a satyr’s grin, Cooper energizes even his lamest lines. The real surprise is Copley as the certifiable Murdock. The South African non-actor who made his feature debut in last
courtesy of MCT
‘A-Team’ adaptation strictly B-rate
Bradley Cooper as Templeton “Face” Peck; from left, UFC light heavyweight Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as B.A. Baracas; Sharlto Copley as H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock; and Liam Neeson as Col Hannibal Smith star in Fox’s $100-million movie reboot of “The A-Team.” year’s “District 9,” Copley proves that impressive performance wasn’t a fluke. Here he gives us the human version of Daffy Duck, an eyewinking, eye-rolling hyperactive nut case who often replaces his
Deep South drawl with a variety of ethnic accents. Copley is no longer a non-actor — it will be fun to see what he comes up with next. Neeson is solid but unremarkable (basically he’s a straight man).
Former mixed martial arts star Jackson is just OK; he lacks Mr. T’s glower, and a subplot that has a conflicted B.A. converting to Gandhian nonviolence is enough to send “A-Team” loyalists heading for the exits.
Film Review
‘Karate Kid’ remake: wax on and walk out BY COLIN COVERT Star Tribune Let’s put the shortcomings of the new “Karate Kid” in perspective. The 1984 original, directed by “Rocky’s” Oscarwinner John G. Avildsen, was hardly a cultural treasure. It was wildly implausible and corny, but if it hit you at the right point in your underdoggy adolescence, it generated warm memories. The remake is equally farfetched, but lacks the innocence that made the first film so likable. The new “Kid” feels like
a big-budget audition reel for sweet Jaden Smith, with Will and Jada Pinkett Smith hovering above the bloated 135-minute project as doting parents/ producers. An air of calculation overhangs the whole enterprise like a storm cloud. The film follows 12-yearold Dre Parker (Smith) and his single mother, Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) on a job transfer from decaying Detroit to vibrant Beijing. Dre’s transition is complicated by his lazy, disrespectful nature, his crush on his Chinese classmate Meiying (Wenwen Han), and vicious
bullying by schoolyard thug Chen (Zhenwei Wang) and his henchmen. Dre begs his mom to enroll him in a kung fu academy for self defense, but finds an unlikely mentor in his apartment’s laconic handyman, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan). In the course of many training montages, he drops his bratty attitude, absorbs a dose of Buddhist humility, and learns to stand up for himself. Smith is a cute kid, but fundamentally miscast. The protagonist in the original film was
see
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A Weekly Devotional For You
Jaden Smith stars as “Dre” on the Great Wall of China in Columbia Pictures’ “The Karate Kid.”
Hello, University of Memphis students, faculty, staff and others who read The Daily Helmsman. We plan to meet with you in this forum each week. This will be the eleventh school year it has been our pleasure to do this. Our purpose is to bring you a short message from the Bible. We are coming with the unabashed conviction that the same God who created the universe from nothing has communicated with the human race via the Holy Scriptures. We confidently assert that the Bible is the verbally inspired, inerrant Word of God. We believe that, properly understood, the Bible has the answer to all the behavioral questions of life. This is true for society as a whole and it is true of individuals. If any of you are having any kinds of problems whatsoever, the solution can be found in the Word of God. Sadly, because of preconceived ideas, bias, or misconception, some people reject the Bible out of hand, without even knowing much about it. This is tragic and is not indicative of an open mind. One wag has well noted that the mind is like a parachute- it works best when it is open! We invite you to join us as we explore some of life’s problems in the light of the Scriptures. We welcome your response by calls, letters, or e-mail. If there is some issue you would like for us to consider, please let us know. We have a genuine concern for our fellow human beings, and want to be a positive influence in this turbulent world.
Grace Chapel Primitive Baptist Church – Zack Guess, Pastor 828 Berclair Rd. • Memphis, TN, 38122 • 683-8014 • e-mail: zguess@juno.com
8 • Thursday, June 10, 010
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in his mid-teens, a young man in the making. Here, prepubescent seventh-graders enact heart-thumping romance and bone-thumping beat-downs, which makes for uncomfortable viewing. Ironically, Smith radiates a self-possessed confidence that makes him seem less vulnerable than his puppyish predecessor, Ralph Macchio. The little leading man has a couple of scenes here where he weeps with a doe-eyed professionalism that verges on the robotic. He’s impressively agile in his endless training scenes, but his acting muscles are not so limber. His mushy kissing scene with his girlfriend looks more painful than the endless walloping he gets from the brutish Chen. And what about Jackie Chan? He is stuck with some Zen howlers here, explaining how kung fu is like life. His tragic back story, like the film’s needless excursions to the Forbidden
PaRTicle from page 5
ery by Fermilab’s DZero team seems statistically solid. If it makes it past critical peer review, it will lead to a re-evaluation of existing theories and, possibly, a deeper understanding of physics and why things exist. It certainly will inspire a barrage of additional supercollider tests, as other labs try to verify the discovery or shoot it down. Either way, it could be one incremental step toward the holy grail of atomic physics: the long-sought discovery of the elusive “Higgs boson,” a theoretical particle assumed to be the fundamental building block of all matter. “It’ll be written about in physics books a hundred years from now,” said Zoltan Ligeti, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology who was not involved in the Fermilab experiment. For decades, Fermilab was the world’s pre-eminent center for subatomic particle research. But increasingly, the expectation was that the next big breakthrough in physics would come from a new and more powerful European accelerator, the
City and the Great Wall, really ought to have been saved as DVD extras. Chan is playing an older, wearier character here, and his shambling body language is persuasive. Either he nailed this duffer’s physicality or all those stunt injuries are finally catching up with him. The climactic scene, the standing-room-only little league kung fu championship, is a numbing flurry of fast cutting, ear-bruising sound effects and spinning crane kicks. Director Harald Zwart (“The Pink Panther 2”) is better at drawing out the tension before the bouts, when the opponents eye one another warily. The David and Goliath mismatch plays out as it must, but it’s hard to shout approval for pint-sized lads clobbering each other. The recent superhero spoof “Kick-Ass” had the wit to turn that kind of child-abuse imagery into a grand sick joke. “The Karate Kid” invites us to cheer the spectacle for real, and even when the good guy triumphs, that spoils the fun. Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva, which has begun overshadowing Fermi and draining its talent. So scientists at the older facility just west of Chicago have expressed a quiet satisfaction with the home team victory, which could help its efforts to remain relevant and fund-worthy. In a Web site posting, Fermilab Director Pier Oddone said “I am delighted to see yet another exciting result from the Tevatron.” An official from the U.S. Department of Energy, which funds Fermilab, echoed that pride, saying the “result underlines the importance and scientific potential of the Tevatron program.” The question of existence is something that humans have wondered about ever since there were humans to wonder: “Why is there something rather than nothing?” as the 17th century philosopher Gottfried Leibniz put it. Clearly, things do exist — evidenced by the facility near Batavia, where bison graze above a subterranean, four-milecircumference accelerator, or the tidy homes in nearby suburbs where Fermilab staff members live. But, theoretically, they shouldn’t. One of physics’ foundation
neUTRino from page 5
courtesy of MCT
KaRaTe Kid
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Jackie Chan, left, as “Mr. Han” and Jaden Smith, as “Dre Parker” star in Columbia Pictures’ “The Karate Kid.”
stones is the concept of a symmetrical universe. Everything has its mirror opposite, like humans’ left and right hands. As schoolchildren learn, Newton said every action has an equal and opposite reaction. “A good example is the Big Bang,” Lykken said, putting his colleagues’ discovery into context. “The universe began as a perfectly symmetrical object, a ball of energy.” The problem lies in what happened next. That energy condensed into matter but also into its opposite, antimatter. The two being mutually destructive, they should have canceled each other out. Instead, Lykken noted, matter joined together in ever larger concentrations — nuclei, atoms, stars, galaxies. Fermilab had that kind of question in mind 27 years ago when it built the Tevatron to imitate Big Bang-like collisions in miniature. The tentative breakthrough came last month when some of the Dzero team’s 500 scientists looked at the latest of eight years’ worth of results from collisions, monitored in a Buck Rogers-looking apparatus in a warehouse-type building atop one of the rings. In the game of physics, the ball now passes from research-
C
ers to theoreticians like Lykken to figure out how the new data jibe with scientists’ overall understanding of the universe, a collection of theories known as the Standard Model. His office at Fermilab is dominated by an enormous old-fashioned blackboard covered with mathematical expressions and graphs, each a trial-fit interpretation of experimental data, and perhaps such a chalk scrawl will someday explain how matter prevailed. The discovery someday could have practical spinoffs, but it also could have immediate implications, among them in the clamorous intersection of politics and religion. Lykken hypothesized that proponents of “intelligent design” could seize upon the new findings to further support their argument that the laws of nature are so fine-tuned, they must be the handiwork of a creator. From a scientific perspective, he postulated there could be an infinite number of universes, some vastly different and others quite similar, though not exactly. “I can imagine a universe exactly like ours,” Lykken said. “Except that the Cubs win a World Series.” In the course of their normal
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453 miles away in central Italy, between the towns of L’Aquila and Teramo. When neutrinos are produced, they continue in the same direction of the proton beam, arriving at Gran Sasso in only 2.4 milliseconds. The detector at Gran Sasso is a massive apparatus made up of 150,000 “bricks” of photographic film interleaved with lead sheets. The total mass of the bricks, which are accompanied by electronic detectors and other apparatus, is about 1,300 tons. OPERA began operating three years ago and has since sent “billions of billions” of muon neutrinos to Gran Sasso. But the interaction of the neutrinos with the lead is so weak that the first tau neutrino has only just been observed. “We are fully confident that this first event will be followed by others that will fully demonstrate the appearance of neutrino oscillation,” said OPERA spokesman Antonio Ereditato. work, theoreticians and researchers freely exchange ideas in a regular rhythm of intellectual interaction — except when a big breakthrough like the recent one is at hand. “For about 10 days we kept quiet about it, not talking to other physicists, even those here at Fermi,” said Stefan SoldnerRembold, a member of the research group. Once their data and logic had been double-checked, the research team invited colleagues to a Friday evening wine-andcheese party, a tell-tale method of tipping off colleagues. Lykken was away at a scientific conference, half-listening to a panel presentation while checking e-mail on a laptop computer when his invitation arrived on his screen. The title of the presentation at the Fermi bash began with two exciting words — “evidence for ... “ As a group, physicists don’t indulge in frequent displays of emotion. But Lykken wasn’t the only Fermi scientist elated by what was found when “the box” was opened on May 5. Soldner-Rembold said he got goose bumps. “I said, ‘Wow!’ “ recalled Dmitri Denisov, a physicist present at the opening.
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