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The Daily Northwestern DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
Thursday, February 20, 2014
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Students present bike-share plans By Jennifer ball
the daily northwestern @jennifercball
Scott Brown/The Daily Northwestern
RENAISSANCE MAN James Franco, an actor, poet and filmmaker, speaks at the Chicago Humanities Festival Wednesday night at Northwestern’s Chicago campus. Franco debuted his new poetry collection at the festival.
Franco debuts collection By SCOTT BROWN
the daily northwestern @scottbrown545
Murderous necrophilia doesn’t usually attract a crowd. But more than 700 people came Wednesday night to see James Franco speak about just that at the Northwestern School of Law.
Franco directed the short film “Herbert White,” an adaptation of a poem of the same name about an eponymous child murderer, for a class assignment while he was a student at New York University. The poem “Herbert White” was written in 1973 by Frank Bidart, who shared the stage with Franco at the event, part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. Bidart read the poem for
ASG changes process for two VP selections By Rebecca Savransky
the daily northwestern @beccasavransky
Associated Student Government passed legislation Wednesday changing the election process for academic vice president and student life vice president from a campus-wide vote to internal selection, meaning ASG president and executive vice president are now the only student-elected positions. In the past, the academic vice president and student life vice president have been voted on by the student body in the Spring Quarter elections. At Senate, members said these positions were often overshadowed by the presidential vote. The change was proposed due to a lack of student interest in these positions and to guarantee the candidates have enough knowledge and experience to successfully
serve the student body. “It doesn’t make sense for them to be elected,” said Alex Van Atta, ASG executive vice president. “Just something to consider is the kind of complications that can occur when you have somebody elected on one platform on student life but the president, executive vice president were elected on a completely different platform. ” The initial legislation was amended to change the makeup of the election commission, which would choose the academic vice president and the student life vice president. Now the election commission will also include two students elected by the Senate in order to make the process more democratic. In the most recent elections, students were required to vote for the two secondary positions in order to submit their ballots, President Ani Ajith said. » See ASG, page 5
Annabel Edwards/Daily Senior Staffer
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY Katie Funderburg, Associated Student Government speaker of the senate, calls roll. Senate approved a change in the election process for academic and student life vice presidents.
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a sold-out audience in Thorne Auditorium, saying it was just the third time he has ever read it in public. “‘Herbert White’, I assure you, is not autobiographical,” Bidart said. “I have this mortal fear that someone will in some naive way assume that this is a confessional poem.” » See FRANCO, page 5
Five Northwestern engineering students presented data-driven plans Wednesday for eight new Divvy bike locations in Evanston as part of their senior capstone project. The Chicago Department of Transportation announced in November its plans to expand the city’s bike-sharing program into the suburbs. The McC or mick s eniors researched models on bike-sharing programs in Chicago, Barcelona and Arlington, Va. They said they mostly considered population and employment density as well as transportation stops. When traveling from a CTA station to a second destination, people “want to take off that extra mile,” McCormick senior Graeme Murphy said at the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave., Wednesday evening. Hoping to learn more about the most logical placements of the future bike sharing stops, the
students were soliciting community feedback about the placement of the Divvy stations in Evanston. “We wanted to get community input about some of the data models we have,” McCormick senior Julie Sierks said. The students presented four different models, three of which focused on different areas of Evanston, including north, south and southwest Evanston. The model which focused on the city as a whole got the most positive feedback from the residents in attendance. Ald. Jane Grover (7th) suggested they place one station near Church Street and Dodge Avenue because it would be close to Evanston Township High School as well as one station close to Saint Francis Hospital, a large employer. Other stop locations proposed by the students included ones by Technological Institute, the Davis Street Metra station and NorthShore Evanston Hospital. Another prime location for a Divvy stop would be near the lakefront. The students said their research on Chicago’s bike-sharing » See DIVVY, page 5
Shop begins taking Bitcoin By CHRISTINE FAROLAN
the daily northwestern @crfarolan
Last month, Bucephalus Bikes became the first Evanston business to accept Bitcoin as a method of payment. Bitcoin is a form of currency generated by “mining” or solving complex math to create unique blocks of a transaction record. This cryptic data is then exchanged across a network of users. It was invented in 2009 and has garnered increasing attention worldwide, especially in the last year. Alex Anon, the owner of the bike shop, said the main reason he decided to accept bitcoins was the fact that there were no fees associated with processing its transactions. “I pay hundreds of dollars a month in credit card processing, and that translates into thousands of dollars at the end of the year,” Anon said. All businesses are concerned with small fees adding up, particularly small businesses like Bucephalus Bikes, he said. To make a transaction, Anon would use his smartphone to generate a Quick Response, or QR, code to request a certain amount of U.S. dollars. The app he utilizes automatically checks the bitcoindollar exchange rate and does the calculation. The customer can then scan the code with his or her smartphone, receive the request and push the amount to Anon’s digital wallet. The company that manages his wallet would then move the money directly to his bank account — free of charges or fees. “I don’t think everybody will drop their credit card and use Bitcoin, but because it didn’t cost me anything to set up, I figured I’d give it a go,” Anon said. Economics Prof. Scott Ogawa is currently wary of the use of Bitcoin and other
Caroline Olsen/The Daily Northwestern
BIT BY BIT Bucephalus Bikes has become the first business in Evanston to accept Bitcoin as a payment method. Bitcoin is a payment system created in 2009 that allows digital monetary transactions without banks, middlemen or significant transaction fees.
crypto-currencies because he personally does not use it and does not know of anyone who has. “A currency’s value mainly depends on everybody else’s willingness to accept it as part of a transaction,” Ogawa said. “However, seeing other people use Bitcoin, such as this bike shop, will make me less skeptical.” Weinberg sophomore Blake Disiere has been using Bitcoin since 2012 because it intrigues him as both an economics major and a tech junkie. He found it to be an interesting experiment because with its production scheduled to stop once 21 million bitcoins have been mined, Bitcoin cannot undergo inflation. “It’s more of an investment strategy: buy when it’s low, sell when it’s high. And that’s pretty much what I use it for now,” Disiere said. Disiere has not yet used Bitcoin to make a purchase but said he could see
himself doing so. He likes that the process is semi-anonymous; names and addresses cannot be traced back to buyers. There is also security in the fact that Bitcoin transactions are one-way, he said. When giving his credit card information, there is the chance that the seller will take more money than agreed upon. Some economists have argued Bitcoin is too volatile to use as everyday currency, but Anon will avoid losing money to vacillating exchange rates because his bank account transfers will occur daily. Time will tell if customers warm up to the idea, but for those already using the currency, this could be a convenient alternative. “Right now, as I see it, the price is starting to stabilize as the quantity of (unmined) Bitcoin gets smaller and smaller,” Disiere said. “So I see it becoming more stable and viable in the future.” christinefarolan2017@u.northwestern.edu
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