Denebola, Volume 51, Issue 2

Denebola Newton South High School

Volume 51, Issue II

Pictures of Taichi Fukumura (Top), Yoko Fukumura (Right), and Daniel Zhang (Bottom)

photos contributed by daniel zhang and taichi fukumura

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Friday, 15 April 2011

South alum orgnaizes Japan benefit concerts

By Rutul Patel On Friday, March 11, 2011, the great Eastern Japan Earthquake hit Japan. A tsunami that followed caused untold destruction and misery leaving homes and families torn apart.

Even now the recovery effort is still in its infancy.

Along with the American Red Cross, charities and celebrities are raising money for the relief effort. On a much smaller scale, Newton South High School alum Taichi Fukumura (Class of 2010) has organized seven benefit concerts, the proceeds of which will go solely to helping the Japanese people.

An undergrad at Boston University studying violin, and a conductor of the Boston Accompanietta Orchestra, Taichi Fukumura saw no better way to help ease the suffering than to use his gift of music.

“When I was watching the videos on the news I decided that we, that everyone, need to

do something to help,” Fukumura said. “Fortunately all my family was ok, but I do know some people whose relatives didn’t make it.”

Taichi, along with several other musicians and orchestra groups, used their collective background in classical music to help the people of Japan.

He also enlisted the help of his younger sister and junior at South, Yoko Fukumura, and his friend and senior at South, Daniel Zhang.

Yoko Fukumura, a pianist since a young age, did a benefit concert a few years ago for an earthquake in China. “I am Japanese myself, so I feel more connected. And since my brother is organizing it, [that] further deepens my connection with this cause. I am not directly affected, but I hear stories from other people about their families and the conditions and I get scared,” Yoko said.

CONCERTS, continued on A2

Athletic fees skyrocket-as much as 95 percent increase

By Noah Rivkin As a result of the slumping American economy, schools across the country have been forced to make deep budget cuts and hike fees. South is no exception. South athletes will have to pay an increased fee in order to compete in next year’s sports seasons. High school athletics fees are slated to rise from $210 to $300 per sport with a $900 family cap.

Some sports, like hockey, will also rise from $260 to $400 and football will see a 95 percent

increase from $210 to $400.

“I would probably still play with such high fees, but the increase is a little upsetting.

And next year there’ll be me, my brother, and my sister at South, and together we play a total of seven sports. So we’ll hit the cap pretty early. The increase won’t affect us as badly as they could’ve, but it’s still pretty ridiculous,” Hockey and Lacrosse player Brandon Kee said.

When Ted Dalicandro, the Head Football Coach, started

coaching at South, the athletics fee was $125.

“I can understand why they might have to raise user fees to compensate for the budget; we still have a much lower user fee than some other schools in the Dual County League,” sophomore lineman Lucian Cascino said. “What does bother me, however, is that not all of the school’s sports had an equal increase in fees. That just isn’t fair.”

Football Captain and senior Brandon Caldwell also

photo by aley lewis

ATHLETICS, continued on A2

South teen Camille Brugnara breaks free from depression

screen shot from breaking free from depression

By Rutul Patel With the help of the Guidance Department head Shelly Borg and Goldrick Housemaster Henry Turner, South teen Camille Brugnara screened the film Breaking Free From Depression on April 5 2011 as a part of the Just Think Teens Making Smart Choices Expo.

Starting on April 4, the Expo was a week long fair held in various locations around Newton. The Expo’s highlights included seminars on students making

healthy lifestyles and serious concerns such as depression.

“The [screening] was something that Camille wanted.

She felt it important for the community to have access to this,” Borg said. “We know that people always have concerns about depression and this was a good way to reach them.”

After working with Doctor Naja Reily, the producer of the film, on spreading word about depression and conqueroring it, Brugnara asked to be in the film herself. She was then put into the movie.

“It felt good to [be in the film], because I felt like I

could potentially make a difference in peoples lives who are suffering from mental illnesses,” Brugnara said.

85 people showed up for the film including members of the South community and faculty from other schools.

After the showing of the film, Camille and her mother gave a presentation on depression, Camille’s struggle through it, and facts and statistics. Doctors Andrew Aspel, Steven Litwack, and Naja Reily were present at the screening to give medical insight on the disease.

Breaking Free from BRUGNARA, continued on A2

Denebola presents: Tertulia in Pictures; A Spring Showcase

Senior Alex Gershanov street drumming

MCs Jonah Ryder and Murray Levy invite lunch lady to introduce next performance photos by jason agress

Nick Glavin gives a solo performance

Denebola

News A2 Founded in 1960

Editors-in-Chief Dan Kats and Jason Yoffe Managing Editor Helen Holmes Executive News Editor Rutul Patel Deputy Editor Ilana Sivachenko Copy Editor Charlie Temkin Faculty Advisor George Abbott White Technical Advisor Jason Agress

www.denebolaonline.net

News

Sports

Astha Agarwal Daniel Barabasi Noah Rivkin Robert Wang

Editorials & Opinions Taylor Beidler Hattie Gawande Jarrett Gorin Tim Newton Daniel Pincus Annapurna Ravel

Global Education

Dina Busaba Peter Natov Dylan Royce

Photography

Centerfold

Melanie Erspamer Julia Spector (Sr.)

Arts & Entertainment Sophie Scharlin-Pettee Michelle Tian

Features

Liana Butchard Jesse Feldstein Courtney Foster Josh Nislick Wendy Ma

Productions Kj Brownell

Denebola enacts a two-fold role in the Newton South community: responsibility to the larger Newton community and the school itself, and responsibility to the individuals who contribute to its pages. This tradition extends back to Newton South’s inception in 1960, and the first issue of the newspaper.

As Newton South High School’s official school newspaper, we are engaged in every facet of the school community, which means fair and equal coverage of South’s sporting events, enrichment and art programs, school organizations, and all other aspects of school life. Additionally, Denebola feels it important to stimulate as well as inform discussion on the essential issues of the day.

Denebola is written, edited, and published by Newton South students. Its publication is entirely supported by advertising; the newspaper receives no funds from the PTSO or similar organizations. Contributions are neither soliticted nor accepted.

Unless stated, opinions are those of the individuals under whose by-lines they appear.

Letters from students, faculty, or members of the Newton community should be addressed to the Editors-in-Chief.

Nathan Baskin Mike Berman Josh Carney Joe Maher Erik Manditch Zach Pawa

Aley Lewis (Sr.) Anna Garik Monique Gould Emma Sander Jonah Seifer

Graphics

Alex Cohen Tim Jiang Lizzie Odvarka Victor Qin

Web Masters

Ray Flint Corbin Krinsky Thibaut Xiong

Contributors: Craig Fujita, Sarah Wanger, Sam Dorfman, John-Henry McBreen

Denebola: Volume 51, Issue II

15 April 2011

Athletics fees through roof?

TEACHERS, continued from Page A1

doesn’t agree with the new budget’s fees. “I think it’s ridiculous for kids to have to pay that much money to play a sport. I know many teams that already have far less kids than Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School or Acton-Boxborough Regional High School because of [increased fees]. It’s only going to put South teams at a disadvantage,” he said.

Dalicandro takes the fee hikes one step further.

“I trust the people above me, but I’m upset.

It’s fair to say that the demographic of the football players is different. This will affect those players whose families don’t have as much income. And I hope it doesn’t stop people from playing but [chances are it will],” he said.

“If the fee increase was for, say a sport like tennis then it may not be as heavy of an effect because the demographics are different.

It’s a fact.”

Dalicandro also has a budget solution he’d like to propose.

To help cover the gap for athlet-

ics, Dalicandro suggests cutting middle school sports as opposed to high school ones. He sees the middle school athletics program as just an expensive “babysitting program.” The practices “aren’t legitimate, and there are many leagues outside of school that are [cheaper and train the kids better],” he said.

Attacking high school sports instead of middle school sports with fee-hikes seems ludicrous

schools.”

Dalicandro remembers what South’s football program was when he started. There were barely 30 kids on the team and that wasn’t sufficient. Due to illness and injuries the team needed more players and with hard work Dalicandro, gained 20 more.

He doesn’t want to see it go back to previous conditions, especially because of something like a budget.

Volleyball player Ashan Singh had a slightly different opinion on the matter.

“To be honest, ultimately, I don’t think the raised sports fees will have a significant effect on the overwhelming majority of South’s athletes, however, it’s sort of ridiculous that the fee never really seems to stop growing. How much is it going to be?” he said. photo by aley lewis in Dalicandro’s eyes. “High Hockey and baseball player school is much more competi- Dan Fitzpatrick agrees with tive, with more riding on the Singh, “I’ll play the sports line. There are kids looking because I love them, but the [infor scholarships, and overall creases] are pretty outrageous,” changing middle school pro- Fitzpatrick said. grams would be much smart“I hope other people will play er,” he said. “If anything, despite the fees, otherwise, I see most of my best kids the school might miss out on come from leagues outside of some serious athletic talent,” school as opposed to the middle Kee said.

Elementary school music update

troubles in the future. “What we are going to see is a reduction in the number and quality of musicians in the future,” Fine and Performing Arts Departments Head Jeff Knoedler said.

“When cuts start at the elementary school level it magnifies the effect that it has on the high school music program,” Music teacher Jason Squinobal said. When you cut the students’ first experience, like the recorder class, students start to learn to play later and they start to learn to play in a group together.”

The cuts in music will also bleed into the enrollment of classes like music theory, “Students will not be as interested

in learning music theory as they won’t have the experience of what it is like to talk about reading music, playing scales, or learning theory at that third grade level,” Squinobal said.

Often due to a smaller priority assigned to the arts in comparison to other departments, the fine and performing arts have a tradition of being the first to feel the effect of negative changes in the school budget.

“It seems like arts in general is deemed less important than what people call the big five academic departments, English, History, Science, Math and World Language. When you place a higher priority on the big five, the arts become more expendable and are cut first,” Squinobal said.

Lisa Linde worries for future students. “I think all of Newton’s performing groups, which includes about twenty percent of our school, and around 50% of middle school students, will feel the heat in the next ten to fifteen years,” she said.

like I’m just sad. It’s a lot more than that,” explained Caroline Hanly, an 18-year old in the film.

Among the various teens interviewed in the film was Brugnara. Her parents saw the first signs of depression through her anger at a very young age.

“My parents noticed that I was a very angry two year old,” Brugnara said in the film.

The film then followed the signs and symptoms of depression which range from; lack of sleep, loss of appetite, withdrawal from the public, impulsive anger, mood swings.

“It felt like no matter what I did, none of my emotions would release,” Jachobie Cosom, another teen from the film, said.

The film then took a much darker turn as it examined the thoughts of suicide that most people going through depression go through.

“You feel like you’re on a cliff.

You feel like you’re on a cliff and you’re ready to jump and you know no one is going to stop you,” Cosom said.

“You just want to get rid of everything that you’re feeling. And just be done with everything. You never look at the positive things,” Hanly said.

“I tried to kill myself and that’s the realest it ever got with depression and me. And then I vowed to someone I love a lot that I would never try it again,”

Igor Frieire, a teen interviewed in the film, said.

“Learning from yesterday, living for today, and loving tomorrow,” is how Cosom describes his view on life after his stint with depression.

Burgnara also has had her moments of triumph over her depression. She explains in the film that after being with depression she took up the hobby of glass blowing, a form of art in which the artist morphs hot glass into what their imagination wills it to be.

“In life sometimes we try and focus on everyone else and pleasing everyone else, when sometimes we have to take time for ourselves and treat ourselves with love, kindness, and respect. A key aspect [of overcoming depression] was the importance of art and sports.

Having an outlet for emotions,” Brugnara said.

Borg counted this screening as a great success and “wonderful” use of the expo. “It takes a lot of courage to talk about something you’ve suffered through,” Borg said. “It was a gift for us to hear about and for her to talk about.”

“My goal with doing and screening the movie was to let people know that you can overcome depression. And ultimately I hope that if I can help one person then they’ll help another and so on. Baby steps,” Brugnara said.

Denebola, The Official Newspaper of Newton South High School, 140 Brandeis Road, Newton, Mass. 02459

Concerts continued fromage CONCERTS, continued from Page A1

Zhang, a senior at South is the conductor of an orchestra group called the Boston Acompanietta and plays the violin “masterfully”.

Taichi and Zhang created the orchestra in 2008 after the former head of the Music Department, Dr. Rossini, retired. Zhang is also in South’s official student orchestra called the Newton South Sinfonietta (NSS).

The Acompanietta is completely student run and directed, and does not play at the official school orchestra’s programs. Usually, the NSS plays a few times a day, despite having to perform in contests and shows. On the week of April 25, it will perform Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals as well as the three concerto competition winners’ pieces.

Zhang has realized the difficulties of maintaining the NSS and conducting for the Acompanietta, but during the benefit concerts he will not be conducting, but rather performing while Taichi conducts. “[The concerts] are a wonderful cause,” Zhang said. “I think it’s really brave that a lot of different groups are willing

to perform for this cause.

Six days after the earthquake struck, Taichi began planning the concerts. Originally planning to have only a couple concerts with some solo performance, Taichi’s plans reached newer heights when he got in

On Wednesday, April 13, South pride was not just evident, but it was palpable. The students donned more than just the mundane jeans and t-shirts; they sported the Lions’ blue and orange.

It’s not that Denebola particularly likes the stereotypic perceptions of society about American high schools. It finds there is a lack of school spirit that shouldn’t exist.

Newton South has only one pep rally a year, and a shame the majority of the South students cannot unite under one cause for one hour.

Are mainstream athletics not engaging? Yet a high per centage of South students are involved in sports, at all levels, and the theater and arts productions are lively.

Is the auditorium too small to house a significant audience? but that was never its intent, and its purpose is well served

in that there are so many events held in it, lecture hall and black box, that each student could acquire a ticket to at least one.

Are South students so overwhelmed by pressure-cooker Newton? Or is it that students don’t care anymore?

Football games are played to half-filled stands, and students don’t even realize that there is an enthusiastic Girls’ Hockey team.

Why does it take a remarkably concentrated display of talent – that conveniently gets students out of classes for the day – to arouse appreciation for Newton South’s overflowing well of genius on stage, at a desk, or on the court or playing fields?

This Wednesday, the school bubbled with unmatched flair and enthusiasm. The convergence of the kickoff of spring sports, the performance of Tertulia, and the quick ap-

of the seven concerts, three are held in BU, three in the Eliot Church in Newton, and one at the New England Conservatory (NEC), a concert hall in Boston.

The concerts in Newton are on Saturday, April 16 at 8 PM. and Saturday, April 30 at 5 PM. and 8 PM. Taichi has a policy of not performing in concerts that he organizes. “[I usually don’t like to play] when I run the concerts. There is too much managing to do and performing would take a toll on me, both physically and in terms of the quality of perphotos contributed by taichi fukumura formance. It wouldn’t touch with other musicians. keep me in the right mindset,” “The organization was most- Taichi said. ly my own. I got into contact He, however, chose to go with many administrative against his principle of not perpeople in BU for help. Most forming and managing because of the people that I found this charity is close to his heart were music major students and will be conducting the last studying to become profes- concert in Newton. sional performers,” Taichi All three concerts are free said. of charge and funding for this From then on his passion charity is strictly on a donaproject picked up speed as he tions basis. began turning his small time “Any donations for Japan at charity event into seven full- the events will be greatly apfledged benefit concerts. Out preciated,” Taichi said.

By Daniel Barabasi For the Music Department, recent cuts have hit hard, especially on the elementary school level. Fourth grade chorus and third grade recorder programs are being eliminated.

Along with cuts there are increases in fees like $200 for elementary instrumental music and a new $200 fee for All-City Band and Chorus groups.

South’s music department is mainly dependent on enrollment, so many smaller groups such, as music technology, are first to be cut or are forced to run less blocks. Due to the cuts in elementary school music programs, however, South spots

Brugnara defeats depression

School spirit suddenly surfaces

proach of spring break were required to arouse the student body to open its eyes and realize the spectacular feats accomplished daily.

Smiles were pervasive, optimism apparent. Students were loud, active, involved - they enjoyed the day, whether it was because they spent time watching classmates sing, dance, and accomplish remarkable feats, or because they were enjoying all this with friends.

It has always been the mission of any high school newspaper, including Denebola, to offer a source in which all elements of student life are found.

With Advanced Placement tests, college admissions exams, and finals still looming large, the “window of opportunity” in which students can enjoy the high school experience within the walls of South wanes rapidly.

photo by jonah siefer

photos contributed by camille brugnara

BRUGNARA, continued from Page A1

Depression followed teens and young adults from all different walks of life that had one indelible fact in common; they were all diagnosed with clinical depression.

Statistics show that 154 million people suffer from clinical depression, one in five teens in the US suffers through depression at least once and 80% of those kids go through this disease without being diagnosed or medically helped.

New England Patriots offensive tackle Matt Light hosted the movie. Light ushered the audience through the stories and personal accounts of teens that were dealing with depression.

“If you have an actual physical illness that people can see then they look at it differently as opposed to a mental one. It’s

Opinions Denebola

15 April 2011

Opinions A3

Opposing Viewpoints

The new ice cream in the cafeteria is...

PRO ...delicious and necessary.

By Ilana Sivachenko Usually I order sushi or go out during my free lunch block; occasionally I bring a sandwich from home, but last Wednesday was different...

As I walked toward the cafeteria, I saw a freshman holding a delicious, ice cream cone.

My mind was reeling from the shock. How could a 15 yearold be holding an ice cream cone in the hallway? Did his mother drop it off? Where did this mysterious and delectable snack come from?

I decided to put my top-notch investigative skills to work, but first I wanted to grab something for lunch. As I walked through the cafeteria door, I found myself surrounded by ice cream cones, and for once, I wasn’t hallucinating.

People were really holding ice cream cones!

I consider myself an epicurean, a go hard or go home fan of fine food so my journey to find a cold ice cream cone quickly turned into a contact sport.

I pushed my way through a horde of underclassmen to find the hub of the entire operation, a cooler filled to the brim with tasty frozen snacks.

After purchasing an ice cream cone, I was met with a number

of disapproving stares.

Some people may say that ice cream is bad for your teeth, or that it is bad for your health. In fact, a food that contains milk as opposed to excess sugar, like Sour Patch Kids, is preferable any day of the week. In addition to this, there is also a positive psychological aspect: people love ice cream!

In fact, the average American eats 23.2 quarts of ice cream and other frozen dairy products each year. Scientists working with ice cream don’t try to remove the sugar or the calorie count, instead, they merely try to add nutritional value.

Ice cream is far from unhealthy, in fact a bowl of ice cream has less calories than your favorite soda, compare 200 calories per serving to ice cream’s mere 40.

To all the haters that nay-say sorbet, ice cream is healthier than many of the other products in our cafeteria.

The majority of ice cream on the market is made from natural sugar and milk, but it’s also important to remember that 60% of an ice cream cone is still water.

Every food, from meat to spinach, can have an undesired

CON ...unhealthy and excessive.

need to be solved is both counterproductive and silly.

Ice cream cones are delicious, cold, refreshing, creamy and crunchy, and most importantly, sweet, and if there is one thing a Newton South student needs on a daily basis it is a healthy mixture of sugar and caffeine.

in this picture. Imagine yourself walking into the cafeteria.

All you see are posters asking you if you got milk, (we’re not cows; we don’t carry milk on us) and telling you to live healthy. So why would a cafeteria that is so fond of promoting healthy eating sell

ice cream?

Maybe it’s because they realized that most of the good food is gone by the time the majority of the students go to get their lunch.

Or maybe out of the goodness of their hearts they wanted to give us some delicious goodies to eat for dessert after we have our lunch. (A pretty pricy desert might I add. Someone should mention that $2.00 for a Klondike Bar is pushing it. But then again some people may do that for a Klondike Bar.) Or it could be that the cafeteria wants to make more money.

You have to know your demographic. If you were in a retirement home, prune juice would be the way to go. If you were selling stuff in New Jersey, then you’d need a truck filled with hair gel and spray tan. As the kids in the entrepreneurship class would say, its basic business.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with making money—capitalism all the way, otherwise the commies win.

But the problem with selling ice cream in school is that you’re selling ice cream in school. What happened to healthy living?

By Jarrett Gorin Plagiarism is the easiest way to fail. No ifs, ands, or buts.

There have been rumors going around—as there are each year—about so-and-so plagiarizing on his or her history paper and thus earning a zero.

Most students react in shock or disbelief. With our teachers’ numerous lectures, most onlookers are surprised that anyone would even think to try something so stupid.

Plagiarism can be unintentional, however. Scouring essays for copied work is tedious and annoying, and writers naturally assume that all their work is what it seems—entirely their own.

Accidents do happen. Certain phrases stick in our minds when

we’re researching, and these turn up in our papers. We can rarely prevent this—it’s just the way our brains work.

And what if a coincidence happens? There are times when the phrasings of certain sentences can align with those of another source, even if a writer has never seen the source.

Our teachers try their best to prevent this sort of thing from happening, but using just their own intuition doesn’t seem to cut it. Now, Turnitin.com, a website that checks essays and papers against original sources for copied work, does it all for them.

Unfortunately, Turnitin has more than a few flaws.

First of all, the teachers’ settings for the site don’t include

text sources. It only checks the internet and other submitted essays. Don’t many of the sources that we use for essays and such come from books? Sure, some books’ text is online, but most of the time this is not the case.

This is clearly an enormous gap in the website’s ability to provide accurate assessments of work.

On top of that, Turnitin looks at everything in a paper. That means that there is not a single phrase that is omitted, even if it’s something simple, such as “The other day I went...”.

On my history paper, it said that my page numbers were plagiarized. Page numbers.

Turnitin is essentially useless. Of course, it catches some things; if you were to fob off an

could such similar circumstances occur in both a democracy and a dictatorship?

To answer that, we must look at the differences between the two situations rather than the similarities.

The same problems will always occur in both abusive governments and just ones— there will always be a question of how much power a ruler should have over his or her people.

The way that such crises are handled distinguishes democracies from autocracies.

First of all, in England, the protesters aren’t being condemned for speaking out against the government but rather for the destructive way in which they choose to express their displeasure.

Bob Broadhurst, the London police commander, told Reuters that it was the violence that angered him, as opposed to public sentiment against the government’s handling of the economic crisis.

“It’s really just criminality.

They’ve attacked buildings, broken windows, thrown paint at them, and not been afraid to attack police officers trying to protect these buildings,” he said.

In Libya, on the other hand, violence escalated because of the government. Gaddafi’s bloody attempts to completely

quash the public uprisings catapulted the country into civil war.

Gaddafi was blatantly indifferent to what his people had to say and was concerned only with his own power, stating that he would rather die a martyr than relinquish authority.

Back in England, the protesters were lent far more credibility. Many blamed banks for the shocking public spending cuts (which is why many were vandalized).

The government, aware of the public hatred for banks, expressed a willingness to levy higher taxes on them and made a previously temporary tax on bank balance sheets permanent, rather than ignore the people (which they had the power to do).

To put it simply, democracies care about their citizens.

England isn’t taxing its people to boost their power, or to be cruel, and Libya is massacring its people to maximize the government’s power and to extinguish the free thought of the citizens.

Both Libya and England may be going through a period of public dissatisfaction, but in Libya they are stifling the emotion with death whereas in England they are appeasing it with compromise.

effect on your body.

Adding ice cream to the menu is certainly not the most damaging decision Newton South High School will ever make, and if it brightens the days of our students, I’d say it’s worth a few extra calories.

Complaining about ice cream when there are so many scholastic and social issues that

By Rutul Patel I scream. You scream. We all scream for…

Ice cream. Duh. Reading that pro over there, you probably have your wallet out ready to buy some delicious C h o c - Ta - cos or frozen Tw i x bars.

But wait!

Something is amiss

Ice cream gets 48% of its calories from fat. And even the low fat alternative has 25% calories from fat. Giving kids that have a wallet filled with cash a virtually endless supply of ice cream is like giving Charlie Sheen the keys to Colombia’s cocaine factories.

As many of you know Charlie appreciates it, but it’s just not good for him.

There’s a reason that America is leading the world in childhood obesity. We refuse to moderate our needs.

If you eat one bar of ice cream every week, then you’d be all right. You would relish the treat while you have it, and you’d eventually work it off.

But if you had a virtually endless supply of ice cream, then guess who would gain 40 pounds and start taking the elevator instead of the stairs?

All I’m saying is that the cafeteria is hypocritical for have a slushie machine and a giant tub filled with ice cream surrounded by health posters.

If you wanted to keep kids healthy then ice cream wasn’t the best way to go. Also, the greasy food might not be the most clever way to promote good health, either. But that’s a rant for another time.

Breaking News! Your essays may be plagiarized: Turnitin not foolproof

PHOTO BY JONAH SEIFER

entire piece of work you would get caught.

However, Turnitin doesn’t catch the right things, but rather catches all the wrong things.

Books are left out as sources, and citations, quotations, and even page numbers are counted.

I don’t really see how anyone thought that this would help us.

Despite this, many teachers take Turnitin very seriously. My history teacher threatened to give a zero to anyone who didn’t submit their paper to the site by a certain time the night before it was due.

As for the actual issue of plagiarism, yes, it is a problem, and yes, it can be stopped.

Is Turnitin the answer to this problem? No, because it just doesn’t work.

Libya and England divided by protest seperated in response

By Hattie Gawande At first glance—and even second, third, and fourth glance— England and Libya are polar opposites in terms of political situation.

England is a democratic country—the people have a role in the government and the separation of powers within the government prevents the absolute power of any ruler, much like here in the U.S. People are allowed to speak against the government without consequence and they employ this right frequently.

Conversely, Libya is ruled by mentally unstable, violent Arab supremacist Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. He bombs his citizens for protesting his rule. According to the Freedom of the Press Index, Libya is the most censored country in the Middle East and North Africa.

On the surface, England and Libya have nothing in common. Let’s take a closer look, however.

At the end of last month, massive protests occurred in England over public spending cuts that will limit welfare benefits for citizens, raise the retirement age to sixty-six, and slash 490,000 jobs.

Over 250,000 demonstrators marched through London protesting the cuts.

Unfortunately, things quickly turned violent. Flares, fireworks, and petrol and paint bombs were thrown, banks broken into, fires started, stores trashed, and police attacked.

Protesters as well as five police officers were injured in the anarchy.

In Libya, Colonel Gaddafi has ruled with an iron fist since 1969.

10 to 20 percent of Libyans are under surveillance to monitor for rebellion. Public executions of dissidents are broadcasted on state television. Uprising has been rare until recently.

Recent protests against Gaddafi’s autocratic rule have provoked a shockingly violent reaction from the government.

Gaddafi has declared all-out war on his citizens, and the death toll has already surpassed 1,000.

Threats from the western world have done nothing to deter him.

There is a disturbing similarity between these two situations, In Libya, people are protesting an autocratic ruler who denies them their natural rights.

In England they’re protesting autocratic measures that they feel are being put in place against their rights (it’s ironically reminiscent of the idea that started the American Revolution—taxation without representation).

This begs the question: how

PHOTOS FROM INTERNET SOURCE

GOING NUCLEAR? Denebola

Centerfold A4

Centerfold A5

15 April 2011

SURVIVING THREE-MILE ISLAND

It must have been the day of the earthquake, Editor’s Note: This and it was all over the article was based on news and I was at the a conversation with Apple store.

Mr Fujita, a former at Between my wife Brookline High student and I, one of us was and currently a local always plugged into the Apple Store trainer. news. We heard about

the earthquake, and then waited for the wave.

No one was prepared, in any way, for a wave of this size.

I was completely unaware. What really impacted me were the first images and the actual

video of the tsunami coming into the coast of Sendai.

It was unbelievable in the sense of its mass, its obvious power.

People were making references to Hollywood movies and their special effects.

A wave that tremendous, that out of scale, was so far removed from what we had seen or heard in real life.

The power plants were not on my mind.

The first problem was: can we communicate?

Are the phones working, can people reply to emails?

It took a while to appreciate that other danger.

My grandfather in California was in touch, my wife finally got a very short text from her brother- everything was OK. [There was] panic, because [officials] didn’t think they could control it- a lot of “if,” still plenty of “if” though now we seem further away from a serious melt down.

Radiation is coming out but but the levels, beyond the plant, are not as dangerous as first

By Melanie Erspamer

stand why the plant was chosen to be stationed here and not in some less populated area of the country.

“It’s mostly geography,” the security guard said.

“There’s water, and then the demand was high.”

The company Entergy sponsors the Pilgrim Plant, which has the same General Electric reactor as the Fukushima plant in Japan.

In recent months, the company has proposed cutting down training funds, money supplied to the plant that is used to practice safety procedures and evacuation in case of an emergency.

One person who is worried is Becky Deming, who graduated from Newton South in

1987. When first deciding where to move with her husband, the nuclear plant made her unsure about living in Plymouth.

In the end, although she did move to Plymouth, she admits she is still apprehensive about the proximity of the plant.

Some, though, are not so concerned.

“I’m sure that there are people that worry, but not me … you can’t worry about things you can’t control,” the manager at Kiskadee Coffee Company in Plymouth said.

For an attendant at a Tourist Center near the station, the conflict over the safety of Pilgrim is indeed beneficial for the tourism business.

DENEBOLA sat down with Three-Mile Island survivor Sue Welchs

By Melanie Erspamer

Denebola: How is it you were in the area of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor?

Sue Welch: I lived in central Pennsylvania near Three Mile Island. I was teaching preschool. It was my first year out of college and that was my first job.

I was teaching preschoolers, and we were within ten miles of the plant.

Denebola: What did you know about nuclear reactors and nuclear power before the incident?

Sue Welch: Not very much. I knew that there was a plant in the area. I knew that there were cooling towers because I could see them, but beyond that I really didn’t know very much.

Denebola: Were you ever worried?

Sue Welch: Living around there? No. I had no concerns because I really didn’t know much about it. I assumed it was safe and went about my business, before the incident happened.

Denebola: What attitude did other, older teachers you worked with have before the incident?

Sue Welch: It was not something we really talked about so I don’t know that they had any concerns one way or the other.

The plant was there and I hadn’t encountered anybody in the time that I was there … who had any concerns.

Denebola: What happened the day of the incident? What did you do?

Sue Welch: The kids didn’t really know anything about what was going on; you know when you’re with little kids, you tend to not share scary information.

The morning of the incident, it was the second day [of the accident] so it was March 30, I think the initial incident happened on the 29, we were at work.

The adults were concerned because we had been hearing about it on the news the night before and were following things on the radio.

It’s similar to how things

have evolved in Japan; every couple hours you hear something different and not everything supports what you’ve heard before. Sometime that morning, maybe around ten or 11 o’clock, is when the governor asked for an evacuation or suggested people within ten miles, either pregnant woman or preschool children, to leave the area.

At that point we didn’t know what to do because we weren’t aware of any evacuation plans that we should follow.

It wasn’t like the people in the area as far as I knew were educated about what to do with their residence and how to plan, so we didn’t quite know what to do.

We got a directive from the main headquarters of the preschool that I was at, we were like a chain of preschools, that we should go this evacuation site that was a designated evacuation site for floods and other emergencies that we had had in the area over the years.

In retrospect we shouldn’t have left the building; we should have stayed inside, but we were thinking we had to get farther away from the plant, so we evacuated. It was like a big exposition center where they were setting up for a circus.

So the kids thought we were going on a field trip and they were entertained by watching people bring in animals and props for the show that was going to be happening there; however, [the adults] didn’t really know what to do.

Parents who had kids in the center got notification of where we were. There was certainly anxiety about what was going on but I don’t know that the kids were- as I recall they weren’t scared, they were more intrigued that there was a different routine to the day.

One of our staff members was pregnant. And so by about 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon I was the only one left in the center because I didn’t have any dependence of any kind and I stayed until the last kid was picked up.

Denebola: How old were you then?

Sue Welch: I was 21.

Denebola: Did anything prepare you for this?

Sue Welch: No. I think the closest thing that I would have had would have been … fire drills and things like that to prepare for an emergency kind of thing.

There had been floods in that area; pretty significant floods of different kinds, so we knew about packing up things and leaving because we had to leave our house. But as far as really being prepared, no.

Denebola: Were you told to evacuate the area?

Sue Welch: I think if you do any research about this you’ll see that the communication around this disaster was very jumbled and the public got different information from different sources.

I think that people at the plant and the government were trying to figure out what to do. You know, how bad was it there, and was there anything to be concerned about or not?

A search showed there was an incident: a hydrogen bubble developed inside the plant and they were concerned that it was going to explode. So they were inspecting things as the hours went by to figure out what to do and it was after Jimmy Carter came up from Washington DC with some of the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] people, and they looked at things at the plant and discussed it with the governor and that’s when the decision was made to evacuate the reactor.

It wasn’t a mandatory evacuation. It was just suggested that you should leave if you were concerned within 10 or 20 miles from the plant (I don’t remember exactly). So that was the first day and then Friday and Monday schools in the whole area were closed and a lot of people left the area.

But I think with any kind of emergency like this you always hear different things and until they really sort out what’s going on you won’t really have clear information, and it wasn’t for years after the plant disaster that they actually were able to go inside the reactor and see that things had taken damage as significantly as they had.

Denebola: When was it

“over”, did you go back to your job?

Sue Welch: I left work, it would have been a Thursday, and I was back at work I think the following Tuesday. Not all the kids’ families were back in the area yet but that’s when we reopened the center and I went back to my normal life.

I think one of the things that struck me as I was leaving the area to go back to where I went to college was that if things did go very badly I would not be able to go back to that area in my lifetime.

It wasn’t a matter of if it was a fire and I could rebuild, or if it was a flood and I could clean up and go back, but if it were a bad incident like Chernobyl, [I knew I couldn’t go back].

So I was driving away in my car and anything that was part of my life I [thought I] might not ever see again. You know, it’s not only possessions but where I went to school and everything, so that was pretty traumatic.

When I came back for good it was interesting to see what kind of things the kids did with the information that they may have heard at home because families could have had their televisions on, so there were all kinds of stories and some adventures.

A few kids drew pictures of cooling towers or nuclear plants because that’s what they were hearing about and what they had seen. The bubble had gone away, so that was no longer a concern, and the plant was shut down, so at that point it was a

matter of assessing what exactly had happened: how much radiation had been released and what they were going to need to do to clean up, but there were no more concerns that things were dangerous for people living in the area.

Denebola: Years have passed; you’ve had a chance to think about Three Mile Island. How do your feelings toward nuclear power now compare to your feelings before the incident?

Sue Welch: I guess I’d say I’m not really in favor of [it] because [it raises] too many questions about what to do with the waste and how to securely throw it out, and certainly the impacts that an accident would have on an area are so dramatic that it’s not something I’m really comfortable with. I wouldn’t want to live right near one, I mean we’re fairly near but not as I had before. I’m not in favor of [how much fossil fuel we use], but I’m not sure that nuclear is something I would prefer.

Denebola: How has your life changed now that you realize the gravity of the incident?

Sue Welch: One of the things that I have always made sure I do is that whatever school I’m working at I want to be on what’s called the Crisis Team, and each school has a Crisis Team to deal with any kind of incident that may happen and so I just want to know what plans there are for emergencies.

So that’s really important for me. Just really being aware of what kind of emergency in-

formation I could get hold of is something that reassures my mind.

Denebola: Hearing about the Japanese situation today must make you remember that melt down. What do you think about the nuclear power plants here in Massachusetts?

Sue Welch: The Japan incident has reminded me about how annoying traversing that kind of thing can be, especially if you’re living in the area and are very concerned.

I actually have a cousin who is in the service and has been serving and now he and his wife are coming back home to the states. I … just hope that people that live near [the Pilgrim Plant] know about an evacuation plan and that there are emergency procedures in place. I guess I feel that I’m thinking about my own sense of security.

Do I think it should be shut down tomorrow? No, but I certainly think the United States government should be concerned about their plants especially now that they’re aging, and that they should be making sure that the people who live near them are safe.

I have a colleague at my school who lives in Provincetown and she pointed out to me that where she lives is actually closer to Pilgrim than some of the people, you know, who are on the South Shore and that the people on the South Shore have iodine and other things to prepare them for an emergency but on the other coast they don’t and they’d be very stuck trying to evacuate from there.

PHOTO COURESTY OF INTERNET SOURCE

FAR FROM HOME

By Craig Fujita

Following a tsunami that swept Japan, reactors affected by the tsunami began to melt down.

imagined. [Officials] say they are within normal “background” levels of radiation at a distancesomething like the equivalent of a CT scan.

We talked about Chernobyl at Brookline High School. We all had awareness; we’re not that far away from Three Mile Island.

I learned about the importance of power but I did not learn about the direct effects … we knew about radiation- it’s pretty nasty stuff.

But in Japan, Tokyo if you’ve been there, you can see the lights, you can see the power being used.

Why haven’t we collaborated in finding better sources of energy?

It highlights the point that our priorities are mixed up, at least globally.

The problem in Japan wasn’t due to a war, it was a natural disaster combined with an insecure plant.

There’s considerable blame now, [because people feel] someone has to take responsibility.

There’s not enough responsible information.

Japanese people have

to get their accurate information about the energy crisis, comprised nuclear power stations, data about the reactors, emergency cooling, the dumping of radioactive gasses or water.

Important, long-term issues, have not been discussed.

Young people in Japan? Scared.

Many now realize all this could happen again.

Not the natural disaster, but nuclear power, how dangerous it can be and how crucial [it is that] all the complicated elements be monitored much more carefully and made more public.

It brings an instability people didn’t realize before.

Perhaps not so much instability as a sense that someone was watching over, taking care as much as possible.

We are all trying to get over the little fears … that the air, the food we eat and water we drink could kill us, if not now, in the future.

All said if I could go back to Japan, I would go again this year.

“I don’t give it a second thought,” she said. “At least they’re paying [Plymouth] more attention.”

In fact, the uproar over the safety of the plant has caused people to pay it significantly more consideration, so much so that the plant security has

been increased.

In Boston, while there is some unease, it is minimal.

Most believe that Boston is too far away for harm. The manager of Kiskadee does not.

“If we’re worried, you should be too,” he said.

RUNNING OUT OF TIME TOO SOON Down a long, winding road, a bleak building squats on the edge of the ocean.

A tall fence prevents anyone who does not have previously granted access to enter. Security guards patrol the area, armed with guns.

They are guarding the Pilgrim Nuclear Plant in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

A 38 mile trip from Boston, this plant uses an isotope of uranium to supply the heat that transforms water to steam, in turn revolving a turbine that spins a generator, eventually causing the generator to work.

This method, unlike the

one used by plants with fossil fuels, has the advantage of creating less pollution and thus damaging to the environment less. But it has one very big disadvantage: it creates radiation.

This factor is of great worry to some, especially following the turmoil in Japan, and many will be glad when the plant’s operating license expires in 2012.

The energy produced there is not used locally, according to a security guard at the plant. Instead, it is sold to National Grid, which distributes it to places like New York. Many do not under-

Timeline of Nuclear Energy 1911

1919

Ernest Rutherford discovers the nucleus of the atom.

Rutherford creates the first artificial nuclear reaction.

PHOTO FROM INTERNET SOURCES

Memorial-Spaulding educator Sue Welch lived within a short distance of Three Mile Island.

1942

1946

Manhattan First demonstration Project against nuclear creates the atomic testing in Times bomb, which Square, New transformed York. nuclear power into a weapon.

PHOTO BY DENEBOLA STAFF

Pilgrim Power Plant in Plymouth could close in less than a year.

1951

1955

1979

1986

2011

In Idaho, first instance of nuclear power used as electricity occurred when four light bulbs were lit.

Arco, Idaho, became the first town to be run fully on nuclear power.

The incident at Three-Mile Island in Middletown, Pennsylvania, was the most serious nuclear disaster in US history.

The nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, was destroyed and resulted in one of the most lethal meltdowns in world history.

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan begins to melt down following a tsunami.

Arts and Entertainment 15 April 2011

Denebola

Arts and Entertainment A6

Prometheus Bound holds South’s student audience captive

By Sarah Wanger Prometheus Bound is a rock musical based off the Greek tragedy written by Aeschylus carrying the same name.

The plot follows the story of Prometheus, the Titan condemned to torture after he disobeys Zeus and gives humans fire.

Many gods come to see him, to tell him of his fate and his eternity, but Prometheus stands strong and takes the pain, knowing that his suffering will end when the time is right.

The Oberon, the theater producing the show, is owned by the American Repertory Theater, and when you enter the theater, it is known right off that this is not a typical play.

There are no seats (unless you want to spend an extra $20-$30), and no defined stage.

The actors, in full costume, walk into the room from backstage and converse with the crowd. As the crowd hums “Break a leg!” and “Enjoy the show!” the lights fade as silence sweeps over the crowd.

The lights open up on the actors, now in a line in front of the band.

A call from the lead actor, the actors spin into view, revealing that they are blindfolded. With nooses tied around their necks and drums puncturing the silent crowd, the show begins.

Many people have asked me why I have spent so much money to see this show multiple times.

Honestly, it’s the energy that the

By Sophie Scharlin-Pettee “I love to dance. It allows me to paint a picture through movement for all watching to see.”

Senior Jeffrey Alkins has been dancing his whole life.“I was always a dancer at social gatherings...but it wasn’t until I joined my first art studio and professional youth company at twelve that my dance career was

actors bring to the stage, this electric pulse that is felt by every pore in my body.

The set is atypical, as “groupies” gently, but firmly push you out of the way of the moving platforms and ladders, constantly spinning to follow the action. There is never a dull moment: wherever you look, actors are completely immersed in the world of Prometheus Bound.

The title role of Prometheus is played by none other than a two time-Tony nominated Best Actor, Gavin Creel.

The tortured, strong-willed Prometheus is already a tough part to pull off, especially while switching from ballads to rock tunes in five minutes. And on top of that, when I spoke to him at the end of the show, he said he wasn’t feeling well.

Personally, I don’t think many could have sounded as good as him when they were fully healthy, let alone with a cough and a cold.

Lo, a women who sparks Zeus’ lust by her beauty, is played by Uzo Aduba.

She has the first solo of the night, and her passion and grace set the mood for the rest of the show.

Her pain and suffering at the hands of Zeus is almost palpable, especially as she recounts the tale of being chased out of her home to please the gods, and sleeping with the most powerful god of all.

Force, played by Lea Delaria, is a demi-god, who assists in Zeus’ torture of Prometheus. Zeus does not appear in this play, so Force takes the reins as

the person to carry out Zeus’ dreadful orders. Her voice is a powerhouse of awesome force, making her character’s name an appropriate one, and her evil laugh sends chills.

Michael Cunio plays the role of Oceanos, another Titan, but one who does not disobey Zeus. He tries to get Prometheus to stop speaking out against Zeus in return for his freedom, but to no avail.

Cunio’s rock-star voice leads one to believe he belongs singing his heart out in a rock band, which is exactly what he does when he’s not performing in theater. His band, Reckless Place, has an album out on iTunes.

The funniest character in the show, judging by the audience’s reaction, is the role of Hermes, played by Gabe Ebert.

His Hermes is exactly like Hermes should be: a young god trying to gloat over his power, when in fact, he is just too young to understand anyone other than those above him.

He plays up the jokes at appropriate times, and brings intensified energy to the potentially boring ending - after all, an audience that’s been standing for an hour and a half is looking for excitement.

An unconventional fact about Prometheus Bound is that it is partnered with Amnesty International, an organization that gives voice to

people who cannot give voices to themselves, and tries to help unjust imprisonment and death penalties.

Each week, the cast dedicates their show to a different person who had been “bound” for speaking out.

Directly after the show, walks into the audience to pass out postcards urging audience members to sign them and put them in a box for Amnesty International to send to the government in question.

There could be no better show to work towards such a goal as freeing those bound than this one.

By 11:30pm on Saturday, April 2nd, I will have seen this show four times. Every cent spent was worth it. Rumors are spreading about the show going to New York, and I could not be more thrilled.

Never before, have I seen a show where you are so emerged in the action, and where actors feed off of the audience.

I cannot wait to see this cast up on the Tony stage singing with all of the heart and soul they have on stage every other night that I have seen them. I hope the Tony; they deserve it.

PHOTO FROM INTERNET SOURCE

Starting with this issue, the Denebola staffers will be interviewing a random South student about the first five songs that come up on their iPod shuffle.

Our first participant is sophomore Alex Conrad.

Anything you hope doesn’t make an appearance?

“I have the Arthur soundtrack, I hope that doesn’t come up.”

“The Crusher” by the Ramones, from the album Loud, Fast.

“I like it, I like the Ramones. In eighth grade, my band covered the song ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ and I screwed up the lyrics.”

“Ain’t Talkin ‘Bout Love” by Van Halen, from the album The Best of Both Worlds.

“I love Van Halen, good band, nice classic rock.”

“Bang the Doldrums” by Fall Out Boy, from the album Infinity on High.

“I bought this whole album on iTunes when I only wanted one song, I was twelve, granted. Honestly, it was because it was cheaper that way.”

“Your Mother Should Know” by the Beatles, from the album Magical Mystery Tour.

“I love this song, it’s the best song off of this album. It’s funny, because my mom is always funny, and so it reminds me of her.”

“Thriller” by Michael Jackson, from the album The Essential Michael Jackson.

“This is the best song ever written by Michael Jackson. One time in my Jazz class, this song came up and all of us stopped what we were doing and started doing the ‘Thriller’ dance.”

Anything good we missed?

“I have like three hundred Beatles songs, so I wished more Beatles could have come up.”

PHOTO BY ALEY LEWIS

PHOTOS FROM INTERNET SOURCE

to the world.”

He finds that dancers must “grow and reach deep inside themselves to produce something raw, beautiful, and so real.”

For Alkins, dance is a way of opening up to other people and sharing an experience, as “by watching, the viewer is joining me in the journey.”

Along with dancing, Alkins has a newly-discovered love of the performing arts: he was recently cast as one of the male leads in Hairspray, Seaweed.

Alkins relished the part, saying “I love to act and perform.” While also enjoying theater and acting, Alkins takes two chorus classes at South, the first being Madrigals, the juniorsenior choir, and the aforementioned Harambee.

Recently, he performed in Tertulia, Newton South’s student talent show.

Simultaneously as a dancer and performer, Alkins is being recruited by colleges for football and track, as he is an enthusiastic participant of both Newton South teams. He also loves to swim, this being his favorite sport.

Though he works hard and is a vital member of both his dance troupes and sports teams, he has never felt the pressure to choose between one or the other.

In fact, his passion transcends both climates, saying “the feeling of being

on stage is only matched by that of the field or whatever the competitive athletic venue may be.”

As for the future, Alkins has many dreams and is keeping his options open.

“As of now I am still undecided as to where I’ll be spending the next four years.

However, regardless of where I go I know dance will always be a part of my future.”

“Whether I have to join my school’s company/group, minor in dance, or double major with dance as one of them...I will continue to expand as a dancer. It has become an important part of my identity.”

When considering his life beyond college, Alkins has no single idea he has chosen to pursue.

“I really have a soft spot for policy change and social activism.

So don’t be surprised if you hear my name in politics someday.

Or I could just go into sports medicine and massage/physical therapy. Then again, I do love to write.”

For Alkins, “The world is my oyster. Why limit myself, you know? I want to learn as much as possible, see as much as possible, and do as much as possible.

“I have big plans.”

Art Focus: Jeffrey Alkins

truly born.”

Alkins has been a part of the Origination Cultural Arts Center ever since, and it is where he has received his technical training.

He has also danced in numerous productions of the professional youth company, Nia Dance Company, where he is currently a senior troupe member.

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY JEFFREY ALKINS

The Nia Dance Company is presently planning on defending their title at the Prelude New England Urban Dance Competition on April 9th.

Alkins takes as many as twelve to fourteen hours of dance classes a week, ranging regularly from Hip Hop to African to Ballet.

As well as taking many dance classes, he is a star student, taking two AP’s and one honors course, while also being an active member of Harambee, Newton South’s gospel choir.

Within his dance companies and troupes, Alkins performs locally and throughout the country while also touring internationally.

The summer does not take away from his impressive focus; Alkins has once performed five shows in a three day period.

He also tours colleges and universities during the summer, performing at places like Yale and UConn.

“This summer I plan on taking several Master Classes with guest professional choreographers. I’m also planning a trip to California for two weeks to take as many open classes at different studios as possible.

New choreographers are a great way to grow as a dancer and artist.”

Alkins sees his dance as also spiritual, as “(he) thinks art is beautiful, and anyone who does a successful job of displaying his or her artwork adds

Denebola

15 April 2011

Arts and Entertainment A7

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark­­­—a tangled web

By Sophie Scharlin-Pettee The legend of Spider-Man has dazzled the minds of people of all ages since the idea was first imagined in 1962, by Marvel writers Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Spider-Man was created in the age when teenage characters were almost always sidekicks, and Spider-Man broke the norm by featuring Peter Parker.

Peter Parker is a high school student with typical worries such as rejection, inadequacy, and loneliness, allowing him to be a relatable character to young readers everywhere.

Evan Kelly, Newton South’s Tech Director and self-proclaimed comic book geek, believes “that what has made Spider-Man a lasting character is his human foibles.”

Since then, the legend of SpiderMan has enraptured audiences of all ages with numerous films starring acclaimed actors such as Tobey Maguire, and has consequently developed into a comic empire.

Recently, Spiderman has caught the attention of not only high-caliber film producers, but ambitious Broadway executives SpiderMan: Turn Off the Dark was originally the newest production of director Julie Taymor, who has produced international successes such as The Lion King and directed the hit Beatles-centric film Across the Universe.

The music was composed by U2’s Bono and the band The Edge, with it’s script written by director Julie Taymor and Glen Berger.

Taymor’s most recent musical about the web-swinging, spandexwearing hero has already cost her sixty-five million dollars, especially with the demands of a 1,928seat Foxwoods theatre on 42nd street, tailored to fit the many specific challenges the show has presents.

“She’s a brilliant director and has done wonderful work with challenging material,” Kelly said.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is only one example of how commenplace heroes and comics have become in our society.

With recent Box-office hits like Superman, X-Men, and The Dark Knight, America is embracing the once-nerdy heroes of society’s previously voiceless individuals.

Comic books, once scoffed at for their demographic, are now regarded affectionately.

People have certainly been flocking to see the spectacle, with a re-

cord-breaking statistic of more than one hundred preview performances for Taymor’s creation.

As opposed to norm for most shows, the preview performances have not been out of a desire for building anticipation, but out of necessity.

The musical adaptation of Spider-

Man involves actors web-swinging over the audience, cables and wires being the only life-line the actors have.

With at least four actors injured, the show has already become infamous for its breathtaking but dangerous stunts.

“I have heard it is a technical disaster. They are trying to create a circus-like environment in a traditional set up.

There are a lot of flying effects and if they were constrained to the stage area they’d be much more manageable,” said Kelly.

The original Arachne (SpiderMan’s spider nemesis), Natalie Mendoza, has already quit due to concussion and been recast with 29year-old T.V. Carpio.

Actor Christopher Tierney fell almost thirty feet into the pit orchestra, resulting in a fractured skull, a broken scapula, a broken elbow, four broken ribs, a bruised lung, and three fractured vertebrae.

A stunt man even fell during a rehearsal and was impaled on the Empire State Buiding’s spire.

T h e only leading-role cast member that remains from the original casting is Reeve photo from internet source C a r n e y, the actor portraying Spider-Man. “Whenever anyone gets hurt it is a warning sign to stop,” said Kelly.

The show’s opening night has already been delayed numerous times, and is currently set for Tuesday, June 14th, 2011. It’s original air date was Tuesday, December 21st,

2010.

Many people have found the show to be aesthetically dazzling but otherwise lacking in its dialogue and music, gaining negative reviews from sources such as The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.

It has been quoted by Ben Brantley of The New York Times as being “not only the most expensive musical to ever hit Broadway; it may also rank among the worst.”

Kelly feels that “the production is focusing more on the spectacular notion of comic books, not the telling of an engaging story.”

Jeff Knoedler, Newton South’s Arts Department head, had heard of the disaster-prone show, saying, “I also think that the notoriety of the musical has taken on a life of its own, and people seem to be attacking it without really knowing much about it.”

Within the past month, Julie Taymor was actually fired as the director for “commitment conflicts,” which has only added to the fervor and infamy of the web-swinging musical.

“All this is really surprising to me because of the artists leading the project. Julie Taymor is one of the most exciting theater artists working today. Bono and the Edge are excellent musicians.

I was excited to hear they were teaming up to create a musical and am shocked that it seems to have turned out so badly,” said Knoedler.

Kelly said, “The problem with the show is the spectacle came before the story.”

Despite its dangerous stunts and not-quite-heralded quality, ticket sales continue to rise, grossing more than 1.3 million dollars in a single February week.

It seems that in spite of the negative attention and unenthusiastic press, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is persevering and will be the first and likely last Broadway musical to ever feature actors waging fierce battles in tights and masks over the audience.

Says Knoedler, “I’d like to see it for myself.”

The King of Limbs, but nobody’s dancing

By Hattie Gawande Radiohead is the band that every teenage alternative and/or indie rock fan theoretically adores.

Specializing in electronic, guitardriven songs, raw, wailing vocals and abstract lyrics, they are the definition of alternative.

Unfortunately, what nobody really wants to admit is that no one can take them in anything but small doses.

After a certain point, the lead singer, Thom Yorke, who may be considered a genius lyricist, is just profoundly creepy.

Take “Climbing up the Walls”, a song off of their platinum selling record Ok Computer, in which Yorke howls “Fifteen blows to the back of your head/ Fifteen blows to your mind/ So lock up the kids safe tonight.”

And this was before his bout of depression.

graphic by victor qin

Furthermore, after about twenty minutes, Yorke’s excessively wailing goes from expressive and haunting to so much inarticulate wailing.

By the fourth or fifth song, all the tortured moaning sounds the same.

Radiohead is also one of those bands that prefers experimentation over melody.

Most songs do have some semblance of a tune, but it consists of Yorke’s howling rather than distinct chord progressions.

It’s certainly not the sort of thing that you can sing along to.

However, Radiohead has surprised us before. From time to time they put out an record that keeps being interesting.

Their incredible second album, The Bends, a revolutionary piece of music (it’s considered to have opened the door for such contemporary English bands and musicians as Coldplay, Keane, and James Blunt), was one such record.

Their wonderful seventh album, In Rainbows, released in 2007, was another. Unfortunately, their latest, The Kin of Limbs, is not.

The eight songs on the 37-minute album are mostly typical Radiohead fare--the usual pulsing keyboards weave in and out of repetitive guitars and bass, all underpinned by delicate yet hyperactive drums.

Too man y e l e c -

tronic riffs compete with Thom Yorke’s characteristic falsetto, giving the songs a crowded feel. At the same time, however, the album feels unfinished.

Of course, none of the songs are danceable or singable, but this is normal for Radiohead.

W h a t ’s s t r a n g e is the lack of any melody at all, just repeated electronic n o i s e a n d a bass.

Take Radiohead’s first track of the album, “Bloom,” which begins with a very pretty piano riff. This lasts no longer than eight seconds before high-pitched beeps are added, the piano cutting out only to be replaced by pulsing electronic noise.

Another six seconds go by and a stilted, clattering drum beat is layered on top. Forty-five seconds pass before the bass is added, and so on.

Yorke begins singing over the chaos after about a minute, only adding to the clutter.

Listening to the song stresses me out--every time I hear something I like it fades away, and then a minute later it reappears only to cut out again.

The tracks following “Bloom” follow essentially the same pattern.

I don’t mean to entirely pan The King of Limbs, though. In “Lotus Flower,” the sheer craziness seemed to add to the song rather than take away from it.

The vocals are much more interesting, and there’s a little more balance between Yorke’s insane voice and the background noise.

“Lotus Flower’s” strangely enthralling and immensely enjoy-

photo from internet source

able mus i c v i deo, featuring an insanely dancing Yorke gyrating convulsively to the beat, may have slightly skewed my perception of the song, however: I had no idea anybody could contort their body that way.

There was one other song that was genuinely likeable. “Codex” is a piano-fueled ballad that is powerful in it’s simplicity.

Yorke’s voice and haunting lyrics are the main attraction here, paired with the piano and light strings with a simple trumpet part. “Jump off the end/ The water’s clear/ And innocent,” Yorke warbles.

It’s the most minimalist song on the album, and it’s quite also the best.

I find that the Radiohead songs I actually tend to enjoy are the ones where words and phrases are actually discernable.

But The King of Limbs is not unenjoyable, it’s just not what fans were hoping for after Radiohead’s previous album, the masterpiece In Rainbows, the culmination of over two years of work.

With every record, Radiohead improved and expanded their experimental sound, but this eighth attempt seems to be a regression.

It’s unexciting and, after all the hype, disappointing.

The Fashion Files

by Helen Holmes Rarely within the confines of the shiny, commercial, and deceptively safe bubble that surrounds the fashion industry does any sort of real controversy present itself.

Sure, you can compare two identically clad, rail-thin starlets and squabble over who wore it better, but such arguments aren’t exactly 60 Minutes material, and also generally make me want to die a swift and painful death.

As a result, whenever there’s any sort of real confrontation sharp enough to puncture that superficial bubble, heaven knows I’m going to pounce on it like the last warm M&M cookie at Panera.

As evidenced by the wildly different outfits that flounce down the runway every season year in and year out, inspiration can come from anywhere, and can mean something completely original to every creative mind committed to designing clothes.

Unfortunately, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the women behind Rodarte, were unable to comprehend that some ideas are best left on the cutting board.

In 2009, the sisters embarked on a “road trip” from El Paso to Marfa, searching for something to spark ideas for their next collection.

Though they were probably anticipating nothing more than cute desert critters and some scenic tumbleweed, what they found was Ciudad Juarez.

For those unaware, Juarez is a Mexican border city located across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.

It is also the location of more than 400 female homicides since 1993, and that’s only the police force’s guess - the locals estimate that the carnage includes over 5,000 deaths of women mostly between the ages of 12 and 22.

Women aren’t the exclusive victims: what CNN calls “the most dangerous city in Mexico” racked up another 39 murders between this past Friday and Monday, mostly as a result of drug trafficking.

While any sane person would perceive this horrific community as a tragic hellhole for men and women alike, all Kate and Laura could see was dollar signs. In late 2010, Rodarte launched a collaboration collection with makeup giant MAC, and there can be no mistaking the source of their inspiration.

A deathly pale lip product is entitled “Ghost Town.” Eye shadows tinged with bloody splashes of red boast names such as “Bordertown” and “Sleepwalker.”

There’s even a jar of a product called “Lip Erase,” whose purpose is presumably to make the wearer appear as pale and emaciated as possible.

Promotional photos of the makeup show a bone-thin woman with eyes ringed by bruise-like eye shadow, staring bleakly into the camera. She looked dead, which was clearly the intention.

Needless to say, I was furious. In absolutely no context is it ever acceptable to market a death-themed product if the product is inspired by a place where death is all too real.

Not only this, but Rodarte and MAC had chosen to romanticize and commercialize the exploitation and murder of women, which to me bypasses offensive and closes in on disgusting.

Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one angered by the lack of propriety and blatantly ignorant nature of this collection.

Bloggers took to the Internet with a vengeance, forcing the partners to set up a fund to raise money for the women of Juarez to pacify the critics. This small positive measure, however, proved to be too late.

After several more subsequent promises from the embarrassed partners, the collection was canceled altogether.

What is important to take away from the carelessness of the Rodarte-MAC collaboration is that fashion, if left unchecked, can easily be both ignorant and downright stupid.

That is not to say that intelligent people cannot appreciate the aesthetic appeal of fashion.

However, stupidity is the existence of Lauren Conrad’s abysmal debut collection, and the reason why Mondo Guerra didn’t win season eight of Project Runway.

Ignorance is everywhere - in politics, in classrooms, and in industry.

Ultimately, fashion is as much a product of individual integrity and opinion as it is a result of factories and magazines.

Whether or not you choose to spend money on a product based on the demeaning and degradation of women, is up to you.

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Denebola

15 April 2011

Denebola

Sports 15 April 2011

Sports B1

ZACH PAWA

Pawaful

PHOTO BY RAY FLINT

Springy for Spring

The spring season has arrived. For some, sports become another item to add to their already full plate of schoolwork, extracurricular, SAT tutoring, and some form of instrumental practice. For others, they become a sense of organization and relief.

I, for one, know that that when I am in season, my work ethic is entirely different. I go to Lacrosse or Soccer practice until around five, and then home to meditate.

When home, I know I do not have time to play NHL 11 for an hour or so, and then go shoot hoops with my neighbors.

I have to work efficiently with little procrastination or else the night will slowly turn to morning, and the chemistry homework sitting atop my desk will miraculously still be blank.

During winter, my offseason is an entirely different story.

I usually go to the gym to train, but when I get home it is still only four in the afternoon. What to do? Quandry.

I want to get my homework done, but I know I have nothing else to do, so what is originally a 30-minute assignment can turn into an hour-plus extravaganza.

Along with the new sense of urgency, the spring season also means spring weather.

Finally, after a winter that lasted an eternity, the snow has melted and the sun is out, allowing me to flaunt my guns for all to see.

The weather has turned and instead of sitting indoors watching Jersey Shore, we can spend some time outdoors.

With the beginning of the third, and final, sports season of the year, another thought is in the back of everyone’s mind (besides the Lacrosse team going to the State tournament this year).

Summer is just around the corner with only about two and one-half months left of school, we are in the final stretch.

So what makes the spring season so enjoyable? I have searched long and hard for an answer to this question, and after years of searching, I found the answer in a small hut located 23 miles southwest of Kyoto, Japan.

The spring season allows you to be outside in the warm weather and get that fresh air that we all crave. It’s trees budding, birds flying. The winter season consists mainly of indoor sports, and by the time you leave school, it is already dark.

The fall season has to compete with kids organizing their schedules to ensure they can achieve an above C average along with the idea that an entire school year is looming ahead.

So Spring is something entirely other, let’s embrace it, practice hard, play hard, go home do homework (unless you are a senior, so chill, bro), and if you are lucky, you can have an extra hour of daylight to spare.

Enjoy spring while it lasts because soon enough it will be mid July and 90 degrees outside, and you will be looking back on the days when you could sit down without breaking a sweat.

So enjoy the last season of the school year, and come support the Boys’ Lacrosse team.

Athletes’ injuries possibly preventable

By Joshua Carney Injuries of all kinds have affected student athletes at South throughout this academic year.

Athletes who are becoming focused primarily on a single sport are becoming injury prone. These athletes stress the same muscles daily without exercising their other muscles, which results in those muscles being overworked.

Due to this, student-athletes suffer repetitive stress injuries with an above-average frequency.

“When kids focus soley on one thing, they become injury prone,” Athletic Director Scott Perrin said. When looking at specific sports and the repetitive injuries that result, it is difficult for one to tell which sport has the most students with repetitive injuries,.

However, according to Perrin, worst is Girls’ Soccer. “Girls’ Soccer has had issues with knee injuries over the years,” he said.

When athletes play sports that require extreme stress of a specific bone or muscle, the consequences can be severe. “Knee tears are perfect examples of this,” Perrin said.

With soccer stressing legs and knees, it is clear that repetitive stress is the reason as to why many athletes have, and currently are, struggling with the health of their knees.

The main cause of many of these injuries is that athletes are stressing their bodies by over-excising certain muscles, while leaving others weak and injury prone. “Yes it’s all about repetitive stress on a kid’s body. You wear out the same parts of your body over and over again without building up other parts,” Perrin said.

When being able to operate from a healthy position, it is easier to have a better performance throughout the competition or training session.

One idea that would decrease how injury prone certain areas of a studentathlete’s body is having the athlete play additional sports or train in order to exercise muscles that lack strength.

This would allow muscles that have not been excessively exercised the opportunity to build, while still maintaining the strength of muscles that are stressed through other sports.

Knee injuries are some of the most frequent among South students.

“We promote and advocate for kids to play different sports, but if the student only plays one, we support that student as we would any other in our department,” Perrin said.

The idea of playing multiple sports that stress different muscles and bones throughout the body is positive for an athlete’s performance. Eventually the athlete’s endurance will build, thus increasing the athletic ability for the athlete’s primary sport.

The Athletic department encourages students to play several other sports for additional reasons, other then to prevent injuries.

PHOTO BY DENEBOLA STAFF

When exploring different sports to play based on the athlete’s preference, he or she might want to be able to play a sport that increases their athleticism and skill in their primary sport. For example, a Basketball player that would like to increase his or her endurance and vertical jump may want to play Volleyball.

In order to prevent repetitive stress injuries an athlete should play other sports to exercise muscles that are not used as frequently as others. By exercising muscles that are not used as frequently, an athlete may make him or herself less injury prone.

Jumpers support themselves

By Dan Kats Most successful teams have one thing in common: a strong fanbase.

South’s track team, however, finds success on the field without much support from the bleachers.

Junior high jumper Nicole Kestenberg, who ranked third in the State Invitational tournament last season, is not affected by the team’s lack of South student support.

“The Track team is actually really supportive – it’s enough [for me],” Kestenberg said.

She is not disappointed that fans are not showing up, but does think it would be nice if the sport got more publicity. “Some sports, events, and people need more fans and support from students, but I personally don’t feel that [it is] necessary for high jump,” Kestenberg said. “I guess I wish more people knew what [high jumping] was.”

Kestenberg expects the team to do well this season because the team, which was successful last season, graduated two seniors yet still has six returning jumpers.

“A lot has changed since last year for the entire team – we have a new coach so it’s really hard to say [how good we’ll be],” she said. “We do pretty well.”

Experience in high jumping is crucial to a winning team. According to Kestenberg, the high jumpers practice longer than most of the Track and Field events, and they spend most of the time bonding and perfecting their technique.

One of the encouraging aspects of the team is the support the jumpers give to each other. “During indoor, all the girls of every team were really supportive to one another. We’d all clap after individual jumps even if they missed,” Kestenberg said. This support has helped the team prosper even though it does not have a lot of fans from the student body.

Ageless Athletes: Matthew Anderson

By Nathan Baskin When he was 15 years old, he could dunk: on a full-size basketball hoop When he was at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst he played under legendary National Collegiate Athletic Association coach John Calipari.

And and when was a graduate student there he also helped coach an National Basketball Association NBA defensive player of the year, Marcus Camby.

Matthew Anderson, a math teacher at South, grew up in Brewster, New York. At Brewster High School, Anderson played basketball and soccer and ran track.

But his real gift was basketball.

When he was six years old, he first picked up the game of basketball and at 15 years old, he was 6 feet 8 inches.

He was a standout high school player and a top recruit during his high school career. Anderson’s grades off the court made him an interest to such elite Ivy League schools as Harvard and Cornell universities.

His final decision was to come play for John Calipari, who was the Head Coach of the UMass Minutemen at the time. Anderson said that for him, the hardest transition was “switching from being a Yankees fan to a Red Sox fan.”

Anderson had a extraordinary career in high school, averaging a double double per game, and even recording a rare basketball achievement and a quadruple double which consisted 12 points, 15 rebounds, ten assists and 12 blocks.

Anderson received his high school diploma in 1987 and came to UMass early for the season. “Calipari was a great coach, and always stressed perfection,” Anderson said.

Anderson and the Minutemen had to run a drill called “perfection”

during practice, which consisted of simple pick and rolls, and give-and -goes.

If it was not executed perfectly the players would need to start over.

Calipari was a young coach, but a strict coach too, who had no tolerance for people who were late.

“Calipari’s policy was if you were a minute late for practice, you had to come in the next morning at 4 AM and start running,” Anderson said.

At UMass, Anderson was not the only tall player; the team had many.

Anderson realized he was not the best player, but was a key member of the bench and contributed on the boards and with blocks.

Anderson also did not mind not starting, being part of the team meant

PHOTO BY RAY FLINT

a lot. UMass got better every year, and with players like Anderson, reached the tournament level, losing in the Sweet 16 to Kentucky during the 1992 tournament.

“The hardest thing to manage was the school work you missed when you were on the road,” Anderson said.

To cope with this, he tried to take more classes over the summer before the basketball season began.

The team provided many tutors when they were away and according to Anderson, “Calipari was very serious when it came to academics.”

After realizing the NBA was not for him, Anderson left UMass after graduating and began working different jobs.

He was a salesman and a Trans-

portation Security Authority airport security officer, which Anderson says “was fun,” but what he finally realized after a time was that he wanted was to return to college studies.

He wanted to go to graduate school, and also asked Calipari if he had a job for him at UMass.

He did, and Anderson was given a tutoring job as a graduate student. He would help the players with schoolwork on the road, and would mentor them on the court.

It was on this job that Anderson met Marcus Camby, who he described as a “7-foot monster that could run like a deer.”

Camby was the best player that Calipari had coached at UMass and made everyone feel his presence when he was on the court.

By the end of the 1996 season, everyone knew who Camby was; he was the train that led the Minutemen surge throughout the tournament.

“The most amazing thing about Camby was that he never got into trouble off the court, and he always got good grades.”

Anderson said he was not one of the kids you had to tell to do well in school; he did it himself without prompting. Anderson said his greatest achievement was getting the Minutemen to the NIT final Four.

He said it was the greatest achievement ever. Anderson stopped playing basketball after a freak accident, when he fell off a roof while fixing it.

He stopped playing the sport because of the injury, but he has now been helping his two-year-old learn the craft of the game.

He is the coach of the Freshmen Basketball team and says that there are many people with talent on the team.

Anderson is a great teacher at South, and one of the elite athletes that South has on its staff.

Denebola

Sports B2

15 April 2011

Shot put hopeful for season

By Nathan Baskin Seniors Brandon Caldwell and Alex Karys have been throwing shot put since last year and have enjoyed playing the sport.

The sport was introduced in the original Olympic games in Athens, Greece, and is a growing sport. The shot is 12 pounds but Karys does not discourage anyone from participating in the event, due to fear of injury.

Karys expects to attend Furman University in South Carolina, and wants to throw shot put during his college years.

The main objective of the sport is simply to “throw” a lead ball farther than the other competitors. Each athlete has to throw the ball from a circle called the pit; crossing the pit results in a foul, which causes the athlete to lose his or her turn for the round. The shot putters have three turns to throw the shot put and the best score is kept, while the two worst are ignored.

The average of Caldwell and Karys’s throws is approximately 40 feet. To train for shot put, Karys uses a very rigorous workout schedule.

He also plays football for South and participates in high jump. According to Karys, shot put involves a lot of muscle, but also involves a lot of footwork and thought. He believes footwork is one of the most important qualities of premier shot putters.

Caldwell and Karys are the oldest members of the team, but are also joined by six underclassmen consisting of both boys and girls.

Shot putters at South have not had much support at their events. Not enough fans show up, but Karys enjoys the sport regardless, hoping that in the future shot will have a bigger fanbase then it has now.

As the season gets under way, Karys has high expectations for the team and hopes they can make it to the State tournament.

Running shoes crucial for athletes

By Joshua Carney An Olympic runner fitting running shoes sounds unrealistic. Yet Mike Roche is the owner of Boston Running Company in Newton Centre, and has been designing shoes for 25 years. He is a former Olympic runner as well.

Running is a crucial aspect of many sports, so a running shoe is the basis of performance when it comes to training.

Shoes are crucial for student-athletes, it matters to invest in a durable pair of running shoes.

This fairly new local business is the “only store in the Boston area that does a video gate analysis” according to Roche.

This procedure is when a video camera captures the motion in which your feet travel, and when talking to a professional they are able to identify the weaknesses in your feet.

The runner is then able to get a feel as to the shoe that should be selecting according to one’s arch and other aspects of their foot mechanics.

Through this relatively simple procedure the employees at Boston Running Company are able to explain and then provide any customer with a comfortable shoe that fits his or her foot’s specific needs.

When selecting a running shoe it is critical to identify aspects of a runner’s mechanics that must be tended to.

“Some people don’t understand that most of the running company’s make a spectrum of shoes. They make shoes for people with high arches to people with flat feet. If they randomly select a shoe they have less than about a 20 percent chance of that shoe working for them,” Roche said.

It is important to buy a running shoe that works for you since there are many consequences to having poor running shoes.

For example, shin splints, knee pain, and other running related injuries. A personalized foot analysis is necessary in order to become less injury prone.

Some people may believe that he or

she wears an everyday shoe that is no different from a shoe built specifically for running.

This belief is untrue do to the complexity of this specific category of shoes.

“The running shoe category is the only shoe category that provides very specific structure below the foot that helps either guide the foot more truly or to provide a lot of support.

“Running shoes are probably three times the complexity of the next category of shoes; what I mean by that is that they have a lot of components. It’s a very dynamic category,” Roche said.

When comparing shoe categories, there are many different aspects to consider in order to determine the complexity, for example, of just how many components are in the shoe.

“If you took apart a basketball or a tennis shoe there are literally three materials that make up the shoe. In some of the more complex running

photo from internet source

shoes there are at least ten or twelve molded pieces that all come together to form the shoe,” Roche said.

One might wonder; what does the durability of these complex running shoes do for the customer?

“If you’re fitted properly, you are getting a shoe that fits with your mechanics. Then another thing that the shoes give you is durability, the shoe is going to last longer than a $40 running shoe.

“Those shoes compress very quickly which means that you are not absorbing shock as quickly,” Roche said.

When determining which shoe to select in our current athletic environment everyone must take into account the different aspects of his or her feet’s mechanics in order to make the best choice.

The Boston Running Company in Newton Centre is there to help runners find the right choice for their feet by analyzing one’s specific running mechanics.

Features Denebola

15 April 2011

Features B3

A growing flair for facial hair beyond compare in South

By Courtney Foster What do Abe Lincoln, Santa Claus, and Conan O’Brien all have in common? Check their faces.

Now more than ever, the latest hot fashion is: the styling of facial hair.

We see celebrities and teachers alike sporting carefully and diligently shaped beards. Although the stars may have their beards masterminded by expensive stylists, the unshaven educators in Newton simply have a different opinion: the beard selects the man, not the other way around.

“I can’t say that I ‘chose’ it,” Physics teacher Alexander Kraus said.

“I wanted facial hair, but not a full beard.”

Others, such as Fine Arts Coordinator Jeff Knoedler go as far as to personify their beards.

“I didn’t really choose my beard style,” Knoedler said. “It chose me.”

Still, a select few not only give their beards personalities, but, in contrast, let their beards rule over them completely.

“You don’t choose your beard,” French teacher Sebastien Merle said. “Your beard chooses you, and then you comply with what it has decided for you.”

These teachers also come to the consensus that a hairdresser to tame one’s beard is unnecessary. “[My beard is created solely by] my face and me,” Knoedler said, as does Merle, denoting that his beard is “all [him].”

Whether a recent development or not, it is clear that once a beard is grown it stays, for one reason or another.

Kraus was looking to appear wise beyond his years when he chose to grow out his facial hair.

“I’ve had the beard for about four years,” Kraus said. “I originally grew it to make myself look older.

As a short, young teacher, it helped distinguish me from students. In my first couple years at South, the

cafeteria workers thought I was a student and would charge me the student lunch rate until I corrected them.”

Merle was taken aback when he realized he had the ability to grow a beard and continues to sport one for his own personal pleasure.

“For most of my twenties, I wasn’t able to grow a full beard; it was really spotty,” Merle said. “I stopped shaving during Spring break two years ago, and much to my surprise, it looked pretty full. So I decided to keep it for a while. I haven’t shaved since.”

For Knoedler, the beard is a relatively new addition to his look. He did enjoy how it looked on him when he grew it out two months ago, but outside influence from a significant other was involved in his decision to stop shaving. “[I’ve had my beard] since February break. I didn’t shave over vacation, then just decided to keep it when my wife mentioned she liked it,” Knoedler said.

“How can I shave it after that?”

There are discrepancies over the net effects of the beard on the wearer of the beard and those experiencing it from afar.

Some believe a beard can only have a positive impact on one’s character.

“There are only advantages to having a beard,” Merle said, although he did not specify what those advantages are.

In contrast, others will have problems with their facial hair from time to time.

“If it gets long, it can get kind of itchy,” Kraus said.

Although Merle’s family would rather see his chin bare and hairless, his friends find his beard amusing and appropriate considering the steryotypic image of a bearded professor.

“My family hates [my facial hair] with a passion,” Merle said. “My friends seem to find it quite fitting, considering my professorial occupation.”

Knoedler’s son objects to his beard, but Knoedler himself is largely a fan of it and feels that it augments

his already good looks.

“My son complains it pokes him when I kiss him,” Knoedler said. “[However] I think I’m incredibly handsome. My beard really pushes my handsomeness over the top. My friends are all very jealous.”

Beards definitely evoke a myriad of reactions amongst the ladies. South girls in general seem to have reservations about beards, preferring that guys shave or at most leave their beards modest and well kept. “ H o n e s t l y, I like the clean shaven look best, but some guys can really rock the beards,” freshman Fellow bearded Newton South Physics teacher Derek Van Beever Sophie Cash said.

“I don’t mind beards, but only if Still, unique and original beards are they are short and neat,” sophomore appreciated.

Gil Blume said. “[But] once it goes “I mostly like facial hair when it’s lumberjack-long, it’s time to shave. Mr. entertaining or weird, but not really for Merle has the perfect type of beard. attractiveness’ sake,” Cash said.

Just putting it out there” Blume said.

Freshman Natalie Silverman has a One student, when comparing her strong opinion about who should and father’s facial hair perceptions livshouldn’t have beards.

She believes facial ing in the Northern region versus the hair on South students doesn’t make the Southern region of the United States, cut. believes opinions regarding beards are “I think that facial hair on students is regionally developed. gross,” Silverman said. “I mean, we’re “When my dad came up here from still kids, kind of, and it’s just weird seeing down South, he said it was harder to get a fifteen year old with a full beard and a job up North with a beard,” freshman mustache. ” Leah Jacobson said. “Up here, large Even Silverman, though, will admit beards mean creepy.”

that the right type of facial hair on the right type of person can look attractive.

“With more mature and older men, beards and mustaches can look good.

Not like a lumberjack-man kind of facial hair, but something subtle.”

Silverman shares a similar opinion with many others about the pros and cons of facial hair. She too is quick to highlight its benefits. Both in and outside of the South community, beards are definitely in style.

“Someone like Adam Levine or Joe Jonas,” Silverman said. “That look is, well... sexy.”

point is to try hard, but don’t kill yourself.

Other interests such as sports are important, too. Freshman Daniel Friedman plays soccer, wrestles, and runs track, meaning that he already has a lot going on in addition to his school work. “I want to stay a three season athlete, and doing a bunch of honors classes would be too much for me,” Friedman said.

Numerous students are enrolled and continue to enroll in honors courses.

Sophomore Kitty Crowley is taking two honors courses, and she finds them to be interesting and stimulating.

“I pick honors courses based on whether or not I like them. The GPA is just an extra boost,” Crowley said.

She believes that being interested in a subject is what should factor into whether or not a student takes an honors course.

When Crowley makes her choice, she thinks about what will interest her regardless of what her teachers suggest.

This year Kitty is taking honors chorus because she likes singing and music. Crowley figures, “If I was going to do it, why not get the extra credit? I enjoy chorus, and that is why I signed up, and the boosted GPA isn’t bad either.”

Another thing to consider is the time commitment.

Taking an honors class usually means at least an hour or two of homework per night. That’s not too bad for one or two classes, but any more and it will really start to add up.

Staying up to all hours of the night isn’t a good idea.

Most doctors say that teenagers need eight and one half to nine hours of sleep per night to really excel during the day. Countless hours of homework won’t get you even close to that.

Many teachers like the Goldrick House-Master Mr. Turner agree that taking more difficult classes

Many students are often stuck in a conundrum about whether or not they will fit in the new learning environment.

For all the irresolute students sophomore Jack Rice offers some personal advice. “I worry about what suits me.

What am I capable of doing? It is absolutely an individual choice.

Teachers and parents should only offer a suggestion, but I decide what classes I take,” said Rice.

Often times, however, a student’s decision is influenced by the thoughts of a teacher.

Christopher Jackson, a world language teacher at Newton South has been helping students make their choices for years.

“It is only more work for no reason if you do not enjoy the material.

That is why a student must express interest before I talk to them about the option of honors,” remarked Jackson.

Jackson believes the “atmosphere is more productive” in an honors course because each student is genuinely devoted to the curriculum.

“That doesn’t mean there is less stress. Students have to pick and choose because if they took all honors it would simply be too overwhelming,” said Jackson.

“Ultimately students get more out of it and every method of teaching just seems to work in my honors classes.”

Jackson believes that the enthusiasm is increased in an honors environment and the teachers are happy which in turn makes the students happy.

In the end, the power is in the hands of each student. Regardless of how many—if any—honors classes you are planning on taking, they are something to think about carefully.

Course selection is just one of many challenging decisions each student makes throughout their career at Newton South. Perhaps this decision can be utilized as a rare opportunity for a challenge.

PHOTO BY ALEY LEWIS

One too many could shatter the glass house: the honors debacle

By Liana Butchard and Jesse Feldstein 3.34, 4.56, and 2.51 may just seem like numbers, but to some high school students at Newton South these numbers are their future.

“How many honors are you taking?”

As we start course registration for the 2011-2012 year, this seems to be the question that everyone is asking.

Some people love answering this with the long list of difficult classes that they are taking next year.

This isn’t true for other students, however, and hearing this bragging often produces a winner and a victim.

There is the assumption that everyone takes many honors classes, but this corollary is more a myth than a fact.

South is quite an academically com-

petitive high school and many students push themselves very hard. The question is: how hard is too hard?

There are many factors that should be considered before students add an honors class to their schedules.

There seems to be common thought that everyone takes honors classes.

“Only about half of the students at South take honors classes. You can get into good schools [colleges] without them,” guidance counselor Lenny Libenzon said.

With all of the pressure that is put on so many students, it seems that some of them should just take a deep breath and relax.

The classes that you take are not going to take over the path for what you do later in life. That being said, slacking off isn’t answer either; the

and then staying up way too late is not a good plan. “Honors classes are very challenging and require a lot of outside class time. Staying up until one or two o’clock every night is not realistic,” Turner said.

Taking this into consideration, some students plan their schedule around getting extra time during the day to get homework done. Take freshman Anna Alsop who has chosen to take four honors classes next year, but is leaving several potential

“I pick honors courses based on whether or not I like them. The GPA is just an extra boost.”

- Kitty Crowley, ‘13 elective blocks open, so that she can have time do get work done during the school day. “Right now I want to take as many honors classes as I can, but I’m leaving a lot of time to deal with the workload. If I plan out my time then I think that I will be fine,” Alsop said.

Many students will take an honors class in a subject that they hate just for the honors credit. “I’m not going to take an honors class just to take it. The honors classes that I’m taking are ones that I’m actually interested in,” freshman Emily Kaufman said.

If a class or subject is enjoyable or interesting, then it is probably more likely that one would take away a lot from it.

Kaufman thinks that it is silly to stress over an honors class that you don’t even remotely like or want to take.

And the classes are stressful: “The more that you take, the more stressful it will be,” Turner said.

Features B4

How Common Are You?

Denebola

We tallied the most frequent names at South.

Hiding behind the screen

By Wendy Ma Ever-accelerating technological advances have made websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Formspring, and Twitter increasingly accessible. However, only a few people claim to partake in all of these hip online networking experiences.

One of these technological fiends, Sophomore Alanna Milshtein, has every networking account imaginable—from Formspring to ooVoo. Most South students are like Milshtein, having countless internet social networking accounts, each of which represents a different way to interact with the world.

The average South student spends roughly two hours per day on social networking sites. Many students, including Milshtein, do not realize the potential harm of these accounts.

Milshtein believes, however, that social networking sites are harmless and argues that “people are not skeptical on the Internet!”

To prove her point, Milshtein created a fake Facebook account.

Her fake identity, Steven Li (a “freshman at Newton South High School”), had just moved to Newton from Chicago.

“After creating the profile I friended a bunch of people and they all accepted thinking went to

the same school!” Milshtein said.

After a week, Steven Li had about 183 friends and chatted with five people about various things relating to school.

“This is a prime example of how some students at Newton South are just not cautious enough online,” Milshtein said.

“But the internet acts like a mask, which allows students to become someone else.”

It is a place of true anonymity.

A popular site called Omegle lets strangers talk to other strangers. ”On Omegle, you can be anyone you want to be,” Milshtein said. “I have chatted with many people using fake identities in the past.”

Role Playing Game (RPG) sites like omgpop, World of Warcraft, and Gaia Online are also very popular among teens.

They require a person to embody a new identity to compete in the game. Blizzard, a popular RPG gaming industry, has become a lucrative market by creating social networking websites that depend on pseudo personas interacting to compete at various games This masking of true identity makes social networking popular.

Anonymity, however, is a double-edged sword.

“Being anonymous makes it easier to bully people because the bullies don’t worry about getting caught,” Milshtein said.

This social networking period of the Internet age has people putting more trust online than ever before.

“Many students think that by going online, they can be someone else,” Milshtein said. “I am way more confident online than otherwise.”

Formspring, honesty box, and other applications that allow anyone to ask or give comments anonymously have been popular.

Students at South seem interested in both giving and receiving feedback about themselves.

However, many students receive hurtful comments.

“When honesty box first came out, I was excited because I thought people would be telling people that they liked each other and giving compliments,” Milshtein said. “In reality, I would get messages saying ‘you’re fat’ or ‘you’re so annoying, you have no friends;’ and then I began hating honesty box.”

Although teens love the Internet, it has downsides.

Being cautious about people you interact with online is necessary, because the person behind that cyber screen could be anyone.

15 April 2011

Faculty Focus: Christopher Bender

By Josh Nislick Fifteen years ago, you could see him entertaining fans on the basketball court.

Now, Christopher Bender watches over Newton South students as a campus aide.

Bender graduated from South in 1995, and in 2010 he accepted a job as a campus aide for the school.

When Bender was a South student, he enjoyed Math and English.

“My favorite teachers,” he said, “Were Ms. Scott, my sophomore Math teacher, Mr. White, my junior English teacher, and Ms. Wiener, my senior Spanish teacher.”

Today, Bender feels that South is similar to when he attended as a student, but he said that there were some significant differences.

“School is bigger,” Bender said. “When I was a student there was no field house, and the school ended at the 3000s.”

Not only is South physically different, but Bender feels that it has also developed academically and intellectually.

He noted that South offers

more programs and courses than it did when he was a student.

“There’s more opportunity to succeed,” he said. “Without these programs, a lot of kids would fall through the cracks.”

What Bender likes the most about the “new” South is the improved facilities, as well as the increased amount of technology.

“When I went to South 90 percent of students were not on the internet,” he said, “And I remember watching a slide show with music in it, and it blew our minds.

“The school does a good job of being technologically advanced.”

As for the facilities, Bender is impressed with the way South has grown in that area.

“The weight room used to be the size of a closet,” he said, “And the fields are in much better shape.”

However not everything about the high school has changed for Bender.

“There are the exact same teachers as when I went here,” he said. “They still seem young

but you find out they’ve been here for fifteen years.”

Coming back to South as an adult, Bender has a different perspective of South, and he views the school differently than he did in 1995.

“As a student it was all about getting into college,” Bender said. “College doesn’t even really affect your life. Just because you don’t go to the one you dream of, it’s not a big deal.”

Bender has a different perspective on college now, but he acknowledges that the burden colleges put on students has remained the same.

Although the pressure from universities can be stressful, Bender feels that South’s greatest strength is its ability to prepare students well for college, just as it did when he attended the high school.

“It’s providing a great education for people just like it did fifteen years ago,” Bender said, “Which I guess is the most important thing.”

Bender believes that another aspect of South that has remained constant is its feeling of togetherness.

“I think one of the strengths of South has always been its sense of community,” he said.

“As you grow older you learn to value your friends, and students have pride in their school and those networks.”

Bender is content with South in 2011, but he does feel that the school is missing something.

“South used to have a Senior Show,” said Bender. “It was kind of a comedic spoof and it seemed like a lot fun. It would be a great experience for students now.”

Aside from the cancellation of this show, Bender is impressed with the range of instruction the high schools is providing for its students.

“South offers a very diverse education that you wouldn’t find at most other schools,” Bender said.

View from the Top: Sam Dorfman Yo u k n o w i t ’s “G u y s ’ Night” when it’s the night of Sophomore Sleepover… so here we are with this school year’s View From The Top. Now, first off, let’s get things straight – age is just a number. Laugh all you want guys, but if it’s one thing Dorf got right, it’s go young or go home.

As customarily seen in other versions of the View From The Top, we have compiled what we feel are some good rules to follow as you underclassmen proceed with your high school lives.

And so from the six of us seniors we offer six pieces of advice.

One: As the weekend approaches, make sure you are making as many plans as you can so that when plan D fails you, you always have plans E and F. Don’t feel bad for having ditched plans C through G when plan B actually turns out ok. It’s all right Dorf, we still love you.

Two: Always have a minimum of three sophomore girls

walking you to class, trust us it looks really cool.

Three: When she says “your turn” … It’s never your turn… run and hide.

Four: Under any circumstances, even if you are “tryinto-beat” “tryin-to-take-em-outto-eat”, “tryin-to-meat?” do NOT double text.

Five: Always bring your sophomore girlfriend to Chill, because as Dorf always says: “Just chill! It’s good for you, that’s genius!”

Six: When you find everyone either puking or crying at the end of the Semi after-party, don’t worry, it was a good party! Just ask Curtis… Or call Jakerides… He’ll get you home safe.

And now to give all you different grades some more broad advice Freshman: Dorf managed to have four great years of freshman year, but not all of us are fortunate enough to have that opportunity, so cherish it while it lasts.

Sophomores: I’m sure you know us all pretty well by now.

To all you guys, we’re sorry Dorf took all your girls, tough break. To all you girls, Harrison Douglass is single and ready to mingle.

Juniors: You got a lot of growing up to do. Individually we know some of you are good kids, but you really are a brazen bunch that likes to get a little too frisky at Tori’s house. Guys, sorry Dorf took every member of the naughty nine. Girls, just because we just told the sophomores, doesn’t change the fact that Harrison Douglass is indeed single.

To all the fellas out there, it is encouraged that you start on Jake’s workout plan, guaranteed to get you a great arms and a sophomore girl (or you can just drive a 60,000 dollar car and shop at Bloomingdales.)

To our very own Senior Class TWENTY ONE ONE LET’S GOOO. Its been a long time coming, who’s ready to get the hell out of this school?

We are that’s for sure! 8 more weeks… Let’s make the most of them right?

15 April 2011

Denebola

Tertulia in pictures

News B5

photo by denebola staff

Department heads plan around fiscal year 2012 budget

By Daniel Barabasi The new public school budget for Newton, approved on April 5, comes as a hard hit for department heads and classes alike.

The 2011-2012 school year will see an increase in class sizes as well as a decrease in staffing and classes.

As of now, the History and Social Sciencedepartment is planning to cut three classes.

“We cut based on signups and trying to keep class sizes reasonable,” History Department Head Robert Parlin said.

One of the main classes not running for the history department in the next year is Advanced Placement (AP) European History, which has run for many years in the past. “We have to set priorities based on how many people have signed up and so we cannot run a class of 15 and run a class of 30 elsewhere,” Parlin explained.

A new course, AP Comparative Government, is starting up in its place and has been overen-

rolled.

The mathematics department is expecting to have similar trouble. AP Computer Science will not be running next year due to under enrollment.

On the other hand, Curriculum I and Honors classes will see an increase in class sizes to over 30 students per class.

This is not an ideal situation for any department, but other options seemed more detrimental in the long run.

“We could have decided to cap numbers for Honors and AP classes at a lower number, but that would leave more students with missed opportunities,” Math Department Head Steven Rattendi said.

Increased class sizes can also lead to effects inside the classrooms.

“There might be cut backs on writing assignments, which will be determined on a course-by-course basis. An AP course that has a research paper every quarter

photo by jhonah siefer

and the class is 32 kids could see the teacher saying that he or she couldn’t give a research paper every quarter because of time constraints,” Parlin said.

In the World Language department, under-enrollment and cuts based on under-enrollment are hitting lower-level classes harder than in other departments.

Out of the four introductory courses offered at south (Spanish 1, Chinese 1, Latin 1, and French 1) only Spanish 1 and one other will be offered next year.

The classes that see the least enrollment will be canceled. This, however, causes difficulties for students, as South requires two years of language and colleges often scout for three. ”Such restrictions are not permanent. It is just that all departments are forced to make cuts. We want to speak to students at the middle school level to make sure that Latin 1 [ and all the other courses] can come back the year after,” World Language Department Head Suzanne DeRobert said.

To account for decreased number of classes being taught, 1.25 positions are being cut in the Math and World Language departments and 0.75 positions are being cut in the English department as well as more position-cuts in other departments. This does not mean a whole teacher and then a quarter of another teacher is being fired, rather teachers will be teaching five blocks less total per week in the Math and World Language departments.

In the case of the Math department, a decline in the budget was

planned for. “We anticipated a cut in our budget and we decided beforehand how many sections of each class we were going to run,” Rattendi said. “Now that the budget is official, we just have to make our plans official as well.”

The English department made similar plans.

“We have done our work and anticipated cuts. All we know are figures. The biggest variable is senior year enrollment, due to the large number of courses we offer,” English Department Head

Brian Baron said.

As schedules come closer to becoming finalized, the strain that budget cuts put out radiate further.

“It is not ideal and it is not going to be easy, but the whole budget won’t be easy,” Rattendi said.

The current hope of the district is to offer the best that they have with what they have available.

DeRobert described the efforts of her and her fellow administrators as, “we have to concentrate our resources to teach what we can.”

Global Education Denebola

Global Education B6

15 April 2011

Civil war, foreign intervention in Libya

By Tori Yee On September 1, 1969, Muammar Gaddafi and a cabal of young Libyan Army officers carried out a bloodless coup d’etat that overthrew the monarchy. Gaddafi quickly became the most powerful actor in the new government, and has ruled the country for the 42 years since.

Isolated incidents of dissent and resistance have punctuated his rule, and members of the Army attempted to assassinate Gaddafi in 1993. But the crisis he faces now is more dangerous to his rule than any crisis before.

Protests in Libya started in February, spurred by the turmoil spreading throughout the region, as well as complaints about high unemployment and demands for freedom and democracy.

A month later, unrest grew when police detained relatives of those killed in a 1996 massacre at the Abu Salim prison.

"He totally abandoned civilizing Libya. He neglected education and development projects. He left the majority of his people in the dark ages and built his might on fear through torturing and killing political dissidents in public,” Omar Amer, a member of a Libyan protest group, said.

By late February, Gaddafi’s control appeared to be slipping as Libyan government ministers defected in droves, and Benghazi and many other cities fell to anti-government control.

Rebel forces rapidly advanced west and took the majority of the crucial coastal cities, as well as Ra’s Lanuf, the largest oil refinery in the country.

Initial government counterattacks proved unsuccessful, but on March 6 the rebel advance was halted at Bin Jawad, about halfway to Tripoli.

Gaddafi’s forces then took the offensive, reversing the rebel advance and driving to the outskirts of Benghazi’s, the most important rebel-held city.

As governmental forces appeared poised to destroy the rebellion, the United Nations passed a resolution on March 17 that authorized foreign

nations to establish a no-fly zone and protect civilian lives until both sides agreed to a ceasefire.

Gaddafi’s government quickly accepted the ceasefire, but it soon became clear that its forces were not abiding by it. French, American, and British aircraft and missile ships attacked Gaddafi’s army, sending it into retreat.

Once again, the rebels seemed to be on the verge of victory. However, as government troops switched easily targeted military vehicles for armed civilian ones and American command of the intervention was transferred to NATO, Gaddafi’s forces were able to halt the rebel counterattack at Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirt.

The tide once again turned, and Gaddafi’s forces began pushing the rebels back again. They currently hold slightly over one-third of the nation’s coastline.

On Monday, March 28, President Obama addressed the nation, explaining that although a no-fly zone has been established and bombs are being dropped, the US is not at war with Libya. Obama has made it clear that the U.S. is merely one participant in an international coalition operating under a United Nations resolution.

However, he has also indicated that Gaddafi’s removal is a goal of the U.S. This is contradictory to the UN resolution, which only called for a ceasefire and action necessary to enforce one.

photo from internet source

If Gaddafi were to fall, it is unclear who would replace him. The most likely candidates are the Libyan tribes due to a long tradition of tribal loyalty equaling or trumping national loyalty.

Considered the most tribal nation in the Arab world, Libya has over 140 tribal groups. As opposed to Egypt and other Arab states, politics have a great deal to do with tribal alliances.

One of Gaddafi’s most significant accomplishments is his stripping the tribes of their political power.

Currently, the majority of Libya’s 6.4 million people live in the capital Tripoli and other major cities, especially rebel-held Benghazi. The current uprising has provided the tribes with the opportunity to reassert their importance.

If Gaddafi does step down, the tribes could very well take power into their old hands. Many believe the tribes can help guarantee cohesiveness in a society where any form of organization, whether political or social, was discouraged for more than forty years.

Perhaps mindful of this, the rebel Libyan National Council has been careful to include figures from several important tribes, especially those concentrated in the west, among its members.

Though some tribes have remained loyal to Gaddafi, especially his own tribe, many others have thrown their lot in with the rebels.

Akram al-Warfalli, a leader of the powerful Warfalla tribe said in an interview, “We tell the brother Gadhafi, well, he is no longer a brother,'' Mr. Warfalli said. ''We tell him to leave the country.”

Major Libyan cities in conflict; sites of UN intervention.

As of March 29, 2011.

photo from internet source

Southern Sudan wins independence

By John-Henry McBreen On July 9, 2011, a new country will join the international community. On that date, South Sudan will secede from Sudan, formerly Africa’s largest nation. According to the January 30 referendum in which 99 percent of the South Sudanese population voted for independence.

The vote was agreed upon in 2005 as part of a peace deal to end the Second Sudanese Civil War, which had raged since 1983.

During those 22 years, about two million Sudanese, mostly civilians, were killed. The war, largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War, which lasted from 1955 to 1972, was caused, like most wars, by a variety of factors, including race and religion.

The North is populated by Muslim Arabs the South by Christian and Animist Africans.

The Northern-dominated central government, in attempting to extend its authority over the whole of its territory, alienated Southerners who had previously governed their own region when under British rule.

The single largest cause may be the exploitative nature and intentions of the government.

During the war, the North systematically cut off the South’s food supply and provided pro-North militias with weapons and ammunition.

More than 80 percent of Southerners

photo from internet source

were displaced by the fighting at some point in the 20-year period, many of whom fled to neighboring countries.

“It’s a very deliberate strategy on the part of the government of Sudan to depopulate large parts of southern Sudan,” Jeff Drumtra, a senior policy analyst with the United States Committee for Refugees, said.

Peace talks between the central government and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) made substantial progress beginning in 2003, and ultimately produced an agreement in 2005 that created an autonomous South Sudan that would hold an independence referendum in six years.

Until then, many South Sudanese government positions would remain held by Northerners, and oil revenues would be split between the government and the SPLA. Though the split will probably produce peace, and certainly enjoys the popular support of the South, the economies of the newly separate nations may not be as stable as they were together.

The South is greatly underdeveloped. 11.2 percent of children die by the age of five, 40 percent of the population does not have access to clean water, 70 percent do not have access to adequate sanitation, and there is a huge lack of infrastructure.

The abundance of oil in South Sudan presents it with an enormous

economic opportunity, but the collection and transportation presents an equally enormous challenge.

Acquiring efficient drilling machines is a challenge on its own, but especially complicated is the issue of an oil pipeline running through Sudan.

Cooperation with the Sudanese government will be required to use this pipeline, and although the president, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, says he plans to cooperate, it could present problems in the future.

While the North has technology superior to the South, and the institutions necessary to run a country efficiently, the loss of South Sudanese oil will seriously harm its economy. 70 percent of Sudanese export earnings come from the sale of oil, and most of that oil is in the South.

However, if the government focuses more on to drilling for oil in North Sudan, which it must now do, it could probably pump more than the South because of the superior oil technology it possesses.

The Sudanese split may also benefit other countries as well. Currently, as gas prices rise around the world due to uprisings in the oil-rich Middle East, an influx of crude oil could dramati-

cally decrease economic stress on gashungry countries like the U.S. The combination of the North mining for more oil due to the loss of its Southern sources and the South mining for more oil to support its economy will increase the amount of oil in the market, and therefore lessen the cost per barrel, and per gallon.

Regardless of oil, the real issue in Sudan is peace. For a country locked in a civil war for the past 20 years, actual peace would be a welcome change, especially for the South in which most of the war was fought.

The country will be called the Republic of South Sudan “out of familiarity and convenience,” according to an independence commission.

However, other proposals, intended to convey a greater sense of independence, included Azania, the Nile Republic, the Kush Republic, and Juwama, an acronym for the nation’s three largest cities.

Although hopes are high for permanent peace within Sudan, the last peace agreement to end Sudan’s First Civil War only lasted 11 years.

However, this time the two countries are truly separate. Unless the split results in unviable economies, it will probably result in a lasting peace.

photo from internet source

A Silver Lining for the Land of the Rising Sun

By Dylan Royce As radiation and body counts continue to rise, one could be forgiven for predicting a gloomy future for Japan’s economy.

With thousands of people dead and billions of dollars worth of property lost, it is difficult to see how Japan’s catastrophic earthquake could do anything but harm it.

Yet, history suggests it could actually help. In 1995, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck near the city of Kobe, southwest of Tokyo.

While substantially less cataclysmic than this year’s disaster, it and the tsunami it produced still killed about 6,500 people and caused $100 billion in damage.

Last month’s earthquake, in contrast, may have killed up to 27,000 people and caused up to $309 billion in damage. While it is clearly much larger than its 1995 counterpart, the two earthquakes have much in common, including their timings.

Both occurred during times of economic contraction or stagnation, and the Kobe earthquake’s impact on the Japanese economy 16 years ago is probably a good indicator of what the Sendai earthquake’s effects will be.

The 1980s were good years for Japan’s economy. Its annual growth for the decade averaged 4.5 percent.

Yet, much of that growth was driven by unsustainable financial practices. In 1991, the bubble burst, and economic growth shrank to a trickle.

In 1992, economic growth totalled 3.32 percent. By 1993, it had fallen to 0.08 percent, and a year later was down to 0.02 percent. Had things continued along the same path, Japan’s economy would have shrunk in 1995.

Instead, tragedy struck.

The Kobe earthquake caused damages equivalent to 2.1 percent of Japan’s annual GDP, yet triggered an economic rally that more than made up for it (though, of course, there is no way to make up for the lives lost and broken).

The economy grew 0.86 percent that year, 1.88 percent the next, and 2.64 percent in 1997. The disaster seemed to have reversed the fall.

Unfortunately for the country, it fell victim to the 1997 Asian financial crisis the next year.

A series of economic calamities throughout East Asia hit other countries, such as Indonesia and South Korea, harder than they did Japan, but its neighbors’ devalued currencies reduced its companies’ ability to compete, causing the economy to again contract, growing only 1.56 percent in 1998 and actually shrinking 2.05 percent the following year.

But while the economy could not survive a second crisis, the 1995 earthquake seems to have reversed the first.

Economic growth during the three years preceding the disaster averaged 0.5 percent, while growth for the five years after it averaged 1.78 percent. Moreover, the economy expanded 7.1 percent during those years, more than making up for the 2.1 percent in damages.

As in 1995, Japan’s economy, and the world’s, is in crisis. Though it is, this time, exiting rather than entering a recovery, this one, like ours, has been slow.

It seems likely, however, that this year’s earthquake will do what its predecessor did, and trigger an economic expansion, if not boom.

Assuming that a second economic crisis does not strike, Japan’s economy could likely grow substantially in the coming years, fueled by consumer demand for replacement goods, employment provided by reconstruction efforts, and the Bank of Japan’s injection of $183 billion into the banking system.

The disaster, in fact, may be exactly what Japan needs to push its economy firmly out of recession.

Should it do so, the United States would do well to heed the lesson that economies can be saved using government spending and economic intervention. We do not need to wait on a disaster to put our own into practice.

Denebola

15 April 2011

Global B7

History teacher Pilar Quezzaire moving to Lebanon

By Dina Busaba After seven years of teaching at Newton South High School, history teacher Pilar Quezzaire has decided she will make a change and move to Beirut, Lebanon this summer.

In September, she will begin teaching at Lebenon’s American Community School. She leaves Newton with many good memories and experiences.

“I have really liked the vast majority of students a lot, and the faculty in my department has been very innovative and interesting and collegial,” Quezzaire said.

When asked about her departure, she had nothing negative about her experience, but explained that she felt her own personal strengths as a teacher might better fit in another, new environment.

Her provocative teaching style, for example, does not always mesh with other teachers’ methods.

Rather than using pure memorization, Quezzaire seeks creativity and analysis from her students.

While other teachers certainly teach abstract thinking, she feels she is more taxing when it comes to whether students understand what they are learning.

She is not a firm believer in following routines, also feeling slightly detached from her colleagues.

“There’s a certain age you reach as a teacher in Newton that if you haven’t gotten married, had kids, and bought your house, you become disconnected from the faculty,” she said.

Though not upset about it, she feels that the best way to deal with the problem is “with your feet.”

She also prefers to focus more on the group than the individual. To her experience, South is more of a collection than a community; Quezzaire finds too few things linking the entire student body together.

Previously, it was thought that Quezzaire was moving to the Netherlands, as was her original intent.

Choosing to live in Lebanon, however, came as a shock even to her.

She joined an international school fair where teachers can talk to administrators from other schools about possible job opportunities.

Quezzaire said the fair was “like speed dating, and you get married by the end of the weekend.”

When she met the head of the American Community School, she said it just felt right to her.

The American Community School of Beirut is a private coeducational school where the average teacherstudent ratio is 7-to-1. It is one of the best and also most competitive schools in Lebanon.

When she first accepted the job, the revolutions of the past several months were confined to Tunisia.

As they spread throughout the countries of the Middle East, closer to Lebanon, her worries grew. Yet she remains fairly unconcerned about her safety.

She believes Hezbollah is the only potential danger, but thinks that the more politically active they become, the less use they will make of violence than politics.

Quezzaire is excited to see how things play out in the precarious, divided nation.

The role of religious sects and

political power in a country with a very different model of government from American democracy fascinates her.

While she teaches history to her students next year, Quezzaire will also get a chance to work on her Arabic and will love to speak to her students in Arabic.

“I love languages and they can speak to me in any dialect they want,” she said.

She compares joining South to joining international schools, noting that they are more selective.

If South administrators see potential in a teacher, they hire them in the same way, she feels, an administrator can move for their international school— so qualifications, which initially caused Quezzaire to worry did not become an issue.

Another major influence on her moving on is her passion for global learning. She emphasizes that she wants to be a world citizen and teach students to also live their lives as members of a global community.

“That’s a huge reason I don’t want

photo by ray flint

to stay in Newton; it’s an insular community,” she said.

She does not blame anyone for this, or say it is necessarily a bad thing, because some communities take that shape.

Quezzaire would rather be part of one that is more international in scope.

Having never lived in the Middle East, Quezzaire is trying to demonstrate a form of success beyond the typically portrayed one.

She says students have spoken to her about feeling themselves to be a on a

track many others have taken before.

She wants to perform the experiment of moving to a foreign land to show that taking risks is okay.

Quezzaire sees this as a jumping-off point for many extraordinary things in the future. Every place she moves to, she gains valuable new experiences which become memories.

She hopes that many great ones will come out of this experience, and that she may find a place in which she feels more at home with evolving ideas.

Congress holds hearings on radicalization of American Muslims

By Peter Natov In December 2010, New York Representative Peter King, Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, called for hearings regarding the radicalization of Muslim Americans.

Pushing for the hearing, King cited data from the Justice Department revealing that fifty American citizens had been charged with major acts of terrorism in the past two years. All of these American citizens, the data claimed, were motivated by radical Islamic ideologies.

On March 10, 2011, King held the first of the hearings, which included the testimony of seven Americans, in-

cluding Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, one of two Muslims in Congress, and Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and the founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.

The Forum advocates for the separation of mosque and state and challenges the notion that Islam always entails the establishment of an Islamic state.

As expected, the reactions to the first hearing were harsh and critical.

Bennie Thompson, a Representative from Mississippi and a ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security, blasted King for the narrowness of the first hearings.

seems to have accomplished nothing concrete, failing to bring forth any valuable new information or reveal how groups such as al-Qaeda are trying to recruit Muslims in the United States.

South’s Muhammed Akif Honca, a Muslim, has the same concerns as most critics of the Congressional hearings.

“I don’t think that it is appropriate to put a whole group of people on trial in the public sphere like this no matter who they are and what reputation they may have whether it is true or not,” said Honca.

“All it does is shed a negative light on them and make matters worse. It does not solve the problem or accurately assess it; it only inflames more people into hating that group photo from internet source of people.”

The harshest critics Fearing that Muslim Americans have drawn parallels between King’s will be principally blamed for acts hearings and the Army-McCarthy of terrorism in the United States, hearings of 1954, and McCarthyism Thompson has called on King to in general. expand the hearings to include all McCarthy alleged a pervasive extremist groups in the country, not communist presence in the federal just groups organized by radical government, but none was ever found, Muslims. and most or all of his victims were Democrats in Congress called for entirely innocent of the “crime” of King, a Republican, to investigate being communist. other extremists such white suSuch critics claim that like the premacists, the Ku Klux Klan and 1950s’ Army-McCarthy hearings, neo-Nazis.

King’s will not bring forth any Critics of the Congressional hear- valuable information for combating ings fear that such hearings will not the radicalization of Muslims in the resolve the issue of radicalization, but United States. fuel further Islamophobia.

They also contend that the notion Furthermore, the first hearing that a religious group which makes up

less than three percent of the American population could carry out a national “Islamicization” is as ridiculous as the fear of a Communist takeover in the 1950s.

Ever since the September 11 attacks, American society has become increasingly Islamaphobic. In California, two men recently pled no contest to beating a Sikh cabdriver, apparently only because they thought he was Muslim.

King may not be totally Islamophobic; during Bill Clinton’s presidency, he supported Clinton’s decision to bomb Bosnia-Herzegovina in an attempt to end the genocide against Muslims there.

However, King has expressed the belief that there are “too many mosques in this country” and has equated that assertion with there being “too many people that are sympathetic to radical Islam.”

He did not explain the implied connection.

Furthermore, the hearings appear hypocritical to some who note that King was a strong supporter of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the 1980s.

The IRA was an Irish nationalist organization, considered a terrorist group by the United Kingdom, that was responsible for over 1700 deaths, of which over 600 were civilian, over the course of 30 years.

On April 4, police intercepted a package bound for King that contained a severed pig’s foot and a letter.

The letter referred to King, a Catholic, as a “Jew” and expressed the belief that “all the babies in America will be named Mohammed.”

Unless this is the work of an individual attempting to discredit the American Muslim community, there does appear to be an element of danger in his decision to open these hearings.

Whether or not they are fair or useful, however, is much less clear.

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Denebola

15 April 2011

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