The Oracle (April 2007)

Henry M. Gunn High School 780 Arastradero Road Palo Alto, CA 94306 Palo Alto Unified School District

NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. Postage

PA I D

Permit #44 Palo Alto, Calif.

Volume 43

http://gunn.pausd.org/oracle

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Issue 7

Forum

780 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306

A showcase of talents

Education on current events in need of reform

Performing Arts Week turns heads

Students uninformed about politics, world affairs

Page 5

PAGE 6 Features

Students, staff gather war stories Find out about the process of making a historical documentary PAGE 10 Centerfold

Happiness is more than just a feeling Discover the psychology and economics of happiness PAGES 12-13 Entertainment

Getting ready for prom The Oracle gives you helpful hints on how to make the best of your special night PAGE 18 Sports

Checking in on spring season sports Golf team holds potential in upcoming season PAGE 20

Photos by Cosmo Sung

Earth Week promotes environmental culture

Environmental Club, Garden Club stress importance of taking action Andrea Yung

I

Forum Editor

n anticipation of this year’s Earth Day on April 22, the Gunn Environmental Club and Garden Club held its own second annual Earth Week April 16 though 20. Students had the chance to sample organic foods, buy “Green Gunn” T-shirts, see a pluggable hybrid car and get free cloth grocery bags.

The Environmental Club began planning Earth Week after it finished producing the Green Assembly video. All events were hosted solely by the club, with no help from the Student Executive Council. “We hope others can learn that being green is easy and that it’s not hard to get involved with the green movement,” junior co-president Aja Mathews said.

In coordinating the events, the Environmental Club had to work with many groups to receive donations. A local environmental organization called the 11th Hour Project donated the cloth bags, and an organization called CalCars brought the plug-in hybrid. “We originally wanted to have more than one electric or ‘green’ vehicle, but we only ended up with one due to unforeseen circumstances,” junior co-president Caroline Hodge said. The Environmental Club had also

planned on inviting a speaker, but removed that from the schedule. “Everyone already attended the assembly and hopefully already has a pretty good background on environmental issues,” Hodge said.

Matthew Lee

Students gather on the quad to taste organic food from local producers.

Though many of the points emphasized throughout the week may have seemed repetitive, the club hopes that repeating the information will encourage students to retain it. “We’re trying to build an environmental culture at Gunn, which takes repeated efforts and a lot of time to do,” Hodge said. “We have to keep on working and repeating these ideas so students remember them. If someone hears about the idea of using reusable water bottles once, [he’s] not going to retain it. It seems repetitive, but there are so many students at Gunn—they aren’t all being exposed.”

Students enjoyed the activities during lunch—there was a large turn-out for the organic food sampling on Monday, and many also took home lemon tree seeds on Tuesday. “I think it’s really great because they introduce us to ideas we haven’t really thought of,” junior Aurora Zhang said. “They’re raising awareness because we’re so busy with our school work and extracurricular activities that we never take the time to see how we’re affecting our world.”

“I think it’s really important to get young people involved with the Green movement because we’re the ones who are going to have to solve these problems,” Hodge said. “It’s our world that we’re talking about. We have to live with the consequences.”

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The Oracle

GRT competes at championships Nathaniel Eisen

e

From April 20 to 22, Key Club attended an annual convention at the Long Beach Convention Center. The convention marks the beginning of a Key Club year.

The convention was held for all Key Clubs in California, Hawaii and Nevada. “It is basically a really fun event where you can go have spirit wars, which are competitions between different divisions to see who has the most spirit,” junior 2007-2008 Key Club secretary Dylan Mandoli said. “There is also a talent show and the governor’s ball, which is a really nice dance.”

This experience has both educational and recreational values.

“We go there to attend caucuses, vote for next year’s district board and also learn how to be a good Key Clubber,” Mandoli said.

“There are also seminars on different subjects, such as leadership and happiness.”

Members signed up for the event earlier in the year. “It’s quite expensive, as the trip includes traveling expenses, food and shelter,” Mandoli said. “Last year, about 20 people from Key Club went.”

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Key Club attends annual convention

Football players may put paint on their cheeks, but Gunn Robotics Team (GRT) members know it really belongs in one’s hair. Students involved in GRT are enrolled in Engineering Technology and also devote time after school in order to build robots and enter them in competitions. GRT members dye their hair red before big competitions, and this spring, they have brought out the paint twice.

GRT participates in a national robotics competition run by the organization For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST). GRT placed eighth out of 48 teams at the Silicon Valley Regional held March 15 to 17. By virtue of its past performance, GRT also qualified for and participated in the national Championship, held April 12 to 14 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Every year, FIRST creates a new game for teams’ robots to play. This year, every team played in an alliance with two other teams, and these alliances had two ways of scoring points. They could direct their robots to place tubes onto racks or to lift other alliance members’ robots. The alliance with the most points won.

he w

The Palo Alto Unified School District has taken a step toward the future with the addition of SmartBoards™ in select classrooms.

The SmartBoard™ is a digital video projection system that allows teachers to use it concurrently with their digital projector and laptop, making it easy to display lectures and write down class notes.

As a lesson progresses, the teacher or student can use his finger or one of the SmartBoard™ “pens” to take notes for the class. The board functions like a computer and records the notes on the board and the attached laptop. Afterwards, the teacher can upload the notes to InClass for students who were absent or weren’t able to write everything down. The only SmartBoard™ at Gunn currently resides in V-10, and is used by social studies teachers Faith Hilal and John Herbert. “They can listen and focus on what is going on, and can get any notes they missed online,” Hilal said.

However, if all goes well in the pilot program, the district may install the SmartBoard™ in all high school classrooms. “We’re seeing how much we use it, and whether or not it’s practical,” Hilal said.

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SmartBoards™ introduced at Gunn

Features Editor

CSC aims to help communication In the hope of further improving the connection between the Student Executive Council (SEC) and clubs, junior Community Service Chair Leah Rosengaus created the Community Service Council (CSC) at the start of second semester. Rosengaus meets with club presidents once every two weeks to discuss their endeavors. Rosengaus acts as the liaison between the community service clubs and the SEC. “As clubs have individual concerns, such as publicity posters or having to use money out of their own pockets, I can take those concerns to the SEC and try to solve them,” Rosengaus said. “We’re trying to improve the base of what we already have set up.”

Clubs are able to share ideas regarding their problems, such as fundraising for upcoming events. “When we have trouble with fundraising in the club, the first thing that comes to mind would be a drive, like bake sales or shows involving the school,” senior Key Club president Elijah Guo said. “It doubles as publicity with the club.”

During the meetings, representatives talk about projects that could involve more clubs, such as Key Club’s Fast for Awareness.

“It’s valuable to expand projects to involve more than one club,” Rosengaus said. “We can achieve more with more people behind it.”

The council, in their beginning stages, has met twice so far and has yet to produce a multi-club project.

PAUSD discusses remodeling Over the next few years, Gunn will likely enact many changes around campus, including remodeling the quad, the Adolescent Counseling Services (ACS) building and the field.

The Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) is considering placing new benches on the quad. “Supposedly no one has a place to sit, so they’re thinking of replacing the squares with picnic benches,” sophomore class vice president Phil Park said.

The ACS, which includes the cafeteria, will also be modernized in the beginning of fall. “All of the buildings so far, except for the office, the SAC, the auto/engineering rooms and the cafeteria and ACS, have been modernized, so we’re finishing what we started a while ago,” assistant principal Tom Jacoubowsky said.

The PAUSD is also considering shutting down the ACS building.

“The ACS is no longer effective, because most of the students don’t even know about it and meeting the food requirements has cost a lot of money,” junior secretary Chris Yu said.

Outside of school, the bleachers by the track will also be remodeled soon. “We have to redo the bleachers in order to meet the American Disabilities Act requirements,” Jacoubowsky said.

—Compiled by Noah Johnson, Jeffrey Wang and Susan Lee

The team had six weeks to design, test and build its robot before the regional competition. According to senior Team Leader Zak Weiler, this annual feature makes the FIRST competition an emotional experience. “It’s just as intense as competitive sports,” Weiler said. “People spent six weeks of their lives cooped up working on these things, and they have a day and half to show what they did.”

Weiler was worried about geographic advantages before Nationals. “Teams from the East Coast and Michigan usually end up dominating Nationals because they have the support of established companies such as Ford and GE [General Electric],” he said.

At the championship, all teams played seven matches against other teams in one of four equally strong divisions, and the winners of each division then played each other to determine the champion. Before leaving for Atlanta, Weiler was optimistic about GRT’s chances, saying that he wouldn’t rule out a spot in the division finals. As it turned out, GRT placed 78th in its division of 86 teams.

Dunbar thought that the place was not a result of poor design. “When I looked at the robots in the final rounds of competition, several looked similar to ours,” he said. “So I think we had a design that could have propelled us to the highest rounds.”

Weiler agreed, citing poor alliance members as detractors from Gunn’s performance. “We were stuck with the same team, who was not that great, four out of seven times,” Weiler said.

Dunbar said that what sets Gunn apart from other schools is that only the students use the machines and computers when making the robots, instead of having adults help. “Given the fact that [the students] did all the work on the robot, they should be proud,” he said. “These are robots that professional engineers would be comfortable building.”

Senior Greg Klausner welds parts for GRT’s robot.

SEC Focus Groups reach out to student body Aurelle Amram Reporter

Throughout second semester, the Student Executive Council (SEC) has been working on following up with the results of the surveys it asked students to take in February. On a variety of topics ranging from work ethics to communication on campus, the surveys—part of the SEC Focus Group Projects—were distributed through Facebook, handouts and InClass. The SEC decided to administer these surveys to get a better reading of the student body. “We realized we need to communicate with students more,” junior Human Relations Commissioner Jenny Wang said.

Each Focus Group was responsible for creating questions, getting students to answer them and then presenting the results in front of the administration.

The questions related to the daily structure and lives of Gunn students. For example, the Homework Focus Group asked questions about the number of hours per week students spend on homework and if they think teachers give too much homework.

The SEC hopes the surveys will jump-start communication between it and the student body, as well as inform the administration of student concerns. “We asked what basic improvements students want, and with their opinion we hope to make better activities,” Wang said. One immediate discovery was that the student

body wanted more structure from SEC. Most students have been willing to take the surveys and use the opportunity to voice their opinions. “People thought it was nice that we were asking,” junior Publicity Commissioner Freddy Chen said. Students expect results from these surveys, however. “They give us a chance to have a bigger say in what goes on at school,” senior Josh Gelfenbaum said. “But I hope SEC uses the information.”

68% of students feel informed about what is going on at Gunn 28% of students said that if colleges did not care about APs, they would not be taking that class 78% of students do not find their counselors helpful in making college and career plans Data courtesy of the Student Executive Council

Social studies department welcomes new Instructional Supervisor

John Hebert Classes: AP Psychology and Economics Years teaching: 7 Goals and responsibilities: “My primary goal is to help my colleagues be the best teachers they can be. As [Intructional Supervisor], I would have to administer the nuts and bolts of department affairs.”

Contact information: jhebert@pausd.org —Compiled by Tenny Zhang

News

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

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Teen drin king is o Gea Kang never wa nt to disc ne of those off-lim uss with it topics te issue, the their pare enagers Palo Alto most dis Yeah, yeah. We’ve nts ing the sta laborativ D cussed to r u g a nd Alcoh . To address this e and the te m pics was e n all heard the “don’t drink t, ol Preven “ Palo Alto o th n ing only e e adult p tion ColYo for high erspectiv of the major prob regardand drive” spiel time school stu uth Council hoste e is le 11. Over is m no such th that they s with dam den 60 and time again, but I’ve (Paly), C students from Gu ts on Wednesday eet- Seventy-s ing as responsible believe that there astille ix , April nn, Palo u always wondered how Alto Many stu percent of the aud nderage drinking The gath ja and Pinewood .” ience stro dents felt ering sta went to th High School s many of us really take it n p g rted with a the audie p ly e re o nsible tee event. a n nce th a qu n drinkin ts would never b greed. to heart. Well, here’s one incidents g e From the ought and alread ick survey to see lieve reto be pos where tee what y knew a re, facilit sible bec more shot, just in time n to s b a a o w u ld to u s ere hurt w informati e t r on from th Chris Bui helpe alcoholism. sh students that in o hen intox of past for Alcohol Awareness d rd ic o e uld know to assess and on th ated. He er to drin e whole s survey. There was the be k respon their lim Month (April), last week’s tu a s it a ib d lo s the differe round pe en t ople they , not to drink and ly, they nt aspects ts were enthused of sharing, 4/20 infamous in cannabis tr O to d what the us of alcoho rive and verall, stu learn abo yh lis u dents said t if drinking. culture and prom. underage ave to say about m. “I’m intereste t information that they d in e the dang would n d What’s it like to end njoyed h with parents or ers of be able to rinking because a friends.H ot share this v in I want to g help out th e up in jail under arrest for ir opinio o ing. “I did w e friends if v start drin er, teens ns h n th king,” so driving under the influence listening ot learn anything eard about teen d phomore ey Ahmad F new, but rinkto other ayad said it w (DUI)—which, by the way, peo Paly sop .

O n e of homore J ple’s experiences as interesting includes not just alcohol but t he e f a f n re d y ti o r m Ch pinions,” e I’ve see a n that any a said. Also, it w App ed drugs as well—or, heaven for? a a adults ha student’s n v ve actuall s the first opinions rijua percei bid, in the morgue, dead?

Short a y m o c y n onsidered alcohol.” e d There wil r use s” surv of being involved in a real DUI e d l b v e u a t e similar m U s n Changes eeting ne has s in 006 st of e accident, I found out just that on my w o y z il l i d x b l M t e 2 ye a “ made acc bo feedback peci bruary other ording to ar. s April 16 Sober Graduation “Reality dent took the u f h ro t e m c s the the stude hi nd nF ho the nts.

Check” trip. So, here we go. s,” w Gunn i bacco a od way nt of dents w use.

U e f c o o r s o t t g T a pe —Comp stu uana —Addit itie y a ohol, S Another Oracle staff member f e 6 e v i o 7 b v O t r t t io j il c e nal repo a n u lc ld M ri rting byd by Aviel Chan ve th 4 perce rom ma zation “ recent s hts on a his wou tudent A and I incarcerate ourselves within the e i l e Nathanie g e t S ed f nly 2 ou b ght t gani houg l Eisen mos s],” y, du e metal cage of Palo Alto Police Departd u t Do y , since o s refrain the or s. The dents’ t hol thou e topic s h tu Alco th ot udent s from orm nual t from t he [ s ment (PAPD) Sergeant Sandra Brown’s n n t n a y u l o n o t e t fi ent ost s ey stem h social ation ab rug and points ue th to bene n from (very uncomfortable) cop car en route to m n i t t v w t a e on io th wi vie sur of D orm disc een abl format downtown San Jose’s Santa Clara County e The g to do ting inf mittee d their o h t t b f d in nt o are cide f we’ve to get avin collec ict Com hink an e Main Jail North, which currently houses e h c d r s e s s i t ie a le on tr 80 p e result sed he Dis tudents on h n’t sure een ab t i 898 inmates.

It looks like a regular office u t u c a o r h o b t b s T f inist were s. “ hat en’t id. y. “A ch year the building from the outside, but inside lurks e , v y r drug d out w Hall sa the adm s. “We We hav t u li ea “ n lt r, dibi ore of the s r, and a truly ugly, oppressive existence—lonely, e r d r c to fi tor Lisa howeve he resu s said. yea c t ing m ack towa humiliating, disillusioning. Twenty other lts l lement .

Dire ecently, use for n Likin ism st every u c i s t e p p e r a R m of Nore e ign ke this te i M people vomiting and urinating all over you s a h k t n p ’ c n o s a ly am ng eve el ent ts.” pal oce J in the mass sobering cell. Dingy walls to beli planni poster c to th ” Princi f studen as stud y b a , w iled stare at day in and day out. Breakfast at 4 p data group o roblem en m o k e p —C a.m. Chained at the wrists, ankles, waist. sam nother has ta A id. ody Shortened phone cords so you can’t attempt nt b Hall sa e e Six ex d perts s stu stent,” om suicide.

Feeling like a zoo animal at the mercy s m e h i p s cons lt houg ion is ab sages on the oke at the A of others.

As we’re leaving, an inmate calls p o t da ri ut how A st r a to i drugs ngers of alco l 17 Driving out, “Stay in school!” n n i i a Stanfo a ad m 006 dat rd Un nd alcohol u hol use. Eac Under the In But if that isn’t enough disincentive for you, f e c i 2 h v t s fl s ersit age gue uen of d the wait until you hit the morgue. At the Santa poison rugs on an a y Medical C impacts life st speaker sp ce (DUI) as . se ing,” dole oke fro ente Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s m voc mbly, delive Santa C he said. “D scent’s body r Trauma Su a ring tion’s p . r inking rgeon “Teen lara D the im office, head trauma victims of fatal DUI ace r s i s D u s p a t n r r e r .D e ic de p ctive heavy ortance of d t Attorney’s r 21 increas more vulner avid Gregg cidents greet us. The gruesome images flashing O riving a e fines sober ffice Comm s the chance ble to binge began with before us on the slideshow just aren’t human.

Stanfo , legal costs w d t u h of ri it n e Corma rd Univers and a poss h the legal r ity Prosecut alcoholism nking and a efTongues of coagulated blood mercilessly lick the i o l a i b c b n t r mifica o their fa took a mor y Medical C le confiscati tions o Julia Allogg y four times hol contorted, unidentifiable faces, and the literally o e psyc .” i e f mily, i n a nter T illegal mento of driv ho th tance o ra decapitated head of a near-Headless Horseman f guidi urts their fri logical appro uma Center er licenses. substances. emphasized These e n proces ach on Comm reincarnate barely clings to a flap of neck skin. includ s and g a friend o nds,” she s alco unit e Police purpose of nto the righ aid. Adolesc hol’s impac y Relations Stunned into trauma of our own, we enter the ts. “[A t road ent C adole Coor for dru Detective freezer containing corpses on metal carts. I tell Maria scent couns for treatme ounselor Br lcohol cons dinator Elle g poss en nt of su eling. nna V n ession u academ myself I’m just imagining it, but I can taste the illa an bstanc da Stern str mption] hu y rts essed e abus jail tou cadet Jaco d drunk driv scuesa told the im e formaldehyde in my saliva. I hold my breath, tryb Sava . s r. “Nin i S t n u h g d e . ents p She also ex ge or alco e plaine oring not to inhale the chilling, nauseating air. I see hol,” S ty percent o , the subject also asked s about the p d the f the p avage r Spea risone of a mock D tudents why ocess of iss sa the yellowed, plastic-looking feet sticking out from rs are u t U h i the ha kers shared id. n e I g y a drink rrest, t punish in jail nds of person under the coverings and wonder what horror lies a h m b l e c e n o e a cause a more l of som presented h hol. Junior p nts ikely t drunk driver l encounters below—the horror that could be you or me. i o e o s . li thing t w made hat hav experiences ce compa become alco They also an ith DUI. V As an officer told us, “drunk driving is everyo i e to do holic i s n Senior risons. “A f any o wered ques llascuesa tol with d a body’s problem.”

Most of us know of at least one l c S o t t d h f i u o r ol yo th de ugs closed n the ass nt Body Vi is 10,000 [ti ur immedia s on teen alc e story of he person killed in a DUI accident, whether as the perc m t e o r confid e e ential mbly by rem President C es] more to family is al hol problem cousin’s dea petrator or the innocent victim doing his own thing. r x c s t i i a i .“ h d o n c in a ca r r with es from 10 p ding studen oline Binkl than mariju holic,” Greg You’re 10 ti at Sergeant Brown noted that Palo Alto sees between two ts abou ey and g said. a drun .m. to mes ana,” h 1 a.m. k drive t s Gregg and five DUI arrests a week, especially in party-and Saturd Safe Ride, enior class e said. r. then a stude vice p ay for graduation-ridden springtime, and DUI collisions took residen —Com studen nt-run t ts p piled 16,885 lives nationwide in 2005, according to the U.S.

by Ca who are int rogram that Jordan Klein oxicat r is s a o ed or d ffers free a Ra t a n Department of Transportation. 16,885? That’s a lot of nd o a ph a n yarat not want to wasted human life and potential. r and B auer W ide The horrific image of that Headless Horseman still ann haunts me, and PAPD Agent Dan Ryan’s comments still ring in my ears: “It’s carnage—it’s crazy.” Oh boy.

It sure is.

—Kang, a senior, is the Editor-in-Chief.

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News

The Oracle

[progress]

As the summer approaches and sandals are donned in place of sneakers, students donated their old shoes to a good cause.

The Action in Africa club, led by senior club presidents Ana Kostioukova and Shannon Wood, sponsored a shoe drive from the beginning of April until April 17. The drive, which collected a gamut of shoes, worked with the Palo Alto High School (Paly) branch of the club, led by their senior club president Adam Whitfield, who came up with the original idea. “We [took] any type of used athletic

[answers] Few people would suppose that one could be assisting in the research for the cure against serious diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, different cancers and several others, simply by downloading a piece of software and letting it run. However, three students are doing precisely that through Folding@Home, a computing project created by Stanford University.

Folding@Home was founded in 2000 to research how protein folding works. Proteins fold when they carry out bodily functions and are the causes for serious diseases when they do not fold correctly.

Because the process of protein folding has yet to be understood, Folding@Home’s goal is to run simulations of these foldings to understand how they work and help them lead to a cure for these diseases. Of the 59,939 teams all over the world running software that combine to form one of the largest supercomputers in the world, Gunn’s team ranks 7,704.

Junior Josh Lee created the Gunn team in

[equality]

California textbooks would have been required to include the accomplishments of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in history, had Governor Schwarzenegger not vetoed the Bias-Free Curriculum Act on Sept. 6 of last year.

The bill, SB 1437, would have added “sexual orientation” to the list of characteristics that textbooks or other instructional materials adopted by the State Board of Education cannot reflect adversely

pl ac e you r c ause h e r e

shoes from cleats to tennis shoes,” Wood said.

A number of other schools from the Bay Area were also involved in the drive.

The total number of shoes donated from Gunn students was minimal compared to the shoes collected from Paly students. However, this has not discouraged Kostioukova and the rest of the club. “We plan on driving around and collecting more shoes from anybody who wants to donate,” she said. “Hopefully we can still collect a good amount of shoes.”

The severe lack of shoes for African children inspired the Action in Africa club to tackle the issue. Each year, the club leaders from different schools get together and decide on an African country to sponsor and rasie money and awareness for the duration of one year. “These shoes will be donated to an organization in Ethiopia, which is the country in Africa we chose to adopt this year,” Wood said.

The Action in Africa club has been busy this year with drives. Earlier in the year the club sponsored a successful book drive for children in Ethiopia.

—Sasha Guttentag

late March after reading about it in a local newspaper. “It’s an easy way to help cancer research,” Lee said. “I want to be in the medical field, and it’s just a good way to help others.” As of April 11, the Gunn team has completed 68 work units, which are simulations that are run for eight or more hours.

Junior Anatoliy Torchinskiy downloaded the program onto his PlayStation 3 (PS3) after Lee told him about the project. “What would take three years normally takes only six months now with all the people working and helping the research,” Torchinskiy said.

Running the software requires no work apart from downloading it. “You just leave it on all day and turn it off if you want to use the PS3 for something else,” junior Alex Esber said. “There’s a space on the screen showing the molecule and how it moves as it’s folding.”

The screen also has an image of a globe on which users can see all the people around the world (represented by dots) running the simulations.

Anyone interested in downloading the software necessary to partake in Folding@ Home or finding out about the project’s results can find information on their website at http://folding.stanford.edu/.

—Stéphanie Keller-Busque

upon. Senator Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica, the first openly gay member of California legislature, authored the bill in conjunction with Equality California, a gay rights advocacy group.

Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill despite intense lobbying, arguing that “current law already provides clear protection against discrimination in our schools based on sexual orientation.”

The goal of the bill was to ensure that educators mentioned the sexuality of historical figures or authors when teaching about their work.

Junior Maria Simbirsky, president of the Gay-Straight Alliance, compared not discussing an author or historical figure’s sexuality to not discussing his race. “You wouldn’t forget to mention that an author is black, because that does influence [his] work,” she said.

Equality California Legislative Advocate Alice Kessler echoed

[awareness]

During the week of March 26, Gunn hosted its first ever Hepatitis B Virus and Liver Cancer Awareness Week.

The event was hosted by junior Dylan Kim, a member of the Jade Ribbon Council which is run by the Stanford Asian Liver Center. From March 26 to 30, Kim, along with his brother Max Kim, held a booth on the quad at lunch every day to help spread awareness of the Hepatitis B virus (HBV). The two gave out quizzes regarding HBV and goodie bags to those who took the quiz. Green ribbons and pins were also handed out to spread awareness, with the ribbons being worn on March 30 to help symbolize the approximate one in 10 people affected with HBV. Throughout the week, over 100 people took the quiz and gained more knowledge on this global disease. Many were surprised of the effects and widespread dangers of HBV. “I really believed that alcohol was the main cause of liver cancer,” senior Michael L. Wong said. “I never did think that HBV

[a cure]

Pink Ribbon Club kicked off its fundraising on April 14 at Studio Kicks. The $15 admission included a 60-minute kickboxing class. One of the instructors was the owner of the studio, Richard Branden, an ex-Power Ranger stunt double.

The club founders, seniors Jennifer Lien and Katie Yip, were regulars at the studio and decided to combine pleasure and passion. “Studio Kicks have something called a ‘DJ Night’ which is an hour-long kickboxing session that includes sushi and champagne with the $15 admission,” Lien said. “We just asked if we could combine

Simbirsky’s sentiments. “When learning about important writers or historical figures, we should give students a full picture of these people and recognize how their identities may have shaped their lives and work,” she said.

Proponents of the bill hoped that it would also increase tolerance and respect for homosexuals. Simbirsky noted how students’ knowledge of LGBT history can impact their opinion of homosexual students. “[Not knowing about LGBT history] makes students think that being gay or a lesbian or trans is something new that hasn’t been happening naturally for the past hundreds of years,” Simbirsky said.

The bill was also designed with the intention of helping LGBT students feel more comfortable in an educational setting. “The idea for the bill came from research that showed that LGBT students

]

was the main cause of liver disease.”

Others were proud someone was putting in effort to help spread awareness of such a global threat. “I’m extremely happy that someone took the time to promote awareness for something that should be a major concern in our community,” senior Kevin Chung said.

Kim received large support from The Jade Ribbon Council (JRC), a council made up of 13 members that meets once every other week at Stanford to help actively spread the awareness for HBV on both a national and global level. Support from JRC included materials needed for the event and both information and guidance on how to host it. Kim also received the support of Mayor Kishimoto to organize the Hepatitis B Virus and Liver Cancer Awareness Week for the city of Palo Alto. Although treatments for HBV exist, all viruses cannot be completely eradicated once infected.

“The fact that this has continued is illogical, as there has been a vaccine available since 1982,” Dylan Kim said. “With increased awareness and knowledge of HBV, it may be eradicated therein leaving the world a much better place.”

For those who are interested in helping further spread HBV awareness, log on to www.liver.stanford.edu.

—Ryan Tan it with a breast cancer event.”

“Kick for a Cure” had a successful turn out. “We had a really good turnout, probably around 50,” Yip said. “ It was a lot more people than we had expected to come.”

The club managed to raise $565, which Yip and Lien are hoping to donate to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Besides raising money for charity, the event also introduced students to a new recreational activity. “I’ve never done kickboxing before,” senior Jenica Law said. “It was definitely really fun as a new experience.”

Pink Ribbon Club is far from being done with its community service, despite the fact that both presidents are graduating in June.

The club is working with the Community Breast Health Project for its next club activity. “Our next project is sewing pillow cases for those who have just undergone surgery,” Lien said. “It’s a direct donation to real survivors. We’re not just fundraising—we’re actually doing something for them.”

feel safer at school when they see LGBT issues being discussed in the classroom and have role models,” Kessler said.

Although Schwarzenegger’s veto disappointed some, his decision was not a complete surprise.

“The governor has been pretty consistent in vetoing any bills that mandate a particular curriculum,” Kessler said. “But I do not think he’s a bigot, and we hope to continue to work with him on legislative proposals that would ensure a safe learning environment for all, including LGBT students.”

Social studies Instructional Supervisor John Fredrich, although supportive of the cause, opposed the bill, due to his concern about adding more material into an already jam-packed social studies curriculum. “I don’t think we’re doing an adequate job on other things besides the historical treatment of gays and lesbians,” he said.

—Ana Kostioukova

“I think a better way to deal with it would be in regards to equal rights and equal government in a government class.”

However, Fredrich may not have his way. Kuehl has plans to find new ways to ensure non-discrimination in California educational materials.

“This year Senator Kuehl will be authoring legislate to update those civil rights protections to ensure that those who have been trusted with implementing the law clearly understand their responsibilities to provide California students with a bias free education,” Senator Kuehl’s Legislative Director Jennifer Richard said.

Kessler is also optimistic about instituting legislation in the future to protect LGBT students. “The goal that we’re trying to accomplish remains important,” she said. “It takes years to make change.”

—Caroline Hodge

∞= uv− 2v du u dv  π uv− v du =  u1 dv = 2 kWednesday,6April 25, 2007 News k=1u dv = uv− v du Students shine throughout Performing eiπ +Arts 1 =iπ0 Week Aurelle Amram e + dx x 1 = 0 = ax 1iπ − −h iπ eople sang, danced and acted all over the school dt e +N1 = 0 P during the week of April 9 for the first Performing ∞ 2  Arts Week sponsored dy by the Studentdy Executivedu Council 1 π (SEC). A week of performances ∞ =by the Titan· Dancers, π 2   = Titan Rhythmz, Slam Poetry Club, Breakdancing Club 1 dx du dx 2 and individual students culminated in a talent show on 6 1= k ∞ ∞ April 14. Φ =k=1 E·dA = 1k 2ε0 π 226 ρ dV Senior Student Body Treasurer Teresa Lee was inspired to S create and organize k=1 = V  the week because of her own interest  in the performing arts. She saw a chance for the student body 22 6 k  to get exposed to more of the artistic community at Gunn. dx x k=1 “People are so busyu with academics that the arts are often dv = uv− v du k=1  dy dy du x  √ overlooked, and I wanted to give people a chance to get in∞ax = 1 − −h dy dy du dx 2= ·dy volved,” Lee said. The SEC helped her coordinate the event’s −x dt N = · dy du−h = ax 1 − publicity. “Everyone was invited to check out the events on π e dx = dx du dx   the quad or perform in the talent show,” sophomore Publicity · dx du= dx xN dt Commissioner Alison Maggioncalda said. −∞dx dx 1 − du dx = ax −h Events throughout the week included a performance by the   iπ Breakdancing Club, the Slam Poetry Club, a prom fashion  dt  N e by + = Benitz, 0 a 1   show featureded dresses made senior1 Annika =  E·dA  performance by the Titan Rhythmz, “Brown Bag” play and Φ = ρ dV = dv = uv− v du 1 u a karaoke session in which anyone nearby could perform. ε 0ω events udω uv− Φdv == E·dA Vv=du S =collection. dress Other over The majority of events took place at lunch on the quad or in Students model senior Annika Benitz’s “Botticelli Sunrise” prom the Student Activities Center. The talent show that closed the the week included performances by the Breakdancing Club, Titan Rhythmz a talent show. 1ε v d u dv = uv− 0 V Sand week took place in the evening in the Little Theater (refer to M ∂M ∞ = and alldy E·dA = the talent dy dufrom talent show, there were troubles getting the sound system Eight actsΦ performed, of the profits p.16 for full coverage of the talent show).

2   coordinated, and in the end a home microphone was used. show will go to Artists Striving to End Poverty.

1 π ∞ Due to the large number of events and activities that ocε0arts. =SSin raising·√ 2 0 V V However, the show did reach its goal of showcasing the The week was successful awareness of the curred during Performing Arts Week, there were obstacles  −x = dx du dx iπ ∞ school’s talents.

“There was a large variety of acts, unlike at “I didn’t know how good people are at the arts at Gunn,” in putting the week together. “It was a2challenge to get all =they1 do2=it π esaid.dx + 0 √ iπ kshow,” Lee said.6At the most Open Mic Nights,” performer junior Avital Barlev said. seniorzYuvale Yaarie= “I 2 hope−x again next year.” the people to participate in the talent + 1 = 0 znee+ iπ C dx =0 π −∞n+1 k=1  ∞ + 1 = ∞ √ 22   −∞ −x −x dx = π Students’ math skills have no limits at USAMO, ARML  u dv =euv−   v du  dx x ∞ −∞ −∞  2    United States of America Mathematics Olympiad ∞ 1n ωππ2 = ax 1 − −h =in 1∞  How many positive perfect squares less than took the AMC10 while juniors and seniors took About 20 of the top scoringdω participants = dtof 24? “Your answer will be how Nthe AMC12. The top 5 percent of AMC12 partici- the USAMO will attendM  106 are multiples the Mathematical 2ω 1 dω = ∂M   2 = 1 π many multiples of 12 go into 1,000, so it’s 83,” pants and 1 percent of AMC10 participants were Olympiad Summer Program this summer kk2 γ =teamlim −6= ln n freshman Kevin Yang said, describing the answer invited to take the AIME, a three-hour, 15-ques- to prepare a six-member with 6 M ∂M k=1 to the first question of the American Invitational tion test. The students who took the AMC12 had two alternates for the International dy dy=kdu 2 k=1 dω ω 6 iπ  an index of 197.5 (10 times the Mathematics Olympiad (IMO).n→∞  (AIME).

Mathematics Examination to have received = · e + 1 = 0 k=1 Yang, along with seniors Wendy Lee, Dan Li AIME 1score plus the AMC12 score) to qualify q for Students representing their dxM q ∂M 2 M ∂M du dx and George Lu, qualified for the United States the USAMO. “The problems represent a unique countries from around the   C 2x= Φ= ρ dV = or just z dx Φ = zn+ E·dA E·dA = of America Mathematics Olympiad (USAMO). type of abstract thinking and problem solving,” world converge to the n+1  ε dx x ε ε About 500 of the top scorers of the American Beck said.

IMO. Four Palo Alto 0 0 z = z C0  V S 1− S = ax −h  n +−h n+1 ∞ Mathematics Competition (AMC) and AIME Due to the difficulty of the questions, each one High School students 2 = ax 1 − dx x   N + 1 contests qualify for the USAMO, a two-day, nine- answered is a personal success. Yang, who cor- a nd one Ter ma n  dt p 5 2 212+−C − kz = ax ∞ dt  N hour competition. rectly answered six of the 15 AIME questions, hy- eighth grader also = z = n+1 n   n+1 1uv−2πn v du “The level  of the problems in the USAMO pothesized that a lot of students across the nation qualified for the dt N 2 u dv = ∞ would be a challenge for the majority struggled. Junior Stephen Ge, who qualified USA MO. T he pk− 1n = dy du 2 of our also √ dy  −x students, regardless of their math lane or grade,” for the USAMO in the eighth and tenth grades, did second day on 2 k=1 1   e dx = π dy dy du 6 k = n 1·  math Instructional Supervisor Jeanne Beck said. not this year. “This year’s AIME wasn’t necessar- the USAMO   ln γ = lim k=1   − 1 ndx The 25-question AMC was given to students in ily more difficult than normal, but it was definitely will be held = · 1 dx du Φ = E·dA = ρ −∞ the highest math lane—freshmen and sophomores more prone to errors,” Ge said. today.  k =γdu E·dA =nn ε0 V− 1ρ ld dxΦn→∞ dx = lim S k=1 E·dA 1=n→∞ f (z)ε0 1=kV Φiπ American Regionals Math League S   their lives playing com The competition is performed simultaneously Te a m s w it h f (zdx Many students spend e lim + 1S  = 0xk=1dz −ε0ln 0)γ== petitive sports, but few have had the chance to at three different colleges—the University of Ne- the best overall   z − z0−h  =∞2πi ax 1− n→∞ k compete in academics. Several students will be vada, Las Vegas, where the San Francisco/Bay scores are ranked n→∞  dω = ω ∞ √ u dv = uv− v d participating in this year’s American Regions Area group will be competing, Penn State and and receive prizes.

2 + 1−x2 N dt k=1 ∞  k=1 p √ 2 5  Math League (ARML) on June 1 and 2. The the University of Iowa. The contest is made up of Individuals who u per- dv = uv− v2dx du = π M ∂M e∞ =dx −x k e ∞ ARML is a competition competed in by top math four rounds­­­­­­­—a team round, a power round, an in- form best in the indi21 π5 √ = p +  −x students from all over the United States. “It’s kind dividual round and a relay round. The team round vidual round also receive ∞ ∞ 2 −∞ k 2 2dx e π =  p − 1 of like a world series of math competition,” head consists of the team completing 10 questions in their own prizes, including  = −∞ 1 π 4 2 ∞ 2 k ∞ coach Theodore Alper said.

20 minutes. In the power round, teams have one books, graphing calculators 2= k=1  2+−− 1 52 − p 1 −∞ π = p 1 The students are placed in groups according to hour to complete a proof.

The individual round and cash prizes. k 2 Ceach student a total of 40 minutes to com- Students compete forΦ kiπ 2+ k 1=  = ρ4 d E·dA k=1 where they live. Gunn students are= placedzin the+gives a number = 6 8n 8n + k z   e + 1 = 0 n+1 n iπ 2 San Francisco/Bay Area group, and are then sepa- plete eight questions (two questions per 10-minute of reasons. “Some people don=0 p0 2 − 1 ε0 2 V e Gecompete +k=1 11S=  rated into teams of 15. Students who scored the interval). For the relay round, a contestant solves a for the thrill of competing,” said.

“But kk=f (z) dω=—Compiled ω highest on the AMC and AIME are placed on the problem and passes his answer to the next contes- competition is not the sole or biggest k=1 reason k=1 by Eric Johnston dω ω (z ) = dz top level team. This year, the San Francisco/Bay tant who uses the answer to solve another problem. I do it—for mef there’s something else.

I think and Priya Ghose M ∂M 0 1 f (z) dω = ω    Area group expects to send three teams.

Each of these rounds is then scored and added up. math is really beautiful and powerful.”

M ∂M 2πi z − z   ∞ dx f (z0)M=2∞  x 0√∂M −x n 2 z0 = ax 1dx − − 12πi1= −h fzπ(z)  ∞ e 2 1  dt−∞ N= f 1(z00) = d π ATTENTION  2 γ = lim PROM-GOERS! − ln n  z− z00 z2 nk+2+CC ∞ zn+1 = =4=2πi 6  n→∞ mask today zkn+1 z Buy your masquerade k 2 2 n 2 +C  6 ∞ k=1 k=1 z = z   π =k=1 − n+1 − 4n  at lunch on the quad!

1 8n +1 8n +− 4 ∞ $10-$15 each ∞ Φn=0 =π =dω E·dA = ρ8n d     = ω 8n + 1 4  xV  ∞ 2 ε n 0 S n=0  π =dx − dx x pk + 1 5 M ∂M = ax 1+− − n 1  8n 1 8n = ax 1 − −h  1 = dtlim N ln n n− γ =  n=0 2 dt N n=0 γ = lim 1n p −1 2 n→∞ k− ln

5

Reporter

Christopher Wu

6

The Oracle

Students ignorant about current events

Forum

School needs to produce more informed, global citizens

T

he “Palo Alto bubble” stereotype may have some truth in it after all. How many students could legitimately tell you the state of the war in Iraq, or why the recent French elections were heated or what the Supreme Court recently decided about certain forms of abortion? Not very many. Students are woefully uninformed about the state of affairs in their city, state, country and world, largely due to the inadequate coverage of current events in social studies classes.

In an increasingly global society, it is crucial for students to know the latest in politics, foreign affairs, science and technology, much like it is crucial for them to know a foreign language. More importantly, students need to know what is going on right now in order to be able to prevent history from repeating itself in the future.

It is true that the curricula in all departments are bursting at the seams, and adding yet another requirement for social studies classes would put further stress on already overloaded teachers. However, teaching history is useless unless students are able to make connections between past and present. What good is it to know the history behind the United States’ past imperialistic tendencies if students have no idea what current U.S. foreign policy is? Failing to instill an understanding of the present is like giving a student all the formulas to solve a math problem, but never making him apply the knowledge to a real-life situation.

Furthermore, it is the social studies department’s responsibility to encourage participation in politics, a feat that is only possible

with the inclusion of a comprehensive current events curriculum. Young adults tend to be apathetic and shy away from politics, mostly because they are uninformed and unaware. Even the students who do express their opinions in the classroom often lack legitimate evidence to corroborate their ideas. If students know what is going on in the world, they are more likely to have opinion—and, more importantly, vote.

In addition to tying events of the past with events of the present during class lectures, social studies teachers should devote at least half a class period a week solely to current events education that covers local, statewide, national and international news.

Teachers may put together a slideshow of pictures from the week in the news or ask students to read and discuss an in-depth article during class. The effects would be two-fold: Not only would students build their bank of current events knowledge, they would also improve their critical reading and oratory

The Opinion of The Oracle

How should the price of prom be split up since the cost is so great?

—Tiffany Giang (10)

Graphic by Lucy Li

skills.

Gunn prides itself on being a school that forces its students to think critically and make connections both across subject areas and across time. Social studies teachers have made a good start with including some current events education in their classes. But a more uniform system, one that recognizes current events as something just as important as history, is necessary to truly craft students into informed, global citizens. Otherwise, students will leave Gunn with the arms to fight a war, but no idea where the fighting is.

—Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the staff (in agreement: 34; opposed: 8).

More teachers should make better use of InClass

Underused resource can decrease stress, increase success “What did I miss?” It’s the first question a student asks when coming back from an absence. However, if more teachers made better use of InClass, students wouldn’t have to ask this question nearly as often. In addition to relieving the crunch of returning to school after an absence, InClass can help students improve academically and reduce the amount of paper waste the school generates.

InClass allows teachers to post homework schedules and assignments, making it easier for students to return to school after an absence. While it is important for students to learn to keep track of their work, teachers should still give students a permanent, easily accessible homework schedule, because even the most organized students can fall behind or misplace their personal calendar.

InClass also allows students

LET T THE ERS TO EDIT OR!

to check their grades periodically and gauge how they are doing in the class, which helps students to improve academically. InClass allows teachers to post students’ grades online so that, if they are updated regularly, a student can track his progress throughout the school year, check for missing assignments and see what he needs to work on.

W h i le online grades may bring up the question of academic privacy, InClass has a password-protected system that requires a separate password for each class’s grades, making it a secure system.

InClass is not only a useful resource for teachers and students

but also a way for the school to save resources—both financial and environmental. All schools spend a large amount of money on paper, and although Gunn has made a start in reducing paper waste—especially with the shift from a printed version of the monthly n e w s l e t t e r, The Spotlight, to an online v e r s i o n—i t can still do more to save paper.

Te a c h e r s often print many more copies of handouts and worksheets than are actually used by students.

If teachers posted all handouts on InClass, students could print them out on their own. This way, teachers would only have to make a few copies, as extras for

The Opinion of The Oracle

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Write us with your thoughts on The Oracle’s coverage or any other issues you care about. We’d love to hear from you.

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students who forget to print them or for some reason can’t. As long as teachers encourage students to print documents at home rather than in the computer labs and enforce the computer labs’ printing guidelines, the school would save a great deal of money and cut down on the paper waste it generates.

As the community becomes more high-tech, Palo Alto schools, including Gunn, must continue to progress along with it and make use of online resources. InClass is not a substitute for face-to-face interaction between students and teachers. Rather, it is just one more tool teachers can use to help their students succeed.

—Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the staff (in agreement: 35; opposed: 7).

Correction:

March Issue Vol. 43, issue 6

n In “Teachers showcase creativity outside of Gunn” (p.13), social studies teacher Lauren Cory did not work with Jennifer Love Hewitt and taught only in the Los Angeles Unified School District, not in the Salt Lake City School District.

The Oracle regrets past errors and invites readers to correct any in the future by contacting a staff member or by sending an email to gunnoracle@yahoo.com.

Traditional prom etiquette suggests that guys pay for tickets and transportation, while girls pay for pictures.

This tradition most likely dates back to the time when women didn’t work and therefore weren’t expected to pay for dances or dates.

The lack of financial equality between the sexes was justified by chivalry: Men paid for women, expecting them to pay them back in other ways.

Naturally, the same rules filtered down to youth.

Because economic inequality is no longer as blatant, however, chivalry is no longer applicable. While discounting chivalry deprives women of certain perks, like reduced financial responsibility, it also frees them from obligation. With prom expenses, the untold expectation was, and maybe still is, that if the guy pays for his date, the girl is still supposed to contribute in other ways.

To free themselves from this obligation, girls should offer to pay for half the prom expenses.

Another reason a girl should offer to pay is out of respect for her date, who may feel burdened by the costs, but too embarrassed to ask for her support. On the other hand, if a girl has reason to think that her date is paying out of pure generosity, then there is no need to insist upon paying.

Couples should be wary, however, of attempting to calculate exact financial equality. All in all, girls probably pay more for their attire and preparation than guys do—dresses, hairdos and makeup usually cost more than a tuxedo rental.

Should guys, then, pay some of these costs? No. First off, although girls may claim that expectation calls for professionally done hair and makeup, they choose to spend the money because of the satisfaction they receive from being pampered.

More importantly, striving for exact equality is a slippery slope—if you factor in the cost of attire and preparation into the sum to divide, why not include time spent shopping?

Couples should strive for fairness when paying for prom, but not obsess over complete financial equality.

—Hodge, a junior, is a Forum editor.

Forum

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

7

Jennifer Lim

The Juana Briones house was originally a California state landmark, but the owners will soon demolish it to build a luxury home atop the monument.

The 160-year-old house has historical and archaeological significance to the community, which is why various local groups have tried to preserve it.

Demolition of Juana Briones house a mistake Maya Itah

S

ince its construction in the 19th century, the Juana Briones house has been an integral part of California.

The house was built by a Mexican-American businesswoman and landowner named Juana Briones.

Briones was no ordinary woman— she broke gender stereotypes, won a battle for her property against the Supreme Court and took in sailors, ill people and even families from Japanese internment camps. Yet in less than a month, her house may undergo an immoral, selfish and possibly even illegal demolition.

Although it may not seem so today, the house used to be a California state landmark. Palo

Alto signed the Mills Act in 1988, ensuring that the house could not be demolished by its owners.

About a decade later, Jaim Nulman and Avelyn Welczer bought the property with the intention of abiding by the act. A year later, they opted out of it and applied for a demolition permit. Palo Alto rejected the request, so the Nulmans sued.

The city counter-sued, claiming the owners were violating the Mills Act. Eventually, the Nulmans exhausted the city with high-powered lawyers and won, allowing them to build a luxury home atop the demolished historic monument.

However, a newly mformed group, the Friends of the Juana Briones House recently filed a lawsuit alleging that since the city did not complete an environmental impact report on the demolition, it is violating the California Environmental Quality Act. The city does not plan to contest the group’s demands for a report.

Briones’ house should not endure mistreatment and disrespect,

as it is important to both historians and anthropologists as representations of early California life. Because Briones was illiterate, there are no existing personal documents to remember her by—in short, her home is nearly all historians have.

Furthermore, the structure itself is very unique: the house has a wooden frame encased in adobe instead of the typical adobe brick style that was common at the time.

The only other remaining structure of a similar style is the Search Ranch House in Carmel Valley. After the United States’ annexation of California, incoming Americans—who acquired much of the land from Mexican landowners—destroyed most of the adobe structures for the sake of development.

Though the Briones house was modified by later owners, it remains unique and full of archaeological potential. Native medicinal herbs used by Briones grow around the building, and hundreds have visited the area in order to gain insight into

archaeologists’ work, as well as to participate in hands-on history lessons.

Besides being archaeologically significant, the house is important to numerous Hispanic heritage groups. During California’s annexation, it was extremely difficult for Spanish-speaking landowners to prove claims to their land. In addition to being one of merely 34 Californian women to receive patent to her land grant claims, Briones belongs to a tiny minority of Mexican women who had purchased a grant on their own rather than receiving the land from a husband or relative. Her story of independence is a priceless part of a history that, according to Stanford history professor Albert Camarillo, rarely gets proper recognition.

The demolition of the house has also raised legal issues. The California Environmental Quality Act requires an evaluation of the possible environmental impacts of any project. The owners’ lawyers claimed that the Briones house

is exempt from review, but there have been strong questions as to the validity of that claim. The owners’ lawyers had also raised doubt on whether the house actually belonged to Briones, but the only historian to ever claim otherwise was hired by the owners themselves.

The value of the Briones house to our community is undeniable.

At 160 years old, it is the oldest house in Palo Alto, giving the city character beyond the modern hightech companies and luxury homes it is known for.

Juana Br iones Elementa r y School students have even sent out letters begging for the house’s preservation. In the end, Palo Alto lost the battle—the Briones house will probably be demolished regardless of its worth. However, this situation should serve as a reminder to us all to get involved when a part of our community, and state, is in danger of being destroyed.

—Itah, a sophomore, is a reporter.

Proposed increase in school lunch prices not the solution

District should serve local, higher quality food to solve financial difficulties

Carissa Ratanaphanyarat This year, the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) lost a record $600,000 from the school lunch program, due to decreased business among students and staff.

However, instead of taking this as a sign that the program needs improvement, the district has proposed increasing prices and offering free or cheaper food to Palo Alto High School (Paly) students. Instead of raising prices, the district should order from a closer food service program or hire a cook so students can eat fresh and delicious food every day.

PAUSD should not increase food prices.

Doing so would only further decrease the number of students who buy their lunch from the program. Prices are already high enough at school in comparison with other vendors that serve even better food. If PAUSD raises prices, students will stock up on cheap junk food from the vending machines or skip lunch altogether, causing even further financial losses. Furthermore, students will do poorly in school because of their lack of brain food.

Lowering lunch prices at Paly will not help the situation either. The district has proposed offering cheap, “grab and go” lunches to Paly students. However, with Town and Country Village right across the street, the majority of Paly students will not buy them. Pursuing this possibility would only cause the district to lose more money.

Instead of increasing prices and serving cheaper lunches especially to Paly students, the district should focus on improving food

taste and quality in order to encourage students to buy their lunch at school. If food is better, students will be more willing to pay higher prices, which will help pull the district out of debt.

One way to fix this problem would be to order from a new food company. Currently, the district orders its food from Chartwells, a North Carolina-based catering company.

Although the company tries to provide healthy choices for students, the food obviously doesn’t appeal to students’ taste buds.

Instead, PAUSD should find a local catering company that uses local ingredients. Not only does locally-grown food taste better, the district would be able to support the local agricultural economy. Furthermore, local food is much better for the environment, because it takes less oil and energy to ship it to its final destination.

The district may also consider building kitchens in every school, and hiring chefs to

cook. Ironically, not all the district schools even have kitchens, and those that do merely use them to heat food up. Food could actually be cooked instead of just being heated up. If schools provided more delicious food, this would naturally increase the amount of people buying school lunch every day.

PAUSD is a wealthy and high-achieving school district, and its students deserve fresh, good-quality food. Raising prices and selling free or cheap “grab and go” lunches to Paly students will not improve PAUSD’s financial situation nor the health of its students—rather, it will just plunge the district deeper into debt.

Instead, the district should rethink its food program once and for all and sell food that students want to eat. Not only will students be happier, the district’s financial problems will fix themselves.

—Ratanaphanyarat, a freshman, is a reporter.

8

The Oracle

Forum

Giving foreign aid hurts U.S., Africa Alex Lee

n One in eight Americans lives in poverty n 3.5 million Americans have been homeless for a significant period of time n 720,000 of Americans are chronically homeless n The U.S. spends $3 billion in African aid every year Sources: 2004 U.S. Census Bureau, The Urban Institute, U.S. Agency for International Development

In Darfur, hundreds of thousands, no, millions of the African people are dying every year. Clearly, this wanton murder spree of over 2.5 million people is a problem—and that’s just in one small corner of the troubled continent. But when millions of people are being raped, tortured, starved and killed, most Americans tend to lose logical thought. People think to themselves, “Yes, President George Bush and the United States of America should be doing something about it.” However, the United States has no obligation to spend its money, its resources or its manpower in the desolate drain that is Africa.

We already have enough problems here at home—we don’t need to burden ourselves with more..

In the United States, we are all Americans—so our first and foremost allegiance should be to America and other American citizens. After all, we live together, we fight together and we even pay taxes together. But with the media’s dramatic over coverage of the Darfur genocide, we tend to forget our fellow Americans. We forget that the United States still has the highest poverty rate among all developed countries. According to the 2004 U.S. Census Bureau, about one in eight Americans lives in poverty.

Since then, the situation has only grown worse. In New Orleans, people are still living in government-issued trailers. But that’s not all—according to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization, about 3.5 million U.S. residents have been homeless for a significant period of time.

Even worse, 720,000 of these people are chronically homeless and can hardly eke out a living. To top it off, over one million children sleep on the streets or in homeless shelters every night. These large numbers don’t just represent people—they represent our fellow Americans, and they deserve our help. Every dollar of aid we spend on the African people is another dollar

out of the mouths of hungry Americans.

Poor starving Americans are not the only ones suffering from the African money drain. Soldiers, too, suffer from a lack of federal funding as a result of the unnecessary aid sent to the continent.

American troops often go into battle without necessary body armor and equipment.

Most American soldiers ride in vehicles vulnerable to the improvised explosive devices that Iraqi insurgents use. Armored vehicles immune to these devices exist, but the U.S. can only buy a very few, due to insufficient funding. Clearly, the $3 billion dollars the U.S Agency for International Development is spending on Africa could be shifted to fund solutions to American problems.

The United States does not have unlimited money to fund unlimited needs.

At the moment, we are running an $8 trillion debt, with money pouring out to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the debt keeps increasing, interest rates are bound to increase, which will, in turn, hurt the American economy.

At least the money and material aid helped out the African people, right?

Wrong—it was the aid and the money that made Africa the way it is today. Aid does not usually reach the poor it is originally intended for—corruption pushes money into the hands of dictators and tyrants.

Giving Africans material aid is even worse. The United States donates clothes, food and other basic goods to Africa. Africans then either receive these goods for free or pay a minimal amount for them. The insatiable demand for these secondhand Western goods has turned their sale into an actual industry. While it does help Africans combat their struggle against poverty, it also destroys the African economy.

African factories cannot afford to c r e at e p r o duct s because it is now cheaper for the people to buy secondhand American goods than it is to buy products from their own country, putting thousands of Africans out of work

and forcing them deeper into destitution.

While it may seem harsh to reduce the battle for survival in Africa to a mere matter of economics, it is imperative that we do so. Yes, Darfur is indeed a tragedy—but what price does the United States have to pay to get Sudan out of it?

How many dead American soldiers and billions of American dollars do we have to spend to fix the problem? If Sudan depends on America to deal with its internal issues, when will it learn to deal with these problems on their own? It’s obvious that Africa is still working under bondage. The chains, shackles and whips are gone, but they have been replaced by aid and money from America. By not withdrawing our help, we are keeping them oppressed.

After all, if they keep depending on American aid, they will remain poor and unable to better their living conditions.

They need to do something about the dictators and the destroyed economy on their own. Africa and the African people need to step up and take their lives into their own hands.

Graphic by Julius Tarng

Media focus on Virginia Tech gunman’s ethnicity unnecessary

Alex Chang I’m shocked and sad at the fact that a Korean guy did this. What was he thinking?

He must not have cared about the hundreds of thousands of Korean-Americans living in this country, or the pride of Korea itself. He must not have cared about the promising young students that he slaughtered at Virginia Tech (VT).

What happened was horrible and deserves the full attention of the media. However, I was reading and watching the story from various sources, and every time they mentioned his name, they mentioned that he was South Korean—as if we were savages or aliens. I do believe it’s worth mentioning, but it’s completely unnecessary to emphasize his nationality as all the reporters did.

In many ways, the reporters were tying the two terms together—South Korean and VT shooting. Lucky for the rest of us Koreans, the VT shooting will be one of the first things to jump out in minds of people when they hear that we are from Korea.

After all, why does his nationality matter so much? It could have been anyone. Not to

mention the fact that he lived 15 years of his life in the United States. No one ever complained about the Columbine kids being white or American, so why must they emphasize it for this case?

No matter the efforts, some type of racial discrimination is bound to take place, and I’m really embarrassed that we have to suffer because of his ridiculous actions. I really wish I could apologize to the rest of the country as a Korean-American, especially to those at Virginia Tech.

Having said all this, I don’t feel any less prideful as a Korean-American student. If anything, troubles from this are just another thing the Korean-American community has to overcome in order to maintain our back-

grounds and honor in our Korean ancestry.

We should be aware that any racial discrimination will spring from lack of education and acceptance. It’s not us Korean-Americans that are at fault, but the uneducated racists that place the actions of one on everyone else.

I hope that no school has to experience this tragedy ever again. I hope those that are close to the victims deal well with this incident. I hope for minimal racism against the Koreans in this country. I hope for the best for everyone not only in the United States, but also in Korea.

—Chang, a senior, is a guest columnist this issue.

780 Arastradero Rd Palo Alto, CA 94306 (650) 354-8238 http://gunn.pausd.org/oracle

Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief Gea Kang Senior Managing

Lauren Krensky, Dan Li

News Stéphanie Keller-Busque, Alex Lee, Vivien Tsao (associate) Forum

Caroline Hodge, Shiv Kachru, Andrea Yung

Features

Nathaniel Eisen, Michelle Fang, Jonathan Gu

Centerfold

Thomas Bao, Sasha Guttentag

Entertainment Ana Kostioukova, Stephen Salazar, Boris Burkov (associate) Sports

Libby Craig, Eric Johnston, Adrienne Nguyen

Photography Jennifer Lim Graphics

Julius Tarng

Technical

Alex Lee, Dan Li Staff

Business

Nina Nielepko

Circulation

Meilin Luh, Alex Tom

Senior Photographer Christopher Wu Photographers

Matthew Lee, Cosmo Sung

Graphics Artists Dezmon Hunter, Lucy Li, Brian Phan Reporters

Aurelle Amram, Scott Benitez, Aviel Chang, Danielle Edelman, Priya Ghose, Amarelle Hanyecz, Beth Holtzman, Dezmon Hunter, Maya Itah, Noah Johnson, Fi Kazi, Susan Lee, Jocelyn Ma, Alex Rasgon, Carissa Ratanaphanyarat, Ryan Tan, Jeffrey Wang, Bauer Wann, Tenny Zhang

Adviser

Kristy Garcia The Oracle is published by and for the students of Henry M. Gunn Senior High School. The unsigned editorials that appear in this publication represent the majority opinion of the editorial staff and The Oracle's commitment to promoting students' rights. The Oracle strongly encourages and prints signed Letters to the Editor. Please include your name, grade and contact information should you choose to write one. Letters may be edited to meet space requirements and the writer is solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Letters to the editor and ideas for coverage may be sent to gunnoracle@yahoo.com.

These letters and ideas need not be from current students. The Oracle publishes 10 issues annually. Subscriptions are $40/year.

9

Schedule showdown: Should we stick with rotating schedule?

Dezmon Hunter

Gunn schedule already works well, no need to change it

T

he rotating vs. block schedule debate raises the question, “Why bother fixing what was never broken?” At Gunn, our rotating schedules allows us to hold assemblies, tutorials and sport practices, and a block schedule would only make things more complicated, causing friction in a system that is already smooth.

CON

The Oracle

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

PRO

Forum

Amarelle Hanyecz

Block schedule eases stress, allows more in-depth lectures

M

ath. Bell. English. Bell. Science. Bell.

So the day goes until six classes have passed and your mind is ready to explode.

Your homework includes material from four or five subjects every night. With too many different classes in one day, students cannot learn in-depth and are more stressed out overall. The solution: a block schedule.

Gunn students should not be forced to obtain their high school education via With a block schedule, students would long classes with never-ending lectures. A have four 90-minute classes each day. Time block schedule would only make the days usually spent moving between classes, relonger and make the students feel like their minding everyone what they learned the classes last forever, a disaster for someone day before and getting the class started who needs to keep moving and does not would be converted into learning time. have an attention span of an hour and Longer classes let students and teacha half. If a student has trouble with ers have more intense, deeper lesa particular teacher and is forced sons and discussion. Furthermore, to spend a third of his school classes would be able to have day with her, it could cripple his activities that require more than learning abilities by refusing him 60 minutes to complete, like labs. the variety of teaching styles that the Fans of our current rotating schedule rotating schedule offers. Nobody wants would argue that students would have a hard to hear a teacher drone on for 90 minutes, and a time focusing for 90 minutes. In reality, it is much block schedule will make students lose their focus. harder for students to mentally switch back and forth With the schedule we have, none of these problems are presbetween subjects every 60 minutes. In a 1997 survey done ent. At the same time, a rotating schedule allows students to by the State Board of Education in North Carolina using 25 high stretch their legs and get some fresh air every hour, and everyone schools with block schedules, 75 percent of students preferred the can agree that students will be able to focus better if they get a schedule over a rotating one, claiming they were able to retain the chance to walk around outside the classroom, albeit for only five information better and manage their time more efficiently. minutes.

A block schedule would also reduce student stress. If students With a rotating schedule, the administration has the ability to did not have every class everyday, they would be able to manage plan and program activities more effectively as well. For example, their time better, with at least two days to complete all homework without Gunn’s schedule, assemblies would have to be 30 minutes assignments. Also, students might like the fact that they would not longer or a class period would be shortened by half an hour. Tuhave to see their teachers and peers four times a week. torial on Tuesdays would go out the window, as they would also There are a few ways the school could change our schedule short-change one period. In Paly’s block schedule, dismissal is into a block style. The first schedule the school could adopt is at 3 or 3:05 p.m. every day. Adding a tutorial would mean that a four-by-four block schedule—there would be four 90-minute one period would have to be taken out every week, giving classes classes a day, with “A” days and “B” days alternating. Students unequal amounts of time to meet every week. If an extra period would either be able to take an eighth class or a prep period. were added on every tutorial day, it would also interfere with the The school could also adopt a more complicated rotating block BLOCK SCHED 2 WKS athletes’ sports schedules, since practice for all sports begins at similar to the one at Paly. With this schedule, some classes are 90 Wk 1 Time T are W 50 Thminutes F 3:30 P.M. minutes long and M others long. Staff meetings are In fact, the only way for the block schedule to be 8:30-10:00 feasible held in the morning 1so5students 1 5can 1 sleep in twice a week during at Gunn would be for every activity to be re-scheduled,10:05-11:35 which the first semester. 2 A last 6 option 2 6 would 2 be to have three days of would be unnecessary and change the true identity of the block our rotating schedule on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 11:40-1:45 (includes 3 7 3 7 3 and Thursdays with four schedule. Although some may prefer to have a block schedule, to havelunch) a block schedule on Tuesdays 1:50-3:30 4 8 4 8 4a trial of any of these options the fact is that we already have a system in place that works, and classes each day. Gunn could have changing it would just cause unnecessary hassleWk for both that spans over a few 2 students Time M weeks T W in Thorder F to see how the students and and faculty. Unless we want to change the block to accommodate faculty respond to it.

8:30-10:00 5 1 5 1 5 our schedule here at Gunn, we should continue with our rotating A block schedule would be beneficial to Gunn’s students and 6 with 2 less 6 transition 2 6 time would help students one making our lives easier and creating a learning place10:05-11:35 that is staff. Longer classes already accepted by a variety of students. go more in-depth with and7a more flexible homework load 11:40-1:45 (includes lunch) 7 learning 3 7 3 would help to alleviate stress among the students. Maybe this is a 1:50-3:30 8 4 8 4 8 —Hunter, a junior, is a reporter. case where Gunn can adopt something useful from Paly.

BLOCK SCHED 2 WKS Wk 1 Time 8:30-10:00 10:05-11:35 11:40-1:45 (includes lunch) 1:50-3:30 Wk 2 Time 8:30-10:00 10:05-11:35 11:40-1:45 (includes lunch) 1:50-3:30

—Hanyecz, a freshman, is a reporter.

ROTATING SCHED Time M T W Th F 8:00-9:00 1 7 5 4 2 9:05-10:05 2 1 6 5 3 10:10-11:10 3 2 7 6 4 11:15-12:15 4 3 1 7 5 12:15-1:00 lunch lunch lunch lunch lunch 1:00-2:00 5 4 2 1 6 2:00-3:00 6 3 7

M T W Th F 1 5 1 5 1 2 6 2 6 2 3 7 3 7 3 4 8 4 8 4 M T W Th F 5 1 5 1 5 6 2 6 2 6 7 3 7 3 7 Graphs by Thomas Bao Graphics by Lucy Li and Thomas Bao 8 4 8 SCHED 4 8 1 WK BLOCK Time Monday/Wed/Fri Time Tues If Gunn were to adopt a block schedule, this four-by-four schedule would be an option, where there are four 90-minute SCHED 7:50-8:40 1 8:15-9:45 classes a day, with “A” andROTATING “B” days alternating.

Gunn’s current rotating schedule consists of only 60-minute classes.

Time M T W Th F 8:45-9:35 2 9:50-10:20 Adv 8:00-9:00 1 7 5 4 2 9:50-10:40 3 10:30-12:00

10

Features

The Oracle

Program provides home base, skills for disabled students Orthopedically Handicapped class creates personalized programs for ‘invisible’ students Michelle Fang Features Editor

The Orthopedically Handicapped (OH) class in room L-12 houses a unique group of students and teachers who form a mini-family in the Gunn community.

Because of each student’s varying abilities, the class offers a variety of support. Each student is provided with an individually designed program that accommodates his specific disability and personal learning style. For example, some students with less severe disabilities can attend regular classes and only have to go to the OH class to receive extra help on homework, to study and to hang out with their friends.

“The students are working individually or in small groups with the teachers or aides rather than in one

large group as in other classes at Gunn,” Fox said. “The students that I teach reading and math to are just beginning to learn these subjects, so we use lots of manipulatives and games to help them master basic skills.”

Furthermore, the class has a transition plan for each student to help them get the services they need after they graduate.

The class has two speech therapists, a vision specialist and several aides. Aide Gretchen Berg feels that the OH class enhances students’ social and academic abilities. “I feel this class is a calming and a good working environment because it keeps them motivated and it’s fun at the same,” Berg said.

Though the program is well designed to fit the needs of its students, there are still some daily ob-

Kelli Lee (11) As an avid traveler, athlete and student, Junior Kelli Lee knows how to make the most of life. Lee has been part of the OH classes at Juana Briones, Terman and Gunn since she was two years old.

Lee was born with a neurological disorder called cerebral palsy, which limits a person’s ability to move but does not affect the brain or mentality. “I have a hard time picking up stuff and walking for long distances,” Lee said.

Lee has to travel occasionally to Juana Briones for physical and occupational

Charlie Colby (10) Sophomore Charlie Colby likes to challenge her individualistic mind and learn to create out of the box. However, Colby has to contend with cerebral palsy.

“It is difficult for me to walk a lot, but I get better over time,” Colby said. “I used to go to therapy in Juana Briones but now I improved a lot so I do not do physical therapy.”

Colby currently takes English, U.S. government, math, biology, interior design, and physical education. Her aide,

stacles the teachers must face. “To me, the biggest challenge is finding the time to plan and implement individualized programs for eleven different students,” Fox said.

Originally, the OH program was offered at Juana Briones but is now available at Gunn. Some students still go to Juana Briones for additional therapy such as speech and physical therapy.

Cosmo Sung Despite all the efforts Teacher Janet Fox (front) and students master basic skills by playof the class and a caring games in the Orthopedically Handicapped class. ing staff, there are still some social challenges confronting students, according to dents is that other people’s attitudes “Sometimes they are the ‘invisible’ Fox. “The students can speak for toward them and their disabilities is students because other students are themselves on their challenges, but often more of a problem than the afraid to approach them or get to one thing I have heard from stu- disabilities themselves,” Fox said. know them.”

therapy to practice moving and exercising.

However, as Lee gets older, the therapy will become more advanced but less frequent—perhaps twice a month.

Lee’s schedule is packed with classes, sports and hobbies. Besides the OH class, Lee attends a variety of Gunn classes, including U.S. history, choir, Mandarin Chinese and Algebra 2. Choir has allowed Lee to travel to many places such as Italy and Mexico. “I would like to go all over the world and see all the cultures,” she said.

One of Lee’s favorite activities outside of class is baseball, which Lee has played for five years. Lee is currently part of the San Jose Police Activities League Junior Giants team, which is a sports program specifically for disabled children.

In addition to sports, Lee likes to participates in campus activities during the school year. “I go to all the events at school like homecoming and football games,” Lee said.

Lee plans to graduate next year and possibly go to Foothill or De Anza. Ultimately, she would like to attend a fouryear university. “In the future, I would like to get a job in engineering or computers,” Lee said.

Jessica, provides support and help in biology and study skills.

Colby likes to keep in touch with her creative side. One of her favorite hobbies is to go shopping with her caretaker, Sarah Baker. Always interested in fashion, Colby’aspires to be a fashion designer.

Not only is she always on the lookout for clothes and accessories at favorite stores like Target, she also designs her own Tshirts as a hobby. “I love to go shopping for clothes, accessories and movies,” Colby said. “Also, my favorite movie is ‘Adventures of Shark Boy’ and ‘Lava Girl 3D’.”

Another one of Colby’s hobbies is chess. When there is free time, Colby will be playing chess with Junior Justin Steinberg and others. And while at home, Colby practices her chess skills on the computer.

Luckily, Colby has the wide support from her prodigious group of family and friends. “I have two brothers named Chuck and Clint and two sisters,” Colby said. One of Colby’s favorite time of the year is her annual family reunion every summer in different places across the United States.

Justin Steinberg (11) Junior Justin Steinberg is an outgoing student who likes to get involved in everything and be a leader.

Steinberg was born with a disorder called Nystagmus, which prevents him from seeing clearly because of damage to the optical nerve. Nystagmus causes rapid oscillations of the eyes, and for Steinberg, some social discomfort. “My vision sometimes makes me left out,” he said. “For example, people talk about driving, but I can’t talk too much about it.”

However, he tries to look on the bright

Sara Moussavian (11) Sophomore Sara Moussavian knows how to find the fun side of things. Always optimistic and cheerful, Moussavian enjoys meeting new people and hanging out with friends.

Moussavian was born with a disorder called Apert’s Syndrome. This disorder is caused by a genetic defect during pregnancy and results in some mental difficulties. “I learn differently from others,” Moussavian said. “For example, it’s hard for me to learn from PowerPoint or

side of things and continues to take every opportunity to do sports. “I don’t let this stop me from doing sports I like such as hockey or basketball,” Steinberg said.

Steinberg likes to keep active in his spare time. One of Steinberg’s favorite sports is basketball. He participates in a program called the Special Olympics every Saturday. “It is a chance for people with disabilities to play an organized sport,” he said. In eighth grade, Steinberg’s basketball team won two gold medals.

Also, Steinberg enjoys spending time chatting in online forums. “I really like chatting online but my parents are strict,” he said.

Besides his hobbies, Steinberg attends classes such as Algebra 2, U.S. history, astronomy and band. However, Steinberg holds the OH class closest to his heart, as it is where he has formed many friendships with peers and student aide Cris. “Cris is one of my most trusted aides who helped me with astronomy and concepts on tests,” Steinberg said.

Steinberg has not reached a decision about his future but he is interested in the field of astronomy. Presently, he is concerned with other matters. “I just want

from visuals because I need it to be broken down to understand.”

Because of her disability, Moussavian had to overcome many challenges in life. For her, making friends sometimes poses a challenge, although she is very outgoing. “People get the wrong impression of me,” she said. “Just because they heard something from someone else, their opinion is going to stay that way. My disability affected me not only socially but it also affected people’s first impression of me.”

Her challenges with her disorder have allowed Moussavian to learn how valuable her life is. “I feel grateful for the people I have and what I have.”

Moussavian attends Algebra I, Environmental Science, U.S. government, English, Web Page Design and physical education. Moussavian receives help on homework in the OH class. She has cultivated many friendships with the people there such as with study aide, Gretchen Berg, who has known Moussavian since fifth grade and provides her with much emotional support. “The physical disability class is a group of people who will always be there for you,” Moussavian said.

Features

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

11

Freshman’s imagination takes flight

Michael Norcia takes model-building one step further Maya Itah

Reporter

Cosmo Sung

Michael Norcia tests the strength of the wood he plans to build a plane with. He hopes to fly the plane one day.

Some people build model airplanes—freshman Michael Norcia builds the life-sized kind. Norcia plans to be one of the first amateurs to combine a traditional garage airplane with advanced electric technology.

“I’m building mostly for fun, but if [the plane] actually works it would be a huge innovation,” Norcia said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if something came out of it.”

The idea struck Norcia during spring break while he was working at Campus Bike Shop at Stanford. “I kind of just had an epiphany that it’s possible,” he said.

Currently, the people taking on the project are engineers with big budgets, but Norcia is confident he can succeed armed only with knowledge learned from model airplanes. “I have been building remote control planes for maybe eight years,” he said. “I have seen many high level fancy shmancy wing designs and have done a few myself.”

As for the actual piloting of the plane, Norcia claims it is perfectly legal to do so without experience. “My plane is in the ultralight category, so there’s no training required to fly it,” he said. “It’s ironic, though, because those are the most risky planes to fly.”

Norcia’s friend freshman Nathan White expects Norcia to succeed but not without trial-and-error. “I think he’s going to have to test a lot of things multiple times,” White said. “I’ve been encouraging him to

make the plane in remote control first.”

Norcia is currently in the planning stage. He is perfecting a previous rough design as well as figuring out how the plane could fly safely, although he has had difficulty receiving expert opinions. “When it comes to putting someone in the air, people become very cautious,” Norcia said. However, a friend from Stanford agreed to give him a run-through on the subject, which in theory gave Norcia the tools to build a plane without having to rely on intuition. The question is whether that theory can be turned into reality.

“The building is starting to look like it will take much longer than I first thought,” Norcia said. “As I go along with designing [the plane], I keep coming up with more complex ideas, which will take more time.”

Unusually enough, Norcia is constructing the plane in his home, which is possible because the plane is under 500 pounds and can be broken into parts. “I just kind of build it in the living room,” he said. “There’s a space cleared out for me.”

Norcia thinks that his parents are taking the project well. They support the construction and will decide whether or not to let Norcia fly once the plane is actually built. “I’ve built enough small planes that my parents are confident in my abilities,” Norcia said.

He hopes to fly the plane by the end of the summer.

“I’d like to say I’ll have it done by then, but I really don’t know,” he said. There is no telling what will happen once it takes to the air, but he is confident that the effort put into the dangerous project will be worth it.

Hopeful student in Ghana strives for an education An Oracle reporter meets a security guard during visit to the African country

Nathaniel Eisen I recently spent seven days in the impoverished yet modernizing and vibrant West-African country of Ghana. From March 13 to 20, my parents and I visited my sister Shulie (’04), who is studying abroad there at a university outside of the capital, Accra.

Ghana was the first country to gain independence from a colonial power (under the British it was known as “The Gold Coast”), and it celebrated its 50th anniversary on March 6.

However, most of its citizens still live in houses made out of wood and tin, without running water and with open sewers bordering the streets upon which they live. Poverty is widespread. English is the official language, although several native languages are spoken as well.

My sister lives off-campus in an average neighborhood— her house and several around it are made of stucco and are gated, but right next door are shacks. My parents and I stayed at a hotel nearby, and it is there that I met David Ketechie.

Ketechie is currently working as a security guard at the

Nathaniel Eisen

Security guard David Ketechie hopes to save enough money to go to college.

hotel, in order to save enough money to attend the same university at which my sister is studying, the University of Ghana at Legon. He is 21, and graduated from a senior secondary school in June 2006. (Students begin junior secondary school at age 16, and senior secondary school at age 18). He hopes to study computer science at the university. “Nowadays the world is made up of science and technology,” Ketechie said.

“I like computer animation and multimedia.”

To achieve this goal, Ketechie studied biology, chemistry and physics in secondary school and studied long hours—he left home at 6 a.m. and returned at 5 p.m.

Ketechie’s parents split up, and he lived with his mother through secondary school. To be closer to his job, he now lives with his older sisters, who are 29 and 32 years old. He worries about money frequently. “I need someone to help me up,” he said. “I’m not financially sound.” However, he hopes that a degree will lead to more security. “After university, doors will be wide open,” Ketechie said.

As I worry over where to go to college, I try to keep the decision in perspective. I think of David Ketechie, working as a security guard every night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m, in order to save enough money to reach for a better life. So much is determined by the circumstances into which we are born. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to see some of the inequalities of this world. I can only hope that I will use my college experience as well as Ketechie plans to.

—Eisen, a senior, is a Features editor.

Attention seniors! å You should have received a Senior Destinations form and a senior survey in your English class last week. Please remember to fill out both forms and return them to the manila envelope labeled “Oracle Senior Destinations” in your English class by Wednesday, May 9. If you have not received either form, email a request to gunnoracle@yahoo.com.

Thank you for your help!

ç Remember to go to the senior assembly today during B period for graduation information and a panorama photo.

12

Cente

The Oracle

What’s your definition of “ joy”?

The new psycholo Cheerfulness at Gunn

Gabriel Rivera (10)

“To be able to fulfill and complete my goals is my fundamental definition of happiness.”

Gabi Hopkins (11)

“Happiness is being able to go through a day and still enjoy yourself when you are encountered by any person or situation.”

By the numbers...

6%

of Gunn students are happy 0 to 25% of the time

9%

of Gunn students are happy 25 to 50% of the time

49%

of Gunn students are happy 50 to 75% of the time

of Gunn students are 36% happy What75 makes youofunhapp to 100% the

Jeremy Hsia (12)

“Enjoying the simple things in life.”

Wh at m

time

unhapp u o sy e ak Ot

15

School 48.9%

Frie 14.

Jon Nolan (11)

“No worries and having abright smile on your face.”

When are you the happiest?

Jun-Hyun Kim (10)

“To have a happy family, good and loyal friends and to be with my girlfriend Kanako Suzuki.”

18% of students are happiest from morning to midday

12%

from

Erica Maggiora (11)

“Anything you do or see that puts a big smile on your face.”

—Compiled by Nina Nielepko

Photos by Cosmo Sung

28% of students are happiest from nighttime to morning

erfold

ogy: finding bliss

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

13

Economics of happiness

Breakthroughs, research follow the mysteries of happiness Boris Burkov Associate Entertainment Editor

Although positive psychology is a field that has been making steady progress over the years, it has generally been in the shadows of traditional psychology. Yes, some research has pinpointed which chemicals cause which emotions, but compared to the search for the causes of unhappiness, there has been a much smaller effort to find the psychological roots of happiness in human beings. Psychology has prowled through the ugly depths of the human mind looking for illnesses and disorders to fix. However, times are changing, and Martin Seligman, the new president of the American Psychological Association (APA), is playing a big role in the changes. He hopes to bring much more focus to the field of positive psychology, with the hope that science can decode the secret to true happiness.

In contrast to more traditional methods, positive psychology looks to improve life, rather than just restore it to normal.

According to psychology teacher John Hebert, “it is a more humanistic psychology, with emphasis on maximizing abilities instead of seeing where you are deficient.”

This push for positive thinking has made several key discoveries. Psychologists have tried to deduce the parts of people’s lives that make them happiest. They have found that the three most important traits in a person’s happiness are pleasure, gratitude and optimism. For instance, a shortterm spurt of happiness might be caused by a bar of chocolate or sexual intercourse, which increase pleasure and temporarily increase happiness. However, gratitude and optimism are far more important for long-term

py most frequently?

? ntly ue eq

py m ost fr ther 5.2%

Family 21.2%

ends .7%

happiness. Giving back to the community, interacting and caring for family and friends, having an enjoyable job—all of these add to gratitude and optimism. In fact, Hebert adds that these strengths can be developed through training. “It has been demonstrated that you can train people to have more gratitude and optimism,” Hebert said.

However, these theories and rules are not perfect. Every person is different and so of course is each individual’s understanding of happiness. The problem is that positive psychology can be very vague and unclear. “It is very difficult to come up with scientific definitions of such things as ‘happiness or ‘optimism,’” Hebert said. If psychology cannot really define the quality discussed by a study, then the conclusions of the study may not be as effective as they seem. For instance, a sure fire path to happiness for one may be ineffectual for others. Especially confounding are positive thinking techniques, such as telling yourself each day that you will be happy. Even though this technique has been proven to have a positive effect on happiness when compared to a control group of people who do not take the self-affirming steps, it is hard to imagine such a method curing depression. People are at the mercy of their circumstances, and no matter how many good, positive things you tell yourself, if you have a bad day it is doubtful that those utterances will be of any utility.

Even though it may seem that positive psychology has taken a backseat to more negative methods in the past, it is not as if it is a completely new field. “It’s been growing for some time,” Hebert said. “It’s pretty well entrenched, so it’s going to be around for a long time.” This indicates that great progress has already been made, and that this growth can only continue as positive psychology gains more prevalence.

5 positive thinking tips 1. Don’t make the mistake of generalizing a single incident. Okay, you made a mistake, but that doesn’t mean you’re bad at life.

2. Make sure you take a long look at incidents that you’re finding stressful. Just because you’re finding that something new is stressful doesn’t mean that it will ALWAYS be in the future.

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3. If you find it difficult to look at your negative thoughts with a clear head, imagine the negative thoughts were written by a friend who needs advice. How would you advise him?

% of students are happiest m midday to evening

4. Your goals are most achievable if they are specific and are better if expressed as “I can,” and not “I want.”

5. First, decide rationally what goals you can realistically attain with hard work, and then use positive thinking to reinforce these.

Source: Mindtools.com

—267 students surveyed

Graphics by Brian Phan and Lucy Li

—Compiled by Noah Johnson

Roni Habib By this point in the academic year, all of my students probably know that I love lychee. This oriental fruit is incredible! I especially like the lychee shake I used to have at a restaurant when I lived in Boston. I remember going with some friends to this restaurant and telling them that I bet I could finish eight lychee shakes in one seating. My friends thought I was crazy but they were curious to know if I could indeed do so. The idea of drinking eight lychee shakes in a row sounded completely stupid from the beginning but I had to back up my words. It was a hot summer day, and I loved the first lychee shake. The second one was also very good and the third was also pretty good. The fourth shake was okay but I got to admit that by the fifth shake I had enough of drinking lychee shake, not to mention the waiter thought I was completely insane. My friends reminded me that the magic number of shakes was eight so I order the sixth shake which started to taste too sugary, the seventh shake was plainly beginning to taste bad, and by the end of my eighth shake I seriously regretted drinking so many shakes.

This last paragraph illustrated a law in economics called Diminishing Marginal Utility. In economics, the term “utility” roughly means happiness or satisfaction. As I drank more and more shakes, the additional happiness or satisfaction that I got out of drinking an extra shake went down.

Behind the Diminishing Marginal Utility law is the key to understanding happiness. The law essentially says that everything in life can make you happy but only temporarily. Take anything you want—chocolate, money, free time to do whatever you want (even that gets old after a while) or lychee shakes. People always look for more and more “things” to make them happy.

The key however is to understand that nothing can “make” you happy forever or truly happy in general.

True happiness is a state of mind.

One of my professors from college once told me, “Roni, your homework for tomorrow is to have a great day.” I didn’t want to disappoint my professor but what kind of an assignment is that? To have a great day? I told him that I hoped to have a great day but that it really depended on what would happen the next day and considering I had a computer science class (which I hated) the chance was not very good that I would indeed have a great day. He said, “Roni, all you have to do is to choose to have a great day tomorrow and believe that is it your choice to make.” It sounded very weird to me but I went to sleep that night telling myself that tomorrow would be a great day and that I was going to do what ever I could in my power to make sure it was a great day. The next day was one of the best days of my life. I noticed and appreciated more things, like the food I ate, the nature around me and even my boring computer science professor. I smiled at people more and they smiled back at me, I laughed more and I was much more relaxed. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

While there is no question that it is significantly more difficult (I would imagine) to be happy if you do not have enough to meet your basic human needs like having enough food to eat and a shelter, once those needs are met, happiness has little to do with how many material possessions you have. I would say that a huge portion of it comes from living life consciously, being self reflective and deciding/choosing to have a great day every day. Of course, it isn’t always easy to live this way, and that is why it takes practice. When practicing living life in that matter, the important rule is to not beat yourself up if you don’t succeed like you wanted to. To always be nice to yourself. The rest comes from surrounding yourself with supportive people who care about you as well as doing what you feel passionate about.

So now, my challenge for you is to choose to have a great day tomorrow. Let me know how it goes.

—Habib, an economics and math teacher, is a guest columnist this issue.

14

Features

The Oracle

Gunn helps document war experiences

Bay Area students, teachers collect memories of WWII veterans Carissa Ratanaphanyarat

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Reporter

ights, ca mera, and…action! The scene is set, the camera is rolling and the script is ready. The interviewer poses questions to an elderly man, James Shizuru, asking about Chris Johnhis memoirs as a war son (AP US veteran. On tape, he History) answers eloquently and with as much detail as possible about his own experiences in the war. Eventually, photos that correspond with a voice over are added to the tape. Music is added as a finishing touch to the final product, and a documentary called “Stories of Service” about people who have served in the US military.

The “Stories of Service” project was assigned by an organization called the Digital Clubhouse Network (DCN). DCN increases awareness of past events by compiling interviews all into both a visual and audible documentary with the aim of educating the audience. “In ‘digitizing’ these stories, we’re immortalizing them for future generations to experience,” freshman Aubrie Lee said.

Work produced by members can often be seen in news media such as CNN, The New York Times and more.

Lee works alongside AP United States History teacher Chris Johnson, who joined DCN this year. Gunn speech therapist Judy Niizawa, Emmie Fa (Lee’s mother) and Palo Alto High School junior Julie Onitsuka are also all members. All five attend workshops every Saturday at History Park in San Jose to work on their project. “It’s about collecting the stories of otherwise ordinary people who served in the US military,” Johnson said Johnson first became interested in this project when his grandfather, who had joined the army and fought in World War II (WWII), passed away last January. However, he didn’t talk about his memories until a week before he died. “If he didn’t talk about it, the stories would have been lost,” Johnson said. “I want to give more veterans a chance to tell their stories.”

Photo courtesy of Judy Niizawa

Some of the members of the documentary squad pose with war veteran James Shizuru. From left to right: Back row: Dan Inouye (DeAnza college) Julie Onitsuka (Palo Alto High School junior). Front row: Judy Niizawa (Gunn speech therapist), Shizuru, Aubrie Lee (Gunn freshman).

Lee originally joined DCN in March because of a school assignment. “At first, it was just for a history project, to interview a veteran,” Lee said. “I thought that it would be nice to get that project done and help out at the same time. It turns out I didn’t even need to use the interview with the veteran, but I’ve still stuck with the project,” she said.

There are numerous steps to producing the documentary. The veteran is first interviewed about a general overview of his life or a specific situation in the war. Then, all of the information is condensed into a script that usually includes a moral lesson or theme. Finally, voice overs with photographs and music may be added to heighten the effects. The documentary is then posted on the internet where people can view the finished product.

Everyone contributes what they can to the making of the documentaries. “Because I’m new at this, Julie does most of the photocompiling and movie making, but I wrote the

script,” Lee said.

Niizawa brings historical expertise to the project. “I am able to provide background on the experiences that the World War II vets have had and help develop their scripts to fit into our video frames,” Niizawa said.

“I also provide many photos to back up out veterans’ stories.”

Lee, Onitsuka and Niizawa are currently working with Shizuru, a former resident of the Japanese internment camps and a WWII veteran.

Johnson has set his sights on improving the program and helping out with the process of creating the documentary in the future.

“Our big focus next year is to establish a relationship between Gunn and the Palo Alto Veterans’ Administration Medical Center,” Johnson said. “Gunn’s lucky to be located next to one of the nation’s largest veteran hospitals.”

Johnson will also try to get more students involved with the project. Lee is currently the

only Gunn student that is a member of DCN. “I’m looking forward to starting it as a club or other campus organization.” Johnson said.

Johnson’s personal favorite part of the project is the whole process of “seeing veterans open up and telling their stories and then seeing their stories, their memories turned into short documentary films.”

Niizawa agrees. “[I enjoy] getting to know the veterans and hearing what their personal experiences were during World War II,” Niizawa said. “They all have individual stories to tell that at some point made a huge difference in their lives. Observing the inter generational interaction is truly rewarding.”

Johnson enjoys the fact that people from opposite generations and age pools collaborate and work together. Lee is undecided on her favorite part of the project. “I can’t say right now, but I bet my favorite part will be finally finishing with it and actually having something to show the veteran’s family,” Lee said.

Environmental Science offers students another choice

Sophomore science elective will continue to offer diverse curriculum next year Bauer Wann Reporter

Developed by the science department as an alternative path for students to meet the physical science requirement for graduation, Environmental Science is a unique class that offers a flexible curriculum.

Environmental Science is the study of the environment and global issues. Unlike other scientific fields—like biology or chemistry, both of which only cover one aspect of science— Environmental Science comprises earth science, physical science and biological science, as well as sociology.

“One of the main goals of the class is for students to learn how different science disciplines work together to identify, track and solve environmental problems,” science teacher Maria Powell said.

Maria Powell teaches both periods of Environmental Science and covers topics including soil, air, pollution, water use and energy resources. With efforts by the Green Assembly and the Gunn Environmental Club, more and more students are becoming aware of global environmental issues. “Environmental Science is a good fit for Gunn because the students and the community are so active and aware of environmental

issues,” Powell said.

The class also addresses the ecosystem, populations and global climate change. Students get to be hands on with the activities and also be kept up to date with current environmental news. Sophomore Jessica Damian is very impressed with the class. “We’ve learned how we should save resources and care about the environment, and how pollution is a big issue.”

Even though this is the first year that Environmental Science has been offered, it has been integrated smoothly.

Topics are not restricted to a preset list and Powell follows a guideline set by the science department, but otherwise, she sets the curriculum. “This allows students to explore material that is of greatest interest to them,” Powell said.

Sophomores may take either Environmental Science, Chemistry or Chemistry Honors. All classes fulfill both Gunn’s physical science requirement and California State Universities’ laboratory science entrance requirement. However, Environmental Science does not fulfill the University of California lab science requirement, but many students still find it to be a worthwhile class. “It’s easier than chemistry, and we do labs projects that are really fun, too,” sophomore Paula Diaz said.

Damian wanted to take Environmental Science because she was not sure which science she was interested in. “I wanted to take this class because it’s more basic, and it prepares me for upcoming classes,” she said. “I think I’m interested in chemistry.”

Environmental Science is also a good choice for students who do not wish to take advanced science courses. Powell wouldn’t call the class “easy,” but Environmental Science is designed to be less competitive than other science classes. “I like to foster a lower stress environment and keep the course more qualitative,” Powell said.

Powell believes that labs and projects are useful. “One of the more interesting activities this year included a multiday lab building nanocrystalline solar cells,” she said. “Just this week, the classes went out along the creek to study and test properties of the soil and identify some environmental impacts of removing vegetation by overgrazing or clear-cutting.”

With only two classes of around 20 students each, a downside to the class is the low enrollment. Damian hopes for more pupils next year. “More students should get interested because it’s an important topic that everyone should know about,” she said.

Features

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

15

Gunn graduate influences America Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (class of ‘66) gives voice to her ideals Aurelle Amram Reporter

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lash forward to your life many years from now.

Imagine being a widely popular congresswoman, winning numerous awards for your support of the technology industry and serving on important committees such as Homeland Security. This is what Representative Zoe Lofgren has done, serving California’s 16th Congressional District for over 13 years.

Lofgren was a member of Gunn’s first graduating class, the class of 1966. “We were acutely aware that the patterns we set as students might last, and felt that responsibility,” Lofgren said.

While in high school, Lofgren’s favorite class was U.S. government, which was taught by now-retired social studies teacher John Attig. She even participated in a school-wide mock House of Representatives. “Gunn gave me a good start because it launched me into college, which made a huge difference in my professional life,” Lofgren said. Lofgren holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Stanford University and a law degree from the University of Santa Clara School of Law. Lofgren was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1994, defeating the incumbent, Tom McEnery. She has since been reelected six times, with virtually no opposition, and will run again in 2008. She won her last election with

www.congress.com

The Olympian (1966)

Left: Zoe Lofgren smiles for the camera in 2007.

Right: Lofgren poses for The Olympian in 1966.

73 percent of the vote and has won numerous honors for her activism in women’s rights, racial equality and technological development. Lofgren sponsored key legislation on promoting fusion energy and providing affordable internet access for schools and libraries. She currently serves on the Committee on Homeland Security, the Committee on House Administration and the Committee on the Judiciary, which includes the Subcommittee on Immigration.

Some of her current legislative focuses include ethics, Homeland Security reform and the Republican budget cuts that she hopes to undo.

For students interested in politics, Lofgren advises working on political campaigns to gain experience. “Do the

Science Olympiad makes states Meilin Luh Circulation Manager

On March 2 Gunn’s Science Olympiad (SciOly) teams faced off against ten schools at the National Hispanic University in San Jose for the SciOly Regionals. SciOly president senior Daphne Szutu entered with high hopes for Gunn’s second year participating in the competition.

The end results were close, with Mission San Jose getting first place, Palo Alto High School’s Green Team getting second and Gunn’s Team One getting third place as well as the last qualifying spot for the statewide competition.

Szutu, who was a member of Team Two, was not disappointed in missing State qualifiers. “We did really well for only our second year competing,” Szutu said. “If you combined Team One and Team Two scores for Gunn, we beat Paly’s combined scores.”

Though Szutu’s team did not move on to States, their placement in several events was high. Szutu, along with senior Grace Wu, took the Ecology test and placed second.

“It was a multiple choice test,” Szutu said, “and we had to fill in the blanks on food webs.”

Junior Aki Kobashi, who participated in three events, favored the Robot Ramble, which required him to build a robot that could complete a certain task. Even with restrictions on the size of the robot

and the kind of equipment that could be used, the biggest problem was still the task: the robot needed to be able to pop three balloons.

“At first I was like ‘Wow, this is complicated—I have no clue where to start,” Kobashi said. “I ended up

In preparation for Regionals and States, Szutu ordered old national test packets to copy for team members. “There are also ‘helpful links’ on the SciOly website that may or may not lead to useful information,” Szutu

Brian Phan

using Vex kits and spending around 250 dollars on equipment.”

Kobashi, who placed third in the event, used a spinning thumbtack to explode each balloon. “When I got the award I was really surprised,” Kobashi said. “It turns out almost everybody else got disqualified.”

Kobashi also participated in an event called the Circuit Lab. Participants take a one-hour written exam pertaining to electricity and electronic circuits. “The test had some random memorization stuff,” Kobashi said, “and also some electronics not covered in the AP Physics C curriculum. I didn’t really study for the event though, because I was spending most of my time working on the robot – the night before I didn’t go to sleep until 3 a.m.” Kobashi and Lu won third place in the event.

said. “I think we were pretty prepared.”

Biology teacher Katherine Moser was very impressed with Gunn’s performance in the competition this year. Moser, who has been co-supervisor for the SciOly club with science teacher Lisa Wu, confesses to be the “Mom” of SciOly. “I go to the meetings, provide transportation, help with lab preparation and equipment,” Moser said. “I also sponsor events, write the exams and judge the events.”

On April 21, left for UC Merced at four in the morning to compete in the state competition. They were joined by the members of Team Two. “Just because I’m not competing doesn’t mean I can’t be there and cheer them on,” Szutu said.

unglamorous work of the campaign and see what it is all about,” she said. Lofgren also recommends getting a solid education. “Voters don’t want to trust their government with someone who has not prepared themselves to do a good job,” she said.

Recently, Lofgren came home to Palo Alto for her 40th high school reunion. In addition to ceremonially donating a bench to Gunn, the class went to Lofgren’s house for a party.

“I find that forty years of living can find high school friends widely separated,” Lofgren said. “When we had our reunion we found each other again and realized we still enjoy each other’s company.” Lofgren continues to keep in touch with some friends today.

Lofgren’s high school experience was greatly affected by the changes happening throughout the 1960s. The Vietnam War was being fought and President John F. Kennedy was shot. Civil rights demonstrations occurred across the country, and African-Americans gained more rights. “It was an exhilarating time of change,” Lofgren said. “We felt we were moving off into a time where we would all be part of the change and the improvement of America.”

She remembers the great fear many of her male classmates had of being drafted to fight in Vietnam after graduation, a war that inspired much discussion and dissent over its principles. “We were very idealistic,” Lofgren said. “Forty years later, most of us still are.” Lofgren carries that idealism with her. Lofgren still carries that idealism with her, attempting to affect change from Congress.

16

Entertainment

The Oracle

Talent show brings the house down Alex Tom

Circulation Manager

Photos by Cosmo Sung

Left: Senior Evan Fisher performs music from Super Mario. Right: Titan Rhythmz steps it up on stage.

The Little Theater played host to Gunn’s most talented in its first talent show on April 14. In accordance with Performing Arts Week, many popular—as well as relatively unknown—talented young performers came to showcase just what they could do.

Although many auditioned to perform in the talent show on March 7, only a few Gunn favorites performed. Many may know funny-man junior Nathan Habib for his passion for stand-up comedy, but without this month’s talent show, a lot of people would never have known about his passion for moonwalking. Two of the band members from The Doppler Effect collaborated with another guitarist to play an assortment of songs, such as Johnny Cash’s “The Ring of Fire.”

In addition, the ladies from Titan Rhythmz stepped to their own beat. “My favorite act was the one with the girls who clapped their hands and stomped around to make music,” 12-year-old Angela Lee said. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

Some of the most impressive performances were given by artists not widely known at Gunn thus far. For instance, senior Jennifer L. Lee’s passionate and exotic interpretive dance, “Bust,” and junior Shani Chabansky’s soft, sweet ode to Vincent Van Gogh reveal how much talent goes unnoticed in the hustle and bustle of students’ daily lives.

All of the proceeds from the talent show went to the Artist Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP) program based in New York. ASTEP sets up camps in impoverished places to promote the performing arts.

Whether or not such a talent show—headed by senior Student Body Treasurer Teresa Lee as part of her personal Student Executive Council (SEC) project—will become an annual experience like Homecoming has yet to be decided.

“I’ll definitely leave my project folder behind if anyone in next year’s SEC wants to pick up the project again, but it’s really up to them to decide,” she said.

spring concerts preview

Companies earn karma points

• April 24: Jet The Fillmore: San Francisco • April 27: Kaiser Chiefs The Warfield: San Francisco • April 27: Ice Cube The Fillmore: San Francisco • April 28: Damien Rice Paramount Theater: Oakland • May 1: Arctic Monkeys The Warfield: San Francisco • May 3: Nas Mezzanine: San Francisco • May 4: Fall Out Boy Sleep Train Pavilion: Concord • May 4: Bright Eyes Greek Theater: Berkeley • May 15: Joss Stone The Warfield: San Francisco • May 16: Modest Mouse San Jose Event Center: San Jose —Compiled by Aurelle Amram

Academy Award-winning actor Paul Newman is famed for his iconic roles in movies like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” However, Newman is also celebrated as a philanthropist. In 1982, he founded Newman’s Own—a food product line dedicated completely to charity.

Newman’s Own produces juices, dressings, popcorn and many other foods. The company is for-profit, but Newman takes every dollar made and donates it to a group of his choice. Unlike the other generous companies, the entirety of Newman’s Own’s profits go to charity. As a result, Newman’s Own has generated over $200 million for thousands of different organizations.

The products are not overpriced and are sold in many grocery stores. Buying Newman’s Own products is an easy way to do something good.

Following the spirit of the times, even the cosmetics industry is becoming more environmentally aware. CARGO Cosmetics is a popular brand sold in Sephora stores. It recently introduced 12 shades of PlantLove lipstick, denoting a small environmental gesture.

From the lipstick case to the box it comes in, PlantLove’s packaging is eco-friendly. The case material is a unique plastic that is entirely derived from corn. It is made from a renewable resource, and it is a decomposable plastic. The lipstick’s packaging boxes are embedded with tiny flower seeds. After moistening the box and potting it in soil, it will sprout wildflowers.

In addition, for every lipstick sold, CARGO will donate $2 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a leading cancer research center.

The statistics of the world water crisis are harrowing—according to WorldAid, nearly 20 percent of the world’s population does not have access to clean drinking water. UNICEF claims that over 4,500 children die each day due to lack of sanitary water.

In response, Peter Thum and Jonathan Greenblatt founded Ethos Water in 2002. The company pledged to donate 5 cents for each bottle of Ethos Water sold to groups like UNICEF and Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE). These groups use the money to help people around the globe obtain clean water.

Ethos’s goal is to raise $10 million for the water crisis by 2010. You can help contribute to this goal by purchasing a bottle of Ethos Water from any Starbucks location.

—Compiled by Tenny Zhang

Entertainment

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

17

‘Grindhouse’ brings exploitation into a new light

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n the ’60s and ’70s, a “Grindhouse” film was used to describe what were known as shoddy, low-budget flicks that exploited violence, sex and racism. With “Grindhouse,” directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino pay homage to

those movies as they reinvent the genre for today’s pop culture. The movie is split into two 85-minute long movies, “Planet Terror” and “Death Proof,” and also includes fake trailers in betweeen the two movies to further enhance the experience.

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Director Robert Rodriguez follows up his over the top “Sin City” with an even zanier and bloodier “Planet Terror.”

“Planet Terror” is Rodriguez’s take on old-fashioned cheesy zombie movies, but he sets it in the present. A virus (whose origins are unknown but was brought back from the war in Afghanistan) is unleashed at a military base near a small town and spreads throughout the civilian population. A small group of survivors is left to fend off the “zombies,” who are infected with the virus and eat human flesh. Among the survivors is a woman with a machine gun for a leg and a doctor who is having a lesbian affair behind her husband’s back and has to stay one step ahead of him.

All of the characters are charismatic and acted well, albeit a little cheesily, which fits the atmosphere of this film. This film’s greatest strength is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is purposely over the top and so outrageous that the audience finds itself laughing at the ridiculous level of gore.

Rodriguez’s use of the aging effect (such as scratches appearing on the screen and static) is well executed, and definitely provides the feel of watching a cheesy horror movie from the seventies, as was his intent.

Be prepared to have a good time when you see “Planet Terror,” but only expect a fun movie. You will laugh, you will be disgusted, you may even faint—but you will have a good time.

“Death Proof” is a sexploitation movie with action and horror elements infused into it. The movie seems somewhat dull on occasion but is still a very entertaining experience on the whole. The basic plot consists of two different groups of girls being stalked at different times by a psychopath named Stuntman Mike (expertly played by Kurt Russell).

The movie is very reminiscent of other films

by Tarantino, but is still a unique work. The main difference from his other flicks is that “Death Proof” is set in the ‘70s. Everything has an old-school tone: from the clothes and speech all the way to the cars. The result is a funky, distinctive and ultimately entertaining film.

Channel 104.9 hits airwaves again Danielle Edelman Reporter

In early 2006, the popular Sunnyvale-based radio station 104.9 (KCNL-FM) was replaced its alternative rock music with an all-Spanish program. In February of this year, almost 13 months later, the station returned to its old programming.

104.9 changed its program to Spanish in an effort to give some variety to the local radio. “Channel 104.9 switched to Spanish because there were no Spanish stations targeting the 18 to 34 demographic out of Santa Clara County,” station manager Justin Wittmayer said. In the end, the fans of the original station brought it back. “It then switched back to Channel 104.9 due to listeners demanding that their station be put back on the air,” Wittmayer said.

Another station that lost its spot on in the airwaves was 92.3 KSJO, which was replaced in late 2004.

Fans of the station, many of them Gunn students, were saddened by KCNL’s decision to play Spanish music. “It was the last real alternative rock station,” Miranda Chatfield, a junior, said. “I was really disappointed when it changed to Spanish, but now it’s back.”

Many Gunn students are happy that the station is back to its usual music. For some, the change to Spanish music wasn’t so much distressing as it was bothersome. “It was really annoying because I never changed my alarm clock’s settings, so I woke up to Latin music every morning instead of the usual stuff,” said sophomore Viktoria Tsukanov.

Though it is basically the same station it was before the new programming, KCNL has incorporated a few changes to its line-up. It continues to play alternative rock music but is now selecting older songs. “The station now plays deeper tracks then it used to,” Wittmayer said. “You can now hear alternative rock from the 80s, bands like the Ramones and Blondie.”

Similar to many other Tarantino pictures, “Death Proof,” the characters start and continue throughout the whole movie. The dialogue does not align with the actual plot at times, but is very clever and witty. While “Death Proof” differs a lot from “Plane Terror” in the sense that it is a dialogue-heavy movie, it never gets boring. With solid performances, a great screenplay, a unique style, and a great car chase towards the climax of the movie, “Grindhouse” proves that filmmakers today still have the guts to make movies the way they are meant to be. Instead of going to waste your money on another mind-numbing Will Ferrell sports movie, go support true American cinema.

—Compiled by Alex Rasgon and Aviel Chang

Entertainment 18 Downtown theaters revive alternative films The Oracle

Theaters showcase vintage style of old Hollywood Although it is predominantly known for its extensive array of restaurants, University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto holds another enjoyable diversion—Stanford Theatre.

This vintage theater first opened in 1925 and is now best known for showing the classic old movies of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The beautiful high ceilinged architecture and two floors of seating make up only a small fraction of the theater’s charm. The numerous large old-time movie posters adorning

the walls and the organ player who performs between features have captivated audiences of all ages.

This is the only theater that shows films in a way that offers locals a chance to experience a movie night like they would in the 1950s and ‘60s. Movies like “Gone with the Wind” and “Casablanca” are a just a couple of the countless nostalgic classics that the theater features.

Stanford Theatre also holds a world re-

Going to the movies does not always mean seeing another chick flick or mundane thriller—the Aquarius Theatre provides its audience with the best foreign and independent films.

Located in downtown Palo Alto, the Aquarius was built in 1969 and its décor and murals were designed with inspiration from Altantis, the mythical underwater country, creating a very laid-back and pleasant atmosphere.

The Aquarius has two screening rooms, which are unfortunately built on a low incline, making it sometimes hard to see the screen from the slightly uncomfortable seats. Admission costs $9.25 for adults and $6 for children and seniors. Tickets can be purchased online at www.landmarktheaters.com.

cord—more people watched “Casablanca” there on the movie’s 50th anniversary in 1992 than in any other theater.

Tickets must be purchased in person at the ticket booth and are priced at $7 for adults and $5 for youth and seniors. Although parking may be difficult to find, Stanford Theatre is definitely worth an evening. To find a complete list of current features and more information, visit www.stanfordtheatre. org/stf/.

Originally closed in August 2001, the Palo Alto CineArts was refurbished and reopened in February of 2005. This 30-year old twin theater, once operated by Landmark Theaters, reopened in Palo Alto under the “CineArts” banner. Century Theaters, which owns and operates the theater, redid the lobby and added new seats for the opening.

CineArts is particularly famous for showing movies usually not shown in mainstream theaters, especially foreign films. Recent attractions have been “Curse of the Golden Flower” from China and “Pan’s Labyrinth” from Mexico, both of which were Oscar-nominated films. These films offer a different perspective for viewers who are tired of the regular Hollywood Blockbuster. Tickets are $9.75 for adults and $ 6.25 for youth and seniors.

Visit www.sfgate.com/eguide/arts/thtr-1065.html for more information.

—Compiled by Stéphanie Keller-Busque and Shiv Kachru

Graphic by Lucy Li

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Entertainment

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Forget iTunes

19

Boris Burkov Music piracy is wrong. Stealing is stealing no matter how convenient, but with that said, the real robbers are the big record companies that create the incentive for pirates. They bleed the consumer dry and the artist gets a pathetic take for his hard work, while the big wigs in window offices reap the benefits. The future of music isn’t with the charlatans at Sony BMG, EMI, Universal or Warner, nor is it with the shady Limewires and BitTorrents of the piracy scene. The future lies in an Internetbased distribution service that allows artists and consumers to interact directly, skipping the greedy publishers.

With new Internet distribution models emerging, there is hope for music freeing itself from the icy grip of the record companies. Even the ever-growing iTunes Music Store still falls short of being the future of the music industry. Regrettably, it still pays the publishing companies their disproportionate share when it is clear that the bloated record companies must die. From their ashes a new system will be born, one that is beneficial to both customers and artists.

As it stands, the enormous multi-tiered corporations usually absorb 85 percent of the sale of every album, leaving only 15 percent for the artist, who still has to pay producers. As a result, the artist gets only a dollar from every $10 CD sale. Because of old rules that compensated for broken vinyl discs, artists only receive royalties for 85 percent of their sales. Not only does a record company take far more than it should from every CD sale, it doesn’t even pay its artists fairly. When you go down to the local record store and drop $10 for a CD, there is an 85 percent chance the artist gets about a dollar, while the recording company scoops up an undeserved $9. The consumer foots the bill for their luxury, while most artists are paid next to nothing for their labor, with only the top echelon of most successful artists making it big.

The true solution to this dilemma, and the future of music, is something of a mixture between iTunes and the webpages of independent artists. What the world of music needs is a large centralized database of music where any artist can post his work.

The result would be something like Wikipedia or YouTube, only with integrated micropayments to allow for easy, painless purchasing. The prices for each album would be around a dollar or two, and all of the earnings would go to the artist. The low prices would result in greater sales, and since the artist still makes the same amount for every album, the result would increase the earnings for the artist, while cutting out the irrelevant middle men. The database itself would remain profitable by displaying unobtrusive ads like Google AdWords or something similar.

The raw power of advertising the Internet offers makes it completely illogical for customers and artists to continue paying record companies for advertising and publication. If the music is good, the Internet can do the rest.

To further add to the benefits, such a service will rob music pirates of their motivation because cheap, easily accessible music will be available without the need to run a virus ridden, illegal downloading client.

The music industry today is inefficient and harms the two principal players, the artists and the consumers, solely for the benefit of the large publishing firms. This is an unfair, broken system, and needs fixing. The sycophantic iTunes Music Store which kow-tows to the corporations would have no chance against a well-made online alternative—An alternative that will finally utilize the edge the Internet has given the musical world for the fight against its abusive owners.

—Burkov, a junior, is the associate Entertainment editor.

artsci.wurstl.edu

The Romans believed that Italy’s Lake Avernus was the gateway to the underworld. Now it is the subject of a poetry collection of musings on life and death by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louise Gluck.

A lyrical journey to Hades Louise Gluck’s ‘Averno’ shows readers the nature of grief, loss Thomas Bao Centerfold Editor

“Averno, Ancient name Avernus.

Small crater lake, ten miles west of Naples, Italy; regarded by the ancient Romans as the entrance to the underworld.”

So Gluck’s poetry collection begins, and it is this entrance that serves both as the title of her work and as a metaphor for the poems within, which focus on the transitory moments before change.

Through Averno, Gluck takes the reader on an intense journey of unexpected imagery. The poems never fully resolve and are as grief-stricken as they are visceral, “Then you don’t need anymore/ to die and come back again.”

The first poem is “The Night Migrations,” a prelude, which illuminates the moments before death: This is the moment when you see again/ the red berries of the mountain ash/ and in the dark sky/ the birds’ nightly migrations./ It grieves me to think/ the dead won’t see them-/ these things we depend on/ they disappear./ What will the soul do for solace then?/ I tell myself maybe it won’t need these pleasures anymore;/ maybe just not being is simply enough,/ hard as that

is to imagine.

Here, the imagery of the fleeting shadows of the birds captures both the ephemeral nature of life and helps prepare the reader for the “migration” they will take into Averno and the tragedy that unfolds.

The book then slips into a lengthy series of poems that begins with a stream-of-thought narrative in the form of questions: Is it winter again, it is cold again,/ didn’t Frank just slip on the ice,/ didn’t he heal, weren’t the spring seeds planted/ didn’t the night end,/ didn’t the melting ice/ flood the narrow gutters/ wasn’t my body/ rescued, wasn’t it safe/didn’t the scar form, invisible/ above the injury/ terror and cold…

These lines powerfully reiterate with subtle changes and transform the transitory state of death into a metaphor for all transitions and the emotions associated with them an un-sureness and un-steadiness, just like the imagery of her lines (Frank slipping on the ice). Just like the narrator, the reader cannot help but feel unsure of the physical and concrete. This surprising and original use of imagery of association is often the strongest element of Gluck’s poems.Yet, ironically, trite and pretentious lines are the poem’s greatest

weakness, “death cannot harm me/ more than you have harmed me,/ my beloved life.”

Next, finally, is the brunt of Gluck’s focus: Persephone—the daughter of mother earth, Demeter, and the kidnapped wife of Hades. Again, Gluck transforms her poems into a metaphor for transitions.

“What will you do/ when it is your turn in the field with the god?” Gluck writes.

It is an exploration of tragic entanglement—Persephone, caught between life and death, winter and spring, innocence and loss—and a divergence from the Grecian storytelling, which focuses on Aphrodite and Hades, rarely even touching upon the feelings of Persephone.

From the mythical to the daily, these poems can possess a lingering plaintiveness, not unlike the subjects of her poems—ghost-like remnants, still holding on to memories and dreams. But sometimes, these same wondrous lines can take a sharp turn towards the cliché.

Gluck chooses to walk the fine line in her poetry—risking sounding trite and leaving the reader without resolution.

In the end, this is a poetry book with both great poems and poor ones. Luckily, the poems triumph far more than they stumble.

2XL’s debut album disappoints Scott Benitez Reporter

After receiving numerous mix tape samplers, The Oracle finally decided to review one from a new rap group called 2XL. 2XL is comprised of an up and coming pair of rapping brothers. Bennett “Laze” and Justin “Royal” Talmadge Armstrong are brothers who have been close since childhood. After losing their parents and getting kicked out of school, the brothers only had each other for support. Royal and Laze are only 16 years old at the debut of their first album: “Neighborhood Rapstar.”

2XL has been working on this album ever since the brothers were 10 years old. Their mother inspired all of their music on the album. This seems similar to most Southern rap jamming radio frequencies these days, but supposedly bears a hidden meaning.

The sample CD that 2XL sent us only had seven tracks on it. Of these, I would only consider one song as having any real quality. The featured song on this album, “Magic City,” was decent. “Magic City” features Cherish (a new girl band from the South) and is all about going to your “happy place” and never leaving it. The other songs include: “My Hat,” “Lollipop,” “Rock On,” “Paperboy,” “Wannabe” and “Candy Car.” The

songs talk about how cool the brothers are, how they suffered as children and the hardships they had to get through. The beats are all the same, the lyrics are hardly better and there is nothing at all unique or new about these 2xlonline.com songs.

Most people who like rap and hip hop have never even heard of 2XL. It is a new group, but most people hear of groups before they actually come out into the mainstream. The two brothers have pretty much combined all of their money to produce the album. If this album is not a success, then they will be left with nothing, which provides a big risk for both of them.

Let’s just all hope that they have a better follow-up album, lest we have to sit through another weak mixtape full of rap that lacks anything even slightly resembling “flow.” However, there is a lot of time for improvement because the brothers are only 16 years old.

20 Singled Out

Sports

The Oracle

Titans tee off

Photos courtesy of David Yang

Varsity golf team shows surprising promise, talent Adrienne Nguyen Sports Editor

Although the golf team may be comprised of only seven members, making it the smallest athletic team at Gunn, it is packed with talent.

Despite receiving little recognition, the team, consisting of mostly underclassmen, has incredible potential.

The team practices four times a week after school, alternating between the golf course, driving range and putting green. Matches are usually twice a week—one at home and the other away. Practices and home matches are located at the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course, located off Embarcadero Rd. The team faces off against each team in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League twice each season—home and away. Their current record stands at 6-3-1, third in the league.

This is Head Coach Chris Redfield’s fifth year coaching the golf team. He has played golf for over 30 years and has played competitively.

“I try to teach them what I know and have learned from experience,” Redfield said.

Redfield feels confident in the team’s abilities this season. “I am pleased with the progress

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the team has made this season,” Redfield said.

“We have a lot of potential.”

The team hopes to enter multiple players to the Central Coast Section (CCS) tournament. Last year, sophomore Martin Trainer entered the tournament and made it to the final round.

Junior Alex Ruiz believes the team has the ability to reach great success, but may lack experience. “Although we have the skill and talent, our young team means that we lack experience,” Ruiz said.

The team is comprised of three freshmen, providing more opportunity to develop in the coming years. “Golf requires discipline, coordination, but most of all, practice.” Redfield agrees. “[Golf] is a sport where technique and skill is more important than size and strength.”

Junior Matt Williams has been playing golf for 14 years, beginning when he was three years old. This is his third year as a member of the Gunn golf team. Williams grew up playing golf due to the fact he lives next to the Stanford Golf Course. “My dad and grandfather play golf professionally, and all of my uncles play,” Williams said. “It is basically in my blood to

Horpel takes on new lead role as Athletic Director Scott Benitez Reporter

Grade: 11 Sport: Lacrosse Years participated: 3 (2 on varsity) Position: Midfield (center) Goals: “I want to make the All League Team.”

Looking ahead: “I plan to play in a collegiate league.”

Why she plays: “The game combines the same concepts from basketball and cross country into one strategic sport.”

Biggest feat: “Winning sophomore athlete of the year at Sports Awards.”

—Compiled by Adrienne Nguyen

Current Athletic Director (AD) Matt McGinn recently stepped down from his position to focus solely on coaching football. This gave the opportunity for someone else to step up and take the position. Wrestling Head Coach Chris Horpel is the new man for the job.

The long screening process was worth it in the end for Horpel.

The judges narrowed candidate selections down to four during an interview at the Palo Alto Unified School District office. In the end, Horpel was chosen.

Horpel has coached wrestling at Gunn for the past five years and Stanford for 25 years. Horpel attended Stanford University, where he studied architecture and art. He then attended San Jose State to study physical education (PE). While coaching wrestling at Stanford, he also taught PE for college students.

“I am really looking forward to becoming the new AD,” Horpel said.

He has already received numerous suggestions for improvements from many parents. “It’s going to be a challenge to make everyone happy, but I love a good challenge,” he said.

Being the new AD will put Horpel much closer to the wrestling program. “To be a more effective coach, I wanted to move from JLS to Gunn to teach if the opportunity ever presented itself,” said Horpel. He aims to become a good administrator as well. “While it’s hard work, being a good administrator to me means being able to get things done while listening to the needs and concerns of the people involved,” Horpel said.

Assistant Principal Tom Jacoubowsky also thinks that Horpel will do a fantastic job as AD. “In a couple of years, he will be the best Athletic Director in years,” Jacoubowsky said. He also believes that since Horpel’s great knowledge of the area and Gunn will give him another advantage. Horpel has several plans, including an AD manual for all sports programs.

play. I have had a [golf] club in my hand since the time I could walk, and I have been playing ever since.”

Golf is an especially challenging games requiring patience and skill. “My biggest challenge, which stays true for about every golfer, is playing consistently,” Williams said. “It is difficult to make the exact same swing repeatedly with changing conditions and clubs.” Williams, along with the other team members, hope to one day be a scratch golfer.

Many golfers look to the professionals for motivation and inspiration. “I enjoy watching Tiger Woods play because he has great creativity and is an excellent golfer,” Williams said.

“I aspire to be like Retief Goosen. His swing is perfect and I try and model all parts of my game after his.”

Each golf course varies considerably, and preferences vary among golfers. Williams practices at the Stanford Golf Course when not practicing with the team. However, his favorite course is Cypress Point, a private golf course in Monterey, next to Pebble Beach.

Ruiz enjoys playing at the Palo Alto Hills Golf Course, because of the scenery and calming atmosphere.

Sports

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Students pedal to the limit

21

Local cyclists compete at the national level Stéphanie Keller-Busque News Editor

Hop on a bicycle, go down Arastradero Road, turn left onto Foothill Expressway and follow it down to Page Mill Road, then make a left and keep pedaling until you eventually reach the top of Skyline Boulevard. Although biking up three roads may not appear to be a difficult workout, this 35- to 50-minute ride takes you up approximately 2,500 feet and is a total of 12 miles to the top. This also happens to be one of the many typical rides seniors Daniel Black and Ben Reiter and freshman Joel Shaffer take.

To Black, Reiter and Shaffer, biking is not merely the ride to school that it is for many students—it is a passion. Each of them is on the Webcor/Alto Velo cycling team and dedicates an immense amount of time to training in the hopes of pushing the limits in their sport.

From practicing to dieting, biking requires more effort to excel in that most may realize.

Black and Reiter say they both bike 20 to 25 hours per week with additional workouts such as weight lifting. “Handling all the school work while training can get challenging,” Black said.

“Everyday you take off to study for a math test or something puts yourself a few days behind in your training.”

Training becomes a dominant part of a cyclist’s life. “Training is really individual but races are incredibly dependent on team effort,” Reiter said. “There’s tons of strategy involved.

You have to learn certain skills like drafting, pace lines, how to communicate and how to bike with only an inch around you.”

The three cyclists compete in races nearly every weekend all over northern California and in some areas of Nevada. Black and Reiter compete under the Juniors 17-18 age group, and this is Shaffer’s fourth year competing at national level in the Juniors 13-14 age group.

Shaffer is now ranked at both the state and nation level and is sponsored by AMD-Discovery Channel Juniors—the same Discovery Channel that sponsored Lance Armstrong in his races.

Black, Reiter and Shaffer all hope to continue biking throughout and after college and possibly even at a professional level.

Do varsity players abuse steroids?

Stephen Salazar

Photos courtesy of Joel Shaffer

Freshman Joel Shaffer turns a corner while training (top) and leads the pack in a race (left).

He has competed in numerous national events in locations such as Utah, Idaho and Canada. Shaffer, Reiter and Black also enjoy mountain biking.

Not only does it get them in shape, but biking also allows each of these athletes to find a kind of freedom out on the road. “I love getting away from all the troubles of life [while biking],” Shaffer said. “I also love the peace and quiet of riding up a windy mountain road. I ride all over the area, getting as far as the coast on Highway 1.”

Along with enjoyment, biking brings different forms of reward for these cyclists. “For me, the best thing is seeing success in the sense that you’re getting better,” Reiter said. Black and Shaffer agree that finishing a race brings the most satisfaction. “During the final sprint at the end, you forget everything else,” Black said. “You’re just living the moment.”

Although cycling brings success at both the individual and team levels, there are some challenges the athletes have encountered along the way. Shaffer says motivation has proven to be the hardest part of cycling for him. “As much as I love the sport and have a lot of fun, it is hard to say, ‘I’m happy to go and ride by myself for the next four hours, putting myself through so much pain that most people would rather shoot themselves,’” he said.

Black, Reiter and Shaffer encourage everyone to try biking and not to remain confined solely to school sports. “Bicycling is easy to get into—all you need is a bike and a helmet,” Shaffer said. “Riding is a great way to stay healthy while having fun.”

Athletic trainer relieves painful strains Ana Kostioukova

Entertainment Editor

About 25 percent of Gunn students play sports. Those who are unlucky enough to sustain injuries take their aches and pains to trainer Lynn Castro.

It is Castro’s first semester at Gunn and her third year working as a Lynn Castro sports trainer.

She received a sports medicine degree from San Jose State.

She worked as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) before deciding to become a trainer. “I wanted to do more for [injured athletes] than just send them to the hospital as an EMT,” Castro said.

“When I discovered sports medicine I realized I could do special tests and therapy, and treat those injuries without always sending them to the hospital,” she

said. Along with working full time at Gunn, Castro also does side jobs such as volleyball and soccer tournaments. Although Castro has had numerous jobs in her career, she enjoys working at a high school. “I prefer this level, because I don’t have to travel as much and I have a four-hour work day,” Castro said. “However, helping and getting to know the kids is most rewarding.”

Student athletes are happy that she is here. Along with supplying aid to students with small injuries, she also performs physical therapy with others who have long term illnesses. “My physical therapist told me that she is doing a really good job,” sophomore Ranjit Steiner said.

Along with helping individuals, Castro has been working with sports teams that sustain a lot of injuries such as JV softball. “We’ve had sprained ankles, sore shoulders, injured elbows, you name it,” JV softball coach Steve Ames said.

Castro works closely with every

Christopher Wu

Athletic trainer Lynn Castro stretches the strained hamstring of a Gunn athlete before he begins to exercise. athlete to assure a quick recovery.

After giving a diagnosis, rest and ice are her most common remedy.

“She is literally taping our team together,” Ames said. “Without her we would fall apart.”

Perhaps Castro’s most impor-

tant asset is not her knowledge but the attitude she brings to work every day. “She tries the hardest even when she doesn’t have to do something,” sophomore Danielle Steinman said. “And she still has a sense of humor in times of pain.”

The issue of steroid abuse is one of the most consistent controversies in the world of sports today. The average person’s idea of the steroids controversy usually pertains to professional athletes like Barry Bonds or maybe even a few college athletes, but there is hardly ever mention of steroid use among high school athletes.

Many believe that high school level athletes don’t have the capacity to begin steroid abuse at such an early age. According to a survey and study conducted by the Department of Health and Human Development at Pennsylvania State, in 2004, 7.4 percent of the students surveyed had confirmed the use of anabolicandrogenic steroids (46 high schools surveyed nationwide).

Out of the 7.4 percent of confirmed high school steroid users, only 22 percent of them had been taking steroids after consultation with a health professional. The health risks involved with steroid abuse, especially at such a young age, are detrimental and include growth stunts, heart problems, sperm deficiency and even a weakened immune system.

Steroid use is not a new issue to high school athletes, and many continue the use of borderline steroid supplements, such as No-Xplode or Creatine.

The supplement No-Xplode contains an unusually high level of sodium, which leads to an increase in blood pressure—many users are said to have suffered from plugged ears, migraines and inability to sleep.

Creatine has similar problems in that the results from using the product do not last, and at the same time, continued use is unhealthy. The use of Creatine shuts down both the secretion of sweat and lactic acid during a workout. The loss of sweat secretion leads to an unhealthy body temperature increase for an athlete and also increases the chances of an athlete fainting during a workout because of the deficiency. Lactic acid loss may decrease the soreness from a workout, but ultimately this process weakens the body’s immune system. Muscle supplements that are nowhere nearly as detrimental as Creatine or No-Xplode include Met-Rx or whey products. As far as steroids are concerned, the risk at such a young age is gratuitous and is not worth the very temporary results.

—Salazar, a junior, is an Entertainment editor.

22

Sports

The Oracle

Softball falls to Wilcox powerhouse

Gunn vs. Wilcox 04/11/07 Score: 9-5

Ilana Cartun (11) Center field

Shoshanna Mitchell (10) Left field

Mary Kathryn Hannan (12) Right field Caroline Binkley (12) Second base

Stephanie Lacek (11) Shortstop

Brooke Binkley (9) Third base

Lauren Ding (10) First base

Elizabeth Rea (11) Pitcher

Other players: ü Megan Carothers (11) ü Kala Fisher (12) ü Rachael Fleischman (10) ü Kelly McKenna (10) ü Shannon Wood (12)

Remaining Games: Crystal Greenberg (12) Catcher

ü Gunn vs. Santa Clara (4/25) 4 p.m. at home ü Gunn vs. Palo Alto (4/27) 4 p.m. at home ü Gunn vs. Fremont (5/2) 4 p.m. at home Graphics by Brian Phan

Alex Tom Circulation Manager

Matthew Lee

Junior pitcher Elizabeth Rea signals to team members during the GunnWilcox game. Softball lost 9-5 to the Chargers and has a record of 2-4.

The varsity softball team came into its April 11 game after just losing its undefeated title to Lynbrook on March 14. Would its recent loss affect its game negatively?

Wilcox was scored once early on during the top of the first inning when junior center fielf Ilana Cartun dropped the ball in the far centerfield, and again when the infield had trouble picking up the ballputting Gunn in an immediate disadvantage.

Recognizing the dire situation Wilcox put them in, Gunn stepped up their game. Sophomore first baseman Lauren Ding bunted the ball and was brought home when senior second baseman Caroline Binkley slugged the softball to the far right outfield.

Gunn tied the game 2-2 at the end of the first inning. Gunn took the lead at the bottom of the second when freshman third baseman Brooke Binkley scored a run on the Chargers.

The Titans continued to put the pressure on Wilcox by denying the Chargers the chance to make it home during the next two innings. However, they still struggled. “Our

biggest problem is that we get down on ourselves when we mess up and we keep making mistakes when we start,” Cartun said. “We need to pull ourselves together because we have a lot of talent.”

At the top of the fourth inning, a Wilcox batter hit a double and was brought home soon after when another Charger hit a triple.

The Charger on third then stole home after senior catcher Crystal Greenberg lost control of the ball, giving the Chargers a one point lead. “We need to focus more and just keep our heads in the game and make less mental errors,” sophomore left field Shoshanna Mitchell said.

The Titans were able to make send one player home during the bottom of the fourth once again tying up the game. The Chargers took a big step toward victory at the top of the sixth when they managed to slip four girls past home plate giving Wilcox a four-point advantage over Gunn.

The Titans were able to run one more batter past home. However, they were not able score anymore after that. The final score was 9-5 Wilcox. “Overall we played a good game,” Greenberg said. “We just had one bad inning but we did well.”

Sports

Baseball loses heartbreaker

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

23

Team falls in last inning despite two Titan homeruns Boris Burkov

Ishan Bhadkamkar (10), Tennis

Associate Entertainment Editor

The boys’ baseball team suffered a narrow, last minute 5-4 defeat at Mountain View High School on April 18. The game went back and forth, but a late Gunn charge to tie the game in the seventh and final inning was not enough as Mountain View won with a walk-off home run.

The game started brightly for Gunn—in the second at bat, senior shortstop Tucker Laurence rocked the Mountain View pitcher with a one run homerun. This was not the last big play Laurence made in the game. Later, Senior catcher Alex Zeglin almost scored, but was narrowly edged out in a play at the plate.

Mountain View also started well and leveled the score.

Gunn’s defense tightened up after multiple errors, and senior pitcher Jay Perlman threw several clutch pitches to avoid early trouble.

Afterwards, both teams played stingy defense, though the Titans had several chances for a breakthrough which they could not convert in key atbats. Mountain View ended inning after inning with demoralizing double plays.

The fourth inning finally saw another outburst of offense from both teams, but this time Mountain View had more success in converting opportunities into points.

Securing a few hits in a row, Gunn was able to load the bases, but only managed to score once on a long sacrifice fly by junior outfielder Timothy Sullivan.

On the other side, Mountain View also strung a few hits together, but while the

“We’ve had an amazing season. We have a lot of talent and depth, but we need to hone our skills more. We want to win our division and do well in CCS.”

Beverly Yu (10), Swimming Photos by Matthew Lee

Above: Senior pitcher Jay Perlman throws five strong innings against Mountain View. Below: Junior first baseman Kyle Einfalt swings at the upcoming pitch. bases were loaded they scored three times to make the score 4-2. Perlman finally ended the difficult inning with another strikeout. By the time he was relieved by senior Derek Austin after the fifth inning, Perlman had amassed six strikeouts. “I felt I played a pretty good game, but I should’ve cut down on the walks,” Perlman said.

In the bottom of the seventh, with Gunn running out of chances to tie the game, the offense finally clicked into gear again. Perlman got on base with a single, and Laurence smashed his second home run of the night to tie the game at 4.

“I just needed one more at bat to make a difference,” Laurence said. This put the pressure back on Mountain View who had to score or face extra innings.

With two outs and two strikes, just when it seemed that extra innings were assured, the Mountain View batter shattered Gunn’s hopes

“The team is unique because we are so spirited and close. We hope to finish strong in the last couple of meets.”

Tucker Laurence (12), Baseball “We’re starting to come together as a team. We beat Los Gatos, which was awesome because we lost the CCS Championship to them last year.”

Rachael Fleischman (10), Softball

for victory with a walk-off home run, sealing the game at 5-4.

“Everbody’s a little disappointed, but we have another game coming up and we need to come together more as a team,” Laurence said.

Gunn played well,but will rue lost opportunities in this game. “We have to jump on pitchers earlier and score a lot more runs,” Perlman said.

“Their pitcher wasn’t very good, but we missed some opportunities batting.”

“We have to continue winning to keep up with the pack. A weakness is that sometimes we just are not mentally focused.”

Jon Lin (11), Badminton “A team goal is to beat Monta Vista because we’ve lost to them in the past, but we did beat Lynbrook for the first time in years.”

Nicole Monica (12), Lacrosse

Tennis

8 -1 Softball 2- 4 Baseball 3-4 Lacrosse 5-4 Badminton 6 - 3 Track & Field 2-3 Boys’ Swimming 2-2

Wednesday, 4/25: Softball vs. Santa Clara, 4 p.m.

Thursday, 4/26: Badminton vs. Saratoga, 3:30 p.m.

Swimming vs. Saratoga, 3.30 p.m.

Friday, 4/27: Lacrosse vs. Castilleja, 4 p.m.

Baseball vs. Cupertino at Baylands, 7 p.m.

Records as of 4/19/07

2- 2

—Compiled by Libby Craig

“We are starting off the second half of the season very strong. Our goal is mainly to never give up in a game and play the hardest we can no matter what.”

Curtis Liang (12), Track & Field “We had boys and girls place well in Arcadia, one of the most prestigious meets in the country.”

—Compiled by Libby Craig

24

Sports

The Oracle

Fun under the sun

Sailing

Most people at Gunn don’t know that their high school has a sailing team. The Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation (PYSF), at the Redwood City port, organizes groups to compete with other sailing clubs across California.

Sailing is a complicated sport with many rules. there are two types of competitions. In fleet racing, teams race around a circular course and win based on speed. “You have to position yourself at an advantage; it’s pretty exciting,” freshman Simon Vana said. “It shows you how good you really are in comparison to other people.” Team racing, which is less common, sailors need to uselogic and develop a strategy.

“You have to rely on your team mates to help you,” freshman Yoni Alon said.

Students should try sailing because it is a character-building sport. Sophomore Michael Rivlin believes that sailing demands patience. “In sailing you have to pay attention to [many] different things,” he said.

Both Rivlin and Alon initially took classes at the Stanford Sailing camp; Vana began sailing two years ago when he learned about PYSF. Now, all three practice there weekly. Beginners can try the Stanford Sailing camps; they can also visit PYSF on Saturdays. “Stop by at PYSF any weekend and sail there for free for a whole day,” Vana said. PYSF is accommodating to newcomers. “PYSF teaches people to sail better,” Rivlin said. “It doesn’t matter what skill level you start with.”

Students who want to find out more should visit http://pysf.us/ or call Eric Anderson at (650) 854-1048.

Water Skiing

Boots + skis + jumps = downhill skiing, right? Not for senior Crystal Greenberg, and the thousands of other Americans who water ski. Water skiing is a largely recreational sport that involves similar aspects of downhill skiing, but with water.

Water skiers, usually clad in a bathing suit or wetsuit, hold onto a 70-foot rope that is attached to a motorboat that pulls the skier along at speeds from 15 to 30 miles per hour. Beginning skiers usually use two skis, while more advanced skiers use one.

Greenberg, an avid water skier, has been skiing since she was in elementary school at Clear Lake, located about 50 miles north of Sacramento. Having mastered basic technique, Greenberg has now turned her attention to jumping. She plans to try her hand at some water skiing tricks, one of which is called the Fashion Air. “There’s always new stuff you can try,” Greenberg said.

First time water skiers should check out the Santa Clara County Water Ski Club in San Jose, which offers free beginners’ workshops to youth during the summer months. Go to http://www.sccwsc.org/ for more information. Water skiing is also popular at Lake Shasta, located approximately 200 miles north of San Francisco.

Surfing Although first recorded in Hawaii in 1779, surfing had already become an integral part of Hawaiian culture with surfers riding waves on long, hardwood boards. Two centuries later, surfing is one of the most popular water sports around the world.

With beaches just a short car drive away, surfing has become an important sport to many students at Gunn. “I have been surfing a couple times,” senior Kathy Smundak said. “I wasn’t very good at it, but it was still fun to be out in the water. Senior Lizz Winchell is a more consistent surfer, who began when she was eight years old. “I try to go as much as I can, at least twice a month, but sometimes it’s hard,” Winchell said. “It takes a lot of willpower to get yourself down to the beach in the morning, especially during the school year.”

But it is not only students who love to surf. Art teacher Eric Bowman has been surfing ever since he moved to Santa Cruz six years ago. “It was hard at first, because it took me six months to get in shape and another six months just to ride my first wave,” Bowman said. “I just do it for fun—I try to get out at least two times a week on my old school longboard.”

Local wind conditions affect wave quality, since the surface of a wave can become choppy if conditions are too windy. “People don’t realize that you can probably get better surfing conditions in winter than in summer,” Gunn alumnus Doug Simpson said.

One fact all surfers agree upon is that surfing offers a freedom and rush that no other sport can offer. “It’s the greatest adrenaline rush ever,” Bowman said. “It beats snowboarding hands down, and that’s saying something.”

Some surfing hotspots around the area are Pleasure Point, Carmel and Half Moon Bay.

Windsurfing As the sunshine returns and students are turned loose for the summer, many teens slap on their wetsuit and hit the waves.

Windsurfing, a water sport that became popular in the 1980s, still attracts teens seeking adventure on the water. Riders use a sailboard, or a two part craft that has both a sail for wind direction and a board to stand on. Created in California, windsurfing has become immersed into the culture of the state.

Teens wishing to learn how to windsurf can go to the Shoreline Aquatic Center, which is located across the highway next to the Shoreline Amphitheater. Every summer, Shoreline runs a windsurfing camp for beginning and advanced riders alike.

“Shoreline camp is a great place to learn because there isn’t much wind,” junior Justin Herron said.

Local enthusiasts travel to Crissy Field in San Francisco for the best conditions in the area. It is the most popular windsurfing destination in the region because of the ideal conditions. Crissy Field has strong winds, desirable to maintain speed on the sailboard, and has choppy waves, which make it easier to do jumps and get sufficient airtime.

Although Crissy Field’s conditions are ideal, every windsurfer has their own idea of perfect conditions. “Waves are fun to jump off of for tricks and air, but lots of wind and no waves means a smooth fast ride,” Herron said.

That smooth, fast ride is what attracts many windsurfers to the sport in the first place. Windsurfers call the sensation planing, or skimming inches above the water at high speeds. “Planing is always the goal because it gets you going fast and it sets you up for other maneuvers,” senior Dan Federman said. “The higher the wind, the more possibilities there are.”

Whatever your ambitions on the sailboard may be, the summer is a great time to learn basic windsurfing and enjoy warm weather on the beach.

—Compiled by Caroline Hodge, Fi Kazi, Noah Johnson and Shiv Kachru

Graphics by Brian Phan