Volume 103, Issue 14

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Volume CIII No. 14

• The Stuyvesant Physics Bowl Team’s Division Two team placed first at this year’s national competition.

The Division One team received second place among the specialized high school teams. Two Stuyvesant students also won the sixth and eighth spot in individual scoring.

• The Math Team’s Senior division finished in tenth place among 233 competing teams at the Purple Comet Math Meet. The Junior division and the Sophomore/ Freshman division tied for 13th place nationally, placing the teams as the top three from New York State.

• Biology teacher and Research Coordinator Jonathan Gastel visited the Irwin Zahn Center at City College’s Grove School of Engineering along with several students from research classes.

Video Production teacher Elka Gould and several of her students interviewed Irwin Zahn (‘44), who has supported many programs for high school and college students in the field of engineering.

Ambiguity in Graduation Requirements Persists

By LINDSAY BU On the first day of each semester, students are given schedules with cryptic numbers and letters that indicate specific classes. While some of these classes are electives the students choose, others, such as 5Techs and 10Techs, are required for graduation. When phase two of online programming for the fall 2013 semester began on Tuesday, May 7, however, the distinction between electives and required classes, among other issues, also became cryptic.

Principal Jie Zhang and SU President Adam Lieber sent an e-mail to the student body asking them to complete a survey on graduation requirements on Sunday, May 20. Students were to select one of the three provided options pertaining to the computer science, technical drawing, and 5Tech classes that would be taken over three terms spanning sophomore and junior year. 5Techs include electives such as Interior Design, Architecture, and Video Production.

The survey advised students to choose “the option that seems the most helpful and enriching

academically, also considering which would provide [them] with the most important ‘real world’ knowledge and skills.”

The first option offered one term of computer science covering NetLogo and Scheme, one term of technical drawing, and one term of 5Tech. The second option offered one term of computer science covering NetLogo and Scheme, one term covering Python, and one term of technical drawing with 5Tech classes available as electives.

The final option offered one term of computer science covering Netlogo and Scheme, one term covering Python, and one term of 5Tech, with technical drawing categorized as a 5Tech.

While the survey allowed for student input, it also became a source of added confusion regarding changing graduation requirements.

This ambiguity follows specific alterations already made last year. For the past ten years, Stuyvesant has required students to take one term of Introductory Computer Science, continued on page 3

Jay Gatsby’s Twenties Parties Roar to Life

By NINA WADE To watch “The Great Gatsby” is to be engulfed in a spectacle of the 1920s as dizzying as one of Gatsby’s legendary parties. The music is pulsing, the colors high-contrast, and the pace ricochets from snappily quick to forebodingly calm.

With a deft directorial eye, Baz Luhrmann infuses F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic Jazz Age tale with his characteristic hypersaturated vision, adding to it a truly gifted cast that offers the substance to back up the flash.

For all its modern spins— 3D, a soundtrack produced

by Jay-Z—“The Great Gatsby” stays (surprisingly, given all its flair) true to Fitzgerald’s words.

In fact, many images described in the text, such as the winking green light on Daisy’s dock or the floating blue eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, are made even more beautiful with the help of phantasmagorical video editing. The only truly new addition is a framing device, which places protagonist Nick Carraway in a sanitarium, and turns the “Gatsby” story into his manuscript. It’s one of the film’s weaker points, and often seems

forced. But when the film adheres to the novel, it’s magical.

The magic stems largely from Luhrmann’s approach, which can be seen in his other movies such as “Romeo + Juliet” (1996) and “Moulin Rouge!”

(2001). He amps up the highest highs and the lowest lows, turning drama into melodrama and color into vibrancy. It’s stylized to the extreme: words float off the screen as they’re read aloud, settings and scenery are just this side of over-extravagant, images overlap and interweave (literally and metaphorically).

In one standout scene of a drunken party in New York City, jazz wafts in through an open window, illustrated by exaggerated music notes, and as Nick watches, the windows grow and surround him with snapshots of everybody’s suffocatingly close lives. Even Gatsby’s alreadyorgiastic parties are magnified, with champagne bottles spewing confetti, scantily-clad flappers in runway-ready attire, and thousands of party-goers.

Tobey Maguire as Nick is pure, understated genius. He seems to understand the complicated essence of Nick—he’s an outsider. Even when he’s on

the inside, one of a handful to have ever met Gatsby, he’s forever looking in, forever watching from the outside. Maguire acts as if he’s unsure of his standing, and Nick isn’t. Still, he’s quietly the most relatable of them all. We don’t understand the minds of Daisy and Tom Buchanan and their moneyed, carefree lives, or Jay Gatsby’s society page fame, but we understand Nick, who finds himself at the middle of their complex threads, not quite willing to leave. Maguire portrays this carefully, keeping his eyes wide but his attitude subtle, not overblown. In the otherwise-flawed sanitarium device, Maguire is nearly flawless. His hands shake, his voice cracks—truly a broken-down shell of a man.

Jay Gatsby is inscrutable, but that’s exactly why Leonardo DiCaprio works; we never discover just what makes him tick, but we’re not meant to.

DiCaprio affects a strange, New York-slash-old money accent— it feels out of place, but that’s the point. He’s not old money, and he’s not a New Yorker; everything he is, is a disguise. continued on page 23

stuyspectator.com

Student Elections Postponed

Philip Shin / The Spectator

Newsbeat

May 29, 2013

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

Junior Keshara Senanayake leaves the SU office, disappointed about his disqualification from the election.

By Alexandrina Danilov, Stanca Iacob, Elena Milin, and Jamie Wu A series of miscommunications and administrative arbitrations has led to the indefinite postponement of Stuyvesant’s Junior and Senior Caucus and Student Union (SU) elections. The candidates received an e-mail from the Stuyvesant Board of Elections (BOE) informing them that campaigning had been cancelled by Coordinator of Student Affairs Lisa Weinwurm on Tuesday, April 16, the night before the campaign was originally scheduled to start. No reason was given for the delay.

Later, on Sunday, April 21, the candidates received a second

e-mail informing them of the administration’s decision to postpone the elections indefinitely.

According to SU Vice President and prospective candidate for senior class president Tahia Islam, the initial postponement was a result of miscommunication between the BOE and Weinwurm, the faculty liaison with the SU. “The Board of Elections was working on a completely different schedule than the one Weinwurm was considering, even though they were supposed to be in contact with her,” Islam said. “[The BOE] released a date that Weinwurm was not okay with.” continued on page 3

Uncertainty of Regents Grading Schedule Ensues

By REBECCA CHANG The New York State Regents exams, administered in June of each year, are known to help Stuyvesant students boost their transcripts, replacing in-class finals in many subjects. This year, however, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) is implementing a new policy that may change the fate of students’ grades.

The NYSED has decided that instead of having teach-

ers grade their own students’ tests, the tests will be graded by teachers from other schools in several central locations, including Stuyvesant.

At these sites, two models will be used this year to grade the exams. One is the traditional paper method, in which two teachers grade the openresponse questions for consistency and the multiple-choice are scanned by machines. continued on page 3

Inside: The Spectator’s endorsements for the upcoming student elections see pages 11-13

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 2

News

By Aimee Li and Scott Ma Computer science coordinator Michael Zamansky was elected graduation faculty speaker for the Stuyvesant Class of 2013, at the culmination of a heated debate that spanned several polls taken throughout the entire school year.

The faculty speaker election, run exclusively by the Senior Caucus, faced issues almost as soon as discussions initiated on the senior Facebook group. Students immediately took sides and argued for either Zamansky or English teacher Phillip Mott, the other most popular candidate.

Senior Leopold Spohngellert supported Zamansky’s nomination. “We care a lot about him as a teacher and we think he deserves [to be chosen],” Spohngellert said.

“We all voiced reasons why we thought Zamansky should be chosen, and it got pretty heated. People were getting mad at each other. It became a pride thing, I guess you could say.”

The Senior Caucus began conducting the official polls through the Facebook group via Facebook’s polling service.

However, issues of exclusivity rose due to the fact that the polls required voters to have Facebook accounts and be members of the group. The Senior Caucus was met with strong opposition upon announcing that the Facebook poll was intended to be the sole deciding factor for faculty speaker.

What occurred after the Facebook poll is unclear.

According to Senior Caucus President Jennifer Zhou and Vice President Erica Chan, a Facebook poll with all of the nominated teachers reduced the number of nominees to two. The final decision between the two most popular nominees was then to be made on StuyVote, an electronic voting booth created by senior Kevin Wang, on Friday, November 9.

However, according to Wang and junior Christina Tang, who helped run the voting booth, the StuyVote election included a large number of teachers on the ballot. Wang’s data from the vote lists a total of 42 candidates. Each senior was given three votes during this election—a first, second, and third choice. No formal data exists to support this. In the StuyVote election, Zamansky came in first with 156 votes, Mott in second with 108 votes, and biology teacher Dr. John Utting in third with 46 votes.

According to Wang, the only involvement from Facebook was a post in which students could nominate teachers for the StuyVote poll. Wang stated that the StuyVote poll was to be the formal means of reaching the final decision, as it requires students to swipe their ID cards, ensuring no duplicate votes and equality in opportunity to vote.

In addition to a StuyVote election, a homeroom ballot listing the names of ten teachers was taken.

Many seniors, including

Chan, believe that the homeroom vote was a failure. Many seniors skipped homeroom on the day the ballot was distributed, while a number of homerooms reported not receiving ballots at all. Chan was also informed of ballotstuffing among homerooms that did participate in the vote.

Zhou was unaware of any failure that may have occurred.

Mott won the homeroom ballot and would have been nominated the faculty speaker had there not been a revote in the spring.

The revote was run via StuyVote on Friday, May 3, with three final nominees. These contenders were the top three taken from another Facebook poll conducted over the course of the spring semester. According to Wang, however, they were taken from the first StuyVote poll on November 9. In this final revote, Zamansky came in first with 114 votes, Mott in second with 103 votes, and Dr. Utting in third with 78 votes.

Though Zamansky won, talk of another revote ensued.

The May 3 election was poorly publicized and saw very low voter turnout. This yielded a very small margin of victory for Zamansky. Chan and Zhou, however, decided that

“There’s always flaws with everything you do, and people who are unhappy with these results will say every little thing.”

—Jennifer Zhou, Senior Caucus President there had been enough voting. “There’s always flaws with everything you do, and people who are unhappy with these results will say every little thing.

I think there should be one system of doing it,” Zhou said.

Zamansky will thus speak at this year’s graduation on Tuesday, June 25, at the United Palace Theater.

“All I know is that I am as much of a teacher as anyone else. I’ve been here twentysome years, I’ve dedicated myself to students, I’ve turned down offers to go to the private industry regularly, so I’m very dedicated to my students,” Zamansky said. “My wife and I went to school here, we were classmates at Stuyvesant, my kids are at [Stuyvesant], my brother went to [Stuyvesant], so I feel like I have a very strong connection to this place.”

Young Israeli Innovators Visit Stuyvesant

By Coby Goldberg and Andrew Wallace Plans for a number of futuristic inventions, some with major scientific implications, were presented in a brief science fair on Wednesday, May 8.

Among them: a car that won’t start until the driver passes a breathalyzer test and a machine that types up your handwritten classroom notes and prints them out in complete sentences and paragraphs.

These engineering projects were developed by a group of Israeli high school students visiting New York as part of a high school engineering contest run by Israel Sci-Tech Schools Network (ISTSN). The visitors presented their work at Stuyvesant from ninth to 10th period for the Intel Research Physics and Biology classes.

The larger purpose of the contest, according to Trip Organizer and ISTSN Research and Development Director Joel Rothschild, is to demonstrate how engineering—solving practical problems that occur in day-to-day life—forms the basis of scientific progress. “We wanted to present the idea to Americans, and also to the Israeli kids in the competition, that engineering leads science and not the other way around,” Rothschild said. “Engineering should be the crown of startups and the economy in general.”

The visiting Israeli students were members of the top four teams, selected from a pool of 121 high school teams across Israel, that submitted engineering projects to the contest. The winners were chosen by a panel of professors from Israeli universities, such as Hebrew University of Jerusalem and BenGurion University in the Negev.

In addition to its educational purpose, the New York visit provided the Israeli students with an opportunity to seek out supporters to help turn their ideas into marketable reality. “As of right now we are looking for investors and professionals. Not in the engineering department, but in semantics and linguistics. It is hard for us to find those professionals in Israel, so one of our goals in the United States is to find those people and try to connect with them,” Mark Vaykhansky, an Israeli twelfth grader at the Reali School, said.

The first group of young engineers thought of a car that does not start without a breathalyzer test, the results of which are automatically sent to the remote controller of the car. This allows parents

Courtesy of Michael Waxman

Zamansky Nominated Faculty Speaker Amid Year-Long Confusion

A group of Israeli students showed off their engineering projects, originally parts of a science contest run by Israel Sci-Tech Schools Network, at Stuyvesant on Wednesday, May 8.

to prevent their children from driving while under the influence of alcohol and simultaneously prevents car theft.

The second group discussed their prototype design of a machine that reads a person’s neurotransmissions to forewarn a seizure.

The third group described a system designed to help students organize their notes.

The system receives scanned pictures of handwritten notes and is able to not only read the words and type them out on a word processor, but also detect the information’s level of relevance. The program can determine what information is important, typing out only essential information in an organized, paragraph-by-paragraph format. While similar programs are now used industrially, this would be the first commercial device of its kind.

The last group to present showcased an innovative means of detecting when ablebodied drivers park in handicapped-only parking spots.

The program uses protected, potentially elevated cameras located near handicapped parking spaces that take pictures of the cars’ license plates.

An algorithm then detects the license plate number from the picture and references a database of license plate numbers to see whether or not the car is registered to a physically handicapped individual. If it is, the speakers near the parking spot play the message, “Have a nice day!” If not, however, the speakers alert the offender that he has three minutes to vacate the space. If the driver does not leave the space in that period of time, the program automatically alerts the authorities.

“Some of these things are such basic, logical ideas, yet it’s amazing that no one has tried

to engineer them yet. There are a lot of open areas in the engineering sector that no one has opened yet,” Israeli eleventh grader Daniel Itenberg said.

The visitors also spent time discussing their schools’ means of teaching science and engineering, with many students citing hands-on projects as inspiration for their interest in the subject.

In planning for the event, Rothschild initially notified social studies teacher Michael Waxman via e-mail. Waxman then coordinated the event with biology teacher and research coordinator Dr. Jonathan Gastel.

“We wanted to give the students exposure to and contacts with students from other countries that share similar interests in science and engineering,” Dr. Gastel said. “Elements of how they teach this stuff can also be helpful here.

Recently, [Stuyvesant’s] science classes have become more academic and less active and also more computer sciencebased, at the cost of more traditional engineering. The school as a whole has to see how it can best serve its students.”

Many students who watched the presentations agreed. “The way they teach physics seems more engaging and involves a lot of activities based around applied physics and engineering. I’d like to see more of that here,” junior and Intel Physics student Eugene Reznikov said.

In response to the greater demand for applied sciences, the various science departments at Stuyvesant have been working to create new opportunities in these fields. “We started a physics engineering class and added another Intel,” Dr. Gastel said. “We think this will help create more opportunities, but there’s more that can be done.”

Lab Leak Causes Damage

By David Mascio, with additional reporting by Scott Ma Room 727 is home to a deionization filtering apparatus used by the biology department to filter deionized water for laboratory experiments.

Over the course of the weekend of Friday, May 10, one of the machine’s tubes, which normally directs water from one container to another, became misaligned, channeling water toward the floor. The leak went

unnoticed until the first faculty members entered Stuyvesant the next morning.Water puddled on the floor of rooms 727 and 729. In room 729, some paperwork left on the floor was damaged, including a box of biology teacher Roslyn Bierig’s former students’ projects.Water from the leak also trickled down to sixth-floor rooms directly below 727, causing damage there as well. Two ceiling panels fell in the west wing of the library. The panels have not yet been replaced, exposing

the pipes above, and nearby ceiling panels were stained brown.In room 615, to the right of the library, the leak and its ensuing damage were first reported by English teacher Holly Schechter. “I saw a waterfall running down next to the windows when I came in,” Schechter said. Portions of the window are left dismantled on the windowsill, while a small assortment of books and other objects affected by the spill has been left in the sun to dry.

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 3

News Student Elections Postponed continued from page 1

The only criterion for becoming a BOE member is attending its interest meeting, which some believe may explain the discrepancies in the organization’s dynamic between years. “I think it’s just who’s running the Board of Elections this year,” Islam said. “Last year, Bumsoo Kim ran the BOE. He really knew what he was doing. He got all of his stuff done, he ran the debates perfectly. This year, there is just a whole new administration with the BOE. They didn’t really work with [Weinwurm] that well.”

The BOE declined to comment.

Some students attribute the election’s postponement not to the students on the BOE, but to the administration and its role in the elections. According to a student source requesting anonymity, “The BOE has been doing their job correctly. They set deadlines, collected paperwork, and were ready to get started.

The elections were postponed because [Weinwurm] and the administration were unable to deal with the multitude of complaints they were receiving as a result of their arbitrary disqualification process.”

The disqualification process has been brought to light with the publicized frustration of numerous candidates who became ineligible for the race due to administrative background checks. To qualify for participation in any election, a student’s records, including his or her transcript, teacher complaints, and dean’s notices, must be examined by Weinwurm and Principal Jie Zhang.

However, the exact procedure for determining the eligibility of potential candidates remains ambiguous.

After doing an initial review of the candidates, Weinwurm submits a list of problematic candidates to Zhang, who then makes the final decision regarding eliminations.

This year, a number of students deemed ineligible to run for various reasons were alerted by the administration and dropped from the race.

Some candidates felt that their removal was unjustified and tried to appeal to Zhang or Weinwurm.

Citing scheduling issues, however, Zhang was unable to address the candidates’ complaints in a timely manner.

Junior Keshara Senanayake, for instance, was banned from running for the SU presidency because of two disciplinary offenses from his sophomore year. The first included alleged academic dishonesty on a math extra credit, while the other was a behavioral issue.

Senanayake appealed to Weinwurm by personally meeting and discussing the issue with her, but “after around a 30-minute discussion, I understood she wasn’t going to compromise,” he said. Dur-

ing the appeal process, after initial discussions, Zhang also revisits the student’s records to determine whether he or she should be allowed to run.

Senanayake further expressed his frustrations with the Stuyvesant student election process on Facebook, asserting that “My character has come into question recently. I cannot become a Big Sib, and I cannot run for SU president both due to my previous offenses. I do not blame anyone but myself for this […] For the past three years I’ve worked hard to leave a lasting impression on anyone I’ve met at Stuyvesant (in and out the classroom). Anything I can do to help, I will do it. I’ve always believed in the golden rule ‘treat others how you would like to be treated yourself.’”

In wake of these difficulties, students have provided Senanayake with much support. “The two things he did are not huge. They’re minor infractions and shouldn’t stop him from running,” junior Becca Stanford said. “A lot of people want him. A lot of people would vote for him. It’s not fair to not even give him a chance.”

Senanayake explained that, due to the support for his campaign, students encouraged him to reverse the administrative decision barring him from running. “Several students have suggested that I start a petition, but I have decided against it. There was even some talk that I was going to sue Weinwurm for unjust bias, which was pretty funny, but definitely untrue,” Senanayake said. He further clarified that the reason for his decision against petitioning came from Weinwurm’s unwillingness to compromise.

“No matter how I argue it, she will just say, ‘No.’ I respect and understand that she adheres to high standards. Nevertheless, I find it unfair,” Senanayake said.

Junior Gene Gao, who was initially Islam’s running mate, was also cut from the race due to administrative background checks, which revealed a teacher complaint involving Gao. “It’s strange that the BOE or [Weinwurm] did not even contact me directly. I only found out that I couldn’t run anymore because [Islam] told me,” Gao said. He further expressed that he was not sure which teacher had complained or what the complaint was and did not feel motivated to appeal to the administration, which had already deemed him unqualified for the race.

AP exams had already begun by the time the final candidates were approved and candidates deemed ineligible were removed, prompting the administration to postpone the elections a second time.

Weinwurm plans to meet with the BOE soon to decide on a date and once again begin the election process.

Uncertainty of Regents Grading Schedule Ensues continued from page 1

This year, the NYSED will test a second model, in which the exams will be shipped to companies that will scan the papers, add barcodes, and enter them into an online software that teachers will be able to use to grade the exams. At the grading locations, computers will be set up to allow teachers to grade

“But I am confident that the Department of Education has figured out well enough for everybody.”

—Jie Zhang, principal the tests on their monitors. As with the traditional method, two teachers will grade each question, though questions may be sent to additional graders if there are wide discrepancies between the grades given.

However, Regents exams may not come back in time to be added to students’ final grades. Most departments have set policies in which Regents grades account for a high percentage of students’ grades. For example, in the math, physics,

and chemistry departments, the Regents accounts for 20 percent of a student’s grade. If the test scores do not come back before final grades are given, this portion of the grade, which often acts as a grade boost for many students, will not factor into final grades. However, teachers are hoping this is not the case.

“It looks like most likely we’ll get the grades back on time, but there is a chance we won’t get the grades back in time for them to count as a final,” physics teacher Rebecca Gorla said. “Our hope is that because the physics exam comes on the first day, if there are a lot of problems, that they can be resolved by the time grades need to be submitted.”

In addition, it may also create difficulties for seniors who rely on passing the Regents to receive their high school diplomas. However, this will not likely affect Stuyvesant greatly, since nearly every senior has taken the required Regents in previous years. “Maybe some grading will be impacted because some departments use Regents as the final grade, so if there is a delay, we hope that by [Wednesday,] June 26, we will have report cards and final grades for everybody. But I am confident that the Department of Education has figured out well enough for everybody,” Principal Jie Zhang said.

Due to the ambiguity of the timing of the Regents scores, teachers have considered administering in-class finals to replace the Regents grades, should scores not come in on time.

“If [students] had to show up a special time during finals

week, I would say no [to a final exam] because of the logistical issues that we’d be missing teachers since they’d be grading the Regents and other teachers would be busy proctoring,”

“It looks like most likely we’ll get the grades back on time, but there is a chance we won’t get the grades back in time for them to count as a final.”

—Rebecca Gorla, physics teacher Gorla said. “I would like to know as soon as possible so I can tell my students if we’re going to have a final or not in class.”

In the event that Regents scores do not return on time, the Assistant Principal of each department will determine whether there will be in-class finals for that department’s classes. Teachers hope that the NYSED will soon finalize its plans for Regents grading so that department heads may begin planning out what to do regarding students’ final grades.

Ambiguity in Graduation Requirements Persists continued from page 1

one term of technical drawing, one term of 5Tech, and one term of 10Tech. However, the graduation requirements of the class of 2015 mandate students to take two terms of Introductory Computer Science, one term of 10Tech, and one term of technical drawing.

Some students, however, feel that this change only caters to a specific group within the hundreds of students in the current sophomore class. “It seems unfair to make students who may not be interested in computer science still take the class, just to satisfy another group of students who are really interested,” sophomore Julia Meng said. “I guess I should have expected the required technology classes since Stuyvesant is a specialized math and science high school, but a full year of [computer science] seems a little excessive, since the upperclassmen didn’t have to take it for so long.”

According to Zhang, this apparent shift toward more science- and technology-based classes can be attributed to the discrepancy between the significant number of students interested in computer science and the limited number of classes with which to accommodate them. Zhang stated that 400 current sophomores and juniors signed up

for AP Computer Science this year, despite there being only five sections and 150 seats.

Zhang further explained the she had received many e-mails from disappointed students and parents, which concerned her, but also stated that she was well aware of students who did not appreciate the full year of Introductory Computer Science.

“It’s at the cost of the school to force kids who don’t want to take the class to take a full year of Introductory Computer Science,” Zhang said. “If you save the spots of those who don’t find the subject that critical, we should, based on my calculations, create 150 seats for the advanced classes.” The resources and faculty involved in teaching the students who are uninterested in the subject could, in turn, be used for more intensive computer science electives.

The administration gave the class of 2016 the option of taking one full year of Introductory Computer Science or one term of computer science and one term of technical drawing. Students who opt for the first choice will have to take one term of technical drawing junior year, but are not required to take a 5Tech.

Those who opt for the second choice must take a 5Tech junior year. The aforementioned survey will have no bearing on these options, and will only

apply to subsequent classes.

To add on to the flux of mandated classes, former principal Stanley Teitel had planned to begin an Applied Science graduation requirement before he left Stuyvesant in 2012. According to Zhang, Teitel wanted to make the Applied Science requirement include advanced computer science classes and current 10Techs. It has yet to be implemented due to budget cuts.

If Applied Sciences is established in the future, Program Chair and mathematics teacher Sophia Liang explained that “they’re probably going to be a lot of the classes that are currently available, like AP Computer Science and Architecture,” Liang said. “In other words, 10Tech is going to go away and is going to be called ‘Applied Science,’ but that doesn’t mean the classes themselves will be going away.”

According to Zhang, the source of future programming ambiguity is a result of budget cuts and an undetermined consensus on the classes that the majority of the student body would enjoy. She believes that the recent online survey, however, will be an important step toward having student input in the making of important administrative decisions that directly affect the student body.

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The Spectator â—? May 29, 2013

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 5

Features

Courtesy of picoCTF

Hacking into the Toaster Wars

Three Stuyvesant teams, Qubit, Node, and StuyCS, competed in this year’s picoCTF competition, a high school computer security tournament sponsored by Carnegie Mellon.

By Alexia Bacigulapi and Ariella Kahan The question: “While exploring an alien tomb, you find an ancient .jpg of an ancient can of SPAM. It seems valueless, but the guardbots really want it back, so perhaps there’s something more here than meets the eye. Maybe it’s cursed, or hexed, if you will?”

You’re probably thinking something along the lines of, “What’s a guardbot?” or “A can of spam?” That is, unless you are among a crowd of students who participated in PicoCTF, a recent hacking competition hosted by Carnegie Mellon University from Friday, April 26 to Monday, May 6. (By the way, the answer to the question is 7adf6f07308100003c585a7be97868a90.)

PicoCTF is a “capture the flag” (CTF) competition de-

signed to allow students to test their computer security skills in a legal environment. The objective is to find pieces of information, or “flags,” placed on servers, encrypted, hidden, or stored somewhere difficult to access. The pieces of information are strings of letters and numbers specifically formatted such that there is only one plausible solution. Additionally, PicoCTF follows a storyline coined the “Toaster Wars.” The goal is to fix and uncover the secrets of a robot from space who has landed in your backyard.

The flags are steps to unlock this secret, and a set amount of points is awarded to each flag you find. However, a storyline is not typical for a CTF competition. “Often, the way a CTF competition would go is, ‘Here is some sort of computer thing everyone has some limited access to,’ and you have to come

in and break it somehow. This was more structured than that; there were specific questions,” junior Sebastian Conybeare, a PicoCTF competitor, said.

This year, Stuyvesant was home to three teams: Qubit, Node, and StuyCS, which placed 71st, 332nd, and 440th respectively out of 1938 teams.

The competition is open to everyone; however, only teams consisting of members from American schools in the sixth through 12th grades are eligible to win prizes. The prizes are awarded to the first three teams who score the most points and the three schools with the highest-scoring teams.

Prizes include trophies, signed certificates, t-shirts, cash prizes for winning teams, and a grant to the computer science programs of winning schools.

The teams representing Stuyvesant were formed after computer science teacher Topher Brown Mykolyk sent out an e-mail explaining the competition. The students who participated in the competition had varying degrees of background in computer science.

Some competitors had already taught themselves how to write and decode programs, while others used skills they learned from AP Computer Science.

“I was always into computers, and my mom hated that because I always opened things up and didn’t know how to fully put them back together. Once I opened up our set top box for cable one night when she was out and I didn’t know how to

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put it back together—that was back in middle school,” junior Abdullah Fahad said. This love for technology and programming is a common thread linking Qubit, the majority of whose members are on the robotics team. While it gave them background in the field, robotics did come with its fair share of time constraints. “Four out of five of us are on the robotics team and the world championship of that was at the same time that this competition started, so four-fifths of the team had a four-day late start.

But it is okay, I think we did pretty well,” Conybeare said.

During the competition, participants had to solve hundreds of problems, many of which began rather vaguely. In fact, determining how to approach a problem was often the biggest roadblock. Fahad, a the members of Qubit, explained the logic behind beginning the opening question. “The only clue they give you is ‘hexed’ and an image. The answer would just be the password to that image. It seems like a total dead end,” Fahad said.

However, applying his experience in computer science, Fahad found the answer by saving the image and then converting the zeros and ones of the binary encoding into hexadecimals (symbols from a base-16 notational system). Upon discovering a hidden file within the hexdump (the hexadecimal view of a file), Fahad realized that the answer to the question was a JPEG code. “It does

take a lot of weird thinking,” Conybeare said. “The problems are really not well-specified, and there is some cryptic reference in the name and that tells you what subject it is in.”

Because the competition encompassed such a wide range of questions, none of the members were able to solve everything. “If you already know the subject, then great, but there is such a wide range of things, it is very difficult to know all of them, so there is a lot of Googling that goes on,” Conybeare said.

The teams worked systematically and strategically by distributing questions based on topic area preferences. The questions were divided into seven categories: forensics, cryptography, reverse engineering, binary exploitation, web exploitation, and trivia.

“It is usually like we work on a few problems, and if something interests us we will send an email out to the group saying, ‘Hey, this looks look cool; I’ll try it. No one else should touch it,’ because it is kind of inefficient to have five people working on a problem because you will only get a set amount of points,” Fahad said. Additionally, the PicoCTF website provided free lectures and tutorials that aided participants in mastering unfamiliar skills necessary to answer certain questions.

Even for students who haven’t quite honed their skills in computer science, there is still ample time to prepare for the next PicoCTF, which will be hosted in the fall of 2014.

Page 6

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Features The Great Debate: APs and Their Weight

Angele Huang / The Spectator

exams is apparent in college applications. While AP Biology is viewed as difficult enough to function as a prerequisite in most cases, AP Environmental Science hardly merits a glance. And while all AP Calculus classes are credited, hardly any AP classes related to art are.

These lesser-known AP courses are rarely credited by colleges, and not just the Ivy Leagues.

Most colleges firmly believe that what they have to offer to the students is simply better than what these students’ high schools made available. This is not particularly astounding.

College is, in many ways, on a different level than high school is, and it cannot be expected of colleges to accept credits for classes or exams that are much easier than their own.

This rising trend in selectivity is reflective in the skepticism that professors face in the validity of high school AP courses. In response to this, Dartmouth has been the first university to stop accepting any AP credit, providing evidence of the ineffectiveness of APs as a measure of learning. As described by Hakan Tell in the New York Times article “Should Colleges Stop Giving Credit for High AP Scores?”, the psychology department in Dartmouth “got more and more suspicious about how good an indicator a 5 on the AP Psych exam was for academic success. So the department decided to give a condensed version of the Psych 1 final to incoming students.”

The result was shocking: 90 percent of the students failed the Dartmouth test, leading

By Luo Qi Kong ’Tis the season—for review sessions and frantic cramming.

Whizzing through preparation books and flipping through flash cards before classes, students in Advanced Placement (AP) courses are familiar with the do-or-die situation that comes with taking the exams.

After one test, students feel a false sense of relief that fades when they realize another test is rapidly approaching. The anxiety is relentless: What if I don’t get a five? What will colleges think of me? These students become so cemented in a cycle of tests and an extremely competitive academic culture that they hardly wonder what they get out of these high-stake exams.

Rigor, challenge, honor— these are the words that, along with the thought of impressing colleges with well-construct-

ed transcripts, motivate students to stack AP courses into their schedules. According to Trevor Pack, senior vice president for the College Board’s AP program, the program invites “teachers and students to examine multiple sides of an issue—thinking critically, examining evidence, and then arguing precision and accuracy,” as written in an Op-Ed from npr.org. And some colleges do, in fact, believe that the APs are a good, national indicator of a student’s intelligence and academic achievement. What can be disputed, however, is what “college-level” really means in a high school atmosphere, even in one as competitive as Stuyvesant’s. There is an obvious difference between schools like Harvard, Yale, or Princeton and other, less selective colleges.

Therefore, it shouldn’t be surprising that there is a difference

in what “college-level class” means to different schools.

It is not necessarily true that more exclusive colleges do not give credit for any AP exams, but their selectiveness is apparent in what credits they do give.

For instance, Yale University offers no credit for history, art, or computer science AP exams to incoming freshmen. For the few AP exams that receive credit, students must receive fives. On the other hand, schools such as Stony Brook University (which is less exclusive than Yale) accept AP scores that range from three to five for almost every exam available. Even so, simply scoring well on an AP exam does not allow students to be exempt from required classes in college.

There is emphasis placed on certain subjects, such as math and the sciences, when compared to others, such as history or art. The value of different AP

“AP courses have become a juggernaut in American high school education.”

the university to denounce the validity of AP courses.

However, even though colleges are starting to place less weight on AP courses, the la-

bels on students’ transcripts are still considered during the admissions process. These colleges search for students who are willing to challenge themselves, even if AP courses

“What can be disputed, however, is what college-level really means in a high school atmosphere, even in one as competitive as that of Stuyvesant.”

may not reap the benefits students imagined they would.

Succeeding in these classes is necessary for demonstrating the ability to handle more ambitious, demanding work.

But the overlying message is: don’t stress too much about APs. As coined by the Harvard Education Press book “AP: A Critical Examination of the Advanced Placement Program,” AP “courses have become a juggernaut in American high school education.” Perhaps because they do not realize that there is a slim chance that their AP scores will greatly affect their college lives, students can act somewhat mindlessly or obsessively when faced with AP applications and preparation.

There is little reason for students to strive to take numerous AP classes, but there is still the unavoidable desire to be accepted into as many as possible.

This is not to say that students should not take part in challenging classes. Instead, they should simply keep in mind that AP exams may not help as much as students believe they do. So, rising juniors who believe in cramming numerous AP courses into their schedules may want to think twice before clicking the “submit” button on their program selections.

How to Survive AP Season

By THE FEATURES DEPT. Congratulations! You’ve survived AP season. For the past two months, hours after school and into the night, lunches, free periods, and weekends have been devoted to acing APs, breeding a sense of anxiety and stress for the entire school.

Now that they’re over, sighs of relief echo down the hall. But for most of us, this is not the end of the road. In retrospect and in preparation, the Features Department presents a list of handy tips to make your AP season more tolerable and less stressful next year.

1. Actually Study. . This means buying your review books ahead of time and busting out a couple of chapters every week, starting from the beginning of the year. Don’t go for the cramming session the weekend before.

2. Jam out to your favorite band! Studies show that listening to music calms the mind and allows for better concentration.

We’re not sure if rock music has the same effect, though...

3. Uninstall League of Legends. This is for all the boys (and girls) who play the game until 3 a.m. in the morning. If your level of addiction is excessively high, it’s best to uninstall

it for the month-long AP season.

4. Change your Facebook language to Cambodian, or some other weird language you can’t understand. This, we think, will make Facebook less attractive and addicting.

For those with language APs coming up, it’s a good idea to change your language settings to French, Spanish, Italian, etc.

5. Try to avoid AP Biology or AP French. They’re notoriously hard and require hours and hours of studying.

6. Coffee coffee coffee coffee COFFEE! Get your caffeine boost and power through!

7. Take a Mental Health

Day. There are those days when nothing’s working out and you feel overwhelmed with homework and after-school activities—not to mention that AP you have in two weeks. Though not always recommended or encouraged, in times of crisis, a day off is healthy for your mind and body.

8. Cry. In times of emotional stress, it’s good to let it all out and cry. This will relieve the overwhelming feelings of stress and anxiety and allow you to take a deep breath and start anew.

9. Study sessions! This is a great way to stay awake while you’re studying and have fun

while you’re at it. Studying with friends—whether it’s at the library, at your house, or over video chat—is not only effective, but also a great way to divide up work and review with each other. Flashcards, review books, review sheets—you guys will create a study machine.

Two heads (or more) are always better than one.

10. For those of you who really don’t want to experience the stress of APs, take the easy way out and don’t take any APs at all. This would remove the entire doom and gloom of AP season. (We might not recommend this because it seems so bizarre, but it’s true.)

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 7

Features Year in Review: The 2012-2013 Student Union

By EMMA LOH Election season at Stuyvesant is marked by “Vote for ________ and ________!” on flurries of posters and Facebook newsfeeds. The campaign race can become heated with each platform armed with social media and the best photos a teenager with a DSLR can produce, all to win over the faith of the student body. However, once a ticket is chosen, the storm clears—as often does the presences of the elected student representatives.

Last May, we were promised an effective Student Union (SU) and grade-respective caucuses that would finally implement the changes we were promised.

Now, at the end of the year, a look back at the goals and achievements of each caucus sheds light on the true effectiveness and progress of the SU. The Student Union: Adam Lieber and Tahia Islam In their “AT&T” campaign, SU President Adam Lieber and Vice President Tahia Islam proposed five major platforms to improve the 2012-2013 school year: an active SU Youtube channel, a one-minute grace period, an internship-student match-up program, the Alumni College Fair, and reform of “writing across the curriculum.”

This year, the SU was able to set up an alumni college forum, where students could ask alumni questions about specific universities. With more than 50 schools represented, this platform was well-addressed, but grew to be inactive as the year proceeded.

Another platform, the SU’s YouTube channel, meant to increase communication between the SU, clubs and publications, Open Mic, and the Stuyvesant Theater Community, began the school year with an optimistic video featuring Principal Jie Zhang. However, the last upload to the channel was five months ago, and its latest content features the second Open Mic performance of the year.

Lieber attributes this inconsistency to pure technical difficulties (faulty memory cards), but hopes to post all surviving content by the end of the year.

Lieber and Islam’s other platforms, such as the one-minute grace period, student employment program, and the “writing across the curriculum” program, were never implemented.

Lieber acknowledged these discrepancies in his administration. “Unfortunately, there were items on our platform that we didn’t get the chance to address. I don’t view this as such a negative; this year was about rebuilding and setting the stage for future students,” he said.

The SU has had success outside of AT&T’s original platform, such as allowing seniors to go out during free periods. “Once the petition reached 1,300 names, I reached out to The Spectator and talked about how the SU could collaborate with them to further the cause,” Lieber said. “I met with Ms. Zhang privately on numerous occasions to promote the free-periods policy, brought it up at consecutive SLT meetings, and personally wrote a lot of the contract that went home to the parents to sign that would grant the kids the privilege.”

The SU also conducted a drive to benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy with clothing, food, safety supplies; created a petition for the reversal of As-

sistant Principal of Organization Randi Damesek’s office switch; and held the enormously successful Soph-Frosh Semiformal.

While there were many goals that the SU was not able to achieve this year, its presence was not completely absent, and provided a stepping stone for future SUs to enact further change.

Senior Caucus: Jennifer Zhou and Erica Chan With the combined experience of three years of class presidency or vice presidency under their belts, seniors Jen-

“Unfortunately, there were items on our platform that we didn’t get a change to address. I didn’t view this as such a negative; this was a year about rebuilding and setting the stage for future students.”

—Adam Lieber, SU President

nifer Zhou and Erica Chan were already seasoned representatives when they were elected to the Senior Caucus. The actions of last year’s Senior Caucus, which included a frantic search for a graduation speaker and deficient participation in spirit days, greatly influenced the policies of this year’s Senior Caucus.

The Senior Caucus avoided these issues by beginning its search for a keynote speaker early, selecting the CIO of Google and Stuyvesant alum Benjamin Fried. Senior spirit days saw an increase in participation due to heavy advertising and a calendar placed near the senior bar. The Senior Caucus’s search for a faculty speaker was not as smooth. (See “Zamansky Nominated Faculty Speaker Amid Year-Long Confusion,” page 2.)

Throughout the year, the Senior Caucus made sure that the opinions of the senior class remained the most influential factor in its decisions. “[Chan] and I never made any of our decisions, but instead, casted countless Facebook polls and conducted many homeroom surveys,” Zhou said. “Although we could never please everyone, we always went with the majority vote. We did not choose faculty speaker. We didn’t choose keynote speaker. We didn’t even choose our spirit days. We asked the senior class their opinions. And that is what we implemented.” A major success was the recentlygranted privilege of seniors to go outside during free periods.

However, the Senior Caucus

failed to put together a senior overnight trip, which was proposed to and rejected by former Principal Stanley Teitel, who did not see an educational purpose in the event. This year, the overnight trip was re-proposed to Zhang but failed to reach any further discussion. Apart from this refusal from the administration, Zhou feels content with her presidency and the SU, despite its negative reputation.

“Since [the SU has] a reputation for failure, it’s harder to get things done,” Zhou said.

was going smoothly at first, but Hurricane Sandy forced us to push our dates later. As a result, we weren’t able to have as many college trips as we would’ve liked,” Kong said. She believes that the three college trips were successful as experiences.

Another JAC member, Gene Gao, thought that the college trip registration created a lot of tension because of the decision to admit students based on check

Junior Caucus: Christine Xu and Jason Duong

“We really wanted to accomplish this event that hasn’t happened for the last three years at [Stuyvesant]. We thought that [Stuyvesant] kids really deserved some time to relax, time to enjoy themselves and experience [an event] that lots of kids couldn’t have for the past few years.”

—George Kitsios, Sophomore Caucus President

“Last year, I felt like there was a lack of communication in the grade. My goal was to basically let people know what’s going on in the school and to strengthen the community,” Junior Caucus President Christine Xu said.

Communication was improved through the use of a Tumblr blog and the continuation of the Junior Advisory Council (JAC).

While the Tumblr blog has been consistently updated throughout the school year, though, only six student questions have been answered. The progression of Xu and Duong’s term from then on varied little from past caucuses.

During an estimated three to five JAC meetings, members were able to “discuss how many people in our homerooms were interested in going on the college trips, possible dates and prices [for the college trips], colleges to visit, throw around ideas for fundraising, and get information to pass on to our homerooms,” junior Wan Qi Kong said. However, apart from the general goal of improving communication (shared by all of the SU caucuses), the Junior Caucus had few innovative or creative platforms.

The most important events the JAC was responsible for organizing were the annual col-

date, as opposed to the traditional “first come, first serve” system.

However, the organization of Junior Prom has drastically improved due to the JAC’s relentless advertisement: this year’s Junior Prom will be on a bigger boat and host over 100 more people than last year’s did. “[This year] has been very successful. Compared to last year, especially because I felt that last year there was a lack of motivation overall and we did not do much as a grade,” Xu said. She believes that a major improvement this year was that people were more in tune with current events, such as Junior Prom, and few were left out of the loop.

Sophomore Caucus: George Kitsios and George Triantafillou

“Last year, I felt like there was a lack of communication in the grade. My goal was to basically let people know what’s going on in the school and to strengthen the community.”

—Christine Xu, Junior Caucus President

lege trips and Junior Prom. Every year, multiple trips are offered to juniors to visit different colleges among classmates. Reflecting on the college trips lead to mixed responses. “The original plan

“Although ‘promises’ have been made for almost three years now, the Sophomore and Freshman Caucuses have yet to successfully throw a Soph-Frosh Semiformal in that span of time,” sophomores George Kitsios and George Triantafillou’s candidate statements for Sophomore Caucus said. “It’s no longer time to plan, it’s time to GET THINGS DONE.” The Sophomore Caucus’s ultimate goal of reinstating the Soph-Frosh Semiformal became a reality on Friday, May 3.

The Soph-Frosh Semiformal, a school-sanctioned underclassmen dance, has been the Sophomore Caucus’s greatest success this year. “We really wanted to accomplish this event that hasn’t happened for the last three years at [Stuyvesant],” Kitsios said.

“We thought that [Stuyvesant] kids really deserved some time to relax, time to enjoy themselves and experience [an event] that lots of kids couldn’t have for the past few years.” The SophFrosh Semiformal sold more than 300 tickets and offered a monetary return to the SU, even without a heavy ticket price.

However, the Soph-Frosh Semiformal would not have been possible without the support from the Sophomore Advisory Council (SAC). The SAC has met six or seven times, during which the 26 homeroom lead-

ers gave student feedback to the Sophomore Caucus. “[The SAC tells] us what they want for the year, what they want to see happen, and we take that all into account,” Kitsios said. Apart from the Soph-Frosh Semiformal, the SAC also discussed “several administrative policies, such as the 15-minute library rule, the noout-to-lunch-during-frees policy, and the restriction on floors available for study or relaxation

during free time,” SAC member Ioana Soloman said. Sophomore Ryan Kim, another SAC member, stated that the attendance at SAC meetings has progressively decreased: the most recent meeting included just ten people. In March, Kitsios and Triantafillou also created the Sophomore Caucus Online Forum, which answered 25 questions.

Freshman Caucus: Tae Kyung Kong and Henry Takizawa This year’s Freshman Caucus had specific ideas that it hoped would create more interaction within its grade: dances, spirit days, and the Freshman Advisory Council (FAC). “We wanted to create dance parties to have freshman connect to each other, because in the beginning of freshman year, people don’t know each other very well,” Freshman Caucus President Tae Kyung Kong said.

“We didn’t want people to just hang out in their own groups of friends. We wanted people to branch out and meet new people because the school is really big,” Freshman Caucus Vice President Henry Takizawa said. The Freshman Caucus co-planned its crowning achievement, the Soph-Frosh Semiformal.

Another one of Kong and Takizawa’s ideas was to create freshmen specific spirit days, such as Superhero Day or Sports Team Day. This was rejected by the SU on the basis that spirit days were exclusive to seniors.

Furthermore, though the FAC maintained a dialogue through Facebook and aided in planning the Soph-Frosh Semiformal, it held only one meeting in the entire year. “The council provided the manpower to organize and set up the Soph-Frosh Semiformal, and overall, made a lot of progress considering that we only briefly met,” freshman Yakira Kellman, a member of the FAC, said.

“We wish we were more organized and on top of things.

Since we were new, we didn’t really know what to expect,” Kong said, reflecting on his experience in the Freshman Caucus.

Page 8

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

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The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Editorials Staff Editorial

The Spectator

Revolutionizing: A How-To for the SU It’s election season at Stuyvesant. And no one— not even the majority of the candidates—seems to care.

In fact, as empty campaign promises echo through the halls and generic platforms make their way

Over the past few years, Stuyvesant has consistently seen itself get trapped in a vicious cycle of let’s-be-nonexistent student unions.

onto bulletin boards and Facebook walls, students are once again questioning the legitimacy of the Student Union (SU).

This skepticism is welldeserved.

Over the past few years, Stuyvesant has consistently seen itself trapped in a vicious cycle of let’s-be-nonexistent student unions. The gap between the administration and the student body that the SU is supposed to bridge grows wider day by day. The number of events sponsored by the SU has been minimal, and many students are clueless as to who exactly is on the SU. But does the SU’s dismal record indicate that it is doomed to fail year after year? Or can we actually change the suicidal path it seems to be on?

Despite popular opinion, we do need a functioning SU. And though it may seem unrealistic, change in the SU is possible.

How do we make change happen?

Though it may seem obvious, the answer lies in leadership. Over the last few years, we’ve had leaders who have failed to fulfill their campaign promises or even initiate any sort of change.

This leads us to assume that the leg-up that SU presidency gives in the college admissions process, rather than the potential to leave a lasting impact, is what propels many candidates to run. The SU has been a nonexistent priority for our leaders, and hence, it has been nonexistent for us.

Are we being too optimistic when we advocate for better leaders? We think not.

If we examine the changes in specific clubs over the last few years, it becomes increasingly clear that with strong and confident leadership, any Stuyvesant institution can become a large, united student body focused toward a main goal.

Take Model UN. In 2010, when most of this Editorial Board came to Stuyvesant, Model UN was an elitist club whose weak leadership caused it to quickly start losing ground. When current senior Annarose Jacob took a key leadership position as Secretary General almost two years ago, the club began to grow and gain legitimacy.

As of this article’s publica-

Key Club. In 2011, Key Club boasted over 100 members—it was so popular that interest meetings were held in the cafeteria. Over the past two years, membership has sharply declined, due to leaders who have failed to maintain the club’s legitimacy. Now, it is Red Cross and not Key Club that, under Felix Fan’s leadership, boasts more than 200 active members.

The SU, though perhaps not a club, functions like one in many ways. This year, the Adam Lieber and Tahia Islam board has made considerable efforts to bring the SU up and out of the unknown.

They have met with Principal Jie Zhang to discuss policies that students have expressed concern over, ranging from scanning in to the cafeteria to establishing the out-during-frees policies to course graduation requirements.

They have helped launch a successful Soph-Frosh Semiformal and are teaming up with Stuyvesant Project Love to launch an end-of-the-year event titled “S.O.S.” The SU has gained some ground, but it is by no means enough.

And as this voting season rolls in, it’s up to you to help to improve the SU with your vote. It’s up to you to pay attention to the candidates, to learn what is on the platforms, to vote right, and, fi-

P hotography E ditors

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Kerry Garfinkel We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity and length. © 2013 The Spectator All rights reserved by the creators. * Managing Board

The Spectator We are compiling an archive of past issues.

We are looking for issues published before 1995.

Please send any newspapers to:

The Stuyvesant Spectator 345 Chambers Street New York, NY 10282

Despite popular opinion, we do need a functioning Student Union.

And though it may seem unrealistic, change in the SU is possible.

If you have any questions, e-mail us at: archives@stuyspectator.com

A Note to Our Readers: tion, with Jacob as Secretary General, the club has grown to over 180 members and surpassed the previously popular Junior Statesmen of America as the leading international relations club at Stuyvesant.

The opposite pattern of leadership can be seen in

Because honestly, if we don’t take our SU seriously, how can we expect the administration to ever take us seriously?

nally, to bring your concerns to the SU. In our endorsements for this year’s candidates, we’ve tried to choose candidates who we feel are best fit leaders for the job. We’ve chosen Cahn/Moon for SU, Islam/ Zhang for Senior Caucus, and Kitsios/Triantafillou for Junior Caucus. But when you cast your vote in the upcoming weeks, don’t depend only on our endorsements.

Read, listen, and question for yourself. Become a part of this election process instead of dismissing it.

And most of all, please take your vote seriously.

Because if we don’t take our student union seriously, how can we expect the administration to ever take us seriously?

The Spectator will now accept unsolicited Op-Ed pieces written by outside students, faculty, and alumni. These columns, if selected, will be published in The Spectator’s Opinions section. Recommended length is 700 words.

Articles should address school related topics or items of student interest. Columns can be e-mailed to specreaderopinions@gmail.com.

Do you want to reflect on an article?

Or speak your mind?

Write a letter to the editor and e-mail it to letters@stuyspectator.com or drop it in The Spectator box in the second-floor mail room.

F o r t he

Rec o r d

• Stuyvesant’s boys’ lacrosse team, the Peglegs, finished their 2013 season with a 6-8 record, not a 5-8 record, as was printed in Issue 13’s Sports Wrap-Up.

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 11

Endorsements Student Union

Junior Jack Cahn (right) and sophomore Remi Moon (left) have presented concrete campaign promises in hopes of revamping the Student Union and increasing the volume and weight of students’ voices within the school.

Jack Cahn and Remi Moon The Editorial Board has decided to endorse Jack Cahn and his vice presidential candidate Remi Moon in the upcoming Student Union (SU) election. While Cahn has a strong platform, it is his plans and approach to implement it that truly stand out. With an impressive record, concrete campaign promises, and specific plans to make the SU a more effective organization, Cahn is easily the best hope to restore legitimacy and effectiveness to the SU. Cahn’s platform focuses largely on financial issues, pointing to funding as the root of the SU and change. He insists that the SU is underfunded, which deprives it of the power to institute real changes in the school, and that he will actively strive to change this should he be elected. As the current Chief Financial Officer of the SU, he has raised $10,000 for the SU and The Spectator’s Business Department through the school’s first-ever corporate sponsorship. With sufficient funding, the SU will have the ability to actively assist members of the Stuyvesant community. For instance, one of Cahn’s biggest complaints about the current state of Stuyvesant is the lack of toilet paper and paper towels in the school bathrooms.

He stated that he will use SU funds to buy these items directly for the student body if his bargaining with the administration does not work.

But there is strong reason to believe that his negotiations with the administration will be successful. Besides the fact that he is a highly successful debater, Cahn claims to have strong relationships with Principal Jie Zhang, Assistant Principal of Organization Randi Damasek, and other members of the school cabinet. And Cahn is prepared for the administration to say no. When asked what he would do if a legitimate proposal or demand is consistently shot down by the administration, Cahn said that he would go directly to major New

York newspapers. The Daily News is the administration’s kryptonite, and Cahn promises to exploit this in order to increase the power of the student body. In a school where the student voice is often silenced, literally and figuratively, by the administration, Cahn’s hard-nosed proposal is boldly admirable.

Cahn’s platform doesn’t stop there. He also stresses the “fun” of the student body, including strengthening school spirit. He wants to expand “Senior Days” to juniors and underclassmen, intends to have professional speakers visit Stuyvesant with increased frequency, and plans to hold intra-school athletic competitions and debates. Moreover, Cahn plans to departmentalize the SU to increase its efficiency.

While Cahn’s candidacy is overall very strong, there are some concerns about his choice of Vice President. Remi Moon has no SU experience, leading some to question Cahn’s motivation in selecting her.

At times, Moon and Cahn seemed to be out of sync, suggesting disunity and perhaps a less-than-stellar working relationship. It is clear that Moon balances Cahn’s ticket and helps him appeal to a wider spectrum of voters. However, whether this is a valid reason to pick a running mate remains up for debate.

Cahn has the ability to raise the money needed to make the SU functional, he knows how to get what he wants, and he promises to increase student liberties and activities. Perhaps most importantly, he brings a fire and determination to the SU that has been sorely lacking in the past few years. Cahn is not the type of person to passively sit back and let his job and responsibilities slowly deteriorate. He is passionate about this election, but he will be just as passionate about cementing his legacy as one of the most effective SU Presidents in recent memory. He is the man for the job.

Edward Zilberbrand and Keiran Carpen are running in this year’s Student Union (SU) election on a platform of approachability and awareness. Zilberbrand’s resume ranges from SU Director of Communications to being on the Roller Hockey Club. In his time as Director of Communications, Zilberbrand advertised for various clubs and pubs in Stuyvesant and helped plan events such as the Soph-Frosh Semiformal and Junior Prom. Zilberbrand describes himself as “passionate about the SU and hard-working.” At times, he stayed at school until 11 p.m. to finish his work at SU functions. Carpen’s activities, while less immersed, show a strong involvement in the Stuyvesant community as a member of the Varsity Ultimate Frisbee team and ARISTA. He describes himself as “kind-hearted and reliable,” and also believes he can communicate well with the student body.

Zilberbrand is no stranger to elections. Last year, he won Sophomore Caucus and ran in the SU presidential election as Calvin Ng’s Vice Presidential candidate, when he lost by a slim margin. Carpen also has election experience from working as Zilberbrand’s campaign manager during that SU election.

In their platform, Zilberbrand and Carpen emphasize communication with the student body. Their primary goal is to improve communication between major groups such as the SU, Big Sibs, ARISTA, and Red Cross such that events held at Stuyvesant can be run more fluidly. They describe themselves as approachable and want students to feel comfortable addressing problems they have.

To increase student awareness regarding meetings and events, they plan to create a schoolwide calendar available to everyone on the second floor that will list dates for interest meetings, volunteer events, and other important reminders. Zilber-

brand and Carpen also plan to work with Principal Jie Zhang to allow all students go outside during free periods, address programming ambiguities, re-allow students on the fifth floor, and address student concerns regarding the limited time allotted for SING!.

To mend the reputation of the Student Union, Zilberbrand and Carpen intend to create a much bigger organization such that the institution does not suffer at the hands of a few.

Part of this reoganization involves moving sophomore caucus elections to the end of the year such that they have a greater capability to enact change. Contrary to Cahn, however, Zilberbrand takes a softer approach in communicating with the administration, assuming there will always be some means of negotiation.

Zilberbrand comes in with two years of experience of working with the administration through his SU tenure. During a presentation to the Editorial Board, he admitted he could have accomplished more in the SU. As Sophomore Vice President his sole accomplishment was the creation of a Sophomore Advisory Council. Furthermore, this year Zilberbrand was shut down several times by members of the administration when hanging banners and discussing changes for the student body. He did not meet with the administration again about these issues, settling for their explanations. Because of this deference, we cannot be sure how Zilberbrand will represent the student body next year if elected.

The Editorial Board has chosen not to endorse Zilberband and Carpen despite their approachability and responsiveness. Their platform addresses key issues that apply greatly to the student body, but while Zilberbrand walks down a path reminiscent of past SU administrations, we have already turned in search of even greater change.

Danny Kim / The Spectator

Danny Kim / The Spectator

Edward Zilberbrand and Keiran Carpen

Junior Eddie Zilberbrand and sophomore Keiran Carpen have presented concrete campaign promises in hopes of revamping the Student Union and increasing the volume and weight of students’ voices within the school.

Editor-in-Chief David Cahn recused himself from The Spectator’s endorsement process for the SU election. He did not edit and was not present during discussions of the endorsements, which were ultimately decided by a vote conducted within the Editorial Board.

Page 12

The Spectator ●May 29, 2013

Endorsements Junior Caucus George Kitsios and George Triantafillou In a crowded Junior Caucus election, George Kitsios and George Triantafillou have set themselves apart from the opposition by touting a well-earned reputation for competence, honesty, and credibility. As a result, they have handily won The Spectator’s endorsement in what can only be described as a blowout.

When Kitsios and Triantafillou ran for Sophomore Caucus last year, they campaigned on the platform that they would hold a Soph-Frosh Semiformal—a goal many caucuses have set for themselves but rarely achieved. Not only did Kitsios and Triantafillou meet their goal, but the event was a great success. Tickets sold out for the event, the first one to do so since this Editorial Board came to Stuyvesant, and Kitsios and Triantafillou’s creativity loaned itself to a fun dance that even made a small profit for the Student Union (SU).

Of course, there is much more to student government than running parties. This pair has a lot to learn about student advocacy, including how to take aggressive stances against an administration intent on infringing on student rights. But we’re confident this is something they can learn on the job. It’s also something they have a lot more experience with than their opponents.

Kitsios and Triantafillou’s platforms for the coming year include: planning Junior Prom and college trips, a schoolwide talent show, hosting a YouTube channel, and persuading the administration to allow juniors to leave the building during free periods. These platforms aren’t one-of-a-kind; in fact, they’re pretty ordinary. But in SU elections, where every candidate promises the same things, what matters is credibility.

Kitsios and Triantafillou readily met their promises this year, and we’re confident that if elected to Junior Caucus, they will do so again next year.

Adam Dehowitz and Sanam Bhatia Adam Dehowitz and Sanam Bhatia bring a noteworthy platform to the table. Apart from the generic ideas of increasing communication through the use of homeroom surveys and online discussions, Sanam and Bhatia aim to further student participation by taking advantage of StuyVote, an electronic voting system first introduced this year, to plan out college trips and other events. Pointing out that right now the caucus is ineffective because many student ideas go unheard, Bhatia proposes to meet with students in person to consider implementing ideas like teacher evaluation forms. What was unique in the Dehowitz/Bhatia platform was targeting the issue of bullying. Claiming that bullying is swept under the carpet at Stuyvesant, Dehowitz and Bhatia stated that they would work to create a more open environment in which these issues can be adequately addressed. But what Dehowitz and Bhatia lack is a concrete notion of just how they would like to combat these issues. Also, in comparison to the Kitisois/Triantafillou ticket, Dehowitz and Sanam lack SU experience. Though we credit them for some unique aspects of their platform, without a clear initiative of how they would target online bullying or ensure that Junior Prom is a success, we hesitate to fully endorse them.

Sydney Caputo and Alice Chy Current sophomores Sydney Caputo and Alice Chy are the Editorial Board’s third endorsement for Junior Caucus. Caputo and Chy realize the high levels of stress associated with junior year and are running on a platform that emphasize making the year a more enjoyable experience. They have already begun to build relationships with members of the administration, such as Parent Coordinator Harvey Blumm (though a preexisting relationship with Principal Jie Zhang or Assistant Principal of Organization Randi Damesak would be of more significance). Caputo and Chy have also integrated themselves into various school organizations, crossing numerous social cliques. In addition to the common expectations of the junior caucus, Caputo and Chy plan to hold school fundraisers and push the administration to allow juniors out during free periods. Despite this, they did not specify what the fundraised money would be used for or how they would go about working with the administration. Caputo and Chy also plan to address issues brought up by fellow classmates and work with large school organizations, such as The Spectator, ARISTA, and the Big Sibs. When asked about the performance of the current Sophomore Caucus headed by George Squared (Kitsios and Triantafillou), they cited the success of this year’s Soph-Frosh Semiformal, but added that they would aim to communicate with the student body on a more consistent basis through the use of weekly newsletters and social media. Caputo and Chy also plan to personally visit homerooms and give homeroom representatives both a greater role in student government and an incentive to participate.

Danny Kim/ The Spectator

Brian Lee and Muhamed Rahman

Sophomores George Kitsios (left) and George Triantafillou (right) gained much credibility by planning an excellent Soph-Frosh Semi-Formal, and may use this experience well in pushing for more change if elected to the junior caucus.

Benjamin Lanier and Rayyan Jokhai The Junior Caucus ticket featuring Benjamin Lanier and Rayyan Jokhai gave the Editorial Board a striking first impression. Lanier provided a concise and wellinformed interview with a detailed platform outlining specific problems he wants to confront. This extensive list included formalizing a one-minute grace period at the beginning of class periods, placing chairs in front of the library computers, and getting corporate sponsorship to fund more school trips. We commend Lanier in particular for his active attempts toward accomplishing some of these goals. For example, he has tried to contact test preparation companies such as Princeton Review to negotiate the feasibility of sponsorships. Lanier met many obstacles while trying to meet his platform goals, and hopes that being elected will propel him toward the authority he needs to resolve his agenda. His experience on the Student Council of his middle school and his leadership positions in certain clubs and organizations in the school add to the validity of his candidacy. However, we would also like to observe that Lanier’s attitude and reasons for running for Junior Caucus failed to impress. Lanier says that his candidacy is mainly motivated by future implications in the college process. If this is indeed the case, then he will have little incentive to fulfill his platforms. In addition, his Vice Presidential candidate did not show up for the interview, giving the impression that Jokhai has little say in the platform. Because of this, while the Editorial Board acknowledges Lanier and Jokhai’s impressive platform and hope that the successful ticket will implement some of their policies in the coming year, we feel that Lanier and Jokhai would not be satisfactory leaders.

Lacking any particular vision for the junior caucus and having few plans outside of planning Junior Prom and College Trips, Lee and Rahman fall short in comparison to a multitude of the other candidates. During their interview, their responses to our questions were circular, demonting the lack of a firm grasp on their changes to the problems at Stuyvesant. They did, however, mention hopes of bringing the art community at Stuyvesant out of underappreciation and wanted to hang up artwork on the halls. They expressed concern about the lack of communication that they believe plagues the sophomore caucus but did not propose any solutions beyond having students fill out surveys in homeroom to share their concerns with the junior caucus. We think this idea would be a logistical nightmare, and a last resort at best. Their main strength, albeit a weak one, appears to be their presence in multiple social circles. Overall, the Brian and Muhamed ticket is a painfully generic one: they lack solid policies, a platform, and an understanding of the Student Union.

Samuel David and Ryan Kim Sophomores Samuel David and Ryan Kim fell short when it came to presenting a concrete and unique platform for Junior Caucus. While Kim does have experience as the class of 2015’s Freshman Caucus President, experience does not necessarily equate qualifications beyond interactions with a previous Student Union (SU). David and Kim present a platform similar to those of many other candidates, spanning communication reform and—like Dehowitz and Bhatia—bullying. Also like Dehowitz/Bhatia, however, their plan to combat bullying was vague at best. Though Kim, the only one in attendance at the interview, hopes to find creative outlets for communication and interactions throughout his grade, the Editorial Board encourages him and David to exercise more thought and assertion in planning out their platform should they run next year. Only skimming the surface of a bullying initiative and meeting the expectations of previous Junior Caucuses with Junior Prom and college trips, David and Kim do not show the potential for reform that the Editorial Board sees in the SU.

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 13

Endorsements Senior Caucus

Tahia Islam and Andy Zhang present themselves with harmonizing pairs of descriptions: experienced and freshly innovative, realistic and opportunistic, and—perhaps most importantly—academically driven and socially active.

Instead of the mundane platforms and vague promises of candidates past and present, Islam and Zhang have offered the most concrete yet applicable plans of those running for Senior Caucus presidency and vice presidency.

Hoping to bring balance to first term of senior year, Islam and Zhang intend to keep this year’s senior class on track with college applications while still offering opportunities to bond. In collaboration with Assistant Principal of Technology Edward Wong, Islam hopes to implement a listserv and create an official document of all the deadlines involved in planning for college, cutting down on procrastination with constant reminders. On the social end of matters, their ticket proposes a Senior Formal during the first weeks of October. Building off of the success of preparations for this year’s Junior Prom, in which both Islam and Zhang were involved, Islam is confident that students would be willing to step out of the heat of the admissions process and bond with their fellow peers. By preparing a Formal at which students must wear formal, interviewappropirate clothing, Islam and Zhang

hope to offer a fun way for students to be well-dressed and ready to impress college representatives.

Zhang also proposes include adjusting the policy restricting students with excessive lateness from participating in athletic meets and games. He believes that such a policy runs counter to much of the hard work students put into their athletic activities. Islam and Zhang also plan to begin the typical senior activities—including selection of a graduation speaker—early on, so as to avoid any conflicts late in the game.

Beyond Islam and Zhang’s confidence in the class of 2014—its talent, connections, and ability to have fun—rests the ticket’s previous connections with the administration. Islam describes her Student Union (SU) vice presidency as turning “an invisible entity into something that students can come to with questions,” she said.

With Zhang, who was this year’s Junior SING! Chorus Director, Islam hopes to utilize her experience and connections with the SU to maintain existing policies (such as going out for frees) while pushing for new ones.

The Spectator’s Editorial Board endorses Tahia Islam and Andy Zhang for Senior Caucus for their structured approach and willingness to balance Stuyvesant’s academic experience with a greater sense of school spirit.

Sam Kim/ The Spectator

Tahia Islam and Andy Zhang

Juniors Tahia Islam (right) and Andy Zhang (left) recognize the dichotomy between the fall and spring semesters of senior year and, if elected to senior caucus, hope to rebalance the academic experience with social bonding among the class of 2014.

Sam Kim/ The Spectator

Thoasin Bari and Brian Ge

Juniors Thoasin Bari (left) and Brian Ge (right) hope to alleviate the stress of the upcoming year by initiating a multitude of fun events for the class of 2014, all of which will culminate into a time capsule to look back upon come the class’s 10 year class reunion.

Thoasin Bari and Brian Ge come into this year’s Senior Caucus election with a strong vision: to create a time capsule for the class of 2014. With a platform built upon fun events, Bari and Ge hope to elevate their classmates’ senior years beyond the stress of the college process in order to foster a better school environment and more school spirit—in their words, prolonging the spirit of SING! to encompass as much of the year as possible.

Displaying confidence and coolness during the interview, Bari and Ge may be the most effective ticket for accomplishing the great number of events they propose. From movie nights to karaoke events to fundraising, they have created an extensive list of things to do should they be elected, in addition to the senioryear requisites of Senior Prom and finding graduation speakers. One idea they are particularly fond of is an end-of-the-year brunch as a final opportunity to bond within the grade and wind down after four years at Stuyvesant. They also hope to plan fall college trips to make up for the lack of trips this year, start Prom planning

early (even proposing themed proms), and create a mnemonics committee to take advantage of Stuyvesant’s memorial tradition.

One boldly realistic, but perhaps too cynical, aspect of their platform is the recognition that they may not accomplish much with the administration. While Bari and Ge plan to do their best to carry out reforms such as opening more of the school to students during free periods, they do not believe that much will get done in one year.

As for their involvement within the Stuyvesant community and their experience interacting with their grade, Bari was the class of 2014’s Sophomore Caucus President (though he accomplished little), and Ge was this year’s Junior SING! band and music coordinator. Bari and Ge certainly seem confident in their ability to lead the grade. Although their gravitation toward the event-planning aspect of the Student Union is not the full extent of what the Editorial Board expects from Stuyvesant’s student government, their activism and creativity is promising.

Thomas Duda and Edward Li The Senior Caucus ticket of Thomas Duda and Edward Li made it clear from the beginning of the interview that they represent the “average student.”

Duda and Li describe this “average student” as nonchalant toward and distant from the Student Union (SU), and consequently build their platform on outreach and communication in an attempt to reverse this perspective. “We want everyone to be part of the event planning process,” Duda said. To engage the entire grade, they plan to revamp the Senior Caucus Tumblr page and bolster communication through the use of e-mails and Facebook pages to spread developments within the SU. However, Duda and Li were vague about specific platforms beyond informal open forums and frequent polling. Aside from early Senior Prom planning, they hope to promote student unity through “fiestas,” events meant to relieve the stress of senior year. However, they failed to appeal to the Editorial Board—not because of their assertiveness or ability to communicate, but due to their lack of experience in dealing with the administration in the past.

While Duda proposes the use of petitions to push for reform from an uncooperative administration, neither he nor Li has built up relationships with administrative officials as other candidates have done. In addition, the platform of “communication” is one that is recycled time and time again in student government. Here, it has been repeated without a structured and specific approach. Though Duda and Li certainly show initiative, it may take more than that initiative and outreach to spur real, positive change for the class of 2014’s next and last year.

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 14

Opinions A Parent’s Perspective: What College Means Now Stuyvesant juniors and seniors readying for college are no doubt aware that their anxieties about applying are amplified by their parents’ worries over the same thing.What students may not fully appreciate, however, is how much of their parents’ feelings are the result of their memories of dealing with college—or their disappointment at not having the opportunity to go at all. I can’t speak for the latter; being an American of a certain age and background (let’s call it postwar middle class, though my parents were immigrants), I was expected to go to college, and I was given all the advantages to achieve that goal. That I didn’t try very hard, but still managed to do all right in life speaks volumes about the difference between the country then and now, a difference I was reminded of in a phone conversation not too long ago with my best friend from high school.

We both graduated in 1970, and in various ways, spent much of the next couple of decades “finding” ourselves—again, a luxury of both a relatively privileged upbringing, and an America that was more socially mobile than today’s. We waited until the same moment in middle age to have children.

Sixteen years later, we talked

about how much had changed in the college application process. He mentioned that when his mother took him to visit one university in the South, they were simply given a map of the campus and told to fend for themselves. I recalled having a one-on-one meeting with an admissions officer. We marveled at how quaint all of that seemed compared to the packed information sessions and crowded, student-led tour groups we’d recently encountered.

How was it, I wondered, that both of us—members of the baby boom, the largest generational cohort in American history—could be so nonchalantly accommodated, while the process of applying by the Millennials seems so much more…well, I don’t way to say desperate, but certainly fraught with the sense of having a lot more at stake.

The answer is obvious: Back when my friend and I applied for college, America still had plenty of blue-collar jobs that could sustain a middle-class lifestyle for people without a college education. We hadn’t yet outsourced the work of making things to places like China, Bangladesh and Vietnam. (And who could have imagined, back when we were fighting a divisive war over Vietnam, that it would one day afford American capitalists

a source of cheap labor—besides those same capitalists, I mean?)

These days, more kids are applying for college because a college education is assumed to be necessary for finding even a middling job.

Actually, some people are beginning to question that assumption, but more about that in a moment. Suffice it to say that applying for college has become caught up in the same grinding gears of globalization that everything else has.

The New York Times recently published an article that laid out how kids from China are trying to enter American high schools, with the hope of better positioning themselves to get into American colleges. It’s the obverse of exporting manufacturing jobs overseas: We’re starting to import potential future knowledge-based workers, and it could make the process of obtaining a college education even more onerous for everyone. (The analogy may be imprecise, but one might well remember how badly the Detroit automotive industry fared 30 or so years ago, when better-made foreign cars were introduced into the American market.)

Then, of course, there is the problem of exploding tuition costs, and the necessity of taking out student loans to meet them. We’re talking about debts that can erode

Sam Kim / The Spectator

Unsafe at Stuyvesant

By Jack Cahn The fire alarm rings. Students anxiously look around.

Nobody moves. Teachers wait for an explanatory announcement, peering out their doors to see how their coworkers react. Nobody knows what to do.

After a few minutes, students reluctantly grab their bags and books, mumbling about the inconvenience of the unplanned fire drill. Only it isn’t a fire drill: It’s April 29, 1999 at Columbine High School, the day of the deadliest mass shooting on a high school campus in American history.

Stop. Fast-forward.

The fire alarm rings. Students anxiously look around.

Nobody moves. Teachers wait for an explanatory announcement, peering out their doors to see how their coworkers react. Nobody knows what to do.

After a few minutes, students reluctantly grab their bags and books, mumbling about the inconvenience of the unplanned fire drill. Most of the school fails to respond appropriately to the potential emergency. It’s April 25, 2013 at Stuyvesant, the day of the annual College Fair.

The parallel is eerie.

The fake fire drill, the purpose of which was not to practice fire safety procedure but to clear the building, demonstrated the flaws with our safety system. Why were more than 50 students in Lecture Hall A with

my twin brother, junior David Cahn, unaware the fire drill was even happening? Why did some teachers instruct their students not to leave their classrooms because the fire alarm was unexpected and probably not a real emergency? After all, they needed to finish their lessons.

On April 25, hundreds of students delayed leaving the school during the fire drill. If this were a real emergency, I’m afraid to say that many of my friends would have been gravely hurt.

This disregard for fire drills is not an exception—it’s the norm, and it’s the single biggest issue facing the Stuyvesant community, as it puts us at risk on a daily basis. Sophomore Ioana Solomon reported that during a fire drill this fall, her teacher made her finish copying the notes before evacuating the school building. What are we going to

“What are we going to do when the ‘unexpected fire drill’ is an actual fire or emergency?”

do when the “unexpected fire drill” is an actual fire or emergency and we’re taking notes in a 10th floor classroom? We’ll be stuck, just as the Columbine students were stuck, and we’ll be in serious danger of being harmed. The expected nature of fire drills defeats their very purpose, which is to prepare students to respond to unexpected emergencies such as fires or intruders entering the building.

There are a few ways in

which we can solve this problem. First and foremost, all fire drills should be unexpected and unannounced. That way, teachers and students can get used to responding spontaneously, interrupting their lessons in order to evacuate the school and protect us in case of a real emergency. The effects are twofold.

We solve the problem of teachers not respecting unexpected fire drills, and, during an actual emergency, students won’t panic because they potentially won’t know it’s an emergency.

Though this shouldn’t even have to said, fire drills should never again be used to evacuate the school during rapid dismissal.

Doing so simply angers and disrespects an already disenchanted student body. Finally, administrators on all 10 floors of the building should make sure teachers readily evacuate their classrooms.

The atmosphere that surrounds fire drills at Stuyvesant needs to be fundamentally changed as well. Administrators should begin treating fire drills as a valuable practice that protects us from potential harm, not as a necessary bureaucratic procedure performed solely to adhere to Department of Education requirements. Teachers shouldn’t complain about the annoyance of missing class time and should instead act as role models, taking the fire drills seriously. Finally, the student body ought to be more respectful during fire drills, talking less and rapidly proceeding out the building without commotion.

I don’t feel safe. Multiple times this year, I’ve stood silently as the fire alarm rang because it was either a false alarm or perceived to be a false alarm. This shouldn’t be the case. The fire alarm needs to be taken seriously as a mechanism to protect us from harm. When it goes off, students and teachers should immediately realize that it could be a true emergency and evacuate the building—or, in the case of a lockdown drill, lock down their classrooms—with no exceptions.

the earning power of college graduates for years if not decades. Which gets us to the argument, currently surfacing on various opinion pages, that I alluded to earlier: To whit, if you have to saddle yourself with debt just to get a BA from a so-so institution, it’s probably not worth it!

The short-term wisdom of that advice, however, masks deeper, more disturbing possibilities for the future in ways both philosophical and political. Back when my friend and I were considering college, the well-rounded liberal arts education was considered the ideal. Now, not so much. I was astounded when, recently, I heard the person conducting the information session at a top-tier Ivy say that the school wasn’t looking for well-rounded students! Rather, they wanted a selection of students with different specialized interests who could together create a wellrounded student body. Frankly, I have no idea what that means.

Another term that’s been popping up frequently during college tours is “research opportunity,” as in technical or scientific research— the presumption being, perhaps, that as the economy moves into Web 3.0 and 4.0 and 5.0, etc., that’s all that will matter. That gets us back again to the aforementioned recommendation: if you’re not pre-

pared to get with the program, why spend your money on a “useless” education? You can be a poetryspouting barista at Starbucks for nothing.

Assuming that people are actually thinking about college in such myopic, deterministic terms, let’s consider the fact that a well-rounded, well-educated person makes for a more informed citizen. The politics of spin and bamboozlement, which is already rife in this country, is much easier put over on a poorly informed public. Which is something our ever-richer and ever-more powerful one-percent plutocracy has figured out: You don’t need the barrel of a gun to get your way, just low-information voters.

At the conclusion of World War II, the generation before mine— the so-called “Greatest” generation—was afforded unprecedented access to a college education thanks to the G.I. Bill. More and more people could afford to go to college, and it created an affluent society that was the envy of the world. Now, we seem to be going in the reverse direction. I’m not out to contribute to anyone’s alarm or paranoia about college prospects here. I’m simply trying to point out that’s there’s a whole lot more at stake than just getting in.

Banking, Bit by Bit

Phillip Shin / The Spectator

By Anonymous

By Severyn Kozak Digitize your wallet, and store wealth in the cloud. Bitcoins are, after all, attractive—exempt from arbitrary regulation, the currency provides security and alleged anonymity. Founded by pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, the bitcoin was designed to provide internet-users with a payment mechanism unregulated by authorities and versatile in design; yet, violent value fluctuations exacerbate unfounded fears of a bitcoin-bubble and precipitate crucial questions concerning cloud-banking’s viability.

Bitcoins exemplify the benefits of a digital monetary medium.

Each coin is “mined,” or generated by computers executing complex mathematical operations; intrinsic dampeners and a hard-limit of 21 million coins prevent self-perpetuating glut and overproduction. Each coin contains a unique integer representation, rendering counterfeiting impossible, and can be subdivided into 100 million “satoshis” to facilitate small-scale transactions.

The currency thus provides anonymity, security, and countermeasures against engineered inflation or deflation.

A pair of problems, however, vex the bitcoin community: sabotage and unpredictable fluxes in value.

Attacks on servers may significantly slow the already lag-plagued bitcoin-exchanges they host, devaluing the currency as users panic and rapidly offload supply. Markets likewise suffer from tentative newcomers— amateur investors inclined to sporadically buy and sell, alternatively causing depreciation and overvaluation. Initially worth $150, bitcoins have exhibited $50 drops/hikes in mere hours.

Users fear the long-term devel-

opment of a bitcoin bubble—highvolume trading at prices incongruous with inherent values. The service appears violently unstable, and is disproportionally popular amongst amateur speculators and financial experimenters. Malicious users may engineer temporary price hikes and drops, and otherwise induce chaos.

Worries of bubbly markets are unfounded, though understandable. Bitcoins possess sufficient safeguards to preserve equilibrium with a constant rate of production, thereby preventing oversaturation, and have maintained a consistent projected growth over the past three months (and an average value of $120.61). The currency will stabilize once newcomers leave; novice investors will recede as bitcoins shed their current, media-inflamed popularity, and the currency will return to primarily servicing enterprise and bank-weary commoners.

Economics aside, bitcoins must gain tract as a model for digital currencies; the coins are a template for a monetary-system which may eventually allow users to manage wealth in an international, stable market. Masses will flock to the service especially after witnessing the catastrophic failure of European (i.e.

Cyprus’s) and American banks during an ongoing recession, and after suffering losses to governments’ draconian responses. Moreover, bitcoins’ virtual un-traceability will attract users by offering greater financial privacy.

Recently, Bitcoin clones Litecoin and Ripples have emerged with varying approaches to price-regulation, and more will follow; with time, a single, universal currency may emerge by dint of popularity.

Digital coinage is gaining strength, and with good reason.

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 15

Opinions

By DAVID CAHN In the halls of the Kremlin, the floor of China’s National People’s Congress, and in meetings between Tehran’s senior officials, politicians, bureaucrats, and leaders rest easy. If the events of the past half-decade had not proven it already, the decisions of the past month have made the global political reality crystal clear: the age of United States leadership has finally come to a bitter end. Nations are free to act as they wish. The future is now a clean slate, waiting for the ablest plutocrat, the most aggressive nationalist, or the most repressive dictator to claim the reins of history.

The Obama administration’s decision to do nothing in the face of reports that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its people is the last step in Obama’s isolationist foreign policy that is deliberately putting an end to United States leadership and giving a green light to those who wish to expand their power at the expense of stability.

In an attempt to avoid immediate action on hot button issues, President Obama has declared various “red lines” during his tenure as President of the United States. When a

civil war erupted in Syria, and rebels called on the United States to intervene, Obama told the world that the Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, was wrong, and that the American people stood in solidarity with the Syrian rebels. This was after months of noncommittal rhetoric about not knowing if we could even support the rebels in the first place.

Syrian rebels weren’t happy, to say the least. “When the regime falls, Syrians will not forget that their pleas for help went unanswered,” the rebel battalion spokesman told the Washington Post in August of 2012. “America will pay a price for this. America is going to lose the friendship of Syrians, and no one will trust them anymore.” In response, President Obama offered more of the meaningless rhetoric that has become a fundamental part of his “foreign policy of empty promises.” He declared that the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would be a “red line” that would compel U.S. intervention.

Ironically, President Obama’s advisors are now saying that he misspoke when he made this pledge. Earlier this month, the White House leaked to The New York Times that “Obama’s initial statement had been unprepared, unscripted and therefore unserious.” Putting aside the fact that President Obama doesn’t even seem to know what his own foreign policy is, this red line comment was never retracted, and has been pointed to as the centerpiece of Obama’s Syrian policy even since it was made.

So when it became clear a few weeks ago that chemical weapons were used in Syria, the world waited for United States to take action. But nothing came. Though the White House has since confirmed

that chemical weapons were used, they have made two claims in support of inaction.

On one hand, they cite a lack of clarity in exactly who ordered the use of the weapons, and on the other hand, they claim that we must wait for the international community to act. Both of these claims are absurd.

First, the idea that it matters who ordered the use of chemical weapons is fiction that the Obama administration has invented to avoid folding, now that its bluff has been called. If the Assad regime used the weapons, as is most likely the case, then that merits United States action.

If not, then someone must have stolen the government’s weapons—an even scarier reality where terrorists groups could potentially have access to these weapons of mass destruction. All the more reason we should intervene! Second, as per the claim that we ought to wait for the international community to act, are we waiting for the Russians to change their minds and condemn the leaders that they have been supporting for decades? If not, then who is this international community we’re waiting for?

Obama’s foreign policy of empty promises and cheap rhetoric is one that is founded on the new politics of “keep me out of it!” The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars claimed thousands and lives and cost billions of dollars, leaving Americans disillusioned (and rightfully so) with government intervention in foreign conflicts. We have all heard our liberal friends righteously claim that the age in which the United States sees itself as a global police force is over. But just because these wars failed, doesn’t mean the intervention as a principle doesn’t work. It means we need to engage more strategically, with achievable and concrete

short-term and long-term objectives.

Unfortunately for Obama and those advocates of inaction, we can’t just hide in a corner and pretend that global events don’t affect us. Hoping someone else will deal with our problems for us isn’t leadership—but it is the new face of Obama’s America, a country that is losing its spine.

The game is over for the Obama administration. It can’t keep drawing red lines, hoping to delay action on key foreign policy for the indefinite future.

Assad has called our bluff and the cards will fall as they may.

The United States has been embarrassed, and Obama exposed as a liar and a fraud.

But Obama has done more than just allow for untold human rights abuses to go ignored. He has sacrificed the credibility of the United States of America. He has told the

world that his threats are not to be taken seriously. That our red lines, as John McCain so aptly said, are really pink. He might as well have told the nations who wish to wreak havoc on the world through aggression that the door is open. We will not act. We are no longer an America of confidence and strength. We are an America of fear and timidity.

Obama to Moscow: Keep supplying brutal murders with weapons.

Obama to Bejing: Thinking about invading Taiwan? Go for it.

Obama to Tehran: Nuclear bombs? If everyone else’s cool with it, who are we to disagree?

Obama to Pyongyang: Ready to attack South Korea?

Don’t worry; we’ll look the other way.

Angele Huang/ The Spectator

Phillip Shin / The Spectator

Calling the Bluff

Phillip Shin / The Spectator

Stay Out of Syria

By Justin Weltz The headless body of Saddam Hussein’s political party has begun to stir. Conflict between militant Sunnis and the Shiite government, leaving hundreds dead in recent months, has exposed Iraq as an unstable consequence of foreign occupation . This war torn nation, now rife with sectarian violence, serves as a testament to the destruction caused by the U.S. invasion in 2003. It is a lesson and a warning to nations who wish to affect conflicts and peoples they don’t understand.

The United States is now faced with a similar dilemma.

In 2012, for the first time within its ten years of rule, Bashar Assad’s regime was threatened by nationwide rebellion. Rebel groups that would later become the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition forces began to battle government army units within cities and strategic locations. Areas like Homs, Aleppo, and Damascus erupted in chaos as the Free Syrian Army and National Coalition coordinated their attacks with other rebel groups. Global sentiment, while in favour of the opposition, has been reluctant to act with significant amounts of aid. In recent news, however, intelligence reports have indicated

the use of chemical weapons by the Assad Regime. This was stated by Obama to be the “red line” which, if crossed, would lead to an increase in U.S. intervention.

In the days before this chemical development, John Kerry (U.S. Secretary of State) announced the doubling of U.S. aid to Syria. We currently provide the opposition with the equivalent of $250 million in non-lethal combat gear and equipment.

This type of assistance, however, has a high probability of creating a situation contrary to our aims.

Shipping expensive supplies to rebels that claim to fight for a moderate democratic state gives us no control over this equipment after it enters Syrian territory . As a result, the porous borders that define the urban conflict make it very easy for our gear to fall into the wrong hands.

The arming of the National Opposition Coalition also causes militarization that will be hard to reverse when the conflict is over and disarmament is necessary.

It is clear, then, that the only effective policy we can implement would involve a U.S. military presence in Syria or complete non-intervention.

The United States cannot affect positive change in a people they don’t understand . 1.2 million Iraqi civilian deaths, 3 mil-

lion Iraqis wounded, 2.2 million Iraqi refugees, and 2.4 million internally displaced Iraqi persons now stain the United State’s international resumé. Such enormous casualties display our potential to exacerbate rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crises. The Obama administration currently wishes to support an opposition group which will replace the Assad dictatorship with a secular, moderate democracy. Unfortunately, that political faction doesn’t exist.

“My sense is that there are no seculars,” remarked Elizabeth O’Bagy of the Institute for the Study of War, who has made numerous trips to Syria to interview rebel commanders .The National Opposition Coalition has further complicated the issue by fully integrating militant Islamic groups and terrorist organizations including the Syrian Islamic Front and Al-Nusra (which is believed to be responsi ble for suicide bombings that have occurredoccured in recent months). As a result of support from Al-Qaeda and other Sunni groups , these rebel forces are often better equipped than their more moderate counterparts, making them indispensable to the opposition movement.

The cooperation between these extremist movements and the

main Syrian coalition prove that the arbitrary lines U.S. p oliticians like to draw between the “good” Syrian freedom fighters and the “bad” Muslim extremists simply do not exist. There is no way to aid one of these groups effectively without supporting the others.

However, even if the United States could locate and empower a western-friendly democratic opposition group, such a minority would command no respect from the Syrian masses . The other rebel factions, hardened by two years of civil war, would resist such obvious western interference in their domestic politics (even though they want us to help them topple the Assad regime). This political disaster would force us to act as a stabilizing presence in Syria for many years to come; this is a role we cannot afford to play anymore.

By installing an un-popular government we are cheating the system, we are suppressing the popular movements, and we are being un-democratic . The eternal curse of democracy is that it cannot be imposed on a nation un-democratically. We must respect the Syrian people and their vision for the future of their nation. If we cannot do that, we had better stay out.

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 16

Opinions

Hayoung Ahn / The Spectator

Hayoung Ahn / The Spectator

Point-Counterpoint: NYC Teen Pregnancy Ads In Favor of Teen Words Hurt Pregnancy Prevention Ads

For the past few weeks, New York City’s subways have been plastered with phrases like “Dad, you’ll be paying to support me for the next 20 years” and “Honestly, Mom… chances are he won’t stay with you,” attempting to point out the hardships of raising children, especially for teens.

“Got a good job?” one poster asks. “I cost thousands of dollars each year.” Other posters weave in shocking but real statistics: “Think being a teen parent won’t cost you? Expect to spend more than $10,000 a year to raise a child” and “If you finish high school, get a job and get married before having children, you have a 98% chance of not being in poverty…”

These quotes are accompanied by images of tears streaming down baby cheeks and their disappointed eyes. We see the same babies crying on our way to school, then back home again, and everywhere else in between.

Some argue that the advertisements are insensitive and that this new initiative to inform teens about the struggles of being a teen parent is badly executed. They point to the images and cry foul play or argue that the quotes ostracize teen mothers past and present.

However, these advertisements get the job done. Education is the single most vital aspect of prevention.

The posters are from the Department of Social Services, put up in March as part of an effort to discourage teen pregnancy.

Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that birth rates have fallen by around 10 percent over the past year for women between 15 and 19 years of age, teen pregnancy remains an issue that must be combated. In New York alone, one in 14 girls of the same age group becomes a teen mother, a rate much higher than that of the rest of the country, where only one in 32 teens becomes a mother.

The U.S. (including New York) is making progress, though, and teen pregnancy rates drop considerably every year. This progress is possible because the country is opening up dialogue between teachers and students about sex and protection.

At least in New York, sexual education is

mandatory as of 2011; classes must be taken once in junior high school and once in high school. Now, schools also have a role in informing teens about the consequences of being sexually active, and our health classes focus on prevention through contraception, lending options to sexually active teens.

The subway ads are aimed at taking this education a step further. Granted, they may be shocking and provocative, but the ads all offer a realistic perspective on teen pregnancy, relationships, and the likely future. “These ads are meant to be informative, not offensive,” freshman Tabitha Wilson said. “We need to promote real-life statistics that enable young people like us to make better life decisions.”

The crying baby posters even give teens the resources to understand the consequences of teen pregnancy. They urge viewers to text “NotNow” to 877877, and, out of curiosity, I did. The text immediately asks for your first name, and, with some pretty atrocious imitation teen slang, responds with valuable information. I received a text telling me that, as a teen, I can call 311, where I can receive information on finding nearby contraception or sexual health care resources. After that, the messaging goes a bit downhill, asking you to play a game in which you give advice to a clueless teenager. The game oversimplifies teen pregnancy, portraying some of your biggest decisions as deciding what shoes to buy. You finally receive another teen pregnancy fact and a responsibility ranking and are asked for three of your closest friends’ numbers.

Though it may take some more time to see these advertisements’ effects in the statistics, the ads are successful, regardless of the texting initiative’s poor execution.

They accomplish the mission of ensuring that teens stop to think about pregnancy prevention. And though the crying babies may be a little bit haunting, isn’t that what we want from effective advertisements and prevention programs? Isn’t it ideal to have ads that leave lasting impressions, ads that you can’t just brush off?

The topic has, unfortunately, been brushed off from time to time. Now, with these advertisements, we’re challenging it head on.

Navida Rukhsha / The Spectator

By Emma Bernstein

By Daniel Kodsi Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Sound familiar? It’s the mantra of a parent who wants his or her child to toughen up. But words do hurt, especially if they strike at something that’s close to us or something that just happens to be true.

In that vein, the latest ads plastered throughout the NYC subway system to reduce teen pregnancy are harmful and demeaning. Not only do they fail to prevent teenagers from getting pregnant, but they also lash out directly at teen moms. This is evident in posters of crying babies that read: “I’m twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen.” These posters, though aimed at preventing at-risk teens from becoming teen parents, end up humiliating teen parents for their past mistakes. As one teen mother and current Bronx councilwoman Annabel Palma said, “[The campaign’s] dismissive tone perpetuates hurtful stereotypes about teen parents and their children.” Like Palma, I’m convinced that abusive posters should not be the primary message of an ad campaign that hangs on subway cars from Staten Island to Queens and everywhere in between.

It’s important to understand that teen pregnancy, especially in the United States, is an issue that needs to be remedied. However, it’s also important to note that teen pregnancy rates have been decreasing for the past several years—reaching a 40-year low in 2012.

And these rates have been decreasing even before the advent of what is essentially a shame campaign against teen moms. In fact, we ought to accredit this drop to statewide policies of sexual education and teen pregnancy prevention programs, and not to posters of crying babies with comical font.

Yes, these ads provide hard facts and statistics about the financial cost and burden of raising a child. And yes, they bring attention to the impermanence of teen romances and the hardships of raising a child. In short, the posters appeal to both the heart (with vulnerable, crying toddlers) and the brain (with numbers designed to shock). So what’s the problem with that?

The problem is that these ads just don’t work. Quite simply, shame is not effective. A 2007 review of research on using confrontation and social stigma to force a change concluded that “four decades of research have failed to yield a single clinical trial showing efficacy of confrontational counseling, whereas a number have documented harmful effects, particularly for more vulnerable populations.” The message of this study is clear—the worse individuals feel about the issue being targeted, the

worse the problem gets. With alcoholism, a study showed that the guiltier drinkers felt about their last drinks, the more likely they were to relapse. When nearly 500 obese people were shamed about their weight, it led to more weight gain.

Of course, drinking and teen pregnancy are not quite the same issue.

But promoting a negative attitude has made the issue worse with teen pregnancy, too. For instance, as another teen mom, blogger Gloria Malone, testified in a New York Times op-ed, “[A]fter I had my daughter, my high school guidance counselor refused to see me and help me with my applications. She never expected me to graduate. Most people, even within my family, assumed I wouldn’t amount to anything and would be dependent on government assistance for the rest of my life.” These people need support.

The ads point out that teen moms are less likely to graduate high school, but that is made exponentially worse once it’s assumed that they won’t. That is to say, stigmatizing teen pregnancy has only made resources harder to reach and created a self-sustaining spiral into poverty. Similarly, the ads point to the poverty of teen mothers, but as Haydee Morales of Planned Parenthood explained, “It’s not teen pregnancies that cause poverty, but poverty that causes teen pregnancy.” Again, the ads fail to address the real problems and focus on an issue that’s correlated with, but not necessarily caused by, teen pregnancy.

There’s a reason why there’s been such a massive outcry against the ads by Planned Parenthood, teen moms, and activists throughout New York. There’s a reason why a “No Stigma, No Shame” campaign made its way through the digital media. And it’s not because the ads are working. It’s because when the number displayed on the signs is texted, a simulation is run where a girl gets called a loser—formerly a “fat loser” until minor tweaks were made—by her best friend. It’s because the ads are instead contributing to an environment where teen mothers are more alone than ever.

So let’s not rely on shame, guilt, and crying babies to lower our pregnancy rates. Let’s not rely on nasty texting games to teach our youth a lesson. Let’s not rely on a fear campaign when fear campaigns haven’t worked in the past.

And let’s not misrepresent and distort data to try and prove a point. Instead, let’s offer our support and resources to those who need them and hone in on the real message: Struggling teens need our help, so let’s help them.

The Spectator â—? May 29, 2013

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The Spectator ●May 29, 2013

Page 19

Arts and Entertainment Who Would Win in a Fight: Goku Superman The Last Son of Krypton cannot be brought down by many, even one as seemingly powerful as Goku. As a Kryptonian, Superman is essentially a living solar battery. His cells absorb and process the light energy emitted by Earth’s yellow sun, giving him— among other powers—near-limitless strength and speed, heat and x-ray vision, and extremely high durability. The Modern Age Superman is able to bench-press the weight of the Earth for five straight days without breaking a sweat, and his speed is second only to that of the Flash, who can travel at nearly the speed of light.

Furthermore, Superman, unlike Goku, can survive in space long enough to travel to distant planets. Though Goku possesses abilities that Superman does not, Superman can use his various powers without using a great deal of energy. Endurance-wise, Superman would also be able to outlast Goku in a lengthy battle.

The source of Superman’s powers is an important factor in determining the outcome of a fight with Goku. If Goku’s attacks come from energy similar in nature to solar energy, Superman, who absorbs solar energy, would be able to render these attacks ineffective.

Another detail to note is that Superman has never been permanently defeated or killed by any of his opponents. Goku, who has been killed (and then revived) when fighting several

major enemies, cannot say the same. Only once has Superman ever come close to death: During a battle with a Kryptonian monster known as Doomsday, Superman returned a short time after he was presumed to be dead.

Superman possesses two main weaknesses: magic and radioactive meteorites called Kryptonite. Various alternate versions of Superman lack these weaknesses, bolstering his versatility.

Most importantly, Goku cannot use magic, and it is unlikely that he would be able to locate a sufficient amount of Kryptonite with which to weaken Superman.

Goku is unable to exploit these weaknesses, and Goku’s own weaknesses are greater in number and comparable to those of a human, albeit to a far lesser degree. For instance, Goku cannot survive in space and has a special weakness to magma. Superman, with the wealth of Kryptonian knowledge and equipment at his disposal, would not have any issues weakening and eventually defeating Goku.

While Goku is incredibly powerful and could easily defeat many of the DC Universe’s other heroes, his abilities cannot compare with those of the Man of Steel. Superman outmatches Goku in everything—strength, speed, intelligence, and endurance—except the number of exploitable weaknesses. No matter how one looks at the situation, Goku simply does not have the power to defeat Superman.

By Luke Morales The victor of a fight between Superman and Goku has been a constant topic of scholarly debate since the dawn of the Dragon Ball series. Both sides put up good arguments, but Goku evidently outclasses Superman in nearly every critical aspect of fighting, from super powers to adaptability to versatility, lending Goku the absolute edge.

While Superman spends his time concealing his identity and working for the Daily Planet, Goku is protecting planet Earth by training or fighting threatening rivals of comparable strength, including the famed Vegeta and Majin Buu. This constant cultivation of battle skills prepares Goku for any challenger standing in his way. On the other hand, Superman spends no time training at all. He relies on brute strength to take down his adversaries, mainly because most of them are but insignificant mortals.

A consequence of Superman’s lack of training and challenging foes is an overall lack of abilities. Superman has mastered around 12 super powers or combat moves, most of which are rarely put to use due to his dependence on just two of his powers: flight and super strength. According to Dragon Ball Wiki, Goku has mastered upwards of 50 different moves and is perpetually increasing his repertoire through training and frequent application.

Bonny Truong/ The Spectator

By Geoffrey Luu

In addition to training and abilities, Goku has fewer limits on his capabilities. Superman derives his superpowers from stars: the closer the are, the more power he has. This dependence on an outside source of power would hinder Superman’s performance in a battle against Goku, who can choose how much power he wishes to exert.

In fact, if this battle were to take place in the depths of space, in the absence of starlight, Super-

man would stand no chance.

Anything Superman can do, Goku can do better. Superman flies faster than the speed of light; Goku responds with instant transmission. Superman withstands a supernova; in Dragon Ball GT episodes 17 through 20, Goku endures the explosion of a bomb with energy equal to that of the entire universe. Superman’s powers may seem impressive, but Goku’s are simply superior.

Film

Cynthia Zhou / The Spectator

The Man Under the Suit, Shedding the Iron

By Ben Vanden Heuvel Boom. Bang. Crack. Bang. A brief moment of silence. A bigger bang. The dazzling, highadrenaline explosions that fill the countless action movies pouring into American theaters come a dime-a-dozen in many Marvel comic-based blockbust-

ers. Yet the Iron Man, though a walking weapon, has always had a slightly different feel than the killing-machine superheroes frequenting the box office. In the first “Iron Man,” we watched a surprisingly original plot portray the wealthy and arrogant Tony Stark, a man with unremarkable motivation, transform into a self-guided

hero. The sequel followed a more generic formula, with a disgruntled Ivan Vanko playing a cardboard-character supervillain.

“Iron Man 3,” directed by Shane Black and produced by Marvel’s Kevin Feige, is an interesting mixture of the two: we get the typical good vs. evil fight scenes enshrined in Marvel comic history, but we also get to appreciate a more personal look at Tony Stark, who’s more vulnerable than ever before while struggling to find his identity. It’s a nice balance that, despite a few conceptual drawbacks, creates a fulfilling experience.

The film picks up not where “Iron Man 2” ended, but after the events that occurred in “The Avengers,” a crossover film that blended the storylines of Iron Man and several other Marvel heroes and villains. Without seeing “The Avengers,” which falls chronologically between “2” and “3,” certain references won’t make any sense.

The villains, another carry-over from the multi-hero crossover feature, are the most bizarre and vindictive yet. The enemies Tony Stark faced into the first two installments were human scientists like Obediah and Ivan Vanko, who were both similar to Stark; they were mortal men who gained their powers from brilliant technology and weaponry. In the third installment of the “Iron Man” series, however, Stark is pitted against more improbable creations of fantastical science:

people imbued with superhuman qualities who can walk through flames or lose limbs yet trudge on, a grisly nod to the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger as “The Terminator.” These villainous beings, and their supposed terrorist leader, “The Mandarin,” are a touch contrived, and their cliché evilness takes a little away from an otherwise fresh film.

Central to “Iron Man 3” is a more vulnerable Tony Stark, a deflated billionaire who struggles to maintain his witty arrogance when he is suffering from panic attacks. In this film, we follow Stark on a more personal level, witnessing his struggles with his identity and bitter memories of countless neardeath experiences. In many instances we find ourselves in quiet scenes of Stark alone— in his bed, his car, or out in the woods—deep in thought over who he should be and what his purpose is. These reflective moments, uncharacteristic of an intense superhero film, are among the most memorable, as we learn to empathize with Stark as he wrestles with his responsibilities.

The core of the plot is basic: Stark must save the world from the superhuman villains while coming to terms with his past and future. The motivation of his enemies, as well as their entanglement with the U.S. government, is significantly more confusing and detracts from the experience. Still, the plot keeps us engaged thanks to a handful of genuine surprises. A couple

of unexpected twists help Stark survive on his journey and reveal some unexpected features of his enemy, helping the audience stay interested in his fate.

Essential to this film’s success is, once again, Robert Downey Jr. His quick wits and egocentric quips are just as amusing as ever, and his ability to combine humor with intensity is a huge factor in separating the Iron Man series from a slew of less interesting action features. A strong supporting cast backs him up, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle returning in their perfectly cast roles as Stark’s closest companions, and a strange but ultimately delightful role for Ben Kingsley as the supervillain. Throw in some pretty breathtaking special effects, which have become a given in Marvel movie productions, and you have a solid film.

“Iron Man 3” is a major change from the simple and surprisingly upbeat dialogue that began Tony Stark’s big screen journey. Here, we travel into a more confusing wormhole of evil powers alongside a Stark searching for an identity outside his supersuits. The acting is well above par, and there’s just enough humor and surprise to make the film enjoyable and far from generic. It’s an effective summing up of the trilogy, if only because we get to see a larger-than-life Robert Downey Jr. ascend to the skies, guns blazing, but also come down to earth and be the most human we’ve ever seen him.

The Spectator ● May 29,2013

Page 20

Arts and Entertainment Music

Laura Eng / The Spectator

Corner-Store Philosophy and Rap

By Shahruz Ghaemi Rap can occasionally seem like the inebriated uncle at a family party, making noise, wreaking havoc, and freaking everyone else out. But rap isn’t one homogenous, monolithic genre of music. It has its own subcultures, which thrive in the depths of the internet that

“The opening lines to “FolkMetaphysics” are chastisements to himself to get off his couch, stop watching Netflix all day, and to shave his beard.”

breed talent and creativity. Rap is more of an extended family of interesting people that defies label, and that just so happens to include that one crazy uncle.

The rapper known simply as Milo is part of that family; though he may seem like the distant relative that no one is quite sure what he does for a living, he still attracts a small, loyal fanbase.

After being rejected by four labels, Milo finally caught the

attention of and was inducted into the small rap/hip-hop group Hellfyre Club, centered in Los Angeles. The sense of community Milo found allowed him to develop his personal style, resulting in two albums (“I Wish My Brother Rob Was Here” and “Milo Takes Baths”) that garnered him attention across the Web—his personal YouTube channel (ModestMilo) has 1,500 subscribers—as an intriguing new artist. His latest project is the dual-EP “Things That Happen At Day//Things That Happen At Night” (TTHAD//TTHAN), released on New Year’s Day of this year. Milo’s style is what first strikes listeners in these albums. He raps in a laidback, laconic style that’s often compared to Kid Cudi’s. Though his voice has been described as monotonous, it comes across as calm and composed.

The content of Milo’s raps also works toward that overall sense of calmness. Rather than rap about the usual street life subjects, he leaves sex, drugs, and guns untouched in favor of subjects dear to him. He focuses on his personal brand of nerdy-hipsterism: philosophy, childhood video games and television shows, and his professional wrestling idols.

This makes him much more relatable to listeners who have not livedthe life portrayed in Eminem’s or The Notorious B.I.G.’s songs. Though they are both top-notch rappers, Milo has said he “[doesn’t] feel a shared narrative” with that type of rap.

Milo is more of a philosopher-poet than a hard-bitten guy from the streets. This artistic philosophy of Milo is best exemplified in the noteworthy “Folk-Metaphysics” from TTHAD//TTHAN. On one line, Milo wishes he could actually understand Hegel, the German philosopher who wrote on the historical development of ideas. On the next, Milo

wishes he could be more like Nietzsche’s ubermensch, or superhuman ideal. Later on in the song, Milo promises to give into his superstitions, anxieties, and irrationality.

Milo also isn’t afraid to make fun of his own flaws, ones that unfortunately are recognizable by too many of us. The opening lines to “Folk-Metaphysics” are chastisements to himself to get off his couch, stop watching Netflix all day, and to shave his beard. In the chorus of “A Lazy Coon’s Obiter Dictum,” another song from the EP, he laments his laziness and is convinced that if he stopped procrastinating, he could actually improve his life.

His flow can be described as stream-of-consciousness ramblings. The first track on TTHAD//TTHAN, “Sweet Chin Music (The Fisher King’s Anthem),” is a calming song that invokes the same soothing feelings as images of a Hawaiian beach. This opening track immediately gives listeners a taste of Milo’s unique flavor.

No one line logically leads into the next, and he seems to sometimes switch topics in the middle of a line. Each phrase is a juicy reference to something nerdy, philosophical, or both.

To top it all off, he even promises in his lyrics to “poison the aquifer with awkward non-sequiturs.”

“Folk-Metaphysics” and “Sweet Chin Music” deserve to be joined by “The Otherground Pizza Party (featuring Open Mike Eagle)” on any list of the best tracks from TTHAD//TTHAN. The song is a light-hearted account of a psychedelic pizza party Milo hosts with Fidel Castro, Samus Aran, Vincent van Gogh, and Kurt Vonnegut in attendance.

“Sweet Chin Music” opens up the album, and fittingly is a great song to wake up to. “The Otherground Pizza Party” is the penultimate song, and is perfect for a late-night session of quiet thinking.

If anything, Milo can be described as a philosophizing hipster rapper, putting his ideas out there for anybody who cares to listen. With a Gameboy Color in one hand and a copy of Kirekegaard’s “Either/Or” in the other, you can tell Milo really is about “that nerd life.”

“The artist known simply as Milo isn’t completely unknown, and for good reason.”

Museum Florals, Fantasy, and Fashion

By Claire Burghard

A socialite woman living in late 19th century Paris could easily find herself waltzing through life in corseted daydresses and mermaid-style ball-gowns, laughing in a hazy elegant parlor or lounging at the park in the fleeting beauty of a summer’s day. It was “La Belle Epoque,” a time of delicacy and romance that inspired Impressionist artists.

Deeply bored by conventional depictions of people and scenes, which were often carefully set in studios, the Impressionists embraced moments of transient light in natural, outdoor settings, an arguably more realistic depiction of their world. Fashion became a primary aspect of the good life in the 19th century, and never before had style been so important to people and their appearances. It was their obsession, an essential element to their work that provided context and reality, and it was crucial to capture perfectly.

Artists like Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Auguste

Certain pieces in the exhibit are particularly striking, such as Monet’s “Women in the Garden,” depicting four young women frozen in a lush Parisian garden. None of the women look directly at the viewer; instead, they’re consumed in their activities. The intricate, realistic trees above cast delicate shadows on the women’s billowing dresses as they shuffle in the pervading sun. Accompanying the piece is a day dress similar to one featured in the painting. Both the painted dress and the real dress are white, tightly corseted at the top, and then explode from the waist to the floor, with ornate black cording details at the bottom. You can spend hours in front of this painting, gazing at the women in it who possess the mystical, unattainable elegance of a time long gone.

Another portrait, “In the Conservatory” by Albert Bartholomé, captures a similar enigmatic and feminine air.

The painter’s wife fashions a tasteful violet polka-dot dress, which is shown next to the piece. She stands graciously in

“It gives us two perspectives on the time: one looking at the women dressed in yards of silk and chiffon through smudges of paint on canvas; the other, looking at the actual, perfectly preserved garments.”

Renoir focused on capturing the beauties of everyday life in their changing, contemporary world, and only revolutionaries like them could seize the moment with such grace.

“Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity,” running at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 27, focuses on the importance of fashion to the Impressionists. The exhibit successfully associates various pieces of art with a collection of breathtaking dresses, gowns, shoes, and accessories by comparing the paintings and the garments side-byside. The paintings are characteristic of Impressionism, featuring floral settings and contemplative, erotic women in soft, muddled brushstrokes of bright primary colors. Stunning portraits are then accompanied with the actual dresses that the models are wearing.

This gives us two perspectives on the time: one looking at the women dressed in yards of silk and chiffon through strokes of paint on canvas; the other, looking at the actual, perfectly preserved garments. The combination immerses us in the time period.

a doorway, bathed in a mixture of sunlight and shadows, and we see the image of a cultured woman that her husband had of her, conservative but bohemian at the same time. As we observe Manet’s “Repose,” depicting a young woman in a soft-looking dress lounging on a fluffy couch, we can’t help but envy her effortless beauty.

Others are not portraits, like Jean Béraud’s “A Ball,” which shows an exciting parlor scene of hourglass-figured ladies in lace gowns with never-ending trains dotting a sea of tuxedos.

As one art critic wrote: “There is nothing more ‘Parisian’ than the ladies, each occupied with her own conversation, knowing how to be witty with a glance just as well as with a word.” Walking out of “Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity,” you are left with a true understanding of why artists were so fascinated by the women of the late 19th century. As you leave the fantastic parties, botanical gardens, and graceful socialites behind, it feels like waking up from a dream, slowly rubbing your eyes open and emerging back in reality.

The Spectator ●May 29, 2013

Page 21

Arts and Entertainment Calendar

Looking Forward SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

24

25

Movie release “Fast and Furious 6” Director: Justin Lin Genre: Adventure, comedy, fantasy

Lexington Avenue Spring Festival Lexington Ave, between 42nd St and 57th St

Movie release “The Hangover Part III” Director: Todd Phillips Genre: Comedy

Greenpoint Avenue Festival Greenpoint Ave, between Queens Blvd and 44th St

The Nuyorican Friday Night Poetry Slam Nuyorican Poets Cafe 236 E 3rd St 10 p.m.

Admission: $10

26

26th Annual Livable West Side Festival Broadway, between 73rd St and 86th St 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Flushing Festival Sanford Avenue from Main Street to Kissena 12 p.m.-6 p.m.

27

Museum exhibition “XL: 19 New Acquisitions in Photography” MoMA Available through January 6, 2014

28

Album release Kylesa’s “Ultraviolet” Genre: Sludge metal, psychedelic rock Concert Dawn Richard The Gramercy Theatre 127 E 23rd St 7 p.m.

Tickets: $15 Concert Ana Egge Rockwood Music Hall 196 Allen St 7 p.m.

2

Concert “Weird Al” Yankovic The Capitol Theatre Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

149 Westchester Ave, Port Chester, NY This event is 18 and over

3

Concert The Stranglers Highline Ballroom 431 W 16th St Doors open at 6 p.m.

Tickets: $25-$99

29

Concert Fall Out Boy Terminal 5 610 W 56th St Doors open at 7 p.m.

Concert The Thermals Bowery Ballroom 6 Delancey St Doors open at 8 p.m.

Tickets: $16

4

5 Concert Jesse & Joy The Gramercy Theatre 127 E 23rd St 7 p.m.

Tickets: $32.50

Album release George Benson’s “Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat Cole King” Genre: Jazz Label: Concord

Concert The National & Youth Lagoon Barclays Center 620 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 8 p.m.

Album release Portugal. The Man’s “Evil Friends” Genre: Psychedelic rock, progressive rock Label: Atlantic Records

30

Opera The Giacomo Variations John Malkovich & Ingeborga Dapkünaité The New York City Center 131 W 55th St Available through June 2, 2013

1

31

Concert Tea Leaf Green Bowery Ballroom 6 Delancey St Doors open at 8 p.m.

Tickets: $20

Movie release “After Earth” Genre: Sci-fi Director: M. Night Shyamalan Movie release “Now You See Me” Genre: Crime Director: Louis Leterrier Movie release “The East” Genre: Crime Director: Zal Batmanglij

6

Museum exhibition “The Universe Within Art”

By Govinda Sah Azad, a young Nepalese artist who studied in Nepal, Bangladesh, and London Tibet House 22 W 15th St Available through July 24, 2013

7

Concert Old Crow Medicine Show The Capitol Theatre 149 Westchester Ave, Port Chester, NY Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

This event is 18 and over.

Movie release “The Internship” Genre: Comedy Director: Shawn Levy Cast: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Dylan O’Brien, Rose Byrne, Jessica Szohr

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Page 22

The Spectator ● May 29,2013

Arts and Entertainment Food

Not the Average Hot Dog

By Angela Sun Crif Dogs is a hipster, holein-the-wall joint just a few steps down from street level that sets itself apart from the many hot dog stands that dot the streets of New York City, and is most definitely capable of handling masses of hungry hot dog revelers.

Located on 113th Street, between Avenue A and First Ave, Crif Dogs raises the bar by adding creative toppings to its deep-fried, pork-and-beef frankfurters. With nearly two dozen different hot dog combinations, chances are there’s an option to suit every palate.

Here, you’ll find selections like the Philly Tubesteak ($4.00), a hot dog casually attired in melted cheese and sautéed onions and the Tsunami ($4.50), a bacon-wrapped hot dog with teriyaki sauce, pineapples, and green onions. It would be a shame if anyone came to order the usual hot dog and bun with two wiggles of ketchup and mustard, because this place is for the daring.

The dim lights, exposed brick wall, and picnic bench seats give Crif Dogs an unpolished feel that mirrors the uniqueness of the food offered.

The décor is very tongue-incheek, with a risqué mural of a woman hugging a giant wiener, an old phone booth, and a Reservoir Dog action figure.

The archaic videogames add

the appropriate ambience to the already casual atmosphere.

The staff is laid-back and the service is very fast, as the orders are delivered to your table in just five minutes. With only four tables and a bar top, there isn’t very much room to sit.

However, due to its nearly hidden storefront, there usually isn’t much of a wait.

“Crif Dogs is a cheap foodie’s dream.”

When stumbling through the menu all slack-jawed, deciding what to eat, skip the Crif Dog ($2.75), a plain hot dog with mustard, ketchup and onions. Instead, move on to the specialty hot dogs like the Chihuahua ($4.50), a bacon-wrapped frank nestled between chunks of creamy avocadoes and plentiful dollops of sour cream. Though the idea of this combination may seem strange at first, the richness of the avocado and

the sour cream paired with the crispiness of the bacon is surprisingly compatible. The one aspect that could definitely use improvement, however, is the untoasted bun, which is cold and soft.

Another specialty of Crif Dogs and a customer favorite is the Spicy Redneck ($4.75), which features a baconwrapped wiener with a mesmerizing smashup of chili, cole slaw, and jalapeños that’s almost excessive. The taste of each ingredient comes through, with the mild sweetness of the cole slaw mellowing out the spicy kick from the jalapeños and the runniness of the chili. Though the taste of the bacon is nearly indiscernible under the substantial amount of toppings, it does play a part in adding an extra crunch to the already crispy wiener.

Crif Dogs is perhaps just as well-known for its sides as it is for its hot dogs, offering both waffle-fries and tater tots ($2.50 for a small, $3.50 for a large) with a healthy layer of gooey, melted cheese on top for good measure. Particularly tasty are the tater tots which come fresh out of the deep fryer. The serving size is also generous, each side being practically a whole meal on its own.

Crif Dogs is a cheap foodie’s dream. This small establishment is loaded with character, from its retro video game machines to its imaginative hot dog topping combinations.

Crif Dogs, located on 113 St Marks Pl, offers low cost hot dogs of many customization.

Crif Dogs is one of the hidden gems of New York City cuisine.

Once you step in, there’s no turning back to the lackluster hot dogs that New Yorkers have become so accustomed

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to. Instead, you’ll find yourself chowing down on a deep-fried hot dog piled high with eclectic toppings with your fellow hot dog connoisseurs.

The Spectator ●May 29, 2013

Page 23

Arts and Entertainment

By Thomas Duda Have you ever heard of “Minecraft”? You know, the game with blocky graphics, no real objective, and infinite ways of entertaining yourself? As of today, it has sold 20 million copies across all available systems. In comparison, a game that you’ve definitely heard of, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” has sold a little over 22 million copies in the same amount of time. Now, why is it that “Call of Duty” has released three sequels to keep its ADHD-riddled fans captivated, while “Minecraft” is still played by millions of users every day?

It’s simple. “Minecraft” is a popular indie game that is incredibly fun and well-supported by a small development team. “Call of Duty,” on the other hand, is

You’ll have trouble finding differences between the last five “Call of Duty” games. (And no, differently colored guns don’t count.) the result of cookie-cutter mass production. Sometimes, this assembly-line effort leads so some pretty decent games, but more often than not, it harms the gaming industry while providing little entertainment value for consumers.

Let’s take the example of “Call of Duty,” which is published

by Activision and probably the best-known game franchise on the planet. The series started in 2003 with the original “Call of Duty,” and, ever since “Call of Duty 2” in 2006, has spawned yearly sequels. This system of annual installments corrupts the gaming world, as shorter

development times mean faster games but little innovation or creativity. You’ll have trouble finding differences between the last five “Call of Duty” games.

(And no, differently colored guns don’t count.) Because of Activision’s massive financial reserves and the broad audience of 11-year olds who scream curses into their microphones during gameplay, this system will never stop. The worst offense from this series comes in the form of downloadable content (DLC). Every one of the last four “Call of Duty” games has had DLC that ended up costing as much as the base game itself.

On the other hand, “Minecraft” releases new content almost monthly for free. This kind of great support adds to the shelf life of games, making them less expensive and better overall.

This is because indie games like “Minecraft” have to be good in order to survive.

A small company has no choice but to create top-notch games to succeed financially.

You’ll never hear about bad indie games because they disappear with no impact on the gaming world. Only the best of the best survive. Games like “Braid,” “Limbo,” and “Bastion” are as good as they are because they have to be, whereas AAA (highquality, high-budget) games like “Battlefield” or “Halo” can be critical failures in regard to gaming experience but financial successes, which does nothing but encourage even more bad games.

Have you considered that the gaming marketplace wasn’t always filled with first-person shooters? That was an innovation created by a four-man team that came to be known as “id Studios,” which took off in popularity with 1992’s “Wolfenstein 3D.” The horrible effect of giant publishers is at its peak here, taking a brilliant innovation by a small developer was and exploiting it for massive profits. Independent studios and games are simply necessary for the future of gaming. Without them, we get no innovation or creativity, and we’re stuck with endless copies of “Go Here and Shoot This 4: Go There and Shoot That.”

Split-Screen: AAA Games

By James Bessoir A billion dollars in 15 days.

That’s how much money “Black Ops II,” the latest game in the hugely successful “Call of Duty” franchise, made when it launched last fall. This huge sum rocketed it past even “Avatar,” the most successful movie of all time, which took 17 days to reach the same figure. Just 20 years ago, in the late ’80s, video gaming was considered the hobby of geeks, social pariahs, and little kids. But in recent years, the gaming industry has eclipsed both the film and music industries, becoming the most successful entertainment genre in history—all thanks to high-quality AAA games.

Recognition is a key part of this new-found success. AAA publishers can buy internet banners, Super Bowl ads, even building-sized billboards in Times Square. Any New Yorker would recognize “Bioshock Infinite” from the countless posters that dotted NYC before the game’s release. More importantly, AAA publishers can also buy quality. Big-name publishers like Activision and Ubisoft often hire development studios with thousands of employees, each specializing in one minute part of the game. They can afford to pay famous cinematic composers like Hans Zimmer or license real cars and firearms for ingame use. AAA games are also played over and over again before release by a veritable army of beta-testers, who iron out every glitch and problem. While a movie might have a 10-minute credits reel at most, games like “Assassin’s Creed III” have almost 30 minutes of credits, a testament to the levels of specialization at every step of the process. The result is a game that not only works, but goes above and beyond. Playing through a new game in the much-praised “Halo” series is a smooth, finelytuned experience. Every detail in the game’s world is perfectly placed, every sound recorded in high quality. When Halo’s swelling orchestral theme begins to play at the main menu, gamers know they’re in for a treat.

This isn’t true for even the

most ambitious independent games. “Minecraft,” developed by a team of less than 10 people, had a significant amount of bugs when it was first released.

Though these glitches are often fixed quickly, they make for a shoddy initial experience when gamers must diagnose and work around the game’s inherent imperfections. This isn’t limited to initial release. Many gamers praise the ever-changing nature of indie games, as new content is often added through free updates. However, a glitchy update could render the game unplayable for days while understaffed developers scramble to find the one piece of faulty code that broke the whole experience.

Plus, there are some glitches, like Minecraft’s faulty world loading, that have never been fixed in the game’s four-year existence. Doing so would require a significant overhaul of the game’s engine, which was faultily coded by a single man. Say what you

will about the unimaginative “Call of Duty” franchise, but you have to admit that it is consistently smooth and playable in each iteration. Bits of the world don’t just disappear.

Thomas will regale you with the “quirky” and “artsy” virtues of popular independent games like “Minecraft” and “Braid,” and insist that indie games exist in a class of their own. But it doesn’t matter if you elevate indie games to the status of art—they’re still games, and if quirkiness and artiness are the most laudable characteristics of a game, there’s no way it can stand up to the overwhelming quality of AAA titles. On equal ground, “Minecraft” seems like a glitchy, half-finished school project when compared with “Halo.” While it’s true that indie developers are unshackled from corporate bonds and sacrifice polish for a soul, that soul doesn’t count for much if you can barely play the game.

Irene Elias / The Spectator

Jay Gatsby’s Twenties Parties Roar to Life

continued from page 1

When he meets his old flame Daisy for the first time in years, the layers finally start

to peel away. He smiles broadly, and his movements loosen.

When he loses her again, his fiercely burning eyes reveal his determination to hold onto her, and the past, at any and all costs.

Daisy, played by Carey Mulligan, acts as if in a dream, which is how she lives, too— careless of the ways her actions touch others. Her eyes never seem fully focused, save for the scene where she finds herself torn between the man of her memories and the man in her life. She waffles, withdraws, and fluctuates, her heart seeming indeed torn in two. Her best friend, Jordan, played by Elizabeth Debicki, is a stark contrast. Where Daisy is classical American grace, understandably placed on Gatsby’s pedestal, Jordan is a dark-eyed, sharp-tongued,

empowered flapper. She slinks around in full control of her sex appeal, tossing snappy lines like bombs with scarcely a care for where they land.

When she’s on screen, it’s better for it.

Unfortunately, the other actors can’t compare. Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s brutish husband, is a caricature. He acts like he’s checking off a list: Furrowed brow? Perma-scowl? Monotone delivery? Done. But if Edgerton is one-note, than Isla Fisher as his mistress, Myrtle, and Jason Clarke as her husband, Mr. Wilson, are flat.

Fisher simpers and mimes, playing at being alluring and “cultured” with the grace of a baboon, rendering it nearimpossible to understand even an iota of the appeal she holds for Tom. Clarke appears

to think that “grief-stricken” is akin to “psychotic rage.” When he suspects Myrtle of an affair, he in inexplicably sallow and red-eyed, quivering with rage, and speaks as if he’s threatening murder, not wallowing in grief.

Undoubtedly, “The Great Gatsby” is not for everyone. It’s spectacular and giddying, and it requires a full embrace, as well as an open mind. Trying to watch this half-heartedly is an exercise in failure. And the extravagant indulgence of the camerawork and soundtrack might be off-putting, especially to Fitzgerald purists. But for those who can go along with Luhrmann’s fantastical dream of the Roaring Twenties, it’s sure to be a roaring, madcap experience.

Michelle Lin / The Spectator

Video Game Split-Screen: Indie Games

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 24

Humor These articles are works of fiction. All quotes are libel and slander.

SU Endorsement

Newsbeat

Background by Philip Shin / The Spectator

• The Department of Education has declared it illegal for school nurses to distribute cough drops to students.

• “Fast and Furious 6” is slated to be released on May 24, 2013. No, seriously: “Fast and Furious 6” is slated to be released on May 24, 2013.

• A senior was excited that he was on the waitlist of the waitlist for Harvard University.

• Metrosexual male junior Michael Sugarman is protesting against the Student Union after being denied access to the J-Prom Dress Group.

• Dennis Rodman has visited Stuyvesant High School several times in the past week to calm tensions between Principal Jie Zhang and Assistant Principal of Organization Randi Damesek.

Wayne LaPierre (left) Courtesy of The Boston Herald Ron Jeremy (right) Courtesy of Zimbio

By The Spectator Humor Department For the past few years, each pair of Student Union (SU) leaders has failed to achieve most of the great reforms it promised.

From grand avowals of active protests to simple commitments to unity, SU candidates have consistently campaigned on change—a promise to do what their predecessors have not and a willingness to stand up to the administration. Unfortunately, they’ve all done just the opposite.

The Spectator Humor De-

Electoral College

partment has chosen to endorse junior Wayne LaPierre and sophomore Ron Jeremy for SU President and Vice President.

The pair is the only ticket running with any legitimate political experience. LaPierre, a revolutionary school safety advocate, promises to create a school environment free from danger. “All SU funds will be directed towards providing adequate firearms for every student,” LaPierre said in a recent interview.

In addition, LaPierre hopes to convert Stuyvesant’s annual “Camp Stuy” to a one-week

Laura Eng / The Spectator

A Stuyvesant student was having a really bad day last Tuesday when he entered the train station.

He heard the 4 train approaching and began to sprint down the

By Ethan Schwab

NYC - Glass shattered and vases fell off high ledges in the office of dermatologist Dr. Jona-

• Students who read Sparknotes for English class: 182 delegates • Students who told their grandma after the cheating scandal that they would never cheat: 93 delegates • Students who have glasses: 121 delegates • Students who have gone on Facebook with the intent to get homework from a classmate and then have spent many hours on Facebook only to finally return to their desk and realize they need to go back on Facebook because they never got the homework: 3,200 delegates • Students who have heard of the SU: 5 delegates • SU Candidates with a platform: 5 delegates • SU Candidates without a platform: 79 delegates • Ms. Weinwurm: 121 delegates • Students who have done community service: 12 delegates • Students who have been serviced by members of their community: 4 delegates • Asian students: 6,423,579 delegates

but the doors closed in front of his eyes. The student reportedly became angry and kicked the column next to him repeatedly.

Then he waited for the next train to come and got on it.

than Zizmor last Friday when a customer did not say “Thank you, Dr. Zizmor.” A young New Yorker was the first person to ever walk out of the office without uttering

these famous words. Zizmor has spent 86 years professionally caring for his patients’ skin. He announced his retirement five minutes after.

BOE Protocol

• Attractive females: 2 delegates

• Students who read books for English class: 5 delegates

stairs. As he entered the turnstile in full sprint, he swiped his MetroCard too quickly and smashed into the turnstile. Not willing to give up, he swiped again and began running for his train. He arrived full speed at the platform,

Patient of Dr. Zizmor Does Not Say “Thank You, Dr. Zizmor”

• Black and Latino students: .3 delegates

• Students who have attended AIS tutoring: -4 delegates

reer co-starring with some of the best in the business.

“I had a [great] time having [lunch] with Ron,” renowned politician Sarah Palin said. “He made huge, and I mean huge contributions.”

Jeremy, also president of the filmmaker club, wants to expand the horizons of the current technology classes by creating more Video Production classes.

After analyzing the ideas from all the candidates, the Spectator Humor Department believes the LaPierre-Jeremy ticket is the right choice for this year’s SU election.

Student Misses Train by Three Seconds, Gets on Next Train

By Ethan Schwab

• Total Delegates: 6,427,404.3 • Delegates Needed to Win: 14

training camp, where students will meet new friends and engage in military-style drills to ensure that each sleep-deprived and stressed-out student has the ability to operate a working firearm.

“We’ll work hard with the administration to implement the Writing Across the Curriculum program there too,” LaPierre said.

Vice Presidential candidate Ron Jeremy’s resume features close work with many political figures such as Savannah Sanchez, Boom Boom Marie, Crystal Starr, and countless others, as well as an illustrious acting ca-

• No campaigning of any kind is allowed, especially not on the Internet!

• Juniors may campaign on the bridge only, but only during school hours.

• SU candidates may campaign on the Internet.

• Primary elections will be held 5/1/2013.

• You must print out BOE posters to give to the chairman of the BOE, Bumsoo.

• You must do the math homework of Bumsoo.

• The election format is a caucus. If you win, for some reason, we will call you a caucus.

• Absentee voting is allowed. This is essential!

• You must put up posters every morning and take them down every night.

• If not, you will be punished at the whim of Bumsoo.

• Bumsoo will protect the democratic system of Stuyvesant.

• Bumsoo promises that the ballot-stuffing scandal of the 1923 Junior Caucus election will never happen again.

• Without Bumsoo, the school would devolve into theocratic communist anarchy.

• Ms. Weinwurm is best friend of Bumsoo.

• Three strikes, you’re out.

• Three outs, end of inning.

• Nine innings, end of game.

• Bumsoo tired.

• Bumsoo needs a rest.

• Please stop emailing Bumsoo.

• Bumsoo angry!

• BUMSOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 25

Sports Girls’ Softball

Renegades Drive Toward Playoffs with Strong Victories

By Annique Wong Renegades Make Short Work of Rams in 5 While the Manhattan Center of Science and Math Lady Rams might have stolen the Renegades’ chants, the Renegades stole bases en route to a 13-3 win. Though the Renegades had faced the Rams on Thursday, April 11 and won 7-3, no one was expecting an easy win when they faced the Rams again on Friday, May 3 at Central Park. “We were expecting a tough game because they always play us much better than their record shows,” senior and co-captain Kathleen Mullaney said.

During the first inning, the Lady Rams were able to score once and build a small lead, but by the bottom of the second, the Renegades picked up their game and ran away with it. To open up their scoring, senior and cocaptain Gabrielle Gillow, senior and co-captain Miranda Kalish, and sophomore Lauren Sobota all scored on a drive up the middle by senior Liana Penny. Penny later scored on a bunt by Mullaney, who continued to build up the momentum and score with freshman Caitlin Stanton. Gillow rounded out the inning by crossing home plate for the second time, giving the Renegades a 7-1 lead and leaving the Lady Rams uncharacteristically silent.

However, two innings later, the Renegades became a little sloppy. When a Lady Ram hit the ball to third base, Kalish accidentally kicked the ball while trying to cover Sobota. This error allowed one Lady Ram to reach second base and another to score. Soon after, pitcher Marie Frolich hit Lady Ram Leslie Sanchez on the elbow on a pitch. As expected, the Lady Rams were furious that Sanchez was hit, accusing Frolich of intentionally injuring their player.

According to Frolich, it was completely unintentional.

“Sometimes I don’t close or open my motion and this time it tailed in and hit [Sanchez] on the elbow,” Frolich said. While San-

chez stepped away to catch her breath, the captains, Miller, and Sobota went up to Frolich with some comforting words.

At the bottom of the inning, freshman Georgia Kamm and sophomore Megan Mullaney both bunted the ball and got out before getting to first. Gillow and junior Julia Witkowski also used bunting as a tactic throughout

“We were expecting a tough game because they always play us much better than their record shows.”

—Kathleen Mullaney, senior and cocaptain the game, which proved helpful in some instances but was detrimental to Kamm and Mullaney due to lack of execution. “We knew we wanted to play small ball and bunt so we were able to advance the runner,” Gillow said.

During the fifth inning, Lady Ram first baseman Ashlee Mejia stepped closer to home plate in an effort to reach bunts more quickly. Noting the change, the Renegades reacted by hitting more drives down the middle.

They scored a total of four times, ending the inning 13-3. After the fifth inning, the mercy rule was instituted: if a team is winning by at least 10 points after five innings of play, the game is over and the leading team wins.

Despite this blowout win, the

Renegades will continue to try to improve. They have taken a step forward since the last time they played the Lady Rams, but the little things still remain. “We hit a lot better, but those glitches in the field can be fixed,” Gillow said. Small errors can change the dynamic of a game, and the Renegades look to play flawless softball as they head to their first playoff game on Tuesday, May 14 against the James Madison Lady Knights.

Renegades Walk-Off After Nailbiter Against LaGuardia The tunes of Hey Mickey and Unfaithful may be heard from an unusual music convention, but these songs were also heard from the Dewitt Clinton field on Friday, April 26, where the Renegades prevailed over the Fiorello H. LaGuardia Athletics.

Because the Renegades are ranked second and LaGuardia fifth in the Manhattan A league, the Renegades knew they would have to play hard if they were going to win. Since the Renegades had faced LaGuardia before (winning 3-2 on April 23), they knew that their biggest threat was going to be junior ace Casey Cady, who Coach Vincent Miller dubbed “one of the better pitchers in the division and the city.”

Although Cady started off strong, as the first three Renegades failed to get on base in the first inning, she was not untouchable.

At the bottom of the second inning, freshman Georgia Kamm was able to score off a hit from sophomore Lauren Sobota, making the first point of the game. Sobota was substituted at the top of that inning for freshman third baseman Taylor Joines, who left due to throbbing elbow pain after completing a double play.

By the end of the top of the third, LaGuardia was able to score due to a miscalculated throw by Sobota to first baseman and co-captain Gabrielle Gillow, tying the score at 1-1. The Renegades fought back at the end of third. Senior and co-captain

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Katie Mullaney was able to reach first base off of a drop third strike.

Junior Marie Frolich followed with a double that advanced Mullaney to third. Mullaney and freshman pinch runner Caitlin Stanton were able to score due to

“Everyone is part of the game, everyone makes mistakes. You make a mistake, but the most important thing to do is to forget about it and move on, because it’s going to take you out mentally.”

—Gabrielle Gillow, senior and co-captain hits from Kamm and junior Julia Witkowski respectively, leaving the Renegades ahead 3-1.

By this time, most spectators were leaving, muttering that the Renegades had this game in the bag, but the top of the fifth inning proved them wrong. LaGuardia had their bases loaded and no outs, and it was time for Frolich to step up her game.

It’s definitely my teammates.

All of the infield that comes in to tell me to calm down,” Frolich said when asked how she handed the pressure. “I have this ritual with [Mullaney] where she flips the ball before every inning,

and we and my catcher have this thing where she talks to me and taps her glove.” Despite the team support, LaGuardia was able to comeback with a lead of 4-3. In response, the Renegades scored two runs at the end of the fifth inning, leaving the score at 5-4, Renegades.

By the end of the sixth inning, the score was level once more at 5-5, and Frolich was again under pressure at the top of the seventh. This time, she kept her cool and didn’t allow any of LaGuardia’s players to score.

At the top of eighth, a pop to right-center field got Mullaney and senior center fielder Liana Penny running. However, what should have been an easy catch led to a very big mistake.

Mullaney and Penny collided into each other, letting the ball bounce away and allowing LaGuardia to score twice, leaving the score 7-5 in favor of LaGuardia.

However, the competitive edge and perseverance the Renegades showed was not about to wither. At the bottom of the eighth inning, Sobota and cocaptain Miranda Kalish scored on a grounder from Joines. Kalish scored all the way from second base on what volunteer assistant David Fleischner called “a purely instinctive call.” Stanton scored the winning run with a hit that allowed Mullaney to score and gave the Renegades a tough 8-7 walk-off win.

Though the Renegades won, many players were seen in the dugout after innings blaming themselves for bad calls and in tears for not hitting. This heartfelt emotion and dedication behind the scenes is what allows the Renegades to succeed in their division.

“Everyone is part of the game, everyone makes mistakes. You make a mistake, but the most important thing to do is to forget about it and move on, because it’s going to take you out mentally,” Gillow said. The win against Laguardia clinched the Renegades a spot in the playoffs.

The Spectator ●May 29, 2013

Page 26

Sports continued from page 28 his success as an individual. But

success in gymnastics is also measured by individuals, and the Felines consistently learn and help each other through their captains, according to Zhao. Junior David Cahn, a former competitive swimmer, notes that in individual events, having a strong captain is crucial. “When your success is measured only based on your own performance, you need someone to continue correcting you, to tell you what to fix, because you can’t always figure that out yourself and your coach isn’t always going to be there,” he said.

In some sports, such as ultimate frisbee, the important role of a captain is more obvious. Because PSAL does not consider ultimate to be a varsity sport, the captains of the Black Widows are responsible for finding tournaments and fundraising for transportation and hotels, as well as ensuring the safety of each Black Widow.

“There’s a lot of planning that is involved, because we have to do a lot of things on our own,” ultimate senior and captain Nick Fung said. “We’re not really affiliated with the school, [so] it’s our job to get it done.”

To add to the already blatant discomfort posed by my previous question, I also asked the athletes I spoke with, “Why do you want to be captain?”

They all said they wanted to eventually hold the position on their respective teams. I received generic and expected answers such as, “I want to teach others” or “I love the sport,” but I also got some very honest responses as well.

An anonymous junior on the tennis team matter–of-factly said, “Because I want to go to college.” I was expecting myself to feel angry at this person for using a sport to “go to college,” but the truth was that this player loves tennis, has been playing since elementary school, and would probably be a very capable captain.

After all of my research, I have come to several conclusions. The first one is quite simple: we look for people that inspire and motivate us. From my own observations on the lacrosse team, it is clear that it doesn’t matter how old someone is. If she is passionate, dedicated, and demonstrates competence, then she has every right to be captain.

The second conclusion is that good captains are necessary, because there will always be a level of distance between the coach and players, and captains are there to serve as bridges of communication.

There are several teams whose coaches do not work at Stuyvesant and therefore do not interact with their athletes during the off-seasons and cannot see how their athletes act out-

side the venue of the sport.

Because it’s important for a potential captain to act how a captain should act, it’s up to the current captains to notice any discrepancies in and out of the athletic setting.

The last conclusion is that the answer to my question about captains’ intentions was hard to find. Junior Paula Carcamo, a member of the girls’ volleyball team, said, “You can kind of just tell if the person is in it for the right reasons— because they love it.”

Zhao agreed with Carcamo and said, “You can just tell,” but I’m not so sure if intuition solely allows you to distinguish whether or not a person joins a sport to get into a good college. There is no definitive way to distinguish a student with the right intentions.

But I believe it shouldn’t matter what someone’s reasons are for joining the team and wanting to be a captain.

Such kids had to have shown some sort of dedication and love for their sport if their teammates collectively chose them. All we can do is trust their judgment because they are the ones who will be affected by the decision. Interestingly, almost every single athlete I spoke with wanted to be a captain. And really, at the end of the day, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be recognized for the time and effort you put into a team and sport.

Boys’ Lacrosse

Peglegs Look Beyond Unfulfilled Hopes

Captain and senior Matt Moy puts up a fierce cross check.

By Samuel Fuchs It was a season of high hopes for the Peglegs, Stuyvesant’s boys’ lacrosse team. They set their standards high entering the season, hoping to take home the championship and make playoffs. Though they did not achieve their hopes, the Peglegs nevertheless had an admirable season.

Boys’ Volleyball

Beasts Tamed, Fall to Seward in Two

By Samantha Lau After a tough loss early in the season, the Beasts, the boys’ volleyball team, clamped down and rode an eight-game winning streak finish with a dominant 11-1 record. While it seemed like the Stuyvesant Beasts had a chance of winning playoffs in the second set, they failed to execute to the best of their ability and lost the first round of playoffs on Monday, May 6. Coming into the game, the Beasts had thought they were going to be able to beat Seward Park, but due to inaccurate such as serving and hitting, they failed to accomplish their goal of getting through the first round of playoffs, falling 19-25, 16-25.

The Stuyvesant Beasts had a relatively high chance of moving onto the next round, for they were only playing against a team ranked only one seed higher.

“We were pretty confident but it’s a team effort and everyone has to do their share. If one person feels confident, it doesn’t really matter unless the whole team feels the same,” senior William Huang said.

Though the Beasts were consistent in the first set and had only two service errors, they made minor mistakes, such as over-passing too often or not calling for the ball, and all these little mistakes added up. They couldn’t finish off their points with a solid kills, allowing Seward Park to capitalize on their errors as a strong opposing team. An exciting highlight of the set involved sophomore Vincent Huang and senior and captain Calvin He. Huang passed the ball to He, and instead of smashing it at full strength, He hit it to the 10-foot line, which is a spot hard to reach for both back

row wing players. The other team expected He to hit it hard, giving He the opportunity to intelligently earn a point for the Beasts.

However, the Beasts ultimately dropped the first set, which ended with a score of 25-19.

In between the sets, coach

“Even though we made some unforced errors, in the end, I was proud of how hard we played and how much dedication we have put in.”

— Calvin He, senior and captain Vasken Choubaralian advised the time on strategy for the second set. They knew they had to step it up if they wanted to advance to the next round. “We spoke about reducing the amount of unnecessary mistakes and redefining what everyone’s jobs was on the court,” senior Darien Lam said.

“We had to make sure everyone was on the same page.”

The second set started with a lot of confidence and momen-

tum, as the team still believed in their chances of winning the game. “I felt good coming into the second set despite losing the first set because in a volleyball match it is best out of three,” coach Choubaralian said. “Just because we lost our first set, doesn’t mean we are going to lose. I was confident going into the second set because usually in the first set, the team is too nervous and they are not playing the way they normally would.”

The Beasts had roared ahead in the beginning of the second set, and started with a 6-1 lead.

But Seward Park Campus steadily caught up to them, and the two teams were tie to tie at every point until 12-12. Afterwards, Seward Park Campus ran away with the game with a series of well-placed shots. “They kept serving between two of our players that led to some confusion,” senior Huang said. The second set, along with the Beasts’ playoff run, ended 25-16.

Even though they had lost the first round of playoffs, the team remains positive, and is already thinking ahead for the next season. “We need to work on our offense and having aggressive serves. We need to work on knowing what to do in different situations of the game and knowing what play to make,” Choubaralian said.

Furthermore, the team was satisfied with how they played despite the outcome. “Even though we made some unforced errors, in the end, I was proud of how hard we played and how much dedication we have put in,” He said. “We never gave up and the team that made less mistakes and had smarter players ended up winning.”

“We didn’t practice at all on weekends or over spring break, and Fridays were usually unproductive. This led to a very lackadaisical attitude.”

— Matt Moy, senior and cocaptain

The Peglegs were plagued with injuries and several other challenges that stood in the way of a successful season.

However, their main problems were on the coaching front.

Anthony Bascone, their current coach, was unable to attend many practices and even several games due to personal issues. Together, these factors contributed to the Peglegs’ 6-8 record at the end of the season.

“I felt that this severely hurt us as a team,” senior and cocaptain Matt Moy said. “We

didn’t practice at all on weekends or over spring break, and Fridays were usually unproductive. This led to a very lackadaisical attitude.”

Despite the many absences of the Peglegs’ head coach, Peter Bologna, a volunteer assistant coach who abstained from truancy, aided the team throughout the rocky season.

“He went to all our games with us and kept us from horsing around too much,” Moy said.

“Although he didn’t have much prior knowledge about lacrosse, he picked up things quickly and made very insightful speeches and tips.”

Though the team’s final record was not a particularly impressive one, this season boasted many individual achievements. The greatest of these was junior and co-captain Noah Kramer’s naming as an All-Division and All-City athlete. On top of this, several players improved drastically at the end of the previous season.

Moy was able to almost double his shots and ground balls from the previous year, and player Roy Choi worked through injury and became the secondhighest scorer for the Peglegs.

Notwithstanding the Peglegs’ offensive capabilities, they lacked defensive depth this season. Rookie senior Victor Yang was able to partially fill that void despite his almost complete absence of prior lacrosse experience.

“He was a rookie who came in and worked really hard to get better,” Kramer said. “He was one of the hardest-hitting defenders, something that has been missing in the last few years.”

To fill the void on defense, junior Clay Walsh, who played midfield the previous season, was forced to move to the longstick and play defense. His versatility and experience in the sport allowed for good defense and quick adjustment. Yet even with these adjustments and strong players, the team was unable to make a deep playoff run.

But it’s not all bad news for the Peglegs. This season gave them a good look at the future of the team. With many freshmen with both experience and talent, the Peglegs have the potential for improvement next season and the chance to reach the goals they failed to achieve this season.

Alice Chy / The Spectator

The Makings of a Captain

The Spectator ● May 29, 2013

Page 27

Sports Boys’ Baseball

Hitmen Strike Out, Miss Playoffs continued from page 28 mances on the field, the members still had a great time playing with each other throughout the season.

After spring training in Florida on the ritual team trip, they developed close bonds over the sport they all loved and enjoyed playing. “[The Florida trip] takes team bonding to the next level—living and cooking with the same guys you play on the field with makes the team a lot closer,” Hellermann said.

While no one really stepped up on the field when others were struggling, it was the Hitmen’s relationship in the dugout that really captivates the essence of the season. “If we can’t pick each other up on the field, then we pick each other up in the dugout. That’s what made this year so enjoyable,” Diep said. “Even though we lost, the team is a great group of guys, and we still loved playing on the field together.”

When the team needed moral support, the captains stepped up and tried to rally the players to victory. “I would like to thank my captains Noah Hellermann and Kevin Moy for doing the best they could in keeping the team together through a tough year. Without their encouragement, I think the season would have been worse,” Carlesi said. The captains’ positive energy and mindset transferred over to their teammates, who worked hard

and stuck with it until the end. “The team’s greatest strength this year was never giving up,” Carlesi said.

The chip on the shoulders of many returning juniors will be motivation to work hard next year and correct the mistakes that led to their elimination this season. The team expects to have some excellent new pitchers on the roster to form a much-needed backbone if the members look to be major playoff contenders in 2014.

Beacon Blue Demons 13, Stuyvesant Hitmen 0

By Ari Hatzimemos There were two games remaining in the season, and if the 6-8 Hitmen wanted any chance to make the playoffs for the 17th straight year, they would have to win both.

The first game was on May 15th against the Beacon Blue Demons, and the result was heartbreaking.

The Hitmen lost 13-0 in a blowout.

The game reflected the entire season for the Hitmen, a team whose performance has been marred by sparse hitting and a defense that surrendered too many runs. In the game, the Hitmen only mustered five hits and left seven men on base. “Our batting average is way down from last year, which I didn’t think could get any worse,” coach John Carlesi said. The Beacon pitcher was overwhelming, though, with a hard fastball and a

great off-speed pitch. He struck out four batters and walked no one in five strong innings.

In addition to their poor hitting, the Hitmen;s fielding was not up to par. Known for their solid defense, they were disappointed by their multiple errors. Against a team as good as the 13-3 Blue Demons, that many errors ruin any hope of winning. “Our fielding percentage is way down, which isn’t like us,” Carlesi said.

Beacon is one of the Hitmen’s biggest rivals, which greatly played into the atmosphere of the game.

Although the Hitmen only had six wins going into the contest and Beacon 11, there was still a heightened level of intensity, the crowd at Pier 40 packed with fans from both schools. “Especially when you’re playing your rival for a playoff spot, [the loss] hurts that much more,” senior and co-captain Kevin Moy said.

After 16 consecutive trips to the postseason, this season, in which poor play in most areas of the game plagued the Hitmen, can act as a learning year for them.

However, many players reflected on the season positively.

“Playing for the Hitmen is about being on the team, and everyone on the team contributed this year, and we played together as a team,” senior and co-captain Noah Hellerman said. However, this team was “expecting another successful

year,” Carlesi said before the year, so breaking the streak is a huge disappointment that will define this season for the Hitmen.

Stuyvesant Hitmen 8, High School of Environmental Studies 7

By Louis Susser In the final inning, tensions ran high for the Hitmen on Monday, May 6th. The High School of Environmental Studies Eagles scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and another three runs in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game at 7-7, causing the Hitmen’s five-run lead to evaporate.

But the Hitmen would not give up: their season depended on it.

With just four games left in the regular season, the Hitmen were hanging by a limb for a playoff spot and could not afford another loss.

Usually seeded first in their league, the Hitmen have a losing record of 5-7 that does not reflect their potential. However, they will not be able to advance to the playoffs with a record below .500.

With the season coming to a close, the Hitmen need someone to build the team’s momentum for each of the remaining games. In the first inning, Adam O’Connor Jamia hit a three-RBI double to gain a quick lead over the Eagles. However, one player stood out even more on Monday: junior Max Litvack-

Winkler, who came through in the clutch in the last two innings. On the mound, Litvack-Winkler held Environmental Studies to one hit in two and one-third innings, keeping the Hitmen in the game. Equally impressive at the plate, Winkler drove in the game-winning run with an RBI single. “I just tried to hit the ball in play. My job is to put [the ball] in play and I did,” Winkler said.

With the exception of Winkler’s pitching, coach John Carlesi was disappointed by the number of walks that were allowed in the game, which reflected the Hitmen’s performances in past games. “The pitchers just have to pound the strike zone. If [we] don’t give up walks and pound the strike zone, [we will] win baseball games,” Carlesi said. These walks, which put extra men on base, contributed to the Eagles’ comeback.

Carlesi, along with his players, was also not pleased with the closeness of the game. Although the game demonstrated the Hitmen’s resilient mentality, “[it] was closer than what it should have been,” senior and co-captain Kevin Moy said. With this win, the Hitmen are one step closer to qualifying for the playoffs, and the ability to pull out close games will be crucial when they face Beacon, currently 10-3, to close out the season.

Girls’ Lacrosse

Stuyvesant Huskies Move Past Sub-par Season, Focus on Improvement

By Rayyan Jokhai Lacrosse arrived at Stuyvesant as an official PSAL sport only six years ago, so it’s no surprise that over the course of their first few years, the boys’ and girls’ teams have had subpar seasons. During the spring 2013 season, the Huskies, Stuyvesant’s girls’ lacrosse team, won three of their 13 games. Though this feeble record did not clinch the team a spot in the playoffs, this season’s play showed improvement from previous years and increased potential from the team’s newer faces.

“Overall, the team did a good job of coming together as a team and

delving into the world of lacrosse,” senior and co-captain Sarah Duncan said. “This past season we could have come together as a team a bit sooner, but considering that for most of the girls it was their first year on a varsity team and even their first year playing lacrosse, I’d say we did well.”

The Huskies lost their first six games against Benjamin Cardozo High School, Beach Channel/Channel View High School, Midwood High School, Hunter College High School, Curtis High School, and James Madison High School. In its following game, the team broke its losing record with a 9-7 win over Long Island

City High School.

After losing another game to Cardozo, the team pulled a tight 8-7 victory away from Abraham Lincoln High School. The Huskies’ final win came during the last game of the season in a rematch against Long Island City High School, which they won 10-7.

The Huskies had a better record this season than in their previous two seasons, showing that their potential was growing. They hope that the experience many first-year lacrosse players gained this season will continue and even accelerate the team’s upward trend.

“I think the greatest improvement the team has made this season compared to last is that we really improved our offense,” junior Priya Aggarwal said. “We had more plays, and by the end of the season more people were comfortable attacking the goal.”

Despite going into the season with a large number of new players, the Huskies made the most of the hand they were dealt. “I’m really proud of all of the improvement I saw in everyone this year,” Aggarwal said.

“Not only did I see great improvement in our new players, but also [in] many our old players. Many people who had just joined became more

comfortable with the game.”

Despite its poor record, the team did yield a few impressive achievements, the most noteworthy being Duncan’s recognition as the city’s top scorer of the season, with a total of 55 goals. She attributes much of her success to her team.

“This year, I was the top scorer in the city, but that’s not just a reflection of me but a reflection of the team,” Duncan said. “Without their defense, their help when I was tired, I would have never been able to achieve so much.”

Sam Kim / The Spectator

Let the Players, not the Zebras, Decide Basketball Games

By Lev Akabas A 270-pound power forward charges towards the hoop at full speed on a fastbreak. In the span of a half a second, a defender slides in front of the offensive player to draw a charge, sending both colliding players crashing to the hardwood. You must decide if the defender was stationary or moving before the contact. Millions of fans await your call.

Let’s just say basketball is a difficult game to officiate. It has

the fastest pace of any team sport, more rules than any except football, and more bang-bang plays than any except baseball. So how can we complain about the NBA referees? Honestly, I’m still bitter about the officiating catastrophe that was the New York Knicks’ season-ending loss to the Indiana Pacers last Saturday. During the game, New York shot 18 free throws, Indiana shot 46, and three Knicks fouled out under 25 minutes while no Pacer had more than three fouls. The Knicks lost the series because Tyson Chandler wasn’t his usual alley-hoopslamming self, because J.R. Smith was so inaccurate that he couldn’t have thrown a basketball into the ocean while on the beach, and because coach Mike Woodson took until the 93rd game of the year to figure out that Chris Copeland was his second-best offensive weapon.

The refereeing, however, was still a factor. For the series, the Knicks attempted only 107 free throws (fewest by a team in a six-game series since 1974), in contrast to the Pacers’ 176.

But here are my more legitimate issues with NBA referees— issues that need to be eliminated.

Technical Fouls

Imagine that, in tennis, if a player slams his racket after a frustrating missed shot, his opponent is awarded three serves on the next point. Or, in major league baseball, if a pitcher rolls his eyes after a bad call, the opposing batter would get an automatic double. Sounds preposterous, right?

But technical fouls in the NBA are no different. Under the league’s kindergarten discipline system, teams pick up free points at the foul line simply because an opposing player looks at a referee after an incorrect call, curses in frustration, or laughs about something with teammates on the bench (an act for which Tim Duncan was ejected from a game).

Seventy-nine technical fouls have been called in just 67 playoff games this year. A regulation meant to abolish exceptionally bad sportsmanship has become a device for power-hungry officials to assert their control, and it influences the outcomes of crucial games. Fifteen postseason contests have been decided on the last possession or in overtime, meaning that a point gained due to a technical foul for something as petty as a little frustration may have been a deciding factor in those games.

The same goes for flagrant

fouls, which are, according to the NBA rulebook, called when there is “unnecessary contact.” I find it surprising what little contact referees find unnecessary in a game that is, in fact, a contact sport.

Throughout history, hard fouls have been used to send a message to rival players, but now, nobody can commit a hard foul without the risk of sending the other team to the foul line.

As opposed to penalizing teams during games, the league should dole out fines and suspensions for extreme infractions, so as not to impact which team wins the games. It’s time for the NBA to rethink the way it punishes grown men like five-year-olds, especially when such stupidity is affecting the results of critical games.

Superstar Calls The NBA is a business, and one that that hinges on the publicity generated by its star players. Nobody tunes in to Miami Heat games to see Rashard Lewis or the hitch in Udonis Haslem’s jump shot.

People tune in to watch Lebron James. The league and its officials are aware of the fact that if superstars pick up six fouls, they will foul out, and fans will change the channel (or, in the case of Stuyvesant

students, fans will stop procrastinating and start their homework).

Thus, referees are sometimes so blatantly disinclined to call fouls on star players that they will either call the foul on a teammate standing five feet away from the play or let the player get away with the illegal contact.

For those of you who aren’t convinced that this actually occurs, this season, 263 players played at least 1000 minutes, 25 of whom were All-Stars. Of the 60 players called for the most fouls per minute, just one was an AllStar. Conversely, of the 60 players who committed the fewest fouls per minute, eight were All-Stars, including arguably the six bestknown superstars in the league: Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Tim Duncan, and Dwyane Wade. Debatably, the better players in the league are generally more adept at playing strong defense without fouling, but the degree of the aforementioned statistics is too large to ignore.

The league understands that it has to keep the players who sell out arenas happy, but it also needs to realize that maintaining the integrity of its product is necessary if it doesn’t want to lose its credibility.

May 29, 2013

Page 28

The Spectator SpoRts Boys’ Baseball

Anne Duncan / The Spectator

Hitmen Strike Out, Miss Playoffs

Junior Timothy Diep pitches against Beacon on Monday, May 13.

By David Rothblatt There will be no more peanuts and crackerjacks this season for Hitmen fans. After struggling throughout the entire season with gradually diminishing playoff hopes, the team was eliminated from postseason contention after back-to-back 13-0 and 8-0 losses to Beacon, finishing the season with a 6-10 record. The Hitmen are strangers to ending the season early, having made an

appearance in the playoffs for 16 straight seasons. Although this season may not have been a success for the Hitmen, there were some great moments along the way that brought the team closer together and solidified them as a family.

Though the Hitmen were a talented team this season, lack of execution and plenty of mental mistakes contributed to an early exit. “It was our own fault for our failure,” junior Timothy Diep said. “We just didn’t execute this season.”

While senior ace Charlie Kramer consistently pitched well and provided the Hitmen with chances to win games, inconsistency from all pitchers proved to be another problem. “Pitchers could have thrown more strikes,” coach John Carlesi said sarcastically.

In fact, almost all aspects of the game could have been improved and more consistent. The team made many mistakes defensively, sometimes failing to make routine plays that came back to bite them later during the inning.

As for batting, the Hitmen consistently got guys on base but had trouble cashing in, leaving many runners on base. Baserunning

Danny Kim / The Spectator

The Makings of a Captain

By Annique Wong Having this title gives you a little something special to put on the back of your team sweatshirt.

It also lends you a little more pizzazz than the rest of your teammates when it comes to college interviews.

It’s being captain of one of Stuyvesant’s 37 sports teams.

Though Stuyvesant is known for its academic achievements, its athletic department holds countless trophies and banners that decorate the first, third, fifth, and sixth floors. Because this school is filled with so many students with a great range of talents, it’s important to stand out. Students will go to any lengths to get that special something, even if it means joining a team and attempting to become captain.

As it comes time for teams to select next year’s captains, there are a few questions we should be asking. How can we be sure that captains aren’t the students who are just on their sports teams to get into college? What makes for a good captain, and are captains even necessary? I interviewed 14 athletes who participate in nine different sports to answer all of my questions.

I think an ideal captain is a person who is passionate about his or her sport, can communicate well with teammates and coaches, and is able to stay cool in tough situations. Sophomores Edison Shi of the boys’ swim team and An-

gela Lin of the girls’ lacrosse team told me that their captains had to “[have] confidence” and “be good communicators,” respectively.

A captain should also be experienced. The team members who have joined the team as freshmen have had the most time to get comfortable with the team dynamic, as well as show utmost dedication. Junior and future captain of the girls’ gymnastics team Ruihan Zhao said: “Age is definitely a factor. An important part of the team is being unified, and only a senior [who’s been on the team as a freshman] can connect the team on that level.”

However, my opinion changed after I interviewed senior lacrosse player Maggie Wu. “Just because someone is older doesn’t mean they have the same degree of passion or experience as someone who is younger. Anne Duncan loves the sport and always puts the team ahead of herself,” Wu said. Duncan is a sophomore goalie who has played lacrosse since fourth grade and suffers from knee pain, but is seen squatting and defending the goal in every single game. She never misses practice even though she has physical therapy every Tuesday and Thursday. The dedication Duncan puts into her team and the sport shows why she has the right to have “captain” printed on the back of her team sweatshirt.

After establishing what makes a good captain, I asked my interviewees a series of questions that included, “Do you believe you have a good captain?” Most squirmed under my stare and gave me the expected answer of “yes.” However, an anonymous wrestler told another story. “I didn’t progress because of my captains,” he stated frankly. “I was the one who signed up for tournaments and got people to teach me, but it should have been them helping and teaching.

So, I don’t think I had good captains.” The lack of help this athlete received from his captains could be because of how solitary wrestling is. What distinguishes a good wrestler from a bad one is continued on page 26

proved to be a problem as well.

“Whether it was being picked off, missing a sign, or overrunning the base, we made too many mental mistakes,” Diep said.

That being said, the overarching problem with the team’s play was an inability to combine solid pitching, hitting, and defense. “We had games where we hit well, games where we fielded well, and games where we pitched well. Only rarely did we put all three of those things together in one game,” senior and co-captain Noah Hellermann said.

While issues with execution played a major role in the outcome of the season, outside distractions were a problem as well. A large majority of starters happened to be juniors this year. Thus, baseball was only one of many obligations students had to juggle, as they had to prepare for the SATs and visit colleges. As a result, players were forced to miss many practices and non-league games. “The greatest weakness this year was just not playing enough baseball. Showing up was half the battle this year,” Carlesi said.

Despite inconsistent perforcontinued on page 27

Sports Wrap-Up The Greyducks, Stuyvesant’s boys’ track team, won first place at the Manhattan borough championships on Saturday, May 18. The team placed first in seven events, including the 4x800m relay, in which they also finished first place at the Mayor’s Cup the previous weekend.

The Eagles, Stuyvesant’s boys’ golf team, finished the regular season with an undefeated record, winning all seven of their matches 7-0. In the Boys’ Individual Tournament, freshman Neil Vyas finished with a 79, placing first in the city.

The Hitmen, Stuyvesant’s boys’ tennis team, reached the city semifinals for the second consecutive year, but lost 5-0 after facing Beacon, an opponent they struggled with all season, for the second consecutive year.

The Dragons, Stuyvesant’s boys’ handball team, won in each of the first two playoff rounds, advancing to the city semi-finals to face Bayside High School, the team that defeated them in the championship match last season.

The Hitmen, Stuyvesant’s boys’ baseball team, finished the season at a disappointing 6-10, missing the post-season for the first time since 1996.

The Vipers, Stuyvesant’s girls’ fencing team, blew out Benjamin Cardozo High School 82-38 in the first round of the playoffs.

Both the Furies, Stuyvesant’s girls’ handball team, and the Lady Peglegs, Stuyvesant’s girls’ tennis team, lost in the second round of the playoffs after 10-2 regular seasons.

The Greyducks, Stuyvesant’s girls’ track team, placed third at the Manhattan borough championships on Saturday, May 18, and finished with the top four times in the 1500m race walk.

Girls’ Softball

Renegades Drop First Round, Look Forward to Next Year

By Grace Lu, with additional reporting by Annique Wong The Renegades, seeded 18th, walked into James Madison High School looking to advance to the second round of playoffs. However, their plans were cut short in a disappointing and emotional loss to the 15th-seeded Madison Lady Knights, ousting Stuyvesant from the playoffs in the first round for the third year in a row. Furthermore, the Renegades, defending Division Champions, gave up their title to George Washington High School and won three fewer games than last year. But while the season came to a close and the Renegades came short of their original goals, the captains expressed pride in their players and hope for next season.

After opening the season with a loss to William C. Bryant High School and a number of rained-out games, the Renegades admitted they were not always confident that they would play at the same level as they did last year. “After losing our starting pitcher [Morgan Higgins] last year, we weren’t exactly sure where we would be this year,” senior and co-captain Kathleen Mullaney said. The Renegades also experienced two setbacks in the season with huge 15-0 and 13-3 losses to George Washington, but Coach Vincent Miller insists that he had “no regrets this season,” he said.

As they racked up big wins against Lab Museum United and Beacon High School, the Renegades proved they were still a force to be reckoned with. The team’s high point came at the end of the season in a joyous 10-6 victory against their rival Hunter College High School.

“Marie [Frolich] stepped up as our starter and did a fantastic

job of keeping us as one of the top teams in the Manhattan division,” Mullaney said.

Miller commends the individual success of the upperclassmen this year, lauding Frolich as well. “Gabby Gillow gave us clutch hitting, Katie Mullaney played excellent defense, and Liana Penny gave us a spark at the plate and in the field. Junior Marie Frolich was a big part of us winning this season. She pitched all 16 league games and won 11,” Miller said.

Despite their overall success, the Renegades have not moved past round one of playoffs since 2010, when the current seniors were freshmen, and their goal has always been to win a playoff game. Heading into Tuesday’s game, the team felt hopeful that their goal would be achieved.

“We knew we had a shot at winning, as [James Madison] were not ranked far above us, but we also knew we had to play our best,” senior and co-captain Miranda Kalish said.

“We were at one point only two runs behind, and our energy remained high throughout the entire game,” said junior Marie Frolich.

Although the team caught up to Madison, for every point the Renegades scored, Madison would counter with three. According to senior and co-captain Gabrielle Gillow, this should not have happened: “We allowed [our opponents] to score too many runs, and since we’re not the strongest hitting team, we needed to play more solid defense in order to have a chance at winning,” she said.

The end of the game, signaling the end of the season and the end of a few high school softball careers, moved many of the players to tears. “After the game all the seniors were crying, and even though it’s only

my first year, I felt like crying too because I wished we could have given them another game,” freshman Georgia Kamm said.

The raw emotion and dedication shown by the players made Miller proud of his team.

“When I saw some of the players crying, it made me realize how much they cared about the game and our season,” Miller said. “The team had a lot of heart this season. We never gave up.”

Next season, five senior starters will be gone, and the team only has a couple of juniors to step up and lead. Although a bit daunted by this, Frolich and junior Julia Witkowski have faith the team will continue to succeed. “We are confident in leading the team next year because we have great juniors and sophomores and freshmen and we are all going to work really hard to do just as well, if not better, next year,” Witkowski said.

The success of the underclassmen was vital to the Renegades’ success this season.

Although the core of the team is graduating, Miller notes several star players who can help Frolich and Witkowski next year.

“We also had two sophomores step up and play extremely well this season, Megan Mullaney and Lauren Sobota,” Miller said.

“Georgia Kamm started every game as a freshman. I consider her a five-tool player. I think our future is bright.”

As Miller stated, the team’s greatest strength is their passion, and Frolich agrees. “We can always improve on defense, offense, hitting our cuts. But I think the biggest factor that I expect will help us succeed next season is our great energy level,” Frolich said. “I don’t think you can get anywhere in any sport without heart. And, thankfully, our team has a lot of it.”