The Student Newspaper of Worcester Polytechnic Institute Today: Possible rain. High near 70. Wednesday & Thursday: Partly cloudy, high around 70.
Volume Twenty-Seven, Number Eighteen
Tuesday, Spetember 28, 1999
Ancient knowledge made new again
Autocross Club captures top three spots in Formula SAE competition by Ken Cho Class o f '00
As the damp mist rose up from the airfield Sunday morning, the rumble o f modified racecars and straight exhaust pipes filled the chilling void of Ft. Devens Airbase, which was now a track for autocrossing in the New England Region Sports Car Club o f America (SCCA) division. W PI’s AutoX Club showed up at the Sept 6 event to compete in the newly created SAE class with the ’97 and ’96 WPI FSAE (Formula Society of Automo tive Engineers) cars. Brown Uni versity did not show up with their SAE cars and the WPI team cap tured the top three spots. AutoX president Scott Duane took first place, Vice-President Dave Baker took second, and Treasurer Elisa Baker finished third. With the creation of the SAE class, the AutoX Team is now more com petitive than ever. Before the SAE cars were competing against other
Bernard Nightingale (Simon Nance) during MW Rep's recent Production of Arcadia.
open-class, heavily modified full-size racing cars and the SAE cars were penalized for not meeting the mini mal weight requirement. Such condi tions made it difficult for the cars to be competitive since they were de signed to compete in FSAE competi tion. Now, other universities that enter the yearly FSAE competition can compete in regional SCCA-sponsored events. The next SCCA event will be held October 3rd at Horseneck Beach, MA. The WPI AutoX Club is dedi cated to entering SCCA events dur ing the school year and through the summer. The AutoX Club is on a continuous mission to improving the performance of its cars and the skills of the drivers. SCCA events are held on a monthly basis and the AutoX club prepares with re-enginecring and maintenance o f the FSAE cars and driving practice held at Go-Kart tracks. If anyone is in terested in joining the AutoX club, please contact Ken Cho by email at kcho@wpi.edu.
MW Repertory presents Tom Stoppard's Arcadia by Natalie Chin Business Manager The MW Repertory Theater Company has done it again! They have presented WPI with another wonderful A-term show. This year’s play, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and Shakespeare in Love), was directed by Jason Nelson and beautifully performed by an amazing cast. The play is built upon sexual intrigue inter twined with complicated mathematical concepts such as thermodynamics, chaos theory, fractals and iterated algorithms with a dash of literary humor. The focus is upon a single place, Sidley Park, which house two different groups of people at two different time periods. The play starts out in the early 19lh century, with 13-year-old Thomasina Coverly (Tara Ann Sujko) and her tutor, Septimus Hodge (Randall Lee Wainwright), having a lesson and discus sion on mathematical concepts and Newtonian theories. The story goes into more depth when the butler, Jellaby (Matt Tucker), interrupts the lesson to hand Hodge a message. We soon learn what the message said when Ezra Chater (Steve Christopher), bursts into the room to confront Hodge on his misappropriations with his wife, Mrs. Chater. Hodge does not deny the charge and quickly changes the subject toward Mr. Chater’s poetry as to deter him from taking any further actions to the news o f H odge’s misconduct. The audience meets T hom asina’s mother, Lady Croom (K atie Horning), and the ever so exuberant landscap ist, Richard Noakes; (Marc Cryan) followed by Captain Brice of the Royal Navy (Chris Cenotti). Mr. Coverly employs Mr. Noakes, to bring Sidley Park’s garden into the new era. As a new scene begins, the time period
News & Sports .............. 1, 2,3, 4 Arts & Entertainment......... 5,11 West Street House...................... 8 International House .................8 Columns/Opinion ..................... 8 Fraternity Forum ...................... 9 Club C om er ............................ 13 Crimson Clipboard.................14 Horoscope................................ 14 Classifieds ............................... IS Comics................................14, 15 Crossword Companion........... 15 Police Log ................................ 16 What's Happening..................16 Person on the Street.................16
changes. In the second scene, the setting is in the present day. The descendants o f the estate still lives there and hosts a couple o f historians who are researching two different topics to later learn that they are all intertwined. Hannah Jarvis (Rebecca Levine), is researching the history of the Sidley Park’s gardens, while Bernard Night ingale (Simon Nance), is in search of proof that Lord Byron, a romantic poet of the 19,h century, killed Mr. Chater in a duel at Sidley Park. The descendants o f the estate C hloe (Shauna Malone) and Valentine Coverly (Christopher Knight) aid them in their search for answers. The play proceeds on to have the present day group pose questions and hypothesizes, while in the next scene the 19th century group reveals the answer and truths. During all the discover ies, there are constant sexual and literary innu endoes in both periods that give the audience a good chuckle. In the end, the two periods col lide and em otions are apparent. Augustus Coverly (Fred Cassellius), brother to Thomasina see Arcadia, continued to pg2
PHOTOCOURTESYOFERICRACKLIFF
W h a t s In s id e ..
Crew brings home the Gold! "At Syracuse they rowed in the lightweight intermediate double and lightweight senior double, taking a gold and a bronze medal." _ _ P g 3
PHOTOCOURTESYOF WPI AUTOCROSSCLUB
W PI's Form ula SAE Race car and driver at the recent competition at Ft Devens.
UN report: World population to reach 6 billion in October by Alexander Conant Badger Herald (U. Wisconsin) (U-WIRE) MADISON, W is.— Humankind will reach a milestone when the world’s population hits 6 billion on October 12, the United Nations reported Wednesday in a detailed report on the status o f worldwide population. Despite the 6 billion figure, the report, which was released by the Population Division of the Depart ment of Economic and Social Af fairs at the U.N., predicted signifi cant slow dow ns in population growth in the future. The report made predictions for human population growth for the next 50 years, foreseeing a world wide population o f 8.9 billion in 2050. Richard Barrows, a professor of Agriculture at UW-Madison, said
the report was very timely. “It’s news that highlights the challenge that the world faces in trying to figure out how to balance more people with agriculture and the environment,” Barrows said. “Certainly the United States and the U.N. need to re-evaluate where we are with this.” The major slowdown in popula tion grow th, d esp ite lo n g er lifespans, was the result o f d e creased fertility in much of the world and o f deadly diseases, such as AIDS in the developing world. ‘T h e world population is grow ing at 1.33 percent per year between 1995 and 2000, which is signifi cantly less than the peak growth rate o f 2.04 percent from 1965 to 1970, and less than the rate of 1.46 per cent from 1990 to 1995,” the U.N. report stated. “Fertility is now deSee Population, cont. to page 2
Dirty Laundry?
Police Log Did you notice a stranger in Higgins Labs?
Find out what the characters of Pearls Before Swine have to say about doing your laundry...
"3:58 pm - Can Man: Higgins Lab basement, asking for a job and or cans"
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