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Volume 122, Number 26 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, May 14, 2002

AARON D. MIHAUK-THE TECH

The Stata Center, scheduled to open In 2003, appears almost ghostly viewed from above at night.

Students Plan Series of EventsTo Protest Wolfensohn Address

Charity helps fight homelessness"What we do is we provide

everything from street outreach toshelter, healthcare, job training,and housing to 8,000 homelessmen, women, and children eachyear," said Laura- Alpert, aspokesperson for Pine Street Inn."This gift will help tremendouslyin those efforts."

Leeb's affi I iation wi th thischarity began when he was a doc-toral student. "I was in Boston

ry (6.115), walked away with thisyear's Big Screw.

Leeb won the annual Alpha PhiOmega Institute Screw Competi-tion with a total of $1,997.71raised for Leeb' s charity, PineStreet Inn. Leeb beat his closestcompetitor, President Charles M.Vest by more than $500 in dona-tions.

"Winning this competition isthe fulfillment of my 19-yeardream at MIT," Leeb said. "Myadvisor won the Big Screw when Icame to MIT as a undergraduate in1983, and I've always wanted towin it, too."

JONATHAN WANG-THE TECH

A Friday afternoon hack presented students of 18.03 with anunusual request to determine the response of the class to a"unit impulse of fish. "

By Eun J. LeeNEWS EDITOR

Professor of Computer ScienceSteven B. Leeb '87, who teachesMicroprocessor Control Laborato-

Leeb Wms Big Screw, GivesMoney to Pine Street Inn

Summer, Page 18

Logistics reduce event sizeSDC faced what Steinberger

Commencement, Page 19

crowds," Steinberger said.The event will begin at 7:00 p.m.

in 54-100, but since seating is solimited, organizers are advisingspectators to arrive at 6:00 p.m. toassure a seat.

In addition, a five-member orga-nizing committee will select by lot-tery 20 students to participate in aclosed discussion with Wolfensohnprior to commencement. The lotterywill be held at I :00 p.m. Thursday inthe Student Center.

Students go abroad for summerChristopher J. Emig '04 will

travel to Ghana for five weeks

by the U.S. and other foreign eco-nomic agendas," according to thefilm's Web site.

The director of the movie,Stephanie Black, will be on hand to<;liscuss the movie and her experi-ences making it. "She is accepting toforego her honorarium because shejust wants to be here," SDC memberJulia K. Steinberger G said.

The evening will finish with aconcert from Grammy-winning reg-gae artist Yami Bolo, who appearsin the movie.

"In essence, seniors have achoice: they can go to the [Boston]Pops or listen to some reggae. Iguess we will each draw different

By Kevin R. LangEDITOR IN CHIEF

MIT announced Thursday thatthe Jeffry M. and Barbara PicowerFoundation donated $50 million toestablish the Picower Center forLearning and Memory.

The gift is the largest privatefoundation gift in MIT history.Larger donations have beenreceived from individuals, includ-ing $100 million from Kenan E.Sahin '63 and an estimated $350million from Patrick J. McGovern'59.

The existing Center for Learn-ing and Memory will be renamedand housed in a new facility as partof the Brain and Cognitive Sci-ences Center, which will be built atthe corner of Vassar and MainStreets. The renamed center willcontinue to be directed by NobelLaureate and Professor of BiologySusumu Tonegawa, who won the1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology orMedicine for his work on geneticsand immune response.

"We are really pleased," Tone-gawa said. "For this size of a cen-ter, which is relatively small, to geta gift of this size is rather rare."

The donation will allow thecenter to expand from its currentfaculty size of nine to a total ofthirteen professors. The four newendowed professorships will beestablished with $12 million of thegift. A further $8 million will be

By Brian LouxNEWS EDITOR

After some debate with the MITadministration over logistics andplanning, Students for a DemocraticCommencement will host severalevents before graduation daydesigned to inform the MIT commu-nity about the World Bank. James D.Wolfensohn, president of the bank,will give the keynote address June 7.

The events on the eve of com-mencement will begin with a show-ing of the movie "Life and Debt,"which focuses on "the stories ofindividual Jamaicans whose strate-gies for survival and parameters ofday-to-day existence are determined

Picowers Students Spend SummerGive $50M Travelling, Volunteering

By Jeffrey Greenbaum through the MIT African InternetP B · STAFF REPORTER Technology Initiative to teach highr or. rmn After a year of problem sets, school students Java .:nd web devel-

papers, and exams, MIT stude~t are opment. Emig said that he wilJ benot letting the rough job market stop teaching all day and that his pro-Re~~Oa""'1.~~~~~~~~them from gram will be intense, but he is look-

~VI tJ'" Feature escaping ing forward to preparing his lesson________ campus to plans and going abroad.

work in "I had wanted to study abroadunique jobs, acquire relevant career for the year. I see this as a half wayexperience, or explore the world. point," Emig said.

While many students will stay Jenny Ta '04 will also use heron campus for UROPs this summer, summer as chance to study abroadothers are using the summer as a via the new Cambridge-MIT Insti-chance to work nonacademic jobs, tute UROP program. Tawill conductvolunteer, or travel. research with a mechanical engi-

neering professor at CambridgeUniversity.

Ta said, "I had wanted to do the

Donation, Page 20 Big Screw, Page 21

DanteAnzolini bidsfarewell toMITSO.

Page 12

Comics

Page 8

OPINIONMatt Craighead criticizes theMURJ's relationship withUnited Trauma Relief.

Page 5

World & Nation 2Opinion 4Events Calendar .10Arts 12Sports 20

Page 2 THE TECH

WORLD & NATIONMay 14,2002

Carter Opens 5-Day Cuba VISit,Meets With Leading Dissidents

U.S., Russia Agree to ReduceNuclear Arms by 1\\10-Thirds

Bush Signs Fann BillTIlE WAS/IINGTON POST

CHICAGO

President Bush, setting aside his rhetorical devotion to free mar-kets, signed a farm bill Monday that will shower billions of dollars innew subsidies on breadbasket states that will help determine controlof Congress in November's elections.

In his first year in office, the president called for a bill that was"generous but affordable." Monday, he simply called it generous. "Itwill promote farmer independence, and preserve the farm way of lifefor generations," Bush said. "It helps America's farmers, and there-fore it helps America."

The bill has infuriated crucial U.S. trading partners in Europe andAsia, and repudiates a Republican-championed 1996 law designed towean farmers from government funds. It is estimated to cost $180 bil-lion over I0 years - $83 billion more than the cost of continuingcurrent programs, and increasing by two-thirds the payments forgrain and cotton farms, most of them large operations.

u.s. Delays U.N. VoteOn Iraqi Sanctions

SPECIAL TO THE WAS/IINGTON POSTUNITED NATIONS

For the second time in a week, the Bush administration postponeda vote on a U.S.-sponsored Security Council resolution designed totighten military sanctions against Iraq and eliminate most restrictionson its trade in civilian goods.

But U.S. officials remained confident that Washington's proposalwould be adopted by the IS-nation council as early as Tuesday. "Wefeel confident that consensus has been achieved, and we just needtime for all capitals to sign on," a U.S. official here said.

The latest delay was spurred by a request Monday afternoon fromSyria, an alleged buyer of discounted, illicit Iraqi oil and the loneArab country on the council, that it be allowed to consider the resolu-tion overnight.

Syria earlier had asked for changes in the U.S. resolution, includ-ing the insertion of a paragraph asserting Iraq's right to self defense,under Article 51 of the United Nations charter, "if an armed attackoccurs" against a U.N. member.

The United States and other members of the Security Councilrejected the changes.

U.s., British Forces Report ProgressLOS ANGELES TIMES

BAGRAM AIR BASE, AFGHANISTAN .

U.S. and British forces both declared successes Monday .in the'two-steps-forward, one-back war to eradicate Taliban and al-Qaidaforces in Afghanistan, even as they were targeted again from theenemy's relocated mountain strongholds.

U.S. troops on a mission in eastern Afghanistan to hunt downthose responsible for menacing their base near the Khost airportwith sporadic rocket fire located the launch sites but none of theperpetrators. Meanwhile, two more rockets were fired in the vicini-ty of the troops.

British-led Operation Snipe wrapped up after 16 days with animpressive scorecard of dozens of collapsed caves, tons ofdestroyed ammunition and strategic transit routes now sealed byAfghan allies. The 1,000 troops, backed by U.S. air power, scourednearly 80 square miles of the rugged Chumara Valley betweenKhost and Gardez to prevent its future use as a safe haven for ter-rorists.

The British troops did not encounter any Taliban or al-Qaidafighters in the more than two weeks they were combing the region.And in a telling display of the persistent hit-and-run capability ofthe enemy, two 107mm Chinese-made rockets were trained on thesoldiers as they prepared to depart.

By Dana Milbankand Sharon LaFraniereTilE WAS/IINGTON POST

WASHINGTON

The United States and Russiareached agreement Monday on atreaty cutting both nations' nucleararsenals by two-thirds, drafting athree-page pact intended to replacethe last vestiges of the Cold Wararms race with cooperation betweenthe former adversaries.

The accord is to be signed in anofficial ceremony when PresidentBush visits Moscow for a summitmeeting next week. It commits thecountries to reduce nuclear arsenalsto 1,700 to 2,200 warheads each bythe end of 2012 - codifying long-standing pledges by' both sides tomake wholesale cuts.

"This treaty will liquidate thelegacy of the Cold War," Bush saidin brief remarks on the South Lawnof the White House Monday morn-ing. "The new era will be a period ofenhanced mutual security, economicsecurity and improved relations."

By Mark FinemanLOS ANGELES TIMES

HAVANA

Former President Carter threwhimself into the ideological divide ofU.S-Cuban relations Monday, meet-ing over breakfast with the commu-nist-run island's two leading dissi-dents, and then delivering a sharpbroadside to the Bush administrationover bioterror allegations.

Opening a five-day visit thatmarks the first time a current or for-mer U.S. president has set foot inCuba since Fidel Castro's 1959 revo-lution, Carter challenged conserva-tives in the U.S. government to provecharges that Cuba has developed bio-logical weapons technology andshared it with renegade states such asIran.

Carter even suggested at a forumthat included Castro that Bushadministration officials misled eitherhim or the American people aboutthose allegations.

"In preparation for this unprece-

WEATHER

The reaction was more somber inRussia, where President VladimirPutin pronounced himself "satisfied"and his foreign minister, IgorIvanov, acknowledged the treatywas not as comprehensive asMoscow sought. "It is a realisticdocument," Ivanov said.

Analysts in both countries saidthe agreement essentially is a face-saving gesture for Putin, who insist-ed on a formal accord. Putin, eagerto integrate his economy with theWest and to give Russians a sense ofnational dignity that comes with aformal agreement with the UnitedStates, yielded to almost all ofBush's demands.

The treaty marks a departurefrom past arms control pacts that,along with their side agreements,often filled volumes.

Honoring the Bush administra-tion's desire for future flexibility, itcontains no requirement to destroywarheads that are taken out of ser-vice. It puts no prohibition on theU.S. plan to build a missile defense

dented visit, I requested, and we allreceived, intense briefings from theState Department, the intelligenceagencies of my (country and-high'officials in the White ,House' .. , forthem 'to share with US'any concernsthat my government had about possi-ble terrorist activities that were sup-ported by Cuba," Carter said aftermore than two hours of briefings byCuban scientists at the country's pre-mier biotechnology research center.

"There were absolutely no suchallegations made or questions raised.I asked them specifically on morethan one occasion, 'Is there any evi-dence that Cuba has been involved insharing any information to any othercountry on Earth that could be usedfor terrorist purposes? And theanswer from our experts on intelli-gence was, 'No.' "

"Maybe not coincidentally,"Carter added, just a few days beforehe and his delegation landed inHavana on Sunday, Bush's undersec-retary of state for anus control deliv-

system. The pact's expiration in 10years allows either side to return toany level it desires, and before the10-year expiration it allows the abil-ity to pull out with 90 days' notice.

In exchange, Bush granted oneconcession: having a treaty. Theadministration saw no need for awritten agreement, and preferred anyagreement not to take the form of atreaty requiring Senate ratification.Although the administration metRussia's request, the president didnot agree to anything he had notpledged to do unilaterally.

"As the president said, webelieved it was not necessary to havea treaty because we are in a newphase of relations," national securityadviser Condoleezza Rice said in aninterview on PBS's ''The NewsHourWith Jim Lehrer." "But the presidentlistened to his Russian partner."

Senate Democrats and Republi-cans praised the agreement, andindications Monday were that itwould face no significant obstaclesto ratification.

ered a well-publicized speech to theconservative Heritage Foundation inWashington, D.C., and' asserted,"The United States believes thatCuba has at 'least a limited offensive

- biologic"al' warfare resea'rch:'anddevelopment effort.

"Cuba has provided dual-usebiotechnology to other rogue states,"said the official, John R Bolton.

The bioterrorism charge - andCarter's entiI:e visit - have becomethe latest battlefields in the deeplypolarized and emotional debate aboutaltering America's 42-year-old poli-cy of isolating Cuba.

The anti-Castro Cuban lobby inSouth Florida and in Congress havepraised Bolton and condemnedCarter for a visit they fear could helplegitimize the Cuban leader. And theHeritage Foundation's Latin Ameri-ca specialist, Stephen Johnson,accused Carter of being ''the perfectfoil" for a move in Congress to easeAmerica's economic embargo of theCaribbean island.

Dulcet Lyrical WeatherBy Greg LawsonSTAFF METEOROLOGIST

In response to yesterday's weather ... I want to know, have you everseen the rain? Who'll stop the rain? Here comes the rain again. Rainy daysand Mondays always get me down. Blame it on the rain. Purple rain, Redrain, Blue rain. Into each life some rain must fall. I am the rain king. It'sraining in Baltimore. It's raining men. It's raining, it's pouring, the old manis snoring. Rainy day women # 12 & 35. Raindrops keep falling on my head.Singing in the rain. I wish it would rain down. Rain, rain, go away, comeagain some other day.

In preparation for tomorrow's weather ... I can see clearly now, the rainis gone ... It's gonna be a bright, bright, bright, sunshiny day. No rain. Herecomes the sun. Good day sunshine. I'll follow the sun. Walking on sun-shine. Let the sunshine in. I've got sunshine on a cloudy day. You are thesunshine of my life. You're my blue sky, you're my sunny day. You are mysunshine, my only sunshine. Set the controls for the heart of the sun. Don'tlet the sun go down on me.

Extended ForecastToday: Mostly cloudy. Windy. A small chance of afternoon showers.

High of 60°F (16°C).Tonight: Cloudy. Healthy westerly winds. Low 48°F (9°C).Wednesday: Mostly sunny. Continued wind. High of 64°F (18°C). Low

48°F (9°C).Thursday: Clear and sunny early then clouding up later. Lighter winds .

High around 70°F (20° to 22°C). Low in the low 50s F (10° 12°C).Friday and beyond: Cloudy with showers likely.

Situation for Noon Eastern Daylight Time, Tuesday, May 14, 2002

o~ _,;:~ ~~ -:;,~ l!,~ b~ ~~ o~ o~,~ ,v ":"-," ,'" ,~ ,\J ~'5 ~(;)" .

Weather Systems Weather Fronts Precipitation Symbols Other S mbolsSnow Rain -- FogH High Pressure - _ Trough

* -Showers "\1 "\1, "R.............. ............. Warm Front Thundenlonn

L low Pressure Light * CO Haze............... Cold Front Modente ** Compiled by MIT

~ Hurricane.... Slalionary Front Heav)' • . MeIeOI'Ology Staff.. and TMT«h

May 14,2002 WORLD & NATION THE TECH Page 3

Palestinians Hostile to ArafatWhile Leader Tours West Bank

Justice Dept. DiscountsTerrorist Nuclear Attack Tip

LOS ANGELES TIMESWASHINGTON

While Law Testifies in One Court,Another Calls for Priest's Record

By Mark MagnierLOS ANGELES TIMES

NABLUS, WEST BANK

Palestinian Authority PresidentVasser Arafat toured the battle-scarred West Bank on Monday,encouraging his people and kissingbabies' cheeks after the lifting of aban on his movement gave him hisfirst opportunity to travel in sixmonths.

Even as he enjoyed freedom ofmovement, the Palestinian leaderfound himself increasingly hemmedin politically. He has been slammedby the United States and Israel fornot ending suicide bombings, andby hard-line Palestinians for agree-ing to exile militia members andotheIWise "selling out" the cause.

President Bush, Arafat andIsraeli Prime Minister Sharon allreaffirmed over the past 24 hourstheir belief that a Palestinian stateshould be established. As always,however, views vary widely on howsoon it should be established andhow extensive it should be.

In one sign of the growing pres-sure Arafat faces, he opted to stayin his car Monday as it spedthrough the Jenin refugee camp,site of a brutal battle betweenIsraeli forces and Palestinian gun-men last month.

Jenin residents chanted the nameof Mohammed Tawanbeh, a recent-ly killed member of the militantgroup Islamic Jihad, as Arafat' scarapproached - a challenge to the

Palestinian leader, given his recentcondemnation of violence. Theyalso reportedly set fire to the plat-form from which he was due tospeak.

Aides to Arafat attributed the fireto an electrical short. And they saidhe didn't stop because the largecrowds and danger of unexplodedbombs threatened his safety. Others,however, said the real reason washis reluctance to face his critics.

"Arafat is weakened and losingtouch with the grass roots," saidHusam Khader, a leader from theBalata refugee camp and memberof the Palestinian Legislative Coun-cil. "He's more afraid of realdemocracy than he is of Israeliincursions."

White House and Justice Department officials Monday dismisseda recent intelligence tip about possible attacks against U.S. nuclearfacilities on or around July 4, saying it is uncorroborated and camefrom an unreliable source.

"Our guys just aren't taking it seriously," said a Justice Depart-ment official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The intelli-gence folks they talked to were not taking it seriously, (the) story wasuncorroborated like the vast majority of the intelligence tips thatcome in from foreign sources."

The threat, first reported Monday by The Washington Times, wasreceived by U.S. officials sometime last week. It suggested that anunidentified Islamic terrorist group was planning to attack a nuclearfacility - perhaps the Three Mile Island power plant near Harris-burg, Pa., or another facility in the Northeast.

The Justice official said the tip came from intelligence officials inEurope, and that it did not generate any escalated threat warnings orcommunications among U.S. counterterrorism officials.

The official also specifically said the tip did not come from AbuZubeida, the high-ranking al-Qaida official who has told authoritiesabout planned attacks at U.S. financial institutions and shoppingmalls. Zubeida was captured March 28 during an early morning com-mando raid in Pakistan and has been talking to his U.S. interrogators,officials said.

Study: Anthrax TaintedUp to 5,000 Letters

THE WASHINGTON POST

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0 ••

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It's smart to reach out.

Mental Health Service

617.253.2916

Simple Fact:Depression is treatable.

Get out of the dark ........... ...

WASHINGTON

Envelopes full of anthrax spores cross-contaminated as many as5,000 letters in the eastern United States, almost certainly causing themysterious deaths of two women in New York City and rural Connecti-cut, scientists said Monday.

A mathematical model describing last fall's attacks suggested thatfocusing only on anthrax-laden envelopes could be a grave mistake:''The original letters were extremely dangerous," said Vanderbilt Uni-versity mathematician Glenn Webb. "But there was also great dangerfrom cross-contamination."

Webb and co-researcher Martin Blaser, chairman of medicine at theNew York University Medical School, said the model could be used topredict the course of future letter-borne anthrax attacks and perhaps savelives. Their research was published Tuesday in the Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences.

"We hope there won't be any further outbreaks," Blaser said. "But if.there ,were. this could help us identify the populations at risk and might-help us move more quickly to find the source of the initial exposures."--1

Talking with someoneconfidentially might be all you need.

It's smart to reach out.Make an appointment. It's free.

Prompt appointments including evenings.24 hour urgent care including

weekday 2-4 pm walk-in hours.

arrested earlier this month in Cali-fornia. Shanley has pleaded notguilty to three counts of child rape.

Archdiocese spokeswomanDonna M. Morrissey had no com-ment on the cardinal's testimonyMonday, nor on the court order inthe Shanley case. Shanley's attor-ney, Frank Monrlano, did not returna call seeking comment.

Middlesex Superior Court JusticeJanet Sanders ruled Monday that byturning his records over to the arch-diocese, Shanley had waived theright to keep them private. A hearingTuesday will determine if the docu-ments will be made public.

Shanley is a central figure in the1 sex abuse scandal .that .has led ,tocalls for Law's resignation. ~ .

' ••• 1

nal Law is ,accustomed to being incomplete control. Today he wasn't."

Law's testimony - taken at thechancery of Boston's RomanCatholic Archdiocese - came onthe same day that a judge in Cam-bridge, Mass., ordered the archdio-cese to hand over the psychiatric andmedical records of another allegedpedophile priest, the Rev. PaulShanley.

The now';defrocked Geoghan isserving a nine- to lO-year sentencefor fondling a boy at a communityswimming pooL His trial and con-viction in January ignited a sweep-ing scandal over. clerical sexualabuse that ,has, included shockingdisclosures .about Shanley, a 71-

. year-old retired priest who wasb6ll1-. <"\0'''') to

By Elizabeth MehrenLOS ANGELES TIMES

As two alleged victims of apedophile priest looked on, Boston'sCardinal Bernard Law on Mondayheatedly denied that he had beennegligent in failing to keep the Rev.Joh~ J. Geoghan away from chil-dren.

"You could see it in his eyes thathe was getting a little bit tempera-mental," said 27-year-old PatrickMcSorley, one of 86 phiintifIs in acivil lawsuit against Law and thearchdiocese.

The cardinal "seemed kind of,frazzled" during the third day of hisdeposition, added Mark Keane, 33,who has claimed that"Geoghan

.,)abusedhim.as welL~'I think,Cardi-

May 14,2002

Please see page 7for Letters to the Editor.

Thinking Critically About Divestmentdoing business with the terrorist organizations that may sup-port the bombers. MIT does, however, seem to invest in theIsraeli side of the aggression: violation of international lawand murder, displacement, and occupation that has been doc-umented by Amnesty International and other human rightsorganizations inside and outside Israel. Divesting would notbe placing blame solely on Israel, it would just be withdraw-ing from the part of the aggression MIT is involved in. MITshould not have anything to do with aggression and killingsof Israelis or Palestinians ..

It is not yet clear to us whether divesting is the best wayfor MIT to make a statement against the Israeli govern-ment's military aggression against Palestinians. But in con-sidering it, one must recognize that divestment isn't a badidea simply because it is difficult, divesting doesn't meanthat Israel is the sole perpetrator of aggression, and thatMIT can also make a statement against forms of Palestinianaggression against civilians.

We support the editorial's call for all interested membersof the MIT community to engage in open, academic dialogueon the IsraelilPalestinian conflict that goes deeper than theusual emotional, reactionary exchanges on this topic. Petition-ers, counterpetitioners, column writers, you've caught ourattention. Now it's time to turn this into an honest, feafIessdebate worthy of MIT.

Dissent

By Rima Amaout and Eun J. Lee

OPINIONA Flawed Argument for Divestment

A group of MIT and Harvard faculty leading a peti- stocks - is a move MIT cannot afford to make.tion calling for the two universities to stop investing in The call for MIT and Harvard to divest requires a sig-companies that invest in Israel has gained national atten- nificant alteration in the schools' endowments and employ----------- tion, Similar efforts exist at ee retirement funds. One might make the argument thatEditorial Princeton, the University of such a change is warranted when taking a clear moral--------- California at Berkeley and the stand, but The Tech does not find the Middle East conflictUniversity of Michigan, among others. The petition, now to offer a clear moral distinction. In opposing the divest-signed by more than 440 faculty, staff, students, and ment petition, The Tech does not attempt to justify ques-alumni, cites "human rights abuses against Palestinians at tionable actions of the Israeli government. Rather, a fullthe hands of the Israeli government" and the actions of view of the situation shows misdeeds on both sides.Israel's military as reasons for withdrawing support for If, however, one is to believe that MIT and HarvardIsrael in the form of corporate investments. The Tech should sever all ties to Israel, one must call for an end tobelieves the argument for divestment is flawed on several ties with the U.S. government. The United States supportslevels, and that divestment would hurt MIT without bene- Israel as an ally both militarily and financially, yet the peti-fit to the cause of peace. tioners do not call for MIT to cut all funding and research

The petition specifically calls on MIT and Harvard to ties with the Department of Defense or other government"divest from Israel, and from U.S. companies that sell agencies. MIT would practically cease to exist withoutarms to IsraeL" Among the companies from which MIT government funding as the United States remains theand Harvard are being asked to divest is Boeing, whose biggest supporter of research at MIT. Thus independenceApache helicopters are used by the Israeli military - a from the United States is impossible in practice. However,direct link to the current conflict between the Israelis and without calling for such action, the petition seems some-Palestinians. However, The Tech is not convinced that the what incomplete,majority of the companies listed have any such link to the It is unlikely that MIT will act on the divestment peti-conflict. The list includes companies whose nature does tion, especially considering the fact that MIT did notnot warrant divestment - these are not defense contrac- divest from South Africa in the face of Apartheid - antors. Rather, companies including Microsoft Corp., issue with less moral ambiguity. However, the petitionersMcDonald's Corp., Lucent Technologies, IBM, Intel are succeeding in another regard. They have drawn atten-Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., General Motors Corp., and tion to the crisis and sparked debate on campus, as evi-Coca-Cola Co. are listed as having ties to Israel. In many denced by last Monday's pro-divestment teach-in and thecases, companies such as McDonald's simply operate fran- anti-divestment counter-petition signed by more than 2500chises in Israel- these are global corporations with oper- faculty, staff, student, and alumni from MIT and Harvard.ations in a highly developed economy. However, the counter-petition accuses the divestment

On a practical level, divesting from these companies petition of being one-sided without offering an even-hand-would do MIT and its employees a disservice. Divestment ed alternative. The counter-petition, justifying Israeli mili-from the list of stocks presented by the petitioners would tary actions as self-defense, places too much blame for themean that MIT would relinquish its positions in a handful violence on Palestinians. What has been missing from theof blue-chip stocks. Using employees' retirement funds to debate thus far is an arena in which all opinions are equal-make a political statement is a questionable policy. ly represented.

Furthermore, MIT's investments in companies like With Palestine Awareness Week underway, the time, isMicrosoft, General Motors and Hewlett Packard go far right for an open forum, similar to the series on Apartheidbeyond holding corporate stocks and bonds. MIT is that took place years ago, where people with different,involved in strategic partnerships with these companies passionate opinions can debate the divestment issue. Suchwhich bring in millions of dollars that increast? resear~h a discussion series would foster constructive discussion'budgets and fund stipends for the Institute's graduate stu- rather than the rhetoric which so often perineaieftthe~Li~ If

dents. Ending all ties with corporations connected to Israel Isiaeli~Palestihlan question ..- a much stronger statement than simply selling off The editl!rial board reached its decision with a vote of 7-2.

One of the chief reasons the editorial gives against divest-ment is that it would be difficult and impractical for MIT toundertake. Undoubtedly, divesting from companies that sell

military equipment to Israel, sup-port settlement building or basetheir businesses in occupied terri-

tories, or financially support a government that has displacedand killed Palestinian civilians, would be difficult. If divest-ment was not a matter of re-investing millions of dollars, itwouldn't be a statement worth making. That said, it is not suf-ficient to reject the divestment campaign simply because itwould inconvenience MIT. Attention must be paid, as the edi-torial implies, to whether the need to speak out against aninjustice merits the inconvenience.

On this matter, the editorial says that MIT should notdivest from Israel because the situation is morally ambiguous,that divestment would be tantamount to placing the sole blamefor Mideast violence on Israel, although there are transgres-sions on both sides. There certainly are grave crimes committedon both sides; Palestinian suicide bombers set out to murderIsraeli civilians, and those who support them must be stopped.The petitioners for divestment agree, saying in their statementthat they "find the recent attacks on Israeli citizens unaccept-able and abhorrent." MIT students, faculty, and staff should dowhat they can to denounce and prevent suicide bombing.

However as far as is known, MIT is already uninvolved infunding suicide bombers, compensating their families, or

ell RTOONISTS

Solar Olugebefola G, Xixi D'Moon '01, Bao-YiChang '02, Jumaane Jeffries '02, Lara Kirkham'03, Duane Tanaka '03, Alison Wong '03, SeanLiu '04, Tina Shih '04, Nancy Phan 'OS, JosieSung '05.

BUSINESS SIAFF

Advertising Manager: Aye Moah '05; Staff:Dashonn Graves '03, Joey Plum '03.

TU '/Ism.OGY Sl~frF

Director: Ming- Tai Huh '02; Staff: FrankDabek G, Kevin Atkinson '02, Daniel Leeds '05.

OPINION STAFF

Editors: Kris Schnee '02, Jyoti R. Tibrewala '04;Associate Editor: Roy Esaki '04; Columnists:Daniel L. Tortorice '02, Philip Burrowes '04,Akshay Patil '04, Stephanie W. Wang '04; Staff:Basil Enwegbara G, Michael Borucke '0 I, MattCraighead '02, Christen M. Gray '04, KenNesmith '04, Andrew C. Thomas '04, Tao Yue'04, Vivek Rao '05, Maral Shamloo, Khoon TeeTan.

ARTS~TAFF

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ChairmanRima Arnaout '02Editor in Chief

Kevin R. Lang '02Business ManagerRachel Johnson '02Managing EditorJoel C. Corbo '04Executive EditorJordan Rubin '02

Page 4 THE TECH

r.DITORS AT URG/;'

Senior Editor: Eric J. Cholankeril '02; Con-tributing Editor: Annie S. Choi, RoshanBaliga '03.

ALJVlSORY BOARD

Paul E. Schindler, Jr. '74, V. Michael Bove '83,Barry Surman '84, Robert E. Malchman '85,Jonathan Richmond PhD '91, Vladimir V.Zelevinsky '95, Anders Hove '96, Saul Blumen-thal '98, Eric 1. Plosky '99, Joel Rosenberg '99,Ryan Ochylski '0 I, B. D. Colen.

PRUDUCll0,v STAFF FUR TillS ISSUE

Night Editors: Jordan Rubin '02, Anju Kanu-malla '03, Joel C. Corbo '04: Associate Editor:Andrew Mamo '04, Shefali Oza '04, David Car-penter '05; Staff: Nick Hoff '05

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May 14,2002 OPINION THE TECH Page 5

It may be a coincidence that three of eleven articlesin the journal are written by UTR members about

mainly political topics; it would not be dljJUult to add asmall item at the end of each piece saying,ftr example,

Julia de Kadt is working with the student group United1Yauma Relief to ban land mines.' Such full disclosureis not only good policy, but is also essential to avoiding

a breach of sdentific and journalistic ethics.

The MURJ-United Trauma Relief Connection----------------- science and logic." from foreign aggression. but a legitimate journal. It may be mere

Matt Craighead In addition, the article informs us that This is not the first time we've heard coincidence that no fewer than three of"[biotech crops] may cause developing about land mines this semester. You may eleven articles in the journal are written byworld industries to suffer and could lead to recall the campaign against land mines by UTR members about mainly political topics,hunger among farmers .... " In fact, if the student group United Trauma Relief. It that these topics are same ones they arebiotech crops meet their promise, boosting happens that UTR's founder, Sanjay Basu, is addressing as members of UTR, and that thefood production and reducing prices, world also the founder and top editor of MURJ. founder of MURJ is also the founder ofhunger would likely be greatly reduced. UTR's online "update" reveals that ge Kadt UTR. Likewise, it may not be by design thatSomeone who earns $250 a year would like- is a UTR member and is in fact UTR's the news item about biotech crops is almostly be overjoyed to find out that he could "point person" on land mines. She previous- exclusively negative about this technology.feed his family for less. ly co-authored a column with Basu in The At some point, however, such a remarkable

Let's skip ahead to Julia de Kadt's "Land Tech on sweatshops, and also wrote in an string of coincidences starts to look like aMines" article. First of all, it is somewhat earlier MURJ about AIDS drugs - the political agenda.bizarre that this would appear in MURJ. focus of another ofUTR's campaigns. Nowhere in MURJ are the UTR links dis-

De Kadt is not the only closed. It would be easy to add a small itemMURJ contributor to hail from at the end of each piece saying, e.g., "JuliaBasu's UTR. Selam Daniel, de Kadt, a member of the class of 2002 inwho writes about Eritrean the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sci-refugees, is also a UTR mem- ences, is working with the student groupber and is UTR's "point per- United Trauma Relief to ban land mines."son" on the issue of (surprise, Such disclosure is not only good policy, butsurprise) Eritrean refugees. is also essential to avoiding a breach of sci-(Once again, this topic is more entific and journalistic ethics.appropriate to a foreign policy MURJ should seek the views of bothjournal.) sides on controversial issues, especially for

We find also a MURJ article news items. Statements along the lines offrom Shefali Oza on tuberculo- "the Bush administration has failed tosis. This is an entirely valid address this issue" (p. 10) are inappropriatetopic for a science journal, but and belong in an opinion piece, not a newsthe article is mostly about item. It might be reasonable to introduce ainternational organizations and one-page opinion column about a majortheir responses to the disease, timely scientific issue, but elsewhere suchrather than about (for example) comments are irresponsible. MURJ should

a new scientific breakthrough in fighting have sought the opinion of a scientist whoTB. Oza is also a UTR member - she is the supports carbon credits (p. 5-6). And if thesecond UTR point person for land mines, editors wish to include articles aboutand is involved in contacting a Moldovan "humanitarian crises," they need to ensureproject on AIDS and tuberculosis. all points of view are presented. An article

There are two issues here. First, MURJ about AIDS drugs should present (forneeds to decide whether it is really a instance) the view that drug companies haveresearch journal or a journal on (as the edi- a fundamental right to their intellectualtors state on page two) "humanitarian and property, rather declaring flat-out that "theenvironmental crises." A research journal global patenting of life-saving drugs shouldcan have feature articles, but they should be not be permitted at the cost of human lives"directly related to science and research. For (p. 39, Volume 5).example, Michael Sekora's feature on "The If MURJ continues along its current path,Big Bang's Pervasive Plasma" is directly its reputation as an impartial research jour-related to new developments in physics. It is nal will likely be irrevocably damaged. Thisdifficult to see how land mines are or could would be a shame for the many MIT under-be a research topic fit for publication in graduates who would like to share theirMURJ. (I research results with the MIT community; so

Second, for the sake of its own reputa- I urge the MURJ editors to undertake thesetion, MURT ne~ds 'to ensure that it is' ,not a ! necessary reforms to preserve MURJ as I avehicle for campus "aqt~vism by subterfuge, . viable publication .

When one thinks about what sorts of arti-cles would be found in an "MIT Undergrad-uate Research Journal," one thinks of arti-cles by students about their latest UROPwork. You might see cutting-edge researchin science and engineering; perhaps some inthe social sciences and humanities as well.So when the latest MURJ showed up, I wasrather shocked to see it filled with such arti-cles as "On the Refugee Problem in Eritrea"and "Land Mines: A Humanitarian Crisis."

Let me dispel any doubtsabout my position by notingthat many of the articles arewholly legitimate. In theScience News in Reviewsection, you can find suchitems as "A Step In theFight against Cancer";"Gene Therapy CorrectsSickle-Cell Disease inMice"; "Converting Heat toEnergy without a Genera-tor"; etc. These items areexactly on target.

Likewise, I am not dis-paraging the work of manyof the student contributorswho wrote for MURJ. Eliza-beth Stephens' article on"Palladium Coatings of Targets for Inertial Aren't land mines a political topic? How isFusion Energy" epitomizes what belongs in stating a brief history of the campaign to banthis journal. The article describes a scientific land mines "research?" Does not this articleproblem, describes experiments on a poten- belong in, say, Counterpoint, the opiniontial solution to the problem, and gives pages of The Tech, or a political science ordetailed numerical results in several charts. foreign policy publication?

Yet all is not well. Consider an item in In any case, de Kadt fails to mention thethe World Science News in Review section, ~ain argument against banning land mines:"Biotech Crop Use Increases Globally." The it is contrary to our national interest. Shearticle begins, "Amid great controversy con- dismisses without comment the idea thatcerning their [biotech crops'] safety ... " The lluld mines are essential to our military posi-editors fail to inform the reader that there is tion in Korea, even though - if not for ourlittle scientific reason to believe that genet i- troops and (dare I say it) land mines - thecally modified crops pose substantial health militaristic North would easily overrun thedangers. Lest you think. that r am a tool for democratic, industrialized South. The issuecorporate interests like Monsanto, don't take is very simple. It is irrational for the Unitedit from me - take it from Patrick Moore, a States to rule out in advance, in all possibleco-founder of Greenpeace, who t~lls us that scen,arios the use of some weapon, if you"the campaign of fear now being waged start from the premise that our government'sagainst genetic modification is ,based, largely , ...m6st I,fundamental purpose is to protect theon fanblsy"aiid <i' cori}pt'ete' laCKof respect for' Alive;;' antf liJelihoods of American citizens.. '1,. ~ .

The Nuclear Menace

Just in case you still think these risks are better than thecurrent situation} in 2036 when Yuaa isfull} there will

still be 44}000 tons of spent fuel at these 131 local sites,15 percent more than today! Ttying tofix the problem

of greed and shortsightedness by ramlning through an evenmore shortsighted plan hardly seems like an improvement.

Guest ColumnBrice Smith , I

'are already leaking waste and may contami-'nate groundwater in less than 10 years. Alli-son Macfarlane, director of the YuccaMountain project here at MIT, told the Los

Reading Colleen Horin' s response Angeles Times that "there are a lot of issues["Arguing for Burial," May 7] to the Yucca . that remain unresolved" and that "we shouldMountain article, I must say that I was not be in a rush." Finally, the Nuclear Wasteimpressed by how in such a short letter she Technical Review Board, an' II-memberwas able to so easily fit all three of the ~panel of experts appointed by Congress,major myths pro-nuclear advocates have )concluded in January that the government's -been using for decades. Namely, that under- -technical case is "weak to moderate."ground storage at Yucca is a safe alternative " Just in case you still thinkto highly vulnerable on-site storage, that Ithese risks are better than thenuclear power is a safe and clean energy current situation, in 2036source that only the uninformed oppose, and ,when Yucca is full, there willthat the "civilian" use of nuclear power can still be 44,000 tons of spentsomehow be separated from the "military" fuel at these 131 local sites,use. Each of these myths was constructed by 15 percent more than today!the nuclear industry and their proponents in Trying to fix the problem oforder to mask the enormous risk nuclear greed and shortsightednesspower actually represents to the world .. by ramming through an even

The problem of current storage is far 1 more shortsighted plan hard-worse than even Horin realizes. Currently ly seems like an improve-there are 131 storage pools, not 78, spread ment.across 35 states. Many of these contain 10 Second, nuclear energy istimes the radioactivity of a reactor and are not the clean, safe, and eco-protected by flimsy metal buildings. nomical energy source theAlthough little research is being done on industry claims it is, and it is far more thanlong-term treatment, there are safer ways to some fringe that has realized this. Sweden,store the waste onsite using above-ground Germany, New Zealand, and Italy have alldry casks kept in hardened concrete build- chosen to either phase out or ban nuclearings. It is a far more expensive alternative to power. In addition, Belgium's parliament ispools, which explains why it is not currently currently considering legislation to phaseused, but it is still far safer than transporting out their reactors. Economically, the nuclearthe waste and clearing the way for the cre- industry requires billions of dollars in subsi-ation of thousands of additional tons. dies to stay afloat. This massive funneling of

Even if a single depository still seems public money into private pockets doesn'tlike a good idea, entrusting the oversight to even take into account the back end cost ofthe Department of Energy, which is current- decommissioning facilities. In England it isly promoting nuclear power like a Madison estimated that even if no new reactors areAvenue PR firm, raises serious questions built, it will cost $124 billion to handle theabout their "exhaustive EIS" (Environmental cleanup. In this country, the bill will runImpact Statement). A General Accounting closer to $400 billion.Office report found 273 outstanding ques- Unfortunately, this column is far tootions, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commis- short to even mention a fraction of pastsion has already ruled that there is enough nuclear accidents. Everyone has heard ofinformation for an application. This ruling is Chernobyl, which contaminated an areadespite such major concerns as the un ex- roughly the size of Texas and killed up topected discovery that 12.3 million gallons of 30,000 people (some as far away as France),water flow through the site every year and and Three Mile Island, which forced thethat two other current storage sites the DOE evacuation of 150,000 people and led to apromised would be secure for 10,000 years minimum of 430 infant deaths. Beyond this

there are literally hundreds of other seriousnuclear accidents that have occurred aroundthe world. To name a few: In October 1957a plutonium fire at Windscale in England,caused dozens of cancer deaths and forcedofficials to destroy all milk produced for thenext 6 weeks on the surrounding 600 farms.In January 1961, an explosion at the Nation-al Reactor Testing Station in Idaho killedthree, leaving them so heavily contaminatedthat their hands had to be buried with

radioactive waste and their bodies interred inlead coffins. In November 1971, the North-ern States Power Company dumped 50,000gallons of radioactive waste into the Missis-sippi. In January 1983, nearly 208,000 gal-lons of contaminated water was dumped intothe Tennessee River at the Browns Ferryplant. In September 1999, uranium at theSumitomo Metal Mining Company in Japanwent critical, sending radiation levels out-side to 15,000 times their normal level andkilling at least two workers. Officials told313,000 people to remain indoors and saidlocally grown vegetables should not be har-vested. It is a testament to the industry'spublic relation that anyone could stillbelieve in their self-proclaimed "record ofsafety."

Third, we come to the oldest myth of all,that of the "civilian atom." This "peacefulatom" myth, more creditable to ,Eisenhowerthat Einstein, grew out of the post-war atom-ic boom. Right from the start, nuclear powerand nuclear weapons were joined at the hip.Almost all second generation nuclear

weapons states have joined the club by usingplutonium recovered from reactors. Britainwas the first to choose this route sinceenriching uranium is much more complexand expensive than extracting plutonium.They were soon followed by the French.Nuclear power has also allowed developingcountries to join the club with the aid of for-eign companies. The plutonium for India'snuclear tests came from the Tarapur reactorsbuilt by U.S. and Canadian companies. The

material for Israel's unde-clared nuclear arsenal camefrom the French suppliedreactor at Dimona. Interest-ingly, on June 7,1981, theIsraelis chose to invade Iraqand destroy the French builtOsirak reactor rather thanallow Saddam Husseinaccess to the plutonium itwould provide. Finally, Ichi-ro Ozawa, the leader ofJapan's liberal party, recentlyremoved all doubt as to thisconnection when he warnedChina that, if provoked, they

"have enough plutonium at nuclear powerplants in Japan to make several thousandsuch warheads." Even from this brief intro-duction, I think that it is clear that there isreally no such thing as the "peaceful atom."

Any column like this will always beincomplete, but I think that it is clear thatthe concerns about nuclear power and YuccaMountain are far from alarmist. If as a peo-ple we feel any responsibility to future gen-erations, it is vital that we set our sites on atime scale appropriate to the problem and doeverything within our power to prevent itsgrowth. The only rational solution is to fol-low the lead of other countries and immedi-ately move to phase out nuclear power infavor of conservation, to greatly reduce con-sumerism, and to increase focus on develop-ing renewables. If not, then 30 years fromnow (if we are extremely lucky that is) wewill be having this same discussion, only wewill have an immeasurably larger problem todeal with and even fewer options.

Brice Smith is a graduate student in theDepartment of Physics.

Page 6 THE TECH OPINION May 14,2002

It's Better to Be a CEO

Ashcroft's Mistaken Policy on International StudentsIs SEVIS a Savior?

Much Inore suited to our position is airyeconomic analysis if the consequeru::esif

instituting labor standards and n1inimumtvages. The least uJe can do is ensure thatthat analysis is accurate and respeciful.

vicious, intentional deceptions the company'sleaders laid upon its employees and stock-holders as they made huge personal profitsabove the collapsing infrastructure, wreckingtheir employees lives as they did so. Againand again, we see that at the highest levels ofbusiness, tremendous sums of money aredoled out willy-nilly even for poor perfor-mance, simply because it's easy to do so.

Global free trade is not an easily judgedphenomenon. Certainly its evils are wellknown, and its benefits can be elusive. Histo-ry does not provide us with ready examplesof nations who transformed themselves viaglobal capitalism, i.e. labor exploitation, fromthird world nations to something better thanthat. Those that have done so, including sev-eral nations in southern Asia, had the eco-nomic protection of tariffs for key industriesas well as other inhibitors to unchecked freetrade.

These are now forbidden by the WorldTrade Organization, as are any laws designedto protect the fragile integrity of the environ-ment or the populace that would limit a com-pany's ability to generate profit. National sov-ereignty has been replaced with economicsovereignty. It is ironic that United States, freetrade's chief priest and practitioner, recentlyenacted tariffs on steel imports to clumsilyprotect our own industry. Even as we wallowin wealth, we cannot endure free trade's light-est pains as it miserably tests the mettle ofnations and peoples around the globe.

But it would be deceitful to pretend thatglobalization is some monstrosity that we foistupon a global lower class. The simple realityis that workers choose to work in these facto-ries, implying that they represent a betteropportunity that whatever else life has offeredthem. While this doesn't excuse hellish condi-tions and abuses, the fact that it is their choiceto work there significantly changes the struc-ture of the debate. This was best evidencedonly this spring, when workers from garmentfactories in Bangladesh toured the U.S. tospeak about their working conditions. "y;~tthey pleaded with students not to boycottstores who sold their products, because theyfeared losing their jobs.

It set?ms. impossible to even approa<?9suc~ system~ti'i? wi9~e~p'~e~~p,rRk1MW~,)~sp~;;cially given current demands upon our time.Perhaps we can just be thankful th~t it is nota favorable decision for us to work in sweat-shop conditions or otherwise demeaningenvironments. We're quite fortunate, so let'stry to have at least some thought. for thosewho are faced with such hardships, beyond,"sorry, that's capitalism." It really is' nearlythe least ,we can do. r ,

intentions" under the guise of student status;he attributes so much importance to studentsin the first place. His story has the UnitedStates playing an influential training role tothe rest of the world through individualscholars. Danger exists only to the degree adestabilizing individual may penetrate thattutelary system and damage the UnitedStates itself: Which is where he sees theDepartment of Justice stepping in, to "pro-tect the nation and its citizens from thosewho seek to enter our country under falsepretenses."

This is a very adversarial approach to theworld, not altogether a departure from admin-istrative norm but still incongruous to the dis-cussion of schools. Interaction has been k~y toacademia since the dialectic, and the more theUnited States convinces itself that it somehowcan (and must) protect education as if it werea natural resource, the more it will find itsschools becoming sunset industries.

Protection should not be thrown to theside. Open borders - like most philosophicalideals - are not feasible given the global con-text and the United States' size. Identity theftis too easy given the decentralization and sub-sequent redundancy in 1-20 distribution. Mod-ernization of INS administration should meanmore efficient visa review, which helps both"sides."

Still, immigration has never has a been asbig a problem as Americans have believed,especially for the purposes of education. Typi-cal fears of a subclass of low-cost workerstaking jobs away from Americans does notseem compatible with the academic discipline.Any threat displayed by an international is nogreater than other residents of this country.The potential loss by making them feel unwel-come, however, is another story.

ees.Here in the United States, living wage

campaigns have been growing in popularity,and for good reason.

Whatever the empirical evidence, livingwage laws make good economic sense. Ifemployees are not paid enough to meet thebasic costs of living, it is the government, andhence the taxpayer, who otTers them subsidiesthrough social welfare programs. Living wagelaws shift that cost away from the taxpayer tothe employer. Without charitable interventionby government and private charities, payingpoverty wages becomes an unsustainablepractice.

Living wages have been shown to lowerworker turnover and absenteeism, reduceemployee training costs, raise morale and pro-ductivity, and strengthen the consumer mar-ket. A brief note about productivity and wagesis also illuminating: between 1973 and 1998,worker productivity increased by 46.5 per-

cent. Dur-ing thesame inter-val, hourlywages foraverageworkersfell 6.2 per-cent, andweeklywages fell12 percent,adjusting

for inflation.Too often, the same pundits who hold

tightly to free market dogma concerning thoseworkers paid least readily look past flagrantmarket abuses at the highest levels .. Moreoften than we'd like to admit, the'mechanicsof private enterprise are determined. ~ess bythe market than they are by simple whim.Skyrocketing CEO salaries demonstrate thatboards of trustees of companies performingquite poorly do not hesitate to mete out mas-sive sums of money to themselves and ,theirleaders even as their business falters. In 200 I,the economy struggled. Corporat~ profitsdeclined by an average of35 percent; the:S&f500 dropped 13 percent. Yevmedian C~o. p~ygrew 7 ~ercent above salaries tha.t,hac! alr~~<!xgrown exorbitantly in the 1990s, accord~ng ~qThe New York Times. " .11

Enron was recently found to have aggres-sively manipulated western power gridsagainst the deregulated California po}Ver mat::ket during the depths of the crisis; makingabout $30 billion through what amounts totheft. This travesty seems all the more nauseTating when considered in conjunction with thl?

This is despite the obstacles placed in theway of those applying for student or exchangevisas in the first place. It is not merely a set of"limited conditions" like the "desire to breathefreely, to live peacefully, to respect the rightsand the dignity of their neighbors" that mustbe met. Ashcroft would do well to examine anactual review process.

While lacking the official lottery and quotaaspects of other visas, discretion is left to on-site and understaffed consulate officials, so formany applicants it can be a hit and missprocess (witness the 40 percent rejection ratefor Chinese applicants in 200 I). Disciplineson the State Department's "TechnologyWatch List" receive vastly more stringentattention, but with similar results.

Such students don't necessarily come tothe United States to use their knowledge formalicious purposes, but this is in line withrestrictions on export of certain products.Ashcroft, moreover, believes the opposite ispossible; "Allowing foreign students to studyhere is one of the ways we convey ... 0':lrprinciples to those who will return to leadtheir countries."

Yes, many politicians, jurists, and leadingacademics in other countries are educated inthe United States, but this is only positive tothe extent they are given the right advice,which in turn presumes a supremacy (and uni-versal applicability) of the American experi-ence. Without debating that point, thereremain many individuals who do not come togive back, but simply to gain for themselves.However unfortunate that may be, it meansthat students need not affect glob~ll security, ,or may even benefit the United States morethan their native lands.

No wonder Ashcroft is so worried about"those who disguise themselves and their

Ken Nesmith

Can you imagine working 40-, 50-, or 60-hour weeks at physically stressful, menialtasks and yet not being able to atTord the mostbasic necessities of life - food, shelter, per-haps clothing for your spouse and child, whoalso work to contribute to family income? Ofcourse not. We can't fully understand it unlesswe've experienced it, and as MIT students,most of us haven't.

Much more suited to our position is airyeconomic analysis of the consequences ofinstituting labor standards and minimumwages designed to help the bottom dwellers,as Dan Tortorice provided last Friday. Theleast we can do is ensure that that analysis isaccurate and respectful.

Economic theory suggests that raising theprice of labor means that less labor will bepurchased for two reasons. One is that busi-nesses will substituteother inputs for low-wage labor in order toachieve greater effi-ciency and higherprofits. The other isthat businesses willraise prices inresponse to theirincreased costs, caus-ing consumers to buyless, leading toreduced output andlower profits for the firms and consequentreductions in labor force. As MIT students,although we cannot perfectly empathize withthe poor, we can grasp simple concepts easily,and as such, we can skip any further didacticsabout cost and benefit.

No matter how boundless our confidencein the primitive theory, evidence does not sup-port the position that properly implementedlabor standards ultimately hurt the laborer. Aminimum wage increase in the mid-1990s,predicted by its opponents to devastate indus-tries reliant on low-wage labor and to causemassive unemployment, had no ill effect; infact, historical minimum wage increases arenot at all regarded in economics textbooks asdestructive to busi~ess or employees.

Current efforts to ins~itute labor standardsin apparel factories worldwide have beenincreasingly comprehensive and successful.Several successful companies make deliber-ate, conscious efforts to ensure that theirclothes are produced in responsible workingenvironments, even though it may be immedi-ately cheaper to make use of any factory nomatter how repulsive its treatment of employ-

Philip Burrowes

Attorney General John Ashcroft explainedthe proposed Student and Exchange VisitorInformation System (SEVIS) in a press con-ference last Friday. In development by theINS since the 1990s - it was formerly knownas the Coordinated Interagency PartnershipRegulating International Students (CIPRIS)- it seems like a positive venture. What iswrong with centralizing and modernizing gov-ernmentrecords?

Besides philosophical arguments againstany further government monitoring,Ashcroft's choice of words seem to reflect amisunderstanding of the point. Security con-cerns do not allow the attorney general to con-fuse the role international students play in theUnited States, but should make him addressthe issue with greater clarity and understand-ing.

He is clearly mistaken, for example, in hisbelief that the United States is "unique" in itsrole relative to international students. True,some institutions in this country, such as theInstitute itself, carry reputations that attractapplicants as few others would, but on thewhole this country's high education system isnot a singular phenomenon. Indeed, Franceand Britain receive many immigrants fromtheir former colonies.

Let us not forget that American citizensalso go abroad, as is the case of many soldiersstationed in other countries (if not at the samelevels directly following World War II). Dis-proportionate levels of foreign students inAmerican higher education reflect issues with-in domestic secondary education, not theintellectual wealth of U.S. colleges; our highschools simply produce fewer qualified pupils.

StickingTo OUf

Principles

res, I arn Palestinianand yes I have had friendsLllhohave been Inurdered

by Israeli soldiers. And no,they are not 'terrorists.'

The other day after an e-mail was sent out toseveral lists encouraging people to sign the Har-vardIMIT petition to divest from Israel. Therewere immediate responses from people and Iwrote the following in response to their e-mails(it is somewhat modified because in the originalI made some direct references to their e-mails).

I am deeply otTended by the total disregardthat some seem to have for Palestinian life.Some claim that, "Israel is an important Ameri-can ally in our global war against terror." The"global war against terror," does that includemy friends? Yes, I am Palestinian and yes Ihave had friends who have been murdered byIsraeli soldiers, friends whose houses have beendemolished, friends whose livelihood is threat-ened daily by the occupation. And no, they arenot "terrorists." In fact one of these friends waswith me at a camp for Arab and Israeli youthcalled Seeds of Peace and his name is AselAsleh. Search for him on the web and you willread the horrible story of his death.

Why is it that whenever someone criticizesIsraeli actions, he or she is brandished as beingeither pro-Palestinian or anti-Semitic? Howabout defining them as being pro-justice or pro-human rights? Some are relating this petition tocalls by Hitler to boycott Jewish businesses.Note that the petition only refers to the U.S.government's arms sales to Israel and thosebusinesses that are involved in the selling of

Guest ColumnSaad Z. Shakhshir

arms to Israel. Why the continual hiding behindthe Holocaust? The Arabs did not cause theHolocaust; there is no "historic hatred" betweenArabs and Jews. Jews lived under Islamic rulefor over a thousand years and their societyflourished to levels unheard of in ChristianEurope. Ninety percent of the Jews in the worldat one point were "Sephardim" (a term give tothe Jews in Spain) and this was under Islamicrule. The victims of such a tragedy as the Holo-caust should not use it as a pretext to repressanother people.

The hatred was initiated by illegal immigra-tion to Palestine, the threat to Palestinian landwhich resulted in an unjust partition back in1947, which of course, the Palestinians did notaccept. If I came to your house, told you Godpromised it to me and my family, partitioned it,would you say, yes please do take my house?

But let us not argue about the past. There isan Israel today. This petition does not call forthe destruction of Israel, does not call for thekilling of Israelis, it calls for an end to the occu-pation. A people are being occupied and this ismorally wrong, no matter who the people are.The daily humiliation, the lack of freedom, theextrajudicial killings, the demolition of home -all this is being done officially by the govern-ment of Israel with direct funding from theUnited States. The Apache helicopters that havedestroyed the house of a friend of mine areAmerican. As a country that does supportdemocracy, that does support freedom, thatdoes support morals and human rights, the leastI would expect of this country is to stop fundingsuch inhumane acts.

Should we ask the American government tostop flmding Hamas? To stop the $3 billion inaid it gives to the Islamic Jihad? The Apachehelicopters, the tanks, the spare parts, the intelli-gence - this all goes to Israel and it is beingused to repress a people. The U.S. is blindlybehind Israel. Why did Israel not allow a UNinspection team to go into Jenin? I would like tofind one justifiable reason for that and for thesilence of the United States on the matter.

I cannot believe that calling for an end toinjustice and oppression, calling for an end tothe occupation of the Palestinian people, callingfor an end to illegal settlement building onoccupied land, is being met with opposition in acountry that is founded upon the ideals ofdemocracy and freedom.

Saad Z. Shakhshir is a member of the Classof2004.

Letters TOThe Editor

Adios, But Not GoodbyeOPINIONMay 14,2002

Khoon Tee Tan

The time to leave is near for those of usin the first batch of the CMI exchange pro-gram. How strange it is to return to a placeso steeped in tradition as Cambridge, Eng-land, from a young and all-too-enthusiastictech school of New England! And how muchstranger to return from no less a place thanSenior House to a place where neatly mani-cured lawns are off-bounds to petty ones, aplace where only a select few may tread onthe grass at all times of the year, whereasothers are presumably allowed to float over,in the parlance of Harry Potter. I miss thegood old Cambridge.

So the time has come, for someone whohas had much to write about, to wrap upthose thoughts that have appeared in thesevery pages. Over the past weeks, I havevoiced various opinions on an assortment ofsocial, political and economic issues. Noneof the views offered were targeted to arriveat populist or ideologically based conclu-sions on complex issues. These pieces havebeen written with the intention of encourag-ing thinking and discussion on a variety ofissues which I personally deem importantand on account of this, I hope you agree. Inattempting to write, I have been forced tothink hard, to question my own views andassumptions - internal debates are ahealthy thing, if not carried to the extreme.

One who makes any serious attempt atseparating the real issues from the symbolicones, which usually manifest as selectivehistorical "facts" interpreted exploitively, isless likely to assu.me superiority of morals orwisdom based on a jaundiced view of theworld. Indeed, at the heart of many present-day conflicts lie real, legitimate, present-dayissues, not abstract symbols. Of course, indelving 'deeper into issues, one is likely toform opinions, but I also like to think thatnone of my views were made on the basis ofnarrowly defined identity or ideology. Ourfaiths must lie in reason and rationality,while realizing that these are luxuries notoften afforded by those in infinitely moredire straits. I am 'confident that those whoare nof blin<:ted by hatred, colored by preju-dice and are truly free to think for them-selves, would be able to find common

.. .".

Questionable ComicThe Friday issue of The Tech has hope-

fully reached its lowest point, ever as anewspaper worthy of anyone's time. Thecaricature on page four comparing Israel in2002 to the Nazi regime of 1942 is despica-ble and shows a complete and utter lack ofknowledge in both history and understand-ing. It is something I would expect from oneof the state-run Arab newspapers hoping torouse anti-Israel sentiment for whom jour-nalistic integrity is an oxymoron.

, The National Socialist regime carried outa planned and methodical annihilation ofgroups of individuals based solely on theirreligion. It was a government built on hateand complete disregard for the value ofhuman life or the sovereignty of othernations. Over 6 million Jews and millions ofother ethnic 'minorities were murdered. Atno point in time did these individuals pose athreat to the German civilian life. They wereharmless civilians themselves and loyal Ger-mans. Members of the European Jewry werenot committing suicide bombings in down-town Berlin. They were not harboring resis-tance fighters.

If you are seeking to imply that Israel isbeating down a harmless, innocent popula-tion, you are sadly mistaken. While it is truethat Israel is the superpower in the region, itis not always the case that Israel brings allits power to bear, as was the case in Jenin.As much destruction as there was in therefugee camp, which is different than theactual city, Israel could just as easily haveemployed superior firepower in the assaultand leveled the entire city without endanger-ing a single soldier's life. Yet, the countrywhose actions you compare to Nazi Ger-many's sent in its infantry to minimize casu-alties to innocent Palestinians. Yes, inno-cents were killed. No war, and believe methis is war, comes without the loss of life toinnocents. However, the Government ofIsrael could no longer rely on its past partnerfor peace, a supposed reformed terrorist whohas since returned to his roots, to guaranteethe security of Israel's citizens.

In your haste to criticize Israel, I recom-mend you don't overlook the treatment

ground on broad principles of justice andfairness, without perfectly agreeing on howto set about achieving such ideals.

The events of Sept. 11 horrified allAmericans and shocked the world. Theimages of the WTC towers collapsing andthe Pentagon in flames that morning areindelibly etched in my mind. That no onedeserves to be met with such barbarism goeswithout saying, and those who carried outsuch acts must not, and have not, beenallowed to get away with them. While theanger is understandable, I have also beenimpressed with the swift and most rationalresponse of the MIT administration instrengthening the sense of community oncampus, rather than allowing events to swaythe mood to the extremes. It was for thoseunthinkable scenarios, rather than those wecan imagine, that such action was essential.

Enough said. How about my time here atMIT in general? To say the least, I have hada good time. I feel that I have learned muchfrom my teachers, and from my peers. Ienjoyed my lectures and labs at MIT. Ofcourse, we all know how randomness affectseverything, so we are forever subject to theups and downs of life; but the mean, if youwill, has been that of overall enjoyment.Having experienced both the Cambridge andMIT systems, one cannot help but make crit-ical comparisons.

Some see the relative freedom given toMIT lecturers to shape their own courses asa1boon, and to others, a bane. Teachingstyles do vary across the board, in any uni-versity. Some see standardization, via acommittee that decides on the syllabus, as away of maintaining a certain standard ofteaching without being overly taxing on stu-dents. This is a good way, it works, but theessential element is collective feedback fromboth teachers and students, so there is noreason why a course should suffer simplybecause a committee of people are not meet-ing to decide on what is to be taught.. While-important, it is unfortunate that feedback atMIT should' be done once off at the end ofthe semester, via an anonymous form to pro-tect the identity of those students who com-plain the most. Maybe anonymity is impor-tant, 'but filling in forms at the end of acourse is, Ifind, less effective than engagingin direct conversation with people.

handed out towards Palestinian collaboratorsby their countrymen: blindfolded, hog-tied,shot in the head, dragged through town, andthen hung up in the public squares withoutanything resembling a trial. Actually, manyof these individuals are pulled out of theirjail cells, whose guards typically step out-side to "smoke a cigarette."

. As firm believer in democracy I findyour tying the Israeli government to anytyrannical regime as ignorant and,deplorable. As a Jew, I find your likening ofIsrael with Nazi actions inexcusably insult-ing. Of course, you are free to write youropinion here. You would be free to do so inIsrael as well. Such is the luxury a democra-tic country affords its citizens. Do you thinkyou would have enjoyed the same freedomin Nazi Germany or in any country outsideof Israel in the Middle East? Use your'tuition money and buy a clue.

Andrew Cowen '03Joshua Gold '03

When you chose to reprint DavidCatrow's cartoon in The Tech, I imagine thatyou expected to be criticized, and that youput a lot of thought into satisfying your-selves that you were justified in printing it. Iimagine that you decided that it was okay toprint a cartoon that equivocates the ThirdReich with Israel because you provided"balance" by also printing a cartoon thatcompares restrictions on Arafat's freedom ofmovement with those that his terror cam-paign imposes' on Israeli civilians.' "Sure,they're both controversial," you probablythought, "but they're controversial in oppo-site directions, so we can't be accused ofbias."

I am not writing to accuse you of bias. Iam writing to condemn your impropriety.The morality of Israel's choice of responseto Arafat' s terror campaign is controversialto many. The morality of Arafat's decisionto target and kill Jewish and Arab civiliansas part of his Intifada is controversial tosome who are caught up in the moral equiv-alence game. The morality of Hitler's driveto remove Jews and other "sub-humans"

Is there a third way? Cambridge Univer-sity has a system in which online feedbackforms can be filled on the go, that is, as thecourse runs. Such comments are relayed tothe lecturer anonymously. Still no conversa-tion takes place, but it is probably betterthan only having feedback at the end, whenspecific details are often left out, completelyforgotten and hence, nothing can be learntfrom them. To be fair, in one of my MITcourses, this is already being practised in theleast complicated of ways: using scraps ofpaper to fill in at the end of each 2.06/13.80class.

As for having graded problem sets, I amunpersuaded that having my learning curvegraded is essential for me to learn newthings. But then many people tell me that

.without such "incentives" to work, mostpeople just won't work. Is that true? Per-haps. We don't have graded problem sets inCambridge, and maybe that is why Cam-bridge students strike me as somewhat morecasual towards work, but then again, manyare simply loath to admit to doing work,curiously seen as some social deficiency.

The most successful academic system isone that fosters intellectual curiosity andencourages thinking and experimentation,while providing the basic analytical tools tounderstand the world around us. The abilityto learn new things on our own, to draw thecorrect conclusions from our observations,and to adapt to new and challenging circum-stances, are essential elements of humanprogress. The forte of Cambridge scholar-ship lies in its rigorous theoretical ground-ing. The strength of an MIT education lies inits broad educational philosophy, involvingsubjects outside one's major, as well as itsemphasis on experimentation.

It is my great fortune to have had theopportunity to experience the best of bothworlds. To think that as a secondary schoolstudent in Malaysia, MIT was my dreamuniversity! How intricate the ways of theworld must be that I should come here,eventually, from one Cambridge to another.

Well, to those of you who are visitingCambridge University next year from MIT,we look forward to seeing yoti. And as forthe rest, I bid you farewell, but this is justadios and not goodbye. 'For our paths' maywell cross again some day.

from the planet is controversial only in themost hate-filled and/or ignor'ant forums.Does The Tech want to be such a forum?

Many people, driven by a love of clever. irony and moral equivocation, try to com-pare the mission of the Israel DefenseForces with that of the Nazis, but those whorepeat this vulgar comparison do not addlegitimacy to it. Instead, their resort toreductio ad Hitlerulp contributes to the gen-eral effort to drag discourse into the amoralgutter. The Tech should apologize to all ofits readers for stooping beneath its usualhigh standards of judgment.

Isaac Moses '02

A PalestinianViewpoint

Professor Dershowitz, and the many con-tributors to the Friday, May 11 Tech, seemto believe that legitimate criticism oflsrael'spolicies can be addressed by ad hominemattacks on critics, throwing around chargesof anti-Semitism, or blaming these policieson Arabs. But they do not address the mainissue: how can the Uriited States' govern-ment (or the MIT or Harvard corporations)justify support for Israel, if Israel is a majorviolator of human rights and internationaltreaties and resolutions?

The MIT Social Justice Cooperative isorganizing an event this Tuesday, May 14,at 6:30 p.m. in Room 2-105. We will behosting Lara Sukhtian, a Palestinian-Ameri-can journalist, recently returned from aninterfaith pacifist delegation to Palestine.She has witnessed the latest violence firsthand (including in the Jenin refugee camp),and will show pictures and answer questionsabout her experience. At the same event, wewill hear from Arner Jubran, a local Pales-tinian activist.

Please come, whether you are pro-Israeli,pro-Palestinian, or just concerned abouthuman rights, the first step in building peaceis finding truth, and building understanding.

Julia Steinberger G

THE TECH Page 7

X-FilesWhat VJf Learned

From the UnknownRoy Esaki

On Sept. 10, 1993, a legend was born. Asurfer-dude editor of Surfing magazine, a for-mer Mohawk-touting nose ring-wearing punkgirl, and a preppy would-be English PhD, toldthe story of the man, the myth, the monotone.

For nine years we joined the search forTruth, trust, extraterrestrial conspiracies, andsupernatural phenomenon - and next week,we will find what we were looking for. And itwill be sad.

There are people who understand The X-Files and those who do not. Like the true beautyof a Zen rock garden, appreciation cannot beadequately communicated to the uninitiated. X-Files was not about random poltergeists andmonsters, or about little grey men or shady G-men. It was about probing the unknown, fight-ing the good fight, and expanding the realm ofreality. It dealt with the epistemology of scienceversus faith, the psychology of obsession, and,of course, the history and fate of mankind.

What was the message of the show? Anyneophyte could dutifully reply ''Trust no one,""the Truth is out there," and "I want to believe."But upon a moment's reflection, it seems onlytoo obvious that the first mantra is completelyantithetical to the message of the other two: oneexpresses profound pessimism, the other unbri-dled optimism. Do we define our parameters, sowe trust not in people, but in the unexplainedand supernatural? We could, but that is not ter-ribly profound.

No, the theme of X-Files was actually bothpessimistic and optimistic. Fox Mulder perfect-ly embodied "cynical idealism" - the properway to conduct oneself in an imperfect world. Acynical idealist has ideals; he has passions andvalues and knows how the world should be. Butthe world is thoroughly unideal. Anyone whothinks otherwise either benefits from the unide-ality or is ignorant or apathetic.

Faced with a world that disappoints, thwarts,and is seemingly incorrigible, the pensive ideal-ist has no choice but to become cynical. Farfrom being a negative trait, cynicism is a pas-sionate form of the healthy skepticism that dri-ves science and the pursuit of Truth. It makesone unhappy at times, but it for the cynical ide-alist, the cause demands such sacrifices. Trustno one because you need to find and believe theTruth.

There is, however, a crucial exception to thecynicism, found between Mulder and Scully,and between Doggett and Rayes. They two,birds in a cage, were all they had in the pellmellof the world. But it was enough, and that evenin such an overwhelming world, two peoplecould have such vital, inexorable trust, is abeautiful and wonderful thing. Watching thepair, we can only wistfully dream that someonewe too will have someone to believe in, toentrust our lives to, to be more sure about thananything else in the world.

There are unseen forces at work, be themman-made or supernatural, and X-Files demon-strates to us the way to fight back against them.There is passion - Mulder's search for his sis-ter, Dogget's search for his son's killer, Scul-ly's love for her son and Mulder. There is loy-alty-the fraternity of the Lone Gunmen and theloyalty between partners. (This is a virtue per-haps not well understood; malcontents think itfashionable to lament the decline of the showduring recent years, or who have abandonedthe show completely after Duchovny's disap-pearance.)

And of course, there is openness - tochange and new possibilities, not only withrespect to Mulder's radical theories, but also tothe acceptance of Doggett who for he is, ratherthan as a character to replace Mulder. Last sea-son featured Agent Harrison, whose incessantreferences to what "Mulder and Scully" used todo mirrored the lamentations of fans. ButDoggett and Rayes proved themselves to beadmirable characters to those who remainedopen-minded, as a true skeptic doesn't allowanything to hinder the contemplation of alterna-tives.

So we thus learned, and contemplated, andpondered, and discussed, and laughed, andcried. From Mulder's developing trust for Scul-ly, through Deep Throat and CBG Spender,through Black Oil, through Scully's cancer,through Mulder and Scully's first kiss, throughcornfields and bees, through William's birth,through Mulder's disappearance, throughDoggett and Rayes, through the death of theLone Gunmen, to next week's return of Mulderand the end of it all, we have been takenthrough a fictitious, but completely real, jour-ney. And now, the good fight is ending. Doesn'tthat make you sad? It makes me sad.

TheTech

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Tired of reading dumb MIT jokes?

Page 10 The Tech May14,2002

ACROSS1 Cloth line5 Choose by vote

10 Gone14 Complexion woe15 MTV newsman16 Grave17 Overly fussy

person19 "Havana" star20 Not so tough21 Long period of

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abbreviation25 Base of a letter27 Scarlett's place28 Turkish VIPs29 L'chaim, e.g.

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31 _ Hawkins Day33 Candied34 End of a steal37 Salon dos40 Moore of

"Ghost"42 Broadcast again45 Take lunch47 Bias50 Engraves52 Star of "My

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Nachtmusik"61 Guadalajara God62 Coup d'_63 "Auld Lang _"65 New Jersey fort67 Mexico city aunt

Events CalendarEvents Calendar appears in each issue of The Tech and features events for members of the Mil community. TheTech makes no guarantees as to the accuracy of this information, and The Tech shall not be held liable for any loss-es, including, but not limited to, damages resulting from attendance of an event.Contact information for all events is available from the Events Calendar web page.

Visit and add events to Events Calendar online at htfp:/ /events.mit.edu

Tuesday, May :14

12:00 p.m. - 1.:00 p.m. - Dreamweaver Quick Start. Dreamweaver 4 is a powerful tool for creatingand managing complex web sites. This session introduces users to the Dreamweaver interface andgives a brief overview of web publishing practices at MIT. Room: N42 Demo. Sponsor: InformationSystems.:12:00 p.m. - 1.:30 p.m. - Infant-Toddler Child Care Briefing. An introductory discussion for expec-tant parents and those new to parenting or child care, covering types of care, costs, finding andevaluating care, and parental leave. Pre-registration is required. Free. Room: Family Resource Cen-ter (16-151). Sponsor: Family Resource Center.:12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - The Alexandrian Optical Traditions in Arabic and the IOTA Project. Dibn-er Institute Lunchtime Colloquium. Free. Room: E56-100. Sponsor: Dibner Institute.:12:45 p.m. - :1:45 p.m. - PAW. Speak to a Palestinian LIVE teleconferencing. Free. Room: Lobby10. Sponsor: Arab Student Organization, PAKSMIT, Muslim students' Association. BSA.2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - Mellon-MIT Program on NGOs and Forced Migration. "Vanishing Security:Changing Cultural Practices among War-Displaced Southern Sudanese Women in Khartoum" and"Gender Based Violence Research Initiatives from the Reid-Lessons Learned." Free. Room: CISConference Room - E38-615. Sponsor: Center for International Studies, Women's Studies Program.2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - Neuropsychiatry of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Overview of PTSD:Role of Conditioning and Extinction, Neural Systems Involved in Fear Conditioning and Anxiety, andNeuropsychopharmacological Studies of Conditioning and Memory in PTSD. Free. Room: WiesnerBuilding, Bartos Theatre. Sponsor: Clinical Research Center.2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - "Vanishing Security: Changing Cultural Practices among War-DisplacedSouthern Sudanese Women in Khartoum" and "Gender Based Violence Research Initiatives fromthe Field-Lessons Learned." Mellon-MIT Program on NGOs and Forced Migration. Free. Room: E38-615, CIS Conference Room. Sponsor: Center for International Studies, Women's Studies Program.3:00 p.m. - 4:1.5 p.m. - Potential and Umits of Chemistry-based Modeling of Polymeric Solids.Chemical Engineering Departments 2002 Spring Seminar Series. Free. Room: 66-110. Sponsor:Chemical Engineering.4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - MTL VLSI Seminar Series. Driving CMOS Technology toward 10nm Transis-tor Gate Length. Free. Room: 34-101. Sponsor: MTL VLSI Seminar.4:1.5 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. - GTL Seminar. A Functionally Silent Aircraft: The Quiet Lift Problem. Free.Room: 31-161. Sponsor: Gas Turbine Laboratory.4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. - "Recent Developments in International Labor Migration in Indonesia."Inter-University Seminar on International Migration. (previously scheduled for May 7). Free. Room:E38-615. Sponsor: Center for International Studies.6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. - Toastmasters@MIT Evening Meetings. Room 5-134. Free. Sponsor: Toast-masters.7:00 p.m. - PAW. GAlA STRIP A documentary. Meet Producer James Longley. Free. Room: 6-120.Sponsor: Arab Student Organization, Paksmit, Muslim students' Association. BSA.

Wednesday, May:15

:12:00 p.m. - 1.:00 p.m. - E-mail atMITQuickStart.This quick start introduces attendees to theMIT e-mail infrastructure and authentication requirements for using e-mail at MIT. An overview onusing supported e-mail applications such as Eudora 5, Netscape Messenger and MIT Webmail ispresented. E-mail usage scenarios will be also presented, e.g., accessing your MIT e-mail via a com-merciallnternet service provider, along with recommended solutions. Room: N42 Demo. Sponsor:Information Systems.:12:00 p.m. -1.:30 p.m. - Solar Power: Global Market and Industry Trends. Free. Room: E40496.Sponsor: Laboratory for Energy and the Environment.:12:45 p.m. -1.:45 p.m. - PAW. Speak to a Palestinian LIVE teleconferencing. Free. Room: Lobby10. Sponsor: Arab Student Organization, PAKSMIT, Muslim students' Association. BSA.2:00 p.m. -Imaging Vertebrate Development: From Cell Migration to Tissue Sculpting In UvingChick and Mouse Embryos. Free. Room: 34-401B. Sponsor: EECS, HST.3:30 p.m. - MIT Faculty Meeting. Free. Room: 10-250. Sponsor: Faculty Chair.3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - "Public Service In a Uberalizing World." Raymond-Francois Le Bris is theformer director of France's Ecole Nationale d'Administration, the institution that trains France's polit-ical and policy elite. A professor of law and economics and a former president of the University ofBretagne Occidentale, he has headed the Paris Chamber of Commerce and held several high-leveladministrative positions in France's Ministry of Education. free - refreshments and cookies will beserved. Room: E38-615 (CIS Conference room). Sponsor: MIT France Program.6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Concept Coaching Clinic. Before you begin fund-raising, you need to checkwhether your concept is sound. Modeled on the Start-up Clinics, but designed for companies whoare just developing their concept or idea. Two to three pre-selected companies will present theirplans and ideas and engage in a dialog with a panel and the audience. This clinic will focus onwhether the idea is sound, and how to begin pulling your business together. These events are limit-ed to 35 pre-registered individuals. Forum Members $35. Non-members $45. $10 Students. Room:Bldg. E51-149 (Tang Center). Sponsor: MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, Inc.7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Take Back the Night. Take Back the Night Rally is designed to bring aware-ness and empowerment to individuals and to inspire action that will bring end to sexual violence.The evening will include individuals sharing how sexual violence affects their lives and the communi-ty as a whole. Free. Room: Student Center Steps. Sponsor: Stop Our Silence.7:00 p.m. - God of Gamblers. An off-beat comedy featuring Chow Yun-fat as a master gambler whois reduced to a child-like state after receiving a bump on the head, but who never loses his skill atcards. (Director Jing Wong, Hong Kong). Free. Room: 26-100. Sponsor: LSC, Comparative Media

Studies.7:00 p.m. - PAW. Frontiers of Fears and Dreams. A documentary produced by Mai Masri. Free.Room: 4-231. Sponsor: Arab Student Organization, PAKSMIT, Muslim students' Association. BSA.7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Electronic Music Perfonnance. Students in Prof Evan Ziporyn's 21M.361(composing with computers) present their projects from the past semester in a carpeted room full ofpillows. Projects were inspired from various genres: musique concrete, ambient, rhythmic exotica.Refreshments. Free. Room: World Music Room (N52-199). Sponsor: Music and Theater Arts Sec-tion.8:00 p.m. - :10:00 p.m. - IFILM Film Seminar. Screening of an international movie accompanied bya discussion about it. Free. Room: 4-237. Sponsor: Graduate Student Council, International RimClub.

Thursday, May :16

9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. - CIS 50th Anniversary Symposium. The Center for International Studies cel-ebrates its 50th anniversary with a symposium on international affairs. Panel topics are: Researchand the National Interest, War and Peace in the 21st Century, Human Rights and Justice, and Glob-al Education. Speakers include corporate, government, and academic leaders from the US andabroad. Free. Room: Wong Auditorium, Tang Center. Sponsor: Center for International Studies.12:00 p.m. - :1:00 p.m. - Windows 2000 Quick Start. This session demonstrates the new featuresand functionalities of Windows 2000 for the desktop user. In this session, we will: tour the StartMenu enhancements summarize the differences between the new My Network Places and the previ-ous Network Neighborhood meet the Active Desktop, Power Management, and Windows Update fe&tures see how many Control Panel functions have been consolidate9 see where NT profiles andAdministrative Tools now reside leam how to set up a printer. We will also explain why Active Direc-tories are not currently allowed at MIT. (System administration not covered.) Room: N42 Demo.Sponsor: Information Systems.1.:00 p.m. - '3:00 p.m. - Conversational English Class. Join us for a free conversational Englishclass for intemational students and spouses at MIT. Most attendees are women able to speakfreely who desire to increase their English Skills. Class covers a variety of topics including Americanculture and holiday descriptions. Free. Room: Wll Board Room. Sponsor: Baptist Campus Ministry.:1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Weight Watchers at Work meetings at MIT. New and retuming membersare always welcome at this weekly meeting on weight control. Friendly, relaxed lunch hour meetings.More info: tpriest@mit.edu. Room: Building 8-219. Sponsor: Information Center.4:00 p.m .• 5:00 p.m. - financial Technology Option (FTO) Infonnation Session. Information onapplying to the FTO - a Certificate Program for currently enrolled MIT graduate students. Free.Room: Bush Room, rm. 10-105. Sponsor: Rnancial Technology Option.4::15 p.m. - Physics Colloquium. "Challenging Physics Problems in Biology: Noise, Self-Qrganiz&tion, and Pattem Formation." Free. Room: 10-250. Sponsor: Physics Department.4::15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. - Seminar: Lead-Burn Characteristics of a Gasoline Engine Enhanced WithHydrogen From a Plasmatron Fuel Reformer. Spring 2002 Sloan Automotive Lab/Energy SystemsSeminar Series. Free. Room: 31-161. Sponsor: Sloan Automotive Laboratory.4::15 p.m. - Building China-US Partnerships for Biomedical Research: Highlights of Possible Sit»US Biomedical Research Cooperation. Free. Room: E25-111. Sponsor: HST.5:00 p.m. - Deadline for Arts Cross-Registratlon Program. Program with Massachusetts College ofArt or The School of the Museum of Fine Arts for undergraduates, which supplements MIT visualarts course offerings. Enroll in selected courses,at either of these nationally recognized institutionsfor MIT credit. All courses are pass/fail. Course listings available at the Student Services Center,11-120, or Department of Architecture headquarters, 7-337 or Visual Arts Program, N51-315 inselected courses at either of these nationally recognized institutions for MIT credit. All courses arepass/fail. Course listings available at the Student Services Center, 11-120, or Department of Archi-tecture headquarters, 7-337 or Visual Arts Program, N51-315. Free. Sponsor: Visual Arts Program.6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. - Roses From thistle Bushes: Expectations, Class, and Uteracy. An inspir-ing talk by Dr. Patricia Silver, Professor in the Social Justice Program at UMass Amherst, who will bespeaking about her experiences with developing literacy in communities marginalized by academia.Free. Room: 68-180. Sponsor: Graduate Women in Science.7:00 p.m. - MIT Western Hemisphere Project: Open Meeting. We hold informal meetings though-out the year to discuss events in the news and to work on Project activities. If you want to just chatabout these things, or if you want to join in and help organize, we'd love for you to attend. On May16 we are holding our last meeting of the Spring semester. Agenda: (1) review of activities(lAP/Spring); and (2) planning for Summer and Fall. Free. Room: MIT 1-150. Sponsor: MIT WestemHemisphere Project.7:00 p.m. - :10:00 p.m. - Go Club Meeting. Come play Go with the MIT Go Club! We welcome new,beginning and experienced players. Free. Room: 1-134. Sponsor: MIT Go Club.8:00 p.m. - The Dining Room. MIT Community Players production of play by MIT Professor EmeritusA.R. Gumey. Directed by Megan Bell. $10, $8 other students, MIT faculty/staff/senior citizens, $6MIT/Wellesley students. Room: Kresge little Theater. Sponsor: MIT Community Players.8:00 p.m. - RoadkiIJ Buffet: "Episode III: The Big Goodbye." Improv comedy. Millions have followedthe saga of three young improvisors at MIT. Darth Vader wants YOU to come see their final chapter.Free. Room: Rm 35-225. Sponsor: Roadkill Buffet.8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. - IRLM Rim Seminar. Screening of an intemational movie accompanied bya discussion about it. Free. Room: 4-237. Sponsor: International Rim Club.9:00 p.m. - BenefIt Concert for Argentina. Music by Piazzolla performed by members of the MITSymphony and Chamber Orchestras (Dante Anzolini, conductor) with Raul Jaurena, bandoneon andMarga Mitchell, vocalist. Tax deductible admission; all proceed? for Hospital Piero and Hospital deNios. $20, $5 students. Room: Kresge Auditorium. Sponsor: Music and Theater Arts Section.

May 14,2002 [C{IIJ[IIl({He(5) * (fJ LUHflJ [!HAHG) EHSJ The Tech Page 11

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Page 12 THE TECH May 14,2002

THE ARTSCONCERT REVIEW

MITSO Spring ConcertBrilliant Musical Fireflies

agitated, louder scherzo and in the more lyricaltrio. The mocking atmosphere of the thirdmovement came out descriptive and lively, Thecarefully intonated Frere Jacques on solo dou-ble bass (Erin K. Mathewson .'05) set the rightbalance between comedy and tragedy at thebeginning of the movement. The orchestralbuild-up that followed was descriptive andexpressive, Finally, the dramatic explosion ofthe finale sounded indeed mo/to appassionato,A fiery string section delivered a coherent, rapidaccompaniment above which the. brass section,with a full, well-intonated sound, played thethematic material. In particular, the~strenuous,climactic ending of the symphony showed agood cohesion of the orchestra, which produceda strong, yet beautifully rounded sonority.,

Overall, MITSO' s concert from, last Satur-day was a delightful experience, showing, theorchestra? s potential ,in_qealing! with :bOth ~e"rymodem writings, as.well as the classics, underthe careful yet demanding leadership of thedeparting conductor Anzolini __,"~!'T(,'" .-' .

reserved role, yet took advantage of the shorttutti episode to deliver a well-articulated, fullsonority. The piece was a fulfilling experience,not only for the performers, but the audience ~well. Thompson's vibrant performance, assist-ed by a well-conducted orchestra, made thisvery modem piece extremely enjoyable.

Mahler's symphonic works need littleintroduction, given their inipact on the sym-phonic genre. His symphonies are milestonesthat require a great deal of maturity from theorchestras performing them. MITSO showedits maturity and high caliber, delivering avibrant performance of Mahler's SymphonyNo.1 in D major. Although the introductionseemed hesitant, in the low registers, it gainedmomentum and acquired a perfect balancemaintained throughout the allegro.

The intonation of the main theme was, verybeautiful and expressive: The second movementfeatured richer orchestiationS~ .but, ney~r sotIDd~ed too harsh. The folk-dance character,of th~movement was conveyed in ~oth, in the mor.e

DAN BERSAK-THE TECH

Professor of Music and Theater Arts Marcus Thompson accepts flowers after soloingin the Penderecki Viola Concerto with MITSO Saturday.

delighting the enthusiastic audience gatheredin Kresge auditorium.

Afterlight is one of the latest pieces of Car-los Sanchez-Gutierrez, a modern composeroriginating from Mexico. The piece featuresvery abstract yet descriptive music, inspired bya vivid narrative (by Carlos Henriquez) of ascene in which thousands of fireflies "dance"around the site of a tragic historical event. Inthe narrative, the fireflies are likened to thesouls of the dead. Afterlight is the musical pic-ture of that particular scene, suggesting therandomness of the flight of the fireflies withunpredictable rhythmic changes, suddenaccents and dynamic contrasts.

MITSO's performance was extremelyexpressive, evoking the dance of the firefliesthrough nicely shaped phrases and well-bal-anced tuttis. Remarkable were the virtuosicpassages played by the first violin (RomyShioda G), xylophone (Manu Sridharan G),and piano (Yukiko Ueno '98) that intensifiedthe sensation of an agitated, yet organizedswarm of insects. I truly enjoyed MITSO'srendition of this non-conformist piece. Thecomposer, present in the audience, was alsoenchanted, and thanked director Dante Anzoli-ni and MITSO while the audience franticallyapplauded all of them.

Krzysztof Penderecki's Concerto for Violaand Orchestra, written in 1983, is a piece thatmisleads through its title. It features a violasoloist, who plays against the full orchestra, butthat's about all it has in common with the clas-sical concerto. The piece unfolds as one longcircular movement that offers little variation inthe mood it creates. The very dry and chromat-ic treatment of the musical material makesexpressivity an even bigger challenge for theperformers. Yet, soloist Thompson delivered aremarkable, heart-felt viola solo. A carefulintonation highlighted the viola's beautiful tim-bre, which was rather hoarse and meditative inthe low registers, yet outspoken and vibrant inthe higher ones. Thompson's brilliant tech-nique made the piece flow naturally in its densemiddle section. The orchestra played a more

By Bogdan FedelesSTIFF If'RI7LR

MIT Symphony OrchestraKresge AuditoriumMay II, 2002

DAN BERSAK-TI/E TECI/

Meredith Glinka '04 checks her musicbefore Saturday's MITSO concert.

Last Saturday, MITSO, directed byDante Anzolini in his farewell perfor-mance, gave its second spring concert.The program included two fairly

recent pieces, Sanchez-Gutierrez's Ajierlightand Penderecki's Concerto for Viola andOrchestra (featuring violist Marcus Thomp-son, professor of music at MIT), and thewell-established Mahler's Symphony No.1.The brilliant and lively performance ofM ITSO created a remarkable evening,

-RICHARD FEWMAN

(left to right) Vitali Rozynko, Branch Fields, David Kravitz, Frank Hernandez, and Stephen Mark Brown star InBoston Lyric Opera's La boheme at the Shubert Theater May 14 and 17.

THEATER REVIEW

BohemianRhapsodyBostnnlyric Opera's 'Laboheme'By Bence Olveczky,\TII''''' If'RITlcR

Bohemian RhapsodyBoston Lyric OperaShllbert TheatreMay 14 & 17, 7:30 p.m.Tickets $31-$151. Student rush tickets (50 percent dis-cOllnt) available two hours prior to peljormance.

InLa Vie de Boheme, the Finnish cult film from 1993,one of the protagonists wryly announces that "Opera isdead." Being a character in a film based on a Pucciniopera, he should know. This ancient art form, goes the

argument, caters to pompous, rich people, who in theirimpotent affluence indulge in theatrical fantasies about true,unattainable love. Opera is hardly a relevant forum formodern-day bohemians, whether in Paris or Cambridge.When, you might ask, was the last time somebody wrote anopera about a bunch of poor, but free-spirited guys who liveit up in an apartment they can't afford, while waiting for asexy lady to knock on their door? Well, it was in the late19th century, and the opera, of course, was "La boheme."

Now Boston Lyric Opera revives this popular piece yetagain, and treats it with respect, risking nothing, alienatingnobody. The conventional staging mines Puccini's opus forall its charm (there's plenty), and the result is an entertain-ing. if not exhilarating, evening of feel-good, sappy opera.

The cast is even and solid throughout, and what it lacksin star power it makes up for in enthusiasm. The four bonvivant bohemians, huddling in their cold, damp Parisianapartment, bring to life a feeling of camaraderie and friend-ship that's easy to empathize and sympathize with. Best ofthe lot is Frank Hernandez, whose memorable rendition ofMarcello, the carefree painter, is helped by a sturdy andcommanding bass. His jovial but sometimes brash mannersmake for good comedy, as does Angela Turner Wilson'sslutty rendition of his love interest, Musette. Wilson's high-pitched soprano is a good match for the role, effectivelyconveying Musette's frivolous character.

Somewhat less convincing is Nicole Folland as Mimi,

the "sexy lady," who just happens to knock on the bache-lors' door asking for a light to light her candle (literally andmetaphorically). While Folland's voice carries the role well,her acting is a little lacking. Mimi and the poet Rodolfo(tenor Stephen Mark Brown) are supposed to hit it off onthe spot, but that instant attraction is a hard sell given thelack of any true affectionate rapport between the two. Still,the finale, with Mimi slowly dying in Bohemian company,is as moving as ever.

Elkhanah Pulitzer's (her family founded the famousprize) staging is basic and simple, and she cleverly lets theproduction roll without too many theatrical effects miningits way. This hands-off approach nicely aids the music and

the story, and it works well in the large part because ofErhard Rom's spare, but fitting stage design. Many produc-tions of "La boheme" have lavish and colorful sets, contraryto the spirit of an opera about poor and hungry artists,Rom's stage set uses simple architectural elements (a brickwall, glowing windows, a bed etc,) and subtle lighting.effects to create a spartan, but convivial atmosphere thatsuits the opera well.

To conclude its 25th anniversary season, the BostonLyric Opera has created a barebones but beautiful produc-tion of "La boheme" that succeeds in translating the time-less appeal of Puccini's masterpiece, while at the same timeshowing us that opera is anything but dead.

May 14,2002 THE ARTS THE TECH Page 13

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SpidermanWritten by Stan Lee and Steve DitkoDirected by Sam RaimiStarring Tobey Maguire. Kirsten Dunst, WillemDafoe. James Franco, Cliff RoberstonRated PG-13

By Daniel Dock

FILM REVIEW** 1/2

Peter Parker, played by an effeminateTobey Maguire, is the social outcast ofhis high school. The establishing shotof the film consists of Parker chasing

the school bus that refuses to stop for him -much to the delight of everyone in the bus,including the driver. The film progresses quiterapidly as the character Mary Jane (KirstenDunst), or MJ as she is called in the film, isintroduced as Parker's life-long love, eventhough Parker has never really talked to her.

Parker is bitten by a spider geneticallyaltered with "Transfer RNA" and decides tosleep off the insidious bite, refusing to eatthe meal his Aunt May (Rosemary Harris)had prepared and causing his Uncle Ben(Cliff Robertson) worry. Coincidentally, thatsame night, Norman Osborne (WillemDefoe), the father of Parker's only friend,exposes himself to his own experimental gasthat gives him superhuman abilities and dri-ves him insane.

Parker awakes the next day with bulgingmuscles, perfect vision, and sticky hands.Not worried by his metamorphosis, he trotsoff to school, where uses his newly acquiredabilities to thwart the school bully, who hap-pens to be MJ's boyfriend. Parker realizesthe rest of his abilities - wali climbing, webslinging, and spider sense - to great delight., .. A tragedy brings about Uncle Ben's deathand Parker, feeling responsible, begins hiscrusade against crime as Spiderman. Aboutthe same time, Norman Osborne, now knownas the Green Goblin, begins ,his reign of ter-ror. The struggle between Spiderman and theGreen ...Goblin.is a.-stalemate until ThaDksgiv-ing dinner, where Norman Osborne noticessomething that puts Parker - and everyonehe loves - in danger.

The film succeeds in portraying thedevelopment of Spiderman's abilities, butunrealistic CG sequences cause the viewer tolose interest. Despite the film's best efforts itnever seems that Spiderman is contendingwith the force of gravity - exaggerated in ascene in which Spiderman must choosebetween saving a trolley car full of childrenor MJ. The live-action scenes with the GreenGoblin are reminiscent of old Ultramanepisodes and almost laughable. Even afterP~rker's transformation into Spiderman, helacks enough masculinity to be considered ahero, illustrating a sort of impotence sharedby many protagonists of late films noir -something that should not be true of anysuperhero.

Despite the film's best efforts to paint MJin a good light, she comes off as nothing butshallow, which may be a by-product ofDunst's own sense of self-satisfactionthroughout the film. This film promises to beas memorable as the first Superman movieand perhaps one day will be played on TNTduring Patriot's Day weekend.

Quite frankly the director, Sam Raimi,did his job well as a craftsman of this film.Despite an opening reminiscent of Tim Bur-ton's opening to Batman, the film proves toless memorable than Batman because therewas adequate acting and little substance.

Perhaps the film's worst additions werethe obligatory displays of patriotism. Thefilm ends with Spiderman on a flagpole highatop a New York skyscraper. In anotherscene the people of New York stand by Spi-derman and exclaim, "If you mess with oneof us, you mess with all of us." Perhaps for-mer Mayor Guiliani will be nominated for anAcademy Award.

SpidermanA Sticky ShowOfPatriotism

Joyce C. Un '01 sings the leadduring the Cross Productsspring concert Saturday. TheCross Products performed In10-250 with Dartmouth's X.adoand Wellesley's Awaken theDawn.

DONG WANG

TOP: Resonance's Matthew Leal '04, Bo Zhao '04, Stephen Lee 'OS, Juliapatriarco 'OS, and Sara Elice G.

Resonance

FILM REVIEW***

RIGHT: Jamie Clark G sings "Breaking Up Is HardTo Do" during Friday night's Resonance concert.

Resonance performed with the Dartmouth Sut..tleties and Penn Six-5000 In 54-100~'". :

The Sum of Al~FearsThe-Return of Jack Jqjan

about the Nemerov presidency. Nemerovclaims to have bombed a small country tomake the world believe he is a "hardliner."

While in Russia, Ryan discovers that threeRussian scientists are missing from thenuclear development sector. These scientists

, are the key to making a nuclear bomb success--I.! fut. Cabot tells Ryan to go to Russia again

By Patrick Hereford his co-star Morgan Freeman. "When I signed with John Clark (Liev Schreiber) to find outSTAFF WRITER on to do this role, I was delighted to be playing , where these three scientists are located andWritten by Tom Clancy and Paul Attanasio opposite Morgan. He's been a hero of mine for what are they doing. After successfully infil-Directed by Phil Alden Robinson years." When The Tech asked him why he trating the Russian camp, Clark discovers thatStarring Ben'AffieckandMorgan Freeman took the role of-Jack Ryan, Affleck said, "I had all three scientists are dead. The two spies'Rated'R . atlot of feelings about the movie [because I ani nish 'back to the United States to report theirOpens Majr31. '- "'".. " a'huge Clancy fan]. It waS a really big deal for findings to Cabot. When Ryan-gets a signal,

,:,. me. It's not your everyday movie. The Jack he calls Cabot and tells him the facts: there is

'

he.sum of All Fears is a much-antici- Ryan character is really appealing. I think get- a nuclear bomb somewhere ;in Baltiniore and" "pated movie for Chlncy:fans allover ting,to\play Jack Ryan.is like playing Haffilet. he must move the PresidentJaS soon as possi-

V' dtthe cWorld;\'iAnyoneIwh<Pknows' Clancy Everyone: wants 'to play Hamlet. ".' ,.0,' " '. " 7':' bl~. 'The d~rastatiiIg 'visua~s~and -sounds' of the, and his books Knows about the charac- -1,t''Fhe 'movie' begins with William Cabot ensuing expl6sion'sceri"e1are so perfect the'

ter Jack Ryan from The Hunt 'for Red October, (Freeman) searching ,for Jack Ryan because of entire audience feels the'shock and falls silent.Patriot Games, The Sum of,All Fears, and an essay which describes in great detail the life Not much more can be said without ruin-Qear aIld Present .Qanget Picking the penect. of president Nemerov (Ciar N. Hinds). Cabot ing the various surprises Clancy has in storeJaCk Ryaii'is no eijy't3sk. He-must fi!,so many takes I{yan toj,{ussia to, fud out some detail for the audie~c~. Each Jack Ryan movie isdiffen.~nT'PiUfiles,be a man;--;t, -, different from the othersof intelligence and cnarm, not because of the cast orand pernaps good-looklrtg. because of the way theClancy' chose Alec Bald- . characters are, portrayed,win.for The Huntfor Red but because of theOctober:Harrison Ford for - thought processes for dif-Clear and Present Danger ferent Jack Ryans.and Patriot Games,.and . .Affleck is best able toBen Affleck for The Sum portray Jack Ryanof all Fears. ~ ".' because of his unique

Affleck said ih' a con- - way of interacting withference call with The Tech the other characters.that he spent time'at CIA .. In a nod toward theheadquarters in Langley, p'ost-Sept. 11 status ofVirginia to prepare for the global politics, the pro-role. He also interviewed duction team replaces theand spent time with real Arab terrorists in Clancy'sRussian analysts. "Most novel with Neo-Fascists.people at the CIA aren't They al~o change Jackspies. They're individuals Ryan from a husband to awriting documents and bachelor. Minor changespostulating ideas,"~Affleck aside, The Sum of-Allsaid. He also spent a ,-MARK FELLMAN Fears is a thrilling actionmajority of the time talk- Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan and Morgan Freeman as Bill Cabot in The Sum of All film that no Clancy faning to and learning from ,Fears, in theaters, May 31., should pass up.

Page 14 THE TECH THE ARTS May 14,2002

FILM REVIEW**

CopenhagenHeisenbergs False Uncertainty About Calculus

Directed by Chris NolanWritten by Nikolaj Frobeniusand Erik SkjoldbjrergStarring: Al Pacino, Robin Williams, HillarySwankRated R

By Chloe Tergiman

InsomniaJust Try to Keep YourEyes Open

Unlike Memento, in which Chris Nolanshowed talent and originality, Insom-nia is a mainstream movie that does-n't keep to its promises. This movie

won't make you think, won't surprise you,and won't even keep your eyes open for twohours.

Insomnia follows Will Dormer (AI Paci-no), an LAPD officer sent to help out in amurder case in the small town of Nightmute,Alaska, where daylight lasts 24 hours. Dormerarrives with his partner Hap (Martin Dono-van) to give a hand to the local police. Ayoung girl has been murdered and her bodyhas been found in a garbage bag in a dump.There are no suspects and no witnesses. It's agood thing LAPD sent Zorro and his partnerto help out: it takes an experienced policemanto think of questioning the boyfriend Randy(Jonathan Jackson), and the best friend of thevictim. Turns out she was seeing another man!Maybe he's got something to do with the mur-der!

In an attempt to catch the suspect, Dormeraccidentally shoots and kills his own partner,but attributes the murder to the suspect theywere chasing. Good cop turns bad. Ellie Burr(Hillary Swank), a bright, naive, local police-woman, is assigned to write the report onHap's death. We immediately suspect she willdiscover the truth. Dormer, suffering frominsomnia, begins to have trouble concentrat-ing. Is it his conscience? The constant day- I

light? Both?On the second day, the killer calls Dormer

in his hotel room. The cat has become themouse. In their conversation, Finch offers IDormer a deal: "If you don't tell I killed her, Iwon't tell you killed him." Bad cop turnsworse. Meanwhile, Burr finds inconsistenciesin Dormer's account of his partner's death. I

Surprise, surprise.The rest of the movie can be summarized

in a few sentences: Dormer can't sleep.Dormer tries to. do good through evil.Boyfriend is. framed. Dormer can't sleep.Dormer tries to find a way to fix his injusticeagainst the boyfriend. Dormer can't sleep.Dormer tries to catch Finch. Dormer still can'tsleep. Did I mention that Dormer can't sleep?

The only realistic element in the movie isthe portrait of insomnia. The sleep-deprivedAl Pacino is grand. His difficulty concentrat-ing, his drowsiness, and the battle to keep hiseyes open while driving are all well-filmed.

Pacino's character in the movie lacksdepth. Although our judgment of him changesthrough the movie, this change occurs notthrough his complexity but through a plot thatbecomes more grotesque the further we getinto the movie. Even face-to-face conversa-tions between Al Pacino and Robin Williamsdon't compensate for the mediocrity of theplot.

This psychological thriller is neither psy-chological nor a thriller. Indeed, the attempt touse insomnia as a psychological element is farfrom successful. Knowing all the differentfacets of the characters before the halfwaypoint, the movie kills the thriller aspect of thismovie. We know who killed whom, whereand how. The investigation that leads toFinch, the setup to catch him, the interactionsbetween Dormer and Finch, and the details ofthe di fferent deaths (Hap's and the younggirl's) are just not interesting.

Robin Williams' character in the movieisn't as slick or troubled as he could havebeen. He simply doesn't offer the viewer thecomplexity other cold, shrewd killers do, likeHannibal in The Silence of the Lambs. Finchis too predictable in his actions.

In a movie with actors like Al Pacino andRobin Williams, one would expect to see aplot and screenplay that matches their talent.In Memento, the psychological aspect of thecharacters, a real plot, and an unexpected endare what made that movie excellent. Unfortu-nately, the characters here are under-devel-oped and not convincing. In Insomnia, thepsychological element that was put forward inthe previews is all but absent. There are nomoral questions, no intrigue, 110 surprises,nothing. The visual style has nothing distinct.Don't go see Insomnia, go to bed instead.

studied science at an advanced level (I meanthe level of an MIT student; I haven't donemore than 8.02). Frayn spins wonderfullypoetic metaphors between principles ofphysics, most notably Heisenberg's uncertain-ty principle and Bohr's complementarity prin-ciple. But, since he needs to make it accessi-

ble to his audience, the principlesmust be discussed on a superficiallevel.

You've probably noticed thatwhen a writer wants to make acharacter sound intelligent he willhave the character utter somephrase littered with mathematicalbuzzwords like, "I calculated thematrix covariance differential." Iimagine most MIT students groanwhen they hear statements likethis. That's what Copenhagen wasfor me: two hours of almost con-tinuous groaning. Not that Fraynoften uses buzzwords; he is moresophisticated than that. Howeverwhen the physics is discussed it isemphasized so much that it feelsfake, just like "the matrix covari-ance differential."

But what makes this problemeven worse is the actors' overex-citement when they discuss theseprinciples of physics, since it'stough to imagine an actual physi-cist would get so worked up. Inone line, Heisenberg, played byHank Stratton, mentions his initialdifficulty with "matrix calculus."He seems amazed by the words, asif he were uttering the name of adeity. But I imagine a physicist,especially Heisenberg, whom theplay makes clear worked exten-sively with matrix calculus,wouldn't think it was that big adeal. Even worse, Heisenberg iswearing a well-tailored green suitand his hair is slicked back; helooks more like he belongs on

Wall St. than in a university lecture hall.By many accounts, Copenhagen is an

excellent play. Even some other MIT studentswho saw it have liked it. But be warned that ifyou go, you risk feeling as if you are sittingthrough a reading of Science for Dummiesspliced with a bit of interesting philosophy.

The next song they played was the second on the album, mak-ing it seem like their album was their setlist, that they were out toplay their album and go home. The band itself did not dispel thisfeeling. They came onstage without ceremony or feeling, and didvery little to interact with the crowd. Aside from the choice ofopening song, it didn't seem that they cared enough to have a highenergy show, something very important for a rock concert. Itseemed as if lead guitarist Nick Goodale was playing songs hememorized by rote, as a progression of notes, rather than a song.

Goodale, a skilled guitarist, played well that night, but he justdidn't seem to be getting into the music. In fact, for the entirefirst half of the show, it seemed only bassist Matt Cosby had anyfeeling in him. Later, more of the band became animated, espe-cially Smith, who seemed suddenly to care about the words hewas singing, about halfway though the show during "Wait ForMe," a song he introduced as being about dating a stripper.

Though Smith is the lead singer, and supposed frontman, itseemed throughout the show that Goodale was truly the leader ofthis band. Most of the songs are written by the two of them togeth-er, but all are very guitar-heavy, complete with long solos and intri-cate riffs. But that can be heard from the album alone; the interest-ing part was the on-stage dynamic. Goodale spent a good deal of

the time in the spotlight, on. center stage. In fact, almost

every time Smith wasn'tactually singing, he fadedinto the background to letGoodale take over. It wasan interesting dynamic, thatreally began to work outwell as soon as Goodalestarted playing with visiblefeeling.

Technically, the band isdecent. They write well,and their album has plentyof great music. However,they are a group of fiveguys who graduated fromhigh school in June 2000.They are still quite youngas a band, maybe even asmusicians, and it shows.They made many noticeablemistakes in the show, froma missed chord on one gui-

tar to Smith forgetting a line on several occasions. Though theycover their mistakes well, the band's performance skills needimprovement, which they will probably see as they continue to tour.

Overall, the band put on a show that improved toward the end.They eventually moved away from the sound of their album, witha new intra and long improv session in their last song for thenight, "Eyes, Life, Change." The abundant energy from theirmusic alone was enough to make the show a decent one withoutmany additions.

went to Copenhagen and, in the end, are toldthat it can't be known.

While the premise of the play is striking,and perhaps enough to sustain one's interestthrough the work, the play and the productionmiss a crucial element. The characters aresimply implausible to anyone who has ever

CLEAR CHANNEL

Hank Stratton and Len Cariou in Copenhagen at the Colonial The-ater May 14-19.

By Andrew Selbst

CONCERT REVIEW

Jeremiah FreedThe Middle East Restaurant and NightclubMay 8,2002

Cozy, but Lacking MaturityJeremiah Freed

The Middle East is a small venue, fitting 200 to 300 peoplein the basement under their restaurant. The acoustics of thesetup create a large di fference in sound quality in the dif-ferent parts of the room, the front row being quite bad.

However, the relatively small room manages to serve as a nice set-ting for rock concerts. One of the first things Jeremiah Freed front-man Joe Smith said to the crowd was, in fact, a comment about justthis, bringing it to the audi-ence's attention. He said"We're back in Boston fora nice, intimate show, justlike we like 'em."

The opening band, Mar-wood, comes from NewYork City and also has onealbum out. Their music hasvery nice contrasts. All themelodies, both sung andplayed, seem laid-back andgraceful, while the actualsounds of the guitars arevery heavily distorted,almost as if they were hip-pies with an attitude. Thatimpression also comesfrom the way they carrythemselves and dress whenthey play. Their onstagepresence could bedescribed as Nirvana with- Jeremiah Freed played the Middle East on May 8.out the nannel. Theirmusic has a style similar to Jeremiah Freed's, a bright, hard rockwith its own unique flavor. It wouldn't be surprising to hear theseguys following Jeremiah Freed on radio stations sometime soon.

The main act opened with "Stranded," the first song on Jeremi-ah Freed's self-titled album. This was a great choice for an open-er, and it did exactly what an opening song should. The song start-ed off at a normal pace, and suddenly, in the middle, the energylevels in the song and the room began to soar, readying the crowdfor the rest of the show.

THEATER REVIEW

By Dan TortoriceSf: 1/-1-' IIRtrf.R

CopenhagenColonial TheaterMay /4-/9, 8 p.m. Tue-Sat, :2 p.m.Sat-Sun, 7:30 SunWritten by f\4ichae/ FraynWith Len Carioll, f\;fariette Hart-ley. (/nd Hank Stratton

Copenhagen, the 2000 TonyAward-winning play, isMichael Frayn's look atthe well-known, poorly

understood meeting between theeminent physicists WernerHeisenberg, a German, and NielsBohr, a Dane, in German-occupiedDenmark during World War II. Noone, not even Heisenberg norBohr, recalls what exactly hap-pened the evening of that meeting.But what is known is that meetingmarked the end of the great friend-ship and partnership betweenNeils Bohr and Werner Heisen-berg.

Frayn's recreation brings Bohr,Heisenberg and Bohr's wife Mar-grethe back together again, afterthey have died, to try one moretime to make sense of thatevening. They recreate the conver-sation between Bohr and Heisen-berg, spinning out many possiblescenarios that all try to answer thequestion: why did Heisenbergcome to Copenhagen? The playsuggests that he wanted to warnBohr of the Gennan program, findout about the A IIied program,show off Germany's power, obtain absolution,or even recruit Bohr to work on the bomb.Fray mixes these different scenarios and cre-ates an air of uncertainty. The minimalist set,just three actors and three chairs in an indeter-minate space, adds to this effect. We are thentaken on a quest to discover why Heisenberg

May 14,2002 THE ARTS THE TECH Page 15

INIERVIEW

MIT$soKEntrepreneurship

Competi •Final Awards

PLUSH DADDY FLYAND THE

BEEF-STEAK SWEEPSTAKES

.- ORIGINAL SKETCH COMEDY

FRIDAY, MAY 17th

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Page 16 THE TECH THE ARTS May 14,2002

RESTAURANT REVIEW

Veggie PlanetServing Up Great FoodVery SlowlyBy Sonja A. SharpeSJ:lFF HRlrf:R

Veggie Planet (at Club Passim)47 Palmer StreetHarvard SquareCambridge. MA617-66/-/5/3Mon-Sat 11:30-/0:30. Sunday /0 to /0.Sunday Brunch /0-3:30Bnlllch $5.95-$9.95. Pizza $/0

Veggie Planet is a relatively newrestaurant in Harvard Square thatcaters to vegetarians and vegans. Therestaurant, owned by Didi Emmons,

focuses mostly on putting ethnic food on flatbread to create delicious and unique pizzas,which constitute the bulk of the menu. Veg-gie Planet also promotes the concept ofsocially responsible business practices. Forexample, the pizza dough used at the restau-rant is produced by Haley House, a homelessservices provider in the South End; the pro-duce is 70 percent locally grown, with theorganic tofu made in Jamaica Plain.

Veggie Planet has long been serving thebest vegetarian and vegan pizzas in town, butthe small restaurant only recently startedserving brunch every Sunday from 10:00 a.m.to 3:30 p.m. Emmons and her staff created amenu that departs from the "ethnic food onpizza" concept to include more breakfastfoods for Sunday's brunch menu, takingpizza dough and using it for everything fromsticky buns to cinnamon toast to eggs in abox. The results are quite successful.

On a recent trip to Veggie Planet, wearrived for brunch at around noon on Sunday.After waiting at our little table for half anhour, our waitress finally came over and tookour order. We selected pecan sticky buns,made with fresh organic pizza dough; vegancranberry coffee cake; homefry heaven, ascramble of crispy new potatoes, spinach andsilken tofu topped with salsa; and the pizza ofthe day, which was topped with potatoes,caramelized onions, spinach and tofu ricottacheese. Tofu ricotta can actually be substitut-ed on any pizza that uses a real cheese as oneof the toppings. This makes it extraordinarilyeasy for vegans to find a wide range of menuoptions here.

The atmosphere at Veggie Planet can bestbe described as Bohemian. The restaurant isvery bright, even though it is located in abasement, and boasts cheerfully colored walls

displaying artwork from local artists. The art-work changes periodically and all of it is forsale. Aside from all the colorful paint,though, very little seems to have been spenton decor, and the feel of the place is morethat of a colorful cafeteria than a restaurant.The cafeteria feeling is not helped by the factthat the restaurant is overcrowded with small,cafeteria-style tables. We couldn't even usetwo of the chairs at oUT table because theywere squeezed in too close to the table next tous.

Since the restaurant is located at Club Pas-sim, there is a raised stage on one end, whichVeggie Planet uses to provide live jazz musicduring Sunday brunch. In keeping with theBohemian theme, though, the jazz is good,but low key. The jazz players themselveswere not a professional jazz group at all, butseemed instead to be a married couple in their50s who simply enjoyed strumming a guitarand singing. Still, they were pretty good, andthe music did make the restaurant seem lesslike a cafeteria.

The service at Veggie Planet is horridlyslow, however. Even though the restaurantadvertises that their pizzas are cooked in lessthan two minutes in an ecological, one-of-a-kind oven, we had to wait more than half anhour for our food to arrive. Although this wasonly partly the fault of our waitress, since theplace was definitely understaffed and she wasswamped with customers, she didn't think atall to bring out the coffee cake and the stickybun first, but waited until the pizza and home-fries were done and then brought it all outtogether. Needless to say, we were starvingby the time we finally got our food.

The beverage service was even worse. Theorganic coffee is serve-yourself, but I had towait until almost the end of my meal beforemy orange juice finally arrived. However, itwas fresh-squeezed, very refreshing andsomehow worth the wait. In fact, that's trueof all the food at Veggie Planet. Slow as theservice was, the quality of the food honestlydid make up for it. The sticky buns were soft,definitely sticky, and wonderfully sweet andfilling. The cranberry coffee cake was moistand delicious. The homefries were a littlebland, but otherwise tasty, and the pizza wasfabulous, slightly spiced and wonderfully sea-soned. Potatoes on pizza is a surprisinglydelicious meal, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

The main reason to eat at Veggie Planet isits fantastically delicious food, particularlythe unique pizzas and the pastry items. It'salso nice to know that you are patronizing arestaurant that supports the community andoperates with a good social conscience.Expect to wait a while for your food, though,and to be uninspired by the decor, but if youdon't mind those aspects of the restaurant,you will definitely enjoy Sunday brunch atVeggie Planet. The food is absolutely worthit, and the jazz is pretty good, too.

CONCERT REVIEW

Bops With Joe LovanoMIT Festival Jazz EnsembleBy Allison LewisSTAFF WRITER

MIT Festival Jazz EnsembleKresge AuditoriumMay 10, 8:00 pm

FLORA AMWAYI-TllE TECHOutgoing musical director Karl A. Erdmann '02 does his thing during the Logarhythms "Makingthe Logs" concert in 10-250 Saturday night.

Logarhythms

rhe next issue of The Tech will be pon the day of Gommencemen~.

Roadkill BuffetImprov Comedy

Thursday • 8pm • 35-225

M IT Department ofFACILITIES

CAMPUS CONSTRUCTION UPDATEStata CenterExcavation expansion for the installation of chilled water lineswill begin later this month. Signage will be installed to directpedestrian traffic from the east parking areas. The pedestrianpath that leads from the underpass at Building 26 and headseast around the Stata trailer is now closed to allow for craneaccess to the area.Simmons HallInstallation of life safety equipment, including fire detectionsystems. is underway.Zesiger Sports & Fitness CenterInstallation of the limestone/granite cladding on the first floor isnearing completion. Construction of the squash courts is 75%complete. Ceramic tile work continues at the swimming pools.Dreyfus Chemistry BuildingInstallation of mechanical, electrical, and piping systemscontinues on all floors. Moving of faculty into new lab spaces isunderway.70 Pacific StreetInterior drywalling, painting, floor tiling, and installation ofbathroom finishes continue.Vassar St. UtilitiesInstallation of chilled water, fire protection, steam, telecommuni-cation, and electric ductbanks is progressing behind Buildings44, 45, and through the 45 parking lot toward the Stata site.Sewer replacement work continues on Vassar St. from Building42, heading west. Traffic flow and parking will be affected nearthe work zone.For information on MIT's building program, see http://web.mit.edu/evolvingThis information provided by the MIT Department of Facilities.

May 14,2002

Tackling ToughQuestionsTogether~

THE TECH Page 17

•• I

.\1' t 0 I S ( l I I • ;

To join, e-mailmit- faqs-request@mit.edu

http://web.mit.edu/faqs/www/

Others explore careersMany MIT students will use

their summer as a chance to explorepossible career paths .., Before going to Europe, Radin

will work at the Initiative for aCompetitive Inner City in Bostorifor eight weeks.

Radin, who"'worked at lelc dUr-ing lAP, will continue her workthere during the summer "l:Secauseit's giving me some insight into afuture career path that I want to pur-sue, economic development."

Likewise, a summer in Africacaught IEriiig~s attentwricbecailse'liSis interested in going to the PeaceCorps after MIT .

. "I thought thaethis would be agood: time to see what Africa islike," Emig said ... '. Jrt

Biology undergraduate MichelleC. Page '04 is anticipating 'a sum-mer at tlie University of California -Los Angelos. Page was acceptedinto UCLA's undergraduate neuro-engineering summer research pro-gram through which she willresearch Parkinson's Disease.

"The research is meaningful tome because my dad has Parkinson'sdisease," Page said.

Page is looking forward tospending time with her brother, whois a graduate student at UCLA, andher two-year-old nephew.

thus turning towards volunteerismas a chance have a fun summer .

Emig, who is anticipating hisexperience aboard, said that throughthe MlT -A1TI, "1 can volunteer anddo a good thing."

In addition to Emig and Mead-ows, Amelia E. Virostko '03received a Public Service CenterFellowship to teach middle schoolstudents.

Virostko will design a biochem-istry class and a class on the poetryof music lyrics as well as arrangefield trips and mentor for her groupof 20 to 25 students.

"1 wanted a nonresearch job forthe summer," Virostko said. "Afterworking with "Let's Get Ready," Ithought that it would be fun to workwith kids."

Kaitlin E. Lewis '05 will beworking at a summer camp as acamp counselor for eight weeks.Last summer, Lewis waited tablesand said that she became bored withthat job. "I really' wanted to dosomething outdoors with kids,"Lewis said.

"I'm going to get lots of sleep,bum around, and not think aboutschool work," Lewis said.

... ~

Summer, from Page I

full year abroad, but I still wanted togo [to Cambridge] ... so I thoughtthat this was a good compromise."

Ta said that she had never beenout of the country before, and shewanted to use this summer as achance to explore different cultures.

Amy L. Meadows '03 will go toPeru for a month to volunteer at ahealth clinic. Meadows will volun-teer with 20 other people from dif-ferent countries around the worldand will live in a house with themoutside of Lima.

May 14,2002

Students work less academic jobsAfter spending school years and

summers working in labs, many stu-dents are anticipating' a summerWithout resecirch~(Maliy~tliaents are

,I.

Some spend summer travelingIn addition to working abroad,

other MIT students wiII be usingtheir summers to vacation abroad.

Daniel A. Loreto '04 will spendmost of his summer in'Montreal andVenezuela.

"I like traveling," Loreto said."I'm going to Montreal to improvemy French ... and to visit a friend."

Before leaving Montreal, Loretowants to go to Niagra 'Falls for aweekend.

Loreto, who is originally fromVenezuela, will return there to visitaunts and cousins.

Likewise, Shane E. Cruz G; whowill be graduating-this'summer, is"going to be traveling:all over thecountry."

Cruz wants to use this summer to"just relax." ,

Another graduate, Rose G. Radin'02 will go to Europe for a monthwith her sorority sister, MadelineM. Close '02.

Vacations, ResearchOn Tap for Summer

Late Night Breakfast. -Pre Exam Study. Break for-MIT"

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Page 18 THE TECH

http://sloanbid.mit.eduLeave password field blank, create new password under 'Personal Information'

Waitlists for closed Sloan classes are part of tne CoOrse Bidding System, beginningin Round II.

Successful bids appear on your Registration Form on September 3andwill be posted on the bidding website as of August 1--write down yourpassword to check results!

This space donated by The Tech

Something tofeel good aliout.

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.* Volunteer Needed....w\.

=Toassist blind person with reading & writingA few hours per week

Ifinterested, please call 617/734-5887

Mexico/Carribean $300Round trip Plus TaxEurope $169One Way plus taxBook tickets onlinewww.airtech.comor 212-219-7000

Forum to discuss World Bank, . The T.e£)mology and Culture

Forum willJ~lso sponsor a panel dis-cussion on May 28.' The panel willconsist of William Fisher of ClarkUniversity, Devesh Kapur of Har-vard University, and Njoki Njehu,.apublic policy specialist, three criticsof the Worid Baclc~'Assistant Profes-sor of Urb~~;:Studies ,and Pla~ingBalalqi~hnE!:l1~Rajagop'al;~~)1.m~~7at~ the disc~~ol)=- _, _

"I'm delighted that TCF is host-ing the event," Kolenbrander said. "I\lope they do well, as 1 know it'shard to publicize an event afterfinals."

The panel was organized byEpiscopal chaplain and TCF coordi-nator Reverend Amy McReath.

"I am pleased with the array ofoptions that are available," Kolen-brander said. "It is important to haveopportunities to hear from differentperspectives. "

The Sloan Subject Prioritization SystemBidding -Dates for Fall, 2002 Classes

Waitlist-Only Round for closed Sloan sub~:Opens 9:00 a.m., Thursday, August 1Closes 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, September 3

Institute-wide bidding' for Sloan subjects:Opens 9:00 a.m., Monday, May 13Closes 5:00 p.m., Friday, May 24

ed to be part of the panel discussion.Students can write to nowb@mit.eduuntil Thursday to request inclusionin the lottery.

Details of panel to be finalizedRepresentatives of SDC will also

meet with Kolenbrander this week todetermine who will moderate theWolfensohn discussion and whatpress from The Tech will beallowed.

"I think there can be a reporterallowed, we don't know about a pho-tographer," Steinberger said. "Impor-tant people are just afraid to say stu-pid things on camera. They told usthey didn't want cameras 'to makethe students feel more comfortable.'1 don't understand that at all."

Organizers agreed that Wolfen-sohn would,be accompanied oncampus at all times by a personranking no lower than ChancellorPhillip L. Clay PhD '75. It was pre-sumed that because of this, Claywould then ~oderate the forum.SDC hopes that there will be a stu-dent moderator. "We are hoping thatthere can be a shared moderator roleor Clay can ~tay in the room duringthe discussiQn."

The room and exact time for theforum is still. undecided, though bothMIT and SDC did decide that theevent will not prohibit people fromattending commencement.

May 14,2002

called "some unpleasantness" duringthe planning of the events.

SDC had initially hoped to hostthe movie, talk, and concert onSteinbrenner field, and the use of thefield was approved by MIT AthleticFacilities. However, Stephen D.Immerman, director of enterpriseservices and an integral coordinatorof commencement along with otheradministrators, wanted to stop theevent for logistical reasons.

"My only objection was that itrequired a massive allocation ofstaff," Immerman said. "The propos-al was for an outdoor concert, but.our police forces were alreadystaffed for the next day."

Steinberger and SDC memberBrice C. Smith G attempted to com-promise by offering to hire an out-side security company for the event.However, outside security did notsatisfy the concerns of the, adminis-trators.

"The problem is that there had tohave been some commitment ofMIT staff," Immerman said. "Werarely want people not familiar withour system. To be honest, they don'talways have the same care and con-cerns that your own people do. Wecouldn't leave it to chance."

Other ad.miIristrators came to thedefense of the idea of the event,including Special Assistant to. thePresident and Chancellor Kirk D.KolenJ>rander~ ,who had previ<?usJyworked to 'plan the fgrumwithWolf~nsohn.I.S!~jngerger said thatshe w.a.~~'~Y.Jftrypleased" to seeadministrators do so. i

" "B~th sides' acknowledged thelack of poiiti~at' influ~rice in thedecision. "It would h~ve been aIl!,ajor commitmept we w~)Uld,noth~ve;~en al?le,t9 dp. I~~o~l~~~aveapplied to anybody, not just them,"Immerman said .... ~t~inbe,rgeF;ag,J;xe4:~.:~This, was

mor~ of a l<?gi~ti.cs"conc~~ :t~an.apolitical concern ... ;.~WeconyincedthrITI .~h~t,it~~~n) .going. to be toomuch t~ork for diem. IOu,r d~cisionto .have this a ~y. before comm~~ce-ment ?I~ a political decisi0!l'"

After a round of discussion, theparties agreed to hold the event in54-100, which seats approximately300 people.

Because the event is free and in asmall venue, MIT Police will nothave to be present to protect collect-ed money, operate metal detectors,or disperse loitering crowds.

Steinberger was pleased with theresult. "At first, they didn't want tohave the event at all, so we managedto work from that," she said.

"MIT has the reputation of beingan open campus and we were pleasedto see it was adhered to," she said.

Other students found the com-promise to be unfair to the SDC."[Room] 54-100 is really small,"said Priya Agrawal '04. "That'salmost rubbing it out of existence asa large event."

"It's not too bad," said Phong D ..Ngo '02, member of the a capellagroup The Toons, which has per-formed in 54-100 frequently. "Theacoustics aren't the greatest and it'snot designed to be a concert hall, but1 think it Can be pulled off."

Students selected by lotteryThe committee will officially

selecLby lottery the 20 students whowill be able to debate with Wolf en-sohn before commencement.

"We hope to have an impartialjudiciary, poSsibly someone from TheTech, to oversee the process so thereis no criticism," Steinberger said.

The lottery is open to graduateand undergraduate students only.Wolfensohn's representatives askedthat he debate with those who hadthe "potential of graduating."

"We've had to turn away a fewpeople because of that," Steinbergersaid.

Approximately 30 people repre-senting student groups have request-

Commencement, from Page I

Plans for DiscussionStill Being Finalized

Page 20 THE TECH May 14,2002

in a statement. "We agreed withMIT that neuroscience and thestudy of the brain and mind will beone of the greatest frontiers of sci-ence in the decades ahead.

"We believe this research willhave a tremendous impact not onlyon human health but on virtuallyeverything we do. After muchinvestigation, we chose to supportMIT in its efforts to build a worId-class, cutting-edge research insti-tute devoted to the brain," Picowersaid. She cited MIT's "uniquebreadth of expertise" and "impres-sive track record of research anddiscoveries" as reasons for select-ing the Institute for the donation.

Interest in brain research growingThe donation represents the

second major gift MIT hasreceived for brain research sinceearly 2000, when McGovern madehis landmark donation establishingthe McGovern Institute for BrainResearch. Tonegawa said that MIThopes to be the world leader inbrain research, a rapidly expandingfield.

"If you look at how humanbeings are, we have physical abili-ty but also mental ability," Tone-gawa said. "The latter is muchmore evolved than the former."

"Some people say this is themost exciting area in life scienceor biol.ogy," he said. "To underst~nd the brain .is to understandwhat it r~ally means to be.l}uman."

Tonegawa. s~i.d ,that some consider brain research ~:\he)~st unexplored area" in life science, andthat the "time is right for us to' beable to make major progress in thisarea."

"Understanding the Drain andthe mind is one onhe most impor-tant ... scientific projects that webelieve we can accomplish at thepresent time,", Sil~ey_ said. ;~With.~he advances In -neurobiology, sys-tems neuroscience, an~ cognitivescience, we are at the brink ofwonderful, n,e~ :discoveries." ,

Center expands MIT researchNegotiations between the' foun-

dation and MIT took place begin-ning more than a year ago, Tone-gawa said, but the donationbecame finalized in recent months.

The Picower Center will jointhree other groups on campusfocusing on brain research: theDepartment of Brain and CognitiveSciences; the new McGovern Insti-tute; and the Athinoula A. Marti-nos Center for Functional andStructural Biomedical Imaging.

The Picower Center has beenchartered with the goal of under-standing how the brain learns,remembers, and thinks. The dona-tion will be used to give a perma-nent home to the Center for Learn-ing and Memory, which wasestablished in 1994.

The Picower Foundation, estab-lished in 1989, has also donated$200,000 annually to MIT since2000, to support doctoral fellow-ships for underrepresented minori-ties. The non-profit foundationdonates to a broad range of med-ical, arts, and educational pro-grams.

Solution to Crossword

Donation, from Page 1

New Center BolstersMIT Brain Researchused for research, and the remain-der will go toward the new build-ing in the Brain and Cognitive Sci-ences Center.

Tonegawa said that the primaryfunction of the center would notchange with the new donation."We already have our own visionof what kind of research should bedone here," he said. However, oneof the new faculty will specializein researching the mechanismswhich cause brain diseases, suchas Parkinson's and Alzheimer'sdiseases.

"This we don't have rightnow," Tonegawa said, but thePicowers were particularly inter-ested in this area. ,.

Picowers announce donationThe donation was announced

Thursday at a ceremony on cam-pus.

"Meeting with [PresidentCharles M.l Vest, Tonegawa,[Dean of Science Robert J.] Silbeyand their colleagues, we learned ofMIT's existing commitment tobrain research," said BarbaraPicower, executive director andtrustee of the Picower Foundation,

After Finals .II

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Argentina is in the midst of a severe socio-t,conomic crisis.Burdened with a 150 billion dollar foreign debt. which saps30"10 of the federal budget in interesl payments alone, theunemployment mle has soan.'d over 20"10 and the economy'sgrowth rale has plummeted from 8% to less than I ~~ in the lastfive years. Austerity mcasun:s - a prerequisite for IMF andWorld Bank foreign debt repaym<.-ntloans - have been fellheavily by the population. which has seen its purchasingpower halved since 1997. 45% of the population of this onceprosperous country now liVe'S below the poverty line (earningsless than S2lday). and R'Cenl monetary devaluations havedt'Cunated privale savings accounts. In this atmosphere,popular UnR'St has erupted with unprecedented force.primarily in Ihe form of peaceful demonstrations demandingswe"'ping change'S within the country's discredited politicalkadership. Two presid.:nts have bet-n ousled by populardemand since Dccc'fllber 2001. and public demonstrationscontinue to pressure for dismissal of the enlire Supreme Court.and a call for national eleclions for a new president andLegislative Assembly.

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The Argentina Crisis:More Than Meets The Eye

PANEL DISCUSSION

Wednesday 15th May, 2002 (7-9 pm)MIT Room 54-100

(tallest bllilding on camplls, 1st floor lectllre hall)

This event is sponsored by the following JilT student organi=ations: Club Argentino, Sociat JusticeCooperath'e and MIT Greens.

Pleasc join us for a panel discussion on Ihe'S< issues. featuring several Latin American academics eum:ntly residing in theBoston area.

How IS Argentina coping with this crisis? Why is the country in such dire economic straits, despite having followed the IMFand World Bank prescriplions for stnletuml adjustment 10 Ihe tee, throughout the 199051 Whal is the historical background.socially and politically. behind the counlry's revolt against ilS currenl polilicalleadcrship1 Whal are the alternatives for thefuture?

Marlin lIunt.r (Postdoctoral Research Associate. Chemistry Dept.. MIT)Born and mised in Argentina. currenlly conducting research on biomedical optics at MIT. Marlin will summarize materialfrom Indymedia Argenllna discussing the recent social unrest and the growlh of grass-rool. polilical organizations.

Rita ,\rdIUi (Gmduate Faculty, The Union Instilute & University)Co- founder of New Words, a women's bookslore, and of the Women's Community Cancer Project. She is currently workingwith faculty and students al the University of Massachusetts in Boslon 10 create a Human Rights Center and academicprogmm. Rita was born and grew up in Argentina. and has wrinen a book documenting the search of Argentina'sGrandmothers of Plal.a de Mayo for children who "disappeared" during the military regime of 1976-83 (Searching/or Life:The Grandmother .. of Pla::a de Mayo and the Di.sappt'ared Children ofA~enlina, 1999).

Claudia Kai •• r-Lenolr (Professor of Lalin American Literdlure and Latin American Studies.Tufts University)A natiw Argentinean. currently teaching Latin American literature al Tufts University. She has recently returned from a visitto Argentina and will discuss the political and socio-economic selling of Ihe curren I crisis.

from page 10

SEA MI E L E CIA WAYA C N E L ODE R 0 IREF U 0 0 YOU ~~ Y 0 L I NEAS I ER.AEON.LAS_A SIlsmUITTY_A T H LET EST WAN G S

GOA •• SCRAP TRILLH AND HID ERA L A IASK E 0 FIR E S.L C 0STY M lEE M P L 0 Y E E

_P 'iTS S L AT_A 0 A. E C~~. A NOD E SR I NID H 0 I T Y T 0 I T YLOKII ERN I EILOANo N YIX S N E A 0 EST E

--:;;---

r;-(I:....J

GM would like tocongratulate all ofthe graduatingseniors and grad-students on makingit through one ofthe best teChnicalschools in theworld! We wouldalso like towelcome all of ournew and returninginterns and full-time employees backto the largest andfastest moving carcompany in theworld~

II" Whilt Moves You

THE TECH Page 21

Mil Student

Reception

You are-cordiallyinvited to the

Leader Awards

:J

Friday, May 17, 200212:00-2: oopm

LaSala de Puerto Rico

CONGRA TULA TIONS!!!

2002

Big Screw, from Page I

working on my PhD thesis aboutten years ago in the middle of aparticularly cold December," Leebsaid. "I was here working on myproject until midnight every nightand it was horrible."

Leeb made a promise that if histhesis project worked, he wouldsend a check to charity when hefinished. "I went home really lateon the night when my projectfinally started working and saw acommercial for Pine Street Inn. Itseemed like a sign, and I've beendonating to them ever since," Leebsaid.

Pine Street Inn has headquar-ters in downtown Boston, but ithas several shelter, housing, out-reach, thrift shop, and job traininglocations throughout the city.

Last day donations decide contestThe total amount of money

raised in the competition morethan doubled in the last day of vot-ing. Leeb took the lead after trail-ing behind Vest, who was nomi-nated for his role in choosing thisyear's controversIal commence-ment speaker, and ChancellorPhillip L. C.JayPhD '75, who wasnominatedrfor his role in changes,to graduate student housing .~hisyear.

"I'm revealing no secrets onwinning the competition. That'stop secret," Leeb said.'

- it "'The"aHistib' change'in"rahkiIigsand increased number of votes atthe last minute is itot unusual in;the'Big"'Screwcompetition ..

'. "Just about every year: the bulkor' the' donations come on the lastday of tlh.! competition," saidLaura C. Cerrite)}i '03, publicitycoordinator for the event. "Thesudden change in rankings on thelast day has certainly happened fora lot of candidates in the last cou-ple of years."

The organizers of this year'scompetition say that they don'tactually know how many peopledonated to any particular candi-date, or the average amount ofeach donation. "There are always afew. students who really want onecandidate to win and will donatesignificantly to that candidate, andwe always see faculty and staffcome by and help out their favoritecandidates," Cerritelli said.

May 14,2002

CharityReceivesAlmost$2000

Leeb honored by winningUnlike the name would suggest

to those unfamiliar with the com-petition, this annual event is anhonor for those who win it.

"Winning this competitionshould be an honor since it signi-fies that students think your classdeserves some form of recogni-tion," said Cerritelli, who is inLeeb's 6.115 class. "He's a reallyentertaining professor, and he real-ly seems to care about us learningthe material and doing cool thingswith it."

At this point, Leeb is pleasedwith winning the competition andis unsure about his plans for enter-ing the competition in future years.

"Whether or not I enter thecompetition again will be up to mystudents," Leeb said. "I'm delig4t-ed to be the winner, and I thinkAPO is really cool."

sponsored by thePublic Service

Student Activities Office,and Residential Programs

Page 22 THE TECH May 14,2002

Institute Adds,Removes

Defendants inLawsuits

date," he said. "There's a lot of cleaning upwe need to do."

- Keith J Winstein

Since the beginning of April, MIT has ini-tiated legal action against 26 American cor-porations by adding them as defendants inthree of its existing federal patent-infringe-ment lawsuits. MIT and its co-plaintiffs alsodismissed or settled complaints against threecorporations.

New defendants of MIT lawsuits includeBest Buy Co., Buy.com Inc., Compaq Com-puter Corp., Kmart Corp., Samsung Electron-ics, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in MIT's twofederal lawsuits against 115 companiesaccused of having infringed MIT's U.S.Patent No. 4,500,919, "color reproductionsystem." The patent, which expired on May4, 2002, had been exclusively licensed toMIT' s co~plaintiff, Electronics for ImagingInc. '.

MIT also added Comsa~,Gorp. as a defen-dant in its patent infringe~ent lawsuit. against .Lockhe~d Martin Global Telecommunica-tions Inc., all.egi~g willful infringement of :MIT's U.S. Patent No. RE 36,478. Lockheedhad countered that MIT sued it by mistake.

- Keith J.Winstein

VA Council AmendsElection Code

Folkert G, and Annie K. Wang '02. Sokkareceived the Stewart award last year.

- Keith J Winstein

The Undergraduate Association Councilvoted May 6 to amend the UA's ElectionCode, expanding the powers of the eight-member Election Commission to include"preserving the integrity of the election,"codifying requirements on write-in candi-dates, and providing a procedure to replacethe chairman of the three-member CampaignRules Board, a subset of the Commission .•

The revision follows three consecutiveUA presidential elections in which the Com-mission disqualified a candidate. In the mostrecent election, Rhett Creighton '02 ran forUA president as a write-in candidate, offer-ing $10 to students who voted for him. AnElection Commission decision to disqualifyCreighton for "offering bribes" was eventual-ly sustained by the UA's Judicial ReviewBoard, but not before the chairman of therules board, Daniel D. Liston '04, resignedunder pressure over what the Commissioncalled "inappropriate" e-mails to Creighton.

The Election Code remains inconsistentwith the UA's constitution, which specifiesonly a five-member Election Commission inits February 2002 revision. UA CouncilSpeaker Benjamin J. Zeskind '03 said the UAwould likely fix the inconsistency. "One ofour goals is to bring the constitution up to

ANONYMOUS

Hackers spelled out "IHTFP" by removing seat backs in 10-250 yesterday. However, MIT officials considered the action vandal-ism which caused classes and the Awards Convocation to be relocated.

and Community Affairs, said he was "hon-ored to be recognized by my peers ... just toknow that other people that I worked withcared enough to nominate me."

The William L. Stewart Jr. Award for"students who have made outstanding contri-butions to co-curricular activities and events"was awarded to GSC Treasurer and formerAssociation of Student Activities PresidentAlvar Saenz Otero G, former UA PresidentJaime E. Devereaux '02, Jovonne 1. Bicker-staff '02, Mendel Chuang '02, .Michael R.

Dalai, SokkaWm Compton PrizesSudeb C. Dalai '02 and Shunmugavelu D.

Sokka G each received the Karl TaylorCompton Prize at yesterday's InstituteAwards Convocation. The Compton Prize isawarded "in recognition of outstanding con-tributions in promoting high standards of

achievement and good citi-zenship within the MITcommunity."

Dalai said the awardwas "pretty ironic, becausemany of the people who

nominated me inspired me to excel. I feellike I'm accepting it on behalfofa lot ofpeo-pie I've worked with."

"It was a complete surprise" to receivethe award, Sokka said, adding that hishousemaster, Professor Roger G. Mark '60,tricked him into attending the ceremonywith a "clever ruse" that "they were goingto make an announcement about Sidney-Pacific."

Sokka, the fomler chairman of the Gradu-ate Student Council's Committee on Housing

NewsBriQfs

FLORAAMWA YI- THE TECH

President Charles M. Vest and Karl Taylor Compton Prize ~inner Su~eb C. Dalai '02.; t l~

Don't forget to turn off the lights.Moving? NSTAR can make your move a little less stressful by offering you the option of stopping your utility service at ourweb site - www.nstaronline.com. Even if you're not moving, our web site is a great place to learn about our easy paymentoptions like Budget Billing, Direct Pay, and Pay by Phone. Or, you can check out your current and past NSTAR bills throughAccount Access. Visit us today, or tonight, at www.nstaronline.com.

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May 14,2002 THE TECH Page 23

Betsy Schumacker AwardPrincess Imoukhuede '02

.. Frank E. Perkins Award .' _ 'Professor Rediger Dornbusch: Sloan School 'of Management

Graduate Student Council Teaching AwardProfessor'Keith Hampton, School of Architecture and Planriing;

.PiOfeSsor Kent F. Harisen and Manish Bharqwaj, ,School of Engineering;, , DanielB: Landau, School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences;

Professor Georgia Perakis, Sloan School of Management' .., . , '

Earth Share

LINKEDauthors@mit™ presents:

For 30 ways to help the environment, write Earth Share,3400 International Drive,~ Suite 2K(AD4),Washington, DC 20008.

-TheNew Science of Networks

It's a connected world.Do your share.

ERIC J. CHOLANKERlL-THE TECH

Elizabeth S. Kim G and Ashish Mishra G observe the changing geography of the Middle East. Theexhibit In Lobby 10 is part o~ Pa~~tlne .A~areness Week, sponsored by the MIT Arab StudentsOrganization, the Mil 'Muslim Students' AsSociation. MIT Paksmit, and the MIT Bangladeshi Stu-dents Association. !

j

I:tII~~

, ;, Goodwin Medal , 'Elizabeth A. Kensinger, Brain and Cognitive Sciences

., Kristin E. Finnegan Prize --Loren A. King, Ph.D. '01

Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award forExcellence in Undergraduate Teaching_

Professor John G. Brisson II, Mechanical Engineering;Professor Ernest G. Cravalho, Mechanical Engineering;

Professor Barton Zwiebach, Physics

Bose Award for Excellence in TeachingProfessor Jesus A. del Alamo,

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Arthur C. Smith AwardProfessor Linn W. Hobbs, Materials Science & Engineering

2002 MITAwards Convocation

RecipientsWilliam F. Stewart Jr. Awards

Jovonne 1. Bickerstaff '02, Mendel Chuang '02,Jaime E. Devereaux '02, Michael R Folkert G, Alvar Saenz Otero G,

Annie K. Wang '02

Harold J. Pettegrove AwardTodd S. Stefanik G

Pewter Bowl AwardCaroline M. Purcell '02

Admiral Edward L. Cochrane AwardYuval Mazor '02

Howard W. Johnson AwardSean J. Montgomery G

Malcolm G. Kispert AwardDaniel R. Feldman '02 and Michele C. Verticchio '02

D. Reid Weedon, Jr. '41 Alumni/ae Relations AwardSigma Chi

Frederick Gardiner Fassett, Jr. AwardsRory P. Pheiffer '02 and Yolanda Fan '02

Edward L. Horton Fellowship AwardMIT Muslim Students' Association

Irwin Sizer Award for the Most SignificantImprovement in MIT Education

Professor David Lister, PhysicsFormer Vice President and Dean for'Research

.~ -

John S.W. Kellett '47 AwardNils O. Fonstad G

Albert G. Hill PrizeLeonard J. Grant '02 and Kateri A. Garcia '03

Ronald E. McNair Scholarship AwardMelissa A. Edoh '02, Nathan A. Fitzgerald '02, Ebraheem 1. Fontaine

'02, Irfan S. Pirmohamed.'02, Jeannette D. Stephenson '02, andHuanne T. Thomas '02

Association of MIT Alumae (AMITA) Senior Academic AwardAlexandra G. lanculescu '02;

Honorable Mention: Tiffany S. Santos '02 and Emily M. Craparo '02

Patrick J. McGovern '59 Entrepreneurship Award. MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition

Louis Sudler Prize in the ArtsKevin Q. Choi '02

Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner AwardsNathan A. Fitzgerald '02 and Christopher Rakowski '02

Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual ArtsJacquelyn A. Martino G, Augustine M.Urbas G,

and Cecilia E. Ramos '05Honorable Mention: Nicole A. Vlado '02

Priscilla King Gray Award for Public ServiceSelam Daniel '02

James N. Murphy AwardTeresa O'Conner, Residential Life and Student Life Programs

Gordon Y Billard AwardCharlene M. Placido, Assistant Dean for Research;

Albert 1. Guarino, Dormitory Housekeeper, Next House;Steven M. Dimond, Manager, Copy Technology Centers

Laya Wiesner Community AwardEfrat Shavit '02

with

Albert-Laszlo BarabasiProfessor of Physics at the University of Notre Dame

Tuesday, May 14th, 5:30 pmMil 54-100,21 Ames St., Cambridge

In Linked, Laszl6 Baraoosi-o scientist whose ownwork has transformed the study of "links andnodes"-takes us inside the unfolding networkrevolution. He traces the historyof connected systems,beginning with Swiss'mathematlcian Leonhard Euler'sfirst forays into graph theory in the late 1700s andculminating in biologists' development of cancerdrugs based on a new understanding of cellularnetworks.

Albert-Laszl6 Barabasi is the Emil T. HofmanProfessor of Physics at the Universityof Notre Dame.

linked: The New Science of Networks is publishedby Perseus Publishing, 2002.

This event is FREE and wheelchair accessible.Info: 617.253.8844

This event Is sponsored by authors@mit, a seriescosponsored by the MIT libraries and The MIT PressBookstore.

Laya W. Wiesner AwardRadha K. Iyengar '02

Karl Taylor Compton PrizesSudeb C. Dalai '02 and Shunmugavelu D. Sokka G

authors@mieM is a series cosponsored by MIT Ubraries and The MIT Press BookstoreInfo: 617 253-5249, Directions: http://whereis/primitives/bldg_54.html

Page 24 THE TECH May 14,2002

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