Friday, March 9, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 31 Since 1866, Daily Since 1891FRIDAY, FRIDAY, RCH RCH 99, 200, 20077

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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Boosted by a $100 million dona-tion from the late Warren Alpert, the Alpert Medical School is em-barking on a new phase of strategic growth as it aims to strengthen re-search ties with area hospitals and unify research administration.

The Corporation broke from its traditional routine for its February meeting and replaced some com-mittee meetings with a full-day re-treat to discuss the future of the

Med School and hear from mem-bers of a planning group appointed by Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 last September to consider strategic initiatives for the Med School.

The objective of the planning group’s discussion with the Corpo-ration was to “share ideas, educate, bring up to date, seek feedback and ask for advice,” said Eli Adashi, dean of medicine and biological sciences, who chaired the working

Metcalf to temporarily house history dept., other programs

The Metcalf complex — in-cluding the Metcalf Chemistry, Metcalf Research and Medical Research labs — will serve as a temporary home for several programs and departments, al-lowing for large-scale construc-tion and renovation projects elsewhere on campus.

Considerable space opened up in the complex last fall when the Department of Neurosci-ence relocated to the Sidney Frank Hall for Life Sciences.

“It’s really the only space on campus right now that we have fl exibility with,” said Associate Provost Pamela O’Neil, who staffs the provost’s Space Com-mittee, which monitors how space in campus buildings is al-located.

According to O’Neil, the va-cant areas will be used as “in-terim space” for a number of departments. “In the next few years, we are going to be us-ing it to solve some temporary problems,” she said.

“When we take a building and move it or gut it to reno-vate it, we need some place to put the people that are current-ly occupying it,” O’Neil said. “It doesn’t sound very glamorous, but we can’t do the major build-

ing projects that we’re doing un-less we have that space to move people into.”

The Department of Histo-ry will occupy offi ce space in the complex for six months, O’Neil said. Some members of the history department will be displaced from their offi ces in Peter Green House when that building gets picked up and moved to a nearby location to make way for the Walk, the pe-destrian pathway that will link Lincoln Field to the Pembroke campus.

An anthropology lab was also recently installed in Met-calf, but O’Neil said she hopes the lab will eventually move to Rhode Island Hall, which will be renovated to house the In-stitute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.

Metcalf will also house the ADVANCE program, which will move into offi ce and confer-ence space on the second fl oor of the building within the next week, O’Neil said. Funded by a fi ve-year grant from the Na-tional Science Foundation, the program, which is directed by O’Neil, aims to facilitate the ad-vancement of women faculty in science and engineering.

O’Neil said “a subset” of the Department of Mathemat-

BY OLIVIA HOFFMANCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Iranian author Ravanipour takes refuge at Brown

Iranian author Moniro Ravanipour was too scared to shower when she was in Germany for a writ-ers’ conference in 2001. Soon after she arrived, her husband called to tell her Iranian authorities op-posed the conference. She feared they might have installed secret cameras in her hotel bathroom and would broadcast the footage in Iran to suggest the conference attendees were engaging in sala-cious behavior.

“Living in Iran, for a writer like me, is a risk,” said Ravanipour, who is the fourth fellow the Internation-al Writers Project has brought to Brown. Sponsored by the Gradu-ate Program in Literary Arts and the Watson Institute for Interna-tional Studies, the program hosts one writer each year who feels un-able to engage in free expression in his or her home country.

Shortly after the conference in Germany, Ravanipour returned to

BY TAYLOR BARNESSTAFF WRITER

When Shahryar Mandanipour’s fellowship with the International Writers Project ends this June, he will be forced to return to Iran and potentially face arrest unless he fi nds a job in the United States that will allow him to extend his visa.

“It will not be easy to return, for me. I don’t know what will happen in the airport,” Mandanipour said, explaining that in the past three months, about 150 scholars, writ-ers and journalists have been ar-rested upon returning home from abroad.

“Everyday I’m thinking about it. Sometimes I think I’ve got to go back. Sometimes, when I try to be rational, I think of my responsibili-ties to my family … here. Honestly, I don’t know what to do,” Mandani-pour said.

He said he is especially con-cerned for his 16-year-old son. “Here, he will be safe. There is no hope for him in Iran,” he said.

This predicament is not entirely new for IWP fellows. They are se-lected for the fellowship precisely because they face oppression in their home nations, said Robert Coover, director of the IWP and ad-junct professor of literary arts.

Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Literary Arts and the Watson Institute for International Studies, the year-long IWP fellow-ship provides a stipend and work-place to writers who face political oppression in their countries of ori-gin.

“The hardest thing is, what do you do about people when you have to let them go in a year or so?” Coover asked.

Though the diffi culty was an-ticipated, Mandanipour’s situation is especially challenging, Coover said, because relations between Iran and the United States have worsened since Mandanipour ar-rived on College Hill.

Mandanipour was eligible for the fellowship because Iran’s Min-istry of Culture and Islamic Guid-ance censored many of his writ-ings. “You can’t anticipate which story will be allowed to be pub-lished,” he said, adding that includ-ing a “sexy scene or love scene” in a story will jeopardize its publica-tion.

While at Brown, Mandanipour

BY TAYLOR BARNESSTAFF WRITER

Chris Bennett / HeraldNPR and ABC veteran Robert Krulwich spoke Thursday night on his career in journalism.continued on page 6

continued on page 6

Med School report calls for more research collaborationBY KRISTINA KELLEHER

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

IWP fellow could face arrest upon return to Iran

Eunice Hong / Herald File PhotoShahryar Mandanipour (above) may be forced to return to Iran and could face ar-rest when his fellowship ends this June.

Min Wu / HeraldMoniro Ravanipour (right) is the fourth fellow the International Writers Project has brought to the University. The pro-gram hosts one writer each year who feels unable to engage in free expression in his or her home country.

continued on page 4

R A D I O S TA R

continued on page 4

THE STARS OF IMPROVA profi le of Brown’s new-est improvisational comedy troupe, Starla and Sons — a long-form improv group that has gained a cult following

SPRING FORWARD — EARLYTurn your clocks ahead one hour this Sunday — daylight-saving time starts this week-end, three weeks earlier than in previous years

POINT-COUNTERPOINTDon Trella ’08 and Michal Za-pendowski ’07 square off on the issue that has haunted all of us since high school Eng-lish class — human free will

5CAMPUS NEWS

11OPINIONS

INSIDE:

ALUM TO COACH PATSFormer Brown football player and coach Bill O’Brien ’92 has been hired as an offensive as-sistant coach by the New Eng-land Patriots

12SPORTS

3ARTS & CULTURE

“I had many wounds from this country,

but I still loved it.”

Shahryar Mandanipour

FEATURE

WBF | Matt Vascellaro

Hi, How Are You | Alison Naturale

Deo | Daniel Perez

Deep Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbon


Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372Business Phone: 401.351.3260

Eric Beck, President

Mary-Catherine Lader, Vice President

Ally Ouh, Treasurer

Mandeep Gill, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown

University community since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the aca-

demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and

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Cloudy Side Up | Mike Lauritano

Chocolate Covered Cotton | Mark Brinker

ACROSS1 Philatelist’s find6 Big oxygen

producer11 Degree for an

MIT SloanSchool grad

14 Refuge15 Eponymous veep

associated withredistricting

16 Allied gp. since1948

17 Dolphin rookie?19 Herald Sq. site20 Chow chow,

maybe21 Valley of the

Kings land22 __ of Attalos,

Athens landmark23 Roseanne

Roseanna-danna’s venue,initially

25 Desktoppublishingprecursor

27 WimbledonCentre Courtactivity?

32 Listing with agate no.

33 Part of 19-Across

34 Inception37 Wound formation39 Course with no

unexpectedcurves?

42 Spent43 Big name in

Ethiopian history45 Milo’s pal, in a

1989 film47 “The Crying

Game” actor48 What I look

forward to afterthe Iditarod?

52 Ways to getaround

54 A kiss may followone

55 Org. with morethan 37 millionmembers

56 Amber, for one59 Mr. Hulot

portrayer63 DOD component64 Delirious

wanderer?66 Magnum, e.g.,

briefly67 Alamogordo

experiment68 Kennedy

associate

69 Wapiti70 New York

governor beforeGeorge

71 Corsair or Pacer

DOWN1 “Brave New

World” feel-gooddrug

2 Manx’s lack3 Stat4 Brunch libation5 Pressure meas.6 Wide-eyed7 Assess8 Passé ailment

name9 Trig function

10 Give the once-over

11 Educator whoappeared on the1000 lire bill

12 Marshy tract13 Org. with a Jazz

Wall of Fame18 Nervous one?22 Setup of a sort24 Home of 23-

Across26 __-Cat27 “Our House”

songwriter28 SeaWorld’s

Corky II, e.g.29 Rail30 Hellenic vowel

31 “Sounder”actress

35 Samuel W.Bodman’scabinet dept.

36 It’s darker thanNile blue

38 One might dropin

40 Financial stmt.heading

41 Intending44 Ostrichlike bird46 Pink Floyd

guitarist Barrett

49 Slips50 Warm sign-off51 Grew tiresome52 “Divine Comedy”

poet53 Oil support57 Acapulco

“Absolutely!”58 Digging60 Pals abroad61 Atterbury Street

gallery62 Loved one64 Smack65 Hamish’s refusal

By Donna S. Levin(c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 3/9/07

3/9/07

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

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Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

M E N U

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2007CH 9, 2007CH 9,PAGE 2

Puzzles by PappocomPuzzles by Pappocom

SHARPE REFECTORY

LUNCH — Tomato Basil Pie, Roasted Tomato Basil Pie, Roasted THerb Potatoes, Fresh Sliced Carrots, Gyro Sandwich on Pita, Chicken Jambalaya with Bacon, Washington Apple Cake

DINNER — Manicotti Piedmontese, Rice with Peas & Coriander, Mashed Butternut Squash, Italian Green Beans, Turkey Tetrazini, Grilled Salmon with Minted Pea Puree, Chocolate Cinnamon Cake Roll

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Vegetarian Broccoli Cheese Soup, Roasted Corn Chowder with Bacon, Chicken Fingers, Baked Vegan Nuggets, Vegan Rice Pilaf, Whole Kernel Corn, Blondies

DINNER — Salmon Provensal, Grilled Chicken, Mexican Cornbread Casserole, Basmati Rice, Fresh Vegetable Melange, Sugar Snap Peas, Pueblo Bread, Chocolate Cinnamon Cake Roll

ARTS & CULTURETHE BROWN DAILY HERALDFRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2007CH 9, 2007CH 9, PAGE 3

Does Brown really need another improvisational comedy group on campus? The students in Star-la and Sons, a year-old improv troupe, seem to think so — the group has joined the ranks of such campus improv mainstays as Intramural Improv and Im-providence. But Starla and Sons’ unique sketch structure and inti-mate, even revealing, comedy dis-tinguishes it from the crowd — and has gained it a cult following.

“I got to Brown freshman year and didn’t do improv at all,” said William Guzzardi ’09, the group’s founder. “I watched some groups on campus, and I felt that none of them were do-ing improv the way I grew up with it.”

The other improv groups on campus mostly practice a form of comedy known as short-form improv. “Short form is typically based on games you create so scenes have a defi nite trajecto-ry,” said William Litton ’09, one of the four members of Starla and Sons, “whereas long-form has a much larger structure that can go on for a half an hour.”

“Long-form is about explain-ing different worlds and explain-ing truths between two charac-ters,” Guzzardi said. Long form can be performed in different styles but this group uses it in

two ways — Montage and the Harold.

A typical Starla and Sons show consists of two parts. The fi rst, called Montage, begins with an audience member suggesting a word that provides the inspira-tion for a series of short scenes between two cast members. The remaining two members of the troupe “edit” the scene by di-recting the action off-stage, by replacing a member on stage or by ending the scene to begin a new one, Guzzardi said.

Though in some respects Montage is fairly unstructured, the Harold follows complex rules and has a rich history. “The Harold is the oldest form of long-form,” Guzzardi said. “It was invented by Del Close, who is the grandfather of modern im-prov.”

Like Montage, the Harold be-gins with a prompt from the au-dience. Then, each troupe-mem-ber performs an impromptu monologue tying that word into his personal life and experience, Guzzardi said. A series of three subsequent scenes reworks and builds on some of the mono-logues’ ideas.

“The idea is to become collec-tive,” Guzzardi said. “We all take from each other.” Then, after a “group game” where the troupe performs a short gag sketch, another series of three scenes

BY LYDIA GIDWITZARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Starla and Sons stands out in improv comedy

Berssenbrugge astounds with poetic cubism

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge’s soft voice soothed her audience at her read-ing for the Contemporary Writers Series on March 6. Like a gentle lul-laby, her coaxing intonation harmo-niously complemented the words of her poetry, providing a consistency and steadiness to her ethereal lyr-ics.

The abstract and diffuse threads of her poetry had an even and nur-turing quality, as if she was spoon-feeding her listeners. Her poetry ex-pressed the multi-layered complexi-ties of language.

Berssenbrugge molded her scat-tered words into a continuum of multiple perspectives. In her poem, “Kisses of the Moon,” inspired by a performance of the Bill T. Jones dance company, she choreographed a multifaceted rendition of intimacy.

Moving quickly between ab-stract language and specifi cs of immediate perception, she peeled away the many layers of human con-nection. Dealing with what is under-stood intuitively instead of what is known, the poem goes on to reveal the all-too-familiar fears of friend-ship and insecurity. The contrasting language of this poem and the shifts of perspective it includes refl ect the vulnerability that friendship and self-exposure require. The multi-di-mensional perspectives portrayed in her poem express the desire to gain self-awareness.

Berssenbrugge’s rhetoric evoca-tively affected her audience. In her poem, “Concordance,” her syntax

astounded. Again, she straddled many perspectives. In the pure acts of reading and writing, Berssen-brugge dove into the consciousness of her reader. In this poem, she ren-dered a hybridized voice interweav-ing lyrical, colloquial and even sci-entifi c language. In this way she cre-ated a poetic cubism, from which all positions and viewpoints were taken into account. Through the multiplic-ity of perspectives, she created co-hesion, both fl uid and holistic.

The cyclical nature of her poems demanded contemplation. No clear or fi nite end could ostensibly exist with Berssenbrugge’s poetry. In this way, perhaps the essence of her

poetry is the sensual beauty of lin-guistic patterning and word play.

A singular poet, Berssenbrugge extends certainty in the face of in-scrutability. Her long sentences do not lose the reader, but rather move them through labyrinthine clauses and phrases. Her linguistic strands guide the listeners and left them couched in an accumulation of thought. Her language fragments and refracts — as if through a prism — only to become whole again. Her poetry does not have a linear struc-ture or end with an incontrovert-ible proof. Defying logic, her words transcend meaning, grammar and syntax and morph into an algebra-ic search of the unknown. Perhaps unsolved, her poetic equations are nonetheless balanced.

BY MARIELA QUINTANACONTRIBUTING WRITER

REVIEW

FRIDAY, MARCH 9

Gallery Opening for Candice Smith Colby: Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, 6-8 p.m.

Wind Symphony Concert: Grant Recital Hall, 8 p.m.

Starla and Sons presents COLOSSUS: Salomon 001, 9-10 p.m.

FRIDAY, MARCH 9 through SUNDAY, MARCH 11SUNDAY, MARCH 11SUNDAY

“Accidental Death of an Anarchist: ” Production Workshop downstairs space, T. F. Green, Friday to Monday, 8 p.m. Friday to Monday, 8 p.m. Friday to Monday , with a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.

FRIDAY, MARCH 9 through SUNDAY, MARCH 1SUNDAY, MARCH 1SUNDAY 1and THURSDAY, MARCH 15 through SUNDAY, ugh SUNDAY, ugh SUNDAY MARCH 18

“Merrily We Roll Along”: Stuart Theatre, Thursday though Saturday, 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.ough Saturday, 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.ough Saturday

SATURDAY, MARCH SATURDAY, MARCH SATURDAY 10 and SUNDAY, MARCH 11SUNDAY, MARCH 11SUNDAY

Brown University Orchestra Concert: Sayles Hall, 7 p.m.

SATURDAY, MARCH 10 through SUNDAY, MARCH 11

and THURSDAY, MARCH 15 through SUNDAY, MARCH 18

“NA LUTA (in the struggle)” presented by Rites and Reason Theatre:George Houston Bass Per forming Arts Space, Churchill House, Thursday to Saturday, 7 p.m., and Sunday, 3 p.m.

SATURDAY, MARCH 10

Mazaa South Asian Students Association Annual Culture Show: Salomon 101, 6-8 p.m.

E D I T O R S’ P I C K S

continued on page 6


wrote “Censoring and the Iranian Love Story,” which he dedicated to Coover. With that book, “I ex-plained how I make a trick to get the information of the story and pass through the censor wall,” Mandanipour said.

Mandanipour hopes to teach Persian language or literature in the United States but has not found any positions. “If you fi nd a way, please tell me,” he said.

He added, “If I couldn’t fi nd a way to stay here, I have to return.”

Mandanipour said he is still glad that he joined the IWP, despite of the diffi culties he faces as the fel-lowship comes to an end. He add-ed that even though the conditions in Iran led him to pursue the IWP, he was homesick for his country when he came to America. “I had many wounds from this country, but I still loved it,” he said of Iran.

Though Mandanipour said he could try to obtain refugee sta-

tus in order to stay in the United States, he has not pursued this op-tion because he still strongly iden-tifi es with his home country. “I love United States culture, but I would like to be an Iranian in the United States,” he said.

His experience with the IWP could foster better relations be-tween the United States and Iran, Mandanipour said. “I hope that I can write about American culture and introduce it to the people of my country,” he said.

continued from page 1

IWP fellow could face arrest upon return to Iran

group. The Corporation made no com-

mitments during its discussion of strategic planning with the Med School working group, Adashi said.

The strategic planning working group, which completed its work and issued a report in December, was created to look at ways to im-prove the Med School.

“It was good to bring together these very different perspectives on how to improve the Med School and about what’s happening now — what is very good, not so good and where we can add real value,” said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president, who was a member of the planning group.

Working group member Terrie “Fox” Wetle, associate dean of pub-lic health and public policy and pro-fessor of community health, told The Herald, “It was a very excit-ing time to be doing strategic plan-ning for the Med School, especially when the large Warren Alpert gift came in.”

But work on the strategic plan for the Med School had been in progress for over a year and a half before the gift came in, said John Deeley, executive dean for admin-istration for the Division of Biology and Medicine.

Before the appointment of the strategic planning working group for the Med School, Kertzer asked Adashi to create his own strategic plan for the Med School. Adashi’s plan was completed in the fall of 2006.

Adashi’s plan gave a clear view of the current state of the Med School’s current research stature, highlighting that it is ranked 71st of 123 medical schools in National Institutes of Health grant dollars.

“A lot of strategic vision for the Medical School is about increas-ing the stature and rankings,” said Neel Shah ’04 MD’08, president of the Medical Student Senate. “Cer-tainly from a strategic point of view, research is important, but it’s usu-ally pretty independent from stu-dents who are really here in more of a pre-professional capacity.”

Building research bridgesAdashi’s plan envisioned a

Brown University Health Sciences Center, which would consolidate programmatic and administrative facets of its research organizations under one chief academic offi cer, one research dean, one research administration and one grant port-folio.

Unlike the dean’s initial plan, the working group’s report uses the term “Health Sciences Center” sparingly, indicating that “the term is not meant to suggest a physical entity. Rather, it is an umbrella char-acterization of our shared research, educational and clinical missions.”

The working group articulat-ed the need for stronger research partnerships between the Med School and its affi liated hospitals. The new research efforts would be led by a new dean for research and a single offi ce of research adminis-tration and would support research “not just on campus but throughout the hospitals,” Adashi said.

The working group’s report rec-ognizes “the signifi cant risks to our ability to attract outstanding faculty and students, to provide excellent clinical care at the frontiers of med-ical science and to attract signifi -cant federal and philanthropic sup-port if we do not move effectively to remove organizational barriers to cross-institutional collaboration.”

“The most fundamental relation-ship between the hospitals and the Medical School is about the educa-tion of physicians. You can’t have a full-fl edged four-year medical school without it,” Adashi said. He continued, “A big piece of the stra-tegic plan is to complement the ed-ucation partnership with a research partnership.”

Currently the Med School and the hospitals are collaborating on research projects, but “operational-ly, we are distinct entities,” Adashi told The Herald. “We lack a formal research partnership alliance.”

“We’re not taking full advantage of the opportunities to collaborate, for example, between hospitals and campus-based faculty, between in-stitutions and individuals and be-tween the life sciences and engi-neering,” Spies said.

The report advocates that Brown and its teaching hospital partners “charge the dean with the responsibility to lead a collab-orative strategic planning process to develop a shared, strategically coordinated scientifi c agenda that builds upon our existing scientifi c and clinical strengths,” specifi cally by pouring money into selected “ar-eas of excellence.”

Deeley and Adashi both declined to speculate on what the future “ar-eas of excellence” might be.

“We are about to send out sur-veys to faculty,” Deeley said, add-ing that the division needs signifi -cant faculty input before deciding which areas deserve the most at-tention.

“We don’t know where people will see connections. The faculty and students in the fi eld will see the most interesting connections,” Spies said.

“The good news is that the piec-es are there in a lot of areas to do really exciting things, if we can con-nect the pieces,” Spies said. “We are not starting from scratch.”

Deeley said the University is al-ready particularly strong in cancer research, genomics and biomedi-cal engineering.

The new research dean should be “someone who gets up in the morning thinking about how to connect these pieces,” Spies said.

The new dean’s position is to be “a full time facilitator and catalyst.”

Every medical school and its affi liated hospitals have a differ-ent relationship, Adashi explained. The new dean will have to translate the words of strategic plan into a living, breathing organism unique to Brown.

“In many settings hospitals are not home to research, it’s the do-main of the medical school. But in our case, as with Harvard Medical School, it occurs in both,” Adashi said.

A major factor in the separation between the hospitals and the Med School at Brown is the youth of the Med School. “The hospitals were here before the Med School was. … The Medical School and the hospitals evolved in parallel and arrived at the current state of af-fairs,” Adashi said.

University offi cials say the af-fi liated hospitals and clinical fac-ulty are on board with the strate-gic plan. “The hospitals share the same goal, no question about it. All the hospitals see themselves as ac-ademic enterprises where a critical part of what they do is train physi-cians and conduct research,” Spies said.

“Everyone has a lot of interest in seeing us do better — and most people even agree on what better looks like,” Spies said. “We are a long way from what this specifi -cally looks like and knowing if it’s doable.”

A new homeThe other major initiative ad-

dressed by the Med School’s stra-tegic plan is the creation of a new medical education building off Col-lege Hill. A portion of the Alpert gift has been designated by Uni-versity offi cials to help pay for the building.

Adashi’s wrote in his propos-al about a Health Services Center that was “readily visible from I-95” and “anchored by a medical edu-cation institute, a learning center for Brown’s medical students, resi-dents, fellows and faculty.”

The working group also ad-vocated a new medical education building, while not going as far as Adashi’s plan. Their envisioned new medical education building would house medical instruction for med students, residents, fellows and fac-ulty and be situated near the Med School’s affi liate hospitals.

The medical education building, to be located on the Rhode Island Hospital campus or in the Jewelry District, would provide a home for the Med School.

The working group report un-derscores the importance of such a home, as the “current lack of such a building is a competitive disadvan-tage and impairs student recruit-ment efforts and (in some cases) our fundamental ability to deliver the curriculum, given the existing on-campus space constraints.”


Research collaboration focus of Med School report

CAMPUS NEWSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDFRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2007CH 9, 2007CH 9, PAGE 5

Brown and RISD professors team up to create a more functional motorcycle

An alternative vehicle for the developing world

In Cambodia in the summer of 2002, Khipra Nichols witnessed for the fi rst time a sight common in developing countries — motorcy-cles being used in ways that Ameri-cans would consider anything but ordinary. Families of six crammed themselves onto one motorcycle, while street vendors used modifi ed motorcycles to carry items such as carts, chickens and water cisterns. carts, chickens and water cisterns. carts, chickens and water

“They were fi tting on a bike stuff you would put in an SUV,” he said. Nichols, associate professor of in-dustrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design, started making sketches of possible alternative ve-hicles. “When I see a product being abused, I see an opportunity,” Nich-ols said.

Since then, eMotive, a collabo-ration between Brown and RISD professors and students, has been developing an electrically powered crossover between motorcycles and cars that can hold four passengers.

The goal of the project is to cre-ate a new kind of vehicle that can address the specifi c concerns of de-veloping nations while keeping in mind local conditions and the fi nan-cial constraints of the users.

“It has to be multi-functional, very practical, really cheap, easy to repair and could generate in-come for the local economy,” Nich-ols said. He pointed out that traffi c accidents are the leading cause of death in Africa after AIDS, accord-ing to a 2004 World Health Organi-zation report.

“We are trying to design and fab-ricate something that is small, light, energy effi cient, fun-to-drive and easily adapted to user needs,” said Christopher Bull, a senior research engineer at Brown.

Bull, who has worked on alter-native vehicles in the past, became involved in the project in the fall of 2003. By then, Nichols had already teamed up with Michael Lye, an industrial design lecturer at RISD, and the two used their faculty re-search grants to go on trips to Cali-fornia and Italy to look at other al-ternative vehicle projects.

The prototype vehicle, in its third stage of development, currently has four wheels like a car but is steered like a motorcycle. It is powered by batteries located under the seat.

The team has tested the vehicle in its different stages of develop-ment around the lab and for brief

drives on the roads around Barus and Holley, but they are still in the process of making it street-legal in Rhode Island.

eMotive’s team members want to make the vehicle as adaptable as possible, but the huge number of possibilities they face makes their job diffi cult, Lye said. Mak-ing the vehicle adaptable to local power sources, fi nding alternative uses such as the transportation of people or goods and designing an adaptable front seat for female driv-ers are innovations they have con-sidered but not yet implemented, Lye said.

Lye said he is prepared for the possibility that the project might not be manufactured for mass con-sumption but may instead serve as concept vehicle that could generate future production.

“We don’t currently have the means to commercialize it — we need outside partners. Then it could take from six months to two years,” Lye said. eMotive is funded by research grants to Nichols and Lye, as well as RISD/Brown Collab-oration grant.

Adam Geremia RISD GS, a stu-dent working on the project, will conduct the research into local cus-toms and attitudes towards safety to make the vehicle adaptable to local conditions. “This has the potential for being manufactured and mak-

ing a difference,” he said. The team predicts that the fi nal

prototype will be ready in 2008, at which time they plan to take one or two vehicles to a developing coun-try and lend them to families who will then provide feedback.

The team is currently consider-ing different business plan models to take the project forward. “One way we have considered is to offer the design to local entrepreneurs in some South Asian country,” Bull said.

It will be diffi cult to challenge local attitudes towards safety and market a vehicle that may be more expensive than a motorcycle, Nich-ols said. “We want to create some-thing with them that they will be at-tracted to. … There has to be a fun factor.”

Ultimately, project team mem-bers aim to challenge user percep-tions about adequate forms of trans-portation. Michael Chen’07, who is writing a program that will be able to test and measure the vehicle’s performance, said this project has the potential to change the future of transportation. “This vehicle is thinking into the future,” he said.

“We are fi ghting against the idea that one size fi ts all,” Bull said. “A car is not always the best solution. It’s much bigger than it needs to be. In an urban setting, small and light is better.”

BY TSVETINA KAMENOVASTAFF WRITER

Chris Bennett / HeraldeMotive, a collaboration between Brown and RISD professors and students, has been working on an electrically powered crossover between a motorcycle and a car.

QA and GAIA team up for free HIV testing

N E W S I N B R I E F

The Brown chapter of the Global Alliance to Immunize against AIDS and Queer Alliance are co-sponsoring HIV Testing Day at the Sarah Doyle Wom-en’s Center on Saturday.

Unlike the confi dential HIV tests available at Health Services, the tests offered by GAIA and QA are free and anonymous. “There is a difference be-tween anonymous and confi dential. Confi dential means that they take your name but they don’t share it. Anonymous means that you are only assigned a number,” said Michael DeLucia ’07, a member of QA’s Queer Community Committee.

The tests at Health Services cost about $25, and Health Services bills mailed home to parents could refl ect that a student was tested for HIV.

QA has made it a priority since 2005 to offer these tests for free to pro-mote safe-sex practices, but DeLucia said the University should be responsi-ble for providing easy access to HIV testing for students. “We feel that it’s un-fortunate that a student group is responsible for bringing free anonymous testing to campus,” DeLucia said.

The rapid oral testing method is a relatively new technology that makes the process easier for test-takers. With the old method of blood testing, “you have to come back after two weeks, but with rapid tests you only have to wait 20 minutes,” DeLucia said.

QA and GAIA will provide enough tests for 100 to 150 people, and they expect that demand for the tests will exceed their supply, said Madeline DiLorenzo ’08, the founder of the Brown chapter of GAIA.

AIDS Care Ocean State, a Rhode Island-based non-profi t organization, will send volunteers to administer the free tests. The tests themselves were donated by Abbott Laboratories, DiLorenzo said.

The tests will be administered Saturday at the Sarah Doyle Women’s Cen-ter between noon and 4 p.m.

— Amanda Bauer

Campus Internet down for 3 hours ThursdayAll campus users lost Internet access starting at 4:55 p.m. Thursday, Comput-ing and Information Services reported.

The service interruption was due to “malicious traffi c originating from a host within our dormitory network,” according to Timothy Thorp, manager of communications and education for CIS.

Malicious traffi c is the type of Internet traffi c that a typical human user would be unable to create, such as an extremely large volume of data trans-ferred at one time by a spammer, according to Thorp.

The malicious traffi c obstructed campus connection to the Internet. CIS offi cials thought they had resolved the problem at 5:20 p.m. when they “fi l-tered the malicious host,” meaning that they blocked the offending com-puter from access to the network, Thorp told The Herald.

CIS has no way of knowing the origin of the malicious traffi c, Thorp said, though he noted that someone’s computer likely fell victim to a virus.

After CIS offi cials blocked the malicious host, students in dorm rooms continued to report network problems to the CIS Help Desk. Thorp said this problem was related to Internet traffi c passing through the Domain Name Server. The DNS has to do with the way Internet pages are called up, Thorp said, so this problem would have affected the browsing of Web sites but per-haps not other Internet traffi c, such as IPTV.

Patrick Hanley ’09, who lives in Slater Hall, said his Internet connection was down for two-and-a-half hours, starting at around 5 p.m. He said the outage was “just annoying” and that he needed the Internet to use MyCours-es to study for a midterm.

Campus Internet access was restored by 8 p.m.

— Sara Molinaro

Clocks should be turned ahead one hour Sunday as the country switches to daylight-saving time, three weeks earlier this year than in the past — the second Sunday in March, instead of the third week in April as in previous years.

Congress legislated the earlier start to daylight-saving time in 2005. The rationale behind moving the date was that more natural light in the eve-nings would save energy by decreasing use of electric lights.

However, technology with software that was programmed before the 2005 legislation was passed will not automatically update to daylight-sav-ing time on the correct date.

Regular cell phones should not experience any problems, but BlackBer-rys and other PDAs that connect to a network operating system may have to be updated by going to their service provider’s Web site. However, the Web site of Computing and Information Services states that BlackBerry us-ers with OS 4 or above should not experience any problems.

Windows XP users who have enabled automatic software updates will not experience any problems, but users who have disabled the feature may have to download the appropriate update.

Most Mac users will also not be affected, but users with older operating systems may need to download an update to fi x the problem. Users of iPods with the clock feature will have to update the device by connecting the iPod to a computer, as users normally would do to update music.

Timothy Thorp, manager of communications and education for CIS, told The Herald that the University should experience very few problems be-cause “CIS has done a great job making sure every server is patched.” He mentioned that CIS has only had from January to March of this year to fi x the problem, because “most computers can only understand one set of time rules.”

The only problem that University-based computers may encounter is with Microsoft Outlook calendars, Thorp said. If a user scheduled an appoint-ment for between March 11 and April 1 before the daylight-savings time start date was fi xed, the appointment may have incorrectly shifted one hour. But Thorp said CIS has made a signifi cant effort to communicate the nature of the problem to users of Outlook’s calendar.

Karin Freed ’09 said she had heard of the technical problems anticipated with the earlier daylight-savings time start but did not plan to do anything to update her technology. “If it happens, it happens, and I’ll deal with it then,” she said.

— Sara Molinaro

Clocks spring forward Sunday


follows in which some elements of the fi rst set of scenes are pre-served.

“As a form, the Harold is based off of the rule of three. Each set of scenes is done three times,” Guzzardi said. This cycle (of three scenes, group game, three scenes) repeats anther time un-til components of all three scenes merge into one, thereby ending the performance.

“Long-form focuses on devel-oping relationships. Comedy aris-es because we’re put on the spot and making things up as we go,” Litton said. Brown students ap-pear to be enjoying this new struc-ture of comedy. After performing their last show in an overfl owing Wilson Hall, Starla and Sons is moving to Salomon 001 for its per-formance tonight at 9 p.m.

The group is planning to push the boundaries of Brown improv even further — they are holding auditions this weekend and have many ideas about increasing their presence on campus.

“We also have radical ideas about different things. We might do a show with a band, we might travel,” Litton said.


Starla and Sons join improv scenimprov scenimprov e

ics will also be housed in Metcalf. The details of the department’s presence in Metcalf are not yet clear, but O’Neil said more math-ematics professors may move into Metcalf over time in “increments that make sense.”

The relocation of the neuro-science department also cleared space in the Medical Research Lab, which connects Metcalf to Arnold Lab. “We would like the MRL to be assigned to nanosci-entists,” O’Neil said, adding that a few are already moving into the lab. Administrators hope to use the space for professors who are from different departments but are doing interdisciplinary re-search relating to nanoscience and have overlapping research in-terests, she said.

O’Neil said the Space Commit-tee has yet to determine long-term plans for the Metcalf complex. “It might be that we look at this space for interdisciplinary science, as

we have for nano, or it might be that it’s more appropriate to move a department into this building,” she said. “What we don’t want to do is keep fi lling it up with odd people who just need space.”

O’Neil and Michael McCor-mick, director of planning for Fa-cilities Management, who also staffs the Space Committee, meet weekly to discuss space needs across campus. “We fi lter all of the space requests … and we are thinking strategically about what the needs are campus wide,” O’Neil said.

Metcalf currently houses the Department of Cognitive and Lin-guistic Sciences. William War-ren, professor of cognitive and

linguistic sciences and chair of the department, said the chang-es in the complex will not have a huge impact on his department. “The space that we’ve used hasn’t changed at all,” he said.

According to Warren, the cog-nitive and linguistic sciences de-partment has requested more space to accommodate addition-al faculty. “I hope sometime this spring that will get fi gured out,” he said.

The Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences will even-tually move into a new building at 154 Angell St., which O’Neil said is currently slated to open in 2010. For now, Warren said, “We’ll make some new friends.”

Iran to fi nd a subpoena for her ar-rest — she had been charged with undermining national security, a crime punishable by death. Her house was broken into and her papers stolen. Though ultimately exonerated, Ravanipour spent 10 months absorbed in complicated legal procedures without even knowing the basis for the charg-es.

Ravanipour is not the fi rst per-son in her family to face politi-cal oppression. After the Iranian Revolution, she said, authorities targeted her family. “They killed my brother. He was 19 years old. And all of my family was in jail,” she said.

Born in a small village in the south of Iran, Ravanipour de-scribed her home as mystical and imaginative. “We grew up in an ocean of fi ction and myth,” she said.

In the regional villages, “every-

one wears beautiful colors — or-ange, red, blue,” she said, adding that the dominant color in Iran to-day is black. Ravanipour protests: “I don’t know which god says you have to wear black, gray, brown.”

Ravanipour studied psychol-ogy at Shiraz University in south-west Iran. There, she realized she did not identify with the more tra-ditional girls at the school. “The students told me, ‘You act as a man,’ ” because she played foot-ball and did not care about cloth-ing, she said.

She chooses not to wear the hijab or any form of covering be-cause women in her family have never observed the tradition. The practice has only become univer-sal since the revolution and has no meaning for her, Ravanipour said.

“I want to see the people, and the people to see me,” she said.

Not fulfi lled by her studies at college, Ravanipour started writing “daily memories,” which

made her “calm, quiet, satisfi ed.” After the revolution, she realized she needed to use her writing for more than personal purposes.

“I couldn’t remain quiet,” Rava-nipour said. “I have to tell some-thing about my situation. For this reason, I am a writer and politi-cal.”

She has published 10 titles in Iran, including short stories and novels, and describes her style as “magical realist, and a little bit romantic.” Iran’s Ministry of Cul-ture and Islamic Guidance pre-vented several of her works from being published and censored the fourth and fi fth editions of several of her books, an act Rava-nipour described as “ridiculous,” because copies of the books in the original editions had already been circulated around the coun-try.

Ravanipour is the third Inter-national Writers Project fellow to come from Iran. Due to the Ira-nian regime’s tense relationship

with the United States, the coun-try has “dominated” the project’s attention, according to its direc-tor, Adjunct Professor of Literary Arts Robert Coover.

Though the project receives applications from all regions of the world, the Middle East has the highest concentration of ap-plicants, Coover said. The previ-ous fellow, Shahryar Mandani-pour — who is continuing his fel-lowship this semester — and the 2004 fellow, Shahrnush Parsipur, are both Iranian.

Ravanipour said Iran’s sup-pression of free expression has hindered its progress as a nation. “The gap between our country and the new world is huge,” she said.

She hopes to use her time at the University to refresh herself. “In my mind, there are a lot of bad things, sad things,” she said. “I want to put in my mind hap-piness.” Ravanipour will be at Brown through the summer.


Ravanipour, an Iranian author, takes refuge on College Hill


Departments and programs to move to Metcalf complex

www.browndailyherald.com

WORLD & NATIONTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDFRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2007CH 9, 2007CH 9, PAGE 7

Clinton proposes new GI bill

W O R L D I N B R I E F

WASHINGTON (Newsday) — Hillary Rodham Clinton launched a wide-ranging attack on the Bush administration’s treatment of wounded Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers Thursday, saying the White House was so inept it couldn’t run a “two-car parade.”

Clinton, joining a chorus of politicians in all parties decrying con-ditions at the army’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center, called for a new GI bill of rights modeled on the broad array of benefi ts offered to World War II veterans.

Her proposal, which comes with no cost estimate, is aimed at improving health facilities, increasing physical and mental health screenings for soldiers, speeding up payments to the families of the dead and clarifying guardianship rules for orphaned children.

“This administration is frankly unable to run a two-car parade,” the Democratic front-runner said during a speech at the Center for American Progress, a think tank founded by former Clinton White House offi cials.

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt dismissed Clinton’s reform package as the “politically convenient cal-culation that Americans have come to expect from the senator,” add-ing, “someone should remind Hillary Clinton that President Bush isn’t on the ballot in 2008.”

Clinton’s speech, heralded as a major address by her staff, came on a day when she backed Senate Democrats’ plan to mandate a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within six months. The binding resolution is aimed at ending major operations there by March 2008.

‘Planet Killer’ not in the stars, research indicates

WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — The risk that an asteroid capa-ble of wiping out humanity will crash into Earth is minuscule, new calculations suggest, but the chances of a smaller one destroying a city or setting off a catastrophic tsunami remain unclear and may be higher than previous estimates.

The calculations were presented at a four-day meeting in Wash-ington this week, leading scores of scientists present to conclude that NASA needs to move aggressively to meet a congressional deadline for identifying most of the potentially hazardous smaller asteroids and to develop ways to defl ect them if they home in on Earth.

But in a report released to Congress Thursday, the space agency said it does not have the funds to do the precautionary work, called for in its 2005 authorization bill.

The agency said it is technically feasible to meet the congressio-nal goal of identifying most small “near Earth objects” by 2020, but it said it would have to rely on telescopes built for other purposes and on spacecraft being developed by other agencies. It did not address who would fund research on ways to destroy or divert an asteroid before it became a danger.

“Due to current budget constraints, NASA cannot initiate a new program at this time,” said the report, obtained by Washington Post.

The NASA document was immediately criticized by the chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, Rep. Bart Gor-don, D-Tenn.

Firefi ghters take a slap at Giuliani

(Newsday) — On the presidential campaign trail, Rudolph Giu-liani leans heavily on his image as a hero of Sept. 11, but Thursday “America’s Mayor” got a sharp rebuff from a disgruntled constitu-ency most non-New Yorkers probably think is in his corner — fi re-fi ghters.

After Giuliani pulled out of a planned appearance at an Interna-tional Association of Firefi ghters presidential forum next week, the group released a stinging draft letter indicating that it almost didn’t invite him because of continuing anger at his “despicable” role in pulling fi refi ghters off the Twin Towers’ debris pile in 2001 before all hope of fi nding their dead comrades’ remains was exhausted.

“The disrespect that he exhibited to our 343 fallen FDNY broth-ers, their families, and our New York leadership in the wake of that tragic day has not been forgiven or forgotten,” said the three-page letter, drafted by union leaders in late February and fi rst disclosed on Newsday’s Web site Thursday.

The union eventually decided to invite Giuliani because the fo-rum is supposed to be open to all candidates. But, said IAFF spokes-man Jeff Zack, “To the extent fi refi ghters know or learn about that story, the letter will absolutely represent the view of fi refi ghters across this country.”

A Giuliani aide Thursday said he pulled out of the March 14 forum on Wednesday because of a “scheduling confl ict.” She refused to dis-cuss the letter, but released a statement from Tim Brown, identifi ed as a former New York fi refi ghter and head of a group called Firefi ght-ers for Rudy, saying that “many fi rst responders” back Giuliani.

The IAFF backed Al Gore and John Kerry in the last two presi-dential elections, so loss of its backing isn’t a big deal for a Repub-lican. But the dispute was a fresh reminder of the hidden political perils that may lurk for Giuliani in episodes of his stormy mayoralty that are unfamiliar to many Americans.

U.S. open to talking about Iraq with Iran, SyriaBY KAREN DEYOUNGWASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — The Bush ad-ministration opened the door Thursday to one-on-one discus-sions with both Iran and Syria at this weekend’s Baghdad confer-ence, as long as the talks are limit-ed to the subject of peace and sta-bility in Iraq.

“If a discussion emerges which is focused upon these goals in Iraq, they are discussions which, as diplomats, we will proceed with,” said David Satterfi eld, State Department coordinator for Iraq and senior adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “We are not going to turn and walk away.”

Such talks would constitute the administration’s fi rst bilater-al meeting with Iranian govern-ment representatives in nearly four years. In May 2003, Wash-ington ended a series of tentative exchanges amid charges that Iran had a role in suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon, un-der then-Defense Secretary Don-ald Rumsfeld, pressed hard for a policy of toppling the Tehran gov-ernment.

Satterfi eld made clear that the

United States has no interest in discussing in Baghdad Iran’s al-leged nuclear weapons program.

The last bilateral talks with Syria took place in January 2005, when then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage visited Damascus. Armitage cited im-provements in Syria’s efforts to stem the cross-border infi ltra-tion of militants into Iraq and ex-pressed concern over Syrian sup-port for terrorist groups. The United States withdrew its ambas-sador to Damascus the following month, charging Syrian involve-ment in the assassination of for-mer Lebanese prime minister Rafi q al-Hariri.

The administration has charged both Iran and Syria with undermin-ing peace in Iraq — and, in Iran’s case, with providing materiel and training to insurgents there.

Satterfi eld declined to say whether the U.S. delegation — he and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad — would initi-ate talks outside the main con-ference, which is to be attended by representatives of Iraq’s Arab neighbors, Iran, Turkey, the Unit-ed States and the other four per-manent members of the U.N. Se-

curity Council. But he said there will be ample opportunity for bi-lateral conversations with Tehran and Damascus if warranted.

Satterfi eld did not specify how the contacts would take place. “I am not going to give you a blow-by-blow of ‘Will we approach over orange juice or will we wait until lunch is served,”’ he told report-ers Thursday.

The conference Saturday is to be followed by talks among for-eign ministers next month, with an expanded list of participants to include, among others, represen-tatives of Japan and Canada. Rice has said that she will attend.

The administration has been at pains to characterize the one-day Baghdad meeting — to be held in the Green Zone — as an event initiated and to be hosted by the Iraqi government. Satterfi eld de-scribed it as a “preparatory meet-ing” for the later ministerial talks, and said that it will focus on “ad-dressing, in a progressive fashion, Iraq’s needs, Iraq’s undertakings, how best the international com-munity, the neighbors, the region can support Iraq as it moves for-

Trading halted for 35 fi rms over e-mailsBY CARRIE JOHNSONWASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — Securities reg-ulators Thursday halted trading in nearly three dozen companies — the initial salvo in “Operation Spamalot,” a campaign to block e-mails promoting stocks to unsus-pecting investors.

The crackdown against invest-ment spam amounts to the big-gest such action in the history of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Shareholders lost tens of millions of dollars in the past year by biting on fraudulent Internet offers to “ride the bull” or win “fast money” by buying thin-ly traded stocks, agency offi cials said. They continue to investigate whether the spam emanated from third-party stock promoters, cor-porate insiders or both.

Some of the hyped messages found their way to the e-mail ac-counts of SEC enforcement law-yers as they spent weeks tracing the alleged scams and their ori-gins. Authorities said the decision to halt trading at 35 penny-stock companies, including a California business that provides computer security services, is merely the fi rst step in a systematic effort to root out the people who sent mis-leading stock promotions and oth-ers who profi ted from them.

“When spam clogs our in-box-es, it’s annoying,” SEC Chairman Christopher Cox told reporters. “When it rips off investors, it’s il-legal and destructive.”

Americans face at least 100 mil-lion spam e-mails hyping stocks each week, and the number con-tinues to rise steadily, said Oxford University law professor Jonathan Zittrain, who has researched the issue. The unsolicited messages work by encouraging people to invest in a stock, driving up the price and trading volume in the days following the solicitations, only to plummet after the culprits have sold their shares at a profi t.

Pump-and-dump schemes date to Wall Street’s early days, but the Internet has transformed the dark, smoky boiler rooms fi lled with fraudsters making phone calls to unsuspecting investors into an easier, cheaper way to reach potential marks with the click of a button, said SEC en-forcement chief Linda Chatman Thomsen. Publicly traded compa-nies must tell the truth about their operations and have a reasonable basis for making positive state-ments, she added.

One of the e-mails investiga-tors released Thursday promoted the “huge news expected out on APPM, get in before the wire.” Trading volume on Dec. 18, 2006, the fi rst weekday after the e-mail launch, rose nearly 140-fold, to 484,568 from 3,500 shares, and the stock price rose to 19 cents per share from 6 cents. Less than two weeks later, the stock of Ap-parel Manufacturing Associates, of Bloomfi eld, Conn., slid back to 10 cents per share.

Stock trading in each of the companies, including CTR Invest-ments & Consulting of Pasadena, Md., will be halted for at least 10 days, according to the terms of an emergency order that regula-tors sought Thursday. Authorities said that “questions have arisen regarding the adequacy and ac-curacy of press releases concern-ing the company’s operations,” ac-cording to the order.

Jerry Janik, chief executive of CTR, said in a telephone interview that word of the stop in trading came as a surprise. The company, which sells such things as online visitor sign-in books, was the tar-get of a vigorous e-mail spam cam-paign last year. Janik said he later issued a news release disavowing the messages and portraying the company as a victim of the spam attack.

Janik disavowed any connec-tion to the offending e-mails and said the trading shutdown was

already causing problems. “This is going to cause me some heart-ache. It raises eyebrows, which we don’t need,” he said.

Mark Schonfeld, director of the SEC’s New York offi ce, which launched the initiative, said that the potential damage to investors outweighed the inconvenience of the trading halt to companies that were targeted by spam.

Each of the stocks at issue trades on the “pink sheets,” a stock quote service that is more lightly policed than the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq Stock Market. Pink sheet compa-nies are not required to fi le fi nan-cial reports with regulators, and brokers do not have to perform due diligence on them, unlike with other markets.

To make their case, lawyers in the SEC’s New York offi ce have since last fall tracked hundreds of spam messages and uncov-ered phony claims about patents, acquisitions and infl ated assets. Bruce Karpati, an SEC assistant regional director, said he and oth-er lawyers received electronic in-vestment hype about Goldmark Industries, one of the companies whose trading was stopped Thurs-day, in their agency in-boxes.

Offi cials selected the 35 com-panies because they were the sub-ject of repeated spam initiatives or particularly egregious claims about their operations or fi nancial performance. Schonfeld said reg-ulators are trying to assess wheth-er a ring of stock promoters might be responsible for multiple spam messages involving different com-panies and whether executives at some of the companies may have played a role in the hype.

At least some of the spam orig-inated outside the United States. Regulators thanked the Royal Ca-nadian Mounted Police and the Ontario Securities Commission, among other international author-ities, for their help at the news conference.

continued on page 8


ward.”He said that Saturday’s ses-

sion will begin with a state-ment by Iraq, to be followed by statements from the other par-ticipants taking turns. “We will make clear our own views in our own presentations during the multilateral session regarding the need for support ... for a se-cure, stable, peaceful, democrat-ic Iraq from all of its neighbors, as well as the broader interna-tional community,” Satterfi eld said.

The administration, he said, views the conference in the con-text of what he said are the four pillars of President Bush’s new strategy for Iraq — security, po-litical reconciliation, economic development and diplomacy.

While noting that Iraq has taken some steps toward politi-

cal unifi cation, Satterfi eld said its Shiite-dominated government needs to make more progress on de-Baathifi cation legislation to bring more Sunnis into national life, as well as on a “meaningful amnesty” program to demobi-lize, disarm and reintegrate “all armed groups” in the country.

A separate meeting of Iraq’s donor nations is scheduled for March 16 at the United Nations, although Satterfi eld said that he expects some discussion of out-side economic aid in Baghdad. “Far too little has materialized from the commitments for both direct assistance and debt for-giveness with respect to Iraq,” he said.

While attention in this coun-try has focused on potential U.S. talks with Iran and Syria, other countries in the Middle East have their own concerns about the Baghdad conference.


U.S. open to Iran, Syria talks In S.C., inmates would trade organs for timeBY JENNY JARVIELOS ANGELES TIMES

ATLANTA — Prison inmates in South Carolina could get up to six months shaved off their sentences if they donated a kidney or their bone marrow, under a proposed bill before the state Senate.

“We have a lot of people dy-ing as they wait for organs, so I thought about the prison popula-tion,” said state Sen. Ralph Ander-son, the bill’s main sponsor. “I be-lieve we have to do something to motivate them. If they get some good time off, if they get out early, that’s motivation.”

The proposal was approved Thursday by the Senate Correc-tions and Penology Subcommittee.

But it is almost certain to prompt fi erce opposition from le-gal experts and prisoner rights ad-vocates about whether inmates are able to make such a decision freely

and without coercion.“For a prisoner to actually have

a benefi t for giving up an organ vio-lates every ethical value I’m aware of,” said Lawrence Gostin, a profes-sor of law at Georgetown Univer-sity Law Center and chairman of the Institute of Medicine’s commit-tee on human subject research in prisoners. “It’s grossly unethical, if not unlawful,” he said. The institute is part of the National Academy of Sciences.

Legislators said they would not debate the measure until they es-tablished whether exchanging prison time for body parts violates federal law. Under current law, it is illegal to exchange an organ for “valuable consideration.” Lawmak-ers are attempting to determine whether a reduced sentence con-stitutes a consideration.

“Getting out of prison early is more valuable than money,” Gostin said. “That’s your freedom.”

Even without the incentive of reduced prison time, Gostin said, the proposal would be unethical because prisoners have little au-tonomy and live in highly coercive environments. Federal law, for ex-ample, prohibits inmates from en-tering clinical trials of drugs under development even if they have can-cer or AIDS, because their confi ne-ment could cause them to make a decision they might not otherwise make.

Anderson said his organ dona-tion program would impose com-prehensive oversight.

“We would check that this was voluntary and they had all the in-formation,” he said. “It would not be forced upon them.”

According to the Organ Pro-curement and Transplantation Net-work, more than 95,300 Americans are awaiting an organ transplant, and about 6,700 die every year be-fore an appropriate organ is found.

Democrats outline Iraq withdrawal plansBY NOAM N. LEVEY AND RICHARD SIMONLOS ANGELES TIMES

WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders outlined plans Thursday to compel President Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. combat forces from Iraq as soon as this summer, marking the fi rst time the majority in Congress has called for a dead-line to end the unpopular war.

The proposals dramatically shift the debate on Capitol Hill from sym-bolic measures to concrete plans to bring troops home just two months after Democrats assumed power.

“Our troops must be out,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has spent weeks trying to craft legislation to fulfi ll her par-ty’s electoral mandate to end the war.

Underscoring the challenges that confront Democrats with their latest legislative gambit, House and Senate leaders have drawn up dif-ferent timetables and mechanisms for achieving a withdrawal.

It also remains unclear wheth-er Democratic leaders will be able to persuade all their members to back the efforts, with some wor-ried about restricting military com-manders and others convinced the war should end even sooner.

White House offi cials respond-ed Thursday with a promise that Bush would veto any legislation that constrains the war effort. “What we’re seeing here is an arti-fi cial, precipitous withdrawal from Iraq based on, unfortunately, poli-tics in Washington, not on condi-tions on the ground in Baghdad,” Bush senior adviser Dan Bartlett said.

Republican leaders meanwhile blasted the proposals as a danger-ous attempt to micromanage the four-year-old war.

For Democrats searching for an Iraq plan to help them regain the momentum that swept them into the majority in November, Thurs-day’s announcements seemed to provide at least a momentary jolt.

“This is a major moment in the history of ending the Iraq war,” said Sen. Russell D. Feingold, D-Wis., a leading war critic who had faulted his colleagues earlier for not being aggressive enough.

Senate Democrats, including Feingold, announced plans Thurs-day to push a binding resolution that would begin troop withdraw-als no later than 120 days after the

resolution is approved and would set as a “goal” the withdrawal of all combat troops by the end of March 2008.

In the House, Pelosi and senior lawmakers laid out a more com-plex timetable that would require the withdrawal of U.S. forces as soon as the end of this year, if the Iraqi government fails to meet key goals, such as disarming sectarian militias. House Democrats incorpo-rated their plan in a spending bill that is essential to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Both the House and Senate pro-posals would allow some U.S. forc-es to remain in Iraq for limited mis-sions, such as training Iraqi armed forces and conducting anti-terror-ism operations.

By attaching a timetable to the supplemental war spending bill, House Democratic leaders ap-peared to be offering a substantial concession to the party’s staunch-est war critics.

Under the plan outlined Thurs-day, Bush would have to certify by July 1 that the Iraqi government is making progress on a series of benchmarks, including training its army and passing laws designed to reduce sectarian strife. If the presi-dent cannot do that, the administra-tion would have to begin withdraw-ing troops immediately and con-clude by the end of the year.

If the president reports prog-ress, he would face another dead-line on Oct. 1. At that time, he would have to certify that the Iraqi government had met the bench-marks. If he cannot, U.S. forces would have to withdraw by March 2008.

Even if all the benchmarks are met, U.S. forces would have to be-gin withdrawing by March 1, 2008, and fi nish by the end of August.

The House Democratic plan also would put a series of require-ments on the president to certify that military units deploying to Iraq are adequately rested, trained and equipped, a measure designed by Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., to slow the president’s “surge.”

But in a nod to moderates, Murtha and House leaders agreed to allow the president to waive the requirements if he explains why he is doing so.

In addition, the Democrats have proposed changes to the more than $100 billion supplemental war spending bill.

They want to boost funding for

veterans’ health care in the wake of news reports about deplorable outpatient housing and lengthy bu-reaucratic delays at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. And they want to allocate more money for combat operations in Afghanistan, which Democrats argue should be the focus of U.S. efforts to combat global terrorism.

Democratic leaders have not fi nished drafting the bill and many provisions remain vague.

The plan nonetheless received cautious endorsements from sev-eral moderate Democrats, a group whose support is critical for it to pass.

“We’re on the one-yard line right now,” said Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., a member of theBlue Dog co-alition of moderate Democrats who served in Iraq with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division before be-ing elected to Congress last year.

The proposal generated less enthusiasm among hard-core anti-war lawmakers in the House, who lined up Thursday behind a pro-posal sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., to fully fund the with-drawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of the year.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., a leader of the more than 80-member Out of Iraq Caucus, said the group had a “lively” meeting with party leaders Thursday afternoon, but has not endorsed their proposal.

“We’re not there yet,” she said.Senate Democrats appeared

more unifi ed behind the straight-forward resolution sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who was joined Thursday by Feingold and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., a centrist.

Reid said he hoped to attract Re-publican support for the measure. “Truly changing course in Iraq will require Republican cooperation,” he said.

As Democrats edged toward a high-stakes showdown that puts a military funding bill at the center of a debate over ending the war, there were few signs of Republican support. Republican leaders imme-diately promised to vote against any spending measure that dic-tates how the war is fought.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new com-mander of U.S. forces in Iraq, “should be making decisions on the ground in Iraq and not Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha.”

Many mothers nabbed in immigration raid on factoryBY ERIKA HAYASAKILOS ANGELES TIMES

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Be-fore heading off to jobs stitching safety vests for U.S. soldiers, the mothers kissed their babies good-bye, leaving them at nurseries or with sitters.

The factory employees — mostly women from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador thought to be in the United States illegally — had just started their workday earlier this week when immigra-tion offi cials arrived.

Tejada Tiodora, 37, sat at a sewing machine in the back, while Vilma Inestroza, 22, cleaned mili-tary backpacks nearby. Tiodora recalled hearing someone shout: “Turn off the machines. … Don’t run!”

At fi rst, she said in an inter-view, she thought it was a fi re drill. Then she saw hundreds of work-ers running toward her — along with dozens of immigration offi -cers with guns and barking dogs.

The raid was the latest in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown on il-legal workers nationwide. In all, 327 employees were detained for possible deportation. Company offi cials also were arrested. By Thursday, offi cials said, 60 of the workers had been released on hu-manitarian grounds. They includ-ed immigrants who were preg-nant, had medical issues or did not have someone to care for their children.

New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang called the factory a sweat-shop, like “something out of a Dickens novel.”

Richard Rocha, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs En-forcement, said Thursday that the raid on Michael Bianco Inc. was part of an investigation coordi-nated with social service, law en-forcement and city government offi cials. “The people who were ar-rested as a result of this investiga-tion have been criminally charged … for violating immigration laws,” he said.

Tiodora, who had dropped her 1-year-old daughter off at day care the morning of the raid, was among those authorities let go, pending a hearing. Many who were not re-leased were transferred to detain-ment centers in Texas and else-

where in the United States.The arrests of the undocu-

mented workers in this commu-nity 50 miles south of Boston stranded about 140 children until someone could be found to take care of them, said Bethany Toure of the New Bedford Community Connections, which is helping the immigrants fi nd legal and social services.

A church was turned into a tri-age center Tuesday, as husbands showed up looking for wives, and children came looking for moth-ers. One baby was rushed to the hospital for dehydration after she refused to drink anything other than her mother’s breastmilk, Toure said. Residents delivered diapers, bottles, juice and formula to the church.

“When a child today in New Bedford asks where his mother is, we don’t necessarily have the answer,” said Massachusetts state Sen. Jarrett Barrios, a Democrat. “And we can’t say that we will have the answer tomorrow, or next week, or next month, because the federal government has chosen to send some of these mothers to another state. … We don’t know when they will be reunited with their children.”

Harry Spence, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, said two teenag-ers were missing Thursday night. The other children had been ac-counted for. Social workers were able to locate relatives of one 7-year-old girl who called a hot line Tuesday night saying she could not fi nd her mother. “We met the children and made sure they had a safe place to go,” Spence said. “But for the long-term arrange-ments, we don’t know.”

Tiodora said she spent seven hours on the factory fl oor dur-ing the raid — her hands tied be-hind her back and her feet bound in front of her with plastic cuffs — as offi cers rounded up illegal workers. All the while she worried about her baby and a 16-year-old daughter she left behind. She said she was not allowed to drink wa-ter, make phone calls or go to the bathroom.

Outside, she said, a helicop-ter hovered above the factory and boats searched a nearby lake, looking for undocumented work-ers who had escaped.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALDFRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2007CH 9, 2007CH 9, PAGE 9

spectable ninth place.“The results speak for them-

selves,” Tass said. “After doing so well in the IFA, it has been a very good season. It is one of the best that Brown has ever had.”

Hausmann won the Cointe Award, named after a former Cor-nell coach, a year after teammate and current tri-captain Christine Livoti ’08 was nominated for it. Can-didates are nominated by their fel-low fencers and then coaches elect the winner.

“It was really nice to win that award,” Hausmann said. “I have always really liked that award per-sonally at the IFAs. In the past I have been very close with the oth-er fencers who have gotten this award. Last year my teammate Christine Livoti was nominated for it as well. So it means a lot for me to be awarded that.”

Tass said he felt that Hausmann deserved the award. “That tells a lot about the character and princi-ples of Brown fencers,” he added.

Pagliaccio, an epee fencer, ad-vanced out of his qualifying brack-

et to reach the 16-fencer epee fi -nals. He advanced to the semifi nals before losing to Harvard’s Teddy Sherrill, the eventual champion, and then fell in the third-place match.

“A highlight of the day was when David Pagliaccio made top four in the men’s epee event,” said tri-captain Dan Mahoney ’07. “It was a very strong fi eld, so that was just tremendous.”

No other men made the fi nal 16 in their respective weapons, but four women qualifi ed. Randy Alevi ’10 fi nished fi fth with the sa-ber, reaching the quarterfi nals. Joining her in the round of 16 was fellow saber fencer Charlotte Gar-tenberg ’08. Foilist Kirsten Lynch ’10 and epeeist Livoti also qualifi ed for the round of 16. The women’s saber squad of Alevi, Gartenberg and Charlotte Rose ’09, who nar-rowly missed qualifying for the fi eld of 16, posted a fourth-place fi nish, the best result of the Bears’ six squads.

“I am really happy with the way the team fenced and our fi nal place-ment,” Hausmann said. “I think it speaks to how much effort we’ve been putting into our practice and

how well we’ve been fencing over the season.”

The Bears now turn their atten-tion to the NCAA Regionals, com-ing up on Sunday. For the second year in a row, Brown has qualifi ed a full team of three fencers per weap-on. Last year, several fencers came close to qualifying for Nationals, but only Ruth Schneider ’06 made the cut. Tass said he hopes that more of his fencers will advance this year.

“This competition is going to be very, very tough,” Tass said. “I am hoping to get out a number of people. I think we will have two or three women and about the same on the men’s side. If we do that, it will be awesome.”

Hausmann said she sees quali-fying a full team for Regionals as a sign of progress. “That is some-thing I’m very proud of,” she said. “We usually send a large number of people to Regionals. It just real-ly speaks to how strong our team is and how every year we are get-ting stronger members, improving the members we have and just re-ally coming together as a solid fenc-ing team.”


league defensemen with eight goals in Ivy play. He now has 19 goals on his career, the eighth highest all-time for a Brown de-fenseman. It is Hurley’s fi rst ap-pearance on the All-Ivy team.

Rosen fi nished the year with a .920 save percentage, fi rst in the Ivies and fi fth all-time for Brown. He also recorded a 2.75 goals-against average, which was good enough for sixth all-time in school history. For an eight-week stretch, Rosen had the top goals-against average and save percentage in the country.

— Peter Cipparone

W. hockey’s Moore and Stock honored

The six head coaches in the women’s hockey league vot-ed Nicole Stock ’09 and Hayley Moore ’08 All-Ivy Honorable Mention on Wednesday. Moore is the eighth-leading scorer in the league, while Stock was the Bear’s top goaltender.

Moore logged 20 goals scored 36 points over the course of 29 games this season. The Nov. 5 game against Quinnipiac was one of Moore’s biggest, and she recorded her fi rst career hat trick. She was tops on the team in power-play goals with eight, scored three game-winning goals and was tied for the team lead in shorthanded goals, unas-sisted goals and plus/minus.

Moore ranked 22nd in the country with 1.24 points per game and 15th with .69 goals per game. She now ranks 17th on Brown’s all-time leading scorer list with 105 points.

Stock had three shut-outs for the Bears this season, and two of those earned her ECACHL Goaltender of the Week honors. She started in 20

games, including the last nine of the season, and fi nished with a record of 9-9-2. Her goals against average was 2.82, and she had a save percentage of .910. January saw her biggest week of the sea-son, when she played in three games, making 56 saves and al-lowing only one goal over the course of 137:24.

— Sarah Demers

Wrestlers claw onto All-Ivy squads

On Thursday, wrestling co-captain Levon Mock ’08 was named Second Team All-Ivy, and Shawn Kitchner ’07 and Mark Savino ’08 earned All-Ivy Honor-able Mention status.

Mock earned his honor by fi n-ishing 20-12 overall in the heavy-weight class. In conference play, Mock went 3-1, losing only to Cornell’s Zach Hammond, who was named to the All-Ivy First Team. In his three league victo-ries, Mock had two major deci-sions and one pin. Mock is a two-time conference honoree, land-ing on the All-Ivy Second Team for the second year in a row.

Kitchner missed every Ivy League contest but was still hon-ored for his strong non-confer-ence results. Wrestling at 165 all year, he fi nished second at the Brockport-Oklahoma Gold in November, but was injured at the Lone Star Duals on Jan. 7. He returned from injury this past weekend to take fourth in the EIWA Championships and earn a bid to the NCAA tourna-ment.

Savino piled up 16 wins on the season and fi nished the year with a 3-2 Ivy League record. Hi season highlights included plac-ing fi fth at the Brockport-Okla-homa Gold and taking fi fth in the EIWA championships.

— Peter Cipparone

Three wrestlers make All-Ivycontinued from page 12

W. and m. fencers fi nish 5th and 9th at IFA championships

It was great. I played lacrosse at St. Albans. … It was one of the best leagues in the nation, with George-town Prep and Landon. Landon was the best team in the country in the 1990s but Georgetown Prep took over the top spot around 2003.

Did you ever defeat either of those teams?

In my four years of lacrosse, we never beat either of those teams at the varsity level.

We lost against Landon four years in a row, each time by one goal. In the semifi nals of the league tournament, we lost by one in over-time and the other two years we lost by one in the fi nal minutes of the game.

What was the toughest part about transitioning to Brown?

Figuring out the classes was dif-fi cult. You have to learn the whole style of college to fully transition.

You learn what you need to do to succeed. Sometimes, that means I don’t have to do everything one night but I have to make up for it an-other night. You have to work with your schedule and it becomes a lot more fl exible. You really need to manage your time.

Does the Duke program come up a lot?

It did a lot in the beginning. It’s really sad for the sport. Lacrosse is a small sport, especially when I was growing up. If you see a guy wear-ing a basketball shirt, he may not be playing basketball, but if you see a lacrosse shirt, you know he plays la-crosse. We’re a tight knit group. The Duke players made some poor deci-sions and I don’t like to see people get hurt, but it’s also sad that there is a stigma about lacrosse players.

Have you traveled anywhere re-cently?

I went to Europe this past sum-mer. I actually saw Sweden play

England in (Cologne) when Joe Cole scored from outside the box. He volleyed it and hit the top right corner of the net. It was an amazing game, even though it ended in a 1-1 tie.

What did you think of Beckham? It was just cool seeing him and

knowing he was there. I don’t re-member him doing much in that game.

Do you follow professional la-crosse?

I’m not an avid fan, but I like watching the games. Its fun seeing players you’ve been watching since fourth grade playing together on the same team.

Do you think the professional la-crosse league has potential to be popular in the mainstream media?

I hope so. It’s a summer league so it does compete with baseball. I think it would be great to play in the league if I could one day.


Muldoon ’10 makes presence felt from the start

6,000 protesters await Bush with shouts, marches in trip to BrazilBY PATRICK J. MCDONNELL AND MAURA REYNOLDSLOS ANGELES TIMES

SAO PAULO, Brazil — As Pres-ident Bush fl ew here aboard Air Force One on Thursday, thousands of protesters shouting, “Out Bush!” marched down this city’s main drag, Avenida Paulista.

Hundreds of riot police fl anked at least 6,000 protesters near the city fi nancial center, and the scent of tear gas hovered along the march route. At least three pro-testers and a news photographer were reported hurt as baton-wield-ing police and protesters clashed, but there was no immediate word on their condition. Authorities later said that 16 police offi cers suffered minor injuries.

“We don’t want Bush here,” shouted Marcelo Prado, 19, echo-ing a common sentiment. “Tell him to go home!”

Bush arrived here Thursday to begin a fi ve-country Latin Ameri-can visit designed to bolster U.S. standing in the region and counter the growing infl uence of Venezue-

lan President Hugo Chavez.The trip is the president’s lon-

gest to date in Latin America, a region many Bush critics say has been largely ignored as the White House focused on Iraq and the Middle East.

In Brazil, Latin America’s larg-est and most populous nation, Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are expected to un-veil a new commercial partnership centering on ethanol, a plant-based gasoline substitute produced that Bush is championing as a future al-ternative to fossil fuels.

But in their pre-arrival protest, many here Thursday hoisted ban-ners likening Bush to Adolf Hit-ler and warning Bush to keep his “hands off” Venezuela, while also decrying any U.S.-Brazilian bio-fu-els pact as a plot by Washington to grab Brazilian resources.

“For Bush this is a matter of get-ting cheaper fuel and getting out of the mess in the Middle East,” said Cristiana Coimbra, 35, a translator who wore a sticker featuring Bush with a swastika.

The protest march, which in-

cluded representatives of environ-mental, student and labor groups, broke up before Bush’s plane touched down.

Brazilian police also were de-ployed in force to clear the route that Bush was scheduled to take from the airport to his hotel near downtown. Reports here indicated that as many as 4,000 law-enforce-ment offi cers were participating in one of the largest security opera-tions in recent memory.

Anti-Bush rallies seem likely to follow Bush on his Latin America tour. On his last visit to the con-tinent, in 2005, Bush never wit-nessed the massive demonstra-tions criticizing his presence at a hemispheric economic summit in Argentina.

Bush and fi rst lady Laura Bush have planned a busy agenda for Fri-day, meeting with Brazilian Presi-dent Lula and with a variety of com-munity representatives.

Lula, standard-bearer of the left-ist Workers Party, has veered to the center since fi rst being elected in 2002 and is now regarded as a fi rm U.S. ally committed to ortho-

dox economic policies. The two presidents are scheduled to deliver a joint statement on bio-fuels tech-nology at a facility of Petrobras, the state-run energy fi rm.

No concrete pact on bio-fuels is expected during the visit, but a fi -nal deal may be hammered out dur-ing Lula’s planned visit to Camp Da-vid, Md., later in March. What the deal will involve remains unclear, but some have spoken of a joint ar-rangement to market ethanol else-where in Latin America.

The Brazilian government has called for the repeal of tariffs that have hindered imports of ethanol to the United States. But U.S. and Brazilian offi cials say the tariffs are unlikely to be eliminated.

While the White House has de-nied trying to counter the oil-fund-ed diplomacy of arch-enemy Hugo Chavez, Latin American experts al-most uniformly see the Bush trip as an effort to neutralize the Venezu-elan president, who has rushed to fi ll the void left by Washington’s fo-cus on the Middle East. Chavez has provided billions in cheap gasoline, medical care and other aid to allied

nations, while also reaching out to U.S. enemies in Iran and elsewhere, alarming the White House..

“This visit is part of a strategic project to topple Chavez,” said Ber-nardo Kucinsky, a former press ad-visor for Lula.

Bush is scheduled to fl y late Fri-day to neighboring Uruguay, where he is to meet with President Tabare Vasquez, another left-wing leader. A major part of Bush’s agenda, offi -cials say, is to demonstrate that the White House can work with Latin American elected leaders of all po-litical stripes — except for Chavez. Washington and Uruguay are also discussing a trade deal.

From Uruguay, Bush is due to head to Colombia, the continent’s leading recipient of U.S. aid, much of it designed to counter narcotics traf-fi cking in the nation that is the princi-pal source of U.S.-bound cocaine.

Conservative Colombian Presi-dent Alvaro Uribe is a staunch Bush supporter, but Uribe’s government lately has come under fi re for al-leged links to right-wing paramili-tary groups as a leftist insurgency still rages in the countryside.

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S T A F F E D I T O R I A L

EDITORIAL & LETTERSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2007CH 9, 2007CH 9,PAGE 10

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To the Editor:

A recent Herald editorial (“J-term’s identity crisis,” March 7) refers to the January@Brown pilot program as “not an utter failure” and a “lackluster winter ses-sion.” While I agree with The Herald that academic credit would strengthen January@Brown, I believe the overall tone of yesterday’s editorial conveys a com-plete misunderstanding of the reasons why students would choose to participate in a January term.

Even though students who completed this year’s pilot program didn’t receive academic credit, they still took part in meaningful academic exchanges with pro-fessors and social exchanges with friends. The Her-ald’s odd description of the January@Brown planning committee’s charge as a choice between a “snowy, homework-fi lled vacation” or “rigorous work for a

grade” confl ates varied academic experiences into ei-ther one of two groups: valid (with credit) or useless (without credit). These types of generalizations do little to further discussion among Brown students of what an ideal J-term could offer.

As any Brown student could tell you, letter grades — or in this case, credit — do not necessarily validate an academic experience. It is unfortunate that a news-paper representing the Brown community seems to have forgotten this very important principle.

Tristan Freeman ’07Vice President

Undergraduate Council of StudentsMarch 7

J-term doesn’t need credit to have meaning

A diamond to the new dorm chair tested last week by ResLife. It’s shiny, expensive, marginally useful, unnecessarily complicated, mostly around for its wow factor and missing some essential elements — just like a Brown education.

Coal to special nights at the Ratty. Karaoke and red velvet cake are novel, but salmon pizza and uncomfortably loud music should be banned. When will the Ratty gods realize that all we really want is chicken fi ngers and macaroni and cheese — all day, every day?

A diamynd to the Watermyn co-op. We support your noble pursuit of close-knit community, but we wonder what drawing an “older crowd” means when only four Brown students make the cut in a house of 12.

A cubic zirconium to the Department of Modern Culture and Media’s “Battlestar Galactica” panel, which featured comments from the President of Space on the blurred line between fact and fi ction. Ah, MCM — blurring the line between academic and ridiculous, one panel presentation at a time.

A diamond to Recyclemania for giving Brown students yet another reason to dismiss college rankings. We’re above all that … unless we’re on top.

A diamond to the opening of Rhode Island’s own Chipotle. Not only will it put the Ivy Room burrito bar to shame, but if student opinion can be trusted, we’re going to be able to eat a Chipotle burrito and not need to eat again for four days. Now that’s a meal plan.

Coal to the Brown Noser. We commend you for reaching Category III status despite turning a profi t last semester thanks to your grandma’s ads. But if you’re going to write moderately amusing articles about University life, you should know that the provost is David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98, not University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer. As freshmen who arrived after Zimmer left for the Windy City, how did you even get that wrong?

A diamond to the brave souls who participated in ResLife’s speed-dating-cum-Russian roulette roommate social Wednesday night. Don’t worry — the warm embrace of a Keeney triple probably awaits you and your newfound friends next year.

Diamonds and coal

Senior Staff Writers Rachel Arndt, Michael Bechek, Oliver Bowers, Zachary Chapman, Chaz Firestone, Kristina Kelleher, Debbie Lehmann, Scott Lowenstein, James Shapiro, Michael SkocpolStaff Writers Susana Aho, Taylor Barnes, Brianna Barzola, Evan Boggs, Irene Chen, Stewart Dearing, Nicole Dungca, Thi Ho, Rebecca Jacobson, Tsvetina Kamenova, Hannah Levintova, Abe Lubetkin, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, Zachary McCune, Nathalie Pierrepont, Marielle Segarra, Robin Steele, Allissa WickhamSports Staff Writers Amy Ehrhart, Kaitlyn Laabs, Eliza Lane, Kathleen Loughlin, Megan McCahill, Marco Santini, Tom Trudeau, Steele WestBusiness Staff Dana Feuchtbaum, Kent Holland, Alexander Hughes, Mariya Perelyubskaya, Viseth San, Kaustubh Shah, Jon Spector, Robert Stefani, Lily Tran, Lindsay WallsDesign Staff Brianna Barzola, Aurora Durfee, Sophie Elsner, Christian Martell, Matthew McCabe, Ezra Miller, Sarah RaifmanPhoto Staff Stuart Duncan-Smith, Austin Freeman, Tai Ho ShinCopy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Catherine Cullen, Erin Cummings, Karen Evans, Jacob Frank, Ted Lamm, Lauren Levitz, Cici Matheny, Alex Mazerov, Ezra Miller, Joy Neumeyer, Madeleine Rosenberg, Lucy Stark, Meha Verghese

To the Editor:

The recently-held January@Brown seems to have been getting a lot of attention, but silly arguments have been made on both sides. For-credit, not-for-credit … who cares? What we need to accept is that our winter break is too short for a solid J-term. That said, our winter break is also too short to get a job or internship or do much anything useful. On the other hand, we also need to accept that our winter break is too long. At least in my case, all my friends at home are back in school two to three weeks before I am, leaving me bored out of my mind.

We shouldn’t be arguing over details of the J-term;

instead, we should accept its futility, and winter break should be shortened by two or three weeks so we can get out in early May. It’s win-win: no endless periods of winter sitting at home doing nothing, and far more time to go home and earn money or complete longer internships, and maybe even squeeze in a summer class or two for credit. It also goes without saying: free time is much better spent over the summer than in the winter.

Kevin Neal ‘09March 8

Forget J-term — extend summer break

We have no free will.We ourselves have control over our own

actions, of course. Even if someone has a gun to your head you can still clearly “choose” not to do what they say.

Determinism, the belief that there is no free will, states not that you lack control over what you do – merely that you can only ever “choose” to do one thing. You are following a predetermined set of choices, each of them leading you to another set of choices whose outcome is also predetermined. You are liv-ing your life along a linear trajectory, ap-proaching your irrevocable destiny. Like the protagonist of George Orwell’s “1984,” there is nothing you can do to escape this prison – because even your efforts at defi ance are under the control of the forces that be.

Believing in determinism does not im-ply that we could predict anyone’s actions, or even that they could be predictable. With today’s technology and expertise, we cannot foresee an individual’s decisions unless they are in an artifi cially simple environment. Whether we will ever be able to predict such things is uncertain and largely irrelevant — we are able to disprove free will through our observation of other natural phenomena.

This is because from a scientifi c stand-

point, the argument over free will essen-tially boils down to whether or not you be-lieve in universal physical laws. If there are laws (such as gravity) that apply universal-ly and explain all natural phenomena, then free will cannot exist — because we can no more “choose” to go against our destiny than a rock could “choose” not to roll down a hill. The brain is where decisions get made, and the proteins, electric currents and neurons that make up our brain are all governed by these universal laws. Through sheer force of will, we cannot make an electric current in our brain fl ow backwards.

What about quantum physics, which pos-tulates that the behavior of sub-atomic parti-cles is truly “random?” Even if this is the case, utter randomness does not imply any sort of rational “free will.” And since the brain’s de-cisions are reactions to outside phenomena which are themselves governed by universal laws, life is like a pinball machine, a series of collisions whose outcome is predetermined.

All of these notions, however, are still only scientifi c facts. Many proponents of free will take a more spiritual view, asserting that there is a human soul that does not bend to physical laws. However, Western religion

provides no refuge. For all of the monotheis-tic faiths — Christianity, Islam and Judaism — deny the existence of free will.

All monotheistic faiths believe in an om-nipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing) deity. Even though it seems like the lesser of the two powers, omniscience is actually the more signifi cant in terms of theo-logical arguments over free will. For if God knows everything, clearly he must know our future actions, therefore clearly our choices have already been made — even if only in God’s mind.

For Christians, this principle is clearly il-lustrated in several sections of the Bible. In the Gospels, Jesus informs all of the Apostles of Judas’ coming betrayal. He even tells Ju-das himself (John 13:21-28), even though the betrayal has not yet taken place. The apos-tles arrogantly ignore Jesus’ pronouncement because, like many of us, they don’t under-stand how future actions could be predeter-mined. Interestingly, the Bible explicitly en-dorses determinism, stating that “the devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand [Jesus] over” (John 13:2).

The Gospel doesn’t merely say that the devil had entered Judas’ heart, which would imply that he could have resisted temptation through “free will.” It says the Devil had al-ready induced Judas. In other words, the evil in Judas was simply greater than the good. Jesus knew of the coming betrayal, and per-haps Judas himself did not – but it was al-ready there, inside of him.

Judas, as a sinner undeserving of God’s mercy, personifi es us all from a religious standpoint. This Biblical lesson is mirrored by similar parables in the Old Testament (the Torah) and the Quran.

It is also mirrored by the fi ndings of sci-ence. In the 1980s, a neuroscientist named Benjamin Libet conducted an experiment in which he asked subjects to fl ick their wrist at a “random” moment, while he measured their brain activity. Libet’s experiment re-vealed that choices take place on a subcon-scious level before they become conscious decisions. In other words, Libet saw the in-tention to fl ick the wrist in people’s minds before they themselves were consciously aware of the fact that they had made the de-cision.

The implications of this experiment are tremendous. The subjects proved incapable of behaving unpredictably — Libet was able to tell what they were going to do before they themselves knew. All of us are having our de-cisions fed to us by our subconscious minds, before we consciously “make” them. While we think we are “weighing the choices,” the choice has, in fact, already been made by our minds.

There is a famous maxim: “The side that wins is the one that succeeds in framing the debate.” In a sense, when we make our deci-sions, our minds have already framed the de-bate for us. The outcome is predetermined.

Whether you believe in scientifi c univer-sal laws or an omniscient, omnipotent God, it really makes no difference, because nothing is free from his or their will.

Is it not the essence of religion, of Islam, to accept that we are mere mortals carrying out the will of God? Does it not demonstrate a healthy submission to the laws of science to acknowledge that they govern us as well, not just the phenomena we observe?

This does not mean that we shouldn’t still go through the motions of making choices, or even that they are not, for all intents and purposes, unpredictable.

What it does mean is that we are all tak-ing part in a great universal narrative. Where it goes, nobody knows. All we know is: It has been written.

Michal Zapendowski ’07 is a pantheistic existentialist.

When Herald Opinions Editor Michal Za-pendowski ’07 fi rst told me of his plan to write a column arguing against the exis-tence of free will — and his desire to run the piece as a “point-counterpoint” seg-ment — I praised him for using his po-sition as an opinions editor to undertake a bold endeavor in journalism, breaking new ground for what may constitute ac-ceptable dialogue on the opinions page of a college daily. He clearly appreciated my compliment, but ironically, he shouldn’t have if he truly believes in his own argu-ment. If determinism — the belief that human beings have no free will — is true, then the notion of giving someone credit (or taking credit) for a novel idea is fundamentally illogical. The concept of assigning praise or blame to a choice an individual makes is just plain silly if that individual could not have chosen other-wise. That being said, I do not retract my praise for Michal’s efforts here because — to borrow from Harry Truman a little — I’m right, he’s wrong, and I’m going to prove it to you!

Arguments for determinism are made in different ways. One type of determin-ism is the so-called “compatibilist” view, which says that free will and determin-ism can actually co-exist. This sounds counterintuitive but can be better clari-fi ed by means of an example.

Let us take your decision of wheth-er to read this column. A compatibilist would say that whatever choice you make has been predetermined from the begin-ning of time, but your choice is free in the sense that nothing or no one is forcing you to make that choice. Compatibilists do not believe that both choices (to read and not to read) would be compatible with the complete state of the universe as it exists at the moment in time when you make your decision. Rather, compati-bilists would say that if you had desired not to read it, you would not have read it, but the simple fact of the matter is that you did desire to read it. Hence, you fi nd yourself reading it now.

The other form of determinism is an “incompatibilist” view, which rejects free will outright. Under this view, every event in the universe has both an under-lying cause and a subsequent effect, and our actions are no different from any oth-er event — all events can theoretically be explained by following the chain of cause and effect back to “the Big Bang” and the dawn of the universe as we know it. Hence, everything we have done in the past and will do in the future has been and always will be an inevitable conse-quence of “the Big Bang”.

The arguments that seriously call de-terminism, in both of its forms, into ques-tion come, perhaps surprisingly, from sci-ence. Work by 20th-century physicists in quantum theory revealed that quantum mechanics predicts events only in terms of probabilities. If the larger universe is governed by indeterministic laws — as it is on the quantum level — then determin-ism is indeed false. But while the truth of this proposition would destroy deter-minism, it would not necessarily promote free will either — if our actions were the result of nothing more than quantum ran-domness, free will would still remain ab-sent. But there are reasons to doubt the truth of that conclusion as well. First, there are some physicists, mathemati-cians and philosophers who recognize that the laws of cause and effect are obeyed in many other areas of science, and they hypothesize that a level of quan-tum indeterminism in the brain (with an otherwise deterministic universe at the macroscopic scale) may in fact be strong

evidence for the existence of free will.

The second reason to doubt that “it’s all just random” (even if some girl who lives down the hall from you has a Face-book photo album with this highly origi-nal title) is the positive case for free will. Literally, speaking, the best justifi cation for free will is actually our innate sense of its absolute truth, and the fundamental-ly irreplaceable role it plays in almost all human emotions and modes of conceptu-al human thought. It is doubtful that any-one (save perhaps a few bizarre people) could ever eliminate it totally from their lives.

Appeals to our intuition are almost in-variably bad arguments, and if we estab-lished as a society that such an appeal was a valid argumentative technique, we could never have discussions or debates at all, because no one’s opinions could ever be wrong. So if we say that it’s un-acceptable to justify one’s beliefs by pure intuition, why can I (or anyone) appeal to it when arguing for free will?

The answer is clear — but you’ll have to read this next sentence very careful-ly. In order for any argument (we’ll call

it argument X) to have force, the plausi-bility of argument X’s premises must be greater than the plausibility of the prem-ises in any other argument that would deny argument X’s conclusion. There is no philosophical premise to start from that will ever be more powerful than the statement, “I have free will,” and philoso-phy can never be more than the sum of human wisdom that builds from certain basic premises whose truth it seems al-most impossible to deny.

Determinism amounts to pure skep-ticism and is no more reasonable than statements like, “Maybe the external world does not exist.” In fact, it may even be less reasonable, since the scientifi c evidence undermines determinism, and philosophy bolsters the case for free will. I’m proud to defend free will, I’m proud to defend the idea that our lives have mean-ing and as a result, I think we all should have something to say in our search for what’s right and wrong.

Don Trella ’08 would like to thank PL12 and “Free Willy.”

OPINIONSTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDFRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2007CH 9, 2007CH 9, PAGE 11

Choose to read this column!

Jesus knew of the coming betrayal, and per-

Free will v. determinationI had no choice but to write this column

P O I N TCOUNTERPOINT

DON TRELLAOPINIONS COLUMNIST

MICHAL ZAPENDOWSKIOPINIONS COLUMNIST

Just two games into his Brown la-crosse career, Thomas Muldoon ’10 is already one of the leading attack-men for the men’s lacrosse team. He recorded a hat trick last week-end against Hofstra University, in-cluding the game-winning goal in the team’s 7–6 victory. For his in-spired play, Muldoon was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week. The High School All-American and sec-ond all-time leading scorer in St. Al-bans School history refl ected on his fi rst-year success.

The Herald: How did it feel to get a hat trick in your second career game at Brown against Hofstra, in-cluding the game winner?

Muldoon: It was a lot of fun beat-ing the 14th-ranked team in the na-tion. It was a great team effort and we played well. It also was great to get our coach’s fi rst win as a Brown Bears coach.

What was your off-season sched-ule like?

During the off-season, the Ivy League is only allowed 12 offi cial practices with our coaches. All of the other leagues can have unlim-ited practices.

Does that put your team at a disad-vantage in non-conference play?

It sets us back a little bit, but it just makes you work harder. We are allowed to have an unlimited num-ber of skill sessions with six man groups during the off-season.

Are you excited to play Providence College this weekend?

I’m always looking forward to the next game. I love playing out-of-conference teams because it shows us what we can do on a national scale, but I especially want to beat Providence because my dad went there. However, I hear you’ve never played a game until you play in an Ivy League game.

When did you start playing la-crosse?

My dad talked to a Madison high school coach when I was going into third grade. They practice next to my house and my dad asked where I could start playing. The coach, Chad McRae, actually had a sum-mer camp that I attended the sum-mer going into third grade. But I had a fi ddle stick when I was two years old.

How was your high school lacrosse experience?

SPORTS WEEKENDTHE BROWN DAILY HERALDFRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2007CH 9, 2007CH 9, PAGE 12

BY MARCO SANTINISTAFF WRITER

W. and m. fencers fi nish 5th and 9th at IFA Championships

Led by several strong individual performances, the men’s and wom-en’s fencing teams fi nished their regular season Saturday with a combined seventh-place fi nish out of the 12 teams competing at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships.

David Pagliaccio ’10 fi nished fourth in the men’s epee event to secure the Bears’ best individual result of the day, and tri-captain Jennifer Hausmann ’07 was named co-winner of the Georges L. Cointe Award for sportsmanship and skill.

Head Coach Atilio Tass said the women’s fi fth-place fi nish was the Bears’ best result ever at the IFA. The men’s team came in at a re-

BY ANDREW BRACACONTRIBUTING WRITER

Two m. basketball players make All-IvyMen’s basketball players Mark McAndrew ’08 and Damon Huff-man ’08 have both been select-ed to the All-Ivy League team for their performances this season. McAndrew was selected First Team All-Ivy, and Huffman was named an honorable mention All-Ivy selection.

McAndrew fi nished his im-pressive breakout season as the top scorer in the league, with 18.6 points per game. Last season, the guard from Barrington averaged only 1.2 points per game. He also ranked third in the Ancient Eight in free throw percentage at .848 and fi fth in both three-point fi eld goal percentage at .442 and three-point fi eld goals, averaging 2.48 treys per game.

This season, McAndrew’s three-point shooting was partic-ularly impressive, amassing 72 treys, ranking him second all-time at Brown. For his incredible im-provement, McAndrew has been nominated for the most improved player in the nation.

Huffman’s contributions were also impressive — notably that his average 14.7 points per game ranked him seventh in the league. After suffering a serious injury during Brown’s season opener against Michigan State, Huffman returned in December and picked up where he left off. He fi nished the season ranked second in the league in three-point fi eld goals per game at 2.83 and was also third in three-point fi eld goal per-centage at .455 and fourth in free-throw percentage at .843.

As a freshman, Huffman was honored as Ivy League Rookie of the Year.

— Madeleine Marecki— Madeleine Marecki— M

M. icers earn all-conference 1st and 2nd team recognitions

In recognition of their stellar play this season, Jeff Prough ’08 and Sean Hurley ’08 made the men’s hockey All-Ivy First Team, while Dan Rosen ’10 made the Second Team.

Prough was recognized for his explosive scoring. The forward fi nished the year with 33 points, second in the Ivies only to con-ference Player of the Year David Jones of Dartmouth. Prough was also second in the Ivy League in goals, with 16 on the season. He has now led the team in scoring two years in a row.

Hurley tied for fi rst among all-

Muldoon ’10 makes presence felt from the start

FRIDAY,DAY,DAY MAR. 9

BASEBALL: at South CarolinaSKIING: at USCSA Championships (Winter Park, Colo.) M. TENNIS: vs. Rhode Island, Varsity Tennis Courts, 3 p.m.; vs. Lafayette, Varsity Tennis Courts, 7 p.m.

SATURDAY,ATURDAY,ATURDAY MAR. 10

BASEBALL: at South CarolinaEQUESTRIAN: at Connecticut CollegeM. LACROSSE: at Providence

W. LACROSSE: at MarylandSOFTBALL: at Youngstown State; at Morgan StateW. TENNIS: vs. Rhode Island, Varsity Tennis Courts, 11 a.m.

SUNDAY,DAY,DAY MAR. 11

BASEBALL: at South CarolinaSOFTBALL: at Youngstown State; at George MasonW. TENNIS: vs. West Virginia, Varsity Tennis Courts, 11 a.mGYMNASTICS: vs. Southern Connecticut, Piz-zitola Center, 1 p.m.

S P O R T S S C H E D U L E

Patriots hire O’Brien ’92

Former Brown football player and coach Bill O’Brien ’92 has been hired as an offensive assistant coach by the New England Pa-triots. O’Brien played linebacker and defensive end for the Bears before embarking on a coaching career that has spanned 14 years and multiple coaching positions in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

O’Brien developed a solid re-cord during 12 years of coaching in the ACC. He has four years of experience as an offensive coor-dinator and has coached in three bowl games.

Although O’Brien played de-fense during his collegiate career, his coaching experience has con-sisted mainly of roles on the offen-sive side of the ball.

Following his graduation from Brown, O’Brien latched on as a graduate assistant tight ends coach under former Brown Head Coach Mark Whipple ’79. Whip-ple also served as quarterbacks coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2004 to 2007.

After two seasons at Brown, O’Brien was hired by Georgia Tech, where he coached for eight seasons and served as recruit-ing coordinator, running backs coach and offensive coordinator. The Yellow Jackets played in a bowl game during each of his two years as offensive coordinator. In his fi nal year with the team, Geor-gia Tech led the ACC in passing and was third in the league in scoring.

In 2001, O’Brien landed a spot as the University of Notre

Dame’s offensive coordinator when George O’Leary, then the head coach of Georgia Tech, was hired to coach the Irish. O’Leary was fi red fi ve days later, though, when it was discovered that he had falsifi ed numerous items on his resume. Notre Dame jetti-soned all of O’Leary’s staff, mak-ing O’Brien’s stay at one of col-lege football’s most prestigious jobs painfully short.

O’Brien was not out of a job for long. He was quickly picked up by the University of Maryland, where he coached for two years as a running backs coach. Follow-ing his time at Maryland, O’Brien became the offensive coordina-tor at Duke University, where he coached for two seasons before accepting the Patriots offer this February.

O’Brien was unavailable for comment, as Patriots policy bars assistant coaches from speaking with the media.

Brown football Head Coach Phil Estes, who said he developed a close relationship with O’Brien when the two coached together at Brown, told The Herald he spoke with O’Brien recently. Estes said O’Brien is enthusiastic about his opportunity to work with the Pa-triots organization.

According to Estes, O’Brien has received a number of inter-views in the past with NFL teams and has always wanted to coach in the NFL. Estes said he is happy for his close friend.

“Billy is just an unbelievable person. He’s one of those guys you instantly like when you meet them,” he said. “He has a great personality and great sense of the x’s and o’s of the game.”

The move to New England represents a homecoming of sorts for O’Brien, an Andover, Mass. native. Estes said it should be an exciting experience for O’Brien to coach so close to home.

“Obviously it will be a tremen-dous opportunity for him to be coaching with someone like (Pa-triot’s Head Coach Bill) Belich-ick,” Estes said. “Clearly they liked what he had to offer their or-ganization.”

BY ZACHARY CHAPMANSENIOR STAFF WRITER

Jacob Melrose / Herald File PhotoMark McAndrew ’08, a native of Bar-rington, led the men’s basketball team to a 6-8 conference record this season. His 18.6 points per game was his highest since he averaged 25 points per game his senior year at Barrington High School.

Jacob Melrose / HeraldDavid Pagliaccio ’10 fi nished fourth in men’s individual epee at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships last Saturday. Pagliaccio reached the tournament semifi nals before bowing out to the eventual winner. continued on page 9

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

continued on page 9

continued on page 9

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Friday, March 9, 2007