-
Entertamment Double Header
Cider House Rules & Aquarius
Darb l ly on th e academic graduate sc hoo ls in the nation.
phys ica l chemi stry and first in reputations of the faculty in
each
How do you know if someone In the maga7. ine's most recent bi
o-organic/biophys ical chemi s- de partment. T hi s yea r many has
had too much to drink ? I low issue. Ca ltec h's departments of
try. types of graduate programs were much is too much? What should
geo logy a nd ph ys ics we re In engineering. Ca ltech placed
judged. including MBA and MA you do if soilleoneyou know has ra nk
ed fir st in th e ir fi e ld s . third in two types: aerospacel
degree schools and schools of had too much to drink ? These are
Within the geology category. it aeronautical /astronauticaL and
law, educat ion, business, and sOll1e of the commonl y asked also
placed first in geophysics environmenta l/e nvironment al lllcd ic
ine. ques tions about a lcohol and al - and geochemi stry and third
in health , which rose from sixth Harva rd Uni ve rsit y and the
coho I emergencies. tectonics/structure. place las t year. It
ranked fourth Massac hu sse tt s In stitut e of On Thursday at
noon. I joined Within the phys ics category, in chemical
engineering. Technology claimed Ill OSt of the
top rankings. Caltech caille to the spec i,ll at-
tenti on of US NC II:s (/1/(/ World Rl'fJor/ when its unde rg
radu a t L~ program was ranked first in th e country.
L ik e th e und e.rg rad u' il e rankings. the grad uate rankin
g,; have sti rred int t~ rest in the gradu-ate schoo\. Wilh in the
in stitul e. however. fac ulty and ad III i n i s-trati on arc
aware of the pol it ica l a nd tra ns it ory natnre o f rankings
dec isions and arL~ cau-ti ous of pay ing too mu ch atten-ti on to
the magazine's reports .
aSlIlallnumber of otiler Techers 1------- ------ ------
--------- ----- -------- --- ---------in Winnett for lemonade,
cook-ies, and answers. The program, entitled "Too Much to Drink '!"
, was co-sponsored by the Hea lth Center and the Dnlg and Alco-hol
Abuse Prevention Program. Alth o ug h th e spea ker, S tan Kalter.
M.D. and rnedical tlirec-torofthe ER at Hunt ington Hos-pitaL
started off with a humor-ous remark on the attention span of prev
ious audiences, th e topic was no laughing rll
-
April 7, 2000 2 . The California Tech News
Scholarships awarded ALCOHOL: IlY TI,:c ll STAI'I ,'
(ja rrett Heffn er, Christopher I J ira ta. and Thomas Snyder
have bee n awa rd ed Barry M . Goldwater Scholarships. Heffn er is
a sophomore maj or-in g in biology, Hirata is a .iuni or in
physics. and Snyder is a s;I I I! HI:"I'!
A,j,u1I Vill.l lii
AOvtSE n 11.111 n .1I1)'
D CADLINES
A IIIIt Il,I1,'I·ll ll·IH., (i\" I I1 I \) .
1 ,~· (fl· I.' 10 1111' h Hrllr: 1)II.\"li,·;II·1I A l
lld,·.\
~ p.lIl . ~'I (ll1day
Il 'HIIl M IIIl\I;IY
(, p.lll . ' 1 UL'\d.IY
nillif) M OIntl:lv
1 'lIhl;~I1ult! il1l"1l1d .. · 1111' awh"I', 1I:lnw
:111
-
The California Tech 3 April 7, 2000 Green things and sports
Hello mudda, hello fudda, here I am+++ Caltech athlete HY YUKI
TAK AHASHI
I-I i mom and dad, 'just rnade it hack sa fely from
this thing ca lled the "Alternative Spring Break". Tt 's a
progrnm by the Caltech Y (the Y is some-thing that does a lot of
extracur-ricular stuff for students), and we got to go to Arizona
and Mexico ! It was pretty much lik e a free vacation and I had
tons or fun. The cool thing is, we were actua ll y doing community
ser-vice. The poi nt of the trips was for us stlldents to go 10
different kinds of cOlllmuni-tics to he lp people.
About I () of us weill to Ari7.ona for 4 days at the beginning
of th e break. We Wellt to a place ca ll e d Ea nhtirn c Ranch near
a Native Amer ic an reservat i on in Flags taff. Peop le there told
li S that the ranch was for hosting retreats and interns hips foeu
scd on in-tercultural exchange, especia lly exchange of indigenous
knowl-edge. It was so iso lated from the city that they had
internet con-nec tion only t hrough ee ll phones I The whole
facility used on ly rain and sun for water and e1cctricity. They
told li S that they try to li ve with very lillIe impact on the
environment. We made i1 trai I tlH~t rninimi7.es e ros ion , fixed
a box ga rd en to protect plants from stron g winds , cleaned the
outdoor cOlllposting toi lets, and worked with solar
pnnels. What do you think nbout gelling a composting toilet for
our house? That thing doesn ' t smell at all. On the last day, we
cooked food underneath a bon-fire and on the grill and had a nice
dinner with the people at Earthtime Ranch. During the trip, we had
enough free tirne to visi t Wupatki Nationa l Park, Sunset Craters,
Walnut Canyon, and even the Lowell Ohserva-tory. Anyway, it was
really neat to spend a few days in a setting tota lly different
from Caltech .
Toward the end of the break '
Caltech students lend a hand
went on another cormnunity ser-vice trip - this time to Mexieo
for 4 days, again wit h about 10 other people. We went to a littl e
town ca ll ed Tecolote near Tijuana. There were lots of kids and
stray dogs . We tried to put money into the poor economy by going
to bars and st rip clubs. No, what we reall y did was help improve
a comi1wnity cen ter (kind of like school and church for kids). We
poli shed up a class-roo m by painting the wn ll s and tilin g the
fl oor. We also played with the really hyper kids there - th ey
jumped o n LI S and
-
Aprii 7, 2000 4 The California Tech Aqua haus rulz
Cider House Rules (B)
M y inl cn;q in Ihi s film was piqued upon the ann ouncc lllcnt
of il s nUJ1lerou s Oscar nominations over :ll11onlh :lgO,
seemingly a fi I III overlooKed in the shunk of entries vy ing for
:Icco ladcs during the holiday scason. With a fairly un-ass lnlling
mov ie pos ter. il had eas-il y heen relegaled 10 tile calegory 01'
rilm s w ith cryp tic titl es using wnrds heg inning w ilh Ihe
letter C (C rad ic Will ROC K. Snow f"'a lling on Ce(l; lrs) Ihat
surraced at the end nr last ye;tr. l Jnciouhl c.ci ly, a mas-lerrul
m:lrKcti ng scheme and '(l n tclhin~ i n tri ~ u in ~ ahoul Ihi s
I'ihn did not go unlllll iced in the eye s il l' /\ cadcmy vo lcrs,
Wi lh a rJu rry (l l' powder, rresh orphans thc
mov ie secks 10 eli cil the pit y alld conl p,lss ion or Ihc
audience whi le suhll y jugg ling the sides or Ihe very incc ndiary
issuc or ahorti on. Slr:lngc ly, while lilc rilm leveills its
pro-cilll iee inclinalion, Ihc ex-istence o f' tht: orphan s in all
their aLiol: lblcm:ss allests otherw ise,
hy Jlls/in Ho
Upon a visit rrolll a WWIJ fi ghler pilot and hi s pregnant
signil'icant other, he manages tnli nd a mcan s or tr,lllspurlati
on to ex it. hi s ni chc in rural M aine, making a less than
amicabl e. split. Takcn as a worker on the rarm owned by the pi
lot's ramily, Ilonlcr fall s undcrlhc gllid-,Illet: or a troupe of
migr:1ll1 apple pi ckc r s, smill en hy dramati c events in their
ownnllmadic li ves.
Away from his ro le as counse lor and protec tor on the
orphanage prcmi scs Homcr is maladju sled. Hi s educali on and
clhni cil y rnake him a st:tndOIIi in hi s new work-
ing environillent , Ihou!!h the lahcl rs arc Ill ore suiled for
hi s (ll'l l- li fe slance. Ili s hi gh llIoral standards. howeve
r, t:IKe a hluw as he cnl ers :1 strained intilliacy w ith the
pilol's gi rlrriend , a fail ed nlllnog:ll11isl, while her boy rri
cnd and overseer or the apple orchard returns ovcr-seas for b,111 k
. Ostcllsi bl y, Ilolller's deviali ons rrom hi s sl:lndards or
decorum, culminaling in hi s treat-ment of' a heinous circumstance
which ari scs arnong the rni grant
workers, is meant to sonen his oth-erwi se strait -laced
judgemenl s and beliers. Seemingly then, the oilly
mean s of comin g to term s w ith reality and the out sidc world
is 10 rcsort to sordid beha vior whi ch
plagues Iheill .
hance to the olherw isc redolcnl lone orthe movie. lhere is no
gr:md conclusion lIlade and the trans I'm, rnat ion I hrou !!h whi
ch Il o lll er passes I'ee ls inadcquate, In epic rashion, HOlller
ha ving lost in love
returns to a grand reu ;ptiun m tlie orphanage. But
whilc.l-lolllcr·s re,
turn is stecpcd in pathos :Illd pr(l' vieles Ihe sunny enciing
whi ch is prngnos ti ca ted, th e ce leril y ill which HomCl'
supposedl y Ill :IIIII'CS docs nol seenl eX lensi ve el1tHI ~ h 10
justiry a return to hi s insular halil' let. Surely, wal ching ,1
felV mov, ies, visiling Ihe heach, and hCCili zcd and \Vhen Homer
:ISSUIllCS Ihe v: lc: \l cd posi· li on, all incii e: ltions
pointlo a con· tinuation oCthe orphan age's wlllt lega l or shady.
Bill the ex tenual· in g c ircum stan ces til at led 10 HOlm:r' s
chall !!e or heart seemtno bi zarre to precipitale such ,ltl' in
,fit' n;ll ion'
• .\ H ,day )(raC,' p at U'U'U I,('t!jr: 'II.org I l r in
P('fS(>!1. Or, elil (616) J95-6JIIO for :m application and pll l
Ol lr lhc!'ory (.1 fln ;tnd~ 11
('o n'r't'nie",:~ in \'nUl' pockt'( ~
I
-
The California Tech 5 April 7, 2000
Prese nt.: Ne w Bo D (inc luding C uc-sti c k); Guests: Emili o
Castano Gra ff. Dan Li ebling
Meeting called to or-der;lt 10:52 pm.
Ma rt ha-He le ne orga-ni zes the c lub proposal s for di $t ri
but ion to eac h member of the Bo D. Emili o comes to the ill
eeting because he t.hinks ASCIT is rea ll y. rca ll y cool.
Gene ral Meeting
Thc first it cm on the agend a is the ASC IT C arni va l fo r
Prerrosh Weekend, whie h will repl ace th e ASC IT Party thi s
year. Me lind a will be abl e to get us the Bungec Run , Dump Tank
. and Bounc ing Castle. To cut back on costs, we will havc to
assembl e and operate them ourselves. Wc will also have co tto n
cand y, popco rn , and maybe game booth s i I' we ca n find peopl e
in teres ted in run -ning them.
Melind ;l has the contrac t. fro m the R it7.-Carlton,
Hunting-ton. for the ASCIT Formal. The BoD votes to approve thi s
con-t ra~ 1.
Nex t, Me linda hrings up the ASC IT I ights, which are report
-ed ly broken. although the fog mac hine still works. She has the
pr intout o f an email from Dan Li ebling requ esting a li st of
new equipment. Eric ca ll s Dan on the phone, ask ing him to com e
and make a presenta-tion.
Meghan has a money re-quest for the ASCTT van, whic h she is
working on selling. She needs funding to renew the rcg-i, tr;lIi
on. U nfort un ately, in or-der to ge t thi s registrati on. th e
van needs a smog test and mu st be dri ven to the DMV, but with
-out reg istration no one can dri ve it. Th e soluti on to thi s
proble m is to ge t a one-day mov ing reg-istrati on. Ca ltech has
offered to se ll the van for us if we ge t thc reg istration
records.
Eric asks i I' anyone has seen his frigg in ' 1'1-82 ca lcul ato
r, which was last seen at the Capra retrea t. No one has.
Martha-He le ne di stri bu tes the copi es o f c lu b proposa
ls. She es tim ates th at there are 35 proposals in the stack.
The Ro D then brainstorms about what to do about the In-ternati
o na l S tud e nt s office, wh ich wi II be vaca ted when the ISO
moves to the new building being built on Holli ston. Tom Manni on
has asked us for sug-gesti ons. Should we move the i\SCIT orfice?
The best sug-gest ion seems to be to put a post offi ce ex te nsio
n th ere, so that stude nts w ill not hilve to wa lk all the way to
Ke ith-Spalding to pick lip packages. Tt may also be open later for
sllldents.
A.S.C.I.T. Minute Goodness
lnutes April 4, 2000
The Budget Meet ing is thi s Fri da y ni g ht. By Sa turd
-
April 7, 2000 6 The California Tech Comics
DILBERT® by Scott Adams FoxTrot by Bill Amend I 'M THINKIN G
ABOUT GOING OUT ON A FAKE DI5 ABILITY
[
-1- CAME BAC K -
EAIl.L Y m OM MY FAKE DI 5ABILITY LEAVE .
IT'5 HARD TO BELIEVE YOU'RE NOT. ~)
EVIDENCE OF .:,: LJALL Y DOIN G _
A VI GOROU5 ACTIVITY .
- - ---- -
~MISSED THE
CAMARADEI1.IE AND THE 5 TIMULATIN G
CON~~TION .
I DIDN 'T KN OW YOU WEIl.E GONE .
- _./
I T.h ********** ... ,h, ("""", "I"" ..aemm e eatres (1= Bargain
shows
?'LAVAbusE1 I.-I .''\D I·. '' .~ 0/ 673 E. Colorado Blvd.
(626) 844-6500
Pasadena's only stadium seating theatre
COLORADO
8mld fI/i tJ,,. 11111'1'1 ".~ I,m( ,.1,.
-
The California Tech 7 April 7, 2000 I'm an Amendment to be
...
Dean's (orner words used ... are of such a nature as to create a
clear and present da n-ge r". In oth er words th e First A
mendrnent docs not protec t sorne-one who fal se ly shouts "fire"
in a theater. It also appears that , despite the First Amendment ,
it is not okay to int erfere with rec ruitment and enlistment in
the armed forces. The right to criticize the conduct of puh-lic
offi cials is limited to statements made without "actual malice",
by which is meant , and I paraphrase, statements th at are fa lse
and reck-less, mad e wi thout reg ard to whether they were false or
not.
so even i I' the Supreme CO Uri has al so sa id that speech nn
the Internet is entitled to the highest level of tirst Arnenclmcnt
protec li on. similar to that the CO Uri provides for hooks and
newspapers (c ity of r~ ri e et "I. v Pap's A.M .).
Who speaks for Caltech? p a ge s prepared by i nd i-
Caltcch is an idiosyncratic place in many respects, hut one of
it s most unusual aspects, I think, is the li v-ing arran gemcnts
of our students. Abo ut I,UO, a deal was made be-twec n Millikan.
the architec t of the modern Cal tec h, and the student hody. Th e
ex is tin g fraterniti es wou ld disappear from Campus once the
(South) Houses were huill. So the only remnant of the frat s of old
is Kappa Garnma, now known as the Gnome Club.
Thi s arrange ment res ulted in houses with a great deal of
au-tonomy, each having its own gov-ernment and each deve loping its
own traditions. All in all this con-cept has worked to most
people's satisfaction, The houses have be-come a very strong point
of focus for students life, although the ex-isten ce o f quasi ind
epe ndent liefdoms in the middle of the school has sometimes caused
problems. Sometimes house trad itions or high Jinks disrupt the
peace of the insti -tute or the well being of individual
students.
We are coming up to a very sen-
by Jean-Paul nevcl s it i ve
time It)r the Insti -tute, with prefrosh weekend
starting nex t WednesdayrThursday. Thi s is an occasion whcn Ca
ltech does it s utmost to give the poten-ti al stude nts a look at
what we have to olTer from the intellectual point of view. the sort
of thing that uni-vers ities arc supposed to do. We spend
significant money and much time and effort to give potential
stu-dents a tw; tc of what it would be like to go tr school here.
Of course that includes li ving in one of the houses, so the
prospective Techers are hosted by mem hers of the student hody. It
is indeed good to expose the newcomers to all of the facets of life
at Tech. What is not so great is when the youthful excess and the
puckish character of some House activities get in the way. Let's
put our best foot forward in we/corn-ing the prefrosh next
week.
Besides visits to campus, one of the other ways by which Caltech
presents itself to the world is through various publications and
through its web sitc, Many outsid-ers try to get an impress ion of
what we are by hrowsing the Institute home page and the sites it
points to . Of course they soon are led to weh
vidual HOllses and that cre-ates a prohl em. Sevenl l of these
pages have material which the au-thors may think funn y, but which
is unpl easant , to say the leas t, I'or many. They ex hihit
scenes, present writings, and contain exhortati ons which arc
downright repulsive and in sultin g to the sensihiliti es of many.
Whatever our own pers\lIlal opinions. we rece ive reactions to
these sites from people outside of Cal tech who express great
surprise that the Institute should have such matcrial. Such pagcs
w'c inappro-priat e and I would urg e the wehmasters in charge, to
take them down ASAP.
Now I am sure you will say, this is a free country, and who are
you, Dean, to interfere with the Houses' freedom of speech? Don ' t
the stu -dents, like everyone else here , have the constitutional
right to express themselves as they see lit? My an-swer 1.0 that is
yes, bul. .. it is im-porumt to have such a statement on the books,
and to have the Supreme Court work mightily to make sure that the
amendment not be infringed upon. The Court has a lot. of work to
do, because , with free speech, come a host of problems. Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes pointedly rai sed one such prohlem when he
said that there are times when "the
So. there arc dear limits to free ex press ion. In fact ,
besides the in-stances li sted in the prev ious para-graph, there
arc categori es of speech whi ch arc specifica ll y exempt frnnl
protec tion under the hrst Amcnd-ment. They arc: obscenit y, defam
a-tory incitement , "fi ghting wo rds" and child pornography
(American Bookse llers Association v Hudnut). Ohscenity, in the eye
of the US Su-preme Court means that. first. an "average person,
applying contem-porary community standards, must lind that the
work, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interests; second that
it depicts or describes, in a pa-tentl y offen sive way, sex ual
con-duct as defined by state law; and third that the work , taken
as a whole, lacks serious literary, artis-ti c, political or sc
ientific value" (Gertz v Robert Welch, Inc,). Now I will argue that
material on some of the House 's home pages fall s in the ahove
categories and so has no defensihle right to be there. That is
Okay, I am no lawyer and cannot se riously di scuss anyone's ri
~ ht to free speech. But there is another consideratillil. and thi
s is whl) wi ll be thought to he, speak ing. What if the freely ex
pressed ideas arc .iltrih-uted to an un willin )! p'lriner? T"kc
the present case or a puhlication or weh site, where stude nts try
their bes t t"look sophisti ca ted hy using repul sive l a Jl g
lla~c and il11agl's. I f the students use the facilities pI' Ihe
Institution to present sllch material. they wi ll appear tn speak
for Il le school. That is not how Caltcc h wishes to be seen. It
see ms to me that whil e anyone is free to ex press him- or herself
as they wish. he or she must do so pri vately. in a way that docs
not confuse the sc hool's point of view with the studen t·s. Saying
that the Caltec h weh site shou ld not contain or point to sllch
materi al does not limit anyonc's right of express ion. It pro tec
ts Caltcch's image to that whidl the Institute itself wants to
projec t.
A bientot!
Jean-Paul Revel
QlIot~ s rrolll sUPJ't:Jlll' COllrl rkcisit)n~ takl' l1 rrOlll
http ://www .3 1 J .or:;/a I aurg/o i fI
1 stcas~s. h[llll
Rubio's Baja Grill is Now Open in Pasadena!
The Outland Mountain Shop always offers screamin deals on
dothing and gear from top outdoor manufacturers:
JUST SOME OF THIS WEEK'S SPECIALS SUGGESTED
RETAil" OUR PRICE ----_._---- --------- -----
Sporlilf Sawtooth Summit 3-layer Gore-tex Shell Patagonia'"
Pneumatic Jacket Lowe Alpine Down Vest La Sportiva Kaukulators
Climbing Shoe
THE
UTLAND. MOUNTAIN SHOP
s300.00 s 159.00 s 145.00 \ 169.00
( .. ', ' ~' ~"
929 E.(alifornia Blvd. Pasadena (626) 568-8828
\ 180.00 160.00 585,00 \89.00
the Oudund Mountam Sholl h an afflliOla of Real (heap Sporh, Inc
.. PhllIO: John Shennan {, Potn
-
April 7, 2000 8 The California Tech
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mark YourCalendnr,! Admissions. Prefrosh Weekend will be held
Thurs-(b y. Apri l 13th th rough SUlllby, April 161h . For mo rc
informati on CI11f1 il
dina (ll) O dill is ,~ io ns. cal ICc II . f.! t111 0 r J:' '{/
11 (0 )0 ( 11 II i ,on ex-cept j"ree to Ca lTeeh rreshmen] , both
held ill Winnett Loullge on the Ca ltech cam pus. No par1 1l cr is
required. Rc-frcshrncilt s and dallcc practice time arc pro vided a
n cr each c lass. For lasl minut e changes see
11'1\'1I'.ils.callccl!. crllll-balimoll/ or ca ll Don ( ,26) 7')
1-3 103 .
Due In "ccent vandalism, Clevdand Elementary School in I'"sadena
is seck illg donat ions of hooks and equip-ment lor thc school's
library. Spccili-ca ll y. the school is in need of two over-head
projec tors and hooks appropriate fo r grades K-6 to repl ace th
ose stolen or dl''';l royC'd. Donations my he tn(lde directly to
Clevela nd Eleme nta ry School at 524 I'ali s:tde Street. Pasadena.
Ca I i lilmia. t) I I ()) . For qlll" ti ons or flu'-ther in 1
