Friday, November 21, 2008

The Brown Daily Herald F riday, N ovember 21, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 118

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Economists Faunce plans moving along, but timeline unclear debate free trade at forum

By Sophia Li Staff Writer

By Ellen Cushing Staff Writer

Economists Douglas Irwin and Dani Rodrik wrangled with issues of globalization and free trade last night at the Janus Forum-sponsored discussion “A Race to the Bottom? Globalization and the Economic Future.”

Though both were in favor of globalization and free trade in general, Irwin, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, argued that globalization has raised wages and the standard of living worldwide, whereas Rodrik, who is a professor of international political economy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, took a more nuanced stance, arguing that while globalization has some benefits, many free trade policies have hurt developing nations.

The lecture, which had students, faculty and community members packed into MacMillan 117 and spilling into the aisles, was the third this semester in the Janus Forum Lecture Series. The Janus Forum, the student arm of Brown’s Political Theory Project, seeks to promote political debate on campus.

The Forum’s co-director, Dan MacCombie ’08.5 introduced the lecture by asking, “Is globalization the tide that lifts all boats or the storm that swamps them? Does it cause a race to the bottom, or is it just a myth?”

From there, Irwin and Rodrik each took 25 minutes to address these questions. Irwin spoke first, using data on wages to argue that the advent of global trade has improved the standard of living in nations such as India and China, and that international trade makes all countries better off overall. He also used the example of Vietnam, where poverty rates of agricultural workers are significantly higher than those of sweatshop workers, to refute the popular notion that features of the “race to the bottom” are necessarily bad.

Rodrik, however, countered this claim, saying that free trade increases wage and quality-of-life inequities.

“One thing that we need to bear in mind is ... even though there is a continued on page 4

The old University mail room remains quiet and deserted. Filing cabinets sit, gathering dust. A Styrofoam Dunkin’ Donuts cup has been left behind. Although the space of the former mail room remains unused, it is uncertain when its planned renovation will begin.

Since last semester, the design for Faunce House’s renovation has

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ARTS & CULTURE

continued on page 6

Simon van Zuylen-Wood / Herald

Big noses, bigger message for community

By Simon van Zuylen-Wood Senior Staff Writer

Last month, the Providence Phoenix celebrated its 30th birthday party at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel.

An hour into the party, several grotesque, googly eyed creatures ran into the lobby and ambushed the crowd, which included Mayor David Cicilline ’83, Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, former Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci and even celebrity daytime judge Maria Lopez.

The venue’s security personnel

stood idly by, arms folded, staring blankly forward. The celebrities recovered, and the monsters grabbed instruments and took the stage. They lampooned Sen. John McCain and caricatured a city cop.

The show was emceed by an astronaut and heckled by a chicken.

Jabba the Hut was on drums.

The crowd of hundreds was baffled, and even the most loyal barflies hovered toward the stage.

The members of the “Big Nazo” band knew they had done their job.

Big Nazo is a collection of

about 25 people that constructs creatures and then becomes them.

They are full-time and part-time.

They are both artisans and musicians, from age 17 to 60. The group performs local gigs and high-profile festivals like the Treasure Island Music Festival and the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee.

Off-stage, the monsters perform street theater or sometimes just walk around acting human, without looking the part. Big Nazo has even mock-catered an event at the continued on page 4

Forty protest profiling at local police headquarters

By George Miller Senior Staff Writer

about 40 community members and students gathered Wednesday in biting cold in the parking lot of local police headquarters.

“We don’t care if it’s snowing. We don’t care what it is. This is wrong,” said Mary Kay Harris, a member of Direct Action for Rights and Equality, a Providence-based group working on behalf of low income minority

OPERETTA FOR THE AGES Brown University Gilbert & Sullivan present ‘Patience’ in Alumnae Hall this weekend

www.browndailyherald.com

now.”

In Februar y 2007, the budget for the center was initially set at $15 million after the contributions of outgoing Chancellor Stephen Robert ’62 P’91 and several anonymous donors. After reevaluating the project’s goals and impact, the center’s planning committee — a group of students, faculty and staff whose feedback ensures community input influences the new

At Big Nazo, staffers create grotesque creatures to entertain small children and political big shots.

METRO

Quinn Savit / Herald

creating a new entrance into the campus center from Faunce Arch, creating an information center, converting the old mail room into an event space and expanding the Blue Room.

But its realization has been put on hold.

“The economy is changing ever y day,” said Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration.

“We aren’t making any decisions (concerning construction) right

SPOTLIGHT

CRANSTON — Protesting what they called racial profiling and improper immigration enforcement by several local and state police departments,

Douglas Irwin, above, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, debated Dani Rodrik, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

become more concrete — even if the project’s funding and timeline have not yet materialized.

Constr uction to renovate Faunce House into the Stephen Robert Campus Center was slated to begin in the summer of 2009 and conclude before the 201011 academic year. However, the current economic crisis has left the University without definitive decisions on when it might begin construction.

The project’s vision includes

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CAMPUS NEWS

groups.

Shannah Kurland, a member of the Olneyville Neighborhood Association, which organized the event, agreed.

Police practices are “tearing our communities apart,” she said. State and Cranston police could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The protestors held banners and signs reading “We are all human,” “No one is illegal,” and “Support Immigrant Rights,” drawing occasional supportive honks from passing vehicles.

The event was prompted by reports of people being incarcerated for days because of expired licenses, according to the organizers’ press release. The release also denounced

Ethics of eating PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich calls veganism a ‘moral imperative’

11

OPINIONS

what it called police acting as immigration agents.

“Local police departments are taking it on themselves to contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement and throwing people into deportation proceedings, usually with only a misdemeanor charge of driving without a license,” the press release charged.

Studies of traffic stop statistics

by Northeastern University and the Rhode Island Justice Commission in recent years have shown that race plays a role both in whom Rhode Island police pull over and whether they search the vehicle.

On Thursday attendees also expressed outrage at Gov. Donald Carcieri’s ’65 executive order in March that allows officers to perform the

blogs with bathwater Dan Davidson ’11 defends the oft-maligned medium as a source of news

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

12 SPORTS

duties of ICE agents after training and also allows police to check the legal status of people taken into custody.

Carcieri “overstep(ped) his power,” said Lindsey Gaydos ’09, a member of the Student Coalition for Immigrant Rights who was one of the protestors. The pressure on immigrants resulting from the governor’s order has led to racial profiling, Gaydos said.

“Immigration policy needs to be reformed,” she said. “It just comes down to a matter of human rights.”

Tam Tran GS, also a member of the coalition, said similar issues have affected her friends and family in Los Angeles. She said she wanted to get involved in Rhode Island since it will be her home for the next few years.

PoSSIBLE IVY TITLE? Football’s last game tops the sports editors’ radar for this weekend

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Friday, November 21, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r TODAY

Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley TOMORROW

partly cloudy 37 / 21

partly cloudy 38 / 22

Menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Tomato Basil Pie, Grilled Vegetable Calzone, Chicken Jambalaya with Bacon, Snickerdoodles

Lunch — Chicken Fingers, Baked Vegan Nuggets, Peanut Butter and Jelly Bar, Blondies

Dinner — Manicotti Piedmontese, Italian Meatloaf, Mediterranean Crusted Salmon Filet

Dinner — Tilapia with Provensal Sauce, Grilled Chicken, Spinach Pie Casserole

Fizzle Pop | Patricia Chou

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

Epimetheos | Samuel Holzman

Classic But Seriously | Stephen Barlow & Charlie Custer

© Puzzles Pappocom RELEASE DATE– Friday, November 21,by2008

Los Angeles Times Daily oCrossword Puzzle C r o ssw rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Beefcake element 6 Many a demo 10 Troop command 14 1954 physics coNobelist Walther 15 Beatnik’s “Got it” 16 In line 17 Batman or Robin?

19 Enjoying a lot 20 Rich cake 21 Extensive period 22 Multiple award winner Moreno 23 Used up the subs?

26 Circle’s lack 29 __ Tin Tin 30 Political opening 31 Paint haphazardly 33 Under control 36 Caper 40 Biennial rash?

43 Man for all Seasons?

44 Topog. feature 45 __ Classic 46 B & B part?

48 Op. __ 50 Holy Communion box 51 Supplier of deepfried fare?

57 “Typee” sequel 58 Org. with a lot of heaters?

59 “Lemon Tree” singer Lopez 62 Graduation sight 63 Sound created by the four identical letters missing from 17-, 23-, 40- and 51Across (that letter also doesn’t appear anywhere in the answer grid) 66 “Law & Order: SVU” actor 67 Name derived from Danish for “play well” 68 Giving sort 69 FSU player 70 One making eye contact?

71 Harden DOWN 1 Airer of the sitcom “’Allo ’Allo!”

2 Pull (for) 3 Air: Prefix 4 Fan sound 5 Hummingbird’s diet 6 Connection 7 Word from a Parisian bouncer?

8 Wine grape 9 Creamy quaff 10 Styling stuff 11 Noted army leader 12 Led Zeppelin’s “Whole __ Love” 13 Fall-back time?

18 Mom’s admonition 24 Two __: fast break advantage 25 “In time we hate that which we often __”: Shakespeare 26 1999 Ron Howard film 27 Okinawa’s capital 28 It often has two seconds 32 “Matilda, Matilda” singer, 1953 34 Olive __

35 Moocher 37 Vette option 38 Nasty 39 General Mills cereal brand 41 Rosso o bianco 42 Fly 47 Daisy lover 49 Blog content, at times 51 Keep from flying, in a way 52 It merged with BP in 1998

53 Beachgoer’s need 54 Paint additive 55 Load 56 Maker of Coolpix cameras 60 When doubled, an Orkan sign-off 61 Frau Blücher staffmate, in a 1974 movie 64 Cut off 65 Preceding

Classic Deo | Daniel Perez

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Classic Nightmarishly Elastic | Adam Robbins

xwordeditor@aol.com

11/21/08

T he B rown D aily H erald Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 Business Phone: 401.351.3260

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

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once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. POSTMASTER please send corrections to

Ross Frazier, Vice President Mandeep Gill, Treasurer Darren Ball, Secretary

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11/21/08

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2007 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

A rts & C ulture Friday, November 21, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Gilbert and Sullivan begs your ‘Patience’

By Anita Mathews Contributing Writer

The concept of enjoyable and comprehensible opera might be foreign to some Brown students, but Brown University Gilbert & Sullivan’s production of “Patience” pulls it off quite deftly. Directed by Peter Hatch ’11, the show runs Nov. 21 to 23 in Alumnae Hall.

“Patience, or Bunthorne’s Bride,” is an 1881 comic operetta that tracks the parallel misadventures of two poets — Bunthorne (Philip Arevalo ’11), a “fleshly” poet and Grosvenor (Nicholas Leiserson ’09), an “idyllic” poet. They each try to resist the advances of a crowd of rapturous maidens, while at the same time, pursuing the play’s namesake — a humble dairy maid, Patience, Gabriel Trilling ’10.

The operetta was written as a satiric commentary on the aesthetic movement in late nineteenth-century England, poking fun at the sometimes grandiose pretensions of artists and playwrights of the era.

Nearly a century and a half later, Hatch says he still finds the message of “Patience” to be relevant.

The satire is “amazingly current,” Hatch said. “Playing around with artistic pretension and show-

ing what happens when people take themselves too seriously — it’s fun to play with those themes.”

Arevalo and Leiserson rise to the challenge of portraying pompous and over-the-top artistic characters. With his booming baritone voice and assertive stage presence, Arevalo especially commands attention during his solos and monologues. Bunthorne and Grosvenor’s duet “When I Go Out of Door” is a highlight of the second act, for the pair bring to life the clashing vanities of two self-important poets.

The singing is enjoyable all around, though Trilling’s voice is the most remarkable. She does a masterful job of standing in stark contrast to the sickeningly lovesick maidens who fawn over the poets and whose affections change with the wind. The maidens, who open the play, are rallied by Lady Jane, played by Katie Meyers ’10. Her silvery voice is noteworthy, both on its own and in duets with Trilling and with Amber Brown ’12 as Lady Saphir.

Complementing the chorus of maidens is the dragoon guard squad. Their attempts to win back the women from the poets are the source of much of the opera’s comedy. Ken McPherson does a

stellar job of portraying the Duke of Dunstable, one of the leaders of the squad. Though the dragoons’ dancing is lackluster at times, they surely make up for it with their solid harmony. The ensemble numbers involving the dragoons and maidens, such as “Let the Merry Cymbals Sound,” which ends Act I, are some of the most vibrant and enjoyable moments of the play.

Also commendable is the 15-player orchestra, directed by Joe Rim ’12, which provides a professional-sounding accompaniment that is nothing short of outstanding.

Seeing them play live brings a touch of elegance to the performance.

Director Hatch — who makes a cameo appearance as Bunthorne’s solicitor — and his team handle the challenges of this light opera with skill. They make the production accessible to the general public with surtitles and helpful program notes.

All in all, “Patience” is an approachable and inviting performance that will regale avid opera-goers and theatre novices alike.

Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with a 2 p.m.

Saturday matinee. The group will also present a “Gag Show” Sunday at 2 p.m. Performances are free and open to the public.

MEZCLA premieres ‘La Mezcla Tropical’

By Suzannah Weiss Contributing Writer

Brown’s Latino performance troupe MEZCLA premiered its Fall 2008 show “La Mezcla Tropical” last night to a nearly full Salomon 101.

The spectacle reflected MEZCLA’s goal of communicating “the diversity and richness of Latino culture to the greater Brown community,” as stated in the show’s program.

To that end, even the brief introductions from MEZCLA’s leaders incorporated English, Spanish and Portuguese.

The show included several dance pieces and an instrumental piece choreographed and performed by MEZCLA members. A “Dancing with the Stars”-like segment called “Dancing with MEZCLA” featured three volunteer contestants — Brown students not affiliated with the group who showed off freshly learned Latin dance moves they had practiced during the show’s rehearsal process.

A dance featuring the “MEZCLA Men” — all wearing top hats — opened the show. They were followed by “Onde Estas,” a piece choreographed by Sofia Bengoa ’08.5, which synthesized movement with live singing and guitar.

Brown Badmaash, a South Asian fusion dance company, performed “Club Badmaash,” a routine set to songs like Rihanna’s “Disturbia” and T-Pain’s “Apple Bottom Jeans.”

The nine members of Los Masones Latin Jazz Combo followed the intermission with the musical act “No Es Necesario.” The group delivered a funky performance dominated by brass and percussion.

MEZCLA President Grisselle Escotto ’09 choreographed “Sword Belly Dancing,” consisting of nine female MEZCLA members moving rhythmically in belly-dancing outfits with swords attached to the tops of their heads.

Min Wu / Herald

The Fall Dance Concert, featuring 11 student-choreographed performances, opened last night in Ashamu Dance Studio.

Fall Dance Concert full of novel choreography, energy Eleven student pieces run the gamut of styles of dance

By Ben Hyman Arts & Culture Editor

Three female dancers, all in white, filtered out onto the bare stage of Ashamu Dance Studio. With no accompaniment besides their breath,

REVIEW an occasional word or phrase — “A,” “One,” “Are we there yet?” — and the sound of bare feet scuffing the floor, they performed an abstract and intriguingly enigmatic composition, titled “Experiment in Voice and Breath.”

The work, by Meg Weeks ’11, was just one of 11 student-choreographed pieces on the program for the Fall Dance Concert, which opened last night in Ashamu. The sense of exploration seen in “Experiment” imbued the whole show,

Eunice Hong / Herald

MEZCLA’s fall show premiered last night. It included tri-lingual introductions by student leaders and student choreography.

The show also featured a performance by the group Divine Rhythm, using synchronized stomping, clapping, snapping and other bodily movements as sound.

“Dancing with MEZCLA” contestants Sadie Kurzban ’12, Aadon Penny ’11 and Sharon Chakkalackal GS had the opportunity to “show what they’ve learned from MEZCLA members and the flavor they picked up,” as Publicity Director Yanely Espinal ’11 put it. Their routines, each consisting of the contestant coupled with a MEZCLA member, were scattered throughout

the evening. Afterward, the three competitors gathered on stage for a popularity assessment based on volume of applause. Though the host made a show of deliberating over a close call, the loudest cheers were decidedly for Kurzban, who won the contest.

Participants in the show said the rehearsal and preparation process was long and challenging but rewarding. The best part was “looking at the show come together,” Espinal told The Herald.

“The pressure was on, but it was all worth it.”

making for an exciting survey of student dance in a diverse range of styles.

The concert, which ran just over an hour, began with “CHRGR,” choreographed by Joelle Murphy ’11.

This large group work — set to the song “Seventeen Years” by the electro duo Ratatat — showed a compelling responsiveness to the structures of expansion and contraction in the music. The mood here was mostly athletic and propulsive, and it made for a strong opening number.

“Sail Away,” by Katie O’Brien ’11, succeeded in surprising the audience with the simple but unexpected. At one moment, for instance, entering a pose, the dancers bounced three times on one foot. This hesitant, evocative gesture seemed to say a lot with an economy of means.

The next piece, Herald columnist Rachel Forman’s ’09 “In Twos,” took an exuberantly beautiful Philip Glass score and translated the composer’s rhythmic and tonal repetitions into cells of movement that continued on page 4

Page 4

Friday, November 21, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Big nose, big show: Local troupe brings laughs, schnozz continued from page 1 State House — its monsters in full waiter regalia — with platters of “inedible things,” according to Big Nazo founder and artistic director Erminio Pinque.

The Big Nazo lab stares down City Hall on the corner of Westminster and Eddy streets, and from the outside looks like FAO Schwarz’s evil twin. The large plate glass windows lining the building are crammed with bulbous, amused-looking beings that seem to equally deter and draw in wary onlookers.

Before Big Nazo moved in five years ago — the group used to occupy a space in the Providence Performing Arts Center — 60 Eddy St.’s window was filled with Omegas and Swatches — not oversized warthogs.

Though now far from a watch store, it’s unclear the lab has an established identity — both to locals on the outside and workers on the inside.

Conor Landenberger, a recent Wheaton College graduate and part-time waiter, said they “always offer to fix the watches” to confused customers who haven’t clued in to the change.

Economists talk free trade at Janus Forum continued from page 1

Simon van Zuylen-Wood / Herald

Big Nazo creations are made of foam and coated with rubber latex and acrylic paint.

“Most people think we’re a costume shop,” said Meg McKenna, who builds costumes and tours with the band when she’s not working at a local construction company.

Pinque, upon graduation from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1983, became a street performer

and puppet maker in Providence. In 1985, Pinque left for Europe with his favorite puppet and “fell into the street-theater circles” there. It was from his experience in Italy that Pinque was inspired to name his group of body puppets Big Nazo.

In Italy, he said, no one is ashamed of having a “grande naso,” or a big nose. “Here, ever yone wants to get a nose job,” he said, covering up his own grande naso in jest.

Big Nazo officially became a performance group upon Pinque’s return to the U.S. in 1987.

The Big Nazo lab is a bodyshop of foam tentacles, bellies, eyeballs and heavy noses. Inhabited by costume makers and professional musicians alike, the sickly green arms, red claws and wart-ridden body suits can be stacked on top of each other like Babushka dolls or worn one at a time. The pieces are engineered out of foam and coated with rubber latex and acrylic paint.

Like its characters, the Big Nazo group itself is known to change appearances from one hour to the next.

Street parades, rock festivals and war protests are all on Big Nazo’s resume. Simply appearing in public establishes what Pinque calls the disruption of “normal conduct.”

“If someone isn’t used to being surprised, then they don’t know how to react when something is going to come unhinged,” Pinque said.

In working with children at schools, parades and festivals, Pinque derives much of his inspiration not only to subvert the supposed “real” meaning of our

perceptions, but also to add a new dimension to discussions about diversity and tolerance.

As a child, Pinque said, “you hear a boiler and you think it’s a dinosaur coming up the stairs. You hear that noise and you have no idea.”

At a performance at a Warwick elementary school last Wednesday, several Big Nazo creatures were revealed as alien beings that actually lived inside the school. The children, initially alarmed by the gruesome, loping things, were told that the monsters were scared of them as well.

Inspiration for characters and perfomances, in turn, comes in part from child’s play. The lab, during rehearsal time, turns into a playroom in which the monsters learn how to best act out their roles.

“It’s no different from kids coming to a house with a bunch of toys,” Pinque said. “ ‘I’ve got a Luke Skywalker with a Barbie mobile,’ ‘I’ve got a G.I. Joe with kung fu grip.’”

Though Pinque does not design performances explicitly to educate, he aims to shift the way we conceive of human interaction and differences.

“We never have any desire to convince or try for anything — we try to be true to our own experiment,” he said. “Ironically, we’re trying to reveal (ourselves) and create a change that allows people to reveal what they feel.”

Anyone, Pinque argues, can benefit from the confusion of a Big Nazo performance. Grabbing a female doll — one of the few that exists all in one piece — Pinque dances around with her swiftly, swinging and throwing her in the air. Done quickly, it is unclear whether there is a person in the suit or not. During shows, the dance often draws the most gasps from the audience — even once the crowd realizes no person risks injury.

“We have this illusion that we understand everything, so we create a state of wonder,” Pinque said.

The group, according to Pinque, thrives on playing with accepted notions of identity and reality.

One of his favorite moments in their shows is when one of the especially menacing creatures calmly walks on stage, sits down and reads a book.

Pinque compares the creatures, inert in the lab and alive in performance, to ceremonial tribal masks.

Though “displayed on walls ... you are going to respect the power that the masks are imbued with,” he said. “They have to be brought to life.”

theorem that says that trade makes countries better off, there’s no theorem that says that everybody is going to be better off.”

He also challenged Irwin’s use of India and China as examples of the positive effects of globalization, arguing that those countries “have prospered by playing by their own rules” — in other words, that China and India do not represent typical cases because they have been able to protect themselves from some of the negative immediate effects of globalization by pursuing methods of integration into world markets that may not be available to other developing nations.

This lecture differed from previous Janus Forum events in that after the initial arguments, each professor was given the opportunity to ask the other two questions before the floor was opened up to the audience.

Eric Hubble ’11 said that he liked the additional questions, saying that the experts themselves may be able to ask better questions of each other than audience members can.

Michael Freeman ’09 also liked the event, though he said he did wish that Irwin and Rodrik had been more vehement in their arguments. “There wasn’t much debating,” he said. “I didn’t really feel like they were really going for the weaknesses in each others’ arguments, and I wish the disagreements had been more emphasized.”

Dance concert this weekend continued from page 3 became iterated and transposed over the course of the piece. “In Twos,” which hinted at narrative without ever stating it explicitly, benefited from an evocative lighting design

by Erik Maser ’11.

A solo piece, undergraduate Tsveta Krumova’s “Ocean,” followed.

Krumova set herself a remarkable challenge with this intensely focused work, which seemed to require immense control in yogalikesequences.

The first half of the program ended with a performance by Amira, Brown’s belly dance group, and a piece by Liviya Kraemer ’10 set to music from the Broadway musical “The Lion King.”

The second act began with a tap piece by Carolyn Siegel ’11 and included Keith Monach’s ’09 “Dynamic Equilibrium,” which was “somewhat inspired by a variety of first person shooter video games,” according to the choreographer’s statement.

Works by Meaghan Caulfield ’10 — to music of the Harlem Boys Choir — and Dan Lurie ’11 were also featured. Lurie’s “Ta Douleur,” set to songs by the French vocalist Camille, closed the show with a feeling of repose developing into swirling motion as the singer repeated the words, “Leve-toi” — “Wake up, wake up.” It was an exciting and effective conclusion to the concert.

The Fall Dance Concert runs through Nov. 23, with performances at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday in Ashamu.

C ampus n ews Friday, November 21, 2008

PETA VP: veganism a ‘moral imperative’

By LUISA ROBLEDO Contributing Writer

Bruce Friedrich, a vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, called veganism a “moral imperative” in an “Ethics of Eating” discussion Thursday night.

Friedrich, PETA’s vice president of policy and government affairs, debated Allegra Pincus ’11, who offered an alternative vision of how people can make ethical choices about the food they eat.

The Brown Debating Union and the Brown Animal Rights Club organized the event. Friedrich came to Brown “to raise some issues that people haven’t really thought about,” he said.

In a 25-minute PowerPoint presentation, Friedrich presented the three major “imperatives” that he said supported choosing a vegan diet: global poverty, environmental impact and animal mistreatment.

“I adopted a vegan diet based on the inefficiency on the meat industry and not wanting to contribute to global starvation,” he said.

According to Friedrich, 756 million tons of oats and corn go to feeding animals each year. These crops could instead be used to feed people who are starving, he said.

“In a very real way anybody who is eating meat is contributing to human starvation,” Friedrich said.

Friedrich also described what he said were the methods that farm-

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

ers use to kill chickens, the amount of drugs that they pump into them and the carelessness with which the birds are treated. PETA did a series of undercover missions to poultry farms, only to find “sadistic abuse,” he said.

“It’s pretty hideous stuff. You’ll see people blowing up chickens with pipe bombs, ripping them limb from limb, jumping up and down on them,” Friedrich told the audience.

Friedrich concluded his presentation by saying that a vegan diet is the answer for the people who care about the three imperatives.

“You can’t eat meat and be environmentally conscious,” Friedrich said.

Pincus proposed an alternative model for eating ethically: “humanitarianism,” which she called more viable than a “worldwide conversion to veganism.” According to Pincus, “factory farming separates humans from the source of the food,” and it is, in fact, cruel. But traditional farming is sensitive to cultural traditions and is a much more moderate choice than expecting the world to change to a vegan diet, she said.

“Farmers really care about their animals. They don’t want to torture them,” Pincus said. “They have to see the cruelty that they give to animals.”

Pincus said meat was vital to several cultures, including native tribes in Alaska and the herders in the Sa-

hara, whose caloric intakes depends on meat consumption. “A lot of these people really depend on meat, and I think it’s silly to force them to adopt a vegan diet,” she said.

“It doesn’t respect the history of generations of people who have lived their lives farming, who have lived their lives with their animals very happily,” she added. “Let me tell you, if you took cheese away from French people, they would be upset.”

Shifting to the question of animal cruelty, she said that getting rid of factory farming and choosing consciously what to eat is a better solution than universal veganism.

“Think about where your food comes from,” she said, adding that the decisions people make about food “matter not just for the animals,” but also for other human beings.

Offering a rebuttal of Pincus’ argument, Friedrich said that although traditional farming offers better treatment for animals, it ends up being even more wasteful. Since animals on traditional farms have more freedom to move, they burn more calories and need more food.

The result is that animals are still killed, people still suffer and the environment is still hurt.

Adam Hoffman ’10, the president of the animal rights club, said he was happy with the event. “It is our biggest event so far,” he said. “Bruce Friedrich is one of the strongest, most articulate advocates for animal rights.”

Met

At a panel tracing the histor y of Jewish influence in comics, prominent figures from the comic book industr y spoke last night in celebration of the student-curated exhibit “Jews and American Comics: The New Generation.”

The lecture was part of the exhibit assembled by students from Senior Lecturer in American Civilization Paul Buhle’s class AMCV 1903O: “Jewish Americans: Film and Comics.” The panel was led by prominent comic ar tist and James Sturm, director of the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vt., along with speakers Sara Rosenbaum ’00 and Rhode Island School of Design alum Jason Lutes.

Buhle welcomed guests in Salomon 001 by stating that “comics have reached a new stage in the United States.” After years of feeling like the full appreciation and respect of the comic book industr y was always a few years away, Buhle said, the “Golden Age” of comics is now closer than ever.

Sturm described the ar t of creating comics as assembling ver y simple, abstract shapes into forms that take on a life of their own.

Though some may describe comic books merely as the fusion of pictures and words, Sturm said he believes cartooning is the melding of graphic design and poetr y.

Both art forms work together to present a clear message while boiling down a stor y to its “essence.”

Sturm also read from his 2002 work “The Vast Chasm,” about an aristocratic scientist disillu-

sioned by his failure to recreate the other worldly music from his dreams.

T ime magazine labeled Stur m’s earlier book, “The Golem’s Mighty Swing,” the best graphic novel of 2000.

Describing why he creates comics, Lutes said he is drawn to their mixture of representational and abstract communication. Man’s urge to make a “mark outside himself” started with cave painting, Lutes said, and evolved into the representational “arm” of images and the abstract “arm” of writing.

Lutes traced the histor y of comics from medieval woodcuts to contemporar y political ar t, describing how representation of physical action in comics has remained fairly constant over time.

Lutes is currently working on what has become a 12-year project, “Berlin,” a comic book that tells the stor y of characters in Berlin between the World Wars.

Rosenbaum discussed the prominent role Jews have played in the comic book culture. She described the appeal of superhero characters as a “Cinderella stor y,” because people are drawn to stories of masked lives.

It is this quality, Rosenbaum said, that ties Judaism to comics.

As a fourth-generation immigrant and Jewish American, Rosenbaum recalls sometimes feeling like an “inside outsider,” still not fully incorporated in American culture.

The theme of the outsider recurs throughout comic book stor ylines, Rosenbaum said.

“Mainstream comic culture in the U.S. owes a lot to the Jewish Diaspora,” she added.

The exhibit is a two-part dis-

i n

Br

i e f

City to hire manager to lower energy costs The Providence City Council unanimously passed an ordinance for the second time Thursday night to create a position for a new environmental manager responsible for reducing the city’s energy consumption and lowering utility operating costs.

The city energy and sustainability manager will oversee the city’s yearly energy expenditure — currently about $14 million a year — to maximize efficiency and conservation, according to Councilman Seth Yurdin, D-Ward 1, who proposed creating the position in September. The manager will also work with heads of other city departments who “currently do not have the necessary expertise” to make such decisions, Yurdin said.

“It’s always a challenge to make changes,” he said. “We really have to empower someone to step in and do it.”

Funding for the position, which Yurdin said will be a long-term investment, was allotted by the council in the most recent city budget.

The ordinance requires that the manager have at least five years of experience in energy management and a degree in environmental science, resource management or public affairs, according to a press release. The council has not yet considered candidates for the position, Yurdin said.

“We’re not creating bureaucracy,” he said, adding that a decrease of even 1 percent in energy expenditures would easily make up for the annual salary of approximately $80,000.

“Every dollar we save in utility costs is a dollar we can put towards improving our schools, fixing our roads and lowering our taxes,” Yurdin said in the press release.

Besides managing energy expenditures, the manager will act as an environmental watchdog for the city, documenting natural resource use, recommending conservation policies and monitoring the implementation and enforcement of green initiatives.

— Brigitta Greene

Cartoonists discuss Jewish role in comics

By Ibiayi Briggs Contributing Writer

r o

play in the John Hay Librar y and the John Nicholas Brown Center Carriage House Galler y.

The Hay exhibit contains about 100 examples of contributions from Jewish artists to the comic book world, drawn from the Hay’s collection of over 70,000 comic books.

The display includes a Yiddish comic weekly; Mad magazine, founded by Har vey Kur tzman; Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prizewinning Holocaust epic “Maus: A Sur vivor’s Tale”; and tales about Kitty Pr yde from the X-Men comics.

At the John Nicholas Brown Center, a screen projects old Betty Boop cartoons and comic book-styled wall panels describe the Jewish influence on comics, including aspects of Jewish tradition, “sex and gender” and “war and violence.”

During the reception, Chelsea Miro ’10, one of the curators, said the exhibit was “about an experience.” She and her classmates had read over 1,000 comics between them to prepare for the exhibit, Miro added.

The purpose of the project was to have students work with primar y source materials, rather than textbooks and lectures, Buhle said.

The exhibit is “a model of what Brown undergraduates can do at their best,” he added.

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Proposed floor plans for Faunce House renovations First floor:

Second floor:

Courtesy of Office of Campus Life and Student Services

Proposed floor plans for the renovated Faunce House. The old mail room will become a space for events, and a new entrance will be added in the arch.

Despite plans for a renovated Faunce House, no certainty on timeline continued from page 1 center’s design — later requested a $5-million increase.

The decision to increase the project’s fundraising target was made in the Corporation’s October meeting, according to Huidekoper.

About $9.5 million of the total $20 million has been raised, Huidekoper said, approximately $1 million more than in May. But the majority of the money that has been raised is in the form of pledges, Huidekoper said.

“We’re going to have to see in the next couple of months how much of the pledges come in,” she said.

The University could potentially begin construction on the old mail room this summer, Director of Student Activities Ricky Gresh said.

Huidekoper said construction on the mail room can be separated from the rest of the project. “You don’t have to displace anybody to do that one first.”

But, she added, “by no means is that, at this point, a plan.”

Working on the conversion of the mail room before tackling the rest of the building will be discussed at the Corporation’s Februar y meeting, Huidekoper said, when the University’s highest governing body will hopefully be able to evaluate how to proceed with the project.

Building on a bigger budget The initial budget of $15 million was based on the planning committee’s preliminary work, Gresh said.

The estimated budget was based on information the committee gath-

ered from students, faculty and staff even before the architectural firm Schwartz/Silver signed on.

But, he said, “new information came along.”

The study that estimated the project’s original budget did not account for the mail room’s move to J. Walter Wilson Laboratory, Gresh said. Nor did the initial planning committee anticipate the costs of Schwartz/Silver’s design.

“There were several attractive aspects to the project that didn’t fit within the original budget,” Gresh said.

Changing Faunce Arch is one of the unanticipated costs of the project.

Since the mail room and numerous student ser vices have been relocated, even more students pass through Faunce Arch, Gresh said.

That makes it an ideal location for a new entrance into Faunce House, he said.

The proposed design will turn one side of the arch into an entrance, while the other will have glass display boards, Gresh said.

The new door into the campus center will open into a landing in between two floors, Gresh said.

A new information center will be on the floor above, according to Gresh.

This planned information center will be where the Student Activities Office is now, Gresh said. The SAO will move up to the second floor of Faunce, where the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life was located before it moved to J. Walter Wilson this summer.

The information center will ser ve as a point of welcome and information for visitors, Gresh

said.

It will also be a central point that students can go to when they are lost or need assistance, Gresh said, whether they’re looking for a meeting location or need help with audiovisual ser vices.

The center will also provide information about on-campus events, Gresh said.

The relocation of the SAO will also expand the open space available to students. Gresh said the new design includes “a room that will look out over the arch.” This room, where the SAO is currently located, will ser ve as a lounge, an exhibition space and possibly a location for small meetings, according to Gresh.

Amy Tan ’09, who joined the Campus Center’s planning committee last semester, said the new room is one of her favorite parts of the proposed changes.

“Taking out the Student Activities Office and making that into an area where students can live, a comfortable space, a ‘living room’ ... I think that’s a good idea,” Tan said.

Inviting students in The transformation of Faunce Arch into an entr yway into the building is part of the project’s goal to improve student use of Faunce as a welcoming, accessible and communal space.

Currently, “you could go past the building and not have a sense of what’s going on inside,” Gresh said.

Other planned modifications include expanding common space for students that cannot be reser ved for events and is not dedicated to

the use of a student group.

“Right now, there’s a lot of closed doors,” Gresh said.

The design calls for the relocation of the Blue Room’s kitchen and retail space into what is currently Petteruti Lounge, Gresh said. This would expand the available seating area of the Blue Room, and the office and meeting room spaces immediately upstairs of Petteruti will become a new Petteruti Lounge that retains its function as an event space.

Gresh said that these elements would probably not be part of the design without the extra $5 million.

By expanding the Blue Room to include Petteruti, as well as resituating the doors on either side of the current Blue Room, the floor will become more unified. Students will be able to “walk straight across without going through a door,” Gresh said.

The old mail room will become an event space, filling the function that Leung currently ser ves, according to Gresh. The space that is currently Leung will be transformed into a student lounge and study space, and a mezzanine will be added to the room.

Gresh said simulcasts of large lectures could be broadcast in the new Leung, or events like electionwatching could be held there.

The committee intends Leung to be an open space. “When this space is closed, you can’t get across the building,” Gresh pointed out.

The center’s design is intended to improve “the way people flow through the building,” according to Gresh, and provide a welcoming space for building community.

A work in progress Despite the progress that has been made, many details of the project remain unclear. The current design is “definitely not finalized, by any means,” Tan said. “It’s continually a work in progress.”

Neither the planning committee nor the architects have begun to detail the finishing touches of the building’s interior, Gresh said. For example, the committee is considering what the doors leading onto the stairwells will be.

It is unclear who will staff the information center and how its desk will be run, Gresh said. “We’re really just beginning the process.”

The committee has considered what will happen to Faunce’s services during the renovations. “There’s a commitment to having some food service on the Main Green area,” Gresh said. For example, installing a cafe ser vice in the lobby of Salomon Center is one proposal the committee has entertained.

The SAO and student organizations would also need to be temporarily relocated. “We’ve identified several spaces,” he said. But with the delay, it is uncertain exactly which spaces will be available during the renovations.

Tan, a senior, will graduate before construction on Faunce House will have started. “It’d be really cool to see it,” she said. “But at the same time, I got to see the Friedman Study Center, and I’m sure there were students working on that.”

Tan remains committed to the project even though she does not know when the new building will be completed. “I’m okay with it.

You know, pay it for ward.”

W orld & n ation Friday, November 21, 2008

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Attorney General Mukasey collapses mid-speech in D.C.

By Carrie Johnson and Clarence Williams Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed Thursday evening while delivering a speech to a prominent legal group and was rushed to George Washington University Hospital.

Mukasey remained at the hospital overnight for observation but a Justice Department spokesman said Mukasey had strong vital signs and was “in good spirits” after the incident, which occurred at an annual Federalist Society gathering. A person who attended the dinner said Mukasey was visibly shaking and perhaps slurring his words before he fell to the floor.

Video footage showed a tuxedoclad Mukasey, 67, staggering behind a lectern as FBI agents in his security detail raced to his side.

Washington D.C. fire and emergency services personnel were called to the Marriott Wardman Park hotel for a report of a man who had fainted in the main ballroom. Rescuers found a man suffering from a fainting spell, said Alan Etter, a Washington fire department spokesman. Another source said the medics worked on Mukasey for about 10 minutes before taking him out of the ballroom on a gurney.

Etter declined to identify the man, citing privacy laws. The patient was conscious, had no trouble breathing and was able to speak with rescue personnel, Etter said.

A man other sources identified as Mukasey was taken to the hospital as a priority one patient as a precaution but apparently had a “general illness” that was not thought to be life-threatening, Etter said.

A second man, 29, from the audience was also taken to a hospital for observation after reporting that he was upset by the fainting spell, officials said. The two episodes prompted authorities to take hazardous material tests for potential dangers, but officials found no sign of harmful chemicals at the hotel.

A lawyer from New York at the black-tie dinner said Mukasey’s speech became noticeably slower, and it appeared at first that he might be choking up.

“He was clearly struggling. Then his face went limp, he started shaking as if he were having a seizure, and then he fell back,” said the lawyer, who was sitting 50 yards from the stage.

His security detail immediately ordered all the lights in the room to be dimmed and told guests not to leave the room. It took paramedics at least 15 minutes to arrive, a witness said, during which time the room was virtually silent.

After Mukasey was taken out on a stretcher, someone asked that everyone say a prayer for him before the gathering dispersed.

Former Indiana Republican representative David McIntosh led the group in prayer after the incident.

Justice Department officials including Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip gathered at the hospital.

In a formal statement released near midnight, department spokesman Peter Carr said: “The Attorney General is conscious, conversant and alert. He is receiving excellent care and appreciates all of the good wishes and prayers he has received.”

— Paul Kane and Lois Romano contributed to this report

Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Family members of a state policeman killed in an ambush in Mexico comfort one another after seeing the bullet-riddled pickup truck in which the officers were riding.

Five gov’t agents latest victims in drug war

By Tracy Wilkinson Los Angeles Times

CULIACAN, Mexico -— The fourth corpse pulled from the bullet-shattered truck did not have benefit of a body bag. Only the face was covered (with a useless bullet-proof vest). The victim’s red shirt was even redder, soaked with blood. His bare arm hung limply from a gurney as he was lifted to a wagon from the morgue, the toes of his boots pointed skyward, at odd angles.

He was one of five federal and state police agents killed in a brazen shoot-out on this city’s prominent Emiliano Zapata Boulevard on Wednesday night. The officers

Credit tightens as market pessimism returns

By Neil Irwin and Renae Merle Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The financial system, which had recently shown glimmers of improvement, is unraveling again.

After a few weeks in which credit started flowing more freely through banks giving relief to financial markets, prices continued to plummet Thursday for all but the safest investments, dragged down by fears of a deeper and longer recession than even many pessimists had expected.

Investors were so eager to move money into ultra-safe U.S. Treasury debt Thursday that they were effectively paying the government to hold on to their money.

Meanwhile, the stock market fell nearly 7 percent Thursday, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500, and is now at its lowest level since 1997. Financial companies have been particularly hard hit, especially Citigroup, which has seen it shares lose half their value this week.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the largest shareholder in the company, announced a new investment in the firm as a show of support, following a major sell-off Wednesday.

But it wasn’t enough to stanch the bleeding, as the shares fell another 26 percent Thursday.

Citibank is being pummeled, but the entire sector has been under pressure, said Sean Ryan, a banking analyst with New York-based Sterne

Agee. “It is just a hideous environment for anyone,” Ryan said.

In an e-mail to clients of its brokerage services Thursday meant to bolster confidence, Citigroup wrote “Citi is in a far stronger position going into 2009 than we were going into 2008. And we are even better positioned for 2010.”

The relapse in the markets poses a predicament for economic policymakers at the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve, who have used extraordinary tactics to try keeping the financial system glued together.

The Treasury has injected more than $200 billion into banks, while the Fed is lending directly to companies by buying their short-term debt.

These were among the steps that helped achieve a measure of healing in recent weeks, particularly in making banks more confident about lending to each other. Financial indicators show that conditions remain better than they were in October but now, confronted with the prospect of a deep recession, investors are bracing for a new round of damage to financial companies.

The misery on financial markets Thursday had no single cause.

In Washington, talks broke down over a government rescue of major automakers, raising the specter of massive job losses. The broader economic picture also darkened with a report Thursday that more Americans filed for unemployment insurance benefits last week than in any week since 1992.

“The economic news continues to be quite bleak,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist with New York-based Avalon Partners.

“We have a market that is pricing in a global recession that will probably last longer than most people anticipated.”

And investors are coming to grips with the limitations of the government’s response. Treasury secretary Henry Paulson said this week he would not seek the remaining $350 billion of the $700 billion rescue package Congress approved last month, instead leaving the balance for the Obama administration to use come January.

Paulson also said last week he would not be using any of the bailout money to buy up troubled assets from the books of banks, so hope has dissipated that the market for complex mortgage securities will start functioning soon. Investors had hoped that government purchases would jump-start that market by establishing new prices that could open the door for the return of regular buying and selling.

Wall Street interpreted Paulson’s comments to mean that the financial rescue is on hold until President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration. And Wall Street was none too pleased.

“It’s a complete loss of confidence,” said Allen Sinai, president of Decision Economics, a consultancy. “We made our errors in the continued on page 9

were ambushed by gunmen in three vehicles who opened fire at an intersection outside a casino called Play.

The shooters escaped. Police, emergency workers and soldiers converged on the scene, as the casino’s blue and purple neon lights blinked garishly over the dead men slumped in the cab and bed of the pocked pick-up. In all, 10 people were killed in the state of Sinaloa during a 24-hour period ending Wednesday night, a deadly slice of the burgeoning Mexican drug war. Nationwide, more than 4,000 people have been killed in 2008, many of them lawenforcement agents doing battle with drug gangs.

Sinaloa, a fertile state on the

Pacific coast, has long been at the center of the Mexican drug trade. It also has served as a hub of violence since President Felipe Calderon dispatched an army of soldiers and federal police to take on some of the biggest druglords.

The alarming level of violence -— shootouts and kidnappings almost daily -— has sown panic and fear among a normally resilient citizenry.

“To live in Culiacan is a risk,” said Javier Valdez, a journalist and writer who hours before the killings addressed university students about the dangers of working here. “There continued on page 9

Judge: Gitmo must release noncombatant detainees

By Del Quentin Wilber Washington Post

WASHINGTON — For the first time, a federal judge ordered the release Thursday of detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay after evaluating and rejecting government allegations that the men were dangerous enemy combatants.

The government had alleged that the men planned to travel to Afghanistan to attack U.S. forces. But U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that in a series of closed hearings in recent weeks, the Justice Department had not proved that five of the six Algerian detainees at the Cuban facility were enemy combatants under the government’s own definition.

Leon ordered them released “forthwith” and said the government should engage in diplomatic efforts to find them new homes. In an unusual moment, he also pleaded with Justice Department lawyers not to appeal his order, noting that the men have been imprisoned since shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“Seven years of waiting for a legal system to give them an answer ... in my judgment is more than enough,” he said. He urged the government “to end this process.”

Leon is the first federal judge to rule on whether the government’s evidence is sufficient to justify the confinement of a detainee. The order

springs from a landmark Supreme Court decision in June that the Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to challenge their confinements in federal court under the legal doctrine of habeas corpus, literally “present the body.”

The decision applies to five of the six Algerians, who were arrested in Bosnia and have been held at Guantanamo Bay since January 2002. Leon found that the government had provided enough evidence to justify the continued detention of one Algerian who the government contends was a facilitator for al-Qaida.

Another federal judge last month ordered the release into the United States of a small group of Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay. But in that case, the government conceded that the men are not threats to the United States, and the legal argument centered around whether the courts could order the executive branch to release a detainee into the United States. The government is appealing the ruling.

In June, as part of a separate review of the detainees’ military classification, an appellate court panel ordered the transfer, release or retrial of one of those men. But the judges said they were unsure whether they had the authority to order his release.

All told, more than 200 detainees continued on page 9

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Friday, November 21, 2008

Friday, November 21, 2008

Drug gangs battling Mexican police forces continued from page 7 is a psychosis — you breathe it, live it, smell it, sweat it.”

Earlier this week, assailants hurled grenades at the offices of Culiacan’s largest circulation newspaper, El Debate. Although no one was hurt, the act was seen as a message of intimidation.

The slain agents (seven have died here in seven days) were part of a unit dedicated to cleaning up streets sales of cocaine, marijuana and other narcotics. They were intercepted a couple of blocks from their headquarters, shortly after they dropped off a suspect. Two other federal police with the slain officers were seriously

injured.

After the bodies were taken away, and investigators from a variety of agencies (some mistrustful of each other) did their work, a tow truck operator began the task of hauling away the agents’ vehicle, pierced by scores of high-caliber bullets, its tires flattened.

Suddenly, a white Honda Civic sped up to the site, wheels screeching to a stop after managing to penetrate police cordons. Three women and two men jumped out. They were family members of one of the agents.

“Mi hijo! Mi hijo!” screamed the older woman. “My son, my son!”

They wailed and cried and flailed their arms; one of the men, a brother,

probably, used his fists to beat the hood of his car. “Oh, no, no, no!” he moaned.

“Silence!” an officer in charge commanded. “Ladies, calm yourselves.”

“You don’t understand,” one of the younger women cried back.

“Yes, ma’am, I do,” he said.

Behind them, the tow truck cranked and wheezed as it heaved the pick-up onto its flatbed.

Inconsolable, the family left for the morgue, one of dozens here.

The tow truck also left, taking away its own casualty. At the ambush site, the air smelled of spilt gasoline. Three investigators in rubber gloves picked up spent shells, scattered for many feet, filling several plastic bags.

After seven years, some at Gitmo to be freed continued from page 7 are challenging their confinements before judges in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Legal scholars and lawyers representing detainees said the ruling is the latest setback for the Bush administration’s legal battle over the rights of the detainees. Leon, an appointee of President Bush, had been viewed by many as sympathetic to government arguments. He ruled in 2005 that the detainees did not have grounds to contest their detentions in his court.

That was the decision the Supreme Court reversed in June.

“For a judge like Leon to order their release from detention is significant because the government has long maintained the evidence it had was more than sufficient to justify the detentions,” said Scott Silliman, a national security law professor at Duke University. “This is a clear warning shot to the government. ... These are probably not the last detainees to be ordered released.”

President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo Bay, but the Bush administration is not likely to drop the legal fight. A Justice Department spokesman issued a statement that said officials disagree with Leon’s order and are weighing their options.

Attorneys for the Algerians said they would like the men returned to

their families in Bosnia, where they were legally living when they were captured. Bosnian officials have indicated they would take them back and have said their own investigation has cleared them of connections to terrorism.

Robert Kirsch, a lawyer for the detainees, said the ruling was “a relief.

The judge did what he had to do.”

He added that his team would appeal Leon’s decision involving the sixth Algerian, Belkacem Bensayah.

Leon issued his ruling in the D.C. federal courthouse’s large ceremonial courtroom, which was filled with lawyers and law clerks hoping to witness a historic ruling. As he read his decision, Leon patiently waited for an Arabic interpreter to translate his words for the detainees, who were listening via audio-link at Guantanamo Bay. Their attorneys hugged after Leon left the courtroom.

The Algerians were detained for years on allegations that they had been plotting to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo when they were picked up

by Bosnian authorities and later turned over to U.S. officials. Bush mentioned the bomb plot in his 2002 State of the Union Address. But the government withdrew those allegations last month without explanation. The most serious remaining allegations concerned Belkacem, who was accused of being an al-Qaida facilitator who sought to arrange travel for others to fight U.S.

forces in Afghanistan.

The other five — Lakhdar Boumediene, Mohamed Nechle, Mustafa Ait Idir, Hadj Boudella and Saber Lahmar — were accused of planning to go to Afghanistan to fight.

Leon said the direct evidence against those five was skimpy and came from one unnamed source in a classified document. On top of that, Leon ruled, the government did not provide him with enough information to evaluate the source’s credibility.

“The court has no knowledge as to the circumstances under which the source obtained the information,” Leon said, adding that the government did not give him “adequate corroborating evidence” to support the source’s allegations.

“To rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with the court’s obligations,” he said.

Leon did not fault the government for picking up the men in the first place, noting that the evidence “was undoubtedly sufficient for the intelligence purposes for which it was prepared.”

In the case of Bensayah, Leon said, the government proved by a preponderance of the evidence that he was an enemy combatant. He said the government relied on the same unnamed source but provided “other intelligence reports based on a variety of sources and evidence” to corroborate the allegations.

Financial system shows more signs of weakness continued from page 7 1930s by letting the banking system go down ... We haven’t done that. But history will write that we made a lot of other mistakes and left ourselves with a modern-day counterpart to the 1930s situation.”

Bank lending, which increased steadily in October as financial firms became more confident that the rescue would work, has fallen recently, according to Federal Reserve data, suggesting credit will remain constrained in the near future.

J.P. Morgan Chase said it is laying off 10 percent of its investment banking staff, or about 3,000 people.

Goldman Sachs shares fell to below the price at which they were first sold to the public almost a decade ago.

The simplest measure of the health of the financial system is the price the U.S. government must pay to borrow money by issuing bonds. When investors are fearful, they are willing to accept low rates to lend to the government just to guard against losses or the risk that they won’t be able to access cash.

Thursday, investors were petrified.

Rates on all types of U.S. government

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debt fell to all-time lows; the Treasury can now borrow money for two years at a rate of less than 1 percent, and can borrow money for 30 years for less than 3.5 percent. For 30 day Treasury bills, the rate is effectively zero, which means, with transaction fees, that investors are essentially paying for the government to take money out of their hands for a month.

Conversely, rates soared on all types of risky debt. Rates have spiked on “commercial mortgage backed securities,” which are loans against office buildings and other commercial property, and on debt owed by companies that are considered uncertain bets.

“The market is hungering for stability, and it isn’t getting it from the government. They’re not getting it from the economy and their only recourse is to sell,” said Matt McCormick, portfolio manager and banking analyst at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel.

The Treasury said Thursday it stands ready to buy assets from the Reserve Fund’s U.S. Government Fund, a money market mutual fund with $6.3 billion in assets, under a temporary program it initiated last month

to bolster money market funds. That would make it easier for the fund to handle redemption requests by its investors.

Also casting a pall on the broader market was uncertainty about the future of the U.S. automakers. With Congress struggling to reach accord on a rescue of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, investors were weighing the prospect of further job losses among autoworkers and auto parts suppliers and of ripples through the financial system.

“The market is fearful of the consequences if Detroit is allowed to fail and what that would mean in terms of further economic decay,” said Cardillo, of Avalon Partners.

The economic and financial distress continues to drive down prices of fuel and other commodities.

Crude oil closed below $50 a barrel Thursday for the first time since 2005, and has now has fallen more than 65 percent from its peak of $147 a barrel this summer.

Some analysts are forecasting prices of $35 to $45 a barrel by year’s end, levels that would have been unthinkable just this summer, reflecting sharply declining global demand.

W. hoops loses to Hoyas continued from page 12 and a team-high five rebounds, while Christina Johnson ’10 chipped in six points of her own. Although Brown’s play improved in the second half, the Hoyas maintained their hot shooting, converting better than 50 percent of their shots from the field. With the Hoyas’ offense rolling, the Bears

were unable to cut into the lead, ultimately falling 83-42.

“We battled at moments, but we’re still not solid. We need to string the moments together,” Burr said.

The Bears will continue their difficult schedule at home on Tuesday, as they search for their first win of the season against URI.

Davis ’10: Out of overtime continued from page 12 system, each team starts with the ball at the opposing team’s 25-yard line, which would lead to overly conservative play in the NFL. No NFL head coach would decline a sure field goal (it’s not nearly as sure a thing in college) to go for a touchdown. So, in the NFL system, each possession will start with a kickoff, thus involving the third phase of the game, special teams, and ensuring that the opposing team will not automatically start within field goal range.

This past Tuesday, Hines Ward, who played in a tie game just six years ago, said he was unaware that

two teams could tie in the NFL. I guess he just assumed the league had changed it. But therein lies his mistake: assuming the NFL would do something rational. I know it won’t change.

The NFL emphasizes tradition too much, the NFL Players Association will never allow players to be subjected to higher risk of injury and the television networks would have too difficult of a time dealing with substantially extended games to ever let this change happen.

But at least I can sleep soundly tonight knowing I did my part in trying to prevent the awful history of this past Sunday from repeating itself.

M. hoops beats Holy Cross continued from page 12 Bears reeled off eight straight points of their own to tie up the game.

With six minutes left in the game and the Bears down 49-45, Brown put together its strongest offensive push of the game, going on a 12-0 scoring run to take the lead for good.

“We didn’t shoot as well from the outside in the second half,” Agel said. “But we did move the ball inside-out well, finding some open looks. We found some open areas one trip, that weren’t there the next. I give credit to Holy Cross and their zone defense.”

Tri-captain Chris Skrelja ’09 connected on a three-point basket with 4:35 remaining to spark the offense on its run. In a matter of two minutes, Matt Mullery ’10 laid in 2 of his game-high 18 points; Williams tallied another trey; and Tri-Captain Scott Friske ’09 finished off the scoring run with a basket, putting the Bears up 57-49.

Brown extended its lead to 60-51 after Mullery sank two foul shots with 1:10 left to play. Skrelja kept his defensive intensity up in the game’s final 30 seconds, as he came up with two steals to put the game away for the Bears, 62-57.

“It was a battle to get every rebound,” Mullery said. “It came down to our level of toughness — getting loose balls and minimizing their possessions to one shot. We kept rebounding, especially in the second half.”

Mullery has made an excellent contribution to the offensive side of the ball this year, as he has led the Bears in scoring, both in the URI game with 22 and in the Holy Cross game with 18.

Tri-captain Peter Sullivan ’11 turned in another solid scoring effort with nine points and five rebounds. Skrelja finished with seven points, four boards and four assists on the night. Chris Taylor ’11 provided a strong contribution off the bench with six points and a team-high six rebounds.

“We played together on the offensive and defensive sides of the

ball,” Williams said. “We played aggressive inside and out. When we went on our 12-0 scoring run, we played more intense defense and limited our turnovers. That helped us get back into the game and win it.”

The Bears did not fare as well in their match against George Mason on Monday night.

The Patriots scored most of their first half points (35 of their 39) from outside the lane, mostly off the dribble. In the second half, however, they scored 31 of their 50 points in the paint, mostly on fastbreak lay-ups.

George Mason out-shot Brown for the game, connecting on 36 of 66 field goals (55 percent), while Brown was held to 19 of 52 (36.5 percent) shooting from the floor.

Sullivan led the Bears with 15 points and 8 rebounds. Morgan Kelly ’11 scored a career-high 11 points. Skrelja joined Sullivan and Kelly in double figures with 11.

“The younger players are obviously working very hard,” Agel said. “We look for more contributions from younger players every game.”

The Bears open up a three-game homestand starting on Saturday when they take on Northwestern at 7 p.m. at the Pizzitola Center.

“Playing a BCS school is a tall order,” Agel said. “They’ll be at full strength this year. We’ll have our hands full and then some.”

Last season, Brown traveled to Illinois to take on the Wildcats and pulled away with a strong 73-67 road victory against the powerful Big Ten conference foe. Very rarely do large BCS schools travel to a smaller school, but Agel said Coach Bill Carmody knows it is important to establish these ties. Carmody coached at Princeton for 18 seasons, his last four as head coach, before heading to Northwestern.

“We know they’re mad from when we beat them on their home court a year ago,” Williams said.

“It’s great to have a Big Ten team playing at Brown. We’ll try to be ready for whatever they bring at us on Saturday.”

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Friday, November 21, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S t a ff E d i t o r i a l

Diamonds and coal Coal to the peeping Tom caught peering into a Hegeman Hall dorm room. We, too, were impressed by the summer dorm renovations.

Cubic zirconium to Kennedy Plaza, which, we reported this week, some citizens are hoping to turn into a “destination unto itself” with more arts and culture events. Concerts are nice, but will anyone want to hear live music after four hours spent tr ying not to listen to “Mission Impossible 2” on the Greyhound bus’s speakers?

A diamond to Florence, Italy, “the cradle of Renaissance” and sister to our own Renaissance City. Does Florence’s Renaissance involve pizza/ seafood/chicken businesses, too?

Coal to California voters. We’d tell you to go screw yourself, but that’s probably not legal anymore.

Cubic zirconium to every recipient of a Herald diamond. You might feel special, but remember — we give those things out the way Brown professors give out A’s.

A diamond to James Sturm, a participant in last night’s panel discussion on the Jewish influence on comics and director of the Center for Cartoon Studies, for making even our Contemplative Studies Initiative suddenly seem legitimately academic.

Coal to the economy. This week, it was blamed for cuts in state colleges’ budgets, cuts in RIPTA ser vices — and perhaps even a drop in early applications to Brown and delays to our construction projects. No wonder the Joukowsky Institute just buried its savings — a one-dollar bill! — in a time capsule under Rhode Island Hall.

A diamond to the student from Greece who attended Sex Power God because he missed the parties in his motherland and hoped the event would “approximate it in some way.” What’s wrong with Body Chemistr y and Thete’s ’80s Party?

A diamond to the Queer Alliance coordinator who told The Herald that SPG provides a safe space for both hooking up or “just going to play with glowsticks.” Or for some people, probably both.

T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Simmi Aujla Ross Frazier

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Letters

P ete fallon

Dems, Students for Obama displeased with article To the Editor: The Herald’s correction Thursday of an article earlier this week (“Post-election, no love lost among Dems,” Nov. 18) did not sufficiently address the inaccuracies of that piece. As members of the Executive Boards of the Brown Democrats and Brown Students for Barack Obama, we are writing to set the record straight on our collaborative student movement in support of the Obama campaign.

Each of us consented to speak with The Herald on this topic, but we were surprised to find the article full of quotes attributed to us that did not represent our true words or opinions. We applaud The Herald for its coverage of student involvement in this momentous election.

We are dismayed, however, that The Herald deliberately sought to highlight tension through interview questions that probed for evidence of poor relations, through the publication of quotations out-of-context and through blatant factual falsehoods.

Brown SFBO was constituted in Fall 2007 to harness enthusiasm for the senator’s candidacy. The Herald reported that the relationship between SFBO and the Dems was tense due to the Dems’ neutrality during the primary, but SFBO did not expect the Dems to endorse a candidate before the Convention. Just as the Democratic Party cannot do so on a national level, it would have been highly unprofessional for the Brown Dems to affiliate at that time.

The Herald reported a “rocky history and ideological differences” between the two groups during the primary.

Conversely, during that time, SFBO, the Dems, and Students for Hillary coordinated several events together, including debate watching parties and a mock primary debate.

The Herald references “ruffled feathers” surrounding the coordination of general election activities. In reality,

leading up to Nov. 4, both groups were devoted to the cause of electing Barack Obama, and we coordinated our efforts in tandem. We signed up volunteers and made phone calls — together. We knocked on doors and registered voters – together. We slipped tables and hung fliers — together.

Every Thursday found us phone-banking, every weekend found us in New Hampshire, and every moment of the Get Out The Vote effort found us at Obama headquarters or out in the field — and we coordinated it all together. Any miscommunications that occurred over the course of the campaign did not leave “ruffled feathers” for long, because we had no time for such bickering. We were united in an urgent, common purpose.

The Herald’s assertion that SFBO and the Dems were rivals has no basis. Neither group would have succeeded on Election Day if we had not been willing to cooperate.

The Dems cannot move forward in their fight for universal health care, educational equality, and LGBTQ rights if passionate people keep to the sidelines. SFBO members do not plan to cease their activism because the election is over; rather, we believe in Obama’s declaration: “we are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Ultimately, both groups are thrilled with the outcome of this election. In celebrating and moving forward, however, it is important to us that the Brown community knows about this important joint effort, rather than focusing on the politics of division.

Harrison Kreisberg ’10 President, Brown Democrats Max Chaiken ’09 President, Brown Students for Barack Obama Ariel Werner ’09 Get Out the Vote Coordinator, Brown Students for Barack Obama

Possible construction delays disappointing To the Editor: It is discouraging to hear that after six years of footdragging, the Nelson Fitness Center could be delayed even further because of the bad economy.

This is the one building in the Boldly Brown Cam-

paign which would benefit the entire Brown community.

Everyone should be enjoying this critical facility now, instead of waiting an indeterminate period of time.

Peter Mackie ’59

Correction An editorial in Tuesday’s Herald (“Crossing the line,” Nov. 18) said that eight SDS members were directly involved with the alleged injury of University employees. The University has accused the students of being involved with those injuries, but how directly is unclear.

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O pinions Friday, November 21, 2008

Page 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

The Ratty: diversifying properly Many Brown students have experienced the Tastes of the World line at the Ratty, which replaced the Trattoria at the beginning of this semester. At its roots, the idea seems somewhat attractive. Students can enjoy a diverse selection of meals every week and simultaneously avoid the boredom that may accompany a fixed menu. After grabbing their meals, Brown students can also help themselves to a large-screen TV displaying CNN during all hours of operation.

The advent of the Tastes of the World line seems to be one more bullet point in Brown’s agenda for diversity.

However, now that the principle of diversity has penetrated the Ratty, we must decide whether or not the administration has been making the right changes. Quite frankly, instead of eliminating the Trattoria, they should have diversified the TV. First, allow me to discuss the new line, inappropriately dubbed the “Tastes of the World.” Despite its initial raison d’etre, this trade-off between consistent, familiar Italian food and dynamic, “exotic” food has not been worthwhile. While I am sure the individuals who made the switch had good intentions, the end result has been awful.

Aside from the weeks when students were able to experience the tastes of Mexico and South America (tacos, guacamole, etc.), the line has mostly been an assortment of different types of hummus, noodles and pita bread. Further, aside from very stereotypical representations of Asia and South America, the rest of the “world” has yet to gain suf-

ficient representation from the line.

As a matter of fact, as I passed by Tastes of the World recently, the offerings were reminiscent of an older, more homogenous past: I witnessed pizza, pasta and meatballs.

Either it was the “Tastes of Brooklyn, N.Y.,” or the Ratty employees finally realized that the Trattoria was always better.

It’s time to move on. Whoever picks the

Line, although I tend to avoid that area at all costs), many dishes repeat, and the choices are generally acceptable, with a few inedible outliers.

Now that we have isolated one aspect of the Ratty that does not need to be altered, let’s talk about another aspect that does: the channel selection.

For those students interested in watching

Whoever picks the menu at the Ratty should convert Tastes of the World back to the Trattoria

menu at the Ratty should convert Tastes of the World back to the Trattoria (or, alternatively, to the mildly popular “Tastes of Mexico and South America”). While the items at the Comfort Foods line change from day to day (I assume the same happens at the Vegan

news while they dine, wouldn’t it be nice to watch another network for a change? I, for one, am tired of listening to the same CNN commentators (especially Anderson Cooper) day in and day out, from breakfast until dinner. CNN is not the only news channel

available; we could mix it up by alternating CNN with CNBC, MSNBC or my personal favorite, FOX News, among others.

After switching stations, we should think more broadly — why not skip news altogether? After all, a variety of newspapers, including the New York Times, the Providence Journal and The Herald, are already available for the news-hungry crowd. Wouldn’t it be nice to watch Family Guy, Seinfeld, Friends or other similar shows during meals? Why not play ESPN? While the TV in the Ratty has showcased sports games in the past, the tube has generally been tuned into CNN for most of the time when it ought to provide something other than generic news with commenters who, it could be argued, have a liberal bias.

Brown’s obsession with campus diversity, while spurred by good intentions, is taking us down the wrong path. We should admit that The Trattoria is superior to the failed Tastes of the World line in most respects.

Further, we should realize that the TV should not only display one channel, and channel variety could enliven the Ratty’s atmosphere.

Ultimately, we must recognize that diversity, in and of itself, only sometimes means improvement. An irrational obsession with all types of diversity will not only diminish the Ratty experience, but it may also ruin Brown.

Anish Mitra ’10 also steered clear of the PETA debate.

In defense of the blog

BY DAN DAVIDSON Opinions Columnist When soon-to-be former Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., came to Brown last week, he was a class act. Shays provided thoughtful and candid insight into the state of political affairs despite having been defeated only days before in an upsetting race.

As much as I appreciated Shays’ remarks, I take issue with his perceptions of the media. His critique of news sources specifically targeted blogs, characterizing them as purveyors of misinformation.

Shays is not the only person calling out blogs these days. His comments brought me back to an altercation that took place on the sports program “Costas Now” between Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger and Will Leitch, founder of the sports blog Deadspin. Bissinger unleashed a torrent of anti-blog sentiments on Leitch, claiming that they are “dedicated to cruelty” and lack “journalistic integrity.”

Shays and Bissenger suggested that because blogs usually aren’t fact-checked and are often simply opinions, they ordinarily misinform readers.

Bissinger’s rant was not as intelligent or well-intentioned as Shays’ critique. Shays also deser ves more credit than Bissinger for conceding to a questioner that he didn’t mean to suggest that every single blog was a vehicle for misinformation. Nevertheless, the sentiments they expressed are essentially the same. They believe that the blog as a medium is inherently suspect.

Anti-blog sentiment ignores the fact that blogs aren’t going away as information sources. If anything, they will become more widely used (and useful) in the future. They should be judged based on what they are — an emerging medium.

People like Bissinger and Shays are too quick to reflexively lash out against blogs as a media form. Most of their qualms concern specific blogs, not blogs in general. The Internet is a crazy place, and there are countless blogs that bring little to the table aside from

Times columnist Thomas Friedman blogs, and I first heard about Bissinger’s comments through a blog by Joe Posnanski, widely considered one of the best sportswriters around.

These writers don’t suddenly lose their talent or desire to report accurately when they get home from their day jobs and blog.

Yet while you don’t often hear someone attacking newspapers or television as media when something they read or see irks them, blogs as a medium seem to take much of the heat that should be directed at specific blogs.

When you read a bad book, you don’t conclude that books are bad. In the same vein, when you read a bad blog, you should not say, “blogs are bad.” craziness. But when you read a bad book, you don’t conclude that books are bad. In the same vein, when you read a bad blog, you should not say, “blogs are bad.”

Shays obviously knows this because he backed off his initial statements about blogs during questioning. It’s hard to believe that any informed critic of blogs thinks that they are all worthless. Pulitzer Prize winning New York

Periodicals and television shows are presumed innocent of bias, shoddy research and other media sins until proven guilty. By contrast, people expect the worst from blogs.

This is an unfortunate phenomenon, and one that distracts from more pressing issues of media practice. All types of media are guilty of some degree of poor reporting, and deserve to be judged by stricter standards.

Interested in writing a column next semester?

Contact opinions@browndailyherald.com for more information.

In today’s society, newspapers, magazines and television are still the preeminent sources of information. When journalists screw up the stakes are bigger because people trust traditional sources of news more than blogs.

In fact, when Shays cited specific examples of poor reporting from his recent Congressional race, they mostly involved newspapers.

Many of the most disturbing media trends are taking place in the mainstream, not the blogosphere. Media conglomerates leave us with only a few voices and a multitude of questions about objectivity and conflicts of interest, and local news is a dying tradition.

The advent of blogs may help overcome these problems. Bloggers can remain outside the sphere of corporate influence more readily than reporters (who are usually employed by the very corporations they may be reporting on). They can also report on local stories that larger news organizations decide to ignore.

Blogs may lack the accountability of newspapers or TV stations, but technology is closing the accountability gap. Blog rating organizations already exist, and greater demand for this type of service will help people discriminate between informative and inaccurate blogs.

It is clear that blogs as a medium can serve as a useful alternative to other information sources in print and on television or radio.

Bad blogs do not diminish the value of good ones. Hopefully blogs will soon be seen not as a threat, but as an opportunity for advancement.

Dan Davidson ’11 wants everyone to link to this column.

S ports W eekend Page 12

Friday, November 21, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Overdue for Hoyas too hot to handle for women’s basketball overtime

By Nicole Stock Staff Writer

Enough is enough.

I could stand the blatant pandering of the recent bombardment of NFL rules to increase offensive production, the dishonor of the timeoutto-ice-the-kicker rule, even the Patriots’ illegitimate playoff victory by means of the Pat Davis “tuck r ule,” Sports Columnist but now it has hit home. This past weekend, my beloved Eagles tied a game against the Cincinnati Bengals, just the latest in a long list of atrocities associated with awful NFL rules, especially those related to overtime.

I don’t have to go into the details about why the “tuck rule” was especially moronic, or exactly how there is an incredibly blatant double standard between offensive and defensive players in the NFL, but I must attack the NFL’s current overtime system.

In order to fix this critical system, we must first diagnose the problem.

A sudden-death system is completely unacceptable. The fact that a team, even in single-elimination playoffs, can lose in overtime without even touching the ball, is ridiculous. The outcome of far too many important games literally comes down to a coin toss. Of course, it is not a foregone conclusion that the team with the ball first will win, but in today’s offense-heavy game, it is a huge advantage to start with possession of the ball.

The game must also continue until one team prevails — none of this tie nonsense. One of the main arguments for the current system is that it is unfair to subject players to more than 75 minutes of physical play and increased risk of injury. To this I have only one response: They are professional athletes. Playing football is their profession.

If collegiate athletes, who are younger, less fit, less highly trained and more vulnerable, can finish off an overtime game the right way (the Giants’ Eli Manning once played in a seven-overtime game while at Ole Miss), then professionals should be able to too. No doubt it is tiring, but a victor must be decided.

Football is the only game of the four major sports in which you can tie. Even the NHL changed its rules to incorporate a shootout at the end of regular season games, and hockey is every bit as physical as football.

The NFL should embrace the inherent drama and excitement of games during which two teams play a full game to a dead-even score, and as such should add to the excitement by allowing the competitors to ultimately decide a winner.

So now that we have assessed the problem, a solution is in order.

Clearly some version of the current NCAA overtime system is the most prudent option. For those who do not know, the college overtime system allows each team one possession to score, either with a touchdown or field goal. Basically, the team that scores more points on its drive wins the game. If the teams score an equal amount, then they are permitted another possession until one team emerges victorious.

In this way, each team is allowed an opportunity to play both sides of the ball, and thus the system allows for a more equal overtime contest.

However, in the current NCAA continued on page 9

Justin Coleman / Herald

Christina Johnson ’10 and the women’s basketball team fell 83-42 Wednesday night to Georgetown. They look to score their first victory of the season against URI on Nov. 25.

The women’s basketball team squared off at home against the Georgetown Hoyas on Wednesday night, suffering their third 42 consecutive Brown Georgetown 83 loss since the star t of the season, while Georgetown improved to 2-0. The Hoyas shot 52 percent from the field en route to a 83-42 win over Brown.

The Bears were down from the beginning of the game. After the Hoyas scored the first basket, Brown never claimed the lead the rest of the way.

The Bears were unable to get into a rhythm, shooting only 23 percent from the field and turning the ball over 17 times in the first half.

“Normally you want to keep the turnovers between 12-15 for the game,” said Head Coach Jean Burr.

“The first-half turnovers put us in a hole.”

The Hoyas’ post play, combined with their quick guards, made it difficult for the Bears to contain their potent offense. Georgetown had 24 points in the paint in the first half and led the Bears, 35-13, as the teams

headed into the locker room.

“We had (trouble) containing the guards and were not able to recover,” Burr said. “They passed quickly off the dribble, which gave us limited time to recover off the penetration.”

“We have been coming out slow in the second half, coming out and getting jumped on instead of us jumping on them,” said Hannah Passafuime ’12. “We talked about staying composed and keeping our heads in the game.”

Passafuime sparked Brown’s offense in the second half, scoring a team- and career-high 10 points and knocking down two three-pointers in the process.

“We were getting a few offensive rebounds and kicking the ball out from the post player, which accounted for three of my shots,” Passafuime said.

“Karly Grace (’11) is a threat outside so they were playing her tight and I was able to get some good looks.”

The Bears’ shooting improved over the course of the game, as they shot 36 percent from the field in the second half, while only turning the ball over 10 times. Betsy Jacobson ’11 finished the game with six points continued on page 9

Weekend games to watch: Football looks for Ivy title

By Megan McCahill Sports Editor

Brown’s winter sports seasons are under way, and several Brown teams are starting to heat up. Here are the games Brown fans should be watching this weekend, and the football team’s chance to win its fourth Ivy League title tops our list of must-see games this weekend.

Tonight W. Ice Hockey vs. Niagara, 7 p.m. at Meehan Auditorium Bruno is coming off of its most impressive weekend of the season, as the team’s offense came to life in a 3-2 overtime loss to Cornell and a 4-3 win over Colgate. Look for ECAC Rookie of the Week Paige Pyett ’12 to bring solid play on both ends of

the ice, as the defenseman has three goals and two assists in eight games this season. The Bears will also be looking for assistant captain Andrea Hunter ’10 to continue her recent offensive production after scoring two goals and two assists in the Bears’ games last weekend.

Saturday Football vs. Columbia, 12:30 p.m. at Brown Stadium The Bears’ last game of the season is a huge one, as the Bears (63, 5-1 Ivy) have a chance to clinch at least a share of the Ivy League Championship with a win over the Lions (2-7, 2-4). Coming off of last weekend’s 45-16 victory at Dartmouth, Brown is currently tied for first place in the league with Harvard, whom Bruno beat 24-22 earlier

in the season.

The game will be the last time the team’s 22 seniors will wear a Brown uniform, and a win on Saturday will put the seniors in the school record books as the only class in Brown history to win two Ivy League titles after their impressive 9-1 campaign in 2005. The Bears will look to quarterback and captain Michael Dougherty ’09, who was named the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this year after passing for 238 yards and two touchdowns against the Big Green.

Men’s Basketball vs. Northwestern, 7 p.m. at Pizzitola Center.

Bruno will continue its difficult schedule, taking on a tough Big Ten opponent in the Wildcats (2-

0). Northwestern will be hungry for revenge after falling to Brown on its home court last season, while the Bears (1-2) enter the game with momentum, fresh off their first win, 62-57 over Holy Cross. Look for Matt Mullery ’10 and tri-captain Peter Sullivan ’11, the Bears’ leading scorers over their first three games, to lead the way for the Bears on offense.

Brown will call upon tri-captains Scott Friske ’09 and Chris Skrelja ’09 to continue their well-rounded play this season by grabbing rebounds and dishing out assists. Guard Adrian Williams ’11 is another exciting player to watch, as he is coming off a career-high 16 points against the Crusaders, and appears to be on the verge of having a breakout season for the Bears.

Williams ’11 helps m. hoops excommunicate Holy Cross

By Katie Wood Assistant Sports Editor

Herald File Photo

Adrian Williams ’11 scored a career-high 16 points and added 7 steals to help the Bears’ 62-57 win over Holy Cross. They pulled off their first win of the season.

The men’s basketball team finished its three-game opening road trip to start off the season with a 62-57 win over Holy Cross on Holy Cross 57 We d n e s d a y 62 night and an Brown 89-52 loss to George Mason on Monday. The win over Holy Cross gives Head Coach Jesse Agel his first career win at Brown.

Adrian Williams ’11 was unable to play in the George Mason game because of an ankle injury he incurred at Sunday’s practice in Fairfax, Va. He was back in the lineup against Holy Cross, however, where he made an offensive and defensive impact in the game. Williams scored a careerhigh 16 points, and his 7 steals were the second-best single-game performance in the history of the program.

“We were happy to have him

back,” Agel said. “He’s a very consistent player for us. We hope he has more double-digit scoring nights for the team.”

Brown and Holy Cross played neck-and-neck throughout the entire game, with each team holding advantages of no more than ten points.

In the first ten minutes of play, the Crusaders held a 14-12 advantage over the Bears before pulling away with a 6-0 run, taking a 20-12 advantage.

Bruno responded with its own 6-0 run and eventually went up 27-24 in the final minutes of the first half. The momentum shifted back in favor of Holy Cross as they finished out the half on a 7-0 scoring run. Brown headed into the locker room down 31-27.

To start the second half, the Crusaders continued their offensive push as they scored eight of the game’s next 10 points to distance themselves from the Bears, 37-29.

In a game of offensive attacks, the continued on page 9