Tuesday, April 9, 2019

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019

VOLUME CLIII, ISSUE 46

Admitted students fill campus for ADOCH Single-day option of ADOCH to be offered April 24 as third session of annual event

By LI GOLDSTEIN AND SARAH WANG SENIOR STAFF WRITER AND CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Admitted students to the class of 2023 explored campus this weekend for the first 2019 session of A Day on College Hill.

Additional students will visit campus for another overnight installment of ADOCH April 14-15, and for the first time ever, accepted students will have the option to register for a dayonly ADOCH program on April 24, said Dean of Admission Logan Powell.

This weekend, 537 admitted students visited College Hill for ADOCH. The University will welcome 562 admitted students next weekend, and 103 admitted students registered for the day-only version of ADOCH, Powell said. The total number of students registered for this year’s ADOCH events is consistent

with the number of students who attended ADOCH last year, he added.

While students admitted through Early Decision were invited to ADOCH for the second time in recent years, only those students admitted through regular decision were offered overnight housing in residential halls, which is consistent with recent University policy, Powell said. “In terms of capacity, we want to make sure that we allocate our resources effectively and appropriately,” he added.

ADOCH was “completely redesigned” last year, said student coordinator Sarah Ashe ’21, when the program was expanded from one longer session in the middle of the week to two shorter overnight sessions running from Sunday to Monday afternoon. But “this year was really about not making major changes, but perfecting and honing in on smaller things that needed to be done,” Ashe said.

For the two overnight ADOCH sessions, the Sunday programming is dedicated to activities and extracurriculars, while Monday programs largely focus on academics and class visits, Ashe said. » See ADOCH, page 3

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Three dorms to be renovated summer 2019 Machado House to receive new bedroom furniture; New Dorm, Hegeman set for roof repairs

By TYLER JACOBSON STAFF WRITER

The Department of Facilities Management plans to renovate and update three dorms this summer, according to the Facilities Management Active Project List.

Dorms in Machado House will receive new bedroom furniture, including beds, desks and chairs. Portions of Machado’s brick facade will be repaired as well. The roof of Hegeman Hall will also receive updates, and Vartan Gregorian Quad’s roofs will be replaced, according to Melissa Flowers, senior director of residential education and operations in the Office of Residential Life.

Construction for these projects is expected to start in June with a target completion date in August. This should impact student residential hall life during the 2019-2020 academic year “only in positive ways,” Flowers wrote in an email to The Herald.

“We are committed to continue our partnership with Facilities Management … allowing us to enhance the physical

BENJI TORUÑO / HERALD

Hegeman Hall, one of the three dorms that will undergo renovations this upcoming summer, primarily houses upperclassmen students on campus. spaces in an effort to provide a quality residential experience for all,” Flowers wrote.

In addition, the University will repaint portions of walls inside dorms across campus as needed, Flowers wrote. Facilities Management inspects

Travel writer Pico Iyer makes an ‘art of stillness’ Renowned travel writer talks to Brown community about calming down, finding home

By JACKSON TRUESDALE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

In 1990, a California wildfire incinerated Pico Iyer’s family home.

When Iyer reached safety, he filed a story about it for TIME magazine.

Though he lost 15 years of notes and three of his unfinished books, Iyer managed to save one nearly completed manuscript and his cat, Minnie.

Now, at 62, the travel writer looks back on that inferno as the start of finding stillness in his life. Iyer’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, TIME, Vanity Fair and Granta, and his 13 books have been translated into 23 languages. During his talk and seminar hosted by the Cogut Institute last week, Iyer reflected on his journeys and how he has found stillness in modern life through solitary retreats and writing.

In a seminar the next morning, Iyer took questions about stillness

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

INSIDE

TIFFANY DING / HERALD

Pico Iyer spoke to community members during a talk and seminar last week. and what it might look like at the University. In stillness, the mind is unoccupied and without deadlines to meet. “Anything that allows your mind to wander actually makes you more focused,” he said, adding that he has never had a meditation practice.

Iyer acknowledged that college life challenges the practice of stillness and encouraged students to find a balance.

Iyer learned to balance his own frenetic globetrotting with experiences of stillness soon after the fire of 1990. With no home to return to, he spent months sleeping on his friend’s floor. In that period, another friend visited and told Iyer about retreats at

a quiet Catholic monastery in Big Sur that had calmed down “even the most fidgety, phone-addicted and restless” of his high school students.

“Well, anything that works for a 15-year-old boy is probably ideal for me,” Iyer recalled thinking. Soon after, he drove several hours up Highway 1 and found the monastery. He spent three days alone in the quiet. “I felt happier, calmer and clearer than I could ever remember.”

Iyer found the religious side of his retreat “not ideal” but has since revisited the hermitage over 90 times without ever becoming Catholic. “I quickly saw that the place itself is not important,” he said. “What was

important was my finding the resolve just to step out of my life.” By spending quiet time alone, Iyer has been able to return to his loved ones with joy and energy rather than anxiety.

Iyer anchored his lecture in the teachings of a hermit he met on a mountain in 1995. After Iyer pulled into the Mount Baldy Zen Center parking lot, he was met by a man he described as a “rather weathered figure in a ragged gown.” Soon, he discovered that the Zen monk before him was in fact his boyhood hero: Leonard Cohen.

Before that encounter, Iyer had idolized the singer and poet for his “his romantic lifestyle and his constant travels and his beautiful girlfriends.” But atop that mountain, Iyer was crushed. The 61-year-old Cohen told Iyer that the “real, deep excitement he had found in life, the profound and voluptuous and delicious entertainment that the world had to offer,” came from looking after his friends.

After Iyer left the mountain, he realized, “Well, here is somebody who has enjoyed everything that the world has to offer, everything that sex and drugs and rock and roll can provide.

And he had truly found his great adventure and fulfillment sitting still.” » See IYER, page 2

residential halls for damaged paint annually after students move out for the summer, The Herald previously reported.

The University will also continue to make enhancements to the Brown Muslim Student Center and the Kosher Kitchen in » See RENOVATIONS, page 3

U. study investigates northern lake emissions Recent study by U. researchers examines how natural carbon emissions affect climate models

By LAVANYA SATHYAMURTHY STAFF WRITER

While most stories about greenhouse gas emissions focus on those from cars, planes and other forms of human consumption, carbon emissions from natural sources, while often neglected in the news, are also important to climate models.

Lakes in the northern regions of Canada, Alaska and Russia, also known as boreal lakes, are sources of naturally occurring greenhouse gas emissions.

In a recent University study that could transform the current emissions models in the boreal lakes region, small satellites allowed a team of scientists to study the fluctuating water levels of small lakes across northern Canada » See EMISSIONS, page 4

WEATHER

TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019

NEWS Congressmen Cicilline ’83 and Phillips ’91 participates in student-led climate conversation

ARTS & CULTURE PW dance show explores diaspora, gender, mental illness through movement and theater

ARTS & CULTURE “The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise” investigates alienation through layered narration

COMMENTARY Hall ’20: Green New Deal offers rational, robust solution to tackle global climate change

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PAGE 2 • TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Alums in Congress discuss climate, wealth distribution Cicilline ’83, Phillips ’91 answer questions from “Intro to American Political Processes” class

By HENRY DAWSON SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Congressmen David Cicilline ’83 (DRI) and Dean Phillips ’91 (D-MN) returned to campus Monday to discuss climate change, the societal impacts of wealth distribution and Brown’s impact on their trajectory to Congress.

Co-sponsored by the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, “From Brown to Congress” was driven by questions drafted by students from POLS 0010: “Introduction to the American Political Process” and members of the audience.

Two students representing the environmental activist group Sunrise Rhode Island opened the audience-led Q&A by thanking Cicilline for his support of the Select Committee for the Green New Deal and co-sponsoring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (DNY) resolution for a Green New Deal.

The students followed this statement by asking Phillips why he has yet to sign on to the resolution.

Lauren Maunus ’19, who attended the talk as a Sunrise RI representative, said the group wanted to direct their efforts at Phillips due to his lack of cosponsorship for the Green New Deal.

Through this contrast, the activists hoped to use the congressmen’s statuses as colleagues and panel members to “put them in conversation to try to build some pressure,” she added.

“As someone who has driven an

» IYER, from page 1 Years later, Iyer visited Cohen again, this time at his house down the mountain. They sat together outside in Cohen’s garden, saying nothing. After a while, Iyer thought he should go, but Cohen asked him to stay. In that moment, Iyer realized that “words were the least of ways in which we could be friends.”

With people and with places, Iyer tries to see past language. In his travels that have spanned well

electric car for seven years, has a geothermal system in his house, has invested in clean energy companies, is co-sponsoring Ted Deutch’s Carbon Fee, I care (about climate change). …

My rationale is just who I am, and I’m pragmatic,” Phillips responded. “You’ve gotta do (change) incrementally, which I know is a dirty word when it comes to changing things that need change fast,” he added. “But if we’re going to do this, it’s going to get done only with Republican support.”

“I’m doing the down and dirty work, if you will … trying to build coalitions with people who are actually very like-minded on the other side of the aisle,” Phillips said, continuing his discussion of climate change policy.

However, due to the “dynamic we have right now in our politics … every single Republican is opposed to (the Green New Deal).”

“I was not shocked at all to hear Representative Phillips’ response,” Maunus said after the event. Incrementalism “is a common trope amongst Democrats to acknowledge the urgency of climate change,” she added, referencing her perception of Democratic politicians’ tendency to use partisan divides as an excuse for not taking action.

Along with Phillips’ discussion of partisanship barriers, Cicilline pointed to the energy industry’s financial influence on the Republican party as an obstacle to climate change policy.

“There’s no disagreement about the underlying policies within the Democratic Caucuses. We’re fighting against a Republican caucus that by and large resists the science of climate change and is bought and sold by big fossil fuel,” he said.

Prompted by a question about the

over 80 countries, Iyer almost never speaks the native language. He can go a whole trip alone, rarely talking to anyone. When he arrives in a new place, he prefers to walk around by himself as much as he can for the first 48 hours. Iyer focuses on the scene around him: “I’ve just met this fascinating stranger, and I want to hear everything about her, and I have these precious hours to get to see her present herself to me in her sights, sounds, smells, all of that,” he said.

He focuses his work on the

TIFFANY DING / HERALD

In an event co-sponsored by the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Congressmen reflected on the University’s impact on their career paths.

University’s duty to the city of Providence, Phillips discussed the financial responsibility of institutions of higher education. Universities “in this country are aggregating tens of billions of dollars in their endowments and (are) only required to employ five percent of that annually, which means they are going to continue to grow and grow and the rich will become richer,” Phillips said.

“Despite that, we have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of young American people who wish to achieve education but can’t afford it or can’t access it,” he added, posing the question of whether or not policy should be enacted to share or distribute more than that five percent.

During the event, both congressmen reflected on Brown’s effect on their

political careers. “This place taught me to not just watch and observe but to act and participate, and lo and behold, here I am.” Phillips said. Through a course he took at the University, Phillips developed his desire for political justice and reform. “No matter how much trust I was raised to have in my government and the people who operate it, truth is more important and not always available to us.”

“Brown definitely played a role in my interest in politics,” Cicilline said, referencing his role in the formation of the College Democrats with two fellow students during his time at the University. Involvement in political activities as a student reinforced “the understanding that if you’re going to effect change you have to be in the game,

you have to be involved, you have to be engaged; running for office seemed like an obvious way to do it,” he added.

For Eamon McKeever ’22, the chance to ask the representatives questions as a member of the panel was a unique opportunity. “It wasn’t just something you’d get to do that often, have two Brown grads, current congressmen (and) an awesome opportunity to get to ask them questions,” he said.

Jordan Allums ’21, a Herald columnist, was similarly excited to take part in the panel, highlighting the importance of allowing students to participate in such events. It is“really important to have these opportunities open and not have to be a member of an exclusive club or board,” she said.

“human, individual and cultural” aspects of the countries he visits.

“I try to go to places we hear a lot about but don’t know enough about, such as North Korea, Iran, Cuba,” Iyer said. “The writer has to stake out that ground that no camera or tape recorder can rival, and there still are those places.”

After a trip to Iran five years ago, which he called “the richest, most glamorous and surprising place” he had seen, Iyer felt ready to settle down. “I almost felt that’s brought

my traveling life to an end,” he said.

“All I want to do is travel at my desk and have enough time to write all the stuff that’s building up inside of me.”

For the first time in his life, Iyer now knows homesickness. At home in Nara, Japan, Iyer and his wife Hiroko Takeuchi have no car or bicycle, and Iyer spends his life in a five-squareblock radius. “I never get bored, there’s never a shortage of things to see,” Iyer said. “I don’t speak much Japanese. I never would want to be Japanese. I’m not part of their community there. But in the deepest ways it feels like home.”

Each day at home, Iyer writes for five hours, reads, drinks tea and goes for walks. “And I play furious games of ping pong with my extremely elderly neighbors,” he added. “The silliness is more or less around the clock I would say.”

While the world around him is entertained by their devices, Iyer remains committed to a cell phone-free life. That annoys his editors, but his wife doesn’t mind. “That is his style,” Takeuchi said.

Iyer met his wife in the Zen Buddhist Tofukuji Temple in Kyoto, Japan — and they could hardly speak to one another. “I am so poor at English,” said Takeuchi, who has called Iyer her husband for the past 32 years. “I cannot read English. What he’s writing, I (have) no idea.”

But the language barrier seems to be no hindrance for Iyer and

Takeuchi. “I genuinely feel I have more serious communication problems in California with the illusion of a common language,” Iyer said.

“You know any relationship is basically founded on intangibles and the things you don’t need to speak about.”

Iyer closed his seminar Friday with an early story of the Dalai Lama, whose global journeys Iyer documented in his book “The Open Road.” Iyer’s father, a prominent philosopher at the University of Oxford, sailed to India to request a meeting with the Dalai Lama after his exile from Tibet in 1959.

At that meeting, Iyer’s father told the Dalai Lama about his three-yearold son, who was fascinated by a radio story on the Tibetan exile. Hearing this, the Dalai Lama found a photograph of himself when he was four years old — already king of Tibet — and sent it back to the young Iyer.

The photograph ended up in a frame on Iyer’s desk in England and then in California after the family moved.

When the fire burnt away their home, and along with it the photo, Iyer realized, “Well, that’s what the Dalai Lama’s teaching is all about: impermanence.” Iyer said, “You can’t hold the photos or keepsakes or any of that, but if you can hold to what the photo signifies, which is again internal, about ways you can act in the world, that part is there with you for as long as you’re alive.”

NEWS

TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» ADOCH, from page 1

ANDREW DING / HERALD

Groups of admitted students, both regular and Early Decision, shadowed current University students this past Sunday and Monday. They also attended classes and participated in a variety of programmed activities, such as a food truck festival and a campus-wide scavenger hunt.

» RENOVATIONS, from page 1 Wayland House this summer, Flowers wrote.

The University has invested nearly $100 million into residence hall renovations since 2012, most of which was devoted to “transformative renovations” of first-year dorms, The Herald previously reported. The budget for this summer’s dorm renovations has yet to be finalized.

Kudrat Wadhwa ’19 lived in Machado her sophomore and junior years as part of the French Program House. “It was a great idea to live in one of the (program houses) … because they have events to foster a community,” Wadhwa said. But she added that Machado lacked quality community spaces. Machado’s kitchens, lounges and library were “not very well-lit, old and dingy,” she said, and she felt that renovation to such spaces was

necessary.

“Machado House is not modern enough. The interiors and the sofas are old and dirty and the piano doesn’t work and the wooden floors creak a lot,” she said, noting that the house was once an early 20th-century mansion.

Alex Lawson ’20 currently lives in New Dorm, which received new carpeting in some areas and a new fire alarm system last summer, The Herald

previously reported. Lawson thinks that additional repairs to New Dorm beyond those completed last summer “aren’t the most pressing.”

“Everything works pretty well: the bathroom works; the kitchen works. I don’t think it needs anything now,” Lawson said. He noted that he went to boarding school and lived in some “pretty dingy dorms,” adding that college students don’t “need anything that nice.”

The one-day session on April 24 will condense much of the programming offered in the overnight sessions into a single day, in order to “give people who didn’t have the chance to make either of the (other days) the ability to revisit Brown, to go to a class or two,” she said. Given the shorter time frame and the lower registration numbers for the third ADOCH session, the program will be overall less comprehensive than the two preceding sessions, she added.

This past Sunday’s events consisted of tours, games, an activities fair and a food truck festival. Abhinav Sriram of Chennai, India said that he enjoyed many of the ADOCH events, but identified the Scavenger Hunt as his favorite because it allowed him explore campus and take pictures for prizes such as fruit snacks and banners.

Prospective students praised Brown for its unique environment and culture.

Karly Eberly from Long Island, New York said she knew as soon as she arrived on campus that Brown was the right place for her. Eberly said she especially appreciates the people at the University, and she pointed to a group of students practicing karate on the Main Green to emphasize the “crunchy and not competitive” environment at Brown.

Some students said they chose Brown well before ADOCH. “I toured November of my junior year” of high school, said Paige Lind from Roslyn, New York. “From then on, I knew it was my first choice.”

Powell, the student coordinators of ADOCH and President Christina Paxson P’19 welcomed prospective students at a reception in the Salomon Center Sunday.

Powell expressed the joy the admission and financial aid offices shared in reading through applications and getting to know the potential class of 2023.

“Now is the culmination of all of that work that we did leading up to this day,” he said. “It’s now about you, and you get this daunting task of deciding whether or not you’re going to be coming to Brown.”

Paxson underscored in her speech the student-centered, intellectually stimulating environment at Brown. “You can expect to be challenged by new ideas in a setting that champions vigorous, open and informed debate but is part of a very respectful and welcoming community that stands for inclusion, that stands for open space for all points of view,” she said.

Pointing to student startups and the University’s commitment to make students’ internships financially feasible, Paxson highlighted strong support for students at Brown. “This is my promise to you,” Paxson said, addressing the crowd of admitted students. “If you come to Brown, we will do everything we can to support you, to challenge you, to provide you with the transformational opportunities that you need to live impactful lives with meaning and purpose.”

“The Office of Residential Life works closely with the Office of Planning, Design and Construction to complete residence hall renewal projects that are carefully considered and sequenced in a strategic manner,” Flowers wrote. “These annual renewal projects are proactive and preventative maintenance initiatives selected based on needs and standard building and furniture life cycles.”

NEWS

PAGE 4 • TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PW show ‘danceveil’ examines ancestry and identity ‘danceveil ~ spiritual beings with human experiences |’ shares personal experiences

By EMILY TENG SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Exploring trans identity, diaspora and mental illness, a Movement/Theater performance titled “danceveil” debuted last Thursday at the Upspace that examined the link between the physical body and the spiritual identity.

Choreographed by Brian Solomon ’19, the show shares the various and complex diasporic experiences that Solomon and the performers have personally faced.

The experimental contemporary dance piece investigates intergenerational relationships that transcend time and space through the stories of two fictional characters.

The performance featured seven dancers, including Vanessa Garcia ’20.5 and Alexis Roman ’21 who played the lead roles of Eldra and Miriyam, respectively. The first section of the show follows the journey of Eldra, a character who Solomon describes as existing “in the time/space bridge between the ‘homeland’ … and the diaspora,” according to the program. In the next section, the show focuses on the story of Miriyam, who explores their genderqueer identity through an investigation of their childhood memories. In the final section of the show, the two characters interact and help each other heal. Focused on

ARTS & CULTURE

the storytelling, Solomon added that the choreography revolves less around technique and more on bodily expression through movement.

Solomon explained in the program that Eldra and Miriyam actually exist in different time spaces, and the final portion of the show in which they meet is an imagined experience. The stage of the show physically represented the separation of time and space through six semi-transparent, white-and-blue drapes or veils hanging from the ceiling.

When the performers danced behind the drapes at various points throughout the show, their movements were depicted and accentuated through the shadows of their bodies on the fabric.

The space behind the drapes represents the concept of homeland of the past, and the space of the stage in front symbolizes the diasporic present, Solomon wrote in the program.

Growing up in a Jewish household, Solomon has a personal relationship to the notion of diaspora. Solomon wrote in the program, “We (the Jewish) are a ‘people’ spread across the world, dispersed through millennia of conversation.” In addition to the theme’s other central topics of trans identity and mental illness, Solomon portrayed cultural diasporic experiences with references to Jewish songs and dances as well as Filipino languages and gestures that were inspired by Roman’s and Garcia’s cultural backgrounds.

Solomon said that the inspiration for this show came from the death of Solomon’s grandmother, and the performance actualizes the conversations that Solomon desired but was never able

to have with her. Solomon wrote in the program, “We imagine (and hope) that our ancestors will willingly embrace us as whole people, that they will engage with our entire expansive self and not write us off like so many others in our lives do.” The idea of the expansive self is portrayed through the three other dancers, named Mi, Ri and Yam, who represent the components of Miriyam’s multifaceted identity.

Referencing a line from poet Aja Monet’s “An Offering,” the full title of the show is “danceveil ~ spiritual beings with human experiences |” and wishes to address the physical and social notions of the body. As Monet discovered the multiplicity of her body in her poem, Solomon wishes to describe the way social construction of and personal attachment to physical existence limits the spiritual possibilities of the body.

Because the performance was inspired by such intimate stories and personal identities, Solomon wanted the cast members to share these experiences.

Garcia and Roman both felt a connection to and identified with the characters they played. The affinity was strengthened when Solomon incorporated the dancers’ life experiences into the performance through hour-long conversations during rehearsal. Roman said scenes such as the one depicting a quinceanera was inspired by their own childhood memories. Garcia added that the “fidgeting, shaking and sharp” movements that they performed were also based off their own experiences with mental illnesses.

Audience member Shira Abramovich ’20.5 said, “I’m also a child of immigrants and resonate with some of the themes of

COURTESY OF ANDREW DING

Choreographer Brian Solomon ‘19, along with dancers of show, investigate real issues through fictional storylines and characters. the show,” adding that the duets between Eldra and Miriyam were particularly evocative.

Investigating themes of ancestry and identity, Solomon wanted to help the audience members who shared diasporic experiences to realize their ability to transcend time and space through

imagination and recreation. In this intergenerational piece of fictional dialogues based on real experiences, Solomon hoped to convey that “even if … (your ancestors) didn’t treat you the way you want to be treated, that we at least have the power to reimagine those memories and make them work for us.”

TALIA MERMIN / HERALD

»EMISSIONS, from page 1 and Alaska.

The team of researchers, led by Sarah Cooley, a PhD student in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at the University, studied the shoreline fluctuations in various regions using small satellites called CubeSats. The researchers explored the Canadian Shield, a previously understudied area that was thought to have relatively stable water levels.

They found that the shoreline changes in these landscapes are surprisingly dynamic.

There is a universal decline in lakes’ areas over the summer season, spanning from late May to the end of August.

Notably, there were many fluctuations in water levels in the Canadian Shield, an area with a rocky topography and many rivers.

The fieldwork for this research was based on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment. Four main study areas were chosen for this project, with the intention of capturing a diverse set of geographic characteristics. The northern high latitudes contain millions of lakes that have never been studied, despite their role as important indicators of greenhouse gas emissions, said Laurence Smith, professor of geography at the University of California at Los Angeles. Researchers had never before been able to study fluctuations in lake

area with both high resolution and high frequency, he added.

Cooley outlined two main goals for this research. “The first goal,” said Cooley, “was to use this new type of satellite known as CubeSats.” This relatively new technology has only been used for research in the last couple of years. Due to their small size, the CubeSats can take a picture of every part of Earth at three meter per pixel resolution.

The second goal was to study northern Canada and Alaska over a shorter time period than most previous research, since the lakes in this region have been losing area over the past fifty years.

The researchers were able to develop methods to analyze the large size of the

data string produced by CubeSats imagery. An artificial intelligence device was created to filter over 25 terabytes of data and remove the unnecessary information. The method involved “machine learning and computing software to take a massive data set and simplify it to accurate observations of the data,” Cooley said. With this new high-resolution technology, the researchers observed much finer changes in lake areas.

These results have two main implications. First, “the fluctuation in lake area will affect carbon dioxide and methane emission,” which is not taken into consideration by most current models, Cooley said. Second, machine learning makes it possible to analyze a large amount of CubeSats data

efficiently. “Our ability to obverse the Earth at a higher resolution is orders of magnitude better than it has been previously,” she said.

Prior to this research, Cooley had studied the hydrology — water properties in relation to the environment — of the Arctic on a short time scale and “wanted to take this methodology and apply it to northern Canada and Alaska.”

In the future, these researchers hope to expand the scope of study to other parts of the Canadian Shield and are searching for new ways to incorporate CubeSats. “CubeSats are a powerful new tool in water resource management,” Smith said.

TODAY

TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

a b i r d ’ s e y e v i e w o f c o l l e g e h i l l , s p e c i f i c a l ly t h ay e r

LEON JIANG / HERALD

Students may soon familiarize themselves with the many views of Providence from the Sciences Library as finals approach. This scene of bustling Thayer Street may tempt viewers to abandon notes, books and computers in favor of the recently opened Shake Shack and the eagerly anticipated warm weather.

menu

sudoku

SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: Cheese, Pepperoni, Spinach & Feta Pho Bar, Make Your Own Salad, Baked Pasta JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

French Toast Bar, Southwestern Bean Burger, Make Your Own Grilled Cheese

Organic Black Bean Soup, Focaccia Bar, Deli Sandwhiches, Veggie Toppings

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Grilled Pumpkin Raisin Bread, Tunisian Style Grain Bowl, Spicy Carrots and Jalapenos, Strawberry Shortcake Donut

Mediterranean Eggplant Sauté, Roasted Cauliflower and Red Onion, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Buttermilk Corn Bread, Mustard Kale Soup

RELEASE DATE– Monday, October 21, 2013

VERNEY-WOOLLEY

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c r o s s w o r d Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Floating platforms 6 Guy or fellow 10 Haughty sort 14 Creepy starer 15 Top military draft category 16 Skid row denizen 17 German cars bought by Riyadh residents?

19 Not many 20 Releases (on), as an attack dog 21 Cafeteria carriers gone missing?

23 QB’s mishap 24 Tennis icon Arthur 25 Makes a choice 26 Drawing upon 28 100-yard race 30 Shoulder wrap 32 “Once __ a time ...”

34 PC software 38 Rose of baseball 39 Hard to hear 40 Was a passenger 41 Figure skater’s leap 42 Uncle Remus’s __ Rabbit 43 Nursery-rhyme Jack or his wife 44 Put down, as floor tile 46 “__ my case” 48 Fixes with thread 50 Plastic coffee container designed for a Keurig brewer 51 Sports enthusiast 54 Streamlined onion relatives?

57 Pie à la __ 58 Basketball’s __ “The Pearl” Monroe 59 Stories you’ve heard a bajillion times?

61 Bad to the bone 62 Promgoer’s concern 63 Leaning somewhat 64 Lousy grades 65 Like so 66 Zappos.com inventory

DOWN 1 Big name in vermouth 2 A second time 3 Vary irregularly, as prices 4 Koppel and Knight 5 __ Lanka 6 Teeth-and-gums protector 7 Conductor Previn 8 “Star Wars” princess 9 “Piece of cake!”

10 Out-of-tune string instruments?

11 Like Jack 43Across’s diet 12 Does as directed 13 Curtain call acknowledgments 18 Part of YMCA: Abbr.

22 How-__: instruction books 24 Feel lousy 27 Neato water sources?

28 Insult comic who was a frequent Johnny Carson guest 29 Crumb-carrying insect

30 Relaxation center 31 Put a curse on 33 Dessert with a crust 35 Financial planner’s concern 36 Handheld computer, briefly 37 Go down in the west 39 “The X-Files” gp.

43 Ninth mo.

45 Pop the question

47 Ploy 48 Work really hard 49 Spooky 50 Reeves of “Speed” 52 Dancer Astaire 53 Homes for chicks 54 Future flower 55 J.D.-to-be’s exam 56 __ A Sketch 57 Trig or calc 60 Prof.’s helpers

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

LUNCH

DINNER

Cream of Cauliflower Soup, Lemon Seared Tofu with Sambal Chimichurri, Thai Cucumber Salad, Swiss Fudge Cookies

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COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

c o m i c : a p r i l s h o w e r s i n pa r i s

RÉMY POISSON / HERALD

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

COMMENTARY TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019 • PAGE 7

Green New Deal is rational, not radical GALEN HALL

op-ed contributor When Hurricane Michael hit Florida in October, following a pattern of increasingly powerful storms, I was of course worried for my grandfather.

But he and his hurricane-fortified gated community withstood the most intense storm in the past fifty years with little incident. Not so in northern Florida, where poorer towns remain flattened and the hurricane’s victims — many still without housing — fear they have been forgotten.

Storms like these are part of an accelerating ecological crisis that involves not only climate change, but also the collapse of vertebrate and insect populations and the continuing erosion of natural habitats and arable farmland. All of these processes compound each other and are growing faster than the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted in October, meaning we likely have less than the twelve years they gave us to reverse direction on carbon emissions.

Wealthy Americans have caused a large part of this ballooning crisis and have been insulated from its worst impacts — so there’s a powerful moral argument that they (we) should do far more to address climate change. Additionally, our continued prosperity and existence depends on the security of our international order, which is threatened by climate change. No current policy proposal comes as close to acknowledging these moral and practical truths as the Green New Deal, which demands a rapid transition to net-zero emissions as well as a host of investments in infrastructure, sustainability and social safety nets such as a jobs guarantee and universal health care.

The Green New Deal has faced a predictable wave of opposition. Rather than focus on arguments about stolen hamburgers, the end of air travel, or discredited estimates of a $93 trillion price tag, let’s engage with the argument that the Green New Deal does everything a carbon tax would do, but at a much larger cost. Thousands of economists have signed their names to support a carbon tax. Like many policies supported by mainstream economic theory, it promises a simple, beautiful fix. The government charg-

es companies for the harms caused by their emissions, which incentivizes industries to decarbonize while also allowing the government to fund renewables research with the tax revenue. Such a tax, fee or cap-and-trade scheme will no doubt play a big role in a hopeful future wherein the US manages to leave its current fatal path. But on its own, the carbon tax is inadequate for many reasons.

The theory behind a carbon tax presumes that firms operate in a free market where they will automatically respond to a higher tax by lowering consumption. This is true in some cases: a large manufacturer might find ways to

vation and change only emerges within a properly incentivized market system. History and common sense prove otherwise: nearly all transformative technological developments from the twentieth century resulted from large government-funded projects, like the Manhattan Project or the development of computers. Few companies would have the means or incentive to carry out such a project, even under the most stringent carbon tax — but this is exactly the kind of project that we need right now.

A carbon tax would also fail to address the many threats from the current ecological crisis, which won’t dis-

blance of global stability will be impossible if there is massive societal unrest due to inequality worsened by the ecological crisis. Protecting vulnerable populations isn’t just a moral requirement: it’s a strategic one. Our military understands this: it’s one of the few arms of the government actively addressing threats from climate change at home and abroad.

Even among those who understand that our snowballing problems extend beyond carbon emissions, there’s a tendency to reject the Green New Deal on strategic grounds. Jerry Taylor, president of the Niskanen Center, argues that Green New Dealers should learn

SUMMER ZHANG / HERALD

remove petroleum from its chemical processes if it gets too expensive. But this presumption doesn’t apply to large swaths of the economy, which is currently completely entrenched in a fossil fuel-based system that is difficult to exit or transform without government support. A carbon tax will not generate the necessary investment needed to decarbonize infrastructure such as natural gas pipelines or long-distance commercial transport.

Even within free-market contexts, firms simply won’t be able to develop the kinds of technology needed — for example, to fully electrify our infrastructural network — in a post-carbon world. Market fundamentalists argue that this kind of groundswell in inno-

appear alongside an emissions reduction. Some of these are impacts on nature: declining insect numbers, plummeting biodiversity, degraded farmland and threatened water supplies, which all afflict the United States as they do the rest of the world. The United States will also continue to see worsening effects of climate change even if our emissions drop to zero overnight, because a significant amount of further global warming is likely already locked in due to past emissions and accelerating natural processes.

Most importantly, both within and beyond our borders we need to protect the most vulnerable first. This is both a moral argument and a strategic one.

Securing our own future and a sem-

from health care legislation’s contentious history. Ambitious environmental legislation still lacks the coalition or confirmation from regional experiments that supported the Affordable Care Act. Taylor and others argue that the Green New Deal is also too radical; it will alienate moderates and provide Republicans with ample grounds for socialist-baiting. And finally, some argue Green New Dealers fail to understand that politics depends on the will of elites, who must be reached within their protective shell of lobbyists and special-interest groups.

Arguments like these misunderstand both the strategic value of the Green New Deal and the present political context. The recent wave of suc-

cessful populist campaigns attests to the fact that grassroots campaigns can disrupt entrenched regimes. Environmental groups understand that movement-building and mass civil disobedience are viable pathways to political change and have delivered some of the greatest victories for human rights in history. This is good news, because it’s unlikely that enlightened lobbyists and technocrats could persuade oil-money-soaked politicians away from fossil fuels. Oil, gas and coal companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year protecting their right to emit, because ending that right will cost them far more. There’s little hope in rationally persuading these companies (or the politicians they patronize) away from their path.

In such a context, the best recourse comes from grassroots organizing and mass action. This is something that groups like the Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion understand. If the Green New Deal is to be politically effective, it must be politically effective as a vehicle for grassroots organizing, not insider lobbying. Is it?

All indicators say yes. The Green New Deal has served as a lodestar for environmentalist and progressive movements. It has galvanized support for legislation addressing climate change and the ecological crisis.

Groups like the Sunrise Movement have begun rejuvenating the political support for climate policy on the left.

Of course, it will be much harder for movements like Sunrise or Extinction Rebellion to gain purchase with those outside the progressive left. They don’t have to convince everyone. But winning the ardent support of a sizable minority will require that groups continue to coalesce around the sole feasible plan for defending our future while treating it as a serious policy proposal — not as an intentionally vague resolution or a crowbar for prying open the Overton Window.

If they keep this in mind and continue to argue for and develop the Green New Deal as a feasible alternative, they might stand a chance of achieving real, positive change from outside the halls of Washington. Right now, that’s the only way.

Galen Hall ’20 can be reached at galen_hall@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019

Sock and Buskin play explores identity, technology with complex structure

COURTESY OF KYM MOORE

The play was written by Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada and translated by Aya Ogawa, the translator of over a dozen of Okada’s works. Several different actors portray the show’s two protagonists at the same time, which Ogawa noted made translation difficult. Sock and Buskin’s show will run at Leeds Theatre through Sunday, April 14.

‘The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise’ was inspired by Japanese folklore, utilizes multi-speaker narration

By GRAYSON LEE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Sock and Buskin’s production of “The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise,” now showing at Leeds Theatre through April 14, uses a University setting and fragmented narration to touch on themes of alienation, technology, identity and the mundanity of everyday life.

Written by world-renowned contemporary Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada and translated by Aya Ogawa, a Brooklyn-based writer, director and Japanese-to-English translator, the play is centered on a nameless couple dissatisfied with their lives. The man wishes to “live life more fully” and dreams of his girlfriend’s death, believing it would lead

ARTS & CULTURE

him to experience more emotion. The girlfriend wants to travel and imagines never getting off her subway ride to work and instead following the subway to a different world. The play’s title is derived from a Japanese folktale that inspired the work, wherein a fisherman visits an undersea palace as a reward for saving a turtle and, upon returning to land, finds that hundreds of years have passed. The technology-critical play’s title was partly influenced by Galapagos syndrome, a term coined in Japan that refers to the practice of creating specific technology that can only be used in a single locale, which consequently isolates that location from global markets.

One distinct stylistic dimension of Okada’s play is its use of multi-speaker narration. The show consists almost entirely of the couple’s fragmented monologues, but the protagonists and their castmates are played by several different actors throughout the course of the play.

Okada’s original play had five actors, but director Kym Moore, associate professor of theater arts and performance studies,

cast nine. Most scenes feature only one or two characters, sometimes with all nine actors portraying one character.

Even single sentences are split up between several of the actors, making the show at times difficult to follow. “The conceit is that we’re actually one human being,” said Zachary Riopelle ’19, one of the actors in the show.

Though the speaker shifts take some getting used to, the constant flux of identity begins to seem natural as the play progresses, and the seamless transitions create bodiless characters that possess a variety of attitudes and perspectives. Sometimes, the inner monologues of the characters feel like a conversation between several people.

“If I go inside the mind of any person, you’ve got about 50 different people in there,” Moore said, explaining the “slippage of identity” that occurs in the piece.

The show is accompanied by abstract movement and a mobile set, adding to the constant feeling of transition.

In one humorous scene, which Riopelle said the actors call “the seminar

scene,” the couple has an argument about the benefits of travel. The conversation is staged as a classroom, with all nine actors participating and inhabiting dual roles as the characters and as Brown students. To complete the effect, images of the University, including the Ruth J. Simmons Quad and the Main Green, were projected behind the stage. “We wanted to make it clear that this play has roots at Brown. You walk out onto the Main Green, and there are people who are connecting with each other, but then there are also many more people who are (on) their phones. …

They’re half present, half not present,” Riopelle said.

Moore also discussed how technology can create the sense of isolation and alienation portrayed by Okada in the play. She wistfully reflected on a time without ever-present technology while also acknowledging its importance.

“Smell the roses. It’s a very simple idea, but it’s very complicated because this is one place, Brown University, that does not know how to unplug,” Moore said.

She described the show as a gift to the community. “All of us have some version of loneliness or alienation or inadequacy or imposter syndrome. This is a shared experience,” Moore said.

The April 7 performance featured a Q&A with Ogawa, who has translated over a dozen of Okada’s plays. Ogawa discussed the origins of “The Sonic Life of the Giant Tortoise,” the difficulties of translation and the unique aspects of Okada’s writing style. Ogawa described the difficulties of translating with few punctuation marks and blurred boundaries between characters.

Ogawa also touched on how this piece can challenge Western audiences.

“There’s an expectation or a desire to be led somewhere clear or they want to laugh, but his pieces tend to be so untheatrical in that way that we expect,” she said.

Riopelle commented on the way that the play confronts expectations of emotional performances. “It leans into boredom, and it leans into the mundane of our everyday life,” he said.