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The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 131, No. 60

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

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Science

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Martian Man

Green Genetics

Taking the Plunge

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Prof. Steve Squyres talks about how his studies led to his involvement with the Mars Rover Project. | Page 3

Researchers genetically modified a tobacco plant that photosynthesizes more efficiently. | Page 8

The swimming and diving team split its weekend meet against Harvard and Dartmouth. | Page 16

Upson Hall to Undergo Major Renovation Aims to provide resources for project teams

By NOAH RANKIN Sun City Editor

With construction slated to begin in June, the University is currently finalizing plans to renovate Upson Hall in order to increase energy efficiency and provide more resources to student project teams, according to Bill Bader, facilities director for the College of Engineering.

Upson — a mechanical engineering building constructed in 1956 — is due for a “full renovation,” according to Bader.

“Like a lot of our buildings, Upson is 60 years old,” Bader said. “It’s at the end of its life in terms of the building’s systems — to maintain, heat, that sort of thing. … The plan is to gut the interior in phases, but in the See UPSON page 5

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New beginnings | A rendering shows a portion of Upson Hall after its renovations are completed. This view of Upson Hall shows the building on the southeast corner of the Engineering Quad.

Human Ecology Professor Carole Bisongni Dies at 65

By AIMEE CHO

as outreach to policy makers related to consumer food issues including food safety, product labeling and seafood.”

Prof. Carole Bisogni ’70 M.S. ’72 She also developed nutrition educaPh.D. ’76, nutritional sciences, died tion programs using interventions in Saturday of cancer. She was schools, supermarkets and 65. after-school programs, Bisogni, who was also the according to her biography. associate dean for academic Bisogni conducted reaffairs in the College of search on the ways that peoHuman Ecology, studied ple “manage a myriad of nutrition and food sciences as influences and goals when an undergraduate and graduthey interact with food.” ate student at Cornell, accordShe was involved in a PROF. BISOGNI ing to her biography. After research team that develjoining the nutritional sciences oped a Food Choice Process Model, in faculty in 1975, she was responsible for order to represent the decision making “extension educational programs for See BISOGNI page 5 adults through New York State, as well

Sun Senior Writer

HAEWON HWANG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Staying sane | Gregory Eells, associate director of Gannett Health Services, talks about an anxiety treatment program called Therapist Assisted Online at a panel discussion Tuesday.

Student Leaders,Staff Discuss Mental Health Resources at C.U. Ithaca Landlord Pleads Guilty

By BENEDETTA CARNAGHI Sun Staff Writer

Student leaders and Cornell staff members discussed issues surrounding mental health and how University initatives address those issues during a panel Tuesday.

Conversations partly focused on a Student Assembly resolution — which was passed earlier this semester — that called on professors to include information on mental health resources in their syllabi.

Matthew Stefanko ’16 — who co-sponsored the resolution — said a “big conversation” in the S.A. involves the stigmatization that surrounds issues of mental health.

“Cornell is a university where a lot of students come [...] because they’re really smart and they’re supposed to have it

together,” Stefanko said. “You’re not just going to kill yourself with work for 24 hours and then be ok. These are conversations that we want people to be having.”

According to Yamini Bhandari ’17, vice president for outreach and women’s representative for the S.A., including mental health resources in syllabi would raise awareness of these resources among students. “[The resolution] is not necessarily about having the resources everywhere — [it] is about having them when you need them,” she said.

In addition to the mental health resources that are currently available on campus, the University is considering See DIALOGUES page 4

To 350 Code Violations in Court

By ANNIE BUI Sun News Editor

Ithaca landlord Ronald Bergman agreed to pay fines amounting up to $50,000 after pleading guilty to 350 city and property code violations in Ithaca City Court Thursday.

Bergman is the owner and landlord of a rental property at 312 Plain St., according to a press release from the City of Ithaca.

In August 2012, an inspection of the property found “numerous longstanding violations,” among them an “unsafe” structure and failure “to provide safe egress” from the building.

Though the building was then “posted as condemned,” at least one tenant still continued to occupy the premises, according to the release. This March, the Ithaca Department of Public Works secured the

property and in April, Bergman was charged “with over 8,000 violations,” according to the City.

After pleading guilty to the 350 violations Thursday, Bergman agreed to have the house up to standard, remedying all violations within four months, according to the release.

If Bergman fails to do See LANDLORD page 4

2 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Today

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

weather FORECAST

Daybook Today

Employee Assembly Meeting 12:15 - 1:30 p.m., 401 Physical Sciences Building Beyond GDP: Measuring Human Progress And Well-Being in the United States 4:30 - 6 p.m., 142 Goldwin Smith Hall Take a Breath Cornell 6:30 - 7:30 p.m., Music Room, Willard Straight Hall

Tomorrow The Changing Face of Indian Democracy: From Secularism to Majoritarianism 12:15 - 1 p.m., 277 Myron Taylor Hall The Tragedy of German Naval Ambition Before the First World War 12:15 - 1:30 p.m., G08 Uris Hall

Ring Flushed Down Toilet Returned to Family UNION CITY, Calif. (AP) — Sanitation workers have returned an heirloom diamond and sapphire ring to a San Francisco Bay Area family whose 3-year-old son flushed it down the toilet.

After several attempts, Union Sanitary District crews found the ring last week, over month after it disappeared from Munazzar and Mehvish Tapal’s home in Union City.

Wastewater Collection Supervisor Shawn Nesgis tells KTVU-TV that the ring traveled about a third of a mile.

Crews flushed the sewer lines and discovered the ring after vacuuming up debris. Nesgis equated the discovery to finding a needle in a haystack.

The Tapals say the ring’s return was a miracle. Munazzar Tapal estimates the ring has been in his family for 60 years.

Maine Man Charged With Breaking Into Homes Naked FALMOUTH, Maine (AP) — Police say an 18-yearold Maine man has been arrested after allegedly breaking into two homes while naked, at about the same time his

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Umpteen speedy televisions perused two sheep, then umpteen tickets towed Jupiter, and Dan untangles five progressive orifices. Umpteen quixotic aardvarks annoyingly bought two Macintoshes. Umpteen bureaux tickled two extremely putrid botulisms. Paul sacrificed one lampstand, then Jupiter marries the very quixotic pawnbroker. Five purple poisons laughed, yet umpteen chrysanthemums kisses five aardvarks. Batman noisily untangles one Jabberwocky. Two Macintoshes laughed, then one extremely schizophrenic Jabberwocky drunkenly untangles two sheep, however Quark telephoned umpteen obese Jabberwockies. Five irascible botulisms slightly lamely auctioned off the subway, and five chrysanthemums easily untangles one mostly speedy Klingon. Five dogs drunkenly perused Minnesota, however the mats ran away cleverly, although one partly progressive subway quite comfortably sacrificed

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own home was destroyed in a fire.

Logan Valle faces charges including burglary, theft and attempted theft.

Police allege Valle forced his way into two homes late Saturday night looking to steal car keys. He was found in the attic of one of them.

At about the same time, the nearby home owned by his parents was destroyed in a fire. No one was injured.

New Jersey Man Accused Of Stealing Bulldozer HARRISON, N.J. (AP) — Police say a drunken New Jersey man stole a bulldozer in order to get a ride home.

Police say 30-year-old Christopher Russell left behind a path of destruction as he tried to maneuver the bulldozer through West Hudson Park. The bulldozer leveled signs, three benches, a tree, a drinking fountain, and left a maze of tracks in the grass.

Harrison Police Capt. Mike Green tells the Jersey Journal that Russell told officers he was cold and was trying to ride home to Newark Russell was charged with driving while intoxicated, criminal mischief, leaving the scene of an accident and theft of the bulldozer.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 12, 2014 3

NEWS

Prof. Steven Squyres:The man behind the Mars Rover project PHOTOS BY MICHELLE FELDMAN / SUN SENIOR EDITOR

By CHRISTOPHER BYRNS Sun Staff Writer

For nearly his entire life, the principal investigator for the Mars Rover Project, Prof. Steven Squyres ’78 Ph.D. ’82, astronomy, has been interested in science.

Squyres — who was awarded the American Astronomical Society Carl Sagan Medal in 2009 for his ability to connect the general with public updates on the Mars Rover — missions said the idea of exploration has appealed to him since childhood.

“When I was six years old, I considered myself to be a scientist — I just wasn’t a very good one yet,” he said.

As a child, Squyres said he would read books about explorers in the Arctic, the Antarctic and the deep ocean.

“The idea of going some place nobody’s ever been really held an enormous appeal for me,” Squyres said.

During the summer between his senior year of high school and his freshman year at Cornell, Squyres said he participated in a field research project on the Juneau Ice Field in southeastern Alaska.

“Over the course of that summer, I decided I was going to major in geology,” he said.

However, after studying geology for a few years, Squyres said he felt that too little remained to be discovered in the rocks of the earth.

“There just weren’t too many places left where nobody had ever been,” he said.

In his junior year, Squyres took a graduate-level course in astronomy, where he examined photographs from the recent Viking mission to Mars for a term paper. “[My professor] gave me a key to the Mars Room and I thought, ‘Alright, I’ll go over to the Mars Room, and I’ll flip through some pictures, and I’ll see if I can come up with an idea for a term paper,’” Squyres said.

“I figured I would spend 15 or 20 minutes looking at pictures and see if I could come up with a term paper idea.”

That first encounter with Mars, however, changed Squryes’ life.

“I was in that room for four hours, and I came out of there knowing exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” he said.

Squyres said that Carl Sagan, a renowned astronomer and Cornell faculty member from 1971 to 1996, was one of his greatest influences while he was a graduate student at Cornell. According to Squyres, when he applied for graduate schools, Sagan wrote to him saying that “he wanted [Squyres] to be his grad student for the Voyager mission.”

Squyres said he was impressed with the way Sagan communicated his scientific intuition.

“He would show you how you could take a problem that looked incomprehensibly hard, and break it down and find the little bits of it that mattered the most,” Squyres said.

Squyres added that he applied these skills when facing media attention surrounding the Mars Rover Mission — especially when the mission released all of its pictures in real-time directly to the Internet.

“Nobody had ever done that before; this was new,”

Squyres said. “If I was asleep and you were awake, you could see pictures of Mars before I saw them.”

From 1987 to 1997, Squyres said he wrote four proposals to NASA for a Mars Rover mission. Though his first three proposals were rejected, Squyres said he rebounded from the rejections by refining his next proposal.

“Finally, in 2000 NASA said, ‘We will send your rover to Mars — in fact, we will send two of them.

Here’s all the money you need. Ready, set, go,’” Squyres said. “We had to be on top of the rockets and ready to fly in Florida four months later, and it was crazy.”

Squyres said he used his training as a geologist to design the rovers as a “robotic field geologist.” The robot needed to be able to “[get] down onto the surface” and “be able to move around.” “[I needed] a vehicle that you could load up with the kind of stuff a geologist would want to have in their backpack or back in their laboratory and be able to move it around on the surface of Mars,” Squyres said.

Squyres said that he envisions a new era where “everyone” can feel directly involved in exploration.

“The exploration that we’re doing, we get to take everybody along with us,” Squyres said. “Anybody can follow it basically in real time as its happening and that’s really cool. I really like being able to do that.”

Squyres said he continues to explore Mars through the Opportunity rover, which has now surpassed its operating plan by over a decade. He added that even though “dealing with the unexpected” may pose challenges, it “is actually the most fun part of the job.” “[Those challenges are] what makes it to this day still interesting,” he said. “Mars is still throwing surprises at us and that is what makes it fun.”

Christopher Byrns can be reached at cbyrns@cornellsun.com.

Corning CEO: Companies Should Collaborate,Focus on the‘Why’

By ANDREW LEE Sun Staff Writer

Wendell P. Weeks, chair and chief executive officer of Corning, Inc. — a manufacturer of glass and other materials — spoke to Cornellians about sustaining institutions in the face of technological innovation at a lecture in Gates Hall Monday.

Weeks’ lecture focused on the term “creative destruction,” coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter, which refers to the continuous process in which old industries are destroyed and new ones are created as a consequence of technological innovation, according to Weeks.

Weeks said institutions are important because of their role in fulfilling fundamen-

Talking about art

SONYA RYU / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Prof. Neil McWilliam, art, art history and visual studies, Duke University, gives a talk for the Visual Culture Colloquium in Goldwin Smith Hall Tuesday.

tal human needs.

“The highest satisfaction people get is not from getting rich but from serving others,” Weeks said. “One of the best ways to do that is through institutions.”

Weeks also said that most great things in history were accomplished by “groups, teams and institutions” rather than by individuals.

“Death scares the hell out of us,” he said.

“Institutions are one of the few ways we have of beating the reaper since what you do in your life can live beyond you.”

Although Weeks said the process of sustaining institutions has become increasingly difficult in a world of creative destruction, he emphasized Schumpeter’s belief that incessant creative destruction was an essential part of capitalism.

Weeks said that Corning — which has been listed on the S&P 500 since the index’s introduction in 1957 — is no exception to this environment of creative destruction.

“Of the 500 companies listed on the S&P 500 in 2004, only 300 remain today,” Weeks said. “Even people who are successful through [certain] time periods are experiencing the enormous power of creative destruction.”

Weeks said that in order to sustain institutions in a world of creative destruction, it is important for companies to understand why their particular institutions were originally created.

“Most people know ‘what’ they do in their company,” Weeks said. “Even fewer people know ‘how’ a company or institution actually does what they do. It’s very rare that people find their ‘why,’ and it’s one of the reasons why most institutions don’t last.”

Weeks added that companies need to organize and create frameworks around the “why.”

“Nothing else matters,” he said.

“Companies forget this all the time.”

Weeks ended his lecture by suggesting that companies collaborate more often with other companies that share the same vision.

“You want to invite others to your ‘why’ vision to give it vibrancy and joy,” Weeks said.

The event was a part of the annual Lewis H. Durland Memorial Lecture Series and was held under the banner of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Each year, the dean of the school invites a distinguished business leader to campus to meet with students and faculty members and to deliver a major address. In the past, the Johnson School of Management has invited William C. Weldon, former chair and CEO of Johnson and Johnson, and Irene Rosenfeld ’75 M.S. ’77 Ph.D. ’80, former CEO of Kraft Foods.

Andrew Lee can be reached at alee@cornellsun.com.

4 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 19, 2014

NEWS

Staff,Student Panelists Talk C.U.Mental Health DIALOGUES

to make these students aware of available mental health resources on campus. online counseling, according to “We make sure that the Gregory Eells, associate director counselors from CAPS present of Gannett Health Services and at orientation for both underdirector of Counseling and graduates and graduate [stuPsychological Services. Known dents] … we try to remove this as ‘Therapist Assisted Online,’ “stigmatization” of counseling the program focuses on anxiety services and try to encourage treatment. students to take advantage of “[The program] would be a those resources if they need to,” great fit for us because they also O’Brien said. use a telephone assessment Three major factors of model, like we do, so they stress for international stuscreen people who may have dents are being away from suicidality or more serious con- home, cultural shock and acaditions,” Eells said. demic stress, according to Cornell already has an infra- Shivang Tayal ’16, internastructure in tional liaison place to develat large and “We try to remove op the provice president gram, accordof diversity this ‘stigmatization’ of ing to Eells. and inclusion counseling services and for the S.A. “It’s just a of try to encourage students matter “[Being what it would away from to take advantage of cost us annuhome] is a ally and what those resources if they very different the fee would environment need to.” be,” he said. ... and that of Eells added course adds a Brendan O’Brien that an issue lot of stress to Cornell faces your experiin expanding ence,” he said. the mental health initiatives it “The second major factor is culprovides is finding a sustainable tural shock. This shock is not funding model. only restricted to the social “Currently, Cornell has never dynamics that are around tied the funding of Gannett’s [international students], but health services or the counseling also affect them in terms of the services on the number of stu- academic system they’re enterdents on campus, so what has ing.” happened is that they’re funded Tayal added that internationout of tuition money,” he said. al students at Cornell usually “However, that dollar amount “lack that sense of family.” stays the same even if more stu“[They] get it by interacting dents are coming in.” with other international stuThe next panelist, Brendan dents,” he said.

O’Brien, director of the This semester’s Daily Sun International Students and Dialogues was sponsored by Scholars Office, said interna- The Sun and the S.A.’s tional students often struggle Community Life Committee. with isolation. He added that in light of the rising international Benedetta Carnaghi student population on campus, can be reached at the University has a challenge bcarnaghi@cornellsun.com.

Continued from page 1

Landlord to Pay Thousands In Fines for Code Violations LANDLORD

Continued from page 1

so, he will ultimately lose his property to the city.

In response to the court proceeding, Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 issued a statement on Facebook, saying that even though Ithaca has “many good landlords,” factors such as a high percentage of Ithacans who

rent and a low rental vacancy rate may “lead to abuse.”

“To protect tenants from unsafe conditions, we are continuing an aggressive enforcement stance and our attorneys office has secured another precedent setting victory,” Myrick said.

Annie Bui can be reached at abui@cornellsun.com.

NEWS

Prof.Bisogni Leaves Legacy In Food Choice Research BISOGNI

Continued from page 1

processes that people engage in when they eat.

Prof. Carol Devine, nutritional sciences, said Bisogni “believed strongly in her responsibility to foster the next generation of researchers by getting students involved in research.”

“She was a founder, along with Professor Jeffery Sobal, of the Food Choice Research Group at Cornell,” Devine sad. “Her food choice research is carried on today by a generation of scholars who have learned to listen to what people themselves say about the ways they eat.”

Bisogni also taught Nutritional Sciences 2450: Social Science Perspectives on Food and Nutrition, according to her biography.

Prof. Alan Mathios, dean of the College of Human Ecology, described Bisogni as a “strong advocate for students” in an email addressed to students of the col-

lege. “[She] was committed to high academic standards and believed that students should be at the center of the college’s work,” Mathios said. “Her ability to combine her passion for teaching and depth of knowledge in her field translated into dynamic and enriching student learning experiences, not only for her students and advisees, but for all Human Ecology students.”

As associate dean of the human ecology college, she helped to establish a summer research immersion program for human ecology students to work in faculty labs, according to a University press release.

Bisogni is survived by her husband, Prof. Emeritus James J. Bisogni, Jr. M.S. ’70 Ph.D. ’73, civil and environmental engineering, and her sons Jared Bisogni MPS ’06 and Adam Bisogni grad, according to the University.

Aimee Cho can be reached at acho@cornellsun.com.

Upson Renovations Aim To Support Project Teams UPSON

Continued from page 1

end we’ll have a building that will last for another 60 plus years.”

Bader added that the renovations, which will take several years, should result in a more logical arrangement for the building, as well as a “better consolidation of functions.”

“Besides the fact that the whole building gets renewed inside and out in terms of the appearance and the finishes, I think it will be a lot more welcoming,” he said. “There will be improved flow and better ability to find things.”

Upson’s renovations are part of a master plan developed by the engineering college in 2011, according to Bader. Other parts of the plan — which all have a focus on energy efficiency — include a renovation of the second and third floors of Kimball Hall.

“These renovations will improve the energy performance of the buildings, so the cost and use of electricity, steam and so forth will go down based on the improvements to the systems,” Bader said.

Nick Teo ’15, who worked on a project team concerned with Upson’s energy efficiency, said he hopes the renovations will improve the heating of the building.

“Most of the building does not change its heating behavior throughout the night or weekend, so the heat is on all day, every day.

Also, some rooms are too hot sometimes, so the thermostats aren’t the best,” he said. “I hope the renovations will change this so that the building is more energy efficient and comfortable for students.”

A major goal of the building’s update is to provide more space for student project teams, according to Bader.

“We wanted to provide more

visibility to the project team space, as well as more of it, because that’s a growing part of our program,” he said. “Our project teams have been scattered between different engineering buildings and this will pull them together a little bit more.”

Abhishek Sriraman ’15 said he hopes Upson’s renovations will make it a more comfortable space for students to work, despite it being “an incredibly overused building.”

“At this point, everything about the building is very old and run-down,” Sriraman said. “The computer lab, which is probably the most-used computer lab on campus, has a pretty sad reputation of being smelly and gross.

Similarly, the Upson lounge is not at all a nice place to work. For the students who do constantly work in Upson, changing this ambience would be very desirable.”

The renovations also aim to promote visibility and flexibility of the teams, according to Bader.

“It will make people more able to see the exciting things that students are doing on the project teams and how they do it,” Bader said. “Some of the classrooms will be more flexible, so we’ll be able to configure them in different ways for different pedagogy approaches.”

Sriraman said he thought the plans for increased visibility are “huge,” especially for the mechanical engineering department. “[Upson Hall] isn’t filled with people tinkering on circuits or just working on code, but students literally building race-cars and rockets,” he said. “I think there’s a significant portion of the student population that will be astonished to see the incredibly cool projects that [students] work on.”

Noah Rankin can be reached at nrankin@cornellsun.com.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 19, 2014 5

OPINION

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

David Brotz |

Independent Since 1880 132ND EDITORIAL BOARD HALEY VELASCO ’15 Editor in Chief

CATHERINE CHEN ’15

TYLER ALICEA ’16

CAROLINE FLAX ’15

ZACH STEELE ’15

NICK DE TULLIO ’15

SCOTT CHIUSANO ’15

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Managing Editor

Associate Editor

Advertising Manager

Web Editor

Sports Editor

RACHEL ELLICOTT ’15

ALEX REHBERG ’16

Blogs Editor

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ELIZABETH SOWERS ’15

KELLY YANG ’15

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CONNOR ARCHARD ’15

NOAH RANKIN ’16

Sports Photography Editor

City Editor

ANNIE BUI ’16

ANUSHKA MEHROTRA ’16

News Editor

News Editor

KAITLYN TIFFANY ’15

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Arts & Entertainment Editor

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Science Editor

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Editorial

Reforming the Quarter System ON THURSDAY, THE STUDENT ASSEMBLY UNANIMOUSLY endorsed an investigation of the controversial quarter system, which regulates formal contact between freshmen and Greek chapters. The system — which was established in 2011 in order to curb unsafe behaviors — places strict limits on official contact between freshmen and sororities and fraternities. The S.A.’s move was prompted by widelyshared concerns that the quarter system has driven contact among members of the Greek community and freshmen underground, popularizing unsafe and unregulated off-campus social events. We at The Sun share these concerns and applaud the S.A.’s unanimously approved resolution as a meaningful step towards the improvement and reform of the University’s Greek system.

Prior to the institution of the quarter system, freshmen were permitted to attend open parties at fraternities. These events were typically heavily regulated, with sober monitors and bouncers present to guarantee the safety of attendees. The quarter system — which prohibits freshmen from attending Greek events during the first academic quarter and permits them to attend only non-drinking events during the second academic quarter — has pushed drinking among freshmen “behind closed doors,” particularly to unregulated, informal events at residences in Collegetown. Further, it has severely limited formal Greek contact with new students at Cornell, engendering difficulties for first-semester freshmen who are interested in learning about the fraternities and sororities on campus. An investigation and reevaluation of the quarter system by the University community is certainly in order.

We at The Sun believe that contact between members of the Greek community and potential new members should be regulated in such a way as to maximize student safety and facilitate engagement. The popularity of unsafe, off-campus drinking events and the hurdles that Greek chapters face in establishing relationships with first-year students suggest that the quarter system has failed to achieve both of these aims. With this in mind, we welcome the Student Assembly’s unanimous call for an investigation of the quarter system. Reforms that improve the accessibility and safety of freshmen contact with the Greek community are certainly within reach, but we at The Sun believe that in order for the evaluation process to be fruitful, it must be informed by input from students.

Guest Room

Money Doesn’t Talk, It Whispers W

ith the Democratic Party’s loss Apparently, one’s voting record, but not of control of the Senate now whom they voted for, is public record, complete, it would be wise for and the organization is shamelessly Democrats to begin to examine the exploiting this.

Another clandestine conservative exploitation of avenues through which conservative activists are trying to under- organization, Crossroads GPS, was planmine the crown jewel of President ning to spend $23 million in just the Obama’s legacy: The Affordable Care final two months before Election Day. Act. The secret money game is an unusu- Of course, the group is strategically planal and controversial dynamic that is play- ning to spend the bulk of this money in ing a bigger and more important role in just six states — all of them swing states. each successive election. Democrats And to only add salt to the wound, the ought analyze this latest industry and group was co-founded by none other learn from it to exploit it for their own than Karl Rove. The group’s website gains. Even though this latest businesses states that their mission is to hold, should not exist, it does, and it would be “Washington’s feet to the fire on the ill-advised of the Democrats not to take practical issues,” but amusingly only list advantage of it — because their oppo- “Health Care” under the tab titled “Issues.” In typical GOP fashion, an nents are.

The Koch brothers, for example, are advertisement by the group, entitled capitalizing on the fact that tax-exempt “Propaganda,” reiterates the same old groups, such as their Americans for tired out tropes about The Affordable Prosperity, can covertly donate essential- Care Act. On the group’s Facebook page, ly unlimited funds and never disclose the childish memes are posted with juvenile captions such as, name of donors.

“Obama lied Because of this, any healthcare died.” current speculation But what does all this Such unsophisticaton how much the ed and infantile Koch Brothers plan to mean? It means that we attacks would be spend this election is gold, were merely conjecture, have returned to an era itcomedy not for the fact but The New York Times is reporting where under-the-table that NPR reported that the group spent that this number may roughly $165 milvery well be in the deals and hush-hush lion in the 2012 range of $300 milelection aiding lion. On the website transactions are the law Republicans. for Americans for of the land.

Prosperity, articles But what does inform potential votall this mean? It ers with highly dubimeans that we have ous claims such as that the minimum returned to an era where under-thewage actually harms the poor, and that table deals and hush-hush transactions pollution does not actually cause asthma are the law of the land. Secrecy is just — but that too much cleanliness is pos- the way business is done in this new corsibly a cause. And even that is perhaps porate America, and elections are just not the most underminded thing that the the latest plaything for the rich elites to shady organization is up to. A Colorado buy. Just a few wealthy billionaires havnews organization reported that ing so much sway in American politics Americans for Prosperity mailed out let- is completely antithetical to the ideal of ters to people, comparing their voting democracy. One person, one vote now record to that of their neighbors — only applies to those who cannot afford essentially voter shaming. The letters to lavishly spend millions of dollars read, “As you can see below, public gambling on their favorite candidate to records indicate your neighbors have a win it all — government by the moniedmore consistent voting pattern.” In interests.

Alaska, CNN reported that residents received letters by the organization David Brotz is a freshman in the College of Arts threateningly asking, “What if your and Sciences. He may be reached at dmb454@corfriends, your neighbors and your com- nell.edu. Guest Room appears periodically this munity knew whether you voted?” semester.

Guest submissions may be sent to opinion@cornellsun.com.

Letters to the editor must be in response to a piece in The Sun, while guest columns can be on any topic chosen.

All opinions welcome.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 19, 2014 7

OPINION

Christo Eliot |

A

The Tale of the Dingo at Midnight

Wanderlust

t this point in the year, we find ourselves in the doldrums of fall semester. Ithaca, it seems, has finally “made it official” with winter, and the perpetual cold weather drags on ceaselessly. Even though the sky is constantly gray, we don’t get the chance to see it because some architect decided that it would be great to minimize the number of windows in campus buildings in an effort to “conserve energy.” (Energy is always conserved; it is all really just another Cornell money-grabber conspiracy.) We find ourselves working diligently in the stacks (… ladies), cramming for impending exams and thinking about how awkward the wording in our papers is. Let me premise the rest of this column by first stating that by and large the problems Cornell throws at us are not that compelling in the grand scheme of things, and we are, for the most part, quite lucky to be here.

Especially around now, people will more and more often think about being someplace else. Thanksgiving is soon, and many of us will be returning home. Abroad application deadlines are looming. (Aside: I have no idea if this true or not.) The dreary weather synergizes with our academic and extracurricular lives, making it easy to wish we were somewhere, anywhere but Cornell. True masochists will go onto The Weather Channel website and type in zip code 96753 (Wailea, Hawaii). At the time this is being written, not one of the next 10 days is projected to under 80 degrees. It also stays lighter longer, and they have sea turtles.

So it is always a little jarring to snap back to reality and out of your daydream only to realize that Maui and enjoying its white sand beaches and beautiful Hula danc- I mean, ukulele music, is a roughly 15-hour flight away.

I can’t imagine that anyone goes through college without experiencing some sort of wanderlust. College is perhaps the stage in our lives where the impulse to explore is strongest. Look around in your large lectures and you can probably catch people browsing galleries of exotic locales like Seychelles, St. Lucia, Yosemite National Park and any number of other places on the Internet. Some significant percentage of us (though I’m sure a much smaller figure than what the tour guides tell visiting high school students) choose to go abroad and literally explore the world. Go abroad in Europe and have the opportunity to see breathtaking German castles and geography. Go to Tokyo and learn how to

Though we are told at a young age that we can be whatever we want when we grow up, we never fully grasp the idea that the choices we make growing up lead to who we are. speak Japanese and navigate public transportation like no one else. Go to South America and get a nice handmade alpaca hat.

Even though most of us choose to spend all four (or five or six… or eight) years at Cornell in Ithaca, college forces us all to act on our wanderlust in a sense. As you progress through your coursework en route to your degree, you explore your major and learn more than you could ever care to know about heat transfer (or analogous topic for your major). If you are doing Cornell right, you also explore the extracurricular goingson on campus and outside 14853. Though I subscribe to the “seen one tree, seen ‘em all” mantra, some people seem to be quite taken with the surrounding scenery and explore that.

The class of 2015 finds itself acting on its wanderlust in a new way.

It’s true what they say: time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future, and May 2015 gets closer almost every day. Here’s to hoping that the Cornell cocoon transformed me from a repulsive caterpillar (sorry, freshmen) into a beautiful butterfly able to spread my wings and make enough money to buy a cabin in Banff and a 200-foot yacht I keep at my Hawaiian surf cottage. Just like browsing through images of places we may never visit, wanderlust may take our imaginations down impossible roads. Though we are told at a young age that we can be whatever we want when we grow up, we never fully grasp the idea that the choices we make growing up lead to who we are grown up — and soon I have to will enter the workforce with an engineering degree, crushed that I will never be able to live out my life as an Australian Shepherd on a ranch in Montana.

We all have to, at times, think about our life’s direction. There is certainly something to be said about Ferris Bueller’s “stop and look around every once in a while” lifestyle, but there is equal value in exploring where you’re going before forging ahead. My dream of being a happy canine with room to roam may not have been all that realistic, but my dream of being an NBA star certainly was — just a couple of different choices (like choosing to be 6’8” instead of my height) would have had me convincing Lebron to join me in bringing a title to Denver. If your dream is to make candles in Maine and have running water (but only cold running water) then think about what you can be doing today to make that a reality. Cornell will set you up nicely to join the professional or academic world, but if you want them to do the whole thing there will have to be some tuition hikes. Envision yourself in 10 years and make that person real.

Also for those of you who were disappointed in the lack of a hip-hop epigraph, let me leave you with this: “Closing time, You don’t have to go home, But you can’t stay here.”

— Semisonic Christo Eliot is a senior in the College of Engineering. He can be reached at celiot@cornellsun.com. The Tale of the Dingo at Midnight appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

Comment of the day Web

“An election with the lowest turn out since WWII is hardly indicative of a mandate when well less than 40 percent of registered voters, an ever shrinking number itself in the face of the wave of GOP voter suppression legislation in all those states they control, showed up at the polls. A minority of a minority elected all those Republicans.”

Joe Magid Re: “THROWDOWN THURSDAY: The Republican Moment,” Opinion published November 13, 2014

Samantha Weisman |

A Weisman Once Said

How to Get Away With Graduating

W

hen I sat down to premiered in September — write this column, I ABC’s HTGAWM stars Viola realized that it was my Davis as a law professor and last one of the semester. The defense attorney whose students next time my words will be get entangled in a murder. She printed on this page will be next hires first year law students year, in 2015: the first uncertain from her Criminal Law 101 year in my life. class (nicknamed HTGAWM) Think about it: Our entire to work at her prestigious law lives, we have had a plan. After firm. Each week, in addition to pre-school, it was elementary showing us a flash-forward to school and then middle school. the night of The Murder, we see In middle school, we trained a Case of the Week, that influfor high school classes, where ences the characters and their we worked in order to get into own lives. Not one of the charcollege. In college, we work to acters has a perfect moral comprepare ourselves for the “real pass, and everyone has scanworld.” But unlike all of our dalous secrets. other graduations, after this The key to enjoying one, there is not a set plan HTGAWM is the idea known as (that society has set for us) in “suspension of disbelief,” the place. concept that in order to appreUnlike many of my peers ciate a story, one must suspend who are going to graduate school or already have Though my last year here on the Hill job offers, I do is not fictional, I have found myself not yet know what I will be “suspending my disbelief” when doing come it comes to senior year and June of next my future. year. For the first time ever, my next steps are a mystery to me. As a type-A judgment of how implausible it who plans everything — from is. We usually employ suspenchoosing all of my classes for sion of disbelief when watching every semester of college during or reading stories, in order to freshman year to my spread- accept what is happening as sheet of the TV shows I watch “real” for the story, and look so I don’t lose track — it is a past what we know to be farstrange sensation not to know fetched. Doing this allows us to what I will be doing every day engage with the narrative, learn seven months from now. from it and develop a critical In order to stay positive and understanding, without letting appreciate what I have right how realistic or unrealistic it is now, instead of wallowing in the impact those judgments. stress of what could go wrong, I Obviously, HTGAWM is far try overlook the potential for from realistic. No defense attordisaster and enjoy Cornell while ney in their right mind would I can. hire first year law students as his Now, I would be remiss if I or her only interns or allow did not somehow relate this to them to do the work that feminism or television, as per Analise Keating has her interns usual. It just so happens that do. Furthermore, these interns this column was, in fact, would not be the only students inspired by (my queen) Shonda that she calls on to answer quesRhimes’ and Peter Norwalk’s tions in class. The dirty tricks new show, How To Get Away that they all pull in order to litWith Murder. erally get away with murder — For those of you who do not their clients’ or their own — know — or if you haven’t inter- would not be so easy to do in acted with me since the show real life.

Looking past its outlandishness, Peter Norwalk’s creation is filled with progressive characters, meaningful messages and fascinating social commentary.

One of the most-watched new shows of the season, it is clever, well written and thought-provoking. If viewers are not able to look beyond the craziness of the show, these relevant and significant messages would be missed.

Though my last year here on the Hill is not fictional, I have found myself “suspending my disbelief ” when it comes to senior year and my future. I don’t want to miss out on any important lessons I might learn or life-changing experiences I could have because I am worried about what I will be doing this time next year. If I can look past the craziness that is the fact that I am going to graduate next semester (because it really is an i n s a n e thought), then maybe I have a better chance of making the most of this time.

The prospect of not knowing what my life will look like in a year is scary, but also kind of exciting. This week on HTGAWM, we are going to learn who killed our murder victim, a moment that the show has been building to all season.

Though we have been given glimpses of The Murder, the looming excitement that we will finally know this Thursday is exhilarating and makes the waiting — and stressing out in front of my TV — feel worth it.

I hope that I can suspend my disbelief well enough so that whatever I end up doing next year feels like the hard work, waiting (and stressing out) was worth it, too.

Samantha Weisman is a senior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

She may be reached at sweisman@cornellsun.com. A Weisman Once Said appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

8 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 19, 2014

SCIENCE

Plant Science

Food Science

Science ArounD Ithaca

Cornell Researchers Create a More Efficient Plant Using Genes From Cyanobacteria ELLEN WOODS / SUN FILE PHOTO

Genetically-modified greenery | Researchers in plant molecular biology have genetically modified a tobacco plant to be able to photosynthesize more efficiently. This technology could eventually lead to crop plants capapble of producing more food.

By YVONNE HUANG Sun Staff Writer

For the first time, a genetically engineered plant is able to turn carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into sugars more efficiently by using using a bacterial enzyme.

Maureen Hanson, the Liberty Hyde Bailey professor of plant molecular biology, and Myat Lin, a postdoctoral fellow in Hanson’s lab, have successfully introduced a gene coding for a cyanobacteria protein into the chloroplasts of tobacco.

By doing so, the transgenic plants are able to perform photosynthesis more efficiently.

“Rubisco is critical for carbon fixation in all plants,” Hanson said.

Photosynthesis is the series of reactions plants use to take light energy and convert it into chemical energy, or ‘food.’

The amount of an enzyme called Rubisco controls the speed of photosynthesis as a whole. Because of its importance in the photosynthetic cycle, Rubisco became the target of Hanson’s research, she said.

Because Rubisco evolved at a time when the Earth’s atmosphere was primarily carbon dioxide and had little to no oxygen, the modern-day enzyme is unable to differentiate between the two similarly-shaped molecules, according

to Hanson. Rubisco will react with oxygen, but in order to successfully fix carbon for a plant, it must only react with carbon dioxide.

As the abundance of photosynthetic organisms increased and Earth’s atmospheric composition changed from having very little oxygen to being about one-fifth oxygen, photosynthetic organisms gradually had more trouble with Rubisco reacting with oxygen instead of carbon dioxide.

Most crop plants solve this problem by producing massive amounts of Rubisco, which ensures that at least some of its enzyme will end up reacting with carbon dioxide and helping produce sugars. However, because so much of the produced Rubisco is not actually fixing any carbon but rather reacting with oxygen, the photosynthetic process is considered very inefficient, according to Hanson.

Besides plants, other organisms like cyanobacteria are also able to carry out photosynthesis. Cyanobacteria, however, prevent their Rubisco from reacting oxygen by enclosing it in a carbon concentrating mechanism, a micro-compartment called a carboxysome. The carboxysome prevents oxygen from entering and reacting with Rubisco while selectively allowing carbon dioxide to enter in order to carry out photosynthesis, according to Hanson. Because of the carboxysome, cyanobacteria are thought to be able to fix carbon

much more efficiently, most notably into the form of glucose.

“This knowledge has been known for quite some time, but it is only in recent years that the technology available has made its application feasible,” Hanson said.

The three-year-old project was started in partnership with Rothamsted Research, a United Kingdom-based research group, after an Ideas Lab conference hosted by the National Science Foundation, Hanson said.

With concerns growing about crop productivity due to burgeoning global population, the NSF began searching for high risk, high reward projects to fund. Ideas Lab invites 15 scientists from the United States and 15 scientists from the United Kingdom to participate. Lin and Hanson’s project proposal was selected and they began the research in introducing genes for the carbon concentrating mechanism and Rubisco into plants.

Previous research by Lin, the Hanson lab and colleagues had introduced genes for carboxysomes into tobacco. The challenge was introducing the gene for cyanobacteria Rubisco.

“Assembly of Rubisco is very complex and is made of two unique subunits,” Lin said. “I put together the two genes that encode these two subunits of cyanobacteria Rubisco and introduced them into the tobacco genome.”

The transgenic plants were able to carry out photosynthesis and “supported autotrophic growth,” according to Lin. These tobacco plants subsequently were able to process more carbon dioxide per unit enzyme than their wild-type counterparts.

“We still have a few things to work out, such as regulating the cyanobacteria genes once they are introduced into the plant,” Lin said.

Once genes are introduced, their activity needs to be regulated in order for them to be considered fully functional, according to Lin. The next step for Lin is to create plants that contain both the carboxysome genes and the Rubisco genes that were successfully introduced in this experiment.

“Of course, we don’t want to just do tobacco,” Hanson said. “Tobacco is a very good model system because of its convenience but eventually we would like to put this system into crop plants such as rice or wheat.”

Yvonne Huang can be reached at yhuang@cornellsun.com.

Eleanore O’Neil ’15 Raises Chickens on Energy-Efficient Feed

By SARAH COHEN Sun Senior Writer

In the next fifty years, the world’s population will continue to expand, as will its need for basic supplies such as food and energy.

Eleanore O’Neil ’15, a food science major, researches the diets of commercial chickens in the lab of Prof. Xin Gen Lei, animal science, to combat these important global issues.

Algae fuel is a type of renewable biofuel.

According to the United States Department of Energy, to make fuel from algae, first, large amounts of algae are grown. Once enough algae is grown, fuel precursors, such as carbohydrates, are extracted from the algae. These compounds will later be processed into usable fuel.

However, once the fuel-producing compounds are extracted, algae fuel producers are left with the unusable parts of the algae. This large amount of residual biomass is not useful to fuel production, but it still contains nutritional content.

Many chickens that are raised for either meat or egg production live predominantly on diets of corn and soybeans. Algae can be used to supplement these diets.

Supplementing algae into chicken diets, and soybeans, the other four groups were according to O’Neil, produces chicken meat given two, four, eight, and 16 percent algae which is healthier than that of chickens only supplements in their diets, respectively.

“You can’t completely switch [the chickraised on traditional diets that lack algae.

According to O’Neil, algae-fed chickens are ens] over to algae — there just aren’t enough considered healthier because their meat con- nutrients or energy there to have a completetains heightened levly algae diet,” els of omega-3 fatty O’Neil said. acids as compared to Broiler chickens, omega-6 fatty acids. which are bred for Omega-3 fatty acids, fast growth, were commonly found in then monitored for plant and marine growth, feed intake and water consumpoils, are important in tion throughout the our metabolism and, six weeks. A few according to the birds in each group, Mayo Clinic, have O’Neil said, were many health benefits, euthanized at three including a lowered COURTESY OF ELEANORE O’NEIL and six weeks old in risk of heart attacks. Green grub | Eleanore O’Neil ’15 studied order to look at Omega-3 fatty acids blood components, are also the reason how chickens respond to a diet with algae. many call fish a healthy alternative to other omega-3 fatty acid levels, and organ weights.

O’Neil said her final results found that meats.

O’Neil said she found the optimal level of the optimal level of algae inclusion in chickalgae in chickens’ diets through a six-week en diets is about eight to 10 percent, dependtrial using five groups of broiler chickens. ing on the type of algae. Higher amounts of One group was fed a traditional diet of corn algae in the diet, although not fatal to the

chickens, did cause reduced growth rates, making such a diet not ideal for large-scale chicken production, according to O’Neil.

Although omega-3 fatty acids are healthy, higher levels of these compounds can cause meat to spoil faster. This is because unsaturated fatty acids are susceptible to oxidation.

O’Neil is currently studying the effect of supplementing chicken diets with antioxidants, such as vitamin E, to promote the shelf-life of meat. According to O’Neil, antioxidants also improve meat quality and increase the amount of omega-3 fatty acids deposited in the meat.

In the future, the Lei lab also plans to continue this research by testing the taste of chicken meat when chickens are fed algae.

According to O’Neil, they will do this by partnering up with another lab outside Cornell as there are additional health laws to follow when working foods for human consumption to ensure safety. Others in the Lei lab are researching algal supplement effects on egg-laying as opposed to meat-producing chickens for similar purposes, O’Neil said.

Sarah Cohen can be reached at scohen@cornellsun.com.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 19, 2014 9

SCIENCE

Science Around Ithaca ‘Wee Stinky’ Blooms Again

The Marvelous Display of the Superb Lyrebird

Every day this week, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Kenneth Post Laboratory Greenhouse, 512 Tower Rd.

Thursday, Nov. 20 at 12:30 p.m.

Morison Room A106 Corson-Mudd Hall

Titan arum is blooming again for the first time since 2012.

The greenhouse will be open to visitors during the day. Titan arum is native to Sumatra and is known for having the largest unbranched inflorescence — or cluster of flowers — of any plant in the world.

It is also known for smelling like rotting meat.

— Kathleen Bitter COURTESY OF ED COBB

As part of the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior’s seminar series, Anastasia Dalziell will be speaking about the focus of her Ph.D. thesis — the superb lyrebird, which is one of the world’s greatest imitators.

— Reem Khondakar

Old Problem, New Solutions: The Return of the American Chestnut 11:15 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 21 404 Plant Science Building Researchers at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Foresty have developed an American chestnut tree that is resistant to the deadly fungus that nearly eradicated it over the course of the 20th century. Prof. William Powell of SUNY ESF will talk about how he intends to bring back the American chestnut tree.

— Reem Khondakar

Shifting the Paradigm: Microbes as Animal Helpmates Exhibit Runs Through Jan. 30 Mann Library Gallery, 2nd Floor Art and science combine in Mann Gallery’s latest exhibit on microbes. Featuring photographs and poetry, the exhibit highlights the symbiotic relationship between germs and other organisms.

— Reem Khondakar

A&E

10 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | Wednesday, November 19, 2014

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Mykki Blanco, Princess Nokia and Cakes de Killa at ...Duffield?

BY TROY SHERMAN Sun Staff Writer

I may have had the most absurd (and absurdly entertaining) musical experience of my life on Sunday night. There was bad music, good music, intimate twerking and microphone masturbation. There were man-skirts, septum piercings, experimental baseball hats and technological difficulties. There was colored hair, cross-dressing, gender ambiguity and female body hair. There was crowd-surfing, mosh-pitting, shit-talking and drug referencing. Most mind-boggling, though, was the fact that there was all of this (and definitely more) — for a crowd of fewer than 100 people — in Duffield Hall. On the Engineering Quad. For a Cornell-sponsored event. Truly perplexing, truly weird and genuinely, wholly enthralling, this show (and a show it certainly was), put on by Princess Nokia, Cakes da Killa and Mykki Blanco, was an anti-brilliant, quasi-surrealist, utterly awesome party-rap fiasco in the most enticingly unlikely of settings; all-in-all a great fucking way to close a weekend.

I got to the doors a little bit before 9:00 p.m. (the supposed start time) and, after proving that I had already paid my (ridiculously low) three-dollar admittance fee online, was allowed into the sprawling main lobby of Duffield. Lining the corridor which led to the more open concert area were numerous crude drawings of various grotesque and miscreant sex acts, which were being lackadaisically perused by Cornell’s most ostentatiously artsy and nonconformist. Both of these — the sex paintings and the academic rebels — seemed wildly out of place in the Engineering building. Paintings of dementedly ejaculatory penises juxtaposed against lightly waving banners proclaiming the endless merit of and future security afforded to anyone wise enough to choose Cornell Engineering. The weirdness, however, merely started with this bizarre junction; the night hadn’t even begun.

The festivities were kicked off by the somewhat disappointing set of Princess Nokia. After leaving everyone to mull about apprehensively for a few minutes and realizing, presumably with a moderate level of disappointment, that the almost-butnot-quite-100-person-strong crowd would have to suffice, two scantily clad performers and a conspicuously white and middle aged D.J. — who, donning a Thrasher sweatshirt, knit beanie and apathetic visage, looked like a slowly Westernizing exChechen rebel — bounced onto the stage. The ensuing set — which included, among other things, a poorly received wel-

come to “Princeto- I mean, Cornell!,” references to Warped Tour, light-hearted interrogations about the crowd’s acid use, every sexualized dance move imaginable and a laudation of our (the crowd’s) pursuit of higher education — was verging on pathetic. And not because it was bad, per se, but just because, as the ill-fated and yet-developing opening performer, Princess Nokia, try as she valiantly did, could not engage the crowd. I imagine that her extra-dimensional fairy House-rap could have easily worked on a bigger crowd, or in a smaller venue, but the area-to-crowd-member ratio left a lot of space unfilled, and a lot off uninterested shoulder-dancers. Sadly, Nokia was obviously affected by the apathy, which contorted her face into a perpetually awkward smirk and transformed her twerking (which I imagine would have thrilled in another setting) into a desperate cry for crowd enthusiasm. The music was alright, but at this point the crowd wasn’t yet bubbling. Nokia, upon completion of her set, exited stage rather dejectedly, but apparently unfazed in the long run, as she was seen exuberantly dancing in the crowd later on in the night.

Following Nokia came the king (queen?) of the concert, New York’s (Gay) Pride, the lyrically garish, refreshingly brash, uncompromisingly and brilliantly queer, up-and-coming gay rap icon: Cakes da Killa. Quite simply, Cakes killed it. His charismatic anti-machismo swept over the audience immediately, and he held us in close (even through several microphone failures) for the entirety of his set. His raps (which he claims can “make a homophobe a hypocrite,” and I think I agree) were just as inyour-face and aggressively entertaining live as they are on record, and he especially succeeded in retaining (and even amplifying) the general tongue-in-cheek (but not really) goofiness that makes lines like “Niggas pay my loans just to fingerfuck my asshole” sound not only acceptable, but necessary. Sure he was brash and showy (as so many rappers nowadays are), but beneath that layer of rap-game braggadocio was a core message: I’m a gay rapper, so what? And so, with that in mind, he stunned the crowd with his lyrical skill, carelessness as to whether he offended anybody, sexified bodily movements and, at times, downright silly ploys (such as a mid-song deluge of meowing).

As phenomenal as Cakes and his anti-masculine performance were, failing to give credit to his D.J. here would be sinful.

Physically, the D.J. stood in stark contrast to Cakes (a goodsized, rather flamboyant black dude). He was short and white with jutting curly brown hair, wearing a jacket which, once removed, revealed a periodic table t-shirt. Seriously, this kid could have been an engineer from New Jersey who, in hopes of some Sunday night studying in Duffield, accidentally wandered

COURTESY OF MYKKI BLANCO

into the midst of a rap show. Nevertheless, when he started blasting Cakes’s beats, he went absolutely nuts. He rapped along, jumped around, screamed at the crowd and even had his own mini rap at the tail end of the set. The mixture of his energy and unassumingness combined into perhaps the most absurd aspect of the absurd night: A short white kid in a periodic table t-shirt as the most outrageous and heated performer.

Following Cakes and his D.J. came the night’s closer: Mykki Blanco. Blanco opened up with a caustic freestyle, and proceeded, for the rest of her act, to crucify herself on the micstand, jump on the speakers, mosh with the audience, rap in Latin, dance paroxysmally and (in contrast to Princess Nokia’s celebration of education) lambast the audience for “thinking you’re so fucking smart.” Although not as effortlessly entertaining as Cakes, Mykki proved to be a perfect way to close the night. With her purposefully raucous and ridiculous rave-raps and her over-the-top stage persona, she encapsulated the homo-absurdity and downright craziness of the entire bizarre concert, proving that, if there was meant to be any unifying message for the night, it was that it doesn’t matter whether you’re gay, straight, anything in-between or beyond, as long as you can boogie with a hundred strangers for three hours on a Sunday night to the sonic pulsations of a dude in drag.

Troy Sherman is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at tsherman@cornellsun.com.

Rebuilding the Wreckage: Neil Labute’s Wrecks

BY GWEN AVILES Sun Staff Writer

acters runs the risk of becoming tiresome. While there were moments in the middle of Wrecks that seemed to drag on, the one man organization of the play proved not to be a major issue.

Wrecks stars Chris Nickerson as Edward Carr, a bereaved widower recounting his wife Mary Jo’s life as he stands by her coffin.

But the play is not that straightforward. Nickerson (who wore three pound weights on each ankle in preparation for his role) as Carr explains to us that he is actually talking to the funeral guests at the moment. Thus, during the show we are outsiders looking in, privy to Carr’s innermost thoughts, which are relayed to us in a

Writing theater previews is a particularly difficult task when you’re a performer yourself. I’ve been acting ever since coming home from the first Spiderman movie, whereupon I ran to my room with a half-eaten bag of buttery popcorn and proceeded to jump from my sister’s bed to my own, pretending I was Mary Jane on Spiderman’s back and he was webbing us from building to building. Needless to say, I love theater for the transformative, magical process it is. I know how much work is put into a production from character development to intensive rehearsals to elaborate scenery, costumes and lights. Theater is a commitment from all involved to tell someone else’s story. So much work is put into a production but by the end of the rehearsal process, all one can do is put one’s work out there to be judged.

Knowing this, it is hard for me not to enjoy a show I see, or at the very least appreciate the show and the valiant efforts of the cast and crew. I am not the harshest reviewer or audience member out there by any means. But while I appreciate nearly every performance I see, I am rarely moved by them.

COURTESY OF THE READERS’ THEATRE OF ITHACA That said, the Readers’ Theatre’s production of Wrecks by Neil LaBute has been the first axe for the frozen sea inside me in a long while. At first, I was skeptical about gushing stream of consciousness. Carr goes from lighting a cigathe production. Wrecks is an 80-minute, one-man play, and one rette to poking fun at the pretentiousness of the word “indeed,” to man/woman shows can be difficult to pull off. It’s one thing to launching into an ode to his dead wife. Nickerson wasn’t just hear lengthy monologues from one character peppered through- speaking at the audience, however; with each ripple of the stream out a full-length show but to listen to one character speak for of his consciousness, he discovered something new along with us. almost an hour and half without interacting with any other char- He was a natural conversationalist. So much so that the entertain-

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

ing details subdued paramount ones that led to the play’s thrilling twist.

What is that twist? Well, I can’t tell you that. (But you wouldn’t want me to anyway). Many TV shows/movies/plays fall into a few cliché storylines: Girl meets boy, girl gets boy, good conquers evil, the neat resolution of all the problems the character ever had.

Even more disturbingly cliché is the ardent attempt not to be cliché: Girl meeting boy and not getting boy for no apparent reason other than it being cliché, evil conquering good because benevolence prevailing would be too cliché, characters living with unresolved conflict because hope for new beginnings are just way too cliché. Fortunately, Wrecks does not fall into any of this categories.

Playwright Neil LaBute has always been known for his innovative, dark and candid writing style and Wrecks is no exception in his oeuvre. It is a psychological thriller appearing under the guise of a traditional romance and will have you questioning truths and values you’d previously considered indubitable. What is love? Can love ever be wrong? How has society influenced and/or brainwashed me into believing what I believe? How do I limit myself in my pursuit of my heart’s desires in yearning for society’s acceptance? It is refreshing to attend a play that is both enjoyable and challenging, to walk away thinking, “that was … wow” instead of just boxing it up in simple “that was really good” gift wrap.

Wrecks will be performed this weekend (November 21 to November 23) by the Readers’ Theatre of Ithaca at Cinemapolis with an onscreen interview with its playwright, Neil LaBute, after the show.

Tickets can be bought in person at Cinemapolis (in advance or at the door) or at thereaderstheatre.com.

Gwen Aviles is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at gaviles@cornellsun.com.

A&E

Wednesday, November 19, 2014 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | 11

Labels or Love: The Industry of Criticism L ate in Birdman, one of this season’s surefire Oscar contenders, washed-up movie star Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton) accosts Tabitha Dickinson (Lindsay Duncan), the icy New York Times theater critic who has sworn to give his new play “the worst review anybody has ever read,” before even seeing it.

“Keep scribbling down your labels,” he sneers. “That’s what you do. You label things. You label people and you label art. ... Nothing about technique or structure.”

He plucks a daisy from a vase resting on the bar beside them and shoves it in her face.

“Do you have any idea what this is? You can’t even see it if you don’t label it. The

eager to label it “a volcano of creative ideas in full eruption,” as Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers did, or “the nadir of Western civilization,” as Tabitha presumably might. I’m not too into the “label” thing anyway; I prefer the notes on “technique” and “structure” that Riggan laments are missing in Tabitha’s judgmental and influential prose.

Ironically, I find little to say when I apply such rigor to Birdman, aside from the given “Look how much the camera moves!” bromide, but, well, that is a topic for another time.

The topic today is the job of the critic, or how the popularity of professional labelers like Tabitha distorts the public perception of that job and, in turn, of how art works.

Most people assume a critic should stand in for the paying moviegoer, à la Consumer Reports, here to tell you whether a movie is good or bad so that you can make an informed decision about where you spend your money. This view of criticism has never held as much sway as it does now, with Rotten Metacritic, Tomatoes, COURTESY OF FOX SEARCHLIGHT IMDb and other aggrebeauty and depth of this simple thing gate services pulling in tremendous traffic escapes you. You mistake those sounds in and ad revenue. your head for true knowledge.”

These websites do away with the act of I love this scene, and I don’t love reading altogether, for they quantify a Birdman. I don’t hate it, either — I am not movie’s value by swirling around sometimes

over a hundred reviews and arriving, somehow, at a numerical grade. One four-star review holds no weight: A buzzworthy movie needs dozens, to plaster over a fullpage New York Times spread and to bump

much: The peddler of sound and fury without substance has met his cinematic match.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh.

Professional criticism is a business, as hilarious that may be to put to print, and businesses stay alive by appealing to as many people as they can. The majority does not want to consider films as texts, and would likely sock me in the mouth for using either of those terms, and again for putting them in the same senA Lover’s Quarrel tence. For some, movies really are with the World an “escape” from the troubles of the world and not an investigation its Tomatometer rating close to triple dig- of them, and I consider it a privilege to so its. Individual opinions collapse into devotedly believe in the latter. unqualified praise or else the most fiery But let’s hesitate before we so blindly eat invective, those binary verdicts fill into a up all the “labels” shoveled our way. Labels consensus and that consensus cements as — whether they be adjectives, qualitative some objective truth, e.g. “Look, Birdman nouns (“triumph,” “train wreck”), comparhas a 94 percent, what do you mean you isons to other works (“Interstellar is so don’t like it?” much better than The Dark Knight Rises”) The words that survive in this ecosystem or numerical grades — can only serve as are, fittingly, the loudest. Critics like conversation-starters. For labels to conTabitha know how to pen a line to hammer sume the whole conversation is to have no home the “freshness” or “rottenness” of the conversation at all — just modifiers, withwork they have deigned to review. Why out an anchor, or any involvement, in the bother reading the full piece, when it’s all film itself. The act of interpretation can run there in one conclusive sentence? Blurb- parallel to a firm opinion or many conflictmasters like the aforementioned Travers ing ones, but the act can only enliven what reward no critical investment, since they is there, not desecrate it. “Doing justice,” often repeat themselves (seriously, search or at least attempting to, is what we like to Travers’ name and the phrase “sneaks up call it, and see no justice to be done at all. and floors you”) and pay little attention to Zachary Zahos is a senior in the College of Arts films as texts with nuanced structures that and Sciences. He can be reached at zzahos@corproduce dense, vital images worth unpack- nellsun.com. A Lover’s Quarrel with the World ing. No wonder Travers loves Birdman so appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

Zachary Zahos

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

12 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 19, 2014

COMICS AND PUZZLES

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Amin portrayed in “The Last King of Scotland” 4 Arabic “son of” 7 Took out 13 __ race 14 Lingerie tops 16 Turkey feature 17 Leave in a huff 19 Necessitate 20 “Evil Woman” rock gp.

21 Lode loads 23 Jalapeño topper 24 Chignon, e.g.

25 Book keeper?

27 Ultimate authorities 29 “Have some!”

30 Seattle-to-Reno dir.

31 Stains on a record 32 One who woke up on the wrong side of the bed, say 34 Steak topper 40 Neighborhood sale caveat 41 Dishonorable fellow 43 Blissful sounds 46 Cherry core 47 Damaged 48 Deep-fried carnival treat 52 One, to Goethe 53 Deceit 54 “Are we __ not?”: “Is it a date?”

55 Puerto Rico hrs.

56 TaylorMade parent 58 Virtual storage area, and a hint to words that start 17-, 25-, 34and 48-Across 61 “Fighting” college team 62 “Born Free” lioness 63 Word after common or case 64 Starts over 65 Pink Floyd guitarist Barrett 66 New Haven student

DOWN 1 Govt. org. that may freeze assets 2 Desert fruit tree 3 “See?!”

4 “Big Blue” 5 Coop groups 6 Tiny Pacific republic 7 Ma that baas 8 Go off on 9 Place to stick rarely used stuff 10 Celery pieces 11 Fails to pronounce 12 Knock out, as a character 15 Fr. holy women 18 Dove bars?

22 Cooks, as dim sum dumplings 24 iPad-to-PC port 26 Ring punches 28 __Kosh B’Gosh 32 Store with a Kirkland Signature brand 33 Many a Louis 35 One way to travel 36 Letters in an APB

37 Beyond belief 38 Lingerie top 39 Ultimate 42 Vogue VIPs 43 Intense romance 44 Steeplechase feature 45 Escargots 46 One fussy about minor details

47 Charge against Galileo 49 Film with a minimal costume budget?

50 Put in a chip 51 JCPenney rival 57 Paris, to Nicky 59 Dishonorable fellow 60 MADD focus

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xwordeditor@aol.com

11/19/14

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The Corne¬ Daily Sun

14 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 19, 2014

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November 19, 2014 15

SPORTS

Freshman Sweezer WinsTwo Mets Give up First Round Pick, Events,500 and 1000 Free Sign Veteran Michael Cuddyer SWIMMING AND DIVING Continued from page 16

Douglas.

“We just need to keep focused going into our next tri meet this weekend,” she said. “Focusing on our team, our goals, and our spirit really helped us not get distracted by what our competitors plans and goals were for this past weekend's meet.”

For the men’s side, Hallowell echoed Douglas’ sentiments and added that the squad needs to emphasize health, nutrition and

mental toughness looking ahead.

“I think we have to continue to think about our goals and keep a strong attitude” he said.

“We performed well and made a big statement in the League, but we have to continue to swim fast and compete hard. Resting and staying healthy will keep us physically ready to compete with our Ivy rivals, but keeping a strong attitude will help us sustain it through February.”

John McGrorty can be reached at wonderboy@cornellsun.com.

Red Looks Ahead to Annual William S.Field Invitational POLO

Continued from page 16

Sophomore Hortense Gimonet rotated in during the second chukker. Cornell ended the first half holding the edge over Skidmore. Throughout the contest, the women rotated in and out, playing three chukkers each.

Ultimately, the match ended with a final score of 24-3 in the Red’s favor. This was a high scoring match for the Red: Winslow tallied 12 points, followed by Wicker with six and Stieg and Gimonet having two goals each. There were also two pony goals.

“Our game against Skidmore was a lot of fun and everyone on the team played well,” Stieg said.

“Traveling to play another team comes with a few challenges

because you have to ride in an unfamiliar arena on horses that you're not used to, but everyone quickly found their bearings and had a good time.”

With this blowout win against Skidmore, the women’s team looks forward to the Bill Field Invitational, in which the Red will take on Skidmore College once again as well as the University of Massachusetts at home. The men’s squad will also be competing in the invitational and will welcome Skidmore College and Colorado State.

“I’m confident that we will be ready for the field tournament, hoping to get to the finals and win the whole thing,” Langlois said.

Elani Cohen can be reached at ecohen@cornellsun.com.

Overall prediction: N.Y. Mets win at least 90 games this year DUBNOV

Continued from page 16

lot of sense for this team. The Mets needed to fill a hole in the outfield that can also provide a power bat in the lineup, and the fact that Cuddyer is a known close-friend of David Wright makes this deal make a lot of sense. As far as the management continuing to be aggressive, the team has been linked to rumors of trading for big time shortstop like Alexi Ramirez, Troy Tulowitzki or Starlin Castro. If any of those deals pan out, this team will have all the needed pieces for success.

The early and aggressive move to bring in Cuddyer isn’t the main indication of the potential success of this team. Many returning players, both young and old, are ready to make splashes in their offensive production this upcoming season. Last year, the Mets were one of the worst offensive teams in the Majors. Many things are looking up this year. Young players like Travis dArnaud and Lucas Duda ended the second half of the 2014 season on a tear.

Duda was known around the league as one of the top long-ball hitters in baseball, while d’Arnaud flew under the radar in the second half due to a very poor

first half. If both youngsters come back with the same production, things are looking good for the Mets. Veteran Mets stars that flopped in 2014 are also primed to have a good year. Curtis Granderson, who struggled to hit with consistency last season, has potential to make a comeback year as the Mets organization brought in ex-Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long to work with the former Yankee slugger.

Another great comeback story will be David Wright, who struggled with an ailing shoulder that limited his offensive production.

A healthy return and the new ballpark dimensions in Citi Field should greatly help to change the Mets captain’s fortunes on offense.

On the other end of the field, the Mets are also poised for success. Center fielder Juan Lagares is one of the finest young fielders in the game, and he helps lead the Mets defense. The pitching is the most consistent and best assets that the Mets have. With the return of ace Matt Harvey after a season off due to injury, the starting rotation looks ready to do some damage in the league.

Harvey, young star Zach Wheeler, NL Rookie of the Year winner Jacob deGrom and seasoned

pitchers Jon Niese and Dillon Gee currently make up the starting five. If these five young stars can mimic their performances on the mound from their last seasons of play, the Mets rotation would arguably be the best in the Majors. The relievers are not too bad in their own regard. On top of that, the farm system is going to graduate several top prospects to the MLB squad early this season. Most notably, Noah Syndergaard is one of the top pitching prospects in the minors who is expected to move up to the big league squad and only improve the already exceptionally talented starting rotation.

With all that being considered, it is clear that the New York Mets are primed for a season of success. My prediction is that the team is set to win at least 90 games this year. After 6 seasons of extremely poor play and continual losing, that sort of turnaround would be a great change for the team’s faithful fans. The pieces certainly seems like they are coming together for the Mets and watch the team to be one of the best stories in the MLB this season.

Nikita Dubnov can be reached at ndubnov@cornellsun.com.

Sports

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

16

SWIMMING AND DIVING

Cornell Splits Weekend Meet Against Ivy Rivals Harvard and Dartmouth

By JOHN MCGRORTY

fident and excited to go into the first Ivy meet of the year,” he said. “Having an opportunity to compete against rivals after This past Saturday, the Cornell men’s a strong preseason is a privilege, and we and women’s swimming and diving teams were especially excited to challenge traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts to Dartmouth.” compete against Harvard and Dartmouth Hallowell also said that team morale at Blodgett Pool. Both was high throughout the the men and women competition and the Red split the meet against “Having an opportunity to was supportive of its the Ivy foes. The men compete against rivals freshmen who took to beat Dartmouth with a the pool at the Ivy level score of 213-87 and lost after a strong pre-season for the first time. to Harvard with a final is a privilege.”

“The best part about score of 169-131. On the meet was the attitude the women’s side, the Thomas Hallowell of all the guys and the Red defeated support they demonDartmouth, 216-84, strated for the team,” he and fell to Harvard in a tight meet with a said. “For the freshmen it was their first final score of 156-144. exposure to the atmosphere of an Ivy meet Senior Thomas Hallowell said that the and all of them performed really well.

Red welcomed the chance to kick off its During the 1000, it was almost surreal to Ivy season with a pair of challenging con- see two freshmen (Ryan Sharkey and tests.

Brandon Sweezer) out in front of a race we “Because we had time to rest and pre- had never had a lot of success in before. pare for this meet, the team was really con- From the start of the meet there was no Sun Staff Writer

CHRIS PHARE / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Race to the finish | Junior Jenna Immormino recorded three of the Red’s eight wins, dominating in the 50 and 100 free, as well as the 100 fly.

doubt we were going to swim well and it was even more exciting to keep it close with the reigning Ivy Champions in Harvard.”

The Red was in striking distance of Harvard throughout the entire meet. With a variety of underclassmen, such as sophomore Dylan Sali and freshman Brandon Sweezer, having strong days, the Red illustrated just how competitive it can be.

“The team felt great going into this weekend. We got a few days of rest so everyone knew we were going to swim fast and everyone was excited to see their work from the fall pay off,” said senior Timothy Satterthwaite.

For the women, the day was also a success. According to senior Bethany Douglas, the Red went into the match excited and

confident that its pre-season training would yield strong results.

“We were excited to have our first Ivy League duel, and even though we didn't rest, we knew we were ready,” she said.

“We were pumped up as a team and felt the work we had put in since September would help lead us to a win.”

With junior Jenna Immormino having an outstanding showing for the Red, and strong performances from underclassmen such as Freshman Emily Rhodes and Micaela Luders, the Red opened its season on a positive note.

Moving forward, the Red needs to maintain a narrow focus to continue performing well this season, according to See SWIMMING AND DIVING page 15

At Last: A Bright Women Earn Decisive Win Against Skidmore Future for Mets With Masias missing from lineup,men’s team falls to Gardernertown Polo Club I POLO

t is always pretty hard to tell people that I am a Mets fan. It usually spawns a question about why I don’t like the Yankees or a statement about how bad the team is. There is no argument to be made. The New York Mets have been exceptionally subpar in their play in recent years. However, the national news media is beginning to recognize the team’s potential for this upcoming season.

Why has there not been any success in Queens in recent years? There isn’t one concrete answer, but in general, the combination of an overhaul of the organization and a mass of young players, coupled with a variety of crucial injuries, limited the success of the Amazins.

By ELANI COHEN

Sun Staff Writer

This past weekend, the men’s polo team welcomed the Gardnertown Polo Club while the

women’s polo squad played host to Skidmore College. While the women earned a decisive victory over the Thoroughbreds with a final score of 24-3, the

Nikita Dubnov Nik’s Knacks However, things are changing quickly for the Mets and there is a lot of hope for the upcoming season. The first thing that seems to indicate this is a big, early splash that the management made this offseason. In the past, the team’s owners and GM have been under a great deal of scrutiny from fans for not making big moves.

Although this has resulted in the development of one of the better farm systems in baseball, as the team looked to develop prospect more than trade for stars, the signing of veteran Michael Cuddyer just over a week ago to a twoyear deal came as a bit of a surprise to the fanbase. The Mets gave up their first round pick to bring in Cuddyer, which is somewhat of a signal that the team management is ready win. On top of that, the veteran makes a See DUBNOV page 15

COURTESY OF ALEX LANGLOIS

Playing host | The Gardnertown Polo Club scored the first eight goals of the match, and the Cornell men’s squad was unable to erase the deficit.

men lost its match against the Gardnertown Polo Club, 26-15.

Despite the loss, the match was valuable because it highlighted future areas of improvement for the men, according to Senior Alex Langlois.

“The game this weekend was against a group of alumni who were kind enough to come back to give us some extra practice for the tournament,” he said. “The game didn’t go as we initially intended, but it proved useful is seeing where it is we need to improve.”

Expecting to miss one of its starters, sophomore Ignacio Masias — who will be playing in the Federation of International Polo World Championships, the Red began its match with freshman Kimran Pirasteh and seniors Nick Stieg and Hakan Karabey.

The Gardnertown Polo Club scored the first eight goals of the match, a lead that Cornell could not relinquish during the first half. The second half began with Masias and senior Alex Langlois

replacing Pirasteh and Stieg. As the third chukker began, Gardnertown kept up its tough play. Unable to conquer the foe’s advantage, Cornell lost the match, 26-15. Stieg and Masias each had four goals followed by Pirasteh with three, Langlois with two and Karabey with one. There was also one pony goal.

“We had a great match up against some of the best players that walked this campus before us. It was a very important warm-up as we prepare for the Bill Field invitational this week, where some of the best programs in the country will be competing,” Karabey said. “The match helped polish some aspects of our game that needed shining.”

The women, however, found success in its weekend away match against Skidmore. Juniors Anna Winslow, Claire Stieg and Elena Wicker started for the Red. The first chukker began with the Red outscoring the Thoroughbreds, 7-1.

See POLO page 15