the PDF file.

Features
page 6:
Remembering
Alexander McQueen
A&
page 10:
Light in Winter
Preview
page 7: Chilean Miners
2010: YEAR IN
REVIEW
page 6
ALL THE NEWS THAT’S fit
to tattle.
January 19, 2011 • Estd. 1892 • Vol. 119 • No.4• Published Monthly • www.ihstattler.com • Ithaca High School, 1401 N. Cayuga St., Ithaca, NY, 14850 • FREE
Changes to
IHS Dance
Policies
Violence in Arizona Spurs
Discussion on Civility in Politics
By Khalid Vrede
IHS school dances are a time to
listen to music and spend time with
friends all the while raising money
for the senior class’s upcoming graduation. Despite the positive aspects of
school dances, many students, dance
chaperones and school faculty have
been reporting disturbing and overly
inappropriate behavior from a small
minority of dance patrons. Many outraged parents attended a site-based
council meeting in early December to
express their concerns.
The two main problems site-based
council members and school faculty
must deal with concerning school
dances include inappropriate dancing and general disrespect shown toward the volunteer chaperones. These
chaperones are required in order to
have school dances, and acquiring
enough of them is becoming increasingly difficult due to the bad behavior
being displayed at dances.
To combat these extreme cases of
inappropriate conduct, new material will be added to IHS’s dance policy. These revisions include, as stated
above, the promise that any attending
student will dance appropriately and
respect any chaperones present. Specifically, new rules include “[no dancing] in a way that mimics sexual activity” as well as “no hands under clothes,
and no hands placed on the ground.”
These changes are included in the sobriety contract that all students wishing to attend the dance must sign before they purchase tickets.
Other innovative ideas may be put
into effect, such as an increased number of chaperones. These chaperones’
responsibilities will also be altered:
shifts on certain areas of the dance
floor will be equally observed by each
chaperone as well as a shift in a break
room where refreshments will be provided. Chaperones may also greet
students as they enter the dance in an
attempt to create an increased level of
respect between students and chaperones. Other changes include a break in the
middle of dances consisting of slowerpaced songs and/or dance competitions.
continued on p. 3
Mark Kelly, husband of Congresswoman Giffords, receives support from First Lady Michelle Obama.
By Larry Ge
On January 8, 2010, Arizona Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot, along with at least 17 others, in an assassination attempt by a gunman who opened
fire upon a supermarket where Giffords was meeting with
her constituents. The shooting left six victims dead, including a nine year old girl, Christina Green, and a federal
judge, John Roll. Giffords was rushed to the University
Medical Center in Tucson, sustaining a gunshot wound
to the head. However, she is expected to survive and the
head surgeon Dr. Peter Rhee is “very optimistic about her
recovery.”
Police have identified the gunman as Jared Lee Loughner, 22, who has so far been uncooperative in the investigations. Loughner has been tied to several eccentric,
threatening Internet postings which included his own political conspiracies, and in one instance, a photograph of
his gun.
The shootings in Arizona have launched a nationwide
whirlwind of discussion focusing on topics ranging from
potential political motives to gun-control laws. Almost
immediately following the shootings, Pima County Sheriff
Clarence W. Dupnik set the spotlight on the debate over
increasing anger and violence in American politics when
he said that it was time for America to engage in “a little
soul-searching.” While both Democrats and Republicans
have been united in sorrow following the shootings, there
has also been much heated discussion between the parties on the atmosphere of current politics in the United
States.
Democrats were quick to denounce the extremely par-
PHOTO/PROVIDED
tisan atmosphere in Arizona, especially in Gifford’s district, where controversial issues such as immigration and
the health care overhaul deeply divided the voters. They
claim that this partisan atmosphere has led to an unneeded level of hostility among political figures, specifically
citing a graphic featured on the website of Sarah Palin’s
political action committee. This now infamous image displayed several Democratic House candidates with crosshairs over their districts, signifying Palin’s goal to target
these districts in the last election.
Ms. Palin quickly responded to these allegations, taking down the image from her website and issuing a statement in which she offered her condolences to Representative Giffords and the rest of the victims. Republicans
responded to allegations by accusing Democrats of using
the situation to overly victimize themselves.
President Obama attempted to address these issues in
a nationally televised speech given at the University of
Arizona. Obama was careful not to directly cast blame on
either political party, but instead called for a movement
towards civility in modern politics asking Americans to
“sharpen our instincts for empathy.” Obama also emphasized that the blame for the incident could not be easily
placed on any one group, or even on the political discourse
that has embroiled the government; instead, the shooting
was the work of one violent man. The president suggested
that in the aftermath of these events, people should look
within themselves, yet not prompt a response against free
speech and social conflict. Obama was joined by a bipartisan group including Senators John McCain of Arizona,
who together made the call for a new era of cooperation
and political courtesy.
January 19, 2011 Opinion
Editorial:
In Support of Michael Vick
All Michael Vick could do was point to the heavens. It was all
that needed to be expressed after another touchdown scamper
gave the Philadelphia Eagles an imposing 59-14 lead over their
division rivals, the Washington Redskins. The touchdown run
capped off a masterful performance for Vick and put the Eagles
in the NFC East driver seat. It was the game of a lifetime for Vick
as his incredible all around performance caused the NFL Hall of
Fame in Canton, Ohio to ask for Vick’s game equipment.
That night in suburban Washington, D.C., Michael Vick put
himself in the middle of the Most Valuable Player conversation.
New York Giants Head Coach Tom Caughlin said that game
planning for how to stop Vick “gives me stomach aces.” The NFL
fan had to have similar feelings regarding his MVP candidacy.
Vick was in a federal prison just two years ago for brutally killing
hundreds of dogs as a part of his dog fighting ring in Newport
News, Virginia. He went through a media backlash spearheaded
by PETA and other animal rights organizations. Vick being out
of jail and in the NFL was uncomfortable for fans at first, but in
his first season after his release from jail he was subjected to be
the back up for guys like Donavan McNabb and Kevin Kobb.
We had come to accept him as a backup in a league he was once
the king of. But now? Now Vick has turned into a bigger game
changer than when he was the franchise quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons. Now he is a legitimate MVP candidate and has
the Eagles in the playoffs. Now we, as NFL fans, have to address
the question we have all been avoiding: do we root for Michael
Vick?
On one hand, the answer to the question seems obvious. Michael Vick is getting the opportunity to do what so many other
felons can’t do once they get out of jail; make something of himself and become successful. Americans love the stories of the
fighters in sports, the guys who get knocked down and then rise
back up. From bankruptcy to jail time no one fell harder or farther than Michael Vick. If Vick continues to play at this torrid
pace, no one will have risen as fast and with such vigor. It is the
classic story that American sports fans tend to throw their entire
emotional selves.
On the other hand, the crime is still so recent that it remains
singed into the back of our minds. This is the same man who
would drown, electrocute, and brutally kill innocent pit bulls.
Sure, he is making something of himself, but the only reason he
even gets this second chance is because he is a world class athlete. The service he renders, it can be argued, is not dependent
on a criminal record. How do we know this man has changed?
How do we know he isn’t just a spoiled athlete who has gotten a
second chance based purely on the physical gifts he was blessed
with at birth?
There are people who will never forgive Michael Vick. No matter what charitable act he commits, or how many lives he touches
through his success, there will always be people who hate Michael Vick because they view him as an ungrateful athlete that
would be on the streets if he couldn’t throw a ball 60 yards and
run 40 yards in 4 and a half seconds. The idea, however, that Michael Vick is spoiled can’t be any less correct. Michael Vick owes
his creditors $20 Million and is not playing the game of football
for the lavish lifestyle and financial stability. Unless Vick signs a
lucrative long term extension (unlikely at his age) he will never
be able to enjoy the lifestyle most football players are accustomed
to, much less pay back all his debts.
The idea that Michael Vick should continue to endure harsh
public criticism is another loosely supported theory. When someone is in jail for almost an entire year, loses every penny they
accumulated, and is embarrassed publicly, is that not enough
punishment? Michael Vick is scorned by legions of people who
were faithful followers of his not too long ago. His fall from grace
ranks among the most highlighted in recent sports history. No
human deserves punished after the sentence has been met. No
matter how prominent he or she may be.
If you find yourself watching the playoffs in this upcoming
month consider this: Michael Vick is making the most of his
second chance as humanly possible. We are often regarded as a
forgiving society when it comes to popular culture, but it is hard
to see that with Michael Vick. Shouldn’t we be embracing a man
who relishes in the second chance we give so many of our athletes? Every Thursday, Michael Vick visits Philadelphia schools
and preaches with passion against the evils of dog fighting. Considering the heinous dog fighting problem in Philadelphia any
kind of guidance is immeasurably valuable. It sounds as though
Michael Vick is not about to spit on the second chance we have
given him.
Editorial:
Overreaction to WikiLeaks
Since the recent release of confidential documents by WikiLeaks, the reaction of American politicians have been overblown
compared to the response of foreign nations. However, only in
some special cases have foreign governments seriously reacted to
or been affected by the leak, causing a minor backlash of foreign
opinion. Despite this, Americans have overstated the implications
of the embarrassment caused by the release of classified information.
WikiLeaks became internationally prominent when, in late
December 2010, it released over 250,000 secret American government documents. Julian Assange founded the site with the goal
of informing the world community about the undercover actions
hidden by our governments. The leaked government documents
consist mainly of diplomatic cables gathered by American officials describing negative, and often embarrassingly candid, reports
about foreign officials.
As these confidential cables were being announced to the public, American officials started to deride the releases by WikiLeaks. Hillary Clinton described the leaks as “an attack against the
international community” and Sarah Palin stated that Assange is
an “anti-American operative with blood on his hands.” The fundamental reason behind American government officials taking this
event too seriously is that they believe that the American reputation and diplomacy will be ruined by response from other nations
to the leaked cables. The media has made matters worse by overanalyzing the meaning behind the cables. Meanwhile, many countries are receiving this information with little animosity; Iran has
not erupted from opinions about nuclear policies from neighbors
in the Middle East and China has not become enraged over details
about a Korean unification following the collapse of North Korea. David Brooks and Gail Collins, columnists for the New York
Times, agree that they have found that other countries do not have
a different view of the world because of WikiLeaks. Renaud Girard,
a respected reporter for French newspaper Le Figaro, said he does
not believe “leaks will jeopardize the United States. Most … see the
diplomats as honest, sincere and not so cynical.”
The international community, instead of being incensed by the
leaked content, is in many cases more concerned about how Americans have been reacting to the release of information. Countries
find the responses to be hypocritical and contrary to the values of
the United States, including the right to information. From Britain’s
newspaper, The Guardian, Seumas Milne concluded: “Not much
truck with freedom of information, then, in the land of the free.”
Although this event may result in the embarrassment of the
United States government and reduce the trust that diplomats have
with the United States, other countries will still rely on America
for continuing political objectives. We must realize that WikiLeaks
has provided the opportunity for us to be more in tune with the
political climate overseas. By listening more to news sources about
international communities, we can receive the same information
that diplomats relay in regard to international sentiment and policy
agreement. By being aware of international sentiment instead of
overreacting, the American public and government can continue
to work with foreign countries for future advancement.
Editor’s Note: All editorials published in The Tattler are not anonymous and represent the views of the sixteen students on the editorial
staff. Editorials are written about topics the Tattler staff deems important. Such issues may be global or specific to IHS.
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The Tattler is the studentrun newspaper of Ithaca
High School. The Tattler
was founded in 1892, and is
published monthly.
As an open forum, The
Tattler invites submissions
of opinion pieces and
letters to the editor
from all members of the
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Letters can be mailed to
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We reserve the right to edit
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These submissions do not
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DANCE
January 19, 2011
news
Overall these changes are mainly set forth to address severe and extreme cases
of misbehavior and disrespect towards chaperones. The type of music played
at dances won’t change drastically either. The goal of school faculty and chap-
continued from p.1
erones is merely to create a safer, more respectful environment at school functions while still maintaining the same level of enjoyment and excitement school
dances have offered in the past. Ithaca Community’s Response to Dr. Brown
By Larry Ge
On January 11, Dr. Luvelle C. Brown took the oath
of office as Superintendent of Schools, officially becoming ICSD’s new superintendent. This marked the
end of a ten-month-long search following Dr. Pastel’s
decision to leave at the start of 2011.
Dr. Brown was revealed to be the new superintendent in November, and ever since then anticipation has been building. The process of finding a new
superintendent involved search consultants, School
Leadership LLC, who helped ICSD form certain specifications which they used in the search. The public
was also consulted through open forums, surveys,
and several focus groups including students, staff, and
other members of the community.
After many candidates were narrowed down to
eight semi-finalists, and finally three finalists, members of the community were again invited to have an
input on the selection, as more than 60 representatives had the chance to meet with each of the finalists.
These representatives not only met with each candidate, but also rated the finalists according to set specifications.
Through this process, Dr. Brown was chosen, rated
as either the most qualified or second-most qualified
in all categories. In a written statement to the Ithaca
Journal, Board of Education President Rob Ainslie and
Board Vice President Seth Peacock expressed their
pleasure at having found such an “exceptional” candidate. They cited quotes from members of the community regarding Dr. Brown, which included such statements as, “[Dr. Brown is] a personable administrator
who is a capable leader with solution-based plans to
build equity and inclusion of all voices…”
However, not everyone shared the board’s excitement for Dr. Brown, as demonstrated in a editorial
The Ithaca Journal sparks controversy with an editorial on ICSD’s new superintendent.
published by the Ithaca Times on December 8. In the
editorial titled “$175,000 Is Too Much”, the writer expressed several controversial points, including a statement that ICSD had gone out of their way to hire Dr.
Brown “just because he’s black.” The editorial continued on to state that simply hiring a black candidate
would not “…change the educational journey for minority and poor students.” The author also discussed
Dr. Brown’s salary, stating that the highest salary does
not necessarily draw the most qualified candidate.
PHOTO/PROVIDED
Immediately following the publication of the editorial, reader backlash started to pour in, with members
of the community calling it racist and insulting. In a
letter from the Board of Directors of the Tompkins
County Chamber of Commerce printed in the Ithaca Times, the board expressed their disappointment
with the writer’s opinions, stating that, “Dr. Brown
has outstanding credentials, and we are confident that
the Ithaca City School District served the community
and its children well by selecting the best candidate.”
Features
Restaurant
Review:
Tamarind
Teacher Feature: Emily Schwan
By JULIE STOVER and YUQI YANG
“I’ve never eaten at Tamarind before,” someone confessed before we ordered. “Me neither…”
someone else meekly stated. Chaos ensued. We
could not believe there were people who had
never been to the popular Thai restaurant located on North Meadow Street. The newbies to the
restaurant were then subjected to a lecture about
the wonderful, mouth-watering food. Although
many of you are probably familiar with Tamarind, we decided it would be beneficial to write a
restaurant review for those of you who live under
a rock.
Tamarind offers exotic, authentic Thai food
and drink. Perhaps the most popular drinks on
the menu are the Thai iced coffee and iced tea,
served with extra cream on top to mix into the tea
or coffee. Both drinks are extra sweet and have a
pleasant spicy aroma. The usual coffee, sodas, water, lemonade and tea are also available for those
who are more cautious. Appetizers include soups
(won-ton and tofu) and salads (duck and lamb),
which come with a sweet and slightly tangy salad
dressing. Salads are followed by a few servings of
spring rolls, served hot, fresh and crispy.
Out of the many entrees available, we finally
decided to order mango chicken and Panang curry with chicken. We also ordered beef and broccoli, which was not available on the menu, but
the chef was happy to prepare a special order. All
entrees feature a rating of one to five stars, indicating how spicy the dish is — five stars being
the spiciest. However, dishes can always be made
more or less spicy to fit the taste of the diner.
The Panang curry with chicken was thicker and
creamier than the typical curry, but the flavor was
excellent, and the red and green peppers in the
curry were an excellent addition. A large amount
of rice was served with all dishes, especially the
curry, so the diner could put the perfect amount
of rice into his/her dish. The mango curry was
also very flavorful; the mangoes were fresh and
sweet, and the sauce sweet but tangy. It complimented the mangoes perfectly. The custom-made
beef and broccoli dish was exceptional as well,
with the beef perfectly cooked and plenty of sauce
available to soak the rice.
We give Tamarind four stars out of five for its
pleasant atmosphere and exceptional food. Overall it was an enjoyable dining experience.
A Reminder from Link Crew:
After the holidays, the Red
Cross has a major shortage of
food donations. Don’t forget
to bring in cans for the Link
Crew food drive to help families in need in our community.
New Global teacher Ms. Schwan brings a fun and quirky atmosphere to the Combined classroom.
By ANNELISE RAYMOND
Ready to reveal a little bit about herself, Ms.
Schwan kindly smiled at me over a bag of pretzels as I
entered her classroom during 6th period for a Teacher Feature interview. Ever since the news got out that
Mrs. P-B, the longtime 10th-grade Combined Global
teacher, would no longer be teaching the class, interest regarding the replacement teacher has been high.
After a cancer episode last year, Mrs. P-B now works
part-time; Ms. Schwan, replacing the much-loved
Mrs. P-B, is young and stylish. The Combined team
has completely turned over since Ms. Bach (the Combined English teacher before Ms. McKown) moved
to China three years ago.
Originally from an Albany suburb, Ms. Schwan
has been teaching for 2½ years. In choosing a career,
she knew that she “never wanted to have an office,”
and wanted to go into a profession that included
working with people. In college, Ms. Schwan ended
up changing her major from nursing to teaching and
history.
While she’s still getting used to the school and getting into the hang of teaching, Ms. Schwan says that
it’s nice having a teaching partner. Before coming to
Ithaca, she taught grades 9 and 11, so the fact that
she’s now teaching European history means that she
has to re-learn some of the material along with the
students. She also teaches Government 5th period,
which she says is a “really fun class.”
In teaching Combined (the highest 10th-grade
PHOTO/MANSI VOHRA
English and Global classes, which are taught together
in order to allow class time for larger projects and
events), Ms. Schwan tells me, “Every day is interesting.” The curriculum includes a lot of in-depth analysis of primary sources and art, which she says she
likes — but Ms. Schwan would like to incorporate the
students’ interests into history class more by having
them do fun things that are relevant to present-day
tenth-graders’ lives. To help the students connect
more to what they’re learning, Ms. Schwan did a project where students found songs whose lyrics matched
that of their Theme papers, and analyzed the songs
for the class. Students are always intimidated by the
overwhelming Combined Theme paper (a major essay on any topic relating to European history), but
Ms. Schwan assures me that students are doing a very
good job with them.
The general atmosphere in Combined class is really great: As Ms. Schwan puts it, there’s a “communal
nerdiness in Combined.” Sometimes, the discussions
go off-topic — in the midst of all the excitement leading up to the release of the first Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows movie, Ms. Schwan admitted that
she’s never read Harry Potter, only watched some
of the movies. This shocked and horrified her class;
one student, Tiffany Zheng, is basing her Sophomore
Theme paper on analysis of the characters Malfoy and
Snape. Ms. Schwan found a common sympathizer
(someone who is not obsessed with Harry Potter) in
one of her students, Joon Park, with whom she shares
a matching ring from The Lord of the Rings.
January 19, 2011 Features
Current Affairs
Berni Searle: The Artist’s Body in South Africa
Colour Me (1998) is considered by
many to be Searle’s most famous work.
By REHAN DADI
PHOTO/PROVIDED
The South African artist Berni Searle visited
Ithaca a few weeks ago and gave a presentation
of her work at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of
Art. Born in 1964 and trained originally as a sculptor, Berni Searle is a photographer and installation
artist. She is best known for her installations consisting of ordinary objects mixed with photographs
and videos of her own body, marked in some way
to suggest forms of ritual sacrifice to address the
challenges facing women and Africans today. Searle’s work deals with issues relating to women, race,
color, language and specific questions about Africa’s recent history. Using her own body as the subject and point of focus, Searle experiments with the
surface of her skin, allowing it to be covered in layers of colored and aromatic spices. By leaving her
bodily imprints on spreads of spices on the floor,
or by staining certain areas of her body with various substances, she suggests trauma, or damage, in
regard to the people of South Africa and of larger
Africa. None of the marks are permanent and they
are usually made with henna, spices, impressions,
or other natural substances.
Searle has become one of the most visible South
African artists. She has participated in art projects
and exhibitions across the globe, and has presented
her work in such prestigious locations as the 1997
Johannesburg Biennale, the 1998 Cairo Biennale,
and the 2000 and 2005 Venice Biennales. Searle
has won numerous awards including the UNESCO award (1998), the Minister of Culture prize at
the Dak’art Biennale (2000), the Civitella Ranieri
Fellowship (2001), and the Standard Bank Young
Artist Awards (2003). Searle currently lives and
works in Cape Town, South Africa.
The use of spices in her earlier photographic
work Colour Me (1998) is in part a reference to the
spice trade, which brought white colonists to South
Africa in the 17th century and led to the interbreeding with local inhabitants and slaves brought
from other parts of Africa. Searle’s work confronts
this history and the obsession with racial classification that was created during the Apartheid era.
Searle herself was classified as “coloured” in the
Apartheid system, and her work often explores the
difficulties of being associated with the class above
the “blacks” but below the “whites.”
Searle has continued to make expressive and
socially meaningful art, and her work is especially
relevant today because while there is legal equality
in South Africa, there is now perhaps greater economic disparity than even during the era of Apartheid. In her recent work, she has also addressed
the prejudice against African migrants from other
parts of Africa, who come to South Africa to seek
a better life. Tragically, some of these migrants face
violence from the same South Africans who had
themselves suffered under the Apartheid regime.
Searle thus continues to make very moving and
powerful works about the challenges that Africans,
women, and migrants face in Africa and beyond.
The Real American Way:
Inquiring Photographer
What’s your favorite memory of 2010?
“When I met up with my friends from
camp in the Czech Republic”
-Filip Lillard ‘13
“Everytime the snow began to flurry outside”
-Katie Tashman ‘13
WikiLeaks
By ALEJANDRO YOUNGER
PHOTO/PROVIDED
tacks. DDoS is used to send
useless data packets at a server
until it crashes from information overload. The source of
these attacks is still unknown!
Furthermore, at U.S. politicians’ request, Visa and PayPal have stopped processing
donations to WikiLeaks. Our
government is already doing
everything possible to cover
its behind in this situation
when Assange hasn’t even released a small percentage of
the information in his trove of
diplomatic cables.
Next, we have to wonder
about the veracity of the rape
charges presented against As-
“The first day of chemistry class with Mr. Rosen!”
-Patrick Hollister ‘13
“Last day of eighth grade!”
-Mandy Claben ‘14
PHOTOS/MANSI VOHRA
If you haven’t heard about
WikiLeaks yet, there is something wrong with you. WikiLeaks is easily one of the most
important political developments to occur in the past
year. Firstly, WikiLeaks has
shown us that our government
is lying to us. The American
government has given Yemen
troops and missiles to use in
air strikes against insurgents.
Do I even have to talk about
why that is wrong?
From WikiLeaks we get
high-level gossip: Putin is running an oligarchy (we knew
that), there is a new crazy dictator in Kenya, etc. But what
is more important and alarming than any of this, is the response from the Right. Sarah
Palin has called for the assassination of Julian Assange, head
editor of WikiLeaks. Others
have called him a traitor to
America when he isn’t even a
U.S. citizen. This uninformed
and questionably moral response to a sorely needed release of information is still not
the worst part.
WikiLeaks has been under cyber attack, and we don’t
know the source. Three of the
site’s mirrors have been mysteriously overwhelmed by DDoS
(Direct Denial of Service) at-
sange in Sweden. First, the
chief prosecutor in Sweden,
on the basis that there was
not enough evidence, dropped
charges in August. Months
later another lower prosecutor
decided to resume the case. In
this new charge, the names of
the women were withheld for
their “safety.” Furthermore,
Assange’s arrest in Britain was
far too efficiently handled for
an international warrant, as
the very next morning, Scotland Yard arrested Assange.
The United States’ official
statement on the situation has
been that it is “still considering” pressing charges for the
release of the information.
No matter how sketchy our
government has been acting
throughout this whole ordeal,
at least the damage has been
done to its reputation. We
now know that our government is lying to us. Perhaps it
is not a surprise, but it is definitely disappointing to have it
confirmed. And WikiLeaks is
not synonymous with Julian
Assange, so no matter what
happens to the man, the world
will still find out the information hidden away in the secret
cables. The face of global politics will continue to be altered
for many years by the actions
of a whistle-blowing organization. Hopefully in a good way.
centers
in focus:
2010: Year In Review
Remembering Alexander McQueen: Designer and Innovator
PHOTO/PROVIDED
By CAROLINE FLEISCHAUER
particular, titled “Manta,” was named for the manta ray
inspired by a diving excursion McQueen took while
When one thinks of great fashion designers, a few on a vacation. Everything that was McQueen pushed
famous names immediately come to mind: Versace, the envelope, including his models. He was one of the
Galliano, Cavalli and of course, McQueen. Lee Al- first designers in London to feature Indian models, and
exander McQueen was born March 17th, 1969 in one runway show he headed at Givenchy showcased
Lewisham, London to a taxi driver and social studies model and double amputee, Aimee Mullins, walking
teacher. From a young age, he made clothes for his the catwalk on wooden legs designed specifically for
three younger sisters and made it his life goal to pursue the event. His innovations didn’t stop at the catwalk,
fashion design. He received his master’s degree in fash- however. His famous, career-defining “bumsters,” like
ion design from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art jeans but low enough to expose the buttocks, instigated
and Design in 1994, and by the time of his graduation, the trend of low-rise jeans which was later popularized
his senior collection was completely bought out by in- in Britain and throughout the rest of the world in the
fluential stylist Isabella Blow. So influential, in fact, that late 90’s. McQueen also popularized the skull symbol
she persuaded McQueen to launch his fashion career as a prominent design. In particular, a McQueen scarf
using his middle name.
bearing the motif became immensely popular, and was
copied and distributed around the
globe.
McQueen’s accomplishments and
individuality did not go unnoticed
by the fashion community. He received a plethora of awards throughout his lifetime, including “British
Designer of the Year” four times in
seven years as one of the youngest
designers to ever receive the award.
He was also awarded the honor of
“Commander of the Order of the
British Empire,” a British honor akin
to knighthood, and was named International Designer of the Year in
2003. He served as head designer for
Givenchy from 1996 to 2001, then
partnered with the Gucci Group to
expand his brand. In collaboration
with Puma, he also designed a special line of sneakers. On his own, he
fathered two brands, both bearing
his name: Alexander McQueen, and
the more affordable McQ, launched
in 2006. Boutiques carrying the
McQueen designed numerous one-of-a-kind looks for celebrities like Lady GaGa.
brands were located in Paris, Milan,
McQueen took the fashion world by storm with his Las Vegas, New York, London, and Los Angeles, and he
controversial, unconventional and cutting-edge styles. boasted celebrity clients such as Rihanna, Nicole KidHis runway shows were shocking, including a ship- man, Penelope Cruz, and, most notably, Lady Gaga,
wreck theme in 2003, human chess pieces in 2005, and who incorporated the brand into her song “Fashion.”
a collection named “Highland Rape.” His clothes were
Many troubles plagued McQueen outside of his
as unique as his runway shows; with their daring bold career. He was diagnosed with mixed anxiety and deprints and silhouettes, they seemed fitting in fantasy and pressive disorder, and had drug overdoses in both May
science-fiction novels. He drew inspiration from every- and July of 2010. His mother Joyce died of cancer on
thing around him and from all experiences; one line in February 2nd, 2010, and after her death McQueen had
PHOTO/PROVIDED
even more trouble pulling himself together. Nine days
later, he was found dead by his housekeeper, hanged
in his wardrobe at his home in London. Paramedics
proclaimed him dead at the scene and deduced that he
had slashed his wrists with multiple knives, as well as
had high levels of cocaine, tranquilizers, and sleeping
pills in his bloodstream. A note was left, stating simply,
“Look after my dogs, sorry, I love you, Lee.” The death
was declared a suicide. His funeral was held on February 25th, and a memorial was held for the designer on
September 20th, with over 2,500 people in attendance.
He was only 40 years old at the time of his death.
While he lived a short life, Alexander McQueen left
behind a timeless legacy. His innovations and surprising tactics have added new extremes to runway shows
and fashion as a whole. The unique style he created
has inspired many other designers, promoted ideas of
individuality and broke the traditional fashion mold.
Few designers have ever been so rebellious, and taken
so many risks as McQueen. His death, however tragic,
is not his end. He lives on in his beloved collections,
and in the hearts and minds of those whose lives were
touched by his creative spirit.
The Polish Tragedy
By PETER PILLARDY
On April 10th, 2010, at roughly 11
a.m, on the outskirts of Katyn (a small
Russian town), a tragedy occurred. A
plane flying through extremely dense
fog that was carrying 96 highly ranked
Polish officials, including President Lech
Kaczyński, collided with trees, crashed
to the ground, and killed everyone onboard.
To better understand this incident
in context, it is important to know how
the political system functions in Poland.
Poland has both a president and a prime
minister. The prime minister has executive power while in office until party
support changes. The president has veto
power, a five-year term, and the ability
to nominate top-level officials such as
the president of the National Bank (similar to the chairman of the U.S. Federal
Reserve).
In 2005, Lech Kaczyński and his twin
brother Jarosław (from the conservative Law and Justice Party) were both
elected president and prime minister,
respectively. They ran on a fairly lenient
conservative platform, but after elected,
instituted an entirely different agenda of
extreme nationalism and hardcore conservatism. The Kaczyński brothers also
passed many barely legal laws that went
against many aspects of the Polish Constitution.
These actions infuriated the people,
and because of the extremely high disapproval rating of the prime minister,
there was a special election in 2007 in
which the prime minister was replaced
by Donald Tusk, a member of the centrist yet liberally leaning Civic Platform
party. He helped institute many great
reforms and raise morale among the
people. Since the president and prime
minister were of different parties, they
fiercely tried to hinder the other’s proposed agenda.
On a slightly humorous note, many
jokes were made at the time about how
the Polish government was filled with
“ducks.” The last name “Kaczyński” is
similar to the Polish word for duck and
the name Donald brings to mind Donald Duck. For this reason their disapproval of one another was called “the
fight between Donald and the Duck.”
Regarding the actual incident, President Kaczyński and the other top government officials were going to Russia
for a ceremony to observe a very tragic
event. During World War II, many Poles
fled Poland to escape their fates at the
hands of the Nazis. Many escaped to
Russia to seek refuge, yet encountered
quite the opposite. The Poles were taken
prisoner by the Russians and many of
them were slaughtered in the woods in
Katyn, Russia. After World War II, when
Poland was under Soviet control, the
people were forbidden to speak of the
event and it was denied time and again
by the Soviets. After the fall of Communism in 1989, speaking and acknowledging the massacre became a symbol
of independence for Poland.
2010 marked the 60th anniversary
of the massacre and the acceptance of
blame by the Russians. Prime Minister Donald
continued on p. 8
January 19, 2011 Medical
Gulf Oil Spill
Breakthroughs
of 2010
By MANSI VOHRA
Although 2010 hasn’t brought forth a cure for cancer, many breakthroughs in medicine have occurred
this year, mainly in the study of stem cell research,
HIV vaccines, and Alzheimer’s treatment.
Leukemia Stem Cell Discovery: At King’s College
London, researchers have been working this past
year to find stem cell treatments for multiple cases of
leukemia. On December 12, 2010, Medical News Digest published a paper describing a way to suppress a
protein in the blood called beta-catenin, which turns
leukemic stem cells back into the pre-leukemic stage.
Although inactivating beta-catenin doesn’t change
the mutation on the MLL gene, it does prevent the
rapid increase of leukemic stem cells, therefore ameliorating the disease. The difference between this
discovery and other anti-cancer therapies is that the
protein beta-catenin isn’t essential for blood stem
cells, so when given the treatment, healthy stem cells
aren’t being attacked as they would with other therapies. Although research into this discovery is not yet
complete, it’s definitely a step toward a cure for leukemia.
The Development of an HIV Vaccine: In July 2010,
scientists at the National Institute of Health made it
clear that the search for an HIV/AIDS vaccine was
just around the corner. Two powerful antibodies in
an HIV-infected patient were found to neutralize
95% of HIV strains. Although the antibodies had
formed after the virus spread throughout the body,
scientists have developed resurfaced protein probes
to trap the immunoglobulin using molecular techniques. With more research, scientists hope to have a
vaccine that will activate these neutralizing antibodies before a person is exposed to HIV, therefore creating a solution to the puzzle that has baffled scientists
for decades. This discovery gives hope to patients
with HIV/AIDS, because with neutralizing antibodies already in 25% of patients, one half of the process
has already been completed and the second half is
slowly progressing each day.
Alzheimer’s-Examining the Signals: Researchers
PHOTO/PROVIDED
Cleaning up the polluted beaches after the spill has proven itself a difficult task.
By AVALON BUNGE
forgotten. Since the gusher was indeed capped, many
It’s been almost eight months since BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in
April 2010, disgorging 185,000,000 gallons of crude
oil into the Gulf before it was finally capped in July.
Since this figure is fairly incomprehensible, here’s
another: assuming the average person fills their car’s
gas tank once a week, that’s enough oil to power almost 30,000 mid-sized vehicles for a year. The BP oil
spill is the biggest single spill in the world’s history,
rendering last summer the environmental equivalent
of 9/11 — yet less than a year later it’s been almost
people believe that the problem was solved; this, unfortunately, is not the case. The oil is no longer actively being poured into the Gulf, but is not gone.
BP employed a variety of cleanup efforts, including burning, skimming, and chemically dispersing
the oil, and the corporation has estimated that 75
percent of the oil is now gone from the Gulf. Scientists from various institutions (the Universities of
Florida and Georgia, the National Science Foundation) have since stated that this number is purely
fantasy. In its report, BP counted oil that was no longer visible as eradicated,
continued on p. 8
The Rescue In Chile
By ALEKSA BASARA
Scientists trying to find a marker for the electrical
transmission emitted by cells.
PHOTO/PROVIDED
in Florida, led by James Hickman, head of the University of Central Florida (UCF)’s Nanoscience Technology, seem to have found an answer to Alzheimer’s. Though various scientists and researchers have
hypothesized different causes for the disease, the
most common is the amyloid hypothesis postulated
in 1991, stating that the amino acid peptide amyloidbeta is the fundamental cause of plaque buildup in the
brains of Alzheimer’s patients. With plaques clotting
healthy brain cells, electrical signal generation in the
cells is cut off, leading to dead brain cells and memory
loss. While most researchers study the effects of high
concentrations of amyloid-beta, the UCF team studied the effects of relatively low concentrations of the
peptide. The results that they received were promising; the initial growth of the plaque is what prevents
the electrical transmission between cells, not the
other way around. With this information, Hickman
and his researchers experimented by using microelectrode arrays (MEA) which measure the electrical
signals that are transmitted. Through experimenting
and recording their results each day, the UCF team is
slowly on its way to finding a marker that will lead to
a treatment of the most common form of dementia.
During the course of about 69
days, Chilean miners were experiencing the scariest days of their
lives. On August 5th, 33 miners
were trapped in the mountains
in Northern Chile 2,230 feet underground. It is hard to imagine
who were scared the most, the
miners or their loved ones? It is
also unbelievably hard to picture
yourself being trapped that deep
underground, with little food,
water, and sunlight. And yet,
these brave miners endured the
months of darkness.
The miners had a lot to battle against in those 69 days. Their
lives depended on a 3.19-inchwide supply line delivering their
food and water. Still, they had to
ration everything in an orderly
way; they needed someone to organize and to lead. This was credited to Luis Urzua, who rationed
out the supplies and encouraged
fellow miners to have hope that
they will one day see sunlight and
their families. However, even he
couldn’t control factors like the the
90 percent humidity that they had
to endure in constant darkness.
These physical and mental chal-
Two Chilean miners await their rescue after 69 days trapped underground.
lenges only added to the stress.
Miners had to pull it together to
keep from getting depressed or
losing their sanity entirely. In a
space 2,230 feet underground with
minimal amounts of rations with
thirty-two other tired miners, insanity was not something they
could afford to submit to; they had
to keep positive at all times. Fortunately, they had the rescuers at the
surface to keep them company as
time progressed.
To be trapped that deeply underground, even boredom could
have played a part in driving the
miners to their own demise. At the
surface, rescuers tried to keep the
miners’ minds off of their situation.
Through one of the supply holes,
miners were kept entertained by a
fiber-optic projector that showed
movies or football games on a fifty
inch picture on the cave wall. They
also received some magazines
when they had some light down
there and an ipod with speakers
for music. They were also given
tasks to do to keep them busy and
their
continued on p. 8
POLAND
January 19, 2011
Former Polish President Lech Kaczyński.
Tusk was able to, after a series of debates and discussions, get Russian
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to acknowledge what took place in Katyn
60 years ago.
To remember the tragedy, President Kaczyński invited 95 top government officials (excluding Donald
Tusk) to attend the ceremony taking
place in April 2010. The airport to
GULF
whereas in reality much of that
now-invisible oil had simply been
dispersed, and is now hiding somewhere in the water column, like
sugar dissolved in coffee. Even if
the BP figure is correct, that leaves
50-60 million gallons unaccounted
for, and if (as is almost certain) their
number is way off, estimates of how
much oil really remains in the water
are as high as 103 million gallons.
The total area of the spill holds
more than 8,300 species, many of
which are endangered. Petroleum
CHILEAN
minds off the crisis. Some constantly
monitored the supply holes to see if
they were being given anything and
figured out how to ration the supplies. Others were designated to clear
rocks that fell down because of the
drillers above ground, or examine
continued from p.6
which they were
flying was very
small and lacked
electronic guidance systems. As
the plane with
Polish
officials
aboard was about
to land, the pilot
noticed an extremely thick fog
and was advised
by the control
tower to seek an
alternate
location for landing.
Before descending, the pilot suggested that they
land at a different airport to be
safe, although this
meant that they
would miss the
ceremony. President Kaczyński
would not stand
for this and forced
PHOTO/PROVIDED
the pilot to land
immediately. As the plane descended,
it collided with many trees, killing
all 96 people on board. To this day,
what happened exactly in those last
minutes before the crash remains unknown. The results of official investigations are expected to be released in
the spring of 2011.
There was a great deal of mourning among the Polish people after the
tragedy. Unfortunately, the death of
the President overshadowed many of
the others who lost their lives.
Because of the accident, there was
another special election called after
the president’s death and Bronisław
Komorowski (a member of the Civic
Platform party) was elected, evidence
of the Polish people’s discontent with
the Law and Justice Party.
Kaczyński, who was at first a mediocre president, became a martyr
for the far-right conservatives in Poland. Overnight, supporters of the
former president erected a wooden
cross outside the Presidential Palace
in Warsaw and stood over it at all
times of the day. Many of the people
protecting the cross were uttering all
sorts of conspiracy theories about the
accident, ranging from how the Russians did it to the people from the
plane are actually alive but in secret
government prisons. I saw the cross
in Poland this summer, though it has
since been removed.
This tragedy was a huge loss for
the Polish people. It became a rallying
point for the far right conservatives in
Poland who tried to pry on the sympathy of the voters, often ignoring
the 95 others who lost their lives that
day. But, for me, it seems like it was
a fairly preventable tragedy brought
on by a stubborn president who was
desperate for a change in his dismal
presidency, and would try to achieve
this by all means possible, even if it
involved risking the lives of others.
itself is immediately toxic and eventually carcinogenic to organisms,
and also indirectly harmful since it
promotes oxygen depletion. Furthermore, Corexit, a widely used chemical dispersant (which remains in the
water today), is known to be toxic.
Our outrage over the Gulf disaster has faded quickly since the well
was capped and the most visually
conspicuous areas--surface waters
and beaches--were cleaned up. The
tragedy’s short-term impacts have
become old news, but we have yet
to see the long-term effects. We are
fewer 185 million gallons of oil, that
much closer to the end of the fossilfuel era. We have polluted--invisibly,
but perhaps irrevocably--thousands
of square miles of diverse, biologically rich waters, with no plan, as of
this writing, to remove the dissolved
oil. This is the state of the Gulf today:
the well is capped, but the oil remains; the ecosystem is badly damaged, and we have no idea how the
spill will return to haunt us in the
years to come.
miners for their medical conditions
so they could bring the news above
ground to tell them how they were
doing. With team work, they were
able to survive it all.
The rescue took about 24 hours,
but on October 14th at 1:55 am, the
last of the miners escaped. It was
such a big event that even the president, Sebastian, came to celebrate
their safety. After all those days stuck
way down in the Northern Chilean
mountains, the miners’ lives have nowhere to go but up.
continued from p.7
continued from p.7
Facebook Explosion
By ALEKSA BASARA
2010 was a year of flourishing businesses and companies — Facebook most notably. Ever since Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook as a social tool for friends,
family, and business partners to communicate, more
and more users have become a part of the Facebook
experience. It only took Facebook about five years to
climb up the ranks of the best social networks, leading
its competitor website, MySpace, with nearly 400 million more active users. A survey done in 2010 estimated that Facebook had gained about 100 million users
over the course of just five months; the difference alone
rivals the number of active MySpace users.
On top of being a large social networking site, Facebook has also been attracting students and working
people with space for advertising their businesses.
Facebook allows business owners to create groups or
pages for their businesses to gather as many friends as
possible so that more people would take notice of the
business and make investments. It used to be that Face-
book was primarily used by college students to chat
with their colleagues. Over the years, it has become
evident that Facebook is also user-friendly for teens,
businessmen, and a great way to reconnect with childhood friends.
Now there are over half a million applications on
Facebook. With this many applications, pages to like,
and groups to be a part of, Facebook has become a cyber-vacuum that sucks people in. Even when people are
on road trips or relaxing in a park, you can bet they are
accessing their Facebook accounts through their cell
phones or other gadgets to comment or update their
statuses.
With so many active users constantly paying attention to their electronics for a news feed, Facebook has
been attracting investors, which means more money
in the pockets of over one million developers and employees. If Facebook is consistent with their production
of new applications and updates of their look, there is
no doubt that Facebook will continue to flourish in the
years to come.
The Eco
Standpoint
By HANNAH GEORGE
As we enter a new year, it’s time to reflect
on where we are, how far we’ve come, and
where we’re going...all from an environmental standpoint. The atmosphere has 388
parts per million of CO2, 38 ppm higher
than the highest amount deemed necessary
for a healthy planet by scientists worldwide.
If every human being lived like the average American today, we would need five
planet Earths to support the vast amount
of resources needed for this lifestyle. As the
rainforests diminish, so does biodiversity.
Nothing is ever thrown away; trash just gets
relocated out of sight. It’s often relocated
to the ocean, an obvious example being the
Pacific Trash Vortex, which covers an area
greater than the state of Texas. One million
sea creatures died this year after swallowing a plastic bag or balloon. A little frightened? I am. And if you’re
not, there’s still a long list of problems I
haven’t mentioned. The point here is not
to make you feel depressed, but aware.
And one important part of being aware is
looking at both sides of an issue. We hear
about problems every day: an earthquake,
a flood, a drought, and an oil spill are disasters we’ve seen this year around the world.
What have you heard lately that’s good?
In 2010, solar panels have become
cheaper thanks to a technique that replaces
the typical layer of silicon with a thin flexible layer of foil printed with solar cell ink.
This is the next step to the future of solar
technology, with entire buildings acting
as solar panels with just a layer of paint.
Cell phones are becoming greener with
less packaging and built-in reminders to
unplug your charger. Cars are evolving to
new heights of stylish green, from hybrids
to electric cars designed in 2010 such as the
Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf. This past
year was significant for the development of
the Podcar as well, which is being used at
London’s Heathrow Airport. The Podcar,
an individualized and autonomous form of
public transportation with zero emissions,
is possibly coming to Ithaca in the future
and revolutionizing the entire transportation system. Regarding the Trash Vortex,
Project Kaisei launched a second expedition in August 2010 to figure out if bacteria can clean it up by using it for food. And
let’s not forget the simple things that are
doing a lot in terms of waste production:
compost! It’s hard to believe that the 56
tons of trash we produced last year can be
reduced this year by sorting out recyclables
and compost from trash. Compost, “a mixture of decaying organic matter,” is used to
improve soil structure and provide nutrients and can be considered “black gold” in
that there is a high demand from landscapers, gardeners, and farmers for the nutrient-rich humus. It will be some time before
there is compost pickup once a week along
with trash and recyclables, but at IHS we
are fortunate to have an industrial composter right in Ithaca. While we didn’t exactly see the planet
get cleaned up in 2010, there were significant changes that are the stepping stones
to a greener, cleaner tomorrow. As I like
to say, it’s not about saving the world. The
world will continue on with or without us,
but it is up to us how long we’ll last if we
don’t all take part in conserving what we
have for the future. 2010 has ended, but our
Generation Green, and a new time of environmentalism, has only begun.
Learn more at
http://www.projectkaisei.org/index.html http://www.350.org/en
http://www.nanosolar.com/
January 19, 2011 Features
On Healthy Poverty
By SEAN AUYASH
I don’t know poverty. I’m a privileged,
upper-middle-class Caucasian male living in Ithaca, NY.
I can only liken my experience with
poverty to a metaphor: like viewing a
realist painting in a museum. I know its
form and function, but am ultimately distant from the process of its creation. I am
a spectator, not a participant.
I’ve peered out of car windows in Vietnam. I’ve ridden a bicycle through Laos,
looking through my Oakley sunglasses.
I’ve visited hospitals in Cambodia. In Nepal, I trekked through villages and spent
more time thinking about the blood on
my legs from leech bites than the villagers’ needs.
From these views, I got a glimpse of
poverty in the world that I never would
have gotten from looking out through
the lens of a white American male, whose
parents have the resources to travel for
their work.
be able to meet New York State requirements for standardized Regents examinations, nor would parents of the American
middle classes want their own children to
go to school in single-room schools infiltrated by dengue fever, malaria, or death
by diarrhea.
Inequality is a crucial link between
poverty and health. It is the X factor, the
smoking gun, the explanation that clarifies. In our Western culture, inequality
has gradually been repositioned as more
of a taboo than poverty. Sure, we can look
at the poor of the world in Vietnam, Laos,
Nepal or Cambodia, but looking at their
living conditions does not provide us
their experience with systems of inequality that continually impose horrific living
conditions. Structural problems of globalization, war, and economic flaws can
be captured on the screen of a Flip Video
camcorder anywhere.
It’s normal for an AP Language summer assignment to ask about poverty. It is
something we, as college seniors living in
GLOBAL LINGUIST
Words to Know in a Globalized World
Commonly Used Words of Russian Origin
By REHAN DADI
Agitprop
Political (originally Communist) propaganda, especially in art and literature.
Apparatchik
-A member of the Communist party (historical).
-An unquestioningly loyal subordinate, especially of a political leader
or organization.
Babushka
A headscarf folded diagonally and tied under the chin.
Balalaika
A triangle-shaped mandolin-like musical instrument with three
strings.
Gulag
A coercive institution, or an oppressive environment.
Mammoth
Any of various large, hairy, extinct elephants, especially the Woolly
Mammoth or simply something of great size.
Former Polish President Lech Kaczyński.
Poverty is not healthy. When people in
Laos get sick but can’t afford antibiotics,
they die. When impoverished people are
hungry but can’t buy food, they starve.
When the end result is inevitably death,
poverty becomes more than an interesting story to share in a high school newspaper.
Because natives of developing countries smile for the National Geographic
photographs and look happy on endless
Flickr sights of exotic vacations, viewers
can afford to ignore poverty. Why help
happy people, one might ask?
It should be noted that poverty and
stable mental health can coexist. It is true
that children in some of these countries
still play soccer, laugh at each other’s
jokes, and go to school, but that does
not negate their lack of access to universal rights like education, potable water
and medication. Their school would not
PHOTO/PROVIDED
tranquil Upstate New York, should wrap
our heads around. Yet, despite our good
intentions to engage deeply with a world
and with its people, inequality is rarely actually understood. How do you confront
the unimaginable horrors of genocide,
economic destabilization, environmental
devastation and exploitation in a classroom? Its absence in our consciousness is
a gaping hole.
To fully comprehend inequality, both
sides must be examined—the privileged
and the oppressed. To be just, this process
often requires that the author first confront his or her own position. Self-examination is a crucial beginning to confronting inequality.
Inequality is the motor of global capital, but it should not be. Separation of the
classes, the sexes, and the races only damages and limits us all. And that, of course,
is not healthy.
HELP WANTED
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cartoonists,
columnists,
email
Perestroika
The reform of the political and economic system of the former Soviet
Union, first proposed at the 26th Communist Party Congress in 1979,
and later actively promoted by Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985.
Politburo
The principal policy-making committee in the former Soviet Union
that was founded in 1917; also known as the Presidium from 1952 to
1966.
Pogrom
An organized, officially tolerated attack on any community or group.
Taiga
The swampy, coniferous forests of high northern latitudes.
Trokia
-A Russian vehicle, either a wheeled carriage or a sleigh drawn by three
horses abreast.
-A Russian group with three people, often one man and two women.
-A group of three people or things working together, especially in an
administrative or managerial capacity.
Czar (also Tsar, Tzar, Csar, and Zar)
-Title for the emperor of Russia from about 1547 to 1917.
-A person with great authority or power in a particular area.
photographers,
and most of all,
editor@ihstattler.com
for more information
writers.
Arts
&
The Johnson Column
Construction Atop the Hill
By INGRID SYDENSTRICKER
127 Hours: An Emotional Rollercoaster
By KHALID VREDE
PHOTO/PROVIDED
127 hours, the film adaptation of Aaron Ralston’s
bestselling autobiography “Between a Rock and a
Hard Place,” lives up to the expectations set forth
by the book. The movie begins with James Franco
starring as Ralston riding his bike though the vast
terrain of Robbers Roost, Utah. The cinematography
is outstanding and is only out staged by the brown
rocky scenery itself. From the very beginning of the
film Franco does a phenomenal job portraying the
adventure-seeking mountain climber Aaron Ralston.
Along the way he meets two female hikers and the
trio set out to explore the intricate canyons of Robbers Roost.
In the end he leaves them with a promise, though
the unlikelihood of him keeping that promise is evident when his hand is pinned to the wall of a narrow
canyon by a heavy boulder. During this time, which
is in fact most of the movie, Franco displays his superb acting abilities: screaming, laughing and crying
all the while drawing you into his insanity and will to
survive. This, coupled with the confined scenery, will
undoubtedly send chills down your spine and make
you feel as trapped and as hopeless and he is.
Despite the fact that the main character is trapped
for most of the movie it never ceases to entertain the
viewer. Video clips and a great soundtrack are strategically placed throughout the film to add excitement to what would otherwise have been slow parts
of the movie. The film also calls on Aaron Ralston
and his autobiography to accurately portray his experiences in Robbers Roost canyon. Throughout the
film Ralston becomes increasingly crazy and upset,
possessing only a video camera to entertain himself
and record his final goodbyes to family and friends.
As specified in Ralston’s book he even has a premonition that would turn out to be true in the years to
come.
The director Danny Boyle proved himself again in
the daring rendition of a true story. Instead of shying
away from making a film that consists mainly of one
character trapped in a confined space, the director of
the previously Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire jumped at the challenge. Boyle also showed his
talent for casting through his decision to cast James
Franco as Aaron Ralston in the film. Up until now
Franco has not received many leading roles, but he
has already been named best actor of the year by New
York film critics online. This
continued on p. 11
PHOTO/INGRID SYDENSTRICKER
After years of waiting for a bigger, grander space, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University is taking steps toward an addition of a new wing
and renovations within the original building.
The original designs from 1973 by I.M.Pei envisioned an extension from the
main building up unto the gorge near the site. Lack of funding hindered this extension to the gorge, though in 2008 the museum announced its pursuit of a new
addition and invited Pei, Cob, Freed & Partners back to design the new wing.
In June 2009, the museum had its official groundbreaking and since then, construction — led by Shawn Murphy of Murnane Construction with the new designs of Pei, Cobb, Freed & Partners — has not ceased.
The new wing, funded mainly by private donations and grants, including the
Kresge Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, will cost a total of
$22 million.
This $22 million goes a long way. The new space will contain three floors: two
below ground and one above ground, increasing the museum’s total space from
62,000 square feet to 78,000 square feet.
The first floor will be used as an alternate lobby, mainly for school visits and
larger groups. The first underground level will host a spacious lecture hall seating 150 people, a major improvement which allows the museum to expand upon
their already busy lecture schedule, which is currently hosted in gallery space in
the existing building. The same floor will be home to an art studio used for edu- A $22 million construction project is underway at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum
cational workshops as well as the educational offices. Two small galleries will also for the new wing. The garden will recreate the Chinese and Japanese story of the
be present for any art that walks through their doors. The second underground religious cohesion: the Three Laughers of the Tiger Ravine. The original plans
level will contain restrooms and a museum library open to the public, while the of renowned landscape artist Daniel Kiley will be incorporated into the project
rest will be closed off, containing curatorial offices, a large storage space, and me- beginning in Spring 2011.
chanical rooms.
But this is more than just another building, another room, another piece of
On the fifth floor of the existing building, curatorial space and storage area will concrete, another tree. This entire addition and renovation will bring a new life
be eliminated to allow for greater gallery space to exhibit the highly recognized to the museum and inspire greater things coming from atop the hill. The energy
Asian Collection at the museum. Overall, gallery space will allow for 2,000 more brewing inside the museum only grows each day and in Fall 2011, we can all cross
works from the permanent collection to be shown at any given time, a major our fingers and open our eyes to see all that it came to be.
increase for the current 8,000 works. The museum’s total permanent collection
consists of 33,000 pieces.
H.F.Johnson Museum of Art
A Japanese Garden, designed by Marc Keane, a Cornell University graduate
Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm
and lecturer and researcher at Kyoto University, will be created as a courtyard
Free Admission
11
A&
January 19, 2011
Big Day In 2010:
Ten Straight Hours of Music For Ithaca’s Underground
By KYLE ROTHMAN
Fans of creative, independent and underground
music spent nearly 10 hours at The Haunt on December 4th. As the third installment of Ithaca Underground’s Big Day In Festival, the event brought local
and touring acts together for one day of noisy insanity,
and all for the price of $5. Even after the show’s biggest
act (hardcore rock outfit Young Widows) canceled the
night before, the place was packed and energized all
afternoon.
The first bands to perform around noon consisted
of some popular local acts, returning after long hiatuses. Ailments from Olean and Ithaca were an interesting introduction to the festival, this being their first
show since their singer/guitarist returned from rehab.
Before they began to play he stated this was his first
sober show ever, and explained how strange it felt. The
band then attempted their known hardcore punk/hard
rock set, but were delayed several times due to broken
strings and bad wiring, which left both the audience
and the band fairly annoyed by the overall set.
Cattle Drums from Oneonta followed Ailments
lackluster set with high energy and hard driving
rhythm. This up-and-coming IU act has been gaining
a larger audience, and it’s not hard to see why. Breaking the line between loud and calm, the band creates
a sound that parallels its guitar sounds with its vocalist. While subtle riffs were bent, the singer would contort on stage, belting out his strong raspy voice. Cattle
Drums did a fantastic job of keeping the audience’s interest by creating a mold between calm indie sounds
and hardcore beats.
At the last Big Day In festival, Speak Daggers gave
their first ever and very memorable show to IU fans.
Needless to say, when they returned after a lengthy
break, they received a great deal of attention. Featuring
IHS students, Speak Daggers is an amazingly tight and
explosive punk band that is known for their projected
energy. As soon as they started, fans broke into chaotic
dancing and flailing, and screamed their way through
classics like “Maybe It’s Art” and “Gumption.” The
band released a new EP at the festival, and performed
its hot tracks including the vocal layering of “Get Up”
and the dominating “Outside Cat” that was once a Ballistic Sh*t Circus song. Speak Daggers blew up this Big
Day In even more than their first performance.
Following Speak Daggers’ popular set came a very
disappointing set from the New York City band Ghost
Robot Ninja Bear. Having seen some of the members
perform in the now defunct rock outfit Nakatomi
Plaza, I was intrigued to see what the band’s members
went on to do once they split up. Their performance
can be described as a cookie-cutter indie/pop-punk
band with nothing going for it. Ghost Robot Ninja
Bear is the indie band your sibling might have been
in before they broke up after their first practice. The
band’s performance did nothing to entertain the audience, and set a bit of a lull in the Haunt after such a
knockout performance from Speak Daggers.
Like Wolves took the stage to save the show from
boredom, and did so with their gritty and energetic,
yet very well-dressed, lead singer. Hailing from Rochester, this hardcore punk/thrash outfit blasted guitar
buzz and throat howls at the audience nonstop. For
music that sounded fairly basic to me at first, I couldn’t
believe how much power and energy they could bring
out. The singer’s feet were on the ground for less than
half the show as he jumped in the air, shrieking deep,
rolling around on the stage, leaping into the crowd,
and altogether losing himself in his blast-beat heavy,
metal punk madness. The audience loved the distorted
and confrontational performance, and showed their
appreciation through heavy moshing.
Replacing the headlining band who canceled, Oak
& Bone from Syracuse followed their friends Like
Wolves. While both bands played metal influenced
music, Like Wolves played from a hardcore punk per-
spective while Oak & Bone were strictly death metal.
As they performed, there seemed to be no attention to
detail in their music, and they seemed to put more focus in their stage presence, which was already lacking.
Simple riffs and beats followed by overly throat-sung
vocals seem pretty cliché in metal, yet this did not stop
Oak & Bone from sounding just like that. While some
metal-heads got into the music, the crowd shared my
reaction for the most part: uninterested.
Continuing in a string of strange transitions, following the metal-heavy Oak & Bone was the local folkpunk band Why The Wires. While not nearly as heavy
or fast paced as the bands preceding them, Why The
Wires did not disappoint. The dual power of the accordionist/saxophonist/percussionist detailed the band’s
extreme attention to detail. Never has a band with folk
influence made me want to dance and scream as much
as they did. The band played old favorites like “New
Pompeii” and the instrumental “Put A Paperclip On It,”
as well as a collection of new songs set to be released in
early 2011. Ithaca’s premiere punk-waltz troupe proved
themselves to be one of the highlights of the night.
Ithaca’s favorite, Beach Parade, was the last of the
local acts to perform, and was possibly the most anticipated. With every show this powerful indie-punk
band puts on, they get better and better, and the fans
can tell. What was once a go-nowhere indie band with
excessive stage banter has evolved into a catchy and
driving experience like no other. I am still amazed by
the rhythm that the drummer alone could posses, as
he hammered out beats I could never have imagined.
Fans went wild as they drove through heavy hitting
tracks like “Summer of Stamos,” “Gene Wilderer,” and
their infamous “Trav At It!” Using a unique blend of
passionate vocals, guitar noise galore, and perfected
drumming that could jump from subtle to extreme in
an instant, Beach Parade ruled that night for many.
Bridge and Tunnel from New York City played second to last and had a strong fan
continued on p. 11
Light in Winter Festival Preview
Jan 20-23
For schedule & tickets, check out
http://lightinwinter.com/festival-events/
By REHAN DADI
Over this winter break, I interviewed Dave Bock,
a former Ithaca High School teacher who is on the
board of Ithaca’s Light in Winter Festival.
What is the Light in Winter Festival?
Light in Winter (LIW) is meant to embody the intellectual spark as well as the creative incandescence
that the festival brings during the darkest days of
winter. When we started in 2004 (planning started in
1999) there was nothing happening in mid-January
at the State Theater or on campuses, so this weekend
of activity really shined.
What is the history of the event and the purpose of
its founding?
Founder and Artistic Director Barbara Mink was
Chair of the Tompkins County Board at the time, and
was interested in starting a festival that would build
Light in Winter Festival provides “creative incandescence...during the darkest days of winter.”
PHOTO/PROVIDED
on Ithaca’s university, colleges, and creative people as
natural resources, just like gorges and lakes, to create
What community groups are involved?
a form of “cultural tourism.” Putting artists and muThis year, we have a number of community groups Are there any events planned especially for teens?
sicians together with scientists to examine interest- involved in various ways. Here are just a few: VilSure — Star Trek Live! at the State Theater explores
ing ideas through different prisms turned out to be a lage at Ithaca, Cayuga Nature Center, Museum of the the marvels and perils of modern technology, with
unique approach to planning public events.
Earth, Hangar Theatre, Tompkins County Public Li- audience interaction and cutting-edge special effects.
brary, CSMA, Cayuga Vocal Ensemble, and more.
We’ve also scheduled two comedians, and the classic
How are the events and overall themes chosen?
film The Lost World accompanies a discussion about
There are no overriding themes, but inevitably
Does the festival bring in performances and events how we imagine dinosaurs. some common threads emerge. Mink collects ideas from places outside Ithaca?
during the year from newspapers, books and radio
I would say that more than half of our performAnything else you would like to add?
shows, and contacts people early. She also gets ideas ers this year are coming from outside Ithaca. For exI think the most intriguing aspect of LIW is the
from members of the LIW Board and people who at- ample, Lawrence Krauss, who will be presenting the way it explores and reveals connections between scitend the festival, so by February there are often many Physics of Star Trek, comes to us from Arizona.
ence and the arts. In school we see history, music,
more programs than can fit in a weekend. Then she
physics, literature, art, and so on as separate subjects.
and Executive Director Marie Sirakos begin the proHow is the affordability for students in high school? At LIW they blend in mind-expanding ways, at events
cess of shaping a festival that is varied, exciting, and
It has been part of our mission to offer affordable that connect science and poetry, biology and photogaffordable.
ticket prices. Most of our performances are $10, with raphy, history and music, sculpture and the senses,
several free events as well. Totally affordable!
science and architecture, and more.
12
A&
January 19, 2011
The Nutcracker: An Ithacan Tradition
“In the ballet world, there are two seasons- Nutcracker and everything else.”
By SIENA SCHICKEL
Every year, the Ithaca Ballet puts on the Nutcracker and
gets everyone in the Christmas spirit with amazing performances of music and dance by Ithacans of all ages.
In 2010, they performed on November 28 in the Smith
Opera House for the Performing Arts in Geneva, NY,
and December 10-12 at the State Theatre here in Ithaca.
With the help of the Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra,
who performed in Geneva and Friday night in Ithaca,
the Ithaca Ballet has graced the eyes and ears of an audience that often returns the next year for this Ithacan
tradition.
The Ithaca Ballet, founded in 1961, was originally
called the Ithaca Civic Ballet and performed at IHS’s
very own Kulp Auditorium. The first presentation of
the Nutcracker was in 1989, and probably not coincidentally, the Ithaca Ballet received a New York State Arts
Initiative Grant the following year. The show became so
popular in Ithaca that it was performed every weekend
from Thanksgiving to Christmas in 1998, and reached
BIG DAY IN
PHOTO/PROVIDED
record-breaking audiences in 2001.
Many Ithacans in middle school or high school can
say that they’ve been attending the Nutcracker since they
were very little. When asked what it was like to be a part
of this Ithacan tradition, First Year Senior Dancer Olivia Bryce ‘13 said, “My favorite thing about it is dancing
and performing on stage, with all the little kids sitting
up front.” When I went to the Friday night performance
at the State Theatre, I’d have to agree with that last part
— there were a lot of little kids dressed up and running
around, probably seeing the Nutcracker for the third or
fourth time. The Nutcracker is important to many dancers as well; in an Ithaca Ballet newsletter, it reads, “In
the ballet world there are two seasons – Nutcracker and
everything else.”
There were several guest artists who were here in
Ithaca for this winter season, including Lavinia Reid,
Johann Studier, and Trenton Loughlin, each very experienced in ballet and a teacher as well. Most of the other
dancers were from Cornell, Ithaca College, or IHS, with
a couple of exceptions, and experience ranged from a
continued from p.10
base present from the start to the end of the show. A mix of indie and punk with intricate guitar breakdowns, the
band had a definite presence that separated them from the other bands. Their use of subtle tempo change and
dual male and female vocals was extremely powerful. As entertaining as they were, they were missing a certain
edge that could have made them even greater. Their music was solid, but it seemed to be too overwhelming for its
own good. Certain songs layered parts to the point that it sounded too convoluted to be engaging. The audience
was in awe of the interesting band, and I admit that despite flaws, I enjoyed seeing them.
I only stayed briefly for Soul Control from Providence, but that time was enough for me to understand that I
was ready to leave. After 10 straight hours of music and dancing, there’s only so much one person can take. Yet
all in all, I can say that Big Day In was an incredible experience and definitely a success. Not only was it a great
indicator of live music set to launch this year, but it set the bar for the next Big Day In to be even bigger and better
than ever.
few years to a lifetime.
The Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra was directed
this year by Diego Garcia, who has been playing music
since he was five years old and attended Eastman School
of Music, a very prestigious university that has taught
Grammy winners and legacies like William Warfield (a
successful singer and actor in the 20th century). The orchestra usually does their own concerts in places such as
area colleges and high schools, wineries, and churches,
as well as the Smith Opera House, which was the location of the Geneva Nutcracker performance as mentioned before. They have been playing since 1971, and
have played with the Ithaca Ballet often.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Nutcracker, the
plot is fairly basic. A girl named Clara is at a Christmas
party with family, and her godfather, Dr. Drosselmeyer,
gives her the Nutcracker, a toy soldier. Her brother Fritz,
“accidentally” rips the toy’s head off, but Dr. Drosselmeyer fixes the toy, and the children go to bed. While sleeping, Clara dreams that the Nutcracker comes to life and
fights the evil mouse king and his soldiers, then watches
the performances of the Snow Queen, the Spanish Hot
Chocolate performers, the Arabian Coffee performers,
the Chinese Tea performers, the Russian Candy Cane
performers, the Danish Marzipan Shepherdess performers, Mother Gigogne, and other mythical Christmas characters, all narrated with music and dance (and
amazing costumes).
It’s mind-blowing what can be expressed without
words. I’m still puzzled how I could understand what
was going on throughout the show just by watching the
body language of the performers and listening to the
music. Ballet was originally used for representing fencing with dance, but later evolved under French and Russian influence. When ballet reached Russia, many new
“ballet masters” (creators of the dance and music in a
show) emerged, including Tchaikovsky, the creator of
The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.
This all goes to show how the Nutcracker is Ithaca’s
own great tradition, and we are lucky to have the Ithaca
Ballet and the Nutcracker.
HOURS
continued from p.9
may finally be the year Franco snags an Oscar.
Admittedly I had low expectations of the film
at first but was pleasantly surprised by the level of
excitement and intellectual challenge the movie
presented. Excellent directing, cinematography,
acting and most of all story line all help to send
you on an emotional roller coaster ride along with
the main character. I encourage any picky movie
goers with strong stomachs to get out and enjoy
one of the best movies of 2010, but I’ll warn you
in advance that it is not for the faint of heart.
Mouth to Mouth to Mouth
By SIENA SCHICKEL
In the hustle of art-related happenings, the
Ithaca Underground (IU) scene is growing
and changing rapidly, and in this frenzy, the
organization has been moving venues. Hosting shows at the Community School of Music and Art, The Haunt, The Shop, and very
recently, the Greenstar Annex (located in the
old Class Act Kitchen warehouse), new locations are introducing new acts for an underground audience.
Recently, a new band has emerged, making their first appearance with IU along with
the bands Beach Parade, Longitude, Cattle
Drums, Sirs, and Johnny Lucas. Mouth to
Mouth to Mouth’s first show was also the
tour kick-off for Beach Parade and Longitude. Mouth to Mouth to Mouth has band
members from other bands that often play
for the scene, such as the noise-heavy Genital
Holograms, the hardcore pop-noise Ballistic
Sh*t Circus, and the hard-metal Makeshift.
“Mouth to Mouth to Mouth plays the
genre Mathpunk,” band member Gabe Millman ‘11 said in an email. “[It’s] a unique
combination of the odd time signatures and
rhythms of math music and the drive of
punk music.” For those who don’t know musical terms, this means that if you tap your
foot to the music, eventually you won’t even
be close to tapping to the right rhythm. As a
musician, I can attest to the fact that weird
time signatures are for only the more daring
musicians. I can also say that for a band just
starting to perform, they are off to an awesome start.
The band has four members: Peter Pillardy ‘11 on guitar, Corey Mahaney ‘11 on
guitar and vocals, Bubba Crumine on bass
and vocals, and Gabe Millman ‘11 on drums
and percussion. “About a year and a half ago,
Corey, Peter, and [I] first discussed starting
another band together because initially [we]
were all in Makeshift together,” Millman
wrote. Bubba Crumine joined later, and the
band began to jam.
Mouth to Mouth to Mouth has had two
concerts so far, one coming up in February, and hopefully more after that. For those
who attend IU shows, I assure you that future shows will be seeing this band often. For
those who don’t, I recommend being openeared and listening to them play. Millman
wrote, “We hope to play a show every month
or two but you never know!”
Corey Mahaney ‘11 uses innovative guitar technique to
produce mathrock sounds with Mouth to Mouth to Mouth
PHOTO/PROVIDED
My Take
By Geoff Preston
By GEOFF PRESTON
Time for the BCS to Go
I hate math. Always have, always will. I couldn’t care
less about the area of a triangle or the quadratic formula. You’re better off writing Chinese on the blackboard; I’d probably understand that better. Maybe that
was why I gravitated toward sports: as far as I could
tell, not a whole lot of math was involved. Other than
your basic calculator arithmetic, the results on the
field were not dependent on the value of X. What I
saw was what I got, and it was better that way. But then
I learned about what went into deciding the college
football national championship and my head nearly
exploded. It was like calculus from Hell.
Ok, maybe “calculus from Hell” is a little strong, but
the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) goes against all
that I stand for as a sports fan, and I think it is high
time that we have a 16-team playoff with automatic
births going to the 11 conference champions and the
remaining five at-large bids going to the next highest
finishers in the A.P. poll. I was raised to believe that
you can’t play the games on paper.
Try telling that to the BCS. The whole system is
predicated on how, figuratively, the undefeated TCU
(Texas Christian University) Horned Frogs wouldn’t
beat Auburn or Oregon if the teams played. The word
“figuratively” should never be used in conjunction
with deciding a national champion. The presidents
of these prestigious universities (the only people who
actually still want the BCS) will spout off three myths
in their defense of the BCS. Don’t be fooled. The college presidents know their system is beyond flawed,
and don’t really believe the BCS is a fair system. So
why continue to be the only group of people foolish
enough to support it? As with everything these days,
the BCS is a money machine. Even though the college
presidents don’t believe in the BCS, I thought it would
still make sense to make sense of the ridiculous myths
about their favorite, cash-producing son.
BCS Myth #1: With this system, the regular season
actually matters:
Not a bad point; every Saturday in college football
has turned into an elimination weekend. One loss can
spell doom for a program. The problem is the third
word in the last sentence: can. Some years you can go
undefeated (TCU) and not play in the title game, but
the 2007 National Champion (LSU — Louisiana State
University) had two losses. You just don’t know what
every game means in the grand scheme of things. With
the 16-team playoff, I would argue the regular season
becomes even more important because the most direct path to the playoffs is by winning your conference.
Nearly 70 percent of the teams in the playoffs will be
conference champions, so winning your conference
becomes even more important. The regular season
Boys’ Varsity Swimming
By SIENA SCHICKEL
Among the many sports available for boys in
the winter, boys’ swimming has become more
popular over recent years. The team has grown
from 19 boys (in the 2008-09 season) to almost
30 boys this year (including Junior Varsity).
Their coach, Mike Armitage, has only been
around for two years, but effects of his leadership and instruction can already be seen. “We’ve
got a massive core group that is the IHS Varsity
Swim Team, and
more and more
people are joining and honoring
their commitment through
future years on
this team,” Team
Captain
John
Nord said in an
email.
After years of
little mention, it
looks as though
the boys’ swim
team will even
win
Sectional
Finals this year,
as they were un- Kevin Nicholson ‘11 takes a dive.
defeated last year as well as this year after their
third meet with Vestal. “After a win in our dual
meet vs. Vestal (105-80) this year, I feel we do
have a run at being repeat Section 4 Champions,” Nord wrote, which is quite a leap from
where they stood two years ago with fewer than
ten swimmers attending Sectional Finals.
It looks as though the challenges this year
will be defeating each team with more gusto
than last year, and bringing together a team
already in the process of uniting. With more
young people joining the team than in middle
school, uniting the team takes more effort.
On New Year’s Day, the team went out to Cayuga Lake in the morning for a dip in the lake.
It’s a tradition for many Ithacans, but most of
the crowd were members of the team. Later that
day, there was a dish-to-pass at a local church,
and the boys
exchanged gifts
and
bonded
over
several
hours of eating, chatting,
and laughing
over some of
the sillier gifts,
like a sack of
potatoes,
a
shake-weight,
and even a gerbil. Overall, I
think it’s safe to
say that there
was some team
bonding going
PHOTO/PROVIDED
on.
The worst potential scenario for the team this
year would be losing to Maine-Endwell, a team
just as strong as Ithaca, but the boys have blown
away everything in their path so far. It is only a
matter of time before they begin to count the
years (or even decades) rather than the meets
won.
would also be shortened. Because we would have four
playoff rounds, the regular season would have to be
reduced to ten games. This means teams like Ohio
State and Florida would have fewer games to use as
warm-ups against Akron or Florida A&M. We would
see more meaningful, and dramatic games. How can
any fan not want that?
BCS Myth #2: We have to protect the history of the
Bowl Games:
The Rose Bowl has been a New Year’s Day tradition
since 1902. That is the kind of history college football
should not mess with. That being said, are you seriously telling me we need to protect the honor and prestige
of the Mieneke Car Care Bowl? Are you kidding me?
Half of these bowl games have zero historical significance. Would you miss the ESPN ads for the Udrove
Humanitarian Bowl? Of course not! As for the five or
six bowls games that do have historical importance,
why not just have one of the playoff games at the bowl
site, and say the winner is the champion of that bowl?
We call the NCAA “National Semifinals”; “The Final
Four” has a trademark and an advertising campaign
and the whole nine yards. Why not just call it the
“National Semifinal?” Because it doesn’t sound cool
enough. Or, instead of the “Elite Eight,” why not just
say “The Regional Finals?” Again, you would have a
hard time making a Coke commercial using “The Re-
Why High School
Sports Matter
By PAUL WESTIN
What is the world of professional sports coming to? With
vain and pompous players (see Lebron James, Chad Ochocinco, Manny Ramirez, etc.) and a scandal every other week (Brett
Favre, Gilbert Arenas, Tiger Woods, etc.), many fans, including
yours truly, are getting fed up with the new climate of professional sports.
Some would argue that college sports provide a safe haven
from the loads of money and overly annoying punks that fill
professional leagues today. Although that may have been true
ten years ago, college games may be worse than the professional
versions in many cases. Coaches violate NCAA rules left and
right, players are offering their services in exchange for money,
and players leave after one or two years to pursue more shenanigans. So where can we go for a stimulating sports experience
that doesn’t contain a plethora of showmanship and scandal? I
say turn to the high schools.
Now, I realize that most high schools cannot have the level
of athleticism and game mastery displayed by both college and
pro-level games. But there are things that make high school
sports better than any other kind of sport. First of all, there are
many more of the good players: people who don’t take out a
sharpie and sign the ball after a touchdown or ditch the hometown team. While there might be a few jerks, the percentage is
much lower. Next, players and fans have known each other for
a very long time, and there is nothing quite like cheering on
your good friend in the game of their life. There are no massive stadiums with tens of thousands of people, which gives us
a better view and more intimate feeling. And when a player or
team succeeds at the highest level, it is something that they, and
you as the fan, will remember forever.
So go out and cheer for your school teams, whether it be
basketball, tennis, field hockey or any other, because you never
know if something unforgettable will happen.
14
January 19, 2011
Distaste for the Bowl Championship Series is common among football fans
BCS
gional Finals” as your bench mark. It’s simple: play the
first round games at the home stadium of the higher
seeded team, then play the remaining eight games at
the eight most famous Bowl sites. What those Bowl
sites would be is subject for debate, but if I were running college football, I would put a playoff game in
each of the following: Dallas (Cotton Bowl), San Diego
(Holiday Bowl), El Paso (Sun Bowl), Jacksonville (Gator Bowl), Tempe (Fiesta Bowl), New Orleans (Sugar
Bowl), Miami (Orange Bowl), and the national title in
the Rose Bowl. Hopefully the day will come when we
can have this debate.
BCS Myth #3: The playoffs would conflict with final exams.
Let’s put this to bed right away: the NCAA and the
collegiate presidents don’t care about the academic
success of these student athletes. If the NCAA cared
about their performance in the classroom, the college
basketball season would not start until after the New
Year to accommodate students taking final exams. The
college lacrosse season would not go past Graduation
Day, and countless academic infractions would not
be ignored. The BCS is completely unaffiliated with
PHOTOS/PROVIDED
the NCAA and theoretically not attached to the “student” in the term “student athlete.” To the presidents
of these universities, the football players are nothing
more than cash-making cattle to be recycled in three
or four years. Most of these players have the workload
of a high school freshman and still have private tutors
do half of it for them. The presidents of these universities have thousands of merit scholars as well as future doctors and lawyers. The football players are only
there to make the university money, and contribute as
alumni when they make it in the NFL. Whether or not
the players pass their Intro to Ballroom Dance final is
irrelevant to the university presidents. Not to mention
the fact that these games would take place on Saturday,
unlike college basketball, which actually has games the
nights of some of these final exams. This excuse is a
joke.
But you and I both know that these excuses are
poorly supported with supposed facts. The BCS officials know it too, but they hide behind these poor excuses to cover up their one true reason for stubbornly
supporting a system that no one wants: money. The almighty dollar has struck again and it remains the only
reason the BCS is still used as the governing body in
write
continued from p.13
deciding the national champion. The four BCS bowls,
in addition to the National Championship, offer multimillion dollar payouts that university presidents will
gladly take. The advertising dollars associated with
naming rights, as well as marketing campaigns, make
those suit-wearing-figureheads-in-BCS-offices salivate. College football is the one sport in which the
majority of fans hate the way a champion is crowned,
yet continue to come out in almost incomprehensible droves to support their favorite team. Teams in
the South have football stadiums that can fit twice as
many people in them as there are people in the respective town.
The product of college football remains one of
the most in demand in any economy throughout the
world. So why in the world does the BCS try to ruin
a religion in parts of the country with a system that
has the back of about two percent of the collegiate fan
base? Oh, and just one final point to satisfy the dollarhungry BCS executives: how much money does the
NCAA make through its basketball tournament every
March? Imagine that amount ten-fold, considering the
popularity of football trumps that of basketball in this
country. Chew on that, suit-wearing figureheads.
for The Tattler
email editor@ihstattler.com
Girls’ Basketball
By GEOFF PRESTON
Last year the IHS girls’ basketball
team capped off a successful season
at 13-4. Under the guidance of Coach
Gil Sandvik, the Little Red advanced
to the semifinals of the Section IV
tournament. The team lost a core
group of seniors who were instrumental to the success of the group,
but a new class of seniors spearheaded by Captains Miriam Bernstein ‘11
and Katie Peterson ‘11 hope to continue the success of the Little Red.
“We have great chemistry this
year,” says Suzie Hirasuna ‘11, “We
all get along very well.” Despite the
team’s 2-5 record, the Little Red feels
confident they can turn their season
around. “We are still aiming for sectionals,” new Head Coach Fay Young
Miller told 1160 ESPN Radio in a
January interview. According to Hirasuna, that goal is not unattainable:
“We play very well in the latter parts
of the game,” she said, which can
lead one to believe that if the Little
Red improves their early game performance, anything is possible when
sectionals roll around in early February.
The Little Red is next at home
against Elmira Southside on Tuesday, January 18. Tip-off is scheduled
for 6:00 PM for the JV game with the
varsity team following directly after.
After Elmira Southside, the Little Red
embarks on an essential four-game
stretch to end the regular season
where they face division rivals Vestal, Union-Endicott, Maine-Endwell
— and end the regular season on Friday, February 4 in Binghamton. Senior Night for Ithaca is on Wednesday, February 2 so go out and support
a group of seniors who have done
great things to enhance the Ithaca
girls’ basketball reputation.
PENULTIMATE
Quiz: Are You A Nerd?
By ANNELISE RAYMOND and NAOMI RAYMOND
1) How do you spend your time between classes?
a. talking to your friends while walking to class
b. you’re anxious about getting to class on time and
always hurry there
c. chilling with the security guards
d. going to your locker to switch binders
e. you don’t go to class
2) What do you while waiting at the doctor’s office?
a. read a book you brought
b. play with your Rubik’s cube
c. freak out about the shot you might get
d. people-watch
e. nothing
3) What do you normally discuss with your friends?
a. school
b. the turbulence on Venus vs. Saturn
c. the ISS teacher
d. somebody’s new Facebook status
e. you have no friends
4) What do you keep in your pockets?
a. cell phone
b. calculator
c. love note from a kid in your Photography class
d. gum wrappers and a brownie you bought at the Tattler bake sale
e. who knows what’s in there?
5) When your Geometry teacher suggests you have a
“proof party” with your friends, how do you react?
a. give them a weird look
b. immediately make plans for Friday night
c. raise your hand and ask if they were being sarcastic
d. force a laugh. It was supposed to be funny, right?
e. you never heard them mention it
6) How do you wear your clothes?
a. you leave your shirt untucked over your jeans
b. respectably, with your shirt tucked in and your
pants pulled up to your belly button
c. your XXXXL shirt covers the fact that your pants go
up to your knees
d. low-cut jeans and a short, tight shirt to show off
your thin stomach
e. you don’t even notice what you put on in the mornings
7) What do you do when you’re done with your
homework?
a. practice your instrument
b. go play Starcraft and COD (Call of Duty)
c. you didn’t do your homework
d. text your friends while following people on Facebook
e. nothing
8) What are your grade expectations for yourself?
a. to try your hardest
b. anything below an A- is terrible
c. pass high school
d. please your parents
e. nothing
9) What kind of slang terms do you use with your
FACT or FALLACY?
By KELSEY SHANG
On the chopping block: “Carrots help improve
one’s eyesight.”
From our fond memories of childhood, we reminisce of old battles
fought during dinner.
We pushed aside our
vegetables with disdain while our mothers attempted to fork
them back into our
mouths. For whatever
reason, they always
justified by telling us
that “it’s good for you.”
Heck, we were kids;
we’d believe anything.
Parents today still tell
their kids that an overweight, white-bearded,
jolly Caucasian watches their every move. Of
course it’s good to eat
your veggies. However,
it is important to assess
whether such statements are based upon
medical evidence or
merely a fishwife’s tale.
Carrots
contain
both Vitamin A and
β-carotene (an orange
pigment). Vitamin A
is a nutrient essential
in proper metabolic
retinal function and
the development of the
epithelial tissue. Such a vitamin is absolutely necessary in low-light vision and color vision. A deficiency in Vitamin A can lead to a worsened vision
and night vision. However, with a balanced intake
of carrots or other sources of Vitamin A, normal
vision can be restored and maintained.
Although Vitamin A should be consumed for
good vision, the body can only efficiently use a
limited amount. Thus,
gorging on carrots will
leave the body with an
excess of nutrients. It
will help maintain a
proper eyesight but not
improve it.
Be warned: overconsumption of carrots
can lead to undesired
effects. The pigment,
β-carotene, is what
gives the carrot that
orange glow. This benign condition is called
carotenemia or hypercarotenemia. In which
people has carotenemia
been most commonly
found? — vegetarians
and young children.
Unless you plan on being a carrot or a member of Jersey Shore for
Halloween, you would
not want your skin to
turn orange as well.
The next time the
dragon lady points a
carrot at you and exclaims “carrots help
improve
eyesight,”
PHOTO/PROVIDED
shove these facts into
her face. Figuratively. Don’t actually shove anything, please.
The Verdict: FALLACY.
friends?
a. chill, dude
b. IWD and QNS (for ‘inventor working drawing’ and
‘question notification system’)
c. fo-shizzle
d. ttyl
e. nothing
10) What do you read in your leisure time?
a. Harry Potter
b. your textbooks
c. Dr. Seuss
d. a romance novel
e. nothing
How many b’s did you get?
1-You aren’t typically nerdy, but you share a similar
characteristic
2-You’re approaching nerd zone...
3 -You are now officially a nerd! Nice job!
4-You’re that person who’s always correcting people
who overcorrect their grammar.
5-Who would you say is cooler, Luigi or Mario?
6-2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
7-Congratulations! You are the winner of the Distinguished Nerd Award for 2010!
8-You know, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are nerds too.
9-And now, I’m gonna shoot laser beams! ‘Cause the
“Force” is that incredible! (Incredible!) Ooh, you just got
served an echo!
10-You are 100% nerdy. Like how your Mac’s systems
specs are probably a lot lower than gaming PCs because
of the RAM and CPU and Video Card; not to mention
the compatibility of Macs to popular computer games.
Swimming Time
By KEVIN HILGARTNER
Be still, my heart! I leap with joy
And chuckle like a hen!
The day is here: in gym class
It is swimming time again!
What joy have we to strip us down
Into our swimming trunks.
“This is so gay:” The constant cry
Of big disgruntled lunks.
We stand a-waiting, wrapped in towels
Just shivering with the joy.
Behold the teeth-clenched eager face
Of every girl and boy.
At last the door is opened! O!
Breathe deep that chlorine scent!
The teacher took attendance and
Then in the pool we went.
(When my grade was in freshman year
This boon was all our own.
But last year—joy of joys—we were
Back in the water thrown.
And sad when we at last were done,
Some happy news we had:
We’d swim in gym the next two years!
And every heart was glad.)
So after half an hour or so
Out of the pool we climb
Back to the chilly locker room!
O wondrous, swimming time!
Reminded of our happy swim
By day-long moistened hair
Still wet, we leave the locker room
To chill hibernal air.
backpage
Horriblescopes
By VALERIE VOODOO
Aries (March 21 to April 19): Actions speak louder than words, especially when you clap.
Taurus (April 20 to May 20): If violets are red and roses are blue, I have
some advice for you: Get your vision
checked.
Gemini (May 21 to June 20): Beat
around this bush; those berries are
poisonous.
Cancer (June 21 to July 22): Beauty
is in the eye of the Miley Cyrus bong.
Ask Aaliyah
Leo (July 23 to August 22): Don’t
bite off more than you can chew. It all
has to come out sometime.
Virgo (August 23 to September
22): The breadwinner never brings
cheese home.
Libra (September 23 to October
23): It’s a small-cat-scares-big-dog
world.
Scorpio (October 24 to November
22): Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth
and mudkip for mudkip.
Sagittarius (November 23 to De-
Dear Aaliyah,
My parents are out to get me. They took away my cell phone
because “I talked to my friends too much.” This is completely
unfair. It’s not like I send 6,000 texts per month; my average
is only around 3,000. Aaliyah, how can I get my phone back?
What can I do to convince my parents that they are being
OUTRAGEOUS?
-Miss. My Cell Phone
Miss My Cell Phone,
Parents can be a real bummer. Sometimes, you just have to
remind them how much of a hormonal beast you really are.
Once they see how selfish they’re being, you will get your cell
phone back in no time. Here are some tips to help you:
1. Refuse to Communicate
Outright refuse to talk to your parental units. The only
form of communication in which you can truly express yourself is texting. Being expected to live without your phone is
cember 21): The stars have given you
a fat chance with skinny luck. Enjoy.
Capricorn (December 22 to January 19): The stars hate your guts, your
stomach, and your small intestine.
Aquarius (January 20 to February
19): Home is where the heart is, and
your heart is only inside your body.
Yeah, you’re going to be alone for the
rest of your life.
Pisces (February 20 to March 20):
If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of
the kitchen. If you can’t stand the cold,
stay out of Ithaca.
ridiculous. No one will be able understand you now.
2. Wreck Their Social Lives and Reputation
Plan on crashing all of your parent’s parties and outings.
Hand out flyers describing the heart-wrenching pain from
their actions. After all, they are responsible for your social
development. You will never get a job nor sanity (and nor will
they) after this traumatic event.
3. Violence IS the Answer
Little children get what they want with violence, so throw a
tantrum. Draw sad emoticons on the wall with Sharpie. Imitate the ring tone of your phone day and night. Be sure to take
revenge and drop their cell phones down the toilet. Rinse and
repeat until your parents have gotten the message loud and
clear.
Once your parents realize they can’t win against their superior offspring, you will get your cell phone back.
-Aaliyah
Random midweek days off
Fonetik Spellyng
French Bulldogs
Sticky Paws
Violet Beauregard
Band names
Jean Baudrillard
The Insert
Mickey Mouse was banned in Romania in 1935 because they thought he
would scare young children.
The government thought that a 10foot mouse (on the movie screen) would
be too much for Romanian children to
handle. They must have reversed their
decision since Mickey still appears on
the Romanian Disney Channel. In the
government’s defense, the old Mickey
Mouse cartoons could sometimes get
pretty creepy.
According to Einstein’s theory of
relativity, you age slightly faster standing on a staircase than you would on
the floor below.
By the same token, a clock that is
speeding away from an observer will
appear to tick slower! In a nutshell,
when an object experiences a stronger
gravitational pull, time is also slowed
down to a small extent.
In the 1950s, the United States
planned to drop a nuclear bomb on the
moon.
At the time, the U.S. was lagging
behind the Soviet Union in the space
race... Exploding a nuclear weapon on
the moon was a way to one-up the Soviet Union. They planned on nuking
the moon as a PR stunt, and they wanted to make sure the explosion could be
seen from Earth!
This was part of a top-secret Air
Force project, “Project A119,” which
was called “A Study of Lunar Research
Flights.” Details of the 1958 plan were
made public in 2000 by Dr. Leonard
Reiffel, the physicist who ran the project. He had worked on the project with
famous astronomer Carl Sagan.
The explosion likely would have ruined the face of the “man on the moon.”
Thankfully, years later they decided to
send Neil Armstrong to the moon, not
a nuclear bomb.
Halal Pepperoni
Grapefruit Juice
Senioritis
Courtesy of OMGFacts.com
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