The Campanile Wednesday, February 20, 2008http://voice.paly.netVol. XC, No. 6

Since 1918

Palo Alto Senior High School

Find out who won Paly’s mock election.

News...........................A1-A3Opinion.................A4-A5, A8Spotlight.....................A6-A7Sports.......................A9-A12Lifestyles...........................B1,

Features.......................B2-B6A&E...........................B7-B12

NEWS

OPINION

JSA MOCK ELECTION RESULTS ARE IN

PAGE A2

PAGE B3

Paly weight room maintains unsanitary conditions, which may breed diseases.

WEIGHT ROOM HEALTH HAZARD

PAGE A8

Paly student to compete in sprint events at Olympic Trials in Florida.

SWIMMER SPRINTS TOWARDS OLYMPICS

PAGE A12

Cyberbullying becomes prevalent as students post abusive comments.

TOO YOUNG TO VOTE?

FACE YOUR FEARS: FACEBOOK BULLYING

FEATURES

PAGE B2

Largest reggae festival in America will be held in San Francisco.

REGGAE RETURNS TO THE CITY

PAGE B7

A&E

SPORTS

INDEX

LIFESTYLES

Paly students share their thoughts and experiences through vlogging.

WELCOME TO THE VLOGOSPHERE

PAGE B1

Palo Alto High School50 Embarcadero Rd.Palo Alto, CA 94301

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Palo Alto, Calif.

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By NolaN WoNg

Staff Writer

The Palo Alto Unified School District may experience some cuts in state-funded programs due to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pro-posal made in January to make across-the-board budget cuts for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

California’s $14.5 billion state budget shortfall this year will account for the statewide budget cuts.

Schwarzenegger’s proposal would reduce state funding by ten percent in all sectors of the California government and suspend Proposition 98, which guarantees a certain percentage of state funding for education.

PAUSD will face a $890,000 general state funding reduction under Schwarzenegger’s proposal. However, the state funding reduction may not have an extremely harsh impact on the district, PAUSD Interim Chief Business Official Cathy Mak said.

“PAUSD receives most of its income from property tax revenues, not the state,” Mak said. “So this cut will not be a dramatic impact to Palo Alto [schools].”

The district receives 12 percent of its funding from the state, compared to 67 percent from property taxes. The proposed state reduc-tion would account for only 0.6 percent of the PAUSD total annual budget of approximately $145 million. State-funded programs will ex-perience the largest impacts from the proposed budget cuts to PAUSD.

According to Mak, Paly would lose about $15,000 in cuts, a seven percent reduction from the 2007-08 state funding of about $211,000. Programs that will receive reductions include the School and Library Improvement Grant, the Instructional Materials Fund Block Grant,

By auster CheN

Staff Writer

Palo Alto High School’s bell schedule might be revised to one of four proposed schedules (see chart above), which would in-clude later starting times and potentially have four block days per week, Director of Student Activities Allye Mullins said.

By aNNa WaldroN

Staff Writer

Living Skills 2, also known as Myth, Media, Popular Culture and Social Change, is a new class that students will be able to take next fall for a semester of elective credit. The class will further investigate the concepts presented in Living Skills 1, currently the only Living Skills course.

In addition to personal identity development, students will study the influence of the media and how people can take little steps to invoke changes in society.

Letitia Burton, one of the Liv-ing Skills teachers, came up with the idea for the extended version of Living Skills because she felt that the current curriculum does not have enough time to cover all the topics she feels that are necessary for the course.

“I always feel like I run out of time because there is so much that needs to be taught,” Burton said. “There are many topics that I would like to teach, but don’t have the time to and I would like to go into greater depth.”

Staff considers new schedules

Living Skills 2 to be offered next fall

Allie Bollella/The Campanile

A Living Skills 1 class, taught by Letitia Burton, discusses societal issues. Paly will include a Living Skills 2 class next fall, which will expand upon concepts covered in Living Skills 1.

See BURTON, Page A3

Governor may decrease funding for state schools

Myth, Media, Popular Culture and Social Change, also called “Living Skills AP” by some stu-dents despite the fact that they will not receive Advanced Placement credit, will cover exactly what its name describes. Students will delve deeper into the meaning of

identity and learn how individu-als define themselves, a topic that is covered in less depth in the required Living Skills class. The new concepts that are not currently taught in Living Skills, but which will be major themes in the new class, are the importance of human

mythology in shaping society and people’s lives and how people can create change in their community by making small adjustments to the way they go about living their life.

“The new proposed schedules are all aim-ing at a later start time of 8:15 every single day, which would give students more room in the mornings,” Mullins said. “Of the proposed schedules, number three and number four, which propose block schedules, can also give students more time to focus on fewer classes as opposed to many.”

Paly teachers received the proposed schedules along with pros and cons of each one. All schedules begin at 8:15 a.m. The first proposal is similar to Paly’s current schedule,

but starts earlier and ends later. The second proposal adds a seventh period 90-minute block on Wednesdays.

The third option proposes a four-day block schedule common at many schools; Friday would be the only non-block day and seventh period the only non-blocked period. School would still end at 3:05 p.m. on Wednesday, but end earlier on Monday, Tuesday, Thurs-day and Friday at 2:55 p.m., 2:50 p.m., 2:35

See SCHEDULE, Page A3

Michela Fossati-Bellani/The Campanile

Stacy Levichev/The Campanile

Morgan Pichinson/The Campanile

Foothill College to use Cubberley Center facilitiesBy Julia shapiro

Senior Staff Writer

The Palo Alto City Council held a meeting on Jan. 22 to discuss the possibility of selling or leasing part of the Cubberley Community Center to the Foothill-De Anza Community College District.

More than 3,200 Foothill-De Anza students currently take classes at Cubberley, which the district has rented for more than 20 years.

However, the Foothill-De Anza District is hoping to buy up to 100,000 square feet of the eight acres owned by the city in order to build a permanent educational center for its Middlefield students.

The additional space would help accom-modate the predicted enrollment growth over the next 50 years, while providing students with modern educational equipment and facilities.

“Having a modern educational center on the Mid-peninsula, with space designed to support high-demand, high-skill career, certificate and degree programs, would benefit future Foothill College students,” coordinator of Communica-tions and Public Affairs for the Foothill-De Anza District Becky Bartindale said.

A new center at Cubberley could also of-fer Gunn and Paly students more educational opportunities.

“It would provide more options for stu-dents who want to get a jumpstart on college or explore possible career opportunities by at-tending Foothill classes while in high school,” Bartindale said. “It also could inspire greater collaboration between the college and the school district.”

If the Palo Alto City Council decides to support the plan, most of the old Cubberley buildings owned by the city would be rebuilt to avoid renovation costs, and a new education center with classrooms, dance and exercise

See CENTER, Page A3

Administration proposes four bell schedules that would change Paly’s start and end times, block days

See BUDGET, Page A3

Later School Start Time: 8:15Pros:

Less sleep deprivation•Better school performance•

Cons:Athletes miss more class time•Less time for after school •extracurricular activities

Paly students volunteer forObama and Clinton during thepresidential race.

OptiOn #1 OptiOn #2 OptiOn #3 OptiOn #4

Start time

Julia Benton/The Campanile Julia Benton/The Campanile

8:152:35-3:20

2 block days

8:152:25-3:20

2 block days 7th blocked

end timeS

BlOck dayS

8:152:35-3:05

4 block days

8:151:45-3:30

4 block days 7th blocked

Empty Spaces:A look at underenrolledclasses at Paly A6-7

See which schedule proposal The Campanile supports, Page A4

News The Campanile

• March 1: School Dance At a Sadie Hawkins-style dance, students are encouraged to dress to the theme “Perfect Match.”• March 11-12: Exit ExamsHigh school exit exams will be administered to sophomores and upperclassmen who have not previously passed.• March 20: End of QuarterThird quarter grades are sent home and Spring Break begins.

A2 • February 20, 2008

Student Council prepares for “Per-fect Match” Sadie Hawkins, Prom

Accreditation program used to self- evaluate Paly’s curriculum, purpose

NEWSBRIEFS

This year, Palo Alto High School began a year and a half long process of self-evaluation and outside affirmation with the West-ern Association of Schools and Colleges (WARC). This process ensures that Paly’s credits are transferable to both college and to any other high school, should any student need to move.

The process begins with a year-long period of self-evaluation that each school must undergo in order to become accredited. They evaluate the areas of curriculum and instruction, vision and purpose, leadership and staff, governance, support services and accountability.

“The accreditation process is a great way to look at where you are, where you have come from and where you hope to end up as a school,” Paly Principal Jacqueline McEvoy said.

Some of the goals that Paly has made over the years regard closing the achievement gap between groups of students and relieving student stress. Paly plans to evaluate in the forthcoming months how well it has met these goals.

“During this time of self-evaluation, we are able to step back from the day-to-day and look at the long term goals of our efforts,” McEvoy said.

In the spring, a board of professionals from WARC will determine whether or not the school’s self-evaluation holds true to the reality.

“These reports are useful because they validate what you think should be worked on,” McEvoy said.

The highest accreditation that a school can get is six years, although all course credits are validated if the school is accred-ited at all.

“I have served on these accreditation boards many times and I am somewhat of an expert in accrediting new schools,” McEvoy said. “I have also visited and reviewed private and religious schools.”

—Chris GallagherStaff Writer

By NaNor BalBaNiaN

Staff Writer

Under new librarian Rachel Keller-man’s leadership, the Palo Alto High School library has recently added new resources, a comfortable reading area and an expanded magazine room for students.

Kellerman, who took over after former librarian Veronica Breur retired, purchased eight new online databases in-cluding ProQuest Platinum, JSTOR, Ox-ford English Dictionary and eRefrence. The databases can help students find periodicals, newspapers, journals and reference books for research projects.

“My job is to help students deal with the assignment rather than spend so much time doing the research,” Kellerman said. “With the databases, students now have a 24-hour library available to them.”

According to Kellerman, who used the library’s state money to purchase JSTOR, databases are necessary for high school libraries because they help students prepare for college-level academics.

“Over the summer I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with the library,” she said. “When I saw that other high schools and colleges use online data-bases, I thought we would need them too.”

The library Web site also provides a useful tool for many students and teachers, offering research links for each department and passwords to pre-paid databases.

Recently, Economics classes used the library’s new Web site to find links and resources for their “Local Expert Poster” project. The project requires students to research third-world coun-tries, find an area of need and create or endorse a program to improve their economy.

Senior Susan Haynes, who was looking for information about Haiti, was surprised to find useful links and databases on the library Web site.

“I thought the library Web site was very helpful for my economics project,” Haynes said. “I never knew that our library provided these helpful online resources.”

After the improvement of the online library, Kellerman raised money to cre-ate a reading area in the north wing of the library.

The reading area has eight couches, four magazine stands and a new fiction collection area.

“The reading area brings people together to relax and read,” Kellerman said. “We don’t really have a good student center, so the library provides a good reading environment.”

To make more room in the library, Kellerman decided to get rid of hundreds of old magazines that are already avail-able online.

The magazine room was then turned into a silent study room with new chairs and tables, providing a comfortable study area for students.

The room also contains a rich histori-cal collection of Paly’s periodicals and publications, including Paly yearbooks that date back to 1905.

“Mrs. Kellerman has done a lot of work for the library, especially with how she organized all of the magazines in the magazine room,” senior Emily Brody said.

Recently, Kellerman began the Part-nership with Kepler’s program at Paly. Through the liaison with Kepler’s Book Store, ten percent of purchased books by Paly students goes to the school’s general fund. In addition, the partnership allows Kepler’s to notify the Paly library about author visits in Palo Alto.

During the past two months, two prominent authors visited Paly through the partnership program with Kepler’s. Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and Jay Asher, author of Thirteen Reasons Why, visited Paly students to present their books and talk about their experiences.

“I am a big believer in authors coming to school,” Kellerman said. “There is nothing better that the con-nection between the writer, student and community.”

With Kellerman’s successful fund raising efforts, the school library received free book donations and extra money to buy new books.

Through several parent book do-nations, the library has created a new “Free Book” section where students can either borrow or own the free books.

Kellerman, however, still believes that the library lacks financial resources to improve book collections.

“I would like to buy new books and double the amount that we have now,” Kellereman said. “I will do my best to fund raise more to get donations and book money.”

Challenges face Kellerman everyday as she tries to improve the condition of the library. One of the big problems that Kellerman deals with is the lack of space in the library building, which was last renovated in 1970.

The Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education is currently review-ing a bond that includes renovations to the library.

“We need more space in the library,” Kellerman said. “I go to every board meeting to get the bond passed.”

Kellerman hopes that the renovations and the financial donations to the library will allow her to further improve the on-line databases, provide new resources for the and add new books to the library.

“Our kids deserve the very best,” Kellerman said. “I’m going to do every-thing to get that for them.”

New librarian brings new resources

Julia Benton/The Campanile

Students read and socialize in the library’s new magazine and reading room. Paly’s new librarian Rachel Kellerman made a special Web site for the Paly library and also purchased the online database JSTOR.

Palo Alto High School’s Student Council is focusing its at-tention on the upcoming Sadie Hawkins Dance and Prom.

The Sadie Hawkins Dance, or “Sadies,” is scheduled for Mar. 1 from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. in the Paly gym. The theme is “Perfect Match” and couples are encouraged to match outfits. The dance, for which the girls ask the boys to be their dates, is a tradition at many other high schools.

This year’s Prom will be held on Apr. 5 at San Francisco’s City Hall.

“A group of eight Student Council members went up to San Francisco with a decorator and we planned stuff out,” Associated Student Body president Mohammed Abid said.

The theme will be “I Left my Heart in San Francisco.”“We haven’t determined ticket prices yet, but ASB is trying

to keep them as low as possible,” Witte said. “We’re students too, and we also have to pay to attend.”

One of the major additions by ASB this year is the imple-mentation of an online store which lets students purchase dance tickets.

“We’re working on the Web store,” Abid said. “When it’s done, students will be able to purchase AP exam tickets, Prom and other dance tickets, Paly apparel and many other cool things.”

—DJ HsuehStaff Writer

By yvoNNe liN

Staff Writer

Palo Alto High School’s Junior States of America Club hosted a mock presidential primary election on the quad on Feb. 5 to provide students with an opportunity to participate in the political process.

“We want to give everyone a chance to participate, even though they might not necessarily be able to vote,” JSA President Rajan Narang said.

The final results of the mock primary at Paly indicated strong support for Senator Barack Obama, who garnered votes from 75 percent of students who voted Democrat.

Meanwhile, Senator John McCain won with a 41.7 percent vote among young Republican supporters.

Democrat Hillary Clinton received only 25 per-cent of student Democrat votes, which was a devia-tion from the actual results of California’s primary in which Clinton had 42 percent and defeated Obama by a margin of ten percent.

Republican Ron Paul was a popular candidate for students as he obtained 27.2 percent of Republican votes and had a significant lead before lunch.

“Students are attracted to Paul predominantly because they are attracted to his stance on limited government and his belief that the federal govern-ment is not completely competent,” junior George Kadifa said.

The date of Paly’s mock primary coincided with 2008’s “Super Tuesday,” on which 24 states hosted primary elections or caucuses to select delegates to the Republican and Democrat national conventions, where each party’s presidential candidates are of-ficially selected.

“As parents, teachers and students who are 18 or above go to vote, the rest of the Paly student body can express their opinions as well,” JSA Chief of Staff Jonathan Shan said.

The voting booths were set up by JSA members on the quad at brunch and lunch. The mock election drew much attention and attracted about 350 students to vote.

Students who came to vote generally had positive feedback about the mock elections on campus.

“I like the whole idea of voting — this is such a great opportunity, especially when you are underage,” said sophomore David Loftus, who voted for McCain. “I am also curious to find out what the result will be; I want to know who Paly students voted for.”

Most students voted based on candidates’ stance on issues.

“Obama and Clinton have very similar policies,” said senior Brian Hsueh, who voted for Obama. “How-ever I think that Obama’s universal health care plan is more feasible.”

Sophomore Jamie Blake also voted for the can-didate who best aligns with his political beliefs after careful evaluations on each candidates’ position on issues.

“I believe that the role of the government is not to tell people what they can and cannot do, but to rather protect our rights as human beings,” Blake said. “Since this is basically the stance of libertarianism, I support the libertarian candidate, Ron Paul.”

Other factors, such as candidates’ personal charac-teristics, played a large part in students’ decisions.

Junior Emma Rappaport said she believes Obama is the more electable candidate in the Democratic Party.

“It’s about the candidate,” said Rappaport. “Obama is sort of a different leader. Obama’s speeches are very inspiring.”

Rappaport’s mother is a strong supporter of Obama and has volunteered to orga-nize for Obama’s campaign in the Silicon Valley.

However, Rappaport feels that her parents’ political preferences would not have influenced her decision to vote for Obama.

“My mom and I did not know who to vote for at first,”

Rappaport said. “So we researched the issues and both agreed that Obama was the better candidate.”

With a low voter turnout rate that permeates the United States’ presidential election record, Narang hopes to raise political awareness among students by hosting the mock election.

“People don’t really see how it [elections] can af-fect their daily lives,” Narang said. “It is too abstract for them.”

History teacher Adam Yonkers, the club advisor for JSA, applauds the club members’ effort for organizing the mock election.

“Every election, I’ve witnessed pundits always say that the youth vote is going to be the key to every election cycle,” said Yonkers. “This year I think they are finally right.”

Obama wins JSA mock election in landslide

By Chris GallaGher

Staff Writer

The $35 million renovation project at the California Avenue train station and other sites will provide an improved boarding platform, a new passenger underpass and dual boarding. However, due to Caltrain traffic, construction is possible only during the night, resulting in complaints from various local residents.

“It’s nice that they’re trying to make the sta-tion more accessible,” nearby resident Diana Lee said. “But the construction is very noisy.

The construction will result in a new un-derpass, allowing passengers to board safely from both sides of the newly reconstructed train tracks.

“Caltrain understands the peace within homes and we don’t wish to infringe upon any-one,” Caltrain Public Information Officer Jonah Weinberg said.

Although the noise is not produced every night, the controversial construction will not be

finished for another year, which could mean many more sleepless nights for the nearby residents.

“When the police told me it would go un-til 7 a.m., we went to a friend’s house for the weekend,” said Lee. “The noise kept me up two nights in a row.”

In addition to a new underpass, the construc-tion will permit two trains to stop at the station, allowing more riders to board.

“We are trying to do the construction over the weekends so that residents don’t have to go to work the next day and also to work in com-pressed periods of time so that it is less invasive,” Weinberg said.

However, many are unsure as to whether the remodeling is even worth the money and trouble that it is causing. California Avenue sta-tion receives very few customers compared to the station at University Street.

“It isn’t just a boarding issue,” said Weinberg. “By allowing two trains to board at the same time, neither train will have to slow down or stop for the other.”

Administration sets dates for out-side student shadowing program

Kellerman introduces new library-specific Web page, open space reading room

Cal Ave. undergoes $35 million station renovation

“We want to give everyone a chance to participate, even though they might not be able to vote.”

Rajan NarangJSA Club President

Although shadowing at Palo Alto High School has been dis-couraged this year after a council meeting of all the Instructional Supervisors cited safety issues and non-equal opportunities for student visitors, shadowing will be allowed on Feb. 26, Mar. 4 and Mar. 11.

“There are potential risks, such as medical issues, when we have visitors on our campus who we do not have any background information or emergency contact info,” Assistant Principal Kimberly Diorio said. “Most importantly, the amount of time spent coordinating the shadowing days is time spent away from serving our current students.”

Shadowing is when a visitor, usually a student, visits a school and follows around another student to all of his or her classes for a day. This year the number of days of shadowing will be reduced from six days to three days.

Despite some beliefs that shadowing distracts students from necessary learning, others think that introducing visiting students to Paly can be beneficial.

On campus, various other programs will exist to help students and visitors get used to the overall atmosphere, the geography of the campus and the different courses offered here.

“During the spring, Paly will offer various conferences, meetings and presentations for students who would like to know Paly better,” Diorio said.

—Auster Chen

Staff Writer

Stacy Levichev/The Campanile

The new underpass, along with other new installments, is being built to allow passengers to more easily board.

News February 20, 2008 • A3 The Campanile

studios, art rooms, offices and public spaces would be recon-structed. The new center would also eliminate maintenance problems caused by the old buildings.

The Foothill-De Anza Dis-trict plans on paying for the buildings with the money it received from Measure C, a $490.8 million bond measure that Foothill-De Anza voters ap-proved in June 2006. However, the money cannot be used to build an education center unless the district owns or has a long-term lease on the land.

Some question whether the city should lease or sell the Cubberley property. According

Model Citizen Club hosts spring runway

Morgan Pichinson/The Campanile

Cubberley may be sold or leased to the Foothill-De Anza District upon city Palo Alto City councilmen decision.

Elizabeth Petit/The Campanile

Junior Yuko Kanai and senior Margaret Powell meet with club president junior Arianna Governatori to plan and design the runway to take place in May in order to fundraise for and donate PlayPumps to indigent villages in Africa.

New club to raise money for water PlayPumps in indigent villages

Cubberley may cater to more Foothill students

State reduces funding for district budget BUDGET, Continued from A1

“As a teacher I want to do something different and cover more of what interests me,” Burton said. “In the class, we’ll talk about mythology in terms of cultural stories, how people live their lives and in what ways the myths of our society show up and inform our lives. As for the social change aspect, we’ll talk about the little things people can do to change the opinions or prejudices of others.”

The class will be more creativity-based than the current Living Skills class and students will learn through writing and projects, Burton said.

“I think it will be more fun since it’s more focused on creativity,” Burton said. “I would like to have students do an indepen-dent research project for them to learn about a topic that really interests them.”

Most schools do not even offer the equivalent of Living Skills 1 and few have the extended version of the course. Henry M. Gunn High School, for example, only recently made Living Skills 1 a required class. At Gunn, before the creation of a designated class that teaches drug and sex education, mental health, diet, CPR and first aid, these topics were covered in physical education and science.

“I believe Gunn created Living Skills because they felt their students weren’t get-ting enough of the information that is taught in Living Skills since it was divided across other classes,” Burton said.

In order to take Living Skills 2, students must first pass Living Skills. Burton said that having Living Skills as a prerequisite to take the class will make more students interested in and better prepared to take it.

“I think the students who enjoyed Liv-ing Skills will want to take the new class to further their learning,” Burton said.

to Palo Alto City Councilwoman Yoriko Kishimoto, most city council members seem sup-portive of working with the Foothill-De Anza District but are hesitant to sell the city’s land. Kishimoto supports a new education center; however, she prefers leasing Foothill.

“It will be critical to keep Cubberley open and available for the many community uses it hosts today,” Kishimoto said. “But, Foothill-De Anza offers many great services to Palo Alto residents, too.”

The city council still has not come to a final agreement, and will hold a meeting in the future in order to decide its of-ficial action.

By Amy Stringer

Features Editor

The Model Citizen Club at Palo Alto High School plans to host a student fashion show in May to help fundraise for the construction of a PlayPump in Africa.

The fashion show will feature student-designed clothing fitted for student models and will most likely be held on the Paly Quad. Club President Arianna Governatori is still in the process of recruiting designers, models, and confirming the date, time and location for the show with the Paly administration.

The Model Citizen Club formed during the fall of this year as a means of raising money for charity through unconventional approaches.

“Over the summer I decided that it would be really cool to start a club that would raise money for charity but that didn’t involve bor-ing events like car washes and garage sales,” Governatori said.

Thus far, the club has designed shirts, which are currently on sale for anyone in-terested in buying them. While the club is hosting a fashion show as one of its events, it is not solely devoted to fashion, but instead was founded in order to fundraise for charity through “interesting and innovative” means, Governatori said.

The money from the fashion show will be used to purchase a PlayPump, a play structure often placed in small developing villages that do not have readily accessible clean water.

According to the Web site www.playpump.org, more than one billion people throughout the world do not have readily available clean

CENTER, Continued from A1

water and are more vulnerable to diseases related to drinking unsanitary water, the lead-ing cause of death today. Unsanitary water is responsible for about 6,000 deaths a day, and is also accountable for 80 percent of the world’s diseases.

Additionally, approximately 40 billion hours a year are lost to hauling water, which is a task predominantly carried out by women and children. Doubling as a water pump and a merry-go-round for children, the PlayPumps are installed most often near schools.

While children spin on the PlayPump, clean water is pumped from an underground reservoir into a large tank built above the ground, and a tap allows people to draw water easily and efficiently. The way the pump is designed makes it effective and easy to use, with minimum costs and maintenance.

According to the Web site, the PlayPump “can provide easy access to clean drink-ing water, bring joy to children and lead to improvements in health, education, gender equality and economic development.”

The water pump is also one of the only methods of reaching rural communities who do not have clean water available, which can potentially save the lives of thousands, said the Web site.

Through the fashion show, Governatori hopes to feature her and other students’ cloth-ing designs, and anticipates a wide variety of different styles of clothing.

“I’m pretty sure they will be different depending on who the designer is,” Gover-natori said. “But I think it’s safe to say that it won’t be stereotypical clothing found at a department store.”

Gifted and Talented Education, the Perkins Vocational Grant and the Pupil Retention Grant.The PAUSD Board of Education has not yet discussed specifically where to cut the district budget to offset the state budget cuts.

“Every time we’ve had to make cuts before, we have tried to keep them away from classrooms,” school board member Melissa Baten Caswell said. “We’ll try to do this again.”

Community fundraisers such as Partners in Educa-tion and the PTA may or may not be able to raise enough donations to offset the proposed cuts. Other higher Cali-fornia educational institutions, such as the University of California school system, which relies heavily on state funding will be hit more severely.

While Schwarzenegger will increase funding under a compact made with the UC system earlier this year, the proposal will then reduce the fund by $332 million, leaving the UC system with a net reduction of $109 million. The UC system would receive $417 million dollars less than the UC Board of Regents’ proposed budget for 2008-09.

The Board of Regents will continue to discuss op-tions in future meetings, but some options may include no enrollment growth, a student fee increase of at least ten percent and elimination of proposed salary increases, among many other alternatives.

Meanwhile, the Education Coalition and the California School Boards Association have spoken out against the governor’s proposal. The Education Coalition is com-prised of nine major statewide education organizations, such as the California Teachers Association and the PTA. The California School Boards Association has developed

“Schools: An investment we can’t afford to cut,” which is a statewide campaign opposing the proposed cuts.

“To sacrifice the gains we’ve made in student achieve-ment and turn back the clock on education funding would be a terrible mistake,” California State PTA President Pam Brady said.

PAUSD is also joining the fight against the budget cut proposal.

“We’re going to push back on the governor about the proposal to suspend Proposition 98,” Caswell said. “It’s very troubling to have a proposition that funds education that has been suspended twice in less than five years.”

PAUSD board president Dana Tom and vice-president Barbara Mitchell also recently drafted a letter to the state legislature protesting the cuts and asking legislators not to suspend Proposition 98. Suspension of the proposition could lead to deep statewide layoffs of teachers.

In the meantime, state legislators discuss and negotiate the budget proposal until Feb. 24, when the legislation must respond to the proposal and the governor may revise the proposed budget. Then, the California State Legislature will continue to negotiate until the legislators pass the budget, which would normally occur during the summertime.

Because of the potential for changes in the budget, the governor may alleviate some of the education budget cuts. However, education cuts remain almost certain to occur. For this reason, school boards will have to prepare accordingly.

“We don’t know what the final budget picture will be, but we know that the economy is not good, so we’re bound to have reductions somewhere,” Mak said. “We really don’t know yet; it’s too early to tell.”

BURTON, Continued from A1

Allie Bollela/The Campanile

Living Skills 2 will focus on features of adult life from Living Skills and will demonstrate a creative, fun and independent approach.

ASB considers different schedule

SCHEDULE, Continued from A1

Schedule might be changed for upcoming year

p.m. and 2:50 p.m. respectively. The fourth schedule also uses a four-block schedule, but seventh period is blocked.

Students would be dismissed early on Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. and on Thursday at 1:45 p.m., while school would end at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“Many students have concerns about their homework load, and schedules three and four can help them lessen the load,” Mullins said. “Many teachers also prefer their periods be longer so that they can spend more time with students at a time.”

Another issue that led to the proposition of the possible schedules was the high stress-level that students experience.

Eighty-two percent of the stu-dents prefer that school start later, according to Susan Shultz, the Guid-ance Counselor.

“These schedules were proposed after stress-related issues were cited from the stressed-out survey Paly stu-dents took last year,” Mullins said.

Certain students seem to concur with Burton.

“I took Living Skills last semester and I really enjoyed it,” Madeline Saal said. “I thought the curriculum was really interest-ing and we learned a good amount about everything we covered. I think another version of Living Skills is a great idea and I know a lot of people would be interested in taking it.”

Junior Hannah Miller said that the new class is a great addition to the cur-riculum, especially for students who liked the required class.

“I think it’s good that Ms. Burton created another class for people wanting to go the next step,” Miller said. “The course sounds like you’ll learn a lot about yourself and society. I think it’s cool that it has a lot of aspects that are similar to sociology.”

However, this second installment of Living Skills will have to compete for students’ choice among the other elective courses.

Junior Haley Dwight said she thinks that there will be difficulty in finding people who want to take Living Skills 2.

“I wouldn’t be interested in taking the class,” Dwight said. “I took Living Skills because it was required. There are so many great options to chose from for elective credit that Living Skills 2 would not be one of my choices.”

Mythology, Popular Culture and Social Change may debut next fall if there are enough people enrolled in the class. Burton said she is excited to teach the new class and hopes there will be enough demand for it to get off the ground.

“All the heads of the departments thought the class was a good idea,” Burton said. “I hope enough students sign up be-cause the topics we’ll cover are so interesting and they’ll learn valuable knowledge.”

The late school start, which pushes back the start time 25 min-utes, received positive feedback from students.

“I like this idea of starting school later because it gives you more time to sleep in the mornings and more sleep is better,” junior Justin Hsi said.

However, others said the late start would only cause them to stay up later to do homework.

“Starting school later wouldn’t really make a difference, because we’d still have the same amount of work to do, so people would probably just end up staying up later and getting the same amount of sleep,” junior Sasha Targ said.

The later start and end times would not affect athletes too much, an area of concern for both students and teachers.

“School ends only slightly later, which will not affect athletes too much, though they should consider having seventh prep if the fourth schedule is chosen,” Mullins said.

When the new schedules were proposed, they were first presented to individuals within the Athletic and

Transportations Departments. Both of the departments and athletes had some positive feedback with regard to the various versions of proposed schedules.

“Starting school earlier would give me more time to rest in the morn-ings, and it probably won’t affect me that much since it could only end 20 minutes or so later,” said senior Felipe Winsberg, who plays Varsity soccer.

There are many meetings in February in Paly that will implement one of these schedules.

The staff met to discuss propos-als on Feb. 7, and students met on Feb. 14. Both students and staff plan to meet on Feb. 21 to continue their discussions.

The SOS plans to collaborate on Feb. 25 after school and the Educa-tion Counsel will meet on Feb. 26, when the Instructional Supervisors of each department can debate the proposals.

According to Mullins, the final vote will be done by either the staff alone or by the staff and student com-munity, with results coming out in March or April.

Second Living Skills class may be implemented

EditorialsThe Opinion of The Campanile

During every winter season, as heavy rains pass through the San Francisco Bay Area and over the Palo Alto High School campus, students are forced to deal with the ever-present flooding all across the school grounds.

The staff of The Campanile strongly believes that the current drainage system and flood control plan that our school employs are not acceptable for an active campus.

After about a few hours of mod-est rain, students are forced to walk through large puddles spread out across campus.

Since these puddles pervade Paly’s campus and are present on nearly every major walkway, it is virtually impossible for students walking from one class to another to avoid them.

Walking in these ankle-high wa-ters soaks students’ shoes and pants, causing discomfort in class.

Students hopping around, try-ing to avoid landing in a puddle and crowded lines trying to cross from one overhang to another without getting one’s feet soaked, disturbs student traffic to and from classes.

The Campanile recognizes that Paly does try to quell the situation by placing wooden pallets in strate-

Recently, the Palo Alto Unified School District issued four potential new schedules that may be imple-mented at Palo Alto High School for the 2008-2009 school year.

All of the new schedules feature a later start time of 8:15 a.m., rather than the current 7:50 a.m., and an alternating combination of blocked and unblocked schedules.

The staff of The Campanile would like to commend the administration for the creation and consideration of these new schedules, all of which al-low students to sleep for an extra 25 minutes in the morning.

Given the rampant stress and sleep deprivation that are currently a reality at Paly, anything that can be done to give students more time to sleep is a step in the right direction for the health and well-being of all of Paly’s students. Additionally, The Campanile would like to recommend the third schedule option as being the most conducive to student needs.

The third suggestion, which fea-tures a later start, four blocked periods per week (instead of the current two) but keeps the currently unblocked seventh period, has a number of dis-tinct advantages that make it the most beneficial for students.

The first and most important advantage of this schedule is the change from two block periods to four blocks.

gic positions around flooded areas for students to walk on, but believes that those pallets are not a long term solution.

Not only are these pallets easily broken, but despite the valiant efforts of Paly’s custodial staff, it still takes hours to put pallets on every student crossing that needs one.

Each pallet needs to be tediously carted out a couple at a time and slowly and carefully set down on the ground.

Aside from the pallets, there are few, if any, policies that the adminis-tration is implementing to alleviate this flooding problem.

There are both short term and long term solutions that can easily solve the problem.

The Campanile believes that money allocated to campus beauti-fication should be spent to clean out drains, which are currently inefficient and overflow constantly.

The drains fill up extremely quickly after a storm, which dramati-cally increases the number of puddles and the amount of flooding found on campus.

By doing this, the school can cut down on the amount of standing water found throughout the school on a rainy day.

However, this solution will only decrease the amount of flooding, not prevent it.

Therefore, Paly must have long-term solutions in order to curb exces-sive flooding.

The most effective solution would be to restructure the walkways on campus so that water does not collect in specific areas.

If the middle of walkways were the highest point so that water flowed down to the sides of the road (like with city streets) and the numerous depres-sions in the walkway, where water can gather, were smoothed out, the number of puddles on campus would dramatically decrease.

Funding for such construction could possibly come from the Palo Alto Unified School District Capital Improvement Bond, a bond proposed by PAUSD to renovate Palo Alto school campuses.

Repaving and resurfacing the campus grounds are a worthwhile investment for the school, as it would help prevent flooding throughout the school.

Paly students and faculty would benefit from a better flood and drainage system, which would help decrease student traffic flow and make the campus more accessible.

A 90-minute block period is much more useful for teachers when plan-ning lessons because it allows teachers more flexibility, allowing them to do different and more activities with their students in one class period.

Some activities that are impos-sible to accomplish in two 50-minute periods become feasible when given an hour and a half.

Additionally, the four blocks takes pressure off of students by allow-ing them to concentrate on homework for only four classes a night, rather than seven.

The extra two block days al-lows students to be more rested (and therefore less stressed) and gives teachers more flexibility in their les-son plans.

The Campanile believes that having four days of block periods and one day of unblocked periods would be very beneficial, both for teachers and students.

However, one period that should remain unblocked is seventh, for a number of reasons.

The primary reason is because of athletics and students who must miss the last hour of some days in order to compete.

Many two- and three-sport ath-letes try to get seventh period preps in order to avoid creating academic conflicts with sports games and prac-tices.

By keeping seventh unblocked, Paly student athletes can continue to plan their schedules around this one period, minimizing conflicts between their sports and their academic stud-ies.

In addition, many of the journal-ism programs at Paly, including The Campanile and Verde, depend on the consistency of having seventh period every day to plan their production cycles.

Making a blocked seventh period and having it alternate every other day would make it much more difficult for publications to collect and return drafts on a reasonable schedule.

The blocked seventh period also creates wild inconsistencies in the student’s schedule — something that ideally should be avoided.

For these reasons, The Campanile advises that the PAUSD keep the seventh period unblocked, as it is in the current schedule.

All of the four schedules currently being debated by the PAUSD have benefits and drawbacks, but all are a significant improvement that will help reduce stress among Paly students and give teachers more options in planning and executing their lessons.

The Campanile would like to strongly encourage the PAUSD to support the third option, as it has the most benefits for Paly students and teachers with the least drawbacks.

Paly should adoptfour-block schedule

Paly flood control inadequate

In creating a new schedule, PAUSD should implement schedule giving 8:15 start, four block-schedule days

Although school attempts to curb flooding, more could be done to reduce water levels

The Campanile

Letters to the editors

Editors in ChiefTyler Blake • Danielle Kim • Peter Lee

Ryan Pfleiderer • Mia Pond • Tomer Schwartz

News EditorRebecca Allen

Lifestyles EditorKairen Wong

Opinion EditorChris Clayton

Photo ManagerHannah McGovern

Features EditorsHenry BeckerAmy Stringer

A & E EditorsSara ReihaniAustin Smith

Sports EditorsAlexi DaganSam Jones

Staff Writers

PhotographersJulia Benton • Allie Bollella

Michela Fossati-Bellani • Stacy Levichev • Elizabeth Petit

Business ManagersGeng Wang Debbie Zhang

Advertising ManagerErik Krasner-Karpen

AdviserEsther Wojcicki

Spotlight EditorSarah Stringer

Graphics EditorErik Krasner-Karpen

Nanor BalabanianCatherine BensonYelly BittonBecky BylerHannah BystritskyAlan ChenAuster ChenAlan ChuAllison ColemanZal Dordi

Rye DruzinChristian GallagherAlex GreeneChris GonnermanGabrielle HadleyMichael HamadaZach HarrisKevin HarveyDJ HsuehMikaela Kenrick

Laura KurtzYvonne LinJillian LiuJosh LoRyan McLeodMira ParekhJonathan ShanJulia ShapiroKelley ShinPauline Slakey

Annie VoughtAnna WaldronCrystal WangCassie WedemeyerAllison WhitsonEliot WilsonNolan WongLindsay YangGloria YuKelly Zhou

Corrections

Significant corrections will be noted in the upcoming edition. Please send any corrections requests to theeds08@googlegroups.com.

Letters to the Editors

E-mail all letters to editors to theeds08@googlegroups.com. The Campanile welcomes and prints

letters to the editors on a space-available basis.

The Campanile reserves the right to edit submissions for length. Please note that The Campanile only publishes signed letters.

AdvertisementsAds with The Campanile are

printed with signed contracts.

For more information, contact Campanile Business Managers by e-mail at campanile.ads@gmail.com.

Printing

The Campanile is printed every three weeks by Fricke-Parks Press in Union City, Calif.

OpinionA4 February 20, 2008

The Campanile

I want to thank The Campanile for presenting a balanced story on the vandalism in the library over the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. Every teacher and staff member at Paly wants to spend education dollars on students and until every student feels the same way I fear we will continue to spend precious education funds on security and other things that do not directly contribute to our mission to educate students. I personally would like to remember this senior class for building up our community not tearing it down, so I’d like to ask every Paly senior a favor. Next time you hear about someone wants to vandalize Paly think about your younger sib-lings and the neighborhood kids who live on your block and ask them what is so fun about taking educational opportunities away from little kids?

–– Rachel Kellerman, Paly Librarian

Vandalism story givesbalanced perspective

All letters were written in response to Danielle Kim’s article, published Jan. 28, “Student vandals plague Paly.”

The Campanile did, in fact, think through the “negative” impacts of placing the vandalism story on the front page. It is the role of a newspaper to clarify the facts of a situation and provide information about incidents that impact the readers and that is exactly what the article did.

The article in no way condones the acts of the vandals. As the reporter, I tried to write a balanced article that included more than just a description of the vandalism. The article clearly states the consequences the vandals would face if caught as well as the ways in which the vandalism negatively impacted the school as a whole. The article quoted Principal Dr. Jacqueline McEvoy, Dean of Students Jerry Berkson, Librarian Rachel Kellerman as well as two Paly students. There is no reason to suggest that The Campanile condoned the acts in any way. In fact, the article made it clear that the vandalism hurt the whole student body. Our source was a credible student who obtained the photos from someone who knew the vandals. Our purpose was to set the record straight for our readers. The descrip-tion of the vandalism was based on those photos, only one of which was printed.

The question we asked ourselves is if we were a community newspaper and there were an act of van-dalism in the city, would we fail to publish a picture obtained from a credible source if the reporter did not know the identity of the photographer? I am sure the newspaper would publish the photo so their readers would be informed.

–– Danielle Kim, Editor in Chief

Your publication has a long sad history of overreli-ance on anonymous sources. This one claims he wasn’t part of the crime. If that’s true, he wasn’t in there, so he’s an anonymous source of hearsay, (unless you confirmed his account with someone who was there but left that confirmation out of your reporting). If it’s not hearsay, then he was there, he’s lying to you and you’ve used a felon as the source for reporting on his own crime. The fact that editors either missed those issues or decided to run the story anyway is part of the problem and then, combined with the use of the photo, I think you open yourselves up to these impressions. If you had reported on the facts as available from reliable named sources and used photos other than those provided through a suspect, I think you’d be on much more solid ground ethically, not having given the perpetrators any potential satisfaction or publicity and not having missed any aspects of the story that your readers need to know.

I’m sure you’re right that the situation was not so black and white while you were dealing with it in your discussions. However, the final outcome is actually pretty “black and white” –– I’m simply dealing with your text. If you confirmed the source in some way but didn’t report

Make sure the sourcesare reliable, accurate

it, then I can’t be expected to know that as your reader. If you didn’t confirm your source, then you’re in a bind: he says he “did not commit the felony,” which, logically, seems to mean he wasn’t there. Would any journalism school or textbook say that you should report what you hear from an unconfirmed source who wasn’t directly involved in an event? Of course, it’s possible that he was involved and lied to you. Did you take any steps to confirm that he wasn’t involved?

I think the Campanile would be a much better paper overall if there weren’t so many anonymous sources. This was the one that tipped the balance for me as a reader, to the point I felt I needed to speak up. Thanks for listening.

–– David Cohen, Paly English teacher

Editor’s response

PRO CON

February 20, 2008 • A5The Campanile Opinion

Haymarket renovation raises disputeNew theater would provide space, but money could be spent elsewhere

Learning ittwice

Gabrielle HadleyAs I sat in the park looking at

the various people who passed me, I thought about what a diverse com-munity Palo Alto is. Living in the Bay Area has allowed me to realize the many different perspectives that one gains from being part of such a diverse community.

Palo Alto, the city at the center of this ever-changing area, boasts not only several different ethnici-ties, but also a countless number of languages.

Personally, I only speak one lan-guage fluently, though I used to never feel hindered by this fact. This was until I realized just how many people around me spoke other languages.

Everyday I hear a variety of lan-guages such as Spanish and Chinese spoken around me. According to the 2000 Census Bureau for the state of California, 39.5 percent of Americans speak another language other than English. In California alone, over 12.5 million citizens are bilingual.

There are many opportunities for nearly everyone to learn a second language and relatively very few rea-sons not to. After taking Japanese for three years at Paly, I decided to drop the class because I didn’t have enough time to focus on it.

At the time I didn’t feel par-ticularly affected by this change, but I recently realized that a second language is not only beneficial for our generation, but rather necessary to be a part in today’s world, if one ever plans to live outside of the United States of America.

Even if one does decide to spend their entire life in the United States, future generations need to learn an-other language. According to the 2000 Census Bureau, 31.1 million U.S. residents are foreign-born.

The majority of these individuals are from Latin America and Asia. This minority population has increased by more than half between 1990 and 2000 according to the 2000 Census Bureau. Though California may boast of more languages than many other states, it is clear that all of the United States is moving toward a multilingual society.

Today’s generation is constantly told how beneficial it is to know two or more languages in order to be successful in today’s global society. It is common to find other language offerings in a middle school and even more rare to not find these classes in high schools.

In particular, immersion pro-grams take advantage of introduc-ing young students to two different languages, with programs starting as early as the first grade.

However it is not only immersion programs that urge children to pick up a second language. Annick De Houwer, at the University of Antwerp and Science Foundation of Flanders in Belgium, argues that learning two languages in early childhood is not because of choice, but rather out of necessity.

“Young children growing up bi-lingually are for the most part doing so because there is no way that they can grow up monolingually,” she said. “Imposing changes in these conven-tions so that all bilingual speakers in the child’s social world would limit themselves to one and the same lan-guage in all circumstances is not only impossible but also ethically dubious, because it would infringe on individu-als’ linguistic rights.”

Though many parents do force their children into immersion pro-grams and other multilingual pro-grams, children are not the only ones joining this trend.

As the world continues to be-come a united community, the skill set associated with being bilingual is becoming more and more useful to today’s major corporations and businesses.

As becoming bilingual or even multilingual becomes a necessary tool in everyday life, it can only help to advance the tolerance and respect people have for each other. Hope-fully, this behavior will only grow and can unite the different societies of the world.

By Lindsay yang

Staff Writer

The full Palo Alto High School orchestra barely fits onto the Haymarket Theater stage. Instruments, music stands and performers are jammed together. Plays held in the Haymarket have similar problems; students even stand outside because of the crowded backstage area. Lacking basic facilities and encumbered by out-dated technology, the Haymarket Theater needs renovations and a new auditorium to create a suitable instructional setting for students.

The recent Palo Alto Unified School District bond project consists of one part that proposes building a new theater that will cost approxi-mately $10-12 million and a second part that offers basic maintenance on the Haymarket.

The new theater would serve as a per-formance venue for arts at Paly and for com-munity presentations. If both bonds pass, the new theater would also provide an educational setting for theater classes during the renovation of the Haymarket.

The new theater would primarily resolve the current lack of space. Even with cer-tain casts of only 20 students, plays are hard to perform be-cause the backstage contains such little space. There is also only one dressing room for both sexes and no room for a pit orchestra. Although the theater is workable for classroom use, it limits the possibilities for productions.

Paly’s projected expan-sion further questions the use of the Haymarket as a learning environment. Because the dis-trict requires a year of Visual and Performing Arts credits for graduation at Paly, about half of those courses will be affected. The bands, orchestra and choir often perform off-campus due to lack of space in the existing theater. Because the Haymarket cannot even adequately serve the current number of students, let alone the growing needs of the Paly campus, a new auditorium should be constructed to ef-fectively provide a complete experience in required per-forming arts classes.

Updated technology, especially in the almost 100- year-old Haymarket Theater, would also enhance the educa-tion of students, particularly for the Stage and Technology classes. Technological additions would ensure safety, improve acoustic effects, change rigging for scenery changes and allow for better lighting.

Although the general building dimensions of the existing theater will remain unchanged, basic facilities can be added or improved. The Haymarket, which has a full audience capacity of 500, has only two bathroom stalls for the general public.

Other features of the Haymarket that cannot be easily corrected, such as the long, narrow seating area, can be fixed by adding a new audito-rium. The new theater would provide for a larger

By yeLLy Bitton

Staff Writer

Palo Alto residents will vote in June on a bond to decide whether or not a new theater should be built for Palo Alto High School, in addition to renovations for the current theater, the Haymarket Theater, that will be discussed in ten years. The degree of the renovations of the Haymarket Theater will be decided when the discussion takes place ten years from now.

The passing of a bond for a new theater for the Paly campus would only be detrimental to the school and its surrounding community.

A new theater for the Paly community would be superfluous. Currently, the Haymarket acts as a respectable and acceptable environment for the school’s theater department.

All of the theater classes carry on well and many students enjoy them. Theater produc-tions are almost always successful and highly praised.

The value of the courses will simply remain the same with the addition of a new theater. Nothing new will be gained.

Additionally, whenever a specific event requires a space larger than the Haymarket theater event, the district already owns a large, commendable theater, Spangenberg Theater at Henry M. Gunn High School.

Gunn’s theater is often used for events from different schools in the district and Paly should be no exception.

Instead of creating a new theater, Paly should simply find the best way to use the resources, including Spangenberg, it already possesses.

capacity for audience, seating about 500-1000 people, and the stage area would be drastically increased with additional backstage room.

If the first part of the bond passes, designing the structure of the new theater would take place during the summer of 2008, construction would begin within the next year and it would open during the next two years. However, if only the second part of the bond passes, any changes on the Haymarket will not be considered seriously for the following ten years.

Additionally, if Paly students do not use the new theater, it can be lent to other programs. Proceeding money could then be spent on main-tenance of the building. A new theater, or simply a renovated Haymarket, would be an enormous contribution to the community because Span-genberg Theater is not sufficient.

Those opposing the bond argue histori-cal value will be lost through the renovations. Although the cultural worth is important to maintain, basic maintenance is necessary for

safety and to ensure that the Haymarket does not fall beyond the point of repair. A new build-ing would still allow the Haymarket to retain its historical value, while also adding a more functional location for teaching, which is the primary goal of a high school.

Another argument against a new theater is that the campus cannot fit another building. However, the field next to the tower building and other areas near parking lots can be used.

Thus, despite the costs of funding the con-struction of a new theater and renovations for the Haymarket, both the Palo Alto community and Paly students would benefit immensely from both parts of the bond.

A project to build a new theater would cost the district an estimated $10-12 million.

This cost is extremely exorbitant consider-ing the fact that Paly already possesses its own theater and remembering also that Gunn holds its own modern theater available for the com-munity as well.

This money could be much better spent in a number of different ways, possibly on new resources that the school district does not already own.

Along with the basic cost of creating this new building, a new theater would require new, costly supplies and equipment.

Funding an entire theater is not easy. In order to supply one well, many different tools and materials are necessary. Without these supplies, a theater can not function and would therefore be null and pointless.

The Haymarket Theater is a special, historic building. Creating a new theater would detract from the honor and prestige of this significant

historical monument. To simply renovate the

current theater would main-tain a unique part of the school’s history and avoid the issues of an entire new theater.

Aside from the issues of whether the City should build a new theater at all, physical problems arise from campus constraints.

Certain questions must be asked before such a theater can be built. Where would Paly find the space to place the new building? A new the-ater would occupy a sizeable amount of space that would be difficult to find on the Paly campus.

After the Science build-ing was rebuilt in a new location a number of years ago, extending the quad, the campus lacks a location for a new building as immense as a new theater.

The theater would need to be located near a parking lot as well, making the deter-mination of its location even more difficult.

One might consider plac-ing a new theater on one of the current sports fields; however, the fields are all completely necessary to the Paly community and are al-ready constantly full.

Taking even one of the fields away would cause huge problems for the athletics department.

To construct a new theater would include somehow creating space somewhere on campus that simply is not available. This would be a huge project.

The school has undergone tremendous amounts of construction in its recent history.

More construction is not what students and staff need at this point.

The residents of Palo Alto should not pass the bond to create a new theater for Palo Alto High School as this would serve no necessary, valuable purpose and would simply be a strain on the entire community.

Elizabeth Petit/The CampanileAlthough the Haymarket Theater lacks basic facilities, new technology and sufficient space, building a new theater at Paly raises many disputes because of the lack of space on campus and massive cost of over 10 million dollars.

By Chris CLayton

Opinion Editor

Palo Alto High School’s English

Department deserves commendation for incorporating novels, from differ-ent genres and literary periods and that focus on different literary themes, into its reading curriculum. Students cur-rently benefit from exposure to a vari-ety of novels, ranging from Dickens’s Great Expectations to Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. However, there are more authors whom the English Department should consider including and further emphasizing.

The department should include authors for three reasons: influence upon or importance in a genre of lit-erature; influence upon or importance in a period of literature; or incorpora-tion of a significant theme, concept, or theory. Of course, works that fulfill multiple of these requirements must generally receive priority over ones that only meet one criterion.

As to the actual authors whom the English Department should con-sider incorporating into or further emphasizing in its curriculum, there are many. Among these authors are Ernest Hemmingway, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Truman Capote, Homer and others.

Admittedly, students, at least in some English classes, already read Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. However, other novels of Hemingway are equally, if not more,

renowned. Among these novels is For Whom the Bell Tolls, the story of a young American who aids a guerilla group during the Spanish Civil War. This novel explores many important themes, including death, suicide and sacrificing oneself for one’s cause. Hemingway also discusses these themes through a relatively unique and interesting writing style, which influ-enced later fiction writers. Thus, the English Department should consider incorporating more or further empha-sizing Hemingway for his influential and important literary works.

Although a few Paly English teachers require students to read a few of Poe’s works, many do not, includ-ing Advanced Placement English, a course that requires students to read and analyze a poem almost every night. Poe discussed important themes and motifs, including death, mental illness and mourning in his poems and short stories, prominent among which are “The Raven” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” He influenced the Gothic genre, the detective/mystery genre (his character of C. Auguste Dupin later influenced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in creating Sherlock Homes), the science fiction genre and others. The English Department should strongly consider incorporat-ing more Poe into its curriculum.

Bram Stoker is most famous for his novel Dracula, an epistolary novel which details the efforts of a group of people to kill a vampire. Stoker covers

many important themes, including women’s roles during the Victorian period and sexuality. Stoker also greatly influenced the Gothic and horror genres of literature, in part by emphasizing the notion of the vampire, an imaginary creature utilized more commonly following the publication of Dracula. The English Department should consider including Dracula in its curriculum, due to its literary influence and importance.

Truman Capote, a more-modern writer who wrote during the mid-20th century, is renowned for his In Cold Blood, which explores the murder of a family and the experiences and thoughts of two murderers. As if this were insufficient, as very few books actually employ a stream of conscious-ness of a murderer, Capote’s novel also explores the psychological interaction between these two murderers in a man-ner largely unprecedented by other novels of this type (most of which rely on the suspense of ascertaining the identity of the murderer). The English Department should consider requiring this interesting and important literary work in its curriculum.

The department would have one of two options in redesigning its cur-riculum. The department could main-tain its curriculum as heretofore, with respect to novels currently in place, and additionally incorporate other novels. The merit of this approach would broaden students’ exposure to important literary works, while

the problem would be the increase in students’ course load.

However, adding an extra book, per each semester or average eight in total during students’ Paly career, would not unduly increase students’ workload as an additional 400-page-long book would only add approxi-mately 4.5 pages of reading per school day. The benefit of this would clearly outweigh the “burden” of an additional five minutes of reading per night.

The second option would be to al-ter the curriculum by replacing certain novels with others. If the department were to assume this option, it could

attempt to replace novels that cover themes or genres that other novels already have.

The merit of this option is that it facilitates a broader exploration of literary periods, themes, and genres; the problem is that it weakens in-depth study and analysis of periods, themes, and genres.

The English Department should consider including these authors into its curriculum, in order to allow stu-dents to further explore genres, literary periods, and important themes and to provide students with a broader view of English literature.

English department should incorporate variety of novels

upload.wikimedia.org, emiliogrossi.com, draculas.info

Paly’s English Department should include the works of authors such as Poe, Capote and Stoker (clockwise from left) in its curriculum.

Spotlight The CampanileA6 • February 20, 2008

By Kairen Wong

Lifestyles Editor

Fine arts elective Advanced Placement Studio Art requires students to complete a 24-piece portfolio of artwork that the College Board evalu-ates as the AP exam. Students create either a drawing, a 2-D or a 3-D Design portfolio.

The class is significantly under-enrolled, sharing the studio with 2-D Design and 3-D Design classes, says AP Studio Art teacher Anna Eng.

“AP Studio Art may be under-enrolled possibly because many students don’t know about it or pos-sibly because of the amount of work required to complete 24 pieces of art by Spring Break,” Eng said. “I don’t know if enrollment will increase.”

For senior Angela Hsieh, AP Studio Art was a way to strengthen

By Josh Lo

Staff Writer

As students bustle to their science classes, only a few know of a new sci-ence course offered at Palo Alto High School: Biotechnology Practice and Theory. This class offers a new look at biology, different from the regular freshman Biology and Advanced Placement Biology classes. Biotech-nology is an advanced biology course that is uniquely laboratory focused. The class covers topics through lab research of bacterial genomes, recom-binant DNA and protein expressions, and discusses the social and moral issues inherent to biotechnology.

Paly currently offers one period of Biotech, taught by Ron Pruzan. Students taking the course, like ju-nior Hrishi Srinagesh, have found that it has sparked their interest in biotechnology.

“We get to do really interesting labs,” Srinagesh said. “It is a small class, so we get a lot of attention as well.”

Different from a regular biology class, the biotech class is less textbook oriented. Sophomore Ivan Zhou has found the class to be more difficult than

By eriK Krasner-Karpen

Design Editor

It’s the second day of class, and the awkwardness is palpable. Around half a dozen students – half the class – sit and talk in the center of the room while the rest take notes. They have been assigned to discuss their experi-ences with race at Paly and, this being a diverse group, each walks on tiptoes trying not to offend the others. Slowly, though, they begin to open up and tell their stories.

This is the “Socratic Seminar,” the first project. Students lay bare their thoughts and feelings about race, the issue they will study over the course of the semester. According to teacher Jeanne Loh, it is the one touchy-feely element in an otherwise fairly conven-tional English class.

“I tell students, ‘I’m not going to teach you to love each other,’” Loh said. “That’s not the goal of this

Palo AltoAp studio

art

American Writers of

Color

Ethnic Studies

class. I try to show students what life is like for people of color, how they interact in their communities, so they can empathize.”

In American Writers of Color, Loh presents the issue of race in America from a variety of viewpoints and helps students look at American current events through a “racialized lens.” Students read works by Latino, African-American, Native American and Asian-American writers, includ-ing Black Boy by Richard Wright and Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston. To put the readings in con-text, students also read selected articles about current racial issues.

“We’re trying to represent writers who have been historically excluded from the English canon,” Loh said.

The class has only 15 students this semester. Since there were 30 students last semester, the under-enrollment was caused by scheduling constraints, said Loh.

her art experience, since art is one of her major passions.

“I took it because it’s the highest level in art they have here, even though you don’t get credit at a lot of colleges unless you get a score of five [on the AP exam],” Hsieh said.

Eng is also aware of the art-career slant that most of the students in the class have.

“Some students who take it are those who are planning to enroll in art schools and need to send in an art portfolio as an entrance requirement,” Eng said. “Others take it because they want to work on art pieces of their own choice of media and design.”

Both Hsiesh and Eng reflect upon the freedom of the class, since there are no specific projects.

“Students have more freedom to select media and designs of their choice to use,” Eng said.

his freshman biology class because the class is heavily laboratory-focused.

“Instead of learning about the basics of biology and building up [in freshman biology], we start halfway built already and use what we know to perform labs,” Zhou said.

Students taking the course em-phasize that the class work and labs provides challenges to students rather than tests and quizzes.

“We do some very difficult labs, so you really have to know what is go-ing on to keep up,” Srinagesh said.

Although the course may sound rigorous, students find it to be surpris-ingly relaxing.

“It is a pretty laid back environ-ment, so we don’t have too much work,” Srinagesh said. “All we have to do is keep a lab notebook, but we still learn a lot.”

This semester-long class prepares and focuses students by developing skills useful later in the biotechnol-ogy industry and is highly recom-mended by students currently taking the class.

“It is one of these really cool, cutting-edge fields,” Srinagesh said. “And having an opportunity at Paly to explore biotechnology is amazing.”

Paly offers a range of electives, Here is a sample of little-known

So many classes,

February 20, 2008 • A7 The Campanile Spotlight

By Jonathan shan

Staff Writer

With the introduction of AP Mac-roeconomics next school year, Palo Alto High School’s Ethnic Studies class may be in jeopardy. Accord-ing to Social Studies Department Instructional Supervisor and current Ethnic Studies teacher Eric Bloom, the new economics course may shift interest away from the semester-long Ethnic Studies course, and without sufficient enrollment, the class may be canceled.

“You never know from year to year,” Bloom said. “At the beginning of this year we barely made it, but [the class] was filled second semester.”

The course did not have enough sign-ups for the first semester.

The Paly course syllabus explains Ethnic Studies as “an investigation of the history and culture of various eth-nic groups and how current issues have been formed by past events.” Students look at various historical events from multiple perspectives and explore the issues and challenges of diversity in America’s past and present.

“This is a survey course for stu-dents to gain their own perspective and ask questions such as ‘why are East Palo Alto and Palo Alto so racially different?’” Bloom said.

So far, Bloom has been working to strike a balance with the difficulty

By KeLLey shin

Staff Writer

Viewing a film and evaluating characters based on their masculinity and femininity or researching men and women’s roles in politics are typical assignments in the semester–long Gender Studies class which looks to broaden students’ awareness of gender differences. Unfortunately, low enrollment has prevented Gender Studies from being a class this year, although it was offered each year for the past four years.

For a class to be available, approx-imately 24 students must sign up for the class, Assistant Principal Kimberly Diorio said. However, lack of student interest has prevented Gender Studies from becoming a class as it did not reach the specified minimum.

“I would imagine that because we offer so many electives in Eng-lish, social science, career vocational education and science, only so many kids will sign up for Gender Studies,” Diorio said. “It’s hard to draw numbers for a lot of these electives.”

In 2007, only five students had signed up for Gender Studies by April.

“I would be interested in the class, but I already have too many other classes I want to take,” junior Russell Langston said.

Another reason for low enroll-ment is that students are unaware of the course.

“I have never heard of Gender Studies, but I would consider it if I knew more,” junior Camille Wiesner said.

“It’s hard for a class to run when nobody knows about it,” Social Studies Instructional Supervisor Eric Bloom said. “Most students think Gender Studies is similar to Women Writers, when in fact it isn’t.”

High School

GENDER STUDIES

(Yet to be established)

biotech

and make the class engaging for all the students taking it.

“Some people think it’s too hard or it’s too easy,” Bloom said. “The class is taught in a different style, and is much more open ended: define the problem, investigate the issue and explain it. A certain type of student thrives, while it drives others crazy.”

Senior Amy Xu explained that she joined the course to explore the nature of racial identity.

“I’ve seen racial prejudices in my family life and I wanted to gain a great-er perspective,” Xu said.” In class, we hear speakers, read articles and watch documentaries about race.”

Ethnic Studies is an un-laned course, so Xu finds herself in a di-verse class.

“There are people in this class who I have never had classes with and who I never would have had classes with if not for this class,” Xu said.

On one occasion, Xu brought a cultural comfort food for the class to share as part of a project.

“I got to try foods from Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico and China,” Xu said. “I learned about personal experiences and the memories that made each food a comfort food.”

Xu looks forward to the rest of the course, and hopes it continues to be offered.

“It would be a shame if we lost the course,” Xu said.

Langston, who is currently tak-ing Women Writers, agrees that most students are unable to distinguish the Gender Studies course from the Women Writers course.

“I’ve heard of the class, but only because I was looking at my course catalog the other day,” said Langston. “Students probably just throw Gender Studies and Women Writers into the same category and don’t bother to learn more.”

Jaclyn Edwards, who had been the Gender Studies teacher in the past, explains that many students have a misconception about the focus of the Gender Studies class.

“Students misconstrue that it focuses on feminism and women studies when it is actually about both masculinity and femininity and how gender is encompassed in art, literature and science,” Edwards said. “We have even discussed changing the course name to make it more enticing.”

Gender Studies focuses on a wide range of social, economic, political and global topics within gender relations. The course helps students to better understand women and men’s roles in human culture and society through reading, writing, class discussions and watching videos. Gender Studies goes into depth about a wide range of issues from women and men’s experi-ences in art and music to discussions regarding political trends of men and women as well as women and men’s roles in marriage and family. Gender Studies fulfills the social science credit requirement.

Although most students have not shown interest in Gender Studies, the class will continue to be offered in the course catalog and seniors will be of-fered first priority.

“If we get 20 kids who are inter-ested, I would consider making it an official class,” Bloom said.

many of which are under-enrolled.classes in the Paly course catalog.so little time...

Mika Ben-Shaul/The Campanile

Opinion The CampanileA8 • February 20, 2008

By Michael haMada

Staff Writer

The Palo Alto High School weight room is an off-season train-ing necessity for multiple school sports, as well as part of a required unit for sophomore Physical Educa-tion classes. Yet the P.E. Department and Paly administration does little to make sure the equipment is sanitized on a daily basis to prevent an out-break of disease and infection.

According to a study conducted by the University of Maryland, athletic facilities including weight rooms, rehabilitation equipment and other tables must be cleaned every-day with a disinfectant to prevent a possible outbreak of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (staph), also known as MRSA.

In a recent article entitled, “Staph Infections Reported at Schools Across the Country,” the New York Times reports that more than 19,000 people died in the United States in 2005 after acquiring an MRSA infection. The article also mentions a Virginia high school, at which four students contracted a staph infection and the district was forced to close the school’s weight room. There are numerous cases at high schools across the country where students have been infected and entire student bodies were forced to evacuate campus until the weight room and all classrooms could be disinfected.

The first problem with the weight room lies in the manner in which it is cleaned.

Weight room a potential hazard for Paly students

The weight room equipment is disinfected only once a year, leaving it in an unsanitary state in which athletes can easily contract skin infections.

Julia Benton/The Campanile

Library needs more funding to provide students with better resources

Students should not be dependent on computers for schoolBy alex Greene

Staff Writer

In the Silicon Valley, the epicenter of the computer industry, it makes sense that teachers would widely ac-cept and use the computer as a power-ful learning tool. Although computers have many benefits, their overuse has drawbacks that leave some students at a technological disadvantage.

Computers and the Internet are used in most classes at Palo Alto High School. For students, the degree of use varies from occasionally typing up papers, to receiving all assignments over the Internet. Most students use

computers multiple times a week for classwork, too.

The major concern with comput-ers and any technology is whether or not the school should require the use of such expensive devices.

Although almost all Paly students do own a computer, students should not be required to buy a thousand-dollar device when education should be free. In the United States, equality is highly valued. The right to an educa-tion is seen as the great equalizer, as education is usually linked to financial and social success. Therefore, com-puters should not be at all required in classrooms but rather seen as an

optional alternative to handwriting papers.

In addition to the financial set-back of buying a computer, paying for Internet connection and buying ink for the printer, students are not computer technicians. Work can be deleted accidentally, e-mails often bounce, printers break and computers frequently freeze or get viruses. In these situations, it can take hours to fix a problem which could have been avoided by not using the computer in the first place.

Often, computers are implement-ed in the classroom unnecessarily. Time is often wasted on needless ac-

tivities for which the material could be easily learned without computers.

In some science classes, when starting a new unit, the laptops will be handed out and the teacher will instruct the class to go to Google or YouTube to learn what they can about the topic. This is a waste, as few students stay on task and the content on many Web sites is of poor quality.

For those who cannot afford to buy a computer, just going to the li-brary is not always a realistic option. The Paly library is only open until 4 p.m. If a student plays a sport, has a tutor, works or simply cannot finish all of his or her computer-related

work within the hour after school, then going to the Paly library is not a viable option.

The next place one would go to find a computer would be the city libraries. Some of the public libraries are open until 9 p.m, but in many cases, the number of computers is limited, as is the amount of time allowed on them. Printing also carries a fee.

Students are expected to be able to check their email and InClass ac-counts daily. Other than homework and projects assigned in class, it is un-fair to require students to do anything else on the Web. A student without a computer would have to go to the

By ryan Mcleod

Staff Writer

If last month’s vandals had been think-ing straight, they would have picked a better place to trash than the Palo Alto High School Library, an under appreciated institution that takes enough abuse as it is. The library’s

resources –– and indoor seats –– are in con-stant demand, as evidenced by the droves of students that swarm into the hangar-like hall during brunch, lunch, and passing periods, yet the library generally remains in a poor condition and is subject to extreme acts of disrespect. The library is so much taken for granted as a part of Paly life that students fail

to notice that, due to a lack of funding, the library simply fails to meet the standards of a quality school library.

Despite the best efforts of the hardwork-ing librarians, the Paly library has become a decrepit, outdated facility. The library’s age is clearly reflected in the worn, broken and vandalized study carrels, which are hardly

conducive to the needs of students. Even the library’s structure is detrimental to its cause. The high ceiling was originally intended for a second story, but now merely hinders quiet study with echoes and makes the heating system inefficient.

Desks and ceilings are just the surface, however: the library’s soul is rotting as its collection of books becomes more and more outdated with each passing year. Many books in the non-fiction section serve little use save as humorous relics of the past. That in itself would not be so wrong; a little humor is ap-preciated. It is when these books are ignored, and worse, never replaced or augmented with updated texts that the troubles begin. The purpose of a library is to provide informa-tion, and that purpose can only be served if the information is updated frequently. Unless Paly decides to switch to a costly all-digital resource selection, it needs to provide more current books to replace outdated volumes, a feat that would appear to be out of the library budget’s reach.

Clearly, the Paly librarians are doing all they can to keep the library facilities current. In recent years, the library has seen upgrades to student computer terminals, a new reading area, and access to information databases such as JSTOR. These additions are much appreciated, but essential items, such as research books, need to come first, and the library simply does not have enough cash to

buy both. In fact, the annual library funding is only $1,200, or 71 cents per student. In an affluent community such as Palo Alto, a proper school library is evidently worth less per year than a month’s pay at minimum wage for one person.

Fortunately, there is hope for the future of the library. New librarian Rachel Kellerman evidently plans to file a formal request for $300 more in funding. That is enough to buy about 20 paperbacks at Borders, or perhaps replace one broken study carrel each year. It is not a large sum, but every little bit helps. Hopefully, this one request will draw attention to the plight of the library.

One such hope is the $350 million bond measure set to be voted on in June. Even a small fraction of the money allotted to Paly would allow the library to purchase much-needed essentials. The second-story proposal could even be revisited, which would provide extra offices and classroom space to offset overcrowding or even replace the aging tower building facilities.

If the bond passes in June, the future of the Paly library will look brighter. Although the library staff has done an excellent job with the limited resources available to them in the past, it is far more productive to think of what they could do with adequate funding. Ironically, the issue of the Paly library’s sorry state is perhaps the only one that can be solved by just throwing money at it.

“Ideally what you want is to disinfect weight equipment after every single person.”

Al GalvezPAMF Nurse

Julia Benton/The CampanileDespite recent acts of vandalism and a collection of outdated books, Paly librarians have worked hard to provide students with decent study materials. To better serve the school, the library requires more funding to buy brand-new resources.

Overheard on the Quadd

library just to check their e-mail. If a teacher needs to tell the class some information it should be stated in class. E-mailing information should never replace classroom instruction because it puts some students at an incredibly unfair disadvantage.

If teachers and students continue to assign, collect and do work on the Web, then one day students may find themselves in a situation in which going to school is obsolete and ev-erything is done over the Web. Until the technology is reliable and cheaper, teachers should stick to paper assign-ments and the classroom should not spill over onto computers.

“The circumference was like three

feet!”

“You have a sister?...Is she hot?”

“I only did it for the Cheesecake

Factory.”

“I can’t do anything about it. I was born

that way.”“You’re playing with me man — that cheese

tasted like crap!”

“Sometimes we clean every day, sometimes every other day,” Paly custodian Greg Berela said. “I’ll go in and mop the floors, but nowadays there’s weights all over the place and it’s impossible to clean. There’s no supervisor and there are students in there till six o’clock.”

While the irresponsible clutter is understandably annoying to a custodian, mopping the floor does little to prevent infection on the sur-face of the weight equipment. This, however, is not the fault of the cus-todial staff, but rather the fault of the district and administra-tion that does not set a cleaning standard for the weight room.

“We only clean the floor,” Berela said. “We go in and disinfect the equipment and the walls and everything once a year.” Assistant Principle Chuck Mer-ritt, who coordinates the custodial staff, did not even know if there were sanitation codes for weight rooms.

Students can come and go as they please throughout the day until the doors are closed around 6 p.m. The weight equipment comes into contact with sweat, dirt and oth-er fluids regularly, leaving the room a prime place for bacteria and disease. Any athlete who uses the equip-ment with an open wound or even a small cut can be easily infected.

“The best way to avoid a skin infection in a place like a gym

or weight room is to wash your hands and cover up little cuts,” Al Galvez, a licensed vocational nurse at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation said. “Ideally what you want is to disinfect weight equipment after every person because if they hap-pen to have some kind of infection and you could also get infected.”

If the weight room is disinfected once a year, that leaves Paly students at a very high risk of infection.

“At worst, the equipment should be cleaned once a day,”

Galvez said.Accord-

ing to Paly trainer Stacey Kofman, there are cases of ring worm (a skin fun-gal disease) among wres-tlers at Paly,

which could potentially infect surfaces where heavy skin contact occurs.

Several students have stopped using the Paly weight room for these various reasons and have joined health clubs and gyms in the area, where the gym personnel disinfect the equpment multiple times a day.

“It’s pretty disgusting in there,” Paly junior Ahna Rao said. “I was in there the other day and I didn’t want to touch a single thing,”

Recent weight room users will notice that using the dumbbells or barbells leaves a brown, rust-like smear on their hands that can only

be washed off after multiple rinses with soap. That by itself should be a sign of unsanitary conditions and unhygienic management.

Most regular weight room users don’t complain about the facilities because they simply don’t care, but this potentially danger-ous situation is a problem for all students. A single case of MRSA at Paly could result in an outbreak that would require the hospitalization of many and school-wide cleaning. Students need to realize that MRSA can be fatal.

When the science department was contacted to try to obtain a bacteria testing kit, the depart-ment refused to participate in what could possibly be a self-demeaning investigation into their own admin-istration.

The simple solution is to have the weight room wiped down with disinfectant at least at the end of every day to avoid possible bacterial contamination.

Students who use the weight room should also remember to clean up after themselves and put weights back in their proper places so that the janitorial staff can effectively do their job.

This should act as a reminder for students to keep themselves clean and at the least wash their hands after every weight room work-out. With the number of athletes who come into the weight room each day, already sweaty and dirty from team practices, it is surprising that Paly has not had a situation under the current weight room conditions.

SportsThe Campanile

By Cassie Wedemeyer

Staff Writer

When Palo Alto High School English teacher Kindel Launer’s second period Hu-manities class presented their final projects, no one was prepared for what junior Sam Rudy had to show. Each student had been required to work on a creative project over the course of the semester, document their progress and then present the final product to the class.

Rudy saw the Humanities project as the perfect opportunity to try building skis.

“It was amazing how much time and effort he put into his project,” junior Alyssa Burton said.

“I’ve wanted to [build skis] since elemen-tary school,” Rudy said. “And so when I found out how, I just did.”

Rudy has been skiing at Lake Tahoe since he was two years old. He is a competitive skier on the Squaw Valley Ski Team, and travels with his team for competitions.

His project was a challenge, but Rudy had decided that building his skis was going to become a hobby and didn’t mind the extra effort and time he ended up putting into making them.

“It was a ton of work and it cost a lot,” Rudy said. “The good part is the second pair will be less work and much less money.”

To make his skis, Rudy had to use a variety of supplies to secure them. These included polyethylene for the base, steel for the edges, rubber and fiberglass for the outside and bam-boo for the core, all glued together with epoxy glue and heated to 170° F to cure.

In addition to making the skis, Rudy also made the necessary production equipment as well.

As many juniors and seniors know, the final project for Paly’s Humanities class has lenient requirements and holds many possibili-ties, but still needs to show effort. Rudy’s class is convinced he succeeded in having both a creative idea and proving he did the work.

“Everyone in my class made an original project and we knew that he was making his own skis but we had no idea how much work it took,” junior Sarah Nordman said. “He had to build a whole additional machine just to make them. His whole project was incredible. It did not look homemade at all.”

Rudy was satisfied as well. “One thing that really made me want to

make my own skis was the idea that I would

Girls’ soccer advances to CCS quarterfinals

Hannah McGovern/The CampanileSophomore Sophie Cain looks for a cross in a game held at Santa Clara High School against Cupertino High School. Despite the absence of star player Teresa Noyola, Paly came out with a win, taking them to the CCS quarterfinals against Archbishop Mitty High School.

Courtesy of Sam RudyJunior Sam Rudy made his own skis for his Humanities project using bamboo for the core, polyethylene for the base and steel for the edges. Rudy has been skiing since he was two years old and is on Squaw Valley’s competitive ski team.

Student discovers the art of building skis

By Zal dordi

Staff Writer

The girls’ Varsity soccer team recovered from their late season struggles to earn a spot in the Central Coast Section tournament quarterfi-nals as of Friday, Feb. 15.

The team’s struggles began a few weeks ago after suffering their worst loss of the season, a 2-6 beating at the hands of Los Gatos High School, running the girls’ losing streak to three games.

However, on Feb. 1, shortly after the boys’ Varsity soccer team left the Mayfield Soccer Complex with a disappointing 1-0 loss to Henry M. Gunn High School, the girls gave Palo Alto High School fans something to cheer for with a 6-0 victory over their cross-town rivals.

It was not a challenging game for the Vikings as they cruised with ease over Gunn (4-15-1, 0-7-0) illus-trating the true power of the Viking offense.

Though the league title is out of the question, the Gunn victory was a step in the right direction as the girls attempt to salvage their league season with a third place finish and Central Coast Section Tournament berth behind frontrunners Los Altos and Monta Vista High Schools.

On Feb. 4, the girls brought their league record above the .500 mark with their second straight win, this time defeating Homestead High School by a final score of 3-2, mov-ing to 5-4-1 in league play (13-4-1 overall).

The victory over Homestead was not just three points in league. With star midfielder captain Teresa Noyo-la out due to illness, the girls proved

their ability to perform without their international superstar.

After back-to-back victories following a disappointing three-loss streak, the girls put themselves back on track to face second-place Monta Vista at the Mayfield Soccer Complex two days later.

The Vikings still had a chance to climb back up near the top of the standings with a win over Monta Vista. A victory over the Matadors would put the girls one point behind the second-place Matadors and provide the Vikings with momentum for their

game against Mountain View High School and a guaranteed CCS berth.

The girls entered the Monta Vista game down three important players. Not only was Noyola unavailable due to illness; but sophomores Kelly Jenks and Maeve Stewart were also absent as they were taking part in a Super-Y Olympic Development Program.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, the team could only muster a 1-1 tie at the Mayfield Soccer Complex.

After 35 minutes in the first half, senior captain Leah Gaeta finished a shot giving the Vikings a 1-0 lead.

However, this small spark was not enough to keep the girls up. The Matadors maintained strong pres-sure on Paly’s defense throughout the match and eventually equalized with a last minute strike, assuring the Vikings would not snatch a second place league finish.

“We played pretty well,” Head Coach Ernesto Cruz said. “I thought we had the game.”

With the draw, the Vikings re-mained five points behind Monta Vista and seven points behind league- leader Los Altos.

but it also led to more questions for the Viking squad as they struggled without the midfield presence of their captain Noyola.

The 1-0 loss dropped the Vikings to a 5-5-2 record and fourth place in league.

Due to their perfect preseason, the girls were able to gain an “at-large” berth to the CCS playoffs and face Cupertino High School.

The Vikings traveled to Santa Clara High School for their first game of the postseason.

After a sluggish performance in the season finale, the girls came out strong with a solid performance on both offense and defense. Junior Jessie Duller got the Viking offense rolling with the first strike to give Paly a lead they would never relinquish.

Jenks, who started as the center midfielder in place of Noyola, fol-lowed suit by dribbling through the Cupertino defense to put the Vikings ahead 2-0 at the end of the first half.

To begin the second half, Jenks scored yet again via the dribble making it 3-0 Vikings.

Sophomore Caitlin Patterson capped the scoring off with a driven follow past the keeper, giving the Vi-kings a 4-0 victory over Cupertino and a berth into the CCS quarterfinals.

be the only person in the world who had that pair of skis, and also that I would be able to make any ski I wanted,” Rudy said.

Rudy’s final product was a success. On his first run on the skis, he found that they were more usable on some types of snow then others.

“They are a little softer than I wanted,” Rudy said. “If I go on hard snow then they don’t really work, but in powder they are great. I ended up landing on my side on a rock though and kind of messed up the skis’ tail a bit. It started to delaminate, but now I’m holding that together with duct tape, so I’m all good.”

Even though it was a long process, Rudy is convinced this isn’t a one-time project and considers building and riding his own skis as part of his lifestyle.

“I’m already working on my next pair, which is an improved version of the first,” Rudy said. “I also intend to make a mogul ski that I can compete on.”

Although Rudy’s skis are successful for him, he does not plan to make them for many

other people and is not consider-ing turning his hobby into a business.

“I might make a few pairs for my friends who I ski with and my family, but other than that I probably

won’t make too many,” Rudy said.After the process of building the press and

his first pair of skis, Rudy found that although the project had been more expensive and difficult than he had anticipated, he wanted to continue building skis. He now has plans to use different materials and try new things with future pairs of skis.

“One thing I’m planning on using in my future skis is carbon fiber — which is similar to the fiberglass — but about five times as strong for its weight different types of wood for the core, and maybe a more durable plastic then UHMW-PE (polyethylene) for the top sheet,” Rudy said.

Rudy may have spent more time and money on his project than most of his class-mates, but he is pleased with his work.

“It was for sure worth the work I put in,” Rudy said. “It’s just cool to be able to say that I made my own skis and actually use them, and that they work. I also like how no one else will ever have a pair of skis exactly like the ones I made.”

In an unfortunate way to close out the regular season, the Vikings could not find the net in their final match against Mountain View.

The girls never could establish themselves early on in the match.

Freshman goalkeeper Alex Ker-shner mishandled a shot that led to Mountain View’s first goal.

The Vikings could never recover, turning out more than a subpar effort in their final game of the season.

The poor performance not only prompted Cruz to label the game as the “worst game I have seen this season,”

“One thing that really made me want to make my own skis it was the idea that I would be the only person in the world who had that pair of skis.”

Sam Rudyjunior

ScoresMountain View H.S. @ Paly

Feb. 8, 0-1 LPaly v. Cupertino H.S.

@ Santa Clara H.S.Feb. 12, 4-0 W

Girls’ Soccer

Lifelong skier Sam Rudy exercises his creativity, creating his own skis for his Humanities project

February 20, 2008 A9

Sports The CampanileA10 • February 20, 2008

By Allison Whitson

Staff Writer

The Palo Alto High School Var-sity girls’ basketball team captured their ninth victory of the season with an important win over Fremont High School on Feb. 12, winning 55-37. The Vikings, who are 6-5 in league and 9-12 overall going into the game against Henry M. Gunn High School on Feb. 15, needed to defeat Fremont in order to even be considered for the Central Coast Section playoffs, which begin on Feb. 20.

This is the Vikings’ second win in a row, as they defeated Los Gatos High School 48-41 on Feb. 6 on their home court, after losing to the Wildcats just two weeks before.

Senior Liz Slater, with help from junior point guard Olivia Garcia, led the Vikings offense, scoring 23 points

“The game with Los Gatos was a good win for the team,” Head Coach Scott Peters said. “We did a great job of executing our offense and I was pleased with how we took care of the ball.”

The Vikings have been successful lately, winning four out of their last five games.

On Jan. 29, the girls defeated visiting Mountain View High School 47-41. Slater carried the team in the second half, scoring 15 points and grabbing personal best 16 rebounds.

Sophomore Mariah Philips con-tributed 11 points as well.

“We slowed the game down and made good passes,” Peters said. “Our offense was much better and we made good decisions.”

Paly carried the momentum from this win into their next game against Milpitas High School on Feb. 1, where the team posted a respectable 53-43 victory. Slater led the Vikings with a career-high 26 points, and crucial contributions from Garcia helped the Vikings secure the win.

Paly’s two-game winning streak ended when the Vikings fell to cross-town rival Gunn on Feb. 4.

The visiting Vikings stayed close to the Titans who are currently in second place in the league behind Wilcox High School. Unfortunately, they could not keep up in the second half and ended up losing 43-19, despite holding Gunn star Jasmine Evans to only 11 points.

“We didn’t handle the pressure well,” Peters said. “Gunn had the momentum for most of the game.”

On a positive note, senior Nicole Behr, who had ACL surgery last Sep-tember and had been out for the season, was cleared to play on Feb. 4.

“The team is excited to have Ni-cole [Behr] practicing with them for the first time this year,” Scott said.

“I’ll probably be playing next week,” Behr said. “Hopefully for the Fremont game.”

Girls’ basketball has persevered all through the season

Elizabeth Petit/The CampanileFreshman forward Katerina Peterson pulls up for a running 15-foot jump shot at the free throw line. Despite losing three starters last year, the Vikings have achieved several of their goals this season.

By ZAch hArris

Staff Writer

Disappointing losses to Henry M. Gunn and Milpitas High Schools and an injury suf-fered by senior captain Cooper Newby have left the Palo alto High School wrestling team on a low note heading into the Central Cost Section championships.

However, with an eighth place team fin-ish at the league finals and a dual meet win against Los Altos High School, Paly has set its sights on the CCS championship, and for some wrestlers, the state meet.

“Gunn was a tough loss and Cooper’s [Newby] injury has really hindered us, but right now we just need to focus on CCS, hopefully we can do well there and then send some wrestlers to state,” captain Patrick Sheehan said.

By Austin smith

A&E Editor

In what was undoubtedly the turning point of the season as the Palo Alto High School boys’ Varsity basketball team lost 29-47 to first place Cupertino High School, squander-ing its chance to gain a share of the De Anza League lead.

Since then, the team record has dropped to 15-8 (6-4 in league) and the team currently sits in third place behind Cupertino and rival Henry M. Gunn High School.

The loss not only greatly jeopardized the Vikings’ chances at winning a fifth straight league title, but it was also the team’s first loss at home since their first-round exit in the 2003 Central Coast Section playoffs.

“One thing about Cupertino is that they gave it their absolute best,” senior guard Mike Scott said. “They fought for loose balls, they out-hustled us, but we definitely didn’t give up. It seemed like they wanted it more than we did.”

Cupertino proved to be troublesome for Paly, serving up two of their three league losses. In their first meeting with the Pioneers on Jan. 9, Paly suffered an embarrassing 29-35 loss as their offense failed to score double digits in any one quarter.

“Well I think [Cupertino] matches up well,” Head Coach Peter Diepenbrock said. “They have a good inside pressure on Dom [Powell] and good ball handling. They’re able to make it a half court game. They handled our pressure well.”

During the same game, star guard and team leader Scott suffered a sprained ankle in the second quarter. The story for the Vikings this season is how the team has coped with an absent, or ailing, Scott.

“After my ankle injury our team felt like a big something was missing,” Scott said. “That big something was me sitting on the bench with my shoes off and my ankle wrapped up in an ice wrap.”

The Vikings struggled without Scott’s leadership and aggressive play for the rest of the Cupertino game. This season he aver-ages 10.2 points, 2.6 assists and 3.1 steals per game.

The injury also disrupted the Viking’s offensive rhythm, allowing Cupertino to shut

Elizabeth Petit/The CampanileSenior center Dom Powell evades three Los Gatos High School defenders and scores an uncontested layup in the Los Gatos front court during a Paly victory. The Vikings found success this season despite an often inconsistent offense.

down the production of Paly’s offensive an-chor, senior center Dom Powell, who averages 15.9 points per game.

However, the Vikings proved themselves resilient. Even without Scott, the Vikings proved their depth in victories over Milpitas High School on Jan. 11 and Los Gatos High School on Jan. 16.

Sophomore guard Joseph Lin and junior guard Nick Robinson stepped up to fill in Scott’s absence, calling attention to the team’s up-and-coming talent. The Vikings know that

they have to utilize the depth on their bench to be successful looking to the postseason.

“We lost a great player,” Lin said. “It was definitely hard to play without him, but we played surprisingly well against Los Gatos. I think he would agree with that.”

Though Paly’s hopes of capturing the league title dimmed, the team is optimistic about the rest of the season and upcoming playoffs. Unfortunately, Scott’s ailing ankle may still keep him off the court and away from helping the team in the playoffs. He

was still hobbling on the court against Los Gatos and continues to suffer from slightly limited mobility.

“The rehab is going okay,” Scott said. “I work everyday doing exercises to make it stronger. I’m dealing with a bad case of plantar fasciitis, I think it will be a couple weeks until I’m back to 100 percent.”

Plantsr fasciitis is the inflammation of the underside of the heel that causes an abnormal pronation of the foot. The Vikings are looking to reverse their negative momentum as they

Sheehan finished third in the 145 pound weight class at the league finals and won his matches against Gunn, Milpitas and Los Altos.

He now has his sights set on the state final at the end of the month.

Sheehan and seniors Ryan Drebin, Kevin Hall and Cooper Newby, all have hopes of placing high enough in CCS to qualify for the state meet.

“They should all make the state meet,” Head Coach David Duran said. “If Cooper is back from his injury we should have a good showing at state.”

Newby, who recently injured his knee, missed the league finals but is hoping to be back for the CCS and state meets. If he is able to wrestle, Newby will wrestle a hardship match to qualify for CCS. If he wins that match he will then be added to the CCS finals rankings,

and have a shot to win and qualify for state. In his absence the team has been motivated to work even harder to show support for their teammate.

“Newby’s absence has not really affected our chemistry, it has just made us realize that we have to work even harder to do well as a team,” junior Noah Feldstien said. “He’s definitely one of our best wrestlers, and knowing he isn’t there makes us all want to work a lot harder.”

The majority of Paly’s wrestlers will enter the CCS finals with newly-bleached blonde

hair. All members of the team decided to bleach their hair as they entered the post season

because they wanted a unifying factor that would set them apart from other teams and the rest of the Paly community.

“It was really a bonding experi-ence,” Sheehan said. “We wanted some-thing that would dis-tinguish us and now everyone on campus knows who the wres-tling team is. It really

brought us together as a team.”Paly had eight wrestlers place at the league

finals and seven qualify for the CCS finals.

Boys’ basketball battles through injuries

Despite poor league finish, wrestlers strive for state meetThis includes a first place finish from

Drebin, which is his second league champion-ship in two years. If Newby is able to wrestle and wins his hardship match, he would be the eighth. The eighth place finish was not as high as most members of the team would have liked, but they are now moving their focus to the upcoming CCS finals.

“It wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but due to our injury situation it wasn’t horrible,” senior Eliot Wilson said. “We expect to do much better at CCS and state and finish the season on a high note.”

With the CCS and state meets rapidly approaching, Feb. 22-23 and Feb. 29-Mar. 1 respectively, Paly wrestling does not have very much time to prepare. Fortunately, quick recoveries from injuries and dedication are looking to make a successful end of the year run a reality for the wrestling team.

“[Bleaching our hair] really was a bonding experience. We wanted something that would distinguish us and now everyone on campus knows who the wrestling team is. It really brought us together as a team.”

Patrick Sheehanjunior

head towards the end of the season and into the playoffs. Coming off the devastating loss to Cupertino, the Vikings lost a hard fought contest to Milpitas High School on Feb. 1. Powell scored a season-high 23 points in the game, but the team faded late and came up on the short end of a 45-42 final score.Losing close games is a problem for the team this season for the Vikings. Their eight losses come at an average gap of eight points, but half of them are typically decided by five points or less.

“We don’t close out games too well,” Lin said. “It has cost us a number of games this season.”

The momentum seems to be turning around now after a 48-37 triumph over Los Gatos High School on Feb. 6. The players pulled together in the absence of Scott, who was dealing with a second bout of pain in his ankle, and rallied around Powell’s 20 points.

“We have a strong inside game with [Powell] and a good full court defense, so we can create lots of turnovers for the other teams,” Lin said.

The Vikings close out the regular season on Feb. 15 when they host cross-town rival Gunn High School. In the teams’ first meet-ing, Paly celebrated a 45-35 victory over the Titans. Powell moved easily through the Gunn defense, contributing 17 points and six rebounds in a performance that he looks to repeat in the season finale.

“It’s time for me to dominate,” Powell said. “I have to be a leader.”

Even at the end of the season, the Vikings have a lot of work to do if they expect success in the playoffs.

“We need to put a lot of attention on getting better at our pressure defense and half-court offense,” Diepenbrock said. “Next time we face a top team, hopefully we will be better at those two things.”

Scott does not worry about his team though. He is confident that things will turn around for just in time for the CCS playoffs.

“I think based on overall performance, we’ve had a successful season so far,” Scott said. “We have our downs from time to time, but we always have our ups that bring us back into the competition.”

Additional reporting done by Cassie Prioleau.

Peters is making Behr’s safety and health a top priority.

“There is a chance she will play in the Gunn game, which is Senior Night,” Peters said before the con-test.

Peters did not keep his word, though. Behr played for the first time this season in Paly’s game at Fremont High School. She played a crucial part in the Vikings’ offense, scoring 8 points, helping the team earn a CCS berth. Seniors Behr and Slater were honored last Friday on Senior Night.

Both girls have plans to play next year as well. Slater is hoping to go to Sonoma State University, where she will focus on academics and hope-fully walk onto their basketball team. Behr is not sure what she is going to do next year, but she will most likely play as well.

As the season comes to a close, Peters is proud of accomplishing one of the goals his team set at the begin-ning of the season.

“One of the main goals that the team set for themselves at the begin-ning of the season was to grow together as a team,” Peters said. “I think we have accomplished that goal.”

Overall, the season has been a success.

“The journey of our season has been fun one,” Peters said. “It is enjoy-able to be a part of a team that improves over the course of the season.”

Vikings remain resilient throughout the season, winning games without their star player

Sports February 20, 2008 • A11 The Campanile

By AlAn Chen

Staff Writer

Palo Alto High School is known for hav-ing an outstanding athletics program. Last fall, Paly took home league championships in cross country, girls’ tennis and football. But when one of the many star players at Paly is injured, they go to see the only person on campus who can help them: athletic trainer Stacy Kofman.

Kofman is the school physical therapist and trainer for Paly athletes. She helps injured athletes recover and get back to playing their sport as soon as possible.

“Basically, I evaluate the injury and then offer some exercises that can help the athlete’s recovery process,” Kofman said.

One of the many athletes that Kofman has treated is senior Ariel Wagner. Diagnosed with bursitis, inflammation of the bursa in the shoulder, in her sophomore year, Wagner decided to visit Kofman during swim season last spring.

Contrary to the doctor that diagnosed Wagner, Kofman identified her shoulder pains as being simply muscle pain, saying that bursitis was not commonly found in people of Wagner’s age.

“She constantly told me that I didn’t have bursitis,” Wagner said. “She told me that bursitis was only found in elderly people, and that someone of my age and health would have hardly any chance of being diagnosed with it. To help correct my shoulder pains, she gave me some strengthening exercises to do. They seemed to work, but they made my arms very tired.”

On a separate occasion, Wagner visited Kofman when she popped her shoulder out of its socket.

“Unlike other people I’ve gone to, she directly popped it back into place and gave me some ice to reduce the swelling,” Wagner said. “She did it really quickly and I felt better afterwards.”

Kofman has also treated freshman tennis player Janet Liu. Liu, who was experiencing leg pains, turned to Kofman for advice as well.

Kofman explained to Liu that her soring leg pain was only a minor injury and wrapped her leg to prevent further damage. In addi-tion, Kofman explained to Liu what exactly

the problem was to prevent future injuries and taught her how to keep her leg in good, healthy condition.

Liu recalls her experience with Kofman as being straightforward and simple.

“When I went to visit Kofman, I basically pointed to where my leg hurt and she took care of it,” Liu said. “When she wrapped my leg, I was still able to play my matches with little to no irritation. Plus, her explanations of my leg pains really helped me to keep it in good condition. ”

While Kofman has treated many athletes for injuries, she has also received her fair share of physical therapy.

In high school she was an avid athlete, playing soccer, water polo, basketball and softball for her school.

But due to chronic knee pain, which she said was due to how her body grew, she needed constant physical therapy to correct her growth pattern. During these sessions, she learned exercises that would help her heal her knee. As she attended more physical

therapy classes, she realized how interesting and helpful they were.

“I actually liked my physical therapy,” Kofman said. “It was able to help my knee condition, allowing me to continue playing in sports. After a while, I decided to turn my interest to helping other injured people get better.”

Her experiences in physical therapy convinced her to become a physical therapist and help other athletes that are out of com-mission.

But in order to become a certified physi-cal therapist, people who intend to go into the career need to take the pre-med courses, Kofman said.

Kofman took an intense internship-based program, which required over 1800 hours of personal experience, along with other required classes.

In addition, she took other courses such as Kinesiology (the study of the mechanics of movement in the human body) and anatomy to help further her knowledge of the human body, without which she would not be able to correctly understand each individual’s injuries.

Once Kofman took the necessary courses, she worked for a company at Stanford Uni-versity called Healthself, which is an outreach program that helps injured athletes in the local area.

Through the program, Kofman was sent to work at Paly to help the injured student athletes.

“Through Healthself, I would come to Paly, usually in the morning, and help out the students a couple times a week,” Kof-man said.

As she frequented Paly more and more, she decided that she wanted to teach her own Sports Medicine class at Paly to teach students about the importance of healthy exercising and asked the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education to approve her class.

Eventually, the school board approved her request to teach Sports Medicine and she soon became a teacher at Paly.

Although her primary interest was still physical therapy, she did not need to wait long before a job opened. When Kofman was of-fered the job as the school physical therapist, she took it.

Currently, Kofman works as the campus physical therapist and the Sports Medicine and Physical Education teacher. However, her highest priority is to help the athletes that need rehabilitation.

Though she said her job is rewarding, there are certain aspects of it that she favors over others.

“My favorite part of the job is being able to see athletes recover from their injuries and get back in their sport,” Kofman said, “while my least favorite is seeing athletes that think their injuries will simply go away.”

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Physical therapist Stacy Kofman treats, consoles injured athletes by offering exercises for recovery

Paly athletes in good hands with Kofman

Stacy Levichev/The Campanile

Athletic trainer Stacy Kofman helps to stretch out senior baseball player Tyger Pederson before a practice. Kofman spends most of her time either stretching or caring for sore and injured athletes as well as teaching her sports medicine class.

Sports The CampanileA12 • February 20, 2008

By Alexi DAgAn

Sports Editor

While most high school seniors see second semester as a time to relax, Palo Alto High School senior Liv Jensen is doing just the opposite. This spring, Jensen will race in the National Club Swimming Associa-tion’s junior nationals in Orlando, Fl, in an attempt to qualify for the Olym-pic Trials in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle events.

Jensen already qualified for the Olympic trials in the 50-meter freestyle event with a time of 26.17 seconds last summer at the USA swim-ming nationals in Indianapolis, IN.

She now hopes to make the cut in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle events.

“Now that I have made the cut [in the 50-meter free], I am more deter-mined to achieve my fullest potential,” Jensen said. “I am able to see more clearly where everything going.”

Jensen first became inspired to start swimming when she watched the 1996 Summer Olympics on television. After watching the Olympic swim-mers, she insisted that her mom sign her up for swim lessons.

She began swimming for her local swim club, PASC (Palo Alto Swim Club), now called PASA (Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics), at the age of seven.

“At first, I mostly swam IM [individual medley], but I developed into more of a sprinter as I got taller,” the 6’2” Jensen said.

Some of Jensen’s greatest accom-plishments on her road to the Olympic Trials include winning the 400-meter relay at senior nationals last summer and tying the 50-yard freestyle Central Coast Section record time at the CCS championships last year.

“Whenever I would win a race when I was younger I would always be like ‘wow, now I’m really fast,’” Jensesn said. “Now I feel like it’s much more of a continuous develop-ing process.”

By SAm JoneS

Sports Editor

The Palo Alto High School boys’ Varsity soccer team continues to succeed despite inconsistencies this season, and is looking to secure a berth in the Central Coast Section tournament with a 12-4-5 overall record.

The Vikings are 7-4-2 in league play and finished the regular season, capturing a second place finish in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Athletic Valley League.

“We are pretty happy finishing the regular season in this position,” senior Max Wilson said. “Finishing second in the league and go-ing undefeated in the preseason made this a great season so far.”

The Vikings faced off against cross-town rival Henry M. Gunn High School on Feb. 1. The match with Gunn was crucial for the Vikings to stay in contention for the SCVAL title.

The match was a brutal and physical contest with plenty of fouls on both sides of the field.

The Titans racked up four yellow-cards and a red-card, but their bruising play controlled the pace of the game.

Gunn punched the ball past junior goalie Peter Johnson in the 36th minute, and did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game, leading to a disappointing 0-1 loss for the Vikings.

The loss against Gunn was Paly’s first since 2003, and a major let down for a previ-ously successful Viking squad that entered the game with a great deal of momentum.

It also dropped the Vikings out of the race for the SCVAL league title, forcing the team to play well in order to secure a berth in the CCS tournament.

Badly needing a win to reclaim some of its earlier momentum, the Viking defense came up big against Santa Clara High School on Feb. 4.

Junior Kevin Ashworth scored a header off of a kick by junior Adam Zernik at the 30-minute mark.

The Vikings’ back line played spec-tacularly throughout the entire game, holding onto the lead on course to an important 1-0 victory.

The Vikings had a successful close to their season against Saratoga High School on Feb. 6.

Senior Scott Ostrau gave an exceptional performance, scoring in the seventh minute and adding another goal early in the second half. Freshman Ricky Minno and sophomore Jenner Fox also contributed goals in a 4-1 dismantling that secured a second place league finish for the Vikings.

The Vikings feel a strong sense of pride for their successful but inconsistent regular season.

“Even though we would have liked to contend with Los Gatos for the league title, the guys feel proud about what we’ve done so far this year,” Kelly said. “We placed second in one of the hardest leagues in the Central Coast Section, so we have nothing to complain about.”

Despite the squad’s frequent offensive woes, the defensive line of the Vikings demonstrated defensive mastery in the past few games. The squad believes in the mantra “defense wins championships,” and contin-ues to improve upon their strong play during each game.

“We are a really strong defensive team,” Kelly said. “The lock-down play has always

been a lifeblood of the program.”

The Paly offense was inconsistent at the end of the regular sea-son, which prompted them to try out new combinations of play-ers on the front line.

“We like to rotate players on the of-fensive front,” Kelly said. “That way, we

can always try different combinations if we aren’t scoring.”

The Vikings entered the CCS tournament as the eighth seed, slotted to play against Se-quoia High School on Feb. 13. Paly already defeated Sequoia once this year in preseason play.

“We were definitely feeling confident about our chances against Sequoia because we beat them earlier without one of out best players, Kevin Ashworth,” Kelly said. “It should be a great game, as both our team and their team have really improved over the course of the season.”

Sequoia plays with a unique trapping defense, so the Vikings practiced various tactics to counter this.

“We practiced a lot of transition strategies to catch them off guard,” Wilson said.

Another focus in practices is making penalty kicks, which was a factor in the rest of the season due to constant ties. But now

that the Vikings are in the CCS tournament, penalty kicks could end up deciding a game.

“There have already been five ties this season, so games could quite possible go down to PK’s [penalty kicks],” said Wilson. “If that somehow happens, we’re confident that we will come out on top.”

The squad entered postseason with a lot of momentum, thanks to two huge wins to close out the season.

“The team is pretty poised and ready to start the tournament,” Kelly said. “We know that we are one of the best teams in the area, so we’re looking forward to playing some really competitive games.”

The Vikings opened the CCS tournament with a dramatic night game at Sequoia with the team’s season on the line. The opposing Cherokees controlled the pace at the outset of the game, frustrating the Paly squad with their quickness and ball control.

“We were getting beat up at first,” Wilson said. “For the first ten minutes or so we made a lot of mental mistakes that could have cost us big.”

However, the Vikings battled back and began to assert their hard-nosed style of play. The Paly mid-game surge was capped off by a tap in by Ostrau off of a Zernik cross, giving the Vikings a 1-0 lead with a half left to play.

The second half was a dead-even contest. The Vikings played defensively while Sequoia pushed to even the score, but the Vikings’ stel-lar midfield and defensive lines held strong.

The game ended with a 1-0 score, a hallmark victory for the defensive-minded Paly team.

“Our midfielders and defenders played outstanding defensively,” Kelly said. “They really won the game for us.”

Despite their huge win, the players still see need for improvement in their game.

“The team played a bit sloppy today and we had a few breakdowns,” Wilson said. “Fortunately, we were able to capitalize on one big play and hold strong defensively.”

The offense was held in check for the most part, and the players know that this must be addressed to have a chance at winning the CCS crown.

“We had a lot of dead balls on offense, and that needs to change,” Kelly said. “We found a way to score, but the guys know that our offense needs to produce if we want to continue on.”

Nevertheless, the squad feels great about its first round win, and looks forward to the next game, which should prove an even stiffer challenge.

“We earned this victory, without a doubt,” Kelly said. “We’re psyched about moving on

to the next round and playing this Saturday [Feb. 16].”

The Vikings faced off on Feb. 16 against first seed South San Francisco High School. South San Francisco is currently 19-1 and is the league champion for the PAL-Ocean division. The Warriors will provide tough competition for the Vikings in the next round.

The Vikings are confident and poised to continue their run in the CCS tournament.

“Obviously there’s a lot of luck in-volved, but we definitely have the talent and the chemistry to go all the way this year,” Wilson said. “The team has big expectations for this postseason, and we’re ready to play with anyone.”

Boys’ soccer aims to finish the season strongTeam takes second in league, goes into CCS with eighth place seeding

“Even though we would have liked to contend with Los Gatos for the league title, the guys feel proud about what we’ve done so far this year.”

Ian Kellysenior

Palo Alto High School senior Liv Jensen, who swims for PASA and Paly, will compete in the junior nationals this spring. Jensen hopes to reach the Olympic Trials in the 50-, 100- and 200-meter free.

“Liv has been a positive influence to our team. She has been with us since she was eight and has grown into one of the top high school swimmers in the country.”

Tony BatisPASA Head Coach

Jensen’s coaches also recognize her talent and appreciate her contribu-tion to her swim teams.

“Liv has been a positive influence to our team,” PASA Head Coach Tony Batis said. “She has been with us since she was eight and has grown into one of the top high school swimmers in the country.”

She was also a part of the 200-meter medley relay that broke the national record last year, and then re-set it after it was broken by another team.

The record-breaking relay also included Paly senior and fellow team-mate Colleen Fotsch.

“Liv really gives a positive atmo-sphere to any team, and helps people to realize their potential,” Fotsch said. “Before talking to her I never would have even thought about trying to qualify for the Olympic trials. The second time we swam the relay the air quality was really bad and everyone, in-cluding Liv, was getting sick, but she really took the leadership initiative and encouraged everyone to do their best.”

As Jensen looks forward to junior nationals this spring and the Olympic Trials in Omaha, NE. at the end of June, she has not forgotten her com-mitment to the Paly swim team.

“On the Paly team Liv is a captain, and even though she doesn’t have that official title on PASA, everyone recognizes her great leadership abili-ties,” Fotsch said.

While both of Jensen’s swim teams are very different from one another, she said that she does not prefer one over the other.

“My club team, PASA, is more focused on improving oneself, while on the Paly team, there is more em-

phasis on the team as a whole,” Jensen said. “During the Paly season there is much more of a team atmosphere, everyone cheers for their teammates. We’re like one big family.”

Jensen’s teammates were also there for her this summer in Indianapo-lis when she made the Olympic trials cut in the 50-meter freestyle.

“I had been there for a previous meet when she just barely missed the cut, and we were all nervous for her,” Fotsch said. “There was no question in my mind that she could get it, and when she did we were all so happy for her, it actually felt like I had gotten it myself.”

Batis believes that her immense success is due to her dedication, goals and positive attitude about her swim-ming and about others.

“ W h i l e she has quali-fied for Olym-pic Trials, she has a big upside for many other positive things to happen in her career,” Batis said.

Her goals for the Paly season th is

year include breaking the 50- and 100-yard freestyle records in CCS.

Next year, whether she makes the Olympic team or not, Jensen will attend the University of California at Berkeley, where she was recruited for swimming.

“If I did make the team, I think it would show me how far my abilities can take me, and I would be able to use it as a learning tool,” Jensen said.

Jensen says that optimism has contributed greatly to her success.

“I’ve gotten this far on hard work and not limiting myself,” Jensen said. “That’s a major component of how I swim. I know there’s not a big pos-sibility for me to make the Olympic team, but I’m not letting that stop me from trying.”

Michela Fossati-Bellani/The Campanile

Top Right and Bottom Left: Courtesy of Liv Jensen, Top Left and Bottom Right: Michela Fossati-Bellani/The Campanile

Paly junior Michael Hanabusa stiff arms an opponent in a match against Los Altos. The Vikings’ vigorous defense earned them second place in their league.

Scores

Upcoming games

Saratoga @ HomeFebruary 6, 4-1 W

Sequoia @ SequoiaFebruary 13, 0-1 W

CCS Quarter FinalsSouth San Francisco @ Burlingame

February 16, 12:00 noon

Boys’ Soccer

Determined senior swimmer races to Olympic Trials

LifestylesFeatures • A&E • People Wednesday, February 20, 2008The Campanile

Where’s the compromise?

Chris Clayton

A&E

Politics these days is largely characterized by extreme partisan-ship. Although we occasionally see Republicans and Democrats unite to pass bipartisan legislations, more often has George Bush’s presidency been characterized by a type of “my way or the highway,” as evident from his constant veto threats and fear tactics to force legislation he desires. Unfor-tunately, this type of policy allows for no compromise whatsoever, leaving the Democrats and Republicans in Congress essentially attempting to gain majority votes in order to pass legislation over Mr. Bush’s veto. This partisanship is further exacerbated by the control by the opposite parties of Congress and the White House. Mr. Bush simply refuses to accept any of the Democratic legislation, nor will the they accept legislation that Mr. Bush proposes.

The result of this partisanship is the lack of activity in Washington, which means, the lack of construc-tive activity. And, when Mr. Bush and Congress finally accept a piece of legislation, it is inevitably some form of compromise between Democratic and Republican principles.

That compromise facilitates con-structive legislation and its passing is a fact that Mr. Bush, in his ideological adamancy, appears to have forgotten. Apparently, he, during his presidency, has forgotten the history of progress in the United States, and of how much of this progress was founded upon compromise. Our Constitution would not exist as it is now had the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, or at least their equivalents at the time, not incorporated numerous compromises into the Constitution, including the inclusion of a bicameral legislature. As Advanced Placement United States History teacher Jack Bungarden so aptly states, our country was founded on three things: compromise, compro-mise and compromise.

This is not to say that Mr. Bush and other politicians should “compro-mise away” their beliefs continuously. However, they should be willing to sacrifice, to an extent, their absolute ideals to ensure practical legislation that will not only uphold the ideals of the respective politicians, but also to actually pass the legislation. Political values are useless if they remain in a committee, or are vetoed immediately by the president, and so both parties must accept compromise in order to actually pass legislation.

2008 is an important year for the United States, as it signifies a change in presidency, from George Bush to whomever the general populace elects. Currently, Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Hillary Clinton are the frontrunners, and for the most part each promises some type of change. For the most part, however, these four candidates offer changes in policy from that of Mr. Bush, rather than change in the actual political system. However, the primary focus of each of these four candidates should be not simply altering policy, but altering the way politicians interact with one another.

Regardless of whom the general populace elects, whether Democrat or Republican, that person, as presi-dent, will accomplish substantially less as president if he or she fails to compromise, regardless of whether the Congressional majority belongs to that candidate or not. I recognize that not all political ideals can be compro-mised. However, the extent to which compromise has been absent during Mr. Bush’s presidency is absurd.

Most people consider it so im-portant that a candidate representing their political party be elected. What they forget is the equal importance of electing a candidate who is willing to compromise when necessary, so as to produce actual accomplishments during the four or eight years of that candidate’s presidency.

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By P a u l i n e S l a k e y

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B10By Jillian Liu

By Gloria yu

Staff Writer

Nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto and its resi-dents are surrounded by an inevitable atmosphere of technology that supports new forms of entertainment and expedient ways of communication. Technology has gone so far as to sweep through the Palo Alto High School campus with its most recent trend, Web logging (blogging) and video logging (vlogging).

Blogging is the art of a personalized Web page, much in the form of an online journal, with frequent entry posts. Similarly, vlogging is when a user blogs, but articulates his or her ideas through videos instead of text. Both have become Internet phe-nomena and are popular searches on YouTube and Facebook.

Paly junior Tess Bellomo began vlogging two years ago and became interested in the hobby of vlogging through ex-perimentation. By simply carrying a camera with her and taking short, random video clips of friends and family, and later putting those clips together and editing them, Bellomo entered the world of video logs.

“My brother and I used to constantly make movies with our-selves or our toys as the actors,” Bellomo said. “Then we’d add a soundtrack, edit it and show it to our parents.”

Vlogging gives Bellomo a sense of pride because she creates a masterpiece out of something as ordinary as home videos.

“I love always being able to have memories on film,” Bellomo said. “It makes me feel very safe. I like the idea that one day in 30 years I will be able to watch some video of my friends being crazy and dancing around and get joy out of that.”

Bellomo sees vlogging as a way to explore and expand the creative mind. While Bellomo creates vlogs for her creative self, sophomore Evan Hahn vlogs and blogs for his own enjoyment.

According to Hahn, he originally began vlogging for fame. He started vlogging two years ago and hopes to obtain a job in the film industry when he is older, even though he said vlogging is just a hobby. While vlogging may come more naturally for others, vloggers like Hahn sometimes have to make a few adjustments to become accustomed with the process of vlogging when first starting out.

“My videos were mostly improvised,” Hahn said. “I usually plan what I’m going to talk about, but I don’t really know exactly what I’m going to say. I turn on the camera and talk a bit, and then I do it again after I’ve figured out more exactly what I’m going to say. I usually have several takes before I get exactly what I want.”

Hahn’s interest in video production set off a spark of interest that has today become his vlogging obsession.

“I make videos to get better at it so that 10 years from now, I might be making something that’s actually worth watching,” Hahn said. “At the moment, most of my videos are a waste of time.”

Hahn, who vlogs under the alias “Wheresthebrain,” hopes to inform and entertain his audience with his vlogs. He posts videos on Youtube and Facebook, and even has his own Web site, www.wheresthebrain.com.

“Usually, I won’t talk about my personal life in my vlogs, be-cause I think that’s boring,” Hahn said. “It’ll be me singing dumb songs and making farting noises.”

Like those of many other vloggers, Hahn’s audience consists of random groups of people.

“It always surprises me when I see who is watching,” Hahn said. “Sometimes there are people I know in real life that watch, and I had no idea that username was them. And of course, I have some creepers. That’s not surprising.”

Hahn, who uses Apple’s iMovie and Final Cut Express, makes vlogs concerning a variety of topics including religion, politics and

subjects of peer interest, such as his recent video entitled “Check Out Ma Grillz,” in which he raps about his new braces. Hahn also takes requests from users who submit comments on his videos.

“Some people tell me to do random stuff like eat a bag of chips,” Hahn said. “The feedback I receive is usually positive, but the negative stuff is much more worthwhile to read.”

As well as making videos addressing specific, usually random issues, Hahn also performs as the star in music videos. Hahn cur-rently has 225 uploaded videos on his most active account, www.youtube.com/wheresthebrain, 80 uploaded videos on his own Web site and 16 on another Web page. All these videos not only serve as a way to consume his free time, but are also used as encouragement for others to enter the world of vlogging.

“I know I’ve inspired a few people to make [their own] videos,” Hahn said. “But for the most part, it’s inspired the masses to waste even more time in front of their computers, which is something I’m glad to have done. That makes world domination so much easier.”

Paly class of 2009 student Jessica Cruz, who now attends Foothill Middle College, was influenced to vlog by watching other people’s videos. She began vlogging in early Jan. 2008 after putting up random clips of her friends on Facebook. Cruz later went on to voice her own opinions in self-starring vlogs.

“I started watching people on YouTube who were vlogging and I thought that they were really entertaining, even if they were just rambling about absolutely nothing,” Cruz said. “They were just fun to watch, so I decided to start vlogging too.”

Cruz sees vlogging as an outlet to express her feelings. Cruz said she simply has too much on her mind and has a tendency to speak her opinions whether or not people listen to them. For this, she is thankful to have her vlog.

“It’s just straight out fun, and if there’s random stuff on my mind, I can let it out and have a lot of people hear me,” Cruz said.

The Internet is a very resourceful place for vloggers like Cruz to post their videos. With many avid viewers and opinionated com-mentary to her videos, vlogging helped Cruz become more confident in front of the camera and more comfortable with expressing her opinions.

“It’s a really fulfilling experience because you get to let people from all around the world know what’s going on in your head by just one click,” Cruz said. “Hopefully I’ll still be vlogging when I’m older. It would be nice to see the progress I’ve made because right now its awkward talking to a camera since I’m so new at it. But in the near future I can definitely see myself vlogging, maybe even about a specific topic that I suddenly feel strongly about. You never know.”

developing arresters

By Julia Benton

“I like the idea that one day in 30 years I will be able to watch some video of my friends being crazy and get joy out of that.”

Tess Bellomo, junior

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“It always surprises me when I see who is watching ... And of course, I have some creepers. That’s not surprising.”

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FeaturesB2 February 20, 2008

The CampanileAvoiding the robocracy

Zach Harris

Students graduate early to explore outside interests

Facebook cyberbullying offends Paly studentsStudents use online applications to anonymously insult others with harsh comments

By Kelly Zhou

Staff Writer

While many juniors have yet to begin think-ing about senior year or their post-high school plans, junior Anastasia Nicolaou has already applied to college and is preparing to gradu-ate Paly with the class of 2008. A student who is opting to finish high school in three years, Nicolaou decided during the second semester of her sophomore year that she wanted to go to college a year early.

“When we were signing up for classes for junior year, I added up the credits that I had,” Nicolaou said. “I thought, ‘Wait a minute, I have all my credits. I just have to add certain classes.’ So I figured that if I could get out of high school in three years, I might as well.”

In order to graduate early, students have to talk to their teacher advisor, fill out a special ap-plication form and discuss their post-graduation plans with guidance counselor Susan Shultz.

“I first talked to my teacher advisor and then to Ms. Shultz,” Nicolaou said. “I had to fill out a form and then [the administration] changed my status from junior to senior.”

To meet graduation requirements, Nicolaou is taking senior social studies courses Economics and Psy-chology and four semesters of English this year along with the rest of her typical junior courses.

Once she graduates, Ni-colaou wants to go to a four-year college.

“I applied to a few col-leges so hopefully I’ll get into one,” Nicolaou said. “I applied to Wellesley, Smith, Whittier, Simmons and a bunch of University of California schools.”

Other students have chosen to skip their senior year of high school for a variety of reasons. Peter Vericat, who graduated last year but was supposed to graduate with the current senior class, changed his plans because he had other goals and interests.

“At that point in my life, high school wasn’t preparing me for what I wanted to do in life,” Vericat said. “I wanted to fulfill my aspirations as a filmmaker and move to Barcelona to embrace my cultural roots.”

After Vericat graduated, he was able to fulfill his goals.

“For half a year, I worked on a major docu-mentary, a few television shows and various projects for one of the largest television pro-duction companies of Spain,” Vericat said. “I didn’t have to take classes that wouldn’t help me, I got to work and do the things that I wanted to do in life.”

Students cite this newfound freedom as a major benefit of graduating early.

“You get to go to college earlier, which I’m really excited about because you get to focus on what you really enjoy,” Nicolaou said. “You don’t have to deal with high school for another year.”

Despite the numerous benefits of gradu-ating early, these students also recognize the disadvantages of missing their senior year of high school.

“You don’t get to graduate with the people you’ve been friends with for three years,” Ni-colaou said. “Also, my dad was worried that I wouldn’t be having a ‘senior year’ and that I would miss out on a big part of high school. But I’m basically doing everything with the seniors, I get to walk down the aisle at graduation, go

to grad night, prom and all of those other traditionally senior events.”

While most students who graduate early fulfill all of the Paly graduation require-ments, some students have chosen different methods of leaving high school.

Junior Ben Setel is plan-ning to leave Paly at the end of this school year by taking the California High School Proficiency Examination. If Setel passes, he will receive a Certificate of Proficiency, the legal equivalent of a general high school diploma, instead of a Paly diploma.

“It would be possible for me to graduate following Paly requirements, but then I would have to take more courses [than I want to],” Setel said.

Dissatisfied with his education at Paly, Setel wants to leave early and hopes to go to Union College in New York next fall.

“I want to get out of Paly,” Setel said. “At Paly, you’re not treated like a human, you’re

treated like a toddler. Why do we do homework? There is no focus on actually learning.”

Setel dislikes the high school system and plans to dedicate more time to his computer science projects and robotics work once he graduates.

Just as there are a few students who end up graduating a year early, there are also a few students who make the decision, only to change their minds later.

Junior Julia Singleton, who moved back home to Palo Alto right before the start of second semester this year, was expecting to leave high school at the end of junior year.

“I was really excited about going to college at a younger age and getting to experience all of that,” Singleton said. “I felt like I was finally getting to decide the direction of my life.”

However, Singleton recently decided against leaving high school early because of the environment at Paly.

“I didn’t want to miss my senior year at Paly because it seems like a lot of fun,” Singleton said. “You only get to go to high school once. Also, during registration, I realized that there were so many classes that I wanted to take, which I couldn’t take if I graduated early, so I decided not to.”

Others entered high school with the aim of graduating early, only to find that the limitations of the three-year course schedule were frustrating and unrewarding.

From freshman year, junior Michael Bloch planned out his classes so that he would be eli-gible to graduate in three years, including taking senior course AP English as a junior.

“I wanted to challenge myself and go through high school as fast as possible,” Bloch said.

However, Bloch decided right before the beginning of junior year to stay for his senior year.

“I just wanted to stay for my senior year, which everybody says is so great,” Bloch said. “Also, I tried to take too many classes that didn’t fit with the graduation requirements, which didn’t work. If you want to graduate early, you really can’t take anything other than what the credits require.”

However, to those who do make the effort to fulfill all of the course requirements and gradu-ate Paly in advance, the benefits are potentially worthwhile.

“I got to taste reality, not just high school,” Vericat said. “It brought me a small step closer to my dreams.”

By MiKi KenricK

Staff Writer

Many teens use the Internet to instant message, share pictures and even to work together on homework, but thanks to Facebook and other new online applications, teens are using the Internet as a means to bully others.

“People started leaving some mean messages and I thought it would be over and that they would leave me alone but the messages kept coming in,” said Palo Alto High School student “Jake,” who, like all the sources in this story, wishes to remain anonymous.

Recently, Facebook has given users the ability to add applications to their profiles that include arcade games and virtual gifts. While most applications seem harmless, others are causing a stir among Paly students.

“Honesty Box” is one Facebook application through which people can anonymously post anything they want about the person.

Because of this anonymity, many teens have used this application to leave mean and abusive comments in their peers’ Honesty Boxes.

Since so many Paly students have access to Facebook, cyberbullying has become more prevalent in the Paly student community.

Before he cancelled the applica-tion, Jake’s peers left him anonymous bullying comments, such as “U R A FAG....switch schools,” and “gay fag, no life, ugly girlfriend.”

Many students who use Facebook to bully each other do not leave nega-tive comments directly on each other’s profiles because their identities would be made public.

In anonymous Honesty Box com-ments though, students are not afraid to go all out, holding nothing back.

“I have gotten everything from ‘slit your wrists until you bleed to death’ and ‘put a gun to your head and pull the trigger,’ to ‘you will never be loved,’” freshman “Linda” said. “People who get hurtful comments in their Honesty Box need to realize that these people truthfully have nothing better to do than write mean things about other people in order to make

themselves feel superior, but they’re just making themselves look more pathetic.”

While many people may blame Facebook for the damages that these applications have incurred, Jake feels differently.

“I don’t think it’s Facebook that is to blame for this,” Jake said. “It’s merely a host for the applications, but I do think that it is the application developer’s fault. Their applications do more harm than good. Facebook is trying to keep a policy of neutral-ity.”

Henry M. Gunn High School senior “Mary” believes otherwise.

“Facebook shouldn’t allow appli-cations such as Honesty Box on their Web site,” she said. “It is extremely harmful and encourages bullying. It’s a cowardly way to tell people things that they don’t have the guts to say to their face and most of the time whatever they are saying is stupid and abusive.”

There are other students, how-ever, who feel that the blame lies with the bullies themselves.

“The application was created with the intention of being nice and supporting your friends, but as always, teenagers seem to take them too far sometimes,” Paly senior “Mark” said. “People should be mature enough to not attack people personally in their Honesty Box.”

In addition to the Honesty Box, other applications such as “Compare People” allow them to bully their peers. In Compare People, photos of two random students are presented with a question and a third peer votes on which friend fits the question more. Anyone who has the application can vote their peers superlatives like “Most popular” and “Hottest.”

Under an individual’s results, certain things such as how many people voted for them for a variety of questions can be seen and commented on by other Facebook friends.

“Someone on Compare People voted me as prettiest face and I got some really mean comments on them like ‘ew’ and ‘that’s disgust-ing,’” Mary said. “It just made me feel really horrible about myself for no reason.”

The most aggravating part of the Compare People application is that Facebook users can be nominated for a poll even if they do not have the application, Mary said.

“It was annoying that I saw my picture on some of my friends’ pages and I don’t even have the application,” Mary said. “I feel like the people that say mean things about their peers do it simply to feel better about them-selves.”

It is likely that the students who leave bullying comments for their peers see this as a joke and do not realize how much hurt they are inflicting.

“For a while these comments bothered me so much,” Linda said. “I

didn’t understand what I ever did to girls to make them hate me so much. I got a two page comment on Compare People that said the meanest things I have ever read. I found out later that it was from my supposed best friend.”

Some students feel that a clear way to avoid the issue of bullying on-line is to not go online whatsoever.

“I don’t use Facebook because it’s an unnecessary waste of time,” Paly senior “Josh” said. “It does nothing but create drama. It’s disgusting how so many people’s lives revolve around such an insignificant thing as the crap that they put up on Facebook.”

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project Report on Teens, 55 percent of teens nationwide who have access to the Internet are on MySpace or Facebook.

However, in an affluent com-munity such as Palo Alto where the majority of teens have access to the Internet and computers of their own, this percentage is suspected to be much higher.

Linda said it is frustrating that online bullies rarely see consequences for their grave actions.

“When my dad went to the Fa-cebook Office [in Palo Alto] to find out who wrote the two page letter to me, they said that they were not authorized to give that information out,” Linda said. “No matter how horrible the comment was, unless it says something like ‘I’m going to kill you’ or ‘I’m going to punch you,’ they cannot reveal who wrote it. He went to the police station next and they said the same thing. The comment was so horrible that the more I read it, the more I believed it was true and the more upset I got.”

Facebook should force the ap-plication to reveal the name of the person accountable for leaving such hurtful comments, Linda said.

“If someone said ‘I’ll trip you at school,’ their name can be revealed by the police,” Linda said. “But ‘put a gun to your head and pull the trig-ger’ isn’t enough for them, because it isn’t a direct threat. It’s not okay, the harmful comments really need to be stopped.”

Compare PeopleStudents rank each other in categories like attractiveness and intelligence and comment anonymously on their rankings.

Honesty BoxThrough Honesty Boxes, students privately and anonymously voice their true opinions of each other.

Hot or NotStudents rate each other’s “hotness” anonymously on a scale of 1 to 10 and look at each other’s statistics.

hatebookSome Facebook applications have become venues for cyberbullying at Paly.

Photo courtesy of jupiterimages.com

“You get to go to college earlier, which I’m really excited about.”

Anastasia Nicolaoujunior

Elizabeth Petit/The CampanileAt the end of this school year, Paly junior Anastasia Nicolaou, technically a senior, will graduate with the class of 2008 to attend college early to achieve her interests.

In the Internet-based, social network-connected, high-speed world in which our generation lives, Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s word choice just isn’t cutting it. The Web site www.urbandictionary.com, an online dictionary of slang compiled by people around the world complete with parts of speech and example sentences, has come to comprise a surprising amount of the teenage vocabulary. Urban Dictionary’s word of the day page has all but replaced that “word of the day calendar” you got from Mom last Christmas.

While it may not be useful in sixth period Humanities or third period AP English, Urban Dictionary has certainly improved the quality and variety of quad discussions over my three years at Paly. Because of Urban Dictionary’s easy accessibility, there is a lot clutter. This is most notable on pages for ambiguous first names, usu-ally overrun with definitions made by bitter ex-girl/boyfriends mocking their one-time suitors or friends playing a joke that only they will understand. Despite these hindrances, it is usually not hard to find the definition of “that word they said on Rob and Big [an MTV television show].”

With the presidential elections looming, Urban Dictionary has also become a place for political slang. Some recent additions to the urban dictionary database include:

“BaracKool:” The principal whereby whatever a cool person does becomes the way to appear cool for non-cool people. This refers to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama whose “cool” policies have often been adopted by other candidates.

“Hilldog:” A nickname for Demo-cratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, used in questions such as “Hilldog, what’s your stance on the Iraq war?”

Not surprisingly, Barack Obama has cornered the market on positive urban dictionary entries, a reflection of his success with youth voters.

Without Urban Dictionary, I’m afraid that conversation at Paly would strictly consist of the words “hella,” “awesome,” “tight” and various ho-mophobic slurs. And while the word “hella” is to the Bay Area as “wicked” is to Boston, it is time to expand our slang glossary.

I strongly urge every single Paly student to read Urban Dictionary’s “Word of the Day” everyday and use the words in everyday social circum-stances (and in class if appropriate). This would hopefully create a high school community with the largest collective slang lexicon the world has ever seen.

Some of my favorite Urban Dic-tionary entries include:

“Googleganger,” similar to a dop-pelganger, is another individual with the same name as you, whose records and/or stories are mixed in with your own when you Google yourself.

In other words, “Hey, I just Googled my name and found that I have three Googlegangers!”

Another favorite is “robocracy,” or government run by robots. They will be able to lie and have scandals more efficiently than humans.

For example, “Vote Candidatebot 4000 in 2008 or be processed for organs.”

“Hobosexual,” adjective. The opposite of metrosexual; one who cares little for one’s own appearance. Picture people like Michael Moore and Peter Jackson.

To make this school-wide slang vocabulary a reality, everyone must do their part.

Take a minute before leaving for school and look up the Urban Diction-ary “Word of the Day,” sign up for the word of the day phone updates or finally put those library computers to good use and fill your daily slang subscription during your prep.

If we can actually make this plan a reality, hopefully we can avoid the inevitable robocracy.

February 20, 2008 • B3The Campanile Features

By Mira Parekh

Staff Writer

Climbing up a huge hill, Josh Horen would have to walk for four more hours to reach his destination, one he had been walking towards for the past two days. Once he finally walked across the Golden Gate Bridge he would be able to rest from walking a total of 37 miles from Palo Alto to the Golden Gate Bridge in two and a half days.

A junior at Palo Alto High School, Horen decided that he would walk from Palo Alto to the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge for his creative project. A creative project is the final project assigned to students participat-ing in Humanities, a semester-long English elective at Paly. The project can be one for which a student achieves a previously unac-complished goal or unfulfilled desire, or learns something new.

Horen, who found the idea of a long walk appealing, decided that it would be ideal for his creative project.

“I’ve always wanted to walk to the beach, or do something like a pilgrimage,” Horen said. “The creative project simply gave me a reason. Although I would have liked to walk to the beach, I decided it would be better to walk to San Francisco than hike along some obscure trail.”

Horen said his parents did not object to his plan to walk to San Francisco, a feat that took close to three days and was recorded in a journal to be turned in to the teacher at the end of the trip. Horen decided to sleep with friends in different cities during the different nights, which was one of the reasons he decided to walk to San Francisco instead of going to the beach. To avoid highways, Horen took a route that runs through the hills along highway 280 until he reached Burlingame. Once in Burlingame he stayed at a cousin’s house for the night. From there, Horen continued on El Camino all the way to San Francisco. On the second day of his journey, Horen stopped in San Francisco for the night at a friend’s house and from there he went on to cross the Golden Gate bridge.

Walking all the way to San Francisco was a new experience for Horen, who had never walked a great distance before.

“I think the longest I have ever had to walk was around four miles,” Horen said. “For training I just walked to Addison and back, which is about three miles.”

However, in the three days he walked to San Francisco, each day Horen had to walk until he reached the places he was going to stay at before the sun went down. Horen packed lightly for the trip as well, taking only a little money for additional food, since he would be eating at the houses he would be staying in.

Wearing just jeans, a sweatshirt and his school backpack, Horen took with him two large water bottles, his journal, and his iPod. Horen also took his cellphone, though he didn’t use it to call anyone.

“I was content by myself so I didn’t re-ally ever feel lonely or feel the need to call anybody while walking,” Horen said. “The whole point of [the walk] was to be almost like a meditative process to relax and stop worrying and thinking of everything.”

For Horen the trip went quite smoothly, aside from being stopped by a park ranger who was patrolling around the area near a trail he was walking and crossing the freeway.

“He had this big dog in the back of his car and drove up to me and asked me what I was doing,” Horen said. “I had to tell him I was walking to San Francisco. I also had to run across the freeway which was kind of scary, because I almost got hit.”

However, according to Horen, walking through the city was probably the most event-ful part of the journey.

“I also saw a lot of weird people and things while I was walking through the city,” Horen said. “I thought I saw a dead homeless man, so I walked to him to investigate to see if he was okay, which was kind of scary and strange.”

For Horen, the biggest difficulties were the exhaustion that he experienced from walking.

“The hardest part of the trip was each day, there would always be a point where

you aren’t close enough to see your goal, but you’re hurting badly all over and really tired,” Horen said. “You just feel like stopping and giving up.”

Apart from the tiredness, another bad experience was the blisters. Despite the dif-ficulty, Horen never cheated and walked the whole way.

“It did occur to me once to cheat when I came across one of the first Bart stations,” Horen said. “I was so tempted to just hop onto a train. However, there weren’t many other opportunities to really cheat.”

Despite the pain and difficulties, Horen said that he enjoyed the experience and has gained new appreciation for San Francisco.

“It was tough, especially on the last day,” Horen said. “The worst part was when I was close enough to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but I had a huge hill in my way.”

Ultimately, Horen felt proud of his ex-perience.

“In the end I realized it was something that I would do again,” Horen said.

By Julia Benton

Staff Writer

While millions of Americans stay home to watch police dramas like Crime Scene Investigation or Cold Case, a few Palo Alto students learn

the real-life procedures involving law enforcement through Palo Alto’s Student Police Academy.

The Student Police Academy is an 18-week program presented by the Palo Alto Police Department. The pro-gram’s purpose is to introduce students

to the fundamentals of law enforce-ment and police organization.

Cadets act as part-time officers and receive training and experience in law enforcement.

While there have been other programs similar to that of the Stu-dent Police Academy, the program was created just last year thanks to a generous gift from the family of a slain police officer.

With additional donations, the PAPD hopes to hold two academy sessions per year.

“We hope to keep this program running as long as possible, in order to help the students and the com-munity,” PAPD detective Marianna Villaescusa said in an interview with the Paly Voice.

The second Student Police Academy began on Jan. 23, with the swearing in of eight police cadets by Police Chief Lynne Johnson. The program is held every Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and graduation is scheduled for May 27. All classes are taught by police officers and law enforcement personnel.

The program is directed by Vil-laescusa.

“We want to teach these kids how to take care of their own community,” Citizens Police Academy coordinator

By Cat Benson

Staff Writer

Weekends are a typical teenager’s time for sleep and relaxation, yet a growing number of Palo Alto High School students find themselves in an office teeming with enthusiasm and energy, packed with other students, young professionals, middle-aged parents and the elderly, all united with a passion for politics.

Obama for America opened its fifth California of-fice in Palo Alto on Jan. 13, following Senator Barack Obama’s unexpected victory in the Iowa caucuses. Sena-tor Hillary Clinton’s campaign followed suit, opening an office in Palo Alto the next week.

The local campaign offices of the presidential hope-fuls give students new opportunities to be involved in the fate of the country. Senior Rajan Narang, Director of Paly’s Students for Obama chapter, volunteers at the Obama office on El Camino Real, phonebanking target voters to sway their votes toward Obama.

“I volunteer for Obama because I believe in his message of change and his policies that will cause that

Susie Ord said. “We’re very excited about the program.”

All high school students are eligible for the academy as long as they have not had any felony or mis-demeanor convictions within one year of applying for the program. Candi-dates are also subject to a background check. Other application requirements include a minimum 2.0 grade point average, a letter of recommendation and parental consent. The academy looks for students who are interested in the possibility of a future career in law enforcement and who are willing to serve their community.

Paly junior Katie Jensen, who hopes to become a police officer, is currently enrolled in the Student Police Academy.

“I signed up for the academy because we do the same exact same stuff police officers do,” Jensen said. “I will have a foot in the door because I already know a lot about how the police department works.”

Through the program, students learn about police procedures, traf-fic enforcement, investigations and how to prepare for a career in law enforcement.

Students help improve the safety and quality of Palo Alto neighbor-hoods and schools by assisting officers

during special events and activities. During a typical session, students participate in hands-on activities that range from investigations and traffic enforcement to forensics and crime scene investigation. Students take classes in investigations, officer safety, defense tactics and other subjects.

“My favorite class is physical training,” Jensen said. “It pushes me to work my hardest.”

The cadets’ activities are similar to those in which the PAPD officers take part. Students wear uniforms, spend time doing march drills and learn discipline, Ord said.

The academy is also a great way to recruit new officers for the PAPD, as many participants are interested in pursuing careers in law enforce-ment.

The program will help students make valuable connections with the PAPD and other police offices, which will help make finding jobs in law enforcement easier.

“If you want to be a police of-ficer, I would recommend joining the academy,” Jensen said. “It is a lot of fun and it definitely prepares you for life as a police officer.”

Though the Student Police Acad-emy has already started, there are other options offered by the PAPD for teens

and adults interested in learning more about law enforcement. The Citizens Police Academy, which meets on Wednesday evenings from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., is open to all members of the Palo Alto community ages 16 and up. This academy will emphasize the basic elements of law enforcement and will introduce participants to the Palo Alto police organization in a classroom setting.

Participants will choose from classes in topics such as communi-cations, criminal investigations and officer safety.

Palo Alto residents ages 18 and up also have the option of volunteering for the PAPD.

Participants in the Volunteers in Policing program will help with traffic adjudication, patrol car maintenance, bicycle licensing and a range of other simple police tasks.

The PAPD is currently accepting applications from students interested in enrolling in the next Student Police Academy session, which will begin in September.

They are also reviewing applica-tions for the Citizens Police Academy, which will take place from Mar. 12 to Apr. 30.

Applications can be downloaded at http://www.papd.org.

change,” Narang said. “I believe that is what motivates all of our volunteers, who are of every possible background and demographic.”

Although Narang makes most of the phone calls independently, he has worked roughly 10 hours in the Obama office with other volunteers.

“Our office isn’t as busy now that the California primary is over, but we will still be calling voters in up-coming states,” Narang said. “I definitely plan to be part of that effort, as do the several other Paly students who volunteer at the office.”

Junior Ahna Rao has a similar experience volunteer-ing at Senator Hillary Clinton’s office in Palo Alto, which is based in the office of her mother, Amy Rao, on San Antonio Road.

“At the office everyone is motivated and energized,” Rao said. “It is a great environment to work in and makes you feel like you make a difference. It creates a much bigger picture than just Hillary Clinton. You are helping people vote and their voices be heard.”

Rao’s support for Senator Clinton comes from Clin-ton’s experience with politics and inspiring message.

“I volunteer because I think that Hillary Clinton would make a great president because she is inspirational and motivated,” Rao said. “As much as I respect Barack Obama and his efforts, I think that Clinton will be able to build from experience.”

A political discussion with her family led senior Kelly McPharlin into the fray of politics, igniting her zeal for Barack Obama and the change he vows to bring to America.

“I first heard about Obama from my family and then saw one his speeches,” McPharlin said. “I felt inspired about the message of his candidacy. As I learned more about each of the Democratic candidates, I started to admire Obama for his policies. I believe he can unite the country, so I decided to volunteer my time to support his campaign.”

McPharlin attended an informational meeting at the Palo Alto Obama office and then became co-captain of an online precinct.

“Every volunteer has a place at the office,” McPharlin said. “The atmosphere is inspiring and helpful, because so many people are united behind a common passion.”

McPharlin and Narang will continue to volunteer at the Obama office through the senator’s campaign, despite Clinton’s victory in the California Presidential Primary. The office will continue to organize phonebank calls to states with upcoming primaries, reminding the undecided and independent voters of the candidates.

Although Paly volunteers do not all agree on their choices for the Democratic candidate, they are united by a newly found craze for politics that will continue into their futures.

“It is important for students to not assume the same politics as their parents,” McPharlin said. “The youth makes up a huge constituency of voters, and need to be informed and educated about the voting process.”

Rao agrees that it is time for the youth to stand up and take accountability for the country’s future.

“I think that the youth sees that America needs change and wants to be a part of the future,” Rao said. “It is important that we get involved because we have the resources to influence people and to learn. Students have a voice and we are fighting for a better future for ourselves, not just our parents.”

Junior walks 40 miles for projectJosh Horen travels for three days during a journey to San Francisco

Student Police Academy trains hopeful cadets

Students volunteer in local campaign offices for Clinton, ObamaTeenagers find a way to become involved in politics in order to be part of an America that creates change

The Palo Alto Police Academy has a program in which student cadets act as part-time officers and receive law enforcement experience.

Julia Benton/The Campanile

Julia Benton/The CampanilePaly junior Josh Horen completed a 40-mile long journey from Palo Alto to the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. The trip was the focus for Horen’s English project. He recorded the two and a half day journey in a journal for the class.

Features The CampanileB4 • February 20, 2008

High school students choose unique science projects

The Laramie Project tells a tale of love, hope

By AlAn Chu

Senior Staff Writer

Riffs, butterflies and video games: all of these seemingly un-related subjects share one thing in common — they are all topics that Palo Alto High School students chose to investigate as part of the Science Research Program.

The program is directed by sci-ence teacher Carolyn Csongradi and requires students to choose a topic or project to research from a provided list.

“The list of available mentors and related projects vary from year to year,” Csongradi said. “This program is dependent on the community’s generosity, since all of the choices come from willing participants and mentors.”

The student has to search for a mentor or researcher related to the project before October. Research for the project involves hours upon hours of commitment to a specific area of science.

Students have an entire school year to research and develop their ideas. At the end of the year, the students present their findings via a Power Point presentation. Along with the presentation, the students must

submit a technical paper, describing all of their experiments and how their results compare to previous findings. Senior Daniel Furlong discovered an atypical topic not on the list of potential projects.

“I started to research musical riffs, or certain sequences of notes and rhythms in music, that are re-peated throughout the same genre,” Furlong said. “[My project mentor]Nick Janklow’s and my theory is that riffs can be studied to help people play an instrument.”

A family friend introduced Fur-long to the idea of studying musical riffs.

Through this contact, Furlong met professional musician Janklow, who has spent several decades play-ing music.

Without Janklow’s wealth of experience, Furlong said he would have never been able to determine all of the riffs.

“With an ear for riffs, people can play in tune with a song, even without hearing the beat before,” Furlong said. “[Our] hypothesis is that for every 100 riffs, there are 1000 songs that match up.”

Even though the musician deter-mines what riffs are present, Furlong listens to a song and creates a bare

bones version of the song, excluding verses and choruses. Furlong then gives the song’s skeleton to Janklow to fill in the chords.

“We chose about 30 songs, in a variety of genres, to listen and ana-lyze,” Furlong said.

With most of the research com-plete, Furlong has already started the next phase of his research. Collabo-rating with a programmer, Furlong plans to create an easily accessible user interface to teach the riffs to .anyone inter-ested.

“If a musi-cian learns about riffs, everything about learning how to play will become relative-ly easier,” Fur-long said. “Our plan is to eventually complete [our research along with] the program and probably market it for money. However, that is pretty far away, since we are still developing a prototype of the program.”

Currently, Furlong is still learning about how to program on his own. For the technical paper, Furlong will submit a paper about Janklow and his hardships and findings, since study-

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The cast rehearses a scene in which everyone mourns after the brutal murder of Michael Shepherd. The play portrays the numerous reactions of Laramie town citizens on how Shepherd was beaten and killed for his homosexual orientation.

Stacy Levichev/The Campanile

By lAurA Kurtz

Senior Staff Writer

The evening began with a candle and a story. The small flame in the seemingly infinite darkness represents the bright but delicate voice of the gay community and it burns brightly as Palo Alto High School senior Alex Rose-Henig begins to tell his story, the first in a panel discussion attended by cast members of Paly’s production of The Laramie Project.

During the panel discussion, Rose-Henig shares his extremely personal experiences as a gay teen, meant to teach the cast members of The Laramie Project what it is like to be gay.

The Laramie Project began as a documen-tary-style play created by college students in response to the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, and was composed from the over 200 interviews conducted by the Techtonic Theater Company shortly after the incident occurred. The story was turned into a movie in 2002.

The Paly production of the play will show on March 7, 8, 13 and 15 at 7:30 p.m. and costs $7 for students and $10 for adults.

Paly drama teacher Kathleen Woods said that the Paly Gay Straight Alliance is cosponsoring the production and members of the GSA also held an open panel discussion in which they discussed their lives as gay teens and answer any questions the cast had.

“The purpose was to help students in-volved in the production understand, at least to some degree, the challenges that Matthew Shepard, as a gay young man, faced on a regular basis,” Woods said. “The purpose was also to educate the students involved in the production that these problems are still present today; to help increase their sensitiv-ity to the experience of young people who are not at liberty, often, to just be themselves... It served to give them a larger sense of the importance of the play, and to help impress on them even more deeply the significance of the issues raised in the play.”

There were several factors that led Woods to put on The Laramie Project.

“I aim to choose plays the will offer some-thing special to the high school campus and the wider community,” Woods said. “Because we had done a classic comedy in the fall, I felt a more serious contemporary show would be the right choice.”

Although the murder is not a scene in the play, that incident is central to the plot. Shortly after midnight on Oct. 7, 1998 Mat-

thew Shepard was seen leaving a bar with two men. The next morning a local biker, Aaron Kreifels, found Shepard nearly beaten to death and tied to a fence.Shepard was then transported to the hospital and remained in a coma for several days until he died on Oct. 12. Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were both found guilty of murder and kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison.

The story follows many different residents of Laramie and tells how they dealt with this horrific crime committed by two young men raised in their own community.

The residents dealt with national atten-tion and heavy media coverage while they themselves questioned how something like this had happened right in their town.

Woods sees many benefits to putting on the play.

“The Laramie Project offers the cast, crew and the wider Palo Alto community an opportunity to stop and take a look at, discuss, and hopefully, re-examine ongoing, destruc-tive cultural prejudices that continue to create divisions among people and still regularly lead to violence,” Woods said. “I hope that our production of the show is one more step

toward the realization that every human being deserves to be treated with respect and to live without fear.”

Rose-Henig agrees that the play can ben-efit a variety of people in the community.

“The play is trying to send a message of love and acceptance, it is not geared toward a gay audience, that is to say it does not really promote any exclusively gay issues, other than homophobia,” Rose-Henig said. “But it tries to open people’s eyes to the violence and injustice that the LGBTQ [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer] community faces on a day to day basis, and shows the world that it is not okay to hate any person, race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.”

As a gay teen at Paly, president of the GSA and member of the Laramie cast, Rose-Henig was the perfect candidate to lead the panel discussion with the Laramie cast. Overall, he felt that the reaction to the panel was a positive one.

“The cast reacted to the panel in much the same way that most people react to it,” Rose-Henig said. “Many of them are surprised by some of the stories, and many people are intimidated at first to ask questions, but I know

that for some people it was their first experi-ence with openly gay people and for others it was a chance to explore their own questions about sexuality.”

Although the cast reacted positively to the panel, Rose-Henig does not believe that the rest of the entire Paly community will be as accepting of the play.

“I think that the play will be controver-sial,” Rose-Henig said. “I think that there are many, many homophobic people at Paly and I think that it is mostly due to a lack of education or exposure. I know that the story of Laramie will touch the hearts of many of the people at Paly and open their eyes to the acts of injustice being committed every day against my community, the LGBTQ commu-nity. That is a very good thing, but there are many people who will remain intolerant and choose to react angrily to Laramie, or choose to ignore it.”

The message The Laramie Project con-veys is universal; the play explores the impact of a hatred that was so strong that it changed countless lives forever. Throughout the play, characters ask over and over again, “How could people like McKinney and Henderson

actually exist?” The majority of the residents of Laramie attempt to separate themselves from the crime and try to redefine the town of Laramie despite the media’s portrayal of Laramie, as a homophobic and intolerant community.

However, one resident, Zubaida Ula, stands out in her conviction that Laramie needs to take responsibility for the murder. She says that as much as the other residents try to deny it, the perpetrators will always be connected to the community. This raises the fundamental question of whether a community is respon-sible for one of its citizen’s actions.

It is because questions like these that many believe The Laramie Project is a time-less story from which people will learn from far many generations to come.

Rose-Henig said that it is imperative that people realize that Palo Alto is not as toler-ant as many people want it to be and assume it is. Although the homophobia at Paly does not equal that of the town of Laramie, Rose-Henig maintains that he feels the presence of it every day.

“There are a lot of intolerant people here [at Paly] and every day there are reminders that I am different, if not incidents of outright discrimination which occur frequently,” Rose-Henig said. “Most people assume that Paly is a good place, a tolerant place, but really when it comes down to it, they have never been a gay teen, and they have never been a gay teen at Paly.”

Rose-Henig acknowledges local inci-dents of hate and hopes the play will raise awareness.

“I don’t think that all the people who call me a fag everyday will stop just because of this play, but it is a step, a leap in the direction that we need to turn as a school and a country, as a people and the only way to really produce that change is to confront the people that are homophobic to show them the ill effects of their hate,” Rose-Henig said. “Hopefully by showing them these things and by exposing them to new people and life styles and environ-ments, we will bring about this change.”

It is not likely that the production of the play will cause a major stir in Palo Alto, but Rose-Henig hopes it will make people think about the power of hate and in just planting that seed, The Laramie Project will have driven its message across.

“I see another reason for putting on this play,” Rose-Henig said. “I think it is especially important at Paly because there is a lot of homophobia that is overlooked and it needs to be accounted for and righted.”

ing patterns with riffs is a relatively untouched subject.

Unlike Furlong, junior Sara Con-nolly chose her project from the list given by Csongradi.

“I heard of Science Research Proj-ect last year and became interested in it,” Connolly said. “At the time I was very interested in psychology.”

Connolly learned of HopeLab through Csongradi. After a successful interview, Connolly became involved

with collect-ing data from a video game that HopeLab had already developed.

Connol-ly’s mentor wasVeroni-ca Mar in-Bowling, the

Research and Project director for HopeLab.

“I am helping HopeLab decon-struct, or improve, a video game about cancer,” Connolly said. “Basically [in the game] you are a little robot and you shrink down to the size of a cell and start to destroy cancer cells.”

HopeLab first gave the video game, called Re-Mission, to adoles-cent cancer patients. According to

Connolly, the game generally received positive feedback.

“Re-Mission is a way to look at the attitudes towards cancer before and after game play,” Connolly said. “HopeLab is also involved with other games that deal with obesity and other life issues.”

Connolly’s project is focused on the psychology of cancer, rather than the biological aspect. More spe-cifically, she records the reactions of both cancer and non-cancer patients to the game.

“So far I have been preparing to take and analyze data from non-cancer patients, like learning statistics and researching about cancer itself,” Connolly said. “We will start giving a chance for students to play ‘Re-Mission’ for about 30 minutes at a time.”

Before and after the time the student plays the game, Connolly dis-tributes a questionnaire with multiple questions about his or her opinion of cancer. The data collected will be compared and contrasted.

Senior Siming Zhang focused on the field of biology rather than psy-chology. Zhang chose a project related to entomology, the study of bugs.

“My mentor Jessica Shors and I, are studying the relationship between

Argentine ants and Lycaenid butter-flies,” Zhang said. “More specifically, we want to know how effective the ants are at protecting the butterfly larvae, compared to native ants.”

Zhang found the project among the list of various projects provided by Csongradi. Zhang said she found the study of butterflies to be the most interesting project on the list.

“We attached butterfly eggs to plants in native ant sites and in Argen-tine ant sites,” Zhang said. “We made barriers around half of the plants to prevent ants from interacting with the larvae so we could compare the results with the other half that had no barrier. We discovered that the Argentine ants were much more effective.”

According to Zhang, the ants have a symbiotic relationship. The larvae secrete a sugary liquid which the ants eat in exchange for protection.

Zhang has yet to find out why the Argentine ants are so effective, but with a little more time and patience, the answer may become clear.

Despite the broad range of re-search topics, Zhang believes that all participating students share a unique opportunity.

“The program is the perfect chance for anyone to get to apply sci-ence in the real world,” she said.

“The program is the perfect chance for anyone to get to apply science in the real world.”

Siming ZhangPaly senior

Check out our archives at:http://voice.paly.net/

February 20, 2008 • B5The Campanile Features

Megachurches inspire religious fervorBy Michael haMada

Staff Writer

The idea of going to church on Sundays is much different for Christians who attend megachurches, the often non-denominational congregations that seat thousands of parish-ioners per service.

According to the Hartford Institute for Religious Research, the 21 megachurches in the Bay Area preach to approximately 90,000 Christians each week. A megachurch is de-fined as a church that has an average weekly attendance of 3,500 people or more.

Recent movies and documentaries such as Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and Jesus Camp have portrayed megachurches as being places for die-hard conservative Christians to worship, showing clips of pa-rishioners yelling and rolling on the ground trying to repel sin from themselves.

However, at local megachurches, such as Mountain View’s Abundant Life Christian Fellowship, that is far from the case. In the past 12 years, the church has grown from about 300 to 5000 members of various different ethnic and economic backgrounds.

According to church staff member Evie Clark-Smith, what sets ALCF apart is its sense of community and the number of support groups that are run through the church.

A walk through the facility shows that besides the main sanctuary, there are multiple rooms for all uses. Children are encouraged to take classes or play foosball while watching the service on a giant video projection screen. ALCF also boasts 15 support ministries.

“We try to make it so everyone can find a place within the church no matter how old they are or where they are from,” Clark-Smith said.

However, this unique sense of community and togetherness is not the popular image portrayed in the media.

“After seeing Jesus Camp I was pretty shocked,” Palo Alto High School sophomore Josh Horen said. “It’s sad to think some people are so close-minded.”

In Jesus Camp, a camp counselor is filmed damning Harry Potter to hell because

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“[Potter] is a warlock, and not one of God’s children.”

Yet, other megachurches, such as San Jose’s Jubilee Christian Center, welcome into their congregation anybody who wishes to share in their celebration of Jesus Christ.

“At some of those other churches you have to dress in a certain way and follow strict rules, but here it’s just about having faith,” Jubilee pastor Adam Bernal said in a recent sermon at the church. “If you’ve been in jail, God still loves you. If you’re going through a divorce, God still loves you. If you’re having strange sexual tendencies, it’s okay; God still loves you. No matter what happens, God still loves you, so have faith.”

According to the Hartford Institute, most megachurches are built in new neighborhoods to reach as many people as possible.

“We [Christians] have all been to boring or out-of-touch services in our past but the Gospel is anything but boring or out-of-touch,” Bernal said. “It is a message that is vibrantly exciting and relevant today for living a suc-cessful life and we try to convey this at the Jubilee Christian Center.”

Even though California is home to more megachurches than any state in the country, many Paly students find it surprising that there are so many congregations in or around their hometown.

“Megachurches seem really intense,” Paly sophomore Daniella Florant said. “They seem a little out of place around here because we’re so liberal.”

Besides the number of people that attend the services, the main differences between a regular church and a megachurch lie in the forms of multimedia the latter uses to spread their message.

Most megachurches use large multimedia screens, televisions and numerous speakers for better sight and hearing of the services. Megachurches also contain a multitude of other accommodations for its members. For example, Jubilee has its own coffee shop and bookstore, which sells everything from Christian self-help guides to Bible story comic books.

Jubilee is the largest megachurch in the Bay Area with over 10,000 parishioners each

Visitors to the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church find services accompanied by multimedia presentations on multiple screens, a common element of megachurches; other megachurches offer services including coffee shops and bookstores.

week. Jubilee’s multi-purpose room also serves food so that churchgoers can watch the sermon on a large screen while eating breakfast.

On top of all of that, Jubilee streams all of their masses online, where they have viewers from around the world. The center also broadcasts their sermons a on local Bay Area radio station.

The main stage where the sermon takes place has two giant screens on either side that display pictures and passages from the Bible throughout the sermon.

Jubilee also has door-greeters to greet all churchgoers and sign-language experts to interpret the service for the deaf.

What Jubilee has done, like many other megachurches around the world, is take their sermons and make them as accessible as

possible to anyone that is interested in the Christian faith. According to Clark-Smith, church is all about communication, connection and community, and megachurches are able to finance these various programs.

“At our church in Menlo Park [the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, which has an aver-age weekly attendance of over 2000 at each of its five services], the biggest advantage is that there are lots of programs for all sorts of people,” Paly juniors Hannah Miller and Sarah Haydock said. “It is very socialized and draws from all around the Bay Area. Our church at-tracts really great pastors and staff that in turn make the church what it is.”

Megachurches have stressed the impor-tance of spreading their beliefs to as many people as possible.

According to the Hartford Institute, megachurches try to preach beliefs that can be applied to every day situations, resulting in their wide-scale appeal.

According to Forbes.com, megachurches in the United States also have an average annual net income of almost five million dollars.

Megachurch sermons are typically more lively and straightforward than those at regular churches, often times telling the parishioners exactly what to believe. However, Bernal said that he doesn’t preach about political issues.

“I don’t care who the next President of America is,” Bernal said. “Whoever it may be I will pray for them and that will be that. Hilary, Rudy, tooty, fruity, I don’t care be-cause Jesus Christ is my real leader and he always will be.”

While vlogging is becoming more popular, bloggers are still active and opinionated. Junior Ashley Lamb began blogging last year and feels that it overrides vlogging be-cause of the notorious Lonelygirl15, an acclaimed home schooled 16-year-old girl named Bree, and the scam she caused last year “sucked,” Lamb said.

The videos created by Lonelygirl15 were part of a project conducted by three people in Los Angeles who were merely intrigued by the blossoming online commu-nity of video blogging. The group’s interest in the online community inspired them to create the fictional teenager Bree just to see what would happen.

Scams like this are only part of the reason why Lamb chooses to blog. Lamb blogs using the Facebook Notes ap-plication, which allows users to tag their audience; namely, specific friends who she thinks should read the blog.

Lamb first began by reading other peoples’ blogs, saw their therapeutic value and thought to try it out for herself. Much like vlogging became an outlet for Cruz, blogging developed into a form of expression for Lamb.

“Blogging really helps me vent, although I do disclaim that not all of the things I write about are non-fictional,” Lamb said.

In her blog, Lamb writes mainly about love in the form of poetry and monologue. Her blogs touch on the serene, discreet, blindly beautiful aspects of the teenage years.

“I talk about the insecurity and the stress that comes with liking or loving someone,” Lamb said. “Everyone else writes about politics and the environment, so I need to find a new track.”

Even though blogging currently serves as a passive outlet for Lamb, she aspires to continue writing blogs.

“I sort of want to go somewhere with my writing but I have to prioritize,” Lamb said. “I just wished more people would comment on them.”

Hahn argues that vlogging surpasses blogging on many levels. One of which is that vlogging creates a visual for the viewer. According to Hahn, it is a combination of all subtleties; pictures, acting, writing, music and editing are all needed.

“If you screw up any of those, the whole video is shot,” Hahn said. “But if you do it well, it’s more impressive and amazing than any other kinds of art. In short, you can’t hear farting noises with just words.”

Many people blog and vlog back and forth, throw-ing positive and negative comments at each other. While technology takes reign on people of all ages, blogging and vlogging are popular trends with adolescents and will only continue to spread. Even Paly’s Student Council has a blog, which can be found at http://palyasb.blogspot.com.

“It’s addictive,” Hahn said. “I remember there was an article awhile back in the The Campanile about drug dealing, but what you should be much more worried about is video blogging,” Hahn said.

Tech-savvy students find blogging an addictive habit

Hannah McGovern/The Campanile

VBLOGS, Continued from B1

Features The CampanileB6 • February 20, 2008

By HannaH Bystritsky

Staff Writer

There are over 200 different varieties of mushrooms growing all over the United States. A multitude of them can be found growing in the many forests in and around the Bay Area.

There are various societies dedicated to mushroom-enthusiasts, individuals who devote their time to discovering the many different types of fungi that grow in the forest. These societies promote the use of mushrooms for countless foods like soups, salads, hot dishes, sandwiches, omelets and in medicines.

“I like to connect with nature, so my aunt and I went into the forest and spent hours searching for mush-rooms,” junior Alexandra Souverneva said. “It was quite an adventure. There are hundreds of them growing everywhere and we gathered a lot. I think anyone would love mushroom picking.”

In California, collecting mush-rooms is restricted on many public grounds due to the need to preserve nature. However, a handful of parks allow and even greatly encourage mushroom picking.

One place that is not far from San Francisco that allows people to come gather mushrooms is Salt Point State Park in Sonoma County.

“I went mushroom hunting with my family a while back,” sophomore Anton Kanza said. “It was a pretty cool experience. We went to the for-est and found many different types of mushrooms growing in the area we went to.”

There are multiple dangers that confront mushroom gatherers. Many hunts for mushrooms in the forest can end tragically for individuals who lack knowledge regarding various types of mushrooms.

If people are unaware of what kind of mushrooms they have col-lected, they can experience dangerous side effects such as falling violently ill from food poisoning.

There are over 50 different spe-cies of local indigenous poisonous mushrooms that, if ingested, can lead to serious food poisoning and even death.

The Sonoma County Mycologi-cal Association is very persistent in urging mushroom gatherers to be extremely cautious before and after eating the mushrooms that they have recently collected.

The association encourages and advises people to refrain from con-

suming mushrooms that they have gathered if they are not entirely sure of the specific species they are about to consume.

“We do not eat the colorful mushrooms,” Souverneva said. “Usually in nature, the brighter the color the mushroom has, the more dangerous and possibly fatal the mushroom is to consume.”

Many mushrooms can contain contaminants or other types of bac-teria from miscellaneous sources.

It is always a good idea to consult an expert on different types of fungi before pro-ceeding to eat the collected mushrooms.

“Smaller m u s h r o o m s are the yum-miest,” Sou-verneva said.

Ano the r common danger when hunting for mushrooms is the possibility of find-

ing a mushroom that is spoiled. Other wildlife in the forest also enjoy

mushrooms as well, and will forage for mushrooms and eat them partially. This can make the mushrooms dan-gerous for human consumption.

Worms and spiders often build nests inside a mushroom, so it is especially im-

portant for gatherers to inspect each individual fungus by breaking it down the middle and checking for holes or tiny dark dots.

There are species of worms and other insects that release toxins into the mushrooms which could also lead to an extreme case of food poisoning.

For some individuals, mushroom gathering can be a spiritual, relaxing, educational and entertaining experi-ence.

Bonding with nature, even in such a simple way as mushroom picking, offers an opportunity for people to experience the natural phenomena that the universe has to offer.

Mushroom gathering is a sig-nificant part of many cultures as well. For instance, mushroom hunting is a pastime that many Russian children participate in with their family and friends.

This activity has been around for many generations and is practiced by some, especially in eastern and northern Europe.

There are many opportunities for mushroom gathering in the Bay Area. For those who do not like to go out into nature and experience the outdoors, there are mycological societies that hold fungus fairs.

Fungi fairs are often hosted all over San Francisco and Berkeley. The fairs do not take place in the forest, but are rather held in buildings or on a designated street. People from all over Northern California come to these festivals to share their knowledge of mushrooms

Experts often give slide shows and lectures to interested gatherers on the different ways of forging, cooking and cultivating the multitude of fungi.

The cold and wet seasons in California are the most opportune times to venture out into the forest on a mushroom picking expedition with friends or family.

“I would recommend mushroom hunting for everyone,” Souverneva said. “It’s a great experience.”

Mushroom gathering attracts local families Students find ways to connect to nature through wild mushroom picking, foraging

Julia Benton/The Campanile

Although mushroom gathering can be a fun pastime, it is also hazardous if the gatherer does not have adequate knowledge of fungi species. The Sonoma Country Mycological Association urges mushroom gatherers to be cautious when gathering and eating fungi.

“I would recommend mushroom hunting for everyone. It’s a great experience.”

Alex Souvernevajunior

The Ragga Muffins Reggae Festival will return once again to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on Feb. 23, bringing the Bay Area what is recognized as the largest reg-gae festival in the United States.

This year will be the 23rd year that the festival has taken place. It was created to honor the art of reggae music and reggae legends such as Barrington Levy and Anthony B. The festival hosts shows in Long Beach, Santa Cruz and San Francisco.

The San Francisco show is a full day with plenty of reggae throughout the show. Anyone who loves reggae or even slightly enjoys the bouncy guitar riffs, upbeat piano, complex drum pat-terns or steady bass notes characteristic of reggae music should come indulge in this show.

The line-up has seven performances with artists from all over the world offering their own unique style. The tickets are $39.50 if bought in advance or $45 at the door. The concert goes from 3 p.m. until midnight.

Alpha Blondy comes all the way from the Ivory Coast, bringing with him a powerful roots reggae sound. The sound is a standard reggae groove that flows nicely and is easy to dance to. On his recorded tracks the guitar upbeat is very sharp and clean, which adds energy. His songs are multilingual, incorporating French, English and Dioula dialects. Alpha Blondy’s lyrics are political and he speaks out against unjust authority and injustice in an often humorous way. In addition, many of his songs have to do with unity, a common reggae topic.

At 43-years-old, Barrington Levy holds the record as the most-requested vocalist in reggae music history and is still going

strong. He is a favorite in Jamaica and throughout the world. Levy has had songs at the top the reggae charts worldwide. He has a very forceful voice with an energetic band to match and his lyrics range from exposing the truth about being trapped in poverty to songs describing the beauty of Jamaica and the culture.

Anthony B propelled himself to the forefront of reggae music with his first album Predator and Prey in 1996. Anthony B converted to Rastafarianism when he was in high school and became a member of the Bobo Ashanti branch of the Rastafarian movement. Bobo Ashanti members are known for wearing long robes and turbans. Anthony B is no exception.

Anthony B became interested in recording his own music in the late 80s when the most popular reggae songs were focused mainly on women. He did not believe in degrading women, so he decided to create music about politics and social change instead.

The musician was inspired by his favorite artists, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. His music reflects the sound of many of Jamaica’s reggae legends. He is also known for his fiery, high-energy live performances.

Midnite, a roots reggae band that hails from the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Croix, involves moving bass lines and melodic melodies in their songs. Midnite’s songs use a chant-and-call style, which sounds as if the lead singer is preaching through the music. Their lyrics often touch on the struggle of the oppressed and how politicians refuse to give the poor voices or respect. Midnite’s songs also talk about the economic and social settings of different people, the value of education and the redemption that human kind can make for themselves.

German-born Gentleman brings with him a rock and roll sound fused with standard roots reggae style. He also has some

songs with hip-hop sounds, during which he raps more than he sings and veers slightly from standard roots upbeats.

In concert, the musician plays with a great enthusiasm, often requesting that the crowd jump along to his songs. He sings mostly in Patois, a Jamaican-Creole English. Although he is European, Gentleman is quite popular in Jamaica, which he considers an honor.

Gregory Isaacs represents the older generation of reggae music at age 58. He emerged in the early 1970s along with Lee Perry, Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, where some of the best reggae is created and recorded, Isaacs has become one of the most popular reggae artists in the world. Isaacs continues to appeal to the old and young fans of reggae music, because he constantly experiments with his sound. Isaacs’ most popular works are love songs with a mellow and relaxed reggae sound.

Representing the United States is local Santa Cruz group Soul Majestic. Soul Majestic consists of seven co-ed members with a women and man as the lead singers. They started their band in the late 1990s and is one of the driving forces in the development of California reggae. They fuse jazz, rock and hip-hop into there unique sound and have original lyrics about topics ranging from the environment to family to social and economic worries.

In 2004 Soul Majestic recorded their second album Un-til That Day in Bob Marley’s legendary Tuff Gong studio in Kingston, Jamaica.

This concert is a great day out for any reggae lover. The show is full of talent and positive energy, with seven artists all with their own matchless styles and informative and inspira-tional lyrics.

Curry. The word used to send shivers down my spine. Imagine experiencing curry for the first time at the tender age of 15. But when I rediscovered curry in the recent years, I couldn’t believe what I was missing. All the flavors of curry flowed around my tongue like a sea of deliciousness. I could not stop eating it. Then an idea popped into my head. Why not go beyond taste and find out more about curry? So off I went to the Internet’s library: Wikipedia. What I found there shocked and awed me into silence. Well, as silent as I could get with a spoon in my mouth and a bowl on my lap.

Contrary to popular belief, curry is just not a dish from India. Curry is any sauce that comes from India. It is eaten with rice, bread or just chugged down like Red Bull. India is the place to go for curry. Another misconception is that curries are spicy, I’m talking about burn-your-tongue-off spicy, reduce-a-veteran-rugby-player-to- tears spicy.

For the most part, Indian curries are a mix of spiciness and flavor. So it is not always tears-of-pain hot, but relative to everything else, they are spicy. Of course, in India, curry is just to make meals a tad tastier. It goes without saying that any is almost like what Worchester sauce is to hamburgers.

With all these misconceptions floating around, it is not surprising that people tend to overlook curries from different civilizations. As mentioned before, India is Curry Central. It is the place where it was first invented and then promptly eaten.

One society that later accepted curry is China. Chinese curry, in general, is a milder form and comes in several different colors. There always is the option to eat it without rice, but then again there is always the option of listening to pop-reggae-funk-opera fusion. It may seem like a great idea at the time, but in several seconds, pain and regret will come. If you cannot handle Indian spiciness, or are not willing to find any milder Indian curry, than Chinese curry is the dish for you.

Going slightly east of China, we find the Japanese version of curry. The colors of Japanese curries seem to try to imitate a palette for paint. Ranging from black to red, it is surprising that it can be considered curry. If not for the chili powder ever present, some of the curries may even be eaten as a dessert. There are pieces of fruit mixed into some of them. They even put sugar into the sauce and serve it as if it is a meal. This is slightly unorthodox to say the least. Then they go and decide to follow the rules and serve the curry with rice, probably to appear normal. I am still trying to figure out their cur-ries. But if off-beat flavors and colors tickle your fancy, Japanese curry is right up your alley.

Then there are the misnomers, like vegetarian curries. These are alien enough to be called a culture. Instead of using meat as the main attraction, it is replaced with a variety of veg-etables, the usual minority of the dish. It is like shouting out the answers in the middle of taking a test; it just does not make any sense.

If being masochistic is your thing, then eating this variation of curry will be number two on your list of fun things to do, right after watching daytime television for several hours. Of course there are people out there who will disagree, but do not listen to them. Anyone who disagrees has already completed the first objective on the list, and can now be considered a human vegetable.

Of course, there are more styles of curries than what is described here. I am merely giving uninformed people a spring board to discover the magical quality of curry. If anyone disagrees over the taste of curry, then it is like saying they dislike attaining enlightenment. While they are eating slop, you can ascend and experience the bliss known as curry.

Chu On This:Curry 101

Alan Chu

Ragga Muffins line-up hosts reggae legends

Palo Alto’s “Third Wave” inspires German filmmaker

http://www.welle.info/German director Dennis Gansel draws inspiration for his film, Die Welle, from the historic 1967 “Third Wave” experiment that occurred at Cubberley High School.

www.earthcultureroots.com/artist_anthony.html

Bay Area reggae fans celebrate diversity of music at 23rd annual festival in San Francisco

Reggae artists Alpha Blondy and Anthony B are two of seven artists set to play at the 23rd Ragga Muffins Reggae Festival in San Francisco. The festival, which will take place at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Feb. 23, is a dynamic concert that will incorporate the work of many different classic reggae legends and styles.

A & E

By Sarah Stringer

Spotlight Editor

In 1967, Ron Jones, a teacher at Cubberley High School, began a five-day experiment aimed at teaching students about the rise of fascism. The results: an unexpected rise in student par-ticipation and support of the movement, called the “Third Wave” and stories of the process that continues an impact to this day.

The reputation of the experiment stretched internationally, evidenced by the new German movie Die Welle, or The Wave, which recently premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which takes place in a German high school instead of Palo Alto, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, the highest award given at Sundance.

Die Welle joins a series of other media reproductions of the experiment, including The Wave, a book written by Todd Strasser under the pen name Morton Rhue, and a short televised movie with the same title.

One of the reasons these tales of the Third Wave test still makes an impression on audi-ences is the psychological basis of the students’ reactions.

While one student told Jones during a lesson about Nazi Germany that “it couldn’t happen here,” according to the Palo Alto Centen-nial, the involvement of students in his lesson demonstrate one method through which fascist leaders gained staunch support of their regimes during World War II and how this mindset made anything possible.

Jones was an experimental teacher, who had just graduated from the Stanford Teacher Education Program and interested in teaching students in unique, engaging ways.

He wanted his students to not only under-stand, but to truly grasp the lessons conveyed in his sophomore World History class.

On the first day of the experiment, which was intended to be only one day, Jones an-

nounced the creation of a new youth organization called the Third Wave.

Jones, acting as the leader, insisted on perfect, uniform behavior, including straight posture, quick and formal answers to his ques-tions and efficient entering and exiting of school buildings.

According to The Catamount, the Cubberly High School newspaper, Jones told his students that the Third Wave was a national movement aimed at eradicating democracy.

According to an 1967 interview with the school newspaper, Jones said “[democracy] has many unnatural aspects since the emphasis is on the individual instead of a disciplined and involved community.”

Soon Jones began noticing that students not only obeyed his orders, but began improving in class and adopting new responsibilities. Jones noted that it became easier to teach students now that they were more organized and committed to the idea represented by their motto, “Strength through Discipline.”

Yet there was also opposition. After learn-ing about the experiment and the way students became extremely involved and dedicated to the Third Wave, a group of students organized “The Breakers,” an opposition group to other students.

They put up posters and made fliers counter-ing the messages of the Third Wave. In the five days the experiment ran, the group of participat-ing students grew from just a few members of his sophomore class to 200 members, as more and more students requested to join.

The movement spread outside the class-room, as students undertook jobs as Jones’ bodyguards and spies, telling him about students’ transgressions such as poor saluting and plots of revolution.

When informed of an offense, Jones would decide whether or not to act and had a list of a various punishments for students who broke rules. Towards the end of the movement, students

were deeply loyal to their cause and skeptics were generally banished and ostracized.

Three students, who were critical of the movement, were threatened by participating students on the last day and Jones had to per-sonally escort them to the school library to keep them safe. On Friday, Jones called an assembly of all members of the Third Wave to announce the end of the project.

Students were surprised to learn that they were part of an experiment and not really join-ing a national organization called the Third Wave. Some had emotional reactions, crying at the news.

Then, to connect back to the subject matter, Jones showed a video about Nazi Germany to finish the lesson. Some students have not said

they made connections between the experiment and the lesson Jones was trying to teach.

Mark Hancock, one of the students involved in the experiment, mentions that grades, and not history, were motivating the behavior.

“It wasn’t Nazi German life that mat-tered,” Hancock said in 1991. “It was Palo Alto grades.”

In any case, the project has fueled psy-chological inquiries, social experiments and public interest for years, the latest result being “Die Welle.”

Jones’ internationally publicized experi-ment shows that even in a quiet suburban town, the right conditions can influence a group of people to echo basic fascist practices of fallen regimes.

By ChriS gonnerman

Senior Staff Writer

The Campanile

February 20, 2008 B7

A & E February 20, 2008 • B9The Campanile

By Crystal Wang

Staff Writer

For three hours every Sunday, members of Late Notice, a jazz band comprised of seven Paly sophomore boys, meet to learn new songs and practice for upcoming gigs.

The band consists of Matt Segall on tenor and baritone saxophone, Evan Gitter-man on alto saxophone and bass guitar, Elliot Sanborn on tenor saxophone, Grant Audet on trumpet, Julian Pitt on drums, Ben Sklaroff on keyboard and Chris Tang on guitar.

The boys formed the jazz group during the sum-mer of 2005.

“I got a call from Matt one day and he said he and a few others were forming a band,” said Audet, who has been playing trumpet for almost six years. “It was pretty informal. At first, we just got together to start playing but it developed into a little more and now we’re playing some gigs.”

The band was officially named Late No-tice for a last-minute talent show performance at Jordan Middle School during the boys’ eighth grade year.

“They asked us to play for the talent show two days before the show,” said Segall, who has played saxophone since sixth grade. “They needed someone else, so that’s how we got the name Late Notice.”

According to the boys, each of them shares a strong passion for jazz music.

“There are no boundaries in jazz,” Segall said. “It’s very broad. There’s a lot of freedom to express.”

Improvisation is a crucial aspect of jazz music and is the element which allows the freedom the boys admire so much in their compositions.

“Jazz is all based on improvisation,” said Sanborn, who took up tenor saxophone in seventh grade. “It’s really different each time. You just make stuff up and it’s fun. You can be more creative.”

Jazz music requires a lot of communica-tion between the players since it contains so much improvisation, but the boys especially enjoy that aspect of jazz.

“Improvising while basing your ideas off other people is kind of neat,” said Gitterman,

who has played saxophone for six years and bass guitar for three years.

Furthermore, the band members have realized that they need strong communication since the group is relatively large.

“It takes a lot of cooperation to get seven people together,” Audet said. “We definitely had some troubles with gigs and organizing in the past, but we worked through it.”

In the beginning, the members had trouble staying together and playing the melody in uni-son with all four horns, according to Gitterman.

Throughout the years of practice, however, they have learned more about playing in syn-chronization with each other and have strongly developed the right rhythm, accompani-ment and harmony.

Ever since they joined the band, many of the members feel that it has helped push

their musical talent forward. “Musically speaking, everyone’s getting

better individually,” Gitterman said. “But we’re also getting better as a group.”

The band has generally played jazz stan-dards, or well-known jazz tunes, at gigs, but recently they have been starting to write their own music, Sklaroff said.

One person usually starts a song alone and then the rest learn and improve the piece by giving feedback.

“It is hard for us to brainstorm together because we all have different opinions on how songs should sound in the beginning,” Sklaroff said.

For Sklaroff, who did not know jazz music prior to joining the band two years ago, the composing process starts with fabricating the melody and then the chords around it. Oth-ers write the chord progression first and then create the melody.

Gitterman said, a typical Sunday practice for the band members begins with going over new pieces and learning new songs that the members themselves composed.

“We’ve been trying to write music for a while,” Gitterman said. “We finally have several original pieces that are actually good enough to play. The song-writing process is going a lot better so we will probably be able to play some new songs at gigs now.”

Late Notice has played at many private events including block parties, school fund raisers, wine-tasting events, Bar Mitzvahs and the Palo Alto Farmer’s Market. They have also been booked at a couple of clubs and restaurants including Café Fino in Palo Alto and the Agenda Lounge in San Jose.

The boys have said that their audience usually has positive reactions to their band and their music.

“People always say that they’re very sur-prised that we’re so good for being so young,” Audet said. “They’re always surprised that

we’re in high school. I think they only take us seriously once they’ve heard us play.”

Not only does the band play for a wide variety of events, but it also performs for a vast range of age groups. Sanborn said their elderly audience typically find their music soothing and like that such young kids play their favorite jazz pieces.

“Then when we played at an elementary school for a fund-raiser, there were all these kids dancing,” Sanborn said.

Since middle school, the boys have shared many experiences with each other

Sophomore ensemble produces unique jazz tunes

which has strengthened their friendship and camaraderie.

“The best part is that we can communicate well with each other and we’re all very com-fortable playing with each other,” Gitterman said. “That’s pretty important in jazz.”

After three years of practicing together at Pitt’s house every Sunday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., the band has established an impres-sive repertoire as well as a strong sense of brotherhood.

“The best thing is just having these guys to play with every week,” Segall said.

“People always say that they’re very surprised that we’re so good for being so young. I think they only take us seriously once they’ve heard us play.”

Grant Audetsophomore

Jazz band members strengthen their friendship, develop musical talent by creating their own original music

Courtesy of Evan Gitterman

Paly sophomores (left to right) Elliot Sanborn, Grant Audet and Matt Segall, along with other members of the local jazz band Late Notice, share a strong passion for composing, learning and performing jazz music at a variety of local events and parties.

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The Campanile

A & E The CampanileB8 • February 20, 2007

Paly senior rap group debuts with risqué rhymes, catchy beatsTrack Boiz release new album Mondo BootyBy Becky Byler

Staff Writer

“Go Vagina.” “Jigglerz.” “Tryin’ to See.” “Geesin’.” The list of songs may be short, but a group of Palo Alto High School seniors, known as the Track Boiz, offers an endless amount of promise, as well as a good laugh.

The Track Boiz were friends long before the group was named over the summer of 2005. Initially a much larger group, the Track Boiz now has just seven members, as many of the original members have since graduated.

Currently, the group is made up of seniors James McCollough, Kevin Johnson, Mike Scott, Nigel Hawkins, Jordan Jefferson, Don-nie Salas and Brandon Boyd.

The Track Boiz first gained Paly’s atten-tion in October 2005, when the group was falsely accused of being a gang by the admin-istration. Since then, the talented athletes and students have gained popularity and influenced the Paly culture.

“You can find the Track Boiz’s sign [three fingers up on both hands like an “okay” sign] at least once in every Paly student’s Facebook pictures,” junior Cat Chiang said.

Recently, however, the group’s musical abilities have made an impression on the student body.

Mondo Booty, the Track Boiz debut rap album, will not go platinum, but the songs are certainly amusing enough to prompt widespread appeal among students.

“I had been messing around with [Garage-Band] since I was 12, but it wasn’t until [Study Skills teacher Elizabeth] Mueller got a new computer with GarageBand that we decided to actually do something,” Hawkins said.

The Track Boiz said they have been to-gether since freshman year, with McCollough and Hawkins as the main music producers. Hawkins initiated the interest in rapping, but now the entire group is involved in the process.

“We all do something,” Salas said. “We do everything ourselves.”

In addition, Jefferson said that “James gets the beats and Nigel has the rhymes.”

The Track Boiz’s latest work, Mondo Booty, especially reflects this idea of a shared effort. Each member contributes to the album in a different way to create the final result. All four songs on the album feature a wide range of vocals from almost every group member.

“[Mondo Booty] is pretty much dance songs,” Hawkins said. “It’s about [women] because we definitely love the females. We want them to have fun and to reveal them-selves at parties.”

The group said that they intended “Jig-glerz,” the group’s first song on Mondo Booty, to be for everyone, but it specifically goes out to “all those girls with big jigglers.”

“Jigglerz” is a transparent title, since the song is indeed completely about “big-ass tit-ties” and “where the titties at.”

It does not highlight the group’s rapping ability, but with the descriptive lyrics and the multiple synonyms the group came up with for “jigglers,” the song has a beauty of its own.

“‘Jigglerz was the first song,” McCol-lough said. “It has a lot of memories. A lot of memories.”

“Tryin’ to See,” the last song on Mondo Booty, also has the potential to be the next music phenomenon. The rhythmic lyrics and backbeat create another strong sound and sparks the urge to dance.

“Tryin’ to See” is about the search to “see some ass” and the desire for a “big-assed girl” to “shake it hard.” The repeat of “I’m just tryin’ to see some ass” creates an entertaining and captivating core to the song.

“[‘Tryin’ to See’] is my favorite song because ‘I’m just tryin’ to see some ass,’” Scott said.

While almost all the members cite “Tryin’ to See” as their favorite song so far, Jefferson said that his favorite is “Go Vagina.”

“It gets me really pumped up,” Jefferson said. “Sometimes we listen to it in the locker room before games.”

“Go Vagina,” the second single on Mondo Booty, is a very catchy song. The song’s lyrics are perfectly complemented by an infectious backbeat and while the song is a rap, its almost techno-like sound will make listeners want to put it on constant repeat. The addition of a variety of interesting sounds makes this song a real gem.

McCollough, who wrote the song, said that his inspiration for the lyrics came from

the “Go, Go Power Rangers” lyrics in the Power Rangers theme song.

“I was chilling at my house one day watch-ing Power Rangers, when I though to myself that the theme song had a really catchy tune,” McCollough said. “Then I went and watched some [skin flicks] and it just came to me.”

According to McCollough, the song was first played to the Paly wrestling team and all the players really enjoyed it. McCollough said that he believes the real hook of the song is the repetition of “Go vagina/go go vagina.”

“We wanted to target all kinds of guys with these songs,” Salas said. “Every guy can be like ‘I love ‘Go Vagina!’ or ‘Jigglerz!’”

The final song on Mondo Booty, “Geesin,’” which means “clownin’” or “mak-ing fun of” according to UrbanDictionary.com, debuted on Feb. 4 on an InFocus segment.

“We didn’t really have much success with that one,” Salas said. “But it doesn’t really matter.”

“Geesin” is definitely not the best example of the Track Boiz’ abilities. It seems lackluster

Michela Fossati-Bellani/The Campanile

The Track Boiz, a group of seven Paly seniors, created a rap album called Mondo Booty. The Track Boiz have been rapping together since their freshman year but only recently have recorded an album after being introduced to GarageBand.

compared to the previous singles on Mondo Booty and could be better if more polished. While the change of topic is laudable, the song lacks the same amount of passion and enthusiasm found in their other songs.

“It was a bad music video since we didn’t get to edit it ourselves,” McCollough said of the InFocus segment. “If we had made it, it would have been a lot better.”

Though the Track Boiz may be labeled as having the potential of being the next Soulja Boy-like artist, the members of the group take a different position.

“We’re already better than Soulja Boy, ” Johnson said. “He sucks. I have a dance step too and it’s amazing.”

Nevertheless, despite the support of a number of people, only Hawkins has produced any solo raps.

Hawkins said that he had never thought about rapping until he was in an argument with a friend and posted a rap about it on MySpace. As his friends and other artists left favorable comments, Hawkins said that he began to think that rapping was something he could really do.

“I think I am damn near what a rapper is,” Hawkins said. “If I get out there I won’t stop. I want the Bay Area to know me, ya feel me?”

So far, Hawkins produces his own songs using Apple’s GarageBand. However, Hawk-ins said that he has “connections at the studios” and that he asks “nearly everyday for the Track Boiz to record some more music.

“It would be nice to get out there so I can get the cash,” Hawkins said. “But I’m still not sure if I want it to be my career or just something on the side.”

Right now, the group as a whole is content at where they are currently.

“We do it [rap] because we love it and we can’t stop making beats and rhymes,” Hawkins said.

Jefferson, the Track Boiz publicist, said the group will perform soon.

“They do it all,” Jefferson said. “They’re pretty amazing.”

Mondo BootyArtist: Track BoizRecord Label: Self-producedRunning Time: 7 min.

A & E The CampanileB10 • February 20, 2008

Dutch GooseLocation: 3567 Alameda de las Pulgas, Menlo ParkHours: Sun.-Tues. 11-12 a.m., Wed.-Sat. 11-2 a.m. Prices: $1.25-$16.75

Director: Fred WolfCast: Steve Zahn, Jonah Hill, Justin Long, Allen CovertRunning Time: 1hr. 27 min.Rating: R

Strange Wilderness

The Dutch Goose in Menlo Park delivers a certain special and some-what indefinable something.

It happens when one enters the restaurant and the staff is friendly and plays pool better than the clientele. It happens when one sees deviled eggs are on the menu. It could be due to the hardwood floors and ceilings, the heavily weathered back rooms, the “Menlo Women’s Wrestling” graffiti — or it could just be the flood of mayo on every sandwich and burger.

Then it hits you. Everyone has been to the Dutch Goose, whether in the movies of the 1950s or for their post-game dinner parties.

For the honky-tonk diner, this is the place to be. All the essentials are there, be it the guacamole, bacon burg-ers, grilled hamburgers ($5.50-$6.75) or the plethora of side dishes. Dutch Goose speaks to the red, white and blue in everyone.

The burgers are well cooked and the toppings are always just right, just as Uncle Sam would have wanted them to be.

The bacon on the bacon burger is cooked to perfection and the guaca-mole fairly neutralizes the overflow of white mayonnaise on the bun. It’s tasty and wholesome.

Take the spiced deviled eggs ($1.25). The deliciously messy egg stuffings are thicker than concrete and the paprika spice adds a rich flavoring atypical of the usually bland dish. No

By Jillian liu

Staff Writer

Across San Francisco’s waterfront stretches the Embarcadero, a lively street of serene strolls, superb shopping and scrump-tious snacks. Originally a thriving transpor-tation hub of ports and streetcars, this center for trade was cut off by the construction of a highway. However, even after it collapsed in 1992, the Embarcadero remained blighted for years. In the past decade, the city has redesigned the Embarcadero into a beautiful atmosphere filled with vibrancy and activities that everybody, from tourists to native San Franciscans, can enjoy.

Rincon ParkOne disinterested in shopping can stroll

down the miles-long sidewalk on the Em-

Classic burgers satisfy at Dutch Goose

The Dutch Goose offers classic burgers and its famous deviled eggs in a welcoming atmosphere filled with plasma TVs for sports fans as well as cheap pool games and many distinguished arcade outfits.

Elizabeth Petit/The Campanile

matter how big of an appetite one has, there’s enough in a single plate to serve an army of friends.

Other sides range from $3 to $8 and include an average chili, fruit bowls, garlic breads, steamed clams, fries and caesar salad.

The sides are reminiscent of frat-house food and the type eaten on evenings while watching football. The general atmosphere makes for an easygoing tone.

The sandwiches are unfortunately the weakest part of Goose, simply because of the amount of mayo on them. Mayonnaise may belong on a full-blooded hamburger, but not on an Italian Pastrami sandwich. The smoked ham, turkey breast, roasted beef and smoked brisket all contain egregious amounts of artery-clogging mayonnaise, overdoing a potentially good thing.

But Dutch Goose overcomes its imperfections by delivering where it counts: games. Pool is 75 cents a game and among the multiple arcade outfits are The Fast and the Furious racing game and the age-old classic, Duck Hunting. It’s a perfect way to top off a meal and they truly cap off the overall experience excellently.

In addition, Dutch Goose caters to all kinds of social functions and has hosted everything from after-practice dinners to weddings.

However, what makes the Dutch Goose unforgettable are the memo-ries.

The dinners held after sports events, the big games on the seven

plasma screens and the reunions held in the battered wooden benches.

There is enough history in the Dutch Goose’s 40-plus years of service that comes out in the peanut shells on the floor and the autographed pictures hanging on the walls.

Plenty of Stanford students and celebrities, including Tiger Woods and John Elway, have added to the historic feel of Dutch Goose.

Owner Greg Stern is two years into his current position, but he knows enough that his chief concern is keeping the venerable establishment relatively the same.

His only major action was adding the widescreen televisions. Previous owner Tom Moroney passed on his decades-long mantle on Oct. 1, 2005 to the relatively young Stern, a man who knew a good way to bring in more business was to serve fries as a side dish.

Today, the Dutch Goose stands for friendly service and consistent food. But most of all the Dutch Goose stands for its atmosphere, its past and its promise to remain the same. Hope-fully it will serve the same hamburg-ers and deviled eggs for generations to come.

Numerous attractions along historic Embarcadero boast beautiful views

Strange Wilderness fails audience with few laughs

barcadero and take in the view of the harbor, where boats and ships float by the dock. As one enjoys the salt air and open skies, one reaches Rincon Park, a large expanse of green by the bay which overlooks the magnificent San Francisco Bay Bridge. At the center stands Cupid’s Span, an enormous bow and arrow shot into the ground. Designed and constructed by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Cupid’s Span is supposed to symbolize where Tony Bennett, the singer of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” left his heart.

The Ferry BuildingFirst built as a transit center, the Ferry

Building has evolved into a marketplace and clock tower. With its many ethnic restaurants such as the Vietnamese-fusion The Slanted Door and a variety of specialty stores like the Stonehouse California Olive Oil, the

Ferry Building brings all who yearn for the experience of the essence of San Francisco: diversity. In addition, the marketplace also hosts the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Overlooking the bay, the farmers’ market allows visitors to enjoy the tranquility and beauty of the waterfront while at the same time shopping for fresh organic fruit, vegetables and flowers.

Fisherman’s WharfThe Wharf is home to generations of

fishing fleets and visitors can watch fisher-men pull up Dungeness crabs during season and carry out their ocean-oriented business. Meanwhile, off shore, vintage cable cars and trolleys ring by to transport people to their destinations.

Pier 39San Francisco’s most renowned attrac-

tion is not only visited by tourists, but also by locals. After enjoying the many stores around the pier, including plaza entertainment from street performers, candy shops, an arcade and abundant restaurants, pedestrians can enjoy the beautiful landscape of the bay or simply watch the hundreds of sea lions sleeping, barking or swimming.

Embarcadero CenterA mixed-use complex, the Embarca-

dero Center is filled with plenty of shops, entertainment and business facilities. The center is set in a prime location, the middle of San Francisco’s commercial district, within close reach of many other locations on San Francisco’s historic waterfront, such as Pier 39, the Ferry Building and Alcatraz. The Embarcadero Center consists of hundreds of retail shops and restaurants, including its own cinema. The center also hosts a collection of unique public art that tours throughout the entire building.

Cupid’s Span, an enormous bow and arrow sculpture that juts out of the ground, stands in the “heart” of Rincon Park, one of the many sights along the Embarcadero.

Julia Benton/The Campanile

Pool, arcade games, sports create entertaining atmosphere for dining

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Strange Wilderness is an adventure into the jumbled and impulsive minds of former Saturday Night Live writers Fred Wolf and Peter Gaulke. Throughout the movie, each scene attempts to bring more laughs than the one before it. The result is a series of clips more suited for SNL than a movie.

The story follows Fred Wolf (Allen Covert) and Peter Gaulke (Steve Zaughn) — apparently, the writers couldn’t find better names than their own — and a team of misfits who are trying to keep a failing wildlife show afloat after the death of Gaulke’s father, a legend in the TV show business. A network producer informs the gang that they have two weeks until their show is cancelled, unless they come up with a miracle. Then a friend of Gaulke’s shows him a map to find Bigfoot, and the gang sets off on a half-hearted quest to save the show by being the first crew to capture Bigfoot on TV.

The trip is full of drugs and misfortune, including many untimely deaths that are re-corded and edited into the show.

The funniest parts of the film are the voice-overs recorded by Gaulke over nature footage. Some of the recordings are genuinely hilarious, but these short bursts of laughter are all that stop moviegoers from leaving the theater.

The plot is largely ignored throughout the entire film in favor of jokes about disfigured genitalia and Mexican immigrant workers. In one uncomfortable and unfunny scene, a government turkey grabs onto Gaulke’s genitalia with his mouth and doesn’t let go. Jokes like these do not entertain even the crudest of minds.

The cast, composed of many up-and-coming actors, keeps the film afloat. Jonah Hill (Superbad) plays Cooker and seems to have no purpose in the movie. Hill is known

for his hilarious antics, but in Wilderness he just seems cruel and unnecessary.

Fresh off a starring role in Live Free or Die Hard, Justin Long joins the cast as a stoner who runs camera equipment. In one particularly funny scene, we find that Long has tattooed eyes to his eyelids to make it seem as though he were awake when he is sleeping. Long, however, seems lost in many scenes and this movie is a step backward for him from previous films.

Fred Wolf, played by Allen Covert, saves the movie. Although never given the chance to shine on screen, Covert has some of the funni-est scenes in the film. As the wingman to Peter Gaulke, Wolf plays a dumb yet compassionate character who obeys orders, but always inter-jects a hilarious comment into every situation. A regular with Happy Madison Productions, the production team led by Adam Sandler, Covert outshines the rest of the cast.

Steve Zaughn is disappointing as Peter Gaulke, a well-meaning slacker with ambition for success, but does not have the smarts. The audience never feels emotionally connected to Gaulke and often times throughout the film he seems heartless or cruel. For example, in one sad scene, Gaulke attempts to imitate a Mexican accent, but his attempt is more racist than funny.

Strange Wilderness fits the prototype of a guy movie without a true plot driving the jokes. The film would be better as a series of jokes on Mad TV or SNL. For cheap laughs, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle or Half-Baked are better choices than this movie.

By Henry Becker

Features Editor

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A & E February 20, 2008 • B11 The Campanile

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By Pauline Slakey

Staff Writer

Gelayo Gusto, a new gelato and frozen yogurt restaurant on El Camino Ave. in Mountain View, is an ideal gelato restaurant that embodies a convenient, modern and comfortable atmosphere. Since its opening in December, Gelayo Gusto has become a very popular fresh gelato and frozen yogurt restaurant that attracts both students and families.

According to owner Paul Choi, Gelayo Gusto is a word scramble between gelato and yogurt. However, Gelayo Gusto offers a wide variety of foods other than gelato and frozen yogurt, including coffee, shaved ice bowls, dessert waffles, sandwiches, salads and soups. Its seating capacity is only 25 people and the restaurant becomes crowded at night.

“When my wife [Gayelle Choi] and I first started thinking about creating the restaurant a year ago we wanted a place that would offer a diversified dessert menu,” Choi said. “It would give more options to our customers and perhaps encourage them to keep com-ing back.”

The brightly-lit room with modern music playing in the background makes for a calm, relaxed atmosphere. Blue sparkly lights give the room a soft subtle blue lighting while a large open window on the back wall, dressed with clear oval-patterned curtains, gives an added brightness. The walls are white and adorned with large white tiles.

“My wife designed most of the place,” Choi said. “We wanted to create a modern, fun and warm feel. The hardwood floors were to create a more homey feel and the chairs and other furniture were to add a more contemporary aspect to the place.”

When customers enter through the door, a display case of pastries and array of gelato flavors, including banana walnut, Tony Spumoni, dulce de leche, butter pecan, blueberry cabernet sorbet, blood orange sorbet and mango sorbet, is the first thing that meets the eye.

Gelayo Gusto’s very own Italian gelato maker creates the gelato. A small bowl of gelato is comprised of three flavors ($3.50), while a medium ($4.75) combines four flavors. There is an added $0.50 charge for placing the gelato in a small waffle cone.

According to Choi, gelato has more flavors than regular ice cream because it has less air added into the cream, giving each bite more intense flavors.

The gelato is indeed very rich and full of flavor. The banana walnut has a sweet and creamy banana taste and a crunch texture from the crushed walnuts in it. The Tony Spumoni consists of chocolate, almonds and pistachio. It has a creamy, rich chocolate taste with a slight marzipan aftertaste.

The pistachio gives it an added crunch. Dulce de leche and butter pecan are two of the thickest and creamiest of the gelatos. They both taste like sweet caramel though the butter pecan has a bit of a stronger creamy taste with the added pecan bite.

All of the sorbets are very refreshing and sweet. The blueberry cabernet sorbet is a dark purple color and has a cool, sour taste. On the other hand, the blood orange and mango sorbets are very sweet and taste like freshly squeezed fruit juice. The mango is especially good and each spoonful feels like a bite of fresh chilled mango.

A large menu on the wall displays a large range of coffee drinks ranging from house coffee ($1.50) to the chai latte ($2.50). A sandwich menu is also displayed and in-cludes a Ham and Brie sandwich ($6.75) and a Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella sandwich ($6.50) perfect for vegetarians.

The Ham and Brie sandwich is made with a whole wheat baguette, melted brie cheese and black forest ham. The dish is served with two delicate slices of mango and kiwi. The sandwich has a very warm and crunchy texture and the ham gives it a somewhat sweet aftertaste.

The pastries made by the restaurant’s pastry chef are absolutely delicious. The cream puff ($2.75) has a creamy cold interior

wrapped around a light puffy bread. The fruit tart ($2.75) has raspberries, blueberries, kiwis and strawberries placed delicately on top of a beige pastry bread that crumbles and melts into the mouth. The bite that results is one that incorporates crunchy, sweet and creamy with a tiny bit of zesty sourness. The fruit chocolate cup ($2.75) is an extremely appealing looking pastry. With its cute dark chocolate mug filled with sweet cream and blueberries, raspberries and strawberries, it makes for a refreshing, delicious dessert.

Another impressive option displayed on the menu are “shaved ice bowls,” a Korean dessert consisting of shaved ice, fresh fruit (kiwis, strawberries, raspberries, pineapples and mangoes), sweet red beans, granola

Gelayo Gusto Location: 856 W. El Camino Real #A Mountain View Hours: Sun-Thurs: 11 a.m. - 12 a.m. Fri-Sat: 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. Prices: $1.50 - $8.25

Gelayo Gusto in Mountain View offers a variety of delicious desserts since its opening in December. Gelayo’s serves many different desserts, including the yogurt shaved ice bowl (right) and the triangle-shaped waffle thin (bottom left).

Elizabeth Petit/The Campanile

Warm atmosphere houses icy desserts

and a choice of frozen yogurt or gelato. The small yogurt shaved ice bowl ($5) is very well presented and tastes excellent. Each spoonful consists of sweet, sour, crunchy and smooth creating an overall refreshing, satisfying dish.

“Our inspiration came from the dessert places in Korea,” Choi said. “My wife, who just came back from Korea about five months ago, didn’t really see many dessert places that offered shaved iced bowls here in the U.S. She and I wanted to create a place that offered them at reasonable prices in a nice comfortable environment.”

Gelayo’s location also makes it the place to go after dining a block away on Castro Street.

With gelato, frozen yogurt, coffee, exqui-site sandwiches, delicious pastries and shaved ice bowls, Gelayo Gusto has it all. Its comfy and modern setting, convenient and free ac-cess to wireless Internet, and long hours (open until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays) make Gelayo Gusto the perfect place to relax and cool off with fresh gelato or pastry.

Gelayo Gusto serves wide variety of exquisite food in modern, relaxing atmosphere

By Sara reihani

A&E Editor

Jack Black, despite his best attempts is not a versatile actor. He has a tendency to seem ridiculous when attempt-ing gravity or, for that matter, comedy (think King Kong and Nacho Libre, respectively).

Black is at his best when playing the schlubby, de-lusional loser and his role in Be Kind Rewind, the new comedy from French director Michel Gondry, plays to his strengths.

Jerry (Jack Black) and Mike (Mos Def), employees at a New Jersey video store, are left in dire straits after an accident magnetizes Jerry’s brain and erases all the videotapes.

Desperate for a solu-tion, the two create their own versions of the miss-ing movies to appease customers. The homemade versions are unexpectedly popular and the entire neighbor-hood soon becomes involved in their creation.

The process of reproducing the movies, which the characters call “sweding,” is shown in brilliant detail; set pieces, props, costumes and low-tech special effects are all revealed.

Unlike the self-conscious “doodle” aesthetic of high-profile indies like Juno and Napoleon Dynamite, there is not a trace of irony in Gondry’s amateurism; only the barest tinge of self-awareness and a sincere appeal to suspend disbelief in the interest of the cinematic experience.

Like Gondry’s last film, The Science of Sleep, the dialogue in Be Kind is unsophisticated and often seems heavily improvised. Ad-libbing aside, it fits the inno-cence of the characters, some of whom are childlike to the point of vague lunacy.

Press “play” on creatively humorous Be Kind RewindJack Black, Mos Def bring authentic comedic performances to Michel Gondry’s new film

By implementing idealistic optimism, the movie comes dangerously close to being cheesy; ironi-cally, it escapes cliche by embracing it whole-heartedly.

When Jerry (Jack Black, left) accidentally erases all the videos in a New Jersey video store where he works, he and his co-worker Mike (Mos Def, right) attempt to re-record all the movies themselves.

www.firstshowing.net

Be Kind Rewind

Director: Michel GondryCast: Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny GloverRun Time: 101 min.Rating: PG-13

Be Kind is, very deliberately, a movie with a mes-sage. In Gondry’s world, customers clamor for sweded films. They love seeing their friends in the work and don’t question the obviously terrible special effects. In-stead of passively accepting prepackaged entertainment, they discover the joy of making their own.

The optimism of Gondry’s vision is enhanced by its palpable honesty: most of the extras are real Passaic resi-dents and every movie shown being sweded was actually remade by the cast.

The movie’s themes of community effort and creative process make it an amalgamation of Gondry’s last two mov-ies: Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and The Science of Sleep.

As a whole, the film lacks resolution. The romance between Mike and Alma (Melonie Diaz) extends no further than vague hints and the central conflict of the movie — whether the aging, decrepit video store

will be demolished — is never fully resolved.But the main purpose of the movie is the message, not

the simple plot. The film is an appeal to make something of one’s own, to reject conventionalities and become a producer.

By implementing such naked idealism, Be Kind Re-wind comes dangerously close to being cheesy; ironically, it escapes cliché by embracing it wholeheartedly.

By Zach harris

Staff Writer

After his arrival on the hip-hop scene with his 2006 debut album Food and Liquor, Muslim rapper Lupe Fiasco continues his success with The Cool, a socially conscious, radio-friendly album that bridges the gap between inde-pendent and mainstream hip-hop.

The album opens with an introduction of spoken word poetry by Iesha Jaco that points out the flaws in society’s definition of “cool.” Fiasco then jumps in with the fast-paced, violin-backed “Go Go Gadget Flow,” an ode to his hometown of Chicago. The rapid-fire lyrics draw a comparison to fellow Midwest native Twista’s Guinness Book of World Records fastest flow. While one of the better songs on the album, “Go Go Gadget Flow” sets a false tone for the rest of the CD, which is decidedly less accelerated.

Unlike many of today’s radio and ringtone rappers, Fiasco chose to stick with a single producer, Soundtrakk, for over half of the album. An in-house producer for Fiasco’s own record label and production company 1st and 15th, Soundtrakk brings fresh sounds to the album, using a variety of different instruments that complement Fiasco’s complex flow and enticing lyrics.

By far the best song on the album, “Little Weapon” is Fiasco’s account of the struggles of a third-world child soldier. Backed by a military style drum cadence, Fiasco rhymes about the hardships of children, who are often as young as ten years old and forced into fighting for op-pressive governments.

Fiasco is able to give voice to a subject that is often left out of the public eye with lyrics like “About half the size of the flags they wave/in camouflage suits made to fit youths/cuz the ones of the dead soldiers hang a little loose/with AK-47’s that they shootin’ into heaven like they tryin’ to kill the Jetsons/the struggle’s little recruits.” With a strong guest verse from relatively unknown rapper Bishop G about video game violence and a soulful chorus sung by Nikki Jean, “Little Weapon” is one the best hip-hop songs in a while.

Like his mentor and close friend Kanye West, Fiasco spends a good amount of the record telling listeners about his favorite exclusive Japanese clothing brands, most memorably on “Gold Watch” in which he, in true Sound of Music fashion, simply lists his favorite things. These include, but are not limited to, Gucci belts, green Now-N-Laters and Max Roach drum solos.

While this may add more to the overall dynamic of the album, what makes The Cool so successful is its bal-ance of frivolous topics and substantive songs, something Kanye has yet to master.

In a blatant shot at the current hip-hop industry, “Dumb it Down” is a bass heavy account of metaphorical sensory loss. The song is often interrupted by a stereotypical record executive and mainstream rapper telling Fiasco to make his songs more publicly acceptable with lyrics like “You goin’ over ni**as’ heads Lu (Dumb it down)/They tellin’ me that they don’t feel you (Dumb it down)/We ain’t graduate from school ni**a (Dumb it down)/Them big words ain’t cool ni**a (Dumb it down).”

“Dumb it Down” is an accurate depiction of the current rut that hip-hop is in, and it may take a rapper like Fiasco,

with The Campanile’s own

Sara Reihani and Annie Vought

This edition featuring

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A & E The CampanileB12 • February 20, 2008

Lupe Fiasco keeps his cool

who can relate to both the underground listeners and casual radio listeners, to break through the current barriers.

Other strong tracks include “High Definition” (feat. Snoop Dogg), “Gotta Eat” and “Hip-Hop Saved My Life.” “High Definition” is a melodious song about nothing in particular that still ends up sounding great (like most of Snoop Dogg’s work). On “Gotta Eat,” Fiasco takes the persona of drug dealer in the form of a hamburger, using as many food metaphors as possible.

“Hip-Hop Saved My Life” is a fictional tale of Houston rapper Michael Young History, in which Fiasco tells the story of History’s small-time drug dealing endeavours and eventual rise to rap super-stardom.

While few and far between, the only disappointing songs are “Go Baby” and “Put You on Game.” “Go Baby” has an annoying swing beat and is extremely repetitive,

www.giantmag.com

Lupe Fiasco is a hip-hop artist who raps in his recent album The Cool about social issues such as child soldiers and drug dealing. His use of a diverse range of instruments adds to the album’s color.

Fiasco’s latest hip-hop album The Cool strikes a big hit

saying the title over and over again. “Put You on Game” is the opposite, and although it contains good lyrics, the beat is too slow and makes the song seem too long.

After bursting onto the charts in 2006 with “Kick, Push,” an urban skateboarding anthem off of Food and Liquor, it was unclear whether or not Fiasco was in the music industry for the long haul or just another rapper with a good single. The Cool proves that Fiasco is here to stay, hopefully long enough to put an end to hip-hop’s recent downswing.

The Cool

Artist: Lupe FiascoLabel: 1st and 15thRun Time: 71 min.

The Campanile: Why did you go to boarding school last year? Greg Jones: So I could become an educated person... in a, uh, far-off land. I think I am a more educated person than I was before I left for boarding school, so I exceeded — oh, hah, succeeded — in that, yeah, I mean, sure. Yeah, it was not that fun.TC: Is Paly better than boarding school?GJ: Yeah, dude, for real. I like how.... the student body is sooooo accepting... of everybody. I don’t know; it’s warmer, and you don’t have to live here.TC: What was your childhood dream?I had a few. For a while I wanted to climb Mount Everest; for a while I wanted to cure the Ebola virus. I don’t know. Am I still a child?TC: What is your worst nightmare?GJ: My worst nightmares are usually dreams that aren’t anything scary when you actually think about it, in like conscious thought, but at the time are incredibly terrifying. I could see, like, a colorful butterfly in one of my dreams and it would freak me out. My worst nightmare might have been about something happy and I just felt weird. I dunno. I guess I’m scared of... I dunno. Gettin’ killed.TC: What are you scared of getting killed by?GJ: Death? I dunno, guys, I’m sorry. (giggles)TC: Have you ever caught on fire?GJ: I’ve definitely burned my hair, once or twice. TC: What kind of candidate do you support for the upcoming election?GJ: I would support a fascist or a hippie, but it would have to be someone who dresses hella strange. I would support the silliest candidate.TC: If you ran for president, what would your slogan be? What would it say on the side of your tour bus?On the side of my tour bus... probably, it would have some windows... so it’d kinda look like it says “OOOOOO.”TC: Describe the perfect girl for you.GJ: Probably someone with connections and money who I have no real attachment to.TC:How about the perfect date?GJ: The perfect date would be... free money!TC:: What do you wanna be when you grow up?GJ: When I grow up? I don’t know, dude, like... professionally, I guess... I would like to be... I wanna make a difference. Okay? I wanna make a difference in the world. I want to give back, okay? I want to give back. I just wanna like... really make a difference... in the lives of those less fortunate... and raise money for Africa...TC: What’s your favorite word?GJ: I say “word” a lot, but my favorite word is probably... nugget?TC: What’s your power animal?GJ: My power animal? What does that mean?TC: The animal you think of when you need help... and guidance...GJ: Well... my inner animal is um... a beastie. TC: A liger?GJ: Yeah, sure, a liger... liger... chimp-liger... I’m just saying whatever you guys say. My... spirit animal is totally... gah. (slumps down on table) I don’t know, like... a gopher. Go-fer, it. Like “go for it,” dude.TC: Do you like to burrow?GJ: Do I like to burrow? Well... yeah, I burrow, all the time, don’t you? (singing) Burrow every day, burrow every day.TC: What do you think of Valentine’s Day?GJ: I don’t think much about it... ever.TC: Do you think it’s stupid?GJ: Do you think it’s stupid? TC: Yeah.GJ: Yeah, dude. It’s totally stupid. I just believe whatever the people around me believe. So yeah, it’s totally stupid.TC: Who’s your favorite band?GJ: Maybe GG Allen. He’s this guy who used to be, like, a punk singer in the seventies and would s**t onstage and cut himself and bleed on the audience members... he was a crackup.TC: What are your plans for college?I don’t know. I like California, as a state. I used to live on the East Coast every summer, but except for boarding school, I’ve always lived here.TC: How’s the contrast between the East and West Coasts?GJ: People wear more polo shirts on the East Coast.TC: What is your worst quality?GJ: My worst quality... is my lack of quality.TC: What is your best quality?GJ: My best quality... is um... is, uh... my best quality is um, my... my uh.... shoes? TC: Any last words for the Paly community?GJ: “Hey, Paly. ‘Sup.”

Paly students spread the love on Feb. 14 as Valentine’s Day celebrants had us all seeing red.

Be Mine.

UBy Julia Benton