Tuesday, November 24, 2009

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News.....1-4Metro........5Sports.....6-7 Editorial..10Opinion...11Today........12

bad news bearsThe womens hockey team dropped two conference games over the weekend

Sports, 6sweet dealThayers pizza parlor has a new owner, name, menu

Metro, 5

insi

deDaily Heraldthe Brownvol. cxliv, no. 113 | Tuesday, November 24, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Poll: 17 percent of students say they have cheatedby anne simons

Senior Staf f Writer

Four out of five students say they have not committed any of sev-eral types of academic cheating in the last semester, according to a re-cent Herald poll.

Of the 687 un-dergraduates sur veyed, 12.4 percent admitted they had cop-ied answers off another students homework, while 4.2 percent said they had used outside resources in their own work without proper citation, and 2.3 percent said they

had copied answers off another students quiz, test or exam. Only 0.4 percent admitted to having submitted someone elses work as their own in a paper, presenta-tion or lab report.

The vast ma-jority 80.1 per-cent said they had played by the

rules.We do take academic integ-

rity seriously, said Christina Furtado, assistant dean for up-perclass studies, who oversees

For alum, a shortcut to punditryby matthew Klebanoff

Staff Writer

A regular reader of the Washington Post and a political junkie to boot, Jer-emy Haber 06 wouldnt have imag-ined a month ago that he would one day land among the top four finalists in the newspapers Americas Next Great Pundit Contest.Haber, who is currently enrolled in a joint J.D. /M.B.A. program at Har-vard, learned about the competition

through the Posts online edition.The political implications of the

2010 Census for the 2012 presiden-tial (election) was something I had

been thinking about writing up as an op-ed, Haber said. When he saw a promotion for the contest, he finally mustered up the motivation to write the piece.

Habers submission, The num-

bers dont look good for Democrats, argues that congressional redistrict-ing due to population growth in the South and Southwest will ultimately aid Republicans in their campaign to regain the White House.

One possible cause of the regions population increase, Haber wrote, is the influx of undocumented im-migrants. I just thought it was an under-reported story and liked the

Med school softens new PLMe policyby ellen Cushing

Senior Staf f Writer

After stirring opposition from students, the University has reconsidered a policy shift that would strip undergraduates in the Program for Liberal Medical Education of their reserved spots at Alpert Medical School if they choose to apply to other medical schools.

According to an e-mail sent to PLMEs Monday by two top med school deans, students who apply out will in fact be guaran-teed a spot in a med school class

at Brown, though they may be deferred for a year.

The initial policy change, which was announced earlier this month, drew anger from some students who criticized the new system, particularly be-cause it affected current as well as future students enrolled in the program.

According to the e-mail, stu-dents will now be asked to inform the Med School whether they intend to apply out by Sept. 15 of their senior year. Those students

Under new law, bars may close laterby brigitta greene

Senior Staff Writer

Its a typical weekend scene: 2:01 on Saturday morning. From Kartabar to Spats to Viva, the doors of Thayer Streets bars are locked shut, with hundreds of patrons filing out onto the street.

Now imagine the future. Its 3:01 on Saturday morning. From Kar-tabar to Spats to Viva, the doors of Thayer Streets bars are locked shut, but most patrons have already trickled out and those who are left are markedly more sober than they were just an hour before.

New state legislation, passed by the General Assembly during last months special session, autho-rizes the city to delay the closing time of bars and clubs to 3 a.m. on weekends, but prohibits the sale of alcohol past the old closing time, 2 a.m.

Loss stings, but m. soccer already looking to 2010by Katie wood

aSSiStant SportS editor

The mens soccer teams season ended abruptly Sunday, but the players left the field with their heads held high.

From day one, I knew this group of players was capable of doing what we did and better than what we finished, said goalkeeper Paul Grandstrand 11.

No. 5 seed North Carolina ended the mens soccer teams dreams of a national championship when the Tar Heels downed the Bears, 2-0, on Sunday afternoon in Chapel Hill, N.C. in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

UNC (14-2-3) took a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute. But the Tar Heels

sat back and allowed the Bears (11-3-5) to make a furious second-half comeback that fell just short when Carolina scored one more goal in the last minute of the game to advance to the third round of the tournament.

The Bears handled Stony Brook in a 1-0 double-overtime thriller in the first round of the

tournament at Stevenson Field on Thursday night.

The Seawolves and the Bears matched each others intensity, and the great play from both sides sent the game into overtime. Sean Rosa 12 scored the golden goal in the 103rd minute to seal the victory for the Bears, knocking in a Jon

Julia Kim / HeraldBars like Spats Restaurant on Angell Street may be allowed to remain open until 3 a.m. on weekends, although alcohol sales must stop at 2.

Jonathan Bateman / HeraldMidfielder Nick Elenz-Martin 10 battles for possession during the Bears first-round battle against Stony Brook last week at Stevenson Field in the NCAA tournament. The team was knocked out Sunday by North Carolina.

sports

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herald poll

The Herald will not publish a print edition Wednesday. Publication will resume on Monday, Nov. 30.

editors note

sudoku

Stephen DeLucia, PresidentMichael Bechek, Vice President

Jonathan Spector, TreasurerAlexander Hughes, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv-ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail [email protected]. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

editorial phone: 401.351.3372 | business phone: 401.351.3260Daily Heraldthe Brown

TuESdAy, NOvEMBER 24, 2009THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAgE 2

CaMPUS newS Why would you want to come to a place like Brown to plagiarize? Omer Bartov, professor of history

matters related to the Universitys academic code. Its not something we ignore.

Furtado declined to comment on the polls findings or to release the offices data on instances of academic dishonesty, citing con-cerns about confidentiality.

According to the Office of the Dean of the College, A student who obtains credit for work, words or ideas that are not the products of his or her own effort is dishonest and in violation of Browns Aca-demic Code. Actions that would constitute violations include copy-right infringement, improper or inadequate citation of sources, us-ing unauthorized materials during an examination and copying other students work during an examina-tion.

A range of punishments are available to deans, depending on the severity of the offense, includ-ing verbal reprimands and loss of credit on the assignment or the course.

Omer Bartov, professor of his-tory and chair of the department, said students are missing out if they engage in academic dishon-esty.

Why would you want to come to a place like Brown to plagia-rize? Bartov said. If you dont want to study, then why spend all the money?

Andy van Dam, professor of computer science, said he treats plagiarism as a serious problem.

There are a bunch of people on campus who say, Its your money, if you want to plagiarize its your loss, but I believe when we let people who go out of here with a Brown diploma, people see that and assume theyve learned something, he said.

Plagiarism debases the coin of the realm, he added.

Van Dam estimated that about six of the 150 students in his in-troductory computer science class each year think they can get away with plagiarism, but the types of students who engage in academic dishonesty are varied.

Its not just kids who are in real trouble, or desperate, van Dam said. Its also smart kids who cant stand the idea of losing that A or kids who work together beyond whats allowable.

Briana McGeough 12 thought

the polls findings accurately re-flected the situation on campus.

Because Brown does not have a cutthroat academic environment, McGeough said, one would expect the level of academic dishonesty at Brown to be relatively low. Students are more likely to cheat when they feel overwhelmed, she said, adding that cheating might be more common in high-pressure atmospheres.

Clarion Heard 12 was surprised by the finding that so many respon-dents denied having cheated, say-ing that the fraction of students who reported that they did not cheat seemed a little high.

For instance, Heard said there were two students who sit behind her in class who talk to each other during exams.

Ive heard (them) say If youre sure about an answer, put a dot next to it, she said.

Some students said peoples definitions of academic dishon-esty often vary for instance, in terms of what constitutes copying answers on homework.

Abby Colella 12 said the situ-ation gets fuzzy when students work in groups on homework as-

signments. It can be difficult to tell whether everyone is contributing equally, she said. That said, cheat-ing doesnt seem to have a pres-ence on campus, she added.

Heard said many people do not see copying homework as cheat-ing, adding that she would distin-guish between students contrib-uting equally to a discussion of a problem and one person dictating the whole answer.

Though students expressed varying definitions of when group collaboration on homework be-comes dishonest, they said they generally know the line between working together and engaging in academic dishonesty.

The Herald poll was conducted from Nov. 2 through Nov. 4 and has a 3.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. A total of 687 Brown undergraduates com-pleted the poll, which The Herald administered as a written ques-tionnaire to students in the Mail Room at J. Walter Wilson during the day and in the Sciences Library at night.

With additional reporting by Anne Speyer

irony, he said.About a month ago, a panel of

Post editors chose 10 finalists from a batch of 4,800 entries, and the winner may be announced as soon as today, according to the newspa-pers Web site.

According to the competition guidelines, the winner of the con-test will receive the opportunity to write a weekly column for the Post for 13 weeks, at a rate of $200 per column. The Post promises its competition will set the promis-ing pundit on a path to become the next byline in demand, the talking head every show wants to book, the voice that helps the country figure out whats really going on.

Haber made it through four rounds of the five-part competi-tion, which required contestants to blog their thoughts, write columns and field readers questions in a live question-and-answer session. After each round, editors and columnists from the Post commented on the aspiring pundits work, and readers voted to determine who would be eliminated. Some of those readers regularly offered up criticism and praise in the comments section of the competitors posts.

The judges praised Haber for his skill as a reporter and for hav-ing the best single answer in the question-and-answer session in response to a question on the Israeli-Palestian conflict. There is a leadership vacuum on both sides, Haber said.

For the most part, Haber had great freedom in choosing the top-ics for his pieces, which ranged from gay marriage to the Fisher House Foundation, an organization that provides lodging to veterans recovering from injuries.

Though he was eliminated a week ago, Haber isnt at all bit-ter about where he placed in the contest.

I never expected to be a final-ist, he said of being selected as one of the top 10 contestants. I got to get interviews with people I would have never been able to talk to otherwise, and I had fun with it.

For his blog posts, Haber spoke with a number of notables Steve Pagliuca and Alan Khazei, two of the candidates running for the vacant U.S. Senate seat in Mas-sachusetts, and Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino, among other big names.

At Brown, where he concen-trated in political science, Haber didnt write for any campus publi-cations, though he worked for one semester at the mayors office. Af-ter graduating, he traveled through Tanzania, volunteered in Rwanda and worked at Harvards Kennedy School of Government, where he did research on American politics and elections for over two years.

At the moment, Haber is unsure whether he will pursue a career in journalism after graduate school.

I plan on taking my law school exams first and worrying about future writing after that, he said.

a majority of students say they dont cheat academic cheating at brown

Source: Fall 2009 Herald poll of 687 undergraduates

*Includes copying answers off another students homework, using outside resources without proper citation, copying answers off another students quiz, test or exam, obtaining unauthorized test materials in advance, using notes on a closed-book quiz, test or exam, or submitting someone elses work as your own .

80.1%

17.2%

I have not done any of the above

Admitdishonesty*

dont know / No answer

2.8%

continued from page 1


haber 06 a top finisher in Posts pundit contest

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CaMPUS newSTuESdAy, NOvEMBER 24, 2009 THE BROWN dAILy HERALd PAgE 3

by sarah manCone

Staff Writer

Six universities, including Brown, have endorsed a set of principles to improve access to affordable medi-cine in the developing world.

Earlier this month, Brown, Har-vard, Yale, Boston University, the University of Pennsylvania, Oregon Health and Science University and the Association of University Technology Managers endorsed the Statement of Principles and Strategies for the Equitable Dissemination of Medical Technologies.

The Statement supports imple-menting effective technology transfer strategies that promote the availabil-ity of health-related technologies in developing countries for essential medical care, according to a press release.

The principles focus primarily on managing and licensing medical in-novations. Together, these principles would make sure the process of handing off intellectual properties to the companies is not creating

barriers to getting products to the developing world, said Katherine Gordon, managing director of the Brown Technology Ventures Of-fice.

Licensing the results of research done by universities to drug com-panies called out-licensing must be efficient, according to the statement.

One of our principal goals in out-licensing is to ensure that products of the Universitys research are able to reach the public sector and are appropriately developed by third par-ties, Gordon added.

To follow these new principles, the Technology Ventures Office will exclude provisions in agreements with third parties that would limit global access to important medical products, Gordon said.

A delicate balance has to be reached when making agreements with various companies, Gordon said, because the office does not want to give these companies the tools to segregate out poor coun-tries by insufficiently and unequally

distributing the medications.Though these principles will

not directly affect researchers, the mission statement also includes plans to support the development of health-related technologies for diseases that disproportionately burden individuals in the developing world, such as tuberculosis, AIDS, water-borne disease, tropical- and other region-specific ailments and parasitic infections endemic to the developing world.

Unquestionably, these strate-gies are entirely in keeping with our shared mission of bringing all of our discoveries to those who will most benefit from them, said Harvard Provost Steven Hyman in a state-ment.

While these new principles aim to speed up the distribution of life-saving medicines to the developing world, the effects will not be imme-diately apparent.

The results from this program will take a long time to be seen over-all, Gordon said. This is the begin-ning of a long process.

U. supports improved access to medicineshigher ed news roundupby ellen cushing, sarah husk and anne speyer

senior staff writers

tuition increase at uC schools sets off demonstrations

university of California campuses were rocked by student protests and demonstrations in reaction to last Thursdays vote by uC regents to approve a system-wide 32 percent tuition hike, CNN reported last week.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the hike is the largest in the systems history. CNN reported that university officials estimate the tuition hikes will provide the state, which currently faces a massive budget crisis, with more than $500 million.

At various uC campuses, student protesters staged sit-ins and occupied administrative buildings. While many of the demonstrators have been cited for trespassing and released without arrest, about 100 protesters have been arrested, according to CNN.

At least several campuses have reported demonstra-tions turning into violent altercations between protesters and police.

federal court will hear affirmative action caseA years-long legal battle over the constitutionality of

certain affirmative action policies may be inching closer to a conclusion this week, as a federal appeals court will consider a lawsuit over a 2006 Michigan ban on affirma-tive action preferences.

According to the Chronicle, in March 2008, u.S. dis-trict Court Judge david Lawson dismissed the suit on the grounds that the Michigan ban merely restricts the abil-ity of minority groups to pursue preferential treatment from public colleges and does not infringe upon their legal rights.

A three-judge panel will hear from opponents to Law-sons decision, who believe that the ban unfairly disadvan-tages women and members of minority groups applying to state public colleges and is thus unconstitutional.

student tax debate heats up in pittsburgh, tooColleges and universities in Pittsburgh may soon be

taxed as part of a controversial proposal unveiled by the citys mayor as part of the 2010 budget plan, the online magazine Inside Higher Ed reported last week.

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl estimated that levy-ing a 1 percent tax on the currently tax-exempt institutions would bring in an annual revenue of $16.2 million, Inside Higher Ed reported. For students, such a tax would trans-late into an annual fee paid to their respective institutions and derived from their tuitions somewhere between $27 and $409.

According to Inside Higher Ed, Ravenstahl has already met with opposition from the institutions themselves and from the panel of state appointees that rejected the may-ors budget proposal, saying it was inconsistent with state tax laws.

Earlier this year, two similar proposals were floated in Providence by Mayor david Cicilline 83. Both measures were stalled before they could make it to the general As-semblys special session.

Chaos in harvard student government election Harvards undergraduate Council voted to certify the

election of John Bowman as president Monday. The vote ended a four day period of uncertainty after the validity of Bowmans razor-thin margin of victory was called into question Thursday.

Bowman, a junior, received 45 more votes than his clos-est rival, george Hayward, in an election last Thursday, the Crimson reported. Still, the councils election commission voted to decertify the results, citing concerns over pos-sible electronic tampering.

The election results were first questioned when a mem-ber of the election commission was told that Eric Hysen Bowmans running mate and the uCs technical director had access to software that tabulated raw voting data, according to the Crimson.

The possibility of irregularities was enough to convince a majority of the seven-person commission to vote to de-certify the results.


CaMPUS newS When we say prosperity, it is not just a boy-scout slogan. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone on American strategy in AfghanistanQ & a with Deputy ambassador to afghanistan Francis ricciardoneby monique Vernon

Staff Writer

Deputy Ambassador to Afghanistan Francis Ricciardone, Jr. sat down with The Herald Monday morning to talk about his life as a diplomat and about American relations with Afghanistan. Ricciardone, who was on campus for an evening lecture titled, What are We Doing in Af-ghanistan? at the Watson Institute for International Studies, agreed to a separate interview but requested that his lecture be of f the record.

After graduating from Dart-mouth College, you began teach-ing and studying in various countries, including Italy and Iran. How did you go from this to becoming an ambassador for the United States?

Well, I am a career foreign ser-vice officer, and I have been in that profession for 31 years, since I came in from the Shahs Iran in the summer of 78.

But before that, I had been a schoolteacher and gone around the world. I wanted to see as much of the world as I could. I thought that this profession would offer me a chance to see even more of the world and do different things, and it has not disappointed.

One of the nice things about the foreign service is every couple of years you end up getting a differ-ent job, whether in Washington, New York, sometimes with the United Nations and even overseas youre constantly learning new things and meeting new people.

You have been an ambassa-dor to many countries, ranging from the Philippines to Egypt and now Afghanistan. What dif-ferences have you encountered when working with these na-tions and what similarities have you seen?

Of course cultures vary so much from one another, but I guess I can say wherever I served there is a keen interest in the United States, not only on the official governmen-tal level, but ordinary people know much more about American culture, politics, history than Americans

typically know about them. Wher-ever I have been it has been an asymmetrical kind of relationship in terms of what the host country and national government know about us Every school child in the fifth or sixth grade studies about the pha-raohs, (but) so few Americans now know about modern Egypt and its role in making peace with Israel, for example. No one doubts that those two countries are going to live in peace with each other. American diplomacy helped to solidify that peace, and being part of that as ambassador there a couple of years ago was just an immense privilege and hugely meaningful to see how our development assistance and military assistance could contribute to Egypts absolute commitment to living in peace.

How have your previous posts as an ambassador influenced how you do your job now?

When you are an American dip-lomat, particularly in the kinds of places Ive served, you learn a lot

about conflict and how conflicts can eventually be if not resolved then managed to minimize pain and suffering.

While much of my career was spent dealing with the Arab-Israe-li conflict, in other places I have served, like the Philippines, I saw the conflict in the southern part of the Philippines where the Muslims were actually a minority in the larger Christian culture. All of that is serving me in good stead in Afghanistan now, where it is a very complicated conflict. It is not a conflict between the United States and Afghanistan or the U.S. and Al Qaeda even, although we are focus-ing on Al Qaeda and their role in international terrorism.

Theres a very complicated in-ternal conflict within Afghanistan which is partly ethnic, tribal and partly cultural. I am able to ap-proach the conflict there and its implications for the U.S. and our strong desire to work to support those Afghans who want to resolve the conflict.

There are certain things that outsiders well-intentioned out-siders like us can do and there are mistakes we make, that outsid-ers often make presuming we know more than the people involved.

What are the biggest foreign policy challenges the U.S. is fac-ing in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region? What do you think is the best strategy the U.S. should take?

Our mission is to disrupt, dis-mantle and defeat Al Qaeda and its extremist allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan and prevent their re-turn to either country in the future. Within that, we try to boil it down to a three-word motto, and the words that the Afghans like to hear are peace, justice and prosperity.

What they mean more opera-tionally is, peace really depends on security. Most Afghans who are feeling good about the coun-try are living in the areas where security has improved. And those Afghans who are worried about the

future and think things are going the wrong way are in those areas where there is no security or se-curity is very much in threat. And of course that is not only through our troop presence but also our intelligence and law enforcement operation with the government of Afghanistan.

Justice depends on governance having a government that be-lieves its job is to serve the people and not the other way around, the people serving the government. So we need to help the Afghans themselves organize and build in-stitutions of governance.

And finally, when we say prosper-ity, it is not just a boy-scout slogan. You need programs and activities to make an economy function.

What advice do you have for students who are considering a career in foreign policy?

I had five years of being a school-teacher in Italy and then Iran, and Im really glad I did that rather then jumping right into federal service. You can see the world in a differ-ent way, and I think I am a better diplomat for having lived among people in Iran and all over Europe on a very low budget.

Why is the event open to the public but of f the record?

There is kind of a custom, an interface between government and diplomacy and academia Its good to have that freedom where I dont have to worry about someone extracting something and making a headline out of it at a moment of in-tense public interest in the foreign policy question of Afghanistan. I am a government official after all, and I need to take great care that I faithfully represent the programs and the policies of the United States of America.

I thought that by making it off the record we could have a slightly more candid conversation with the question and answer part. Especial-ly being around students as bright as Brown students are, I wanted to be able to give everyone a freer reign It adds a level of protection, I think, for the decision-makers (in Washington).

Kim Perley / Heralddeputy Ambassador to Afghanistan Francis Ricciardone, Jr. gave an off the record lecture Monday.

who do choose to apply elsewhere will be guaranteed a spot in the first available Alpert class.

This may mean a delay in ma-triculation to AMS should they not secure a spot at another school, Associate Dean for Medical Educa-tion Philip Gruppuso and Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing wrote in their mes-sage to PLMEs.

According to Gruppuso, the original change was intended to account for the delicacy of the medical school admissions process and the need for schools to be sure they would enroll a full incoming

class each year. Honestly, if we were not

confronted with the competitive reality of medical school admis-sions, we would never have been motivated to make this change at all, and especially not for students already here, he told The Herald Monday.

The number of PLMEs applying out to other schools has increased in recent years, according to the deans e-mail. That complicates the calculus required of admissions officers to ensure a full class, Grup-puso said.

But after students expressed opposition and met with the ad-ministration, the deans moved to

modify the policy.We were trying to balance two

conflicting desires: to provide to students the flexibility theyve come to expect, and at the same time ... the good of the institution, Grappusso said. We arrived at a policy that we think is the best so-lution to a difficult issue.

About two weeks after the policy was announced earlier this month, a group of four PLME students met with Gruppuso in person to discuss their misgivings about the change. It was that meeting, Gruppuso said, that pushed the administration to work toward a policy that more students would like.

The key for me was sitting

and talking to these four juniors, Gruppuso said. It was a very con-structive discussion.

Arune Gulati 11, one of the four students, said he was happy to have reached a compromise with the administration and that the revised policy was definitely a step in the right direction.

It definitely works out for the Med School, because they fill their class. And for us, it takes away the whole uncertainty that we wont get in anywhere, he said. Were still guaranteed a spot, which is fantastic. So I guess in that way it works out for both sides.

But Gulati expressed disap-pointment in the fact that the policy

change will affect current students. Then again, this is what it should have been all along, because this is what we were promised, he said.

Unikora Yang 12, a PLME, also commended the new policy. It is a good policy considering that medi-cal school admissions is a compli-cated system, she said.

Gruppuso said the situation was difficult for both sides.

We know that there are very valid personal reasons for wanting to make a change, he said. Its just a question of, In what ways do the needs and desires of the individual trump the health of the institution?

PLMe policy adjusted for students applying to other schoolscontinued from page 1

MetroThe Brown daily HeraldTuESdAy, NOvEMBER 24, 2009 | PAgE 5

Once you open the door on these issues, its difficult to close. Councilman John Lombardi, on a law that allows bars to be open late

r.I. unemployment drops to 12.9 percentby Joanna wohlmuth

Metro editor

Though Rhode Islands unem-ployment rate dropped slightly in October, the state still has the third-highest unemployment in the nation, according to a report released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Ocean States unemploy-ment rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 12.9 percent last month, according to the report.

Rhode Islands unemployment rate has not posted a decrease since January 2007, according to statistics from the Rhode Is-

land Department of Labor and Training.

From October 2008 to Octo-ber 2009, unemployment rose by 3.6 percentage points nationally to 10.2 percent, the bureau re-ported. Over that period, Rhode Islands unemployment rate in-creased by 4.1 percentage points and the state lost 20,410 jobs.

A total of 13 states experienced unemployment rate decreases last month, while 29 states and Washington, D.C. saw unemploy-ment increases, according to the bureau. Rates were unchanged in eight states.

These five states have the worst unemployment, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

1. Michigan 15.1%2. Nevada 13.0%3. rhode island 12.9%4. California 12.5%5. South Carolina 12.1%

National rate 10.2%

october unemployment

a bit less Xtreme? out with the old, in with the new on thayer street

metro in brief

Tucked under stairs that lead up to another restaurant, one of Thayer Streets pizza parlors has a new owner, and name.

Kamal Nouhaili, co-owner of Thayer Street Pizza and Wings, said he has been trying to re-brand the restaurants image since he bought Xtreme Pizza and Wings earlier this month.

They used to have all kinds of funky pizzas and stuff, said Nouhaili, who owns another pizza parlor in Cumberland. Were trying to make it more like your hometown pizzeria.

Nouhaili said he bought the restaurant for a very good price because the previous restaurant had a bad reputation in terms of both food quality and service. He said he would combat that reputation by improving the food and the attitude of the employees.

While guests may not notice much of a difference in the restaurants facilities, the new owners have changed the menu to shift the focus away from wings and pizza.

Other nearby pizza parlors feature pizza by the slice, Nouhaili said, whereas his menu also includes appetizers, pasta, sandwiches, wraps and calzones.

Were not trying to compete with Antonios, via via, Nice Slice weve got very different food, he said.

He said the restaurant will give a 15 percent discount to members of the Brown community.

Alex Bell

The legislation is aimed at elimi-nating the typical 2 a.m. scene in the city hundreds of patrons, in various stages of inebriation, pour-ing into the citys streets and often leading to trouble, according to a Nov. 17 press release from the General Assembly.

During the six-month trial period defined in the bill, the Providence Board of Licenses can authorize bars and clubs to stay open until 3 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, Sat-urdays and the nights before legal state holidays. During the final hour no alcohol can be served and no new customers can enter.

Owners of bars and clubs will have to apply for later hours through the city Board of Licenses, said Andrew Annaldo, the boards

chairman. He said the police depart-ment, mayors office, city council and general public will all be part of discussions surrounding the change. Though he said no new licenses will be granted until those discussions are complete, city of-ficials hope the trial program will begin as soon as Jan. 1.

Pretty much everyone is on board with the program, said Coun-cilman John Lombardi, D-Ward 13, adding that the pressure for later closings has mounted over the past five to seven years as nightlife in the city has increased.

The legislation is aimed at creat-ing more of a trickling effect, he said. Right now, there are 7,500 to 10,000 people trying to get out of the same area at once.

The College Hill neighborhood has less late-night activity than

downtown and has not experienced major problems with 2 a.m. closings, said Lt. John Ryan, commander of Providence Police Department Dist. 9, which includes Browns main campus. He said later closings will have a greater effect in areas with a higher density of bars and clubs.

A more gradual, staggered de-parture of customers from the clubs over a longer period of time should cut down on the noise, crowding, fights and other problems that have occurred, according to the press release.

Though later hours are autho-rized only for the six-month trial pe-riod, Lombardi said he expects the change to continue indefinitely.

Its a sunshine provision, he said. Once you open the door on these issues, its dif ficult to close.


For trial period, city bars may stay open longer

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Alex Bell / HeraldXtreme Pizza and Wings is out on Thayer Street. Kamal Nouhailis Thayer Street Pizza and Wings is there in its place.

C O F F E E W I T H O u T T H E F E E

Freddy Lu / HeraldAs part of a promotion for Toyota, a truck was parked on Thayer Street offering free coffee to passersby.

SportstuesdayTuESdAy, NOvEMBER 24, 2009 | Page 6

The Brown daily Herald

M. water polo goes 1-2 at easternsby liza Jones

Contributing Writer

The mens water polo team trav-eled to Cambridge, Mass. this past weekend to face Bucknell, MIT and Fordham in the Eastern Division Championships. After falling to Bucknell, 8-6, the Bears defeated MIT in overtime, 7-6, but lost to Fordham, 8-7.

Their 1-2 per formance at the championships put an end to what had been an impressive season during which the Bears compiled a 17-12 record, going 5-1 in the Northern Division to win the league championship.

bucknell 8, brown 6In the opening-round match

of Easterns, Bucknells 5-0 third-period run gave the Bison the win on Friday. Svetozar Stefanovic 13 led the offense with two goals, and Kent Holland 10 command-ed the cage with nine saves in goal.

Bruno star ted of f with an impressive 4-1 lead in the first half before collapsing. After 24 minutes of play, Bucknell scored five in a row to bring the score to 6-4. Bruno scored one more, followed by two more from the Bison. With 1:30 left on the clock, Dean Serure 13 scored, but that wasnt enough to stave off de-feat. Despite the loss, Stefanovic, Gordon Hood 11 and Holland all earned First Team honors and Corey Schwartz 11 earned Sec-ond Team honors.

brown 7, mit 6 (ot)After their opening loss,

Brown was determined to come out with a win Saturday against an MIT squad playing before a hometown crowd. The teams fought to the very end, with the Bears finally outlasting the En-gineers.

Stefanovic scored the first goal of the game, giving Bruno a short-lived lead. But MIT quickly tallied three more for a two-goal cushion. Schwartz notched a goal for the Bears before the half, but the Bears trailed, 3-2.

After the break, Hood evened the score just 2:12 into the second half. The teams continued to take turns in the lead for the rest of the game, with Stefanovic scor-ing two more and Hood scoring one.

When MIT looked poised to win, holding a 6-5 lead with just 23 seconds left on the clock, Ste-fanovic lived up to his Northern Division Player of the Year billing and scored to bring the game into overtime.

Overtime consisted of two three-minute periods by rule, but Schwartz had fired the game-winner with 32 seconds left in the first overtime.

Despite the of fensive lead-ers crucial ef forts, Hollands impressive job in the cage earned him player of the game honors. The Brown goalkeeper made 27 saves, including four in the OT periods.

fordham 8, brown 7The following day, Brown

played Fordham in the fifth-place game. Hood and Schwartz led the offense with three and two goals, respectively. The Rams began with a 2-0 lead and kept it all the way to halftime, when they led, 6-4. After the third period, the score was 8-5.

The Bears tried not to lose steam, however, and ambitiously attempted to crawl their way back in the fourth and final period. Se-rure and Hood each scored one goal, which was not enough to seal a win, and the Bears fell, 8-7. Holland had six saves in goal.

w. icers still in hunt for first eCaC winby andrew braCa

SportS editor

The womens hockey team fell to two tough ECAC opponents over the weekend, losing to Dartmouth, 5-2, on Friday and Harvard, 5-1, on Saturday at Meehan Auditorium.

The Bears (1-6-3, 0-5-3 ECAC) scored one more goal than they had totaled in their previous six games, and goaltender Katie Jamieson 13 recorded 81 saves over the two games, but Bruno could not keep up the intensity for a full 60 minutes in either game.

dartmouth 5, brown 2The Bears hung tough with

the Big Green (4-3-1, 4-3-1 ECAC) for most of the game, trailing by a single goal with six minutes remain-ing but ultimately succumbed to a ferocious Dartmouth attack that fired 53 shots.

Brown was hampered by the loss of top defender Samantha Stortini 11, who sat out both games with a concussion. Head Coach Digit Murphy praised Victoria Smith 13 for stepping up from her previous role as the fifth defender to pair with Nicole Brown 10 on a full shift schedule for the first time in her career. But Murphy noted the depleted defense tired more easily, especially on special teams.

The Big Green roared out to a 1-0 lead just 3:45 into the game on Camille Dumaiss shot from the right point. Logging a 20-8 ad-vantage in first-period shots, Dart-mouth scored again to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

But the Bears came out ener-gized in the second period. Brown got on the board 6:54 after intermis-sion when Erica Kromm 11 was waiting at the left post to knock Jacquie Pierris 12 shot from the right point into the back of the net. Paige Pyett 12 also picked up an assist on the play.

Dartmouth regained the two-goal lead 1:22 later, but Bruno re-sponded at 12:31 when three fresh-

men connected for a goal. Smith sent the puck up to Laurie Jolin 13, who one-timed a pass right to the stick of Alena Polenska 13. Polen-ska charged down the left side of the ice and lifted a shot that beat Big Green goaltender Whitney Woodcox.

Murphy said she was impressed with the way the Bears fought back and hung tough with the Big Green, as the score remained 3-2 for the next 22 minutes. But Brown generated just six third-period shots undone, Murphy said, by five penalties that short-circuited scor-ing chances and prevented the team from employing its depth.

Our strength is in our numbers and our energy and our forecheck thats how we generate offense, Murphy said.

Dartmouth had no trouble gen-erating offense, taking 12 shots during the 5:23 Bruno spent in the penalty box en route to 21 total third-period shots. After notching an even-strength goal with 5:05 re-maining, the Big Green produced the 5-2 final with a five-on-three goal 23 seconds before the final horn.

Murphy said the penalties killed any chance the Bears had to seize the momentum and tie the game, allowing Dartmouth to pull away.

We have to make more momen-tum shifts our way, she said.

harvard 5, brown 1The Bears created one big mo-

mentum shift against the Crimson (5-3-1, 5-3-0), tying the game mid-way through the second period, but were overwhelmed by a flood of power-play goals.

Harvard struck even faster than Dartmouth had when Kaitlin Spurl-ings shot from the right point found the back of the net just 3:37 into the game.

Murphy said that though it was a tough start to the game, the team did not fault Jamieson for the goal especially after her strong play this season.

Even though it hurt, shes been

carrying us on her back all year, Murphy said. Shes an unbeliev-able goalie.

The Bears controlled much of the first period, taking nine shots during a power play lasting 4:43 that included 1:18 with a five-on-three.

But the Bears never got a for-tuitous bounce. Crimson goalie Christina Kessler finished the first with 16 saves to keep Bruno off the board.

We were in their end the whole first period, not only when we had the power plays but even at regular strength, Murphy said.

Polenska tied the game 6:43 after intermission. After receiving a pass from Kromm, she skated up the right side of the ice and beat Kes-sler to the upper left corner of the goal. Pierri picked up her second assist of the weekend on the play.

But the Bears collapsed over the final 30 minutes. Five penalties over the final 12:15 of the middle frame led to two second-period goals and another early in the third. The Crim-son notched their fifth goal in the final minute as a Brown player was exiting the penalty box.

Brown will take a break from ECAC play this weekend to host St. Cloud State (5-9-0) for a pair of games Friday at 1 p.m. and Saturday at noon at Meehan. The Huskies, a member of the Western Colle-giate Hockey Association, are fresh off an upset of No. 6 Wisconsin, the defending national champion, but Murphy said the Bears have a chance if they stay out of the box and play full games.

You take away the penalties, you take away the special teams, I like us 5-on-5, she said. I think were a good team, (but) we beat ourselves. Until the team starts to understand that, well see what hap-pens, but I know we can beat St. Cloud if we play three periods.

Were playing a period and a half now, she added. I hope by the end of this semester well have two, and so by January well play three.

Jonathan Bateman / HeraldWomens hockey is still looking for its first league win after dropping two games over the weekend.

The womens basketball team completed a furious rally to beat Central Connecticut State, 62-59, on Saturday at the Pizzitola Center for its first win of the year.

CCSu roared out to a 24-12 lead midway through the first half and held a 34-28 advantage at halftime but could not extend that lead as the Bears chipped away in the second half. A jumper by Natalie Bonds 10 gave the Bears a 58-57 lead, their first of the game, with 3:33 left. A Bonds layup sealed the victory with 1:27 remaining.

Aileen daniels 12 led Brown (1-2) with 17 points, followed by Sheila dixon 13 with 11 and Sarah delk 11 with 10.

On Wednesday, the Bears fell to American university, 64-54, after frittering away a three-point halftime lead. Brown held a 41-34 lead with 14:27 left, but the Bears could not recover when the Eagles went on a 17-0 run over the next 8:28. Christina Johnson 10 led Bruno with 12 points and six rebounds.

The Bears will travel to Smithfield to face in-state rival Bryant tonight before heading to the Long Island university Turkey Classic over the weekend.

Sports Staff Reports

THE BROWN dAILy HERALdPAgE 7

SPortStUeSDay It was disappointing that we saved our best for last. david Walls 11, mens soccer co-captainTuESdAy, NOvEMBER 24, 2009

Okafor 11 cross from the left side at the far post.

The play remained even between UNC and Brown for the first 20 min-utes of the game until a Bears foul gave the Tar Heels a free kick 25 yards out that set up the eventual game-winning goal. Midfielder Kirk Urso sent a ball from 25 yards out on the left side into the box to Billy Schuler, who sent a header to the back of the net from the middle of the six-yard box. Grandstrand got caught on a 50-50 going for the ball and it deflected off his hands.

Were usually good against set pieces, said co-captain David Walls 11, a defender. It was disap-pointing to give up a goal in that fashion.

The Bears failed to get a quality look on goal in the first half but turned things around in the second in an urgent manner. They finally began a fierce comeback in the games closing 30 minutes.

Jay Hayward 12 recorded the first shot on goal on the day for the Bears when he sent a free kick at the keeper, but Tar Heel Brooks Haggerty pursued the ball with great vision, picking up one of his two saves.

It was different playing a team from the ACC, since its a differ-ent type of soccer that kind of threw us off a little, and we couldnt get into much of a rhythm, Grand-strand said.

The Tar Heels answered right back, as Alex Dixon and Schuler sent two one-on-one shots on goal at Grandstrand, but the Brown goalie kept the game within reach with two saves in five minutes.

The Bears continued their sec-ond-half offensive surge and tallied several more shots to challenge Haggerty in goal. With 15 minutes remaining in the game, Rob Medai-ros 12 touched the ball to Taylor Gorman 12, who narrowly missed the goal with a shot that sailed over the net.

It was disappointing to work so hard during the season to get to the big game and not get the win, Walls said. It was disappointing that we saved our best for last.

Dylan Remick 13 got the last best look on goal for Brown in the 88th minute when he sent a ball just high, clanking off the cross bar, that almost hooked its way into the goal for the equalizer.

Many of Carolinas offensive opportunities came off of coun-terattacks when the Bears were pressed forward in search of the game-tying goal. Bruno was caught in UNC territory on the Remick shot, and the Tar Heels sent the ball the other direction to Dixon, who broke away from the Brown defense. He sent a shot at Grand-strand from eight yards out and iced the game with a one-on-one goal, the final dagger that ended the Bears 2009 season.

UNC held an 11-5 shot advan-tage over Brown. Haggerty saved both of the Bears shots on goal and Grandstrand shined in net with five saves on seven shots on goal.

Brown ended the season with a very well-balanced offensive at-tack, as 12 players scored goals this season. The Bears outscored opponents by a two-to-one margin on the year. Nick Elenz-Martin 10, Austin Mandel 12, Thomas McNa-mara 13 and Rosa led the team with

five goals apiece.Ever yone gave inspiration

and a commitment that definitely helped us through tricky positions and challenges we faced this sea-son, and we usually would come out on top because of the overall team effort, Walls said.

The Bears will lose four seniors to graduation: Elenz-Martin, T.J. Thompson 10, Jarrod Schlenker 10 and co-captain Thomas Thunell 10. But the team will return the bulk of its starting line-up and look to build off a season of hard work as it heads into the offseason. This past

offseason we had 6 a.m. workouts three days a week, Grandstrand said. We put our minds to it and knew that we needed to work hard. That will definitely be carried on into this upcoming spring, building off of our performance from this past season.


Jesse Morgan / HeraldFreshman guard Sheila dixon drives past a Central Connecticut State defender during Saturdays win.

tar heels stamp out m. soccers memorable nCaa run

w. hoops trumps Central Conn. state to claim years first victory

sports in brief

news feed? live feed?Who knows what its called, but

its itching for some Heraldfacebook.com/browndailyherald

world & nationThe Brown daily HeraldTuESdAy, NOvEMBER 24, 2009 | PAgE 8

wealthy nations outsource crops to ethiopias farmlands by stephanie mCCrummen

WaShington poSt

BAKO, ETHIOPIA In recent months, the Ethiopian government began marketing abroad one of the hottest commodities in an increas-ingly crowded and hungry world: farmland.

Why Attractive? reads one glossy poster with photos of green fields and a map outlining swaths of the country available at bargain-basement prices. Vast, fertile, irrigable land at low rent. Abundant water resources. Cheap labor. Warmest hospitality.

This impoverished and chroni-cally food-insecure Horn of Africa nation is rapidly becoming one of the worlds leading destinations for the booming business of land leasing, by which relatively rich countries and investment firms are securing 40- to 99-year contracts to farm vast tracts of land.

Governments across Southeast Asia, Latin America and especially Africa are seizing the chance to attract this new breed of inves-tors, wining and dining executives, creating land-leasing agencies and land catalogues to showcase their offerings of earth. In Africa alone, experts estimate that about 50 mil-lion acres roughly the size of Nebraska have been leased in the past two years.

The trend is driven in par t by last years global food crisis. Relatively wealthy countries are shoring up their food supplies by growing staple crops abroad. The deser t kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for instance, is shifting wheat production to Africa. The government of India, where land is crowded and overfarmed, is of-fering incentives to companies to carve out mega farms across the continent.

Increasingly, though, purely profit-seeking companies are snatching up land, making a sim-ple, if somewhat grim, calculation.

As one Saudi-backed businessman here put it, The population of the world is increasing dramatically, so land and food supplies will be short, demand will be higher and prices will rise.

The scale and pace of the land scramble has alarmed policymak-ers and others concerned about the implications for food security in countries such as Ethiopia, where officials recently appealed for food aid for about 6 million people as drought devastates parts of East Africa. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is in the midst of a food security summit in Rome where some of the 62 heads of state attending are to discuss a code of conduct to govern land deals, which are being struck with little public input.

These contracts are pretty thin, said David Hallam, a dep-uty director at the FAO. You see statements from ministers where theyre basically promising every-thing with no controls, no condi-tions.

The harshest critics of the practice conjure bleak images of poor Africans starving as food is hauled off to rich countries. Some express concern that decades of industrial farming will leave good land spoiled even as local popula-tions surge. And skeptics also say the political contexts cannot be ignored.

We dont trust this govern-ment, said Merera Gudina, a lead-ing opposition figure here who accuses Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of using the land policy to hold on to power. We are afraid this government is buy-ing diplomatic support by giving away land.

But many exper ts are cau-tiously hopeful, saying that big agribusiness could feed millions by industrializing agriculture in countries such as Ethiopia, where about 80 percent of its 75 million people are farmers who plow their

fields with oxen.If these deals are negotiated

well, I tell you, it will change the dynamics of the food economy in this country, said Mafa Chipeta, the FAOs representative in Ethio-pia, dismissing the worst-case sce-narios. I cant believe Ethiopia or any other government would allow their country to be used like an empty womb. The human spirit would not allow it.

Few countries have embraced the trend as zealously as Ethiopia, where hard-baked eastern deserts fade into spectacularly lush and green western valleys fed by the Blue Nile. Only a quarter of the countrys estimated 175 million fertile acres is being farmed.

Desperate for foreign currency, the government of former Marxist rebels who once proclaimed land to the tiller! has set aside more than 6 million acres for agribusi-ness. Lured with 40-year leases and tax holidays, investors are go-ing on farm shopping sprees, criss-crossing the country on chartered flights to pick out their swaths of Ethiopian soil.

Indian companies have commit-ted $4.2 billion so far. Anand Seth, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations, described Africa as the next big thing in investment opportunities and markets.

As he stood on a little hill over-looking 30,000 acres of rich, black soil, Hanumantha Rao, chief gener-al manager of the Indian company Karuturi Agro Products, agreed. So far, he said, the Ethiopian gov-ernment has imposed few require-ments on his company.

From here, Rao said, you can see the past and the future of Ethiopian agriculture.

From there a farm just west of Addis Ababa it was possible to see a river designated for irri-gating cornfields and rice paddies; it is no longer open for locals to water their cows. Several shiny

green tractors bounced across the six-mile-long field where teff, the local grain, once grew. Hundreds of Ethiopian workers, overseen by Indian supervisors, were bent over rows of corn stalks, cutting weeds tangled around them with small blades.

Many of the workers were chil-dren. The day rate: 8 birr about 70 cents.

The people are very happy, said Rao, who will soon supervise a second farm spanning about 60 square miles. We have no prob-lems with them.

As a worker spoke to one of his supervisors, he whispered that the company had refused to sign a wage contract and had failed to deliver promised water and power to nearby villages. Supervisors treat them cruelly, he said, and most workers were just biding time until they could go work for a Chinese construction company rumored to pay $2 to $4 a day.

We are not happy, said the man, a farmer-turned-tractor driver who did not give his name

because he feared being fired. Im a machine operator and I make 800 birr (about $65) a month. This is the most terrible pay.

Rao said he had trained about 60 Ethiopians to drive tractors; others would learn to run shellers, and how to fertilize and irrigate land. If things work as they should, he said, Ethiopians will adopt the modern techniques in their own farms.

Along a muddy road leading to Karuturi farm, people said they were hopeful that might happen. But they were not sure how. Most said they were struggling just to buy government-subsidized fertil-izer, much less tractors. In any case, Ethiopians cannot own land, instead holding use certificates for their tiny plots, making it dif-ficult to get loans, or to sell or increase holdings.

We think they might be ben-eficial to us in the future, said Yadeta Fininsa, referring to the new companies coming to town. But so far we have not benefited anything.

Study: Kids in home-based day care watch more televisionby emma brown

WaShington poSt

Children who attend home-based day-care programs are watching twice as much television per day as was previously thought, according to a study released online Monday and published in the December issue of Pediatrics.

In a survey of 168 child-care programs in four states, research-ers found that toddlers, ages 1 to 3, in home-based day-care centers watched an average of 1.6 hours of television there each day, including videos and DVDs. Preschool-age children, 3 to 5 years old, watched

2.4 hours a day in home-based cen-ters.

Prior studies have estimated that preschool-age children watch one to three hours of television a day. But those relied on reports from parents about childrens habits at home and did not count the time they spent in front of the television during day care, underestimating the total TV time by up to 100 percent, research-ers said.

I hope that this is a wake-up call, said Dimitri Christakis of the Seattle Childrens Research Institute, the studys lead author. President Obama famously asked parents to turn off their childrens television

sets, and you might ask day-care providers to do the same thing, since watching television is not part of what early-childhood education should be.

Studies have linked television-watching in young children to obe-sity, aggression, cognitive delays and decreased attention spans. The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages television-watching for children under 2 and recommends that older children watch no more than two hours of television a day.

The research, funded by a Univer-sity of Washington endowment and the first in 20 years to examine tele-vision-watching in day care, suggests

wide variations among programs. Children in center-based programs, which are not in homes, spent 1.8 fewer hours in front of a screen than their peers in home-based programs, the study said. And home-based programs whose staff members had either a two- or four-year col-lege degree were associated with 1.4 fewer hours of television a day than home-based programs whose staff lacked college degrees.

Center-based day-care programs might rely less on television than home-based providers because they generally have lower child-to-adult ratios, Christakis said, and their employees tend to be more highly

educated.Christakis urged parents to cut

down on screen time at home and to ask prospective day-care providers about television use.

Christakis said states should consider tightening licensing re-quirements. No matter how educa-tional the program, he said, televi-sion-watching displaces components of high-quality child care, including outdoor playtime and opportunities to interact with peers and teachers.

Sesame Street is a good show, and there are other good shows, Christakis said. But Sesame Street was never intended to replace human interaction.


world & nationby anthony faiola

WaShington poSt

LONDON Nuclear power, long considered environmentally haz-ardous, is emerging as perhaps the worlds most unlikely weapon against climate change, with the backing of even some green activ-ists who once campaigned against it.

It has been 13 years since the last new nuclear power plant opened in the United States. But around the world, nations under pressure to reduce the produc-tion of climate-warming gases are turning to low-emission nu-clear energy as never before. The Obama administration and lead-ing Democrats, in an effort to win greater support for climate change legislation, are eyeing federal tax incentives and loan guarantees to fund a new crop of nuclear power plants across the United States that could eventually help drive down carbon emissions.

From China to Brazil, 53 plants are now under construction world-wide, with Poland, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia seeking to build their first reactors, according to global watchdog groups and industry associations. The number of plants being built is double the total of just five years ago.

Rather than deride the em-phasis on nuclear power, some environmentalists are embracing it. Stephen Tindale typifies the shift.

When a brigade of Greenpeace activists stormed a nuclear power plant on the shores of the North Sea a few years ago, scrawling danger on its reactor, Tindale was their commander. Then head of the groups British office, he remembers, he stood outside the plant just east of London telling TV crews all the reasons why nuclear power was evil.

The construction of nuclear plants was banned in Britain for years after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in what was then the So-viet Union. But now the British are weighing the idea of new nuclear plants as part of the battle against climate change, and Tindale is among several environmentalists who are backing the plan.

It really is a question about the greater evil nuclear waste or climate change, Tindale said. But there is no contest anymore. Climate change is the bigger threat, and nuclear is part of the answer.

A number of roadblocks may yet stall nuclears comeback in particular, its expense. Two next-generation plants under construc-tion in Finland and France are bil-lions of dollars over budget and seriously behind schedule, raising longer-term questions about the feasibility of new plants without major government support. Costs may be so high that energy compa-nies find financing hard to secure even with government backing.

But experts also point to a host of improvements in nuclear technology since the Chernobyl

accident and the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania in 1979. Most nota-ble is an 80 percent drop in indus-trial accidents at the worlds 436 nuclear plants since the late 1980s, according to the World Association of Nuclear Operators.

So far at least, the start of what many are calling a new nuclear age is unfolding with only mut-ed opposition nothing like the protests and plant invasions that helped define the green movement in the United States and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s.

As opposition recedes, even na-tions that had long vowed never to build another nuclear plant such as Sweden, Belgium and Italy have recently done an about-face as they see the benefits of a nearly zero-emission energy overriding the dangers of radio-active waste disposal and nuclear proliferation.

In the United States, lead-ing environmental groups have backed climate change bills mov-ing through Congress that envi-sion new American nuclear plants. An Environmental Protection Agency analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill passed by the House, for instance, shows nuclear energy generation more than doubling in the United States by 2050 if the legislation is made law. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing applications for 22 new nuclear plants from coast to coast.

To be sure, many green groups remain opposed to nuclear energy, and some, such as Greenpeace, have refused to back U.S. climate change legislation. Groups that support the bills, such as the Si-erra Club, say they are doing so because the legislation would also usher in the increased use of re-newable energies like wind and solar as well as billions of dollars in investment for new technolo-gies. They do not say they think nuclear energy is the solution in and of itself.

Our base is as opposed to nuclear as ever, said David Ham-ilton, director of the Global Warm-ing and Energy Program for the Sierra Club in Washington. You have to recognize that nuclear is only one small part of this.

But Steve Cochran, director of the National Climate Campaign at the Environmental Defense Fund a group that opposed new nu-clear plants in the United States as recently as 2005 also described a new and evolving pragmatic approach coming from environ-mental camps. I guess you could call it `grudging acceptance, he said.

If we are really serious about dealing with climate change, we are going to have to be willing to look at a range of options and not just rule things off the table, he said. We may not like it, but thats the way it is.

That position, observers say, marks a significant departure. Be-cause of global warming, most of the big groups have become less

active on their nuclear campaign, and almost all of us are taking an-other look at our internal policies, said Mike Childs, head of climate change issues for Friends of the Earth in Britain. Weve decided not to officially endorse it, in part because we feel the nuclear lobby is already strong enough. But we are also no longer focusing our energies on opposing it.

Some leading environmental figures, including former Vice President Al Gore, remain skep-tical of nuclears promise, largely because of the high cost of build-ing plants and the threat of prolif-eration, illustrated by Irans recent attempts to blur the lines between energy production and a weapons program. Other countries seeking to build their first nuclear plants would probably purchase fuel from secure market sources in Europe and the United States, rather than enrich their own. And experts re-main cautious about the prospect of seeing so much nuclear fuel in global circulation.

Im assuming the waste and safety problems get resolved, but cost and proliferation still loom as very serious problems with nuclear energy, Gore told The Washington Posts editorial board this month. I am not anti-nucle-ar, but the costs of the present generation of reactors is nearly prohibitive.

Yet for nations such as Britain home of the worlds first com-mercial nuclear plant a return to nuclear is seen as essential to the goal of meeting aggressive targets for reducing carbon emissions.

As reserves of natural gas from the North Sea dwindle, Britain also is betting on nuclear to help maintain a measure of energy in-dependence.

After years of resisting new plants after the Chernobyl melt-down, the government did an initial about-face in 2007, calling for a list of possible sites for reac-tors. This month, British officials announced plans to fast-track construction of 10 plants. They will also push for more wind and solar energy, but those technolo-gies are still seen by many to have limitations because of problems with transmission and scale, while clean coal plants are years from commercial viability.

As may happen in the United States, the plants in Britain are expected to go up in communities with existing nuclear complexes where support for them is already high.

Tindale, 46, publicly switched his position less than a year after leaving his job as head of Green-peace here. But his opinion began to change earlier, he said. Rather than being vilified by environmen-talists, his public shift has sparked a thoughtful debate here among opponents, supporters and those on the fence.

Like many of us, I began to slowly realize we dont have the luxury anymore of excluding nu-clear energy, he said. We need all the help we can get.

nuclear power winning new support home sales rebound to early-2007 levelby dina elboghdady

WaShington poSt

WASHINGTON Economists and policy-makers got what they were looking for Monday: a clear uptick in the housing market. The catch is, few believe its sustainable.

The National Association of Real-tors reported that sales of existing single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums in October surged to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.1 million units from 5.54 million in September making last month the strongest since February 2007. Sales were up 23.5 percent from last October.

Every piece of housing data is scrutinized these days because it was primarily the housing market that derailed the U.S. economy, and its recovery is key to restoring eco-nomic vitality.

Low home prices, federal pro-grams that helped push down inter-est rates and a temporary $8,000 federal tax credit mostly for first-time buyers have all played a role in boosting home sales in recent months. As sales picked up, the ex-cess supply of homes started shrink-ing and prices began stabilizing.

But real doubts linger about whether these gains can be main-tained, especially if unemployment continues to rise and government intervention is curtailed. The fed-eral cash for clunkers program boosted auto sales, for instance, but only temporarily. And many econo-mists forecast weak growth once the governments broader economic stimulus spending winds down.

On Tuesday, Federal Reserve leaders are expected to project continued high levels for the unem-ployment rate through at least 2011 when the Fed releases its forecast for future economic growth.

The number one worry is the labor market, said Adam York, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities. Were still losing jobs at a pretty hefty clip. ... Without income, no ones going to be buying a house or anything else.

On Monday, the Realtors group singled out the tax credit for the surprisingly strong October sales. That credit was due to expire Nov. 30 and buyers rushed to get in under the wire. It was recently extended to April 30 and expanded to include repeat buyers, who will be eligible for a $6,500 refund starting Dec. 1.

Mondays report showed that every region in the country expe-rienced an increase in sales, led by the Midwest, where sales rose 14.4 percent. The South, had a 12.7 percent increase, followed by the Northeast at 11.6 percent and the West at 1.6 percent.

Nationally, sales have risen in six of the past seven months, with August the sole exception.

Were the October numbers goosed by people thinking the home buyers tax credit will go away? Yes, said Thomas Lawler, an economist and housing consultant. Is it likely well see one more very strong

home-sales number in November? Yes ... But is it sustainable? Prob-ably not.

Even Lawrence Yun, the Realtors groups chief economist, conceded that a sharp rise in October and November sales cannot hold in the coming months.

A measurable decline should be anticipated in December and early next year before another surge in spring and early summer, Yun said in a statement. He attributed the renewed activity next year to the typical start of the home selling sea-son supported by the continuing tax credit.

But other economists doubt that the tax credit with prompt another jump in sales. Many of the prospec-tive buyers originally targeted by the credit have taken advantage of it already, while others are unlikely to do so because employment condi-tions have weakened.

The tax-credit program has no doubt turbocharged the market, said Michael Larson, a housing analyst at Weiss Research. But go-ing forward, its not going to be any great rebound but an anemic one. Its going to be three steps forward and two steps back.

Mondays report also showed that the national median home price fell 7.1 percent, to $173,100, in Octo-ber compared with a year earlier, the smallest drop since June 2008.

With prices low, bargain hunters snapped up deals, particularly ag-gressively priced foreclosures, and the supply of homes at the end of Oc-tober fell 3.7 percent, to 3.57 million, the lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years, the report said. If sales were to continue at the current pace, it would take seven months to sell them. Six months is generally considered to be healthy.

Larson said the sales frenzy has helped remove 1 million existing homes from the market. The num-ber of newly built homes has also plunged as builders have refrained from adding homes to the market.

Thats what you want to see, Larson said. That is what is clearly foretelling an eventual turn in pric-ing for the better.

But as is often the case with hous-ing, the good news is intertwined with the bad, demonstrating just how fragile the market is.

Government data released last week showed that new-home con-struction took an unexpected tumble in October, falling to its lowest level in six months. Housing starts fell 10.6 percent, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,000.

Other rude surprises may be on the way. One unknown is how many more foreclosures will hit the mar-ket in coming months as loan modi-fications for troubled borrowers fall through and lenders start marketing foreclosures that they had not previ-ously put up for sale.

That shadow inventory, said economist Patrick Newport of IHS Global Insight, is still a large num-ber.

editorial & LettersPage 10 | TuESdAy, NOvEMBER 24, 2009

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editorial

Rhode Islands dismal financial condition is no longer news, and the states economic problems have only worsened in recent months.

Last week, the governors office issued a report projecting a $220 million deficit for the current fiscal year. Revenues from sales, income and business taxes fell below previ-ous estimates, according to an article in last Tuesdays Providence Journal. State unem-ployment insurance taxes are set to increase for over 30,000 employers in January who are, by any measure, already overtaxed.

In September, the Tax Foundation, a Washington think tank, ranked Rhode Is-land 44th in the country in its 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index, behind every other state in New England. By our lights, the state has three options to address the budgetary crisis: raise taxes, cut spending or do both.

We favor the second approach, since high taxes account for many of the states current difficulties. Amy Kempe, a spokeswoman for Governor Donald Carcieri 65, told the Providence Journal, There are no easy deci-sions. Theres no low hanging fruit.

We believe, on the other hand, that the states dire financial situation presents a ripe opportunity for instituting changes that have been talked about for years. Rhode Island should substantially reduce its public spend-ing by consolidating its excess of municipal governments.

There are now 39 self-governing cities and towns in Rhode Island, an average of one for every 27,000 residents. A recently gathered state senate commission on municipal ser-

vices suggested merging tax collection and assessment services in the near future.

We would advise adding a few other ser-vices to that list most prominently, fire-fighting, schooling and waste management. Combined services would lower average costs by taking full advantage of economies of scale. These reforms would also help Rhode Island cut the deadweight from its bloated public sector.

Fortunately, state legislators have come to realize that local governments are living beyond their means. Frank Ciccone III, D-Dist. 7, has said he will introduce a bill in January proposing the establishment of four or five county-level governments in place of the current 39.

If public sector unions, the main oppo-nents of consolidation, are successful in blocking this reform, we suggest combining services first and cutting public employees loose at some time later. The state should implement other reforms to encourage mu-nicipalities to combine services in the near future.

Under current law, local tax increases are capped at 4.5 percent. We urge state legislators to freeze local taxes this year in order to force cities and towns to cut costs further. The consolidation of local govern-ment and services is long overdue and will hopefully make Rhode Island competitive with its neighbors long after the recession has abated.

Editorials are written by The Heralds editorial page board. Send comments to [email protected].

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corrections

Due to an editing error, a photo caption on yesterdays front page (Su-percomputer welcomed with optimism, Nov. 23) incorrectly identified the figure shown cutting the ribbon at a ceremony for the computers opening as Gov. Donald Carcieri 65. That person should have been identified as the Universitys vice president for research, Clyde Briant. Carcieri is second from the right in the photo.

An article in yesterdays paper (Brown scientists over the moon for lunar water find, Nov. 23) quoted Professor of Geology James Head as saying that Associate Professor of Geology Alberto Saal found water in lunar volcanic gases. In fact, Saal discovered water in lunar volcanic glasses, not gases.

TuESdAy, NOvEMBER 24, 2009 | PAgE 11

opinionsThe Brown daily Herald

The open curriculum provides us with a framework for incomparable academic free-dom. We can take basically whatever course we want, choose our grading system, add and drop courses on a whim and create courses and concentrations if the current availabili-ties dont meet our fancies.

But despite all this freedom, Ive talked to a number of students who have left or will leave Brown regretting not being able to pur-sue all of their academic interests. The one that got away, they say sullenly, dead on the inside.

This might seem a bit strange to the out-sider. After all, one would think that Brown students would exploit the open curriculum and take all of the courses they want to take before Father Time whisks them away into the real world.

But the system is unfortunately stacked against us.

Students generally graduate having taken 32 courses. The average A.B. student prob-ably uses 12 courses to fill concentration re-quirements; the average Sc.B. student prob-ably uses 17 courses to fill concentration requirements. Most students probably fool around with about 15 courses, and by that I mean elect to explore areas outside their own concentration-to-be.

For a lot of students, however, these 15 courses are not enough to meaningfully pur-

sue any academic interests they might devel-op before graduation.

This is explainable, as our educations tend to evolve in such a way as to limit our course flexibility when it really matters, even with the open curriculum.

During freshman year, and to a slightly lesser extent sophomore year, theres noth-ing really substantial to guide our course se-lections. We come to Brown with some in-terests, we use those interests to focus our course selections and, more often than not,

we end up abandoning those interests, at least in part.

For example, I came to Brown wanting to concentrate in physics; Im now a philosophy major. Likewise, Im sure you or someone you know declared a different concentration than intended upon entering college.

Because we dont really have a firm focus in the beginning, were kind of blindly shoot-ing bullets at department buildings and hop-ing to hit something worthwhile. The aver-age student takes courses in a bunch of ar-eas that he thinks he will enjoy, and gradu-ally narrows down his interests until he finds something in which he wants to concentrate. While this method is certainly effective, it severely cuts away at the number of elective

courses we have to use in our later years.This is tragic, for it is in our later years

when we have perspective; our interests are in check, and we know what we want out of our education. So we often do not have the courses to spare when we want to pursue in-terests that have developed outside of our concentration (at least not to any significant degree).

This is even truer for double concentra-tors, who make up about 20 percent of the Brown class and are generally pressed to

fill more than 20 course requirements. The same goes for double degree earners: while students in the Sc.B./A.B. or M.A./A.B. de-gree programs are provided an extra year to fulfill their degree requirements, they regu-larly push 25 course requirements.

The bottom line is that no matter what, some students are going to come out of col-lege without having pursued all of their aca-demic interests, at least to their satisfaction. Im going to go out on a whiny limb here and say this isnt fair, and suggest something be done about it.

For that something, we turn to the Uni-versity of Rochester. Rochester is very sim-ilar to Brown. Both schools have open cur-riculums (though at Rochester students are

required to complete clusters of cours-es). Both schools have a major research fo-cus, both schools are in the Northeast, both schools have students. So I think a compari-son between the schools is valid.

The University of Rochester has a unique program called Take Five Scholars. This pro-gram is directed toward students who are in-terested in academic enrichment for the sake of enrichment. Students are permitted to stay in college (at Rochester or even abroad) for a fifth year, tuition-free, and take whatever courses they like, as long as they collectively serve to fulfill some sort of intellectual inter-est outside of their major.

Students must submit a proposal and a cohesive course program to a committee, which accepts students who demonstrate the potential to genuinely grow intellectual-ly from taking a fifth year; likewise, the stu-dent must show that he or she was unable to undertake the relevant studies during his or her former undergraduate years. There is no minimum GPA requirement, so anyone with these qualities can apply.

Only 68 students were enrolled in this program at Rochester during the 2008-2009 year, and so only a small fraction of students are allowed to remain behind each year. But Im sure those 68 students leave college feel-ing much more intellectually fulfilled, and I see no reason why Brown students shouldnt be given the same opportunity.

Jared Lafer 11 is a philosophy con-centrator from Manhattan.

He can be reached

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009