11 6 13 entire issue lo res

Cornell Will Return

10,0 0 0 Tablet s to Iraq

A ncient Sumerian in scription s were donated to Univ. in 2000

By DARA LEVY Sun Senior Writer

Following years of controversy, including an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security and allegations of both illegal looting and tax fraud, Cornell is preparing to return 10,000 tablets to their native Iraq Cornell’s move to return the tablets may be the biggest return of antiquities by an American university

The clay blocks, which date back to the 4th century B C and o f f e r re s e a rc

Mesopotamia, were donated by Jonathan Rosen and his family of the Jonathan and Jeannette Rosen Ancient Near Eastern Seminar in 2000, according to the Los Angeles Times

Some of the tablets, which were part of the private archives for a Sumerian princess in the 21st century B C in the city of Garsana, have been the source of much controversy Critics believe the tablets were looted from Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, when many archaeological relics went missing, according to the L A Times

In a statement, the University denied any connection to an illegal looting of artifacts and said that it is undergoing negotiations with Iraq for the tablets’ return

“Cornell appreciates the opportunity it has had to participate in the preservation and study of these invaluable historical artifacts and welcomes the opportunity to continue this work in participation

Robber y Reported on Maple Ave.

By DARA LEVY Sun Senior Writer

Ma

l e Ave a t a p p rox

a t e l y 3 : 3 0 p

T h e p e r p e t r a t o r w a s d e s c r i b e d a s “ a b l a c k m a l e , a p p rox i m a t e l y s i x f e e t t a l l , we i g h i n g a b o u t 2 3 0 p o u n d s , w i t h s h o r t b r a i d s , a s c r u f f y b e a rd a n d s t o c k y b u i l d , ” C U P D s a i d No we a p o n s we re s h ow n o

dlevy@cornellsun

By SUN STAFF

By CAROLINE FLAX Sun News Editor

Stephen Colbert had some tough questions f o r Na t i o n a l Pu b

i c Radio media correspondent and former Sun Editor in Chief David Folkenflik ’91 when he appeared on The Colbert Re p

“My guest, [Folkenflik], goes behind the scenes at Fox News

Colbert said Calling Folkenflik

On Aug 15, Marina Markot became the newest director of Cor nell Abroad A for mer associate director of the Inter national Studies Office at the University of Virginia, Markot brings her experience in inter national engagement to the study abroad program Sun News

Markot to talk about her goals for Cor nell Abroad

THE SUN: How has your transition to Cornell been so far?

Mo

around and meeting people, learning what is going on, what they are doing, what they would like to be doing and how Cornell Abroad can be of help There are a lot of things to learn It’s a complex institution, as you well know There are a number of ver y interesting international initiatives that are spread around campus and a lot of innovation in terms of these initiatives

open for us to discuss what constitutes a meaning ful or significant experience abroad Currently, Cornell Abroad is collaborating with the Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Engaged Learning and Research Center and the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives to bring together a number of p e o p l e ,

administrators We are aiming to have a oneday workshop or symposium to ponder what constitutes a meaning ful experience abroad Does it have to be a cer tain length? Does it have to have cer tain characteristics? How do we create meaningful experiences that can reach a broader population of students?

SUN: Do you have any future ideas for Cornell Abroad? M . M . : We l l , I t h i n k C

SUN: What do you think of the initiatives

s o f a r ? Fo r e x a m p l e , Pr e s i d e n t D a v i d Skor ton has announced that he wants 50 p

h

v e a n abroad experience by the time they graduate M M : President Skor ton has set a ver y ambitious goal, and he has also left a door

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

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, 2146 Snee Hall

Design Careers That Make a Difference 4:30 - 5:30 p m , Cafe Lobby, Carol Tatkon Center

in Sustainable Global Enterprise Colloquium 6 - 7:30 p m , B09 Sage Hall Faculty Luncheon Discussion: The Peer Review of Teaching –– What Works Best? Noon - 1 p m , 229 King-Shaw Hall

Tomorrow

IP & Pizza: Discussion on Intellectual Property and Their Relation to Plants Noon - 1:30 p m , 102 Mann Library

C U Music: Midday Music at Lincoln 12:30 - 1:15 p m , B20 Lincoln Hall

Weekly Brown Bag Seminar: Rescue Me! U S International Financial Bailouts 12:15 - 1:30 p m , G08 Uris Hall

Weird News of the Week

California Man Busted For Selling Rustled Cow Costumes

REDL ANDS, Calif (AP) Police in Southern California have busted a cattle costume rustler after he tried to sell the stolen suits online

Redlands police say the two 7-foot cow costumes created for the Chick-fil-A chain were nabbed in separate restaurant burglaries

The costumes turned up for sale for $350 apiece on Craigslist on Oct 30

An undercover officer arranged to buy the bovine attire in time for Halloween When the seller produced the black-and-white outfits, he was arrested

Riverside, is being held for suspicion of possession of stolen property on $275,000 bail

The costumes were valued by the restaurant at $2,800 apiece

Police also recovered a pop-up canopy stolen from the restaurant All the property was returned to Chickfil-A

U.K. Commissioner Creates ‘Pensions’ for Police Dogs

LONDON (AP) They work hard, sniffing out crime with only the occasional pat on the nose in gratitude

Please Recycle this Paper in one of the recycling bins located on the Cornell Campus.

But police dogs deser ve better, according to the police and crime commissioner in the English county of Nottinghamshire, who wants to re ward them with “pensions” on retirement

Pa

The plans announced Monday will be rolled out next month

Up to 500 pounds ($800) annually will be given to handlers for three years to cover veterinar

windale this year

bills for

Thieves Steal 160 Sheep Near U.K. Town of Wool

LONDON (AP) Wool’s wool is missing

Police in southwest England appealed for help Tuesday in tracking down thieves who made off with 160 sheep from a field near the village of Wool

Police say the sheep were stolen between Saturday and Monday, and that the thieves would have needed a large vehicle to move the woolly haul

Constable Adam Taylor says all of the sheep were electronically tagged

He is urging anyone who has witnessed suspicious activity or been offered sheep “in unusual circumstances or for ver y low prices” to come for ward

Prof Says Food Industr y Contributing to Obesity

Nestle:

obesity transforms ‘personal responsibility’ to ‘ corporate responsibility’

By TALIA JUBAS Sun Staff Writer

Prof Marion Nestle, author of numerous nutritionrelated books including Eat, Drink, Vote and Food Politics spoke to Cornellians Tuesday about changes to the food industr y in the face of America’s obesity epidemic In her seminar, Nestle a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University addressed the issues that obesity poses for the food industr y and the ways in w h i c h t h e i n d u s t r y h a s h i n d e r e d efforts to decrease the countr y ’ s obesity rate

grow in order to be profitable for shareholders, Nestle said

The food industr y has fought to continue growing by increasing its advertising spending, as well as increasing portion sizes to help boost sales, according to Nestle Today, it is unprofitable for companies to change their products or marketing plans making it even more difficult to incentivize producing healthy products

Companies have previously defended their products by using the “personal responsibility argument, ” claiming that consumers are responsible for their choices Still, more recently, there

“[Food companies’] job is to make profits for investors ... Their job is not to promote public health.”

A l t h o u g h d a t a a b o u t c h a n g e s i n physical activity are inconclusive, Nestle said it is “ pretty clear” that people are eating more than they were in the 1980s Based off of data on food supply and dietar y intakes, Nestle estimates that people are now eating around 350 more calories a day than they did two decades ago

It should not be so difficult to lower the obesity rate Prevention is the most effective way to combat obesity, Nestle said, adding that people can watch their weight in three ways: eating less, eating better and moving more

“If it seems more complicated than this, it is because of the food industr y, ” she said

The problem is that “ eat less is ver y bad for the food industr y, ” which has become fundamentally at odds with public health, Nestle said

“ [ Fo o d c o m p a n i e

investors,” she said “ Their job is not to promote public health ”

The issue of obesity is exacerbated by the fact that, although there is already an excess amount of calories available per capita, companies need to continue to sell and

A yoga break

industr y is more responsible for consumers ’ behavior than it thinks, Nestle said “ The food industr y has come to recognize that they’re not going to get away with that kind of excuse anymore, ” Nestle said “Obesity is transforming personal responsibility into corporate responsibility ”

Even then, companies have continued tr ying to exploit consumers in other ways In one method, companies take advantage of “how easy it is to convince consumers that these foods have health benefits,” Nestle said In another, companies leverage the rise of nutritionism, which involves a focus on individual nutrients, to sell their products, Nestle said

“All you have to do is put these claims on the packaging, and consumers will think they have fewer calories,” she said

This is part of a broader trend of companies tr ying to “position themselves as health food companies,” Nestle said, adding that many companies have been experiencing “unrelenting pressure ” to shift from “being part of the problem to being part of the solution ”

The industr y also faces a growing movement of supporters of food that is “health friendly,” Nestle said

“Food studies is emerging in universities all over the countr y which means lots and lots of young people are being exposed to these kinds of ideas,” she said “You can be part of this burgeoning movement that is interested in having a food system that is healthier for people and healthier for the planet ”

Talia Jubas can be reached at tjubas@cornellsun com

C.U.-Columbia Librar y P roject Receives $150K

By ZOE FERGUSON Sun Contributor

Wi t h t h e s u p p o r t o f a

$150,000 grant from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, Cornell and Columbia’s libraries will work to convert an expanding number of historical titles into e-journals

The two universities say the p a r t n e r s h i p w i l l h e l p p rov i d e scholars “ content, expertise and ser vices that are impossible to accomplish acting alone,” according to the website of 2CUL, the name of the partnership Both Columbia and Cornell hope that, with the 18-month grant, they will be able to expand their ejournal collections

07

Now, Cornell has more than 100,000 electronic journals, said Gwen Glazer, editor and social media coordinator in the Cornell University Librar y ’ s assessment and communication department Cornell’s collaboration with Columbia’s librar y began in 2009 as an attempt for both libraries to address the financial challenges re s u l t i n g f ro m t h e re c e s s i o n , according to the 2CUL website

Si n c e t h e n , t h e p a r t n e r s h i p between the two libraries has e n a b l e d b o t h u n i ve r s i t i e s t o expand their collections

A Break-In

An individual on Forest Park Lane reported Friday that unknown individual(s) broke a door and window before stealing various items in the building, according to a Cornell Police report

Two Harassments Reported in Barton

Two individuals were reported for harassment at Barton Hall Saturday One individual was arrested, while another individual’s status is pending, according to a Cornell Police report

Unlawful Alcohol Possession

Three counts of unlawful possession of alcohol one on West Campus and two on North Campus were reported Saturday, according to a Cornell Police report

Reported Sexual Assault

An officer was dispatched Friday to take a report regarding a possible sexual assault in Barton, according to the Cornell Police

Compiled by Jinjoo Lee

“ The main objective of this project is to increase the number and range of e-journals that will b e p re s e r ve d , b u t i t ’ s e q u a l l y important to develop and promote methods that can be broadly adopted to expand our work,” Oya Rieger, associate university librarian for digital scholarship and preser vation ser vices, said in a University press release “Making sure that the vital content in ejournals is available to scholars and researchers is an essential part of the process ”

C o r n e l l a n d C o l u m b i a ’ s expansion of digitized material comes at a time when e-journals have become increasingly popular a m o n g s c h o l a r s f o r re s e a rc h

According to a 2011-12 report from the Cornell Librar y, there has been an 84 percent increase in electronic serial titles since 2006-

In Phase 1 of 2CUL, from 2009-12, the universities collectively saved more than $360,000 as a result of the partnership, according to the website

In the second phase of the project from 2013-15 leaders of the project hope to strengthen the relationship between the two u n i ve r s i t i e s a n d b u i l d o n t h e progress made in Phase 1, including “ more integrated collection building,” according to a Januar y CUL press release

Du r i n g t h e s e c o n d p h a s e , coordinators said they aim to “ create the requisite infrastructure t o b u i l d d e e p e r c o l l e c t i o n s through integration and develop new capabilities for meeting 21st centur y research, teaching and learning needs,” according to the 2CUL website

Zoe Ferguson can be reached at znf3@cornell edu

Tablets Will Return to Iraq

TABLETS Continued from page 1

with the U S and Iraqi governments, ” the statement said

The tablets were the subject of a 2001 investigation by the Department of Homeland Security when they were suspected to be illegally removed from the countr y of origin Possession of antiquities illegally removed from countries who claim them as government

reported

whether the exchange of the tablets violated tax f

princess, Simat-Ishtaran, took over the estate after the death of her husband, according to the L A Times Other women super vised men, received equal salaries to men and worked in construction

“It’s our first real archival discover y of a

Professor David Owen, chief curator for the Cuneiform Librar y, said to the L A Times

So

“Scholars have participated in a project to conserve the tablets ”

C o r n e l l S t a t e m e n t

y Ac t , which prohibited any business with Iraq during the war According to the L A Times, the Garsana tablets were valued at less than $50,000 when they were i

$900,000 tax deduction upon their donation in 2000

There were no findings of wrongdoi

determine the precise details of when or how the tablets were acquired, according to the L A Times

L a s t y e a r, t h e Ir a q i g ov e r n m e n t requested that the tablets be returned, a n d t h e U S a t t o r n e y ’ s o f f i c e i n Binghamton is brokering the transfer, according to the L A Times

The tablets have played a crucial role in helping scholars learn about the roles of women during the time, showing that women attained a high status in their society The Garsana tablets show that a

agricultural outputs and information about resettled refugees, according to the L A Times

The University said in

proud of the work done on the cuneiform tablets since 2000

“ While the cuneiform tablets have been at Cornell, scholars have participated in a project to conser ve the tablets and publish them, not only for historic preser vation but also for the research and cultural benefits of the Republic of Iraq,” the statement said

According to the L A Times, Cornell is not the only University returning ancient artifacts suspected of looting Pr

objects to Italy last year after they were linked to an antiquities dealer being i

d objects Last year, Bowling Green State University in Ohio also announced the return of a dozen ancient mosaics after evidence revealed they had been looted

Dara Levy can be reached at dlevy@cornellsun com

Markot: Travel Registr

Alumnus Discusses Murdoch on Colbert

a b ro a d o r m a y a l re a d y b e r u n -

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s t a r t e d s o m e t i m e i n t h e e a r l y 1 9 6 0 s So , i t ’ s a re a l l y l o n g t r a c k re c o rd T h e y h a ve a w i d e

a r r a y o f p a r t n e r s , a n d i t h a s a w o n d e r f u l f o l l o w i n g w i t h i n t h e c o l l e g e T h e w a y we p a r tn e r c u r re n t l y o u t s i d e o f j u s t b e i n g c o l l e a g u e s a n d s h a r i n g g o o d p r a c t i c e s i s t h a t C A L S Exc h a n g e i s u s i n g o u r o n l i n e a p p l i c a t i o n s y s t e m T h i s i s t h e s e c o n d ye a r t h e y w i l l b e u s i n g i t , s o I ’ m h o p i n g t h a t w i l l h e l p t h e m k e e p b e t t e r t r a c k o f t h e i r s t u d e n t s , n o t j u s t f o r e ve r y g i ve n ye a r b u t a l s o h i s t o r i c a l l y Ou r a p p l i c a t i o n m a n a g e m e n t s y s t e m a l s o a l l ow s C A L S t o h a ve f u l l a c c e s s t o s t u d e n t s i n f o r m a t i o n : t h e i r e m e r g e n c y

c o n t a c t , t h e i r t r a ve l i t i n e r a r y,

e t c I b e l i e ve t h a t t h i s i s a g o o d w a y f o r C o r n e l l A b r o a d t o p rov i d e a p l a t f o r m s o C A L S c o l l e a g u e s c a n d o t h e i r w o rk m o re e a s i l y S U N : Yo u s a i d t h a t y o u

c o u l d t r a c k t re n d s w i t h t h i s s o f t w a re Ha ve yo u n o t i c e d

a n y s o f a r ? How l o n g h a ve yo u

b e e n u s i n g t h e s y s t e m ?

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L R a n d Hu m a n Ec o l o g y Exc h a n g e s T h e m o re p ro g r a m s t h a t p a r t i c i p a t e , t h e m o r e c o m p r e h e n s i v e s e t o f d a t a we a re g o i n g t o h a ve S U N : I k n ow t h e t r a ve l re gi s t r y s y s t e m w a s o n l y i m p l em e n t e d l a s t ye a r h ow h a s i t b e e n w o rk i n g ?

M M : It h a s b e e n w e l l re c e i ve d , a n d m a n y p e o p l e a re m a k i n g u s e o f i t T h e Tr a ve l Re g i s t r y i s d e s i g n e d p a r t i c u l a rl y f o r i n d e p e n d e n t t r a ve l e r s : f o r e x a m p l e , a n i n d i v i d u a l o r a s m a l l g ro u p o f s t u d e n t s w h o a re g o i n g t o d o a n i n d e p e nd e n t p ro j e c t a b ro a d Vi a t h e Tr a ve l Re g i s t r y, [ t r a ve l e r s ] c a n t e l l t h e Un i ve r s i t y w h e re t h e y a re g o i n g , t h e y g e t a c c e s s t o t h e Un i v e r s i t y e m e r g e n c y

Two Binghampton Men Face Murder Charges

BINGHAMTON, N Y (AP)

Tw o m

charges for an attack that left a 22-year-old man dead and his six months pregnant 19-year-old girlfriend hospitalized with serious injuries The Binghamton Press and Su

(http://press sn/1aDobf2

that

stabbed, set on fire and left for dead in the basement of a burn-

Monday morning The woman,

Jordan Dordell’s body was found after the fire was extinguished Police later charged 21-yearold Julian Talamante z IV and 25-year-old Nigel Saunders with

attempted first-degree murder

Tuesday and were sent to the

bail

Cour t papers say the suspects broke into the house when the victims were sleeping

N E W Y O R K ( A P ) A

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o r d e a l i n w h i c h B a s s a n d a

c o m p a n i o n w e r e h e l d h o s t a g e o n h e r r u r a l K e n t , C o n n , e s t a t e B a s s f i r e d Ni c o l e s c u w e e k s b e f o r e t h r e e m e n i n v a d e d h e r w e s t e r n C o n n e c t i c u t h o m e i n Ap r i l 2 0 0 7 Au t h o r i t

Bill de Blasio Elected Next Mayor of New York City

NEW YORK (AP) Bill de

Bl a s i o w a s e l e c t e d Ne w Yo rk

City’s first Democratic mayor in two decades Tuesday, running on an unabashedly liberal, tax-ther i c h p l a t f o r m t h a t c o n t r a s t e d sharply with billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s record during 12 years in office

With 6 percent of precincts reporting, De Blasio, the city’s public advocate, had 71 percent of the vote compared with 27 percent for Republican Joe Lhota, former chief of the metropolitan area ’ s transit agency

De Blasio’s campaign tweeted out a simple message soon after polls closed: “Thank you, New York City ” De Blasio, 52, will take office on Jan 1 as the 109th mayor of the nation’s largest city He had been heavily favored, holding an overwhelming lead in the polls for weeks

Bloomberg, who first ran as a Republican and later became an i n d e p e n d e n t , g u i d e d t h e c i t y through the financial meltdown and the aftermath of 9/11 He is leaving office after three terms

De Blasio ran as the antiBloomberg, railing against economic inequality and portraying New York as a “tale of two cities” one rich, the other working class under the pro-business, p ro - d e ve l o p m e n t m a yo r, w h o made his fortune from the financial information company that bears his name

De Blasio, who hails from Brooklyn, reached out to New Yorkers he contended were left behind by the often Manhattancentric Bloomberg administration, and he called for a tax increase on the wealthy to pay for universal pre-kindergar ten He also pledged to improve econom-

ic opportunities in minority and working-class neighborhoods

He d e c r i e d a l l e g e d a b u s e s under the police depar tment ’ s stop-and-frisk policy and enjoyed a surge when a federal judge ruled that police had unfairly singled out blacks and Hispanics The candidate, a white man married to a black woman, also received a boost from a campaign ad featuring their son, a 15-year-old with a big Afro

Despite his reputation for idealism, he has also shown a pragmatic side, having worked for both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Gov Andrew Cuomo, and was known for closed-door wheeling-and-dealing while serving on the City Council

He was expected to address a rollicking crowd of supporters at the YMCA in his home neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn, a far cry from the glitzy Manhattan hotel ballrooms that usually host election night parties

Lhota called de Blasio to concede about half an hour after polls closed at 9 p m, according to a spokeswoman for the Democratic candidate

“It was a good fight and it was a fight worth having,” Lhota told a c rowd o f s u p p o r t e r s i n a Manhattan hotel before offering a word of caution to de Blasio

“We want out city to move forward and not backward, and I hope our mayor-elect understands that before it’s too late,” he said Lhota, 59, spent much of the campaign slamming de Blasio’s “tale of two cities” appeal as class

w a r f a re a n d a r g u e d t h a t d e Blasio’s time in the 1980s with t h e l e f t - w i n g Sa n d i n i s t a s i n Nicaragua as an aid worker and activist made him a Marxist

McAuliffe Takes Virginia Governor’s Race

TYSONS CORNER, Va (AP)

Terry McAuliffe wrested the governor ’ s office from Republicans on Tuesday, capping an acrimonious campaign that was driven by a crush of negative advertising, non-stop accusations of dodgy dealings and a tea party-backed nominee who tested the limits of swing-voting Virginia

McAuliffe received 47 percent to Cuccinelli’s 46 percent, with 97 precincts reporting McAuliffe, a Democrat, ran strong among unmarried women, voters who made abortion a top issue and those who called the suburbs of Washington, D C , home, according to preliminary results of an exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks Cuccinelli, meanwhile, fared well among tea party backers, gun owners and among the state ’ s rural residents but there were not enough of them to yield a victory

In winning, McAuliffe broke a stubborn streak in state history

During the past nine governor ’ s races, the party that controlled the White House at the time has always lost

That’s not to say voters rushed to back McAuliffe’s vision for Virginia Turnout for was low, and both candidates worked through Election Day to reach as many potential voters as possible

Only 52 percent of voters said they strongly backed their candidate, the rest had reservations or backed a candidate because they disliked the other options, according to exit polls Neither major candidate’s ideological views seemed “right” for a majority of Virginians, 50 percent called Cuccinelli too conservative, 41 percent said McAuliffe is too liberal

The exit poll included interviews with 2,376 voters from 40 polling places around the state

The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points

Voters’ dissatisfaction couldn’t

overshadow the fight on television

McAuliffe enjoyed a 10-to-1 advertising advantage over Cuccinelli during the final days

“We were very heavily outspent but I’m proud we ran on first principles,” Cuccinelli told supporters in conceding “The battle goes on ”

The campaign’s tilt turned many voters off

“I really hated the negative campaigning,” said Ellen Tolton, a 52-year-old grant writer “I didn’t want to vote for any of them ”

Richard Powell, a 60-year-old retired I T manager who lives in Norfolk, described himself as an independent who frequently votes for members of both parties He said he cast his ballot for McAuliffe, although not because he’s particularly enthusiastic about him He said he was more determined not to vote for Cuccinelli, who he said overreaches on a variety of medical issues

Voters were barraged with a series of commercials that tied Cuccinelli to restricting abortions, and while Powell said the negative advertising “ got to be sickening,” abortion rights played a factor in his vote

“I’m not in favor of abortion let’s put it that way but I find that restricting abortion causes far more social harm than allowing abortion, so that was an issue for me, ” he said

McAuliffe’s narrow victory in Virginia rested on a 9-point edge among women, while the two major party candidates split men about evenly, according to exit polls McAuliffe carried liberals and moderates, Cuccinelli independents and tea party backers

From the outset, the campaign shaped up as a barometer of voters ’ moods and a test of whether a swing-voting state like Virginia would elect a tea party-style governor Republicans bet a deeply conservative candidate would be their best shot at holding onto the governor ’ s office

LAX Shooting Survivor Says He Crawled for His Life

LOS ANGELES (AP) A teacher said Tuesday that he crawled to escape a gunman at Los Angeles International Airport and used a sweatshirt as a tourniquet after his leg was shattered during last week’s deadly shooting

“I didn’t know what his intention was, ” Brian Ludmer said from his hospital bed “I only saw me and him I was in total panic ”

Ludmer, 29, said he was heading to his hometown of Chicago to attend a wedding when gunshots erupted Friday on a floor below him as he waited in a long, snaking line at a Terminal 3 security checkpoint

“It was hard to know what was going on, where the shots were coming from,” he said Downstairs, Transpor tation Security Administration Officer

Gerardo I Hernandez was killed and the gunman was trying to shoot other TSA workers

Ludmer recalled that he and other travelers pushed through metal detectors after hearing shots, scattering into the terminal and down ramps into bathrooms,

shops and stores, even onto airplanes anywhere to get away from the shooter

As Ludmer ran, a bullet hit him in the calf

“My leg collapsed It just instantly wouldn’t support me, ” he said “Below the bullet wound my leg was just hanging ”

He looked back and saw the gunman alone in the terminal hallway Ludmer collapsed against a wall and started crawling for his life on all fours He found a shop, scrambled into a storage room and shut the door He found a sweatshirt and tied it around his leg to reduce the bleeding Ludmer was terrified that he would pass out and bleed to death or the gunman would follow and finish him off

Soon, however, he heard voices, dragged himself to the door and peeked out A wave of relief swept over him when he realized police officers were clearing the terminal

“They got me out of there, even though it was at great risk to themselves,” he said “ They wheeled me out of there at a run ”

Editorial

More Police for Ithaca

AFTER APPROVING A 2013 BUDGET that cut nine officers from the Ithaca Police Department, the Common Council is now considering an amendment to reintroduce two of those positions back into the force in 2014 Some officials have suggested funding these two officers by removing the new Deputy Police Chief for Professional Standards position from the 2014 budget With the ultimate goal of keeping our city safe from crime, we believe the addition of an internal affairs position is less critical than maintaining a strong presence of uniformed police The Common Council should answer IPD officials’ pleas and pass the amendment to get more officers on the street Amid economic struggles, public safety must still remain the City’s first priority

We understand that the City needs to make cuts to balance the budget; some sacrifice is necessary in order to help maintain financial health But crime rates in Ithaca have risen, according to statements IPD Chief John Barber made at a Common Council meeting last week Barber and other IPD officials have repeatedly made it clear that downsizing by nine officers has diminished the department’s ability to protect residents If returning two of those officers to the force will have a real impact on Ithaca’s ability to provide its citizens with essential safety services, the Common Council should find the money to make it happen

If funding two more uniformed officers, which would cost the city an additional $117,609, requires the elimination of the deputy position from the 2014 budget, so be it According to officials, the new deputy would be tasked with overseeing and standardizing internal investigations, as well as working to improve relations between police and the community While such a role would be an asset, we are more concerned by IPD’s claims there are not enough officers to adequately police the streets If budget constraints mean a choice between one or the other, the City should choose to dedicate concrete resources to daily crime-fighting

If scrapping the new deputy post is not enough to fully finance salaries for two officers, the mayor ’ s plan to streamline the bureaucracy of Ithaca’s planning and building departments should shake loose some extra funds If those savings are still insufficient, perhaps the Common Council should reconsider the 2014 budget proposal’s tax levy increase of only 2 08 percent Implementing the lowest raise since 2000 simply may not generate the revenue Ithaca desperately needs We understand the pressure on City officials to keep taxes down, and easing the burden on families is a positive goal But with Ithaca facing massive cuts to essential services and crime rates moving in the wrong direction, perhaps now is not the time for taxpayer appeasement

Continue the conversation by sending a letter to the editor or guest column to

Letters should be in response to any recent Sun news article, column, arts piece or editorial They should be no longer than 250 words in length

Guest columns should be your well-reasoned opinion on any cur rent campus issue or controversy. They should be no longer than 750 words in length

Sarah Byrne | Let It Byrne

Five Adventures In Childcare

Ever since I’ve been old enough to be left home alone, I have been babysitting every child I know Neighbors, family friends, cousins, friends of cousins, friends of cousins of friends; if I know a human person under the age of 10, I’ve probably babysat him or her Last summer, during the week I worked at a summer camp with 10 and 11-year-olds, and on the weekends I nannied for a family with two children under the age of three I had some pretty interesting experiences, and I heard some things that I never thought I’d hear come out of another human being’s mouth Here are a few of my top moments:

1. “Knock-knock.” – “Who’s there?” – “Strawberry.” –“Strawberry who?” – “STRAWBERRY I’M GOING TO EAT YOUR FACE ” This is a real joke told by a real other member of our species I can ’ t explain what the joke is, or even if it is a joke Could just be a poorly formulated threat The choice of strawberry is bold, considering the prevalence of oranges and bananas in the traditional knock-knock jokes of our generation Maybe this joke is simply leaps and bounds ahead of anything I could ever conceive of In that case, kudos to the three-year-old who came up with it

2 Kids at camp love feeling my legs: Going into this summer, I thought that since I’d be working with kids, I wouldn’t have to look great every day, which was a relief It’s really hard to look good when you have to wake up at 6AM to take the subway to get on a bus with 50 screaming children However, as it turns out, children, at least these New York City children, were acutely aware of every imperfection in my appearance

If I can never have cor nrows, so be it; as long as I live in a world where any fruit can be part of knock-knock jokes, I’ll sur vive

Particularly, they were fascinated by the amount of hair on my legs If I hadn’t shaved in a few days, they would make fun of me for having furry legs If I had just shaved, they would sit next to me and stroke my legs Once, a camper said my legs were so smooth they were reflecting the sun like mirrors I really hope that’s a good thing, and also that it’s not super creepy, coming from a fifth-grader

3 Me: “Can I have cornrows?” Camper: “No, that’s too hood, you can have braids like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz ” One of my dearest dreams, throughout childhood, was to have cornrows Over the summer, a few of the campers had cornrows, and told me all about how they produced and maintained these gloriously tight braids Their mothers often gave me specific instructions on how to deal with the elaborate hairstyle during swim times, and the whole process just seemed very magical So, one day, when the kids were braiding my hair, I asked if I could have cornrows Sadly, I was denied Apparently, they identified me more with a fictional Kansan than any existing person who could pull off cornrows

4 Marriage proposals from toddlers: Actually, I’ve received a lot more of these than any logical person might imagine Once, one of my babysit-ees told me to make a silly face Then, when I stuck my tongue out while making this face, he quickly leaned forward and licked my tongue This was immediately followed by him asking me to marry him, which, marks by far the most fastpaced relationship I’ve ever had On a second occasion, a small boy asked me, “When I’m a old and I’m a dad, can you be the wife?” Which I guess shows a lack of understanding of human reproduction, but is still quite adorable

5 Harry Potter-Themed Activities: Far and away one of my favorite things about children who are growing up now is that they still like Harry Potter On the first day of camp, my kids played a variation of “Two Truths and Lie” in which they came up with seven statements, one fact from each of the seven Harry Potter books, and I had to guess which one was the lie Another day, the only way they would change into their bathing suits was if I read them a chapter from the Order of the Phoenix while they did so They found it outrageous and hilarious that I had to wait months and years for each Harry Potter book and movie to come out, which makes me feel really old Maybe I’m really immature, or they were all really mature, but I like to think certain opinions (really just regarding Harry Potter) are universal I absolutely love working with children, mostly because they’re so ridiculous, and I love being ridiculous with them A three-yearold once told me that I was a ten on the scale of silliness, which is one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received And if I can never have cornrows, so be it; as long as I live in a world where any fruit can be a part of knock-knock jokes, I’ll survive

Rachael Singer | Animal House of Reps

Facing Your O wn Mortality

O n Student Center

Afew nights ago, I was ice

)

Ever ything seemed to being going pretty well, but then, as in most ice climbing stories that you read about in the Cornell Daily Sun, something went wrong My partner and I were scaling the face of the ice wall simultaneously using a team belay system Unfortunately, because of climate change, the ice was softer than we anticipated and one of the bolts that we used to secure our ropes dislodged itself from the ice face, and we began to fall

Probably the most relieving part of this stor y is that it was a dream I fell, but it was out of my bed Embarassing? Yeah, but at least I didn’t have to plummet to my death in the icy alps along the Tyrolean-Italian border to face my own mortality I re a l l y l i k e t h e Bu d d h i s t approach of “living in the present, ” so I tr y and face my mortality at least once

e v e r y f e w m o n t h s ( s i d e n o t e : r i d i n g a s h o p p i n g cart down Williams might sound like a really good idea, but it actually isn’t)

quently illustrates the problem He says that grades should be looked at as a tool similar to the speedometer of a car A speedometer measures the speed of a car and communicates it to the driver Similarly, grades meas u re a c a d e m i c p e r f o r m a n c e a n d then communicate the level of performance to the student When you d r i v e a c a r, y o u g l a n c e a t t h e speedometer regularly and adjust how much pressure you are putting on the accelerator or brake you do not stare at the speedometer the whole time Additionally, the point of driving a car is to arrive at a destination It isn’t achieving and maintaining some high speed just like your primar y goal in education is to b e e d u c a t e d , n o t t o e a r n h i g h grades

It is important to take classes because you to take them rather th because you think you succeed in them.

This particular instance comes at a ver y good time – pre-enroll A time when you take stock of what is important in your (academic) life and choose what you are doing with your (academic) future

Ever yone has been told at least once in their lives that they are not t h e i r G PA , y e t m a n y s t u d e n t s (myself included) are guilty of not just projecting what their GPA for the semester will be but also electing to take or not take a class because it has a reputation for being easy Students, par ticularly at Cornell, seem to be drawn to higher grades than they are to the actual learning that those grades may represent this is an issue

An analogy outlined by Ahmed Afzaal, a comparative religion professor at Concordia College, elo-

get in a course is secondar y to your actual learning Are you going to leave the class with knowledge that you wouldn’t have had before?

Actually falling while ice climbing and sur viving would undoubtedly change the way I approach the world I once heard someone who sur vived a plane crash say, “I only save bad wine That is to say, if the opportunity for something presents itself, and there is nothing standing in your way, there is no reason at all to put it off It goes beyond the normal bucket list stuff like skydiving, learning German or going to a cock fight in Puerto Rico Sure, I’m obviously going to go to a cock fight if t h e o p p

because my distaste for animal

elty is outweighed by my affinity for

During pre-enroll ever y student gets to choose what classes he or she will take in the coming semester and has to take stock of what interests him or her and what other courses he or she will be taking A lot of students, however, add a third factor to the mix: what grade will he or she get in the course

When selecting your courses this pre-enroll tr y to think like you would during high school Maybe don't ruthlessly make fun of ever yone around you, but approach the process with that terrific sense of e n t i t l e m e n t t h a t t e e n a g e r s h a v e What do you want to do? That's what matters If a class on nuclear fusion or art histor y of the modern era looks interesting to you, take it I won ’ t say that grades don’t matter they do but what grade you

guages But the bucket list and slamming bottles of

advantage of what you are presented with

At Cornell you are pre-

plished instructors in great facilities surrounded by (hopefully) intelligent and motivated peers I’m not saying that Cornell is all about learning; we all know that a large part of the experience comes from other outlets And I’m not saying that taking easy classes is a cop-out I simply think that it is important to take classes because you want to take them rather than because you think you can succeed in them So please stop posting in the Cornell Class of 2015 group about easy classes to fill out your distribution or liberal arts requirements I promise there are classes out there that you’ll actually enjoy

SCIENCE

R o b o t s P r e d i c t H u m a n A c t i o n s

By RYAN O’HERN Sun Contr butor

Autonomous robots can build cars, manage the inventor y at Amazon’s warehouses and run gene-sequencing experiments However, since these robots operate in static environments, performing the same actions thousands of times, the technology that powers them has limited use in environments where change and unpredictability are present

C o r n e l l re s e a r c h e r s a re t r y i n g t o change this

In order for scientists and engineers to build robots that can work with humans, they must be able to build robots that can understand and predict human activity in order to handle human sources of change and chance

He m a Ko p p u l a g r a d a n d Pr o f

Ashutosh Saxena, computer science, have begun to solve the problem of predicting human actions in order to moderate the actions of robots

In Saxena’s lab, a human-sized robot with two sophisticated arms obser ves the w o r l d u s i n g a Mi c ro s o f t K i n e c t 3 - D

Camera The Kinect, a camera that uses thousands of bursts of an infrared laser to gather three-dimensional data about the world, has become the bread and butter of robotics research because of its low price and efficacy at mapping spaces in 3-D

Using the Kinect, the robot obser ves

h u m a n s p e r f o r m i n g s i m p l e h o u s e h o l d

t a s k s s u c h a s w a r m i n g f o o d i n a microwave or drinking from a coffee mug

Then, the robot, which has been programmed to perform helpful actions like refilling the mug or opening the refrigerator, uses information about the human’s current activity to decide what action it should take next

The robot’s understanding of human activity allows it to moderate its actions to

avoid causing more harm than good For example, because it would be disastrous for the robot to attempt to refill a mug that a human is currently drinking from, the robot must know to pause the activity of refilling a mug

“Humans are predictable, but not ver y predictable,” Koppula said

There is a limitation to how far into the future a robotic system can predict because there is an inherent amount of uncertainty in what action a human will take next, according to Koppula Even a perfect prediction model will have limitations However, like many systems now being built with machine learning technology, even within the limitations of inherent unpredictability, the quantity and quality of data available is critical to the efficacy of the system

Ko p p u l a a n d o t h e r re s e a r c h e r s i n

Saxena’s lab use data to build models of human action by capturing dozens of 3-D videos of humans performing common domestic tasks Using technology similar to that seen in computer-animated films, human beings are represented in these videos as skeletons built of lines and joints

A complex action like pouring a drink is recorded, and researchers then label the sub-actions that make it up each action For example: in order to pour a drink, the robot will reach for a drink, picking up the drink, moving toward the mug and pour the drink Taking these labeled chunks of activity gathered from 120 videos, larger a c t i v

d a s sequences of these sub-actions

The robot is then able to obser ve a human and decide what activity is being performed Based on the current subaction as well as the objects present in the environment, the robot guesses what subaction the human will do next, according to Koppula

In this model, objects are nearly as important as actions, Koppula said The robot must be able not only to recognize types of objects but also to associate each type of object with the sub-actions that can be done to or with it These possibilities are called affordances

An object may have many affordances associated with it For example, a mug can be picked up, it contains fluid that a human may drink, and it contains fluid that may be poured Thus the affordances for the mug can include “pick up, ” “drink” and “ pour, ” as well as several others

Although Koppula has had success with this approach by producing robots that helpfully open a refrigerator when they notice a human walking towards it or that pause before pouring root beer into a mug that is being used, she said that she is not satisfied Koppula said her goal is to make it possible for robots to operate intelligently in common human environments such as the home or office, freeing them from the limited but predictable environments of factories and warehouses

in which they currently operate However, her prediction model is restricted by access to 3-D videos of human activity

“Getting large amounts of 3-D data is a challenge,” Koppula said

A s t h e re i s n o d a t a b a s e s u c h a s YouTube for 3-D videos, researchers have no existing store of videos to use and must create them in the lab For robots to predict any of the thousands of activities a person can perform in the home or office, more data is required

One approach, said Koppula, is to install 3-D cameras like the Kinect in homes and offices and to employ people to use systems like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to label the activities captured in these videos to allow new learning algorithms to learn from them

This could be first step in building a universal 3-D video librar y of human a

autonomous robots

Ryan O Hern can be reached at rmo26@cornell edu

Prof. David Levitsky Finds Simple, Healthy Way to Lose Weight

By YIDAN XU Sun Staff Wr ter

Pro f Da v i d L e v i t s k y, n u t r i t i o n -

a l s c i e n c e , a n d C a r l y Pa c a n ow s k i g r a d re c e n t l y l e d a s t u d y t h a t s h ow s s k i p p i n g

b re a k f a s t m a y a c t u a l l y b e a f o r m u l a f o r we i g h t - l o s s s u c c e s s T h e s t u d y m e a s u re d t h e c a l o r i c i n t a k e t h ro u g h o u t t h e d a y o f p e o

w h o a t e

a k f a s t s t h a t c o n t a i n e d m o re t h a n 6 0 0 c a l o r i e s , a c c o rd i n g t o L e v i t s k y T h e s e i n d i v i d u a l s we re c o m p a re d w i t h a s a m p l e o f p e o p l e w h o u s u a l l y s k i p p e d b re a k f a s t e n t i re l y T h e s t u d y c o n c l u d e d t h a t t h o s e w h o s k i p p e d b re a k f a s t o n a d a i l y b a s i s we re

h u n g r i e r a n d i n c re a s e d t h e i r c a l o r i e i n t a k e by ove r 1 4 0 c a l o r i e s d u r i n g l u n c h , w h i c h a g re e s w i t h p o p u l a r t h o u g h t Howe ve r, by t h e e n d o f t h e d a y, t h e y

c o n s u m e d , o n a ve r a g e , 4 0 0 f e we r c a l o r i e s t h a n t h o s e w h o a t e a b i g b r e a k f a s t ,

L e v i t s k y s a i d T h e re s u l t s s u g g e s t t h a t o c c a s i o n a l l y s k i p p i n g b re a k f a s t c o u l d b e a n e f f e c t i ve s t r a t e g y i n re d u c i n g t o t a l d a i l y e n e r g y i n t a k e Ac c o rd i n g t o L e v i t s k y, t h e f i n d i n g s c a n b e e x p l a i n e d by a d e f i c i t i n h u m a n b o d y m e c h a n i s m “ It i s c u r re n t l y b e l i e ve d t h a t h u m a n s p o s s e s s b i o l o g i c a l m e c h a n i s m s t h a t re g ul a t e o u r e a t i n g , ” L e v i t s k y s a i d “ Howe ve r, t h e s e m e c h a n i s m s re g u l a t e o u r i n t a k e ve r y

p o o r l y Un d e re a t i n g i n c re a s e s p e o p l e ’ s r a t -

i n g o f h u n g e r l e ve l , ye t o u r b o d y d o e s n o t k n ow h ow m u c h t o e a t t o m a k e u p [ f o r i t

Ac c o rd i n g t o L e v i t s k y, u p o n a c l o s e r l o o k , t h e B o s t o n s t u d y re ve a l e d t h

r g e r p e op l e a re m o re l i k e l y t o s k i p b re a k f a s t We k n ow l a r g e r p e o p l e h a ve a h i g h e r i n c i d e n c e o f c a rd i ova s c u l a r d i s e a s e , ” h e s a i d So , t h e re s u l t s , a c c o rd i n g t o L e v i t s k y, o n l y p rove a s s o c i a t i o n , n o t c a u s a t i o n T h e h i g h r i s k o f h e a r t d i s e a s e i n t h e B o s t o n s t u d y c o u l d b e re l a t e d t o t h e p e r s o n ’ s ove ra l l c o n d i t i o n i n s t e a d o f t h e i r e a t i n g h a b i t s In t h e m e a n t i m e , e ve n t h o u g h s k i p p i n g b re a k f a s t d o e s n o t r i s k o n e ’ s h e a l t h , i t i s i m p o r t a n t t o k n ow t h a t L e v i t s k y ’ s re s u l t s o n l y a p p l y t o h e a l t h y a d u l t s “ If yo u ’ re d i a b e t i c

By BARBARA FORCE Sun Contributor

To many people, Alyssa Cornelius ’14 is known as the “guiding eyes lady,” always seen with an entourage of adorable guide dogs in training However, Cornelius has another life – one spent at a lab bench inside the Vet Research Tower where she spends countless hours researching Fanconi anemia, a rare blood disorder Fanconi anemia is a deadly affliction that affects blood production It is passed on through mutated recessive genes in thousands of people across the globe The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute places the carrier rate of Fanconi anemia gene mutations at one in ever y 181 people; this means about one in every 130,000 people have the disorder The mutations that cause fanconi anemia are characterized by genetic instability, bone marrow failure and significantly increased cancer susceptibility, according to Cornelius

A person with Fanconi anemia is unable to grow new blood cells and can develop cancer as faulty blood cells are created, according to Cornelius Organs are also affected because they depend on nutrients carried in the blood Fanconi anemia affects children more than

Missing meals | Prof David Levitsky, nutritional science, found that, contrar y to popular belief, skipping breakfast can help individuals lose weight

Alyssa Cornelius ’14 Studies

Genetics of Rare Blood Disorder

adults because of their bodies’ rapid growth, Cornelius said According to Cornelius, a series of genes called the Fanconi anemia pathway are normally used by the body to repair broken DNA However, when genes inside the pathway that code for repair are broken, the body suffers So far, scientists have tracked down fifteen genes susceptible to mutations that can lead to the Fanconi anemia disorder in humans

Cornelius said that she studies one of the most recently discovered genes – FancJ The FancJ gene is linked to Brca1 whose infamous mutations often lead to breast cancer That connection led scientists to find the FancJ mutation The FancJ mutation was recently characterized by Cornelius’ principal investigator, Prof Paula Cohen, genetics, and Dr Kim Holloway, a research scientist in Cohen’s lab, last year

“I spent the majority of last year setting the baseline for this research,” Cornelius said Cornelius is currently researching the moment when the FancJ gene mutations begin to alter development in afflicted mouse embryos’ gonads, or sex organs The moment the gene is turned on and shows its characteristics is called the phenotype After studying the division of

both normal and afflicted cells, Cornelius saw that the phenotype was not due to errors in meiosis, or germ cell division, in adults, as she predicted Instead, onset began earlier, during the development of the gonads Cornelius now looks at embryos, specifically mid-gestation and postpar tum samples when germ cells are rapidly dividing and are more susceptible to DNA damage

“My hypothesis is that, in mutants, on the day of gestation when the phenotype shows up, there will be a spike in apoptotic [dead] cells and a decrease in primordial germ cells,” Cornelius said

One problem Cornelius has faced in her research is the fragility of both the cell samples and the TUNEL and TRA98 stains that she depends on for analysis According to Cornelius, reaching out and networking with other researchers has allowed her to overcome this problem

“We know it works It’s a matter of getting it to work again,” Cornelius said “The images are gorgeous We went from the normal controls with numerous primordial germ cells to five or six living germ cells in the mutant ” Cornelius said that she may be close to pinning the exact day when the FancJ phenotype kicks in dur-

Detecting disorders | Alyssa Cor nelius ’14 looks for the moment during development when FancJ gene mutations in mice alter development and cause the rare blood disorder, Fanconi anemia

ing gestation

“Finding the day the phenotype appears is the goal Knowing that, working on preventative measures can come next, ” Cornelius said In the future, Cornelius said she anticipates seeing an integration study of all the genes in play within these mutations in order to look at what is known as the Fanconi anemia pathway

Yidan Xu can be reached at yxu@cornellsun com Barbara Force can be reached at baf72@cornell edu

Cornelius added that she would especially like to see how FancJ interacts with MLH1, a mismatch repair gene also involved in promoting meiotic crossovers – or the exchange of genetic material across chromosomes – that play a critical role in meiosis

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

BY ZACHARY ZAHOS Sun Associate Managing Editor

While he may have raised the ire of Samuel L Jackson with one sarcastic takedown of The Avengers, A O Scott has earned many more kindred followers with his erudite, personable and well-reasoned film criticism for The New York Times Tonight at 9:15, he will introduce The Sweet Smell of Success at Cornell Cinema, and tomorrow, at 4:30 p m , he will deliver the Daniel W Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture at Goldwin Smith Hall On Monday, the Sun spoke to Scott about his writing process Roger Ebert and Breaking Bad

THE SUN: When you look back at college and your pre-professional life, interests, etc , does your career as a critic seem like a given to you?

A O SCOTT: Not at all In a way, I would say, probably when I was in high school, when I first started reading criticism and became aware that there was this whole layer you could experience and think about in the movies you saw, the books you read, the music you listened to, I had an interest in criticism and kind of a fantasy someday writing for a newspaper or a magazine But I kind of wandered away from that and went to college where I was very focused on the academic side of things and didn’t do much other writing I just kind of went on a track into academia, like to graduate school and a Ph D program, where I put aside all those things until they kind of came back In a way, it’s very surprising but it’s also what I’ve always wished I could figure out how to do

SUN: I think in academic stuff you want to be rigorous and, for film academics, analyze closely But for a review you want to do those things and also have a voice that people will read that spark, which everyone since Pauline Kael has had to have How do you balance those two?

A S : Well, as you said, one of the big differences is audience When you ’ re writing academic work, journal articles or books, you ’ re writing for an audience of your professional peers When you ’ re writing for a newspaper, you ’ re definitely not I think that’s one of the reasons I gravitated toward it I got frustrated with the limitations of academic writing, what I felt it was placing on my voice You see the cultivation of a voice and a relationship, an almost personal relationship with readers, where they come to you every week and you want them to know who you are and trust you, whether or not they agree with you That’s something that journalistic criticism has much more room for and much more of a tradition of

SUN: That reminds me of your appraisal of Roger Ebert, which I was touched by when I read it [in April] Just to mention him, explicitly, is that something you took from him, and what else did you take from him and his work?

A S : Well, Roger Ebert was someone who was always around

What I came to appreciate more as I got to do this and, later, as I got to know Roger, was his incredible intelligence and sophistication He knew as much about film as any film professor He could do a frame-by-frame, shot-by-shot formal analysis as well as any film studies scholar He knew the history of the art form backwards and forwards But he wrote and talked and presented himself in the most accessible, personable, democratic style that he could imagine, without dumbing anything down, without pandering, without letting go of his knowledge and his sophistication I have increasingly thought that that was an important thing to aim for, a good model to emulate Movies are, ideally, a kind of great democratic art form that anyone can appreciate and that can travel across all boundaries of time and space and background, beliefs The way to write about them is as clearly and directly as possible

The hard thing about them is that they’re also incredibly complicated You know a mediocre, run-of-the-mill movie is a very complex artifact that you have to figure out a way of talking about

SUN: When you ’ re reviewing a movie, you might single out a filmmaker or an actor by name and say that this is something they did wrong, or something you didn’t like you tie their name to a bad thing If they read your review, do you hope they take something from your words?

A.S.: I don t really think about it that way I guess the vector of my writing is more toward the audience than the filmmakers I don’t think of it as offering constructive criticism, because I don’t know I’ve never directed a film, I’m not an actor So I can say how it looks to me and what I think from my standpoint as someone watching a movie But I never think of it as “well, you should have done it this way ” “This is how I would have made this movie ” Because, probably, if I made it, it would be much worse What I do hope is that [filmmakers] take everything that I write that is harsh in the spirit of respectful attention to their work Nobody tries to do things badly People do submit their work for judgment and evaluation and it’s very important that

evaluation always be honest I think that what I feel like I owe is an honest account of what I think of their work

SUN: I see what you mean The only public spat I recall is the Samuel L Jackson tweet, which is just funny now

A S : [Laughs] That was social media theater; that was quite hilarious And that was very unusual I’m sure there are a great many people in Hollywood who get mad when I write bad things or think I’m an idiot or a jerk or whatever No one will ever say it to me, because I may have to review something else they do So I admire that Samuel L Jackson decided to call me out that way and rally The Avengers fans I certainly don’t hold any grudges against him That was an interesting piece of theater and sort of a teachable moment about what is criticism, really? And what’s it for?

SUN: The New York Times runs reviews that are a bit longer than those in most newspapers Does it take you a while to write these, and do you have a go-to format? Because you have to churn them out How long does it take?

“You can labor and sweat for days for something and it’ll come out okay Or you can write something in two hours and it’ll set people on fire ” A O S c o t t

A S : It really varies It also depends on how much time I have Usually I will take up as much time as possible, but sometimes that’s just a few hours a Wednesday night screening and Thursday morning deadline for Friday’s paper Sometimes I’ll get up and write it that way So I don’t know It’s often hard for me to do too much I’m very much a creature of deadline That’s a habit I developed in college [Laughs] I’ll think about it, sometimes I’ll do whatever extra work needs to be done reading the book it’s based on, re-watching a movie by the same director, whatever will help me think But then the writing, I don’t know Sometimes it takes me two days, sometimes it takes two hours The sad thing is that no one can ever tell the difference You can labor and sweat for days for something and it’ll come out okay Or you can write something in two hours and it’ll set people on fire

SUN: In regards to non-film arts these days, the big question is: Have you watched Breaking Bad?

A.S.: Oh yeah

SUN: Cool Everyone at The New York Times, like Dave Itzkoff, that’s all they talk about Including me, that’s all I talk about

A S : Yeah that kind of dominated the whole late summer, early fall It was the big cultural story

SUN: Everyone was saying that nothing in movies can top this, that this is the best thing that s going on right now And as much I love Breaking Bad, I think they’re different You have multiple, multiple episodes and hours of one story and then you have a movie Gravity is different than Breaking Bad

A S : I agree, they’re different One of the reasons that television is exciting these days is that it’s realizing a potential that’s been latent for a long time It’s coming into its own as an art form in a way that it very rarely has in the first 60 years of its existence It’s expanded the boundaries of long-form narration

But you ’ re right, they’re totally different things Television has improved as a visual medium as well, partly because everyone has these widescreen TVs so you can do much more cinematic compositions All of Breaking Bad was shot in 35mm and it’s very cinematic in that way But they’re different things, different process-

es of storytelling There are some ways I think television is more cautious and still a bit more formula-bound than movies Not commercial Hollywood movies, but if you look at cinema around the world, there’s stuff that’s being done and tried that you won ’ t find on American television

SUN: Yeah, but then you have the people who are excited about TV who are not going to be seeing uh, what’s a go-to example they’re not going to be seeing Amour They like Christopher Nolan movies, stuff that challenges them yet is still not too out there

SUN: If you had to pick one, what living filmmaker do you connect with and find yourself consistently impressed with time and time again?

A S : There’s more than one The way you phrased it makes me think of Pedro Almodóvar His world is always one I’m happy to visit and I’m consistently intrigued by SUN: I only got into him recently and I love his work because he does the whole political and cultural type of context that people want nowadays but he does it in a fun way, without simplifying or being pedantic I love it

A S : His sense of narrative and color and emotional range he can get within a single movie He can be screamingly funny and sublimely melodramatic He’s one of my favorites

SUN: You’re going to be [at Cornell Cinema] Wednesday to speak about The Sweet Smell of Success Why is that movie the one you want to talk about?

A S : Well I didn’t pick it, they invited me [Laughs] It is a movie that is one of my favorites and has been for a long time It kind of had a revival in the late ’80s or early ’90s, when it was rereleased and got a lot of attention It has a lot of edges Like a lot of movies that were released in the ’50s that we now regard as masterpieces, like The Searchers or Vertigo, it was too strange or too sour for the mainstream audience Sweet Smell of Success is a movie about journalism, about the newspaper industry, about celebrity It’s a movie about power and ethics And it’s a great movie about New York, the New York world that is long gone but still fascinating

SUN: Do you look at past decades, like the ’50s or ’40s or ’70s, and wish you were a film critic then? Or do you find our time exciting and rewarding enough on its own?

A S : I’m not one for nostalgia I mean, sure, to review Citizen Kane would have been thrilling in some way But I think this is a very exciting time It’s also a somewhat terrifying and dispiriting time to be in the media, where you don’t know what the future of your job is But it’s a very exciting time for film I certainly read the critics of the past and like the movies of the past

But I never wish I was in that era

SUN: The appreciation of movies are very nostalgic in a way Everyone talks about the great movies of the past, and we love to watch them We have The Criterion Collection and others for that

A S : Yes, there’s a lot of dwelling on the glories of the past at the expense of the present, which always looks a lot more shabby and ordinary We forget our picture of the past is incredibly selective There were a lot of terrible movies that came out in all of those decades but we just forgot about them You go back and look at the ’70s or ’50s or whatever your Golden Age was, and you’ll find reviews of Taxi Driver, or Mean Streets or The Godfather, but you’ll also find hundreds of movies that just sound terrible or mediocre At the time, even at the height of the glories of the New Hollywood, people were complaining

SUN: Of course People are always complaining

A S : There were critics writing about how things were in decline It’s always a matter of perspective

Zachary Zahos is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences He can be reached at zzahos@cornellsun com

Ás ge i r

“To rren t ”

Video Released Nov 4

Anglophones are depressingly stubborn about their music tastes Even some of the most dedicated listeners write off music outside their native tongue, forcing many talented, popular artists to do what Ásgeir is doing Icelandic sensation Ásgeir Trausti Einarsson, now referred to simply by the mononym Ásgeir, is arguably the hottest pop star in his home country His debut LP from late 2012, Dýrð í dauðaþögn, caused huge ripples in the Icelandic music world, filling the nation’s headphones and stereos with his unique brand of melodic nouveau folk Since international success is all but unattainable for those who sing in Icelandic, Ásgeir chose to divert his attention from developing new material. Instead, with translating help from John Grant, he created a complete English

remake of his debut, entitled In the Silence, due in January “Torrent,” a single off the upcoming album and the English remake of “Nýfallið regn, ” remains as stunningly beautiful as the original A twinkling, lonely piano gives way to smashing drums and uplifting, ethereal vocals As emotionally powerful as the crescendoing instrumentals are, Ásgeir’s angelic voice is the true star This time around, the production was tweaked ever so slightly, making the mixing on “Torrent” a touch cleaner and richer, but the translation seems aesthetically unnecessary The lyrics, although now comprehensible to English speakers, are overly flowery in true Icelandic style, and the foreign accent makes the reverbwashed vocals difficult to parse anyway Sadly, supporting the English remakes reinforces the unfortunate, anglo-centric state of affairs in world music, but either way, Ásgeir merits international stardom Hopefully In the Silence will give him the recognition he deserves.

Mike Sosnick

Week of Nov 3

Slow TV Is the Best TV

This past Friday, I was bedridden from a stomach flu that I would not wish on my worst enemies While feverish and vomiting, I took solace and c o m f o r t i n w a t c h i n g Na t i o n a l K n i t t i n g

Evening, seemingly endless TV program on No

r w a y ’ s p u b l i c b r o a d c a s t i n g c h a n n e l

NRK2

I say “endless” because although the broadcast was technically 12 hours long, it hardly seemed to matter how long the event was National Knitting Evening was a continuous TV-marathon-like broadcast of people knitting Some knit sweaters, which was great to stare at because Scandinavia is ver y serious about sweater patterns Others knit mittens, scar ves and bowl covers

There were a couple of hosts that walked around inter vie wing people as they knit, and when finished making the inter vie w rounds the program would cut to vie wer-

s u b m i t t e d p h o t o s o f p e o p l e k n i t t i n g

There was even a Twitter ticker on the bottom that streamed tweets about knitting

The livestream also had an English translat i o n , s o I c o u l d c o m p re h e n d a n d g e t engrossed in the program

I’m not being sarcastic here: this was engrossing stuff, and maybe some of the best TV I’ve seen all year Maybe it’s because I loved Bob Ross The Joy of Painting as a kid, but I doubt it 1-million Nor wegians have been captivated by similar Nor wegian television programs in the past, from a 7 5 hour-long broadcast of a train journey to a 134 hour live broadcast of a ship cr uising along the Nor wegian

c o a s t O n e - h a l f a n d t w o - t h i r d s o f No r w a y tuned into those b r o a d c a s t s respectively, and the cr uise broad-

c a s t b e c a m e s o c i a l m e d i a f o d d e r In t h a t broadcast, there were several marriage proposals, competitions held between cities to see who had the best welcoming ceremony, and several wacky stunt-persons who became celebrities overnight

broadcasts are shown in their entirety at a leisurely pace The earliest and most familiar example of this for American audiences is the Yule Log, w h e r e f o o t a g e o f a bright, burning fireplace set to holiday tunes was b r o a d c a s t e v e r y Christmas in Ne w York City It’s just a log burning that’s it But there was something comfor ting in its ordinariness, especially for many Ne w Yorkers who didn’t have f i re p l a c e s So w h y n o t extend the concept into o t h e r t h i n g s , l i k e t h e entirety of a train ride, or people knitting?

T h e h i g h l i g h t o f Na t i o n a l K n i t t i n g Evening was at midnight, w h e n a s h e e p w a s brought into the studio and sheared of its wool

S e v e r a l No r w e g i a n w o m e n b e g a n t o s p i n this wool into yarn and knit into a men ’ s size sweater They were racing against the clock to beat the world record for the fastest knit sweater, set by an Australian team at around 5 hours When they passed that mark and it was apparent they did not beat it, the women got up to

All these programs are par t of the categ o r y o

that they with great care and intense focus It was the per fect mix of comfor ting predictability and just enough variation to keep things interesting

A f t e r t h e y f a i l e d t o b re a k t h e w o r l d re c o rd , t h e s h ow m ov e d i n t o a m o re l e i s u re l y p a c e ( i f t h a t ’ s p o s s i b l e ) Eve n t h o u g h t h e y we re s t i l l w o rk i n g j u s t a s q u i c k l y, t h e y s p o k e m o re Su b j e c t s o f d i sc u s s i o n i n c l u d e d h ow t h e y we re k n i t t i n g t h ro u g h t h e n i g h t a n d i n t o t h e m o r n i n g ,

s p e c u l a t i o n ove r w h e t h e r t h e Au s t r a l i a n

s t r e t c h , a p p l a u d e d f o r t h e Au s t r a l i a n record breaks, and promptly returned to knitting

Even though the work seemed rote, it was clear that they moved their fingers w h e n k n i t t i n g d i f f e r e n t p a r t s o f t h e sweater or feeding the wool to the spinner

There is something charming about the mundaneness of Slow TV that makes its programming so refreshing You get to examine ever y detail at your own pace because nothing is edited out, you don’t feel endlessly inundated with stimulation and ever ybody is peacefully doing their own thing This is far in contrast with all of American TV The American TV industr y seems to have a severe allergy to anything ostensibly “boring, and PBS is laten

Slow TV programming proves that assumption wrong Maybe it’s time to copy them Kai Sam Ng is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations He can be reached at kng@cornellsun com You’ve Got to be Kitsching Me runs alternate Wednesdays this semester

t e a m k n i t t e d s o q u i c k l y b e c a u s e t h e y k n i tt e d i n t h e d a y t i m e a n d n o t t h e n i g h t t i m e , a n d d i f f e re n t p h i l o s o p h i e s o f t h e s p i n n i n g w h e e l On e w o m e n o f f e re d a s t o r y a b o u t h ow h e r o l d s p i n n i n g w h e e l b ro k e , a n d s h e h a d h e r t e a c h e r f i x i t At a ro u n d h a l f p a s t s i x i n t h e m o r n i n g , t h e w o m e n b ro k e i n t o f i t s o f u n c o n t r o l l a b l e l a u g h t e r b e c a u s e “ t h e re ’ s s o m u c h l a n o l i n i n t h e s we a t e r t h a t i t w i l l b e b o t h w a t e r a n d w i n d p r o o f ” a n d t h e s l e e v e s w e r e p r o b a b l y u n e ve n On e c o m m e n t t h e t r a n s l a t o r p rov i d e d : “ We’re a t t h e t e n h o u r s m a rk n ow, a n d I h a ve w a t c h e d a

Sun Sudoku

NEW YORK (AP) Derek Jeter’s new contract has increased the Yankees’ luxury tax payroll to $97 71 million for seven signed players next year That leaves New York with about $80 million to spend on the rest of its roster if the team wants to get under the 2014 tax threshold

Jeter and New York agreed Friday to a $12 million, one-year contract Major League Baseball determined its value for purposes of the luxury tax is $12 81 million

The Yankees’ captain, injured for most of this year, was playing under a three-year contract with

wound up being worth $9 5 million and was replaced by the new salary

Baseball’s luxury tax uses the average annual values of contracts as defined by the

Determining Jeter’s payroll figure for the tax is complicated by the option and the new salary, and New York may contest his 2014 evaluation

Net s, Bull s, Knick s, Hawk s Will D ominate the NB A

Continued from page 20

the addition of Luis Scola Indiana will certainly be in the mix to win the East

The Brooklyn Nets had a solid first season in 2012-13 thanks to a solid core of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brooke Lopez Now, after a mega-deal with the Celtics, the Nets also have Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, making it a team built to win right now I think Brooklyn gambled by hiring recent retiree Jason Kidd as its coach coaching is ver y different from playing, and getting all of the team ’ s stars to work well together will certainly be a challenge But if Kidd succeeds, the Nets will be a ver y dangerous team when the playoffs arrive

T

Rose back to the lineup, and if he can stay healthy along with Luol Deng and Joakim Noah, Chicago has a lot to look for ward too

Picking up Andrew Bynum and Jarrett

Jack will give Kyrie Ir ving

a

cast in Cleveland, and c

hoping to finish what he started in his second tour o

after picking up Josh Smith The Bucks are certainly good enough to earn a spot, just like they did last season

The Western Conference also has a host of quality teams that will battle to

Don’t be surprised if Cleveland returns to the playoffs

d’s coach Don’t be surprised if Cleveland returns to the playoffs

The Knicks and Hawks are certainly good enough to reach the playoffs, but I think the rest of the Top-8 is anyone ’ s game Detroit could return to the picture

Grizzlies all seem capable of winning the conference, and any one hot

s could lead one of them to the finals

Keep your eyes out on the Warriors

Stephen Curr y and David Lee welcome the dynamic Andre Iguodala into town, and Harrison Barnes could be morphing into an elite NBA player I don’t expect them to win it all just yet, but the Warriors

are sure to be a fun team to watch come playoff time

Hopefully Dwight Howard can settle down and just focus on basketball in Houston, where he will benefit from the creative play of James Harden Durant and Westbrook are eager to finally go all the way The Clippers are undoubtedly the best team in L A , and if new head coach Doc Rivers can help the talented Deandre Jordan reach his potential, L A may see the perennial little brother playing for a title

With all of these stor ylines coming together, basketball fans are in for a memorable season Enjoy

Ben Horowitz can be reached at bhorowitz@cornellsun com

NEW YORK (AP) Alex Rodriguez tested positive for a banned stimulant in 2006, The Ne w Yo r k Ti m e s r e p o r t e d Monday, an accusation denied by a representative of the legal team for the New York Yankees’ third baseman

T

with baseball’s drug-testing program

Ba

ment specifies the discipline for a first positive test for a banned stimulant is six additional unannounced drug tests over the year following the violation A second stimulant violation would result in a 25-game suspension

Rodriguez’s legal team accused MLB of leaking the allegation of a positive test, using a statement and making a filing to arbitrator Fredric Horowitz

L

Clinton administration official w

team, denied the player tested positive, the Times said James Mc

address whether Rodriguez had a positive test, only that he was not banned

“A l e x Ro

suspended for use of stimulants or any violation of the MLB drug program, ” McCarroll said in a statement “ The fact that MLB has resorted to leaking federally p

about a player speaks volumes of the weakness of their case against Alex and their desperation to secure a win in the arbitration, at all costs ” MLB chief operating officer Rob Manfred declined comment “ We were not the source for this stor y, ” MLB said in a statement “ We honor our joint drug program and never publicly disclose player test results until it’s publicly announced ” In a statement Monday night, Davis called for a government

representatives have intimidated witnesses

Red Take s On Green in Final Game of Season

By SYDNEY ALTSCHULER Sun Staff Wr ter

C o r n e l l w i l l w r a p u p i t s 2 0 1 3 s e a s o n

Sa t u rd a y i n Ha n ove r, N H , w h e re t h e

s q u a d w i l l t a k e o n Da r t m o u t h B o t h

t e a m s c u r re n t l y h o l d t h e t h i rd p l a c e s p o t

i n t h e Iv y L e a g u e c o n f e re n c e w i t h i d e n t i -

c a l re c o rd s o f 3 - 3 T h e Re d a i m s t o c o n -

q u e r t h e Gre e n a n d c l i n c h s e c o n d p l a c e

T h e Gre e n h o l d s a s u b s t a n t i a l l e a d i n

t h e s e r i e s w i t h t h e Re d , b o a s t i n g a 2 2 - 1 1 -

1 re c o rd In 1 9 9 8 , t h e Gre e n b e g a n a n

e i g h t - g a m e w i n n i n g s t re a k t h a t c a r r i e d t h e s q u a d u n t i l 2 0 0 6 , w h e n t h e Re d

f i n a l l y t u r n e d t h e t i d e w i t h f i ve c o n s e c ut i ve w i n

i n c o n s e c

o t h e Gre e n ’ s 79 o n t h e s e a s o n Mo re ove r, w i t h i t s c o mb i n e d f o u r g o a l s a n d s i x a s

e e

1 0 0 p o i n t s i n a s e a s o n f o r j u s t t h e s i x t h t i m e i n p ro g r a m h i s t o r y It s 1 0 1 p o i n t s t o

Scoring machine | Senior midfield/forward Hannah Balleza is third overall in Cor nell

with 35 career goals

d a t e i s t h e f i f t h b e s t s i n g l e s e a s o n p e r f o r -

m a n c e i n s c h o o l h i s t o r y Ad d i t i o n a l l y, t h e Re d’s h e a d c o a c h Do n n a Ho r n i b ro o k

h a s p rove n t o b e a n o u t s t a n d i n g l e a d e r S h e m a i n t a i n s a 5 - 4 r e c o r d a g a i n s t

Da r t m o u t h a n d p l a n s t o e x t e n d t h e l e a d

o n g a m e d a y T h e Re d n e e d s j u s t o n e

m o re w i n t o a c h i e ve d o u b l e - d i g i t v i c t o -

r i e s f o r t h e s e a s o n , a f i r s t f o r t h e s q u a d

s i n c e t h e 2 0 1 0 t e a m we n t 1 1 - 5 If t h e

R e d s u c c e e d s ,

H o r n i b r o o k w i l l

s n a t c h h e r s i x t h 1 0 -

w i n c a m p a i g n d u r i n g h e r 1 0 - y e a r C o r n e l l t e n u re

St i l l , C o r n e l l i s p re p a r i n g f o r a b a t t l e

w i t h a f o r m i d a b l e o p p o n e n t

D a r t m o u t h i s c u rre n t l y r i d i n g o n a l o t

“Going into the Dartmouth game the team is very determined to finish the season on a high note ”

o f p o s i t i ve m o m e n t u m a s t h e s q u a d h a s

c l i n c h e d t h re e o f i t s f o u r l a s t g a m e s ,

i n c l u d i n g Iv y c o n t e s t s a g a i n s t C o l u m b i a a n d Ha r va rd

Da r t m o u t h’s j u n i o r f o r -

w a rd A l i Sa va g e , w h o r a n k s s i x t h i n t h e

n a t i o n a n d l e a d s t h e Iv y L e a g u e w i t h

2 4 4 p o i n t s p e r g a m e , w i l l d e f i n i t e l y p o s e

a t h re a t Sh e s i t s i n 1 0 t h p l a c e n a t i o n a l l y

w i t h 9 4 g o a l s p e r g a m e T h e Re d’s

d e f e n s e m u s t b e re a d y t o w i t h s t a n d e x t r a

p re s s u re f ro m t h e Gre e n ’ s h i g h a t t a c k a n d

c o m m u n i c a t e e f f e c t i ve l y i n o rd e r t o b e c o m p e t i t i ve i n t h e c o n t e s t T h e Re d h a s p rove n i t h a s t h e s k i l l s t o b e a t a t a l e n t e d t e a m , h owe ve r, a s we l l a s t h e b a c k b o n e t o p re va i l u n d e r t h e p re ss u re t h a t a c c o m p a n i e s a h i g h - s t a k e s Iv y s e a s o n c l o s e r C o r n e l l i s d e t e r m i n e d t o c l o s e o u t t h e s e a s o n w i t h a w i n a n d s e n d t h e s e n i o r s o f f w i t h p r i d e , a c c o rd i n g t o s e n i o r f o r w a rd El l y Pl a p p e r t “ G o i n g i n t o t h e D a r t m o u t h g

Co r n el l P r e p a r e d f o r S e a s o n

After Tough Pre-Season Training

SWIMMING

Continued from page 20

season, ” Hallowell said “This weekend will be a good test for us, especially with so many Ivy meets in the next month ”

The men ’ s off-season training was tougher than usual, putting the team in a much stronger position this season, according to Satterthwaite

“I think this year ’ s off-season training has been tougher than in previous years so going into the meet season the team as a whole will be in much better shape than usual,” he said “I think that the team is more excited than before to start racing and beating some teams in the Ivy League I think we all feel good and are ready to get some victories against our real rivals ” Overall, the men say they feel ready to face their future competition

“The team is feeling strong and excited,” Hallowell said “Everyone looks forward to racing, and this year it’s obvious we ’ re all ready to get back into it It feels great to be pumped and ready to start the season ”

The Cornell swimming and diving teams see this weekend’s home opener against Boston College as an opportunity to start the season off in a positive manner The Red has training vigorously in the off-season in order to have the level of success that it have been hoping for

“This weekend will be a good test for us ”

T h o m a s H a l l o w e l l

“I’d say after handling the toughest pre-season we ’ ve ever had, and increasingly harder workouts in the weight room [we] still haven’t recovered from the aggressive Halloween workout we ’ re ready to take on the three upcoming meets, even this early in the season, ” Douglas said

John McGrorty can be reached at jmcgrorty@cornellsun com

R ow e r s He a d t o Win t e r Tra in in g

ROWING

Continued from page 20

ninth place The women ’ s varsity eight boat finished in 23rd, once again the strongest finish out of all the women ’ s boats entered in the race

Sa t u rd a y ’ s c o m p e t i t i o n allowed all three teams to give some younger rowers experience with different lineups in a competitive atmosphere The coaches

h

n order to create depth across all

class levels, according to Hills

“Coach Smith is constantly changing the boats around, forcing the rowers to understand that they are all at the same level, [and] capable of the same feats,” he said “This will allow for more collective efforts throughout the season, ridding the team of any sort of dependence on ‘key rowers ’” T h e C o r n e l l Fa l l Re g a t t a marked the end of the fall season and the beginning of winter traini n g f o r a l l t h re e p ro g r a m s

According to O’Neill, the regatta

was a good experience that will help the team going into this crucial period of the season

“The Cornell Regatta played an important role in kicking off w i n t e r t r a i n i n g , ” h e s a i d

“Though it may have been our last regatta of the fall, it is the start in our preparation for the spring This winter will make or break o u r p e r f o r m a n c e s , a n d i t i s important that we as a team take advantage of it ”

Tucker Maggio-Hucek can be reached at thucek@cornellsun com

ow e r s S t o r m

Ca y u g a L a k

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At Home Contest

C ornel l has suc c e ssfu l end to fall season with boats in Top 25

By TUCKER MAGGIO-HUCEK Sun Staff Wr ter

The Cornell rowing programs played host to four other universities in the Cornell Fall Regatta this past weekend

The annual 5k regatta included nearly 50 boats from Cornell, Syracuse, Ithaca College, Bucknell and Hobart

The heavyweight, lightweight and women ’ s boats braved the brisk fall morning in two races These races, which took place on Cayuga Lake, were the Red’s last chance to compete against other boats until the spring

“I was very impressed with my boat’s performance.”

P i e r r e H i l l s

In the first race, all three programs had a boat finish within the To p - 2 5 t i m e s T h e heavyweight team had six boats finish in the To p - 2 5 , i n c l u d i n g a win by the freshman eight boat Their time was six seconds faster than the second place finisher, the Syracuse freshman eight The freshman eight B boat placed fourth, followed by the four A boat whose time was sixth best in the session Many of the boats contained new lineups, which made the times exciting, according to sophomore Pierre Hills

Spor ts

Fall Regatta on Saturday The boat’s time was six seconds faster than second place Syracuse’s freshman eight boat

“I was very impressed with my boat’s performance,” he said “We had only practiced in the lineup once before the race, [so] it was difficult to predict how we were going to perform We stayed focused and improved throughout the piece ”

The lightweight team had three boats finish in the Top25, with the freshman eight boat putting in the strongest performance and earning fifth place The freshman eight B boat was the next best finisher for the program, completing the race in 18th place The women were also able to get in the Top-25 with thier varsity eight boat’s 24th place finish, the highest finish of any women ’ s boat in the first session

The second session included fewer boats, and the

Swimmers Ready to Face Boston

By JOHN McGRORTY

Sun Staff Wr ter

This weekend, the Cornell men ’ s and women ’ s swimming and diving teams will be competing at home against Boston College Coming off of a very fast and competitive scrimmage last weekend against

the University of Buffalo, the Red looks to continue to gain speed and be successful against Boston College

“Going into the meet against Boston College, I think the team is feeling really good,” junior freestyle Timothy Satterthwaite said “We had a scrimmage last weekend against University of Buffalo and saw some really good times, especially from the freshmen We should have some super close races with BC, which always leads to fast swims ”

The Red hopes to be extremely competitive and to improve upon its times in order to be strong against Boston College

“The team is feeling prepared to take on a new school and confident in ourselves,” junior diver

Thomas Hallowell said “We all feel good after our scrimmage with Buffalo and are excited to prove ourselves ”

On the women ’ s side, the Red is looking to improve and continue to bring a strong work ethic and energy to this weekend’s competition

“After our scrimmage with Buffalo we are ready to up the ante with B C , really bringing the energy, ” junior backstroke and fly swimmer Bethany Douglas said Douglas said she is confident the Red has made the necessary preparations throughout the off season to encourage future success

“Our team came back to campus fit and strong after summer break,” she said “We got right into mid-season workouts in September to make up for a few lost weeks at the end of the season, with Ivies being sooner than last year ”

The men also spent an ample amount of time training during the off-season

“We have spent a lot of time in the gym and in the pool, and we are feeling strong going into the

Icoaches changed the lineups in some cases in order to evaluate their rowers in different situations The lightweight program had three Top-10 finishes that highlighted the second race of the day The lightweight varsity eight came in first place by more than four seconds over Hobart’s heavyweight varsity eight

“The lightweight varsity 8 had a very impressive performance, taking first place overall in a field of heavyweights,” freshman Daniel O’Neill said

The heavyweight freshman boats also had Top-10 finishes The freshman eight’s time placed them in seventh, and the freshman eight B boat came in close behind in

’ ve already used this space on two occasions to preview the NFL and NHL, so why not continue with a look at the NBA’s 2013-14 campaign? Last season did not fail to disappoint, featuring a tough seven game battle unfold between the smart, veteran San Antonio Spurs and the star-

studded Miami Heat The Heat took the title, its second in a row, in front of a beaming Miami crowd The team has its eyes on the three-peat, but a number of teams from both conferences are set to stand in its way I think the Heat will fall short of another championship, primarily because it has some serious concerns Dwyane Wade is nursing some injuries which caused him to sit out from some preseason

action Ray Allen and Shane Battier are one year older and could easily suffer slight drops in production They’re counting on Greg Oden to be their anchor down low, but he’s never been able to stay healthy and produce consistently Of course they have Lebron, but his days in Cleveland clearly

showed that he needs substantial support in order to win championships I don’t think the Heat will even reach the finals they’ll likely fall in the Eastern Conference playoffs to the Nets, Pacers, or Bulls The Pacers fought the Heat to a decisive seventh game in last year ’ s playoffs and could be even better this year with the return of Danny Granger and