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(03/02/12 5:00am)
In an effort to explore the indigenous arts scene on campus, The News-Letter has decided to profile the previously unexamined student artists who have successfully showcased their works in the D.C. metro area. "Portrait of an Artist" will spotlight students who have contributed to the Hopkins arts scene. The piece will be written by the student him-or-herself in order to preserve the artistic integrity of the work, as well as to highlight the artistic process.
(03/02/12 5:00am)
Vampires had their fifteen hours of fame and so did werewolves, but the new young adult novel Forbidden by Syrie James and Ryan M. James (a mother-son duo) introduces angels into the mix.
(03/02/12 5:00am)
"Established by a prominent Baltimore family in memory of Percy Graeme Turnbull after his unexpected death in 1887, the Turnbull Lecture series quickly established itself as one of the premier lectureships in the nation" (programme notes).
(03/02/12 5:00am)
I've wanted to see A Dangerous Method for a while now, but no one I knew was willing to come with me to watch it. Doesn't a movie about the birth and development of psychoanalysis sound like crazy fun?
(03/01/12 5:00am)
Have you ever wanted to be more surreptitious about texting during class? Georgia Tech may have provided a solution for this problem. Researchers there recently created a prototype for an app that utilizes the Braille system so that users don't have to look at the screen while texting. This means that smartphone users who have the app will be able to text under a table without looking down or text while socializing or watching TV without having to look away from what's going on. Although Braille caters to the blind, the app was created to be a possible texting tool for any smartphone or tablet user, of which there are millions worldwide. The free, open-source app is called BrailleTouch. According to its creators, it utilizes a six-key chord keyboard. This is a keyboard that has six keys that can support most of the characters found on a typical keyboard when pressed together in various combinations. Chord keyboards are commonly used to type in Braille. Studies done at Georgia Tech have shown that typing on a chord keyboard can be quicker and produce fewer errors than typing on a QWERTY keyboard. The researchers performed studies with the prototype on visually impaired participants who were already proficient in Braille typing. They compared the results of their studies with those of studies done with other prototypes for eyes-free texting and found that BrailleTouch users could input at least six times more words per minute. In fact, the participants could reach up to 32 words per minute with 92 percent accuracy. The inventors are also in the process of developing another study that evaluates BrailleTouch qualitatively as well as quantitatively. They not only want to look at speed and accuracy again but also at comfort, ease of use and perceived value. This study uses visually impaired participants. However, the creators of BrailleTouch also intend for the app to be used by sighted phone users. They want their app to eventually become a universal texting app that will replace the traditional QWERTY keyboards and other technologies used today. BrailleTouch can be installed on smartphones and tablets and includes instructions on how to learn Braille quickly. According to the researchers, BrailleTouch is useful because of the keyboard it uses. For the visually impaired, it replaces expensive Braille keyboards, which can cost thousands of dollars. It also addresses some of the limitations of physical keyboards and soft keyboards, which are images that come up on the screen of a phones. The researchers feel that soft keyboards don't provide enough tactile feedback, and that physical keyboards can have too many small buttons. Currently, BrailleTouch is the only iPhone app that uses something called a six-finger chording process, which recreates a traditional Braille keyboard. The iPhone's touchscreen turns into a soft keyboard that only has six keys like a Braille keyboard. The fact that it only has six keys means that it's practical for the relatively small screens on smartphones and allows users to keep their fingers in a fixed position while texting. Users hold the device with the screen facing away from them, cradling it with their palms or pinkies and thumbs. They then type using the rest of their fingers. This is the same way that people type in Braille on a standard keyboard. The BrailleTouch team has already developed iPhone and iPad versions of BrailleTouch. Right now, they're creating an Android version. BrailleTouch recently won the MobileHCI 2011 competion for design at the MobileHCI conference in Sweden.
(03/01/12 5:00am)
On Tuesday night, John Ashcroft, former United States Attorney General, spoke at the Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS). His speech, which focused primarily on civil liberties and counterterrorism, reflected the Symposium's 2012 theme, "The Paradox of Progress: Chasing Advancement Amidst Global Crisis." Specifically addressing how to defy the paradox of maintaining a secure society while also protecting individual liberty, Ashcroft underscored the importance of constructive debate and personal freedom. With a free people engaged in debate, "making meaningful decisions," Ashcroft reasons, we can "turn ordinary metal into pure gold." This page, while in agreement about the importance of civil discourse and personal liberty, believes that Mr. Ashcroft's flowery rhetoric is grossly detached from reality. We contend that while Mr. Ashcroft purports to be in favor of defying the paradox, he is actually creating one himself: calling on individuals to freely voice their opinions while simultaneously stripping from individuals their freedom. As Attorney General, Mr. Ashcroft created an environment diametrically opposed to individual liberty - an atmosphere unsuitable for the growth of political activism or the appearance of civil debate. Ten days after 9/11, for example, Mr. Ashcroft ordered unprecedented secrecy in federal immigration courts. The procedures, among other things, required that trials be closed to the public and kept from the public record, thus precluding the possibility of outside sources ever reviewing the facts of a case. These actions clearly do not respect individual liberty nor the idea of public debate. Time and time again during his tenure, Mr. Ashcroft championed restrictions on personal liberty and public discussion - from allowing police to tap different phones without separate warrants, to monitoring dialogue and personal transactions, to restricting freedom of the press and speech. It's clear that Mr. Ashcroft's rhetoric is void of fact. This page contends, most importantly, that Mr. Ashcroft's hypocrisy could shake public confidence in our ability to ever attain both security and liberty, thus contradicting the very purpose of the Symposium. A detached and disenchanted citizenry will lead inevitably to a lack of meaningful public debate and political activism. Such detachment of the body politic will thus prevent us from every defying the paradox. Mr. Ashcroft risks producing a dangerous cycle of ineptitude and inaction.
(02/29/12 5:00am)
The way I feel about Baltimore is how Katt Williams feels about Atlanta: "This is the most nastiest, dirtiest, ugliest, most beautiful, wonderful place in all of America." I grew up here, my family in Hampden sprawling outwards. I spent more time in the Rotunda Giant than anywhere else. Then my parents moved us northeast and settled. I took buses across town to school for seven years.
(02/29/12 5:00am)
Scott Burkholder, a 2002 graduate from the Whiting School of Engineering, never gave much thought to the arts while he was studying at Hopkins.
(02/29/12 5:00am)
I'm not the type of person who claims to know a lot about pop culture. I don't watch every movie nominated for an Oscar to adequately prepare myself to watch the Academy Awards. But I have friends who do, which is why I ended up watching the entire show this year.
(02/29/12 5:00am)
Students are constantly thrown into a frenzied academic environment teeming with lecture slides, calculations, exams, papers and online assignments. It is quite easy to get lost in this crowd of concepts and facts, where paying attention is only for the grade. It is even easier to feel eyelids getting heavier and to dose off in the midst of a professor's lecture. However, the class "Cultural Factors of Public Health" brings the classroom into a new type of frenzy. Engaging students with its films and group discussions, the class is collaborative and never lets eyes droop.
(02/29/12 5:00am)
Sound Body Challenge, LLC, an incentived, competitive fitness program, inaugurated its second year of participants with a kick-off banquet last Wednesday. 142 Hopkins students registered to participate this year, a jump from last year's 92 participants.
(02/29/12 5:00am)
Two months ago, Skrillex posted a YouTube link on his facebook page with one of his favorite songs — a song by Aphex Twin called "Flim" (I highly recommend listening to it). What's so important about this? The comments his fans left all seemed confused. They were wondering why one of Skrillex's favorite songs had no "drop?" They consider him to be a dubstep producer, yet this wasn't actually "dubstep." What is so important about these comments? It brings up some questions: How would you define Skrillex's music if this were an influence of his? Is Skrillex a dubstep producer? Who is Aphex Twin? Finally, what exactly is dubstep?
(02/29/12 5:00am)
Dear old boyfriend,
(02/29/12 5:00am)
In last week's column, we described our adventures at Grilled Cheese & Co, but, as any foodie knows, a meal is not complete without dessert. Following our cheesy dinner, we immediately whipped out our iPhones and summoned Siri to find the sweets we were searching for. Ironically, she kept pointing us to the direction of 1036 Light Street, which was the address of Grilled Cheese & Co.
(02/29/12 5:00am)
Most Americans already know that their energy use results in pollution, but they may not know the extent of the pollution. A recent National Oceanic & Atmospheric Organization (NOAA) study shows that not even scientists are fully aware of the amount of pollution released from natural gas wells in Colorado. The study, led by NOAA atmospheric scientist Gabrielle P??tron, concluded that natural gas wells have leaked twice as much gas as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists had previously predicted. Natural gas is used as a fuel alternative to coal because it releases less carbon dioxide. Before it can be used as a fuel, natural gas has to go through a processing stage, which releases methane. Methane is a gas that plays a large role in warming the Earth's atmosphere. There are about 18,000 to 20,000 natural gas wells in Weld Country in Northeastern Colorado, which is where the study was conducted.P??tron and her team tracked air composition by taking weekly air samples from their towers set up around the world. They started measuring at one of their tall towers in Colorado in 2007. Their measurements tracked the amount of gases such as methane, propane, butane, pentane and benzene in the air. "We tracked the air composition around the world and over the continent in the US by grabbing air samples weekly at our global network and daily at our network that's over the continental US," P??tron said. The team noticed that the data from the tower in Weld County consisted of a different composition of chemicals than the data from other towers throughout the country. They found a correlation between the previously mentioned gases - as the amount of one gas increased, so did that of the others. After collecting the data, the researchers tried to find the cause of the emission of all five of those compounds. By analyzing wind patterns, they found that these chemicals were coming from Weld County. They took air samples from Weld County in areas close to known methane sources and found equal amounts of the five chemicals. Their results proved that the natural gas wells had caused the increase in these chemicals. The EPA had previously thought that natural gas wells had leaked one to two percent of their methane. The measurements from this study, however, show that these natural gas wells are leaking four percent of their methane. The recorded methane concentrations are not only from the wells themselves but also from natural gas processing plans and compression stations. "When we say that the leak rate is twice what's reported in inventories, it's the leak rate for the entire infrastructure, not only the [wells]," P??tron said. According to Hopkins Earth and Planetary Sciences Assistant Professor Benjamin Zaitchik, this study is important because it focuses on methane, which has very powerful short-term warming effects. He thinks that this study may cause some to question whether natural gas is a viable alternative to coal-based energy. "Natural gas was such good news for the U.S. . .it's good for natural security, it's good for rural economies and it's good for climate, and now maybe [it's] not," Zaitchik says. She hopes that her study will increase awareness about how emissions are able to change from one area to another and show that these emissions need to continue to be studied. This study will help policy makers, such as the EPA, know exactly what gases and energy sources to target. However, P??tron emphasized that her study was not trying to denounce using natural gas as an energy source, as it did not go as far to study the effects of this extra methane in the atmosphere. "We're not pushing any judgment on which fossil fuel is better than the other," she says. "Our study is [just] making a clearer picture of all of this." ?
(02/29/12 5:00am)
New light, or rather, new sound, has been shed on the mystery of Stonehenge, England's iconic prehistoric monument. At the 2012 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Vancouver, Steven Waller, an independent scholar, presented a study on the archaeoacoustics of the ancient site. The field of archaeoacoustics serves to apply the study of acoustics to ancient sites in an effort to understand and recreate the soundscapes that existed. The basis of Waller's work comes from the phenomenon of wave interference. Waves, whether sound, light, radio, etc., interact with other waves in such a way that they can magnify or reduce in intensity depending on location relative to the source. Although modern wave physics definitively explains this interference pattern, ancient observers could have likely attributed it to supernatural phenomena, as contended by Waller. There are "many legends of pipers connected to the stones, so I do not think this is just a superficial coincidence," Waller wrote in an email to The News-Letter. Waller performed quantitative and qualitative studies, in which he measured sound from various sources on a digital recorder. The sources included a pair of recorders (English flutes) in a field supplied by a fixed air pump and a pair of bagpipes in a room. For both cases, he measured the amplitude modulation in all directions from the source at a fixed radius. Next, he tested the acoustics of the Stonehenge site directly. These tests utilized a spring-loaded percussion device in order to produce impulse sounds from the center of Stonehenge. "I walked around the outside of Stonehenge to show amplitude modulation due to acoustic shadows of the megaliths," Waller wrote. Waller then led blindfolded subjects along the same path around the flutes and asked them to sketch and describe what they thought was present. All six of the subjects reported physical obstructions, such as large megaliths or arches between themselves and the noise. When comparing this data with the geometry of Stonehenge, the theory that Stonehenge was created to recreate this phenomenon is supported. Beyond simple enhancement of the modulation, Waller believes that Stonehenge could have been built to serve as a visual support for people. "The experience of sound being 'blocked' by invisible 'objects' was inexplicable to people unaware of sound wave cancellation," Waller wrote, "and subsequently this 'vision' served to motivate the construction of Stonehenge and other megalithic rings." The idea that the history of Stonehenge lies in sound is supported by archaeological and mythological evidence as well. Pipers have been closely associated with Stonehenge in British culture: the site of Athgreany in modern Ireland, which also features megaliths arranged in a circular pattern, is known as the "Piper Stones." "There are carvings in Stonehenge representing axes, which were a symbol of Thunder Gods," Waller wrote, "and so possibly these connect with the thunderous reverberations that I and others have recorded in there." This new theory is strongly supported and can work in conjunction with other potential proposals. Nevertheless, we can likely never be sure of the original purpose of Stonehenge.
(02/29/12 5:00am)
Quick, what does the everyday fruit fly have in common with a week-weary Hopkins student on a Saturday night? It might seem odd, but both are probably looking for a tasty drink of alcohol for a bit of a boost. As much as this sounds like a poorly constructed joke, researchers from Emory University's Department of Biology actually looked into the role that alcohol consumption plays in protecting Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, from one of its natural enemies, the endoparasitoid wasp. As their name implies, endoparasitoids lay their eggs inside a host species, allowing the parasitic egg to feed off of the host and ultimately kill it. Fruit fly larva have been known to mount a defense called encapsulation against two types of wasps - the Leptopilina boulardi species, which specializes in infecting fruit fly larva, and the Leptopilina heterotoma species, which is a general endoparasitoid. When the larva detects an infection, it begins a process in which it wraps the parasite in layers of tissue, forming a capsule and immobilizing and killing the target. However, in a recent study published in the journal Current Biology, the research team from Emory, led by Assistant Professor Todd Schlenke, realized the potential for a new defense mechanism for fruit fly larva based on their eating habits. Fruit flies often eat from rotting fruit which contains about four percent ethanol by volume due to fermentation. As a result, D. melanogaster has evolved a slight resistance to ethanol to combat its potentially poisonous effects. This adaptation allows fruit flies to reach blood alcohol levels of up to 0.02 percent, which is a fourth of the minimum amount of alcohol considered illegal for driving. Wasps, on the other hand, have no such diet and are See FLIES, page B8 FLIES, from B7 therefore susceptible to alcohol poisoning. From these two facts, researchers hypothesized that perhaps ethanol content in fruit flies could offer some protection to fly larva against wasp infection. Milan and his team went about testing their hypothesis with a variety of different experiments, each looking at different aspects of how ethanol consumption could alter fruit fly resistance. The group began by setting up two types of food mediums, one with 6% ethanol content by volume and another normal food medium without any ethanol. They then went on to compare D. melanogaster larval infection rates, larval survival, L. heterotoma and L. boulardi parasite survival, and larval movement when fed on the two different mediums. The results were astounding. In every category, the data revealed that ethanol has a major impact on the larva-wasp interaction. 'Drunken' fruit fly larvae were less likely to be infected and more likely to survive infection, while the wasp parasites living in these inebriated hosts fared far worse. In an interview with Live Science, Schlenke explained how wasp parasites were essentially "turned inside out" by larva that had been fed on the ethanol-containing medium. Perhaps the most intriguing result the Emory group came across occurred when they placed infected D. melanogaster larva on petri dishes half-filled with ethanol medium and half with normal medium. Researchers observed the larva moving back and forth between the two mediums. But instead of a drunken amble, the larva were apparently finding a balance between consuming enough ethanol to fight off the parasitic wasps while not consuming enough to cause alcohol poisoning. While connecting fly diet with wasp infection seems farfetched, the researchers were able to prove that ethanol truly does protect fly larva from potential wasp infection.
(02/29/12 5:00am)
Students gathered in the Glass Pavilion on Monday to hear Hopkins's own Professor Daniel Deudney discuss the future of nuclear weapons with Elbridge Colby, a specialist who has worked on security issues with RAND and the Center for Naval Analyses. This was the first event of the semester for the Alexander Hamilton Society, an organization that promotes debate on national issues. While both speakers presented strong arguments and showed expertise in their field, those arguments often sailed past each other without a real sense of engagement. Deudney's discussion of a recessed deterrent system seemed to exist in a vacuum, entirely independent of Colby's lack of faith in the feasibility of an arms control regime capable of supervising a world without nuclear weapons. While a few final questions from the moderator, political science PhD candidate A.T. Alden, tried to steer the discussion somewhat, each debater still seemed to stand independent of the other. The structure of the "debate" was such that neither really had a chance to interact with the other. Each opened with a 10-minute statement of their position, and then had several turns to alternate and further develop their case, but they were never able to directly address or question each other. This page applauds the Alexander Hamilton Society's goal of "promoting constructive debate on basic principles and contemporary issues in foreign, economic, and national security policy." In the future, however, we urge a shift in moderation style to allow for more interaction between the debaters being presented, and perhaps greater direction and steering of the conversation in general. This is not to say the Alexander Hamilton Society is unique with this problem; many other student organizations have failed to adequately moderate and structure their debates and discussions. Speaker events and debates at Hopkins provide an excellent opportunity for students and the community to learn, engage with academics and experts, and encounter new viewpoints. Both the Alexander Hamilton Society and other organizations have succeeded in bringing interesting and relevant speakers to campus. But greater thought must also be devoted to making sure the event retains its focus and offers the greatest possible opportunity for an exchange to take place, beyond mere lecture.
(02/29/12 5:00am)
Google is about to do it again. Whispers abound about yet another revolutionary new technology that will renew how humans interact, work and live. The company that brought us the Google search engine, Gmail, Google Earth and myriad other products - from Android phones to scanning and archiving ancient books - is set to introduce a reality-shattering new technology. The Google "goggles" will be worn like Bluetooth headsets, but over the eyes. They will offer much of the same functionality as smartphones; numerous applications, location devices and information technology will flow through the wireless Internet that surrounds us and project directly in front of our eyes. The implications are mind boggling. The Google goggles are set to be one of the most disruptive and revolutionary new technologies the world has ever seen, belonging on a tier with settled farming, the wheel, gunpowder, steam powered ships, airplanes, cell phones and cyber-social networks. One day soon, armies of kids will battle on real grass fields, but the games will all be virtual. Lacrosse sticks and balls will be replaced by sensors and projected illusions; the physical exertion will be the same, but the tools will have changed. Tourists venturing through Baltimore will pause in front of Gilman Hall, the goggles will click and whirl, and, within seconds, location-imaging technology will produce a complete history of the building, historical pictures, friends' comments on cyber-social networks and more. Disturbingly, when out socializing we may be able to point our goggled-eyes at a new acquaintance, and through face-imaging technology (already available on many laptops), be able to view a history of the person - maybe how many mutual friends we have. The U.S. government has already placed a hold on this technology to protect citizen's privacy rights. We can only hope that Google will adhere to its motto of "don't be evil" and ensure our privacy. The right to our own image is both sacred and already trampled upon enough by Facebook. Regardless, there will be a flood of critical voices. From old timers screeching "back in my day!" to kids bemoaning their friends not paying attention to them during conversations, society will have difficulty adjusting to this technology. This does not mean we should worry, however. We'll just learn to adjust, as we have done time and time again. Technology's forward march is inevitable and unstoppable, and there are numerous historical examples to show us other similarly disruptive and revolutionary technologies that have become ubiquitous - indeed necessary - for life as we know it. No doubt when the first farmer, thousands of years ago, squatted in a field to plant and sow a seed, tribal elders decried the action. Farming would eventually revolutionize the old hunting-gathering lifestyle, relegating literally hundreds of thousands of years of tradition to the back burner, leaving it to die. Many beautiful songs, chants and artwork related to the skill of hunting and gathering have passed away, and yet we are untroubled by this loss of culture. Similarly, when the telephone was invented, many old timers whined about the "good old days" when folks used to communicate face-to-face. No more. Cell phones have penetrated everyone's lives. They are a necessity not just in the first but also in the second and even the third worlds, and they have met with as much resistance and critical thought as any other new technology. We continue to grapple with their constant and invasive usage. Just as we have done with every bit of technology, we can and we will accept Google's new goggles into our lives, but not without careful reservations. As we walk half blind down streets, fogged by goggles, as we relax at home with glasses half covering our loved ones from view, and as we drive to work visually impaired by information flows, we must always remember what makes us human. It's not the technology we see around us. It's not our advanced wireless computer mouses, nor our heated water, nor our jet airplanes. Though these are important landmarks in our journey of intelligence and development, they do not accurately reflect what makes us human. Rather, the core themes and values that connect us are what make us human. We see them in the Bible, in Harry Potter, in The Return of the King and in The Last Supper. We see these themes in The Daily Show and in ancient Buddhist texts alike. What make us human are love, friendship and common humanity - and the numerous shades and nuances in between, from courage to heartbreak, from despair to loss, joy to elation. As we strap on and wield our new Google goggles in the next few years, we need to remember that we are perhaps most human when we are stripped naked of our achievements and stand revealed in the beauty of our bodies and intellects, to revel in our human interactions and conversations. So put the phone away, shut the laptop and go for a walk in the woods with a few friends. You might have a good time.
(02/29/12 5:00am)
Miniature horses are always a favorite at petting zoos, and they may be an evolutionary favorite as well. New research shows that 56 million years ago, early horses shrank from about 12 pounds to 8.5 pounds during a period of intense global warming. This dwarfing trend supports other evidence that climate change can affect mammalian body size and may have implications for modern animals given current warming. The study, led by scientists from the University of Florida and the University of Nebraska, looked at the tiny horse Sifrhippus using fossilized teeth collected in Wyoming's Bighorn Basin.Sifrhippus specimens in North America date back to the start of an intense warming period called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). During this 175,000-year span, global temperatures increased from 5-10 degrees Celsius because of rising carbon dioxide levels in the oceans and atmospheres. While organizing and evaluating their Sifrhippus fossils from the PETM, the scientists were surprised that the horse had originally been larger before becoming smaller. They also tested carbon isotopes in the fossils and plotted temperature data about the era. When they compared the warming data to the body size plot, they realized that it corresponded almost exactly. "What immediately hit me was that the oxygen isotope data was a mirror image of the body size," Jonathan Bloch, associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said. "It's probably the only interval of time on the planet where mammals are alive and you get that rapid change in a warm interval as opposed to a cold interval." This unique property of the PETM makes it a crucial analogue to today's climate change. The researchers concluded that Sifrhippus's size changes may be indicative of animal transformations to come. The study noted, though, that scale is a crucial difference between the PETM and modern warming. Though 175,000 years is very brief in evolutionary and geological terms, the PETM still had a longer duration than current global warming, in which temperatures are projected to rise significantly over hundreds, rather than thousands, of years. This incredibly rapid increase may not give mammals time to respond at all in an evolutionary sense. But other human impacts on the environment may also reduce mammalian ability to adapt through migration. "Habitat destruction [could] be a big problem in terms of survivability then just purely a thermoregulatory response," Bloch said. Though the study may be predictive, and the correlation between body size and temperature is very strong in the research data, it is hard to be assured of temperature readings from millions of years ago. "It's a pretty good argument that the oxygen record is indicating temperature, but there's always the possibility that there's something else going on," Benjamin Passey, a Hopkins paleoecologist and paleoclimate scientist, said. "The challenge when you're working in a big area is knowing the relative age of each layer. They're to be commended for the hard work that went into collecting the samples to put the record together." Regardless of how other mammals respond, humans are probably not at risk of developing a permanent Napolean complex. "I don't think that humans are going to be susceptible to the kinds of conditions we're seeing because humans regulate their temperature to some degree," Ross Secord, the lead author and a researcher at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said. "There are some mammals that are more sensitive to temperature change than others. Some seem to cruise right on through, while some are more susceptible and get smaller."
