Volume 5 Issue 20

Volume V, Issue 20

June 13, 2006

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The Stuyvesant Standardhe Stuyvesant Standardhe Stuyvesant Standard

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was meant to be a tribute to the2007 inductees.After the national anthem, thewelcome address was made byEmi Suzuki, now former presi-dent of Arista. Afterwards, thefaculty advisor’s address wasmade by Dr. Olga Livanis, andthe principal’s address was made by Principal Stanley Teitel, whoensured the parents that gradua-tion will not start more than twohours late.After a pleasant interlude bythe band, which included John

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S U 2 0 0 6 E l e c t i o n s

s e e p a g e s 6 a n d 1 2

D e d i c a t i o n t o P a s t E d i t o r s

M s e e p a g e s 8, 9, 1 0

Y o u r f a v o r i t e c o l u m n s : T e c h n o l o g y T o d a y, S p o r t s B e a t, M e e t t h e T e a c h e r, C l u b P u b S p o t l i g h t i n s i d e.

Arista, Stuyvesant’s Chapter of the National Honor Society,held its 97th induction ceremonyon May 31. With over 250 induc-tees, some students were not evenable to be seated regularly andwere offered seats at the front.The induction was supposed tostart at 6:30 PM, but the inducteesdid not even start filing in untilmuch later. The inductees walkedto their respective seats in rhythmto the James Bond theme, which

Test Scores On theMove – For the Worst

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While national science testscores reveal that fourth-gradershave made improvements andeighth-graders have held steady,high school seniors have declinedin the past decade.“It’s fairly well-recognizedthat students are not where wewant them to be,” said TerriClark, vice president of the Con-necticut Academy for Educationin Mathematics, Science, andTechnology. “The question comesdown to: What do we do aboutit?”The National Assessment of Education Progress, which testsstudents in earth, life, and physi-cal science, is administered toapproximately 300,000 studentsacross the nation. While 60 per-cent of seniors were placed at or above basic level in 1996, 59 per-cent are currently at this level.Only 18 percent demonstrated proficiency, compared to the 21 percent in 1996.“Our fourth-graders are doing better — that’s the good news,”said Darvin Winick, chairman of the Department of Education.“But the twelfth-grade results aredistressing; there’s no other wayto slice it.”Many experts are concerned

News...........................2-12 Puzzles..............................16Business......................12-14 Science……………….......17-18Opinions.....................14-15 Arts & Entertainment......17-9Literary......................15 Sports................................19-20

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Inductees at the Arista Induction Ceremony.

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Stuyvesant StudentsInducted Into NationalHebrew Honor Society

The first Stuyvesant annualinduction ceremony of the He- brew National Honor Society wasconducted on May 30. The Na-tional Hebrew Honor Society, or Eta Beta Rho, has a stated pur- pose of recognizing outstandingachievements in the study of theHebrew language and literature,stimulating study and research inthis field, and promoting an un-derstanding and appreciation of Israel’s culture. Hebrew teacher Michael Waxman is the Eta BetaRho faculty advisor.Sixteen Stuyvesant studentswere inducted into Eta Beta Rhoin a ceremony that includedspeeches by representatives of theIsraeli Consulate, Orthodox Un-ion, and the USCJ. Waxman andEllen Lehman, President of theStuyvesant Chapter, led the in-duction ceremony.Mr. Waxman, who startedteaching Hebrew at Stuyvesantthis year, spoke about the changesthat are intended to invigorate theHebrew program at the school.Establishment of the Eta BetaRho chapter and combining lan-

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A chorus performing at the Award Ceremony.

Awards Night 2006 took place on June 7. It began with thePledge of Allegiance, led by Sen-ior Class President, Michael Kim-lat. Then, the “Star Spangled Ban-ner” was sung. After that, StanleyTeitel, the principal of StuyvesantHigh School, gave his openingremarks. There were two newawards given out, the Dr. RobertIra Lewy Award and the JohnMalfa Award. The first was pre-sented by Dr. Robert Ira Lewyand the second by UmbertoMalfa. After this, Megan Rodney Noah announced the recipient of the Robert Rodney Scholarshipand Linda Chiu Rourke an-nounced the Wen Cheng LiaoMemorial Scholarship. Next, El-eanor Archie, Assistant Principalof Guidance took to the podium toannounce more awards, such as perfect attendance and NationalMerit Finalist. Each of theseaward winners received a medal.

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Awards Night 2006

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Executive Leadership TeamPublication

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Credit for the chart comparing the SAT and the ACT waswww.princetonreview.com

Iran Threatens To UseOil As Bargaining Chip

Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil supplier, has recentlyannounced that if the UnitedStates continues to infringe on itsright to develop nuclear power,oil trade from the region may takea hit.The message came fromIran’s supreme leader, AyatollahAli Khamenei, who has defiantlydefended Iran’s nuclear programand denied the United States'charges that the program is devel-oping weapons and using the ci-vilian nuclear power program as acover.The tensions have made oilconsumers and investors evenmore apprehensive due to the cur-rent sky-high oil prices, nowabove $70 a barrel.Although the United Statesagreed to join forces with Euro- pean nations and created a pack-age of incentives to pacify Iran,Defense Secretary Donald H.Rumsfeld has openly labeled Iranas one of the leading terrorist na-tions in the world.While Washington has so far announced that it hopes to reach adiplomatic solution, it refuses torule out the possibility of usingmilitary force.Washington has offered to join France, Britain, and Germanyin talks with Iran, the first in over 25 years, but says Iran must firstsuspend uranium enrichment, ademand Iran has so far rejected,saying enrichment is a nationalright.Ayatollah Khamenei has con-tinually pointed out that Iran hasnot threatened any of its

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to thecrowd before his speech.

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Deer, bears, seals, coyotes,turkeys, dolphins, and moose arein and around New York Citycausing chaos.Discussions on wild animalsentering the city began as numer-ous bears wandered into residen-tial areas in New Jersey over the past few weeks. The three largestland mammals as well as othersfound in the eastern United Stateshave been wandering into New

Wild Animals in NYC

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Hal the Coyote, who was caught in Central Park, is among the many wild animalsrunning about in New York City.

R o b e r t S t ol a r i k / T h e N e wY or k T i m e s

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China’s Three Gorges Dam:Triumph or Tragedy?

For millennia, the Chinesehave dreamed of controlling the powerful Yangtze River, which,though it provides sustenance, isalso the bringer of destructionwith its repeated, massive floods.However, this dream never man-aged to manifest itself into a real-ity — until now. China has re-cently completed its Three GorgesDam, the largest dam ever built.Although it will not be ready for operation until 2008, the Xinhua News Agency reports the comple-tion of the wall as a “landmark inthe construction of the project.”The Three Gorges Dam ismade out of almost 16 millioncubic meters of concrete. It iscapable of containing about 40million cubic meters of water, buthas extra space for more than half of its normal amount duringfloods. The dam is expected togenerate around 15 million mega-watts yearly, or 1/30 of the na-tion’s total energy usage, when allother parts of the dam are completed in 2008. This will help endthe power shortages of cities suchas Shanghai without the use of polluting fossil fuels. Locks and aship lift are included in the dam project to allow ships to travelover the dam, increasing river shipping by 500 percent. As anadded bonus, the governmentclaims it will stop the floodingwhich has plagued residents alongthe river for thousands of years.

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As the old saying goes, “if something seems too good to betrue, it usually is.” Opponents of the dam argue that this is the case,and that the dam will cause anumber of problems that over-shadow its benefits. For one, itwill cause massive flooding be-hind it, drowning 13 towns, 4,500villages and 162 archaeologicalsites. Some are being moved tohigher ground, but there could beother, undiscovered relics that,when covered by water, will staythat way forever. This will un-doubtedly make many archaeolo-gists — and residents of the manytowns and villages about to becovered with water — very dis- pleased. It will also destroy a siz-able part of the cultural heritageof the area. The government hasignored these pleas, saying that itwill provide the people madehomeless by the flooding withresidences elsewhere. However,that is not all that environmental-ists are angry about. The damcould cause the extinction of theendangered Chinese river dolphinand Chinese paddlefish, and thedestruction of almost all the wet-lands in which the Siberian cranelives, a critically endangered spe-cies with only 3,000 to 4,000members left in existence. Criticssay that the dam will not evenstop flooding, but make it worsein the flooded areas and leave itunchanged in the nonflooded ar-eas. Finally, the cost of the dam isa factor — China reports that thedam stayed within its budget of $25 billion, but there are rumorsthat it actually cost $100 billionor more. Even with this massive budget, the dam was built so slip-shod that part of it had to be de-

The Three Gorges Dam have obvious adverse effects.

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Non-Nuclear ICBMsSpark Controversy

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Thankfully, the Cold War didnot turn hot, and, thanks to the premise of mutually assured de-struction (MAD), the interconti-nental ballistic missiles (ICBM)are rusting in their silos. The problem is, what should theUnited States do with thesehugely powerful and costly nu-clear missiles that are being usedfor absolutely nothing?Recently, the Pentagon has pressured Congress to recycle themilitary’s Trident II submarine-launched missiles by removingtheir nuclear tips and replacingthem with nonnuclear bombs.These bombs come in twotypes: the metal slug “buildingdestroyer” and the flechette bomb, which would cover a larger radius. This would allow theUnited States to strike any poten-tially dangerous targets, such asterrorist hideouts, in a huge ra-dius, within an hour, a conceptnicknamed “Global Strike.” If approved, this would be the onlynonnuclear weapon designed for fast and accurate strikes on tar-gets thousands of miles away, preventing the hassle of air strikes, which can take days, or bombers, which can take hours.For example, if an enemy wasabout to launch a single missile,this type of warhead would bemuch more convenient than anuclear bomb, which could leadto fallout and other complications.It would, says General James E.

Possible AntimissileShield in Europe

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President Reagan envisionedthe United States missile defense program to have a space-basedantimissile shield to counter po-tential dangers from nations likeIran and North Korea. Now, 20years later, the Bush administra-tion is proceeding with the anti-missile system by proposing anestablishment of new antimissilesite in Europe. President Bushmade this program a prioritywhen he took office and he with-drew from the Antiballistic Mis-sile Treaty to make his plans fea-sible. This plan is intended tocreate 10 antimissile interceptor sites in Europe by 2011. The De-fense Secretary Donald H. Rums-feld has asked the Congress for $56 million to begin building thesites. The estimated overall priceis $1.6 billion.Possible locations of the anti-missile sites are in Poland and theCzech Republic. By buildingthese interceptors in Europe, it isimplied that the defense relation-ship between the two countrieswill be tightened. However, thenegative feedback of this is fromRussia as it charges the UnitedStates of sneaking an American presence in the former WarsawPact nations. In addition, a Rus-

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A diagram of ICBMs.The US has already begun testing itsanti-missile system.

n e w s . b b c . c o . uk

By building these interceptors in Europe,it is implied that the defense relationship between the two coun- tries is tightened.

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