Volume 6 Issue 8

Volume VI, Issue 8

Tuesday, January 23, 2006

Free

The Stuyvesant Standardhe Stuyvesant Standardhe Stuyvesant Standard

T

O

THE

C

OMMUNITIES

OF

S

TUYVESANT

H

IGH

S

CHOOL

, T

RI

B

E

C

A

,

AND

B

ATTERY

P

ARK

C

ITY

“Your

School,

Your

World—Your

News”

Leak Exposes ‘08 Giuliani’s Plans

A political leak regardingMayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, aswell as exposed his highly confi-dential, 140-page plan to run for president, possible donors for hiscampaign, and possible futureliabilities.This document could be dele-terious to Giuliani’s reputation asa leader who emphasized securityissues and strategic planning. Hewas known for tightly surveying public information and this leak-age not only served as a humilia-tion for him, but also allowed his political opponents to foresee his plans.But why did this document pose such significance in the po-litical world? His political oppo-nents now know that Giuliani planned to reap in $100 million in2007, with hopes to collect morethan a fourth of that in the firstthree months, and to spend $21million of it in the same year. Inthe document, he seemed slightlyambivalent about the presidentialissue. On one side, he wanted toclimb the political ladder and be-come president. On the other hand, he wanted to continue his personal ambitions, which include becoming a consultant on securityissues and leadership, continuingto practice law, and expanding onhis investments. On one page, hestated that he might “drop out of [the] race” due to“insurmountable” political and personal concerns. These con-cerns included Donna Hanover,his third and current wife; Ber-nard Kerik, his consulting prac-tice; and “social issues,” as he hasa more liberal position than other Republicans.According to the Daily News,the donor of the document wasanonymous and was “sympatheticto one of Giuliani’s rivals for theWhite House.” This donor wenteven further by claiming thatGiuliani left the document in oneof the cities he had campaignedin. Giuliani’s spokesperson,Sunny Mindel, did not contradictthis statement. She stated“Because our staffer had custodyof this document at all times ex-cept for this one occasion, it isclear that the document was re-

The Death of a President:

Who Never Aspired To bePresident

N

EWS

P/3

Work for Stress

O

PINIONS

P/8

B

Y

T

IMOTHY

T

ONG

S

TAFF

W

RITER

C o r b i s

Corbis

The Final Frontier:What’s Next?

B

Y

P

AUL

R

OZENBERG

S

TAFF

W

RITER

A new era in space flight isset to begin. For decades, gov-ernment agencies such as NASAhave been the only organizationsable to send anything into space.These trips required large sums of money, meaning that private com- panies would not be able to fundcommercial trips into space, or even develop their own space-ships. In the past few years, theentire scenario has changed.Encouraged by prizes such asthe $10 million Ansari X-Prize, billionaire entrepreneurs havefounded and invested heavily incompanies that seek to createnew, inexpensive types of space-craft. The Ansari X-Prize,awarded in 2004, was given to theteam that built the first reusable private spacecraft and flew it tosuborbital space twice in oneweek. The team of engineers that built the spacecraft, named Space-ShipOne, was backed by PaulAllen, co-founder of Microsoft.The total development costs for SpaceShipOne were $25 milliondollars, half as much as one flightof the space shuttle costs.As young as they are, these

PSAT/NMSQT Report:How Did Juniors andSeniors Do?

Continued on Page 11Continued on Page 4Continued on Page 2

B

Y

J

ENNIFER

S

CHLESINGER

E

DITOR

I

N

C

HIEF

The College Board recentlyreleased the information on howcollege bound juniors and seniorsdid on the 2005-2006 PSAT/ NMSQT.In October 2005, 1,467,667 juniors and 1,299,546 sopho-mores took the PSAT nationwide.In the junior class, 54.5 percentwere female and 45.5 percentwere male, compared to 53 per-cent female and 47 percent malein the sophomore class.The junior scores, in general,went up. The average criticalreading score was 47.5, a 0.6 in-crease from 2004. The averagemath score was 49.2, up 0.4 from2004. The average writing scorewent down 0.8 to 49.3.On the other hand, in 2005,the average sophomore scoreswent down. The critical readingscore stayed at 42.5. The averagemath score fell by .2 to 44. Thewriting score had the largest drop,

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, at work in his office.

C or b i s

On September 18 2006, Anousheh Ansari became the first female tourist traveling into space.

c s c o u t . c om

The junior scores, in general, went up. On the other hand, in 2005, the average sophomore scores went down.

The Life of a Smoker

S

CIENCE

P/12

P

LUS

Saddam Hussein’s Execution P/3,Club Spotlight P/3, Meet Dr. Niglio P/4, Ask the T: Grades P/7,and much more inside...

www.stuystandard.org

If you would like to advertise in

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

, please e-mailadvertising@stuystandard.org to request an advertisement form. We offer a broad range of options including full color capability for your advertis-ing needs.

AdvertisingSubscription

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

is a nonprofit and nonpartisan publication pro-duced by the students of Stuyvesant High School.

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

distributes 2,000 free copies on a bi-weekly basis to the students and faculty of Stuyvesant High School and through-out the adjoining neighborhoods of TriBeCa and Battery Park City.

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

welcomes letters from its readers.

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

Executive Leadership TeamPublication

Page 2

Tuesday, January 23, 2006 N

EWS

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

Please direct all correspondence to:

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

345 Chambers Street New York, NY 10282-1000readers@stuystandard.orgFind us on the web at

www.stuystandard.org

Contact Us

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

S

UBSCRIBE

T

ODAY

1 Y

EAR

— $15

Delivery Information

Name:______________________________________________ Address:____________________________________________ ___________________________________________________

Billing Information

Please circle your choices below:Check Money Order CashBilling Address:______________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Please cut and mail to

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

, 345 ChambersStreet, New York, NY 10282-1000 OR send the above informa-tion to subscription@stuystandard.org.

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

Founded 2001

“Your

School,

Your

World—Your

News”

D

R

. J

OHN

N

IKOL

F

ACULTY

A

DVISER

J

ENNIFER

S

CHLESINGER

E

DITOR

IN

C

HIEF

D

EREK

W

ENG

M

ANAGING

E

DITOR

D

IANE

C

HEN

C

O

-C

HIEF

F

INANCIAL

O

FFICER

K

HOI

N

GUYEN

C

O

-C

HIEF

F

INANCIAL

O

FFICER

F

ANNY

T

ANG

L

AYOUT

E

DITOR

D

ANNY

Z

HU

C

OPY

C

HIEF

J

IMMY

Z

HANG

N

EWS

E

DITOR

P

RISCILLA

M

ELO

O

PINIONS

E

DITOR

E

MMA

R

ABINOVICH

A

RTS

& E

NTERTAINMENT

E

DITOR

E

RIC

M

AYO

S

PORTS

E

DITOR

J

OSEPH

K

RUTOV

S

CIENCE

E

DITOR

H

ANFORD

CHIU

B

USINESS

E

DITOR

L

ADA

K

UKUY

L

ITERARY

E

DITOR

J

ESSE

Z

HANG

W

EBMASTER

B

ENNETT

H

ONG

D

IRECTOR

OF

P

HOTOJOURNALISM

D

ANIEL

E

GERS

(‘03)

F

OUNDER

E

RNEST

B

ASKIN

(‘04)

E

DITOR

E

MERITUS

New Year’s Celebrationat Times Square

B

Y

N

EETA

M

ALVIYA

S

TAFF

W

RITER

New Year’s in Times Squarehas become a global tradition.Every year on December 31, hun-dreds of thousands of peoplegather in Time Square fromaround the world to watch the New Year’s Eve Ball make itsdescent. Millions of people na-tionwide and billions from aroundthe world gather around their tele-visions to watch this magnificentevent.The New Year’s celebrationin Times Square dates back to1904. This was the same year thefirst subway line opened and theneon light was introduced. Thefirst New Year’s Eve Ball wasdropped in 1907. This ball wasfive feet in diameter, weighed 700 pounds, was made of iron andwood, and was adorned with 10025-watt light bulbs. It was done asa substitution for fireworks,which were now banned. The New Year’s Eve Ball has cele- brated every new year since 1907,except 1942 and 1943, because of the war-time blackout of the city.The New Year’s Eve Ballwas placed upon the rooftop of One Times Square on Wednes-day, December 27, 2006. The ballused for 2007 was the same oneused every year since 2000. It wasdesigned by Waterford Crystal. Itis a geodesic sphere that is sixfeet in diameter and weighs 1,070 pounds. During the 2007 NewYear’s celebration, 72 of the crys-tal triangles on the ball containedthe new “Hope for Peace” design,a decrease of 1.5 to 44.9.In New York State in 2005,127,276 juniors took the PSAT.Of them, 46.2 percent were maleand 53.8 percent were female.The male to female ratio wassimilar to the ratio for the nation.The ethnic background breakup of students in New York was similar to the national percentages, withthe majority of juniors comingfrom a white ethnic background.In general, the breakup of scores of juniors in New York State reflected the national breakup.However, it is noteworthythat for critical reading, math andwriting, New York mean scoreswere lower than the nationalmean. The same is true for themean scores of females and malesin each section compared to thenational means.In 2005 in New York, 68,710sophomores took the PSAT. Simi-lar to the national percentages,53.9 percent were female and46.1 percent were male. The eth-nic breakup was also similar tothe national percentages. Unlikethe junior scores, the New York means for all three sections werehigher than the national means,showing a surprising disparity.All of the female and male NewYork means were higher than thenational means.Based on the data, the Col-lege Board did not draw any con-clusions about New York. Due todisparities in the test betweenyears, scores in each state andacross the nation normally fluctu-ate. The scores must be comparedwith those of previous years inorder to see trends.

◙

PSAT/NMSQT Report: How Did Juniors and Seniors Do?

Continued from Page 1

The aluminum New Years Eve Ball, used between 1955 and 1980s.

Continued on Page 6

t i m e s s q u a r e n y c . or g

T

HE

S

TUYVESANT

S

TANDARD

Tuesday, January 23, 2006 N

EWS

Page 3

C

LUB

S

POTLIGHT

BuildingWithBooksThe Death of a President WhoNever Aspired To Be

Former President Gerald R.Ford died at age 93 on December 26, 2006. President Bush re-marked that “President Ford wasa great man who devoted the bestyears of his life to serving theUnited States of America. He wasalso a true gentleman who re-flected the best in America's char-acter.”He was in fact nothing shortof Bush’s comments. He servedas president for just 896 days andwas the only president who wasneither elected as president nor asvice president. Although his timein office was short, it occurred ata pivotal time in American his-tory. It was an era in whichAmerica had been defeated seri-ously in a war for the first time,and there were many traces of corruption in American politics.Ford, however, stayed awayfrom corruption and becameknown for his integrity and com-mon sense. He was identified as acommon man who was predict-able, safe and reassuring. He oncesaid, “The harder you work, theluckier you are.” He sure was alucky man, considering how many problems the nation faced whenhe took the oath of office on Au-gust 9, 1974.In the most important line of his speech that day, Ford an-nounced, “Our long nationalnightmare is over.” He workedhard to move the nation in a posi-tive direction and both inflationand unemployment rates fellwhile he was in office. He tried tocontrol federal spending with ve-toes on spending bills. He also lednegotiations for a treaty thatwould allow Panama have control

B

Y

A

NNA

G

INZBURG

S

ENIOR

S

TAFF

W

RITER

B

Y

ANA

G

ONTCHAROVA

C

OLUMNIST

Like many clubs inStuyvesant High School, Buildingwith Books (BwB) works hard toraise money for charity. However,BwB is unique in many ways.This organization actually sendstwo to three Stuyvesant studentsto third world countries everyyear to help build a school.The goal of BwB is to promote education by raisingmoney so that schools can be built in poor communities thatcannot afford to build schoolsthemselves. However, the club isnot limited to building schools. Atevery club meeting (the clubmeets every Monday),information about variousvolunteer projects for theweekend is given out. Duringmeetings, fund-raising ideas areoften discussed. In fact, BwB isresponsible for the well-knownand highly successful pie-a-teacher event, in which students buy raffle tickets for a chance tothrow a pie dish of whippedcream in teachers’ faces.Other meetings are filled withthe actual preparation for thesefund-raising events. People aregenerally split up into severalcommittees, often including public relations, decorations andfood.All in all, BwB is awonderful organization thatspreads cultural awareness whilehelping people both far abroadand in our own communities.

◙

Continued on Page 4

b ui l d i n g wi t h b o ok s . or g

Saddam Hussein, Executed After13-Year Reign

B

Y

S

ANG

H

EE

C

HUNG

C

OLUMNIST

Saddam Hussein reigned asthe undisputed ruler of Iraq from1979 to 2003, when his regimewas overthrown by an invasionfrom the United States.Saddam was born on April28, 1937 near Tikrit and wasraised by landless peasants. In1956, he joined the Arab Ba’athSocialist Party, which was formedto push the belief that secularismwas the path to Arab unity. How-ever, it only resulted in the im- prisonment and execution of all possible rivals. The party later assigned Saddam and nine other members to assassinate AbdulKarim Kassem, the despotic ruler of Iraq. The assassination failedand Saddam suffered from a gun-shot in his leg from the dictator’s bodyguards. His life was oftenfilled with bloodshed.By 1969, Hussein was ap- pointed vice president and deputychairman of the RevolutionaryCommand Council by the presi-dent Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, whowas, in essence, controlling Iraq.Hussein first attempted tocontrol the region of Iran in 1979,after its revolution, believing thathe could seize a waterway andspark Iranians to rebel againsttheir Persian rulers. Often, whenhis strategies failed, he accusedthe commanders of unfaithfulnessand cowardice, and had them exe-cuted. The wars that he caused,however, also resulted in signifi-cant changes in the citizens’ dailylife: highways were built, univer-sities and hospitals were con-structed, and the arts of Iraq werethe most accomplished in thearea.In 1980, the Iraq-Iran War began, originally from a disputeover a piece of land. A more im-mediate cause was Iran’s IslamicRevolution, which was stirring upShia Muslims in Iraq. During thewar, Saddam had used secret po-lice and chemical weapons to sti-fle opposition and crush rebel-lions. By 1987, his army had be-come the fourth largest in theworld. In August 1990, he in-vaded Kuwait and refused to lis-ten to UN orders to retreat.By 1992, Iraq evidently still possessed many weapons and UNinvestigators assured that all at-tempts to use them would bethwarted. After the Persian Gulf War, Saddam refused the inspec-tions and the United States andGreat Britain bombed Iraqi com-munications and other militarytargets in the hopes that it wouldnot create any more weapons of mass destruction.After the September 11 at-tacks, coalition forces invadedIraq after hearing about the “Axisof Evil” and weapons of massdestruction. In April 2003, UnitedStates troops brought down astatue of Hussein in central Bagh-dad, marking the end of his rule.A tousled Hussein was cap-tured by American forces on De-cember 13, 2003 near his home-

Former First Lady Betty Ford pauses at the casket of former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford as it lies in state in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Ford lied in state at the Capitol until January 2, 2006, when a funeral was to be held at the National Cathedral.

C or b i s

In a last act of defiance Saddam Hus-sein refused to wear a hood.

AP

Continued on Page 6

Category:	Uncategorized.
Rating:
Upload Date:	06/25/2009
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
Tags:	This document has no tags.

Documents

People