GIVING UP THE SWORD

FEATURES/3

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THE BEST OF 2011

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The Stanford Daily

WEDNESDAY December 7, 2011

An Independent Publication
www.stanforddaily.com

Volume 240 Issue 46

STUDENT LIFE

Alcohol transports on the rise

Castro blames hard alcohol, pre-gaming
MARSHALL WATKINS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER Stanford Daily File Photo

The number of alcohol-related hospitalizations has accelerated over the last month,according to the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education (OAPE). OAPE Director Ralph Castro acknowledged that while the number of transports earlier in the quarter had been similar to previous years, the University is currently experiencing a higher than average number of alcohol-related hospitalizations. The University has averaged two to three transports each weekend since Halloween,according to Castro. This statistic suggests that a transport has been occurring approximately each weekend night, on average. The majority of transports constitute upperclassmen, according to Castro, while freshmen remain a plurality of cases, as in previous years. Castro downplayed the significance of the increase in transports, noting that the OAPEs emphasis on

ResEd tweaks Row financial policies

KURT CHIRBAS
DESK EDITOR

Stanford Row houses, such as the self-op Mars (foreground, left) and fraternity Sigma Nu (center) were affected by recent ResEd policy changes. Student financial managers are no longer officially in charge of collecting student social dues, though several said they maintain slush funds for alcohol.

The Office of Residential Education (ResEd) has implemented changes to the financial policies for student-managed Row houses over the recent months, following the identification of several compliance issues during a general review process, according to administrators. These changes, some of which have endured while others have not, included more University oversight of student house dues and vendor payment. In an email to The Daily, Assistant Dean of ResEd Nate Boswell referenced the Sept.2010 hiring of Director of Operations Aaron Buzay as the result of a larger review process conducted by Deborah Golder, dean of ResEd. The hiring of this position increased oversight of all operational and financial activities in ResEd

and supplemented existing partnerships with Business Affairs, Boswell said. During the first comprehensive review conducted by Director Buzay, the department identified several compliance issues that required attention and worked together with the Auditing Office and other Business Affairs partners to make corrections. This past spring,ResEd prohibited Row houses from using social dues to purchase alcohol, citing a school policy that restricts University funds from being used to buy alcohol for those under the age of 21. Several house financial managers (FMs) noted that under the previous system, Stanford could be held legally responsible in the case of an alcohol-related accident, since the purchases were made through University-owned bank accounts. At the outset of this autumn quarter, the University introduced a new round of changes to Row financial policies. ResEd standardized Row house social dues at

$75 and began collecting this fee through students University bills instead of through student FMs. ResEd also experimented with the way Row house food vendors are paid, shifting the responsibility from FMs to the Row Central Office for the first five weeks of the quarter. A new staff member, Financial Associate Jo Arredondo, is charged with looking over weekly house budget reports and serves as a point person for FMs. These changes raised several questions for FMs about the shifting nature of their role and what autonomy they can expect to have in the future. We are committed to preserving the core tenets of the student management program which is geared towards enabling student leaders to build vibrant, intimate residential communities, wrote Boswell and Buzay in a joint email to The Daily.

Please see ROW, page 6

Please see ALCOHOL, page 6

UNIVERSITY

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Stanfords Occupy movement continues to evolve

By MARSHALL WATKINS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Senate discusses $400k fund

Holds closed meeting on sexual assault policy
By BRENDAN OBYRNE
DESK EDITOR

The ASSU Senate meeting started off with a closed meeting between the Undergraduate Senate and the internal review panel for judicial affairs. Senate Chair Rafael Vazquez 12 asked that reporters and people not associated with the ASSU leave the meeting, at the request of members of the panel.Vazquez told The Daily that the topic of the closed meeting was the preponderance of evidence standard for sexual assault on campus. This action may have violated the ASSU Joint Bylaws, which state that there are only three reasons a legislative meeting may be closed: to discuss the appointment, the employment, the performance, or the dismissal of an Association member or employee who is neither the President, the Vice President, nor a member of an Association leg-

LUIS AGUILAR/The Stanford Daily

Occupy supporters are currently camping out and discussing issues of inequality around the clock in the 24/7 first-floor study group area of Meyer.

More than one month after the Occupy protests spread to the West Coast, members of the Stanford community continue to be actively involved with the movement. Students, staff and faculty have maintained the Occupy Stanford movement while also developing an Occupy the Future initiative in hopes of mobilizing the broader University community. Both Stanford students and law enforcement officers from the Universitys Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) have been extensively involved in Bay Area Occupy protests. Stanford sheriffs, along with Palo Alto PD officers, were dispatched to assist Oakland PD in evicting Occupy protestors from a city encampment on Oct. 25.

The ensuing confrontation resulted in the use of riot gear and less-than-lethal ammunition by law enforcement, as well as over 100 arrests and critical injuries to a protesting Iraq War veteran. The first Occupy Stanford general assembly took place on Oct. 14 in White Plaza. Several students have made repeated trips to Bay Area Occupy movements, with some present during the Oct. 25 crackdown in Oakland and a larger contingent participating in the successful takeover of the Oakland city port on Nov. 2. Police-protestor interaction In the aftermath of heavily criticized police crackdowns on Occupy protestors at other California universities, ASSU Un-

Please see OCCUPY, page 2

UNIVERSITY

UAL outlines overhaul for academic majors website

By ALICE PHILLIPS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Please see SENATE, page 6

The office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE) hopes to complete a renovation of the Undergraduate Academic Life (UAL) website by the start of the 2012-13 academic year, VPUE Project Manager Tegan Bradford said. The renovation will

include the creation of a new website for centrally located information concerning undergraduate majors. Bradford set a tentative May milestone for launching the Approaching Stanford portion of the UAL site the portion with information pertinent to incoming freshmen for the incoming Class of 2016; but because no ven-

dor has been selected, the timeline is tentative, she said. The 400-page UAL site was most recently renovated in 2007. We hope that the site will be a useful advising tool and enable students to explore and plan their educations more intentionally,Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Sharon Palmer wrote in an email to The Daily.

VPUE drew inspiration for the new majors website from a Brown University site called Focal Point that aggregates information on each undergraduate major in an interactive display. The Brown site is an attractive model because it allows students to easily navigate between the re-

Please see UAL, page 2

STUDENT LIFE

Winter housing placement rate improves

By CAROLINE CHEN
SENIOR STAFF WRITER

All 275 students returning from overseas for winter quarter have been assigned to housing an improvement over previous years numerous lastminute assignments. Because the University offers fewer study-abroad programs winter quarter, more students require housing. In order to deal with the influx of housing appli-

cations, Student Housing has opened 114 additional undergraduate spaces 26 in Escondido Village and 88 in Oak Creek. It leased additional apartments in Oak Creek and consolidated graduate students in Escondido Village to create these spaces. This year, 40 percent of the students returning from overseas will be in Escondido Village or Oak Creek. By providing space in Oak Creek and Escondido Village, we are able to

keep some groups together, which is an option we were unable to offer in the past, said Rodger Whitney, executive director of Student Housing, in an email to The Daily. At this time last year, over 50 students with guaranteed housing were still on the waiting list, compared with 36 this year. Housing said it expects to assign all students on the waiting list over winter break.

Please see HOUSING, page 5

SERENITY NGUYEN/ The Stanford Daily

Index Features/3 Opinions/4 Sports/8 Classifieds/13

Recycle Me

2 N Wednesday, December 7, 2011

NEWS BRIEF

The Stanford Daily

One of the main goals of the UAL site renovation, along with creating a new hub for undergraduate majors, is to restructure the information architecture of the site from the most recent 2007 renovation, Bradford said. She added that analytics have shown that users are avoiding the sites navigational structure by Googling what they are looking for. One of the goals at that time was to make it accessible for a viewer coming to the site who wasnt familiar with our programs, she said. Instead of calling things by program names Introductory Seminars, Introduction to the Humanities or Bing Overseas Studies they rounded them into larger groupings. Bradford said she would like the new design of the UAL site to cut down on the levels users must click through to find relevant information and reorganize page groupings in an attempt to be more userfriendly. We would like to unpack some of that navigation a little bit and call some of our programs out by name to allow students to find them easier, Bradford said. That was one thing that was a goal in the 2007 version that I think, with the benefit of hindsight, might have been a bit of a miss. In addition to reorganizing the sites navigation, VPUE is going to be able to pull more information from disparate sources across the University because the Registrars office is now providing departmental information in the form of Drupal feeds, Bradford said. Because students have needs that span many University divisions including the CDC, the Vice Provost for Student Affairs and the academic departments, the feeds will allow the UAL site to serve as a hub for feeds from across departments and offices. The more we can collect things for [our students], provide things for them, that would be the goal, Bradford said. Well see how we do. Lance Choy, director of the Career Development Center, wrote about the relation of choice of major to potential careers in an email to The Daily. Many students are concerned about their career plans, and they often believe that there is a strong correlation between the major and a job, Choy said. Perhaps for jobs that emphasize technical skills and knowledge like engineering, the major is strongly tied to the career field, Choy continued. [But] most business and public service jobs really do not focus on the major. Employers tend to think of individuals in terms of skills, experience and motivation. We may not be able, because of time and technical constraints, to implement all of our ideas in the first version,but that way we can get feedback from students after the initial launch about what works and what doesnt, and what additional features they might find useful, Palmer said. Contact Alice Phillips at alicep1@ stanford.edu.

New York City campus deadline decision extended

By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF A Stanford contingent, including President John Hennessy, traveled to New York City late last week to interview with NYC officials regarding Stanfords bid for Applied Sciences NYC. Stanford spokeswoman Lisa Lapin confirmed the trip, but declined to comment further due to the Citys request that participants not discuss their proposals or the process until a winner is selected. According to the New York Daily News, two schools have already been eliminated from the competition. Cornell University and Stanford

UAL

Continued from front page

quirements for various majors and shows the names of advisors and the career pathways of alumni from each major, said Tenzin Seldon 12. Seldon is a member of the VPUE Student Advisory Group and The Stanford Daily Board of Directors. We want to find the means to be sure that some of the resources that the [Career Development Center] offers, for example, are used and employed, Seldon said. Currently, a lot of students are not able to really outreach to the CDC or only do it later on. Sometimes its a little too late. In order to better accommodate an interactive, visual display throughout the UAL site and on the undergraduate majors site, Bradford said VPUE plans to develop a simpler, more streamlined background in contrast to the current UAL sites very red template.

Please see NYC, page 5

OCCUPY

meet with them as well, Wilson wrote. Occupy Meyer Occupy Stanford has continued to protest on campus, most recently establishing a permanent presence in the lobby of Meyer Library. Occupy Meyer, where the movement has also held General Assembly meetings, was developed according to participants as a means of emphasizing Stanfords ongoing relevance to the Occupy movement. The movement currently mans a table in the library lobby around the clock. The symbolism of occupying an academic place is important, said Zach OKeeffe 13. We want to open up a space for intellectual dialogue, to discuss problems and solutions in a very academic way. [At Occupy Meyer] theres the fission of the intellectual and academic with the activist and progressive nature of the Occupy movement. OKeeffe added that the group chose Meyer instead of Green Library in order to minimize disruption to students. Joshua Schott 14 noted that occupying Meyer also gave the movement the ability to reach more students in an area which is heavily trafficked. Students involved with Occupy Stanford highlighted other efforts being undertaken by the movement. Current initiatives include investigating the disbursement of Stanfords endowment to ensure that all expenditure is conducted in a socially responsible manner, protesting recruitment events for firms deemed to have acted in a socially irresponsible manner and supporting anti-inequality groups on campus. Schott said that Occupy Stanford is currently in the process of forming a working group to develop more long-term initiatives, such as creating a major or even a think tank to advance the cause of reducing inequalities in the political and economic arenas. Occupy Stanford is a lasting movement, Schott said. Whats happening now is just the beginning. Occupy Stanford participants acknowledged that the movement has received mixed feedback from the Stanford community. I think we havent been able to reach out to the Stanford community, Schott said.

Continued from front page

dergraduate Senate Deputy Chair Dan Ashton 14 authored a letter on Nov. 29 to be distributed encouraging the SUDPS to avoid violence when dispersing protestors on University grounds and to remain respectful of student dialogue. Regardless of the causes of the violence at those schools, protection of student safety is certainly something about which student government should be passionate, Ashton wrote in an email to The Daily. I have no reason to believe that Stanford police will react violently to student protests. Laura Wilson, Chief of Police, has done a wonderful job thus far of enabling free assembly, and I see no reason why that wont continue. Wilson confirmed that the SUDPS has met internally and with other University officials to discuss potential responses to situations involving the Occupy movements. She added that SUDPS officers were trained to use if necessary a level of force just enough to overcome the level of resistance, and she noted that the use of pepper spray on nonviolent protesters would not be authorized. Wilson played down concerns about the Occupy movement at Stanford, writing in an email to The Daily that, so far, the individuals involved with this movement have been respectful of others and have not interfered with the academic mission of the institution. My hope is that this community will continue to engage in intellectual, respectful and peaceful means of dialogue so that police intervention is not required. While acknowledging that there is currently no consistent and ongoing dialogue between SUDPS and students involved in Occupy Stanford, Wilson noted that SUDPS and students successfully communicated in advance of the anti-police brutality rally that took place before Big Game. Should the need arise, we will certainly meet with students. If students want to speak with us about their plans, we are happy to

He claimed that the movement has suffered from both skepticism that Stanford students could identify with the issues of the 99 percent and from negative portrayals of Occupy protests by the media. Schott added that the movement needs to demonstrate that Stanford is both affected by issues affecting the broader world and will be part of the solution to those issues. I think the people voicing opposition have done so more strongly, OKeeffe said. But most people recognize that there are legitimate grievances. There has been a surprising amount of backing from the ASSU and the faculty. Members were largely optimistic about Occupy Stanfords success thus far. Im prouder to be here after seeing all the progress weve made, OKeeffe said. Im hopeful for the future and sure that [the movement] will continue to grow. Occupy the Future Partially in response to and inspired by Occupy Stanford, a coalition of students, staff and fac-

ulty developed the Occupy the Future movement. The initiative, which will put on a teach-in, rally and public forum on Friday, Dec. 9, was developed independently of Occupy Stanford, but the two movements share many common personnel and objectives. We see Occupy Stanford as part of a broader movement, said Douglas McAdam, professor of sociology. Were very sympathetic, but we wanted to pursue the same goals by different means. Some Occupy Stanford members expressed concern about Occupy the Future, viewing it as driven primarily by the ASSU, faculty and the University administration, although most still praised the initiatives concept and willingness to address real issues. Id like to see them work more with the students, OKeeffe said. I worry that its a top-down approach as opposed to the grassroots approach the rest of the [Occupy] movement has thrived on. The University has been broadly supportive, McAdam said. You have to work with a whole lot of University offices to gain various permissions, and

everybodys really committed to ensuring we can put the events we want on. Vice Provost for Student Affairs Greg Boardman described Occupy the Future as an exclusively student-driven initiative. Occupy the Future organizers credited Occupy Stanford with providing the impetus for the University community to develop Occupy the Future. However, they described Occupy the Future as a more enduring means of advancing the cause of the Occupy movement and a potentially more appealing method to the Stanford community. Most of the people within the Stanford community who I have talked with have been incredibly supportive of the Occupy the Future idea, wrote Haas Center for Public Service Executive Director Thomas Schnaubelt in an email to The Daily. I wouldnt have gotten involved in Occupy the Future if I didnt believe that there is a good chance for something long-lasting to come from it. Contact Marshall Watkins at mtwatkins@stanford.edu.

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The Stanford Daily

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 N 3

FEATURES Handling homesickness

TREND
By CHRIS YANG

ooking through a sunny Stanford brochure, it might be hard to imagine that students living on the Farm could miss home.

But, between bursts of midterms and other sources of stress, homesickness can manifest at arbitrary moments. Students can find themselves beset by anxiety while groping for the worn surface of a childhood bed stand that is not there; they may be assailed by pangs of nostalgia while looking at pictures of family and old friends. And despite how contagiously happy everyone can seem to be on the surface, homesickness is not uncommon. Homesickness is a completely normal and universal human experience, said CAPS psychologist Naomi Brown. For most, it is a necessary developmental stage on the way to growing up . . . most students work through it without any need from CAPS. Homesickness cases are rarely reported to counseling services such as CAPS or Vaden Health Centers Bridge Peer Counseling Center. This can mostly be chalked up to the

fact that it is more often a symptom than a root problem. According to Brown, homesickness is a phase of adjustment in which students learn to balance distress, negative stress inherent in confronting a new environment, and eustress, the positive stress that accompanies change and excitement. At the Bridge, Ive never had a call that was specifically concerning homesickness, said Twain peer health educator Corinne Coates 12, who is also a Bridge counselor. Instead, it really just tends to be something that exacerbates other problems like roommate conflicts and anxiety about grades . . . sometimes its hard for students to throw themselves into Stanford,which ends up making it harder not to be homesick. When homesickness it is purely a consequence of adjustment issues, certain demographics within the student body are more likely to experience it. Incoming freshmen might come to mind first; however, smaller subsets of that group, such as international students or students who are similarly far from home, are particularly vulnerable. When I first came here, it was really the

SERENITY NGUYEN/ The Stanford Daily

cultural differences that struck me, said Eri Gamo 15, a Taiwanese student. The humor, the mannerisms, the social interactions were all alien . . . adjustment has been the hardest part of Stanford so far, and I think it contributed a lot to how homesick I was in the first few weeks of the quarter.

This sentiment is even shared by some American students who are not from the West Coast. It just felt like twice as much to get used to in that I was bringing a Midwestern mindset to California, said Minnesota native Alison Matteo 15. Its not that people werent

Please see HOMESICK, page 7

TREND

Stanford study snacks

By ETHAN KESSINGER

PROFILE

Building Community
SERENITY NGUYEN/ The Stanford Daily

By PINNAREE TEA-MANGKORNPAN
lessness from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action, according to its website. The central organization consists of country chapters, regional chapters and campus chapters. The Stanford chapter works with regional chapters Habitat for Humanity Silicon Valley and Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, contributing through fundraising and volunteer work. Stanford Habitat for Humanity co-president Keren Mikva 12 described the relationship with the regional chapters as a mutual partnership, where in return for fundraising help the Stanford chapter receives priority for participating in builds and subsequent support for fundraising events and activities. Apart from builds, the Stanford chapter organizes two main activities: Home Run and Family Fun Day. This year, Home Run raised about $14,000, according to Mikva, who called the event a huge undertaking.

ate-night snacking fuels students to continue working into the night, or perhaps greets them as a beacon of solace, a break from the tedious work that has consumed their day. While some opt to eat in the comfort of their own rooms (on cereal hoarded from the dining halls, pizza delivered to their dorms or even snack food purchased from any number of on- or off-campus convenience stores), others stay local and let Stanford Dining satisfy their hunger pangs. Stanfords late-night dining options include The Dish at Arrillaga Family Dining Commons, Latenite at Lagunita and The Axe and Palm at Old Union. More than that though, students indulge in late night dining because it introduces excitement into the lives of overworked (and hungry) college students: It is an excuse to avoid homework, a place to catch up with friends, a last stop after a long night on the Row or a different place to study. Visiting one of Stanfords late-night dining facilities is like walking into a popular bar, except instead of beer, students are trying out a new flavor of milkshake or chicken tender. Each restaurant is always loud, hectic and filled with the most diverse group of students imaginable at all hours of the night: A couple with matching pink hair watches viral videos; a band member using his celebrity status to try to score a complimentary slice of pepperoni pizza; a stressed out freshman thinking his red cup with water is fooling everyone and a boy trying to turn a group project into a romantic first date. Although students all over campus have access to these dining options, each has its unique location, clientele and signature food. The Axe and Palm, located next to Old Union, is a prime spot for a variety of burgers and sandwiches; if beef is not your style, you can try a salmon, lamb or garden burger. I am almost out of my dining dollars because of The Axe and Palm, said Sierra Freeman 15.I cant get enough of their burgers and fries. The Dish at Arrillaga may not appeal as much burger lovers with its primarily Mexican and Italian themed menu, but it certainly has its fair share of attendees. It is such a different experience from regular dining at Arrillaga, but somehow you still feel like even the drinks are made by a gourmet chef, said Keith Wyngarden 15. Latenite at Lagunita does not lack fans, either. It is always quite an adventure, said Chris Barnum 14. I love the food, and its also a great place to meet new people and relax after a long night. Despite the campus-wide love of late-night dining, some students are hesitant to partake in late-night snacking, worried about the extra calories. However, Vivian Crisman, resident nutritionist at the Vaden Health Center, suggests that there is no need to stop snacking so long as the

he race begins. Children, grandparents, athletes and even entire families run; but the goal is not just the finish line, it is eliminating poverty housing and homelessness. The event is Stanford Habitat for Humanitys Home Run 5K/10K, a major fundraising event that has taken place annually for 16 years. Stanford Habitat for Humanity is a campus chapter of the international nonprofit organization. The organizations goals are to eliminate poverty housing and home-

Please see HABITAT, page 7

ERICA CHENOWETH

DISCARDING THE SWORD

ith her weary eyes and short, tussled hair, Erica Chenoweth looks the part of a busy academic. Chenoweth, a visiting scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), had just returned from a six-week around-theworld tour for her recently published book comparing the efficiency of nonviolent to violent uprisings during the Arab Spring. Despite her fatigue, her eyes gleamed when talking about her book and life after her tour.

Courtesy of Allison Stroh

Please see LATE, page 7

Ever since then, my life has been a whirlwind, Chenoweth said. Chenoweth has begun to tackle more book projects as well. In one, she examines the role of terrorism in democratic countries, arguing that terrorist violence is more likely to be seen in free societies. In another project, Chenoweth explores the successes and failures of international conflicts to explain the rational behind nonviolent uprisings. In addition, Chenoweth analyzes the effectiveness of counterterrorism policies and is involved in a variety of movements for nonviolent resistance.

From her research, Chenoweth has concluded that political power is shifting from those who have the most weapons to those who can recognize and exercise popular power over authority. Mao [Zedong] used to say that power flows from the barrel of a gun, Chenoweth said. But what were now seeing is that people are standing down gun barrels all over the world, and theyre winning. According to Chenoweth, nonviolent resistance is twice as effective as violent in-

Please see CHENOWETH, page 7

4 N Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Stanford Daily

OPINIONS
E DITORIAL

Underprivileged students and intro classes

Established 1892

AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Managing Editors Nate Adams Deputy Editor Billy Gallagher & Margaret Rawson Managing Editors of News Miles Bennett-Smith Managing Editor of Sports Tyler Brown Managing Editor of Features Lauren Wilson Managing Editor of Intermission Mehmet Inonu Managing Editor of Photography

The Stanford Daily

Incorporated 1973

Board of Directors Kathleen Chaykowski President and Editor in Chief Anna Schuessler Chief Operating Officer Sam Svoboda Vice President of Advertising Theodore L.Glasser Michael Londgren Robert Michitarian Nate Adams Tenzin Seldon Rich Jaroslovsky

Shane Savitsky Columns Editor Stephanie Weber Head Copy Editor Serenity Nguyen Head Graphics Editor Alex Alifimoff Web and Multimedia Editor Zach Zimmerman,Vivian Wong, Billy Gallagher,Kate Abbott & Caroline Caselli Staff Development

irst-generation and others from generally underprivileged backgrounds have a host of unique challenges upon arriving at Stanford.They are placed in a new social and economic culture. They have financial burdens that add to the stress of campus life. And they are generally faced with an abrupt academic transition; from day one, students from these backgrounds are in classes alongside peers who attended some of the nations top high schools. Although both groups of students are bright, the privileged group is significantly better prepared for college-level coursework; a 2003 study of 28 selective institutions,including Stanford, showed that the GPA differential between low and high income students is 0.2 in the freshman year, a number that narrows somewhat in subsequent years. Stanford, by expanding its financial aid program and focusing on diversity, has committed to increasing the number of students from less privileged backgrounds at the University. This commitment, however, should not end upon admission. Stanford should ensure that all students have the tools to succeed at Stanford, regardless of socioeconomic background. This is especially important in the freshman year; a different 2003 study concluded that being a first-generation student confers its greatest liability in the initial adjustment to postsecondary education. Therefore, we applaud programs like freshman advising, which requires incoming students meet with an academic advisor before enrolling in autumn quarter classes. However, there remain facets of the institutional structure, which discriminate against under-

privileged students. One example is Chem31A, which is generally considered one of the most difficult freshman classes. Due to med school applications and/or unit-intensive majors, there is a strong pressure to take Chem31A in the freshman year. However, the class is only offered in autumn quarter. For premeds and science/engineering majors,especially those facing a greater transition to college life and academics, this poses a considerable dilemma: they can take Chem31A autumn quarter their freshman year, five days removed from arriving on campus; or they can take Chem31A their sophomore year, when they are likely better prepared, but fall a year behind their peers. Accordingly, we believe that Chem31A and B should also be offered in the winter-spring. This would allow more students to approach the material when they feel ready.The Computer Science,Economics and Math Departments already have their introductory classes offered in at least two of the three non-summer quarters; we see little reason for the Chemistry Department not to follow suit. With more than 400 students, Chem31A certainly has enough demand to be offered in other quarters.And although the biology core lists Chem33 as a prerequisite meaning, in theory, that students who want to take the core their sophomore year have to start with Chem31A in autumn their freshman year student comments on CourseRank agree that Chem33 is not needed to do well in the core. Certainly, the chemistry department has attempted to make the Please see EDITORIAL, page 5

Contacting The Daily: Section editors can be reached at (650) 721-5815 from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. The Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5803, and the Classified Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5801 during normal business hours. Send letters to the editor to eic@stanforddaily.com, op-eds to editorial@stanforddaily.com and photos or videos to multimedia@stanford daily.com. Op-eds are capped at 700 words and letters are capped at 500 words.

SEEING GREEN

Blue, green and the color of corporate personhood

ing under rising sea levels. Rarely do we pen a letter to our congressman about these or other issues. Its not that we explicitly claim our personal health and safety are more valuable than any others.Its just that in the back-of-the-envelope costbenefit analysis accompanying any one of our actions, proximity (both spatial and emotional) matters.A lot. Now take this logic to the corporate boardroom, where suited men several tiers removed from entry-level employees (and even more distant from those whose land they might be clearing or whose oceans they might be drilling) are safeguarding their own wealth and the business model of a company that may be decades older than their careers. They steer businesses formed by the economics of the bottom line, businesses that are neither compelled by their stakeholders nor reminded by their neighbors to take the environmental high road. Of course, most companies dont start out that way.They begin with a novel vision, a principled strategy for enacting it and a few founding employees who, above all, believe. As I clearly remember from my days as Employee No. 12 at biotech startup Ginkgo BioWorks, belief and the mobility of a small size will take you far.The founders were

Holly Moeller
fearless, willing to turn the company on a dime and keenly aware of both business and environmental issues. What is it that separates Ginkgo the quiet engineer of oil spill cleanups and alternative energy sources from Exxon Mobil, which spending millions annually to preserve its tax breaks and run profossil fuel ad campaigns? What are the risk factors for environmental irresponsibility? First: size and its consorts, inertia and wealth.Second:importance to individuals and other industries. Finally: reliance on nonrenewable resources. Combined with immobility born of size, this is the deciding factor separating the businesses which will go down fighting to strip the world bare from those that will turn with the market to greener pastures. Today, its our job to remind big businesses that, though they may wield wealth and power that the 99 percent cannot, they rest on the shoulders of principled, hard-working, environmentally conscious individuals. Its our job to demand an equal voice. Its simply human nature. Holly knows that todays column strayed a little bit from her usual roots, but she hopes you enjoyed it! Email her at hollyvm@stanford.edu with any comments.

Unsigned editorials in the space above represent the views of the editorial board of The Stanford Daily and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Daily staff.The editorial board consists of eight Stanford students led by a chairman and uninvolved in other sections of the paper.Any signed columns in the editorial space represent the views of their authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the entire editorial board.To contact the editorial board chair, e-mail editorial@stanforddaily.com.To submit an op-ed, limited to 700 words, e-mail opinions@stanforddaily.com.To submit a letter to the editor, limited to 500 words, e-mail eic@stanforddaily.com.All are published at the discretion of the editor.

et me begin by saying that I bleed blue. Not Yankee blue or horseshoe crab copper IBM Blue. I was raised on a corporate paycheck and through all the years my mother worked for the computing giant (and the months I spent in sales internships with them) I never once shook an unfriendly hand or doubted a coworkers ethics.We were all good people, selling a good product that we believed in that I still believe in. But we were also part of corporate America, hard at work building the fortunes of the 1 percent. How can I reconcile what I know about the personhood of employees with the faceless and troubling power that big business wields on Wall Street and Capitol Hill? On my cynical days or perhaps, my most realistic ones I think that perhaps everything can be explained by self-interest and the limits of our moral compass, shaped by millennia of small-group interactions. For example, many of us, including my coworkers at IBM, buy some organic fruit and bike to work in good weather for personal health and environmental reasons. We care depending on our age and childrearing status about the world well leave our descendants. Occasionally we spare a thought for the citizens of Pacific atolls drown-

FRESHMAN 15

I DO CHOOSE TO RUN

Is the honeymoon over?

Bianca Chavez
only things that our shifting; our relationships with each other are changing perhaps even more dramatically. What may have first seemed like one of your roommates endearing, quirky traits like, say, sleeping through 9 million alarms has ceased to be the least bit funny or cute and has become super fucking annoying. (True story: I know one girl whose roommate set six alarms in order to wake up for her 9 a.m. class the first of which went off at 7 a.m. . . . every single day. Umm . . . inconsiderate much?) Now that the niceties are over, roommates are starting to show their true colors, and sometimes theyre pretty heinous. Some pairs that expected to be bridesmaids in each others weddings are starting to realize that theyre far from BFFs, and not so far from enemies. So maybe the starry-eyed period of wonder is beginning to dwindle for some of us frosh. But is this necessarily a bad thing? Before coming to Stanford, I envisioned this place as a magical, academic haven sort of like a fairy-tale kingdom, if fairy tales had midterms instead of fire-breathing dragons. After being here for 10 weeks, I have started to realize that while Stanford may be incredibly wonderful, it is also incredibly real, with its own sets of problems and areas in need of improvement. Over my next two quarters here on The Farm, I hope to gain a better

A Christ-less Christianity?

reshman year thus far has been a lot like summer camp. Sure, there may have had a few rough patches like, any day before an IHUM paper was due but for the most part, life has been pretty damn sweet. Its been a quarter full of firsts; from football season to Full Moon, everything about Stanford thus far has felt new and exciting. But, as fall quarter comes to a close and finals loom, are we freshmen destined to lose that giddy love and excitement for every aspect of Stanford life? I sure as hell havent lost my Cardinal love, but some of the eagerness has definitely faded away. For example, during the first few weeks of the quarter, I woke up every day at 8:30 a.m. a full hour and a half before my first class in order to pick out an outfit, carefully apply my makeup, straighten my hair and eat a leisurely, nutritionally balanced breakfast in Sterns dining hall. I arrived to every class at least five minutes early and would have parted with my favorite Steve Madden boots before I considered missing any of my classes. (Hey, I told you in my first column that I was totally That Freshmen. Did you think I was joking or something?) Nowadays, Im lucky to roll out of bed at 9:40 a.m., and the Getting Ready routine that once took 90 minutes now takes about nine and that includes the time it takes to grab my breakfast of champions (read: a warm Diet Coke). Dont get me wrong. I do still enjoy the material Im learning in my classes, but the thought of lectures now typically fills me with more dread than giddiness. And as we freshmen get more settled into college life, our attitudes toward our classes arent the

Miles Unterreiner
eternal life. One thing you lack, Jesus said. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. When the man went away in sorrow, Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! (Mark 10:21-23). Jesus didnt count himself among the wealthy moneylenders, his societys 1 percent; he overturned their tables in the Temple in a holy rage. My house will be called a house of prayer, bellowed

he religious right loves to complain that weve taken the Christ out of Christmas. Well, maybe.But if the left has taken Christ out of Christmas, then you, Bill OReillys and Rush Limbaughs of the world, are guilty of a far worse crime: taking the Christ out of Christianity. As a lifelong Christian, its always perplexed me how successfully the religious right has constructed such a conservative political agenda around so profoundly liberal a figure as Jesus.How has a visionary who cared for the poor been employed in the service of an ideology that so blatantly favors the rich? A man who comforted and cured the sick, the leprous and the lame used to derail the possi-

bility of universal health care? The Prince of Peace remembered as the Lord of War? A champion of the outcast, the unwanted and the different converted into a mouthpiece for the exclusion of the spurned and the scorned? Its been said before,but Ill say it again: if Jesus were alive today, hed lean Democrat. Jesus was no trickle-down economist, no free-marketeer; he harbored no sympathy with or allegiance to the wealthy. It is easier, he said, for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:2324). The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke tell us of the rich man who fell on his knees before the Lord,asking what he needed to do to inherit

Please see UNTERREINER, page 5

S TUDENTS R EFLECT

ON

O CCUPY
chooses to work one hour less is zero regardless of whether the worker is a janitor or a hedge fund manager, as explained by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman last month. If anything, our economy, fueled largely by middle class consumer demand, requires a tax system where the rich shoulder a larger share of the burden. And given that all income is subject to diminishing returns, it seems that the fund manager should be more willing to part with a billionth dollar of income than a teacher earning a fraction of that. But the case for a more progressive tax system goes beyond Rawlsian notion of how a fair society ought to look.As our elected repre-

Occupy the Future: Taxes and inequality

Please see CHAVEZ, page 5

lassic political theory says that in countries with high inequality like the United States, the median voter will favor redistribution through progressive taxation. But in the past few decades, income inequality in the United States has soared even as our tax policy has become less progressive. Today, tax rates on the highest income earners are low by any standard; they have fallen dramatically since the 1970s, when they were upward of 70 percent, and our current rate of 35 percent ranks among the lowest of the advanced nations. Our fiscal policy is far less redistributive than at any other point in our history, and now, programs like Social Security and Medicare, the last vestiges of the postwar social contract, may indeed

be the next casualties of the antitax, anti-government dogma currently dominating our fiscal debate. The result has been that less redistribution has compounded structural trends the runaway corporate profits and stagnant wages driving post-1970 inequality to accelerate a widening gap. Economists from the right will argue that this doesnt matter, that inequality is the price we pay for growth. Higher marginal tax rates on high-earners would reduce the incentive to invest and innovate, stifling the socalled job creators. The reality is that taxes on the rich do not disincentivize any more than do taxes on other classes. Since GDP is equivalent to the sum of all wages in an economy,the effect on everyone elses income if a worker

Please see OCCUPY, page 5

The Stanford Daily

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 N 5

EDITORIAL
Continued from page 4 introductory sequence more manageable, sponsoring programs like Chem31AC, a 1-unit problem solving class, and outreach. This Board believes the next step is to offer Chem31A in the winter. For students from all backgrounds, Chem31A is a difficult and time-consuming class. CourseRank data suggests that half of all students in the course get a B or lower, and in freshman year especially this can be a trying experience. In particular, students from underprivileged backgrounds are, for all intents and purposes, forced into this experience at an especially vulnerable time in their college careers. The University, if it is truly committed to the ideal of providing a level playing field for its students, should not tolerate this.

UNTERREINER
Continued from page 4
the Savior, but you are making it a den of robbers (Matthew 21:13). Elsewhere, he put it yet more bluntly: You cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24). Its easy to see Jesus waving a We are the 99 percent sign at an Occupy rally; its a bit harder to see him engineering new derivatives for Goldman Sachs or holding out on a debt deal to demand more tax breaks for the wealthy. After all, Jesus hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors (tax collectors!); he didnt waste his time fulminating against oppressive slingshot-control laws or complaining about the unfair taxes levied on the richest 0.1 percent of Pharisees. The only invisible hand Jesus followed was that of the Holy Spirit. When talking about the proper response to injustice, Jesus did not speak of retaliation or preemptive strikes, bombing campaigns or drone missions, hanging or firing

squads. He spoke of forgiveness. You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well (Matthew 5:38-42). He was skeptical of pompous, public, ornamental religiosity: And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others . . . But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen (Matthew 6:5-6). No televised National Prayer Days here, Governor Perry; prayer for Jesus was intensely, deeply personal, a means through which to better understand ones direct relationship with God not showily trumpet ones faith to the masses. So go ahead and justify your tax cuts for the rich, your attacks on Obamacare and your wars. Justify them on economic grounds, or tell me that missiles and bombs are

strategically necessary to advance our long-term interests in the region or explain how screwing the poor will help everyone in the long run. You know what, you may even be right Jesus was no economist and no general, and heaven knows we should render to Caesar what is Caesars. Just know that when you do, youll be worshipping at the altar of Adam Smith, not the feet of God.

And know that there are a lot of Christians out there who wish youd stop preaching the virtues of this theologically questionable, spiritually empty, thoroughly Christ-less thing you so audaciously call Christianity. Do you agree with Miles? Or do you think hes not feeling the Christmas spirit? Email him at milesu1@ stanford.edu to let him know. early childhood education had played a role in causing the Great Recession. Cutting these programs, he argued, represented the broader attack on the social safety net that has compounded rising structural inequality in the past few decades, contributing to the broad demand for easy credit. The impact of these cuts was something I saw among the many public school students I had tutored from Harlem to East Palo Alto, whose parents might have been in debt. No real redistribution ever happened. Meanwhile, the recklessness of the financial sector and deregulation set the stage for the crash. The credit bubble grew, and then in 2008 it burst, leaving most Americans worse off and the social safety net even weaker. Of course, its only one of the lessons in our tale of economic ruin, but its an important one: that inequality puts us all at risk. If progressive fiscal policy can address this imbalance through the redistribution of income, then it can make our economy not only fairer, but also stronger.
JONAH REXER 12

OCCUPY

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sentatives in Congress continue to clash over the budget, whats at stake is not only a few million poorer Americans slipping below the poverty line because of hardline insistence on spending cuts (though this prospect is real, as many Americans depend on social programs up for cuts.) In fact, a spate of recent evidence from the IMF, as detailed in the Dec. 2010 release Leveraging Inequality, finds that periods of long-run inequality also increase the likelihood of financial and economic crisis. The income gap is filled by an unsustainable growth in credit, as households resist the erosion of their relative income position by borrowing to maintain a higher standard of living. In the past decade, this borrowing mainly took the form of subprime debt to poor and middle class households. In the face of political pressure for redistribution, politicians were either unable to find the political will to raise taxes or were outright against it. Clintons tax rates, now an upper limit, are not particularly high compared to Europe, and the Bush tax cuts were a boon to the rich. Instead of reinvesting in society, they slashed taxes and pumped cheap credit into the system. Institutions like Fannie and Freddie, part of Bushs home ownership society, were vehicles for financing the debts of the poor and middle classes. While interning in DC last spring, I was able to see Raghuram Rajan, the former IMF chief, present this view of the global financial crisis. In his talk, he made a surprising claim: that cuts in funding of

CHAVEZ

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understanding of these issues. Maybe by then Ill have traded in some of my freshman-ness for maturity. Do you have a way for Bianca to get from Twain to the Quad in less than 10 minutes? Shed love those extra 300 seconds of sleep. Let her know at blchavez@stanford.edu.

HOUSING
Continued from front page
Each year we receive late cancellations where these students can be assigned, Whitney said. If everything remains the same as last year, we will assign the guaranteed students over winter break. There are also 21 students who are not guaranteed housing and are still unassigned, compared to seven last year. Students returning from abroad next quarter have, for the most part, been pleased with Housings efforts. Overall, the application process has been quite smooth and definitely simpler than I expected, said Ruthie Arbeiter 12, who is currently studying abroad at Oxford. Housing told us from the onset that we would find out our winter quarter housing assignments on Nov. 19, so that was nice that we knew exactly when to expect them. They emailed us the results promptly at midnight on the 19th. Matei Daian 12, currently in Florence, also found the application process easy. I have a friend who is wait-listed and doesnt know yet where he will live, Daian said. But he is confident Stanford will eventually find him some on-campus housing. However, there remain kinks in the system. Jeffrey Gerson 12, currently at Oxford, is seeking reassignment from west to east campus. While he experienced no problems with the original application process, he says that the reassignment process has been far less clear. Gerson had questions about the reassignment process and was seeking to speak to a Housing rep-

resentative in person. He submitted a request through the online HelpSU system and received a response from Housing Assignment Coordinator Mark Young, who, though he wrote in his email, If you have any question, please dont hesitate to ask, did not provide his email address. Gerson then turned in his reassignment form and was sent an automatically generated message saying Housing would respond to his request in two business days. That was on Nov. 23, Gerson said.Ive yet to receive a response or confirmation of having received my reassignment request. When asked about Gersons situation, Whitney informed The Daily that Gerson was welcome to email housingassignments@ lists.stanford.edu or to email [Housing Assignments Specialist] Justin Akers directly. Gerson, however, was never directly given this information. The Housing website also does not have any of the staffs individual contact information; it only lists the phone number of the general Housing Assignments office. Director of Housing Assignments Susan Nunan said she believes that Gersons case is an anomaly. This is the first complaint I have received about our use of this system, she said. Ive double checked with my Housing Assignments staff today, and they have confirmed that they respond to all emails, including reassignment requests, by telling the student that they received the request and the next steps that will occur in the process. If this student did not receive such a response, it is definitely an anomaly and not indicative of our normal customer service standard, she said. Contact Caroline Chen at cchen501 @stanford.edu.

NYC

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have been discussed as the frontrunners by numerous media sources. Columbia University, New York University and Carnegie Mellon University are also in the running. In a Nov. 29 speech at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg claimed that Stanford and Cornell are both desperate. Stanford is desperate to do it Im not exaggerating, Bloomberg said, according to the New York Daily News.Cornell is desperate to do it. Im not exaggerating there.

Dr. Lisa Coico, president of the City College of New York, was on campus today to meet with Hennessy and other officials to discuss the recent Stanford@CCNY partnership between the two schools. This collaboration is not a formal part of Stanfords NYC proposal, but the partnership will involve creating a joint-degree program between the institutions if Stanford is granted a campus on Roosevelt Island. According to Lapin, New York City has set an internal deadline of January 15. However, Lapin noted that a deadline for the public announcement has not been firmly established.
Billy Gallagher

6 N Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Stanford Daily

eries were made on time. We didnt have an issue with that. According to FMs,ResEd officials considered two solutions to solve the problem: limiting the amount of vendors Row houses could use to five or restoring the responsibility to pay vendors to FMs. ResEd eventually chose the latter option. This shift represents the institutions growing confidence that our program can be maintained by students, provided they perform their duties within the structures we continue to develop, Arredondo wrote in an Oct.31 email to Row management in which he announced the policy reversal. Financial Associate FMs are now required to submit a weekly report including all profits, losses and receipts to Arredondo,who fills the new ResEd position of Financial Associate. Several FMs expressed that this change has been positive. I like it because theres a go-to person that if I have a question, I can ask or if I have any concerns about my budget, I can talk to, Madduri said. FMs said that the recent policy changes have not affected Row life in any significant way, but the conversations between ResEd and the University are ongoing, and they want to takes. Last year two student groups were incorrectly left off the special fees ballot, and the ASSU covered their expenses from this buffer fund. Money from this fund was again requested, this time by organizers of BlackFest. Looking to book an artist capable of pulling in large crowds, BlackFest organizers have been in contact with Grammynominated J. Cole. BlackFest is requesting $40,000 due to an increase in interest and cost. Renting Frost Amphitheater would cost the group $62,000, and they say they simply dont have enough money to pursue a bigname artist. This money could come in the form of a grant or a loan, to be paid back by revenue generated from ticket sales. Current internal projections put the cost of a ticket to BlackFest at $30, thus organizers are requesting funding for a bigname artist to ensure that enough tickets are sold. Senators expressed a desire to talk further with Mahmoud about the origin and actual amounts of this buffer fund before making any funding decisions. However, the bills are time-sensitive, as both groups wish to start negotiations with artists before January. tively consolidated alcohol policy and showed that the University is taking the initiative in addressing high-risk drinking. The important thing is that the University is saying that there are things we should be doing to address this problem, Nass said. Alcohol is no longer being treated as an individual issue, but as the product of group activity. Nass and the OAPE both identified the common practice of pregamingfor events with hard liquor as the most concerning trend in student drinking. Stanford is not immune to this trend, and we are a heavy hard liquor consumption campus, Castro said. We are targeting hard liquor in our educational efforts and are telling everyone that hard liquor is the biggest risk factor for alcohol ER transport cases. Castro noted that while Stanford is above national averages for hard liquor consumption and pre-gaming, the University, in comparison to its peer institutions, has a lower number of emergency room transports. The OAPE is currently attempting to become more consistent and raise awareness about the dangers of highrisk drinking. Castro stated that the OAPE this year had a specific focus on educating freshmen on the dangers of high-risk drinking. make sure that the tradition of student management continues. I feel like if this power was taken away from student managers, then that ideology would be lost, and we wouldnt be able to live in our houses in a way that we would like, Berry said. Transition of this kind is always challenging, ResEd administrators Boswell and Buzay said. But we believe that the changes still allow for the flexibility of student-led management and adherence to University policies. Contact Kurt Chirbas at kchirbas@stanford.edu. Pending senators availability, Vazquez hopes to schedule an emergency meeting of the Senate over finals week to vote on these bills. Senators also asked ASSU Executive Michael Cruz 12 questions about the resignation of Emma Ogiemwanye 12. Some senators were confused as to why her going abroad wasnt discussed during the interview process, and Cruz responded that there were no plans for her to go abroad at that time. Senator Brianna Pang 13 asked why Ogiemwanye decided to go abroad during fall quarter of this year, after shed already accepted the job as Chief of Staff for the ASSU Executive. Cruz responded that Pang would have to ask Ogiemwanye. Vazquez also briefly addressed the senate, encouraging senators to stay involved over winter break. Any senator who is going to be online or able to meet during winter break, well be hashing out more details for winter quarter, re-hash our goals and reorient ourselves into being more effective. No legislative bills were passed during this weeks meeting. Contact Brendan OByrne at bobyrne@stanford.edu. Freshman year is a high-risk time in many ways, academically and socially, Castro said.Given that many frosh were not regular drinkers in high school, the risk for situational alcohol-related problems is high. The OAPE looked at other colleges attitudes toward alcohol issues before formulating the Universitys Student Alcohol Policy, which Castro asserted offers clearer and more consistent policies in targeting high-risk drinking. Nass expressed cautious optimism with regards to the OAPEs initiatives, commenting that students are assuming increasing responsibility for their peers. Nass also said that the number of student staff present in dorms and the tendency of students to drink on-campus in relatively safer surroundings should naturally help reduce high-risk drinking in any case. Castro said that active support and engagement by the student body will be needed to ensure that the OAPEs efforts in targeting high-risk drinking are effective. I believe that every student can buy into the idea of having a safe and healthy community free of the negative consequences of alcohol misuse, Castro said.In order to be successful, we need everyone to do their part. Contact Marshall Watkins at mtwatkins@stanford.edu.

ROW

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However, we are also committed to and responsible for upholding the standards of the University. Row life The Row is a collection of 36 houses along Mayfield Avenue and spanning from the Cowell Cluster to the Lake Houses. It includes 29 self-ops, where students manage the houses meal services and hire a cook, and seven co-ops, which are completely student-run and do not receive University custodial services. All of these houses are University-owned except for the co-op Chi Theta Chi and the fraternity Sigma Chi which have lease agreements with the University and are owned by separate alumni boards.Chi Theta Chi and Sigma Chi are the only houses unaffected by the changes,according to student staff. Michelle Berry 12, FM of the coop Kairos, highlighted the unique aspect of Stanfords housing options. One of the things to consider is that we are basically the only system like this in the country, Berry said. Theres no other system that has all of these University-owned houses that are run by students. That is putting a large responsibility on students, so its understandable that the University and the donors and the administration would be concerned about giving this responsibility to students. Berry noted what she sees as implicit benefits to having a system where students manage virtually all aspects of house life, adding that in a co-op like Kairos where students all share the responsibility to cook and clean it makes sense that residents have decision-making power for the house. I think we are going to have ongoing conversations with the administration about what our role at the University is, Berry said. I dont know where that will lead though. I want to say that Im optimistic that this system will continue in a similar form as it is now. Social dues Social dues at Row houses are now collected through the University bill, according to ResEd administrators, who noted that the change is consistent with all residences on campus. In previous years, FMs would have to personally collect the social dues from each of their houses residents. Most FMs said they appreciated the change, and that it has helped to simplify the process. If residents did not pay social dues in past years, student FMs have had to place a hold on a students accounts or set a late fine, according to Row management documents. Since ResEd placed social dues on the University bill, the amount has been standardized across all Row houses at $75 per quarter.Previously, it had been the duty of FMs to work with house staff and residents to set the price for social dues. Social dues ranged from $23.64 at the sorority Delta Delta Delta to $124.23 at the self-op Phi Sig in the fall of 2007, according to Row management documents. Social dues can be used to fund house trips, decorations for parties and other items such as dormthemed apparel.Since last spring,the funds can no longer be used to purchase alcohol,which is what a bulk of the money had been spent on in the past, according to several FMs. Anton Zietsman 12, FM of the self-op La Maison Franaise, said that the $75 amount is significantly less than what his house has charged in the past, stating that the money is normally used to throw two all-campus events, which require a large amount of funds. However, Maneeshika Madduri 13, Hammarskjold FM, said that the standardized amount is more than the $50 the co-op has historically charged for social dues. Its a little bit different in the sense that I dont have to go around and ask people to give me checks for social dues, she said. But its also more than what most people in the house expect. Several FMs commented that it has become more of a challenge to purchase alcohol for house events since they can no longer use money from social dues. Its been kind of a nightmare for me, said Travis Noll 12, FM of the fraternity Kappa Alpha. Noll said in previous years, FMs were allowed to collect money from residents and put those funds into their University bank accounts to make purchases. However, with last springs policy change, no money from University bank accounts can be spent on purchases that include alcohol. I try to make sure that we have alcohol when our social chairs have requested it, and that its paid for properly, and we have enough money for it, and the budget works out, Noll said. He declined to state how his house collects money for alcohol,but did say that they do not use their University-owned bank accounts. Berry said the alcohol policy

change has gone more smoothly at Kairos which holds a weekly event known formally as Cheese, but informally amongst students as Wine and Cheese. Berry said residents in the house have all pitched in a set amount to keep this tradition alive, calling the pot of money slush funds. Berry said she did not face students who refused to pay this extra fund. They all understood that whether you drink or not,this money is being used for our Wine and Cheese event, which is an integral part of our house culture, she said. When asked about houses unofficially collecting money to purchase alcohol,Boswell and Buzay said in an email, We do not account for funds that students/houses decide to collect outside of the University bill and outside of the University bank account. Payment of vendors ResEd implemented a policy at the beginning of the autumn quarter that restricted FMs access to funds coming from residents board bills. However, after the University missed payments to food vendors on behalf of Row houses, and some houses did not receive their shipments of food on time, ResEd reversed the policy. In previous years, FMs would pay vendors directly for the food that was delivered to their houses, using the money from residents board bills. However, at the beginning of this academic year, ResEd decided to limit FMs access to only 30 percent of their kitchen budget. The rest of the budget 70 percent was held by the Row Central Office, from which University officials would pay vendors on behalf of Row houses after FMs submitted their invoices. Formally, the 30 percent that remained in house accounts was to be used for open kitchen items snacks and other food supplies that can be accessed by residents any time throughout the day.The other 70 percent,which was held by the University, was set aside to purchase closed kitchen items from vendors, or food that is set aside for chefs to cook meals. I think the overall reason [for the policy change] was just so that they could control more of the funds, Madduri said. I think they wanted to see how the University handled it instead of having students take care of so much money. Noll said another reason why ResEd may have implemented the change was so they could gain leverage over vendors in terms of prices. We all share a lot of vendors in common, and they thought that rather than having 33 different houses paying a vendor, if one person does it,then you can kind of convince [the vendors] . . . to lower prices, Noll said. Row houses purchase all of their food from vendors including produce,bread,meat and dairy products. Student staff members decide the amount and kinds of vendors they wish to use and employ anywhere from four mainstream vendors to seven to 10 smaller, more specialty vendors. Students maintained the power to select which vendors to use under the new policy at the beginning of the year. This year though, when houses received invoices from vendors, they would log their purchases onto QuickBooks, small business accounting software that can be accessed both remotely by individual FMs and at the Row Central Office.In the past, the Row used Excel spreadsheets to keep track of houses financial records. Afterwards, FMs would place all their invoices in an envelope that was sent to the University, which would be responsible for paying the vendors. According to several FMs, the University was often not able to process these invoices quickly enough to meet the deadlines for vendor payments, and some houses temporarily stopped receiving shipments of food as a result. According to FMs and ResEd administrators, this problem was largely due to the fact that the Universitys billing system is monthly, while vendors expected to be paid weekly. One FM, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid harming her working relationship with the University, said her house did not receive a food delivery due to a missed payment. However, she said the house chef was able to talk to the vendor and eventually convince them to lift the hold on their account long enough for the shipment to be delivered. The day the shipment was originally missed though, the chef had to make dinner with the food the house already had, the FM added. Berry said that several of her houses payments were also missed, but that the house continued to receive shipments and never ran into any problems with its vendors. I think mainly because with the vendors we use, weve been using them for many years, and we have good relationships with them, Berry said. So even though they werent getting paid, and some sent us emails saying, Oh, we havent received payments yet, none of them seemed angry especially once we explained what the issue was, they were really understanding.All of our deliv-

SENATE

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islative body, to discuss pending litigation or to discuss proprietary business practices. No mention of personal requests from panel members is included in the ASSU constitution. The senate re-opened the meeting after an hour and received an update from Neveen Mahmoud 11, CEO of Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE), the financial arm of the ASSU. Mahmoud praised the successful opening of Ground-Up, the new coffee shop set up by the SSE. Mahmoud then informed the senate about the $400,000 buffer fund that was discussed last week, after Stephen Trusheim 13 requested money be allocated from this fund to a concert he was helping to plan, Mahmoud informed the senate that every year Stanford students are charged 10 percent higher than what is deemed necessary to fulfill special fees requirements. This 10 percent is used to account for students who choose to not pay their special fees and also to cover mis-

ALCOHOL

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providing alcohol-free entertainment and educating students about the dangers of high-risk drinking may have developed a more responsible student body. As increased attention is placed on high-risk drinking, more students are aware and may be calling for help at an increased rate, Castro said in an email to The Daily. So, the increase may be due to positive caretaking behaviors, rather than more drinking. The efforts of the OAPE, which was created at the start of this academic year to reduce high-risk drinking, have included the Cardinal Nights initiative, outreach to freshman dorms and a new emphasis on reminding students that they are ethically responsible for their peers. Castro said that Cardinal Nights events have been generally well attended and that feedback from students has been extremely positive, although the programs recent beginning has made it hard to draw conclusions about any impact on transports. Clifford Nass, resident fellow in Otero, praised the impact of the OAPEs creation, saying that it effec-

The Stanford Daily

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HABITAT

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Managing the team Stanford Habitat for Humanitys executive board consists of six members who have worked on the event for six to seven months with support from several community partners, regional chapters and an

advisor from Stanford Student Activities and Leadership. Its hard . . . everybody [is a] full-time student as well, Mikva said.But our team really pulled together this year. It wouldve been nice to have more people help out and do preparation, added Pauline Santos 12, Stanford Habitats financial officer. Were looking to expand our team. Aside from the difficulties of working with a small team, the chapter faced financial challenges.

We lost one of our major sponsors this year because of the economy, Mikva said. That was kind of a blow, but we actually have a bigger donation this year. The other major Stanford Habitat event, Family Fun Day, takes place in May. The Stanford chapter and the families it has worked with go out for a fun day together. Previous trips have been to the San Francisco Zoo and the Exploratorium. This year we actually hope to bring [families] to Stanford and have a field day here because a lot of them have kids, Mikva said. Weve been to their homes, so we want to bring them to our home at Stanford. Its satisfying to see the people you serve, and how well theyre doing, Santos added. Youll see the motivation to continue what youre doing. The Stanford chapter also coordinates some activities with the UC-Berkeley Habitat chapter. The day before the Big Game we each brought a group out . . . and had a fake competition, Mikva

said.Were going to do another big build before the Cal basketball game in March. The group also plans to initiative more new events. Were . . . thinking about trying to develop another event thats more advocacy oriented, with our partner at Silicon Valley, Mikva said. Its still in the works. [We would] try to spread awareness about housing issues around Stanford. A lot of people know about homelessness, but poverty housing is another huge issue that Habitat focuses on, she added. Despite, or perhaps because of, the hard work involved in building houses or organizing large events, the members of the chapter enjoy their labor. When we take students out on builds its not just us . . . you get to meet a lot of different people from all over its a lot of fun, Mikva said. Contact Pinnaree Tea-mangkornpan at pinnaree@stanford.edu.

LATE

Contact Ethan Kessinger at ekessing@stanford.edu.

Continued from page 3

portions are reasonably sized. Because students have dinner so early and are staying up so late, having some sort of snack [at night] is healthy, she said. Even so, Crisman does not suggest that it is a good idea to order the Pac-12 (a barbeque-bacon burger) from The Axe and Palm every night. While it does depend on how late you are staying up, it is a snack, she said.It is not a fourth meal.

Correction
In Keats, plural? (Dec. 2), The Daily incorrectly reported that English professor Denise Gigante discovered primary source documents in Naomi Joy Kirks home while doing background research for The Keats Brothers: The Life of John and George. In fact, she read through papers in the Naomi Joy Kirk Collection at the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Ky., which were not primary sources.

CHENOWETH
Continued from page 3
surgency because it lowers the body count from a rebellion and lays a firm foundation for the future of a country. If you win by the sword, youre going to rule by the sword, she said. Growing up, Chenoweth knew she wanted to study political conflict, but it wasnt always clear to her how she would apply such knowledge. On her book tour, Syrian activists inspired Chenoweth, and despite the fact

that she may never see [them] again, she said, these Syrian activists could use Chenoweths research to help protests stay nonviolent in their actions against the government. What my research has done for people, is it has made them less afraid, Chenoweth said. Partially through this experience, she said she realized that she wants to do more work involving the intersection of policy and people. The problem with many academics is that we talk too much to each other and not the people who need the information, she said.
Carl Romanos

HOMESICK
Continued from page 3
accommodating, but the change in culture was a little jarring. Regardless of whether a student is international, domestic, an underclassman or an upperclassman, homesickness eventually remits on its own. While there are many ways for students to help themselves overcome it, some say the best way is to simply to apply oneself to the

fullest. Whether it means spending more time with friends or taking up an extracurricular activity, time spent being busy is time not spent dwelling on home. Upperclassmen arent immune to homesickness, weve just gotten better at dealing with it, said Amira Anuar 11. Just immerse yourself in the Stanford experience and it will become a home away from home; everything will work itself out eventually. Contact Chris Yang at cyang2@stanford.edu.

8 N Wednesday, December 7, 2011

SPORTS
CARD BEATS DUKE FOR NCAA TITLE
By JOSEPH BEYDA
DESK EDITOR

The Stanford Daily

CHAMPS AT LAST
NCAA title number 102 made its way to the Farm this week, but for the undefeated Stanford womens soccer team, its run at the College Cup meant much more than the trophy it brought home. When defender Camille Levin found midfielder Teresa Noyola waiting at the back post and Noyola headed in the first-ever goal in a College Cup final for the Cardinal (25-0-1), the two seniors put a conclusively positive stamp on careers that had been marked by three years of postseason disappointment. Womens soccer has been one of the few national titles that has seemed to just elude Stanford. Four times in 1993, 2008, 2009 and 2010 the Cardinal reached the Final Four only to meet heartbreak. Two years in a row, eventual Hermann Trophy winners were silenced in the College Cup final. And even as the Stanford squad demonstrated its national relevance year-in and year-out under head coach Paul Ratcliffe, it could never attain the dynasty status given to perennial champions North Carolina and Notre Dame. That all changed Sunday. This team deserves it, Noyola said. Weve worked extremely hard but have also shown great character to not let the heartbreaks of the last two seasons catch up [to us]. Duke (22-4-1) pressured threateningly at times in the final, but solid play from the back line and another perfect performance from sophomore goalkeeper Emily Oliver between the pipes propelled Stanford to victory and the first undefeated season in school history. We didnt think about any other game this year, Levin said. It was about this game. We knew we had to come out and keep possession and play our game. The Cardinal was doing just that against the Blue Devils early on and had several close misses in the first half.A header from junior midfielder Mariah Nogueira went just wide right in the third minute; freshman forward Chioma Ubogagu nearly drew a penalty kick with her evasiveness in the 22nd minute, but the referee held on to his whistle. Stemming the tide, Duke countered with chances of its own and nearly snuck one by Oliver late in the half on a misplayed ball by the Stanford defense. Forward Molly Lester missed high, however, and

SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily

It was a cross from senior defender Camille Levin (above) that found classmate Teresa Noyola unmarked on the back post for the game-winning goal against the Blue Devils, giving Stanford its first title in program history.
the back-and-forth match was scoreless entering the half. Though the Cardinal was controlling the tempo, the match still had the potential of turning into another close loss, like the consecutive 1-0 defeats Stanford had suffered in the two previous finals. In each, the Cardinals leading scorer Kelley OHara in 2009 and Christen Press in 2010 was held to three or fewer shots; on Sunday, 20-goal-scorer senior forward Lindsay Taylor entered the half with just one attempt. But this time around, Ratcliffe

SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily

Senior midfield Teresa Noyola (above) scored the only goal on a header in Stanfords 1-0 victory over Duke in the NCAA Championship match Sunday. It was the two-time All-Americans ninth goal of the season.

Please see CHAMPS, page 10

Daily staff breaks down the ballot

efore Saturdays Heisman Trophy ceremony,five Daily sports staffers give their opinions on who will hoist the hardware in New York.

Heisman PREDICTIONS

BOUND TO BE A FIESTA

MILES BENNETT-SMITH

Robert Griffin III has put on an unbelievable show this season, throwing for 3,998 yards with 36 touchdowns against just six interceptions and adding nine TDs and over 500 yards on the ground. He tore up TCU, Oklahoma and Texas and threw for 1,201 yards in Baylors three losses.Thats stupid good,and I think his stats have enough voters drooling to carry him to the trophy. But the reason he doesnt get my vote is because of what happened two weeks ago when the Bears throttled Texas Tech with RG3 on the sideline.This Baylor offense is a machine,and I firmly believe as good as Griffin is, the video-game stats come from the fact that he has speedy wideouts in a spread system and has to throw all day because the defense isnt even mediocre it gave up fewer than 24 points one time all season,against the vaunted Lumberjacks of Stephen F.Austin.And although I predict that it will, that shouldnt be enough to put the trophy on your mantle. And while this might make some of you here upset,Im sorry,but I dont think Andrew Luck is the best candidate for this years award. Toby Gerhart was robbed two years ago, but Luck simply hasnt been as sharp as I think he needed to be since the USC game.His numbers are nice to look at and he is clearly the best quarterback playing on Saturdays, but I would not characterize very many of his games this season as outstanding performances.Winning has been his and the teams goal this season, and he is hurt by playing in a system that runs so efficiently, but I think he could have been even greater with what he was working with. Although he likely wont win it, I would cast my vote for Trent Richardson as the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner. Along with his impressive overall stats, he came up big in games all year long even in the Crimson Tides sole defeat, he accounted for 169 yards of total offense against the best defense in the country. So while there are about six players who should be in a heated conversation for the award,and I think Richardson is the one who deserves it, its my bet that youll see RG3 with tears of joy on his cheeks Saturday night. Prediction: 1. Robert Griffin III, 2. Andrew Luck, 3. Trent Richardson

SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily

Redshirt senior Coby Fleener put on an impressive performance during last seasons Orange Bowl win over Virginia Tech with three touchdown catches. He and the rest of Stanfords tight end core will need to shine if Stanford wants to keep up with Ok. State in the Fiesta Bowl.

CARD SET TO PLAY OK STATE IN BOWL

By JACK BLANCHAT
DESK EDITOR

JOSEPH BEYDA

Ill admit that I havent watched either Richardson or Griffin III play a full game.East Coast sportswriters who voted in 2009: lets call it even.

Please see HEISMAN, page 13

After completing its second-straight 111 season, the Stanford football team is once again bound for a BCS bowl. This time, the No. 4 Cardinal (11-1, 8-1 Pac-12) will head south to Glendale,Ariz.to take on the No. 3 Oklahoma State Cowboys (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 3 in a matchup that pairs two of the countrys best offenses against one another. I think this game is going to be great for college football, Stanford head coach David Shaw said after his team received its BCS bid. I think its going to be exciting. I think its going to be one of the best bowl games this year. Oklahoma State comes into the Fiesta Bowl after capturing the Big 12 championship by routing rival Oklahoma 44-10, but it was left out of the BCS title game after it couldnt push past No. 2 Alabama in

the final BCS standings. And while the Cowboys were at the heart of the latest BCS title game controversy, Shaw, who hasnt been shy about criticizing the BCS system, said he couldnt know how the Cowboys would react to being snubbed for the title game. I have no idea. Oh gosh, I dont know. Im not experienced enough to be able to put myself in other peoples shoes, he said. They did get some push from some people to be in the national championship game, and they earned that, not just from how they played against Oklahoma but how they played all year, Shaw continued. They had one loss in a tough circumstance, but at the same time, the BCS put the two of us together. Even without the somewhat controversial status of the matchup, the desert showdown appears likely to be one of the most exciting games of the year. The Cowboys and Cardinal bring in the nations secondand fifth-most prolific scoring offenses, respectively, and all eyes will be on the Cowboys high-flying duo of quarterback Brandon Weeden and wide receiver Justin Blackmon against two-time Heisman final-

ist Andrew Luck. Weeden has thrown for 4,328 yards this year, the third most in the nation, and Blackmon, who won last years Biletnikoff Award as the nations top receiver, had 1,336 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. Shaw, a former wide receiver at Stanford, saved his highest praise for Blackmon, the engine of the Cowboys attack. That guy wearing number 81 is something special, he said. They have other guys, they have good running backs, but Justin Blackmon, I think, is a special, special player. Shaw also compared the Cowboys deadly offense to conference rival Oregon, but explained that Oklahoma States wideopen spread attack was different from the Ducks run-based game. Theyve got the combination of team speed and playing speed, where they run a lot of plays in a short time. They dont huddle up, they dont spend time between plays, Shaw said. You see the receivers catch the ball, get tackled and run back to get lined up again.

Please see FIESTA, page 11

The Stanford Daily

Jacob

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 N 9

Jaffe
Stat on the Back

Footballs will fly in Fiesta Bowl

ell, here we are. Our BCS overlords have spoken, and the bowl games are set. And from a Stanford perspective, things couldnt have gone much better. The Cardinal will play in not-too-far-away Glendale, Ariz., against arguably the secondbest team in the country on Jan. 2. Heres Stat on the Backs first look at the numbers of Stanfords Fiesta Bowl matchup with Oklahoma State. Number of the game: 92.92 What it means:Stanford and Oklahoma State,two of the top five offenses in the country, combine for 92.92 points per game. Yes, you read that right. Why it matters:LSU and Alabama will play a week later in what is supposedly the meeting of the two best teams in the nation. But they could play a thousand more rematches and those teams wouldnt come close to approaching 90 points in a game. You want offense? This is a game for offense. Stanford boasts Andrew Luck, the best player in the country (regardless of the Heisman results). The Cardinal has a running game that has already put up 446 yards in a game against a team with a winning record (yep, Alabama, those teams exist.) In 12 games this year, Stanford scored at least 44 points seven times. But Stanfords may not even be the best offense in this game. Oklahoma State boasts its own prolific quarterback in Brandon Weeden, whose grandkids will take over for him in Stillwater next year. (Okay, I guess hes not that old. But he did graduate high school when Luck was 12. Seriously. And the next year, he was traded to the Dodgers for Kevin Brown.Yes, that Kevin Brown.) Weeden has been putting up insane numbers this season,and those are certainly helped by Justin Blackmon, who is arguably the best wide receiver in the country. The Cowboys have even found a running game this year,which is just unfair for an offense that already ranks second in the nation in passing and scoring. Oh yeah, and Okie State has scored at least 44 points eight times. Needless to say, this game should be fun. Other notable numbers: 1: With these crazy-good passing games, who leads these two teams in points and yards? That would be Cowboy running back Joseph Randle,who has 25 touchdowns this season,including 23 on the ground. To put this in perspective, Stanfords trio of Stepfan Taylor, Tyler Gaffney and Jeremy Stewart have 23 rushing touchdowns combined. Randle has more rushing yards than Taylor on fewer carries,and he also has 38 catches, more than any Stanford player besides Griff Whalen. Watch out for No. 1 in orange and black. 26: On the other hand, Stanford never relies on one player to do all of its scoring. The Cardinal is all about balance, and few teams do it so well. Stanford is one of just three teams to rank in the top 26 nationally in passing and rushing on offense, along with Baylor and Texas A&M. Of course, those two teams both struggle on defense, while Stanfords balance carries over to the other side of the ball.The Cardinal is also one of just three teams to rank in the top 26 in scoring and total offense and scoring and total defense, along with Wisconsin and Boise State.Its hard to get much more balanced than that. 113: Meanwhile, Oklahoma State cares as much about balance as the BCS bowls do about selecting the best teams. The aforementioned Blackmon had a historic 2010 campaign, running away with the Biletnikoff Award for top receiver in the country while shattering several records. This year hasnt gone as well for the redshirt junior he only has 1,336 yards on 113 catches. 113!!! Despite the drop-off, Blackmon has more yards and touchdowns than Stanfords top two receivers (Whalen and Coby Fleener) combined and almost half as many grabs as the Cardinals entire team. He is once again in the running for best receiver in the country, and hes undoubtedly the scariest player for the Stanford secondary. 42: One of the most intriguing aspects of this game is Oklahoma States defense. The offense gets all the hype,but its the Cowboy defense that has elevated Mike Gundys crew to a team that is merely settling for its first-ever BCS bowl.Oklahoma State is 107th out of 120 in yards allowed, yet they only give up about 25 points per game. How do they do it? Turnovers.The

TITLE HOPES DASHED

ANDERS MIKKELSEN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The No. 11-seeded Stanford womens volleyball team entered the NCAA Tournament with high expectations and hopes of turning its tumultuous regular season around after dropping three of its last five matches. Unfortunately, just two days into the tournament, the Cardinal (22-8) found itself knocked out, victims of a huge upset at the hands of unseeded Michigan (22-12). The Cardinals first-round matchup was against Sacred Heart (27-8), the winner of the Northeast Conference. Eager to prove that it was ready to compete for a national title, Stanford came out in force in the first set. Redshirt freshman outside hitter Lydia Bai stole the show early, posting seven kills and two blocks while leading the Cardinal to a 25-14 victory in the set. Overall, the Stanford defense was tremendous, holding the Pioneers to a .057 hitting percentage. The second set did not go quite as well for Stanford, however. The Cardinal looked sloppy throughout, committing five net violations and nine total errors. Despite four kills and six digs from sophomore outside hitter Rachel Williams, who would finish with 18 and 11 for her 20th double-double of the year, Stanford dropped the second set 25-23. The Cardinal began to regain its dominance in the third set, primarily as a result of its net defense. Sophomore middle blocker Carly Wopat had one of her strongest games in college, posting a career high 13 blocks to go with her nine kills. She registered five blocks in the third set alone, as Stanford eked out a 25-22 win. And Stanford proceeded to win the fourth and deciding set 25-11 in impressive fashion. Junior setter

Karissa Cook registered 10 assists and two blocks in the set. She, too, would finish with huge offensive numbers, putting up 46 assists, 14 digs and a career-high eight blocks in the match. The Cardinal improved to 31-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and awaited its matchup with Michigan the next day. The first set with the Wolverines was a back-and-forth affair, but Williams stole the show with six kills on a .600 hitting percentage. She would ultimately finish with a team-high 16. The Cardinal was able to hold the Wolverines to a .158 hitting percentage while hitting .314 itself and took the first set 25-20. For the second straight day, Stanford struggled in the second set. Michigan took an early lead and never relinquished it, winning 25-17. Junior libero Hannah Benjamin played tremendous defense with seven of her 19 digs in the set, but it was simply not enough to stop the ferocious Wolverine attack. Stanford went into the break knowing it needed to turn its game around or risk ending its season in the second round at home. The third set was competitive early, with neither team taking a lead of over one point. Then, with Stanford nursing a slight 11-10 advantage, Michigan began to take over. The Wolverines scored four straight points and eight of the next 10 to take a commanding lead. Redshirt junior opposite Claire McElheny paced Michigan with five kills in the set, as the Wolverines won 25-18. McElheny would finish with a match-high 18 kills on a .410 hitting percentage. The fourth set was again close early, but two straight service aces by freshman setter Lexi Dannemiller helped the Wolverines pull away. Dannemiller would finish

SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily

Despite big nights from the sophomore duo of Rachel Williams (No. 6) and Carly Wopat (No. 2), the No. 11-seeded Cardinal was swept out of the NCAA Tournament in the second round by unranked Michigan last weekend.
with five aces, and Michigan had 12 as a team.The terrific service game of the Wolverines had a major impact on the matchs ultimate outcome. Stanford dropped the final set 25-20, losing the match and ending its season. Thus, Stanfords quest for its seventh NCAA championship ended much earlier than anyone could have expected. Luckily, with just two graduating seniors and

Please see WVBALL, page 13

Tom Taylor

Searching for a BCS replacement

Cardinal lower than the BCS did (No. 6) and Boise State far higher (No.2). Apart from the well-known four or so ranking systems, searching the Internet throws up a host of other attempts to create accurate and useful ways to rate and compare football schools.The one thing they all have in common,though,is that none of them seem particularly satisfactory to anyone but the two teams who get sent to the national championship game. There is hard science thrown into many of these rankings, but there is a hefty dose of magic too; how to deal with the two intangibles of strength of schedule and home field advantage remains an open question. One of the greatest mysteries to me is how everyone that is, everyone except the fans of the two teams given a shot at the national title and the suits in their smoke-filled rooms at NCAA/BCS headquarters agrees that college football needs playoffs, yet there is no sign of these happening in the immediate future. In the week after UEFA decided the groups for next years Euro 2012 soccer tournament, the comparison seems stark.What if, instead of giving 16 teams a real shot at that title, the existing BCS system was used? There are no undefeated European teams in the top 30 of the FIFA rankings since the last major tournament, the 2010 World Cup, but there are three one-loss teams: Germany, England and Greece.While Spain reigning world and European champions and the Netherlands are ranked first and second in the world, they have four and three losses, re-

o another college football regular season has come to a close, and what have we learned? Im not entirely sure. Unsatisfied with Stanfords ranking in the major polls, one of my friends recently started creating his own system, which Ill blatantly plug: CSSportsRank.com. The idea was to try to consider just the results from the current season and not the institutional bias many of the existing human polls are famous for. Ironically, though, he ended up ranking the

Please see TAYLOR, page 11

LUCK IN HEISMAN HUNT

Star QB again named Heisman Trophy finalist
By JACK BLANCHAT
DESK EDITOR

JIM GENSHEIMER/San Jose Mercury News/MCT

Please see JAFFE, page 12

Redshirt junior quarterback Andrew Luck is once again headed to New York City as one of five finalists for the Heisman Trophy. Luck finished second in the voting last year to Auburns Cam Newton.

For the second year in a row, Stanford redshirt junior quarterback Andrew Luck was named a finalist for the Heisman Trophy on Monday. Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III, LSU defensive back Tyrann Mathieu, Alabama running back Trent Richardson and Wisconsin running back Montee Ball rounded out the list of finalists. Im obviously very honored, very excited, Luck said. Its a great trip to New York. I remember last year what an experience that was, so to be able to go and relive that again, Im very excited. Im excited to meet the other guys and hang out with them,and Im excited to represent this university. After finishing as the runner-up to Auburns Cam Newton for the 2010 Heisman, Luck was widely proclaimed to be the frontrunner for the award before the season began and has put together another outstanding, if expected, season. Luck has completed 70 percent of his passes for 3,170 yards and 35 touchdowns and is first in the Pac-12 and fifth nationally in passing efficiency. He has guided the Cardinal offense to the tune of 43.6 points per game and 480.9 yards a game of total offense, as well as an 11-1 record and a berth in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Head coach David Shaw said he almost couldnt count the number of moments that led

Please see LUCK, page 11

10 N Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Stanford Daily

Jack Blanchat

VEGAS IS NO PARTY
By PALANI ESWARAN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

This past weekend the Cardinal wrestling team headed to Las Vegas for the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational. The tournament brought together some of the best teams in the country, and the Cardinal wrestlers couldnt quite hang with the best, finishing in 25th place out of the 34 teams. The team went into the event with eight wrestlers, representing each weight class except 125 pounds and 157 pounds. The team had two placed winners No. 5 junior Ryan Mango at 133 pounds and No. 1 redshirt senior Nick Amuchastegui at 174 pounds. Mango finished in seventh place, and Amuchastegui finished in sixth. Amuchastegui started off the tournament with three

consecutive wins and looked very impressive. He pinned Kyle Sweedman of North Idaho College in the first period, beat Monte Shmaulhaus of Utah Valley 5-1 and dominated Kurtis Julson of North Dakota State 8-2. However, the top-ranked wrestler had to forfeit the remainder of his matches due to injury, keeping his record at an impressive 110 on the season. Mangos first match was a major decision victory over Alex Annunciation of Cal Baptist, but he lost his next match to Zach Zehner of Wyoming. Mango then won three straight matches, one of which was a 3-2 decision over Pac-12 opponent Garrett Drucker of Oregon State, an important victory for conference seeding down the road. Mango lost his next match but then destroyed Aaron Kalil of Navy 17-5 to make his record

13-2 this year. Other wrestlers who won matches were sophomore Alan Yen at 197 pounds and sophomore Dan Scherer at heavyweight. Yen went 1-2 in Las Vegas, losing to Nick Tenpenny of North Carolina and Simas Norkus of Western Wyoming. But Yen did beat Chace Eskam of Arizona State by a convincing score of 8-1.As with Mango, a solid Pac-12 win will mean a lot down the line. Scherer wrestled four close matches, winning 5-0 against Jowan Gill of Indiana and 5-0 against Paul Snyder of Hofstra while losing 5-0 to Levi Cooper of Arizona State and 2-1 to Brandon Williamson of West Virginia. The Card will next travel to Reno on Dec. 18 for the Reno Tournament of Champions. Contact Palani Eswaran at palani14@stanford.edu.

C
Stanford Daily File Photo

Tis the bowl season

Redshirt junior Matt Sencenbaugh (above in white) and the wrestling team are struggling through a three-match losing streak and some difficulties at last weekends Las Vegas Invite.

COMEBACK KIDS ON A ROLL

By MILES BENNETT-SMITH
MANAGING EDITOR

Led by a strong effort from redshirt senior Josh Owens and a career-best game from freshman guard Chasson Randle, the mens basketball team rallied from a double-digit deficit late in the second half and knocked off N.C. State on Sunday in one of the Cardinals best preseason wins in years.

MENS BASKETBALL N.C STATE 72 STANFORD 76 12/4, Maples Pavilion

After losing a lead of its own against No. 3 Syracuse in the championship game of last weeks NIT Season Tip-Off, Stanford (81) was in deep trouble at home against the Wolfpack (5-3). N.C. States C.J.Williams had 18 points, and his blocked shot opened a 124 run in the second half that put the Card in a 47-35 hole. But from there, Johnny Dawkins team responded with the kind of effort that has many

IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily

Down by 12 in the second half, Stanford continued its winning ways with a big comeback against N.C. State on Sunday. Freshman Chasson Randle (No. 5) had four of his 16 points down the stretch to salt away the victory .

analysts rethinking Stanfords preseason No. 6 ranking in the Pac-12, spurred on by a remarkable night at the charity stripe. Sophomore Anthony Brown hit a three-pointer and added a dunk to cut into the Wolfpacks lead, and Owens chipped in with four free throws that gave the Cardinal its first lead of the game with three minutes remaining. Owens went back to the line and extended Stanfords lead before Randle hit four free throws as a desperate N.C.State fouled to try and extend the game. Stanford finished 29-34 from the line, including a 19-21 effort in the second half, to offset a tough shooting night from the field. Although Owens went 6-10 on a collection of layups and short lay-ins and sophomore Aaron Bright chipped in 15 points on 5-8 shooting, the rest of the team combined to shoot 25 percent for the game. But the Cardinal will have plenty of time to work on its shooting touch, as the team doesnt hit the court again until the end of a

ue the sound.Turn up the lights. And let the controversy begin. As Im sure youve heard by now, weve been rewarded with a rematch of LSU-Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game, but more importantly, Stanford has itself one hell of a matchup against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Fiesta Bowl. With the Cardinal making its second consecutive BCS bowl appearance on Jan.2 in Glendale,Ariz.,there will be plenty of time for rumination before the Cowboys test out their high-powered offense against Andrew Luck and company so lets take a look at all five of the BCS bowls, see how they stack up at first glance and let you know whether or not you should tune in. Of course, well start with the Cardinal and Cowboys. Fiesta Bowl: No. 3 Oklahoma State versus No. 4 Stanford. This already appears to be one darn fine matchup, and judging by reactions from sportswriters and fans on Twitter, it looks like a lot of people will be tuning in to see Lucks final college game against a very pissed-off Oklahoma State squad.The Cowboys were locked out of the national title game against LSU,and its safe to say theyll be playing with an attitude and something to prove to everybody who left Bama sitting comfortably in the number-two spot. Of course,the story of this game is the two outstanding offenses, which everybody except for the rare fan with a fetish for defense finds more entertaining than 9-6 final scores. Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden and superstar wideout Justin Blackmon bring in the nations second-best passing offense (386 yards per game) and the nations second-highest-scoring offense (49.3 points per game).Stanford has a more balanced attack between the air and the ground but still has the nations

Please see MBBALL, page 12

Please see BLANCHAT, page 13

CHAMPS

Continued from page 8

wasnt necessarily expecting the scoring to come from his top offensive players. [Duke has] a great defense, he said. Theyre very hard to break down and score on . . . It was a very tight match. I thought our outside backs were going to be the difference in the game, Ratcliffe added later. Dukes back four is very solid. Their three in the midfield are hard-working players and we needed to get our outside backs forward to create a numerical advantage outside and try to get in crosses. Indeed, it was Levin and her fellow outside defender, Rachel Quon, who would define the second half. Quon drew a foul to set up a dangerous Noyola free kick two minutes into the half, although the Cardinal couldnt capitalize. After a missed Stanford corner just a minute later, Blue Devil freshman sensation Kelley Cobb raced upfield, just one woman Quon to beat. But the junior held her own, and Levin swooped in from behind the play to end Cobbs promising rush. Then Levin made the play that Stanford soccer fans wont soon forget. Taking a 53rd-minute feed from Ubogagu to the high right side of the box, Levin battled by two defenders as she moved towards the end line. Running out of real estate, she tried to cross to Noyola who played youth soccer with Levin but a Blue Devil defender blocked the attempt as Levin slipped to the turf. She scrambled to get to her feet, fed in another ball, and the rest is history. Youve got to feel sorry for Duke because thats unstoppable, Ratcliffe noted. They blocked her cross twice and she still got back up and crossed it to the back post. Noyola had already scored perhaps the biggest goal of the regular season for the Cardinal, an overtime header to beat Washington. And on a strikingly similar play Sunday, she added the biggest goal in Stanford soccer history to her resume. You dont get that many opportunities at this stage, Noyola said. Camille played a great ball and that shows how connected we are. I knew exactly what she was going to do. The squad hadnt lost a game in six years when scoring a goal, but

after Oklahoma State tied up a similar game in the quarterfinals and took the Cardinal to suddendeath overtime, Stanford knew it still had its work cut out for it after Noyolas tally. An energized Molly Pathman, coming off a two-goal performance in the semifinals, re-entered the game for Duke in the 67th minute and made an instant impact. Taken down in the box just three minutes later, Pathman begged for a penalty but was not given one after Ubogagu had been similarly spurned in the first half. A minute later, Pathman found an open Laura Weinberg in the box but her left-footed deflection sailed high. The barrage continued into the 73rd minute, when Kaitlyn Kerr pounced on a loose ball and forced Oliver to make a leaping save on her roaring shot from outside the box. On the ensuing corner, Weinberg almost found an opening but had her low strike blocked by Nogueira. Hanging by a thread, the Cardinal got the clear it needed. It was the longest 20 minutes of my life, Oliver said, referring to the end of the game. Everyones hearts were beating out of their ears. And they would keep doing so late into the match.Taylor and senior midfielder Kristy Zurmuhlen helped burn the clock with strong plays on the Blue Devils side of midfield, yet Duke fed the ball back into the final third time and time again. It looked like they had a shot even into the 89th minute, when the Blue Devils drew two corner kicks. The Cardinal fended them both off, the same way it had fended off the heartbreak thats been building up since 2008, and just minutes later the team was wearing NCAA Champion hats and T-shirts. This win caps off four tremendous years at Stanford, Ratcliffe said. The last four years, this team has been incredible, and theyve shown such great character to have all those setbacks and come back and fight through and achieve our goal of winning a national championship. And when the most accomplished senior class in Stanford soccer history Taylor, Noyola, Levin and Zurmuhlen walked off the field wearing cardinal and white for the last time on Sunday, they did so with more than just a 95-4-4 career record and four trips to the College Cup behind them. This time, they took home a trophy. And so much more. Contact Joseph Beyda at jbeyda@ stanford.edu.

The Stanford Daily

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 N 11

TAYLOR

Continued from page 9

spectively, and so it would be impossible to justify sending either to the championship game. With just two losses and one more win than Croatia, France would sneak into fourth to secure an automatic bid to one of the other four big bowl games. In addition to all of the teams mentioned so far (excluding Croatia),four more won their conferences,i.e.qualifying groups,and thus should get automatic bids to these other games. The final spot should go to Croatia, but in true BCS style,Portugal would probably steal the place from them with a longer history and more appearances at big tournaments. Taking into account both historical bias and general rankings, this means Germany would face England in the championship game, while the other major contests could look something like this: Spain vs. Portugal, Netherlands vs. Denmark, Greece vs. France and Italy vs.Russia. Anyone who thinks this would be a good idea needs their head examined. More than any amount of the financial instability that is currently tearing down European institutions,if anything like this scenario were ever attempted, it would lead to open revolt.At best,fans would just stay away from their TV screens; at worst, it might turn nasty. Given both European soccer fans ability to cause trouble and the continents history of starting world wars, I wouldnt suggest trying out this thought experiment. If nothing else, the BCS system is elitist, inherently unfair and at odds with the American Dream.Undefeated all year until last Saturdays game, Houston was doing everything in its

power to justify a national championship berth, but regardless it never entered the conversation. Alabama had the opportunity to secure its spot already this season against No. 1 LSU and blew it,yet everyone still expected it to be there. I even feel slightly sorry for two-loss Oregon, ranked down at No. 6 even after an impressive victory over No. 4 Stanford.The problem too is that in the average year,even the national champion cant unquestionably claim to have been the best. I think it would be generous to consider the Cardinal the No. 1 team this year, but at No. 4 it hasnt even been tested by any of the teams ahead of it.The closest LSU and Oklahoma State have come to that is sharing the same opposition as Stanford this year (Oregon and Arizona,respectively). Making the comparison again to Euro 2012, the big excuse money that I hear against playoffs falls short. Sure, the five BCS bowls generate a lot of TV money during the week or so that they are on, but that major soccer tournament will dominate the airwaves in Europe for a month. The other get-out clause is the physicality of the game, but somehow NFL players cope with this, and spreading an eight-team college playoff system over the three-week holiday break would provide easily enough time for recovery. No team would play more than three games, fans would feel compelled to watch most of the seven games to see how the opposition is doing and at the end we would have a true champion. I say the BCS has a choice.Change the system now, or we change it for you. Tom Taylor is fully prepared to storm the aforementioned BCS headquarters if things get ugly.If youre looking for directions, give him a holler at tom.taylor@stanford.edu. State with our players, but a lot of our first few practices are going to be us working on us. Were going to work hard to do the things that we need to do better, and as we get out of finals week well really have some of those Oklahoma State-dedicated practices, he continued. But despite the challenges that come with awards season, almost a month of downtime before the game and Oklahoma State receiving the bulk of the national attention, Shaw said the goals that were set out well before the season were as clear as ever. Weve been a team thats been ranked in the top 10 the entire year, [and] thats probably been talked about the least.Thats fine. Our guys dont care; we dont play for that. We play to earn respect on the field and to earn respect in the rankings, and thats what we have, he said.What you do on Saturday is who you are, and were going to have the best resume that we can. Stanford and Oklahoma State will face off in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz. at University of Phoenix Stadium on Jan. 2 at 5:30 p.m. Television coverage will be on ESPN. Contact Jack Blanchat at blanchat@ stanford.edu.

FIESTA

Continued from page 8

But before the Cardinal can start to focus on stopping and outscoring Oklahoma State, it must first deal with the challenges that come with more than a month between games. In addition to having finals week interposed between the bowl selection and the game, the Cardinal will also have to make do with its starting quarterback bouncing around the country for various awards shows, including the Heisman Trophy ceremony this Saturday. Shaw said that the Cardinal was going to use its extended, if interrupted, practice time to focus first on jump-starting an offense that has struggled in its last three games. Partly due to injuries to offensive weapons Zach Ertz and Chris Owusu, the Cardinal has posted its three lowest point totals of the season and turned the ball over a combined eight times. All coaches have the same disease, and sometimes [having] too long to prepare is really bad for us because we try to do too much, Shaw said when discussing the Cardinals practice schedule. Well take a cursory look at Oklahoma

LUCK

Continued from page 9

to Luck being named a finalist once again. Its hard to pick a few moments, because in every single game, he proved that hes one of the best players in the nation, he said. And even with Lucks consistent excellence shining through, Shaw did point to one performance in particular that stood out in his mind. The USC performance, its one of those deals where if youre looking for a Heisman moment, he said. The funny thing is,if that game happens four weeks later, hes maybe even running away with it.Theres a lot of emphasis on late-season games, but that performance was phenomenal. Should Luck win the award, he will join 1970 Heisman winner Jim Plunkett as the second Cardinal player to take home the award for the nations most outstanding player. However, despite Lucks phenomenal season, he will have to beat out one of the most talented Heisman fields in recent memory. Griffin III, who took Baylor to a 9-3 record and the Alamo Bowl, the first nine-win season for the Bears since 1986, led the nation in passing efficiency and passing rating, threw for 3,998 yards and 36 touchdowns and ran for 644 yards and nine touchdowns. Mathieu was an integral part of LSUs second-ranked defense and top-tier special teams during its undefeated run to the BCS national championship game, recording 71 tackles, forcing five fumbles, intercepting two passes and scoring four touchdowns along the way. Richardson was the battering ram for the Alabama offense, rushing for 1,583 yards and 20 touch-

I would
definitely love to win it.
ANDREW LUCK, redshirt junior quarterback
downs to help lead the Tide to the national championship game for the second time in three years. Ball has also notched a historically significant season, rushing for 1,759 yards and scoring an astounding 38 total touchdowns, just one shy of Barry Sanders NCAA record, as the junior helped carry the Badgers to the Rose Bowl for the second straight year. Luck said he hadnt seen much of his competitors before this past week but was struck by the quality of the other four players in the Heisman hunt. Theyre obviously all special players, he said. Im very impressed with all their athletic abilities and with how they carry themselves off the field, so Im very excited to meet them in person But despite the stiff competition, Luck said his hopes for Saturdays ceremony were quite obvious. Would I want to win the Heisman trophy? Absolutely. I would definitely love to win it. The award will be presented on Saturday, Dec. 10 in New York City. ESPN will provide coverage of the trophy presentation beginning at 5 p.m. PST. Contact Jack Blanchat at blanchat@ stanford.edu.

12 N Wednesday, December 7, 2011

SPORTS BRIEFS
Stanford track and field indoor season debuts in Boise
Stanford kicked off the indoor track and field season over the weekend, sending a relatively small contingent to the Jackson Open and Multi Event but finishing with strong performances on both the mens and the womens sides. While the overall level of competition at the Boise State-hosted meet was not quite what Stanford will have to deal with in the Pac-12, the Cardinal was particularly dominant in field events junior Karynn Dunn took the womens long jump by over a foot, and redshirt junior Jordan Merback added to the Cards early haul with a victory of her own in the triple jump. Senior All-American Katerina Stefanidi also got her season off to a good start with a win in the pole vault, clearing 13 feet, 11 1/4 inches. The mens team saw similar results, as freshman Dartis Willis one of the nations top high school high jumpers last year at Detroit Country Day won his signature event in his collegiate debut. A trio of long-jumpers nearly led a Stanford sweep in the mens event, as sophomore James Jones, redshirt sophomore Kevin Cardey and freshman Darian Brooks finished behind Boise States Kurt Felix in second, third and fourth places. Although the team was missing most of its distance runners and many of its regular performers, Stanford still managed to hold its own on the track as well. Redshirt senior sprinter Shataya Hendricks finished second in the 200 meters and fourth in the 60 meters the 100-meter dash is not traditionally run during the indoor season. In addition, freshmen Amber Farrell and Madeline Treasure acquitted themselves well in their debuts for the Cardinal, with Farrell coming in second in the 60-meter hurdles and Treasure just missing a title in the womens heptathlon to finish second with 3,322 points. Brooks continued his solid showing on the track as well, running 6.92 to finish second in the 60meter dash. Stanford wont compete again this calendar year but will be back in action on Jan.14,heading to the University of Washington Indoor Preview, regularly a top-notch competition.
Miles Bennett-Smith

The Stanford Daily

fan Taylor. Luck is now the eighth Stanford quarterback to earn firstteam All-America honors and the first since John Elway in 1980 and 1982. Oregon running back LaMichael James was the only other player in the Pac-12 named to the first team.
Joseph Beyda

JAFFE

Continued from page 9

Cowboys have forced a mind-blowing 42 turnovers in 12 games, easily the most in the nation (Stanford has only half as many and is still above-average nationally.) Despite being mediocre in terms of giving the ball away, Oklahoma State is still second in the country in turnover margin,and this is the main reason the Cowboys have been so dominant this season. 15: Stanford will pose a tough test to this strategy, though, as the Cardinal has coughed up the ball just 15 times all year;thats fewest in the Pac12 and tied for 11th-fewest in the nation.Luck has thrown an interception in each of his past five games, but there are still very few (if any) quarterbacks more difficult to rattle than Luck. 6: Of course, Stanfords biggest defensive strength is its pass rush, which has registered 38 sacks on the year, sixth-best in the country. Oklahoma State combats this with a line that has allowed just 11 sacks, the 12th-fewest in the country. Negative plays will be tough to come by in general, as the Cardinal and Cowboys rank first and 11th in tackles for loss allowed, respectively. 37: These two teams are from two different conferences, but they did have one common opponent: Ari-

Luck wins Unitas Award

Redshirt junior quarterback Andrew Luck was named the 2011 recipient of the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, given annually to the graduating passer who best exemplifies character,citizenship,scholastic achievement, leadership qualities and athletic accomplishments. Luck beat out finalists Robert Griffin III of Baylor,Landry Jones of Oklahoma, Kellen Moore of Boise State and Brandon Weeden of Oklahoma State. Luck will face off against Weeden in this years Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in Glendale,Ariz. on Jan. 2. One of the best quarterbacks in Cardinal history, Luck holds school records in both touchdown passes (80) and total offense (10,043 yards) over his career. He is the only quarterback in Stanford history to lead the team to back-to-back 11-win seasons. Deciding to return to the Farm for his senior season instead of likely being the top pick in the NFL Draft, Luck has a 3.48 grade-point average and is an architectural design major. Luck will travel to New York on Saturday as one of the top contenders for this years Heisman Trophy after being named the runnerup a year ago. He has since taken on an expanded role in the Cardinal offense, taking control of play-calling at the line of scrimmage for both passing and running plays.
Joseph Beyda

SIMON WARBY/ The Stanford Daily

Senior David DeCastro (No. 52) and redshirt junior Andrew Luck were named 2011 AFCA All-Americans.

zona, appropriate given the setting of the Fiesta Bowl. Oddly enough, both teams scored exactly 37 points against the Wildcats. What does that mean? Probably nothing. Or maybe everything. 4: There are so many ways to compare these two teams. Oklahoma State has seven wins over teams with winning records; Stanford has four. The Cowboys have six wins by 25 points or more; the Cardinal has eight. Each team has one loss Oklahoma State in overtime to a team it should have beaten, Stanford in a blowout to a team that has its number. The Cowboys best non-conference win was against 8-4 Tulsa; the Cardinals was against 8-4 Notre Dame. Any way you slice it,these are two of the top four teams in the nation, making this the best possible matchup outside the national title game. Oklahoma State will look to prove it should have been ranked ahead of Alabama, and Stanford will look to match last years schoolrecord win total and send Luck to the NFL with a bang. Either way, you can be sure of one thing.This one wont finish 9-6. Unfortunately, Jacob Jaffe has fallen just a little bit short of 113 catches over his prolific Ink Bowl career.Before he leaves school for a certain career in the NFL, help him attain that Blackmonesque flair at jwjaffe@stanford.edu or follow him on Twitter at @ Jacob_Jaffe.

DeCastro, Luck named First-Team All-Americans

Senior offensive guard David DeCastro and redshirt junior quarterback Andrew Luck were both recognized as first-team All-Americans on Monday by the American Football Coaches Association. The two helped form the backbone of the nations fifth-highestscoring offense, which averaged 43.6 points per game this season both are expected to be first-round picks in the upcoming NFL Draft. For the second year in a row, DeCastro bolstered an offensive line that ranked in the top 10 in the country in sacks allowed and paved the way for 1,000-yard rusher StepStanford has a real chance to make a run for its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2008. And Dawkins, for one, was excited about the strides his team has made from last years 15-16 record. For our guys, in both halves we got knocked back, and it says a lot about this group, how they responded, Dawkins said. They had a lot of will to win at the end, they made the plays when neces-

MBBALL

Continued from page 10

two-week break for finals. With eight wins and only three non-conference games left before Pac-12 begins with a pair of home matchups against UCLA and USC the last weekend of December,

sary, and I was very proud of that. You never know until youre in that situation how your guys are going to respond, and seeing them down double-digits and then respond makes you proud. Stanford will square off against San Diego from Maples Pavilion on Saturday, Dec 17 at 5 p.m. Contact Miles Bennett-Smith at milesbs @stanford.edu

Located in Tresidder Memorial Union (650) 721-1234

The Stanford Daily

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 N 13

blocked punt return. But if the SEC going for (and getting) its remarkable sixth-straight national title isnt your thing, there are plenty of other BCS options to turn to. Rose Bowl: No. 5 Oregon versus No. 10 Wisconsin. This game could easily be the most exciting of any BCS bowl game this year.Again, offense is the story in this one, and this time its because of the Badgers and Ducks ability to run the football. Oregon racks up 295.7 rushing yards per game, fifth-most in the nation, and Wisconsin isnt too far behind with 237.4 per game, 11th in the country. The best part of this game, much like the Stanford-Oklahoma State game,is the story of the offenses contrasting styles. Oregon runs their funky, spread-out, hurry-up offense, while Wisconsin grinds you down with enormous linemen that have allowed running back Montee Ball to run for 32(!) touchdowns this season. For comparisons sake, thats almost double the number of scores LaMichael James has run for this year. So Im definitely going to be watching this one, and so should you, even if its on my phone in the parking lot at the Fiesta Bowl.And in a move that may surprise my dedicated readers,I will also be watching at least a little bit of the next BCS bowl game two nights later. Orange Bowl: No. 23 West Virginia versus No. 20 Clemson. These two teams are certainly not up to par with LSU and others, but I think they actually will provide a somewhat interesting matchup. After winning its first eight games, Clemson pulled a classic Clemson move and lost three of its next four. But just when the Tigers looked like they were about to get run over in the ACC Championship Game, head coach Dabo Swinney brought out a classic rant that railed against Steve Spurrier and South Carolina, and Clemson beat Virginia Tech like a drum to make it to the Orange Bowl. Now they face off against a threeloss West Virginia team that boasts the countrys eighth best offense the Mountaineers put up 533 yards of offense against LSU earlier this year and I must admit that I am intrigued. Is it possible for Clemson to play well in two consecutive games late in the season? How many Red Bulls (Jagerbombs,perhaps?) will West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen drink during the game? Will Andrew Luck attend the game to support his dad Oliver, the West Virginia athletic director? How will the fans from rural South Carolina and West Virginia respond to Miami? Maybe I need to chill out a bit if Im talking myself into watching the Orange Bowl. But I know I sure as hell wont be watching the seasons worst BCS bowl. Sugar Bowl: No. 11 Virginia Tech versus No. 13 Michigan. Man, this game is a stinker. Sure, Michigans Denard Robinson and Virginia Techs David Wilson are two prolific runners, but unlike Oregon and Wisconsin, this game has zero sex appeal. I mean, one of the best wins that Virginia Tech had this year came against Arkansas State. So theres a lot of potential football-watching fun to be had when the calendar flips over to 2012,and plenty of good BCS games that should provide a strong ending to the college football season, even though it wasnt really the ending we wanted to see. For now, its time to enjoy the holidays,obsessively read previews about the games and lament the fact that this Stanford season has just one game left. It just goes so fast, doesnt it? Jack Blanchat will go into hibernation after the BCS title game, only to emerge for the Super Bowl and Stanfords Sept. 1 opener against San Jose State. Remind him just how Oski-like that sounds at blanchat@stanford.edu or follow him on Twitter at @jmblanchat.

BLANCHAT
Continued from page 10
fifth-highest-scoring offense with 43.6 points per game. Interestingly, Oklahoma State pairs its offense with a defense that has forced 42 turnovers, the most in the nation by a wide margin six more than North Carolina State and nine more than San Jose State.(Yeah, that surprised me, too.) Paired with the Pokes offense,that could prove to be a deadly combination against a Stanford team that has struggled with turnovers lately and scored its three lowest point totals of the season in its last three games. All in all, this looks like a great matchup on paper and a matchup you and everyone else in the country will tune in for even though a lot of people would have preferred to see the Cowboys in New Orleans. Naturally, that brings us to our next matchup. BCS Title Game: No. 1 LSU versus No.2 Alabama.Well,they say that the BCS title game is supposed to present to us the two best teams in the nation at the end of the season . . . but it just doesnt feel right, does it? This game doesnt need to be previewed because weve already seen it before and had it analyzed and overanalyzed for us by every media source out there, and we already know what kind of game it will be.Unfortunately, some of the intrigue is gone from this one, because it will be a nasty football game between two schools that hate each other. Obviously, you should tune in for this one do you really have anything better to do on a Monday night? but it might be best to watch this game with the sound off, or put it on your DVR and watch it at double speed. Unless, of course, youre one of those people (like me) who needs a cigarette after a particularly good form tackle or a well-

HEISMAN
Continued from page 8
But seriously, Luck has it all. I wont (rather, dont have enough space to) explain what I mean by that, though David Shaw went out of his way to do so last week if you needed a reminder. Given enough time to percolate, I think Shaws extensive comments on Lucks play-calling abilities are going to have their desired effect on voters nationwide. Last year we were talking about Owen Marecics two-way skills in the age of one-way players; now were talking about a guy whos practically a player-coach given how much larger his role is than those of most collegiate athletes. Its going to be much closer than any of us would hope, thanks to the uncalled-for blowback from Lucks letdown against Oregon, which wasnt really that terrible, to be honest. But Richardson and Griffin III also lost the biggest games of their respective seasons. Stanfords battered receiving corps certainly didnt help Luck, and hopefully the same East Coast-biased pundits who were making a huge deal of this in the preseason to try to debunk the Cardinals national contender status wont have forgotten Lucks limited targets. And Im sure youve heard this many times before,but Luck definitely deserves some significant credit for coming back to school. Not to knock Richardson or Griffin III,but positive role models are crucial in a college sports era filled with scandals. Luck is the logical choice, the deservedly hyped-up poster boy of college football and unquestionably the best player in the country.My gut feeling is that enough voters will recognize that. If so, Stanford will have its second Heisman winner; if not, it will likely become the first school in history to field three straight runner-ups. And if Luck somehow drops below second, Cardinal fans would be more than justified in unplugging their TV sets. Prediction: 1. Andrew Luck, 2. Trent Richardson, 3. Robert Griffin III

of Andrew Luck to claim the Heisman Trophy and force Stanford into its third-straight runner-up finish. After Saturdays games, Im forced to revise my opinion, but one thing has not changed: Luck will still be the Cardinals third straight second-place finisher. However, my firm belief that the Heisman race was down to Richardson and Luck was rocked by the surge in support for Robert Griffin III after his demolition of the previously formidable Texas defense. Mark Ingram played on the last weekend in 2009 while Toby Gerhart didnt,and that cost Gerhart the Heisman. In this case, RG3 played while Richardson and Luck didnt,and that could be the difference once again. After being a distant third in the race just a few weeks ago,Griffin has made himself the clear favorite,even stating on national television that he will win. I havent seen anything that would make me disagree. Hes got the numbers (gaudy yardage and touchdown totals through the air and on the ground, about to set the NCAA single-season record for passing efficiency), the charisma (he actually gives good interviews) and the Heisman moments (season-opening thriller over TCU, stunning upset of Oklahoma). Luck should slot in at second because Richardson will lose too many votes to Montee Ball and Tyrann Mathieu, the other two finalists who played (and played well) on the final weekend. Prediction: 1. Robert Griffin III, 2. Andrew Luck, 3. Trent Richardson

ZACH ZIMMERMAN

JACK BLANCHAT

Prediction: 1. Robert Griffin III, 2. Andrew Luck, 3. Trent Richardson/Tyrann Mathieu

After watching a lot of football this season, I can truly say its harder than I can ever remember to come up with someone who deserves this years Heisman Trophy. I dont know how you pick a winner, but Ill try. While I think Andrew Luck is the best player and far and away the best pro prospect in the country, I believe the award for the nations most outstanding player deserves to go to Robert Griffin.When you look at his stats, theyre all substantially better than Lucks more touchdowns, more passing yards, more rushing yards,fewer interceptions and hes had several big wins and Heisman momentsin big games.Unfortunately for Luck, his season came down to just one game if the Cardinal beats Oregon, hes the winner without a doubt. I just dont see the voters leaving Griffin off their ballots after his remarkable season, and that should be enough to carry him to the podium in New York City.

Its hard for me to consider the possibility of having a member of Stanford football finish runner-up in three straight seasons,but Id be a fool not to.Andrew Luck is, and I say this without any hesitation, the best player in the country. The Heisman Trophy doesnt care. The voting guidelines for the award are as nonsensical as the BCS, and the subjective nature of the process makes it nearly impossible to predict what will happen from year to year. Will Luck get his fair share of first-place votes? Absolutely. Does he have the numbers to win over the hearts of the statistics-obsessed voters? Not a chance. I wholeheartedly support and agree with David Shaws last-minute push for his quarterback, but if the past two years are any indication,it may be too little, too late. Luck goes home emptyhanded once again, this time as the victim of a number-padding system. Prediction: 1. Robert Griffin III, 2. Andrew Luck, 3. Trent Richardson

WVBALL

Continued from page 9

three returning all-Pac-12 honorees Williams, Wopat and Cook the Cardinal figures to be strongly competitive for years to come. Michigan will travel to Gainesville to play Florida, which upset No. 6 overall seed Northern Iowa in the round of 32.The winner of that match will play the winner of the matchup between the No. 3 overall seed Illinois and Ohio State. Contact Anders Mikkelsen at amikk@stanford.edu.

JACOB JAFFE

A week ago, I was completely set on my belief that somehow Trent Richardson was going to sneak ahead

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14 N Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Stanford Daily

vol. 240 i. 10 wed. 12.07.11

THE BEST OF 2011

Our picks in movies, music and tv

inside:

PROCRASTINATION SITES
We feel you, man. Your brains dead. Exams are about to hijack your soul. In times like these, sometimes all you need are some Internet memes to procrastinate away the pain. Tune in and drop out . . . then wake up at eight to show that test whos boss. Just be careful like we are, and dont let these sites get the best of your attention spa . . . attention spa . . . attention . . . atten . . . oh my gosh, that goats singing like Usher.

MOVIES 3
Find out whats playing in theaters over winter break.

MOVIES 5
Movie critic Misa Shikuma selects her best and worst films of 2011.

BOOKS 4
Impress your bookish friends with our literary gift guide.

VIDEO GAMES 6
Our Mind Games guru picks his favorite gaming moments of the year.

1 2 3 4
2

This is Why Im Broke

Remember when you played The Sims and wondered why cool objects like a Money Tree and Cool Shades didnt exist in real life? Well, what if we told you that glow-in-the-dark toilet paper and water-fueled jet packs were real? Whats that? Youd spend all your money and become broke? Yeah, us too. Its a good thing we have none.

MUSIC 4
Check out our picks for the best albums of the year.

TELEVISION 7
Everybody needs to start watching Community now.

THAT WAS FUN

Pinterest
We know this started as a website for stay-at-home mamas to share their inner Martha Stewart, but its come a long way from turkey-shaped cupcakes. Kind of. If you like surfing the net for cool photography, food porn or things that are just pretty (we see you ladies), set aside an hour . . . uh, four.

pop culture hits

2011s

The Cool Hunter

Bit of a hipster, eh? If edgy art, architecture and music strike your fancy, look no further. Hey, whatever points you lose on your exam, you make up in points for sophistication!

n a year filled with wizards, Kardashians and real fairytale weddings, 2011 was a great year for pop culture. Here are our favorite moments.

I Waste So Much Time

Be careful with this. It doesnt even try to disguise the fact that it will mercilessly suck away your time. Sure, you will enjoy a few laughs over a baby turtle shouting, Release the Kraken! but next thing you know, its 4 a.m., and you dont know what youre doing with your life. Proceed with caution. Prepare to lose a minimum of 10,000 brain cells.

Adele performs Someone Like You at the MTV VMAs During an awards show known for its elaborate performances, crazy costumes and unplanned drama (ahem, Kanye West) Adele stood out this year by showing up in a simple black dress and taking the stage with only a pianist to back her up. Letting her soulful voice stand out, Adele managed to upstage the much more elaborate numbers with Someone Like You. Kim Kardashians 72-day marriage The Kardashians, pop cultures favorite punch line, recently made even more of a mockery of themselves. After getting married in true Kardashian form (the entire ceremony was broadcast in a four-hour special), Kim Kardashian announced her divorce just

Longform
Were feeling a bit guilty about encouraging the demise of your attention spans, and its true, its become harder to find quality pieces of long journalism. Longform amasses the best ones from a variety of publications. See, we were really just messing with you about all that meme stuff. Were actually a lot more sophisticated and . . . cat doing handstand. Brain melting.

weeks later. Comedians and Internet pundits everywhere rejoiced, and we all got something to joke about. The Royal Wedding Courtesy MCT In other wedding news, after eight years of dating, Prince William and Kate Middleton finally tied the knot. In a lavish ceremony broadcast all over the world, Kate appeared in a much-talked-about Alexander McQueen dress and, despite her commoner status, married a prince. The best news? The two remain happily married. Harry Potter ends its decade-long run After 10 years of witches, wizards, sociopathic murderers and teen drama, the Harry Potter movie adaptation finally ended this summer with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. It was a fitting finale to the saga, with Harry and Voldemort finally facing off. Bridesmaids becomes the top-grossing Judd Apatow film Pre-Bridesmaids, many thought that women were not cut out for Judd Apatows brand of raw adult humor. However, Kristin Wiig, Melissa McCarthy and the other ladies of Bridesmaids proved any naysayers wrong with their unbridled, hilarious performances. And audiences agreed Bridesmaids made more money at the box office than any other Judd Apatow film.
h a l l e E D WA R D S c o n t a c t h a l l e : h a l l e @ s t a n f o rd . e d u

intermission

Courtesy MCT

MOVIES

Bringing TINKER TAILOR to the big screen

Courtesy Focus Features

TRAILER PARK: Ho-ho-holiday movies

wedens Tomas Alfredson makes his Englishlanguage directorial debut with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, an adaptation of John le Carrs popular British spy-novel featuring an all-star cast including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Tom Hardy. Fresh off of wrapping production on The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolans conclusion to his celebrated Batman trilogy, Gary Oldman recently joined Alfredson in San Francisco to talk about careers, homoeroticism and why contemporary audiences will still enjoy their Cold Warset story. For Alfredson, the journey all began in 2008 with the unprecedented international success of his vampire flick Let the Right One In. The scripts came pouring in, and yet he doubted whether he could execute any of them daunted, in part, by directing in a language other than his native Swedish. I wasnt sure if it was the right thing for me to do, Alfredson confessed,so I just rejected everything that came up until someone said that Working Title [Films, a British production company] had retrieved the rights to this book. The director had read the book and watched the mini-series years ago, so when he expressed interest in the project, everything fell into place well, almost. Casting the role of protagonist George Smiley proved to be the biggest hurdle. In the book, hes described as someone that you would immediately forget, Alfredson elaborated,so the problem was to find an actor not uninteresting, but to play uninteresting. After six months of deliberation, his team began to get a sense of If we cant find this man, lets not do this film. But fortunately, when casting director Jina Jay came up with veteran actor Gary Oldman, it was an instant fit, after which they simply cast the rest around him. Oldman remembered Alfredsons worries on the set as he complained that 50 to 60 percent of his [linguistic] tools were taken away. However,when youre working on a film set with actors for 12 hours a day and that is your only way of communication . . . you get into a shorthand really quickly, the actor continued, emphasizing that the language of film is universal. Linguistic barriers aside, Alfredson enjoyed quite a bit of freedom in crafting his version of the story.

W
John le Carr said in the beginning of the process,If you need me, I will answer the phone, but I wont call you and I wont interfere,the director recounted. Since he himself was a spy in the 60s, he was a great help to have, because he knows and remembers everything about all the details, documents, how stuff looked and so on and so forth, Alfredson said. The author also proved a valuable resource to Oldman, who added that,A lot of the history of George was from [le Carrs] own experience. When asked about his extraordinary, chameleon-like performances, Oldman, in contrast with known method-actors who notoriously stay in character day-in and day-out, merely said that, Once youve got a character and youve done the work, then you can switch it on and off. With that said, the lead-up to a shoot can be more intense. I always scare the dogs and the kids when Im doing a role thats slightly more [energetic] than George, Oldman joked. They have play-dates that come over and say [in hushed voice] Is your dad alright?Oh yeah, its just rehearsal,he added. In addressing the films appeal to todays moviegoers, both reached first for the storys broader themes. Im not particularly interested in the Cold War or espionage, Alfredson said bluntly.I mean, its interesting, but for me, this film is not about those things. Its about love, love lost, friendship, betrayal, Oldman agreed, adding that,the politics are almost like a backdrop to it. Yet at the same time, the setting is what enables it to be so profoundly character-driven in a way that many movies these days simply are not. It took a different kind of soldier, Oldman continued.These men that were in MI-5, MI-6, are more like the Bill Haydons [Colin Firths character] there was a lot of closet homosexuality going on because it was absolutely not accepted. (Though homosexuality was punishable by law until 1967, | continued on page 8 |

inter break probably seems ages away right now but whether you believe it or not, there will eventually come a time when youre relaxed enough to kick back, sip some hot chocolate and watch some cheery holiday films on loop. You might even have time to hit up the movie theater (what???). Luckily, Intermission has done the homework to keep you in the know about what flicks will soon be playing at a theater near you.
New Years Eve (Dec. 9)

From the same writer and director of Valentines Day, this sort-of-sequel documents the transition from 2011 to 2012 for several hopeful romantics and wizened curmudgeons. The New Years Eve cast is as equally star-studded as the lovers flick and has more daring, diverse additions like Robert De Niro, Seth Meyers (Saturday Night Live) and Sofa Vergara (Modern Family). It plays its ensemble parts in the intertwining fashion of Valentines Day and Love Actually, with a healthy dose of similar feel-good holiday spirit. Set to P!nks Raise Your Glass, the trailer has a party attitude with a nod to the magic of New Years Eve.

The trailer clues us in on the dual periods of the film, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, a Lady Gaga lookalike and not much else. Courtesy Columbia Shouting its Feel Pictures Bad Movie status in text, the trailer promises Dragon Tattoo will be yet another cool movie in Finchers repertoire.
I Melt With You (Dec. 9)

Courtesy Warner Bros.

Girl With a Dragon Tattoo (Dec. 21)

Despite the bizarrely sentimental title (taken from the popular Modern English song) and the seemingly trite premise, this buddy-reunion films trailer promises a new spin on the white adult male relationships popularized by the likes of The Hangover, Horrible Bosses and Old School. At first the trailer feels like it gives the game away: four college friends (Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe, Thomas Jane and Christian McKay) gather every year for a retreat of ribaldry, mischief and self-medication. The montage of good times quickly turns to shots of desperation and busied isolation as the words A BURIED SECRET flashes over plotted sand, indicating a mystery movie. But weve seen this film before, the one where several friends on holiday revisit a scarred past until the trailer smolders into Cameras maudlin track Defeatist in a hastened montage suggesting that I Melt is less about the wacky situations of white men than a character study of four men and the psychological warfare of the everyday.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Dec. 25)

Unless youve been living under a rock The trailer for Extremely Loud and for the last four years, you know about Stieg Incredibly Closereads like a mini-version of Larssons novel Girl With a Dragon Tattoo, the feature-length version: establishing admiraand unless youve actually read the bestseller, tion for the son and fathers (Tom Hanks) relayou probably have no idea what its about. tionship, ripping it with halting visuals of the The first teaser trailer of the (second) cinefalling Twin Towers and a melodramatic monmatic adaptation hailing from David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, The Social Network) | continued on page 8 | reveals little information in its minute-and-ahalf montage of visuals set to Trent Reznor and Karen Os screechy wednesday december 7 2011 rendition of Immigrant Song.

BOOKS

The bookworms guide to holiday shopping

he holidays are almost upon us; that means Christmas shopping. If finals are draining your brainpower and Amazon recommendations are letting you down, fear not Book Critiqua has something for everyone on your list:
The Fashionista

al fashion editors. It also features, of course, pages upon pages of stunning photography.
The Techie

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Metropolitan Museum of Art For your chic friend who couldnt make it to New York, this is the next best thing. The book, which illuminates the entirety of McQueens career, includes essays and commentary by Andrew Bolton, curator of the designers posthumous exhibition at the Met, Sarah Burton, McQueens creative director and sever-

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson Of the famous people who died this year, the most influential is undoubtedly Steve Jobs. This book is a comprehensive, uncut biography of the man behind Apple. In writing it, Isaacson conducted over 40 interviews with Jobs in the last years of his life, and over 100 with his kin, colleagues and competitors. For the CS major who dreams of making it big in the Valley, this is the story of one man who did.
The Hipster

rock was making its downtown debut and literary legends like Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal roamed the earth, this memoir is a rich portrait of 1970s New York in all its degenerate glory. Wolcotts eyewitness perspective, by turns affectionate and critical, captures the spirit of the city and the era almost like stepping into a time machine.
The History Buff

The Movie Buff

Lucking Out, by James Wolcott For the friend who exudes vintage from every pore, who wishes hed been alive when punk the quality of memories and contemplation than the pastoral atmosphere of their first release. Helplessness Blues, the single and arguably the best track, is the pensive epitome of the whole album. Its the finest example of Robin Peckolds songwriting ability, a vivid description of the emotional turmoil following self-interrogation regarding ones place in the world.
MD, May 6

Inferno, by Max Hastings For the friend who knows or thinks she knows everything about World War II, Inferno offers a unique glimpse of the human lives behind the numbers. At once a sweeping, all-encompassing history of the war and an intimate tale of the people involved, this meticulously researched book delves into the lives of soldiers, housewives and statesmen around the world. Hastings, a journalist and prolific historian, pays special attention to the lesser-known theaters of conflict, such as Finland and Bangladesh. Radiohead album, the more you listen to it, the more layers you discover. As a whole, the group has departed from writing melody-driven power ballads, and this LP conjures up a contemplative, more abstract feel.Lotus Flower is quite a masterpiece. The thick, rolling bass line fills out the track and complements Yorkes cutting falsetto perfectly throughout the song. Watch the official video for a wild performance of Yorke jolting and shimmying to the beat; while certainly not a conventional music video, it is yet another interesting stylistic innovation by the group. Plus, if anything else, you might find a link to one of the countless viral videos of his dance moves mashed up with Beyonc or Lady Gaga.
B L , M a r. 4

The Age of Movies, by Pauline Kael, ed. Sanford Schwartz Kael was, for over 20 years, a much-beloved film critic at The New Yorker known for her biting wit and laser-like focus, as well as her beautiful prose. It is said, in certain circles, that her writing shaped an entire generations taste in film. The Age of Movies is a collection of Kaels reviews of her eras most influential films, curated by Sanford Schwartz of The New York Review of Books.
The Environmentalist

Visions of Earth, National Geographic If youre searching for a beautiful coffee-table book for a nature-lover, look no further. This spellbinding volume features hundreds of pages of lush, high-quality images, many of them from the unpublished portfolios of world-famous photographers. Ranging from | continued on page 8 | Emma Stone. The remainder of the album keeps with the soul that was present in her first album, 19, but exposes a feistier side to Adele and her style, exemplified by tracks like the thumping Rumour Has It.
SV

MUSIC

The years best albums

ts hard to designate 12 months worth of musical releases as weak, but if any year can boldly claim the title, its 2011. The homogeneity of radio favorites is almost ridiculous: add some dubstep and youre guaranteed to go platinum.Sexy And I Know It has now spent three solid months in the top three of the Billboard Hot 100 enough said. There were catchy releases and a smattering of good songs, but when entire albums were great, they were almost impeccable. Here are a couple examples of what we mean.
Helplessness Blues Fleet Foxes

Mylo Xyloto Coldplay

Watch The Throne Jay-Z and Kanye West

Three years in the making,Helplessness Blues can hardly be called a lazy effort by Fleet Foxes. After scrapping the greater part of a first album, the band buckled down with producer Phil Ek (The Shins, Band of Horses) to turn out their sophomore effort after they exploded onto the indie scene in 2008. The album is somber and introspective, more invested in re-creating

The album might be so good because everyone expected it to be after all, Jay and Ye are the current and indisputable kings of hip-hop. But with a nod to the past (the album includes the voices of 60s artists Otis Redding and Nina Simone) and possibly the most unexpected samples to be thrown into rap (Ni**as in Paris features Will Ferrell and Jon Heder from their comedy Blades of Glory),Watch The Throne became an opulent masterpiece on the often gilded life of fame.
AH

21 Adele

The King of Limbs Radiohead

intermission

Despite its relatively short length (eight songs, 37 min),The King of Limbs is a vastly complex collection of songs, and as with every

Adeles sophomore album, 21, took 2011 by storm. Rolling in the Deep became the new go-to anthem of revenge after a bitter break-up and dominated the airwaves for much of the summer. Her melancholy follow up single Someone Like You (which youve probably heard loudly sung by a small group of drunken dorm mates) has received similar airplay and was featured in a hilarious SNL sketch with

Mylo Xyloto is an album that, like so many of Coldplays works, has to grow on the listener. Considering that the title means absolutely nothing, this one understandably takes a little longer than usual to figure out.Mylo resembles its predecessor, Viva la Vida, in its production, but the pomp and circumstance were assuaged by a quiet romance, steering the album away from the realm of French Revolution victory speeches for the better. It might not sound exactly like X&Y, but Coldplay makes a pretty convincing argument that theyve moved on to equally appealing melodies.
AH maria, DEL CARMEN BARRIOS, a n d re a H I N T O N , b e n L A B O Y, s a r a VA N R E N S S E L A E R contact them: i n t e r m i s s i o n @ s t a n f o rd d a i l y. c o m

MOVIES

2011 in movies: Best and worst

Courtesy Merie Wallace 6. Attack the Block From the producers of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz comes a new side-splitting saga centered on a gang of South London youths who must protect their working-class housing development (aka the block) from an alien invasion. The dialect may be a bit of a shock for those used to hearing proper Colin Firth-like accents in British movies, but by the end youll be wishing you could say, Believe, broth-a, with the same swag as these street kids. 5. Take Shelter Set amidst the rural cornfields of Ohio, Take Shelter follows a working-class family man as he experiences a series of increasingly graphic nightmares revolving around a violent storm. Shaken by these visions, his erratic behavior soon begins to take a toll on his wife and young daughter. With the suspense rising as you can no longer be certain of whether he is glimpsing the future or merely losing his mind, this is the thought-provoking answer to all the overblown apocalypse and disaster duds of recent years. 4. Midnight In Paris In Woody Allens time-traveling story, a struggling American writer discovers a portal back to 1920s Paris, where he finds inspiration in the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso. Equal parts romantic comedy and historical drama, even the kitsch factor cant stop its undeniable charm. Plus, you can give yourself and your liberal education a pat on the back for recognizing all the members of the Parisian glitterati and catching the films pop-culture references. 3. Pariah Writer/director Dee Rees poignant debut feature focuses on a Brooklyn teen not only struggling to come into her own as a young woman, but also trying to come out to her fractured family. Aided by a strong cast dominated by newcomers, this is powerful, intimate storytelling at its best.

Courtesy MCT 2. Another Earth Upon being released from prison for her involvement in a fatal car crash, a young woman attempts to make amends with the man whose family she killed. Things get even more complicated when a contest opens to win a trip to Earth Two, the planet that first became visible on the night of the accident, and both characters begin to question if their parallel lives still result in tragedy. Another Earth stays grounded by its haunting portrayal of how the choices we make stay with us forever. 1. The Descendants Alexander Payne makes a triumphant return to the screen with this alternately hilarious and tear-jerking story of a distant father (George Clooney) trying to hold his family together in the wake of a tragedy. Clooney has never been better, and the films gorgeous Hawaiian scenery will provide a nice respite from whatever cold climate you might be going home to this break.
Worst Picks:

n a February GQ article ominously titled The Day the Movies Died, eminent film-writer Mark Harris dubbed 2011 the year of sequels, prequels, reboots, adaptations and endless permutations of the above. Not that any of these are inherently problematic, but when studios repeatedly churn them out instead of coming up with something new to show us, well, its frustrating to say the least. Despite Mr. Harris dismal movie forecast, 2011 had its share of standouts, and with a packed slate of big budget films and Oscar bait set to debut over the next few weeks, possibly even more to come.
Top Picks:

10. Captain America: The First Avenger Although there were many comic book adaptations to choose from this year, only one had the winning combination of containing a plethora of loud explosions and being emotionally affective. In other hands, the noble Steve Rogers (the man beneath the superhero getup) could have easily become sappy, but Chris Evans balances the characters earnestness, courage and sensitivity remarkably well. 9. Crazy, Stupid, Love. Writer Dan Fogelman sets a new standard for the genre by showing the ups and downs of relationships while deftly avoiding the pitfalls of being overly trite and campy. Featuring an outstanding ensemble cast that includes Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore and Emma Stone, it pokes fun at love while reminding us that its attainable at all ages. 8. Bridesmaids SNL spotlight-stealer Kristen Wiig takes on her first starring role in what many have dubbed the female equivalent to The Hangover. Centered on a struggling pastry chef whose best friends wedding instigates a tense rivalry with a fellow bridesmaid, the movie isnt afraid to show women being just as bawdy as men. Its refreshing, hilarious, awkward and oftentimes all three at the same time. 7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 The decade-long saga based on J.K. Rowlings beloved book series finally comes to its thrilling conclusion. Except for some questionable prosthetic makeup at the end, this diehard fan of the series found the adaptation to be a surprisingly adequate tribute.

Worst Sequel: The Hangover Part II As the title suggests, The Hangover Part II is merely The Hangover redux, albeit less funny and with more male genitalia. The physical setting may be different, but when the novelty of the franchise is the novelty itself, using the same storyline doesnt quite cut it. | continued on page 8 | Fingers crossed that unlike anything Ive ever seen before, and this challenging film will remain at the top of my list for years to come.
The Artist

A second opinion...

his has been a year for daring movies, and the best of them have all been movies that I feel like Ive never seen before. If someone had told me the best films this year would include a Martin Scorsese childrens movie and a comedy about cancer, I wouldnt have believed either could even get made. Fortunately my instincts were wrong, and we have some new movies to treasure for years to come.

The Tree of Life

This movie just hit theatres at CinArts, and it is not one to be missed. Beyond the fact that it is going to win a bucket of Oscars, it is also the most charming and joyous movie I have seen all year. Its a black-and-white silent movie that follows a movie star during the silent film era, when talkies started to become popular. Dont be afraid of the premise its guaranteed to be the most magical night at the

Courtesy Merie Wallace

This years most bold and evocative movie comes from one of my favorite filmmakers of | continued on page 6 | all time. Terrence Malick composes a beautiful epic poem that is as daring as it is touching, as elegant as it is piercing and provocative. It is wednesday december 7 2011

VIDEO GAMES

THE rise, fall and rise of2011s greatest moments The YEAR IN PIXELS: gaming creativity

ind ames

ot too long from now, I might look back on 2011 as a year when I spent an unhealthy amount of time with my jaw hanging open in front of my television screen. For better or worse, developers this year seemed to focus on the big impact moments those plot-points and set-pieces that reach legendary YouTube status and have you texting your friends at 2 a.m. Other games, as they always have, made for great water-cooler moments in less scripted but more personal ways. But regardless of method, half the fun of those experiences comes from sharing them. So if youll indulge me a bit, here are my favorite moments of 2011.
Dead Space 2 Eye and the Needle

core of the Uncharted franchise. Trudging through the Arabian sandscape is special because it epitomizes the preeminent trait of one of gamings most endearing characters: Nathan Drake is a normal man with relatable vulnerabilities. Weve been through a lot with Nate, but until Drakes Deception, wed never seen him reduced to the basic need for food and water. One mirage gives way to the next, the sun sets and rises, and still we press forward with fleeting clarity. The camera pulls back to show the endless sea of dunes; Nate is lost in body and mind, and were right there with him.
Batman: Arkham City Jumped by a Shark

(Seriously, who the hell would expect that? Not me.) Holy Sardine, Batman!
Portal 2 Shooting (to) the Moon

Cheap horror movies like Saw really dont do it for me. Theyre gruesome to be sure, but if onscreen action is going to keep me up at night, it needs to put me in the mind of a believably traumatized character, not just show me someones body being brutalized. Dead Space 2 delivers on both fronts, standing as the genres best example of how interactivity can foster a visceral sort of pathos thats unachievable in films. That point hit home for me in the games final stretch, when protagonist Isaac Clarke an eerily relatable character compared to his 2008 debut needs to make a grotesque and unthinkable sacrifice. To describe the scene in detail would be a disservice; it needs to be played. But as you, the player, lower tapered metal ever closer to Isaacs shivering flesh, I challenge you to keep your composure. Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception Just Deserts Ive heard people criticize this scene for involving little more than just pushing forward. Its a fair argument, but one that belittles the very CONTINUED FROM SECOND OPINION PAGE 5 movies this year.
50/50

Its surprisingly noncontroversial to say that Batman: Arkham City has the best brawling mechanics of any game since the 16-bit days. After Arkham Asylum, Id even say it was expected. But I never wouldve predicted that Id need to unleash my Bat-fists on the snout of 25-foot great white shark. Beholding the beast as it breaks through the waves and onto your precarious bit of flotsam is a legitimate shocker for the decidedly T-rated game, not to mention a brilliantly subtle throwback to the classic 1966 film, when Adam West goes toe-to-toe with a laughable plastic prop. It was also the only moment this year that made me scream out loud. challenge you not to cry during this hilarious and heart-warming tale.
Super 8

The brilliance of Portal 2s moonshot is that it doesnt need to tell the player to do anything the games no-nonsense premise has trained you to fire at highlighted surfaces, and after seeing the roof break open with the full moon shining through, keen players might even recall an otherwise throw-away conversation about how Portals rely on Courtesy Valve Corporation lunar particles. So with one last butand I could handle most of them without trouton-tap and a here-we-go ble; moving silently up the mountainside, we sparkle, its off to space with evil made short work of the archers and swordsmen. robots in tow and a dumbBut a powerful witchdoctor stood firmly in my founded grin on your face. path he was barely a man now, with torturThe Elder Scrolls V: ous sutures holding his body together and his Skyrim chest gaping open. A gruesome, bestial heart Stealing a Heart pulsed steadily in place of his own. As he sought The stand-out feame out to make a final blow, I took shelter in a ture of this entry is that I cave and considered my options maybe I came upon it by chance. could slip some poison into his pockets or steal Not to say that Im special: some of his charms. I just needed to get close Skyrims greatest strengths are enough. I told my companion to wait, cast a its emergent gameplay and adapsilencing spell and tracked the shaman down. tive storytelling. With a massive Slumped over his alchemy laboratory and mutworld to explore and intricate systering some incantations, he was deep in tems overlapping in unpredictable thought. Now was my chance. In a flash, the ways, Skyrim allows an imaginative playunthinkable presented itself to me. It was gutsy er to craft his or her own set of unique literally but I went for it. I tore the throbtales. You could almost think of this entry as a bing mass from his chest, and the mighty stand-in for whatever your own Skyrim shaman collapsed. At last, Id taken the summit. moment might be. After I stole his heart, I knew Skyrim had After a long journey west, only a small stolen mine. band of Forsworn warriors separated me from nate ADAMS the final components I needed to reforge the c o n t a c t n a t e : n b a d a m s @ s t a n f o rd . e d u legendary blade, Mehrunes Razor. My housecarl station, the limping train station security officer played by Sacha Baron Cohen, the disgruntled toy maker and his granddaughter. The train station is rendered with extravagant tones of gold and blue, and it will transport you to this foreign world where a love of going to the movies is all you need to join the club. Honorable Mentions:Horrible Bosses, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Midnight in Paris, The Muppets, Source Code
Dishonorable Mentions: The Green Hornet

You will laugh, you will cry and you will love 50/50. Joseph Gordon-Levitts character is diagnosed with cancer, and he must negotiate life with his best friend (Seth Rogen), his extremely young therapist (Anna Kendrick), his obsessive mother (Anjelica Huston) and his wet-blanket girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard). Everyone gives a touching performance, and I

This alien monster movie was made on a relatively small budget, but it certainly packs the largest punch of any blockbuster I saw this year. A group of kids in a small town in the 70s stumbles across a train wreck while filming a student movie. The suspense and action are exhilarating, leaving you nostalgic for monster movies and pleasantly surprised at this charming yet thrilling film.
Hugo

intermission

This movie is just too difficult to put into a box. Its a Martin Scorsese-directed childrens movie about a clock-fixing orphan in a train

esy urt Co

s dio Stu me Ga da hes Bet

Chinese pop sensation Jay Chou is less interesting than cardboard and the once-terrifying Christoph Waltz looks like a clown. You know its truly a terrible movie when the best part about it is Cameron Diaz. Hop I was genuinely excited for this movie about the Easter Bunnys son who just wants to be a rock-and-roll drummer. It was reductive and juvenile (although I shouldve guessed that), it forced un-cute animated chicks down your throat and the Easter Bunny world (on Easter Island, naturally) was so vile and tacky it made my eyes bleed.
brady HAMED contact brady: bhamed@stanford.edu

Even though Seth Rogen lost all of that weight, he is unconvincing as a super hero,

TELEVISION
REMOTE

STOP WATCHING

OUR FAVORITE TV MOMENTS OF 2011

New Girl, SAVE Community

and doesnt exactly revolutionize the Disney princesses, but its good enough to keep me watching, and at least its trying to mix up the format a bit harder than its NBC counterpart, Grimm. Least Impressive New Show of the Season New Girl I didnt have high expectations for New Girl from the start, but the show hasnt done anything to exceed the already low expectations. Theyre relying too much on Zooey Deschanel to carry . . . pretty much everything, actually, and shes just unable to support the sitcom plot retreads and quirkiness that goes a step or two past adorable. Sorry, Fox; maybe next year? Most Disappointing Cliffhanger Resolutions of the Season How I Met Your Mother

Courtesy NBC

ts that time of year again: that special time when everyone burns through their backlog of television shows in a desperate effort to put off homework and studying. For the more discerning procrastinators, however, it might help to have an idea of what in your Hulu queue is actually worth watching. Here are a few of my superlative awards for the front half of the season. Best Show You Need to Help Save Community Community has always teetered on the edge of cancellation, but now that its vanished from the midseason schedule for an indefinite hiatus, its time to rally the troops. If youre a fan, tell your friends about it and (most importantly) keep watching. If youre not, well, the hiatus gives you time to give Community a try. In the past few weeks, its been a documentary, explored parallel timelines and was (very briefly) an anime, and yet it manages to combine these epic, over-the-top moments with an emotional grounding that meshes surprisingly well and makes for one of the most well-written sitcoms on TV. Biggest Surprise of the Season Once Upon A Time I probably shouldnt like ABCs Once Upon a Time, but I do anyway. Instead of keeping you guessing at some elusive mystery, the solution of which is almost sure to disappoint, it gives you most everything that matters upfront and lets you care about the characters and how theyre going to get out of the mess theyre in. Its campy, heavy-handed

s college students and writers of an arts and entertainment section, we Intermission staffers take pride in being some of the biggest couch potatoes youll probably ever meet. Wholl nab the GOP nomination? How would we solve the debt crisis in Europe? Damn if we know. What moments were totally worth rewinding on Hulu (or on your DVR if you could afford such luxuries here)? Take a look and find out. Game of Thrones Season One finale

did some realistic character and relationship development and finally gave us a reason to care about this show that had stumbled so much the previous year. Dan and Blair verbally sparred as though they were in a 1930s screwball comedy, making every scene between them spark: Dan dubbing Blair a dictator of taste, watching Rosemarys Baby over the phone together, falling asleep watching The Philadelphia Story and culminating in their freezeframe kiss.
AH

The League The mind control of Kevin This comedy about four guys in a fantasy football league is one of the funniest shows on television. It is foul, raunchy and borderline offensive, but also extremely clever and unexpected. In the first episode of Season Three, Kevins best friend Pete, his wife Jenny and his brother Taco all reveal that they have been trying to control his thoughts subliminally. The payoff is hands-down the hardest I have laughed in a year.
BH

Courtesy HBO One of the most talked-about new shows of 2011,Game of Thrones adapts George R. R. Martins complicated fantasy series into a surprisingly watchable TV show. The first season culminated in the jaw-dropping final scene when Daenerys, last of the Targaryens, walks into her husbands funeral pyre and emerges with three newlyhatched dragons. The scene forms the perfect cliffhanger for the end of Season One.
HE

Courtesy CBS Until a week or two ago, I would have picked on Castle, whose writers seemed to have conveniently forgotten about Becketts shooting, much less the fact that she knows Castle confessed his love for her. But with Kill Shot dramatically changing Becketts character in response to the former, Im willing to give them a slight pass on the latter. Instead, Ill have to give the award to How I Met Your Mother and its writers; though its pretty obvious that Barneys going to end up with Robin now, Ill be damned if they arent prolonging it.
aaron BRODER contact aaron: abroder@stanford.edu

The Good Wife Alicia Florrick finally kicks her husband out In the last two years, weve watched her wade through so much chaos caused by her adulterous, philandering husband as she secretly pines for Will Gardiner. How empowering for her to finally stop being the good wife and give his undeserving ass the boot. Runner-up moment: Its proof positive that Peter can be such an awful sleaze-bag, but it was terribly exciting to anticipate just how bitter and scary he could be and how destructive he might be to Alicia. We hate him for it, but we kind of love the show for having him go there.
AH

Glee Santana, Mercedes and the Troubletones perform Rumour Has It / Someone Like You

Courtesy FOX In the midst of Glees third season, Santana, Mercedes and the Troubletones performance of Adeles Someone Like You combined with Rumour Has It was a true showstopper. The mash-up itself is musically impressive some are calling it the best musical number Glee has ever done but more strikingly, it finally propelled Mercedes and Santana into the spotlight after two seasons of backing up Rachel.
HE

Runner-up moment: In the penultimate episode of Season One titled Baelor, one of the main characters is killed off. If you watch the show, this rings true as one of the most shocking episodes on television. To kill off a character so central to the plot and the narrative devices at play with little warning and grave consequences was so daring and true to the plot and nature of those evil Lannisters that I cant wait for Season Two.
BH

New Girl Wedding Its no surprise that New Girl, starring Zooey Deschanel, is one of the most-watched new series of the fall. The third episode,Wedding, brought Zooeys character and her three male roommates together for an episode that consisted of photo booth shenanigans, dance-offs and a slow-motion chicken dance. The episode provided enough laughs to cement New Girls status as the years best new comedy.
HE

The Big Bang Theory The Herb Garden Germination The Season Four episode starts like any other episode of this beloved show. When Sheldon and his girlfriend Amy decide to start spreading rumors, the whole gang completely falls apart. The farce spins out of control and Sheldon and Amy con| continued on page 8 |

Gossip Girl The Dair storyline For once,Gossip Girl actually

wednesday december 7 2011

CONTINUED FROM TINKER TAILOR PAGE 3 the stigma remained long afterward). Within the secret service it was forbidden because you would expose yourself to blackmailing, Alfredson confirmed,and yet the people that were recruited very often were [gay], and to sacrifice that, as we see in the film its so cruel and heartbreaking [in] a very strong motive. Also crucial to the films 70s vibe is the fear so atmospheric its practically tangible. I remember the 70s, Oldman reminisced.I mean . . . I was more interested in girls and David Bowie at that time, but I do remember that sort of threat. Referencing current global events, he hinted that perhaps every generation, to a certain extent, experiences some form of zeitgeist that will enable them to connect with the story. Thus, even though the Cold War itself is a thing very much in the mists of time, the apprehensive wait-and-see of what moves the worlds political players will make it quite similar to today. Venturing back into less controversial territory, I wonder whether there might be any memorable moments from the set to share.After thinking a moment,Alfredson recalls shooting a small scene early on as Oldmans character adjusts to retired life. Its a really, really boring situation which everyone can relate to, the director said.I said cut, and [Oldman] came to me and said,Can I watch that?We played it back, and he was looking at the monitor and said,I used to play [Sex Pistols bassist] Sid Vicious. He saw this gray man with an apron frying an egg! But perhaps this side of the character is closer to the real Gary Oldman than he would care to admit. His sons, of whom he spoke quite lovingly, popped up several times in the course of our conversation. When Im not working, the actor said,Im a dad its book reports and science projects. And is there anything on the table for Alfredson? Its a very emotional thing, he mused,to choose a project. I think its [that] you read something and if your body reacts on it, its probably a good project. Like if you laugh or cry or something happens in your heart. When pressed,Alfredson added,I deliberately havent read anything since we opened with this film in London.I need to rest a little and see what happens. Well, sir, we eagerly await your next move.
misa SHIKUMA contact misa: mshikuma@stanford.edu

CONTINUED FROM TRAILER PARK PAGE 3 tage set to U2s saccharine Where the Streets Have No Name. By now, we can expect the unrealistically sagacious voiceover from screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and the music-narration combo delivers the entire premise and emotion of the movie a boy searching for the mysterious lock to which the key his dead father left him fits encounters and changes the lives of many people, perhaps a metaphor to be realized in the film.Extremely Loudcould be a fresh look at the effects of the tragedy of 9/11 from the perspective of a child in a hybrid feelgood-mystery drama, but the trailer leaves little to the imagination.
The Sitter (Dec. 9)

Jonah Hills latest film The Sitter appears to fit seamlessly in the actors curriculum vitae, perhaps anachronistically nestled between Superbad and Get Him to the Greek, in what could be a trilogy of the modern court jester. As in those films, Hill finds himself in a comically volatile situation on the run from drug dealers and on the hunt for sex all the while babysitting a gaggle of kids; think Pineapple Express (from the same director) meets School of Rock, but no ones

learning a lesson in this movie. The trailer showcases a myriad of lewd and dangerous spectacles that seem to drive the film more than the witty dialogue that audiences expect of Hill. Tenuously relevant (and decidedly awkward) interactions with gangsters and hooligans wind down the trailer, suggesting that like most drug-slinging, boob-ogling comedies of today, The Sitter will fizzle with chuckles but fail to pack a punch.
sasha ARIJANTO contact sasha: s a s h a . a r i j a n t o @ s t a n f o rd . e d u

CONTINUED FROM BOOKWORM PAGE 4 landscapes to wildlife to little-known cultures around the globe, this book is a veritable feast for the eyes.
The Jock

The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach Harbachs debut novel is both a classic baseball story a small-town athlete making it in the big leagues and an introspective, literary work. Preternaturally talented shortstop Henry Skrimshander and several major players in his life confront the skeletons in their respective clos-

ets as the biggest game of the season draws steadily closer. Harbach deftly handles ambition, commitment, doubt and desire, and he spins a lovely yarn.
The Bibliophile

The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, Vol. 1, ed. Sandra Spanier and Robert W. Trogdon For your most well-read friend, not just any book will do. Theres a good chance he already owns all of the infallible classics you were thinking of getting him. This newly-published CONTINUED FROM BEST AND WORST PAGE 5 there isnt a Part III in the works. Worst Adaptation: Atlas Shrugged A thousand-page book about trains that features two-dimensional characters, which are all standins for an overarching ideological agenda, is one thing. A low-budget movie adaptation whose script consists of passages cut and pasted together from said book is quite another and, for most people, far worse. If Atlas Shrugged succeeded at anything, its to prove that one can, in fact, be too loyal to the book.
misa SHIKUMA contact misa: mshikuma@stanford.edu

(Sept. 2011) volume, however, should right up his alley, revealing a softer side to the famous, testosterone-oozing author that the world has never before seen. Hemingways surprisingly affectionate letters to his family and friends grants readers a glimpse of his creative process, his take on the literati of his day and the people and events that shaped his work.
sarah GUAN contact sarah: sguan@stanford.edu

CONTINUED FROM FAVORITE TV PAGE 7 tinue to perpetuate the madness.

BH

Vampire Diaries Stefan goes to the dark side The most recent season of the Vampire Diaries has been better than ever, with the creators pushing the Originals storyline from last season into shocking new territory. But what really stands out is good-guy vampire Stefans descent into the dark side. Usually the shows pillar of morality in the midst of evil, Stefan transformed into a killing, blood-drinking monster while former villain Damon now plays the good guy. With these roles reversed, the show is more gripping than ever.
HE

ny Jessica are safely strapped in, Marnie and her followers cast a spell to force all of the vampires out into the daylight. This moment in the middle of Season Four was heart-pounding.
BH

12.07.11
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True Blood Bill and Jessica hide from the witches As the witches begin gathering more power under the evil witch leader Marnie, the vampires use silver chains to pin themselves inside. While it seems that the main hunk Bill and his sexy, but nave proge-

Greys Anatomy Alex discovers that Arizona thinks hes the future of pediatrics Alex Karev has taken such a beating on this show, moving from a crazy girlfriend to a cancerous and abandoning wife to a backstabbing girlfriend. Meanwhile, hes always felt second string in the operating room to Meredith and Cristina. Hes grown into this threedimensional damaged but grown-up and caring character over the years and it was so satisfying to see him finally validated.
AH h a l l e E D WA R D S , b r a d y H A M E D , alex HEENEY contact them: i n t e r m i s s i o n @ s t a n f o rd d a i l y. c o m

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