Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
The Daily Gazette
Swarthmore College
Tuesday, March 17, 1998
Volume 2, Number 97
NEWS IN BRIEF
1) SWIL hosts science fiction convention
2) World news roundup
SPORTS IN BRIEF
1) Today’s and tomorrow’s contests
WEATHER FORECAST
Today: Momentarily sunny, then clouds roll in. High of 50.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Skip classes! Drink green beer!
Tonight: Rain likely. Low around 35.
Oh, who am I kidding — we go to Swarthmore.
Wednesday: Still raining copiously. High near 50.
NEWS REPORT
1) SWIL hosts science fiction convention
>From Friday, March 6, to Sunday, March 8, the Swarthmore campus was invaded
by science fiction aficionados of all sorts as the Swarthmore Warders of
Imaginative Literature hosted their second annual science fiction
convention, SWILcon. Attendees arrived from as far as Great Britain and
from as near as the village of Swarthmore, with a large contingent of high
school students.
Guests of honor included award-winning science fiction authors James Hogan
and James Patrick Kelly, and artist Jeff Menges. The guests gave talks on
the writing process, took part in panel discussions, signed books, and
relaxed in the small-town atmosphere, though Hogan and Kelly were
disconcerted at the borough’s no-alcohol policy. Several Swarthmore faculty
members joined the authors in panel discussions, including Ted Fernald,
Mary Jo Ratterman, and Sibelan Forester.
Attendees also discovered that Kohlberg creates a powerful video gaming
environment, as Animextreme, a company that sells Japanese animation and
Japanese video games, hooked up a Sony PlayStation to the wall-sized screen
in one of the Kohlberg classrooms.
Other events included a masquerade, and a mini-Pterodactyl Hunt (the
full-sized Pterodactyl Hunt will be held this Friday, according to SWIL
sources).
*****
2) World news roundup
LI PENG ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF CHINA’S LEGISLATURE
China’s legislature elected outgoing Premier Li Peng as its new chairman
Monday. Peng is closely associated with the Chinese government’s resistance
to the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
During that situation it was Peng who announced martial law and moved
troops in to stop the demonstrations by force. Li received 2,616 votes for
chair, while 200 delegates voted against him. Among his tasks will be
overseeing China’s adoption of a major U.N. covenant on civil and political
rights, enshrining freedom of speech, religion and peaceful assembly. China
last week pledged to sign the pact. Peng is 69.
CANADIAN FLAG BANNED FROM CANADIAN PARLIAMENT
Backed by Quebec separatists, Canadian House of Commons Speaker Gilbert
Parent ruled Monday that Canada’s maple leaf flag has no place in the
Commons because it disrupts the decorum of the elected chamber. The issue
has grown out of a battle between Canada’s official opposition, the
Western-based Reform Party, and the French-speaking separatist Bloc
Quebecois, which wants Quebec to break away from the rest of Canada. The
flag controversy escalated at the end of February when Reform Party members
waved hundreds of tiny Canadian flags and sang the national anthem, Oh
Canada, to drown out a question by a Bloc Quebecois member. Quebecois had
complained earlier that there were too many Canadian flags at the Nagano
Olympics. In recent weeks Reform members have begun wearing red and white
maple leaf ties and even driving a red and white car painted the national
symbol. After the decision the Reform party promised to force a Commons
vote on the issue.
IN OTHER NEWS…
A military jury Monday spared Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney a prison sentence and
dropped him one rank in his sexual-misconduct court-martial, despite the
Army’s request for a six-month prison sentence and a demotion to the lowest
rank, private, for McKinney’s obstruction of justice conviction. …
Indigenous tribal leaders appealed on Monday for help against out-of
control fires in Brazil’s northern Amazon; the fires have destroyed an
estimated 14,000 square miles of Amazon, an area almost the size of the
Netherlands. … Citing $10 billion of foreign investment in Russia last
year, Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin stated Monday that
Russia’s economy has stabilized after months of turmoil. … With a Supreme
Court decision expected this month, a court order Monday supported agnostic
twins who refused to repeat part of the Boy Scout oath acknowledging duty
to God, but who met all other requirements to become Eagle Scouts. …
Thousands of Kosovo’s Albanians took to the streets Monday to protest a
Serbian police crackdown that has claimed dozens of Albanian lives, and
Albanian leaders refused to meet with a Serb delegation offering autonomy
to Kosovo, calling the proposed meeting a propaganda ploy. … Under an
agreement announced Monday, American Family publishers, which was sued by
several states for false advertising, will no longer stuff mailboxes with
letters featuring Ed McMahon and Dick Clark which say “You’re our newest
winner.”
*****
SPORTS UPDATE
Results from Spring Break action for Women’s softball and Men’s golf will
be printed in tomorrow’s Gazette, not today’s as was earlier reported.
1) Today’s and tomorrow’s contests
TODAY
Women’s softball hosts Neumann in a 3:30 p.m. contest.
Men’s baseball travels to Lebanon Valley for a 3:30 p.m. game.
Women’s lacrosse hosts College of Notre Dame in a 4:00 p.m. game.
Men’s lacrosse hosts Amherst in a 4:00 p.m. match.
TOMORROW
Men’s tennis takes on Hartford in a 3:00 p.m. home match.
*****
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The Daily Gazette
Board of Editors
Mary Elizabeth Alvarez
Ross Bowling
Massey Burke
Fred Bush
Steve Dawson
Lorrin Nelson
Cathy Polinsky
Elizabeth Weber
Staff Writers
Josh Bess
Joseph Genereux
Aarti Iyer
Tamala Montgomery
Nathanael Stulman
Maureen Vernon
Weatherman
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This concludes today’s report.
Copyright 1998 by The Daily Gazette. All rights reserved.