Friday, April 27, 2001

Friday, April 27, 2001
Volume 5, Number 126

NEWS IN BRIEF

SPORTS IN BRIEF

WEATHER FORECAST

Today: A mix of clouds and sun. High 72.
As I try and come up with something to write here, I keep looking around my room and realizing just how messy it is.

Tonight: Partly cloudy. Low 47.
And it’s weird, because I know I just cleaned it a few days ago.

Saturday: Sunny. High 61.
Perhaps I’m a slob. Maybe I’m just lazy. Or maybe I just have more to do than worry about keeping my room clean.

Sunday: Partly cloudy. Highs near 70.
Most likely, it’s those nasty little leprechauns at it again. They come out from under my bed at night sometimes and take all the stuff out of my drawers and off my bookcase and pile it all on the floor in a heap. Little bastards.

TODAY’S SHARPLES MENU

Lunch: Crunchy cod, macaroni and cheese, *El’s black beans, cut green beans, stewed tomatoes
**Specialty salad bar

Dinner: Sweet and sour chicken, basmati rice, pasta saute, *stuffed peppers, broccoli, cut corn
**Taco bar

NEWS REPORT

1) World news roundup

Six hijackers seized an Ethiopian plane carrying at least 50 passengers and diverted it to Khartoum, Sudan on Thursday. The attackers, who were armed with hand grenades and pistols, released all their hostages hours later and surrendered early Friday, according to officials. There were no reports of serious injury among the passengers or hijackers. Officials said that the hijackers surrendered after receiving assurances that they would be treated fairly and would not be sent back to Ethiopia.

The House of Representatives voted Thursday to make it a federal crime to harm a fetus during an assault on its mother, urging action on behalf of “unborn victims.” The bill was decried by abortion rights advocates as a foot in the door toward legal recognition of fetuses as people. After a long, heated debate that included pictures of a woman holding a stillborn baby who died after she was assaulted, the House passed the bill 252-172, almost identical to the 254-172 margin by which it was passed a year ago. Unlike last year, however, the bill has the support of the White House and its new occupant. “This legislation affirms our commitment to a culture of life, which welcomes and protects children,” President Bush said in a prepared statement as he traveled to Houston on Thursday. Former President Clinton had promised to veto it if it ever reached him. It didn’t, mainly because of little support for it in the Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee, now evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, has yet to set a hearing on the issue this year.

In light of a threatened recording industry lawsuit, Edward Felten, an associate professor of computer science at Princeton University, decided against revealing Thursday how he and other researchers thwarted security measures meant to protect copyright digital music. Felten, whose team included Rice University and Xerox-PARC researchers, disabled five of six electronic signatures that had been added to recordings as inaudible background noise. The safeguards, called “watermarks,” are designed to prevent the dissemination of copyright music when devices that play or record digital audio are programmed to recognize them. Felten had been silent for days on whether he would present his findings at the International Information Hiding Workshop in Pittsburgh. On Thursday, he said he decided against releasing the information because of the potential for lawsuits against the researchers, their schools and conference organizers. He did not say what he would do next. Lawyers for Princeton and the recording industry had been negotiating for a week on whether Felten could present the research for public review. The industry wanted to see it first. “This is a challenge to his academic freedom in the sense that he wanted to present his findings and could not, but it’s not over,” said Steven Schultz, a Princeton spokesman. “We hope he can publish, and we are working on helping him figure that out.”

2) Campus events

SPORTS UPDATE

1) Women’s lacrosse destroys Haverford

The women’s lacrosse team pummeled Haverford yesterday, 21-8, to close out their season with a winning record in the Centennial Conference. Katie Tarr ’02 scored 8 goals to match a career-high and tossed in two assists. The senior women ended their Swat careers with a flourish, with Kristen English notching 3 goals and 2 assists, Erika Williams tallying a hat-trick and a helper, and Amber Adamson adding two scores. Mavis Biss ’02 also scored a trio and Jenn Hart ’03 had a splendid game with 17 saves in net. The team’s final overall record stands at 10-5 with a 5-4 finish in the Centennial.

2) Baseball falls to Muhlenberg

The baseball team dropped a high-scoring affair to Muhlenberg yesterday, 15-9. No individual stats were available for the contest. With just one game left in the season (Haverford on Saturday), the team’s record falls to 4-19 overall and 3-13 in the Conference.

3) Hood Trophy outcome goes down to the wire

Following the women’s lacrosse victory over Haverford Thursday, the Hood Trophy standings narrow to 8-7, in favor of the Fords. Three contests remain in this year’s competition: Baseball on Saturday and Men’s and Women’s Track and Field at the Centennial Conference Championships this weekend. The trophy is awarded annually to either Swat or Haverford, based on the results of the matches played between their varsity teams during the course of the year.

4) IM Basketball Results

Non-Competitive League Semifinals:

#2 Team 3 52
#6 DU Pigroast 25

#1 Jelly Donut 50
#4 Mertz Mad Monkeys 35

Competitive League:

#1 Alums 56
#4 THE ARC 43

#6 Young Bucks 62
#2 Landsharks 49

5) World sports roundup

So much for basketball’s biggest new rivalry – the Lakers stomped on Portland yet again, taking Game 2 of their first round series 106-88. Shaquille O’Neal scored 32 points as a number of skirmishes led to the ejections of the Blazers’ Dale Davis and Rasheed Wallace. Also Thursday night, Toronto defeated the Knicks 94-74 to even their series at one game apiece. Vince Carter finally figured out how to score against New Yorks stifling defense, exploding early in the second half and winding up with 22 points.

Three weeks after throwing the season’s first no-hitter against the Twins, Boston’s Hideo Nomo faced Minnesota again – and held them hitless through six innings before Torii Hunter line drive slipped off the edge of Boston right fielder Darren Lewis. In his first game as official scorer for the Red Sox, Bob Ellis ruled it a hit without going to the replay. Nomo left after the seventh having given up only that hit, and the Red Sox eventually won 2-0.

6) Today’s and tomorrow’s contests

QUOTE OF THE DAY