Friday, March 22, 2002

by Pei Pei Liu
Section Editor

Justin Cronin, author of “Mary and O’Neil” and Associate Professor
at
LaSalle University, visited Swarthmore yesterday to give a reading and
announce the winners of the 2002 William Plumer Potter Fiction Awards. He
also met with the fiction workshop to answer questions about his work and
the writing process in general.

In the workshop, Cronin addressed specific questions about “Mary and
O’Neil,” his first novel, and spoke on topics ranging from his preferred
form of fiction to his method of coping with writer’s block. “Just write
what you’re ready to write,” he advised. “And physical exercise is
good for
putting you in touch with your consciousness or putting you in a
trance.without resorting to drugs or alcohol.”

Cronin then touched briefly on his experience in publishing, expressing
regret at his view that the industry has changed hands from those with a
genuine love of literature to those with a desire to mass-market
entertainment. When asked how he distinguished literature and popular
entertainment, he said, “Oh, you can just tell right away. It’s like
[asking], ‘is this porn or not?'”

On writing literature in general, Cronin said, “It’s like going to Vegas.
It’s very chancy, even if you’re very good. So if you’re going to do it, do
it for the work.”

Later in the afternoon, Cronin read from “Tribe,” an unpublished
story that
elaborates on the lives of the central characters in “Mary and O’Neil.”
The
general audience were then given the opportunity to pose questions. In
response to these, Cronin listed Charles Baxter and Tom Drury as two of his
favorite contemporary authors. He also spoke about some agents’ and
publishers’ demand for dark, cynical, “edgy” fiction from young
contemporary authors: “Well, I have no edges. I’m like a pillow. I dare
to
bore.”

When asked about how he achieved the poignant blend of humor and sorrow in
“Mary and O’Neil,” Cronin replied, “a mix of tragedy and comedy
is the
current that I swim in every day.” Not writing about it, he said, would
be
“a missed opportunity. The humor that humans are able to muster in the
face
of all that’s difficult.that’s the best humor there is.”

Following the reading, a dinner was held for Cronin, members of the English
department faculty, and students. There, Cronin announced the winners of
the 2002 William Plumer Potter Fiction Awards. Honorable mentions were
awarded to Elinore Kaufman ’04 and Diana Metrick ’02. Jae Won Chung ’02
took second place, while the top prize went to Amy Long ’04. The four
winners will receive prize money of $500, $400, and $300.

A graduate of Harvard and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Cronin received the
Stephen Crane Award and the 2002 Penn Hemingway Award, given to the best
debut fiction of the year, for “Mary and O’Neil,” a novel in short
stories.
He is also the recipient of the 2001 Pew Fellowship in the Arts and is
currently working on a new novel, entitled “Summer Guest.”

*****

by Kent Qian
News Staff Writer

At a NCIIA-sponsored exhibition at the Smithsonian over spring break,
Swarthmore students showcased to the public a home
heating system that they built themselves. Two teams of Swarthmore
students, one consisting of engineers the other of economists,
participated in the development of the system. The engineers
designed and built the system, and the economists handled the marketing and
public relations.

Swarthmore was one of 19 teams that had exhibits at the Smithsonian last
week. The home heating system was well received by the public as well as
members from other team.

“The reception we received was very good,” said Pukar Malla ’02,
a key
member of the engineering team. “People were very impressed.”

The home heating system featured novel design in many areas, but
particularly in its energy efficiency.

“It’s extremely low power. It’s so low power that it can be run off of
batteries,” said Malla. The entire heating system can be powered by two
12-volt cells and Malla estimates that this battery-operated system is at
least 50-percent more efficient than conventional systems.

The unit also has an advanced diagnosis system.

“It very intelligently tells you situations in various parts of system.
It
tells you if there are errors, and if an error is fatal, it will display
that on screen, beep, and shut off the system. It’s self monitoring,” said
Malla.

The third way this system is different is that it’s completely
decentralized. Each room or zone has its own thermometer, and the heating
element in that room will only respond to changes in the temperature of that
specific room, not the entire house. This could mean a great energy saving for
homeowners in two ways: heating can be turned off for unused rooms, and
since the heating element in each room only triggers off of the temperature
in that specific room, the homeowner no longer needs to adjust the
thermostat for the entire house when he or she moves into an usually warm
room full of sunlight or into an usually cold, windowless room. With
decentralizing combined with the low power requirements of the central
unit, heating efficiency is ensured in every room in the home.

The project was first conceived in 1992 by engineering professor Fred
Orthlieb during a visit to Canada. While he was there, he discovered that
Canada has frequent power outages, and during those power outages,
conventional heating systems that are powered by standard AC outlets stop
working and occupants of the home are left shivering. Upon return to
Swarthmore, Ortholieb set out to build a home heating system that could be
off-grid, i.e., not relying on a power grid. Gradually over the past
decade, he recruited students to work on the project, and his brainchild
slowly started to take shape.

Commenting on the long design and implementation process, Malla said
enthusiastically, “We were focused for the various systems to work. We
knew that we were going to file a patent. Once we reached there, we had an
invention. It registered clearly in my mind that it was an invention that
we had made.”

Ani Silwal ’03, a participant in the marketing aspect, said that he learned
a lot from working with the engineers.

“I enjoy working with engineers,” he said, “because engineers
are
fascinated by the inner workings of it. Economists only worry about the
bottom line.”

The team filed and received a provisional patent for the heating system
last year and anticipates receiving a full patent soon. The marketing team
has started talking with manufacturers, and one manufacturer in New Jersey
has already expressed interest in the system.

The current team is headed by Prof. Orthlieb. The engineers on the squad are
Tushar Parikar ’01, Ari Houser ’01, and Malla. Nii Addy ’01, Michael
Stanley ’01, and Jessica Schwartz ’01 make up the marketing team. Tan Mau Wu
’02, Stefan
Gary ’02, Tim Lang ’04, Caleb Shetland ’02, Marie Niemczyk ’04, and Silwal also
contributed to the project. In addition, engineering professor Erik Cheever,
who
worked with Orthlieb from the very inception of the project, advised the
students on the electrical engineering portions of the system.

*****

* The final death toll from the car bomb explosion in Lima on Wednesday
night totaled nine, but President Bush says he will not cancel his
scheduled trip to Peru this weekend. Security in Lima has been amplified in
the primary areas of the city where Bush will spend time during his first
visit to South America. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the
blast, but U.S. officials suspect a group of leftist rebels known as
Shining Path, which is also believed by the U.S. to carry out terrorist
activity. Peruvian officials say Shining Path also planned an attack on the
U.S. Embassy last year but were intercepted by law enforcement in time.

* After two Palestinian suicide bombings in two days, officials are
struggling to resume interrupted peace talks in the Middle East. The latest
attack came yesterday, when a Palestinian man detonated a bomb in a crowded
shopping district, killing himself and three Israelis and wounding at least
40 others, according to police. Israel subsequently called off the talks
planned for Thursday night and issued a statement assigning “exclusive
responsibility” for the continued attacks to Yasser Arafat. Arafat,
however, insisted he would act immediately to try to stop the attacks and
is meeting this morning with U.S. special envoy Anthony Zinni in Ramallah.
Palestinian officials say negotiations with Israel could resume as early as
this evening.

* In San Francisco yesterday, Marjorie Knoller, the owner of the two dogs
who mauled 33-year-old Diane Whipple to death in late January, was found
guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter. Knoller is one of only
three people in the country to be convicted of murder through a dog attack.
She could receive a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. Her husband,
Robert Noel, who was not present when the attack occurred, was convicted of
manslaughter and could face up to four years in prison. The case has
garnered national attention and was moved to Los Angeles because of the
intense media scrutiny in San Francisco, which included heavy pressure from
the gay community over the attack on the lesbian Whipple.

*****

Today:

“Laboratory Analogs of Balck Holes and Hawking Radiation”
Physics and Astronomy Colloquium with Ted Jacobson, University of Maryland
Dupont 133, 4:00 p.m.

Shabbat Services and Dinner
Bond Memorial Hall, 5:30 p.m.

Film: “Mulholland Drive”
Upper Tarble, 7:30 & 10:00 p.m.

Swarthmore Christian Fellowship Meeting
Kohlberg 115, 7:30 p.m.

International Club Movie Night
Kohlberg 116, 8:00 p.m.

Elizabeth Neiman ’82, Soprano
with Judy V. Kadar, Harp.
Lang Concert Hall, 8:00 p.m.

Saturday:

Crum Creek 2002: Watershed Partnership Conference
Scheuer Room – Kohlberg, 8:00 a.m.

Africa and Globalization Conference
Bond Memorial Hall, 9:00 a.m.

Knit/Crochet for Children in Need
Parrish Parlor – West, 1:00 p.m.

Film: “The House of Mirth”
Kirby Lecture Hall – Martin, 7:30 & 10:00 p.m.

Baroque Lute Recital by Richard Stone
Lang Concert Hall, 8:00 p.m.

Sunday:

Celebration of Mass
Bond Memorial Hall, 11:00 a.m.

Protestant Worship
2nd Floor Worship Room – Bond, 4:00 p.m.

Recital by David Shimoni ’94, Piano
Lang Concert Hall, 7:30 p.m.

Higher Ground Meeting
Kohlberg 115, 9:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

Freshman Sam Brody scored in the top of the first inning to give the Garnet
an early lead, but Arcadia racked up five runs in the bottom of the inning
and went on to win the game by a score of 7-1. Brody, Pam Lavallee ’03, Mary
Mintel ’05, and Mary Blair ’05 each picked up hits on the afternoon. The
team’s record dropped to 0-8 on the season, and they will open their
Centennial Conference play on Saturday with a double-header at Western
Maryland.

*****

* The NCAA Tournament was Upset City last night, baby! Despite having four
of the same starting players from the team that claimed the NCAA title last
year, Duke was eliminated from this year’s tournament without reaching the
final eight, as they were shocked by Indiana 74-73 in the South Regional
semifinals. The Hoosiers, who had not made it to the Elite Eight since 1993
under coach Bob Knight, will go on to play Kent State for a spot among the
Final Four. Cinderella squad Kent State, ranked 10th in the bracket, upset
#3 Pittsburgh in overtime, 78-73. Meanwhile, in the West Regional
semifinals, Arizona, who lost to Duke in last year’s championship game, was
also forced to make a much earlier exit this year, falling to second-seeded
Oklahoma 88-67. The Sooners will next battle Missouri for the West Regional
title. #12 Missouri pulled off the third surprise of the evening, defeating
#8 UCLA, 82-73.

* University of Arkansas President B. Alan Sugg has decided to uphold
Chancelor John White’s March 1 decision to fire Nolan Richardson from his
position as head basketball coach for the Razorbacks. White terminated
Richardson’s contract after the coach had made public and private comments
on several occasions to the effect that he wanted to leave Arkansas and
wished for the university to buy out the remainder of his contract. Later,
however, Richardson expressed a desire to stay on at the college and asked
President Sugg to review White’s decision. Richardson has not said whether
he will challenge the president’s ruling, but his lawyer John Walker
commented, “We’ll consider all options carefully and in due course. It’ll
be
a while before we choose to do anything.” Richardson coached at Arkansas
for
17 years, winning the 1994 NCAA title and losing the championship game to
UCLA in 1995. Overall Richardson has achieved a 508-206 record in his 22
years as a head coach, including five years at Tulsa.

* New acquisitions Pavel Bure and Tom Poti each scored a goal to help the
New York Rangers to a 5-2 win over the Ottawa Senators last night. Bure was
acquired from Florida on Monday while Poti, along with Rem Murray, were
picked up from Edmonton in exchange for Mike York just before the NHL
trading deadline Tuesday afternoon. The victory snapped the Rangers’
four-game losing skid and kept their chances of securing a playoff berth
alive. New York now finds itself two points behind Montreal for the eighth
and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

*****

Today:
Women’s tennis at Franklin and Marshall, 3:00 p.m.

Tomorrow:
Women’s rugby hosts College of New Jersey, 11:00 a.m.
Track and field hosts Swarthmore Invitational, 12:00 p.m.
Men’s volleyball hosts TriMatch, 1:00 p.m.
Men’s rugby hosts Franklin & Marshall, 1:00 p.m.
Women’s tennis at Gettysburg, 1:00 p.m.
Men’s lacrosse at Gettysburg, 1:00 p.m.
Men’s tennis at Mary Washington, 1:30 p.m.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“College isn’t the place to go for ideas.”
–Helen Keller

*****
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