november 18, 2009 issue

Students robbed off East Campus

by Samantha BrooksThe chronicle

Two seniors were robbed at gunpoint early Tuesday morning near east campus.

The two students, a male and a female, were sitting in a parked car in the 1200 block of West Markham Avenue around 1:15 a.m. when two men approached the passenger side of the vehicle, Public information offi-cer Kammie Michael of the Durham Police Department wrote in an e-mail. one of the men pointed a gun and demanded money and car keys from the students, who were returning to their off-campus residence.

Michael said the suspects took an undis-closed sum of money but did not acquire the car keys because the robbery was inter-rupted when another vehicle turned on to West Markham Avenue.

no one was injured in the incident.Michael described the suspects as black

males of medium build in their early 20s, weighing between 140 and 150 pounds. one suspect was wearing dark jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt and the other was wearing dark jeans and a gray sweatshirt, Michael said.

Sue Wasiolek, dean of students and assis-tant vice president for student affairs, said both students are doing fine and that the number of police patrols in the area has been increased. Students were informed of the incident in an e-mail sent by Wasiolek around 8 a.m. Tuesday. N.C. to limit 11 children’s vaccines

by Shaoli ChaudhuriThe chronicle

Financial strains have led the state to cut funding for 11 im-munizations for insured children.

The north carolina immunization Program will no longer provide these vaccines for free to pediatricians and their insured patients. Among these immunizations are the hepatitis A vac-cine, the Measles, Mumps, rubella and Varicella vaccine, the sec-ond dose of Varicella, the Diptheria, Tetanus and Pertussis vac-cine, the hepatitis B vaccine, the polio vaccine and combination shots like Pediatrix.

“Funding formulas need to be re-explored during tight finan-cial times,” State health Director Dr. Jeff engel said.

nciP participants were notified of the decision in an oct. 30 memo from the north carolina Department of health and human Services, which announced the measures will take effect Dec. 1.

engel said the cut was made from the $18 million univer-sal vaccine fund in north carolina, a state fund that provides necessary immunizations to all children, including those who are insured.

“Taxpayers pay [this fund] for insured kids,” engel said, adding that some vaccines —like the combination shots—cost $100 or more.

As a result of this first cut, $4 million were moved back to the state general fund.

Before the institution of the universal vaccine fund, pedia-

tricians privately purchased patients’ vaccines up-front, at high retail costs. in addition, insured patients’ parents often had to pay deductibles and co-pays to insurance companies for the im-munizations.

engel said the new cut “is going to force those problems to re-emerge,” adding that north carolina Public health is working with the north carolina Pediatric Society to explore other ways to fund the program.

he noted, however, that the state does not believe the cut vac-cines are any less essential than those that will still be universally funded by the nciP.

“All these vaccines are vital to public health and we would never want a child to go without them,” he said.

certain vaccines were cut because similar vaccinations are still available, as with the combination shots, or—as with hepatitis A—the shot is not required by public school systems because hepatitis A is not contagious, engel said.

Amy caruso, public information officer for the nc DhhS, added that the vaccination fund was not the only sector of the department to suffer cuts.

“Tons of huge cuts were made. This was just one piece of a lot of cuts,” she said. “They definitely thought about it for a while as much as they could think about it.”

This decision will not affect patients eligible for the Vaccines for children program, according to the oct. 30 memo. VFc is

sam sheft/the ChroniCle

Junior Nolan Smith’s return to action after a two-game suspension ended up being one of the best games of his Duke career. Smith led all scorers with 24 points as the Blue Devils broke away from Charlotte early.

101 DUKE UNCC 59Smith makes all the difference

Courtney douglas/the ChroniCle

Two Duke students were robbed at gunpoint on West Markham Avenue early Tuesday morning. Police patrols in the area have been increased. See immunizations on PAge 5

See robbery on PAge 5

by Jeff SchollThe chronicle

For Duke’s first two games, nolan Smith could only sit and watch from the bench. Tuesday night, he showed his teammates what they had been missing.

Behind a career-high 24 points from the junior guard, the no. 9 Blue Devils (3-0) crushed charlotte 101-59 in the second round of the niT Season Tip-off.

“i was definitely itching to play,” Smith said. “Watching those two games, watching my team play, i was getting anxious, so i was ready to get back out there.”

Duke stumbled out of the gates Mon-day night against coastal carolina, but had no such slow start against the 49ers (2-1), jumping out to a 14-2 lead in just over three minutes of play.

Smith accounted for eight of those 14 points, scoring his first bucket of the sea-son off a drive right through the middle of the lane.

But the shooting guard provided more than a scoring lift—his presence on the court gave the Blue Devils a familiarity and confidence they had missed while he was suspended.

“With nolan back it just felt a lot more comfortable, and he was a big spark for us in the beginning of the game,” junior Kyle Singler said.

See m. bball on PAge 8

The ChronicleThe independenT daily aT duke universiTy

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2009 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH YEAR, ISSUE 62www.DUKEChroNiClE.Com

Duke heads to Miami with winning mentality, Page 7

oNThErECorD“We wanted to show the world that we play great defense

and we deserve to be mentioned with the best.” —Nolan Smith on Duke’s defense. See story page 7

Bo fo’ sho’DUU confirms plans for comedian Bo

Burnham’s Dec. 3 show in Page, PAGE 3

2 | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2009 ThE ChRONiClE

• Meet members of the program staff • Discuss program benefits and expectations

• Review important information about the application process

Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 10, Floor 2,

meeting room A257.

Learn more at www.robertsonscholars.org , or contact Kristin Miller, [email protected] .

Attention

first-year

students…

Are you considering

applying to become a Robertson Scholar

in spring 2010?

The Robertson Scholars Program invites you to a

final interest meeting TODAY Wednesday, November 18th at 6pm.

worldandnationBeiJing — describing ties with China

as “never more important to our collective future,” President obama tuesday mixed praise for Chinese economic triumphs with gentle prodding on its currency, hu-man rights and tibet.

talks in Beijing with Chinese President hu Jintao produced pledges of cooperation on climate change, the economy and even mili-tary relations but yielded no breakthroughs on the many global headaches that Wash-ington wants Beijing to help relieve.

a stiff joint appearance by obama and hu in the great hall of the People over-looking tiananmen square crystallized the state of the relationship between the two world powers: increasingly important to both countries, but also curiously bereft of warmth or intimacy.

hu, speaking first, said that as the world economy “has shown some positive signs

of stabilizing and recovering,” it is impor-tant for both countries to “oppose and re-ject protectionism in all its forms.”

obama called climate change and nu-clear proliferation “challenges that neither of our nations can solve by acting alone.” he said the two will continue to “build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship.”

“i spoke to President hu about amer-ica’s bedrock beliefs that all men and women possess certain fundamental hu-man rights,” obama said. “We do not be-lieve these principles are unique to ameri-ca, but rather they are universal rights and that they should be available to all peo-ples, to all ethnic and religious minorities. and our two countries agreed to continue to move this discussion forward in a hu-man rights dialogue that is scheduled for early next year.”

“ ”You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to

lose sight of the shore. — Christopher Columbus

TODAY IN HISTORY1820: Antarctica is discovered

by U.S. Navy Captain Palmer

Washington — army Vice Chief of staff gen. Peter Chiarelli tuesday called the army’s record suicide rate this year “horrible” and said the problem of soldiers taking their own lives is the toughest he has faced in his 37 years in service.

as of nov. 16, 140 soldiers on active duty and 71 soldiers not on active duty were suspected to have committed sui-cides. “We are almost certainly going to end the year higher than last year, which was also a record for army suicides,” Chiarelli said at a Pentagon news con-ference.

“this is horrible,” he said. “every single loss is devastating.” however, Chiarelli, who has made suicide prevention a pri-ority, said that despite the high total, the monthly suicide rate has declined since January.

Lie detectors bust policesan luis Potosi, mexico — the lie-de-

tector team brought in by mexico’s top cop was supposed to help clean up the coun-try’s long-troubled police. there was just one problem: most of its members them-selves didn’t pass, and a supervisor was rig-ging results to make sure others did.

When public safety chief genaro garcia luna found out, he canned the team, all 50 to 60 members. “he fired everybody,” a se-nior u.s. law enforcement official said.

But the episode shows how difficult it will be for mexico to reverse a legacy of police corruption that has tainted whole departments, shattered people’s faith in law enforcement and compromised one of society’s most basic institutions.

President felipe Calderon’s 3-year-old drug offensive has laid bare the extent to which crime syndicates have infiltrated police agencies at virtually every level.

today:

6250 thursday:

6659

Obama prods China on currency and human rights

Gen. Chiarelli announces record Army suicide rate

Kim murPhy/los angeles times

Seth Mansel and Andrew VanDenBergh, both Iraq veterans who opposed the war, reach out to sol-diers and veterans in their coffee house, Coffee Strong, outside Fort Lewis, Wash. Coffee Strong, which opened a year ago, serves as a support base for soldiers and continues a trend which began during the Vietnam War, when disillusioned soldiers returning home sought solace in similar cafes.

ThE ChRONiClE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2009 | 3

��

rubbered the wrong wayAn east Union employee threat-

ened to slash the tires of another em-ployee’s car Sunday evening.

arm robberyTwo students stole a parking lot

gate arm early Saturday morning.

baked and burnedofficers responded to reports of

marijuana odor in craven house F early Saturday morning. Three stu-dents were found smoking and in pos-session of marijuana.

raindrops keep falling...gutters were reported removed

early Saturday morning from craven houses T and U.

banner banditTen tailgate banners were stolen

from Wilson recreation center Satur-day morning. The banners are valued at $1,500.

Free-flow draftAn Armadillo grill employee

reported Saturday afternoon that unidentified students were serving themselves beer from behind the restaurant’s bar without paying for the drinks.

Wrong tunnelThe tunnel on Flowers Drive and

beneath chapel Drive was reported to have been painted with spray and bucket paint Saturday evening.

CrimeBriefsDetails for Burnham show finalizedby Ray Koh

The chronicle

Duke Students will not have to go to YouTube or iTunes to get their Bo Burn-ham fix Dec. 3.

At Duke University Union’s general body meeting Tuesday night, members finalized the details of Burnham’s up-coming show scheduled for 8 p.m. in Page Auditorium the last Thursday of classes this semester.

“it’s reserved seating, so people should buy their tickets early,” said Vice President of communications Karen chen, a junior.

Student tickets are $5 and went on sale Monday. Tickets are $10 for non-Duke students and $15 for the general public.

Burnham is a popular YouTube come-dian and song writer who is the youngest comedian to appear on comedy central, chen said.

The body also held a committee infor-mation session for its new members. each of the 15 committee heads reviewed the history of his or her committee and its function.

in other business:Jazz at the Mary lou will be mov-

ing its weekly show to the Duke cof-feehouse, said Jazz Director camille creed, a junior. The regular Wednes-day night show will only be moved to east campus for the nov. 18 event. The featured performer will be the Trachy/lacy collective, which includes russell lacy, one of the founding members of the John Brown Quintet and a north carolina native.

chen said DUU decided to move the show because the Jazz committee hopes to expand its venue and identity on campus.

The coffeehouse will also host an open jam session Saturday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. for bands on campus to show-case their music. The event will be host-

ed by Small Town records. The campus concert Series will

bring several rock bands to The Ar-madillo grill nov. 20. The show next Friday will feature the indie rock band Tenderhooks from Knoxville, Tenn., as well as the local rock duo Beloved Binge from Durham.

ChroniCle file Photo

Comedian Bo Burnham, known for his popular Internet videos, will perform in Page Auditorium Thursday Dec. 3, said DUU Vice President of Communications Karen Chen, a junior (left).

DUKe UNIVeRSITY UNION


ATTENTION SOPHOMORES : THE MELLON MAYS UNDERGRADUATE

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IS CURRENTLY RECRUITING SOPHOMORES FOR ITS TWO-YEAR FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

We are hosting an information meeting on Tuesday, December 1 at 7:00 p.m.

The Multicultural Center, in the Bryan Cent er

If you are seriously considering attending a Ph.D. program after graduation in one of the following disciplines, please plan to attend to learn more!

• Anthropology • Area Studies • Art History • Classics • Computer Science • Demography • Earth Science • Ecology • Ethnomusicology • English

• Foreign Languages • Geology • History • Literature • Linguistics • Mathematics • Musicology • Philosophy • Physics • Political Theory • Religion • Sociology

The goal of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is to increase the number of underrepresented minority students and others with a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities, who will pursue PhDs in core fields in the arts and sciences. Fellowships are for two years. Mellon Fellows receive an annual stipend of $5,100 ($3,300 for the summer and $900 per semester), a $750 summer housing allowance, and up to $400 a year for travel pertaining to the Fellow’s research. Each Fellow also receives a $350 project supplies budget, and each faculty mentor receives a yearly award of $750.

For further information and application materials, check our web site: http://trinity.duke.edu/mellon-mays

Questions? Contact: Ms. Deborah Wahl, 684-6066 ([email protected])

Dr. Kerry Haynie, 660-4366 ([email protected])

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Searching for Korean War ghosts years laterby David Pierson

loS AngeleS TiMeS

JiAoShUiKeng, china — lin Zheng-ping was 13 the evening he saw the hills above his home glow. he was too fright-ened to go up and investigate.

The following day, word came that vil-lagers had discovered the wreckage of a plane. lin and two friends set out, climb-ing the narrow dirt paths they had helped furrow with their families’ oxen.

An hour later, after following the scent of burnt fuel, they arrived at the scene. The smoldering remains of a four-engine pro-peller plane was strewn across a ravine thick with brush and thorny trees. The glass can-opy that fronted the bomber had snapped off the plane’s silver fuselage; the wings still intact on each side of its tubular body.

lin and his fellow villagers, with no ra-dio or telephones to communicate with the outside world, didn’t know the Korean War had erupted and that the United States and china were fighting. They had no idea that the plane was American or that anybody would look for it.

“People were excited,” lin said. “They had never seen a plane before.”

Most villagers had not spoken in de-cades about that day in november 1950. Then one humid day last summer, a bus and four cars arrived at the remote moun-tain village and unloaded dozens of sol-diers carrying hoes and shovels. They said they had come to find the remains of an American warplane.

The crash would have stayed largely for-gotten if china hadn’t reached an agree-ment with the U.S. last year to find missing U.S. service men and women. chinese mili-tary historians digging through its archives

then discovered old documents describing a crash of an American bomber near lin’s village, Jiaoshuikeng.

The recent search itself would have re-mained in anonymity had china’s state me-dia not disclosed it last month, timed appar-ently to President Barack obama’s first visit to china. What could be a better gesture of goodwill than to turn over the remains of long-lost American soldiers?According to chinese military archives, the plane was a B-29 carrying a crew of 15, or at least that’s what was assumed based on the number of bodies found near the wreckage. American officials have been unable to identify the aircraft and said it was puzzling that a plane that ordinarily carried a crew of 11 would have so many people onboard.

The B-29 Superfortress helped turn the tide in World War ii. B-29s carried and dropped the two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. They were used for bombing early in the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, but became obsolete toward the end of the conflict.

one of them went down in southern guangdong province on nov. 5, 1950, about five months after the start of the Korean War and only days after the chinese entered the fray in support of north Korea. Though the crash site was about 1,000 miles from the Korean peninsula, it wasn’t far from Taiwan, where the U.S. had airplanes based.

At the crash site, villagers found charred corpses, one of which appeared to be a woman, another so small it could have been a boy. one body had eluded the flames. it was a man in a khaki uniform. lin and the other villagers examined the body. he clearly was not chinese.

The villagers hastily dug shallow graves

and buried the bodies.china, at the time, was in turmoil and

few paid much attention to the village, where people lived poor, rural lives. A year earlier, Mao Zedong and his communist army had taken control of the country after a bloody civil war and established the Peo-ple’s republic of china. in Jiaoshuikeng, 1,500 miles south of Beijing, villagers used tools and utensils made of wood or clay. Metal was too expensive.

Within days, villagers were stripping the crash site of valuables. They came with saws to cut up the plane into sheets of metal to sell in nearby towns, lin recalled. Some re-

membered finding a tube of toothpaste and a military badge. Another villager pocketed some Korean ginseng. chinese govern-ment archives say the locals also found a parachute, firearms and a Parker pen.

even after all the large pieces of the plane were taken, the search for valuables continued for years. children leading their grazing oxen up the slopes would inspect the ground.

Villagers said they couldn’t remember if anyone reported the incident but recalled how chinese military officials came to the village in 1960 to inquire about the crash. But by then not much was left of the wreck-age, they said.

angelina qu/los angeles times

Lin Zhengping, 72, was 13 in November 1950 when a U.S. B-29 Superfortress crashed near his home in Jiaoshuikeng in southern Guangdong province. He led a search team to the crash site last summer.


IMMUNIZATIONS from page 1

a separate federally-funded program for the uninsured and the under-insured, children on Medicaid and native American and Alaskan native children.

caruso said she hopes insurance companies will “pick up the slack” to shoulder the costs for the vaccines.

representatives from Blue cross Blue Shield of north carolina could not be reached for comment.

This is the second armed robbery of a student near east campus since students returned to classes this Fall. A student was robbed at gunpoint Sept. 22 near the east campus bridge.

Two students were robbed at gunpoint in the area dur-ing the summer. in July, four men with a gun robbed a student behind the east Union Building, which houses the Marketplace. in August, a senior was shot during an armed robbery just off east campus.

Durham Police ask that anyone with any information regarding the most recent incident call (919) 683-1200.

ROBBeRY from page 1

Afghan minister accused of taking bribeBy Joshua Partlow

The WAShingTon PoST

KABUl, Afghanistan — The Afghan minister of mines accepted a roughly $30 million bribe to award the coun-try’s largest development project to a chinese mining firm, according to a U.S. official who is familiar with mili-tary intelligence reports.

The allegation, if proved true, would mark one of the most brazen examples of corruption yet disclosed in a country where the problem has become so pervasive that it is now at the heart of President Barack obama’s admin-istration doubts over Afghan President hamid Karzai’s reliability as a partner. The question of whether Karzai can address his government’s graft and cronyism looms large as he prepares for his inauguration Thursday for a new term, and as obama completes a months-long strat-egy review that will define the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan after eight years of war.

Karzai is coming under intense international pressure to clear his cabinet of ministers who have reaped huge profits through bribery and kickback schemes. Although he an-nounced a new anti-corruption unit this week, the presi-dent has been reluctant to fire scandal-tainted ministers in the past, and it is unclear whether he is ready to do so now. Meanwhile, Afghans’ perceptions that they are ruled by a thieving class have weakened support for the government and bolstered sympathy for the Taliban insurgency.

in the case of the minister of mines, there is a “high de-gree of certainty,” the U.S. official said, that the alleged pay-ment to Mohammad ibrahim Adel was made in Dubai, Unit-ed Arab emirates, within a month of December 2007, when the state-run china Metallurgical group corp. received the contract for a $2.9 billion project to extract copper from the Aynak deposit in logar province. Aynak is considered one of the largest unexploited copper deposits in the world.

The selection of the chinese firm, known as Mcc, has angered some Afghan and American officials who worked on the bidding process with Adel, and who say he was bi-ased toward the company and did not give a fair hearing to the proposals of Western companies. But the issue has also gained urgency because the ministry is reviewing of-fers for another massive mining deal—this time for an iron ore deposit west of Kabul known as haji gak—for which Mcc is the front-runner.

“This guy has done this already; we’re in the same situ-ation again,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

in an interview, Adel denied repeatedly that he has re-ceived any bribes or illicit payments during his three-year tenure as minister and said that Mcc won the contract after a fair review process. The chinese company’s invest-ment—including plans to build a railroad and a 400-mega-watt power plant, and to make an $808 million bonus pay-ment to the Afghan government—far exceeded that of other firms, Adel said.

“i am responsible for the revenue and benefit of our people,” Adel said. “All the time i’m following the law and the legislation for the benefit of the people.”

The performance of the Mines Ministry over the past three years under Adel typifies the weakness of Karzai’s government. Afghanistan’s wealth of mineral resources

represents a potential bright spot in an otherwise feeble economy. Flush with copper, iron, marble, gold and gem-stones, the mining sector could become a major source of revenue for the country.

But today, no major mines are functioning, and current and former U.S. and Afghan officials said incompetence and corruption have hindered the industry’s development and frightened away potential investors.

“There is a pattern of improprieties that have gone on. We do know that the World Bank procedures, and the gov-ernment of Afghanistan procedures, were badly breached repeatedly,” said one former American adviser to the min-istry. “There is every reason to believe there were probably gratuities exchanged.”

Adel trained as a mining engineer in what was then the Soviet city of leningrad, and his autocratic style has alien-ated current and former Afghan and American officials who have worked with him. it also has prompted wide-

spread allegations that he or his deputies have received payments to award lucrative contracts to allies.

The first major contract of Adel’s tenure was to privatize the ghori cement factory, the country’s only functioning ce-ment plant, set in the limestone hills of Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan. The former mines minister, Mir Mo-hammad Sediq, said that Mahmoud Karzai, the president of the Afghan investment co. and the brother of President Karzai, approached him, asking to take over the factory.

President Karzai replaced Sediq and installed Adel as minister in March 2006. Adel moved quickly on the ce-ment proposal. A competitor for the project, the Aria Zamin company, said Adel used his influence to deny the firm a fair chance. The company’s representative in the bidding, nasir Khisrow Parsi, said that in the final days of the bidding process, Adel told him his company needed to present $25 million in cash to the ministry as a guaranty to show that the firm was serious.


OPERATION: Stores Administration PUBLICATION: ChronicleHEADLINE: Thank You DATES: 11/17/09COLOR: CMYK

Duke University Stores® would like to thank everyone who participatedin our Hoops Shootout on the Plaza on Tuesday, November 17.

The following is the list of winners from each division:

Men’sFreeThrow Women’sFreeThrow ShootingContest ShootingContest 1st Place – Albert Karcher 1st Place – Jennifer Chen 2nd Place – David Ross 2nd Place – Sarah Woodring 3rd Place – Philip Lomela 3rd Place – Laura Newland Men’s3Point Women’s3Point ShootingContest ShootingContest 1st Place – Roger Pareja 1st Place – Jennifer Chen 2nd Place – Trae Harrison 2nd Place – Tameka Tisdale 3rd Place – Dan Styles 3rd Place – Laura Newland

Each of the winners will be notified via e-mail when the prizes will be ready to pick up.

by Kyle LambrechtThe chronicle

nolan Smith’s career-high 24 points will receive all the at-tention from Duke’s lopsided 101-59 victory over charlotte.

But the junior guard’s season debut may have had a larger impact on the defensive end of the court.

“We wanted to show the world that we play great defense and we deserve to be mentioned with the best,” Smith said of his team’s performance during

its first nationally televised game this year. “We were really

At Tuesday’s weekly press conference, head coach David cutcliffe fielded a pointed, but fair, question about getting ready for the Miami hurricanes.

“how do you get [the players] over Georgia Tech and over the injury situation against a team

where you’d already be giving away athleticism even if you were healthy,” the reporter asked, “and sell them on a belief that they can go down [to Miami] and keep the stated goal of a bowl game alive?”

Without hesitation, cutcliffe told the throng of reporters to get the man a crown since he

had asked the best question of the day. While the crowd got a good chuckle out of it, there’s no ig-noring just how significant the question is.

The simple reality is that at nearly every posi-tion—except quarterback, where the two teams are probably equal—the hurricanes have a distinct tal-ent and athletic advantage. Georgia Tech had tre-mendous athletes, but Miami has even better ones (which showed in the teams’ early-season matchup, when the Yellow Jackets suffered their only loss, 33-17). And as seen on the deep passes Georgia Tech completed Saturday, Duke’s athletic disadvantage is pretty glaring.

last year, the hurricanes were an average team with good talent that struggled with consistency. The Blue Devils fell badly to that team on homecoming week-end, 49-31, in a game cutcliffe felt his team quit on before the fourth quarter.

And as stated before, Miami is infinitely better this year (though not necessarily more consistent, which is one thing Duke has an advantage in). So, cutcliffe, how are you going to talk to your team?

SportsThe Chronicle

www.dukechroniclesports.com

WEDNESDAYNovember 18, 2009

>> BASEBALL Duke will play 18 home games at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park this coming season, the team announced in a press conference Tuesday

Mental edge is Duke’s best shot

StephenAllan

faith robertson/the ChroniCle

Head coach David Cutcliffe has to convince his players they can beat Miami despite the Hurricanes’ obvious advantages in talent and size.

Men’s basketball

sam sheft/the ChroniCle

kyle singler had a quiet game by his standards on offense, but he played excellent perimeter and interior defense to limit Charlotte’s open looks.

Tight perimeter defense keys easy Blue Devil victory

Game Analysis

indu ramesh/the ChroniCle

Duke held Charlotte to under 34 percent shooting in tuesday’s easy win.

See allan on pAGe 8

pressuring.... That was the key to our defense.”Behind Smith’s defensive energy, the Blue Devils

forced charlotte into 17 turnovers, seven of which came in the first four minutes. They also stopped a potent 49er three-point attack by smothering the perimeter the entire game. The 49ers could only muster 23.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc on 5-of-21 shooting.

“We got off to a good start. nolan was terrific on the ball defending,” Kyle Singler said. “That allows lance, our second-best defender, to go out and be off the ball and defend their best player. Just having nolan back on the court, he brings defense and offense.”

Duke focused on establishing a defensive presence from the tipoff and the intensity both on and off the ball never wavered, exemplified by charlotte senior guard DiJuan harris being held to a meager four points and two assists. last season harris was third in the ncAA in total assists, but the combination of Smith’s on-ball defense and off-the-ball traps from forwards lance Thomas and ryan Kelly limited harris’s offensive pro-duction. The Blue Devils defensive scheme also forced the guard into three turnovers.

“harris is really a good guard and lance and ryan Kelly did a good job of helping nolan just make them a half-court team,” Krzyzewski said. “At the halfcourt i thought that Jon, Kyle and nolan’s experience on the perimeter did not give [charlotte] the open shots.”

Duke’s perimeter defense was complemented by out-standing pressure in the post. The Blue Devils struggled against physical teams with strong players in the paint last season. But forward Miles plumlee’s performance—great defense to go along with a double-double—sug-gests that this may no longer be a problem for Duke. his developing presence in the paint shows that the Blue Devils now have the ability to fight in the paint, coupled with an already strong perimeter defense.

“[plumlee’s] defense and his rebounding was good,”

See analysis on pAGe 8


Answer to puzzle

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“i can give you 5,000 reasons why we won’t win,” cut-cliffe said. “But if i give you 5,000 reasons why we won’t win, i’ve got to give you 5,000 things we’re going to do about it.”

cutcliffe then explained that the one thing Duke has going for it in this contest is its brainpower and cunning.

allan from page 7

addison Corriher/ChroniCle file photo

Defensive tackle Vince Oghobaase made this tackle against north Caro-lina, but he will have his hands full with Miami’s stable of running backs.

he used an analogy that brought images of gladiator bat-tles to the forefront.

“human beings wouldn’t rule the earth if we didn’t have our minds,” cutcliffe said. “if you put all of us out there on a field and have an equal number of lions and tigers, the only damn chance we’ve got is to use our minds!”

The power of cutcliffe’s mind has definitely shown in games that Duke had no business being competitive in. con-sider, for example, last year’s contest against Virginia Tech.

The Blue Devils took on the eventual orange Bowl champions at lane Stadium, in freezing, snowy conditions and without starting quarterback Thaddeus lewis.

Then-quarterback Zack Asack couldn’t throw, and Duke’s running backs could never find any openings. Yet somehow, thanks to a suffocating defense and opportunis-tic scrambles by Asack, the Blue Devils only trailed 7-3 with just over two minutes remaining in the game.

Duke eventually lost that contest 14-3, but the fact that the Blue Devils even had a chance to win in the fourth speaks volumes about cutcliffe’s coaching and motivational abilities. But in this upcoming contest, it’s not him who will motivate the team, but the players themselves, he said.

“When i get on that plane, i want to believe we’re going to play not with hopes of winning but knowing we’re going to win—and it’s exactly what my conversation with them was Sunday night,” cutcliffe said. “i can’t answer [how to get that mindset] for them, nor do that for them.”

instead, the players will need to use their minds and figure out their how to win their own individual battles. how does Vincent rey effectively keep track of running backs Graig cooper and Damien Berry? how does lewis manage to keep track of the hurricanes’ linebackers? how will the offensive line plan for their counterparts tenden-cies on pass rushes?

To do that, they will need a work ethic that cutcliffe summed up in four words: total, focused, sincere and in-tense. if any single one is missing, the thought going onto the plane is not, “we will win,” but “we could win.”

And against a team that has such a physical advantage, a mental edge is probably Duke’s only shot at keeping its slimming bowl dreams alive.

Smith’s offensive outburst—combined with Duke’s sti-fling man-to-man defense—proved too much for charlotte to handle, and the 49ers showed as much by coughing up the ball seven times in the game’s first four minutes.

“i think our defense set the tone for the whole game in that we didn’t give up fast breaks,” head coach Mike Krzyze-wki said. “lance and then ryan Kelly did a good job of help-ing nolan to just make them a half-court team. And then at the halfcourt i thought that Jon, Kyle and nolan’s experi-ence on the perimeter did not give them the open shots.”

Forward Miles plumlee’s defensive efforts also paid divi-dends when he stripped phil Jones at the 18-minute mark and streaked down the court for a tomahawk slam dunk that sent the cameron crazies into a frenzy.

plumlee proved to be a weapon on the other side of the court as well. refusing to be bullied down low by the 6-foot-10 Jones, the sophomore finished the game with 15 points and 11 rebounds, both career highs.

At halftime, the Blue Devils were up by 30 and limited charlotte to only 27 points in the first period. The only 49er able to make a dent in Duke’s formidable front line was 6-foot-6 forward Shamari Spears, a former Boston col-lege player who transferred to charlotte. At 245 pounds, Spears was able to create shooting space on the low blocks

despite his lack of height.Duke showed no sign of letting up after intermission, go-

ing on a 14-5 run to start the second half. Three minutes into the offensive burst, Jon Scheyer notched the prettiest of his five total assists, tossing a lob to plumlee that the big man slammed home to complete a perfectly executed alley-oop.

in addition to playing the role of distributor, Scheyer found his 3-point stroke as well, leading the team with four buckets from downtown en route to 20 points on the night.

Yet Smith continued to steal the show with his explosive play. After Scheyer blocked DiJuan harris and recovered the loose ball, he shot a quick outlet pass to freshman An-dre Dawkins, who found Smith streaking down the sideline ahead of the pack. he proceeded to rise up above the rim for a monstrous dunk that put the Blue Devils up by 37.

Duke ultimately built its lead to 42 with just under three minutes remaining as charlotte continued to struggle on the offensive end, shooting only 32.3 percent in the second half.

All in all, four Blue Devils scored in double figures—Sin-gler chipped in 17—and demonstrated the scoring depth that should serve them well for the rest of the season.

“We do [have a lot of options] and we have an inside op-tion,” Krzyzewski said. “We should not have a go-to guy; we should have a go-to team. if you have one guy that you go to, you can defend that guy better than if you have a team that you can go to. That’s why i think we are going to be a good basketball team—because we have that balance.”

lawson kurtz/the ChroniCle

lance thomas (right) celebrates after Miles Plumlee (left) stole the ball and dunked it home in the first half of Duke’s win over Charlotte.

M. bball from page 1

Krzyzewski said. “With the amount of minutes he played last year, he is like a freshman as well... he did a good job of trapping Shamari Spears on the pass.”

Kelly and fellow freshman Andre Dawkins saw a lot of playing time Tuesday, and they did not disappoint the cameron crazies. Both Dawkins and Kelly scored five points, but more importantly, they played tough defense that stifled a potentially effective charlotte of-fense. Duke looks to use the fundamental play of Dawk-ins on the perimeter and Kelly as help defense on the interior in the future. if the Blue Devils are able to con-tinue to limit opposing offensive production, Duke will be able to extend their defense pressure beyond half-court, something they did very little last season.

“The more our freshmen develop, we might be able to do more three-quarter or full [defense],” Krzyzewski said. “But initially going in, we don’t know how the fresh-men are going to come around. if they come around, we can rest [the starters] for a few minutes.”

Tuesday, those starters could have taken their rest early thanks to suffocating defense from an inspired Duke team.

analysis from page 7

lawson kurtz/the ChroniCle

shamari spears struggled tuesday against a swarming Duke defense.


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When thinking about relationships and friendships, I remember the wise words of elementary school teachers every-

where—“strangers are friends you’ve yet to meet.” But as I sit in class and scan through the Facebook profiles of my 1,043 closest friends, I realize that strang-ers are people that I have already friended, but will never meet.

And that brings me to this year’s word… “unfriend.”

This week, the New Oxford American Dic-tionary unveiled its choice for word of the year: “Unfriend.” (If you’re interested, other finalists include “hashtag,” “sexting,” “funemployed” and “teabagger.”)

Thanks to Facebook and other tools of social media, friendship is just a click away, and con-versely, so is unfriendship.

So if Facebook friendships are conceived so easily, does that mean that relationships have become so fleeting and insubstantial that they can be erased with the click of a button? Does the Oxford Dictionary’s lending of credibility to Facebook-speak prove once and for all that social media has numbed us to the value of legitimate human connections?

I cautiously say no. Admittedly the nature of friendship has certainly evolved, but I think for the better. When you can have up to 5,000 friends (according to Facebook), the concept of a “friend” becomes less meaningful. With the term no lon-ger descriptively useful, society has adopted new, albeit sophomoric, terminologies to help differ-entiate the nature of relationships—“frienemies,” “frienefits” and “bromances” for example. This suggests to me that society can adapt without the word “friend” in our lexicon.

So if we can let go of the word “friend” as a meaningful indicator of anything, or at least sus-pend our concern over syntax for a moment, I think we will discover the unique value of social media in enriching human relationships as op-posed to obliterating them.

The last couple decades of media growth have demonstrated that the more media there are, the more enriching are our experiences. Think about your favorite TV show or movie. Watching “Mad Men,” for example, as it’s broadcast live on Sunday nights is a fun experience, but watching “Mad Men” without commercials (thanks to Tivo

or Time Warner Cable as is the case in Durham), then watching it again, tweeting about it, Gchat-ting with friends and digesting other people’s commentary makes for an exponentially better experience.

The same goes for more direct social media. Having dinner with a buddy is usually a good time, but returning from dinner to post interesting links on your friend’s wall about the global warm-ing issues you debated over dinner, tagging him in pictures from the evening and tweeting about the awkward waiter you guys had at Mt. Fuji, all make for a more rewarding friendship.

Admittedly, you might engage on that lev-el of exchange with only a small percent of your “friends,” nonetheless, Facebook enables you to communicate in a limitless number of ways. Keep in mind though that Facebook is just a delivery technology. The desire to share, whether it is accomplishments or feelings, triv-ial or dire —human beings want to engage with their surroundings—that’s why we came out of the cave.

Facebook enables people to fulfill this basic human need to share and to relate to one an-other. Similarly, Twitter is a platform that en-ables people to express themselves, although more concisely.

I know, however, that there are a great many Twitter-haters out there who seem to have an ir-rational fear of Twitter. You can take some com-fort knowing that in the somewhat near to distant future, Twitter will become obsolete, I promise.

Twitter, like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, minidiscs, cassette players, DVD players, newspa-pers, etc. are all delivery technologies. Mediums are different. Media are systems for communicat-ing, language for example, images, movement, etc. Delivery technologies become outdated and get replaced, mediums, on the other hand, en-dure and evolve.

The word “friend,” I am coming to believe, is a delivery mechanism of sorts. It was once a vehicle that encapsulated a set of commonly ac-cepted emotions, responsibilities and rewards. Now, the word “friend” has been rendered meaningless by its infinite array of understand-ings, its casual deployment and sheer overuse (much like the word “seriously”).

So to mitigate confusion (and to encourage people to come up with more creative titles for their relationships like “bromance”), I hereby am unfriending the word “friend.”

And that is this year’s word.

Steffi Decker is a Trinity senior. Her column runs ev-ery other Wednesday.

commentaries10 | wednesday, november 18, 2009 the chronicle

the c

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The

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editorial

The fate of most West Cam-pus selective living groups hangs in the balance this week as the first full Residen-tial Group Assessment Com-mittee evaluation cycle draws to a close.

Today, we will discuss the RGAC process itself, focus-ing on the arbitrary nature of the scoring and ranking of living groups. In tomorrow’s editorial, we will critique the mission of RGAC and suggest improvements for the future.

Looking back over three years of RGAC group evalu-ations, it is clear that the scoring process suffers from inconsistency.

Each selective living group’s yearly RGAC score is composed of a grade in a

subset of criteria, which col-lectively sum to a maximum score of 100. While RGAC de-fines the criteria, there is no guidance as to how the com-mittee should measure prog-

ress within each one, meaning that the scor-

ing is entirely subjective.This would be acceptable

if the same individuals were grading all groups in a single year, because each group would be held to the same set of subjective standards.

But under the current sys-tem, only six of the 11 RGAC committee members evaluate each living group. Because there is a different set of peo-ple on each group’s scoring panel, there is no guarantee for consistency within each

year’s scores. Questionable scoring prac-

tices have huge implications for an RGAC process in which small fractions of a point mat-ter. For example, this year in the small group designation, the difference between groups eligible to “squat” and main-tain their current section, and groups that must select a new section in the lottery comes down to as little as .14.

Another problem with RGAC is that its ranking mechanism fails to incentiv-ize good behavior. To deter-mine ranking and housing selection, RGAC separates living groups into three cat-egories based on their size. Although it logistically sim-plifies the housing assign-ment process, this policy un-

fairly penalizes groups with high scores.

For this cycle, the mini-mum score for a large group to be eligible to squat is 84.76, compared to a mini-mum of 76.82 for a medium group. This means that Mi-recourt (a large group), which earned a 79.27, can-not squat while Alpha Epsi-lon Pi fraternity, a medium group with a score of 76.82, can keep its current section. This does not reward Mire-court for good behavior.

In addition, the punitive measure recently built into the RGAC process is con-cerning. This year, Campus Council created a policy stipulating that groups more than one standard deviation below the mean group score

would be put on probation. A process to remove living

groups with bad behavior is a good thing and should be encouraged, but implement-ing this rule as the RGAC cycle was nearing comple-tion is inappropriate and could be perceived as biased against certain groups. It is also just as random as the rest of the process—there is merely a .62 difference be-tween Sigma Nu fraternity, the highest-scoring group on overall probation, and Delta Tau Delta fraternity, which is not on overall probation.

RGAC’s evaluations are fraught with subjectivity and arbitrary delineations between groups. Its scores should be viewed as the product of an imperfect process.

The word... of the year!

RGAC’s inconsistent assessment

”“ onlinecomment

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steffi deckerrefuse to lose

commentariesthe chronicle wednesday, november 18, 2009 | 11

This past Friday, the Food and Drug Administration announced its inten-tions to ban beverages that combine

caffeine and alcohol, including drinks like Joose and 4 Loco.

The reason for doing so seems to be that the companies manufacturing such prod-ucts have failed to provide evidence that the mixture of caffeine and alcohol is a safe one. Presumably, if these manufacturers can prove that these drinks are not, in fact, hazardous, then they will remain on the shelves.

In addition to the lack of safety information about the beverages, Dr. Joshua Sharf-stein, the principal deputy commissioner of the FDA, also added in a press conference that the drinks were suspected to increase incidents of “serious injury, drunken driving, sexual assault and other dangerous behaviors.” The Center for Science in the Public Interest cited similar dangers in a statement concerning its law-suit against MillerCoors, known around col-lege campuses for the deathblow it dealt to a beverage called Sparks. MillerCoors cited “emerging research” as evidence enough for these statements.

The legal and logistical reasons for the po-tential discontinuation of these products are readily apparent, as the FDA has a responsi-bility to protect consumers from potentially harmful products. However, situations such as these also require a closer look at where the burden of responsibility truly lies.

Consider first the idea put forth by the FDA that caffeinated alcoholic beverages have not been proven to be safe and are therefore potentially detrimental to the public. Although the dangerous nature of these drinks is certainly not in dispute here, the method by which the FDA is determin-ing their legal status is a little less clear. Nei-ther caffeine nor alcohol is recognized for anything beneficial to human health, but both are perfectly accessible on their own. Somehow, though, the mixing of the two in a product constitutes a breach in responsi-bility on the part of the manufacturer that does not exist so long as the unsafe ingredi-ents remain isolated.

Take, for example, slogans like “drink responsibly,” which promote the idea that it is the duty of any individual who chooses to drink to monitor his or her own health, and to adjust their level of consumption accord-

ingly. Here we see it as generally accepted that the burden of moderation is placed on the individual choosing to partake of the harmful substance. Now, it is true that these slogans come to us not from the FDA but from beverage companies themselves, and so do not present any true contradiction in

policy. However, it’s remark-able how the addition of a single ingredient is enough to shift the burden of blame in our minds from the con-sumer to the manufacturer.

Caffeinated alcoholic beverages are also said to in-crease the risk of a number of undesirable activities, all of which are enumerated above. This list, however,

reads more like a list of the downsides of alcohol itself rather than one specific to caffeinated drinks. If the increased risks of drunken driving and sexual assault are ones we trust individuals to handle when they consume beverages containing alcohol alone, then why do we alter our stance based merely upon the addition of caffeine? This is not to say that these risks are not present or that all individuals are capable of avoiding them, but more to point out the inherent hypocrisy in the FDA’s current stand against caffeinated alcoholic drinks.

In short, it seems that the FDA is a little erratic in where it chooses to place respon-sibility when it comes to the handling of “dangerous” substances. The bottom line of all this, however, is that in the end, it really doesn’t matter what the FDA decides to do.

The reality, which may be of no con-cern to the FDA and other officials but merits mentioning here, is that caffeine and alcohol will continue to be mixed in the future, regardless of the outcome of this process. The “Monster bomb” will still frequent pre-games and frat parties, and, although the mixed drink may never make its way to the shelves here in the States, it will always have its place at the bar. The important thing, it seems, is not that caf-feine and alcohol don’t meet, just that they don’t do so before each one has been paid for separately. After that, anything goes—at least according to the FDA.

And always remember to drink responsi-bly, just in case you’re the one who’s actually being held responsible.

Chris Bassil is a Trinity sophomore. His col-umn runs every other Wednesday.

Sparks (doesn’t) flywith the FDA

Will Phillips is the man—though technically, he is not quite a man yet.

Phillips is only 10 years old and spends much of his week in a fifth grade class in West Fork Elementary School in Arkansas. Phillips is just starting to get national attention for something that he is not doing. The elementary school stu-dent refuses to stand and recite the Pledge of Alle-giance. It has nothing to do with the phrase “under God,” on which the de-bate about the Pledge usu-ally centers. Phillps won’t make an oath to the flag of his country until there is liberty and justice for all homosexuals in the U.S.

And he’s not taking his stance lightly. A substitute teacher left Phillips alone for a few days, but eventually confronted him for not reciting the Pledge. Like any good child raised in the American tradition, Phillips called forth the spir-its of Thomas Payne, Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry. Phillips told CNN how he responded that day in the classroom.

“I eventually, very solemnly, with a little bit of malice in my voice, said, ‘Ma’am, with all due respect, you can go jump off a bridge.’”

As the child retold the story, Phillips’s father placed his head in his hands. The parents were called into the office to meet with the principal. But Phillips’s candor and passion convinced his parents that the kid was not simply acting out. Linda Phillips, Will’s mother, went home and started twittering. And behold! The pow-er of social networking swept Phillips into the national media maelstrom.

What was once a personal stand in a small classroom has become a symbol of civil rights action for the entire country. The increased media attention has also brought Phillips’ actions into the spot-light at his school. He told CNN that his fellow students have assumed that he is homosexual. “In the halls and the caf-eteria, I am repeatedly called a gaywad,” Phillips said. When asked by CNN what a “gaywad” was, he responded, “I really don’t know. It’s a discriminatory name for homosexuals.”

But why is Phillips making a stand in the form of not reciting the Pledge of Al-legiance? Will wants to be a lawyer, and he spent a weekend taking a deeper look at the words he was expected to recite in school. “I looked at the end, and it said with liberty and justice for all, and there really isn’t liberty and justice for all…. Gays and lesbians can’t marry, there’s still a lot of racism and sexism in the world.” Will said that he knows a lot

of homosexuals himself, and he doesn’t think it’s fair that they do not have the same rights as everyone else.

Very well-spoken, confident, inquisi-tive, thoughtful, passionate and only 10 years old, Will Phillips is making the type

of stand his forefathers would be proud of. It wasn’t easy for the young ruffians of the American colonies to revolt against the King—when a child named Andrew Jackson refused to kiss the boots of a British soldier, he re-ceived a permanent scar for his stand. It wasn’t smooth going for the

young men and women who participat-ed in sit-ins in segregated shops—when a group of four college students sat at a whites only counter in a Greensboro, N.C. Woolworth’s only a few miles away from Duke, they had to withstand the protests of white patrons.

Throughout America’s history, the push for civil rights has had its support-ers and its detractors. The case of Will Phillips will be no different. There are those who believe the Pledge should be recited no matter what, and there are others who believe that the Pledge is like any other instrument of the American system, a tool to be used to better society through debate and demonstration. The delegates to the Continental Congress were able to overcome their expected sense of duty and obedience to the King to construct a separate society better representing the rights of the colonists. Our government has passed numerous amendments to the Constitution, provid-ing a variety of disenfranchised groups with the rights we all should have.

Phillips is right. Homosexuals re-main significantly disenfranchised in this country. The Oct. 2 New York Times article, “The High Price of Being a Gay Couple,” measures the financial costs of homosexual couples to often be hun-dreds of thousands of dollars more ex-pensive than the costs of heterosexual couples. And underlying the econom-ics is a moral injustice denying liberty and justice for everyone. Marriage in this country is weaker today because it is a privilege of the dominant and not a right shared by all.

When the interview wrapped up, Phil-lips’ father nudged him, trying to get Phillips to say thank you. But Phillips confidently nodded, not saying a word. In an unjust world, the young activist had no one to thank.

A Son of Liberty was born.

Elad Gross is a Trinity senior. His column runs every Wednesday.

A Son of Libertychris bassil

true story

elad grosskitty babies

Make your opinionmatter more.

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