Page 2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 28, 1986 1
COMPUTERS
'4
Computer Shakespeare adds jazz
FAIRFIELD, CONN. (AP)-Exit
Henry VI, slain with the light touch of
a,"delete"key. The Duke of Clarence,
zap. Lord Hastings, Lady Anne-zap,
zap.
The Rev. Donald Lynch, an
associate professor of English at
Fairfield University, smiles each
time a character from Shakespeare's
"Richard III" disappears from his
computer screen.
THE BARD HAS gone digital in the
basement of a building at the univer-
sity, where Lynch has devised a color-
ful computer program that
catalogues, sorts, graphs, maps, and
outlines plots and characters in
nearly all of Shakespeare's plays.
,,.At the touch of a button, its user can
find out how many lines of verse are
Romeo and Julet, whether
Shakespeare's history plays were
longer than his comedies or who said,
'"Misery acquaints a man with
strange bedfellows." (It was
Siephano in "The Tempist.")
Students can even take tests by an-
swering questions randomly selected
by the computer from a bank of about
200 entered by Lynch.
THE PROGRAM IS embellished
with elaborate graphics in green,
blue, red, gold, and fuchsia. Its title,
The Shakespeare Library, appers on
the screen inside a golden crown
behind which the background
dissolves from color to color before
I'm a Jesuit priest, unmarried, and
celibate. This is my baby.'
-Rev. Donald Lynch
exploding in red and fading into black.
"That's a little jazz," Lynch said. "I
do see some kids falling asleep with
some programs."
Lynch, 57 and a Shakespeare
professor for 25 years, is putting his
program to use in his classroom and
it's usually available in Fairfield's
computer lab to students wanting to
brush up before an exam, take a
missed quiz or do some extra
studying.
ONE DAYS, AFTER it's completed
and copyrighted, he hopes to sell his
program to a distributor allowing
other college and high-school teachers
to use it as a tool.
The seeming incongruity of
teaching Shakespeare by computer is
not lost on Lynch.
"I'm an English teacher, my hob-
bies are gold and stained glass. What
the heck am I doing here?" Lynch
said during a recent interview in the
lab.
BEGINNING SEVERAL years ago,
"I told my students, 'If you're going to
get anywhere in the world, you've got
to know computers.' I decided I'd bet-
ter put up or shut up," he said.
Lynch took a yearlong sabbatical to
take computer courses. His goal was
to "see how a humanities professor
could use a computer. Teachers in
humanities are afraid of high-tech.
But if we can use chalkboards and
overhead projectors, why not these?"
During his sabbatical he discovered
a keen interest in computers, and it
coincidentally meshed with his love of
Shakespeare. The Shakespeare
Library was a natural development.
"I'M A JESUIT priest, unmarried,
and delibate," he said. "This is my
baby."
While Lynch has created a
teaching tool for his students, a group
in Chicago is attempting a more am-
bitious coupling of the Bard and the
microchip. Volunteers are working on
the Shakespeare Data Bank, which
they hope will eventually commit tens
of thousands of pages of scholarly
work, as well as the plays and poems
themselves, to computerbmemory.
Lynch's program is based on his
own lectures and notes and in final
form will be packaged in four sec-
tions. There will be a canon that con-
tains information about all the
plays-their length, type, percentage
of verse and prose, date written-and
three sections, Comedies, Histories
and Tragedies, that examine the in-
dividual works.
THE HEART OF THE program is
the "Dramatis Personae," which
displays the name of every character
in each play within boxes color-coded
to "prod the imagination" and make
the information more memorable.
Characters who die a violent death,
for example, often appear in red. A
comic character might be in laven-
der. All are connected with lines to
show their relations to others in the
plays.
"This is stuff I've been putting on
the blackboard for 20 years," said
Lynch. "To see all these people in
'Richard III' zapped is just great."
"It doesn't take the place of
creative, imaginative teaching. In
fact, it enhances it. I want kids to
come away having experienced the
plays in their own imaginations."
Jackson brings diversity to job
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(Continued from Page 1)
similar to his current ones as a
building director, he said.
NOW THAT he is back at the
University, Jackson intends to use his
past experiences to improve Couzens.
Jackson said he would like to in-
crease dormitory activities and in-
tegrate faculty and students.
"We are looking at particular kinds
of faculty involvement. We'd have
faculty coming over to have dinner
with us, then retiring to the living
room. It would be casual and infor-
mal - I think a lot of times that is
when the best exchange of infor-
mation occurs," he said.
IMPROVING the residence hall in-
cludes considering student
suggestions. Basil Danos, the newly-
elected president of Couzens said, "he
seems very cooperative, very positive
on a lot of my suggestions."
Although some students who know
him think he is cooperative, Jackson
came under fire for the stricter
alcohol policy he implemented in the
residence hall last fall.
When he first enacted the keg rule
in September, many of the hall's
residents objected. Jackson held a
forum to respond to their opposition,
but held firm and the rules still
remain in effect.
"I THOUGHT the initial reaction
would be somewhat negative. But I
didn't think it would be as negative as
it was, based upon the fact that this is
an institution of higher learning. And
every aspect of this institution is an
opportunity to learn something,''
Jackson said.
Residents' complaints went beyond
objections to the rule itself, to why the
rule was being enacted and to how it
would be enforced. "My expectation
was that people would be, at least,
reasonable about it," Jackson con-
tinued, "and understand that policing
them wasn't the intent. But just get-
ting them to think about what they
engage in was."
Having gone through a similar ex-
perience at Eastern Michigan
University, Jackson understood that
he would have to expect a "pocket of
people" to oppose the policy. But, he
has one word to explain what has hap-
pened to calm the opposition:
"School."
"TO BE realistic," Jackson con-
tinued, "I think people make adjust-
ments, I think people have become
more discreet." One such adjustment
is the increase of 'closed-door' par-
ties. Jackson said, however, that such
parties are a reaction to the policy,
and not a result he intended.
"The intention was not to have
doors closed, but to be honest," he
said. "I think in terms of my perspec-
tive, my stance, and being real clear
about the parameters, what I an-
ticipated was opening up the channels
of communication. And that's a
process, that doesn't happen over-
night."
Since the forum held in mid-
September, Jackson believes he has
made progress toward that goal.
"I've had a number of people ap-
proach me in the cafeteria, in the
hallway, at the desk, and in my office.
IN BRIEF
COMPILED FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS AND
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL REPORTS
Italy investigates Yugoslavian
aid to Rome airport terrorists
ROME-Italian authorities are investigating the possibility that
Palestinian terrorists who attacked the Rome airport last month obtained
aid of some kind while passing throgh Yugoslavia en route to Italy, the
chief investigator said yesterday.
Prosecutor Domenico Sica, who has been interrogating the long sur-
viving suspect in the airport attack, also said the young Arab has not
mentioned any Libyan or Iranian connection with the attack.
Sica, in an interview with The Associated Press, was asked whether the
investigation had otherwise turned up any Libyan link.
"It is too dangerous... to answer this kind of question," he replied.
The investigator confirmed reports that Italian authorites now consider
three other terrorist attacks in Rome in 1985 to have been the work of Abu
Nidal's followers. In those assaults-at the Via Veneto cafe, a British
Airways office and the Jordanian Embassy-one person was killed and 50
people were injured.
The U.S. administration says Khadafy is the main supporter of the Abu
Nidal terrorist group believed responsible for the Dec. 27 attacks on the
Rome and Vienna airports in which a total of 20 people died.
Court stiffens toxic waste laws
WASHINGTON-The Supreme Court gave states a better chance
yesterday of collecting cleanup money for hazardous waste sites, ruling
that trustees of bankrupt dumps cannot abandon them in violation of local
health laws.
The justices, splittig 5-4 in twin cases from New York and New Jersey,
said federal bankruptcy laws allowing the abandonment of worthless
property do not preempt state regulations governing hazardous wastes.
Justice Lewis Powerll, who wrote the opinion, said, "Neither the court
nor Congress has granted a trustee in bankruptcy powers that would lend
support to a right to abandon property in contravention of state or local
laws designed to protect public health or safety."
The ruling showed the court's continued willingness to side with the
states in caes that pit bankruptcy law against the environment. A year
ago, the high court said businesses cannot avoid legal orders to clean up
hazardous sites by filing for bankruptcy.
Boulder debris circles Uranus
PASADENA, CALIF.-In the latest batch of reports from Voyager'S
exploration of Uranus, surprised scientists yesterday reported that the
brightest of the planet's debris rings is made up of boulders the size of
trashcans or bigger.
Other researchers reported puzzling 220 mph jet stream winds blowing
in the same direction Uranus rotates, similar atmospheric temperatures
at the Equator and south pole, and a dark north pole that is warmer than
the sun-lit south pole.
Andrew Ingersol of Cal Tech said the Uranian atmosphere is hot, but
extremely thin at its uppermost levels. But the middle portion of the at-
mosphere is supercold-350 degrees below zero. The "air" warms up with
greater depth and the vast ocean of water believed to exist on the surface
is believed to be hot.
And analysis of a single long-exposure photo revealed many additional
"lanes" of fine dust enveloping the planet in addition to the 10 rings of
larger particles and fragments of still more rings.
Union raises hit historic low
WASHINGTON (AP)-Major collective bargaining settlements in 1985
provided first year pay increases averaging only 2.3 percent, the lowest
ever recorded, the Labor Department reported yesterday.
With December-to-December consumer prices increasing 3.8 percent
last year, economists looked upon the figures from the department's
Bureau of Labor Statistics as further evidence of waning union power.
"There is greater realism at the bargaining table; that has become
very obvious in the past three years," said Roger Brinner, chief
economist for Data Resources, Inc.
The 2.3 percent average first-year wage increase for 487 contracts
covering nearly 2.2 million workers compares with first-year jumps
averaging 2.4 percent in 1984 contracts and 2.6 percent in 1983 agreemen-
ts.
But there was some evidence in the figures that the pattern of shrinking
wage increases may be coming to an end.
For example, over the life of the 1985 contracts-most of them for either
two or three years-the average annual wage increase is 2.7 percent.
That compares with an average annual pay boost of 2.4 percent in
multiyear settlements signed in 1984.
Ugandan rebels capture city
KAMPALA, UGANDA-The Rebel National Resistance Army, the self-
declared government of Uganda, captured the country's second-largest
city yesterday and pursued government soldiers fleeing toward safety in
Kenya and Sudan.
The capture of Jinga, an industrial center with a population of 55,000
followed the rebel seizure of Kampala and its sister city of Entebbe
Satuday from government troops loyal to Ugandan leader Gen. Tito
Okello.
The guerrillas now control about two-thirds of the east African nation.
Much of the rest of the country is in chaos, with the military's tribally
divided ranks fighting among themselves over whether to lay down their
weapons or stage a counteroffensive against the NRA forces, diplomats
said.
The State Department said it has.been in touch with the new NRA
government, and the United States stood ready to recognize the new
regime.
Vol XCVI - No. 83
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967 X) is published Monday through
Friday during the Fall and Winter terms. Subscription rates: September
through April - $18.00 in Ann Arbor; $35.00 outside the city. One term -
$10.00 in town; $20.00 out of town.
The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and Sub-
scribes to United Press International, Pacific News Service, Los Angeles
Times Syndicate, and College Press Service.
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