LOCAL/STATE The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 5, 2003 - 3 Computing team wins seat in global contest Exhibit uses body movements to make art "Roly Wholly Over," an interac- tive media installation, will take place from 3 to 6 p.m., in the Video and Performance Studio of the Media Union. This exhibit explores the relation between perception and body movements. Large-scale devices will be set up, including a bicycle, seesaw, video projection and revolving door. The exhibit will also feature work created by students in Art and Design Prof. Satoru Takahashi's advanced sculpture. Call the School of Art and Design at 763-3266 for more information. Museum hosts day of dinosaur discovery The Exhibit Museum of Natural History will host Dinosaur Discov- ery Day tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Come celebrate the 65 mil- lionth birthday of Edmontosaurus, or "Ed," the museum's largest fossil dinosaur. Visitors will be able to view the newly renovated Edmontosaurus exhibit and watch a presentation, "Reptiles Then and Now," that will include live reptiles, real dinosaur fossils and casts. The presentation will begin every 30 minutes throughout the day. For more infor- mation, call 764-0478. Lecture explains significance of superconductors Physics Department lecturer Sa- Lin Cheng Bernstein will give a presentation titled "Why Make Holes in Superconductors?" Part of the Saturday Morning Physics lec- ture series, the event will take place tomorrow from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in room 170 of the Dennison Building. Bernstein will discuss the phe- nomenon of superconductivity and the real world applications of super- conductors. For more information, call the physics department at 763-2588. Women's hockey team to face off with Spartans The Michigan women's ice hockey team will play against Michigan State tomorrow at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m. Both games will be played at Yost Ice Arena. Pierpont Commons hosts holiday celebrations A Winter Holiday Celebration will take place Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Pierpont Commons Atrium and Corridor. The event will bring togeth- er the holiday traditions of Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and the Winter Solstice. For more information, call the Pierpont Commons Arts and Pro- grams Office at 647-6838. Vietnamese filmmaker to discuss works The Vietnamese Students Associa- tion will host a screening of Ham Tran's film "The Anniversary." The film fol- lows the tragic events of two Viet- namese brothers through the span of war and religious persecution. Follow- ing the movie, Tran will lead a discus- sion about the film and his other works, including the short films "Pomegran- ate" and "The Prescription." Born in Saigon in 1974, Tran immi- grated to the United States in 1982. He grew up in Orange County, Calif. and studied film at the University of Califor- nia at Los Angeles' School of Film and Television. Concert fuses music, famous literary works Music Prof. Logan Skelton will perform his literature-inspired com- positions tomorrow at 8 p.m. at Britton Recital Hall. The concert will include three sets of songs written to texts by e.e. cummings and Tennessee Williams. The songs will be performed by soprano Jennifer Goltz, baritone Stephen Lusman and Skelton By Alison Go Daily Staff Reporter Just as the Michigan football team is poised to end its seven-year hiatus from the Rose Bowl, three University students have earned national recognition and a trip to Prague for the first time since 1997 by qualifying for a worldwide comput- er-programming competition. The team, consisting of undergraduate computer science students Nuttapong Chentanez, Galen Elias and James McCann, will be heading to the International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals in late March. "I'm looking forward to seeing how good our team is in comparison with the world," McCann, an LSA junior said. The team predicts it will place at least in the top half of the competition. The team placed fourth out of 127 in the East Central North America Regional Pro- gramming Contest, which was organized by the Association for Computing Machinery and was sponsored by IBM. At November's competition, teams had to solve as many programming problems as possible in the five-hour time limit, with the actual time of com- pletion as a final tie-breaker. The team solved six of the eight problems posed. The average student takes one to two weeks to solve one program, said coach Kevin Compton, an electrical engineering and computer science pro- fessor. "These students can write up to four pro- grams in two hours." Although the competition was held on Nov. 8, results of the schools that qualified were not announced until two weeks ago. An inter- national committee convened to decide on the final qualifiers. The competition hosts teams from North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe, and will bring together 72 teams from a possible 68 different countries. In order to prepare for the March competition, the team plans to continue and intensify their week- ly practices. "The problems will be a lot more difficult than the ones we had at regionals," said Chentanez, an Engineering junior. "We have to be better and faster in programming to do well." The students credit their recent success to the renewed attention paid to the contest. "It's not taken very seriously on campus, and no one puts in time to really make an effort," said Elias, an Engineering senior. "It wasn't until Pro- fessor Compton made the effort to hold practices that the word got out." Compton hopes that a better-organized effort will reap continued success in future competitions. "I think the key is really starting them early enough, and getting them to the point where they feel comfortable writing a program in less than an hour," Compton said. "We have a lot of good stu- dents. There's really no reason why we shouldn't be winning the competition." "If more people join us to practice, we will have a strong team next year," Chentanez said. The team placed behind two teams from the University of Toronto and one team from the Uni- versity of Waterloo. Another team from the Uni- versity of Michigan placed fifth in the ECNA. "It's a real big priority for (these schools) and that's why they win," Compton said. "Canada does really well at this," Compton added. "After hockey and curling, it's the national sport of Canada." - Daily StaffReporter Aymar Jean contributed to this report. Lawmaker calls to limit billboards, help environment Going for a test drive LANSING (AP) - Michigan's beauty should be protected by limiting new billboards and providing informa- tional logos that could give motorists the information they need, a state law- maker said yesterday. Republican Sen. Tom George of Portage joined former Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus and former Attorney Gen- eral Frank Kelley in calling for the changes at a Capitol news conference. "We're not proposing taking down existing billboards. We just say, "There's enough," George said, adding that keeping billboards from proliferating should help tourism by saving the state's beauty from unsightly clutter. He noted the state currently has 14,000 existing billboards and has issued permits for 2,200 more. He said the moratorium on erecting new ones won't hurt businesses now using the signs, but will keep bill- boards from overrunning the state. The bill brought a quick response from more than 230 Michigan busi- nesses, charities and state associa- tions, who said they are in the process of forming a coalition called Businesses and Charities for Bill- boards. "Billboards are already heavily regu- lated in Michigan by state law, federal law and local ordinances in nearly all communities," coalition spokesman Roger Martin said in a release. "The number of billboards in Michi- gan is about the same today as a decade ago, and there are hundreds, if not thousands, fewer than 30 years ago," he said. "Unnecessary billboard regulations would damage Michigan's most impor- tant industries, employers and chari- ties," Martin added. The coalition is being headed by William Shepler, president of Shepler's Mackinac Island Ferries. Members include the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Small Busi- ness Association of Michigan, the Michigan Hotel, Motel & Resort Asso- ciation, Michigan Retailers Associa- tion, Michigan Grocers Association, Michigan Restaurant Association, National Federation of Independent Businesses and the Service Station Dealers, among others. Despite the opposition, Scenic Michigan administrative assistant Rick Barber said he was happy George planned to press ahead. "It's going to stop the proliferation of billboards, and it's going to preserve the scenic vistas that are left," he said. Saturn Vice President Jill Lajdziak and General Motors Vice Chairman Bob L~utz introduce the 2005 Saturn Relay crossover sport van yesterday in Warren. Cou allows continuation of alleged Nazi guard's hearings DETROIT (AP) - A federal appeals court ruled yes- terday that hearings to revoke the citizenship of a Michigan man accused of serving as a guard in Nazi slave camps could continue despite the man's claims that he has Alzheimer's Disease. The Justice Department initiated denaturalization proceedings against Iwan Mandycz, of Sterling Heights, in April 2000. The Justice Depart- ment alleged Mandycz had con- cealed the fact that he worked for the Nazis. Officials said in 1943 Mandycz Officials sai Mandycz w, at the Trawr Poniatowa l camps in Po The district court ruled that incompetency to stand trial and unreasonable delay are not defenses in denatu- ralization proceedings and refused Mandycz's motion for summary judgment. Mandycz appealed that decision d mn 1943 to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. as a guaIn a written opinion issued yes- aniki ad terday, Judge R. Guy Cole Jr. denied Mandycz's appeal. abor He said the 6th Circuit Court gland. does not have jurisdiction over the matter because the denial of sum- mary judgment was not a final, irreversible decision. Mandycz's lawyers did not immediately respond to telephone messages seeking comment. The ruling in Mandycz's case came less than two weeks after a federal immigration judge gave the gov- ernment permission to deport another Michigan man who hid his Nazi past. The government plans to deport Johann Leprich, 78, to Romania, Germany or Hungary. His lawyer said he would appeal. KUCINICH Continued from Page 1 deserve Dennis right now," said Tom Schmitz, who is walking 8 to 10 hours a day with three other Kucinich supporters - including his 14-year-old son Tak - in the hopes of making it from Maine to California to raise awareness for Kucinich's candidacy and their visions for peace. Kucinich spoke about America's role in the world, which he said is being damaged by the nation's failure to sign weapon nonproliferation and environ- mental treaties. "It's time for America to re-join the world," he said. But Kucinich also talked about treaties he would immediately withdraw the U.S. from as president, namely the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he believes hurts workers. Instead, he said he would replace NAFTA and the WTO with fair trade agreements. After speaking at the Michigan League, Kucinich exited onto North University Avenue toward Borders, where a train-like line of loudly chanting supporters formed behind him, drawing the attention of onlookers as the crowd snaked onto State Street. At Borders, Kucinich walked a few times in a circle with the striking work- ers and student activists before speaking to the crowd about his belief in workers' "fundamental" right to unionize. "This effort will be heard all over the country. They will know it was students standing for social justice," he said. "I was thrilled with how the event turned out. We had a great turnout, defi- nitely more than we thought," said LSA senior Tessa Ditonto, chair of Students for Kucinich. "He focused a lot on anti-war, foreign policy isses which is something I think students care about and want to hear about," Ditonto added. LSA freshmen Melinda Kleczynski said she came to the speech - which she heard about through an e-mail from the College Democrats - because she was undecided on which Democratic candidate to support. After hearing the speech, she wished Kucinich had discussed a broader range of issues. "He seems like a really cool guy, but I don't think he covered a whole lot in his talk. He focused mainly on (Iraq and health care)," Kleczynski said. was a guard at the Trawniki and Poniatowa labor camps in Poland, where prisoners were starved, beaten and executed en masse. Mandycz, 83, has said he worked on a farm during the war. Mandycz's lawyers had asked the U.S. District Court in Flint to immediately dismiss the case, saying Alzheimer's disease has made him mentally incompe- tent and that the government unreasonably delayed fil- ing its complaint against him. Winter Break. Eductiondisount fo holdayshopers E-MAIL Continued from Page 1. about the change. "I wouldn't want my password to get stolen, but I'll have to see what SSH is before I say I like it better," LSA junior Carl Chang said. "The thing I like about (Telnet) is when I'm off campus, I can access my e-mail from any- where." Despite e-mail sent out by ITCS and a website they have created explaining the new software, many students are still unsure about exactly what the change will mean. "I don't know what SSH is," Kelly Peters, an LSA senior, said. "I saved the e-mail - I'll probably look back at it after I finish finals and try to figure it out then. It's not really my top priority now." But LSA senior Emre Kazan, who exclusively uses Telnet to read email, said he thinks it will be better to have e- mail more secure. "Initially, it will be annoying," he said, "but over the long term it won't be that big a deal." ,- n outqmw I :: Portables Special iBook Bundle!!! .12.1" Screen, 800 Mhz G4 iBook with a combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW).256 MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Drive, Airport Extreme Wireless Card, Apple's super secure OS X and a 3 year warranty. $1,133 An Cvening e n ULnivctsitV of 21*ictigait WXomen's 66 e tu13 Ginter Concert §attur&sa D'ecember 6 6:00 pm 9:00 pm * 4 Digital music iPod, the ultimate portable digital music player and iTunes Music Store. Desktops Special iMac Bundle!!! 17" TFT Screen iMac 1.25 Ghz G4, 256 RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Super Drive (DVD-R/CD- RW), 56K modem, speakers, Apple's super secure OS X, and a 3 year warranty. $1,699 Put Apple on your gift-giving-or receiving-list this holiday season. 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