NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - 3
ON CAMPUS
'U' Musical
Society hosts
Canadian soprano
The University Musical Society will
be hosting a performance by Measha
Brueggergosman as part of its Ninth
Annual Song Series. Brueggergosman
is an award-winning concert soprano
originally from Canada.
The event will be at the Lydia Men-
delssohn Theater, and tickets are $25
to $35. The performance will begin at
8 p.m.
Art program holds
craft activities for
upcoming holidays
The University Unions Arts &
Programs will hold Artbreaks in cel-
ebration of Thanksgiving and Christ-
mas. Supplies will be provided and
admission is free. Participants will
make Native American felt pouches
in celebration of Thanksgiving in the
lobby of Bursley Hall from 6:30 to
8:30 p.m. today.
Students can also make Christmas
crafts in the Michigan Union tonight
from 7 to 11 p.m. Materials to make
Christmas ornaments will be provided.
Billiards room in
Union will hold
poker tournament
A Texas Hold 'Em Tournament
will be held in the Billiards Room
of the Michigan Union tonight at 6
p.m.
The first 100 players to arrive will be
allowed to play. Admission is free.
CRIME
NOTES
Swearing box-
wearers leave
before DPS arrives
The Department of Public Safety
sent an officer to investigate reports
that three individuals were screaming
profanities at pedestrians on the Diag
Sunday evening.
The shouting people were alleg-
edly wearing boxes. DPS was unable to
locate any problem.
Items stolen
through broken
car window
A CD player and other items were
stolen from a vehicle parked in the
parking structure on Church Street
Sunday morning, according to the
DPS crime log. The thief or thieves
broke a car window to gain entrance
into the vehicle. DPS currently has
no suspects.
Backpack robbery
leads to police call
A caller informed DPS on Sunday
afternoon that her bag was stolen from
the gallery area of the Pierpont Com-
mons after she left the bag unattended.
DPS has no suspects or witnesses.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Controversial
rabbi addresses
students
November 23, 1982 - Amid contro-
versy and death threats for his support-
ers, Rabbi Meir Kahane spoke to a group
of students at the Michigan League.
The rabbi's lecture, calling out Jewish
leaders for being chosen for their money
and not their piety, and the dangerous sit-
uation surrounding it, caused the Univer-
sity Activities Center to cancel the event
and to move to the League.
Kahane expressed disappointment
w that his lecture had been cancelled,
Robots
By Karl Stampfl
Daily Staff Reporter
Sushi-making robots, playmate rob
wombs, sex robots and babysitting r
are either already on the market or b
oped in Japan.
"Robots have become incorporated it
to an unprecedented degree in Japan," a
Prof. Jennifer Robertson said in a speec
at the School of Social Work. Robertsor
Japan and the country is the focus of he
The lecture, titled "Robots and Re
The Eugenics of Japanese Modernit
with a PowerPoint slide of a human
golden robotic hand. Robertson de
advancement of robotic technology in
also pointed out social implications.
"Robots are expected to be in the2
what automobiles were in the 20th cen
ertson said.
Other countries, including the Un
are also researching robots at places li
1in
integrated in
sachusetts Institute of Technology. In most coun-
tries where robots are manufactured and designed,
human-like models are not considered particularly
ots, robotic efficient, Robertson said.
obots - all Japanese robots - which make up more than
eing devel- 50 percent of the world's share of robots - are
different. Japanese robot models tend to resemble
nto daily life humans in their design.
nthropology "The Japanese think: Why build an electrical
ch yesterday factory to accommodate wheeled robots when you
n grew up in can make a humanoid robot?" Robertson said.
r research. In the United States, the military is involved in
production: robotics, while in Japan, private enterprises such
ty," opened as Sony and Honda lead the way, with the help of
shaking a government money.
scribed the Robertson said the Japanese look at robots as a
Japan, but way of thrusting themselves into the international
business scene. The Japanese economy is looking
21st century to robots to fill the gaps of a depleted labor force
atury," Rob- and overall population shortage.
"They're trying to come up with something that
ited States, will propel Japan onto the world stage in the 21st
ke the Mas- century," she said.
1
to Japanes4
Robots are not seen as a threat to society in
Japan, Robertson said.
Japanese manufacturers maintain that they're
not scared of spread of robots in their society,
while in the United States the entertainment
industry portrays robots as evil and intent on tak-
ing over the world in movies such as "I, Robot,"
Roberston said.
The Japanese have been interested in robots
since the 18th century, when they invented Kara-
kuri, a mechanical wind-up man who carried tea
to tables, Robertson said.
"Robots are often perceived in the West as evil,
zombie-like," Robertson said. "But robots in Japan
are perceived as living things because they think
of nature differently there. The concept of playing
God is not considered."
Robertson cited Tamagotchi, the keychain toy
released in 1996, as an example of human-robot-
ic interaction. The toy, which gained widespread
popularity in Japan and the United States, required
users to constantly care for their Tamagotchis, or
they would die.
e daily life
"Robots in Japan are
perceived as living things
because they think of
nature differently there."
- Anthropology Prof. Jennifer Robertson
Currently, Japanese companies are marketing
robots in the entertainment realm. Sony has gotten
positive feedback about its robotic dog. Users2ike
it because they don't have to take it out, it doesn't
eat and they can turn it off when they want to, Rob-
ertson said.
"(Robot research) can be looked at as posi-
tive," said LSA sophomore James Sobczak,. Who
attended the event. "But people who can develop
this technology need to be very cautious of social
implications. You need to put it in a historical
perspective."
Airports push for
healthier options
ROMULUS (AP) - For many who
travel for the holidays, the eating begins
at the airport.
It's always been easy to find high-
calorie, fat-filled and fried food. But
at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and a
growing number of airports nationwide,
more options for the health-conscious
are on the menu.
It was a pilot's complaint that helped
launch the improvement in Detroit.
Now "Heart Smart" options marked
with a red logo are
on many menus iiVWhen I'n
- and a recent
survey shows the airport, tt
airport continues
to make strides in thing I w
healthy offerings.
"When I'm at cheesebui
an airport, the last
thing I want is a-
cheeseburger," said - Ani
Anthony Struzzie- I
ro, who grabbed a
chicken breast sandwich during a recent
layover. He decided to eat at Mediterra-
nean Grill after spotting healthy options
on its menu.
Struzziero, 18, of Portland, Maine,
was on his way to Phoenix to visit a
friend and said healthy options like
those at Mediterranean Grill are some-
thing he's seeing more often at other
airports too. "A lot more have sandwich
shops and healthy food places," he said.
"I think a lot of places are trying to get
away from fast food."
Last year a pilot looking for healthy
food stopped in to see the Detroit air-
port's chief executive Lester Robinson,
who has made improving food options
a top priority.
Soon after, the airport formed a part-
nership with a Detroit-based network of
hospitals and clinics, the Henry Ford
Health System. The network's experts
evaluated the menus of 13 restaurants at
its McNamara Terminal, one of North-
west Airlines' nationwide hubs.
Besides making "Heart Smart" desig-
nations, the health experts worked with
n1
hl
ai
q1
restaurants on improving their food.
Now more of the estimated 50 airport
restaurants are getting items certified as
heart-healthy.
Mediterranean Grill's list of healthy
offerings include tabbouleh, vegetar-
ian grape leaves and chicken stir fry.
Administrative manager Ric Frievalt
said one of his changes was to bake
falafel instead of deep-frying it so it
would qualify as "Heart Smart."
"It's something that travelers at many
airports haven't
seen," Frievalt said
at an of the program.
.e last "We think
about it only for
nt is a travelers, but you
also have people
ger. who work there,"
said Darlene Zim-
merman, a regis-
tony Struzziero tered dietitian at
irline passenger Henry Ford.
Recently, the
Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine, which promotes vegetarian
diets, cited Detroit's airport as No. 2 in
offering healthy vegetarian fare among 12
of the busiest airports. The group said 83
percent of restaurants offer such food.
Claiming the top spot was Miami
International Airport with 85 percent of
restaurants offering food low in fat, choles-
terol-free and high in fiber. Trulie Anker-
berg-Nobis, clinical research coordinator
for the Physicians Committee, said the
rankings come as airline passengers look
for more carry-on food options.
"More restaurants are stepping up
to the plate ... because fewer people
are getting that on board," Ankerberg-
Nobis said. "They have to take it from
home or they are going to buy it from
the airport themselves."
The rankings are based on the per-
centage of restaurants offering at least
one entree that fits the requirements.
Although airport food is getting health-
ier, the Physicians Committee said 36
percent of airport restaurants surveyed
still don't offer one qualifying entree.
MARTIN VLOET/University
of Michigan Photo Services
Bill and Dee
Brehm donated
$44 million to
the University of
Michigan Health
System yesterday
for research
that focuses on
Type 1 diabetes.
Bill Brehm Is
a University
alum and former
assistance
secretary of
defense, and Dee
Brehm was treated
as a patient at
the University
Hospital. The gift
is the largest ever
given to UMHS.
DONATION
Continued from page 1
The gift is one of several donations the University has
received for medical research recently.
"We think that we're getting this support because we have
a wonderful environment to conduct science," said Allen
Lichter, dean of the Medical School. "We have a critical
mass of outstanding faculty, great students and top-flight
facilities to make advances. Donors and others who support
us feel confident in our ability to make a difference."
In addition to the construction of a new research center, the
money will be used to create eight new faculty positions
devoted to Type l research. Current faculty at the University
and people from outside the school will be employed. The
new lab will focus on using multidisciplinary techniques
and collaboration between different types of scientiststo
research for a cure.
"There will not just be endocrinologists working there,
but also neurologists, cardiologists, information scientists
and others," Bill Brehm said. "All of these are important
because it is such a broad disease. This kind of science is
vital to collaboration and sharing information from person
to person and institution to institution."
The use of information science is one especially unique
aspect .about the new program. Information science uses
computer systems to pass information back and forth
between scientists and organizations. "So if someone in a lab
at Michigan suddenly discovers something, they can share
that immediately. It can go around the world, and someone
who is working in a similar area can get it and accelerate
their search," Bill Brehm said.
New visa program
allows hiring more
foreign workers
THIS IS A PAID ADVERTISEMENT
ISRAE IS TH
CANARY IN THE MINE
The war between Arabs and Jews
is not the cause of the war on terror
as apologists for Muslim radicals
claim; it is the war on terror.
Twenty-five years ago, there were two non-Islamic democracies in the Arab
Middle East, Israel and Lebanon. This was too much for Islamic radicals and Syrian:
irredentists and Palestinians who joined forces to destroy Lebanon and make it a bash
for terror.
The goal of the post-Oslo Intifada is not to establish a Palestinian state alongside a.
Jewish state. Its goal is an Islamic umma extending "from the Jordan to the sea." That
is why Oslo was rejected by Arafat even though Barak and Clinton offered him an:
independent state on virtually all of the land Palestinians claimed in the West Bank of
the Jordan. That is why the very birth of Israel is referred to by all the present
Palestinian leadership as the "Nagba" - the "catastrophe." To Islamic radicals at war
with the West, the very creation of Israel is a catastrophe.
American apologists for Arab aggression are also apologists for Islamic
aggression. In their eyes, Islamic terror in the Middle East has a root cause in the
policies of Israel, whom terrorists refer to as the "little
Satan." For apologists of the Islamic terror of 9/11 and the
Zarqawi terror in Iraq, jihad is not a self-generating creed
but has a "root cause" in the policies of "the Great Satan,'
which is us.
Peace in the Middle East and peace in the war with
al-Qaeda and Zarqawi will come only when the terrorists
surrender or are defeated.
n -* 1 T T*
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress
is letting employers hire another
20,000 foreign high-tech workers
under a special visa program after
businesses reached the annual ceiling
on the first day of the government's
fiscal year.
Businesses are limited to hiring no
more than 65,000 workers annually
through the HI-B visa program. They
reached that figure in one day, Oct. 1,
and immediately began complaining
they would lose talented university
graduates and potential employees to
competitors overseas.
In response, as part of the $388 bil-
lion spending bill passed over the
weekend and awaiting President Bush's
signature, Congress is exempting from
the limit 20,000 foreign students with
masters and above degrees from U.S.
universities.
"This is a critical talent pool that
American taxpayers have helped to
educate," said Sandra Boyd, who chairs
the Compete America coalition that
lobbied for the exemptions. "It's coun-
terproductive to educate these students
and then force them abroad to compete
against us."
The coalition includes companies
such as Microsoft, Texas Instruments,
Hewlett Packard and Motorola.
For example, of the 424 students who
earned master's degrees in engineering
at the University of Texas at Austin last
year, 228 were foreign students; of the
135 who earned doctorates in engineer-
ing, 81 were foreigners, Boyd said.
Dan Kane, a spokesman for the
Homeland Security Department's Citi-
zenship and Immigration Service, said
the exemptions for foreign students will
be applicable this year. Rep. Lamar
Smith (R-Texas) and Sen. Saxby Cham-
bliss (R-Ga.) led the effort to include
them in the spending bill.
Kane said his agency will release
details on how employers can apply for
visas made available after Bush signs
the bill, he said.
The popular H1-B visas are granted
to foreigners in specialty professions
such as architecture, engineering, medi-
cine, biotechnology and computer pro-
gramming.