NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 1, 2005 - 3
. ON CAMPUS
Angell Hall to
host Greek film
festival
This weekend the Fourth Annual
Greek Film Festival will take place at
Angell Hall. The film "Bride" will be
shown tonight at 7:30 pm in Auditori-
um B. The film "Trilogy: The Weeping
Meadow" will be shown oon Sunday at
5 p.m. in Auditorium A. The films are in
Greek with English subtitles.
Weekend play
showing in Frieze
A performance of "Hot L Baltimore,"
a play about a rundown hotel and its res-
idents, is tonight and tomorrow at 8pm
at the Trueblood Theatre in the Frieze
Building. Sunday's performance is at 2
p.m.. Tickets are $15 or $9 with student
id. Tickets are available at the Michigan
League Ticket Office.
Asian performance
aims to interpret
meaning of nature
A performance titled "IMBANG/
FUKINKOU (Balance/Imbalance) And
the Elements of Nature" is being staged
tonight at the Video and Performance
Studio at 8 p.m. The performance is
an attempt to interpret the symbolic
meanings of natural elements present in
human life.
CRIME
NOTES
Construction dolly
rolls into vehicle
A caller reported to the Department
of Public Safety that a construction
dolly rolled into a vehicle Wednesday
on East Medical Center Drive. There
were no reported injuries.
Electric stimulation,
device stolen
An electrical stimulation device,
valued at $800, was taken sometime
in the last two months from the Briar-
wood Medical Rehabilitation Center,
DPS reported. There are currently no
suspects.
Sink falls off wall,
no injuries reported
A caller reported to DPS that a sink
fell off of a wall yesterday in West
Quad Residence Hall. There were no
reported injuries.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Only 25 attend
burned-out Hash
Bash
April 1, 1983 - Twelve years after
the first Hash Bash, only a few stu-
dents rallied to celebrate the lenient
$5 Ann Arbor fine for those caught
smoking marijuana.
Although the previous festivals
had reunited more than 5,000 partici-
pants, this year's event only gathered
e25. No arrests were made.
"The Hash Bash has no signifi-
cance. It's going down; it doesn't
make a difference," senior Eric
Kettenem said. "Pot isn't such a
defiant symbol anymore. I guess the
Hash Bash has to wait for the next
generation."
Not all attendees were University
students. "The Hash Bash is where
you stand around and buy drugs," said
a local high-school student attending
the event on the Diag.
'U
gains access to Holocaust archives
Video interviews with
Holocaust survivors tobe
accessible in T libraries
via high-speed connection
By Magaly Grimaldo
Daily Staff Reporter
The University has followed the lead of the
University of Southern California, Rice Uni-
versity and Yale in creating a partnership with
The Survivors of Shoah Foundation, providing
the University access to the 52,000 interviews
of Holocaust survivors and witnesses the foun-
dation has in its archives.
"The University decided to be part of the
partnership after it found out about the proj-
ect and database. Funding for the partnership
came from the library's budget, and we spent
the last year working with the foundation to
bring this to campus," Director of Arts and
Engineering Libraries Mike Miller said.
The archive can be accessed through the
University's libraries and can be used as a
resource for research. These video recordings
can be used in different disciplines, from his-
tory to psychology.
"It's a tremendous resource for teaching
because students can access this information
from their computers. This site could also be
used as a search engine to find specific infor-
mation regarding the Holocaust, " Director of
Judaic Studies Todd Endelman said.
Endelman also said that students could use
this resource in language classes since the
interviews are recorded in the native language
of the survivors, covering 32 languages.
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg established the
Survivors of Shoah Foundation after the film-
ing of "Schindler's List" in 1994. Holocaust
survivors approached Spielberg and offered to
share their stories.
After collecting funds, Spielberg began the
foundation by sending interviewers to col-
lect testimonies from 56 countries around
the world. When the video recordings came
together, the foundation worked on transfer-
ring the recordings onto a digital library sys-
tem with a 400-terabyte-storage capacity.
"It is by far the largest Holocaust record
that has ever been collected. The significance
of these records is their size and the way they
are indexed," RC Lecturer Henry Greenspan
said.
Shoah's media and relations manager, Janet
Keller, said that one of the foundation's goals
is to "have our testimonies used as an educa-
tional source."
"Through grants from the National Science
Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Founda-
tion and the Library Services and Technology
Act, the Shoah Foundation is currently pro-
viding high-speed digital access over Inter-
net2 to the University of Southern California,
Rice University and Yale University," Keller
said.
Justice Dept looks
into medical compames
CHICAGO (AP) - A probe by the Depart-
ment of Justice into makers of orthopedic devices
has produced only a handful of subpoenas so far
but has raised concerns about the relationship
between the companies and the doctors that con-
sult for them.
Orthopedic device companies frequently pay phy-
sicians for feedback on products and to help them
design new ones. But doctors and industry experts
speculate that the Justice Department seems con-
cerned that companies, in an effort to rustle up more
business, sometimes pay doctors who don't provide
services worthy of compensation.
In the past two days, orthopedic device mak-
ers Stryker Corp., Biomet Inc., Smith & Nephew
PLC, Johnson & Johnson and Zimmer Holdings
Inc. received subpoenas from the Justice Depart-
ment requesting documents on their agreements with
orthopedic surgeons.
The companies have all issued press releases say-
ing they would cooperate. A department spokes-
woman couldn't immediately provide further details
of the investigation.
Wall Street analysts, in notes issued yesterday,
tried to shed light on the government's intentions.
Analysts reckon the government wants to make sure
that consulting relationships between companies and
doctors are legitimate, not just ways for the compa-
nies to seek more business.
Analysts also say the investigation could theoreti-
cally weaken high-volume doctors' relationships with
companies, potentially leading to a slowdown in sales
growth. That, in part, explains why orthopedic shares
fell sharply yesterday.
"We believe the Department of Justice is con-
ducting a probe into whether or not the orthopedic
companies received services in return for payment to
physicians and are not just writing large checks for
using their products or increasing volume," said ana-
lyst Mark Landy, of Susquehanna Financial Group, in
a note to investors.
J. Patrick Anderson, a spokesman for Kalamazoo,
Mich.-based Stryker, said his company depends on
doctors for their feedback.
"We ask folks performing surgery, 'Is this prod-
uct good?' " Anderson said. "Are these instruments,
the best? Are they ergonomically satisfying? Is this
the best surgical technique for the patient? They,
provide us input."
Providing this input to Stryker, Anderson said, takes
time away from surgeons, who could instead be per-
forming surgery. So the company compensates them.
Dr. Fred Geisler, a spinal surgeon in the Chicago
suburbs, said the Justice Department may be try-
ing to determine the difference between a "real"
consulting relationship and something that is not
useful. For instance, he asked, can a relationship
between a doctor and a company be called "use-
ful" if the contact is a 15-minute telephone con-
versation once a'year?
Much of the time, relationships between device
companies and physicians go well beyond an annual
15-minute phone call. Technology used in implants
such as artificial hips and knee joints ages quickly,
so companies constantly need to innovate. They,
work with doctors, who help them design new prod-
ucts and determine if current ones function properly
and are easy to use.
"Medical technology innovation depends on very
close collaborative relationships between health care
professionals and medical technology companies,"
said Blair Childs, executive vice president, strategic
planning and implementation, at Advanced Medical
Technology Association (AdvaMed), an association,
representing medical technology companies. "Unlike
drugs, which are developed in the laboratory, most
medical technology is developed in a collaborative
way between medical technology companies and'
health care professionals."
AdvaMed's code of ethics states that companies can
use doctors as consultants and pay them "reasonable
compensation" for their services. However, the code
adds that compensation paid to consultants "should
be consistent with fair market value" and should pnly
be entered into "where a legitimate need and purpose
for the services is identified in advance."
Incomes, spending increase 1n February
WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans'
incomes, bolstered by strong gains in
hiring, rose by 0.3 percent in February
while consumer spending climbed at an
even faster pace of 0.5 percent, the gov-
ernment reported yesterday.
The Commerce Department said
the gain in spending followed a much
smaller 0.1 percent increase in Janu-
ary and reflected the fact that auto
sales rebounded last month after hav-
ing fallen in January.
The 0.3 percent rise in incomes was
attributed to a surge of 262,000 new
jobs in February, the biggest increase
in four months. Further solid gains in
both incomes and consumer spending
are expected in the months ahead as
the consumer continues to be a driving
force in the economy.
Analysts said the February gains
in incomes and spending showed the
economy was being propelled this year
by continued strength in employment
growth and consumer spending -
which accounts for two-thirds of total
economic activity.
"Strong payroll gains over the next
few months will surely boost the num-
bers" for incomes, Ian Shepherdson,
chief U.S. economist for High Frequen-
cy Economics, said in a note to clients.
On Wall Street, a new jump in oil
prices outweighed the good economic
data. The Dow Jones industrial average
lost 37.17 points to close at 10,503.76.
In other economic news, the Com-
merce Department reported that orders
to U.S. factories rose by 0.2 percent in
February as strong demand for com-
mercial aircraft, steel and comput-
ers offset a drop in demand for new
cars and industrial machinery. The
gain was weaker than the 0.5 percent
increase that many economists had
been expecting, but it still represented
an improvement following no change
at all in January orders.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department
said that the number of Americans
filing new claims for unemployment
benefits rose by 20,000 to 350,000
last week. It was the highest level for
jobless claims in 11 weeks. However,
the four-week moving average for
claims rose by a more modest 8,500
to 336,000 last week, a level still low
enough to signal continued job cre-
ation in the economy.
Analysts are expecting another
strong gain in employment of around
220,000 jobs when the March jobs per-
formance is reported today.
Starting with the recession in 2001,
the country suffered through two years
of outright declines in employment and
then weak job growth in 2003. How-
ever, job gains accelerated last year,
pushing employment up by more than
2 million workers, an increase that ana-
lysts expect to be matched this year.
The economic rebound was fueled
by four rounds of tax cuts promoted
by President Bush and easy credit from
the Federal Reserve. With the impact
of the tax cuts waning and the Fed now
raising interest rates to make sure that
the reviving economy does not fuel
unwanted inflation, analysts believe
that economic growth will moderate
somewhat this year.
For all of 2004, the economy grew
by 4.4 percent, including a 3.8 percent
growth rate in the final three months of
the year. Analysts believe the economy
in the first three months of this year
probably grew at a 4 percent rate.
FULBRIGH
The U.S. Department of State U.S. Student Fulbright Program funds awards
for study, research, teaching, arts and independent projects to
over 100 countries - worldwide.
Complete applications are due on September 16, 2005
http://www.umich.edu/~-iinet/fulbright
fulbrightprogram(numich.edu
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