4 - Friday, March 19, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
E-MAIL CHRISAT CSKOSLOW@UMICH.EDU
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CHRIS KOSLOWSKI I
JACOB SMILOVITZ
EDITOR IN CHIEF
RACHEL VAN GILDER
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
MATT AARONSON
MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles
and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
Ann Arbor's feelCing lucky
Community should support Google Fiber project
Students may soon find Facebook pages loading with star-
tlingly high speed during difficult Friday morning class-
es. Ann Arbor is currently being considered as a potential
location for the trial run of Google Fiber for Communities, which
aims to bring ultra-high-speed Internet to communities across the
nation. The competition to be a Google Fiber test city is fierce. But
with its highly educated population and the resources available
through the University, Ann Arbor is an ideal location for Google to
pilot the Google Fiber program. The local community should sup-
port this initiative to bring an opportunity for economic growth and
improved resources to Ann Arbor and the University.
There's no check box for A census taker once# Iate his liver with somefava
"Catde" on my census form! tried to test me" beans and a nice Chian.
Agh! Why is my race the
government's business? C 0
0
#7 Y a
8~
Shrugging off stress
never knew how much I could ing a social life can certainly feel this ways to deal with stress that, though
learn from a bathroom stall. Sure, extreme at times. Endorphin-produc- they attract skeptics, can be insanely
I've seen the common nasty ex- ing exercise should be a part of every- beneficial. And campus seems to be
boyfriend remarks one's school regime. Even if it's just a catching on. Just a few weeks ago, I
and Bible quotes, short run (or walk around campus if was handed a flyer on the Diag that
hutsadrawinginthe this weather keeps up), a good work- advertised free meditation courses. I
laststallofthe third out can do wonders for the mind and know this often elicits thoughts of sit-
floor bathroom in body - not to mention help keep off ting Indian-style with hands folded in
Mason Hall took a that extra weight that's almost inevi- lap ("I Dream of Jeannie"-esque), but
different approach, tably put on with extra stress. When learning to meditate can help calm
and let's just say a the weather isn't so nice, students can chronic stress and be a useful tool to
picture is worth a visit either the Central Campus Rec- help make it through more situational
thousand words. reation Building or the Intramural stressors. Not to mention that it's a life-
Above the toilet- LEAH Sports Building, or take advantage of longskillthat canbe applied notonlyto
paper dispenser the many other options available in the school-related stress but to real-world
were four stick fig- POTKIN AnnArbor area. stress as well (and goodness knows
uresa labeled "Ele- 2. Drinkaless stress less. what's in store for us out there).
mentary School', We've all heard it, yet we some- ________
"Middle School", "High School" and how refuse to accept that alcohol is
"College". Each figure had a word or a depressant. Because we treat it as Acupuncture isn't
two next to it, and next to the mod- a stimulant, consuming large quanti-
erately sized "College" figure were ties in preparation for rambunctious as it
the words "stressed" and "unhappy". sporting events and nights out, we as painful
Excuse me if I've been misinformed, often forget the drug's more negative
but isn't college supposed to be the best effects. But when you think about it, sounds. I promise.
four years of your life? it seems rather intuitive that a sub-
Stress, though inevitably part of stance that can make you physically
every college student's life, shouldn't sick just might add to your stress. If meditation isn't your thing, an
be the defining aspect of anyone's col- I'm not saying drinking is all bad. In even more out-there way to cope with
lege experience. With tests to ace, fact, frat boys of the world, you'll be stress is with ancient Chinese acu-
social interactions to navigate and lim- pleased to hear that alcohol in small puncture. You might wonder why
ited funds to budget, the college envi- doses can decrease stress in some anyone would pay to be stuck with
ronment admittedly is one that fosters situations - butllet's be honest, small needles (just as I did before I tried
stress, but it doesn't have to take over doses aren't exactly your forte. it), but believe me those needles work
our lives. Because stress takes a toll on 3. Look to the University. miracles. Whether it's stress, common
our bodies both physically and mental- With a campus as big as ours boast- colds, lingering aches and pains or vir-
ly, it's vital that students take the time ing resources for virtually every one of tually anything else, acupuncture is
to address this problem and find ways your needs, there are of course cam- becomingthe go-to treatmentfor many
to cope. So if you can see a reflection pus resources to help students cope tired of more traditional treatments. I
of yourself in this bathroom-stall stick with stress. Students can visit websites am a convert.
figure, please read on, because a few such MiTalk, which discusses stress So there you have it, from working
simple stress-busting strategies can management and ways to help, or get out to acupuncture and meditation,
help make a difference. involved with MHealthy's stress bust- there are both traditional and non-
1. "Endorphins make people happy. ers, aprogram thatoffers more interac- traditional ways to deal with stress.
Happy people just don't kill their hus- tive ways to cope with stress. Keep these tips in mind, and if worse
bands." 4. Alternative Methods. comes to worst, there's always drawing
While we hopefully aren't dealing If this has all sounded rather clich on bathroom walls - I hear it's a great
with issues as extreme as those that led up to this point, I wouldn't entirely wayto de-stress.
to Elle Woods's quote from "Legally disagree. Most of us know the com-
Blonde", the stress of finals, dealing mon ways to deal with stress. Howev- - Leah Potkin can be reached
with Ohio State fans and maintain- er, there are many other less common at lpokin@umich.edu
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
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Send letters to tothedaily@umich.edu.
On Monday, the Ann Arbor City Coun-
cil unanimously passed a resolution urg-
ing Google to choose Ann Arbor as one of
the locations for the trial program Google
Fiber for Communities. Google Fiber
seeks to build an expansive high-speed,
fiber-to-home network infrastructure in
selected communities that would provide
Internet with a connection it claims is 100
times faster than the norm. The resolution
doesn't ensure that the city will be chosen,
but Google has stated that the support of
the community will be one of factors it
considers in the assessment of trial cities.
Ann Arbor faces competition from cities
across the country, including Google, Kan-
sas - formally known as Topeka before
the mayor changed the city's name for the
duration of March.
But even without publicity stunts like
Topeka's name change, Ann Arbor is
uniquely qualified to be the site of Google's
new venture. Because the city is home to a
highly-educated community and one of the
state's three major research universities,
the impact of the new technology could be
seen in Ann Arbor more fully than in other
places. The University could also provide
Google with resources for the project's
growth. And city residents - many of
whom are employed at the University -
are particularly capable to evaluate Google
Fiber's effectiveness. Google Fiber should
tap into the innovative power of Ann Arbor.
The University could also benefit from
Google fiber. The online infrastructure
would open up new research opportuni-
ties once deemed too time-consuming
- or even impossible - without a faster
Internet connection. And the University
has expressed excitement over the pros-
pect of faster access to medical records for
the University Health System. This will
improve the quality of care received by
those who rely on these health services.
Google's investment in Ann Arbor could
also provide an economic stimulus to
the state. Local businesses would gain a
competitive edge armed with the higher
speeds and would be able to cut their costs
and offer better services. And, most impor-
tantly, the venture could bring more jobs to
the city.
Community backing is crucial to Ann
Arbor's selection. Supporters should fill
out a form online at the Google Fiber
homepage to nominate Ann Arbor. They
can also join fan pages on Facebook or
Twitter or compete in contests on You-
Tube to advocate for the city as Google's
choice. Given the potential benefits that
Google Fiber could offer, the community
should support efforts to bring it to the
city. After all, it would be inbthe best inter-
est of students' needs for ultra high-speed
Facebook access.
NICHOLAS CLIFT I
GHIDA DAGHER, MALVIKA DESHMUKH AND AFSHAN KHANI
0
Warming up to climate change Stop bigotry in Middle East debate
Americans seem to be dropping real climate
science in favor of something easier. A poll
conducted by the Pew Research Center for the
People and the Press in October found that only
35 percent of Americans consider global warm-
ing a serious problem. That's down from the
44 percent that the Pew Research Center mea-
sured in April 2008. America must act, as it has
failed to do up till now, to reduce its climate-
changing emissions.
What was once a serious debate among sci-
entists has been degraded to political feuding
and conspiracy theories. Environment and Cli-
mate News, a monthly paper and the deceptive
mouthpiece of the far-right Heartland Insti-
tute, recently featured a video on its website
in which, "Former Governor Jesse Ventura
investigates who is behind the exaggeration
and hype of the global warming movement."
According to the site, "his investigation leads
to billionaire Maurice Strong." That's insane.
And the problem is many otherwise intelligent,
genuine individuals read and believe the paper.
In the interest of reversing the trend of cli-
mate change denying, let's look at some of the
popular misconceptions perpetuated in the
Environment and Climate News:
"Floridians have suffered through the cold-
est winter in almost 30 years. In some parts of
South Florida, it's been colder than anytime in
the last 83 years. ... Gore's claims that global
warming will produce dramatic and cataclys-
mic warming appear to be melting faster than
any glacier" (2010: The Year Global Warming
Froze Florida, 03/08/2010).
According to official reports released by
NASA and available at climate.nasa.gov, 2009
was globally the second-warmest year since
modern records began around 1880. As one
NASA scientist pointed out, the continental
United States makes up only 1.5 percent of the
globe's surface area, making it very possible
for the conditions specific to the continental
United States to be an exception to those expe-
rienced globally.
"IPCC Discredited, Evidence of Fraud
Mounts," read the cover of the March 2010
issue of Environment and Climate News.
The greatest controversy is over a specific
piece of information the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change used regarding gla-
cial melting - a single paragraph in a 938-page
report. The IPCC was called out for basing its
information on a source that had not been peer-
reviewed - not exactly an issue undermining
the science of climate change.
But tobe sure I had the full truth, I asked Dr.
Natalia Andronova, a research scientist study-
ing climate in the Department of Atmospheric,
Oceanic and Space Sciences and a contributor
to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning IPCC, for
help. The question is really whether promis-
ing new information that hasn't been peer-
reviewed, so-called "gray literature," should be
used by the IPCC. Andronova's opinion is that
it should be, as long as the source is clearly and
properly cited as such. As she pointed out to me
last week, the role of the IPCC is to assess the
science that has already been done, not to do
new science, which means they're limited to
data already produced.
Another misconception: "Contrary to what
the politicians tell us, there is no consensus
of scientific thought on whether there is a
man-made component to global warming. The
science is certainly not settled" (Support for
Global Warming Alarmism Continues to Wane,
10/09/2010).
In the words of Andronova, "Among people
doing (climate) research, there is consensus
that humans are influencing the climate." The
only questions remaining, she told me, are in
what ways and to what extent humans impact
the climate.
Her judgment isconsistent with another poll
by the Pew Research Center from July 2009.
Eighty-four percent of the 2,500 scientists Pew
surveyed believed human activity is warm-
ing the earth. That's just shy of the 87 percent
of scientists Pew found who believe humans
and other creatures evolved from simpler life
forms.
Chances are, most members of the public
don't believe, as the description of Jesse Ventu-
ra's video states, that "... some people are using
(global warming) to make billions of dollars,
start a one-world government and control our
lives..." But it seems the messages from the real
scientific community are sufficiently diluted by
misinformation to keep many Americans ques-
tioning and in doubt. The science is complex
and the consequences of warming are hard to
accept.
"The public really wants to know what is
right, what is wrong," Andronova said. The
most important thing for individuals to do now,
she said, is to simply show the facts.
And scientists need to do just that. The fact
that only one-third of the general public agrees
with 84 percent of the scientific community
on a matter of science should tell us that those
facts are getting lost in translation. It's vital for
scientists to expand outreach to the public in
defense of science.
Nicholas Clift is an Engineering freshman.
Yesterday, the American Movement for Israel and the
Michigan Political Union collaborated to bringDr. Rapha-
el Israeli to campus to discuss China's rapid economic
growth and its involvement in the Middle East. Israeli is
a professor of Islamic, Chinese and Middle Eastern his-
tory at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He also has
written several books, including "Islamikaze: Manifesta-
tions of Islamic Martyrology," "The Spread of Islamikaze
Terrorism in Europe: The Third Islamic Invasion" and
"Muslim Minorities in Modern States: The Challenge of
Assimilation." In his books and editorials, he promotes
the xenophobic notions that Muslims are incapable of
assimilating into western societies and have particu-
lar difficulty co-existing peacefully with non-Muslims.
According to Israeli, non-Muslims who challenge these
views are in fact "cowardly" Muslim apologists.
While Israeli may have intelligent contributions to
make on the topic of China's involvement in the Middle
East and Islam in China, his scholarship cannot be con-
sidered without the context of his political views, which
undoubtedly inform and direct his research. To be clear,
we aren't necessarily challenging the validity of Israeli's
scholarship on China and the Middle East. As members of
student organizations that promote freedom and equality
in the Middle East and throughout the world, we chal-
lenge the American Movement for Israel and the Michi-
gan Political Union to identify Israeli's politics for what
they are: racist, bigoted and destructive to an accurate
understanding of the Middle East and Islam.
It's an interesting thought experiment to consider
what the reaction of the campus and the receptivity of the
sponsoring student groups would have been for a similar
academic who, instead of being virulently anti-Muslim,
was a white supremacist, anti-Semite or homophobe. It is
unlikely that such a speaker would have been invited at
all, and we can look to the protests at the Blind Pig against
reggae artist Buju Banton last fall for evidence of the sort
of reaction such a speaker might receive. This disturbing
double standard of what constitutes acceptable or unac-
ceptable bigotry on campus needs to be re-examined by
student organizations looking to present diverse perspec-
tives through the speakers they bring.
Free speech and responsible speech go hand in hand.
We must remember that people have the inherent right
to exist, but the fact that an idea exists does not make it
automatically legitimate or equal to all other ideas. Those
ideas that seek to undermine any people's natural right to
live a dignified and free existence must be examined with
close scrutiny before they are presented as legitimate. In
the case of Israeli, his perspectives on Muslims under-
mine the (obvious) idea that Muslims are people just like
Christians, Jews, Buddhists and atheists.
It is not acceptable for student groups to host an indi-
vidual under the auspices that his or her presence cre-
ates opportunities for meaningful dialogue when the
lecturer himself publicly demonizes those who speak
out against his xenophobic perspectives. While Israe-
li's ideas shouldn't be censored, an explicit distinction
should have been made between presenting his scholar-
ship and endorsing his politics. Bringing Israeli to cam-
pus but failing to make this distinction constitutes an
implicit endorsement of his anti-Muslim views. This is
not the first time, however, that pro-Israel groups have
hosted speakers with prejudiced views toward Islam.
Pro-Israel academic Daniel Pipes and anti-Islam writer
Brigitte Gabriel have all been invited within the last four
years.
Israeli's bigoted perspective on Islam is one that, in
addition to being irresponsible, is already too wide-
spread and accepted in our society. As a result, Muslim
Americans and Muslims globally have been the victims
of discrimination, ethnic cleansing and unjust incarcera-
tion. Giving intolerance yet another platform does noth-
ing to encourage dialogue on these topics. As University
students and as citizens of a global community, we must
demand more from one another when it comes to discuss-
ing difficult, yet critical, issues. One need not look fur-
ther than the University's humanities departments for
intelligent dissections of Islam, the Middle East and the
broader role religion plays in our society.
We encourage students to examine the misrepresen-
tation of both Muslims and Arabs by attending upcom-
ing events organized to address these issues. Tonight at
6:30 p.m., the Arab Student Association will screen "Reel
Bad Arabs" in the Rackham Amphitheatre, which will
be followed by a discussion with director Dr. Jack Sha-
heen on representation of Arabs in Hollywood cinema.
In addition, next week is Islam Awareness Week, which
will feature several events designed to address pervasive
misconceptions on Islam, including a short lecture by Dr.
Yvonne Seon next Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Union Ball-
room on the experience of being a black Muslim woman
in America.
Ghida Dagher is the president of the Arab Student
Association, Malvika Deshmukh is co-chair of Students
Allied for Freedom and Equality and Afshan Khan is
political chair of the Muslim Students' Association.
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EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Nina Amilineni, Jordan Birnholtz, William Butler, Nicholas Clift, Michelle DeWitt,
Brian Flaherty, Jeremy Levy, Erika Mayer, Edward McPhee, Emily Orley, Harsha Panduranga,
Alex Schiff, Asa Smith, Brittany Smith, Robert Soave, Radhika Upadhyaya, Laura Veith