1 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich.
Thousands attend
Detroit tea party
Thousands of Michigan resi-
dents turned out in suburban
Detroit's Clinton Township for a
tea party rally organized by activ-
ists who had targeted an anti-abor-
tion Democratic Congressman for
defeat.
The Detroit News reports that
thousands of people gathered yes-
terday in front of the township's
Civic Center Park for the last of
four stopsaby the Tea Party Express.
They chanted "Don't Tread on
Me" and "Take Back Michigan"
and cheered as speakers pledged to
defend liberty and oust liberal poli-
ticians.
The Tea Party Express had tar-
geted Congressman Bart Stupak for
his role in securing House approval
of the health care overhaul. Stupak
" announced Friday that he's retir-
ing after 18 years in Congress and
insisted he wasn't chased from the
race.
WASHINGTON
Al-Qaida would
use nuke if it could,
Obama says
If al-Qaida acquired nuclear
weapons it "would have no com-
punction at using them," President
Barack Obama said yesterday on
the eve of a summit aimed at find-
ing ways to secure the world's
" nuclear stockpile.
"The single biggest threat to U.S.
security, both short-term, medi-
um-term and long-term, would
be the possibility of a terrorist
organization obtaining a nuclear
weapon," Obama said. "This is
something that could change the
security landscape in this country
and around the world for years to
come."
"if there was ever a detonation
in New York City, or London, or
Johannesburg, the ramifications
economically, politically and from
a security perspective would be
devastating," the president said.
"We know that organizations
like al-Qaida are in the process of
trying to secure nuclear weapons or
other weapons of mass destruction,
and would have no compunction at
usingthem," Obama said.
The Nuclear Security Summit
of more than 40 world leaders in
Washington this week is aimed at
. securing "loose nuclear material,"
Obama said. He was holding one-
on-one meetings yesterday with
severalof those leaders.
WASHINGTON
GOP senators push
for 'mainstream'
court nominee
GOP senators who will help
shape the review of President
Barack Obama's next nominee to
the Supreme Court said yesterday
he must pick someone with "main-
stream" judicial views to avoid a
potential filibuster.
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama,

the top Republican on the Senate
Judiciary Committee, wouldn't
rule out using that tactic to "pro-
tect the Constitution" from a high
court nominee who, he said, would
make law rather than interpret it.
Whether there's a drawn-out
fight over a successor to retiring
Justice John Paul Stevens, the lead-
er of the court's liberal wing, "is
in the president's hands," Sessions
said. Stevens plans to step down
when the court finishes its work for
the summer. '
. Added Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the
Senate's second-ranking Republi-
can and a committee member: "I'm
not going to take it off the table. But
I think it can easily be avoided."
KHARTOUM, Sudan
Sudanese vote
to decide fate of
indicted president
Sudanese voted yesterday in the
impoverished country's first multi-
party elections in a quarter centu-
ry, which will determine whether
President Omar al-Bashir wins
another term despite his indict-
ment on charges of war crimes in
Darfur.
The vote is supposed to bring
a democratically elected govern-
ment, prepare the ground for a vital
referendum on South Sudan inde-
pendence and begin healing the
wounds of the Darfur conflict. But
major opposition parties boycotted
it, claiming it was unfair.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

To bring together thinkers, first ever
TEDx event hosted at the University

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xperts activists 8,000 faculty members and the
Ann Arbor community," he said.
presentations on "If you can make that into this
small, one-day event and take
various topics it all in, try to make it into one
day, I think you can get people to
By ALLIE WHITE make sense of everything around
Daily Staff Reporter them."
LSA sophomore Jason Greens-
hnology, Entertainment, pan, one of the event's marketing
n. These are the found- directors, said the group received
eas behind the California- roughly 600 applications for 300
non-profit conference attendee spots.
known as TED. This past The best applicants were those
lay, the University hosted who thought "outside of the box,"
n version of the conference Greenspan said.
the first-ever TEDxUofM "The most common appli-
cation we had was something
DxUofM, which was orga- about wanting to change the
independently of the TED world, but the best applications
ny but is modeled after said how they would change the
iginal conference, featured world, or why or what needed to
s speakers from the Uni- be addressed," he said. O'Dell
and Ann Arbor commu- said his desire to learn what was
who discussed their areas going on outside of his "bubble"
ertise - each for exactly was what incited his desire to
utes - to a crowd of about bring TEDx to the University.
the auditorium of the Bio- "There's so much exciting stuff
al Science Research Build- happening at the University and
I want to know what's happen-
sophomore Alexander ing," he said. "I felt like this was a
, TEDxUofM's executive good way to bring such a massive
or, said the organization's entity and make sense of it."
ot conferences follow the The speakers who partici-
philosophy of the original pated in TEDxUofM serve as
testaments to that diversity and
EDx) looks to bring togeth- depth.
most interesting thinkers The presenters included Ste-
ers from around the world phen Rush, a professor of dance
re what they're most pas- and performing technology in
e about," O'Dell said. the School of Music, Theatre
inning in 1984, the annual & Dance, LSA freshman Udae
gathering has served as Sandhu, who spoke about his
m for people from fields belief that "life is far too short
ig from science to busi- to not spend every single sec-
o global issues to meet, dis- ond doing what we love" and
nd learn from one another. Sam Valenti IV - a University
peakers have included Bill dropout who founded Ghostly
Al Gore, Jane Goodall and International, an Ann Arbor-
hard Branson. based independent record label,
Dx events have sprung up from his freshman dorm room in
d the world. As the Ann Couzens Hall.
audience filed into the Though each speaker talks for
rium Saturday morning, only 18 minutes on a topic of his
ipants in Accra, Ghana or her choice, TEDx is a unique
halfway through with gathering in that it allows peo-
version of the conference, ple to "(dive) deep into an idea,"
YouthInspire, and organiz- according to O'Dell.
Multimedia University in "It's (a) showcase of the best
jaya, Malaysia were also of what's at the University,"
ng down their own TEDx- O'Dell said. "We tried to find
speakers that aren't necessar-
University isn't unique ily on the forefront, but who
ting a TEDx conference deserve to be recognized and
first-ever was held at the have really amazing and inter-
rsity of Southern Califor- esting things to say and are very
2009. But O'Dell believes passionate about what they do."
ossover between the Uni- O'Dell said he and his team
y community and that of of about 20 student organizers
Arbor creates an "abso- directly' approached adminis-
perfect" atmosphere for trators, deans, professors and
g ideas and sparking col- student leaders for speaker rec-
tion. ommendations.
u have 40,000 students, After narrowing down the

JED MOCH/Daily
Sam Valenti IV, founder and C.E.O. of Ghostly Records, addresses the crowd in the Biomedical Engineering Research Building
at the University of Michigan's first ever TEDx conference.

list of suggestions, O'Dell said the
final itinerary represented "just
about every place on campus."
Jim Burnstein, screenwriting
coordinator in the Department
of Screen Arts & Cultures, spoke
about how the Michigan film
incentive program could reverse
the state's "brain drain." He
echoed O'Dell's sentiments and
said the event was a "great col-
laboration."
"You have such a potential
cross-section of people who you
Can draw from," he said. "It was
just fantastic to see this cross-
section of people in the arts and
sciences that you rarely see com-
ing together, and that's a really
smart idea."
Engineering graduate student
Kiril Dontchev spoke about his

groundbreaking work with satel-
lites.
Dontchev said that while he's
been to many conferences and
given several talks before, TEDx-
UofM was different from any
previous event he's been to.
"The broad range of topics and
the way your mind got pushed,
you really had to dig deep and go
to places you hadn't been before,"
he said. "We really went from the
most technical of engineering
topics to abstract paper things
to talking about food or social
enterprises."
Fellow speaker Alex Wand,
a musician and lecturer in the
Residential College, closed the
conference by playing an original
song.
"Being in one room with so

many inspiring people was an
incredibly contagious experi-
ence," Wand wrotein an e-mail
interview. "Tobe honest, it made
me want to go home and write a
song."
Sandhu compared his experi-
ence at the conference to a "suc-
culent beehive of knowledge."
"Its sweet honey of innovation
flowed into the eager mouths of
all lucky enough to take part,"
Sandhu wrote in an e-mail inter-
view.
O'Dell said his biggest hope is
that the event will be the catalyst
for a dialogue on campus.
"If I can see that people took
something from (TEDxUofM) and'
want to start a conversation about
it, I think that would be the biggest
accomplishment," O'Dell said.

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