The Bowdoin Orient

Quietly but with confidence, top college officials have launched Bowdoin's latest capital campaign, setting a goal of raising $250 million by 2010.

The Brunswick Police Department issued a trespass warning this week to a resident of Brunswick in response to an off-campus incident that possibly involved date-rape drugs.

Bowdoin ranks 49th in a new survey of colleges and universities nationwide conducted by National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The College was ranked the seventh-best liberal arts colleges in the U.S. News & World Report listings released earlier this year.

Four students have been nominated by the College to travel far and wide to investigate cultures around the globe.

Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration & Treasurer Catherine Longely announced that the College appointed Donald Borkwoski as the Acting Director of Facilities Managment, effective immediately.

Criminal activity that was reported between October 18, 2004 and November 7, 2004.

As pundits argue over the impact of youth voters in the 2004 election, one thing is clear: Bowdoin students of all political persuasions voted in force on Election Day.

All joking aside, a new policy for dorm damages is long overdue. The Tower, like most dorms, has endured a number of damages and "spills" this year. Under the current system, the College charges every resident for damages incurred in common areas, hallways, and elevators of dorms when the parties responsible do not come forth.

Every year when Thanksgiving approaches I get this "thing" in my throat?a kind of pain, as if I swallowed a tennis ball or a whole sweet potato. My glands start to wobble and my legs grow plump; my neck elongates and my head starts to swivel.

The results of the election on November 2 brought out the worst in the Bush-hating faction of the "Left." While many Democrats were gracious in defeat (including the College Democrats), many put their misguided hatred on full display.

So John Kerry lost. Pundits, conservatives, and liberals alike have spent the last week and a half trudging through the Democrats' failure to attract conservative "cultural voters." Maybe it's the latent Howard Dean supporter in me that refuses to die, but I find the recent moderating talk from fellow liberals infuriating.

Since April, when the Marines' siege of the city was called off in the face of mounting civilian casualties, Fallujah has been a festering sore on Iraq's struggle for democracy.

On Thursday, November 4 President Bush held his first news conference since winning a second term in office. Reading the transcript of the press conference, I get the feeling that President Bush has a less than favorable opinion of the media.

While I am concerned with the divide between the red and blue states, I am even more disturbed by the crescendo of animosity I have observed between the Republicans and Democrats within the campus.

Although President Bush did not carry the state of Maine in 2004, Maine's youth demographic (18-29 year olds) was very unique in how it voted. In fact, Maine's youth demographic defied national trends and trends set by similar states in this election cycle.

Today many are struggling to accept a wider world that does not, on the surface, share this calling: on campus, individuals' values are subordinated to a growing social awareness, while in society as a whole these same values are becoming increasingly elevated to the realm of political and social policy.

Many Bowdoin students are finding yet another productive way to spend their time, signing up in droves (over 1200 as the Orient went to press) for a website known as the thefacebook.com.

"To test just how resilient these bottles are, my friends and I duck taped one to my driveway and we ran over it with a car and it did not break!" said Morgan Finch '08. Finch recalled that she and her friends might have used a Mountaineer. Nalgene bottles come in different sizes, shapes, and colors, are reusable, basically indestructible, and are able to hold just about anything.

I first learned of theface-book.com this summer from my sister. Having just spent the past nine months in Africa, I had been oblivious to this latest craze. "Are you on thefacebook?" she asked me, soon after my return. I was perplexed.

While practicing medicine on a Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, Dr. Jeff Benson of the Dudley Coe Health Center witnessed a miracle of alternative medicine that altered his view of the medical field.

Dear Dr. Jeff: I've had some funny looking bumps on my belly for a few weeks now. I've done some research on line, and think it may be molluscum. What should I do? -J.S. Dear J.S.: Molluscum is a fairly common skin infection, and we've seen a lot of it over the years at the Health Center. So, first of all, come on in! Let one of us take a look, and if it is molluscum that's causing those funny looking bumps, we can discuss various treatment options.

The late November haze has settled in on campus, and students and professors alike have found that the jobs they put off until "sometime before Thanksgiving" have now leapt to the forefront of their agenda.

Some watched it in Macmillan. Others tuned in at Morrell Lounge. But Ken Akiha '08 watched most of Tuesday's election returns in the "CNN room." "It was a little ridiculous," said the California native of the curious T.V. setup in Hyde, his first-year dorm. Fellow first years thought it would be fun to see what news network called the state results first.

It's true that I am a member of the Bowdoin Democrats. It's also true that I was the team captain of a group of 21 students sent down to help Kerry Headquarters in Lewiston, Maine. But politics aside, I went to Lewiston to help get out the vote.

You probably hear it before you see it. The noise gets just loud enough so that you're able to dodge out of the way before you're run over. The ominous rumbling you heard, however, was just the combination of wheels on pavement and poorly-oiled trucks.

I spent two hours on patrol with Officer Roma of the Brunswick Police Department last Sunday afternoon?so I guess you could say I was a police officer for Halloween. As long as you are willing to sign a waiver, saying, among other things, that you will "dress appropriately," anyone, any day, can go on patrol with a Brunswick police officer as part of their "Ride-a-Long" public relations program.

The Incredibles is another sure sign that Pixar can't go wrong. The first time that quirky 3-D desk lamp bounced its way across movie screens and took its place as the 'i' in the Pixar Animation Studios logo, we were nine years younger and still in the reign of the Disney musical. But by the time the Toy Story credits rolled, a change was in the popcorn-scented air. Could it be? No more weepy Ariels or Mulan princesses, mushy love stories, or Hunchbacks and Simbas prancing around in song? That little lamp was a herald of a new age, and the beginning of the end of an important era in children's animation.

The Bates College Gamelan Mawar Mekar, a four-year-old orchestra specializing in music from the Indonesian island of Java, and Bates's visiting Fulbright scholar Joko Susilo, a master puppeteer, will present the shadow puppet play The Abduction of Sinta tonight at 7:00 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium.

Looking for a little southern comfort to keep you warm now that it's chilly out? Search no further than the Virginia Coalition concert this Friday in Morrell Lounge. Any Virginian worth their salt (and there are so many of them at Bowdoin, right?) listens to VACO, and all the cool kids from the D.C. area caught on after the release of its second album, Townburg. VACO is now promoting their recently released fourth album, OK to Go, but expect plenty of old favorites from its previous albums Townburg, Rock and Roll Party, and The Colors of the Sound.

It would appear that California has been working hard this year on perfecting its application for Ditziest State in the Union. For leadership, you could not do better than Arnold Schwarznegger. And then you have the introduction of The OC, the newest, hottest, most brilliantly one-dimensional show to come to TV networks since Beverly Hills 90210.

So, this week, I would like to remind you (just like your professors, the CPC, and everyone else who likes to nag) that we are just two weeks out from Thanksgiving. Wahoo! Three extra days of weekend?and you get to spend it with your family, who will hopefully fork over some money along with the leftovers.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Yes, I love naked people in art!" Well don't we all, but you won't find it here, or at least not entirely. Naked is a group show of works on paper such as drawings, photographs, etchings and paintings by over 30 artists from both Maine and New York. June Fitzpatrick writes in her description of the show, "All works chosen exemplify states of exposure and vulnerability or are in themselves naked or bare or stripped down." Some of the subjects of the work reveal naked bodies, while other pieces reveal a side of the artist that is usually concealed, such as sketches or plans for a larger work. This concept breaks down the idea of what naked means. The artist can expose him or herself through revealing a side of his or her work not normally shown, or can just reveal good old fashioned flesh.

This adaptation of the famous short story by Rudyard Kipling tells of Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnahan, two ex-soldiers in India when it was under British rule. They decide that the country is too small for them, so they head off to Kafiristan in order to become kings in their own right. Sponsored by the Department of Classics.

Famed long distance runner Joan Benoit Samuelson '79 will be inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame on December 3.

What has been a nightmare season in Miami took another bad turn this week as Dave Wannstedt stepped down as head coach of the Dolphins. In his press conference, Wannstedt accepted responsibility for his team's abysmal 1-8 performance. He has been the recipient of harsh criticism from Dolphin fans since taking over the team in 2000. This criticism has grown loudest over the past two seasons as Miami failed to make the playoffs in both years despite having a tremendous amount of talent on both sides of the ball.

With a new season under way, NBA fans across the country have hopes that the professional competition will be just as unpredictable. Here are the teams I believe will buck their recent trends by making the playoffs this season:

The night of triumph, elation and dozens of random man hugs in the streets of Boston started with a simple question. "Dude, we're going to Boston. We're leaving at five, you in?" senior Chris Mosher (the man I now refer to as my guardian angel) asked me this question at four o'clock last Wednesday.

Under overcast skies, the Bowdoin women's cross-country team returned to Colby, the site of its first meet of the season, to compete against Colby and the ten other NESCAC teams in the conference championships. The women faced a very competitive field as well as a challenging course and finished eighth overall. Middlebury and Williams tied for first, followed by Amherst, Colby, Wesleyan, Tufts, Trinity.

After a thrilling 1-0 victory over Amherst in the first round of the NESCAC tournament, the Bowdoin men's soccer team moves on to the final four this weekend at Williams, where it will face Middlebury on Saturday. If the team loses another game this fall, it will be the end of the season for some Polar Bears and the end of careers for others. With the amount of talent on this year's team, however, the Polar Bears are confident that they can outlast Middlebury, Williams and Wesleyan, the other three NESCAC teams still alive.