The Bowdoin Orient

Herschel Sternlieb showed up at Wednesday's meeting of the Brunswick Conservation Commission (BCC) prepared to make a presentation proposing the construction of a public park on Brunswick Naval Air Station (BNAS) land once the base closes. He was second on the commission's agenda.

Wikipedia.org, the popular online encyclopedia, offers users instant access to over a million articles ranging from the Battle of Waterloo to Barry Mills to Brussels sprouts. But a recent decision by the Middlebury College history department to ban citing the ultra-convenient, yet notoriously inaccurate, Web site on papers and exams raises an important question: What role should Wikipedia play at Bowdoin, particularly in research-intensive courses?

Although college houses attracted only approximately 175 applicants for 200 slots this year, the Office of Residential Life and the Inter-House Council (IHC) are optimistic that next year's college houses will be enthusiastic and active in the Bowdoin community.

Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) has voted to recommend the replacement of the College's current Credit/D/Fail policy with a Grade/Credit/Fail policy. After hearing concerns from students and faculty about the shortcomings of the current policy, BSG members suggested that their support would help the Recording Committee in further discussion and policy revisions.

Dinesh D'Souza, former senior policy analyst during the Reagan administration, addressed terrorism and the war in Iraq in a lecture Wednesday titled "America and Its Enemies."

In response to increased demand, Bowdoin security has upped the capacity of the SafeRide system. According to Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols, two SafeRide vans have been operating during peak hours on Friday and Saturday nights.

Acclaimed author of "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" Nassim Nicolas Taleb will deliver a lecture titled "On the Impact of the Highly Improbable."

A summary box for the front-page story "Credit/D/Fail up for revision" (2/23) incorrectly stated that members of BSG and the Recording Committee proposed the adoption of a new credit policy.

"Thorne accommodates Muslim students' needs" (2/23) should have stated that Bowdoin Dining Service did not provide Kosher food for Jewish holidays until this year, and not until after Muslim students made inquiries about serving Halal meat.

As students soon to enter the workforce, we find ourselves baffled by the premier paradox of the "real world": You can't find a job without experience, but you can't get experience without a job. The way to surpass this dilemma, we've been told, is to land a summer internship. With internships on our resumes, we are no longer deemed "inexperienced," and come graduation, we can compete for spots in an increasingly selective job market.

As a scientist in the field of climate, I feel compelled to reply to Zachary Linhart's piece on global warming (2/23). Since space is limited, I can't fully address the many topics Linhart raised. Instead, I'll stick to a few highlights.

Last week, Zachary Linhart tried to generate doubt about the necessity of acting swiftly to halt global warming. The reasoning was blatantly deficient in several areas.

There is no controversy over whether global warming is happening or whether humans are causing it. Zachary Linhart mentions in his own piece that the government-sponsored panel on climate change finds that there is a 90-percent chance that humans are causing global warming.

By WILLIAM C. WATTERSON
The Reverend Joseph McKeen's oft-quoted passage on liberal education and the common good comes from an address which he delivered in 1802 as part of the inauguration ceremony which established him as the first president of Bowdoin College. The speech was published as a pamphlet in Brunswick in the same year by the printer Joseph Griffin.

I'm writing this column in perhaps what is the single most dingy, and yet most revered and mythical place on our campus. It is surrounded by sexual urban legend, and frequented by Bowdoin students in their most academically diligent states.

A wise man once philosophized about diversion. He stated that the only true path to happiness is immortality. This obviously posed a formidable challenge to humans. He then went on and described our tendency to dive into distractions, to avoid thinking about our ephemerality.

By JACOB DALY
Where do we find ourselves, fellow Bowdoinians? The answer: in a world of rhetoric of which we do not know the limit, and believe that it has none. Looking around, we see the countless arguments won and lost behind us, and ahead of us, the endless number that await.

Three years ago the College changed its Credit/Fail policy to a Credit/D/Fail policy. The policy change was driven by concerns that students were abusing the system. Faculty argued that students were putting in minimal effort to attain a passing grade and that their lack of interest was harming the quality of many classes. According to Orient records, students were barely included in the discussion?and the faculty ultimately decided to create a Credit/D/Fail policy that, for many students, is stifling. The threat of receiving a "D" discourages students from broadening their academic interests, even though that exploration is at the core of a liberal arts education.

Last week, Professor Scott Sehon criticized an attempt to improve the J-Board selection process. Sehon bases the majority of his argument on the premise that the J-Board process for hearing cases is thorough and fair and thereby illogically draws the conclusion that the selection process need not be changed.

Open relationships. When I asked my mom if they were around when she was in college in the 70s, she answered, "You mean promiscuity?" That's one way of putting it.

A light bulb, a pool ball, goldfish?these are just a few of the things Stevie Starr, also known as The Regurgitator, can swallow and then regurgitate on command. Tonight, Starr plans to make another of many appearances at Bowdoin.

Beer Fever has the flu. Now, I'm not talking a runny nose and a little muscle ache here. This is the kind of flu where I'm dripping sweat walking through a snowstorm in a T-shirt and absolutely freezing on the third floor of the library.

As a sequel to the narrative that chronicles his family's time in France, "Paris to the Moon," Adam Gopnik brings us "Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York." The title serves as an accurate, if incomplete, description of what the chapters of this book contain.

Scorsese finally did it. After five tries and the endless indignation of his fan base, Martin Scorsese won Best Director on Sunday night and the crowd instantly stood to applaud him.

The women's hockey team continues its magical playoff run when the squad travels to Middlebury on Saturday for the NESCAC semifinals and possible finals matchup on Sunday.

The men's squash team took two upset wins in the College Squash Association's (CSA) National Championships B division tournament, also known as the Hoehn Cup, at Yale this weekend.

Bowdoin's women's track team had a weekend of season-bests as it sent some of its members on to the Open New Englands at Boston University, where the squad faced competition from DI, DII, and DIII schools.

For everything that is good in the world, there is something that is equally bad. For every grain of salt there is a speck of pepper. With sunshine there comes rain, with apples come oranges, and with J. Lo comes Chris Judd...and Ben Affleck...and Marc Anthony...and John Travolta? Stay tuned. Suffice it to say though that for most everything in our dear universe, there always appears to be some opposing counterpart that goes hand in hand in these reciprocated juxtapositions.

Not even below-freezing temperatures in Vermont could cool off the Bowdoin Men's Ice Hockey Team. Both Norwich and St. Michael's did their best over the weekend to keep the Polar Bears from obtaining a first-place finish in the NESCAC, but Bowdoin was equal to the task and was able to cross the Vermont border with the regular season conference trophy for the first time in school history.