The Bowdoin Orient

Reel Big Fish and The Cool Kids are tentatively set to perform during Bowdoin's Ivies Weekend. The Entertainment Board (E-Board) announced this week that the two groups accepted bids to perform on May 1, 2010. Lucas Delahanty '10, co-chair of the E-Board, stressed that because the bids are non-binding, the groups are not yet obligated to come.

The Office of Admissions sent letters to the 510 Early Decision I (ED I) applicants on Thursday, the culmination of the ED I process. The total number of applications was up 3.2 percent from last year's figure. Out of the ED I pool, 184 students were accepted, 143 were deferred to regular decision, 180 were denied admission, and three applications were incomplete, yielding a total of 510 applications, and an acceptance rate of 36 percent.

Forced housing is here to stay. According to Associate Director of Housing Operations Lisa Rendall, all of this fall's forced housing will remain as such in the spring. Though previously there was a possibility that some of the 25 forced triples in Brunswick Apartments would have been able to revert to their intended double form, a combination of fewer students going abroad than anticipated, others taking time off from Bowdoin, and still more living off campus has caused the tight living conditions.

Following 16 months as Interim Dean of Admissions, Scott Meiklejohn finally unpacked the remaining boxes in his office when he heard on Sunday that he had been named Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid. "It's been a great week for me," said Meiklejohn. "I'm really excited and looking forward to really settling in a little bit more."

As the semester draws to a close and finals approach, many students will try to balance holiday parties and end-of-the-semester celebrations with their academic work this weekend. The Bowdoin administration wants to ensure that students have a safe and healthy end of the semester without any major incidents. So far this semester, there have been 14 alcohol- or drug-related hospital transportations, up from last year's eight transportations at end of the semester. The number of transportations is evenly split between seven females and seven males. It was evenly split last year as well.

After leaving her registered bike unlocked over Thanksgiving break, Chelee Ross '12 returned to campus to find her bike missing from her Howell House residence. This is a familiar tale for many students, but Ross was determined to get her bike back and took an uncommon approach to do so.

"I can't forget the hat!" said Youngshim Hwang '13 as she bundled up to go outside in yesterday morning's snow. Hwang was impressed that the sidewalks were clean even after the Wednesday snowstorm. "The whole sidewalk was clean," she said. "I just walked to class as if there was no snow."

Starting this morning, Student Health Services will hold clinics to distribute the 500 doses of intranasal H1N1 vaccine it has received. The clinics will be held from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. today. The vaccine is free and available to all students. According to Director of Health Services Sandra Hayes, the health center anticipates "more clinics next week until we are out of the vaccine."

When did Adderall become the norm? More importantly, when did it become a norm at Bowdoin? We are quick to assume that Adderall usage is something we as college students have to accept-that, along with coffee and all-nighters, Adderall is just one more thing we should embrace.

President Barack Obama committed another 30,000 troops to the war in Afghanistan during his speech at West Point on December 1. And TIME magazine's cover last week got it right: "It's His War Now." This is why that, along with announcing a surge in troops, Obama also declared that beginning in July 2011, the United States would begin taking forces out of Afghanistan and transferring power to Afghanistan's government.

History is rife with tales of fraud and corruption, of cheating and controversy. We've learned to accept that it's a "dog-eat-dog" world and nothing is truly as it seems. People are, by nature, fallible, and this fallibility drives us to dishonesty. So when we hear about the governor of South Carolina cheating on his wife, we may get to chuckle at his expense, but we won't be surprised.

So, this is the week of Copenhagen, or, as it has been temporarily renamed, Hopenhagen. In light of the occasion, questions about sustainability have been flying around, both on campus and in the national media. What is it? How do we achieve it? How much will it cost? Why should I care? Whose side should I believe? What does it taste like?

Last week President Barack Obama announced that the United States will be sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in an effort to finally drive out the terrorists, defeat the Taliban, stabilize the nation, yada, yada, yada. Immediately afterwards, we heard complaints being lobbed from all sides that Afghanistan is going to become the next Vietnam: that we cannot win. Here is the question I would like answered: what do we win?

As yet another semester at Bowdoin comes to an end, so too does the present decade. Americans, and indeed members of the global community, have faced extraordinary challenges and obstacles in the past 10 years. Indeed, looking back at the events that unraveled through 2000 to 2009, it is difficult to feel anything but despair at what the decade has brought us.

Over this past semester, the Orient has reserved its opinion section for the most extreme and least informed partisans on campus. But I was impressed when its two resident political agitators, Steve Robinson and Caitlin Hurwit, outdid themselves in last week's issue.

In last week's op-ed "Theology should play no role in the development of legislation," Caitlin Hurwit argued that the Catholic Church should be stripped of its tax-exempt status because of its role in the current health care debate.

Last week Steve Robinson asserted that "liberal secularism has transformed into a religious dogma," since it is "ripe with symbols, narratives, and practices that give meaning to life."

Two weeks ago, we applauded the professors who elected to partake in the College’s Ongoing Leaning Evaluation (OLE) program and encouraged students who were OLE participants to provide thoughtful feedback. Few of us have had the opportunity to take part in an OLE this semester, but all of us will fill out end-of-semester course evaluation forms.

What does eating frozen fish have to do with sustainability? Will using new sources for biofuels actually cause indirect greenhouse gas emissions? The new community blog Global Change answers these and other questions about the environment, sustainability and helping us become better global citizens. Created in October by Professor Philip Camill of Environmental Studies and Biology, Global Change is an environmentally focused blog aimed at bringing together environmental and social issues prevalent in today's forums.

The challenge: In honor of Kevin Gillespie, an executive chef and partner of Woodfire Grill in Atlanta, Ga. (and who we believe to be the future and rightful winner of "Top Chef"), we will be reviewing Kevin's specialty—good, ole' fashioned comfort food. After all, now that reading period and finals are coming up, we're all in the mood for some tasty, hearty food to soothe our nerves, satisfy our taste buds and keep us energized through the long nights of studying.

Making Snowflakes Number of companions: one or more Ingredients/gear: Paper, scissors and a computer playing "Charlie Brown Holiday" radio on Pandora Cost: Free Last Saturday, as everyone was putting on dresses, suits, ties and fancy shoes for an evening of dancing, our campus decided to join in on the dress-up party. First, it powdered its dead grass nose. Then it put on a white puff-sleeve gown over every bare tree shoulder. It painted its pavement fingernails with a layer of ice. By midnight, our surroundings had officially transformed into a wonderland. Snowmen were built; snowmen were annihilated. Snowball fights left some feeling similar to the snowmen. With more snow in the forecast, it is essential that we find ways to embrace the crystalline precipitation. Sitting in front of a Seasonal Affective Disorder lamp might be one solution—but why not take some advice from "Elf"? Make paper snowflakes! Yes—that old-fashioned craft of cutting shapes into white, folded pieces of paper.

Oh, the orgasm, a happy state of transcendental bliss, somewhere between a sunrise and a volcanic eruption. The orgasm is a complicated thing, engaging all the systems of the body in a grand symphony of sensation, leaving you feeling relaxed, fulfilled and exhausted. Having an orgasm can be a very personal experience, or an incredible, shared moment. Hopefully your share it with just your partner, rather than your entire floor who heard you moaning last Saturday night.

Not many schools have an academic calendar like the one Bowdoin has. The school allocates a long four weeks for Winter Break and two weeks for Spring Break, but only a mere five days off for Thanksgiving, including the weekend. While the calendar may seem odd to some students, the administration has the layout of the academic calendar down to a science.

Steve Schwartz '70, a prominent public relations executive and now a film producer, recently released his first major motion picture, "The Road."

Next week, as Bowdoin students wrap up the semester's work, the film "Avatar" will hit the big screen and bring special effects artist and class of 1990 alum Dave Fogler's newest creations to life.

A new set of kids is on the scene. The music scene, that is.

Less than two weeks ago, the Bowdoin community was basking in unseasonably warm weather, highlighted by the record-breaking temperature of 64 degrees on December 3 that smashed the previous high by a full eight degrees. Yet with the first big snowstorm blowing through Brunswick this past Wednesday, the chill of winter has certainly arrived, and with it the highly anticipated return of the storied Bowdoin-Colby hockey rivalry.

With a final burst of energy before winter break, the women's basketball team soundly defeated the Colby-Sawyer Chargers at Morrell Gymnasium Thursday evening by a score of 60-40.

The men's ice hockey team has spent the past week preparing to suit up against rival Colby twice this weekend. The team will travel to Waterville to face the Mules today before returning to Bowdoin for the second big tilt of the weekend at home on Saturday.

The competition was stiff at last weekend's MIT Invitational, but the swimming and diving teams held their own, with several impressive first year performances leading the way.

It's that time of the year again. We are bombarded incessantly with unforgiving assignments to be turned in at impossible deadlines; the sun proceeds to set earlier and earlier, ushering in a pervading and uninviting darkness that hangs in the air longer than we might ever hope for; and the mild weather that so flirtatiously coddled us last week has been usurped by its frigid, evil twin. I'm an optimist, I swear.

The women's basketball team bested the Huskies at the University of Southern Maine Tuesday by a score of 60-47. The win marks the team's first victory over rival USM since December 2003.