TO THE COMMUNITIES OF STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL, TRIBECA, AND BATTERY PARK CITY

The Stuyvesant Standard “Your School, Your World—Your News” 

Volume V, Issue 12 March 2, 2006 Free

The World Celebrates the 2006 Torino Olympics

BY NEETA MALVIYA categories were several divisions. had 5 subcategories: alpine ski- sleigh con-
STAFF WRITER Skating included figure skating, ing, cross country skiing, free- sisted of two
The 2006 Winter Olympics ice dancing, speed skating, and style skiing, Nordic combined ski categories
took place in Torino, Italy from short track speed skating. Skiing jumping, and snowboarding. Bob- which were
February 10 to February 26. bobsleigh and
The games officially started skeleton.
at the ceremony on February 10 As of Febru-
when Stefania Belmondo lit the ary 27, Ger-
torch at the opening ceremony. many was in
The Olympic flag was carried by first place in
actresses Sofia Loren and Susan terms of num-
Sarandon. About 15,000 days ber of medals,
worth of work went into the cere- followed by
mony. Two billion spectators Austria and
watched the opening ceremony the United
with 35,000 present at the sta- States. Ger-
dium itself. The ceremony had many had 7
dancing, skating, and lights, and gold, 7 silver,
was broadcasted to 200 countries and 4 bronze
worldwide. medals for a
The games contained seven- total of 18.
categories: biathlon, bobsleigh, Austria and
curling, ice hockey, luge, skating,
Reuters

and skiing. Within each of these Continued on

The fireworks from the Olympic Rings at the Opening Ceremony. Page 4

Clubs at the Stuyvesant Tenth Planet Sparks

Open House Debate
BY TAMIR YEWDAEV setting up tables and making sure BY BENNETT HONG Xena, or 2003 UB313, is 1864
STAFF WRITER that the newcomers would know STAFF WRITER miles across, making it larger
than Pluto, whose diameter is
On Thursday, February 16, Continued on Page 3 A possible tenth planet was
Stuyvesant’s halls announced on July 29, 2005. Continued on Page 9
were flooded as hun-
BBC

dreds of incoming 8th

graders came to view Open House Recruitment on the third floor.
their future school.
There were “swarms
of little people,”
explains sophomore
Yan Slavinsky. A
full night was
planned, ending at
around 7:30. This
year there were so
many visitors that it
was decided they
would be divided
into 3 groups, each
with an hour-long
session. Among the
crowd, many current
Stuyvesant students A view of the sun from the new planet.
could also be seen
guiding, answering
and screaming. Red- INSIDE THIS ISSUE
shirted Big Sibs be-
--------------
TSS/Henry Zhang

gan preparations for

the night at around News...........................2-4 Puzzles..............................7
3:00, posting signs Business......................4-5 Science……………….......8-9
in various places, Opinions.....................5 Arts & Entertainment........9-10
Literary.......................6 Sports................................10-12
Page 2 March 2, 2006 News THE STUYVESANT STANDARD

THE STUYVESANT STANDARD  The Almost Snow Day

Founded 2001
BY DAVID YIN weekend, so there was no rush
“Your School, Your World—Your News” 
STAFF WRITER hour and no commuters strug-
During the evening of Satur- gling through the snow, injuring
day, February 11 and throughout themselves trying to get to work.
the day of Sunday, February 12, a With the small number of people
blizzard hit New York City. This on the streets compared to week-
snowstorm was the biggest since days, the number of accidents on
Executive Leadership Team record-keeping began in 1869, the streets was kept to a mini-
with an enormous 26.9 inches of mum.
snow falling in 24 hours. This Another reason for this un-
DR. JOHN NIKOL FACULTY ADVISER eventful blizzard was the “fluffy”
JENNIFER SCHLESINGER EDITOR IN CHIEF amount was half an inch higher
than the old record, set in 1947. effect. The snow came from an
DEREK WENG MANAGING EDITOR
KHOI NGUYEN CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Although this snowfall broke all offshore area, making the snow
FANNY TANG LAYOUT EDITOR previous records, the storm itself very dry. It did not come from
DANNY ZHU COPY CHIEF was not that severe; it felt no dif- wet warm ocean air of the north-
JIMMY ZHANG NEWS EDITOR ferent than a regular flurry. east. The snow was so light that it
PRISCILLA MELO OPINIONS EDITOR How is it possible that this did not pile up much on high ar-
EMMA RABINOVICH ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR eas. Thus, instead of snapping
record-breaking blizzard was
ERIC MAYO SPORTS EDITOR tree branches onto power lines,
JOSEPH KRUTOV SCIENCE EDITOR relatively quiet and uneventful?
The timing of the snow was the dry, light, and fluffy snow
HANFORD CHIU BUSINESS EDITOR blew right off the trees.
LADA KUKUY LITERARY EDITOR one reason for the calmness. The
HENRY ZHANG WEBMASTER blizzard occurred during the
Continued on Page 4
HENRY ZHANG DIRECTOR OF PHOTOJOURNALISM
DANIEL EGERS (‘03) FOUNDER
ERNEST BASKIN (‘04) EDITOR EMERITUS
New York City suburban areas receive unheard of amounts of snow.

Publication
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD is a nonprofit and nonpartisan publication pro-
duced by the students of Stuyvesant High School.
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD distributes 2,000 free copies on a bi-weekly
basis to the students and faculty of Stuyvesant High School and through-
out the adjoining neighborhoods of TriBeCa and Battery Park City.
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD welcomes letters from its readers.
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD reserves the right to edit any published mate-
rial. The viewpoints of contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of
the Standard staff.

TSS/Henry Zhang
Copyright ©2006 THE STUYVESANT STANDARD

Contact Us
Please direct all correspondence to:
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD
345 Chambers Street
Dick Cheney Hunting
New York, NY 10282-1000
readers@stuystandard.org
Find us on the web at www.stuystandard.org
Accident
BY JONATHAN XIKIS without following proper hunting
Advertising STAFF WRITER procedure and announcing his
arrival. Just then Cheney, with his
If you would like to advertise in THE STUYVESANT STANDARD, please e-mail On February 11, at approxi- back to Whittington, saw more
advertising@stuystandard.org to request an advertisement form. We offer mately 5:30 P.M. local time, Dick birds flying
a broad range of options including full color capability for your advertis- Cheney pep- away and
ing needs. pered Harr y turned to
Whittington, a shoot one
Subscription well-known with his 28-
Texas lawyer, gauge shot-
with shotgun gun, when he
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD pellets while accidentally
hunting quail. shot Whit-
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
Reportedly, Mr. tington in-
1 YEAR — $15 Che n e y wa s stead. Secret
Delivery Information hunting with
Name:______________________________________________ S e r v i c e
Whittington and agents and
Address:____________________________________________ Pamela Pitzer
___________________________________________________ me d i c a l
Willeford, the aides, who
Billing Information United States
Please circle your choices below: were close at
ambassador to hand due to
Check Money Order Cash Switzerland and
Billing Address:______________________________________ Cheney’s
Li e c h t en s t e i n, history of
___________________________________________________ when Whitting- Dick Cheney, our Vice President.
heart prob-
Please cut and mail to THE STUYVESANT STANDARD, 345 Chambers ton shot a couple CNN

Street, New York, NY 10282-1000 OR send the above informa- lems, soon rushed Whit-
of quail and went to recover tington to the hospital. Three
tion to subscription@stuystandard.org. them. Whittington then returned
Continued on Page 3
 THE STUYVESANT STANDARD
Clubs at the Stuyvesant Open House
Continued from Page 1
what was going on.
Like the Big Sibs, many stu-
dents stayed after school, eager to
draw new recruits to their clubs.
The entire third floor atrium was
filled with tables, posters and
screaming club members. It was
possible to see everything from
kung fu, to dance, and politics as
Stu yvesant’s diversity was
Teitel delivers a speech to the incoming freshmen and their parents.
TSS/Henry Zhang
thrown full blast at the small and
confused 8th graders. Looking at
them makes us realize how much
most of us have changed. Stuyve-
sant has taken us from little se-
cluded freshmen to aggressive
individuals screaming at the top
of our lungs in order to attract
attention.
Dick Cheney Hunting Accident
Continued from Page 2
days later, Whittington suffered a
minor heart attack due to one or
more pellets lodged in the vicin-
ity of his heart.
Cheney’s hunting
mishap is making waves
throughout America,
where many look for any
opportunity to pick on
the widely criticized
Bush administration, as
well as Cheney himself,
who is believed to be
one of the most power-
ful Vice Presidents in
American history. Al-
though much of the con-
demnation is merely
poking fun at Cheney –
for instance, numerous
gags on late-night talk
shows and newspaper
headlines – some believe
that the cover story for
the shooting accident is
merely a cover-up for a more se-
rious infraction. These conspiracy
theories are fanned by the fact
that, although the White House
knew about the incident the day it
March 2, 2006 News
However, the task of recruit-
ment was not easy. Slavinsky,
who was there recruiting for his
club Junior Statesmen of America
(JSA) explains, “Some of them
are really stuck up. They can’t
even say ‘No, I don’t want to join
your club.’ They just walk by
ignoring you. In spite of this, the
experience for most was fun.
Sophomore Jimmy Zhang de-
scribed it as “amazing.” He and
his fellow recruiters managed to
get more than three pages of
names for The Standard. Zhang
continues, “It was really fun to
shout out very loudly.”
An interesting thing to note
was the progression of the visi-
tors' willingness to sign up. At
happened, it did not disclose any
information about it until the next
day. Others point to the state-
ments made by Katharine Arm-
Cheney receives a rifle from the NRA:
President Kayne Robinson, right; Vice
President Wayne LaPierre, left.
strong, the owner of the ranch,
who at first testified in an official
investigation that “that there was
no alcohol, or misconduct in-
volved in the incident,” but later
first, most of the screams were to
no avail. Most of the 8th graders
were too shocked and afraid to
sign up for anything. This makes
sense; prior to coming to Stuyve-
sant most students have not had
much experience with crazed,
club-loyal students willing to
scream and convince even when
it seemed there was no point. But
eventually, they got used to it.
“They must have come to real-
ize that we're not vicious man-
eating monsters,” Zhang ex-
plained.
In spite of the vast num-
ber and diversity of clubs, pubs
and teams present at the open
house, many were absent.
Sophomore Simon Hu, president
of the Stock Market Game club,
decided not to go. He explains
that, “they're not even freshmen
yet. There’s not much point in
recruiting them now since
they’ll probably forget about it
by the time next year comes. I’ll
get them next year at the Club/
Pub Fair.” Perhaps Hu is right
about the value of the open
house to the clubs but regardless
it was a very good experience.
Stuyvesant students were able to
see how they used to be before
coming to Stuyvesant and the
change is great. Looking at them
makes Stuyvesant students realize
how much they have changed. ◙
stated that “there may (have
been) a beer or two in there, but
remember not everyone in the
party was shooting.” Finally,
Cheney did not have a $7 “upland
game bird stamp” from the Texas
Parks and Wildlife Department,
making it illegal
Gene Puskar
for him to hunt
quail in that area,
although the re-
quirement was new
and it was ex-
plained away as a
mistake on Che-
ney’s part. A Re-
publican close to
the White House
said, “This is either
a cover-up story or
an incompetence
story.”
On February 15,
Cheney publicly
announced on the
Fox News Channel
that he was respon-
sible for shooting
Whittington, say-
ing “I'm the guy who pulled the
trigger that fired the round that
hit Harry” and calling it “one of
the worst days of my life.” ◙
Page 3
Club Spotlight:
Stuyvesant
Stock
Market Game
BY JIMMY ZHANG
NEWS EDITOR
The Stuyvesant Stock Market
Game Club (SMG) allows its par-
ticipants to invest and play with
real stocks. The club competes
with schools all over the country
in an online tournament where
each school tries to make the
most virtual profit over the course
of the game.
The club is operated entirely
online. All conversations and
suggestions are posted onto a
forum where other members can
respond instantaneously. All
transactions are to be debated
several days before taking place,
although this rule is frequently
SMG Club
The Stock Market Gaming Club’s
logo.
broken. The use of the forum re-
moves the need for after-school
meetings. David Yin, sophomore,
said, “It’s convenient that there
are hardly ever meetings because
it won’t interfere with our sched-
ules.”
In the Fall 2005 game, the
club was given two accounts for
this tournament. Due to the inex-
perience and the inactivity of the
new members, the club had a net
loss in both accounts. Ranked at
about 150 out of 189 and with a
net loss of about $7,000, the club
aims to do better in the Spring
“We’re going to
win!”
2005 game. Tamir Yewdaev,
sophomore Vice President, said,
“We [tried] and we took risks.
Partly I blame the particularly
low rank on bad communication
as several purchases were made
without anyone being notified.
These ended up being bad pur-
chases and much money was lost
in this way.”
To combat the inexperience
of his members, Simon Hu,
sophomore President, is hypo-
critically advocating the use of
Investopedia during the off-game
season. This allows the members
to experiment with real stocks
Continued on Page 4
Page 4
The Almost Snow Day
Continued from Page 2
Snow records themselves
are not very accurate. For one
thing, the snow measurements
are taken only in Central Park,
so even though the National
Weather Service claims that this
snowstorm broke the record, this
was only in Central Park. In fact,
most areas besides Central Park
had less snow and did not have
records broken at all. Also, the
people that take the measure-
ments are not exactly reliable.
The height of the snow is meas-
ured by the security guards at the
Central Park Zoo. Although they
probably do not completely
make up their measurements it is
The World Celebrates the 2006
Torino Olympics
Continued from Page 1
the United States both had 7 gold,
5 silver, and 3 bronze medals for
a total of 15 medals each. The
majority of the U.S. medals were
in snowboarding and speed skat-
The opening ceremony at Torino 2006.
Getty Images
Comic Book
Investment’s Comeback
BY HANFORD CHIU
BUSINESS EDITOR
Comic book investing has
resurfaced recently as an arguably
safe form of investment. Comic
book prices have been on the rise
as well as a renewed interest in
the market. Midtown Comics, a
comic book store in Manhattan,
reported a sales increase of more
than 10 percent over last year.
Vintage comics have seen returns
of hundreds of thousands above
their selling prices. Newer comics
March 2, 2006 News/Business
also not likely that they would
kill themselves over the accuracy
of the measurements.
So although the snowstorm
may have broken records, the
commuters of New York were not
affected a lot. The city had piles
of salt ready for use due to the
relatively small amount of snow
that had fallen over the win-
ter. Sanitation workers had
plowed and salted all the streets
by the next morning. Most of the
inconvenience had passed al-
ready, and by Monday, public
schools were declared open and
people were on the streets going
t o w o r k . ◙ journals, as they admittedly de-
ing while the majority of Aus-
tria’s medals were in alpine ski-
ing and ski jumping. Germany
had at least one of each medal in
biathlon. ◙
Nature
also have seen their prices dou-
bling or tripling in a matter of
weeks.
What are the reasons for this
sudden interest in a market which
would have been unimaginable as
an investment alternative 5 or 6
years ago? Over the past few
years, movies based on comic
book characters such as “Spider-
Man”, “X-men” and “Fantastic
Four” have aroused an interest in
a market that was otherwise dead.
Continued on Page 5
Scientific Journals?
Or Tabloids?
BY HANFORD CHIU
BUSINESS EDITOR
Recently, Hwang Woo Suk's
stem cell fabrication scandal was
exposed. Yet science journals and
newspapers containing science
articles failed to even test the
authenticity of this issue before
publishing it. Now, the media is
starting to look at science jour-
nals more skeptically. But other
than that, the media has not
changed its views on scientific
pend on them for most of their
information relating to science.
For example, the Los Angeles
Times uses information from
these journals in at least half of
their articles. Information is also
The cover of Nature magazine.
mentioned on the television, radio
and web sites.
However, journals and news-
papers have very little ways to
check the authenticity of scien-
tific papers themselves, as they
are not scientists. Some journals
Club Spotlight: Stuyvesant
Stock Market Game
Continued from Page 3
before the actual game. Hu wrote
an extensive “basic stock info”
section on the forum to help the
newcomers. Hu is also planning
to give “training sessions” to the
inexperienced. However, he still
believes that learning is up to the
learned. “They’ll get better if
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD
give reporters several days to call
specialists in the field to try to
scrutinize the results, but it is not
a reliable method of truly ascer-
taining the truthfulness of a pa-
per. Some journals also have their
own peer review processes, but
with large amounts of submis-
sions yearly, peer reviewers are
often overworked. Newspapers
also adopted new guidelines to
check conflicts of interest involv-
ing researchers who submit pa-
pers. Their financial ties to their
studies are under heavy review
and included in the newspaper’s
articles
The Hwang case was not the
first time journals published fake
or misleading papers. The New
England Journal of Medicine
published 2 cancer
papers with fabri-
cated information.
The same journal
also published a
paper on the pain-
killer Vioxx which
had omitted the fact
that there were pa-
tients who died
from heart attacks
from using the
medicine in trials.
The Journal of the
American Medical
Association printed
papers from a study
on the painkiller
Celebrex, which
included only 6
months of data in-
stead of the 12
months they had
collected.
Nonetheless, there
are many credible
articles printed in
these journals, but
the amount of discredited papers
included is quite disappointing. If
these science journals are to
maintain their integrity, they must
increase their security procedures
even further to screen out these
fraudulent papers. ◙
they want to get better. Most
[people] don’t care,” said Hu.
Expecting much from the
Spring Term, it is certain that it
will be a prosperous one. Looking
into the oil industries, Hu and Yin
expect to make much of it.
“We’re going to win!” exclaims
Hu. ◙
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD March 2, 2006 Business/Opinion Page 5

Comic Book Investment’s The Media and Islam

Comeback BY HANFORD CHIU
BUSINESS EDITOR
not condonethis violence. In the
Middle East, Muslims think that
Continued from Page 4 in terms of price. This market has In September 2005, a

A movie about Superman sched-
uled for June also helps fuel the
fire in this market. This newfound
interest has not been seen since
the early 90’s in which many
speculators purchased many
comic books they had bet
would rise in price, but ended
in the mid 90’s due to gim-
Credits Unspecified
a lot of potential in the coming Danish newspaper printed
years, or it could turn out to be a several cartoons depicting
repeat of the early 90’s, but at Mohammed and Islam in a
least you would end up with some distasteful light. Months
enjoyable comic books. ◙ later, other European
newspapers reprinted the
cartoons and Muslim un-
rest began to flare. Riots
cropped up, Danish em-

micks like DC Comics' killing
off Superman in 1992, only to
bring him back to life nine
months later.
However, investors are
cautiously skeptical about in-
vesting in this market. Collec-
tors would have to be knowl-
edgeable to expect a good re-
turn. Very few investors con-
sider putting more than 10 per-
cent of their money into this
area of investment. Neverthe-
less, other investors believe
this form of investment is as
safe as the stock market, due to
a similar percentage of growth
between Dow Jones and the
Metropolis Index, which tracks
the value of the top 30 comics The first issue of the original Superman
Many Children Left
Behind
BY PRISCILLA MELO
OPINIONS EDITOR
The No Child Left Behind
Act was meant to diminish the
education gap between under-
privileged and well-off children.
This law requires failing schools
to offer their students a new
school or tutoring from private
companies or other groups, paid
for with federal money. Yet there
White House Press Corps.
Credits Unspecified
are still many students being left
behind. According to a New York
Times report, less than 12 percent
of the children eligible for the
free tutoring program are actually
getting it. Many that are signed
up for the actual tutoring usually
do not return after a few sessions.
This means the Board of
Education has not done enough to
augment participation, especially
for lower-income families. Many
bassies were attacked, and
death threats were made
by outraged Muslims. The
West used these predicted
retaliations as propaganda
against the entire Islamic
world.
Well, who is good and
who is evil here? If you
are a Westerner, you might
believe that all Muslims
either stood by or laughed
when radicals committed Protests concerning the publication of
acts of terrorism across the
West. If you live in the
Middle East, you might believe
that the West is endlessly
“crusading” and conspiring to
destroy all Muslims. Unfortu-
nately, both sides would be think-
ing what they have been made to
think, thanks to the media and
propaganda. It is a general con-
ception here that all or most Mus-
lims participate in terrorist activ-
i t y. F or e xa mp l e , M a yo r
Bloomberg opposed Dubai, a
Muslim but anti-terrorist country,
when it tried to legally buy and
manage some US ports, including
some in New York, over concerns
of security.. It is because of the
propaganda of the media that peo-
ple believe these misconceptions,
even though in reality only a
small percentage of Muslims sup-
port terrorism; most of them do
students have never even heard of
this resource. The Board of Edu-
cation has not ad-
vertised this well
enough to parents,
especially in com-
munities with many
poor, and subse-
quently failing, stu-
dents.
What aren’t the
school districts us-
ing the contact in-
the West is out to get them. But
obviously, they aren’t aware of
liberals who condone wars and
prejudice against the Muslim
world.
So what really happened
here? Some radical Western
newspaper prints provocative
images; Muslim propaganda calls
it proof that the West is conspir-
ing. Some radical Muslims riot;
Western propaganda calls it proof
that all Muslims are terrorists.
Well, it appears that neither side
is good, nor has it accomplished
anything but foster hate and igno-
rance. Thus, it is vital for the
world to overcome propaganda,
and embrace peace and tolerance,
rather than battle over cartoons
and riots. ◙
work harder to do so. For exam-
ple, meetings should not be held
during school days, when most
parents are working or busy at
home. Although contacting par-
ents can be a costly endeavor,
failing students might eventually
become the future’s unemployed
who hinder the economy in a lar-
ger sense.
There also needs to be more
enforcement of the act. Failing
students need all the help they

formation they in- can get, and this is a wonderful

cessantly bothered opportunity that should not be
us with the first dismantled by lack of funds. In-
days of school? It is stead of spending millions of dol-
true there are still lars on ID scanners for schools
some families that like Stuyvesant, which does not
do not own phones need any extra embellishment, the
or computers, but government needs to siphon as
letters are usually much money as possible to the
safe. If schools can- No Child Left Behind Act and its
President Bush talks about his No Child Left Behind not contact some implementation. ◙
parents, they should
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD March 2, 2006 Literary Page 6

_Éäx BY JENNIFER LEE

BY ANNA GINZBURG
STAFF WRITER
Love is but a simple four-letter
word
Yet muttering it to you would feel
absurd
Your lips are perfect as are you
But I still will never get a clue
Loving you hurts so much
And yet I fear we will never
touch
Oh how I wish I can talk with you
To hear your voice wouldn’t
make me blue
But rather joyous and oh so full
of shock
But until then all I hear is my
friend mock
Yet I know for v-day I’ll flirt like
crazy
And as corny as it is, I’ll make
you my little daisy
Surreal (II)
STAFF WRITER
But then, they came. Just when we were on the edge of
Insanity,
Moon burning hot white,
Came them.
It was quiet at first. No one knew
About the things that would make us fly.
They decided to take pity on us.
I was sitting by the window when I saw Them. My nose and body pressed against the glass, I wanted to make
sure I wasn’t hallucinating. They looked like they were made of porcelain, no clothes or shoes. Their skin was
pale, cream white and if I squinted enough, I think I could see their delicate features that graced their counte-
nance. And on their thin backs were a pair of beating white wings. I was beginning to think I had already lost my
sanity.
“Who are they?”
I looked up, alarmed. The silence was broken with a breathless whisper. It was Mariposa. She was also star-
ing out at the creatures outside. I shivered, not so sure if I wanted to meet them. Here, in this house, I was safe.
Safe and silent, watching the world pass by in secret. I absentmindedly trailed my fingers down the sill, feeling
the cracks and crevices, nooks that ran jagged on the smooth cherry-wood. Dust collected there in clandestine.
Dust that stayed burrowed deep under lines.
“You see them too.” It wasn’t a question.

The Match She nodded, awed by the ivory skinned and angel wings. “They’re… there; their wings. They can fly.”

Girl
BY EILEEN L. CHANG
STAFF WRITER
Such bitter winds that nip me
cold,
Readying darkness, frosted
night unfold.
And along the path of slosh and
snow,
There exists not a single soul.
I clutch the matches in my
hand,
Tread the scattered layer sand.
Others pass laughter heartily
heavy,
Warm aura shared brings me at
envy.
Why must I remain the lone?
Must I take then untaken road?
I strike my match against the
night,
And pray a fire will ignite.
We sat there, just looking at Them. What were they? And why did they come here? Here, of all the other
places? Why…? They used their hands, moved their lips, blinked, walked…but they also had wings. Humans
didn’t have wings. And they were so pale. So, so, pale. I felt my heart froze when one of them caught me peering
at them. The beautiful creature pointed its slender finger at my window and motioned to the others. They turned
their heads and talked excitedly. And adding to my fear, they began to walk towards here. My heart started beat-
ing again. But each pump was a roar of blood, rushing to my head. I jumped away from the window and grabbed
Mariposa’s hand. It was ice cold
.
“We have to hide.” I told her. As if shaken awaken from a trance, she yanked her hand away from mine and
told me that one defying word that chilled me to the bones.
“No.” That brief word cost us the time we could have hidden, because then, I heard a knock. Mariposa
smiled. It was a gentle one, but I could see the haunted look in her eyes. She swiveled around and walked to the
direction of the locked door. I couldn’t stop her. It was like I was tied by chains to the ground. Stiff and solid,
heavy under water. My breath grew shallower as the locks clicked open. And Mariposa twisted the knob. The
door creaked open as cool moonlight flooded in. Scents of pine, sea, and wind drifted together, melding into a
sweet melody. The winged creature stood glowing like the stars, behind him a plethora of other bright lights.
The angel looked at Mariposa with his lucid eyes and spoke with a quiet but clear as glass, voice. “We have
come to make you fly.”
Mariposa gazed at the being for such a long time, I thought time had stopped. The angel offered a hand out,
palm waiting. And she placed hers over his.
“Take me away.”

Writer's Block
With Love In My Heart
Not A Trace BY CAROLINE HUGH
SENIOR STAFF WRITER

BY LADA KUKUY Trapped in the sense tiresome restless travels,

LITERARY EDITOR that words repeat, passersby's dumb motions,
and the essence remains immortal. a reprieve by the sighing river,
To be emotionally lonely The clock chimes a joining and dying of hands,
And ever so confused, unreal My heart quickens years of locked emotions-
Shall be the cross of my life only yet no longer can my thoughts all leave the same way
If I now answer your appeal. take shape. like a colossal droplet
The barrier holds joining a monotonous basin:
Please do not blame me for existing and my tongue shall not loosen one resounding burp and then,
With love in my heart not a trace, My funnel collapses, Silence.
For when, in moonlit nights I’m dreaming, lacking breath.
I see near mine another face. What endless swirling!
a beating of dust and leaves
We are so different, so unchanging brings silt to my eyes
In our diverse and polar ways that I cannot see.
That it will be a crime worth hanging My journeys-
To let this painful game take place…
Page 7 March 2, 2006 Puzzles THE STUYVESANT STANDARD
Across Down
Crossword Puzzle 1. Quaker’s “you”
5. Ewe’s mister
1. Pull behind
2. Hurry
Recompensed 3. Building wing
BY JESSIE LUK 12. Fixed a squeak 4. Prom date
PUZZLE COLUMNIST 13. Cool cubes 5. Lip
14. Edison’s middle name 6. Aviation heroes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 15. Greetings 7. Screening
17. Female student 8. Certain horses
12 13 14 18. Piece ____ cake! 9. Solitary
19. Radiance 10. “____ got it!”
15 16 17 21. Crowns Father
25. Primp and ____ 16. Three ____ kind
18 19 20 28. Returned to earth 20. “Spartacus,” e. g.
29. Short skirts 21. Sample sip
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
32. 11, to Nero 22. “P.S. ____You”
33. Scale note 23. Be sickly
28 29 30 31 32
34. ____acid (mild antiseptic) 24. L.A. haze
35. Cul-de-___ 26. Dignify
33 34 35
36. Television, for short 27. Shaving mishaps
37. Stately 30. Lyricist Gershwin
36 37 38
38. Dairy output 31. Egyptian River
39. Causing goosebumps 34. Existed
39 40 41 42
41. Makes into law 35. “Get ‘em , Fido!”
43. Ferber and others 37. Horsemen
43 44 45 46
46. Wise as ____ owl 38. Phillippine capital
47. What Santa smokes 40. Transplant
47 48 49 50 51 52 53
49. Incited 42. Doze
54. Scent 44. Candidate’s staffer
54 55 56
55. Pair 45. Small explosion
57 58 59
56. Zhivago’s love 48. Altar vow
57. Kitchenware 50. Cry noisily
58. Wane 51. Cheer sound
59. Call for attention 52. Bard’s “before”
53. Beaver building

Olympic Word Search Last Issue’s Solution

BY JONATHAN XIKIS
STAFF WRITER

N Q A N B H O S G S F B G N G
H O L T O O C D C C O A N A N
A X L C H I X I U C O D I I I
Q R K H T L T I Y J T M L R T
O E C A T S E C N E B I T T O
Y L U H A A L T N G A N S S O
K Q L N E I I N I C L T E E H
A P M A N R I R F C L O R U S
B Y J G B S Y L T C S N W Q L
G M G N I T F I L T H G I E W
O Q V O L L E Y B A L L N R D
S A I L I N G K G N I C N E F
B A S E B A L L S G N I W O R
O D N O W K E A T A K A Y A K
S O F T B A L L L A B D N A H
Sudoku Solution
Word Bank
9 4 7 2 6 8 1 5 3
AQUATICS FOOTBALL TAEKWONDO 8 1 5 4 3 7 6 2 9
ARCHERY GYMNASTICS TENNIS 2 6 3 9 5 1 4 8 7
ATHLETICS HANDBALL TRIATHLON
BADMINTON HOCKEY VOLLEYBALL 1 3 2 7 8 4 5 9 6
BASEBALL JUDO WEIGHTLIFTING 6 5 4 3 9 2 8 7 1
BASKETBALL KAYAK WRESTLING
7 8 9 1 5 6 2 3 4
BOXING ROWING
CYCLING SAILING 3 9 1 5 2 6 7 4 8
EQUESTRIAN SHOOTING
5 7 8 1 4 3 9 6 2
FENCING SOFTBALL
4 2 6 8 7 9 3 1 5
Page 8
Extreme Gaming: In
the Army?
BY KENNETH LAM
STAFF WRITER
You are in a dark room, hold-
ing a rifle. Suddenly, a dozen
men appear in front of you. Tak-
ing your rifle, you shoot each and
every one of them. Blood splat-
ters everywhere. Then, another
man appears in front of you and
shoots you in the chest. You
would expect to die, but you
don’t. Instead, you take off the
set of goggles you are wearing
and put down the gun, which is a
Robots: DARPAs
Vision of a New Era
BY JOSEPH KRUTOV
SCIENCE EDITOR
Imagine a world of tomorrow
where autonomous cars traverse
the deserts and artificial
intelligence thrives. That
goal is becoming more and
more plausible with the
advent of competitions such
as the 2005 DARPA Grand
Challenge.
DARPA, or the De-
fense Advanced Research
Projects Agency, is the
main research and develop-
ment organization for the
Department of Defense.
DARPAs mission is to cre-
ate technologies that can be
used on the battlefield. The
Grand Challenge is an ef-
fort to challenge people in
America in developing un-
manned vehicles. These
vehicles would ideally be
cost-effective and would
lower the risk to American
life.
DARPA Grand Challenge
pits self-directed ground vehicles
against each other in the grueling
March 2, 2006 Science
fake. It turns out that everything
was in a virtual reality. It seems
like a gamer’s heaven, but it is
really a training program for sol-
diers. It is called VirtuSphere.
VirtuSphere is found in the
US Naval Research library. It is
fundamentally a gigantic ball
with sensors mounted everywhere
on its surface. By bouncing
sound off the walls, these sensors
can determine the VirtuSphere’s
orientation in space and translate
that into movement in the virtual
reality goggles the user wears.
conditions of, in this year’s case,
132 miles of desert terrain. Peo-
ple have no place in the actual
competition. All contestants can
The DARPA Grand Challenge Team at Oregon State University
do is watch and hope; hope that
their efforts in designing the soft-
ware and choosing the car or
The actual sphere itself is
mounted on wheels that allow it
to spin rapidly in place. How-
ever, this can be detrimental. For
instance, stopping after breaking
out into a run is much harder, as
one must stop the ball from rotat-
ing. Even with this disadvantage,
VirtuSphere is highly useful.
The goggles are essentially
displays mounted on the user’s
eyes. The user sees what a sol-
dier would see, and nothing else.
Although the technology is ad-
vanced, the graphical capabilities
of the VirtuSphere are limited to
that of a typical computer game.
However, the experience is far
more powerful than one can get
from a video game, as one is ac-
tually “fighting” in a war.
truck itself prove fruitful.
Competitors are not only
fueled by the desire to save
American life, but also by the
drive created by the hefty prize.
This year the Stanford Racing
Team (SRT) was awarded $2 mil-
lion for its first place completion
of the course in 6 hours and 53
minutes.
The SRT vehicle, Stanley,
web.engr.oregonstate.edu
was based on a reinforced Volks-
wagen Touareg, and housed six
computers. Stanley was con-
trolled through a distributed soft-
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD
Another version of Vir-
tuSphere is Gaiter. Rather than
being placed into a giant ball
reminiscent of a hamster wheel,
the user is strapped into a harness
hung from the ceiling. By wear-
ing specially equipped shin
guards, elbow guards, rifle and
helmet, the soldier is then trans-
ported into the virtual world. The
system uses light to determine the
movements of the user, rather
than sound. The orientation in
space of the shin guards deter-
mines the speed of the user’s
walk. If the user is “running” in
space, which in reality is lifting
the knees up very high, the user’s
virtual self is running in the simu-
lator.
These systems do not come
cheap. The VirtuSphere is about
$50,000 to $100,000, nothing an
average gamer can afford. How-
ever, for those people who still
want to try out the VirtuSphere,
models are being made that may
soon be placed in arcades.
The VirtuSphere, however, is
not a game. It is a simulation
used to show soldiers-in-training
what war is like. The simulator
even induces the fatigue that sol-
diers experience after a battle.
The budding heroes can experi-
ence firsthand the fear that sol-
diers face every time they com-
bat. ◙
ware system that used inertial
sensing for position estimation,
and lasers, vision, and RADAR
for perceiving the environment.
This sensor data was incorporated
into a drivability map that set the
direction and velocity of the vehi-
cle.
The SRT believed the com-
petition to be a software one, and
concentrated on its software and
vehicle intelligence. The team
was confident that commercial
SUVs were fully capable of nego-
tiating the terrain. It was the soft-
ware’s job to keep the vehicle on
the road, driving at a suitable
speed. The SRT also placed an
emphasis on in-field testing and
development, and this may have
contributed to their win.
In 2004, the best-performing
robot drove a little more than
seven miles. The progress from
2004’s 7 miles to 2005’s 132
miles shows Congress’s mandate
that 30 percent of military vehi-
cles be unmanned by 2015 to be
within reach. Before long,
driverless cars will be the norm
and robots will be more populous
than humans. Automatons will
herald in the age of light-speed
travel and planetary colonies.
With the results from the 2005
DARPA Grand Challenge, it’s
not far away. So look busy. ◙
 THE STUYVESANT STANDARD March 2, 2006 A&E/Science Page 9

Tenth Planet Sparks Debate Winter Games: Olympic

Continued from Page 1 “planet”, but with the discovery
of Xena, the International Astro-
Ratings Hit a Low Point
1429 miles. Xena’s orbit is tilted nomical Union (IAU) may be
at a 44 degree angle to the eclip- Continued from Page 10 lion from Nagano, Japan in 1998.
forced to precisely define the Although domestic Olympics
tic plane, extreme compared to With Americans’ disappoint-
word. Possible definitions include have always attracted more view-
the orbits of planets in our solar ing performances and the absence
picking an arbitrary size to in- ers, the disappointing 36 percent
system. Scientists are not sure of well-known names such as
clude Pluto and Xena as plan- drop in the Nielsen ratings
whether it is a planet. Xena is the Michelle Kwan, NBC ratings
ets. Another possibility is to de- through six nights since 2002 will
most distant object yet seen in the were already taking a hit, but
fine it as mean that NBC might have to
solar system with the airing of new program-
“ a n yt h i n g provide advertisers more com-
and the larg- ming from ABC (“Desperate
that has mercial time.
est since as- A possible tenth planet was Housewives”, “Lost”, etc.) and
enough To decrease its losses, NBC
tronomers Fox (“House”), this decline has
announced on July 20, mass to be has spread Olympic coverage to
discovered escalated. “People have relation-
2005. Xena, or 2003 spherical,” its cable channels, USA, CNBC,
Neptune in ships with these programs. You
UB313, is 1864 miles which will and MSNBC, which have experi-
1846. It, like don’t get that very visceral con-
lead to in- enced a 35 percent increase in
Pluto, can be across, making it larger nection to the content of the
s t a n t ratings compared to the same
found in the than Pluto, whose diameter Olympics. It’s a two-week-long
“planet time last year. But while NBC
Kuiper Belt, a event with a lot of people you
is 1429 miles. i n f l a - talks about expanding its Olym-
region more don’t really know,” said Stacy
Scientists are not sure tion.” The pic horizons, focus still stays on
than 50 times Lyn Koerner, an analyst for Ini-
about whether it is a planet. IAU may primetime when a 30 second
the distance tiative Media.
also con- commercial can cost from
between the The downward trend started
sider defin- $500,000 to $700,000. ◙
Earth and the with the opening ceremonies,
ing “planet” as “any object that
Sun. The region encompasses which attracted only 22.2 million
has a unique orbit and whose
objects formed from the remnants viewers, down almost half from
gravity dominates its neighbor-
of the early cloud of dust and gas Salt Lake City in 2002 and 5 mil-
hood.” This would demote Pluto
dating to The Big Bang. to a non-planet status.
However, the real buzz “Nature hasn’t been very nice
around the discovery of Xena
relates to Pluto’s comparative
to us,” says Dr. Sheppard, who Award Shows Organizers
considers Xena the “nail in the
size and therefore the “Is Pluto a
Real Planet?” debate. Currently
coffin” of the Pluto-is-planet ar-
gument. ◙
Make Losing More
there is no exact definition for
Profitable Than Winning
BBC

Continued from Page 10 originated at the Academy

places like Antarctica and Tasma-
nia.
How can such extravagance
pay off? “Celebrities are very
discerning. If they like a product,
it translates to the public as trend-
setting. Buzz starts building
around that type of interaction,”
explains Karen Wood, the presi-
dent of “Backstage Creations,”
who organized the Screen Actors
A size comparison of the planets. Guild lounge of swag. However,
in many cases the “buzz” never
actually gets generated as studies
Interested in joining the Standard? show that only about only 5 per-
For more information, contact cent to 10 percent of costly trips
included in the gift packages are
ever redeemed by the celebrity.
recruitment@stuystandard.org The marketing phenomenon
Awards in 1989 as a way to thank
actors for presenting awards but
has long outgrown its origins and
raised new questions as to how
the “gifts” should be treated in
terms of income tax. Michael
Harris, president of Paragon
Business Management said, "If
it's a fee for service, if you get
this when you show up to do
something, there would be tax-
able exposure. The I.R.S.'s appe-
tite to enforce this type of trans-
action would depend on the per-
ceived value." Judging from the
estimated values above, the I.R.S.
may grow hungrier very soon. ◙

Borough of Manhattan AP EXAM REGISTRATION

Community College AP Exam Registration is done on-line at
grades.stuy.edu until Thursday, March 23rd. The
College Now website will be shut down on Thursday, March 23rd at
12 Noon. Registration print out and checks (no cash)
are due on or before Thursday, March 23rd to Room
“Start here...go anywhere”
209. Your registration is not complete until all paper-
work and checks are turned into Room 209. AP Exam
Contact dganderson@bmcc.cuny.edu Bulletins are also available in Room 209.
Page 10 March 2, 2006 A&E, Sports THE STUYVESANT STANDARD

Winter Games: Sports of the World: Curling

Continued from Page 12 Bemidji, Minnesota), there are
Olympic Ratings Hit a reference to the game occurred in
Scotland in 1541. The game later
opportunities to curl in the New
York area. The closest curling
spread to the Netherlands and club to Stuyvesant is the Cana-
Low Point then throughout Europe. The first
curling club in the Western Hemi-
dian Club of New York on West
43rd Street. According to the
sphere was established in 1807 in United States Curling Web site,
BY EMMA RABINOVICH and “American Idol” (Fox) have they are a paper club, which
Montreal, and the game was in-
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR both attracted viewers in their means they are looking for ice.
troduced to America in 1832. The
This year's Olympics in Tu- respective time slots. While NBC The closest ice sheets are at the
sport today is most popular in
rin, Italy were disappointing for still dominates the arena in terms New York Caledonian Curling
Canada.
more than The easiest way to think of Club in Bronxville, New York.
just athletes curling is a three-hour game of You would be surprised at
and their shuffleboard. Instead of a cement how popular curling is in New
supporters. The official Torino 2006 logo court, however, it’s played on an York. Ardsley High School, lo-
N B C , indoor ice rink. The object is to cated in Westchester County,
which pur- get the most stones closest to the actually fields a curling team.
chased the “button”, or target, which is sur- They compete against other
Olympic Westchester high schools like
Corbis

rounded by a giant bullseye

television called the house. There are 10 Dobbs Ferry, Hastings, and Ir-
rights from ends or rounds. In each end, the vington. No word yet on whether
2000 to four team members take turns the PSAL will begin having curl-
2012 for “curling” stones across the length ing competitions.
$5.7 billion of the rink, while the rest of the In Turin, the American men
(i n clu d in g team “sweeps” the stone down are having a successful Olympics.
the $613 the ice. As of February 20, the American
million it The game begins by each men are 6-3 and have clinched a
spent to team’s respective lead, or first spot in the semifinals. Their next
carry the player, curling their respective opponent is Canada, who they
T u r i n stones. Naturally, the second lost to 6-3 during round-robin
Games) has
been suffer-

ing as well,
from sig-
nificantl y
lower ratings. The Olympic
Games, once a dominating force
in primetime, have recently lost
that dominance to other popular
shows. “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC)
NCBOlympics.com
of total primetime viewership, the
tradition of airing repeats and
shrinking away from the competi-
tion seems to have ended for most
networks.
Continued on Page 9

Award Shows Organizers

Make Losing More
Profitable Than Winning
BY EMMA RABINOVICH March, the cost of such a “gift
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR bag” can be tens of thousands of
With the awards season in dollars. The values vary slightly
with the prestige and type of the U.S. Women’s Curling Team during the preliminary round of the women’s curling
full swing, celebrities have been between the United States and Norway.
cashing in on their success or in award show as well as the recipi-
some cases failure. The consola- ents. The estimated value of the play. The team includes Scott
gift basket throws the second stone. After the
tion prize for second, strategy becomes a very Baird, who sets the record for the
losing an distributed to oldest Winter Olympian ever. He
the presenters important factor. The vice-skip,
Academy or third thrower, has to decide is 54 years old and an alternate on
Award, for Studies show that only and perform- Team USA.
ers at this how to knock the opponent’s
example, about only 5 percent stones out of bounds without af- The American women had
includes a y e a r ' s much higher hopes coming into
G r a m m y fecting their own stones. The fi-
three-night to 10 percent of costly nal stones of the end are played the games. They finished second
stay at the Awards, for at the most recent world champi-
trips included in the example, was by the skips or captains. Once the
Mirage Hotel skips curl their stones, whoever onships and were looking to capi-
in Las Vegas, gift packages are ever $ 5 4 , 0 0 0
has the closest stone to the button talize on that success. However,
a coupon for redeemed by the celeb- while celebri- the team, led by Minnesota native
ties who at- receives one point. If the team
laser eye sur- with the closest stone also has the sisters Cassie and Jamie Johnson,
gery and a
rity. tended the failed to live up to expectations.
G o l d e n second closest stone, they receive
set of high- two points and so on. They finished round-robin play 2-
thread-count Globes re- 7, tied for eighth and out of the
ceived swag whose retail is esti- While the majority of Ameri-
bed linens. And while companies can curlers comes from Minne- semifinals. The future is still
are not allowed to reveal their mated to be around $62,000 and bright, however. No member of
which included paid trips to sota or Wisconsin (three out of
participation until the end of the eight team members reside in the team is over 30 years old. ◙
Continued on Page 9
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD
Baseball Takes the World Stage
Continued from Page 12
credibly dangerous with Yankee
infielders Alex Rodriguez and
Derek Jeter. When you add the
speed of Johnny Damon and the
power of Rangers star Mark
Teixeira, the Americans are going
to do fine. The second team
to make it through this group
will be Mexico. Mexico’s
team is not nearly on the
level of the Americans, but
the other teams in the group
are much weaker. The Mexi-
can pitchers are led by for-
mer Yankee Esteban Loaiza,
and the hitting by former
Oakland first basemen Eru-
biel Durazo. The other teams
in this group are Canada and
South Africa.
Pool C is the most com-
petitive group in the tourna-
ment. This group includes
Cuba, The Netherlands, Pa-
nama, and Puerto Rico. My
pick to win the group is
Puerto Rico. The most bal-
anced team in the group,
Puerto Rico has quality major
league pitching (Javier Vazquez
and Joel Piniero), along with
quality hitting (Mets Carlos
Beltran and Carlos Delgado). For
second in this group, I’d like to
go out on a limb and say Cuba.
While boasting no major leaguers
(the defected Americans were not
The Joys and Sorrows of
Olympic Figure Skating
Continued from Page 12
gold medalist, skated.
The first figure skating event
to commence was the pairs com-
petition. In the short program,
Americans Rena Inoue and John
Baldwin made Olympic history
by landing the first throw triple
axel. However, after a fall in their
long program on the same jump,
they finished seventh overall.
Inoue said, “I’m very pleased
with the way we skated. I thought
it was a very good overall per-
formance.” The second American
team to compete, Marcy
Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem,
finished 13th.
Tatiana Totmianina and
Maxim Marinin won gold and
continued the Russian dominance
in pairs skating. They looked
hesitant in their program, yet still
won with a lead of 10 points over
Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao of
China. During their long pro-
gram, they attempted a throw
quadruple jump. Zhang Dan
crashed down on the ice injuring
herself. After a break of a couple
March 2, 2006 Sports
allowed), this team has one thing
going for it: motivation. What
better way to get back at the
American government then by
beating them at their sport? I pre-
dict Cuba squeaks by Panama
into the quarterfinals.
Pool D is the most clear-cut
Fenway Park: Yankee’s vs. Red Sox 2005
group of the four. The Australians
and the Italians will be no match
for the Dominicans and the Vene-
zuelans. The Dominicans will be
able to win this group rather eas-
ily. While their pitching hopes
rest on Pedro Martinez’s toe,
their hitting is easily the best in
the tournament. In one lineup, the
Italian figure skating team falling during their original programs. After the first
dance segment.
Corbis
of minutes, they continued their
program from where they stopped
and were rewarded with wild ap-
plause from the audience.
The next competition to take
place was the men’s. After the
short program, Russian Yevgeny
Plushenko was in first place and
American Johnny Weir was in
second. Another American, Evan
Lysacek, finished 10th in the
short program after a disastrous
skate. However, he was battling a
bad case of stomach flu, which
left him unsure if he’d be able to
stay in the competition. He did
Dominicans have Angels star
Vladimir Guerrero, St. Louis’s
Albert Pujols, Boston’s David
Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, the
Orioles' Miguel Tejada, and ex-
Yankee and current National Al-
fonso Soriano. Their bench could
probably beat a few teams, with
Mets star Jose Reyes and Cubs
third basemen Aramis Ramirez.
The second place team in this
NBC
group will be the Venezuelans.
The Venezuelans have the deep-
est staff in the tournament. Led
by Cy Young winner Johan
Santana and Cubs star Carlos
Zambrano, the Venezuelans will
try to win on their pitching. Their
hitting, however, is not as good.
Their outfield of Miguel Cabrera,
continue on to skate a perfect
long program, which earned him
fourth place overall. Johnny Weir
skated a cautious long program,
which earned him mediocre
marks. He finished fifth
overall. The third
American, Matt Savoie,
finished seventh. The
gold medal went to
Plushenko, who had an
amazing 27-point lead.
The third skating event
to take place was the ice
dancing competition. In
this event, each team
skates three different
dance, Americans Tanith
Belbin and Ben Agosto
were sixth. In the second dance,
they skated cleanly and moved to
second. After the final dance,
they remained in second and took
home the silver medal. This is the
first Olympic ice dancing silver
medal to be earned by an Ameri-
can team, and the first American
Olympic ice dancing medal of
any color in 30 years.
The gold medal went to the
Russian team of Tatyana Navka
and Roman Kostomarov, and the
bronze medal was won by Yelena
Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov
of Ukraine. The other two Ameri-
Page 11
Bobby Abreu, and Magglio Or-
donez must be the offense for the
entire team. An interesting side
note is Italy, where ex-Mets
catcher Mike Piazza will be star-
ring. Why Italy? His grandparents
were born there, and in the in-
credibly relaxed rules concerning
country status, that qualifies him
as an Italian.
In the first quarterfinal group
in Anaheim, California, the
Americans and Japanese should
be able to get by the Mexicans
and Koreans. The second quarter-
final group will be much more
interesting. The Dominican
wrecking crew will make it past,
but Venezuela and Puerto Rico
will have a tough battle for that
second spot. My pick is Vene-
zuela, because I think their pitch-
ing will be enough to overcome
the Puerto Ricans.
The semifinals in San Diego
will not be surprising. The
Americans will beat the Japanese
team easily, and the Dominicans
will do the same to the Venezue-
lans. My prediction for the first
ever World Baseball Champion is
the Dominicans. Pitching in a
tournament where pitch count
rules will be strictly enforced
won’t make or break a team to an
extent. The offense will be the
most important, and the Domini-
cans have much more firepower
then their American counter-
parts. ◙
can teams, Melissa Gregory and
Denis Petukhov, and Jamie
Silverstein and Ryan O’Meara
finished 14th and 16th, respec-
tively.
On February 21 the most
popular event commenced, the
ladies' figure skating competition.
After the short program, Ameri-
can Sasha Cohen, was in first
place, ahead of Irina Slutskaya of
Russia by three one-hundredths
of a point. In third place by less
than a point was Shizuka Ara-
kawa of Japan.
After the free skate on Febru-
ary 23, Arakawa managed to take
the lead and win the gold, the
first Japanese gold medal of the
Turin Olympics and the first
Japanese Olympic gold medal in
figure skating. After disappoint-
ing performances, Cohen finished
second, and Slutskaya third.
Cohen was happy with her overall
placement and said, “I definitely
gave 100 percent in my effort, I
gave it my all. So I have no re-
grets with that. But it just wasn't
my night.” The other American
skaters, Kimmie Meissner and
Emily Hughes, finished sixth and
seventh. ◙
Page 12
Baseball Takes the
World Stage
BY ERIC MAYO
SPORTS EDITOR
Though the calendar says
spring starts on March 20, it starts
much earlier for baseball fans
across the country. In fact, spring
for most baseball fans started on
February 15, the first day pitchers
and catchers were to report to
their respective teams. This year,
there is a unique twist to spring
training. For the first time ever,
players will be leaving their
teams’ training camps to play for
their (or their grandparents’)
countries.
The World Baseball Classic
begins March 3rd in Tokyo, and
will culminate on March 20 in
San Diego. Sixteen different na-
tions will be split into 4 groups.
Within each group, each team
will play every other team once.
The top two teams from each
pool move on to a second round
robin round, where the top two
teams advance to the semi-final
games. The two semi-final game
winners will play to determine
who has the right to be called the
real World Champion.
Pool A, which includes
China, Chinese Taipei, Japan and
Korea, will play its games in the
Tokyo Dome in Japan. The favor-
Sports of the World:
Curling
BY ERIC MAYO
SPORTS EDITOR
What makes an Olympic
sport? They range from the nor-
mal, like swimming in the sum-
mer and skiing in the winter, to
the odd like table tennis. How-
ever, there is always one sport
March 2, 2006 Sports THE STUYVESANT STANDARD
ite here has to be Japan. Japan
consistently provides quality free
agents to Major League Baseball,
and some of them will be there,
as well as others who will soon
be in the majors. Japan will have
star right fielder Ichiro Suzuki, as
well as Diasuke Matzuaka, a star
Japanese pitcher who will most
likely be signing with a major
league team next season. Second
in this group will be close. My
prediction is Korea. They have
quality starting pitchers, which is
a rarity in this tournament. Those
include ex-Met Jae Seo and Pa-
dres pitcher Chan Ho Park. Their
offense, while not terribly strong,
does include Dodgers first base-
man Hee Sop Choi. Look for
those two teams to make it out of
this pool, which also includes
Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and
China.
In Pool B, the overwhelming
favorite is the Americans. They
are the only team that has all ma-
jor-leaguers, and they are one of
the favorites to win the entire
tournament. The Americans will
be led by Roger Clemens, who
could be making his last competi-
tive starts before he retires. On
offense, the Americans are in-
Continued on Page 11 The Joys and Sorrows
of Olympic Figure
Skating Corbis
BY JENNIFER
that is particularly fascinating. SCHLESINGER
The sport that has captivated the EDITOR IN CHIEF
American audience this Olympics
On February 10,
is curling. What is it, and why is
the Winter Olympics
it being mentioned everywhere?
in Turin, Italy, began
Curling’s history dates back
with the opening cere-
over 400 years. The first written
mony, which was
Continued on Page 10 watched by millions
across the globe. Some
of the most anticipated
events were the vari-
ous ice skating compe-
titions. For some skat-
ers, just getting to go
NBC
to the Olympics was a
dream come true. Oth-
ers had their sights set
on medals of gold,
silver, and bronze. Team USA during the original dance segment.
Unfortunately for
Michelle Kwan, the nine-time
United States figure skating from performing her best. Kwan
champion and Olympic silver and said, “Taking myself off the team
bronze medalist, her quest for is the most difficult decision I’ve
Olympic gold ended before her ever had to make, but it’s the
first competition skate. She right decision.” In her place,
pulled a muscle in her hip, which Emily Hughes, sister of Sarah
US team at Torino 2006. she decided would prevent her Hughes, the 2002 ladies Olympic
Continued on Page 11