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The Stanford Daily

CARDINAL TODAY

An Independent Publication
TUESDAY www.stanforddaily.com Volume 239
May 24, 2011 Issue 69

Cultures direct food choices

SPEAKERS & EVENTS

Assimilation pressures many to pick junk food
BY JULIA BROWNELL
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Asian Americans may change their eating
habits to favor less healthy mainstream Ameri-
can foods in an effort to fit in with white Amer-
ican society. These findings have emerged from
a recent study by researchers at Stanford and
other institutions, who suggest that such behav-
iors could contribute to the trends of increasing
obesity among generations of immigrants.
“It’s not just being here that exposes them to
worse food,” said Benoit Monin, associate pro-
fessor of organizational behavior at the Gradu-
ate School of Business and an author of the
study. “It’s something about the identity threat
that Asian Americans face that leads them to
want to fit in and eat . . . less healthy food.”
The study, titled “Fitting in but Getting Fat,”
appears in Psychological Science and involves
researchers at Stanford, the University of Wash-
ington and UC-Berkeley.
The first part of the study asked participants
on the Stanford campus to list their favorite
foods. Those in the experimental group were
asked whether they spoke English by the exper-
imenter before receiving the questionnaire,
while those in the control group were not asked
that question. Both groups were then asked to
list their favorite foods.
The study found that more of the “threat-
ened”Asian-American participants listed tradi-
tional American foods as their favorites than
STUDENT GOV’T
Mariachi Music
the control group; the
statistics were 75 percent
and 25 percent for the re-
spective groups.White par-
ticipants showed no change.
The findings point to the con-
clusion that the “threat” to
their American identity pushed
these participants to choose
more mainstream foods.
“The claim is that it carries
over at many other levels; it’s
not just about food,” Monin
said.“It’s like when I’m telling
you your food makes you
weird, it means you’re weird.
All these things are connected
when a group feels like it’s not accepted.”
In the second portion of the study,Asian and
white Americans in Seattle, Wash., were again
randomized into two groups. One group was
told,“Actually, you have to be American to be in
this study,” and a control group did not hear that
phrase.The participants were then asked to pick
a dish from two menus, one Asian and one
American, to be eaten at a later date.
Again, the “threatened” group was more
likely to choose an American dish than the con-
trol group, and the choices they made contained
on average 182 more calories and 12 more
grams of fat.
“Even though it’s not a lot of calories, you
can imagine if every day they’re governed by
CAROLINE MARKS/The Stanford Daily
this desire to fit in, it’s really going to add up,”
Monin said.
Monin hopes that the study will help bring
unconscious behaviors to light and eventually
allow ethnic foods to become increasingly
mainstream. He said acceptance of food would
help immigrants feel more accepted overall and
that it would be beneficial for American culture
as a whole.
“On the other side, it’d be good for white
Americans also,” he said.“If the healthier ethnic
foods become more available and normal, it
would be good for them if they’re eating fewer
cheese steaks and burgers and whatever else is
considered mainstream food in America.”
Contact Julia Brownell at juliabr@stanford.edu.
Soroush
discusses
poet Rumi
Event begins three-talk
lecture on Persian writer
By IVY NGUYEN
DESK EDITOR
Iranian scholar Abdolkarim
Soroush presented the first part of a
series of lectures on Iranian poet
and Sufi mystic Rumi on Monday.
The event kicked off a week of talks
from Soroush on the subject, the re-
mainder of which will be conducted
in Persian.
Speaking to an audience that
filled the aisles and overflowed into
the hallway, Director of Iranian
Studies Abbas Milani introduced
Soroush as “one of the most influ-
ential thinkers in Iran.”
“The program he taught on tele-
vision soon became one of the most
popular programs on television
those days, and his ability to conjure
thousands of lines of verse became
very popular very quickly,” Milani
said of Soroush. “Like everything
that became popular very quickly,
the plug was pulled very quickly be-
cause the regime didn’t want him to
become as popular as he was.”
Soroush began the night by re-
counting Rumi’s life.The poet, born

PA mulls
in 1207, composed thousands of
lines of verse.
Between the ages of 55 and 68,
he produced 25,000 lines that be-

police,fire came the Masthavi or “Spiritual

Couplets,” which many today use as
an introduction to the Sufi faith.
“Every evening, Rumi would sit

dept.merge and some of his students, who were

Move part of effort to
balance city budget shortfall
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
The city of Palo Alto is consid-
ering consolidating its fire and po-
lice departments into a single “de-
partment of public safety” to elim-
inate extraneous administrative
costs. Stanford University Depart-
ment of Public Safety spokesman
Bill Larson said that while the Uni-
versity has relationships with the
two departments, the proposed
merger’s impact on the Stanford
community remains unclear.
Stanford’s fire service, including
dispatching, is contracted out to
the city of Palo Alto. Stanford’s po-
lice service, on the other hand, is
separate from the city’s and falls
under the jurisdiction of the Santa
Clara County Sheriff’s office, Lar-
son said.
City manager James Keene first
broached the potential merger at a
City Council meeting earlier this
month, citing the city’s increasing
health-care costs as one of the
main motivations behind the
change. Police chief Dennis Burns,
who has acted as interim fire chief
since July 1, 2010, supported the ar-
gument for a single leader of a unit-
ed Public Safety Department. Sev-
eral consulting firms have also re-
leased reports with similar recom-
mendations, advocating for a per-
manent consolidation of the two
positions.
By merging the two depart-
ments and drastically reducing ad-
ministrative costs and increasing
overall efficiency, Keene hopes to
avoid sticky financial situations in
the future. Palo Alto is currently
trying to avoid service and staffing
cuts and minimize disruption to
public safety operations. He ex-
pressed the need for a long-term
vision of the city’s public safety
services at the committee meeting.
“I just have to think that for the
long term at least, efficiencies on
support, the administration back-
bone and all of those sorts of things
are worthwhile,” he said then.
— Elena Stephenson
Mariachi Cardenal performs on stage in White Plaza Sunday afternoon as part of its spring show. The per-
formance, titled “MARIACHINCEPTION,” featured guest performances by Ballet Folklorico and Kaorihiva.
$20 million endowment
established for
bioengineering projects
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
Stanford University and the Wallace H. Coul-
ter Foundation have established a $20 million en-
dowment to support translating ideas and re-
search into medical treatments and devices, ac-
cording to a press release from the School of
Medicine.This endowment allows the Wallace H.
Coulter Translational Research Grant Program
to continue in perpetuity and was funded by a
$10 million grant from the Coulter Foundation,
ZACK HOBERG/The Stanford Daily
NEWS BRIEFS
which was matched by the Office of the Presi-
dent.
The grant program was founded five years
ago after Stanford became one of nine universi-
ties to receive a $5 million grant from the Coulter
Foundation for the period between 2006 and
2011. Over those five years, the program funded
25 projects by co-investigators from the Bioengi-
neering Department and a clinical department in
the School of Medicine.
Some results of that program include the de-
velopment of a blood test that could be an alter-
native to amniocentesis, a new type of surgical
dressing that could prevent scarring, a drug that
could improve cognition for patients with Down
syndrome and a cheap ventilator for hospitals in
developing nations that are unable to afford the
current models.
laymen, surrounded him, and he
produced verses to them and they
took it down,” he said.
Soroush also noted that Rumi’s
story and work transcend political
boundaries. Although he is com-
monly considered an Iranian poet,
Rumi never lived in Iran, and in-
stead traveled throughout present-
day Afghanistan and Turkey.
“It is not appropriate to insist on
the point that he was an Iranian; he
was a meta-historical, meta-geo-
graphical figure,” Soroush said.“All
of his teachings tell us that the main
land is elsewhere, where our souls
have come from.”
In recent years, Rumi has en-
joyed worldwide popularity; many
of his works have been translated
into different languages and studied
in many different cultures.
“Nevertheless, you have to be
careful — first and foremost he be-
longs to Iranian culture, and then he
belongs to the world culture,”
Soroush said.
Soroush then sparked some con-
troversy among the audience when
he explained the poets and
prophets.
“In the Quran, there are verses
that say poets cannot become
prophets and that prophets are no
good as poets,” he said.“You have to
have direct access to reality as a
prophet,and if you have imagination,
the revelation would be contaminat-
ed as a result. For a prophet, being a
poet is tantamount to denigration.”
Please see RUMI, page 5
These grants differ from those from the Na-
tional Institutes of Health and other federal
agencies because projects follow the Coulter
Process, which outlines a more business-like
model, according to bioengineering chair Russ
Altman.
“This is more like business,” Altman said in
the press release. “The projects have quarterly
milestones and can be killed by the oversight
committee if the milestones are not met — this is
not how academic grants usually go. There is a
very strong emphasis on keeping focused on
what is needed for successful transfer to profes-
sional management via a start-up or a license to
an existing company.”
This development process follows that of in-
Please see GRANT, page 2

Index Features/3 • Opinions/4 • Sports/6 • Classifieds/7 Recycle Me

2 ! Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Talisman Talent
Assistant director of Talisman Kiana Shelton ‘11 welcomes Talisman alumni
on stage to wrap up their spring show. The a capella group counts Dean of
Freshmen Julie Lythcott-Haims ‘89 as one of its many former members.
GRANT
Continued from front page
dustry and includes a commercial-
ization analysis as part of the proj-
ect.This analysis has attracted fund-
ing from venture capital and bio-
medical companies, according to
Elias Caro, vice president of tech-
nology development at Coulter.
Thus far, 12 projects from this pro-
gram have led to the formation of
start-ups or have been licensed by
an existing company. The projects
have received $43 million in follow-
up funds, with nearly half coming
from non-government sources.
— Ivy Nguyen
Electrical engineering
prof.Helliwell dies
at 90
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
Electrical engineering professor
Robert Helliwell AB ‘42 ENG ‘44
Ph.D. ‘48 died May 3 in Palo Alto at
the age of 90 of complications from
dementia.
Born in 1920 in Red Wing,
Minn.,Helliwell moved to Palo Alto
with his mother after his father died.
He earned his bachelor’s, master’s
and doctoral degrees from Stanford
and joined the electrical engineer-
ing faculty in 1946.
Helliwell is most famous for his
research in how radio waves interact
with charged particles in the atmos-
phere. He embarked on this re-
search topic by chance in 1950,when
a graduate student monitoring radio
waves from distant lightning heard
strange whistling noises from a
speaker and later mentioned them
to Helliwell. These noises, termed
“whistlers,” were a result of very low
frequency radio waves.
He later applied this phenome-
non to make fundamental discover-
ies about how radio waves could be
used to study the ionized atmos-
phere high above the earth’s surface.
When electrical noise from the city
power lines near Stanford interfered
with his effort to detect natural
whistlers, Helliwell traveled to
Antarctica, where he established a
research site in 1957.
The Stanford Radio Science Lab-
oratory conducted ionospheric and
magnetospheric experiments at Siple
Station from 1971 until it closed in
1988. Today, Stanford graduate stu-
dents in the VLF Group are still ana-
lyzing data from that research. Helli-
well also wrote what is considered a
classic work on whistlers, “Whistlers
and Related Ionospheric Phenome-
na.” He is the namesake for the Hel-
liwell Hills, an Antarctic mountain
range along the coast of Victoria
Land on the Ross Sea.
Helliwell’s distinguished career
was decorated with the Antarctic
Service Medal in 1966 and the Ap-
The Stanford Daily
ZACK HOBERG/The Stanford Daily
pleton Prize of the Royal Society of
London in 1972 for his work in
ionospheric physics. He was a mem-
ber of the National Academy of Sci-
ences, fellow of the American Geo-
physical Union and chaired one of
the commissions of the Internation-
al Union of Radio Science (URSI).
A memorial service for Helliwell
will be held June 7 at 3 p.m. in
Memorial Church.
— Ivy Nguyen
New method imitates
rare disease using
stem cells
By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF
A rare genetic disease is getting
its moment in the limelight thanks to
researchers at the School of Medi-
cine. These scientists have found
that dyskeratosis congenita, which
impacts approximately one in a mil-
lion people, can be imitated using
undifferentiated induced pluripo-
tent stem (iPS) cells.
Prior research shows that the
rapid shortening of telomeres, the
protective caps found at the end of
chromosomes, causes dyskeratosis
congenita. In Stanford’s most recent
study,published this week in Nature,
associate professor of medicine
Steven Artandi and his colleagues
used skin cells from five patients
with varying severities the disease to
create iPS cells.
They then used the iPS cells to
explain why those suffering from
dyskeratosis congenita experience
differing symptoms and differing
severities in these symptoms. Com-
monly cited symptoms include ab-
normal skin pigmentation, nail
growth, lung scarring, bone marrow
failure as well as cancer.
According to the Stanford re-
searchers, a crucial element is the ac-
tivity of telomerase,an enzyme that is
important to aging and cell renewal.
“We were very surprised to find
such a clear correlation between the
quantity of functional telomerase,
the severity of the cellular defect
and the severity of the patient’s clin-
ical symptoms,” Artandi said in a
press release. “Our work suggests
that, in patients with dyskeratosis
congenita, tissue stem cells are los-
ing their ability to self-renew
throughout the body. This is a new,
unifying way to think about this dis-
ease, and it has important implica-
tions for many other conditions.”
Equally important, researchers
say that studying how telomerase in-
fluences self-renewal may also con-
tribute to existing knowledge on
aging and disease. The scientists in-
tend to continue to create new iPS
cells to further understand cellular
self-renewal.
The National Institutes of Health
and the California Institute for Re-
generative Medicine financed the
study.
— An Le Nguyen
The Stanford Daily
FEATURES
NEED FOR SPEED
By KATY STORCH
T
he pressure of pages and pages
of assigned reading is a phe-
nomenon familiar to any Stan-
ford student. For many of
these students, there is an al-
lure to being able to blow through read-
ing assignments at a rapid pace. David
Geeter ‘12 has made it his mission to
make the practice of speed-reading a re-
ality for Stanford students through his
on-campus speed-reading workshop.
After Geeter attended an expensive
but well-reputed speed-reading work-
shop in San Francisco, facilitated by an
organization called Iris Reading, he was
inspired to introduce the practice to
Stanford students as it was not being of-
fered elsewhere on campus. His work-
shop is a more economical and student-
geared form of the workshop he attend-
ed in San Francisco, a “speed-reading
boot camp” that is three hours long and
$25 per session.
“I want to provide . . . wellness for
students by decreasing stress and build-
ing their confidence to rip through docu-
ments,” Geeter said. “But I also
want to re-spark [the enjoy-
ment in] reading.”
However, while speed-
reading may help stu-
dents get through their
material faster, Adina
Glickman,associate director for academic
support in the Center for Teaching and
Learning, argues that it sacrifices reading
comprehension.
As an advocate of the importance of
reading comprehension and the indis-
pensability of students engaging with the
texts they read, she expressed the need
for a different outlook on speed-reading.
She sees the technique as a supplement
to reading comprehension efforts.
“Reading is not about pace,” Glick-
man said.“The techniques of speed-read-
ing . . . can certainly assist students in
their comprehension of the text, but the
focus on pace is not the way to get the
most out of reading materials.”
Geeter claims that his speed-reading
boot camp can teach students to read
three to five times faster. Using skills he
learned from the San Francisco work-
shop, he drills students with physical eye
exercises and mental organizing tech-
niques to help them increase their read-
ing pace.
To start off the workshop, Geeter dis-
cusses the faulty reading habits that
cause people
ANASTASIA YEE/The Stanford Daily
the most problems — fixation, lingering
on single words and regression and
rereading passages or sentences over and
over again. Then he carries out a speed
drill to stimulate faster eye movement to
introduce the speed-reading operation.
The workshop then transitions to com-
prehension drills, where Geeter assists
students in learning to process words in
groups rather than individually. Lastly, he
teaches students to apply both drills to
the text, reading slower in certain areas
of a document and faster in others.
“Students bring in their own materi-
als, and we target the drills toward a par-
ticular document,” Geeter said. “But the
transition from the easier articles I pro-
vide to the often technical articles that
students bring is the area I need to im-
prove on.”
Hailialoha Jensen ‘12, who attend-
ed one of Geeter’s workshops,
agreed. She commended his effort to
educate the Stanford community, but
felt that a lack of specialization was
the weakest
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 ! 3
part of the session.
“The speed-reading
helped, but not to the
extent that I had
hoped,” Jensen said.
“It’s a really neat idea
but difficult for some Courtesy of David Geeter
course material.”
Jensen expressed the need for Geeter
to recognize what types of materials stu-
dents are reading in order to make
speed-reading applicable to all texts.
However, she was impressed with many
other skills and resources Geeter provid-
ed, including visual and physical tricks
that Geeter recommended in order to
maintain pace in reading, such as using
the tip of the finger or a pencil to follow
the words as one reads.
One thing is for sure
— speed-reading is not a
magic pill that solves all of
one’s academic problems.
This is especially true of its
maintenance and long-term
effectiveness.
“Speed-reading is like
taking a yoga class,” Geeter
said about the importance
of self-discipline in up-
keep of speed-reading
techniques. “It feels really
good, but it’s hard to make
yourself do it all the time,
which makes it easy to revert
back to old habits.”
Regina Getz-Kikuchi ‘11, an-
other attendee of the workshop,
felt that Geeter had done excel-
lent work in producing a prod-
uct for Stanford students.
“He has done a great
Please see SPEED, page 5
4 ! Tuesday, May 24, 2011 The Stanford Daily

OPINIONS
I H AVE T WO H EADS The Stanford Daily
Established 1892 AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER Incorporated 1973

Carpe Diem Board of Directors

Zach Zimmerman
President and Editor in Chief
Managing Editors

Kate Abbott
Deputy Editor
Kristian Bailey
Columns Editor
Tonight’s Desk Editors
Ivy Nguyen
News Editor
Mary Liz McCurdy An Le Nguyen Jacob Jaffe

D
Stephanie Weber
uring the last week, I had Chief Operating Officer Managing Editor of News Head Copy Editor Sports Editor
one of those glorious Claire Slattery Nate Adams Marwa Farag
spring-quarter days that re- Anastasia Yee
Vice President of Advertising Managing Editor of Sports Features Editor
minded me all over again why I love Head Graphics Editor
being at Stanford. The sky shone a Rachel Theodore L. Glasser Kathleen Chaykowski
Alex Atallah
Zack Hoberg
Managing Editor of Features
brilliant blue, I felt myself sur- Kolb Michael Londgren Web Editor
Photo Editor
rounded by great people, I biked Lauren Wilson Stephanie Weber
Robert Michitarian
across campus after class feeling ex- Managing Editor of Intermission Wyndam Makowsky Copy Editor
uberant about what I had learned Jane LePham Zack Hoberg Staff Development
and what I had yet to do.Why would Shelley Gao Managing Editor of Photography Business Staff
I ever want to leave this place?
It was one of those days, in other
words, that made me want to press
I don’t think many Rich Jaroslovsky Begüm Erdogan
Sales Manager
pause, to preserve the moment in an
Contacting The Daily: Section editors can be reached at (650) 721-5815 from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. The Advertising Department can be
elixir-filled vial for times to come — reached at (650) 721-5803, and the Classified Advertising Department can be reached at (650) 721-5801 during normal business hours.
because I realized that this attitude
of feeling absolutely content in the
present stands in sharp contrast to
of us want to rush Send letters to the editor to eic@stanforddaily.com, op-eds to editorial@stanforddaily.com and photos or videos to multimedia@stanford
daily.com. Op-eds are capped at 700 words and letters are capped at 500 words.

how I often go about my life at Stan-

ford. In the back of my mind, I hope
I always remember how fortunate I
am to be here. I hope I take advan-
through our lives
tage of these undergraduate years
as much as I can. But in the cycle of
everyday life, I often fall into the
pattern of letting those moments
fall by the wayside.
like the present
Around the end of the quarter,
especially, around the time when I
start feeling a bit flat and burned
out, I tend to wake up and view each
moment means
day as another hurdle I need to
overcome. A paper is due, or a
group project, or a packed schedule
of class after class or meeting after
meeting, after which I’ll return to a
nothing.
slew of emails and a lingering sense
of guilt over not making more time
for more people, more activities, dents do seize, if only to power
more everything. Can we please through to the other side.While tak-
skip to next week, already? Or to ing Latin in high school, I learned to
after finals week? To summer? I feel think about this phrase a different
fragmented. I come dangerously way. The imperative verb “carpe”
close to convincing myself that I doesn’t mean “seize.” Rather, it is
take no joy in the pressures of my literally translated as pluck, enjoy,
present life. I only want to fast-for- make use of, even savor. The way
ward, I only want it to be over. Horace originally intended the
I don’t think I am alone. When I phrase, we would grab onto the
ask friends how they are, I some- present moment the same way we
times receive the answers “Good, pluck a ripe grape from the vine,
once this week is over” or “Next holding it in our hand before biting
Tuesday can’t come fast enough!” down into its sweetness.
Stanford has the reputation for From this perspective, carpe
chill, in-the-moment spontaneity diem refers not so much to combat-
— just look at all those students out ing each day before rushing off with
fountain-hopping or playing Fris- its spoils. Rather, it has a slower and
bee this time of year — but at the more contemplative feel. How can
same time, it can be easy to view we hang on to the day at hand, even
our time here as a never-ending as our lives prompt us to press fast-
forward and plow through? It often
F RESHLY B AKED
shopping list of obligations, which
isn’t possible to divert our sources

stuns us into a mentality that only
desires to escape. Of course, escape
in far-reaching terms is life post-
Stanford. Next Tuesday is another
step closer to that day. And, while
Lactose Intolerant
of pressure, of course. Our entire
lives will involve stress or decision-
making in one form or another, and
in the big scheme of things, many of

we’ll all be ready to graduate when
the time comes, I don’t think many
of us want to rush through our lives
like the present moment means
nothing to us.
One of the special things about
Stanford is how so many people
want to be here. Some of my ac-
quaintances from other schools re-
port just wanting to finish their edu-
cations so that they can settle into
their real lives. Give me that degree
now, and be done with it. I don’t see
that attitude very often at Stanford.
But there is still the question: how
do we embrace a productive, get-
things-done mentality without un-
intentionally squandering these
years that we’ll someday look back
on with such nostalgia?
I guess what I’m after is a sense
of perpetual carpe diem. But “seize
the day” isn’t quite the sensation
I’m going for. There are plenty of
days that I and other Stanford stu-
those details are only minutiae. We
might not be able to change our ex-
ternal conditions, but we can adopt
a more balanced, more methodical
mindset with which to approach
them.
I still remember my Latin
teacher asking me, all while
stroking his beard, how would I
spend my very own carpe diem?
What would I do? Now I think I
would answer this question not in
terms of actual activities — I al-
ready have too many — but in
terms of viewing the world in its
proper proportion. Resist the temp-
tation to rush or get flustered. Re-
member we don’t have to do these
things, we get to. Savor the moment.
Whatever strategy that takes.
Rachel wants to know which Latin
idioms govern what you’re perpetual-
ly after. Send her your favorites at
rkolb@stanford.edu.
L
ast summer, I was browsing
the incredible cheese section
of Milk Pail Market,that won-
derful little market, when I was in-
terrupted by a man with a faint Eu-
ropean accent.
“Do you eat cheese?”
I was a bit taken aback, and I
must have looked accordingly con-
fused, as the man quickly followed
up his initial question by saying that
his wife was Asian and could not
stand all the cheese that he always
brought home, so he was wondering
if I was into cheese. I, in fact, was
very into cheese, and finding that
we were kindred spirits, we had a
nice conversation about cheese.
For a while, I thought that my
ability to eat cheese and drink milk
put me squarely in the extreme mi-
nority of Asian-Americans who
aren’t lactose tolerant, and I loved
it. I couldn’t imagine life without
the cold milk poured over my bowl
of morning cereal, without the
gooey cheese hanging off the edge
of a slice of pizza, without a
Klondike bar. Whenever I saw my
afflicted friends having to down a
couple of Lactaid pills before dig-
ging into a hot slice, I smirked a lit-
tle on the inside, laughing at their
deficiency of the enzyme lactase.
One morning a couple of weeks
ago, I woke up, had a big bowl of ce-
real with skim milk, then went back
to bed (it was a Sunday, and I was
tired). I woke up feeling extremely
uneasy, stomach a-churning, and I
curled in a fetal position on my bed,
fighting both the stomachache and
the realization that I might be be-
coming lactose intolerant.
ARGHAAAHAH. Since then, the
couple of times I’ve had cereal, the
milk hasn’t sat quite well with me,
but I’ve been hoping that the first
Sunday was just a case of bad milk
and that I’ve been imagining the
subsequent stomach aches out of
paranoia. I suspect, however, that it
might actually just be my stomach
hating me for forcing milk into it.
All good things must come to an
end, I suppose.
Like . . . Stanford. Having to
graduate and leave has been weigh-
ing heavily on my mind recently,
and while it might not be quite as
devastating a change as losing the
ability to properly process lactose, it
is a pretty big step, one that I’m sure
has been on the minds of other
members of the great class of Oh-
Leven. (Non-seniors, the rest of this
might not relate specifically to you,
but you can always keep these com-
ments in your pocket for later.)
Stanford’s not perfect, but it’s
pretty damn awesome. A friend
from home visited this past week-
end, and seeing him impressed by
all the things that had become so
mundane to me (he kept describing
Stanford as “like a vacation spot”)
confirmed again just how lucky I’ve
been to have spent the last four
years here and made the fact that
there’s only four more weeks left
feel even weirder.
We’ll be fine, of course. Will we
look back on our time here and,
every once in a while, wish that we
could go back, like how I’ll sadly
look back upon my cheese-eating
glory days? Sure, but at least we had
that time, and reliving the past
through our memories is always
Tim
Moon
I suspect that it
might actually just
be my stomach
hating me for forcing
milk into it.
fun.Will we need to find other ways
to make friends, feed ourselves and
do other adult things? Sure, but if I
could switch to using almond milk
on my cereal, I can surely make
those adjustments too, and if I can
do it, anyone can do it. Some parts
are going to be even better, al-
though we might not realize it yet
— until I had to switch off of regu-
lar milk, I never knew how delicious
almond milk was, but now I think I
might actually prefer it to normal
milk. I’m no Van Wilder, never
wanting to graduate, never wanting
to grow up — I’m ready for what’s
next, and that’s the general sense
I’ve been getting from most seniors.
But there’s still three weeks left,
no need to hurry ourselves out.
There’s a Catalan proverb I’ve al-
ways liked:“it’s better that it should
make you sick than that you don’t
eat it at all,” and it seems especially
relevant with just four more weeks.
Three more weeks to do everything
that we need to do, have been
meaning to do, have always wanted
to do.
Like . . . eating a wheel of cheese
(or a pizza, I guess, although that
wouldn’t be as amazing) with all my
friends. I’ll take the stomachache.
Tim is partial to Comte, but if you
have a better suggestion for what
wheel of cheese he should eat, send
them his way at timmoon@stanford.
edu.
The Stanford Daily Tuesday, May 24, 2011 ! 5

Cultural Concert

ZACK HOBERG/The Stanford Daily

Co-ed a capella group Talisman performed at its spring concert Sunday. The group, whose reportoire features music
from different cultures, seeks to ‘give voice to the vast collection of human stories told through rich and vibrant song.’

SPEED
Continued from page 3 “Speed-
job of condensing the principles
and exercises of an otherwise
painful and expensive workshop to
fit the schedules and attention span
of a Stanford student,” Getz-
Kikuchi wrote in an email to The
reading is
Daily.
“Now, when I set out to read
something with the intention of
speed-reading, I definitely see an
improvement,” she added.
Geeter’s motive was to help stu-
like taking a
dents use the techniques of speed-
reading to lessen the stress of their
coursework and see the improve-
ment Getz-Kikuchi did.
“Speed-reading has been really
beneficial . . . it fits a need for peo-
yoga class...”
ple, and it’s my job to find a way to
make that into a relationship and a
credible product,” he said. — DAVID GEETER
While he is currently taking the
quarter off to explore career inter-
ests, Geeter continues to hold his try out the same entrepreneurial
workshop several times a month. idea and be creative in the process
Despite some critiques of its meth- — just not in the form of another
ods and execution, Geeter de- competing speed-reading busi-
scribed his speed-reading work- ness,” he added.
shop as an entrepreneurial risk
worth taking. Contact Katy Storch at kstorch8@
“I think other students should stanford.edu.

RUMI
Continued from front page
Nonetheless, Soroush considers
Rumi a prophet and a poet of love
because of the transcendence of his
message.
“He deserves that title, the
prophet of love,” Soroush said. “A
prophet is someone who has re-
ceived insight, someone whose mes-
sage has become transcendental or
becomes eternal.”
That the poet’s writings have
been referred to by some as the Per-
sian Quran is testament to that title,
he said. While the Quran teaches a
message of fear and awe, Rumi’s
writings describe a relationship with
God that’s similar to one of a lover
and his beloved. This message is
part of what makes Rumi’s writings
appealing and relevant today, ac-
cording to the scholar.
“Every generation makes his
own selection [of Rumi’s writing] to
meet their needs, in order to put it in
its proper place in this day and age,”
Soroush said.
While Soroush’s lecture focused
on the philosophical nature and
modern relevance of Rumi’s writ-
ing, the room was charged with the
political tension of Iran, as Milani’s
remarks remained on the audi-
ence’s mind.
Milani recounted the time he
and Soroush met with several Iran-
ian scholars at Stanford ten years
ago.
“Many of those people in that
first gathering are now in prison,”he
said.“This talk is held in their mem-
ory and in hope of their freedom.”
The series is sponsored by the
Program in Iranian Studies, the
Daryabari Endowment in Persian
letters, the Abbasi Program in Is-
lamic Studies, the Persian Students
Association, the Stanford Speakers
Bureau and the Graduate Student
Council.
Contact Ivy Nguyen at iknguyen@
stanford.edu.

Talking Shop

ZACK HOBERG/The Stanford Daily

IJ8, the eighth conference on Innovation Journalism, kicked off Monday
morning and will run through Wednesday. This year’s conference focuses on
the debate over the way innovation is affecting the business of journalism.
6 ! Tuesday, May 24, 2011
SPORTS S
FAN FORUM
‘SUPERFANS’ NEED TO LEAD RED ZONE
T
his wouldn’t be the first
thing to pop into your
head when you think
about Stanford. Most
people would scoff at
this idea, especially since we could-
n’t even fill up our tiny stadium dur-
ing our nationally televised mar-
quee game last season (vs.Arizona).
But let’s take a step back for a sec-
ond and look at our student section.
Not to be self-praising, but we did a
pretty good job — we filled up our
section at every game except for the
Washington State game (don’t for-
get Harbaugh’s anger at the fans,
let’s not do this to Coach Shaw). In
previous years, we had trouble sell-
ing out the student section. Last
year, we all but solved this problem.
However, going to the game is only
part of the experience; we need fans
to be loud.
This should be the goal of the
2011 football season.And it is an ur-
gent one. We are competing with
schools that have student sections
two or three times our size, so to
match their noise level, each of us
has to be two or three times as loud.
This will always be a nagging prob-
lem that will probably never be fully
addressed — but we can mitigate it.
Enter the superfans.They are the
guys and gals that paint their bodies,
ring their cowbells and/or are in the
band.They help make football crazi-
Jack Blanchat
Pac-10 needs
baseball
tournament
A
ll across the nation
this week, college
baseball teams are
preparing for their
season-ending con-
ference tournaments.The SEC plays
a tournament in Hoover, Ala., the
Big 12 heads to Oklahoma City, the
ACC sets up shop in Durham, N.C.,
and even smaller leagues like the
America East and the Horizon
League have tournaments to cap off
the regular season. However, there
is one notable exception to this con-
ference tournament season — the
Pac-10.
Unlike almost every other major
and minor conference in the coun-
try, the Pac-10 doesn’t have any sea-
son-ending baseball tournament to
determine a champion. And while
the Pac-10 is exploring the possibili-
ty of a postseason tournament when
the conference expands to 11 teams
next year (Colorado hasn’t had a
baseball program since the mid-’80s,
Utah currently plays in the Moun-
tain West), it appears that the new
Pac-12 is missing out on a major op-
portunity to draw in fans (and cash)
by neglecting to add a tournament
to the championship schedule next
year.
While the conference could be
capitalizing on the fact that it consis-
tently boasts some of the best base-
ball teams in the country, the Pac-10
currently lets the regular season end
quietly while — in stark contrast —
the SEC has its entire conference
tournament broadcast on ESPN.
This hole in the Pac-10 schedule
is particularly surprising because of
the conference’s strength from top
to bottom. The Pac-10 has sent four
or more teams to the postseason in
nine of the last 10 years,and a Pac-10
team has played in the finals of the
College World Series in six of the
last 11 years.
Those stats don’t mean that the
conference is just top-heavy with
good teams, either. Last year, eight
squads made an NCAA Regional
appearance, and Oregon State won
the national championship in 2007
despite finishing sixth in conference
with a 10-14 record.
But instead of letting teams like
the 2007 Oregon State squad have
one final run at the conference title
in the last weekend of the year,
teams are firmly stuck in their places
without a chance to salvage their
season and their postseason hopes,
despite how good the team might
actually be.
Because of this conference pari-
ty, if the newly named Pac-12 were
to hold a conference tournament
between the top eight teams after
the regular season, the worst seed in
the tournament might have almost
as good a shot to win the title as the
top seed. And if a middle-of-the-
Please see BLANCHAT, page 8
PECIAL OPINIONS EDITION
Fans in the Red Zone cheer on the Stanford football team. The so-called “superfans,” which include those with
painted bodies in the front row, could be Stanford’s best chance at getting an effective cheering section this year.
ness mainstream on campus. All we
need to do is spread their knowledge
and passion to the rest of the student
body.And this will be key to not just
keeping students’ butts in the seats
(actually, they should be standing
Back to the finals
Card looks to defend
title against Florida
By JACOB JAFFE and
NATE ADAMS
For the second consecutive year,
the Stanford women’s tennis team
has made it to the finals of the
NCAA Tournament. And for the
second consecutive year, the Cardi-
nal’s opponents will be the Florida
Gators.
WOMEN’S TENNIS
BAYLOR 1 found.
STANFORD 4 I asked the group if they had attend-
5/23, Taube Tennis Center
Last night, Stanford took down
Baylor 4-1 in the semifinals at Taube
Tennis Center to advance to today’s
final. The top-seeded Cardinal se-
cured the doubles point thanks to
wins of 8-2 on court one and 8-6 on
court two. The fifth-seeded Bears
tied the score at one when Stanford
freshman Kristie Ahn was forced to
default her match after only three
games of singles, exiting due to a lin-
gering ankle injury.
From there, it was all Stanford.
Despite struggles from its top sin-
gles player, senior Hilary Barte, the
Cardinal won three singles matches
in straight sets to earn the win.
Sophomore Stacey Tan was most
impressive, winning 6-1, 6-4 on court
five to regain the lead for the Cardi-
nal. Junior Veronica Li followed
with a 6-4, 6-3 win on court six to
give Stanford its third point, and
sophomore Mallory Burdette
clinched the victory with a 7-5, 6-4
win on court two.
“The win today awesome,” Bur-
Please see WTENNIS, page 8
Freshman Nicole Gibbs clinched the doubles point for Stanford along with her partner, junior Veronica Li. The
Cardinal won 4-1 to force a rematch in the NCAA finals with Florida. Last year, Stanford won a nailbiter over
the Gators to win the national title. Stanford and Florida, the top two seeds in the field, will face off at 4 p.m.
up), but to creating more effective
cheering and yelling.
The first thing we need to work
on is timing our yelling. We rarely
get loud when the opposing players
are in the huddle. This is a critical
Senior Hilary Barte cruised through doubles to help Stanford take
the early lead over Baylor, but she struggled in singles. The rest of
her team stepped up to secure the 4-1 semifinal win over the Bears.
CYRUS PINTO ‘13
SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily
time when the play is called — if we
start our yelling during the huddle,it
will not only increase the chances
that a play is not heard correctly, but
Please see FAN FORUM, page 8
IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily
IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily
The Stanford Daily
Wyndam
Makowsky
Between the lines
Football
and break
plans
I
n the midst of special dinner
preparations on Friday, I sent a
short survey to a few email lists.
The goal? To get a broad look at
students’ views on the football
games bookending the Thanksgiving
recess.
Stanford, unlike most schools, of-
fers a full week of vacation during that
time. Due to the quarter system’s late
start time,there is no fall break in Octo-
ber; instead, it’s combined with
Thanksgiving, allowing students a full
nine days of uninterrupted freedom.
This means that, in most cases, there is
ample time for travel home or else-
where before the crush of finals period
begins.
It’s a nice and deserved vacation,
but it has an unintended consequence:
fans leave campus during the tail end
— and generally, the wildly important
portion — of Stanford football’s sea-
son. Big Game is almost always held
during either Thanksgiving weekend
or the one before it,and the other con-
test usually holds significance,too,be it
a crucial Pac-10 matchup to help deter-
mine the final standings and bowl
placement or a meeting with rival
Notre Dame.
Most other schools would only be
at risk of losing students for one game
— on the Saturday following Thanks-
giving — since they’d still be in session
during the prior weekend.But the Car-
dinal could be missing a chunk of the
Red Zone for two games at a time
when the team may need its most bois-
terous supporters more than ever.
So I sent out a survey.A crude, un-
scientific survey that would never be
admissible for any purposes other than
to see the thoughts of a handful of stu-
dents.It was anonymous,meaning that
in theory,someone could have submit-
ted the form a dozen different times.
And it should in no way be seen as rep-
resentative of the body as a whole. It
was merely sent out of curiosity. Don’t
take it as anything more.Here’s what I
ed last year’s Big Game and Oregon
State contest,and if they planned to at-
tend this year’s Big Game and Notre
Dame matchup. For both 2010 and
2011,I questioned whether or not they
made their travel plans around these
games.
A total of 89 people replied, with
comments ranging from “I was part of
AxeComm,so the Big Game was a big
deal”to “I care so,so much more about
seeing my family and enjoying my
break than Stanford football.”Overall,
56 percent of responders said they
made it to Berkeley last season, while
only 36 percent said they had gone to
see the Cardinal take down the
Beavers. The numbers matched up
roughly to the respondents’ future
plans: 65 percent said they’d be at Big
Game in 2011 (which has the added
benefit of being at home), with 22 per-
cent unsure. Just 27 percent said they
would definitively be at the Notre
Dame contest, with 35 percent still not
sure of their plans.
The results make sense: not only is
Cal the major rival, but in both 2010
and 2011,the game was/will be held on
the first weekend of break.Classes con-
clude just a day before, and staying in
the area for a single extra day to see the
two schools battle for the Axe makes
sense when you still have eight days in
which you can be at home.By contrast,
both the Oregon State and Notre
Dame games are held only two days
after Thanksgiving,which is still seen as
part of the holiday. Friends from other
schools are off then, too, and while the
Irish are a rival and the Beavers are a
conference foe, the normative aspect
of the game is not nearly as high as the
annual Stanford-Cal tussle — it’s un-
derstandable that the inclination to get
back to the Farm may not be too
strong.
It’s also hard to predict the future.
For example, the Oregon State game
this year held massive ramifications for
Stanford — win, and be practically
guaranteed a BCS bowl; lose, and play
somewhere that few non-diehards
would care about.But plane tickets are
booked well in advance — and for
good reason — so even an interested
fan that would have gone to the game
if he or she was on campus may have
been hand-tied by prior travel purchas-
es. I asked the surveyed participants if
they made/would make their Thanks-
giving travel plans around the two
Please see MAKOWSKY, page 8
The Stanford Daily Tuesday, May 24, 2011 ! 7

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8 ! Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Curios at Clayman
‘Curious,’ an exhibition by artist Connie M. Begg, hangs on display at the Clayman Institute. The show, curated by Amy DaPonte, will be on view at the Institute through the end of next month.
BLANCHAT
Continued from page 6
pack squad (like Stanford this year,
which right now sits fifth in the con-
ference with a 12-12 record) were to
win the Pac-12 Tournament, it
would have a nice feather in the cap
to encourage the NCAA to select
that team for the postseason or even
to host a regional, which only would
add to conference prestige and
pocketbooks.
Speaking of money, the Pac-12
could stand to earn a nice bit of cash
if it handled the postseason tourna-
ment correctly. Last year, the SEC
Tournament had 126,071 fans show
up, an average of 9,698 per game, to
its eight-team, double-elimination
tournament. Is it possible for the
Pac-12 to draw numbers like that to
the gates? Probably not. But the
tickets, concessions and merchan-
dise sold in one solid weekend (as
well as the money the conference
would earn from any television
broadcasts) could be substantial if
WTENNIS
Continued from page 6
dette said.“I feel like it was definite-
ly not a super easy match. A lot of
people had close matches, and a lot
of matches had us fighting really
hard. I was excited to be able to
clinch and bring home the win at the
end. So I think overall it was a really
good performance from us, on sin-
gles and in doubles.”
Ahn’s early exit was the only
down-note for Stanford, which
would have otherwise swept the
match. After suffering a minor
ankle injury in last month’s Pac-10
Singles Tournament — which she
won — Ahn has played through
pain and occasionally been
scratched from her usual spot in the
doubles lineup.
When asked if she thought Ahn
would be playing today, Burdette
wasn’t optimistic.
“As of right now, no,” she said. “I
think we’re going to go forward
planning to not have her in doubles
or singles.”
Despite her probable absence,
though, Burdette thinks the team
has enough depth and experience to
make up for it and succeed.
“We would all want her out
there, but I don’t think it’s going to
shake us too much,” she said. “Our
doubles team will be the same, and
in singles all year,we’ve pretty much
had seven players that we moved in
and out of the lineup.”
That seventh player is Carolyn
McVeigh, a talented senior who has
received significant playing time
this year, especially after Ahn’s in-
jury.
MAKOWSKY
Continued from page 6
games; for both 2010 and 2011, “yes”
got about 45 percent of the vote.
Surely, the Athletics Department
would like to see attendance increase
for these two games. I live on the East
Coast and still make my travel
arrangements around these Thanks-
giving contests — it’s not a difficult
thing to do.Which is not to say that you
absolutely have to do this:if you’re like
the Pac-12 could bring in just half the
fans that the SEC does right now.
With the extra coin, the confer-
ence could then turn around and
help teams build new stadiums and
facilities, or even use it to help Col-
orado reinstate a baseball program.
The influx of money would at least
prevent schools from cutting their
baseball programs, as Cal did earlier
this year before donors ponied up
$10 million to keep the Golden
Bears out on the diamond.
If the conference does indeed
want to pull the trigger on a postsea-
son tournament, it needs to think
big in order to draw in fans and their
wallets. Other conferences have
their tournaments at minor league
ballparks in mid-sized cities, and
there are plenty of minor league
parks readily available in California
— but the Pac-12 can do better than
a park in Sacramento or Modesto.
Perhaps the best minor league
option might be Las Vegas, home of
the Toronto Blue Jays’ Triple-A af-
filiate, the Las Vegas 51s. While the
coaches might not like the fact that
the Vegas strip will tempt their play-
ers, fans would come out of the
While Stanford’s lineup might be
a little different today, a lot of the
storylines from last night’s match
will be familiar to Cardinal fans.
Yesterday’s match marked the sec-
ond straight year the Cardinal elim-
inated the Bears in the NCAA
Tournament. Last year, Baylor was
the No. 1 seed, and No. 8 seed Stan-
ford pulled the upset in the quarter-
finals on its way to a national title.To
win that title, the Cardinal had to
pull out a grueling 4-3 win in the fi-
nals when Burdette rallied for a
three-set win. Stanford’s opponent
in those finals was also Florida, who
advanced yesterday with a 4-0
sweep of No. 6 UCLA.
Today’s final matchup pits the
two best teams in the country
against each other. The No. 2-seed
Gators are actually ranked ahead of
Stanford in the ITA rankings, and
their only loss all season was to the
Cardinal in the finals of February’s
National Team Indoors in Char-
lottesville, Va. Other than that
match, Florida is 30-0, losing multi-
ple points in a dual match just three
times. The Cardinal has gone all 28
matches this season without losing
more than two points, and Stanford
has not lost a dual match since Feb.
26, 2010. That 47-match streak pales
in comparison to the Cardinal’s
home winning streak, though, which
spans 184 matches and over 12 years.
Burdette, who will finish her sec-
ond straight season with a finals
match against the Gators today, said
that last year’s ending will make
today’s match particularly competi-
tive.
“For both teams, I think we all
know each other’s games really well
and how we do things,” she said.
“We know how we want to go out
there and play all those matchups,
the above commenter and want to
spend as much time with your family
as possible,I certainly don’t blame you
and I doubt many others would.
But if you’re a fan with flexible
plans and you don’t mind leaving a day
late and coming back to the Farm a day
early? Watch the Cardinal in person.
The team is going to be pretty good this
year.Might as well join in the fun.
Wyndam Makowsky wants you to
watch Stanford football in person next
year because he can’t.Let him live vic-
ariously through you at makowsky@
stanford.edu.
The Stanford Daily
ZACK HOBERG/The Stanford Daily
woodwork to spend a weekend in
Vegas and watch some college base-
ball. Perhaps the Pac-12 could even
convince AT&T Park, Dodger Sta-
dium, Chase Field in Phoenix or
Safeco Field in Seattle to let the col-
lege kids play a few, yet another en-
ticing option for fans.
With the Pac-12’s new media
deals now set in stone, the confer-
ence has a major opportunity to
bring in new fans and lots of money,
and baseball is the one place where
other conferences are still clearly
ahead of the Pac-12 right now. With
a season-ending tournament,
though, the Pac-12 could quickly
catapult itself onto the national
media stage.Then, instead of watch-
ing SEC baseball all Memorial Day
weekend, fans on the West Coast
and all over the nation would finally
get to see that the Pac-12 has some
of the best baseball the country has
to offer.
Jack Blanchat forgot one MLB stadi-
um in Pac-12 country. Remind this
Rangers fan who has won five of the
last seven AL West titles at blan-
chat@stanford.edu.
so it’s a matter of executing.”
Stanford’s streak will be tested
this afternoon, when Stanford and
Florida clash for the national title.
Doubles play begins at 4 p.m. at
Taube Tennis Center, with singles
play to follow.
Contact Jacob Jaffe at jwjaffe@stan-
ford.edu and Nate Adams at nbadams
@stanford.edu.
FAN FORUM
Continued from page 6
it will also help build up the excite-
ment among the general fans, who
usually take longer to join the
yelling. On the flip side, we should
not start chants when our team is in
the huddle on offense.We have to let
our offense call the play without
having to compete with extra noise.
I don’t expect every fan to have
this football knowledge; it’s the job
of the yell leaders to inform them.
However, the yell leaders have not
been as effective as they could be in
their role — a role that should wield
great power. Often, they do not start
yelling on defense until the opposing
team has broken out of the huddle,
and on offense, they start chants
when we are in the huddle. They
should take a cue from the band (su-
perfans) — they play softly during
the extra point after a touchdown
despite the huge temptation to
cheer.
I believe that employing more ef-
fective means of spreading the super-
fans’ knowledge to the rest of the stu-
dent population is the best way to
create a more mainstream football
culture. A good first step is to have
more effective yell leaders. With the
combination of our swelling fan base
and our tantalizing home schedule
(Notre Dame, Oregon, Washington
and Cal), we are positioned to create
a more hostile environment and
have College Gameday finally re-
turn to the Farm. And with our su-
perfans at the helm, we’ll be ready
for the season.
With a lockout looming over the
NFL, Cyrus Pinto knows that it’s
time to focus on making the most of
Saturday football next season. Swap
superfan strategies with him at cpin-
to@stanford.edu.