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(03/09/16 10:52pm)
By Will Nathan
1. Every other Tuesday
2. Shirts off
3. A drink and a church
4. Atwater dining hack
5. New kids on the block
6. A general and our president
7. THURSDAY!
8. Movies and fistpumps
9. Proctor ______
10. Tiny desk concert
11. Ross mystery
12. King of salad dressing
13. D1
14. WOMPWOMPWOMP
15. RIP ______ House
16. Justin Bieber, eg. migratory birds
17. Atwater ceiling and BiHall Window
18. This Saturday
19. Freshman dorms and that professor
20. “It’s not JV, its ______!”
21. It hangs low
22. Not pizza?
23. “Biddie” dessert
24. Free samples
25. Nonsensical water animal
26. Pond and sculpture
27. Art History department local, abb.
28. _____ Back Mountain
29. Battell and Dunmore
30. A drink and our ex-dean
31. Light beverage and commons dean
32. Number of beers you can fit in a frisbee
33. Allegedly invented here
34. ___-palooza
35. Given at graduation
36. Largest window in Vermont
(03/03/16 12:04am)
Fun fact: Vermont is home to more writers per capita than any other state in the country. Must be all the Frost in the air. Now, as the sun’s warmth makes the campus shed its crystal shell, the wonderful works of those writers emerge to our very own stage, to be performed aloud by your friends and peers.
In the tradition of Public Radio International’s Selected Shorts, six student orators will read selections from the New England Review (NER) literary magazine in this second annual live performance of NER Out Loud, at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 4 at the Mahaney Center for the Arts (MCA). This event combines the masterful language of gripping stories with the animated delivery and performance of public speaking and spoken word.
The excerpts will be followed by a “S’more Readings” reception with the readers and NER staff, along with representatives of several student literary magazines and lots of snacks. Both events are free and open to the public.
This year’s assortment of prose and poetry, carefully chosen from all works published in 2015 by NER, offers a thoughtful medley of topics. For instance, “Forty-Two,” read by Kathleen Gudas ’16.5, intimately conveys the pains of loving a man who is married to someone else. Meanwhile, “High School in Suzhou,” read by Mariah Levin ’16.5, inspects women’s roles across different cultures.
Sally Seitz ’17 reports that the piece she will be reading, “The Red Painter,” depicts “any artist’s struggle to create work and be happy with the work created;” a sentiment that should echo through Middlebury students.
And according to Alexander Burnett ’16, his story, “To Bundle or to Tarry,” is essentially about “bed-sharing in early America … essentially colonial spooning.” It differs from the rest in that it was originally published in 1871 but banned in 1872 because it offended Victorian sensibilities at the time – even though the author, Henry Reed Stiles, was only proving what had been common practice for hundreds of years.
Melanie Rivera ’19 will read “At the Tribunals” by Patrick Rosal, and August Rosenthal ’17 will perform “Eleven Girls” by David Ebenbach.
As someone who is relatively inexperienced with public speaking and definitely frightened by it, I enjoyed the opportunity to ask a few questions to several of this year’s orators.
Middlebury Campus (MC): What do you like about public speaking?
Sally Seitz (SS): “Well, particularly with NER it’s less about public speaking for me, and more about storytelling. It’s rare to get a chance to just sit and hear a story out loud. As students, we are exposed to plenty of written stories, but being told a story orally is a completely different experience and art form.”
Alexander Burnett (AB): “This will be my first performance with Oratory Now, but I did Speech and Debate all throughout high school, so I’ve always enjoyed public speaking. It’s a powerful feeling to command a room.”
MC: Do you ever get anxious before speaking?
Mariah Levin (ML): “To this day, I get nervous before talking in front of people. I think it is just a normal part of being exposed. But, with more experience I know how to calm my nerves and channel the energy to be helpful instead of harmful.”
Kathleen Gudas (KG): “Although I’m a Theatre major, I still get stage fright. I usually deal with my pre-performance anxiety by listening to music and taking deep, low breaths.”
NER Out Loud is the result of a new partnership between the New England Review, the Mahaney Center for the Arts and Oratory Now, the student speech society.
Oratory Now is committed to helping people speak with conviction, sincerity and persuasive power. Members believe that by learning to speak and listen effectively, we can become a more connected and resilient community. In addition to public speaking contests and events like NER Out Loud, Oratory Now also offers workshops and classroom coaching to help hone students’ public speaking skills. Visit go/oratorynow to see upcoming opportunities.
Meanwhile, the New England Review seeks to provide a place outside of mass culture where meticulous craft and steady thought are the norm instead of speed and information overload. The publication accepts submissions year-round in nearly every form of the written word.
Editors and contributors to the student literary magazines Blackbird, Frame, MiddGeo and Translingual will also be on hand at the post-show reception to discuss their publications and give sample readings from their pages.
(03/03/16 12:03am)
In the mind of bandleader Michael League, Snarky Puppy was born out of a passion for jazz. League studied the form and started the band of like-minded musicians at the University of North Texas. The band later transplanted to a base of operations in Brooklyn, N. Y., and has grown in both members and musical dynamism since its debut album in 2006. Lovingly known as “the Fam” to their fans as well as to one another, the rotating 24 plus member group consistently charts unprecedented pathways through funk, with welcome detours into jazz, soul and every turn of music they can handle.
Recorded live, as most of their albums are, in New Orleans, Family Dinner Vol. 2 is a direct descendant of the group’s 2013 album Family Dinner Vol. 1. Assembling a flock of virtuosic musicians and performers, League and company deliver a genre-defying set of music that incorporates both original pieces written by “the Fam” and their guests, as well as inventive takes on already recorded music brought to the table by the visiting performers. Family Dinner is an apt name for the album, for it has the feel of a meal prepared by many hands that somehow manages to hit each distinct flavor of music without spoiling your appetite for the next course.
The album begins with “I Asked,” which features American folk and jazz singer Becca Stevens, as well as members of the Swedish folk band Väsen. It begins as a chiefly acoustic track that features Stevens’ voice, but after four minutes it evolves into an atmospheric bit of prog rock, with a sparse electronic and percussive instrumentation overlaid with vocals that border on chants. It is arguably the weakest installment on the album, but if nothing else it reinforces the risk-taking tendencies of a group that is willing to do anything, as long as they have never done it before.
Latin rock and salsa infused “Molino Molero” follows this up, and with guest turns by legendary singer-songwriter Susana Baca and guitarist Charlie Hunter, the song is infectiously good-natured. Baca’s voice is perfectly backed by the instrumentalists, and when she cedes the floor to Hunter the arrangement puts his playing on full display. Hunter dances through a nearly two-minute solo that feels right out of any of Carlos Santana’s best work, which crescendos to bring back Baca and the rest of the band for the end of the song. It works as an ideal segway into the upbeat tone of the majority of the album.
With another 180-degree twist, “Liquid Love” is an overhauling of guest singer Chris Turner’s soulful rocker. “The Fam” gives center stage to Turner and his back-up singers, but also serves as a proper introduction to the stellar horns sections Snarky Puppy is blessed with. Turner turns in a vocal performance that is dripping with sultry tone, and even though the song goes on a bit too long when all is said and done, the song builds well on the energy and fun of “Molino Molero.”
Not content to settle into soul and stay there, “Soro (Afriki)” provides a dramatic shift in tone from the closing notes of “Liquid Love.” It features guest vocals from Salif Keita, a singer-songwriter from Mali known as “the Golden Voice of Africa,” as well as solos from South American musicians Bernardo Aguiar on drums, and Carlos Malta on flute. Snarky Puppy delves further into the world music genre. It opens with Malta’s solo, and gives way to Keita and a contingent of back-up singers who blend traditional African music with the jazz provided by “the Fam.” The piece as a whole possesses a highly cinematic quality. It moves through different tones and modes in a narrative fashion, presenting distinct segments of sound that would not be out of place backing a Quentin Tarantino movie.
“Sing to the Moon” harkens back to the soul of “Liquid Love,” but while Turner focused on a sexy soul, Laura Mvula, who here provides a powerhouse vocal on a reinterpretation of her song, settles into a slow build performance that is haunting in its beauty. As the song progresses, it builds from minimal instrumentation that evokes the quiet moonlit that Mvula sings of, and bursts forth into a passionate crescendo with all hands on deck. It is easily a highlight of the album that shows how much can be done with so little when a song is in the hands of master craft musicians.
The last three songs of the album, “Don’t You Know,” “I Remember” and “Somebody Home” are a trio of pieces that bring the musical works full circle. “Don’t You Know” features English prodigy Jacob Collier on a piano part that ebbs back and forth equal parts Duke Ellington and Maurice Ravel. “I Remember” sees American electronic duo KNOWER channeling their inner Michael Jackson with saxophonist Jeff Coffin bringing out the best in the horns section with his animated playing. After these two pieces centered on crackling performances of pure musical energy and camaraderie, “Somebody Home” revisits the folk introduced on the first track, but this time in a much quieter fashion celebrating a man who has been in the business for decades: David Crosby.
“Somebody Home” is Crosby’s, and he takes a minute to introduce the song, joking with the audience and talking with the band. What follows is the most reserved performance on the album. Much of the song is solely Crosby on acoustic guitar. When Snarky Puppy does join, they do so with a tenderness that showcases their ability to go from bombastic to gentle seamlessly. While many bands may be tempted to send an album out on an energetic piece, “the Fam” sees an opportunity to slow down and enjoy a performance with another legend.
As a whole piece of art, Family Dinner Vol. 2 displays a group that celebrates musicians of the past and future that all bring a distinct and celebratory tone of creation to a group devoted to the exploration of the craft. The sprawling instrumental sections may not be the most accessible music on the market, but for those who will take the time to sink into it, there are many rewarding moments.
(12/10/15 2:17am)
Well here it is, the final issue of the semester. And just like that you no longer have time to do all of those things you said you were going to do. So much for getting your life together. The time is approaching to escape with your sanity, that remaining portion of your dignity and whatever a night of cramming all the readings you “forgot to do” can get you on your exams.
This semester I feel as if I’ve covered all of the issues that needed discussing, totally no exaggeration.
I’ve covered the ever-pressing topics of vegan riblets, Ross smoothies, Battell Bathtubs, BannerWeb and many other undeniable priorities of Middlebury College life.
Ok, but in all honesty, how is my column still a thing?
To quote the always wise Bob and Bob from Office Space, “What would you say you do here?” Well to be totally honest, I have no idea. I guess I write 500 words a week, so there’s that.
I spend every column venting about minor inconveniences that in no way actually matter. Does it matter that the mailboxes are a little bit finicky? Not at all. Do you have to eat the vegan riblets? Nope. And I mean really, have you ever had to take a bath in Battell? I sure hope not… If you did, then please report back that you are, in fact, still alive.
My theme isn’t even original. I stole it shamelessly from the writers of Last Week Tonight. You would think that I could have at least come up with a significantly different title than John Oliver’s “How Is It Still a Thing,” but no. As I stated in the first column of the year, I prefer to think of myself as efficient rather than lazy, so I just threw Midd in there and called it a day. Brilliant. So much for creativity!
If you did, in fact, ride it out and read all of my columns (I’m looking at you, Mom), thanks and congrats.
You have made it through over 5,500 words of a mediocre satirical column that has a strange obsession with arbitrary percentages and references to mediocre movies forgotten by 67 percent of their viewers within one week of watching. (Pro tip: check out the 2006 animated film Barnyard, starring the illustrious Kevin James as a bull with udders, for an example.)
I’m going abroad in the spring, so the quality of writing and reporting in this paper is going way up.
But before I do so, I will bring the maturity of the Campus back down to a middle school level one time during J-term when the car column makes its triumphant return for one last GLaurie Ride. That’s right, in a rare lapse of judgment, President Patton has agreed to drive with me to McDonald’s. It will be the pinnacle of my journalistic career. Stay tuned.
(11/12/15 12:11am)
I recently read Heinrich von Kleist’s short essay, “On the Marionette Theatre,” in which he recounts a conversation with a dancer friend, known as Mr. C. To von Kleist’s surprise, Mr. C expresses delight in watching marionettes. Von Kleist “had regarded the handling of marionettes as something rather spiritless, approximate to the turning of the crank that plays a hand organ.” On the contrary, Mr. C responds that these puppets have much to teach us about grace and elegance. Indeed, they typify the standard of grace to which human dancers strive. Marionettes, according to Mr. C, have two advantages. First, its appendages follow the center of gravity in pure ellipses: “the limbs … are what they ought to be: dead, mere pendula.” Second, they are unbound by gravity. They need only pause briefly on the earth, whereas humans are inescapably stuck on the ground: “we need the earth: for rest, for repose from the effort of the dance…and we can do no better than disguise our moments of rest as much as possible.” Von Kleist still resisted the idea that a doll could dance more gracefully than a human. Mr. C replied: “It is simply impossible for a human being to reach the grace of the jointed doll. Only a god can duel with matter on this level, and it as this point that the two ends of the ring-formed world grasp each other.”
(11/04/15 11:40pm)
When Dr. Richard Ostfeld, a senior scientist at the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies, asked the audience in McCardell BiCentennial Hall if they or someone they knew had ever been diagnosed with Lyme disease, over two-thirds raised their hands. This should come as no shock: With over 300,000 diagnosed cases per year, Lyme disease is the second most prevalent disease in the northeastern United States. What may be surprising, however, is how poorly Lyme disease is understood. Dr. Ostfeld is hoping to change this. On Friday, Oct. 30, he took part in the College’s George B. Saul Lecture Series to share his unique perspective on the disease and methods to combat its spread.
The number of reported cases of Lyme disease has grown from a few hundred a year to a few hundred thousand, and even that number is believed to be an underestimate. Dr. Ostfeld has devoted his research to investigating the ecological factors that influence the spread of Lyme disease. He has concluded that the conventional understanding of Lyme disease is woefully underdeveloped and should be replaced with a new paradigm that considers the diversity of species that are responsible.
There exist three stages in tick development: the larval stage, the nymphal stage and the adult stage. Lyme disease cannot be transmitted from parents to their progeny; thus, when a tick is born, it is not infected with the pathogen. As such, it is critical to look at the first host a larval tick feeds on, for it is here that it risks acquiring the pathogen. Ticks transmit the disease in their nymphal stage, when they feed on their second host. Conventional wisdom supports the idea that there is a relationship between the white tail deer population, a primary tick host, and the number of nymphal ticks infected with the pathogen, but several recent studies have challenged this paradigm.
One of these studies, as described by Dr. Ostfeld, occurred on Mohegan Island off the coast of Maine. Over the course of a few years, the people of the island hunted the deer population to zero. It was observed that the tick larvae population was also driven down to near zero. A second study took place in Cranes Beach, Massachusetts. In this scenario, when the deer population was driven to zero, the nymphal tick population also decreased – but after a certain point, it began to increase again, almost reaching its initial size. The primary difference between these two studies is that Mohegan Island housed no other possible carriers of the pathogen, while Cranes Beach was much more biologically diverse. This has led Dr. Ostfeld to conclude that species other than the white tail deer influence the size of the tick population.
In order to better understand how other mammals help spread Lyme disease, it is necessary to first recognize that some animals serve as better hosts for ticks than others. There are two types of hosts: amplifying hosts, which are great hosts for ticks, and protecting hosts, which effectively kill ticks that try to feed on them. Field studies by Dr. Ostfeld showed that the three most important reservoirs for Lyme disease are the white-footed mouse, the short tailed shrew and the eastern chipmunk. About half of the larval ticks that feed on an infected mouse survive to the nymphal stage. In comparison, the opossum is one of the best diluting species, and only 3.5 percent of ticks that feed on opossums survive to the next developmental stage. In fact, the average opossum kills about 5,600 ticks per week. These are important factors to consider when assessing the size of the tick population.
Dr. Ostfeld outlined a number of steps that can be taken to decrease the population of smaller mammals, which act as better reservoirs for infected nymphal ticks. As a forested area becomes smaller due to development and fragmentation, diversity decreases, and the community tends to become dominated by smaller mammals. Larger forested areas can support larger, predatory mammals, which have been found to suppress the tick borne disease risk. There are also certain types of fungi that act as naturally occurring pesticides against ticks, providing a more natural alternative to traditional, chemical-based tick deterrents. Places in which these fungi have been used have seen a 70 to 90 percent reduction in tick population.
While we have become better at preventing Lyme disease, it still remains one of the most rampant emerging infectious diseases in North America. Until future scientists develop a vaccine, it is advised that one wear appropriate clothing and check oneself for tickets after spending time outdoors.
(10/21/15 8:43pm)
Every culture, no matter what country or government, develops traits that distinguish the socially privileged from the impoverished. Usually, they’re ridiculous societal quirks. Cars in Manhattan are a fantastic example. You neither need nor benefit from one, which means you’re driving to show something. Implicitly, you’re screaming to the world that you 1) have time to wait on infested streets honking your horn incessantly and 2) have enough money to invest in a useless chunk of steel that has no utility where you live. Another good example are fur coats in Moscow, where noses mysteriously upturn at anyone who isn’t wearing a dead animal around their neck.
In Las Vegas, I encountered this in stark clarity. The status symbol of the Nevadan bourgeoisie isn’t an expensive car, nor is it a luxurious fur coat. It’s membership in the Literary Society, an aggrandized book club. They meet in whatever ritzy venue they desire and discuss their chosen prose, inviting the author to share a gourmet “brunch.” They also invite (for philanthropic reasons, I assume) local English teachers and their students. I was one of those students last January. I remember wealth, lots of it, worn on the necks of lawyers and casinocrats. Many appeared bloated with botox and hairspray. None of them really struck me as especially intriguing, except one – the invited author. He was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with extroverted confidence, an easy grin and a book called “Deep Dark Down: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle that set Them Free.” His name was Hector Tobar.
It’s safe to imagine that the 33 Chilean miners don’t possess the status symbols of their society. I doubt they had excessive cars or extravagant fur coats in their ten-week vacation in Hades, either. Their narrative is one the world has forgotten. In 2010, a few months after an earth-shattering quake, the San Jose copper-gold mine in the Atacama Desert collapsed on them. Their supervisor – who probably does have an excessive car and extravagant fur coat or two – happened to be absent. They were trapped in the abyss for sixty-nine days. Everything was darkness, literally and metaphorically. The only light was the fire of fear that seared their brains with every grumble of the cavern.
In the words of Jose Ojeda: “we were a pack of sheep, and the mountain was about to eat us.” And that trauma understandably bled into the sunlight and the “good” years that have passed since. One, for example, washed up drunk and suicidal enough to confine him to a Santiago psychiatric ward.
For a group as celebritized as the miners, you would think they would have been offered the best psychological assistance available on Earth.
They sure were buried in mountains of other stuff. They were offered planned trips – although most ended up not happening – to Britain, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Spain and Greece and a new motorcycle from Kawasaki Chile. As noted in El Segundo, each miner was promised approximately 19 million pesos ($38,000) in “vacations, clothing, and donations.” Not only did they not receive major psychological help, they also were skimped that compensation.
A CNN article published in August pointed out that “today, many of the miners have trouble making ends meet, some living off of government pension, which pays about $500 a month. That’s roughly half of what they made working at the San Jose mine.”
Others have returned to mining. Hector Tobar’s transcription of one victim’s story, Luis Urzua, is heart-wrenching: “to have one mine fall on top of you, and then to find yourself obliged to work underground in a second mine, with the same boss who once left you behind” is the “life of a miner.” A few years ago, we were the ones who lauded them with gifts and celebrity that most of them publicly stated they didn’t want.
We treated them like the Kardashians. Then we threw them out, back into normalcy, back into the mines.
But there’s still hope. If you go into town, to the Marquis Theater, the first poster you’ll see advertises “The 33” for November 13th.
It’s a movie adaptation of the Chilean miners’ story, starring Antonio Banderas. At the Literary Society meeting, Tobar specifically pointed out that ticket sales transitively fund the miners. The movie is a charity. And that’s great. . . until you think about it more deeply. While the miners themselves cycle through traumatic depression and impoverished wages, we in the First World can garble popcorn and watch portrayals of their suffering on gigantic silver screens. It’s exploitative, but it’s their last hope.
It’s their last possible way of reaping compensation for the tragedy that they experienced.
For this reason, I urge readers to book a ticket for November 13th.
Don’t come away from this article thinking the exploitation entitles you to skip it. You have the privilege to skip the portrayal of the miners’ suffering, but they don’t. They’re living it; they’re experiencing it right now.
Let’s make “The 33” sell out.
(10/07/15 11:27pm)
A Place Called Winter is a tale of heartbreaking hardship, a book that seems to combine Pride and Prejudice with E.M Forsters’ Maurice, against the backdrop of the 1908 settlement of Winter, Saskatchewan, Canada – which is, in fact, a real place.
Protagonist Harry Cane’s adventure is loosely based on the experience of author Patrick Gale’s own great-grandfather, who was mysteriously banished from England, leaving his wife and young child behind to face the wilderness of Canada alone.
Nothing could seem more unrealistic, perhaps, than a married man who would decide to leave his young child and private income in England in order to sail toward a life full of hardship and uncertainty in Canada. By the time Harry boards the immigrant ship, however, Gale has established his character with precise, economical strokes.
Harry is apt to stammer and feels constrained by everything that is expected of him. What changes his life utterly is the realization that he loves men, in an era where homosexual acts are punishable by law and met with social disgrace. Harry meets Mr. Browning, and soon after they begin a sexual relationship, a relation of love and passion through Harry’s eyes. Yet when a blackmailer exposes their relationship, Harry is told by his wife’s family to remove himself from his wife, child and country.
Gale retraced Harry’s steps while writing the novel.
“I spent three months there, and although Winter is a ghost town now, I had the coordinates for Harry’s farm, so I was able to track it down precisely. I found it terribly moving that his acres were still being ploughed,” Gale said.
The opening scene of A Place Called Winter takes place in a Canadian psychiatric hospital, where Harry’s sessions of hypnotic therapy reveal the events that led up to that moment. According to Gale, “the challenge was to inhabit homosexual life in a time when there are no words to describe any of the things the character feels or does. It is quite literally a story about the unspeakable.”
The classic story of a man finding himself through labor on his own land is derailed almost as soon as it begins to take shape. Harry is pursued by a nightmarish figure by the name of Troels Munck. This virtually fairytale villain has a knack for spotting weakness in others, a superb animal instinct and a prowling capability for destruction. Unvexed by any concept of mortality, he haunts Harry’s career as a homesteader.
And yet through Troels, Harry finds both great happiness and a neighbor whom he comes to love. Critics have highlighted compassion as one of the uniting qualities in Gale’s fiction, but I am still surprised by Harry’s willingness to see past Troels’ brutality.
“Munck is probably a psychopath,” Gale explained, “but my difficulty with writing a negative character is that, in the course of the book, I come to understand some of their behavior and at least halfway forgive them.”
A Place Called Winter neither resolves itself nor offers a closed ending, but it does offer hope that emotional truth and loyalty to that truth may be a way forward for Harry. Through his struggles, he transforms into an intensely sympathetic character. Harry’s tale reflects the experiences of many – the myriad hidden members of society, shunned by their families, their stories stained with shame. This fascinating novel is their requiem.
(09/30/15 9:39pm)
I have to preface my article with the disclaimer that I did not know Nathan personally.
(09/24/15 1:22am)
“Guys! Look! The onion root tips… they’re making sister chromatids!” Thrilled that the way we had pressed cells onto glass slides had recreated DNA replication across an arrangement of cells, I stepped back from the microscope and made room for the other T.A’s to gather around. By chance, the cells had arranged themselves like sister chromatids, part of a phase of DNA replication that could have been happening inside any one of them at that moment. I felt the urge to hum the Inception soundtrack (Cell-ception!) under my breath. “Or… maybe they’re more like a skull and crossbones,” I conceded, reexamining the blood-red blocks.
That is the Middlebury Science program for me. While some people lie on Battell Beach and find unicorns and pirate ships whilst cloud-watching, I, apparently — as a Neuroscience major and resident of Bicentennial Hall (a.k.a. “I’ll take my mail forwarded to the lab at the end of the hall, please, and while you’re at it, please bring sandwiches and reinforcements, and maybe a toothbrush; it’s going to be a long night”) — have opted for interpreting shapes in slightly more academic substances. Between professors who give extra credit for writing songs about the parts and functions of the human brain and the semester in which I colored the human nervous system with scented Mr. Sketch markers (heavy on the cherry) and it counted as homework, I have clearly been conditioned to look for an intersection between the sciences and arts.
I have been lucky to have science as play in my life for a while now. Pre-college years included making DNA helixes out of licorice and rainbow-colored marshmallows (“Adenine’s red, thymine’s green, guanine’s orange and cytosine’s blue… now, match the complementary colors!”), tying together neurons out of beads from internet patterns and writing and illustrating similes for the function of the components in an animal cell (“The cell is like a castle: the nucleus is the king, the cell membrane is the moat, the cytoskeleton is the brick and mortar of castle walls,” and so forth). I am not alone in exploring intersections and overlaps of art and science, and if you hear yourself in these stories, you are not either. Recently, I spent some time browsing through The Scientist Magazine’s website, where I learned about an artistic trend called “Neuroaesthetics.” A movement called “STEM to STEAM,” which advocates for the addition of Art and Design to the “Science, Technology, Engineering and Math” core for innovation in the United States, also appears to be gaining momentum.
Of course, one does not even have to leave campus to find people who express love for science and art equally. I knew I would like Associate in Science instruction Susan DeSimone when, during our first class my freshman year, she appeared in a rainbow tie-dye lab coat and left slightly early to go deliver singing Valentines with her choir group, dressed in all pink. I got to know her over the subsequent semesters as her teaching assistant. As an instructor of the laboratory sections of Cellular Biology and Genetics, Professor DeSimone hopes to take a leave in the coming years to sail with her husband down to the Caribbean bringing microscopes to people who have never had the chance to look through one. She intends to share these microscopic images of nature, with the goal of illuminating the world that cannot be seen with just the naked eye. Indeed, in the classroom setting here at the College, Professor DeSimone makes a point to highlight to incoming students that she views the laboratory as her playground. She wants to methodically cultivate a level of comfort in students that allows for them to experience science in an equally playful way.
Professor DeSimone’s enthusiasm proved to be contagious. One of her former students, Ariele Faber ’13, graduated from Middlebury and went on to combine her fascination with science and passion for art in launching her own company, Cerebella Design. Inspired by the colors, patterns and textures of ordinary things magnified to a scale far larger than we can normally see, Cerebella seeks to promote the accessibility of science to the general population in a visually appealing way. Ariele’s company sells bowties, neckties and scarves with patterns based on microscope images of, for instance, human windpipe cartilage rings and whale skin.
Passerby: “Hey! Nice bowtie!”
Cerebella Consumer: “Thanks! You see these red and pink circles? They’re actually starfish eggs, mega-magnified!”
Passerby: “Oh, wow!” or “Um… eww…”
Cerebella consumer: “That’s right, stand back. I WEAR SCIENCE.”
Made aware of Cerebella and its mission early in my Middlebury career, I carried Areiele’s appreciation of the science aesthetic in the back of my mind into my summer internship. Part of my summer was spent doing neuroscience Alzheimer’s research in the lab of Dr. Sylvain Lesné at the University of Minnesota, and a big part of my work included imaging and analyzing tissue slides. I could not help but interpret the images not just for their scientific value, but also for the potential of bright and visually-appealing textile patterns. Though disappointed with the botched results of the first round of staining and dying neurofibrillary tangles and tau proteins in crepe-paper-thin mouse brain sections, I ended up submitting the image to Ariele’s company. To me, it was powerful that beauty could be found in the intersection of pathology and imperfect science. Who knows, maybe in the next year we will be able to purchase bowties, neckties and scarves with that very pattern — because come on, who wouldn’t want to wear degenerative mouse neurons around his or her neck?
So, dear Middlebury, as we hoist our sails, gather our microscopes and glide into another academic year, it is my hope to remember that being a college student does not necessarily equate to taking oneself, or one’s classroom experience, too seriously. Seek to learn, of course, but don’t let that make you forget to play. Equal pleasure can be derived from cloud-watching outside on the grass and onion-gazing in the fourth floor laboratory. Really, it is just micro- and macroscopic manifestations of the same thing.
(09/24/15 1:17am)
The first Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival (MNFF) was held this summer and ran from August 27-30. MNFF is tailored for new filmmakers, the underdogs of the film industry. The festival only accepts the first and second films of new filmmakers. MNFF received over 300 film submissions, of which 90 were shown. The films represented 15 countries, and Middlebury alumni produced five of the films.
It’s difficult for new filmmakers with limited resources and connections to break into the film industry, and the festival’s aim is to increase their exposure. Kyla Jarret ’14 was one of the principal organizers of MNFF and thought that its success was due to finding an important untapped niche.
“We were told that the standard number of films submitted to a new film festival is about 100, but we received over 300,” Jarret said. “We discovered that we hit a groove that other people hadn’t thought of, and that we appealed to more people than we anticipated. Other film festivals don’t take any time for new filmmakers, and our goal was the opposite of that, to try and make it about the filmmakers. We were bogged down by submissions.”
The first MNFF was the result of more than 18 months of planning. Lloyd Komesar, a former distribution executive at Walt Disney, is the head of MNFF and came up with the idea for the festival.
“I volunteered at the first Pasadena festival in California,” Komesar said. “Several of the films were by first time film-makers, and I thought that was a good element. It struck me that it’s hard for new filmmakers to get recognition because they’re mixed in with established filmmakers. I thought why don’t we dedicate a festival to completely new filmmakers, so that they’re competing on with folks at the same stage?”
Komesar spends half the year in Middlebury and thought its strong cultural base with the Town Hall Theater and the College was ideal for a film festival. Middlebury’s rural location proved to be both an asset and, at times, a challenge. Most problematic was the transportation and housing of filmmakers. More than 40 filmmakers attended the event, and they were placed with local families. But Phoebe Lewis, the Press Associate of MNFF, thought that the size and remoteness of Middlebury was important for the event’s success.
“I would say there were more benefits to holding a festival in Vermont than drawbacks,” Lewis said. “The community really came alive and gave the festival that extra spark. It was the biggest perk of creating a film festival in such a small area, and I can confidently say that without the amazing Middlebury community and their incredible support, this event would not have been nearly as energetic and memorable as it was.”
Films were shown in Dana Auditorium, the Marquette Theater and the Town Hall Theater. Four feature films and seven short films won the festival’s VTeddy award. Winners received a Vermont teddy bear and will be taken on a New England circuit and shown in theaters in each New England state.
Jay Craven was the artistic director of the festival. Craven is an independent filmmaker based in Vermont and has shown his films in over 1,000 towns across the state. He was in charge of film submission screening. The only requisite for film submission was that the films were first or second films of new filmmakers. The movies spanned multiple genres including documentary, drama, animation, horror and comedy.
One of the award winning films, Sound and the Shadow, is about an eccentric recluse that secretly records his neighborhood. He’s brought out of isolation by his neighbor, who urges him to use his audio documentation to help solve the disappearance of a girl in the neighborhood.
“The Sound and the Shadow is an interesting concept and an incredibly powerful film,” Jarret said. “That’s what would astound me about these first time filmmakers, is that they would present the most complete projects. Color correcting is even perfect on this film.”
Another award-winning film, My Gal, Rosemarie, follows a day in the life of Rosemarie and Ray. Barely able to subsist on social security checks, the two collect cans to save up money for Rosemarie’s 90th birthday wish to go to In-N-Out for hamburgers.
The Sound and Shadow, My Gal, Rosmerie, and the short film Stunned will all be shown at the Town Hall Theater on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. for an admission price of $10. This Tuesday, Sept. 29, three documentaries including the award winning film Omo Child: the Sound and the River will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall Theater.
Komesar hopes the festival will continue strong into the future and provide an important venue for aspiring new filmmakers.
“What we can do here is create a festival with recognition where quality new filmmakers show their films. I don’t know that there are other festivals that do this in a concrete way. It’s something we feel strongly about. There will always be new filmmakers, and we feel like they need a break.”
(09/24/15 12:07am)
Over 2,000 people turned out this past Saturday for Shelburne Farms’ 37th Annual Harvest Festival, a jubilee of food, music, animals and crafts.
The festival, located on a 1,300 acre farm off the eastern coast of Lake Champlain, is a unique opportunity for small business owners to advertise their foods, artisans to peddle their wares for charitable organizations and non-profits to reach out to a receptive audience.
The crowd ranged from young toddlers and their parents to college-aged students. Many Middlebury students attended the festival for the first time.
“I’ve never actually been to Shelburne Farms, and this is a great way to see it,” Denise Chan ’16 said.
By the entrance, dozens of round hay bales were arranged on their sides, creating a maze for the adventurous toddler. Young children raced through it, climbing and jumping across the bales. Others raced to the top of the highest bale of hay to claim the title of ‘king’ or ‘queen’ of the mountain.
Nearby, miniature horses pulled two- or three-seater chariots in circles around an enclosed grassy area. The constant rhythmic music of an Abenaki drumming circle drifted over the entire celebration.
Up a grassy hill to the right, the ‘Farm Barn’ surrounded a two acre courtyard of food vendors, performers and craft vendors. The name Farm Barn is a misnomer for the sprawling multi-floored complex at Shelburne Farms. The building rises five stories high, has three pointed turrets and encloses the courtyard with imposing Medieval-looking stone walls.
Inside the Farm Barn were even more stands and attractions. One of the most popular of the rooms was specifically devoted to cheeses and jams.
Tom Bivin, Executive Director of the Vermont Cheese Council, chatted with the patrons as he carved out samples of four local cheeses: Parish Hill Humble Herdsman, Ascutney mountain cheese, a savage from the Von Trapp family farmstead and a Bayley Hazen blue cheese from the cellars of Jasper Hill.
“Our goal is to introduce people to as many cheeses as possible,” he explained to a local writer. “Shelburne Farms is really one of the great cheese companies in the state, and they do so many other things. They’re very supportive of the rest of the cheese community.”
“I think most people haven’t had a really good quality cheese, so it’s always a surprise,” he continued.
Sonia Rivadeneira, originally from Ecuador, was there to advertise her homemade salsa, appropriately named Sonia’s Salsa. The salsa is also preservative free.
“We have a big batch of salsa made in our neighbor’s house, because he has a commercial kitchen,” she explained.
Sonia sells her product at the co-op in downtown Middlebury which she says is “very happy to carry [it].”
The room was quite popular among the Middlebury College attendees; at one point in the afternoon, it was nearly entirely Middlebury students.
Just outside the room full of cheese samples, Laura MacLachlan, an Energy Educator from Vermont Energy Education Program (VEEP), sat at a table representing VEEP.
“VEEP is hands on energy literacy,” MacLachlan explained. “We bring equipment to schools so we can increase education on energy. We do it all the way from explaining wind with pinwheels, and how to catch the wind, all the way up to, we have curriculum units on understanding how photovoltaics work.” MacLachlan thinks that VEEP is an effective educational approach because it is hands on.
“This is all engineering,” she said. “This is where we’re trying to promote the next generation of scientists vis-a-vis this engineering. They’re getting into how to make it work.”
The Green Mountain Wood Carvers, a group of artists from across the state, displayed intricately carved sculptures of birds, hunters and other nature-inspired subjects. Bob Lindemann, the head of the group, has been carving for over 40 years. “I haven’t really found anything I can’t [carve]. It’s one of those things that you decide you want to carve something, and you just start carving it.”
Although many of the sculptures were for sale, that was not necessarily the reason the group was there.
“We’re just here to promote wood carving,” Lindemann explained. “Some people will sell their work, but others are just here to get people interested in trying their hand at woodcarving.”
He explained the process of carving the wood, which is often a light wood like butternut or basswood.
“It starts as a drawing, we cut out a blank. Sometimes you just start with a big chunk, bandsaw. Then you just start taking wood away.”
After walking around for a while, it was hard to miss the attendees – mostly college aged – wearing crowns of leaves on their heads. By the stone wall at the edge of the courtyard, there was a pile of brush and several pairs of hedge clippers – all the necessary ingredients to make your own crown of greenery.
In the middle of the courtyard, dozens of people stood in line for roasted corn on the cob, cooked on a grill in its husk. The smell of the corn filled the rest of the courtyard where all the other food vendors were set up.
One tent, Theo’s Maple Lemonade, had a constant line of customers. The owner of the stand said that putting maple syrup in lemonade was originally his 5-year-old son’s idea. At first he thought it sounded bad, but he gave it a try and it sold out the first time he brought it to the Burlington Farmer’s Market. At the harvest festival, they sold over 1,000 cups of lemonade in four hours.
Caterers from the Shelburne Farms Inn grilled hamburgers and sold other foods. One cook said it took six months for them to prepare for this day when they sold approximately 800 hamburgers at the festival.
Two performance tents were set up at opposite ends of the courtyard, once with musical performances and the other with different kinds of acts, such as acrobatics and juggling. Children squealed in delight and horror as one man mounted a heightened unicycle.
“We have to go,” one mother insisted to her child, as the entertainer began the second part of his act.
“Mom! as soon as he finishes this,” the child replied.
The child, like the rest of us, can take solace in the fact that the harvest will be back again next Fall, even if that is a long time to wait.
(09/17/15 11:52pm)
Hard sciences might not be the first association most people make with Middlebury College. But the critical thinking and spirit of discovery that the liberal arts curriculum seeks to promote are well in line with the skills needed to operate in a real-world laboratory setting. This summer, many students put their in-classroom training to the test as they took on research positions both on- and off-campus. Covering a diverse range of topics, three students’ summers of sci- ence all culminated in positive affirmations about their academic paths — as well as contributed to an ever-growing field of study on human health.
Eliza Jaeger ’17 worked as a research assistant for Associate Professor of Biology Mark Spritzer. Her team included Leslie Panella ’15.5, Erin Miller ’16.5 and Lauren Honican ’15, who is working post-grad as a lab technician. Professor Spritzer’s research centers on neuroendocrinology, the pathways and effects of hormones in the brain. Over the course of ten weeks, Jaeger studied the effects of primary sex hormones (in this case, testosterone and estradiol) in rodent brains on the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. One project aimed to determine whether varying levels of testosterone in aged male rats causes them to be better at completing spatial memory tasks. The results of this pilot study showed that higher concentrations of testosterone tend to correlate with better spatial memory.
Why is this research relevant? Because the decreases that humans see in primary sex hormones (testosterone and estradiol) are possibly correlated with age-related cognitive decline. By studying the effects of replacing these hormones in aged rodents, this type of research could lead to valuable insights on the relationship between changes in neuroendocrinology and aging.
From castration surgeries to counting brain cells in sectioned tissue, dealing with rodents in the laboratory had no shortage of challenges.
“Working with animals is one of the greatest privileges I’ve had at Middlebury, and it does not come without re- sponsibility. Because we were working with live animals, someone always had to come in on weekends to check on the ani- mals, and make sure food was rationed correctly and injections were administered on time,” Jaeger said. “I would say I have enormous respect and gratitude for the animals that we use in our experiments, and that working with them was a great but challenging experience.”
With hopes of earning a graduate degree in evolutionary neuroscience, Jaeger felt that her intense laboratory experience this summer helped to reinforce her resolve in her academic career. She plans to continue her research in the fall and spring semesters with Professor Spritzer, as well as write a research thesis during her senior year.
Meanwhile this summer, just a few rooms over inside Bicentennial Hall, Muriel Lavallee ’18 served as a research assistant for Professor Catherine Combelles in the department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. She worked alongside five other Middlebury students, Thilan Tudor ’16, Katherine Kucharzyck ’16, Madsy Schneider ’16, Julie Erlich ’17.5, Jennie Mejaes ’16 and a recent alum and a post-doctorate who will take on Professor Combelles’ responsibilities while she is on sabbatical in France dur- ing the school year. Over the course of eight weeks, the team aimed to uncover the ways in which endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in plastics (such as BPA and BPS) impact fertility and reproduction. Whether we realize it or not, we are surrounded by harmful substances. Many plastics with ‘BPA-free’ labels actually contain some BPS, and we constantly absorb these chemicals through our skin or ingest them from the plastics we use to hold our food and drinks.
“Being able to focus on this research for eight weeks in the summer was a unique opportunity and I’ve been exposed to so much,” Lavalle said. “Professor Combelles is brilliant and she has put together a lab that is collaborative and exciting to be a part of.”
Lavallee worked on folliculogenesis, the process in which ovarian follicles develop and secrete a mature egg. Women are born with a limited reserve of ovarian follicles, and current fertility tests use ultrasound to detect a progressed type of follicle, called the antral follicle, which is used as an indicator of the total number of microscopic primordial follicles in the ovarian reserve. Lavallee investigated granulosa cells, which surround oocytes in antral follicles and secrete hormones essential for oocyte development. The project holds important implication for our understanding of human fertility and the life cycle, and she plans to continue her work into the school year.
As Jaeger and Lavallee experimented with follicles, chemicals and rodents galore on campus, Kenzie Yedlin ’18 was hard at work on her own scientific endeavors on the other side of the country. Stationed at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Yedlin participated in a Summer Undergraduate Research Fel- lowship (SURF) in the department of pharmacology and toxicology. The goal of her lab team was to find a more effective treatment for triple negative breast cancer. Also known as TNBC, the disease accounts for 12-24 percent of breast cancer. Because it affects breast cancer cells that lack the three common receptors that other breast cancers drugs target, TNBC is more difficult to treat.
Yedlin and her team hypothesized that pretreatment of triple negative breast cancer cells with natural products would increase the potency of doxorubicin — a prescription drug that treats many types of cancers — allowing for the administration of a lower and less toxic dosage. Their project examined 16 different natural products from Papua New Guinea, a small island that accounts for six percent of Earth’s biodiversity.
An aspiring neuroscience major, Yedlin found the transition from college courses to real-world lab work to be somewhat overwhelming at first.
“I knew how to pipette, I knew how to measure things,” she explained. “We used some of the same tools, but often in different ways. It’s a completely different environment because at school you’re doing very specific things following very specific procedures, whereas at the lab you have to create your own procedure. Even though I knew how to pipette, I didn’t know why we were pipetting, or how to do it in a certain progression. The hardest part was feeling comfortable.”
By the end of the eight-week program, however, Yedlin expressed appreciation for the nitty-gritty of the hands-on research process, as she had achieved a deep familiarity with the tools and people around her.
“The stereotypical view of a science lab or science in general is that it’s very cutting edge and that it’s kind of a tough world. And it is, but it was nice to find a niche where there were really down-to-earth people, where mistakes were allowed,” she said, recounting incidents in which she accidentally damaged lab equipment on her first and last days on the job.
Back at the College, Jaeger experienced a similar sense of connection with her peers and her work. Despite any initial frustration, the care and precision she devoted to her lab project ultimately yielded great rewards.
“During one of my first intense cell-counting days, I was becoming discouraged by the monotony of counting small dark cells in rat neural tissue, when I came across what was unmistakably a mature neuron, complete with defined soma and dendrites. I remember that it really hit me then that I was looking at real brain tissue under a microscope,” Jaeger recounted of one of her most revelatory moments. “I called one of my lab mates over to look at the neuron, and we both got really excited. I remember this nerdy moment fondly, because it reminds me that there are people out there who 100 percent share my enthusiasm for the brain and all its mysteries, and that I can study it for the rest of my life if I want to.”
“We’re doing something that matters,” Lavallee added. “I’m so thankful for this experience and excited to continue this work during the upcoming school year.”
(05/06/15 9:19pm)
Preface: I love my city. But in trying to unpack the events that have unfolded over the past two weeks, I have at times been guilty of focusing on symptoms more than chronic problems. I have been guilty of chastising rioters, while those who are culpable of much more heinous crimes elude reprimand. Five hundred miles away, I am physically removed from the city I call my own, but the disconnect runs so much deeper. The following is an attempt to explain the reaction of thousands of Baltimoreans in the wake Freddie Gray’s death at the hands of police. A short article cannot cover every aspect of an exceedingly complex issue, but I hope this proves illustrative for the Middlebury community. I would like to thank my brother Zach for contributing heavily to this article. Were it not for his frank appraisal of my attitude, I might still be stuck in a trap of self-aggrandizing victim shaming.
Baltimore has a magic about it. To some it is “Smalltimore,” because the community can feel so tight-knit that it’s easy to forget it’s not a small town, but rather a city of 620,000. From the glitzy high rises of the inner harbor and harbor east, to the quirky gastropubs and tattoo parlors of Canton and Hamden, it’s easy to see why Baltimore gets the nickname “Charm City.”
But there is another Baltimore. The one called “Mobtown.” The Perkins Homes, Sandtown and Cherry Hill. A city where blighted neighborhoods hold tens of thousands of abandoned homes, where the future is bleak and the residents are almost exclusively black. A place where people have learned to internalize the crushing shame of poverty and acclimate to their demoralizing abandonment by the other half of the city.
Trite mass media overtures focusing on the rioting, looting and disorder that befell Baltimore portrayed protesters and rioters as ignorant. Many people asked why anyone would turn on their own community. But major news outlets, and a large portion of America, have missed the point entirely.
The question we should ask is not “why are people rioting?” – the answer to that is obvious: desperation, marginalization and hopelessness. The history of race relations in Baltimore is more grotesque than an Edgar Allan Poe story. The housing situation is a travesty, the public health system is a wreck and the police force echoes the blatant disregard for human life which we see in New York, Ferguson, Miami and other cities around the country. Then there is the deplorably underfunded public school system, which barely manages to rush half the class out the door with a diploma. All of these factors are exacerbated by the flow of jobs out of the city – causing local unemployment to climb as high as 20 percent. (This could be partially offset by an upgrade to the archaic public transportation system, but instead the governor has slashed plans to expand transport services.)
The question we should ask is not, “Why are people rioting?” – the question is – “how do people restrain themselves? Poor black Baltimoreans are treated like animals. No human being can swallow his or her pride forever. The powers-that-be have no right to condescend, nor does the rest of America, from the outside looking in. We as a people have ignored the problem of racial divides for too long. If we fail to bridge that chasm, we cannot fault the oppressed when they throw stones across the gap.
Too often we label black dissidents as “thugs.” But it’s time for some self-reflection. “Thug” is just a way to euphemize and dehumanize Black America so that “Charm City” does not have to admit to wrongdoing. As Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes said, alongside Seattle Seahawks Cornerback Richard Sherman, “thug” is the new “n****r.” We label black men “thugs” and the weight they must bear is a life of perfection simply to break the expectation that they are criminals.
“Must be pretty cool to be white and just represent yourself and not your entire race,” said Kumail Nanjiani, the actor from HBO’s Silicon Valley on Twitter. When you see a white criminal, they are just a criminal, but when you see a black criminal, they are a criminal and they are black, so we go on reinforcing the stereotypes we have already created. When we call people “thugs,” we are condemning their image to criminality. When the police chased Freddie Gray in West Baltimore, they were chasing another “thug” to lock up and remove from the streets. Skin color was the only probable cause they needed.
On the first and only night of riots, Governor Larry Hogan and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called in the National Guard, maximized police presence across the city, instituted a mandatory curfew and declared a formal state of emergency. But Baltimore has been in a tacit state of emergency for years. The only difference this time is that black and white police cruisers were flanked by tan National Guard Humvees.
The city must cease using force as a means of “control.” The military-prison-industrial complex is bleeding Baltimore like a stab wound and Governor Hogan’s misguided war on heroin is doomed to failure. Social inequity, racial injustice and police brutality are catastrophic multi-faceted problems, and they will require decades of work, but in the myopic view of our government, “crime” is much easier to fix.
America needs to wake up. Baltimore did not riot in a vacuum. The officers involved in Freddie Gray’s death will stand trial for an array of charges from false imprisonment and negligent conduct to manslaughter and murder, and the race conversation has been renewed, but we cannot let the momentum wane. We must open our eyes and ears, see what is really going on and listen to the people who have long been shouting to be heard.
My brother and I believe in our city, and we support those who have taken to the streets. The events of the past two weeks have not destroyed the community; they have brought it together to fight for the common causes of truth, justice and equality. It is our hope that the national conversation continues to shift away from “Why are people rioting?” to “What’s the next step?.” These communities need more than cathartic justice against a few oppressors. We have too long scorned our own, but now it’s time to give them back their pride.
Jackson Adams '17 is from Towson, Md.
Zach Adams is from Towson, Md.
(04/29/15 5:59pm)
Instead of publishing student stories this week, I’m using this space to write about student activism on Twitter. This column will continue to serve as a platform for your personal narratives, so please keep on sharing them! At the same time, however, I think our expectations surrounding sex in college are also the product our engagement with campus culture more broadly. I’m convinced that what happens — or does not happen — in our dorm rooms is only a small part of the story.
(04/22/15 6:09pm)
In honor of Earth week, The Campus Sustainability Coordinators and The Sunday Night Group are bringing different student organizations together to put on a festive event with the goal of raising awareness of environmental issues and promoting a healthier planet.
Our planet is currently struggling with numerous environmental issues, many of which have been caused by humans. Our actions are not only harming other organisms on this Earth, but the negative impact we have on the environment today is also extremely detrimental to the survival of our own species. In sum, we are rapidly destroying the Earth through air, water, and soil pollution by increasing our carbon dioxide emissions, demanding too much out of Earth’s finite resources, and destroying vital habitats and ecosystems. As students going to college in a state that might appear to be immune to these issues, it’s easy to forget about the larger consequences our actions can have – and it is partially for this reason that it is so important to participate in Earth Week, and to be aware of how we can affect the planet. It is also crucial that we stand in solidarity with other schools and communities across the world to show our commitment to environmental justice and sustainability movements as an environmentally conscious institution.
What we celebrate as Earth Day today is actually a combination of two environmental awareness events that occurred in the spring of 1970. The first of these events was held on March 21, 1970 to raise awareness about environmental issues as well as promote the idea that it is the people’s responsibility to act as environmental stewards to our planet. The second event was an Environmental Teach-In (organized by Senator Gaylord Nelson) held on April 22, 1970. From this event alone, more than 20 million people from colleges, schools, and communities around the US came together in the (then) largest organized celebration in the history of the US to promote environmental activism. This ultimately led to the passing of important environmental legislation, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, The Safe Drinking Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is a combination of these celebrations and environmental legislation that have culminated in the Earth Day event we celebrate today.
Earth Day is celebrated in 192 countries and is unique in that it is one of the only holidays that brings together people from such a wide variety of races, nationalities, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. The diversity of people that celebrate Earth Day demonstrates that taking care of the planet is important and a shared effort because what it stands for impacts us every day.
What You Can Do: Below are a few ideas of things you can do to help sustain the planet. Try them all, or just commit to doing ONE of the following; everything makes a difference:
Transportation:
o Drive less: Walk, bike, and use public transportation instead of a personal car. Take advantage of the ACTR next time you need to get to Burlington. If you do have a personal car, be open to carpooling! It can be a great way to meet new people.
Eating:
o Go vegetarian or vegan (for at least a few meals/ week): Raising animals for food produces more greenhouse gas emissions and requires more land, water, grain, and fuel than growing crops. In fact, every time you eat a plant based meal over animal based meal, you save approximately 280 gallons of water and protect 12-50 sq. feet of land from deforestation. We’re lucky in that all of our dining halls regularly offer great vegetarian and vegan options -- check them out!
o Join Middfoods, EatReal, or any of the number of groups on campus that focus on improving access to sustainable food at Midd and in the surrounding area.
Reduce and Recycle:
o Go paperless as much as possible: every time you print, you are killing trees! If you must print, make sure you are using the double sided option to reduce your paper usage (and number of trees) by half.
o Recycle paper, plastic, newspaper, glass aluminum cans. Use the blue bins around campus!
Save Energy:
o Keep windows closed: save energy with heating and AC
o Turn off or unplug your electronics when not in use.
Also, check out these awesome links for more ways to save the planet:
http://www.50waystohelp.com/ www.350.org
The event will take place on Friday, April 24, 2015 on Proctor Terrace from 3-6 pm. We hope to see you there!
(04/22/15 4:56pm)
The Middlebury Area Land Trust (MALT), the nonprofit organization dedicated to the maintenance of open land around Middlebury, initiated a conversation with the College about the continual preservation of the Sabourin Farm property. The 108 acres of land currently owned by the College contains a half-mile portion of the Trail Around Middlebury (TAM).
The Sabourin property is located along Route 7 near the southern end of the Battell Woods. MALT and Middlebury’s Parks and Recreation Department have discussed the potential purchase of the land to ensure the TAM’s longevity. MALT officials fear for the future of the public trail if the College should someday choose to put the property on the market and a private party decides to develop.
“MALT has had an interest in this property because of the Trail Around Middlebury. We believe that keeping that corridor open and undeveloped would be good for the town,” Carl Robinson, MALT’s executive director, told the Addison County Independent.
The Parks and Recreations Committee have also proposed the creation of new functional town spaces on the Sabourin land.
“The Parks & Recreation Committee is excited and anxious to realize new recreational opportunities while conserving an important piece of Middlebury’s open space in addition to more entrances and experiences of the Battell Woods,” Middlebury Parks and Recreation Director, Terri Arnold, and President of the Parks and Recreation Committee, Greg Boglioli, wrote to the Middlebury Select Board.
A popular proposal is the creation of a local dog park.
“This would allow an opportunity for all dogs to be off-leash, to run and play with no threat from cars,” town member Jane Steele told the Addison County Independent.
David Donahue, Special Assistant to President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz, wrote an email response to the Addison Independent about the Sabourin property.
“At this point, [Middlebury College] has had no formal proposal. We have had various groups approach us about this piece of land during the past year with a variety of ideas of what might be possible. When I was approached, I suggested they consult with the town planner as part of any process to develop a proposal. We are not looking to sell the land but we would consider serious proposals,” Donahue wrote.
The Sabourin acreage is not the first parcel of College-owned land MALT has shown interest in acquiring. In fact, on September 13, MALT purchased 103 acres in Weybridge from the College to protect the habitat of birds, bobcats, coyotes, deer, and other animals.
As a nonprofit, MALT relies heavily on donations and volunteers. Its main work is in the upkeep of the TAM.
“We have no paid maintenance staff, and our volunteers come from a broad spectrum. Many of them are Middlebury College students,” Katie Reylley, MALT office manager, told the Middlebury Campus in a previous interview.
The 16-mile TAM loop, which runs through the towns of Middlebury, Weybridge, Cornwall, and New Haven, provides a popular running route for students and town residents alike.
“I really enjoy running or walking on the TAM, because it’s an easy way to escape and get out in nature for a couple of hours. The TAM is an excellent resource for community members and college students, because it’s so convenient,” Emily Robinson ’18.5 said.
Born and raised in Weybridge, Robinson grew up running the TAM with her family. She supports the creation of new recreational opportunities for the town.
“I think it would be a really great incubator space for people with common interests to come together and conserve something that is very important to the community and town of Middlebury,” Robinson said.
(04/22/15 1:17pm)
Alright. Four guards patrolling the room to the right, one guard in an alcove to the left. Shoot forward and they’ll all come running. But I’m standing in a bottleneck, so I should be able to get all of them. Okay, let’s do th—
Shoot. Dead again. Okay, restart. Maybe I have to shoot and back away really quickly, and get the guards as they come around the corner. Yeah, that’ll wor—
Dead. Restart. Maybe I’ll just try charging forward and possibly get to that alcove—
Dead. Restart.
This is the brutal cycle that doesn’t easily let you go. This is the magnificence and the curse of no load times so you can just restart time and time again until you get through that difficult level. This is the formula that has made Hotline Miami such a hit.
And Hotline Miami 2 is more of this brilliant gameplay loop. The game resembles its predecessor in almost every way. The story is more ridiculous, the stages more trippy and technicolored. There’s a little more diversity to the enemies and how they present themselves. New characters give a little bit of a breath of fresh air to the series, as well, injecting a modicum of variety into a game which is otherwise nearly unbelievably repetitive.
Because this game is all about playing the same sequences over, and over, and over, until you can get yourself synchronized in such a way as to kill every enemy in the level before they can kill you. It’s a tall task, considering it usually only takes one hit to kill you and to put you back at the beginning of the floor. And yet, even though it can be frustrating, it still works. Its combat puzzles still suck me in, the stages are still mesmerizing in their art and design, forcing me to think through each and every step I take and bullet I shoot.
In a sense, it becomes a stealth-action game, but even that isn’t the right word.
It’s like a dance game. A rhythm game. In Hotline Miami 2, your goal is to perfect a certain pattern that will get you safely through the level. You become a choreographer, tracking how each move will affect the AI in the game. You have to jump forward and quickly jump back, or spin around in a circle while spraying bullets, or sprint into a room with crowbar drawn and dispatch the enemies before they can shoot you in the face.
It’s a beautiful, chaotic mess that forces you to find the order in the disorder. It teaches you to take it slow and to move elegantly and efficiently, wasting no ammo or motion.
And when you eliminate every single enemy on a floor of a stage, you can advance to the next part. You’re awarded with a moment of silence and solitude — and a level fully covered in blood and gore. Bodies strewn everywhere. Glass shot out. Destruction wrought on a scale that Hotline Miami trademarked.
However much I was entranced by the dance of Hotline Miami 2, I was turned off by its brutality.
Although the characters are only pixelated sprites, the animation of bullets ripping into them is still visceral and slightly revolting. Blood sprays out of each character to the point where nearly an entire stage can be painted in crimson. When you incapacitate a guard, you can reach down and break his neck or bash his face in.
These executions are over-the-top and gruesome in a way that I had never before thought possible in a game as abstracted from the real as Hotline Miami.
Hotline Miami 2, however, is not a game to present you with ethical dilemmas. It’s a game to crush them under the weight of repetition, gamifying murder until the characters aren’t anything more than automatic, motion-sensitive robots designed to prevent your progress. There’s no humanity in this game. Life means nothing. All considerations of morality are erased and buried under scores and times and attempts.
Except it’s not even that simple. In one level, you take control of a police officer who must knock out all of the enemies. When you kneel on top of a knocked-out guard to finish the job, the execution animation is extremely slow, as if the officer is actually reluctant to kill. It’s a small technical difference, one that most players will probably not be hung up on. But I cannot get the image out of my head of the officer slowly reaching down to murder the man underneath him. I fashioned a look of horror on my character’s face. It made me not want to kill him. It made me wonder why I was killing anyone in this game. It turned me off from killing in a game that’s about massacring entire houses full of people.
If that police officer level showed me anything, it’s that the game would be so much more palatable, and so much more moving, if it used that same reluctance to violence as shown by the police officer. It would effectively be an equivalent game, but you wouldn’t have to wade through the massive amounts of blood and death to get to the brilliant combat puzzles. Additionally, it would allow the character to have some sort of moral investment in the game. Hotline Miami 2 could provide an even more moving commentary about society and games if it let you not kill. If it made you take that extra step to murder, it would provide the sort of extra level of consideration that we ought to have — that we need to have — with regards to violence.
(04/22/15 4:36am)
On Saturday, April 11, two students from the College were fishing approximately 15 minutes away from Middlebury along the New Haven River and discovered a clearing with 15 to 20 mutilated, dismembered dogs. The students, Matt and Michael, who requested their full names not be disclosed, immediately reported the incident to the Middlebury Police Department (MPD), who directed them to speak with the Vermont State Police (VSP). The case is currently under investigation and the VSP are working with the owner of the property to uncover what occurred.
“There were paws—cut-up paws with fur on them—scattered around, skulls of different animals. Most of them, I thought, looked like dog skulls,” Michael said.
The students had been participating in the Otter Creek Classic, an annual fishing tournament organized by local shop Middlebury Mountaineer. Both confirmed they had been fishing alone for approximately three and a half hours, before getting off the river to walk back to their cars.
“We got out in someone’s yard, which is usually fine to do if you’re fishing,” Matt said.
The two came across a clearing, where they found the decaying carcass of an animal.
“At first, it looked like [another] animal may have brought [the carcass] to this spot to eat it or kill it. We walked about ten more steps and saw another, and we realized this whole yard is littered with what looks like dog skeletons. We both thought these had to be dogs, just looking at the skulls and teeth,” Matt said.
“We became skeptical of who did this and whether it was an animal or a person,” he continued.
The two stated the bodies appeared to be in different stages of decay.
“Some looked like they had been there for months, and some were still furry, fleshy, bloody—maybe a couple weeks [old],” Michael said.
“It wasn’t always a full body,” Matt added, “A lot of times it was bones and bits and pieces of bodies scattered everywhere.”
The way in which the dogs had been dismembered indicated to Michael that another animal could not be responsible.
“They were not eaten by another animal. I knew humans did that,” he said.
Next to the clearing was a house that both Michael and Matt described as being disheveled. The smell from the decaying animals was incredibly potent and both students remain convinced that the owner of the property had to know about the clearing.
“If you were living there, you would have to know [about the carcasses],” Matt said. “The smell was horrible.”
He added, “The thought entered my mind that someone depraved and sick might live there.”
Michael also described an abandoned school bus that was near the house and the clearing.
“It was the last thing I wanted to see at that momemt,” he said.
At that point, the two students immediately returned to their car. Upon their return to the College, Michael went to the MPD and the case was quickly handed to the VSP.
“I expressed my concern that it might be a young sociopath who is struggling to get a hold of himself. Violence against animals is a telltale sign,” said Michael.
Current research supports the link between violence towards animals and violence and/or killing of humans. In a study of tendencies of serial killers, Wright and Hensley (2003) discovered that more that 21 percent of their sample of 354 had reported cases of animal cruelty. Ressler et. al (1998) also indicated that a concerning number of the 36 convinced murderers they studied admitted to committing cruelty towards animals. Likewise, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Band & Harpold, 1999), the American Psychological Association (1999), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (1999) have all published checklists for warning signs of school shooters. All of the lists include violence towards animals.
The police have asked that people use discretion when discussing the case as it is currently under investigation.
Howver, Michael indicated to the Campus that the police seemed concerned and were taking the investigation seriously. Michael also indicated that the police would keep him posted on any developments in the case.
Now that the case has been passed on to the police, both students are grappling with what they saw.
“It was by far the most disturbing thing I have ever seen,” said Michael.
He described the moment after they had discovered the dogs as “panic” as he made sure no one was watching them. Both students made it back to their car without incident.
Students are urged to report any leads they may have or concerns they have to the Middlebury Police Department or the Vermont State Police.
(04/15/15 6:09pm)
MiddChallenge, a competition for Middlebury students to receive funding to support anything from an art project to a business model just announced the winners of the 2015 competition. The competition is divided into four categories: Business; Social Entrepreneurship; Arts and Education; and Outreach and Policy.
A committee, headed by students Kate Robinson ’16 and Olivia Tabah ’15, selected the top proposals from each category to advance to a final round of judging. On April 4, in ten-minute presentations qualifiers pitched their ideas before a panel of judges composed of Middlebury alumni, faculty and community members. Generally, two proposals from each of the four categories are chosen to receive a grant of $3,000, mentorship and, if needed, a space on the College’s campus to employ their ideas; however, this year there were exceptions in the Business and Social Entrepreneurship categories, which each accepted three winners.
One of the two grants in the Business category was divided between Flippant, led by Logan Miller ’15 and Michael Peters ’15 and an iOS app presented by Maddison Brusman ’18.5. Flippant, a company that “takes a less but more serious approach to business” and the creator of the upside-down pocket T-shirts sported by many on campus, will be relocating to Detroit this summer thanks to MiddChallenge.
Brusman is developing an app, she explained as “YikYak meets Slack that allows users to create and subscribe to hyper-local communal interest feeds.” She will use the money for an office space in SoMa, San Francisco.
JoyRyde, directed by Terry Goguen ’16 and AnnaClare Smith ’16 received the second grant in the Business category. Smith and Goguen plan to use the grant to develop the software for JoyRyde, “A mobile app that uses a reward-based system to prevent people from using their mobile phones while driving,” they wrote in an email.
“It keeps track of how far one has traveled with their phone locked. Once unlocked, the miles are saved in a bank, and the user is then rewarded their respective miles. Each mile can be used to buy coupons and deals for a variety of things, ranging from food, to music, to gas, and even charitable donations,” they said.
In the Social Entrepreneurship category, Lena Jacobs ’17.5 won for Dream Bus, a renovated school bus that will be converted into a mobile classroom. Over the summer the bus will be driven across the country stopping at high schools to conduct innovative sessions that will teach students how create a project of their interest.
Alexa Beyer ’15.5 is creating a YouTube series called the Heartland Project that is designed to share environmental stories in a creative way. Beyer explained that impetus behind her project was the need for compelling stories to motivate Americans to respond to today’s environmental problems.
The third winner in this category, Farid Noori ’18, won for Aghazgar, a two-week long camp for college students in Afghanistan. The program aims to create a culture of youth entrepreneurship. Noori wrote in an email:
“Aghazgar in Persian means someone who starts a new beginning and inspires others to follow. I see a strong connection between the success of this camp, and the wider contribution it can make in the Afghan society.”
In the Arts category, winners included Iron Eyes Cody, a band composed of Evan Allis ’15.5, Patrick Freeman ’15.5, Joe Leavenworth-Bakali ’15.5, Mark Balderston ’15.5 and Katherine Mulloy ’15.5. Sally Caruso ’15.5 won for her stop motion animation film about the perception of the female body by.
Iron Eyes Cody began performing in 2013 and will use the grant to offset the costs of recording their first album this summer.
“The album is the crucial next step to our evolution as a group, and we’re hoping it opens many more doors to come. Everything’s falling into place with this album, and we couldn’t be more excited for what the summer has in store,” Allis wrote in an email.
Finally, the idea to create an online interactive map of the Middlebury campus tour for prospective students, headed by Scott Gilman ’15 and Catherine Hays ’15 won in the Education, Outreach and Policy category.
Charlotte Massey ’18.5 received the other grant for Articulate, “a program that uses visual art as a tool for social change, empowering people to discover and speak out about the causes they care about.” Massey plans to use the money to run a weeklong program over the summer for middle-school students that she said, “Focuses on teaching new art skills and promoting awareness about local and world events in order to help them discover potential passions.”
Covering a wide array of interests and projects, the nine winners are all excited by the opportunity to employ their ideas thanks to MiddChallenge.
