The Week in Review

Victor Petrenko, an ice engineer at Thayer School of Engineering, has developed an electronic braking system for skis and snowboards that will keep them below a pre-set speed limit. This new system is based on a network of wires, attached to the underside of the skis. This activates charges that interact with the charges on the surface of the snow. 'You can adjust the addition of resistance from nothing to very high,' said Petrenko. 'It's not like you turn on the power and the skis stop; it happens gradually by slowly increasing the charge.'

The same technology could be used to speed up skis. According to Petrenko's measurements, a charged set of skis could improve speed by up to ten percent. 'In races that are won by hundredths of a second, ten percent can change a lot,' said Petrenko.

Besides sports, control is also necessary when driving down an icy road or trekking on slippery sidewalks. So Petrenko is working on applying this technology to car tires and to the soles of winter footwear.

'We estimate that about one billion people in the world live in climates with snow and ice,' said Petrenko. 'They all need shoes, so we figure that could be a huge market.'
Study Hard

Students at the University of California at Berkeley have, until recently, been getting school credit for going to strip clubs. Controversy erupted after the national media picked up on a class on male sexuality in which students and instructors went to strip clubs and 'sex exchanges' (don't ask: we don't know) and also took part in a game involving photographing one's genitalia and then guessing from the photos which genitalia belongs to which student.

The course has been suspended and is under review, while a similar class on female sexuality continues but is also under review.

The class was one of a series of classes at Berkeley called Democratic Education at Cal (DECAL) that typically offer one or two units towards graduation. Others include courses on card counting, Greek folk dancing, professional wrestling, deejaying, Bohm dialogue, erotica, the history of hip-hop, and Israeli folk dancing. The course description for the Israeli folk dancing course describes it as 'the easiest... class you'll take here at Cal.'

Who would have guessed?
Public Schools and Religion

On February 20 at the Rockefeller Center, R. Kent Greenawalt, University Professor at Columbia Law School and former Deputy U.S. Solicitor General, delivered a Dartmouth Lawyers Association Public Lecture on 'Public School Teaching and Religion.' He limited his discussion to creation education in junior and senior high school science classes.

Using the phrase 'creation science,' he argued that the theory should not be taught in public schools. Besides the 1968 Eperson v. Arkansas Supreme Court decision, few court cases were referenced. Instead, he introduced differences in belief and approach between creationists and evolutionists, the former advocating choice and inclusion with the latter touting reliable science.

Greenawalt also touched on the theory of 'intelligent design' before concluding that since polls of Americans show firm beliefs in both miracles as well as teaching both evolution and creationism, the dialogue must continue.
Knoxville Fraternity Gives to the Homeless

The University of Tennessee at Knoxville is considering de-recognizing their chapter of Kappa Alpha fraternity. The chapter has been suspended by their national headquarters for such actions as hiring strippers for entertainment, and most intriguingly, recruiting local homeless persons, giving them liquor and boxing gloves, and coaxing them to fight, according to the fraternity's president, Patrick Deiner.

Deiner later recanted his story, saying, 'Pretty much everything I told you wasn't true. I was frustrated over all of this stuff, and I thought that it would be printed even though it wasn't true, so it'd be like an inside joke, but it was mistake.'

A Healthy Tan Is Only a Bed Away

According to a recent study by Dartmouth Medical School researchers, users of tanning lamps may have higher incidences of cancer. The paper was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and is co-authored by five people associated with DMS and a professor at Brown Medical School. The study involved 1,500 New Hampshire residents and was focused on basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, rather than melanoma.

Representatives from Hanover Hot Tubs and Tanning and Ivy League Cuts and Tans contacted by The Dartmouth Review quickly pointed out that tanning, by itself, does not cause cancer, but rather sun burning causes cancer. Both businesses say they are careful to record clients' skin types and other relevant factors to determine safe doses of UV light.

Happy tanning!
That Busy 5%

Researchers at Penn State University have, after extensive research, determined that guys on spring break want to get drunk and hook up. According to their study, published in the Journal of Travel Research, males are primarily concerned with partying when selecting spring break destinations, whereas females are more concerned with the value and image of the destination. The survey reports that 20% of males versus 5% of females had casual sex while on spring break, while 64% of males and 51% of females drank to drunkenness.