"Drop Day "Prepare cometh!" thyself!" Volume XCVII, Number. 7 Pasadena, California Friday, November 3,1995 S eSlgne• Satellite Set aunch ow PASADENA - A satellite probe;. The faint signals will al­ 14 colleges in the United States students came from the follow­ College; Rensselaer Polytechnic built by undergraduates working low testing ofVery Long Baseline and the United Kingdom have ing colleges and universities: Ari- Institute; Stanford; the \Jniver­ with Jet Propulsion Laboratory Interferometry tracking stations, worked on SURFSAT dur­ sity ofAlaska; UC Berkeley; (JPL) engineers will be launched and aid in research and develop­ ing summers since 1987, as "The project has provided an UCLA; UC San Diego; the on the morning of November 4 ment work in deep-space com­ part of the Summer Under­ excellent opportunity for University of New Mexico; from Vandenberg Air Force Base munications at the Deep Space graduate Research Fellow­ students to work with space and the University ofTexas on the central California coast. Network, which tracks planetary ships (SURF) program at at Austin. This date is fairly firm, but has probes such as Voyager and the California Institute of technology and to learn SURFSAT is the second­ slipped recently and is not carved Galileo. Technology. Each summer low-cost mission operations. " ary payload on a NASA in stone. "The project has provided between five and 13 stu­ rocket that will boost an­ Called SURFSAT, the satel­ an excellent opportunity for stu­ dents have worked with a -JOEL SMITH other object, the Canadian dents to workwith space technol­ lite will fill a need for a Deep JPL mentor on aspects of JPL PROJECT MANAGER RADARSAT spacecraft, into Space Network (DSN) calibra­ ogy and to learn low-cost mission the design, testing, and as­ orbit. The student satellite, tion satellite. Itwill emit weak sig­ operations," said Joel Smith, sembly of the satellite, and for zona State; Caltech; Kingston Uni­ consisting of two aluminum nals at three microwave frequen­ project manager atJPL. the last few years work has con­ versity, England; Occidental Col­ boxes measuring roughly 12 by 12 cies, imitating a deep-space More than 60 students from tinued year round. The SURF lege; Oklahoma State; Pomona SATELLITE CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SURFers Show Off Research ByJim Cheng earn money and work with top notch people in their areas of Wrapping up their Summer interest." Undergraduate Research Fellow­ Alumni Session Chair Frank ships, Caltech SURFers gave oral Dryden commented, "It's an ex­ presentations of the results of cellent program, where students their research to fellow students, do real research and are forced faculty, staff, alumni and parents to organize the results into a on Saturday, October 21. meaningful presentation before After a short buffet lun­ an audience." cheon in front ofBeckman Insti­ In addition to the students' tute, the participants and guests research, this year's SURF pro­ broke up into 23 parallel sessions gram also saw the largest class of held throughout the Caltech participants in its seventeen year campus lasting until late after­ history, as well as the creation of noon. At each session, SURF stu­ both the SURF StudentAdvisory dents gave 20 minute presenta­ Council (SURFSAC) and the tions, which were then evaluated upcoming Caltech Journal of Un­ by the alumni Session Chairs and dergraduate Research (CURJ), the students' audience members. which will feature the best SURF Student presentations cov­ papers, chosen by an editorial ered such wide-ranging topics as board of faculty members, un­ a SURF retrospective, the recent dergraduate and graduate stu­ impact of the Shoemaker-Levy dents, and alumni. Comet onJupiter, and a simula­ As the students' oral presen­ tion of the behavior of a moun­ tations ended at 4:30 in the af­ tain biker. ternoon, SURFers and guests Though some participants again congregated in front ofthe were still rehearsing their presen­ Beckman Institute for a poster tations before lunch, many were presentation session, with post­ well prepared and were quite ers on SURF research topics enthusiastic about presenting the from femtosecond chemistry to research they'd conducted over voting manipulability. the summer through the SURF SURF Seminar Day finally program. came to an end with the an­ SURFer Saurabh Saha, who nouncement of this year's Doris worked on protein localization in S. Perpall Speaking Award semi­ Leishmania at Harvard Medical finalists, who were selected on School, said "Itwas probably one the basis of their presentations ofthe best academic experiences by alumni Session Chairs and of my life." audience members at the indi­ Parents, too, were very im­ vidual sessions. pressed with their sons' and These students will advance daughters' work on their re­ to the semi-final round, which search and presentations. Nadya will be held during the week of Brisken said, "It's very nice. It November 13 to November 17 in gives young people a chance to the afternoon. IHCMINUTES 2 ASCIT MINUTES 3 DIA DE LOS MUERTOS 3 GAMES & PUZZLES 5 DILBERT® 6 MEDIA GUY 7 CALENDAR 7 OPIATE OF THE MASSES 8 PUMPKIN DROP PICTURES 9 ANNOUNCEMENTS 12 2 November 1995 The California Tech He MINUTES OCformu 31,1995 by Myfanwy Callahan Party Quebecois and resigned and Maria Huang after a vote on Monday nar­ Present: Tom, Laura, Art, Nestor, Vogel, Brian, Alison, Adil, Bill and Tom Mannion rowly preserved Canadian Meeting begins at 9:26 p.m. AZERBAIJAN, SOVIET - The Union. .. Tom Mannion discusses 3 things with us: ,House Furniture: To avoid the hassle of housing deadliest undqground disas­ purchasing furniture or reupholstering furniture, each house will be given a budget for common ter ever took place on Octo­ DAYTON, OHIO Alija I area furniture. This includes things such as library furniture, computer room chairs, and common ber 29 as fire and noxious Zetbegovic, Slobodan area couches. It is also pointed out that if any house 'needs major work (such as leveling, gases killed about 300 subway Milosevic, and Franjo ~efel~~;it/ ~~~:n~~ ~~~~~~'~~J6~~~I~~ll~11;J~t~Jr~~~~I;~;~ passengers in Azerbaijan. The Tudjman, the three leaders of the student houses. Iq~~'&f:fheir i§~ cr§~m,§rd all~¥pes q~:toaddisappears fatalities could rise to as high Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia re­ Ruddock has been missing from Blacker every day. Most people felt tli~t iNyou hi'ive J2ahiH~t yoti@houldB~regponsible for locking it as 600. spectively, met for negotia­ yourself, but Tom offered to put locks on cabinets, fridges, and possibly doors on some of the tions in Ohio this Wednesday. kitchens. Also, combo locks are going to be installed on Lloyd as well as the SAC entrances. The JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA All the major issues of terri­ four exterior SAC doors will have Iqtfsg9ingjh;~ndtt!W,fiV*poors leading up to the houses will - Magnus Malan, South tory and government need to have locks to get into the houses. Q9V:lforg@! to Igg~ trymJe¥Hdry room when you leave! The Africa's hard-line defense be decided. South house room doors don't alw~M~ 2l0se;[ake!~Gp@'Qyggrself to close them behind you. minister during the turbulent .. Summer CTY Program: From th@last weElk0fjGne)f8'AJglrst 10th Johns Hopkins University 1980's was charged with 13 BANJA LUKA, BOSNIA­ would like to hold a summer program here at Tech. It would mean housing 175 7th graders for political murders in a case HERZEGOVINA - In Acknowl­ that amount of time. This could be distributed over alleys in all 7 houses or in that will force South Mrica to edgmentofthe coming peace confront the bloody excesses talks, Bosnian Serbs ex­ ;xtr:~:~~n:~e;~~~:~:;~r.r~a~~~I'§i!'!~I':~~~11~~~[t~T~~i[~~It:::, ~nc:~1 f~~:~h~o~:;~~ ~~e ofthe apartheid era. Malan is changed 300 Muslim civilian reselling our housing to t~g:program;!JRto3~ pqm!tioq}forlillt effliplbYfllent would be created, expected to appear in court prisoners for 150 Serbian Pris­ we would require them td\Wse8G TNs a'hdRA's:Wew6htdalsob@stH;;king up as many of the to answer the charges in oners ofwar on Monday. minorities as we could to boost the minority interest in Tech. Everyone agreed the program Durban on Nov. 2. sounded great but wanted to look into the numbers a little more and check with their houses. SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA - The .. Tom Mannion leav~W;IUraVet ARUSHA, TANZANIA- UN bud­ Immigration and Naturaliza­ .. People talk about l~l!rR@ysr~ toll(i;~~9ses and gauge interest get problems and Kenya's re­ tion Service unveiled a new in Interhouse to see if wdl$qt{o ~meini!hterhouse revived, talk fusal to hand-over suspects are program which would allow to your president. holding up plans to prosecute over 200 Southern Califor­ That's all, folks! those who ordered last year's nian companies to check the ~~'8~ genocide in Rwanda. backgrounds oftheir new em­ IHC Secretary ployees to verify whether they MONTREAL, CANADA - Pre­ are legally authorized to work. ADDENDUM mier Jacques Parizeau Que­ This is the first test of what .. Also, another amendment was made to the shoot-the-moon clause to allow a challenge to bec resigned Tuesday. He was could become a national pro­ come at the end of the year if a house merely comes in last place in every sport V\fithout forfeit­ (6~O-1). the leader of the Separatist gram. ing any games, instead of a house having to lose every game of every sport. Passed ACADEMY SATELLITE: Launch date BARBERSHOP set student project 27 N Catalina Ave., Pasadena Open Tues.-Sat., 7:30A.M. -4:00 P.M. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 (818) 449-1681 by 16 inches, is permanently The California CH bolted to the second-stage 11 booster of a NASA/McDonnell Douglas Delta II rocket.