VOLUME CV, NUMBER 21 APRIL 5, 2004 In a vote that will make or were really listening." break the Avery Council's bid to In its talk, the mc listed four open the house to freshmen, the long-term concerns along with a Student Housing Committee is battery of logistical questions, all expected hand down a recom­ stressing their belief that Avery's mendation after a private meeting plan is premature. today. "There's just no way this can Although the majority faculty be beneficially implemented by SHC is seen as sympathetic to next year," held Popendorf. "It the idea, a compromise measure could be detrimental to student that would implement the plan in life if we don't first look at all the 2005 instead of 2004 is gaining issues." steam among moderates on both Logistics must be ready by the sides and may be a wild card in April 26 housing lottery--much balloting. too soon to pound down details The month-old Avery debate the Avery Council has so far left bubbled to a climax this week unaddressed, said Ruddock Presi­ when the Interhouse Commit­ dent Barrett Heyneman '05. "In tee unpacked its case against the general I think it's very bad pol­ measure to the SHC at a public icy to approve a 'plan' when you meeting Wednesday. don't know any details about how "I think there was some pro­ that plan will be implemented," ductive discussion," said IHC he held. D. KortaiThe California Tech Chair Kim Popendorf '06. "I'm The result is an emerging com­ Bob, the autouomous vehicle built by Team Caltech for the DARPA Grand Challenge, is displayed glad that tQere were people who promise position that would set a after travelling 1.3 miles during the competition across the Mojave Desert. Continued on Page 7, Column 1 IBob' Takes Fifth in First DA ~ Grand Challenge with 1.3 Miles By ROBERTLI traveled a total of 1.3 out of 142 cy), asked teams to build a com­ miles, none of the other teams pletely autonomous vehicle that On March 13, 2004, the first finished the course either. The could travel from LA to Las Ve­ DARPA Grand Challenge was "Red Team" from Carnegie Mel- gas, a distance of approximately held. Designed as a cross-coun­ lon, which had by far the great- 250 miles, in 10 hours or less. try race across the Mojave Desert est funding and the most previous The actual event involved a pre­ from Barstow to Las Vegas, the experience, managed to travel liminary qualification course at contest pitted totally autonomous only 7.4 miles before becoming Fontana Speedway followed by a robotic vehicles against each oth­ stuck. cross-desert course from Barstow er for a prize of $1 million. Last Wednesday, Dr. Murray to Primm, Nevada. Teams re­ The Caltech team, led by gave a Watson lecture in which ceived 1000-2000 GPS waypoints MechE professor Richard Mur­ he described the efforts of Team 2 hours before the contest. These L. Tran/The California Tech ray, was one of 15 finalists to par­ Caltech and the challenges and .waypoints specified a corridor 10 Kim Popendorf, Penny Gunterman, and Jason Qnimby oCthe IHC ticipate in the contest. Although successes that it has faced. Dr. meters to 10 kilometers wide that present their case against allowing freshmen in Avery this year. "Team Caltech" placed 5th and Murray began first by describing was guaranteed to contain some the actual contest. navigable path that could be tra- The Grand Challenge, funded versed by a human driver in a 4x4 Misconceptions of Israel as Jewish e~nc~:~~~a;~~ep~j!~~S~;~~ ~:!~:~edOnpage8,Columnl State Cleared up by Israeli Bedouin Chess Team Defends By WILLIAM FONG ligious and linguistic differences Bedouins are Muslims, they iden­ as the source of this relationship. tify themselves as Israelis. How- h III h III On Wednesday evening, Beginning in the 1930s and con­ ~ver, the positi?n of.the Bedouins atn.plOnS 1 Caltech Hillel sponsored a talk by tinuing up to the present, Jews III Israeh SocIety IS somewhat Ishmael Khaldi, an Israeli Bed­ and Bedouins served shoulder to nebulous to the Western world. ouin who has been traveling the shoulder against the British po­ Khaldi cited a question from a ByWEIJIMA world to share his unique experi­ lice and the Arab nations of the student at the Illinois Institute of On March 20, the Caltech Chess February with a perfect 6-0 score. ences. Khaldi received his bach­ Middle East. Technology who asked Khaldi Team beat top teams from around This win was reason for Interna­ elor's degree from Haifa Univer­ This brotherhood contrasts the if he had the right to vote. Be­ the country to win the 2004 U.S. tional Jack Peters to write in the sity and got a Master's degree in Western perspective that Israel ing citizens of Israel, Khaldi said Amateur Team Championships. Los Angeles Times, "Baseball political science from Tel Aviv is strictly a Jewish state and is that the Bedouins no doubt had The national championship was fans scream about the New York University. He has served in the anti-Muslim. Although the Israeli Continued on Page 2, Column 3 held on the Internet Chess Club. Yankees, but chess players yearn Israeli Defense Military as well as The win makes the Caltech Chess to break up Caltech." (Feb 29) in the Israeli Police Force. Team the first team ever to win The team then defeated the During his talk, Khaldi shared America's most prestigious team midwest regional winners in the his life experiences and attempted chess championship twice in a national semifinals and followed to correct misconceptions regard­ row. that with a victory over the east ing Israel. The Bedouins are a The winning team consisted regional winners in the champi­ nomadic group of shepherds who of master players Patrick Hum­ onship match. The Caltech team reside in the Middle East region. mel and Eugene Yanayt (both trounced both the midwest and Today, the Bedouins form a mi­ sophomores), Graham Free (se­ the east, beating each team by a nority in Israel. nior), and Zhihao Liu (sopho­ convincing 3-1 margin. In the With the Balfour Declaration in more). In 2003, Yanayt, Free, and national championship, all indi­ 1917, a substantial portion of the Liu teamed up with postdoctoral vidual team members went unde­ Jewish population began to leave scholar and master player Wei feated. Eastern Europe and settle in the Ji Ma to win the national Ama­ The Caltech Chess Team is com­ areas that make up modern-day teur Team Championships in the posed of members of the Caltech Israel. As the Jews set up small team's first year of competition. Chess Club. The club welcomes towns and cities, it brought the The Amateur Team Champion­ players of all skill levels through­ Bedouins in touch with the Jews ships are open not only to college out the Caltech community. More as well as with modern society. teams, but also to any other team information can be obtained from Very early on, the Jews and of non-professional players. the club's web site, http://www. the Bedouins forged a special re­ The team earned the right to its.caltech.edu/-citchess, or by lationship, according to Khaldi. D. KortaiThe California Tech . represent the west by demol­ contacting Patrick Hummel at Khaldi points to a sense of hu­ Ben Leitner, Emma Schmidgall, Ishmael Khaldi, and Ben Aronin, ishing tough competition at the [email protected]. manity that traversed political, re- pose as Khaldi prepares to give his talk last Wednesday. western regional championship in 2 THE CALIFORNIA TECH NEWS APRIL 5, 2004 but it resembles in key ways the existed at the time. orbits of objects in a cloud sur­ There is still more to be Astronomers Detect Most Distant rounding the sun predicted 54 learned about this newest known years ago by Dutch astronomer member of the solar system. Jan Oort to explain the existence Rabinowitz says that he has in­ Planetoid Yet 8 Billion Miles Away of certain comets. This hypo­ direct evidence that there may be thetical "Oort cloud" extends a moon following the planetoid tem. According to Mike Brown, sake of the coldest body known By ROBERT TINDOL halfway to the nearest star and is on its distant travels--a possibil­ Caltech associate professor of in the solar system. the repository of small icy bod­ ity that is best checked with the PASADENA, Calif.--A plane­ planetary astronomy and leader The researchers found the ies that occasionally get pulled in Hubble Space Telescope--and he toid more than eight billion miles of the research team, "the sun ap­ planetoid on the night of No­ toward the sun and become the notes that Sedna is redder than from Earth has been discovered pears so small from that distance vember 14, 2003, using the 48- comets seen from Earth. anything known in the solar sys­ by researchers led by a scien­ that you could completely block inch Samuel Oschin Telescope at However, Sedna is much clos­ tem with the exception of Mars, tist at the California Institute of it out with the head of a pin." Caltech's Palomar Observatory er than expected for the Oort but no one can say why. Trujillo Technology. The new planetoid As cold as it is now, the plane­ east of San Diego. Within days, cloud. The Oort cloud has been admits, "We still don't under­ is more than three times the dis­ toid is usually even colder.