Friday, February 3, 2006
Culture Week coming to Behrend
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Painter, singer-songwriter, speaker and performance artist Magdalen Hsu-Li will shuwease her talents February 7 during Culture Week.
By Jennifer Haight
news editor
jah 1005 @ psu.ed u
Painting, music, speakers,
poetry, improv and more, these
are some of the events going on
the week of Feb. 6-11 that make
up the Diversity Committee's
Culture Week.
Having a Culture Week is very
important to Behrend. "Not
enough attention is paid to diver
sity on the campus and so hope
fully a week dedicated to it might
help open some people's eyes,"
said Seraina Naef, Director of the
Diversity Committee. She
added, "[The goal of Culture
week] is to raise awareness about
diversity."
The Diversity Committee was
reinstated this year and many
would like it to be continued.
Naef said, "Hopefully with the
success of the next week, the
committee will be a continued
asset."
There will be eight events
throughout the week. Culture
Rush is happening on Feb. 6 from
12 p.m.to 4 p.m. "Culture Rush
is a club rush that spotlights
Busy Bit Torrent? File-sharing questions answered
By Logan Stack
technology columnist
IwsllB@psu.edu
Dear ASCII,
Why is BitToffent so slow in the
dorms?
Bit Torrent is a file-sharing protocol
designed to make it easy to share your files
with many people. Normally, when you
share, files you must send a full copy of the
file to everyone who is downloading it.
Bit Torrent has everyone share what they've
downloaded so far. When you upload half a
file to one person, that person can then share
his half with everyone else downloading it.
This way someone with only a DSL or Cable
Internet connection can give a huge file to
thousands of people.
Unfortunately for us at Penn State, the
AD2O policy was revised last year. It states
r' 1 r
Multi Cultural Council organiza
tions and issues concerning
diversity. - said Naef. All of the
MCC groups will be in the
McGarvey Commons; they will
have information about clubs and
organizations and things you can
do to help.
Magdalen Hsu-Li is a
singer/entertainer who will he
speaking about diversity. She is
an Asian-American who has
overcome a lot of adversity in
order to achieve success. She
owns her own record label and is
an "international success." She
will be singing, speaking and
possibly paying piano in the
McGarvey Commons at 7:30
p.m. on Feb. 7.
Also on Feb. 7, there will be a
blues band performing in Bruno's
at 7:30 p.m. The band is com
prised of a few Behrend students
and, the atmosphere will be cof
fee shop-like.
Wacongo will be performing at
the Music at Noon series on Feb.
8 in the Wintergarden. They are
an African drum band that also
dances; they will be performing
at noon.
"I'm really excited about
Visual Impact because he [the
that we are not allowed to run servers in the
dorms and that housing should enforce this
with a firewall. So, our computers cannot
accept an incoming connection. We can only
request connections from others. The way
Bit Torrent is set up, the speed at which you
get to download is determined by the speed at
which you upload. This makes sure nobody
"leaches" off the network; no one can take
from the network without giving something
in return. But the firewall prevents us from
letting anyone connect to us, so we are inca
pable of giving anything back to the people
trying to download. Thus, the rest of the peo
ple on the Torrent defend themselves auto
matically and do not let us connect to them.
We're stuck downloading it from a single
source instead of everybody connected to the
Torrent.
You can get around this though! You can
download Torrents fine in the labs, or by con
necting to the wireless network. These don't
have the same restrictions that the dorms
rrr -
rrri r
ri - ni
p
artist) paints on an eight loot can
vas in 10-15 minutes while he lis
tens to music. - said Naef about
the Visual Impact perf or mer.
There will he a Diversity
Luncheon on Feb. 10 from 11
a.m. to 3 p.m. There will he a
slide show of the week's e‘ents
and a professor. to he announced,
will speak about di% ersity in the
classroom.
The Matchbox Players have
also co-sponsored an Improv
with Women Today. This will
take place Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.n►.
They plan to confront different
stereotypes through improvisa
tional games. "Sometimes you
need to take a serious situation
and lighten it a little," said Nile
Finally, on Feb. I I at 7 p.m.,
Yellow Rage will be making their
return to Behrend. "They are two
Asian-Americans who recite
poetry that's similar to slam poet
ry; they sing, swear, hum, do just
about anything to get their point
across," Naef said.
"Culture Week is intended for
everyone, but specifically people
who would not normally come in
contact with other cultures'
beliefs and attitudes," Naef said.
"Research has shown that stu
dents who are exposed to cultural
diversity become better critical
thinkers and even better prepared
professionals. The idea is that
you are able to better understand
and relate to others of different
cultures. You understand their
different perspectives," said
Andy Herrera, Director of
Educational Equite and Diversity
Programs responding to the
importance of getting to know
others of different cultural back-
grounds.
The Diversity Committee did
not do this all on its own. "My
committee is awesome," said
Naef, adding that the committee
had help from the Student
Government Association, Student
Activity Fee, Matchbox Players,
Asian Student Organization,
Multi Cultural Council, Women
Today and Trigon.
For more information, you can
contact Seraina Naef at
snn 108 @psu.edu or Andy
Herrera at
Andy Herrera @ psu.edu.
have, so you can give back to the Torrent. If
you don't know anything about Torrents,
here's how you can get started. First you need
a Torrent client. The official one is available
at bittorrent.com, for Windows, Mac OS X,
and Linux. There are many other clients
though, so if you don't like this one you can
just search online for another. Once you have
your client, you need to download a .torrent
file. This file tells your client where to look
for its initial source, from there your client
will find other sources. You can search for
these .torrent files at bittorrent.com, google,
or anywhere else.
Once you download the .torrent file, open it
with your client; it will start downloading the
files from other people connected to the .tor
rent and it will start uploading what you have
downloaded so far to other people connecting
to the same .torrent file. The more people
downloading, the faster it goes!
Ask ASCII! E-mail him: ASCll@psu.edu.
Healthy Habits
By Greg Lanich
staff writer
gdl 118@psu.edu
Behrend's on-campus
Health and Wellness Center
may offer more than you
know. You may have seen the
signs in bathroom stalls that
state the new vaccinations or
disease prevention methods
are available. These signs are
put out by the Health and
Wellness Center, to give stu
dents something to read while
using campus facilities.
These "Stall Stories" can
teach students new facts from
"sleeping can boost your
immune system" to "seasonal
immunization available
now." In addition to immu
nizations, the Health and
Wellness Center also offers
physical exams for sports,
driver's licenses, employ
ment and women's care.
Educational programs,
including exercise, nutrition,
stress management, substance
abuse and sexuality are also
affected.
Patty Pasky-McMahon,
Director of Health and
Wellness at Penn State Erie,
said to beware the coming
allergy season, especially
with Erie's characteristically
spontaneous climate. The
rapid changes in weather lead
to fungi and other allergens
ready to take a toll on your
sinuses. "Humidify, humidi
fy, humidify," says McMahon
on trying to prevent sinus
problems.
"Allowing your sinuses to
dry can cause them to work
overtime, causing sinus
infections and other compli
cations...try instead of drying
your heavy clothes in a dryer,
to hang dry them in your
room. The extra water vapor
that evaporates can really
help with sinus problems."
Another simple method to
stay healthy is to get enough
rest. According to a CNN
interview with Dr. William
Collinge, "Good-quality
sleep goes far and beyond
[medicines] when it comes to
restoring your health." He
added, "quantity doesn't nec
essarily equal quality: You
may sleep for many hours,
but if your sleep isn't deep
enough, or if your sleep cycle
is disturbed, you may still be
at greater risk for illness."
McMahon agrees with this
philosophy and says that not
enough sleep can lower your
immune system down to 50
percent maximum efficiency.
Collinge also gives some
tips on getting the proper
Do you write fiction,
poetry,
The Creative Writer's
Corner is coming to the
Student Life page!
you are interested in
having your work pub
lished, please email
SLEditor@psu.edu for
consideration.
The Behrend Beacon I 7
amount of sleep. First, rise
and shine. Spending a few
minutes in the early morning
sun helps your biological
clock align itself with the
cycles of nature. Second,
have your evening meal early.
Finish your evening meal by
6:00 or 6:30 p.m. so your
body's digestive processes
can be at . rest when you go to
bed. Third, Go to bed at 10
p.m. Your body was designed
to sync with the cycles of
nature, including daylight
and darkness, with the opti
mal time for sleep falling
between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Fouth, reduce stimulants. If
you find it difficult to get to
sleep around 10 p.m., try cut
ting stimulants out of your
diet, particularly caffeine
products like coffee, choco
late and black tea, even in the
morning.
Lastly, quiet your mind. If
your body is tired but your
mind is active, try meditation
or prayer.
In addition to the common
malady treatment and infor
mation, McMahon also
requested to note the special
services the Health and
Wellness center offers: "Free
HIV testing and counseling,
pregnancy testing, STD test
ing and treatment, and post
sexual assault treatment,"
She added, "We also offer
the Plan-B morning after pill
to Penn State females as well
as. the female partners of
Penn State males. Some peo
ple believe the morning after
pill is the abortion pill, which
is incorrect. The morning
after pill (Plan-B) is a pre
ventative contraceptive."
According to McMahon, the
Family Planning section has
researched that in areas
where the morning after pill
was available, there was a 75
percent decline in pregnancy
and a 90 percent decrease in
abortions
Behrend also offers sexual
assault treatment to anyone
nearby who has been victim
ized in a sexual attack. Penn
State incurs all charges
involved in a sexual assault,
including medical charges at
a hospital, follow-up exams
and transportation in a taxi or
ambulance. A very detailed
"Guide for Sexual Assault
Victims," along with infor
mation on all Health and
Wellness services and contact
numbers is available at the
Health and Wellness Center
or call 898-6217.
or non-fiction?