The Cornell Daily Sun - Independent Since 1880

The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/2000/10/20/mens-tennis-hosts-invitational/)

October 20, 2000

Uncategorized

Men's Tennis Hosts Invitational

By ryan | October 20, 2000

This weekend is the last chance for the Cornell men’s tennis team to strut its stuff at home in the year 2000, when it hosts the Cornell Fall Indoor Invitational at Reis Tennis Center, starting tonight.

Boston University, Stony Brook, Rutgers, American University, Kutztown, Farleigh-Dickinson, and St. Bonaventure will all be in town from the individual matches.

Head coach Barry Schoonmaker will be playing every member of the team this weekend.

“It’s a chance to let [our players] show what they can do; at the same we get to see and scout some of our opponents,” commented Schoonmaker, “it’s not the same intensity as a regular dual match, but I still think we should dominate these teams.”

The Fall Indoor will be the first chance for senior Mike Halperin to play at Cornell during the fall. The reigning Ivy Player of the Year, who went undefeated in Ivy League play last year, was unable to make the Fall Outdoor and Indoor in 1999 because of injuries.

Halperin will also play with his doubles partner from last year, junior co-captain Stefan Paulovic. Senior Greg Artzt will play alongside his doubles partner, junior Pat Hagan.

Archived article by Tom McNulty

Related

Jared Diamond Speaks About Human History

By ryan October 23, 2000

13,000 years of history were summed up in 42 minutes last night in the Alice B. Statler Auditorium. The Spencer T. & Ann W. Olin Foundation presented Prof. Jared Diamond, physiology, UCLA School of Medicine, who discussed human history from a scientific perspective. Guns, Germs and Steel, Diamond’s Pulitzer Prize winning book that combines history and biology to account for numerous modern social phenomena, was the topic of last night’s lecture. In trying to sum up his lecture in one sentence, Diamond said, “The difference between human societies on different continents seems to me to be attributed to environmental differences, not innate differences in the people.” Diamond opened the lecture with slides of various people from around the world to illustrate human diversity. “13,000 years ago, everybody everywhere in the world was a hunter-gatherer,” Diamond explained. “As a result of their nomadic lifestyles, [they] lived at relatively low population densities. The woman cannot carry two children on her back. She won’t give birth to her next child until the older child can keep up with the group.” Certain nomadic cultures existed in environments conducive to agriculture. These nomads were able to settle and develop farming along with edible plant and animal domestication. “There was a population explosion because they were able to settle down and live full lives,” Diamond said. Diamond explained that “90 percent of the world speaks languages derived two-thousand years ago from two places: the Fertile Crescent or China, the areas that developed the first farming and hence the first expansion of farmers.” He compared the agricultural societies with those that remained hunter-gatherers, pointing out that in the former there was no longer a need to space out births and that an agricultural society surrounds themselves with edible plants and animals, making survival easier. He added that the storing of food surpluses allowed certain people to be political or form armies, unlike the hunter-gatherer societies. As a result, the agricultural societies became more technologically advanced. Jennifer Fox grad, who has used Diamond’s book in a course she TA’s, said, “I was most pleased with his ability to utilize ideas from not only evolution and biology, but apply them to history and broad historical trends.” Gavin Sacks grad, said he found it particularly interesting when Diamond drew attention to “agricultural and domestication influences on the variable rates of civilization on different continents.” Many students commented favorably on Diamond’s interpretation of racism. The professor explained that the usual response from an academic when asked the question, “Why did Europeans conquer aboriginals and Native Americans instead of the reverse?” was “something like, ‘I know this isn’t politically correct, but those aboriginals were primitive and just not as intelligent as Europeans.'” He then said that “the reason why people fall back on these racist explanations is because historians have not given an explanation. People look different on the outside, so they must be different on the inside.” “I thought his arguments against racism were very appropriate and heartfelt,” said Dan Grossman grad. Audience members came from outside of Cornell as well. Donna Puskar, a biology and chemistry teacher at Wellsboro Area High School in Pennsylvania, said, “I applaud his cross-curriculum approach.”Archived article by Olga Byrne
Upset Saturday Leaves an Ivy Mess

By ryan October 23, 2000

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Going into this weekend, three teams — Princeton, Penn and Cornell — found themselves in the driver’s seat of the Ivy League, all sporting 2-0 conference records. On Saturday, however, all three were unceremoniously knocked off their perches. First, the Quakers fell in a 27-24 squeaker to Yale. Then Tigers were manhandled at home by Harvard, 35-21. Finally, in a game that spanned nearly four hours, Cornell squandered a golden opportunity to take control of the Ivies, losing 56-40 to Brown. In a matter of hours, Saturday’s Ivy slate erased the untainted records of the leading schools and left the league with a convoluted jumble at the top. Five schools — Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn and Cornell — now stand together at the head of the conference, rendering the remaining four weeks of football one hell of a dogfight. “Everything’s tied,” said Cornell head coach Pete Mangurian. “There are just a few more people at the party.” “It’s typical Ivy League,” added Penn head coach Al Bagnoli. “Every team’s got a realistic chance.” What makes the homestretch of the conference schedule so interesting is how unpredictable the league has been in preceding weeks. Look, for example, at a string of games that have involved Brown, Princeton, Harvard, and Cornell. On September 30, the Crimson opened the Ivy season by handing the Bears a 42-37 loss. Two Saturdays later, Cornell defeated Harvard, 29-28. Then the following weekend, on October 14, Princeton laid waste to Brown, 55-28. Finally, just this past Saturday, Harvard beat Princeton while Cornell lost at Brown. Without a doubt, the conflicting league results have left both the odds-makers and coaches confounded. “Any given Saturday, there’s not a lot of difference from the top of the conference mountain to the bottom,” said Harvard head coach Tim Murphy. Even Columbia (1-2 Ivy), Brown (1-2) and Dartmouth (0-3) — who all look to be out of the title picture right now — can either play the roles of glorified spoilers or perhaps claw their way back to the top. “The talent in the league is very similar,” explained Princeton head coach Roger Hughes, adding, “I think [Columbia and Dartmouth] are still in the hunt.” Brown can’t win the Ivy title because of NCAA sanctions. Though its two Ivy victories have come by way of a pair of one-point victories against Yale and Harvard, Cornell arguably has the inside track at the championship. “We play three out of out four games at home [against Princeton, Dartmouth and Penn],” Mangurian said. “And two of the ones we don’t play [Harvard and Yale], play each other. ” “We can still win this thing,” he incredulously continued. “It’s unbelievable.”Archived article by Shiva Nagaraj