Back in January I wrote a post on Stephen Hawking: he wanted to go to space, and I argued the necessity and feasibility of his request. It’s Stephen Hawking, he’s a genius, let him truly experience what he’s studied for so many years.

My hopes were fulfilled - this may after all be a just world. Stephen Hawking is flying with the Zero Gravity Corporation this April, mounting a Boeing 727-200 and experiencing instances of zero gravity at altitudes of 24,000 feet. Not quite space, but he’s getting there…

He’s still looking to a 2009 trip 70 miles into space. If he can handle the g-force and the zero gravity on this upcoming voyage, with all luck he’ll be fine in space. But I’d never doubt Stephen Hawking, my hero, the epitome of a brilliant and curious mind.

In this photo taken Wednesday, feb. 21, 2007, Ohio U.S. tourists Clova Adams, receives medical attention because she had a panic attack after one of three masked robbers held a gun against her head during a robbery on a day tour from the Carnival Liberty cruise ship in Limon, Costa Rica. A US veteran who was among the tourists killed one of the robbers. (AP Photo/Roger Amoretty)

I live in Philadelphia, and I expect to get mugged. I’ve resigned myself to a position of indifference, going along with the ebb and flow of the city, hoping for a real solution to Philadelphia’s crime problem.

Next week is spring break. A break from my job, the pile of books I’m reading for class, and the routine that has inevitably developed by mid-semester. Just as important–spring break is a break from Philadelphia. This year’s destination is Costa Rica, the antithesis of this city and its dwindling remnants of snow. But although I’ll be shedding my coat and whatever work ethic I can claim to have, my mindset will remain.

I’ll be in Costa Rica, and I’ll expect to get mugged.

Last year my friends and I spent spring break in the Dominican Republic–dedicating most of our time to Santo Domingo and the beach.

Mugging attempt one: man rolls up beside us, pointing a cylindrical object out of the window and demanding cash. It was obviously not a gun, maybe a tool. We laughed it off.

Mugging attempt two: group of teenagers, in the ecstatic hysteria that is Carnival , attempt to mug us with a knife, no doubt targeting my friend’s expensive camera dangling from his side in typical tourist fashion. I remember hearing a form of a certain verb, matar, a word I then wished wasn’t in my Spanish vocabulary. We successfully fled on foot, camera intact.

I’ve been lucky that violence has avoided me, but I think I’ve romanticized foreign muggings as a result. It’s just part of the experience, I tell myself. It’s a first-hand encounter with the reality of the country I’m visiting. It’s exhilarating.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure my outlook would be different if my experiences ended with a third world hospital. Reason tells me it’s stupid to romanticize: when I’m in another country, I’m a target. I need to watch my back. I was instructed by an experienced traveler that if I wanted to take the bus into Haiti from the Dominican Republic, I would have to remove the logo on my New Balances, to avoid robbery attempts.

I was also told that I’d have to be a moron to go to Haiti.

So next week I’m off to Costa Rica, expecting crime and in a way hoping for it (though only in its nonviolent unsuccessful form). Crime is universal; I’ll have to deal with it no matter where I go.

Still, for some reason I’m not too worried.

I’m a criminal. I admit it.

I just found out that in Philadelphia, it’s illegal not to recycle. Breaking the law could result in a fine of up to $300. My roommates (who will remain unnamed…) and I have not been recycling &mdash to be honest, it’s an accomplishment if we actually take out the garbage. Sorting is out of the question.

But I think I should reconsider, especially since the City expanded its single stream residential recycling method into West Philadelphia starting March 3 . Now, we can set out pretty much everything recyclable in one container: glass, metal, plastic containers (#1 and #2), cardboard, and mixed paper. Apparently the plastic bottles and cardboard are new additions.

At home in Virginia, my family is forced to use a green plastic bin for recyclables. Of course the bin isn’t nearly large enough, and since the city won’t collect if the items aren’t in the bin, those newspapers and glass bottles end up with the rest of our rubbish, on their way to the landfill.

I never thought I’d say this, but Philadelphia’s system is more efficient. If you don’t have one of the blue recycling bins the city provides, you can use your own container &mdash as long as you mark it with the word “RECYCLING.” But be smart, if you use a cardboard box and it rains or snows, the result is messy. I learned that the hard way while cleaning up Center City last week.

If you live on campus, Penn’s got you covered. There are separate bins available in all of the college houses &mdash the high-rises and Quad also have chutes for recyclables.

I don’t need to discuss the benefits of recycling, and I doubt anyone fears that (questionably enforceable) $300 fine. But Philly has made it so easy there’s really no excuse. Just recycle.

Governor Ed Rendell, our Lord and Savior. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

This week could’ve been a nightmare: I woke up, peeked out the window, and immediately dreaded the eight block walk to campus. It’s cold as hell; that’s not so much the problem. The issue is that I’ve been slipping on the ice, way more than any sober person should. In fact, twice on a single block yesterday. But I haven’t had to make that trek everyday, thanks to the gorgeous gas-guzzling 42 bus.

Despite the transit-envy I feel when I visit other cities, foreign and domestic, I try to support SEPTA as often as possible, in talk and action.

But I’ve got some bad news (although I’m sure Philadelphians have come to expect it): SEPTA plans to increase fares “by at least 11 percent and perhaps as much as 31 percent,” according to an article in the Inquirer today. To make matters worse, service cuts and employee layoffs are also expected. This is a result of ever-lacking funding from the legislature, even though Governor Ed Rendell is sympathetic to SEPTA.

Some of you will remember the SEPTA strike last year, as well as Fast Eddie’s part in the resolution of that city-crippling event. It looks like the Governor might have yet another solution to SEPTA’s problems.

In his budget address last week, Rendell proposed the Oil Company Gross Profits Tax, which taxes the profits (recently, absurdly large profits) of oil companies at a rate of 6.17% on a “combined reporting basis.” This differs from the current Corporate Net Income Tax, which is at a rate of 9.9% yet allows for “creative accounting” on the part of oil companies. This “creative accounting” structures finances such that oil companies avoid paying taxes on most of their profits. With the new tax, the State would acquire an estimated $689 million more per year, which would be allocated towards transportation reform.

And it’s unlikely that Pennsylvanians will have their gas prices hiked in response — a provision in the bill apparently prohibits the companies from passing the burden to the consumer.

Yet this funding wouldn’t start until March 2008, too far off to tackle SEPTA’s current funding problem, according to the Inquirer. So unless someone develops a short-term solution, it looks like SEPTA passengers will have no choice but to cough up more cash and pray their bus or trolley route isn’t discontinued. I just hope the 42 bus and 34 trolley hang around — otherwise I’ll be busting my frozen ass from 36th to 45th street.

Imagine winning a game of basketball, and tasting the steel of a pistol as a result. Or feeling the burn of a bullet in your arm, as your car is sprayed from several directions at once. All before the age of 20.

For the past two weeks I’ve been cleaning up trash in Center City alongside South Philly natives. It didn’t take long for me to realize that they live in a completely different Philadelphia than Penn students.

I’ve come to expect these stories from my co-workers — men whose voices, faces, and apparent indifference towards violence personalize the statistics I’m bombarded with weekly in the news. To them this is life. You do what you gotta do to survive.

There’s clearly a serious problem here, and I’m in no position to propose a grand solution. Recently, The Spin has covered two pieces of news directly relating to Philadelphia’s crime problem: Rep. Chaka Fattah’s gun collection at 46th and Market, and Mayor Street’s curfew enforcement . While we can find minor flaws in any initiative, these two are undoubtedly steps in the right direction.

As long as Harrisburg allows for easy access to guns, programs like Fattah’s are crucial to getting guns off the street. The fewer guns, the less likely they’ll be drawn over a basketball game.

And although the thought of earlier curfews may make The Spin’s own Sharon Udasin “queasy,” curfews have proven success. The problem is beyond parental oversight. In 2006, minors made up 24% of homicide victims in South Philly and about 10% of victims in Philadelphia. With the enforcement of curfews and the creation of the Curfew Center–a place where police can take violators until their parents can get them–the homicide rate in minors dropped to 15% in South Philly, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

These statistics are encouraging, but clearly the city has a long way to go. With an upcoming mayoral election, I’m looking forward to seeing comprehensive plans to tackle what is undoubtedly the most tragic situation Philly faces today.

New New York City street signs.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new “major public safety crisis” in New York City. It has nothing to do with guns or drugs. The issue is people crossing the street while occupied by electronics. That means cell phones and iPods, the two necessities of college life.

New York State Senator Carl Kruger plans to introduce legislation banning the use of these products while in the split-second act of crossing a street, . The penalty would be a $100 fine.

The legislation stems from three recent deaths in Brooklyn — the victims were preoccupied by their electronics; their attention was diverted from incoming vehicles. Senator Kruger claims that “government has an obligation to protect its citizenry,” a broad attempt to justify the prospective law.

But this legislation is absurd.

What about other distractions? People walk and talk to each other all the time; I’ve nearly stepped into traffic while preoccupied by a conversation with a friend next to me. An attractive woman never fails to distract. Even our own thoughts, contemplation of the nuances of our lives, can steal our attention away from the street.

Moreover, if you still have headphones on, how would an officer know if you turned your iPod off before crossing the street? If you’re in the middle of a conversation and then tell the person to hold on while you cross the street, would you still be in violation by holding the phone while crossing — even if you’re not talking? This legislation makes no sense.

People have been killed recently — no doubt that’s tragic. But if you live in a city (or anywhere for that matter) you should understand that walking in front of a moving vehicle could kill you. If you want to talk on a cell phone or listen to music, it’s your responsibility to be sure you can do so without relinquishing your common sense. It’s basic self-preservation.

One of the benefits of being a Philosophy major, besides the endless job opportunities after graduation, is the volume of required reading each semester. A rough estimate of this semester’s load: over 2000 pages. Naturally there are times when I come to class without having actually finished the assigned reading. And as lame as it may sound, I feel kinda bad about it. Still, I find myself able to participate without looking like a complete idiot, more often that not.

I have my methods. Usually, I just wait for the discussion to delve into enough detail so that I can ask a meaningful question based solely off of what I just heard. But a distinguished professor at Paris University appears to have mastered my trade and written a book about it : Comment Parler des Livres que l’on n’a pas Lus (translation for followers of John Kneeland : How to Talk about Books that You Haven’t Read).

The London Times reports that Professor Pierre Bayard, who in the face of academia proudly lists the classics he’s never read, focuses on the relationship between psychoanalysis and literature. That’s right–a literature professor who often references (and even reviews) books he’s never read. Apparently that’s not a problem; Professor Bayard argues it may even be preferable.

“The discourse on books that have not been read places us at the heart of a creative process which leads us to their origin,” Bayard claims. If that’s the case, I guess coming to class unprepared isn’t so terrible. If my fellow classmates would do the same, maybe we’d all get to experience this creative process together in a more profound way.

Professor Bayard offers explicit advice for the non-reader engaging in discussion: “Avoid precise details. Put aside rational thought. Let your subconscious express your personal relationship with the work.” I consider myself open-minded and I have no problem putting aside rational thought (especially on the weekends). Maybe I’ll take the Professor’s advice and give it a shot.

And to express my thanks to Professor Bayard, I’m putting his book at the top of my list of those I’m not going to read.

Insert clever joke about Secretary Spelling’s last name here (she’s the one in the middle). (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Renee’ Hannans Henry)

Times are tough for the White House — Iraq is in anarchistic chaos, the Libby scandal continues, and the Democrats control Congress. Good press is hard to come by. But the White House hasn’t forgotten the saying: don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. But in this case, the gift horse is a donkey.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced yesterday afternoon that the 2008 budget will “increase the maximum Pell grant by $550 next year, to a maximum of $4,600.00,” AP reported. “The top grant would climb to $5,400 over five years.” This is a substantial raise from the current maximum Pell grant of $4,050, a slap in the face of a Democratic Congress that tried to pass off weak policy as their promised response to the ever-rising price of higher education.

The House recently passed the College Student Relief Act , which cuts the interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans in half to 3.4 percent over a five year timeframe. It leaves the maximum Pell grant untouched, a detail that especially affects low-income students and has drawn criticism from educators and politicians (not to mention, DP columnists.) That deficiency in the bill left room for a weakened Bush administration to step in, and it did just that.

Regardless of the political calculus, this reform is encouraging for those of us who rely on financial aid– especially low-income applicants. Here at Penn, almost 64 percent of undergraduates receive some form of financial aid, and 40 percent of undergraduates receive need-based grant aid. We so rarely receive good news from this White House, this announcement represents a progressive step towards making a college education affordable. It’s unfortunate that the Democrats only made a half-effort, but to be honest, I don’t care who’s behind the initiative — Republican or Democrat, as long as there’s effective reform.

Activists walk down Constitution Ave, in Washington during last weekend’s anti-war protest (DP)

The only moment I felt like a protester was in 30th Street Station, protesting my decision to take the obscenely early 4:55am train to D.C. When I boarded the train and took a seat, a quick glance at the overhead compartments confirmed my expectations: makeshift signs, protruding pickets, the arsenal of an angry citizenry.

Saturday, January 27th was a surprisingly warm winter day in Washington — the perfect day for a protest. Union Station, with its views of the US Capitol, served as the staging ground for an energized congregation — geriatrics draped in anti-war regalia, school groups straight off the bus, a couple toting an image of a Bush-Hitler hybrid. Destination: the National Mall. Goal: convince a newly elected Democratic Congress to end the war in Iraq.

The protest, organized by United for Peace and Justice , drew somewhere between ABC’s claim of “tens of thousands” and United for Peace and Justice’s estimate of “500,000″ people. But the numbers weren’t as important as the message: 64% of Americans think Congress has not been assertive enough in challenging the Bush Administration’s conduct of the war. It was time to force Congress to perform.

I found myself amongst the crowd, one of the uncountable, completely fascinated and perplexed by the madness. In front of me, four haunting words in block letters: “Bush lies. Who dies?” Haunting not because of the apparent message — but because of its simplicity, the omission of the process that transformed lies into dead bodies. Do these people actually blame Bush for our current situation? Chants of “Impeach Bush!” ended the suspense.

With the intimidating facade of the Capitol in the background, a series of speakers addressed the masses — including infamous and outspoken anti-war figures Jane Fonda and Sean Penn; House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Reverend Jesse Jackson, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA); veterans of both the Vietnam and the Iraq War; and parents of soldiers fighting in Iraq.

The speeches were laced with urgency, with anger, with repetition of indictments, with demand for change. The energy of the crowd was undeniable, but I couldn’t bring myself to clap with each point, to cry for impeachment. I only responded to claims of Constitutional transgressions, to claims of denials of habeas corpus. One thought flooded my mind: what have we gotten ourselves into?

I felt as if the protestors took the answer for granted: obviously we’re at war. We were lied to. “A Nation Betrayed,” as a hand painted sign so elegantly put it. Betrayed indeed, by ourselves and each other. The government hasn’t been stealing our freedom. Bush hasn’t been trampling our rights. We’ve handed over our freedom — delicately placed our rights at the feet of the president.

We’ve settled for mediocre representation — a Congress interested in its own self preservation. A cowardly establishment unfit to live up to the standards of our Constitution. This is the group “representing” our interests — this is the group to which the protest appealed.
It missed the point. At the inception of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine advised that, “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”

This war won’t end with an act of Congress — the tyranny of this administration, by Vice President Cheney’s own acknowledgment , will not subside. We’ve become accustomed to the illusion of democracy, the exaltation of American values as universally good. And at the same time, we’ve allowed the corrosion of our democracy and the negation of our values. An appeal to Congress is a superficial effort. What we need is an appeal to each other.

SEPTA isn’t popular with a lot of Penn students–the stench, the grime, the possibility of being victimized while waiting in a shady, underground station. The obvious alternative: take a cab. But that might not be so easy if you’re toting your drink of choice on the way to a BYO.

An article from CNN yesterday detailed cab drivers in Minneapolis who simply refuse to carry passengers with alcohol — and some drivers won’t even take passengers to bars. The reason: it’s against their religion. The conflict is heated at Minneapolis — St. Paul International Airport, where nearly 75% of the cabbies are Muslim and over 5000 passengers have been refused the ride in the past five years. The Muslim American Society told CNN that “it is expressly stated [that] transportation of alcohol for Muslims is against the Islamic faith, and therefore forbidden.”

A proposed compromise would have placed specific lights on the cabs that refused to transport alcohol–alerting the staff directing passengers that a cab was alcohol-free, so that they could send passengers to cabbies that wouldn’t mind the alcohol.

Apparently, that solution was unacceptable. It was seen as “condoning discrimination against people who had alcohol.” But since when was possessing alcohol a right more fundamental than the free exercise of religion?

Think of it this way: we, as Americans, are presumably guaranteed the free exercise of religion from birth. The constraints on this freedom come from nuanced interpretations of the Constitution and subsequent case law. But the right to possess alcohol? Non-existent prior to age 21. There are US citizens abroad dodging bullets, watching their friends being ripped apart by explosives. And many of these soldiers are under the legal drinking age in the United States. When they return home, happy to be alive and proud to have served their country, they can’t even have a beer at a bar in celebration. Obviously we don’t value the right to possess alcohol as much as the free exercise of religion.

Even more, these cabbies are losing money. I think it’s a safe assumption that driving a cab isn’t a relatively lucrative job — losing clients definitely hurts. But when faced with the decision to either sin against God or lose money, these cabbies appear to believe piety conquers profit.

So should we expect to encounter Philly cabbies who won’t take us (and our bottles of Patron) to the local Mexican BYO? Who knows. It hasn’t happened to me yet — but if it did, I hope I’d be able to suck up the inconvenience with the understanding that I’m respecting another human being’s most fundamental beliefs. I think that’s worth waiting in the cold for a few more minutes — especially if I have the Patron to help me out.