Month: September 2004

—Donna Bummer

A: Hate to break it to you Donna, but the old “she’s working hard for the money, so you better treat her right” philosophy just doesn’t cut it on the boardroom floor. Such is the case here.

 First, some background. The deal is that during UVA’s home football and basketball games, local nonprofits and civic groups, such as the Charlottesville High School Orchestra, counting their pennies to perform in Dallas, are blessed with the opportunity to serve Diet Coke to co-eds and sell snazzy ties to alumni. In exchange, the do-gooders keep a share of the profits, in the past that being 10 percent for one and all.

 The Aramark Corporation, which specializes in outsourcing services, is in charge of doling out the jobs and spare change to nonprofits that opt for food concessions. Until this season, the UVA Bookstore coordinated the lackeys who staffed retail concessions, but (insert ominous organ music here) that’s about to change.

  Yup, this fall the UVA Bookstore made, in the official rhetoric of bookstore director John Cates, the decision to “concentrate more on our core business—the bookstore…and the tent outside the stadium.” High and dry, UVA looked to Aramark to take over retail staffing and save the day.

 As per the instructions in their policy bible, Aramark docked nonprofit profit to 7 percent from 10 percent for retail concessions, although when it comes to food sales, Aramark still parts with the coveted 10 percent, says Kate Shields, a communications middleman at the company. This has the groups that will be profiting a little less in the future—the CHS Orchestra and the Lion’s Club, for example—up in arms.

 Allow Ace to crunch some numbers. At 10 percent, the young Itzhak Perlmans of the CHS Orchestra earn about $45 per prodigy, per game, estimates orchestra director Laura Thomas. This means that with seven little musicians at work, total take would equal $315. Take the profit down to 7 percent and their just rewards are slashed to $31.50 per kid. Phew! (Old Ace failed to ace math class past the sixth grade.)

 But who’s the real Scrooge here? The Bookstore? Aramark? The nonprofits for not just shutting up and being grateful? Ace suggests the wisdom of Henry Ford: “Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching for what it gets.” So all ya’ll, just keep clucking.

www.alternet.org

In Minot, North Dakota, in 2002, a train derailed at 1:30am spilling 200,000 gallons of deadly gas. All six commercial radio stations in the area were owned by Clear Channel, and all six were fully automated. As a result, the stations weren’t switched over to the emergency broadcasting frequency and the news wasn’t properly disseminated to the local population. One man who tried to get in his car died; others suffered burns or were partially blinded. It was an hour and a half before officials could finally get a hold of anyone at the station to broadcast the emergency alert.

 This incident, reported last year as one of Project Censored’s top censored stories of 2002-2003 [C-VILLE, September 30, 2003], offers a window into the larger problem of media consolidation wherein corporations, eager to cut costs, and loathe to disturb the interests of those in power, have already eaten up most of the media landscape. In the process they’ve neglected some of the most crucial information the American citizenry needs in order for our democracy to survive. Though an unprecedented number of concerned citizens spoke out against the recent attempt by the Federal Communications Commission to further deregulate the media, we’ve already seen the number of bold, independent-minded, Watergate-type stories diminish in frequency with each passing year.

 On a more personal level, how often do you find yourself sitting at dinner, on the bus, at work across from your pro-Bush uncle, acquaintance, or boss, referring to a story that didn’t get the coverage it warranted? You frantically Google it, but more often than not, if you find it at all, it’s far too late to make your point. And for most Americans, the simple fact that it didn’t make the nightly news is evidence of its dubiousness.

 Each year, in response to these concerns, Project Censored creates a list of its top “censored” stories of the year. Though it might more accurately be called “Project Not-Mentioned-Enough,” the list does provide crucial facts and perspectives that every citizen ought to know before stepping into a voting booth. It might also help with those friendly debates if you remember to pass it around to acquaintances, bosses and your Republican uncle.

 

Wealth inequality in 21st century threatens economy and democracy.

 The corporate media’s coverage of “the economy” is usually restricted to the rolling hills of the stock market, fluctuating rates of “consumer spending,” or corporations’ quarterly profit reports. Seldom is there any discussion of the distribution of these indicators of the national purse. Were the gap between the rich and poor to be a part of the discussion, the nightly news’ numbers would tell the story of an America few would recognize.

 Edward Wolff, a professor of economics at New York University, points out that while wealth inequality (“wealth” is defined as assets and income minus debt) fell from 1929 through 1976 or so, it has risen sharply since then. As it stood in 1998, the wealthiest 5 percent of this nation owned more (59 percent) than the other 95 percent put together. And that’s well before Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy were even a glimmer in the neoconservative eye. In fact, when compared to the egalitarian promised land of Sweden, up until the early 1970s the United States had a lower wealth inequality.

 Break it down along “racial” lines and the inequality bloats. Black families, while earning 60 percent of what white families earn, possess only 18 percent of the wealth.

 And should you not have any ethical problems with this inequality, recent studies provide reasons for even number-crunchers to worry. Wolff explains: “There is now a lot of evidence, based on cross-national comparisons of inequality and economic growth, that more unequal societies actually have lower rates of economic growth.” It boils down to this: Inequality leads to poor schooling for the majority, who in turn mature into a less capable, less ambitious and less talented pool of workers than many other nations’ kids whose systems provide an adequate education to all.

 This is a recent and reversible phenomenon, according to David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times reporter. He comments on the media’s mistaken treatment of “think tanks” as intellectual institutions instead of as “ideological marketing organizations” that “favor the super-rich.”

 Johnston challenges another cherished media myth: “Most Americans believe we take from people at the top to benefit those below. And what I show in [my] book from the data is that’s not the case. Our national myth—and I use that in the classic sense of the word “myth”—is wrong. We take from people who make $30,000 to $500,000 to give relief to those who make millions, or tens and hundreds of millions of dollars a year.”

 This trend is mirrored across the globe where one in six people lives in slums. U.N.-habitat estimates that, if governments don’t work to remedy the situation, “a third of the world’s population will be slum dwellers within 30 years… unplanned, unsanitary settlements threaten both political and fiscal stability within Third World countries, where urban slums are growing faster than expected.” Or: While we fight the “war on terror” we are neglecting a much greater threat to world stability: poverty.

See: Multinational Monitor, May 2003, Vol. 24, No. 5, Title: “The Wealth Divide” (An interview with Edward Wolff) Author: Robert Weissman;

Buzzflash March 26 and 29, 2004, Title: “A Buzzflash Interview, Parts I & II” (with David Cay Johnston) Author: Buzzflash Staff;

London Guardian, October 4, 2003, Title: “Every third person will be a slum dweller within 30 years, UN agency warns” Author: John Vidal;

Multinational Monitor, July/August, 2003, Title: “Grotesque Inequality,” Author: Robert Weissman.

 

Ashcroft vs. the human rights law that holds corporations  accountable.

In the morally challenged world of foreign policy, human rights abuses are often treated as just another pawn in the chess game for power and resources. As the events in Iraq over the past few decades have shown, criminal acts by a ruthless dictator only warrant retaliation when it becomes politically advantageous.

 But every now and again ordinary citizens find ways of bringing international criminals and human rights abusers to justice. One such case is the successful use of an obscure law, rediscovered in 1980, called the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789. Originally enacted to combat piracy in international waters, it has been used with increasing frequency to help “victims of serious rights abuses committed overseas by foreign government leaders and senior military officials, as well as United States and foreign-owned corporations, to get a hearing before U.S. federal courts.” It was used in the successful suit brought by Holocaust survivors against Swiss banks and companies that used slave labor during World War II.

 The father and sister of a Paraguayan boy who was kidnapped and tortured to death exhumed the law in 1980. When the police officer responsible for the killing later came to the United States, the family invoked the law, which was upheld by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Jim Lobe, who has reported on the rulings, notes that the 1980 ruling “was followed by a number of high-profile cases against foreign national leaders, such as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, and senior army or security officers from Guatemala, Indonesia, Argentina, Ethiopia, and El Salvador, among other countries.”

 But now, in spite of (or perhaps related to) these success stories, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is seeking to abolish the law, arguing that it, according to a Justice Department brief, “raises significant potential for serious interference with important foreign policy interests.”

 Human Rights Watch Director Tom Malinowski noted that the State Department has indicated little to no support for abolishing the law and added: “I don’t think this has anything to do with the war on terror…I think this is motivated by a very hard-core ideological resistance within the Justice Department to the whole concept of international law being enforced. The notion that international norms are enforceable by anyone is repugnant to some in the Justice Department.”

See: Oneworld.net and Asheville Global Report, May 19, 2003, Title: “Ashcroft goes after 200-year-old human rights law,” Author: Jim Lobe.

 

Bush Administration manipulates science and censors scientists.

This is one story that actually involves censorship by the Bush Administration. Still, although they’ve sought to censor scientists and their findings, they’ve yet to censor the stories of this censorship. But with a press corps as compliant and eager as the one we’ve got, why bother?

 Robert F. Kennedy, head of the Natural Resources Defense Council, exposes one particularly egregious example of Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency out and out lying to the public. Shortly after September 11 he and a partner experienced breathing problems at their office near the World Trade Center. They were able to close up shop, but “many workers did not have that option; their employers relied on the EPA’s nine press releases between September and December of 2001 reassuring the public about the wholesome air quality downtown. We have since learned that the government was lying to us. An Inspector General’s report released last August revealed that the EPA’s data did not support those assurances and that its press releases were being drafted or doctored by White House officials intent on reopening Wall Street.”

 This from a president whose re-election hinges on the public perception that he’s a caring father figure eager to deliver us from the horrors of terrorism and a dangerous world. It’s easy to see why adequate press coverage of this issue would undermine that image—and his re-election.

 A study by the EPA found that the bipartisan Senate Clear Air bill would do more to prevent American deaths than the Bush Administration’s proposed air pollution plan, known as “Clear Skies.” This study was promptly repressed by the Bush Administration. According to Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, “This is akin to the White House directing the National Weather Service to alter a hurricane forecast because they want everyone to think we have clear skies ahead…The hurricane is still coming, but without factual information no one will be ready for it.”

 An Environmental News Service report summed it up this way: “President George W. Bush has suppressed and distorted scientific analysis from federal agencies, subjected government scientists to ‘censorship and political oversight,’ and taken actions that have undermined the quality of scientific advisory panels.”

 The result, according to a former head of the National Science Foundation: “This will have serious consequences for public health.”

 Finally, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) compiled a 39-page report called “Politics and Science in the Bush Administration,” detailing the administration’s abuses of science in 20 separate categories. One example of many: “In the summer of 2002, CDC’s Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention was preparing to confront the controversial issue of whether to expand the diagnosis of lead poisoning to include children with lower levels of blood lead. For more than a decade, the committee had advised intervention if levels measured 10 micrograms per deciliter or greater. While the lead industry has opposed lowering the standard, recent research has suggested that the cognitive development of children may be impaired at levels of 5 micrograms per deciliter or lower. As the committee prepared to consider changing the standard, [Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy] Thompson removed or rejected several qualified scientists and replaced them with lead industry consultants.”

See: The Nation, March 8, 2004, Title: “The Junk Science of George W. Bush” Author: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.;

Censorship News: The National Coalition Against Censorship Newsletter, Fall 2003, #91 Title: “Censoring Scientific Information”;

Environment News Service and Oneworld.net, February 20, 2004, Title: “Ranking Scientists Warn Bush Science Policy Lacks Integrity,” Author: Sunny Lewis;

Office of U.S. Representative Henry A. Waxman, August 2003, Title: “Politics And Science In The Bush Administration,” Prepared by: Committee on Government Reform – Minority Staff (Updated November 13, 2003).

 

High uranium levelsfound in troops and civilians.

  After you wade through the administration’s knee-deep rhetoric about “supporting the troops” and respecting “our men and women in uniform,” it’s worth a moment to take a look at what’s happening to those who’ve served in Afghanistan and Iraq—not to mention the civilians of those nations.

 The Uranium Medical Research Center studied Afghan civilians a few months after U.S. attacks and found that of the samples taken, every single one had levels of non-depleted uranium, 4 to 20 times higher than normal. This non-depleted uranium is even more toxic than the depleted uranium which, according to Lauren Moret, President of Scientists for Indigenous People and Environmental Commissioner for the City of Berkeley, accounts for “more than 240,000 Gulf War veterans…on permanent medical disability and more than 11,000…dead.”

 Moret goes on to point out that “In a U.S. government study, conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs on post-Gulf War babies, 67 percent were found to have serious birth defects or serious illnesses. They were born without eyes, ears, had missing organs, missing legs and arms, fused fingers, thyroid or other organ malformations.”

 Neither type of uranium is able to discriminate between enemy soldiers, civilians and our very own troops, which means that if the Afghan population has it, then so will our troops.

 And indeed, according to an April 3 report in the New York Daily News, it’s happening again: “A nuclear medicine expert who examined and tested nine soldiers from the company [returning from Iraq] says that four ‘almost certainly’ inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium.”

 The U.S. Army, which continues to use depleted uranium in shells and as tank armor (to name a few of its current uses), naturally denies that DU has any negative consequences for its troops. The Daily News goes on to report, however, that “In January 2003, the European Parliament called for a moratorium on their use after reports of an unusual number of leukemia deaths among Italian soldiers who served in Kosovo, where DU weapons were used.”

 

See: Uranium Medical Research Center, January 2003, Title: “UMRC’s Preliminary Findings from Afghanistan & Operation Enduring Freedom” and “Afghan Field Trip #2 Report: Precision Destruction—Indiscriminate Effects,” Author: Tedd Weyman, UMRC Research Team;

Awakened Woman, January 2004, Title: “Scientists Uncover Radioactive Trail in Afghanistan,” Author: Stephanie Hiller;

Dissident Voice, March 2004, Title: “There Are No Words…Radiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs,” Author: Bob Nichols

 New York Daily News, April 5,2004, Title: “Poisoned?” Author: Juan Gonzalez;

Information Clearing House, March 2004, Title: “International Criminal Tribune For Afghanistan At Tokyo, The People vs. George Bush,” Author: Professor Niloufer Bhagwat.

 

The wholesale giveaway of our natural resources.

  You may be confused by all the historical comparisons necessary to fully appreciate the Bush Administration’s deplorable treatment of the people and resources of this country. Or you may be grateful for the history lesson. Either way, the most famous of these—that no president since Hoover has lost more jobs during his watch—has met its match.

 Adam Werbach, writing for In These Times, one-ups this oft-repeated criticism with one that, at least according to Project Censored, hasn’t been repeated oft enough: “There has not been such a wholesale giveaway of our common assets to corporate interests since the presidency of William McKinley (1897-1901).”

 Werbach writes, “Soon after Bush took office, Vice President Dick Cheney convened a secretive energy task force to craft the administration’s agenda. They recommended two major efforts: lower the environmental bar and pay corporations to jump over it. With the help of Enron’s Ken Lay and other gas and oil industry leaders, they laid out a set of plans to weaken existing environmental regulations and provide a multibillion-dollar package of tax incentives to increase oil and gas production.”

 The truth is, it’s very difficult to say for sure who was present at this meeting. While the media has reported that the nation’s energy policy was written during a meeting with undisclosed participants (rumored to be gas and oil industry leaders), they have been pretty lax in connecting this secretive task force with the sweetheart policies that have followed.

 Still, it doesn’t take a list of Cheney’s cronies to accurately report on the administration’s track record. One of Werbach’s examples is natural gas mining in Wyoming. To make a long story short, your tax dollars (3 billion of them) are subsidizing the extraction of natural gas, which would not normally be cost effective—primarily because, in the process of gaining access to the buried coal deposits, more than 700 million gallons of precious, publicly owned water must be removed from those pesky aquifers that stand in the way.

 Werbach goes on to explore the administration’s Orwellian environmental protection language and the media’s largely uncritical adoption of it. From the “Healthy Forests Initiative” to the “Clear Skies Act” (which some have dubbed the “Clear Lies Act), the media has seldom pointed out that these policies, by any objective standard (that is, not based on the words of those profiting from them), are disastrous to the common good.

 

See: In These Times, November 23, 2003, Title: “Liquidation of the Commons,” Author: Adam Werbach;

High Country News, Vol. 35, No. 11, June 9, 2003, Title: “Giant Sequoias Could Get the Ax,” Author: Matt Weiser.

 

Sale of electoral politics.

  As much hope as electronic voting offers (ease of use, access for the disabled etc), it offers just as many reasons for skepticism and fear. A look behind the curtain reveals that the programmers and manufacturers of the machines are a combination of defense contractors and corporations headed by staunch Republicans whose programming codes are dangerously faulty and whose results are impossible to verify.

 Still, despite the partisan nature of the manufacturers, the problem could be solved with paper receipts and nonpartisan audits. But thus far, bipartisan attempts to require such receipts and audits that would ensure popular confidence in our Democracy haven’t been a priority for the Republican-led congress. What possible reason could there be to prevent receipts? Are these questions being debated on “Hardball,” “Nightline,” in the pages of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, or anywhere else?

 And what do we have to show for electronic voting’s record so far? And why do we have to go to London to learn it? Writing for the London Independent, Andrew Gumbel informs us that Roy Barnes, Georgia’s Democratic incumbent governor, held a 10-point lead shortly before the 2002 election, while Max Cleland held a two- to five-point lead over his opponent in the state’s senate race. The results, in this first all-electronic election, greatly contradicted all available polling and demographic information. The governor’s race swung 16 points to the advantage of the Republican challenger while the senate race swung from nine to 12 points—also to the Republican challenger. But few, if any, in the media sought to investigate this coincidence. And Republican upsets didn’t end there; according to Gumbel: “There were others in Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois and New Hampshire—all in races that had been flagged as key partisan battlegrounds, and all won by the Republican Party.”

 Now, here’s the kicker: “The vote count was not conducted by state elections officials, but by the private company that sold Georgia the voting machines in the first place, under a strict trade-secrecy contract that made it not only difficult but actually illegal—on pain of stiff criminal penalties—for the state to touch the equipment or examine the proprietary software to ensure the machines worked properly.”

 Here, from the same report, is a story begging to be told on network news: Sen Chuck Hagel, $5 million investor in ES&S—one of the larger voting systems manufacturers—“became the first Republican in 24 years to be elected to the Senate from Nebraska, cheered on by the Omaha World-Herald newspaper which also happens to be a big investor in ES&S…80 percent of Mr. Hagel’s winning votes—both in 1996 and in 2002—were counted, under the usual terms of confidentiality, by his own company.” That just ain’t the American way.

 

See: In These Times, December 2003, Title: “Voting Machines Gone Wild,” Author: Mark Lewellen-Biddle;

Independent/UK, October 13, 2003, Title: “All The President’s Votes?” Author: Andrew Gumbel;

Democracy Now! September 4, 2003, Title: “Will Bush Backers Manipulate Votes to Deliver GW Another Election?” Reporter: Amy Goodman and the staff of Democracy Now!

 

Conservative organization drives judicial appointments.

  One of the most influential, yet underreported, legal factors in the lives of Americans is not who our lawmakers are, but how our laws are interpreted once they are passed. The federal courts often are considered the “guardians of the Constitution,” because their rulings protect rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.

 In 2001 George W. Bush eliminated the longstanding role of the American Bar Association (ABA) in the evaluation of prospective federal judges. ABA’s judicial ratings had long kept extremists from the Right and Left, off the bench. In its place, Bush has been using The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies—a national organization whose mission is to advance a conservative agenda by moving the country’s legal system to the right.

 Started in 1982 and drawing on support from conservatives such as John Ashcroft, Solicitor General Theodore Olson, Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, the Federalist Society has not only been aggressive in its tactics to appoint new judges—40 percent of Bush appointees are Federalist members—but also in attacking non-member judges. Hostility cast on 3rd Circuit Judge H. Lee Sarokin forced him to resign. “I see my life’s work and reputation being disparaged on an almost daily basis,” he said, “and I find myself unable to ignore it.”

 Martin Garbus and Jamin Raskin reported on this phenomenon in March 2003. “While Presidents and Congressmen get elected every few years, judicial appointments are for life, and some federal court appointments have gone from 40 to 50 years,” says Garbus. “Our courts deal with nearly every aspect of our life; work conditions and wages, schools, civil rights, affirmative action, crime and punishment, abortion and the environment, amongst others.”

 Since the publication of their articles, Bush tried to force through the most conservative group of nominees ever submitted by a President. He succeeded at times, but other appointments were rejected or stalled. Bush retaliated by making appointments while Congress was not in session. On May 18, a disastrous agreement was approved—Bush agreed not to make further recess appointments and the Democrats agreed to let Bush have 25 “free” appointments.

 

See: The American Prospect, Vol. 14, Issue 3, March 1, 2003, Title: “A Hostile Takeover: How the Federalist Society is Capturing the Federal Courts,” Author: Martin Garbus, Title: “Courts Vs. Citizens,” Author: Jamin Raskin

 

Secrets of Cheney’s energy task force come to light.

  It has become far more common in recent months for mainstream media to suggest that the war in Iraq is being fought not over weapons of mass destruction, but for oil and energy policies that benefit the United States. Far less common is the discussion of ties between Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force and the current predicament the country finds itself in the Middle East.

 During 2000-01, blackouts, oil and natural gas shortages and a dramatic rise in oil imports (over 50 percent for the first time in history) prompted Bush to establish a task force charged with developing a long-range plan to meet U.S. energy requirements. With the advice of his close friend and largest campaign contributor, Enron CEO, Ken Lay, Bush picked Vice President Dick Cheney, former Halliburton CEO, to head this group.

 In 2001 the Task Force formulated the National Energy Policy (NEP), or Cheney Report, bypassing possibilities for energy independence and reduced oil consumption with a declaration of ambitions to establish new sources of oil. Via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in 2003, documents revealed the Task’s Force interest in Iraqi oilfields as early as March 2001, pre-September 11.

 Most major media news organizations have published articles depicting various aspects of the energy crisis the United States continues to find itself in, and its effect on the current foreign policy in the Middle East, Africa and the Caspian Sea basin. Almost all, however, are reluctant to tie the Cheney Report, U.S. military policy and current energy policies together.

 

See: Judicial Watch, July 17,2003, Title: Cheney Energy Task Force Documents Feature Map of Iraqi Oilfields, Author: Judicial Watch staff;

Foreign Policy in Focus, January 2004, Title: “Bush-Cheney Energy Strategy:Procuring the Rest of the World’s Oil,” Author: Michael Klare.

 

Widow brings RICO case against U.S. government for 9/11.

  Under the Civil Racketeering, Influences, and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act, Ellen Mariani is suing President Bush and officials for malfeasant conspiracy, obstruction of justice and wrongful death; her husband, Louis Neil Mariani, was a passenger on Flight 175 that was flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11.

 The suit documents the detailed forewarnings from foreign governments and FBI agents; the unprecedented delinquency of our air defense; the inexplicable half hour dawdle of our Commander in Chief at a primary school after hearing the nation was under deadly attack; the incessant invocation of national security and executive privilege to suppress the facts; and the obstruction of all subsequent efforts to investigate the disaster. It concludes that compelling evidence will be presented in this case, through discovery, subpoena power and testimony, that defendants failed to act to prevent 9/11, knowing the attacks would lead to an international war on terror.

 Berg believes that defendant Bush is invoking a long standard operating procedure of national security and executive privilege claims to suppress the basis of this lawsuit.

 On November 26, 2003, a press conference was set up to discuss the full implications of these charges. Only FOX News attended the conference and taped 40 minutes. However, the film was never aired.

 

See: Scoop.co.nz, November 2003, Title: “911 Victim’s Wife Files RICO Case Against GW Bush,” Author: Philip J. Berg;

Scoop.co.nz, December 2003, Title: “Widow’s Bush Treason Suit Vanishes,” Author: W. David Kubiak.

 

New nukeplants: taxpayers support, industry profits.

  Senator Peter Domenici (R-NM), along with the Bush Administration, is looking to give the nuclear power industry a huge boost through the new Energy Policy Act. Through multipronged efforts contained within the bill, $6 billion to $15 billion tax production credits for new nuclear reactors would be issued, and would allow depleted uranium to be treated as “low level” waste, requiring the Department of Energy to take possession and dispose of waste generated at privately owned facilities (at no cost to the owner).

 Through the relentless efforts of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service and many other national and local activists and environmental groups, the Energy Bill (HR-6) was defeated on November 21, 2003, by a cloture vote of 57-40. Bill proponents could not overcome a filibuster supported by both Republicans and Democrats.

 However, the bill has been split by Domenici into two separate bills addressing policy and tax issues separately. The policy-sectioned bill has failed; Domenici continues to campaign for the addition of the tax credits to nuclear industries as amendments to other bills.

 

See: Nuclear Information and Resource Service, November 17, 2003, Title: “Nuclear Energy Would Get $7.5 Billion in Tax Subsides, US Taxpayers Would Fund Nuclear Monitor Relapse If Energy Bill Passes,” Authors: Cindy Folkers and Michael Mariotte;

Wise/NIRS Nuclear Monitor, August 2003, Title: “US Senate Passes Pro-Nuclear Energy Bill,” Authors: Cindy Folkers and Michael Mariotte.

 

Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet. Deanna Zandt is a freelance writer, geek and the creative administrator of the Bowery Poetry Club.

 

—Pex Sistol

A: Mr. Sistol, some things are easier said than done. Take, for example, your illustrious Mr. Lewis and Mr. Clark. These bold explorers indeed went where no white man had gone before, but had it not been for the aid of their faithful guide Sacagawea, they wouldn’t have gotten so far (although Ace bets you a beaver skin they still would have talked a big game). Likewise, while our fair City has expressed its good intentions of cleaning the statue, it has yet to deliver.

 The anarchy symbol, a capital “A” inscribed inside a circle to represent the anti-hierarchy philosophy, first appeared on the front base of the statue facing Main Street sometime early last fall (Ace could unearth no specific date). The City has since tried numerous times to clean it off, and while such attempts have dimmed the symbol, they have hardly caused it to disappear.

 John Mann, City parks and landscape manager, is in charge of the project. And man, what a project it is. “What we normally clean with did not do the job,” says Mann, referring to various solvents used to clean off grease and paint, but which he declined to specifically name for fear of incurring the wrath of fuming manufacturers (Ace intends the pun!).

 Thus Mann is “looking for recommendations from other cities,” meaning bigger cities—like Philadelphia—that deal with graffiti situations on a more regular basis than sleepy ol’ Charlottesville does. He has already tried two suggested solvents; they both failed.

 Mann and his men are currently investigating a last-ditch effort of a “baking soda compound with a power washing and the solvents,” he says. If that fails, then they’ll turn to the real professionals, meaning a curator of some kind, in hopes of having the order restored to the statue by winter. If, when and who that will be remains to be seen, leaving the cost of this little clean-up still up in the air.

 The real problem, according to Mann, is that the stone of the statue is not sealed. It’s made from unpolished, porous granite and the paint has weaseled its way into the statue and made itself at home. Moreover, the lettering etched into the surface means that blasting away the graffiti might also blast away the history lesson underneath, which, depending on who you ask (maybe the anarchists!), could use some revising anyway.

Who doesn’t love to eat? O.K., who besides Mary-Kate Olsen doesn’t love to eat? We’re so lucky we live in Charlottesville, where therestaurants rival Volvos for per capita representation. It’s like an open invitation for a long-term love affair. To help you organize yourmany food choices, the always-hungry staff of C-VILLE went on a hunt for some of the area’s most delicious morsels. Fifty platefuls later,we present our second annual catalog of what tastes great right now.

 

Bluegrass Grill’s

Chorizo Potato Dish

Untouched, this breakfast creation looks like a volcanic lake, the lava-like cheese coating archipelagos of potato cubes and Chorizo. But this is far more than a hearty hangover cure: This is gluttony for the refined palate. The meaty Mexican sausage suffuses the entire dish, giving the tender potatoes the flavor of a complex stew tinged by sharp green onions and green bell peppers. And those in the know need not be reminded that a dash of Cholula hot sauce makes virtually everything more exciting.

 

Fossett’s

Study in Pear

This elegant dish combines three pear-centric desserts to please any palate. The warm, flaky tart is garnished with cinnamon and conjures up images of the holidays, and the accompanying scoop of pear sorbet helps wash it down. A fluffy tower of cheesecake with a fruity, jam-like filling rises above the others. The only necessary addition? A pot of Fossett’s French-pressed coffee. This dessert combination all but eliminates the need for a main course.

 

Boar’s Head Inn’s

Braised Breast of Guinea Hen

For regular Joes it’s bacon bits. But at Boar’s Head’s Old Mill Room, it’s lardons. And, man, do the fresh-from-the-pig morsels capture the flavor of this seasonal selection, which saltily sits atop a bed of roasted potatoes with lardons, asparagus and thyme sauce for a delicate bitterness. The crispy hen is topped by a sprig of thyme inside a grid of fried and hashed potatoes for added aesthetics.

 

Baja Bean’s

Kahlua Milkshake

God bless the Kahlua milkshake, which heroically straddles two favorite indulgences: ice cream and booze. Is it a dessert? A potent potable? Yes, and yes. If you’re feeling particularly gluttonous, brave the 27-ounce goliath, which arrives in a glass the size of a small fishbowl, topped with whipped cream, chocolate sauce and a cherry. The liberal dose of the cocoa-and-fruit-flavored liqueur quickly sends you to a very happy, high-calorie place. This dish no longer appears on Baja’s menu, but they’ll make it if you ask nicely.

 

Fuel’s

Egg Florentine

Any gas station can throw together an egg salad sandwich. But if the gas station is painted Easter-egg purple, stocked with its own brand of wine and bankrolled by Patricia Kluge, well—that egg salad sandwich better be damn good.

 At Fuel you don’t get egg salad. You get “The Egg Florentine.” The egg salad is tastefully dressed in spinach and Parmesan, and the chickens that laid the eggs all hold college degrees. They do fine work. The $5 price tag is on par with the steep but delicious fare at this combination filling station/haute café.

 

Fox’s Café

Coconut Cream Pie

There’s nothing that tops off a tuna melt on rye like an inch of meringue over vanilla custard with coconut shavings on top and a flaky crust below. Fox’s pie melts in your mouth and somehow is light yet large!

 

Big Mouth Pizza’s

Blue Print

This is no ordinary pizza. Consider the toppings: Soft roasted red peppers, whole kalamata olives, delightful shiitake mushrooms and goat cheese melted into a thin bed of mozarella atop a tangy homemade tomato sauce. Then there’s the crust: Nearly an inch thick, yet so light and crispy you barely notice the size. Each quarter pie (roughly the equivalent of two slices) is made fresh when you order, making this pie a blueprint for tastiness.

 

El Puerto’s

Chicken Soup

A Mexican restaurant might not be the first destination that pops to mind when what you seek is a brothy cure for the common cold. But El Puerto packs so much flavor—not to mention chicken—into its soup that once you’ve had it you’ll have trouble thinking of any other place to get the soup. With leaves of cilantro floating cheerfully on the surface and spoonfuls of rice and peas waiting to be scooped up from underneath, this salty, homemade concoction is at once astringent and filling. Enjoy it con much gusto.

 

Firehouse Bar & Grill’s

Frosty PBR

Somewhere in Portland, Oregon, some hipster decided it would be cool to walk into a swanky brew pub and order a Pabst Blue Ribbon, and suddenly PBR emerged as the latest ironic trend. Is a little sincerity too much to ask? The Firehouse serves up the PBR the way it was meant to be enjoyed—ice cold, hipster free and—if you’re lucky—owner Earl Smith will be on the mic, doing his dead-on Bon Scott impression.

 

Oxo’s

Seared Scallops Appetizer

As if three perfect scallops were not enough to get your salivatory glands pumping, this meal-starter also features sautéed lima beans, bacon, short rib and red pepper coulis. Presented with standard Oxo elegance in a deep-lipped white plate, the troika of shapes privileges the cylindrical: Three perfectly seared scallops top a corona of limas perching in a swell pool of red-orange coulis. The earthy aroma rises from the shreds of meat, but somehow your mouth registers delicate, not gamey taste. The textures harmonize, too, with soft scallops contrasting the slightly blackened crispiness of the beans.

 

C’Ville Coffee’s

Vietnamese Grilled Chicken Pho

The aroma of this traditional Vietnamese soup is sweet, with the waft of cinnamon giving it a cold-weather feel. But this soup also has the fiery kick of the Orient, particularly if you dump in the included jalapeno slices and a healthy dose of Sriracha HOT chili sauce (the bottle features a picture of a rooster). Also included on the side of this steaming soup are basil leaves and crisp bean sprouts. The tender white chicken is cooked in the broth for more than two hours, adding a robust meatiness to the complex mix of spices and making this Pho a particularly decadent healthy meal.

 

The Korner Restaurant’s

One-Eye Bacon Cheeseburger

Generally speaking, the Korner’s cinder-block-wall and linoleum-floor lunch counter celebrates all things blue collar without too many frills. That is, unless you go for this sandwich: a fried egg over hard bacon and American cheese—an entire breakfast—overtop of a beef patty that hangs off the grease-sopped bun. For when one meal just won’t do.

 

Baker’s Palette’s

Cinnamon Bun

Could this be the best cinnamon bun in town? To the casual eye there’s little difference from any other breakfast pastry. The dough swirls around the ribbon of gooey, semi-crystallized cinnamon and nutmeg topped with just enough icing. But one bite reveals a uniquely subdued spiciness that lingers even after you’re done. Tip: It’s best served warm.

 

Tastings’

Kir apertif

On its own, Aligoté wine is neither here nor there—semisweet, semidry…or maybe somewhere in between. But then, one would never mix a great wine. Tastings’ Kir aperitif pairs the mediocre French white with cassis liqueur in a concoction that’s bound to set you on your way to a great meal. The sweetness of the black currant and dryness of the grape blend into a warming fruity taste, like spiked punch.

 

Court Square Tavern’s

Shepherd’s Pie

You’ve been doing manual labor all day. Tonight, the rain is pouring down and the wind is howling. This is your fantasy of how you spent your day, and what you need is a good dose of shepherd’s pie. There aren’t many places you can find it outside of Great Britain, but Court Square Tavern serves it piping hot. Nothing says rejuvenation like equal parts beef and potato (with corn mixed in for good measure, surrounded by a soft, flaky crust). Wash it down with a Guinness from the tap and life’s lookin’ up, lads.

 

La Cucina’s

Linguini with Classic Tomato Sauce and Homemade Sausage

The tiled patio outside La Cucina, tucked beside the former Metro on Water Street, provides a shady outpost off the Downtown Mall. Ceiling fans whir overhead while a sweet aroma wafts from the Italian sausage, which clumps beautifully in your linguini and tomato sauce. Less is more—the plain sauce gives you plenty of room to savor the sausage’s spicy flavor.

 

Splendora’s Café’s

Affogato

Splendora’s has excellent coffee and tasty gelato, so it simply seems logical to combine the two. The café’s affogato pairs a hearty scoop of gelato with a shot of espresso, creating a dessert that turns into a caffeine-fueled Italian milkshake as it melts. While hazelnut and vanilla are both solid, dependable flavors, the chocolate gelato pairs the best overall with the espresso. Like chocolate-covered coffee beans, only better.

 

Italian Villa’s

Cavalier Country Breakfast

Let’s face it—with the demise of the Blue Moon Diner, fans of a hearty breakfast are finding their options dwindling. For those who crave meat sopped in egg yolk, the Italian Villa still serves a hangover-curing repast, with nary a shiitake mushroom or crumbled goat cheese on the menu. Get your ham fried, your eggs runny, your grits buttery, and stir it all into a pile. That’s a day-starter.

 

Brix Marketplace’s

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

The pastry chef arrives at 6:30am to start whipping up these sublimely rich creations. A great cookie should be neither hard nor gooey, but a combination of both textures. This cookie is crisp and firm on the surface, with a hearty dollop of whole oats that gives it a fresh, substantial feel. Inside is where the sin gets serious, with loads of moist chocolate chips that melt before they hit the tongue. Buy only one of these gourmet delights, as you’ll be hard pressed to resist eating a second given the chance.

 

Sakura’s

Bento Box

A piping hot bowl of miso soup and small lettuce salad with UVA-orange ginger-and-fruit dressing bring your tongue to a Zen-like bliss. Then Sakura makes you one with everything: Its all-encompassing Bento Box, in what looks like a plastic TV dinner container, offers giant shrimp, broccoli and mystery root vegetables in flaky tempura with a ginger dipping sauce, thinly sliced meat and vegetables in a sweet teriyaki, California-style sushi rolls with avocado and artificial crab, and steaming, sticky rice.

 

Mudhouse’s

Carrot and Orange Juice

Sure, the beta-carotene is good for you and all those freshly pressed enzymes help to shoo away hangover nasties. But on its own carrot juice can be so…vegetably. That’s where the splash of fresh OJ comes to the rescue, providing just the accent of straight-ahead sweetness that’s needed to reassure your palate that you’re doing the right thing.

 

Foods of All Nations’

European Candy

Walking into this Ivy Road grocery’s candy section is like entering Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. There you’ll find shelf after shelf of bizarre sweets from around the globe. (Alas, no everlasting gobstoppers or snozberry-flavored wallpaper.) One of our favorites is Swiss chocolatier Nestle’s Aero bar, primarily enjoyed in the United Kingdom. Chocolate covers a mysterious bubble-filled center that the manufacturer boasts is “all bubble, no squeak!” We have no idea what that means. God bless the Brits!

 

Copacabana’s

Paella

Normally the ideas of “Brazil” and “cuisine” make as much sense together as “Barry Manilow” and “jam band”—until you’ve had the Paella Copacabana. A fruits-de-mer backbone of mussels, shrimp, clams and oysters is the main attraction, along with a carnival of chicken, pork and sweet-tasting sausage chunks. Strands of mustard greens, onion, and red and green peppers flavor and color the stew, while saffron rice soaks it all up—bringing you the hottest dish west of Whole Foods.

 

Wolfie’s Smokehouse’s

North Carolina Pulled Pork

You can’t go wrong when picking among the various barbecue varieties on which to gorge at Wolfie’s, but nothing beats going south of the border to sample North Carolina’s finest. Tar Heels know a thing or two about the pig, focusing on tenderizing and deeply smoking the meat rather than dousing it with heavy sauces. Wolfie’s massive pulled-pork adheres to this old-school technique, and the fine strips of meat carry a smoky, mild spiciness.

 

Southern Culture’s

Grits

With a little Wilson Pickett on the patio radio and the sun beating down on your back, only a heapin’ plate of Southern Culture’s grits really says “down-home Southern cooking” on a Sunday morning like they mean it. “Grit” is right, but get used to it because the more grit, the more flavor. Alone, this stick-to-your-ribs, flavorful dish is sweet, savory and spicy in turn. But add some butter, salt and pepper and you know the Lord has blessed you. Amen.

 

Chap’s’

Chocolate Egg Cream

If your original address has the words New York in it, you’ll be positively relieved to get a swig of this liquid Madeleine, which, naturally, has neither egg nor cream in it (its three ingredients are chocolate syrup, milk and seltzer water). If you’re from around these parts to begin with, you might regard the oddly named fountain drink as a mystery. So take a shot and solve the puzzle: The taste is chocolate milk for grown-ups or chocolate soda for the school-lunch set, depending on your perspective. Either way, the effervescent mild sweetness is a pleasure cruise for your gullet.

 

Dürty Nelly’s Pub’s

Barrister Sandwich

A recent travel article in The Washington Post gave Dürty Nelly’s a shout-out on a list of places that ’Hoo football fans coming from NoVA should hit on their trip to Charlottesville for the big game. Dürty Nelly’s loves them some Cavs, and we love the Barrister, whipped up in the Dürty deli. It’s a white bread envelope bursting with roast beef and turkey, bits of coleslaw and Russian dressing dribbling over your fingers. Messy enough for any sports fan.

 

Hamiltons’ at First & Main’s

Vegetarian Blue Plate Special

This ever-changing entrée could convert the most carnivorous eater to vegetarian. Recent specials have included cheesy eggplant casserole with breadcrumbs, caramelized Vidalia onions, tangy black-eyed pea salad, lightly fried cheese fritters and stuffed poblano peppers. Submit yourself to the chef’s culinary whims—you know you want to!

 

Aficionados Smoke Shop’s

Macanudo Cafe Cigar

&

Downtown Grille’s

Brandy

Though the Macanudo is a light, inexpensive cigar, it still packs a punch. After a deep puff, the tobacco coats your palate with the taste of a fine hickory smoke pit. Once fully prepped with the rich smoke, it’s time to swirl the brandy under your nose, getting a full whiff of the sweet, medicinal liquor. The swig of the potent potable is surprisingly deep, almost cleansing, but not overpowering—its stiff bite tempered by the husky tobacco. High rollers know what they’re doing: There are few combinations more ideal than brandy and cigars. The warmth of the brandy moves to your stomach after you swallow, but the tingling sensation stays in your mouth, your tongue feeling almost lightly burned. It’s time for another puff. So very Vegas, baby.

 

Saigon Café’s

Bun Thit Nuong

Most folks refer to this dish as the Vietnamese pork bowl. For ordering ease, just say “No. 901, please.” But whatever you call it, this simple Asian meal tastes great. Slices of flavorful grilled pork and peanut crumbles top a heaping bowl of steamed rice noodles, mixed with various greens, such as cucumbers and lettuce. Pour on Saigon’s delicious dipping sauce to add a refreshing vinegary zing.

 

Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar’s

Goat Herder’s Platter

The Goat Herder’s Platter is like a well-led life: diverse and balanced. The center of the dish is hot pita bread, seasoned with sumac leaf, toasted sesame and thyme, which you then dip into a smooth homemade hummus with garlic. Reconnect with your inner hunter-gatherer by sampling the various nuts, dates, figs and cheeses that surround the center. Finish with dried mangos and crystallized ginger. Inner peace found.

 

Café Europa’s

Venetian Sandwich

There are cold cuts and there are sliced deli meats. Cold cuts harbor the slightly waxy fat of Mr. Oscar Mayer. But deli meats…those are the sophisticated sandwich fillers worthy of baguettes and croissants. Café Europa’s Venetian stands out among many delectable sandwiches at the Corner stand-by for its combination of thinly sliced Italian meats (Cappicola ham and Genoa salami) with fresh, slightly sweet Provolone cheese served up with lettuce, tomato, olive oil, wine vinegar and oregano on a section of fresh baguette. Adding to the pack-separating brilliance of this lunchtime selection are the hot peppers and roasted red peppers that kick in with gusto, forever banishing any notion that the Venetian is a cold-cuts sandwich.

 

Blue Light Grill’s

Oysters on the Half Shell

Take them on a dare, as an aphrodisiac or because your boss told you to—this seafood delicacy is good for any occasion. Harvested from Chincoteague’s Coan River, the raw oysters are remarkably mild with a “crisp cucumber aftertaste,” according to the menu. You can trust the slimy filter feeders to be thoroughly cleaned, so after a splash of hot sauce, some lemon juice and a little alcohol, you’re left with a happy, tingly feeling—not that bad, nauseated one.

 

Miyako’s

Sake

Sake is a Japanese fermented rice drink and, like sushi, you may not appreciate the flavor on your first taste. But it’s worth getting used to.

 First-rate sake, like Miyako’s Sho Chiku Bai Nama, contains fewer hangover-inducing impurities than most alcoholic drinks. At 15 percent alcohol by volume, sake brings on the hilarity without the headache.

 Miyako’s organic sake arrives in a cold green bottle. The waitress pours it into a nifty carafe, which keeps it lightly chilled (the ideal temperature for fine sake). The texture is between a wine and beer, fermented grain without bubbles. The flavor is numb, like drinking airline white wine at 10,000 feet, before your ears have popped.

 

Blue Ridge Country Store’s

Salad Bar

Although now the only salad bar available to Downtown lunchgoers (R.I.P. Liquid), the offerings from this faux general store earn notice with or without competition. The dozens of fixins include the ordinary (romaine lettuce, cucumbers, Roma tomatoes) to the homemade (homemade pasta salad, jerk rice). Speaking of homemade, go for the wasabi cucumber and raspberry vinaigrette dressings.

 

Feast’s

Grilled 9-Cheese Sandwich

A gourmet, multicheese twist on the traditional sandwich. Mozzarella, white cheddar, Parmesan, American and five additional cheeses are shredded, combined and melted together between grilled slices of fresh focaccia. A splash of Spanish olive oil and a light layer of homemade red pepper spread are standard additions, while slabs of Roma tomatoes are optional but highly recommended. It’s nothing like your mother used to make, but it’s so much better this way.

 

The New Deli’s

Lemon Squares

The New Deli’s lemon squares, generously dusted with powdered sugar on top, offer a sweet, smooth filling. Lemon can be relied on to be tingly, sure, but it’s the crust that really raises the bar: buttery and soft, almost cookie-like.

 

Kokopelli’s Café’s

Yo-Yo Ma’s Oriental Wrap

Chicken takes center stage in almost any wrap concoction these days, but the surprise in this popular selection at the noisy Crozet eatery is what we think of as the La Choy factor: crispy Asian noodles and a spicy-sweet sauce drizzled over a filling that includes bean sprouts.

 

Northern Exposure’s

Grandma Sylvia’s Classic Beef Lasagna

You know you’re in for a gut-bursting challenge when the waiter wishes you good luck finishing a meal. Grandma Sylvia knows how to fill a guy up. With a portion roughly the size of a human head, this no-frills Italian delicacy is an Atkins freak’s worst nightmare. Layers of noodles, fresh ground Angus sirloin, and ricotta and mozzarella cheese await under practically a lake of peppy marinara sauce.

 

Milano’s

Spumoni Gelato

Nothing bad can be said about gelato. Even less bad can be said about gelato when it’s mixed with alcohol. Take, for instance, Milano’s Spumoni. The sweet creamy mixture of vanilla ice cream and bourbon, with whole maraschino cherries hidden here and there, goes down like a decent mixed drink.

 

Escafé’s

Horseradish Crusted Salmon Sandwich

This sandwich proves that an expert mix of fresh ingredients in a small package easily trumps huge portions. The bread, baked everyday at Albemarle Baking Co., is light and airy, but the thick salmon cut is slathered in butter and all that healthy fish fat. Mixed in a lime cilantro sauce that creates a soft tangy twang, the horseradish isn’t of the nose-rush variety. The sandwich can be a tad messy, but isn’t that the way with almost anything worth eating? For a fuller experience, wash it down with one of Escafé’s hard-hitting Rye Manhattans.

 

Maharaja’s

Samosas

Potatoes and peas, spiced with tumeric and garam masala, come smooshed inside a pair of fried pastries that look surprisingly like conquistador helmets. The spices make the soft potatoes taste like a mouthful of summer night.

 

Downtown Thai’s

Thai Iced Tea

Asking what goes into this orangey beverage might earn you a suspicious leer at the recently opened, relocated Thai Thip when, after an extensive brewing process, the refreshing drink emerges from the kitchen. The strong, distinctly Asian flavor of the tea—somewhere between green and Chai—is cut by the sweetness of condensed milk. Adding to the exotic appeal are small, tropical-flavored gelatin cubes floating in the bottom.

 

Pupusa Crazy’s

Pupusa Platter

The Pupusa Platter piles a lot of Latin American flavor onto one plate. The pupusas themselves are fried, filled with cheese or pork, and have the light consistency of pancakes. Beside them rests a chicken tamale, cooked with cornmeal and wrapped in a banana husk, and a delicately fried yucca. Finally, a scoop of pickled slaw washes the hearty food down with a nice, tangy aftertaste.

 

Zocalo’s

Drunken New York Strip Steak

Once you have finished admiring the artful presentation of the various-colored rectangles and arrows of food in this signature dish at Downtown’s It restaurant of the moment, get ready for a taste-inspired reverie. Marinated in Guinness, which yields a yeasty, battery taste, and drizzled with chipolte demi-glaze, the tender slices of beef almost literally melt in your mouth. The dish is served with tangy polenta fries, and a couple bites of these moist-sharp squares will have you praising lipid-loving cornmeal and perhaps denouncing the humble potato forever. Add to that perfectly crisp spears of asparagus and you have a triumphant triumvirate of distinctive and hearty flavors that is not soon forgotten.

 

Ludwig’s Schnitzelhouse’s

$2 Beer and Brat Special

Following in the tradition of ala carte and tapas menus, Ludwig’s Thursday night beer-and-brat special shows that Germany too can be a master of culinary innovation. Instead of fancy choices, fill yourself with unlimited $2-a-pop, expertly cooked wursts. Dress up the mild sausages with eye-wateringly spicy mustard on a slice of pumpernickel bread. Then wash it all down with a sweet, smooth, 10oz. dark beer, pilsner or Heffeweissen.

 

The Shebeen’s

Sadza Cakes

This filling vegetarian dish features golden Parmesan polenta patties (sometimes shaped like mushrooms) smothered in eggplant, spinach, sugar snap peas, and shiitake and portobello mushrooms, then lightly coated in a lemongrass sauce. The inch-thick cakes are perfectly cooked, leaving them crisp around the edges. Each bite blossoms: The rich, dense cakes pack a slightly grainy base, accompanied by the lightly sweet, but still reserved, sauce and then finished with earthy flourish from the ‘shrooms and eggplant. The side of sweet potato “chips” chases it all with zip.

 

El Rey del Taco’s

Enchiladas Poblanas

He’s the King of the Taco. Tacos make pilgrimages to his kitchen on bended knee. How can you beat that? The Rey, that is, Rudy Padilla, buries his enchiladas like chicken-and-mole treasures beneath a layer of lettuce, sour cream and guacamole. Dig it out, and hail the king.

 

Atomic Burrito’s

Grilled Chicken Burrito

Wrapped up in warm tortillas as wide as an extra large pizza, these burritos are vacuum-packed with fresh Mexican flavor. The coconut rice and crisp lettuce taste cool and sweet against the spicy marinated chicken, while the five flavors of salsa give you control over the heat. For a milder temperature, go with the fresh fruit blend. If you’re feelin’ loco, however, crank things up with the fiery Salsa Diablo. After all, they don’t call it Atomic Burrito for nothing.

 

Food service
Where to satisfy your taste buds

Aficionado’s Smoke Shop 108 Fourth St. NE, 975-1175

Atomic Burrito 109 Second St. SE., 977-0117

Baja Bean 1327 W. Main St., 293-4507

Baker’s Palette 126B Garrett St., 295-3009

Big Mouth Pizza 909 W. Main St., Suite 102, 220-1070

Blue Light Grill 120 E. Main St., Downtown Mall,295-1223

Blue Ridge Country Store 3315 Berkmar Dr., Downtown Mall, 295-1573

Bluegrass Grill and Bakery The Glass Building, Second Street SE, 295-9700

Boar’s Head Inn 200 Ednam Dr., 972-2230

Brix Marketplace 1330 Thomas Jefferson Pkwy.,295-7000

C’ville Coffee Co. 1301 Harris St., 817-2633

Café Europa 1331 W. Main St., 295-4040

Chap’s 223 E. Main St., Downtown Mall,977-4139

Copacabana 400 Shopper’s World Ct., 973-1177

Court Square Tavern 500 Court Sq., 296-6111

Downtown Grill 201 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 817-7080

Downtown Thai 111 W. Water St., 245-9300

Dürty Nelly’s Pub 2200 Jefferson Park Ave., 295-1278

El Puerto 2045 Barracks Rd., 872-9488

El Rey del Taco 380 Greenbrier Dr., 964-1439

Escafe 225 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 295-8668

Feast 416 W. Main St., in the Main Street Market, 244-7800

Firehouse Bar & Grill 946 Grady Ave., 293-3473

Foods of All Nations 2121 Ivy Rd., 296-6131

Fossett’s Inside Keswick Hall, off 250E,979-3440

Fox’s Café 403 Avon St., 293-2844

Fuel 900 E. Market St., 220-3700

Hamiltons’ At First & Main 101 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 295-6649

Italian Villa 129 N. Emmet St., 296-9977

Kokopelli’s Café The Square, Crozet, 823-5645

Korner Restaurant 415 Ninth St. SW., 977-9535

La Cucina 214 Water St., 295-9050

Ludwig’s Schnitzelhouse 2208 Fontaine Ave., 293-7185

Maharaja Seminole Square,Wertland Street,973-1110

Milano Main Street Market annex,220-4302

Miyako 112 W. Main St., 984-3000

Mudhouse 213 W. Main St., several otherlocations, 984-6833

New Deli 1640 Seminole Trail, 978-4757

Northern Exposure 1202 W. Main St., 977-6002

Oxo 215 Water St., 977-8111

Pupusa Crazy 29N, across from Sam’s Club,975-6600

Saigon Café 1703 Allied St., 296-8661

Sakura 105 14th St., 923-0238

The Shebeen Vinegar Hill Shopping Center,296-3185

Southern Culture 633 W. Main St., 979-1990

Splendora’s 317 E. Main St., Downtown Mall,296-8555

Tastings 502 E. Market St., 293-3663

Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar 414 E. Main St., Downtown Mall,293-9947

Wolfie’s Smokehouse 1525 E. Rio Rd., 975-3100

Zocalo 201 E. Main St., in Central Place, 977-4944

 

Ask most Americans about the periodic table and you’re likely to get vague descriptions of rarely used furniture or perhaps faint memories from a high school classroom. Even here in Charlottesville, science is a murky mystery, the domainof white coat-wearing magicians. Yet over on the west side of town sits one of the most active, prestigious hubs of scientific research in the world. Conversationswith five local science types reveal thatscientists are people, too—no Coke bottle glasses or twitchy Mr. Hyde types here—and that the layperson can actuallyunderstand groundbreaking science, as long as a researcher explains it patiently.

Spider man
Joseph Humphrey went to a beach in Portugal and discovered his life’s calling

In August of 1984, Dr. Joseph “Pepe” Humphrey and his 8-year-old daughter Fiona were wandering along a beach in Portugal when Fiona stopped and remarked, “It’s raining spiders!” He looked up and sure enough, spiders were ballooning in from the sea, landing on the sand, bushes and rocks. Upon closer inspection, Humphrey and his daughter observed that when the spiders landed, they turned to face the breeze and lifted two of their eight legs. They then released a silk filament that would balloon up once more and “Poof! They would take off again!

 “Ballooning has been known for thousands of years,” Humphrey explains today. “But that was our first observation of it …At that point I realized that I would not be happy until I had read everything there was to know about that topic.”

 Twenty years later, the memory of that eureka moment still prompts enthusiasm from Humphrey. His life’s work, researching arthropod sensors, was shaped by the question he asked himself that day on the beach: How do those spiders know the breeze is blowing?

 Dressed in a green polo shirt and pressed khakis with a cell phone clipped to his belt, 54-year-old Humphrey holds the Wade Professorship at UVA’s department of engineering and applied science and is chairman of the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering. An engineer with a biologist’s heart, his corner office is simple, even Spartan, with cream-colored cinderblock walls and two windows covered by metal Venetian blinds. With a neatly trimmed gray beard and glasses, he sits holding a children’s picture book titled The Book of Spiders that he’s pulled off the nearest of his five large bookcases. The cover illustration is a close up of a large, hairy tarantula. As he discusses the wonders of spiders, he excitedly points out different magnified sensory hairs on the insect.

 “If a spider is sitting on a table and a cockroach walks across a table on the other side…every time the cockroach puts its leg on the table… the spider senses it,” Humphrey says. “All this information enters the nervous system of the animal and the animal behaves accordingly.”

 The spider then knows whether to turn right, to turn left, to jump, to run and hide or to attack, leading, as Charles Darwin taught, to the survival of the species. How these sensors work together in a system that provides the insect all it needs to know about its environment is Humphrey’s engineering problem.

 Hairs on a spider measure approximately 10 microns in diameter and 100 microns long (a micron is one millionth of a meter). But the sensors, which are located at the base of the hair, are 100 times smaller than a spider’s hair.

 Humphrey’s goal is to take the principles of these sensors and duplicate them in the lab. While he admits that it would be impossible to replicate them perfectly, he says, “I can pick up the fundamental principle.” By understanding how the spiders’ sensors work and by using “my albeit limited engineering technology,” Humphrey is currently working to produce replica sensors with colleagues at UVA and at the University of Connecticut.

 Along with spiders, Humphrey also researches the sensory systems of crayfish and moths. All three species are part of the arthropod family, distinguished by segmented bodies and articulated legs. Apart from their sensors, these animals are uniquely suited to his research for two other reasons. First, cockroaches and other arthropods have lived for hundreds of millions of years (400 million years in the case of spiders) and thus predate dinosaurs. This, marvels Humphrey, “means that they got it right very early on.”

 The second reason is logistical. Arthropods aren’t like cats or dogs or monkeys: They are easy to raise in a lab and, as Humphrey puts it, “Who cares about cockroaches?” Adding after a slight pause, “Which happen to be extremely interesting animals.”

 For the first 12 years of his life, Humphrey was raised in Cuba, fishing, collecting shells and swimming in the sun. He traces his interest in biology to this early exposure to nature. His mother, whose parents had moved from Maine to Cuba in the 1920s, was American, and his father, Spanish. In 1960, the family lost all their property and was “politely asked to leave” the country when Castro collectivized the land. From there, the family scattered. Humphrey moved to Barcelona where he spent the next 10 years. He later earned his undergraduate degree in Spain, his master’s degree in Canada and his Ph.D. in England. His nickname, “Pepe,” is “Joe” in Spanish.

 Humphrey accepted a position at the University of California at Berkeley in the late 1970s and later spent time at the University of Arizona at Tucson and Bucknell. He arrived at UVA in 2000. Charlottesville, he notes quietly, has the most beautiful moths he’s ever seen: “Big ones, little ones, colored ones. Incredible.”

 The sensors Humphrey hopes to build will monitor—as they do on spiders, moths and crayfish—the health of our environment. Extremely small, mass-produced, inexpensive and replaceable, the sensors could be strategically located all over a room, able to “beam their information to a central processing system that would inform you about the health of that system,” he explains.

 Practically speaking, this means sensors in a building in, say, California, could detect an earthquake’s subtle tremors far underground, or similarly, they could inform people if “a terrorist dumped a harmful gas through one of the vent ducts…The animals are tremendous models,” concludes Humphrey. “But that’s the ultimate goal: To get this to work for society.”—Nell Boeschenstein

 

The pretenders
Make-believe is no waste of time for Dr. Angeline Lillard

 Dr. Angeline Lillard‘s office in UVA’s Gilmer Hall is filled with props. The prominent psychologist enthusiastically uses a troll doll, fake sushi roll and an Altoid tin to help illustrate several concepts from her research in child psychology.

 Lillard’s toy props are particularly appropriate, as in addition to adeptly illuminating complex ideas, her work is based on the idea that pretense, or using make-believe objects and actions, is key in how children learn to communicate, to navigate the idiosyncrasies of the world, even to first grasp that people have interior intellectual lives.

 “We’re the only species that pretends like we do,” Lillard says. “It seems to be at the root of all these fundamental activities that make us what we are.”

 Lillard says children usually learn to pretend during infancy, with a “huge jump” in playacting occurring between 18 and 24 months of age. From age 2 until elementary school, children will spend 20 percent to 40 percent of their free time pretending, whether playing with plastic animals or acting like firefighters.

 While a child’s make-believe games may seem silly, they may be techniques for sorting out emotional issues or, Lillard says, of running through the “scripts” of life’s activities—from eating dinner to raising kids.

 Lillard thinks we continue our childhood pretending in adulthood by “engaging in fictional worlds” through novels, movies, music and art. In fact, much of life is marked by symbolism and representational reality. By viewing the world through pictures and words on the Internet or in newspapers, we often learn through interpretation, not through actual experiences.

 The Early Social Cognition Laboratory at UVA, Lillard’s lab, is striving to learn how parents teach babies to pretend, and how well children understand pretend acts.

 Using an Altoid box, Lillard explains one mysterious finding. If asked what’s inside the tin, a 3-year-old child will answer that it contains mints. However, when Lillard cracks open the little tin, it’s filled with rubber bands and a thumbtack. She says that even after seeing the tin’s contents, a child will often continue to assume that the closed tin contains mints. Lillard says this common response is particularly confounding because these same young children have usually learned to pretend, meaning that they can already substitute false representations of the world for real ones.

 In another example of children’s puzzling mental development, Lillard holds a card displaying a picture of a horse. Holding it out flat and parallel to the ground, the horse would appear right side up to a child sitting across from her while Lillard would see an upside down picture. Many young children think that Lillard will also see the picture as upright.

 “They don’t seem to see that minds actively represent and interpret the world,” Lillard says. “They seem to think that we all share one view of the world.”

 Yet these same children understand pretense, such as understanding that an adult speaking into a banana is not actually talking on the phone, but merely playacting. “That’s the crazy problem,” Lillard says.

 The world is a confusing place for young children, who are constantly learning about their environment. Yet Lillard says parents begin to “bamboozle” their kids by playacting at an early age, even before a baby’s first birthday. Since 1999, Lillard’s lab has sought to learn how a child learns when Mom is actually doing something, and when she’s just playing around.

 All of this research, in addition to providing basic insight into how the human mind evolves, may help psychologists better understand children with developmental problems or with disabilities such as autism. Lillard says children with autism never spontaneously engage in make-believe play like normally developing children do.

 Lillard’s team spends a great deal of energy recruiting local mothers and children for her research. During the course of one experiment that required a narrow window of age among babies, she says, “We just used them all up.” Lillard says that mothers seem to enjoy the experiments.

 “They like the commitment to science and that their baby can help science,” she says, adding that parents benefit from learning about child development. (Interested parents with a child who is under 8 years old can call 243-5234 for more information on participating in research.)

 Lillard’s interest in child psychology began while she was working as a technical writer in San Francisco in the early ’80s. As an avid windsurfer and a fan of computers, the Bay Area was ideal for her. During that time, she took a course on Montessori schooling, a nontraditional school model developed by Italy’s first woman doctor. Lillard, who attended a Montessori school and was interested in Montessori’s differently structured teaching methods, which allow children to have more control over their environment.

 Deciding that she wanted to better understand the science behind Montessori, Lillard later enrolled at Stanford University, earning her Ph.D. in psychology and studying with Dr. John Flavell, a famous psychologist who essentially brought Jean Piaget’s groundbreaking work on child psychology to the United States.

 “I really had no clue what I was getting into,” Lillard says of her decision to study psychology.

 But 20 years later, Lillard’s work has come back around to Montessori. She has written a book, Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius, which should hit bookstores in February.

 Lillard says her research has been augmented by another personal experience besides Montessori schooling: that of raising two daughters. She says that in psychology, children are thought to suddenly make leaps in their understanding, often at a specific age.

 From watching her daughters, Lillard says she’s learned that in reality, there are “waves of understanding that just come and go.”—Paul Fain

 

 

Thinking big
about small stuff
Rosalyn Berne travels to the frontlines of the revolutionary nanotechnology field

 Nothing so small has ever kicked up such a fuss. In the case of nanotechnology, which is loosely defined as technology that works at the nanometer level—one billionth of a meter or the width of 10 hydrogen atoms in a row—both the minute scale and surrounding hype are indeed extraordinary.

 A conversation with Dr. Rosalyn Berne, a nanotech ethicist at UVA, about the promise and risks of the growing juggernaut of nanotechnology can make your head spin.

 Each of the novel nano-scale developments Berne describes, some still far-off concepts and others already to be found in consumer products such as sunscreen, yield a cascade of questions. Could carbon nanotubes—rolled using a layer of carbon only one atom thick—be toxic when they pass through human tissue? What could the military do with a camera the size of pin? What would “robot-type instruments in the blood stream” mean for targeted cancer treatments?

 Berne says that by precisely manipulating matter at the atomic level, one can fundamentally alter a material and its behavior.

 “Once you get down to the level of the atom, you’re talking about rearranging nature,” Berne says. “This is a big deal.”

 In 2003, Congress decided to dole out $3.7 billion on nanotechnology research over the next four years and venture capital for nanotech jumped by 40 percent. UVA is getting in on the nanotech bonanza, big time. Local researchers are working on nanotech breakthroughs in medical technology, semiconductors and in designing new metals, prompting a senior UVA nanotech expert to predict that the school would be among the top 10 institutions working in the field within 10 years.

 But despite all the interest in nanotechnology, Berne says the technology’s potential to massively alter society has yet tobe considered.

 “Where’s the moral leadership?” she asks rhetorically. “It doesn’t exist.”

 To spark a conversation about nanotech’s impact on the way we all live, Berne, who is an assistant professor in the department of technology, culture and communications in UVA’s school of engineering, is going to the frontlines and speaking directly with scientists.

 As part of a grant from the National Science Foundation, Berne is three years into a five-year study in which she meets twice a year with 35 top nanotech researchers. Though the scientists Berne interviews are actually developing these cutting-edge technologies, she says they rarely get the chance to publicly air their thoughts about nanotechnology and what their discoveries could, or should, mean for society.

 “Their voices don’t usually come out as individuals,” Berne says.

 In addition to having little free time to ruminate on the ethics surrounding their work, Berne says, nanotech scientists “need money to run their labs.” Because she says virtually all of the funding for nanotechnology “has special interests attached to it,” any quest for overarching ethical principles often gets lost in the grind of producing discoveries to keep the lab afloat.

 Because the scientists she speaks with are in sensitive roles, Berne guarantees their anonymity in her interviews. Over the years, she has taken these interviews, added her own analysis and put them together in a book that serves as an “interim reflection.” Berne says the manuscript is written, and at the publisher.

 Berne hasn’t always been working on the cusp of technology. First arriving in Charlottesville as a UVA undergrad in the mid-’70s, Berne’s diverse local career includes turns as Darden’s dean of admissions and as head of the Tandem Friends School. But Berne says she’s always been interested in the future, displaying a watch that she says is perpetually seven minutes fast.

 Berne arrived at her ethical investigation of nanotechnology through her interest in the relationship between humans and machines. In the undergraduate classes she teaches, Berne weaves in discussions of artificial intelligence, robotics and the movie The Matrix. Like these futuristic conceits, nanotechnology can fundamentally alter how we interact with nature, raising the question of whether humans can “sculpt the future” or are predetermined by evolution to always be a few steps behind our technological advances.

 “HAL is coming,” Berne says, referencing the demented self-aware computer in the sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. “Do we want HAL? Do we have a choice?”

 Berne describes how one nanotech scientist, whom she has interviewed, is developing a DNA mapping kit that could be used at home, as easily as a home pregnancy test. With a swipe of the tongue, a kit user could be screened for 100 genetic defects, learning instantly that he might be at risk for Alzheimer’s disease or prostate cancer.

 “How much information is good information?” Berne asks of the magic DNA box. “And who has access to it?”

 Berne, 47, is not a technophobe, however. While discussing nanotech at an outside café on the Downtown Mall, her daughter quietly sitting at the next table, Berne comes across as an optimist. Her work depends on the notion that scientists and lawmakers have the power to influence how nanotechnology will be used.

 “I still want to believe that we can decide how we want to have a relationship with technology,” Berne says.—Paul Fain

 

 

How high is that mountain?
Dennis Proffitt unlocks keys to perception

 Ever been annoyed by someone talking to you when you’re trying to read? What if someone’s prattling on when you’re reading targeting data—tall man, spotless white robes, menacingly beatific face; chubby ex-paratrooper populist, freely-elected leader of a South American oil power—while simultaneously piloting three Predator-type drones armed with Hellfire missiles?

 Well, it can get under your skin.

 The neurological phenomenon involved in performing distinct mental activities has far-reaching technological implications, says Dr. Dennis Proffitt, director of UVA’s undergraduate program for cognitive science and the Proffitt Perception Lab.

 “We have different memory systems,” Proffitt says. “We have a spatial one and a verbal one. They don’t much draw on common resources, so you can do a spatial task and a verbal task at the same time. But you can’t do two verbal tasks at the same time.”

 Proffitt’s lab, with funding from the Department of Defense, recently completed building a system that uses portable, wearable brain-activity sensors, which look like dental headgear without the unpleasant teeth-attachments, to coordinate information flow from a computer. Using the UVA Hospital’s magnetic resonance imaging scanner—a large machine into which subjects are inserted like pizzas into a brick oven—to first pinpoint neural activity associated with mental functions of interest, the wearable device is calibrated to detect the specific ways in which its wearer is preoccupied at any given moment, and to what extent.

 The idea is to channel messages based on cognitive availability, or to choke off nonessential traffic altogether if the user is under great stress. So, in trials, subjects were asked to count silently at intervals and respond to verbal tasks presented to them on a computer screen. Performance was improved when the additional verbal tasks were presented only when the system detected the subjects were not counting.

 Honeywell, Lockheed Martin and Boeing are interested in military applications for the technology, such as equipping a pilot with the ability to control several unmanned aerial drones simultaneously, as compared with the three-man crew currently required to remotely fly the Predator.

 DaimlerChrysler is also investigating uses for Proffitt’s work. For example, Proffitt suggests that a Mercedes’ navigational computer could decide to stop spitting out directions when the car senses its put-upon driver is trying to avoid a collision.

 Proffitt, who has a stark, sanguine pate, sharp blue eyes, and salt-and-pepper mustache and hair, earned his doctorate in psychology in 1976, arriving at UVA in 1979. Speaking in even, soft tones—perhaps owing to the shellshock of moving into a new lab and offices just before the academic year begins—he describes his lab’s mission as providing a place for students and staff to create knowledge, build careers and be useful.

 “I do none of the work,” he says self-effacingly. “The work all gets done by graduate students, undergraduates, staff.” Reflecting a tenet of his life’s philosophy, Proffitt also includes the directive to “have fun” in the lab’s mission statement.

 The next project for Proffitt’s portable brain-scanning equipment—one of few such devices in the country—is aimed at helping patients stricken with Locked-In Syndrome, a condition where brain trauma and other causes leave victims conscious but permanently and totally paralyzed, save for eye movements. Proffitt hopes his scanning equipment can be calibrated to detect simple motor commands, such as the neural activity associated with making a fist, which would then be translated by computer into a command to move a cursor, for instance. Computers would become a surrogate voice for a patient whose consciousness is severed from interface with the world.

 Proffitt’s lab operates on several research tracks. Its theoretical work is largely based on investigating spatial perception, emphasizing the impact of anticipated physical effort and behavioral goals as opposed to simply the raw processing of optical information.

 For example, in an experiment in 2003, a group of subjects was made to walk on a treadmill while being exposed to a virtual reality sequence that pictured a stationary environment, while another group viewed an environment that moved in sync with their stride. Blindfolded and asked to walk in place off the treadmill, the first group irresistibly drifted forward, and separately tended to arrive at increased visual estimates of distance.

 “Our approach says you see the world in terms of your ability to act on it,” Proffitt says. “So hills look steeper when you’re tired, when you’re wearing a backpack, when you’re elderly, infirm. Similarly, distances look farther away if you’re wearing a backpack, but only if you’re anticipating walking. If you’re anticipating throwing a ball it’s not affected by wearing a backpack.”

 Another major ongoing initiative at the lab is the “InfoCockpits” project, an effort to help computers cater to the physiology of human memory. Applying the concept that the brain naturally associates learned information with the place in which it was received, the group created a computer workstation that faces a large screen onto which unique, synthetic environments, such as images of the UVA Lawn, or the UVA Art Museum, are projected to accompanying ambient soundtracks. Because information is encoded in memory along with cues about where it was seen relative to the body, the InfoCockpit also uses multiple monitors.

 Memory performance was dramatically better among subjects who used the InfoCockpit as compared with those who used an ordinary computer setup. MRI scans also showed increased activity in brain areas associated with “episodic memory retrieval, spatial processing and visual imagery.”

 During his decades-spanning career in psychology, Proffitt says he has seen an evolution of the field from a focus on the “brain’s software” to an approach that encompasses the physiological “hardware” of the mind, but that the fullness of the relationship between neural activity and consciousness remains elusive.

 “I don’t know what the connection is between the activation [of neurons] and the experience that I have,” he says, but explains that scientists can now say which regions of the brain will be activated by an experience.

 “That seems to me to be an important step toward understanding things. I don’t expect it to be understood soon, but that seems to be a good way to start out trying to get there,” Proffitt says.—Harry Terris

 

Power chord
Mark Whittle records the sound of the universe

 On February 5, Mark Whittle had a new ditty to lay on his fellow musicians in The Charlottesville Classical Guitar Society—the score of creation.

 As an amateur guitarist, Whittle plays classic compositions by Bach, Albeniz and Tarrega. In February, the UVA astronomer became the first person ever to play the sound of the birth of the universe—a high-pitched scream building to a deep roar and ending with a hiss, like a wave crashing into sizzling surf. The universe even has a musical quality, a majestic major chord that shifts, over a million years, to a melancholy minor third.

 In what would be the first of many presentations, including interviews with CNN and The New York Times, Whittle described the sound to his fellow musicians.

 “I wanted to make this extraordinary subject accessible to people who aren’t scientists,” says Whittle, clad in jeans, a flannel shirt and stocking feet, his British-accented voice brimming with enthusiasm. “I didn’t discover anything new here. I just took what was already known in specialist circles, and presented it in a new way.”

 Whittle prepared the “big bang acoustics” using a picture of the early universe, which astronomers have slowly pieced together over the last 80 years. In 1920, Edwin Hubble made the groundbreaking discovery that the universe was expanding, indicating that at some point in the past the universe began almost as a single point.

 Forty years later, astronomers used powerful new telescopes to observe a faint microwave “glow,” visible across the entire sky, far away, no matter which direction they looked. They concluded it was radiation from a massive burst of energy nearly 14 billion years ago—the Big Bang.

 “When you look through a telescope, you’re looking back in time,” says Whittle. “If we had eyes that could see microwaves, we could walk around at night by the light of creation. It’s an astonishing concept. So, what do we see?”

 For the past 40 years, scientists have been producing more detailed maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which radiates from a time when the universe was only 380,000 years old. (In human terms, that’s like observing a human fetus 12 hours after conception.)

 The most current maps show that the CMB is not quite uniform throughout the sky, but slightly blotchy. A little brighter here, a little dimmer there, these blotches are sound waves moving through the early universe.

 “It’s like looking at the ocean from above,” says Whittle, “with little waves on top of bigger waves on top of even bigger waves.”

 Whittle calls the CMB the “holy grail” for astronomers, comparable to recent developments in the study of the human genome. Whittle used a computer program to express the CMB map as a sound.

 Had we been alive at the time, we wouldn’t actually have been able to hear the sounds of creation. “Besides the fact that we would instantly suffocate and roast in the searing heat of that early fireball,” Whittle says, “the pitch was about 50 octaves too low for humans to hear. I had to pull it up to make it audible.”

 On his desk, Whittle keeps a photograph of himself as a 9-year-old, socks pulled to his knees, peering through the lens of his first telescope at his boyhood home in Cambridge, England. Now, at 42, he’s a research professor in UVA’s astronomy department. He still radiates a youthful awe at the wonders of deep space, and it’s this visible enthusiasm that helps him explain complex astrophysics in a way that even newspaper writers can comprehend.

 Whittle sees the universe with the equipment of science and the vision of a poet, looking not just for the facts but the narratives they sustain. The few seconds of sound are important because they give people a new way of conceiving one of the most important events in history—the birth and early growth of the universe.

 “The history of the universe is sort of like an epic story,” says Whittle.

 This tale begins with brilliant light and sound. The highest notes of the descending scream will become the first stars, and their furnaces will produce the first heavy atoms. The bass notes will slowly dissolve to become the tapestry of galaxies. “These are important steps in the ladder from creation to us,” Whittle says.

 For as long as people have been telling stories, the creation of the universe has been one of humanity’s principle subjects. Whittle wants to tell of our common origins in a way that’s not shrouded in scientific esoterica or religious myth.

 “We’re able to tell an accurate story about creation. You can tell a story about light and matter in a language that people can both understand and feel,” Whittle says.

 “The point of the story is that we are all a part of nature.”—John Borgmeyer