Science and film come together in the Ho Science Center at Colgate University at the Ho Tung Visualization Laboratory and Planetarium.

"It's basically a modern-day planetarium,” said Joe Eakin, content developer for the lab.

The 55-seat digital theater has the ability to display the sky showing planets, constellations and other objects, as well as 3-D animations and films made specifically for an immersive dome environment.

The films cover various topics including global warming, astronomy, planets and even a film about Halloween.

The science theater/lab allows people to view science in a way that is simple and entertaining, Eakin said.

“It just kind of brings science down to a personal level,” he said. “It allows the general public to visit places they wouldn't normally be able to see. It allows them to see science visually.”

Admission: Free, but reservations should be made online at http://departments.colgate.edu/vislab/
Show times: “Seven Wonders” will be shown from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, and 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4. Visit the Web site for other shows and show times.

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To the Editor:

In his letter Sept. 29, Bob Rudolph asks if we can prevent unwanted pregnancies without threatening women. Yes, we can!

We can promote education about human sexuality for our young people. We can make sure they know about the available means to prevent a pregnancy, including the "morning after" pill. The number of abortions has declined as such scientific information has become more widespread.

Rudolph rightly recognizes the decision to terminate a pregnancy is usually made in the context of a tragic conflict between the life of a fetus and a mature life faced with multiple responsibilities. Our laws encourage such a decision to be made early in a pregnancy.

Major religious denominations support a woman's right to choose, as do many individual Christians. Jesus and the Bible say nothing about contraception and abortion.

Christian theologians have long supported weighing such painful choices in terms of biblical respect for persons and communities -- and scientific knowledge and a keen sense of responsibility for this fragile, overpopulated planet. We were given minds and consciences in order to use them, not to sacrifice them to authoritarianism.

Wanda Warren Berry, professor of philosophy and religion, emerita
Colgate University
Hamilton

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One third-term mayor contemplated suicide. Another battled cancer while juggling two jobs. A third mayor, after 12 years of service, was nearly drummed out of town by unruly municipal workers. Of the 108 mayors of New York City since 1665, only four have served 12 years and all four faced significant blows to their reputations, morale and even health toward the end of their administrations, according to historians who have studied the four men. The past might be useful for Mayor to consider as he forges ahead with his plan to , a decision that has already upended the citys political world. The four mayors who served 12 years include one at the very start of the American Republic, Richard Varick (1789-1801), and three in the 20th century: (1934-1945), (1954-1965) and (1978-1989). From the time the British seized New Amsterdam in 1664, the mayor of New York was appointed annually, first by the colonial governor and then by the governor of New York State. In 1820, the Common Council the citys legislative body began to elect the mayor. Direct mayoral elections began in 1834.

Mayor Varick. Richard Varick yes, Varick Street in Lower Manhattan is named for him was appointed by a fellow Federalist, Gov. George Clinton, in 1789. A New Jersey native, he moved to New York City in 1775 and enlisted as a captain in the Continental Army, according to an article by David W. Voorhees in . Varick served as an aide-to-camp to Benedict Arnold which was an unfortunate position to be in, because he was associated with a traitor, said Graham Hodges, a historian at Colgate University. Cleared of complicity after an investigation he called upon himself, Varick became secretary to George Washington and worked his way through the political ranks, serving as the citys recorder, as a state assemblyman and as state attorney general before being named mayor.

Varick ran into trouble, Dr. Hodges said, when he tried to pressure the citys 1,000 or so licensed workers tavern keepers, grocers, butchers and cartmen, all of whom had licenses to work for the city to vote for Federalist candidates. This went completely contrary to the egalitarian sentiment of the time, Dr. Hodges said. Varicks heavy-handed ways, Dr. Hodges said, pushed many of the workers away from the Federalists, represented by Alexander Hamilton, and into the opposing Democratic-Republican faction, represented by Thomas Jefferson. Varick was also assailed for his use of marketing and tax-licensing fees, Mr. Voorhees wrote. After a bitter campaign, Varick was swept aside in 1801.

Except for his labor problems, Varick was a decent mayor, Dr. Hodges said, noting that the position was vastly more limited in the late 18th century. He didnt have powers like Bloomberg at all, Dr. Hodges said. He was a functionary well below the level of senator and governor thats where the real action was. Mayor La Guardia. La Guardia, a Republican mayor elected on a Fusion ticket in 1933, is among the most beloved and renowned of New York Citys mayors. He professionalized and streamlined the city bureaucracy; shepherded New York during the depths of the Depression; secured billions of dollars in public works money from Washington; and inspired and reassured generations of New Yorkers. But La Guardias third term which began after he won the 1941 election with support from President , who although a Democrat was extremely close to the mayor took a heavy toll on his health and well-being. In the spring of 1941, Roosevelt named La Guardia director of the Office of Civilian Defense, a position he held for nearly a year, juggling two jobs and splitting his time between New York and Washington. La Guardia, a World War I veteran, also had other aspirations, which were disappointed. La Guardias focus was on the war: He wanted to be a general and wanted to maneuver to try to get an appointment, said Chris McNickle, author of To Be Mayor of New York: Ethnic Politics in the City (Columbia University Press, 1993). Roosevelt was sympathetic but the generals wanted nothing to do with him, seeing him as someone they could not exercise control over. He did end up with substantial responsibility for civilian wartime efforts. Mr. McNickle said La Guardias third term was successful under the circumstances, but significantly less successful than his first two terms. La Guardia left office at the end of 1945 months after World War II ended and served briefly as director general of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. By the time he left office New York City was plagued with debt, facilities too expensive to maintain, and a rapidly growing bureaucracy, the historian Thomas Kessner wrote in . All the while, La Guardia was battling pancreatic cancer. He , less than two years after leaving office.

Mayor Wagner. Son of a United States senator, graduate of Yale and Harvard, and a former commissioner of tax and housing, Wagner was elected in 1953 on the Democratic and Liberal lines, and was re-elected overwhelmingly four years later. By 1961, winning a third term was more different. He had had a falling-out with Carmine G. De Sapio, the Tammany Hall leader, but won a third term with support from Democratic reformers.

As mayor, Wagner oversaw a vast program of public housing construction; collaborated with Robert Moses on some of the most controversial postwar urban renewal projects; empowered municipal labor unions; and increased the representation of blacks and Puerto Ricans in the ranks of city officials. By Wagners third term, the energy had largely been sapped, according to , a historian at the University of Massachusetts in Boston and author of a biography of , Mr. Wagners successor. By the third term, Wagner was an old-style politician and this was the Kennedy-Camelot era, Dr. Cannato said. He was a figure past his prime. He didnt know how to deal with civil rights demands. He was more of an urban mechanic: not glamorous, not exciting. Around this time, The New York Herald-Tribune published a series, City in Crisis, that described the city as dirty, dangerous and decaying. School problems were worsening, as was pollution and white flight. Wagner just wasnt equipped to handle some of these issues, Dr. Cannato said. Wagner was caught between the growing liberal reform wing of his party, based in Manhattan and the Bronx, and the more conservative wing, the outer-borough white ethnics who later became Reagan Democrats and wanted a harder line on crime and welfare, Dr. Cannato said. Many of those problems presaged the turmoil of the Lindsay era and the urban crisis of the 1970s, Dr. Cannato added.

Mayor Koch. If any mayor is identified with having a troubled third term it is Mayor Koch if only, perhaps, because his third term was so recent (1986-1989). Racial turmoil, municipal scandal and the whiff of corruption plagued the third Koch term so much so that at one point, as Mr. Koch noted in one of his many autobiographical books, he contemplated killing himself.

Mr. Koch was never personally implicated in any wrongdoing but the ethical lapses around him devastated him nonetheless, said Jonathan Soffer, a historian who is writing a biography of Mr. Koch with his cooperation.

The scandals seemed to unfold, one after another, after Mr. Koch, a Democrat, began his third term at the start of 1986.

In 1986, the Queens borough president, Donald R. Manes, a friend of the mayors, committed suicide after it emerged that he was involved in significant corruption schemes involving the Parking Violations Bureau and other municipal fiefdoms. Mr. Manes was about to face federal indictment when he took his life.

In 1987, Bess Myerson, a former Miss America who had served as Mr. Kochs cultural affairs commissioner, was indicted on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and obstruction of justice. Her companion, Carl A. Capasso, was accused of bribing a judge, Hortense W. Gabel, by arranging a job in Ms. Myersons department for the judges daughter, Sukhreet Gabel. Ms. Myerson was ultimately acquitted on all counts. He was quite mortified, Dr. Soffer said of Mayor Koch. He wanted to run the most honest administration in history and yet he had made compromises to govern the city, and making deals with the Democratic machines. It was some but not all of the people who came in as a result of those compromises who caused the scandal. Dr. Soffer added, Even though I tend to think that there were things that he probably should have noticed, that that were warning signs about the problems he was heading into, I certainly dont think he was tainted by corruption. It certainly did hurt him politically, but at the same time, I go against the conventional interpretation and argue that he actually got a lot done in his third term, the biggest example and the most important for the city being his 10-year housing program. Mr. Koch lost his bid for a historic fourth term, losing the Democratic primary in 1989 to . When he had to give it up, he felt enormously relieved, Dr. Soffer said of the mayors office. I think its a very difficult job and it exacts a toll on people. Some of Mr. Bloombergs closest aides like his first deputy mayor, Patricia E. Harris are veterans of the Koch administration, and several deputy mayors have been said to . Theres something about third terms in general, Dr. Cannato said. Administrations lose focus. Its hard just to keep it up. Certainly, in other American cities, some mayors have served 20 years or even longer Tom Bradley in Los Angeles, Richard J. Daley in Chicago, Thomas M. Menino in Boston, Sharpe James in Newark. New York City has not had any mayor serve so long.

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Madison County residents will be the first to weigh in on New York Regional Interconnect's proposed $2.1 billion high-voltage power line project next month.

The state Public Service Commission on Monday released a schedule for a series of public meetings in each county along the line's proposed 190-mile route. The state agency charged with reviewing the transmission project originally scheduled just two hearings, in Utica and Oneonta, but added a dozen other sessions after a massive outcry from grass-roots opposition groups along the proposed corridor. A second PSC ruling on the matter also stipulated that the hearings be held no further than 20 miles from the site of the proposed power line.

There will be two hearings, on the same day, in each of seven counties along the proposed route of the project.

Madison County will host the first set of hearings, Oct. 20 at Colgate University's Hall of Presidents in Hamilton. Information forums will be held at 1 and 6 p.m., followed by public statement hearings at 2 and 7 p.m.

Oneida County's hearings will be Oct. 22 at the Mohawk Valley Community College Theater in Utica. Norwich will host the final hearings on Nov. 6 at the Chenango County Council for the Arts on West Main Street.

Here's how to weigh in on the issue:

At the hearings:Members of the public can present comments before the Public Service Commission's administrative judges. The hearings will be transcribed. Appointments are not necessary; speakers will be called after completing a card requesting time to speak. The hearings will remain open until everyone wishing to speak has been heard, "or other reasonable arrangements are made," according to Monday's announcement.

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The college store industry is not the same animal as it was five years ago, when The College Store highlighted a group of 20 collegiate retail professionals under age 40. Five years from now, it may be almost unrecognizable, transformed by the accelerating migration of course materials from traditional print to digital formats.

The 21 individuals profiled here are either already active leaders in the industry or positioned for greater leadership roles in the near future. Whether they veered into collegiate retail from another job in another arena or transitioned to their career straight from a position as a student worker, all stress that they're motivated and energized by their interactions with students and staff, the academic environment, and a sense their their efforts have a real impact on people's futures. Many of them say they thrive on the challenges the changing landscape presents.
To continue to survive and thrive in the years to come, the industry will need emerging leaders with just that eagerness to embrace change rather than run from it.

Nate Biddle, age 31
Senior General Merchandise Buyer
Colgate Bookstore
Colgate University, Hamilton, NY

After retail management and buying experience in Colorado and New York, Nate Biddle came to Colgate about four years ago. He says he enjoys the challenge of wearing many hats at the school's bookstore.

“Every day has different issues,” he observes, “and it is how you face those individually that makes the bigger problems easier to handle. Whether it be preparing for busy weekends, planning for the next season, maintaining inventory, or dealing with staffing issues, you have to be able to look at them individually, because all combined they will overwhelm you.”

Biddle's time at Colgate marks his only collegiate bookstore experience, but he's been involved in retail since working in a comic-book store at age 12. “I knew then that I wanted to work with people and offer them items they desired,” he recalls. “With every sale I want people to get a free smile.”

If digitization of course materials lets students spend less on textbooks, he says stores will have to make up for that by finding something else those students will buy. “Computer accessories and general merchandising, I believe, are the best answer,” he says. “They have a better margin, so even if you can't match the textbook sales, you can come close to matching the amount of money returned to the store.”

Despite industrywide pay that he feels lags behind other fields, Biddle thrives on his job. “I honestly believe that you are what you want to be,” he says. “Wake up every day and smile, because no matter what happens next at least you'll be there for it.”

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Drive north out of the village of Hamilton in Madison County, and the Helfants' house looks enough like any other that you could be forgiven for calling it typical. But bit by bit over the past seven years, Ian Helfant and his wife, Astrid, have tweaked their 3,000-square-foot, aluminum-sided colonial to be a sustainable home -- or at least as sustainable as they can manage.

Some of the changes are subtle. The two-by-four construction on the first floor means the walls are too thin to allow them to be superinsulated, but Helfant used molding to bulk up around windows to reduce heat loss.

There are low-flow shower heads in the bathrooms. The new garage doors are insulated. The water heater in the basement is so heavily insulated it looks more like a Thermos bottle than an appliance. There's biodegradable oil in the chain saw.

Some changes are noticeable, if you know where to look. There's a stainless steel composting pail, complete with charcoal filter, on the kitchen counter. There are Energy Star appliances and an outdoor clothesline and a monthly electricity bill that has been trimmed by about 30 percent to $70.

On the back of the small wood stove in the family room there's a catalytic converter that -- like the one in a car -- reduces emissions.

Surge strips shut off computers and stereos at night. And compact fluorescent lights, which use up to 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs, stick out of floor lamps and dangle from ceiling fixtures.

"We've put them in any socket that will take them," said Helfant, 45. Not all will. Recessed lights in the kitchen are on a dimmer switch and the Helfants haven't been able to find CFLs that will work.

Astrid, 35, said her husband keeps after her to use those lights as little as possible. "But, you know, you need light when you are cooking and when you are eating."

And there's not much meat in the refrigerator, even though the Helfants aren't vegetarians. But pretty much the only meat eaten by the couple and 5-year-old twins Skye and Aidan, is venison from deer Ian Helfant hunts with a bow and arrow on their nine-acre property.

Helfant grew up in Boston and never hunted until moving to Hamilton seven years ago. He taught himself bow hunting using books and DVDs. He butchers the meat himself, storing it in a basement freezer.

Occasionally, Astrid said, she will order meat when they go out to eat. And sometimes they buy hot dogs because it's what the boys want.

"You don't want them to make them victims, of a sort, of your correctness," Helfant said.

Although they still have electric baseboard heat for emergency backup, this summer the Helfants replaced an old, wood-fired furnace with a more efficient model that burns wood pellets. Pollution was the catalyst for the change.

"I would lie awake and think about all that soot," Helfant said.

What motivates the couple is their children and the world they will inherit.

A native of the Netherlands, Astrid shakes her head at the size of her home and her car: like her husband's, it's a compact Subaru. Still, she said, "they are too big by European standards."

Helfant, chair of the Russian Studies Department at Colgate University is also head of the environmental council, created in 2005 to develop an environmental vision for the school, make recommendations and promote Colgate's environmental activities. He's read extensively on environmental matters and global warming, is convinced something needs to be done, and decided doing what he can where he lives can help.

"Even if it turns out our worst fears are totally unfounded," Helfant said, "this is still very worthwhile."

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Colleges across the country are noticing an increase in the number of freshman applicants who would become the first in their families to go to college.

Locally, Colgate University has seen the number of what they call "F-Gen" applicants go up 22 percent in the last year alone.

The oldest of seven children, Inna Peshkova is the first in her family to reach a major milestone many of us take for granted.

“It makes me really proud…I'm happy with myself that I can be the first to go to college,” Peshkova says.

Inna's family didn't need to sell her on the concept of getting a bachelor's degree; rather, the Russian-born teen credits American culture with giving her the idea.

“It's part of the American tradition. You go to college for four years, you go to grad school. And growing up, going to high school -- it just became something that I expected from myself,” Peshkova says.

She is one of a growing number of first-generation college students at Colgate. This year, there are about 180 of them. Last year, there were only about 135.

In fact, admissions officers are catching on that students like Peshkova have something special to offer.

“Those students tend to have the characteristics that we seek in our students. They're hardworking; they don't take opportunities for granted,” says Colgate associate dean of admission Karen Giannino.

SU has also seen a small increase in the number of first-generation students attending the university. Many other schools in the area don't keep track of those statistics, but guess -- if they did -- they would likely see a similar trend.

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Many folks have been on record as saying that the 2008 presidential election has been the most heated race in, well, forever. Certainly in my lifetime that is the case — I'm 21 and have witnessed five elections that I can remember dating back to 1992.

What has become increasingly clear is just how dirty and unscrupulous this election has become. And to be quite fair, while both campaigns trade jabs, employ hyperbole and distort truth, it is really the media and, to some degree, the American public that is to blame for what has become, unmistakably, a reality TV show.

There is plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle. What has many conservatives upset recently are the utterly vicious and downright mean attacks on vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin.

When Palin entered, stage right, in Dayton, Ohio — and more prominently at the GOP Convention in the Twin Cities — she was almost unknown. The Democrats immediately retorted, “Sarah who?” We all did, myself included. I knew a mere two things about her: she was the governor of Alaska and a long shot for McCain's vice president pick — so much so that even some of the high rollers of the Vegas strip would've been crazy to put down for this one.

Yet this was seemingly all too familiar. Didn't we just go through something like this not too long ago? In the words of Yogi Berra, it was déjà vu all over again. The Democrats conveniently forgot their candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, was barely known by the American public, the exception being those associated with the corrupt Chicago politics. Round 1: Draw.

Not too long after the euphoria of Gov. Palin's nomination, the Democrats were quick to point out that Sen. McCain made a “political” move to reel in the undecided women voters and disgruntled Hillary supporters. Would it have been political if he had chosen Mitt Romney to fill in the economic gaps of the ticket? Or would they have dubbed it the typical GOP ticket: old and white?

The correct answer is yes to all of the above, and the reasons are no different than why Sen. Obama chose his number two. Sen. Obama made a political move when he chose John McCain's good friend, Sen. Joseph Biden, to shore up his lack of foreign policy credentials and experience. By using the Democrats' logic, one would have to assume that Sen. Biden and his 38 years in Washington can hardly represent what Obama means by “change.” Round 2: Draw.

Inevitably, just as the right came after Obama with mass e-mails about how the senator was a Muslim and an agent of Bin Laden, the left-wing went after Palin with uncompromising vigor — even more so than Sen. McCain.

In the last month, things have gotten real ugly: from Democratic Underground's attempt to sell Gov. Palin's son, Trigg, on eBay to a Democratic state representative's son allegedly hacking into her email to the offensive slurs provided by Tennessee Democratic Rep. Cohen comparing “Governor” Palin to Pontius Pilate, the “governor” who ordered that Jesus be crucified. I'm sure you can guess who Rep. Cohen compared to Jesus. Hint: They're both “community organizers.”

The attacks on McCain and Obama, as well as Gov. Palin, are all hateful. (Has anyone heard anything lately from Sen. Biden? Maybe if he spoke up someone might spit at him, too!). Round 3: Slight edge to GOP due to Biden's disappearance.

Putting aside all the villainous attacks on Gov. Palin, the one consistent attack from the left is that Gov. Palin just isn't ready to lead this country. Her two years as governor and six years as mayor aren't enough to compare to Sen. Obama's eight years in the Illinois state Senate and three years as United States senator, according to many Democrats.

Never mind that Gov. Palin has more executive experience than Obama. Never mind that in running Alaska, Sarah Palin is running arguably the nation's sixth most powerful state in terms of institutional powers: budgetary and appointment authority, veto power, among other factors. The Democrats are half right. The fact of the matter is that both Gov. Palin and Sen. Obama are inexperienced to be leader of the free world.

But, alas, I almost forgot. The Democrats almost had me convinced I was choosing between Gov. Palin and Sen. Obama. Thankfully, there's a maverick with a wealth of experience that has always put his country first, as evidenced by his honorable service and bipartisan leadership. That man is John S. McCain, and he is ready to deliver the final TKO in this bout.

Andrew Spano is a junior at Colgate University and serves as president of Colgate University College Republicans. He is from Boca Raton, Fla.

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