KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2010 / NEWS
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Spencer Walsh/KANSAN
Spencer Walsh/KANSAN Laura Gibson a junior for Talmadge, performs her junior recital at Murphy Hall on Sunday. Her roommate Michelle Dunson said Gibson had been "freaking out a little bit" in the week leading up the recital. Music students are required to perform junior and senior recitals.
INTERNATIONAL
Russia's president eliminates two of 11 time zones
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW — Russia president thought the country had too much time on its hands, so on Sunday he eliminated two of its 11 time zones.
The changes mean that Chukotka
The changes mean that Chukotka — Russia's eastern extreme, just across the Bering Strait from Alaska — is now nine hours ahead of the Kaliningrad westernmost area, the Kaliningrad exclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland. Formerly, there was ten hours' difference.
As well as eliminating the time zone that previously covered the Chukotka and
Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky regions in the Pacific Far East, President Dmitry Medvedev ordered that Samara and Udmurtia, two regions in central Russia, should be on the same time as Moscow.
The changes went into effect before dawn Sunday when most of Russia switched to daylight saving time. People in the eliminated time zones didn't move their clocks an hour ahead.
Medvedev initiated the change in his state of the nation address last November, prompting some criticism that he was addressing marginal issues at the expense of the country's array of problems.
But Medvedev said the change
would help some far-flung regions have more efficient communications with the central authorities, ease travel and even improve the country's international position.
"It's possible that this could also aid the strengthening of Russia's position as a link in the global information infrastructure; he said at a meeting this month with ministers and regional leaders.
But some people in the affected regions believe Medvedev should have been doing something else with his time.
An online petition opposing the Sarama region's change gathered nearly 13,000 signatures. It acidly dismissed the argument that the
"Trips take place to many regions of the country and world where time, you understand, far from always corresponds with Moscow," the text said. It also complained that moving Samara to a new time zone would make it a disorienting two hours behind its eastern neighbors and that sunset would be painfully early in the winter.
"In the winter, darkness will come almost at lunchtime, which isn't convenient and is psychologically quite hard," the petition said.
But more manipulation of time zones appears likely.
NATIONAL
Blind students face off in fencing
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WATERTOWN, Mass. — Cory Kadlik has never let being blind stop him from golfing, skating, learning martial arts or riding a dirt bike. He had his doubts when it came to fencing.
"I never even knew this was possible," said Kadlik, 19, of Medway as epees clanged, his teammates whooped in triumph, and coaches barked out instructions in the gym of Perkins School for the Blind.
"I'm on Twitter, and I mentioned to my followers and friends that I was going to be in a fencing tournament and I had
10 replies saying 'Blind people can fence? Really? No way!' Yeah, anything is possible.'
Kadlik duels Monday in what's being billed as a first-of-its-kind match between students at schools for the blind — Perkins and The Carroll Center for
the Blind in nearby Newton.
The match was the brainchild of Perkins fencing instructor Cesar Morales, founder of the International Fencing Club in suburban Boston and also a teacher at the Newton school. Morales said the students got bored fencing against the same people week after week and needed outside challenges.
Fencing teaches the balance, agility, mobility, timing, listening and navigational skills that the blind need to make their way in the sight-oriented world, said Peggy Balmaseda, a physical education teacher at Perkins for 25 years.
"This helps with orientation," said Kadlik, who lives on his own in an apartment on the Perkins Watertown campus. "When
you're walking along, and you come to a crosswalk, you need to stay in a straight line to cross the street, and learning to stay straight in fencing reinforcements that feeling"
The Carroll Center has been teaching fencing to its students for exactly those reasons since 1954, said vice president Arthur O'Neill. But to his knowledge, this is the first time there has been a fencing match with another school.
About a half dozen students from each school will compete.
"I had 10 replies saying 'Blind people can fence? Really? No way!' Yeah, anything is possible."
CORY KADLIK Blind fencer
Any kind of physical activity benefits the blind and visually impaired, said Mark Lucas.
executive director of the U.S.
Association
of Blind
Athletes based
in Colorado
Springs, Colo.
The organization oversees competition for the blind in sports including cycling, swimming, skiing, and
judo, but Lucas said he's never heard of a fencing tournament for the blind, perhaps because it takes so much hand-eye coordination.
"This sounds like a wonderful opportunity," he said.
Blind and visually impaired people who participate in sports tend to be more competitive and higher achievers, Lucas said.
"The unemployment rate for the blind nationwide is something like 70 percent, but we surveyed our members and found that it's more like 30 percent for those involved with sports." he said.
For the Perkins fencers, fencing is just plain fun and proves that the blind can do anything the sighted can.
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