Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan was recently accused of plagiarizing in her novel "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life." Meghan F. McCafferty discovered the strong resemblance between "Opal Mehta" and her own novels "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings" via a posting on her website. McCafferty's publisher, Random House, has been notified of the similarities and is looking into the matter. Though Viswanathan refused comment, one Harvard professor pointed out that the parallels become even more apparent when the slight changes that make the quotes "less easily googleable" are noted. One example of such modifications is where Viswanathan writes, "In a truly masochistic gesture, they had decided to buy Diet Cokes from Mrs. Fields..." compared to a passage from "Second Helpings" that reads "...but in a truly sadomasochistic dieting gesture, they chose to buy their Diet Cokes at Cinnabon."
Today Dartmouth will mark the 20 year anniversary of the devastating explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor with a photo exhibit and panel discussion in Alumni Hall. The event will take place at 5 p.m. and be moderated by Kenneth Yalowitz, director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding and former ambassador to Belarus. The panel will discuss the current controversy surrounding estimates of Chernobyl related deaths. The World Health Organization estimates about 9,000 people will die from cancers related to the Chernobyl radiation, but a report released by Greenpeace concluded that as many as 100,000 deaths could result. This difference could be a result of the limited scope of the United Nation's report, which includes only those areas worst hit by the disaster: Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine. Panel members include University of Southern California dean Timothy Mousseau, whose current project in Chernobyl studies the impact of the radiation, Jack Van Hoff of Yale University and member of the Belarusian State Cancer Registry from 1995-1996 and Bill Roebuck of Dartmouth Medical School Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.
Members of the Gay Straight Alliance will keep silent today to show their support for members of the gay community. Publications for the day's events describe how some members of the gay community are forced to hide their identity everyday from people they know and love. The events will conclude at 5 p.m. on the Collis Porch with a Breaking the Silence event with the Soul Scribes, followed by a dinner in the 1930s room at 6:30 p.m. In partnership with this event, t-shirts, cards and pins will be sold from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Collis.
