Clydesdales grace Green for wedding

Kim '09 evacuated from Mid. Eastern war zone

Courtesy of Edward Kim When Edward Kim '09 decided to participate in an Arabic language immersion program through Lebanon American University this summer, he thought he was headed to one of the few safe countries in the Middle East. In Beirut the women wore western clothing and "there was a Starbucks every few blocks," Kim said. On July 12, several weeks after his June 23 arrival, Kim found himself immersed in a volatile conflict after the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah killed and kidnapped several Israeli soldiers and Israel retaliated by bombing Lebanon. "At first I didn't really worry too much I guess, because people told me not to," Kim said.When Israel bombed the airports Kim realized he might be in serious danger. "I remember I was really tired and I was about to go to bed, and we could hear the bombs going off near the airport, hitting the airport," Kim said. "Sometimes we could see flashes in the sky." Although the students were not in a "Hezbollah part of the city," according to Kim, it was "unnerving to hear and see these things for the first time in your life." With the airports inaccessible, most of the highways bombed and exits blockaded, Kim realized it was time to leave -- if he could. "They said we wouldn't have a chance to get out for a while unless we were evacuated," Kim said.

Town mulls public internet service

Sarah Shaw / The Dartmouth Staff Hanover has joined seven other New Hampshire towns to discuss the possibility of implementing a publicly-owned fiber-optic cable network that will allow residents access to high-speed Internet, cable television, phone service, and other technological services currently unavailable to many rural New Hampshire residents. According to David Bucciero, director of technological services at the College, fiber-optic cable networks function at much higher speeds than DSL, and when privately installed, fiber can be implemented as a wireless home network. Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin reported that roughly 30 percent of Hanover residents have access to high-speed Internet in the form of either cable Internet through Adelphia or DSL through Verizon. "Once you get outside of the urban downtown area [of Hanover]," Griffin said, "many residents don't even have cable television." Griffin said that residents in all eight towns have expressed a desire for better access to high-speed Internet, if not the other services. "None of the communities involved have even the beginning of predominately high-speed Internet access, and some have no high-speed Internet access at all," Griffin said. The West Central New Hampshire Regional Health and Security Communications Consortium is composed of town representatives from Newbury, New London, Hanover, Sunapee, Springfield, Orford, Lyme and Enfield.