For 30 years of service to the College, father-and-son duo Hays T. Watkins Jr. LLD ’82 and Thomas Watkins III ’74 were honored with a reception in their name over Family Weekend.

p. Watkins Jr. held the position of Rector of the Board of Visitors from 1987 to 1993. Watkins III serves on both the William and Mary and Business School Foundation Boards.

p. Over these years, the Watkins family has donated more than $4.5 million to the College, their latest gift being a $765,000 donation toward the new facilities of the Mason School of Business.

The Supreme Court Preview, which took place at the College last month, was featured on C-Span Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. C-Span, a television channel that often records and televises live sessions of Congress and other governmental institutions, tapes Supreme Court Previews because of their importance in analyzing past Supreme Court decisions.

p. The 20th-annual Supreme Court Preview was attended by many important judicial figures such as Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, Pan Karlan of the Stanford University Law School and federal appeals court Judge Michael McConnell.

p. The main event that was taped by C-Span was a Moot Court session argued by Karlan and McConnell that investigated the constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act and how it affected the ability of Guantanamo detainees to seek habeas relief.

p. The Supreme Court Preview was aired by C-Span as part of the “American and the Courts” series.

**36**
The average age at which Italians leave their parents’ home. In the United States, only 10 percent of people between the ages of 25 and 35 live at their parents home.

p. **23 percent**
The percent of married couples who met while in high school and college, according to a study conducted in the 1990s.

p. **$220,000**
The amount that a Minnesota woman was ordered to pay six top music labels for copyright violations. A federal jury found her guilty of illegally sharing over 1,700 songs.

p. **699**
The amount that the average Massachusetts resident spends on lottery tickets each year. In Virginia, $200 are spent on the lottery per person.

The U.S. Senate has recently begun discussion on a bill that would mandate universities spending a set minimum percent of their endowment each year.

p. Supporters claim that this would lower the unnecessarily high tuition costs, especially in the case of private universities with large endowments.

p. Experts in higher education urged the Senate Financing Committee to back the initiative to set the minimal spending rate at 5 percent.

p. Supporters believe that universities take advantage of tax exemptions while charging unnecessarily high tuition rates, and think that this bill will curb tuition rates significantly.

p. Many elite universities favor the independence of college boards and are opposed to Congressional control over their individual endowments.

p. The political power of those who oppose the bill may prevent it from becoming law.

p. “[This would affect] schools with very large endowments and low payout rates,” Economics Professor Robert Archibald said.
“These are the politically powerful private schools, so it is unlikely to happen.”

p. The bill would most likely not have a broad effect on higher education.

p. Though elite private schools may attract the attention of the press, their students account for only a small percentage of the college population, Archibald said.

p. This bill, should it pass, would not drastically alter the College’s finances.

p. “The Endowment Association has just decided to up the payout from the endowment to 4.75 percent, so we are close to the 5 percent,” Archibald said. “The effect of the law would be minimal.”
This bill is still in its beginning stages in both the House and Senate.

Surgeons and immunologists at the Duke University Medical School believe they have unraveled the mystery behind the function of the human appendix.

p. The organ that was once thought to be vestigial — lacking a specific function in the body — is now believed to produce and protect good bacteria in the digestive tract.

p. The gut is full of good bacteria that aid in digestion, but diseases such as cholera and amoebic dysentery can clear out these microbes.

p. It is now believed that the function of the appendix is to regenerate and store the helpful bacteria.

p. This theory is supported by the fact that food and germs pass in a one-way flow just below the large intestine.

p. In today’s society, the appendix is no longer needed because outbreaks of cholera and dysentery seldom occur, and people can repopulate their intestinal bacteria through contact with other humans.

p. The organ is thought to have been more useful centuries ago when people lived farther apart and cholera and dysentery epidemics occurred frequently.

p. Duke surgery Professor Bill Parker said that the rate of appendicitis is lower in less developed countries where the appendix is still useful in helping to protect good bacteria.
This suggests that there is a correlation between the relatively high rate of appendicitis and the lack of appendix function in developed countries.

p. According to the Center for Disease Control, 321,000 Americans were hospitalized with appendicitis in 2005.

p. Scientists and doctors have speculated for years about the possible function of the appendix. Suggestions have ranged from its playing a minor part in the gastrointestinal system to its being an organ of the immunological system.

p. In 1976, medical textbooks began to suggest that the appendix was not entirely vestigial, and that it did have a specific function — namely as an immunological mechanism.

p. The walls of the appendix contain high concentrations of lymphoid tissues, which formed the basis for the idea that the appendix played a role in the immune system. The appendix also appears to produce immune system cells.

p. Along with several other organs that contain B-lymphocyte cells, the appendix manufactures several types of antibodies, including IgA, IgM and IgG immunoglobulins. IgA immunoglobulins are vital in maintaining a protective barrier between the bowel tract and the bloodstream. IgM and IgG immunoglobulins help to fight invaders through the bloodstream.

p. The function of the appendix has often been discussed in the arguments concerning evolution. The apparent loss of function of the organ in modern society offers support for evolution of the human body, but scientific findings of modern appendix function also offer support for a non-evolutionary argument.
The appendix was even mentioned in the famous Scopes Trial concerning the teaching of evolution in schools.

p. The modern loss of appendix function appears to coincide with an increased number of appendicitis cases. Appendicitis most often occurs when the small entrance to the appendix becomes blocked.

p. This blockage results in inflammation of the appendix, which causes the symptoms of appendicitis (abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting).

p. As the inflammation continues, bacteria begins to leak out of the dying walls of the appendix and if surgical intervention does not occur, the appendix will rupture, spreading a potentially fatal infection (peritonitis) throughout the abdomen.

p. The discovery of the possible function of the appendix is monumental because it calls into question the notion of labeling organs as vestigial if they do not appear to have a function in the human body. Medical specialists like Gary Huffnagle of the University of Michigan believe theories like this may indicate that other “vestigial” organs, like tonsils, could potentially have a function.

The College has become an iTunes University.

p. This initiative began in October 2006 as a pilot program for the School of Business, the Law School, the Modern Languages Department, Swem Library and VIMS to upload media content.
The venture is now expanding to the rest of the College.

p. William and Mary on iTunes U offers unlimited access to both audio and video content for the members of the College community.

p. Though the program is run through the popular iTunes music software, iTunes provides no free music downloads.
Instead, the program will allow faculty and administrative groups to upload content onto the program.

p. On the Tuned Into Campus section, there is a wide variety of student films and features from Swem Library.

p. In the Academic Programs section, professors from Russian language courses have uploaded songs, videos and presentations that correlate with course materials.

p. There is also a video tour of the new Admissions Office.
In all, there are 182 items in the Tuned Into Campus section and 28 items in the Academic Programs section.

p. More than 250 colleges and universities use iTunes U, according to the College IT department.

p. There are uploads of various lectures and presentations given by major figures such as Al Gore and Steve Jobs.

p. Most of these videos are available to students of all schools.
However, unlike other schools, the College has not taken drastic steps to push iTunes as means of disseminating course-related content.

p. Since the initial start of the pilot program, the Russian Department is the only academic department to utilize iTunes U.
Susan Evans, director of web and communication services for the IT department, speculates that because of the podcasting and media uploading capabilities within Blackboard, many faculty have been hesitant to switch to a new system.

p. Once the faculty becomes more accustomed to the system, Evans said she expects a dramatic increase in media content.
However, Evans noted that the College plans to take a more active role in promoting iTunes U as a means of utilizing course content.

p. The IT department has received a litany of phone calls and e-mail messages requesting more information on the program.
Evans anticipates that as professors become more attuned to the popularity of iTunes among students they will become more active in using its media capabilities.

p. The IT Department has also considered opening up iTunes U to student organizations.

“What is semiotics?” my mother asked as I got into the car. My parents and brother were visiting last weekend, and they had just picked me up from my dorm for dinner. I explained that semiotics was the study of symbols.

p. “See, I told you so” she said to my brother. “That’s exactly what I told your brother, and he said I was wrong.”

p. “No,” my brother said, “You said something different.”

p. “Well, you’re a little shit,” my mother said. “And I was right about semiotics.”

p. My brother, Joe, is two years my junior and two times my size. We both stand one foot taller than our mother, but his presence seems more hulking. This is partly because he works out every day as a member of ROTC at Temple University. I also slouch, which shrinks my height. But we have a bevy of other differences. He barks answers to questions in a voice several octaves below mine. And as a freshman, he already has post graduation goals.

p. As a junior, my biggest goal is to learn how to do a cartwheel.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the two of us is how we get along with our mother. I do; Joe does not. What’s not to like about our mother? One time our obese cat Smokey was walking funny, so my mother took our cat to the chiropractor. Neither my mother nor the chiropractor thought that this was weird at all. It turns out that Smokey was so fat that his stomach was putting an unnatural amount of pressure on his hips. I may have laughed when my mother told me this, but part of me couldn’t help but consider taking a feline to a chiropractor a perfectly sensible thing to do.

p. I can also remember a time when my family went to eat at a German restaurant. For the entire meal my mother laughed that a dish could be called Wienerschnitzel. “Be careful when you cut that Weinerschnitzel,” she cautioned my father between bouts of laughter. And I laughed right along with her. If it weren’t for my mother I would not be the strange person that I am today.

p. I think my brother has been similarly affected by our mother, but he would hate to admit it. So he distances himself from her.

p. “You know what Joe needs?” my mother asked as we sat in the car last weekend.

p. “What do I need?” Joe asked.

p. “A girlfriend,” she said. “Not just someone to go out with but someone that you are dating.”

p. I watched Joe’s cheeks turn a crimson red. “I think Mom needs to stop acting so weird all the time,” he replied.

p. I cannot recollect one family vacation, car ride or family dinner that didn’t end in either my brother or mother near tears. Several summers ago, my family visited Walt Disney World. I can specifically remember sitting in a steakhouse in Epcot’s Canada. Joe had just insulted my mom for wearing a fanny pack, and my father, in an attempt to mitigate the situation, asked her to calm down. “You expect me to be calm when this little punk insulted me?” she said just as the waiter arrived at our table.

p. “Why don’t I go ahead and give you four some time, eh?” the waiter said as he offered us a plate of warm barley bread. I didn’t want more time, I wanted a functional family and a medium-well steak. I scanned the restaurant for a more suitable family. Why couldn’t I be adopted by that nice Japanese couple in the corner of the room, or by that Protestant family two tables away? At that moment, I would have settled for a life with Snow White’s evil stepmother. At least she would act civilized in public.

p. The problems between them stems from their similar personalities. Both my mother and brother hate being wrong. I learned at a young age never to correct their driving skills. Sure my mom might have forgotten to use her turn signal, but she would never acknowledge this fact. And granted my brother nearly careened into oncoming traffic, but who was I to tell him that? I could always walk.

p. When they do get along, it is always through the simplest of means: Steven Seagal movies. The two of them have rented every Steven Seagal film, from “Fire Down Below” to “Belly of the Beast.” My mother finds Steven Segal’s outfits hilarious. My brother considers the action sequences ridiculous enough to qualify as self-parody. And they both agree that Steven Seagal’s mug is one of the most amusing in the history of cinema.

p. If their relationship were a story, then I wonder what Steven Seagal movies would symbolize. A common bond of strangeness? Their love for one another? Their desire to understand each other? What are the two of them thinking as they watch “Hard to Kill” for the 20th time? I assume they get lost in the predictable plot and mediocre visuals. But maybe something about Steven Seagal brings them closer together.

p. __James Damon is a Confusion Corner columnist.__