VSU recognizes Black April
The Vietnamese Student Union presents the 3rd Annual Black April
Commemoration, “The Loss of Our Homeland, the Fight for Our
People,” today at 6 p.m. in 1178 Franz Hall.
The event will educate about the historical significance of the
fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 and raise awareness of the
continuing struggle for human rights and democracy in Vietnam.
“Black April is a moment in history that affects all
Vietnamese generations, and it is important that we come together
as a community to continue to advocate for our homeland and our
people,” said Kim Le Pham, VSU co-president in a statement.
Commemoration this year will focus on the current issue of
Vietnam’s land and sea concessions to China.
Old stars found by UCLA
Working with models of the evolution of stars developed by
astronomers at UCLA, scientists at the University of British
Columbia have used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to uncover
the oldest burned-out stars in our Milky Way galaxy.
These extremely dim and old “clockwork stars”
provide a completely independent reading on the age of the
universe.
The ancient white dwarf stars, as seen by Hubble, turn out to be
12 to 13 billion years old. Because earlier Hubble observations
show that the first stars formed less than one billion years after
the universe’s birth in the big bang, finding the oldest
stars puts astronomers well within arm’s reach of calculating
the absolute age of the universe.
“This new observation short-circuits getting to the age
question, and offers a completely independent way of pinning down
that value,” said Harvey Richer of the University of British
Columbia, Canada.
Hip hop event pushes for peace
Student artists turned Kerckhoff coffeehouse into a jam packed
music arena Thursday night with the Eclectic Hip Hop event,
sponsored by the Peace and Justice Committee Thursday.
As seats became occupied, the audience started to congregate
around the wrought iron partitions inside, gradually attracting
customers to the scene.
The night featured slam poetry and other rhythmic deliveries
pertaining to issues of building community, especially across
cultures.
The event marks the tail end of the committee’s Human
Rights Week programming: “The Challenge of Making Peace in a
Time of War.”
The committee staged events Tuesday through Thursday throughout
campus.
Reports from Daily Bruin Senior Staff and wire services.