“This is an extraordinary situation,” reads the Norwegian Air website, with the Scandinavian penchant for stony understatement. Vulcan, Roman god of fire and the being after whom volcanoes owe their name, is emptying his lungs this week, blowing out a slow stream of smoke and ash that drifts eastward still. While commentators grapple with the name of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull—its ancient, unpronounceable appellation—European airlines as far east as Moscow are choking under the strain, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in refunds and transfers as whole departures columns read “Cancelled.” England, perhaps hardest hit, even announced it would send Royal Navy warships to rescue stranded Britons.

“It is impossible to attain the depths of reality by describing its surface manifestations,” a German writer once wrote. Something about this goes beyond the mere fact of the ash or any inconvenience. The volcano opened a window onto a reality that resists explanation, becoming a hot primeval eruption to counter the cold steel of airports, the efficiency of modern infrastructure. Ancients thought the clouds of dust emerging from the Sicilian crater Vulcan’s lip were the industry of the god’s forge as he beat out thunderbolts for Jupiter. Some of the incredulity behind that legend-making became comprehensible as in the midst of trying to arrange alternate routes home, punching variation upon variation of possible routes into the computer, one could see passengers and officials look up in amazement, turn to one another, say: “An Icelandic volcano…”

From the ground in western Europe, the sky looked dazzlingly blue; it was hard to believe anything had happened at all. Like the Airborne Toxic Event in Don DeLillo’s “White Noise,” its invisibility added to its incomprehensibility. But unlike in the novel, the volcanic ash is not something man-made; that it comes from nature, and yet seems so foreign, makes it all the stranger. Sartre wrote that “Dissemblers arrange to keep secret dimensions to themselves, like the Russian whose friends told me: he has twelve storeys of sincerity, you have only reached the fourth. This type is always silent.” Nature is the greatest dissembler of all: Remaining silent, her mystification is broad.

For me, the ash meant 23 hours of trains from Copenhagen to Prague, including four transfers in small German towns. Others, including students trying to get back from spring break, faced far more arduous journeys by bus or ferry. At railway stations, taxi drivers waving cardboard signs advertising rides for thousands of euros weren’t doing bad business. DeutscheBahn overbooked in trying to get people home, and for a few hours of the journey we passengers without seat reservations sat on the ground between wagons with legs drawn up beneath us, near the lavatory and the kitchen trash, making light of the cramped space. Outside, the Hamburg region rolled by in a magic lantern of luminous green grass, black pines, and farm houses. A French couple placated their crying baby in stroller with multiple petits gateaux; a Czech woman, tabloid in lap, stared for a while at the no-smoking sign and then lit up. Everyone found their way of coping.

This volcano, so mystical, has a history of confusion. When it erupted in 1821, it did so for months, resulting in flooding from glacier runs and heavy ashfall; a full year later, puzzled farmers looked on in wonder as hundreds of cattle died from what would later be known as delayed fluoride poisoning from the ash. The range of emotions to which the volcano has given rise, from frustration, to doubt, to fear, affect everyone. Much culture is nationalistic and specific—even as globalization expands brands like Coca-Cola and the Black Eyed Peas, artists turn inward to create specific products like wicker baskets or plum wine or marionettes. But the natural event transcends. As the art critic John Berger put it: “The notion that art is the mirror of nature is one that only appeals in periods of skepticism. Art does not imitate nature, it imitates a creation, sometimes to propose an alternative world, sometimes simply to amplify, to confirm, to make social the brief hope offered by nature. Art is an organized response to what nature allows us to glimpse occasionally. Art sets out to transform the potential recognition into an unceasing one. It proclaims man in the hope of receiving a surer reply… the transcendental face of art is always a form of prayer.”

And so, this volcanic eruption is far more than just an inconvenience to passengers at Heathrow, or a less impressive Krakatoa, as Simon Winchester suggested in the International Herald Tribune this weekend. As of this writing my flight to London has just been cancelled; it will be a long trip home. Peering into the dark heart of the crater the only appropriate emotion seems to be awe and a profound humility as the volcano continues to release its ash, fascinating scientists, eluding comprehension, defying human control.

Jessica A. Sequeira is a Harvard U. junior currently studying abroad at U.Cambridge.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates called on the nation’s brightest young people to use their talents to engage with the world’s biggest problems in an address to a packed Harvard U. crowd Wednesday.

While he took care to not disparage those who enter high-paying careers directly after graduation, Gates said that the greatest impact will be made by those who devote their lives to fighting poverty, improving global health, and raising the standard of education.

“A lot of talent—a lot of the best minds—are going to sports or entertainment or investing or even to scientific innovation that is focused on the specific needs of the rich,” Gates said. “When you work on a baldness drug, it’s a little bit different than working on a malaria drug.”

Gates, arguably Harvard’s most successful dropout, left the College in 1975 during his sophomore year. His return yesterday marked the first time Gates had visited the University since leaving his post at Microsoft in 2008 to become co-chair of his charitable outfit, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He was the keynote speaker at Commencement in 2007.

In Wednesday’s address, Gates spotlighted two problems, health—in a global context—and education—in an American context—as the marquee issues that the upcoming generation should solve.

Gates said that both health and education can be improved by simple fixes with increased research, noting that while teacher quality has a significant role in improving student performance, it remains unclear what exactly constitutes an exemplary teacher.

After finishing his prepared remarks, Gates took about 25 minutes of audience questions, which covered topics from philanthropy to the role of the financial sector.

Benjamin M. Zagorsky ’12 asked Gates whether it was necessary to enter a public service career or if one could make a difference by earning money and then donating to charity.

“It helps to have people going into philanthropy jobs clearly, but I’m a student at Harvard, theoretically one of brighter minds in society. What should I be doing: putting my life to this service or amassing amounts of money to help people who are maybe better suited to that work?” he said after the event.

Zagorsky added that it was thrilling to speak with one of the world’s most influential individuals.

“I was just standing there talking to him. It felt like what it should feel like—he’s a human being and I’m glad he treated me like one,” he said.

Not all attendees’ questions were straightforward, however.

Claiming to be a Kennedy School applicant from Kazakhstan, one event goer asked Gates if he would pay his tuition to the school. Another attendee inquired about Gates’ “vacation” plans for the doomsday date in the Mayan calendar.

Yesterday’s address was part of Gates’ cross-country university tour, during which he planned to speak to students on five college campuses in California, Chicago, and Boston.

In an interview with The Crimson, Gates said the inspiration to speak at Harvard came from a desire to channel the passions of students towards worthy causes.

“Having awareness amongst these students about the challenges in education, the challenges in poor countries, I think that’s critical and it will help us make a lot of progress to have their open-minded, energetic thinking applied to these issues,” he said. “So I’m excited to hear what they’re thinking and what their questions are.”

A new device known as a dual modality tomographic scanner, developed by researchers from U. Virginia’s radiology department, has the potential to become more effective than mammograms for detecting breast cancer in its early stages.

The device conducts structural imaging like a mammogram, but it combines this with molecular breast imaging in an alternating manner, Assoc. Radiology Prof. Mark Williams said. From those two images, a 3-D picture can be formed.

“Because they are one right after the other, the images are fused together,” he said.

Jennifer Harvey — the head of breast imaging division who collaborated with Williams on the project — added that the device does more than just project images.

“This technology doesn’t just look at the anatomy of the breast but the function and the tissues that are more active like cancer are going to take up the tracer,” she said.

The new technology was first tested in 2008 through 2009 with a pilot study of women who had scheduled biopsies at the University breast care center, Williams said.

“We chose that particular set of women and had the biopsy results already, so we could tell if it was really cancer,” he said. “The study is still going on. It’s not finalized by any means; we need to do a lot more scanning and have more statistics before we can come to any firm conclusions.”

Results so far have been “outstanding,” Williams said, but the figures will likely change as more statistics arrive. The project has been evolving over the past decade, he said, but it was not until 2005 that the researchers began 3-D dual modality imaging. Before that time, imaging was entirely 2-D.

The researchers received funding from several different sources, including the National Institutes of Health, Susan G. Komen foundation and the department of defense breast cancer program.
Harvey expressed enthusiasm for the new device but said it is still in its early stages.

“This is a great tool for finding breast cancers, but it is imperfect, particularly with people with dense breast tissue,” she said. “The bottom line is that this may help us do a better job of finding early stages of breast cancers when they are still treatable.”

The study is still open and any woman who is scheduled to undergo a biopsy can enroll, Williams said.

Throughout America’s recent economic crisis, state political leaders from across the nation have struggled to maintain sufficient funding for core services while balancing their state budgets. Despite the challenges posed by this situation, there has been very little discussion about a simple way that the federal government could step in to allow states the freedom to raise up to $30 billion in additional revenue over the next three years. This federal action would not involve hikes in existing tax rates nor would it necessitate the imposition of a new tax — rather, it would merely close a tax loophole that currently allows online retailers, such as Amazon.com, to avoid paying sales tax to almost any state government. By rewriting a few tax law provisions, Congress could eliminate this unnecessary subsidy for online sellers that puts traditional businesses at a competitive disadvantage and costs the states hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue that could be used to shore up failing schools, reduce college tuition or expand health care programs for disadvantaged citizens.

As it stands now, most states are unable to collect sales tax from online retailers because of a 1992 Supreme Court decision that exempted businesses from paying the tax in states in which they lack a physical presence. Although purchases made from these retailers are still technically subject to a “use tax” which consumers are supposed to pay at the end of every year, very little revenue is actually generated this way since enforcing the personal payment of the use tax is nearly impossible. For many years this was of little importance since major retailers operated stores and warehouses in nearly every state, but it has become a problem with the advent of companies such as Amazon, NewEgg.com and Overstock.com that have online-only business models. E-retailers now make 4.4 percent of all retail sales, according to a recent Goldman Sachs report, and are projected to increase their sales share to 14.6 percent by 2020. Amazon has led the charge with sales revenue that totaled $24.5 billion in 2009 and that is expected to grow by almost 31 percent in 2010 at a time when retail as a whole is struggling.

Shielding these immensely profitable online retailers from sales tax causes two major problems. First, it eats away at state revenues as more consumers take their shopping online. Through 2012, this is expected to deny U.S. states over $30 billion in revenue according to a study performed by the University of Tennessee. The Commonwealth of Virginia, specifically, will lose out on an estimated $341 million throughout the time frame of its recently adopted biennial budget. As a result, that money had to be subtracted from the budget through draconian cuts to education, law enforcement and social services. Secondly, the current tax arrangement puts local businesses and traditional retailers at a disadvantage since they have to factor sales tax into the prices of their products, which causes them to be higher than those found online. With local businesses already struggling to draw customers away from the convenience of shopping in their own homes, tax provisions that favor large online retailers will only make it harder for local economies to bounce back from the recent recession.

Thankfully, the Supreme Court ruling that created these issues also provides for a possible solution. In its decision, the Court stated that Congress “is … free to decide whether, when and to what extent the States may burden interstate mail-order concerns with a duty to collect use taxes.” Because there is no legal distinction between online orders and mail orders, and use taxes are merely sales taxes that are not collected by retailers, there is no reason to believe that Congress is constitutionally prohibited from acting. What must follow is for Congress to insert into the tax code a provision explicitly allowing states to require retailers to collect sales tax on all Internet sales regardless of whether the businesses in question have a physical presence in the state or not. In doing so, Congress would take a step toward ensuring that tuition increases and social spending cuts are no longer the only way for states such as Virginia to survive during difficult economic times.

Spring has spring and Green Day’s song licensing team is busy.

It’s been exactly 20 years since the Operation Ivy-inspired East Bay San Francisco punk band released its first EP, 39/Smooth, and yet it continues to skyrocket itself further into the rock-commercialist stratosphere with more lucrative multi-media endeavors than any other act on the market.

Last week, Reverb Games shot Green Day into the same new media pantheon as the Beatles, Aerosmith and Metallica by announcing the 47-song track listing for its upcoming band-centric video game Green Day: Rock Band. Even though the press release promised a “setlist featuring songs from the iconic punk band’s career,” it instead pulled tracks from three Green Day albums, only one of which (Dookie) was released during its still-underground days of the mid-90s.

Furthering this trend of using the band’s alternative past to promote its mainstream present is the Green Day musical. American Idiot — which was originally performed at a small repertory in Berkely, Calif. two years ago — opened on Broadway in New York City last night.

Based on Green Day’s 2004 politically inspired concept album of the same name, American Idiot pieces together the sonic story of a protagonist named Jesus of Suburbia who, according to the band’s vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong, represents “a new generation of Americans as they struggle to find meaning in a post 9/11 society.”

Following in the thread of the 1993 production of Who’sTommy, the rock opera keeps the album as intact as possible — depressing story arc, heroin-injection scenes and all — while spreading it across a large cast and incorporating visual cues.

So while organizing choreography for songs from your punk manifesto might sound a little sacreligious, for a band like Green Day (references to the color of money aside), it’s all in a year’s work.

On the day before he was scheduled to give his deposition for alleged benefits received while at U. Southern California, former Trojan running back Reggie Bush settled his civil lawsuit.

Bush will pay an undisclosed sum to Lloyd Lake of New Era Sports & Entertainment, the plaintiff in the suit.

The settlement closes a four-year saga for Bush, who was accused of receiving $300,000 worth of benefits illegally during his time at USC.

The implications of his actions expanded to affect the whole USC athletic department, too. Currently, USC is waiting to hear from an NCAA committee on the results of a hearing about eigh weeks ago that investigated potential violations by the school with regard to Bush and former basketball player O.J. Mayo.

When it was announced that Bush was to be deposed, many suspected that the committee would wait until Bush spoke before releasing the sanctions. Now that he has come to a settlement agreement, the sanctions are likely forthcoming.

The settlement marks the second accord that Bush has been a part of with respect to his supposed violations. In April 2007, Bush paid between $200,000 and $300,000 to Michael Michaels, another New Era partner, to avoid trial.

Ten years ago, Dave Willis co-created a show about a milkshake, French fries and a glob of meat that live in suburban New Jersey and solve crimes. What sounded like the most obscenely stupid plot ever has since blossomed into a cartoon classic. The plots (or absence of) are inconsequential; crowds ate up the snack-based show mostly for its absurdist humor. Now, after seven seasons, it’s all hittin’ the road as Willis and voice actor Dana Snyder take their beloved franchise across the country with Aqua Teen Hunger Force Live.

So how will “ATHF” translate from 12-minute animated entry to a full-fledged performance? Expect plenty of songs, puppets, jokes and never-before-seen clips, according to Willis and Snyder, who likened it to a variety show.

A&E caught up with Willis and Snyder over the phone to discuss all things “ATHF,” even Meatwad inspired scrotum art.

You guys are playing Minneapolis the same night as ’80s hit-makers the Bangles. How would you persuade someone who’s on the fence about which show to attend?

Willis: Man, if anyone is on the fence, then I would strongly urge them to go see the Bangles. If you’re that confused culturally, maybe you should just go see the Bangles.

Snyder: You want to go look at a bunch of washed-up old bags?

[Shocked laughter all around]

Snyder: Wait a minute, let me finish my statement: Then you should go see the Bangles cause then you’ll go see some beautiful women. I also want to say I don’t think the Bangles has puppets, and we do.

Since neither of you have been to Minneapolis, what’s your perception of the city?

Willis: I always think back to when I used to work in a record store when I was a kid, and Hüsker Dü and The Replacements were huge. That, and that really awkward hotel scene in “Fargo.”

Snyder: I always equate Garrison Keillor to Minneapolis.

I can’t stand Keillor, but yeah, I guess he’s our little treasure

Willis: Our little treasure? Our little, wrinkled, gnarly-looking prune of a treasure.

What made you guys want to do a live show?

Willis: You work in a little dark room with a couple of dudes. It takes you months. You put it on TV and it’s over.

This is a fun way to actually get out to the fans, but to also get that return, get that crazy validation that you’re not just shoveling this stuff into a vacuum.

I enjoyed Carl’s “Stone Cold Lock of the Century of the Week” NFL predictions last year. Does Carl have an early prediction for the Vikings?

Willis (as Carl): I will say this, I predict the Vikings to go to eight of the next 10 Super Bowls and lose them all in tragic, crushing manner. Victory will be ever-so-slightly far from their grasp.

I expect Brett Favre to play for you guys again this year, and I expect him to wear the purple, but it’s gonna be on his skin, ’cause he’s gonna be so frickin’ bruised up after someone kicks him in the nuts and wears his stomach as a shoe.

That’s what I think of your hometown team. And if you’ve got a problem with the Giants, you come down here and you tell me face-to-face, man-to-man.

Uhh …

Willis (as Carl): No. I didn’t.

Willis: Yeah, we do a Carl’s regional beef, where he basically comes to your hometown for one day, spends it in the hotel because he doesn’t want to come out, then he comes out to the show that night and basically rips your city a new one.

Snyder: He’s very hard to please.

You’ve got a really devoted following. What’s the most rabid display of fandom you guys have encountered?

Snyder: The most rabid display is a photo we received where someone had their scrotum tattooed with Meatwad on it, and it was just Meatwad’s eyes, mouth and a couple of the little meat dots.

Willis: And he may be the guy on the Internet that’s going “I don’t care so much for season eight, and let me tell you why: I’ve made the ultimate commitment for this show, and it’s not living up to the standards of getting your nut-sack tattooed.”

If you guys gave a commencement address for this year’s graduating class, what would you tell them?

Willis: We will talk down to you, then we will receive an honorary degree from your university, then I’ll put the Ph. D. in front of my name in the credits, just like [Bill] Cosby .

Snyder: If you can get enough students, we’ll give a commencement address at the show.

Willis: Follow your dreams, but more importantly follow us on Twitter.

A proper mix of Irish and punk, Flogging Molly essentially created a niche. As Irish culture continues to grow in popularity with movies like “The Departed” and the recent sequel to “The Boondock Saints” so has one of its best exports: Irish-punk.

Mixing Irish folk tunes with distorted guitar and the scowling, gritty voice of lead singer Dave King, Flogging Molly’s catchy tunes hearken back to simpler times in the land of the shamrock. Whether it’s the boozing or the general good-times atmosphere of their shows, Flogging Molly has been selling out venues for almost twenty years.

A&E talked with original member and accordionist Matt Hensley to discuss the rise in Irish popularity, atypical rock instruments and confused Nazis.

You guys have politicized lyrics — do you think your brand of music can make real political change?

If it doesn’t, it’s not going to stop me from trying. We’re just one band. Before [America] invaded Iraq, we went on tour, we did shows with bands like The Dead Kennedys and we did like a full movement to not go to that war. But we still went to that war. Flogging Molly isn’t really a political band unless the situation demands that any conscious person becomes [political]. We’re not a blind band. We see what’s going on in the world and it affects what we write.

You play the accordion in the band. How does that affect your role in the band?

I’m one in seven you know? It takes us all to make Flogging Molly. I feel like my job has always been to kind of fill in the gaps. When there’s nothing going on, I’ll play just some kind of chord or dissonant chord and make the whole band sound full.

Do you do any improv?

Yeah, I don’t think any of us play the same song twice. I take certain liberties, I’m not going to [expletive] with the chord progressions, but one night I’ll play a third and the next I’ll play the fifth of the chord, you know.

Do you ever feel like it’s difficult to make an instrument like the accordion cool?

I don’t. What, you don’t think it’s cool, man?

What advice would you have for kids playing atypical rock instruments?

When I first started playing accordion, all my friends, including my wife and everyone around me, thought I was an idiot for doing that. Now I make a proper good living doing that. So I just say screw it, believe in yourself. If you feel it, I would go with it. The world’s big enough to have all kinds of instruments.

Is Irish punk actually popular in Ireland?

I don’t know, man. It doesn’t have the same quirkiness and specialness there than it does in other parts of the world. Some of our biggest shows are in like Holland and Germany. Why would that make any sense? I don’t know. They’re into it.

It seems like Irish culture has been becoming more popular. What’s behind that?

I’d say it’s been going on for a while. I don’t know why that is. I’m happy that’s the case and to be in an Irish band. If everyone is into being Portuguese, I’d be out of a job. Sometimes it is a little bit weird and funny. I mean I’m not Irish; I’m American. Like, if I had to go back and talk about my great grandfather, I come from Scotland. I think it’s stereotypically a culture that has a quirky good time and isn’t afraid to have a couple beers. I think that’s attractive to people. But it’s weird because like 100 years ago, the Irish were considered terrible in America. It’s funny when I meet people with this crazy Irish white pride where they mix it all up.

Like skinhead Irish pride?

Like Nazi skinhead Irish pride. A lot of those guys will show me their Irish shamrock and then I’ll be on stage and they’ll throw me a swastika and I’ll be like “Oh my God, this man is confused.” But that’s not at all what this music is about or this band is about. Most of our songs are about Dave [King, guitar/vocals]’s struggle as an Irishman and the struggles of that nation.

Do you think alcohol and Flogging Molly compliment each other well?

I do. In the band, we have some drinks before we play. I’m not going to advocate anything; I’m just advocating having a good time.

What’s in the future for Flogging Molly?

We’re going to do this tour. Then we have three weeks off. Then I believe we go to Europe for a while. Then we’re going to start to write another record. I don’t know a lot of dates on that stuff, but I know we’re going to start getting together and writing a better record than the last one.