Eph Planet aggregator

WSO: Lady Gaga a Closet Nerd?

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:21:28 +0000

Did anyone catch the references to Star Wars, Dune and the Command and Conquer series in her most recent video?

The Video

The word tiberium immediately jumped out at me, and I when I looked into it, turns out the list of poisons also included one from Starwars and one from Dune.

Lysa Vola '13: But it looked so nice in the brochure…

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:13:26 +0000

Now, ask yourself a few questions. Would you move into a house you’ve never seen before? Would you buy a car before you test drove it? Probably not!

Now, consider the college you think is the right one for you. Would you go to a college you’ve only heard about, read about, or seen pictures of in a brochure? Would you go to a college just because it’s an Ivy League, or another college just because it has a reputation for being one of the biggest party schools? I surely hope not! Please DO NOT MAKE THAT MISTAKE!

Don’t choose a school just for its reputation or name, many people have made that mistake. Yes, I’m sure there are some college students who maybe saw their school for the first time the day they moved in to college, but is that really what you want to do? Do you want to be having your parents move you in, and you’re both figuring out what your college is all about for the first time? No! Just like most things in life, you won’t know if a school is the right one for you, until you visit!

You must visit every college you are highly considering attending or have been accepted to. At the same time do not rule out a college that you think you might not like before you at least visit.

I know it seems as though college brochures contain everything you must need to know about a school. But the truth is: THEY DON’T! It is not always bright and sunny outside a college, nor is everyone walking around, books in hand, smiling happily as they walk to and from class or meals. This is quite the contrary! Most college students are extremely stressed out, and it snows and rains at my school ( in the Northeast) more than I’ve seen sunshine for the past six months of my life! Do not be fooled by the happy college students or campus on the cover of a brochure! Of course everything looks nice in a pamphlet…it’s supposed to, so that you want to go there.

When visiting colleges, make sure you truly get a feel for each school. Every school has a different personality, just like every person on the campus, including yourself. Those personalities must match one another. There may be some schools you visit that just don’t quite seem to fit your needs and that’s okay. You have to find a school with a personality that fits your own.

Don’t just take the campus tour they offer to every visiting prospective student. Consider asking a current student to maybe show you around. After all, someone in admissions once told me, college students love to boast about themselves and their schools. It’s true! We want you on our campus, so ask us lots of questions when you visit! And make sure you eat in the dining halls and use some of the bathrooms! Make sure you see the dorms, and the gym! Make sure you visit the laundry room and the snack bar! You want to make sure that you are able to live comfortably in the college you choose. After all, it will be your home for the next four years. So, make your visit about more than just classes, and historical buildings that the admissions office will show you in your tour.

You’ve always heard, not to judge a book by its cover. Applying to college is the same way. Do not judge a college by a brochure.

I personally, ended up at one of the last schools I planned on attending when I applied to college in high school. I always thought I’d go to Yale, or maybe stay in state at FSU or UF, but then I got into those schools, and Williams. I visited them all, and realized that Williams was really where I felt the most at home. Nothing else mattered once I visited, because it felt right!

And you too will know when you find the school for you, and it just feels right! Go with your gut feeling !

Chet the Dog (Peter Abrahams '68): Language Lesson

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:01:05 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl9t90y4BKs

And tomorrow maybe we better get back to Colonel Bob and his son. Where were we with that? It’s so complicated!

WSO: Boycott daylight savings!

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:45:03 +0000

Can we boycott daylight savings for another week or so? I propose that campus time run as it has til spring break, at which time we can all go home & get used to the missing hour without looming papers & awkward dining hall hours. Mayhap?

(Try to look past the complaining, and see the beauty of this proposal.)

... Then again, as a friend said (rather persuasively): Longer bike rides!

Daniel Drezner '90: Paul Krugman, neoconservative

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:57:35 +0000

So I see Paul Krugman has thrown his lot in with the neoconservatives who disdain multilateral institutions and prefer bellicose unilateralism when they confront a frustrating international situation.

His op-ed today is about China's currency manipulation.... again. After explaining that China has less leverage than is commonly understood on the foreign economic policy front (gee, where have I heard that before), he closes with the following:

In 1971 the United States dealt with a similar but much less severe problem of foreign undervaluation by imposing a temporary 10 percent surcharge on imports, which was removed a few months later after Germany, Japan and other nations raised the dollar value of their currencies. At this point, it’s hard to see China changing its policies unless faced with the threat of similar action — except that this time the surcharge would have to be much larger, say 25 percent.

Whoa there, big fella!! That's a nice but very selective reading of international economic history you have there.

It's certainly true that the dollar was overvalued back in 1971. What Krugman forgets to mention -- and see if this sounds familiar - is that the Johnson and Nixon administrations contributed to this problem via a guns-and-butter fiscal policy. They pursued the Vietnam War, approved massive increases in social spending, and refused to raise taxes to pay for it. This macroeconomic policy created inflationary expectations and a "dollar glut." Foreign exchange markets to expect the dollar to depreciate over time. Other countries intervened to maintain the dollar's value -- not because they wanted to, but because they were complying with the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. Nixon only went off the dollar after the British Treasury came to the U.S. and wanted to convert all their dollar holdings into gold.

In other words, the United States was the rogue economic actor in 1971 -- not Japan or Germany.

So, how about acting multilaterally first before engaging in unilateral action that alienates America's friends and allies alike?

To be fair to Krugman, many of the multilateral processes appear to be stymied, as Keith Bradsher explains in this NYT front-pager:

Beijing has worked to suppress a series of I.M.F. reports since 2007 documenting how the country has substantially undervalued its currency, the renminbi, said three people with detailed knowledge of China’s actions....

Last September, Presidennt Obama, President Hu Jintao of China and other leaders of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries agreed in Pittsburgh that all the G-20 countries would begin sharing their economic plans by November. The goal was to coordinate their exits from stimulus programs and prevent the world from lurching from recession straight into inflation.

The G-20 leaders agreed that the I.M.F. would act as intermediary.

But two people familiar with China’s response said that the Chinese government missed the November deadline and then submitted a vague document containing mostly historical data. These people said that China feared giving ammunition to critics of its currency policies at the monetary fund and beyond. Both people asked for anonymity because of China’s attitudes about its economic policies.

That last part oabout the G-20 process is particularly disturbing, given that this was supposed to be the venue through which macroeconomic imbalances were supposed to be addressed. So maybe Krugman is right and unilateral is the way to go?

I don't think so. The big difference between the end of the Bretton Woods era and the current Bretton Woods II situation is the distribution of interests. In 1971, everyone was opposed to a continuation of U.S. policies. This time around, there appears to be a growing consensus that China is the rogue economic actor.

If Krugman gets to repeat himself, then so do I:

[T]he United States is not the country that's hurt the most by this tactic. It's the rest of the world -- particularly Europe and the Pacific Rim -- that are getting royally screwed by China's policy. These countries are seeing their currencies appreciating against both the dollar and the renminbi, which means their products are less competitive in the U.S. market compared to domestic production and Chinese exports.

So why should the U.S. act unilaterally? Why not activate an international regime that does not include China but does include a lot of other actors hurt by China's currency policy?

Am I missing anything?

Prof. Frank Morgan: Manifolds with Density

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:06:27 +0000

Spaces M with metrics and measures, so-called metric measure spaces or mm spaces (see e.g. Gromov [G]), include very general singular manifolds and weighted graphs. In the smooth case, M is a Riemannian manifold endowed with a smooth positive function or “density” f; the prescribed measure is just f times the Riemannian volume. In freshman calculus one studies surfaces and solids of revolution via their generating curves and regions in the halfplane {x>0} with density f(x) = 2πx. All quotient manifolds of Riemannian manifolds and homogeneous spaces G/K are Riemannian manifolds with density, previously called spaces of homogeneous type (see [CW, pp. 587, 591]). Another example, long important to probabilists, is Euclidean space with Gaussian density.

Since varying the density does not alter the topology of a Riemannian manifold, it provides additional flexibility in applying analysis to topology, as in generalizations of splitting theorems by Lichnerowicz [L, 1970], Morse inequalities of Witten [W, 1982], and the proof of the Poincaré Conjecture by Perelman [P, 2003], who begins the body of his paper with manifolds with density before passing to requisite technical refinements.

There are many generalizations of the canonical Riemannian intrinsic curvature to manifolds with density. Corwin et al. [CHHSX] note three different generalizations of Gauss curvature for surfaces needed for three different purposes: generalizing Gauss-Bonnet and asymptotic formulas for the perimeter and area of geodesic balls. Bakry and Émery [BE] provide an infinite family of generalizations of Ricci curvature with associated formal dimensions. My favorite, the “infinite-dimensional” or “non-dimensional” version, obtained by subtracting from the Riemannian Ricci curvature matrix the Hessian of the logarithm of the density, appeared first in Lichnerowicz [L, 1970] and yields an generalization of the Levy-Gromov isoperimetric inequality which is easier to prove than the classical Riemannian version (see [M]). In the category of manifolds with density, the round sphere is replaced as the model space by Gauss space, which has the simplifying feature than isoperimetric hypersurfaces are hyperplanes, as first proved about 1975 by Borell [B] and Sudakov and Tsirel’son [ST], with uniqueness by Carlen and Kerce [CK, 2001]. Sturm [S] and Lott and Villani [LV] have studied Ricci curvature on more singular spaces using optimal transport.

REFERENCES

[BE] D. Bakry and M. Émery, Diffusions Hypercontractive, Séminaire de Probabilités XIX 1983/4, Lecture Notes Math. 1123, Springer, 1985, 177-206. Generalized Ricci curvatures.

[B] Christer Borell, The Brunn-Minkowski inequality in Gauss Space, Invent. Math. 30 (1975) 207-216.

[CK] E. A. Carlen and C. Kerce, On the cases of equality in Bobkov’s inequality and Gaussian rearrangement, Calc. Var. 13 (2001), 1-18.

[CW] R. R. Coifman and G. Weiss, Extensions of Hardy Spaces and their use in analysis, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 83 (1977), 569-645.

[CHHSX] Ivan Corwin, Neil Hoffman, Stephanie Hurder, Vojislav Sesum, Ya Xu, Differential geometry of manifolds with density, Rose-Hulman Und. Math. J. 7 (1) (2006). http://www.rose-hulman.edu/mathjournal/v7n1.php

[G] Misha Gromov, Isoperimetry of waists and concentration of maps, Geom. Func. Anal. 13 (2003), 178-215.

[L] André Lichnerowicz, Variétés riemanniennes à tenseur C non négatif, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Sér. A-B 271 (1970), A650-A653.

[LV] Lott and C. Villani, Ricci curvature for metric-measure spaces via optimal transport, arXiv.org (2006).

[M] Frank Morgan, Geometric Measure Theory: a Beginner’s Guide. Academic Press, fourth edition, 2009.

[P] Grisha Perelman, The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications, arXiv.org (2003).

[R] Antonio Ros, The isoperimetric problem, David Hoffman, editor, Global Theory of Minimal Surfaces (Proc. Clay Math. Inst. 2001 Summer School, MSRI), Amer. Math. Soc., 2005, 175-209.

[S] Karl-Theodor Sturm. On the geometry of metric measure spaces, I, II. Acta Math. 196 (2006), 65-131 and 133-177.

[ST] V. N. Sudakov and B. S. Tsirel’son, Extremal properties of half-spaces for spherically invariant measures, J. Soviet Math. (1978), 9-18 (earlier in Russian).

[W] Edward Witten. Supersymmetry and Morse theory. J. Differential Geom. 17 (1982), no. 4, 661-692.

Dan Blatt '85: The Democratic Health Care Obsession

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:57:18 +0000

Sometimes I think President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats are so hell-bent on passing health care is that they just want to prevent the GOP and Republicans from being able to gloat.

They’re so focused on being able to pass this “historic” bill. But, just because the left has wanted a major health care overhaul for sixty some odd years doesn’t mean the American people want it. And it’s too bad the Democrats confuse their own wishes–and their party’s long dreams with popular will.

I know there’s more to it than this, but when you look at how they’ve gamed the numbers, how they’ve bought off wavering Senators, how they’re using procedural gimmicks to pass this, it just seems that the goal of passing this has superseded all else.

Like the junkie selling all his possession for a fix.

Sarah Hart '02: mindful monday

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:52:00 +0000

wisdom from an unexpected source
you know, it's funny -- i critique self mag just days ago, and then finished the march issue only to find not one, but two articles that i found interesting and very pertinent to my own life.

[image]

the first one was hate to wait?, a short article written memoir-style about the author's struggle with impatience. she describes several vignettes of practically going postal while waiting in lines or watching a Subway employee s-l-o-w-l-y make a sandwich (the author should be glad she doesn't live in the south!).

after seeing her outraged face in the mirror of a checkout line, she wonders if perhaps this was negatively impacting her health and well-being. to investigate this and learn about ways to change, she then visits a psychologist who diagnoses her with "time-urgency impatience", or TUI for short.

the psychologist (rightfully) brings up that people with TUI often are that way because of narcissism -- a sense that they are special and shouldn't HAVE to wait/deal with life's little annoyances. this seems to resonate with the author, motivating her to want to change.

later, at a zen center where she went for more guidance, the author is told that "patience is a practice . . . the best way to cultivate it is to remind yourself constantly that every moment is the only place that your life is occurring."

BAM. so true, and nicely put! the rest of the article is humorous, chronicling the author's attempts to put this into action -- my favorite line is when she tells her husband that she's "trying to live in the friggin' moment."

i really liked the article as a whole -- both the author's voice and her message. and it was an excellent reminder of the role that mindfulness can play in everyday life, really all the time. it also drives home the small but very important point that freaking out while waiting really only has negative effects. as someone with intermittent TUI (especially at work), i took the advice in this piece to heart.

the nine rooms of happiness is the second article that caught my attention. not necessarily for the whole happiness concept (that the blueprint for your life's happiness can be represented by rooms in a house -- as you see below, a whole book is based on this concept) -- but for the opening section.

in it, the editor of self magazine (successful, much?), who is a thin blonde triathlete and mother to boot, describes the start of her day. she goes through the motions of a typical morning, mentioning the thoughts that come over her as she moves through her routine:

upon seeing her clock first thing: "i should have gotten up earlier."

upon seeing her sleeping son: "i don't spend enough time with my kids."

glancing at a pile of bills: "ugh, i have to catch up on those."

walking into the kitchen: "i should have loaded those dishes last night."

and finally, coming back from a run, directed at her butt: "still my biggest feature . . . some things never change."

i immediately connected with this article (online version found here). i didn't even realize it until i read it, but I DO THIS TOO. every single day of my life. i curse getting into the shower because of 'how late' i am. i beat myself up in the car (again, for being later than i want to be). i often spend more time and energy thinking about 'should-haves' and 'need-tos' than i ever get to devote to just being and doing.

don't get me wrong -- i'm not a miserable person! at all. but i would really like to stop this bad habit/way of thinking. i've written about flow and focus before, and i really think these things are the antithesis of the mindset above. however, i also realize that perhaps a little conscious behavior modification (ie, STOPPING myself when i hear the berating voice in the back of my head) might be important as well.

what do you think? anyone else read these articles and have similar thoughts? and, any sage advice as to what to do to combat these detrimental (but perhaps ingrained) patterns of thinking?

HL week comes to a close
here's the final day of my visual food journal to round out the full week!

breakfast: english muffin with almond butter & honey, plus an apple. are you tired of looking at these pictures yet? i am! [but i'm not tired of eating this for breakfast!]

lunch out: at brixx -- josh wanted to go somewhere we could hang out and watch duke play. i picked the mediterranean salad with shrimp and josh got a whole wheat rustica pizza. we did a little exchange, as you can see.

get glo-ing: i ate this in 2 halves -- 1/2 before my 10 mile long run, and the other 1/2 immediately after (glycogen replenishment = important)

pre-dinner snax: i had a mad craving for these veggie chips after seeing them at whole foods on my weekly shopping adventure, and accompanied them with a duck rabbit (local brew) to tame my post-run hunger while i cooked dinner.

dinner: i whipped up this super-easy vegetarian pasta recipe while sipping my drink and singing along to wilco.

dessert: a coconut mini ice cream sandwich from so delicious that i picked up on my WF excursion. cute size and delicious flavor!

sunday playlist
does anyone else do this?

put a word into your itunes so that it churns out a library of songs with that word in it? it's a way of creating eclectic mixes that still have a common theme.

yesterday, i was thinking that having music on actually has a powerful effect on my mode of thinking, bringing me more 'into the moment' (sorry, i had to go there one more time) and making even mundane chores more fun.

example:
cleaning the bathroom = bah.
cleaning the bathroom with lady gaga . . . a different sort of experience, indeed.

[anyone else catch the video for telephone? i was mesmerized and horrified simultaneously! it reminded me of thelma and louise and pulp fiction all rolled into one glittery, highly explicit off-the-deep-end package. still love her!]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

3.14.10

workout: 10 miles in chapel hill, average 8:44/mi. i started slow and finished FAST -- 7:06/mi barreling into my apartment complex (just for the last 0.1 mile or so though . . . i was pumped :) ). i'm ready for my half next week!

project report: i still have some work to do to tie up loose ends -- and i need to practice more! but i think it is going to go okay tomorrow. i am just looking forward to being done.

Dan Blatt '85: The Democrats’ “Convoluted Legislative Charade”

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:36:11 +0000

Ever since I read that House Democrats had released what it supposed to be the legislation for their final vote on health care, I’ve been trying to figure out what exactly they’re trying to do. I mean, since they’re apparently going to be deeming the bill the Senate passed last December passed, shouldn’t that be the bill they’re releasing.

Well, not quite. According to the Hill:

The House Budget Committee on Sunday evening released text that will serve as the base legislation for the changes the House will seek to the Senate bill this week.

Specifically, the Budget committee released a 2,309-page effort that had been previously recommended to the Education and Labor Committee and Ways and Means Committee last year.

But, get this:

The measure posted online does not include the substantive changes to the Senate healthcare bill that House Democrats will seek. Those changes will be offered during the markups in the Budget and Rules committees, which the budget panel hopes to begin on Monday afternoon.

So, in other words, they’ve released a final bill that isn’t really a final bill. With the help of Philip Klein, Michelle tries to unpack just what the Democrats are doing:

Philip Klein reminds us that GOP Rep. Paul Ryan warned last week of the Dems’ strategy ramming this “shell” HC Bill through committee tomorrow. The budget committee approves the shell, sends it to the rules committee, then strips out the language and stuffs the actual reconciliation changes into the burrito, Klein explains. Klein lays it all out here.

Doesn’t sound very transparent to me. Wonder if, as per Obama’s campaign promise, the Democrats allowed C-SPAN cameras to film the negotiations as they drew up this legislation and these procedural shenanigan. As U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) put it in today’s Washington Post:

This convoluted legislative charade demonstrates how far the Democratic majority has wandered from real health-care reform and cost control, employing any means to achieve political victory.

It’s all about achieving political victory, no matter what damage to our Constitution, our nation’s health care system or even the Democratic Party.

Even Democrats who support a major health care overhaul will shy away from such shenanigans and they won’t play well in Peoria–or any place outside the type of deep blue enclaves that elect folk like Nancy Pelosi and Chris Van Hollen to Congress.

Idiots'Blog: Kato Smiles

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:37:17 +0000

Kato let out an ear-to-ear grin today around 6:05pm.

Not because he got to hang out with Christian the other day.

Not even because he got to hang out with Lauren the other day (a thing that is easily three times more smile-inducing than hanging out with Christian).

No, Kato is smiling because Duke has earned its first 1 seed since 2006.

For those of you who live on other planets, I’m talking about the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, the seeds for which were announced today. In spite of their many detractors, Duke won the ACC tournament this afternoon, earned the third best overall seed in the tournament and, apparently, has a cupcake walk to the Final Four. Have a look at the bracket and see if you agree.

If I’m correct in guessing that you are just as excited about March Madness as Kato is, you will be happy to know that I have just created the first ever Idiots’Books bracket group on ESPN. That’s right. You can make your picks and compete against other Idiots’Blog readers for ultimate glory and a rather nice prize: a free, full-year subscription to Idiots’Books. You heard me right: a full free year of Idiots’Books goes to the person who wins the first-ever Idiots’Books bracket challenge.

Why am I being so generous, you ask? Because I have already filled out my bracket and know for a fact that I’ve picked all the games correctly. The free subscription will be going to me. But if you’re feeling frisky and still want to try to best me, here’s what you do.

1. Go to: http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/
2. Log in. Create your entry. Follow the directions. Do not be frustrated.
3. Join group “Idiots’Bracket,” and enter the password “thebarn”
4. Watch as the teams you picked lose, and the teams I picked win. What could be more fun!?

Kato has not yet made his picks, citing the need to visualize the matchups for a while before committing to a bracket.

But I can tell he hesitates out of fear. He knows that I have picked the perfect bracket. He knows that he cannot possibly win the free subscription.

Given that this contest is impossibly stacked against the rest of you, I offer an easier route to glory: anyone who earns a higher final score than Kato will win a free copy of Nasty Chipmunk, a very nice book about family values.

Happy picking.

WSO: FF XIII

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:35:48 +0000

who else is incredibly excited for this game to be released tomorrow???? (3/9)

WOC: WOC weekly calender

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:22:53 +0000

Events for the week of 3/15 - 3/22:

MONDAY - Open climbing at the Nate Lowe wall 6:15-8:15 PM in the Field House.

TUESDAY - Polar Bear Swim, come for a refreshing dip in the Green River! Meet on Paresky steps at 10PM and don’t forget to bring warm clothes and a towel. Questions to Fiona at few1. - Kayak rolling! 7pm – 8:30pm in the pool. - Open climbing at the Nate Lowe wall 8:15-10:15 PM in the Field House.

THURSDAY - Open climbing at the Nate Lowe wall 8:30-10:30 PM in the Field House.

FRIDAY - Sunrise Hike up Pine Cobble. Meet at Chapin Steps at 6:00AM; we will return to campus by 8:45AM.

ANNOUNCEMENTS - WOC is organizing a trip to Mystic, CT for hiking, car camping, and possibly boating for the weekend of April 10-11. Departure will be Saturday morning, returning Sunday evening. Spaces are limited so please email Allie (10arg) to reserve yours today!

- The equipment room will be closed this Saturday because of spring break

-Your friends at WOC

WSO: Spring Fling

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:01:01 +0000

does anybody know when our spring concert is and who is playing for it?

WSO: WCFM Spring Schedule

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:50:30 +0000

Hey Williams! Here's the WCFM Schedule for this semester if anyone's interested. Also, DJs: I know some of you have had shows added since the beginning of the semester, so let me know and I'll update the schedule! *** UPDATED, thanks Julian

Jennifer Mattern: No, Mom, Burning Man is not Curves

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:50:53 +0000

“What is this Burning Man?” asks my mother, via the technological monstrosity known as Facebook. “Is it like Curves?”

My mother being my “friend” on Facebook—and commenting on absolutely everything that I post or comment on myself—is another story.

“Burning Man is not Curves,” I reply in print. This is actually all I know of Burning Man, that it is NOT Curves. I will try to explain this to her tomorrow, on her birthday, when she will likely be in a cheerful-enough frame of mind to agree to care for my beasts if I should decide to go to Burning Man 2010—which might as well be 20 women in a circle on elliptical machines, for all I understand of it.

*****

Facebook is a necessary evil for misery-laden divorcees, I have decided.

Sophie asked me just yesterday why all the adults she knows seem to be on Facebook: “obsessed,” I believe, was the word she chose. I told her it’s because grownups are pitiful creatures. I told her Facebook happens to grownups because once they get out of college, they lose their friend-making superpowers, and eventually, their friends. Without Facebook and its illusion of reconnection and new connections, grownups’ sad, pathetic little hearts would rot like dead goldfish floating too long at the top of the aquarium before proper flush-burial.

“Ooooo-KAY,” said Sophie, before flouncing off to read, or, you know, make real friends or schedule real playdates or something like that.

I need more playdates.

*****

As I was pondering this (along with my mother’s last rapid-fire machine-gun burst of comments: “LOVE THAT!” “GREAT PIC! WONDER WHERE JENN GETS IT FROM?” “<3 <3 <3″), I noticed that an old friend of mine from Grinnell had posted a batch of Burning Man photos. Many of them featured topless, A-cup, 20something hotties wearing superstar sunglasses and bandanna loincloths and working heavy construction equipment, hotties with names like Ariadne Aurora Novastar and Eclipse Eurofresh.

As I stared at their naked boobies in the hot, dusty desert, two realizations hit me:

1) Them thar are some badass CURVES

2) My boobies were SO AWESOMELY EUROFRESH when I was in my 20s, that even Ariadne Aurora and Eclipse would have fallen to their hot, bony knees in wonderment and worshipped me as the artsy love goddess that I was, had I only known it at the time

3) I wanted to BE Ariadne Aurora Novastar and Eclipse Eurofresh. Like, NOW. IMMEDIATELY. In some way. Even if I would now have to tie my boobies behind my neck like a halter top so I could work the construction equipment safely

*****

I feel bad that I have not had this response to BlogHer. In fact, I can’t even bear to look at pictures of BlogHer, and I like to think it’s not just because I’m discriminating against their boobies-must-be-covered policy.

I don’t feel like I belong anywhere anymore. And BlogHer, although I seem to have the credentials—after all, I run the ads, and I, you know, BLOG, and I’m a HER—feels like a place where I would feel even more lonely than I already do. Even more of a freak.

Truly, right now, I feel about as lonely as I’ve ever felt. And as freakish as I’ve ever felt. The prospect of attending BlogHer and watching the hives form around the most popular bloggers makes me want to set myself on fire. With a stiff drink in the non-lighting hand.

So why not watch something else get set on fire? Something BIG?

*****

I did a little homework. Burning Man, populated annually by thousands upon thousands of freaks who come together to create a freakishly wonderful and terrifying and unfathomable (to the Burning Man virgins, like moi) consensual art experience—well, that started to sound kind of reassuring. Calming, even. Insane, possibly, but I am no stranger to insanity.

So I wrote to my Grinnell friend on a whim, asking him to tell me more about Burning Man, and if you have to be a topless 20something with an awesome, yet petite, rack and a name like Ariadne Aurora Novastar. Au contraire, he told me. Clothing is optional, but the option lies with me.

And then he asked if I wanted to be part of his Burning Man camp this year. August 2010. He told me to read up on it at The Burning Man Project site. Said it would answer some of my questions.

It did, and it didn’t. But I remain mightily intrigued:

FIRST-TIMER’S GUIDE

Once a year, tens of thousands of people gather in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert (also known as “the playa”) to create Black Rock City, a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. They depart one week later, having left no trace whatsoever.

Even considering going to Burning Man for the first time can be daunting. And while it’s true that Burning Man is not for the faint of heart, with some research, preparation, and planning, an experience — and opportunity — beyond your wildest dreams awaits you. In Black Rock City, you’re guaranteed not to be the weirdest kid in the classroom. And you’ll become a part of the growing community of Burners who are active year-round, around the world … ensuring that the fire of Burning Man culture never goes out.

My friend P. said that they greet you at the gates of Black Rock City with the words, “Welcome home.” I nearly teared up at that. “Welcome home.” Dang it. Because ain’t that just what I’m looking for. Ain’t it just.

Home.

*****

I am a Burning Man virgin, as they say. I sure as heck ain’t the original variety. I am going to check in with P. later this week, to make sure his invitation to join his camp was the real deal.

I forget sometimes that I was a Studio Art major at Grinnell, and a Theatre minor. I would like to forget that I have a Master’s in Acting and Playwriting, since I still owe $60,000 unpayable dollars in student loans for that detour. I forget that I used to wake up every day and consider myself an artist. Nothing fancy, but an artist. Somebody who used to make stuff, good stuff, regularly.

Art used to feel like home.

I’d like to find home again. I wonder if a week of art installations and dust and heat and all-night drum circles and gift-giving and free love (maybe I’ll just observe that particular facet) and waiting in line for Porta-Potties (if only I could just observe) would shake up my soul, burn the remaining bombed-out walls of my spirit to the ground.

Welcome home.

*****

Have you gone? Would you go? Are there camps solely for those with busted hearts and sagging breasts and dreams gone completely missing? Oh, baby. Speak to me, Burners. O, verily, speak.

Williams Forum at College Confidential: ...No Love Letter!

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:32:47 +0000

First, I wanted to congratulate all of you who received an Early Write from Williams: an incredible feat! Congrats! :)

But then, for those like me who haven't received a love letter from the Purple Cow, what are our chances? It seems 200-300 Early Writes is quite a number for a school that is only about twice that number and if we take into account the Early Decision admits...not many spots left, is there?

Also, I tried looking for it but couldn't find it; is there an article out there like in the WilliamsRecord about this year's Early Writes? They usually provide percentages, if I remember... :o

Anyways, thanks!

Daniel Drezner '90: Will David Axelrod please be quiet, please? [UPDATED]

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:32:23 +0000

Commentary's Jennifer Rubin is reacting way out of proportion to David Axelrod's tour of the Sunday morning talk shows. That said, she's got a germ of a good point:

David Axelrod — a political operative who now seems at the center of foreign-policy formulation (more on this later) — went on the Fox, ABC, and NBC Sunday talk shows to repeat how insulted the Obami were over Israeli building in Jerusalem and what an affront this was to them....

[I]t might have something to do with the fact that Axelrod and the Chicago pols are running foreign policy. It’s attack, attack, attack — just as they do any domestic critic.

Quibble away with Rubin's characterization of "Chicago pols," but she does raise a decent question: why on God's green earth is the Obama equivalent of Karl Rove talking about foreign policy in public?

Since the VP trip from Hell, it's clear that the Obama administration has ratcheted up the rhetoric in private, in public, in press leaks and through multilateral channels to their Israeli counterparts. Given what transpired, it's entirely appropriate that the Obama administration make its displeasure felt publicly.

Why Axelrod, however? Sure, the Sunday morning talk shows wanted to talk health care as well. And it's true that Axelrod, thought of as pro-Israel, could send a tough signal. Still, couldn't the administration have sent Hillary Clinton to one of the Sunday morning talk shows instead? Wouldn't she have been the more appropriate spokesman.

I've spent enought time inside the Beltway to be leery of the gossipy tidbits I collect when I'm down there. That said, there was one persistent drumbeat I heard during my last sojourn -- that Axelrod and the political advisors were acting as Obama's foreign policy gatekeepers.

Now, I am shocked, shocked, that politicians are thinking about foreign policy in a political manner. That said, there is a balance to be struck between political and policy advisors. Even David Frum admitted that this balance got out of whack during the Bush administration. I'd like to see things return to to the pre-21st century equilibrium. It would be disturbing if the new equilibrium is that someone like David Axelrod becomes the foreign policy czar.

UPDATE: You know what's particularly galling about this? When the political operatives fail to do their job and point out politically useful things to do in order to augment American foreign policy:

As an unusual public showdown between the Israeli and American administrations plays out, Hill sources say leading Congressional Democrats would be with the administration on this but would really like to get a phone call from Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell, currently en route back to the Middle East to try to salvage Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks.

As former Senate Majority Leader, Mitchell has credibility with the Senators, one staffer said. It would be really helpful if he makes some phone calls from the plane, to say we really need you to stay with the administration, we are trying to push the peace process forward, and if he would articulate some sort of vision, of where this next sort of piece of tactical fight is going.

This is not the first time one has heard this from Hill Democrats that they are feeling a bit in the dark, but at such a tense moment, it is hard not to be astonished that the administration was not working the phones to the Hill all weekend.

"Same exact mistake of the first two Clinton years with majorities in both Houses," one Washington Democratic foreign policy hand said. "You'd think they would have learned the lesson of 'never take your allies for granted' at least after this year."

Michael Greeley '85: Mr. Greeley Goes to Washington – Part II…

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:46:46 +0000

One of the great things about being on the board of the National Venture Capital Association is when we have board meetings in Washington DC; it is similar to how I feel about jury duty – everyone should do it just to see how the whole thing works.

Recently I had breakfast with Representative Richard Neal (Democrat) from Springfield, MA. Rep Neal sits on the powerful Ways and Means Committee and has a great deal of influence over issues VC’s find important – taxation for one. With some current polls suggesting the public’s approval rating for Congress hovering just below 20% I expected a more defensive, combative posture; instead he was incredibly gracious, open-minded and engaging. Rep Neal was very practical and appeared to be very aligned with me on the agenda of the VC community which is around successful company formation and greater access to capital.

There were a number of other nuggets from breakfast…

“Class warfare is real…”
DC is paralyzed over the Scott Brown election (another Massachusetts “miracle”). Rep Neal cited the recently passed jobs bill in the Senate which just squeaked by but really should have had 90+ votes.
“Republicans will take the Senate in 2012”
Increasingly there is an expectation that the Administration will govern through the administrative agencies given the deadlocked nature of the House and Senate. This has a reasonably profound impact on many venture-backed companies. Specifically healthcare policies will play out more opaquely at the FDA and CMS versus the legislative framework. Clean-tech companies will need to work more with DOE and not the Congress.
Financial reform will be driven to a greater extent by the SEC even though it is an “independent agency.” Notably the SEC commissioners are all hand-picked by the administration.

Having served on a jury, the last thing I would want to do is commit a crime and be caught up in the system. Having met a number of our elected officials, I am glad they are doing all that hard work rather than me.

Dan Blatt '85: Why the Tea Party Movement is Good For Gays

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:30:03 +0000

While I may quibble with Michael Barone about those “litmus tests” over the past twenty years, I agree with him about the “pivot” the Tea Party phenomenon could represent for the GOP:

The Republicans for the last two decades have been a party whose litmus tests have been cultural issues, especially abortion. The tea partiers have helped to change their focus to issues of government overreach and spending. That may be a helpful pivot, given the emergence of a millennial generation uncomfortable with crusading cultural conservatism.

In short, Tea Parties could help reshape the GOP in Ronald Reagan’s image, a party whose focus is reducing the size and scope of the federal government and championing freedom. And this focus on small government turns the party’s attention away from divisive social issues, making it easier for people from all walks of life, including gays, to rally to its defense – and help it stay on the offense against Democrats’ big government schemes.

Freedom is an idea which social conservative Christians as well as socially liberal gays can readily and warmly embrace.

The Barone piece, as is anything by that sage commentator, is well worth you time. So just read the whole thing!

Chap Petersen '90: Budget Status: We Are Reconciled

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:20:00 +0000

Today the State Senate voted to accept the Conference Committee report from the House and Senate budget negotiators. With that, the Budget was enacted and the 2010 session came to an end.

The Conference report is a long and complex document. Here are the highlights:

K-12 Education: The Senate was able to save Virginia from about 80% of the House-proposed education cuts. The overall K-12 reduction from the introduced budget will be $253 million. That is still a significant sum (about 2% of our schools budget) but definitely manageable. The "true LCI" will be used to allocate educational funds.

Public Health: The conferees used about $370M in new Federal funding to restore provider cuts to Medicaid and lift the freeze on Medicaid waiver slots. We also adopted some new state fees to help fund state trauma centers and EMS services. Overall, with those two new revenues, we are able to keep state services generally equal.

Public Safety: About $167M is restored to Sheriffs and other local officials. We also restored funding which supports local police. We are phasing out two prisons to cut costs. We are also leaving vacant several judicial vacancies (I'm going to hear about this one). Crime continues to pay -- extra fees that is. Each conviction will get a $10 penalty extra to fund childrens' services.

State Employee Benefits: The VRS deferral will end up netting $620M in savings for this biennium. That is a huge savings but it substantially changes the nature of VRS. New employees after July 1 will be required to pay their retirement share. The state will no longer pick it up. We will continue the 1-day furlough proposed by Governor Kaine.

Higher Education: Some small reductions here to TAG scholarships and other selected projects. Otherwise, the conferees left the colleges alone. They have already lost 25% of their funding since 2007 so there's only but so much you can do.

Economic Development: The only winner in the budget. The conferees agreed to put in $46M in new spending here per the Governor's January request. We'll see how this works out. I have my doubts but let's save that for later.

Overall, it's a tough situation. In Fairfax City, my hometown, we are losing $350,000 in school funding which is about 5 teachers. Of course, that's a pittance compared to larger jurisdictions like Chesterfield that lose $18M or so. Nearly every single jursidiction will be adversely affected, except Fairfax County and Loudoun which get the one-time benefit from the true LCI (note that they still receive far less per capita than nearly every other school district).

I don't celebrate this conference report. But I did vote for it. And it passed 34-6 on the Senate floor.

And I thank the conferees and staff for sticking in there to get this done.

Stephen Rose '58: Virginia Thomas, Wife Of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Launches Tea Party Group

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:47:05 +0000

She has a perfect right. As do all Americans to be as idiotic as they wish. And to see others as such. If we got alarmed at every turn the sky might be induced to fall merely by our unnecessary exertions.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Filed under: politics Tagged: Mrs. Clarence Thomas, tea party

Prof. Allison Pacelli: Almond Orange Olive Oil Cake with Brown Butter Glaze

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:47:00 +0000

Happy Pi Day!! To celebrate, I'm bringing you this, um, cake. Oops. No time to make pie this weekend, sorry! I'll have to catch European Pi Day on July 22 (22/7 is one of the best approximates of pi).

When I got tenure (over a year ago now), my mom and I wanted to go someplace nice in New York. The problem with lots of nice restaurants in NY? Not very vegetarian friendly. I think we've narrowed it down to Daniel's and Babbo, but our celebration dinner has yet to happen (this summer hopefully!)... in the meantime, this cake is by Gina DePalma, pastry chef at Babbo.

This cake is perfect for a Sunday brunch or afternoon meeting or any other time when you'd like something (relatively) light and sweet without totally taking you over into a sugar coma. It's a somewhat unusual combination of flavors with the citrus, the almonds, and the olive oil - but it works! And it's Italian. And did you see how there's brown butter in the glaze? You're going to want to start using this glaze on everything. It's yummy. And no mixer required - just some whisking and stirring - easy.

Orange Almond Olive Oil Cake with Brown Butter Glaze

(adapted only slightly from Gina DePalma)

For the Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup blanched or natural almond flour (you can finely grind the almonds yourself)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
Grated zest of 1 medium lemon or 1/2 a medium orange (I used orange)
1/2 cup orange juice (fresh squeezed if possible)

Notes:

The first time I made this, I used 1/2 cup lime juice and 1/2 cup lemon juice instead of the orange juice, and used lemon zest instead of orange zest. I liked it, but it definitely tasted different. I prefer the cake made as above, but if you're a huge fan of lime, you may want to experiment with adding some lime juice.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pan (the 8-inch will give you a slightly taller cake, but it won't overflow if the sides are 2" tall or higher).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In a largebowl, whisk together the eggs to break up the yolks. Add the sugar to the bowl and whisk it in thoroughly for about 30 seconds. Add the olive oil and whisk until the mixture is a bit lighter in color and has thickened slightly, about 45 seconds. Whisk in the extracts and zest, followed by the orange juice.

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and whisk until they are thoroughly combined; continue whisking until you have a smooth, emulsified batter, about 30 more seconds. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake the cake for 30 to 45 minutes, rotating the cake pan halfway through the cooking time to ensure even browning. The cake is done when it has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan, springs back lightly when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool for ten minutes in the pan, then gently remove it from the pan and allow it to cool completely (right-side up) on a rack.

For the Brown Butter Glaze and Assembly

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons whole milk or heavy cream
1/2 cup slivered almonds

While the cake is cooling, make the glaze. Brown the butter, and let sit (it will continue to get a little darker after you turn off the heat).

Toast the almonds: scatter them evenly over a baking sheet, and bake at 350F for 5-10 minutes, until lightly browned.

In a medium bowl, add the milk or heavy cream to the powdered sugar and stir. Slowly add the browned butter, and stir until smooth. Add more milk/cream if you'd like the glaze to be a little thinner; add more sugar if you'd like it thicker. Spread onto the cake with an offset spatula when cool, and allow to drip down the sides of the cake. Scatter the toasted almonds evenly over the surface of the cake. Enjoy!

Prof. Sam Crane: Shake Your Groove Thing

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:44:39 +0000

I was at a party last night and some disco came on. My wife and I started to dance, just like we did all those years ago in college, back in the seventies when disco was ubiquitous.

It made me think about disco as an art form. At first, I hated it. This was 1975 when it was just coming out in a big way. I thought then that it was too simplistic, just percussion, most notably the high-hat cymbal, and bass and whatever lyrics that could be scrambled together. But as it caught on I found it infectious. Disco was taken seriously at my college, Purchase College. The dancers liked it because it was, after all, all about dancing. Purchase was very gay, and, as this analysis suggests, disco had a distinctively gay aspect to it:

...Gays took the same idea of the black dance parties and used the same music for their parties that shared the same private clubs, soon to be known as "discos". Discos became so successful that they transformed rapidly from marginalized, discriminated and underground phenomenon to a chic craze for the yuppies. Far from being agents of the Establishment, gays adopted several trademarks of the hippy culture (free-form dancing, psychedelic lights, colorful costumes, hallucinogens). New York's gay community rediscovered a new facet of human psychology that had been well known to ancient cultures: "depersonalization" due to collective ecstasy enabled and fostered freedom of expression. The cathartic and regenerative function of disco-music accounted for the lightning speed with which it spread around the world

This was before it became mainstreamed, as all popular cultural products are destined to be, when it was still somewhat transgressive. At base, it was just fun. There were songs that integrated love themes (I always liked Sending you forget me nots - which I take as a late disco (1982) love song) but most did away with any pretension of lyrical significance. They reveled in silly lines that were simply accompaniment for the main purpose, which was dancing. How else can one explain titles such as, Shake Your Booty, Boogie, Oogie, Oogie, Get Down Tonight, and Shake Your Groove Thing. All that mattered was giving yourself over to the sound and moving to the music. We all got out on the dance floor and boogied: gay, straight, black, white, Latino, together, dancing, forgetting the rest, just letting go and flying, collective ecstasy....

But it is that last line of above quote I want to focus on: the freedom of expression, the cathartic and regenerative function. Makes me think of Zhuangzi....

Zhuangzi would, I think, be repelled by what disco became: a conspicuous fashion, the movement from a freely expressed human quality, if that is what dancing with abandon is, to an institutionalized and routinized commodity. As in this passage, from chapter 4:

...Drinking at ceremonies begins orderly enough, but it always ends up wild and chaotic. And if things go far enough, it's nothing but debauchery. All our human affairs seem to work like this. However sincerely they begin, they end in vile deceit. And however simply they begin, they grow enormously complex before they're. (55)

This would suggest that Zhuangzi would frown upon the whole ethos of disco. Debauchery, after all, was not unknown in and around the dance floor at Purchase in the 1970s.... Zhuangzi was not a party guy. But I do not take this as a blanket rejection of the early core of disco, the freedom, the abandon, the letting go. Think of this passage, from chapter 2, when he is discussing the music the natural world creates:

Sounding the ten thousand things differently, so each becomes itself according to itself alone - who could make such music? (18)

Each becoming itself, according to itself alone: that is the spirit of early disco. That was its motivation among gays; they could find on the dance floor a space for their personal expression. And their joy and abandon radiated out to us all. And all of us jumped into it and found something of ourselves there, something essential and vital, something we might not have connected to had we not followed the advice of Peaches and Herb: Shake Your Groove Thing...

So, I think there is something compatible between disco and Daoism. They each embrace an ethic of letting go. Confucians...not so much (though I think a case could be made for the Confucian themes of We Are Family...). We'll end with Zhuangzi:

Just let your mind wander along the drift of things. Trust yourself to what is beyond you - let it be the nurturing center. Then you've made it. It the midst of all this, is there really any response? Nothing can compare to simply living out your inevitable nature. And there's nothing more difficult (56)

In other words, Get Up and Do Your Thing...

Chap Petersen '90: Back in Session Today at 5 PM

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:43:00 +0000

The House and Senate are back in session today at 5 p.m.

Prior to that time, we'll get a briefing on the Conference Committee for the Budget. If you're in Richmond, it starts at 3 pm in Senate Room B of the General Assembly Buildling.

I'll try to summarize here once I get the details.

WSO: Learn to Light Paint-Photography Club

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:53:58 +0000

We are holding a "Learn to Light Paint" event on SATURDAY, March 13th at 6:45 PM. We will meet at PARESKY and wait for 15 minutes for everyone to gather. For those who do not know what light painting is, check out some amazing samples here:

http://digital-photography-school.com/25-spectacular-light-painting-images

As always, we don't require cameras or experience (although, bring your camera if you have one). We assume no prior knowledge.

More the merrier!

PS: If you want to be added to the Williams Photography Club list-serve, reply with your unix and I'll add you.
PPS: I want to add the poster for the event in this post, can I do that? How?

Chad Orzel '93: Southwest Airlines and the Traveling Salesman Problem

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:33:19 +0000

I'm en route to the March Meeting in Portland, which involves a three-hour layover in Chicago, between two flights on Southwest, my preferred airline. I'm always impressed by how much more efficient Southwest seems that the other major airlines.

One weird manifestation of that efficiency is the flight plans that Southwest uses. Where most flights on other airlines seem to go back and forth between two cities over and over, Southwest's routes tend to roam all over the country. This morning's flight from Albany to Chicago continued on to San Antonio, TX, Phoenix, and San Jose. Another recent trip involved a flight from Albany to Baltimore, Kansas City, San Antonio, Las Vegas, and San Jose.

This always makes me wonder about the computation behind these flight plans. There's got to be some logic to it, that allows them to get all the planes they need to the places they need them, presumably as cheaply as they can manage. The result is most likely derived empirically from crunching some numbers on existing flight networks, then optimizing the results, but it's kind of amusing to imagine that the folks at Southwest are sitting on a solution to the Traveling Salesman Problem, and using it to gain an advantage over their competitors...

(It's also a good idea for a throw-away element of a science fiction story about Singularity-type stuff, but I'm not the guy to write that...)

Read the comments on this post...

Dan Blatt '85: Anti-Gay Man Deemed Norwegian Role Model

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:32:40 +0000

Michael C. Moynihan has picked up on a story which, for some reason, I don’t think will get much attention on non-conservative gay blogs. Norway’s Ministry of Children, Equality, and Social Inclusion (yes, I agree the name is Orwellian) has named Mahdi Hassan the “Role Model of the Year”.

The only problem, though, is that Hassan the Role Model has a wee problem with the gays; typically something that disqualifies one from being publicly celebrated in Scandinavia. According to [Norwegian journalist Rita] Karlsen, “Hassan told the newspaper Arbeidets Rett that he wants a ban on homosexuality, based on the Koran.” Does he support the death penalty for gays? That’s “up to each individual country to decide.” Wouldn’t want to judge the wonderful diversity of Koranic interpretation, now would we?

Defending the choice, Stein Petter Løkken, leader of the Socialist Left Party in Hassan’s home kommune of Tynset opined:

There is freedom of speech in Norway and in the Tynset Socialist Left Party we consider it unproblematic that Mahdi is opposed in principle to homosexuality. It is in accordance with his religion.

For some reason, I don’t think Mr. Løkken would be saying if Mr. Hassan’s religion were Christian. But, then again, being a follower of that faith would likely disqualify him from any honors were he to have done exactly the same things he had been doing–and not harbor any animus against homosexuals.

(H/t Instapundit)

WSO: anyone want pizza and lives in currier quad?

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:13:03 +0000

will get two medium two toppping dominos for 5.99 each. comes out to 15 after tax/tip/delivery charge, so anyone want to pay $7 for a pizza? (and lives in the area)

NESCAC Blog: Williams Men’s Basketball in Final Four!

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:11:20 +0000

Men’s Division 3 Basketball Bracket Final 4

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Dan Blatt '85: Wonder how those libertarians who voted for Obama feel about their 2008 vote about now?

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:09:57 +0000

Every day, it seems, we discover some new piece of data showing just how much the federal leviathan has grown these past 14 months, with government salaries outpacing those in the private sector, with Washington D.C. booming while the heartland suffers, with the size of the public sector increasing while the private sector decreases.

And all that got me wondering, how do all those libertarians who voted for Obama feel right now?