Outwit, Outplay, Outvox

L'Shana Tova

2005-10-12T22:53:00.000-04:00

Mom is responsible for this one:

"Just in time for the new fall TV Season CBS is
releasing a new reality series called JEWISH SURVIVOR.

16 Jews are put in a two-bedroom co-op on the Upper West Side of New
York. Each week they vote out one member until there is a final
survivor who gets $1 million (but placed into a trust that does not
vest until age 59).

The Rules:
1. No maid service.
2. No use of ATMs or credit cards.
3. No food from take-out or delivery which includes
Chinese food.
4. All purchases must be at retail prices.
5. No calls to mother for women, office for men.
6. Outside trips must be by foot, bus or subway. NO
limos or cabs.
7. All workouts/exercise must be done in regular
sweats -- no designer labels.
8. Zabars is off limits.
9. No Jewish geography.
10. No NY Times. Only NY Post or NY Daily News.
11 No Pottery Barn, J. Crew, Lands End or William
Sonoma catalogs
12. Only one phoneline for all 16 Tribe members. No
call can last more than 3 minutes. No cell phones.
13. Maintenance problems must be resolved by the
Tribe, without help from any gentile or super.
14. All therapy sessions suspended.
15. No consulting with attorneys.
16. No whitefish, lox, or bagels.
17. No antacids of any kind.

There have been no applicants yet."

MIA

2005-10-11T23:04:00.000-04:00

There has been a shameful lack of posts lately, due to real life, working for the establishment, and other various factors. But there are two new campus blogs to highlight:

The Agenda Gap, written by Mike Herman '07 and Adam Shpeen '07, provides thoughtful, witty commentary on a variety of subjects.

Vox in Sox, written by Andrew Seal '07 (of LTBH) expands upon his posts there and adds some valuable campus media coverage.

New York State of Mind

2005-10-02T12:49:00.000-04:00

In today's political themed NYT Magazine, John Tierney and Chris Buckley (whose famous father is profiled in the same issue), report on a random poll of New Yorkers that examines everything from what Bill Clinton should do now to good topics of dinner table conversation.

Best statistics: " Still, most New Yorkers don't let politics interfere with love. More than half of Democrats polled said they would date and even marry a Republican. A whopping two-thirds of Republicans said they would date a Democrat, though this may be evidence less of open-mindedness than of desperation."

Warning: Self-Promotion

2005-09-30T12:44:00.000-04:00

Perks of working for The D: Publishing yourself whenever you want

Observance without Consequence

Race in America - and At Dartmouth

2005-09-29T09:11:00.000-04:00

David Brook's "The Way We Live Now" series is the NYT's latest examination of race in America.
What is interesting is the discussion of Dartmouth blitz patterns in the second article.

"Bruce Sacerdote and David Marmaros recently did a study for the National Bureau of Economic Research trying to figure out how powerful these clusterings really are, and how friendships form.

They tracked the e-mail exchanges of a group of Dartmouth student to see who was e-mailing whom, and took that as a proxy for social contact. Not surprisingly, they found race matters. Black students send 44 percent of their e-mails to other black students, even though blacks make up only seven percent of the student body.

On the other hand, race is no more powerful than other interests. Athletes exchanged 52 percent of their e-mails with other athletes. Football players exchanged 30 percent of their e-mails with other football players, even though only 2 percent of the students fall into that category.

Students with similar SAT scores e-mail each other more frequently than students with dissimilar SAT scores, but the difference is modest."

Dartmouth Undergoing Maintainance?

2005-09-15T11:39:00.000-04:00

Error Message on Facebook this morning:

"Your school is temporarily down for maintenance. It should be available again within a few hours. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Crazy Brits

2005-09-12T18:16:00.000-04:00

While I'm not actively posting, this story is too outrageous to ignore.
Ha'aretz reports that

"Advisers appointed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair are proposing that Britain get rid of Holocaust Memorial Day because Muslims find it offensive, the British Sunday Times has reported.

The proposals - which provoked a backlash from British Jewish leaders - aim to replace Holocaust Memorial Day with a Genocide Day that would include recognition of Muslim deaths in the West Bank and Gaza, Chechnya and Bosnia, the Times said.".

While the idea of a day that remembers all genocide is a good one, it should not come at the expense of Holocaust remembrance efforts. Also, the arguments that Muslims find such a day offensive and that the events in the West Bank and Gaza are akin to the Holocaust are upsetting, to say the least.

For more discussion, see the Volokh Conspiracy.

Even Bloggers Take A Vacation

2005-09-07T22:42:00.000-04:00

Whether it is due to the lack of good internet access when I'm away from campus, my general laziness, or the fact that without the D I have nothing to write about, the blog has been quiet lately. This trend will probably continue until I get back to campus. Till then, anyone missing their daily dose of unintended media humor should go read the Review.

Killing the Illusion

2005-08-25T21:34:00.000-04:00

CNN kills off Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and Bigfoot, metaphorically at least, with the headline "Writers sue over reality show conditions".

Not that the presence of writers on reality shows should really be news to anyone. But apparently FOX has violated CA labor laws about overtime, wages, and meal breaks.

Survivor: Writing Room, anyone?

Somebody tell S&S

2005-08-22T19:49:00.000-04:00

Dartmouth, alas, did not make the Princeton Review's list of Top Party Schools

The list is:
"1. University of Wisconsin-Madison
2. Ohio University-Athens
3. Lehigh University
4. University of California-Santa Barbara
5. State University of New York at Albany
6. Indiana University-Bloomington
7. University of Mississippi
8. University of Iowa
9. University of Massachusetts-Amherst
10. Loyola University New Orleans
11. Tulane University
12. University of Georgia
13. Penn State University
14. West Virginia University
15. The University of Texas-Austin
16. University of Tennessee-Knoxville
17. University of New Hampshire
18. University of Florida
19. Louisiana State University
20. University of Maryland-College Park"

DMS in the NYT

2005-08-22T09:33:00.000-04:00

Three DMS professors, Steven Woloshin, Lisa Schwartz and H. Gilbert Welch have an Op-Ed in the NYT today, "Warned but Worse Off," arguing about the problems with CT scans for lung cancer.

Money Quote

2005-08-19T19:16:00.000-04:00

From Ricky Gervais in a NYT article, "The 'Office'Manager's New Career"

"I don't know," says Mr. Gervais (pronounced jer-VAZE). "I suppose I grew up wishing I was an American Jew for the comedy and the one-liners. 'The Sunshine Boys' is one of my favorite films And maybe a bit of liberation, knowing that if I said it in American people would know what I meant. So I was trying on my language skills."

The Call of God

2005-08-14T21:55:00.000-04:00

Mormon takes prophet's call, spurns Harvard for Idaho .

The Dean of Harvard's Business School just left Harvard to go head BYU-Idaho. Talk about religious devotion...

Grandma was Right

2005-08-13T17:59:00.000-04:00

Marrying a Jewish doctor may not be such a bad idea after all. According to the NYT, Research Scientist Gives $105 Million to N.Y.U. NYU professor and Remicade creator Dr. Jan T. Vilcek and his wife have given the NYC medical school one of the 4 or 5 largest donations ever made to a medical school or hospital in NYC. What mensches.

Tuck Bridge Student Missing

2005-08-12T11:56:00.000-04:00

The Dartmouth Online reports that a non-Dartmouth participant in the Tuck Business Bridge program was reported missing in the CT river this morning. The search for the student is on-going.

Condolences to the students' family and friends, and to any members of the Tuck or Dartmouth community who are affected.

So I'm a Little Over 18...

2005-08-11T09:23:00.000-04:00

David Brooks' advice in today's Op-Ed, All Cultures Are Not Equals, still applies.

Specifically:
"If you are 18 and you've got that big brain, the whole field of cultural geography is waiting for you."

The Stones Take On the NeoCons

2005-08-10T20:56:00.000-04:00

Apparently the Rolling Stones are including an anti-Bush song on their new album, "A Bigger Bang." Reuters.com reports that the song is called "Sweet Neo Con," and contains the following lyrics:

"You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/You call yourself a patriot, well I think you're full of s---,"

And here I thought that "Con" stood for "Conservative" and "Neo" stood for "Jewish"...

Bursting the Bubble

2005-08-10T20:35:00.000-04:00

From Slate, a must-read for the fashionista (or Fashion victim)

The Denim Bubble - Is the $300-jeans market about to crash? By Michelle Leder

Politics and Campus

2005-08-08T17:23:00.000-04:00

Joe's Dartblog derisively references the "Gendered Intersections" conference on Gender, Judaism, and Islam that Dartmouth is hosting right now as an example of how universities are nothing but liberal-funded think tanks. While I think this devalues an important conference tht is being organized by a respected professor, Susanna Heschel, and that draws on two under-appreciated departments, Religion and Jewish Studies, I'd also argue that the participants are fully aware of the political nature of campus culture and how it can influence debate. One of tomorrow's plenary sessions is entitled ""Feminism, Judaic and Islamic Studies in the Politicized American University."

Here's the relevant info:

Plenary Session III Tuesday at 4 PM - Filene Auditorium, Moore Hall

Feminist, Judaic and Islamic Studies in the Politicized American University

David Burrell, University of Notre Dame
Marianne Hirsch, Columbia University
Lena Saleymeh, University of California at Berkeley

Worst Line in Sunday's Times

2005-08-07T21:29:00.000-04:00

This week the honor goes to the closing sentence of Warren St. John's profile of party promotoer Marc Biron, And Some Must Party On :

Mr. St. John writes:

"Mr. Biron looked forlornly at the empty bottle of Absolut, and then at his watch. Four a.m. was bearing down on him like an out of control New York City garbage truck. He grabbed his blue blazer. It was time for bed."

Somebody kick this guy out of the club.

Saving Me the Trouble

2005-08-04T21:38:00.000-04:00

No need for me to respond to Iden Sinai's simplistic op-ed in The D today, "When Feminism Goes Too Far," or to give Malchow the satisfaction of an "o so eloquent response." Andrew Seal has an intelligent and thorough response on LGB: "When Iden Sinai Goes Far Too Far"

You Are Not What You Wear

2005-08-02T23:36:00.000-04:00

In WaPo, Natasha Warikoo explores the "waistland" of teenage culture, and how what students wear is interpreted both by their peers and their elders. The article, despite its pun-filled title, "In a Teenage Waistland, Fitting In", is worth looking at.

I wonder what Ms. Warikoo would have to say about the fashions (or lack there of) at Dartmouth...

On Profanity

2005-08-02T21:19:00.000-04:00

Apparently I'm not the only one discussing vulgarity today.

Eugene Volokh posts on The Volokh Conspirary in response to NYT Style Section article, "Longing For a Cuss-Free Zone"

More Shameless Self-Promotion

2005-08-02T21:11:00.000-04:00

My latest, fluffy Op-Ed in The D: Missing the Punchline.
This is what happens when I have a deadline after Parents Weekend.

On a related note: "What We Talk About When We Talk About Editing," an exploration of the editorial process followed by the Op-Ed editors of the NYT.

The Annual Intel Article

2005-07-31T13:26:00.000-04:00

this year comes (quite a few months late) from WaPo. Aptitude Aplenty looks at the general question of women in the sciences and two girls from Montgomery Blair HS in MD in particular, Abby and Sherri. The article is a fascinating exploration of problems and challenges faced by women in science at all levels, as well as an insight into the Intel Science Talent Search (Disclaimer: I was not a semi-finalist).

One line in particular struck me, however. During the grueling interview process that precedes the final selection of a winner, Sherri is overwhelmed and calls home:

"Meeting so many brilliant students and struggling to answer so many difficult questions has been the most humbling experience of her life, she says. At one particularly low point, she called home. "Daddy," she says she told her father, "I'm not sure I belong here."

Zheng Geng, an engineer, tried to reassure her that she did. "You're just as able to handle this as anyone else," she remembers him telling her."

One would have trouble imaging a male contestent making the same phone call. As the article points out, there are still improvements to be made in how we socialize young women to achieve and face challenges.