Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Yesterday, Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” spoke to the Stanford community about her time as an undergraduate and about her new book “Drift.” Memorial Auditorium was packed, filled with students drawn by the chance to see one

Rob Reich and Rachel Maddow, answering questions during the Q&A.
Photo credit: Charles Russo

of Stanford’s most famous alumna.

You could almost miss the fact that the talked was sponsored in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Program in Ethics in Society. But Maddow and the people that introduced her, Professor Rob Reich and senior Jessica Asperger,  gave us reminders that the focus of the talk was about ethics, about how the choices we make have consequences.

Maddow first introduced us to this subject by talking about her time at Stanford. Although she didn’t have any prior plans to complete a Public Policy major or honors thesis, they became steps towards completing her personal goals. After coming out and deciding to become an active member of a gay community she believed was being terminated by AIDS, Maddow said,”At age 17, I came out and thought my role was to fight.” She didn’t know what exactly she was going to do or how she was going to accomplish it but the program was one of her first steps down the long road that has allowed her to become one of America’s most thoughtful political commentators. (more…)

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Stanford may not be getting its campus in NYC, but we may have just gotten the next best thing: Mayor Michael Bloomberg for our 2013 Commencement Speaker.

For the second year in a row, Stanford’s senior class has pulled in a mayor from the Northeast with a national presence. In Bloomberg’s case, that presence is also global. Bloomberg has been mayor of New York City since 2001, presiding over a city that reeled from the wounds of 9/11, benefitted from a boom in financial services, and then reeled again from a financial crisis that set off the greatest recession in generations. He has been a passionate advocate for action on the defining issues of our day, including gun control, immigration reform, education reform, poverty, public health, and climate change. Furthermore, in an era of heightened partisanship, he has stood out as a cost-cutting moderate with a liberal streak.

Most of our readers likely know that Bloomberg went from a middle-class upbringing to becoming one of America’s richest men, an unabashed hero of capitalism at a time of increasing inequality and decreasing social mobility. However, he is also a noteworthy philanthropist, having pledged to give away his entire fortune to charity. He graduated with a B.A. in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins in 1964 and received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1966. Over his wide-ranging career, he founded the technology and media company Bloomberg LP, which today has over 310,000 subscribers and 15,000 employees.

Bloomberg’s term in office ends this year. Thus, as this class of seniors leaps into the great abyss of the future, it will get a send-off from a self-made man who is also about to embark on his next great journey. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say, and to end my time at Stanford with a little of my native Northeast!

As Stanford students, we have been charged – by the Stanfords themselves in the Founding Grant – with the responsibility of “promot[ing] the public welfare by exercising an influence in behalf of humanity and civilization.”  The words that Leland and Jane wrote down over 120 years ago in honor of their late son still ring true today, for fuzzies and techies alike.  Whether you are applying for a visa to study abroad or someday praying for favorable trade relations so that you can expose your product to a new market, international relations matter.  So if you’re curious about IR or just wondering why there were police dogs outside of Dink yesterday, read on.

Today, the UN has 193 member nations.

Crash Course: Meet the U.N.

Founded in 1945, the United Nations was born out of the need to address global hostility post-World War II and the League of Nations’ failed attempt at creating an international body that could effectively address international issues.  Despite starting afresh, the formation of an international regulating body still did not sit well with some countries, and after the Soviet Union turned about-face on first Secretary General Trygve Lie due to the UN’s role in the Korean War, the UN was almost doomed to the same fate as the League of Nations.

Like a boss.

Fortunately, Lie’s fellow-Scandinavian successor, Dag Hammarskjöld, strove to prevent the UN from disappearing altogether.  However, the UN has had its share of drama, from the Soviet Union’s desire to create a troika to replace the Secretary General to the Annan family’s Oil-for-Food scandal.

Despite the issues that have arisen, the United Nations remains the predominant world body persistently working to maintain peace between nations and provide aid to those who are hungry, oppressed, illiterate, and ill, deploying approximately 120,000 peacekeepers from over 110 countries and feeding over 90 million people a day.  In the words of current Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, “we [- the UN -] deliver more humanitarian aid than anyone.”

BMOC: Ban himself

The man with a plan

This Thursday afternoon, Ban Ki-moon came to address the Stanford community and discuss the role of the UN in our rapidly transitioning world.  Expressing his excitement at being able to speak on campus, Ki-moon joked that “Stanford has subtly made its mark on the world…… and that is just your football team.”  But beyond voicing his appreciation for California and joking that after a trip to America as a teen, he “was the 1950s equivalent of PSY” because he was so popular when he got home, Ban Ki-moon emphasized a need for American citizens to help address the profound global change that our world is facing today.  To make his point clear, Ki-moon elucidated three primary ways to navigate our changing world – his points are as follows.

1) Sustainable Development

First, Ki-moon urged individuals to be more conscious of their consumption of Earth’s resources, as “there can be no plan B… because there is no planet B.”  Asserting that “we cannot drill or mine our way to prosperity,” Ki-moon explained his goal for 2030: that everyone in the world will have electricity, solving a current dearth of energy for 1.4 million individuals.  His environmental stance reflects current initiatives at Stanford that you can get involved in, from the Stanford Solar Car project to the Green Living Council.  As Ki-moon said himself, “I know you understand – after all, Stanford’s mascot is a tree.”

2) “Dignity and Democracy”

Focusing on civil unrest in Syria and Mali, the Secretary General illuminated the main concerns for addressing international conflict, including funds, access, and political divisions.  He wants to provide certainty to young people who have uncertain futures, and uphold the human rights of those who can’t defend themselves.

3) Women and Young People

Similarly, Ki-moon argued that women and young people are the “most under-utilized resource” in today’s world.  He called for “more women in the Cabinet, more women in the Parliament, and more women in the boardrooms,” and is proud that South Korea has its first female president(-elect).  Because “half the world is under 25 years of age,” Ki-moon has appointed a special envoy on youth, who will hopefully be a proponent for children and young adults around the world.

“We Are the World”

In sum, Ban Ki-moon discussed a variety of pressing issues that he and his peers in the UN need our help to address.  It is in this vein that Ki-moon wrapped up his talk; rather than talking about how the youth are the future, he argues that it is time to recognize that young people “have already taken their leadership role today.”

So, Stanford students, let’s take Ki-moon’s advice.  Now, more than ever, it is our responsibility to recognize the importance of international cooperation and impartiality.  It is time to be global citizens.

Corals from the Ofu Lagoon, American Samoa

As an Earth Systems major, I can say it’s sometimes difficult to stay positive about my choice of field because there are so many urgent and intricate problems woven into the daily fabric of life–and in order to learn how to solve them, you have to appreciate how intricate and difficult to undo they really are.  So it’s nice when conservation research pays off, especially for animals in as dire straits as corals are.

Awesome Stanford professor Stephen Palumbi–who among other accomplishments has used molecular genetics to track the incidence of marine mammal meat in canned tuna and formed a band called ‘Flagella’–has found a key difference in the genomics of heat-resistant corals from the waters of American Samoa that might be used in genetic therapy for corals worldwide, potentially saving coral reefs from the worst effects of global warming.  When water temperatures rise above a certain extent, corals get stressed and their photosynthetic partners, zooxanthellae, are expelled from the tissue of the coral, leaving it hard-pressed to manufacture enough carbohydrates without the ability to make sugars from sunlight.    Palumbi and other researchers discovered in their warm-water corals that 60 heat stress genes were activated whether or not the corals were subjected to excessive heat.  If this pattern could be transferred to cooler-water corals, it could potentially avert cases of coral bleaching from extreme heat.

This treatment, if applied, doesn’t solve all the problems coral reefs are facing in the future, of course.  Corals will still have to contend with the rising acidity in the world’s oceans due to the excessive deposition of carbon dioxide from our increasingly CO2-filled atmosphere–an acidity change that makes it harder for corals to build skeletons, because waters become less saturated with calcium carbonate.  Runaway algae growth is also a possibility and a threat, and more frequent and violent tropical storms are predicted in future years, which could be a huge challenge for coral communities to withstand.  However, finding ways to combat heat stress is a necessary first step (we are committed to further global warming, we might be able to stave off the worst ocean acidification), and Palumbi and his team have unlocked a very important discovery.

Not to be outdone by Stanford’s recent web logo update, the University of California published a new logo this week.

Thoughts?

“Hey, don’t I get a vote?”

This election may be the biggest rip-off of America’s democracy in recent memory.

Sure, we have choices between blue and red. Our candidates claim to offer stark ideological differences and visions for our country. Vast swaths of Americans will enthusiastically pick their man and hope for the best, and many others will swallow their disappointment and opt for the lesser evil.

But let’s be clear: when it comes to Planet Earth, our only home, we have a patently false choice.

While both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have advocated sustainable forms of energy, neither has mapped out a legitimate approach to living in a world with finite resources. In all three presidential debates, there was no mention of climate change. From a foreign policy standpoint, there was no appreciation that America’s shining example of consumption and wealth has motivated the rest of the world to try to live like us, and that our planet cannot support such habits indefinitely.

This omission points to a serious failure by our various communities of knowledge to convey to one another the gravity of our circumstances in language that each side can understand. I use the term “failure” because these presidential candidates are supposed to represent the grand sum of our country and culture to the rest of our world; that is the definition of leadership. Although both men are politicians and therefore have to evade the hard questions and sell empty promises as part of their campaigns, they are still faced with an enormously difficult job, and based on our democratic process, they are supposed to be the most qualified candidates we have.

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A recent report by the University’s Department of Public Safety tells two stories, one of progress and another of lingering concerns.

On one hand, Stanford’s cops have made major gains in reducing crime across a swath of categories, including burglaries, liquor law arrests, and drug violations. On the other, 12 students suffered forcible sexual assaults last year, and bike theft remains a major problem on campus.

Bike theft remains a major problem on campus. Column 1 refers to year, column 2 to student residences, column 3 to on-campus, column 4 to non-campus, and column 6 to total thefts. According to the footnote, statistics on bike theft are being voluntarily tracked by Stanford University as of 2009.

Always an option if you are really running late to class.

In fairness, bike theft is extremely difficult to prevent, given the size of our campus and the number of places where such incidents could occur. However, these numbers are completely unacceptable. With all of the resources at this university’s disposal, no Stanford student should have to fear for their safety or for the theft of often-expensive property.

In addition, the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education (OAPE) saw 72 students last year, 59 of whom were underage. The most common referral to OAPE is for intoxication. These incidents are disciplinary actions, and there was a slight uptick from 52 students in 2010 and 61 in 2009. Data on DUIs were not available in the report.

Another interesting tidbit in the report revealed the causes of fires in the past three years. These included a water heater fire, a trash fire, a box of T-shirts left on the stove (Storey), and burning books and paper (FloMo). I’m guessing the frequent popcorn-induced fire alarms were not included in the report; otherwise, they would require their own special section.

Finally, the report provided some useful information that I had never encountered before:

• Apparently, there is a Freshman Emergency Ride Home Program that, according to the report, “provides taxi service back to campus for freshmen who are caught without a ride or are in an emergency situation (within eight miles of campus). Freshmen must pre-register at: http://transportation.stanford.edu/erh, using Yellow Cab of Palo Alto, account # 300-350. For more information, call (650) 321-1234 or (888) 512-1234.” Freshmen get up to four free rides…probably beats waiting for 5-Sure.
• 

  Those Cal fans can get a bit rowdy….

  The Department for Public Safety teaches a 1-unit Community Police Academy class in winter quarter (LAWGEN 209Q) that, among other things, includes pursuit practice in the driving simulators at The Police Academy in San Jose.

• Public Safety offers free threat or vulnerability assessments of any building, lab, or facility on campus. The assessment entails a walk-through of the building by their personnel with the building or facility manager. For anyone worried about fire hazards, these are your people to call.

Criticisms aside, Public Safety has unquestionably been working hard. Last year, their Records Division took 185 police reports, assisted 9,281 people over the phone, and helped more than 3,354 walk-in customers. A renewed focus on bike theft and forcible sexual assault would go a long way to ensuring that this campus is as safe as it can be.

(An American of Turkish heritage in Turkey)

By: Peri Unver

*These observations are not generalizations but merely my own personal ones that I have made this summer.

1.  You take your life into your hands whenever you’re in a car as drivers think the middle of the
road is the way to go.  Also, it’s not a complete day until you’ve been honked at least forty times.

2.  You are greeted first by a hello, how are you, kiss on both cheeks, and a comment on how much
weight you’ve gained.

3.  You can fist-pump to the break-up songs.  At first, it’s hard to tell that the song is telling someone off and it’s unsettling to then hear “Shake your booty on the floor now” (inevitably in the remix).

4.  People on the street are gladly willing to help direct you someplace or help you get out of a
sticky parking situation.  However, smiling (especially in the grocery store) is seen as a sign of weakness.

5.  The food is mouth-watering good everywhere and hole-in-the-wall, home-food places are best
(as in New York).  Places to eat are so clean that even in the food court in the mall there are fresh, open salad bars and buffets.

6.  The color of the ocean simply cannot be replicated and it is easy to see why the name is
turquoise, or “Turkish blue.”  It is easy to scoff (especially when you’re from California) at those with surf boards asthere are no waves in Turkey.

7.  The understanding of making a line at a bank or another established location is a circle.

8.  The price of everything, from clothing to food, is negotiable.

9.  It is a prerequisite that you must be able to sing and dance in order to become a Turkish
citizen.  You must also know the lyrics to Turkish songs as questions about that are always asked on game shows.

10.  In almost anyTurkish home you enter someone will be able to read your fortune from Turkish
coffee grinds (“fal”).

11.  The concept of personal space is a foreign one in Turkey. Wherever you are, someone might be virtually sitting in your lap and not even notice it.

12.  When you are going to watch a show at night settle in because you’ll be there for the long
haul, at least three to four hours.  When asked if the show is still on the answer will always be yes.  (It’s no wonder when on the Turkish version of Wheel of Fortune one of the slots is “tell a secret” and song and dance breaks are taken frequently.)  Also, during commercial breaks, you can indeed make a sandwich, take a shower, visit a neighbor, and still be in time for the next portion of the show.

13.  The relatively new law (2005) requiring accessibility for people with disabilities unfortunately falls short, as I personally witnessed this summer as I used a wheelchair.  Almost everywhere is not
accessible and the ramps are of varying widths and scarily, angles.  (Places from the movie theater and even an orthopedist’s office have a hill of steps and no lifts, ramps, or even handrails.)

Even with all of its quirks, it is a beautiful country to visit with much history, nice people, and amazing food.  So hos geldiniz (welcome) to Turkiye!

This past week has been eventful! From talks with Tony Blair and Tom Brokaw to performances by E-40 and Modest Mouse, this has been a star studded week. Here’s this week’s news from the Farm.

• Tony Blair recently paid a visit to our lovely campus. Despite a bit of protest, he was able to have a highly praised conversation about the African Governance Initiative with GSB Dean Garth Saloner.
• The Frost Amphitheater has been revived. This past Saturday students sunbathed and waited to “Float On” with Modest Mouse.
• Alumnus Konstantin Guericke wants to support the missing link in medicine. This co-founder of LinkedIn has just joined the board of the social network Doximity, which has a special focus on doctors.
• Speaking of protests, 70 residents of XOX demonstrated in front of the Office of the Vice Provost of Student Affairs in order to make another effort to make a change in the decision to revoke the house’s lease.
• The campaign for a new hospital is on! The Campaign for Stanford Medicine, which aims to raise $1 billion dollars in order to rebuild the hospital so that it reflects the future of patient care and medicine.
• According to Professor Steve Blank, Facebook isn’t just taking over the Silicon Valley – it’s choking the region. Social media platforms like Facebook are preventing venture capitalists from investing in long term projects, like life sciences or hardware. What do you think?

The Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students, known as BASES, will be holding its end of year exhibition and finale tomorrow (Tuesday, May 22nd) at the Arrillaga Alumni Center. This event marks the culmination of the 150K challenge, a funding competition for entrepreneurs and product inventors where 150,000 equity free dollars will be handed out . The finale promises to be interesting and will have a diverse mix of entrepreneurs, investors, students, and others from Silicon Valley. BASES was even just recently featured on TechCrunch for this event, which is a pretty big deal.

Doors open at 1PM and inventors will be showcasing their products to finale attendees. Ex Zappos COO and current venture capitalist Alfred Lin will give the keynote address at 4:30PM with all 150k challenge prize winners to be announced shortly thereafter. Check it out tomorrow and tell us your thoughts!

Update: RSVP for the event here.

Between Stanford’s history and its scientific findings, it seems that there are a million new things to discover. Here’s your Stanford news for this beautifully warm week.

• There were quite a few responses to “Get Rich U.” Check out writers defending  Stanford on Bloomberg’s Businessweek and the prominent online tech blog site PandoDaily.
• Did you ever wonder what happened to Jane Stanford after she started our beloved university? It seems that her Hawaiian death was a murder mystery back in 1905. Regardless of what happened, I’m quite thankful for what she did while she lived.
• It might be time to let your parents go, Stanford students. Stanford Professor Terry Castle not only shares crazy stories of helicopter parents, but also uses his her knowledge of literature to give compelling reasons for why parents and students may need to finally let go.
•  Considering all the dire warnings generation Y has received about their online activity, the app Snapchat by Stanford student Evan Spiegel may seemlike  the answer to dealing with the impossibility of getting rid of media once it’s used.  The allows you to control how longer a viewer has access to a picture you’ve sent them. Yet researchers question whether apps like this are actually the final answer in securely sending out your discreet photos.
• Stanford’s athletic director, Bob Bowlsby, has been hired to be the commissioner of the Big 12 conference. Do you have predictions of who will take the role at Stanford next year?
• If you thought blonds were going the way of the dodo bird, think again. Stanford researchers have found that blond hair can and has evolved independently by examining an indigenous group in the South Pacific Solomon Islands.

Although other schools may be winding down, Stanford is getting into full swing! With the upcoming Admit Weekend and May flowers already blossoming all over campus, it’s a good time for Stanford. Here’s what’s happening on and off the farm.

• Is Stanford Get Rich U? This article goes over the history and future of Stanford, as it feeds talent and ideas into Silicon Valley and subsequently the world at large. It also raises a tricky question – should we evenallow the open connection between Stanford and Silicon Valley?
• Every day I’m dazzled by what my trusty smartphone can do. Now it can even help diagnose oral cancer. Thanks to OScan, created by professor Manu Prakash, we can now implement smartphones for oral health purposes in areas where larger machines may not be feasible.
• Fumbling photographers (including myself), rejoice!  Stanford research has lead to the creation of the Lytro camera, that allows the both photographer and viewer to refocus a picture after it’s been taken. The camera catches light rays, rather than pixels adding greater flexibility in altering the raw image.
• The art of pillow fort making is a fundamental lesson we should all carry with us into adulthood. Architects and engineering scholars around the country, including Stanford assistant professor Michael Lepech share tools of the trade.
• Not only does Stanford want to promote peace in mind and body, they want to facilitate it. Plans for a new contemplation center have just been approved. The center is still a long ways off  – construction will not begin until the summer of 2013. Oh, and don’t forget the many changes coming to freshman requirements.
• Coursera, the Stanford scientist led venture in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) will begin to host humanities courses starting this upcoming fall.  The education portal’s creator’s have a partnership with 5 other major universities. If you’ve ever yearned to learn poetry at UPenn or history at Princeton along with good ol’ Stanford CS, now’s your chance!

If you aren’t still fuming over this past week’s election tactics, or Coachillin’ , you might already have a good idea of the things that have been happening on the Farm. Either way, here’s our weekly update on all things Stanford.

• This year’s commencement speaker and Stanford alumnus, Cory Booker, is doing more than poring over his upcoming speech – he’s saving lives. Booker saved a neighbor from a burning building. It’s all in a good day’s work.
• Last Wednesday, Stanford hosted the Cool Product Expo in the Alumni Center. If you didn’t have a chance to check out the gadgets there, here’s a list of some of the show’s highlighted products.
• A new dawn of Artificial intelligence is just around the corner. With devices like Siri, and research conducted here on campus, it seems like machines are getting closer and closer to passing the infamous Turing Test: passing as a human in conversation.
• Although charter schools may be good in theory, they may not be good in deed. A Stanford study showing that 37% of charter schools perform worse than regular public schools has helped prove that charter schools may not be solving all the educational woes they promise.
• Congrats to Nneka Ogwumike for being the first Stanford student to become the #1 draft pick in the WNBA! Talk about a real baller.
• Where else would someone have a Robot Block Party? The party was hosted at the Volkswagon Automotive Innovation Lab this past Thursday, impressing visitors with mechanical flair.
• If we were to evaluate a bit of campus “politics,” regardless of the so-called mud-slinging, you’d notice that this week’s campaign season was relatively quiet. Few groups braved the rain to table in White Plaza, and although freshmen dorms may be the exception – there wasn’t much over the top giveaways and campaigning from senatorial candidates or class president slates.

Are you interested in an exciting career committing war crimes?

 If you have marketable skills in:

• Kidnapping, torturing, and imprisoning innocent people
• Bombing and killing rescuers and mourners at funerals
• Assassinating US citizens (and, in this case, his 16 year old son) with no judicial process
• Supporting dictators
• Overthrowing democratically elected governments

Or providing assistance in any form for an organization actively engaging in the above activities, then the Central Intelligence Agency has plenty of opportunities for you! The CIA has a long history of successful collaboration with Nazis and other top war criminals. And it’s one of the hottest start-up incubators for terrorist groups; training, funding, and arming some of the most well-known terrorists and war criminals in the world. If you want an exciting career disrupting peace and prosperity around the world–and finance isn’t your thing–you can make a real impact at the CIA, literally!

Wednesday at noon, the CDC will be gracefully hosting an information session to learn about job and internship opportunities for students at the CIA. (But be careful, there may be some protesters trying to disrupt the event…)

Happy Spring Quarter, Stanford! I have more news from the past few weeks to give you a glimpse of all things Stanford.

• Dean Julie is a poet and now we all know it. Stanford’s beloved dean of freshman and undergraduate advising will be stepping down from her position this summer in order to pursue an MFA, starting this fall. Good luck, Dean Julie!
• Speaking of poets, California’s new Poet Laureate is Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Latino person to hold the position. He’s also a Stanford alumnus. We may be making waves in Silicon Valley, but we’re also changing the art world.
• We love rankings and lists. And more than that we love being at the top of them. Yet, Stanford professor Matthew Jackson is calling out society on its need to put everything in numerical order. The rankings that were  supposed to celebrate excellence, may be stifling choice. It makes you think twice about those Top 10 iTunes app lists. You may find a game just as awesome as Angry Birds, if only you looked past the #10 slot.
• The banking world (okay, maybe just Goldman Sachs) was stunned when Greg Smith published a very public, very disparaging resignation later on NYTimes.com. If you would like to learn more about the man behind the words, here’s a profile on the former Stanford student.
• I would like to extend a warm welcome to the Class of 2016! Although people say it every year, with an acceptance rate of 6.6%, it really is getting harder to get in. TUSB and the rest of campus can’t wait to introduce you to the all the wonders that are Stanford.
• Some people dream about being there the moment the universe was created. Before, it was an esoteric, impossible pondering. But thanks to some computer savvy scientists, you can watch a screening  of it at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The short visualizations are based on calculations from the latest physics theories. SLAC is now hosting The Big Bang – the  3D video.
• Facebook feels like only they can ‘spy’ on their users – employers need to respect their employee’s privacy. Facebook gave a stern warning to companies who are “shoulder surfing” or demanding the password to their employees’s private  social networking accounts. Stanford privacy researchers agree – this trend may be the beginning of a dangerous slippery slope.