The Ink

On I’m Writing This Post While Sitting In A $5,000 Chair: i dig ‘em
On Whig Hall: A Modernist Traitor: It’s a modernist landmark, not a modernist landscape
On Fire Safety Wrongs Blogger (AKA Me): This exact thing happened to me this morning, Spencer. I feel your pain.

Roger Hughes will have to return the headset. He'll probably get to keep the sunglasses.

Princeton has fired head football coach Roger Hughes, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

Hughes was 47-52 during his ten year tenure at Princeton. The Tigers finished this season 4-6 after beating Dartmouth Saturday.

Princeton went 9-1 in 2006, winning the Ivy League. But Hughes had only two other winning seasons since coming to Princeton in 2000.

Athletic Director Gary Walters said he would meet with Hughes to figure out the now ex-coach’s role as he finishes his contract, according to the statement released by the Princeton Athletic Department.

Stay tuned for the new-coach search. Last we checked, former Steelers coach Bill Cowher, P ‘08 ‘10, was still looking for a job…

(image source: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20091122_ap_princetonfiresfootballcoachrogerhughes.html)

5 hours ago

Princeton Fires Football Coach

By Spencer Gaffney

Posted in Goings On Tagged Bill Cowher, football, Gary Walters, Roger Hughes Leave a comment

Okay, we’re all getting pretty sick of the same old Kindle story: it sucks! But here’s one more anyway. Sorry!

Over the summer, I received an unexpected e-mail from the University about my upcoming “Civil Society” seminar with Professor Stanley Katz.

Would I like to receive a $489 Kindle DX e-reader at no cost — and keep it after the course ends? Would I like to have my course books downloaded onto the device for free? It was like Christmas in July…

IN PRINT: Kindles Suck!

By Brian No

Posted in Goings On, In Print Tagged Kindle Leave a comment

image source: dailyradar.com

Have an insatiable desire for Robert Pattinson that you can’t express within the confines of Princeton’s academic setting? There’s no need to hide it anymore! Many Princeton professors are turning to mainstream movies, books, and music to create their syllabi. Here’s a list of some spring semester highlights:

1) COM372: The Gothic Tradition

Interspersed with Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher are Stephanie Meyer’s Twlight and Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. You’ll get to examine the “persistence in contemporary culture” of these popular vampire stories.

Nov 21, 2009

Twlight in the Classroom

By Samantha Pergadia

Posted in Student Guides Tagged Courses, Twilight Leave a comment

Are you lazy and stressed? Do you want to be “biochemically, molecularly, calm?” Then run!

Scientists have known for quite a while that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells, which some believed explained why it tends to have an antidepressant effect. The New York Times reports that a study by Princeton scientists has found that cells that are created from running don’t respond to stress in the same way as regular ol’ lazy-people cells do. These cells, which scientists generally distinguish because they’re younger, express fewer stress genes than regular cells do in stressful situations. If you’re a rat.

Nov 21, 2009

In which I motivate you to hit the gym

By Angela Wu

Posted in Faculty, Goings On, In the news Tagged exercise, health, rats, research, Science, scientists Leave a comment

from blog.nielsen.com

Sure, you might read a copy of the Prince while eating your cornflakes, or grab a Nassau Weekly off the table when you head out of the dining hall–but campus media is headed to the Internet.

Princeton’s newest publications–Equal Writes, American Education Review, which launches in December, and this blog–have all been web-only, and will likely stay that way. 127-year-old Tiger Magazine recently relaunched its website, adding consistently updated content, and American Foreign Policy has done the same.

The Prince is also shifting toward a more web-oriented model, says editor-in-chief Matt Westmoreland ‘10.

“Not only is there so much more we can do on our Web site that we can’t do in print, but there will come a time in the future when The Daily Princetonian is an online-only publication,” Westmoreland said. “We need to make sure that we’re making as much progress as we can, so that when that time comes … we’ve built a new media infrastructure that will have the opportunity to grow even more.”

To read more, check out the Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Nov 19, 2009

IN PRINT: Noshing on Noodles and New Media

By Angela Wu

Posted in In Print Tagged American Education Review, American Foreign Policy, Equal Writes, media, Nassau Weekly, new media, Princeton Alumni Weekly, The Daily Princetonian, The Prince, Tiger Magazine Leave a comment

Thanks to FMyLife.com, the abbreviation “FML” has invaded our cultural lexicon. In fact, it’s become sort of annoying to hear people say “FML” about absolutely anything: “Today, I woke up five minutes late! FML!” or “I want a mango! FML!!”

But we’ll soon be able to compose and read our very own Princeton-specific FMLs! Umm…FML?

Harvard freshman Jonah Varon recently started College FML, an umbrella organization that runs various college FMLs around the country. College FML, which is not affiliated with Harvard FML, has started about 30 college-specific sites and continues to expand, according to Varon.

Varon told The Ink that he hopes to launch Princeton FML “very soon,” and he’s currently on the hunt for Princeton students to moderate the site. One prerequisite, however: “a good sense of humor.”

The San Francisco native said that he developed the framework for College FML in four days. “The first few sites I launched attracted so many visitors that within a few days my web host disabled my account,” Varon said in an email. “I had to transfer all the websites to a dedicated server, which could handle the web traffic. Since then, the sites have continued to experience explosive growth.”

Harvard appears to have been the first college to have its own FML site, which was started by The Voice (a student group). In the Ivy League, Varon has opened FML sites for Yale, Penn, Dartmouth, and Columbia.

Okay, we guess we’ll admit that we’re sort of excited about this. But one question: will we soon have our own MLIA site, too?

Nov 18, 2009

Princeton FML Coming Soon! Maybe?

By Brian No

Posted in Goings On Tagged College FML, FML, Harvard, Jonah Varon, MLIA Leave a comment

(source: princeton.edu, amazon.com)

Class of 2010 president Aditya Panda announced this afternoon that Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos ‘86 will deliver the Baccalaureate address this spring.

The ceremony will take place Sunday, May 30, 2010, in the University Chapel. The last two speakers have been Gen. David Petraeus GS ‘85 in 2009 and famed Harvard physician/anthropologist Paul Farmer in 2008.

No word yet whether Bezos will come bearing Kindles as gifts for the graduating class.

So what’s the verdict out there? Good choice? Or a lazy one?

Panda’s full email after the jump:

Nov 17, 2009

Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos ‘86 to be Baccalaureate Speaker

By Brian No

Posted in Goings On Tagged Amazon, baccalaureate, Jeff Bezos Leave a comment

(image source: Innercitypress.com)

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development Jomo Kwame Sundaram said the international community needs a “big push” effort to address climate change, during a speech in 016 Robertson Hall Monday evening.

“Rather than see [climate change] as a problem that should be solved incrementally and gradually, what is really needed is a ‘big push’ effort,” Sundaram said. “This would allow us to address a number of challenges early on and make significant savings in the long run.”

Sundaram said that this move would involve a greater initial investment burden in the near term, but the returns would be significant. He estimated that it would involve $2 trillion over the next two decades, but would save $40 trillion down the line.

Sundaram said that this plan is feasible and should be implemented with official development assistance, carbon credits from developing to developed countries, international taxes, a reallocation of existing spending and global feed-in tariffs. To keep developing countries in the conversation, Sundaram suggested adding a promise of energy subsidies.

Read more at Woodrow Wilson School news.

Nov 17, 2009

IN PRINT: Sundaram on Climate Change

By Samantha Pergadia

Posted in In Print, Politics Tagged clim, climate change, envir, Environment, Jomo Kwame Sundaram Leave a comment

Remember back in the waning days of summer how hard it was for you to move in early? Your roommate was already moved in and had already claimed the better room and the better closet. The injustice! But apparently you were still barred from campus–or rather, your prox was to remain deactivated until your official move-in date, which was ungodly late!

Dreams of extra freshmen week parties–and hopes of rocking out to “Party in the USA”–were dashed! All you wanted to do was to show off your extensive knowledge of danceable summer hits!

Well, it turns out that the University saved a lot of money by playing bridge troll. Amy Campbell (Director, Campus Life Initiatives) and Chad Klaus (Assistant Vice President, Facilities) reported at today’s CPUC meeting that the University saved $290,000 because of the new early move-in policies. Ka-ching! Klaus also said there were no alcohol transports before September 11, another reason why the University is quite pleased with the results.

The pilot program was so successful, in fact, that the next phase will be regulating campus access during winter break. Students will have to register with the University if they plan to stay on campus, and all other student proxes will be deactivated for the duration of the break.

Nov 16, 2009

Early Move-In Restrictions a Rousing Success, Apparently

By Brian No

Posted in Goings On Tagged early move-in, freshmen week, Frosh Week Leave a comment

A towel very similar to the one I was left wearing after fire safety locked me out of my room

I’ve got a bone to pick with Fire Safety.

This is new territory for me. See, I’ve never really had a problem with Fire Safety. Sure, it was a little disconcerting to return to my room last year and find a little note telling me someone had been there, looking through my stuff trying to find anything potentially unsafe or any “obstructions” to my “means of egress.” But since I never painted my room or did anything else to my living space that required much effort, I wasn’t fined, and Fire Safety inspections just seemed like a mysterious but ultimately benign event.

That all changed this morning, when the actions of Fire Safety left me feeling exposed, chilly, and embarrassed.

Here’s what happened:

Nov 16, 2009

Fire Safety Wrongs Blogger (AKA Me)

By Spencer Gaffney

Posted in Goings On, Musings Tagged Fire Safety, Lockout, Roommate Steve, Towel One comment

Stereotypes tend to be nasty conjectures, and Princeton has plenty of them. But recently released survey results from the USG seem to indicate that many campus stereotypes are more or less true. The COMBO II survey was administered in spring 2009 (the first COMBO was administered in 2007), an anonymous survey that looks at the effects and relationship of family income, high school type, eating club membership, ethnicity, happiness, and academic major choices.

A lot of the findings (analyzed by ORF 245 and James Coan ‘09) are quite interesting and even troubling. For the most part, they just confirm everything we’ve always suspected. A summary of the survey findings (with graphs!):

Income and ethnicity strongly impact which dining option students choose
- Wealthier students and white students are more likely to join an eating club
- White students tend to be from wealthier families than non-white students