Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 19, 2002

Volume 30, Number 26

"The bottom line is if you are really watching the game and you have a minimum of baseball experience, there's no way you should be hit by a foul ball."

-- Sterling Professor Emeritus of Physics Robert Kemp Adair, "After Hockey Death, Baseball Gets a Safety Reminder," Knight Ridder/ Tribune News Service, April 10, 2002.

"I'm not defending the act of martyrdom. . . . It's unfortunate to see suicide bombers. Bear in mind, however, that this is the weapon of the weak. They don't have anything else in hand."

-- Professor of history Abbas Amanat, "Heads Spin as Militants Resort to 'Martyrdom,'" New Haven Register, April 7, 2002.

"Public health officials in decades past denied the now well-acknowledged risks of smallpox vaccination. Unfortunately, today's public health officials do not encourage a well-rounded debate on the risks of current vaccines."

-- Associate professor of history Robert D. Johnston in his letter to the editor "Facing the Threat of Smallpox," The New York Times, April 3, 2002.

"One man's problem is another man's business opportunity. Paying people to listen would solve the telemarketers' problem, create a new business and avoid regulation. . . . We could replace the don't-call laws with a simple requirement that telemarketers call only from numbers that have them paying money into the phone account of the person called. Recipients could either name a price per minute or specify that they get no telemarketing calls whatever."

-- William K. Townsend Professor of Law Ian Ayres and Milton Steinbach Professor of Economics & Management Barry Nalebuff in their article "If Telemarketers Paid for Your Time," Forbes, April 15, 2002.

"Cracks are beginning to show. When you cheat extensively [in an election] and you don't win, it's a bad sign. [Ukraine president Leonid D.] Kuchma is not as effective as he used to be within the existing system."

-- Assistant professor of political science Keith Darden, "Electoral Edge in Ukraine Goes to Party of President," The New York Times, April 3, 2002.

"Genetic factors produce a vulnerability to mental illness, with environmental factors contributing in varying degrees in different individuals. Just as everyone's personality results from an interplay of cultural, psychological, biological and genetic factors, mental illness may similarly result from an interplay of factors."

-- Associate professor of nursing Jeannie V. Pasacreta in her article "Mentally Ill Not Getting Needs Met," New Haven Register, March 25, 2002.

"Like everything else in the United States, religion must compete under the free-market system. In this country, we have the privilege of free thought and speech, and we can decide which 'moral' rules imposed by religious leaders, mere mortals, should be kept and which are meant to be broken."

-- Tutor in the Bass Writing Program Susan A. Froetschel in her article "The Church Must Change," The Hartford Courant, March 24, 2002.

"[T]he real problem with al Qaeda is that it's not a deterable bunch of people. If you have a cult of martyrdom, then all the normal premises of criminal law don't apply very well. Because you usually suppose, in criminal prosecutions, that if you prosecute enough people, the others will be chilled. And here, with a cult of martyrdom, you really have to find every member of al Qaeda and lock them up, and prosecute them or detain them as combatants."

-- Professor of law Ruth Wedgwood, "Justice Department To Seek Death Penalty Against Moussaoui," "CNN Live Today," CNN, March 28, 2002.

"The main lesson we can learn from [economic] bubbles, including the most recent bubble, is that nothing fundamental has changed. Human nature continues to be the way it has always been and probably always will be. People always feel that innovation has somehow changed the equation in the way the market operates."

-- Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics Robert J. Shiller, "Bubble Troubles," Forbes, March 25, 2002.

"I don't blame it all on the CEOs or Wall Street. It's the broader society that has brought on this focus on money-in-the-pocket-now and forget the long term. The nature of capitalism has been transformed and the whole society is now complicit. Frankly, I'm not sure how you change that."

-- Dean of the Yale School of Management Jeffrey E. Garten, "Executive Privilege? Here's The New Take on Stock Options: They Reward Corporate Leaders For All the Wrong Things," washingtonpost.com, March 25, 2002.

"Nobody knows why people are pedophiles. We don't know why pedophiles don't stop themselves. Why do some people drink and overeat? There are no simple answers."

-- Professor of psychiatry Dr. Howard V. Zonana, "Cause, Treatment Unclear for Child Sex Abuse," New Haven Register, March 27, 2002.

"A near-axiom of Middle East diplomacy is that progress may become possible only when the situation becomes unbearable."

-- Visiting lecturer in international affairs Charles Hill in his article "Strength and Diplomacy: The U.S. Must Act Resolutely if Israel is To Co-Exist In Peace With a Palestinian State," Financial Times (London), April 11, 2002.

"You took [aspirin] for headaches, and then you found out that it thinned your blood and prevented heart attacks."

-- Director of the Center for Research in Reproductive Biology Dr. Frederick Naftolin about unforeseen benefits of commonly used medications, "Hormore Therapy: An Added Benefit?" The Hartford Courant, April 7, 2002.

"What must be recognized is that, due to the complexity of mammalian biochemistry and physiology, it is impossible to speculate with any confidence about the ultimate effects of a newly discovered molecule on overall health, or even a particular disease process. Tahitian Noni Juice is just the latest in a long history of snake-oil remedies."

-- Assistant professor of neurology Dr. Steven Novella, "Folk Remedy Noni Juice Is Expensive And Has a Lot of Believers," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 9, 2002.

"At present Israel contains about six million people, one-fifth of which are Arabs. With its population growing at a strong two per cent a year (the U.S. population is growing at 0.9 per cent annually, Europe's is not growing at all), the total should rise to about 10 million in the year 2050 -- a strain upon agricultural and water resources, no doubt, but nonetheless maneagable if everything else went well. But that is the rub. Other things are highly unlikely to go well."

-- J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History Paul Kennedy in his article "Swelling Middle East Populations Might Lead to the Eclipse of Israel," Vancouver Sun, April 10, 2002.

"Too many of our young children arrive at kindergarten neither socially nor intellectually ready to learn. Some have not had the advantage of attending a good preschool, but many more have had the disadvantage of attending poor quality child care for most of their young lives."

-- Sterling Professor of Psychology Edward F. Zigler, "1st Years Key to Successful School Career," New Haven Register, April 9, 2002.

"We know that prenatal care works. It means that women who get prenatal care tend to have larger babies and babies closer to term. We don't know why it works, but some of it might be they're motivated to take care of themselves."

-- Professor of obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics Dr. Joshua A. Copel, "Milford Studies Rate of Infant Mortality," The New York Times, April 7, 2002.

"Good preaching begins with the preacher preparing the sermon with integrity. Preaching well from a manuscript or extemporaneously requires skill, that the preacher critically examine the biblical text and apply its meaning to contemporary life."

-- University Chaplin The Reverend Frederick J. Streets in his letter to the editor "Inspired in the Pulpit," The New York Times, April 6, 2002.

"Believing that the world was saved through the crucifixion of Jesus is central to the Christian faith. For any believing Christian, this counterfactual exercise is the ultimate blasphemy. The answer any traditional Christian theologian would have to give to our 'what if' question is quite simple: If Jesus hadn't been crucified, there would have been no redemption from sin and death, and the entire human race would be headed straight for hell."

-- T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of Religious Studies & History Carlos M. Eire about the hypothetical question: What if Pontius Pilate had spared Jesus? "Had Jesus Lived: Would We Find Him, at Age 66, Weeping, His Followers Divided, Jerusalem Ransacked by the Romans? Would He Die Alone And Full of Doubt, At Age 97? Carlos Eire, of Yale University, Imagines the Unimaginable," Ottawa Citizen, March 30, 2002.

"Many individuals recoil at the term 'cloning' as it applies to humans, and rightly so. We strongly oppose the cloning of human beings to produce babies. At the same time, we strongly support the cloning of stem cells specific to each individual for the treatment of humans' suffering and disease."

-- Professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology Joel L. Rosenbaum and Roger D. Sloboda of Dartmouth College in their article "Save Lives with Stem Cells," The Hartford Courant, April 9, 2002.

"Education is a huge investment. I think of education as supporting the development of an educated citizen for society, not solely the preparation for employment. While this may seem like a luxury, many options are available for seeking education today. We think of providing education for our children as a responsibility. As adults, we need to exercise this responsibility on our own behalf."

-- Dean of the School of Nursing Catherine L. Gilliss, "Leaders in Nursing Education," Connecticut Nursing News, Dec. 2001-Feb. 2002.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

For first time, applicants get admissions news online

Communiversity Day will be held April 20

Study: Children's lives not improved by welfare reform

Statesman warns victory in Afghanistan is . . .

Surgeon/trustee tells youngsters: Don't make excuses

F&ES adding four new assistant professors to faculty

'Journalists and Terrorism' is focus of Poynter talk

Conference to explore Agent Orange's effect . . .

IN FOCUS: Bright Bodies Program

Yale Rep staging tale about 'the sacrifice of innocence'

Gowin's aerial images capture human abuse of Earth

Related exhibits offer views of the changing American landscape

Scholar to discuss Freud's view of the biblical Moses

Theme of sacrifice in biblical literature is explored in exhibit

Leader in genome sequencing to speak at medical school

Benefit art auction will feature works by Yale faculty artists

Concert features musical portrait of 'Three Places in New Haven'

Yale scientists begin new round of tests on cocaine vaccine

Memorial service for James Tobin

Frontiers of Science

Online parking renewals offered again

Campus Notes