Yale Bulletin and Calendar

January 17, 2003|Volume 31, Number 15|Two-Week Issue

In the News
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"In every age, we must face the difficult civil rights challenges of our own era. We cannot excuse today's injustices by pointing to how much worse we were in the past.

-- Jack M. Balkin, the Knight Professor of Constitutional Law & the First Amendment, in his article "Actions Speak Louder Than Apologies," The Hartford Courant, Dec. 17, 2002.

"If we genuinely support democracy in developing countries, we cannot endorse coups, even pro-capitalist ones, against democratically elected presidents."

-- Amy Chua, professor of law, about the coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in her article "Power to the Privileged," The New York Times, Jan. 7, 2003.

"The traditional approach [to preterm labor] has always been to recommend bed rest. Really there is scanty evidence ... but people do it -- even I do it."

-- Dr. Charles J. Lockwood, chair of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, "Forget the Rest; Though Widely Prescribed To Cut Risk of Premature Delivery, Bed Rest Is Not Proven To Help -- And May Hurt," The Washington Post, Dec. 10, 2002.

"Science changes one funeral at a time."

-- Harvey Weiss, professor of Near Eastern archaeology and anthropology, about recent revelations supporting his long-dismissed theory that a global drought led to the downfall of several civilizations, "Parched Turf Battle; Did Climate Changes Cause Civilizations to Collapse?" Scientific American, Dec. 2002.

"What does a household look like in which you have one parent who presumably has to work, or two parents who are working full-time? What that looks like is a stressed-out household in which the parents don't have the time or energy to create a family environment."

-- Joseph Woolston, professor at the Child Study Center, "What Happened to Dinner?" The Hartford Courant, Dec. 18, 2002.

"The world, as it is, has made it incredibly difficult for parents to care for their children. It is a culture of excitement, of pleasure, of satisfaction, that keeps people running and chasing after something. But they often don't know what they are chasing -- so they enlist their children in the chase."

-- Jean Adnopoz, associate professor at the Child Study Center, "Parents Turn Up the Heat," ctnow.com, Dec. 16, 2002.

"The inevitable complication of a politically declared but legally undeclared war is the blurring of the distinction between enemy combatants and other nonstate actors."

-- Harold Hongju Koh, the Gerard C. & Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law, "Bush Has Widened Authority of C.I.A. to Kill Terrorists," The New York Times, Dec. 15, 2002.

"We have a policy in this hospital in which the operating room is a no-crying zone."

-- Dr. Zeev Kain, professor of anesthesiology, about preparing young patients for surgery, "Easing Children's Fears in Surgery," Toronto Star, Dec. 13, 2002.

"Someone who is 86 is not supposed to write books. He's like a talking dog -- it doesn't matter what he says; just that he talks at all. It is 'the Geezer Factor.'"

-- Edmund Morgan, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, "Writer Morgan Fondly Identifies With Latest Subject, Ben Franklin," The Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Dec. 8, 2002.

"The major airlines must reform rigid work rules that prevent productivity -- the kind of rules that say if a lightbulb falls on the floor only an electrician can pick it up."

-- Michael E. Levine, adjunct professor of law, "Continental Shows Airlines How To Be a Phoenix -- Not a Dodo," Los Angeles Times, Dec. 8, 2002.

"Buddhism has taken in a lot of indigenous cultures. It's unlike Christianity. Christianity comes in and it throws out everything else. Buddhism comes in, and it absorbs local traditions."

-- Stanley Weinstein, the Lex Hixon Professor of World Religions, professor of Buddhist studies and professor of East Asian languages and literatures, "To Their Beloved Dead, Offerings by the Living," The New York Times, Dec. 14, 2002.

"No one is policing what the [beer-brewing] industry is doing, and the industry is in denial."

-- Dr. David Kessler, dean of the School of Medicine, "Alcohol Ads on TV Find Their Way to Teenagers, a Study Finds, Despite Industry Guidelines," The New York Times, Dec. 18. 2002.

"Over time, the public in those cities that have experienced rapid price changes have become focused on real estate price movements, because they have learned in the past that their prices are highly speculative. ... In contrast, in places like Milwaukee, Orlando or Phoenix, real estate prices are just not exciting. Try to engage someone from there in a conversation about real estate prices, and you'll likely get a blank stare."

-- Robert J. Shiller, the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics, in his article "Safe as Houses?" The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 17, 2002.

"As long as Democrats and Republicans continue to play politics with the image, health and well-being of the black community rather than honestly confronting racism in everyday life, much of the racist attitudes of the 'good old days' will remain with us."

-- The Reverend Frederick J. Streets, University Chaplain, in his letter to the editor, "Racism, Still With Us," The New York Times, Dec. 26, 2002.

"[H]uman cloning, if it proves safe and effective, will likely become just another reproductive option for people who cannot reproduce otherwise."

-- Daniel Kevles, the Stanley Woodward Professor of History, in his article "Eugenics and Sects Go Together," The New York Times, Dec. 29, 2002.

"Beautiful skin doesn't come in a bottle. Although your skin may appreciate the care and attention you lavish on it from the outside -- creams, gels and gentle soaps -- it will suffer clearly from the damage you cause on the inside if you don't get enough sleep, smoke, drink too much alcohol, don't eat properly and don't take essential vitamins including A, C and E."

-- Dr. Nicholas Perricone, clinical and research dermatologist, "The 'Wrinkle-Free' Diet," Health Media Group Features, Jan. 3, 2003.

"It's interesting that children who were in those bombed-out areas [in the Middle East], when they're given a chance to play, generally don't play with a toy in [a destrutive] way. They'll try to rebuild a house if they're given blocks, instead of knocking them down. They'll try to build a house that looks like a real house. What they try to do through their play is to recover and restore. Generally, a child who's been in a distressed area doesn't like to repeat the distress. He tries to rebuild a future that's a little bit more cheerful than what he's living through."

-- Dorothy Singer, senior research scientist in the Department of Psychology & the Child Study Center, about a new toy depicting a bombed-out house, "Dr. Dorothy Singer Discusses the Toy Forward Command Post and the Impact It Could Have on Children Psychologically," "Weekend All Things Considered," National Public Radio, Dec. 14, 2002.

"I've spent a lot of time on elite college campuses recently -- at Yale, where I taught a course, as well as at Princeton, Dartmouth, Kenyon, and a few less rarified schools -- and while I've temporarily given up on the game of trying to diagnose the ills of America's youth, I have found that things really are different than they were when I graduated about 20 years ago. ... The single most striking -- if hard to define -- difference between college campuses today and college campuses 20 years ago is in the nature and character of the female students. They are not only self-confident socially. They are self-confident academically, athletically, organizationally, and in every other way."

-- David Brooks, lecturer in political science, in his article "Making it; Love and Success at America's Finest Universities," The Weekly Standard, Dec. 23, 2002.

"I pray before every surgery. I figure if He created the body, He sure knows how to fix it."

-- Dr. Benjamin Carson, Yale trustee, "Dr. Ben Carson: Top Surgeon's Life-and-Death Struggle With Prostate Cancer," Ebony, Jan. 2003.

"The proposed action against Iraq is illegal under international law."

-- Immanuel Wallerstein, senior research scientist in sociology, "Is 'Just War' Justified?" United Press International, Dec. 20, 2002.

"Americans very much expect their [Supreme Court] to transcend partisan politics and reach decisions that bind the country together. Though some legal thinkers famously denounce this hope as a pious illusion, most lawyers and scholars still keep the faith."

-- Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, "Commentary; Keep Politics off the Bench; The Concept of an Independent Judiciary Will Be Wounded If Justices Retire To Enable Bush To Pack the Court," Los Angeles Times, Jan. 5, 2003.

"I'm not going to be around for that much longer, and I want to do something where I have some chance of success. I doubt we can do anything [to overcome the effects of multigenerational poverty] in that time frame at the lower socioeconomic level. But we do understand what to do to help the minority kids in Montclair or East Ramapo or Shaker Heights. And even that's a tall order in the few years I have left."

-- Edmund Gordon, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, on his goals at age 81, "Studying Race, Privilege And Intellectual Levels," The New York Times, Jan. 8, 2003.

"[T]he combination of race and crime has been part of how [Britain] managed its unwelcome immigrants throughout the 20th century. Making the connection between alien settlement and excessive law-breaking became something of a theme during the period of mass immigration. It is now a means to rationalize the ongoing marginalization of the locally born grandchildren of those citizen-settlers."

-- Paul Gilroy, chair of the Department of African American Studies, in his article "A New Crime, But the Same Old Culprits: Gun Violence Isn't a 'Black Problem.' It Is a Product of Britain's Culture," The Guardian (London), Jan. 8, 2003.

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

Psychologist Peter Salovey named new dean of the Graduate School

Science Watch ranks University's researchers . . .

Peabody exhibition sheds light on mysteries of Machu Picchu

Talks, services to mark Yale's tribute to King

DeVane Lectures to explore literary, artistic realism

'Father of fractals' wins Japan Prize

Law School events focus on controversial Roe v. Wade opinion

Former Basic Books publisher takes the helm at Yale Press

Exhibits recall era of 'Romantics and Revolutionaries'

Exhibit features 'modernist' works by Edgar Degas

Show explores children's interest in the law and law-breakers

Artist's reinventions of Vermeer masterpieces are showcased

Ward Davenny, noted pianist and long-time Yale teacher, dies

Study shows benefits of exercise in reducing intra-abdominal fat

Drama school stages Shakespearean tale about a hero . . .

Playreading festival in New York City will feature new works . . .

Peabody celebrating MLK Day with family activities, music . . .

Talk and screening by alumnus to highlight Asian American film festival

Campus Notes