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December 16, 2005|Volume 34, Number 14|Four-Week Issue


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"No matter how good you are [when developing an antibiotic], the bacteria will always gain resistance. Evolution trumps 'intelligent design' in bacteria."

-- Thomas A. Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of chemistry, "Pharmaceutical Firm Attempts To Attack Bacteria through Ribosomes," New Haven Register, Dec. 4, 2005.

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"When a medical student looks at a patient, the only thing they see are the things that are totally abnormal -- because all the normal features are filtered out. In ordinary life, if you didn't filter out the normal features, you wouldn't be able to walk six feet in the day."

-- Irwin Braverman, professor of dermatology, on a program that teaches medical students observational skills through viewing artworks. "Did You Notice Their Guns?" The Globe and Mail (Canada), Nov. 26, 2005.

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"I think of the big bang [theory] as saying that the universe was much smaller and hotter and that the universe is getting larger and colder with time. It's that the universe is not in a steady state."

-- Charles Bailyn, the Thomas E. Donnelly Professor of Astronomy and professor of physics, "Expanding Universe Still Holds Many Secrets," New Haven Register, Nov. 27, 2005.

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"Orthodox innovators are not pragmatists. They're not experimenters. ... The political authority of these presidents really rests on the full-throated support of the faithful. And the characteristic problem for these presidents is the charge of betrayal. ... These presidents need to be the spokesmen for the faithful, and when the faithful begin to divide up, when the faithful reject the president's rendition of the faith, these presidencies tend to collapse very quickly."

-- Stephen Skowronek, the Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Science and professor at the Institute of Social and Policy Studies, "Interview: Professor Stephen Skowronek on Bush as an 'Orthodox Innovator,'" National Public Radio "Morning Edition," Nov. 28, 2005.

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"Too often when [young people are] left to feeling insulted ... violence and the power of violence becomes their only recourse. This is not a police department issue alone. The families and the community have a responsibility to be working closely with the police and helping to stop some of these situations before they escalate. ... [Authorities recognize] how hard it is for families to feel like they're dropping the dime on their own kids. [But] think about what it's like when the family gets the call, hearing that their son or daughter has been shot. This is with the aim of trying to prevent the heartache that goes with injury and the grief that goes with death."

-- Steven Marans, the Harris Associate Professor of Child Psychoanalysis at the Yale Child Study Center and associate professor of psychiatry, "Shooting Victims Frequently Clam Up," New Haven Register, Dec. 5, 2005.

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"You can't drive your Porsche into the boardroom, but you can distinguish yourself with a watch."

-- Ravi Dhar, professor in the School of Management and the Department of Psychology, on today's status symbols, "America's Take on 'New' Luxury," International Herald Tribune, Dec. 5, 2005.

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"It's not surprising, then, that nascent creationist views are found in young children. Four-year-olds insist that everything has a purpose, including lions ('to go in the zoo') and clouds ('for raining'). When asked to explain why a bunch of rocks are pointy, adults prefer a physical explanation, while children choose a functional one, such as 'so that animals could scratch on them when they get itchy.' And when asked about the origin of animals and people, children tend to prefer explanations that involve an intentional creator, even if the adults raising them do not. Creationism -- and belief in God -- is bred in the bone."

-- Paul Bloom, professor of linguistics, in his article "Is God an Accident?" The Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1, 2005.

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"Traditionally, referenda have been one-shot affairs -- the people going to the polls to say Yes or No without taking preliminary steps to deliberate together on the choices facing the nation. The 2004 peace referendum in Taiwan happened just like that. This populist method is unworthy of a modern democracy. If an issue is important enough to warrant decision by the people as a whole, it is important enough to require a more deliberate approach to decision making."

-- Bruce Ackerman, the William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law and supervising attorney at the Law School, and Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, "A National Day of Deliberation?" China Times, Nov. 22, 2005.

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"[Doctors and therapists] give parents the impression that eating disorders are something the parents did that the doctors are now going to fix."

-- Marlene Schwartz, co-director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders and research scientist in psychology, "Fighting Anorexia: No One To Blame," Newsweek, Dec. 5, 2005.

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"Professors have a sacred duty to their students and to each other to affirm -- and also to exemplify -- core academic and intellectual values. We should convey to our students an abiding respect, even awe, for the complexity of law in society, and we should exhibit the ideological humility that this complexity implies. Any professors worthy of the title have strong views, of course, but they should also have a keen sense that those views may be wrong, or based on incomplete evidence, or highly reductive."

-- Peter Schuck, the Simeon E. Baldwin Professor of Law, in his article "Leftward Leaning," The American Lawyer, December, 2005.

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"Certain styles of teaching will be ideal for podcasting. It is the perfect adjunct to online educational forums already published for Yale students."

-- Dr. Steven Novella, assistant professor of neurology, "Invasion of the Pod People: Educators and Businesses Begin To Bring Podcasting to the Marketing Mix," Connecticut Business News Journal, Nov. 28, 2005.

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"One thing we now know is the arena-convention center model fails almost uniformly. The bandwagon of construction of this kind all over the country works well for developers. It almost never works well for cities."

-- Douglas W. Rae, the Richard S. Ely Professor of Organization and Management at the School of Management and professor of political science, "As Coliseums Boom, New Haven Calls for a Wrecking Ball," New Haven Register, Dec. 5, 2005.

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"Due to a combination of generic drugs entering onto some markets and deals brokered between hard-hit countries and pharmaceutical companies, the price of a year's therapy has decreased to hundreds of dollars, allowing treatment programs to expand faster than was previously imagined. There is, however, a long way to go, particularly in strengthening national health systems to provide these drugs. Across developing countries, only 15% of the estimated treatment need has been met, and [the World Health Organization's goal of getting anti-AIDS therapy to three million people by 2005] will be far from achieved."

-- Michael Merson, the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health and lecturer in political science, in his article "Answer to a Global Scourge," The Statesman (Kolkata, India), Dec. 1, 2005.

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"What's to prevent this new Congress from cutting off all funds if the biology department doesn't teach intelligent design? It could turn the whole country into Kansas."

-- Robert C. Post, the David Boies Professor of Law, on possible future uses of the Solomon Amendment, which allows the federal government to withhold funds from schools that bar military recruiting, "High Court To Hear Case on Recruiting by Military," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Dec. 2, 2005.

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"Iraq is different, the warmakers insisted, but they were right in ways they never intended. This time, they can't charge that an American anti-war movement has 'forced us to fight with one hand tied behind our backs,' as Vietnam warriors accused liberals of doing in the 1960s. This time, no Jane Fonda has gone over to visit the enemy and subvert American efforts to win hearts and minds. The Iraq war masterminds have done all of that, all by themselves. It is they who insisted we wouldn't need more troops than we sent, let alone a draft or fewer tax cuts. It is they who developed the rules and rationales and 'culture' that allowed the Abu Ghraib abuses and the systematic outsourcing of torture to gain ground."

-- James Sleeper, lecturer in political science and in ethics, politics and economics, "Why Republicans Are Desperate To Bait the Antiwar Left," History News Network, Nov. 28, 2005.

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"[Walt Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass'] is the landmark in Western Hemisphere literature. It is the first appearance of someone I judge to be the most important, the strongest, the most beautiful, the greatest writer in any of the languages used in the New World."

-- Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, "At 150 Years, 'Leaves of Grass' Recognized for Its Influence," Hartford Courant, Dec. 3, 2005.


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

Pepper stepping down as Yale V.P.

INTERNATIONAL YALE

Student is embodiment of 'Life Transformed'

Matching contribution program for hurricane relief exceeds expectations

Campus events celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.

Images of sky reveal many large galaxies have merged

Scientists map complex cell signaling network

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE NEWS

New Law School website lists global provisions for protection of children

Famous circus attraction is highlight of Peabody exhibit

The art of cut-and-paste

YCIAS program to explore the theme 'Cuba from Within'

Bromley tribute

Dean Speth's 'Red Sky at Morning' wins Connecticut Book Award

Alexandrov wins MLA prize for his book about 'Anna Karenina'

In Memoriam: Dr. Charles F. McKhann

Japanese officials and Yale experts discuss programs . . .

Campus Notes

Security Procedures for Recess


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