Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 17, 2006|Volume 35, Number 11|Two-Week Issue

In the News
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"[Some teachers] do mistakenly believe that the point of reading is fast decoding. That's no more the best measure of a skilled reader than fast driving is the best measure of skilled driver."

-- Kylene Beers, senior reading researcher in the School Development Program, "In Quest for Speed, Books Are Lost on Children," The Washington Post, Oct. 24, 2006.

"A lot of contemporary Christian music has such locked-down, straightforward meaning that you can't play with it. U2 is good at the art, using language like a poet would, like the classic hymn language. Listen to their lesser-known song 'Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car,' which is about grace. We mess up, but God is merciful. That's playful."

-- The Reverend Christian Scharen, adjunct assistant professor at the Divinity School, "Rocking the Church; Episcopal 'U2-charist' Uses Songs in Service," USA Today, Oct. 26, 2006.

"Studies look at hiring decisions by having participants read descriptions of hypothetical employees who have identical resumes and qualifications but they're described as being obese or average weight. Consistently the obese workers are judged much more negatively and are less likely to be hired than average-weight employees. They're rated as having low supervisory potential, poor personal hygiene, less ambition. Obese employees can expect to be confronted by negative stereotypes from co-workers and employers."

-- Rebecca Puhl, associate research scientist in psychology, "As Slim and Thin Are In ... It's No Fun Being Fat," Australian Financial Review, Oct. 28, 2006.

"Virtually every month sees some newly warmed-over argument to regulate the $1.2 trillion hedge fund industry. Having failed to stir up sufficient fear that hedge funds are ripping off their investors or are somehow harming the companies in which they invest, the latest complaint is that hedge funds pose a 'systemic risk' to the financial markets. ... Hedge funds are already thoroughly regulated by market forces. Those that perform well for their investors will flourish. Those that perform poorly will wither. This is the best and only form of regulation that hedge funds require."

-- Jonathan Macey, the Sam Harris Professor of Corporate Law, Corporate Finance and Securities, in his article, "Regulatory McCarthyism," The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 24, 2006.

"An authoritarian leader might be the best solution [to the violence in Iraq]. Without that, the country will fall apart and conflicts will fester forever."

-- Firuz Kazemzadeh, professor emeritus of history, "Expect Violence To Grow Worse, Experts Say," New Haven Register, Nov. 6, 2006.

"Although some salespeople would have you believe that home prices never fall, there is in fact a good chance that, after this enormous boom, prices in many places will return to their earlier levels. If homes in Paris or Los Angeles drop back to levels seen just two years ago, that would be a 25% drop."

-- Robert J. Shiller, the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics, adjunct professor at the Law School and professor at the School of Management, in his article, "Taming a Wild Market; There Are Futures for Pork Bellies, Soybeans, Stocks and, Now, Your Home," Newsweek International, Oct. 30, 2006.

"People in the United States have gotten used to having whatever food they want, wherever and whenever they want it. Any thought of restricting that produces a negative response. No one wants to give up a pleasure they've grown accustomed to."

-- Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity and professor of psychology, "Food for Thought," USA Weekend, Oct. 29, 2006.

"We know that when parents spank, it's a way to manage the frustrations of parenthood. It's usually done when there are a lot of emotions, generally when parents are at the ends of their ropes. ... I can see why people [who both spank their children and support the use of torture on suspected terrorists] would think that terrorists have frustrated us enormously, to the point that we struggle to see them even as human beings. We feel we can violate them because they have so frustrated us. So we say it is all right to spank. It is all right to torture."

-- Dr. Kyle Pruett, professor of psychiatry and of nursing and clinician at the Child Study Center, on a poll showing that people who spank children are twice as likely to support the use of torture on suspected terrorists, "Belief in Torture and Spanking Linked, Poll Finds," Scripps Howard News Service, Nov. 1, 2006.

''The geologic record over the past 550 million years indicates a good correlation [between high levels of carbon dioxide and high global temperatures]. There are other factors at work here. But in general, global warming is due to CO₂. It was in the past and is now.''

-- Robert A. Berner, the Alan M. Bateman Professor of Geology and Geophysics, "In Ancient Fossils, Seeds of a New Debate on Warming," The New York Times, Nov. 7, 2006.

''What's happened in the last 15 or 20 years is that we've learned how even the very greatest scientists -- Newton, Darwin, Einstein -- were always engaged in collaboration of a very important, fundamental nature with their contemporaries.''

-- Daniel Kevles, the Stanley Woodward Professor of History and adjunct professor of law, noting that this is contrary to what many non-scientists believe, "Twilight of the Idols," The New York Times, Nov. 5, 2006.

"The human body is comprised of some 10 to 100 trillion cells, while it is home to as many as 20 times that number of bacteria! We're in the minority -- inside our own skin. The human part of the human body could easily be lost in a rounding error!"

-- Dr. David Katz, associate professor adjunct in public health practice in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, in his article, "Resident Bacteria Help Protect Us," New Haven Register, Oct. 23, 2006.

"[Voters age 60 and older] have the turnout and the numbers that cause the political parties to take notice of them. That's why retirement homes are one of the favorite stomping grounds of politicians everywhere. ... If young people want to get their interests into play, they'll have to vote in much greater numbers and with much more of a partisan tilt."

-- Donald Green, the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Political Science and director of the Institute for Social and Policy Studies, "Beyond Red or Blue: Gray Now the Color To Watch at the Polls," Star-Ledger, Nov. 5, 2006.

"Unfortunately, there are many obstacles to getting people to reduce use of CT [scans], and one of the prime ones is that everyone is willing to blame someone else. Radiologists say it's the clinicians, clinicians say that radiologists are responsible. Patients are just purely uninformed."

-- Howard Forman, professor of diagnostic radiology and public health, on rising concerns about exposure to radiation via CT (or CAT) scans, "Worries Mount Over Excessive CAT Scans; Concerned About Radiation," The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 2, 2006.

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

Yale launches podcast library on iTunes

Japan gives top civilian honor to Yale scholar

Lin: Great care needed in studying 'finicky' stem cells

Yale SOM renames center in honor of Ira Millstein . . .

Grant supports research on risk factors for testicular cancer

Researchers to study age-related decline of sense of smell

University begins mandatory training for faculty involved with grants

Coat color may not be indicator of species in lemurs, say researchers

Scientists trace evolution of one of the earliest multi-cellular life forms

Study shows seat of emotions in the brain may also contribute . . .

Troupe hopes to dispel stereotypes about ancient dance

Nobel laureate to give public lecture on campus

Colleagues to pay tribute to Bresnick in Carnegie Hall

T.P. Ma honored for pioneering work with semiconductors

Symposium will examine filmmaker's 'European period'

Panel will discuss reconciliation between Israelis, Palestinians

It is the jurists who will be judged at student mock trial tournament

Renowned painting to remain on view at British Art Center

Gala to raise funds for research, treatment of reproductive cancers

Campus Notes