Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 23, 2007|Volume 35, Number 22

In the News
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"Rhetoric carries its own weight. It may reach a point where you're almost obligated to do something because of what you've previously said."

-- Abbas Amanat, professor of history, on the exchanges between the leaders of Iran and the United States, "Rumblings Near and Far," New Haven Register, Feb. 25, 2007.

"If you're sleep-deprived, the price is really high. Animals deprived of sleep die. Sleep is primarily for the brain, generated by the brain for the brain. ... We get much more information than we need [during the day]. A lot is cleaned out at night."

-- Vahid Mohsenin, professor of internal medicine, "New Doors Open in Sleep Research," New Haven Register, Feb. 25, 2007

"If we start getting a good deal on something, we always think, 'Is there something wrong there?' It makes you look at the apartment [that has had its price dropped] through a more critical eye and notice the deficiencies, like buying products on sale in the marketplace. [On the other hand,] if you give people a reason why you're dropping a price, then psychologically they interpret it differently."

-- Ravi Dhar, the George Rogers Clark Professor of Management and Marketing, and director of the Center for Customer Insights, "The Psychology of Pricing," The New York Times, Feb. 18, 2007.

"If financially desperate Fisk University must sell one picture to start putting its fiscal house in order, then let it be the 'Radiator Building,' and let Fisk get a fair market price for it. The agents acting on behalf of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum are asking Fisk to settle for a paltry $7 million for this great painting, forcing a settlement through legal actions and negotiations that I and others in the art world regard as coercive 'green-mail.'"

-- Jock Reynolds, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Yale University Art Gallery and adjunct professor of the history of art, "Fisk May Lose Out on Millions in Art Sale; O'Keeffe Piece Undervalued, Experts Think," Robertson County Times (TN), Feb. 22, 2007.

"The American people should know that things can get worse -- that, whether we leave today or after a decade of urban ground combat, we may have to go back if Iraq ever becomes a true threat to the world or immolates itself in genocide. But for now, we should end this war with a minimum of domestic name-calling, a maximum of motive and opportunity for the many peoples of Iraq to solve their own problems without genocide, and a focus on finishing the job in Afghanistan (the last known mailing address for Osama bin Laden)."

-- Bruce Ackerman, the William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law and supervising attorney at the Law School, and David Wu, in their article, "The Half-Trillion Dollar Solution," The American Prospect Online, Feb. 27, 2007.

"When Nixon took office in 1969, he inherited a war in Vietnam that was costing the United States far more in lives, money and reputation than is the current war in Iraq. The strategic arms balance had shifted in favor of the Soviet Union, whose leaders had crushed dissent in Czechoslovakia and were promising to do so elsewhere. Meanwhile race riots, antiwar protests and an emerging culture of youthful rebellion were making the United States, in the eyes of its new president, almost ungovernable: the nation, Nixon worried, was on the verge of going 'down the drain as a great power.' Playing the 'China card' did not resolve these difficulties, but it did regain the initiative."

-- John Lewis Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History, on President Richard M. Nixon's move to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, in his review of Margaret MacMillan's book, "Nixon and Mao; The Week That Changed the World," "Great Leap Forward," The New York Times, Feb. 25, 2007.

"[M]arkets have become so much bigger and more powerful than governments. According to a recent McKinsey study, in 1980 the size of the global capital market was about equal to global GDP. By 2005, the market had grown to roughly three times world GDP, or $140 trillion, and within three years from now it is expected to grow to $228 trillion. ... The problem here is that private and public power are completely out of synch -- and getting more so every day. No one really knows what kinds of dangerous liabilities are mounting in the capital markets, in which institutions they reside, or how big the risks are. ... Unless the lessons of history are irrelevant, it is a fantasy to think that markets can police themselves."

-- Jeffrey E. Garten, the Juan Trippe Professor in the Practice of International Trade, Finance and Business, in his article, "Have Financiers and Traders Grown Complacent?" Newsweek International, Feb. 19, 2007.

"My belief is that older people, those over 80, are still best cared for by good general physicians, internists and general practitioners. The role of the geriatrician is to assist the general physician in caring for the older person and to help institutions and systems deal as well as they can with older people."

-- Dr. Leo Cooney, the Humana Foundation Professor of Geriatric Medicine, on the fact that, at current retirement rates, the number of geriatricians will drop by 50%, "Nightly Business Report," Feb. 22, 2007.

"[Global warming] is now a chronic disease our planet has. And we will be dealing with it for a long time."

-- J. Gustave Speth, dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and the Sara Shallenberger Brown Professor in the Practice of Environmental Policy, "Economists Debate Climate Change; Panel Members Question Findings on the Costs of Damage from Global Warming," Hartford Courant, Feb. 16, 2007.

"Nowadays in New York, if you want to get a play, you have to be from TV and film, so people are realizing if they want to work onstage, they have to go to Hollywood first."

-- Ron Van Lieu, the Lloyd Richards Chair of the Acting Program and adjunct professor at the School of Drama, "Wanted Contenders: American Actresses Missing in Oscar Action," Calgary Herald (Canada), Feb. 21, 2007.

"Once you know the story behind the [miniature portrait painted to commemorate a dead loved one in the 19th century], holding it in your hand is so compelling. You start to feel a kinship for the person, a little like what the person who commissioned it felt like. Really, it's choosing to wear someone's portrait on your body like a wearable shrine. If we were all wearing portraits of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, that would make a statement."

-- Robin Jaffee Frank, the Alice and Allan Kaplan Senior Associate Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Art Gallery, "Art of the Living Dead; You Can Find Lapel-Sized Portraits of the Dead in Any New Haven High School -- and at the Yale Art Gallery," New Haven Advocate, Feb. 22, 2007.

"When you see what it means for poetry to capture [a place like New Orleans], it also makes you feel acutely what it would feel like if that place were evermore changed. What would it mean for people not of that place to neglect the memory and upkeep and sacredness of that place? It's almost unimaginable. But art and literature -- and I don't mean this as cold comfort -- do live forever."

-- Elizabeth Alexander, professor of African-American studies, "Keeping Poetry in Our Lives; Elizabeth Alexander Celebrates the Life and Work of Gwendolyn Brooks," Times-Picayune (LA), Feb. 24, 2007.

''Native and non-Native students are both interested in Yale's classes on American Indian history. ... They couldn't believe that Indians did not have the right to use courts until the 1970s. Or how the Canandaigua Treaty still continues today. Some of our students walked out with a better understanding of the framework of United States history -- that it's not just about expansion but about diminishment of our homelands.''

-- Alyssa Mt. Pleasant, assistant professor of history and American studies, Yale's first American Indian faculty member whose teaching is entirely devoted to American Indian studies, "At Yale, She's Telling the American Indian Story to an Eager Audience," The New York Times, Feb. 25, 2007.

"Our lives depend on our ability to form blood clots. But like so much in the body, context is everything. In the right place, at the right time, a blood clot can save your life by preventing uncontrolled bleeding. In another setting, that same clot can kill."

-- Dr. Lisa Sanders, clinical instructor at the School of Medicine, in her article, "Muscle-Bound," The New York Times, Feb. 25, 2007.

"Universities are a natural place to demonstrate that global warming can be resisted and its adverse long-term consequences avoided. It is, after all, our scientists who identified the causes and effects of climate change and who research ways to address it. And it is our students who, in the coming decades, will have the responsibility for ensuring that the opportunities for the health and prosperity of future generations will be no less abundant than they have been for the generations that preceded them."

-- Richard C. Levin, University president, in his article, "Global Climate Change: Taking the Battle to the Campus," YaleGlobal Online, Feb. 26, 2007.

"With respect to achieving diversity at the most competitive schools, I think the key is always to evaluate students as individuals, in light of whatever opportunities and challenges they have been presented. Race and socioeconomic class are relevant aspects of an applicant's context, and to the extent we do a good job overall of weighing context, we will sustain a diverse undergraduate body with exceptional talent and promise."

-- Jeffrey Brenzel, dean of undergraduate admissions, "Affirmative Action Bans May Boost Yale's Diversity," Exduco.net (Italy), Feb. 27, 2006.

"Instead of following the [diplomat George] Kennan model [of containtment] and pitting U.S. adversaries against one another, the Bush administration encourages them to make common cause at every turn. The 'axis of evil' speech in the 2002 State of the Union address is a stunning example. The senseless alienation of Iran when the moderates had the upper hand there and were cooperating in Afghanistan made no sense for the United States."

-- Ian Shapiro, Sterling Professor of Political Science and the Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center, in his article, "The Idea of Containment Is Back; The Cold-War Strategy that Worked So Well Against the Soviets Is Now Being Touted for Use Against Iran," Montreal Gazette (Canada), March 4, 2007.

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

Changes to enrich 'middle years' for Ph.D. candidates

Saturday series again will prove 'science is fun'

In Focus: Challenge Survivorship Clinic

Former president of Chile to give a public address on campus . . .

Yale astronomers conclude their tribute to one of their 'stars'

Study: Public polarized regarding safety of nanotechnology

Of genetic switches and misfolded RNAs . . .

Women's Faculty Forum hosts events exploring issues faced by . . .

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE NEWS

NIH grant will advance research on neurons' role in narcolepsy

Donaghue Foundation awards fund projects related to elderly, epilepsy

Brain's 'default mode' is abnormal in patients with schizophrenia . . .

Ob/Gyn researchers announce new findings at recent scientific meeting