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"We can all dream and theorize about some idea or design we think is going to work, but often can't predict all the issues that will come up when it's put into practice.
-- Jonathan Feinstein, professor of economics,
"Close -- But No Cigar; Connecticut Inventions That Didn't Quite Make the Grade,"
Conntact.com, May 14, 2007.
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"I used to coach children's soccer, and I would tell my players, 'Stand away from the pack, and sooner or later the ball will come to you.' ... [Y]ou associate your home country with safety. But the rest of the world is pretty peaceful too, on average, and the average is all that matters. I think relatively few [Americans] are getting away from the pack, investing more outside the U.S. than in."
-- Robert J. Shiller, the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics and adjunct professor at the Law School, "Mr. Worst-Case Scenario," Money, May 1, 2007.
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"Women [who are having a heart attack] often present with jaw or lower back pain or indigestion. Over half of the women waited for more than an hour before seeking help. Young women don't perceive themselves to be at risk for a heart attack or heart disease. ... Many women thought they would have 'Hollywood' heart attacks, clutching their hearts. Symptoms can be more subtle."
-- Judith Lichtman, assistant professor of epidemiology and public health, "Many Women Don't Know Signs of Heart Attack, Study Says," New Haven Register, May 15, 2007.
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"We don't refer to preventable falls [among senior citizens] as accidents anymore because in many people's minds, an accident is like lightning striking -- how are you going to prevent that? We try to make people realize that falling is very common, why they're at risk and what they can do to reduce the chances that it could happen."
-- Dorothy Baker, research scientist in internal medicine (geriatrics), "States Step Up Efforts To Prevent Harmful Falls," Associated Press, May 6, 2007.
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"Writing and teaching go hand-in-hand. They mutually stimulate each other."
-- Frank Turner, the John Hay Whitney Professor of History and director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, "WC Offered 'Window on the Wider World,'" Wilmington News Journal (OH), May 11, 2007.
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"Replacing [Connecticut's] old lever voting machines with new computerized scanners was the best choice that could be made under new federal law. ... The General Assembly is considering legislation that would mandate random audits of machines after elections to check the accuracy and honesty of the system. ... The biggest defect is that responsibility for conducting the audits and acting on the results is given to the secretary of the state -- the same person who attests to the accuracy of the machines, who controls the contracts for programming the machines, and who has a political and partisan interest in the outcome of the races to be counted by the machines."
-- Michael Fischer, professor of computer science, and Christina Spiesel, senior research scholar at the Law School, in their article, "Who Should Check Voting Machines?" Hartford Courant, May 13, 2007.
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"Feminist art is not suddenly 'hot.' There has always been a supreme interest in the subject. And, as women's reproductive rights become increasingly challenged in the U.S., the radicalism and passionate activism of 1970s activist-artists seem particularly relevant."
-- Jennifer Sorkin, graduate student in the Department of the History of Art, about a spate of new exhibitions and symposia on feminist art, "Women: All Hail the Feminaissance: For Years Feminist Artists Have Been Sidelined, or Even Derided. But Now, Almost Overnight, the Art World Can't Get Enough of Them," The Guardian, May 11, 2007.
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"The vituperative debate over whether guns, on balance, are good or bad generates far more heat than light, but an honest dialogue about how firearms fit into America's diverse cultural landscape can help us all understand the real contours of the gun debate and the values that give it the peculiar qualities it has. Guns play some role in some serious problems, but tackling these problems will require thinking across cultural divides. If we can treat each other as deserving the kind of respect that a pluralistic society requires -- and surely that respect is an American value we can all agree on -- we will have already won half the battle, because reasoned compromise can follow respectful dialogue."
-- Dan Kahan, deputy dean of the Law School and the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law, and Donald Braman, in their article, "Beyond the Gun Fight; Points of View; What Will the Virginia Tech Tragedy Mean for the Gun-Control Debate? Perhaps Very Little," Legal Times, April 30, 2007.
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"Random violence, admittedly, is a fearsome thing. With two teenage daughters heading off to college in the fall, I found carnage on a college campus a uniquely frightening event. But while dramatic, the threat of school-associated violence to our children is, thankfully, remote. Homicide, the second leading cause of death among 15- to 19-year-olds in the United States, claims just under 2,000 lives a year. Of these, on average only 1%, or about 20 deaths a year, are in any way school-related. The violent deaths away from school are of course no less tragic, but they are, in general, less random. ... The tragedy of the Virginia Tech massacre cannot be exaggerated, but the relative threat of random campus violence to our children can be. Drama and danger do not equate. Even lightning, which claims roughly 70 lives a year in the U.S., is a more common hazard than school violence."
-- Dr. David Katz, associate professor adjunct in public health practice in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, in his article, "Fear Itself Is Often Overstated," New Haven Register, April 23, 2007.
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"Great U.S. firms from Pfizer to Ford take some time for repositioning, but our capital markets no longer have the patience they had when such mighty enterprises were built. In fact, Henry Ford failed three times before even launching Ford Motor Company. As a private company, U.P.S. sank billions of dollars a year investing into new technologies and global expansion for years before it paid off."
-- Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean at the School of Management and the Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management, on shareholders' impatience with short-term setbacks, in his article, "Pay-Fight Foes Blow Hot Air," The Street.com, May 1, 2007.
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"So I see these trips [by President George W. Bush] to certain Latin American countries as a sign that [the president] has followed the advice that Americans should tell Central and South America that they matter. ... To the [neoconservative] ideologists, this is totally irrelevant: if they lose the war in Iraq, they lose everything. So I stand by my point of view. In general, it's better for Latin American governments to continue with their planned reforms, whether they are left-wing or free market reforms, and not worry too much about what Washington thinks."
-- Paul Kennedy, the J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History, "Keep Your Distance, Big Brother," Poder Magazine (Mexico), April 2007.
T H I S
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
University will hold its 306th Commencement May 28
'Oprah Show' hails first grandmother to earn Yale M.D.
Global health expert to head Yale's World Fellows Program
Trachtenberg reflects on her 20 years as 'Betty T.'
Inside the Forbidden City
Summertime at Yale
University to host international symposium on music education ...
Law School to train legal journalists, media lawyers
Campus celebrates its first African-American graduate
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
R. Lawrence Moss is appointed to Pritzker Chair
John A. Persing named to Polayes Professorship
Robert T. Schultz is new Harris Associate Professor
University names its first director of sustainable transportation systems
Graduate School students applaud faculty mentors
Eight faculty members elected to the AAAS
Three Yale scholars are new members of the APS
Peter Reinhardt named director of Yale's Office of Environmental ...
Kim Bottomly named president of Wellesley College
First-Year Building Program's 40th anniversary
Festival highlights 'revolutionary' artists and thinkers
Peabody Museum exhibit to showcase award-winning wildlife photography
Study finds dynamin 1 gene is critical for sophisticated brain function
Researchers examine why children (and some adults) are resistant ...
Three student scientists win Goldwater Scholarships
Archer named one of Glamour's 'Top 10 College Women'
Council of Masters presents awards to 10 juniors for their contributions
Ten Yale-China Teaching Fellows to begin appointments this summer
Top judges reach 'verdict' in law students' moot court trial
Dr. Lockwood's latest honors include 'Pulitzer Prize of the business press'
Campus Notes
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