X
“Democracy is like terrorism. It’s a sort of propaganda word that leads you into stupid policies.” §
“Art sometimes replaces those things that we lose in life. That’s
one of the functions, anyway. Maybe all poems are responses to something we’re
missing. I think a lot of painters, for example, are like that. What they want
to see isn’t there, so they paint it.” §
“It’s simply not realistic that we’re going to uproot millions
of families and disrupt hundreds of thousands of workplaces [by deporting all
illegal immigrants]. It’s simply not going to happen. And in many ways,
it seems to me, we’re in the end stages of prohibition or something.
The public wants the laws to change, the political leadership wants the laws
to change, and I believe the laws will change. But in this end game, there’s
sort of a frenzy of enforcement that is arbitrarily going to ruin lives of
those thousands who are swept up before we come to our senses and adopt a 21st
century immigration policy that serves the needs of our economy, our national
security and our communities.” §
“Until the arrival of the European powers in Asian waters in the 16th
century, the oceans were for everybody to use. When the Dutch tried to use
their superior naval firepower to establish a commercial monopoly of the oceans
in the early 17th century, one ruler in Southeast Asia protested, saying, ‘God
has made the earth and sea, has divided the earth among mankind and given the
sea in common. It is a thing unheard of that anyone should be forbidden to
sail the seas.’ Although the law of the sea has long established the
principle of free use of the ocean, the attempt by nations to exert control
of the seas has not slackened.” §
“I know great [psychologists] who do military interrogations. There may
have been a few bad eggs. But I have to tell you that if, in the end, you do
discover that you have a few colleagues that have behaved badly, it doesn’t
necessarily follow that [all psychologists] should have nothing to do with
this process. It would be like saying because a few psychotherapists sleep
with their patients, therefore no psychotherapists should ever treat patients
who are compatible with their sexual orientation. It’s just flawed thinking.” §
“[When parents send a child off to college] it’s a time when the
relationship has a chance to breathe a little . . . for some people that’s
good and for some people that’s scary. ... Children will always need
their parents, and parents will always need their children. ... If you do a
good job, they’ll grow up and leave you but return as an adult.” §
“You wonder sometimes if [an archaeological dig] site has been played out,
so to speak. However, any archaeologist who says a site has been squeezed like
a lemon usually winds up eating those words.” §
“Even when animals don’t go extinct, we’re affecting them.
They’re going to be different than they were before [human-induced global
warming]. The fact that we’re doing a giant evolutionary experiment should
not be comforting.” §
“Super crunchers are crunching numbers on monstrously large data sets and
they’re producing predictions about who you’ll vote for, predictions
in medicine and politics and what you are likely to buy next. … There’s
a great company called Corillian. It will try to verify your identity with challenge
questions that you’ve never given them. So you might go into Macy’s
and apply for a credit card and Macy’s will come back and say, ‘Did
you have registered in your name a Toyota Corolla or a Honda Civic in Naperville,
Illinois, in 1986?’ Because they have been able to troll in just a matter
of seconds through humongously large data sets to challenge you on whether you
really are you.” §
“Gross domestic product spending on health care is concentrated on medical
areas, not on broad-based interventions that will improve things over time, such
as improved social services, housing, education, parks and recreation, and safer,
cleaner environments. We should go for a more preventative approach if we want
to improve the population’s health, rather than just the medical care system.” §
“One of Washington’s fundamental assumptions about a declining dollar
is wrong. As the figures show, just because a cheaper greenback might make imports
more expensive, it doesn’t mean Americans will significantly cut back on
their purchases of foreign goods. Reason: the nation has become hooked on imports,
not just for finished products that are no longer made in the United States,
such as many machine tools, but also on parts essential for the finished goods
themselves, such as the electronic components for computers. Thus, a weak dollar
leads not to less imports, but to higher prices and inflation.” §
“MBAs and, to a less extent, Ph.D.s have taken over the financial world.
What [business school professors founding hedge funds] study is what people in
finance know and use.” §
“The culture of enduring psychiatric disorders was a life-stealing enterprise
which ignored stories of resilience. It also brought with it an enduring sense
of stigma and clinical encounters which never looked at people’s strengths,
only their problems, symptoms and deficits.” §
“Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an increasingly common
problem, and theories abound to account for that. Among them is the notion that
food additives induce hyperactivity. … No one factor is solely responsible
for rising rates of ADHD. Along with the hazards of a highly processed food supply,
children are getting less and less physical activity as a means of dissipating
their native rambunctiousness.” §
“One of the most important predictors of successful outcome from disease
is socioeconomic status. People of higher socioeconomic status do better, they
live longer, they respond better after illness or injury. It’s not just
their medical care. Because a lot of these studies come from Great Britain, patients
of the National Health Service. There’s something about high socioeconomic
status that gives you a real leg up when it comes to what we call morbidity and
mortality. Morbidity simply means you have a complication, that you have an illness.
Mortality is you die.” §
“The general public takes the view that it will only tolerate animal experiments
if the results improve human health, but how much animal experiments improve
human health is a scientific question. The key question is whether animal studies
translate to human medicine.” §
“[Cuban baseball players who defect to America are] coming for freedom.
Whatever they go through here is better than whatever they had in Cuba. Even
if they had had mild success or even major success in Cuba. It’s not just
an issue of making millions here like El Duque or (Jose) Contreras. It’s
a matter of having a life, of possibilities, whatever those may be even out of
baseball.” §
“To me, this year’s events [commemorating the 200th anniversary of
the abolition of slavery in Britain] have been successful in that they’ve
made people talk about British history, and examine hitherto unquestioned corners
of what made this country what it is. People are now, I think, being a little
bit more honest about their confusions as to what British identity actually is. … People
need to understand how this world that they are living in came to look like it
does. And Britain, as the most multicultural country in Europe, has a responsibility
to explain the faces on its national canvas.”
T H I S
— William Odom, adjunct professor of political science, “The
Neocons Are Losing Their War,” Star-Ledger (NJ), Sept. 11, 2007.
— J.D. McClatchy, editor of The Yale Review and adjunct professor of
English, “The Latest ‘Frame,’” The Day (CT), Sept.
21, 2007.
— Michael Wishnie, clinical professor of law, “The Politics of
Enforcing Immigration Law,” “Talk of the Nation,” National
Public Radio, Aug. 22, 2007.
— Nayan Chanda, editor of YaleGlobal Online and director of publications
at the Center for the Study of Globalization, “Managing Globalization:
Q&A with Nayan Chanda from Yale University,” International Herald
Tribune (France), Sept. 11, 2007.
— Dr. Charles A. Morgan III, associate clinical professor of psychiatry, “A
Policy on Torture Roils Psychologists’ Annual Meeting,” Chronicle
of Higher Education, Sept. 4, 2007.
— Carole Goldberg, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, “Parents
Need To Step Back; The Thrill of Sending a Child Off
to College Is Often Tempered by a Feeling of Loss,” Kitchener-Waterloo
Record (Canada), Sept. 4, 2007.
— Marcello Canuto, assistant professor of anthropology, “Ghosts From
1639; Yale Students Really Dig The Henry Whitfield House,” Hartford Courant,
Sept. 4, 2007.
— David Skelly, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, “Climate
Change Brings Risk of More Extinctions,” Washington Post, Sept. 17, 2007.
— Ian Ayres, the William K. Townsend Professor of Law, “Today’s
Guest: Ian Ayres, Author of ‘Super Crunchers,’” Worcester Telegram & Gazette
(MA), Sept. 5, 2007.
— Elizabeth H. Bradley, professor of epidemiology and public health and
associate clinical professor of nursing, in her article, “Commentary,” Forbes,
Sept. 4, 2007.
— Jeffrey E. Garten, the Juan Trippe Professor in the Practice of International
Trade, Finance and Business, in his article, “Beware the Weak Dollar,” Newsweek,
Sept. 10, 2007.
— Roger Ibbotson, professor in the practice of finance, “Hedge Funds,
Remote to Many, Lure Business School Professors,” Associated Press, Sept.
10, 2007.
— Priscilla Ridgway, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry, “Solutions
Do Not Lie with Gurus, Says Expert,” Irish Times, Sept. 11, 2007.”
— Dr. David Katz, associate professor adjunct in public health practice
at the School of Public Health, “Food Additives Could Fuel Hyperactivity
in Kids,” Tehran Times (Iran), Sept. 13, 2007.
— Dr. Leo Cooney Jr., the Humana Foundation Professor of Geriatric Medicine, “Staying
Sharp and Healthy, and What that Means About Retiring,” Washington Post,
Sept. 12, 2007.
— Michael Bracken, the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology, “Effectiveness
of Drugs ‘Overstated Because of Biased Testing,’” The Independent
(UK), Sept. 15, 2007.
— Robert González Echevarría, Sterling Professor of Hispanic & Comparative
Literature, “Defect in the Plan,” Centre Daily Times (PA), Sept.
13, 2007.
— Caryl Phillips, professor of English, “Crossing Over; Caryl Phillips
Has Been Lured Back to the Theater by Simon Schama’s Tale of Rebel Slaves,” The
Times (UK), Sept. 15, 2007.
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Yale team achieves major advances in quantum computers
Yale poll reveals growing concern about global warming
‘Incredible India@60’: Yale hosts panels on nation’s future . . .
Parents' Weekend
Special language tours offered during Parents’ Weekend
Yale endowment earns 28% return in 2006-2007
Study sheds new light on genetic differences in humans
Emilie Townes is named to associate dean at the Divinity School
Faculty members win fellowships for use of technology in curricula
Conference to honor legacy of Israeli poet
Festival invites public to enjoy area artists’ creative offerings
Evolution of ‘the city beautiful’ is focus of new exhibition
Noted theologians to give public talks during Convocation
Yale singers will bring Beinecke manuscript to musical life . . .
Winners of Graduate School’s Wilbur Cross Medals to present talks
Global experts gather to discuss ways to curb poverty . . .
‘Summer Heat’
Yale Press acquires the renowned Anchor Bible Series from Doubleday
Jane Savage named director of best practices
New digital mammography van hits the streets to provide screenings
Manuscripts and Archives hosts an introduction to its resources, services
Yale Books in Brief
Campus Notes
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