Archive for April, 2007

I was walking pass Braun Music Center today and I discovered a technological breakthrough at Stanford: the Music Department has finally replaced the old announcement banner to a “high tech” LED display board!

This apparent technological breakthrough seems pretty embarrassing to me. As a premier institution which name is often synonymous with the development of some of the most cutting edge technology in our society today, it baffles me that the university remains “primitive” in several aspects.
The other day, I also had to hand-write all the classes I’ve taken for my major and turn in a paper copy (wasting paper) to have my graduation approved. Already, I am not the most tech-savvy person. Yet, even I think (and know) that some processes can be made easier for both students and university administrators if we try to explore new ways of doing things which are clearly more efficient than the traditional “paper and pen” method.
I’m sorry if I’m sounding too cynical or bitter. At any rate, yay for the music department! No more hassle of changing the announcements on the banner every so often again. =)

Since I’m not a conservative, I am often referred to as a “Bleeding Heart Liberal.” I’m probably a bit too demanding to be considered that in a political sense, but I do feel an obligation to donate blood to try to save a life. You can donate blood too! Its fast and easy and you can set up an appointment online at the Stanford Blood Center. They are in need of O-, A- and B-. If you don’t feel like doing it for anyone, do it for the cookie and POG afterward (you can find out what POG is when you donate).
The blood center is on Welch Road and you can take the Marguerite (B-Line) or just take the nice walk over.

Below are segments from the campus radio news show, the Stanford Current, from the 4/30 broadcast on KZSU 90.1.
Included in the segments is “Your World This Week,” headlines from the Stanford bubble and beyond.
Also, check out “Question of the Week,” where we ask Stanford students a question of campus interest. This week’s question: “Should the US pull out of Iraq if it means leaving a non-viable Iraqi government behind?”
That’s followed by an interview with Galen Panger, founder of the Unofficial Stanford Blog. He’ll be discussing what inspired him to start the blog and how it has been going since its inception.
And lastly, we survey the counseling services on campus in light of student tragedies this year.
You can listen to the entire broadcast here.

As part of Stanford’s Arts Initiative and the Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts (SICA), the Arts Facilities Task Force is working on Stanford’s physical arts spaces, both current and future. The committee is particularly interested in getting input from students involved in the arts.
We want to know:

• What kinds of spaces you use, or would like to see more of on campus?
• What are some ideas for future arts spaces?
• What kinds of spaces could inspire collaboration and a culture of creativity on campus?
• How do we tackle decentralization, and how could we improve?
• What kinds of arts facilities are successful in residences, unions, and other shared spaces?
• What kinds of departmental spaces do you use often in academic settings?

This is your chance to add input for the arts facilities planning taking place now. Please join us and members of the Arts Facilities Task Force in getting your feedback.

Wednesday, May 9th, 6-7:30 PM in Roble Gym Lounge. Pizza Provided.
RSVP to Megan Miller at meganem@stanford.edu
http://studentarts.stanford.edu

Do you think it’s okay to offer students a free drink in exchange for a signature on a special fees petition? If you don’t, then this was the graduate election scandal the Daily never covered.

Click on image to read e-mail

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In the wake of the “MacArthur Maze Meltdown”, all Bay Area public transit will be free Monday, in hopes of reducing what is expected to be unbearably bad traffic. So, if you were thinking about going up to the City or down to San Jose for the Sharks’ playoff game, I’d say this is as good a reason as any to make a day trip out of it. If you have no clue what this is all about, read the linked article or check out the accompanying picture.

[Update: See Craig's video interview on the Jeopardy website!]
Fellow Grove dormmate and trivia extraordinaire Craig Boge ’07 will be appearing on Jeopardy’s College Tournament on Tuesday, from 7-7:30pm on ABC. Despite our best attempts to pry the details of his performance out of him since he returned from the taping in LA last Monday, we remain in complete suspense. You’re welcome to join us for the viewing party in Grove Lasuen or simply watch from the comfort of your own lounge.
The Tournament begins Monday, April 30th and ends Friday, May 11th.

Go Craig!

First off, if you don’t know what Bollywood is – take a look at its Wikipedia article.

As a person who spends almost every waking hour on his laptop, I have interesting pastimes, one of which is checking out events.stanford.edu once a day.
On a plain Monday afternoon last week, I decided to distract myself from Perl/MySQL and steered over to events.stanford. And what I saw was something very interesting — an event called exactly the title of this blog post. I was sort of stunned by the classification chosen — so did they mean that most of the Bollywood women were either Prostitutes or Courtesans?! Well, I didn’t know and since the description was not really descriptive, I thought I might as well check it out.

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Students gathered around the Claw to cool off during one of the hottest afternoons we’ve had yet this year.

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Yesterday, we rolled out our new tour guides at the crisp hour of 6AM and made them walk backwards (as tour guides are wont to do) to the quad, where we fed them breakfast and did introductions. This new crop of 30 guides was selected from a pool of “well over” 100 applicants (in the words of our manager), making this job one of the campus’s most coveted. And for good reason.

This is the lovely group I helped roll out from Branner and Wilbur, walking backwards
A number of our new hires come from cool places like Korea, Brazil, and Eritrea; they come from all academic classes (including some co-terms), and of course from many different majors (blah blah). We have two former ASSU Executive candidates, Ravenswood Reads tutors, a KZSU broadcaster, a PHE, several HoHos, research assistants, a Stanford Progressive writer, RAs, members of a cappella groups (Talisman, Counterpoint, Mendicants, and Everyday People), and a student rep to the Board of Trustees. Together, they speak 17 languages, including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Marathi, Tigrinya, Telugu, Amharic, Arabic, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Japanese.
What can I say? I’m proud.

The crowd of new and current tour guides forms in the quad…

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Printed in The Stanford Daily 4/27/07
By Anthony Sanchez

In the old days, it was easy to recognize who was a journalist, one belonging to that class of elite individuals who could bring down a president with their powerful craft: simply look for the notebook and the press card stuck into the side of a fedora. But digital technology has turned everything upside down, and those days are long gone. That, and no one wears fedoras anymore.
Now, with a digital camcorder, a computer, and an Internet connection, anybody can be a boat-rocker by capturing a Macaca moment or bringing attention to Don Imus’ racist broadcast on their blog. So the question must be asked: just who is a journalist, nowadays?

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Just found out that during the month of May, Bank of America members can get into a select group of museums for FREE!
Museums in San Francisco that you get in for FREE during May:

• Asian Art Museum
• California Academy of Sciences
• SF MOMA
• Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
• de Young Museum
• Legion of Honor

A message from Cooking Club President Scott Walter:

Dear culinary enthusiasts,
Starting this Friday, as part of the annual Earth Week celebration,
Stanford will be operating a new weekly Farmer’s Market ON CAMPUS!!!
The Stanford Produce Stand, located in front of Tresidder Union, will be
open for business every Friday during the growing season from 12-5pm.
I hope many of you will come out to support community farmers and take
advantage of the convenience and superior quality of locally farmed
produce! There will also be order sheets available if you would like to
pre-order produce for pickup the next week.
This is a very exciting new initiative and I’m hoping Stanford students
will take advantage of community supported agriculture here in the Bay
Area. Come show your support this Friday!
Scott Walter
President of the Stanford Cooking Club
Earth Week events organized by Stanford Dining

Check out Students for a Sustainable Stanford

Firefox is a clear choice for many students and tech aficionados thanks to personalized browsers, security, and the overall notion of fighting against the Man!
When the Stanford d.school and Firefox joined forces to spread Firefox for the Spring 2006 class, CIA: Creating Infectious Action, the synergy and results were incredible. Rockstar students, guided by rockstar teaching coaches, created some of the best Firefox extensions and marketing campaigns to date (check out this sex and religion combo: Firefoxies and Faith Browser).
Thanks in part to this success, the d.school launched CIA 2.0: CIA-KGB (ARRR!). And guess what, Firefox is back, and better than ever!
Students this quarter are once again doing some really cool stuff. For example, Madalina Seghete and Tyler Griffin Hicks-Wright’s project, My Friendly Fox, seeks to improve the eBay shopping experience by customizing the browser with an eBay toolbar and an ad blocking feature. Moreover, they added oomph to the little fox that could… by adding another fox! Say hello to foxkeh.

At the d.school, the design process is highly looked upon. These students are working long and hard, and smart, to help users understand the benefits of a better browser.

According to the American Institute of Architects, our very own Global Ecology Research Center is one of the top 10 “green” buildings in the nation. The article states:
“Global Ecology Research Center, Stanford, California, by EHDD Architects, a low-energy laboratory and office building that cut carbon emissions associated with building operation by 72 percent.”
You can read about the other choices here.

Building image from the Stanford Report