As a local alum, it's great to make a visit back to campus every so often. When the Photowalking Stanford event came up, I couldn't say no!
3:25pm: at work... gotta finish this deck! know it's early but i can't miss it.
3:40: zipping on El Camino Real (if there's such a thing)
4:05: meet the Photowalking crew in Memorial Court, introduction to Burghers of Calais by Tom Seligman
4:30: a special treat, a trip up to the balcony in MemChu.. memories of tour guiding days return!
... and the details on the walls are always gorgeous..
WE BEAT USC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am speechless, breathless and
FIRED UP.
They're flying back tonight, expected to arrive at midnight at
Arrillaga. Let's bring the entire Red Zone out to applaud the
amazing Stanford Cardinal when they get home! Bring
everyone! Forward this to everyone! WHOSE HOUSE? OUR HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dean Julie
A crazy, ridiculous game.
A crazy ridiculous night.
Discuss.
There is no question. This campus was transformed by Stanford's surprise win. I make no bones about being a huge Stanford fan, but this response shocked even me. I'll be the first to say football should not be put on a pedestal, especially given our successes in other areas (Nobel Prizes, DARPA Challenge, #1 Women's Soccer team, anyone?), but there was something cathartic about Saturday win and ensuring celebration. In fact, a stroll through White Plaza reveals the change:
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Some estimate the crowd welcoming back the team at Arrillaga/Maples to be between 1,000 and 3,000 fans. Major shout out to my fellow AxeComm members, the ASSU, Stanford Athletics, and the administration for pulling it together on such short notice. If you judge the success of an event by attendees / hours notice, this may be the best party Stanford has seen in years. I heard even the Provost was there! Hah! Quarterback Tavita Pritchard called it "the most amazing thing I've seen on this campus since I've been there."
And, while famed coach and ESPN analyst Lou Holtz would say Stanford needs to just as quickly move on and focus on Saturday's game against TCU (2:00pm, Be there!), I can't help but relive some of the amazing moments YouTube-style.
The Cardinal take down the #1/#2 U$C Trojans
Students in West Flo react to the win
Reaction at LSU's Death Valley Stadium when the score was announced
Students mob the buses as they return to campus
Coach Jim Harbaugh's speaks to the assembled fans
Not quite the Big Game Bonfire, but a fire in the Quad is still exciting
Chef Thomas Keller of French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon
Thomas Keller is widely regarded as one of America's finest chefs, and his restaurants French Laundry and Per Se have been named the best restaurants in America.
Interviewing Thomas Keller at the French Laundry in Yountville was a rare treat for two food fanatics like ourselves, and the great surprise that Chef de Cuisine Corey Lee whipped up for us in the kitchen post-interview was the icing on the cake.
Food allusions aside, we hope you enjoy this superb interview with Thomas. In our conversation we talked about his entrepreneurial success, how he picks new members for his team, expanding his personal brand, and, of course, food.
Check out this video of Thomas talking about the secret of success behind French Laundry as well as how to select a great team:
And as a special bonus here's a video of Chef de Cuisine Corey Lee in the kitchen talking about his involvement with French Laundry. Click to hear what Corey's answer to "if you were any food, what would you be?"
There is an article today in the Daily about Gumball Capital, and talks about how they are encouraging students across the nation to participate in the Gumball Challenge. The Challenge is going to be run this November at schools like Yale, UCLA and Berkeley. Of course Stanford is running one too - and I'm in charge of making it happen.
Here's the gist of it - on November 7th, teams of students will get a Starter Kit with gumballs, a $27 loan and a guide book. They'll have one week to create value by thinking outside the box. They return the loan at the end of the week, and any revenue will to the Gumball Fund - which supports developing-world entrepreneurs through Kiva.org. Teams can win prizes for their innovation and the value they create.
I think what's exciting about the challenge and separates it from other business-y competitions is that you don't need to write up a business plan. You don't spend two months doing applications. It's just one week creativity spree. No business experience necessary. Definitely Facebook me if you want to learn more. We'll be having an info session on the 2nd floor of Old Union next Wednesday (the 17th), so drop by!
US Senator. Vice President. Best-selling Author. Academy Award Winner. Now Al Gore can add Nobel Peace Prize winner to his list of accomplishments. Whatever you think of Al Gore, his movie "An Inconvenient Truth" or Global Warming, you can't scoff at what Al Gore has accomplished in his life.
I've often felt that huge failures result in great success in the future. Steve Jobs got fired from Apple, and then he returned it's savior years later. Al Gore narrowly lost the election that was supposed to be his. So he turned to business - becoming an adviser for both Google and Apple, a VP for , and founder/CEO of Current TV and a "asset-management firm". (Fast Company)
Lots of people have been speculating as to whether or not Al Gore was/is going to jump into the Democratic election, but I think it's pretty clear now that he will not. He's got great things going on, and a lot of authority to talk about in issue he cares about. Global warming is one of the greatest challenges humanity faces and Al Gore is now poised to lead the solutions to that challenge. Why get back into that messy battleground of politics?
Still, nobody's perfect. People grumble about how much money he makes per speech ($175,000) and that he ought to lose some weight (at least he cut off that awful beard), and that he's contributing more to global warming than stopping it (you try spreading a message without flying around a lot).
Al Gore still has street cred for me. What about you?
Bottled Water- often considered a “healthy alternative” in very popular in the States- we currently drink about 8 million gallons of it each year. And while this bottled water is indeed healthier than drinking coke or pepsi, bottled water is incredibly bad for the health of our planet. And it turns out it may be bad for us as well. Several environmental organizations have declared war on bottled water, and are trying to show its ill effects on not only the planet, but also on us. The following is a recap of some of these problems.
Problem #1: it takes 3-5 times more water to create the plastic water bottle than will actually fit in the bottle. Considering each bottle should only be used once (to prevent the leeching of phthalates)- that is a lot of water that is wasted for each bottle we drink.
Last week was the first time I noticed this. Police officers were lurking around behind Terman. I saw their cop car there going from the Quad to Lag at lunchtime. When I left for my 1:15 class, they weren't there...at least so I thought. The police were waiting to nab bikers who run the stop sign(s) on Santa Teresa.
The Stanford Daily
Supposedly, last week the police were out only to issue warnings, but this week they're getting serious. Watch out, particularly at those busy 10am, 11am, 1:15pm times since I'm sure that's when they will be out in force.
There is a Daily article about this in today's issue, in which we are told that fines could be levied (up to $150 since bikers are subject to the same rules and punishments as drivers). The same is true for biking with earphones on (one bud is ok but two is not).
I've personally spotted police at two intersections (marked with red dots), and the Daily photographer has also seen them on Serra Street (see photo from article, above).
Where else might the police be waiting for us? Let me know in the comments section.
Feel pressure to change that one body part to look more attractive? Maybe pressure to change your whole body to meet society's standards? At times it's hard to feel the love for your body with all the imagery of the ideal girl and boy floating through our society.
But tomorrow is the day to give your body the love it deserves! Shrug off those stereotypical, idealistic pressures and celebrate your unique, lovable body in White Plaza from noon to two!!
Speeches from student activists together with Donnovan Yisrael from Health Promotion Services and Dr. Laurel Zappert from the Stanford Eating Disorders Recovery Group on campus talking about issues related to body image and self-esteem at Stanford. Stay for performances from SImps and Spoken Word!
Some of us from the Women's Center (WCC) will be out there with SHPRC, thinkBIG, QSA, Choice, PWHHR, Mirror, and LGBT-CRC to celebrate our bodies with you and give out info about our programs, stickers, candy, and goodies.
Ladies, in the evening, come talk about relationships with other Stanford women! Share your romantic experiences and gain new insight from fellow women about everything hookups to breakups. Come out to Paloma in FloMo at 6pm for a fun, friendly conversation - we're looking forward to a great discussion about romantic life at Stanford!
If you were in White Plaza yesterday, you saw a lot of amazing women and men congregated in celebration of Love Your Body Day, which is part of a national campaign to address issues of body image on campuses and in the world at large. The speeches and performances were very inspiring, particularly the performance by the freshman spoken word artist (a student in my dorm, Burbank House, I might add, but I won’t mention her name in case she’s shy.)
But what really struck me was that there was so much energy around something positive rather than in protest of some evil. Not that there is not a place for anger and dissent; we all know that there is. But too much negativity can lead to people falling into a vortex of apathy that starts with feeling overwhelmed and powerless. I think we don’t focus enough on supporting the ideas that ARE working in our society. Love Your Body Day was the kind of fun, celebratory activism I hope we see more of in the upcoming year.
While procrastinating on a Biochem problemset, I ran across this interesting article published in Education Week that I think sums up what many of us think about homework: It's just not that useful. The article explains how most studies barely have any correlation between homework and test scores in high school, and in fact a negative correlation for students in elementary school. In the 1994 and 1999 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study featuring data from 50 countries, researches stated:
“Not only did we fail to find any positive relationships,” but “the overall correlations between national average student achievement and national averages in [amount of homework assigned] are all negative.”
Yet we keep assigning it in our schools and the amount has been steadily increasing in the past number of years. The article tries to explain this phenomenon with the idea that "homework = practice = learning". But we've all experienced those moments when doing stupid worksheets and extra problems where we think "this is not teaching me ANYTHING".
"Supporters of homework rarely look at things from the student’s point of view, though; instead, kids are regarded as inert objects to be acted on: Make them practice and they’ll get better. My argument isn’t just that this viewpoint is disrespectful, or that it’s a residue of an outdated stimulus-response psychology. I’m also suggesting it’s counterproductive. Children cannot be made to acquire skills. They aren’t vending machines such that we put in more homework and get out more learning."
Who's Blogging at Stanford? The Band, Stem Cell Ethicists, and More...
A little while back, the university launched the Stanford Blog Directory at http://blog.stanford.edu (big thanks to the TUSB team for working so hard to evangelize blogging at Stanford and for their help in getting the Blog Directory up!). As far as I know, this is the first attempt by a university to pull together blogs from its broader community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni -- including blogs hosted on third-party sites like Wordpress, Blogger, and LiveJournal.
Anyone with a SUNet or Stanford Alumni Association login is welcome to submit a blog for inclusion in the Blog Directory. I know that there are a bunch of other blogs that aren't yet listed on the Blog Directory, so please add your blog if it isn't already there. The goal of the Blog Directory is to highlight authentic voices and interesting stories from the broader university community. I'm hopeful that TUSB and the Blog Directory can help spark a culture of online discovery and debate that's as vibrant, engaging, and fun as what we experience "offline" at Stanford.
I've enjoyed exploring some of the lesser-known blogs from around campus. Here are a few of my favorites so far:
Leland Stanford Jr. University Marching Band Blog: This blog is still quite new, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how the Band's blog develops. Hop over to their blog and give them a shout.
TrippingOnWords: Chronicles two recent alums who have started a non-profit to help AIDS orphans in Africa. They also started a blog that's written by the orphans themselves. Highly inspirational.
Smart Energy Show: Prof. Margot Gerritsen runs around Stanford interviewing faculty and students on energy issues. Great to see our faculty getting into video podcasting.
PS. If you need any help with the Blog Directory at any time, feel free to send an email to blogdirectory [at] stanford [dot] edu. We also welcome your feedback and thoughts on how to make it better. Thanks!
Today, the Stanford Axe Committee announced the second annual BEAT CAL pictures contest! Created as a way to tie together students, alumni, and other Cardinal fans from around the word in a show of school spirit, last year's contest elicited submissions from as far as Paris (right) and even the battlegrounds of Iraq. To submit your photo, email it to beatcalpictures@gmail.com by November 24th, 2007. The top student and top alumni photo will be announced during Big Game Week. The winning prize: eternal glory.
Entries will be judged on creativity of composition, boldness of statement, artistry, and intangibles. Just to give you some ideas, previous BEAT CAL banners have been seen on the Leaning Tower of Pisa, on the side of Meyer Library, and on the Great Wall of China. But not every banner has to be huge. My favorite BEAT CAL picture of all time is an astronaut alum (Scott Parazynski, '83, MD '89) holding a small BEAT CAL sign in the space station Mir. Here is a description written by Chris Chapman '08 about last year's Stanford-in-Paris student photo winner:
We had a lot of fun doing this! We met just across the Seine from the tower at the Trocadero plaza. It was a beautiful Thursday afternoon -- luckily, as it may have been the last day of blue sky for the month! We got a lot of stares and laughs with our giant cardboard posters, and many people stopped to take their own photos -- including Sami Bendak, the father of a recent graduate. We quickly took as many shots as we could, as most of us had to run back to class! We all thought that this one came out as the best of the series. We hope you like it as much as we do!
Needless to say, if you do it right, it's a memory you'll keep forever. So, figure it out. Get a team together. Go it alone. Make it big. Make it small. Do it naked, for all we care! Do it today. Do it tomorrow. It doesn't matter, because, after all, any day is a good day to BEAT CAL!
Do people remember boredatgreen.net? I saw little fliers for it around Meyer Library and other places last year, especially around finals weeks. It featured very crass inane comments - the kind of stuff you see in bathroom stalls. I thought it was a the pet project of a entrepreneurial Stanford student. Well it's back - now as boredatstanford.net with the tagline "anonymity liberates".
Turns out, according to IvyGate, the site the brainchild of a guy named Johnathon Pappas '06 from Columbia. He started BoredAtButler in 2005, presumably for a library at Columbia. It was a hit and over the past 2 years he's expanded his project to a network of schools - BoredAt. The BoredAt network reminds of Facebook back when it was exclusive - the Ivies + UC's + Stanford and a few others. The site wants to be "it's a place to post your thoughts anonymously, share, and discuss anything and everything "
But as Professor emeritus Philip Zimbardo and others have shown us, anonymity can also lead people to be more aggressive, and I might add, more obscene as well.
Still there is an kind of perverse pleasure gain from reading the threads on girls who accept random propositions for sex ("back row at FlicKs"), the best way to break up with someone ("I need some independence peeeeaaace") or getting what you want ("academic success, not to be alone, and for the red sox to win")
In this interview Matt and Julio caught up with legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur and “venture assistant” Vinod Khosla. Vinod was a co-founder of Sun Microsystems along with Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim, and Bill Joy.
After leaving Sun, Vinod made the shift to Sand Hill Road as a venture capitalist at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers until forming his own firm, Khosla Ventures, in 2004.
Today, Vinod is well-known for his investments in clean technology. Join us in this interview as Vinod shares early stories from Sun, his views on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and his outlook on clean tech investing.
