Last Thursday's Faith and Feminism program hosted by the Stanford Women's Community Center and the Office for Religious Life got us thinking about how underrated moderates are in our society. The gist of tonight's program was about how people negotiate the sticking points between feminism and religious traditions, which made us think about how needlessly polarizing the rhetoric on this topic is. Feminists are still largely portrayed as crazed man haters and much of the stories related to religion are about terrorists or abortion clinic bombers or, at the very least, about people whose views are so reactionary that they could easily be characterized as hate speech. It seems to us that the people who garner the most attention in our world are those whose words are the least helpful in creating much needed understanding, tolerance, and mutual respect. People who try to navigate the sometimes contradictory points of concepts such as faith and feminism are often chided for not "taking a stand." Despite what you think of John Kerry, it was disheartening to us when the media mocked him for being "wishy washy" for trying to sort out complex issues with some balance and nuance. Yet think how different the world might be if we had spent the last four years under a leader who did not take a "for us or against us" view of the world. Maybe it doesn't make for good sound bytes and maybe it's even not sexy to stand up for moderates, but moderation is precisely what it is going to take for all of us to live together in an increasingly complex world. Instead of getting caught up in "us and them" type language, moderates take a rational, problem-solving approach that allows for multiple realities to co-exist. In our view, people committed to this kind of logic deserve more praise, more power, and less ire from all of those interested in making actual progress on the issues that divide us.

Greg McAdoo focuses on consumer internet, cleantech and systems investments as a partner at Sequoia Capital.

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In this interview, Greg speaks with Nir about what it takes to get noticed by a top-tier venture capital firm. Greg himself worked extensively with VCs before actually becoming one after 17 years of engineering and executive level management experience. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2000, Greg served as President and CEO of Sentient Networks which was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1999.

Greg shares how entrepreneurs can increase their chances of closing a funding round with the right VC firm. He also discusses his involvement in Sequoia’s cleantech practice and shares his top picks for the next growth sectors.

Greg has led several high-profile investments while at Sequoia including Allegro, which was acquired by Cisco Systems, Isilon Systems, which had its IPO in December, Loopt, PowerFile and RockYou.

I don't know about anyone else, but I think the new roundabouts suck and I just want to explain why. Here are 5 reasons:
1 - People don't understand what to do - I see people look really confused and slow down, causing accidents and annoyed bikers everywhere.
2 - People refuse to go the right way - I am a Stanford student, and no one is going to tell me what to do! I do this and I know other people are sticking it to the Man too by not following the roundabout.
3 - It looks stupid - It's way too big, there's grass inside the circle, one of them has a tiny little chain link "guard rail" around it.
4 - Sense of security - Lots of people are now thinking "Oh, there is a roundabout. It MUST be safe". Wrong.
5 - No more "Intersection of Death" - The IoD used to be a rich source of cautionary tales that is woven into the Stanford tapestry. Until it was replaced by this sterile, bureaucratic solution.

Feel free to add your reasons below - either for or against.

I hope most of you have finished your final exams and papers. I personally like papers better because you can stay up all night and finish it. You need to actually sleep before exams (something I haven't been doing a good job doing...). Anyway, I ran into a great picture I wanted to share. (click to enlarge)

And if you are still taking finals, there are some great resources out there. The best is probably that when taking a True or False test - "The Answer is NOT always C

Did you see this? I know, it was a while ago, but just thought it's nice to know...

http://gostanford.cstv.com/genrel/103107aaa.html

Stanford Athletics Announces Free Admission Policy to Many Athletic Events
All but seven sports now free to fans, students and public

Oct. 31, 2007

Attending many of Stanford's regular season athletic events will now be free after a new policy announced today by Bob Bowlsby, the Jaquish and Kenninger Director of Athletics. The new policy, effective immediately, provides for free admission to all previously ticketed athletic events with the exception of football, men's and women's basketball, women's volleyball, baseball, and men's and women's soccer.

"We are pleased to make most of our athletic events free to our students, fans and members of the community," said Bowlsby. "Our belief is that open access would enhance the attendance, allow the Stanford community to experience the excitement and entertainment of intercollegiate athletics and thereby make it a better competitive environment for our teams."

Along with the seven sports that will continue to charge an admission fee, one other event will also charge admission: the Stanford Invitational Track Meet on April 4-5, 2008. All other previously ticketed athletic events will be free.

Effective immediately, free access will be provided to the following sports: men's volleyball, men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's water polo, lacrosse, men's and women's tennis, softball, men's and women's swimming and diving, synchronized swimming, wrestling and men's and women's track and field (with the exception of the Stanford Invitational).

There will also be no admission fees for men's and women's golf, men's and women's rowing, field hockey, fencing, squash and sailing, for which there has not been an admission fee in the past.

The new policy includes regular season events only and does not include special events, post-season or NCAA championships .

(The most fun I will have all week...besides Christmas morning)

I don't know about other people, but winter break has not been super relaxing. Some of my friends at home will talk about how they have over a month off at home, and they've been playing a ton of poker or watching seasons of TV shows and sleeping in. Somehow I find that there's always a lot of work to be done over my winter breaks. I don't mind too much, but it is a little rough sometimes...

* Right after finals were over, I still had to type up a 10+ pg chapter for my honors thesis in the ethics of transplant organ allocation - which translated into a few rather late nights.

* As part of the men's gymnastics team, we stay on campus for a few extra days where we really ramp up the training intensity, including two-a-day sessions.

* Since I've been home, I've been helping my parents shop for teens and tweens, showing them how to use Picasa to organize their photos (again), and burning DVDs of youtube videos.

* I had a 2 hour Skype meeting for Gumball Capital, and we ironed out the tasks that needed to be done before break was over - for me that meant writing a newsletter about our progress in the past few months, and detailing the responsibilities of each department, in preparation for a new round of recruiting.

* Finally, I've been trying to get people to vote for my ChangeThis manifesto proposal - entitled "Success-Driven Philosophy: Achieving Clarity of Purpose" cowritten with a former teammate of mine. Both of us have studied philosophy at Stanford and we want to help people use philosophical examination to achieve success in personal and professional goals. Vote for it here!

What about you? How do you cope with the Winter Break? Do you just drop everything and relax? Or is it a chance to buckle down and get some work done?

John Morgridge is a Silicon Valley legend who led Cisco Systems through its rise from start-up to networking technology giant.

John Morgridge was the 34th employee at Cisco Systems when he joined as President and CEO in 1988. Morgridge joined the company despite its notoriously toxic culture and revenue of only $5 million annually. By the time Morgridge concluded his tenure as CEO in 1995, he had grown sales to over $1 billion and 2,250 employees worldwide.

Stanford may be known for its sempiternally happy students, but many here at TheFarm miss the dear, departed CoHo. The newly opened A'Palm -- the Axe and Palm café in Old Union -- simply leaves us hungry, wanting more.

But beyond the A'Palm walls, what and how does Stanford eat? What do we really hunger for?

In early 2008, Stanford's EIS program will host a series titled "The Ethics of Food and the Environment", featuring speakers such as Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, and Peter Singer -- authors of The Omnivore's Dilemma, What to Eat, and The Way We Eat respectively.

For a campus so green, with Spudware (compostable utensils) and energy retrofits up the yin yangtze, it strikes me that we as students have so little, so sub- liminal a consciousness of where our food comes from.

In a recent Salon article, Liz Galst tries to untangle the impact of livestock agro-industry here in the States. Just what is the carbon footprint of our cows?

More recently, Michael Pollan wrote in the NYTimes of how our food Factories sometimes break down.

So, as you eat well over the winter break, see if you don't have time to catch up on some readings re: our 21st century food culture.

It seems like once you’re a graduate student, you no longer get holidays. The last couple of years I have spent my winter and spring breaks working on papers or research projects glad that I no longer had the distraction of classes, RA-ing, or TA-ing. It’s all part of the preparation for a professional life.

So what have I been up to this holiday season –

1. Writing the ol’ dissertation. Nothing makes you hate your topic more than being asked to rewrite a chapter.

2. Working on a paper that needs to get done by January.

3. Preparing my syllabus for next quarter.

4. learning to make refrigerator pickles.

Number 4 has been really fun for me, as I’ve developed an taste for pickled items. I like my pickles a little spicy, which is not always easy to obtain in a store bought version. Slightly pickled carrot sticks make a great snack when writing and even hubby, who is usually Mr Picky, eats them. Refrigerator pickles are easy to make, especially if you're on a budget.