A second language for every high school student, Stanford's Russell Berman says

America lags behind the world in foreign language learning. Stanford's Russell Berman calls for "universal bilingualism" in high school.

Social Preview: May 5- May 12

It’s that time again! Sun’s out (… guns out?) and it’s the middle of the quarter! The first round of mid-terms is over and you want to unwind. We’ve compiled a list of great events happening this weekend and beyond so you can do just that! Phiesta Con Pi Phi- May 5- Thursday at ...

U.S. farmers dodge the impacts of global warming – at least for now, Stanford researcher says

As global temperatures continue to rise, U.S. farmers will inevitably feel the heat.

Eight professors elected to National Academy of Sciences

Eight Stanford faculty members have been elected to receive one of the highest honors for an American scientist or engineer. Their expertise spans the scientific gamut from photon science to federalism and from adrenergic receptors to early lexical acquisition.

polling infernals

From Jason Linkins on HuffPost: CNN Poll Finds That Most People Think Bin Laden Is In Hell, In Case You Were Wondering According to the polling internals, the feeling that bin Laden is in Hell is most strongly felt by conservatives, especially those who express support for the Tea Party (that is essentially a critical ...

Bin Laden’s Death and Student Reactions

When my professor walked in to my political science class yesterday, he noted that our class discussion would center around “that thing that happened the other day.” He was referencing Sunday evening’s U.S. military operation that killed Osama bin Laden after he had evaded capture for nearly a decade following 9/11. My professor chuckled a ...

5 Minutes With Pamela Hinds

“5 Minutes With”- where each week we poke and prod the minds of Stanford affiliates with a series of ten questions, both causal and serious as well as personal, pertaining to Stanford and news around it. If you have any suggestions for interviewees or any specific questions you’d like to see asked, leave a comment or ...

If It Ain’t Broke…. Why I Don’t Support the Stanford NYC Campus Proposal

West Coast, best coast. As a SoCal native and lifelong Californian, to me this phrase sums up not only the Californian lifestyle and culture but also the tremendous advantages of going to school in the beautiful, entrepreneurial West.  Right next to San Francisco and San Jose, smack dab in the middle of Silicon Valley (and ...

It Takes Three to Tango

The locus classicus of European bewilderment with the United States is Alexis de Tocqueville’s seminal study Democracy in America, first published in 1835. Some of the original wonder at the American way of life has never left Europeans. Somehow the English colonies pulled off a societal experiment, which so far Europeans had dreamed of only in complex works of political philosophy or smothered in the bloodshed of failed revolutions. In this new land of milk and honey, commoners could make a f ...

Stanford's Gravity Probe B confirms two Einstein theories

The joint Stanford and NASA mission confirms two of the most profound predictions of Einstein's universe, having far-reaching implications across astrophysics research.

Australia 2nd best on Mother’s Index; USA 31

Save The Children’s “Mothers Index” has Norway on top, then Australia tied with Iceland. The USA is 31. Afghanistan last. Australia scored 30th on STC’s “Children’s Index” (under 5 mortality rate, gross pre-primary enrollment rate; gross secondary enrollment ratio); Sweden topped this. USA was 34th on this. Mother’s Index is a weighted average of “Women’s ...

noontime ceramics

ZiXiang Zhang contemplates Lake Lagunita and its mud.

What the Color?

If you’ve been following the social media world, chances are you’ve heard of Color, a new photo-sharing app for the iPhone that’s making headline news. The company received $41 million in funding before it had a single user, most of which from Sequoia, the Silicon Valley power-investor that funded Google. The app has already captured many ...

'Small fry' fish just as vulnerable to population plunges as sharks or tuna, Stanford researchers say

Falling stocks of small fish such as anchovies and sardines ripple up the food chain.

Barry Weingast to NAS

Barry Weingast elected to NAS. Congratulations Barry! Some other names I recognized: Gary Chamberlain Bob Groves Leslie Lamport Ellen Markman (Stanford Psych) Sara McLanahan (Princeton OPR, Sociology)

2011 NFL Draft: Stanford Cardinal Football in the 2011 Draft Class

The 2011 NFL Draft certainly had enough intrigue to keep football fans occupied for weeks. Surprise selections like Jake Locker (No. 8 overall) and Christian Ponder (No. 12 overall) headlined the big news from a weekend that saw risers, fallers, reaches and trades across all three days. Lost in all of this chaos, it seems, ...

Music Mondays: Zelda Dubstep and John Legend

Normally I approach fan-made remixes of theme music with the same skepticism as an astrophysics symposium hosted by Sarah Palin. The first thing for any bored nerd with a macbook and an overinflated sense of self-worth is to remix a classic video-game tune in a vain attempt to make it ‘hip for teh clubs’. Naturally ...

Stanford Tree Stars in ESPN Spot

This is SportsCenter, Cardinal style. Starting tomorrow, ESPN will air a hilarious spot featuring the Stanford Tree and Atlanta Braves right fielder Jason Heyward. The clip was shot in Bristol, CT in October 2010, and Jonathan Strange from the LSJUMB flew in from Palo Alto to represent the Card. See the full video below: [There ...

Cruz/Macgregor-Dennis Announce Chief of Staff and Answer Questions About Transition

New ASSU Executives Michael Cruz and Stewart Macgregor-Dennis are appointing Emma Ogiemwanye ’12 as their Chief of Staff. Ogiemwanye is currently at Stanford in Washington, but will presumably be Skyping into transition meetings in preparation for the selection of the rest of the Cabinet and the beginning of the Executive’s efforts to complete all of ...

2010 Bootcamp Bootleg is here!

In what's becoming a holiday tradition at the d.school, we're releasing an updated version of the Bootcamp Bootleg, a working document that captures some of the teaching we impart in our "Design Thinking Bootcamp,” course. The guide outlines each mode ...

Knight Management Center opens for business

The Graduate School of Business christened its new home, the Knight Management Center, with a formal dedication ceremony followed by a celebration in the school's new Town Square. The event marked the end of a three-year building project that produced a facility that will enable the business school to grow in the areas of curriculum and innovation.

Q&A: Stanford's Thomas Henriksen on the killing of Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden's death won't put an end to terrorism, but America now looks stronger and more effective in fighting it, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution says. (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)

Max Mathews, 'father of computer music,' dies at 84

Computer music pioneer Max Mathews, a Stanford professor emeritus of music who once said "there are no theoretical limits to the performance of the computer as a source of musical sounds," died at 84.

Review considers Stanford's Honor Code, Fundamental Standard violation resolution

The Stanford Office of Judicial Affairs is undergoing a broad review of the process through which alleged violations of the university's Fundamental Standard and Honor Code are resolved. Rick Yuen, assistant dean of student affairs and judicial officer, talks about the process and the the issues likely to surface as the review wraps up this quarter.

Historic week in pictures: Profros, new GSB campus and more

While hundreds of prospective freshmen turned out for Admit Weekend, well-wishers flocked to the opening of the business school's Knight Management Center. The Faculty Senate chamber was at capacity during a vote to invite ROTC back, a move that attracted a gaggle of protesters.

Welcome Oren Jacob, Our Fantastic New EIR

Before I get to Oren, some of you may well be wondering, "what is an EIR?" That's a perfectly reasonable question. The simplest answer is that an EIR is an Entrepreneur In Residence -- an entrepreneur who moves in with you. And that's pretty much it. So you have an ...

The Next LQ Head Honchos

Meet the three incoming head honchos of Leland Quarterly via that strange medium The Author Bio. Katie Wu will join Jaslyn Law as co-Editor-in-Chief for the 2011-2012 year, with Elissa Karasik taking over the reins as Managing Editor and LiHe Han tackling the Production Manager role.

Should Marriage Be Abolished?

posted by KT Our topics this week: Should Marriage Be Abolished? That’s a pretty punchy and provocative way to ask the question, we’re trying to get at, but we need to be careful. Asking whether marriage should be “abolished” isn’t ...

One physical server down (vsp09), bringing down CS's

One physical machine (vsp09) is down, bringing down all of its related VM's (vsp09*). We're working on it and hopefully will be able to get it back up today, unless there's a more serious issue. UPDATE: The machine is now ...

Thoughtful Ideas

Commentary on Current Political, Economic, and Social Developments in the United States and Around the World ...

Two Fundamental Questions the ROTC Debate Should Have Emphasized More

The discussion about ROTC’s discriminatory practices, as I have seen it, often got lost in details and positioning when I think it should have centered around two fundamental questions. One question is: what amount of “bad” should people put up with when supporting an institution? The other is: what tactics should be used to change ...

ProFros, Activities and Anti-Rotc March

In the wake of the Faculty Senate committee’s groundbreaking vote in favor of ROTC, members and friends of the Stanford Students for Queer Liberation organized today a protest on White Plaza. The rally was held at the same time as the Admit Weekend activity fair, when campus was already buzzing and overcrowded with students, faculty, ...

Again, brands are defined by how they make you feel

...

Words Straight From the ProFros

At yesterday’s Activities Fair, a few intrepid ProFros were willing to try their hand at a little blogging for the first because they couldn’t resist saying a few words about their first Stanford experience: So whats wrong about Stanford? I am desperately trying to find some kind of objective bearing on which to judge an ...

Educated Liars: Stanford Brings Back ROTC

Since the Vietnam War era, ROTC has operated away from most elite university campuses, marginalized by a leftist majority against war and militarization. But yesterday, rhetorically due to the end of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy that prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in any branch of the U.S. armed forces, the Stanford ...

E-Government in libraries - free webinar Thurs April 21

Free webinar Thurs noon (Pacific) on handling e-government questions in libraries http://infopeople.org/training/e-government-questions-helping-users-navigate-online-government-resources-without-practicin ...

iPhone geo-tracking database

So the web lit up a little today with news that iPhones are collecting time-stamped location data, and in a form that isn’t particularly hard to look at (and even with some nice apps to make animated maps of your travels etc): The database is SQLite, and I used R (and the RSQLite package) to ...

Wisdom from Francis Ford Coppola

I learned something significant today from this wonderful 99% interview of Francis Ford Coppola at the 99%. As you know, for the past year or so I've been playing around with the notion that an essential -- even critical -- ...

5 Minutes with Dan Ashton ’14, Frosh Council President

“5 Minutes With”- where each week we poke and prod the minds of Stanford affiliates with a series of ten questions, both causal and serious as well as personal, pertaining to Stanford and news around it. If you have any suggestions for interviewees or any specific questions you’d like to see asked, leave a comment or ...

MEDIA ADVISORY Teleconference Thursday, April 21, 2011 1:00 pm EDT Dial-in 512-225-3050 Access code 65889# GROUPS URGE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION TO "FIX GOOGLE PRIVACY" "Historic Opportunity for Public Comment on Future of Online Privacy" WASHINGTON, D.C. - Representatives of leading ...

Press conference tomorrow - save your privacy in Google searches, gmail, google books...

MEDIA ADVISORY Teleconference Thursday, April 21, 2011 1:00 pm EDT Dial-in 512-225-3050 Access code 65889# GROUPS URGE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION TO "FIX GOOGLE PRIVACY" "Historic Opportunity for Public Comment on Future of Online Privacy" WASHINGTON, D.C. - Representatives of leading ...

Moving Notice!

Come find me! I’ve moved to www.gradmommy.com, to my own site! This site will redirect there for a year, but change your bookmarks now and come to the new site. If you are a subscriber, subscribe over there (note to self: make a subscribe button.) Let’s make beautiful blogging together!

explaining Bayes to your lay friends?

From Jose Bernardo on the Bayesian mailing list: The Theory That Would Not Die How Bayes’ rule cracked the Enigma code, hunted down Russian submarines, and emerged triumphant from two centuries of controversy. By Sharon Bertsch McGrayne New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011 This is a very compelling documented account of the early times ...

Drama Professor Janice Ross wins 2011 Roland Volunteer Service Prize

Drama Professor Janice Ross, director of the Dance Division, has been named the 2011 recipient of the Roland Volunteer Service Prize "for modeling a life of service that includes and integrates scholarship, social awareness and community learning."

What Is “Hate Speech?”

On Tuesday night, the Stanford Anscombe Society (SAS) hosted its first event: a talk by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse of the Ruth Institute on “Marriage Without Adjectives.” Reaction to the event (as reported by the Stanford Daily here), was frosty, to say the least: “It’s upsetting that they were given SAL [Student Activities and Leadership]

A Real Thought on Socioeconomic Diversity

Last Thursday, I attended a Fireside Chat led by the Dean of Admissions Richard Shaw concerning the “Value of the Socioeconomic Diversity in Higher Education.” For better or for worse, people don’t talk about income at this school. Hardly anyone is overt about the money their parents do or don’t have and this allows students ...

Why Do You Hate Justice, Stanford?

A recent op-ed by A Man Who Graduated Over Twenty Years Ago, Daniel Barton, took obvious glee in excoriating sophomore Viviana Arcia and her support of the University’s decision to lower the standard of proof from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to “preponderance of evidence” for sexual assault cases. I can just hear the derisive laughter ...

The Value of Stanford’s Website

Josh Keller at The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published an article exploring the value of a university’s website, which, at this point is an essential point-of-contact with potential students. He cites the startling statistic, that, A quarter of prospective students decide not to apply to a college because of a bad experience on the ...

mturk to help ANES

Randy Stevenson is putting M-Turk to work on a project to help ANES… This is a request for you all to help me with a little experiment that may benefit the ANES if it works out. (feel free to forward this to anyone) What I am asking is that you inform your graduate students about ...

New biosensor microchip could speed up drug development, Stanford researchers say

Nanosensor technology has "the potential to revolutionize" a key step in the drug development process.