As the state of the U.S. economy and its Wall Street mainstays continues to sour, it appears that the Class of '08 has not necessarily been suffering from this trend: Average starting salaries rose 7.6 percent from last year, according to the Salary Survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
The Task Force on Freedom of Expression, commissioned by University President Lawrence Bacow to craft a school-wide speech policy in the wake of the Primary Source harassment scandal, released its first public draft yesterday and requested feedback from the Tufts community.
Beer pong, keggers and pub nights are a regular part of campus life for the vast majority of college students. According to a study conducted in 2000 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 88 percent of college students, including those under the legal drinking age, have consumed alcohol.
In an age when "green" has transcended the bounds of color, many people now choose services and products solely based on their eco-friendly implications. Edun LIVE on Campus, a socially conscious T-shirt distribution company, paired this knowledge with social justice issues in order to create a student group rooted in conscious consumerism.
Tufts Medical Center has applied for designation as a trauma center with the American College of Surgeons (ACS). If successful, the center would be able to receive critical-trauma patients who are typically taken to other state-designated trauma centers in Boston.
Three engineering students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) got a bit too creative when they figured out how to crack the T's ticketing system and ride free, according to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which slammed the students with a lawsuit last month.
With awareness campaigns galore attempting to spread knowledge about the most common sexually transmitted infection, the human papillomavirus, (HPV), the need for research into the disease is more than evident.
A $500,000 donation agreement with Tufts in July has helped allow Medford city officials to sign a proposal that would eliminate the city's $2.4-million budget shortfall.
After an advocate closely involved in the Green Line extension suggested the state might hand down a recommendation as early Monday on where the rail should end, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) on Wednesday cancelled a planned meeting and said that it was not prepared to share more details of its research with the public.
Former Tufts Community Union (TCU) President Neil DiBiase and two other seniors won positions Sunday as this year's TCU Senate trustee representatives.
I was dismayed by Mr. Ladner's Sept. 8 op-ed. Because there is no substantive evidence that Sarah Palin is qualified to be on the national ticket for the vice presidency, he resorts to ad hominem attacks, labeling democrats as the "liberal elite" with "an ideology of victimization and anti-establishment self-pity." Yet, at the same time, Mr. Ladner seems to suggest that Palin is the victim who was ruthlessly attacked by the ‘liberal' media and Democrats. As any reasonable person might understand, I became a little perplexed as to why Mr. Ladner accuses Democrats of displaying "perverse hypocrisy" when he both issues personalized attacks and plays the victim. It would require a short book to respond to every statement that Ladner takes right out of Karl Rove's play book — from making a not-too-subtle insinuation that Michelle Obama is unpatriotic to somehow saying, by the end of the article, that only Republicans are patriotic because they chanted "USA! USA!" at their convention while democrats chanted "Obama!" (Although if he had watched the DNC, he would know that the Democrats chanted "USA!" plenty. Certainly, Ladner would agree, that saying three letters doesn't demonstrate one's patriotism; only one's actions do.) Mr. Ladner parodies the divisive attacks of the Republicans and attempts to rally American against American. Ladner issues sweeping generalizations about who is more in touch with "ordinary Americans," and he completely avoids the issues and facts. Even though Ladner may not think so, Republicans and Democrats are patriots. However, that is irrelevant in terms of how one decides to cast his or her vote in the presidential election. As Sen. Obama said at the Democratic convention, "enough!" This country has had enough of presidential elections centered on superficial aspects of the candidates and their lives rather than the issues. Rather than make sweeping generalizations about how Gov. Palin is more "in touch with ordinary Americans," it would have been more useful for the student body if Mr. Ladner had argued that the McCain-Palin policies are stronger than those of Obama-Biden. What is really disturbing is the little time that Senator McCain spent on vetting Gov. Palin. What does it show about McCain's management style that he evidently chose Palin to woo potential disaffected Clinton supporters and to pull the attention of the media away from the DNC? It is clear that Sen. Joe Biden is ready to be president, and after Sen. Barack Obama served eight years as a state senator, three-and-a-half years in the U.S. Senate (more experience than Abraham Lincoln had when he was elected president) and a year-and-a-half of vetting by the national media, it is clear Sen. Obama has the necessary credentials to be president. The same cannot be said of Gov. Palin, who served less than two years as governor of Alaska and served two terms as mayor of Wasilla (1996-02). While she was mayor, the population of the town, according to the 2000 Census, was about 5,470, or in other words, the size of the undergraduate population at Tufts University. Because about a third of the population is under 18, it actually has a smaller voting population than Tufts. Sarah Palin has never dealt with national issues or foreign policy. Her entire speech at the RNC was written by George W. Bush's speech writer Matthew Scully. She certainly can read speeches with style, but there's no content, and Americans deserve something better than the last eight years of Bush politics flowing out of Sarah Palin's mouth. No solutions at the RNC were presented to solve people's problems; only venomous attacks on Obama were issued. What the McCain campaign should be discussing is how it is going to improve the economy, what foreign policy it plans to enforce and how a McCain administration would confront the healthcare crisis. Additionally, why did McCain choose a vice presidential candidate who, in July, responded to a question posed by Larry Kudlow from CNBC in this manner: "As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day." Recently, the McCain-Palin campaign has been trying to promote this phenomenon that he is in fact the "change candidate." One only needs to look at the McCain-Palin records and who runs their campaign (Washington lobbyists) to understand that this is completely false. McCain voted Republican more than 90 percent of the time over the last eight years ... a real "maverick." As mayor, Palin hired a lobbyist for $27 million and, according to Fox News' Chris Wallace, hardly a "liberal" newscaster, asked for $589 million in earmarks as governor. In fact, Alaska got "more federal money for pork-barrel projects per capita than any state in the country." McCain's campaign itself is run by lobbyists. One former lobbyist, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, said just a few days ago that "This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates." Let's make sure that we do pay attention to the issues and not get drawn in by the Rick Davis or Matthew Ladner tactics. Let's make sure to talk about the issues of the day. Ethan Hochheiser is a junior majoring in international relations. He is also the co-head of Tufts Students for Barack Obama.
Every now and again, the action genre spits out films which feature a hardened criminal or hit man who has decided to take one last "job" and then quit the business forever. And yes, Nicholas Cage has starred in the vast majority. Of course, nothing ever goes smoothly, but over-the-top action and occasional humor tend to make these films worthwhile. "Bangkok Dangerous," however, drags on with stale acting, drab scriptwriting and just plain awful cinematography. "Bangkok Dangerous" was originally a Thai film made in 1999 by the Pang Brothers, who returned to the project to remake it into the biggest flop of the summer. Nicolas Cage stars but has no notable supporting actors by his side. Unrecognizable foreign actors play the other characters who either get killed or do the killing. The two films remain the same only in title and basic idea; most of the plot points have changed, as well as the way in which the characters are portrayed. For example, the original film portrays assassin Joe (played by Pisek Intrakanchit) as a deaf and mute hit man who falls in love with a pharmacist while working on jobs with his friend Kong (Pawalit Mongokolpisit). The new version of the movie has Cage's Joe going to Bangkok for his final job, falling in love with a deaf and mute pharmacist and hiring a con man named Kong — quite a difference. The movie begins as Joe blabs on about his job and the rules he lives by in order to make it work. His voice has no emotion and will surely put any viewer to sleep. Joe completes his kill with ease and then goes on to cover his tracks by snuffing the "delivery man" who brings money and supplies back and forth from the person who placed the hit. All of this action is completed at a painstakingly slow pace, making for extremely boring plot sequences. Joe decides to take one last job in Bangkok before he hangs up his sniper rifle for good. The job consists of four kills, and each time he receives an assignment he reminds the audience, "I don't ask why." Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm) is one of the more interesting and entertaining characters in the film. He's trying to understand the shady nature of Joe's work while going to strip clubs to deliver and pick up packages from Surat (Nirattisai Kaljaruek), the man who puts the jobs into place. Kong falls in love with an exotic dancer, who later gets caught up in the drama surrounding the final kill. During all of these events, Joe meets a deaf and mute pharmacist while looking for some medicine and takes her out on a few dates. These scenes are particularly awkward and tedious, as Cage's character tries to find out what the girl wants to say. Conversations over dinner at the park and visiting family are all drawn out, and it is hard to feel any connection or chemistry between the two. The film does have some decent action sequences, including a boat chase that turns into a boat and motorcycle chase. It ends with Cage jumping from the motorcycle onto the boat and completing the assignment. The film also contains a strange side plot (if you could call it that) in which Joe teaches Kong how to defend himself with a weapon. The only reason provided as to why this lesson is so imperative is revealed in a line of dialogue which explains how Kong was tormented throughout his life. The scenes are unnecessary, however, as Kong does not seem to use any of what he learns for more than thirty seconds. "Bangkok Dangerous" is one of those films that should have never been remade. Cage's action flick is unspeakably horrendous, as "Bangkok Dangerous" makes the video-game adaptation "Hitman" (2007) look like an Oscar-winner. The film grossed the most money compared to other movies in its opening weekend, but a mere $7 million debut at a time when competition isn't all that stiff is a sure sign that, ultimately, this film won't go very far.
If Somerville State Rep. Carl Sciortino (LA '00) were to travel back eight years and tell his 21-year-old self, then a senior at Tufts, that he would spend his career at the Massachusetts Statehouse on Beacon Hill, the young Jumbo would have laughed.
The university has set aside money to repay the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate — possibly before an insurance check comes in — for funds allegedly embezzled from the group, Tufts' Vice President for Finance Thomas McGurty told the Daily. But the full details are only surfacing now that a cloud of miscommunication hanging over the Senate and various departments within the administration has broken.
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What could be better than seeing a movie under the stars? Seeing several free movies under the stars is a good start. Back in Chinatown for its third year, Films at the Gate is a five-night celebration of Chinese cinema. The vacant lot at 12 Hudson St. by Boston's Chinatown Gate has been transformed into a free outdoor theater, showing a nightly kung fu or classic Chinese-language film until this Sunday. This year's movie selection includes classics such as "Police Story" (1983), Jackie Chan's first big silver-screen success, "My Young Auntie" (1981), a kung fu comedy about a young woman who helps an old man save his estate by entering into a marriage of convenience, and "Red Heroine" (1929), a movie recognized for the oldest swordplay in film. "Red Heroine," showing Friday night, is a silent martial arts film and will even include a live music soundtrack, performed by Devil Music Ensemble, during its screening. "We're doing something very special Friday night, having the ensemble play live music. We've shown silent movies in the past, but we've never had live music to accompany the films, so that's exciting," said Sam Davol, one of the co-founders of this festival. On Saturday night, Films at the Gate will also be showing "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" (1978), the kung fu hit that inspired most martial arts movies. Also known as "Master Killer," the movie tells the story of a Shaolin monk, San Te (played by Gordon Liu), who masters the 35 training chambers of Shaolin kung fu and persuades his monastery to establish a 36th chamber to train more monks to fight the oppressive Qing dynasty of the time. The festival concludes on Sunday night with "Iron Monkey" (1993), featuring Boston martial-arts master Donnie Yen. Yen is best known for his role as General Lan in "Once Upon a Time in China II" (1992) and especially remembered for his final fight scene against Wong Fei-Hung (Jet Li). Yen returned to battle in "Hero" (2002), which was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2003 Academy Awards. The martial arts expert has come to show his talent in areas outside of taekwondo and wushu, expanding his talent to choreographing fights, acting and directing and producing films. Yen will appear acting and fighting in "Painted Skin," (2008) scheduled for release at the end of this month. Films at the Gate will serve as a reminder to locals of the tradition of film in Boston's Chinatown. According to Jean Lukitsh, former film projectionist and the curator of the film series, up until the late 1980s, Chinatown used to have three movie theaters. "In their heyday, the theaters showed double-features three times a day, often to packed houses from midday to midnight. Whole families would attend, and children would often play in the aisles," Lukitsh wrote on the event's website. The three theaters were eventually forced to close down, for all the cinemas were losing popularity with the growing availability of home video rentals. Through collaboration between several Chinatown residents, in particular Sam Davol, his wife, Leslie, and Lukitsh, as well as the Asian Community Development Corporation, Chinatown's cinema is back for the next four days. The film series in its current form began in 2006. "My family and I moved from New York City in 2006, and we moved to a place across from an empty lot," Davol said. "We wanted to do something with the space, which was completely unused." Davol and his wife met Jeremy Liu, the current executive director of the Asian Community Development Corporation, who shared the couple's vision. Together with Lukitsh, they came up with the idea of screening films. "We're hoping to inspire small, independent events like this in Boston, especially in under-utilized spaces," Davol said. "We want this event to show people that there is a community in downtown Boston, and we want to make impressions not only on those passing by on a bus but those in our neighborhood." The event isn't only about appreciating Chinese cinema and seeing films outdoors. "Originally, we also came up with this idea so we could gather people together," Davol explained. "People like to come to the event after eating at restaurants beforehand. We want our event to boost local business in Chinatown — Chinatown needs this." According to Davol, there's a lot happening in Chinatown, including an art gallery opening at 12 Hudson St. and affordable housing being built. As much as [Films at the Gate] is a film event, it is a community development event for everyone." For those coming, "Feel free to bring take-out!" Davol said. Films at the Gate runs through Sunday night with nightly screenings beginning at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.
