It's the Liz Hoffman show, and the rest of us are just extras. With a 10-3 week, Hoffman jumped out to a three-game lead over the rest of the field, leaving the rest of the editors ... losing to a girl. Sad but true.
The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate is working to bring mtvU, a cable network catered specifically to the collegiate audience, to Tufts.
Brown and Brew may soon be getting an upper deck.
The football team is having a season for the history books, but to maintain its position at the top of the NESCAC standings, it will need to do what it hasn't done in 20 years - beat Williams.
New York Times Magazine reporter Matt Bai (LA '90) came to campus last night to speak about the future of the Democratic Party and how it can recover from the struggles it has encountered in recent years. "We live in an era where people say politics isn't about ideas, it's about winning," Bai told an audience in Braker Hall. "If you want to change the country, you need an argument. Elections don't change the country; they are the means to enacting the change you seek." But the party has been lacking an argument. And while it has not abandoned its ideology, it has been unable to adapt to the changing times. "I don't mean to suggest that there aren't ideas in the Democratic Party, nor do I think that the party doesn't know what it stands for," he said. "It's stood for largely the same ideals since the time of FDR. However, what has always enabled America to be the best system in the world is its ability to be flexible and creative and adapt over time." Bai's appearance came on the heels of the August release of his latest book, "The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics." As the title suggests, he spent a good portion of time discussing the digitalization of journalism, a trend that caught many in the print-based industry off-guard. "Bloggers are people who came from nowhere and created a community out of nothing," he said. "Years ago, these people would have written their congressmen and received a thank you letter in the mail or attended a local party meeting and been given a pamphlet on rules and regulations. Today, these people have a voice." And this voice has filled a key vacuum. "[Blogging] is also a huge phenomenon in places across the country where the Democratic Party has up and left," he said. Bai was inspired to write his book when traveling with then-presidential-candidate Howard Dean, who started "the first political movement of the Internet Age," he said. "Traveling with Dean, I noticed the emotion of each crowd and their resentment, not just at conservatives, but also at the inability of Democrats to do anything," he said. One specific complaint that Bai repeatedly levied is that politicians are so tempted by the prospect of short-term victory that they ignore opportunities for long-term improvements. "I don't think it's healthy to put 95 percent of your resources into talking about how you win elections," he said. With the snugness of recent elections he said that this temptation is particularly strong because victory always seems in sight. "Today, we have two parties that are in mutual deadlock, so they focus on the short-term. Because to focus on the unpopular to win in the long-term, you lose elections," he said. The result is stagnant conversations unsuited to move a country forward. "There's very little policy debate going on in the Democratic Party. There's really only a debate about style," he said. What is instead needed is a candidate willing to take initially unpopular stances for the good of the nation. "There are unpleasant truths that must be told and difficult choices that must be made, and the most successful candidates are the ones who were controversial, who made arguments that some people weren't ready to hear," he said. "These people changed America." But that doesn't mean completely ignoring the preferences of the voters. "George Bush thinks ... leadership is doing what's unpopular, but he's missing the point. You have to tell the people what they don't want to hear, and then convince them that you're right," he said. Bai also touched on the relationship between bloggers and journalists. While bloggers are faster than their print companions, the two types of professionals do not need to be enemies. "That doesn't mean that bloggers are competing with journalists," he said. "They're the next generation of activists." His speech was well-received by the audience. "I found his arguments extremely incisive, and he described the party in a way that we don't hear very often," sophomore Will Ehrenfeld said. His book also got an enthusiastic response. "It's not a partisan book. It's a detached, disinterested book that advocates only political engagement. He could write the same book about the Republican Party," Professor Sol Gittleman said.See the Features section next week for more coverage of Bai.
A carbon emissions bill inspired by Tufts Economics Professor Gilbert Metcalf may reach the floor of Congress this fall as part of a national initiative to counteract the mounting effects of greenhouse gases.
I'm tired of getting the kiddie treatment when I go out to eat.
There is no bigger stage for a rower than this weekend's Head of the Charles regatta.
The field hockey team has taken a lot of steps this season towards a program-best finish in NESCAC and its season goal of an NCAA Tournament berth. A solid overall record, a 5-2 mark in the sport's toughest league in the country, and a high-profile win over Middlebury have earned the Jumbos a national ranking - now at 17th in Tuesday's coaches' poll - and put them on the cusp of making Tufts history.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum recently had its debut "Gardner After Hours" event, a special occasion that is planned for every third Thursday of the month.
The field hockey team is closing in on its best-ever NESCAC finish.
The ability to detect your levels of stress, boredom or frustration may soon no longer fall on the shoulders of your close friends, family or psychiatrist. According to a group of seven Tufts researchers from the computer science and biomedical engineering departments, computers have the potential to read brain activity in ways that can be applied, at the very least, to improvements in work efficiency.
The only legitimate problem with Radiohead's new studio album, "In Rainbows," is it makes it impossible to look at other music the same way again. With this release, Radiohead proves it can achieve daunting greatness in musical quality over and over, once again failing to disappoint.
Last week former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in researching and bringing awareness to global climate change. Adil Najam and William Moomaw, both of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, have served on the IPCC for several years and helped produce the panel's fourth assessment report. Najam was a lead author of this report, which was released this year. This week I sat down with Moomaw, a professor of international environmental policy and the director of Fletcher's Center for International Environment and Resource Policy, to talk about the recent award and get his opinion about climate trends.
There is probably no job more nerve-wracking and stressful than running Barack Obama's campaign right now.
Between new episodes and re-runs, television is rife with crime-solving detective shows, and last week, ABC added a new one to the bunch: "Women's Murder Club," starring Angie Harmon (an ex-"Law and Order" chick) as Detective Lindsay Boxer.
Midterms are the worst. Slacking off is so rewarding until it becomes clear that: 1) there's a test on the seven books you neglected to read during the first month of school, 2) that test is in the middle of October, and 3) that's tomorrow.
I like to friend famous athletes on Facebook.com. There, I said it. The idea that I could be "friends" with a person that I watch on TV is really cool to me. You think it's weird? Fine. But it's time that everyone knew. I suppose this fascination of mine started last year when I was bored one night and unwilling to do homework. Then it hit me: a lot of the younger players on the Red Sox are only a few years removed from college, right? Theoretically, a few of them should still have their Facebook accounts.
To many students, October not only means a change in seasons but also a change in study habits. Gone are the blithe and sun-filled days of September. Say hello to papers, tests, midterms and more midterms. Need an excuse to blow off homework? The Tufts Association of Latin American Students (A.L.A.S.) and Onyx Magazine are providing a sweet and calm respite to the hours of studying.
