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There has been a lot of talk lately about the CBO scoring of the health bill. Here is one thing people should understand about their numbers: When they estimate the budget impact of a bill like this, they assume the path of GDP is unchanged. Recall that the bill raises taxes substantially. Some of these tax hikes are the explicit tax increases on capital income to pay for the insurance subsidies. Some of these tax hikes are the implicit marginal rate increases from the phase-out of the insurance ...In baseball, one bad inning is often enough to derail your chances in a game. This is all too clear for Harvard, which was 0-4 in the first contests of its weeklong road trip.Honing their games in the Sunshine State over spring break, the two-time defending Ivy League champions kicked off the 2010 season in sparkling fashion Thursday afternoon, taking down Central Florida, 303-314, at the Red Tail Golf Club in Sorrento, Fla.I just returned from the spring meeting of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity , where I was a discussant for Alan Greenspan's new paper on " The Crisis ," which has gotten a bit of media attention. I thought blog readers might enjoy reading my comments on the paper. Here they are: This is a great paper. It presents one of the best comprehensive narratives about what went wrong over the past several years that I have read. If you want to assign your students only one paper to read about the recent ...Describing the current state of education in the United States as a âproblem of vast proportion,â CEO and founder of Teach for America Wendy Kopp traced the evolution of the program she conceived 20 years ago.Harvard wrestlers Louis Caputo â10, J.P. OâConnor â10, and Steven Keith â13 travel to Omaha, Neb., to compete at this yearâs NCAA Wrestling Championships.Researchers have long known that lab animalsâ behavior can be manipulated by artificially stimulating their natural instincts. Over-stimulating animals can provoke such extreme responses that they end up preferring artificial objects to the natural ones for which the instincts were designed. Humans living in modern society are something like those lab animals, a Harvard psychology professor says. Like them, our innate instincts are overstimulated by unnatural products, as well as by advertising and ...Would you happily buy a car equipped with sensors to track your every move? Robin Chase , founder of ZipCar , would — provided that the data gathered went to her. Her op-ed in the New York Times outlines benefits we would gain if all the cars currently equipped with onboard sensors would fork over the data they're collecting, in real time, to their owners and makers. That would not only allow a carmaker like Toyota to spot patterns indicating equipment failure earlier, it would give drivers an ...Last week I was in London at "The Big Rethink" conference of The Economist . Its goal was to explore the challenges of facing the world after the recession and how innovation and design could help address them. It came as no surprise that one of the more pressing problems mentioned was sustainable growth, especially the reduction of resource consumption and the protection of the environment. What did surprise me, however, was that many experts were still supporting user-centered innovation as the panacea ...Despite a second-half rally, the Crimson (2-3, 0-1 Ivy) dropped its home opener to No. 11 Boston University (4-2), 13-9, on Wednesday.After surprising the Mountaineers by establishing a 30-18 lead in the gameâs first 10 minutes, the Crimsonâs energy dissipated, as did its 67-percent shooting from the field.Featured Guest: Justin Fox, editorial director of the HBR Group and author of The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street .Cailtin Sarubbi is on leave from her freshman year at Harvard to race on the U.S. Ski Team at the 2010 Paralympics.After all the wonderful videos Yale made for us this year, will there ever be a DVD box set to archive these cinematic treasures for posterity? While we would certainly be willing to shell out whatever amount for such a timeless collection, we would hereby like to suggest yet another chapter to the saga, another item for inclusion in the series.The Harvard menâs volleyball team (1-11, 1-1 EIVA) came up short on the road again on Wednesday, falling to Rivier, 3-1.Noice - yesterdayYeah, that’s right. Big Daddy Harvard is going to hike up its tuition by 3.8% to a whopping total of $50, 724. WAT. [via The Crimson]The U.S. Senate confirmed Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minowâs appointment to the board of the Legal Services Corporation, a bi-partisan, government-sponsored organization that provides civil legal assistance to low-income Americans, today. Minow was joined by five other nominees in the confirmation by Executive Session, including John Levi '72 LL.M. '73.Mindfulness is biting into an apple without trying to read a book at the same time.The University releases the numbers for the 2010-2011 academic year.The price of a year at Harvard College will break the $50,000 barrier next year as a result of a 3.8 percent hike in tuition, room, and board, the University announced today.The Harvard menâs basketball teamâs first postseason run in 61 seasons ended just as quickly as it began.On March 13, a Virgin America flight from Los Angeles to New York was diverted from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Stewart airport in Newburgh, N.Y., due to severe weather, and the passengers and crew waited in the plane on the tarmac for over four hours. The crew was anxious, babies were crying, mothers were anxious, and the passengers were unruly — to the point that one woman was taken off the plane by police. The entire ordeal was documented by David Martin, the CEO of Kontain.com , on ...My wife pays the bills in our household. (I do investments and taxes, so don't think I'm a lazy dolt.) Several years ago, overwhelmed by her complex answer to a question about our financial picture, I asked her to just give me a smiley face every month if our financial picture was improving and a frowny face if it was problematic. My somewhat nutty idea is indicative of a problem in our society. There is way too much information out there — on personal financial situations, soybean prices, or SKU ...In one of my first jobs, as a route salesman for Frito-Lay, I once sped my truck through a yellow light at a crowded intersection in Baltimore at rush hour. The district manager who was training me said, "You shouldn't have done that." "I know," I said. "Safety first." "No," he said. "Brand first. Hundreds of people just saw an 18-foot picture of a bag of Doritos run a light." It's a lesson I've never forgotten. And it's the underlying principle in the organizational leadership that marketing will have to ...Another tech conference, SXSW, comes to an end. It's time to make a tough decision. What leads to pursue? Which new tools to adopt? No. I'm talking about the really tough decision: what swag will I bring home, and what will I leave in my hotel room? I know what you're thinking, but this is not trivial, at least not to the marketers that spend millions of dollars producing swag that they hope will end up in my "take it with me" pile. They want their logo and URL to return home with me so that my friends ...Harvard College will increase financial aid for undergraduates by 9 percent, to a record $158 million, for the upcoming 2010-11 academic year.A startling 37% of American workers — roughly 54 million people — have been bullied at work according to a 2007 survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute . The consequences of such bullying spreading to the targets' families, coworkers, and organizations. Costs include reduced creativity, low morale, and increased turnover — all factors that weigh heavily on the bottom line. Among targets of bullying, 40% never told their employers and, of those who did, 62% reported that they were ...Here's a question for you: If you had to come up with a checklist for your organization that was guaranteed to stifle imagination, innovation, and out-of-box thinking...a checklist designed specifically for people who want nothing to do with disruptive change...what would it look like? With a wink toward the irreverent, here's mine: I'd love to see your checklist, or, at the very least, your revisions of mine or additions to it. Either way, have at it in the comment section below. Youngme Moon is the ...The Harvard Extension Student Association (HESA) has hosted some great events this spring, including a talk by well-known linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, and a leadership panel that featured some of the groundbreaking young CEOs out there today.Boston and Cambridge food pantries and homeless and women's shelters will receive much-needed assistance this spring through the charitable efforts of members of the Harvard Extension Service and Leadership Society. The spring food drive runs until Saturday, May 15, the clothing drive until Wednesday, May 26.The Harvard Extension Business Society (HEBS) and Women's Empowerment Convention and Network (WECAN) are teaming up to present the WECAN Dream convention. This day-long event will feature a diverse range of speakers, empowerment workshops, networking opportunities, and celebrity guests.While there are many books on the financial crisis, too many of them say too much about what went wrong and not enough about how to fix the problem. Bob Pozen's book Too Big to Save? (Wiley, 2009) breaks the mold. It not only analyzes the causes of the crisis with uncommon clarity, but also supplies a compelling road map for reform. Few people are better positioned than Pozen, whom I've known for years, to tell us what needs to be done to avoid a similar financial crisis in the future. He is the current ...Until the late 1980s, you could clearly see the difference between the business and public sectors. Business was fast-moving, productive, and focused exclusively on profits. The public sector (government, nonprofits, foundations) was slow and unresponsive but full of people who cared about the world and its people. With the emergence of the citizen sector , all that has changed. Companies can now team with organizations in the citizen sector to create enormous new value — social and economic benefits ...A few hours after a massive earthquake struck Haiti, I was having dinner with Jimmy Wales, Sue Gardner and a couple of other Wikimedia folks. We discussed, among other things, the tremendous success of Wikimedia's latest fund-raising campaign. It wasn't until I returned to my hotel room that I saw breaking news about the devastating earthquake, on Wikipedia. In 24 hours, 311 people made 891 edits to the Haiti quake article . The page had 1.89 million views in January alone. But that was just the beginning ...C ount Harvard computer experts among those who responded swiftly to the deadly earthquakes in Haiti and Chile , throwing their expertise behind an effort to improve information flow for responders on the ground through a Web portal designed as a central data site. read moreScientists affiliated with Harvard Medical School say they've developed a laboratory technique that improves on traditional methods of screening potential anti-cancer drugs.One of the "golden rules" of investing we have at our firm, Cue Ball, is that we value the business model over the financial plan. In fact, we value the business model over any particular sector for investment and like to say that we are "business model driven" (versus sector-driven). There is not necessarily a consistent definition for business model, but the Wiki definition is good enough. It says a business model is "the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value." Consistent ...From the MediaBerkman blog: High speed internet may be scarce in the US, but the dream of having web be fast/cheap/everywhere is snowballing. The FCCâs much anticipated National Broadband Plan was finally released Tuesday. And Googleâs Fiber Initiative â a move to finance and deploy an unbelievable gigabit speed connection to some yet-to-be-named lucky town or towns in the United States â has energized dozens of small communities across the nation. Today we talk to the IT Manager of one of these ...Andover-Harvard Theological Library nears completion of major project to digitize Holocaust-related archives.History professor Caroline Elkins, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her book outlining British colonial abuses during Kenyaâs Mau Mau uprising, is working to build ties with Kenyan institutions.Husband-and-wife filmmakers chronicle a dying way of life and humanity with their new film âSweetgrass.âA new firearms research database launched by the Harvard School of Public Health makes scholarly articles about the topic more accessible to reporters, law enforcement agents, public health officials, policymakers, and the public.Three Harvard Law School students have been awarded prizes for outstanding written work.The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and its sister organization, the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona, were presented with the Public Sector Leadership Award by the National Congress of American Indians on March 1 in Washington, D.C.Out of 890 applications nationwide, six individuals from Harvard have been awarded 2010 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships.Michael Shinagel, dean of the Harvard University Extension School, has won the 2009 Frandson Award for Literature, given annually by the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA), for his book âThe Gates Unbarred: A History of University Extension at Harvard, 1910-2009.âThe Harvard womenâs hockey team couldnât hold back surging Cornell.The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) is now accepting applications for the spring 2010 funding cycle for the Kuwait Program Research Fund.Harvard student's get fired up for Housing Day.The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University has announced that the Initiative for Responsible Investment (IRI) has joined the center.Harvard University students have launched the first collegiate Sarah Jane Brain Club, to explore issues surrounding pediatric traumatic brain injury, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.Quincy House security guard Paul Barksdale doubles as a friend, confidante, and adviser to undergraduates.What do John Keatsâ Shakespeare volumes, William Wordsworthâs library catalog, and Victor Hugoâs commonplace book have in common with primers and spellers and other historical materials about learning to read? Each item is among the 1,200 books and manuscripts that are now online at a site called in Reading: Harvard Views of Readers, Readership, and Reading History.The East Asian Legal Studies program at Harvard Law School is accepting submissions of papers for the Yong K. Kim â95 Memorial Prize, awarded to the author of the best paper concerning the law or legal history of the nations and peoples of East Asia or concerning issues of law as it pertains to U.S.-East Asia relations.For a week in late January, five Harvard Divinity School students witnessed firsthand the impact of human rights abuses suffered by many Hondurans after a 2009 coup in which Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the countryâs military.A student tries to help an educational nonprofit by combining two of his passions, burgers and running.David Armitage, the Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History at Harvard, has been elected a corresponding fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotlandâs national academy of science and letters.Assistant clinical professor of psychology Deirdre Barrett says that many of todayâs ills come from intentional overstimulation of natural human impulses, giving people hard-to-resist appetites for everything from fighting to sex to unhealthy foods.Erez Lieberman-Aiden and Mamta Tahiliani were named the 2010 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award winners for their graduate work in biological sciences.The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is looking for artists to help create its 2010 collection of holiday cards and candle wraps.A service in memory of James Stemble Duesenberry, the William Joseph Maier Professor of Money and Banking Emeritus, will take place at the Memorial Church on April 8 at 2 p.m. A reception will follow at Loeb House at 17 Quincy St.Published: March 18, 2010 Paper Released: March 2010 Authors: Oriana Bandiera, Luigi Guiso, Andrea Prat, and Raffaella Sadun Executive Summary: Do different kinds of firm ownership drive the adoption of different managerial practices? HBS professor Raffaella Sadun and coauthors focus on the difference between the two most common ownership modes, family firms and firms that are widely held, namely that have no dominant owner. They find that the greater weight attached by family firms to benefits from ...Lewis (Lew) Law, 77, former director of computer services for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), died in Belmont on Feb. 14 after suffering from Alzheimerâs disease for many years.New book by a Harvard nutritionist and renowned monk encourages the Buddhist sense of mindfulness in how people eat.Exhibit and upcoming panel discussion probe how women have dealt with spaces over time. The exhibit is in four parts, each representing a realm within space: private, public, political, and artistic.Despite senior Jessica Pledgerâs solid performanceâgoing 2-for-4 with two RBIâthe Harvard womenâs softball team suffered a pair of losses Tuesday.Adams, a lecturer on sociology and co-director of the Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus, delivers an insightful look into nation building in Central Asia during the post-Soviet era.Kingsley Porter University Professor Vendler, a venerable critic, takes another crack at the 20th centuryâs greatest poetsâ last works and how their style reflects their contemplations of death.Rodowick, a professor of visual and environmental studies, edits this collection of writings on Deleuze, a French philosopher and prolific writer on literature, film, and fine art.I'm going on vacation with my family in a few weeks, and I'm anxious. Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore my family and the time we spend together. And that includes stuff like changing diapers and putting groggy kids back to bed at 4 am. Fun or not, I treasure it. Still, vacation makes me anxious because I know I'll feel torn. When I'm not working, I'll feel like I should be, and when I am, I'll feel like I shouldn't be. Some will accuse me of being a workaholic. But it's not just that, and it's ...As a global university, Harvard not only attracts students and faculty from around the world, it sends them out, to teach and work, extending Harvardâs influence far beyond its local boundaries.Via The Harvard Crimson .High speed internet may be scarce in the US, but the dream of having web be fast/cheap/everywhere is snowballing. The FCC’s much anticipated National Broadband Plan was finally released Tuesday. And Google’s Fiber Initiative – a move to finance and deploy an unbelievable gigabit speed connection to some yet-to-be-named lucky town or towns in [...]Just in case the weather has you down (or you've already done all of your required reading for the spring term), we at FlyBy asked faculty members to give some reading suggestions for the remaining days of spring break. Here's what they told us.Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow and four other law school deans have urged key lawmakers on Capitol Hill to end the militaryâs âDonât Ask, Donât Tellâ policy. âThe effects of âDonât Ask, Donât Tellâ are marginalization, exclusion, and denigration,â wrote the law school deans in a March 18 letter to the Armed Services committees in the House and Senate.Harvard Law Schoolâs faculty earned the top ranking for the number of academic papers authored and downloaded on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), according to cumulative statistics recently released for 2009.In February, Harvard Law School Professors Michael Klarman and Kenneth Mack â91 both contributed to the SCOTUS Blogâs commentary on Race and the Supreme Court . The Blogâs program was in celebration of Black History Month.In celebration of African American History Month, HLS Professor Kenneth Mack â91 participated in a Library of Congress symposium on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. âThe conventional wisdom is that the Supreme Court is an heroic defender of the rights of racial minorities ⊠I want to argue to the contrary. The Supreme Court has been a foe, rather than a friend to racial minorities in general, and African Americans specifically.â That was the opening message delivered by Harvard Law School Professor Michael Klarman in a lecture titled âThe Supreme Court and Raceâ at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences on March 10.Would I lie to you? Probably not, but forgive me for preserving the option. Would you conceal a damaging truth from your boss? I wouldn't presume to guess. But one person's "discretion" is another person's "dishonest." It's getting harder to determine where one ends and the other begins. That's why the virtues of transparency have been wildly oversold by digital utopians . The (social) networks to organizational hell are wired with good intentions. The let's-hold-hands-and-sing- Kumbaya arguments that "the ...The Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard Kennedy School has launched a new multi-media website, containing news, research and publications relating to center activities.So, how was your week? Mine's been interesting. In case you haven't heard, I interviewed Twitter CEO Evan Williams at the keynote at this year's South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference on Monday in Austin, Texas. In short, the Twitterati in the audience thought our hour-long chat was about as interesting as watching a pair of grandmothers play Canasta . I'll be the first to admit to being a bit green as an interviewer, and entirely new to SXSW. Maybe, in hindsight, I should have monitored Twitter ...A new research paper, co-authored by Harvard Kennedy School Professor Amitabh Chandra, analyzes how greater levels of patient cost-sharing affect the health and healthcare utilization of the elderly. âPatient Cost-Sharing and Hospitalization Offsets in the Elderlyâ is published in the March 2010 edition of American Economic Review.Watch Selena Cuffe explain the story behind her wine company and how she hopes to leverage the World Cup to promote the wines of black-owned South African vineyards. Read More >Mass High Tech honors Fleming, co-founder and CEO of Crimson Hexagon, as a New England tech exec to watch. Her takeaway for entrepreneurs: "If I want to make this happen, no one else is going to do it." Read More >Marissa Evans launches social-retailing site Go Try It On to provide feedback on your look before leaving the house. Read More >In the New York Times , Charles Duhigg explores the cost of aging water and sewer systems. Meanwhile, Imagine H2O, a startup launched by Pechet and Evans, has awarded its first prizes for water entrepreneurship . Read More >Her name is Connie Saltonstall, and boy am I glad she’s running. Over at Hullabaloo Digby has written a wonderful piece on her that has me convinced (not that it should take much convincing that Bart Stupak (D-MI), in-bad-faith-pain-in-the-ass congressmen, author of the Stupak amendment, and healthcare obstructor of the week, should be challenged). [...]The Texas Board of Education recently approved an effort by Republicans to introduce a more conservative lean to what they perceived as the liberal bias present in education. The target of these efforts are history and economics textbooks, which will soon challenge the secular focus of the Founding Fathers and put American [...]Behind the stage in the concert hall at the Vietnam National Academy of Music , ornate images of winged dragons are carved into the wood paneling. But if a group of visiting Americans has its way, another creature will also loom large at the Academy: the hedgehog. Or, at least, management thinker Jim Collins's Hedgehog Concept will resonate right along with the cello, violin and viola. The U.S. delegation, led by Southwest Chamber Music — a Grammy Award-winning ensemble from Pasadena, Calif. — ...Harvard undergrads on Alternative Spring Break learn construction techniques while helping to complete a rebuilt Alabama church.Wicked Local reported Tuesday that a fire in "a Harvard University dorm on Sunday left the building with close to $100,000 in smoke damage."A Harvard honors thesis on the Wall Street meltdown is a source for an important new book on the subject.Most marketers realize that in China, people are more price-conscious than their counterparts in poorer developing countries. The Chinese recall product prices with amazing accuracy; constantly comparison shop; and try to buy at the lowest price even if they have to go out of the way to do so, our research shows. Cutthroat competition keeps prices low in China even though the sales tax is often higher than it is in the United States. A can of Coke retails for around 35 cents (RMB 2.25) in a Chinese ...The Harvard menâs hockey team (9-21-3) battled through difficult first and second periods before finally falling, 3-0, to No. 9 Cornell (19-8-4) at Lynah Rink in the second game of its ECAC quarterfinal series on Saturday night.For the first time since 1946, the Harvard menâs basketball team will play a postseason game.BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY March 17, 2010 // Upcoming events and digital media [1] [MONDAY 3/22/10] Law Lab Speaker Series "Transforming the Last Mile
State: How Vermont can leapfrog a technology generation and lead the
nation in connectivity, transparency and innovation" with Matt Dunne,
Head of Community Affairs at Google, Inc. and former VT State Senator
( http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/lawlab/2010/03/dunne ) [2] [TUESDAY 3/23/10] Berkman Center Luncheon Series: ...Harvardâs Center for Geographic Analysis created Web clearinghouses to aid information flow in response to Haitiâs and Chileâs earthquakes.Published: March 17, 2010 Paper Released: March 2010 Author: Robert S. Kaplan Executive Summary: This article documents the precursors of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) strategic performance management tool and describes the evolution of the BSC since its introduction in 1992 in the Harvard Business Review . During the last 15 years, the BSC has been adopted by thousands of private, public, and nonprofit enterprises around the world. HBS professor Robert S. Kaplan, who created the concept and tool with David ...Chris Mburu LL.M. 93 is the subject of a new documentary, âA Small Act,â which chronicles his search for a benefactor, Hilde Back, whose sponsorship allowed him to remain in school in Kenya. The film follows Mburu as he embarks on a mission to reciprocate her philanthropy with a scholarship fund of his own.The Harvard menâs and womenâs diving teams sent four representatives to the NCAA Zone A Championships this past weekend.brightcove.createExperiences();After an impressive performance at the NCAA Northeast Fencing Regionals, Harvard fencers put the team in a good position for next weekâs NCAA fencing championships.If youâve made your way out to Currier House recently, you might have seen ladders and cables scattered throughout the House. Unfortunately, this construction project does not portend an exciting new treehouse party space for Quadlings. Instead, the hard-hat wearing (and sometimes noisy) workers are installing something a bit more mundaneâa fire-fighting sprinkler system.Two top players in the field of higher education explored two almost polar approaches to learning during a discussion at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.How is Microsoft like our current government in Washington? You were going to guess that both have the ability to mint money based on certain monopolies, weren't you, you cynic. The better answer may be even more troubling: These days the ability of each colossus to launch bold, necessary innovations is being bled away by special interest groups taking countless small bites. Fortunately, strategy has a few ideas to help stanch the bleeding, at least in Microsoft's case. Crippling gridlock in Washington was ...Brittany J. Smith '09, the former Harvard student implicated in last year's shooting in Kirkland House, pleaded not guilty on accessory and firearms charges during her arraignment on Tuesday.From pervasive doubtable usage of copyright works in Chinese web-sphere to Googleâs latest dilemma in China, it seems the Internet as an open, universal and single network is still an âought toâ imagination but not a truth.
Donnie Dong (Hao Dong) – a Fellow at the Berkman Center and a Fulbright Junior Scholar – presents new [...]Harvard students and alumni arrive at work sites to begin construction, tutoring, other tasks as part of Alternative Spring Break, a tradition of public service initiated by the student-run Phillips Brooks House Association.From pervasive doubtable usage of copyright works in Chinese web-sphere to Googleâs latest dilemma in China, it seems the Internet as an open, universal and single network is still an âought toâ imagination but not a truth.
Donnie Dong (Hao Dong) – a Fellow at the Berkman Center and a Fulbright Junior Scholar – presents new [...]The tournament, held at Rutgers University in New Jersey, featured 89 top divers from 24 schools, and the Crimson didnât back down from rigorous competition.Coming off of its best start in three seasons, the Harvard baseball team has so far fulfilled predictions for strong performances on the mound. Unfortunately, this past weekend saw the squad drop two out of three games at the Metrodome Tournament in Minneapolis, Minn.Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health , Walter Reed Army Institute of Research , and a team of collaborators have observed for the first time that the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) increases by many folds following infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) . This finding implicates EBV as a contributory cause to multiple sclerosis. read moreCheck out the panels or exhibitors at this year's SXSW and you'll see how many longstanding social media and web app challenges now have compelling, or at least viable, solutions. Staying on top of the latest social media news? Check . Coordinating the 5 different computers to you need to manage your life online? Check and check . Finding your online friends onto the real world so that you can have a beer together? Check , check , and check . With so many solutions on display, the still-unsolved problems ...Everyone knows the problems that arise when kids walk into a candy store: Everything looks so good they want it all, and they end up overdoing it. Unfortunately, practicing self-control doesn't get any easier with age, which might explain why setting a limited number of priorities, and sticking to them, is one of the most difficult challenges facing managers today. Here's a quick example: The head of a large hospital brought together her direct reports and asked them to create a separate card for each ...Tuesday, March 16, 12:30 pm Berkman Center, 23 Everett
Street, second floor RSVP required for those attending in person ( rsvp@cyber.law.harvard.edu ) This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our site shortly after. From pervasive doubtable usage of copyright works in Chinese web-sphere to Googleâs latest dilemma in China, it seems the Internet as an open, universal and single network is still an âought toâ imagination but not a truth. The numerous âautonomous systemsâ which ...Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd has unveiled the latest version of his financial reform bill. Despite the fact that Dodd decided to go it alone (that is, without the endorsement of Republicans Dick Shelby and Bob Corker), It's very much a compromise plan, meaning that we'll be hearing a lot from both consumer advocates and banking lobbyists about its flaws. But what about corporate America? What does it think about financial reform? It's actually really hard to say. The U.S. Chamber of ...Several readers have asked me my views about Paul Krugman's latest column concerning China's currency. I addressed this topic in a column about a year ago . My views have not changed.Avoiding conflicts of interest should be easy when you vow to stay objective. But even incentives for objectivity can't content with outside influences, according to new research by HBS professor Max Bazerman and colleagues. Writing in "Conflict of Interest and the Intrusion of Bias," they emphasize how remarkably typical it is for individuals to fall prey to outside influences yet continue to believe in their own biased assessments—with implications for professional conduct and public policy. "Our ...Listen Up, all of you video and photo editors at FOX. If you have an ounce of credibility left, it has been placed in jeopardy by this little ridiculously bad Photoshop stunt. Seriously, Guys?!?
It takes many weeks for me to admit that Media Matters has a point, but Newsroom FAIL!
And this is a message to [...]Earlier this year, HerCampus.com made headlines on Harvardâs campus when four students launched a new online magazine for college women. Over the past week, though, Her Campus has been the center of attention at another nearby schoolâWellesley College.Earlier this year, HerCampus.com made headlines on Harvardâs campus when four students launched a new online magazine for college women. Over the past week, though, Her Campus has been the center of attention at another nearby schoolâWellesley College.As an impoverished youth in Kenya, Chris Mburu LL.M.â93 was threatened with expulsion from his primary school because he couldnât afford the fees. A woman named Hilde Back decided to help, and wrote a check for $15 dollars to sponsor the Kenyan student for one term. Little did she know just how much Mburuâs life would be changed.Leading by five goals with four and half minutes remaining in the contest, the menâs lacrosse team appeared to have the game all but won. But UMass (3-2) had other ideas, going on a 4-0 run in the final minutes and turning what was a sure defeat into a nail-biter.Less than two minutes after the Crimson grabbed an early 1-0 lead off a score from freshman Jennifer VanderMeulen, the Quakers proved why they hold the No. 4 ranking in the country.The trauma experienced during war may increase the risk of developing asthma, according to the results of a new study by Harvard researchers at Brigham and Womenâs Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), and researchers at Kuwait University . read moreToday is March 15, 2010, and we have two big anniversaries to celebrate. First, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is leading the celebration of the 30th anniversary of its standards committee number 802. Out of IEEE 802 came many generations of Internet packet plumbing including various Ethernets and eventually wireless Ethernets, now called WiFi. And also today, VeriSign, Inc. is leading celebration of the 25th anniversary of the registration of the first dotcom — ...This past week the Boys and Girls Clubs of America came under fire by Chuck Grassley, the Republican senator from Iowa, who is making out-of-context political red meat of the salary of the organization's CEO. The undeserved attack — reported in a major segment on CNN, in the Washington Post , the Huffington Post, and on the Associated Press — created what will likely now be a 10-year uphill public relations battle for the charity. In his introduction to the piece, CNN's chief sensationalist ...Does a Pan-Asian identity really exist? Outside of Asia, this region is often talked about in sweeping terms. While it is only human nature to make generalizations about other cultures, the danger is that in business such thinking creates practical difficulties as well as lost opportunities. The operational problem of adopting a "Pan-Asian" mindset is that it leads to what I called in an earlier post a "template mentality" within Asia. But, as many readers commented, we need to be circumspect about using ...Our dog is a total alpha. Combine that with his Napoleon complex — he's just a wee Boston Terrier — and you've got the makings of a canine Castro. To counter his quest for complete apartment domination, my husband and I keep him in a crate while we're out. Most times Marvin can sense our imminent departure, and he skitters underneath the coffee table as fast as he can. He thinks because he's covered, he's hidden. What he doesn't realize is that the coffee table has no sides, and its top is made ...HBR's " Ten Innovations That Will Transform Medicine " hit all the big ones, but I'm not so sure that the last three high-tech items in the list are going to make a major difference for many patients in the next few years — though I'd be shocked if they didn't have a huge impact a decade from now. In the meantime, we all have to struggle with the costs and chaos produced by the flood of scientific progress and our uncertainty of how to cope with it. That's where the first seven innovations come in. ...Sophomore Rachel Brown led the Harvard softball team to a split at this weekendâs Amy S. Harrison Classic in Riverside, Calif. The Crimson is now 4-5 on the season, with all of its wins credited to Brown.Microfinance is more than an innovative scheme to provide loans to poor people. At its core, it's about individual empowerment and dignity. This January, I took 50 senior executives from global corporations to India. As part of their learning experience, I invited Pankajam, one of the beneficiaries of Kudumbashree , the innovative microfinance program in South India, to tell us her story. Pankajam comes from tribal India. Tribal people are truly at the bottom of the pyramid — extremely poor and ...The green movement focuses attention on numerous resources going to waste that could be turned into cost savings, revenue streams, and profitable businesses while saving the earth — wind power, solar energy, fuels from burning biomass. That sensibility signals an important new value proposition: From dust to dollars! Build innovation around existing but underutilized assets. Waste was an industrial age motif. To have more of something than one could possibly use signified affluence and high status. ...Yale economist Bob Shiller says, correctly, that macroeconomists should be humble .Published: March 15, 2010 Author: Julia Hanna Located in Mumbai, India, Dharavi is home to an estimated 700,000 people living on just 551 acres. Featured in the 2008 Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire , Dharavi embodies the characteristics of a slum as defined by the United Nations: inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, poorly built housing, overcrowding, and insecure residential status (i.e., most people hold no legal title to their property). Despite these difficult conditions, Dharavi's ...Many of us Harvard students werenât exactly known as the popular kids in high school. But it seems that as a university, weâre doing pretty well on the popularity scale. Still, we're not yet king.HLS Professor and former Solicitor General ('85-'89) Charles Fried co-wrote an op-ed âWhat Liz doesnât get about lawyers,â with Gregory Fried , chairman of the philosophy department at Suffolk University. Their op-ed, which appeared March 15, 2010, on The Daily Beast , criticizes Liz Cheneyâs group, Keep America Safe , for unfairly attacking the lawyers who have defended terrorists. Grainne de Burca, a leading expert in European Union law, European human rights law, and European and transnational governance, will join the Harvard Law School faculty as a tenured professor of law on July 1.The Harvard menâs hockey team dropped the first game of a three-game quarterfinal series to No. 9 Cornell on Friday night. The Big Red used the energy of its fans, the talent of its freshmen, and the effectiveness of its power play in a dominant 5-1 win over the Crimson at Lynah Rink.Tied in the third set at 5-5 with the match in the balance, junior Aba Omodele-Lucien shrugged off the pressure, winning his match, 7-5, to lift Harvard menâs tennis (7-4) to a 4-3 victory over St. Johnâs (2-6) on Friday at the Murr Center.If you're still on campus, and you woke up this morning to find your wireless Internet connection a little sub-par, ...Oftentimes the best rivalries are between intrastate competitors. Such will be the case tomorrow afternoon when the No. 12 Harvard menâs lacrosse team takes on No. 18 Massachusetts.Fun fact of the day: MIT releases its undergraduate admission decisions at 1:59 pm today. (That is, at 3.14159).Now is the time of year when prospective PhD students in economics are deciding which graduate program to attend. The decision is often hard. If you are in that position, here are a few recommendations about things to think about: 1. Start with the rankings. For some recent rankings of economics departments, click here and here and here . All ranking systems are imperfect, but other things equal, higher is probably better. 2. Talk with the graduate students who are now in the programs you are ...One thing Harvard has been known for is its aggressive forechecking attack, which has allowed it to outshoot most of its opponents and dominate the puckâboth of which it did against the Big Red.The No. 4 women's hockey team faced a 5-0 deficit at the midway point of the game and couldn't rally, as No. 5 Cornell earned its first trip to the Frozen Four.An attorney defends Lincoln in the court of history
By Matthew P. Cavedon
Order in the court! Order in the court!â
There is quite a ruckus in here, as the prosecution rests its case in perhaps the most high-profile trial American history has ever seen. It is Feb. 15 again, Abraham Lincolnâs birthday, time to once more try [...]On Iraq and terrorism, Democrats embrace the former president
By Dhruv K. Singhal
The Obama administrationâor Vice President Joe Biden at leastâseems to have finally taken to heart the notion that blaming President Bush for all of the countryâs present woes while refusing to accept responsibility for the failures of their own stewardship is only effective for [...]The politics of due process
By Christopher L. Oppermann
One of the most hotly contested debates at the recent 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., concerned the constitutional rights of enemy combatants detained by the U.S. government as part of the âWar on Terror.â Most of the mainstream conservative speakers cautioned against âgranting Miranda rights [...]Prof. Nancy Cott distorts the history of marriage
By Roger G. Waite
It has always been a tricky business for historians to testify in legal cases. In 1993, for example, Martha Nussbaum, a classicist who was soon to receive an appointment in law, testified in Evans v. Romer, a Colorado gay rights case. In sworn testimony, she [...]What’s the buzz?
By Juan J. Carmona and Christina M. Giordano
On Feb. 9, 2010, Google Inc., the worldâs premier multinational public cloud computing and Internet search corporation, unveiled its latest social utility to Gmail users: âGoogle Buzz.â âUsers can share links, photos, videos, status messages and comments organized in âconversationsâ and visible in the userâs inbox,â [...]Harvard’s Gen Ed program misses the mark
By Gregory A. DiBella
Harvardâs General Education program does spectacularly on the âGeneralâ part and miserably on the âEducaÂtionâ part, ignoring what should have been its focus: âWhat makes a student educated?â The General Education Task Forceâs report clearly indicates the programâs critical flaw, its failure to foster the power [...]Harvard foolishly politicizes its curriculum
By Patrick T. Brennan
This school year, Harvard has added a new secondary field, ethnic studies, and hired its first Egyptology professor in seventy years. Both could be said to satisfy student demand. Ethnic studies has been the academic idĂ©e fixe of the Crimson and various ethnic student associations for more than [...]Patricia O’Conner advises students on writing well
By Brian J. Bolduc
Recently, Patricia OâConner, author of Woe is I: The Grammarphobeâs Guide to Better English in Plain English, answered the Salientâs questions on writing well via email. Ms. OâConner and her husband, Stewart Kellerman, blog at grammarphobia.com. Their most recent book is Origins of the Specious: Myths [...]Pelosi’s days could be numbered
By Michael E. Cowett
The last time Republicans lost control of the U.S. House, they did not retake the Speakerâs gavel for forty years. Is it possible that this stay in the wilderness will only last four?
The GOP currently holds just 178 seats in the House; there are 255 Democrats, and two [...]Labor union membership plummets
By Michael P. H. Stanley
As the year 2009 departed, so too did ten percent of national union membership, the largest decline in over 25 years. This loss accompanied an overall increase in unemployment nationwide. With a sluggish global economy and reÂcurring banking crises, lack of investment in large industrial ventures crippled membership [...]By The Editors
Perhaps more than any presidency in modern history, the Obama administration is a reaction against its immediate predecessor. During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama constantly chided George W. Bush for his handling of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, his lack of transparency, his profligate spending, and his general defiance of the peopleâs [...]By Yiren Lu
Dr. David Franks is a good man. He is a good Catholic. I know this because he chose to give up a Tuesday night after a raft of lectures at St. Johnâs seminary that he could have spent with his four kids, to talk pornâsoft core, hard core, and Saw Vâwith 25 Harvard [...]Though most of the newly-inducted Leverett freshmen opened their doors to boisterous, camouflaged, letter-bearing Leverett upperclassmen on Thursday morning, a few were greeted by something entirely different: the semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazineâmore commonly known as the Lampoon.Harvard University is in the midst of a scientific renaissance (Boston Globe)I was extremely disappointed that The Harvard Crimson published a book review (âStudying âAmerican Pastoralâ to Understand âThe Road,ââ Theodore J. Gioia, Feb. 23, 2010) written by a reviewer who had not even finished the book!The UC's proposed reforms are excessive, and the UC should instead focus its attention and resources on programs that will more directly and beneficially impact student life on campus.Staying at Harvard over spring break? FlyBy brings you a breakdown of dining hall and HUDS retail closings for this upcoming week. Although it looks like most places will be closed,a few Board Plus-friendly HUDS locations will remain open during the break. Check it out below.BERKMAN BUZZ: A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations If you would like to receive the Buzz weekly via email, please sign up here . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * What's being discussed...take your pick or browse below. * David Weinberger turns out an aphorism, expertly. * Doc Searls responds to Pew's Future of the Internet IV survey. * Ethan Zuckerman blogs John Wilbanks' talk on generativity in science . * Herdict is looking ...When navigating any complex client organization you can usually identify multiple executives who exert power and influence over buying decisions. However, for each sales opportunity there is typically one executive who is most relevant to your success. Identifying that relevant executive may be the best use of your time in your next sales campaign. Who is the relevant executive? The executive who stands to gain or lose the most from your sales opportunity . Why is it so critical to identify the relevant ...Boloco changed its menuâbut why? âWe wanted to confuse everyone,â joked Bolocoâs General Manager Sal Airo Farulla.In my experience of over two decades of coaching executives in their public speaking, I rarely run across one who has both the time and the inclination to do what it takes to deliver a great speech. Most of them are satisfied with average, which is partly why there are so many bad speeches given. The bar is set very low, and most executives are content to clear the bar, just. What's to be done about this sorry state of rhetorical affairs? Here, I offer three quick steps leaders can take right now to ...Laptops, personal digital assistants, and iPhones were a ubiquitous and fitting presence at Harvardâs John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Wednesday (March 10).Useful and/or intriguing ideas we've come across this week, plus the occasional worthwhile distraction. The Internet's moment of truth David Gelernter, Yale computer science professor and survivor of the Unabomber, has written a fascinating treatise on the future of the Internet . In it he writes: The Internet is no topic like cellphones or videogame platforms or artificial intelligence; it's a topic like education. It's that big. Therefore beware: to become a teacher, master some topic you can teach; ...Human societies in Europe at the end of the last ice age expanded north across a harsh but changing environment, as glaciers melted and the world got warmer and more humid.Around 50 members of the Harvard Mind/Brain/Behavior community gathered in the Harvard-Yenching Library yesterday afternoon to hear biological anthropology professor Richard W. Wrangham explain how the cultural invention of cooking food has contributed to human evolution.We heard rumors that yesterday morning, some freshmen found themselves greeted by members of “Leverett House,” with housing day letters and Leverett t-shirts in hand. Except they weren’t members of Leverett House. And those weren’t actually Leverett’s housing day shirts.
Indeed, after some investigation, it looks like the pranksters were none other than members of the [...]Featured Guest: Michael Schrage, research fellow at MIT Sloan School's Center for Digital Business and author of Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate .Leading government technology officers explored how technology can drive democracy forward during a discussion at the Harvard Kennedy School Forum.After the Oscars last weekend, I started to think about which movies have really inspired me as an entrepreneur. Here are three films I believe that you should not only see, but also share with your teams. Each ties to an important entrepreneurial and leadership lesson. Man on Wire A story of the fanatical pursuit of a dream. Philippe Petit, a French tightrope walker, was consumed by the idea of walking a wire between New York's former World Trade twin towers. To do so, he would need years of planning and ...When last I left you , the CEO search committee for Opportunity International U.S had homed in on three finalists to lead the global microfinance organization. I think you remember our three finalists: One had built his company from a single store to more than 800 locations, 4,000 employees, and $600 million in annual revenue, and he didn't have a college degree. Another hadn't been ready to leave the private-equity world when we first contacted him, but circumstances changed his mind and now he's 110% ...To exploit technology, companies need a combination of IT-smart business leaders and business-smart IT leaders . If you want to make this a goal for your organization, start by baselining and benchmarking current performance. To do so, survey your business and IT leaders to assess how they: Perceive the importance and value of IT Manage the IT asset View the quality of the IT-business partnership I conducted a survey last year to get a handle on the current state of the IT and Business Leader relationship, ...How does your company make its money? I'll wager it's not in the way that you think. Not entirely, at any rate. I typed the term "profit formula" into Google the other day, and the first entry I got was entitled " Calculating Gross Profit Margin ." That's not really surprising, since most companies measure profits in terms of margins, whether gross or net. What could be more rational? After all, at its most basic level, a company's profit formula has two parts — revenue and costs. Sell something for ...It is a rare opportunity when I find myself to the left of National Public Radio. But sometimes it happens. A blog reader alerts me to this NPR story , which says: economists frown on what they call "Pigovian taxes," which are designed not only to raise revenue but put to governments in the position of trying to influence how people shop or behave. I don't think economists are unanimous about this issue, but I believe most economists favor Pigovian taxes. Moreover, the NPR story confuses Pigovian taxes ...Let's say you're someone over 55 who has enjoyed roaring success in your career, launched your kids, called it quits. You've made your mark and your moolah, and you want to do more than spend your sunset years hanging out on a golf course in Florida. You want to give back. Donating to charity feels too bloodless. You hate mosquitoes, so the Peace Corps is out. What's a socially conscious "third-ager" to do? Randy Antik faced this conundrum. A 66-year old retired CEO from Dallas, Antik had noticed that a ...The other day, one of my colleagues asked me, "What exactly do you mean when you use the word 'innovation?'" Answering the question led to a productive discussion about what really inhibits innovation inside large organizations. When I use the word innovation, I think of three interlocking components: Insight or inspiration suggesting an opportunity to do something different to create value An idea or plan to build an offering based on that insight or inspiration The translation of that plan into a ...The public image of US CEOs and other business leaders is in the basement along with the general perception of corporations. The idea that what is good for business is good for America seems a distant memory. The belief that corporate lobbyists are subverting the public interest is widespread, outrage over executive compensation is palpable , and shareholder performance, the sine qua non for US business, has been a complete dud, reporting a net decline over the past decade and the 2nd worst performance ...This post is a response to Pankaj Ghemawat's article " Finding Your Strategy in the New Landscape " In his article " Finding Your Strategy in the New Landscape ", Pankaj Ghemawat offers us an excellent framework in order to address the main strategic challenges of the future. Let me elaborate on some of his points from a financial standpoint. We are beginning to observe signs of a recovery in the economy. Sooner or later the crisis will come to an end. But the end of the crisis will not necessarily bring ...When Stevie Wonder first sang " I just called to say I love you ," no one wondered whether he would have been better off tweeting his message instead of picking up the phone. Not so today. Recently, in my Wharton MBA course on leadership from the point of view of the whole person , we grappled with the challenge of how to choose among the various media options available today for connecting with important people in all the different parts of your life. We came up with 17 different media currently in use ...For Harvard Law School students, navigating the tough job market this year is a bit like a typical plane rideâthere may be some turbulence, but no crash landingâ at least, according to Assistant Dean of Career Services Mark A. Weber.Despite Wednesday eveningâs enfeebled river run, students displayed the same unfettered exuberance as in previous years when they awoke early the next morning for Housing Day.Wendy S. Kopp, founder and chief executive officer of Teach For America, described her personal experience with the increasingly competitive program that places recent college graduates as teachers in low-income communities to an audience at the Institute of Politics last night.Tamily Weissman, a concentration advisor for neurobiology and lecturer on molecular and cellular biology, was honored with the fourth annual Spark Award last night at the culminating event of Womenâs Week 2010.A recent study co-authored by Harvard Medical School Professor Rudolph E. Tanzi has found that a protein once believed to have no other function except playing a key role in Alzheimerâs disease may actually be beneficial to the immune system.About 30 students dine together around at a long wooden table every night at 6:30 p.m., helping themselves to communal dishes of homemade vegetarian cuisine and freshly baked bread.Welcome to your House! Now that your homes have been determined, you have to set about the task of convincing others (and possibly yourself) that your House is in fact the best. What better way to persuade someone of your House's superiority then to spew a list of famous alumni molded by your House? Here are some of the coolest alumni that we could find from each house. Let the historic notables duke it out for you.We hope everyone had an enjoyable and crunktastic Housing Day and has fully recovered from the day’s festivities. Congratulations to all the freshmen on no longer being homeless!
Have a safe and equally crunktastic spring break.In the age where the specific virtues in our morals are increasingly harder to pinpoint, in our sports there exist infinite bests by infinite definitions.What we ought to be asking ourselves is why we as a society continually fail to reward women for taking risks.Though we take issue with the seemingly hyper-secure voting software changes to come, we commend the non-election proposals passed at the UC meeting for responding well to student demands.So why all the uproar over excessive alcohol consumption?Negotiations between the White House and Congressional leaders of both parties have been undermined by mistakes that could have been avoided by using a better negotiation process, says Robert Bordone, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program at Harvard Law School.Professor Adrian Vermeule â93 recently published âIntermittent Institutionsâ as part of the Harvard Law School Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers series. Freshman Christo Schultz won his match, helping the Crimson (6-4) defeat a struggling Radford (2-6) squad by a score of 4-3.The No. 12 Harvard menâs lacrosse team takes on No. 18 Massachusetts at 1 pm at Garber Field in Amherst tomorrow afternoon.If the No. 4 Crimson beats No. 5 Cornell in tonightâs NCAA quarterfinals at 7 pm, it will head to the Twin Cities for the womenâs Frozen Four.At its tenth meeting of the year (March 10), the Faculty Council discussed final exams and study abroad transcripts with Jay Harris, the Harry Austryn Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies and dean of undergraduate education. The council was also briefed about Harvard's digital dissemination efforts.This post was co-authored with Anand Rao and Jamie Yoder One of the most important things that executives forget when they craft their service model is the need to address customers' anxieties. In today's grim environment, this is more important than ever for all companies but especially for financial services firms. Since the financial crisis of September 2008, many people have been scared to invest. Between the end of September 2007 and early December 2008 retirement accounts alone lost nearly $2.8 ...Last week, I wrote a post about exiting a conversation gracefully that generated some buzz. Beyond commenting on the strategies and tips to help you get out of those awkward moments, many of you rightfully pointed out that breaking into conversations was just as perplexing, especially at networking events, conferences, and other forced-conversation forums. There are two strategies that I recommend to ease in and out of group conversations effortlessly. Both begin with a polite interruption followed by a ...When I was a young consultant, my first (and at the time, only) client was a fledgling Toyota, which had only recently entered the American market in a big way. Back in the mid-1970's, in the wake of the first oil shocks , Toyota was an inspiring company battling for long-term growth and market share in a country that still viewed Japanese products — and the people who made them — with suspicion. To this day, I carry insights with regard to leadership that I learned from Toyota in that period. ...According to Christensen, the debate about public vs. privately funded care focuses on "the wrong answers to the wrong questions." The more fundamental challenge is business model innovation. Read More >Seelert, who started his career in the Mad Men era, the 1960s, talks about where the show gets it right, common mistakes in the field, and his advice for marketers today. Read More >NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof highlights Falik's nonprofit startup, Global Citizen Year, and her mission to give high school graduates experience working in a developing country. Read More >Even if you loathe sports and think pro-athletes are selfish morons, you couldn't find a better discussion about what it really takes to get the best out of competitive, highly-paid high performers than the "What Geeks Don't Get: The Limits of Moneyball" all-star panel at this past weekend's MIT Sloan's Sports Analytics conference. Management committees at Goldman Sachs , General Electric , and Toyota could do worse than snag a transcript of the spirited session for their own personnel policy and planning ...Taking responsibility for something one is incapable of doing has never been a particularly good idea. Politicians get in trouble for promising their electorates that they can fix the economy when they can't. Money managers get in trouble when they tell their clients that they will beat the market when they can't. The only thing of which we can be sure is that in due course the promise-taker will be disappointed and the promise-giver will be frustrated. And in due course, disappointment and frustration ...You have a wonderful fashion sense. Those clothes you're wearing today, for example — they look great! You don't believe me. You couldn't possibly — after all, I've never seen you. But, chances are, on an unconscious level you really do believe me, and my compliment makes you feel warm and gooey inside. And your positive feelings predispose you to do something nice for me, so if I were a salesman or your subordinate or your colleague, that nice something, whatever it is, could definitely make ...I'm heading off this week to SXSW Interactive , the annual geekfest that remains the only place where I have actually danced with robots to the music of theremins . Isn't that exactly how you imagine that geeks party? But SXSW isn't (just) a big programmer party. It's one of the marquee events in the tech conference calendar, the place where shiny new tools get unveiled and new social networks get heralded for their revolutionary features, while established social media brands brag about the business ...The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University is pleased to announce that the Initiative for Responsible Investment has joined the Center.Former FDA commissioner David Kessler says overeating has to be attacked the same way that tobacco was in the past, by making it socially unacceptable.Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We hear this mantra
time and again. When it comes to carbonâthe "Most Wanted" element in terms
of climate changeânature has got reuse and recycle covered. However, it's up
to us to reduce. Scientists at Harvard Medical School are trying to meet
this challenge by learning more about the carbon cycle , that is, the process
by which carbon moves from the atmosphere into plants, oceans, soils, the
earthâs crust, and back into the atmosphere again. read moreAlumni of graduate programs on East Asia: Return to campus on April 9 for a day of faculty workshops on Asian art, politics, food, culture, and medicine! > Learn more, registerPartners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer, MD/PhD '90, will deliver the keynote, and some of Harvard's most compelling faculty will lead symposia exploring new research. Save April 10! > Learn more, registerPublished: March 11, 2010 Paper Released: February 2010 Author: Alnoor Ebrahim Executive Summary: Nonprofit leaders face multiple, and sometimes competing, accountability demands: from numerous actors (upward, downward, internal), for varying purposes (financial, governance, performance, mission), and requiring differing levels of organizational response (compliance and strategic). Yet is it feasible, or even desirable, for nonprofit organizations to be accountable to everyone for everything? The challenge ...From the MediaBerkman blog: Millions of people are now interacting in virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft using the guise of avatars. In these spaces, users can actually design their avatars to be subtly or radically different from who they are in real life. And it turns out how people interact through their avatars â the signals they give one another through conversation and appearance â can tell us a lot about the choices and biases that inform our behavior in the real world. Jeremy ...Millions of people are now interacting in virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft using the guise of avatars. In these spaces, users can actually design their avatars to be subtly or radically different from who they are in real life.
And it turns out how people interact through their avatars – the [...]Despite threats of disciplinary action against freshmen seeking to appease the River Gods, some members of the Class of 2013 nevertheless decided to celebrate Housing Day Eve with gusto.One of the best parts about living in Adams House is knowing that throngs of Quadlings, River rats, and even claustrophobic Quincy residents would trade a whole GPA point to live in your gold-brushed abode.Majestically situated on the banks of the Charles, Eliot House has a lot to offer the lucky freshmen placed here. With a vibrant community, a gorgeous courtyard, loving House Masters, and a wealth of facilities, this House is truly an all-inclusive package. Freshmen assigned to Eliot will have no reason to envy any of their (less fortunate) peers.Down the street, our neighbors in Adams House appear to have put up a banner. Looks like it's a message ...Since the Weatherhead Center provides Mr. Kramer with a legitimizing and prominent public platform, we wonder whether it views any policy call as ethically disgraceful.Korean-American author Chang-rae Lee described writing as an act of improvisation at the Harvard Book Store yesterday.I know itâs too much to ask society to change racial problems overnight, but there is certainly more we can do.Yes, healthcare reform is a noble cause. In the short term, it may even cut some costs. But no matter what the president says, passing a bill ends no âjourney.â It wonât âsolve a pressing national issue.âGovernment officials hailing from Acre, Brazil joined two Harvard professors in a discussion last night about practices for developing local communities while preserving the Amazon Rainforest.A panel discussion held in Harvard Hall last night examined the link between environmental factors and reproductive health.Indiaâs decision to bring a larger number of women into its legislature is commendableâit represents a move toward greater gender equality in India.Harvard co-captain Colin West ended his distinguished career on a high note after finally capturing the trophy that eluded him for so long, while freshman counterpart Laura Gemmell capped off her first season with the same accoladeâa national individual title.Perhaps the most surprising thing about the Nordic ski teamâs rise this year is that the teamâs assistant coach is a former softball recruit who had never cross country skied before college.For assistant coach Kelly Finley, the end of the womenâs season means something entirely differentâit allows her to spend a lot more time with a little girl named Avigail.Dean of Harvard College Evelynn M. Hammonds released yesterday the official report of the Committee to Review the Administrative Board, which recommends a holistic reform of the Collegeâs primary disciplinary body.The Economics Department will reinstate junior seminars for the next academic year, due in part to an increase in the number of visiting professors, department leaders said yesterday.After a nine-month testing period, Le Whif will launch its products in cities nationwide and abroad, including London and Tokyo.In accordance with the Universityâs non-discrimination policy, which was modified in 2006 to include gender identity, University Health Services decided to address the medical needs of transgender people with more equitable insurance coverage.As part of our Housing Market series, we've been posting reviews and rankings for each of Harvard's 12 residential Houses. Click here to read more about our project. So, you want to be a member of the most elite House on campus? If you thought getting into Harvard was hard, clearly you've never tried to become a member of Kirkland House. Although not entirely abandoning DeWolfe housing, Kirkland will only keep one of its two current floors. This means that it will now accept significantly fewer freshmen ...On March 8, Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli â91 returned to Harvard Law School to discuss the Department of Justiceâs new violence against women initiative. Perrelliâs visit  marked the first stop on a month-long college campus tour sponsored by DOJ.As part of our Housing Market series, we'll be posting reviews and rankings for each of Harvard's 12 residential Houses over the next few days. Click here to read more about our project. âPfuck my lifeâ is what you might mistakenly think upon discovering a Pfolar bear at your door on Thursday morning. Sure, there are closer places to live than Pfoho, but the rabid enthusiasm of Pfohosers, tutors, and House Masters alike is a testament to the fact that Pfoho is among the better Houses. Pfoho is a ...Blog for the Science Club for Girls offers words of encouragement and wisdom that can only be gleaned from hindsightThe writers for the upcoming film on the founding of Facebook may be regretting starting the script too earlyâjuicy scandals and charged accusations surrounding the social networking Web site just keeps surfacing. A week after Facebook experienced privacy issues, Facebook founder and CEO Mark E. Zuckerberg '06 was accused of hacking into student e-mail and social network ConnectU accounts before dropping out of Harvard in 2004.I will be talking at Oberlin College tomorrow evening .Members of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines have taken up the fight against protected sex after government health workers passed out roses and condoms on Valentines Day. Bishops have (wrongly) accused condoms of causing abortion, contributing the spread of HIV/AIDS, and allowing people to feel secure despite bishops’ warnings of a high failure [...]Hank Chien '96 jumps and climbs his way to a record 1,061,700 points in the Donkey Kong arcade game (NY Daily News)Harvard students just canât get enough of that Old Spice commercial these days. Not only has Dunster spoofed it for their Housing Day vid, the senior gift video brigade also turned it into one of three clips urging seniors to each donate $10 to the annual senior gift fund.In the upcoming film “Get Him to the Greek” starring Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, and Rose Bryne (just to name a few), a Hollywood producer is forced to get a rock legend out to L.A. for a comeback show. The movie is produced by Judd Apatow, the man behind “40 Year Old Virgin” and “Knocked [...] |