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Harvard, There's a Storm Coming.

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - 4 hours ago

It looks like the endless miserable heat may be coming to an end, even if it's just for the weekend. However, it appears that Mother Nature might be overcompensating by replacing the heat with a hurricane that could potentially dump eight inches of rain in the Boston area.

Grab a seat, it’s ‘The Chair Revue’

Harvard Gazette Online - 6 hours ago

Forget Shakespeare in the park. Try performances in the Yard. Every Tuesday and Friday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., members of the Harvard community will stage lunchtime shows outside of Lehman Hall and Dudley House. Dubbed “The Chair Revue” these hour-long theatrical and music events are intended to bring the Harvard community together around the [...]

Managing Older Workers

Harvard Business Review - 6 hours ago

Featured Guest: Peter Cappelli, Wharton School professor and coauthor of Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare for the New Organizational Order . Download this podcast

Easy blend of old and new

Harvard Gazette Online - 7 hours ago

A group from the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement is taught Scratch, a basic programming tool, by teaching fellows and course assistants from CS50: “Introduction to Computer Science I,” a popular Harvard course taught by David Malan.

Vendler on Dickinson

Harvard Gazette Online - 7 hours ago

Renowned critic Helen Vendler takes on Amherst’s own Emily Dickinson in her new book, “Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries.”

New name marks evolution of PSP Program at HGSE

Harvard Gazette Online - 7 hours ago

What’s in a name? For faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), everything. Earlier this summer, Dean Kathleen McCartney announced the Prevention Science and Practice (PSP) Program, formerly known as Risk and Prevention (R&P). The new program title marks the evolution of the master’s degree program — dedicated to the practical application of [...]

Magic of Numbers: Betting on Hurricane Earl

Harvard Crimson - Sports - 8 hours ago

70 — Percent chance of rain at 7 pm tomorrow, thanks to Hurricane Earl.

Pseudo Competition

Harvard Business Review - 9 hours ago

Not every critic loved the 2009 film Duplicity , starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. The British newspaper The Telegraph complained of a lack of "any sexual charge" between the stars, and a plot whose complexity is "sometimes overdone." Slate called it muddled , and quibbled that a film should make "actual narrative sense." But seemingly everyone who has seen Duplicity loves its opening sequence. The scene is a rain-slicked tarmac, with two corporate jets facing each other at showdown distance. The two ...

New meaning in the familiar

Harvard Gazette Online - 10 hours ago

Harvard Divinity School professor Peter Machinist encouraged students to alter their perspectives on education and life through defamiliarization.

Far beyond Harvard’s gates

Harvard Gazette Online - 10 hours ago

Harvard students recount their summer internships and work experiences in many fields, countries.

Coping with Hurricane Earl

Harvard Gazette Online - 10 hours ago

Helpful information in case Hurricane Earl brings heavy rain and high winds to the area.

The New York Times Is Dead Wrong

Harvard Business Review - 11 hours ago

As a public speaker, I'm always looking for ways to engage my audience. One old trick — which I never use, precisely because it is so old — is to challenge executives and entrepreneurs to imagine their obituary in the New York Time s. What impact did you have? What contribution did you make? What kind of life did you lead? As it turns out, this audience-participation exercise requires a special act of imagination for women. Consider this amazing statistic, brought to you by a Web site called ...

Faculty Council meeting held Sept. 1

Harvard Gazette Online - 11 hours ago

At its first meeting of the year on Sept. 1, the Faculty Council welcomed new members, reviewed history and policies, elected subcommittees for 2010-11, and discussed the work of the council in the new academic year.

Cash for Clunkers

Greg Mankiw's Blog - 11 hours ago

One of my Harvard colleagues recommends this critique .

For a Better Career Outlook, Look Inward

Harvard Business Review - 11 hours ago

Here's an idea for your next performance review: Do what the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies do for their annual evaluation by the board of directors — write a self-assessment that helps guide the conversation. What you write will be a valuable tool for the performance review and, even better, a custom guide for your own development. Ongoing self-assessment is one of the five zones of strength that leaders have and non-leader managers don't, according to one of our ongoing workplace studies (pdf). ...

Are These the Economy's Good Old Days?

Harvard Business Review - 11 hours ago

Five years from now, will we look back on the dismal unemployment that we're suffering on Labor Day 2010 and see this year as the good old days? Within today's official unemployment statistics hides the true cost of decades of economic mismanagement: Historically unprecedented levels of unemployment and underemployment. The Great Recession that officially ended in 2009 has left millions of Americans without jobs for longer than the worst economic period in modern history — the early 1980s. Almost 7 ...

Beyond Legally Blonde: Graduate Student Life at Harvard

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - 11 hours ago

"As a student of English, I am always absorbed in stories: the stories of lives, the stories we tell ourselves, the stories we tell others. For me, studying narratives has been a way of trying to grasp the power of human experience. So upon my admission to Harvard, I turned, as usual, to stories for guidance."

The Dirty Truth About Digital Fasts

Harvard Business Review - 13 hours ago

Last year it was the staycation. This year it's the digital fast. "How I unplugged" — from Twitter, from a Blackberry, from the Internet, or at the behest of the New York Times — is the new "what I did on my summer vacation." As people trade stories about how they survived, or even thrived, offline, I'm troubled by the underlying narrative, that our ability to unplug is necessary to prove that we're not Internet addicts. We're supposed to demonstrate our grasp of human relationships by our ...

From Politics to Penguins, David Morehouse MC/MPA 1999 is Key Player

Harvard Kennedy School - News - 13 hours ago

A steel beam to the head seemingly knocked some sense into the Beechview native Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10234/1081882-61.stm#ixzz0yNv46o7F

This year's Freshman Seminar

Greg Mankiw's Blog - 13 hours ago

My freshman seminar starts today. Here are the books we are reading this year: The Worldly Philosophers, by Robert Heilbronr Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets, by John McMillan Thinking Strategically, by Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff Capitalism and Freedom, by Milton Friedman Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff, by Arthur Okun Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein How the Economy Works, by Roger E.A. Farmer The Return of Depression Economics, by Paul Krugman The Road to ...

Keeping Your Business Plan Flexible

Harvard Business Review - 14 hours ago

People make business plans for all sorts of reasons — to attract funding, evaluate future growth, build partnerships, or guide development. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these plans are usually out of date by the time the printer ink dries. Business moves fast: the product's features morph, new competitors emerge, or the economic climate shifts. When these changes occur, many people just throw their business plans out the window. For a plan to be truly valuable it needs to evolve with your ...

New retirement investing options

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

Harvard reshuffles its lineup of choices, trimming the number of individual picks while introducing adaptive “lifecycle funds” for many.

Harvard wrestlers prepare to get down

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

The Harvard men’s wrestling team faces another challenging year on the mats.

Angeliki E. Laiou

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on May 11, 2010, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Angeliki E. Laiou, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History, was placed upon the records. Laiou was known for her path-breaking research in Mediterranean economic and women’s history.

Hard science, soft verse

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

Ron Spalletta, whose first poem has just been published, is a clerkship manager at Harvard Medical School.

Men’s basketball releases 2010-11 schedule

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

The Harvard men’s basketball team has released its 2010-11 schedule, and will play its first game against George Mason on Nov. 13.

Harvard University Police Department Clery Act Report

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

The Harvard University Police Department is releasing its annual Clery Act report, titled “Playing it Safe.”

Ash Center welcomes 2010-11 student and executive fellows

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School announced its 2010-11 student and executive fellows for the 2010-11 academic year.

Forward, into the past

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

Harvard undergraduate Derek Robins recounts his summer spent doing astronomy research on campus.

A Short History of Cape Cod

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

Historian Robert Allison colors in Cape Cod’s record with photographs, historical figures, and far-from-dry tales in “A Short History.”

Harvard College welcomes four Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholars

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

Four recipients of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship are now students at Harvard College.

Divinity School professor wins book award for excellence

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

Divinity School professor Kimberley C. Patton has received an award for excellence in religion for analytical-descriptive studies from the American Academy of Religion for her book “Religion of the Gods: Ritual, Paradox, and Reflexivity.”

BSC offers 5-week fall course on reading

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

The Bureau of Study Counsel’s Harvard Course in Reading and Study Strategies will open for registration on Sept. 7.

Documenting a colonial past

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

A Harvard doctoral student and two recent graduates worked in Kenya this summer with Harvard history professor Caroline Elkins to lay the foundation for a collaboration with Kenyan scholars to record the African nation’s experience gaining independence from Britain.

Harvard hosts New England Writers Association luncheons

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

Harvard will once again serve as the host of the weekly New England Football Writers luncheons, which will be held each Wednesday at 11:45 a.m., from Sept. 8 to Nov. 17.

New retirement investing options

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

Harvard reshuffles its retirement fund lineup, trimming the number of individual options while introducing adaptive “lifecycle funds.” The University will allow investment-savvy employees to invest in thousands of additional mutual funds through a new brokerage account option.

Pecos Pueblo Revisited: The Biological and Social Context

Harvard Gazette Online - 14 hours ago

Peabody Museum Associate Curator Michèle Morgan and authors review significant findings at the historical New Mexico reserve, answering many questions about the population and behavior of the Pecos pueblo.

How Transparent Should Boards Be?

HBS Working Knowledge - 14 hours ago

Published: September 2, 2010 Author: Jim Heskett The case study for this month is inspired by the Hewlett-Packard board, which deserves some kind of award for continuing to supply business schools with years worth of materials on corporate governance. One can only speculate on what Mark Hurd did to warrant being asked to resign as CEO of HP, and on the board's discussion leading up to the decision. But we know that the board let Hurd go without cause, meaning that he qualifies for about $40 million in ...

Blair, Bush, and the Problem of Political Judgment

Harvard Business Review - 15 hours ago

by Laurence Prusak (Larry Prusak, Brook Manville, and I are at work on a book on judgment and how to cultivate it as an organizational, not just individual, strength. Over the next few months, we'll each be authoring posts in this blog to test-drive ideas and invite input as the research progresses.) We're being treated to two new memoirs, one just out and the other due in early November, reflecting on some of the most momentous events of the past decade. The memoirists, Tony Blair and George Bush, have ...

Da Vinci, Updated

Greg Mankiw's Blog - 15 hours ago

Check out his choice of textbook. Source .

Horns aplenty

Harvard Gazette Online - 15 hours ago

A new exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History highlights the enormous diversity of antlers and horns and examines how they came into being and what they’re used for.

Labor Day: Beyond the Barbecue

Harvard Business Review - 16 hours ago

Accept and embrace it: summer is almost over. After all, Labor Day is next week and doesn't that mean it's time to get back to work, stop going to the pool, and start planning winter vacation? Doesn't it mean a last barbecue, a neighborhood softball game, and a final long weekend before autumn arrives? But what about celebrating "Labor"? Isn't it called "Labor Day"? When my kids were young I remember one of them posing a similar question: "Why doesn't anybody work on Labor Day?" my daughter asked. So I ...

Hire Great Guessers

Harvard Business Review - 16 hours ago

Analytics are now king. And they should be. (If you're not already convinced, read Competing on Analytics , one of the best HBR articles I've ever read). It's so much easier to collect and digest numbers on your business than it was even ten years ago. No less than 5% of your payroll should go toward data analysis. Who is your customer? What is she buying? How often? After what event(s)? Which version of the product sells better? At which price point? Which version of the packaging is more appealing? Which ...

John C. Nemiah

Harvard Gazette Online - 16 hours ago

John Case Nemiah, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at both Harvard Medical School and Dartmouth Medical School, died on May, 11 2009, at the age of 90, in Nashua, New Hampshire. Widely beloved as a teacher, editor, academic leader and friend, he served as the Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the Beth Israel Hospital from 1968 to 1985.

Robert Smith

Harvard Gazette Online - 16 hours ago

On November 25, 2009, Dr. Robert Moors Smith died two weeks before he would have been 97. A pioneer of modern anesthesia practice, he was considered the “Father of Pediatric Anesthesiology” in the United States.

Tracing the roots of political thought

Harvard Gazette Online - 17 hours ago

Going back millennia, Harvard’s Eric Nelson studies the emerging republican ideals that defined liberty and eventually displaced monarchy.

Of wheat paste, flower power and fashion design: exploring new materials with Sara Stern

Office for the Arts at Harvard - 18 hours ago

Artist Development Fellow Sara Stern ’12 makes art in the country and in the city.

Invitation from President Faust

Harvard Gazette Online - 18 hours ago

President Drew Faust invites the Harvard community to join her and Charlie Gibson, former host of ABC's “Good Morning America” and now a visitor at the Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center, for a year-opening conversation on Sept. 21 at 4 p.m. in Sanders Theatre.

Stepping into action

Harvard Gazette Online - 18 hours ago

Harvard’s pre-orientation programs point incoming freshmen to the city, the country, and the campus in an effort to give students a head start on adjusting to college life by building community through the outdoors, the arts, and more.

Cambridge Crime At 40-Year Low

Harvard Crimson - News - 19 hours ago

Cambridge crime is at a 40-year low, according to the Cambridge Police Department, which released a report last month as part of a new initiative launched this summer to increase transparency.

Cardullo’s Removes TV From Window to the Chagrin of Chair Club

Harvard Crimson - News - 19 hours ago

An empty space in the window of Cardullo’s Gourmet Shoppe has left an even larger void in the hearts of members of the Chair Club.

Crimson Yard Resident Dean Resigns

Harvard Crimson - News - 19 hours ago

Suzanne E. Duke resigned from her position as Crimson Yard resident dean of freshmen due to medical reasons last Tuesday, only two days before freshman move-in day.

Drop the H-Bomb, Land Some Chicks

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - 19 hours ago

Sometimes, it can seem so hard for students at Harvard to find relationships. We certainly love to complain about it. But now, a new website is here to help…some of us.

Taking the School Committee Back to School

Harvard Crimson - News - 19 hours ago

Many Cambridge residents had hoped that the induction of a new School Committee and new mayor would initiate active measures against issues currently facing the Cambridge School District: the deepening budget deficit, the perennial student achievement gap, and organizational difficulties.

Around the Water Cooler: Wherein We Strap on the Cleats Again

Harvard Crimson - Sports - 23 hours ago

Never fear, Around the Water Cooler is back just in time for the start of class. If the thought of returning to problem sets and course packets doesn’t excite you, then maybe the return of Ivy League athletics will.

Commencement Orators Look Back

Harvard Crimson - Opinion - 23 hours ago

Behind each word are a plenitude of generous people whose efforts have made the occasion possible.

Lame Duck Books To Close Shop

Harvard Crimson - News - 23 hours ago

After juggling his business of selling rare books for more than 25 years, John W. Wronoski will be closing the doors to his bookstore in Harvard Square on September 25.

Procrastinating Life

Harvard Crimson - Opinion - 23 hours ago

Me, “grow up”? Not yet.

Study: Gender Linked to Faculty Pay

Harvard Crimson - News - 23 hours ago

Female faculty members in the sciences are nearly half as likely as their male counterparts to receive paid advisory positions in the private sector, according to a Harvard Business School study drafted this summer.

Study: Interspecies Cooperation May be Driven by Individual Interests

Harvard Crimson - News - 23 hours ago

Cooperation between two different species may be driven by individual interests rather than fear of punishment, according to Harvard researchers.

The Fed Must Act

Harvard Crimson - Opinion - 23 hours ago

The Federal Reserve is failing to fulfill its mandate to pursue the goals of price stability and maximum employment.

Under the Microscope

Harvard Crimson - Opinion - 23 hours ago

The University's process reinforces the high standards to which we are glad professors are held.

Veritas on Stage

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - 23 hours ago

In 2002, The Crimson broke a story that uncovered one of the darkest chapters in Harvard’s history—the “secret court” that ...

The CEA Chair Says Goodbye

Greg Mankiw's Blog - 1 day ago

Here is Christy Romer's farewell speech .

Dinner's in the Quad Tonight

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - 1 day ago

Even if you're planning to be a rebel by skipping the Activities Fair today (held in the Quad from 4 to 7 p.m.), Harvard has almost essentially mandated that you attend.

NCAA Introduces Sickle Cell Testing

Harvard Crimson - Sports - 1 day ago

This year, the NCAA has mandated that college athletes either be tested for Sickle Cell trait or sign a waiver declining testing.

Why one summer intern wasn't annoyed to be asked to fetch coffee

Harvard Magazine - 1 day ago

Notes on a summer of newsprint, headlines—and coffee

Head Games

HBS Bulletin - 1 day ago

The football season is about to begin, a familiar signal that summer is over. The game is a huge money-maker on one level and a powerful societal binding agent at another — think Friday Night Lights. But increasing revelations about brain damage and disease resulting from concussive blows to the head — incurred from Pop Warner through the NFL — have rocked the sport. (One telling statistic: NFL veterans can expect much shorter lives than the male population at large.) Many other contact ...

Leadership in the Social Media Age

HBS Bulletin - 1 day ago

In a new video interview, Li discusses how technology is revolutionizing corporate leadership--from BP to Apple. Read More >

Five SEAS computer science students named 2011 Siebel Scholars

Harvard Gazette Online - 1 day ago

Five stellar students dedicated to the study of computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) were named among the recipients of the 2011 Siebel Scholars awards. Karim Atiyeh (M.S. candidate); Michael Lyons (Ph.D. candidate); Geoffrey Mainland (Ph.D. candidate); Rohan Murty (Ph.D. candidate); and Yinan Zhu ’11 (joint A.B./S.M. candidate) will [...]

Class of 2014 Convocation

Harvard Gazette Online - 1 day ago

Harvard’s leaders welcomed the Class of 2014 Tuesday (Aug. 31), in a convocation ceremony filled with pomp and circumstance. They urged the new students to use their College years as a time to experiment, learn, and discover.

A Simpler Way to Make It Simple

Harvard Business Review - 1 day ago

Before rolling out an enterprise innovation, Tesco (the UK's supremely innovative supermarketer ) insists that it must meet three conditions. The first is that innovation must in some way be better for customers; second is that it should ultimately prove cheaper for Tesco; and, finally, the innovation must make things simpler for staff. While doing work with the company a decade ago, I quickly found Tesco's innovators had little trouble arguing their proposals would be better for customers and successfully ...

Illinca Radulian: Do theater. Do arts. They're fun.

Office for the Arts at Harvard - 1 day ago

"Do decide what you want but have your fingers in all the cookie jars for as long as possible."

Courses Now Accepting Applications

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - 1 day ago

Welcome to shopping period, one of the most hectic and yet defining times of the year (good classes=happy semester)! if ...

A message of inclusion

Harvard Gazette Online - 1 day ago

Harvard President Drew Faust opened the first Morning Prayers of the new school year with a message of inclusion for both the University and its students.

Upcoming Events and Digital Media Roundup

Berkman Center - Newsfeed - 2 days ago

BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY Upcoming events and digital media // September 1, 2010 [1] [TUESDAY 9/7] Berkman Center Fall Open House ( http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2010/09/openhouse ) [2] [CONFERENCE 9/25] "Media Law in the Digital Age: The Rules Have Changed, Have You?" Conference in Atlanta, GA ( http://csjconferences.org/medialaw/ ) [TUESDAY] BERKMAN CENTER OPEN HOUSE ================================================================================== Tuesday, ...

‘Africans in Black & White’

Harvard Gazette Online - 2 days ago

The Du Bois Institute opens a new exhibit at the Rudenstine Gallery in conjunction with the M. Victor Leventritt Symposium and a 10-book series.

Sofia Selowsky: The sound of music in Salzburg

Office for the Arts at Harvard - 2 days ago

After spending part of her summer at the Salzburg Festival, Artist Development Fellow Sofia Selowsky '12 has connected in a new way with Mozart, music and a city devoted to both.

An Impossible Burden

Harvard Crimson - Opinion - 2 days ago

Let us complete the work of the civil rights activists that preceded us and open the gates to higher education to all Americans.

France Strikes Back

Harvard Crimson - Opinion - 2 days ago

My experience on the TGV illustrates the cognitive dissonance between France’s modern technological achievements and its antiquated labor laws.

Making Space in Manhattan

Harvard Crimson - Opinion - 2 days ago

Not only do the planners of the community center have a legal right to build on the Park 51 site, but allowing them to construct the center undisturbed upholds the multicultural values that America represents.

Reconsidering Extraterrestrial Visitation

Harvard Crimson - Opinion - 2 days ago

If we are to hold UFO reports to the abnormally high standards of evidence currently deemed acceptable, we must do so based on a reference frame derived from facts.

Citing Scandal, Marc Hauser Cancels Extension School Courses

Harvard Crimson - News - 2 days ago

Psychology Professor Marc D. Hauser canceled his two courses at the Harvard Extension School due to the “controversy surrounding the investigation."

Facing Federal Inquiry: A Look at Possible Consequences

Harvard Crimson - News - 2 days ago

Below are a range of punitive measures available to the federal agencies investigation psychology professor Marc D. Hauser's lab.

Five Years Later, Katrina Stays in Focus

Harvard Crimson - News - 2 days ago

Five years had passed since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, but a group of students from universities across the nation had only four weeks to document the remnants of the devastation and rebuilding efforts in the city.

Harvard College Admits 12 Fall Transfers

Harvard Crimson - News - 2 days ago

After two years during which no transfer students were admitted, 12 new students have arrived at Harvard as the latest additions to the classes of 2012 and 2013.

Humanists Open New Community Center

Harvard Crimson - News - 2 days ago

Having outgrown a windowless, 80-square-foot office in the basement of Memorial Church, the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard will open its own community center this week, according to the organization’s officials.

J-Term, Budget Cuts Concern Students

Harvard Crimson - News - 2 days ago

Harvard students are most concerned with University budget cuts and January Term programming, according to the results of a survey conducted last May by the Undergraduate Council released last week.

Currier Announces Acting Resident Dean

Harvard Crimson - News - 2 days ago

A resident tutor in Currier House will serve as acting resident dean this academic year while Harvard College searches for a permanent replacement.

UC Launches Retooled Website

Harvard Crimson - News - 2 days ago

In keeping with its efforts to improve student online resources, the Undergraduate Council launched a new website last week that will serve as a unified portal for the UC’s web initiatives.

Welcome, Class of ’14

Harvard Gazette Online - 2 days ago

Harvard convocation ceremony welcomes the Class of 2014.

The Biggest Mistake a Leader Can Make

Harvard Business Review - 2 days ago

Through Imagining the Future of Leadership , a symposium at the Harvard Business School and accompanying blog series , expert thinkers gathered to investigate what is necessary today to develop the leaders we need for tomorrow. Featuring: Bill George , Professor, Harvard Business School and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic Evan Wittenberg , Head of Global Leadership Development, Google, Inc. Dr. Ellen Langer , Professor, Harvard University Andrew Pettigrew , Professor, Sïad ...

Section Stars

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - 2 days ago

GSAS teaching fellows are becoming increasingly innovative, bringing new technologies and creative strategies to the classroom. Meet five award-winners who prove the point.

A Global Graduate School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - 2 days ago

More than 300 people attended one of the Graduate School's most eagerly anticipated early-term events, the International Host Student Dinner, held on August 23 at Dudley House.

At Orientation, Words of Wisdom

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - 2 days ago

Braving an epic rainstorm that made mud of Harvard Yard, new GSAS students gathered at Sanders Theatre on Wednesday, August 25, to hear words of inspiration, encouragement, and even commiseration from President Drew Faust, FAS Dean Michael Smith, and GSAS Dean Allan Brandt, among others.

Summer the Harvard way

Harvard Gazette Online - 2 days ago

Harvard goes into overdrive in the summer months with a new crop of students ready to learn, and a variety of outreach programs developed for the local community.

I’ll get mine, Jack

Harvard Gazette Online - 2 days ago

A new paper suggests that the mutually beneficial relationships that species create are maintained mostly because of simple self-interest.

Noam Hassenfeld '12: A Bali high

Office for the Arts at Harvard - 2 days ago

An Artist Development Fellowship recipient honors tradition while making radically new music.

An Innovation Lesson from Dr. Seuss

Harvard Business Review - 3 days ago

Dartmouth College graduates are generally big supporters of our most famous alumni — Theodor Geisel (Class of 1925) known better as Dr. Seuss. On Sunday evening, my son pleasantly surprised me by picking one of my favorite Dr. Seuss stories, The Sneetches , from the shelf for his bed time reading. Reading the story helped me visualize why a company I recently visited was approaching innovation the wrong way. For those of you who don't remember the story, the sneetches (yellow characters that vaguely ...

Innovators, You Need an Attitude Adjustment

Harvard Business Review - 3 days ago

Do you remember those heady days of the late 1990s, in the heat of the dotcom boom? As a refresher, here are a few fashionable thoughts from that era: Startups can easily overthrow corporate behemoths. "Modern" management is no longer relevant. Corporate executives need to operate like venture capitalists. Corporations are obsolete. In the new era, everyone is a free agent. Go ahead, destroy your business. If you don't, someone else will. Proclamations of profound transformation rolled off the tongues of ...

An Enlightening Example

Greg Mankiw's Blog - 3 days ago

Chapter 1 of my favorite textbook talks about how policies can have unintended consequences because of their effects onincentives. One example I use is Sam Peltzman's famous study of seatbelt laws. Here, from The Economist , is another example: SOLID-STATE lighting, the latest idea to brighten up the world while saving the planet, promises illumination for a fraction of the energy used by incandescent or fluorescent bulbs. A win all round, then: lower electricity bills and...less climate-changing carbon ...

Welcome Class of 2014!

Harvard College Democrats - 3 days ago

To the Class of 2014: Welcome to Harvard! The Harvard College Democrats have some awesome events planned for you in the coming week to kick off the new semester in style. Here’s the run down: Wednesday, September 1st from 4pm to 7pm – Be sure to check out the Harvard College Democrats’ table at the [...]

Access Harvard on mobile device

Harvard Gazette Online - 3 days ago

As of Sept. 1, members of the Harvard community will have everything they need to know about the University in the palms of their hands. Harvard has launched a strategic mobile initiative to package content from across the University for display on handheld devices.

Citizen Media Law Project & Center for Sustainable Journalism Conference on Media Law in the Digital Age

Berkman Center - Newsfeed - 3 days ago

Citizen Media Law Project and Center for Sustainable Journalism Announce Conference Focused on Media Law in the Digital Age Cambridge, MA – August 31, 2010 – The Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University are co‐hosting a conference on September 25, 2010 entitled Media Law in the Digital Age: The Rules Have Changed, Have You? in Atlanta, Georgia. Designed for journalists, bloggers, and lawyers who ...

Dallas on a Roll

HBS Bulletin - 3 days ago

Did you know that Texas has more Fortune 500 companies than any other state? As mayor of Dallas, Leppert has ambitious goals for the city, local corporate culture, and the business community. Read More >

New Head of Tennis Jamaica

HBS Bulletin - 3 days ago

Hill, who has played tennis since college, is looking to bring together the resources and support to grow awareness of the game. Read More >

First Look: August 31

HBS Working Knowledge - 3 days ago

Comparatively little attention has been given to how managers can allocate work across tasks and time to improve workers' performance, especially on repetitive tasks. Researchers Bradley R. Staats of the University of North Carolina and Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School introduce the concept of a "restart effect"-disruptions that can stimulate worker productivity and overcome the challenges of repetitive work. Read their working paper, The Task and Temporal Microstructure of Productivity: Evidence ...

Hauser No Longer to Teach at Extension School

Harvard Crimson - News - 3 days ago

Harvard Psychology Professor Marc D. Hauser, who took leave from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences upon accusations of scientific misconduct, will no longer teach classes at Harvard Extension School this year, according to the school's website.

(Milk)Shake, (Milk)Shake, (Milk)Shake

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - 3 days ago

Free b.good milkshakes in front of the Science Center tonight!

Lene Hau named World Dane 2010

Harvard Gazette Online - 3 days ago

Lene Vestergaard Hau, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics in the Department of Physics and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard, was named “World Dane 2010″ by global network Danes Worldwide at the organization’s annual summer meeting, held at Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark, on Aug. 1, 2010. The honor [...]

Distinguished journalists, news anchor and Internet visionary spend fall at HKS

Harvard Gazette Online - 3 days ago

The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government will be enriched by new fellows, a writer-in-residence and visiting faculty this fall. One of the most celebrated nonfiction writers of our time, Tracy Kidder, will be the first A.M. Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence. Kidder won the Pulitzer [...]

Managers’ attitudes toward work-family issues can affect employees’ health

Harvard Gazette Online - 3 days ago

As the United States’ workforce grows more diverse, an increasing number of Americans are balancing work and family responsibilities. In a paper appearing in a recent issue of the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Harvard School of Public Health professor Lisa Berkman and colleagues draw attention to the effects that workplace policies toward this issue [...]

War’s artistic alchemy

Harvard Gazette Online - 3 days ago

Museum presentation discusses three German artists shaped in the cauldron of world war, and a younger fourth molded by the gender wars.

Shape Serendipity, Understand Stress, Reignite Passion

Harvard Business Review - 3 days ago

We are delighted when we get approached by readers to discuss our latest book, The Power of Pull . Based on our encounters with readers, we see four themes resonating deeply. Feeling more stress? You are not alone. We all feel increasingly stressed. This stands in stark contrast to the daily news headlines focused on the early signs of an economic recovery. Is this stress all in our minds? The 2009 Shift Index for the U.S. Economy , which we released in June 2009, revealed a troubling long-term trend: ...

Two Common Mistakes of Millennials at Work

Harvard Business Review - 3 days ago

My previous post here highlighted the smart practices that the digital-native Millennials are bringing to the workplace. Here I want to talk about a couple not-so-smart ones. The first is simple oversharing. I wrote before how narrating your work is a very smart strategy because it lets you be helpful to others, and also increases the chances that they can help you. But narrating your every opinion, emotion, lunch, happy hour, hangover, etc. on your company's emergent social software platforms is just ...

Shorenstein Center Welcomes Distinguished Journalists, News Anchor and Internet Visionary for Fall 2010

Harvard Kennedy School - News - 3 days ago

he Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government will be enriched by new Fellows, a Writer-in-Residence and visiting faculty this Fall.

Multinational Firms, Labor Market Discrimination, and the Capture of Competitive Advantage by Exploiting the Social Divide

HBS Working Knowledge - 3 days ago

Published: August 31, 2010 Paper Released: August 2010 Authors: Jordan I. Siegel, Lynn Pyun, and B.Y. Cheon Executive Summary: Women and ethnic minorities are frequently discriminated against in the labor markets of both developed and emerging economies, particularly in opportunities for management positions. Multinationals entering such markets must decide whether to aggressively hire and promote the excluded group, thus reaping the benefits of their underutilized talent, or conform to local practice and ...

The Humanitarian Sector's Massive Failure of Imagination

Harvard Business Review - 3 days ago

We look to government to solve massive social problems because we cannot conceive of the humanitarian sector ever reaching the scale required to solve them itself. We cannot envision the sector growing meaningfully larger because we are resigned to the belief that charitable giving is fixed, both on an individual and a national level: Americans give what they give and that's not going to change. And we imagine giving to be a zero sum game; any new benefit to one cause comes at the expense of another. Since ...

A Katrina 5th Anniversary Success Story

Harvard Kennedy School - News - 4 days ago

Five years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, one stand-out recovery success story is the neighborhood of Broadmoor and its unique collaboration with Harvard Kennedy School through the Belfer Center's "Broadmoor Project."

Ash Center Welcomes New Fellows

Harvard Kennedy School - News - 4 days ago

Fall 2010 fellows welcomed

The speedup of climate change

Harvard Gazette Online - 4 days ago

Scientist discusses growing effects of global climate change with members of Harvard’s Class of 2014.

Barro on Unemployment Insurance

Greg Mankiw's Blog - 4 days ago

Harvard's Robert Barro says the recent expansion of UI explains the persistently high unemployment rate .

Social Entrepreneurship Success Raises Thorny Questions

Harvard Business Review - 4 days ago

For years, Unitus epitomized the promise of social entrepreneurship. It won a host of awards, including Fast Company 's "Social Capitalist" prize three years running. The nonprofit organization's mission was to prepare microfinance institutions to take commercial capital and help them arrange debt and equity investment. It can rightfully take a good deal of credit for the billions of dollars that are now flowing to MFIs, enabling them to quickly scale up and serve millions of customers they otherwise ...

Christine Bendorf: "Is it always 'or'? Is it never 'and'?"

Office for the Arts at Harvard - 4 days ago

"[Theater at Harvard] is student-run and student initiative drives everything in the theater world – which I think is very very important because it provides students a way to explore every aspect of theater and to do what they truly want to do."

Harvard’s Library Lab issues call for proposals from students, faculty, and staff

Harvard Gazette Online - 4 days ago

The University’s newly created Library Lab is inviting students, faculty, and staff to collaborate with the Harvard Libraries and serve as co-creators of the information society of the future. The University-wide Library Lab is designed to leverage the entrepreneurial aspirations of Harvard students, faculty, and staff, who can propose projects in all areas of library [...]

Turning Employees Into Problem Solvers

HBS Working Knowledge - 4 days ago

Published: August 30, 2010 Author: Julia Hanna Ten years ago, the Institute of Medicine published To Err is Human [ PDF ], a groundbreaking report that pushed the issue of medical errors into the public spotlight. That we all make mistakes was certainly nothing new: Operational failures occur across all industries. But the impact of errors in the context of the health-care industry drew instant attention. Preventable medical errors resulting in injury cost the industry somewhere between $9 billion and $15 ...

The Many Benefits of Standing at Your Desk

Harvard Business Review - 4 days ago

I used to sit down on the job. For hours a day, derriere planted firmly in chair, I read, wrote, and edited. It's been a torment — I love what I do, but I hate to sit. Over the years, I've developed little tricks to burn off excess energy and add activity bits throughout the day, like bouncing my right leg and printing to a printer far down the hallway. I've discovered something better. A few months ago, I fired my chair and brought in a stand-up desk. This move has made a huge difference in my work ...

How to Sell an Idea to Your Boss

Harvard Business Review - 4 days ago

"My problem is not how to be innovative. My team often comes up with interesting ideas. But when we introduce them to top executives, they always turn them down. How can I convince my boss to invest in our ideas?" The question — asked at the end of a seminar on innovation at a major IT firm — did not surprise me. One of the hardest challenges for creative people — especially those working in units such as R&D, design, or marketing — is how to win top management's support for their ...

New Ash Center report lauds successes, proposes reforms for Indonesia

Harvard Gazette Online - 4 days ago

Formerly an authoritarian state, Indonesia has made impressive gains over the last 10 years as the world’s first majority Muslim, multi-party democracy. The country’s successes and challenges as a new democracy are the subject of the new report titled “From Reformasi to Institutional Transformation: A Strategic Assessment of Indonesia’s Prospects for Growth, Equity, and Democratic [...]

Ash Center welcomes new fellows

Harvard Gazette Online - 4 days ago

Today the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University announced its student and executive fellows to the 2010-2011 academic year. The Center welcomes its inaugural Democracy Fellow, five Ford Foundation Mason Fellows, two Roy and Lila Ash Fellows in Democracy, and 19 Rajawali Foundation [...]

Easing Restrictions on Cuba: A Win-Win Situation

Harvard College Democrats - 5 days ago

While recently the country has been entrenched in the mosque debate, talk of easing restrictions on Cuba has somewhat flown by the national radar. Still, it’s an idea worth discussing seriously, as it has much more far-reaching implications for citizens of both countries than does talk of the potential mosque. A New York Daily News [...]

Pool Cleaner

Harvard Lampoon - 5 days ago

Woman: Hey there. Orlando, right? How’s the cleaning going? Orlando: Pretty good. I was just checking the outflow levels. Woman: Really? How are they? Hey—do you want a drink? I make great drinks. Let me get you a drink. Orlando: I’m okay. Besides, I need both hands to skim the water for dirt. Woman: Wow, I never noticed. Your [...]

Steve Loves Doritos

Harvard Lampoon - 5 days ago

Daniel: Well, the apartment was a decent size, but still pretty expensive for a one-bedroom. Rob: Yeah, this is definitely a renter’s market. I think you can afford – Steve: Hey guys, you talking Doritos? Rob: Come on, Steve. Don’t do this again. Steve: I just thought maybe you were having the old Doritos discussion. Daniel: Dude, for the [...]

The Diary of Francisco Pizarro

Harvard Lampoon - 5 days ago

August 6 – Land ho!  We have nearly reached the New World, and the crew is positively giddy with anticipation and scarlet fever.  The only thing we love more than the thrill of exploration is the prospect of meeting new friends along the way.  We have all shaved our beards so as to appear non-threatening. August [...]

Shaq Spotted on Mass. Ave.

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - 5 days ago

As the streets were packed with upperclassmen moving in this afternoon, one of Boston’s newest celebrities was making them a bit more crowded.

Coming to Harvard Square: Belgian Waffles, Korean BBQ, and More

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - 6 days ago

Eight new eateries are opening in Harvard Square this year, ranging from pizza to waffles, Indian fare to Korean BBQ.

A new history of Design Research, written by Jane Thompson

Harvard Magazine - 6 days ago

A new history of Design Research remembers how the store brought modern design to Harvard Square and the United States.

Melanie Thernstrom's "The Pain Chronicles" explores chronic pain

Harvard Magazine - 6 days ago

A new book by Melanie Thernstrom ’87 explores chronic pain, in the author’s own life, across societies, and through history.

Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow's summer reading list

Harvard Magazine - 6 days ago

Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow discusses what’s on her reading list, as well as the line between professional and pleasure reading, and her family’s literary history.

Despite Scandal, Hauser To Teach at Harvard Extension School

Harvard Crimson - News - 6 days ago

Marc D. Hauser, a Harvard psychology professor who took leave after University investigators said he was responsible for scientific misconduct, will teach two courses at the Harvard Extension School this academic year even though he is facing a federal inquiry.

Library a hit at Dudley Fest

Harvard Gazette Online - 6 days ago

Whether graduate students need research guidance, help locating and accessing resources online, materials for teaching classes, or even library materials scanned and delivered to them electronically, Harvard librarians can help. That was the message delivered over and over again – through speakers, informal conversations with librarians and current graduate students and information stations – to [...]

Marc Hauser comments on scientific misconduct in his psychology lab

Harvard Magazine - 6 days ago

The latest coverage on misconduct in the psychology professor’s lab also includes an assertion by a scientific journal editor that he can only conclude that data for one retracted paper were fabricated.

The Cambridge Harvard Summer Academy: Where everyone learns

Harvard Gazette Online - 6 days ago

The typical summer school is often considered a one-way street. Teachers teach and students learn. However, as the following video shows, the Cambridge Harvard Summer Academy is a different breed of summer school. The six-week program brings together the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education to provide remedial and [...]

U.S. hospitals making only modest gains in adoption of electronic health records

Harvard Gazette Online - 6 days ago

Transforming the U.S. health care system from paper-based to electronic-based may improve health care quality and reduce costs, but a new study in Health Affairs by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) suggests that goal is far off. The adoption of basic or comprehensive electronic health records (EHR) by U.S. hospitals increased [...]

Making the big move

Harvard Gazette Online - 6 days ago

Families arrive at Harvard to move their students into dorms for the start of the fall semester.

Visiting scholar and fellows welcomed at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center

Harvard Gazette Online - 6 days ago

A former United Nations Assistant Secretary General and a former economic adviser to President Toledo of Peru are among the incoming visitors being welcomed this fall at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.  “Fellows and scholars are a vital resource at the [...]

How to Say "No" to an Economic Frankenfuture

Harvard Business Review - 6 days ago

Dear Big Cheeses Who Run the World, We regret to inform that you're fired. We're really, truly sorry about this, but we're going to have to let you go. It's time for you to pursue other opportunities. In case you haven't noticed (and who can blame you? It's pretty hard to see it from private jets, mega-yachts, 158th floor boardrooms, and members-only backrooms) times are pretty tough lately, and we've got to cut back somewhere. In fact, that we're beginning to suspect that maybe, just maybe the entire ...

A family welcome

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 27

College Dean Evelynn Hammonds welcomes families of the Class of 2014 to campus.

Random House wins literary standoff with Andrew Wylie's agency

Harvard Magazine - Aug 27

Random House publishers has won a battle with literary agent Andrew Wylie over e-book rights.

Telescope Detects Possible Earth-Size Planet

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 27

Harvard researchers working with NASA’s Kepler satellite reported Thursday that they might have spotted a planet just 1.5 times the diameter of Earth around a Sun-like star 2,000 light-years away…

Ceramics anyone?

Office for the Arts at Harvard - Aug 27

Looking for a class to take this fall? The Ceramics Program offers classes at all levels to Harvard students, staff and faculty and to the general public. Stop by the Information Center in the Holyoke Arcade and get inspired!

SEAS faculty to light up the tube

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 27

Faculty from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are definitely ready for their close-ups. Researchers will appear on the national cable channel The Food Network, and on local favorite, the New England Sports Network (NESN), in August and September. Food Challenge (Food Network) Kit Parker, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, will appear [...]

A Flexible Approach to Funding Entrepreneurs

Harvard Business Review - Aug 27

I spent eight years at eBay learning how businesses can create opportunities for people and benefit society. eBay supports millions of Internet entrepreneurs and $60 billion worth of commerce. But in my time as president of eBay International, I also realized that the firm's social efforts wouldn't necessarily reach poor people in less-connected parts of the world, because the expected financial returns in these geographies didn't warrant expansion on our part. This was much on my mind when I joined ...

If You're the Boss, Start Killing More Good Ideas

Harvard Business Review - Aug 27

Recently, I posted a list of 12 Things Good Bosses Believe . Now I'm following up by delving into each one of them. This post is about the ninth belief: "Innovation is crucial to every team and organization. So my job is to encourage my people to generate and test all kinds of new ideas. But it is also my job to help them kill off all the bad ideas we generate, and most of the good ideas, too." An evidence-based mantra is that, to get a few good ideas, you and your colleagues need to generate a lot of bad ...

Reinhardt on Efficiency

Greg Mankiw's Blog - Aug 27

Princeton's Uwe Reinhardt offers a thoughtful and thought-provoking perspectiveon economists' use of the concept of efficiency . I know that Uwe has used my Principles of Micro textbook in his introductory class. So his commentary on "modern textbooks" is, at least to some extent, directed at me. (In particular, I suspect he has chapters7, 8, and9 in mind.)Uwe alsoprovides someuseful links to handouts he gives to his class. Update : Steven Landsburg responds .

Jordan Reddout: Be open and collaborate

Office for the Arts at Harvard - Aug 27

"If you play any instrument at all, you will find a place to play it [here at Harvard]."

Getting Oriented

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - Aug 27

Despite an epic rainstorm that made mud of Harvard Yard, Sanders Theatre was full on Wednesday morning, August 25, for GSAS Orientation, as new graduate students officially kicked off this new leg of their scholarly journey , anticipating sunnier skies ahead.

Mnookin on PBS NewsHour: Bargaining with the Devil (video)

HLS News - Aug 27

Harvard Law School Professor Robert Mnookin ’68 appeared on PBS NewsHour on August 25. He spoke with economics correspondent Paul Solman about the rewards and challenges of negotiation. Mnookin is the author of “Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight,” which was published by Simon & Schuster in February.

Welcome to Harvard, Froshies.

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - Aug 26

A Crimson Key balloon from today's freshman move-in.

Women Are Over-Mentored (But Under-Sponsored)

Harvard Business Review - Aug 26

Featured Guest: Herminia Ibarra, professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD and coauthor of the HBR article Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women . Download this podcast

Income Inequality and Financial Crises

HBS Bulletin - Aug 26

Based on his study of the 2008 crisis, Moss is now examining whether there are causal links between financial deregulation, economic inequality, and instability in the financial sector. Read More >

Major moral decisions use general-purpose brain circuits to manage uncertainty

HarvardScience - Aug 26

Harvard researchers have found that humans can make difficult moral decisions using the same brain circuits as those used in more mundane choices related to money and food. These circuits, also found in other animals, put together two critical pieces of information: How good or bad are the things that might happen? What are the odds that they will happen, depending on one's choice? The results suggest that complex moral decisions need not rely on a specific "moral sense." read more

Hot, hot, hot

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 26

The American Repertory Theater presents a rollicking fall lineup, with surprises at every turn.

A higher profile for African studies

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 26

Harvard’s Committee on African Studies has received designation as a National Resource Center by the U.S. Department of Education, raising the profile of African studies at Harvard and gaining federal funding for programs and student efforts.

The $300 House: A Hands-On Lab for Reverse Innovation?

Harvard Business Review - Aug 26

Editor's note: This post was written with Christian Sarkar , a marketing consultant who also works on environmental issues. David A. Smith , the founder of the Affordable Housing Institute (AHI) tells us that "markets alone will never satisfactorily house a nation's poorest citizens...whether people buy or rent, housing is typically affordable to only half of the population." The result? Smith points to a "spontaneous community of self-built or informally built homes — the shanty towns, settlements, ...

Under 35, and at the top

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 26

Three 30-something Harvard researchers win TR35 technology honors for their innovative, world-shaping work.

Online Shopping and the Problem with Pictures

Harvard Business Review - Aug 26

What if the thing that gets online shoppers to buy a product is also the thing that makes them dissatisfied with the product when it arrives? In a recent research project, I tested this hypothesis using the pictures of products that accompany the online shopping experience. Images are the crux of online shopping. Good pictures — even interactive ones that allow shoppers to see the product from every angle and in every color combination possible — help consumers feel confident in their purchase ...

Prices Drop, but Hopes Never Do

Harvard Kennedy School - News - Aug 26

Economists Karl Case and Robert Shiller regularly ask new home buyers about what they think will happen to housing prices over the next 10 years. Amazingly, in the 2010 round of the survey, new buyers in Boston reported that they expected housing prices to rise by about 12 percent per year over the next decade, which is almost as unrealistic as the 13-percent-per-year growth buyers expected in 2005. Wildly optimistic beliefs about house price appreciation encourage unwise purchases

Visiting Scholar and Fellows Welcomed at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government

Harvard Kennedy School - News - Aug 26

A former United Nations Assistant Secretary General and a former economic advisor to President Toledo of Peru are among the incoming visitors being welcomed this fall at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Does Your Innovation Pass the Deprivation Test?

Harvard Business Review - Aug 26

It was 5 pm on August 9. I had just settled down for the three hour journey from Singapore to Manila. The seat next to me was empty, so after surreptitiously checking email one last time before takeoff, I switched my iPhone to airplane mode, and left it face down on the seat. After I got through customs, it hit me. I hadn't picked my phone back up (I use my U.S.-based BlackBerry when out of Singapore to avoid the ridiculous roaming bills you get with iPhones). Singapore Airlines of course handled the ...

U.S. Hospitals Making Only Modest Gains in Adoption of Electronic Health Records

Harvard School of Public Health Press Releases - Aug 26

Transforming the U.S. health care system from paper-based to electronic-based may improve health care quality and reduce costs, but a new study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) suggests that goal is far off.

HLS human rights clinic investigates the impact of mining in British Columbia

HLS News - Aug 26

Last year, as part of Harvard’s International Human Rights Clinic, Susannah Knox ’10 and Lauren Pappone ’11, traveled to British Columbia with Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor Bonnie Docherty '01 to investigate how mining affects the Takla Lake First Nation people.

Half Off Boloco Smoothies for Class of '14 Tomorrow

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - Aug 25

Tomorrow, Boloco is slashing smoothie prices in half for incoming freshmen as they move into their dorms.

Heads Up: No Silver Line August 25-29th

Noice - Aug 25

Well, this is just great timing. Everyone arriving at Terminal B at Logan Airport in the next few days should be aware that there will be no Silver Line service running from that terminal. Instead, “Massport shuttles” will run, and those might take forever. Here are full details on the diversion, which may take a while. Your [...]

“Cabaret” weekend at the Brattle Theatre

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 25

The American Repertory Theater’s upcoming production of Cabaret has inspired The Brattle Theatre to present a film series this weekend that are connected to the Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret based on the stories by Christopher Isherwood.  The A.R.T. production (featuring Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer) opens on August 31st and runs through October 29. The films [...]

Classroom Hijinks: Games, Parties, Pranks, and Celebrations

HBS Bulletin - Aug 25

In the first part of “Classroom Hijinks” last week, I discussed catchphrases, cheers, and mascots as examples of section spirit engendered by the fortunate decision to have a first-year section’s courses all taught in the same classroom. Here I cover the classroom games, parties, pranks (some of them featured in the Bulletin ’s “Last Look” photos), and serenades of professors in the last class. The most common game played during class was Bingo, called Section Bingo or ...

The Creativity Crisis? What Creativity Crisis?

Harvard Business Review - Aug 25

The most important thing to understand about America's "crisis of creativity" is that there isn't one. The notion that American business creativity is either at risk or in decline is laughable. Arguments that "Yankee ingenuity" is ebbing into oxymoron are ludicrous. They invite ridicule. So here it comes. Yes, America's economy is awful. But so what? Hard times haven't nicked, dented or damaged this country's creative core competence. To the contrary, they've made more people more interested in being more ...

Public, teachers divided in support for merit pay, teacher tenure, race to the top

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 25

The fourth annual survey conducted by Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) and Education Next on a wide range of education issues released today reveals that the broader public and teachers are markedly divided in their support for merit pay, teacher tenure and Race to the Top (RttT). The poll provides strong evidence [...]

Managing Older Managers: A Guide for Younger Bosses

Harvard Business Review - Aug 25

You already know that winning depends in no small part on hiring people better than yourself. If you are a youngish entrepreneur or boss, that will entail hiring older and more experienced people, especially in top roles for your organization. Managing a colleague with ten or fifteen more years of experience than you can present unusual challenges of motivation, boundary-setting, and leadership. Here are some ways to get the most out of your hires and your collaboration with them. Load them up on context. ...

The ties that bind

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 25

Harvard scientists say natural selection alone can explain "eusociality," the cooperative social structure in many of Earth’s dominant species.

FSC-Harvard fellows Paravel & Sniadecki win Locarno film awards

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 25

The Film Study Center is pleased to announce that FSC-Harvard fellows Verena Paravel and J.P. Sniadecki have been awarded the Pardo for Best First Feature and the Special CINÉ CINÉMA Jury Prize for their “vilm” (video-film) Foreign Parts at the 63rd annual Locarno Film Festival. Raised in North and West Africa and the South of [...]

What’s right for me?

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 25

In a new study, Harvard scientists find that humans can make difficult moral decisions using the same brain circuits as those used on more mundane choices such as money or food.

Should Your Business Be "For Benefit"?

Harvard Business Review - Aug 25

It is hard to overstate the role and impact of business today. As an area of human endeavor, Business — with a capital B — is clearly the most powerful force in the world. It can boast the greatest concentration of talent, resources, and fresh thinking. And many aspects of western civilization appear to be in crisis. Health care, education, transportation, environment, wealth distribution, energy ... the list goes on. The needs are great, and solutions are shockingly scarce. Whether Business is ...

How Xerox Innovates with Emerging Markets' Brainpower

Harvard Business Review - Aug 25

We recently attended the launch of Xerox's Innovation Hub in Chennai (a major South Indian city), their first such venture outside the developed world. The initial mission of the Xerox India Innovation Hub is to develop document management solutions that are relevant to emerging market countries and, at the same time, that help innovate solutions and services delivery worldwide. India, of course, has been a major destination for R&D among Western firms for some time now. Texas Instruments was leader of the ...

Build Your Power Base from Small Beginnings

Harvard Business Review - Aug 25

People who wish they had more power in their organizations — power to bring their ideas to fruition, power to change policies that make no sense — often try to find the one "big move" that will land them in a position of authority. That's a long shot, and, in any event, it misses the reality that most power bases start out small. Which means it's possible for almost anyone, in any position, to begin building one, acquiring growing influence through unspectacular moves. What's mostly required is ...

Public and Teachers Divided in Their Support for Merit Pay, Teacher Tenure, Race to the Top

Harvard Kennedy School - News - Aug 25

The fourth annual survey conducted by Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) and Education Next on a wide range of education issues released today reveals that the broader public and teachers are markedly divided in their support for merit pay, teacher tenure and Race to the Top (RttT).

The march is on

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 25

The Earthwatch Institute will bring its scientists to the Allston-Brighton community on Aug. 30 for a discussion titled “Saving the Penguins of Robben Island, South Africa.”

Speaking Up Constructively: Managerial Practices that Elicit Solutions from Front-Line Employees

HBS Working Knowledge - Aug 25

Published: August 25, 2010 Paper Released: July 2010 Authors: Julia Rose Adler-Milstein, Sara J. Singer, and Michael W. Toffel Executive Summary: How can front-line workers be encouraged to speak up when they know how to improve an organization's operation processes? This question is particularly urgent in the U.S. health-care industry, where problems occur often and consequences range from minor inconveniences to serious patient harm. In this paper, HBS doctoral student Julia Adler-Milstein, Harvard ...

Harvard Stem Cell Scientists 'Disappointed' with Court Ruling

Harvard Crimson - News - Aug 25

A federal judge’s decision to block the Obama administration's stem cell research expansion efforts was met with surprise and disappointment by Harvard scientists, who say that the ruling brings back the harsh restrictions enacted by the Bush administration on human embryonic stem cell research.

Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything

Harvard Business Review - Aug 24

I've been playing tennis for nearly five decades. I love the game and I hit the ball well, but I'm far from the player I wish I were. I've been thinking about this a lot the past couple of weeks, because I've taken the opportunity, for the first time in many years, to play tennis nearly every day. My game has gotten progressively stronger. I've had a number of rapturous moments during which I've played like the player I long to be. And almost certainly could be, even though I'm 58 years old. Until ...

Three Questions to Help Assess Your Strategic Position

Harvard Business Review - Aug 24

I've spent some of my professional life in strategy research and consulting organizations, where developing diagnostic frameworks on competition is the name of the game. But as comprehensive and complex as they are, these models are often unhelpful (or impenetrable) to front-line practitioners who might use them to improve day-to-day decisions and actions. In contrast, I encounter some of the most practical competition frameworks in my personal life, where I train for and race in triathlons. For instance, ...

Bringing Art Into Kenya's Schools

HBS Bulletin - Aug 24

Dehni is cofounder of a new volunteer-driven initiative called Artbound, which is putting the arts back into global curricula by building dedicated arts schools. Read More >

Providing a Leg Up

HBS Bulletin - Aug 24

Van Lee, who once considered life as a professional dancer, has channeled his passion into building support for the arts. He's helped one dance troupe attract donors and board members from across finance, law, fashion, and media. Read More >

Science & Cooking

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 24

The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is pleased to present the kick-off event to the Science & Cooking public lectures series on Tuesday, September 7, 2010. The lecture series, which coincides with the new General Education course, “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter,” will feature some [...]

How Sex Hurts the Workplace, Especially Women

Harvard Business Review - Aug 24

Sex in the workplace doesn't just hurt those parties involved. Sure, Mark Hurd's recent scandal produced three obvious casualties: Mark Hurd, Hewlett Packard and its shareholders, and even, to an extent, Jodie Fisher. But in the barrage of press attention since the news broke, little mention has been made of a large group of other casualties: high-achieving female executives. Women's careers tend to stall out in upper-middle management and female executives need the support and sponsorship of C-suite men ...

A glimpse of lost language

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 24

Peabody Museum researcher finds 400-year-old document that contains numerical translations of a previously unknown Peruvian language.

What Can We Learn from Nintendo?

Harvard Business Review - Aug 24

Back in 2006 and 2007 , my colleague Scott Anthony argued that Nintendo's Wii would be a disruptive innovation that could catch Sony and Microsoft off-guard. The core of the argument was that Nintendo's strategy of "competing against non-consumption" would allow it to fly under the radar of Microsoft and Sony, which were engaging in an arms race to provide ever better-looking games to their most-demanding consumers at premium prices. And that is exactly what happened. Wii sales soared. In 2008 and 2009, ...

Does Better Judgment Come With Age?

Harvard Business Review - Aug 24

by Brook Manville (Larry Prusak, Brook Manville, and I are at work on a book on judgment and how to cultivate it as an organizational, not just individual, strength. Over the next few months, we'll each be authoring posts in this blog to test-drive ideas and invite input as the research progresses.) I've been mulling over a column by The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan since it came out last month. Entitled Youth Has Outlived Its Usefulness, it was about good judgment, and who has it. The premise of the ...

Study Links Chronic Fatigue to Virus Class

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 24

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and Harvard Medical School link chronic fatigue syndrome to a retrovirus

Tali Friedman: Find the artist in you

Office for the Arts at Harvard - Aug 24

"You get here and you realize that you pretty much can do whatever you want, but you have to be motivated and do it yourself."

The Real World (and Post-Vacation Vertigo)

Harvard Business Review - Aug 24

I am just back from a long, blissful family vacation to Hawaii. We hiked, surfed (well, the kids did), went scuba diving (me too), and enjoyed a truly astonishing variety of fruit and fish. Best of all, we spent most of our time without cable TV or web access. So, being the informed citizen and committed management blogger that I am, upon our return I flipped on cable news, fired up the Internet, poured through newspapers, and re-engaged with the "real world." Big mistake. Much to my dismay, but as all of ...

Is Your Culture Too Nice?

Harvard Business Review - Aug 24

Do you avoid conflict? If you do, you're not alone. Conflict avoidance is one of the most common characteristics of corporate cultures. At the same time it is one of the most pernicious and dangerous sources of unintentional complexity in organizational life. The tendency to avoid conflict — albeit inconvenient — is very human. Most people want to be liked and unconsciously fear that arguments, disagreements, or negative messages will create tension with people they interact with on a ...

First Look: August 24

HBS Working Knowledge - Aug 24

Extroverted leaders get the best results, right? Not so fast. Research to be published in a forthcoming Academy of Management Journal finds that team performance improves under extroverted leaders if the team is passive, but declines if team members are proactive. Research by Adam M. Grant, Francesca Gino, and David A. Hofmann . Why do some nations accumulate capital while others remain mired in poverty? "The proximate answer is that some countries have better rules—the norms and laws that govern how ...

Tom Ferriss '11: Backstage pass to the Kagan confirmation hearings

HLS News - Aug 24

As a legal fellow funded by the HLS Office of Public Interest Advising and a Heyman Fellowship, Tom Ferriss '11 became an expert on the work of then Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan, flagging issues that might draw political attention during her Senate Confirmation hearings.

‘Playing it Safe’ on campus

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 23

The Harvard University Police Department is releasing its annual Clery Act Report titled “Playing it Safe.”

Capitalism's Confidence Games

Harvard Business Review - Aug 23

Our work on the evolution of global capitalism rests on a core idea: systems with feedback and selection evolve. That's a foundational idea in evolutionary biology — it's the reason that Darwin's finches had different beaks — but we note that it is also true in political economy. In fact, socially constructed systems (like capitalism) evolve all the faster because feedback can reshape notions more readily than noses. Yet it's also true that human cognition can prevent important feedback from ...

Adobe Products No Longer Working?

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - Aug 23

FAS IT announced today that a new software key is required to access Adobe products key-served by FAS IT. This ...

Classicist Bernard Knox Passes Away

Harvard Crimson - News - Aug 23

Celebrated classicist Bernard M.W. Knox once tossed his ten-year-old son a dog-eared translation of Thucydides, urging the boy to not miss the ancient author’s belief that his work was a “treasure for all time.”

Rachel Lee: make time to practice!

Office for the Arts at Harvard - Aug 23

Violinist Rachel Lee just graduated from Harvard College. She's a part of the Harvard/New England Conservatory Joint 5-year Master's program and after one more year at NEC, she'll have her Masters in Music. Is that right for you, too?

Copyright scholar Kaplan dies

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 23

Benjamin Kaplan, the Royall Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School (HLS) and a former justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, died on Aug. 18.

Seven Truths about Change to Lead By and Live By

Harvard Business Review - Aug 23

I call these the Change Agent Bumper Stickers. Here are seven universal sayings that can comfort and guide anyone engaged in the effort of setting a new direction, orchestrating innovation, establishing a culture, or changing behavior. "Change is a threat when done to me, but an opportunity when done by me." I coined this truth in my book The Change Masters , which compared innovation-friendly and innovation-stifling corporate cultures, and then saw it in operation in personal relationships, too. ...

The Peculiar Way We Reward Innovation

Harvard Business Review - Aug 23

Responding to my earlier blog, Google and the Myth of Free Time , reader Brian Merritt wrote: How do you deal with NIH? I hate the "not invented here" types that seem to think innovation is a contest they have to win. Brian has touched on a problem with deep roots. In all fields of endeavor, humans compete for status. It's a universal truth. That said, each community has its own status scorecard. In Washington, it's all about how much power you have. On Wall Street, it's how much money you make. And in the ...

Discover Dudley!

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - Aug 23

Dudley's famous annual kickoff party is Friday, August 27. Come meet hundreds of other new Harvard graduate students, explore the House (our theme this year is "heroes"), and tear up the dance floor. Click here for more information.

Wrought from Ruins: What can become of an old Pennsylvania steel town?

Harvard Kennedy School - News - Aug 23

The mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, M.P.P. ’99, trudges around this decimated steel-mill town in size 13 high-tops and gas-station-style work shirts, carrying the weight of a restless but resolute energy.

10 Tips for Creating Distinct-but-Linked Innovation Groups

Harvard Business Review - Aug 23

Conventional wisdom suggests you should isolate innovation from the core — separate the new from the old. But this approach misses the important advantage that big corporations can bring to innovation. Global companies own mammoth assets and capabilities that innovation initiatives must leverage. GE Healthcare in India innovated a $400 portable ECG machine by leveraging GE's vast reservoir of knowledge about ECG technologies that reside in their R&D center in Milwaukee. Based on our research my ...

How Millennials' Sharing Habits Can Benefit Organizations

Harvard Business Review - Aug 23

The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently asked a large group of experts if they thought Millennials would grow out of their currently strong penchant for online sharing and self-revelation. A strong majority of this group — 67% — said that this would not be the case, and that Generation Y would keep sharing as it aged. I agree, and my favorite explanation for why came from Matt Gallivan, a senior research analyst for NPR, who said "Sharing is not 'the new black,' it is the new ...

The Drive to Acquire's Impact on Globalization

HBS Working Knowledge - Aug 23

Published: August 23, 2010 Author: Paul R. Lawrence "Humans have evolved a leadership brain," says HBS professor emeritus Paul R. Lawrence. "Good leaders are people with a conscience who respect and reward all the four drives of other stakeholders [the drive to acquire, to defend, to bond, and to comprehend], even as they respect and reward their own drives." Inspired by the writings and insights of Charles Darwin, specifically his 1871 masterwork The Descent of Man, Lawrence's new book, Driven to Lead: ...

A Salesperson's Seven Deadly Sins

Harvard Business Review - Aug 23

In the late sixth century, Pope Gregory described the seven deadly sins from the least serious to the most, as superbia, invidia, ira, avaritia, tristia, gula, and luxuria . Translated from Latin, they are pride, envy, anger, avarice, sadness, gluttony, and lust. What do you think are the seven deadly sins of salespeople? Here's my list, in order of least to most severe. Chattering. Salespeople talk too much on sales calls for a variety of reasons. Some are nervous chatterers who just can't keep their ...

Krugman reestimates the Mankiw rule

Greg Mankiw's Blog - Aug 23

This scatterplot is from Paul Krugman . x is the core inflation rateminus the unemployment rate. y is the federal funds rate. It uses data from 1988 to 2008. This graphismotivated bya version of the Taylor rule I once proposed . Paul uses a different sample than I did, so he gets slightly different parameter values. Nonetheless, I think Paul and I agree that this equationprovides areasonable first approximation to what the Fed will and should do in response to macroeconomic conditions.

Current students endorse Warren for director of Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection

HLS News - Aug 23

Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren continues to gain support for serving as director of the newly created Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. In a letter to the Oval Office, HLS students from the classes of 2011 and 2012 are urging the president to nominate Warren for the top spot at the bureau.            

Say Goodbye to Laundry Room Woes

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - Aug 22

We’ve all been there. After carrying a hamper full of clothes all the way to the laundry room, you discover that all machines are full. What to do then? Loiter around until one of the machines finishes, or lug your clothes back at a later time—and possibly face the same situation again? Well, Quincy House administrators are in the process of implementing a system that may eliminate this dilemma forever.

Notes from the Sixth Row

Greg Mankiw's Blog - Aug 22

Last week, my friend Phill Swagel attended an event to hear about the future of policy toward housing finance. He sends along the following. (By the way, here is Phill's own proposal for GSE reform.) Notes from the Sixth Row: The Treasury-HUD GSE Conference Phillip Swagel I took away four main points from Tuesday's Treasury-HUD GSE conference: Hints of reform . Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that the administration supported fundamental GSE reform but with still a government guarantee for ...

Allston Residents Concerned Over McDonald's Relocation

Harvard Crimson - News - Aug 21

A proposal to relocate Western Avenue's McDonald’s 75 feet from its current Harvard-owned location in the Brighton Mills shopping center has raised neighborhood concerns about the street’s long-term development.

More Evidence for Hauser's Scientific Misconduct

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - Aug 20

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith has publicly confirmed that psychology professor Marc D. Hauser is responsible for eight instances of scientific misconduct in his laboratory. Although the dean did not specify what exactly Hauser’s fate will be now, Smith did say that the University will definitely be imposing sanctions on Hauser, who is now on a year-long leave of absence.

Dean Smith's Letter to Faculty: Full Text

Harvard Crimson - News - Aug 20

Full text of the letter to colleagues in which Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith discloses that Professor Marc D. Hauser has been found "solely responsible" by an investigating committee for eight separate instaces of scientific misconduct in his lab.

Dean Smith's Letter to Faculty: Full Text

Harvard Crimson - News - Aug 20

In this letter to colleagues, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith discloses that Professor Marc D. Hauser has been found "solely responsible" by an investigating committee for eight separate instaces of scientific misconduct in his lab.

Adrian Staehli named Loeb Professor of Classical Archaeology

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 20

Archaeologist Adrian Staehli, whose work has challenged conventional interpretations of nudity and the human body in ancient Greek and Roman art, has been named James Loeb Professor of Classical Archaeology at Harvard University, effective Jan. 1, 2011. Staehli is currently lecturer and associate professor in the Archäologisches Institut at Universität Zürich, where he has been [...]

Harvard Faculty Dean Confirms Misconduct in Hauser's Lab

Harvard Crimson - News - Aug 20

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith publicly confirmed for the first time in a letter to the Faculty that a committee had found psychology professor Marc D. Hauser responsible for eight instances of scientific misconduct in his laboratory.

Jack Cutmore-Scott: DIY theater: Just jump into it

Office for the Arts at Harvard - Aug 20

Take Jack Cutmore-Scott's advice: "There are an awful lot of very talented, very well-informed people here, both undergraduates and members of the faculty, who will do everything in their power to help someone, especially someone who just arrived...and doesn't know how to get started."

Salvaged papers shed light on Blanchot

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 20

As a novelist, literary theorist, journalist and philosopher, Maurice Blanchot (1907–2003) had a profound impact on the thinking of dozens of philosophers, novelists, and writers. Until recently, however, it remained unclear how Blanchot’s thinking had evolved over his lifetime. A famously reclusive figure in the literary world, it was believed Blanchot had destroyed most of [...]

The virtual William James

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 20

Artist, scientist, physician, Harvard professor, psychologist, psychic investigator, philosopher — William James explored multiple vocations in his life-long quest for intellectual clarity and spiritual fulfillment. A new online exhibition launched by Harvard College Library, “ ‘Life is in the transitions’: William James 1842-1910,” offers viewers the chance to trace James’ search through more than 90 [...]

FAS dean details Hauser scientific misconduct

Harvard Magazine - Aug 20

The dean reports eight incidents of misconduct, and explains the faculty’s procedures for dealing with them

Po Bronson on the Crisis of Creativity in American Business

Harvard Business Review - Aug 20

Po Bronson is the author of two acclaimed novels, a book of short stories and four best-selling non-fiction books including his 2005 bestselling What Should I Do With My Life which was on the New York Times bestselling list for 10 months. Bronson's work is extremely varied. Not only has he written about Silicon Valley both in non-fiction ( Nudist on the Late Shift ) and fiction ( The First $20 Million is Always the Hardest ) , he has also authored best selling analyses of family ( Why Do I Love These ...

Worry Isn't Work

Harvard Business Review - Aug 20

Many of us have grown up thinking that if we are properly self-punishing then we are somehow being responsible. "What, I'm a nervous wreck — how could I possibly take on more?" On the other hand, if, God forbid, we are feeling carefree, we have this nagging sense that we're being downright irresponsible, certain that if we don't get right back to self-flagellation then the other shoe is going to drop. And hard. We don't correlate our sense of responsibility with what we are actually producing. We ...

America's Lost Decade(s)

Harvard Business Review - Aug 20

Is America headed for a lost decade? And is that why I relentlessly propose that the days of industrial age business as usual are numbered? Yes — and no. In this short video post, here's what I advance: America just had a lost decade (I've also compiled four troubling charts, available here , that lend credence to my conjecture). In many ways, what we're experiencing is less a great recession that started in 2008, and more a Great Stagnation , that began a decade or more before that. The real crisis ...

Campaign Spending Now Open for Business

Harvard Business Review - Aug 20

As American companies and unions mobilize to organize Political Action Committees (PACs) with an eye to the upcoming mid-term elections, it is worth taking a step back to ask: Does it pay to donate to political candidates? Such a question might seem touchingly naïve, but in reality, the empirical evidence on this issue is much more mixed than one might think. That more PACs will be organized is a certainty: the Supreme Court assured as much with its January 2010 ruling on the case of Citizens United vs. ...

Advanced Entrepreneurship: Building an Income Machine

Harvard Business Review - Aug 20

This post is the sixth in a series on Advanced Entrepreneurship . Most new entrepreneurs obsess about raising cash to start their business. What they don't spend enough time thinking about is generating income. That's not to say that fund-raising isn't important. An entrepreneur might occasionally have to raise cash to keep the business alive until it becomes self-sustaining. But fund-raising is a commodity activity. Income generation is not; it's the chance for the business to show it can do something of ...

Why torture is “absolutely wrong:” Charles Fried and Gregory Fried on WBUR (audio)

HLS News - Aug 20

Harvard Law School professor Charles Fried appeared on the August 19, 2010 edition of the WBUR program “Radio Boston” with his son and co-author, Gregory Fried, to discuss their new book, “Because it is Wrong: Torture, Privacy, and Presidential Power in the age of Terror.”

Bringing Judgment Back to Finance

Harvard Business Review - Aug 19

Featured Guest: Amar Bhidé, professor at Tufts University's Fletcher School. He is the author of A Call for Judgment: Sensible Finance for a Dynamic Economy and the related HBR article The Judgment Deficit . Download this podcast

HKS Professor Archon Fung launches Participedia

Harvard Gazette Online - Aug 19

As the Ash Center’s Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship Archon Fung spends his time thinking about the impacts of civic participation, public deliberation, and transparency upon public and private governance. Now, he is turning research into action by actively promoting citizen participation with his new website, Participedia. Developed with Mark Warren of the [...]

Classroom Hijinks: Catchphrases, Mottos, Cheers, and Mascots

HBS Bulletin - Aug 19

Let me sing the praises of the unknown genius who devised the system in which an MBA section is taught all its first-year courses in one classroom. According to A Delicate Experiment , Jeff Cruikshank’s history of the early years of HBS (p. 282), Dean Donham’s successors after World War II devised the section as a socialization substitute for in-dorm dining facilities when they proved to be too costly. And it’s true that the MBA Class of 1949 was the first to assign students to sections. ...

Marketing Analysis Tools for Managers

HBS Bulletin - Aug 19

Steenburgh and Avery have developed five new toolkits to inform managerial decisions on market analysis, breakeven analysis, customer lifetime value, profit and pricing, and analyzing the competitive environment. Read More >

How Your Smartphone Will Transform Your Elevator Pitch

Harvard Business Review - Aug 19

Listening to good entrepreneurs make their pitch is great fun. How well, or poorly, they align their passion and persuasiveness to the product details reveals a lot. Are they pushing an idea or telling a story? Is it all about their own charisma or is the innovative idea the real hero? Are we having a conversation or am I being sold? How will they get me to "get it"? All these entrepreneurial issues resurfaced during the recent Fortune technology conference in Aspen . There was no shortage of either ...

China's In-Store Wars

Harvard Business Review - Aug 19

In China, the battle for the consumer is often won — and lost — not in factories or on television screens, but on store floors. As many as 45% of Chinese consumers make purchase decisions in real time, inside shops, according to surveys we have conducted, compared to just 24% in the US. Moreover, 56% of Chinese consumers told us that the information they get at retail outlets is essential to make up their minds while only 41% feel the same way about TV advertising. Ad spots, online campaigns, ...

Newspaper offers details of Marc Hauser lab investigation

Harvard Magazine - Aug 19

The Chronicle of Higher Education quotes an internal Harvard report it obtained from a former research assistant to psychology professor Marc Hauser.

Amazon Bestsellers

Greg Mankiw's Blog - Aug 19

In Microeconomics and Macroeconomics .

How Would Copernicus See Capitalism?

Harvard Business Review - Aug 19

We've been sharing thoughts in this blog about how the rapid growth of the emerging economies, along with other modern realities, will reshape the practice — and thus rewrite the rules — of capitalism. Many readers are aware that these are ideas in development for our forthcoming book on the topic. This week we decided on an important question: the Title. Our choice was inspired by a friend, Dick Morley , an MIT physicist and manufacturing iconoclast (also Harley rider and long-time consultant ...

With Innovation, You Don't Get Points for Difficulty

Harvard Business Review - Aug 19

Someone in India recently asked me what I thought about an innovation strategy featuring a heavy dose of "imitation." My response was, "Innovation isn't Olympic diving." What did I mean? An individual diver's scores for an event are a factor of two things: how well they execute their dive, and the "degree of difficulty" of their selected dive. The more twists and turns you have, the more points you can earn. You don't get points for degree of difficulty for innovation. You get points for producing profits. ...

Forgive and Remember: How a Good Boss Responds to Mistakes

Harvard Business Review - Aug 19

Recently, I posted a list of 12 Things Good Bosses Believe . Now I'm following up by delving into each one of them. This post is about the eighth belief: "One of the best tests of my leadership — and my organization — is "what happens after people make a mistake?" I have authored or co-authored five books for managerial audiences in the past decade. If you want to save yourself the trouble of reading all of them, and just want to know the one idea that I believe to be most important, this is ...

Royall Professor of Law Emeritus Benjamin Kaplan [1911-2010]

HLS News - Aug 19

Benjamin Kaplan, the Royall Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School and a former justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, died August 18, 2010.

Not 21? Not a Problem, Says Zipcar

Harvard Crimson - FlyByBlog - Aug 18

In a joint effort among Zipcar, Harvard University Transportation Services, and online ridesharing network Zimride, Harvard will be the greater Boston area’s first college campus to offer the car-sharing program for drivers under the typical age barrier, Zipcar announced today.