FREE PRESS SUPPORT
"Klobuchar Calls for National Reporter Shield Law" (Country Messenger, Apr. 1, 2009)
Amy Klobuchar, JD'85—the first woman elected to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate—supports the bipartisan Free Flow of Information Act: "Democracy depends on an informed public and free flow of information, and that in turn depends on journalists being able to gather information without fear."

JUDO CHAMP'S NEW MOVE
"Three Named to Combative Sports Commission" (Saint Paul Legal Ledger, Mar. 19, 2009)
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty appointed Michelle Gravenish, AM'94, to the Combative Sports Commission. The nine-member group supervises and regulates all boxing and "tough-person" contests in the state. Gravenish has won two silver medals in state judo tournaments and took first place two years in a row in the Minnesota State Jujitsu and Submission Grappling tournaments.

CORPORATE CHANGE
"Give CEO Pay the Pink Slip" (In These Times, Mar. 23, 2009)
"The economic crisis, and the furor over executive pay and behavior, provides us with an opportunity not just to rein in ridiculous CEO compensation but also to remake the corporate system," writes senior editor David Moberg, AM'71, PhD'78, who recently received fellowships to study the new global economy.

BUMPER TO BUMPER
"New iPhone App Works By Bump, Not Touch" (ERIC 2.0 technology blog, Chicago Tribune, Mar. 30, 2009)
David Lieb and Jake Mintz, first-year students at Chicago Booth, along with friend Andy Huibers, developed an iPhone app that transfers data from one iPhone to another (or an iPod Touch) simply by bumping each other.

CHICAGO ORIGIN FOR MED SCHOOL RITUAL
"20th Anniversary of the White Coat Ceremony" (EzineArticles.com, March 2009)
In 1989 students at the Pritzker School of Medicine participated in what is thought to be the first white-coat ceremony.

BRAND CHANGE RISK?
"Fans Say Don't Mess with Dora the Explorer" (Finding Dulcinea, Mar. 19, 2009)
In the hulabaloo surrounding the makeover of Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer, marketing professor Jean-Pierre Dube says, "We could certainly make a case that the public is overreacting… but there's some important information there, and that is, don't mess with this brand unless you're very careful.”

Answer: a legislative aide to a Massachusetts state senator, husband, father, and University of Chicago Law School alum. In December 2007, Jeopardy! fans watched Dan Pawson, JD'06, begin a nine-game winning streak on the popular game show. He returned this past January to participate in the 2009 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, which aired last month. And although Pawson was happy to discuss his game-show fame with UChiBLOGo, we don't recommend mentioning the articles of the Constitution. Especially you, Professor Helmholz.

How did you get on the show?

I got on the show by taking the online test in January 2007. The threshold to get on used to be much higher: you had to either try out in L.A. or you had to be lucky enough to be in a city that the Brain Bus visited. Now you just sign up for the online test and spend 15 minutes answering rapid-fire questions, and if you pass and they pick you, you go to a regional in-person audition, which happened for me in May 2007. Then I got the call to come on in August.

What kind of mental/intellectual preparation did you do before a show?

I don't have any great mental-stimulation techniques right before a game, but I did a lot of studying before the Tournament of Champions—world capitals, Shakespeare, opera, and a bunch of other categories that come up time and time again. A lot of them paid off!

What are your strong areas in trivia? Were there any categories you were hoping for? Any you were dreading?

I'm very strong in politics and sports and was very fortunate to get a category about baseball in the Double Jeopardy! round of the last game. That category went very, very well.

What was your favorite "answer"?

Is it too trite to say "Who is George?" the answer I won on ["Born in 1683, the second British king of this name was the last one not born in the British Isles"]? I guess it might be a clue to which I answered, "What is Buffy the Vampire Slayer?" ["Alyson Hannigan was nerd-hot as a geek-turned-witch on this series"] because I know there was a Buffy writer in the audience [sitting next to my wife] who squirmed a little when I said it.

Any I'm-kicking-myself moments?

No question—the $2,000 question asking how many articles are in the Constitution. It is to my everlasting shame that I answered "six" instead of the correct answer (seven). I just started counting them in my head—Congress, executive, judiciary, full faith and credit, supremacy, amendments—but the ratification article slipped my mind. I am never going to forgive myself for that.

Do you have any behind-the-scenes secrets to share?

For the games we were allowed to watch from the audience (in the quarterfinals, contestants that haven't played yet are sequestered), we're all quietly playing along, and virtually every one of us is phantom-buzzing. It's a disturbing compulsion.

Do you have big plans for your earnings (more than $420,000 combined)?

The $170,000 I won in my first run is mostly accounted for now—a bunch to a house fund, a car, a trip to Vegas, some charitable contributions, and I paid off a bunch of my student loans. With the quarter million from the TOC, [my wife and I] are doubling the house fund, paying off almost all of the rest of my loans, charity again, and taking a trip to Europe. The difference is that this time, we have about $20,000 with which we have no idea what we're going to do. It's a good problem to have.

Which is more nerve-wracking: Final Jeopardy! or facing the Socratic Method at the U of C Law School?

The worst thing that could happen on TV is that I embarrass myself in front of 12 million people. In law school, I could get a withering comment and stare from Professor Helmholz. I'm not sure there's anything that compares to that.

Elizabeth Chan

RELATED READING

• "On the Quads" (University of Chicago Magazine, Nov-Dec/06)


• "U of C Students Prove They Really Do Know It All" (University of Chicago Magazine, Apr/99)

RECOMMENDED LINKS

• Video: Pre-Tournament of Champions Interview with Dan Pawson


• Video: Post-Tournament of Champions Interview with Dan Pawson

REGAINING ECONOMIC VIBRANCY
"A New Regulatory Framework" (Forbes, Mar. 31, 2009)
"The current financial crisis is not due to lack of regulation, as many like to say, but to poorly designed and poorly enforced regulation," writes Chicago Booth professor Luigi Zingales.

UNVERBALIZED AWARENESS
"The Life of Gertrude Hendrix" (DePauw University News, Mar. 31, 2009)
In 1946 Gertrude Hendrix (1905-2008), while doing advanced work at the University of Chicago, offered proof of the existence of unverbalized awareness.

INCONSEQUENTIAL CONSERVATION?
"Earth Hour Returns" (Chicago Tribune, Mar. 28, 2009)
Chicago Booth student David Solomon found that the original Earth Hour, celebrated in 2007 in Sydney, only marginally affected energy use.

CREATIVE DARWINISM
"Rage Against the Art Gene" (Newsweek, Apr. 6, 2009)
"The fact is you cannot give me a human behavior for which I can't make up a story about why it's adaptive," argues Jerry A. Coyne, professor in ecology and evolution.

PEACE TALKS
"Syria Calling" (New Yorker, Apr. 6, 2009)
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, AB’58, warns the Obama administration to grab his opportunity to talk with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

CHECK MATE
"Wall Street Brings Chess to Main Street" (United States Chess Foundation, Mar. 31, 2009)
Retired businessman Rex Sinquefield, MBA’72, is sponsoring his lifelong passion, chess, in his native St. Louis.

WORKING WITH THE FDA
"Moving Up: Rendón, Broadbent Join Non-Profit C-Path (Arizona Daily Star, Mar. 22, 2009)
Beatriz Rendón, MPP’96, joined the Critical Path Institute, a nonprofit partnership of the University of Arizona and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

WEIGHT-LOSS EXPERT
"Dr. Ian Smith to Speak at IUN" (NWI.com, Mar. 31, 2009)
Ian Smith, MD’97—author of The 4 Day Diet—designed a modular eating style in which dieters change foods every four days.

The Maroon-themed Peeps dioramas are in. While the judges split hares, you can take a peep and vote for the Peeple's Choice winner. All winners will be announced Tuesday, April 14, on UChiBLOGo.

SLIDESHOW TIPS:

• AUTOPLAY: Press the triangle button in the center of the slide show to start the autoplay.


• FULL SCREEN: For a full-screen view, start the autoplay, then click on the icon made of four arrows in the bottom far right of the slide-show nav. (Press the Esc key at any time to exit.)


• CAPTIONS: Once in full-screen view, click the "Show Info" text link in top of the slide-show nav. Clicking this link will load the caption information.


• ADDITIONAL VIEWING OPTION: View the complete photo set on Flickr.

Little more than a butler’s pantry, the kitchen off of Swift Hall's Common Room is not cut out for the Wednesday Community Luncheon's usual 100 attendees. The cooking and dishwashing area is a ship’s galley kitchen: 20 inches wide at the narrowest. Ten student cooks—each armed with a full-size commercial cookie sheet (and an opinion)—crowd in and out of the space while preparing a vegetarian meal for students, faculty, and community members.

Chef and Divinity School graduate student Rebecca Anderson, ’10, logged the goings-on in the kitchen last Wednesday, the spring quarter's first lunch (bread, salad, soup, quiche, and strudel) and annual April 1 Franz Bibfeldt lecture.

7:45 a.m.
I arrive successfully—and uncharacteristically—before the rest of the crew. I unload the groceries that spent the night refrigerated in my car thanks to the freezing temperature the night before.

8 a.m.
Our new bread baker is the first to arrive, and I point out where the tools are that she'll need.

“Where are the attachments for the standing mixer?”

"Somewhere in these three drawers? Or maybe these cupboards?”

8:05 a.m.
I leave to park my car.

8:35 a.m.
It’s street-cleaning day, which makes parking impossible. I drive home and bike back to the Div School, where I find that some of the cooks are working on the bread and studel and others are trying to boil water to make vegetable stock for the soup.

9 a.m.
I peel carrots and chop onions for the soup.

“Does anyone feel like music?”

Someone pops the Rushmore soundtrack into a portable CD player.

9:30 a.m.
While working on the quiches, one cook remarks how disgusting and eggy it all is.

“There’s salmonella all over the kitchen."

“You don’t know that for a fact.”

10:30 a.m.
There’s always a mid-morning lull, once all the chopping is done. While the bread rises, we set the tables.

“Which side does the napkin go on?”

A twosome puts the strudels together, laboriously peeling apart sheets of delicate phyllo dough. The other cooks photocopy menus for the tables, arrange flowers, and fill carafes at the Div School coffee shop.

10:45 a.m.

“What’s burning?”

Someone accidentally left something on the stove's burner. About 15 percent of the time, it is a hot mat that has caught on fire.

11:30 a.m.
Some cooks leave to attend chapel. Everyone else starts to take care of things we ought to have done already.

“Did you fill the creamers?”

“Where's the dressing?”

“What’s this goat cheese for?”

“Who is filling the water pitchers?”

“Salad! Start the salad!”

11:50 a.m.
Lunchers start to line up in the lobby. Someone remembers to prepare the yellow soapy vat for dirty silverware.

12:02 p.m.

“I’m going to open the doors.”

12:10 p.m.
As people sit down, we start to serve drinks. In the kitchen, I ladle the soup and another cook adds a parsley garnish. We take the food out.

12:35 p.m.

“Can we start?”

The strudel takes too long. We whisper in the kitchen. Five of us, using two knives, get the messy strudel off the baking sheets and onto serving plates. We serve dessert.

Eventually the crew stands in a clump by the kitchen door, seeing that the coffee and tea are passed around. I notice something's missing.

"Whoops! The creamers are still in the fridge."

We sit down to eat while the inside-joke riddled Franz Bibfeldt lecture begins. For us it’s just a break before cleaning up, but it’s also the real Wednesday lunch.

RELATED READING

• "A Man of Faith and Fiction" (UChiBLOGo, Mar. 31, 2006)


• "Eminent Theologian Franz Bibfeldt an Influential Enigma" (Chicago Chronicle, Mar. 16, 2006)


• "The Unbearable Lightness of Being Bibfeldt" (University of Chicago Magazine, Feb/95)

RECOMMENDED LINKS

• Video: Web site: Wednesday Community Luncheons


• Video: Web site: Divinity School

EDUCATING RESEARCH
"Another Chicagoan, John Q. Easton, Tapped for Obama Administration" (The Scoop from Washington blog, Chicago Sun-Times, Apr. 3, 2009)
President Obama nominated John Q. Easton, PhD'81, executive director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, to direct the Institute of Education Sciences, the nation's engine for evaluating and improving education.

HUMAN SIDE OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
"Professor Examines Stocks, Emotion, Philosophy" (Daily Star, Mar. 31, 2009)
"We're still in the panic stage. Human beings are emotionally driven. This is true in the stock market," says Michael Green, AM'75, PhD'79.

GREAT DEBATER
"Debate Coach, 88, Instills Pride, Purpose for 60 Years" (Houston Chronicle, Mar. 14, 2009)
Philosophy professor Thomas Freeman, PhD'48, has led the Texas Southern University debate team for the past 60 years: “Many times I say, ‘This is a waste of effort.’ And then another student comes along.”

ON-THE-FLY CRITICISM
"David Suzuki Shares His Thoughts on Shen Yun" (Epoch Times, Apr. 4, 2009)
Zoologist David Suzuki, AM'93, offers his critique of Shen Yun after watching the Chinese classical dance group perform at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY WATCH
"It’s Not Just Microsoft That’s Balking at Google’s Book Plans" (Bits technology blog, New York Times, Apr. 4, 2009)
Law School professor Randy Picker, JD’85, identifies potential antitrust problems with the Google Book Search settlement.

NO CHANCE FOR THE CUBS?
"An Inferiority Complex 101 Years in the Making" (USA Today, Apr. 3, 2009)
"For the Cubs to have gone this long without winning everything, in a statistical sense, is highly unlikely to have happened by chance," economist Allen Sanderson, AM'70, says. "So if it's not bad luck, what is it?"

CHOREOGRAPHING THE PAST
"Black America Dances U.S. History" (Radio France Internationale, Mar. 17, 2009)
A new exhibition at the National Dance Centre (CND) in Paris traces black and white dance forms in America and reflects on the legacy of choreographer Katherine Dunham, PhB’36.

STILL CLOWNING AROUND
"500 Clown and the Elephant Deal Opens at Steppenwolf" (Forbes, Apr. 2, 2009)
In residence from 2005-2007 with University Theater/TAPS, 500 Clown prepares for its new show inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s Man Is Man, set to open in late June as part of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s visiting-company initiative.

ISSUE AT HAND
"A Functioning Hand" (Philadelphia Inquirer, Apr. 6, 2009)
Bioethicist John Lantos questions whether hand transplants are better than modern prosthetics, given the surgical risks and lifelong need for medications.

PRIME GROWTH
"Disease-Resistant Plants Are Study's Focus" (UPI.com, Apr. 6, 2009)
Two Chicago researchers found a naturally occurring compound that triggers a plant’s immune system. Published in the April 3 Science, the discovery might lead to better food quality and higher agricultural yields.

Submit your best University of Chicago-themed photos to Phoenix Pix.

SACRED TEXT SCHOLARSHIP
“Bookshelf: A People and Their Karma” (Wall Street Journal, Apr. 1, 2009)
Reviewer Tunku Varadarajan notes the “tartness” with which Divinity School professor Wendy Doniger writes about the cultural history of Hindu people in her new book, The Hindus.

LONG-TERM FISCAL BALANCE
“A Working Man’s Tax Break” (Baltimore Sun, Apr. 7, 2009)
In Thomas Schaller’s recent op-ed about a payroll-tax holiday, he quotes SSA professor Harold Pollack: “Although conservatives exaggerate the long-term fiscal challenge posed by Social Security, we do need to stay disciplined to maintain the program’s public legitimacy and to reduce the need for future tax increases if we face new fiscal challenges.”

FUNDING FOR THE LABS
“U.S. Gives Two Chicago-Area Labs $48 Million” (Chicago Tribune, Mar. 24, 2009)
Fermi and Argonne received government funds for construction, infrastructure, and research through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

SIZING UP CHICAGO BASEBALL
Opinionated: 2009 Sizzlers and Fizzlers" (Chicago, Apr. 2009)
Pundit and statistician Nate Silver, AB’00, predicts a big season for the Cubs and Indians, but he expects trouble for the Sox and Pirates.

EDITORIAL LEGACY
“Chris Newman” (News Bites blog, Chicago Reader, Apr. 7, 2009)
Andrew Patner, X’81, and Ron Dorfman, AB’62, reveal how Chicago’s senior editor Christine [“Chris”] Newman, AB’73, AM’74, helped find and shape the magazine’s most memorable—and award-winning—stories.

PROLIFERATING NONPROLIFERATION
"Axelrod: Obama Will Create Nuke-Free World" (Politico Live blog, Apr. 5, 2009)
During an interview last Sunday, White House senior adviser David Axelrod, AB'76, discussed President Obama's disarmament plans: "We live in a dangerous world, and we can't unilaterally disarm, but we can lead the movement to corral nuclear weapons and begin the process of reduction."

MUMMIFIED FACEBOOK FRIENDS
“Twitter Need: Can Social Media Transform Museums?” (Time Out Chicago, Apr. 2-8, 2009)
Meresamun, the Oriental Institute’s popular 3,000-year-old mummy, can credit her growing notoriety to social-networking sites like Facebook, where she interacts with friends—and fans.

OUTSMARTING BACTERIA
“Research Could Lead to New Non-Antibiotic Drugs to Counter HAIs” (Infection Control Today, Apr. 8, 2009)
“It’s almost as if the bacterium sense when to strike,” surgery professor John Alverdy says. “That should come as no surprise since the bacteria are smart, having been around for two billion years.”

SMOKING TAXES
“Do Smokers Cost Society Money?” (Associated Press, Apr. 8, 2009)
Health economics and policy professor Willard Manning weighs in on the debate about tobacco taxes and the price nonsmokers pay for smokers' health care.

NEW WHITE HOUSE ROLE
“President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts” (White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Apr. 8, 2009)
Yesterday President Obama nominated Mary L. Smith, JD’91, for assistant attorney general, tax division.

REPLACING RAHM, UPDATE
“Mike Quigley Wins Election to Congress” (Chicago Tribune, Apr. 8, 2009)
After winning Illinois's 5th Congressional District special election earlier this week, Democrat Mike Quigley, AM’85, heads to Washington to replace Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, in Congress.

POWER MAKER
“Peter Tallian Named CFO at BTU” (Journal of New England Technology, Apr. 9, 2009)
Peter Tallian, MBA’82, is the new CFO for the solar-cell, nuclear-fuel and fuel-cell maker BTU International Inc.

Two students were the envy of the other public-policy fourth-years last Saturday. I was one, and my Cape Town roommate was the other. The reason: our exemption—for having been abroad—from giving 15-minute presentations on our theses at the first Public Policy Symposium.

The 45 presentations were divided into nine thematic panels. I attended “Housing Policy” in the afternoon. Caroline Weisser, ‘09, investigated whether social capital can be used to reduce crime in New York City’s public housing. She began her research after the New York City Housing Authority announced a plan in May 2008 to close hundreds of community centers because of a budget crisis. Studying several factors to measure social capital, Weisser found that informal social control (people regulating each other outside of the legal system) and collective efficacy (or a group’s understanding that it can take action) had the greatest effect on reducing crime. So she concluded that the city should keep the centers open and streamline programming.

But there was some confusion in the audience about causation versus correlation. Could Weisser’s data prove, someone asked, that the community centers are actually responsible for lowering crime? What about changes in the economy, or stricter policing, or something seemingly unrelated, like the weather?

I can sympathize with the difficulty of making causal claims when it comes to crime. My own thesis is about the Chicago Housing Authority’s police force, and I’ve learned that crime data is one of the trickiest kinds to work with. So many things affect crime that it is nearly impossible to isolate a single variable. Actual crime also differs from reported crime, which differs from arrests, which differs from convictions. And crime data in places like Chicago have been subject to political maneuvering as well, meaning that old statistics may be unreliable.

At lunchtime we took a break from student presentations to hear a keynote speaker with some expertise of his own in tricky data: Charles Wheelan, PhD'98, Harris School professor and author of Naked Economics. Wheelan discussed the disconnect between good economics and policy, and good politics. If people have an option between losing weight on a treadmill or losing weight while eating cupcakes and taking magic pills at night, he said, they choose the cupcakes, however unrealistic that may be. “The essence of public policy,” Wheelan explained, “is convincing people to use the treadmill,” and “the essence of politics is talking about cupcakes.”

Professor Woody Carter disagreed during the Q&A. A sociologist, Carter believes that “people are already on their own treadmill.” What you’re telling them, he said to Wheelan, is “get off your treadmill and get on mine.” To make good policy, he continued, “we need to understand their treadmill.”

Shira Tevah, ’09

RELATED READING

• "The Big One" (University of Chicago Magazine, June/06)


• "5 Questions with: Charlie Wheelan" (Chicago Public Radio blog, Mar. 6, 2009)

RECOMMENDED LINKS

• Web site: Harris School of Public Policy


• Web site: Public Policy Studies in the College

CAMPUS LEADER
“Holy Cross Announces New Director of Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture” (Holy Cross News Office, Apr. 6, 2009)
In his new position at Holy Cross, Thomas M. Landy, AM’86, a religious scholar, plans to develop mission-related programming for students.

FILMMAKER’S INSPIRATION
“The Secrets Behind Let the Right One In” (Time Out London, Apr. 2-8, 2009)
When listing his influences, Swedish director Tomas Alfredson includes The Graduate by filmmaker Mike Nichols, X’53, at the top of his list. “It’s very funny, but it’s also very serious at the same time.”

BASEBALL SPEAK
“Yannigans of Summer” (Washington Post, Apr. 9, 2009)
David Broder, AB’47, AM’51, recommends The Dickson Baseball Dictionary to lovers of the language of America’s favorite pastime.

TAX DEBATES
“Richly Undeserved” (New York Times, Apr. 10, 2009)
In his story about the economic problems of the wealthy, columnist David Leonhardt examines former Chicago Booth professor Austan Goolsbee’s study of Clinton tax increases.

ECONOMIC CHEERLEADING
“Economy Needs Cheerleaders, and a Pep Band” (Morning Edition, NPR, Apr. 9, 2009)
Chicago Booth professor Richard Thaler explains how speaking positively about the economy will have a positive effect on it.

ROUTINE MAMMOGRAMS
“Experts Support Annual Mammogram Regimen Under Fire in Britain” (Medill Reports Chicago, Apr. 9, 2009)
Radiology professor and mammography expert Robert Schmidt disagrees with a new study that challenges the practice of regular screening for breast cancer. “The study really tried to dismantle screening women in the 40–50 year range,” he says. “That’s very ill conceived. This is certainly the best thing we’ve got right now.”

TEACHING TEENS ABOUT FINANCES
“CV Grad Promotes Financial Literacy” (Cresenta Valley Sun, Apr. 10, 2009)
College students Ted Gonder and Greg Nance, cofounders of the nonprofit education organization American Investment Fellows, teach high-school students in urban public schools about finances.

CONNECTIVITY, NOT COMMUNITY
“Twittering in Silence” (kulturCritic blog, Apr. 10, 2009)
“We share our daily goings-on, our clumsy missteps and our secret intimacies with those who would be watching us—our friends and followers.” says Sandy Krolick, AM’76. “We are all voyeurs and exhibitionists seeking the thrill of connectivity without the weighty consequences of real life community.”

HAPPINESS HOW-TO
“The How of Happiness” (Good Housekeeping, Apr. 2009)
If you’re in a bad mood, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, AB’60, PhD’65, suggests that you try to find your “flow.”

AN HONOR FOR ASHCROFT
“Truman Selects Three for Honorary Degrees” (Heartland Connection, KTVO3, Apr. 10, 2009)
John Ashcroft, JD’67, will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree at Truman State University’s May 9 graduation ceremonies.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO OBAMA
“Ritual on Jesus’ Words Includes a Familiar Voice” (New York Times, Apr. 10, 2009)
At last Tuesday’s annual Vermeer String Quartet performance of Haydn’s “Seven Last Words of Christ” at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, it was President Obama’s voice reading the accompanying Gospel (Matthew 27:51–54)—from a recording made in 2000, when he was a senior lecturer in the Law School.

INCOMING MONSTER OF THE MIDWAY
“Driscoll Shows Fight” (Chicago Sun-Times, Apr. 10, 2009)
Quarterback Steve Schwabe, a senior at a small Catholic school in west suburban Addison, Illinois, heads to the University of Chicago this fall.

RECESSION-REBOUND STRATEGIES
“Obama sees 'glimmers of hope'" (Los Angeles Times, Apr. 11, 2009)
Chicago Booth economics and finance professor Anil Kashyap suggests that the government define its strategy and implement it quickly: “They’re going to get one more shot” with Congress.

ASTRONOMER-ATHLETE
“Before Revolutionizing Astronomy, Hubble Helped Rewrite Record Books”(Chicago Maroon, Apr. 10, 2009)
Edwin Hubble, SB’10, PhD’17, impressed not only his U of C teachers in the classroom but also his fellow student-athletes and coaches on the basketball court and around the track.

CONCIERGE CARE PRACTICES
“Concierge Doctors: The Future of Primary Care?” (In Denver Times, Apr. 13, 2009)
Medical ethics and health policy assistant professor G. Caleb Alexander, SM’03, worries that concierge care raises ethical questions: “Concerns have been raised about retainer-fee practices leading to patient abandonment as they convert, possible decrease in charity care and exacerbation of health-care inequities.”

LIVING IN A REVOLUTIONARY AGE
“Why Things May Never Return to Normal” (Flow Chart blog, U.S. News & World Report, Apr. 10, 2009)
In an interview with business correspondent Rick Newman, Joshua Cooper Ramo, AB’92, describes how on 9/11, “19 guys on four airplanes realigned our entire security structure.”

NUDGING AGENDA
“The Diary: Richard Thaler” (Financial Times, Apr. 11, 2009)
Chicago Booth professor Richard H. Thaler describes highlights from his recent trip to London to promote his book Nudge.

WRAP MUSIC
“Meresamun Song Contest” (Facebook, Apr. 7–May 7, 2009)
The Oriental Institute’s mummy Meresamun, a high-ranking singer in Thebes’s Karnak Temple around 800 BC, misses her music. To enter her song contest, mummy-loving songwriters can submit new lyrics to an old tune at her Facebook fan page.

CHICAGO’S BEST-KEPT SECRET
“Chicago Museum Opens Magical Doors” (Commercial-News, Apr. 10, 2009)
Reporter Kevin Cullen raves about the Oriental Institute in his review of the museum and its treasures: “The Oriental Institute Museum tells the story of ancient Mesopotamia—that magical land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers—that shaped the modern world in so many wonderful ways.”

No one ever went broke overestimating the creativity of U of C people—and the entries in the University of Chicago Magazine Peeps Diorama Contest prove it. The judges had lots of fun reviewing the Maroon-themed scenes and a hard time narrowing them down to the top three winners. But that’s what judges do, and we did:

• 1st place ($250)
  “Peeps at the Point,” by Laura Wunder, AB’85, JD'90


• 2nd place ($150)
  “Peep-Out ’89,” by Rebecca Dono Healy, AB’90


• 3rd place ($100)
  “Latpeep-Bunnahtash Debate,” by Laura Sillers, a first-year student in the Pritzker School of Medicine

The first- and second-place winners will also receive an array of Just Born Candy goodies.

All the entries can be seen in our online Peeple's Choice gallery, where the diorama garnering the most votes—and thus a signed copy of Magazine photographer Dan Dry’s coffee-table book of University photographs, was “Eliot Nest and the UnPeepables,” by Katie Hrinyak, AM'06.

MEMORIES OF HIROSHIMA
“Hideko Tamura Snider Calls for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons” (Wooster News Office, Apr. 6, 2009)
Haunted by the bombing of Hiroshima, survivor Hideko Tamura Snider, AM’60, speaks out against nuclear weapons: “My mother never came home, and it has left a hole in my heart to this day. I lived a miserable existence for many years and tried to take my own life on several occasions.”

MOVIE RETROSPECTIVE
“Shorts, Fests, Etc, 4/11” (The Daily blog, IFC.com, Apr. 11, 2009)
Starting this week through May, the films of Mike Nichols, X’53, make up the latest retrospective at MoMA in New York. Rajendra Roy, the chief curator of film at MoMA, says, “Here is a guy who is in some ways quintessentially Hollywood, and yet you can see in his movies a consistent through-line. He’s an example of how popular cinema can be vision based.”

BALANCING TRUE LOVE & HAPPINESS
“Is Lasting Love Altruistic Love?” (BlissTree.com, Apr. 11, 2009)
Director of the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey since 1980, Tom Smith, PhD’80, found that “having feelings of altruistic love toward a significant other not only leads to greater marital happiness but general increase in general happiness in one’s life.”

“There are two kinds of chokes,” said Amanda Wingate, ’09, “blood chokes and air chokes. We’re going to learn both.” We started Wednesday night’s beginning Krav Maga class with air chokes, the less scary of the two, in Wingate’s opinion, because with blood chokes “you don’t know how dangerous it is until it’s too late” and the blood flow to your brain is cut off. I found air chokes intimidating enough.

I went to the class to learn some self-defense, but I had little clue what I was in for. Krav Maga is the Israeli Defense Forces’ form of martial arts. Slow motion is not a part of learning the technique; bodily contact is. After demonstrating our first move, called “forward choke with a push,” Wingate, who has studied Krav Maga for six years and taught it for five, split us into pairs. I stood on the defense side of the room across from a stranger named Sam. “I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” I said. We switched places so I could be on offense. I hedged for a moment. Then I stepped forward and closed my fingers around his neck.

He responded as we’d been shown: he stepped back, pivoted on his right foot while arcing his right arm over mine to release my grip, caught my arms with his left, and threw his right elbow inches from my temple. We did it over and over, at least a dozen times. “Are you really choking him?” Wingate asked as she walked by. She encouraged me to use more intensity. “He has to feel the adrenaline,” she explained, to be prepared for a real encounter. If we were actually hurt or uncomfortable, Wingate had told us earlier, we could tap twice on partner, body, or floor. “If I ever, ever see anyone not stop immediately after a double tap,” she warned, “you will be out of this class.”

Finally I moved to defense. The first time Sam attacked I lost my balance, panic making me forget to pivot. By the fourth or fifth time, I was better. I had a painful, burning sensation on my neck—an unsightly bruise still marks the spot. Sam and I didn’t make much small talk; all I know is his first name.

I left with an adrenaline high, feeling empowered and ready to show off. But underneath the exhilaration, I’m frightened by what I didn’t know before—like which part of the fist to punch with—and by what I still don’t know. I felt nervous and jumpy in the Henry Crown practice room, as though preparing for danger makes it more likely—a trick of the mind. It was disconcerting how quickly I got used to acting violent. But I’m willing to risk heightened fear and being desensitized for some personal security, and I’ll keep going back.

Shira Tevah, ’09

Maybe it was last week’s scathing review of his new book, Gringo: A Coming of Age in Latin America, in the New York Times. Maybe it was his hometown draw as a '99 alumnus of the Laboratory Schools. Maybe it was his famous radical parents, David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, jailed for their activities with the Weather Underground. Whatever the reason, Chesa Boudin—author, traveler, Rhodes Scholar, and Yale law student—packed a seminar room in Kelly Hall for Monday’s lunchtime talk and book signing. His presentation, jointly sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies and the Human Rights Program, focused on the lessons he says Americans can learn if they pay closer attention to the region’s shifting political and social movements. Boudin, 28, spent eight of the past ten years crisscrossing the continent—studying Spanish in Guatemala, descending the Cerro Rico mines in Bolivia, riding a cargo boat down the Amazon, and serving as a foreign-policy adviser to President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. So maybe the audience showed up because they were interested in what he had to say. Here are some excerpts.

Why the book
Over the course of ten years of travel in Latin America, I came to believe that there was a story I could share that was worth sharing, that the on-the-ground experiences I had, the people I came across, the friendships I built were worth recounting to a broader audience. Not that Latin Americans aren’t capable of telling their own stories or sharing their own voices, but all too often the Latin American voices that get shared in this country are of a very narrow sector that’s not representative certainly of the social movements that I find so exciting and that have really been shaking up the region for the last ten years.

A few policy recommendations
Today in the United States, we have a unique and particular opportunity to redefine for the better our relationship with Latin America. There are three particular areas where Obama has opportunities that have vast implications for domestic policy as well as U.S. foreign policy in the region. First is the relationship with Venezuela and Cuba, which has been so strained. He can alleviate that tension and bring both of those countries back into normal diplomatic relations with the United States if he chooses to do so. The second is the war on drugs. It’s high time that the government in this country recognized it as a costly failure. Last is immigration. We should recognize the crucial role that immigrants play not only to our economy but also to the culture. It’s unconscionable that we continue to criminalize and incarcerate immigrants who come here looking for a better way of life.

How he travels
Many of the stories I ended up writing about were accidental. I don’t generally plan details, beyond visas, in advance. There’s a real advantage to not planning your trips carefully. When you’re doing overland travel, there’s a real advantage of having that flexibility because it allows you to get off the bus when a person says "Why don’t you stay at my family’s house tonight?" If I’d been flying in and out of capital cities, not only would my understanding of the region as a whole been fragmented, but I would have missed out on some of the best opportunities to get to know people in the countries I was visiting.

Why Gringo isn’t a tell-all memoir
The book has 85,000 words and about 3,000 of them are about my parents. It’s a theme of the book; it’s something I reflect on at various points, but it’s not the focus at all, and every situation where I bring them up I do it consciously within a context of a focus on Latin America.

Elizabeth Station

TECHNOLOGY TAKEOVER
“Oracle in $7.4bn Swoop on Sun” (Financial Times, Apr. 20, 2009)
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who studied physics at Chicago before leaving to start the software company in 1977, has closed a deal to purchase Sun Microsystems.

SETTLING THE SCORE
“From Urinetown to Ancient Greece” (Los Angeles Times, Apr. 22, 2009)
Tony Award winner Mark Hollmann, AB’85, created the music and lyrics and Edward Jack Helbig, AB'80, wrote the book for The Girl, the Grouch, and the Goat—a musical loosely based on the ancient Greek comedy Dyskolos that debuted at the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills.

FIRM DEAL
“Sutton and Ratcliffe Launch New Firm with Ashcroft” (Tex Parte blog, Texas Lawyer, Apr. 21, 2009)
John Ashcroft, JD’67, former U.S. attorney general, is starting a new law firm in Texas—Ashcroft Sutton & Ratcliffe—with two former Texas U.S. attorneys.

The Chicago Green Homes Program has a 1,000-point scale on which you can rate your home for energy efficiency and environmental friendliness. The first time Tim Heppner proposed his plan to the city program to certify his house as a “Chicago Green Home,” he told an audience at the Divinity School lunch on Wednesday, “the guy said, ‘You can’t get this many points.’” Heppner, an Iowa native who calls himself “just a carpenter,” had designed a home scoring 882 points. The nearest proposal was somewhere in the 300s.

Heppner and his brother Charles began their project four years ago when they bought a modest house at 86th and Marquette in South Chicago. It makes sense to build in an urban area like Chicago, Heppner says, because “there are only buildings here. We’re not going to bring back the swamps.” Starting with a whole building—instead of on empty land—was his “biggest resource.” He removed the walls and floors but says, “Every piece of wood I took out, I’m going to put back in.”

To make the house greener, Heppner put in three different layers of insulation—the walls now are 11.5 inches thick. “We’re basically at the point,” he says, “where when you open the front door,” the house is so tightly sealed that “it’s like a refrigerator.” He makes a popping sound to demonstrate and explains that a typical house has .5 air exchanges per hour, and his only has .1, meaning—in lay terms—there are never any drafts. He also calculated the angle of the sun and placed the windows so that “for 45 days in the summer, no direct sunlight will enter the windows” on the south face.

Using a topographical map of his backyard, Heppner planned rain management. The goal is to keep water away from the building, but also, Heppner says, to save it from the city’s system, where “perfectly good rainwater gets mixed with raw sewage.” Heppner’s design puts 120,000 gallons back into the environment every year with rain barrels that collect water from the roof, a garden on the garage that can take an inch of rain, and several bio-swales—“what we in the country used to call drainage ditches”—that are planted with native swamp plants and can take 400 gallons at a time.

Heppner emphasizes cost-saving with measures such as “the poor man’s geothermal heat pump,” which substitutes plastic piping and heat exchangers for an especially pricey technology. He hopes similar measures can be implemented throughout Chicago. Alhough he has worked on his home since 2005, he believes that multiple people working on a house could reduce the time to a few months. “We have to do this on 400,000 homes within the next ten years,” he says, referring to his involvement in the Chicago Climate Action Plan, “to meet the city’s sustainability goals.”

Iowa City is still Heppner’s official address, and although he spends the occasional night in the house-in-progress, it won’t be completed until June. Chicago’s greenest home is also one of its most comfortable, and Heppner is enthusiastic about finally moving in. “There’s no street noise inside,” he says, “no drafts, and the floors are radiant, so they’re warm.”

Shira Tevah, ’09

CUTTING-EDGE LAPAROSCOPY
“The Future and Past of Surgery” (Popular Science, Apr. 16, 2009)
A photo essay about the past 20 years’ surgical advances includes Kevin Zorn, assistant professor of surgery and codirector of the Medical Center’s minimally invasive urology program, performing a laparoscopic nephrectomy.

CALCULATING IN KANSAS
“Wichita Schools’ New Math Curriculum Has Touch of Old-School” (Wichita Eagle, Apr. 17, 2009)
Starting next year, Wichita teachers will use Everyday Mathematics, a curriculum developed at the University of Chicago, in grades K–5.

BLINDING THEM WITH SCIENCE
“Music for Scientists” (Chicagoist blog, Apr. 21, 2009)
Physics professors Heinrich Jaeger and Sidney Nagel take the stage with Chicago-based band Mira Mira Saturday to perform science demonstrations at the group’s record-release party.

David:
Now this is a story all about how
Three UChicago students from different towns
All came together and sat right there
To be on College Council sitting in big leather chairs

CK:
In Shengzhen, China, born and raised
In the Regenstein was where I spent most of my days
Stressing out, studying, studying in school
And eating some dumplings outside of the school
When a couple of guys
Who were up to some good
Started AIF in my neighborhood
I had some noodles and I cut my hair
I said, “These noodles are too hot! I’m running for College Council!”

Ted:
We dance with Bartlett workers day after day
We go to Ratner Center to lift some weights
When you see our names at the top of the ticket,
Check yes, click send, and we might as well kick it!

DEATH ROW RECORDS-HOLDER
“New Life for Death Row” (Macleans, Apr. 23, 2009)
WIDEawake Entertainment Group founder Lara Lavi, X’82, made her first connection to the music world while waiting tables at the blues bar Kingston Mines to pay her U of C tuition.

IN BLUME
“Girlfriends’ Cyber Circuit Author Interview: Jennifer O’Connell” (Reading, Writing, and Chocolate blog, Apr. 22, 2009)
Jennifer O’Connell, MBA’96, editor of the young-adult anthology Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned From Judy Blume, answers questions about her dream job, upcoming projects, and chocolate preferences.

ORBITING B-BALL
“Hubble’s U of C Basketball Shooting into Space” (Chicago Sun-Times, Apr. 22, 2009)
When astronaut John M. Grunsfeld, SM’84, PhD’88, shuttles into space mid-May, he’ll bring with him a 100-year-old basketball that belonged to another alum: Edwin Hubble, SB’10, PhD’17.

GLASS ON GLASS
“Q&A: Ira Glass” (Hypertext blog, Chicago Tribune, Apr. 17, 2009)
This American Life host Ira Glass talks about getting to know his cousin, Philip Glass, AB’56, and planning their upcoming collaboration: “He’s going to sit onstage with a piano and play stuff, and I’m going to play some of the symphonic stuff on a machine for him to talk about.”

All listings by...

I’m not a stalker, OK? Well, I try not to be. But the Internet makes it so easy. It started out innocently enough. While browsing UChi Marketplace, I found myself wondering, what’s a baby mini lop?

Intriguing. So I thought I’d look at the other five listings she had up. Is that so wrong?

She’s moving into an apartment in July—that we know. But I thought she wouldn’t have time to walk a dog…? So I had to keep looking.

OK, she’s still moving into an apartment in July; that’s consistent. But she wants furniture from pet-free environments? What, so it’s in good enough shape to be scratched and chewed by a puppy or small dog or up to two mini lops?

I make a mental note not to buy any used furniture from this person in a year or so when her lease goes up. For the time being, this is her only for-sale listing.

I can’t imagine what UChicago classes you need lotion/books for. I know there are alumni of a certain age who think they’ve dumbed down the Core, but come on.

Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93

For more from UChi Bizarre-ketplace, check UChiBLOGo the last Friday of each month and the next issue of the Core, the College supplement to the University of Chicago Magazine, available in late May.

HABITABLE SUPER EARTH?
“Potential ‘Water World’ May Be Just Another Ice Ball” (Discoveries blog, Christian Science Monitor, Apr. 23, 2009)
Ray Pierrehumbert, a Chicago scientist who studies planetary atmospheres, calculates that Gliese 581d—a planet nearly eight times the size of Earth—would have an uninhabitable surface temperature about 100 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

BLACK SHEEP SERENO
“6 Kids from the Chicago-Area Sereno Family Become Powerhouse PhDs” (Chicago Tribune, Apr. 24, 2009)
Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno, who didn’t follow his siblings, including Martin, SM’84, PhD’84, into neurological research, took to academics slowly as a child: “It was sort of insecurity. I didn’t do well with the structured way things are taught in school. I liked the more free-form, hands-on way of learning, like we did at home.”

UNDERSTATED SPENDING
“Government Surveys Underreport Benefits” (Eight Forty-Eight, Chicago Public Radio, Apr. 23, 2009)
Public-policy professor Bruce D. Meyer says government surveys that understate the people’s government benefits have a huge effect on policy and allocating money.

DANGEROUS WEB
“The Internet Is Absolute Democracy—Be Very Afraid!” (Tom Alderman's blog, Huffington Post, Apr. 22, 2009)
Robert Thompson, AB’81, worries about the Internet’s “precarious nature of authority. It’s potentially dangerous. It’s a complete democratization of information where unverified knowledge is often the result of our own emotional state.”

PUZZLE MASTER
“Pick Nine: Forming Words from a Jumble of Toothpicks” (Wired, Apr. 20, 2009)
Martin Gardner, AB’36, challenges readers to spell out Obama’s name by adjusting the placement of nine toothpicks from his original arrangement.

RHYTHM REUNITES
“Blues Reunion: Lay, Rockin’ Johnny Together for the First Time in a Decade” (South Bend Tribune, Apr. 23, 2009)
Guitarist Johnny Burgin, AB’92, rejoins drummer Sam Lay’s band for a Saturday gig in Mishawaka, Indiana: “It’s good to be back. It’s really wonderful.”

ME, MYSELF, AND I
“Generation Me” (Newsweek, Apr. 18, 2009)
In their new book The Narcissism Epidemic, Jean Twenge, AB’93, AM’93, and W. Keith Campbell reveal that nearly 10 percent of 20-somethings have experienced symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder, compared with 3 percent of the 65-and-over set.

BACK AT THE MOVIES
“Ebert Provides Tiny Sneak Preview of New Movies Show” (Chicago Tribune, Apr. 24, 2009)
Film critic Roger Ebert, X’70, announced his plans to debut a movie-review program involving critics Richard Roeper (Chicago Sun-Times), Michael Philips (Chicago Tribune), and Christy Lemire (Associated Press).

COLLEGE PREP TRANSITION
“Chicago’s Top Students Could Be Attending Tougher Colleges” (Eight Forty-Eight, Chicago Public Radio, Apr. 23, 2009)
“Even smart students are not born knowing how you make a good college choice or where you should go to college or how you should fill out a college application,” says Jenny Nagaoka, AM’99, the project director of the Chicago Postsecondary Transition Project based at the SSA.

CHICAGO CONNECTION CONTINUES
“Stony Brook Names New President" (Long Island Business News, Apr. 24, 2009)
Stony Brook University officials announced that Samuel L. Stanley Jr., AB’76, will serve as the school’s fifth president, replacing Shirley Strum Kenny, PhD’64—the institution’s first female president—who retires in June.

FAUX BUT FUNNY
“Seymour Hersh Uncovers New Thing Too Sad to Think About” (Onion, Apr. 22, 2009)
The comedy team behind the fake stories at the Onion take a jab at investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, AB’58.

Magazine intern Shira Tevah, ’09, spent winter quarter abroad as part of Chicago’s African Civilizations course. This is her last dispatch about her time in South Africa.—Ed.

I wore sundresses and nice shoes more often in Cape Town than I remember ever having done. That isn’t what you expect someone just back from Africa to say. It wasn’t what I had expected either—most of South Africa was more developed than I had realized it would be. On the South African rand I could afford a more elegant lifestyle than in Chicago. A fancy, several-course meal with wine usually cost less than $15, and often the temptation was too great to ignore.

My friends and I were uncomfortable spending so much time shopping, eating delicious food, and seeing occasional theater. We had hoped to focus on the sociopolitical landscape, but we didn’t find it very accessible. Cape Town is physically segregated: the city’s population is mostly white and middle- or upper-class, while the poor live miles away. Professors John and Jean Comaroff and David Bunn talked to us about volunteering and interning opportunities but warned that we might be more trouble for organizations than we’d be worth.

I did leave the city center several times to meet up with a friend of history graduate student Toussaint Losier. Losier worked with the Anti-Eviction Campaign last summer through Chicago’s Human Rights Internship Program, and he put me in contact with the campaign’s Ashraf.Ashraf introduced me to a community of squatters living in shacks of wood, tin, and plastic bags behind a housing development, planning to stay until the government gave them promised homes. I also met his cousin, a woman organizing a union of suburban hawkers upset because they were no longer allowed to sell their vegetables, socks, and electronics on the town square. But at the end of the day, I went back to my luxurious guesthouse on a hill.

We did have unlimited access to our South African professors. They invited us into their homes and introduced us to their friends. They drove us around the country for hours at a time, while we mined them for stories and information. (We were especially car-bound for two weeks in Kruger, where visitors may only exit their vehicles with a guide because of wild animals freely roving the national park). They put up with heroic amounts of student angst—about poverty, AIDS, inequality, and our place in it all—and scores of annoying questions.

I gradually pieced together an understanding of the city and nation, based on the courses, daily life, newspapers, and events including a panel of government officials from different political parties, hosted by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa. The Cape Town program was the beginning of my Africa education, and I hope to build on it in coming years. Traveling transposes a vivid picture onto the imprecise and mostly blank world map in my head, and now, as I follow the South African elections and other news, the stories resonate.

Shira Tevah, ’09

RECOMMENDED LINK

• Web site: African Civilizations Study Abroad Program

RECOMMENDED READING

• Dispatch One, “The New Year Begins in Africa” (UChiBLOGo, Jan. 2, 2009)
• Dispatch Two, “Magical Thinking” (UChiBLOGo, Feb. 4, 2009)

HIGH SCHOOL HI-TECH ECON
“Futuristic Class Coming to Chicago Heights” (Chicago Sun-Times, Apr. 23, 2009)
Using Web cams and Skype, U of C graduate student Trevor Gallen, SB’08, and Chicago Booth professor John List will be among the instructors teaching economics via Internet to Chicago Heights eighth-graders next year.

SATAN'S TOUR GUIDE
“Paul Durica Unearths the Hidden History of the South Side” (Chicago Weekly, Apr. 23, 2009)
“Direct engagement with spaces and places allows for obscured narratives of true crime, social justice, and labor history to reemerge and resonate with the present moment,” says English PhD candidate Paul Durica, AM’06, who runs the Chicago-based Pocket Guide to Hell Tours.

SWINE FLU PREDICTION
“No Reported Swine Flu in Illinois So Far” (ABC 7 News, Chicago, Apr. 7, 2009)
Professor and chief of pediatric infectious diseases Kenneth Alexander predicts swine flu will not be a repeat of SARS: “I do not think this is a coming flag. But it’s really just too early to tell at this point.”

FREE APP FRENZY
“Meet Bump, the App Store’s Billionth Download” (PC World, Apr. 24, 2009)
Bump, created by Chicago Booth first-year students David Lieb and Jake Mintz along with friend Andy Huibers, was the one billionth application download at Apple’s online store last week.

Submit your best University of Chicago-themed photos to Phoenix Pix.

NFL NOSTRADAMUS
“Draft Signals Giants-Patriots Super Rematch” (Bloomberg.com, Apr. 28, 2009)
Kevin Hassett, economic-policy studies director at the American Enterprise Institute, uses the economic model of the National Football League draft created by professor Richard Thaler and his Yale colleague Cade Massey to predict the winners and losers of the annual draft.

CAR TALK
“GM’s New Road Map: Partial Nationalization” (Washington Post, Apr. 28, 2009)
Chicago Booth finance professor Luigi Zingales expresses his concerns about the government’s nationalization of General Motors: “Do you not think they will push GM to make green cars? Maybe that’s the right thing to do and maybe not. But it shouldn’t be decided by Congress.”

CONTAGIOUS FEELINGS
“Marital Mood Leak” (Oprah Magazine, April 2009)
Neuroscientist and psychology professor John Cacioppo explains how the brain’s “mirror neurons” cause your partner’s bad mood to transfer to you.

PHOTOGRAPHY PIONEER
“Stubbornly Practicing His Principles of Photography” (New York Times, Apr. 26, 2009)
Self-taught photographer Danny Lyon, AB’63, shares self-assigned—and largely unpublished—photos from the past four decades in his newest book Memories of Myself.

SINGING HER PRAISES
“Not Your Typical Nun” (Southtown Star, Apr. 12, 2009)
Sue Sanders, PhD’91, was awarded the Unsung Heroine Award from the Cook County Commission on Women’s Issues in March for her work “highlighting the powerful effect women have on the development of social, cultural, economic, and political institutions.”

TOP DOC
“Beutler Shares America’s Largest Prize in Medicine” (La Jolla Light, Apr. 24, 2009)
Bruce Beutler, MD’81, was honored last week for his discoveries that transformed the field of immunology with the $500,000 Albany Medical Center Prize, the largest award in medicine or science in the United States.

UNCOMMON MAN
“Uncommon Questions in Review” (New York Times, Apr. 14, 2009)
Dean of Admissions Theodore A. O’Neill, AM’70, shares his favorite uncommon application questions.

INTELLECTUAL PROVOCATEUR
“In It for the Duration” (Miller-McCune, Apr. 23, 2009)
Bard College president Leon Botstein, AB’67, discusses the state of education—from how No Child Left Behind testing encourages “outdated social science” to why mathematicians should be teaching math.

GREAT BROOKS SEMINAR
“Axelrod on Brooks: ‘True Public Thinker’” (Michael Calderone’s blog, Politico, Apr. 28, 2009)
“Most of you don’t know this, but David (Brooks, AB’83) and I have lived parallel lives,” David Axelrod, AB’76, revealed earlier this week at The Week’s Sixth Annual Opinion Awards, where Brooks was honored as columnist of the year.

GLENDON DECLINES ND HONOR
“An Open Letter to Notre Dame” (Newsweek, Apr. 27, 2009)
In a letter to the Notre Dame president sent earlier this week, Mary Ann Glendon, AB’59, JD’61, MCL’63, declined its Laetare Medal because of the university conferring an honorary degree on President Obama.

YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY TOMAHTO
“Of Loos and Language” (New York Times, Apr. 29, 2009)
Columnist Roger Cohen considers the differences between British and American English after his friend Vincent Katz, AB’82, casually used the word “knackered” during dinner conversation.

CHICAGO BOOTH IS 'MAG'-NIFICIENT
“Local Biz Schools Among Best in Class, Says Mag” (Chicago Business blog, Crain’s Chicago Business, Apr. 24, 2009)
U.S. News & World Report ranks Chicago Booth as the second-best part-time MBA program in the country, behind New York University’s Stern School of Business.

CENSORSHIP SUFFOCATES
“Educators Teach First Amendment—Then Ignore It” (State Journal-Register, Apr. 22, 2009)
U-High journalism teacher Wayne Brasler wants censoring student news to be the exception, not the rule: “The school is like an octopus that has grabbed and held tighter and tighter to students’ lives. The school has everyone and everything so tightly supervised, monitored, and channeled, there’s little room for anything going wrong.”

NUH-UH MOMENT
“Opraha!” (Static Zombie blog, Apr. 27, 2009)
Neither Mutual of Omaha nor Oprah Winfrey can truly claim first rights to the phrase “aha moment.” Although the Magazine’s editors have used it plenty in recent years and science writer Martin Gardner, AB’36, incorporated it into the title of his 1978 book of puzzles, etymological research reveals that “aha moment” was first used in the 1939 book General Psychology by L. E. Cole.

Last weekend Material Exchange—a group of four Chicago alums who breathe new life (and art) into found objects—got Hyde Parkers young and old to turn off their iPods, put down their Wiis, and step right up to their latest project, a collection of artist-made carnival games called King Ludd’s Midway Arcade.

The show, which continues this Friday and Saturday, features a hand-crafted wooden pinball machine, a giant kaleidoscope made from steel drums, a vintage 1970s air-hockey table powered by bicycles, and more. John Preus, MFA’05—who organized the show with Sara Black, MFA’06; Alta Buden, AB’07; and David Wolf, MFA’05—explained the project to UChiBLOGo via e-mail.

How did this show get its name?

A worker’s manifesto from around 1811 and other publications were signed Ned Ludd, or King Ludd. Lore has it that Ned broke two stocking frame machines and unwittingly ignited the Luddite movement, which began as a resistance to both the introduction of new technologies in the textile industry and of free-market practices, as opposed to standardized pricing structures.

The term “midway” was coined during the World’s Fair, more or less the site of the current arcade. [The 1893 World’s Fair] stands in history as an almost inhuman accomplishment, and one that inspired thousands of people, but which also left behind a black city, squatted by the homeless, many of whom had been laborers at the fair. It seemed akin to current economic and social patterns.

The games are almost all low-tech, hand-manipulated machines in a time when the digital-gaming industry is a multibillion-dollar behemoth.

What are the big ideas behind it?

Quality of life as a subtle balance between individualism and cooperation, technological advancement, and restraint. The tactile joy of hand-made mechanisms. The relationship between art and games, and authorship of games as something akin to the development of a system. Games as an alternative mode of social interaction that evokes novel responses, humor, and generates social cohesion through both competition and cooperation. An arcade as a novel form of arts funding. The artists will receive royalties from the playing of the games.

How do you hope people will respond to the games?

We hope most of all that they enjoy playing them. We hope that they have a unique experience of games, seeing behind the curtain so to speak. We hope they are inspired to think about rules and what they mean, who makes them, and the degree to which they are adaptable.

How is Material Exchange funded?

Some of our projects are commissions/residencies; some, like this one, are funded through admission fees; some are not funded, and we eat lentils.

How does a recession affect artists who use recycled materials?

I’m not sure a recession has much impact on recycled materials. It affects artists who rely on patronage or grants because art is discretionary by most accounts. We would like to say we do not use recycled materials; we simply use materials that still have some life in them.

Elizabeth Station

RECOMMENDED LINKS

• Web site: Material Exchange

RELATED READING

• "Peer Review" (University of Chicago Magazine, Mar-Apr/09)


• "Waste Not, Want Not" (UChiBLOGo, June 28, 2006)


• "Art of Spiegelmen" (University of Chicago Magazine, Aug/04)

100 DAYS IN ~200 WORDS
“God Loves Obama” (The Daily Beast blog, Apr. 29, 2009)
Ana Marie Cox, AB’94, recaps the first 100 days of the Obama administration.

EVIDENCE EVALUATION
“Guggenheims Awarded to Profs” (UC Davis News Office, Apr. 21, 2009)
With the Guggenheim Fellowship that Frances Dolan, PhD’88, won earlier this month, she plans to spend a year writing a book about the nature of historical evidence and how it should be evaluated.

RELOCATE STAGE RIGHT
“Ray Cullom Named New Director at Long Wharf” (Hartford Courant, Apr. 27, 2009)
As the new managing director of New Haven’s (CT) Long Wharf Theatre, Ray Cullom, AB’88, plans to work with local officials and developers to oversee the theater’s move downtown.

COMMUNICATIONS REGULATOR
“Verveer May Fill State Dept Telecom Slot” (Lost in Transition blog, National Journal, Apr. 23, 2009)
Philip Verveer, JD’69, is expected to become the State Department’s next U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy.

ECOLOGIST’S COMMUNITY CALLING
“Chase Makes Tyson Research Center a Regional Hub” (Record, Washington University in St. Louis News Office, Apr. 23, 2009)
“We try to understand what the processes are that create variation,” says Jonathan M. Chase, PhD’88. “In Missouri, we’re right in the middle of an ecological zone where prairies, forests, savannas, streams, natural wetlands and ponds come together.”

Of the five probable swine flu cases reported in the city of Chicago so far, two are Medical Center employees, according to an e-mail Dean of Students Kimberly Goff-Crews and CFO Nim Chinniah sent to students, faculty, and staff Wednesday evening.

The University News Office is maintaining a new Web site with up-to-date information and the University’s response.

Here’s a roundup of what others in the University community are saying about swine flu—globally and locally:

ALUMNI

David Brooks, AB’83
Op-ed columnist, commentator, and author

• “Globalism Goes Viral” (New York Times, Apr. 27, 2009)

FACULTY

Kenneth Alexander
Chief of pediatric infectious diseases

• “Answers to Common Questions About Swine Flu, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2” (Science Life blog, Apr. 28, 2009)


• “Swine Flu May Test Baxter” (City Room, Chicago Public Radio, Apr. 27, 2009)

Anupam Chander
Visiting law professor and scholar of globalization and digitization

• “Diseases and National Borders” (Law School Faculty blog, Apr. 28, 2009)

Casey B. Mulligan
Chicago Booth professor of economics

• “What Economics Can Teach Us About Controlling Swine Flu” (Economix blog, New York Times, Apr. 29, 2009)

Harold Pollack
Faculty chair of the Center for Health Administration Studies and SSA associate professor

• “The Essential WHO” (Mark Leon Goldberg’s blog, UN Dispatch, Apr. 27, 2009)

Patrick C. Wilson
Assistant professor of immunology

• “Swine Flu: Virus' Invasion Sets Off Battle Inside the Body” (Chicago Tribune, May 1, 2009)

STUDENTS

Erin Franzinger, ’09
Fourth-year Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations major in the College and Chicago Studies program coordinator

• “Swine Flu Mucking About in Chicago” (The Blog that Works, Chicago Studies, Apr. 29, 2009)

Asher Klein, ’11
Second-year English major in the College and news editor at the Chicago Maroon

• “Possible Case of Swine Flu Reported at Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine” (News blog, Chicago Maroon, Apr. 30, 2009)


• “U of C Preps for Chance of Swine Flu Outbreak” (Chicago Maroon, Apr. 28, 2009)

STAFF

Jeremy Manier
Medical Center senior science reporter and new-media editor

• “How Would Obama Respond to a Flu Pandemic” (Science Life blog, Apr. 24, 2009)

University of Chicago Press editors

• “Swine Flu—Infectious Disease in a Global Age” (Chicago blog, Apr. 27, 2009)

If we have missed a swine flu story with a University of Chicago connection, please leave a link and description as a comment. Thanks!—UChiBLOGo