Month: November 2008

I am thankful for the Internet.* The internet which gives me such joy as this:

Puppy Cam courtesy of Ustream

Enjoy the break. We’ll be back on monday.
Continue reading “Happy Thanksgiving Break”

Over the past two weeks or so, SPA, SEA, and PF have been working on something pretty cool.

Long story short, it’s a postcard to Obama sort of thing, where you advocate a peace, environmental, and poverty policy.

The real innovation is the tight integrate of three different activist groups. A member from each group will table at all times and there are weekly coordination meetings between the three.

This has the potential to create structures of fruitful collaboration (rather than empty “cosponsorship”) for social justice groups on campus, which is great. Though I am kind of miffed on DFA’s behalf that they weren’t included. 😉

By Scott, a student at Brandeis -Sahar

An email that I received from the AFA today describes a “hate-campaign” launched by “homosexual activists” against the “Mormons” (which is not the same thing as the Mormon Church). The email, accurately states that the Church played pivotal role in the passage of California’s Proposition 8, which took away constitutionally-provided marriage rights for same gender couples.

The reader is provided three examples of this “hate-campaign”, which include a lawsuit against the Church (referred to in the email as “Mormons”) for violating election laws, a forced-resignation by a film festival coordinator that contributed to Prop8, and a call for the revocation of the Church’s tax-exempt status.

Of these three examples, two of them are actions predicated upon the Church violating the law. It is hard for me to buy an argument that people (activists or not) using their resources to ensure that an institution remains within the boundaries of legally-established acceptable behavior, are engaged in a hate campaign.

Continue reading “What Exactly is a Hate Campaign?”

From the great folks at Schuster –Sahar

Brandeis’ SCHUSTER INSTITUTE FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM, the nation’s first and only investigative reporting center based at a university, is pleased to announce the results of our year-long investigation into corruption in international adoption. These troubling findings have profound implications for private lives and public policy.

The story of abandoned orphans in developing countries who need to be whisked away to adoring moms and dads in faraway lands is largely fiction. So writes E.J. Graff, associate director and senior researcher at the Schuster Institute in her new investigative article “The Lie We Love,” published in Foreign Policy’s Nov./Dec. 2008 issue. The article exposes the myth of a world orphan crisis—and reveals that the large amounts of Western money offered for healthy “adoptable” infants and toddlers are inducing baby-trafficking in poor and corrupt countries.

On-line now:“The Lie We Love,” Foreign Policy magazine (Nov./Dec.2008)

Learn more: Supporting Documentation about International Adoption Corruption.  

 

Interactive map: “Where Do Babies Come From?” with links to data pages documenting adoption corruption worldwide.

Where Do Babies Come From?

Over the past two decades, serious irregularities in international adoption—buying, defrauding, coercing, and kidnapping children away from their families—have been documented around the world. Until now, these individual reports and stories have never been pulled together so that prospective parents, adoption industry experts, opinion leaders, and policymakers can look at them in a systematic way.

By clicking on our interactive map, you can find in-depth documentation of adoption abuses in a number of countries, including links to original news reports and academic research.

Over the coming weeks, the Schuster Institute will be adding more of the extensive documentation and in-depth research that led us to publish our findings in “The Lie We Love.” In the weeks and months to come, the Schuster Institute will be publishing related articles elsewhere, and will participate in public forums to discuss our findings. In November and December, this website will be adding other resources as well, including:

• How to tell when a country’s adoption practices may be corrupt
• Suggestions for talking with a child about potentially troubling adoption practices in that child’s birth country
• A list of blogs, news outlets, talk shows, and other outlets where this work is being discussed
• A comments and discussion page

 
Click here for more information about the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism.  

To join the Schuster Institute’s listserv, please email us at schusterinstitute@brandeis.edu.  

Are you an undergraduate student with a commitment to social justice and with experience in legal or journalistic research? Are you interested in a PAID part-time position as a Research Assistant?Apply here!

Girl Talk tonight. 7pm, Levin Ballroom. Of course, if you didn’t know that already, it’s too late to buy a ticket.

Tickets ran out for Girl Talk way too quickly.

Anyone know where I can get my hands on one?

This post rescinded until further notice.

I sympathize with Max’s criticisms of and frustration with Pitchfork media. These sentiments are shared by many.

Then again, I think we should remember that Pitchfork thrives in challenging the “indie consensus” regarding the merits of famous bands and albums. The problem is, they’ve come to be regarded as a voice for the “indie consensus”. In other words, many people use Pitchfork as their only source of music, and regard it as a trusted elite/establishment source of taste. When Pitchfork’s whole shtick encompasses a healthy dose of reviews that buck the most everyone else’s taste, a problem arises.

Don’t use Pitchfork for rating albums you’ve not heard yet. I recommend Delusions of Adequacy, and Metacritic instead. Think of Pitchfork as that loud annoying friend that occasionally says something profound, and other times just mouths off to remind everyone that he’s there.

For a very interesting article on Pitchfork as Art Mafia, read Crooked Timber. Or read Crooked Timber in any case. They’re a great blog.

So, mela was kind of great.

Tonight! Castle Commons! 9pm!

Join Students for a Democratic Society and Democracy for America as we work to establish a student voice among the budget cuts. For those who are unaware of the issues going on within the language department, look beneath the fold!

Continue reading “Budget Cut Meeting – TONIGHT!”

I think that we members of the Brandeis community should make a special effort to understand people that are different from ourselves. Therefore I think this event has the potential for greatness:

Hey BBSO Members,

Tonight is the last night of Black Is…  There will be a movie screening of “Black: Definition of a Color” a film by Jerry Saunders in the ICC lounge from 7-9pm.  There are interviews with Brandeis students about what black means to them along with many other intriguing questions.  Come take a study break and watch the film.

There will also be a variety of delicious culture food cooked by your very own e-board.  So, have some food, relax, and enjoy the video!

The home-cooked food kind of seals the deal.

This post is written by the members of SDS and people who attended Radical Film Night (every wednesday at 9 PM in Pearlman 202)!

What has been cut? As we sit in this room, we’ve found ourselves upset with the the large number of programs that have been cut in response to the budget crisis. We understand that programs do need to be cut, but we are upset with the lackof communication and consultation with students.

Here are the programs that we either know have been cut, think have been cut, or have heard that they are talking about cutting:

The Pool

The Stein (maybe, student workers have been told they will be cut)

Language 30 levels (this is being discussed)

USEM classes

Funding for  Programming at Prospect Hill Terrece

Future Leonard Bernstein Quartet scholarships

Community Engaged Learning Programming

Midyear Dorms (they won’t be renovating a dorm for midyears)

This list isn’t neccesarily accurate, much of it is based on rumor and speculation. It is not an all-inclusive list. What programs of yours have been cut? What should be cut?

This is written in the spirit of me trying to figure out my feelings out loud, and soliticiting the advice, guidance, and response of the Brandeis community. The following is written in a genuine “stream of thought” manner, and please read it in the spirit of personal and academic searching, not a rant, screed, or attack. I’d very much appreciate everyone’s viewpoint and response on this one – sahar

Via Matthew Yglesias, who, by the way, is as genuine in person as he is brilliant online, I found a really interesting article dealing with the financial crisis, written by the perspective of a former insider who left the industry in disgust around the mini-crisis of the late 1980’s/early 90’s.

There’s a lot to chew on in there. An admonition to stay far away from the financial services industry. An explanation of the mess that is neither opaque nor patronizing. He places blame on the perverse incentives placed on Wall Street when firms became publicly traded rather than partnerships.

I want to focus on his interactions with college students, however, since that’s more of my area of expertise.

I had no great agenda, apart from telling what I took to be a remarkable tale, but if you got a few drinks in me and then asked what effect I thought my book would have on the world, I might have said something like, “I hope that college students trying to figure out what to do with their lives will read it and decide that it’s silly to phony it up and abandon their passions to become financiers.” I hoped that some bright kid at, say, Ohio State University who really wanted to be an oceanographer would read my book, spurn the offer from Morgan Stanley, and set out to sea. Continue reading “When I’m all grown up…”

Yes, we are aware of the lack of sidebar on the site. We don’t know why it happened but we’re working on it. Thanks for the concern, all.

update – all taken care of. thanks, mysteriously-name-commenter-by-name-of-“idea”

My email tells me that Its international education week this week.Here’s the info:

International Education Week (Nov. 17 – 21) is a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of Education and Department of State designed to celebrate the benefits of global exchange and understanding. Brandeis will help celebrate by hosting events highlighting the following three themes: global citizenship and cosmopolitanism, benefits of the international experience, and “preserving stories, retracing roots.” Continue reading “International Education Week”

Student Union President Jason Gray wants every student club to include a community service component.

For example, the debate team could teach public speaking at a local school. An a capella group could sing at a local shelter. Your club can play chess or knit at a nursing home, shoot hoops at the Boys and Girls Club, cook a holiday meal for those in need, or organize a talent show at the YMCA. The opportunities are endless.

This is huge. Imagine if we pull this off. What a way to actualize our ideals.

Jason talked about the budget crisis at the University – said that the Brandeis community should be able to give input to the budget. I think he was implicitly saying something along the lines of “Hey University? Remember the Guns decision? Remember how you cut us out of that process? Well we demand to be at the table when you make budget decisions that affect us.”

Jason has the credibility with the administration to pull this off, I think.

Jason also put a big focus on Rights and Responsibilities. The impetus for the Student Bill of Rights may have been the struggle between the Student body and the Administration, but Jason ran with the concept after SODA disbanded, and he’s still very cognizant of the fact that Student Rights and Responsibilities is “heavy on the responsibilities, light on the rights…”

Here’s an interesting tidbit:

we hope to revamp club collaboration by creating an online forum for club leaders to easily communicate with each other in the idea-generating, strategizing, and event-planning processes.

Online, you say? A place where an online place where brandeis activists and club leaders could bounce ideas off each other and strategize… Sounds like us, actually. Or what Innermost Parts would like to be.

Here’s a big deal: “Revitalizing old rooms in Castle and Usdan.”
Thank you!

The biggest news was still the call for every club to have a community service component. Awesome.

Student Union president Jason Gray is going to give a speech on the state of the union (and Brandeis) tonigth.

Sources say it’ll shock and amaze, that it blows previous SOTU speeches out of the water.

I’m not quite sure about that, but we’ll see. Hopefully we’ll set up a liveblog here at 7pm.  Hm…

edit: 7pm at Rapaporte, if you want to go yourself.

Ever wonder where your power comes from?

Today, I and the other Eco-Reps tabled in the Shapiro Atrium to educate the Brandeis community about our energy consumption.

Perhaps you’ve heard the term “the grid” tossed around in talk about energy use or energy independence.  The grid is our electrical infrastructure, composed of sources of generation, transmission, and consumption.  A non-profit coalition called ISO New England (located in my home of Western Mass!) manages New England’s electricity grid.  Because the grid is entirely inter-connected, the electricity you use at Brandeis comes from a variety of sources from all over the region.  The pie chart below describes how your electricity is generated.

(source: New England Wind Fund)

As you can see, the biggest sources (natural gas, nuclear, coal, and oil) are not the greenest.  In fact, in Massachusetts over 80% of power is generated from fossil fuels and nuclear material.

The top 10 electricity generators in New England are as follows:

1. Seabrook Station – Seabrook, NH (Nuclear)
2. Millstone Point Station – Watertown, CT (Nuclear)
3. Fore River Station – North Weymouth, MA (Natural Gas/Diesel)
4. Mystic Station – Everett, MA (Natural Gas/Oil)
5. Pilgrim Station – Plymouth, MA (Nuclear)
6. Granite Ridge Energy – Londonderry, NH (Natural Gas)
7. Brayton Point Station – Somerset, MA (Coal) [one of the Conservation Law Foundation’s “Filthy Five” and the largest source of air pollution in New England.  In 2000, the plant emitted: 44,586 tons of Sulfur Dioxide (acid rain), 13,636 tons of Nitrogen Oxide (smog), 7,925,715 tons of Carbon Dioxide (global warming), 240 lbs mercury (enough to poison 120 million pounds of fish).]
8. Vermont Yankee Station – Vernon, VT (Nuclear)
9. Wyman Station – Yarmouth, ME (Oil)
10. Mirant Canal Generating Plant – Sandwich, MA (Oil)

OK, so the mix isn’t so good.  Is there something you can do about it?  The answer is yes.

I have to give some credit to Brandeis.  Our university purchases 15% of its power from wind by using renewable energy certificates (RECs).  Since the grid is all inter-connected, you can buy renewable energy (wind, solar, hydro) from a source such as Maine Interfaith Power and Light.  The amount you buy creates greater demand from that renewable source, generates the green electricity, and replaces dirtier electricity that otherwise would have to have been generated to provide you with power.  I bought 1 “Wind Watt” before the semester began for just $20 and my roommate and I still haven’t used all of it in our Charles River Apartment.  For this semester, my apartment has been powered 100% by wind.

If you have any more questions about power generation or related topics, leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer them.

You know that Join the Impact event this Saturday? TechPresident asks, Once a Local Legal Battle, Is Prop 8 On Its Way to ‘Net-Fueled Cultural Moment? It’s fascinating to read how this event that Jourdan, a student here, is organizing fits into a larger story of online activism and organizing.

In the days after the vote, Seattle activist Amy Balliett put up a website calling for others to Join the Impact against Prop 8. She told 365gay.com that she was amazed to soon find it pulling in some 50,000 hits per hour, crashing its server. The Join the Impact mission is to make communion with Prop 8 supporters, “to encourage our community to engage our opposition in a conversation about full equality and to do this with respect, dignity, and an attitude of outreach and education.” Its success is reminiscent of Columbia’s anti-FARC movement launched on Facebook that spawned protests all over the world.

Turns out that Hannaford‘s is the 5th healthiest line of supermarkets in the country. Cool!

5. Hannaford

165-plus stores in the Northeast

This chain is relatively small, but Whole Foods should look out — Hannaford is the largest certified-organic supermarket in the region, and in the past two years it has boosted its produce selection to provide more than 50 local and organic products from 200 farms close by. “It’s an impressive amount of local produce, which is not that easy in temperate New England,” Geagan notes.

But Hannaford’s commitment to healthy foods doesn’t stop there. Its Guiding Stars nutrition-label program makes it a snap to pick out the healthiest fresh and packaged fare: You’ll find one, two, or three stars — with three stars indicating the highest nutritional value — on nearly every item in the store. That means you don’t have to pore over the labels to decide which loaf of bread to buy.

So I became aware that, though it’s on our blogroll, you might not be aware of of Professor Wayne Marshall’s blog.

If you haven’t checked it out yet you totally should. He’s been doing this stuff since 2003, so he’s an expert at it by now.

Wow, so I just got around to reading The Justice today. I haven’t done it in a while.

They have an editorial up about the creation of the Committee for Endowment Ethics and Responsibility.
Never mind that this is a significant win for the Brandeis student body.
They seem to have no idea what the purpose of the Committee actually is.

Let me be brief – The Committee for Endowment Ethics and Responsibility exists to make sure that we’re not abusing our endowment, by, for example, investing in Sudan. Or maybe it’ll push the University to actually use its shares for Proxy Voting.

The Justice Editorial Board seems to think that CEER is going to try and advise the Board of Trustees on which hedge fund will give the best ROI. That’s simply wrong.

Look, Brandeis has a shameful history regarding its endowment . Students got the University to divest from South Africa, only to find out later that the Brandeis just re-invested right after.

We can’t depend on leaks from outraged faculty and staff. We need an independent panel conducting a review of the ethical implications of our endowment. CEER is the first step to that goal.

So my good friend Matt wrote an opinion piece about Facebook in the Justice yesterday.
Matt, you makea variety of good points. But I think you’re missing two important pieces of data.

There is a reason people feel that their privacy is invaded. They weren’t the ones taking those pictures of themselves at parties or defacing towns, or whatever. Someone else did, often without their permission. Secondly those pictures have security settings so that only members of “the Network”, aka Brandeis Students, for example, can see them. When the University infiltrates the network and bypasses those security settings, it’s acting in bad faith, and co-opting a fraternal bonding experience into a spying extravaganza.

There was a “counterpoint” article, however. As far I understand, it argued that the contextual advertising for Facebook don’t give us no respect. Well, that’s novel.

Then again, maybe those ads really are an insult to our intelligence. I wouldn’t know.

Dear Rebecca Blady,

In response to your recent article in The Justice, I’d like to highlight a particular sentence that, for your sake, I hope your editor inserted.

It’s important to question whether our First Amendment rights should trump our morality.

Um, what? Let’s put aside the fact that the first amendment refers to the power of state and local governments to censor speech.

Do you realize that you’re saying that a core American value should be superseded due to the presence of some third-rate glorified message board? I could create a less-fancy version of this website in the space of one hour. Should we ditch our first amendment rights for that site too? How about we get Brandeis to ban all pornography? People say that both porn and violent video games compromise our morality. It’s important to question whether our Fourth Amendment rights should trump our morality. I say we start searching through everyone’s dorm and confiscating their porn and Wiis.

Look, what are you proposing, exactly?

In a society in which [free speech] is considered an absolute, we must consider its limitations. We are obliged to curb free speech for the sake of our classmates’ emotional well-being.

Oh. So you’re going to try to get Brandeis to block the IP address of some shitty website? You know else hurts people’s well being? Facebook. There are pictures of so many underage teenagers drinking beer at parties. As you so eloquently put it, Real jobs and real reputations are at stake. Let’s ban Facebook too. After we search everyone’s dorm for porn and violent video games. I’ll be happy to offer my dorm room as a place to store any contraband we find.

This Message from Jourdan, about Prop 8 -Sahar
Last Tuesday, millions of people saw a long-awaited dream realized, while millions of others saw theirs crushed.

This Saturday, stand up for the right to love! Protest California’s passing of Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage, with Join the Impact, a grassroots organization staging protests in over 150 cities nationwide this Saturday! There will be music, performances, and thousands of people coming out to stand up for a person’s right—whether gay or straight—to love and to marry.

Boston’s Join the Impact protest, co-organized with MassEquality will take place Saturday from 1:30-4:00pm at Boston’s City Hall/Government Plaza. This is not just an issue for Californians, but one for all Americans! Come out and show your support!

Find out more information at the national webpage for Join the Impact (www.jointheimpact.com), and check out the Facebook group for the Boston event (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=37701726407) or email Jourdan Cohen (jicohen@brandeis.edu).

So, recently I lost my student ID, like most Brandeis students do at least once during their academic career.  Now normally this isn’t a big deal because someone will give it to the Info Desk at Shapiro, or message you on facebook to give it back.  Maybe at worst you’ll have to shell out the 10 dollars to get a replacement one.

But recently, I lost mine and then someone took the liberty of using all my WHOcash to do their laundry in Rosenthal.  Is there any way we could make whocash more secure, so that things like this don’t happen?  I know people are supposed to make sure the face matches the card when you buy things (I won’t get into how rarely this is actually enforced)… but when it comes to laundry it’s not like the WHOcash readers have retinal scans or anything to make sure the right person is using them.

I feel like this can’t be just an isolated incident, and that other people must have had similar experiences, I’m just wondering if anyone either a) knows a way to report this or b) has ideas about how to prevent this from happening to others in the future.  PIN numbers for laundry machines?  Anything?

I welcome your thoughts.

A friend from high school– a Republican– wrote this as a facebook note and said to feel free to pass it on:

In Response to the Response of McCain’s Supporters

This will be brief.

The world is not going to end.

President-Elect Obama is not going to personally kick down your door and take all of your money.

President-Elect Obama is not a Socialist

President-Elect Obama is not a terrorist

It is called the WHITE House because it only happens to be painted white. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool.

You do not need to flee the country and move to an island resort.

“Hussein” is an extremely common name of Arabic and Turkish origin that has several meanings, including “good” and “beautiful”. Several people throughout History have shown us that a person’s name has little bearing on their actions.

Democracy is based on choice. Like it or not, America chose, now you have a responsibility as citizens to follow McCain’s example and put your country before your own interests. His concession speech showed immense courage, dignity, and patriotism. Too many people are thinking of what immediately benefits their small groups instead of what is good for the country. You may not have voted for him and you don’t have to agree with all of his STATED POLICIES (His name and race are completely irrelevant), but since he has been democratically elected according to the doctrine of the American Constitution, you owe it to your country and yourself to give him a chance. If he fails, then you’ll be able to vote against him in the next election just like people did with Bush, it’s not a dictatorship. However, he is far more likely to succeed if he has the full support of the nation.

Want the country to fail? Keep trying to sabotage the President and we’ll see how soon that happens. A house divided against itself cannot stand. Lincoln said that, and he was quoting the Bible. Make your own connections.

That’s all I have to say.

….incredible, right?

Help the Union fix it! The Campus Operations Working Group meets with Facilities every other week to talk about things around campus that aren’t working a need fixing. Cracks in the sidewalk? Flooding in your room? Door won’t open? Tell us ASAP!

Send an email to cow-g@lists.brandeis.edu, or post a reply to this thread and we’ll take a look.

Tuesday, the day of the election, a bunch of us are going to skip class and take a bus to Raymond, New Hampshire, to get out the vote.

Interested, here’s the info:

I hope that you’re all planning to take a day off of class for the most important election of our lives (so far)!

Here is the schedule: show up to catch the bus in front of Spingold at 7:15 AM (Early, I know, but you can sleep on the bus!)
We’ll be spending the day getting out the vote in Raymond, NH, and heading back to the campus for the DFA election-watch party right before polls close at eight.

The Obama campaign will provide lots of food, excitement, and Obama-mania!

More questions? Email liza behrent

This is interesting.

If you’re voting in MA you might want to do it. You can borrow video cameras from Getz for free.

Eric Massa is running for congress in NY-29, my home district.

NY-29 is the most conservative in the state, and he’s running on a platform of single-payer healthcare, among other things.

Eric takes no money from corporations. Eric has “the fire in the belly”.

Eric Massa is the candidate that inspired me to become a Democrat.

Can’t you please chip in 5 dollars? He needs it right now. I’m trying to get at least 20 college students to chip in $5 each.

Donate here.
Continue reading “Five for Eric”

So the University is facing budget shortfalls and a shrinking endowment. I’m pondering:

– Is it still right and proper to demand solar panels for Brandeis?

– On one hand, we’re already seeing queues of years to get windmill parts – if Brandeis doesn’t act now, will it be shut out of the market to buy solar panels? Will the prices only go up in the future?

– Does it make financial sense to buy solar panels now, so as to cut down costs

If you’re interested in doing the legwork to come up with these answers, email me or elizabeth setren.