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(10/22/10 9:00am)
As there has been with any form of advancement or progress in the past, there is now considerable hesitancy on the part of some to embrace the educational tech revolution going on around us. Reputable newspapers like The New York Times and the Boston Globe have published pieces that express concern and anxiety over the growing role of electronic media in education, and many professors still disallow the use of laptops in their classrooms. The reasons behind their resistance, though sometimes difficult to quantify exactly, seem to range from personal preference in some cases all the way to societal dissatisfaction in others.
(10/15/10 9:00am)
During last week’s MSNBC coverage of the now-infamous Karen Owen PowerPoint presentation, The Today Show sent representatives to East Campus to interview students on the subject. The footage, which aired on the show and can be found easily on Google, clocks in at just over seven minutes long. Most of the segment is spent rehashing what is by now old news concerning Owen, but a 20-second clip toward the beginning is devoted to a retelling of the Duke lacrosse scandal.
(10/08/10 9:06am)
The Duke Conversations program, for those unfamiliar with it, affords students the opportunity to apply for the funding necessary to bring speakers that catch their interest to campus. The funding goes toward the travel and accommodations of the guest, who during his brief stay will host a casual Dinner Dialogue with up to 16 students as well as a more structured Community Hour devoted to the speaker’s story and craft. The program, needless to say, allows for intimate interactions that cater directly to the interests of the students involved.
(10/01/10 9:00am)
In December 2003, Duke’s then-Chair of the Board of Trustees Peter Nicholas made a $72 million donation pledge to the University, to be paid in full by the end of 2008. As many now know, the pledge has, as of today, yet to be completed, though Nicholas himself claims that a “significant portion” has been paid. On the other hand, William Schlesinger, former dean of the Nicholas School, contests that when he left the University in June of 2007, Nicholas had failed to pay anything at all.
(09/24/10 9:12am)
Back in February, a man named Seth Brigham went before the City Council of Boulder, Colorado in an attempt to protest a trend in heavier policing of public nudity. Brigham’s rationale was that the city, known to some for its “progressive” counterculture, annually hosts events such as the Naked Pumpkin Run and the Naked Bike Ride. He feared that restrictions on attractions like these would damage not only the local population but the tourism industry as well, as many people apparently flock to Boulder to see men like Brigham participate in various forms of exercise without their clothes on.
(09/17/10 10:55am)
As undergraduates, many of us are encouraged to get to know our professors on a more personal level. Unfortunately, this is nearly impossible to do in a large lecture course, and even seminar settings aren’t always up to the task as a result of the nature of the subject material or any other numbers of factors. The obvious solution is then to spend time with a professor outside of class. Of course, some professors are not easily accommodated on their own time, and those who are can typically be found pressed behind a long line outside of their offices. It often seems that forging personal relationships between student and faculty requires an inordinate amount of work, or at least that it lacks the proper vehicle.
(09/10/10 11:36am)
By now everyone should be aware of the recent goings-on at Davidson University, as well as the similar but slightly more dated affairs of Campbell University and Pfeiffer University.
(09/03/10 4:34am)
Among the many requirements necessary to graduate from Duke University is a semester or more of foreign language, which can be met in a number of ways. Students with no prior credit can take care of their requirement by completing three classes in a language. If a student comes in with previous experience, though, they can fulfill the requirement with two intermediate classes or just one at the 100 level.
(08/27/10 12:02am)
The start of the semester is a lot like New Year’s. For one thing, students toss their inhibitions to the wind and celebrate with the kind of carefree attitude that quickly erodes away once classes begin again. More importantly, though, we make genuine (albeit tenuous) promises to ourselves that we will eat healthier, stay ahead of our studies and live honorably.
(07/01/10 8:00am)
Any undergraduate at Duke who aspires to practice medicine later in life must at first complete, among other training, Chemistry 151 and 152, or Orgo I and II for short. Generally considered the most challenging courses offered on the path to medical school, both include a weekly graded three-hour lab portion.
(06/17/10 4:34am)
In this life, it’s well known that if something seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Miracle weight-loss programs and wonder pill supplements always disappoint. Half-price Rolexes bought on a street corner in some big city stop ticking the minute you get back to the hotel. And Butler’s Hollywood underdog story came up just a few inches too short, certainly a major letdown for kids who study 8 miles down the road from Indianapolis.
(06/03/10 12:00am)
Wall Street, and finance in general, is a subject that can be not only confusing to the untrained ear, but overwhelmingly intimidating as well. It comes, as any specialty does, with its own private lexicon; terms like “credit default swap,” “backwardation,” and “volatility.” For insiders, phrases such as these serve as a familiar set of signifiers, used to navigate their way through newspapers and discussions and deals. For those of us on the outside, however, the jargon can oftentimes represent a foreboding barrier to the finance universe.
(05/20/10 12:05pm)
In a recent May 12 interview with popular British music magazine NME, musical artist M.I.A. finally broke the silence surrounding her controversial new “Born Free” music video. The video, which depicts the systematic rounding up and execution of a group of red-haired adolescents, has been a subject of debate since its release April 26. Some cite the video as explicit and gratuitous in its violence, while others champion it as an artistic expression of anti-genocide sentiment. M.I.A., for her part, did little to clarify her take on the video either way, using the interview instead as a jumping-off point for celebrity gossip-related humor.
Although relatively unimportant in itself, the shots taken in that interview by M.I.A. were largely reminiscent of her comments in the April 7 issue of the same magazine. In that interview, M.I.A. lashed out unprovoked against Lady Gaga. She claimed that Gaga was “not progressive, but…a good mimic” in an apparent attempt to dismiss the popular notion that Gaga is trying to reinvent, or at least reinterpret, Madonna. M.I.A. also noted Gaga’s largely commercial appeal as a negative aspect of her persona, suggesting it necessary to her success.
Not everyone, however, agrees entirely with M.I.A.’s ideas, and Duke’s fastidiously pro-Gaga campus is no exception. In fact, it seems as though her conclusions here actually serve as little more than a starting point for conversation on the subject.
Paula Rosine Long, Trinity ’09 and a 2010 Gates Cambridge scholar, claims M.I.A. and Gaga as two of her top three favorite musical artists, and takes issue with a number of the former’s allegations.
First of all, Long acknowledges Gaga’s mass commercialism, but considers it in a different light than M.I.A. does.
“Who is in charge?” Long asked me when I sought her opinion on the subject via e-mail. “Is the commercial/media world appropriating this weird girl for its own ends, or is she using that world to bring her weirdness to the masses?”
It’s certainly a difficult question to resolve from any perspective, and its answer most likely lies somewhere between the two poles: Gaga, on the one hand, embracing a consumerist branding in return for the dissemination of her image, and the industry on the other, promoting her eccentricity in exchange for returns on its investment. Or maybe it’s less of an either/or and more of a both/and, with the two possibilities being entirely valid, symbiotically coexistent and mutually inexclusive. Either way, Long’s reading presents a set of variable multiplicities that contrast sharply with M.I.A.’s single, damning assessment.
In terms of the Gaga-Madonna corollary, neither “progressive” nor “mimic” are entirely apt characterizations of Gaga according to Long; she opts instead for “homage,” explaining that Gaga “combines all these references”—to Madonna, Bowie, and Kubrick in her videos—“into a collage that is ultimately HER work of art (or that of her team).” For Long, then, her works are more of a modern reference point against early influences than a rip-off of the past, and it’s the specific combinations of those references that give them a unique presence in contemporary society.
Katherine Buse, a rising Trinity senior, recognizes as well Gaga’s “pop-ified reworking of everything from science fiction to Madonna to 1970’s gay culture” and adds her own tint to the amalgamation. Buse suggests, in a 2009 paper written for English professor Tom Ferraro’s Bravura in American Writing class, that such a consistent and wide-reaching channeling of everything under the sun is to a certain extent self-aware, and that its obvious excess becomes its purpose. To Buse, Gaga and her catalog are representative of our time: excessive, insatiable and out of control. If that’s the case, then most of M.I.A.’s comments about Lady Gaga couldn’t be more true, even if it would be unintentionally so. As far as that whole spat goes, though, Buse attributes it to nothing more than attention-seeking on the part of M.I.A.
M.I.A., then, seems to be missing the point. This isn’t necessarily shocking; after all, in that same April 7th NME interview she complains of Gaga’s “Telephone” video that, “Dude, she even plugs a burger!” mistaking the obvious Tarantino reference for the pure vapidity of a one-dimensional dollar-grab. Whether or not M.I.A. intended to touch so keenly on the aforementioned red herrings, however, is also kind of beside the point she may or may not be missing: in the end the inaccuracy of her charges pales next to the diverse conversation they inspire, giving all of us something to talk about for a little while. As for her, she’s a part of the something about which we’re all talking and, as we all know, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
(11/18/09 10:00am)
This past Friday, the Food and Drug Administration announced its intentions to ban beverages that combine caffeine and alcohol, including drinks like Joose and 4 Loco.
(11/04/09 10:00am)
Just over a month ago, American video game developer Bungie released “Halo 3: ODST,” the latest installment in the popular “Halo” series.
(10/21/09 8:00am)
Last Friday, hundreds of students gathered inside Cameron Indoor Stadium for the basketball team’s Countdown to Craziness. The event culminated with our first real preview of this year’s team: two 12-minute scrimmages, followed by a slam-dunk contest. Although most of the crowd was roused by such a show, I could not help but feel jealousy and sorrow. I found myself thinking that so many in the crowd deserved to be on the court as well, and were being denied an opportunity to perform at that level.
(10/07/09 8:00am)
A week ago today, Duke English professor Tom Ferraro gave a talk to a small circle of roughly 30 students on the subject of Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film “Pulp Fiction.” Embarking on an all-encompassing explanation of the film, Ferraro first ventured into the racial and sexual overtones of the work, as well as their roots in earlier cinema. He then dissected entirely the varying layers of interaction between all of the seemingly unconnected characters present. He even succeeded in creating something of a literary triangle between “Pulp Fiction,” the television series “The Sopranos” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel “The Scarlet Letter.” In short, Ferraro left no stone unturned.
(09/23/09 8:00am)
Last December, instrumental rock guitarist Joe Satriani brought a lawsuit against Coldplay over their wildly famous hit “Viva La Vida.” Satriani attested that the melody of the song had been taken directly from his tune “If I Could Fly.” In fact, Satriani wasn’t the only big name to accuse Coldplay of thievery; Cat Stevens also suggested to the media that the super group had plagiarized portions of his work. Satriani settled his suit out of court just over a week ago (presumably for a hefty sum), while Stevens asked for his compensation to come in the form of “a cup of tea with them.” In both cases, Coldplay front man Chris Martin insisted that the band wrote the song entirely on their own.
(09/09/09 8:00am)
“I just think it’s disgusting, the way people dance in there. I mean, everybody’s all up on each other. It’s so... vulgar.”
(08/26/09 7:00am)
In May, allegations surfaced that a University of Memphis basketball player from the 2007-2008 season knowingly submitted SAT scores that were not his own in order to gain entry to the university. The NCAA conducted an investigation into the matter once made aware of its existence-and for good reason, because the moral implications of such an act are both numerous and grave.
