Posts from — September 2009

Remember the Seinfeld episode where Jerry always breaks even? Yeah, this was that week for Brown sports. See for yourself below if you don’t believe me. Hence, there are no Winners and no Bad News Bears this week. There is only a vague sliding scale of quality that exists only in my head. Deal with it.

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It came down to the wire, but the Bears’ Friday night football game against Harvard ended in the Crimson’s favor, 24-21.

The Bears led 14-10 at halftime in Cambridge, with two rushes into the endzone by wide receiver Bobby Sewall ’10. Harvard struck back with two touchdowns in the second half to go up 24-14.

Brown answered with another Sewall touchdown in the last minute of the fourth quarter. A recovered onside kick gave Brown a last chance at victory, but the Bears’ comeback effort came up short with an incomplete endzone pass.

Check back soon for complete game coverage and photos.

To call President Musharraf’s recent speech to Brown students underwhelming insinuates the expectation that he was going to say something meaningful. Instead, we were left with vapid bullet points of leadership (he may need to work on that “sincerity” one), confusing and unaccommodating explanations of Afghan and Pakistani history, and the wintry realization that the former president of Pakistan is a solipsistic, mendacious and prevaricating louse.

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Former Brown football player David Howard ’09.5 was convicted of simple assault in District Court on Tuesday,  the Providence Journal reports. Howard was accused of punching a patron while working as a bouncer at Fish Co. in April.

Howard received one year’s probation and payment of court costs, the ProJo reported. He was also ordered to not have contact with the victim, Paul Lilley.

Howard’s lawyer announced that an appeal is in the works.

Police had said Howard punched Lilley several times in the face after escorting him from the bar during a party for Bryant University students. Lilley was taken to Rhode Island Hospital.

In the wake of the incident, Fish Co. agreed to close for three days after a hearing in August.

Check out Thursday’s Herald for more coverage.

It’s time to stock up on those sweet, sweet cloves. Thanks to new regulation passed by the Food and Drug Administration, flavored cigarettes are to be pulled from the nation’s shelves.

But don’t worry — your menthols are safe (at least for now).

In prohibiting the equivalent of the training wheels to a nicotine-tinged life and hacking death, the FDA hopes to curb the number of kids who start smoking in the first place. “These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers,” said FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg in a press release. And it may be flavored cigarettes that are helping their habits along; 17-year old smokers are more likely to smoke flavored cigarettes than than smokers over 25, according to the FDA.

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Global health leader Jim Yong Kim ’82, tapped for the presidency of the thirstiest Ivy back in March, was inaugurated yesterday to the sound of choral arias. Proving his worth, he immediately adapted to the university’s reputation for hangover-inducing activities, urging his students to go back to bed:

“Your generation must dream, dream more ambitiously than any who have preceded you. But just to dream is not enough. You must deliver on the dream where previous generations have fallen short.”

The lullaby didn’t work, though, and the thousands in attendance — including Ruth Simmons — loudly cheered for their new second-favorite university leader. Of course, they may have been cheering in anticipation for their afternoon game of (clandestine) pong, but Kim should be okay — after all, he’s already learned the rules.

After last week’s Janus Forum debate on D.C. v. Heller, we invited two opinions columnists to debate a small yet salient facet of the gun control debate: the prohibition of firearms on college campuses. After the jump, read Michael Fitzpatrick’s ’12 argument in favor of allowing students to carry personal firearms on campus and Dan Davidson’s ’11 argument against. Then share your opinion, blogdailyherald readers, in the comments section.

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Any biology-and-political-science double-concentrators hard at work in the depths of Sidney Frank Hall may have gotten a surprise treat Friday afternoon: none other than Rhode Island’s junior senator was in town and paying a visit to the building.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat elected in 2006, visited campus Friday afternoon to tour the building (better known to students as the LiSci) and meet with deans and researchers.

Included on the agenda:

• A meeting with Dean of Medicine Edward Wing, Vice President for Research Clyde Briant, and director of Governmental Relations Tim Leshan

• A discussion of climate change with Professor of Geological Sciences Jack Mustard and Professor of Biology Joanna Schmitt, who directs Brown’s Environmental Change Initiative

• A visit to the lab of Associate Professor of Medical Science Tricia Serio, who studies prion proteins

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So it is done: wand-wielding wunderkind Emma Watson is among the newest Brunonians gracing College Hill this fall. Like her fellow classmates, she has the very rare opportunity to attend one of the proudest, most selective, most eccentric academic institutions this side of the Atlantic Ocean. I am genuinely delighted for her.

Notice my preposition there. I am delighted for her, not because of her. Unlike many of my peers, I am not allured by the media frenzy surrounding her arrival. Nor am I particularly ecstatic about the syrupy fawning she will undoubtedly receive from our Harry Potter fan-experts in residence. [Read more →]