Posts by Larry Au

Before attempting BlogDH suggested shortcuts, a crash course in fall protection is needed.

Anyone who’s ever worked in a University lab has had to sit through Brown’s Environmental Health and Safety mandatory training workshops. While the skills learned at these classes are undoubtedly things you’d want to know when handling E. Coli samples or highly reactive metals, we at BlogDH feel that Brown students, in the spirit of the not-so-New Curriculum, should be able to apply these lessons outside of the classroom.

And so, BlogDH has gone through the variety of EHS course offerings and found the ones that might interest our readers:

1. Hazardous Waste Training and Biosafety Training is required of all individuals who come in contact with chemicals or bodily fluids in their line of work. While the chemistry going on between you and your partner(s) at SPG may not be dangerous per se, party managers who deal with the clean-up afterward may find these two courses helpful when they’re picking up the latex waste party-goers leave behind with latex gloves.

2. Fall Protection Training  teaches the life-saving skills necessary for workers whose jobs entail moving around at heights greater than 6 feet. This will especially in handy when attempting Epic Shortcut #3. [Read more →]

It’s that time of the year again, when bewildered students wake up to find that time has gone back an hour. As of 2:00 a.m. November 6, 2011, most people on the Northern Hemisphere witnessed their clocks jump back to 1:00 am.

The idea of Daylight Savings Time, conceived by Benjamin Franklin, has been a topic of much controversy. While we may not have Fall or the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful New England foliage this year, Brown students can at least enjoy an extra hour of sleep as they recover from a night of intense scrabbling. Facilities, on the other hand, will have the painful task of adjusting the clock on Carrie Tower.

The best pulled pork on the East Side.

For those of you who’ve dared to venture a few blocks off Thayer, you’ll have no doubt had the pleasure of tasting the delicious food of United BBQ. For those of you who haven’t, you may have missed your chance to have some of the best BBQ around as the eleven employees of United BBQ were informed on Thursday night that the restaurant would close down after the weekend.

Located on Ives Street, United BBQ opened three years ago to a string of overwhelmingly positive reviews. Its achievements include winning the 2011 “RI’s Best Barbecue” award from the Providence Phoenix. Although known for its barbecue, the restaurant was also popular with Brown’s eco-friendly students due to its wide variety of vegan and vegetarian options, such as its “Tofurkey” Kielbasa Sandwich.  [Read more →]

Students in BIOL 0530 – Principles of Immunology were treated to a rendition of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” by their professor, Dr. Richard Bungiro, with the song’s lyrics replaced with terms from the class, at the end of Thursday’s lecture.

For those wondering if the class will be offered in the spring, unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until Fall 2012. If you can’t wait ’til then, you could always sneak into Salomon 001 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30 to 3:50 pm in the hopes that Dr. Bungiro will break out in song again!

Remember when Steve Jobs died and Apple set up rememberingsteve@apple.com so that Apple employees and devotees could send their condolences and final messages to have them all compiled together somehow? Well, Apple just updated its memorial page to include a stream of all these emails. Over a million of them.

Assuming that you take about 10 seconds to read one of these emails, if you decide to read all of these messages continuously, it’ll take you over a hundred days to read them all, which means that you’ll be done around sometime next February.

Brown University Health Services sponsored a “Heavy Petting” event this morning, which featured Brown faculty and staff and their furry friends as a great way to de-stress from the barrage of mid-October mid-terms and papers.

Sharing a space is tough business - try not to get too attached

The online application for off-campus permission went live this morning at 8 AM for rising juniors and seniors and will continue until midnight November 1. For rising juniors, this will be the only time that you’ll be allowed to apply.

There are many reasons to live off-campus at Brown, such as avoiding the anxiety that comes with the housing lottery and the problem of overcrowded dorms. Not to mention the prospect of getting to know your friendly local Rhode Islanders a little better. For those who’ve decided to venture out into greater Providence, you’ll be spending the next few weeks and months hunting down your dream home. [Read more →]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooibSfUNRjU

Tonight, renowned Chinese-American film producer Janet Yang ’78 will be on campus to give a talk at the Granoff at 6 pm on her work in portraying Asian and Chinese culture in Hollywood, as part of the University’s efforts in the Year of China event series. Her past work includes films such as Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun and Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club.

One of her more recent works involves doing the exact opposite: Bringing Hollywood to China. Released last year, Disney High School Musical: China is basically the exact same story as its multi-million dollar American counterpart. Nonetheless, the task of transplanting an entire culture across the Pacific is no easy task. Lyrics weren’t just simply pumped through Google Translate. Yang and her team had to reinvent and reimagine an entire universe in order to make the story comprehensible to China’s millions of tweenage boys and girls.

With this, Disney High School Musical: China will join the ranks of Disney’s international media empire (did someone say hegemony?), which includes Brazil’s High School Musical: O Desafio and Argentina’s High School Musical: El Desafio–not to mention the Korean rip off, Dream High.

No doubt one of the coolest things that happens at Brown each year is the Annual Brown/RISD Drag Show,  which features performances by students and acts from Providence and beyond. Hosted by the LGBTQ communities from the two schools, the event aims to provide a fun and welcoming space in which people can play with gender performance and artistically express themselves. In doing so, the performers hope to give visibility to those who experiment with gender-blending and gender-bending.  The event also aims to raise funds for Lifelines, RI, a local group that helps Rhode Island’s LGBTQ community through advocacy and support.

To find out more about the show and those behind it, BlogDailyHerald sat down with two of the performers, Anthony Rivera ’13 and Abe Pressman ’12. [Read more →]

Line to get into the talk reaches the George Street Main Green entrance as Salomon 101 fills up to capacity.