Instead of creating cuddly animals that people might actually want (mini-giraffes for the home, hamsters large enough to put on a leash and take for walks), some Harvard University scientists are mixing up chicken DNA to make "embryos with alligator-like snouts instead of beaks." Great!
You'd think the average grad student at Harvard would know how to use the bathroom by now, wouldn't you? Well, just to be on the safe side, Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences hands out a "bathroom etiquette guide" to all incoming students moving into university-owned housing, which is conveniently divided into what is considered "appropriate" and "inappropriate" behavior when you're using the toilets, showers and sinks. A sample is below. Prepare to be stunned.
Good news, Harvard graduates! Your esteemed university has handed over its vaunted name to Wearwolf Group, a garment maker that plans to "take advantage of a taste for seersucker, khakis, loafers and other 'preppy' attire" with a line of clothing called "Harvard Yard." According to Wearwolf, which has done work for other prestigious brands in the past like Jos. A. Bank, trousers will start at $195, shirts will retail for $160 and up, and sportcoats will go for $495, and they will all "reflect Harvard's quality, heritage and excellence." Even better: It shouldn't be long before the university is able to begin serving hot meals to students once again. [Bloomberg via Dealbreaker]
What do you do when your career on Wall Street has come to an ignominious end and you need to keep busy lest you end up spending the rest of your days playing bridge or golf? Take a job in academia! Greg Fleming, the former president of Merrill Lynch, is now a member of the Yale Law School faculty: This semester, he's teaching a class that will explain the "economic events of the past year," which should also help Fleming shed some light on what exactly he was doing as the man in charge of risk management at Merrill Lynch the past few years. Fleming isn't the only one.
If you're outraged about the current state of the economy and you need an outlet for your anger, you may want to catch a bus to Boston instead of taking one to visit the homes of AIG executives. Just a few of the names in the press these days who happen to be graduates of Harvard Business School: Former Merrill Lynch chiefs Stan O'Neal and John Thain, former treasury secretaries Bob Rubin and Hank Paulson, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, and Bernie Madoff enabler Ezra Merkin. [Clusterstock]
A mere days after winning, in a shocking upset, that prestigious US News award, Harvard University finds itself the center of a terrible controversy! Are the Harvard Campus Police racist? President Drew Gilpin Faust (!) sent out an email to students announcing the creation of a commission to review "complaints that officers have unfairly stopped black students, professors, and other university community members because of their race." Now, I know what you are thinking. Sure, Boston is a hugely white town in which cops are probably a little less savvy about the "racial profiling" than most, but what kind of professor gets mistaken for a sundry hoodlum?? Come on in, I will show you!
US News & World Report released its annual college rankings today. No need to read; it's the usual suspects in the usual order. "The real news is price. A year at Harvard now costs $36,173 (tuition and fees), while Columbia will set you back $39,326. The cost of a college education is escalating at three to four times the inflation rate." [WSJ/Wealth Report]
Al Gore's minions at cable network Current just revisited the story of Harvard porno H Bomb, which debuted four years ago. Current posted an interview with H Bomb co-founder Katharina Cieplak-von Baldegg, but neglected to mention that Baldegg, class of '06, was hired by Current to solicit content after her gig running H Bomb. It's not clear how new Current's interview is; according to this page, it was recorded earlier this month, but Baldegg is identified like she's the still the editor, which she is not. Anyway, the video, excerpted after the jump, includes a nice pan across the magazine's famous orgy centerfold and the impossibly-named Baldegg sounding off about how her magazine was not porno but high-minded art.
Last weekend, on the bucolic Quad at Harvard University—typically, the site of a casual game of Ultimate, or perhaps an afternoon reading of some Shakespearean sonnets before English class—an unusual and, to some, frightening scene was played out. There were people throwing things! And running! And jumping! And most scary of all, every single one of them was black. So the Harvard students watching from their dormitory windows, growing increasingly agitated at the sights below, did what any normal, white Harvard student would do when they saw a large, seemingly unruly group of black people: They called the cops!
In his spare time, New York Times writer Michael Winerip interviews kids who want to attend his alma mater, a little school up in Cambridge. In Sunday's Parenting column, he reveals that he's screened at least 40 kids—and exactly one student has gotten in. So why does he keep doing it? Why, because it makes him feel better about himself and his not-Harvard-material kids.
Is there no future in Ivy League porn? Harvard student sex magazine H-Bomb has lost its status as a student group, which means it can't advertise or distribute copies on campus. Said Harvard assistant dean Paul McLoughlin:
Doree and Nikola headed to the Puck Building last night for a Paris Review fundraiser. Their account, and photos, follow.
There are certain ways that one announces one's place in the social pecking order. Dalton or Spence. Summers in Nantucket, winters in Palm Beach. Really all out is the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For those truly interested in becoming a part of the literary establishment, there is the Paris Review and its annual gala. Most parties for the quarterly literary journal take place at its offices in Tribeca and are generally attended by the expected assortment of nattily attired lower-level publishing types and a couple of famous writers enticed by the free drinks or the comely assistants who drink too many of them. But the Revel, as the annual benefit is called, is an entirely different animal. Tickets started at $500 and one was welcome to purchase a table for $50,000, which is the annual salary of two assistants.
