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Princeton in the News
January 5, 2000
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HIGHLIGHTS
The Houston Chronicle
Copyright 2000 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
January 05, 2000HEADLINE: Not so fast to pronounce a successful Y2K fix . . .
BYLINE: EDWARD TENNER; Tenner is a visiting researcher in the geosciences department at Princeton University, in Princeton, N.J., and the author of "Why Things Bite Back."
THE airlines fly, the telephone rings, the holiday credit-card bills arrive - all pretty much as we expected, once corporations and government agencies showed they were serious about getting computers ready to roll over to the year 2000.
Overseas, where the major industrial countries thought there might really be problems, turnabout is fair play: Some officials who run Russia's atomic power program - the focus of so much Western concern - now dismiss Y2K as a plot by the American software industry.
Did we overspend in our estimated $100 billion outlay on Y2K? Of course. We're Americans. We're overfed and overarmed. Our mattresses are so thick they need stepladders. We buffed our code, we re-engineered, we tested and tested again. Still, much of what was done had to be done. And some information technology experts now foresee a new organizational golden age as a result of their work, as new systems improve productivity and reliability.
But Y2K is not over. Computing has another, less dramatic side that consumers don't always see directly: the inevitable incidence of small and annoying, though manageable, errors introduced by human beings as programs are written and updated. New code always has bugs, and Y2K repairs have sometimes interfered with other computer functions: for example, temporarily disabling some screen fonts. …
Note: Appeared on The New York Times news services; also ran in the International Herald Tribune. See text below for excerpt of interview on National Public Radio's Science Friday.
University Wire
Copyright 2000 The Daily Princetonian via U-Wire
January 5, 2000HEADLINE: Princeton U. sweeps Time magazine person of century, year awards
BYLINE: By Jennifer Maloney, The Daily Princetonian
DATELINE: Princeton, N.J.Of all the lists that have come out in the past month -- from greatest sports moments of the century to best non-fiction of '99 -- an index of the best universities of the millennium has not been among them. But judging from Time magazine's end-of-the-year accolades, it might as well have been Princeton at the top. The magazine's "Person of the Year" and "Person of the Century" both have strong Princeton ties -- one having spent his time as an undergraduate here and the other having spent the last 22 years of his life in Princeton.
Jeff Bezos '86, CEO of Internet megastore Amazon.com, won the title of Person of the Year and Albert Einstein, who worked on his theory general relativity at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1933 to 1955, was honored as Person of the Century "It was very important for me as a Princeton alumnus to make sure that both the person of the year and the person of the century were from Princeton," joked James Kelly '76, deputy managing editor of Time. "E-commerce was the big story of the year," Kelly added, noting that the runner-up for Person of the Year was Meg Whitman '77, CEO of eBay "Two stars."
"I think it's interesting that the two stars were both from Princeton," he said. "We ultimately went with Amazon.com because it was the wave of the future: business-to-business dealings on the Web. [Bezos] had smart answers for our questions. He's an engaging personality. There is no question that he paved the way for other businesses." …
Daniel Marlow, associate chair of the University's physics department, said Einstein had a profound effect on his field and beyond, becoming an integral part of the University. "He is most famous for changing the way we look at space and time," Marlow said of Einstein, who had a standing rule while living in Princeton that University students could come to him with math problems. …
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
Copyright 2000 Star Tribune
January 2, 2000, SundayHEADLINE: Self-awareness; Startling, intimate memoir becomes adventure in ideas
BYLINE: Debbra FordDaniel Mendelsohn is a classics scholar and professor at Princeton University. He is also Jewish, a gay man and the godfather of a child he is helping to raise. "The Elusive Embrace" is his first full-length book, and it is a remarkable tapestry, weaving family and personal memoir, ancient mythology, and a meditation on the meaning of self.
Mendelsohn is the self-appointed genealogist for his family. He persuasively evokes the "bride of death" (a beautiful aunt who died a week before her wedding), the larger-than-life patriarch, the flamboyant mother, and the travels forced on them all during two World Wars. So the book is partly an all-American tale of immigration and creation of the self in a new land.
He also moves through the world of big-city gay culture, unapologetic, honest and revealing. (Perhaps more revealing than some readers might want, though it never dissolves into gratuitous exhibitionism. Here's one encounter
"His features were solemn and regular, and he swung unselfconsciously into the loose-hipped 'contrapposto' favored by the models who appear in Obsession ads. There is a pose in Greek sculpture of the high classical period called 'diadoumenos': an athlete stands with arms raised, tying a ribbon around his head. At one point in our conversation Mike reached up with both hands to straighten his cap; if you squinted, the comparison wasn't too much of a stretch."
Along the way he offers an understanding of the mysteries of love and desire, the codes of the online chatroom, and the subtle (or not-so-subtle) cruising of bars, frat parties and street corners. So the book is also the story of a man coming out, and coming-of-age, and becoming. …
OTHER HEADLINES
The Columbus Dispatch
Copyright 2000 The Columbus Dispatch
January 6, 2000, ThursdayHEADLINE: NEARLY FULL FIELD EXPECTED TO FILE FOR OHIO PRIMARY PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS HAVE UNTIL FRIDAY TO TURN IN THE NEEDED PAPERWORK FORTHE MARCH 7 EVENT.
BYLINE: Roger K. Lowe, Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief
DATELINE: WASHINGTONAt least seven presidential candidates plan to file for Ohio's March 7 primary, but one lesser-known Republican won't put together a list of delegates by the Friday deadline.
Democrats Bill Bradley and Al Gore are expected to meet the deadline, as are Republicans George W. Bush, Steve Forbes, Alan Keyes and John McCain. Republican Gary Bauer is expected to file delegate slates for all but one of Ohio's 19 congressional districts. …
One Bradley delegate is Karen Van Breda Kolff of Lorain, the daughter of Bradley's basketball coach at Princeton University, Butch Van Breda Kolff. …
Copyright 2000 THE HINDU
Copyright 2000 FT Asia Intelligence Wire
January 6, 2000HEADLINE: Life in the inferno
Researchers have identified factors which determine where microorganisms can survive the hellish world deep underground. Even Dante would blanch at the conditions kilometers below the earth's surface. Temperatures that rise to more than 100 degrees celsius, pressures hundreds of times greater than atmospheric pressure bear down, and space is so tight even microorganisms can barely budge.
SUBURFACE SCIENTISTS have begun to identify the factors that determine why microorganisms survive deep underground in some places, but not others, report researchers from the Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and Princeton University.
High temperatures ensure nothing can live too far below the earth's surface. But pressure, the availability of water, the porosity of the surrounding rock and the flow of chemical nutrients also limit where extremophiles--microorganisms that relish harsh conditions--can exist. As recently as 1980's most microbiologists thought nothing could survive far below the soil layer. They now know extremophiles live embedded in rock hundreds of meters below dry land, in deep ocean sediments and in fissures crisscrossing the ocean floor. …
The Providence Journal-Bulletin
Copyright 2000 The Providence Journal Company
January 5, 2000, WednesdayHEADLINE: COMMENTARY - Maybe Germans aren't different - Ruminations on the New Berlin
BYLINE: JONATHAN D. ROCKOFFON NOV. 9, Germany celebrated the tenth an-niversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. More than any celebration, however, the biggest testament to the wall's collapse has been the makeover of the city in the years since.
Berlin is a different place, with new buildings and new subways, restored apartment houses and revived streetscapes. Almost overnight, it seems, Berlin was transformed. You can barely tell that the Cold War once divided it.
Of course, critics deride the transformation as another example of Germans' uninspired efficiency. They assail a lost opporunity to make Berlin a beacon of fine design. They attack the new architecture's drabness.
There is something to be said for the stereotype of Germans as efficiency experts, more accountants than artists. It is a point of national pride that the country's railroads run on time, which they almost always do. …
Jonathan D. Rockoff, a Journal staff writer, majored in German history at Princeton University, spent summers in Munich and Vienna, and interned for the Associated Press in Vienna.
The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Copyright 2000 Spokane Spokesman-Review
January 5, 2000, WednesdayHEADLINE: Long takes in a panorama of experiences
BYLINE: John Blanchette The Spokesman-ReviewThere is Division I basketball and there is Ivy League basketball - and while Damian Long knows them to be the same thing, technically, he also understands that they're very, very different.
On the other hand, he can draw an exotic parallel between the Ivy League of Harvard and Princeton and the Panorama League of St. George's and Wellpinit.
Hey, notions like that happen when you package a nimble intellect inside a gym rat. …
''People think of Ivy basketball as Princeton and Penn, and that's probably a fair assessment as they've won every title but two going back more than 30 years,'' he said.
''What's different is that we play Friday and Saturday back-to-back. That means you're preparing for two teams during the week, and road trips can be difficult. You can be at Columbia on Friday and then have to bus 9 hours upstate to Cornell to play the next night, getting in at 4 or 5 in the morning.
''In that respect, it kind of reminds you of the Panorama League.''
Penn and Princeton are travel partners, too - the two best teams with two radically different playing styles that Long simply loves to play, especially at home.
''For about two games a year, we have a great basketball atmosphere here,'' he said. ''Penn and Princeton probably think the Ivy is full of fanatical fans. They don't know that when we play Columbia, there's about eight people here. …
University Wire
Copyright 2000 The Daily Princetonian via U-Wire
January 5, 2000HEADLINE: Princeton students earn money from Web site
BYLINE: By Cindy Kellogg, The Daily Princetonian
DATELINE: Princeton, N.J.For some Princeton University students, the idea of getting paid to surf the Web and recruiting others to do the same sounds simple enough, but officials warn that it may be against University policy.
AllAdvantage.com is an Internet company that pays members for using the Internet and collects data on their browsing habits, which it then gives to other companies. In turn, these companies pay AllAdvantage.com to provide customized online advertisements to its members.
"I have received two checks so far," Cameron Jones '01 said. "One for $54, and one for a little over $200. This month should be considerably more, $350 or so. They do pay, believe it or not."
The company pays its members 50 cents per hour for up to 25 hours of active surfing per month. After they refer AllAdvantage.com to friends, members also receive payment for each hour a referral spends surfing the Web. The original member receives additional money for five generations of referrals.
"I have 156 direct referrals and about 600 others. About 20 to 30 of these are on campus," Jones said. According to CIT policy and security adviser Rita Saltz, however, using AllAdvantage.com on the Princeton network may be illegal because it is "a commercial use of internal University resources." …
University Wire
Copyright 2000 The Daily Princetonian via U-Wire
January 5, 2000HEADLINE: Princeton encounters small Y2K glitches
BYLINE: By Rich Tucker, The Daily Princetonian
DATELINE: Princeton, N.J.Most of the world escaped serious complications from the much-discussed millennium bug, and Princeton University was no exception.
Campus personnel reported Tuesday only minor problems that were fixed by mid-afternoon Saturday.
"Everything went smoothly, but I'm glad we prepared," said Director of Engineering Tom Nyquist. "We had to be prepared just in case something serious really did go wrong. We couldn't just spend New Year's Eve celebrating.
By New Year's Eve, all of the planned Y2K preparations were complete, and University officials spent the evening in Stanhope Hall, the utilities plant, and in the makeshift University Y2K contingency team command center in East Pyne. CIT personnel disconnected all University servers and computers from the Internet to protect systems from potential hacker attacks at 11 p.m. Dec. 31 and kept them disconnected until 6:00 a.m. Jan. 1, CIT official David Koehler said. …
MINOR PROBLEMS
Nevertheless, some of the larger University record-keeping systems and payroll systems did experience some minor problems, according to Koehler.
"A few record reports that we ran said the report had been run in 1900," he said. "Some other programs didn't get quite the right numbers when we made calculations and when we tested some boundary cases."
Koehler said the majority of the problems were corrected a few hours after midnight, and the few remaining glitches were fixed by CIT personnel the following day.
"We could have probably done all those things Monday morning, so our only over-preparation probably was having people come in over the weekend," he said. "It was good they came in, though, because it meant Princeton could be open for business as usual Monday morning." …
The Washington Post
Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
January 5, 2000HEADLINE: No Regrets for Ivey After Taste of National Stage
BYLINE: Jackie Spinner, Washington Post Staff WriterSo maybe his timing wasn't all that great. Glenn Ivey, the political scientist, will admit that in retrospect.
As chief counsel to Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), Ivey, who cut his teeth on the Whitewater scandal, was positioned in 1998 to advise his boss, who would take part in the great legal and political debate of the 1990s: President Clinton's impeachment hearings and trial.
"There was a role there that not too many people get a shot at and certainly not African Americans," said Ivey, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.
But then Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) came calling and presented Ivey with another potentially historic opportunity. If he took Glendening's offer to become chairman of Maryland's Public Service Commission, Ivey would have the chance to tackle the deregulation of the electrical power industry.
Impeachment? Deregulation? Impeachment? Deregulation?
Ivey, 38, who has made no secret of his interest in running for public office, chose deregulation and state government over the national stage. Last year, he became the chairman of the state agency that oversees gas, electric, telecommunications, water, sewage disposal, steam heating and certain transportation companies operating in Maryland. …
The Associated Press
State & Local Wire
January 4, 2000, TuesdayHEADLINE: Insurers seek to stop red ink, meet needs of customers, doctors
BYLINE: By MARY SIT-DuVALL, Houston ChronicleHOUSTON - Almost everyone knows a neighbor, a friend or an acquaintance with an HMO horror story: treatment denied, unpaid claims, long phone waits.
Doctors kvetch about the stacks of paperwork and that clerks are authorizing treatment for diseases whose names they can't spell.
Politicians rail against health maintenance organizations and introduce bills they hope will earn them goodwill and votes.
Clearly, HMOs are in trouble. Most of them are losing money and many smaller ones are becoming takeover targets.
As managed care enters the new millennium, companies are seeking new ways to deliver more affordable care in a fashion more palatable to both consumers and doctors.
The backlash against managed care has resulted in first-in-the-nation legislation in Texas. In 1997, laws covering patients' rights, including the right to sue an HMO, went into effect. State-supervised independent review organizations were set up to arbitrate disputes between patients and insurance companies.
In addition to fighting a souring public image, HMOs are struggling for financial viability. …
"HMOs were a cost-cutting tool to manage the care with a set of doctors you prenegotiate rates with. It's a better financial product. But they never reached their potential because administrative costs skyrocketed," Kumar says.
Other critics are harsher. UweReinhardt, a health economist at Princeton University, says HMOs never really managed care.
"They just gave up on that. What they got is managed discounts," Reinhardt says. …
The Christian Science Monitor
Copyright 2000 The Christian Science Publishing Society
January 4, 2000, TuesdayHEADLINE: Future in space: Mars first, then the stars
BYLINE: Alex Salkever, Special to The Christian Science MonitorWhen astronomer Johannes Kepler noticed the tail of a comet bending away from the sun like a willow bending in a strong breeze, he saw a force to power starships.
"Ships and sails proper for heavenly breezes should be fashioned," he wrote, making perhaps the first recorded insight on solar wind, a stream of radiation and ionized particles emanating from the sun.
That was 1609.
Nearly four centuries later, NASA and university scientists are trying to turn Kepler's vision into a real means of interplanetary propulsion. These massive, ultralight solar sails could harness the power of innumerable photons zooming away from the sun to propel ships to other planets and, perhaps, to other stars light-years away.
Solar sails represent just one of a handful of new and exotic strategies that may revolutionize space exploration in coming decades. With humans hitting the outer performance limits of traditional chemical explosive rockets, these new methods of space travel will prove critical in future excursions in the solar system and beyond. …
Because the moon is fairly close to Earth, the propulsion power needed to go there and back is easy to load on a relatively crude space vehicle. A voyage to Mars, by contrast, would span several years with current rocket devices. Farther voyages into the outer planets or to other stars are beyond the reach of rockets or the space shuttle.
"The main parameter you need to improve is the exhaust velocity," says Edgar Choueiri, an aerospace engineer at Princeton University in New Jersey. "The faster you throw stuff out of the rocket, the faster the spacecraft can travel." …
The Christian Science Monitor
Copyright 2000 The Christian Science Publishing Society
January 4, 2000, TuesdaySECTION: EDITORIALS
HEADLINE: Children and Welfare ReformThe 1996 federal law that put an end to guaranteed welfare checks has been an overall success. It has hugely reduced the number of families on welfare, forcing adults to work.
In Wisconsin, home of the nation's boldest welfare reform, welfare rolls have been cut more than 90 percent.
But in human affairs, a gentle heart often needs to go along with stern rules. Politicians, like those in New York City or Wisconsin, may boast of their welfare-reform achievements as part of the political game. They need to remember, though, they are dealing with the lives of people who are often disadvantaged in education and health, both physical and mental.
The basic assumption is that welfare parents forced into jobs will acquire the work ethic, pass it on to their children, and end the phenomenon of the welfare lifestyle extending through generations.
That may be true in many, maybe most cases.
But as welfare rolls shrink toward the hard-core cases, governments will need to watch carefully that the reform does not do more harm than good, particularly for children. …
Poor families are more likely to maltreat their children, the study by economists Christina Paxson of Princeton University and Jane Waldfogel of Columbia University also finds. Unfortunately, many of those leaving welfare are getting jobs that pay so little they remain poor. …
The Morning Call (Allentown)
Copyright 2000 The Morning Call, Inc.
January 4, 2000, TuesdayHEADLINE: SOFTBALL STARS TREON, GAYDOS CHOOSE THEIR COLLEGES; FREEDOM FIELD HOCKEY; GOALIE HEADED TO LA SALLE
BYLINE: KEITH GROLLER; The Morning CallThree members of 1999 Morning Call All-Area teams have decided not to go deep into 2000 before making their college choices known.
Parkland High School's Shauna Treon and Allen High School's Kelly Gaydos, members of the All-Area Softball Team, will continue their careers at Lehigh University and Princeton University, respectively. …
Gaydos has been a leader at Allen since she made her mark as a freshman pitcher in 1997. Her rapid recovery from an ACL injury before her sophomore season was an inspiration to her teammates.
She also does more than just pitch. Gaydos hit a team-high .353 last season with five extra-base hits and 16 RBIs. She will be a major asset to Princeton's renowned program, always an Ivy League power.
"I'm excited," she said. "A lot of hard work went into getting me into Princeton and there's a lot of hard work ahead of me. But I'm ready for the challenge."
Gaydos, who likely will major in engineering, communications or some combination of both, was interested in Lehigh, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, but said Princeton was tops on her list all along.
"The great thing about Princeton is the excellent academics," she said. "That's the most important thing to me. Softball is just a plus." …
The Associated Press
State & Local Wire
January 3, 2000, MondayELIOT LAURENCE SPITZER|
Party affiliation: Democrat.
Birthday: June 10, 1959.
Birthplace: New York City.
Personal: Married to Silda Spitzer, a Harvard Law School graduate. The couple has three daughters.
Primary residence: New York City.
Education: Princeton University, 1981; Harvard Law School, 1984.
Experience: Law clerk for U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet, 1984-85; private law practice, 1985-86; assistant district attorney in Manhattan, 1986-92; chief of labor racketeering unit of Manhattan district attorney's office, 1991-92; private law practice, 1992-present.Quote on job: "It has been, at a purely personal level, more fun than anybody's entitled to have at work."
The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA.)
Copyright 2000 Capital City Press
January 3, 2000HEADLINE: Einstein right pick, former student says
NATCHEZ, Miss. - John MacIlroy would like to say something to the people at Time magazine who picked Albert Einstein as its man of the century: excellent choice.
Macllroy thinks Einstein is "one of the best brains of the century," and he should know, having taken a class from the famous physicist while attending Princeton University in the 1930s.
"I thought I'd like to take it just to say I'd been there," MacIlroy said.
Although MacIlroy eventually graduated with a degree in English, he wanted to take a class from the famous scientist.
"It was quite interesting," he said, but admitted he was "not altogether sure" he understood all the concepts he was supposed to be learning.
MacIlroy remembered Einstein as the same white-haired, absent-minded professor the genius was characterized as.
"He was a pleasant man, but that's all I remember," he said. "He looked pretty much like his pictures. He was pretty down-to-earth."Einstein, who usually had assistants offer after-class help, had a small enough class to know everyone's name, MacIlroy said. "You were expected to study yourself," MacIlroy said.
After he graduated from Princeton, MacIlroy became a World War II pilot and a salesman in the textile industry.
NOTE: Ran on the Associated Press regional wire and appeared in The Commercial Appeal, Memphis.
Copley News Service
Copyright 2000 Copley News Service
January 3, 2000, MondayHEADLINE: TODAY'S SCENE
A brain besieged
By Scott LaFeePerched atop the spinal column, ensconced within a bone-hard skull and protected by a sophisticated blood-screening system, the human brain would seem relatively safe and separate from most of what ails the body.
It is not.
By its very nature and function, your brain is an extraordinarily vulnerable organ, highly sensitive to its surroundings, regularly afflicted by a host of perils and predations.
''The brain is very resilient,'' said Stephen Heinemann, a neurobiologist at The Salk Institute in La Jolla, a San Diego neighborhood. ''But every injury, every abuse, indeed every experience in life, affects the brain in some way, often physically and permanently.'' …
Chronically high levels of stress hormones in the brain are toxic, killing neurons and possibly damaging cognitive ability. In tests of people suffering from depression and post-traumatic-stress syndrome both situations in which people exhibit above-average glucocorticoid levels memory and thinking were impaired.
The damaging effects of stress may go further. In recent years, neuroscientists have discovered that, contrary to earlier medical dogma, human brains produce new nerve cells in adulthood. The finding is notable because it suggests the brain may possess innate healing abilities that could be exploited in new treatments for a variety of degenerative neurological conditions.
But a recent Princeton University study examining adult tree shrews, whose brains are more similar to humans than to rodents, found that stressful experiences appear to dampen, even stop, this proliferation of new adult nerve cells. …
Oil & Gas Journal
Copyright 2000 PennWell Publishing Company
January 3, 2000HEADLINE: FCC catalyst properties can affect cyclone erosion
BYLINE: Joseph B. McLean, Engelhard Corp., HoustonPhysical properties of fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) catalysts, such as attrition resistance, density, and particle-size distribution, have varying effects on expected cyclone-erosion rates.
Although velocity affects erosion more than any catalyst property, it is often easier to change the catalyst than lower the FCCU feed rate.
Many refiners operating FCCUs are pushing their units to achieve higher throughputs and more-severe operating conditions than their original designs. These operations result in higher catalyst loadings and higher velocities through the reactor and regenerator cyclones, which create potential for erosion damage that can limit the run length.
FCC catalysts today are highly customized for refiners' needs, addressing activity, yield selectivity, and physical properties. This article examines the impact of physical properties on cyclone-erosion rates.
A more attrition-resistant catalyst can reduce erosion by reducing fines loading to the cyclones. This property also minimizes the number of sharp-edged and irregular particles, created by fracturing of larger particles, that are erosive.
A finer particle-size distribution also minimizes erosion, but this must be balanced by the need to maintain unit inventory and minimize catalyst losses.
Higher catalyst particle densities are associated with reduced erosion rates. Although the erosion rate depends on the squared value of particle density, reduced loading as a function of particle density offsets any increase in the erosion rate. …
THE AUTHOR
Joseph B. McLean is an executive technology specialist for Engelhard's Petroleum Catalyst Group, based in Houston. He joined Engelhard in 1987 as a senior research engineer in the FCC catalyst evaluation area. He previously held positions in process research, development, and engineering for ARCO, Research-Cottrell, and Hydrocarbon Research Inc.
McLean holds a BSE from Princeton University and an MS from the University of California, Berkeley, both in chemical engineering.
The Associated Press
State & Local Wire
January 2, 2000, SundayHEADLINE: New Jersey has contributed to few presidential tickets
DATELINE: WASHINGTONBill Bradley and Steve Forbes are challenging history as well as front-runners in their respective quests for the Democratic and Republican nominations for president.
Through two-plus centuries, New Jersey has contributed a mere handful of favorite sons to presidential tickets. Besides Woodrow Wilson and Grover Cleveland - the latter remembered more as a New Yorker than for his Garden State ties - New Jersey's contribution has totaled three vice presidential candidates, two of whom were on losing tickets. …
In the case of presidents, Cleveland was born in Caldwell (where his birthplace is now a national museum) and retired to Princeton. But he arrived at the White House as a New Yorker, having been mayor of Buffalo, and then governor of New York.
Wilson, by contrast, was born in Staunton, Va., lived in Georgia and studied briefly at Davidson College in North Carolina before arriving in New Jersey as a student at the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. He became Princeton's president in 1910, then ran for president as a Democrat in 1912.
Princeton is, in fact, a common denominator for all but one of New Jersey's presidential and vice presidential aspirants.
Frelinghuysen graduated in 1804, Dayton in 1825, Wilson in 1879. Bradley graduated in 1965, Forbes in 1970. …
The Boston Globe
Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company
January 2, 2000, SundayEDITORIAL
HEADLINE: (SECOND IN A SERIES) ISSUES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: THE FRONTIER WITHIN USThe following advertisement might run on the Internet before this new century turns 20:
"Why take chances with your children's future? Design a good-looking scholar guaranteed to get into medical school. Contact the Gene Genie today for a free consultation and tour of our laboratories." Not so far-fetched when one considers that sperm banks with brainy donors have been around for years and that childless couples have run ads in Ivy League publications offering $50,000 to egg donors with high SAT scores.
Glimpses of a boldly bioengineered future flash all around us, so much so that if there were a remake of the 1967 movie "The Graduate," the businessman telling Benjamin to go into plastics might, with the same profiteering glint in his eye, intone a new mantra: "Genetics."
Madison Avenue holds America in thrall with the promise of a brighter smile, more manageable hair, better sex, and a new, improved life. Why not gene-tweaking for a body beautiful? Call it the liposuction of the not-too-distant future.
"There are already calls for putting the smart mouse gene into people," laments Stuart A. Newman, professor of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College. He refers to a Princeton report earlier this year introducing Doogie the supermouse (named for the TV show "Doogie Howser, MD" about a 10-year-old genius). …
The Detroit News
Copyright 2000 The Detroit News, Inc.
January 2, 2000, SundayHEADLINE: In Greenwich, the science of time is measured in seconds: Keepers of time already planning for more accurate 3000
BYLINE: Jeremy Pearce / The Detroit NewsGREENWICH, England -- As bells tolled over London, noisily marking the start of a new century, the Royal Observatory's computer clock in Greenwich ran on in silence, capturing the moment to a millionth of a second.
Time has been kept here for 325 years, since King Charles II responded in 1674 to a need for better navigation in guiding Britain's navy. Correct time is critical for plotting a safe sea course, he reasoned.
"It sounds a bit dreary, but timekeeping affects navigation, astronomy, technology and engineering," explained Jonathan Betts, the observatory's curator of horology, which is the study of timekeeping.
"When you actually think about it, there's not a single occupation today without an element of time."
Looking to the stars
Now, the race is on to define the second still further. The answer, say scientists, may lie in space.
Rapidly spinning magnetic stars called pulsars send out pulses of energy that can be picked up by astronomers viewing the heavens on radio telescopes. In some cases, the pulses may be more regular than readings from atomic clocks.
"The pulses are rather like the ticking of a mechanical clock," said Princeton University astrophysicist … Joseph Taylor. "The best pulsars are arguably as good as the best atomic clocks. And if you happen to be traveling in space, navigating between the stars, they're probably going to be much more useful."
As the second is divided into ever-tinier units, there are social aspects to timekeeping that may prove as important. …
The Houston Chronicle
Copyright 2000 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
January 02, 2000HEADLINE: New prescriptions for what ails HMOs; Insurers are seeking to stop hemorrhaging of red ink, while also developing new ways to deliver low-cost care that meets the needs of customers, doctors
BYLINE: MARY SIT-DuVALLAlmost everyone knows a neighbor, a friend or an acquaintance with an HMO horror story: treatment denied, unpaid claims, long phone waits.
Doctors kvetch about the stacks of paperwork and that clerks are authorizing treatment for diseases whose names they can't spell.
Politicians rail against health maintenance organizations and introduce bills they hope will earn them goodwill and votes.
Clearly, HMOs are in trouble. Most of them are losing money and many smaller ones are becoming takeover targets.
As managed care enters the new millennium, companies are seeking new ways to deliver more affordable care in a fashion more palatable to both consumers and doctors.
The backlash against managed care has resulted in first-in-the-nation legislation in Texas. In 1997, laws covering patients' rights, including the right to sue an HMO, went into effect. State-supervised independent review organizations were set up to arbitrate disputes between patients and insurance companies.
In addition to fighting a souring public image, HMOs are struggling for financial viability. …
However, V. Kumar, a business consultant and marketing professor at the University of Houston, says HMOs never reached their potential.
"HMOs were a cost-cutting tool to manage the care with a set of doctors you prenegotiate rates with. It's a better financial product. But they never reached their potential because administrative costs skyrocketed," Kumar says.
Other critics are harsher. UweReinhardt, a health economist at Princeton University, says HMOs never really managed care.
"They just gave up on that. What they got is managed discounts,"Reinhardt says. …
The New York Times
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
January 2, 2000, SundayHEADLINE: A Tormented Life
BYLINE: By Mark Mazower; Mark Mazower's most recent book is "Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century." He teaches history at Princeton University.ARTHUR KOESTLER
The Homeless Mind.
By David Cesarani.
Illustrated. 646 pp. New York:
The Free Press. $30.NEVER averse to fisticuffs, Arthur Koestler must be chuckling in his grave. When "Arthur Koestler: The Homeless Mind" appeared in England last winter, it provoked a row that shows no signs of dying away. British newspapers serialized its spicy accounts of the subject's sex life. Another Koestler biographer publicly questioned how David Cesarani, a professor of modern Jewish history at Southampton University, obtained access to the writer's papers. The sight of two academics dueling over literary property rights and the intimate details of a dead man's private affairs was a sad commentary on the commercialization of contemporary cultural debate. The figure at the center of all the fuss loved controversy, but in his case it was about things that mattered.
Born into an assimilated Jewish family in Budapest in the last years of the Hapsburg Empire, Koestler is chiefly remembered as an outstanding interpreter of the phenomenon of totalitarianism. …
As Cesarani points out, Koestler's fans found it hard to keep up with him. His fame was at its height in the middle decades of the century. Only a few devotees still read the late Koestler and wonder what he meant by "the invisible writing" of the universe. But 16 years after his death, his reputation endures through the quality of his prose and his vivid exploration, in particular, of the impact of the age of ideologies upon the individual personality.
Cesarani's point of departure is an aspect of Koestler -- his Jewishness -- that did not much interest earlier commentators but was bound to speak to an age obsessed, as ours is, with ethnicity and identity. As a "homeless mind," he suggests, Koestler was typical of many central European Jewish intellectuals of our century. The fact that his subject did not make much of his religion is grist to Cesarani's mill, since he believes that "the attempt to flee Judaism was the quintessential act of the modern Jew." Cesarani shows how far Koestler distanced himself from central European Jewry in his autobiography and his novels; the former, he writes in a characteristically hostile comment, was Koestler's "most stupendous act of deception." …
The New York Times
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
January 2, 2000, SundayHEADLINE: Where the Historical Is Political
BYLINE: By Geoffrey Wheatcroft; Geoffrey Wheatcroft's books include "The Randlords" and "The Controversy of Zion."THE MULTIPLE IDENTITIES OF THE MIDDLE EAST
By Bernard Lewis.
163 pp. New York:
Schocken Books. $21.Few subjects are so absorbing as names and identity, or so fraught. These are basic tools for the historian, but are agonizingly complex and excruciatingly controversial. Now in his 84th year, the eminent scholar Bernard Lewis has spent his life dealing with history, religion, culture, language and, not least, terminology, in a region where all these are as fraught as anywhere. He has published more than 30 books, has received many academic honors and has held posts at numerous universities, though his two long professorial stints were 25 years at the University of London and another 12 at Princeton University.
His chosen field is one where the seemingly simplest analysis and definition can be dangerous. Even the titles of those two professorships -- Near and Middle East" and "Near East" studies -- beg questions, as does the title of his new book. Lewis himself recognizes that the term "Middle East" is "meaningless, colorless, shapeless and for most of the world inaccurate," and over the past century has been flexible to the point of emptiness. …
Having grown, the meaning of the term has since drastically shrunk. In a newspaper, "the Mideast" will likely as not be euphemistic shorthand for the conflict between Jew and Arab in what used to be called the Holy Land. Or more broadly it may intend the Levant (another antique term which could be usefully revived), the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean. Even if, as Lewis says, the Middle East has no collective identity like Europe, India or China, it is nevertheless the spiritual and mystical center of the world for much of mankind, and it is no accident that it has so often been a battleground or that its identities are so complex. The nine admirably erudite and illuminating essays in "The Multiple Identities of the Middle East" discuss these difficulties.
Three primary human identities are acquired at birth, Lewis notes: "blood," +place" and "faith," though these tend to overlap and intermingle with one another and then with further layers of identity. If anything, he exaggerates the degree to which this is a specifically Middle Eastern phenomenon. He says that only three countries in the region -- Turkey, Arabia and Iran -- conform to what he calls the European convergence of nation, country and language. But to call this European is misleading. Such a convergence may be the Platonic ideal of modern nationalism, but in reality Portugal is unique in Europe as a country whose boundaries haven't changed for several centuries, whose population is completely uniform in religion and whose political territory exactly coincides with language. …
The New York Times
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
January 2, 2000, SundayNAME: Burton G. Malkiel
HEADLINE: INVESTING; Humbling Lessons From Parties PastBYLINE: By BURTON G. MALKIEL; Burton G. Malkiel is an economics professor at Princeton University and the author of "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" (W. W. Norton).
BENJAMIN GRAHAM, co-author of "Security Analysis," the 1934 bible of value investing, long ago put his finger on the most dangerous words in an investor's vocabulary: "This time is different."
Pricing in the stock market today suggests that things really are different. Growth stocks, especially those associated with the information revolution, have soared to dizzying heights while the stocks of companies associated with the older economy have tended to languish. Well over half the stocks on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are selling at lower prices today than they did on Jan. 1, 1999.
It is not unusual today for new Internet issues to begin trading at substantial multiples of their offering prices. And after the initial public offerings, day traders rapidly exchange Internet shares as if they were Pokemon cards for adults.
As we enter the new millennium, how can we account for the unusual structure of stock prices? Does history provide any clues to sensible strategies for today's investors?
To be sure, we are living through an information revolution that is at least as important as the Industrial Revolution of the late 19th century. And much of the current performance in the stock market can be traced to the optimism associated with "new economy" companies -- those that stand to benefit most from the Internet. The information revolution will profoundly change the way we learn, shop and communicate. But the rules of valuation have not changed. Stocks are only worth the present value of the cash flows they are able to generate for the benefit of their shareholders.
It is well to remember that investments in transforming technologies have not always rewarded investors. Electric power companies, railroads, airlines and television and radio manufacturers transformed our country, but most of the early investors lost their shirts. Similarly, many early automakers ended up as road kill, even if the future of that industry was brilliant. …
The Richmond Times Dispatch
Copyright 2000 The Richmond Times Dispatch
January 2, 2000, SundayHEADLINE: 18 SPONSORS TO AID IN HOSPITAL BAL
BYLINE: SUSAN BOISSEAU; Times-Dispatch Staff WriterJust home from exams, 14 young women toured Sheltering Arms Hospital in Hanover County on Dec. 22 to become better acquainted with the facility they'll be raising money for in June. They will be sponsors of Sheltering Arms' largest fund-raising event, the Bal du Bois.
"They were really impressed with the new facility," said Monette Y. Reinhardt, president of the Junior Board of Sheltering Arms.
"They were happy to know they were part of the hospital in their capacity as sponsors," Reinhardt added.
The June 2 Bal du Bois at the Country Club of Virginia will be the 44th Bal the junior board has presented. Karen Blair and Margaret Reynolds are chairmen. …
*Meghan Leigh Glass of Princeton University, graduate of Collegiate School and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carter Glass IV.
South China Morning Post
Copyright 2000 South China Morning Post Ltd.January 2, 2000
HEADLINE: Peter Singer continues to stir controversy with his radical theories of non-human rights; The coup against king of animals
BYLINE: Charmaine ChanMANY people would love to see Peter Singer slip from his moral perch. As the "father of the animal rights movement" and the world's most famous bioethicist, he attracts scrutiny for defending everything from vegetarianism to issues as controversial as infanticide and euthanasia. Lack of consistency for someone in his position inevitably invites criticism. So does he worry sometimes about putting the wrong foot forward in public?
"Generally it hasn't been a problem because I've never claimed to be perfect," he says, apparently bemused by the question. Tucking into nuts and chips at the Mandarin Oriental hotel he adds, for example, that he would not send back a bowl of noodles if it came by mistake with bits of meat. "Morality is not a matter of strict adherence to rules where if you deviate by a hair's breadth it's a tragedy. It's rather a matter of trying to bring about good results."
Some would be relieved to learn of his apparent flexibility while others would probably be enraged. This, after all, is someone who not only says it is wrong to eat meat and expounds on how people should spend their money, but is also trying to convince the world that the sanctity of life is bunk.
The prolific author who in 1999 became the first full-time professor of bioethics at Princeton University in the United States says, for example, that parents of a severely disabled newborn should have the right to kill their baby after consulting doctors. He believes that ending the life of a child with Down's syndrome, for example, may increase the parents' opportunity to have a "normal" baby and thus the loss of the disabled child is "outweighed by the gain of a happier life for the second". He also suggests it may be ethically defensible to use a very retarded human in laboratory experiments rather than a chimpanzee.
Using his definition of the word "person", which he takes to mean any sentient, rational being conscious of its existence over time (meaning it can conceive of its past and future), Singer says killing a newborn - disabled or not - is not morally equivalent to killing a "person". Some humans obviously do not fit this definition while some animals do. It follows then that "the life of a newborn baby is of less value . . . than the life of a pig, a dog, or a chimpanzee". …
The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Copyright 2000 Spokane Spokesman-Review
January 2, 2000, SundayHEADLINE: The boy with the golden voice; Mead's Nick Davis is rarely home thanks; to his hectic life as a touring choirboy
BYLINE: Tom Skierka CorrespondentFor 14-year-old Nick Davis, the holidays meant a quick break from his hectic life as a choirboy.
For a few days over Christmas, Davis visited his friends in Spokane, played with his pet Labrador, Jasmine, and did some rock climbing. Then, suddenly, it was time to jet back to New York City for a concert at Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on New Year's Eve.
For the last three years, Davis has lived in Princeton, N.J., where he sings with a prestigious group called The American Boychoir. Far from his parents' home in Mead, Wash., his days are filled with rehearsals, in six or more different languages. He has toured the United States twice, singing in Gothic churches and famous music halls.
''We spend quite a lot of time singing and learning different music,'' Davis said during his break in Spokane. ''When we get a few moments to do nothing, it's nice to just enjoy the peace and quiet.'' …
The choir is a very demanding commitment for Nick Davis, but he is proud of what he has accomplished. His solo at the Manhattan Club in November was nerve-wracking, but it moved Mom and Dad to tears when they heard him sing ''Good Men Rejoice'' during a Christmas medley at the Princeton University Chapel.
''The choir was singing and suddenly you hear this angelic voice rise out,'' Nancy Davis said. ''It was so beautiful.'' …
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
Copyright 2000 Star Tribune
January 2, 2000, Sunday, Metro EditionHEADLINE: School stars get top dollar; The best and the brightest are finding a "buyer's market" in financial assistance from colleges.
BYLINE: Anthony Lonetree; Staff WriterWith the prospects of a full-ride scholarship already in hand, Molly Martyn couldn't believe her good fortune recently: Opening her mail, she learned that she'd been accepted to Georgetown University. Then her mom told her to hold on _ Notre Dame had written, too.
Now the senior at Benilde-St. Margaret's High School in St. Louis Park must decide between the two private schools, which base scholarships on financial need, and the University of Kansas, which is set to offer her a full ride for her academic achievements.
Martyn is among many of the state's best and brightest who are shifting from the elation of last month's college application and selection process to the stress and uncertainty of the financial-aid hunt.
But some students have found that process to be lucrative, as well, as institutions turn with increased frequency to merit aid _ scholarships based on performance, no matter what the student's income _ plus other maneuvers to get the academic stars they want. …
Cascading effect
Fifteen to 20 years ago, institutions looked at their financial-aid offices almost as charitable operations committed to making college affordable to students of modest means, McPherson said. Over time, however, schools have begun to think strategically, using financial-aid resources to gain an edge with students from wealthier families through the increased awarding of merit-based scholarships. …
In the case of Princeton University, that meant eliminating home value in determining aid for families earning less than $90,000 per year. Other schools followed suit, until finally Harvard University told prospective students they "should not assume that we will not respond" to competing offers. "Here you have the best-endowed institution in the history of the universe saying, 'Call us up. Let's make a deal,' " McPherson said. "It was a weird thing for them to do." …
TULSA WORLD
Copyright 2000 The Tulsa World
January 2, 2000HEADLINE: On the front lines of education
BYLINE: HARRY SEAY
SOURCE: Harry Seay is a Tulsa attorney.
BODY: In Plato's Cave By Alvin Kernan (Yale University Press, $25)"In Plato's Cave" is a history of Alvin Kernan's career in higher education and, to a considerable extent, the story of higher education over much of the last half century.
Beginning as a student on the G.I. Bill, Kernan eventually became a member of the faculty and administration at both Yale and Princeton universities. There he became another kind of veteran as well, coping or attempting to cope with a student uprising and an academic revolution.
Kernan begins with a lively account of his college years in the late 1940s, when he was one of many returning veterans jammed into America's colleges. Supported only by his G.I. Bill scholarship, a dwindling pile of wartime poker winnings and what he could pick up in part-time work, Kernan proved a gifted student. Earning a Ph.D. in English, Kernan began his career at Yale in 1954 with a sense of having a high calling in scholarship and in teaching the comparatively receptive students of the post-war years.
Long hair and rebellion arrived at Yale in the late 1960s, but its real day in the docks came in 1970, when a strike and a Black Panther trial split students and faculty and radicalized all sides. By then Kernan was an assistant provost whose duty it was to mediate between student demands, a deeply divided faculty and outraged alumni, handicapped by a near total loss of administrative control. Kernan memorably describes the administration's struggle to keep a lid on the pot and, as it then seemed, to preserve Yale as an institution. …
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
Copyright 2000 Telegraph Group Limited
January 01, 2000, SaturdayHEADLINE: Features: The future looks good, Holly Medical science has made huge strides in the past century, but new research promises to give people a vastly improved quality of life. Science editor Roger Highfield predicts the benefits his three-month-old daughter can expect at 60
BYLINE: By ROGER HIGHFIELD
HOLLY is young and bonny now - but how will she be in 2060? Fortunately, developments in cloning, reproductive technology and genetics will do much to keep her in good shape. She can also expect a higher quality of life as the emphasis of research shifts from halting big killers, such as cancer, to arresting the underlying ageing process
Farewell to fat
THE expanding number of love handles, pot bellies and flabby thighs can be blamed on the way our brains and bodies are optimised for Stone Age conditions, when life was tough, fat was scarce and famine common. Evolution smiled on those who craved energy-rich foods and put down stores of fat in case of shortages. Today's high-fat, low-exercise culture has led to an epidemic of obesity. But researchers are learning much more about the maze of metabolic pathways that control appetite, store fat and burn it. Drug companies are investigating dozens of compounds, based on the dozens of genes so far linked with weight control. A safe and effective anti-fat pill is only a matter of time. …
Brain power
MANY scientists have been sceptical that simple genetic changes could have much effect on intelligence, pointing out that the human brain uses some 30,000 genes. But mice have been made demonstrably smarter by adding a single gene, suggesting that genetic improvement of intelligence and memory in humans is feasible. This work offers another example of how gene therapy - the introduction of genes by virus, artificial chromosome and so on - may affect society and will stimulate ethical debate about the extent to which medical advances should be used to enhance people as well as fight disease.
Other research has shown how scientists may one day exploit their understanding of cellular processes to treat degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's. By blocking the action of enzymes called secretases, for example, they hope to prevent the build-up of deposits linked with dementia.
Scientists could go further and harness natural repair mechanisms to fix a broken brain. Doctors used to believe that nerve cells in the adult brain could not regenerate themselves: as cells were lost through ageing, we became dimmer and dimmer. But work on animals over the past three decades has overturned this belief and now a team at Princeton University has even seen brain cell growth in the most complex areas. Strategies to stimulate new growth and to use "stem cells" to cultivate brain tissue are under discussion. Others are finding out how to conduct "directed neuroplasticity", that is, to retrain the brain through special exercises whether to fix the damage caused by a stroke or enhance golfing ability. …
American Scientist
Copyright 2000 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
January 1, 2000HEADLINE: Einstein and Religion: Physics and Theology; Review; book reviews
BYLINE: Murphy, George L.Einstein and Religion: Physics and Theology. Max Jammer. 268 pp. Princeton University Press, 1999. $22.95.
Albert Einstein's use of religious language is well known: God "does not play dice," and "The Lord is subtle but he is not malicious." Such references to the divine by one of the greatest of physicists seem important for today's flourishing dialogue between science and religion. But what did Einstein really mean when he spoke of "God" or "the Lord"? How important was his Jewish heritage for him? Did his religious beliefs influence his science, and how significant has his work been for modern theology? In the present work Max Jammer, the author of several major books on the history and philosophy of science, examines those questions with care. Detailed references and quotations from Einstein's publications and material in the Einstein Archive in Jerusalem help to make this a valuable resource.
In his religion as in his scientific work, Einstein showed independence and originality together with respect for those who had gone before him. His generosity of spirit is seen in his ability to honor the religious views of others even while guided by beliefs that differed in important ways from traditional religion. Thus he was sometimes misunderstood and categorized as an "atheist" or "mystic." Jammer puts this in context with discussions of a number of contemporary criticisms and appreciation of Einstein's statements about religion. .…
Aviation Week & Space Technology
Copyright 2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
January 1, 2000HEADLINE: The Wright Brothers Meet Adam Smith
BYLINE: NORMAN R. AUGUSTINEIt is sobering to realize that my contemporaries and I have thus far lived through the entire space age, and fully two-thirds of the aeronautical age.
During this period, our profession contributed significantly to winning a world war, ending a prolonged Cold War, exploring the Moon and the planets and -- in its spare time -- establishing the Global Village.
That space age community arose from the development of means to rapidly move large numbers of people and objects over long distances at relatively low cost, and transmit information at the speed of light even to parts of the globe with little infrastructure.
In fact, the highest-priced real estate on our planet today may not even be on our planet, but rather 22,300 miles above the Earth's equator.
Before attempting to predict the further evolution -- or revolution -- of the aerospace field in the 21st century, it is instructive to ask how well we might have predicted the events that characterized the 20th century, had we found ourselves standing at Yl.9K rather than Y2K. The Wright Brothers had not yet flown, sand was associated with beaches rather than semiconductors and Robert Goddard's famous cabbage patch was still best known for cabbage. …
What then will this new century hold? Will it become the Dark Ages of the Aerospace Era? Not at all. The wristwatch telephone will, of course, become an everyday nuisance.
Astronauts will continuously occupy space stations, and humans will explore Mars and establish permanent bases on the Moon, including observatories and way-stations. Large numbers of robotic spacecraft employing nanotechnology will explore the near reaches of the universe.
But the most important space development will be the advent of a burgeoning tourist industry to near-Earth orbit during the middle part of the century, and to the Moon in the latter part. …
GRAPHIC: Table, Photograph: Following his retirement as chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corp. in July 1997, Norman R. Augustine took up teaching at Princeton University's School of Engineering and Applied Science. A former undersecretary of the Army, he is a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chairman of the National Academy of Engineering. In 1997, Mr. Augustine was awarded the National Medal of Technology.
Birmingham Post
Copyright 2000 Midland Independent Newspapers plc
January 1, 2000, SaturdayHEADLINE: ASPECTS: MEDIEVAL EXPERT WHO'S FIRMLY IN THE 21ST CENTURY; ALISON JONES MEETS A WOMAN WHOSE PASSION FOR HISTORY REVEALED A NEW INSIGHT INTO THE MEDIEVAL MIND. IN THE LAST THOUSAND YEARS WE HAVE MADE GIANT LEAPS IN TERMS OF SCIENTIFIC TECHNOLOGY.
BYLINE: Alison Jones
But when it comes to social and emotional advancement very little seems to have changed since our ancestors were partying like it was 999.
And, although the average medieval loved a good festival as much as the next God-fearing peasant, the question of whether they actually celebrated anno domini's entry into quadruple figures is, according to Professor Judith Herrin, open to speculation.
"I think at the time of the first millennium very few people were aware of the change. Most of them didn't use an AD dating system unless they were historians and wrote chronicles.
"Most ordinary people dated from the year of their King, the number of years the Manor had been around, from very spectacular comets, from the birth of their children or their marriages. Things that made an impact with them."
However, then as now, there were always the panicky few ready to read too much into what is essentially a fairly arbitrary choice for the moment a significant event occurred. …
After Birmingham she laid down her protest banner and became an academic nomad. Travelling to different countries, accepting fellowships that lasted no more than a year so that she could concentrate on her own studies.
"I never had a proper career because I refused to apply for jobs in places where I knew I would have to concentrate on teaching to the exclusion of research because there wouldn't be a library."
Her "breakthrough" came when she completed her major work The Formation of Christendom, which led to her being offered a professorship at Princeton University.
"By that stage, we were a unit with one child and I was very much encouraged, even forced, to finish the book rather than let it hang about. There was a real sense of family jubilation and triumph. The oldest child stood on the parcel as we tied it up to send it off to the publisher."
Although she loved her time in the states she is happy to be back at Kings, living in London with her family.
Her partner - "I don't believe in marriage" - is also an author, though one who deals with the present and immediate future. …
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Copyright 2000 The Commercial Appeal
January 1, 2000, SATURDAYHEADLINE: KINDER, GENTLER HMOS PROSPERING; RESPONSE TO ANGRY CONSUMERS RAISES PREMIUMS
BYLINE: Phil Galewitz The Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORKFor health maintenance organizations and their members, 1999 was a year of contradictions.
The largest HMOs enjoyed mostly higher profits, but the industry's acronym remained akin to scarlet letters for many consumers and doctors tired of health plans interfering with the patient-physician relationship.
Consumers gained as the plans expanded benefits and eased their restrictions in approving treatments. But patients also had to pay higher premiums and co-payments.
The new year should bring more of the same: More flexible insurance plans but higher prices for consumers. Higher profits but more public relations problems.
Despite the challenges HMOs face, analysts say the demand for health plans will endure, driven by their success in controlling costs and by the lack of another insurance system that makes health providers more accountable to those they treat and those who pay the bills. …
The big question for 2000 is how much longer employers and their workers are willing to put up with rising HMO premiums. The answer, according to Princeton University health economist Uwe Reinhardt, will come during the next economic downturn, when companies become more conservative about employee health benefits.
The Des Moines Register
Copyright 2000 The Des Moines Register, Inc.
January 1, 2000, SaturdayHEADLINE: Runners-up list for most influential
SOURCE: Register Staff Writer
By PERRY BEEMAN
Register Staff WriterA panel assembled by The Des Moines Register selected former Gov. Robert Ray as the most influential person in Iowa today. The nine runners-up are listed below. A profile of Ray and a list of other nominees are on the following page.
JIM LEACH
The Davenport Republican House member commands broad respect in Congress and is considered an articulate authority on banking issues.
Before a long government career that included work on the Geneva Disarmament Conference and the United Nations General Assembly, Leach picked up degrees from Princeton University and Johns Hopkins University and studied at the London School of Economics.
The Des Moines Register
Copyright 2000 The Des Moines Register, Inc.
January 1, 2000, SaturdayHEADLINE: Most Americans express optimism for the future; some predict doomsday
Beyond 2000:breaking Ground In IowaSOURCE: GNS
Gannett News ServiceAmericans are ready for a new century of discovery and progress, a time when they expect cures for cancer and AIDS and the election of a woman and a person of color to the presidency.
Most people are hopeful, a nationwide Gannett News Service poll of 1,003 adults found, but there is a strain of pessimism. More than half (59 percent) of those polled anticipate a global economic depression in the 21st century, while 45 percent predict another world war.
The poll, conducted for the news service by Opinion Research Corp., has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. …
"I guess I'm an optimist," said Joshua Gundersen, 33, a physicist at Princeton University. "We're going to be connected by technology to the rest of the world. I think that will be something that could help everyone." …
THE HARTFORD COURANT
Copyright 2000 The Hartford Courant Company
January 1, 2000 SaturdayHEADLINE: BLACK STUDIES PROGRAMS THRIVE AT HARVARD, OTHER UNIVERSITIES
BYLINE: JAMAL R. WATSON; Baltimore SunDATELINE: CAMBRIDGE, Mass. --
Barely three decades ago, the fight for ethnic studies on American college campuses began.
Black students with big afro hairdos and dashiki shirts took to the streets to stage sit-ins, pressuring universities to embrace curriculum diversity by offering courses that reflected their culture and heritage.
A lot has changed since then. Black studies has been enthusiastically accepted and supported, with some universities, including Yale and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, offering graduate degrees in the discipline.
"Black studies has been legitimized by time," says Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr., chairman of Harvard University's acclaimed Afro- American Studies department and the author of numerous best-selling books about black culture and literature. …
He has raised more than $20 million in endowments for the department and attracted some of the country's most prominent black intellectuals -- including Cornel West, K. Anthony Appiah, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and William Julius Wilson.
"I got them all by one-on-one recruitment," Gates says.
On top of his list was West, a scholar, author and progressive activist who had attended Harvard in the 1960s but by 1994 was chairman of his own black studies department at Princeton University.
Gates lured West with one of Harvard's 16 endowed university professorships.
"This must have been unprecedented in the history of black mergers," Gates marvels. "For a black CEO, in effect, to give up that position to come and be a faculty member -- he really wanted to come and build Afro-American studies and do it together." …
The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.)
Copyright 2000 The Durham Herald Co.
January 1, 2000, SaturdayHEADLINE: 2 women's lives mark history
BYLINE: JENNIFER CHORPENING The Herald-SunSome area residents don't need an expensive book about the century to teach them history. They lived through it themselves.
Neither Sue Sheston, 100, nor Julia Lee, 99, thought they would live to see the year 2000. But after outliving most relatives, both have keen perspectives on living life.
"You don't get to be 100 easily," Sheston said. "It's a rare thing, but it's not my fault."
Sheston lives at Spring Arbor, a residential assisted-living facility in Durham. She was born in Germany on Aug. 7, 1899, and educated at the Sorbonne in Paris to be a schoolteacher. But Sheston, a Jew, was forced to leave Germany in 1933 for the United States to escape Adolf Hitler's Holocaust. After arriving in New York, work was hard to find. So Sheston went back to school and learned to be a nurse, delivering babies at Princeton University.
For her 100th birthday, some of those proud parents from 50 years ago came to the party, she said, which was "marvelous."
Sheston has one answer for how she managed to live so long: "I worked all my life and I never got married." …
Intellectual Property Today
Copyright 2000 Omega Communications, Inc.
January, 2000HEADLINE: PATENTS ISSUED;
Three New Patents Issued in Universal Display Corporation's Organic Light Emitter Project Expands Its Intellectual Property Position in the Emerging Flat Panel Display Technology Market
Universal Display Corporation (UDC) (Nasdaq: PANL; PHLX: PNL), a developer of flat panel display technology, announced that it's research partners, Princeton University and the University of Southern California, received three new patents for the Organic Light Emitter Project, bringing the total number of US patents issued in the Project to 18. "These patents cover a broad range of technological applications for our proprietary OLED technology, ranging from high contrast displays (US Pat No. 5,986,401) to increasing the speed of the fabrication process (US Pat No. 5,981,306) to a method of increasing the efficiency of photovoltaics and photodiodes by providing an organic coating on these devices (US Pat No. 5,986,268)," said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Operating Officer of UDC.
Maclean's
Copyright 2000 Maclean Hunter Limited
January 1, 2000HEADLINE: No Holds Barred
HIGHLIGHT: What they don't like, they change. What they can't find, they design. Whether bringing Web creatures to life or making land-mine sniffers, none would think to say 'it can't be done.'
DIANE CAMERON AND KATE HOYE
These two engineers have devised a better way to build one of the most basic centuries-old pieces of medical equipment. Diane Cameron and Kate Hoye, along with four fellow students, began their efforts to build gynecological examination equipment that better suits a woman's body in 1997, as a project for their systems-design engineering course at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. When the project ended, Cameron and Hoye perfected their component of the design with the blessing of their former group members. The result is an examination device that is more comfortable for patients and more efficient for doctors. In early 1998, the partners won the first of many engineering awards. So Cameron, 25, and Hoye, who turns 24 this month, created their own company, ERGyne Technologies Group. For competitive reasons, they can't say too much about the design, which is in the final stages of patenting. Cameron is now studying for a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University in New Jersey, and Hoye is working on a master's degree in systems-design engineering at Waterloo. But they plan more inventions. "The experience of operating my own company," says Cameron, "has been very seductive."
The New York Times
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
January 1, 2000, SaturdayHEADLINE: VISIONS: BIOLOGY: A GENETIC FUTURE BOTH TANTALIZING AND DISTURBING;
A Small Leap To Designer Babies
BYLINE: By Sheryl Gay StolbergUNLIKE the sheep named Dolly, the mouse named Lucy has barely made a ripple in the news. Lucy, born on Oct. 26, 1998, is the creation of scientists at Chromos Molecular Systems, a biotechnology company in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has black-brown fur and is not unlike mice bred in laboratories around the world, the company says, with one exception: Lucy has an artificial chromosome that she has passed to her offspring.
And so the little mouse's implications may be vast. Her descendants, experts say, represent another critical step in biotechnology's inexorable march toward the day when parents will be able to design their own babies: eliminating genes for undesirable traits, adding genes for desirable ones -- and in the process altering the DNA of generations to come. …
Already, wealthy childless couples routinely spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to conceive babies through science. Already, couples who carry genes for Tay-Sachs disease or sickle cell anemia can have their embryos screened to prevent passing on those genes. Dr. Lee M. Silver, a molecular geneticist at Princeton University, says that someday, a doctor will tell parents: "I've got your embryos under a microscope. How about if I add a couple of genes to provide cancer resistance?" Or genes for stronger muscles? Or musical talent? …
Dr. Silver agrees that genes confer an advantage -- nothing more. But if some children are lucky enough to be born with genes that protect them against cancer or make them musical geniuses, he reasons, what is wrong with using science to give other children the genes those youngsters come by naturally? Is it any different from paying for private school? "The answer to what's wrong with this," Dr. Silver says, "is that it is people with money who will be able to not only give their child a better environment, but also better genes." …
Asbury Park Press (Neptune, NJ.)
Copyright 1999 Asbury Park Press, Inc.
December 31, 1999, FridayHEADLINE: A CENTURY AT THE SHORE
'Oh, the humanity!' Poll cites key moments, people BY: KELLY-JANE COTTER/STAFF WRITERMORE THAN 50 years later, World War II still reverberates in the lives of residents of central New Jersey.
Readers who responded to an end-of-century poll in the Asbury Park Press decided by a wide margin that World War II was the event that most changed their lives. …
Most famous New Jerseyan:
1. Frank Sinatra of Hoboken, singer/actor
2. Bruce Springsteen of Freehold, rock star
3. Thomas A. Edison, who worked in Menlo Park and South Orange, inventor
4. Woodrow Wilson, 28th U.S. president, former N.J. governor and former president of Princeton University
5. Al Leiter of Berkeley, pitcher for the Mets
THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN
Copyright 1999 The Daily Oklahoman
December 31, 1999, FridayHEADLINE: Science/technology timeline
1999: Genetically engineered mice outperform their rodent lab-mates in experiments at Princeton University.
DENVER POST
Copyright 1999 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
December 31, 1999, FridayHEADLINE: Two Colorado Firms Represent Entrepreneurial Success at Century's End
BYLINE: By Don KnoxThey're business bookends for the 20th century.
Gates Corp. and Bluemountain.com. Bluemountain.com and Gates Corp.
One's old. One's new. One's conservative. One's liberal. One neatly heralded the exuberant start and dramatic spirit of the 20th century. One neatly captured, in symbol and fact, its breathtaking, high-stepping conclusion.
Both sold for billion-dollar sums barely three years apart -- an amazing thing, but not the most amazing thing.
The most amazing thing is how alike they are, and how well they reflected our times. …
Jared Schutz co-founded two thriving Internet companies while studying political science at Princeton University. But nearly instant worldwide success came when he suggested a Web site, which he built, for his parents' greeting-card company, Blue Mountain Arts of Boulder.
"The secret of their success is that they never thought about what the market wanted," a company official said 10 years ago of the Schutzes. "A lot of small card companies have -- and failed. They don't create products to make money. They create products to fill the need people have to express themselves." It was that, and more, for the son. Bluemountain.com has never charged for its service, which gives people the ability to send colorful, gyrating and flashing greeting cards by electronic mail. …
The London Free Press
Copyright 1999 Sun Media Corporation
December 31, 1999, FridayEDITORIAL/OPINION
HEADLINE: RULE OF LAW IN PERIL WITHOUT A RELIGIOUS REVIVAL
BYLINE: RORY LEISHMAN, LONDON FREELANCE WRITERDuring the 20th century, the combined forces of communism and national socialism came close to subjugating the democratic powers. What about the future? Are democracy and the rule of law now set to thrive into the next century?
Robert Bork, author of Slouching Toward Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline, thinks not. He has set out his views in a millennium symposium in the current issue of First Things, a magazine that has been aptly described by Andrew Sullivan, former editor of The New Republic, as, "the spiritual nerve centre of the new conservatism." …
Nothing less than a revival in the religious beliefs that originally sustained these moral truths will suffice. The good news is that the process is well under way.
In another contribution to the First Things millennium symposium, Robert George, a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University, notes that a pan-orthodox alliance among traditional Catholics, evangelical Protestants and believing Jews has arisen to defend the traditional ideals of democracy and the rule of law. Together, says George, they resist, "the massive assault of the secular left -- largely acquiesced in and very often abetted by the religious left -- on traditional Judeo-Christian moral beliefs about sexuality, marriage and family, and the sanctity of human life."
Of course, members of the pan-orthodox alliance remain divided on some profoundly important religious questions. Can such a diverse coalition hold together? George opines: "Because it is built on a strong base of shared understanding and a common worldview, I am confident that it will flourish in the 21st century." …
Morning Star (Wilmington, NC)
Copyright 1999 Wilmington Star-News, Inc.
December 31, 1999, FridayHEADLINE: Future president's father was pastor at First Presbyterian
On Nov. 1, 1874, the Rev. Joseph R. Wilson was installed as pastor of Wilmington's First Presbyterian Church. Joining the Rev. and Mrs. Wilson here was their 18-year-old son, "Tommy."
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was described as a shy and somewhat sickly boy.
He had dropped out of Davidson College after a year because of his health and spent much of his time reading.
Nevertheless, Wilmington tradition maintains that young Tommy was something of a practical joker and that he rode the first bicycle ever seen on Port City streets.
Tommy left town in 1875 to enter Princeton University, beginning a long academic career.
Wilson would not only rise to become president of Princeton but also governor of New Jersey and, from 1913 to 1921, president of the United States.
National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: TALK OF THE NATION/SCIENCE FRIDAY (3:00 PM ET)
December 31, 1999, FridayHEADLINE: LOOK BACK AT THE HISTORY OF INVENTION
ANCHORS: IRA FLATOWThis is TALK OF THE NATION/SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow.
We're talking this hour about your picks for some of the best inventions of the 20th century. Now I know that when you think about great inventions, the TV, the laser, the laptop, they all come to mind, but this hour, I'd you to try to steer your thinking toward thinking about inventions that don't get that much attention, but that really changed the way we live, in ways you might not have thought of. …
And here with me to help and analyze your answer, Edward Tenner. He's visiting researcher in the Geosciences Department at Princeton University and author of the book, "Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences." And more recently, he wrote an article that appeared in the January 3rd, 2000, issue--I guess we're seeing into the future--the January 3rd, 2000, issue--we said we couldn't do that--of US News & World Report, we the innovators, how people transform inventions in ways they can't foresee. And he's with us here in our studios in New York. …
FLATOW: We've been talking a lot about the Y2K problem. And this being New Year's Eve tonight and waiting around to see the Y2K problem, and some computer designers have been telling us that in trying to modify the computer code from the old code to make it Y2K compliant--they may actually make it worse, right? I mean, they may be putting bugs in there that they don't even know exist. Could that be 'biting back'?
Mr. TENNER: Absolutely. They're certainly putting new bugs in, because all new programming puts new bugs in. There's no way around it. That is part of the nature of a program. The fact of the new bugs, though, just shows something that's basic to technology of all kinds, which is that we tend to convert catastrophic problems into chronic ones. Think of the asbestos curtains of 100 years ago, the asbestos line breaks of railroads. Everybody thought, 'Oh, asbestos is great. It's protecting us from railroad crashes, from heat, from all this stuff.' And now we are spending billions of dollars removing asbestos. Well, in the case of Y2K, we thought that these fixes are going to save us from bugs--and they do prevent the kind of catastrophic failures we thought of. However, by preventing the catastrophic failures, we are letting ourselves in for more and more of the little chronic failures. And that's what, I think, is going to happen. …
FLATOW: So that your thesis and the thesis of your book, the revenge effect, there are things that are unanticipated when we invent things that 'bite' us. Like you were talking about antibiotics, for example, as a good example of the revenge effect.
Mr. TENNER: Yes. Antibiotics are wonderful. I'm not saying that we should never have started to use antibiotics, but when you start to use most technologies--you get onto a treadmill, and you have to run faster and faster to stay in the same place. …
SHARON: I'm glad to be on your show. I am very grateful for the little reflector bumps in the middle of the highway that they've invented. And I'm sure it's prevented many accidents. And I think that probably it's woken up a lot of people who went to sleep driving down the road. And I'm just happy that they invented those. …
Mr. TENNER: I think that's an excellent example of how some things that are simplest do have the greatest effect. In fact, some economists a few years ago did a study of just what various inventions had contributed to the gross national product. And they found that some of the most productive ones were things as mundane as stronger thread, for example. …
The New York Times
Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
December 31, 1999, FridayHEADLINE: Metro Business; Offices in Development
BYLINE: APPatrinely Group L.L.C., a developer based in Houston, is building an 80-acre campus at Princeton Forrestal Center in Plainsboro, N.J.
Through a project partnership called 100 College Road L.L.C., Patrinely purchased the land from Princeton University for an undisclosed amount.
The developer will build three office buildings on the site, which straddles both sides of Route 1. No completion date for the project has been released.
Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceuticals company, signed a 10-year lease to occupy 79,000 square feet in the proposed building at 100 College Road West.
The Ottawa Citizen
Copyright 1999 Southam Inc.
December 31, 1999, FridaySECTION: Religion & Ethics
HEADLINE: The hungering dark: In this sermon from the book Tongues of Angels, Tongues of Men, Presbyterian minister Frederick Buechner reflects on a Protestant's trip to the Vatican.
BYLINE: Frederick Buechner
Editor's note: Frederick Buechner's first novel, A Long Day's Dying, appeared two years after his graduation from Princeton University; he had previously served in the army during the Second World War. By the time he had published his third novel, The Return of Ansel Gibbs, Buechner had been ordained a minister of the United Presbyterian Church, and favourable reviews of his novels noted the combination of a writer's imagination and insight with a sense of Christian mission.
Buechner himself explained that writing ''is a kind of ministry,'' and that ''as a preacher'' he was trying to use both tasks to explore '' ... what I believe life is all about, to get people to stop and listen a little to the mystery of their own lives. The process of telling a story is something like religion if only in the sense of suggesting that life itself has a plot and leads to a conclusion that makes some kind of sense.''
Frederick Buechner's novels deal, then, with theology and narrative, and the ability to find the sacred nearly everywhere in the re- creation of the human heart. As a Christian writer and minister in the pulpit, he has composed fiction, meditative pieces and sermons that are refulgent with the deep promise and endless possibility of life open to God's grace. But his use of a story on the page and in the pulpit is never a facile use of the allegorical; rather, he achieves a difficult and human rendering of everyman's spiritual autobiography. …
The Straits Times (Singapore)
Copyright 1999 The Straits Times Press Limited
December 31, 1999HEADLINE: Great wall of divide
BYLINE: Chua Lee HoongChina was a colossus, way ahead of the West until the middle of the millennium, and then from the Ming dynasty on it closed it doors to the outside world and to progress. Chua Lee Hoong reports.
THE Ming dynasty is one of the paradoxes of Chinese history. Stretching from 1368 to 1644, it was the first relatively strong Chinese dynasty in almost 500 years, its claim to fame lying in its wresting control of China back from foreign hands, the Mongols.Under the first three emperors, the Ming extended Chinese rule into Korea, Mongolia and Turkestan in the north, and briefly into Vietnam and Myanmar in the south, exercising more far-reaching influence in East Asia than any other native Chinese dynasty in history.
But while the new dynasty brought the Middle Kingdom one of its longest periods of peace and stability, Ming rulers, through both neglect and conscious policy, also led it into a subtle isolation, which eventually resulted in the country falling behind the West in important ways. …
The quality of Ming emperors, too, underwent a drastic decline. After the initial decisive few, the rest tended to be -in the words of Princeton University professor Arthur Waldron -"palace-reared products", who came to the throne while still very young and lacked experience, knowledge or vision. …
Obituaries
The Washington Post
Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
January 5, 2000, WednesdayHEADLINE: OBITUARIES
Fraser Barron
Public Affairs OfficerFraser Barron, 62, a specialist on political trends and legislative strategies with Cassidy & Associates public affairs, died of lymphoma Dec. 13 at the Hospice of Northern Virginia.
Mr. Barron, who lived in Arlington, was born in Orange, N.J. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard University law school.
In the 1960s, he came to Washington and worked on the congressional affairs staff of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, then served on the staff of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.). Later he published and edited a newsletter and served as assistant to the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. He joined Cassidy & Associates in 1992.
Survivors include his mother, Francis Byers Barron of Charlottesville; and three brothers.
The Buffalo News
Copyright 2000 The Buffalo News
January 4, 2000HEADLINE: EDWARD A. WILLIAMS, ENGLISH TEACHER AT NICHOLS
Edward A. Williams, 81, who taught English at Nichols School for 30 years and served as coordinator of its Writing Center through 1998, died of cardiac complications and a stroke Wednesday (Dec. 29, 1999) in Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, Amherst. …
A native of Cincinnati and a 1940 graduate of Princeton University, Williams taught English at Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia, before enlisting in the Army in 1942. …
The Palm Beach Post
Copyright 2000 Palm Beach Newspaper, Inc.
January 4, 2000, TuesdayHEADLINE: AVIATION BOOSTER JAMES D. TILFORD JR. DIES AT 78
BYLINE: Ron Hayes, , Palm Beach Post Staff WriterJames D. Tilford Jr., who owned and operated Tilford Flying Service at Palm Beach International Airport for many years, died Saturday. He was 78.
Mr. Tilford died of pneumonia in Mobile, Ala., where he had moved about five years ago. …
Mr. Tilford liked to describe himself as a "self-made man" who flunked out of Princeton University after 1 1/2 years.
Before giving up flying in 1985, he had logged more than 10,000 hours in airplanes and made 50 cross-country trips in small aircraft. …
The Times Union (Albany, NY)
Copyright 2000 The Hearst Corporation
January 4, 2000, TuesdayHEADLINE: Cameron, T. David
ALBANY -- T. David Cameron, died January 3, 2000. A lifelong Albany resident, son of the late Truman D. and Marion Scudder Cameron, he was a graduate of Albany Academy and Princeton University. Mr. Cameron was president of the former E.M. Cameron Lumber Corp. He served on the boards of the Visiting Nurses Association and the Salvation Army.
A well known member of the local theatrical community, he presently served on the board of the Albany/Schenectady League of Arts and was past president of the Optimist Club. …
The New York Times
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
January 2, 2000, SundayHEADLINE: Lives Lived Well And the Lesson That They Teach
THEY never made the cover of People magazine. Sometimes they didn't even make headlines in their community's weekly newspaper.
But they made a difference in the way they lived. And they made a difference in Connecticut, where they lived.
Some were young, just in their 40's. Others had 90-some years to make their mark. Some of their accomplishments were very public. Others were very private. Many were teachers at heart, even if they never set foot in a classroom or made a formal lesson plan.
They had this in common. Though their lives ended in 1999, their legacies endure: a swath of land preserved from development, doors opening for racial minorities or a song sent out into the world and into people's hearts.
Here is a collection of vignettes, all written by Bill Ryan, about people whose deaths did, indeed, diminish Connecticut. But, more importantly, they are stories of people whose lives continue to enrich the communities where they lived and the people they lived with -- both those who knew them well and those who will be making their acquaintance here for the first time.
TWO WHO EMBRACED NORFOLK
IT would be difficult to find a couple more involved in the affairs of their town, and its environment, than Arthur E. "Gene" Billings and Barbara Billings.
The town is Norfolk, perched on the Massachusetts border and with a population of about 2,200 people, most of whom seemed to know the Billings. The couple, who met on a blind date, were married in 1952 and moved to Norfolk four years later.
Barbara Billings, a graduate of Vassar College, became a teacher and during a 29-year career taught every grade at Botelle Elementary school. This led to the generally accepted theory that she could not walk down any street in town without being hailed warmly by a former student. …
Her husband, a graduate of Princeton University, worked several years for the United States Central Intelligence Agency before a 30-year-career at Travelers Insurance Company. His involvement in Norfolk was partly with the town's official life, as a member of the planning and zoning commission and as a director of the library.
But his bigger interest was in the natural environment of the town and the state. He was a founding incorporator of the Norfolk Land Trust, a trustee of the Connecticut Chapter of Nature Conservancy, and the author of two books, "Finding Birds in Connecticut" and "Birds of Prey in Connecticut."
Arthur and Barbara Billings, along with a friend from Norfolk, Henrietta Mead, died Oct. 31 in the crash of Egypt Air Flight 990. He was 70 and she was 71. …
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