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Princeton in the News
September 20, 2000
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The Bond Buyer, September 18, 2000Making Sense of Candidates' Muni Policies
There are not a lot of footprints leading to the specific path that either Texas Gov. George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore might take on public infrastructure financing issues if elected president…
A revealing sign of Gore's position on tax-exempt bonds can be found in both his proposal for Better America Bonds that would provide tax credits designed to trigger the issuance $10.75 billion in taxable bonds to acquire and improve open space, curb urban sprawl, and reclaim contaminated industrial sites, and in his support for the Clinton administration's proposal for tax credits designed to prompt the issuance of $24.8 billion in taxable bonds over two years to build and renovate public schools…
…Gore's economic adviser, [Princeton Professor] Alan S. Blinder, who is a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, said he believes that the proposed requirement that EPA approve the use of Better America Bonds did not grow out of a desire for the federal government to keep tight reign on the program.
"The difference is not federalism, but environmentalism," said Blinder, who is now a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. "There isn't any doubt that there is a philosophical difference between the Democrats and Republicans and an even wider one between Gore and Bush on the role of the government in environmental preservation."
Business Week, September 18, 2000E-MONETARY POLICY: Will cybercash weaken the Fed?
Will e-commerce, in all its various forms, make it more difficult for the Federal Reserve to manage monetary policy? Already, financial innovation, such as mutual funds that allow checks to be written against deposits, has hampered the Fed's ability to control monetary aggregates such as M2.
But in a new paper, Princeton University economist Michael D. Woodford argues that the Fed and other central banks can successfully steer economies even in a world where cash is disappearing.
Business Week, September 18, 2000MEASURING THE MERITS OF BUSH'S DRUG PLAN
Politicians' talk about heath-care reform may not do much for your Aunt Sally's arthritis, but it sure can cure what ails a campaign… Now, beleaguered rival George W. Bush is hoping for a hit of the same tonic. On Sept 5, before a group of seniors in Allentown, Pa., he unveiled his own sweeping plan to fix Medicare and subsidize seniors' drugs…
It remains to be seen how well all this will play in Middle America.
Another potential flaw, economists say, is the claim that competition will slow growth in Medicare costs. Bush is hoping those savings would enable him to sweeten the drug subsidy. But economists such as Princeton's Uwe Reinhardt believe the past decade shows that the move to managed care brings only a one-time savings…
Time, September 18, 2000PERSONAL TIME/YOUR FAMILY
…A Princeton University study found that children reared by stepmothers get less medical care, education and food than kids reared by their biological moms. The stepmothers may love the kids, but in an effort to ease tensions, they trust the father to take the initiative in these matters. That trust may be unwarranted. When there is a woman in the home, dads tend to assume she will do the parenting…
San Antonio Express-News, September 15, 2000How density puts money in your wallet
New Urbanist planners have learned from experience never to use the word "density" when they describe their plans to citizens…
It's time to face this issue head-on: Density is good. Density is to be desired, not feared.
The economic virtues of density are explained in "The Demand for Density" by Edward L. Glaeser…
Building nicely on Glaeser's argument is "The Paradox of Infrastructure Investment," by Andrew F. Haughwout, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and assistant professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University.
Haughwout notes that the productivity of firms increases with geographic concentration and variety, but public investment in roads and freeways beyond the urban core has encouraged the migration of businesses to lower-density suburban areas…
The Associated Press, September 14, 2000Physicists tantalized by near-discovery fear U.S. takeover of work
An international group of physicists who think they may be tantalizingly close to discovering a long-sought subatomic particle face a tough decision: Do they press on with their research or leave the hunt - and probably a Nobel prize - to their main American rival?
The board of CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, was deciding Thursday whether to halt experiments using the world's largest nuclear accelerator so they can switch to a new one, a changeover process that will take about five years.
If CERN scientists do that, they'll have to sit and watch as the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., has free rein to discover the so-called Higgs boson, theorized to be responsible for all mass in the universe.
"It would be one of the greatest landmark achievements of physics," said Chris Tully, a Princeton University professor who has been working on the search for the Higgs boson at CERN…
The Washington Post, September 14, 2000Trade Deficit Sets Another Record
The U.S. trade deficit continued to break records this spring as foreigners continued pouring their investment money into the American economy while Americans stepped up their buying of foreign goods…
Economists have warned that the large and chronic U.S. current account deficit is the single most worrisome imbalance in the world today...
Alan Blinder, an economist at Princeton University, drew a distinction yesterday between the situation today and the high deficits of the 1980s.
Back then, the government and consumers were living so far beyond their means that the United States essentially had to beg the world to finance its debt by offering high interest rates and discounted prices on its companies.
By contrast, today's deficit is largely the result of a surge of foreign investment in the United States that has had the effect of driving up the value of stocks and the dollar. The stronger dollar makes foreign goods cheaper for Americans while making U.S. goods more expensive for foreigners, widening the gap between imports and exports. At the same time, a booming stock market encourages consumers to spend some of their new-found profits, often on imported luxury goods…
The Guardian, September 13, 2000Parents: Divided loyalties: By the year 2010 there will be more step-families than birth families in the UK. So why are they still getting a raw deal, asks Debbie Humphry
Mention step-families to anyone and they've got a story…
By the year 2010 there will be more step-families than birth families in the UK…
The fantasy that parents will get back together is irretrievably lost; for some it's like going through the divorce all over again. Data from a national US survey at Princeton University reveals that children develop more emotional problems after parental remarriage than they do after parental separation…
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 13, 2000PRESERVE THE BRAIN CELLS YOU HAVE LEFT
How much would you be willing to pay for new brain cells? Probably a lot, considering that we lose brain cells starting in early adulthood and don't get them back. Brain cells don't regenerate or reproduce, accounting for some of the common memory loss with advancing age.
That grim picture could change. Last year, biologists at Princeton University reported the discovery that macaque monkeys generate new brain cells, holding out hope for a similar finding in humans…
The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 2000Researchers wonder if fairness instinct has been bred into the human race
PRINCETON, N.J. _ The apparent tendency for people to play fair and demand a fair deal from others _ even at a cost _ has long baffled economists and other social scientists…
"Natural selection generally prefers the strategy of keeping everything to yourself," said Martin Nowak, a theoretical biologist at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, lead author of the paper in Friday's issue of the journal Science. "Where, in such a Darwinian world, can you have the evolution of fairness?"
To find out, they looked to something called the "Ultimatum Game."…
United Press International, September 12, 2000DNA, quantum computing experts point to future
Experts in the field of DNA and quantum computing told a House subcommittee that continued federal funding will help position the United States to develop codebreakers, advanced drug detectives, and other data-heavy applications as silicon chips reach their computing limit…
DNA and quantum computing, collectively called non-silicon-based computing, uses individual molecules and even subatomic particles to store and process information. Its promise is twofold: extreme miniaturization and massive parallel computing. The technological hurdles it must cross are as formidable…
DNA computers use the genetic code, combinations of four genetic building blocks, to translate information into microscopic strings of bits. Quantum computers, on the other hand, use subatomic properties such as electron orientation as bit strings.
"Imagine a quadrillion molecules, each acting as a computer, in less than a cup of water," said Laura Landweber, a biological computer scientist at Princeton University, N.J….
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, September 11, 2000Picking up the pieces; Science assembling a virtual look at life
Biologists usually take the Humpty Dumpty approach to life, breaking down living cells into tiny pieces to study them one by one.
Now scientists want to do what all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't - put the pieces back together again.
The pieces, in this case, are thousands of genes and proteins. For years, scientists have been studying the pieces, one or two at a time, to try to get a picture of how life works. But now biologists realize they can't get a true picture of life unless they study all the pieces at once…
Another way to understand biological machines is to create them from scratch. Scientists working at Princeton University recently reported on a biological machine designed to make bacteria blink like Christmas lights. The researchers introduced three genes into the bacteria. Each made three proteins. One of the proteins glowed under fluorescent light, and the other two proteins controlled the gene for the fluorescent one…
The New York Times, September 10, 2000FILM; Enough About Angels: The Devil Gets His Due
ANGELS have been gracing pop culture fairly ostentatiously these last several years -- "Touched by an Angel," "City of Angels," "Angels in the Outfield," "Angels in America," John Travolta spectacularly spreading his wings in "Michael," the elevation of "It's a Wonderful Life" to a basic text of American civilization. But lately, and almost unnoticed in the seraphic swell, the Devil has been getting his due…
Professor Elaine Pagels, the Harrington Speare Professor of Religion at Princeton University, points out in her book "The Origin of Satan" that the first few times Satan appears in the Old Testament, he's just a servant of God sent to obstruct human activity -- on God's orders. Gradually, Satan's role evolves. He prods God to test Job; later, Satan is blamed for pushing King David into an unpopular tax plan. Only in Isaiah do we finally get the 411 about the rebellion of the angels who sought to elevate themselves above God. And in the New Testament, Jesus arrives to redeem the world from Satan, who aims to stop him. In the first gospels, Satan tempts Jesus personally; in the last gospel, Jesus is tempted by people. If the Bible isn't consistent about what the Devil does, how can we expect Hollywood to be? …
St. Petersburg Times, September 10, 2000Consider candidates' emotional intelligence
Once again, American voters are preparing to elect a president…
In his latest book, The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to Clinton, Fred I. Greenstein, a professor of politics at Princeton University, examines the successes and failures of 11 American presidents and concludes that it is the nature of the person in the Oval Office that matters most. He offers some fascinating insights into the triumphs and tragedies of the modern presidency that voters would do well to consider in taking measure of this year's major party candidates…
New Straits Times, September 9, 2000Religion enriches ethical decisions
THE current legal battle over the recent British High Court ruling on the separation of Siamese twins Jodie and Mary (not their real names) refocuses the world's attention on the morals of medical and biological sciences or bioethics.
The twins born at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester a month ago are joined at the lower abdomen. They share a heart and one set of lungs. Separation means only one can have the precious heart.
The other shall inevitably perish…
According to Edmund Pellegrino, Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Georgetown University, issue by issue, these two worldviews have become divergent and irreconcilable.
Take for instance the recent announcement by the British Government that it was going to table a Bill in Parliament to allow research on human embryo cells of less than two weeks old.
A report quoting a Vatican official described the move as "immoral and running against the law and justice".
The United States Government similarly released guidelines on Aug 23 that allows federal funding to be used for research on stem cells taken from human embryos.
In both cases, the secular Governments were advised by a group of experts who, without doubt, have dealt into the very core of the issue.
The British Government received the recommendation from a commission headed by its chief medical officer, Liam Donaldson, while the US President was advised by a presidential committee, the National Bioethnics Advisory Commission (NBAC) headed by Harold T. Shapiro, president of Princeton University…
Christianity Today, September 4, 2000The Weigh & the Truth; Gwen Shamblin's Weigh Down Diet
Christian dieting programs--like Gwen Shamblin's Weigh Down Diet--help believers pray off the pounds. But what deeper messages are they sending about faith and fitness? …
If professional Christian dieters emphasize their evangelistic successes, they also talk about conversion to thinness. Indeed, Christian weight-management books are nothing so much as modern conversion narratives. The author recounts her own struggles with weight, describes the wrong turns she took in searching for an answer, highlights the datable moment where she realized that food had taken over her life, and then shares the story of her victorious walk to thinness. Princeton University's Marie Griffith is the author of an acclaimed study of Women's Aglow Fellowship and a forthcoming study of Christians, dieting, and food in American history. She observes that in the routinized formula of Christians describing past sins, authors of Christian dieting books tell their readers they can sympathize with weight struggles by recounting their own battles of the bulge…
National Catholic Reporter, August 25, 2000Pierre Toussaint.
…This is the story of four Catholic boys, one of whom is on the way to becoming the nation's first official black Catholic saint and three others who played a role in making it happen.
The prospective saint is Pierre Toussaint, whose childhood was spent as a slave in 18th-century Haiti…
Since the 1980s, a devoted group of advocates has collected around Toussaint, who was brought to the United States by his owner and became a hairdresser for 19th-century New York society. Four years ago, Pope John Paul II, eager to declare more modern role models saints, declared Toussaint "venerable," the first formal stage in the canonization process.
If the cure of a 5-year-old American boy last February is declared miraculous by the Vatican, Toussaint could move to stage two, beatification. A second approved miracle would make him an official saint…
Albert J. Raboteau, Princeton University religion department chairman, thought Toussaint might be better promoted for sainthood for his charity, without specific reference to his race. And Dominican Sr. Jamie T. Phelps (systematic theology professor at Chicago's Catholic Theological Union) said African-Americans "need a saint who speaks to today's complexities, not the 'humble servant' role of a St. Martin de Porres," whose life is seen as sanctifying the servant role…
Computer Graphics World, August 1, 2000
Unreal Virtual Reality; Technology Information
…Researchers at Princeton University have done this by taking the reality out of virtual reality. The group has developed a rendering system that generates real-time nonphotorealistic (NPR) virtual environments…
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