PrincetonUniversity
Communications Office
Stanhope Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544 USA
Tel 609 258 3601, Fax 609 258 1301
Feedback
Princeton in the News
October 25, 2000
Previous page Next page Clippings archive Current news index
The Christian Science Monitor, October 23, 2000In homestretch, candidates hammer Social Security
The nosedive in the stock market this month highlights the extra risk involved in putting retirement money into the stocks, as those who would privatize Social Security suggest.
But both major presidential candidates propose individual retirement accounts that could be invested in stocks and bonds. ...
Under either the Gore or the Bush plan, an individual retiring would likely want to invest in an annuity that would provide regular payments lasting a lifetime. These investments probably would not be indexed for inflation, as are Social Security pensions. And they are costly. ...
The Gore plan would leave this modest pension untouched. It would encourage tax-advantaged savings accounts as a "third leg" to retirement provisions. ...
Mr. Bush has purposely not spelled out details of his plan.
"A secret plan to save Social Security is not going to work," charges Alan Blinder, an economist at Princeton University and adviser to Gore. He notes that various privatization plans proposed by commissions and academics cut back benefits, raise the retirement age, or boost taxes for those who are not near retirement or already retired. ...
The Record, October 23, 2000COLLEGE CRIME STATISTICS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET
For the first time, anyone wanting to examine crime statistics from colleges and universities in New Jersey and around the country can find them all in one place, the Internet. ...
As of Friday, crime figures from Rutgers University, Princeton University, Drew University, Kean University, The College of New Jersey, and William Paterson University could be found on the Web site. ...
Rutgers University, The College of New Jersey and Princeton University had more than 100 reported incidents of alcohol-related disciplinary action in 1999, a number consistent with the previous two years.
Princeton University's crime prevention specialist, Barry Weiser, said like many institutions, the school's most persistent crime problem is theft.
"We spend our resources trying to protect bikes, "he said. ...
The New York Times, October 22, 2000The Pacific Rim, a Continent Away
Asians, the State's Fastest-Growing Minority, Are Changing the Face of New Jersey
...
Whether they are visitors with visas, immigrants or citizens born in the United States, the state's Asian/ Pacific Islander population has increased by 69.5 percent since 1990, the largest comparative growth of any ethnic group, according to federal Census Bureau estimates.
Put another way, in the last decade New Jersey's total population has increased by 5 percent, to 8.14 million people. And while the white, non-Hispanic population has shrunk by about 1 percent, the group with the second highest rate of growth, the state's Hispanic population, has grown 37.4 percent during the same period. ...
"Keys to Successful Immigration: Implications of the New Jersey Experience," published in 1997, explored various dimensions of immigrant life in the state, including public attitudes toward the foreign-born.
Thomas Espenshade, chairman of Princeton University's sociology department and a faculty associate at the school's Office of Population Research, edited the study.
In a Gallup poll commissioned by the university, slightly more than half of New Jersey adults surveyed welcomed the new immigrants, while 40 percent thought the number ought to be decreased. Those who wanted to see immigration reduced expressed anxiety over the availability of jobs and possible overcrowding, but no specific animosity toward immigrants themselves. ...
Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, October 20, 2000Chileans say their privatized pensions, like Bush proposal, are working well
...
Chile's vaunted social security program _ which resembles Texas Gov. George W. Bush's proposal to privatize the U.S. system _ is working pretty well. At the least, it offers lessons in how to rescue a sinking national retirement system. ...
While not as sick as Chile's system was, U.S. social security is forecast to run into the red in 2015. That's when there won't be enough workers paying into the system to cover the benefits due retirees. ...
Bush would avoid the meltdown by letting U.S. workers invest in stocks and bonds some of the 12.4 percent Social Security tax they and their employers now pay. ...
Vice President Al Gore says stock market fluctuations make the Bush plan risky.
"I think the main lesson learned from Chile is when the stock market does great, everyone does great," said Alan Blinder, a Princeton University economist and a Gore adviser. "When the stock market does poorly, there's hell to pay." ...
Star Tribune, October 20, 2000Bush snatches lead from Gore
State numbers floor both camps
Republican George W. Bush is ahead of Democrat Al Gore in Minnesota, a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll has found. ...
The news flabbergasted pundits and partisans, who said it could mean deep trouble for Gore, who had expected an easy victory in the state. It also could mean a livelier campaign for Minnesotans, now that the state is likely to have been transformed from a campaign backwater to a battleground. ...
The poll uncovered a degree of volatility among likely voters that could foreshadow additional changes between now and Nov. 7. ...
Political scientist Larry Bartels of Princeton University, a leading scholar on voting behavior and the electoral process, cautioned against giving too much weight to a single poll in a volatile election year. The partisan leanings of states tend to be quite stable from election to election, he said. ...
Business Wire, October 19, 2000Ultra Fast Optical Systems Appoints Marty Singer as President and CEO; Leading Telecom Executive Joins UFOS After Completing Sale of SAFCO to Agilent
Ultra Fast Optical Systems...recently announced an agreement with Princeton University for exclusive rights to a broad patent portfolio containing intellectual properties for implementing Optical Time Division Multiplexing (OTDM). One of these patents describes the operation of a TeraHertz Optical Asymmetric Demultiplexer (TOAD) that is capable of switching light with light. This device, which has many communication applications ...
Developed by a research team at the Princeton University Center for Photonics and Optoelectronic Materials (POEM), this technology greatly reduces the cost of transmission and enables the evolution to optical Add/Drop Multiplexing at OC-768 and higher. ...
Los Angeles Times, October 18, 2000THE NEW GOSPEL OF ACADEMIA; ONCE LARGELY IGNORED IN SOCIAL RESEARCH, RELIGION-- AND ITS POWERFUL ROLE IN SHAPING INDIVIDUALS AND CULTURES--IS NOW A HOT FIELD OF INQUIRY. ...
Across the nation, scholars have begun to promote a new paradigm in academia: Religion matters.
Once a largely forgotten factor in social research, dismissed by those who believed that society would inevitably secularize and cast spirituality aside, religion is now a hot field of inquiry. Until recently, a long-standing academic bias against religion has blinded many scholars to its powerful role in shaping both private lives and the public culture.
"While millions, even billions, of people view so many different human concerns through the lens of religious faith, this crucial subject remains one of the most understudied social phenomena of the 20th century," Princeton University President Harold Shapiro said last year. ...
The New York Times, October 17, 2000Scientists Envision A New Electronics, Based on Plastic
...Plastic and other carbon-based molecules -- what chemists call organic chemicals, even though most bear little resemblance to anything found in living organisms -- are evolving into versatile electronic do-it-alls, scientists say. ...
In some aspects, the organic molecules are a step backward compared to conventional materials. Copper is a better conductor of electricity, and silicon makes for faster computer chips.
"We're not going to replace silicon with organic materials," said Dr. Stephen R. Forrest, a professor of electrical engineering at Princeton University. ...
Researchers discovered decades ago that some of the unlinked molecules emit light if electric currents are run through them, but they consumed too much energy to be fashioned into practical light-emitting diodes, or L.E.D.'s. ...
Dr. Forrest and his colleague, Dr. Mark Thompson, a chemistry professor at the University of Southern California, have made L.E.D.'s out of different unlinked organic molecules, and Universal Display Corporation of Ewing, N.J., is similarly turning that research into video displays and hopes to have products on the market by the end of next year. ...
AIDS Weekly, October 16, 2000Committee Calls for Improved Tracking, Action to Cut Rate of New HIV Infections
U.S. efforts to thwart the spread of HIV - the virus that causes AIDS - have slowed rapid growth of the epidemic, but the number of new infections remains unacceptably high, a national committee has concluded.
A new strategy focused on tracking HIV infections better, coupled with funding the most cost-effective prevention programs, could significantly cut new infections, says committee member Dr. Myron Cohen, professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. ...
"The current epidemiological surveillance system does not provide a complete or accurate picture of the incidence of HIV infection," said co-chair Dr. James Trussell of Princeton University. "By focusing mainly on AIDS cases, where diagnosis lags behind HIV infection by approximately 10 years without treatment and even longer with treatment, today's system looks at the past rather than to the future and tracks where the epidemic has been rather than where it is going. This lag is particularly problematic in light of the reality that the epidemic has shifted into new population groups." ...
Newhouse News Service, October 12, 2000As Race Tightens, Nader's Impact Looms Larger for Gore
He's the presidential candidate who wants to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour, offer universal health care, provide public financing of elections, cut the defense budget in half, pull American troops out of Europe and Asia, and withdraw from global trading organizations. ...
Although Nader does not expect to win the presidency, he has been using his campaign to try and push the Democratic Party more to the left, to draw attention to his issues and to secure at least 5 percent of the national vote in November. This feat would enable the Green Party to qualify for some $12 million in matching federal funds in 2004 and have a stronger voice in Washington during the next four years.
Others, however, view Nader's presidential bid as quixotic and potentially self-defeating.
"A vote for Nader may really be a vote for Bush," said Sean Wilentz, a Princeton University history professor and a vocal Democrat.
"A lot of people are dogmatic in their politics ... and habitually try to find fantasy candidates who represent their idea of the way the world ought to be rather than how the world is, and Nader fits the bill," he said. ...
Defense Week, September 5, 2000Report Hits Colossal Flaws In Russian Nuclear Effort
While the Energy Department's effort to safeguard Russian nuclear materials has made important strides, the program has been crippled by a lack of sustained White House interest and a "colossal" mistake: halting work over Russia's refusal to provide access to sensitive weapons facilities. ...
"The Clinton White House, while continuing to indicate in public statements that securing nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union was a priority, has effectively ceased any sustained engagement on the issue," said the report by Oleg Bukharin, a Princeton University researcher; Matthew Bunn, a Harvard University nuclear specialist; and Kenneth Luongo, RANSAC's executive director and former director of DOE's Office of Arms Control and Nonproliferation from 1994 to 1997.
The experts said the White House had pushed forward on U.S.-Russian plutonium disposal, but added: "The president and his staff have allowed myriad other events to distract attention from the fundamentally important tasks of ensuring that the essential ingredients of nuclear weapons do not fall into the wrong hands via lax security in Russia." ...
Popular Mechanics, September 1, 2000PLANET WATCH
...
* EASTERN PACIFIC--A long-term rise in ocean temperatures and an associated weakening of the trade winds could be responsible for the increasing frequency and intensity of storms. Two Princeton University researchers reportedly observed longer intervals between recent major El Nino episodes, compared to those in the 1960s and 1970s. El Ninos bring wetter winters. Researchers say the change suggests a warming trend, and that this isn't a fluke. ...
top