In which Bwog newcomer Anish Bramhandkar keeps you up to date on the latest news in the strange and quirky happenings of the lives of Columbia's finest. Beware, in some cases connections to our fair alma mater may be otherwise dubious or somewhat circumspect.

UPDATE: Columbia Economics professors hijack today's New York Times Op-Ed page to wax about the bailout and their expectations for tonight's Presidential debate.

CU Researcher Quantifies SEAS Sex Appeal

That Peter Bretter even dated Sarah Marshall to begin with is a mystery CU Business School assistant professor (and MIT graduate) Leonard Lee has solved, according to the Calgary Herald.

According to Professor Lee's research, men are just as "superficial" as women, but women let their perception of their own appearance limit their dating pool. Men, on the other hand, will date just about anyone. The figure of men being 2.5 times more likely to accept date requests just about summarizes the situation in the Carleton Lounge, Bwog figures.

Two Columbia-related articles of interest in the New York Times recently: First up, an op-ed from physics professor/Colbert Report interviewee Brian Greene sent to Bwog from tipster Lucy Tang. In a piece currently #1 on the Times' Most Emailed list, Greene recounts receiving from a letter from a soldier stationed overseas from whom Greene's book (the immensely readable and enjoyable The Elegant Universe) was "something of a lifeline. [...] It speaks to the powerful role science can play in giving life context and meaning. At the same time, the soldier's letter emphasized something I've increasingly come to believe: our educational system fails to teach science in a way that allows students to integrate it into their lives." Greene goes on to lucidly and convincingly argue for a "cultural shift" that would emphasize the philosophic importance of science.

Next up, via tipster Ian Corey-Boulet, a piece which focuses the on Sisters Colleges' (your strong, beautiful Barnard College among them) initiative to recruit more students hailing from the Middle East. According to the article, admissions deans from the Sisters believe that their schools' emphasis on encouraging women to engage in science and math-related fields, in addition to providing a less-jarring transition from single-sex high schools, would make them an especially appealing option for prospective students from places like Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait.

Tipster Michael Wymbs alerted us to last night's episode of the Colbert Report, on which Physicas Professor Brian Greene was a guest. Greene was promoting the World Science Festival (of which he is host), which will take place this weekend in all over the city. As part of the festival, Greene will be a panelist in an "Invisible Reality" lecture (moderated by favored West Wing Republican Alan Alda.) Check out the Festival's full schedule here.

The Festival's Street Fair will take place on Saturday in Washington Sq. Park and will feature a 12-foot tall animatronic dinosaur and a real-life version of the Magic School Bus. Bwog will see you there.

A gadfly, according to Billy Goldstein (CC' 09), is "some big-ass fly," and also the only non-defunct undergraduate philosophy magazine at Columbia University.

The Gadfly has so far printed one issue with a medley of contributions: a letter of explanation, a few art pieces, a fictional work, a quasi-Socratic dialogue, a lecture review, and--as a centerpiece--interviews with Columbia professors David Albert and Brian Greene. As a magazine rather than a journal, its founders say, it focuses less on academic theses and more on anything that can provoke thought. "It's not a formal magazine, it's mostly just thought-provoking," Goldstein said.

Basically, the magazine stays true to form. It usually provokes thought rather than positing specific opinions, and a couple of the pieces present multiple views without really advocating any in particular. In general, even if you don't find yourself agreeing with it, it raises interesting discussion points, and the articles are long enough to develop the authors' ideas but not so long as to get dragging.

Goldstein's description of the Gadfly's function as "a forum for ideas that people otherwise only talk about with their friends, or when they're stoned" fits perfectly with the fiction piece, by Maddie Boucher (CC '09), which includes the journal of a wandering philosopher/outlaw from which the veracity and meaning of any entry, whether ultimately true or not, is ample fodder for discussion. The interviews with Albert and Greene, while much more formal and scientific, become accessible to the humanities-minded among us through a somewhat meta-philosophical letter. Roberto and Gadfly VP Adam Waksman, who interviewed Greene and Albert, respectively, are as much physics nerds as they are philosophy geeks, and hope to draw in some of both.

Interview with the editors after the jump!