Harvard

Caffeine huffing just the thing for people who don't have time for one of those little energy-drink bottles

adamg — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:42:44 +0000

Associated Press highlights the controversy over a caffeine inhaler invented by a Harvard professor. It got mixed reviews at Northeastern, where the company marketing the thing gave away free ~~fixes~~ samples. The company says caffeine snorting is the perfect way "for people with active lifestyles to get their caffeine fix."

Wait, we have a Miss Boston?

adamg — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:41:24 +0000

Indeed we do, and a Harvard sophomore is one of 10 competitors:

"Being from Harvard makes me unique, but I'm sure they all have their strengths and components that make them unique," Beck said.

Matt Drudge is probably not roaming Harvard stealing laptops

adamg — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:40:47 +0000

Stop, thief!But somebody who looks like him, at least in low-res surveillance photos, is.

Harvard University Police report this guy was seen entering Rm. 238 in Mallinckrodt Lab on Oxford Street, around 1:50 p.m. on Saturday and then exiting about a minute later - leaving behind a space where a laptop used to be. "Suspect is connected to numerous thefts on campus."

If he looks familiar, contact HUPD at 617-496-3223.

Actual Drudge, for comparison.

Harvard libraries steal page from BPL: Announce transformational change and, oh, yeah, layoffs

adamg — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:29:48 +0000

Librarians at the world's second largest private library system learned today they're now playing musical chairs. At a "town hall" meeting on the U's plans to build the 21st century library, workers learned some of them will no longer be needed, although which ones were not announced, according to the chatter on #hlth on Twitter and a report by Library Journal.

Some may recall that BPL officials made similar statements about entering the 21st century even as they proposed cutting branches and services.

Harvard to remove Checkpoint Charlies on Thursday

adamg — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:02:59 +0000

The Crimson reports that with the end of a major presence by Occupy Harvard, the U is re-opening Harvard Yard to the public sometime tomorrow. But as Ron Newman notes in the comments, the hours are limited - no more romantic moon-lit late-night strolls through the Yard, plebians.

You CAN pahk ya cah in Hahvahd Yahd, if ya put ya mind to it

adamg — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:05:52 +0000

All it takes is a little extra tap on the accelerator, somebody discovered today. Jason Mihalko was on scene to record this rebuttal to the old nostrum.

Cambridge Police report two people were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries in the accident, which is still under investigation.

Harvard tents come down next week; will Harvard re-open the Yard?

adamg — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:18:05 +0000

The Crimson reports organizers want to move to "a new phase of activism," although they want to retain a geodesic dome donated by MIT students. Still up in the air: Whether the end of the encampment will mean Harvard will re-open its gates to people without university IDs.

Man's addiction spirals out of control until he hits rock bottom and begins pretending to be a Harvard freshman

adamg — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:02:43 +0000

The Crimson recounts the sordid tale:

Liu said that when a freshman acquaintance asked him to spend time in Weld, he was reluctant, but he eventually decided to go ahead. Sometime during October, he began telling freshmen he lived there.

"You get so deep, you don’t know how to stop it," he said.

Imagine a million billion tiny little robots swarming around your head

adamg — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:28:38 +0000

Harvard researchers are hard at work on ways to build and control massive swarms of tiny little robots. They're only up to about 1,000 insect-like "kilobots" at a time, the Crimson reports, but a swarming-algorithm researcher can dream:

The vision might be a million billion robots flying around, each of which has a little component of some building, and they just swarm around and pretty soon you'd have a building the way ants build an anthill. That's pretty far away from what's sitting in any research lab I know about. But the algorithm development is on the way.

Note that these researchers are different from the ones hard at work on octopus-like boneless robots.

Some Harvard students learn that, hey, those teaching assistants telling them to wear safety goggles knew what they were talking about

adamg — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:57:23 +0000

The Crimson reports a bunch of students in a biochemistry class basically got sunburned eyeballs because they were in "a lazy kind of mood" and didn't bother to put on protective goggles while using UV light in some experiments on DNA:

As a result, they suffered from what Adeyemi was told may have been “thermal retinal burn from UV radiation,” a condition that includes symptoms of eye redness, pain, and blurry vision.

Harvard athletes warned not to suck down deer-antler extract

adamg — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:57:01 +0000

The warning comes from the school's chief athletic trainer, Brant D. Berkstresser, whose name could only be improved by adding "III" or "IV" to the end of it. The company that scrapes velvet off deer antlers for re-sale to athletes denies it's stupid enough to think it could possibly convince the brain-heavy athletes of Harvard to try its wares and so does not market to them.

Harvard researchers invent boneless robots

adamg — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:51:45 +0000

Pleasant dreams:

Freaky Boneless Robot Walks on Soft Legs.

One dead, two injured when rental truck plows into tailgaters before Harvard/Yale game

adamg — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:18:59 +0000

The New Haven Register reports the dead victim is from Massachusetts.

Police at Harvard must be big fans of Joseph Heller

adamg — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:30:20 +0000

J.L. Bell reports one of the Harvard libraries gave him permission to do a little research there. First problem: He'd need to get a temporary Harvard ID card to get across Harvard Yard, which is now closed to outsiders. Second problem: He'd need to get across Harvard Yard to pick up the temporary Harvard ID.

I phoned ahead to the Library Privileges Office to ask how they're handling that paradox. A friendly fellow told me to tell the police officers at the gate that I wanted to go to the Library Privileges Office in the Widener building. Depending on the individual officer’s priorities, he or she would either send me on to the office or escort me there.

Unfortunately, word of that arrangement hadn't reached all the officers. In fact, I found that only one person per gate was aware of it. And the only gate where it's supposed to apply is the Widener Gate. ...

Does Harvard really need a Checkpoint Charlie?

adamg — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:28:36 +0000

The Crimson considers the university's decision to turn Harvard Yard into a gated community:

"In the past, Harvard has not acted this way towards much larger security risks ... Last year there was an armed robbery in front of Thayer and the Yard wasn't shut down then," said Taras B. Dreszer '14, who has been active in Occupy Harvard since the tent city was first built last week.