All News

Material possessions are highly, highly overrated. Proof of this lies along the West Side highway, where there is a bike and walking trail directly adjacent to and running along the Hudson River. It was football weather. By this I mean the temperature was just cool enough that a sweatshirt was required for walking and warm enough that running around in shorts and a cut-off t-shirt produced a comfortable and controllable level of aerobic exertion.

After spending two hours in Kinko’s trying to print out color copies of press coverage clips, realizing that all of their computers magically uninstalled themselves from the color printer overnight, and trying to get the employees to realize my sense of urgency, I was about to scream. When I got back to the office, I was sent out on another printing errand. Then, I returned to the office again to find that my computer monitor wouldn’t turn on. My anxiety level was growing as I frantically looked for unplugged connecting cords to the computer, only to realize a half hour later that the entire unit wasn’t plugged in. This was, of course, probably the fault of my feet kicking the cords loose underneath my desk, but I still desperately wanted to blame somebody else. I needed something to calm me down. Starbucks? No. No caffeine. Ice cream? Yes! Wait…even better…

Last Thursday my colleagues and I went to Lincoln Center for an evening with the New York Philharmonic. We were just a few rows back from the action, with a clear view of Lorin Maazel conducting Shubert’s Symphony No. 8 and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. I really had a lot respect for Mr. Maazel, who appeared to be an unstoppable ball of conducting fury. According to the program, the man had accomplished more by the age of 7 then I likely am to do in my entire life. Conductor began to seem like a really good gig to me; it must be a real power trip to have an army of musical gods at your disposal, waiting to do your bidding with the flick of a wrist.

The New York City program is back in the swing of things. After a much-needed week of relaxing by the ocean and basking in the Caribbean sunlight, I returned to freezing temperatures, howling winds, and the hectic beat of the ABC News building. Tanned and smiling, I waltzed in to the 147 Columbus building Monday morning, cup of coffee in hand and ready to work. Since I am one the few interns who works four days a week, people at ABC have become accustomed to seeing me around and welcomed me back after my week-long hiatus.

Debra Boutin, assistant professor of mathematics, presented her work titled "Graphs Embedded with all Symmetries Displayed" at the Thirty-fifth Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing at Florida Atlantic University on  March 10.  Her work proves that any graph can be emedded in Euclidean space (of some dimension) so that  its Euclidean isometry group is precisely its graph automorphism group.

Stephanie Higgins '04, Gemma Kirkwood '05 and Heather Schrum '05 will travel to Antarctica with Eugene Domack, professor of geology, for a research trip April 15 - May 10. To follow their expedition, go to Antarctica 2004. This project is made possible with funding from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs.

Hamilton College student Matthew Palascak's research, "Accurate Experimental Values for the Free Energies of Hydration of H+, OH-, and H3O+" was published in the March 18 issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry:A. Palascak '07 started working in the lab of George Shields, Winslow Professor of Chemistry, the summer before his first year at Hamilton. Research conducted that summer was also presented at the MERCURY computational chemistry conference held in August 2003.

Recently I have begun to notice the large degree of segmentation that exists in Manhattan.  It strikes me as odd that crossing a single street in this grid-like layout can completely change the atmosphere surrounding you. 

Assistant Professor of Government Yael Aronoff presented a paper, "When Hard-Liners Opt for Peace:  The Political Psychology of Israeli Prime Ministers" at the International Studies Association 45th Annual Convention in Montreal, March 17-20.

Environmentalist and author Dai Qing's gave a talk, "The Three Gorges Dam: China's Environmental and Political Crisis," as part of the Levitt Center spring series on "The Environment:  Public Policy and Social Responsibility." She outlined the goals set forward for the dam when it was started in the 1970s: to create hydroelectric power, provide flood control and improve navigable shipping routes on the Yangtze River.