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Simonyi donates $25 million to Institute

Simonyi donates $25 million to Institute

The Institute for Advanced Study drew dramatically closer to its yearlong fundraising goal with a $25 million gift from billionaire software developer and Institute trustee Charles Simonyi, the Institute announced Friday.Simonyi, who made his fortune developing Excel and Word for Microsoft, said he wanted to lessen the Institute's reliance on what he characterized as "uncertain" government funding."With a total endowment of $400 million, [the Institute] has worked with 21 Nobel Prize winners and practically all Fields Medals winners," Simonyi said.

NEWS | 09/25/2005

Franco '08 travels to Louisiana to volunteer

The images of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina inspired sympathy and horror in students who watched on TV, but they inspired Eugene Franco '08 to buy a plane ticket to Baton Rouge and take part in an enormous relief effort."I kind of felt compelled to do it because I'm from NYC, and after 9/11, the whole country sent donations and contributed expertise to the clean up effort and the rescue effort there," Franco said.

NEWS | 09/25/2005

Schools file brief on recruiting

Seven universities, including Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, filed a legal brief last week opposing the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy in anticipation of an upcoming Supreme Court case on the controversial Solomon Amendment.Princeton, one of three Ivy League schools with a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program on campus, was not approached about participating in the brief because it lacks a law school, according to Vice President and Secretary Robert Durkee '69.The case before the Court, Rumsfeld v.

NEWS | 09/25/2005

Lottery numbers not released

Most students are still waiting to be notified if they have received tickets to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's speech on Friday, but undergraduates in the Wilson School have already been offered reserved tickets.The University has declined to release details about how many seats are available for other students, faculty and staff.Rice is scheduled to speak Friday to an audience of more than 3,500.To accommodate as many as possible, organizers of the Wilson School's 75th anniversary celebration have selected Jadwin Gymnasium for the speech.Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter '80 said the gym will allow the maximum number of people to attend."We have done everything possible to make this a University-wide event, consistent with our vision of the Woodrow Wilson School as Princeton's nexus with the world of public and international affairs," she said.Organizers chose Jadwin partly in response to the large unmet student demand for tickets to see Secretary of State Colin Powell, who spoke in Richardson Auditorium last year.More than 2,000 students and faculty requested tickets to hear Powell speak, but Richardson Auditorium seats about 850 people.

NEWS | 09/25/2005

In Soviet-era Russia, weather forecasts you

What you are about to read is The Truth. The reason you know it's the truth is the bipartite oath all who set foot inside The Daily Princetonian MegaDoppler 90000000+ Weather Center must swear: I promise to never lie to you, and I solemnly swear to use the word "awesome" at least once per column.That said, a story lost amid the hue and cry of Hurricane Rita was that of Scott Stevens, erstwhile meteorologist at KPVI Channel 6 in Pocatello, Idaho.

NEWS | 09/25/2005

Dalai Lama speaks on peace

Rutgers University's football stadium was transformed into the Dalai Lama's open-air classroom yesterday morning, when a crowd of about 36,000 gathered to listen to the spiritual leader's lecture on "Peace, War and Reconciliation."Tibetan peace flags created by Rutgers students adorned the field's inner fences, and a large stage covered in flowers stood behind the end zone.The audience included 27 members of Princeton's Buddhist Students' Group (PBSG), who joined the public to listen to the voices of the Dalai Lama and his translator resonate over loud speakers.The Dalai Lama "was sitting up there casually ... as if he knew all of us already," PBSG leader Ian Petrow '07 said.

NEWS | 09/25/2005

Study finds two-parent families better for kids

A joint project of the Wilson School and the Brookings Institute recently concluded that "children benefit from growing up with two married biological parents." The report appeared in the most recent issue of the journal "The Future of Children."The report cites occasions when the government discourages marriage through marriage penalties which, they argue, "are a result of policymakers' efforts to achieve the goal of progressivity ? giving greater tax and welfare benefits to those with lower income ? while trying to keep down program costs."Elisabeth Donahue, an associate editor of the journal and Wilson School lecturer, explained this phenomenon in more detail.She said that two unmarried individuals could be on welfare, but as a married couple, their pooled resources would make them ineligible for government support.This could lead to financial difficulties for the family and destabilize the marriage, worsening the wellbeing of their child, she said."All things being equal, kids in two-parent, married relationships do better," Donahue said.The report recommended that the government implement more policies to promote "stable, low-conflict, two-parent families."Though the U.S.

NEWS | 09/25/2005

Please, Rita, don't hurt 'em

Editor's Note: Daily Princetonian weather personality Ryan Truchelut was unable to write today's weather column due to injuries sustained in a tragic collision with the Beautiful Truck.

NEWS | 09/22/2005

As new dean, former bulldog learns to roar

Princeton's new assistant dean of the college may have come from a deanship at Yale, but Peter Quimby is not interested in making enemies.

NEWS | 09/22/2005

Internet access to NY Times limited

The University will not offer TimesSelect, a new service from The New York Times that charges $49.95 per year for exclusive online access to certain columns, to students free of charge.TimesSelect includes columns in the oped, business, New York/region and sports sections, as well as the International Herald Tribune.Though NYTimes.com will remain accessible free of charge for home-delivery subscribers, Princeton students who currently have the newspaper delivered to their dorm rooms will be required to pay for complete access to archives and work by columnists such as economics professor Paul Krugman.Though Firestone Library offers hard copies of The New York Times, computers at Firestone will also have only limited access to the site."Widely read newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Economist do not provide institutional Web subscriptions," said Economics and Finance Librarian Bobray Bordelon.However, all articles, oped pieces and archival articles dating back to 1980 are still available through Lexis-Nexis Academic.Also, the majority of NYTimes.com, including all news, features, editorials, analysis and multimedia, will continue to be available to readers of the Web site.

NEWS | 09/22/2005

Campus Club will close its doors for good

A month after trustees announced their decision not to open Campus Club this fall, members of the eating club have been notified that due to continuing economic difficulties that have plagued the club for much of the last decade, the club will not reopen at all.Official confirmation from the club's leadership of the trustees' decision to shut down Campus was not available, but Campus Beverage Director Matthew Samberg '06 said, "As the situation stands right now, Campus Club will not be reopening."Alumni and other members declined to comment.Campus has struggled to attract members in recent years, while earning insufficient income to support the costs of keeping the club open.

NEWS | 09/22/2005

Wilson School broadcasts lectures online

Students closed out of overcrowded lectures delivered by popular speakers can now watch the talks from the comfort of their own dorm rooms.In July, the Wilson School launched University Channel, a website that compiles video recordings of high-profile lectures at different universities and makes them available to the public as free streaming video.

NEWS | 09/22/2005

Wiesel inspires Darfur petition

After his speech Wednesday, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel was asked how Princeton students could combat intolerance.

NEWS | 09/22/2005

Labs fuse efforts with federal grant

The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), in collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, was recently awarded a grant of $10 million from the federal government to be given over a five-year period.The grant is part of the Department of Energy's Simulation of Wave Interactions with Magnetohydrodynamics (SWIM) project, which aims to create computer simulations that can correctly model the movements of plasma and subsequently facilitate the development of fusion energy."The goal of the [simulations] is to understand how radio waves affect plasma motion and how that motion affects the radio waves, so that we can use the process most effectively for driving current while keeping plasma in [a] magnetic field," said astrophysics professor Robert Goldston, director of the PPPL.The effect of radio waves and the motion of the plasma, which were previously studied independently, are brought together by the collaboration of the University and ORNL."If you fire radio waves into fusion fuel, you can heat and control [the fuel] in various ways," Goldston explained.

NEWS | 09/22/2005

Marshall '91 finds success with blog

From the moment that breaking news on politics, culture and foreign affairs leaves Capitol Hill, celebrity blogger Joshua Marshall '91 filters through the virtual press for leads and links to share with his legions of devoted readers.Marshall's website, Talkingpointsmemo.com, has gained in prominence ? especially in left-leaning circles ? since its launch five years ago, and has sent him down a career path he never anticipated."I never expected it to be the major way I make my living, or what people know me for," he said.As a history major at Princeton, Marshall thought his future resided in academia.

NEWS | 09/22/2005

Self-driving car makes semifinals

"It quickly becomes your life," Brendan Collins '08 says, leaning against a silver GMC Canyon pickup with a life of its own.It's Friday afternoon in a small, well-lit garage on the southwest edge of the E-Quad, and Collins ? along with colleagues Scott Schiffres '06, Bryan Cattle '07 and Anand Atreya '07 ? is busily putting the finishing touches on the vehicular monster he and his team have fashioned: a completely autonomous 4-wheel-drive truck dubbed the "Prospect 11."The vehicle, which can navigate without a driver or remote control, is on its way to Fontana, Calif., this week to compete in the semifinals of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge.

NEWS | 09/21/2005

Driving into the future

Green dots travel up and down highway veins on a computer map of the United States. The dots represent the cell phones, PalmPilots and laptops of users of CoPilot Live, a satellite navigation system developed by Operations Research Professor Alain Kornhauser GS '71.

NEWS | 09/21/2005

Wiesel brings message of hope

As the soft-spoken Elie Wiesel began his lecture in McCosh 50 last night, a woman in the audience yelled out, "Louder!""That is the story of my life," Wiesel responded wryly.

NEWS | 09/21/2005

Tigervision TV plans launch

The University's first television network, though still in its embryonic stages, is well on its way to becoming a reality.

NEWS | 09/21/2005

Economist speaks about derivatives

Nobel laureate and economist Harry Markowitz lectured to a crowded computer science auditorium on the past, present and future of portfolio diversification theory Wednesday.Markowitz started out by dismissing the notion that investors did not diversify their holdings before his seminal 1952 article, "Portfolio Selection," published in the Journal of Finance."Even a crass pirate knows not to put all his eggs in one basket," Markowitz said.

NEWS | 09/21/2005

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