Opinion

My complete works

Please, bear these rules in mind, and remember that a junior professor who meets these criteria will write a much more effective letter than a famous person who doesn’t. You’ll get the recommendations you deserve, and I’ll be able to spend a little less time rounding up the usual suspect adjectives — and a little more doing justice to the people for whom I should be writing.

PrinceCast #1: Tea Party edition

Michael Medeiros and Charlie Metzger sit down to discuss whether the tea party could thrive at Princeton and recent news regarding the Princeton dinky's survival under New Jersey Transit.   

Editorial: Progress on sustainability

In terms of reducing both energy use and waste, the University and its students have made great progress. However, there is still room for several easy, low-cost changes that could have a big impact on the University community’s use of resources.

Honor your mater

 "So, where do you go to school?”

Speak less, say more

Our malaise of the mouth is best cured when focusing on the back-and-forth, not just the forth.

Cartoon: Illustrated idioms

Cartoon: You've got mail

Climate change and the limits of skepticism

A true discussion does not get derailed by uncertainty and does not conclude that an entire field of science is false because of occasional errors.

Plastic or paralysis

Rather than the tax-and-spend Democrats, we shall have the spend-but-don’t-tax Republicans.

The fear of being unremarkable

The fear that we can’t measure up to those shining beacons — our classmates, our friends — can shake our highest aspirations to the core.

The price of a free concert

As much as I love Lawnparties, I believe that the USG spends far too much money on them by bringing a big-name act to campus.

Editorial: A more rational lockout policy

Students who are locked out of their room during normal business hours must now borrow a temporary key from the housing office. If the key is not returned in 24 hours, they will be charged a $75 fee to change the lock. Beginning in the spring semester, the Undergraduate Housing Office plans to implement a fee schedule for lockouts. The new policy is misguided, and the University should seriously consider alternatives.

Cartoon: Common Misconception

A long night’s journey into the future

Prox-access rooms will allow for a more efficient lockout system, which will increase the speed with which rooms will be unlocked in the future. As enticing as this prospect is, it’s important that the Facilities Department takes a number of precautions and carefully explores implementation options before making this switch.

Cartoon: Slylock Box

Declared my major and Ma ain't happy

While for some people choosing a major is an agonizing decision filled with multiple “changed-my-mind”s, for me, it was more a realization that I had known what I wanted to do all along. In retrospect, I had really been leaning towards comparative literature for quite some time. My mom, however, was still hoping in her heart of hearts for a last-minute change to something practical like electrical engineering or operations research and financial engineering. She was not exactly thrilled.

Letters to the Editor: Sept. 28, 2010

Linda Dowling defends the dinky and Chris Schlegal adds to Tim Nunan's column, "Avoiding navel-gazing and idolization."

Changing meanings of victory and defeat

From our present vantage point, preventing any form of classical military defeat will no longer assure our safety from either aggression or terrorism. We might now be perfectly capable of warding off any more-or-less tangible defeat of our military forces, and perhaps even of winning more-or-less identifiable victories in Afghanistan and elsewhere. But, in the end, we may still have to face extraordinary or even existential harms.

Editorial: Bring back the pub

A University-operated pub would provide a welcome and necessary alternative to the current on- and off-campus social options. By establishing a venue for responsible casual drinking, the University can facilitate a campus social scene that is more welcoming, safe and accessible to all members of the Princeton community. In the coming months, the working group should lend its support to the re-establishment of a campus pub and open dialogue with the Borough to gain its approval.

Call me Ned

There’s an art and even some science to creating good user interfaces. One of the simplest rules is to enlist potential users as victims and get their frank opinions before the design is frozen.  Our world is full of gadgets and systems like my GPS that have focused on elaborate “features,” apparently at the expense of this basic step.