Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898 | SUBSCRIBE

Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

May-June 2010

Letters

Letters from our readers

The College Pump

Found on eBay, this barrel now belongs to Robert G. Milstein ’46, of Saratoga Springs, New York. He has no idea of its original  purpose. It is 15 inches high. Harvard archivists Robin McElheny and Barbara Meloni think it looks like “a reunion prop,” maybe from the Depression era. Readers, any ideas?

Of philanthropy rewarded, broken glass, and pennies for Harvard

Treasure

Crocoite from the Adelaide Mine in Tasmania

What lead, chromium, and oxygen can do

In this Issue

Harvard’s libraries deal with disruptive change.

Time for a new paradigm for executive compensation

A wedding photograph of Masauko and Catherine  (Ajizinga) Chipembere. Years later,  Catherine Chipembere served as deputy minister of health and population in the Malawian government.

Brief life of a pioneering African nationalist: 1930-1975

Nicholas Christakis

Exploring the weblike structures that underlie everything from friendship to cellular behavior

Letters

Letters from our readers

Right Now

Deciphering sea levels

Ben Adida

The online voting system Helios offers a prototype for transparency and security in elections.

Applying "natural experiments" to the study of history

John Harvard's Journal

The building’s façade is now visible.

A bilingual welcome to a binational academic center.

A new center in Shanghai reflects Harvard’s growing engagement with the People’s Republic.

Vincent Brown

The professor of African and African American studies uses multiple media to study slavery.

On University governance and management

Headlines from Harvard history

Short takes on recent Harvard news

Anonymous voices from the lonely Harvard crowd

Former gymnast Bruce Wright brings unconventional views to the tennis court.

The Harvard men’s tennis team is profiting from a new approach to movement on the court.

High honors in squash and wrestling

The dining hall of the Harvard crew’s training camp, with its game-room addition at right, overlooks the Thames river.

Nearly everything about the Harvard-Yale regatta is unique.

Montage

Laura Mehlinger with a Colorfield romper, in silk with mesh streamers (left), and a silk-and-mesh veil chemise

Fashion designer Laura Mehlinger draws on inspirations ranging from Vladimer Nabokow to Prince.

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Poking fun “at the academic-bureaucratic mentality of university life”

Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at 2,717 feet, is the world’s tallest tower.

In Tall Building: Imagining the Skyscraper, Scott Johnson explores the semiotics of these urban giants.

David Warsh reviews Robert J. Samuelson's The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath

<i>Beckoning</i> (2008), one of Dinerstein’s recent concrete sculptures

Sculptor James Dinerstein’s works in concrete and bronze fuse ancient forms with modern abstraction.

Recent books with Harvard connections

Alumni

Laurie Wayburn finds both inspiration and solace in these protected wood- lands, within walking distance of her San Francisco office.

An alumna works to sustain commerce and conservation

For Overseer: (Top, L-R) Cheryl Dorsey; David Tang; Walter Isaacson; Diana Nelson. (Bottom, L-R): David Heyman; Karen Nelson Moore; Joseph Fuller; Nicholas Kristof

Candidates for Overseer and Harvard Alumni Association director

A sampler of Harvard club speakers this spring

A new University website aims to promote public service by Harvard affiliates around the globe.

The Lynds

Political activists Staughton and Alice (Niles) Lynd have written a memoir about marriage and social commitment.

John Berlow with fellow residents of the Vietnam Friendship Village

John Berlow works to promote safe, sustainable agriculture in Vietnam.

News from Shared Interest Groups

David Allyn, Ph.D. ’96, is looking for est graduates to interview for an academic article.

The College Pump

Found on eBay, this barrel now belongs to Robert G. Milstein ’46, of Saratoga Springs, New York. He has no idea of its original  purpose. It is 15 inches high. Harvard archivists Robin McElheny and Barbara Meloni think it looks like “a reunion prop,” maybe from the Depression era. Readers, any ideas?

Of philanthropy rewarded, broken glass, and pennies for Harvard

Treasure

Crocoite from the Adelaide Mine in Tasmania

What lead, chromium, and oxygen can do