Yes, subways may always be cheaper than cabs. And sure, you may not venture south of 108th again until after exams (you Philistine, etc.). Nevertheless, for Columbia students’ (and their relatives’) future transportation emergencies, Bwog applauds the Bloomberg administration’s proposal for a permanent cabsharing system. 

The proposal, first mentioned in Bloomberg’s state of the city address, is obviously still very much in the planning stages, but would set up formal cabsharing system at airports, train stations, and a few other locations in the city. Cabsharing was temporarily implemented during the 2005 transportation strike, with drivers charging flat fees, though it’s unknown what form the new system would take.

The Bloomberg public relations people might deny this, but Bwog likes to think the real inspiration was Carsplit.

The violence in Gaza sparks tense but ultimately peaceful peace rallies.  Everyone wants to converse, but nobody has yet.

Campo is to decamp to the space between Furnald and the Journalism Building.

But until then, you can decamp to our very own nearly-on-campus Greenmarket for produce.  Even though it’s winter.

And, of course, everyone’s still excited and awed by our most notable Columbian who’s working, oh, somewhere else for a while.

Less than 24 hours after CCSC filled one vacant seat, another spot has opened up. This time, it’s CC ’09 Class Council vice-president Mallory Carr, who resigned earlier today.

Carr won election this past year as part of Mark Johnson’s Fusion Party, after running the year before as VP for Policy on Natali Segovia’s Voice Party ticket. She has also been involved in the Multicultural Recruitment Committee and the Undergraduate Recruitment Committee.

UPDATE (9:55 PM): Carr told Bwog in an email, “I know that with my many other commitments this semester, I would not be able to continue in my role as VP to the best of my ability.” She continued: “However, I have the utmost faith in the rest of our council to continue to fulfill our promises to the senior class.” Sources also confirm to Bwog that CC ’09 President Mark Johnson has appointed class rep Heather Oh as the new VP and Brandon Shulman to fill Oh’s representative position, as per the council’s constitution.

UPDATE (11:18 PM): Seems ESC has the resignation bug as well – VP for Alumni Affairs and Professional Development Pradeep Bandaru resigned over winter break. ESC will hear speeches from interested candidates and vote on a new VP next week.

A reminder to all writers, editors, artists, poets and friends — both old and new (especially new) — tonight is the first Blue and White meeting of the new semester. 9:30 PM in the catacombs of St. Paul’s Chapel. 

We’ll be discussing story ideas for upcoming issues, so if you’ve ever wanted to get involved with the magazine or with Bwog, please stop on by.

Gather round, Morningside denizens, and hear the tale of the 47th Upper West Side food revolution! If you’ve ever opened New York Magazine, you’ll know that, yeah, 20 years ago there was nowhere good to eat around here, and now, yeah, there are some good places to eat. We’re at Columbia; we know we don’t live in Tribeca and that the 3 train doesn’t even go there on weekends anymore.

Bwog recommends, then, that on the Sunday night your parents are in town, you make the trek down to 77th and Columbus (right next to Shake Shack, you have nothing to lose) and take advantage of what Bwog believes to be the only 3-star restaurant above 72nd Street, Dovetail. The restaurant, barely a year old, offers a “Sunday Suppa” dinner special each week, pricing an appetizer, entree and dessert at a reasonable (for your parents) $38 per person. Plus, this is the kind of place that brings you free stuff in between your courses. Bwog was there last night to investigate what the foodies are so excited about.

Read more…

We at Bwog are always on the lookout for useful websites. Bwog daily editor Eliza Shapiro brings us the backstory on GlovesIFound.com.

On one chilly day in early December, Brian Donahoe, CC ’12, was walking from John Jay to Hamilton when he happened upon a glove on the ground. He contemplated it for a moment, and decided not to pick it up, but then he got to thinking. “I thought about how it would never be reunited with its other half and I thought…I can make this better,” Donahoe tells Bwog triumphantly. Donahoe launched GlovesIFound shortly after with one simple goal: to reunite gloves found around Columbia’s campus and the greater metropolitan area with their owners.

Since December, Donahoe and a motley crew of uber-observant freshmen have snatched up abandoned gloves all over the place. They then post a picture of the glove and where it was found. This same group has also plastered the John Jay lobby with homemade posters. One depicts a drunk glove, a stoned glove, and two gloves having sex, reading: “its 11:47, do you know where your gloves are?” Another promotes the site as “the new Facebook.” So keep your eyes peeled for gloves, Bwog readers, Donahoe tells us they’re everywhere “if you just look for them.” Oh, the possibilities! 

Bwog paid a visit to Low Steps this frigid Monday morning to see the Solidarity with Israel Rally at the Sundial. As reported earlier, the official pro-Gaza rally has been canceled due to the fact that the group never had Low secured as a venue for a demonstration. Head of LionPAC Jacob Shapiro began the Israel rally by thanking those who made the event possible as campus security mulled about and group of Palestinian supporters grew across from the sundial at the bottom of the Steps.Those in the crowd of Israel-supporters held signs reading “Hamas is a terrorist organization” and “we support a sustainable ceasefire” while the group of Palestinian-flag-waving Columbians stood quietly on the Steps.

The rally seemed like “the fight of the flags,” as a fellow Bwogger put it – the 80-member group of Israel supporters, all supplied with flags being passed out by event coordinators, while the 30-ish group of Palestine supporters unfurled large flags and held them over their heads. A group in the middle of the two rallies held a huge cardboard sign, and a member told us of their hope for a “constructive dialogue.”

Still, the scene could be best summed up by a young man trotting down Low Steps, who took it all in and muttered to his friend: “this is awkward.” 

A quick note for all those planning to enjoy the spectacle on Low Plaza at lunchtime today: the pro-Gaza rally has been canceled.

Event organizers told Bwog that the rally, originally planned to take place on Low Plaza, had to be canceled due to “scheduling conflicts.” The opposing “Rally of Solidarity and Peace for Israel” is still scheduled for noon at the Sundial.

The other events in the series, including evening vigils during the week and a speakout tomorrow, all at the Sundial, will still take place.

Morningside Heights < pretty much everywhere else

 Lots of candidates for USenate – all of them except for one = Billy Freeland

 Sometimes, grad students > real professors, and PrezBo needs to know about it!

Photographer Leonid Lubianitsky + the Harriman Institute = the meaning of life

Get out your calculators for this doozy: politics = “a cockroach”, “the costume in which fear disguises itself”, an interest in politics = a “neurosis”

Bwog was playing a little pre-semester Donkey Kong and noticed that the freshman bastion of ice not-really-cream had disappeared, vamoosed, vanished from Lernerland.  Jaded, and not surprised, H&D’s response suggested that Pinkberry had taken all their business.  We were saddened by the loss of the place that had played home to our fondest memories, by the comments that were filled with people chanting the names of other establishments, and by the revelation that Columbia didn’t put running water in the Tasti Lounge.  They put it in Butler’s basement instead, a nasty limitation for potential replacements to deal with.

Columbia, though hurting, probably won’t notice the missing revenue stream.  It was too busy locating the $3 Million Missing with Madoff, courtesy of the law school.  They’re also readying their lawyers for another Manhattanville-related lawsuit.  At least the change will dribble in from the transaction fees at Campo, now accepting “Flex.”  Hopefully, Columbians who get record labels, Oscars, and Sundance viewership will find themselves better off.

As was expected, everyone yelled a lot about the inauguration.  Bwog opted to take photos of the masses.  After a senator resigned last year, CCSC released a list of potential replacements.  Lots of mildly-uninterested debate took place around campus, and just a few hours ago, her replacement was selected.

Finally, the new year’s first potential shitstorm was announced.  Students and groups supporting Palestine and/or Gaza and/or Israel will be holding events in and around the steps tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

After presentations, questions, and discussion (all in just over an hour!), CCSC chose Billy Freeland, CC ’09, as the new CCSC senator, replacing Tiffany Dockery.

Freeland, a former Senate candidate who missed out in last spring’s Senate elections by eight votes, won in a runoff over Alex Frouman, a freshman who’s spent his first semester on the CCSC policy committee. The other three candidates were Dov Friedman CC ’09, Michael Marion CC ’09, and Matt Heiman CC ’09 (another two candidates withdrew their names from nomination before the meeting).

UPDATE: Those curious about the selection process, and the rest of the CCSC meeting, can check out the meeting notes.

Prospective Bwoggers – just a reminder that applications for our daily editorships are due tonight at midnight. Send the following (and any questions) to bwog@columbia.edu:

1. Five (5) QuickSpec headlines for any issue from this week.

2. One (1) previous Bwog post you liked and why.

3. One (1) previous Bwog post you didn’t like and why.

4. A list of five (5) ideas for future posts and/or consistent features.

5. A mock Bwog post on any topic of your choice, not to exceed three hundred (300) words.

Happy applying! 

Welcome to SocketHop, in which we bring you free (but useful) mini-apps and major (but relevant) headlines from the world of technology, hopefully demystifying the subject along the way.  Flood our inbox (bwog@columbia.edu) and tell us what you think and what you want to see.  Be not afraid of technology!

Snazz Up Your Desktop: Exposé for Windows

Columbia is an Apple-happy campus.  Mac OS X (pronounced “oh ess ten”, Apple’s operating system) dominates in lecture and in lab, but let us not forget those of us who have stuck with Windows.

One of Mac’s spiffier features is Exposé.  Exposé presents miniaturized versions of all your open windows at once, allowing you to click on the one you want.  If you’re like Bwog and have twenty applications open at any given time, this saves you a lot of cycling through windows searching for your thesis draft.  A video of all Exposé features in action is on Youtube (skip to 1:15 for the “show all windows” feature).

Exposé on OS X

Windows’ most similar feature is in Vista (but not XP), called Windows Flip3D (Microsoft once again displaying its naming prowess).  It doesn’t simultaneously show you all open windows, but it allows you to visually cycle through them- not a good option if you have too many open.

A quick fix, after the jump.

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The powers that be are determined to confine us to our rooms.  A smattering of events around campus, served with the usual levity.

Monday

Israel.  Gaza.  Their supports, all in once place: showdown on the steps.  We’ll have more details later today. Lunchtimeish @ Alma Mater’s house.

Tuesday

Columbia’s resident string quartets are back.  Haydn, for free, at lunch.  12:30 PM @ Philosophy Lounge.

Wednesday

Take a nap.  This is the last chance you’ll get this semester.

Thursday

Community Impact presents Earl Jam the Third.  In other words, an open mic with a side of grilled cheese.  Check the Bwog sidebar for more information, including signups.  8:00 PM @ Party Space.

Friday

Public stargazing from the top of Pupin begins this week, and will continue every second Friday.  7:00 PM @ Pupin.

Bwog almost passed over this event, but was stopped by the subtitle: “The Lives of Cross-Dressed Male Sex Workers in Early Postwar Japan.”  For kicks, 12:00 PM @ 918 IAB.

Everybody’s commenting on this whole “new president” thing [Ed. note: zomg OBAMA].  Even Bwog couldn’t filter through all of it.  Here’s a taste.

She was displaced by a Katrina prequel, but then she got into Columbia.  And all was well.

He took the lessons of Columbia’s on-campus activism and fought for causes in the real world.

This columnist takes a different view.  Columbia isn’t a pluralist institution- it’s a radical, anarchist, racist cesspool.  But Eisenhower was pretty cool.

Researchers find that “motor skill” learning can be “enhanced” by “stimulation.”  And sometimes we can predict what’s going on up there.

We find out that everyone else’s mood affects our own mood.  Following logically, Facebook is making us bipolar.