Well, not you specifically, but people you may know. New York Magazine interviewed seniors Bryan Reid, Sam Reisman, and Jesse Horwitz about the best spots around Columbia. Establishments mentioned include Max Caffe (“Hang, Read, and Drink Coffee”) 1020 (“Pickup Spot”) La Negrita (“The Happening Bar”[?]) and Roti Roll (“Late-Night Munchies”).

The Observer, on the other hand, reports much heavier news. English Department heavy-hitter James Shapiro has canceled his legendary seminar “The Book Review,” which aimed to teach future literary critics the art of professional reviewing. Shapiro feels that the downsizing of book review departments and the Internet Age have nearly destroyed the opportunities for young and unknown reviewers to get paid for their work. Thank goodness Amazon reviews the finer things in life.

Bwog has been unceremoniously ejected from Butler for a fire alarm. Stay tuned for updates before setting out to study there. 

UPDATE (7:25): Butler is open again, crisis averted. Plus, Bwog hears that a lecture scheduled to take place in Butler from 6-7:30 was cancelled in advance. Yeah, planned fire alarms are just an excuse to laugh at us.

The Street Sweets dessert truck is parked on Broadway and 117th street!

It’s a beautiful day, and right now is always the best time for red velvet cake. 

Bwog wishes it was easier to keep in touch with our old friend, CU Arts. That’s why we’re ecstatic to announce that the the folks at the Ticketing Information Center are willing to keep us updated on what arts events Columbia wants to see and hear. Presenting the first ever edition of QuickTix, including an introduction to the awesomeness of TIC and some info on what’s popular, what’s good, and what’s cheap that’ll be posted about every two weeks.

Since the January, 2008 the little office in Lerner has sold 153,407 individual tickets to 23,303 members of the Columbia community. The largest group of patrons by far are students, with CC as the leading affiliation (thank you, Music Hum) and Barnard a distant second. Off-campus tickets tend to be the most popular, have been the most popular this month followed by movie vouchers, but on campus ticket sales usually spike once the semester’s first student productions get closer to opening night. All these stats are to be expected, except for the fact that most patrons don’t use online ticketing to purchase will-call (Bwog always does).

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Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the World Uighur Congress, has attracted plenty of international attention since the Chinese government accused her of orchestrating the Urumqui riots of July. Despite strict security measures, experienced Bwog contributor Mark Hay managed to get close enough to hear last night’s lecture, sponsored by CIRCA in 309 Havemeyer.

Rebiya Kadeer is no Dalai Lama. She is a brilliant woman, a staunch defender of her native Uighur culture, and an internationally significant figure. But until this year she enjoyed only a modicum of the symbolic power afforded certain Tibetan leaders with comparable relationships to the Chinese government. It is evident that accusations of her involvement in the July riots in Urumqi (in the remote Uighur region of China) still cling to her. Precautions taken for her lecture were perhaps more than necessary;  public safety was our in force and entrance was refused to anyone not on the pre-approved CIRCA guest list.

As a result, the attendance was lower than one might expect. The sparse numbers, the ample CIRCA personel standing around, and the muffled voice of her translator gave Ms. Kadeer an almost surreal aura as she spoke in her native Uighur tongue. The moment Ms. Kadeer opened her mouth there was a great commotion from the back of the room as three guards swarmed a young man trying to unveil a banner. He was removed from the event with relative ease and a few light swears. Stoic, Kadeer showed no reaction. Nor did she appear to notice to the small cabal of Chinese students in the back of the hall holding hastily-printed signs reading: “Rebiya Kadeer is a Terrorist.” Per capita, it was an overdose of intrigue, but Kadeer and most audience members seemed resolved to ignore every strange element of the night.

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And enjoy the occasion for Godfather references. The formerly defunct La Societa Italiana is back in the game, and what says “new energy” like free make-your-own cannoli?

Look out for the loud Italian music and red, green and white balloons today and tomorrow between 12 and 2pm on College Walk. 

Horrified by the Swan Wars of Prospect Park Lake, Brooklynites man the front lines. (City Room)

Apple receives patent for some pretty horrific-looking TV glasses. (Gawker)

No online reports means no repairs to your housing. Yeah, shocker, we all rely on the internet.  (Spec)

A horribly low turnout marked yesterday’s run-off elections. DeBlasio and Liu won by large margins. (Gothamist)

Be afraid. The next time you fly, the War on Geese may strike close to home. (NY Post)

(For the record, Bwog is horrified by the previous error. The scary-faced Chinese indie rock show was indeed last Friday night)

Image via Flickr

Tonight at 8 PM in Havemeyer 309, Rebiya Kadeer, the woman dubbed the “Uyghur Dalai Lama” and the famed advocate for minority rights in China, will speak at an event sponsored by Columbia International Relations Council and Association in conjunction with Columbia Political Union and Amnesty International.  She’s the President of the World Uyghur Congress, the President of the Uyghur American Association, and one of the Chinese government’s least favorite people; Bwog also hears that free food will be served.

Kadeer was imprisoned for five and a half years in northwestern China after she allegedly provided “secret information to foreigners.”  She was only released after the US government, members of Congress, and groups like Amnesty International campaigned for her freedom.  She currently advocates for the rights of the Uyghur ethnic group in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, a group which is oppressed and marginalized by the Chinese government.  If you’ve never heard of the Uyghurs, here’s another reason to go see Kadeer; the Chinese government claims that she masterminded the race riots this summer in Xinjiang, a charge which she denies. 

If global affairs don’t tempt you, remember that the freshmen aren’t disenchanted with CCSC quite yet — there are multiple parties running for election!  The CCSC 2013 Debate is happening tonight at 9 PM in the Roone Arledge Auditorium.  We’re guessing that the freshmen student council hopefuls may not be quite as articulate as Ms. Kadeer, but head to Lerner to see if good Karma can beat out those who just want to Party. 

In its continued efforts to apologize for being white and western, Columbia has appointed another bureaucrat you’ll never actually meet: Dean Shollenberger just announced that Theresa Martinez will serve as the new Dean of Community Development and Multicultural Affairs.  Shollenberger explains that “students expressed a need for greater coordination of services that support co-curricular life and a desire to foster a greater sense of community” among the multicultural student body.  They might have also considered adding Toni Morrison to the Lit Hum syllabus once and for all.

Martinez comes to us from Ithaca College, where she served as Director of the Office of Student Engagement and Multicultural Affairs, or, as Shollenberger gracefully put it, she “managed a number of offices, including multicultural affairs, residential life, leadership development, community service and service learning.”  She received her  B.S from SUNY College, Buffalo and her M.A from NYU.

 Full email after the jump.

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Eva Suarez attends a plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative, feels poor.

This week marked the fifth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative — in other words, what the former President spends his time on when he’s not jetsetting with pretty ladies or hobnobbing with Kim Jong II. Clinton provides a forum for world leaders, major philanthropists, international CEOs, and prominent members of the media to discuss solutions for global problems. Unlike the Davos Convention, the emphasis is less on talking and more on creating “commitments”– explicit promises to give money to a specific plan or cause.  Clinton expects his invites to give money, even without the prospect of taking a catnap in the Lincoln Bedroom, and he strives to make sure they don’t forget it.  This was an event for the best and brightest,  or at least the richest, of Clinton’s honchos.  Before a panel on developing Northern Ireland, Clinton played the schoolyard bully and had the house lights brought up so he could call audience members who had not yet given money out by name.   Sessions seemed like trade fairs; each presenter was out for the crowd’s money as much as their interest. Thursday’s plenary session on infrastructure was no different, with panelists Jeffrey Immelt, the head of GE, Carlos Ghosn, the head of Nissan-Renault, John T. Chambers, the head of Cisco, Kristina Peterson, the head of finance of Suntech America, and Kofi Annan, Columbia Global Fellow. Moderating the panel was Ray Suarez, of the PBS Newshour.

In the green room before the show, Suarez brought the panelists together with Bill Clinton for a warm up discussion. There was continental breakfast, and Usher was also there, maybe to serve as a subtle reminder to Clinton that he’s not the first black president, no matter how many gospel churches he cries in. There was lots of juicy “off the record” conversation, and lots of swag. Repeatable from backstage — Kofi Annan likes orange juice, and Bill Clinton knows a surprising amount about planes. After about 45 minutes of croissants and basking in each other’s glory, the session began.

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It’s the return of “In Defense Of…” Here, a writer defends something that most students consider useless, inferior, or downright loathsome. In doing so, Bwog hopes to bring you a new perspective, and give the subject the appreciation it deserves…or not. For the first installment of the new year, daily editor Liz Naiden defends all those squares making your route to class hell.

One of the first great discoveries of a Columbia education is that you cannot walk diagonally to class. First-years quickly realize that all their manifold achievements and superpowers will not teleport them through the hedges and fences surrounding the South Lawns.  It’s equally impossible to cross the upper half of the campus, because Low, raised on high, prevents all attempts at diagonal movement. You can’t even walk through it diagonally in the basement; like a mouse in a maze, you’ll be forced by the layout to walk a right angle in order to emerge from the exit catty-corner to the one you entered through. It’s even impossible to walk through small spaces like the Fayerweather/Avery courtyard diagonally. In fact, the one area on campus that has diagonals is Lerner, where, we can all agree, they are thoroughly useless.

Few people manage to make it through four years at Columbia without at least once complaining about this injustice. The annoyance of running late to class is only exacerbated by the realization that there are almost no shortcuts to that destination, only long cuts. But while we all share the outrage, the right angles probably aren’t as responsible for all those tardy marks as you might think, and its other benefits more than make up for lost time. Read more…

Nikhita Mahtani reports.

Monday’s SGA meeting began with pleas for volunteers for Founder’s Day.  Soon after, the new First Year VP, Rachel Ferrari – apparently a “big listener” and “not very shy” — introduced herself.

The meeting continued with updates from Katie Pallilo, Barnard ‘10 and SGA president.  Katie addressed her meeting with Carol Katzman from Information Technologies, who is investing in a 6-month recruiting program to revamp Barnard’s “Academic Technologies” — SmartBoards, anyone?  Commencement is still to be in Levien Gym, but suggestions have been made to look into other venues, such as Baker Field or Lehman.

Because Columbia’s administration works so well already, Dean Taylor, the new Chief of Staff, will add yet another layer of bureaucracy to Barnard College by serving as a link between President Spar and the student body.  Katie, the eternal optimist, tempered her criticism of another barrier between you and your tuition money by lavishing great praise on the new Dean.  That’ll be another friendly face you won’t see until Founder’s Day. Read more…

Barnard girls just can’t decide who they want to be president — lets hope no one demands a recount (Spec).

Rich people are getting old men arrested for trying to save cats (NY Post).

Columbia students are allowed to go places no one else gets to go, but not on the South Lawn (Spec).

Super Size Me be damned, Moms claim that McDonald’s is actually good for you (NY Daily News).

“It’s just a cultural thing”: H&H sells more bagels on Yom Kippur than on any other day of the year (NYT).

In a surprise move, CUIT has increased bandwidth quotas from 350 MB/hr to 1000 MB/hr download and from 180 MB/hr to 400 MB/hr upload. Not that Bwog advocates anything that could possibly get your hard drive reformatted, but if you happen to need to, say, download a 750mb .pdf from your professor, be glad to know that you can now do it during the hours of 10 A.M. to midnight. 

Residents of the LLC (and Furnald), rejoice!  CUIT has just authorized a test program that allows you to do what you’ve already been doing. According to an email sent today by Kathryn Engelhardt, Systems Engineer Manager, the pilot program will allow students in Furnald, Hartley, and Wallach to connect their wireless routers to the University network.

There’s a catch, however: the only router officially allowed by CUIT is the Apple AirPort Express.  Engelhardt explained that the reasons for this are that it only has only a single Ethernet connection (presumably because connecting a single wired computer preserves individual accountability) and that it does not have certain features that could destabilize the network. 

Though the threat of reformatting your hard drive should your computer be “compromised” by a virus or if you are reported for a copyright violation is threatened in a scary box in the middle of the email, Bwog believes this is just standard CUIT policy reworded as scare tactics.  Engelhardt assured Bwog that no action would be taken without full student involvement; every student has the chance to disprove copyright violation accusations. Read more…