Enjoy leaves now! Go do it! Now!

Certain members of our community have been letting off end-of-semester angst by writing angry comments on dining hall bulletin boards. For example, this note was left in Hewitt circa 11:07 this morning:

Hang in there, champ. We know classes are stressful (and dining does stuff like that) but there’s no need to yell. Another comment after the jump.

God may be dead, but it seems this guy is still alive and printing stuff out in Butler.

What we got when we searched "friends" on Wikimedia

Sean Zimmermann reports from last night’s ESC meeting.

Theresa Martinez, Dean of Community and Multicultural Affairs, spoke at last night’s Engineering Student Council meeting. She was hired last year to help foster a greater sense of Columbia University community.

Dean Martinez explained that she is currently working on the open housing policy, the CUEMS proposal, and an electronic payer card system. She described some of the bureaucratic parts of Columbia as “archaic,” explaining, “I don’t recall the last time I saw a quadruplecate form before I went to Columbia.”

Much of the discussion on student life focused on the role of student groups and how to connect with students. Freshman Representative Siddhant Bhatt proposed that the Dean could help foster community by playing music in the dining halls, and providing “advertising” for student groups between pieces. Bhatt claimed that this would be a “less invasive” way to alert students about events on campus than knocking on doors. Read more…

The November issue of The Blue and White will be arriving on campus momentarily. Meanwhile, enjoy selections from the current edition on Bwog.

At first it seemed innocuous enough: a couscous-like, gluten-free, and protein-rich alternative to rice. What damage could it possibly cause? Formerly confined to the lower shelves of Whole Foods and other “informed” markets, within the past few years quinoa (KEEN-wha, not ki-NO-ah, folks) has blossomed. It made its mainstream debut in supermarkets’ premade salads, rapidly rose to prominence in university dining halls across the nation, and now regularly appears on both family dinner tables and the fine china of Manhattan’s swankiest restaurants. It is more than a passing trend–this is no mere bubble tea. Quinoa, it seems, is here to stay. But in the face of the grain’s meteoric rise, one cannot help but ask: how did it happen?

Quinoa is classified as a member of the goosefoot family of plants, and despite appearances, is a close relative of spinach. Botanically speaking, the plant’s edible seeds are “pseudograins,” meaning that while it is not actually a grain, it can be used like one, and eaten either boiled or ground into flour. For this reason, it has long enjoyed a well-deserved cachet amongst those afflicted with gluten allergies. But the gluten-free crowd alone cannot account for the recent upswing in the miracle grain’s popularity. Read more…

More (and even more) on George Castro- who is not in fact an employee of the University– the man indicted on charges of stealing nearly $5 million from Columbia, including the quote, “The money just appeared in my account.” (NYT/WSJ)”>

This is what the Rockefeller Center treelighting will look like, only raining.

More (and even more) on George Castro- who is not in fact an employee of the University– the man indicted on charges of stealing nearly $5 million from Columbia, including the quote, “The money just appeared in my account.” (NYT/WSJ)

Two researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health find that ineffective treatments and high costs hinder the U.S. healthcare system. (NYT)

The Rockefeller Center tree-lighting ceremony is tonight. Unfortunately, it looks as though it will rain. (Rockefeller Center/WSJ)

The Federal Transit authority has requested that NJ Transit repay $271 million it was awarded for a Hudson River tunnel project that has since been cancelled. The letter sent to the Executive Director of NJ Transit politely declines to use the classic Jersey-ism, “Where’s the fuckin’ money, shithead?” (AP/WSJ)

Cathleen Black, Mayor Mike’s pick to run New York public schools, was confirmed in that position yesterday when she received a waiver from the state education commissioner. (NYT)

image via Wikimedia Commons

Lost Tues 23/11/10 between 1020, O’Connell’s and Sip (oh dear). It’s a tiny gold bracelet with my name (Natalie) engraved. It’s of no monetary value but is of huge sentimental importance as I’ve had it since I was born (!). If you find it, please contact njr2115@columbia.edu

This just in! SGA has voted to recognize sororities at Barnard by a vote of 14-5. Zoe Camp reports.

Some words from the SGA meeting happening now: SGA was asked why the student poll existed in the first place, to which SGA members replied, “the student body really stood up and there was a large majority. It’s our responsibility to do what we said we would do and follow the poll.” A follow-up to the vote has been proposed. “Maybe fifty years ago, Barnard didn’t accept Greek Life,” an official said, “but fifty years later, that may have changed.” Members of the council announced they were headed out for drinks after the meeting.

A tipster reports that two cabs collided. One cab swerved into a tree and the other stopped in the middle of the street, apparently pretty badly smashed up. Details to follow. If you’re nearby, send a picture to tips@bwog.com.

Update, 9:30: Both cab drivers are in stable condition but there was still an ambulance on the scene.

As part of World AIDS Week 2010, Student Global AIDS Campaign presents 30 Years and Counting: The HIV/AIDS Pandemic. They promise to serve you free dinner from Long Grain Thai and free dessert from Kitchenette. Plus, Sociomedical Sciences Professor Robert Fullilove, will feed you words of wisdom. It’s all going down at 8:00 pm in the Earl Hall Auditorium.

The newest issue of The Blue and White will soon arrive. Until then, enjoy the magazine in its entirety as we preview it on Bwog.

Morningside old timers remember “the castle” at 106th and Central Park West as it once was. Not an inch of the restored structure betrays its past today, but for 40 years, the five crumbling turrets of 455 Central Park West dotted the skyline with decay. Only rats, squatters, and ghosts called its cluttered hallways home.

The castle first opened its doors in 1890 as the New York Cancer Hospital, a state-of-the-art experimental facility and the only one of its kind in the U.S. To visit the building in those days would have felt like stepping into the Loire Valley–its French Renaissance revivalarchitecture gleamed with red brick and black ironwork, and its circular turrets lent a romantic grandeur to its grim medical mission. (The round towers were, in fact, functionally designed to eliminate the corners where physicians once believed germs collected and grew.)

Breakthroughs in the use of radium for cancer treatment put the castle-cum-hospital at the forefront of the medical world, but by 1955 the hospital vacated the circular wards for a more modern facility. The center then became the Towers Nursing Home–a low-rent elder-care facility shuttered in 1974 for abusing and swindling its residents–before falling into total neglect. For the next 30 years, the castle lay abandoned, saved from demolition by a timely landmarks designation and the periodic, but fruitless, chatter of possible renovation projects.

A white knight finally rode to the castle’s rescue in 2003. After purchasing it in the late 1990s, developer Dan McLean finally succeeded in corralling funds to restore the building by convincing Columbia University to help cover the $150 million needed. In return, McLean would set aside for Columbia faculty 15 floors of a luxury apartment tower he planned to build and attach to the restored structure. In just two years, the castle was recreated as a complex of luxury condos so chic that they attracted the attention of celebrities like Phil Collins and Bill Clinton.

Now called “The Towers,” the once-decrepit castle stands today as a clean, beautiful model of Victorian institutional architecture and, as Sarah Bernard of New York Magazine put it on the eve of the restoration, a monument to “the winds of uptown gentrification.”

–Liz Naiden
Illustration by Adela Yawitz

Scandalous! The NY Post reports the Manhattan DA nabbed George Castro for allegedly stealing millions from Columbia. Bwog is in touch with University officials now, and we’ll keep you updated when we hear back.

Update: Double scandalous, the Post was wrong. The Wall Street Journal reports that Mr. Castro is not, in fact, an employee of Columbia. More details to follow.

Jay-Z warned you: “Can’t none of ya’ll mirror me back!”

Spotted on 116th and Broadway

Bwog has hopped, poked, and swiftly skimmed, but now we’re inviting other writers into the Bwog Bubble. We think there’s lots of fantastic campus journalism out there that sometimes slips under the radar. In the spirit of Enlightenment salons from centuries past, we present our newest feature, BwogSalon. Bwog asked the editors of each publication on campus to send us a teaser article from their most recent issue—something distinctly representative of their point of view, but still accessible. Below, check out Jeff Picker’s feature story from NOW!HERE, Columbia’s Journal of World Travel. You’ll make your fave French intellectual and your free-spirited cousin proud.

Nordic Dangers: Caught in the Eye of a Norwegian Storm

A view of Mount Ulriken in Bergen, Norway from the ground is not much of a spectacle. Its subtle sublimity blends serenely into a countryside known for its hills, small mountains, fjords, lakes and endless greenery. If not for several dozen pamphlets in the tourist office, trumpeting the extraordinary nature of the mountain, Storm (my travel companion) and I would never have seen its exquisite beauty. We also would not have ventured into unforeseen danger.

We traveled to Bergen by train from the Norwegian capital of Oslo, the sightseeing opportunities of which we had exhausted by our third day. We were excited to experience the more natural tourist attractions of our destination. We spent our first day in Bergen settling in to our hostel, meeting other (mostly English-speaking) travelers, and scouring the city for the elusive, affordable meal. We spent the whole second day cycling the western coast of Norway, slightly north of urban Bergen. On the third day, we rode a train to the nearby town of Voss, a world-renowned center for outdoor recreation. We kayaked on the visually dramatic yet calm Nærøyfjord, occasionally stopping the paddles to lay back and imbibe the view of the breathtaking, bright green mountains which flank the narrow, blue-hued ocean inlet on either side. By then Storm and I had seen all we needed to from the ground – it was time to check out the Norwegian landscape from above. So upon the suggestion of the tourist office and some fellow backpackers, we embarked on a 6-hour hike around the brim of Mount Ulriken.

Read more…

Elderly woman on the 1 train to a Bwogger: “It’s so good to see you reading! Look at all these other kids on their phones! There’s no service down here. Who could they possibly be talking to?! Kids these days…”

This calls for a resurrection of the the social experiment! Whatever happened to our favorite mildly sketchy subway pastime: people watching? Eye contact is sexy! And the top of your head just isn’t that ridiculous…