Bucket List represents the unbelievable intellectual privilege we enjoy as Columbia students. We do our very best to bring to your attention important guest lecturers and special events on campus. Our recommendations for this week are below and the full list is after the jump.

Recommended

• “An American Foreign Policy Success Story: the Dayton Accords, Republika Srpska, and Bosnia’s European Integration” Tuesday 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Faculty Room, Low Library, Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska, Bosnia & Herzegovina, registration
• “Working Mothers, Barnard Daughters” Wednesday 6:30 pm, 304 Barnard Hall, Anna Quindlen, Tirza Wahrman, Deena Mitlak, Michelle Friedman, Sarah Belfer, Sharon Cromer, Simone Sobers
• “Understanding #OCCUPYWALLSTREET” Wednesday 7:30 pm, 501 Schermerhorn, Saskia Sassen, Nadia Urbinati, Stathis Gourgouris, and Suresh Naidu, RSVP by emailing jlb2210@columbia.edu
• “Meet Princess Rym Ali” Thursday 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm, Stabile Student Center, Journalism, David Klatell and Rym Ali, Princess of Jordan
• “Mario Batali: Conversation on Culture and Cuisine” Thursday 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Casa Italiana, Mario Batali, registration

Full List

Bucket List represents the unbelievable intellectual privilege we enjoy as Columbia students. We do our very best to bring to your attention important guest lecturers and special events on campus. Our recommendations for this week are below and the full list is after the jump. We’re still experimenting with different formats, so if you have an idea, please leave it in the comments!

Recommended

• “Roadmap for Addressing Sex Differences in Pain Management” Monday 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm, Sulzberger Parlor, Barnard Hall, Debora Spar, Marianne Legato, Jeffrey Mogil, Richard Smiley, Josephine P. Briggs, Saralyn Mark, RSVP by emailing wwn.ibro@verizon.net
• “News from the LHC: Tightening the Noose on the Standard Model” Monday 4:15 pm, 428 Pupin, John Parsons, preceded by tea and cookies in 705 Pupin
• “Moral Relativism” Tuesday 4:10 pm – 6:00 pm, 716 Philosophy, Gilbert Harman
• “No More Peace! How Disaster, Terror and War Have Upstaged Media Events” Wednesday 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm, 607B Journalism, Elihu Katz
• “Yoga and Yogis” Thursday 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm, 207 Knox, Sir James Mallinson
• “Post-Orientalism and the Exilic Individual: A Conference in Honor of Hamid Dabashi” Friday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, 501 Schermerhorn, various speakers
• “Lecture and Stargazing: Strange New Worlds” Friday 7:00 pm, Pupin, Ray Jayawardhana

Full List

Screen shot of the page, filled with attacks

Hundreds of posts appeared today on Columbia’s Facebook page an unofficial Facebook page for Columbia University unaffiliated with the university declaring support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the Washington Post reports. The furor is apparently a backlash against a Wall Street Journal story that ran this morning, quoting Columbia prof Hamid Dabashi: “This whole arrangement between Syria and Iran is in deep trouble because of the Arab Spring. The geopolitics and the Arab street are changing and it’s leaving them exposed.”

A few sample comments:

♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥ BASHAR AL ASSAD ♥

The Syrian people is the only one who has the right to grant legitimacy to the president, who leads his country and is not entitled to Mrs. Clinton to give legitimacy to one or the impartiality of it.

All syrian people love Bashar Al Assad

Apologies are beginning to appear on the page, such as:

On behalf of the Syrian people, please accept my most sincere apologies for the charade taking place on your page today. This is the doing of the farcical “Syrian Electronic Army”, a Facebook page that has made it its mission to mass-spam pages of various foreign newspapers, universities and international bodies with endless broken-English pro-Assad platitudes. It has been closed down by Facebook over and over but it keeps being resurrected by the same group of pro-Assad imbeciles. -cont’d

But by now the stream has slowed a little and exchanges such as this are adding a touch of humor:

Professor Hamid Dabashi is hosting a review session about Hegel for CC sophomores and anyone else interested in chatting with CC sophomores about Hegel today, from 2-3:30, in Hamilton (room unannounced, look for signs in the lobby).

The Facebook event’s wall doth runneth over with other semi-rhyming philosopher/food combinations. Bwog likes “Machiavelli and vermicelli”; “Oreos and Foucault” not so much.

Update, 1:20: And there’s more! Free spring rolls and Pellegrino in the Lerner Piano Lounge for SEADS in Cambodia’s Information Session.

If this new-fangled Twitter thing is to be believed, there’s some big things a-poppin’ in Iran, and the world media has been calling up Columbia professors for their reactions. The man with the most screen time this time around has probably been Professor Gary Sick (at right), which is not surprising given that he was the “the principal White House aide for Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis.” That’s the kind of bullet point that gets attention, and Sick has been quoted all over the media, including the BBC, The Daily Beast, the Washington Post, and Politico. Plus, somewhat fittingly, you can follow him on his Tumblr account.

Other professors are getting in on the act as well, including Hamid Dabashi, Phillip Bobbit, and Richard Bulliet. The most creative commentary, though, has come from Ph.D. candidates Alexandra Scacco and Bernd Beber, who argued in Saturday’s Post that the election results were likely rigged because the numbers did not look random enough. Trust us, it makes sense.

In non-Iran news, one group of Columbia professors have discovered two brain systems used to accurately predict others’ emotions, and another group has found that the subway is 15 decibels quieter than it was three years ago. Also, Meghan McCain appears to have dedicated her post-election career to one proposition only: embarassing herself as much as possible. 

An incoming 2013er whose father is incarcerated writes about her path to Columbia.

James Franco drops out of speaking at UCLA’s commencement.

Jeff Sachs wants the US to send water, not money.

Will cities of the future need “vertical farming?” Two Columbia professors say “yes.”

David Helfand has said that a meteor could bring down a plane. Did it bring down Air France 447?

Hamid Dabashi: “The first 100 days over, Obama is looking more and more like Bush”

Oriflammes are gleaming! The rabble is roused! T-shirts are free for the taking! Five Years of War, Five Days of Action has reached its apex out on Low Plaza. A devoted cadre of protesters walked out of class at noon. Though the crowd has dwindled, there’s no reason to think any of the 236 people who confirmed their attendance via Facebook flaked out. Since then, they’ve encircled the sundial, which has been recomissioned as a podium. The professors invited (Hamid Dabashi, Rashid Khalidi, Zainab Bahrani, and Bruce Robbins) wrapped up their speeches earlier. Three veterans (one a Columbia grad student) have told their war stories. But as the speeches end, hijinks await. The group has promised protestacular mischief at 2 o’clock. An anonymous tipster informs Bwog that Butler, Alma Mater, a banner, and some unfurling may be involved. Stay tuned for live(ish) updates.

Update, 1:52 pm: Much of the crowd is now sitting. One speaker, a postdoc student, asked the crowd whether it wanted to engage in any chants–response was unenthusiastic. Bwog is stroking sweat away from its brow, and regretting having bought a black, heat-absorbing laptop. Talk has turned to divesting Columbia from business with Iraq war contractors (some $5M invested!), and to demanding that Columbia introduce scholarships for Iraqi students. This has raised audience engagement to a low whooping level.

Update, 2:14 pm: The event reached a monumental finale when a banner was flung from Butler (Bwog was mighty impressed) and Alma Mater was veiled and surrounded by a militant bunch of arm-linkers. Bwog remains a bit confused about why the banner looks like a pink dress, and about why the veil looks like it was made of some sort of do-rag material. Sunbathers seemed befuddled but engaged. The clanging of the bell has recommenced.

Photos after the jump

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In case you were curious about what other things came up in the last 24 hours or so:

•   Robert Kraft, alumnus and New England Patriots owner extraordinaire, just donated a crapload of money to Columbia Athletics ($5 million, to be exact). Consequentially, Lawrence A. Wein Stadium has become the Stadium Formerly Known as Wein, AKA, Robert K. Kraft Field.

• Apparently another noose was found on a lamppost outside a ground zero post office yesterday afternoon. Indeed, no words can probably describe our reaction to this better than “WTF?”
• In case you were wondering on how much Professor Hamid Dabashi had to say on the Ahmadinejad/Bollinger face-off, he’s got a recent lengthy response to the incident in a Cairo publication. To cut it short: he’s not happy, and he mentions Rudyard Kipling.
• Former J-School visiting professor/VP Al Gore has been announced as co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (alongside the IPCC) for his fight with global warming. It’s kind of surreal, actually.

On a sidenote, the weather is suddenly much cooler, and there are many more people walking around campus with scarves than usual.