This thing! Go back to it.

You can go back to sleep! The end of Daylight Savings has delivered another sweet sixty minutes to your day, so it’s now an hour earlier than you thought it was. Though it happens every year, one national news outlet or another perennially feels the need to narrate the history of this curious organizational phenomenon. The fundamental story is the same: the spread of long-distance rail travel meant that cities and states across America had to be integrated into one schedule to accomodate locomotive operations. In March the New York Times focused on the spread of time-keeping in early America, while today, the Chicago Tribune offers a fascinating sketch of a growing rift between urban and rural populations at the dawn of the 20th century.

Anyway here are some things for you to ponder, for whenever you decide to wake up:

Why do science and engineering majors have such a high rate of attrition? (NYT)

What should Occupy Wall Street do now? (Slate)

How can so many people run so many miles? (Gothamist)

Justin Bieber’s paternity suit?! (Guardian)

Should Columbia be more diverse? (Spec)

Swedish road sign via Wikimedia

Today’s Bwoglines challenge the things you love most:

Cartoons: Pinocchio should be punished, Spongebob will destroy our children (Slate, Atlantic)

Cigarettes: The future of smoking is e-cigarettes. (NYMag)

Sex: Has been displaced by Facebook. (Gizmodo)

World History: It’s whatever. (New Yorker)

Take-Out: It’s evil! (Gothamist)

Emoticons: Sometimes they look like vaginas. (NYT)

Google: Is actually taking over the world. (WSJ)

There’s one exception! Beavis and Butthead are not only recognized for their honesty, compassion, and humility, but are also back for a new season, starting Wednesday. (NYT)

He’s an important guy. Here are some things you should know about him: he founded the New York Post; he went to college here, but did not graduate; he is Michael Cera. If you want to learn even more, a biopic on Alexander Hamilton airs tonight at 10 pm on Channel 13. According to the blurb, the documentary is about “money, rights, news, battle, sex and honor,” so basically all the things Bwog stands for. Therefore, if you’re reading this post, you should watch this program:

Watch the full episode. See more Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton.

Lincoln, contemplating history

History Professor Eric Foner strikes gold—for the second time! Yesterday, Columbia University awarded the Bancroft Prize to Foner for his book “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.” Thanks to CU, Foner will also receive $10,000 (!) in prize money. Damn, it must feel good to be a Tweedster. (ABC News)

There’s good food in Morningside Heights—who would’ve guessed? Apparently, certain foodies find Veggie Sandwich at Amir’s particularly scrumptious. (Serious Eats)

Columbia University Press, along with its peers at Harvard and Cornell, plans to make its scholarly books available on JSTOR through its Books at JSTOR initiative. Writing research papers just got 34508 times easier. Win! (INFOdocket)

FYI, the Oxford English Dictionary plans to add certain internet initialisms to its lexicon. LOL! (engadget)

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, a disaster in Lower Manhattan that took the lives of 146 mostly female garment workers. Though tragic, this fire is a landmark in the history of the city of New York, for it led to important reform in the realms of workers’ rights and factory safety. (City Room, NYT)

Inspired by the memory of the Triangle Fire, the Sweatshop Free Upper West Side Campaign has planned a news conference and rally to protest Saigon Grill Restaurant’s labor law violations. Protesters will meet outside Saigon Grill on 90th Street and Amsterdam Avenue at 1 pm to call attention to the restaurant’s continued unethical policies.

Thinkin’ Lincoln via Wikimedia Commons

An event being held to mark the recent release of “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery” by history professor and avid collector of newspaper clippings Eric Foner is happening right now. Attendees are packed into Davis Auditorium to hear some of America’s most prominent historians (Ira Berlin, David Brion Davis, and Robin Blackburn, along with Foner) and many have had to resort to sitting on the floor. In exciting A/V equipment news, the speaker pictured below swayed slightly before careening down between the two individuals seated in front of it. Bwog spotted the impending disaster and shouted, “OMG!” Luckily, nobody is injured, and a relieved crowd continues to bask in the glow of history.

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The Irrepressible Speaker

The Crowd Listens with Rapt Attention

Eric Foner, Most Famous Professor of All Time and CC ’63, stopped by the Colbert Report last night to talk textbooks and Texas. Mr. Colbert was discussing a recent Texas Schoolboard vote approving a “conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks.”

Who better to comment than the author of your AP US History textbook: Sir Foner himself! Foner sat for a brief interview with Colbert and spoke about what it means to alter history. He wore a blue tie, and Bwog wants just go to his office hours and talk about everything. Watch the clip! Foner comes in at about three minutes in.

The Department of Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC) is now the only-slightly-less pronounceable Department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies (MESAAS). The name changes comes with the addition of African Studies to the larger, interdisciplinary department.

The Earth Institute announced a new undergraduate major in Sustainable Development. Previously students studying Sustainable Development were limited to a “special concentration.” The major is very similar to the concentration, which will still be an option for students, only it has more classes.

Finally, the History department has also made several slight changes to their undergraduate major, most significantly the removal of the four categories in the breadth requirement. The full set of new requirement can be seen in all their esoteric glory after the jump. Read more…

History Professor David Eisenbach, who served as communications director for Mike “I’m bat-shit insane and running for President” Gravel, is about to make it big. He announced via an email to, as far as we can tell, his entire address book that he will finally fulfill his life’s dream this Sunday. What do history professors dream about? Election reform? World peace? A hoard of ravenous groupies? Nothing, it turns out, but their own show on The History Channel. 

We’re not talking reenacted battle-scenes or animated archaeological models here. Eisenbach’s show, The Beltway Unbuckled: How History Got Made in the Bedroom, could get pretty raunchy. After watching you’ll “never look at Abe the same way again!”

The pilot–created, written and hosted by Eisenbach–will air this Sunday at 8pm. It’s just a pilot, so tune in to support Eisenbach/sex! Maybe if the show continues they’ll do a segment on fantasy pairings like Barack and Hillary. I mean, um, ew.

It was three years ago today (and a short time after Bwog’s birth) that an intrepid photographer captured the mythical Snow Baby Starfish on film for the first (and, tragically, only) time while the creature posed on College Walk in the newly fallen snow.  We’d like to take this opportunity to share the pink-cheeked love with a whole new crop of readers.  Enjoy!

Just a quick note that Michael Mallick and the good people at the English Department have begun posting admit lists for Spring 2009 seminars. Complete list should be up by Tuesday.

The deadline to apply to most history seminars was about an hour ago, but expect announcements about admit lists anytime up until next semester.

If you know any important dates regarding other departments’ seminars and their corresponding waiting game, email us (bwog@columbia.edu) or just use the comment thread.

Good luck!

Bwog has noticed that over the next week or so there will be a smorgasbord of learning opportunities for those who are not going home to spend their magnificent four days of fall break.  Whether you are interested in theater, bioethics or academic freedom, there’s something going on that’s right up your alley.

Human Genetic Complexity: What We Know–Legal, Historical, and Evolutionary Perspectives

October 29th at 8 pm

417 IAB

This talk features philosophy professor Phillip Kitcher, biology professor Robert Pollack and NYU law professor and Nation columnist Patricia Williams (who is no stranger to this campus).  While the discussion  supposedly will center around themes from the Core, expect philosophy more contemporary than CC and science more general than Frontiers.

Read more…

Here are some more activities to keep Mom and Dad busy because Bwog loves you and your parents and because Bwog has secret tour guide aspirations….

Wallach Art Gallery

Columbia has its own mini-museum in Schermerhorn! Who knew? The Wallach Gallery’s classy digs will undoubtedly impress your parents. Maybe you’ll even impress them with your Art Hum skills. Except the gallery is currently exhibiting Delight in Design: Indian Silver for the Raj, which doesn’t fall into the masterpieces of Western Art category. But it’s free and that’s always a crowd pleaser.

 

Inwood Park 

If you’re going to the Baker Field for the football game, be sure to pass through Inwood Park on your way back.  Located just beyond the stadium, Inwood Park is a lovely copse-filled plot of land on the very tip of Manhattan island.  The northern edge of the park offers views of both the Hudson and Harlem Rivers and makes a great place for a picnic.  For additional fun, try to spot the Columbia boathouse and the big ‘C’ rock.

Read more…

For many of us, it’s difficult to even imagine a Morningside Heights without Pinkberry and West Side Market—not that we would ever want to. What would such a haunting reality even look like? Bwog Webmaster Zach van Schouwen stumbled upon a collection of historical photographs of the neighborhood that will give you a good idea. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge.

Enjoy!  

(Above photo is of the 110th St. El train.)

As Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, we bring you a brief retrospective of the past three sun-drenched months.

August

New faces arrived on campus, in addition to a couple of changes in the neighborhood…and grounds…and ID cards. Study abroad took a Charlowian turn, while a “pretty little head”-ed singer had some harsh words for our honored leader.  

July

Our colleagues embarked on numerous trips: to DC, to Bangalore, to Hogwarts. Con Edison was blamed for yet another urban nightmare. We summarized Manhattanville, CU nixed eminent domain (kind of). We ventured into the dark realm of canvassing and Good Charlotte. We mustered up some patriotism.

June

Barnard dissed USN&WR.  Matt Sanchez actually contributed a dispatch. We learned we may have botulism. PrezBo boycotted a boycott. Vampire Weekend began their meteoric ascent. Nacho’s bit the dust; Westside came in its wake. We began our weekly to-do list. And Charlow caused more scandal.

In which Bwog Staffer Brendan Ballou tries desperately to find something to talk about with Kira Kalina von Ostenfeld — a German countess who graduated from Georgetown at age 19 to work for the FBI, grew up in Peru, learned six languages, and started her own art company. She’s also a fifth-year grad student in the history department focusing on middle-ages Spain.

Why are grad students sad?

It’s part of the culture of graduate school. And this is something that’s happened for a very, very long time – it’s nothing new. It’s part of the intensity of the intellectual process we go through – it’s suffering. We’re supposed to be doing this for some higher call and we will enlighten the world. I mean we have a pretty sweet deal – the lucky ones of us get paid to be here. I think you’re being unrealistic if you come to graduate school and think it’s going to be cushy. It’s difficult, so the lucky few of us who are allowed to be part of this should appreciate it for what it’s for.

So you went to college at 16

Yeah.

So how did that happen?

Well, my parents are a little bit older, so when I came along my mother had already had kids, and so she considered me a little adult. I don’t think it was a negative thing at all – I very much appreciated it actually. I was never treated as a child – I was always treated as an adult and pushed accordingly when it came to academics. And so my parents were very lenient in terms of everything else that they did, so their one requirement was that, ‘if get A’s and keep A’s in everything you do you have free rein – you can go out with your friends, you can party, you can go to concerts, whatever, you can have a boyfriend.’

And so you had a social life in high school?

Read more…