Columbia computer science professor Julia Hirschberg has created a computer program that analyzes human speech and detects lies with a 70% success rate. (NYTimes)

An off-duty cop shot and arrested a mysterious man at the 125 St. subway stop who was groping girls waiting at the station. (Gothamist)

A U.S. spy drone crashed in Iran on Friday, unveiling American surveillance efforts in a country where we have no official presence. (HuffPo/Reuters)

In Fox Business Network’s Follow the Money segment, host Eric Bolling and guest Dan Gainor accused the Muppets of being Communists. (Slate)

The Dutch architectural firm MVRDV has released their plans for the a pair of towers in Seoul buildings, which will be connected by a pixelated cloud structure, uncomfortably evocative of 9/11. (Gawker)

Things That Are No Fun Unless You Tell Everyone via Wikimedia Commons

The B-School admissions office answers U.S. News’s questions, unintentionally letting the entire world know how to get in. (U.S. News)

University researchers find a link between a healthy diet and a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. (CBS News)

More research finds a gene that causes the growth of “peach fuzz hair”. (Business Week)

Local New York State Assemblyman says he won’t support the Manhattanville expansion if Columbia demolishes a pair of 115th st. brownstones. (Spec)

Unscrupulous patrons have been escorted out of a MoMA performance-art exhibit for groping the models. (NY Post)

photo via flickr/seeminglee

So you caught a break when Housing decided to give you until 11 this morning to get your group’s proverbial shit together. But you didn’t, and now that convoluted-as-hell deadline for putting together your ideal Room Selection group has officially passed. 

That means you are now procrastinating a trip to 125 Hartley 125 Wallach to sweet-talk the housing people into adding your group. And you know they WILL laugh at your idiocy.

If you’re not involved with messy group housing shenanigans, you have until 5 p.m. to submit your application for housing. Groups also have a little under 6 hours left to submit their final application, provided everyone’s been added.

Tomorrow, US News & World Report will release the most important list of our time or any other: its annual ranking of the best colleges and universities.

Bwog received an exciting advance press release, the only information on which was that this year Columbia, Duke, and the University of Chicago share the 8th place spot for top universities. (UChicago and Columbia were tied for the #9 spot last year, while Duke ranked 8th.)

We look forward to seeing the rest of the list in all its schadenfreude-y glory tomorrow, and will update with the rest of the rankings as soon as we receive them.

UPDATE 11:51 AM: Full list — well, full list of the portion you’re interested in — after the jump. (Or check comment #1, because this comment foretold the future quite accurately.)

Read more…

It’s that time of year again when many of ’09′s student leaders, activist types, overachievers, and masthead ascenders will be tapped and asked to join a senior society. A tipster sends evidence in the form of a photo of the sidewalk in back of Earl Hall: Three S’s, the (dark?) mark of one of Columbia’s two (secret?) senior societies, the Sachems. 

Columbia College Dean Austin Quigley is hosting a senior class reception tonight at 5:30 in Lerner’s Satw Room. The event announcement mentions a “SUPER SECRET-HUGE-AMAZING announcement at 6:00pm sharp,” which, Bwog hears, is the identity of the 2007 Class Day speaker. We’re hoping for a speaker who’s a bit more Tony Kushner than John McCain – perhaps that gent to the right?

Guesses as to the secret identity welcome, though we feel safe in saying that it won’t be Barack “Alma Mater Who?” Obama.