Just what we needed two weeks before graduation: another existential column about the declining value of a college education! Thanks, Frank Bruni.(NY Times) You think that time you had to lug your MacBook to the Apple Store was bad? Look at what happened to the Iranians. (BBC) This is what avant garde art has become: […]

A University of Pennsylvania Dean has resigned after a local newspaper pointed out that his Columbia degrees were actually just a little résumé padding . (ABC News) Obama’s new ad implies that, if Romney had the top job, he wouldn’t have been decisive enough to take out Bin Laden. (Slate) Wikipedia is redefining our notion […]

Bloomberg Businessweek profiles PrezBo in a new light. (Bloomberg) A blind Chinese blind rights activist escapes “extralegal” house arrest in his rural village; American embassy may or may not be harboring him. (NYT) Ronald Breslow, author of space dinosaurs, is  being accused of self-plagiarism; he denies everything. (Nature) Some rich alumnus who credits Columbia with […]

Andrew Delbanco’s new book about college shows certain fields to be under pressure of becoming obsolete. (WBUR) President Obama spoke at the University of Colorado about the rising pressures of student debt.  And got pizza at a local bar.  Here’s to hoping he stops by 1020 after Barnard commencement. (Denver Post, 9News) Trey Ellis proves […]

Alcohol-crazed teens are coming clean. (LA Times) A British girl kidnapped five years ago in Portugal might still be alive. (Time) Columbia researchers have found that text messages motivate parents to get their kids flu shots. (Reuters) Even World Peace is causing injuries. (Associated Press) Minnesota debt collectors have taken to kicking their targets when they’re down. […]

Politics very close to home: in Harlem, new demographics are shifting racial tides. (New York Times) A city PSA commercial is looking for “ethnically ambiguous, real-type” actors to play homeless people—rather than, y’know, looking for actual homeless people to play homeless people. (NY Mag) Just because you’re a hipster, doesn’t mean you get to shoot […]

Dr. Dre lets Coachella fans know that Tupac is not rising from the dead again. It was just that one time, got it? (WSJ) Chris Christie may have ruined his political career irrevocably by attempting to get some shut-eye during a Boss concert. (Mediaite) The press discovers some of the skeletons in Columbia’s Manhattanville contracting […]

The bizarre story of a Times reporter who tracked down another man with the same name comes to an end. (NY Times) Is Sarkozy on his way out? We report, the French decide. (Associated Press) A roundup of yesterday’s Coachella action. Yeah, that’s still going on. And yes, this blatantly has nothing to do with […]

A bizarre question on a standardized test inspires students to rebel against this most central of US education practices. (NYT) The government giveth and it taketh away, and Americans are really kind of over it. (The Atlantic) Coca Cola abroad may have killed a woman who consumed it by the gallon. (Gawker) In light of […]

“Am I celebrating 4/20? I’m not sure what you mean, officer.” “Fishermen? What fishermen? I didn’t see no fishermen…” (NPR) “Heroin? No, that’s not my heroin. Those kilos spontaneously appeared out of my 13th story window.” (NY Post) “Atlas Shrugged? Nope, never heard of it; I’m just going to nationalize this multinational oil conglomerate over here.” (NYT) “Corruption? We’re just […]

Three US Secret Service men involved in a prostitution scandal are being forced out, while the service tries to regain secrecy.  (NYTimes, CNN) Sudan has attacked recently-independent South Sudan in an attempt to “liberate” them and teach a “final lesson by force.” (Bangladesh News) Dick Clark, American icon, passed away yesterday, prompting many to wonder […]

Rejected by Gmail yesterday? It wasn’t just you. (Gawker) Nelson the parrot has a face that not even his mama could love. (Daily Mail) Reports have surfaced that Zuckerberg did not include any of the Facebook board in the Instagram deal, Social Network style. (NYT, Wall Street Journal) Following the laughable North Korean missile launch, the […]

There’s now a name for the behavior of awkward, anti-social New Yorkers—or at least for one facet of behavior. Have you played sidewalk chicken today? (Gothamist) There are now delightfully invasive photos and a livecam of the baby hawks of Washington Square Park. Now it’s just time to name them! Perhaps not as majestic as […]

You might have enjoyed some nip-slips at Baccha90s this weekend, but watch out when you move off Columbia’s campus. In Utah, you get taxed for showing some skin. (Time) However hard you’ve been trying to do so in your Global Core lecture, you should consider getting bored more often. (The Dish) The cop who pepper-sprayed […]

Will making the pre-meds of tomorrow take more humanities classes save them from soulless despair? Worth a try… (NY Times) A mobile medical facility in Las Vegas is devoted to instantly curing your hangover. Can we lure it to College Walk? (Las Vegas Review-Journal) Secret Service agents have a wild night in Colombia before a […]