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Swarthmore in the NewsApril 15, 2011

The Delaware County Daily Times (PA)

Swarthmore mayor praises response to college assault

By Susan L. Serbin, Times Correspondent

April 13, 2011

SWARTHMORE - Mayor Rick Lowe addressed the recent assault on the Swarthmore College campus at council's legislative meeting.

Calling it unfortunate and disturbing, Lowe nevertheless had praise for the manner in which it was dealt with by both campus public safety and the Swarthmore Police Department.

Police continue to investigate the event overnight April 3 during which four individuals, thought to be high school-aged, allegedly assaulted a male Swarthmore College student and his friend visiting from the University of Pennsylvania.

After questioning, officials are now including the possibility of homophobic motives to the beatings. Both victims were treated at the college health care unit, as well as Springfield Hospital.

"Our police could not be taking it any more seriously," Lowe said. "While it was unfortunate, we have all the mechanisms in place to address it. (Chief Brian Craig) did a marvelous job, seeing that the facts came out in an appropriate manner."

Lowe and Craig regularly meet with college officials and, as Lowe stated, maintain good communications with the college.  ...


Business Wire

McCarter & English Continues to Expand Its Intellectual Property Practice in Boston with the Hiring of Dr. Steven G. Davis

April 13, 2011

McCarter & English announced today that patent attorney, Dr. Steven G. Davis , has joined the firm as a partner in the Intellectual Property/Information Technology Practice.

"We are extremely pleased to welcome someone with Steve's exceptional qualifications to the firm," said Elizabeth A. Hanley , chair of the Intellectual Property/Information Technology Practice at McCarter & English. "His experience on so many varied levels will be invaluable to our clients. Steve has not only practiced patent law for nearly 20 years both in-house and in private practice, but he was also a research scientist in the chemical industry. This combination of experience will enhance our premier intellectual property practice."

...Mr. Davis earned his Juris Doctorate, magna cum laude, from the Case Western University School of Law where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, his Ph.D. and M.S. in organic chemistry from the John Hopkins University and his B.A. in Chemistry from Swarthmore College. Dr. Davis is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He has been recognized in the Chambers 2011 "Leaders in Their Field."

 

My Republica (Nepal)

"I'm coming back," says Pukar

April 12, 2011

Kathmandu, April 12 -- Pukar Malla, 31, thought he would become a cardiologist as he grew up at Jhamsikhel and went to St Xavier's School. "I remember my mother was especially keen about me becoming a doctor," he says.

A student of Public Administration at John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a consultant at the World Bank in their Science, Technology and Innovation Team, Pukar, as he moves ahead with his life, has left behind his childhood dream. "Later, I decided to change careers to explore the diversity in the United States," he says.

With a Major degree in Engineering and a Minor in Economics, he graduated from Swarthmore College in 2002. Pukar received the Dean's Award at Swarthmore where he played Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet." He attained MS/PhD in Electrical Engineering with a Minor in Business Management in 2007 from Cornell University.

He is among those Nepali students in the US who are quietly making an impact back home. He is the co-founder and secretary general of the global Nepali youth movement, Nepalko Yuwa.

He is also an international coordination council member of Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRN) and a co-founder of Computer-Association of Nepal - USA, a non-profit organization working for technological progress of Nepal.

Apart from that, Pukar has been elected president of the Harvard Graduate Council for the academic year 2010/11. He is the first Nepali student to be elected to such a prestigious position at Harvard.

...He says, "I plan to return home. There are just so many things to work on. I would begin by working on youth development.

"I see a promising future ahead if we steadily collaborate to create a culture of innovation," he adds.

...What would be your suggestion to students in Nepal? As a Nepali living in US, what do you want to say to the youth here in Nepal and around the world?

"The sooner one discovers their real identity and true passion, the better one can take real action. Whether in Nepal or in the US, it may not be easy to discover the real 'you' given the various pressures. By pursuing a path that nurtures your identity and your passion, you'll lead a happier and a more meaningful life. And this can be art, engineering, theatre, medicine, or anything where your passion lies."  ...

 

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Our cousins the chimps;
A new weekly feature will look into evolution, a topic that intrigues scientists - and readers, too.

By Faye Flam; Inquirer Staff Writer

April 11, 2011

Ted Siek from Southampton, Bucks County recently wrote me with an extensive list of questions about evolution. Some expressed a skeptical tone about science. I liked them because they challenge scientists to explain how evolution works.

For example: "If our DNA is 80 to 96 percent similar to apes and monkeys," Siek wrote, "why are humans so vastly different with respect to 1) life span, 2) morphology [form], 3) age to maturity, 4) intrinsic beauty, 5) walking, 6) strength, 7) speech, 8) healing rates, 9) mental capacity, 10) cognitive capacity?"

...Our genetic similarity to apes that Siek mentions turns out to highlight one of the most powerful pieces of supporting evidence for evolution.

Darwin postulated that all living things are blood relatives, linked in one big family tree. We humans share a branch with other apes; that branch is attached to a bigger limb with other primates, and a still bigger limb with other mammals.

That's exactly what DNA comparisons have shown. We have many genes in common with all other living things..

...King and Wilson speculated at the time that the reason we walk upright and talk has to do with the way our genes turn on and off.

That turned out to be prescient, said Scott Gilbert, a developmental biologist at Swarthmore College. Different-looking animals can carry very similar genes, he says, if there are big differences in the way these genes are switched on and off in utero and in infancy.

When chimps are born, their brains are pretty much done developing, he said, while human infants are helpless and have brains that continue to develop rapidly for several years and then more gradually into the teens.  ...

It took several decades for scientists to start isolating the specific genes where our codes differ from those of chimps. ...

 

The Los Angeles Times

Crowe's Nest;
Daland, about to turn 90, is still an asset at any pool;
Legendary USC and Olympic coach is writing a history of Olympic swimming

By Jerry Crowe

April 11, 2011

It started with a stopwatch.

Peter Daland, USC's championship-winning former swim coach, was only 8 years old when his parents gave him the timepiece as a gift, but immediately he grasped the possibilities.

"I went up to the pool," he says, "and I told the other kids, 'Let's have a workout.' I didn't even know what a workout was."

That day, Daland later realized, a coach was born.

In time, Daland would make his mark not at that tiny community pool in Philadelphia but at USC, where from 1958 to 1992 his star-studded teams won nine NCAA championships and produced scores of All-Americans and Olympic medalists.

This weekend, in conjunction with USC's annual "Swim With Mike" fundraising event, he'll be joined by more than 300 invited guests as he returns to campus to celebrate his 90th birthday.

They'll discover that, as a nonagenarian, he's no less passionate about swimming than he was as a grade-schooler.

During an interview at his Moorpark home, Daland is still buzzing from a recent trip to Minneapolis, where he attended the NCAA swimming championships as USC's guest.

A father of five and grandfather of eight, he still travels to Europe annually to scout the opposition for USA Swimming.

He is excited about his most pressing project -- writing a six-volume history of Olympic swimming -- but laments that he has fallen behind. He's only midway through the second volume.

...Daland, like his father and two generations of Daland men before him, studied at Harvard before joining the Army. After World War II, he enrolled at Swarthmore College, where he captained the swim team and coached it two days a week while the regular paid coach was earning the rest of his living as a bartender.

...In the early 1950s, he served four years as an apprentice under Bob Kiphuth at Yale, where he founded Swimming World magazine and realized he was hooked on coaching.

..."From the information people sent us," he says, "I quickly found out that California was developing as the great future of world swimming."

USC offered $600 a year and a pool so archaic it was known as "The Dungeon," but Daland jumped at the opportunity after repeated rejections elsewhere, hatching a dynasty.

Twenty-one times in 35 seasons under Daland the Trojans finished first or second at the NCAA championships. Seventeen times they won Pacific 10 Conference titles. They won more than 90% of their dual meets, producing standouts such as John Naber, Dave Wharton, Bruce Furniss, Roy Saari and Mike O'Brien.

Daland, who coached the U.S. women's team at the 1964 Olympics and the Mark Spitz-led U.S. men's team at the 1972 Games, didn't keep all his proteges at arm's length.

His favorite moment in swimming, he says, was draping a gold medal around the neck of his daughter Leslie after she won the 800 freestyle at the Goodwill Games in Moscow in 1986.

"That was probably the high point of my career," he says.

...Even if his father never realized it, Daland says, "The best people in the world are in swimming."

 

The State (Columbia, SC)

'Niche for the Nick'

By Otis R. Taylor Jr.

April 10, 2011

It was Andy Smith's idea. Hatched on Valentine's Day at "What's Love: Behind Closed Doors," the erotic art show at 701 Whaley St., Smith came up with this:

...So Smith, the director of The Indie Grits Film Festival, which has become a destination for independent Southern film - and a signature event for Columbia - wanted to see Bieber, a cute pop star with a rabid following, dance and sing on the big screen? Curious, I decided to go along.

...Smith, 32, was hired at the Nickelodeon Theatre in January 2007, and one of his first days at the Main Street theater was when Helen Hill's short, mostly animated films were screened for packed houses. Hill, a Columbia native, was shot and killed in her New Orleans home earlier that month and much of Columbia's creative set gathered at the theater to remember her.

Indie Grits, which opens its fifth year Wednesday, gives the Helen Hill Award to the top film by a female filmmaker at each festival. "The Florestine Collection," the film Hill was working on when she died, will be screened Saturday night. It was completed by her husband, Paul Gailunas, who was assisted by their family and friends.

...Smith was born in Columbia and lived here until he was 10. He spent his teenage years in Mobile, Ala., before graduating from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Before enrolling in UCLA's film, TV and digital media masters program, Smith lived in Germany for six months and then San Francisco, where he worked in a wax museum and on a WWII submarine.

..."I like what we show at Indie Grits. If I had to say truly what my favorite films are, it's what I get to program which is films that don't have to play by Hollywood rules."

...Smith said Indie Grits will continue to grow, but don't expect more films to be added. He wants to partner with more in-festival events like Slow Food and Crafty Feast, and Smith wants to increase the music offerings.

"On a selfish level, my main goal is to make Columbia a cooler place to live so that more people will stay here and not move away," Smith said. "Or, ideally, people will move here and help grow our city in a positive direction.

"We like to think that Indie Grits helps do that."

 

The Times Union (Albany, NY)

'It's Called Living the Dream, Man'

By Paul Grondahl Staff Writer

April 9. 2011

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Tech investment guru Roger McNamee, who grew up in Loudonville and manages nearly $2 billion in a Silicon Valley private equity firm, spent Friday night doing what feeds his soul more than making deals.

He jammed with his tie-dyed Baby Boomer hippie band, Moonalice, at Putnam Den in the Spa City. Their musical influences include the Band, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead, with whom a few members of Moonalice previously worked.

"It's called living the dream, man," said McNamee, 54, a managing partner and co-founder of Elevation Partners with U2's Bono, who spoke from a tour bus plowing north Friday afternoon. They had played a gig in front of 900 mostly gray-haired fans at Brooklyn Bowl, a concert venue and bowling alley.

The band is on the road at least 100 days a year and they live by a philosophy McNamee's doctor offered in a recent checkup: "Dude, your body is a little rusted, but your engine is still good."

McNamee writes songs and sings and plays guitar and bass. His wife, Ann McNamee, whom he met while both were students at Yale University, is a former music department chair at Swarthmore College. She plays bass, keyboards and percussion and contributes vocals to Moonalice. When they're not on the tour bus, they live in Palo Alto, Calif. ...

 

The Delaware County Daily Times (PA)

Investigation continues into Swarthmore campus attack

By Rose Quinn

April 8, 2011

SWARTHMORE - Gay-bashing or not, the investigation into the attack of two gay students on Swarthmore College's campus last weekend remains a priority for borough police, Chief Brian Craig said Friday.

Craig said the FBI is also reviewing information to determine if the attack could be categorized as a hate crime. Craig said the U.S. Justice Department regularly monitors press coverage, and the early Sunday incident was widely reported.


"I am not ready to classify this as a hate crime. Neither one of us is," Craig said, referring to the federal agent he met with at police headquarters about mid-week.

Liz Braun, dean of students at the college, echoed Craig's sentiments.

"It is still a very much open investigation," she said. "I think from our perspective, regardless of what motivated the attack, it was a terrible act of violence.

"The reality is we may not ever be able to know what the motives were," Braun said.

Braun has not been contacted by the FBI, she said.

...Friday night, about 50 people walked the about half-mile between the college's Parrish Hall and the borough train station, singing and laughing in the rain.

The "Walk for Love" was coordinated by a coalition of college organizations, including COLORS (Queer Students of Color,) QSA (Queer Straight Alliance) and SQU (Swarthmore Queer Union.)

Braun, who brought her walking shoes and umbrella to work in anticipation of participating, called it "a great opportunity to come together and support each other as a community."

She hoped the event would help to build on an already excellent relationship between the college community and the borough.(more)


SPORTS

 

The Delaware County Daily Times (PA)

Colleges: Garnet sweep Johns Hopkins

April 11, 2011

The Swarthmore College baseball team made quite a statement Sunday afternoon.

The Garnet defeated No. 24 Johns Hopkins in a doubleheader, 2-0 and 9-4. It was the first time the Blue Jays were swept in a Centennial Conference twin-bill since losing a pair to Franklin & Marshall in April 2007.

The last time Johns Hopkins was blanked by a conference foe was April 2006.

Ignacio Rodriguez gave a stellar performance on the mound in Game 1, going 61/3 innings with eight strikeouts. Michael Cameron and Anthony Montalbano accounted for the RBIs.

In the Game 2, the Garnet jumped to a 7-0 lead through three innings. Tom Nakamura was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Nicko Burnett had three hits in as many at bats. Kyle Crawford pitched seven strong innings for the win.

 

Washington College Sports

Garnet Top Shoremen, 13-4

April 11, 2011

Chestertown, MD - Visiting Swarthmore scored five runs in the top of third inning to turn a 4-1 deficit into a 6-4 lead en route to a 13-4 win against host Washington College on Monday afternoon at Athey Baseball Park in Centennial Conference baseball action.  The Garnet improve to 16-8 overall and 7-3 in Centennial play, while the Shoremen drop to 15-11 and 6-4 respectively. ...

 

The Delaware Count Daily Times (PA)

Local Colleges: Swarthmore's Langley signed to pro contract

April 8, 2011

Swarthmore's Morgan Langley turned one of the best offensive seasons in program history into a pro soccer contract.

The senior forward signed a contract with the Harrisburg City Islanders of the USL Pro League. The City Islanders are the USL affiliate of the Philadelphia Union.

Langley scored 14 goals and had 14 assists last fall to set the program record for points in a season (42). He led the Garnet to the Centennial Conference championship and finished as the program leader in career points (95) and assists (27).

"When I found out that I made the team I was very relieved because I had been out there on trial for about 21/2 months," Langley said. "But once it sank in that I made the team, that's when I realized that my dream had come true. I was a professional athlete."

 

The Delaware County Daily Times (PA)

Penikis leads the way for Swarthmore

April 5, 2011

Annalise Penikis (Strath Haven, All-Delco) scored five times and handed out four assists to lead Swarthmore College to a 20-5 victory over Neumann in women's lacrosse action Tuesday afternoon.

Nicole Vanchieri added four goals to help the Garnet attain a season high in goals. Emily Evans, Marie Mutryn and Beth Martin all tallied twice for Swarthmore, which led at halftime, 15-1.