The Apprentice Battle, Summers out of Harvard and japes
Darn it, this entry was supposed to be up half a week ago, but a freaked out friend, bureaucracy, UCAS and work came between me and this entry. Yeesh.
Anyway, on to the ‘latest’ scoop. Anybody remember ‘The Apprentice’? That’s right, the one with the ‘humble’ real-estate mogul (with a bankrupt casino) seeking somebody to work for him (and then gets fired after the year end?). Well, Donald came to help his ‘good friend’ Martha in starting up her own Apprentice series about a year ago when she got out of jail. And guess what? A year later, they’re at each other’s throats! Such are the friendships of magnates? I have no idea. Of course, their not-so-trivial spat got some prime time on the media which both sides invariably used to their own advantage, which brings to mind one obvious question: "Is it a stunt?" I don’t really care what’s going on, but its kinda fun to see 2 public personas with big egos and fat purses sparring out for all to see. 
Now we move onward to a certain Harvard President. Which one, you wonder? Anybody knows who Lawrence Summers is? Feminists would. See, he’s the one who suggested that the gender disparity in sciences result from innate differences of the sexes, which provoked outrage from the female members of the scientific community (among them was Nancy Hopkins, who was featured in Campbell & Reece’s Biology 6th Ed?).
IMO he has a valid point.
No, I don’t mean that women are incapable in producing scientific works of value. In the past, their priority is usually family first, not career. Add that to gender discrimination and that’s a practically a dead end to a woman’s career advancement in science I guess. At least today the social barriers are coming down with equality between genders being promoted and technological advancements mean that mom can juggle both work and family. But if mom goes career mom and leave the kids at home, would the children get to have a holistic development as they grow up?
Although the issue was never settled for once and for all, I still think that if mom neglects to fulfill the family function as the anchor, the potential damage to society can be quite costly. After all, isn’t the family a basic functional unit of society? The ‘division of labor’ between the 2 family founders has generally evolved to the extent that the male becomes the breadwinner; the female keeps the family together. But today, the question actually boils down to this: Financial security or marital bliss? Tough choice.
All right, enough of that. We’ll have plenty of time to ponder that out. As for Mr. Summers, he’s probably looking for another job now, since he has resigned to avoid getting fired in another scandal. More on that here.
It’s still a looooong way from April 1, but The Economist decided to spread some Christmas joy by launching a competition to find the best pranks of all time, in this article on japes (I didn’t even know the word exists!). Oh, do check out the websites in the Related Items section on the top 100 April Fools pranks! Might as well start getting ready for the big day eh? hehehe. I love what the Yale students did, and for what those
Cambridge students did. What great fun and organisation! Well, there was an article in Discover back in 2005 that detailed the life in the MIT campus. The article was both funny and scary at the same time, and made me think twice about trying for someplace as outstanding as MIT (among them is that I’m not ’scheming’ enough). And they did a lot of things with the dome before, among them was turning it into the ‘One Ring’ complete with the Elvish inscription. But still, with the mantra ‘Friends, sleep and work, choose two’, it’s quite a demanding place to be (although I’d bet it’s also a fun place to be). Anyhow, have fun going through the articles!
