Kyl on Schwab ‘76 and International IP
Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is not happy with United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab ‘76 for bending to the House’s unexplained and quixotic desire to weaken IP protection in free-trade agreements with certain South American countries:
My opposition to the Peru FTA is rooted entirely in the agreement reached by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) with members of the other body in May of this year. That agreement forced the U.S. to renegotiate the Peru, Panama, and Colombia FTAs to add new requirements for labor and environmental protections and weakened traditional trade agreement protections for certain U.S. intellectual property (IP) related to pharmaceutical products.I am concerned about the labor and environment provisions, but I am simply puzzled by the intellectual property changes. I am not sure what my colleagues hoped to gain by weakening standard protections for U.S. intellectual property through this trade agreement. I see no reason why U.S. legislators would want to weaken the ordinary protections that are normally accorded to pharmaceutical intellectual property in our bilateral trade agreements. Peru did not, in the course of negotiations, ask us to weaken the IP requirements. Peru was perfectly willing to abide by the greater protections of the original FTA.
If the goal of these changes was to provide better access to life-saving medicines in Peru, I worry that their effect could have the exact opposite result. Countries with weaker IP protections will have a difficult time encouraging U.S. companies to do business there. Respect for private property-including intellectual property-is essential to encouraging innovation. Without assurances that new and creative products and services will not be stolen by unscrupulous competitors or forcibly devalued by governments, there is a reduced incentive to take the economic risks that are necessary to achieve groundbreaking inventions.
I continue to hope, albeit in vain to date, that Williams would be able to get some of its notable alumni involved in intellectual property (Schwab, Chief Judge Paul Redmond Michel ‘63, DHTK ‘58 come to mind) together for a panel discussion on some aspect of patent law from their different institutional perspectives.
Sivivon, sov sov sov
Today’s New York Times article on babka’s role in Chanukkah observance features the expert knowledge of Professor Darra Goldstein:
“Babka comes from baba, a very tall, delicate yet rich yeast-risen cake eaten in Western Russia and Eastern Poland,” said Darra Goldstein, a professor of Russian at Williams College. “A very elaborate babka was eaten at Easter.”“It can include rose oil, lemon zest, bitter almonds, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, lemon, bergamot or rose water,” she said, “but the most basic one has the finest flour, yeast, milk, with a little sugar and lots of egg yolks.”
The Italians call their version panettone, the French baba au rhum, and the Viennese and Alsatians kugelhopf.
Jews called it babka, the diminutive of baba, and gave it their own twist when they came to the United States. They filled it with chocolate and lots of cinnamon and sugar, making it more like a coffee cake with a streusel topping. Although not a Hanukkah dish per se, chocolate babka is served by many families at Hanukkah, like other iconic Jewish dishes.
In both Polish and Yiddish, babka is a diminutive of baba, meaning old woman or grandmother.
“Babka, in its original form, was stout and round, just like grandmothers used to be before they went to aerobics classes and practiced yoga,” writes Arthur Schwartz, whose book “Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking” is due to be published in April by Ten Speed Press. (Ms. Goldstein feels this explanation may be apocryphal, though.)
Happy Chanukkah (in that or any other transliteration deemed appropriate) to all those observing or celebrating this year.
Sieves
Bethany McLean ‘92 on SIVs.
Start with the headlines about off-balance-sheet entities known as structured investment vehicles, or SIVs (or sieves, as some wags are calling them). As Gertrude Stein never said, an off-balance-sheet vehicle is an off-balance-sheet vehicle is an off-balance-sheet vehicle.
Just as Enron’s off-balance-sheet vehicles were propping up its stock price by camouflaging the company’s real financial results, so SIVs were inflating the credit market by providing demand for the complex securities created out of mortgages and loans used to finance buyouts.
Like Enron’s off-balance-sheet vehicles, SIVs were invisible to those on the outside — and to many on the inside — until they weren’t. When times were good, these creations made money for their sponsors, but when times changed, they became a problem for the rest of us.
It’s a little bit like “heads I win, tails you lose,” which is pretty much how a former Enron executive described that company’s off-balance-sheet vehicles.
In both cases, part of the problem was that the rating agencies, which are supposed to serve as watchdogs, were blindly optimistic, either through sheer incompetence or because of conflicts of interest.
Indeed. And love the Gertrude Stein reference. Who says that a Williams English degree doesn’t prepare you for the world of finance?
But the problem with Bethany’s column is that she doesn’t mention the key factor, the people who bought SIV securities and other opaque paper. Who was “providing demand” for this stuff? And why is it your or my problem that they were doing so?
Answer is left as an exercise for the reader. (Some students from Purple Bull should give it a shot.)
How to Podcast, A Beginner’s Guide: Part 1, The Sound File
I’ve been asked to do a short series on the mechanics of podcasting. Part of me did not wish to take this writing assignment, since a professional podcaster should retain some slight air of mystery about the process, with the occasional comparison to medieval alchemy or tax accounting. In fact, the actual production of a podcast is fairly straightforward. All you need is a sound file, a server, some bandwidth and the ability to diligently copy some basic coding instructions into an XML file. I will be doing a series of short posts on each of these topics. I’ll begin with the sound file after the jump.
Shot in the Back
Liz Rumsey ‘96 was shot in Alaska.
A former Aspen resident is recovering from a bullet wound after a violent rampage in Anchorage, Alaska, left two dead and wounded three.
Liz Rumsey, 33, is in an intensive care unit at a Alaska Regional Hospital where she is no longer in critical condition after she was shot multiple times in the back. Friends and family have been keeping vigil at Rumsey’s hospital room since the shooting. There is currently no time frame for a full recovery.
According to a report by the Anchorage Daily News, Rumsey was a random victim in a spree that started when Christopher Rogers Jr., 28, allegedly hacked his father to death with a machete, stole his father’s truck, drove to Anchorage and began a violent, 26-hour rampage before being captured by police.
…
Rumsey was walking home on a bike path in Anchorage at 7:20 p.m. Sunday when Rogers allegedly shot her.
“Elizabeth Rumsey was shot multiple times, but was conscious and able to describe the lone assailant to police,” states a court affidavit. “She reported that she crossed paths with a tall, thin man who made her nervous. The man asked her for the time and after she responded, she quickened her pace to leave the area. She was shot in the back as she tried to leave the area.”
Scary stuff.
A National Outdoor Leadership School instructor for 10 years, Rumsey recently won the Wilderness Woman Contest in Talkeetna, Alaska. She was planning to be in Alaska for the year before taking a job at a San Francisco law firm.
“We expected something to happen on a mountain because that’s her lifestyle, but we never expected her to get shot walking down the street,” said Levey. “Because she’s so athletic, she will probably bounce back faster than other people, but we don’t have an idea of what that will look like. They are trying to sit her up now. They are trying to get her a little more mobile, but she’s not out of bed yet. She’ll be in the hospital for at least another week.”
Best wishes to Rumsey for a speedy recovery.
CGCL IV: Education’s End
This years Winter Study seminar (EphBlog’s annual experiment in the possibilities of creating, in Professor Robert Jackall’s phrase, a “cross-generational community of learning” (CGCL)) will cover Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life by Anthony Kronman ‘68.
Those new to CGCL can check out last year’s version here. Basic plan is the same as always. We will have a “discussant” who will post her thoughts in each day’s reading. The floor will then be open to comments from everyone. I will see what I can do about getting a version of the book posted on-line, at least during of the class. But, since that probably won’t happen, participants should order their books now.
Best part is that Professor Kronman has agreed to join us.
Woo-hoo! So, discussants can be sure that the author himself will be reading their posts. (Whether or not Professor Kronman chooses to reply will be based on the quality of the posts and his other time commitments.)
I have already signed up Professor Alan White (who taught me philosophy 20 years ago) as the discussant for the Introduction, Chris Gondek ‘90 for chapter 2 and Trustee Fred Lawrence ‘77 for chapter 5. Want to be a discussant? Let me know. EphBlog is open to all. If I could draft one discussant, it would be “&”, a recent and most excellent addition to our collection of regular commentators. (Anonymous discussants are welcome.) I am especially interested in recruiting some students.
Questbridge ‘12
Although early decision results are not due for another 10 days, applicants who applied through Questbridge apparently know whether or not they are the newest members of the Williams class of 2012. Previous Questbridge blogging here, here and here.
Welcome to our newest Ephs!
Holiday Cards
If you have an extra card or two left over, please consider sending a card to our only deployed Eph, who is serving in Iraq.
It only takes a regular 41 cent stamp!
Just put the undecipherable military address on the envelope and drop it in any mailbox.
SGT John L. Bozeman
MITT 0730
Unit 42719
FPO AP 96426-2719
Thank you.
Stewart Menking ‘79
for The Williams College Adopt an EPH Program
South Academic Building
What is going on in this picture, which I took several weeks ago? Why is there a tree on top of the building?
EphBlog 2.0
As EphBlog approaches its fifth year anniversary, it is time to take stock and plan for the future. To that end, we have incorporated EphBlog as a non-profit Massachusetts corporation with a board of directors.
Motto: All Things Eph.
Purpose: EphBlog encourages, organizes and supports the Williams Conversation.
Board:
Rory Kramer ‘03 — President
Professor Joe Cruz ‘91 — College Relations
Lowell Jacobson ‘03 — Secretary
Eric Smith ‘99 — Technology
David Kane ‘88 — Content
The longer version of what we hope to accomplish can be found here. Note in particular the ending paragraphs.
EphBlog is not simply a place for you to get your daily fix of Ephery. We’re that, of course, but we aspire to greater things. Many of us who live beyond the Purple Valley have discovered that life after Williams does not provide nearly as many opportunities for honest, informed and open-minded debate as we might have hoped. A wise Eph does not argue about foreign affairs with his boss. A sensitive Eph does not debate economic policy with her staff. A sensible Eph does not argue about controversial issues of the day with the other parents on the sideline of a childrens’ soccer game.
So, where should an Eph who misses the intellectual thrill of the back and forth discussions that make a Williams education so magical go? Where can he find smart people who completely disagree with him but are open-minded enough to listen to his arguments and patient enough to point out his errors. To be honest, we don’t know. But we hope that EphBlog might one day be the answer.
Comments are always appreciated and, if you want to join us in these efforts, we would welcome additional bloggers. Come join the party.
What will the future of EphBlog be? You tell us.
[Posted by David Kane '88 on behalf if the EphBlog Board of Directors.]
Five Best EphBlog Posts Ever?
Dan Drezner ‘90 reports on his five favorite blog posts and notes, quoting Matt Yglesias, that “there are so many newcomers to the blogosphere that, ‘the aggregate audience for blog commentary is enormously larger than it was a few years ago, so it’s quite possible that there are people reading this blog right now who have never heard of of the classic[s]…’.”
The obvious question: What are some of your favorite EphBlog posts? We have more than 4,400 entries over almost 5 years to choose from. I would nominate:
1) Random Musings on Tips from David Nickerson ‘97 was one of the best posts on the topic of admissions policy.
2) Another (Not a Better) College Ranking System by Derek Charles Catsam ‘93 generated more comments than any EphBlog post ever. Surely, that counts for something.
3) Diana Davis’s ‘07 post on the Report on Varsity Athletics was one the best that we have had in the 3 years of running CGCL, our Winter Study seminars.
4) Jonathan Landsman ‘05 is always a source of good sense and historical sensibility, no where more than with these thoughts on The Williams Deanship.
5) And, if forced to nominate one of my own posts, I might go with The Tablecloth Colors or Mrs. Shattuck #2 or, less controversially, one of my RIP posts.
More below.
Monkey in the Middle
Erin Burnett ‘98 mocks President Bush.
And then apologizes.
I actually thought that Burnett was referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel . . .
Hail to the Chief: Wynn ‘93
New (acting) Pittsfield Chief of Police is Mike Wynn ‘93.
Mayor James M. Ruberto yesterday appointed acting Capt. Michael J. Wynn to run the Pittsfield Police Department until a permanent replacement is found for the outgoing police chief.
Wynn, 37, a 12-year veteran of the department, will be known as the “captain in charge.” He will assume his duties Saturday, the day that Chief Anthony J. Riello officially becomes police chief in Falmouth.
“I’m excited about the opportunity,” Wynn said yesterday. “I’m looking forward to working with everybody at the department.”
He succeeded 40-year department veteran John T. O’Neil as the department’s administrative captain in July. He is considered an “acting” captain because O’Neil’s retirement is not official until next month. The City Council is expected to confirm Wynn’s appointment in January.
Wynn has less experience than the department’s two other captains: Patrick F. Barry, who heads the detective and narcotics units, and David Granger, who leads the patrol and traffic divisions. Barry served as captain in charge for several months in 2004 while Riello was recovering from neck surgery.
“I can’t get into the whole details of the selection process, but it wasn’t a complete surprise,” Wynn said. “It was more surprising to me to be considered.”
Ruberto said he was impressed with Wynn’s leadership abilities, professionalism and focus.
“I think he will best serve the Pittsfield Police Department in the coming months,” Ruberto said. “Mike Wynn is a captain’s captain.”
Wynn would make an interesting alumni speaker at next June’s reunions. He probably has some fun stories to tell. I also suspect that he is the only grandfather in the class of 1993.
