Results tagged “stanford”

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice faced a difficult audience of students at a dorm reception yesterday at Stanford, where she's lately gone back to teaching. A few awkward exchanges were caught on video by student Reyna Garcia (watch after the jump).

Light the candles, get the ice out, roll the rug up, Condi's back! America's favorite high boot-wearing, Brahms-playing, weapons of mass destruction-hunting Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, is returning to the Bay Area. According to an interview in campus newsletter Stanford Report, Rice will teach political science at Stanford University. "I've always assumed I would come back to Stanford,'' said Rice. "It really seemed like the logical choice for me.'' Condi served as provost before signing a deal with the Devil to serve with the Bush administration in exchange for an eternally youthful glow. Rice goes on to say she loves "going over to the houses or the dorms and having dinner and having a question-and-answer session [with students] afterward." Rice, we should point out, is still single.

Stanford University, that higher-learning institute that most of us did not get into, is feeling the economic pinch just like their public school plebeian counterparts. Senior administrators at Stanford plan on taking a salary cut this year, including the school president and provost. The cuts will affect 15 to 20 positions with salaries that begin in $250,000 range, so, you know, no worries. President John Hennessy, who takes in $700,000 annually, has volunteered to take a 10% reduction. In other Stanford news, someone (allegedly) climbed down Hoover Tower late last night, taping huge footprints to the side of the building. Anybody have pics of this youthful frivolity? If so, do send them our way.

(By Joe Kukura)

Old hippy dude throwing down with a yuppy at a Michael Pollan talk. In Palo Alto! A small skirmish errupted when the bolo tie wearing hippy was upset by the yuppy not volunteering a saved seat (turns out was saving it for his mom) for an elderly gentleman. Things got good when sunglasses were grabbed, and Stanford students intervened. Isn’t eating well supposed to make you less angry? Oh, and the talk was really good—see him speak at Cal tomorrow, or read his books.

Forget starlets canoodling in the Marina. Ron Howard appeared at Stanford this week to screen Frost/Nixon. Coincidentally on the same day another famous redhead spoke there as well. Students had a chance to weigh in on the ending a bit, so if you hate the results, blame them.

If you recall, last Thursday a mother, while loading groceries into her car at a local Safeway, was approached by a man, carjacked, taken to a secluded area, and then sexually assaulted as her daughter was in the car.

San Francisco's musical offerings were bountiful Wednesday night ranging from Film School to Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings to The Thermals. It seems, though, that most of you made the correct choice: Vampire Weekend. Now we don't doubt that the other shows weren't amazing -- we were pretty miffed that there were so many choices on one night -- but clearly if you are anybody then you were wearing a blue pin-striped shirt, dark...

Saturday is what is known around these here parts as "the Big Game," a kinda cute nickname for a game usually not of any importance to anyone other to us NorCal folks. This game, in particular, doesn't have much going for it as Stanford, with the exception of the 'SC upset, hasn't been very good and Cal has been more disappointing than Fred Thompson's candidacy. Nevertheless, the game is always pretty exciting and full of tradition-- all the things that makes college football what it is.

By Frances Reade

Update: Now with "correct" spelling!

A dicsussion of the illegality of iPodding while driving or cycling

At Pine and Divisadero on Wednesday afternoon, a man severely slashed a woman with a box cutter (some reports we saw said she might die, while others said the wounds were not life-threatening); the cops subsequently caught him.

Remember the Jamba Juice hepatitis A scare? And remember how we said there were gymnasts competing in a national meet in San Jose a few weeks ago? Well -- you guessed it -- it turns out the gymnasts might have been exposed to the virus. The hepatitis A carrier made smoothies for the gymnasts during the meet and in the trade shows outside. She claims she used good hygiene and food safety practices throughout (wearing gloves, for instance), so the chance of infection is fairly low, but they're warning gymnasts anyways. Hey, while we're on the topic of gymnasts, does anyone else remember the movie ? So good.

In response to allegations by deceased Stanford engineering grad student May Zhou's father earlier this week that his daughter's death was a homicide and not self-inflicted, the Santa Rosa police released additional information from their investigation. Namely, they said they have videotape and receipts of her buying four bottles of sleeping pills from local drugstores in two days, and they have an email she sent to her younger sister a few days before she disappeared that reads like a suicide note. Three of the bottles were found in the trunk along with her body.

First up, remember May Zhou, the Stanford graduate student who was found dead in her car trunk in Santa Rosa? Well, her father remains convinced it was not a suicide, and cites a private autopsy report he's commissioned that shows blunt force trauma injuries. The offical police report, by contrast, showed no trauma injuries but did indicate toxic levels of Benadryl in her system. Zhou's father will not name the pathologist who conducted the private autopsy, or release his report to the police, though, saying it would jeopardize the investigation. The police say they will certainly look into the matter again and see if a murder was in fact committed.

Hey, everyone loves a list, right? Especially those ranking institutions of higher learning. The yearly U.S. News & World Report list is out -- any wagers on how local schools did? And, really, how much would it affect your choices? We remember mulling the 1991 list saying "can't get in there, can't get in there, nope, not there either . . ." But it's still fun to see how stuff measures up, we suppose. Unshockingly, Stanford University was high on the list, reaching No. 4 this year, undoubtedly driving the next generation of Azia Kims.

We found this photo in our inbox this morning. It may (or may not) be Condoleezza Rice. She's been in town for Bill Walsh's memorial service. As George tells us, after he snapped the shot at about 10:30 a.m. yesterday morning, "you could definitely smell the evil sycophant as she passed." Oh dear. Does that mean that she doesn't bathe properly? We hope not.

A public memorial is all set to honor Bill Walsh. It'll be held at Candlestick at 11 AM on August 10th and among the speakers will be Joe Montana and Eddie De Bartolo. A private ceremony will be held on August 9th at the Stanford Memorial Church. Speakers there will not only include Montana and DeBartolo, but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dianne Feinstein. Rumored to attend are Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of State George Shultz who were friends of the Genius. Current owners of the 49ers, John and Denise York have also asked that the Governor declare a Bill Walsh Day.

It has been documented, in Nature no less, that listening to Mozart makes you smarter. Only for spatial reasoning, though. Only for 15mn afterwards. And the results got disputed later. Damn. And even worst, the same effect was observed with music from, hold on one second while we regain our composure, Yanni. Yanni!

Campus tree residency news! At Cal, it turns out those people living in the trees to protest the UC's plan to cut them down themselves did significant damage to the trees in question by cutting off the tops of the trees to put in their sleeping platforms. Ah, the sweet smell of irony. Meanwhile, at rival Stanford, they've finally evicted a veteran who's been living in the tree grove off Palm Drive for almost 10 years. (Does anyone actually pay to live at Stanford anymore? Goodness.)

SF shootings: two shot, one dead, in the Bayview Monday afternoon (the resulting scene then blocked the T-Third for an hour), another shooting in Oceanview, and a man shot in a drive-by at 21st and Florida on Friday night.

--At Intersection for the Arts, an evening of performances, readings, and conversations with formerly-incarcerated youth in The Prison Project, their year-long artistic exploration of the California penal system. $5-15, 7 p.m., 446 Valencia (x 15th).

After quitting his job at Oracle, Rajeev Samant moved back to India to grow wine. The India Times/Economic Times has the story on Samant's journey from Stanford student to Oracle employee to a winemaker. He started his winery, the likes of which has never been seen in his native country before (and, in fact, was illegal according to some state laws), back on his family's 30-acre plot in India.

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing!