Politics roundup: swing state, historians and polls

20 Nov 2011, Posted by Walker Schiff in News, 0 Comments

Sophia Palenberg/The Chronicle

Arizona a Swing State?

Word has it that Arizona may be a target for the President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in the 2012 presidential election. The rumor is that Arizona’s controversial and widely unpopular immigration bill, SB 1070, has motivated Democrats in the state, particularly the Latino community, to get more involved.

For those that are unaware, SB 1070 was the bill that was all over the news at the time of its passage in the summer and fall of 2010. It requires that all aliens above the age of 14 register with the U.S. government and have their registration documents in their possession at all times. The controversial piece of the legislation is the part that states that law enforcement officials have the authority to stop individuals when they think there is reasonable suspicion that said individual is an illegal alien. Many opponents read that piece of the legislation as an excuse for racial profiling. The bill has been legally challenge by the Department of Justice over its constitutionality.

In 2008, John McCain won Arizona by almost 8.5%. Excluding Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection victory, Arizona hasn’t gone to a Democrat since Harry S. Truman pulled off perhaps the greatest upset in U.S. presidential election history when he beat Thomas E. Dewey in 1948.

It is also important to note that Arizona gained an electoral vote as a result of the 2010 census, moving it to 11 votes in total. While 11 votes isn’t a huge number, it is enough to swing whole elections as Al Gore would tell you.

Newt Gingrich is a Historian

Newt Gingrich has enjoyed a bump in the polls recently, presumably due to Herman Cain’s recent gaffes and the sexual harassment scandal. With that bump comes more media coverage, and as the media dug into Gingrich’s past, it surfaced that Newt Gingrich had worked at mortgage company Freddie Mac.

From 1999 to 2002, Gingrich earned $1.6 million in consulting fees working for Freddie Mac as their self-proclaimed historian. Many in the media has accused him as using the term “historian” as a cover for what they think he really was at Freddie Mac, a lobbyist.

Gingrich worked closely with Freddie Mac’s chief lobbyist, Mitchell Delk, but Delk told Bloomberg that Gingrich was not involved in Freddie Mac’s lobbying efforts. He said that Gingrich mostly provided advice on public policy issues.

No Frontrunner in GOP Polls

In five polls released this week on the national GOP primary race, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain led two each and Mitt Romney led one. No frontrunner in any of the five polls held a lead greater than three points.

Perhaps the most interesting poll this week came from key early primary states. Romney has enjoyed double-digit leads in New Hampshire since polling began for this race, but a poll from Magellan Strategies released this past Friday bucked that trend.

The poll showed Romney with the votes of 29 percent of New Hampshire Republicans despite constantly polling at around 40 percent as of late. The poll had Gingrich in second place with a whopping 27 percent.

Although this is just one poll, the implications of a shift like this in New Hampshire would be significant. Anything less than a blowout win in New Hampshire would be considered a disappointment for the Romney campaign.

Food porn

20 Nov 2011, Posted by Minshu Deng in News, 0 Comments

Sophia Palenberg/The Chronicle

At last the holiday season is upon us, and that means many things: ugly holiday sweaters, long breaks, upcoming deadlines of 50 final papers that you haven’t thought about all semester…but to make everything better, the holidays also mean delicious, coma-inducing amounts of food. Being low on food points, I’m trying my best not to buy every single seasonal dessert in the Refectory at every meal. So, to hold me over—aside from chewing an excessive amount of gum at 3 a.m. or eating an excessive amount of cheap fries from Pitchfork Provisions at 3 a.m.—there are other ways curb my cravings until Thanksgiving dinner. Behold, the world of food porn.

What is food porn?

According to The Skinny Gourmet, “If the casserole is missionary style, food porn takes its devotees into the foodie kama sutra.”

What does that mean?

“No one knows what it means, but it’s provocative…”

Well, for me at least, it means getting excited for good food, and for that, I am giving thanks.

Here are some great foodie sites:

www.tastespotting.com

www.foodgawker.com

http://foodporndaily.com/

http://www.foodporn.net/

http://www.joyofbaking.com/

http://www.findingvegan.com/

Coloring Black Friday Duke blue

20 Nov 2011, Posted by Andrew Luo in News, 0 Comments

Sophia Palenberg/The Chronicle

Black Friday shopping has gotten a whole lot easier.

Traditionally seen as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season,Black Friday—the day after Thanksgiving—lures customers from all over the country to give up sleep in search of jaw-dropping discounts. Data shows, however, that Black Friday has taken on a new form in recent years—retailers have shifted to offering discount deals earlier, in some cases October.

According to a survey conducted in 2010, 33.6 percent of Black Friday shoppers made purchases online, an increase of 15.2 percent from 2009. In total, 212 million shoppers scoured stores and websites in 2010, reaching a estimated total spending of $45 billion.To accommodate this shift towards Internet shopping, retailers have already opened Black Friday sales as early as this week. For example, Best Buy announced that it begin electronics sales starting this Friday, offering discounts such as $800 off a 70-inch LED HDTV.

Either way, whether you’re pulling an all-nighter or scavenging online, here are some tips for Dukies to have the best Black Friday experience possible.

Keep an eye out for advertisements beforehand.
Most major retailers will begin announcing (or leaking) their Black Friday specials a week or two beforehand. The best places to keep a tab on these deals are specific Black-Friday websites, such as blackfriday.info or theblackfriday.com. This will let you cross-reference different stores to make sure you on getting the best deal possible.

Sign up for retailers’ e-mail alerts
Store loyalty is an important concern for retailers. Signing up for e-mail alerts will not only give you an update on the latest deals but it’ll also give you access to exclusive store discounts that you would not have access to any other way.

Check the return policy
Retailers may change their return policy for Black Friday sales into “final sales.” In other words, the product you buy cannot be returned. Other stores may include shortened return policy, or add a restocking fee on a returned item.

Check the warranty
Some brand might use special models of their products during Black Friday sales, which offer different warranty standards than other sets. For example, the term of the warranty may be shorter, or there might be less coverage. Either way, make sure you are aware of the specific terms before you buy.

Watch out for Special discount bundles
Retailers put out specially marked deals, combining two or more items into package that “saves you money.” An important thing to do is to check the individual prices on the items to make sure that you are actually getting a great bargain. Sometimes, buying the items individually may be even cheaper than the bundle itself.

Buy the items you truly want
It’s easy to get sucked in by the allure of discount sales. Go into Black Friday with a specific idea of what items you need, not want. An item with a low price tag does not necessarily prove its usefulness. More likely than not, the extra items you buy on Black Friday will just end up stored away in the basement. At the end of day, you want to come home with a few items you really wanted and a pile of things you thought was a good deal.

Good luck and happy shopping!

Blue Devils going green

19 Nov 2011, Posted by Alexandra Huttler in News, 0 Comments

Sophia Palenberg/The Chronicle

Duke has been looking a little green recently.

Signs in dorm bathrooms instructing students to “Make it a Quickie” as well as Duke’s new hybrid buses are examples of Duke’s ongoing “going green” project. New initiatives have furthered Duke’s attempt at a “green campus,” including the “Green Workplace Certification” program and Duke Environmental Leadership Program’s classroom renovation.

The newly established Green Workplace Certification process is run by Sustainable Duke Outreach Coordinator Casey Roe. The Green Workplace Certification recognizes offices and work areas on Duke’s campus that are actively working to reduce their workplace’s effect on the environment.

Roe said the process begins when a member of the office attends a free, three-hour “Leading for Environmental Sustainability” workshop, which she leads on a quarterly basis. The workshop participants leave with a checklist of “green” practices, and if a workplace can check off at least 40 of the 57 items on the list, it can apply to become a Duke Green Workplace.

“[We] started the Green Workplace Program so that [the representatives who attend the workshop] can actually engage their workers in a process to receive certification,” Roe said.

The Dean’s Office of the Pratt School of Engineering was the first office to receive the Green Workplace Certification in September. Kathy Kay, assistant manager for special events at the Pratt School of Engineering, attended Roe’s leadership seminar, along with two of her coworkers.

“[At the workshop,] we looked at each other like, ‘I think we have a green team,’” said Kay. “Nobody had yet gotten the Certification, so we said, ‘Let’s make this our goal.’”

Jim Gaston, a member of Pratt’s Dean’s Office “green team,” took the checklist provided at the workshop and formed a survey that was sent around to the office staff. The results indicated that the office already met the qualifications, and even slightly surpassed them. The certification process served to unite office members who were conducting green practices on their own.

“We already had a bunch of like-minded green individuals,” said Kay. “What really started out as a bunch of individual people is now more of a cohesive effort.”

After the Dean’s Office, the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics next received the Certification, followed by the Office of Sustainability, the 8100 General Medicine Stepdown unit at the Duke University Hospital and the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative Office.

Of the certification of the Hospital unit, Roe said, “We were really glad to see that not only does this program work for University offices, but that [the hospital] was also able to work with us on the certification.”

According to Roe, over 100 staff members have come to the workshops and the January workshop is already full, indicating that perhaps more Duke workplaces than the 5 already certified will soon be Duke Green Workplaces.

The Duke Environmental Leadership Program is also contributing to Duke’s “greening” efforts. When DEL decided to renovate a Duke classroom last spring, it looked to a group of students taking Deb Gallagher’s, professor of sustainable business strategy, class offered by the Nicholas School and Fuqua School of Business. The course, which was offered during the Spring 2011 semester, required that students complete a project, and one team of students was assigned to make recommendations for DEL’s greener classroom.

“They wanted to make it a more sustainable, greener classroom, but also a more professional environment for the executive education classes,” said Jennifer Weiss, a member of the team.

The team examined many categories of renovation including technology, furniture, lighting, wall coverings and floor coverings. After seven weeks, the students made their “greening” recommendations, and the classroom—classroom A158 in the LSRC—was renovated over the summer and is now being used. Renovations included using zero-VOC paint and providing furniture composed of recycled material.

“[The classroom] serves as a model classroom for the rest of the University [since it] shows that you really can make a classroom green,” said Weiss. “Other classrooms are looking to upgrade, and they can take a lesson from this classroom and do [their renovation] in a more sustainable way.”

Roe said that Sustainable Duke is continuing to make efforts to “green” Duke, including the campus farm project and inreasing the number of sustainability courses and extracurricular activities available to students.

“The biggest overarching [goal] is to build out from just looking at greenhouse gases,” said Roe. “We’re looking at all areas of sustainability.”

Commencement Day company

18 Nov 2011, Posted by Dylan Peterson in News, 0 Comments

Sophia Palenberg/The Chronicle

Duke and Harvard will have Fareed Zakaria speak at both of their graduation ceremonies, but what about other schools? The Chronicle’s Dylan Peterson ranked a few universities based on the general awesomeness of their graduation speakers for the 2012 commencement ceremonies across the country.

I will refrain from ranking Duke’s (and thus copycat-Harvard’s) speaker so as to remain impartial. Fareed Zakaria is, according to his website, a CNN anchor, Time Magazine editor and, according to Esquire magazine, “the most influential foreign policy advisor of his generation.” He has authored several books regarding the new world order and foresees a rebalance of power among all nations in the near future. This speech should provide a fresh prospective on an ever-changing globalized world, and how the United States will fit into this balance.

1. Princeton University—According to the Princeton website, this premier New Jersey university will be having comedian Steve Carell grace its presence on Commencement Day. Carell won a Golden Globe in 2006 for best actor in a TV comedy for “The Office” and his legendary comedy is well…legendary. At graduation ceremonies for top universities like Princeton (and Duke), nothing celebrates a successful four years better than sidesplitting laughter with friends and family.

2. Vanderbilt—According to the Vanderbilt website, news anchor and journalist Tom Brokaw will address in his resounding voice the graduates of Vandy. Besides Brokaw’s potentially irksome voice, this should be a decent speech filled with fascinating anecdotes of news reporting and diplomatic sayings.

4. Penn State—Widely respected defensive football coordinator Jerry Sandusky will give the address live via webcam from Pennsylvania State Penitentiary. (too soon?)

4. Yale—According to The Yale Herald, based on student suggestions, potential speakers for Class Day could include TV personality Ellen DeGeneres, managing editor for NBC Nightly News and host of Rock Center, Brian Williams and my personal favorite, retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal. If McChrystal is ultimately picked, it could make for the most memorable graduation ever… before robots take over the world.

5. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—The Daily Tar Heel reported that Michael Bloomberg, entrepreneur and mayor of New York City, will address the graduating seniors at UNC. We can only wonder how the poor soul was coerced into speaking at this institution. Regardless, the impressive politician will most likely offer an impassioned speech about the moral obligation for students to use their knowledge and resources to aid their fellow man. Not much can (tar)nish this man’s reputation.

Regardless of the university, the perfect commencement speaker would be some sort of comedian, preferably foreign to prepare for the way this world is evolving in the next decade. It is mandatory to have a sense of humor to survive in the sometimes grim world. Especially on a day to celebrate achievement, the day’s activities should involve laughter and joy.