The Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science

Dartmouth College has received a $35 million commitment to establish The Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science, President Jim Yong Kim announced today. The anonymous gift will advance a new field of study, harnessing the knowledge and expertise of faculty across multiple disciplines from the arts and sciences as well as from the medical, business and engineering schools. 

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2010/05/17.html

It's truly amazing what President Kim has been able to accomplish in his year here so far. I am so, so, so impressed and so proud to be a part of the Dartmouth family. Can't wait to see what happens in the future.

invisible text message break up

Hahaha I couldn't resist... 

Photo stolen from a Jezebel article about how people use fake texting to ignore each other etc. nowadays.

New $100 Bill!

 

Getty Images

 

When the new $100 is moved, the inkwell changes color from copper to green, and the Liberty Bell appears.

The Treasury Department unveiled what it calls "the next generation one hundred," a redesigned $100 bank note to stay ahead of counterfeiters. The new $100 notes will be available on Feb.10, 2011.

from WSJ

Elly Jackson

Photo: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images, Ivan Gavan/Getty Images, Neil Lupin/Redferns

 
From The Cut:
 

She cites Michael Jackson, Prince, David Bowie, and Tilda Swinton as her style inspirations.

“I don’t want to be a man,” she says. “I very much enjoy being a woman — I love my body, and the sexiness of being a woman — but I like men’s clothes.”

 Oh yes, those influences come through very clearly. Especially Tilda Swinton, they look hella similar.

“I am pretty ready to get rid of the hair, but I am kind of attached to it,” she says. “At the same time, I am kind of fed up with talking about it.”

It's such good hair! But I would be interested in seeing what would be next...

AND: SHE'S ONLY 22!! Ahh, makes me want to be a star too.

Reblogged from The Cut, which reblogged from WWD.

For Students, a Waiting List Is Scant Hope

The NYT seriously loves writing articles like this. And I, sucker that I am, subsequently love reading them.

Handbags for S/S 10

Oi these choices are spot on. Must. not. get. back. into. handbags.

Peeps! Just in time for right after Easter.

Happy Easter!!

Peeps: So many things you can do with them! Serious eats indeed.

Peepshi

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Peeps Krispie Treats 

In the making (accompanied by possibly my favorite caption ever):

Before: Peeps "My Peepbutt is so toasty! Peeps Sauna to the max." 
After: Peeps "gloob bloop." 

[Photographs: Grace Kang]

Completed:

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

The colors are so vibrant and pretty... I even like just how they look on the page. This looks like it'd be really fun to do with kids :))

nowness?

www.nowness.com, formerly eluxury.com, is another one of those art/lifestyle blogs (that comment is only a little bit tongue-in-cheek), except it's owned by LVMH. Do you care if it's owned by a corporation trying to sell you (expensive) stuff? Does that matter to you?

Money + Websites = Tools

The 20 best money Web sites by CNN Money

I just bought my plane ticket from JFK to Hong Kong using Kayak.com, one of the 20 websites recommended (I knew about it before though, from reading lots of travel mags... travel porn).

Thank God for Rejection

Before They Were Titans, Moguls and Newsmakers, These People Were...Rejected

At College Admission Time, Lessons in Thin Envelopes 

read the WSJ article

On Luck

I enjoyed reading this excerpt by Ben Casnocha. It's really amazing the amount of reading material that exists on the internet.

Excerpt 1: How to Maximize Luck

From Chapter 8

 

I made mistakes when we hired our interim CEO, but I also got unlucky. Sometimes that’s the way things go. In my view, luck is the single most underrated component of success. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to maximize your chances of being lucky. 

1. Expose yourself to as much randomness as possible. Attend conferences no one else is attending. Read books no one else is reading. Talk to people no one else is talking to. Who would have thought that giving a speech at a funeral at age twelve would introduce me to a man who would introduce me to my first business contact who would introduce to several other important people in my life? That's luck. That's randomness.

A/N: I definitely think this is true -- some of the most amazing things that have happened to me have been largely luck-related and random. And they're even more amazing because of the randomness. I had a friend who told me that he was infamously jammy* (lucky, basically) amongst his friends ... dunno about the truth of that, but I recall that he really did love doing tons of random things.

2. Trust in probabilities of luck. I think life works in peaks and valleys. Every time luck doesn't go my way I believe a piece of good luck is right around the corner—you always bounce up after hitting rock bottom. Similarly, whenever I get lucky I prepare myself for weathering a dip. Knowing this, I can always mitigate a rough stretch and make the most of the good times.

A/N: Reminds me of religion, faith, spirituality, karma... and luck? I think they're all related, at least a little. Connected by some thread.

3. Trick yourself. Self-deception is essential for high self-esteem. It's OK to take more credit than you deserve, in your own mind, for successes. It's OK to think that you can outwork and outpassion anyone who competes with you. It's OK to attribute soaring victories to a tireless work ethic. It's OK if these are slight exaggerations. After all, how many people attribute "good luck" to their wins? Far fewer than those who attribute "bad luck" to their losses! Stay humble, especially on the outside, but consider yourself (privately) as unstoppable.

A/N: This is sweet. A sort of "believe in yourself the most!" missive.


This is kind of a different post than usual... feel free to leave feedback!

*British slang, I think. UrbanDictionary definition:

	jammy	177 up, 72 down
	flukey,lucky,defying probability with outrageous good fortune 'That was a jammy pool shot', said the guy playing pool in Geraldton.

The Dynamics of Economic Complexity and the Product Space over a 42 year period

I'm in an economics reading group, and we are currently reading Jane Jacobs's The Economy of Cities (which I will forever think and pronounce in a British accent because of my professor), and our professor e-mailed this note to the lot of us along with these links:

___________________________________________

From: Professor
Date: 12 Feb 2010 08:50:57 -0500
Subject: Economics reading group - FYI
To: Group

Mainstream economics is catching up with Jane Jacobs!

I attach an article from last week's Economist.

http://www.chidalgo.com/Papers/HidalgoHausmann_PNAS_2009_PaperAndSM.pdf
http://www.chidalgo.com/Papers/HidalgoHausmann_DAI_2008.pdf
http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidwp/189.html

Question: Which is more informative about what is going on--Jacobs's stories or the economists graphs and statistics?
___________________________________________

I think it's the graphs and statistics, btw. It's such a fascinating study... just even look at all the charts and complex diagrams... I'm impressed already. See, this is when math and statistics are cool, when you can draw some sort of macro conclusion from it. 

"In particular we identify Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, Singapore and China, as countries that transformed their productive structures considerably during these four decades, albeit following different trajectories."

So... like BRIC, but BITMTKSC. Haha. Sorry, horrid joke. Better to let the abstract speak for itself without inserting my useless pithy comments. See below.

___________________________________________

CID Working Paper No. 189, December 2009

The Dynamics of Economic Complexity and the Product Space over a 42 year period

César A. Hidalgo

Abstract

How does the productive structure of countries' changes over time? In this paper we explore this question by combining techniques of networks science with 42 years of trade data and find that, while the Product Space remains relatively stable during this period, the dynamics of countries' productive structures is characterized by a few highly dynamic economies. In particular we identify Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, Singapore and China, as countries that transformed their productive structures considerably during these four decades, albeit following different trajectories. For instance, the economic complexity of Korea, Singapore and China was relatively high at the beginning of the observation period and continued to increase during these forty two years, moving these countries into the top spots of the economic complexity rankings for the beginning of this millennium. Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey, on the other hand, transformed their productive structures significantly during the same period of time, but did so starting from a less sophisticated foundation. We conclude the paper by moving from this and other observations into the policy implications of this view of economic development and argue that the government involvement in the private sector should be to help catalyze market activities and solve coordination problems that emerge naturally when countries try to accumulate capabilities. This represents an alternative to more traditional views of the role of government that postulate, in their extremes, that the public sector should either have no involvement in private sector activities or, on the other hand, substantial ownership of the means of production.

Keywords: Economic Complexity, Capabilities, Networks, Product Space, Structural Transformation, Economic Development
___________________________________________

Gemma Ward

Hubbub in the fashion/modeling industry about Gemma Ward not walking in shows this season because she's gained weight since she first started... at age FOURTEEN. She is now TWENTY-TWO.

Photo: AP Photo/Courtesy Vogue, Steven Meisel/ Ward (second from right) at 16, on the cover of Vogue in September 2004 with Gisele, Daria and Natalia.

Then and now:

 Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Patrick Mcmullan/ Gemma wearing a body-skimming silver gown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Gala.

Photo: Gaye Gerard / Getty Images

I think she looks gorgeous now. Before, she was beautiful, but she was also literally pre-pubescent. That's not maintain-able in the long term.

Page Six Magazine writes:

For several years, however, Ward's career continued to boom. In 2007, Forbes estimated that she had earned $3 million that year, and in June she paid $1.525 million for a three-bedroom co-op in the East Village. In New York City, she hung out with the hip Australian expat crowd at the Nolita eatery Ruby's, sipped rosé at the Maritime Hotel and suffered from permanent jet lag.

"Her moment's over," said the IMG source. "She's not coming back."

I write:

Eh, I'd say good riddance. She made her money and fame and now she can get out and hopefully branch into acting, which she's currently trying to do. You can't be 16 forever, right? Although when she was, my gosh was her face exquisite. She really had a special look, no wonder every model booker went gaga over her.

Photo: Courtesy Hearst/ Chris Moore/Catwalking/Getty Images/ Jimi Celeste/Patrick McMullan/ Ward in her heyday as a cover girl; and on the Chanel runway (inset) where she was called "fat." (In denim bikini.)

Photo: MIKE DISCIULLO/Bauer-Griffin/ Five years later, walking in the East Village.

It’s the babies, stupid

I've been to a few entrepreneur, venture capital, and private equity-related panels in the past few days, and I every time I go to one of these conferences, I'm struck by how male-dominated the room -- and the business world -- is, from seed start-ups all the way through private equity partnerships. As a general rule, I've seen that female CEOs in the world of Private Equity only exist as heads of Limited Partners.

These articles explore why female entrepreneurs have trouble securing venture capital for their business plans (it's the babies, stupid).

Silicon Valley Has a Woman Problem, But Women Still Have a Baby Problem 

Silicon Valley: You and Some of Your VC's have a Gender Problem

Capital Gains: Women, Babies, And Getting Ahead In Business

I wonder if and when this will change...

I choose you, Couture!

Remember when I said one of those conceptual shoes reminded me of a polygon? Here's a series of similar comparisons made by blogger John at Textbook. Whoever he is, he is so cute!!

His photo collage:

His accompanying commentary:

"1: armani prive and ninetails: the gathers on this dress, the detailing on the neckline and the femininity of it all match up to ninetails pretty well.

2: alexis mabille and dragonair: the seamless blue column, the sheer neck and even the hair are reminiscent of this graceful dragon pokemon.

3: givenchy and jigglypuff: she’s wearing a jigglypuff, i swear to god.

4: chanel and jolteon: the sharp collar, jewel detailing and vibrant nature of this piece are a perfect fit for jolteon (evolved form of eevee when you use a thunder stone, duh)

5: christian dior and articuno: grey breasted bird with long regal tail? can you even tell if i’m talking about the model or the pokemon? it’s especially fitting because articuno is one of the legendary pokemon, just as galliano and dior are legendary.

it’s not so far fetched to think of these light-hearted similarities. have a great day all.

*note to pokemon fans: this is limited to the original 151 pokemon because i stopped playing after pokemon sapphire"

Eve Ensler and V-DAY

In NYTimes Magazine, The V Generation: Questions for Eve Ensler

 "V-Day, your foundation, has raised some $70 million since 1998, largely through benefit productions of “The Vagina Monologues.”
I don’t think of it as a foundation, but a movement. V-Day exists in 130 countries now. This year there will be about 5,000 performances in places from Paris to Brest, France, to Greece to Tanzania."

I had lunch with Eve Ensler a few years ago, and fuck she's cool.

This made me LOL

http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/

Maybe because I'm in a funny mood? Or I'm in a grammar-jokes mood? Same difference? ...

Awesome -- and on the court too

Sick basketball player, Harvard senior, devout Christian, Econ major, impassive subject of racial slurs on the court, and potential future NBA player/pastor. "A Harvard hoopster with pro-level talent," says Time Magazine. Plus featured in Time Magazine. Nice.

Hehe

 [Click photo to enlarge]

HAPPY FRIDAY!

A first for me re: Avatar

They're undeniably good looking, even for Na'vi

Made to appeal to humans? Their facial bone structure is so interesting; particularly their noses; particularly the bridge.

On New Years Eve, I saw Avatar again in theatres with my younger sister and some family friends. It's the first movie I've ever seen twice in theatres, so that's saying something! The second time, I could recognize the flaws more -- overly caricatured characters, repeated/obvious underlying storyline, weak dialogue -- but I also appreciated everything else it is (a visually explosive, wonderful journey into their world) for a second time. And it was fun to watch it again with someone else for their first viewing. I wonder how the 'fanboy' network is receiving this film, because that'll somewhat determine if and how the Pandoran world lives on in ours.

The amount of research gone into creating this film is admirable, down to the linguistically sound Na'vi language created especially for Avatar, as explained in a Vanity Fair article. "Avatar Linguist Wants Na'vi Language to be the Next Klingon," summarizes another article. Now that is probably up to the fanboys and fangirls.

Clearly I was very affected by this movie. Anyone else? It's not just me, right?