Category Archives: Around Town

Personal posts — some social justice (Not in Our Town), some faith-related (Princeton United Methodist Church), some I-can’t-keep-from-writing-this

Largesse for math and science

Around Town, Business, Technology & Innovation, ,

I can’t help noticing, in the half page ad in today’s New York Times, that three ot the 16 winners of Simons Foundation prizes are from Central jersey. Names below. And then when I look up “Who is Mr. Simon” I discover that James Simon worked at the Institute of Defense Analyses (the one in Princeton) before he left academe to found his now $23 billion hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies.

He’s using his wealth, at least some of it, “to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences.” His money is also behind Math for America and he was one of the first billionaires to sign the Giving Pledge.

News of the 2014 Simons Investigators doesn’t even seem to be up on the web yet, but here is a link to last year’s prizes in math and physical sciences. This year’s winners include Rachel Somerville of Rutgers (theoretical astrophysics), Anatoly Spitkovsky of Princeton (high energy astrophysics), and Moses Charikar of Princeton (computer science, approximation algorithms). Their prize gives them, in effect, an extra sabbatical “to work on long term projects of fundamental importance.”

Congratulations all round. And can anyone tell me whether the Simons family did indeed live in Princeton, when he worked at IDA? I thought of asking Lee Neuwirth, who was in charge of the IDA during those years.

Then I found this link to some fast facts about James Simons and learn he is #93 on the Forbes richest list with $12.5 billion. And here is the New York Times source, July 8, 2014.

The article leans heavily on the revelation that Simons, now 75, failed as a programmer, so he wants young people to know, “If I can do it, so can you.”

Hospitals assume that patients will follow directions when they leave the hospital. VOX Telehealth assumes most will not.

Here is my story about VOX Telehealth, part of the cover story in the June 25 health and fitness issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper.

It’s good news for those advocating e-Patient rights.

Jargon is power.

When I was a dance critic, in the ’70s and ’80s, my job was to translate jargon so that non-dancers would understand.

When I was a freelance reporter, during the same time period, I had to use jargon to convince big city editors to believe I knew what I was doing.

When I was a business writer, 1986 to 2006 plus, my job was to translate all kinds of business topics so that non-MBAs would understand.

It’s all about keeping it simple, says John Lanchester in an article in the current New Yorker, entitled Money Talks: Learning the language of finance.

Lessons:

Adopt the jargon of the field you want to enter. Like a patois, you are believable when — to an editor — the first thing you ask is “are you on deadline?”

Don’t accept the jargon of the field you don’t know about. If you see it, the author is lazy.

Full disclosure: Many an editor has blue penciled my own less-than-clear copy.

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I sat next to moms and dads at the Berlind Theater tonight, while their dance students, mostly young women, many from other states, performed at the closing concert for the Princeton Ballet School summer intensive program. I had watched them at the barre (as above).

The parents had reason to be proud. Very few of them will see their dancers on a professional stage. For some, this performance will be the highlight of their young careers.

It was a worthy highlight. On a professional stage with nice costumes and lighting, the choreography challenged but did not tax; it showcased the average dancer and let the talented shine.

I’m glad for them all, even those not blessed with the right bodies for dance or with the unstinting ambition of their fated-to-be-more-successful peers. All have learned what it is to work and work some more.

For those who make dancing only their avocation, they have a resourece at times when they don’t want to reveal that their hearts are low. They have learned how to hold themselves with a royal air. And no one will know.

keller photo

From little acorns: Teams of Princeton University students are working at the Keller Center this summer to churn out tech startups. On Monday, August 11, they showcase them in an always popular event. For information on how to register, click here.

One such startup — not from a student, but from a professor, was Universal Display. Former Princeton professor Steve Forrest had some bright ideas about bright displays using OLED (Organic Light Emitting Display) technology, and his three-person startup is now 100 plus. His sidekick, CTO Julie Brown, speaks at the Princeton Regional Chamber just as these students finish their project. Her talk: Thursday, August 7, at the Forrestal Marriott.

I’ve registered for both events.

Meeting Mercy

Faith and Social Justice, ,

Mercy-Neal-sm

Meet Mercy Neal. Vacation Bible School students at my church, Princeton United Methodist, will have the chance to make friends with her and her family from 8,000 miles away. In our evening program entitled “Can You Hear Me Now? God Calls Kids Too!” preschool children through incoming 6th graders will meet — through videos — this missionary family that works in Fiji.

Set for Tuesday to Thursday, July 29 to 31, 5:30 to 8 p.m., the VBS program is free by registration. Dinner is included, and parents are invited to stay. The dinner and classes are on the street level and begin in the Sanford Davis Room, on the corner of Nassau and Vandeventer.

Twelve-year-old Mercy Neal and her eight-year-old brother, Josiah, are moving from their home in Belleville, New Jersey to Fiji, an island in the South Pacific. Their parents — Rev. Wesley Neal and Rev. Jerusha Neal, both graduates of Princeton Theological Seminary — will teach at a seminary there.

“The children and youth of Princeton UMC will be writing to Mercy and Josiah, and they will also support the Neal family with prayer and fund raising,” says Anna Gillette, associate pastor for discipleship. “VBS children will hear Bible stories about God calls children into discipleship.”

I’m looking forward to working with Anna, who is returning after a year’s stint in Lambertville and has written this curriculum. It will be fun to introduce Mercy and Josiah to the older students with crafts, music, mission projects and games. We will continue our pen pal friendships when Sunday School begins in the fall.

You’ll likely see VBS students playing games on the tiny lawn at the corner of Nassau. If you have children of VBS age, or are interested in helping out, call 609-924-2613 or email Anna@princetonumc.org. Also don’t forget there is a Cornerstone Community Kitchen dinner this Wednesday and every Wednesday, 5 to 6:30 p.m., in the lower level Fellowship Hall (the red door). All welcome!

House of Cupcakes won a spot on “Cupcake Wars” with this video and fulfilled their pledge to donate all the proceeds to the St. Jude Children’s Hospital

Then their store burned down.

Hear their story at the Princeton Regional Chamber breakfast, Wednesday, July 23.

Singers and dancers alike say, ‘all my springs are in you’

This is verse 7 from Psalm 87, today’s reading from Moravian Daily Texts.

Dancing with City Ballet

Dance and the other arts

Unity Phelan went from Princeton Ballet School to School of American Ballet in 9th grade, 2009. Three years later, age 16, she made it into City Ballet as an apprentice and at 18 is a member of the corps being given her first principal role.

Today she returned to her home turf to teach master classes. In the class I am watching — many of the students are just one or two years younger but their feet are decades slower. Feather thin, steel strong, Unity’s feet scissor space into neat bits. ‘Turn out your face so you are ready to perform’ she says as she challenges these young woman with company class combinations.

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Then they go across the floor, buoyed by a new exuberance (and the pianist) and those who were having trouble at the barre — fling themselves into the air with Balanchinian abandon.

A delight to watch but the chief delight was watching Unity move and imagining her airborne on the Koch theater stage.

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Unity with school director Mary Pat Robertson.

Changing the way they see the world

Faith and Social Justice, Healthcare, , ,

2014 anna students2014 7 looney John at camp

These days, student doctors with hefty loans likely gravitate to high-paying specialties rather than primary care. Here’s an inspiring example of how Robert Wood Johnson Medical School encourages them to change that viewpoint. It is the Community-Oriented Primary Care Summer Program, “Changing the Way You See the World,” directed by Anna Looney.  In this interdisciplinary program, students come from medical schools, pharmacy, nursing, social work, and physician assistant programs. Looney says the program aims “to give them experience working with New Jersey’s underserved populations and hopefully light their fire to into primary care.”

As examples, the photo on the right shows a migrant farm in Hammonton where two students did health screenings with the workers. On the left, volunteering at Elijah’s Kitchen.

The closing celebration and poster session is today, Friday, July 18, 4 to 6 p.m. in the Great Hall at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway.  Keynoter Deborah M. Spitalnik of the Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities will speak, and 20 interdisciplinary students from four institutions will present posters summarizing their community service projects (732-235-4200).

Today’s Google Doodle commemmorates the 96th birthday anniversary of Nelson Mandela, whose inspiring statements include  “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”

It is an apt coincidence.