Departments
In the News
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27 August 1999 |
Vol. III, No. 4 |
In the News
Warning that "the American civil-military compact -- the one shared by the people, their military institutions, and the state -- is coming unglued," Andrew Bacevich, CAS professor of international relations, writes in the National Review August 9, "The real problem with propping up an increasingly wobbly all-volunteer force is that efforts to do so conceal the true choices America must sooner or later confront." President Clinton's legacy, Bacevich says, is "a nation that has shouldered quasi-imperial burdens," but also "has all but given up on the challenge to define its own values. As one result, the obligations of citizenship in the world's foremost democracy have shrunk to the vanishing point."
"Women who are products of the '60s have come a long way in realizing that a healthy sexual outlet and regular sexual activity is a normal part of life, that it enriches life, and that they have a right to it as much as men," says Stanley Ducharme, a sex therapist at Boston Medical Center and a clinical assistant professor at BUSM, in the August 4 Boston Globe. Ducharme confirms a recent survey suggesting that female baby boomers will continue to be sexually active as they age.
For many people today, channel surfing is a pale reflection of the Renaissance ideal of being well-rounded. Not too long ago things were different. "You had an enormous incentive for self-development and activity because the passive, consuming media weren't there," says BU Chancellor John Silber in the Boston Globe on August 1. He recollects discursive, literate elders -- his father-in-law, for example, who could puncture the self-importance of local politicians with quotes from Mark Twain, such as, "The good Lord never stretched skin over a sorrier piece of flesh."
A summer program arranged by Boston-area college students and young professionals is helping young Kosovar refugees learn not only English, but also the ins and outs of life in the United States. "It is very important for children and young adults in these circumstances to be able to reestablish a sense of safety and the restitution of trust in other people," says Linda Piwowarczyk, a Boston Medical Center psychiatrist and clinical instructor at BUSM, who has worked with refugees. She adds, in an August 1 Boston Globe story, "Programs such as this one may also be helpful in the identification of children who are at high risk for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder."
"Neutrinos are amazing, ghostly particles," writes Edward Kearns, CAS assistant research professor of physics, in the August issue of Scientific American. "For most of the seven decades since neutrinos were first posited, physicists have assumed they are massless." He describes the work he and two colleagues are doing just to detect these elusive, minuscule particles and determine their weight, if any. If they have mass, "these ethereal particles could collectively outweigh all the stars in the universe," Kearns says.
"In the News" is compiled by Alexander Crouch in the Office of Public Relations.