From howstuffworks.com

- In case you haven’t seen it, check out Kent’s humor page on the unintended consequences of Resolution 44.

- Oh yeah, and check out our awesome new website, in case you haven’t visited yet.

- Two Cornellians have a shot at being drafted into the NBA this year. According to the post, six players from the invitational tournament last year were selected as draft picks.

- Bloomberg article on Cornell basketball.

- Professors Squyres and Norton will team up to teach a new explorations course next semester.

- Cornell researchers find that “urine-filled mosquitos are less likely to spread disease.” A Cornell study also found that 70% of brides-to-be wanted to lose weight before getting married. Do they get all this research money from stimulus funding?

- Obama’s approval rating drops to 47%. (Gallup).

- Google is not making us stupider, survey says.

- Fred Barnes chimes in with some potential 2012 candidates.

- Via MR, an interesting test of religious open mindedness. On the same topic, here’s another Somin post on intelligence and atheism.

- From Krauthammer’s article on Obamacare: “The man who ran as a post-partisan is determined to remake a sixth of the U.S. economy despite the absence of support from a single Republican in either house, the first time anything of this size and scope has been enacted by pure party-line vote.”

Perhaps most people aren’t quite as enthusiastic as Howard Cossell, but there was certainly a large group in opposition to Andrew Brokman that spent their Friday evening poppin’ bottles.  If the swarm of list-serv emails I received endorsing Vincent Andrews or the general underground turbulence created by Res. 44 didn’t give it away, Friday’s election results sure did.  Andrews received 1,626 votes and Brokman received 1,282 (a 56-44% win).  While Brokman attributes the loss to Andrews’s advantageous social position and a pseudo-cabal of conspirators working against him (I would quote more accurately but his post on this matter at OneCornell seems to have disappeared), perhaps there could be more at play.

Is it not possible that Resolution 44 is the giant elephant on Brokman’s mind?  The very thing that got  him on the pages of the Stun each and every day for the two weeks preceding the elections?  The very thing that made Brokman a ‘dorm’-hold name?  That drove him to speaking at numerous organizations, groups and committees? Resolution 44 was the Brokman banner that he waved everywhere he campaigned, spoke, quoted, and wrote.  ‘Non-discrimination’ was the campaign catchphrase that he was known for – whether he intended it or not.

Our election here at Cornell is not only significant for the proceedings on Campus; it is a microcosm version of an ever-present dilemma in politics and media.  An idea was pushed – a very controversial one – and forced as the only reasonable option upon us by mainstream media.  We were incessantly bombarded with support for and reasons why Resolution 44 was the next best thing since sliced bread.  How opposition to it was irresponsible and immoral – how vital it was to our campus that it should take precedence over basic constitutional rights.  If one were to just read our school’s flagship paper each day, he or she would be convinced everyone and everything at Cornell was in support of the resolution.  Yet the icon of that resolution failed.

It is a classic case of a minority opinion blown out of proportion – made to appear as the majority one.  Many people are disgusted by the idea of Resolution 44.  Most people are hesitant about it.  But the power-hungry and ravenous Left is out of touch.  Just as Obama’s Health Care dies in its tracks, Massachusetts goes Red, and Olbermann gets clobbered in TV ratings, Brokman, The Daily Stun, and Resolution 44 have experienced the people’s referendum on bad ideas.

More to come on this subject in next week’s issue of The Review!

Then I found this from an article about a new Kaplan survey on grading leniency and professor selection:

A new Kaplan Test Prep survey of 1,229 college students and recent college graduates* showed that of those who have visited professor rating sites, nearly half (45%) were influenced to take courses based on the “easy grading reputation of a professor.” This supports previous research conducted by Cornell University which found that students shop for classes where the median grade is higher. In fact, a 2009 analysis on grade inflation by a retired Duke University professor that found the average college GPA rose from 2.93 in 1991 to 3.11 in 2006.

So I guess this is going on at Cornell as well. It would be interesting to see how our GPA figures have changed since we started publishing median grades.

- The Review breaks free of its chains: why we’ll beat Resolution 44

- Humor page: you’ll split your side laughing when you see the real consequences of Res. 44

- Catholics at Cornell are pushing an immigration agenda; what’s their concern?

- Who are we rooting for in the Student Assembly elections and why?

- Cornell is receiving stimulus money from Capitol Hill – found out where it goes

Only how many more weeks until spring?

- In one of the shortest news articles I’ve read in my life, WENY-TV News reports that the Cascadilla Gorge Trail should re-open shortly.

- Cornell researchers help Colorado crack down on handicapped parking violations. Are the same researchers responsible for my recent ticket on North Campus?

- Cornell Basketball continues to roll to an Ivy Championship, and we’re predicted to be a #11 seed in this bracketology installment. The men’s hockey team also had a productive weekend, earning a first round bye for the ECAC Tournament.

- Speaking of hockey, congratulations to Cornell student Rebecca Johnston on her Olympic gold medal.

- “Hide the cookie jars” say Cornell researchers.

- According to another Cornell researcher, people work harder against underdogs to save face.

- VC Blogger Ilya Somin disagrees with an article that argues that intelligent people are more likely to be liberal.

- Is Mitch Daniels on the 2012 short list?

- Thomas Sowell discusses the dangers of the aimless apology.

- Finally, another great Krauthammer column on Toyota and the price of modernity.

“You can give the target population double the benefits by spending half the money—and once you save that money, you can direct it to improving human capital, infrastructure and deficit control,” said Mr. Basu, who became top adviser in the ministry of finance in December, taking a leave from Cornell University, where he teaches economics.

So far, so good, Professor Basu.

Wait, that can’t be right. The same administration that has been conducting a CIA witch hunt and doing all it can to disgrace Bush administration officials guilty of illegal wiretaps and information gathering techniques is now pushing to track the location of your cell phone? And where is the liberal uproar? It’s hard to argue that George Bush looking up your library records is more of an infringement on personal rights than the Obama administration having full access to your cell phone records.