Salisbury: Hope for the Hokies
description: April 20, 2007 By Jack Salisbury The last two weeks have been rough on the world of sports. Meat-headed Don Imus, thinking he was being clever and funny, showed us that race and racism is still a paramount issue in today's America with his description of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." Then, NBA superstar and supposed role model Tim Duncan was challenged to a fight by veteran referee Joey Crawford. The scene had its comic elements to it, but it was still fairly disgusting with the raw angst and hate between the old Crawford and the robust Duncan. In a time when nuclear weapons programs abound, people are killed over the outcomes of Little League games and enormously wealthy NBA players' demand salary hikes citing the "need to feed their family," you sometimes have to wonder where our neurotic society is going. And then Virginia Tech happened. Virginia Tech. The Hokies have been a mainstay of college athletics for years. Head football coach Frank Beamer built his program based on hard work and excellent special teams play. By the time a kid named Michael Vick stepped onto the Blacksburg campus in the fall of 1998, Beamer's program had reached the status of national power. Since then, Virginia Tech has always been a mainstay of college football, competing in the national championship and appearing at numerous New Year's Day bowl games. Under Seth Greenberg, Tech's basketball program has also risen, beating both Duke and North Carolina this year in ACC play and making the NCAA Tournament as a five seed. It has never been hard to root for the Hokies; they have up-and-coming programs. And after all, who can resist rooting for a Hokie? Part of the allure in rooting for the Hokies was that you often didn't know what a Hokie was. For the record, Hokie is a fictional mascot masquerading itself as a maroon bird. But there's even more reason to root for the Hokies now. We all know about the tragedy that took place this Monday. I can't imagine what it…
creator: Jack Salisbury
publisher: Stanford Daily
date: 2007-06-13
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Permissions granted by James Hohmann Editor-in-Chief The Stanford Daily <jhohmann@stanford.edu>
language: eng

Re-Imaging Violence
description: Recorded Thursday, April 19 (24 MB MP3) We've decided to scrap tonight's planned show (about language post-Imus) in favor of a show about the visual reverberations of the Virginia Tech shooting. Our central prod came from the trusty barthjg, who wrote: I'll pitch a show about Instant Symbols and Icons, based on the Virgina Tech killings. The image of Cho Seung-Hui brazenly holding two handguns, arms outstretched will soon reach iconic status, to be mashed up and shared in all sorts of ways-just like the Abu gharib photos and Che' and everything else that has appeared on t-shirts and ads. How many You Tube videos created in the wake of the shootings? music tributes. every incident enters the mosh pit of creative repurposing. Who is going to write the music, the movie...track every 6 months how pieces of this tragedy filter thru global culture. Watch someone stage the two crazy plays this guy wrote for the drama class he is in. (you can find them on aol.com...i read them last night) barthjg, in a show suggestion to Open Source, April 19, 2007 We're following his lead, and asking: Is there anything to learn about the way we use new technologies in this first mass-murder made, as it were, for YouTube? Are mashups and tributes a form of digital catharsis, a sort of artistic safety valve? Is there a cross-over point where they become pure exploitation, or worse? And what, exactly, is new here? Besides the zeros and the ones, and the ease of dissemination and reconfiguration, is there a difference between a 19th-century suicide note and a 21st-century QuickTime movie? Siva Vaidhyanathan Assistant Professor of Culture and Communication, NYU Blogger, SABEROCRACY.NET Keith Jenkins Picture Editor, The Washington Post Flickr blogger, Burnt Pixel Blogger, Good Reputation Sleeping Founder of the Post's Blog City feature James Der Derian Director of the Global Security and Global Media Project at The Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University Author of Virtuous…
creator: Open Source Media, Inc.
date: 2007-06-13
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: David Miller Senior Producer, Open Source www.radioopensource.org 617.497.8096 david@radioopensource.org
language: eng

Sick Sad World: A lesson from Virginia Tech
description: April 20, 2007 Opinion article By Jackie Bernstein It's time for a game of Funny/Not Funny. First: A joke overheard in the CoHo on Monday referencing the Virginia Tech massacre. Not Funny. No one laughed, and someone said, "Too soon, too soon." Next: An off-hand comment made at the gym on Wednesday, poking fun at the ethnicity of the Korean shooter responsible for the assault, Cho Seung-Hui. Funny? At least, I heard people laugh in response. "Oh, man... that's so wrong. Hahahahaha." How soon is too soon to use a tragedy as fodder for comedy? "Homer loves Flanders," a Simpsons episode in season five, parodies Charles Whitman, the University of Texas tower-sniper: Ned Flanders guns down multiple Homers from atop a bell tower. About 25 years after the massacre, FOX executives found the scene funny enough to air. How long will it take for South Park to run an episode satirizing the events at Virginia Tech? I think that the amount of time it takes for someone to find humor in tragedy is directly related to his connection to the incident. It is unlikely that the man who sold Sueng-Hui his gun will ever find anything humorous about the shooting. The student in the CoHo who made his joke last Monday probably doesn't know anyone at Virginia Tech. I doubt that he feels any kind of personal connection to the event. However, we as Stanford students are actually deeply connected to the Virginia Tech massacre. Seung-Hui exploded at Virginia Tech. Maurice "Mo" Morsette imploded at Stanford. Both students' lives ended in tragedy. Maurice Moisette's suicide is one of at least three reported at Stanford this academic year. Ranked in 2005 by The Princeton Review as the university with the "Happiest Students Overall" in the country, Stanford doesn't seem to be living up to its reputation any longer. The Virginia Tech tragedy will undoubtedly lead the Stanford administration and various support groups on campus to reexamine how issues of mental health are handled on campus. This respons…
creator: Jackie Bernstein
date: 2007-06-13
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Permissions granted by James Hohmann Editor-in-Chief The Stanford Daily <jhohmann@stanford.edu>
language: eng

If we had hinges
description: Display of support painted on front window of Imaginations Toy and Furniture Company, South Main Street, Blacksburg. The poem reads: If we had hinges in our heads There wouldn't be no sin. 'Cause we could take the bad stuff out, And leave the good stuff in. - Shel Silverstein Photo taken by Brent Jesiek on June 9, 2007. -- Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
creator: Brent Jesiek
date: 2007-06-13
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
language: eng

Un gînd pentru studenţii şi profesorii din Virginia
description: 32 de colegi ai noştri, studenţi şi profesori, au fost ucişi într-o tragedie fără sens care a zguduit America şi lumea întreagă. Noi, cei 37.000 de studenţi şi profesori ai Universităţii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza" din Iaşi, împărtăşim durerea şi revolta în faţa unui act de neînţeles. Este dificil să reacţionezi în faţa provocărilor absurde ale violenţei, mai ales atunci cînd universitatea ştie să lupte doar pentru cunoaştere şi o viaţă mai bună în comunitate. Îi plângem şi noi pe cei care acum şi-au pierdut viaţa în campusul Universităţii Virginia Tech, printre care şi pe profesorul de origine română, Liviu Librescu. Cu gândul la ei şi la tinerii de pretutindeni, nu putem decât să ne continuăm misiunea de a lumina minţile omeneşti prin ştiinţă, pentru că sîntem convişi că acesta este singurul mod în care putem inventa împreună un viitor mai bun. 32 of our colleagues, students and teachers, were killed in a senseless tragedy that horrified America and the entire world. Here, at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, the 37.000 students and teachers share the grief and anger in front of such irrational and unfair act. It is difficult to find the right reaction to the absurd challenges of violence, especially since the university's only fight is for knowledge ad a better life for the community. We too mourn the lives lost in the campus of Viriginia Tech University, among which that of the Romanian professor Liviu Librescu. Thinking of them and the students everywhere, we can only carry on our mission of sheding light upon human minds through science, for we are convinced that this is the only way to invent a better future. -- Sursa Originala/Original Source: http://www.uaic.ro/uaic/bin/view/Main/N0704191142
creator: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
date: 2007-06-12
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Laura Copcea (promovare@uaic.ro)
language: eng

Stage weapons ban reversed
description: Published: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Tyler Hill Staff Reporter After a weekend of national media coverage and student outcry, administrators decided Monday to rescind the ban on stage weapons that was enacted in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre. Last week, Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg told several students that realistic-looking stage weapons would no longer be permitted in Yale theatrical productions. Amid concerns that the restriction was inhibiting free speech, a group of administrators decided Monday to overturn the policy, Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky said. In the future, Yale will require that audiences be warned before performances that include scenes with fake weapons, she said. Trachtenberg had originally intended to ban all stage weapons, but was persuaded that obviously fake weapons should be permitted, Sarah Holdren '08 told the News last Thursday. Holdren directed this weekend's production of "Red Noses," which was forced to use wooden swords instead of more realistic props. The restriction also affected the opera "Orpheus in the Underworld," which used balloon swords in place of its real-looking stage weapons. News of the University's reversal was only released when a reporter from the Associated Press called Klasky on Monday evening to ask about the original restriction. Students have not yet been officially informed of the change in policy, Klasky said. Administrators, including Yale President Richard Levin, weighed in on the decision to overturn the ban after it became apparent that it concerned issues of free speech, Levin said. Although the administration will not censor future shows, he said, the Dean of Student Affairs still has the authority to regulate student productions. "The fundamental consideration was trading off artistic freedom of expression against concern about the potential emotional precariousness of audiences during the week of a mass murder," he said. "There was a different approach which hadn't been consid…
creator: Sara Hood
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Editor-in-Chief, Yale Daily News - Sarah Mishkin <sarah.mishkin@gmail.com>
language: eng

Elis decry ban on stage weapon use
description: Published: Monday, April 23, 2007 Cullen Macbeth Staff Reporter Members of Yale's undergraduate theater community reacted with anger over the weekend to Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg's decision to bar performance groups — at least temporarily — from using life-like weapons in their productions. The new rule is meant to protect audience members who may have connections to last week's deadly gun massacre at Virginia Tech University or who may react adversely to violence on stage because of personal experiences, Trachtenberg said. But many students said the new restrictions represent inappropriate censorship of student artwork and that Trachtenberg should not have implemented them without soliciting student input beforehand. The new restrictions were put in place to protect people in the Yale and New Haven communities who live or have friends who live in Virginia, or who have seen people die by gun violence, Trachtenberg said. She said the outcry from students upset with her decision has been exaggerated. "I think people should start thinking about other people rather than trying to feel sorry for themselves and thinking that the administration is trying to thwart their creativity," Trachtenberg said. "They're not using their own intelligence. ... We have to think of the people who might be affected by seeing real-life weapons." The new restrictions do not ban all types of stage weapons, Trachtenberg said. She said she did not prevent an instructor in theater studies who talked to her on Friday from using a dulled knife to cut a cabbage head in a production, for example. This weekend's productions of "Red Noses" and "Orpheus in the Underworld" were affected by the rule change. "Red Noses" had to substitute wooden swords for more realistic-looking ones after learning of the rule from Trachtenberg on Thursday. The University overstepped its bounds by prohibiting the ways in which students can express themselves on stage, said Dara Lind '09, who has manag…
creator: Sara Hood
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Editor-in-Chief, Yale Daily News - Sarah Mishkin <sarah.mishkin@gmail.com>
language: eng

Weapons to go off stage
description: Published: Friday, April 20, 2007 Courtney Long Staff Reporter and Copy Editor In the wake of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech in which a student killed 32 people, Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg has limited the use of stage weapons in theatrical productions. Students involved in this weekend's production of "Red Noses" said they first learned of the new rules on Thursday morning, the same day the show was slated to open. They were subsequently forced to alter many of the scenes by swapping more realistic-looking stage swords for wooden ones, a change that many students said was neither a necessary nor a useful response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech. According to students involved in the production, Trachtenberg has banned the use of some stage weapons in all of the University's theatrical productions. While shows will be permitted to use obviously fake plastic weapons, students said, those that hoped to stage more realistic scenes of stage violence have had to make changes to their props. Trachtenberg could not be reached for comment Thursday night. "Red Noses" director Sarah Holdren '08 said she first heard about the changes in a phone call from a friend as she arrived at the Off-Broadway Theater on Thursday morning. At the theater, technical director Jim Brewczynski told her about the new regulations. The pair then met with Trachtenberg, who initially wanted no stage weapons to be used in the show, Holdren said, though she later agreed to permit the use of obviously fake weapons. In a speech made before last night's opening show of "Red Noses," Holdren said that Trachtenberg's decision to force the production to use wooden swords instead of metal swords will do little to stem violence in the world. "Calling for an end to violence onstage does not solve the world's suffering: It merely sweeps it under the rug, turning theater — in the words of this very play — into 'creamy bon-bons' instead of 'solid fare' for a thinking, feeling audience," she …
creator: Sara Hood
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Editor-in-Chief, Yale Daily News - Sarah Mishkin <sarah.mishkin@gmail.com>
language: eng

Memorials are a positive force after tragedy
description: Published: Thursday, May 3, 2007 Opinion articles Danielle Tumminio Guest Column 4/17/07. When students from Virginia Tech struggled to make sense of the horror that struck their campus last week, they erected a banner on their student center with the date of the massacre. It provided a reminder of a time and a place, a way to express a trauma through white lettering on black canvas. It was an attempt to remember. Theirs is not the first — nor, unfortunately, will it be the last — commemoration of a tragedy. This desire to remember seems built into us. We sing, sculpt, hold one another, dance, write poems and pray in order to find solace in our most tumultuous moments. Using these forms, we try to incorporate trauma into our lives so that we can give meaning to events that feel meaningless. If we're going to move forward from the horrors we experience, this process seems essential. Otherwise, evil becomes something like a dangling participle not properly integrated into a sentence. It hangs there, and it has, quite literally, the last word. There's no hope in a worldview like that. So through our memorials, we try to find meaning. Perhaps that's why our nation's capital is peppered with commemorations of wars and those who represented our country in them. Through carved stone, we remember our history. Likewise, after the Columbine shootings, students draped flowers over Rachel Scott's car and sat on its hood, sobbing in grief. Leaning against red Acuras, we remember our loves. Or following Hurricane Katrina, memorial services were held in worship spaces across the country. In our religious homes, we remember the possibility of hope. But if there are right ways to remember, there are certainly wrong ways to remember as well. "Just move on" and "It's time to get over it" are common phrases in our culture, and they imply that the only way to recover from a traumatic event is to forget it. The trouble with these cliches is that they conflate remembering with relivin…
creator: Danielle Tumminio
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Yale Daily News, Editor-in-chief - Sarah Mishkin <sarah.mishkin@gmail.com>
language: eng

Pychoanalysis won't fully explain VT killer
description: Published: Friday, April 27, 2007 Opinion articles By: Carol Duh My parents immigrated into this country in 1982. My parents told me a Taiwanese parable while I attended the same schools as Mike Pohle, one of the 32 victims of last week's massacre. In the story, a teacher took his class on a field trip to the mountains of Taiwan. On the way home, they encountered a swarm of killer bees. The teacher removed his clothing to attract the bees away from the children to his flesh. I heard the echoes of this parable while reading about Liviu Librescu, the professor who blocked the classroom door with his body while the gunman demanded entry. While he did this, students escaped through the windows. No doubt that being stung by bullets was agonizing. There was little dignity in these painful deaths, only in their sacrifice. And what of the bee? The bee who stings out of cowardice dies soon after, so we cannot ask. Panicked, we call in the world-class bee experts to explain the situation. This response, though gratifying, is in vain. Like Wall Street analysts who offer their best predictions after the fact, the analysis will not provide us with the protection we need. The bee and Seung Cho perceived threats that were not real; their behavior escapes appreciation. Let's try anyway. His parents were South Korean immigrants who sent a daughter to Princeton and a son to Virginia Tech — a feat worthy to boast of across many oceans. College is the frame upon which immigrants hang their hopes, but sometimes it comes at a price. The drive that steers us toward hard work is often frustrated by the apparent frivolity that pervades American campus culture. Fraternity keggers, society taps — these seem to be the cornerstones of the American college student's anxiety. To the ethic of a different culture, they are laughable. Seung Cho's complaints, through lunacy, tap the drumbeat of this disappointment. Seung Cho's two defining characteristics continue to be his mental health and his …
creator: Sara Hood
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Editor-in-Chief, Yale Daily News - Sarah Mishkin <sarah.mishkin@gmail.com>
language: eng

Mental hygiene weighs tough options
description: Published: Friday, April 27, 2007 Maggie Reid Staff Reporter In her sophomore year at Yale, Naasiha Siddiqui '07 found herself facing more problems than just the sophomore slump. Siddiqui was severely depressed, and when she checked into the Mental Hygiene Department at University Health Services, she was forced to leave school on medical withdrawal. Ever since, she has struggled to balance manic depression with a college career — taking three forced withdrawals and one voluntary leave of absence, and applying for readmission five times. "I was really frustrated," she said, referring to her first forced withdrawal in the fall of 2001. "Their attitude was, 'She's unstable, we don't want her at school right now.' In one respect, it seemed like discrimination because I was doing all I could to try to stay in school. But on the other hand, the administration should have some say over when students aren't fit to go to school." Mental illness has long been a hot-button issue on college campuses, but in the wake of this month's shootings at Virginia Tech, even greater scrutiny has been placed on university support systems for students with psychological illnesses. At Yale, the Mental Hygiene Department specializes in counseling and crisis intervention for suicide and depression cases. But in seeking to protect the psychological health of its students, Yale's mental health services must walk the fine line between enabling students to receive treatment while remaining in school and protecting the student's health and safety — or the health and safety of others — by sending seriously depressed students off campus. For the most part, universities across the country find themselves in a sticky situation with regard to mentally ill students. Universities may be found liable if they fail to detect and respond to cases that result in suicide or murder. But privacy and anti-discrimination laws limit the amount of information about students' mental health to which administrato…
creator: Sara Hood
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Editor-in-chief, Yale Daily News - Sarah Mishkin <sarah.mishkin@gmail.com>
language: eng

Focsanenii au fost la mormintarea eroului din America
description: De, Silvia Vrinceanu Nichita | 21.04.2007 Focsaneanul Zvi Ben Dov, emigrat in Israel in urma cu jumatate de secol, ne-a transmis ieri amanunte despre funeraliile profesorului Liviu Librescu Liviu Librescu, profesorul care si-a salvat studentii din fata unei ploi de gloante sacrificindu-si propria viata in amfiteatrul Universitatii Tehnice din Virginia, a fost condus ieri pe ultimul drum, in Israel, tara in care locuiesc si cei doi fii ai sai. La funeralii au fost prezenti si citiva focsaneni israelieni, care au copilarit cu profesorul Liviu Librescu in perioada celui de-al doilea razboi mondial, cind au fost nevoiti sa indure ostilitatea dusa pina la extrem fata de populatia de origine evreiasca. "Am participat impreuna cu prietenul meu focsanean Jack Gheber la mormintarea lui Liviu. Au fost sute si sute de oameni, rude, prieteni, profesori de la universitate, plus o delegatie special venita din Romania, in frunte cu ambasadorul Romaniei in Israel, pentru a inmina familiei ordinul national «Steaua Romaniei» in grad de mare cruce, oferit post-mortem de presedintele Traian Basescu pentru eroismul de care a dat dovada. Impreuna cu Jack, ne-am dus la Marilena, sotia lui Liviu, si ea tot din Focsani, si am consolat-o. Eu i-am inminat «Ziarul de Vrancea», care a sosit in Israel in urma cu doua zile, adus de prietenul nostru Nicu Stoinescu. I-am transmis condoleante de la grupul vostru din Focsani", ne-a transmis ieri, prin e-mail, Zvi Ben Dov, liderul focsanenilor din Israel, directorul general al organizatiei A.M.I.R. Acesta si-a ebraizat numele dupa ce a emigrat, in Focsani fiind cunoscut sub numele de Puiu Zilberman. De precizat ca Zvi Ben Dov si Jack Gheber au fost colegi cu Liviu Librescu la Focsani, inainte de a emigra in Israel. "Mama lui Jack a fost directoarea scolii evreiesti de fete din Focsani, unde a studiat si Marilena, sotia lui Liviu. L-a recunoscut si pe Jack si pe mine imediat. La funeralii am intilnit si alti prieteni focsaneni, pe dr. Fritz Scwartz…
creator: Silvia Vrinceanu Nichita
date: 2007-06-08
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Silvia Vrinceanu Nichita (silvia@ziaruldevrancea.ro)
language: ron

Liviu Librescu, profesorul de eroism
description: Un roman admirat in toata lumea Liviu Librescu, profesorul de eroism A supravietuit Holocaustului si comunismului, dar l-a ucis un student. Presa internationala scrie pe larg despre profesorul israelian de origine romana Liviu Librescu, care a murit salvandu-si studentii in timpul masacrului din campusul Universitatii Tehnice din Virginia. Profesor de peste 20 de ani in SUA, Librescu a murit in timp ce bloca usa de acces in sala de curs, pentru ca studentii sa poata fugi de atacator. Universitatea Politehnica Bucuresti (UPB) a declarat marti - zi de doliu in memoria profesorului Liviu Librescu, fost absolvent al Facultatii de Inginerie Aerospatiala. · Universitatile din SUA - in stare de alerta. Ieri s-a inregistrat inca o amenintare · Studentii de la Virginia - reporteri care au filmat cu telefoanele · Atacatorul de la Virginia Tech - un student de origine sud-coreeana · America sub soc: masacru intr-un campus universitar Moartea lui Librescu si a colegului sau, Profesorul Kevin Granata, a fost anuntata prima data pe site-ul oficial al institutiei. Articolul postat in versiunea engleza a HotNews.ro, despre moartea lui Liviu Librescu, a fost preluat pe blogurile Claremont Institute for the Study of Statemanship and Political Philosphy. Un material dedicat de Associated Press lui Liviu Librescu a fost preluat de sute de publicatii din intreaga lume. Articolul povesteste cum familia lui Librescu a primit e-mailuri de consolare de la studentii acestuia, care au povestit despre modul cum s-a jertfit pentru studenti. CNN, The Times, The New York Times si Haaretz se numara printre multele publicatii si televiziuni care au relatat pe larg despre cum i-a aparat Librescu pe studenti cu pretul propriei sale vieti. Pe site-ul oficial al Universitatii Tehnice din Virginia, a fost anuntat decesul a doi dintre dascalii universitatii: Profesor Liviu Librescu si Profesor Kevin Granata, morti pe data de 16 aprilie 2007, in timp ce isi tineau cursurile in cladirea Norris Hall de …
creator: C.Marin
date: 2007-06-08
contributor: Adriana Seagle
language: ron

Omagiu lui Liviu Librescu in Israel
description: Data publicarii: 21/04/2007 Profesorul israelian de origine romana Liviu Libreanu, ucis in masacrul de luni de la Virginia Tech, a fost inmormintat vineri in Israel. Zeci de persoane au asistat la funeralii in cimitirul din orasul Raanana, din centrul Israelului, pentru un ultim omagiu adus profesorului Librescu, supravietuitor al Holocaustului care a emigrat in Israel in 1978, pentru a se instala ulterior in Statele Unite. Librescu a tinut blocata usa incaperii pentru a le permite studentilor sa sara pe geam, in timpul conflictului singeros de la Universitatea Tehnica din Virginia din data de 16 aprilie. Ulterior, atacatorul a incercat sa intre in clasa si pentru ca nu a reusit a tras o rafala de gloante in usa. "Imi voi consacra viata mostenirii tale. Adio, tata", a spus fiul sau Joe. Trupul neinsufletit al profesorului Librescu a fost transportat cu zborul Elal nr. 2 de la New York la Tel Aviv, insotit de citiva reprezentanti ai unei organizatii religioase si de membri ai familiei. Profesorul Liviu Librescu s-a nascut in 1930 in Romania. Dupa ce a supravietuit Holocaustului, a refuzat sa se inscrie in Partidul Comunist si si-a pierdut slujba ca inginer aerospatial. In 1976, Liviu Librescu a publicat in secret o carte in Norvegia in care a emis o teorie revolutionara pentru tehnologia aerospatiala. In 1978, dupa ce mai multe grupuri din Israel au facut lobby, lui Librescu i s-a permis sa plece din Romania si s-a stabilit in Israel. La Virginia Tech a inceput sa predea din 1985. Librescu era membru al mai multor academii de constructii din Ucraina, Armenia si Statele Unite ale Americii si a fost distins cu multe premii de catre mai multe organizatii internationale. El avea peste 500 de materiale publicate in mai multe reviste de specialitate sau ca lucrari personale. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.ziaruldeiasi.ro/cms/site/z_is/news/omagiu_lui_liviu_librescu_in_israel_142568.html
creator: Ziarul de Iasi
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Florin Nicula (florin.nicula@ziaruldeiasi.ro)
language: ron

The tragedy of Virginia Tech is partly a tragedy of bureaucracy
description: From the Editor May/June 2007 by Kathrin Day Lassila '81 The tragedy of Virginia Tech is partly a tragedy of bureaucracy. I don't mean the sort of complaint people usually make about bureaucracy -- too much paperwork and red tape. I mean the opposite. Too few records. Too little discussion and sharing of information. Too few staff, perhaps. I'm not blaming the state of Virginia or Virginia Tech for failing to stop a determined murderer. But enough bureaucracy, of the right kind, would have given them a chance. The gun salesman would have known Seung-Hui Cho had a history of mental illness and wasn't entitled to buy guns. The associate dean who told a worried professor last fall that she hadn't heard of any previous problems would have known about the two complaints to the police and the judge's ruling that Cho was a danger to himself. The competing needs for privacy and protection can't be perfectly balanced. Colleges and universities serve a vulnerable demographic. Usually, "major mental illness first shows itself somewhere between the ages of 17 to around 25," says Lorraine Siggins, chief psychiatrist at Yale Health Services. Against those rare but terrible events, universities need discreet and careful systems. If a student has trouble and the trouble is resolved, the university has to leave the student alone to live the ordinary turbulent life of a young adult, in privacy, without stigma. But if trouble recurs, the right administrator has to be able to find out fast that this isn't the first time. The competing needs for privacy and protection can't be perfectly balanced. After VT, says Betty Trachtenberg, dean of student affairs at Yale College, university officials everywhere thought, There, but for the grace of God . . . But it's easier to have good systems and enough staff at a wealthy, relatively small private institution than a large public institution. Siggins speaks of a "web" of people at Yale who act as a safety net. Medical privacy rules prevent her s…
creator: Kathrin Day Lassila
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Permission granted by author Kathrin Lassila, kathrin.lassila@yale.edu
language: eng

Romanian born Hero Liviu Librescu received Highest Award
description: [April 18] Romanian born Hero Liviu Librescu received Highest Award romanian-gymnastics.com BUCHAREST/ The President of Romania, Traian Basescu, has signed today, April the 18th the year to end, the decree concerning the post-mortem conferring of the National Order The Star of Romania with the rank of Grand Cross to Mr. Liviu Librescu, Ph.D., University Professor. The National Order The Star of Romania with the rank of High Cross has been conferred as a sign of high appreciation and gratitude for the entire scientific and academic activity, as well as for the heroism shown in the course of the tragic events which took place on April the 16th, 2007, in the Campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, the United States of America, through which he saved the lives of his students, sacrificing his own life. -- Original Source:http://www.romanian-gymnastics.com/news/2007/04/romanian_born_hero_received_highest_award.htm
creator: Romanian Gymnastics
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Victor (info@romanian-gymnastics.com)
language: eng

Fastest Presidential answer to a citizen request
description: [May 17] Fastest Presidential answer to a citizen request Miami, FL, US / (Press Release) The record for the World's "Fastest Presidential answer to a citizen request" has just been accepted by the World Records Academy. The new record holder is President Traian Basescu (Romania), who promptly answered to an emergency citizen request on April 18 and has issued in less than two hours a Presidential Decree conferring of the National Order „The Star of Romania" to Mr. Professor Liviu Librescu. Also as requested, two days later, in Israel, a special envoy of the Romanian president presented to his widow and two sons the Star of Romania medal in recognition of his courage and contribution to science. Romanian born Professor Liviu Librescu is the hero "who, at the cost of his own life, saved the lives of his students during the massacre at Virginia Tech." -according to Jewish War veterans of the USA. The Certificate for this new world record will reach President Basescu during the next days and his record will be listed in the 2008 edition of the World Records Book, the official publication of the World Records Academy. "The main point of this story which convinced us to recognize this somehow unusual (but very human-appealling) world record was that a President which knew he has only few hours left before being suspended by the Parliament, a President which has to approve and sign tons of documents during his last few hours as President, left everything behind -as requested by an ordinary citizen (a 23 years old girl, a marketing student!)- and did what a President always has to do in the first instance: served his Country, above anything else, even above his own personal political problems", said Tom Howard, Head of Records for World Records Academy. He also added "We all have dreamed about changing the World in better, some still hopes, aren't we? If the young generation still has this dream, it's encouraging, especially when somebody like...a President, does fulfill…
creator: World Records Academy
date: 2007-06-11
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Victor (info@romanian-gymnastics.com)
language: eng

Virginia Tech: Laying The Blame
description: Karen Harper 22 Apr 2007 There will be a lot of blame dished out in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre. But one element will be missing and that is the system itself. Capitalism and the society it nurtures will remain unscathed in the big business press. In the aftermath of another school shooting in the US, many will be asking why and some will be trying to lay blame. The shooter's parents will be blamed for how they raised him; the school will be blamed for how it dealt with his mental illness; and his schoolmates past and present will be blamed for how they teased and ostracized him. However, the blame will mostly not be laid where it appropriately belongs; on the head of capitalism and the social values that it has nourished. No individual can be looked at out of context of the larger society, and this young man and what he became cannot be understood without first looking at the society he came from. Unfortunately, the "angry loner" type that has done these sorts of shootings in the past is not the product of an isolated genetic mutation that happens unpredictably and that cannot be prevented. Such people are a real product of their environment and the direct result of capitalism's impact on personal development and mental health. This society promotes individuality, self-absorption, and competition over solidarity and collective struggle. Is it any surprise that some young people are so incapable of not only identifying with the group and its larger good, but also of even, in severe cases, forming any kind of meaningful relationship with another individual? These people after years of painful experiences can come to the conclusion that they are completely unloved and unlovable. Because we are social beings, this conclusion makes life difficult to continue. Capitalism is daily bombarding our self-esteem; we are never good enough under capitalism. There is always some drug to make us happier, some surgery to make us thinner, some car or house or job tha…
creator: Karen Harper
date: 2007-06-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication
language: eng

What May Come: Asian Americans and the Virginia Tech Shootings
description: By Tamara K. Nopper | 04.19.2007 April 17, 2007 Like many, I was glued to the television news yesterday, keeping updated about the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech University. I was trying to deal with my own disgust and sadness, especially since my professional life as a graduate student and college instructor is tied to universities. And then the other shoe dropped. I found out from a friend that the news channel she was watching had reported the shooter as Asian. It has now been reported, after much confusion, that the shooter is Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean immigrant and Virginia Tech student. As an Asian American woman, I am keenly aware that Asians are about to become a popular media topic if not the victims of physical backlash. Rarely have we gotten as much attention in the past fifteen years, except, perhaps, during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Since then Asians are seldom seen in the media except when one of us wins a golfing match, Woody Allen has sex, or Angelina Jolie adopts a kid. I am not looking forward to the onslaught of media attention. If history truly does have clues about what will come, there may be several different ways we as Asian Americans will be talked about. One, we will watch white media pundits and perhaps even sociologists explain what they understand as an "Asian" way of being. They will talk about how Asian males presumably have fragile "egos" and therefore are culturally prone to engage in kamikaze style violence. These statements will be embedded with racist tropes about Japanese military fighters during WWII or the Viet Cong—the crazy, calculating, and hidden Asian man who will fight to the death over presumably nothing. In the process, the white media might actually ask Asian Americans our perspectives for a change. We will probably be expected to apologize in some way for the behavior of another Asian—something whites never have to collectively do when one of theirs engages in (mass) violence, which is often. And then s…
creator: Tamara K. Nopper
date: 2007-06-10
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere.
language: eng

On Being A College Professor after the VT Massacre
description: Thursday, April 19, 2007 I had nightmares about the VT massacre last night. It was on a two day delay. I knew that eventually the horror of what had happened would start to eat away at me. In part, I think my dreams haunted me precisely because I didn't talk, or rather listen, to what students thought about this. I didn't check in to see if they were suffering, in shock, afraid . . . I had to think a lot about why I didn't, especially after the Provost sent us a thoughtful email encouraging us to do so. What it comes down to is that I didn't want to think about it. I didn't want to actually confront the horror of this event. I wasn't prepared for hearing any vitriol, anger or racist statements either (not that students would've made such statements, but I worried). I am scared and frightened by what happened, and in my selfishness, I didn't want to hear anything about it, or how it affected my students. I started to realize how frightened I was by the events yesterday while talking to my colleagues in the Philosophy lounge. I had been studying the faces of the dead at the NYTimes website. But, more importantly, I had been studying the faces of the dead professors. One of them, Jamie Bishop, looked like the sort of colleague I have here. He was young, married, and well-loved by his students. Don't get me wrong, I paused on pictures of young women and men, who could've been my own students, and found myself speechless over the loss. But, seeing the pictures of dead professors haunted me the most. And, it is precisely that which I dreamt: being hunted by a former student, being called to protect my class from an armed assailant. These are not tasks that one signs on for when he/she becomes a college professor. Kerry reminded me of a student we both had a few years ago, who I am convinced was schizophrenic. He was the right age and gender for the onset of schizophrenia. His papers were long, stream of consciousness writings full of references to disturbing sexuality. Th…
creator: Aspazia / Mad Melancholic Feminista Blog
date: 2007-06-09
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
language: eng