The Philadelphia Zoo

Sunday June 13th, 2010

11:00 AM to 5:00 PM 

Price: Special reduced-price admission to the Zoo for club members and one guest: $13.00 per person

Children under 2 years are free

The Big Cats of the World docent-led tour is an additional $5.00 per person

Meet by the front gate between 11:00 and 11:45 AM to pick up tickets

We will meet for lunch by the Swan Boat rides at noon

Bring your own lunch.   Stanford Club of Philadelphia will provide drinks and cookies.

The Big Cats of the World docent-led tour begins at 2:00 PM. Ticket holders will meet at the Independence School House at 2:00 for a one-hour tour.

Questions contact Jackie Metzler by clicking here for email or by phone at (610) 543-2294.

Register online by June 10th by logging into the Stanford Alumni Association website by clicking here. 

 Or by mail: Please send check made payable to “Philadelphia Stanford Chapter,” with number attending and mail to: Stanford Club of Philadelphia, P.O. Box 58191, Philadelphia, PA 19102.

Location:

The Philadelphia Zoo

3400 West Girard Avenue

Philadelphia, PA 19104

(215) 243-1100                                                                  

Parking information is available on the zoo website

Click here to learn more about this event.

Dr. Roberts will discuss his most recent research, including the hot-off-the-press Report entitled: “Generation M2 – Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds” a Kaiser Family Foundation Study released January 20th. Read about this report in the New York Times.

Gerry’s first posting there is about Paul Levinson’s time-travel novel The Plot to Save Socrates.

The novel features a character named Sierra Waters who encounters what seems to be an ancient Greek manuscript that suggests that Socrates might have been offered an alternative to death by drinking hemlock. Instead a non-sentient clone of Socrates might have been substituted at the last moment for the real philosopher, and Socrates would have been catapulted to the future a la H. G. Wells’ time machine.

In the story we also meet the ingenious Heron of Alexandria (150? BC-AD 250?), described as a prolific inventor of devices that embodied principles two thousand years ahead of their mass application in the industrial age. Sierra falls in love with the handsome and charming Alcibiades (450-404 BC), a brilliant student of Socrates who became an Athenian general. And somewhere in space and time, Sierra gets involved with William Henry Appleton (1814-1899) who headed the D. Appleton publishing company and published in the U.S.A. writings of Lewis Carroll, Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer and other leading nineteenth-century philosophers and scientists.

C’mon over for a visit and you’re welcome to leave a Comment.

The first selection of this season is “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi.
Mark your calendars for the on-campus discussion, which will take place on October 25, from 1:00 – 2:30 pm at the Campbell Recital Hall on Stanford Campus. The discussion will be hosted by Andrea Lunsford, the Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of English, and Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric.

The online discussion is as lively as you make it; be sure to post your thoughts and comments as you read! Comments focused on specific sections or passages in the book–particularly those that are most meaningful to you–are the most valuable to the discussion.

Past book discussions have included a rich mix of thought-provoking opinions, suggestions of supplemental resources, and sharing of personal experiences. New readers are always welcome! Get up to speed and start reading

HOT LOCAL NEWS: Persepolis was chosen for next year’s One Book/One Philadelphia program at the city’s libraries and schools. Marjane Satrapi gave a talk at the Free Library on September 23, 2009. Read the Comments to this posting for further info.

The meetings generally take place in Center City, Philadelphia, at 7 PM on the first Monday of each month. Join the ABC  group on Yahoo! by emailing Alumni_Book_Club-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Professor Goldstein’s session will discuss why IP Counsel should pay attention to the politics of intellectual property reform.

A globally recognized expert on intellectual property law, Paul Goldstein is the author of an influential four-volume treatise on US copyright law and a one-volume treatise on international copyright law, as well as leading casebooks on intellectual property and international intellectual property. He has authored seven other books including two novels devoted to intellectual property themes, Errors and Omissions and A Patent Lie. Some of his other works include Copyright’s Highway: From Gutenberg to the Celestial Jukebox, a widely acclaimed book on the history and future of copyright, and Intellectual Property: The Tough New Realities That Could Make or Break Your Business.

The IP Law Summit is a forum that provides a framework for learning through a series of speaker presentations, panel discussions and networking activities among an elite group of IP Counsel. The three-day event, which will be hosted at the Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa from September 16-18, 2009, will give delegates new insight and the ability to forge new industry relationships.

Prof. Lawrence Lessig

On July 16th, our club’s webmasters, Lois and Gerry Elman, attended the World Technology Awards in New York City. As a member of the World Technology Network, Gerry has participated in the nomination process for awards in the law category since 2001 and in several of these festivities.

Coincidentally, Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig won the World Technology Award in Law in 2001 and again this year.  Lessig is famous for his writings on the law of cyberspace and his criticism of certain aspects of intellectual property law.  His latest book, Remix, calls for change in copyright law to facilitate creative mashups including material sampled from existing work.  He is the father of the Creative Commons organization.

Asst. Prof. Christina Smolke

Seated at the table with Gerry and Lois was Christina Smolke, an Assistant Professor in the Bioengineering Department at Stanford. 

Gerry reports:

Now imagine you’re at the Oscars, men in tuxedos, women in evening dress — but in this version the category isn’t “best picture” or “best actor” but rather “individual achievement expected to have lasting impact in their field of enveavor” such as biotechnology, design, information technology, law, or another of the twenty categories for individual nominees and ten categories for corporations.

James Clark & Ali Velshi co-anchor the World Technology Awards 2009

On the stage from which just six hours previously I had presentedmy own talk, CNN business anchor Ali Velshi and WTN Chairman James Clark declared “… and the 2009 World Technology Award for biotechnology goes to … Christina Smolke and Maung Nyan Win.” It seemed to me that Christina hesitated just a moment, maybe not so sure she’d heard correctly, or perhaps composing her thoughts while taking a breath, and then she strode confidently to the stage, picking her way among the closely packed dinner tables in the sold-out room.

Modestly accepting the award, represented by a double-helix ladder-shape embedded within a cuboid of crystal, she gave a brief summary of what their peers regard as groundbreaking work.

Returning home to Swarthmore,  I learned more. The current issue of the Stanford Magazine had been delivered to my mailbox at home while we were in New York, and now I was able to sort through a few days’ accumulation of snail mail. The cover of the July/August issue features a fanciful image representing a cross between a mechanical gear train and nucleic acid base-pairs. Its accompanying story is entitled “Do-it-Yourself DNA: Bioengineers are harnessing genetic raw material to create living ‘machines.’ Where might it all lead?” It’s a report on the latest work of Christina Smolke’s team. Wow!

Gerry & Lois Elman at the 2009 World Technology Awards in New York City

Click here for a list of 2009 award winners and finalists. 

Visit the Stanford University channel on YouTube by clicking here.

Expand your mind with the Stanford  Center for Professional Development. You can access free online seminars presented by distinguished Stanford faculty, senior researchers and industry experts via streaming video – anytime during the quarter, for the entire quarter.  Take free seminars online.

Visit the Stanford on iTunes U (Stanford to go) by clicking here.