U.Va. Chops Down 100 Year Old Tree 

U.Va. Leads Top Schools in First Year African American Enrollment

Assistant Coach London Leaving for U. of R. Head Coaching Position

It’s that time of year again.  The libraries fill up and students frantically cram before exams.  It’s also time for people to begin heading home for a much needed month’s vacation. 

 Looking forward to next semester, we are excited about launching our new website and increasing the level of daily content that we post.  

The men’s basketball team fell the Orange last night 70-68.  Poor shooting hurt the Cavaliers, and star Sean Singletary struggled to score.  The Syracuse zone limited the Wahoos’ ability to get good looks at the basket.  Virginia dropped only their second game at the John Paul Jones Arena.

 See more from www.virginiasports.com:

http://www.virginiasports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&ATCLID=1346945&DB_OEM_ID=17800

Former UVa running back Tiki Barber, the ACC Player of the Year in 1996, had his jersey retired during the Virginia Tech game at the end of this season.  Defensive end Chris Long, this year’s ACC Defensive Player of the Year, also had his jersey retired.

 See more at www.virginiasports.com

http://www.virginiasports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=88791&SPID=10606&ATCLID=1326326&DB_OEM_ID=17800

Health System First in Nation to Use New Imaging System 

Gator Bowl! 

Construction to begin on new Graduate Center

Is End to Early Admissions Helping U.Va.’s Competitors?

Mamadi Diane led Virginia with 22 points and Sean Singletary added a career-high 10 assists to lead Virginia to a 94-52 win over Northwestern Wildcats in the ninth annual ACC/Big Ten challenge. The Wahoos made 16 3-pointers and rushed to an early lead from which the Wildcats never recovered.

For more, see ESPN.com:

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=273310258

U.Va. Extends Groh’s Coaching Contract Until 2011

Dec. 7: Candidate Kucinich Coming to Charlottesville  

Jefferson Scholars to Move Forward with Demolition of Beta House 

A news article by Michelle Unterbrink

Yesterday, November 27, a crowd of hundreds filled Old Cabell Hall’s auditorium to hear a lecture titled “Time Management” by former UVA professor Randy Pausch. When the auditorium’s 850 seats were filled, approximately 50 additional people were allowed inside to stand and view the lecture. Many more had to be turned away.

The turnout for Pausch’s lecture was impressive, but not surprising. After he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Pausch delivered a lecture at Carnegie Mellon University in September 2007 titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” The lecture has been viewed over a million times, and Pausch has signed a deal with Hyperion to co-author a book based on the lecture, which will be called “The Last Lecture.”

Much like Pausch’s CMU lecture, yesterday’s lecture was insightful, practical, and humorous. Within the first minutes of the lecture, Pausch proclaimed, “time is the only commodity that matters.” Pausch then described goal setting and planning, technologies and tricks to help organize tasks and workspace, and ways to avoid wasting others’ time–while also preventing them from wasting yours. The lecture concluded with a list of “Action Items” for the audience.

The slides from an earlier version of Pausch’s lecture are available here, and the audio/visual will be available from UVA’s School of Engineering.

Pair of Engineering Students Charged with Abduction and Extortion 

U.Va. to Partner with Rolls-Royce

Van Halen at JPJ

An editorial by Seth Goldin

Dr. Larry Sanger visited the University a couple of weeks ago to give a talk about the politics of information in the digital age. He is a cofounder of Wikipedia along with Jimmy Wales, but now he has become one of Wikipedia’s most vocal critics. He expressed in his talk his concern how the lack of deference to experts and the ability of anyone to contribute anonymously has plagued Wikipedia and is its chief flaw. Even people banned from Wikipedia can circumvent procedures to block them. Dr. Sanger aimed to start up another project that would indeed give deference to experts, with anonymity being impossible.

His project, Citizendium, is run on the same software that Wikipedia uses, but to activate an account, one must submit a short biography. This eliminates Wikipedia’s problem of credibility and anonymity. Yes, Wikipedia can be completely anonymous. Though I.P. address can be traced to people that don’t register an account, all one needs to do to really post anonymously is create an account with a nonsensical name, and the I.P. won’t be traced.

Because of the required information on Citizendium, no one is anonymous. Consequently, vandalism is simply not present in the project. The possibility that this could grow to anything comparable to Wikipedia’s popularity is frightening to Sanger, as it would mean that the sum of all information would be reliably and freely available on the Internet. This would be pushing human civilization in a direction never considered before. It’s certainly a noble and incredible goal, but worthy of fear nonetheless.

Dr. Sanger’s primary fear though, is that as online communities like Wikipedia grew more powerful, governments would feel the need to intervene if abuse flagrantly continues, abuse like the vandalism Wikipedia suffers from every day. This isn’t so far fetched. Germany shut down the German Wikipedia temporarily for a scandal involving the naming of a deceased computer hacker. Myspace has been used by the government to target convicted sex offenders. A fear of government intrusion into online communities does not arise out of a vacuum.

Wikipedia’s irresponsibility would serve as the entry point for government regulation. Of course, Dr. Sanger wouldn’t wish this on anyone, including Wikipedia, but has himself taken on the initiative to create a community that would avoid this pressure, because of excellent self-regulation.

The outlook is cynical. Innovation should be driven by a desire to succeed and create a superior product, and advance the greatness of civilization for its own sake, not out of a fear that the government might try to step in and assume control by force. How can anyone expect to innovate under such stressful conditions, by a threat in the back of their mind that they’re close to being slaves of the state? No, this motive is weak. Citizendium is a great project and the goals are laudable, but neither Sanger nor anyone should create and innovate out of fear of the government. Such a mindset would be symptomatic of a far greater problem than Wikipedia’s irresponsibility.

An editorial by Grayson Lambert 

For those students not already at home, the countdown is on for Thanksgiving break. Unlike the past two years, the University’s academic calender this year only gives students Wednesday through Friday for Thanksgiving instead of the entire week. Having the full week off is better, and next year the University should give students this long break.

There are numerous reasons for having the entire week off for Thanksgiving break. First, the week can give students a needed break. Having survived a stretch of midterms and the rigors of the middle of the semester, students could use such a break to prepare for final exams and papers. The short break that we have this year does not really give a rest from the busy schedules that we all have at school.

Letting Thanksgiving break last the entire week is also very practical. Many professors cancel classes anyway, which means that many students leave early, creating for these students a de facto week-long holiday. Also, travel for out-of-state students s much easier when students have the entire week off. Such a schedule also gives an exra weekend as part of the break, so students who travel long distances have more time at home after spending more time traveling.

While the University does not have a long tradition of having a week-long break for Thanksgiving, the change was popular with students. Certainly, the vast majority of students would rather have a week off at Thanskgiving than the extra day at Fall break. Let us hope that next year, the University returns to having a full week off for Thanksgiving. If there is an opportunity for students to give input on next year’s schedule, let University officials know that we want the whole week off for Thanksgiving.

U.Va.’s Competitors See Jump in Early Decision Applications After University’s Decision to Discontinue Practice

University Sees Rise in Study Abroad Percentages

The men’s basketball team upset the University of Arizona, the number 17 team in the country, 75-72 Saturday night.  The Cavaliers were led by senior guard Sean Singletary, who scored 24 points, in particular two free throws and a 15-foot jump shot towards the end of the game to give Virginia the lead.  Singletary, a three-year captain, also added eight assists.  Arizona was paced by Jerryd Bayless, who scored 21 points.

Read more at ESPN.com.

U.Va. Prof: Early Sexual Activity Linked to Reduced Delinquency  

U.Va. Landscaping Wins National Award 

Children’s Rehab Center Celebrates 50 Years

Charlottesville Sees $6.7million Budget Surplus

The Cavaliers improved to 2-0 last night with at 92-53 win over Howard.  Sean Singletary led the Wahoos with 23 points and 8 assists as Virginia overcame a sluggish start to pull away for a convincing win.  Virginia is back in action on Saturday for a its first road game of the year at #17 Arizona.

 More from ESPN.com

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=273180258