The Daily brief: July 26, 2010

By and
July 26, 2010, 5:14 p.m.

Kinetic energy | Physics grad student Keith Bechtol, 25, won the San Francisco Marathon on Sunday, clocking in at 2:23:28.

Visiting | Basque leader Patxi López is set to visit Stanford, UC-Berkeley and Google this week, according to Spain’s El País.

California’s financial aid | The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that student aid from the state of California increased 5 percent in 2008-09 over the previous year.

I&I | Aero-astro meets environmental engineering to develop sustainable wastewater treatment systems.

Law school | Dean Larry Kramer discusses new hires and competition — but can Stanford Law School overtake Nos. 1 and 2, Yale and Harvard?

Speaking my language | Lera Boroditsky Ph.D. ’01, assistant professor of psychology, writes in the weekend Wall Street Journal: “The idea that language might shape thought was for a long time considered untestable at best and more often simply crazy and wrong. Now, a flurry of new cognitive science research is showing that in fact, language does profoundly influence how we see the world.”

Noted | The challenge, via The New York Times Magazine: “how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing.” M. Ryan Calo of Stanford’s Center for Internet & Society discusses research on Web use and personal disclosure.

Immigrants and crime | “Time for a sensible debate,” writes new Farm arrival Francis Fukuyama, Freeman Spogli Institute senior fellow.

Not just the Golden State | The battle over California’s state rock, serpentine, continues. Jon Christensen of Stanford’s Bill Lane Center for the American West has helped spearhead opposition to a state lawmaker’s proposal to get a new state rock; Christensen is writing a book about serpentine in California history.

WiFi | Stanford researchers say it’s not technology keeping 95 percent of the wireless spectrum unused.

Cardinal athletes | Current and former, busy this week: Rachel Quoan in the women’s U-20 World Cup, Ryan Hall and Lindsay Allen in the USA 7 Mile Championships, Hilary Barte in the Bank of the West Classic, Alissa Haber and Lauren Lappin in the World Cup of Softball, Lindsay Meyer in the World Rowing U23 Championships.

From the weekend | The Stanford heat wave study made Science Friday.

Overheard | “We have managed to create and field an armed force that can engage in very, very lethal warfare without the society in whose name it fights breaking a sweat.” — David Kennedy ’63, discussing the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as their price tags reach $1 trillion.

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