Who's next? Amid an utterly changed business landscape, filling the void of civic leadership will be hard
(The Boston Globe)
By Beth Healy, Globe Staff  |  December 15, 2004

Chad Gifford may cede his post as this city's top banker with little fanfare, but his role as the go-to guy in the Boston business community could prove tougher to fill.

Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers and MIT's new president, Susan Hockfield, are being asked to engage in local affairs as much as bankers or investment magnates do, Grogan said. The universities play a key role in attracting life-science researchers to the area, and Harvard is about to embark on an ambitious effort to build a second campus in Allston.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/12/15/whos_next/ -click url to read

Nonprofit launches plan to reduce medical errors (The Boston Globe)
By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff  |  December 15, 2004

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, run by Harvard physician Dr. Donald Berwick, will try to save 100,000 patients from fatal medical errors and poor care in the next 18 months by persuading hospitals to improve in six areas.

"Everyone is in favor of safety," said Dr. Lucian Leape, a Harvard School of Public Health professor and nationally known patient-safety researcher. "What we really need is a set of concrete specific goals to move things along..."

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/12/15/nonprofit_launches_plan_to_reduce_medical_errors/ click url to read

Google to scan books from big libraries (Associated Press)
By Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer  |  December 15, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO -- Stacks of hard-to-find books are being scanned into Google Inc.'s widely used Internet search engine in its attempt to establish a massive online reading room for five major libraries.

Material from the New York public library as well as libraries at four universities -- Harvard, Stanford, Michigan and Oxford -- will be indexed on Mountain View, Calif.-based Google under the ambitious initiative announced late Monday. 

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/12/15/google_to_scan_books_from_big_libraries/ click url to read

Obesity in immigrants tied to stay in US (The Boston Globe)
By Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press  |  December 15, 2004

CHICAGO -- Long-term exposure to American culture may be hazardous to immigrants' health.

The study, published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, shows the flip side of the American dream of finding a better life in the land of plenty.

 ''Part of the American dream and sort of life of leisure is that you also have some of the negative effects, and obesity is one of the major side effects of the success of technology and just having a life of leisure," said co-author Dr. Christina Wee of Harvard Medical School. ''It's a double-edged sword..."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/15/obesity_in_immigrants_tied_to_stay_in_us/ click url to read

Fed Panel Lifts Rates and Says More Increases Are Probable (The New York Times)
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: December 15, 2004

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 - The Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rates on Tuesday for the fifth time this year and suggested that more rate increases are in order in the months ahead.

As expected, the central bank raised the federal funds rate on overnight loans by a quarter point, to 2.25 percent, and reiterated its intention to raise borrowing costs at a "pace that is likely to be measured."

In a paper published this week by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a team of economists that included Dale Jorgenson of Harvard University predicted that productivity would continue to climb at a relatively strong pace of 2.6 percent a year. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/business/15fed.html click url to read

Harvard and the Nazis (The Jerusalem Post)
By Peter Conradi
December 14, 2004

THE STRANGE goings-on of June 1934 would have remained a curious historical footnote had it not been for Stephen Norwood, a professor of history at the University of Oklahoma.

At a conference on the Holocaust in Boston last month he accused Harvard of being overly friendly toward the Nazis and of "helping enhance the prestige" of Hitler's regime.

The university's willingness to accommodate Hanfstaengl, Norwood argued, was part of a pattern of behavior that extended to academic ties with Heidelberg and other German establishments long after they had been Nazified, and to allowing the German consul to lay a wreath bearing the swastika in the university chapel.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1103003258505&p=1006953079865
click url to read

Remarriage makes men gain weight (BBC News, UK)
December 14, 2004 

The Harvard School of Public Health study suggested their weight gain may be due to marriage improving men's 'bachelor' eating habits.

But the marital demands on their time appear to prevent them making it to the gym to work off the calories.

The study is published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4094291.stm click url to read

Google's library plan 'a huge help' (USA Today)
By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

PALO ALTO, Calif.  Stanford University senior Will Oremus puts in a full day as a student and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. He doesn't get around to studying until after midnight, when the campus library is closed.

Google is picking up the estimated $150 million tab to have employees on-site at the Harvard, Stanford, Oxford and University of Michigan libraries, plus the New York Public Library, begin scanning books, page by page.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-12-14-google-usat_x.htm click url to read

Charter vs. Traditional: Two Types of D.C. Public School Are Not Easy to Compare (The Washington Post)
By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 15, 2004; Page B01

Caroline Hoxby, a Harvard economics professor, has data showing that District charter schools do a better job of teaching students than regular public schools. Nonsense, says Howard Nelson of the American Federation of Teachers. His research suggests the opposite.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64713-2004Dec14.html click url to read