Jumble

If you haven't seen a Tufts Bhangra performance, you're missing out. Luckily, you can catch video from their performances on YouTube:

Recently, they uploaded some rehearsal clips to give viewers a taste of some new moves:

The Developmental Technologies Research Group (DevTech), directed by Associate Professor Marina Bers at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, aims to understand how new technologies can play a positive role in children's development and learning.

In 2005 and 2006, the team used Zora -- a web-based environment explicitly designed to help young people explore issues of identity and to promote positive development through the use of technology -- to produce walkthroughs of active citizenship opportunities at Tufts. Even though they're a couple years old, they're still compelling applications of some homegrown innovation -- some Friday time travel, if you will.

Read more about Bers' work.

Tufts achieved a cultural milestone last night by being referenced on the Simpsons. Someone (not us!) was kind/crafty enough to get a video clip of the mention up on YouTube the old fashioned way -- by pointing their video camera at the television. Don't have a cow, man, but you might want to turn your volume up.

EDIT: Here's a much better clip from Hulu.

Beginning this August with the entering class of 2013, Tufts School of Medicine, in partnership with Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, offers a "Maine Track" for applicants who are interested in a unique, innovative curriculum that will provide clinical training experiences in Maine and expose medical students to the unique aspects of rural practice as well as training in a major tertiary medical center.

Maine Medical Center produced this video about the program:

Learn more about the Maine track. You can also read the Tufts Medicine magazine feature about School of Medicine alumni working in rural Maine.

The Fletcher School is planning a conference for Oct. 23 on "Managing Political Risk: A Cross-Sector Conference on Political Risk Measurement and Mitigation." Leading up to the conference, some of the folks affiliated with the event are blogging on related issues, previewing the topics to be discussed on site. Check out the issues and join the discussion.

Dawn Undurraga, a graduate student at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, shared this video from the recent Oak Street Fair in Chinatown of community members rolling their own sushi made with brown rice and vegetables while learning about the benefits of whole grains from Tufts nutrition and public health students.

We're just a box full of robots.

(More Tufts Robotics fun on Twitter)

In order to learn how to save, they learned how to destroy. Check out the blog recap and photo gallery from the disaster recovery workshop Digital Collections and Archives participated in with Gregor Trinkaus-Randall of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

Want to know more about the music scene in Boston? Sophomore Sara Harari recently signed on as a contributor to the music blog Pulp and Circumstance. Check out her recent review of a show by the Phenomenal Handclap Band at the Paradise in Boston.

It was a great Homecoming weekend here on the Hill -- great weather, good vibes and some stellar victories for Jumbo athletics. We're starting to see the videos and pictures roll in, so let's share some here.

Check out this performance by the "Baby Jills" -- new members of the Jackson Jills a cappella troupe -- in the annual Homecoming a cappella concert at Goddard Chapel:

Tufts alum and Flickr user robynmichelle79 shared some great photos from the scene at the football game -- which Tufts won 25-22 in OT!

Anything else? Please share in the comments!

What's the connection between Tufts and recent Nobel Prize in Economics winner Elinor Ostrom? Peter Levine, director of the CIRCLE initiative at Tisch College, explains. Cool to note: "Before the Nobel Committee snagged her, we awarded her the 2009 Tisch Research Prize."

Congratulations to Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics!

The founders of the renewable energy consulting firm Emergent Energy -- three of whom are Tufts students -- have been named among the top 25 young entrepreneurs in the U.S. by Business Week. Readers can vote for the business they feel holds the most promise, but voting ends Nov. 2.

From the archives: E-News covered Emergent last year.

Navigating dining options can be tough for people with celiac disease or other conditions that mandate a gluten-free lifestyle. On the Gluten Freeways blog, the author -- identifying as a Tufts grad, though we're unable to confirm an identity -- talks about their positive experience with Tufts Dining Services in maintaining a gluten-free diet.

Tufts Dining recently got a shoutout from CeliacFacts on Twitter about their accommodations for students with dietary restrictions. Go gluten-free Jumbos!

Fletcher School graduate Shashi Tharoor (F'76) appeared on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" on Oct. 12 to talk about President Obama's receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Tharoor, currently the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, served as the UN Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information from 2002-2007.

Black and white cookies are a class, but how about brown and blue cookies? One Tufts student takes a spirited twist on a classic recipe to share during "hall snacks" night in his dorm. Check out the drool-worthy pics and the recipe so you can make your own. (But you don't have to share if you don't want to.)

Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event uniting the world's bloggers around the issue of climate change with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Sustainability and environmental awareness are incredibly important issues here at Tufts, so we wanted to make sure to mark this occasion on Jumble by doing what we do best -- showcasing some cool stuff we found on the web.

Tufts Recycles has a YouTube channel with some pretty funny PSAs about recycling, including this one:

You can also find lots of great information about recycling at Tufts on their website.

Tufts Office of Sustainability has a ton of information on their website, but some of the buried treasure we found includes an "Eco Map" guide to sustainability on campus, some photo galleries of events from last spring and a link to the Eco-Ambassadors' Facebook group.

In UIT, the Geographic Information Systems group provides information on how GIS technology can be used for research into energy and climate change, providing links to information on topics such as mapping alternative energy resources, emission-reducing land use and transportation planning and exploring climate change risk and vulnerability.

Last but not least, the Tufts/Boston Architectural College Solar Decathlon team is currently showcasing their energy efficient home in a competition on the Mall in Washington D.C. against 19 other universities. We've got some coverage of the team, including a video tour of their Curio House, but you can get the scoop direct from Team Boston via Twitter, Facebook or their slick website.

Any other Blog Action Day posts out there in the Tufts community? Or cool sustainability-centric content in the Tufts web universe that we can highlight? Let us know!

• Office of Web Communications
• University Photography

Take action against climate change! Everyone can do their part.

PS - Don't forget our post from the other day about the Tufts grads who helped found the renewable energy consulting firm Emergent Energy being named among the top young entrepreneurs in America by Business Week!

The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy hosts a regular seminar series where guests -- including Tufts faculty, scholars from other universities and experts working in the field -- speak on a variety of topics. Each weekly talk is recorded to video and uploaded to this page. Check out some of the recent installments of the series, including talks on "The Future of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Conservation in New England" and "Re-rooting Boston's Urban Food System through Local and Regional Partnerships."

Much as we hate to admit it, it did happen. Yesterday, in fact. One enterprising student got some video footage of snow falling on the Hill. Just tilt your head to the left and take a look:

Despite the power disruption, Parents Weekend carried on. Check out these videos of the Hollywood-bound Beelzebubs singing some classics:

The Traveling Treasure Trunk entertained the young and the young at heart:

Office of Undergraduate Admissions blogger and Tufts sophomore Chase Gregory recounted her parents weekend in a new webcomic.

Diane Hessan -- CEO of Communispace, a 1976 grad and also a parent -- shared a twitpic snapshot of the Tufts Third Day Gospel Choir performing.

Check out these videos of the Gospel Choir in action:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Rehearsal

The Shir Appeal a cappella group also shone on stage:

They also shone in the dark, soldiering on to perform during the power outage:

Part 1 | Part 2

Check out the Tufts Pep band in action:

Any more fun pics or videos from Parents Weekend? Send 'em our way!

Freshman Charmaine Poh was inspired by a talk freelance Middle East correspondent Alice Fordham gave to the EXPOSURE group last week where she discussed the need for resilience in the field of journalism.

I sometimes wonder if it’s so silly to believe in all that Disney-esque stuff about ‘chasing your dreams’ and how ‘everything is possible’ (coincidentally, that phrase also happens to be on my wallpaper). Because these things happen. Miracles, success, happiness. Dreams do come true. ... I should clarify that these things don’t land on your lap. They come after a long period of waiting, frustration, tears, hoping. They come after a lot of hard work. But they come.

On Oct. 3, the Tufts Robotics club competed in the fifth annual Franklin Cup robot competition, part of the Franklin Institute's World Space Week 2009 activities. Check out this video of the Jumbonator in action:

From the Franklin Institute's press release:

Held at The Franklin Institute each year, over 35 robots participate in the robot conflict tournament that pits robot against robot in a three‐minute battle displaying ingenuity, engineering creativity, and resilience. During this competition visitors will see robots ranging in size from a minuscule, one‐pound robot to a floor‐shaking, thirty‐pound robot use the best of intelligent design, along with innovative tools to battle one‐another. The goal of the competition is to outmaneuver or disable the rival’s robotic creation by relying on either their small but lethal power or an arsenal of gadgets to disarm their opponents.

If you've ever been to a Spirit of Color show, you know how uproarious and crazy it can be. This dance troupe brings a ton of energy to their performances, matched only by the energy the audience serves up in return. If you're looking for a pick-me-up (or a desktop dance party), SoC has a YouTube page with some cool clips, including rehearsal videos and a video of their performance at this year's Orientation Show.

Congrats to Team Boston, the Tufts/BAC students who built an energy efficient home and took it all the way to the Mall in Washington D.C. to compete in the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon. Their hard work got the attention of U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Check out this blog post by Markey and video produced by the Select Committee showcasing their accomplishment:

On Oct. 20, Amnesty International Secretary-General Irene Khan received the Institute for Global Leadership's Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award. Download an MP3 of her talk on "The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights" (55.9MB, 1h24m).

• More about Khan
• More about the award
• More about the IGL

Pictured above are the Uhrig Family Gardens and Terrace, dedicated in 2002 in honor of Miles Uhrig, A51, G52, the former director of undergraduate admissions, and his wife, Judith, J55.

The couple's children, led by their son, Jonathan, chose to honor their parents by donating an outdoor space that will serve as a place for reflection and respite on the busy Medford/Somerville campus. The brick patio and landscaped sitting area between Eaton Hall and the Tisch Library offers a panoramic view of Boston and a place where passers-by may pause and enjoy the surroundings.

Indeed, many students have found this quiet space as a respite from the hectic pace of college life. Admissions blogger extraordinaire Chase Gregory captured a unique quality of the spot in her webcomic, T is for the T.

Last month, Jeff Stibel (A'95) published the book "Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet." Recently, he blogged for Harvard Business about the relationship between our brains and the Internet:

...The Internet is beginning to imitate many of the cognitive quarks of humans — both creating and enabling a new evolutionary lineage — which explains why we are as addicted to the Internet as we are to human contact (even more so, in some cases). But is the Internet, with all of its cool new toys and gazillions of apps, ramping up this process and blowing out our neurotransmitters — and if so, how do we slow down and attain some semblance of focus?

Stibel is CEO of Web.com and a member of the Advisory Board of the Entrepreneurial Leadership Program at Tufts. Read more about Stibel from Tufts E-News.

The Digital Collections and Archives folks are at it again on their blog. Check out these recent gems:

• From the turn of the 20th century until the 1970s, many Tufts women belonged to the All-Around Club, which filled a wide range of roles in the social lives of Jackson College students.
• 1968 Tufts graduate Tom Hart chronicled much of his Tufts experience on film, capturing life during a tumultuous time from the student perspective.

ELLE magazine named Tufts graduate Shari Redstone (A'75) one of the most powerful women in TV and film. "Sumner Redstone has met more than his DNA match," wrote list author Nikki Finke.

Roger Doiron (F'93), founder of Kitchen Gardeners International, spoke at the Friedman School on Oct. 21 as part of the school's weekly seminar series. (Watch a video of his talk.)

Food policy professor and blogger Parke Wilde posted about the visit, including a video by Kitchen Gardeners celebrating the establishment of the White House garden. The Fletcher School noted Doiron's role in the garden's creation earlier this year.

Check out freshman Matthias Maier's debut skit for the Tufts sketch comedy troupe Major: Undecided

Freshman Lev Novak made his stand-up comic debut last week at The Comedy Studio in Cambridge. Check out these photos of the occasion taken by classmate Nathan Feldman.

On Oct. 23, several Tufts musicians performed their original work in the Granoff Music Center's Distler Hall as part of the "Tufts Unplugged" event, designed to show off the music scene on campus.

Here, watch Dan Halpert (E'12) take the stage:

Molly Newman (A'11) also participated in "Tufts Unplugged." Here is a homemade music video of her covering Sufjan Stevens' "To Be Alone With You."

Speaking of Sufjan Stevens, if you're a fan of his music, you'll want to be at the Granoff Music Center on Nov. 6...