Jumble

One of the competing troupes on Season 5 of America's Best Dance Crew was founded by a group of Tufts grads. Static Noyze [ Facebook | Twitter ] was founded in 2006 by William Hsu (A'05), Henry Myint (E'04), Yuhei Ogawa (E'02), Chung Peng (A'03) and Brett Wong (E'05), who met while members of Spirit of Color. Two members of the group representing the troupe on the show have current Tufts affiliations: Enrique Novales (A'09) is a Tufts grad, and Suzette Sagisi is a GSAS student.

The show's season premiere was Jan. 28, but Static Noyze won't be featured until teams from the East region take the stage for the Feb. 4 show at 10PM EST on ABC. Check out video of Static Noyze going back to their roots with an appearance at Spirit of Color's Spring 2009 show.

You can also see more Static Noyze videos on YouTube.

2008 grad Abigail Holtz is the marketing director for indiDenim, a company that creates custom jeans and dress shirts. The company has recently gotten some blog love from DenimHunt and Mums The Wurd. IndiDenim also has its own blog, for all the denim dishing you can handle.

Since 2000, Tufts Hillel director and Rabbi Jeff Summit has been immersed in the music of Uganda. He began by chronicling the lives and the music of the Abayudaya, a Jewish community living in eastern Uganda.

In 2006, Summit began studying the community and recording the music of more than 300 Jewish, Christian and Muslim Ugandan coffee farmers in an interfaith coffee cooperative called Mirembe Kawomera, or “Delicious Peace.” He recently wrote a first-person account of the experience for Smithsonian Folkways magazine.

Read more about Summit's work with the Mirembe Kawomera [PDF] in the Summer 2009 issue of Alma Matters, the magazine of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Tufts School of Medicine's MS program in pain research education and policy has a blog where students and faculty contribute insights and articles on the topic. Check out posts about the "cough trick," swearing as a pain reduction technique and end-of-life care.

Static Noyze advanced to the nationals of MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew." With their roots in Tufts' Spirit of Color dance troupe, Static Noyze fended off some tough competition in the East Coast regional round of the show.

Watch the troupe's interview with MTV:

DartBoston, a local community of young entrepreneurs, professionals and students under 30, is recording their weekly video podcast "Pokin' Holes" -- which lets new start-ups solicit constructive feedback from our community -- on campus this Thursday, with the help of Jason Nochlin (E'11). Featured will be senior Michael Kuznetsov, creator of the student planning app Syllaplus.

Watch the pre-show discussion with Kuznetsov:

At 12PM EST, First Lady Michelle Obama will unveil a nationwide campaign to combat childhood obesity. The campaign is inspired in part by the work of Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy Associate Professor Christina Economos, who led the development of the Shape Up Somerville childhood nutrition initiative. The First Lady previously spoke [ PDF transcript | video ] about Shape Up Somerville at the US Conference of Mayors last month.

Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone, who will be in attendance at the launch, said in a statement:

It's truly amazing how our local initiative has spurred similar programs and initiatives and served as a model of best practices in communities across the country. I'm grateful to be able to carry on those best practices through Mrs. Obama's new national initiative.

Watch the event live on the White House website at noon or view the live event below:

The blog Creative and Live recently featured photography by Matthew Gamber (G/SMFA'04), who is also editor in chief of the art journal Big Red & Shiny. About Gamber's work:

Television programs are broadcast and lost. Signals can be recorded onto another form and replayed, though the presence of the initial broadcast is lost. Pressing the photographic paper against the tube, heat and light emanating from the tube are self-inscribed, fulfilling the desire to span distances, making illusions more present

Last week, Static Noyze advanced to the Nationals of MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew" competition. After their victory, the troupe founded by Tufts grads talked about their strategy:

Nationals air next Thursday, Feb. 18, on MTV. Read updates from the troupe on Twitter.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Amahl Bishara wrote three "Fieldnotes" posts for the Anthropology Now website. She wrote the notes while conducting research in Palestine over the summer of 2009. Here is an excerpt from the most recent installment, "Eating Watermelon, Parsing Chaos":

During another interview, I enjoyed watermelon and ice cream cake. As I ate, I pondered: What could be easier than research in which people conceive of the researcher as a guest? Obviously, though, the work of research is more than just managing the watermelon juice that threatens to escape from the sides of one’s mouth as one poses the next question. Another juicy challenge of this project has been tracking key terms as they circulate between U.S. news articles and Palestinian interpretations.

As a follow-up to last Tuesday's post about the Tufts-led Shape Up Somerville initiative being highlighted in the introduction of First Lady Michelle Obama's national campaign to combat childhood obesity, here is archived video of the White House event. Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone was on hand.

Old Man Winter hasn't moved out of town yet. On Feb. 16, he left a pretty coating of snow on campus. Check out some of this snow-tography:

• Joel Greenberg captures a snowy campus at night.
• Stephen Ott photographs a whited-out path to Ballou
• Another great nighttime photo:

  

• Check out this nighttime photo from the Tisch Library roof!

  
  

• Tufts Alumni snagged a snowy scene outside of Carmichael.
  
• Tufts Admissions shared this scene yesterday:

  

• The Tufts Daily posted an array of snow pics to Twitter, including this one:

  
  

• A snow Jumbo:

  

• Someone sculpted an amazing wizard near Bello Field:

  

  
  

• More by this photographer over here:
  

Got your own snow pics? Share the link here or post your pics to the Tufts Facebook fan page.

Last week, we previewed the on-campus filming of a podcast for Pokin' Holes, an opportunity for young entrepreneurs to receive feedback on their projects. The subject for the episode was senior Michael Kuznetsov's application Syllaplus. Now, you can watch the video and read a recap of the event.

Tufts University has a vibrant entrepreneurial community and that was evident last night.

A bit late for President's Day, but cool nonetheless. In 1963, just months before tragedy would install him as Commander in Chief, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke at Tufts' 107th Commencement. In this home video uploaded to YouTube, you can see what Commencement was like 47 years ago and catch a glimpse of Johnson on the Hill.

(You can also see a photo from Johnson's Commencement address in the Tufts Digital Library.)

An interesting footnote from Russell Miller's "Light on the Hill: A History of Tufts College, 1852-1952":

It is always dangerous to generalize, but the writer calls attention to the unusual ability of the Trustees to select as honorary degree recipients men who were later destined to become Presidents of the United States: Calvin Coolidge (1919); Herbert Hoover (1920); John F. Kennedy (1954); and Lyndon B. Johnson (1963). The danger of the generalization is illustrated by the award of honorary degrees to Thomas E. Dewey (1937) and Adlai E. Stevenson (1962).

Static Noyze burned up the dance floor on last night's national premiere of "America's Best Dance Crew." Did they make the cut? Tune in next week, Feb. 25, at 10PM EST. Here are some Check out some photos and video of their performance last night:

On top of their competition on "America's Best Dance Crew," Static Noyze is also on the ballot for the Boston Phoenix's Best poll as Boston's Best Dance Troupe.

With everyone glued to their TVs watching the Winter Olympics, becoming experts on events like freestyle moguls and pairs figure skating in the process, you might consider boning up on the origins of today's modern Olympic games. Luckily, Tufts' Perseus Digital Library has just the resource for you: an online exhibit all about the ancient Olympic games. They may not have had snowboard cross back then, but the Olympic spirit remains the same.

1st Lt. Frances Dixon (A'06), maintenance officer in charge at the RQ1 Predator mission in Puerto Rico, discusses the unique and historic mission of the RQ1 Predator in support of Operation Unified Response in Haiti, the first time an RQ1 Predator has been used to support a humanitarian relief operation.

Members of the men's swimming and diving team are psyching themselves up for the NESCAC championships, to be held at Williams this weekend, Feb. 26-28. In this video, drawing inspiration from the wisdom of leaders throughout history and the accomplishments of contemporaries like Michael Phelps, the Jumbos are focused on victory.

Tufts junior Nnenna Okoye is one of 10 winners in the 2009 AspiringDocs.org Video Contest, which asked aspiring physicians to "share their desire to increase diversity in medicine." Winners received financial assistance from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to go toward medical school expenses.

Bringing a global perspective to her career aspirations, Okoye, according to AspiringDocs.org, "looks forward to applying her language skills to her work in low-income communities within the United States, and on mission for Doctors Without Borders."

Economists from Tufts' Global Development and Environment Institute co-founded the blog TripleCrisis, which addresses "the global crises in finance, development and the environment." One the recent posts comes from GDAE's Timothy Wise on getting it right when it comes to giving aid to Haiti.

Check out Static Noyze's performance on the Feb. 25 episode of MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew."

They survived elimination last night. Watch next Thursday night at 10PM to see if the group with Tufts roots made the cut from viewer voting. Good luck!

The new film by Tufts graduate and writer/actor/producer Will Tiao (A'96), "Formosa Betrayed," enters limited release today in theaters across the country. The film, inspired by actual events, follows FBI Agent Jake Kelly's (portrayed by James Van Der Beek) investigation of the brutal murder of a Taiwanese-American professor on U.S. soil. Along the way, as he clashes with groups ranging from the U.S. State Department to the Chinese mafia, he "discovers how a complex web of politics, identity, and power affects the lives and destinies of the citizens in all three countries -- including his own."

Learn more -- including where the film is screening near you -- by joining the film's Facebook group.