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(04/30/13 4:00pm)
• LivingSocial, a website that provides daily coupons and deals to members, was the victim of a computer hacker. Data from potentially 50 million users was compromised, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The New York Times Company reported a decline in income for the first quarter of this year. The company is struggling while it tries to balance advertising in both print and digital news, according to the New York Times.
• David’s Bridal created a program called “My Event.” The app will work with Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to let brides create a mood board of all of the things they are looking for in their wedding, according to CNBC.
• Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner returned to service for the first time since its grounding three months ago. Ethiopian Airlines was the first company to fly the plane again, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Twinkies will return to the shelves in mid-July after Hostess almost completely wound down operations and sold off most of its assets. The new company, Hostess Brands LLC, looks to bring back most of its iconic snacks, according to CNBC.
• Altria Group Inc., the maker of Marlboro, announced on Thursday, April 25 that it will begin production of electronic cigarettes. Sales of e-cigarettes totaled more than $500 million last year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Due to a loophole in recent environmental regulations set by the Chinese government, emissions limits correlate to the weight of the vehicle. This led to a dramatic increase in the sales of SUVs, according to the Wall Street Journal.
(04/23/13 5:00pm)
•While most of Boston was in lock-down, Dunkin’ Donuts was permitted to stay open so the company could voluntarily provide free coffee, food and other supplies to first responders working to hunt down the men responsible for the Marathon Bombing, according to CNBC.
• Fully autonomous, or self-driving cars, are expected to be driving the streets in relatively large numbers by 2025. The motivation for the switch is simply that humans are not safe drivers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Nearly 51 percent of the area of the United States is still experiencing a long and unforgiving drought. Low rainfall predictions for this year mean a continued period of dry fields for farmers and rising food prices for consumers, according to CNBC.
• SeaWorld Entertainment Inc., famous for their water parks and Shamu the whale, rose 24 percent before the close of the Stock Exchange after an extremely successful initial public offering. The company is looking to increase profits through expanding the SeaWorld name through brand extensions for television and consumer products licensing, according to Bloomberg.
• Twitter launched their new music discovery app, Twitter Music, last week. The app, available in the Apple App Store, allows users to follow what music their friends, as well as artists, are listening to. The users can then listen to the songs on Spotify, iTunes and Rdio, according to CNBC.
• Apple Inc.’s stock price fell to its lowest level in over a year last week, falling almost $24 in one day. The sudden tumble is being attributed to poor results from the iPad mini as well as continued loss of market share for the company that once dominated the smart phone market, according to CNBC.
• Best selling authors, Dan Brown (famous for “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons”) and Khaled Hosseini (famous for “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns”) will be releasing their new books within a week of each other this coming May. The two releases, being called a “Literary Showdown,” will spell good news for bookstores such as Barnes & Noble, according to the Wall Street Journal.
(04/16/13 4:25pm)
• Fast food giant, McDonald’s, is encouraging franchises to improve staffing and promote more welcoming and joyful service to costumers. The push comes following declining sales and large numbers of complaints about rude employees, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Chinese movie theaters are soon expected to show the long awaited “Django Unchained.” The movie must first undergo editing to fit in with restrictions about nudity and violence set by Chinese censorship, according to the New York Times.
• Sales of personal desktop computers and laptops fell 14 percent this past quarter, the largest decline since tracking of computer sales began in 1994. The decline is being blamed on the rising popularity of smartphones and tablets, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Moms that graduated from the most selective universities, such as Harvard and Princeton, choose to work less hours and are less likely to be employed full time than moms who attended the least selective universities. Of the moms from top universities, those with MBAs become stay-at-home moms most frequently, according to CNBC.
• Consumers in India, eager to enter the world of smartphones, are buying cheaper, locally produced phones rather than the more expensive options from Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., according to Bloomberg.
• WD-40, a staple in most American garages, didn’t suffer when most of American companies were experiencing heavy losses in the financial crisis. The company is now hoping to expand into other countries where they feel the demand would be high, such as China and Russia, according to CNBC.
• TCNJ Economics Club will be hosting N.J. Commissioner of Labor, Hal Wirths, on Wednesday, April 24 at 3:30 p.m. in the Business Building. He will be speaking about creating jobs in New Jersey, major businesses in the state, and working in the Christie Administration. Lunch will be served.
(04/16/13 4:00pm)
After a week of sidewalks chalked with campaign ads and neon paper tents atop Eickhoff tables, students voted in this year’s Student Government elections on Tuesday, April 9. The results from the election were posted that evening in the Brower Student Center outside the SG Cube.
This year, 1,806 students voted in the elections, making it the hugest turnout ever, according to Matthew Wells, sophomore SG alternate student trustee.
“We hope to break the 2,000 mark next year,” Wells said. “That’s our next goal.” To encourage students to vote, SG set up laptops in Eickhoff for students to vote on between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.
The SG president serves as the chief executive officer, as well as the lead spokesperson for Student Government. Serving in this position next year will be junior English and Chinese double major Tyler Liberty. Working alongside Liberty as executive vice president will be Daria Wells.
Assisting the executive officers next year will be the Cabinet members. Thomas Verga was elected to be vice president of administration and finance. Elected along with him were Jen Toth as vice president of advancement, Adam Bonanno as vice president of academic affairs, Michell Lin as vice president of student services, Alex Brown as vice president of governmental affairs, Jillian McCarthy as vice president of community relations, Sadia Tahir as vice president of equity and diversity, and Ryan Boyne as alternate student trustee.
Each graduating class is represented by the executive officers and the cabinet members, as well as their individual class councils. Elected to the senior class council were Grace Moran as president, Santina Mazzola as vice president, Katrina Xyloportas as secretary, and Josephine D’Amico as treasurer.
President Brian Garsh, Vice President Lori Paolini, Secretary Mary Bessemer, and Treasurer Kruthika Ramesh were elected to the junior class council.
Representing the Class of 2016 on the sophomore class council will be President Shap Bahary, Vice President Matt Dotsey, Secretary Emily Montagna, and Treasurer, Sofia Gomez.
All SG positions have a term of one year, with the exception of the alternate student trustee, which has a two-year term. Most candidates ran contested, according to Wells.
“I won by two votes,” said Susan Knox, freshman chemistry major and newly elected Senator of Science. “You always think your vote doesn’t actually matter, but every vote matters.”
While campaigning, Knox primarily used social media. She created and posted campaign flyers in addition to sending messages to supporters the morning of the election.
“When I won I was very excited,” she said. “I got a text message and I jumped up out of my chair and started screaming down the hall. I am really looking forward to the experience.”
Knox says she is looking forward to working with the other Senators of Science and Dean Osborn, as well as current science majors in order to hear what they are hoping to gain from their experience at the College.
Along with Knox, Michael Chiumento, Katelyn Dombrowski, Chloe Fama and Kevin Bazer were also elected to the position of senators of Science.
Kristen Speigel, Deborah Wu, Sam Tomczyk, Jason Kalvin and Robbie Nunes are the new senators of Business.
Representing the school of Humanities and Social Sciences as senators are Anushka Patel, Joey DiCarlo, Jessica Glynn, Catherine Tung, Kathryn Picardo, Kyle Brands and Suzanna Conroy-Bray.
In addition, Nicole Ferrito and Ashley Schmitt were elected as the senators of Arts and Communication. Jaimie DeMarco and Nicole Grabowski are the senators of Education, Maria Spinosi and Daniela Verdugo are the senators of Nursing, Health and Exercise Science, and Jeff Owens and Roberto Cortinas are the senators of Engineering.
Elected to the position of senators-at-large were Brittany Kirk, Ingrid Nunn and Alexa Lago.
(04/09/13 4:59pm)
• Facebook looks to make a stronger mobile presence with the release of its new “Home” software for Android. The software, set to release on April 12, allows users to scroll through photos, messages and updates on their home screen. Users will also be able to chat over the top of other apps without having to close them out, according to CNBC.
• Kentucky Fried Chicken, owned by Yum Brands Inc., introduced a new style of the kids meal and menu called the Li’l Bucket. The new bucket will give kids the choice of a main chicken, a side and a drink, and it will come with a pouch of applesauce, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Bank of America has been introducing a new ATM that incorporates live video chat with tellers from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The new ATMs can also provide withdrawals in bills of all denominations and even coins, according to the Los Angeles Times.
• Chinese tourists took the top slot as the biggest-spending tourists in the world. The growing middle class in China often travels in large groups or tours and looks to purchase large amounts of high-fashion items while on their holidays, according to CNBC.
• Nationwide Insurance teamed up with the hit show “Mad Men” to become a major sponsor for the show’s sixth season that premiered on Sunday, April 7. The insurance company played a small vignette-style commercial during the first episode and will play their “Join the Nation” commercials for the following episodes, according to the New York Times.
• Protein has become the new buzzword for food companies to plaster on the packages of products that are naturally rich in protein or have protein added. Using trend words such as “protein,” “whole grain” or “fiber” make consumers feel like they have made a smart purchase, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Professor Tang will be hosting J. David Richardson, an economics professor at Syracuse’s Maxwell School, for a seminar on U.S. export control for high-tech exports to BRIC nations on April 12. Lunch will be provided. Email Professor Tang to register.
(04/09/13 4:09pm)
The final round of the College’s Mayo Business Plan Competition was held on Wednesday, April 3. Three teams competed for the honor, as well as prize money, totaling $20,000, which was given toward starting each team’s business.
“This is a campus-wide competition,” said William Keep, dean of the Business School. The competition drew in participants from 5 of the College’s schools.
The winning team on Wednesday evening was M&S Guitar. The team plans to offer customizable guitars with the same quality sound as many classic designs, but at more affordable prices.
The team stressed that they didn’t want guitar purchasing to have to be based on “the size of a wallet or the excellence of talent.”
The two other teams competing were SurpriseMe and Campus Corner Laundry. SurpriseMe is an app that would allow users to create a profile with their favorite items. Businesses would also have a profile and other users could purchase items for their friends using the app. Campus Corner Laundry is a plan for an on-campus laundry service that would be run out of the Brower Student Center. Students would purchase different plans depending on how frequently they wanted their laundry done.
Each team was required to present their business plan to a panel of judges. The judges were then free to ask the team questions about the finances and operations of the potential company.
The idea for M&S Guitar’s product came from senior mechanical engineering major Alex Matteson. Matteson has been playing guitar since he was nine years old, and making the guitar had been a project he was working on by himself.
“People would come in and out of the machine shop here at the school and I would say, ‘I am doing this, this and this,’” Matteson said. “And enough people said, ‘Hey, why don’t you try entering it in the business plan competition,’ that I figured I would go to the info session.”
From there, Matteson asked two of his closest friends, Tim Pfenninger, junior finance major and James Seyffart, junior accounting major, to join him.
“I got two of my friends who were the best business people I knew, and we put a team together,” Matteson said.
The team plans to grow their business with the $12,000 awarded by the competition. They will work together on the weekends to build guitars that are ordered online as well as guitars they sell at shows.
“The reason why in our business plan we can offer these guitars starting at $900 is because we are in a unique situation,” Matteson said. “The skilled labor is the owner of the company.” The team only needs to sell 18 guitars in the first year in order to be profitable.
Judges told M&S Guitars that they were victorious because it was evident that even if the competition didn’t exist, they would still be working on starting this business. They had the interest and drive.
Next year the business school hopes to raise greater interest in the competition by having a larger monetary award.
“I hope to make things a little more interesting next year,” Keep said, “and I can tell you (the prize money) will not be going down.”
When asked what he learned from the competition, Matteson said, “It isn’t work if you like it. When you are cursing at it at the end of the day, you can step back and say it is still a guitar, and honestly guitars are cool.”
(04/02/13 4:00pm)
• The Standard and Poor’s 500-stock index hit a new record high on Thursday, March 28. The record is an indication that the market still trusts the Fed to stimulate the economy, despite turbulence in Europe and slowed growth in the United States, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The Chinese government in Beijing banned single-person households from purchasing more than one home and increased the required down payment on second homes. The measure is an attempt by the Chinese government to reduce panic about home prices and China’s housing bubble, according to Bloomberg News.
• Chesapeake Energy Corp. named Steven C. Dixon acting chief executive while the company continues to search for a replacement for their former CEO. Negotiations with an intended candidate fell through last week, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The Walt Disney Company’s first 24-hour kids channel aimed solely at preschoolers, Disney Junior, is expected to beat out the long reigning number one preschooler’s channel Nick Jr. This overthrow is expected despite Nick Jr. being available to 25 percent more viewers than Disney Junior, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• As the job market improves, experts are predicting that employees will begin to quit their old jobs in hopes of finding something new and better than their previous positions. This will come as a surprise to companies that have become complacent about employee retention in a tough job market, according to CNBC.
• Banks are drastically reducing the amount of branches they have open across the country. This comes with pressure on banks to reduce costs as well as an increase in the use of online banking, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Toys “R” Us withdrew its plans to take the company public on Friday, March 29. The company cites the tough economy as well slowing sales as the reason for postponing the offering, according to CNBC.
(03/19/13 4:00pm)
The winning team from the College’s level of the Johnson & Johnson University Case Competition moved on to compete at the national level on March 14 and 15 at Johnson & Johnson’s corporate headquarters in New Brunswick, N.J. Florida International University was announced as the competition’s winning team.
“We did not win the competition but it was a great experience,” said sophomore economics major Davis Craig. Craig was the captain of team Juke and Jab, who represented the College at the corporate level.
Team Juke and Jab was awarded $2,000 from Johnson & Johnson for winning at the College level. The money is awarded to the business school and the team will decide how they would like it to be allocated.
This is the first year the College has participated in the case competition. The company only asks 10 colleges in the nation to compete.
“We competed against schools like Rutgers, Penn State and Florida University. All of these schools have been competing in the competition for many years and were accompanied by an academic adviser,” Craig said.
At the competition, the team was able to learn from their competitors and get a sense of what the judges are looking for at the national level of a business case competition.
Johnson & Johnson asks students to put together a small team and become the decision makers in a hypothetical pharmaceutical company similar to Johnson & Johnson. The team must decide how to produce and finance a drug that would be used for patients with late stages of prostate cancer.
Johnson & Johnson hoped that, in addition to providing students with a positive experience in making business related decisions, the competition would also raise awareness about the dangers of prostate cancer. The company hopes to reach out to communities and get in touch with consumers directly.
“Cancer is one of J&J’s biggest areas,” said Richard Minevich, senior financial analyst at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. “One in six men are diagnosed with prostate cancer.”
Johnson & Johnson feels the competition went very well and is looking forward to bringing it back to the College for years to come, according to Minevich.
(03/19/13 4:00pm)
• 3D versions of movies are providing a new source of revenue for theaters that were having trouble competing with online streaming. There is some concern, however, that 3D movies are leaving viewers with headaches and nausea and making for an unpleasant movie experience, according to CNBC.
• Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 allows users to scroll through pages by simply moving their eyes and navigate through the phone by gesturing over the screen, never actually touching the phone. The smartphone was released in New York City, the first time Samsung has released a phone in the United States in three years, according to CNBC.
• The demand for labor in China’s factories is rising, and wages are rising with it. While increased wages will create higher net worth for households in China, rising labor costs threaten China’s competitive advantage when it comes to exports, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The consumer sentiment in early March fell to the lowest level since 2011. Consumers feel uneasy about recent economic policies and current unemployment rates, according to CNBC.
• Facebook is planning on incorporating the hashtag (a pound symbol preceded by a phrase) as a way to sort conversations and posts. The hashtag was made famous by Facebook’s social media rival, Twitter, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Demand for cotton is rising, especially in China, and prices have reached the highest level in 11 months. The United States is the largest exporter of cotton in the world, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Boeing released its planned fixes for the 787 Dreamliner that has been grounded since January. The fixes, better insulation of the battery and gentler charging will be finished with testing in one to two weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal.
(03/05/13 5:52pm)
Judges settled into swivel chairs behind the long wooden tables of the College’s Business Building. In the front of the room, a line of suits and blue ties anxiously waited to begin their presentation. After a nod from a judge, team captain and sophomore economics major Davis Craig stepped forward to introduce team Juke and Jab, the final team of the day in the Johnson & Johnson University Case Competition.
“Juke and Jab — knocking out one problem at a time,” Craig said, sharing the team’s slogan with the audience.
A total of four teams from the College participated in the University Case Competition on Wednesday, Feb. 27. This was the first year the opportunity has been offered to students at the College, explained Richard Minevich, senior financial analyst at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and alumnus of the College. Only 10 schools are asked to participate in the competition each year.
“We only want the best of the best,” Minevich said. Participants were challenged to take the decision-making role in a hypothetical Johnson & Johnson-like company called Pantheon. The students needed to decide whether they wanted to internally develop, buy from a third party, or license from a third party a new oncology drug called Abrira. The drug’s purpose was to extend the life of prostate cancer patients who had stopped responding to chemotherapy.
The students then presented these decisions along with an in-depth financial analysis to judges who were then free to ask the team questions. The panel of judges was made up of professors from the College as well at employees from Johnson & Johnson.
“We want to see how well they stick to their guns and defend why they chose one decision over the other,” Minevich said.
Team Juke and Jab was the winning team from Wednesday’s event. They will now move on to the corporate level of the competition, which will be held at Johnson & Johnson’s headquarters over spring break. There, they will compete against the winning teams from other participating colleges.
The victorious team formed at the competition information session that was held earlier this year.
“I went to the information session, saw a couple kids who were sitting there and they didn’t look like they had a team. I went and sat next to them and said, ‘Hey you guys need a team?’ and just kind of formed a team from there,” Craig said. The team has since become good friends.
In addition to teaching students about the nuts and bolts of a major corporation, the competition serves as a recruiting tool for Johnson & Johnson.
“It gives us an opportunity to get to know students. We look at TCNJ as a great source of future leaders,” said Megan Correll, judge for the competition and alumna of the College.
The College is what Johnson & Johnson refers to as a core school, which means the company looks to heavily recruit from the finance department and business school, explained Stephanie Giordano, judge and alumna of the College.
“The competition itself is a great opportunity to network within J&J and have them get a real look at you and what you are capable of doing. So that opportunity is fantastic,” said David DeLooper, junior finance major and participant in the competition.
DeLooper’s team presented second on Wednesday and networked with Johnson & Johnson employees at the competition luncheon.
“You are working together as a team, a large team, with different schedules and conflicting ideas and values, so you got to work through conflicts. You got to persevere and actually put the time in so you are able to create success,” DeLooper said about the competition.
The competition case was based on a real drug that Johnson & Johnson had recently released called Zytiga. The drug’s launch was the largest in the company’s history, explained Minevich. Johnson & Johnson hopes that the competition raises awareness about the dangers of prostate cancer.
“One in six men are diagnosed with prostate cancer,” Minevich said in the closing of the competition. “Men don’t talk about these things, and they don’t go to the doctor until it’s too late.”
Johnson & Johnson said they plan to bring the competition back to the College next year and for many years to come. The College plans to increase the number of student teams next year as well, said Debra Klokis, employer relations specialist at the College and one of main coordinators of the competition.
Following the closing of the competition, team Juke and Jab exchanged handshakes, smiles and hugs before grabbing wastes for a group photo.
“It’s a three or four week thing, where you can jump in for a month with a team and compete in something that could potentially be really rewarding,” Davis said, recommending the competition to other students.
(03/05/13 5:31pm)
• Traces of horse meat were found in the Swedish meatballs famously served at furniture giant IKEA. The company stopped selling meatballs in European stores where the meat was found until inspections are conducted, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Markets were rattled across the globe when Italian election results were inconclusive, thus leaving another fog of uncertainty over the European economy. Italian voters rejected austerity measures that had been in place by supporting parties that promised lower taxes and a removal of previous emergency reform policies, according to the New York Times.
• Large home builders such as Lennar Corp. and Toll Brothers Inc. are buying land near large college campuses to construct upscale off-campus housing. The move diversifies the company’s projects and enters them into a market that they feel is more recession-proof than housing, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Target Corp. is expanding outside the United States into Canada by acquiring up to 220 locations from the department store Zellars. Target hopes to compete with Walmart, which moved into Canada 17 years ago, according to the New York Times.
• New Jersey is now the biggest state to allow regulated online gambling in the nation. The change would allow casinos to run websites that let individuals make bets on casino games, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• GameStop, a video game retailer, experienced flat earnings lately due to the looming threat of streaming and digitally downloaded video games. Additionally, the company is worried that Microsoft will ban the use of online games on its new console, according to CNBC.
• The College’s Economics Club meets on Mondays at 3:30pm in the Business Building room 214. The club is a resource for students looking to network with fellow students and professionals, as well as discuss current events and career development.
(02/26/13 5:51pm)
• Google Inc. is currently in the process of developing retail stores. The stores would sell Google hardware such as tablets and Chromebooks, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The National Hockey League was deemed “recession proof.” The sport is the only one of the big four (football, baseball, basketball and hockey) to have a higher number of ticket sales now than before the recession, despite an increase in the price of tickets, according to CNBC.
• Reader’s Digest Association filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week for the second time in four years. The magazine’s struggles are another example of the stress on print media, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Office Depot and OfficeMax confirmed the rumor that the two office supply companies are planning to merge. The merger comes as the two companies fight to survive against larger competitors such as Staples and Amazon.com, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The British government’s bond rating was downgraded from AAA to AA1 by Moody’s Investor’s Service. The bond-rating agency cites Britain’s slowing growth and rising debt as main contributors to the decision, according to CNBC.
• Dick’s Sporting Goods has been growing at a consistently high rate over the last decade and has also been keeping itself well above the competition in the sports equipment market. The company is being declared “the safest way to invest in the sports merchandise industry,” according to Barron’s Magazine.
• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. had a relatively strong fourth quarter, but the teen clothing store still struggles to increase same-store sales. The company is expected to close 40 to 50 stores over the next year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
(02/19/13 5:00pm)
• H.J. Heinz Co., maker of the popular ketchup and other food products, announced that it would be selling itself for $23 billion to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and 3G Capital. The sale is one of the largest food industry acquisitions ever, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Facebook said on Friday that it had been a victim of a cyber attack from an unidentified hacker. The company reassures the public that no user data was compromised, according to CNBC.
• The cat will soon replace the wheelbarrow as a token in the Hasbro Inc. game Monopoly. The decision is the result of an online pole conducted on the company’s Facebook page, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Investor Carl Icahn’s large stake in Herbalife was revealed on Friday morning, sending share prices higher. Prices soon fell again when suspicions were raised that the investment was made as a personal dig toward investor William Ackaman rather than being based on the future of the company, according to The New York Times.
• Users of Sony’s next PlayStation will have the technology to stream games directly to the device. The new technology will be revealed on Wednesday, Feb. 20, along with the new console, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The chewing gum industry is struggling. Sales have been declining in recent years due to the poor economy as well as customers switching to mints and other breath freshening products. Companies are now looking to introduce new flavors and packaging to attempt to raise sales, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The College’s career center will be hosting a spring Career and Internship Day. It will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Rec Center on Friday, Feb. 22. Be sure to bring your résumé!
(02/12/13 7:15pm)
E.E. Cummings often finds himself on bookshelves in English classrooms alongside Emily Dickinson and F. Scott Fitzgerald. His unusual language and bizarre use of punctuation can send the untrained reader running.
E.E. Cummings’s “Selected Poems,” edited by Richard S. Kennedy, is an invitation for these leisure readers to pursue Cummings’s work at a slower pace.
The collection is divided into sections that feature either a period in Cummings’s life or a topic that he frequently wrote about. Each section is prefaced by an introduction written by the editor, who is also Cummings’s biographer.
Sketches that Cummings created while at Harvard University accompany the reader as he or she works deeper into Cummings’s thoughts. Many of these sketches have never been published before.
The details contained in the introductions provide the reader with insight into different pieces.
In the section “A Child’s World,” Kennedy describes Cummings’s idyllic childhood, which gave him the material for pieces such as “in Just” and “maggie and milly and molly and may.”
While other collections may offer biographical facts, Kennedy takes it a step further to provide some general analysis of the pieces contained within each section.
Having this information before reading the pieces makes them easier to understand, especially for a reader who is not familiar with Cummings’s style of writing.
By far, the most difficult section of the collection is “The Poetry of the Eye.” Inspired by cubism, the pieces contain words broken into two lines or divided by parentheses.
This selection is well-placed in the center of the collection so the reader has had enough experience with Cummings to be able to understand the different emotions he attempts to create with the artfully placed letters.
Cummings is famous for his poems about intimacy and romance. The section “Achieving the Together Colored Instant” contains famous pieces such as “I like my body when it is with your” and “my girl’s tall with hard long eyes.” Kennedy explains that Cummings used metaphors and complicated spacing to mask the explicit sexual images within the poems.
E.E. Cummings is a poet who understands youth. Imagination, relationships, sexuality, politics and death are paths and bridges students must cross every day. Cummings can be a companion for them.
(02/12/13 5:33pm)
• The US Postal-Service announced its decision to end Saturday mail delivery beginning Aug. 5. The decision is part of a plan to curb the losses the Postal Service has suffered as paper mail steadily declines, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Dell Inc. announced on Tuesday, Feb. 5 that it had agreed to a $13.65-per-share buyout offer lead by founder Michael Dell and the private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners. The buyout requires that all shareholders approve and there is some opposition from the company’s largest outside investor, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Boeing flew a 787 Dreamliner test plane for more than two hours on Saturday in an effort to uncover what caused the lithium-ion batteries to catch on fire. The flight was uneventful, but the Federal Aviation Administration’s investigation is still expected to last several weeks, according to the New York Times.
• Wendy’s, the world’s third largest burger chain, has been enacting a plan to revamp its menu and marketing plan. The food chain has added new menu items and wants to get back to its roots as a high-quality burger maker, according to Barron’s Magazine.
• Homeowners are once again looking to use their homes as a form of ATM through home equity loans and lines of credit. The sudden burst of loans is triggered by rising housing prices and an increase in consumer confidence, according to CNBC.
• Popular music streaming site, Spotify, is being commended by the music industry for creating a business model that allows music to be streamed and listened to conveniently while also paying the artist. The praise comes from an industry damaged by illegal downloading, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• US Airways and AMR Corp, parent company to American Airlines and American Eagle Airlines, are coming close to an $11 billion merger that would create the world’s largest airline, according to CNBC.
(02/05/13 5:00pm)
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 14,009.79 on Friday, Feb. 1. This is the first time the Dow has risen over 14,000 since 2007. The closing bell was met with cheering from traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, according to CNBC.
• CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp., Aubrey McClendon, is set to retire on April 1 of this year. His leaving comes after long battles with the shareholders and board members of Chesapeake concerning ethical differences, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Small individual investors are returning to the stock market for the first time since the financial crisis in 2008. The influx of these new investors is driving the market to higher levels, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Automakers reported that new car sales in the U.S. rose sharply in January. A total of 1.04 million cars were sold last month, according to the New York Times.
• Jefferies Group Inc., a small and low-profile investment bank, employs the highest-paid CEO on Wall Street. Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Handler was given a $45.2 million payday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The Washington Post, which is famous for breaking the Watergate story and many others, may move its headquarters in Washington D.C. The change comes with the high cost of the building and the declining popularity of print news, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Apple’s iTunes recently added the band AC/DC to the iTunes store. The band had previously refused to sell their music through Apple. Among the other artists still refusing to sell music on iTunes are Bob Seger and Garth Brooks, according to the New York Times.
• Super Bowl parties cost a little more this year. The price of chicken wings is at an all-time high and has gone up 16 percent from last year, according to CNBC.
(01/30/13 5:52pm)
• Financial titans Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn squared off on CNBC Friday in a fight that became quite personal. The two investors attacked each other’s business integrity and reputations on Wall Street. The argument stemmed over a controversy regarding the company Herbalife, according to CNBC.
• President Obama nominated former prosecutor Mary Jo White to become the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Exxon Mobil reclaimed the title of world’s largest company in stock-market value on Friday, Jan. 25. The title had previously been held by Apple, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Atari Inc., maker of the classic video game and over 200 other games, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with plans to sell off its assets, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The problem with lithium-ion batteries that grounded Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners remains a mystery to U.S. air safety investigators. Boeing is hoping for a quick investigation and to soon return its planes to the air, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, donated $350 million to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, which raises his total contributions to the university to $1.1 billion. He is now the most generous donor to an educational institution in history, according to The New York Times.
• A judge approved an $843.7 million financing deal that Kodak hopes will pull it out of bankruptcy protection around midyear, according to the Wall Street Journal.
(12/06/12 4:47pm)
Excitement danced to the inviting song of dozens of instruments playing different tunes. The performers of the College’s wind ensemble fit in one last warm-up before the lights were lowered in the Mildred & Ernest E. Mayo Concert Hall on Nov. 29.
The College’s music department presented “Awakenings,” conducted by David Vickerman. The conductor entered onto the stage from two double doors and took his position at the center of the stage.
The first piece, “Resonances I,” began with horns that bellowed down from the balconies surrounding the hall. The piece also uniquely made use of the band members’ voices to create different sounds among the instruments.
“I knew when I stepped into this concert hall that I wanted to do Resonance I,” Vickerman said. “The space was designed for it.”
“Emblems” was the second piece performed. The music slid from powerful sounds to playful pitter-patters that teased each other from across the stage. If one listened carefully, it was possible to hear a small quotation of “Amazing Grace.”
Vickerman called the next piece “a beautiful statement on simplicity,” with “rich harmonic texture.”
“As the scent of spring rain…” used chimes and soft sounds that created the identical feelings that an afternoon rain would. Before the ensemble broke for a short intermission, they closed the first half of the performance with “Moving Parts,” written by David Aulenbach.
“I fell in love with his work, and wanted to feature work by a N.J. Composer,” Vickerman said.
The ensemble used unusual instruments to create the sounds for “Moving Parts.” The members, especially in the percussion area, moved from instrument to instrument. After the intermission, the ensemble played “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story.
The audience grinned when they heard the familiar sounds of snaps before a rumble in the alley.
There were also bits of the song “Somewhere,” which gave the audience images of Tony and Maria singing at their balconies.
“These pieces show what the ensemble is capable of,” Vickerman said.
The final piece of the evening was “Aurora Awakes.” Vickerman said the piece was “refreshing.” First, the instruments played softly until the sounds grew to a point that vibrated the pen in my hand.
After the performance, students from the College and family members of the ensemble gathered in the front of the concert hall.
“The performance was really great. It’s really nice because we are all in the same major,” said Chelsea Hogendorn, sophomore music and education double major.
IJ Tumaluan, senior biology major, was at the performance to see his friend.
“I am really proud,” Tumaluan said following the performance “It’s hard to describe the feeling.”
(12/06/12 4:17pm)
• Arabica-coffee prices fell 35 percent in 2012, making it one of the year’s worst performing commodities. The decline is expected to continue because of large supplies of coffee anticipated this year and in 2013, according to Barron’s Magazine.
• Unemployment in the Euro zone rose to a new high in October. The head of the Central Bank of Europe expects, however, a turnaround in the European economy in the second half of 2013, according to the New York Times.
• The largest Powerball in history was split between two winners in Arizona and Missouri, according to the N.J. Lottery.
• The United States Government has temporarily banned the company British Petroleum (BP) from acquiring any new government contracts because of the company’s lack of business integrity, according to the New York Times.
• Declines in U.S. and European economies are expected to lead to additional falls in cocoa prices. The U.S. and Europe are the world’s largest consumers of chocolate, according to Barron’s Magazine.
• More viewers watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade on NBC this year than any year since 2001. An average of 22.4 million people watched NBC during the time of the parade, according to the New York Times.
• A global survey of 13 countries found that the average income needed to be “happy” was $160,000 a year, according to CNBC News.
• An additional 10 New Jersey businesses were accused of illegal price gouging during the state of emergency caused by Hurricane Sandy. Seven of the businesses were hotels, according to the Office of the Governor.
(11/29/12 9:10pm)
• As Hostess Brands moved forward with bankruptcy plans, some of their most famous snacks will live on. Twinkies as well as other famous brands, including Ho Hos, Sno Balls, Ring Dings and Wonder Bread will be auctioned off to other companies so they can continue to be produced, according to the New York Times.
• Black Friday sales were lower than expected because many stores chose to open on Thanksgiving Day rather than waiting until the following day. Sales on Thanksgiving rose 21 percent, according to the New York Times.
• Online sales on Black Friday topped $1 billion for the first time in history according to CNBC News.
• Zipcar’s stock soared after analysts from Goldman Sachs upgraded the company to a “buy” because of little alternatives for short-term car rentals and the broadening of the company’s geographic reach, according to Barron’s Magazine.
• Oprah Winfrey’s products, especially her magazine, have seen trouble since her daily talk show ended 18 months ago. Winfrey doesn’t have the ability to steer consumers with her show as she had in the past, according to the New York Times.
• Krispy Kreme Doughnuts reported increased profits this past quarter. The increase is due to larger amounts of traffic in shops without any price changes, according to Barron’s Magazine.
• Last week the Christie administration concluded the odd-even rationing of gasoline. The end serves as another step in the state’s return to normalcy, according to the Office of the Governor.
• The College’s School of Business will host “Dining Out In Professional Style” on Wednesday, Nov. 28 from 12-3 p.m. The event is an opportunity for students to practice eating out in a business setting and learn tips on how to impress employers or coworkers during a meal.