Is it lame to still geek out whenever J.K. Rowling makes a public appearance? It probably is but, no matter, we're going to update you about her Harvard Commencement speech anyway. She was the university's fifth female Commencement speaker since 1950. At the June 5 ceremony talked about her greatest challenges and achievements: failure and imagination. Aw!  read more »

To publish or perish? That is the question Harvard faculty will face today, when they vote whether or not to publish their scholarly articles online (and open up their research to millions of readers) or continue to distribute their work in obscure journals with steep price tags and minuscule readership. According to Patricia Cohen of The New York Times, the vote's impact, given the university’s prestige, could be significant for the open-access movement, which seeks to make scientific and scholarly research available to as many people as possible at no cost. So Yale and Columbia could follow suit, as well as other mediums...  read more »

Is it still schadenfreude when it’s the indestructible Martin Amis getting kicked around? His new book, a collection of essays and stories about militant Islam, The Second Plane: September 11, 2001-2007, won’t be published over here until April Fools’ Day, but it’s already out in the U.K. (Jonathan Cape, £12.90) and was greeted last weekend with a one-two punch that would have left any ordinary writer reeling. On Saturday the Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk) ran a review by the talented Christopher Tayler that concludes bluntly that “the writings collected here add nothing to [Amis’] reputation.” On Sunday, the London Times (www.timesonline.co.uk) let loose historian William Dalrymple, who declares Amis’ book to be “not just flawed, but riddled with basic misunderstandings”; and again, in case we were in any doubt: “not just wilfully ignorant … but … at its heart disturbingly bigoted.”  read more »

Harvard announced today that J. K. Rowling will deliver the keynote address at this year's commencement ceremony, which will be held on June 5th. As is customary, the Harry Potter author will receive an honorary degree from the university.

Newly minted Harvard president Drew Faust issued a statement this morning in which she praised Ms. Rowling for getting kids to read.

"Perhaps no one in our time has done more than J. K. Rowling to inspire young people to experience the excitement and the sheer joy of reading," she is quoted as saying in the announcement.

The word from the college, meanwhile, is that some Harvard students are not exactly thrilled at the news, and disappointed that the university chose someone involved in the production of fairy tales rather a world leader or politician.

"[Faust] thinks this is a game?" one student complained. "It's a damn election year! You can't get someone at all related to that shit?"

Star Childs, who graduated from Yale with a forestry degree 27 years ago, was hammering a nail into a stump outside Sunday’s Yale-Harvard football game. He wore a tie, vest, and blazer, plus matching knit cap, and had a red cup in his non-hammering left hand.

The dozen students gathered around him cheered. “I’m a forester, I’m a lumberjack! And I’m okay,” Mr. Childs said. His family owns the one-room Yale Outdoors Cabin, with fireplace, in Bethany, CT.  read more »

St. Martin’s Press will end its partnership with the Harvard-based, student-produced travel guide series Let’s Go after more than twenty-five years. St. Martin’s, which provides Let’s Go with final edits, printing, distribution, and advertising, will continue to put out Let’s Go guides through fall 2009--one set of 15 books will come out this November, and another 15 next year. But after that, Let’s Go will need to find another publisher.  read more »

Eliot Spitzer wanted to borrow millions of dollars and spend it on pet projects for legislators.

The city may open a jail in Brooklyn and double its population within five years.

Eliot Spitzer's budget director, Paul Francis and Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester had a lively exchange about school funding.

The Daily News combed through the state budget and found some pork.

Newsday's editorial board supports the proposed $2 tax on cigarettes in Nassau, Suffolk and six other counties.

New Jersey's pension fund for teachers has some accounting issues.

"The same hardheadedness he displayed at Harvard permeates his prescriptions, which tilt away from the pie-in-the-sky toward the modest and achievable," writes TNR's Martin Peretz of the book written by his one-time Harvard student, Chuck Schumer [subscription].

Here's a snippet of the exchange Smith had with a radio reporter who asked why they're backing Stark.

Reporter: "But why is she more qualified than the other two?"

Reporter: "I didn't ask why, who you voted for. I asked why is she more qualified than the other two?"

Smith wasn't much clearer when addressing the claim that two Republican senators were ready to switch parties, which would give the Democrats control of the Senate and make him majority leader. Citing the theoretical notion of "Zones of Potential Agreement" he said he learned about at a seminar at Harvard, Smith said that some other members of the legislature were "in the zone."