Figures of Speech: Brian's Last Edition

Unfortunately, it’s too late to post about a speech that happened Monday afternoon with noted Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame. Regardless, here’s this week’s rundown.

The Can’t Miss:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen; Thursday at 4:30 in McCosh 10; “Global Trends and National Security.”
In case you’ve been under a rock for the last three months, or for that matter the past two years, there’s a new administration in Washington, which means a new foreign policy. Admiral Mullen, of course, is not a political appointee (I really hope I didn’t have to point that one out), but he is presumably one part of any military decision President Obama will make. And it’s not everyday you hear the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs speak on campus, either.


Writer George Packer; Thursday at 8:00 in McCosh 50; “The New Liberalism.”
This Thursday when it rains, it pours. Packer is the author of “The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq.” He is a well-regarded liberal writer who has been an opponent of the Iraq War despite supporting it initially. Packer writes for the New Yorker.

Professor Charles Seife ’93 of NYU; Wednesday at 4:15 in Gottlieb at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory; “Fusion, Politics, and the Press.”
If you have the wherewithal to make it to the PPPL, you might consider flooring the (particle) accelerator and going to hear Professor Seife. We urge you not to break the (cosmic) speed limit, though. Seife is a science writer and a professor of journalism at NYU. He is also a Princeton alum. His most recent work is “Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking.” If you go, be sure to stop at the bakery for some yellowcake on the way home.
Nothing quite like my bad science jokes.

This is Brian's final "Figures of Speech" post.