Thesis

An investigating committee has cleared Hungary's president of plagiarizing his 1992 doctoral thesis, despite the inclusion of many pages copied from other sources and a long list of errors. A five-member committee at Budapest's Semmelweis University says academics at the then-independent University of Physical Education should have noticed and called attention to similarities between large parts of Schmitt's thesis analyzing the Olympic Games and works by other authors. The committee says Schmitt's dissertation complied with the formal requirements of the time, despite the lack of...

An investigating committee has cleared Hungary's president of plagiarizing his 1992 doctoral thesis, despite the inclusion of many pages copied from other sources and a long list of errors. A five-member committee at Budapest's Semmelweis University says academics at the then-independent University of Physical Education should have noticed and called attention to similarities between large parts of Schmitt's thesis analyzing the Olympic Games and works by other authors. The committee says Schmitt's dissertation complied with the formal requirements of the time, despite the lack of...

The Board of Selectmen recently hired S. Peter Kane to fill the newly created position of town planner/energy efficiency manager. Kane is currently completing his master's thesis at Tufts University. - David Rattigan

The Board of Selectmen recently hired S. Peter Kane to fill the newly created position of town planner/energy efficiency manager. Kane is currently completing his master's thesis at Tufts University. - David Rattigan

In the labs and classrooms of MIT, where he worked for more than a half century as a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, David H. Staelin lived by the maxim that you can accomplish a great deal if you don't care who gets the credit. "Dave never thought about what his needs were," said Gregory W. Wornell, professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "He was concerned with the needs of the university, the nation, and society as a whole.

Gillian Cormier-Brandenburg is one of those fictitious characters you really have to let grow on you. Unrelentingly cerebral, uptight, and unapologetically anti social, she initially comes off as irritating and rather unlikable in a pathetic sort of way. Narcoleptic, a virgin at 26, and standing only a timid 4 feet 9 inches, Gillian also possesses a cleverly self-deprecating sense of humor regarding her own incompetence. And that's the way author Elisabeth Brink hooks the reader in "Save Your Own" -- Gillian is ultimately almost as endearing as she is...

FLORIANÓPOLIS, Brazil -- The solo beach vacation is a strange animal: something of a luxury, definitely an eccentricity. This is especially true in one's cash-strapped youth, when pleasure-seeking is usually collective. Post-adolescence, the shores that used to mean wave-jumping and sand castles with family now mean bikini strutting or water sports with friends. Rarely do they mean spending time on your own amid the revelers. That, however, is exactly what I was doing in Florianópolis, the placid paradise in southern Brazil known officially as the...

Why the world turned out the way it has, most of us believe, is a question so cosmic that it is best left to French intellectuals. But then what do we do with Jared Diamond? He's the UCLA professor who surfaced in 1998 with his Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies," which explained a lot, if not everything, about the inequality among peoples and regions of the globe. Readers who had blanched at such topics in college devoured his tome, and now National Geographic presents a three-hour documentary based on it, beginning...

PICK OF THE DAY Parenthood Women usually give birth to a boy or a girl, but in this dark comedy by Emmy winner Rachel Axler, a young couple welcomes a ‘‘Smudge.’’ The Ghostlight Theater Company of New England delivers a message about the changing American family through this limbless, one-eyed newborn who communicates through medical equipment beeps and whistles. Tonight at 7:30 (through July 9). $18, $15 seniors, $10 students. Salem Theatre Company Theater, 90 Lafayette St., Salem.

What ended World War II? For nearly seven decades, the American public has accepted one version of the events that led to Japan's surrender. By the middle of 1945, the war in Europe was over, and it was clear that the Japanese could hold no reasonable hope of victory. After years of grueling battle, fighting island to island across the Pacific, Japan's Navy and Air Force were all but destroyed. The production of materiel was faltering, completely overmatched by American industry, and the Japanese people were starving.

In the labs and classrooms of MIT, where he worked for more than a half century as a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, David H. Staelin lived by the maxim that you can accomplish a great deal if you don't care who gets the credit. "Dave never thought about what his needs were," said Gregory W. Wornell, professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "He was concerned with the needs of the university, the nation, and society as a whole.

PICK OF THE DAY Parenthood Women usually give birth to a boy or a girl, but in this dark comedy by Emmy winner Rachel Axler, a young couple welcomes a ‘‘Smudge.’’ The Ghostlight Theater Company of New England delivers a message about the changing American family through this limbless, one-eyed newborn who communicates through medical equipment beeps and whistles. Tonight at 7:30 (through July 9). $18, $15 seniors, $10 students. Salem Theatre Company Theater, 90 Lafayette St., Salem.

Gillian Cormier-Brandenburg is one of those fictitious characters you really have to let grow on you. Unrelentingly cerebral, uptight, and unapologetically anti social, she initially comes off as irritating and rather unlikable in a pathetic sort of way. Narcoleptic, a virgin at 26, and standing only a timid 4 feet 9 inches, Gillian also possesses a cleverly self-deprecating sense of humor regarding her own incompetence. And that's the way author Elisabeth Brink hooks the reader in "Save Your Own" -- Gillian is ultimately almost as endearing as she is exasperating.

Why the world turned out the way it has, most of us believe, is a question so cosmic that it is best left to French intellectuals. But then what do we do with Jared Diamond? He's the UCLA professor who surfaced in 1998 with his Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies," which explained a lot, if not everything, about the inequality among peoples and regions of the globe. Readers who had blanched at such topics in college devoured his tome, and now National Geographic presents a three-hour documentary based on it,...

FLORIANÓPOLIS, Brazil -- The solo beach vacation is a strange animal: something of a luxury, definitely an eccentricity. This is especially true in one's cash-strapped youth, when pleasure-seeking is usually collective. Post-adolescence, the shores that used to mean wave-jumping and sand castles with family now mean bikini strutting or water sports with friends. Rarely do they mean spending time on your own amid the revelers. That, however, is exactly what I was doing in Florianópolis, the placid paradise in southern Brazil known officially as the island of Santa Catarina.

Reports of the novel's death have been greatly exaggerated. That's one of the many important lessons to be gleaned from "The Storytelling Animal," by Jonathan Gottschall, an English professor at Washington and Jefferson College. In his first book for nonacademics, the author transitions easily to a mainstream audience with this insightful yet breezily accessible exploration of the power of storytelling and its ability to shape our lives. To demonstrate the scope and influence of narrative, Gottschall examines children's make-believe, dreams and daydreaming, memory,...

Low-income school districts are most likely to place students in special education programs for mild and sometimes questionable disabilities, a practice that has swelled the state's special education population to one of the highest rates in the nation, according to a first-of-a-kind study commissioned by the state. The study - to be presented at a state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting Monday night - is expected to provoke debate over whether low-income districts are placing students in special education because of legitimate disabilities or because of...