Week in Review: Mixed Emotions Edition (July 11 - July 17)

It's getting to be that point in the summer when you realize just how much has already gone by, particularly since most of this week's Princeton news has a decidedly academic bent. So, after some sad news from the Triangle community, stick around for some tidbits that will start the gradual process of getting your brain back in fall-semester shape.Sue-Jean Suettinger '70, Triangle's first female member, passed away earlier this week after battling leukemia. Triangle president Hil Moss '12 said remembered "enormous applause" for Suettinger during their reunions shows."It's funny, throughout the school year, I think it's pretty easy to forget that Princeton only recently became a co-ed institution. There is one event, however, where it becomes glaringly obvious, and that is Reunions - if only for the fact that the male alumni outnumber the female alumni to such a great extent, and you certainly feel that at our Triangle reunion," Moss said. "Triangle is now going on 121 years, so when Sue-Jean took the stage, it was already very established! Not to mention that one of its greatest trademarks, the drag kickline, was a male-centric joke in its own right. So for Sue-Jean to enter into what had for so long been a male organization.. it really set the stage for all future women of Triangle. We owe a great deal to Sue-Jean for leading the way!"Steven Suettinger, her son, thanked the women of Triangle for a video they put together thanking Suettinger for blazing the trail for women to take part in music and the arts at Princeton. Moss said they chose the song, "East of the Sun, West of the Moon," as it remains one of the earliest women's numbers in the Triangle repertoire.Tara Ohrtman '13 represented Triangle at Suettinger's memorial service last Saturday in Silver Springs, MD.On a more upbeat note, Princeton researcher Laurence Gesquire, an EEB research associate, was in the news for a study showing that maybe being #2 isn't such a bad thing after all.While it's often been assumed that life is best when you're an alpha male, the researchers found instead that the pressure for an alpha to stay on top was as stressful as being the low man (baboon?) on the totem pole. A helpful explanation, courtesy of the New York Times:

Beta males, who fought less and had considerably less mate guarding to do, had much lower stress levels. They had fewer mating opportunities than the alphas, but they did get some mating in, more than any lower-ranking males. After all, when the alpha gets in another baboon bar fight, who’s going to take the girl home?

Something to think about next time you're stressing about where you fall in the Princeton food chain.

And last but not least, for any TED devotees out there, Rebecca MacKinnon, a 2010-2011 visiting fellow at Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy, was invited to speak at TEDGlobal. MacKinnon, a journalist, free speech activist and Chinese internet censorship expert, predicted a “Magna Carta” moment for the internet, and asked how we can go about designing a next-generation internet based on openness, not control – so there's a little something to ponder while you sit on the beach.