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Posts tagged ‘2013’

Dec 8

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Abigail Borah ’13 Ejected from COP 17 for Disrupting Speech

Photo Credit: Project Survival Media

Abigail Borah ’13 was ejected from climate change negotiations at COP 17 in Durban, South Africa early today for interrupting top U.S. climate negotiator Todd Stern. She has been serving at the UN Summit as a member of the SustainUS youth delegation. She also served as a member of this delegation last year at COP 16 in Cancun, Mexico.

After nearly two weeks of stalled progress by the United States at the international climate talks, Borah delivered a passionate speech calling for an urgent path towards a fair and binding climate treaty and admonishing members of Congress for impeding global climate progress to internationl ministers and high level negotiators at the closing plenary of the Durban climate change negotiations. Borah’s speech was met with an eruption of applause while she was ejected from the talks shortly following her entreaty.

Borah told Stern that the U.S. negotiators “cannot speak on behalf of the United States of America (anymore),” highlighting that “the obstructionist Congress has shackled a just and delayed ambition for far too long.”

“I am scared for my future,” cried Borah. “2020 is too late to wait. We need an urgent path to a fair, ambitious, and legally binding treaty. You must take responsibility to act now.”

Part of Borah’s Speech

Coverage of the incident can be found on SustainUS.org, Democracy Now!, BBC News (second picture from the end), and the NY Times.

COP 17 will end this Friday with Borah being banned from the rest of the negotiations.

Middkids like Abigail rock it like Elvis. We make sure you know about it. Support MiddBlog. No change in your pockets? Like us on FB or follow on the twitters instead.

Sep 5

Represent

“Share where you come from by wearing something representative of your own hometown,” said the description of last night’s First Year celebration and dinner on Proctor Terrace.

Apr 23

2 Comments

The Campus 4/23

campus23In an effort to deepen MiddBlog’s coverage of campus issues, this is a recurring column that comments on selected Campus newspaper articles, published most Thursdays of the school year. This allows a place for the Middlebury community to comment, expand, and discuss important issues in a dynamic way.

This Week in The Campus:

  • Dwyer wins coveted CC chair: I don’t know if I call it “coveted” but it is a key student position even if students know not what SCCOCC does for students. Dwyer was the right choice despite an interesting run by Ethan Schmertzler ’12.
  • Preview days host 400 students: Well, it’s up to them now. It’s like we’ve asked these students on a date and we’re waiting for  response. I even met up with both of the 2013 Challenge winners, both Febs and both coming to Middlebury for almost certain.
  • Summer students to bunk in Battell: I’ve been waiting for someone to say something about this. There actually is a large contingent of forgotten English-speaking students on campus during the summer. The students quoted in the article seem outraged at $70 rent and meal per week but as a person looking for housing in DC this summer, I know that staying at Midd to work is actually quite profitable (for a student) especially if you snag a hard-to-get C level job for 30+ hours a week.
  • All dining halls will serve same main course: Now there’s an idea to even up the lines. Less variety but good call overall. Director of Dining Services Matt Biette says students should avoid the rush by coming “a little earlier or a little later.” Students don’t choose when to eat lunch. We have class, we have a routine, we’re busy. If you think the majority of students can nicely and orderly disperse themselves across lunchtime dining hours then you are mistaken. Even dinner — practice, rehearsals, meetings. We eat when we eat because that’s when our schedules allow it. Biette is right about getting in different and separate lines for Ross though.

Apr 12

1 Comment

2013 Challenge Results!

The results are in! MiddBlog’s 2013 Challenge was a success! And the winning entries:

Luke: Since I’m a eunuch and all, I was the only one to circle “Neither” on the “What is your Sex” part of the Common App…..got me far.

Jessica: i fel inlove w a boy frm czech-public whos I’s wer so blu i cared not bout his cow lick midd liked my compassion thot heck its the fashion

Below are some other interesting selected entrants to the contest:

Alec: I fulfilled the quota of math majors who were suspended in high school.

Stephen: 2,15,39,44,56,15 Those were the winning numbers for Feb/06 when 8 men in Nebraska won the Powerball. Now how did I get in?  Who knows, but Clagett pulling my 5 sure helped.

Katie: Admissions wanted to be able to write in their brochures that the planet’s greatest one-girl consumer of dill pickles attended Middlebury.

Apr 7

2 Comments

The 2013 Challenge

Hey Class of 2013 (and 2013.5),

We here at MiddBlog have been fighting the glossy admissions brochure for years (except for maybe this, which is awesome). There’s nothing worse than deciding on where to go to school by looking at expensive, racially diverse photography in colorful admissions materials. As I write this, massive campus tours are walking by my window, each parent with a Middlebury viewbook (that dark yellow-covered one) in hand.

You’ll learn more by visiting the campus on special “Preview Days” coming this April 13th and April 19th. Well, maybe… The Admissions Office are fantastic folks (shout out to Jenny Schneider ’07), but truth be told, we want you to come to Middlebury. We will put on our song-and-dance show (maybe even serve something extra nice in the dining halls) for you while you’re here. It’s not that we’re lying to you; we just want to put our best foot forward.

Still, though, 2013 deserves the rough-and-tumble, authentic Middlebury experience. And so MiddBlog announces…

The 2013 Challenge

If you’re coming to the Middlebury campus in the next month, submit a 140-character answer to the following question: Why do you think you got into Middlebury?

Email your answer to tips [at] midd-blog [dot] com or message @middblog on twitter with your answer.  Deadline: April 12, 2009.  Noon EDT.

The most interesting and provacative answers will win a personal “authentic campus tour” complete with “everything you wanted to know but your tourguide would never tell you.” Not only is this tour personal (just you and your fam, if they’re around), but you will be ensured no B.S. No talk about 1 million+ volumes in the library, that’s for sure. Instead, we’ll talk about the hook up culture, why the CFA was built upside-down and backwards, how many dishes student steal every semester, which social house got banned last year, and exactly how much money the school spends on Quidditch.

Middlebury: unglossy, unpretty, undressed.

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