Saudia Arabia Comes to Harvard In the form of Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, who has just given $20 million to Harvard and Georgetown universities apiece, to be spent on the study on Islamic culture.

There's a mini-controversy here: The same prince gave $10 million to New York City after 9/11, but Rudy Giuliani returned the cash after finding out that the Saudi had made pro-Palestinian remarks. It's probably fair to say that Giuliani's act had as much to do with local politics as with principle.

Here is an interesting question, though, for media deconstructionists: Why does the Times quote Harvard provost Steven Hyman and v-p for finance Donella Rapier...and no one from Georgetown? The correct judgment call...or just lazy journalism reflecting the Times' Harvard-is-God bias?

(After all, each school got the same amount of money, and it surely matters more to Georgetown than to Harvard.)

The AP story, by the way, uses one quote from the prince, one quote from Harvard, and one quote from Georgetown....  ¶ 9:43 AM