Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Toast to your health
The Toronto Sun (Canada)
This past New Year's Eve, did you have a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon to prevent Alzheimer's Disease? Several months ago I suggested that this might be a good practice to stop the ravages of this disease. But was it questionable advice? … Dr. James Garbutt, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, says "This study corroborates a building story about the detrimental effects of alcohol on the brain".
National Coverage
Ocean Acidification Hits Great Barrier Reef
Scientific American
The largest coral reef system in the world—and the biggest sign of life on Earth, visible from space—is not growing like it used to. … "This study put all this worry and discussion [about ocean acidification] into a real-world context," says marine biologist John Bruno of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "It shows that coral growth is indeed slowing—over a huge range and at many reefs—potentially due to increased acidity."
Colleges Offer Extra Aid to Strapped Students
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Among all the uncertainty colleges face in this recession, they are sure of one thing: Families are feeling less than confident about their ability to pay for higher education. And many colleges are not sitting idly by. … The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is prepared to see more students apply for aid next year, and with greater need, says Shirley A. Ort, associate provost and director of scholarships and student aid.
Death of an AIDS Skeptic
ABC News
Christine Maggiore, an AIDS activist-turned-HIV/AIDS-skeptic, died in her home Saturday of pneumonia, according to the Associated Press. … "They caused the death of thousands of South Africans by delaying treatment and spreading infections," said Dr. Charlie van der Horst, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Van der Horst referred to a journal study that estimated 330,000 lives were lost to new AIDS infections during the time Mbeki blocked government funding of AZT treatment to mothers.
A Gene Pushes Some Men Away From College, but Social Support Pulls Them In
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Young men are less likely to attend college if they carry a common form of a gene associated with poor impulse control, a new study has found. … The lead author, Michael J. Shanahan, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, insists that the study should not be used to support fatalism or genetic determinism. On the contrary, he says, the study offers a new kind of evidence about the roles that social institutions play in reproducing or ameliorating inequality.
Law Schools Customize Degrees to Students' Taste
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Going to law school to get a law degree has become a little like going to an ice-cream parlor for a scoop of vanilla. Plenty of people still do it, but many schools' brochures — like the elaborate flavor-and-topping menus on ice-cream parlor walls — now tempt them with something different, something more. … Judith Welch Wegner, a former senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation and a professor and a former dean of the law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says, "in this climate, I don't think that is how law firms are going be hiring."
Regional Coverage
Girl’s death renews pedestrian concerns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The November death of a 4-year-old girl struck by a car while crossing South Cobb Drive with her mother and three siblings has renewed calls for transportation officials to install pedestrian “refuge islands” on multi-lane roadways. … The University of North Carolina’s Highway Safety Research Center has estimated the costs for installing refuge islands at $4,000 to $30,000, depending on the design of the island.
Outlook for 2009
Southern Political Report (Atlanta, Ga.)
Considering the unexpected ups and downs of 2008, there’s no clear roadmap for 2009. There are, however, plenty of clues to important stories that will be making the headlines in Dixie this year. … North Carolina. “The big thing here is, how do we cope with the recession?” says Ferrell Guillory, director of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Program on Public Life, who forecasts the coming legislative session “will likely be a long contentious session.”
State and Local Coverage
We ain't what we used to be (Guest Column)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
As Southerners are wont to do, many North Carolinians have preferred to see reality not so much as it is, but as their mind's eye remembers it. Yet as North Carolina has grown in population and its economy has diversified, it has emerged as a complex civil society that defies time-worn dichotomies such as rural-urban, black-white, conservative-progessive, rich-poor.
Ferrel Guillory is director of the The Program on Public Life, which is part of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Andrew Holton is assistant director for research.
Outgoing Gov. Easley maintained local ties
The Star-News (Wilmington)
Two months after taking office, Mike Easley signed his first bill as governor. … “He can nudge, use influence through his appointees,” said Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “But it’s not like he can up and deliver a big chunk of cash to a region of the state or another.
Long leave no barrier to Evans' Long Leaf
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Secretary of Cultural Resources Libba Evans took an unpaid leave from her job in May to attend to personal business, but she was available for a holiday lunch at the governor's mansion to receive the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. … Leroy Towns, though, thinks Cillizza got it wrong. The UNC-Chapel Hill professor says Cillizza's assessment of Hagan was "flat wrong" and called her campaign against Dole terrible. "She won because the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ran a brilliant campaign, placing more than $11 million in TV ads," he says. "The DSCC ran three of the best ads in the nation: the Rocking Chair series that painted Dole as old and out of touch."
Our View: Teen smoking rates drop. Time for legislation to help more quit.
The Fayetteville Observer
Smoking is losing its status among the cool crowd. According to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the number of high school students who smoke fell from 20.3 percent to 19 percent in 2007. That’s a significant drop. But not nearly good enough. Imagine if one out of every five high school students in the state was diagnosed with cancer. Parents and legislators alike would be vigilant to find a cure as quickly as possible.
UNC News Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/
first-comprehensive-report-on-states-multiple-tobacco-programs-
shows-major-successes.html
Swimming in modesty
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Salman Sheikh was organizing a swim class for his two sons last summer when fellow Muslim parents approached him about starting a class for girls. … "I see this as sign of Muslims learning to operate within American civic institutions," said Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. For many of the women who signed up for the first class, learning to swim had been a long-deferred wish.
UNC doctor suggests SMART ways to stick to resolutions
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
The coming of a new year often makes people re-think their lives and health. Though most people resolve to do better, the best intentions often fail along the way. Dr. Jonathan Abramowitz, an anxiety disorders expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says many people set lofty goals, then fall into what's called the Abstinence Violation Effect.
Destiny heads to Durham
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC Chapel Hill's two Destiny traveling science laboratories are scheduled to visit Hillside High School and Githens Middle School next week. At Hillside High on Tuesday, Carolyn Snipes' physical science students will perform a lab exercise called "The Crucial Concentration." Students will assume the role of laboratory investigators for a court case to determine the amount of protein found in three sports drinks.
UNC Media Advisory: http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/destiny-science-bus/
durham-students-to-get-hands-on-lessons-when-destiny-
science-bus-stops-twice-next-week.html
Friends' presence being felt (Column)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Let's hear it for Bull City optometrist Henry Greene! He's the founder of Academy Eye Associates and was the recipient of the 2008 William Feinbloom Award from the American Academy of Optometry at the organization's annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Greene, who also serves as a clinical professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at UNC Chapel Hill, is internationally known for researching and developing devices and techniques for the visually impaired.
Kudos
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…John B. Buse, professor and chief of the division of endocrinology and metabolism at UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Medicine, received the Banting Medal for Service from the American Diabetes Association.
Last chance to see '1958' exhibit at Ackland
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Today is the final day to view the exhibit "Circa 1958: Breaking Ground in American Art," commemorating the founding of the Ackland Art Museum at UNC that same year. It also is your final chance to hammer a nail into Yoko Ono's work "Painting to Hammer a Nail."
Issues and Trends
Portrait Emerges of Anthrax Suspect’s Troubled Life
The New York Times
Inside the Army laboratory at Fort Detrick, the government’s brain for biological defense, Bruce Edwards Ivins paused to memorialize his moment in the spotlight as the anthrax panic of 2001 reached its peak. … There was more to Bruce Ivins than his Army colleagues imagined, and Nancy Haigwood knew it. She met him in 1976 in the biology department at the University of North Carolina, where he was a post-doctoral fellow and she was a graduate student.
Best of the blogs
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
ERIC FERRERI ON CAMPUS NOTES: For the next couple of months, officials with the UNC system and at public university campuses across the state will deal with two intertwined economic issues: budget cuts and tuition increases. One thing is certain: Budgets are being cut. Less certain is whether tuition will increase at public universities next year, and if so, how much.
National pilots group pushes for new airport
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
A national pilots and aircraft owners group plans to meet with UNC system President Erskine Bowles early this year to push for the creation of a new airport in Orange County. … Members of the Frederick, Md.-based organization already say they have met with UNC Chapel Hill officials to discuss "the future of general aviation in Orange County."
Related Links: http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1062215.cfm
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/columnists/guests_ch/110-1060038.cfm
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1059342.cfm
Airport moves threaten reputation (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The New & Observer (Raleigh)
Why does UNC need a new UNC-owned, run and controlled airport? It is because UNC wants one. I am embarrassed for the greater university and for UNC at the way decisions have been made and implemented regarding the need for a new airport.
Regional transit: The art of the deal
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Triangle leaders have begun conferring behind the scenes, county by county, about how they'll go about implementing plans for a new regional transit system. … Given a strict county-by-county sales-surcharge split, systems in Wake would be relatively easy to finance. But the going in the western Triangle would be harder, and, given the small size of Orange's retail sector, it's an open question as to how officials would link RTP and UNC Chapel Hill to a regional rail network.
Hunt Institute revises Website
The Fayetteville Observer
The James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy has revamped its Web site, enabling users to compare educational data for North Carolina with other states. … Established in 2001, the institute, named for the former governor who was an education champion while in office, is affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
No shoes? No problem for this college interview
The Associated Press
For her college interview, Avery Cullinan put on her best outfit but didn't bother with shoes. She sat in her living room, smiled into her computer's webcam and told an admissions officer more than 800 miles away that Wake Forest University was right for her. … Neither Duke nor UNC offers online interview, according to the information available on their admissions sites.