Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
Pill Tells Footballers How Hot They Are
The Associated Press
Practicing in the summer is always a challenge for football players and band members. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday that University of North Carolina football players are going high-tech to determine just how hot they are. Eighteen Tar Heel players swallowed pills Tuesday morning that contain a battery, thermometer and radio transmitter. Officials hope the vitamin-size CorTemp capsule will provide data to help determine if higher body temperatures increase the possibility of concussions.
Heat Issues at Forefront As Football Practice Opens
The Washington Post
Football players in D.C. Public Schools report for their first official practice of 2009 on Saturday, officially marking the end of summer for countless athletes in the Washington area. …According to the National Center for Catastrophic Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, there were 20 fatalities across all levels of football in 2008, six of which were caused by heatstroke — the highest number of heat-related football deaths since 1972. Of the 39 football players who have died from heatstroke since 1995, 29 were high school athletes.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/1430/138/
Regional Coverage
Breast-feeding may lower cancer risk (Blog)
The San Francisco Chronicle (California)
New moms are well aware of the dozens of ways babies benefit from breast-milk, but they often don't realize that nursing a child also benefits their own bodies. …"I was sort of stunned," said Dr. Alison M. Stuebe, the first author of the study and an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "It's an impressive reduction in risk. Other studies either hadn't looked at this or didn't include enough women with a family history to find a statistically significant difference."
UNC Release:
http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/August/stuebe
Health dangers can lurk in beach sand (Blog)
The Boston Globe
By now, we all know what happens when it rains too much near some beaches: Bacteria levels can get so high in the water swimming is not recommended. But it turns out beach sand might be even more of a risk – and not only after it rains. A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Environmental Protection Agency study reported in Science Daily last month shows that children and adults who spent the day digging in the sand – and worse, burying their bodies – are at greater risk of developing diarrhea and other gastrointestinal distress than those that merely walk on the beach.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2692/71/
Collins confirmed as NIH chief
The News Leader (Staunton, Va.)
The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed geneticist and Staunton native Francis Collins on Friday as the new director of the National Institutes of Health. …Collins graduated from Robert E. Lee High School and earned degrees from the University of Virginia, Yale University and the University of North Carolina.
State and Local Coverage
Show Me the Stimulus Money
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
In February, the federal government approved a $789.5 billion stimulus package to help turn the faltering economy around. So, where is it? Host Frank Stasio will talk to John Irons, research and policy director of the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, about the status of stimulus funding and what the money is intended to do. Then he'll chat with some North Carolinians who are beginning to see the first influxes of stimulus cash. …Dr. Cam Patterson, director of the McCallister Heart Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will talk about research being funded by the stimulus money.
Note: "The State of Things" is the statewide public affairs program airing live at noon weekdays and rebroadcast at 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays.
UNC gauges players' body heat
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
At first, it was hard for University of North Carolina football player Kendric Burney to swallow. They handed him a pill containing a battery, thermometer and radio transmitter and told him it would lodge in his intestine, where it would stick around for one to two days to measure his core body heat. …But by gulping down the vitamin-size CorTemp capsule Tuesday morning, Burney and 17 other Tar Heel football players began sweating out data that will be used later this season to help determine whether higher body temperatures increase the possibility of concussions. UNC's coaches also plan to use the data to better regulate drills during practice and during games in heat that often reaches the high 90s through the early stretch of fall games.
N.C. law a new tool for capital convicts
The Charlotte Post
North Carolina now allows challenges to the death penalty based on race. …Capital punishment opponents point to a 2001 study by researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill that found that the odds of a murder defendant condemned to death in North Carolina increase if the victim is white.
Well Done
The Chapel Hill News
…Take the fifth annual UNC Wellness Center Spring Triathlon held in the Meadowmont neighborhood in eastern Chapel Hill this past Sunday. Five hundred participants meant 500 plotlines as rich as War and Peace and as rewarding as Rocky. "We've got a woman on a relay team, and she's competing in this event on a week between chemotherapy treatments," said UNC Wellness Center lifestyle enhancement director Kathy DeBlasio.
Ackland Museum appoints curator
The Chapel Hill News
Peter Nisbet, formerly the Daimler-Benz Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum at the Harvard Art Museum, has been appointed chief curator of the Ackland Art Museum at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, effective Oct. 1, 2009.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2731/66/
Roses and Raspberries (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
Raspberries to those students who take things too far in celebrating a big Tar Heels basketball win. Now Jasmin Jones, the new student body president, feels compelled to organize what should be a spontaneous celebration. If you supply beach balls, maybe a DJ or something to keep the kids occupied, so the argument goes, they won't do dangerous things like crowd surfing or leaping over bonfires.
The downside of eating soy (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
America has discovered the joy of soy. Not long ago, it would have required a trip to the health food store for most of us to find soymilk or a veggie burger patty. No more. These and other soy foods — including tofu, tempeh and soy-based substitutes for ground beef, bacon, hot dogs and cold cuts — are now on the shelves at most supermarkets. (Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical assistant professor in the department of health policy and administration in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill.)
Politics offers lessons in grassroots advocacy
The Charlotte Post
Sarah Norris and America Allen spent their summer learning first-hand how grassroots politics works. The UNC Chapel Hill students spent two months in the Democracy Summer program sponsored by Democracy North Carolina, a non-partisan political advocacy group. Norris, 19, and Allen, 20, worked on a project advocating for public financing of N.C. elections and legislation that would pre-register teens to vote.
Her hobby grows by 13 pounds a day
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Randi Byrd planted her first pumpkin seeds in May because she wanted to connect with the soil of her ancestors. But a blue ribbon at the N.C. State Fair wouldn't hurt, either. …"When I was six or seven years old, my day care took a field trip to his farm," said Byrd, who works part time at the American Indian Center at UNC-Chapel Hill and also at a novelty shop, Vaguely Reminiscent, on Durham's Ninth Street. "It made me feel so proud."
Issues and Trends
Sounding retreat (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The notion goes something like this: A person who spends a substantial amount of time in an administrative position at a university needs a transition period when he or she decides to return to a faculty post. …James Moeser, retired chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, didn't feel a bump. Moeser received his chancellor's salary of $390,000 for a year before rejoining the faculty this year, where he'll get $234,000 for co-teaching a course and mentoring faculty members who want to go into administration.
Related Links:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/10/qt#205318
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters/story/1643456.html
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters/story/1643454.html
UNC system board has a full plate this week (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The UNC system's governing board will have a lot to talk about when it reconvenes Thursday after its summer break. The recent passage of the state budget will surely be on the minds of some campus leaders.