Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Reports raise alarm over threat to oceans
The Vancouver Sun (Canada)
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a disaster, but it may pale compared to what scientists say is brewing in the world's oceans due to everyday consumption of fossil fuels. …And a third says humans, and their ever-increasing carbon emissions, are acidifying the ocean in a "grand planetary experiment" that could have devastating impacts. Marine scientists Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, at the University of Queensland in Australia, and John Bruno, at University of North Carolina, describe how the oceans act as a "heat sink" and are slowly heating up along with the atmosphere as greenhouse gas emissions climb.
Related Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-f-bruno/the-impact-of-climate-cha_b_616759.html
National Coverage
While Oil Gushes, Invisible Ocean Impacts Build (Blog)
The New York Times
One reason the public, and politicians, have been so focused on the unchecked environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico is the vivid nature of the assault from gushing oil. …A reminder of the less glaring, but still momentous, changes that are under way in the seas is provided by a new paper in the journal Science, by researchers at the University of Queensland and University of North Carolina. The authors survey the oceanic impacts of rising greenhouse-gas concentrations and reinforce what has become ever clearer in recent years: The ongoing buildup of carbon dioxide, both by warming the planet and changing ocean chemistry, is having large impacts on marine life and ocean dynamics, with substantial repercussions for human food supplies and health.
Wisdom of Leaders and Guidance for Graduates
The New York Times
…Here are excerpts from campus speeches, some condensed slightly. …John Grisham, Author, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill …In the past few years, the publishing industry has been scandalized by a handful of writers who wrote very compelling stories of their real-life adventures. These were good stories, they were well written, the voices were clear and seemingly authentic. They sold for big money, they were marketed aggressively, they were reviewed favorably, and then they were exposed for being what they really were — frauds, fabrications, lies. The real-life adventures never happened. The books were pulled from the shelves. The publishers were embarrassed. Lawsuits were filed to retrieve the advances. And the writers’ voices have been forever silenced. In life, finding a voice is speaking and living the truth. Each of you is an original. Each of you has a distinctive voice. When you find it, your story will be told. You will be heard.
Peeking at the Negative Side of High School Popularity
The New York Times
…Mitchell J. Prinstein, a professor and director of clinical psychology at the University of North Carolina, outlines the way researchers often look at popularity: there are the students he calls “high status,” like the student council president or the captain of the football team. “Some of the most popular kids are very much disliked by other kids,” he said. This may be partly envy, but sometimes these standout teenagers can be bullies or part of the mean-girl clique.
Healthy Living From 2 to 12
Newsweek
…Parents often misclassify their child's weight status. Between the ages of 3 and 8, children naturally tend to slim out, says Dr. Eliana Perrin, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; some parents mistakenly think they need to be fattened up. At the same time, parents often overlook obesity in older kids. A routine BMI measurement, followed by a consultation with the child's doctor, can raise awareness and help parents provide effective nutritional and exercise strategies for their children immediately.
Regional Coverage
Plan aims to put Indiana at heart of supply chain
The Tribune Business Weekly (South Bend, IN)
Despite excess capacity at Indiana’s airports, most local companies rely on busy Chicago airports to handle air freight, where backups may cause shipments
to sit idle and create costly delays. …John Kasarda, a distinguished professor and air commerce expert with the University of North Carolina, predicts air freight traffic will triple by 2028, meaning Indiana is in prime position to leverage existing infrastructure and resources to secure a major share of this business.
State and Local Coverage
Sports medicine facility opens
The Chapel Hill Herald
The new Stallings-Evans Sports Medicine Center at UNC has opened its doors to students. The $8.3 million renovation and construction of the space formerly known as Women’s Gym between Woollen and Fetzer gyms was funded with a combination of private gifts and contributions from the Division of Student Affairs, department of athletics, and College of Arts and Sciences. The facility provides athletic training and sports medicine services for the 800 student-athletes who participate in nearly all 28 varsity sports, plus hundreds more student-athletes who are involved in club sports and intramural activities through campus recreation programs.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3713/71/
Concussions steal memory and dreams
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Ashley Lindsay was playing first base last year during practice with her club softball team when she was struck in the face by a thrown ball. …Most of the 62,000 high school athletes who have a concussion each year recover within a couple of weeks with rest. A recent study at UNC-Chapel Hill indicates 95 percent of high school athletes who receive concussions recover in a month or less if the injury is treated properly. …About 80 percent of high school concussion victims say their learning abilities were impaired in the weeks after the injury, according to recent studies. "Academics usually are impacted," said Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz of UNC. "The academic effects can last longer than the physical effects."
Girl athletes have as many concussions as boys
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Football players suffer about 60 percent of concussions by high school athletes, according to the Government Accountability Office, but researchers believe girls may be more susceptible to concussions than boys in some sports. …But a recent study by Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz of UNC-Chapel Hill, one of the nation's leading authorities on concussions, found that boys and girls generally have the same rate of incidence of concussions in sports other than basketball and hockey. "There were some papers that indicated that girls were much more susceptible to concussions than boys, but the most recent studies don't show that except in ice hockey and basketball," Guskiewicz said.
Colleges to help develop bioterror warning system
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Scientists from UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State and other public and private agencies will announce a new bioterrorism warning system project this morning. The North Carolina Bio-Preparedness Collaborative is a one-year, $5 million project funded by a federal grant. The idea: to establish a rapid-response warning system to alert health officials within hours of indications of a bioterrorist attack, threat of disease or other threats to public safety. The Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-CH is hosting a press conference this morning announcing the new project. U.S. Rep. David Price of Chapel Hill, who helped secure the funding, will be among the speakers.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3716/1/
How sea turtles go home again
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
This month, one of the world's most mysterious oceanic migrations will come full circle. And another will begin. In June, female loggerhead turtles will return to the N.C. beaches where they hatched to lay new eggs in sandy nests. …"No one yet knows how sea turtles navigate back to their natal nesting area," said Ken Lohmann, a behavioral biologist at UNC-Chapel Hill. Lohmann and his wife, Cathy, also a behavioral biologist at UNC, have spent their careers systematically cracking the code of how sea turtles use environmental cues to navigate their trans-Atlantic migration.
UNC student journalists win award
The Star-News (Wilmington)
The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently finished first overall in the intercollegiate competition of the Hearst Journalism Awards. …The first-place finish resulted from cumulative points earned by 11 UNC students who placed in monthly writing, photojournalism, broadcast and multimedia competitions during the 2009-2010 school year. The school received second place honors nationally in both the broadcast news and multimedia categories and third place in photojournalism in the Intercollegiate Competition. No other school placed in the top three in three of the four overall Hearst competitions.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3705/75/
Art program helps those coping with mental illness
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
"Brushes with Life: Art, Artists, and Mental Illness," the award-winning creative arts program supporting recovery for people living with severe mental illness, is hosting a public reception to celebrate the opening of its 16th art exhibition from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on the third floor of the UNC Neurosciences Hospital. …"We're excited to celebrate and recognize the talent of our patient artists," says John Gilmore, the Thad and Alice Eure Distinguished Professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry and director of the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health. "We know that medical treatment is vital for a person's recovery from mental illness, but we also know that involvement in activities like the creative arts supports that process as well."
A massive new map collection at UNC (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill's North Carolina Collection is the home of a massive new collection of digitized maps. The collection boasts nearly every original map of North Carolina printed from 1584 to 1923, as well as maps of every North Carolina county and every map published by the state until 2000. That's 3,200 maps in all, now in digital form. The new collection, accessible here, is the result of a three-year collaboration between UNC-CH, the Outer Banks History Center in Manteo, and the N.C. State Archives, each of which contributed their own maps to the collection.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3708/73/
Scholar takes grades to task
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…"If the students have done amazing, high-level work, there may not be anything wrong," said Todd Zakrajsek, executive director of the UNC-Chapel Hill Center for Faculty Excellence, which trains professors to teach better. "[But] you go off to college to get an education. There has to be a way to convey to people what you've learned."
Outcome difficult to predict for Democrats' senate runoff
The Fayetteville Observer
…Relatively small numbers of voters have cast ballots during the three-week early voting period, which ends today, state election officials said. Only the most dedicated party stalwarts are expected to vote Tuesday. Ferrel Guillory, who teaches southern politics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the race is an example of what happens when you take money out of a campaign and then hold a runoff the second day of summer.
Haiti burn victim shares his story of recovery
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
A survivor of the January earthquake that devastated Haiti visited a Raleigh church Sunday to talk about his recovery from severe burns. Eric Louis, a construction worker, was next to a gas station that exploded when the 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit on Jan. 12. A third of his body had second- and third-degree burns, particularly his head, hands, back and toes. Louis arrived at the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill two weeks after the earthquake. He underwent six major surgeries, including four skin grafts.
Public invited to Carolina North meeting
The Chapel Hill Herald
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites local residents, faculty, staff and students to attend a public meeting to explain the permitting process required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before development can go forward at Carolina North. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. Monday in the theater room at the Seymour Senior Center, 2551 Homestead Road. Free parking is available, and Chapel Hill Transit serves the center via the A route.
Housing key component of jobs challenge (Editorial)
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)
Asheville richly deserves its reputation for quality of life, from the appeal of its revitalized downtown to the surrounding natural bounty of the Blue Ridge Parkway and our mountains. But Asheville is poorer for the simple fact that fewer of the workers who make up the fabric of our community — police officers, firefighters, nurses, teachers, construction workers, secretaries and wait staff — can afford to live here. In 2007, Asheville had the second least affordable housing market in the state, ranked behind Wilmington, another community heavily dependent on tourism, according to a new study by the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Size of Bingham expansion worries neighbors
The Chapel Hill Herald
Neighbors of UNC's Bingham Facility found it tough to let go of the past during a meeting with university officials to discuss expansion plans at the animal research center. University officials have been meeting with neighbors and other concerned citizens in an effort to allay their fears and concerns about the $55 million expansion that will add several new buildings to the existing facility.
Issues and Trends
Basnight says UNC will get money to open buildings (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Senate Leader Marc Basnight said he expects the UNC System to get the money it needs to open new buildings. The Senate's budget proposal did not include money for operating costs for the new buildings set to open on campuses across the state. The House included $12 million, but system officials say they need about $25 million in recurring funding for 55 opened or soon to open buildings. The money pays maintenance and utility costs.
Related Link:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/21/qt#230568
Rusty Carter gave money to others to donate to federal campaigns
The Star-News (Wilmington)
Wilmington businessman Rusty Carter, a Democratic fundraiser and former frat buddy of ex-Gov. Mike Easley, admitted in an affidavit released Friday that it was his idea to funnel donations through his employees and their spouses to state campaign coffers – which turned out to be illegal. …Campaign spending limits exist "to limit the influence that any particular individual could have over an office holder," said Bob Joyce, a lawyer and professor in the School of Government at the UNC -Chapel Hill. "The constitutional rationale was to avoid quid pro quo corruption – that is, ‘this for that.' … At a reasonably low contribution level, no candidate would be beholden to anyone."
Realted Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/06/19/540820/fundraiser-admitted-illegal-contributions.html