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Maryland Moments, September, 2009 UM, Community The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Despite the disturbing trends, many observers fear that there is little appetite to confront the challenges facing U.S. higher education. Even before the current financial troubles, public colleges were chronically at the back of the budgetary line, among the first to be cut in difficult times. What's more, with 50 state systems and 4,400 public and private institutions, responsibility for dealing with problems like college access or completion is diffuse, and finding a comprehensive approach to tackling such issues can be difficult, if not impossible. ... The Chinese solution, says Mr. (Lamar) Alexander, a former governor and president of the University of Tennessee, was to 'decree' greater investment in research and academics. In the United States, by contrast, a panel appointed by the National Academies debated, deliberated, and produced the 'Rising Above the Gathering Storm' report. That report led to the America Competes bill, which was argued over and amended before finally reaching the president's desk, several years later. 'It was a messy, democratic, consensus-building effort,' Mr. Alexander says. 'But it worked.' Still, C.D. Mote Jr., who is president of the University of Maryland, College Park and helped write the National Academies report, says the United States could learn something from the efforts of Asian countries, namely that the government can play a role in seeding innovation. 'That's something we said never could work in the United States,' he says. He and others would like to see the federal government do more to encourage research directed at meeting critical social or economic needs. As an example, Mr. Mote and others pointed to a proposal by the Department of Energy to spend $280-million to create eight 'energy innovation hubs,' based largely at American universities, to help make breakthroughs in renewable and sustainable sources of energy." Baltimore Sun: "The University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore combined in fiscal 2009 to bring in more than $1 billion in research money for the first time. The $1.04 billion in research money represents a $184 million increase over fiscal 2008. College Park officials noted research on climate change, national security and food safety as major factors in the jump. UMB officials said large grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed the university to expand research on infectious disease, oncology, stem cells and the human genome. 'The growth in funds is translating to new jobs on our campus,' said UMB President David Ramsay. 'That's people who live, work and spend their money here, which generates financial activity to the economy of the state. UM President C.D. Mote noted a Sage Policy Group study that says the state receives $8 for every $1 it invests in the university." Maryland Daily Record: Mel Bernstein, vice president for research, writes an op/ed: "The basic research performed almost exclusively by academic and government labs is the vital gateway to new technologies that blossom into commercial ventures, creating jobs and tax revenues. For example, research by UM biochemists resulted in a new technology for cheaply turning trash into ethanol. They have formed a business and are testing the process commercially. The U.S. Department of Energy recently designated UM as an Energy Frontier Research Center, providing more than $14 million to extend our highly promising nanotechnology research into new areas of energy storage, such as a new breed of advanced electric car batteries. This has the potential to spawn a new Maryland industry. The bottom line is that Maryland's main public research universities are an exceptionally good investment for taxpayers -- in the case of College Park an eight-fold return on investment last year, according to a report by the Sage Public Policy Group in Baltimore." Business Journals: "Maryland's two largest research universities grabbed top dollars in 2009 as the federal government funneled more money into scientific awards. Johns Hopkins University received about $570 million in federal dollars -- the most it has received in five years. Federal funding for the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park topped $1 billion for the first time. College Park brought in $518 million in fiscal 2009, a 30 percent increase over 2008. That is the biggest year-over-year jump to date, school officials say. UMB pulled in $517 million, up from $450 million in 2008." Washington Post: "Now, however, both states' higher education systems (Virgina and Maryland) are at risk of deteriorating because of budget cuts. The recession is partly to blame, but the downturn is only aggravatin problem that's been building for years and needs serious attention. Politicians who have allowed the Virginia and Maryland systems to suffer from chronic shortfalls in funding need to live up to their pledges to support public universities, so our children can get good educations and our region can remain economically competitive with other parts of the country and the world. ... In interviews, the presidents of the two states' flagship universities -- C.D. Mote Jr. of the University of Maryland at College Park and John T. Casteen III of the University of Virginia -- both warned that the quality of their systems would decline unless current budget trends are reversed. They predicted increased class size, fewer course offerings and less responsive services, among other dangers. 'It's been under stress for quite a few years, and of course the current economy has just increased that stress,' Mote said. The College Park campus has lost nearly $38 million of its planned $426 million of state funding for the year, and he said layoffs are unavoidable. 'The sad issue for us is, the overall quality that we've been building up so well for a long time is going to suffer, just because of the absence of personnel,' Mote said." Baltimore Sun: "The University of Maryland improved its grade in yet another rating of sustainability among US colleges, though it fell short of true-green academic stardom because of the way in which it handles its endowment. The flagship of the state's university system scored a 'B' on this year's College Sustainability Report Card, the fourth annual evaluation not only of the green policies and practices on college campuses across America but also of how the schools handles their endowments. The rating is prepared by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a nonprofit group dedicated to socially responsible investing of donors' gifts. College Park moved up from a B-minus last year and landed on the rating's list of 'campus sustainability leaders.' Indeed, UM matched or nudged out almost every other peer institution in Maryland and in the Atlantic Coast Conference. In-state, only private Johns Hopkins did better. And in the ACC, UM was bested only by Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But on this score, UM President Dan Mote can brag about outgreening the University of Virginia (full disclosure, I'm a Wahoo alum, and parent of a Wahoo and a Terp)." Washington Post: Pulitzer winning columnist Steve Pearlstein: "After nearly two decades of booms and busts that have yielded little in the way of economic gain for the typical household, Americans have developed a profound distrust of the markets, financiers, big business and the capitalist ethos. I got a taste of that last week when I attended a day-long ceremony celebrating the opening of the Center for Social Value Creation at the University of Maryland's business school. The school's dean, Anand Anandalingam, explained that the impetus for the center came not from the administration or even the faculty but from business students who were looking for more meaning and social purpose in their careers than simply making a lot of money for themselves and for shareholders." Baltimore Sun: "President Barack Obama sought to harness the energy of his youthful supporters to the Democratic push for health care change, rallying a largely student crowd Thursday at the University of Maryland, College Park. An earsplitting roar greeted the president when he entered the Comcast Center, coatless and with sleeves rolled up. It was the first campus stop on Obama's campaign-style health care tour, and he tailored his stump speech for the university audience. Obama noted that, under the plan he favors, young people who are covered under their parents' health insurance plans could retain that coverage until they turn 26. Many plans currently end coverage for dependent children once they graduate from college. The president compared the drive to overhaul the health care system to earlier fights, including those for civil rights, female suffrage, Social Security and Medicare -- as well as his 2008 candidacy for president, calling health insurance reform a 'defining struggle of this generation.' " WUSA-TV, Washington: "Enrollment of African American freshman at the University of Maryland, College Park plummeted 28% in 2009. University officials blame financial aid competition for top talent from private universities combined with a down economy and tougher than ever admission standards that are amplifying the racial achievement gap in the region's public schools. 'I'm really concerned, and I think a lot of people are concerned that for first-time, first-year students, the numbers have gone down,' said Robert Waters, UM's Special Assistant to the President for Diversity. Waters predicts that regardless of the decline in African American freshmen, Maryland can maintain its impressive diversity by luring minority transfers from other schools, particularly the state's community colleges where some highly qualified students are choosing to earn credits because it is less expensive. Tuition and fees at the University of Maryland are estimated at $21,000 per year for in-state students. The school has become highly selective, with average SAT scores at 1285 and the average GPA at 3.93." Baltimore Sun: "At the University of Maryland, College Park a projected class of 4,000 came in at 4,200. That was largely because fewer students changed their minds over the summer than usual, said Britt Reynolds, director of undergraduate admissions. 'In hindsight, we can look at it and say that maybe people wanted fewer risks in the middle of a recession,' he said. 'They wanted to pick something, stick with it and bring some certainty to their lives.' Reynolds said it's not unusual to overshoot or undershoot projections by a few hundred and said the campus can absorb the extra students with little difficulty. 'I take this as good news overall,' he said. 'You never want to be too much under or over your projection, but people tended to move back to education in this time, and that's a good thing for us.' " Maryland Daily Record: "The University of Maryland's Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute and the Regional Manufacturing Institute announced the launch of the Maryland Manufacturing Partnerships to strengthen the competitiveness of Maryland manufacturing companies. The initiative will pull together resources from around the state, including third-party experts, University System of Maryland faculty, the National Institute of Standards and Technology's national Manufacturing Extension Partnership network and expert in-house consultants. Features include a new social networking and informational Web site that connects manufacturers with each other, state resources and service providers." Maryland Daily Record: "The Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering, of College Park, announced that several of its principal scientists have developed and are teaching a variety of graduate courses in software engineering for the University of Maryland's Clark School of Engineering's Graduate Certificate in Engineering program. The courses began this fall semester and are planned to be part of the university's regular academic schedule. The Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering is a not-for-profit applied research and technology transfer organization that is affiliated with the University of Maryland and with its sister institute, the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering in Kaiserslautern, Germany." Maryland Daily Record: "The Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park announced it will offer the Directors' Institute, an intensive, two-day program to address critical issues facing corporate boards, in Washington in April. The inaugural program in what is planned to be an annual event is designed for board chairs, corporate directors and senior executive officers of publicly traded companies, to receive instruction and engage with each other to develop best boardroom practices. The institute is headed by Stephen Wallenstein, an expert in corporate governance and best practices for publicly traded companies in the U.S. and abroad." Maryland Daily Record: "The University of Maryland's Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute and the Regional Manufacturing Institute announced the launch of the Maryland Manufacturing Partnerships to strengthen the competitiveness of Maryland manufacturing companies. The initiative will pull together resources from around the state, including third-party experts, University System of Maryland faculty, the National Institute of Standards and Technology's national Manufacturing Extension Partnership network and expert in-house consultants. Features include a new social networking and informational Web site that connects manufacturers with each other, state resources and service providers." Maryland Daily Record: "The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, College Park's Robert H. Smith School of Business announced the launch of the 2010 China Business Plan Competition. The current competition, the fifth sponsored by the Dingman Center, is being held in partnership with the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University in Beijing. Students from both universities will collaborate to come up with business ideas, then compete before a panel of judges in China in January for $10,000 in cash prizes." WBAL Radio: "A new program to stop dating violence kicks off today at the University of Maryland College Park, designed to prevent dating violence on college campuses. Organizers say the Red Flag campaign will place red flags throughout the campus to call attention to dating violence. There will also be posters in residence halls and on campus programs to warn students about the signs of dating violence which include excessive jealousy, emotional abuse, one partner isolating the other from family and friends, stalking and sexual assault. Experts cite research claiming that 21% of all college dating relationships has one partner being abused, and women age 16 to 24 experience the highest rates of intimate partner violence. At the University of Maryland, the program will be run by the Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Program, the Student Government Association, and the University Health Center." Swine Flu Washington Post: (Video) "Flu has hit early and hard on campuses in the Washington region, spawning, at last count, 435 cases of flulike illness at the University of Maryland, 95 at the University of Virginia and several dozen at other institutions. There has been no report of a college student in the area dying of flu this fall, and U-Md. said the lone hospitalization there involved an underlying medical condition. Health officials at area colleges said most cases have been mild. That is not to say they have been pleasant. Mark Gonzalez, 21, a junior at U-Md., woke up on the second day of classes with a racking cough and a fever that hovered around 101, even with Tylenol. He went to the campus health center the next day and tested positive for Type A flu, meaning he had probably contracted the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu. He was issued a surgical mask and sent home. 'It had to be 10 times worse than the regular flu,' Gonzalez said. 'It was not pleasant at all.' "
Associated Press: "The University of Maryland says the number of students who have reported flu-like symptoms since classes started two weeks ago has reached 506. Spokeswoman Beth Cavanaugh said Monday (Sept. 14) that many have already recovered and the number indicates suspected cases of swine flu, but sick students aren't routinely tested for the virus."
Inside Higher Ed: "College students invariably share close quarters in dorm rooms, drink from the same cups at parties, cough and sneeze on each other while in class. Within days of the first reported fever, the football team's front line, half a sorority and an entire hallway in a freshman dorm are all sick. In any other year, it would be the seasonal flu, which predictably rambles through North America between November and March. But this year it's September, the virus is H1N1 influenza and, though symptoms seem mild, fears persist that it could become something worse. ... The University of Maryland at College Park has had more than 250 suspected H1N1 cases but there hasn't been "any panic over the situation," said Lisa Crisalli, a junior. She said she hasn't heard about any events being called off, though after parties and other social events she has "heard people worried about creating an incubator" while gathered together in a small room. Victoria Seng, a senior, said she knows two classmates who have been sick but have since recovered but hasn't seen much change on campus as H1N1 has spread. 'I'm being more mindful about washing my hands a lot and encouraging people who live with me or interact with me on a daily basis to do that too.' " University Business: "Some institutions are already working on the initiatives the president called for. CyberWATCH is a consortium of higher education institutions, businesses, and government agencies in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., with the mission of improving the quality of the IT security workforce through the sharing of curriculum and professional development opportunities. A partnership between the public and private sectors has long been necessary because of the commercial solutions being used to protect networks, explains Brian Darmody, associate vice president of Research and Economic Development at the University of Maryland. As a member of CyberWATCH, the University of Maryland created a digital forensics lab that other consortium members can access remotely for real-time demonstrations, notes Gerry Sneeringer, UM's director of IT security for the office of information technology." American Farmer: " 'I guarantee you right now there is nothing to the closing of any offices.' Those were the words of Dr. Cheng-i Wei, dean and director of the University of Maryland's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and director of its Extension program, when asked by Farm Bureau representative Chuck Fry at last week's Maryland Ag Commission meeting about rumors that some county Extension offices may close. Wei said that there has been some 'shifting' to make sure Extension services are available in all counties amid several vacant positions and a university-wide hiring freeze, but closing any offices would be counter-productive to growing the awareness of Extension in urban and suburban areas. 'This is the time when we need a lot of support and we need to demonstrate our service is available to the cities.' Wei added that only relying on what comes from the state and federal budget will ensure a slow death for Extension and pursuing other money from private foundations and companies and other government agencies will be key. 'I don't want to be the dean of a dying business,' Wei said. 'I don't want to be the last one to close the door.' " Washington Post: "Whether it's hiring more police officers, increasing security patrol routes or redesigning student IDs, universities in the District, Maryland and Virginia are beefing up security efforts to keep their campuses safe this year. Officials at the University of Maryland and Georgetown, George Washington and George Mason universities are implementing programs to encourage students to think about their safety and deter criminals. ... Despite those efforts, university officials said students must be aware of their surroundings to avoid becoming victims. 'Students need to think about their safety,' said Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the UM public safety office. 'When you go out, you have to think: Who am I going to be with? How am I going to get home?' Dillon said his staff uses various methods to get students interested in their safety. Like those at other schools, his staff members send text messages, e-mail alerts and Facebook messages to inform students about crime-related issues, breaking news and descriptions of crime suspects." People Washington Post: The loyal and generous Jack Heise, who cared as much for the people of the athletic department as he did the contests on the playing field, dies. "Jack Heise, a 1947 Maryland graduate and longtime supporter of the Maryland athletics department, passed away in his sleep on Monday night. Heise formerly served as the president of the M Club, the Terrapin Club, the Maryland Alumni Association and the Maryland Educational Foundation. At one time, he was a board member of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation. He later served as voluntary legal counsel for the M Club, a group that provides 'former Terrapin athletic letter winners the opportunity to continue to be involved in Maryland athletics once their eligibility has expired,' according to the M Club Web site. A retired attorney who lived in Bethesda, Heise was inducted into Maryland's Athletic Hall of Fame in the fall of 2007. During his days as a student at Maryland, Heise was a manager for the basketball team and played lacrosse. Heise was a constant presence at Maryland football and men's basketball games, attending contests home and away. He also attended all women's basketball home games. 'I'm a fervent fan and it's a major part of our life,' Heise said in the fall 2007 edition of Terp Magazine. 'That's why I got the name 'Mr. Maryland.' " Associated Press: "An award-winning University of Maryland professor who founded the school's Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing has been named the state's poet laureate. Stanley Plumly said he is flattered and looks forward to being part of the best of Maryland's culture. Gov. Martin O'Malley announced the honor Tuesday, saying Plumly is one of the nation's most critically acclaimed poets. Plumly, who has been recognized by the university as a distinguished professor since 1998, has written nine books of poetry including a finalist for a National Book Award in 2007. Plumly received his doctorate in 1968 from Ohio University and his work has been published more than 350 times in The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The American Poetry Review." NASA: "To prepare for human exploration of the moon and other destinations in our solar system, NASA is conducting a field test of rovers and equipment at an Earthly site in the Arizona desert. Hundreds of students are invited to experience it. NASA's annual Desert RATS -- or Research and Technology Studies -- field test is underway. The agency has planned a variety of activities to engage students in the practical application of the science, technology, math and engineering skills critical to space exploration. Dozens of students from Flagstaff and surrounding areas have been invited to visit the test site at Black Point Lava Flow on Sept. 16. They will be introduced to the work NASA engineers and researchers conducted during the field test. In addition, college teams that ranked highest in NASA's 2009 Moon Work Engineering Contest will present their projects to members of the NASA field test team. The winning teams are from the University of Maryland, College Park; the University of Akron, Ohio; and Texas A&M University, College Station." Islam Online: "On September 5 two Islamic organizations, Muslims United for Change and Islamic Relief teamed up to take on malaria with the organization of their first event directed against the disease. The event enlisted renowned Islamic scholars and religious leaders for this important cause that impacts both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. The theme of the event alone was humbling: 'One Body: One Goal'. ... The conference brought together speakers such as Yasir Qadhi, Shaikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir. Time and again, each religious scholar pointed at references to the Qur'an and Sunnah (sayings of prophet Muhammad PBUH) to remind the attendees of the overwhelming responsibilities Muslims must uphold, particularly when others are suffering throughout the world. ... After suffering from malaria in the early 70's, Dr. Fatimah Jackson, a professor of Applied Biological Anthropology at the University of Maryland, said she made a commitment to Allah that if cured, she would dedicate her life to studying the disease. After years of tireless work, she announced the development of a biodegradable, organic insecticide on the verge of being patented. Once patented, through assistance from Islamic Relief, the goal is to distribute the insecticide for trials in an effort to help alleviate the suffering caused by the disease." Associated Press: "A University of Maryland engineering professor's real-time, online traffic monitoring system of Route 50 from the Bay Bridge to Ocean City can help authorities during hurricane evacuations -- and vacationers on the road. Civil engineer Gang-Len Chang received $1.23 million from the Maryland State Highway Administration and the Federal Highway Administration to design and install 40 sensors that enable his system to measure how many cars are on the road and how fast they're going. Joe Theobald, Ocean City's director of emergency management, said, 'The importance is the ability to get real-time data. It's part of the overall process, and it lets the public look at real-time data coming out of Ocean City. For the everyday citizen, it's something they might like to view,' he said. 'When it comes to evacuations, it's something we factor into our decisions.' " Washington Post: "During his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, Sgt. Chris Day made a habit of wearing a Terps T-shirt under his uniform. He planned to enroll at the University of Maryland as soon as he got out of the Army. Last fall, three months after Day returned to the United States, he moved into a freshman dorm at College Park and traded the Terps shirt for a pair of sunglasses. The glasses helped him cope, sliding through the days feeling invisible to fresh-out-of-high-school 18-year-olds with whom he suddenly shared a life. 'I felt real isolated, like I didn't belong,' said Day, 23, a physical education major who still keeps his hair cropped military-style. 'I'm not super-old, but I spent 27 months in Afghanistan, and I feel super-old because of that.' As more veterans such as Day return to school, drawn by a new GI Bill that offers more-generous benefits than its predecessor, colleges and universities in the Washington region and across the nation are launching efforts to ease the daunting social, psychological and logistical transition from combat to classroom." "ESA is pleased to announce the winners of its 2009 awards. Professional awards will be presented at the Opening Plenary Session of the ESA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, Sunday, December 13, 5:30-7:30 p.m. ... Professional and student award winners are listed below, with full biographies and photos available at http://www.entsoc.org/resources/press_releases/2009-awards.htm." Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension -- Dr. Michael J. Raupp, University of Maryland at College Park Society & Culture Baltimore Sun: "It's hard to believe after witnessing the daily idiocy that pervades Maryland's roads, but there's a glimmer of hope that the state's drivers might be getting a little more serious about safety. The hopeful signs come in a recently released study by the University of Maryland School of Public Health in College Park, which surveyed 850 licensed drivers each year between 2003 and 2009 about their driving practices, attitudes and concerns. The findings are a mixed bag. It turns out we're increasingly concerned about cell phone use while driving. But it also seems that a majority of us think it's OK just so long as it's us doing the chatting. Maryland drivers are in no danger of becoming a model of rational thinking. Still, the survey suggests that in some ways, Maryland drivers are ahead of their political leaders in their willingness to crack down on unsafe behavior. 'We're moving in the right direction,' said UM Professor Kenneth Beck, the lead researcher on the study." Reuters: "Most people around the world support significantly increasing government spending to counter the economic crisis, according to a 20-nation opinion poll released on Monday. The findings will bring solace to leaders such as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who have backed multi-billion-dollar stimulus programmes to try to lift their economies out of recession ... Americans were divided on the question, with 48 percent in favour and 48 percent against. 'People around the world are looking for a dynamic approach to the economic crisis,' said Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland in the United States, which conducted the survey with Canadian polling firm GlobeScan. The poll found that support was especially strong for investments in renewable energy and green technology (72 percent) and for giving financial support to major industries and companies in trouble (62 percent)." San Diego Union Tribune: "If most people aren't interested in work issues on the holiday anymore, that's not surprising, said Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland. 'In most places, the day just doesn't have the meaning that it did,' Morici said. 'There's very little industrial labor in this country anymore, the kinds of jobs that led to the rise of unions. And despite what union leaders like to say, most people don't believe labor is a social movement anymore. It's political.' Morici said unions still talk a lot about dignity, 'but that's not as poignant as it once was. Being a person of leisure is so anathema to who we are as a people, the notion of upholding the dignity of work is anachronistic. Dignity is assumed now. To work is to have substance.' " By Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff Princeton Financial Times: "The four most dangerous words in finance are 'this time is different'. Thanks to this masterpiece by Carmen Reinhart of the university of Maryland and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard, no one can doubt this again. As the authors note, 'If there is one common theme to the vast range of crises we consider in this book, it is that excessive debt accumulation, whether it be by government, banks, corporations or consumers, often poses greater systemic risks than it seems [to do] during a boom'' The authors have put an immense amount of work into collecting the data financial institutions needed if they were to have any chance of making quantitative risk management work. Needless to say, they failed to put even a tiny proportion of their revenues into this essential task. As a result, stress the authors, 'a large fraction of the academic and policy literature on debt and default draws conclusions based on data collected since 1980, in no small part because such data are the most readily accessible'. This was simply ludicrous. Happily, that excuse will never hold again. The authors have put together a remarkable database on the external and domestic debt, trade, national income, inflation, exchange rates, interest rates and commodity prices of 66 countries from all over the world. The data go back more than 800 years in some cases, to the date of independence for most countries and into the colonial period for several. What, then, do these data tell us?" Washington Post: "Researchers from the University of Maryland who plodded through more than 6,000 Twitter postings by members of Congress have found -- surprise! -- that politicians spend most of their time on Twitter promoting themselves. The study was designed to determine whether the social networking revolution, and specifically, the arrival of Twitter, had opened a new era of dialogue between elected leaders and the public. But the UM team found that 80 percent of the postings fell into two categories: links to news articles and press releases, mostly self-serving and readily available elsewhere; and status updates that chronicle the pol's latest trip to the sawmill or the supermarket. For example, this dispatch from Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii): 'just completed weightlifting workout at the Nuuanu Y.' Or this, from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa): 'I will b intrvud on AgriTalk at 10amCST. Pls tune in.' By contrast, the researchers found that members of Congress spent just 7 percent of their time interacting with citizens. 'Twitter by its nature is a very self-absorbed service,' said Jennifer Golbeck, lead researcher and assistant professor in the university's College of Information Studies. 'Politicians are very self-important people.' " Agence France-Presse: "Eight in 10 Iranians also say they consider President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be the country's legitimate president despite mass protests following the disputed June 12 vote, according to a survey by WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO). Eight in 10 also say Ahmadinejad is honest. ... Another 60 percent of Iranians surveyed said they supported 'full, unconditional negotiations' between Washington and Tehran, while 30 percent were opposed. But despite Obama's outreach to Muslims around the world, only 25 percent of those surveyed believe he respects Islam, while 59 percent said he does not. Seventy-one percent said they have little or no confidence that Obama will do 'the right thing' in his handling of world affairs. That figure was lower than any of the 20 countries polled by WPO, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, in the spring." PsychCentral: "Many decisions are based on our memory of past events. A new study examines the role of mood on the memory-based decisions. 'Suppose that last week you went to a restaurant and consumed a well-prepared meal,' write authors Anastasiya Pocheptsova (Smith School) from the University of Maryland and Nathan Novemsky from Yale University. 'Further imagine that you went into the restaurant either in a good or bad mood, perhaps because it was a rainy or sunny day. A week later, would you be more likely to praise the restaurant or return to it if your earlier experience happened on a sunny day?' The investigators learned that the mood you were in when the experience occurred does not influence your memory of the event. However, mood will influence your response to an immediate question about how you are enjoying the meal." Washington Post: "Whales have songs, and so do birds, of course. But does music lift the spirits of a swallow? Do humpbacks hum to make themselves mellow? ... Although bird songs and many other animal vocalizations have been the subject of intense scientific study, the effect of music on the moods of creatures other than humans has remained mysterious. If anything, research has suggested that animals are indifferent to human music, whether it's a sonata, a ballad or a rocker. But a provocative new study, spawned by an unusual partnership between a cellist with the National Symphony Orchestra (David Teie, lecturer, School of Music) who also teaches music at the University of Maryland in College Park, and a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has provided some of the first evidence that humans are not the only species whose heartstrings are pulled by music." Science & Technology Space.com: "There's a new king of rings in the solar system: An enormous new ring has been discovered around Saturn, made up of debris from the gas giant's distant moon Phoebe. Before the discovery of this massive ring -- about 12.5 times the average distance between the Earth and the moon in width and 6 times that distance in thickness -- the largest known planetary rings were Jupiter's gossamer rings and Saturn's E ring. Astronomers have long suspected the presence of this ring, which orbits Saturn at a radius of about 8 million miles (13 million km) -- 200 times the radius of the planet itself. 'There were hints that it could be there,' said Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland, one of the astronomers who found the ring. One such hint was the unusual coloring of Saturn's moon Iapetus, which had one dark side and one light side. Some astronomers suspected that the dark side, which looked suspiciously similar in composition to another of Saturn's satellite, Phoebe, was actually debris dust from Phoebe stuck to Iapetus' surface. But astronomers haven't been able to detect it until now because, 'this thing is just immense,' Hamilton told SPACE.com. 'If you look at just a small patch of it, you just see fuzziness.' " New York Times: "There appears to be, to the surprise of planetary scientists, water, water everywhere on the Moon, although how many drops future astronauts might be able to drink is not clear. Data from three spacecraft indicate the widespread presence of water or hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one hydrogen atom and one oxygen atom as opposed to the two hydrogen and one oxygen atoms that make up a water molecule. The discoveries are being published Thursday on the Web site of the journal Science. 'It's so startling because it's so pervasive,' said Lawrence A. Taylor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, a co-author of one of the papers that analyzed data from a National Aeronautics and Space Administration instrument aboard India's Chandrayyan-1 satellite. 'It's like somebody painted the globe.' ... Scientists working with the Deep Impact spacecraft, which later studied the Comet Tempel 1, also found infrared absorption at the water and hydroxyl wavelengths. More interesting, the amount of absorption -- and thus the quantity of water -- varied with temperature. That suggests the water is being created when protons from the solar wind slam into the lunar surface. The collisions may free oxygen atoms in the minerals and allow them to recombine with protons and electrons to form water. Lori M. Feaga, a research scientist at the University of Maryland who is a member of the team that analyzed the Deep Impact data, said this process would work only to about one millimeter into the lunar surface. If correct, that would not give future astronauts much to drink. 'You would have to scrape the area of a baseball field or a football field to get one quart of water,' she said." National Science Foundation: "Staying at home may have given the very first termite youngsters the best opportunity to rule the colony when their parents were killed by their neighbors. This is according to new research supported by the National Science Foundation and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers say the incentive to remain home with siblings and inherit the parents' estate could be the missing link to a question posed nearly 150 years ago by evolution theorist Charles Darwin. He wondered how natural selection could favor traits that reduce reproductive success among worker offspring in highly social insects. ... Research conducted by biologists at the University of Maryland, College Park shows that when two neighboring termite families meet within the same log, one or both families' kings and queens are killed and a new, merged, cooperative colony results. Replacement 'junior' kings and queens then develop from either or both colonies' non-reproducing, worker offspring, and termites from the two families may even interbreed. Pheromones produced by healthy kings and queens that normally suppress gonad development in worker or 'helper' classes are absent or reduced when kings and queens are killed. As a result, suppression is lifted and nonrelated, 'sterile,' helper offspring from both colonies are able to become new 'reproductives' and assume the throne. 'Assassination of founding kings and queens may have driven young termite offspring to remain as non-reproducing workers in their birth colonies,' says lead researcher and University of Maryland professor Barbara L. Thorne." Nature: "When American and Chinese scientists agreed to measure pollution and dust over China, nobody foresaw how difficult it would be. Jane Qiu reports. The meteorological bureau in the sleepy town of Shouxian in eastern China was buzzing with excitement. It was May 2008, and the spacious courtyard was littered with sophisticated remote-sensing instruments that had just arrived on loan from the United States Department of Energy (DoE). The bureau had been expecting the equipment earlier, but it had been held up by Chinese customs officials for more than two months. A group of climate researchers and government officials from China and the United States eagerly inspected the new arrivals, which included a cloud radar, a tailor-made lidar (a radar-like instrument that sends out laser beams rather than microwaves) and sensors for studying various features in the atmosphere and the radiation from the Sun. 'We can do great things with these here,' said Zhanqing Li, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Maryland at College Park, who was leading the Sino-American collaboration." University of Maryland biologists have genetically mapped the sex chromosomes of several species of cichlid (pronounced 'sick-lid') fish from Lake Malawi, East Africa, and identified a mechanism by which new sex chromosomes may evolve. In research published in the journal Science, Professor Thomas D. Kocher, Department of Biology, College of Chemical and Life Sciences; Reade Roberts, post-doctoral associate; and Jennifer Ser, research associate, describe the genetic basis for two co-existing systems of sexual determination in cichlid fish from Lake Malawi. Reuters: "In a break from its usual task of searching for distant cosmic explosions, NASA's Swift satellite has acquired the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet. The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, is the largest and closest spiral galaxy to our own. 'Swift reveals about 20,000 ultraviolet sources in M31, especially hot, young stars and dense star clusters,' said Stefan Immler, a research scientist on the Swift team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. 'Of particular importance is that we have covered the galaxy in three ultraviolet filters. That will let us study M31's star-formation processes in much greater detail than previously possible.' M31, also known as the Andromeda Galaxy, is more than 220,000 light-years across and lies 2.5 million light-years away. On a clear, dark night, the galaxy is faintly visible as a misty patch to the naked eye. Between May 25 and July 26, 2008, Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) acquired 330 images of M31 at wavelengths of 192.8, 224.6, and 260 nanometers. The images represent a total exposure time of 24 hours. The task of assembling the resulting 85 gigabytes of images fell to Erin Grand, an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland at College Park who worked with Immler as an intern this summer. 'After ten weeks of processing that immense amount of data, I'm extremely proud of this new view of M31,' she said." Asian News International: "By linking the twin, 10-meter telescopes in Hawaii, astronomers at the W. M. Keck Observatory discovered an extended, double-layered dust disk orbiting 51 Ophiuchi, a star that is 410 light-years from Earth. It is the first time the Keck Interferometer Nuller instrument has identified such a compact cloud around a star so far away. The new data suggest that 51 Ophiuchi is a protoplanetary system with a dust cloud that orbits extremely close to its parent star, according to University of Maryland astronomer Christopher Stark, who led the research team."
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