A Sampling of Clips for Dec. 1, 2010

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

Farewell to Reefs, Salt Ponds and Milkfish
The New York Times, Nov. 30 -- This morning I woke up on Kiritimati Island, the largest of the Line Islands and the most populated. The most recent census of the island, in 2005, reported 5,115 residents, and the guess is that the coming census may come close to doubling this figure. (Written by Stuart Sandin of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who  traveled to the Line Islands in early November to examine the coral reefs of inhabited and uninhabited islands) More

Similar story on
CBS 8, San Diego, Calif.

China and Europe’s Sovereign Crises
The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 1 -- Is there a China link to Europe’s sovereign debt problems? James Hamilton, an economics professor at UC San Diego, has drawn an intriguing connection on his Econbrowser blog. During the spring, he noted, the spike in Greek yields that triggered the initial sovereign debt crisis was associated with China’s early efforts to tighten its overheating economy. More

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' May Put Soldiers' Health at Risk, Doctor Says
BusinessWeek, Dec. 1 -- A physician with experience caring for armed forces personnel says the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy puts both service members and the general public at risk by encouraging secrecy about sexual health issues. "Infections go undiagnosed. Service members and their partners go untreated," Dr. Kenneth Katz, a physician at San Diego State University and UC San Diego, wrote in a commentary published Dec. 1 in the New England Journal of Medicine. More

North Americans Needn't Worry About Vitamin D
New Scientist, Dec. 1 -- It'S time to stop worrying about your vitamin D intake if you live in the US or Canada, according to a report published on Tuesday. The report, put together by the US Institute of Medicine, was commissioned by the countries' governments partly to clarify the supposed benefits of huge doses of vitamin D. (Mentions research by UC San Diego’s Dr. Cedric Garland) More

Similar story in
San Francisco Chronicle

AIDS Quilt on Display at UCSD
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 30 -- World Aids Day will be recognized at UC San Diego from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday with a variety of events including a public viewing of portions of the Aids Memorial Quilt. More

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KPBS
La Jolla Light

UCSD Women's Soccer on Brink of NCAA Title
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 30 -- They are madly cohesive, doggedly skilled, and fiercely committed, and those attributes have put UC San Diego’s women soccer team on the brink of something big. For the first time since 2003, they are in the Division II Women’s Final Four, and on Thursday in Louisville, Ky., they face a test wonderfully suited for a bunch of perfectionistic overachievers. More

Similar stories in
North County Times

Top La Jolla Scientist Pushes to Engage Public
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 1 -- Richard Somerville, an expert in computer simulations of the atmosphere at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has worked on a number of research initiatives over the years as one of the region’s best-known climate scientists. These days, he’s spearheading a slightly different effort: helping his colleagues talk about their work in a way the general public can grasp. He’ll speak on the issue next month during the American Geophysical Union’s meeting in San Francisco. More

Notes on Surgery's Game-Changer
Health Leaders Media, Dec. 2 -- When nighttime talk show hosts make jokes about surgeon Santiago Horgan and his novel approach in the operating room, he says, "Bring it on." In the past four years, Horgan, with his surgical team at the UC San Diego Health System, has performed 80 surgeries that use the body's natural openings—the vagina or the mouth—to remove organs and tissue; that's eight times more procedures done in this fashion than anywhere else in the country. More

Preuss Student is Using Squash to Succeed
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 2 -- No one really expected Reyna Pacheco and her friends to try out for the new squash team a few years ago. That’s a big part of why she wanted to do it. Reyna, 16, is a junior at The Preuss School, a charter campus at UC San Diego. She’s also heavily involved in Access Youth Academy, a nonprofit urban squash program that tutors kids in academics, trains them in squash and involves them in community service projects. More

Proton Centers May Complement, Not Compete
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 1   -- The announcements seemed at first blush to be another example of the competitive one-upmanship between Scripps Health and the UC San Diego Health System. Since then, operators of several proton centers have predicted that Scripps and UCSD will end up more as unwitting partners than competitors. More

Institute of the Americas President to Retire Next May
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 1 — Jeffrey Davidow, a former U.S. diplomat who has led the Institute of the Americas at UC San Diego since 2003, will retire in next May at the end of his second four-year term. More

Why Do We Hate Modern Classical Music
KPBS, Dec. 1 -- The brilliant Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker and author of the book "The Rest is Noise" wrote an essay for The Guardian about the public's resistance to modern classical music. Think Arnold Schoenberg and John Cage. Or, locally, think the UC San Diego music department and Roger Reynolds, Chinary Ung, and even Steven Schick (who performs and conducts more than he composes, but he primarily performs modern compositions). More

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