A Sampling of Clips for June 21, 2010

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

U.S. Debates Joining S. Korean Military Exercises
The Washington Post, June 19 -- The Obama administration is wrestling over whether to send an aircraft carrier to take part in military exercises with South Korea in what would amount to a significant show of force after the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in March. (Quotes Susan Shirk, a former State Department official and an expert on Asian security at UC San Diego) More

Similar story in
San Jose Mercury News

The Coal Age Continues
The New York Times, June 18 -- One way to keep perspective amid all the Beltway cogitation over how  to keep a climate component in an energy bill is to pay attention to the global coal industry. (Mentions “ Living With Coal: Climate Policy’s Most Inconvenient Truth,” an article co-authored by David G. Victor of UC San Diego) More

Percussion on the Lake
New Yorker, June 2010 -- This year’s edition of Make Music NY, the pan-urban musical bacchanal that I reviewed  and blogged about last year, will take place next Monday, June 21st. There will be three New Orleans-style second-line parades; two performances of Xenakis’s percussion piece “Persephassa” on and around the lake in Central Park, with the audience listening in rowboats. The percussionists include Steven Schick, formerly of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, who is a world-renowned champion of contemporary music and Xenakis specialist. Schick also is on the UC San Diego faculty. More

Will Schwarzenegger Endorse Whitman, and Should She Want Him To?
Sacramento Bee, June 18 -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he is not sure he will endorse either candidate bidding to succeed him. (Quotes UC San Diego political scientist Thad Kousser) More

Snuffing Out Science
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, June 19 -- According to science historians Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway in their important book, "Merchants of Doubt," tobacco giant Philip Morris invented the modern tactic of merchandising scientific doubt to stave off regulation. Oreskes is a science historian at UC San Diego. More

Ocean Trip Seeks Insights About Pacific Coast Ecology
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 20 -- Michael Landry of Scripps Institution of Oceanography is preparing for a trip on the research ship R/V Melville. He’ll work in an area called the Costa Rica Dome, examining what determines the kind of plankton that flourish best there, how fast they grow, how the food web is organized and what characteristics of the system are different or unique from others in the oceans. More

Energy of the Future? It’s Green and Slimy
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 20 -- Some 300 million years ago, decaying algae that filled the world’s seas and swamps left behind a gift: oil. Now, with the planet rapidly approaching a time where the rate of oil depletion outpaces the supply, researchers and energy companies are hoping the hardy little green slime — with a little biotechnology tweaking — can do the trick again. (Quotes Stephen Mayfield, head of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, a consortium of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute, UC San Diego and Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

Smart Grid Innovations in Energy and Analytics Take Root in San Diego
San Diego Union-Tribune, June21 -- Over the next decade, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and other public utilities in California must undergo a massive transformation in the ways they generate and transmit electricity to meet aggressive regulatory requirements for renewable energy. We’re starting to see some of those changes today. (Mentions UC San Diego’s “microgrid,” which includes two 13.5 megawatt gas turbines, a 3 megawatt steam turbine and a 1.2 megawatt solar-cell installation that together supply 82 percent of the annual power needs for the 1,200-acre, 450-building campus) More

CIRM Meets in San Diego to Fund New Stem Cell Projects
KPBS, June 21 — California's stem cell institute will meet in San Diego this week. The board members are expected to approve up to $30 million in grants to study how stem cell therapies can overcome immune resistance. Researchers from UC San Diego and the Salk Institute will make a presentation Wednesday morning about their research into stem cell therapy for Lou Gehrig's disease. More

Father’s Day Odd Couple
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 20 -- If life were a casino, security would be poring over surveillance videotapes of Justin Halpern. What explains this 29-year-old San Diegan’s freakish winning streak, going from unknown writer to New York Times best-selling author and CBS sitcom producer in nine breathtaking months? The answer: dad. Halpern’s father, Samuel Halper, is a professor emeritus of radiology at UC San Diego Medical School and co-author of research papers on cerebral blood flow. More

Tailored Treatment
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 20 -- Sarah Jenkins recently peered into a genetic crystal ball and got a glimpse of her potential future. Jenkins was tested through the Family Cancer Genetics program at Moores UC San Diego Cancer Center. More

The Mission: Train Afghans to Take Over
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 20 -- The Afghan soldiers and police officers, like the women walking the village’s dirt alleys in burqas, were actors participating in a recent training exercise at Camp Pendleton. Their role in the mock Afghan village was to help troops from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force prepare for perhaps their most important mission in Afghanistan: training Afghan security forces to protect their own people. (Quotes Eli Berman, a UC San Diego professor who leads a Pentagon-funded research project on political violence) More

Sustainability Trends on Campus
University Business Magazine, June 2010 -- Turning off lights in an empty room, changing to compact fluorescent bulbs, and implementing recycling programs might be the low-hanging fruit of reducing a campus’s carbon footprint, but they are also very effective steps. Read on to learn ways some campuses are turning a deeper shade of green—by taking commonsense measures to a higher level. (Mentions the Sustainability Resource Center at UC San Diego) More

Seeing the City Through an Artist's Eyes
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 20 -- James Enos’ is more than a little hard on himself. He’s one of the standout artists in the major museum exhibition of local artists “Here Not There: San Diego Art Now,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. He’s got one master’s degree in architecture (New School  of Architecture, 2005) and earned another in studio art (UC San Diego, 2009). (Also mentions Teddy Cruz, who is on the UC San Diego visual arts faculty) More

Startups, Students Benefiting from New Partnership
San Diego Business Journal, June 21 -- Some students at the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego are getting the type of real world experience that is hard to find, thanks to a new partnership between the school and EvoNexus, an incubator formed in San Diego last year. More

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