A Sampling of Clips for Oct. 4 - 5, 2010

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

Revamped U.S. Tsunami Warning System Unreliable, Report Finds
The Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 3 -- A detection system that was expanded following an Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people has experienced significant outages and can no longer be relied on to detect the giant waves as they approach the U.S. coastline, a new report finds. John Orcutt, a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, chaired the committee that wrote the report. More

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Kansas City Star
Miami Herald
Sacramento Bee

Is the Fed Playing with Fire?
CNN Oct. 5 -- The Federal Reserve is about to throw some more fuel on the fire it has been stoking for more than two years. But the expected move to pump more cash into the system might not do much good at this point, and the economy could get burned in the process. (Quotes James Hamilton, economics professor at UC San Diego) More

Five Hours' Sleep is Enough, Study Finds
The Telegraph, U.K., Oct. 2 – A new report from UC San Diego, which followed almost 450 middle-aged and elderly women over a 14-year period, found that those who slept between five and six-and-half hours were most likely to still be alive. More

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UPI

UCSD Doctoral Programs Get a Top Ranking
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 1 -- UC San Diego has the second-best body of doctoral programs among the nation’s universities, according the National Research Council, and the 11th best among all institutions. The research council, an arm of the government-chartered National Academy of Sciences, surveyed 5,000 doctoral programs in 62 fields at 212 research universities. Three of UCSD’s departments were ranked the best in their fields: biological sciences, bioengineering and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. More

A Pediatrician Takes Pride in her Afghan Cabdriver Father
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 3 -- Some may be quick to dismiss a brown man with a thick accent as another immigrant cabdriver. Look deeper, and what emerges is a college student whose dreams were lost to war and tragedy. (Written by Waheeda Samady, a resident physician at UC San Diego) More

Fizzy Drinks Activate Nasal Pain Sensors, Lab Study Finds
BusinessWeek, Oct. 4 -- In an effort to decode the complex taste sensation of soda, researchers have uncovered evidence that fizzy drinks set off the very same nasal sensors as mustard and horseradish. The findings establish that carbonated drinks provoke a spicy, burning sensation, a finding that builds on U.S. National Institutes of Health and UC San Diego 2009 research that revealed that sodas also activate tongue cells that convey a feeling of sourness. More

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U.S. News & World Report

Digitally Incorrect
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 3 -- Saving lives might be the primary goal, but UC San Diego researcher Ricardo Dominguez and his collaborators do not see the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a GPS-enabled cell phone application, in strictly utilitarian or humanitarian terms. Rather, they insist—as they do for all of the lab's productions—that the cellphone application is art. More

A Jumbled View of Illegal Immigrants
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 2 -- With the tears of a housekeeper who claimed she was wronged by a candidate for governor, the issue of illegal immigration came roaring back into California's political landscape this week, like a blast of uncomfortable deja vu. (Quotes John Skrentny, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego) More

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Sacramento Bee
Contra Costa Times

Book Review: 'Storyteller,' by Donald Sturrock
San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 3 -- We're in a Roald Dahl revival. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" are movie-theater hits. "James and the Giant Peach" is a mainstay of the children's bookshelf. Nostalgists for the James Bond of the 1960s have made "You Only Live Twice" (for which Dahl wrote the screenplay) a staple of the cable channels. (Written by Seth Lerer, dean of Arts and Humanities at UC San Diego) More

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The Salt Lake Tribune

California's Boxer Faces Toughest Senate Race Yet
Sacramento Bee, Oct. 4 — Few would deny that Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer is a polarizing figure in Washington and a power broker in Congress. As she navigates her most difficult race in years, however, her record is on trial. (Quotes UC San Diego political scientist Gary Jacobson) More

Ironman Contestant's Biggest Foe? Cancer
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 5 -- The 1,800 competitors in the 2010 Ford Ironman World Championship this weekend in Hawaii will battle the surf (for a 2.4-mile swim), the island's uphill roads (for the 112-mile bike ride) and the rocky terrain (for a 26.2-mile marathon run). One competitor, No. 156, Marine Staff Sgt. Clayton Treska, is battling something else: stage 4 cancer — the kind that kills you. Dr. Peter Curtin, a leading hematologist and blood and marrow transplant specialist at the UC San Diego Medical Center, is treating Treska. More

National Day of Action to Defend Public Education
The Nation, Oct. 4 -- Early last spring, students in California sparked a movement that has grown dramatically over the past year propelled by increasingly savage cuts to state education budgets nationwide. Thousands organized and participated in the March 4, 2010 National Day of Action to Defend Public Education events. The protests were most active in California, but took place in 32 other states as well. (Mentions UC San Diego) More

Research Ship Melville Makes Rare San Diego Visit
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 4 -- The research vessel (R/V) Melville docked at Point Loma on Sunday during one of its relatively rare visits to its home port. The 279-foot ship, which is operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, spends most of its time at sea, and is often away from San Diego for months at a time. More

Busy Time for San Diego Book Lovers
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 1 -- The San Diego City College International Book Fair is concluding this weekend and the County Library Book Festival is running all day Oct. 9 in Encinitas. Rae Armantrout, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet from UC San Diego, will be featured at both book festivals. More

Emerson Quartet Reveals Both Sides Now in ArtPower Opener at UCSD
San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 2 -- The program booklet for ArtPower’s season opening chamber music Saturday had two photos of the Emerson String Quartet. In UC San Diego’s Conrad Prebys Concert Hall Saturday, a capacity audience got both versions of the Grammy winning, much recorded, highly regarded quartet: a somber, calculated, black-and-white first half; and a more human, colorful and altogether more satisfying second. More

Communicating With Space Aliens
KPBS, Oct. 3 — Novelist and UC San Diego grad David Brin is one of the world’s foremost futurists and science fiction guys. And this weekend he traveled from San Diego to London to speak on a panel hosted by the Royal Society on the subject of talking to extraterrestrials. More

False Rape Accusations Have Racial Implications
Voice of San Diego, Oct. 4 -- Last week, a 15-year-old Encinitas girl told her parents and police that she'd been kidnapped and raped by three latino men. Before she admitted that the entire story was fabricated, the police had conducted an intense manhunt in a community already on high-alert after the murders of teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois. It turned out, the minor had sex with a 20-year old man she met online. He is now in jail. But the story raises questions of how false accusations like this impact communities of color -- already vulnerable to institutionalized racism. Sara Clarke Kaplan, professor of ethnic and critical gender studies at UC San Diego, discusses the issues. More

Finding a Place to Land
KPBS, Oct. 1 -- If Lindbergh Field is a problem, it’s one we haven’t been able to solve. But we keep trying… or at least we keep talking about it. (Quotes Richard Carson, a UC San Diego economics professor who has studied San Diego’s air travel predicament) More

Doing Something Cool
Voice of San Diego, Oct. 4 -- While Raj Krishnan is keen to mock everything he works with, underneath the jokes he seems proud of it all. As he should be. After finishing graduate school at UC San Diego in June, the 28-year-old started his own company at a time when most people his age are looking for jobs. More

More Rain, Then a Sunny Weekend, Forecasters Say
North County Times, Oct. 4 -- With a better than 50-50 shot at showers Tuesday, keep a hoodie handy. Have a sweater within reach for later in the week, and then maybe reach for a T-shirt when the area heats up Sunday. (Quotes David Pierce, a climate researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

Aerosols May Challenge the Nature of Environmentalism
Voice of San Diego, Oct. 4 -- Even as the prospect of suspending emissions controls weighs heavily on the future of bio-fuel, it may not spell the end of environmental intervention into global warming. The growing field of geo-engineering — global scale technological interventions — also has a home in San Diego. Dr. Lynn Russell, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is among the leaders in researching the potentially useful climate effects of — believe it or not — aerosols. More

The Data War in Local Schools
Voice of San Diego, Oct. 4 -- The federal government demands that more and more kids at Edison Elementary School in City Heights score "proficient" on state tests every year. It sounds good to politicians and the press, but the teachers know it isn't that simple. The problem: The tests don't track how much each child improves. Instead, they measure how each group of children scores compared to the last group. So Edison is actually trying to get a whole new set of third graders to do better than the last crop of third graders. (Quotes Julian Betts, head of the economics department at UC San Diego) More

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