A Sampling of Clips for August 4, 2011

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Fed May Weigh More Stimulus on Flagging Recovery Sign
Bloomberg Bussinessweek, Aug. 3––Federal Reserve policy makers may start weighing additional steps to prop up the recovery after growth fell below 1 percent in the first half of this year and economists began cutting second-half growth forecasts.
“At a minimum, the FOMC will have a serious debate about the policy options -- what they should do, and what they expect to get from it,” said Roberto Perli, a former associate director in the Fed’s Division of Monetary Affairs, referring to the Federal Open Market Committee. “Growth in the first half was dangerously close to zero,” said Perli, director of policy research at International Strategy & Investment Group. (Cites research from James D. Hamilton, a UC San Diego economics professor). More

Skeptic's Small Cloud Study Renews Climate Rancor
Associated Press, Aug 4––A study on how much heat in Earth's atmosphere is caused by cloud cover has heated up the climate change blogosphere even as it is dismissed by many scientists.
Several mainstream climate scientists call the study's conclusions off–base and overstated. Climate change skeptics, most of whom are not scientists, are touting the study, saying it blasts gaping holes in global warming theory and shows that future warming will be less than feared. The study in the journal Remote Sensing questions the accuracy of climate computer models and got attention when a lawyer for the conservative Heartland Institute wrote an opinion piece on it. (Quotes Richard Somerville, a scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.) More

Over 40 and You’re Hired
 San Diego Daily Transcript, Aug 3––Robin Ryan, America’s top career coach, has offered job seekers advice on “Oprah,” “Dr. Phil,” and more than 1,000 other TV and radio shows. This popular speaker and best-selling author motivates people to enhance their skills, improve their professional lives and succeed in today’s economy, especially those over 40 job-seekers.
From her travels across the U.S., Ryan knows times are tough for those who are over 40 and need a new or better job. (Written by Henry DeVries, Assistant Dean for External Affairs at UC San Diego) More

Archaeologists Hack Kinect into 3-D Scanner
 MSNBC, Aug. 3––There's not much business in making gadgets for archaeologists, but that has not stopped the modern day Indiana Jones types from adapting the tools of other trades for their painstaking explorations of ancient cities, battlefields and burial grounds. Their latest triumph comes from hacking Microsoft's Kinect gaming device to create a handheld 3-D scanner capable of virtually replicating entire dig sites filled with artifacts and unearthed buildings. The hacked "ArKinect" casts a pattern of infrared dots on people and objects so that it can map them in 3-D, just as it typically captures the full-body motions of gamers playing on the Xbox 360. It can already digitize people and small objects such as ancient weapons or pottery, but researchers at UC San Diego hope their device can soon capture 3-D scans of entire buildings or neighborhoods. More

Keystone Pipeline Meets Opposition From Princeton, Harvard Experts
Huffington Post, Canada Aug. 3 ––Scientists from some of the most prominent institutions in the U.S. have written a letter to president Barack Obama urging him not to approve a pipeline that would deliver bitumen from Alberta's oilsands.
The letter is signed by 19 researchers from Princeton, Harvard and Columbia universities, as well as facilities such as the Woods Hole Research Centre and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
It was organized by environmentalist and author Bill McKibbon.
The United States government is debating whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. More

Local Scientists Create '40-Day Forecast'
 KGTV, Aug. 3––A local company and scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said they have created a system that can forecast up to 40 days before a heat wave or cold snap.
Forecasters at EarthRisk, a new local company, said they foresaw the current heat-wave that has made summer miserable for nearly half of the country.
"We started to see those signals as early as late June," said EarthRisk meteorologist Stephen Bennett. More

It's Shark Week!
 KFMB, Aug. 3––It's actually always Shark Week at Scripps Birch Aquarium, where there are several types of shark on display.
In this Earth 8 video story, Kimberly King talks to Nigella Hillgarth about sharks. More

Peter Ellsworth Adds ‘Mr. San Diego’ to His Bio
San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 3–– Most San Diegans know Peter “Pete” Ellsworth as the visionary who took the helm of Sharp Hospital in 1986 and, within 10 years, expanded it into a network of hospitals and clinics called Sharp Healthcare. As of Sept. 1, however, he’ll also be known as the 2011 “Mr. San Diego.”
Peter "Pete" Ellsworth gets 2011 "Mr. San Diego" award. Civic leaders, who are past San Diego Rotary Club presidents, have chosen him to receive the annual honor that since 1952 has gone to a forward-thinking community leader.
At 80, Ellsworth is still active, primarily as overseer of a $35 million foundation left by mortuary tycoon Legler Benbough. Each year, it pumps $3 million or more into southeastern San Diego transitional neighborhoods, Balboa Park and UC San Diego science projects. More

Caroline's Seaside Café by Giuseppe Opens at SIO
La Jolla Patch, Aug. 3––A new café opened at the LEED-certified Scripps Seaside Forum at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (SIO) on Aug. 1. Caroline's Seaside Café is operated by Giuseppe Restaurants & Fine Catering of La Jolla.
This is not Ciuffa's first rodeo as a restaurateur; he also owns and operates the Sculpture Court Cafe at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park, the café at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla, in addition to operating a successful La Jolla-based catering business. More

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