A Sampling of Clips for 
November 01 - 03, 2003

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

President Bush Forces Congress To Make All $87 Billion Grant For Iraq
CNN, Nov. 1-The wildfires in Southern California are now described as 45 percent contained, but not before they had taken 20 lives, destroyed more than 2,800 homes and burned three-quarters of a million acres. During his interview with CNN, Richard Carson, chairman of the Economics Department of the University of California San Diego, describes the remarkable effort of the San Diego firefighters, and the surprising failure of the firefighting system as a whole.
* No link available online.

Top Story
Fox News, Oct. 31-There are new reports that the California wildfires, that destroyed more than 2800 homes and 750,000 acres of land, could have been headed off earlier. During his interview with Fox News, Richard Carson, an economics professor at UC San Diego who specializes in damage assessment of natural disaster, discusses who may be to blame for the disaster that took place in San Diego.
* No link available online.

Overall, Race No Factor for Low-Scoring UC Applicants
Los Angeles Times, Nov. 3-Groups underrepresented on UC campuses - African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans - are admitted with below-average SAT scores at the same rates as whites and Asians, according to a Times analysis. The university's admissions practices have come under scrutiny in recent weeks amid a growing debate over the disclosure that hundreds of students were admitted to UC Berkeley last year with scores of 1000 or below on the SAT. UC officials said the Times analysis was limited because it was based on the SAT, which they called just one factor in admissions and a weak indicator of college performance. But they saw some vindication in the findings.
http://www.latimes.com/la-me-uc3nov03,1,443189.story

UCSD Ranked 16th in Best Value List
North County Times, Oct. 24-UC San Diego is ranked 16th nationally on a list of the 100 best values in public education. Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine first ranked schools based on freshman SAT or ACT scores, admission rates, student-faculty ratios and other measures of academic quality. Then each school was ranked on a combination of quality and cost, including fees and tuition, room and board, the average percentage of need met by financial aid and the average student debt upon graduation. http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/10/24/news/top_stories/10_23_0323_42_24.txt

Antihydrogen Atoms May Have Been Drifters
New Scientist, Nov. 1-Antihydrogen atoms consist of a positron (a positively charged "anti-electron") orbiting a negatively charged antiproton. Physicists hope that by creating and studying such antiatoms they will discover why the universe apparently contains so much more matter than antimatter. New research by Fred Driscoll, a physics professor at the University of California at San Diego, may help will that goal.
* No link available online.

Energy Crisis
U.S. News & World Report, Nov. 3-Experts estimate that fully one in 2,000 babies may inherit some kind of mitochondrial illness. This month Robert Naviaux, codirector of the Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center at the University of California-San Diego, and some of his colleagues petitioned the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, to officially recognize nearly 400 newly described mitochondrial disorders
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/031103/health/3mito.htm

Rare Sponge Could Hold Cancer Cure
Discovery Channel, Nov. 3-After almost 20 years of searching, marine biologists have rediscovered a small, mysterious sponge that may contain a powerful cancer cure. The unnamed sponge was rediscovered in the waters off the Bahamas by scientists at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Florida. (Quote by Bill Fenical, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at the University of California, San Diego.)
* No link available online.

Success May Still Lurk in the Genes
Copley News Service, Nov. 3-In the battalion of new treatments to fight life-threatening diseases, gene therapy is conspicuously missing in action. The drug industry has been intrigued by the technology since 1972, when University of California San Diego gene therapy pioneer Theodore Friedmann published a landmark paper describing the potential of gene therapy. But the field has yet to produce a product or a profit.
* No link available online.

Commentary: Plenty of Blame for SoCal Fire
United Press International, Nov. 1- At the heart of the tragedy of the recent fires in southern California, is the phenomenon of overgrown forests, an issue that has been festering for decades in the California hills and in the mountain forests of most Western states where drought has turned an overgrowth of brush and trees into a tinder box that this year alone has resulted in the loss of 3.5 million acres to fire. The same debate has now been of issue on the Hill. (Quote by Steve Erie, a political science professor at UC San Diego.)
* No link available online.

Fire Crews Near Containment Of Cedar, Paradise Fires
NBCSandiego.com, Nov. 1-Fire crews reported 81 percent containment Saturday of the 7-day-old Cedar Fire, which has claimed 14 lives and scorched more than 281,000 acres. Among the Cedar Fire fatalities was 38-year-old Novato fire Engineer Steven Rucker, who was overwhelmed Wednesday by a tower of flames near Wynola, just west of Julian. (Quote by Leslie Franz, director of health sciences communications at UCSD.)
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/2602813/detail.html

San Diego Fires: The Latest Developments
KFMB.com, Nov. 1-Authorities reported that the seven-day-old Cedar Fire, which killed 14 and scorched more that 281,000 acres, was 81 percent contained Saturday afternoon. While flames from the blaze, which started last Sunday, were still showing north of Mount Laguna and north of Wynola, firefighters were aided by bouts of rain, mist and cooler temperatures. (Quote by Leslie Franz, director of health sciences communications at UCSD.)
http://www.kfmb.com/topstory19519.html

It's Such a Drag
Design News, Nov. 3-Professor Thomas Bewley, Director of the Flow Control Lab at the University of California at San Diego is profiled by Design News. A specialist in control theory and fluid mechanics, he is developing new strategies for controlling unsteady flow systems. Recently, he's teamed up with Robert Skelton, a researcher at the same institute who is studying compliant fabrics that could be used to reduce the drag of boats.
* No link available online.

On Campus: Free Speech for You but Not for Me? Conservative Students Say They're Marginalized
USA Today, Nov. 3-As campus officials look for ways to accommodate the growing diversity of their student bodies, an increasingly vocal number of students -- most of them white and predominantly conservative or Christian -- say there is little room for their opinions and beliefs. Luann Wright, the parent of a senior at the University of California-San Diego, was so outraged by her son's 2001 freshman writing syllabus -- "basically the whole thrust was on the toxicity of the white race," she says -- that she created a non-profit Web site (noindoctrination.org) where students can anonymously post incidents of bias on their campuses.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-11-02-free-speech-cover_x.htm

Crisis Put the Spotlight on Murphy
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 3-The bright yellow firefighter's jacket. The steady tone of voice. The promise that the city would get through it. The plea that residents leave when the evacuation order was given. Those are the images people will probably remember about San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy from the firestorms that ravaged the city last week, supporters and critics alike said. The feelings may be so strong they could be a factor with voters when they decide next year whether to give Murphy a second four-year term, said Steve Erie, director of the University of California, San Diego's urban studies and planning program.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/mon/news/news_1n3mayor.html

Disaster Stories, by the Millions
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 3-The worst of times in San Diego brought out the best in some people. Karen Blevins was among readers who wanted to say thanks to a host of volunteers during the recent fires who were heroes, albeit on a smaller scale than firefighters, but who still won the gratitude of those they helped. Blevins, a nurse at UCSD, did not lose her home but she and her husband, their four children and two dogs were among the thousands who were evacuated last week.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/mon/opinion/news_mz1e3lubrano.html

U.S. Warnings Pale in Comparison Europe's Cigarettes Labeling Emphatic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov. 1- European Union and governments around the world are turning to stronger, in-your-face warning labels to discourage smoking. Yet the United States, which pioneered tobacco warning labels in 1965, hasn't upgraded its cautions since 1984. (Quote by Dr. David M. Burns of the University of California, San Diego.)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03305/236015.stm

Drug Promotions Woo Doctors to Use Unapproved Drugs
The Ledger (Florida), Nov. 3-With an aging population, a shift to drug-based health care and the prospect of a massive government prescription-insurance plan, prescriptions for unapproved uses are only likely to accelerate. Promoting this growth is a symbiotic relationship between physician and drug makers in which sales representatives routinely target doctors untrained in the basics of drug therapy and with little time, inclination or independent information to assess a medication's usefulness or its risks. (Quote by Jay Cohen, an adjunct associate professor of family and preventative medicine at the University of California, San Diego.)
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031103/NEWS/311030370/1039