A Sampling of Clips for August 25^th, 2008

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

Is Healthy Air Bad?
Newsweek, Aug. 23 -- The Chinese government has pushed drivers off the roads—about 3.5 million of them—and shuttered hundreds of factories, steel mills and coal plants in an effort to reduce the city's notorious smog. But while better air in Beijing may be good news for athletes, it could for worse for the earth's environment. "When you clean up very polluted air, as China is doing during these Olympics, it has a direct impact on global warming," says Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a leading climate researcher from UCSD, who is studying Beijing's atmosphere for the Games' duration. More

An Anorexia Victim Fights Back
People Magazine, July 2008 -- When an insurance company refused to pay for Marisa Meiskin's long-term care, her parents—like thousands each year—could have gone broke trying to save her life. Now the Meiskins are leading the push for medical coverage of eating disorders. (Quotes Dr. Walter H. Kaye, director of the UCSD eating disorders program) More

Calif. Lawmaker's Home Woes May Not Cost Her House
FOX News, Aug. 23 -- Like many voters in this port city and the gritty urban areas of Rep. Laura Richardson's political turf, Johnetta Walker is disenchanted with the lawmaker whose meteoric rise has been marked with personal financial failures. (Quotes UCSD political scientist Gary Jacobson) More

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Los Angeles Times
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Tehran's Web of Silence
Boston Globe, Opinion, Aug. 24 -- As Tehran’s nuclear crisis grabs headlines, an ominous development is taking place inside Iran: the escalation of state repression against Iranian dissidents online. The hard-liner administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up the arrest of political dissidents, who have used the Internet as an alternative medium to express their views against the Islamic Republic. (Co-authored by Babak Rahimi, an assistant professor of Iranian and Islamic Studies at UCSD) More

School Ranks 35th on U.S. News And World Report List
10 News, Aug. 22 -- UCSD was ranked 35th among national universities by U.S. News and World Report, it was announced Friday. More

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NBC San Diego
La Jolla Light

Experts Plead With Parents to Vaccinate
San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 24 -- More parents are choosing to exempt their children from the MMR vaccine, which immunizes against measles, mumps and rubella, officials said, out of fear of possible life-changing side effects. As a result, measles cases are on the rise. (Quotes Eric Courchesne, director of UCSD’s Autism Center of Excellence) More

Sub to Explore Undersea Islands
San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 24 – Dark underwater mountains rise off the coast of Baja California Sur, too deep for scuba divers and virtually unexplored. This week, scientists began diving hundreds of feet beneath the surface of the Gulf of California, searching for new species and insights that could help protect the region's commercial fisheries. (Quotes Karen Stocks, assistant research scientist at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD and mentions the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD, whose scientists are taking part in the effort) More

Artist Manny Farber's Career a Celebration of Details
San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 24 – Manny Farber never tired of looking at small things: a flower, a Post-it note or a section of rebar. He never stopped being fascinated with how “to get it as I see it,” as he said one day in his studio. Farber was a professor emeritus at UCSD. More

Democrats Head to Convention With Mix of Pride . . . and Anxiety
San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 24 – Intensely proud of the history they are about to make but increasingly anxious about their chances to reclaim the White House, Democrats gather this week in Denver to become the first major party to give its presidential nomination to an African-American. (Quotes UCSD political scientist Sam Popkin) More

An Appendectomy Through the Mouth
Voice of San Diego, Aug. 25 -- Jeff Scholz, a 42-year-old former Marine, became the first patient in the country to have his appendix removed through his mouth after he was rushed to the UCSD Medical Center emergency room in March. More

Fire-Tax Campaign Off to Slow Start
North County Times, Aug. 24 -- With the November election a little over two months away, the campaign for a countywide tax that would raise money for fire protection has yet to ignite. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed Aug. 6 to put the proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot. At that time, some proponents of the measure expressed concern about how little time there was to convince voters of the need for an additional tax. (Quotes UCSD political scientist Steve Erie) More

Tons of Donated Medical Texts Sent to War Zones in Afghanistan and Iraq
American Medical News, Aug. 25 -- To meet the need for medical literature, the Medical Alumni Assn. of the University of California, Los Angeles, in April 2007 launched a "books without borders" program. It is designed to bring medical books to Afghanistan and Iraq. (Quotes Bill Proffer, a UCSD alumnus who works in San Diego for Science Applications International Corp.) More

15th Annual Luau & Longboard Invitational Takes Place
La Jolla Light, Aug. 25 -- Top surfers and wannabes took to the waves in La Jolla on Sunday as part of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center's 15th Annual Luau & Longboard Invitational. The 15th annual fundraiser at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography paired surfing icons with local business leaders, doctors and scientists in a surfing competition to raise money for cancer research. More

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