A Sampling of Clips for 
December 16 - 17, 2003

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

Elizabeth Bates, 56, Researcher On the Development of Language
New York Times, Dec. 17-Elizabeth Bates M.D., a leading expert on the way infants develop language and an outspoken critic of the theory that humans are endowed at birth with a language module, died on Sunday at her home in San Diego. She was 56. Bates, a professor of cognitive science at UCSD and the director of its Center for Research in Language, was known for her very public stance in the debate on nature versus nurture, that is, how much of human behavior is genetic and how much is learned from the environment. (Quote by Jeffrey Elman M.D., an associate dean of social sciences at the University of California, San Diego.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/17/national/17BATE.html

UCSD Building First Laboratory Blast Simulator
Associated Press, Dec. 16-UC San Diego researchers are building what they call the world's first laboratory blast simulator to study how the latest bomb-resistant building materials perform under the forces that tore apart U.S. government buildings in Oklahoma City and Nairobi, Kenya. The blast simulator will use pads of artificial rubber to pummel columns, beams, floors, ceilings and girders with the equivalent force of a car or a truck bomb, engineers at UC San Diego said Tuesday. (Quote by Frieder Seible, dean of UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering.)
* No link available online.

Similar articles appeared in:
Contra Costa Times, Dec. 17
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/7511027.htm

San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 16
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/20031216-1703-ca-blast-resistantbuildings.html

North County Times, Dec. 16
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/12/17/special_reports/science_
technology/12_16_0317_08_14.txt

Larry Smarr
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 15-A Q & A with Larry Smarr, director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, which spans the University of California, San Diego and UC Irvine.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/computing/personaltech/20031215-9999_mz1b15five.html

Gusts Stir up Fires' Dust
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 17-Santa Ana winds blew dust and ash from the fires through the valleys and mountains. San Diego County's blue sky turned into a brown haze, and gusts of 40 mph were reported in Descanso and 38 mph in Julian. Officials with the county's Air Pollution Control District issued a warning of unhealthy air quality for people with medical conditions, including those with heart and lung disease. (Quote by Timothy Morris M.D., the head of a lung clinic at UCSD Medical Center.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/wed/metro/news_1m17wind.html

November Housing Sales Strongest in 15 Years
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 16-San Diego County housing prices reached record levels in the strongest November for sales volume in 15 years, DataQuick Information Systems reported yesterday. The median price for all house and condominium sales in November was $393,000, up 12.6 percent from a year earlier, San Diego-based DataQuick reported. That topped the previous high of $390,000 in June and September. (Quote by Ross Starr, an economist at the University of California, San Diego.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20031216-9999_1b16housing.html

Judge OKs Internet Company's Pop-Up Ads
Associated Press, Dec. 17-A federal judge ruled Monday that a California company run by two students from UC San Diego, can send "pop-up" Internet ads that regulators have called "high-tech extortion" - at least until the matter is decided at trial. U.S. District Judge Andre Davis said there was insufficient evidence for him to grant a preliminary injunction sought by the Federal Trade Commission. Regulators wanted to stop San Diego-based D-Squared Solutions LLC from selling its ad-blocking software.
* No link available online.

Supermarket Strike
City News Service, Dec. 15-The supermarket workers union will run full-page ads tomorrow in the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register and San Diego Union- Tribune proposals on the health care "lie" driving the strike, now in its 10th week. The ad reprints an op-ed column, which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle last Tuesday, written by health benefits experts from UCLA and UC San Diego, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
* No link available online.

Latest Path Around Soft-Money Ban: Buy a TV Station
Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 17-What does the NRA have in common with NBC? Not much so far, but the National Rifle Association has been talking in recent days like a media conglomerate. Last week, NRA president Wayne LaPierre hinted that the group for gun owners would consider buying a TV or radio station to get its messages across if the Supreme Court upheld new federal restrictions on the financing of political campaigns. (Quote by Dan Hallin, a communications expert at the University of California at San Diego.)
http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/1217/p02s02-uspo.html