A Sampling of Clips for December 15^th, 2009

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

Did You Hear the One About the Former Scientist?
New York Times, Dec. 14 -- A biologist who had abandoned academia and was working in San Francisco on contract as a computer programmer for Charles Schwab walked into a Laundromat ... The former biologist was Tim Lee. After completing his undergraduate biology degree at UCSD he worked at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for a while before he realized he needed a doctorate to do the interesting work. But by the time he finished his Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis, he had realized he hated academia. More
                                                                             
A Deluge of Data Shapes a New Era in Computing
New York Times, Dec. 14 -- In a speech given just a few weeks before he was lost at sea off the California coast in January 2007, Jim Gray, a database software pioneer and a Microsoft researcher, sketched out an argument that computing was fundamentally transforming the practice of science.
Dr. Gray called the shift a “fourth paradigm.” The first three paradigms were experimental, theoretical and, more recently, computational science. He explained this paradigm as an evolving era in which an “exaflood” of observational data was threatening to overwhelm scientists. The only way to cope with it, he argued, was a new generation of scientific computing tools to manage, visualize and analyze the data flood. (Mentions William Kristan, a neurobiologist at UCSD) More

Americans Are Info-Junkies
Yahoo News, Dec. 14 -Americans are known for gorging on food, but we're also gluttons of another sort: A new study finds that the average American consumes more than 34 gigabytes of video, music and words a day-and that's only on our free time. One byte of information is equivalent to one letter of text. One gigabyte is equal to roughly 8 minutes of high definition video. Thirty-four gigabytes of data would fit on about 7 DVD disks or 1.5 Blu-ray disks.
A mix of old and new media contribute to our daily information diet, the study finds, including TV, radio, books, the Internet, movies, text messages and video games. The study, carried out by researchers at UCSD, looked at only the amount of information U.S. residents consumed in their homes and outside the home for non-work-related reasons. Work-related information consumption was not measured. More

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A Fresh Way to Listen to the Masters
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 13 -- Lukas Foss, the late American composer and conductor, liked to say he wanted his performances of the classical repertoire to sound “as if the ink were still wet.” During his tenure as music director of the Milwaukee Symphony, sometimes he succeeded and sometimes he didn’t, but his aspiration to look at a work through fresh eyes has stayed with me.
I thought of Foss again last weekend, when, at Copley Symphony Hall, Jahja Ling conducted the San Diego Symphony in Beethoven’s 1824 Symphony No. 9; and at UCSD, Steve Schick conducted the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus in Leonard Bernstein’s 1971 “Mass.” More

Trying to Reach ‘Abrasive Ecstatic Stasis’
San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 13 -- “I don’t understand people who are only interested in one thing, musically or otherwise,” said David Wightman, who wears nearly enough hats — creatively speaking — to stock a chapeau shop.
Only a few quarters away from completing his Ph.D. in music composition at UCSD, this Indiana native writes contemporary classical and electronic music pieces that draw from an array of traditional and experimental styles and approaches. More

The Green 35 Under 35: Part 2
San Diego News Network, Dec. 14 -- San Diego is on its way to becoming a leader in the clean technology economy, and many of these companies are being started by people under 35. Here are 35 “green and clean” eco- entrepreneurs identified by SDNN. Please let us know about others.
The 35 are be broken into three parts; the first was published last week and expect the third part next week. Here are the next ten companies and 14 entrepreneurs in no particular order: Kevin Jung, 25, Jayson Miclat, 23, Jeff Miclat, 28. Science Aide, Inc. manufactures sustainable educational tools, such as scratch sheets, study guides and lab coats. Jung and Jaysond Miclat met in an organic chemistry class as lab partners at UCSD. More

Saltz on Art’s Triumph: Women Win Slim Majority in Next Whitney Biennial
New York Entertainment, Dec. 11 -- An art-world wall has fallen. The list of the 55 artists to be included in the 2010 Whitney Biennial was made public this morning, and 52 percent of those artists are women. Depending on where you stand, hell has frozen over, or there’s a fissure in the force. (The 2000 Biennial was made up of 36 percent women; in 2008, it was 40 percent.) When I asked curator Francesco Bonami about the unusually high percentage of women artists in his show, he said that he and associate curator, Gary Carrion-Murayari, “didn’t look for women artists. They were just in front of our eyes. It wasn’t conscious at all.” He added that it was “misleading” to think about the upcoming Biennial “in these terms.” (Mentions UCSD visual arts professor Babette Mangolte) More

Be a Social Butterfly
Fox 5, Dec. 13 -- Research shows that staying connected to friends is a wellness step equal in benefit to maintaining a healthy body weight or not smoking. Some examples: University of Iowa researchers discovered that women with advanced cases of ovarian cancer who report more feelings of social attachment tested lower for interleuken-6 protein, a destructive substance in the body, than ovarian cancer patients who reported little or no support from friends and family. There is a dark side to friendship and health. (Mentions Harvard physician Nicholas Christakis and UCSD political science professor James Fowler research on friends who become obese can influence close friends to gain weight) More

UCSD Baseball Gets $100,000 for Lighting
San Diego News Network, Dec. 14 -- UCSD baseball team received a $100,000 donation from William Scripps to help fund a project to install lighting at the university’s baseball field, it was announced Monday. Scripps is the great-grandson of E.W. Scripps, founder of the media conglomerate The E.W. Scripps Co. and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He also sits on UCSD’s Athletic Board. “It’s important for the baseball team to have lights for their field,” he said. “Lighting will give Triton athletes more play time, which is key to their success. It will serve as a great boost for the baseball program and our players.” The project to install lighting at UCSD’s baseball field will cost $450,000, according to the university. More

UCSD Baseball Program Receives Funds for Lighting
La Jolla Light, Dec. 14 – UCSD’s  baseball team received a $100,000 donation from William Scripps to help fund a project to install lighting at the university's baseball field, it was announced Monday. Scripps is the great-grandson of E.W. Scripps, founder of the media conglomerate The E.W. Scripps Co. and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He also sits on UCSD's Athletic Board.
"It's important for the baseball team to have lights for their field," he said. "Lighting will give Triton athletes more play time, which is key to their success. It will serve as a great boost for the baseball program and our players."
The project to install lighting at UCSD's baseball field will cost $450,000, according to the university. More

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