A Sampling of Clips for 
February 13, 2006

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

Thinning the Milk
Does Not Mean Thinning the Child
New York Times, Feb. 12 -- Just about everyone can list ways to fight childhood obesity: schools should alter lunch menus, teach nutrition and hold more physical education classes. At home, parents should be more diligent and the Xbox less available. Here's the problem: as logical as these suggestions might sound, when many of them have been subjected to the cold light of rigorous scientific study, they have fallen short. If nothing else, when it comes to fighting obesity, science teaches humility. (Mentions Philip R. Nader, an emeritus research professor at UCSD.) More

Attention in N.S.A. Debate
Turns to Telecom Industry
New York Times, Feb. 10 - Though much of official Washington has been caught up in the debate over the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program, one set of major players has kept a discreet silence: the telecommunications corporations. (Quote by Michael J. Kleeman, a veteran telecommunications entrepreneur now at UCSD). More

Turmoil in Life's Final Chapter
Los Angeles Times, Feb. 13 -- Perhaps the cruelest paradox of dementia - both for sufferers and their caregivers - is that memory loss is the least horrible of its symptoms. It's not the grown child's name forgotten or the pill not taken or the suddenly lost sense of place that drives the elderly from homes to institutions, but the unmanageable aggression, the uncontrolled paranoia, the inappropriate sexual behavior that ultimately afflict 90% of those who suffer dementia. (Quotes Dr. Dilip Jeste, head of geriatric psychiatry at UCSD's School of Medicine.) More

Immune Cells Thwart Prostate Drugs
ScienceNOW, Feb. 10 -- Many men diagnosed with prostate cancer receive hormone-blocking therapy as part of their treatment. Although the drugs slow or shrink the tumor for a while, they almost invariably stop working, sometimes after only a few months. Now an international team of biologists, including UCSD, may have found a reason why: a signal generated by the body's immune cells renders the drugs useless. More

Science Is 'Everything Around You'
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 13 -- About 1,300 fifth-through eighth-grade girls, and a few boys, attended the Sally Ride Science Festival at UCSD over the weekend. It was one of the largest turnouts at a Ride festival, named for the first American woman in space, now a physics professor at the university. More

Service Abroad
Helping Make the World Better
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 13 -- Most doctors that Sarah Carpenter graduated UCSD medical school with are making six-figure salaries in traditional medical practices. Last year, Carpenter was earning about $1,000 a month, sleeping in an adobe hut in the Angolan countryside, drinking river water and treating refugees with malaria, malnutrition and infectious diseases. Last month, she left her parents' home in Arizona for a seven-month stint with the independent relief group Doctors Without Borders, this time caring for displaced and underserved war refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan in East Africa. More

Woman Set to Open Ugandan Orphanage
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 13 -- As the mother of six and grandmother of three, Susie Behneman Pinaire always made sure her children had what they needed. Now, she tends to the needs of more than 70 youngsters in another country. In May, Behneman Pinaire will travel to Uganda with friends to celebrate the opening of an orphanage she had built for homeless children. "This was something I knew I had to do," she said. "This whole adventure has been such a walk of faith." (Mentions Duncan Ndugga Kabuye, a graduate student in physics and mathematics at UCSD.) More

Notorious Winds Scorch California
Chicago Tribune, Feb. 13 -- They are known for their ability to produce beauty and brutality in one breath. They are the Santa Ana winds, nicknamed by some as the "devil winds." Their gusts have become especially fearsome because, in combination with an unusual absence of rain this winter, they could make an already devastating wildfire season even uglier in Southern California, experts said. (Quotes climatologist Larry Riddle of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD.) More

Dating Web Sites
Usually Are Not Big Revenue Generators
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 13 -- Want to start your own dating site? It's easy, though likely not all that lucrative. Several companies on the Internet will set you up for free with an online dating home page. You're supposed to get your friends and acquaintances to become members of your dating site. Every time one of your friends starts a site of his or her own, you get a cut of the profits. (Quotes On Amir, assistant professor of marketing at UCSD.) More