A Sampling of Clips for January 21^st, 2009

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

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Laser
The Economist, Jan. 21 -- California  has suffered a drought for the past two years and just experienced the driest spring in recorded history. Water bills have risen, but even that has not curbed demand sufficiently. Many parts of the state have therefore limited the use of water, to the detriment of crops and lawns. Jan Kleissl and his colleagues at UCSD think they may be able to help. More

Students Watch History Inauguration
News8, Jan. 20 – All eyes are on the nation’s capital today for President Barack Obama’s inauguration. News8 catches up with students at UCSD watching the swearing-in and speech. More

Where Computer Science and Cultural Studies Collide
Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 21 -- Academic study of new media is increasingly spawning more specialized inquiry: Game studies, software studies, critical-code studies, even platform studies are all buzzwords in the field. One high-profile meeting last year at UCSD, hosted by Lev Manovich and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, brought together an international array of scholars, artists, and technologists, including many of the names mentioned in the accompanying article, to discuss "the meaning of studying software cultures, and the direction and goals of software studies as an emerging movement" (http://workshop.softwarestudies.com). More

How Commercials Improve TV
Boston Globe, Jan. 18 – With the adoption of digital video recorders, fewer people watch commercials on TV anymore. After all, it's not like anyone wants to watch commercials (except during the Super Bowl, maybe). However, new research at UCSD’s Rady School of Management says that you may be missing out. More

White House Via Web
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 21 -- During the 2008 election, the cell phone of UCSD junior Johan De La Torre buzzed with the occasional text message from Barack Obama's campaign asking if he could knock on doors in Las Vegas or reminding him to vote on Election Day. More

Guinea Kids
Voice of San Diego, Jan. 20 -- A story in the Sunday New York Times gives examples from across the country of high-level scientists who use their own children as subjects in their research. (Mentions Gedeon Deàk, a cognitive science associate professor at UCSD, and Karen Dobkins, a psychology professor at UCSD) More

San Diego Algae Biofuels Industry Gains Steam With R&D Consortium
Xconomy, Jan. 21 -- The San Diego region is undertaking a broad initiative to accelerate development of algae-to-biofuels technology by establishing a new organization, the San Diego Center for Algae-based Biofuels, or SD-CAB. The center is being organized by a consortium of academic and industry researchers and represents a regional effort to make sustainable algae-based biofuel production a reality in the next 5 to 10 years, says Steven Kay, dean of Biological Sciences at UCSD. More

* Subscribe with In the News and receive our clips automatically