A Sampling of Clips for September 8^th, 2008

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

The Palin Gamble
Newsweek, Sept. 5, Column by Eleanor Clift -- A radio talk-show host thought she was putting me on the spot. "As a woman, are you torn?" she asked. "No, this is easy for me," I replied. "I'm with the polar bears." Anyone who saw Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," will remember the image of the polar bear swimming miles in search of diminishing ice floes in the Arctic. Gov. Sarah Palin is suing the Bush administration on behalf of the state of Alaska to overturn the decision to add polar bears to the endangered-species list. (Quotes UCSD political science professor Samuel Popkin) More

Deep Time, Big Pharma and Tiny Bacteria
Washington Post, Sept.  7 -- Doug Macdougall, professor emeritus of earth sciences at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, knows all about dating. Not that dating -- the other kind. His book is an introduction to geochronology, the science of measuring past time. After a brief, lucid explanation of radioactivity, he recounts the development of radiocarbon dating by scientists in Chicago in the late 1940s. Then he nimbly traverses the ways in which researchers have read the timepieces hidden in sea mud, spruce stumps, even tooth enamel. More

The Ground Zero of Climate Change
Discover Magazine, Sept.  8 -- “Even before climate change came onto the scene, we were worried about the potential contribution to sea level of West Antarctica,” says Robert Bindschadler, a glaciologist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Unlike other ice sheets, the WAIS rests on ground that sits below sea level (without ice, West Antarctica would be an archipelago). (Quotes Helen Fricker of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

How to Blow Less Smoke
Newsweek, Sept. 6 – Barack Obama and John McCain agree on one thing: the need to cut carbon emissions. With both candidates backing that idea, smoke-spewing factories and power plants can expect big changes soon. Some have prepared by joining the Chicago Climate Exchange, a voluntary market that functions like the NASDAQ but trades emission rights instead of Google stock. Richard Sandor, an economist who's spent decades at the intersection of environmentalism and finance, founded the CCX—the world's first, and America's only, carbon market—in 2003. (Mentions UCSD) More

Local Medical Professionals Head East to Prepare for Ike
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept.  6 -- A team of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other medical professionals from San Diego who have responded to some of the worst disasters in U.S. history are now headed to Atlanta to prepare for relief efforts as Hurricane Ike continues to bear down on the Gulf Coast. Ten members of UCSD Medical Center's San Diego Disaster Medical Team left for the region Friday night, while the remaining 25 caught a flight early Saturday. More

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Obesity Worsens Asthma
Forbes.com, Sept.  6 -- New research shows that obese people who have asthma are nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized for the problem and to have lower quality of life and worse control of the disease than those with asthma who are normal weight. Researchers from Kaiser Permanente, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School evaluated 1,113 adults with asthma, all members of Kaiser, in Oregon, Washington or Colorado. (Quotes Dr. Michael Schatz, chief of the department of allergy at Kaiser Permanente, San Diego, and a clinical professor of medicine at the UCSD School of Medicine) More

Financial Crisis Isn't Over Yet, Nobel Economist Granger Says
Bloomberg.com, Sept. 8 -- The U.S. financial crisis isn't over a year after it began, and more institutions will probably report losses tied to the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market, Nobel prize-winning economist and professor emeritus at UCSD Clive Granger said. ``The amount of repackaged mortgage debt is much bigger than anyone realized,'' Granger said yesterday by telephone from Tralee in southwestern Ireland, where he is attending a conference. ``Every month, we think that's it and then we find some more, so I have no idea how big the problem is.''  More

Got Global Warming?
Los Angeles Times, Sept.  7 -- If you don't get it, or even if you do, the Golden State's most brilliant minds are ready to help.  Beginning Monday, California is serving up a feast of global warming information, its Fifth Annual Climate Change Conference, with three days of speeches, panels and presentations streamed live on video. No state has done more to examine the causes, effects and possible adaptation to climate change than California, which enacted the nation's first and most stringent greenhouse gas control law. (Mentions UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

First Gene for Severe Dry Macular Degeneration
Science Magazine, August -- The past few years have been a bonanza for researchers hunting for genes that cause age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the disease that robs tens of millions of elderly people of their vision. Now comes the first report of a genetic variant linked to slightly higher risk for severe "dry" AMD, one of the two advanced forms of the disease. The results could eventually lead to a new treatment for macular degeneration. But the authors also have a second message: They say that their findings suggest a safety risk from using a therapy recently introduced to treat the other, so-called wet, form of AMD. (Quotes ophthalmologist and geneticist Kang Zhang of UCSD) More

‘Memphis' at La Jolla Playhouse
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 8 -- The story of early rock 'n' roll is a truly American tale. The music probably wouldn't have been possible if not for the proximity of people from diverse backgrounds, overhearing each other and appropriating what they liked. Yet if America in the late 1940s and early '50s was beginning to come together in music, the country, in most other ways, remained deeply divided. "Memphis" -- a musical being given an exuberant, high-gloss staging at La Jolla Playhouse -- looks back on this time and finds a message at once chilling and full of hope. (Mentions UCSD) More

Sate Effort to Remap Coastal Habitats
a Worry for Some who Depend on Sea
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept.  7 -- Longtime commercial fisherman Peter Halmay believes his way of life is hanging in the balance. Commercial fisherman Peter Halmay (right, in wheelhouse) and Kenny Jeavons arrived back in San Diego Bay after a day of harvesting sea urchins. Halmay will be at tomorrow's state-run meeting on marine protected areas. The San Diego-based sea urchin diver is one of a few hundred small-craft fishermen who pursue their catch close to the county's shoreline. (Quotes Russell Moll, director of the California Sea Grant program at UCSD)  More

Swimmer Dives in to Take on Stress
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 7 -- But there were times when his wife sensed his anxiety, his jitteriness, telling him: “Go swimming. You're getting on my nerves.” Said Majewski, who's now 40 and one of San Diego's elite ocean swimmers: “Most of us swimmers, we can't stand still. We can't be land-bound for too long.” This afternoon, Majewski will join an estimated 500 swimmers participating in the 78th annual La Jolla Rough Water Swim's featured event, the three-mile Gatorman. (Mentions UCSD’s masters swimming program) More

Lifeblood For a Community
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 7 -- Carmen Martinez cries recalling the early days of the San Ysidro Health Center.  She was one of its storied seven “founding mothers.” “It was so emotional,” says Carmen, now a great-grandmother at 85. “(The center) was a dream of some poor immigrant people who thought it could make this a different San Ysidro for our children – and it has.” And Dr. Ruth Covell, associate dean for program and policy at UCSD's School of Medicine, never forgets how she was drawn into that dream. More

Tritons are No. 1
North County Times,  Sept.  7 – UCSD was ranked No. 1 among NCAA Division II schools and 20th among all divisions in the National Collegiate Scouting Association's power rankings. The rankings rate schools based on student-athlete graduation rates, academic strength and athletic prowess of the school's sports teams. "We pride ourselves on our academic and athletic success, and this ranking confirms that," UCSD athletic director Earl Edwards said in a statement. "It's a tremendous honor to be recognized on a national level by a group like the NCSA." More

A Rough Week for SDG&E
North County Times, Sept. 6 -- Under attack from state agencies, victims of last year's wildfires and a new verdict in a Marine helicopter crash case, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. is facing a tarnished public image and a potential payout in the hundreds of millions of dollars for lawsuits and fixes to its power lines. Industry observers say the company, which has 4,000 employees and serves 3.4 million people in San Diego County and southern Orange County, is not in danger of failing. SDG&E has deep pockets and it is a subsidiary of Sempra, a Fortune 500 company with more than $11 billion in annual revenues. (Quotes UCSD economics professor Steve Erie) More

Youth is Served in Gatorman Feature
San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 8 - It was the story of the old man and the young upstart side-by-side on the sea in the 78th annual La Jolla Rough Water Swim. Youth prevailed in the featured three-mile Gatorman race, as Deni Cullom darted out of the water and up the short beach run ahead of five-time champion Alex Kostich to claim his first victory by 19 seconds over a triangular course off La Jolla Cove yesterday. (Mentions UCSD) More

UCSD's Bailey Overcomes Lack of Height with Standout Jumping Ability
North County Times, Sept. 7 --  Rebecca Bailey arrived at UCLA as a 5-foot-9 outside hitter from Orange Glen High hoping to make the volleyball as a walk-on. She was either bold or naive ---- take your pick. Naïve, of course, because an elite program like the Bruins has plenty of outside hitters taller than Bailey at its disposal. Bold, as it turns out, because UCLA's coaches told her she would have made the team if the Bruins weren't heavy on seniors. Knowing that Bailey could out jump many 6-footers, the Bruins invited back the next year when more roster spots would be available. Instead, Bailey opted to transfer to UCSD, an NCAA Division II program, where she had no trouble finding a niche. More

Car Show Gives Big Tobacco the Red Light
Contra Costa Times, Sept. 6 -- Most event organizers are keen to attract sponsors, but members of Project RIDE are telling a particularly well-heeled one to get lost. Visitors to the group's import car show Saturday could find hip-hop dance contests, face-painting for the kids and, of course, row upon row of tricked-out Hondas, Mitsubishis and Nissans. What was missing, however, were the tobacco sponsorship and promotions that have become common at similar events around the state. "This is not an ordinary car show "... it's a statement," said Stella Jun, director of Project RIDE. "This is our community. This is our scene. So tell (the tobacco companies) to back off, and welcome people who love cars. (Quotes Dr. Wayne Yang, an assistant professor of ethnic studies at UCSD) More

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