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August 6
- 12, 2004
This internal publication contains information about recent coverage
of Carnegie Mellon that appeared primarily in national newspapers, magazines
and online publications.
Please send comments and suggestions to thomas@cmu.edu
The media coverage archive is available at www.cmu.edu/clips
From August 6 - 12,
Carnegie Mellon Media Relations counted 152 references to the university in worldwide
publications. Here is a sample.
National News Stories
The Chicago Tribune | August 11
The Christian Science Monitor | August 11
The Washington Post | August 10
Sacramento Bee | August 9
BusinessWeek | August 9
Los Angeles Times | August 7
Student Experience
Tribune-Review | August 10
Post-Gazette | August 8
Arts and Humanities
Philadelphia Inquirer (Associated Press) |
August 11
Pittsburgh Business Times | August 6
The Economist | August 5
Information Technology
Post-Gazette | August 12
The New York Times | August 9
USA Today | August 8
ComputerWorld | August 6
Biotechnology
Innovations-Report, Germany | August 10
Astrobiology News | August 10
Regional Impact
Charleston Daily Mail | August 11
Valley News Dispatch | August 10
Local News Stories
Tribune-Review | August 12
Tribune-Review | August 12
Tribune-Review | August 12
Tribune-Review | August 8
International News Stories
Bloomberg, UK | August 11
The New Zealand Herald | August 8
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National News Stories
The Chicago Tribune | August 11
"Anti-adoption" sounds ludicrous. Who could oppose placing
an unwanted child into a loving home? An entire movement, it turns out--fighting
with a primal passion to expose what activists insist is adoption's
darker side: The lifelong trauma of women coerced into surrendering
babies. Adoptees denied their heritage. And, they say, a billion-dollar
industry that focuses more on money than youngsters' welfare. Carnegie
Mellon University cultural anthropologist Judith Schachter
first encountered the anti-adoption movement in the 1980s. "I thought
they were extremely logical," said Schachter, whose books, written
as Judith Modell, include "A Sealed and Secret Kinship: The Culture
of Policies and Practices in American Adoption" (Berghahn Books).
"We've been a wee bit too cavalier to think that a birth mother
will give up a baby and forget," said Schachter, an adoptive mother.
"We're becoming more focused on the birth parent, and that's been
a real and important change."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/women/chi-04081
10320aug11,1,5832564.story?coll=chi-leisurewomannews-hed | back
to top
The Christian Science Monitor | August 11
A recent spate of gun violence - including two incidents that dozens
of children at city parks witnessed - has shaken Boston neighborhoods,
leaving residents stunned and police and community leaders scrambling
for a solution. Already this year, the city has recorded more homicides
than last year's total of 41. More worrisome still are the victims'
ages: To date, 23 people under age 24 have been killed. Experts say
that gangs and drugs are likely culprits...The community is also integral
to help witnesses step forward, a chronic problem for prosecutors of
gang violence. "There is a fear of retaliation, particularly if
[residents] end up being called as witnesses in a court trial,"
says Alfred Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie
Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004
/0811/p01s04-ussc.html | back to top
The Washington Post | August 10
By Jay Apt and Lester B. Lave. As we approach the first
anniversary of the Blackout of '03, we're reminded of the many times
that officials, from New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in 1977 to Gov.
George Pataki now -- along with a host of senators and representatives
-- have assured us that they will take steps to prevent future blackouts...There's
just one problem: It can't be done. In a large, complicated arrangement
such as our system for generating, transmitting and distributing electricity,
blackouts simply cannot be prevented. Data for the past four decades
show that blackouts occur more frequently than theory predicts, and
they suggest that it will become increasingly expensive to prevent these
low-probability, high-consequence events. The various proposed "fixes"
are expensive and could even be counterproductive, causing future failures
because of some unanticipated interaction. ***Jay Apt, a former NASA
astronaut, is executive director of the Carnegie Mellon
Electricity Industry Center; Lester B. Lave is a co-director of the
center. Both are on the faculty of the Tepper School of Business at
Carnegie Mellon University.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn
/articles/A52952-2004Aug9.html | back to top
Sacramento Bee | August 9
As West Nile virus takes hold in Northern California, health officials
say their biggest challenge is getting people to take precautions against
the disease-carrying mosquitoes. Although the precautionary measures
seem simple - wear insect repellent, fix screen doors and windows, drain
standing water and stay indoors when mosquitoes are busiest - they are
often neglected...About 10 to 15 percent of those infected will have
mild or moderate symptoms such as fever and body aches. Less than 1
percent will develop a serious neurological illness such as encephalitis
or meningitis. Most of those at highest risk are either elderly or have
weakened immune systems. That could explain why many people are not
inclined to go to lengths to avoid mosquito bites, said Baruch
Fischhoff, a psychologist and professor of social and decision
sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. "The only
way to reduce your risk is by fairly extreme measures for avoiding mosquitoes,"
he said. "I would expect that people would passively monitor it,
and when it hit, there would be an upsurge in people taking it seriously."
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story
/10312312p-11232427c.html | back to top
BusinessWeek | August 9
We're a hopelessly divided nation, right? Red states vs. blue. Al Franken
vs. Rush Limbaugh. Hollywood vs. Nashville. Massachusetts allows same-sex
couples to marry. Missouri voters amended its state constitution to
prevent gay marriage. A Presidential election too close to call. Yet
the popular belief that the nation is split between right-wingers and
bleeding hearts -- at least on domestic affairs -- is an exaggeration
at best... In The Rise of the Creative Class, Carnegie Mellon
economist Professor Richard Florida makes a convincing
case that creative occupations are growing and to successfully compete,
companies and regions need to embrace diversity -- immigrants, gays,
bohemians, and other minorities.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash
/aug2004/nf2004089_0908_db013.htm | back to top
Los Angeles Times | August 7
Researchers at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center have observed
a crucial difference between the behavior of matter and antimatter,
providing insight into one of the key questions of physics: why there
is matter in the universe..after sifting through more than 200 million
pairs of B and anti-B mesons, the team found 1,600 particles whose decay
produced 13% more matter than antimatter, an asymmetry 300,000 times
stronger than anything previously observed. Even though the effect is
rare, it still helps to explain why there was matter left over after
the Big Bang, said physicist Fred Gilman of Carnegie
Mellon University. "It only takes a little tiny difference
overall to make it so that the universe now is made out of matter,"
he said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation
/la-sci-matter7aug07,1,1194951.story?
coll=la-headlines-nation | back to top
Student Experience
Tribune-Review | August 10
The biggest mistake students make usually happens before they set foot
on campus, says Wil Forrest, associate director of
housing services at Carnegie Mellon University. "Students
bring too much," he says, especially when it comes to computers
and other electronic equipment. "It really surprised me. Many students
bring an iPod, a laptop, a PC and a video game system. Some even bring
their own servers. Because we're such a technology-based campus, some
feel they need it all because of their major. Others want a higher level
of access." Forrest jokes that some of the students who load up
on high-tech systems "are the same students who forget to bring
things like soap and flip-flops for the shower."
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_207392.html
| back to top
Post-Gazette | August 8
If you live in the Hill District, you must go dancing monthly,
listen to Black/Spanish radio, collect stamps and watch Black Entertainment
Television. Live in ritzy Shadyside instead? Clearly you shop at Nordstrom,
watch "Friends" in syndication, buy wireless phones and drive
a Jaguar. Whether valid or not, these thumbnail descriptions of various
places are how national marketing companies often categorize millions
of Americans, using demographic and other data broken down by ZIP codes.
The only problem, according to study released last week by students
at Carnegie Mellon University's H. John Heinz School
of Public Policy and Management, is that relying on such stereotypes
is often the wrong way to look at neighborhoods. In partnership with
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Employment & Training Institute,
Heinz students determined such an approach can work to keep businesses
out of areas where they could potentially thrive.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04221/358018.stm
| back to top
Arts and Humanities
Philadelphia Inquirer (Associated Press) | August
11
On a flat-panel computer screen the size of some televisions, video
game producers populate an unnamed Islamic land where Special Forces
troops have dropped in and are being challenged to learn their way around.
The room in a nondescript office park in North Carolina's technology
hub is full of ex-soldiers and former commercial video game developers
who have redeployed to the U.S. Army's effort to design video games
that train soldiers for their life-and-death missions...At Carnegie
Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the Entertainment Technology
Center has developed a game to prepare police and fire departments for
terrorist attacks involving biological or chemical hazards. Besides
excitement over the range of potential uses, game developers are hoping
serious games mean new employment options outside a consolidating entertainment
gaming industry, said Ben Sawyer.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business
/personal_finance/9368289.htm | back to top
Pittsburgh Business Times | August 6
In October, an 80-foot ship made of steel and imagination will sink
-- at least in dramatic terms -- three times in one weekend on the North
Shore. There, a German theater group, Theatre Titanick, will give its
own interpretation of the sinking of the famous ocean liner Titanic
that became a central icon of the 20th century. Theatre Titanick's Pittsburgh
production of the Titanic sinking is expected to be the first time the
production has been done on water. It's just one of seven international
productions originating from as far away as the United Kingdom and Japan
that will debut the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Pittsburgh International
Festival of Firsts. As the name suggests, the Trust, along with the
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, will present the productions
for the first time in the United States. "It's very brave and ambitious
of the Trust to have done this. It's visionary in the best sense,"
said Elizabeth Bradley, head of the drama department
at Carnegie Mellon. "This is a brave festival for any city."
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories
/2004/08/09/focus2.html | back to top
The Economist | August 5
The origins of autism are obscure. But a paper in Brain, a specialist
journal, casts some light. A team headed by Marcel Just,
of Carnegie Mellon University, and Nancy Minshew, of
the University of Pittsburgh, has found evidence of how the brains of
people with autism function differently from those without the disorder.
Using a brain-scanning technique called functional magnetic-resonance
imaging (fMRI), Dr Just, Dr Minshew and their team compared the brain
activity of young adults who had “high-functioning” autism
(in which an autist's IQ score is normal) with that of non-autistic
participants. The experiment was designed to examine two regions of
the brain known to be associated with language—Broca's area and
Wernicke's area—when the participants were reading.
http://www.economist.com/science
/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3061282 | back to top
Information Technology
Post-Gazette | August 12
In a grassy stretch of field below the 40th Street Bridge in Lawrenceville,
Jorgen Pedersen test drives an all-terrain vehicle that has some very
sophisticated sensors and cameras attached to its body. It's not difficult
to picture this robot delivering supplies to troops or conducting surveillance
in Iraq. But though it was designed for military missions, Pedersen
aims to use the technology that controls this vehicle for nonmilitary
applications such as high-security robotic systems. Last month, his
company, re2 Inc. (which stands for Robotics Engineering Excellence),
licensed the technology that it helped to develop at Carnegie
Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Consortium
(NREC). His three-year-old business spun out of Carnegie Mellon specifically
to bring such military robotic technology to the commercial market.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04225/360272.stm
| back to top
The New York Times | August 9
The vast corpus of human knowledge could soon be published on the Internet.
The problem now is how to wade through it. Although search engines have
greatly enhanced access to information, and storage technology has made
it cheap to digitize nearly everything, search tools need to be refined
to make it easier to digest information or conduct queries...How many
books? One of the surprises that has emerged from the Internet Archive,
which is intended to become a repository of everything ever published,
is that the body of public works can probably be corralled, said Brewster
Kahle. About 100 million different books have been published in history,
Kahle said, citing estimates from professor Raj Reddy at
Carnegie Mellon University. About 28 million sit in the Library
of Congress. On average, a book can be condensed to a megabyte in Microsoft
Word. Thus, the books in the Library of Congress could fit into a 28-terabyte
storage system. "For the cost of a house, you could have the Library
of Congress," Reddy said, adding that mass book-scanning projects
are currently under way in India and China.
http://www.nytimes.com/cnet
/CNET_2100-1025_3-5299239.html | back to top
USA Today | August 8
Blame the bleak tech job market. In the past, a computer degree meant
"instant riches, or at least a well-paying, secure job," says
San Jose computer science chair David Hayes. "Now, the perception
is jobs are going overseas, and people are being laid off." Students
are now trying biology, nursing or other majors. That's not necessarily
a bad thing, says Peter Lee, an associate dean at Carnegie
Mellon. His elite undergraduate program received 2,000 applicants
this year, compared with 3,200 at the height of the boom. But the students
are often of higher quality, motivated more by love of technology than
dreams of stock options, he says.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news
/2004-08-08-computer-science_x.htm | back to top
ComputerWorld | August 6
Security experts are substantially more skeptical about e-voting than
the public, but their greatest worry is system and programming errors,
not malicious hacker attacks, according to a survey released this week
by the Ponemon Institute. The study, conducted in July and early August,
aimed to measure public opinion about electronic voting systems and
then compare the results with those of security experts -- both IT pros
and hackers. "The degree of difference was just startling,"
said Larry Ponemon, adjunct professor of ethics and
privacy at Carnegie Mellon University and director
of the independent institute bearing his name. The Tucson, Ariz.-based
institute collected 2,933 usable responses nationwide from the public,
both online and by postal mail, and surveyed 100 attendees at the Black
Hat and Defcon hacking/security conferences.
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security
/story/0,10801,95094,00.html | back to top
Biotechnology
Innovations-Report, Germany | August 10
A newly designed endoscope, capable of providing sub-second polarized
spectral images of tissue in vivo (in the body), allows physicians and
surgeons to non-invasively survey and sample an entire area without
actually removing tissue, and may offer hope as a new tool for detecting
cancer early. Researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles
and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh describe
the instrument’s capabilities and clinical applications in the
July 2004 issue of Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging. The new
device, named the Hyperspectral Imaging Endoscope (HSIE), is a standard
medical endoscope enhanced with a customized imaging fiber. Working
together with a camera, a laptop computer and a tunable light source
covering the visible and near-infrared range, the HSIE system is capable
of acquiring rapid spectral images of tissues, allowing physicians to
non-invasively survey and sample an entire area of tissue in vivo (within
the body).
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports
/studies/report-32223.html | back to top
Astrobiology News | August 10
Carnegie Mellon University robotics and life sciences
researchers will demonstrate Zoe, an autonomous rover being groomed
to seek and identify life in hostile environments, at 10 a.m. Thursday,
Aug. 12, at the former LTV site off Brownfield Road in Pittsburgh. The
project is part of NASA's Astrobiology Science and Technology Program
for Exploring Planets, or ASTEP, which concentrates on pushing the limits
of technology in harsh environments. The first phase of the project
began in 2003 when a solar-powered robot named Hyperion, also developed
at Carnegie Mellon, was taken to the Atacama as a research test bed.
In the final year of the project, plans call for Zoe, equipped with
a full array of instruments, to operate autonomously as it travels 50
kilometers over a two-month period. David Wettergreen,
associate research professor in Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute
and project leader for Life in the Atacama, will be in the desert with
his colleagues from the end of August to mid-October conducting experiments
in rover perception, mobility and autonomy during long-distance traverses.
http://www.astrobiology.com/news
/viewpr.html?pid=14785 | back to top
Regional Impact
Charleston Daily Mail | August 11
The Council for Community and Economic Development last week referred
to its Infrastructure Committee a proposal to create a research zone
in Braxton and Gilmer counties. This came after Del. Brent Boggs, D-Braxton,
told the council that creation of the zone is aimed at expanding broadband
to all of Braxton and Gilmer and spurring the economy there. The broadband
expansion would be an extension of a current partnership between Glenville
State College and Carnegie Mellon University. David
Satterfield, executive director of the West Virginia Development Office,
said that if the research zone is created under a never-before-used
1993 state law, businesses that locate in the zone and create seven
or more jobs would receive a tax credit in the amount of the workers'
compensation premium paid plus a break on most state taxes for up to
three years.
http://www.dailymail.com/news
/George+Hohmann/2004081128/ | back to top
Valley News Dispatch | August 10
A Carnegie Mellon University professor sees a time
when New Kensington and Arnold will be held as models for other Third
Class cities. A new graduate program at the university is designed to
produce just that. Chip Bell, local Weed and Seed coordinator, said
that the program is an extension of the Urban Laboratory, which was
headed by Professor David Lewis and called for seniors
to devise developmental concepts in architecture, economics and social
revitalization. Carnegie Mellon students converged upon New Kensington
and Arnold last year to complete the project, a class requirement. During
that time, Lewis became so enamored with New Kensington and Arnold that
he recently approached Bell about using the cities in the Graduate Program
in the Urban Laboratory.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_207488.html
| back to top
Local News Stories
Tribune-Review | August 12
Two Carnegie Mellon University employees were killed
in a plane crash in Colorado. Quinn Peyton, 31, and
his uncle, Kenneth Meyer, 54, died Monday, when their
small plane slammed into the summit of Monarch Pass in southwest Colorado,
said the Gunnison County Sheriff's Office in a statement Wednesday.
"All of the university is mourning the loss of these staff members,"
[Carnegie Mellon spokeswoman Teresa Thomas] said. "It's
a tragedy for the university and certainly for their families."
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/trib/pittsburgh/s_207853.html | back to top
Tribune-Review | August 12
The first of three public hearings that the Allegheny County Health
Department is conducting on whether to allow the two-year-old needle-exchange
program to become permanent [was held on Wednesday]. The Board of Health
plans to discuss the trial program at its Sept. 1 meeting. In November
2001, the health department declared a public emergency for HIV and
hepatitis C. Four months later, the Board of Health authorized the nonprofit
group, Prevention Point Pittsburgh, to operate the needle-exchange program
on a trial basis. About 11,000 intravenous drug users live in Allegheny
County, according to Caroline Acker, a founding volunteer
of Prevention Point Pittsburgh and an associate professor at Carnegie
Mellon University. "Needle exchange remains the most cost-effective
means of preventing the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among injection
drug users," she said. "It costs as much to fund Prevention
Point Pittsburgh for a full year as it does to pay for the medical care
for two patients with AIDS."
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review
/trib/pittsburgh/s_207837.html | back to top
Tribune-Review | August 12
Seneca Valley officials have taken the first step toward building a
new school on 152 acres that straddle Cranberry and Jackson townships.
The school board on Monday hired Shelby Stewman, a
Carnegie Mellon University professor of demography
and sociology, to project future enrollments. The study, which is not
to cost more than $10,000, is expected to be completed in October. "It's
the first step at looking at what we might be doing with the Ehrman
Road property," district spokeswoman Linda Andreassi said.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_207540.html
| back to top
Tribune-Review | August 8
Chiodo's Tavern has in the process become an institution for a wide
range of patrons, from millworkers to college professors. Now, the popular
watering hole is on the chopping block. Joe Chiodo is so much a part
of Homestead's fabric that review board member Daniel Isaacs has proposed
erecting a statue or plaque in honor of the bar owner if the building
comes down..."He's tremendous. What he's done is to really make
out of Chiodo's a tavern that is exceptional in the region," said
Davis Lewis, of West Homestead, an architect who teaches
urban studies at Carnegie Mellon University.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_207128.html
| back to top
International News Stories
Bloomberg, UK | August 11
Rare is the U.S. president who wants interest rates to rise during an
election year. George W. Bush may be such a president. "If the
Fed is raising rates that points to an economy that is doing well,"
said Kevin McNair, who oversees about $7 billion in fixed-income assets
at BB&T Asset Management Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina. "That
would be seen as a positive by President Bush." "I never met
a president who liked higher interest rates, but I'm sure the current
White House will spin any increase in rates as proof the Fed is as confident
as them that the economy is starting to recover," said Allan
Meltzer, a Carnegie Mellon University professor
of political economy in Pittsburgh who is writing a history of the Fed.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000176
&sid=asnPVoJb6qsE&refer=us_elections | back
to top
The New Zealand Herald | August 8
The new idea sweeping the field, under the rubric of "behavioural
economics", holds that studying what people actually do is at least
as valuable as deriving equations for what they should do. And when
you look at human behaviour, you discover, as Camerer and his collaborator
George Loewenstein of Carnegie Mellon
University have written, that "the Platonic metaphor of the mind
as a charioteer driving twin horses of reason and emotion is on the
right track - except that cognition is a smart pony, and emotion a big
elephant". The MRI machine enables researchers in the emerging
field of neuro-economics to investigate the interplay of fear, anger,
greed and altruism that are activated each time we touch that most intimate
of our possessions, our wallets.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=
3582770&thesection=news&thesubsection=world | back
to top
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