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October 20, 2006
This internal publication contains information about recent coverage
of Carnegie Mellon that appeared primarily in national newspapers, magazines
and online publications. Please note that some sources may require registration
or a subscription in order to access their information online.
Please send comments and suggestions to thomas@cmu.edu
The media coverage archive is available at www.cmu.edu/clips
From October 13 to October 20,
Carnegie Mellon Media Relations counted 232 references to the university in worldwide
publications. Here is a sample.
National News Stories
The Chronicle of Higher Education | October 20
U.S. News & World Report | October 18
NPR | October 18
MSNBC | October 16
BusinessWeek | October 16
University Business | October 2006
Education for Leadership
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | October 13
Arts and Humanities
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 18
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 17
Los Angeles Times | October 16
The Grand Rapids Press | October 15
Information Technology
Electronic Design | October 18
Pop City Media | October 18
FCW | October 16
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | October 15
Environment
Seed Magazine | October 19
Regional Impact
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | October 15
Local News Stories
Chicago Tribune | October 16
Pittsburgh Business Times | October 16
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 15
International News Stories
The Independent | October 17
Reuters | October 17
Gulf Times | October 15
PRI The World (BBC News) | October 11
Nature | October 2006
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National News Stories
The Chronicle of Higher Education | October 20
Literary theorists, and probably other scholars, might be divided into two types: settlers and wanderers. The settlers stay put, "hovering one inch" over a set of issues or topics, as Paul de Man, the most influential theorist of the 1970s, remarked in an interview. Their work, through the course of their careers, claims ownership of a specific intellectual turf. The wanderers are more restless, starting with one approach or field but leaving it behind for the next foray. Their work takes the shape of serial engagements, more oriented toward climatic currents. The distinction is not between expert and generalist, or, in Isaiah Berlin's distinction, between knowing one thing like a hedgehog and knowing many things like a fox; it is a different application of expertise. ***This article was written by Jeffrey Williams, Carnegie Mellon professor of English and literary and cultural studies.
http://chronicle.com/weekly/
v53/i09/09b00501.htm | back to top
U.S. News & World Report | October 18
Economists, infamous for their on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand predictions, were in full two-handed juggling mode today as the government reported that consumer prices fell sharply in September. But the consensus appeared to be that lower inflation was good news for consumers and businesses alike. ... Carnegie Mellon University economist Bennett McCallum, a close watcher of the Fed, noted that the board prefers to gauge inflation by other statistics, such as those on personal expenditures published by the Commerce Department. Those numbers show core inflation rising at a troublingly high annual rate of 2.7 percent. "I am sure that they are not fully happy" with the latest numbers, McCallum says. "They want to move gingerly toward reducing inflation while hoping not to induce a recession."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/
biztech/articles/061018/18cpi.htm | back to top
NPR | October 18
A growing number of scientists believe autism may be caused by a lack of coordination in the brain. "Some people think that autism is a disruption of social function," says Marcel Just of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "But I think it's much more widespread. It's a disruption of many kinds of behaviors that require good cortical coordination." For example, a conversation requires some areas of the brain to produce words. At the same time, Just says, other parts need to assess whether the listener understands those words. If those areas don't coordinate, there's no conversation.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story
/story.php?storyId=6284914 | back to top
MSNBC | October 16
Someday a stranger will read your e-mail, rummage through your instant messages without your permission or scan the Web sites you've visited--maybe even find out that you read this story. ... Only a tiny fraction of Americans – 7 percent, according to a recent survey by The Ponemon Institute – change any behaviors in an effort to preserve their privacy. Few people turn down a discount at toll booths to avoid using the EZ-Pass system that can track automobile movements. And few turn down supermarket loyalty cards. Carnegie Mellon privacy economist Alessandro Acquisti has run a series of tests that reveal people will surrender personal information like Social Security numbers just to get their hands on a measly 50-cents-off coupon.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/ | back to top
BusinessWeek | October 16
To identify the best undergraduate business programs, BusinessWeek used five unique measures, including a survey of more than 100,000 business majors at top schools and a poll of undergraduate recruiters. To better understand career outcomes, we also looked at starting salaries for graduates and how many each school sent to top MBA programs. Finally, an academic-quality score--a combination of five measures including SAT scores and faculty-student ratios--identified schools with the smartest, hardest-working, and best-served students. ***Carnegie Mellon's undergraduate business program ranked 16th overall.
http://bwnt.businessweek.com/bschools
/undergraduate/06rankings/ | back to top
University Business | October 2006
In theory, if you walk into a McDonald's anywhere in the world a Big Mac is the same. But does that theory hold true for degrees from institutions of higher education and, more importantly, should it? American institutions with branch campuses overseas are saying yes. ... Having the host government's support often plays an important role in ensuring a program is successful. With Carnegie Mellon University (Pa.) operations in Qatar, Australia, Korea, Japan, and Greece, Senior Vice President and Provost Mark Kamlet knows firsthand about government regulations. His Qatar campus is subject to the same requirements as Texas A&M. In Australia, a law that used to restrict the right to grant degrees to Australian institutions was changed, allowing Carnegie Mellon to set up shop. According to Kamlet, Australian officials have adopted becoming an education magnet for the Pacific Rim as part of the country's strategic goals. ...When Carnegie Mellon officials initially discussed a program in Australia, Don Marinelli, director of the Entertainment Technology Center (covering Carnegie Mellon's Pittsburgh and Australia campuses), says he "was adamant in stating that ETC-Adelaide had to be a genuine extension of ETC-Pittsburgh and not a lesser 'foreign campus,' per se."
http://www.universitybusiness.com
/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=571&p=2#0 | back to top
Education for Leadership
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | October 13
Sammi Ryan giggled as she watched the pink dragon, which she had digitally painted with her fingertips, bounce across the screen while an animated green dog chased a purple cat with a vacuum cleaner hose. ... A team of graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center invented the games and built the kiosk as part of Project ER, a semester-long school project to make it less stressful for the 60,000 children who visit the hospital's emergency room each year. "The goal was to transform the patient experience using technology for education and entertainment," said the team's academic adviser, Jessica Trybus, edutainment director at the technology center and CEO of Downtown virtual training company Etcetera Edutainment Inc.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/
news/health/s_474785.html | back to top
Arts and Humanities
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 18
Two years ago, after the birth of her son Alec, Stacy Alese found herself overcome by depression. ... She and her husband, Gene, will be among the speakers this week at a three-day conference aimed at improving the treatment of depression for women, who are far more likely than men to develop the illness. "Depression Care for Women Across the Life Span: Who's In Charge of Women's Health?" begins tomorrow at the Sheraton Station Square. ... The conference is open to the public and includes a seminar tomorrow afternoon for the business community on promoting women's health in the workplace. It also offers continuing education credits to medical professionals and includes a Saturday workshop on treating postpartum depression. Also featured is a display of photographs of women with mental illness by Charlee Brodsky, a professor of photography at Carnegie Mellon University.
http://www.post-gazette.com/
pg/06291/730712-114.stm | back to top
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 17
Labco Dance had one of its strongest Black Box Series showings, using a formula where veteran choreographers were bolstered by young talent. At Sunday's performance, the always-welcome Jennifer Keller, notable for her grounded physicality, meandered onto the floor in an uncommonly glamorous way, her strong back highlighted by a slinky black halter dress and hair tied tightly at the nape of her neck. ... Another veteran not often seen on the Pittsburgh dance landscape, Joan Wagman, unveiled a preview of "By Descending," set to be performed with Liana Dragoman's video during Spirit Unfolding at Carnegie Mellon University on Oct. 28. Created in two parts, dancer Allie Greene first showed a soft fall, as if in controlled flight, then the fear of an uncontrolled drop, with a rare lack of balance in Wagman's beautifully chosen moves.
http://www.post-gazette.com/
pg/06290/730500-42.stm | back to top
Los Angeles Times | October 16
While no man is an island, too many are like lonely peninsulas jutting off from the rest of society. In recent decades, close friendships among Americans have dwindled--especially among certain groups of men. And, experts say, there are consequences to that. Social isolation--a lack of close friends, tight-knit family or ties to groups--takes a toll on men's physical and mental health. ... Immunity may suffer as well. Studies with college students have shown that being lonely or having a small social circle weakens the normal immune response to a flu vaccine. On the flip side, having many types of strong social ties--with friends, co-workers and a spouse, for instance--makes both young and middle-age adults less susceptible to cold infections. "When you perceive that there are other people who can help you, you do better in the face of stress than when you don't have those people in your social network," says psychologist Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University, the author of these immunity studies.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-
friends16oct16,1,5992740.story?coll=la-headlines-health | back to top
The Grand Rapids Press | October 15
A work of art is as much a creation of the viewer as it is the artist. Once a painting or sculpture has been made, it derives life from the response it elicits--good or bad--from the people who view it, a response shaped by each person's unique life experience. Some artists create straightforward works --a watercolor of Lake Michigan or a carving of a bird--that exist purely for the sake of aesthetics that are easy to understand. Others eschew beauty and add layers of meaning to a work that initially may make for a less-accessible but ultimately richer viewing experience. Pennsylvania artist Patricia Bellan-Gillen falls at the extreme end of the latter category. Her large-scale works, on display at the Kendall College of Art and Design Gallery through Nov. 3, are rife with meaning that can be interpreted in myriad ways based on who you are and what you know or don't know about symbols, art, history and dreams. "My paintings are staged to call upon the viewer's personal pools of knowledge as well as their instinctual and associative responses," Bellan-Gillen, a Carnegie Mellon University professor, states on her Web site. "I place great trust in the viewer."
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/grpress/index.ssf?
/base/entertainment-1/1160894374277160.xml&coll=6 | back to top
Information Technology
Electronic Design | October 18
Robots will be on the prowl in an undisclosed location in the United States next November as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency presents its Urban Challenge competition. DARPA has chosen 89 teams to participate, drawing talent from top military contractors, universities, electronics companies, research institutions, and even high schools from all over the world. ... Track A’s 11 teams include industry and academia alike. Autonomous Solutions, the Golem Group, Honeywell Aerospace Advanced Technology, Oshkosh Truck Corp., and Raytheon all will be there. So will teams from the California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Virginia Tech. "This is excellent news. It means they have faith in our ability to meet the challenge," said Chris Urmson, Carnegie Mellon Tartan Racing Team technology leader. With General Motors as a premier sponsor, the team is preparing a pair of Chevy Tahoes equipped with computers, sensors, and other gear for autonomous driving.
http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles
/ArticleID/13853/13853.html | back to top
Pop City Media | October 18
Etcetera is rolling out that forklift simulation--known in the industry as serious gaming--for Alcoa this fall. And speaking of serious gaming, creating video games is poised to be an innovative growth industry for the Pittsburgh region. The pieces are all there: Carnegie Mellon University's pioneering Entertainment Technology Center, the Art Institute of Pittsburgh’s game and art design curriculum, efforts by the Pittsburgh Film Office to link area game companies to California's major players and finally a growing roster of local firms that draw, design and program a wide range of games for entertainment and for training. "I think that we’ve achieved some critical mass," says Jesse Schell, founder of Schell Games, a company that has contracts with industry heavyweights Disney and Nintendo.... "We have close to 50 people working in Pittsburgh in video games at about 10 companies," Schell says. "We're an industry now."That local industry can trace its origins to Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center in 1998 in what co-founder Don Marinelli calls a classic "duh" moment. Marinelli, a professor of drama and arts management and co-founder Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design, got together in the same room to see how their respective areas might work together. After all, the university had built national reputations for its work in both disciplines.
http://www.popcitymedia.com/
features/34gaming.aspx | back to top
FCW | October 16
The Energy Department plans to end its across-the-board polygraph testing of job applicants and employees, according to a rule that department officials published in the Federal Register. The policy change becomes effective Oct. 30. ... The 2003 NAS report states that the polygraph's accuracy in detecting security violators is not impressive enough to justify its use in employee screening. ... Stephen Fienberg, co-author of the NAS report and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Statistics and Machine Learning departments, said nothing has changed since the report's release. "There hasn't been a single published study that suggests that anyone can do polygraph testing better than our original assessment" of the existing research, he said.
http://www.fcw.com/
article96437-10-16-06-Print | back to top
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | October 15
Cameras, many used for security or surveillance, are everywhere. They're at intersections, at malls and in workplaces. They can be found in police vehicles, along roads or on university or college campuses. Some spy from orbiting satellites. "Certainly, in the broadest sense, so many details about us are being tracked," said Latanya Sweeney, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Data Privacy Lab. "It could be in my Internet use, my Web browsing, my cell phone use, where my cell phone is, GPS information. There's no shortage of ways in which we are being recorded."
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib
/news/cityregion/s_475143.html | back to top
Environment
Seed Magazine | October 19
Sometimes it seems as though the whole world is made of plastic: Whether it's the plastic bags we tote home from the supermarket, our plastic-encased computer monitors, or the acrylic nails we tap on our laminated card tables. Experts at Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Macromolecular Engineering recently announced the discovery of an improved version of a process commonly used to make plastics, which they outline in the Oct. 17 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The new method not only makes plastic manufacturing faster and less expensive, but could also help reduce the amount of industrial waste produced. "We have made this process at least 100 times more efficient and much more amenable to industrial processes," said Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, the lead author of the paper and director of the Center for Macromolecular Engineering, in a press statement. About half of everyday plastics--including Styrofoam, Plexiglass, and the plastic used to make bags--is produced in a process known as radical polymerization, said James Spanswick, who is the associate director of the Carnegie Mellon center but was not involved in the research.
http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006
/10/a_method_for_better_greener_pl.php | back to top
Regional Impact
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | October 15
Twenty years after it closed its storied Homestead Works, U.S. Steel Corp. is again making steel at the site. But today, the Pittsburgh company is turning out small batches of steel for research and development, rather than huge ladels of hot metal destined for skyscrapers and tanks. It's happening at the U.S. Steel Research and Technology Center in Munhall, one of more than 100 corporate research and development centers in Western Pennsylvania. They are important drivers of the region's economy, experts say. ... "Corporate R&D and R&D more generally is critically important to Pittsburgh's economy today and going forward," said Donald Smith Jr., director of economic development at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. "We're building on a history built by corporate giants like U.S. Steel, PPG Industries, Heinz, Alcoa and Westinghouse, as well as a university R&D enterprise that is over $1 billion a year."
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/
pittsburghtrib/s_474926.html | back to top
Local News Stories
Chicago Tribune | October 16
Euphemisms for losing a job abound. We get axed, canned, laid off or pink-slipped. In corporate-speak, we get terminated, separated or--my current favorite--surplused, like so much excess baggage. Often we can see the ax coming. Our boss avoids us, our company misses its numbers, or somebody in Mumbai is learning our job. Sometimes we're placed on a short list far in advance of when we're no longer needed--weeks, months or even years. Extended leave-takings are increasingly common in this era of mergers and restructuring. Call it the long goodbye. ... Employees are getting smarter about turning long goodbyes to their advantage, and employers are getting wiser as well, said Denise Rousseau, H.J. Heinz II professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "Management is much more likely to be upfront about uncertainty because it's widely understood this is part of business life," she said. "The fact it's such a normal part of the context makes it easier to tell people, 'We're not sure how long this merger will take.' The issue is trying to keep people motivated and predictable and available. Corporations already are short-handed. You need all the pairs of hands you have."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0610160147
oct16,0,1896817.story?coll=chi-business-hed | back to top
Pittsburgh Business Times | October 16
MTV is bringing its brand of short attention span programming to Pittsburgh for a new experimental drama. This week, the cable music channel began production here of "Chloe," a short-form soap opera depicting a young woman starting her adult life after college. Written by Pittsburgh native Terry McCluskey, a founder of East Liberty-based advertising firm, The Idea Mill, and directed by local film production professional Steven Parys, Chloe will be produced in short episodes of only a minute and a half to two minutes long. Kevin Mackall, senior vice president of promotions for MTV, expects between 25 and 30 episodes will be produced at a total cost of about $200,000. ... MTV chose Pittsburgh for its quality of locations and crew and to avoid the kind of big cities on the coasts the network has typically chosen for shows, Mackall said. The shoot includes a production crew and cast of between 30 and 40 people and stars Eryn Joslyn, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate, as Chloe.
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh
/stories/2006/10/16/story14.html | back to top
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | October 15
Arthur Schwotzer, of Peters, remembers plowing victory gardens and selling scrap metal at a time when bronze and lead were needed war-time commodities. He was 14 years old and had formed a business, his first, with his brother, Norman, younger by two years, who now lives in Mt. Lebanon. They lived in what is now Whitehall, which was Baldwin Township at the time, and he spent any extra time he had shearing sheep on farms. "I grew up knowing the value of labor," Mr. Schwotzer said. That labor has paid off. Mr. Schwotzer, who will be 80 on Oct. 27, has received an honorary alumnus award from the Carnegie Mellon University Alumni Association.
http://www.post-gazette.com/
pg/06288/729491-58.stm | back to top
International News Stories
The Independent | October 17
Coming up over the next few months: around 120 million episodes of cold and flu. Make sure your name isn't on the packet of Kleenex by acquiring a detailed understanding of how these unpleasant viruses are transmitted. Recent research provides some useful clues. ... Keep warm. A drop in body temperature can dampen the immune system and allow the bug to take hold. In very cold weather, it's sensible to wear a scarf over your nose, the first line of defense in the immune system. The cilia in the nostrils that brush away bacteria and viruses slow down when chilly. Be happy. A cold virus was squirted up the noses of human guinea pigs who were then asked to fill in a happiness questionnaire at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. Happy people were found to be three times less likely to develop a cold.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/
health_medical/article1880050.ece | back to top
Reuters | October 17
Frank Lloyd Wright is remembered as America's most acclaimed architect and iconic designer, but many of his most famous buildings seem unable to withstand the stresses of time. Wright, who died in 1959 at 92, was one of the world's most prolific architects, designing homes, churches and office buildings like the Johnson Wax headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, as well as public spaces including the famed white spiral of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Of the roughly 1,141 buildings he designed, 409 still stand. And while he is lauded as a creative genius, perennial cracking and leaking seem to be a feature of much of his work. The Guggenheim's rotunda is under scaffolding to fix cracking that has plagued it since it opened in 1959, while Fallingwater, perhaps the most famous Wright home, has undergone years of work to fix sagging terraces, leaking and cracking. Wright detractors say he lacked adequate training in engineering or his designs were simply far too advanced for the materials at his disposal. "Many of these buildings--with modern materials, improved concrete and steel and more precise engineering calculations--could be hypothetically done without structural or maintenance problems," said Charles Rosenblum, adjunct assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?
storyid=2006-10-16T160117Z_01_N13417886_
RTRUKOC_0_UK-WRIGHT.xml&type=entertainmentNews
&WTmodLoc=Entertainment-C3-More-7 | back to top
Gulf Times | October 15
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar hosted a visit from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), a higher education accrediting agency based in the U.S., it was announced yesterday. Carnegie Mellon in Qatar has been accredited by the MSCHE since opening in 2004 and the purpose of this visit was to ensure that the institution is adhering to the accrediting standards and regulations. ... Institutions choose to apply for accredited status and once accredited agree to abide by the standards of the accrediting organization and regulate themselves by taking responsibility for their own improvement. MSCHE is one of many American accrediting boards that govern standards of academic excellence. These boards were established to ensure American colleges offered consistent education across key areas of learning. "When we came to Qatar, our accreditation from Pittsburgh was carried over, so our programs in Qatar have always been accredited," pointed out Carnegie Mellon in Qatar Dean Dr. Chuck Thorpe.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item
_no=112939&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16 | back to top
PRI The World (BBC News) | October 11
Music can tell stories and even express political views. And we're not just talking about lyrics. Just listen to the latest work by Iranian-born composer Reza Vali. The piece is called "Toward that Endless Plain." It's a Concerto for Persian Ney and Orchestra. Helen Barrington has today's Global Hit. The ney is that instrument you're hearing right now. It's a wind instrument made out of wood. And it's the voice of Reza Vali's piece. Composer Reza Vali studied music in Tehran and Vienna in the 1970s. He then came to the United States to get his PhD. Vali is now professor of music at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. His latest work calls upon his multi-cultural background.
http://www.theworld.org/?q=
taxonomy_by_date/2/20061011 | back to top
Nature | October 2006
It is one of the most politically charged questions that any researcher can tackle: how many people have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion? Four public-health experts provided an answer last week. Their result--a death rate that has risen from 5.5 per thousand per year to 13.3--implies that since the invasion there have been 650,000 'excess' deaths, 2.5 percent of the population. Predictably, the finding has met with criticism from supporters of the war from the U.S. president downwards. ... The discrepancy does not invalidate the new result, and if the researchers underestimated the pre-war death rate, it's possible that they may have also underestimated the post-war rate. But some researchers say the paper should have addressed the issue. "There should have been more introspection," says Beth Osborne Daponte, a demographer at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "That increased my discomfort."
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal
/v443/n7113/full/443728a.html | back to top
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