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Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:International Coverage
Sexy Media a Siren Call to Promiscuity: Study
Reuters
Sexually charged music, magazines, TV and movies push youngsters into intercourse at an earlier age, perhaps by acting as kind of virtual peer that tells them everyone else is doing it, a study said on Monday. `This is the first time we've shown that the more kids are exposed to sex in media the earlier they have sex,'' said Jane Brown of the University of North Carolina, chief author of the report.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/teenmedia033006.htmBacteria use slime jets to get around
New Scientist (United Kingdom)
The propulsion system used by slime-squirting bacteria could teach rocket scientists and nano-engineers some new tricks. ...Chemist Michael Rubinstein at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill likes the idea's potential applications. "This mechanism could be utilized in nanoscale devices for propelling small, artificial objects."
National Coverage
Parents affect teens' views on sex, studies find
The Associated Press (National)
When it comes to adolescents' attitudes toward sex, movies matter. And so does locker-room chatter. But two recent studies also note the influence parents have over their children -- even if it is sometimes indirect. ...Dr. Carol Ford, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, lead researcher of the 2005 study, says the findings indicate that parents should make their view on sex clear to their children.
Related Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=af27.EZ3b2vs&refer=canada
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/teenmedia033006.htmStudy: Exposure to sexual content boosts intercourse among teens
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Teenagers drawn to sexually charged music, magazines, movies and TV are about twice as likely to have intercourse by age 16 than those with less exposure. A major study at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, to be published this month in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, tracked 1,017 North Carolina teens from Durham, Orange and Granville counties over two years, surveying them on their sexual behavior and media use.
Related Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=1791507
What It Means for Your Wallet
Time
By and large, yes. Immigrant labor is a drag on wage growth, thus keeping a lid on inflation and interest rates. As a result, prices for goods and services are lower, and citizens can purchase more. And immigrants are consumers too: some 80% of what undocumented workers earn in the U.S. stays in the country. A recent study by economists at the University of North Carolina found that Hispanic residents, 45% of whom were undocumented, contributed $9.2 billion in spending to North Carolina's economy in 2004. By taking the least desirable jobs, says John Kasarda, a co-author of the study, "they have kept some industries competitive that would have gone to Mexico and China."
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/economicimpact010306.htmHeaven's Gate
The Washington Post
Every striver mother and father knows the rules when it comes time to shop for a college. These are so deeply embedded in the subconscious of affluent, highly educated parents that their wisdom is rarely questioned. ...Tuition and room and board at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill now costs more than $10,000 a year for in-state students -- and more than $23,000 a year for out-of-state students.
Inside the List
The New York Times Book Review
Books about religion are staples on the Times best-seller list, but they do particularly well just before Easter. ...This season's subversive best seller, however, is one that takes direct aim at the Bible: Bart D. Ehrman's "Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why" (HarperSanFrancisco). It rises on the nonfiction list to No. 5. Ehrman, who heads the department of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, methodically chips away at the underpinnings of some of the Bible's best-known passages.
'Gospel truth' is question for author
The Orlando Sentinel
When Ned Flanders -- the zealous evangelical who lives next door to TV's animated Simpsons family -- is visited by a series of catastrophic misfortunes, he asks why God lets bad things happen to good people. Especially to true believers such as him. ...But (Bart) Ehrman, chairman of the religious-studies department at the University of North Carolina, says that his textual criticism is not the fundamental reason he has lost his faith. He asked himself a timeless question: "How can there be a world of such misery if there is a benevolent God in charge of it?"
'To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever'
The New York Times Book Review
I am a sick, sick man. Not only am I consumed by hatred, I am delighted by it. I have done some checking into the matter and have discovered that the world's great religions and wisdom traditions tend to frown upon this. ...Therefore, dear reader, I need your prayers. But even more than I do, the University of North Carolina's basketball team, the object of my obsession, needs them. Here is the depth of my sickness.
Tobacco Road Rage
The New York Times Book Review
Will Blythe is the Samuel P. Huntington of hoops. Huntington, you may remember, wrote the seminal work of post-cold-war party pooping, "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. ...But instead of writing on conflagrations between Hindus and Muslims, Blythe has devoted himself to explicating a far more proximate example of a civilizational showdown: the clashing supporters of the men's basketball programs at the University of North Carolina and Duke University.
A Piece of Annandale's Plotline
The Washington Post
Two houses now on the market in Annandale seem to share a storied past, with connections to George Washington; Robert E. Lee; and William H. Fitzhugh, an Englishman who turned 24,000 acres of wilderness into one of the largest tobacco plantations in Virginia. ...The well in her basement, she said, is not the well of Old Well Road. Developers in the 1960s named it after the Old Well at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.From bed to worse: Ads sanction porn (Opinion-editorial column)
Newsday
On the last page of a trio of Dolce & Gabbana ads appearing in the March issue of Esquire, and elsewhere, two fully dressed guys are gawking at a naked man whose head dangles over the edge of a black leather ottoman. ...Two University of North Carolina researchers found in 2004 that there is a "disgust" factor, a degree of anti-consumerism from people turned off by the sexual overload.
The Rich-Poor Gap Widens for Colleges and Students
The Chronicle of Higher Education
As in the country as a whole, class distinctions have always existed in higher education. ...The moves last month by Penn, Stanford, and MIT to provide additional financial aid to needy students followed announcements of similar policies in recent years by the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Princeton, among others. While the plans' particulars differ, the goals are the same: to enroll a greater number of needy students.
State & Local Coverage
Moeser's broad view (Editorial)
The Greensboro News & Record
As leader of North Carolina's flagship public university, it's UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser's job to prioritize and promote the university's multiple roles. There are the responsibilities that come with being one of the nation's leading research universities, competing not only on a national stage, but also globally.
UNC to offer travel stipends
The Chapel Hill Herald
For admitted students who want to check out UNC but can't afford the trip to Chapel Hill, the university's admissions office has a solution: travel stipends. ..."We didn't want needy kids to be disadvantaged," UNC admissions director Steve Farmer said. "We wanted them to be able to make the best choice for them."
UNC's sole coffee-table book offers 'inside look'
The Chapel Hill Herald
As manager of UNC's Bull's Head Bookshop, Erica Eisdorfer regularly has customers ask her if she sells a coffee-table book of photos of Carolina. Eisdorfer always had to tell them that no such book existed. ... The new book, "Carolina: Photographs from the First State University," has about 200 photos, ranging from sunny days at The Pit to commencement at Kenan Stadium, that celebrate the campus and its traditions.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/carolinaphotos033106.htmWhy name a UNC dorm for a slave? (Opinion-editorial column)
The Charlotte Observer
University buildings usually are named for generous benefactors or famous alums. Why did UNC Chapel Hill recently name one for a slave? Read on. George Moses Horton was born into slavery about 1798 on William Horton's farm in Northampton County, up near the Virginia border.
UNC grad to star in gymnastics movie
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill can boast a new success story: Madelyn "Maddy" Curley, Class of 2004, plays a rising-star gymnast in the new Disney film "Stick It." It opens April 21.
Related Link: http://www.chapelhillnews.com/sports/story/2922218p-9369938c.html
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/curley033006.htmLectures fuse Jesus, history
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Those are the first, compelling questions posed in the description of a course on The Historical Jesus, taught by UNC-Chapel Hill professor Bart D. Ehrman. And you don't have to be admitted by UNC to take it. In fact, you can "take" the course on your way to work every day.
Landfill gas could fuel campus
The Chapel Hill News
Methane gas escaping from Orange County’s two landfills on Eubanks Road could be used to power parts of the future Carolina North research campus. County and UNC officials are exploring the idea, though officials noted several obstacles at a meeting Thursday night.UNC doesn't need to raze historic house (Letter to the editor)
The Chapel Hill News
We applaud the University for reopening the planning process for Carolina North with the broadest possible public participation. This new effort is befitting for the nation's first public university, an institution that aspires to be the nation's leading public university.
Issues & Trends
Faculty Members Criticize NCAA for Not Doing More to Protect Academic Integrity in College Sports
The Chronicle of Higher Education
As thousands of college basketball fans descended on Indianapolis for this weekend's Final Four, a small group of faculty members and athletics officials met a few miles from the mayhem to discuss their concerns about the academic progress of college athletes and what they see as the increasing commercialization of college sports.Searching for fairness in the Duke story
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
"Outrage" has been the operative word to describe community sentiment in Durham in the past week. And justifiably so, if the allegations against members of the Duke men's lacrosse team are even close to true. ...Davis "Buzz" Merritt, a visiting professor of journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill, said he agreed with not identifying the victim of a sexual assault, but he had problems with the detailed account that the paper allowed her to give under the cloak of anonymity.
Ivory towers hide dark corners (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
It was by coincidence that the UNC campus was the site of a march against sexual violence during the same week that the nearby Duke campus boiled over in controversy over an alleged gang rape by members of the Blue Devils' lacrosse team.
Florida, Kentucky among states bidding on bioterror lab
The Associated Press (National)
Kentucky and Florida are among the states bidding for a proposed $450 million bioterrorism lab, a 500,000-square-foot facility at which scientists would study potential bioterrorism threats to the U.S. food supply and humans. ..."Everyone is trying to assemble that kind of expertise," said Keith Nichols, spokesman for North Carolina State University, the lead party in a group trying to get the lab that includes Duke University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
N.C. chasing $450M defense site
The Triangle Business Journal
A consortium of North Carolina universities and agriculture groups is pulling together a proposal to lure a $450 million U.S. Department of Homeland Security research facility to the state. ...Joining NCSU in its proposal are the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, North Carolina Central University, Wake Forest University and East Carolina University, says Keith Nichols of NCSU's news service.
Produced by News Services, Carolina in the News is an e-mail sampling of current news media coverage about Carolina people and programs, as well as issues and trends that affect the university. Stories usually will be online and available free for a limited time - often one to two weeks. Expiration dates before stories move to archives vary by media outlet. Some outlets require free user registration or a subscription.
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