Carolina in the News - December 15, 2003

Fridge to blame for Crohn's?
News 24, South Africa
Could the modern-day obsession with appliances - namely refrigerators -
be responsible for the emergence of Crohn's disease, an inflammatory
bowel condition?...It's a plausible hypothesis, but there's quite a bit of
conjecture and it needs a cautious interpretation, says Dr Balfour
Sartor, a professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at
the University of North Carolina.

Next Step: Drug Price Controls (Commentary)
The Washington Post
When President Bush signed the Medicare drug law last week, he
quietly began the countdown to the date when the government begins
to impose strict price regulation on prescription drugs for the elderly....
Jonathan Oberlander teaches at University of North Carolina-
Chapel Hill Medical School.

Organization Names Best Country Doctor
National Associated Press
For the seventh time in seven years, an ornery hurricane beat at the shoreline
near this small town on the Pamlico Sound. Charles Boyette knew what to
expect....He grew up in Chadbourn, a similarly sized town about 45 miles west
of Wilmington in southeast North Carolina, where his family operated a country
store. He left in 1953 with an academic scholarship to the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Related link: http://newsobserver.com/features/story/3121626p-2826891c.html

Many believe capture will bring end to fear in Iraq
The News & Observer
Saddam Hussein hasn't controlled Iraq since the U.S.-led occupation began
earlier this year. But he still inspired fear...."He didn't go down guns blazing
like his sons," said Richard Kohn, a professor of military history at UNC-
Chapel Hill and chairman of the curriculum on peace, war, and defense.
Related link:
A turning point? Local views vary
The Herald-Sun

Teens' Web surfing gets spiritual
The Charlotte Observer
The results of a survey of 2,600 U.S. teenagers released this week indicate that
far more teens visit religious Web sites than pornographic sites. A UNC Chapel
Hill study found 5 percent of teens said they use the Internet to access
pornographic sites a few times a month or more, compared to 17 percent who
said they search for something spiritual.

Charting the skies
The Charlotte Observer
It is the sixth U.S. planetarium, the only one in the world on a university campus.
But in the early 1960s the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill held a higher
mission: teaching celestial navigation to the nation's original astronauts.

Study says Greeks leave drinking days at college
The News & Observer
Many think campus Greek life and alcohol use are cultural cousins. But heavy
drinking by those affiliated with sororities and fraternities dips significantly after
those students leave the college "party life." Bruce Bartholow, an assistant
professor of psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill, recently co-published a study
tracking alcohol use among college-educated young adults.

Is there room for dissent in academia?
The News & Observer
Perhaps professor John Spencer Bassett knew he was touching a nerve. The
historian's article on race relations compared the greatness of Booker T.
Washington to that of Gen. Robert E. Lee and set off a firestorm among the white,
Democratic elite that almost forced Bassett out of his job at Trinity College in
Durham in December 1903...."The whole atmosphere of questioning itself is being
questioned," said Sue Estroff, former chairwoman of UNC-Chapel Hill's faculty
senate.

Infusion of federal dollars bails out N.C.'s military communities
Triangle Business Journal
War has boosted the military payroll in North Carolina by an estimated $1.1 billion
since late last summer when the U.S. shifted the strategy for dealing with Iraq from
weapons inspections to a military assault...."Last time, large numbers of dependents
picked up and went home," compounding a wave of losses caused by troop
deployments, says James F. Smith, director of the Center for Business
Forecasting and a finance professor at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill.

Ohio & N.C. (Commentary)
The Charlotte Observer
For much of the last 100 years, North Carolina and Ohio have nobly debated, good-
naturedly for the most part, their "Wrightful" places in aviation history....In 1900, the
Wrights' bike shop was the 14th largest in Dayton. There were no bike manufacturers
of any size in North Carolina, said Harry Watson, who teaches N.C. history at UNC
Chapel Hill."Dayton was a big center of the bike industry, and a lot of the technology
for making airplanes was first developed in the bike industry," said Watson, who also
directs the Center for the Study of the American South.

Flu growing, vaccine going
The Herald Sun
North Carolina joined 23 other states Thursday with widespread flu outbreaks, as
thousands in the Triangle scrambled for the last available vials of the vaccine....
William Rutala, a UNC School of Medicine professor and director of hospital
epidemiology, said the Chapel Hill campus got 500 additional vaccine doses for
health care employees and 500 for outpatient clinic use Tuesday.

Local obesity specialists offer differing views
The Herald-Sun
Nearly a dozen area obesity specialists revealed their core beliefs about their calling
Wednesday, demonstrating to their peers that people battling the bulge in the Triangle
have a smorgasbord of weight-loss options....Joyce Harp, an assistant professor of
nutrition and an adult endocrinologist at UNC, said she believes drug therapies
offer the most realistic hope for combating obesity....June Stevens, an epidemiologist and UNC associate professor of nutrition, said she's "blown away" that obesity rates throughout much of the world continue to increase unabated...."I think it's the economy," agreed Dianne Ward, a professor of nutrition who works with Stevens at UNC.

Central casting
The News & Observer
If you're sick of that chirpy, faux-folksy banter that passes for chemistry between local
news anchors, WLFL's 10 p.m. broadcast may be your antidote. Anchors Bob Vernon
and Morris Jones don't speak to each other....That's a big part of ratings, says C.A.
Tuggle, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina and a former TV reporter and producer.

UNC considers 6 for leadership position
The Herald-Sun
UNC has identified six candidates -- all from within the university -- who are finalists for
the vacant leadership post in the College of Arts and Sciences.

UNC program to offer students the opportunity to study in Cuba
The Herald-Sun
UNC's study abroad program is branching out into Cuba, a new initiative that will offer a
few Carolina students the rare chance to do scholarly work there...."I think this might be the only country in the Western Hemisphere that Americans are denied the right to travel to," said Louis Perez, a UNC history professor who specializes in Cuba.
UNC News Services release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec03/cuba121003.html

She stars in the real ER (Tar Heel of the Week)
The News & Observer
The man in the hospital bed is clearly in pain, curled up on his side, his wife sitting anxiously beside him. Outside the emergency room bay, Dr. Judith Tintinalli is listening as a resident tells her that the man is on dialysis. He has been vomiting since the day before....Cherri Hobgood, director of education in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UNC, remembers thinking as a student in the early 1990s that Tintinalli was kind of scary.

Walk, watch, listen, count birds
The Herald-Sun
Teams of two or three bird watchers braved a cold, rainy day to converge on the wooded and open areas of Durham Sunday to take part in the annual Christmas Bird Count....Rose, a Duke University graduate student, spent the morning with Frances Lynn, a UNC professor, counting birds in the Ellerbee Creek watershed. Both Rose and Lynn are active in the Ellerbee Creek Watershed Association.

A History of Giving Back
The Winston-Salem Journal
When Frank Borden Hanes Sr. learned that he was among the six recipients of this year's North Carolina Award, he reacted to the news with humility and surprise....Hanes clearly got the philanthropic message. He has given millions of dollars to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his alma mater, in support of such causes as endowed professorships and Morehead Foundation scholarships. He also helped make the university's Academic Affairs Library the first in the Southeast and one of only 20 in North America to hold at least 5 million volumes.

Georgetown Reaches Fundraising Record
The Washington Post
Georgetown University has passed the $1 billion goal of its eight-year fundraising campaign, school officials announced last week, placing it in the small cadre of American colleges to surpass the 10-figure mark in their push for private support.

Carolina North: A difficult journey
The Chapel Hill News
Laurin Easthom can look out her front window to watch the school bus chug past and drop students off at the bus stop on Weaver Dairy Road Extension....When Easthom envisions what this scene might look like in 20 years or so, she shudders. That's when the architects of UNC's proposed Carolina North complex forecast completion of a major road connecting the project to Weaver Dairy Road Extension and thence to Interstate 40

Specifics of 5-decade plan not yet outlined
The Herald-Sun
As with many questions about Carolina North, the answer to exactly how UNC would
shield neighborhoods from the ongoing, decades-long construction required to build the
new campus isn't yet clear...."It's too early to say specifically how we'd do that," said
Tony Waldrop, vice chancellor for research and economic development at UNC
and the leader of the Carolina North planning effort.

Transportation among faculty's North concerns
The Herald-Sun
While a number of UNC faculty voiced concerns common to the ongoing discussion of
Carolina North, it became evident Friday that many at the university also are excited
about opportunities the massive proposal may create.