November 21, 2002

Carolina in the News

Current International Coverage

Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people 
and programs cited recently in the international and national media:

Modern Osama 
Australian Broadcast Radio, "Radio National Breakfast"
He dresses like a throwback to Medieval times, but is Osama bin Laden really a 'cave-
dwelling neanderthal', or is the world's 'most wanted' fugitive actually a 'man of his times'?... 
At least, that's according to American researcher Charles Kurzman. He's assistant 
professor in sociology at the University of North Carolina, who specializes in the study 
of Islamic movements...
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/brkfast/stories/s731562.htm
(Note: To listen to this segment online, go to the above url and click on "Listen." The story 
is timed to a new publication from the American Sociological Association. To view the 
press release, go to http://www.asanet.org/media/muslims.html)

Current National Coverage

Scientist to Attempt Creation of Living Cell
The New York Times
The Department of Energy has given a $3 million award to Dr. J. Craig Venter of the Institute 
for Genomic Research to develop the best possible approximation to an artificially created 
living cell. The ability to create a living cell from scratch, by chemically synthesizing all its 
components, is far beyond present technology. But several years ago Dr. Clyde Hutchinson 
of the University of North Carolina tried an alternative route to the same goal by taking one 
of the simplest known bacteria, Myoplasma genitalium, and trying to define the minimum 
number of genes it needed to survive by stripping out all the unnecessary ones ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/21/science/21CELL.html
(Note: The New York Times requires free registration to access articles.)

World prospers, hearts suffer 
USA Today
A decade ago, Dongfeng Gu pedaled to work through the streets of Beijing each day on a 
bike. Today, like many others in the city, Gu drives a car. His bike has gone the way of the 
emperor's hand-carried sedan chair. Yet he fears that China's growing affluence — along 
with heavy smoking and the growing popularity of fast food — will soon take a terrible toll 
on millions of hearts... "A country whose workforce is crippled by heart attack and stroke 
will have to divert resources to medical care and will not be able to enter as efficiently into 
the global economy," says Sidney Smith of the University of North Carolina and chief 
science officer for the AHA...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-11-17-global-heart-1dcover_x.htm

From the Muslim World, 13 Scholars in Search of Common Ground
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Following September 11, Americans from all walks of life found themselves learning about 
Islam. Academic specialists like Georgetown University's John L. Esposito were in great 
demand. Books, including such disparate works as the Koran and the collected writings of 
the historian Bernard Lewis, claimed places on best-seller lists. Institutions of higher 
education like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assigned works on Islam to 
incoming freshmen, inadvertently provoking intense public controversy...
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i13/13b01001.htm
(Note: The Chronicle of Higher Education requires a subscription to access articles.)

Boom Times for Border Crossing
The Chronicle of Higher Education
India has become the largest exporter of foreign students to the United States. In the 2001
-2 academic year, the number of Indians studying in the United States shot up 22.3 percent, 
compared with growth of only 5.5 percent among students from China, which had held the 
No. 1 spot in the past... 
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i13/13a06201.htm
(Note: Carolina was ranked sixth among top U.S. research institutions with the largest n
umbers of students studying abroad in 2000-1. This table is located at 
http://chronicle.com/stats/opendoors/2002/table3.htm. The Chronicle of Higher Education 
requires a subscription to access articles.)

AHA wants to make hospital leadership look like America
Modern Healthcare
The American Hospital Association, long a white male bastion, is ramping up its efforts to 
make itself and healthcare more racially and ethnically diverse. ... A teaching hospital in 
North Carolina, tied irrevocably by its mission to the state's budget woes, is applying a pair 
of scissors to the apron strings by going directly to the community for help. This month, 
University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill, in conjunction with the Curtis Media 
Group in nearby Raleigh, will put on a 20-hour "radiothon" for the newly opened North 
Carolina Children's Hospital... 
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article.cms?articleId=27888
(Note: This coverage was the result from a UNC Health Care release,
http://www.unchealthcare.org/newsroom/newsreleases/newsrelease.cfm?release=children%27s_fundraiser.htm. 
Modern Healthcare requires a subscription to access articles.)

National News Note

Suzette Carty, a graduate student at Kenan-Flager Business School, was interviewed 
for a segment airing Wednesday on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition." Her 
comments were featured in a segment about the uncertainty in employment many MBA 
graduates face during the current economic downturn and corporate scandals. To listen 
to this segment online, go to
http://discover.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.jhtml?prgDate=11/20/2002&prgId=3 and scroll 
down the web page to "Economy, Scandals Cast Shadow on MBA Recruitment." 

Current Regional Coverage

State in no rush to join driver cell-phone ban 
The (Baton Rouge, LA) Advocate 
Safety studies are too inconclusive to justify a ban on the use of cell phones while driving, 
highway experts and lawmakers said Wednesday. "We can't say because a person uses 
a cell phone he is more likely to be in a crash," said Jim Champagne, executive director of 
the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission. ... "There is hardly any research on this topic 
at all," he said. A study by the University of North Carolina listed cell phones as the 
eighth-leading cause of traffic accidents, Champagne said...
http://www.theadvocate.com/stories/112102/new_cellban001.shtml

State and Local Coverage

UNC OKs maintenance facility plan 
The Herald-Sun
A small group of Elkin Hills residents sat quietly Wednesday as a committee of UNC’s 
Board of Trustees approved designs for a maintenance facility in their neighborhood...
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-290608.html

Edwards proposing free year of college 
News and Observer
U.S. Sen. John Edwards will call today for offering a free year of college to students across 
the country who arrive academically prepared and engage in work-study programs or 
community service projects while enrolled... In his prepared remarks, Edwards praises the 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for its recent decision to end its early 
admissions process. Under that practice, schools with competitive admissions processes
give applicants preferential treatment if they are willing to commit to attending...
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1940673p-1908169c.html

UNC presents Davie Awards
The Business Journal
Christopher C. Fordham III, Henry E. Frye and C.D. Spangler Jr. will receive William 
Richardson Davie Awards in recognition of their service to the University of North Carolina 
at Chapel Hill and to society...
http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2002/11/18/daily35.html
(Note: This coverage was the result of a UNC news release, 
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov02/davie112002.html.)

A star is reborn
Fayetteville Observer
Technology, Holden Thorp sighed, has gone too far. It was a strange observation from the 
man who just watched a stunning rejuvenation of the Morehead Planetarium and Science 
Center's landmark "Star of Bethlehem" show. Stranger still that the Fayetteville native, 
director of the center and scientist of note, would render that verdict after a gaggle of 
school kids obviously loved the high-tech show. ...
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=features&Story=5292818
(Note: For a UNC news release on this new show, go to, 
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov02/starbeth111302.html.)

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

OWASA hears ideas on saving water in drought 
The Herald-Sun
A "drought forum" sponsored by OWASA turned up plenty of ideas on how to save water, but 
few on how Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County should amend their conservation 
ordinances. 
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-290703.html

Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News, 
please call Cathleen Keyser or Mike McFarland at News Services, 
(919) 962-2091 or news@unc.edu or mike_mcfarland@unc.edu