uncnews.unc.edu

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

National Coverage

NFL looks to measure hits with devices inside helmets
The Washington Post
The NFL is turning to technology to both measure and mitigate pro football's effect on players' brains, pushing into unexplored territory as officials try to protect personnel from the violence of the sport. ... Measuring the force of blows to the head won't immediately lead to a concussion-prevention application, but Kevin Guskiewicz, a committee member and chairman of the department of exercise and sport science at the University of North Carolina, said the information-gathering nevertheless should begin as soon as possible.
UNC Brief: http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4184/71/

House GOP Champions Constitutional Rule
National Public Radio
The new Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is championing a new rule: Every new piece of legislation must be accompanied by a statement of the proposal's constitutionality. NPR's Melissa Block talks to University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt about the idea.

State and Local Coverage

Repeal health care? First consider facts
The Charlotte Observer
You're going to hear a lot in coming days about repealing the new health care reform law. Republicans who now control the U.S. House say it's their top priority. But chances are that much of what you'll hear or have heard about the law is wrong. ... PolitiFact reporters read the whole 906-page bill and interviewed independent health care experts. "The label 'government takeover' has no basis in reality," says UNC Chapel Hill health policy Professor Jonathan Oberlander.

Change - Is this the key to mending a violent culture? (Editorial)
The Fayetteville Observer
How do you change the fabric of a culture that is generations deep? Some people in Robeson County would like to know. Many county residents' lives depend on making it happen. ... The county's violent culture is so unusual for a country environment that it has attracted national attention. Researchers want to know what fuels all this mayhem. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a $6.5 million grant to study the culture and find ways of changing it. It will be similar to programs the CDC has funded in urban areas, but the first in a rural setting.

Keeping the pounds off from teen years to adult
Triangle Business Journal
The average 18-year-old will gain about 30 pounds by the time he or she turns 35. And that is too much. Deborah Tate is trying to stop that weight gain from happening. The researcher at UNC-Chapel Hill’s departments of Health Behavior and Health Education in the Gillings School of Global Public Health is working to devise better ways to help people lose weight, funded by a $2.8 million from the National Institutes of Health.

Filling their needs (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
To read your Frontiers of Fat series of articles on obesity, one would think humans are no different from the rats described: provide with high-fat foods, get fat. I do not doubt the science behind the studies, but noticed the lack of any mention, much less discussion, about the powerful component of emotion in overeating. ... The comment by UNC's Elizabeth Mayer-Davis that "energy balance and weight management" is "boring" will additionally discourage people from trying to understand the enormous role of overeating in burying uncomfortable emotions.

The dollars and sense of energy
The Chapel Hill Herald
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Solar Energy Research Center is holding a public forum and information session on renewable energy issues and needs. The free event, "Putting Solar Energy in [Its] Place," will be Jan. 14 at the William and Ida Friday Center in Chapel Hill. The event begins at 5 p.m. with interactive displays, videos and posters from university, government, non-profit and business representatives.
UNC Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4187/1/

Reconstructing ancient Rome in less than a day
Triangle Business Journal
Svetlana Lazebnik and Jan-Michael Frahm recently reviewed nearly 3 million photos of Rome and combined like images to form three-dimensional models of some of the city’s most ancient sites. And they did it all in under 24 hours. The UNC-Chapel Hill computer scientists are working on new algorithms to better scan and interpret images on computers. The work they are doing could lead to virtual tourism opportunities or to systems that would allow robots to not only see but also to respond to what they see.
UNC Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4126/107/

St. Petersburg Philharmonic to play
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A performance by one of Russia's most important orchestras, a tribute to Mississippi blues guitarist Robert Johnson and separate performances by Wynton and Branford Marsalis are among the highlights of the winter-spring portion of Carolina Performing Arts' season at Memorial Hall at UNC.

New exhibits coming to area museums
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Ackland Art Museum at UNC. "At Work in the Wilderness: Picturing the American Landscape, 1820-1920," from Jan. 14-March 20; "The Oldest Paintings in America: Utah's Rock Art Photographed by Goodloe Suttler," Jan. 14-March 20; "De-Natured

New productions coming in spring
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
PlayMakers Repertory Company at UNC launches its main stage spring season with its second double production of two plays performed in rotation. PlayMakers takes on the Reagan-era story of the AIDS epidemic in "Angels in America" by Tony Kushner. The first part is "Millennium Approaches," and the second part, "Perestroika." Performances, in rotating rep, are held Jan. 29 through March 6.

Nanotechnology group to hold national conference in Greensboro
Greensboro News & Record
A national group devoted to finding commercial uses for nanotechnology — the science of using tiny particles for business and medical applications — said Thursday it will hold its national conference in Greensboro in August. ... In a news release, the foundation says that Greensboro’s Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering and RF Micro Devices are among the organizations that make this state a significant player along with UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University.

Correcting an injustice on campus (Opinion)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
No small number of civil liberties and gay rights activists were likely surprised by Congress' decision last month to end the regime of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the armed forces. ... Many will recall that less than a year ago, a remarkable young undergraduate, Sara Isaacson, was dismissed from the ROTC program at UNC-Chapel Hill.

UNC loses a favorite son
The Carrboro Citizen
Memorial services will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at Chapel of the Cross for one of the University of North Carolina’s favorite sons, Douglass Hunt, who died on New Year’s Day in the hospice at the Meadowlands in Hillsborough. He was 86. After a long legal career and a stint as assistant to the secretary of the treasury in the Johnson Administration, Hunt was successfully convinced to return to his alma mater in 1973 by then-Chancellor Ferebee Taylor. For the next three decades, Hunt, a member of the Carolina class of 1946, served the university, holding the title “special assistant” to a succession of chancellors until his “partial” retirement in 1996.
UNC Statement: http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4176/68/

Issues and Trends

A UNC champion (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The retirement of Marc Basnight from the N.C. Senate is truly the end of an era, as your Jan.5 article rightly pointed out. Basnight was an incredible champion of higher education. Certainly, the University of North Carolina has never had a better, more loyal or effective friend than Marc Basnight in its whole history spanning three centuries. His effect on UNC-Chapel Hill was nothing short of stunning. ... James Moeser Chancellor emeritus, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill

NC universities asked to make even larger budget cuts
The Asheville Citizen-Times
UNC Asheville Chancellor Anne Ponder in a letter to faculty and staff warned impending budget cuts could include staff furloughs and layoffs of temporary employees. Ponder sent the letter this week in response to a December memo from University of North Carolina President Tom Ross, who asked that universities cut expenses 2.5 percent for the remainder of the budget year. Ross also asked that universities prepare a budget for next year that includes 15 percent in cuts.

State retirees to get cheaper insurance
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
State and local government retirees will get a break for the next three years on vision and dental insurance offered through a preferred broker with the state treasurer's office that could save them on average about $130 a year. The savings come through a competitive bid process that companies entered for the right to be the preferred broker. That drew several companies, including the one that had held the business for most of the decade, state Treasurer Janet Cowell said.