uncnews.unc.edu

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

National Coverage

Blind faith of climate change deniers endangers us all
The Los Angeles Times
This week’s Newsweek magazine features a couple of essays -- one about Jesus and one about climate change -- that demonstrate the difference between simple faith in the unknowable and blind faith that denies scientific fact. An article by Bart D. Ehrman, professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, discusses things that people believe about the birth of Christ that are actually not in the Bible.

Concussion Effects On Child's Brain May Last Months After Injury: Study
The Huffington Post
...But "it's a good increase, if that makes any sense," Steve Marshall, the interim director of the University of North Carolina's Injury Prevention and Research Center, who was not involved in that study, told the Associated Press. "These injuries were always there. It's not that there are more injuries now. It's just that now people are getting treatment that they weren't getting before."

Regional Coverage

American Muslim Terror Suspects Rare
WKRG-TV (CBS/Mobile, Ala.)
The fear an American Muslim could slide into the role of a terrorist may be little more than that--just fear. “These need to be taken seriously but at the same time I hope we don't blow these out of proportion because they are quite rare,” says University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Professor Charles Kurzman. He is the author a book on terrorists called "The Missing Martyrs." He believes the threat home grown radical Islamists haven’t materialized since 9-11.

State and Local Coverage

Therapy dogs are stressed students' best friends
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
As students studied for exams at UNC-Chapel Hill Wednesday, smiles were hard to come by – except in the journalism library. There, students took a break from leads and libel law and lined up to high-five Mickey, an 11-year-old therapy dog, who went from student to student so they could pet him, scratch his ears and rub his chest. As four students surrounded the dog, he calmly extended his neck to make it easier for them to pet him at once.

NC closer to producing offshore wind energy
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
The U.S. Department of the Interior has designated sites off Cape Fear and the northern Outer Banks for development of offshore wind energy, Gov. Beverly Perdue said Wednesday. ...North Carolina has the best offshore wind resources on the East Coast according to studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Issues and Trends

UNC looks to boost online education
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The UNC system wants to extend degree programs to different types of students in more efficient ways, but the trick will be to accomplish that while ensuring quality. A panel of business and education leaders on Wednesday heard about what other states are doing to measure the quality of education at their universities.
Related Link:
http://www.heraldsun.com/news/localnews/x1692777126/UNC-advisory-
committee-closing-in-on-recommendations