April 30, 2009 | 6ABC
Figuring out the swine flu is proving a challenge for health experts. Robert Bettiker, assistant professor of medicine in the Infectious Diseases section at Temple University School of Medicine, points out that the virus hitting the U.S. is missing an important amino acid that makes it less deadly than what was being seen in Mexico. "We're watching that very closely, we don't yet know why it seems to be acting differently north of the Rio Grande versus south of the Rio Grande," said Bettiker, who appeared in two separate flu-related reports on 6ABC on Thursday evening.
April 30, 2009 | MyFox National
During flu and allergy season in Japan, people are still seen regularly wearing masks. It's not uncommon to see people riding the subway or walking the streets with a mask on. Many say it's not only to protect themselves from other people's germs, but to protect others from their germs. "Japan is fastidious to the point of being obsessive," said Kyle Cleveland, a cultural sociologist at Temple University, Japan Campus. "People are willing to acknowledge and recognize the value of not making others sick."
April 30, 2009 | KYW News Radio
So what is a "pandemic"? Robert Bettiker, an infectious disease expert at Temple's School of Medicine, says a pandemic is determined by the wide geographical spread of a particular disease. "A pandemic means there is an increase in a number of cases in multiple countries. So it has to do with the spread and the numbers of people. It doesn't have to do necessarily with the severity of the disease." For example, Bettiker says, there could be pandemic of a routine cold virus.
April 30, 2009 | KYW News Radio
Temple psychologist Frank Farley says people are afraid of the swine flu because they simply don't know enough about it to not be afraid. "One of the biggest sources of human fear is uncertainty," he said. "We're social animals and we spend an enormous amount of time in the company of others, in one way or another. Many of our institutions involve bringing people together in close proximity. If it's possible that you could get sick from that kind of engagement, it just raises the uncertainty of our life."
April 29, 2009 | WHYY-FM
Senator Arlen Specter shook up the U.S. political order yesterday by switching parties. Temple political scientist Michael Hagen says Specter's hand was forced by opinion polls showing him trailing conservative Pat Toomey among Republican primary voters. "He has been put in the position…of putting first things first," said Hagen. "That means he has had to make his first consideration the route back to the Senate. He has obviously come to the conclusion that the best way to get back to the Senate is to get out of the Republican primary and into the Democratic primary."
April 29, 2009 | philly.com
In her "Jobbing" blog, Philadelphia Inquirer business reporter Jane Von Bergen explored the ties that bind a group of workers who lost their jobs at NovaCare 10 years ago. A decade later, they're holding a reunion. Fox School of Business faculty member Stuart Schmidt, a human resource management expert, pointed to the excitement of being part of a growing organization as a key tie. The pace was so intense that the workers came out the experience able to handle anything, or rather multiple things.
April 29, 2009 | National Public Radio
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a "strong recommendation" that people with swine flu symptoms isolate themselves at home. Some local health officials in North Carolina are taking that recommendation a step further in mandating that sick people remain isolated or risk arrest. But is this effective? "When you give people the right information, they usually make the right decision, so why go to the level of coercion? You set up mistrust of government when you have to go to a coercive idea like that," said Sarah Bass, professor of public health at Temple, who has studied public attitudes about medical isolation and quarantines.
April 29, 2009 | Congressional Quarterly's "CQ Politics"
The "CQ Politics" blog asks: How will Sen. Arlen Specter, the Republican who has switched to the other side of the aisle, fare in next year's Senate election? Robin Kolodny, a political scientist at Temple, said that "voters don't usually punish party-switchers much…Look at what happened to southern Democrats switching to Republicans in the 1990s -- only a few lost."
April 29, 2009 | News Journal (Wilmington, Del.)
The News Journal profiled one of Temple's graduating seniors: star track and field athlete and standout psychology major Amanda Cole, who seemed to break school records every time she competed during her final year at Temple. Cole reached a new high in her career in early March with a second-place, school-record weight throw of 62-5.00 at the ECAC Indoor championships in Boston. She became the first Temple woman in 20 years to record an NCAA Provisional Qualifying mark.
April 28, 2009 | CBS3
Concern over the swine flu outbreak has led to a number of news outlets hosting live web-chats to keep people informed. CBS3's web site featured Thomas Fekete during an hour-long live web chat. Fekete, section chief of infectious diseases at Temple University School of Medicine and Hospital, answered viewer emails on topics ranging from the more personal ("I'm sick with fever. Should I see my doctor?") to more broad questions ("How is this virus different from the regular influenza?") about the nature of this new strain of influenza.
April 28, 2009 | Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia places in the top 10 (of the nation's 50 largest cities) in four sustainability categories, according to SustainLane's 2008 rankings: city commuting, metro transit ridership, locally produced food and natural disaster risk. Paul Glover, founder of Green Jobs Philly and an adjunct professor at Temple, cites Philly's emerging reputation for inner-city agriculture (recently bolstered with a pilot project by the city's Redevelopment Agency), food co-ops and farmers' markets.
April 28, 2009 | WHYY-FM
Sentences for the "Fort Dix Five," the five men found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers, will be handed down this week at the federal courthouse in Camden, New Jersey. Edward Ohlbaum of Temple's Beasley School of Law says the case is significant. "It was a major federal prosecution of Muslim Americans for conspiring to kill United States soldiers," he said. "One would like to think the fact that there is a heightened scrutiny on all of our parts really did not contribute to the way in which the jury evaluated the evidence."
April 28, 2009 | United Press International
One in five women ages 18 to 24 are smokers, and most of them say they keep lighting up for fear of gaining weight. Melissa Napolitano, a clinical psychologist at Temple's Center for Obesity Research and Education, and a team of researchers looked at the smoking habits and weight gain of women in the age group. The first phase of the study collected data from focus groups who stated that stress, peer pressure and weight management were the main reasons why they smoked.
April 28, 2009 | Philadelphia Weekly
The local GOP is making a case for continued minority representation. A Democratic City Councilman wanted to ax the two at-large Council seats that the City Charter promises his Republican colleagues, reducing the number of at-large seats from seven to five while also removing the provision guaranteeing two of those seats to the minority party. Joseph McLaughlin, a political scientist at Temple, said, "I think you need some dissenting voices in a legislative body. You have to recognize that we're in a federal system of government where a party that's out of power in the city may be in power elsewhere."
April 28, 2009 | School Library Journal
African-American students tapped as "high-achieving" in school interact with television shows, video games, and music in a more engaged way than regular African-American students, according to a new study from Temple. "High-achieving kids are actively thinking about and responding to media messages that they’re choosing," says Renee Hobbs, professor of communications and founder of Temple's Media Education Lab.
April 27, 2009 | WHYY-FM
When a new state historic marker is unveiled at the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia, it will recognize for the first time the site where the first American flag was sewn, or was it. In fact, there is little documentation to support the story. Seth Bruggeman, assistant professor of history at Temple, says what’s more important than the did she or didn’t she question is that she was successful entrepreneur and patriot at time when women little political or legal power. "She is a woman who negotiates the complicated world of gender, property and power. She had a talent for survival in a complicated colonial milieu."
April 27, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
In an op-ed, international law expert Duncan Hollis, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, argues for the confirmation of Harold Koh as the State Department's chief lawyer. As a "transnationalist," Koh is opposed by isolationists who believe that international law threatens American sovereignty and the Constitution's supremacy. Hollis believes that adherence to international law actually makes the country more secure.
April 27, 2009 | Philadelphia Daily News
The Jacksonville Jaguars selected Temple defensive end Terrance Knighton in the 3rd round of the NFL draft this weekend. The last time an Owl had been picked that high was 1996. Knighton said he can never thank Temple football coach Al Golden enough. "He molded me into the type of player I am, changed the type of player I was," he explained. "He made me into an NFL player."
April 26, 2009 | Allentown Morning Call
Teaching jobs have long been thought of as safe havens from economic uncertainty. That has been especially true in Pennsylvania, where state law makes it difficult for school districts to balance budgets with teacher layoffs. The Easton Area School District made a move to change that last week, warning that it might join financially strapped school districts elsewhere in handing teachers pink slips. ''I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't see some number of school districts feel like they had no choice but to try to open those deals back up,'' said Kent McGuire, dean of Temple's College of Education. ''At least they want to take credit for having tried to have that conversation.''
April 26, 2009 | Asian News International
With the economy in recession, more middle-class families are passing on private schools in favor of local public schools, a trend that some urban school districts may welcome. But a new study by Temple researchers suggests that urban schools will benefit most if middle-class parents bring more than just their resources — parents also must have to have the right attitude. Erin Horvat and Maia Cucchiara of the College of Education found that schools with middle-class parental participation fare better when the parents focus on making the school as a whole better instead of just making the school better for their child only.
April 26, 2009 | Lancaster Sunday News
As Americans wrestle with the recession, bartering is becoming increasingly popular. But there are differences between modern-day bartering and the bartering of the past, said Bryant Simon, a professor of history and American studies at Temple. Today, many people are bartering with folks they don't know, using the Internet to make contact. "I've looked through Depression-era papers," Simon said. "I don't know that I ever saw anyone advertise that they wanted to barter." Bartering then was based on proximity and existing relationships, Simon said.
April 25-26, 2009 | Los Angeles Times, Asian News International
A Temple research team has shown that positive body image is more effective than exercise in helping young women lose weight and quit smoking. The study showed that one in five women aged 18 to 24 are smokers, and most say they keep lighting up for fear of gaining weight. "A lot of college-age women report smoking to keep their weight down and for body image reasons, and we think that by providing them with the tools to make them feel better about themselves, it alleviates some of those stressors," said Melissa Napolitano of Temple's Center for Obesity Research and Education.
April 25, 2009 | Orlando Sentinel
Friendship used to be measured in phone calls, birthday cards or crowds at funerals. Now it's measured by the number of "friends" on Facebook. Sentinel columnist Darryl Owens asks if dogged "friending" on Facebook has diminished the value of real friendship. "Having hundreds of alleged 'friends' on one of these sites when you may never have met or conversed ... with them takes away the original (offline) meanings of the word 'friendship,'" says Temple psychologist Frank Farley.
April 25, 2009 | 6ABC
A marathon of community service culminated in a Friday-evening cook out at Penrose Playground in North Philadelphia. Students from Temple, along with volunteers from other organizations, worked since Tuesday to beautify the playground. New murals, flowers and a vegetable garden are giving this playground a beautiful new look.
April 25, 2008 | Philadelphia Inquirer
More than half a million 4-year-olds are obese, and the numbers are even more startling among children of color, according to a government study published this month in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Sarah Anderson, an Ohio State public health researcher, conducted the study with Temple's Robert Whitaker, a professor of public health and pediatrics. Obesity has long been a problem among adult Americans, but that didn't make the statistics on children any easier to digest.
April 25, 2009 | KYW News Radio
Some Philadelphia area professors who assess the overtures that President Obama is making to Cuba say that Washington’s estranged relationship with Havana is thawing, 'at least in tone, and symbolism.' No one is talking of fundamental reform in Cuba overnight, but it's a 'civilized way to start a dialogue.' "This is a feeler on the part of the president." Temple professor and chair of the department of Spanish and Portuguese, Luis Gonzalez Del Valle, was born in Cuba. "[Obama] fully understands that the embargo is doing nothing for anyone."
April 24-25, 2009 | Associated Press, , 6ABC, NBC10, Philadelphia Daily News
Students in Mechanical Engineering Professor Jim Chen's "Mechanics of Fluids" class displayed their engineering skills by launching uncooked eggs 115 feet in the air aboard rockets made from two-liter soda bottles and powered by water and compressed air. The winning rocket, and its onboard egg, returned safely to terra firma via parachute.
April 24, 2009 | WHYY-FM, WRTI-FM, Fox29, WFMZ-TV (Allentown, Pa.)
In a move made two months earlier than usual, Temple University's Board of Trustees yesterday approved its lowest tuition increase in 13 years and gave financial aid the largest one-year boost in the university's history. "We have passed a budget that serves our most important and most deserving stakeholders -- our students -- by keeping a Temple education more affordable," said President Ann Weaver Hart. Temple officials said yesterday that they wanted to give families more time to plan how they will pay for college, given the economic turmoil.
April 24, 2009 | 6ABC
Erica Grow reported from the campus of Temple University Ambler, the host of Earthfest, an event to help teach kids what going green means. Jeff Featherstone, Director of Temple's Center for Sustainable Communities, said that there were many activities for people of all ages, including exhibits on compost, worms, generating electricity, birds and endangered species.
April 24, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Business Journal, 6ABC
In a move made two months earlier than usual, Temple University's Board of Trustees yesterday approved its lowest tuition increase in 13 years and gave financial aid the largest one-year boost in the university's history. "We have passed a budget that serves our most important and most deserving stakeholders — our students — by keeping a Temple zducation more affordable," said President Ann Weaver Hart. Temple officials said yesterday that they wanted to give families more time to plan how they will pay for college, given the economic turmoil.
April 24, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
With the critical May 1 decision date approaching, private college admissions officials locally and nationally are calling this year one of the most uncertain, tension-filled seasons in decades. Temple, which yesterday approved a record-setting boost in financial aid and its smallest tuition increase in 13 years, is 6 percent ahead of last year in students who have submitted deposits.
April 24, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
Northeast Philadelphia native Betsy Manning, a Temple University photographer, has spent the last 15 years in a quest to document every modernist shop, office, factory and house erected in Philadelphia's Great Northeast during the period bracketed, roughly, by the war's end and the oil shocks of the 1970s. The project began as a labor of love. But Manning decided to turn her pictures into a formal, historical archive after taking a class with Ken Finkel, an American studies professor who specializes in Philadelphia's history. Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron referred readers to Manning and Finkel's "Architectural Wallflowers" web site, an online exhibit created by Temple's American Studies program, at http://deeperview.wordpress.com.
April 24, 2009 | 6ABC, Associated Press
Temple students are getting ready to launch raw eggs into the sky using water-powered rockets. Friday's event isn't a campus prank, but rather a class exercise. Mechanical engineering Professor Jim Chen is using the event as part of his mechanics of fluids class. The rockets are made with water and compressed air in a two-liter soda bottle. Students are trying to carry a raw egg as high in the air as possible, then have it return to the ground in a parachute.
April 24, 2009 | KYW News Radio
Radio, TV and the Internet are filled with details on the life of a 47-year-old amateur singer from Great Britain. But why are we so fascinated with Susan Boyle? Steven Kreinberg, associate professor of music studies at Temple, has already used the clip of Boyle in class. He says part of the fascination is the song and how she delivers the emotion of "I Dreamed a Dream," from the musical Les Misérables. "She's now living this dream. I think it's a magical thing that everyone taps into, and we all want those types of dreams to happen to us."
April 2009 | WHYY
WHYY's "Creative Campus" project has produced videos about five faculty members in Temple's Boyer College of Music and Dance: Charles Abramovic, who describes the relationship between a pianist and his instrument; Temple Opera Music Director John Douglas, who explains one of opera's most famous love scenes; Steven Kreinberg, who teaches "The Art of Listening" for non-music majors; Joyce Lindorff, who performs a piece by Gibbons on the harpsichord; and William Stone, a world-renowned baritone who sings a piece by Ravel. Look for more "Creative Campus" segments on Temple faculty members in the future.
April 23, 2009 | Associated Press
Temple students will be paying about 3 percent more for tuition next year, the school's lowest rate hike in 13 years. The university also will increase its financial aid budget by about $21 million over the next three years. For most Temple undergraduates, tuition will rise 2.9 percent in the fall — from $10,858 for in-state students to $11,174. Out-of-state students will pay $20,454, up from $19,878. Temple's board of trustees set the new figures Thursday, two months earlier than originally scheduled. Officials said it would help students and their families better plan during the economic downturn.
April 23, 2009 | Philadelphia Gay News
The Philadelphia Gay Tourism Caucus, an organization that seeks to boost the city's appeal as a gay-friendly tourist destination, announced initiatives to help the city capture a portion of the still-strong gay dollar. Greg DeShields of Temple's School of Tourism and Hospitality Management unveiled the PGTC's new brochure that details their gay-sensitivity training program. Temple and PGTC launched the initiative in 2007 at hotels to ensure that employees know how to provide LGBT travelers with the same service as other visitors. Since then they've brought the program to businesses throughout the area.
April 23, 2009 | Philadelphia Daily News
The Daily News offers a special insert in today's newspaper focusing on area physicians' efforts to raise awareness about colorectal cancer. Internist Stephanie Ward of Temple's School of Medicine uses high-tech, interactive tools to engage patients, emphasizing that "colon cancer is preventable and curable."
April 22, 2009 | NationalGeographic.com
In a photo from the AP/Temple University archives, Ira Einhorn — a counterculture activist of the 1960s and '70s -- speaks at Philadelphia's first Earth Day celebration on April 22, 1970. Across the U.S., the first Earth Day drew an estimated 20 million participants. Earth Day 2009 is expected to draw a billion participants worldwide, according to Earth Day Network.
April 21, 2009 | NBC10
Temple’s University Community Collaborative of Philadelphia (UCCP), in partnership with City Year Greater Philadelphia, Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education and the Greater Philadelphia Federation of Settlements' Teens 4 Good program, is holding a service marathon to paint a mural and build a series of flower beds at Penrose Playground this week. The theme for the mural will highlight the many positive things that people in the Penrose community are engaged in over the course of their lives.
April 21, 2009 | BBC Radio
What's behind the teenage use and abuse of the word 'like'? Muffy Siegel, associate professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts, decided to study the issue when her daughters started using the offending word. "It's a discourse particle, because it appears in breaks during discourse. It's not merely a filler word because it has a particular meaning, which is, 'whatever I'm going to say is the closest I can get to what I'm trying to say.'" As her daughters got older, Siegel's daughters continued to use 'like,' but much less frequently.
April 21, 2009 | Wall Street Journal
"Sexting" is the practice of sending nude or semi-nude pictures of oneself or others via cellphone. When minors do it, the issue for prosecutors becomes: Should one charge sexters with serious crimes, like possession of child pornography, or handle such episodes in a less draconian manner. "The whole tawdry episode seems to call for a little parental guidance and a pop-gun approach, not a Howitzer approach with a felony prosecution," said Louis Natali, a law professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, describing a recent incident in Tunkhannock, Pa.
April 21, 2009 | Associated Press
Everyone in Japan is wearing the latest surgical mask, the N95. Perhaps it's because Japan gets a double whammy of influenza germs and cedar pollen in the spring, leading to runny noses, watery eyes and coughing. But the masks also are a show of consideration for others by demonstrating that, if you are ill in public, at least you are trying to keep your germs to yourself. "Japan is fastidious to the point of being obsessive," said Kyle Cleveland, a sociologist at Temple University, Japan Campus. "People are willing to acknowledge and recognize the value of not making their co-workers or classmates sick."
April 20, 2009 | New York Times
When Pulitzer Prize winners for letters, drama and music were announced on Tuesday, one of the finalists in the general nonfiction category was The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe, by Temple historian William I. Hitchcock, a "heavily documented exploration of the overlooked suffering of noncombatants in the victory over Nazi Germany, written with the dash of a novelist and the authority of a scholar."
April 20, 2009 | CNBC
Broadcasting live in prime time from the celebration of the opening of Alter Hall, the "brand new, state-of-the-art" home of Temple's Fox School of Business, CNBC's Tyler Matheson interviewed Temple President Ann Weaver Hart and Fox Dean M. Moshe Porat. Dean Porat addressed how Fox prepares students for careers during a recession. "We try to prepare them to be their own bosses — to be entrepreneurs — more and more," he said. President Hart highlighted the importance of Temple's role in economic hard times. "It's part of our core mission to provide access to an excellent education for people who are prepared but don't have $50,000 a year to spend," she said.
April 20, 2009 | 6ABC, NBC10, Fox29, Philadelphia Inquirer, more
Hundreds of alumni, students, faculty members and staff gathered in Alter Hall, the new home of Temple's Fox School of Business, to celebrate the facility's opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and guided tours of the building's high-tech classrooms and stunning art work. Among the speakers at the ceremony were President Ann Weaver Hart, Fox Dean M. Moshe Porat, Temple trustees Daniel H. Polett and Richard J. Fox, men's basketball coach Fran Dunphy and Temple alumnus and Advanta chair and CEO Dennis Alter, whose leadership gift of $15 million helped make Alter Hall possible.
April 20, 2009 | 6ABC
Chemotherapeutic agents kill cancer cells, but do they harm a person’s cognitive abilities in the process? That’s what a team of researchers at Temple University School of Pharmacy are trying to find out. They’re studying a condition known as "chemo fog," which cancer survivors describe as a feeling of forgetfulness. They are looking at drugs used in chemotherapy to see what kind of effects they have upon cognition. "Together they have an effect on a tumor but it may be they also have an adverse effect for cognition," says Ellen Walker, the lead researcher.
April 20, 2009 | Metro
Since 1982, Temple University has had a campus in Tokyo. Some Temple students spend their entire college career in Tokyo, but the campus also provides the opportunity for students from Philly to study abroad. Masami Nakagawa of Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ), explained the breakdown. "Students sent via the Main Campus make up about 10 percent of the total enrollment. They spend anywhere from one semester to one year at TUJ. Fifty percent are domestic Japanese students. The remaining 40 percent are non-Japanese students who applied directly to Japan campus, from both inside and outside Japan. They include students from 50 different countries."
April 20, 2009 | WHYY-FM
From overactive bladder to female sexual dysfunction, critics claim that the pharmaceutical industry exaggerates certain health conditions to make a profit. Stephen Permut, assistant dean of academic affiliations at Temple's School of Medicine, says pharmaceutical companies don't create diseases, but they do advertise pills as the best treatment instead of more conservative approaches. "The pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars a year on both advertising directly to the public and to the profession, and they wouldn’t do it unless they thought they could influence sales."
April 19, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
Move over San Francisco. Philly is the next poetry town. Temple, for example, has been operating its Poets & Writers series for a long time. It is held at the university's Center City campus at 1515 Market St., across from City Hall. Poet Cole Swenson just came through, and fiction writer James Morrow reads on Thursday. "Many of our students stay on in the city," says Temple professor, poet, and Poets & Writers coordinator Jena Osman, "and start reading series of their own."
April 19, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
An estate set up in 1963 has performed good works for 36 years. But recently a dispute has arisen over who administers the trust, now worth about $14 million, and how much the administrator should be paid. Bank of New York Mellon Corp. says it has been underpaid and is entitled to a new arrangement that would double its take. Kathy Mandelbaum, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law who teaches classes in estate gift and gift taxation, said Pennsylvania courts already had held that fee agreements could be modified in some circumstances and the decision to ratify that approach could encourage more trustees to seek to boost their fees.
April 18, 2009 | KYW News Radio
Gum disease is one of the most common oral problems. It’s caused by bacteria and is routinely detected by a lengthy and sometimes painful visit to the dentist. But Ahmed Khocht, an associate professor at Temple's Kornberg School of Dentistry, is working on a quicker way — a color-changing test strip. "I'm going to rub it against your gums or I'm going to use the strip to rub against the floor of the mouth to pick up some saliva and watch the color of the strip," he said.
April 18, 2009 | 1210-AM The Big Talker
Steve Cordasco, alumnus of Temple's Fox School of Business and host of "Big Money," interviewed fellow Fox alumnus Bret Perkins, a senior executive with Comcast. The two reflected on their undergraduate experiences and the enormous improvements at the school — including Fox's new, state-of-the-art facility, Alter Hall, in heart of Temple's Main Campus. Cordasco invited listeners to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Alter Hall on Monday afternoon.
April 18, 2009 | WRTI
Guests George Barron, associate dean of Temple's College of Engineering, and Mohammed Kiani, professor and chair of Temple's Department of Mechanical Engineering, discussed bio-engineering on WRTI’s "University Forum with Dr. Jean Moore." Bio-engineering is a cutting-edge field melding the areas of engineering and bio- medicine.
April 17, 2009 | National Public Radio
This weekend a group of lawyers volunteered in Philadelphia, Allentown and Carlisle, Pa. to provide free legal assistance to low income immigrants eligible for naturalization. Peter Sparrow, an immigration law professor at Temple’s Beasley School of Law, says becoming a citizen not only grants immigrants the right to vote, but can also provide a kind of insurance against deportation.
April 17, 2009 | USA Today
Hospital patients with coronary heart disease reduced their heart rates, breathing rate and blood pressure just by listening to music, a Temple review of 23 previous studies found. "So we do know from clinical experience that if people select music they like, and the music has sedative qualities such as slow tempo, predictable harmonies and absence of sudden changes, they will be better able to relax to the music," researcher Joke Bradt, assistant director of Temple's Arts and Quality of Life Research Center.
April 17, 2009 | WHYY-FM
Lawyers recent went to three sites across Pennsylvania to help immigrants with their applications to become citizens, a process that many people find confusing and intimidating. Peter Spiro, an immigration law expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law, says many people would not apply without the kind of help the lawyers provided. "The hassle factor of dealing with the Immigration bureaucracy is high," he said. "There can be misunderstanding, urban legends about well if you fail the test that's going to result in deportation. So there's concern that one could end up worse off by applying for naturalization than maintaining the current status."
April 17, 2009 | CNN
As we age, our feet and legs can suffer. It starts in our 30s, when we start to lose strength in our bodies. As we get older, muscles and tendons start to shrink which can cause tightness and pain. Starting a regimen of stretching exercises can help alleviate some of that tightness later in life. In our 40s and 50s, things like overuse injuries and osteoarthritis come into play. "We start to see degenerative conditions in the joints themselves, and the way we combat that from a physical therapy standpoint is with weight-bearing exercises," says Steve Pettineo, director of physical therapy at Temple's School of Podiatric Medicine.
April 17, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
To reduce property damages and cut losses from the beleaguered National Flood Insurance Program, the government has spent $15 million to protect buildings in seven towns from the capricious Neshaminy Creek in Bucks County. Now, officials say, the price tag has climbed to $25 million. Houses along the creek have been lifted up to 14 feet. Many experts say it might have been safer and more cost-effective in the long run for the residents to move. "My opinion is, people should get out of the flood plain," said M. Richard Nalbandian of Temple's Center for Sustainable Communities.
April 17, 2009 | Philadelphia Business Journal
Temple is trying to use the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to boost technology transfer by looking for funding opportunities to help it advance technologies that are nearly ready to be commercialized. "Where we know end customers exist for potential licensing, we’re trying to go after stimulus money where we could move the technology through this proof-of-concept phase," said Heidi Grunwald, Temple’s director of research development and financial planning. Along those lines, Temple is hoping to get stimulus money through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for field testing a technology for preventing the formation of acidic water in coal mines. The technology, which was co-developed by chemistry professor Daniel Strongin, involves coating rocks in a mine with a substance that prevents the sulfide in them from forming hydrochloric acid.
April 17, 2009 | Chicago Tribune
Tokyo is one of the city's competing with Chicago to host the 2016 Olympic Games. The Tokyo bid is the brainchild of Governor Shintaro Ishihara, a novelist and former movie director with strident nationalistic views and a history of making racist comments. "Ishihara does have his baggage … but he holds up reasonably well to the former governor of Illinois," said Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University, Japan Campus. "My sense is the [International Olympic Committee] judges not on individuals but on the merits of overall bids."
April 17, 2009 | Chronicle of Higher Education
The original Trojan horse had Greek warriors inside, but the Trojan horses built and delivered to four Philadelphia art schools by students at Temple's Tyler School of Art contained this message: "We, the Tyler School of Art, are ending the age of silence and declaring war." To be clear, it's a benign, artsy sort of war — it's more of an invitation to share art. "We're trying to start a dialogue," said Alyssa Brubaker, a senior sculpture major at Tyler and one of the dozen students who made the horses. The students worked on the horses for 30 hours with a few nap breaks. (A picture of one of the horses appears in the print edition of the Chronicle dated April 17.)
April 16, 2009 | Diverse: Issues in Higher Education
In a special issue on law education, Diverse interviewed the five African American women deans of U.S. law schools, including Dean JoAnne Epps of Temple's Beasley School of Law. Epps was asked how Temple's location in Philadelphia informs her role. "Being in Philadelphia…has given me a readily available platform from which to serve as an institutional representative to our diverse and important constituency, our local community," she replied. "Philadelphia is a vibrant, urban center, which clearly helps the law school in that it allows us to benefit from the proximity of lawyers and judges who are working on cutting-edge legal issues." (Temple Law Professor Phoebe Haddon, who recently was named dean of the University of Maryland School of Law, also was interviewed.)
April 16, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
The Pew Heritage Philadelphia Program has awarded roughly $1 million to seven area cultural organizations. As part of one of the grants, awarded to Germantown Preserved, students from Temple University and Germantown High School will participate in training programs covering a range of activities at Germantown historic sites. The project will offer new and important models for historic interpretation and respond to community needs.
April 15, 2009 | The Intelligencer (Bucks and Montgomery cos.)
Residents came out in droves to discuss the fate of the Washington Crossing Visitors Center. Delayed renovations to a leaky roof and budgetary problems have spurred the museum commission to reach out to the public in the hopes of creating a nonprofit group to help raise funds with the long-term future of the park in mind. Gregory Irwin, a military history professor at Temple, spoke about the condition of the center. "Whatever happens to this building, we need to find a better way to tell this story [of the crossing]," he said. "We need to set a goal and get going."
April 15, 2009 | National Public Radio
In a salute to National Poetry Month on NPR’s "Tell Me More," award-winning poet and Temple professor Sonia Sanchez read "10 Haikus for Max Roach," which she penned to mark the occasion of the passing of her good friend jazz drummer Max Roach. The poems are part of an upcoming book by Sanchez, titled Morning Haiku.
April 15, 2009 | The Guardian
Listening to soothing music may ease anxiety in people with heart disease, and also lower their blood pressure and heart rate, according to a new review of studies by researchers at Temple’s Arts and Quality of Life Research Center. The researchers found that people who listened to music were less anxious than those who did not. The effect was strongest among those who'd recently had a heart attack, with their anxiety dropping to low levels after listening to music.
April 15, 2009 | KYW News Radio
When word surfaced of the collapse of prestigious law firms like Wolf Block, some feared that would mean that new law school graduates would be left in a lurch. But according to Melissa Lennon, assistant dean for career planning at Temple’s Beasley School of Law, most new grads will start out at smaller firms. "Most small to mid-sized firms across the country have always been more inclined to hire that entry-level attorney after that person finds out whether they
have been admitted to the bar."
April 15, 2009 | WHYY-FM
To raise revenues, many states let drivers buy specialty plates that recognize everything from military units and colleges to sports teams and nonprofit groups. But, that raises unresolved questions about whether license plates — or even portions of them — convey government or private speech. David Kairys, a constitutional law professor at Temple’s Beasley School of Law, discussed free speech issues with regard to a case recently argued before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court in Philadelphia.
April 15, 2009 | KYW News Radio, HealthDay, Philadelphia Weekly
According to a new report from Temple University, the use of music can reduce stress in coronary heart disease patients undergoing tests. "So we do know from clinical experience that if people select music they like, and the music has sedative qualities such as slow tempo, predictable harmonies and absence of sudden changes, they will be better able to relax to the music," said researcher Joke Bradt, assistant director of the Arts and Quality of Life Research Center at Temple.
April 15, 2009 | 6ABC
Temple University student Drew Magathan won't have any trouble paying bills in the near future. That's because the Junior psychology major won over $100,000 on the popular television game show “Wheel of Fortune.” To celebrate, he hosted a “Wheel Watch” party in Philadelphia for his friends. Magathan plans to spend his winnings on graduate school, a new laptop and lots of DVDs.
April 14, 2009 | AARP Bulletin
Researchers at Temple University have found that a drug commonly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) appears to increase the effectiveness of speech and language therapy for patients with aphasia, a disorder resulting from damage to areas of the brain that understand and process language. “The medication may promote the development of new neural networks that can help the patient regain speech and language ability,” said Gerry Stefanatos, associate professor in the department of communication sciences and disorders.
April 14, 2009 | U.S. News
US News & World Reports’ Planning to Retire blog noted that the recession is a primary factor contributing to a decrease in retirement confidence among Americans, according to a recent survey. “There was so much unwarranted optimism going into this that people have a much more realistic outlook now,” said Jack VanDerhei, a faculty member at Temple's Fox School of Business and research director of the Employee Benefits Research Institute, which sponsored the survey.
April 14, 2009 | Wall Street Journal, Associated Press
A long-running survey about Americans' plans for their later years shows that confidence about retirement security has deteriorated to record lows. The results don’t surprise Jack VanDerhei, a faculty member at Temple's Fox School of Business and research director of the Employee Benefits Research Institute, which conducted this year's poll. "But the good news is, I really do think this will be a wakeup call for many people who had false optimism in the past," said VanDerhei.
April 13, 2009 | NBC33 (Baton Rouge, La.)
A new study shows music could help people suffering from heart disease. Scientists found that listening to some types of music could reduce stress levels in heart patients. Researchers at Temple's Arts and Quality of Life Research Center looked at more than 1,400 patients. Doctors found that listening to certain types of music helped lower blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety in these patients.
April 13, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Associated Press
Abraham Lincoln was watching a play 144 years ago in Washington when John Wilkes Booth shot him. Lincoln died the next morning, and now his blood and brain matter — on part of a pillowcase at a Philadelphia museum — are being sought for DNA testing that may definitely solve a medical mystery: Did he have cancer? "[The pillowcase] is the Shroud of Turin of Civil War history," said Anthony Waskie, an assistant professor of language and history at Temple. "We are guardians in trusteeship of this extraordinarily important artifact.
April 12, 2009 | New York Times
A Sunday Magazine story explored the world of SeekingArrangement.com, a site that links up "sugar daddies" with young women. Most people would be appalled to learn that a daughter — or father — was using such a site. Beth Bailey, a Temple historian of courtship, said that her first reaction to the site was "revulsion." But when reconsidered within the historical context of heterosexual relationships, which have long involved economic transactions, Seeking Arrangement "is a piece of contemporary society," Bailey said. "It's simply more explicit and transparent about the bargains struck in the traditional model of dating."
April 12, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
Inquirer columnist Michael Smerconish made a case for withholding the names of mass murderers. The goal would be to diminish the appeal of violence to some prospective killers — to rob them of "their signature, their ownership of the crime," as Temple psychologist Frank Farley put it. "Before our media-saturated age, you could commit some heinous crime, but the larger world would know little of it. So the extent of your impact would be small," Farley said. Today, "a global platform is provided."
April 12, 2009 | Canwest News Service
In 1,000 pages of e-mails sent to Environment Canada, Canadians gave the weather bureau a collective thumbs down. The volume of the feedback speaks to our passion for weather. Temple psychologist Frank Farley said that's because people are personally affected by weather. "Years ago, our lives were heavily influenced by the weather — now we have built our lives to stop the weather from controlling our lives,'' he said. "For example, we now have umbrellas, snow moving equipment, de-icing on airplanes, predicting weather change and other things."
April 11, 2009 | Philadelphia Daily News
Before Temple's Tyler School of Art moved from Elkins Park to Main Campus, officials knew they would have to get the word out about its new gallery space at 12th and Norris streets. To that end, they started researching the art scene in North Philadelphia and discovered more than 20 long-established arts organizations. "There were all these hidden treasures, and we didn't think a lot of people knew about them," said Shayna V. McConville, exhibitions coordinator for Tyler. Tyler reached out to the groups, sparking the creation of the North Philadelphia Arts and Cultural Alliance. It will present "Treasures of North Philadelphia Open House" on April 25.
April 11, 2009 | Inter Asian News Service
Recent studies suggest that music eases severe stress and anxiety in patients who are undergoing treatment for coronary heart disease. Researchers at Temple's Arts and Quality of Life Research Center found that listening to music could decrease blood pressure, heart rate and levels of anxiety in heart patients. "Our findings suggest listening to music may be beneficial for heart disease patients," said Joke Bradt.
April 11, 2009 | Asian News International
A simple colour-changing oral strip can help detect gum disease in a patient more quickly and easily than traditional screening methods, according to researchers at Temple's Kornberg School of Dentistry. "The strip changes from white to yellow depending on levels of microbial sulfur compounds found in the saliva," said team leader Ahmed Khocht, associate professor of periodontology. "A higher concentration of these compounds means a more serious case of gum disease, and shows up a darker shade of yellow."
April 8, 2009 | Woman's Day
In a round-up of health tips, one Temple doctor advises readers to forget the long lines at the pharmacy and order meds by mail. "This is a great timesaver for medications (and contact lenses too), but make sure you still visit your doctor yearly so she can reassess what you’re taking," said Paul Lyons, professor of family and community medicine at Temple's School of Medicine. Many online pharmacies and insurance companies also have programs in which you can get a discount when you order three months' worth of a medicine you take regularly.
April 10, 2009 | American Public Media's "Marketplace"
Renita Jablonski of "Marketplace" interviewed Professor Jeff Kingston of Temple University, Japan Campus, about Japan's new economic stimulus package, which calls for $150 billion in government spending. "What they're trying to do is stimulate consumption and…put money in the pockets of people who are losing their jobs, giving them housing subsidies, training subsidies," Kingston said. "All these things are temporary measures which are meant to jolt the economy back into life, because really it's very dire here."
April 10, 2009 | Voice of America
Although Japan will renew economic sanctions on North Korea following Pyongyang's rocket launch, analysts say these measures apply very little pressure. "North Korea wasn't getting much from Japan, a lot of the support that the North Koreans were getting from pro-North Korean residents in Japan had melted down earlier, so it's fairly minor, if not insignificant," said Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies at Temple University, Japan Campus.
April 9, 2009 | Philadelphia Tribune
Setting her sights on making history, Kylie Patterson, a junior political science and African American studies student at Temple, was recently awarded a prestigious $30,000 Truman Scholarship. "I was really excited when I heard I got it," Patterson said. "It's a difficult process. I had to complete 10 essays and develop a policy. I think combined I put in about 152 hours of work." Patterson, who was just elected Temple Student Government President, plans to use the scholarship in her quest to become the first African American female U.S. senator for the state of Pennsylvania. "She has a lot of experience from Temple and from working with the state representative’s office and the mayor's office," said current TSG President Nadine Mompremier.
April 9, 2009 | Newark Star-Ledger
In advance of a New York performance on April 14, the Star-Ledger profiled Boyer College of Music and Dance faculty member and jazz trombonist Luis Bonilla, who in a 20-year career has played with the Vanguard Orchestra, McCoy Tyner's big band, the Gerald Wilson Orchestra, Arturo O'Farrill's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and more. Bonilla has had great teachers, and he's glad now to be one at Boyer. "I get to see the growth, the interest, dedication, the results of hard work," he says. "That constantly pushes me to continue growing as well." Bonilla will be performing with pianist and fellow faculty member Bill Cunliffe.
April 9, 2009 | Minneapolis StarTribune
Now waistlines are widening even among children who are barely out of diapers. An editorial highlights a study co-authored by Robert Whitaker of Temple's Center for Obesity Research and Education. Whitaker and his colleagues analyzed 8,550 preschoolers born in 2001. The survey found that about 20 percent were obese, and there were disturbing disparities by race. American Indian children had the highest obesity rates at 31 percent, followed by 22 percent of Hispanics, 21 percent of African Americans, 16 percent of whites and 13 percent of Asians.
April 8, 2009 | Associated Press
Temple Beth'El's packed sanctuary overflowed into the aisles, with members dancing, clapping and singing as they welcomed their first Torah from Israel. For this congregation, it signified a tentative step toward the mainstream of American Jewish life. Temple Beth'El is a predominantly African American synagogue formed more than 50 years at a time when many blacks were rejecting Christianity as a slave religion. said Lewis Gordon, professor of philosophy and director of Temple's Center for Afro-Jewish studies. "These are people who are proud of being African American and are absolutely proud of being Jews."
April 8, 2009 | Bloomberg TV
North Korea launched a missile last week in the face of international calls for restraint and warned it will take "strong steps" if the United Nations Security Council censures the communist state over the launch. Regarding how China might respond, Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies at Temple University, Japan Campus, said that as much as the Chinese government is displeased with what the North Koreans have done, severe sanctions could lead to the demise of North Korea which is something they don’t want, so they feel there are few options.
April 7, 2009 | The Telegraph (U.K.)
Japan will restructure its welfare system after a surge in unemployment and homelessness — a departure for a nation in which companies offered life-time job security to generations of salarymen. "There has been an on-going erosion of the paternalistic work structure Japan championed in the post-war era," said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University, Japan Campus. "Now, there is an unraveling of that structure and over the past six months, the situation has obviously got a lot worse."
April 6-7, 2009 | Time, Reuters, CBC News (Canada), more
Parents whose children can’t wait to play with a toy or eat a snack need not worry about their little one’s self-control. Though two studies show low self-control might predict which kids will be overweight as pre-teens, that same quality shouldn’t be viewed as a negative. So says researcher Robert C. Whitaker, professor of public health and pediatrics at the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University. "Labeling low self-regulation as a problem might work against pediatricians' efforts to help parents embrace their child's assets and view their child's limitations as possible strengths," writes Whitaker.
April 6, 2009 | Bloomberg, HealthDay, more
New studies suggests that children who can't delay snacks or fun are more likely to be overweight as preteens. Self-regulation is a skill that applies widely, said Robert Whitaker of Temple's Center for Obesity Research and Education, the co-author of one of the studies. In addition to helping kids maintain a healthy weight, self-regulation may also enable better performance in school and positive social interactions. "Helping children regulate their behavior is completely integrated into the parenting process,” said Whitaker, a professor of public health. "It translates into things like being better at listening to others when they're talking."
April 6, 2009 | USA Today, WHYY-FM, NBC10, Fox29, more
A nationwide organization working to exonerate hundreds of wrongfully convicted inmates has a new affiliate. The Pennsylvania Innocence Project has opened at Temple's Beasley School of Law, where it will review petitions submitted from around the state by inmates who contend they're serving time for crimes that they did not commit. The group will start with about a dozen Temple Law students and a similar number of attorneys. Organizers say it will look not only in cases with DNA evidence, but also those with questionable forensic evidence or other issues.
April 6, 2009 | Associated Press, Legal Intelligencer
A nationwide organization that has worked to exonerate hundreds of wrongfully convicted inmates has a new affiliate housed at Temple. The Pennsylvania Innocence Project, based at Temple's Beasley School of Law, opens doors today. It will review petitions submitted from around the state by inmates who say they are serving time for crimes they did not commit. "Even before our doors are open…we're getting letters every week from inmates," said Executive Diector Richard Glazer, a Temple Law alumnus. Legal Director Marissa Bluestine (also a Temple Law graduate) will run a law school clinic at Temple and teach a course to 10 to 12 Temple students.
April 6, 2009 | Associated Press
A striking new study by Robert Whitaker of Temple's Center for Obesity Research and Education and colleagues at other universities suggests almost one in five American 4-year-olds is obese, and the rate is alarmingly higher among American Indian children, with nearly a third of them obese. Overall, more than half a million 4-year-olds are obese, the study suggests. Obesity is more common in Hispanic and black youngsters, too, but the disparity is most startling in American Indians, whose rate is almost double that of whites.
April 6, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
"Concerto in Light and Shadow," a piece composed by Richard C. Brodhead, a professor of composition at Temple's Boyer College of Music and Dance, premiered at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts — an appropriate setting for music that was inspired by art. "Brodhead never forgets the emotion," wrote Inquirer music critic Peter Dobrin. "The oboe's iteration of a recurring theme was especially moving. An alto flute was as menacing as the feeling on the back of your neck when you're alone in a room and start to think someone has been standing behind you."
April 5, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
The Inquirer's Tirdad Derakhshani profiled Temple English professor, social critic and acclaimed science fiction writer Samuel R. Delaney. "Delany is a genius, a living legend," declared a curator at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. Delaney's colleague in English Department, Josh Lukin, says that Delany's later books deftly apply the dense theories of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Michel Althusser and other postmodern philosophers to real-life situations. "I just write books that I want to read," Delaney said. "Eventually, there were other books [other than sci-fi] I wanted to read, and I was fortunate enough to be able to publish those. It's absolute dumb luck."
April 5, 2009 | WRTI-FM
WRTI's "Creatively Speaking" reported on the Tyler School of Art's move into a new, state-of-the-art facility on Temple's Main Campus. "Each one of us is extremely excited to take part in this new venture," said Jon Clark, professor of glass. Others interviewed include Tyler Interim Dean Therese Dolan, Associate Dean Brigitte Knowles, faculty member Nicholas Kripal and sculpture student Jessica Perlitz. The new building will offer opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration as well as expanded gallery space where art work by students, professional artists and the winners of the new Wolgin Prize will be displayed.
April 5, 2009 | Las Vegas Sun
The rate of suicides in the Las Vegas area (Nevada's Clark County) jumped by 10 percent from 2007 to 2008, a rise that experts attribute in part to the recession. Temple sociologist Matt Wray, who has studied suicide rates in Las Vegas, said the high rate raises broader concerns for the community, including the copycat effect. "A runaway suicide rate can have a chain reaction effect in the long term," Wray said. Many suicides are preventable if people can be connected with the right resources, he added.
April 5, 2009 | Agence France Presse
North Korea's rocket launch confronts U.S. President Barack Obama with his first major foreign crisis, with domestic opponents warning they will watch for any sign of weakness. Obama condemned the launch as a provocation and pledged to take North Korea to the U.N. Security Council. Robert Dujarric of Temple University, Japan Campus, doubted the U.S. would want to press China hard on North Korea as it tries to work with Beijing on the global economic crisis. "On a scale of one to 10, the economic meltdown is a level 9 threat and North Korea level 1," Dujarric said.
April 3, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
Visitors to this year's Philadelphia Flower Show were treated to a low-tech green wall designed by five Temple University Ambler students. They built a wooden frame with 2x4s, screwed four-inch potted plants to the frame, rigged up an irrigation hose and small drip tray, and misted the plants as they dried out during the weeklong, Italian-themed show. Whether called green or living walls, biowalls, indoor-air or botanical biofilters, they can improve air quality, add an edgy design element, and function as an unorthodox food or flower garden.
April 3, 2009 | Associated Press
Nearly 50 fires have been set in Coatesville, Pa., since February 2008, damaging dozens of homes. Even with several suspects arrested, scores of the fires remain unsolved. This rash of arson has experts horrified and intrigued. Temple psychologist Frank Farley says the Coatesville arsons will be studied for years to come. "Coatesville will become like the poster child for this crime going forward," he said.
April 3, 2009 | CNBC.com
In an op-ed on the subject of credit availability in the current "crisis" for small and medium enterprises, William Dunkelberg, an economics professor at Temple, wrote that one major problem is the absence of bank competition in most countries. Credit flows are managed by just a few large banks, and these banks were all impacted by the global financial crisis due to decisions made about the composition of their investments.
April 2, 2008 | Philadelphia Daily News
Hundreds of Americans, many of whom have spent decades behind bars, have been exonerated by post-conviction DNA evidence. Their cases prompted the need for the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization based at Temple's Beasley School of Law. The project will investigate applications from statewide inmates in which there is a claim of factual innocence. As part of the project's goals, Legal Director Marissa Boyers Bluestine will also teach a clinical class at Temple Law starting in the fall. Temple students will receive an intensive introduction to post-conviction legal and investigative work. They will also work on some of the project's cases.
April 2, 2008 | CNN
As President Obama discusses the economic crisis at the G-20 summit, Japan's experience wrestling with similar issues could offer recovery lessons for the United States. Japan's financial troubles in the 1990s had their roots in the 1980s, when real estate prices skyrocketed. Japanese banks that had given out loans during the boom found themselves in trouble. "In both cases, it was a huge asset bubble in real estate and stocks, which was caused by easy credit and excessive liquidity, added to bankers' arrogance, reckless lending and lax oversight," said Jeff Kingston, a professor at Temple University, Japan Campus.
April 1, 2008 | ABC's "World News"
Japan has promoted solar panels so effectively that power companies now buy excess electricity from some consumers, report's ABC's Mark Litke. Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University, Japan Campus, says that conservation has become a state of mind. "It's normal here," he said. "It's part of how you should be, how you should live." And Japanese companies ignore that at their peril. Appliances in Japan now have prominent stickers with fuel efficiency ratings. A two-star rating may cost a little less, but it's the five stars that most Japanese want.
April 1, 2009 | Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, many more
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the government can weigh costs against benefits in deciding whether to order power plants to undertake environmental upgrades that would protect fish. Among the problems environmental groups have with cost-benefit calculations is the difficulty of valuing the benefits. "Trying to put a dollar figure on fish and aquatic systems gets very difficult and contentious," said Amy Sinden, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law who wrote a brief in the case on the side of the environmental groups. "It is inevitably understated," she said in a widely distributed Associated Press report.
April 1, 2009 | Associated Press, Washington Post, Variety, many more
Temple trustee Bill Cosby will be awarded the nation's top humor prize from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for his groundbreaking career. The center announced that Cosby will be honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Some of the biggest names in comedy will salute Cosby on stage in Washington on Oct. 26. Cosby said in a statement accepting the award that his mother read Twain's famous stories to him as a child. "I would like to apologize to Mr. Twain for falling asleep hundreds of times, but he should understand that I was only four," Cosby said.
April 1, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
As the recession deepens, many home owners are seeking paying guests to help share their space and expenses. In other words, the crumbling economy may be loosening one of the pillars of American life — the luxury of privacy. "We like our privacy," says Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple. "Lots of people don't even like living in a duplex….So relinquishing the single-family-home concept in an economic downturn is going to be tough for a lot of families to assume."
April 1, 2009 | Chemical and Engineering News
New findings about a peptide produced in the brain might lead to a novel pathway for treating drug addiction. Temple School of Pharmacy faculty member Sara J. Ward, an expert on the impact of opioids, cannabinoids, and other drugs who did not participate in the study, says the results are significant because "successful pharmacotherapies for cocaine addiction and dependence remain lacking despite years of vigorous research." She adds that previous experimental approaches had undesirable side effects because they targeted biological pathways that were central to other behaviors beyond addiction.
April 1, 2009 | News Journal (Wilmington, Del.)
The Delaware Attorney General's Office's has refused to disclose the employment status of one of its prosecutors. The agency declined to comment when asked if a deputy attorney general is employed there even though it provided that information in December when he was charged with breaking into a home. Edward Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, called the refusal "bizarre," saying it would only create more speculation. "I'm not suggesting that there's any cover-up…But in situations where there have been cover-ups, the perception is that the cover-up is worse than the act."
March In the Media ...
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