June/July 2009 | World Archaeology Magazine
(There is no link to this story.)
A team of researchers from Temple and the Smithsonian Institution has pinned down the earliest evidence so far for the domestication of corn. Temple anthropologist Anthony Ranere and the Smithsonian's Dolores Piperno found domesticated corn starch that was carbon dated to 8,700 years ago. Ranere said that the team's findings added to the growing body of evidence that seasonally dry tropical forests were important centers of early human settlement, rather than arid highlands, as many researchers once held.
June 2009 | University Business
It's great to have a new computer, but what happens to the old one? You can't just throw it away. PCs contain a slew of toxic materials that pollute landfills. Temple's computer Recycling Center brings old computers back to life while saving the environment. "We had a university policy that people had to call our facilities department to have anything removed,” says Tim O'Rourke, CIO and VP of computer and financial services. "The facilities department would charge $50 to $75 to send someone out to do the job, so that was a disincentive. People thought it was cheaper to just go down to the trash bin to throw out an old computer." So Temple initiated a policy that anyone who bought a computer through the university also paid a $50 recycling fee at the time of purchase. "That money went into a fund that enabled us to hire two full-time employees. Now when someone is done with a computer they call our recycling department and these guys get the computer," O'Rourke explained.
June 2009 | WHYY
Temple students Emily Daubert and John Gilmour discussed the lyrics of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" as set to the music of American classical composer John Corigliano in a "Creative Campus" segment. Daubert and Gilmour participated in one of Temple historian Ralph Young's "Dissent in America" classes. (Check out also the "Creative Campus" segments on Boyer College of Music and Dance faculty members Charles Abramovic, John Douglas, Steven Kreinberg, Joyce Lindorff and William Stone, all of which were posted earlier this year.)
June 30, 2009 | WHYY-FM
Regardless of personal motivation and against popular belief, it’s hard to get a kitchen job if you’ve got a criminal record. “Should there be a corporate mandate of a drug screening or that a person could not be convicted of a felony, it would limit a hotel or restaurant chain to make a hire, but an independent owner would have the prerogative to make a decision to give back to the community, or just to provide a person with an opportunity,” said Greg DeShields of the Temple University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management.
June 29, 2009 | Philadelphia Tribune
Based on their percentage of the population, African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans are underrepresented in health professions. Under the direction of Raul DeLa Cadena, Temple’s School of Medicine has launched the Short Term Education Program for Undergraduate and Predoctoral students (STEP UP) to increase the number of minorities involved in medical research. Participants pair with a mentor and receive hands-on experience. “I believe that these young individuals, if they are given the wings to learn how to play with the tools in science, its likely they’re going to end up applying them to a particular disease that affects their own group,” said DeLa Cadena, assistant dean of the school’s Recruitment, Admissions and Retention Program.
June 29, 2009 | MSNBC
There may be other contributing causes to the death of 50-year-old Michael Jackson due to cardiac arrest, but experts agree that rigorous exercise for middle-aged people may not be healthy. “If you have underlying coronary disease and you suddenly start to exercise, you can have problems,” said Alfred Bove, chief of cardiology at Temple University’s School of Medicine.
June 29, 2009 | Los Angeles Times, Newsday, more
This term, U.S. Supreme Court justices reversed, at least partially, 94 percent of the West's powerful U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' rulings. Part of the reason, experts say, is the court is perceived as liberal and partial to the underdog. But experts argue that one shouldn't read too much into the reversal rate. "Because the circuit is large, it produces a lot of cutting-edge law, due to industries concentrated in the circuit and the large variation of underlying states and state criminal laws," said David Hoffman, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law.
June 28, 2009 | Wall Street Journal, Business Week, CNBC, Forbes, MSN Money, more
The leaders of South Korea and Japan pledged Sunday to work together to bring North Korea back to the table for negotiations aimed at persuading the isolated regime to abandon its nuclear-weapons program. Robert Dujarric of Temple University, Japan Campus, said that closer economic ties between the north Asian powers, especially given the current economic downturn, make sense, especially for Seoul. "South Korea built its economy on the Japanese model, so it faces exactly the same challenges," he said in an AP wire story.
June 28, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
Some towns in New Jersey are feeling the strain of job loss more intensely than others. So far, Marlton has been spared the worst. "Unemployment is nearly invisible in Marlton," said David Elesh, a sociologist at Temple. "But these things can worsen." The Marlton area is as diverse as it is large, making it hard to gauge. It encompasses what Temple urban studies professor David Bartelt calls a "crazy mix" of McMansions on golf courses, a quaint downtown, suburban sprawl and a large forested area.
June 28, 2009 | Press of Atlantic City
Atlantic City, despite the haute aspirations of some, has been and always will be a city that caters to the average American. "It's not about challenging its audience," says Temple historian Bryant Simon. "It's about giving 'em what they want." And for most of its history, Atlantic City has happily obliged the masses who first visited the resort as a vacation hot spot. "It's a place of popular culture, not high-brow culture," Simon says. "It's a mass resort. It sells people something they know they want, and it's always been that way."
June 28, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
A collection of essays, Against the Wall: Poor, Young, Black and Male, explores the most misunderstood population in America: young African-American men. An essay by David Kairys, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, addresses the question: "Why Are Handguns so Accessible on Urban Streets?" He notes that "large cities facing declining job opportunities, losses in population and tax revenues and rising levels of deprivation are being forced to accommodate virtually unregulated handgun markets."
June 27, 2009 | Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant, many more
Yet another politician has fallen from the love nest and landed with a splat. What the heck are they thinking when they cheat on their spouses? Temple psychologist Frank Farley has coined a term -- the "Type T personality" -- to describe politicians' predilection for philandering. The "T" stands for thrill-seeker, which describes the kind of person drawn to a career that, by its nature, requires a willingness to take risks. "It's not a 9-to-5 job," said Farley. "It has very high levels of uncertainty, variety, novelty, challenge, unpredictability -- and therefore it attracts a certain kind of person."
June 27, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
The Web was everywhere in the story of Michael Jackson's passing. The weekend's events brought front and center how the Web has transformed the way people get information and act on it. TMZ played a major role in breaking the Jackson story. Susan Jacobson, an assistant professor of journalism at Temple, said TMZ users were right to trust the site. "TMZ is kind of like a trade magazine," Jacobson says, "so it's not surprising they scooped the others. They're in there working constantly with publicists, artists, and contacts in hospitals and the police department."
June 27, 2009 | Technically Philly
In a Q&A, Temple Associate Professor Longin Jan Latecki of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences described Temple's Summer Undergraduate Research Program. SURP, which includes faculty from the College of Science and Technology, the College of Engineering and the School of Medicine, aims to bolster the research chops of Temple undergraduates. More than 270 students applied for 40 available positions. SURP's purpose is to give undergrads "a better understanding of challenging problems" in science, said Latecki.
June 26, 2009 | WHYY-FM
(There is no link to this report.)
While many places across Philadelphia offered free HIV testing on HIV Testing Day, Temple University got a head start, offering free testing and information the day before. The event offered some participants the chance to get tested for the very first time. Faculty members in Temple’s School of Medicine say that if more people were aware of their HIV status, infection rates would slow.
June 26, 2009 | CNN/Money
With both a deep recession and widespread law-enforcement funding cuts, this summer may mark a banner year for burglars. If your house makes a good target -- it's upscale, off the beaten path, and in or near a city -- an alarm system is your best defense, according to Temple economics professor Simon Hakim, who studies security and policing.
June 26, 2009 | Philadelphia Business Journal
There were no major changes in CEO salary, bonus or deferred compensation, but the average value of perquisites and miscellaneous payments fell from $272,000 to $150,000. Steven Balsam, an accounting professor at Temple's Fox School of Business, who has written a book on executive compensation, said companies offer executives stock options for two reasons — to motivate executives to increase the stock price and in order to retain those executives.
June 26, 2009 | Reuters
Some say Japan's long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party just might be desperate enough to take up an offer from an ex-comedian to take over as leader. "Everyone is predicting that they are going to get pasted at the polls, so the LDP may be in a high-risk mode," said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University, Japan Campus. "What do they have to lose?"
June 25, 2009 | ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson," NBC10
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is the latest elected official to confess to an extramarital affair. It's an admission that can doom a political career. So why do politicians tempt fate and cheat on their spouses? Why do they think they can get away with it? "They have a set of traits that is sort of what drives them into politics: risk-taking, ability to handle uncertainty, being turned on by the adulation of the public," Temple psychologist Frank Farley told ABC's "World News." Sometimes, Farley argues, that willingness to take risks can create problems.
June 25, 2009 | Parenting
Parents of young children inevitably have to make some executive decisions regarding which battles to engage in and which to concede. "You want to be a positive force in the way your children look at life, so work out a deal whenever possible," says Paul Fink, a professor of psychiatry at Temple's School of Medicine. "If you don't, a smart kid will look for a way around you, which will likely involve secrecy or lies. Besides, choosing not to engage in every little skirmish means fewer arguments, plain and simple."
June 25, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
In an opinion piece, co-authors Marissa Bluestine and David Rudovsky responded to a recent Supreme Court ruling which found that each state can decide when and under what circumstances a convicted defendant may have access to DNA evidence. "But the ruling by Roberts and four other Supreme Court justices ultimately showed little regard for DNA's power to undo injustice," they wrote. Bluestine is legal director of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, which was launched this year at Temple's Beasley School of Law. Rudovsky is vice president of its board.
June 24, 2009 | Reuters
The popularly-held belief that Starbucks kills mom-and-pop shops is a fallacy, says Temple history professor Bryant Simon. "In fact, Starbucks created the market for the small coffee shop," Bryant said in Reuter's "Entrepreneurial" blog. Simon, whose book Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks is due out in October, argues that 20 years ago you couldn’t find a "good" cup of coffee anywhere, until Starbucks came along and "created a desire and a taste for specialty coffee" that eventually gave birth to the corner specialty coffee shop.
June 24, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer, Charlotte Observer, Fresno Bee, The State (S.C.), Bradenton Herald (Fla.), Centre Daily Times, Idaho Statesman, many more
Reality show parents Jon and Kate have pulled the plug on their marriage, and the show's producers have shelved the show until August. The couple will have the summer to regroup, but experts say when the cameras start rolling again, the problems that derailed the couple and the show may reappear. "When you're that public, it's tough to get those private moments to figure out what you want to do," said psychiatrist David Baron of Temple's School of Medicine. "This artificial stress clearly created a situation that might have made things that were going bad even worse. It magnifies everything."
June 23, 2009 | Ivanhoe (Nationally syndicated TV)
"Listening to the heart is still one of the basic skills of the art of medicine when we see patients," said Alfred Bove, emeritus professor of medicine at the School of Medicine. In the past year, heart sounds have been among the top downloads by docs, interns and residents. And a recent study conducted at Temple found physicians who listened to five heart sounds at least 400 times on their iPods were 80 percent accurate in identifying those heart sounds. That's an increase of 40 percent.
June 22, 2009 | CNBC.com
As a CNBC guest blogger, economics professor William Dunkelberg explains that regulatory failure was perhaps as much a fault of the individuals involved as were deficiencies in the institutional structure. “They had the powers to do much more than they did but had the wrong perspective and experience. Look at the previous occupations of so many of the regulators! The "mindset" of many of these regulators blinds them to many risks, they have big wheeling dealing backgrounds, much skill in using their asymmetric information to make money in a competitive market. They only think "Wall Street" and ignore the 8000 smaller banks that serve America's consumers and small businesses on Main Street.”
June 22, 2009 | Philadelphia Tribune
Linn Washington, a columnist and journalism professor at Temple writes, “Too many know too little about the lives and legacies of Black families dating from before the formal founding of the United States like the Black Philadelphia families who fed and supported the Revolutionary War soldiers during their bleakest moments.” A program last Friday afternoon at Temple’s Charles L. Blockson Collection — “Juneteenth Celebration — Exploring Family Roots” — shattered this myth of non-legacy among Black families.
June 22, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
Recently, the Philadelphia VA hospital suspended a "brachytherapy" treatment program for prostate cancer and began examining whether more than 100 veterans had received inadequate radiation doses. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which oversees such radiation therapy, is investigating. Temple University nuclear physician Leon Malmud, an NRC advisory panel chair, pressed investigators to answer a fundamental question: "How do we assure the public that this will not happen again?"
June 22, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
The dropout crisis challenging our schools and communities is on the priority lists of policymakers, educators, and business leaders. It would be ideal if school systems could provide intensive, one-on-one tutoring support for children who are below grade level to ensure that each has the chance to graduate. But that's an expensive proposition. Or at least it used to be. “We now have an opportunity to provide that ideal kind of instruction at a very low cost. It's called the aging boom,” said Robert Tietze, executive director of Experience Corps at Temple, who believes baby boomers would make excellent tutors for students in need.
June 22, 2009 | Publisher’s Weekly, Chronicle of Higher Education
Collaboration and cooperation were the bywords at this year’s annual meeting of the Association of American University Presses in Philadelphia, while a call for radical change of a “broken” business model came from the AAUP’s outgoing president, Alex Holzman, director of Temple University Press, who urged presses to embrace a comprehensive e-book publishing program. “Don’t try to fix the old system. Let’s invent a new one”—an e-book based model, backed up by print-on-demand. Holzman said the benefits—such as eliminating returns and used-book sales—could outweigh whatever costs and challenges the transition might present.”
June 21, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Business Journal
Temple’s Board of Trustees has elected the vice chair of a major Philadelphia law firm as its next chairman. Patrick J. O'Connor, also a former president and chief executive officer of Cozen O'Connor, will replace Daniel Polett, who has been at the helm for almost three years. O'Connor's term overseeing the 36-member board will start July 1. In 1971, O'Connor became the youngest trustee in Temple's history. He left in 1984 and returned in 2001 when the speaker of the Pennsylvania House appointed him. “Everyone deserves the opportunity to have a good education so that they can follow their own dreams and achieve their own goals,” O’Connor said. “At Temple, it’s always been the case that whoever you are, you have an opportunity to come here and get a degree.”
June 20, 2009 | Broadcasting & Cable
Stations involved in content pools may save money. But they could also jeopardize ratings and revenue. In the six months since NBC and Fox officially launched the first content-sharing Local News Service (LNS) in Philadelphia, new station alliances have been popping up seemingly every week. Viewers probably don't notice anything different about local newscasts after a share has launched. After watching both the Fox and NBC news programs in Philadelphia, Francesca Viola, assistant professor of journalism at Temple, says that “where they are sharing video is not immediately apparent to me.”
June 20, 2009 | Philadelphia Tribune
As the city’s third African-American mayor, Michael Nutter might reasonably have expected the support of a majority of Philadelphia’s Black residents, but that has not turned out to be the case. The reasons are complicated — tied to the economy, traditional African-American struggles and the mayor’s style. “It’s hard to sort out purely local matters now from what’s happening in the economy and in the political system as a whole,” said Thaddeus Mathis, professor emeritus of the School of Social Administration at Temple University. “You’ve got to put it all in the context of this national economy and all of those reverberations. This is not a usual circumstance."
June 18, 2009 | CNN
With top consultancy firms charging thousands of dollars for a day's work, employing their services is a luxury most companies simply can't afford. But some business schools offer student consultancies for a fraction of the price. At Temple's Fox School of Business, MBA students participate in the Enterprise Management Consultant practice. Although the EMC's services are a bargain, Managing Director T.L. Hill says the fee is even less for non-profits and smaller companies. For example, an EMC student team working with Philadelphia's Mural Arts program helped the organization think about ways of using copyrighted images to generate extra revenue, including selling prints and T-shirts featuring their artwork.
June 17, 2009 | Fox29
New social media are helping to spread information about protests in Iran. One person who has used these new tools to monitor the situation in Iran is Iranian-born Temple graduate student Aghigh Ebrahimi Bazaz, who goes to Temple's TECH Center daily for online updates. "This is how I keep tabs -- pretty much all social media," she said. "Every time that there's a major event, technology is used in some new way." Andrew Mendelson, chair of Temple's Journalism Department, says some forms of digital communication have escaped government crackdowns. "Like water, information will find a crack and get out," he said. "That's the most exciting aspect of this."
June 17, 2009 | MarketWatch
Many Americans approaching retirement lost substantial chunks of money in specialized retirement plans called target-date funds that reallocate investments to reduce risk as the funds' target date draws near. Now federal regulators want some answers as to what went wrong. At a public hearing, officials will hear from experts in what could be a first step toward reform. "There are so many disparate views out there," said Jack VanDerhei of Temple's Fox School of Business. "Giving all points of view a chance to be aired makes some sense. I suspect the consensus is that there needs to be some improvement, tinkering."
June 16, 2009 | KABC-TV (Los Angeles)
Lots of us listen to music while working or exercising. But for some doctors, a playlist may have nothing to do with rock and everything to do with rhythm. Doctors are now listening to heartbeats on their iPods. "Listening to the heart is still one of the basic skills of the art of medicine when we see patients," said cardiologist Alfred Bove, emeritus professor at Temple's School of Medicine.
June 16, 2009 | Asian News International
When Facebook began offering personalized URLs for its users, a Temple media expert suggested that organizations, celebrities and politicians should claim theirs early. "Generally speaking the best defense against cybersquatting and/or potential malicious use of a famous name is to register accounts in your company's name on new social media sites as soon as they emerge," said Journalism Department faculty member Susan Jacobson.
June 15, 2009 | Financial Times
The Fox School of Business's trendsetting Enterprise Management Consulting practice was featured prominently in a story about student consulting practices at U.S. business schools. According to T.L. Hill, EMC's managing director, companies are increasingly interested in partnering with Fox. "In good times we position our program as 'executive extended,' an inexpensive way to increase your capacity. Now we're awkwardly turning people away," he said. As companies cut expenses, they're giving students high-level, high-priority strategic projects. "We're having executives flying in for meetings, they're not calling in. You can feel the concentration of resources." A sidebar story describes how a Fox EMC student team helped an agricultural journal develop an e-commerce model.
June 15, 2009 | WHYY-FM
Heart and kidney risks are well-known dangers of diabetes, a disease that afflicts nearly 8 percent of Americans. Now, a Temple researcher says another danger may lurk while diabetics sleep. Gary Foster, an obesity specialist with Temple’s School of Medicine, and colleagues tested more than 300 patients for sleep apnea. "To our surprise, 86 percent of people who were obese and had type-2 diabetes had sleep apnea and didn’t know it." Undiagnosed means untreated, and Foster says that the big dilemma. When you combine sleep apnea with diabetes, a patient’s risks for cardiovascular problems could shoot up.
June 15, 2009 | National Law Journal
In an op-ed, Professor Jonathan Lipson of Temple's Beasley School of Law urged readers to be cautious about the "surgical" bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM. We haven't "turned the corner" yet, he argues. "This sense of relief may help to explain why the S&P 500 stock market index reached a 2009 high the same day GM declared bankruptcy. We should not, however, pop the champagne just yet. These companies are still extremely fragile. Bankruptcy may save them -- but only if the operations are performed correctly. Plenty can still go disastrously wrong."
June 13-14, 2009 | Press Trust of India
Last week, Facebook debuted usernames for companies, individuals and groups, in order to finally enable everyone to grab an easy-to-remember, easy-to-share URL for profile or page. With Facebook offering vanity URLs for the first time, social media expert Susan Jacobson of Temple's Journalism Department advises organizations as well as celebrities and politicians to claim their URLs early to avoid having to battle later with a cybersquatter. "Generally speaking the best defense against cybersquatting or potential malicious use of a famous name is to register accounts in your company's name on new social media sites as soon as they emerge," she explained in a PTI wire story.
June 12, 2009 | WHYY-FM
The Food and Drug Administration will become the chief regulator for the tobacco industry, under new legislation passed by Congress on Friday, but some but local tobacco control experts say the FDA may not have the resources or muscle to crack down on Big Tobacco. "There are not additional resources for this new Tobacco Control Center to regulate. It's better than nothing but to say that it’s going to reduce tobacco smoking I think that’s very premature at this point," said Jennifer Ibrahim, a tobacco policy researcher at Temple's College of Health Professions.
June 12, 2009 | CBS3
(There is no link to this report.)
The nation's "digital transition" occurs today as all television stations turn off their analog signal and begin broadcasting in digital. Today's transition to digital has many benefits for TV viewers, says Temple's Dennis Silage, professor of electrical and computer engineering. "It gives you many more choices and capabilities to have more viewable material on the screen, because it's a much more efficient mode," said Silage. "Think of it as a pipe. I now have the same size pipe, but I can put a lot more different services down that pipe…for the consumer."
June 12, 2009 | WHYY-FM
Swine flu was first detected in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania about six weeks ago, and since then, regular seasonal flu infections have all but disappeared. But the number of local H1N1 cases has jumped in the past week. Sarah Bass, a public health professor at Temple's College of Health Professions, says the increase is likely because this strain of flu came around late in the season. "It actually is peaking later than the seasonal flu would. Since we didn’t really start to see a peak of swine flu until almost the end of the seasonal flu season is probably why we still are seeing cases now," she said.
June 12, 2009 | Chronicle of Higher Education
Christopher Harper, associate professor and co-director of the Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab in Temple's Department of Journalism, explains in a recent commentary why he doesn't think the SAT is a good test. Last September, a commission created by the National Association for College Admission Counseling recommended that colleges and universities move away from their reliance on the scores of standardized tests. "After taking both tests, I couldn't agree more with the commission's recommendations. I found that the tests emphasized speed and stamina over knowledge, and they failed to provide an adequate measure of what a student might actually understand."
June 12, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
The U.S. Senate easily passed a bill yesterday that would give the FDA unprecedented power over the production and marketing of tobacco products. But many public health experts wonder if the bill goes far enough. For example, one aspect of the bill will ban all cigarette flavorings, except for menthol. Many African American smokers choose menthol cigarettes, which studies have shown intensify inhalation and addiction. "Menthol cigarettes were included in previous versions of the bill," said Jennifer Ibrahim, a tobacco-control researcher in Temple's College of Health Professions. "Banning mentholated cigarettes was not politically feasible because the tobacco companies did not want that."!
June 12, 2009 | Philadelphia Tribune
Beasley School of Law Dean JoAnne Epps, a leading scholar in the areas of trial advocacy and criminal procedure, was honored by her legal peers on Tuesday when she received the Philadelphia Bar Association's Sandra Day O'Connor Award at its quarterly meeting. The Sandra Day O'Connor Award is conferred annually on a female attorney who has demonstrated superior legal talent, achieved significant legal accomplishments and has furthered the advancement of women both professionally and in the community.
June 10, 2009 | New York Times, International Herald Tribune
To the pessimists evidence that the field of diplomatic history is on the decline is everywhere. Bread-and-butter courses like the "Origins of War" and "American Foreign Policy" are dropping from history department postings. "This is not about one field being shoved aside and another taking its place but about the natural evolution of a field," said William I. Hitchcock, a diplomatic historian at Temple. In traditional fields like diplomatic history, nations provide the organizing principle, they are the basic building blocks, he explained. Pressing issues today like terrorism, global warming, infectious diseases, population growth, piracy, intellectual property, by contrast, don’t easily fit into a box with a single country’s name on it.
June 10, 2009 | Pottstown Mercury
Legislation discussed during a state Senate education committee hearing will impact state aid available to every college student in Pennsylvania. In describing Temple's role in the state system of higher education, Kenneth Lawrence, senior vice president of government, community and public affairs, said that about one out of every eight college-educated residents in the Philadelphia area holds a Temple degree. "The university generates billions for the economies of Philadelphia, providing $3.2 billion to the state and generating 33,000 jobs statewide," he testified. "One of the key factors to Temple's affordability is its appropriation from the commonwealth."
June 10, 2009 | Pocono Record
Temple undergraduate Kylie Patterson recently added a coveted national scholarship to her long list of achievements. She was one of 60 students to win a $30,000 Truman Scholarship. The selections were made on the basis of leadership potential, intellectual ability and likelihood of making a difference, according to the Truman Foundation. Patterson expects to put her award toward attaining degrees in law and public policy. "She's impressive and she's fun to be around," said Ruth Ost, director of Temple's Honors Program, who nominated Patterson. "She takes her work terribly seriously instead of herself. Ego is not what drives her."
June 10, 2009 | U.S.News & World Report, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Forbes, MSN Health & Fitness, more
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is expected to vote today on whether several powerful but controversial antipsychotic drugs be approved for use by children. Currently approved for adult use, the drugs are also being prescribed "off-label" by many doctors to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in children despite possible serious side effects. Ronald Brown, dean of Temple's College of Health Professions, testified before the panel. "Serious questions have not been answered regarding the long-term effectiveness and, more importantly, safety of atypical antipsychotics in treating childhood disorders," he said.
June 10, 2009 | KYW News Radio
Philadelphia's City Council approved an outright ban on disposable plastic grocery store bags starting in 2011. Bill Miller, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Temple, says going back to paper bags is a good alternative to plastic because paper bags biodegrade faster. But Miller also calls for the reuse plastic bags, saying stores and supermarkets should take on the responsibility of helping consumers with that option, as well as using cardboard boxes instead of bags.
June 9, 2009 | USA Today
An FDA advisory committee is voting on whether the makers of blockbuster antipsychotic drugs should be allowed to market them to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in young people. After listening to presentations by FDA staffers and drug companies, panel members heard testimony from the public. Almost all of the speakers agreed that more research is needed into the drugs' long-term safety and effectiveness in children and teens. "Serious questions have not been answered," College of Health Professions Dean Ronald Brown, who has chaired an American Psychology Association work group on psychiatric medications for children and adolescents.
June 9, 2009 | WHYY-FM
People use text messages to coordinate meetings and parties. Some people also use them for criminal purposes. In a case stemming from 2007 arrests, a Pennsylvania appeals court has ruled that police need a warrant if they want to intercept texts. "Whenever you protect the privacy of regular people doing regular things -- which I think is now fair to say includes texting on cell phones -- once in a while that is going to result in someone get off on some charge," said David Kairys of Temple's Beasley School of Law. "But I think overall that privacy protection is better for all of us."
June 9, 2009 | Sports Illustrated, ESPN, CBC (Canada), CBS Sports, Fox Sports, Sporting News, Toronto Globe and Mail, San Francisco Chronicle, many more
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court fight over who will own the Phoenix Coyotes and where the team will play is reaching a critical stage. Jerry Moyes filed for Chapter 11 protection on May 5, much to the surprise of the NHL. A case cited by both sides is the NFL fight over Raiders owner Al Davis' attempt to move the franchise from Oakland to Los Angeles. Salil Mehra, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said that ownership could be an important issue in considering whether the Raiders case is relevant. "[The case of the Raiders] was just about a movement of the franchise, it was not about approving another ownership. Al Davis owned the team," Mehra said in a widely distributed AP story.
June 9, 2009 | KSFY-TV (Sioux Falls, S.D.)
Officials at some of the biggest marathons and triathlons in the country are reporting record numbers of participants, many of whom are first-time competitors. Temple researchers believe the reason behind these increased numbers could be the growing amount of resources available to first-time runners. Although doctors are excited people are becoming more active, physicians at the Sports Medicine Division of Temple's School of Podiatric Medicine say it's not the best way to go. Their concern: major injuries from poor training.
June 8, 2009 | News 8 Austin (Texas)
The ability to recognize abnormal heart sounds via a stethoscope is critical for doctors seeking to identify dangerous heart conditions. Temple's School of Medicine recently started a four-year curriculum that relies on different types of simulators, including iPods, to teach medical students this important skill. For each year of medical school, heart sounds are posted online, allowing students to download them to an iPod or mp3 player.
June 7, 2009 | Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant
In an "Electronic Jungle" column about radio on the internet, technology writer Kevin Hunt revealed his favorite jazz station: Temple's WRTI-FM.
June 7, 2008 | CBS Evening News
At Temple, seniors are getting something extra for graduation -- a crash course in job-hunting skills at the university's Career Center in Mitten Hall. Students have to learn how to sell themselves when jobs are scarce "because the options are limited," said Rachel Brown, director of the Career Center. "Employers are not recruiting new college graduates in the numbers they have in the past." To help seniors, Temple's Career Center created an unprecedente! d ! series of job search strategy "boot camp" sessions. Cedric Hall, Nadine Mompremier and James Wilson were among the seniors who participated and learned how to give a 30-second presentation to a prospective employer. Wilson used his newly polished skills in an interview with Verizon. The good news: He got called back for a second interview.
June 7, 2009 | Allentown Morning Call
Recently, to ease financial strain, it was proposed that the Bethlehem School Board amend two variable-rate derivative bond deals called "swaps," which come with hefty fees. They are used to hedge against a potential increase in the underlying bonds' variable-rate interest. Swaps also are used to try to make money. While hedging and betting with taxpayer money, the school board ignored the first law of finance. "If someone offers you something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is," said Bruce Rader, a finance professor at Temple's Fox School of Business.
June 7, 2009 | ABCnews.com
A pharmaceutical firm in Thailand, has been working on cancer treatments for decades and has amassed some extraordinary evidence for the effectiveness of its product, Yaamet-Dor. But no pharmaceutical company can charge you for Yahmet-Dor -- it's vitamin D. Most experts believe that intakes of between 1,000 and 4,000 IUs will offer significant protection against cancers of the breast, colon, prostate, ovary, lungs and pancreas. "There is certainly every reason but one to investigate them further," said John Allen Paulos, professor of mathematics at Temple. "As is the case with aspirin, there unfortunately isn't much economic incentive to conclusively demonstrate the effectiveness of much higher doses of vita! mi! n D."
June 7, 2009 | Scientific Blogging
Anyone can sign onto Twitter and claim to be a celebrity. Media personality Keith Olbermann was a victim of Twitter fraud and CNN recently acquired the rights to CNNbrk (CNN Breaking News), the largest Twitter account on record with 959,011 followers, 'owned' by James Cox, who doesn't even work for CNN. Susan Jacobson of Temple's School of Communications and Theater says Twitter fraud is similar to what happened in the early days of the Internet when regular people would rush to buy domain names and then sell them to celebrities for millions of dollars. Temple psychologist Fran! k ! Farley says there might be some malicious intent to celebrity fraud but it is more likely a prank.
June 7, 2009 | Comcast Network's "Art Fennell Reports" (There is no link to this report.)
Bryant Simon, a professor of history and American studies at Temple, has spent years studying Atlantic City and its development. "It was started right after the Civil War as a resort place for basically upper middle class. Then it went through a heyday period when it became the kind of great American middle class resort. In the early 1970s, after some decline, local boosters decided that gambling was the answer and the first casino opened in 1978. Atlantic City has always been a place where people could go and dream, dream to be big."
June 5, 2009 | Philadelphia Daily News
Finding long-lost classmates and reconnecting with relatives aren't the only things people are doing with social-networking sites. Police say teens who rioted in South Philadelphia Saturday night used Twitter and Facebook to assemble the mob. Social-media companies straddle a fine line when it comes to protecting the public while preserving privacy, said Susan Jacobson, an assistant professor of journalism at Temple. "No service provider wants to be a content cop. How would you notice a potential gang talking about potential criminal activity unless you were filtering for key words, which raises issues of privacy?" Jacobson said.
June 5, 2009 | Hartford Courant
Nothing like having the whole world watching to increase your stress levels. And more stress means more mental breakdowns and relationship woes. The latest examples of the wreckage of over-exposure: Susan Boyle's admission to a psychiatric clinic and the apparent unraveling of Jon and Kate Gosselin's. What are the chances for recovery for Boyle or the Gosselin marriage? Mental health experts don't want to guess, but Temple psychologist Frank Farley said of Boyle: "She may have more resilience than people are giving her credit for….She did audition. That's gutsy, and it's a form of risk-taking, and she did it."
June 5, 2009 | MarketWatch, FOX Business
401(k) plan sponsors can automatically enroll employees into qualified default investment alternatives, including target-date funds. For those workers who weren't contributing to their 401(k), automatic enrollment and contributions to target-date funds are better than not investing, say some experts. Ditto for older workers who invest in target-date funds of their own volition. Before target-date funds came along, many plan participants invested too much of their money in stock, said Jack VanDerhei of Temple's Fox School of Business. "Target-date funds seem to do a good job of taking plan participants away from extreme equity positions, of having either too little or too much invested in stocks," he said.
June 4, 2009 | WUSA9 (Washington, D.C.), WTNH-TV (Conn.)
Marathons and other long-distance endurance events are attracting record numbers of participants, many of whom are first-time competitors. Researchers at Temple's School of Podiatric Medicine believe the reason behind these increased numbers could be the growing amount of resources available to first-time runners, such as "E-Coaching" programs. Although doctors are excited people are becoming more active, podiatrists at the school's Sports Medicine Division of still have some concerns. Every runner's body is different, no book or website can thoroughly train a long distance runner.
June 4, 2009 | WHYY-FM
An angry mob's attack on a suspected rapist in Philadelphia has experts talking about the issues raised by vigilante justice. Temple psychologist Frank Farley says people are frustrated with the proliferation of violence in society, and this might not be the only time people take control in an unacceptable way. "It's not going to be easy to stop this," he said. 'In fact we might expect to see some copy cat of this behavior."
June 4, 2009 | Philadelphia Inquirer
Despite the momentary pleasure it gave the participants, the angry neighbors of Kensington who attacked an alleged rapist went too far. It seemed to be an example of what's called "social facilitation, where somebody starts something and everyone piles on," says Temple University psychologist Frank Farley, a former president of the American Psychological Association.
June 3, 2009 | WFMZ-TV
It's a collection that would make even Imelda Marcos jealous. There are roughly 900 pairs of shoes in the collection at Philadelphia's Shoe Museum, housed inside Temple University's School of Podiatric Medicine. The tour starts on the 6th floor... where from time to time, you'll have to move aside for students and staff to pass by.
June 3, 2009 | City Paper
Current Philadelphian and Temple student Sandhurst Miggins was one of three final contestants on Bravo's reality television series Make Me A Supermodel. Miggins was the winner of the competition in last week's episode, when the remaining four contenders each had one chance to capture the perfect "rocker" look as flames and explosions went off all around the models.
June 3, 2009 | CNBC
Guest blogger William Dunkelberg, a professor of economics at Temple, argues that the stimulus package's "Buy America" provision is an ill-advised form of protectionism. "Simple logic reveals this to be a bad idea -- no geographic entity is so well endowed that it can be self sufficient and be a low cost producer at the same time," wrote Dunkelberg. "Unions pushed this provision in the stimulus bill and got the president to require the use of unionized labor for all federally funded stimulus projects. All of this 'restraint of trade' is bad for America and bad for ordinary citizens."
June 3, 2009 | Stars and Stripes
The latest provocations from North Korea do not warrant an immediate, forceful response, experts in U.S.-Asia relations said during a public panel discussion at Temple University, Japan Campus. The panelists agreed that no one is prepared to deal with the consequences of the Pyongyang regime's disintigration. "Nobody wants [North Korea] to collapse," said TUJ faculty member Robert Dujarric. "If the Chinese government said, 'Look, this man is an abomination. We're going to cut him off and bring down his regime,' most Japanese and American policym! ak! ers would be horrified."
June 3, 2009 | China Daily
For more than 25 years Virginia Stibbs Anami has been following the trail of a Jikaku Daishi, or Monk Ennin, a Japanese monk who traveled to China in the 9th century. Anami, who lectures on ancient Chinese at Temple University, Japan Campus, has recently been back on the mainland to promote her book about Ennin. "He became a kind of symbol of China-Japan relations," she says, "because he was one of the first Japanese who lived in China and was given a lot of help by Chinese people during his nine years here."
June 2, 2009 | Philadelphia Tribune
A historical marker was placed at the resting place of influential publisher Christopher J. Perry, the man who founded the Philadelphia Tribune, the nation's oldest continuously published African-American-owned newspaper. The marker commended Perry as "as a publisher, writer, statesman and civil rights activist," wrote Linn Washington Jr., an associate professor of journalism at Temple, in a Tribune article. Temple Trustee James White paid tribute at the marker's unveiling. "We stand on the shoulders of [our ancestors] realizing their dreams," White said.
June 2, 2009 | The Economist
Despite its great technology, Japan has had difficulties exploiting its full innovative potential. According to a new paper co-authored by Robert Dujarric of Temple University, Japan Campus, the cause is the corporate structure of Japanese companies -- which the authors call "a mismatch between the country's vertical and hierarchical industrial organizations and the horizontal, ecosystem-based structures" of modern IT industries.
June 1, 2009 | KYW News Radio
Philadelphia police are dealing with a new challenge: teenagers using social media to gather in large groups and commit crimes. Temple psychologist Frank Farley says it was perhaps inevitable that teenagers would use their cyber savvy this way. "We shouldn't be surprised that kids get together and can organize offline behavior through online use," he said. Farley says parents must play a role in combating the behavior.
June 1, 2009 | MSN News, CNN Money, France 24, China Daily, Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), Bangkok Post, Jakarta Globe, many more
The General Motors' bankruptcy filing came just hours after a judge approved the sale of Chrysler to a group led by Italy's Fiat. An appeal was lodged Monday by creditors, but Jonathan Lipson, a professor at Temple's Beasley School of Law, said this was a long shot. "I tend to give the appellants here very slender odds," he said in a widely distributed Agence France-Presse wire story. "I think it reasonable to expect that if this were bogged down on appeal or reversed Fiat may well walk away."
May 31-June 1, 2009 | Washington Post, National Law Journal
Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor has heard thousands of cases and has issued as many rulings, but the early debate over her judicial philosophy in her confirmation battle comes down to one decision that may be overturned by the Supreme Court soon. Half of Sotomayor's six cases reviewed by the Court have been reversed. "Aggregate reversal rates tell you nothing," said Temple Law Professor David A. Hoffman in a page A1 story in the Post. He notes the court customarily reverses three-quarters of the cases it decides to review. "The way to judge a judge is to read the opinions," Hoffman said.
May In the Media ...
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