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At UChicago, Many Have Dreams and Many Voiced Them in Honor of MLK’s Legacy

By Guest PostJanuary 10, 2012Culture, Generalcampus visitors, commemoration, dream, dream wall, fear and doubt, generations of americans, geoffrey canada, harlem, harlem area, hopes for humanity, keynote speaker, laurie davis, marcus board, marianna manzanares, martin luther king, martin luther king jr, mlk celebration, mlk facebook page, new york, potential, reynolds club, rockefeller memorial chapel, Twitter, uchicago community, world affairs

New York teacher Geoffrey Canada’s dream is for a stronger Harlem, with better educational opportunities for its children. Marianna Manzanares hopes that more of her fellow college students pay attention to issues affecting their communities and the world at large. Marcus Board dreams of a world where fear and doubt don’t hold people back from achieving their potential.

Hundreds of people from the UChicago community have voiced such dreams over the past two months as part of the preparations for the University’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Celebration on Thursday, Jan. 12. Community members and campus visitors were invited to share their dreams for a better life or a better world, by writing them on sticky notes and placing them on a mobile “Dream Wall” that traveled across campus. (more…)

Bringing Passito to America

By Guest PostJanuary 5, 2012Culture, Generalamerica, cold climate viticulture, dessert wines, fickle winter, frozen grapes, grapes, italian wine, michigan state university, native italian, northern united states, old italian technique, paolo sabbatini, passito, percentage of market share, straw wine, united states, vintners, winter storm

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan State University researcher is working with vintners to introduce passito, an age-old Italian wine to the United States.

Passito, traced to 800 B.C. in Italy, is also known as straw wine. The grapes for passito are typically hand-picked and allowed to dry on cellar racks or, more traditionally, on mats of straw. (more…)

What is The Real Meaning of Christmas?

By Guest PostDecember 22, 2011Culturebest seller, Bible, biblical material, biblical stories, biblical text, brian j turner, christian background, christmas, curriculum materials, david spriggs, during phase 1, eleanor holmes, esther reed, exeter, key stage 3, king james version, project, rob freathy, stories in bible, university of exeter, visual artist, world

There are thousands of stories in the Bible and a visual artist in Exeter is currently on a 30-year mission to paint the whole lot.

The University of Exeter is incorporating some of what will eventually be a series of up to 3,000 artworks by Brian J Turner into new school curriculum resources that explore how biblical stories are read and interpreted.

The Art of Narrative Theology in Religious Education project is being led by Drs Esther Reed and Rob Freathy from the Department of Theology and Religion and the Graduate School of Education at the University of Exeter. The aim of the project is to get school pupils to investigate biblical stories and how people, whether from a Christian background or not, interpret and use them to make sense of their world and their role within it, particularly how they can live a good life. (more…)

Facebook Helps Researchers See How Friendships Form

By Guest PostDecember 21, 2011Culture, Technologyadvertising, basic building blocks, classical, diffusion, emotional health, Facebook, friends, friendship, harvard university, influence, internet, internet and society, internet relationships, jason kaufman, jazz, kevin lewis, marco gonzalez, mechanisms, national science foundation, network, obesity, online social network, patterns of social segregation, relationships, reproduction of inequality, role, society, sociologists, statistical methods

*Long-term study analyzes social selection and peer influence in online environments*

New research funded by the National Science Foundation and published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by three Harvard University sociologists examines how we select our friends and the role that friendship plays in transmitting tastes and new ideas.

Relationships are basic building blocks of society, and understanding who befriends whom can therefore provide insight into patterns of social segregation, mechanisms for the reproduction of inequality, social support (including mental and emotional health), and access to job opportunities. Some have even viewed these relationships as a means to influence behavior whether to control obesity or target advertising. But is it really that easy, even on the Internet, to make friends with people who have different cultural upbringings, different interests, different backgrounds and different tastes in movies, music and books? (more…)

Researcher Explains How Santa Delivers Presents in One Night

By Guest PostDecember 17, 2011Culture, Sciencebody parts, cell phones, delivery methods, DNA, ekgs, electromagnetic waves, emerging technologies, kris kringle, larry silverberg, magic, mary, miami, michael from minneapolis, nano toymaker, Nanotechnology, north carolina state university, north pole labs, npl, organic material, reindeer, relativity clouds, saint nicholas, santa, santa claus, science and technology, Space, time continuum, tissues, traditionalist, trumps

Don’t believe in Santa Claus? Magic, you say? In fact, science and technology explain how Santa is able to deliver toys to good girls and boys around the world in one night, according to a North Carolina State University researcher.

NC State’s Dr. Larry Silverberg, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, can explain the science and engineering principles that allow Santa, also known as Kris Kringle or Saint Nicholas, to pull off the magical feat year after year. (more…)

Presidential Cuisine a Focus of Archaeology at Montpelier

By Guest PostDecember 15, 2011Culture, Generalambrose madison, american president, animal remains, arizona state museum, barnet pavao zuckerman, blue ridge mountains, bones, dining table, dolley madison, excavations at montpelier, james and dolley madison, james madison jr, james madison sr, kitchen, marybeth harte, mount pleasant, northern virginia, picture of montpelier, pre revolutionary war era, republic, slaves trash, zooarchaeologist

Arizona State Museum zooarchaeologist Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman and her students are analyzing the remains of an early American president’s dining table.

Arizona State Museum archaeologists are looking through historic table scraps in an effort to find out more about the kitchen of America’s fourth president and author of the U.S. Constitution.

For about a decade, Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman and her students from the University of Arizona have been part of ongoing excavations at Montpelier, the home of James and Dolley Madison. The archaeology of Montpelier’s grounds offer some light on what day-to-day life was like from the pre-Revolutionary War era to well into the 18th century. (more…)

U.S. Believers Favor International Action on Climate Change, Nuclear Risk: UMD Poll

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2011Culture, Environmentamericans, author, belief in god, catholics, climate change, combat, conservative, creation, evangelicals, global policy, global poverty, greenhouse gases, john steinbruner, liberal, nuclear risks, nuclear war, poll, religious americans, spiritual obligation, spread of nuclear weapons, steven kull, united states, university of maryland, us population

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A majority of Americans professing belief in God favor cooperative international efforts to combat climate change and the spread of nuclear weapons, says a new public opinion poll conducted jointly by the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and its Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).

The nearly 1,500 Americans surveyed include large numbers of Catholics and Evangelicals.

The study, Faith and Global Policy Challenges: How Spiritual Values Shape Views on Poverty, Nuclear Risks, and Environmental Degradation, also finds that a majority of believers consider addressing global poverty a “spiritual obligation,” and think that the United States should work cooperatively with other nations to reduce it. (more…)

Minorities Pay More for Water and Sewer

By Guest PostNovember 29, 2011Culture, Environment, Generalbirmingham, bygone economic era, cleveland, detroit, environmental practice, michigan state university, pittsburgh, poster child, product of racism, rachel butts, racial minorities, sewer infrastructure, shrinking cities, st. louis, stephen gasteyer, structural inequality, wastewater, water and sewer

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Racial minorities pay systemically more for basic water and sewer services than white people, according to a study by Michigan State University researchers.

This “structural inequality” is not necessarily a product of racism, argues sociologist Stephen Gasteyer, but rather the result of whites fleeing urban areas and leaving minority residents to bear the costs of maintaining aging water and sewer infrastructure. (more…)

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