UAF in the news: Week of March 27, 2006

Submitted by Marmian Grimes
Phone: (907) 474-7902
03/31/06

Sports banquet returns
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
After a five-year absence, the University of Alaska Fairbanks is conducting its All-Sports Awards Banquet. Read more ...

Experts will test birds for signs of avian flu
Anchorage Daily News
About 40 biologists from throughout the state came to Anchorage Friday to learn how to test wild birds in Alaska for H5N1, the bird flu strain that’s killed birds and people in Asia and beyond. Read more ...

Looking for lice
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and about 35 locations nationwide
Donning a pair of rubber gloves, state wildlife veterinarian Kimberlee Beckmen laid two freshly-skinned wolf pelts side by side on a stainless steel counter in the lab at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Read more ...

Using an iceberg to tell the colorful tales of Alaska
New York Times
FAIRBANKS, Alaska--Way up north, in this city notorious for cubelike buildings that are cheap and easy to heat, the brand-new University of Alaska Museum of the North has everyone literally thinking outside the box. Read more ...

The light and dark of it
American Way Magazine--American Airlines in-flight
If you’re lucky, you might get slightly more than three hours of light a day during the winter solstice in Alaska. What would that do to your psyche? Read more ...

Sunlight cleans mercury from arctic lakes
SITNews
Each spring, when sunlight returns to the Arctic in a blinding burst, it also triggers chemical reactions that release mercury from the atmosphere. A group of scientists is finding that this mercury is falling into arctic lakes but the sun also changes the mercury into a form that fish don’t pick up. Read more ...

Be worried, be very worried
Time Magazine and multiple Web references
No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you’ve heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us. Read more ...

Fighting for freedom of the press
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and KTVA
For Ukraine journalist Tatyana Goryachova, the price of freedom continues to take a great personal toll. Read more ...

The unsung soldiers of science
Hindustan Times
The stench is overwhelming, a rancid sweetness that stings the eyes and lungs, clinging to hair and clothes like a vile perfume. Read more ...

House aims to create panel to track changes in climate
Juneau Empire
The Alaska House Resources Committee endorsed a resolution Monday to create a 15-member panel advising the Legislature how to react to coastal erosion, rising sea levels and other problems caused by climate warming. Read more ...

Desertification -- the oldest form of climate change
New America Media and Pacific News Service
On Feb. 19, 2001, Dave Schneider, who works for the Alaska Volcano Observatory, made a discovery of global proportions that only sophisticated satellites could encompass. Read more ...

Too late to stop global warming, scientists say, but still time to stop major disasters
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - A man stands on a railroad track as a train rumbles closer. "Global warming?" he says. "Some say irreversible consequences are 30 years away. Thirty years. That won’t affect me.""Â"ÂHe steps off the tracks _ just in time. Behind him is a little blonde-haired girl left in front of the roaring train."Â"ÂThe screen goes black. A message appears: "There’s still time.""Â"ÂIt’s just an ad, part of a campaign from the advocacy group Environmental Defense, which hopes to convince Americans they can do something about global warming, that there’s still time. Read more ...

Diamond debate
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Jared Diamond has a Pulitzer Prize, a busy lecture career and a pair of international bestsellers. He was even an expert on the gallbladder for a few decades.
So why was he spending Tuesday afternoon at a University of Alaska Fairbanks classroom being politely grilled by students about the shortcomings of "Collapse," his latest science book? Read more ...

Peace Corps honors Gasbarro
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Tony Gasbarro was in Anchorage about two months ago, checking e-mail on his laptop while sitting through a meeting. One electronic message perked the interest of the professor emeritus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Cooperative Extension program: an e-mail from Peace Corps director Gaddi H. Vasquez in Washington D.C., requesting that Gasbarro call him. Read more ...

Somers students learn lessons to last a lifetime during Alaska adventure
The Journal Inquirer (Connecticut)
SOMERS - Braving temperatures that continually hovered around 20 degrees below zero, five Somers High School ninth-graders traveled to Fairbanks, Alaska, for eight days of a learning adventure last month. Read more ...

Internet system brings UAF more connections
Anchorage Daily News
FAIRBANKS -- The University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Internet system now comes with an agreement to link up with Alaska schools, libraries and some pretty high-profile institutions. Read more ...

The great cover-up
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Anything can happen when covers are involved. One can go undercover, get under the covers or get covered up.
In the case of The Great Cover-Up, an annual fundraiser for the Literacy Council of Alaska, the first applies.
Saturday, local performers will masquerade as a band of their choosing at the UAF Pub and play "covers" of songs by that band. Read more ...

Alaska: Sea Grant publishes guide to responsible marine wildlife viewing
Fishupdate.com
Just in time for the annual summertime pilgrimage of Alaskans and visitors to the coast, Alaska Sea Grant is offering tips on the dos and don’ts of approaching and watching marine wildlife. Responsible marine wildlife viewing is the topic of the second issue of Alaska Seas and Coasts, a full-colour publication of the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program (MAP). Read more ...

Alaska, not California, is most quake-prone
ABC and CBS news
The perky "cock-a-doodle-doo" of a rooster sounds in Roger Smith’s office every time an earthquake rumbles beneath Alaska.
Temblors throughout the state trigger the computer-generated crow about 60 times a day roughly 22,000 times a year in the office of Smith, director of the Geophysical Institute on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. Read more ...

In Fairbanks, "Internet2 Day"? showcases what’s in store
Anchorage Press
Let’s say you were at the "Performance Beyond Place"? concert on Thursday, March 23 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and you really, really needed to know what time it was. Read more ...