Cornell University News Service Releases

January, 1999

Index to all months

For the full text of any story, click on the filename at the end of the description. These stories are also available via anonymous FTP at cunews.cornell.edu. Electronic queries may be made to cunews@cornell.edu.

Asian long-horned beetle symposium Feb. 23
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Savory maple syrup, your dining room table and van loads of tourists eager to enjoy the changing autumnal colors may be history, should scientists lose the war against the hardwood trees' number-one enemy: the Asian long-horned beetle. AsianLongBeach.bpf.html (January 29, 1999)

Backyard Bird Count needs people
ITHACA, N.Y. -- After the warmest year on record, how are our beloved birds faring? Bird enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds are being urged to help researchers find out by participating in the second Annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb. 19-22. A project of Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, the Great Backyard Bird Count asks everyone -- kids, adults, seniors, families, classrooms and community groups -- to count the birds they see at their backyard bird feeders, local parks and other areas. Reports are entered online at BirdSource , an interactive, state-of-the-art web site developed by the Cornell lab and Audubon. GBBC2.amw.html (January 29, 1999)

Joycelyn Elders to speak during Sexual Health Awareness Week
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Let's talk about sex. Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former surgeon general of the United States, will give the keynote address for the 19th annual Sexual Health Awareness Week, Feb. 8-15, sponsored by Cornell's Department of University Health Services' Clinical Volunteer Program. Joycelyn.Elders.release.html (January 29, 1999)

English course offers 'Mind and Memory' public lecture series
ITHACA, N.Y. -- At the crossroads of arts and sciences at Cornell University stands a very popular attraction: a Monday afternoon lecture series on "Mind and Memory," that has fast become an academic rite of spring. The lectures, which are free and open to the public, are part of an English department course, "Mind and Memory: Explorations of Creativity in the Arts and Sciences," directed by Diane Ackerman and open to undergraduate and graduate students. Ackerman, visiting professor of English in the Society for the Humanities, is a renowned poet and naturalist and author of A Natural History of the Senses. Mind.Memory.fac.html (January 29, 1999)

Tuberculosis spreads on crowded city buses
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The crowded metropolitan bus system in Buenos Aires could be responsible for 30 percent of new cases of tuberculosis in the city, a new study shows. According to a Cornell University biomathematician, taking public transportation "is a considerable component of transmission and probable evolution of the disease." Tuberculosis has been on the increase around the world since 1985 after recessing in incidence for several years. It now results in 8 million deaths a year. The leading causes of infection are thought to include global movements of people, urban crowding, poverty and the HIV virus, which appears to accelerate tuberculosis infection in HIV-positive individuals. TB.deb.html (January 29, 1999)

Business pros to offer hands-on marketing advice to inventors via distance learning
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Corporate entrepreneurs in New York City will use distance learning techniques to give hands-on marketing advice to Cornell inventors on the university's upstate campus this Friday afternoon, Jan. 29. The Cornell Research Foundation offers more than 400 licenses to commercialize patentable technology invented or developed on the Cornell University campus. Among the most intriguing are: Tech.transfer.alum.advice.html (January 29, 1999)

The chemistry behind rainforest folk medicine
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Field studies conducted in the Amazon rain forest by Cornell University undergraduate students of chemical ecology and published in the first issue of the first journal of its kind are beginning to answer some long-standing questions: Will a cup of lichen tea four times a day cure urinary tract infection or even gonorrhea? Can a bird's choice of nest-building materials boost its immune system? Why do some Indians prefer the honey of stingless bees over honey from killer bees? Chemistry -- not bee temperament -- explains the antibiotic value of honey from the mellow insects, student scientists report in Vol. 1, No. 1 of Emanations from the Rainforest. Likewise, there is a chemical explanation for birds' disease resistance and for the curative power of a lichen that Piaroa Indians call odoche jupacua, or "iguana toe." emanations.hrs.html (January 27, 1999)

Cornell geneticists share dog DNA collection with scientific community
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A valuable collection of canine genetic information, developed by a research group at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, will soon be available to the international genetics community. DNA from 16 extensive, highly informative dog pedigrees is on its way to Ralston Purina Co., where it will constitute the principal resource of the newly established Canine Reference Family DNA Distribution Center. Ralston Purina's offer to broker the exchange of information among the world's geneticists caps a four-year effort by the Cornell group and colleagues from several other research laboratories to foster international collaboration among canine genetics researchers. pedigree.hrs.html (January 27, 1999)

President Rawlings issues statement of 'Freedom with Responsibility'
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell President Hunter Rawlings today (Jan. 27, 1999) issued a statement regarding freedom of speech and hate speech and harassment in the campus community. Rawlings.statement.freedom.html (January 27, 1999)

Are Super Bowl ads worth the expense?
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Most football fans will be on tenterhooks until Super Bowl Sunday, Jan. 31, when the Denver Broncos and the Atlanta Falcons face off. But Douglas Stayman's students at Cornell University will wait until the week following the main event to sit on the edge of their seats in rapt concentration. That's when the Marketing Club, a student group at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management, and Stayman, an associate professor of marketing at the school, will meet to analyze the ads that aired the previous Sunday. Stayman, an expert on audience perceptions of advertising, says: "There is much debate inside corporations about whether airing a commercial during the Super Bowl -- at $1.6 million per 30 seconds -- makes financial sense. But what is certain is that these pricey spots attract the world's notice and bring a good deal of prominence and attention to a corporation." Superbowl.Ads.html (January 27, 1999)

Cornell trustees to meet in New York City Jan. 28 through 30
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Board of Trustees will hold its first meeting of 1999 Jan. 28 through 30 at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City. The full board will meet in open session from 9 to 10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30, in the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Education Center in the medical college's Harkness Medical Research Building, 1300 York Ave. Among topics of discussion will be a report from President Hunter Rawlings and a report from Provost Don M. Randel on biological sciences and genomics. The board is expected to approve 1999-00 tuition rates for the endowed colleges. trustadv.1.99.jp.html (January 27, 1999)

Computer scientist Kenneth Birman named a fellow of the ACM
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Kenneth P. Birman, Cornell University professor of computer science, has been named a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world's oldest and largest organization of computer professionals. He will be formally inducted, along with 33 other new members, at the ACM awards banquet to be held at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan on May 15. The award recognizes Birman's work in creating fault-tolerant systems for distributed computing as well as his service for six years as editor of ACM Transactions on Computing Systems. He is also the author of many publications, including two books. Birman.bs.html (January 26, 1999)

CaRDI presents Innovator Awards to three local projects
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell Community and Rural Development Institute (CaRDI) presented in November its annual Innovator Awards to three successful collaborative programs in New York state: Community Links, the Community Plant-Food Project and the Small-Scale Food Processing and Sustainable Agriculture project. Selected by the CaRDI steering committee, the programs and projects exhibited innovations that clearly contribute to community and rural development. These programs, in their own way, provided research-based information to policy-makers and community leaders, says Eric J. Lerner, associate director of CaRDI. He explained that these projects expand collaborative relationships among scientific disciplines, between research, extension and teaching. CaRDI-Award.bpf.html (January 26, 1999)

Gold finds life, energy, controversy in earth
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The ideas come crowding in: Deep within the Earth's crust is a vast ecosystem of primitive bacteria nurtured by a reservoir of hydrocarbons of unimaginable size, much of it untapped. Even more: The microbes predate all of the planet's other life forms, existing even before photosynthesis became the preferred life-giving form. In a new book, The Deep Hot Biosphere (Copernicus/Springer-Verlag, $27), Cornell Professor emeritus of astronomy Thomas Gold argues that subterranean bugs are us -- or at least they started the whole evolutionary process, and that there's no looming energy shortage because oil reserves are far greater than predicted. gold.book.deb.html (January 26, 1999)

Cornell to celebrate Martin Luther King's legacy in Feb. 4 service
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University campus community will join in "A Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr." on Thursday, Feb. 4, at 4 p.m. in Sage Chapel. The Rev. Walter Fluker, director of the Leadership Center at Morehouse College in Atlanta, will speak about the relevance of King's legacy for the Cornell community. King.celebration.2.4.99.html (January 26, 1999)

Cornell changes financial aid policy to enhance affordability
ITHACA, N.Y. ---- Cornell University, in another effort to help ensure that it remains affordable for the nation's top students, today (Jan. 25, 1999) announced that beginning in fall 1999, students will be able to use the full amount of any outside scholarships to reduce the amount they would otherwise borrow as part of their financial aid award. In addition, university officials said, Cornell will ensure that families receive the full benefit of federal education tax credits available for the first time this year. financial.aid.changes.fp.html (January 25, 1999)

Family farms compete with new marketing
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Fourth generation peanut farmer Luke Green of Banks, Ala., produces organically grown peanuts, markets them in his peanut butter -- Luke's Pure Peanuts -- and his small family farm thrives economically when others around him are closing. And look at O'Donnell, Texas, where cotton is king but the market is glutted. Growers within the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Co-op are getting higher prices than conventional growers on their organically grown cotton from clothing manufacturers and feminine hygiene product makers. Although the 'new agriculture' is growing, a Cornell agricultural researcher still believes it is a fragile and vulnerable segment of the industry. And he believes that with proper economic cultivation, there is room for small, family farming to thrive. AAAS.Hilchey.bpf.html (January 24, 1999)

Genes boost rice yields on poorest farms
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Thanks to a technique known as genetic mapping, Cornell University scientists have for the first time located genetic factors that allow significant increases in yields of rice grown by poor farmers trying to produce crops in hardscrabble conditions. The researchers' breakthrough has been to use genetic maps to identify regions of chromosomes containing genes that control traits such as grains per plant, disease resistance and earliness. These genes are identified in a wild ancestor of rice and then introgressed, or "spliced," into domesticated, popular varieties of rice. In this case, the genes were introduced into a variety of upland rice, widely grown in unfavorable conditions such as on mountain slopes. As a result, the yield of the domesticated rice has been increased. AAAS.McCouch.bpf.html (January 19, 1999)

'The Body Project' by Joan Jacobs Brumberg wins national award
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls (1997) by Joan Jacobs Brumberg, a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and professor of human development and women's studies at Cornell University, has been chosen one of Choice's Outstanding Academic Books. Choice is a review journal for academic libraries. Each year, it selects a list of "the best of the best books." Choice cites its selections for their "excellence in scholarship and presentation, significance with regard to other literature in the field, and recognition as an important, often the first, treatment of a specific subject in print..." brumberg.award.ssl.html (January 22, 1999)

Recruitment initiative aimed at enhancing student diversity
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings has approved an assertive $100,000 initiative aimed at enhancing the diversity of the student community by improving the recruitment of underrepresented minority students, university officials have announced. "The recruitment of underrepresented minority students is a very high priority for the university," said Donald Saleh, Cornell dean of admissions and financial aid, in announcing the new initiative. "The investment the president has approved and the steps we are taking will help us make that priority a reality." minority.recruit.jp.html (January 22, 1999)

Book explains dumb money decisions
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The science of economics explains how money behaves (as if rational people were handling it) but not the details of how people behave around money (sometimes unwisely). That's why we need the emerging science called behavioral economics, says money.hrs.html (January 22, 1999)

Paula Poundstone show is rescheduled for Feb. 7
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Comedienne Paula Poundstone has rescheduled her show at Cornell University for Sunday, Feb. 7, at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall. Tickets for the original, cancelled show of Dec. 7, 1998, will be honored for the Feb. 7 event. Additional tickets will be available beginning Wednesday, Jan. 27, at the Willard Straight Hall ticket desk. If tickets are still available on the day of the show, they will go on sale at Bailey Hall beginning at 7 p.m. Ticket prices are $5 for Cornell students and $8 for the general public. Poundstone.html (January 22, 1999)

Tcat to hold public meetings on new fare structure
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (Tcat) is holding a series of public meetings to present fare structure recommendations that are scheduled to go into effect by the end of this summer. Over the past year, Tcat has been working on a service and fare consolidation study with the help of Weslin Consulting Services, a national public transportation consulting firm. During the study, public input on how to improve the current transit system was collected through 23 meetings and the distribution of "Tell Us Where To Go" surveys. This past November and December, Tcat presented the findings of the study and revealed the latest route proposals to the public. A final public hearing on these bus service changes is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 25, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Common Council Chambers at Ithaca City Hall. TCAT.meetings.html (January 22, 1999)

Overworked couples have worst life quality
ANAHEIM, CALIF. -- Marriage partners who feel burdened by their hours at work report the lowest quality of life among working couples, according to a new Cornell University study. These couples tend to experience more conflict between work and personal life, more stress, and more feelings of overload as well as lack of control and mastery of their lives than other working couples. And those partners with very demanding jobs are, by far, at the highest risk for low life quality, according to Cornell sociologist Phyllis Moen. "The fact is that in contemporary working-couple households, at least one spouse typically puts in long hours (more than 45 hours a week)," said Moen. AAAS.couples.strategies.html(January 22, 1999)

Two-incomers want less, housewives more
ANAHEIM, CALIF. -- Although many of America's dual-income couples wish they could work less, they are working more hours than ever. Why? Because today's workplace offers outdated "all or nothing" jobs, says a Cornell University sociologist who studies the time-squeeze of married couples. Only about 10 percent of couples prefer the traditional breadwinner/full-time housewife family model, yet 25 percent of couples end up fitting this mold. The reason is largely because wives can't find the part-time opportunities they would like, according to Marin Clarkberg, assistant professor of sociology at Cornell. On the other hand, while about only 14 percent of couples say they prefer both spouses to work full-time, twice that number actually do. aaas.workingcouples.ssl.html(January 22, 1999)

Online databases of geospatial information
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Want to know the slope of that hill on the north forty? Or the soil conditions there? What about the stream that flows through the middle -- how much water flows and what's its chemical composition? While we're at it, what are the demographics of the people who live along the length of that stream, and how did they vote in the last election? You can get all that, and a lot more, from a new collection of databases available on the World Wide Web through Cornell University's Albert R. Mann Library. The Cornell University Geospatial Information Repository (CUGIR) is a searchable, browsable, online repository of data about agriculture, ecology, natural resources and social-political information in New York state, all keyed to precise geographic locations. CUGIR.bs.html (January 21, 1999)

'National Water Initiative' proposed
ANAHEIM, CALIF. -- The supply, quality and protection of water resources will be critical in the 21st century and will present Washington, aided by the nation's reservoir of academic brain power -- particularly in land-grant colleges -- with a "grand national challenge," a Cornell University environmentalist warns. "If there is light at the end of the aqueduct, it's because the pipes aren't filled with water anymore and that in itself should tell us something," he says. "It should remind us that our precious aquifers, the natural underground reservoirs that took thousands of years to fill, are being depleted much faster than they're being recharged. The era of big dam-building is past, yet populations continue to grow and so do demands for water." AAAS_hullar.hrs.html (January 21, 1999)

Not enough snow to cause roof collapses
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Melting snow and ice might not have had sufficient "critical weight" to cause several roof collapses in the Northeast, according to a Cornell University climatologist. "The amount of rain and snow we have had in the Northeast -- even adding all the snow we've had since last year -- should not approach critical weight needed for a roof collapse. In other words, the roofs should bear this weight," says Arthur T. DeGaetano, a senior climatologist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. NRCC.SnowLoad.bpF.html (January 20, 1999)

John Cleese at Cornell Feb. 4-6 as A.D. White Professor-at-Large
ITHACA, N.Y. -- It may sound funny, but it's true. John Cleese, British writer-comedian-actor and former rector of St. Andrews University in Scotland, will make two public appearances as an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large during his first official visit to the Cornell University campus, Feb. 4-6. Cleese.prof-at-large.html (January 19, 1999)

Gwendolyn Alden Dean named coordinator of LGBT Resource Center
ITHACA, N.Y. ---- Gwendolyn Alden Dean has been named coordinator of Cornell University's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center, ending a six-month national search. Dean most recently was director of Stanford University's Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Center. She assumed her new position in mid-December, said Susan H. Murphy, vice president for student and academic services, and Winnie F. Taylor, former associate provost, who announced the appointment jointly. Dean.LGBT.appt.jp.html (January 19, 1999)

Barbara Krause named assistant secretary of the corporation
ITHACA, N.Y. ---- Barbara Krause, Cornell University's campus judicial administrator, has been named assistant secretary of the corporation and associate university counsel. Krause, a 1986 Cornell Law School graduate, resigned as judicial administrator (JA) effective Jan. 4 to assume her new post. She replaces Joyce Cima, who was assistant secretary of the corporation for 37 years. Krause served as JA for more than 3 years. Krause.JA.jp.html (January 19, 1999)

Interactive PBS telecast Jan. 27 on 'Racial Legacies and Learning: How to Talk About Race'
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University will present a live, interactive Public Broadcasting System (PBS) telecast Wednesday, Jan. 27, addressing the question of how higher education should prepare its students to resolve the legacies of racism and to promote racial reconciliation. This PBS national town meeting, titled "Racial Legacies and Learning: How to Talk About Race," builds on efforts by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) to encourage campus-community learning and dialogue about race in American society. The Cornell program, which is open to the public, will be from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the ILR Conference Center, Room 105. The PBS telecast will be shown, live, from 1 to 3 p.m., and participants at Cornell will be able to call in with questions. For a half hour before and after the telecast, there will be a local discussion facilitated by Robert L. Harris Jr., Cornell associate professor of African American history in the Africana Studies and Research Center and special assistant to the provost. Racial.Legacies.sm.html (January 19, 1999)

National USDA center for food gene data
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will establish a national gene data research center, the Center for Bioinformatics and Comparative Genomics, at Cornell University. Judy St. John, an associate deputy administrator with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, made the announcement Jan. 17 in San Diego at the Plant and Animal Genome VII Conference. The new genomics center is expected to open this spring on the Cornell campus. It will be linked to the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell's Department of Plant Breeding and the Cornell Theory Center, as well as to Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station and the USDA's Plant Genetics Resources Unit in Geneva, N.Y. USDA.NewCenter.bpf.html (January 19, 1999)

Alien species cost U.S. $123 billion a year
ANAHEIM, CALIF. -- A few bad actors among the more than 30,000 non-indigenous species in the United States cost $123 billion a year in economic losses, Cornell University ecologists estimate. "It doesn't take many trouble-makers to cause tremendous damage," Cornell University ecologist David Pimentel says of a list that runs from alien weeds (cost: $35.5 billion) and introduced insects ($20 billion) to human disease-causing organisms ($6.5 billion) and even the mongoose ($50 million ). (See accompanying list, "25 Unwelcome Visitors.") Aside from the economic costs, he adds, more than 40 percent of species on the U.S. Department of the Interior's endangered or threatened species lists are at risk primarily because of non-indigenous species. AAAS.Pimentel.hrs.html (January 19, 1999)

Bleached coral could be environment warning
ANAHEIM, CALIF. -- The dying corals of the Florida Keys could be an early warning of tough times ahead for the planet's environment, Cornell University ecologists worry. The reason: Hundred-year-old corals are succumbing to diseases they previously survived. Increasing global temperatures and worsening pollution, the ecologists say, could place so much stress on ecosystems that organisms of all kinds will face new challenges. AAAS.Harvell.hrs.html (January 19, 1999)

George Jean Nathan Award to Alisa Solomon
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for the 1997-8 season has been awarded to Alisa Solomon, author of Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender, published by Routledge and Kegan Paul. The award will be presented at a reception in New York City on March 1, 1999. Solomon is a staff writer at the Village Voice, where she writes theater criticism as well as news features on a wide range of political and cultural subjects. She is also a professor of English and journalism at Baruch College, City University of New York, and professor of English and theater at the CUNY Graduate Center.. Nathan.release.fac.html (January 18, 1999)

Cornell students participate in week of community service, Jan. 17-20
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University is announcing the first winter program of the Pre-Orientation Service Trips (POST), a project of the Cornell Public Service Center. POST is an opportunity for students to participate in hands-on community service, learn about the Ithaca community and make a group of new friends. Participating Cornell students will spend the days and nights of Jan. 17-20, before the beginning of the academic semester, exploring the Ithaca community through service and educational programming. Daytime hours will be devoted to participating in projects with downtown agencies. Projects will include working with Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services in a demolition project, doing some painting for the Community School of Music and the Arts and assisting at the Martin Luther King Day Celebration at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center. POST.release.html (January 18, 1999)

Life in womb determines adult health
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Presenting the case that a lifetime of poor health -- from coronary artery disease and stroke to obesity and diabetes -- can start with poor conditions in the womb, Cornell University researcher and author Peter W. Nathanielsz, M.D., Ph.D., imagines three futuristic scenarios resulting from publication of his latest book, Life in the Womb: The Origin of Health and Disease (Promethean Press, 1999), which argues that adults may eventually suffer diseases of the heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys because those organs were incompletely formed during vulnerable periods of development in the womb: -- Pregnant women will be encouraged to take better care of themselves and their unborn children by avoiding nicotine, alcohol and other drugs. Policy-makers and society at large will bolster the health of future generations by ensuring adequate prenatal care, removing undue stress about economic issues and providing better nutrition for women of child-bearing age. womb.hrs.html (January 18, 1999)

Termites swap mates
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Before settling down with their mates for a five-year life of raising a family, some termites suddenly have second thoughts: They use their brief "honeymoon" to find a better partner. Reporting tomorrow (Jan. 22, 1999) in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Cornell University biologist Janet S. Shellman-Reeve describes the not-so-blissful scene on a rotting log when the seven-year itch occurs in the insect couple's first two hours. termite2.hrs.html (January 14, 1999)

Appellate court upholds dismissal of Maas suit
ITHACA, N.Y. -- In a decision dated Jan. 7, 1999, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, in Albany, unanimously upheld the dismissal, in its entirety, of a lawsuit brought by Professor James Maas against Cornell University. The court's ruling, the fourth successive judicial determination that Maas' lawsuit against Cornell was without merit, affirmed the dismissal of Maas' final two claims that Cornell acted negligently in handling sexual harassment charges brought against him. In affirming, with costs, the March 23, 1998, ruling of Supreme Court Justice Phillip R. Rumsey dismissing the lawsuit, the five-member Appellate Division panel specifically noted that, in responding to Cornell's summary judgment motion (which the court noted was the equivalent of a trial), Maas had conceded "that his mental injuries were the consequence of [Cornell's] lawful personnel decisions taken in good faith during the disciplinary action. This being the case, he cannot also establish that defendant was negligent in carrying out the disciplinary procedures against him." Maas.suit.dismissed.html (January 12, 1999)

Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at GIAC Monday, Jan. 18
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A community program to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be held at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC), 318 N. Albany St., on Martin Luther King Day -- Monday, Jan. 18 -- from noon to 6 p.m. The theme for this year's day of activities and reflection is "'I have been to the mountain top and seen the promised land' -- Envisioning Human Rights for the Next Millenium." The program is free and open to all. MLKpress.release.html (January 11, 1999)

Computer fix saves asteroid images
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Some 240 million miles from Earth, a spacecraft hurtled through the black void of space, off its intended course. But thanks to the creation of a last-minute fix by Cornell University mission engineers during a tense 24 hours just before Christmas, the $150 million mission now has hundreds of new images of a distant asteroid. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) had almost been given up for dead after a signal failure Dec. 20, but after contact was renewed scientists quickly had to formulate a new mission plan. Thanks to the considerable ingenuity of researchers at Cornell, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Baltimore, signals were sent enabling the spacecraft to capture images as it approached the asteroid 433 Eros. But it was touch-and-go. NEAR.pix.bpf.html (January 8, 1999)

Paul Wallace Gates dies at 97 in California
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell Professor Emeritus Paul Wallace Gates died Tuesday, Jan. 5, in the Clairmont House, Oakland, Calif., at age 97. He was an authority on the American West and U.S. public land policies and an ardent conservationist who spoke out against using public lands for private gain. Gates' History of Public Land Law Development, published in 1968, immediately became the acknowledged authority for all historical research on U.S. public lands, according to Lawrence Lee, a colleague from San Jose State University. "Paul Gates' career has a unique quality about it in its exceptional focus on one grand topic, U.S. land history," wrote Lee in 1991. He also praised Gates for devoting his post-retirement years to "saving the natural resources on federal lands from profligate exploitation." Gates.obit.html (January 7, 1999)

Alliance to train mediators
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The explosion in court-ordered mediation has created a large and increasing demand for trained mediators, or "neutrals." Judges in most states now have the power to insist that litigants hammer out their differences at the bargaining table, rather than the courtroom. But where do they find mediators who are versed in the ins and outs of some of the new laws, like employment discrimination, sexual harassment and workplace safety regulations? There are plenty of experts on those statutes, but unfortunately most lack all the skills needed to mediate effectively. And most well-trained mediators are clustered in labor relations and don't know enough about new laws outside that arena. Now, however, there may be a remedy. Armed with a grant of $300,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) has formed an alliance with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and five other peer institutions and a handful of professional organizations, to train and certify specialized mediators, arbitrators, advocates and fact finders. The members of the newly formed National Alliance for Education in Dispute Resolution, or NAEDR, will meet in New York City Jan. 5 and announce their plans to produce a cadre of highly trained, well-informed neutrals to meet the burgeoning demand. ILR.NAEDR.alliance2.html (January 7, 1999)

Charles H. Moore to retire as director of athletics and physical education
ITHACA, N.Y. ---- Charles H. Moore, Cornell University's director of athletics and physical education for the past four years, will retire when a search for his successor is completed, university officials announced today. Moore, a former gold medal Olympian, international businessman and a Cornell alumnus (Class of 1951), said he's accomplished much of what he set out to do at Cornell: "I couldn't be more positive about the progress we've made and the direction in which we're headed. This has been absolutely the greatest experience of my life. I wouldn't have given it up for anything. And while I've worked hard, I've gotten out far more than I've put in." Moore.retirement.jp.html (January 7, 1999)

IBM's Tiwari directs Nanofabrication Facility
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Sandip Tiwari, a leader in advanced device work at IBM Corp. and a manager at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, has been named the Lester B. Knight Director of Cornell Nanofabrication Facility (CNF), among the nation's leading nanotechnology centers. Tiwari, who earned his doctorate in electrical engineering at Cornell in 1980, also will become a Cornell professor of electrical engineering. He will assume his new post Feb. 1. nanofab.tiwari.deb.html (January 7, 1999)

Despite cold snap, 1998 was NE's warmest
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Even with a frosty flourish to ring out the year, 1998 was the warmest year in recorded history in the northeastern United States, according to the climatologists at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. The new record -- an average temperature for the year of 49.8 degrees Fahrenheit -- beat the previous record set in 1953 by three-tenths of a degree, according to Keith Eggleston, a senior climatologist at the center. NRCC.1998NewRecord.bpf.html (January 5, 1999)

Book has technology's reassuring message
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Much of the world of technology, says Trevor Pinch, is built on trust: Trust that the engineers have done their job responsibly, trust that they have the right expertise to do the job properly. "We can never escape the need for trust," he says. "We trust computers. We trust flying in Boeing 747s." Pinch's seemingly benign view of technology is based not on certainty but on fallibility: The notion that even the best intentions go awry, that even well-designed technology can go wrong occasionally. Trust, he says, is based on the curiously reassuring fact that because technology is fabricated by human hands "it is messy and uncertain." Pinch, a Cornell University professor of science and technology studies, has enlarged and illustrated his ideas -- which can hardly be a surprise to any engineer -- in his latest book The Golem at Large (Cambridge University Press, 1998), co-authored by Harry Collins, professor of sociology at Cardiff University. The two collaborated on an earlier book, The Golem: What Everyone Should Know About Science (Cambridge University Press, 1993), which caused some resentment in the scientific community for its message that science is no guarantor of truth because it is subject to the same messy process of human-directed experiment. pinch.book.deb.html (January 5, 1999)