Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward speaks at the University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 23
Eight years ago at a conference in Colorado, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward sat down next to former vice president Al Gore for dinner. It was an experience he described as “unpleasant.” “Gore was a former journalist and he thinks he invented (journalism), as well as the Internet,” Woodward said, drawing laughter from a crowd of more than 300 people at the University of Alabama’s Bryant Conference Center Friday. After entertaining a few questions from Gore on why he didn’t come down harder on former president George W. Bush in his book “Bush At War,” Woodward asked Gore a serious question. “How much does the public know about what goes on in the White House?” Woodward said. He said Gore answered, “One percent.” Woodward said that Gore was being facetious. But the truth, he said, is that the American public really doesn’t know about 60 to 70 percent of what goes on behind the doors of the White House. “We don’t know enough,” he said. Woodward was the keynote speaker in the Blackburn Institute’s Gloria and John L. Blackburn Symposium Lecture series. The Blackburn Institute is a leadership development organization within UA’s division of student affairs.
Crimson White – Feb. 25
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 22
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Feb. 22
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 22
Children learn about natural disasters with hands-on activities
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 25
Nine-year-old Ayush Kotru carefully looked through a pile of household items Sunday afternoon, picking out things like bottled water, batteries and a first-aid kit. It’s not often that kids have to think about what they would need in case of a natural disaster. But that was part of the objective Sunday as part of a “Science Sunday” event at the Alabama Museum of Natural History, to learn about natural disasters, what causes them and what people can do to be prepared for them. The museum has held two “Science Sunday” events this year and will likely offer others, said Amanda Espy-Brown, education and outreach coordinator for the museum. “We want families to understand the science,” Espy-Brown said. “What causes natural hazards? Where can we expect natural hazards? What’s the frequency of natural hazards? People are well-educated on tornadoes, but we are also impacted by earthquakes and hurricanes, and most people don’t know a lot about those hazards.”…As part of the event, scientists from various University of Alabama departments, including geology and geography, gave presentations explaining why there are tornadoes and earthquakes and how they are measured. “Families need to know the signs, and they need to know what to do when they see those signs,” Espy-Brown said. “We want them to understand how being prepared helps limit injury and damage.”
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Feb. 22
School of Social Work plans to install virtual reality lab
Crimson White – Feb. 25
The University of Alabama’s School of Social Work will soon install a virtual reality research lab, only the third of its kind in the country. The lab will allow UA researchers to perform research, therapy and clinical studies of participants in a simulated environment much more accurate to the real world than most other forms of research. The virtual reality technology includes the ability for program designers to construct avatars to respond to realistic stimuli, and also has the ability to produce the sounds and scents that other simulation exercises may not be able to reproduce. Amy Traylor, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work and a long-time proponent of the use of virtual reality in social research, said the new lab will provide researchers a realistic simulation for people who have phobias, addictions or other issues in a safe yet effective environment. “[Virtual Reality] allows for a very controlled environment,” Traylor said. “The clinician can turn it off if it gets to be too much.” Traylor said the simulations provide just enough details for a human mind to manifest the other information. This provides an experience that feels real to the mind but has the safety net of being in a controlled environment.
Capstone student wins PR award
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 25
A University of Alabama senior majoring in advertising and public relations has won the 2013 Public Relations Student Society of America’s Daniel J. Edelman/PRSSA Award for the Outstanding Public Relations Student. Jessica Colburn of Hoover won the award, which includes $2,500 and a three-month paid internship in one of Edelman’s U.S. offices. The national award is given annually to a student who is a PRSSA member, displays leadership and who has public relations-related achievements and activities, a digital presence and recommendations from public relations faculty and/or industry professionals. “Winning this award is the highlight of my career so far,” Colburn said. “It really shows me that my work here at the University of Alabama is professional work, not just student work. “It makes me feel like I have reached all my goals as a college student, and it makes me really excited to see where I will go now.” Colburn is firm director for the UA department of advertising and public relations’ Capstone Agency, director of communications for the Student Government Association and editor and vice president for Platform Magazine, a digital publication supported by UA’s Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations.
Saturday in the Park returns to Moundville this weekend
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 25
The Saturday in the Park program series at the University of Alabama’s Moundville Archaeological Park returns in March, giving local residents a chance to explore the lives of West Alabama’s Native Americans. “These programs give people an opportunity to see how humans in general used to be much more in touch with our environment,” said Betsy Irwin, the park’s education outreach coordinator. “Many younger people today do not realize that everything we have — our food, clothing, housing and transportation — somehow comes from the earth,” she said. “By having programs such as these, we hope to build stronger relationships between different cultures while we help reconnect our youth with earth-friendly arts, crafts and technologies.” Each Saturday in the Park event will feature different topics related to Southeastern Native Americans or archaeology. Many of the programs will also include hands-on activities for children.
United Methodist Children’s Home partners with UA to provide scholarships for foster children
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Feb. 22
More foster care children are getting the boost they need to attend college. United Methodist Children’s Home has partnered with the University of Alabama and University of North Alabama to provide scholarships and housing … Motell Foster loves Shakespeare; acting has been a long-time passion. “I went into character and improved. Going into the woods and acting like I was a Power Ranger, Jack Sparrow, anything. Just really using my imagination and calling that home.” Home, is a complicated subject for Foster…He didn’t want to go into detail about the darker parts of his upbringing, the seven years in foster care…And when the time came, he applied and received a scholarship to the University of Alabama. He’s now the managing editor of the Mars Field Journal. And he’s majoring in theatre.
Why Calorie Labels Are Wrong
Mother Jones – Feb. 25
To understand the modern calorie counting system, we have to go back to the late 19th century, when Wilbur Atwater sat in his Connecticut lab and burned a bunch of food…Check out the label on a supermarket salad in 2013, and the caloric value you see is largely based off of Atwater—even though scientists are increasingly suspicious the number is wrong … However, Burmese pythons, which eat very large meals but very infrequently, are a good model organism for researching the energetic cost of digestion. A paper in collaboration with Stephen Secor at the University of Alabama found that cooking and grinding beef reduced the amount of energy required in pythons’ digestion by 23.4 percent.
Auditor-client mismatch may squeeze audit quality
Compliance Week – Feb. 21
Young auditors are often outgunned or intimidated by management at the companies where they perform their audit work, leaving audit work incomplete or poorly documented, according to a recent academic study. Bradley Bennett at the University of Massachusetts and Richard Hatfield at the University of Alabama said they found evidence that staff auditors are often mismatched with company management in terms of age, experience, and accounting knowledge, and it influences auditors’ decisions regarding the collection of audit evidence during their field work. The study suggests auditors who feel mismatched with management may reduce their collection of audit evidence to avoid interactions with management, although the situation improves when auditors obtain evidence through e-mail communications, which enables them to avoid face-to-face or telephone contact.
GUEST COLUMNIST: Legislators should use lottery revenues to protect our children
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 24
On late-night TV, the well-dressed woman smiles and chats with viewers as five little white balls with black numbers drop one by one into a shallow trough. “Welcome to the North Carolina Education Lottery!” she says, adding that several hundred thousand dollars await anyone holding the right numbers. She doesn’t mention this, but schools statewide will receive their share as well, guaranteed. That same night, perhaps, 400 miles away in the upscale central Alabama town of Chelsea, few people are smiling. A noisy crowd confronts their elected leaders, enraged and terrified that hours earlier a man carrying a loaded weapon had gained easy access to their grammar school and threatened violence…Public servants, keep faith with us who put you in office. Pass legislation this spring to let us vote quickly on creating the Alabama Lottery for School Safety, its proceeds to be divided among every public school district and private schools, too. Allow us to consider a plan that would meet this fearful emergency. Yes or no, up or down. Alabama is surrounded by lotteries that welcome our money when we go next door to play. It’s time we stayed home. It’s time to act for our children. It’s time to have our own smiling hostess on nightly TV. (Don Brown is a former executive editor of The Tuscaloosa News. He teaches journalism at the University of Alabama.)
Gadsden Times – Feb. 24
Rick Bragg to speak at Alpine Living event
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 25
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Bragg will speak at 7:30 p.m. March 6 in Room 205 of Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library on the University of Alabama campus. Tickets are $8 for students and faculty and $12 for the general public. Bragg’s speech will be hosted by Alpine Living, a UA student-led international travel magazine. Alan Alexander, a UA junior who is managing editor of the magazine, said Bragg’s background as a journalist made him an ideal choice for the fundraiser. “He’s a great storyteller, and we expect he’ll draw a big crowd,” Alexander said. Bragg teaches magazine and feature writing at UA.
Gadsden Times – Feb. 25
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 24
Object X series to incorporate ‘infinite perspectives’
Crimson White – Feb. 25
Object X, a new discussion series that features speakers from different UA departments all focusing on a single random object, is to be held on Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in Smith Hall Room 205. The first Object X discussion will focus on a clock, with different students and faculty speaking on the object. Emma Fick, project leader for Object X and a senior majoring in English, explained what speakers would possibly address in their speeches. “Each Object X event features a single object – this time, a clock – and asks professors and students from different disciplines to deliver a five-minute speech about that object from their perspective,” Fick said. “An art historian might talk about Salvador Dali’s melting clocks, a chemist might talk about time as it relates to particle movement, and a business person might talk about the importance of scheduling and being on time.” The speaking series also means to increase interdisciplinary communication along with encouraging students, faculty and staff to expand their horizons, Fick said.
Percussion trio to perform at Sonic Frontiers
Crimson White – Feb. 25
In the age of new wave sound and electronic beats, the percussion trio Meridian is taking things back to basics, with a twist. Meridian will perform in UA’s Sonic Frontiers Concert Series, Monday at 7:30 p.m. The series promotes innovative and experimental music that enriches the West Alabama culture. Tim Feeney is in his first year of teaching at The University of Alabama and is one of the three members of Meridian. “We were interested in having experiences … that were sort of outside the things we had grown up with,” Feeney said. “That kind of gave us the chance to explore new ways of playing with each other. It gave us a wider or broader sense than maybe we got when we first started training.” Meridian uses a variety of instruments, but for Monday night’s concert, they will be using three snare drums, one very small, one medium size and one larger bass size.
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 25
UA International Relations Club hosts ALMUN conference
Crimson White – Feb. 25
This weekend, high school students debated in Lloyd Hall on how they would handle a zombie apocalypse if they were the United Nations during the Alabama Model United Nations Conference. “They decide if the zombies are people and have rights or to shoot them,” Kyle Borland, secretary general of ALMUN, said. “The students are really enjoying it.” The conference was held by one of the four branches of the Alabama International Relations Club…The conference was composed of four committee sessions that lasted roughly three to four hours apiece in Lloyd Hall. Throughout eight different rooms, committees made up of only high school students met to discuss and debate various national topics…”A lot of work goes into ALMUN and a lot of heavy recruitment,” Lubna Alansari, a junior majoring in chemical engineering and president of the International Relations Club, said. ALMUN is an organization composed of UA student staff members that assist high school students holding this conference. The mission of the club is to provide high school students in the Southeast with the opportunity to come together as delegates of different United Nations committees to discuss topics that affect the global community.