Three University of Alabama students get $25K scholarships
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 3
The University of Alabama is among the universities chosen by the Annexstad Family Foundation for its “Leaders for Tomorrow” national scholarship program, which will provide scholarships to two UA students each year. Three students are among the inaugural class, and beginning this year, two students will be selected annually to receive $25,000 scholarships payable over four years, according to a release from UA. The scholarships are awarded to exceptionally talented young people from humble and challenging backgrounds, according to the release. UA joins 21 other universities, including Harvard, Stanford, Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt.
Bama professors’ 2014 predictions: slow growing economy, more Common Core fights
Yellow Hammer – Jan. 3
Every year since 1980, University of Alabama faculty members get together and compile a list of predictions for the new year — each professor offering predictions in their area of expertise. This year’s list includes bold 2014 predictions about the spread of “augmented reality” technology and luxury hybrid plug-in cars, in addition to predictions that are perhaps more, well, predictable — like 3-D printers becoming more available and the continued decentralization of the film industry. But I thought three of their predictions would be particularly interesting to Yellowhammer readers.
Tri-county area officials predict what will happen with key issues in 2014
Montgomery Advertiser – Jan. 5
What will 2014 bring the tri-county area? Montgomery Advertiser reporters asked a variety of officials what they thought would happen involving some of the area’s key issues … Will Hyundai expand in Montgomery this year? Carolyn Trent, socioeconomic analyst for the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama: “I’ve seen some talk of that, and I’ve noticed that Kia is expanding in Georgia. Hyundai (in Montgomery) is working at full capacity now, so that’s certainly a possibility in the coming year.”
More ‘Face’ time? University of Alabama student returning to late-night show as intern
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 4
A University of Alabama student who garnered national attention for the oversized cutout of his scowling face at Crimson Tide basketball games is starting an internship on the “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” show in New York during the spring semester. Jack Blankenship, who is scheduled to start work on Monday, appeared as a guest of Fallon in 2012 and on other talk shows after the cutout of his face drew the attention of photographers at Alabama basketball games and eventually worked its way into sports blogs. The expression started as a joke among middle school friends and was still “a goofy joke” to Blankenship when he affixed it to poster board and brought it to a basketball game. “I never imagined it would cause this much attention. It’s taken me across the country, enabling me to meet all kinds of interesting people,” he wrote in an email. Blankenship, a 21-year-old junior majoring in telecommunication and film, said that this fall, he contacted some acquaintances he made on the show’s staff in 2012 about applying for an internship for which he subsequently was selected. Blankenship will work on the show until May. The Tuscaloosa native will work as a writers’ intern and a general production intern, he said. The work includes attending rehearsals, fetching props across the city and generally assisting the staff.
Daily routines may influence sleep quality, quantity
Deccan Chronicle (India) – Jan. 3
Maintaining a consistent daily routine may be linked to better sleep, according to a small new study. Young adults who went to work and ate dinner around the same time every day typically slept better and woke up fewer times during the night. They also fell asleep more quickly at bedtime. Yet the exact time people performed daily activities – say, eating dinner at 6 p.m. versus 8 p.m. – had little bearing on how well they slept. “For the majority of sleep outcomes, we found that completing activities at a regular time better predicted sleep outcomes than the actual time of day that activities were completed,” Natalie Dautovich, a psychologist at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, said. She led the study, which was published in the Journals of Gerontology: Series B. “For example, people reported better sleep quality and fewer awakenings at night when they were consistent in the time they first went outside.
The Siasat Daily (India) – Jan. 3
Business Scene: 1/5
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 4
The University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research will hold its 26th annual Economic Outlook Conference on Jan. 15 in Montgomery. Forecasters said the economic outlook seems brighter this year, but challenges remain. Conference presenters will assess the economic prospects for the state and the nation, and CBER will release its annual economic forecasts for Alabama and its metro areas. Presenters include David Altig, executive vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Samuel Addy, CBER director and associate dean for research and outreach at UA’s business school; and Tom Broughton, chief executive officer and president of ServisFirst Bank.
Aspiring writer sees a different California
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 3
California conjures up visions of bleached blonde surfers, movie stars, Berkeley radicals and the outlandish characters on Hollywood Boulevard. But Daniel Byars has seen a very different California. “Northern California is its own state of mind,” said Byars, a 23-year-old University of Alabama student. “Most of the area is rural. The biggest city near there is Redding. Most of the people want to secede from California and join southern Oregon and form the state of Jefferson.” If they were successful, the state’s car tags might carry a slogan similar to Louisiana’s “Sportsman’s Paradise.” While spending the summer and fall on a ranch that serves as a Christian mission, Byars hunted black-tailed deer, black bear and ducks, and fished for steelhead salmon. “That part of California is where I fell in love with the adventure of the West and met God in the wilderness,” said Byars, a journalism major at UA who hopes to become an outdoors writer.
Business Buzz: 1/5
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 4
Tuscaloosa attorneys Jaime Webb Conger of Smith & Staggs LLP and Anita Head, an instructor at the University of Alabama School of Law, were among the 26 attorneys selected for Class X of the Alabama State Bar’s Leadership Forum professionalism program open to attorneys with five to 15 years of practicing law. Participants will undergo a rigorous education and training process focusing on servant leadership, ethics and career development.
SCHOOL NEWS: 1/5
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 4
The University of Alabama Early College program recently accepted the following students: Alabama School of Fine Arts: Hannah LeComte … American Christian Academy: Lawrence Chapin III, Makayla Dorroh, Mathew Southern, Trevor Hearing … UA Early College students are high school students who can earn up to 30 hours of college credit online and are eligible for the UA Summer Residential/Honors Ready Experience.
THE PORT RAIL: The origins of political correctness
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 4
Given that Duck Commander Phil Robertson has become the target-of-the-day of politically correct warriors, I thought it helpful to go back over how PC came into today’s lexicon and political wars. It came into use in the arcane ideological wars between socialists and hard-core communists 60 or 70 years ago. Socialists accused communists of being wedded to the “party line,” unwilling to flex a bit and think for themselves. What came out from communist central was thus “politically correct,” and socialists charged communists for their slavish obedience to the party. The term was adapted into mainstream American argot in the 1970s and 1980s to mean something different than some remote ideological debate among socialists and communists. The communists were obviously inflexible dogmatists, the perfect politically correct ideologues, come hell or high water. (Larry Clayton is a retired professor of history at the University of Alabama.)