UA researchers use virtual reality to help people with severe weather anxiety
WAFF-NBC (Huntsville) – May 11
We are still in severe weather season, and ever since April 2011, storm anxiety continues to rise. University of Alabama researchers are now using virtual reality that one day could help treat people with this condition.
Hawaii native Baron comes to states to play wheelchair tennis
Tuscaloosa News – May 11
A 20-minute bus ride from the University of Hawaii is all it takes to get to the white sand and crystal blue ocean. A bus ride that is included in tuition. A beach where Hawaii students like Shelby Baron do math homework in the afternoons, or cram for grim finals. Dark and beautiful, Baron was definitely an island girl. But one thing made her different from the other island girls. She was in a wheelchair. Her freshman year of college was full of sunny days and sandy feet. Her parents, who lived a five-minute walk away, forked out the money to send Baron across the states to do the thing she loved a little more than the beach — play tennis. Baron made her second trip to South Carolina to play in the Hilton Head tennis tournament in 2013. She had no idea who would be watching. Nor did she know she would be playing in the same tournament the following year as part of a university team. University of Alabama adapted athletics director Brent Hardin was at the tournament with other Alabama wheelchair tennis players. He saw Baron play. He wanted her on his team. “She was fundamentally sound and athletic, and I knew she would be a solid collegiate player for us,” Hardin said.
What’s causing Walter Energy’s woes?
Birmingham Business Journal – May 11
This week is a critical one for the future of Walter Energy Inc. On May 15, the company faces a deadline for interest payments to debt holders. That’s the end of its 30-day grace period after Walter missed interest payments on two senior notes in April. The company, which had $435 million in cash and investments at the end of March 31, has insisted it will make Friday’s payment. If it doesn’t, the company could face default and may consider a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization filing if it can’t restructure existing debt, according to its most recent quarterly report. It’s no secret that Walter and other coal companies have been struggling lately. But what is the cause of the most recent woes for Walter, which is a major employer in central Alabama and one of Birmingham’s relatively few public companies? … Ahmad Ijaz, associate director and director of economic forecasting at the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce, said the slowing of production in China and Japan, notably in the steel industry, has negatively affected returns for U.S. coal producers.
Letters About Literature (gallery)
Tuscaloosa News – May 9
A series of books written by Ted Dunagan are displayed on a table in the second-floor foyer of Gorgas Library during the Letters About Literature award ceremony held at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Saturday May 9, 2015.
New “Fetch My Contacts” App is a Must-Have for Every Phone
Steam Feed – May 11
For everyone whose memory is less than that of Dustin Hoffman’s character in the movie “Rainman,” remembering more than a handful of phone numbers is next to impossible. To solve this problem, a new app has been developed that is sure to be a lifesaver in more ways than one. The app, Fetch My Contacts, permanently stores all of a user’s contacts so that they can be easily downloaded to a new phone with the click of a button. This will lead to a lot less of those group e-mails and Facebook posts from people who lost their phones and are desperately seeking everyone’s phone numbers. Of course, even if someone did have a perfect photographic memory, this app would easily pay for itself by saving them the eight hours it would take to manually enter all of those contacts into a new phone … But none of these valuable features are why Fetch My Contacts was developed in the first place, according to the two University of Alabama students who created http://www.FetchMyContacts.com. “My phone battery was always dying, so I never had any way to call someone to come pick me up or to tell them where to meet me,” said co-founder Tyler Chambers.