University of Alabama part of study on bumblebees’ genetics, adaptability
Tuscaloosa News – July 11
Jeff Lozier, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama, is headed west again this summer in search of bumblebees. His journey is part of a three-year grant to study how the physical build and genetics of two species found across the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges might relate to their habitats. The National Science Foundation recently awarded Lozier and collaborators at the University of Wyoming and Utah State University a three-year $1 million grant for the research. The group has been working on the project for the past two years to gather preliminary data for the grant. They expect to complete their field work by next summer, said Lozier, a biologist.
Al.com – July 11
Alabama Public Radio – July 11
Tuscaloosa News (gallery) – July 11
CBS 12 (Chattanooga, Tenn.) – July 11
Washington Times – July 11
Adapted Athletics Basketball Camp held at UA
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – July 10
A wheelchair basketball camp at The University of Alabama kicked off yesterday. Neal Posey shows us how UA’s head wheelchair basketball coach and current players are teaching the next generation. Dribbling through defenders…passing…and shooting the ball for the score…Boys and girls are learning the game at the Alabama Wheelchair basketball camp. With five combined championships in Men’s and Women’s wheelchair basketball, campers at The University of Alabama learn from the best. The wheelchair camp which began Thursday will wrap up Sunday, and it’s helping to prepare these youngsters to play at the collegiate level someday.
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – July 10
Major Data Breach at Office of Personnel Management
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – July 10
“It’s a very significant breach,” says Reginald Hyde, Executive Director of UA’s Cyber Institute. The Office of Personnel Management says anyone who applied for a background check in 2000 onward is more than likely affected. We’re told the stolen information includes social security numbers, addresses, and financial information for current, prospective and former government employees. “Part of what they do there is process security clearances.” Reginald Hyde is the executive director of the Cyber Instate at The University of Alabama. He’s a former Central Intelligence Agency officer and Department of Defense undersecretary for intelligence and security. Some of his work included cybersecurity. Hyde says it has become a lot easier for crooks to hack into big systems like OPMs.
ABC 9 (Columbus, Ga.) – July 10
NBC 5 (Memphis, Tenn.) – July 10
South getting its first major wind farm
Augusta Chronicle (Ga.) – July 12
On a vast tract of old North Carolina farmland, crews are getting ready to build something the South has never seen: a commercial-scale wind energy farm. The $600 million project by Spanish developer Iberdrola Renewables LLC will put 102 turbines on 22,000 acres near the coastal community of Elizabeth City, with plans to add about 50 more. Once up and running, it could generate about 204 megawatts, or enough electricity to power about 60,000 homes. It would be the first large onshore wind farm in a region with light, fluctuating winds that has long been a dead zone for wind power. After a years-long regulatory process that once looked to have doomed the plan, Iberdrola spokesman Paul Copleman told The Associated Press that construction is to begin in about a month. … Still, without renewable energy mandates such as North Carolina’s, the growth could be slow going, experts said. “Quite frankly, often this is driven by customer demand and I don’t really sense consumer demand in the Southeast, particularly in Alabama,” said Clark Midkiff, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Alabama who studies energy issues in the region.
Yahoo! News – July 10
Chattanooga Times-Free Press – July 10
Virginian Pilot – July 10
MyFox Houston (Texas) – July 10
Sauk Valley (Sterling, Ill.) – July 12
Citizen-Times (Asheville, N.C.) – July 12
How a virtual ‘mob boss’ from Texas became the new face of organized crime
The Conversation – July 13
On October 2 2013, after months of extensive joint federal investigations, the FBI arrested Ross William Ulbricht (aka “Dread Pirate Roberts”) for his role in leading a major online criminal enterprise. In May, Ulbricht – now 31 years old – was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted on multiple felony charges in connection with his operation of the Silk Road website, which had become an anonymous black market for drugs and other illegal items. US District Judge Katherine Forrest chose to impose the harshest sentence she could, essentially equating him with a mafia boss in hopes of sending a message to other would-be cyber criminals. As she said during sentencing: The stated purpose [of the Silk Road] was to be beyond the law. In the world you created over time, democracy didn’t exist. You were captain of the ship, the Dread Pirate Roberts. You made your own laws. What you did with Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric. Ulbricht represents the changing face of organized crime. His sentence – considered unduly harsh by some – uncovers the reality that leaders of criminal organizations may no longer resemble a character from The Sopranos. (Diana S Dolliver-Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Cybercrime at University of Alabama).
Law professor says BP settlement a ‘positive’ for Alabama, but questions $1 billion to state’s beleaguered General Fund
Bayou Buzz (Louisiana) – July 13
A settlement between BP and the government represents a “positive” for Alabama, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law said. If there is any criticism about the tentative agreement, it should be directed toward state officials “who somehow got $1 billion directed to the General Fund,” said Montre Carodine, who has commented about the BP settlement to multiple news organizations since it was announced July 2. “That should be a cause of concern,” Carodine said about the $1 billion that will be funneled into the General Fund for the next 18 years. “Who knows what will end up happening to that money. We all know Alabama is in pretty bad financial shape. I don’t know if we can trust that $1 billion will be spent the same way it needs to be spent and that it will go toward some of the necessary repairs on the Gulf.
Tribute for Tom Zeiler, UA professor, to be held Sunday
Tuscaloosa News – July 10
Tom Zeiler played a number of roles around the community. To some, he was an erudite professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics at the University of Alabama. To those who’d catch him after dark in a gregarious mood, he’d be the long-haired, bearded fellow who’d regale you speaking Old English, or holding court, in either feigned or felt high dudgeon, as a self-professed curmudgeon. He was also a connoisseur of music who not only showed at open-mic nights to play, but to support other musicians. So following his unexpected death June 29, friends have mourned how they hope he would have wanted: in song, laying into pieces he loved, especially those by British master Richard Thompson. A video on Youtube shows Zeiler at Egan’s, ripping into Thompson’s “I Feel So Good.” It’s a song about a man balancing the vigor of action within limitations, digging how doing bad can feel so good: “They made me pay for the things I’ve done/Now it’s my turn to have all the fun/Well I feel so good, I’m gonna break somebody’s heart tonight.”
Alliance BioEnergy Plus, Inc. Announces the Addition of J. Palmer (Jim) Brown as President of AMG Energy Group, LLC and the Further Explanation of Its First License Agreement
News.money.ca – July 10
Alliance BioEnergy Plus, Inc. (OTCQB:ALLM) (the “Company”) announced today that J. Palmer (Jim) Brown came on board as the President of Company subsidiary AMG Energy Group, LLC. Jim worked in Aerospace, Light Rail Transit, Automotive and Industrial Design as a General Manager, Project Manager, Engineer and Consultant. Specializing in Startups and Turnarounds, he helped start up the North American operations of two German manufacturing companies and has turned around numerous industrial operations. As the European General Manager of Frog Design, Jim oversaw the concept development, design and engineering of client products in Consumer Electronics, Communications, Medical, and Retail Space. … Jim is a Clinical Professor at the University of Alabama and teaches undergraduate, graduate and executive courses in Innovation Management, Supply Chain Management and Project Management.
Pensacola Bama Club kicks off Scholarship Fundraiser (Live Interview with Jenni Pate Buckley, President of the Pensacola Bama Club)
WALA-Fox (Mobile) – July 10
The Pensacola Bama Club is about to kick-off its biggest scholarship fundraiser of the year. This year’s special guest is none other than Alabama head coach, Nick Saban. Coach Saban will hold an hour-long question and answer session. Jenni Pate Buckley is the club president, and she brought some of the auction items that you can bid on.