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Volume 54, Number 8   October 5, 2005         

    Announcements    Events    News    Newsmakers

Newsmakers

Video at the speed of light
ABC7 News reported on a Sept. 27 demo at SFSU of the first ever international transmission of super high-definition (SHD) 4K digital video. The video was transmitted over an ultra fast optical network, and is a project of a consortium that includes SFSU's Institute for Next Generation Internet. "Downloading now is a function of the limited capacity of this [current] Internet," said Joaquin Alvarado, director of academic programs for the College of Extended Learning, "[With] the speeds that we're talking about downloading will not be something we worry about anymore."

Unsettled by signs
Mitchell Marks
, associate professor of management, contributed to a Sept. 27 ABC7 News story on the recent drop in consumer confidence. Marks said that events like the recent hurricanes and the spike in oil prices have a large affect on consumers. "Cumulatively they begin to think 'Wow what's the pattern here?' And they start looking for more signs," he said. "And unfortunately when people look out for this kind of thing, they look at the glass [as] half empty."

Restoring eel grass
An ABC7 News broadcast on Sept. 22 featured Romberg Tiburon Center researcher and biology Professor Katharyn Boyer's San Francisco Bay eel grass restoration project. The piece documented Boyer and her team of researchers and students as they harvested eelgrass from a patch along the Alameda coastline. The seeds they collect are destined for a barren site on the Marin County side of San Francisco Bay. "The eel grass helps to clean the water by its blades moving back and forth through the water column, causing the sediment particles to drop out," Boyer said. The project is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and CalTrans. Boyer and her team hope to see the eel grass, a key spawning habitat for bay herring, sprout up in the previously barren areas as early as next spring.

Uniform design
According to the Sept. 15 edition of the San Mateo County Times, Connie Ulasewicz, associate professor of consumer and family studies, designed new uniforms for girls at Hillcrest Juvenile Hall. The girls now wear pink polo shirts instead of baggy orange T-shirts. "As more girls are getting into the system, no one has really looked at what they really need," said Ulasewicz. "If they feel better about themselves, that helps them get out (of juvenile hall)." Ulasewicz was interested in designing the uniforms because of a study she did on the social psychology of clothing.

Taking the ball and going home
The performance of Kansas City's MLB and NFL teams could affect voters' desire to approve the use of public funds for stadium projects, reports the Kansas City Star in a Sept. 11 article. Jules Tygiel, professor of history, said voters won't necessarily be convinced by the teams' threats to leave the area if voters don't approve the projects. "Los Angeles has lost two football teams, but it doesn’t seem any worst for it," he said.

Morrison meets Metallica
The Morrison Artists Series' 50th season received coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle and Contra Costa Times. San Francisco Chronicle music critic Joshua Kosman called the series "one of the Bay Area's best-kept cultural secrets" in a Sept. 7 article. The series kicked off with a benefit that included a performance by the classical quartet Flux; Kirk Hammett, the lead guitarist with the heavy-metal band Metallica; and Saul Gropman, director of the Morrison Artists Series. "We've been trying to get away from the staid, traditional format of chamber music concerts because we're losing audience members to age," Gropman said in the Sept. 7 article. "Chamber music is too easily seen as blue-hair stuff. That's why we have to get even more creative while maintaining the integrity of the series."

For more SFSU people and programs in the news, see the SFSU in the News page on SF State News.

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Last modified October 3, 2005, by the Office of Public Affairs & Publications