UO E-clips, Feb. 26

Testy teens? It's all in their head (The Oregonian): Science has identified what any parent might have guessed: Teenagers' brains contain a wellspring of back talk and attitude. Blame the amygdala, a brain structure that's a center of emotional drive, which is larger than average in teenagers who are most prone to arguing with their parents. … University of Oregon neuroscientist Michael Posner said the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirms and extends previous findings. "What's been lacking is studies that show these effects in a natural context," Posner said.

Housing slide mows down 5,900 construction jobs (The Oregonian): A year ago, Bend concrete contractor Tim Sullivan poured eight or 10 foundations a month and managed as many workers. Now Sullivan, a 53-year-old construction veteran, employs only himself, when he can. Asked how many projects he handles, he chuckles. "It's hard to count," he says, "when there's not much to count." … Building permits, which provide a view into the near future, have plunged. Permits for privately owned housing units halved from December 2005 to December 2007, dropping from 2,181 to 1,093, said economist Timothy Duy, University of Oregon adjunct assistant professor.

New helmet liners could keep soldiers safe and cool (KVAL.com): Local researchers are working to help soldiers in Iraq, who not only face the dangers of explosives. But also the dangers of over-heating in the desert. We first told you about the new helmets last year when O.S.U. researchers tested them on mannequins, but now University of Oregon researchers are taking the next step, by trying the helmet on real live army cadets. It's a long way from Iraq, but this is the training ground that could save a soldiers life.

Consumers can check integrity of green brands (KATU.com): The cottage industry of green products has finally gone mainstream, with major corporations now churning out products they say are better for you and the Earth. But are they really? Kimberly Sheehan, an associate professor at the University of Oregon, says marketing companies are trying to tap into the growing wave of environmental and health consciousness by branding products as "green" while the products or companies themselves are not quite what most would call "environmentally friendly."

Weighing costs: Can students support the rec center? (Daily Emerald): Last year, the Student Recreation Center's perpetual debt was revealed during Programs Finance Committee budget hearings, even though it has been in debt since it opened in 1999. Traditionally funded through student fees, in fall 2007 the University administration decided an institutional fee would fund the rec center instead. Student oversight of the rec center budget now falls to an advisory committee, which has existed since the rec center opened, but that at least one member has publicly criticized as lacking any real power. Despite student government efforts to fill the rec center's debt last year, it will end the fiscal year with a projected $100,000 deficit.

California sociology professor Scott Coltrane hired as CAS dean; will start July 1 (Daily Emerald): The University has hired a California sociology professor and administrator as its next College of Arts and Sciences dean, Provost Linda Brady announced Wednesday. Scott Coltrane, currently associate dean of the University of California, Riverside's College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, will start his new position July 1. In a campus visit last month, Coltrane emphasized supporting faculty and working in the best interest of their departments. "Scott has a compelling vision for the liberal arts and sciences that is essential to sustaining academic quality at the University of Oregon," Brady said in a statement.

Ken Kesey's family fights for wrestling (Associated Press): Before Ken Kesey wrote "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," or stocked a psychedelic school bus with LSD and the Merry Pranksters to look for America, he was a wrestler. He might never have written "Cuckoo's Nest," the 1962 novel that launched him to stardom, if he hadn't dislocated his shoulder wrestling for the University of Oregon. The injury kept him out of the draft, allowing him to go to Wallace Stegner's writing seminar at Stanford University, where his job at the local veterans hospital gave him the setting for "Cuckoo's Nest" and the prototype for mean Nurse Ratched.

'Save wrestling at Oregon' (Associated Press): appearing in the East Oregonian, in its entirety): George Walker, one of the original Merry Pranksters who joined author Ken Kesey on their celebrated psychedelic bus trip across America in 1964, joins a demonstration last week aboard the latest incarnation of the bus on the campus of the University of Oregon. The spirit of Kesey has been invoked by a campaign to convince the school to reverse its decision to drop wrestling, a sport Kesey loved.