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UO E-clips, Feb. 6
Top stories for February 6, 2009: UO to announce 'major gift' for new arena, reports the Associated Press; 'Knit, purl, medulla oblongata' is the partial headline a story about artwork on the brain in The Scientist in which the UO's Bill Harbaugh and Marjorie Taylor; the Salem Statesman Journal reports that the economy may sideline climate-change plan in a story covering a joint meeting of state Senate and House environmental committees in which the UO's Bob Doppelt talked about the cost of the state's taking no action; the nation's sour economy is not dampening moves toward green products and related jobs, reports the Washington Times in coverage of a UO event in Portland; KVAL-TV reports on state approval of a stimulus package, which will benefit the UO; and UO business instructor Tim Berry writes in U.S. News & World Report that the recession means we're back to bootstrapping basics
Oregon to announce 'major gift' for new arena (Associated Press, appearing in the Oregonian): The University of Oregon is ready for a groundbreaking ceremony for its $227 basketball arena and plans to announce a "major gift" for it. The university said in a statement the ceremony Saturday would not be open to the public because of space limits. Basketball games will move from McArthur Court to the new, 12,500-seat arena by 2011. It is to be named for Matthew Knight, son of Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny. Matthew Knight died in a scuba diving accident in El Salvador in 2004. Among the guests Saturday will be retired Rear Adm. John Dick of Eugene, a member of Oregon's 1939 Tall Firs national championship basketball team, the university said.
Knit, purl, medulla oblongata: The warp and weft of weaving yarn into brains (The Scientist): In the mid-1990s, child psychiatrist Karen Norberg was working the night shift in a hospital emergency room, and she was struggling to stay attentive during the frequent evening lulls. So she turned to a tried and tested hobby for whiling away long hours: knitting. She wasn't fashioning sweaters or darning socks, however. Instead, she harked back to her training in neuroscience. "I decided that a particularly absurd thing to do would be to knit a brain," she said. Once she started, she couldn't stop. The knitting migrated from a late-night time-killer to an after-work obsession. … Norberg's knitted brain sat in her kitchen on a small, exhibit stand for around a decade, until she took the piece along with her to a seminar given by Bill Harbaugh, a University of Oregon neuroeconomist. As it turned out, Harbough's wife, Marjorie Taylor, was also a scientist by day and a neuro-anatomical fabric artist by night. Taylor's medium of choice, however, was quilting. Taylor used velvet to portray the folds of the cerebral cortex, depicted PET scans linked to speech recognition using a special cut-out quilting method ("PET scans really lend themselves to reverse appliqué," according to Taylor), and is currently working on a traditional Nova Scotian rug that shows fMRI activation images. Our niche is that we're really trying to be scientifically accurate to the extent that you can be when working with fabric," Taylor, a psychologist at the University of Oregon, told The Scientist.
Economy may sideline climate-change plan (Statesman Journal): In the debate regarding Gov. Ted Kulongoski's climate change legislation, both sides are using the economic downturn to their own advantage. … Bob Doppelt, the director of the University of Oregon's Climate Leadership Initiative, said that preliminary results of a business-as-usual approach to climate change showed that wildland fire losses and costs will be $214 million annually by 2020 and rise to $974 million by 2080.
Green products, jobs growing (Washington Times): Consumers who may be blue over the deepening economic crisis remain loyal to purchasing green products as demand continues amid an emerging green jobs market. A new study set for release on Friday at a first Greenwashing Forum at the University of Oregon, where green industry watchdogs from across the nation are gathered this week, found that four of five consumers continue to buy products that claim to be easy on Mother Earth.
Stimulus package clears Oregon legislature (KVAL.com ): An Oregon stimulus plan that aims to create jobs in the state's slowing economy passed the state legislature Thursday and was quickly signed by the governor. The $175 million spending plan invests money in public works projects around the state. The goal is to put Oregonians to work by funding construction and maintenance projects. That in turn is supposed to create around 3,000 new jobs. In Lane County, Lane Community College will receive $8 million to fund work on a health center and other deferred maintenance. The University of Oregon will receive $2 million for building projects.
Recession means back to bootstrapping basics (U.S News and World Report article by Tim Berry, UO business instructor): Hooray for bootstrapping. While lots of would-be Neros fiddle, Rome burns. Economic stimulus gets stuck in partisan traffic -- pork, or not -- and, meanwhile, the job ticker goes steadily down and a credit crunch continues. The New York Times reported the other day that angel investors are pulling back. And U.S. News's Matthew Bandyk posted yesterday on how venture capitalists are taking a beating. The Small Business Administration backed way fewer business loans last year than the year before.