UO E-clips, May 24-27

We’ve lost sight of the true meaning of Memorial Day (Register-Guard): Devastation swept over our country after it had been divided by deep moral and regional conflicts. Epidemics, guerrilla warfare and food shortages enveloped the countryside. In four years of fighting, more than 600,000 people died. Cities were burned and an entire economy ruined. How did people cope? The answer to this question is Memorial Day. ... University of Oregon history professor Matthew Dennis, author of “Red, White and Blue Letter Days,” says there are four main reasons for the phenomenon.

At UO, arena seats trump freshmen beds (The Oregonian): At the same time the University of Oregon is plowing $245 million into a new basketball arena and its underground parking garage, the university has informed 800 incoming freshmen that it can't find or afford housing for them on campus. Does anyone else find that painfully ironic . . . I mean, other than the freshmen who've been told there's no room at the residence hall? University President Dave Frohnmayer has long argued that the spirited campaign for new athletic facilities will not jeopardize the university's ability to "meet the needs of students in the twenty-first century."

Springfield construction site turns up mystery skeleton (Associated Press): A backhoe operator recently turned up an unmarked grave at a construction site in Springfield. Now anthropologists from the University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History are piecing together clues to learn more about the bones. They say the skeleton is male, and a row of old-fashioned square-cut nails found near the skeleton indicates the burial probably happened before the nails went out of general use around 1920. The site was once owned by William Stevens, an early pioneer settler in what would become Springfield. The anthropologists say the grave may clarify information about pioneer life not made clear in journals and historical documents. But they say their ultimate goal is figuring out who the person is, and then finding relatives to determine what they wish to do with the remains.

Academics reveal sci-fi film they think comes closest to our future (Western Mail): Between hover cars, mind control and robotic servants, Hollywood hasn’t got a great track record when it comes to predictions about the future. But while the outlandish depictions of years to come featured on the silver screen have, more often than not, been less fact and more fiction, they haven’t all been wide of the mark. … Stephen Hsu, professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oregon, said: “There is every reason to believe that technology will someday permit us to genetically engineer human-like life forms like the ‘replicants’ in Blade Runner.

Origin of cells for connective tissues of skull and face challenged (Hindu News Update Service): With improved resolution, tissue-specific molecular markers and precise timing, University of Oregon biologist James A. Weston and colleagues have possibly overturned a long-standing assumption about the origin of embryonic cells that give rise to connective and skeletal tissues that form the base of the skull and facial structures in back-boned creatures from fish to humans, according to Eurekalert, the news service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.