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Web site cuts through political spin
President George W. Bush accuses Democratic Senator John Kerry of casting 98 Senate votes to increase taxes. John Kerry says new jobs being created on the Bush administration’s watch are paying workers $9,000 less than old ones. Are these statements true, or are they simply political spin designed to win votes? According to the people at the nonpartisan organization Annenberg Political Fact Check and its web site, www.factcheck.org, it’s the latter.
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Bookquick/“Debt for Sale: A Social History of the Credit Trap”
After September 11, 2001, ordinary Americans were urged to shop. Patriotic shopping would thwart terrorists, celebrate public life and pull us back from the abyss of recession, we were told. But we knew that we could not really save America by shopping: Too many of us carried too much debt.
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The fine art of sleep
Hans Van Dongen spends his waking hours thinking about sleep. Or, to be more accurate, lack of sleep. An expert on sleep deprivation and how it affects the way we make it through the day, Van Dongen, a research associate professor of sleep and chronobiology in Penn’s School of Medicine, also knows more than most people about the biological clock. His current research involves studying the effects of both sleep loss and jet lag on astronauts.
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New site shines light on Penn arts
In the last few years Penn’s web presence has changed dramatically. First there was the complete overhaul of the University’s main web site, designed to make virtual visits to the campus more user friendly. On the heels of that initiative came a new site called Research at Penn, which drew attention to the University’s leadership role in research. Now comes a site that shines a spotlight on Penn’s rich and varied arts and culture offerings.
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Return of the minute-long treatise
Daniel Janzen says most of the world is plant illiterate. That is, people can’t read nature. And, as a result, most of us don’t know enough about the natural world to make any sense of it. “ If you couldn’t read, that library over there would just be a stone cave full of firewood,” Janzen, a biology professor and biodiversity expert in the Department of Biology, told his audience at the first of this fall’s 60-Second Lectures. “Well, 5.5 billion people in the world can’t read this,” Janzen added, picking up a plant. In the not-so-distant future, he said, that will change.
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Out & About: Trees made simple
It wasn’t long after Timothy Block and Ann Fowler Rhoads had published a comprehensive guide to Pennsylvania’s plants—“The Plants of Pennsylvania” (Penn Press, 2000)—that the duo realized their work was only half done. Four years and more than a few long nights later, the pair has finally finished work on the follow-up book they knew they had to write—“Trees of Pennsylvania” (Penn Press, 2004), a comprehensive guide to Pennsylvania’s more than 200 known tree species. It sounds like too many trees to take in in just one day.
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E-learning hasn’t lived up to the hype
Interest in e-learning soared in the 1990s, when it was praised as a revolutionary way for students to participate in global communities from kindergarten to higher education. E-learning—educational content provided through emerging technology—promised students quick feedback on papers and course work for substantially lower costs than using books. Companies planned to use it to teach new skills to employees, and adults who wanted to finish their baccalaureate and graduate education could now do so online.
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At Work With...Shavonne Gadson
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The Battle of Philadelphia
Villanova ranks in the Top 10 in the Division I-AA football poll and is positioning itself for a run at the national championship. Penn is coming off an Ivy League championship run in 2003 and is considered the favorite to win another in 2004. But after these cross-town rivals battle at Franklin Field on Sept. 25, only one team will walk away unscathed.
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Artist Pepón Osorio gives ICA extreme makeover
Even the show’s co-curator Ingrid Schaffner admits that the first impression of ICA’s new exhibit is hardly inviting. “At the same time that you’re looking into the space,” says ICA’s senior curator, “you kind of want to run away.” That’s because right in front of you, almost blocking the entrance to the gallery, is a vast metal cage filled with boxes, pieces of furniture, the occasional kid’s bicycle, several TVs and a few floor lamps. It looks like the cast off belongings of a dozen families. And that’s exactly what it is.