Trey Graham, theater critic at the Washington City Paper, is the winner of the 2003-04 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. The award, which carries a $10,000 prize, is administered by the Cornell University Department of English and is one of the most generous and distinguished in the American theater. Graham was selected by a committee consisting of the chairs of the English departments of Cornell, Princeton and Yale universities, assisted by experts on the theater from those universities. The Nathan committee citation reads: "For Trey Graham, the play's the thing. In reviewing classical and contemporary work produced in the Greater Washington D.C. area, he brings a fresh eye both to things we think we know and to things newly-minted. He writes with sensitivity and flair about the individual masterworks of the British and American canon, but he's especially adept at linking these and other works from the past with the best the present has to offer." (December 20, 2004)
In a study to determine how much the public fears terrorism, almost half of respondents polled nationally said they believe the U.S. government should -- in some way -- curtail civil liberties for Muslim Americans, according to a new survey released today (Dec. 17) by Cornell University. (December 17, 2004)
There is a 100 percent chance of sand all along the beaches of Atlantic City, N.J., Christmas morning, but only an 8 percent chance of snow. If you are looking for a White Christmas in the northeastern United States -- or trying to avoid one -- the top spots are the usual suspects: Pinkham Notch, N.H., (with nearly 100 percent chance of snow), Caribou, Maine, and, in New York state, Boonville and Old Forge, according to Keith Eggleston, senior climatologist with Cornell University's Northeast Regional Climate Center A lower probability of snow -- although still at a high 71 percent -- is forecast for Syracuse, N.Y., and Portland, Maine. (December 17, 2004)
Science magazine has chosen the discoveries of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission as Breakthrough of the Year in its Dec. 17 edition, published today. The principal scientific investigator for the mission's twin-rover science program is Steve Squyres, professor of astronomy at Cornell University, assisted by a large team of researchers, 28 of them at Cornell, including 15 students. The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The journal, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, says that its annual top honor is awarded for the mission's discovery of evidence for the prolonged presence of potentially life-supporting, salty, acidic water on the planet's surface. (December 16, 2004)
One of the most-accessed legal Web sites in the world just got better. The Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell University Law School is now offering free details on high-profile cases before they are argued and ruled on by the Supreme Court, including one on medical marijuana (Ashcroft v. Raich), another on restrictions on interstate alcohol sales (Granholm v. Heald) and a third on the constitutionality of executing young people who were under 18 when they committed a capital crime (Roper v. Simmons). Written in an easily understandable style for everyone from journalists to teachers to bright high school students, the analyses of upcoming Supreme Court cases are put together by a team of Cornell Law School students. The goal is to help people who are neither lawyers nor legal scholars grasp the issues at stake and why they are important. (December 16, 2004)
On Oct. 7, Rui Hai Liu, M.D., an associate professor of food science at Cornell University, and his colleagues in Cornell's Department of Food Science published an article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry titled "Varietal differences in phenolic content and antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of onions." The article reported on research indicating that onion types vary in antioxidant and antiproliferation activity which inhibits liver and colon cancer cell growth. One of the most active types was from New York state. (December 16, 2004)
If you're looking for a holiday gift for girls 8 to 12 -- and can't face buying yet another Barbie -- take a look at http://www.girls-explore.com. There you'll find realistic-looking dolls that are active role models for girls. They are shaped and garbed to look like aviator Amelia Earhart, painter Mary Cassatt, softball Olympian Dot Richardson, black abolitionist Harriet Tubman and four other female achievers, with more to come. "These women were determined, overcame obstacles and gave back to society in many different ways," says Randy Allen, who launched Girls Explore&tm; this fall after discovering no appropriate items on toy-store shelves for her nieces. A former executive who is now consultant-in-residence and senior lecturer at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, she added: "The purpose of the line of dolls and their accoutrements is not only to give girls positive role models based on contemporary and historical women but also to provide historical information and recommended books to the girls and their parents." (December 14, 2004)
Spring is arriving up to a week earlier than it did 40 years ago in response to a warming trend in the U.S. Northeast, Cornell University researchers are reporting. They base their conclusion on a study of historical bloom-date records for lilacs, apples and grapes, which suggests that nature's calendar is changing due to an increase in greenhouse gases. In one of the first documented cases that plants in the Northeast are responding to climate change, the Cornell scientists and their colleagues at the University of Wisconsin say that lilacs are blooming about four days earlier, and apples and grapes six to eight days earlier, than in 1965. The findings in the study -- the first to encompass the U.S. Northeast -- are consistent with similar reports in other regions of the United States and in Europe. (December 13, 2004)
Do New Yorkers understand New York politics? Fuhgeddaboutit. More than 70 percent of New York state residents feel that Albany's politics are too complicated to understand, according to this year's 2004 New York State Empire Poll of state residents, conducted by the Survey Research Institute at Cornell University. (December 10, 2004)
Cornell University has announced that 19 of its undergraduate students will receive a scholarship for up to four years -- the 2004 Howard Milstein Scholarship in Arts and Sciences -- based on academic accomplishment and financial need. The annual scholarship, funded by a gift from Cornell alumnus Howard Milstein, was established in 2000 to enhance the Cornell College of Arts and Sciences' ability to attract and enroll some of the world's most intellectually able students. (December 9, 2004)
Wanted, dead or alive: the brown-marmorated stink bug. "We are asking homeowners in the Pacific Northwest to be on the lookout for these bugs, and if they think they have found any, to collect them.
