Where did peppers originate? Why are some hot and some not? Why don't all peppers look alike? What are the benefits of eating peppers? Answers to these and other burning questions can be found at the Cornell Plantations' Pounder Heritage Vegetable Garden, where special displays -- and plantings that are now in fruit -- demonstrate the history, genetic diversity and importance of peppers. (September 19, 2003)
Cornell Plantations is offering a $300 reward for information leading to the arrest of the individual or individuals responsible for the theft of three container plantings from the patio in front of the Plantations gift shop during the weekend of September 13-14. The theft was reported by the staff of Cornell Plantations, which is part of the Cornell University campus. One pot contained a six-foot-tall banana tree (Ensete vintricosum 'Maurelii') with large reddish-purple leaves. A second container housed a large agave (Agave Americana x scabra 'Gainsville Blue'), more than two feet tall, with thick blueish leaves and black spines. And the third contained a cycad (Cycas revoluta) with leathery, fern-like green leaves spiraling from a central cone-like base. (September 17, 2003)
As Hurricane Isabel churns in the middle Atlantic and takes aim at the East Coast, the storm's track on Thursday through Friday lies directly through the heart of the Northeast.
Due to the large number of traffic infractions cited and observed by the Cornell University Police during National Stop on Red Week at the beginning of September, Cornell Police will extend this "zero tolerance" enforcement effort at least through Sept. 30. Cornell Police has been participating in National Stop on Red Week 2003, a law-enforcement program dedicated to educating American motorists about the dangers of running red lights, by fielding New York state-funded selective traffic enforcement patrols on campus. A zero-tolerance policy has been maintained for such infractions as going through red lights, running stop signs and failing to yield the right of way to pedestrians at crosswalks. (September 17, 2003)
Khaled Abou El Fadl, recently appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom by President George W. Bush, will deliver a free public talk titled "Islam and Human Rights" Friday, Sept. 19, at 5 p.m. in Auditorium D of Goldwin Smith Hall on the Cornell University campus. Abou El Fadl, a visiting professor at Yale Law School and professor of law at the University of California-Los Angeles, is one of the leading authorities in Islamic law in the United States and Europe. He teaches Islamic law, Middle Eastern investment law, immigration law and courses related to human rights and terrorism. He also works with various human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and the Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights. (September 17, 2003)
Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America since 1995, will be the keynote speaker at the closing banquet for the Engineers Without Frontiers USA (EWF-USA) first national conference Sept. 17-20 at Cornell University. Offenheiser, who is a Cornell graduate, will speak Sept. 20 at the Clarion Hotel near the Cornell campus (the public is invited to attend his talk, which will begin at about 8 p.m., without charge). Boston-based Oxfam America is part of an international confederation of 12 organizations cooperating to combat suffering and poverty in more than 100 countries. (September 16, 2003)
Süleyman Demirel, the former president and four-time premier of Turkey, will give a public lecture Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 8 p.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall at Cornell University. He will speak on "Turkish-U.S. Relations: New Political Landscape of the Middle East since the Collapse of the U.S.S.R." The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is part of Demirel's three-day visit to Cornell, during which he will meet faculty and administrators to acquaint them with Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Project, known as GAP, for Guneydogu Anadolu Projesi. The visit will involve discussions of possible joint initiatives involving Cornell, the State University of New York system and the Turkish Higher Education Council. (September 16, 2003)
Cornell University's Department of Food Science announced that Crowley Foods Inc. of Albany, N.Y., with a score of 90.6 out of a possible 100, is the producer of the highest quality milk in New York state for 2003. Upstate Farms of Buffalo came in second place with a score of 87.9. Rounding out the top five high-quality milk producers in the state were: Stewarts Processing Corp. of Saratoga Springs, Parmalat/Sunnydale Farms of Brooklyn and Wendt's Dairy of Niagara Falls. The selection is part of the New York State Milk Quality Improvement Program and is sponsored by the New York Milk Promotion Order. Analytical testing is done at Cornell. (September 15, 2003)
Cutberto Garza, professor and former director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, has been reapppointed director of the division.