Today's News Thursday July 26, 2012
Featured
Land Grant 150th: A time to learn the U's history
During the Civil War, an act geared to expand higher education was signed into federal law. On Friday, a celebration of the 150-year anniversary of the Morrill Act evoked reflections of the University of Minnesota’s history from students, faculty and alumni.
Minnesota Daily
http://www.mndaily.com/2012/07/25/land-grant-150th-time-learn-u%E2%80%99s-history
University's Medical Devices Center gets $1 million grant
A million-dollar grant is awarded to the University of Minnesota to expand one of its facilities. Awarded by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, the grant will be used to expand the university's Medical Devices Center, which has outgrown its current space. The facility turns research ideas into marketable products.
Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/163711606.html
Star Tribune (update)
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/163875086.html
MedCity News
http://medcitynews.com/2012/07/state-gives-1m-grant-to-university-of-minnesota-to-expand-medical-devices-center/
MPR
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/07/25/education/grant-medical-device-center/
Research
Minnesota researcher can help make fairer fight against invasive species
No one can accuse Peter Sorensen of being timid. He proposed a world-class invasive species research center at the University of Minnesota to fight zebra mussels, Asian carp and other critters that have invaded and threaten Minnesota waters. Then he convinced tightfisted politicians to fork over $12.5 million to fund it over the next six years.
Sacramento Bee
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/25/4658291/minnesota-researcher-can-help.html
Researchers seek Mendota Heights grave of MN capitol construction worker
Seven men died building the Minnesota State Capitol, completed in 1905. John Corrigan, about 20 years old at the time, was the seventh, and researchers from the University of Minnesota believe his grave is somewhere in Mendota Heights. The team is putting a call out to the community in hopes of finding it.
Mendota Heights Patch
http://mendotaheights.patch.com/articles/researchers-seek-mendota-heights-grave-of-mn-capitol-construction-worker
Business and Politics
How Aadhaar's Massive ID Project Could Transform The Indian Banking Industry
India’s unique identification project, Aadhaar, is gaining traction--and that's a boon for the country's banking industry. In a recent study the economists Arun Sundararajan of NYU’s Stern school and Ravi Bapna of Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota noted that the program has been successful in enrolling Indians who didn’t have any form of ID at all. These newly registered Indians have until now been excluded from banking services, government aid, and numerous other facilities that demanded identification.
Fast Company
http://www.fastcompany.com/1843144/aadhaar-banking?partner=rss
People and Lifestyle
Swimming anyone? Lake Superior water temps warmest in a century
74.8 degrees is the surface water temp on Lake Superior near Duluth this morning. 70s are water temps along the North Shore from Duluth all the way to Grand Marais. "It's pretty safe to say that what we're seeing here is the warmest that we've seen in Lake Superior in a century," said Jay Austin, a professor at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, who has researched the lake's water temperatures back to the beginning of the 20th century.
MPR
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/updraft/archive/2012/07/balmy_70s_2012_lake_superior_w.shtml
Downtown Minneapolis is seen as drowning in a sea of parking lots
Minneapolis will evaluate at least 140 parking lots, which officials say stunt area's growth. The parking lots multiplied after World War II, when Minneapolis and other American cities pursued policies hostile to urban development and friendly to suburbanization, said Tom Fisher, dean of the College of Design at University of Minnesota. Many of downtown's buildings were torn down to make way for parking, he said, noting the Nicollet Hotel was razed two decades ago for one of the parking lots next to the library.
Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/163640936.html
Has File-Sharing Hurt the Quality of Music? The Debate Rages On
The economist Joel Waldfogel, of the University of Minnesota, has argued that file-sharing has not, in fact, hurt the quality of music produced since its advent. He sums up his case saying evidence shows that program directors and the record-buying public find the vintages since 1999 more appealing than the vintages before.
The Wall Street Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2012/07/24/has-file-sharing-hurt-the-quality-of-music-the-debate-rages-on/
'Darwinian Agriculture' explains how evolution can improve agriculture
The largest drought in 50 years has severely damaged much of the nation's "corn belt" and is threatening the viability of Minnesota's 2012 corn crop. While an extreme, this summer's condition is a reminder of a larger challenge facing agriculture – to use limited resources like water in an effective and sustainable manner. R. Ford Denison, an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, seeks to address these challenges through the dual prism of science and nature in his new book, Darwinian Agriculture: How Understanding Evolution Can Improve Agriculture.
Phys Org
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-darwinian-agriculture-evolution.html
Commentary and Opinion
Repeal health care law? Forget about it
On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office added another reason to drop the politics and get down to the hard work of health care reform. The nonpartisan organization released a report that finds the cost of repealing the reform will balloon government deficits by $109 billion between 2013 and 2022. Co-authored by Lawrence Jacobs, a professor and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota.
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/25/opinion/ario-jacobs-aca/index.html