Today's News Weekend Edition: Monday, February 4, 2013
Business and Politics
Energy policy: 2013 outlook
Energy policy is always a front-burner issue in the U.S., igniting partisan battles and debates between environmental groups, utilities, and energy industry vendors. It's a challenge to orchestrate, but at the same time it's an opportunity to build a better, more reliable energy future. Massoud Amin, a member of IEEE's Energy Policy Committee and a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota, sees environmental and energy security as the nexus of national and economic security.
Fierce Energy
http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/energy-policy-2013-outlook/2013-01-28
Could a smart grid have prevented the Super Bowl blackout?
Yesterday, fans in New Orleans' Superdome sat in the dark for 34 minutes after the electricity mysteriously went out. There's not much reason to think that New Orleans's efforts to conserve energy had much to do with the blackout. But the infrastructure question is more interesting: could better infrastructure — a smart grid, say — have kept the lights on? Massoud Amin of the University of Minnesota offers expertise.
Washington Post (blog)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/04/could-a-smart-grid-have-prevented-the-super-bowl-blackout/
Sandy and the smart grid, who won?
As Hurricane Sandy made landfall along the New Jersey shore at 8 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 29, its storm surge and 80 mph winds submerged power substations and underground power lines, knocked down trees, flattened homes, ignited fires and spread chaos. One potential bright spot, however, is that Hurricane Sandy brought renewed attention to the critical nature of electricity in a digital economy and the challenges of infrastructure hardening and resilience of the 21st century. Massoud Amin, an IEEE senior member and professor of electrical and computer engineering at the U of M, comments.
Intelligent Utility
http://www.intelligentutility.com/magazine/article/300329/sandy-and-smart-grid-who-won
Health act working way through Legislature
Lawmakers are ironing out the details of Minnesota's new marketplace for health coverage — an exchange that’s expected to have almost a million Minnesota users in its first year. Lynn Blewett, director of the University of Minnesota's State Health Access Data Assistance Center, adds insight.
Minnesota Daily
http://www.mndaily.com/2013/02/04/health-act-working-way-through-leg
The many uses of big data
For decades, technology enthusiasts have labored to impress upon us the perfectly enormous giganticness of the ocean of digital information in which we moderns swim: If the Internet as it existed in 1993 were Windsor Castle, how many Libraries of Congress would fit into just one of its broom closets? And so on. Multiple University of Minnesota professors offer insight.
Twin Cities Business
http://tcbmag.com/Industries/Technology/The-Many-Uses-of-Big-Data?page=1
People and Lifestyle
Why our flu vaccines can't keep up
Michael Osterholm, School of Public Health, is featured in an article to explain why our flu vaccines can't keep up.
Boston Globe
http://bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/02/03/why-our-flu-vaccines-can-keep/SAZCYJcc3tiaKifJcJrSgI/story.html
Norovirus spreads across nation
For students with stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhea, University of Minnesota experts want to remind them the flu isn't the culprit. A new strain of the norovirus — typically misnamed the “stomach flu” — has been spreading throughout the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gary Christenson, Boynton’s chief medical officer, comments on the norovirus.
Minnesota Daily
http://www.mndaily.com/2013/02/04/norovirus-spreads-across-nation
Commentary and Opinion
Obama's visit: What Minnesota offers to the debate on gun violence
Eric P. Schwartz, a professor and dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, authored an article today on Minnesota's role in the debate on gun violence.
MinnPost
http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2013/02/obamas-visit-what-minnesota-offers-debate-gun-violence
Down the drain and into our lakes
A landmark study led by U of M civil engineering professor Bill Arnold and funded by Minnesota lottery dollars has sounded a new and serious environmental alarm about the widespread use of triclosan, an antibacterial agent that winds up in waterways after consumers rinse off the soap and myriad other products it's in.
Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/189451681.html
Updates and Events
University of Minnesota to give honorary degree to Nobel Prize-winning economist Sargent
Thomas Sargent will receive the degree Monday — after he presents a lecture about monetary unions. Sargent was a longtime faculty member at the University of Minnesota and is currently a professor at New York University.
The Republic
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/f3df83247d8a40c2bcd4af7f5ab95316/MN--Nobel-Prize-Winner-Degree
UMPD trains for active shooter
With several high-profile mass public shootings in the past year, higher education officials are evaluating how prepared they are for a possible attack. A recent survey found that a quarter of campus security officials reported their schools are unprepared for an active shooter. University of Minnesota police Deputy Chief Chuck Miner said his department is fully prepared for such an attack.
Minnesota Daily
http://www.mndaily.com/2013/02/04/umpd-trains-active-shooter
The "Living on the Land" workshop series, offered by University of Minnesota Extension
The eight-week course is designed to arm landowners with agricultural information to enable them to be good stewards of their land. The course will begin with goal-setting and individual property inventory, then address soil, plant, water and animal basics.
Southernminn.com
http://www.southernminn.com/the_kenyon_leader/news/article_838a1f73-035f-5609-83d8-7749f04f5b07.html
Giving kids a smile
More than 200 children showed up for "Give Kids a Smile Day" on Saturday, February 2, 2013, at Moos Tower. Give Kids a Smile Day is an annual event where students, staff and faculty provide free oral health care to low-income children.
Minnesota Daily
http://www.mndaily.com/multimedia/slideshows/2013/02/04/giving-kids-smile