The New York Post: "Old intellectual feats like doing anagrams or crossword puzzles may be dying off, but new ones are replacing them. Look at hacking. Or just doing research"--Earl Conee, associate professor of philosophy, as quoted in a report that asked philosophers if they believed the Internet was dumbing down the world.

Conee suggests that skills in sorting may qualify as the smarts of the 21st century. Answers to all kinds of questions are out there on the Net, just waiting to be found, he says. "The challenge is knowing which route to take."

Dallas Morning News: "Most of them are doing it just to say they did--'If there's another mountain, I've got to climb it'"--Computer scientist Michael Scott, speculating on what motivates the perps who create computer viruses.

USA Today: "You can't use hot weather as a come-on or substitute for contraception"--Grace Centola, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, issuing a caution about her study that found men's fertility declining significantly (by 41 percent) during the summer months.

Warmer temperatures may be the culprit, Centola says. But she cautions that hot weather doesn't render men infertile. "They're just not as fertile," she says.

London Daily Telegraph: "The brain does an awful lot behind the scenes"--Visual scientist Austin Roorda, who, with Rochester colleague David Williams, earlier this year mapped the topography of the inner eye with the greatest precision to date.

Their work showed that various areas of our retinas are blind to one color or another. We are, however, unaware of the gaps because the brain fills in for the omissions.

Kansas City Star: "It's a wonderful form of mild exercise and it could have potential benefits"--Nancy Watson, School of Nursing researcher, referring to the benefits that can be derived from the use of rocking chairs.

Watson is the author of a study indicating that rocking away in Grandma's old chair may release endorphins, pain-relieving chemicals in the brain. The Star's article noted the recent introduction of old-fashioned rocking chairs in two unlikely venues--the airports in Columbia, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina.

The New York Times: "It's a tough issue. On one hand, many companies recognize it's part of what we have to do to be competitive. On the other hand, they recognize they are setting up potential conflicts of interest"--Cynthia McGuire Dunn '81, '85M (MD), director of the Clinical Research Institute at the Medical Center, pointing out sticky problems in doctor-patient relationships that can arise when drug companies fund research by private physicians.

Baltimore Sun: "There are states . . . where not to have been born there or lived there would be an absolute handicap. I don't think New York is one of them"--Richard Fenno, the William Kenan Professor of Political Science, commenting on the upcoming New York Senatorial race.

New Yorkers' self-image may have something to do with it, speculates another political observer: "Part of it is New York arrogance. We're the capital of the universe. You want to be pope? Come on in."

Maintained by University Public Relations
Please send your comments and suggestions to:
Rochester Review.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]