monday, february 23, 2004
news
the university daily kansan
3A
FCC chairman speaks on technology
By Anna Clovis
aclovis@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
When a blackout shut down all the electronic equipment in his house, Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said his son didn't know what to do.
Powell suggested he read a book or go outside and play. Instead, he saw his son and his son's friend walk toward Powell's Lincoln Navigator with the keys, popcorn and some DVDs.
"There is an expectation now of being 'plugged-in' at all times," Powell said.
Powell spoke about the importance of meeting that demand to more than 100 people on Friday at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics.
Powell was the featured speaker at the day-long Kansas
Rural Broadband and Telemedicine Summit. The summit brought together telecommunications companies such as SBC and Cox Cable with legislators and researchers to discuss broadband use in rural areas.
Powell said he was optimistic about the future of communications. He said the advancements through the years in technology provided people new tools to work with.
Powell
"We've tried to solve our nation's communication problem with a flat screwdriver, stringing copper wire across the land," Powell said. "Now our tool box has a lot of cool, new stuff in it."
"My dad bought me a typewriter when I was younger with the hope that it would advance my future." Powell said. "I hope that these laptops will advance their futures."
Powell also discussed new ways in which communications technology can be used. He used telemedicine and homeland security as two examples.
Powell used himself and his family as an example of the types of technology people had access to. He said in his home his family had six televisions with direct satellite and TiVo, DSL and cordless and cellular phones. He said all of his children have laptop computers.
He said that telemedicine, the use of broadband with medicine, could allow patients in rural areas to receive treatment and consultation from home without having to make a trip to a faraway doctor.
With homeland security he said the premium was to respond quickly, and broadband could help us do that.
Rep. Tom Sloan (R-Lawrence), the primary sponsor of the event, invited Powell to speak.
Jenny Ternes, Peck junior works for Sloan and attended Friday's event. She said that it was important that Powell spoke at the University.
Before the conference, Sloan said he hoped the FCC would look to Kansas in the future as a model for other states on broadband and communications issues.
"The telemedicine information could be beneficial to KU Med," said Ternes.
Other guests attending the summit included Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.).
Future leaders to learn needed skills
Edited by Cindy Yeo
By Andy Marso
amarso@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
At the Blueprints Leadership Conference on Saturday, KU students will learn whether they have a golden touch or a "Junkfinger."
Keynote speaker Andrew Urich, who also spoke at the 2001 conference, said he planned to use his speaking time to administer the "Funkinger test."
The test, created by Urich, is a parody of the legend of King Midas, who received the power to turn any object into gold just by touching it. According to Urich, a "Junkfinger" is a person whose touch turns everything to junk. Urich asks a series of questions and has the students assign themselves points based on their answers. The higher the final score, the greater "Junkfinger" that person is.
"It's just to illustrate that typically the things that happen to you are a direct result of decisions
BLUEPRINTS LEADERSHIP
CONFERENCE
What: A series of guest speakers with interactive "mind Olympics" games and a community service project. When: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday Where: Kansas Union Cost:$10 (includes T-shirt) Applications: Available in Center for Campus Life office, fourth floor of Kansas Union.
you make, especially in college," Urich said. "If you put yourself in a position for bad things to happen they will and if you put yourself in position for good things to happen they will too."
Urich said most students scored low on the test, but the ones who did get high scores usually weren't ashamed to admit it and often would actually brag about it.
"The weird thing about Amer
ica is that there's some sort of pride in being a screw-up," Urich said. "In other countries it's considered cool to be smart."
The Blueprints conference is an annual event organized by the University's EXCEL award winners. This year's winners and conference co-chairs are Jacob Williams, Topeka senior, and Casey Collier, Kansas City, Kan., senior.
"It's a really unique conference because it targets emerging leaders who are looking to get involved," Williams said.
Williams said freshmen and sophomores were strongly encouraged to apply for the conference and that it was a great opportunity to network with other students interested in pursuing leadership positions.
The conference will feature a number of guest speakers,a series of interactive "mind Olympics" activities and a community service project. The service project this year will be painting bowls for the
Applications are available at the Center for Campus Life office on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union. The deadline for application is 4 p.m. today, but Williams said it might be extended to Wednesday depending on how many applications were received.
Center for Community Outreach's Empty Bowls project. Volunteers can paint and donate bowls at Sun Fire Ceramics, 1002 New Hampshire St. The painted bowls will then be sold on campus and the proceeds will go to Jubilee Cafe, a volunteer program which serves breakfast to the homeless and low-income residents.
Speakers at this year's conference include Urich, Barbara Ballard, vice provost for student success, Dennis "Boog" Highberger, Lawrence city commissioner, and Reggie Robinson, president and chief executive officer of the Board of Regents.
NASA researchers to replace Hubble
By Lisa Coble
lcoble@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A school bus dropping out of the sky may seem pretty silly, but the Hubble Space Telescope, which is the size of a large school bus, will meet that fate by 2006, scientists predict.
In January, Sean O'Keefe, NASA administrator, announced that the agency would halt further trips to maintain the telescope.
Hubble has captured thousands images of spinning whirlpool galaxies, star explosions, expanding gas clouds of dying stars and galaxies as far as 10 billion light years away.
The telescope has aided in learning about the beginning of the universe and its end. Equipped with Doppler radar, Hubble has contributed to a theory that the universe — about 15 billion light years in radius — is accelerating, not constricting as once thought.
Despite Hubble's contributions to science, NASA, buoyed by political support, has placed its priorities on Mars, the International Space Station and returning to the moon.
Bruce Twarog, professor of astrology and physics, said the decision to let Hubble die was a bad idea. He holds little hope that NASA will agree to overhaul the decaying telescope, which would give Hubble up to 10 more years.
"I think the last concern for NASA right now is the Hubble," Twarog said.
Josh Meyers, Wichita senior, said he hoped to use Hubble's data to research the history of the universe.
Without a space telescope, the possibility of deep space exploration seems limited, and so do jobs in astronomy, he said.
"Astronomy is a hard business to get a job in and even harder when they start taking away resources," he said.
He said Hubble was an excellent instrument for looking deep
into the cosmos, better than any other satellite in space.
vet, the demise of Hubble, which had been NASA's crown jewel for years, seems inevitable.
Built in the 1970s and in space since 1990, Hubble needs repairs to its gyroscopes, spinning-wheel-shaped instruments used to point and orient the telescope. Also, Hubble's battery needs replaced because its power to recharge is dying.
The cost of repairing Hubble, along with safety issues stemming from the Columbia disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, are hurting the the "save Hubble" movement.
Astro-physicists at the Space Telescope Institute in Massachusetts, some NASA engineers and Hubble fans are banding together to save the telescope and the, at least, 100 jobs that would be lost without it. They urge NASA to allow one more repair mission to Hubble, arguing that it would be no more dangerous than sending men to the International Space Station.
But, O'Keefe has confirmed that Hubble will not be fixed. The telescope will fall out of its orbit, 350 miles from Earth, sometime in the next three years. NASA engineers will be able to steer the falling telescope into an ocean.
The next mission to Hubble was scheduled for 2006, the year when a new fleet of reusable shuttles is scheduled to be unveiled.
Nonetheless, there is light at the end for Hubble. Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is being perfected in NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. It contains the same capabilities, such as broad color spectrum photography, as Hubble. The JWST will remain grounded until NASA gives an OK to the project.
Astro-physicists have urged a Hubble-JWST transition so there will always be a space telescope
For more information about Hubble go to www.hubblesite.org.
Edited by Collin LaJoie
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The 2004 Takeru Higuchi Memorial Lectures
Scientific Lecture
"Neuroinformatics: A New Tool for Neuroscientists"
9:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 26
130 Budig Hall, The University of Kansas
Public Lecture and Award Presentation "The Genome and the Health Care System"
5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26
Simons Research
Laboratories Auditorium,
21st and Iowa Streets
West Campus, The University of Kansas
The University of Kansas
For directions, phone Valentino Stella, 864-3755
or Nancy Helm, 864-4822
Floyd E. Bloom, M.D.
Chairman, Department of
Neuropharmacology
The Scripps Research Institute