University of Alabama seeks to spark interest in engineering
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 8
Monalisa Ruffin’s small fingers assembled snap connectors on a circuit board to create a closed-loop circuit in hopes that once she finished the activity, she could make a siren sound off. The 11-year-old sixth-grader at Brookwood Middle School participated in five engineering activities on Saturday at the “Wow! That’s Engineering!” event hosted by the University of Alabama chapter of Society of Women Engineers, known as SWE. The annual event is designed to teach middle-school students different engineering disciplines through activities with a entertaining theme. This year’s theme was space exploration, “Across the Galax-SWE.”
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – Oct. 8
Fresh take jazzes up venerable Shakespeare play
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 8
Performances of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” are always games of expectation: What fresh take on “To be or not to be” can possibly exist under the sun? Seth Panitch’s production of “Hamlet” at the University of Alabama this week does not disappoint on this score. Setting the play in the 1950s of Greenwich Village, Panitch pits Hamlet’s tortured soliloquies against the stylings of original songs by Tuscaloosa musician Nick Boyd, influenced by Miles Davis and John Coltrane. With the soliloquy as saxophone solo, we’re encouraged to hear Hamlet’s sufferings as improvisations rather than 400-year-old recitations, new thoughts flowing from a new character. Ian Anderson plays this dynamic wonderfully, giving his Hamlet a range from apathy to apoplexy, from fits of laughter to outbursts of violence. That dynamic would not be complete, of course, without the talents of saxophonist Boyd. Boyd composed and played the haunting melodies that provided a constant accompaniment to Anderson’s soliloquies, at the curtain call sharing the final bow with Anderson.
What to Expect From Clinton and Trump During Tonight’s Presidential Debate
Fortune Magazine – Oct. 9
Tonight Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are expected to square off in what’s poised to be another highly anticipated U.S. presidential debate. The first debate certainly covered a range of topics, but for the most part, the focus was more about the candidate’s personalities than policy. With voters at Sunday’s second debate asking the questions in a town-hall style format, the candidates will have a more difficult time avoiding the issues voters want to hear about. So, what issues do voters care about this election? . . . Nichole Bauer is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama.
A presidential debate of enormous consequence
San Francisco Chronicle – Oct. 8
Donald Trump won’t be facing just Hillary Clinton on Sunday night. He’ll also be facing an existential moment that will require him to show humility in the most intimate of TV’s political venues — the town hall forum — to preserve any shred of his White House aspirations … Trump’s offensive remarks put Clinton, who has done dozens of town hall-style events in her two presidential runs and often meets with small groups of voters on the campaign trail, in an even stronger position. But she still has challenges, said Nichole Bauer, a professor of political science at the University of Alabama. “Clinton has the reputation for coming off poorly, as cold or detached,” Bauer said. “Clinton will have to take her policy knowledge and connect it to a real person’s story. It will show that she is empathetic and knowledgeable. It is a high-wire act.”
Zip line feud veers toward Alabama political arena
Al.com – Oct. 9
Controversy surrounding the closure of a profitable zip line at Gulf State Park has made headlines for more than a month. Could it now hang as a dark cloud over a proposed Alabama constitutional amendment aimed at protecting park system finances? … Several political observers expect that voters will be focused on other things – such as the presidential race – when they enter polling places on Nov. 8. “I don’t think voters, in general, are interested in constitutional amendments which, as you know, approximate 1,000 in number,” said William Stewart, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama. “Sometimes, voters who do vote on amendments are in a negative frame of mind and reject all of them.”
Symphonic Band is more than just a class
Crimson White – Oct. 10
The sounds of tuning notes being played, the occasional bit of information spoken by the director, and the whispers of friends talking amongst themselves, either for social purposes, musical purposes, or both, are the background of a performance band. Taking band as a course is one of the more difficult things to do while tackling a college schedule, yet a handful of groups on campus meet constantly to perfect music and perform for their peers. “As far as instrumentation goes, I am a percussionist, so I play multiple things,” said Marquis Hollingsworth, a freshman majoring in business, and a member of Symphonic Band class. “It benefits me as I learn more technical and musical things about being a percussionist and what/how to do things in a professional band environment.”
New dual exhibition showcases sculpture and interactive art
Crimson White – Oct. 10
A new exhibit at The University of Alabama allows viewers to choose the endings to six stories told through drawings. In another exhibit, students are confronted with sculptures that capture the unease of the modern urban environment. A new dual exhibition by Melissa Stern and Matt Ziemke opened on Oct. 6 and runs until Oct. 27 at Sella-Granata Gallery. The two separate shows, Stern’s “Loose Lips” and Ziemke’s “What it was, what it is and what it will be,” illustrate the differences in the artists’ methods and aesthetic goals.
UA SGA hosts 7th Annual “Out of Darkness Walk”
Crimson White – Oct. 10
Roughly 1,300 students, local residents and others gathered outside the Ferguson Student Center on Sunday for the seventh annual Out of Darkness Walk. Performed annually by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the walk acts as a fundraising and awareness event, giving students and residents the opportunity to learn more about suicide prevention and mental health. The walk was sponsored by other groups as well, including the University’s Counseling Center, the Student Government Association, the Capstone College of Nursing and SOS of Tuscaloosa.
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – Oct. 9
Norman Rockwell painting of rural newspaper office is on display at his museum in Massachusetts
The Rural Blog – Oct. 7
Norman Rockwell’s evocative painting of a rural newspaper office, hidden from public view since the National Press Club realized a few years ago how valuable it was, is now on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., thanks to the anonymous buyer who paid $11.589 million for it last fall … The illustration of the Monroe County Appeal office in Paris, Mo., appeared in the Saturday Evening Post May 25, 1946. It was inspired by Jack Blanton, left, whom an accompanying article said was probably the nation’s best-known “country editor,” according to University of Alabama journalism professor Bailey Thompson.
“When the FIRST African American to earn a PhD in Clinical Psychology
Explore Gram —
“When the FIRST African American to earn a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Alabama meets the ONLY African American graduate student currently in the Clinical Psychology program.” – Kaleb Murry (with Dr. Carl Clark).
Black Warrior River Trash
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – Oct. 8
Citizens of Tuscaloosa are upset about the trash piling up along the Black Warrior River…Most of the people that I talked to thought since the University of Alabama owns the park that they would be responsible for cleaning it up. I reached out to the University and found out they aren’t responsible for the trash along the river, however, I did find a group that comes out here to pick it all up. “We’re pulling out old washing machines, water bottles, all this disgusting stuff,” said Ryan Anderson. Anderson and her team of 100 volunteers searched the river for litter to pick up.