Monday, August 27, 2007

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

That stupid jacka .. — Oh, good morning, boss!

A new book titled Speechless: The Erosion of Free Expression in the American Workplace details the stifling of employees’ First Amendment rights at work and how employers use the likelihood of reprisal to create a chilling effect. David Hudson, adjunct political science professor and First Amendment scholar, who helped author Bruce Barry with one chapter, says, “Even public employees have limited free-speech rights in the workplace under the First Amendment after the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006). Under that decision, public employees generally do not have First Amendment protection for ‘job-related’ speech. The decision has led to many public employees losing their free-speech cases in federal courts across the country.”

Contact Hudson at 615-727-1600.
dhudson@freedomforum.org

The marriage of sulfur and mercury

Cinnabar is more than just a great place to get delicious sticky buns. It’s also the name of a mineral “that results from a one-to-one marriage of mercury and sulfur atoms,” says Dr. Preston MacDougall, chemistry. “However, while less unstable than a lovers’ triangle, even the most rock solid marriage may not be able to resist all possible stresses and strains. For instance, when scarlet-red crystals of cinnabar are crushed and heated in gigantic ‘roasters,’ they decompose into mercury and sulfur. The sulfur will burn in the air, giving off the same sharp odor that you smell after lighting a match—sulfur dioxide—resulting in acidic depositions downwind of the mine.”

Contact MacDougall at 615-898-5265.
pmacdoug@mtsu.edu

Book smart

According to a May 2007 study released by The Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, a federal committee chartered by Congress, the “first-time, full-time students spent a total of $898 at four-year public colleges and $886 at two-year public colleges on book and supplies in 2003-04.” Dr. Janet Belsky, professor of psychology and textbook author, says the suggestion from some that texts be “farmed out to writing committees to get rid of those so-called greedy publishers and authors” is unfathomable, as is the idea that a professor would instruct his or her students to merely “look this stuff up on the Internet; don’t bother buying the book.” Such suggestions make sense, Belsky reasons, “only if we want to lose the essence of what education is all about—enticing students to love to learn!”

Contact Belsky at 615-898-5935.
jbelsky@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

AUDIO AUGMENTATION--Give your kids a wholesome, fun extracurricular activity this school year. Enroll your child in the Youth Culture and Arts Center’s (YCAC) next recording workshop at MTSU. The current enrollment period is in effect through Sept. 7 for the upcoming Sept. 13-Oct. 12 workshop in MTSU’s John Bragg Mass Communication Building. The workshop is for youngsters ages 12-17, and the fee is $125 per student. Classes are taught by Ryan York, a 21-year-old MTSU student and teacher of guitar, bass, and drums lessons at Chambers Guitars and Musical Instruments in Murfreesboro. Ryan will provide instruction in cassette four-track instruction, digital eight-track, computer recording and electronic music. All proceeds will benefit YCAC, a program of Youth Empowerment Through Arts and Humanities (YEAH), a nonprofit organization. Call 615-631-9479 or contact York at bororecording@gmail.com.