Thursday, August 9, 2007

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

A bridge too far

With the flurry of bridge inspections at the state and federal level following the tragedy in Minneapolis, increases in demand for cement and steel are expected. Dr. Heather Brown, director of MTSU’s Concrete Industry Management program, says, “There are a lot of material shortage issues—cement and steel, in particular, but also aggregate. This is compounded with the rate of construction internationally already. Maintenance can sometimes take a back seat to new construction and, in times of material shortages, that is detrimental. Many of the country’s bridges have or will reach their design life, and a massive overhaul has been on everyone’s radar screen since 2000.”

Contact Brown at 615-904-8060.
hjbrown@mtsu.edu

Working it out

Labor and management are celebrating “20 years of listening, learning and leading in collaboration” this year at the Tennessee Labor-Management Conference Wednesday through Friday, Aug. 15-17. The conference will take place at the Sheraton Music City Hotel, 777 McGavock Pike in Nashville, and is expected to draw more than 500 attendees. “Labor-Management participants at the August conference will have the opportunity to discuss possible solutions to problems in the health care, pension, and other workplace areas,” says Dr. Barbara Haskew, director of the MTSU-headquartered Tennessee Center for Labor-Management Relations and professor of economics.

Contact Catherine Sutton at 615-895-4166.

YouTube or YutzTube?

Purdue University researchers have created a simulation of the 9-11 attack and have posted it on YouTube. They hope it will help in the design of safer buildings in the future. When Dr. Larry Burriss, journalism, checked it out, more than 4,000 responses had been posted. “Two of those refer to ‘idiots’ who posted other comments,” Burriss says of some of the responses he read. “One of the other comments talks about how fire can’t burn wood; a couple of others purport to have this or that proof of one of the multiple conspiracy theories about the attack.” He was struck by the vitriol, the lack of reasoning and the poor writing. “I thought we had become educated enough so that when we had something to say, we made sure it was logical, was spelled correctly and made grammatical sense. And I thought we had moved away from name-calling. I guess I was wrong.”

Contact Burriss at 615-898-2983.
lburriss@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

BLUE RAIDER BLASTS--MTSU is offering a chance for all alumni, friends and fans to preview the 2007-08 athletic season at Blue Raider Blasts. Director of Athletics Chris Massaro and MT head coaches Rick Stockstill (football), Kermit Davis (men’s basketball), Rick Insell (women’s basketball), Steve Peterson (baseball) and MTSU student-athletes will be on hand to meet and greet Blue Raider fans Thursday, Aug. 9, on the Cannon County Courthouse Square in Woodbury; and Thursday, Aug. 23, on the historic Rutherford County Courthouse Square in Murfreesboro. Admission is free to all blasts, which will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and will feature inflatables, face painting, giveaways, and food. Call 1-800-533-MTSU (6878) or visit www.mtalumni.com for details.

RECORDING REDUX--It’s not too late to enroll your child in the Youth Culture and Arts Center’s (YCAC) recording workshops at MTSU. The current enrollment period is in effect through Aug. 10 for the upcoming Aug. 16-Sept. 9 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 615-849-7140 or contact York at bororecording@gmail.com.