Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Can you pass the acid test?

The MTSU Center for Health & Human Services has received $23,500 from the March of Dimes Tennessee Chapter Community Grants Program for two projects focused on folic acid and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome education. “Good Health Looks Good: Folic Acid Every Day” is a program that targets adolescent girls through Girl Scouts, 4-H and other community-based organizations, a March of Dimes official says. The program teaches young women about the importance of folic acid and the role folic acid plays in the prevention of birth defects. The MTSU center is providing education to approximately 600 girls. For 2008-09, the center hopes to reach an additional 200 Girl Scouts in Middle Tennessee.

For more information, contact Carol Smith at the Center for Health and Human Services at 615-904-8342.
csmith@mtsu.edu

Read all about it.

The two leading newspapers in Japan are Yomiuri, with a circulation of 10 million, and Asahi, with a circulation of more than 8 million. In the U.S., USAToday is the leader with 2.3 million followed by the Wall Street Journal with 2.1 million. Why are newspapers more popular in Japan than in the United States? Dr. Larry Burriss, journalism, commenting from Japan, says, “One reason may be the value of the newspaper. American papers traditionally run upwards of 60 percent advertising. So you’re paying money to have someone convince you to spend more money. But, as I sit here and look at both Yomiuri and Asahi, less than half of the papers are taken up with ads. … Japan’s dailies do better than ours because they put more news in their newspapers. They are more reader-friendly and fair. They are more polite in their editorial comments or criticisms.”

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

Check it out.

What will you do with your tax rebate check from the federal government? That was the question MTSU’s Office of Consumer Research put to Tennesseans in February and again this month. There are very few differences between the two sets of answers. In April, 31% of those questioned said they would save most of the money. Twenty-three percent said they would use most of it to pay off debt. Only 17% said they would spend most of it, while 27% said they would use it for a combination of all three. Most of those questioned in April (51%) say they think the stimulus will have a short-term positive impact on the economy, but 31% say they think it will have no effect at all.

Contact Dr. Tim Graeff, director of the Office of Consumer Research, at 615-898-5124.
tgraeff@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

THE PAPER CHASE—The James E. Walker Library and the MTSU Department of Art are joining forces again this year to raise student awareness of paper usage through an imaginative project that will be on display in the waning days of the spring semester. The “Paper Rewind” project will remain in place through Wednesday, May 7. While students are studying for final exams and preparing research papers, they will be surrounded by paper animals, trees and people created by Professor Thomas Sturgill’s 3D design classes. In fact, students might find themselves sitting next to a paper person or look up to see a paper person sailing a paper airplane off the fourth floor balcony. “Students are printing 6,500,000 copies a year from computer printers, and this art project is intended to raise awareness on the part of the students to conserve natural resources and think before they print,” says Bill Black, library professor in charge of administrative services. Contact Black at 615-898-8378 or wblack@mtsu.edu; contact Sturgill at 615-898-2460 or sturgill@mtsu.edu. For more information, go to http://www.paperrewind.com.