Thursday, January 21, 2010

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

“Invisible airwaves crackle with life”—from “The Spirit of Radio” by Rush

Is radio responding to the needs and desires of its listeners? Paul Allen, an associate professor in MTSU’s Department of Recording Industry, will examine the present and future of radio at 8 a.m. this Sunday, Jan. 24, on “MTSU on the Record” with host Gina Logue on WMOT-FM (89.5 and wmot.org). Allen teaches Artist Management, New Media for the Music Business, Concert Promotion and Marketing of Recordings. He is the author of Artist Management for the Music Business, now in its third printing, and co-author of Record Label Marketing, now in its second edition. Allen’s professional background includes work in radio and television programming and management as well as radio ownership. To listen to last week’s program with MTSU industrial hygienist Doug Brinsko, go to http://frank.mtsu.edu/~proffice/podcast2010.html and click on “January 17, 2010."

For more information about “MTSU on the Record,” contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.

Pudge and circumstance?

After receiving widespread national criticism, Lincoln University has dropped its policy of requiring all students with a body mass index of 30 or above to take a fitness class in order to graduate. Dr. Mark Anshel, health and human performance, says, “Yes, require students to take a wellness class, and encourage students to begin and maintain proper physical activity level and dietary habits to improve their health and energy. But it is inappropriate to associate any outcome from these programs—reduced body weight (body mass index score)—to reaching their goal to successfully complete their higher education. Give them the information and resources, and hopefully they will live a lifestyle consistent with that message. Lincoln University’s policy was wrong, in my view.”

Contact Anshel at 615-898-2812.
manshel@mtsu.edu

Shock treatment

Another aftershock registering 6.1 on the Richter scale rocked Haiti yesterday. The Jan. 12 quake that devastated the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere registered 7.0. Fortunately, tremors that cause such enormous destruction don’t occur all that often. Dr. Preston MacDougall, chemistry, says How Nature Works, a book by Danish theoretical physicist Per Bak, “describes how various complex phenomena in nature, and in society as well, evolve into what he called a ‘self-organized critical state’ from which sudden changes or ‘catastrophes’ obey very simple laws. The surprising property of these so-called ‘power laws’ is that they do not depend on the size or the nature of the catastrophe. For instance, compared to 2.8 magnitude quakes, such as the one in Jones, Okla., on Monday (Jan. 11), but not even felt 15 miles away in Oklahoma City, the frequency of devastating tremors such as Tuesday’s in Haiti is much, much lower.”

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

TR EXTRA

GIVE ME SOME MEN WHO ARE STOUTHEARTED MEN--The Collegiate 100 Black Men of MTSU will celebrate its 15th anniversary by holding an induction ceremony for the fall 2009 class at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 24, in the Tennessee Room of the James Union Building. Nineteen young men will be inducted. Members of the Fisk University and Tennessee State University chapters also will be in attendance. The keynote speaker will be Brother Vincent Phipps, founding president of the Collegiate 100. Light refreshments will be served after the ceremony. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Travis Stratton at 901-255-4356 or tts2d@mtsu.edu or the Office of Intercultural and Diversity Affairs at 615-898-5812.