Friday, April 9, 2010

Today's Response
Middle Tennessee State University

On the grow

MTSU students who take the ABAS 3600 course (“Horticulture in Our Lives”) will conduct their annual plant sale at the Horticulture Center located on Blue Raider Drive across from the Tennessee Livestock Center. The schedule is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 15-16, April 22-23, and April 29-30. The students raised the plants themselves. Funds are used for scholarships. The plants available for purchase include bedding plants, tomatoes, peppers, okra, squash, cucumbers, petunias, salvia, snapdragons, wax leaf begonias, dragon wing begonias, zinnias, geraniums, impatiens, double impatiens, million bells, million golds, periwinkle, Dusty Miller, celosia, coleus, and much, much more. Geraniums are $3 for each six-inch pot. All hanging baskets and flats are $12.

Contact the College of Agribusiness and Agriscience at 615-898-2523.

You are what you eat.

An expert on food and packaging fraud at Michigan State University estimates that five to seven percent of the U.S. food supply is affected by “food fraud.” For example, the leader of a California farming dynasty was indicted this month for disguising moldy tomato paste as a higher-grade product and selling it to Heinz and Kraft. Dr. Tony Johnston, agribusiness and agriscience, says, “Ultimately, fraud detection becomes the responsibility of the buyer as well as government agencies such as the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). From a practical point of view, the cost of screening all food items via DNA analysis is impractical—it could exceed the national debt each year.”

Contact Johnston at 615-898-2421.
johnston@mtsu.edu

Herding Katz

Arnold Eisen, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, complains in an editorial in the newspaper Forward that most Conservative Jews no longer uphold the traditions of the faith. Dr. Rami Shapiro, adjunct professor of religious studies and an ordained rabbi, says this is not unique to Conservative Jews. “Most Jews don’t read Hebrew for the same reason most Jews don’t read French—they don’t need it,” says Shapiro. “The reason most Jews fail to observe Shabbat or keep kosher is that these traditions no longer speak to them. The reason they don’t find synagogue services meaningful or attractive is that 1) the liturgy reflects a medieval worldview that most eight-year-olds have outgrown, and 2) because we have become used to theatrical production values that synagogue services cannot match.”

Read Shapiro’s blog at http://rabbirami.blogspot.com.
rabbirami@gmail.com

TR EXTRA

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!--Dr. Bob Pondillo, associate professor of electronic media communication, will discuss his latest independent film “The New, True Charlie Wu” at 8 a.m. this Sunday, April 11, on “MTSU on the Record” with host Gina Logue on WMOT-FM (89.5 and wmot.org). “Charlie Wu,” which was made largely with a crew of MTSU students and alumni, will be screened for the public on Saturday, April 17, at Murfreesboro’s Premier 6 Theatre and the John Bragg Mass Communication Building on campus. The film, a comedy with original music, was shot at Nashville’s DR&A Studios on March 12-13, 2009. Pondillo’s past efforts have garnered numerous awards, and two of them, “My Name is Wallace” and “Wait …,” were shown at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France. Contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.

NORMANDY NOTES--“World War II in Normandy: History and the Duty of Memory,” an illustrated lecture by Marie-Pierre Besnard, is scheduled for 12:40-1:35 p.m. Monday, April 12, in Room 100 of MTSU’s James Union Building. Besnard is visiting faculty in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures during the spring 2010 semester. She is chair of the Communications and Networks Department at the Institut Universitaire de Technologie in Saint Lo, France. She teaches courses in art history and is a specialist of historical 3D reproductions and virtual reality. Her current research involves the virtual reconstruction of a Saint Lo church destroyed during World War II. This event is free and open to the public. Contact the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at 615-898-2981.

“IS THIS HEAVEN?” “IT’S IOWA.”—DWIER BROWN AND KEVIN COSTNER IN “FIELD OF DREAMS”--Dr. Greg Heath, chairman of the Department of Health and Human Performance at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, will present “Physical Activity and the Built Environment: If You Build It, Will They Come … And Use It?” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 14, in the State Farm Lecture Hall of MTSU’s Business and Aerospace Building. “Dr. Heath’s talk will address how the physical design of our communities can play an important role in reducing childhood obesity and providing children and families with greater opportunities to lead an active lifestyle,” says Dr. Don Morgan, professor of health and human performance and director of MTSU’s Center for Physical Activity and Health in Youth. This event is free and open to the public. Contact Morgan at 615-898-5549 or dmorgan@mtsu.edu.

IT TAKES A LOT OF BALZAC.--“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” is the latest movie to be presented in the Chinese Film Festival sponsored by the Confucius Institute and the College of Mass Communication Dean’s Office. The film will be shown with English subtitles at 6 p.m. this Sunday, April 11, in Room 103 of the John Bragg Mass Communication Building. Based on the best-selling novel set during China’s Cultural Revolution, this acclaimed 2002 film is about two young university students who are sent to a remote mountain village for a Maoist re-education, to purge them of their decadent Western education. Amid the backbreaking work and stifling ignorance of the community, the local beauties are the only respite from their miserable life. But none compare to the granddaughter of the region’s tailor. With a secret cache of forbidden books, they set about to woo her. This event is free and open to the public. Master’s degree candidate Liu Xiao will guide a discussion following the movie. Contact the Confucius Institute at 615-494-8696 or Dr. Bob Spires at 615-898-2217.

DIGGIN’ UP BONES--Dr. Kathy Reichs, producer of the Fox television series “Bones” based on her work and related novels, will visit MTSU as the featured speaker of the Legends in Forensic Science Lectureship at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 14, in Murphy Center. The lecture, titled “From Crime Lab to Crime Fiction,” is free and open to the public. Reichs, known as “Dr. Bones,” has career experience ranging from teaching FBI agents how to detect and recover human remains to separating and identifying commingled body parts. Her novels include Deja Dead, Monday Mourning and 260 Bones. Reichs will sign books following her lecture, and copies of her titles will be available for sale in Phillips Bookstore, located in Keathley University Center, prior to her talk. For more information, contact the Forensic Institute for Research and Education at 615-494-7713.

MTSU MOVIEMAKERS--The initial public viewing of “The New, True Charlie Wu,” the fourth independent film from Dr. Bob Pondillo, electronic media communication, and a crew of MTSU students and alumni will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 17, at Premier 6 Theater, 810 N.W. Broad St. in Murfreesboro. In addition, there will be multiple special nighttime showings from 7-10 p.m. that evening on the first floor of the John Bragg Mass Communication Building. The short movie follows the title character, a young accountant who is disenchanted with his job, on a trip into his subconscious mind, where his overbearing boss and a gospel choir compete for his soul and his future. “Charlie Wu” already has received the Remi Award out of more than 2,400 entries at the 43rd annual Worldfest, the oldest independent film festival in the country, in Houston, as well as “Best Comedy Short” awards from the Smogdance International Film Festival in Pomona, Calif., and the Fifteen Minutes of Fame Film Festival in Palm Bay, Fla. Contact Pondillo at 615-904-8465 or pondillo@mtsu.edu.

LULLABY AND GOOD NIGHT--In March 2006, Jaz’s Jammies was created to collect new pajamas for sick children in hospitals to help them feel appreciated and loved while staying extended periods of time. Jaz’s Jammies has collected nearly 3,000 pairs of pajamas. Originally, it was the Girl Scout project of MTSU student Jasmine Gray, a young woman who had experienced dozens of surgeries for a facial disorder and had spent up to three months in the hospital at a time. You can help Jaz’s Jammies spread love by donating during the 2010 Pajama Drive through April 29. Drop off your children’s PJs at the University Honors College, the John Bragg Mass Communication Building, the Business and Aerospace Building or the second floor of the Keathley University Center. If you’re off-campus, you can set up a drive for your community organization, business or school. For more information, send an e-mail to jazsjammies@yahoo.com.

PLAY SMART!--The Center for Physical Activity & Health in Youth at MTSU will present “Play Symposium III: Diversity, Children’s Physical Activity and Play” from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. tomorrow, April 10, in the State Farm Lecture Hall of the Business and Aerospace Building. This workshop, which is free and open to the public, is designed for student teachers, homeschool educators, public school educators and parents who want to enhance their children’s learning through physical activity and play. Dr. Kathy Burriss, elementary and special education, says, “The value of play and physical activity, no matter a child’s physical limitations, is invaluable, but one that is often overlooked. Our symposium will help participants connect physical activity with learning that is fun but also intellectually beneficial in ways that most don’t think about.” Contact Burriss at 615-898-2323 or kburriss@mtsu.edu.

GOING TO SEE THE CANDIDATES ORATE--MTSU, in cooperation with the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, will play host to a gubernatorial forum at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 29, in Murphy Center. Doors will open at 6 p.m. Free tickets will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis, starting with MTSU students, followed by faculty, staff and the general public. MTSU students with valid IDs may pick up tickets now. All other university personnel and the general public may pick up tickets in advance at the MTSU Ticket Office, located at Gate 1A at Floyd Stadium on Faulkinberry Drive. For all ticket and general information, call the MTSU Ticket Office at 1-888-YES-MTSU (1-888-937-6878).