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NC State University News Clips for April 28, 2004

Compiled by North Carolina State University’s News Services, a part of the Public Affairs Office. Listed below are the current news clips. Click on the headline of interest to be taken to the full text. Click on “Return to Headline List” at the bottom of each clip or use the scrollbar to be taken back to this location.

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Regional Rail Plans To Change Local Landscape
Depending on who you ask, North Carolina's proposed regional rail system is still on track.

NATIONAL & REGIONAL CLIPS

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Regional Rail Plans To Change Local Landscape

April 28, 2004
WRAL-TV
By Mark Roberts
 © Copyright 2004

Depending on who you ask, North Carolina's proposed regional rail system is still on track.

The Triangle Transit Authority says it will cost $800 million. So far, TTA has only received $50 million in funding, but planners are moving full-steam ahead.

The TTA meets Wednesday to discuss how proposed rail stops will impact your commute and your neighborhood.

One major issue to work out is parking.

"Parking is never free," said Juanita Shearer-Swink of the TTA.

You may not have to hand money to an attendant, but the cost will be part of the ticket price.

The size of parking lots also has to be worked out. The North Carolina State University station will not have any parking spaces, while 550 spaces are recommended for the stop near North Carolina Central University.

"Size is a factor because we do need to figure out ways to make sure people use our parking lots and don't spill over into an adjacent business or into an adjacent housing development," Swink said.

The TTA has scale models of every stop. The west Raleigh station is planned near Corporation Center and N.C. 54. A 300-space parking lot would go there. It will also bring major changes in the landscape.

The west Raleigh stop will take several acres from the Family Home and Garden Center.

Business owner Bruce Horme has mixed feelings.

"They are going to interrupt my business where we are standing right here and the next few feet over there will be rail tracks," he said.

The TTA is trying to reduce impact, but property owners like Horne know they will feel it.

The transportation bill pending before Congress holds the key to the bulk of the funds the TTA is looking for.

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Granville honors 14 as best teachers

April 28, 2004
Henderson Daily Dispatch
By CHARLIE RICHARDS
 © Copyright 2004

OXFORD - They come from other states and countries, Canada and Australia, as well as North Carolina.

They've taught school as few as two years and as many as 28.

They teach at all levels, from kindergarten to high school algebra.

They are the 14 nominees for next school year's Teacher of the Year in Granville County.

One of them will be recognized as that teacher Monday night at the Granville County Board of Education's May meeting.

But for Tuesday night, they were all nominees for that honor from their schools, chosen from and by their peers at their schools.

And they were guests of honor at the annual Gold Star Award Banquet sponsored by Central Carolina Bank, one of 14 such banquets the bank sponsors in as many school districts in its service area each year.

Along with their friends, associates and Granville education leaders, they heard themselves described as "14 answers to those who say teachers are not doing the job."

That description came from Kathryn Moore, one of the state's education leaders as dean of the College of Education at North Carolina State University.

Moore gave a lesson in the "math of teaching and learning," urging the teachers to open up communications and add ideas by sharing, and asking all to subtract negative beliefs that are holding schools back.

Beliefs that should be subtracted, she said, include:

- That kids cannot learn.

- That teachers don't know how to teach.

- That parents don't care.

- That schools are not doing their job.

Moore described two new programs she is associated with that will "multiply new ideas." One is the soon-to-be-built Friday Institute for Education Innovation at N.C. State. The other is donorschoosenc.com, a Web site for teachers with ideas to register their requests for funding.

New ideas might be expected from the 14 nominees for Granville Teacher of the Year, given the variety they represent.

One came to Granville as a visiting international teacher and is staying. Another is moving on to medical school after meeting her commitment to Teach for America.

The 14 nominees are:

- Karen Patrick, seventh-grade teacher at Butner-Stem Middle School.

- Karen Adcock, seventh- and eighth-grade teacher at Northern Granville Middle.

- Amy Roger Bass, fourth-grade teacher at Mount Energy Elementary.

- Bradford Greguire, math teacher at South Granville High.

- Sarah Petrie, math teacher at Hawley Middle.

- Charlotte Hayes Finley, first-grade teacher at Butner-Stem Elementary.

- Margie Clark, health and physical education teacher at Stovall-Shaw Elementary.

- Dorothy Gillis, second-grade teacher at Creedmoor Elementary.

- Erin Swanson, science teacher at Mary Potter Intermediate.

- Blondina Small, math teacher at J.F. Webb High.

- Donna Crute Wilson, fourth-grade teacher at Joe Toler-Oak Hill Elementary.

- Pamela W. Kearney, kindergarten teacher at Wilton Elementary.

The writer can be reached at crichards@hendersondispatch.com.

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Ailing pets have a new option

April 28, 2004
News & Observer
By BONNIE ROCHMAN
 © Copyright 2004

RALEIGH -- It was almost 5 p.m. when Sally Schmalz rushed Zoe, 5 1/2, to the emergency room.

Zoe was bleeding internally, and doctors weren't sure if she'd make it.

Doctors encouraged Schmalz and her family to bring in toys, pillows, T-shirts -- anything that smelled of home. They ushered Schmalz and her two small daughters into the ICU.

Four days, two blood transfusions, two doses of plasma and two red-blood-cell infusions later, Zoe was stable.

The golden retriever was discharged from N.C. State University's after-hours emergency veterinary service. Within a week, she was chasing a ball.

"I sound like some pitch person, but they were so understanding," said Schmalz, 38. "They saved our dog's life."

The Small Animal Emergency Service opened to the public in late February.

Like a handful of other clinics in the area, it is open when other veterinarians are closed -- from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. weekdays and all weekend.

Unlike those clinics, the service is part of a university teaching hospital. That association means quick access to specialists and the latest developments in veterinary care and equipment.

"We operate like a Duke or a UNC, seeing complex cases," said hospital administrator Jim Brawley.

The service is open during the day to referrals only -- complex cases -- and the situation had been the same at night. But that emphasis on unusual cases meant that veterinary students weren't exposed to many routine situations. That's the main impetus for opening after hours to all pet owners.

Two full-time doctors and some part-time doctors and interns staff the clinic, said Alan Feimster, one of the doctors.

There is no such thing as a typical night. Feimster has been busy at work until 5 a.m.; other days he goes home before midnight and interns take over.

The vets see mostly dogs and cats with common problems such as vomiting or diarrhea. But they'll treat anything small -- rabbits or guinea pigs -- and have taken care of animals wounded in fights and those hurt in car accidents. This month, one pet had a gunshot wound.

A white board at the clinic lists veterinary specialists at the university. There are experts in cardiology and neurology, ophthalmology and dermatology.

The standard exam fee is $100, then prices go up depending on the treatment. Zoe's care, for example, cost $2,100. Schmalz considered that reasonable.

Darlene Tharrington was so disturbed by her 3-year-old English bulldog's odd behavior that she drove nearly two hours on a Saturday from her home in Greenville to the clinic on Hillsborough Street near the State Fairgrounds.

Maddie was agitated and didn't bound up stairs or jump on the couch as she normally did. Tharrington's local vet suggested she consult NCSU.

Doctors ruled out kidney problems and decided Maddie had a urinary tract infection.

Tharrington, 44, was relieved it wasn't something more serious.

"She's like another child to me, I spoil her so much," said Tharrington, who has an 11-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter.

The clinic is at 4700 Hillsborough St. near the intersection with Blue Ridge Road. It can be reached at 513-6911.

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Construction costs hit ceiling

April 28, 2004
News & Observer
By T. KEUNG HUI, JANE STANCILL AND BRUCE SICELOFF
 © Copyright 2004

North Carolinians are about to feel the effects of record steel prices that have sent construction costs soaring nationwide.

The state is in a school and university building boom, with hundreds of millions of dollars in projects set to go out to bid this year. Construction supervisors for state and local agencies are warily watching their budgets and looking for projects to trim or delay.

Rising costs are especially a concern for the Wake County school system. Officials had hoped that more than $40 million of a $550 million construction program approved by voters could be financed from projects coming in under budget. But that's unlikely now.

"There is no way we can save $40 million in the building program, especially if the construction prices exceed our estimated cost of inflation," said Mike Burriss, Wake's assistant superintendent for facilities.

UNC system staff members met this week with leaders from the state association of contractors, Carolinas AGC. On the agenda: rising prices for construction materials.

For the past three years, the state's slow economy meant contractors were hungry for work and were bidding low, said Tony Plath, an economist with UNC-Charlotte who tracks the construction industry. Low bids allowed many projects to come in under budget.

But prices for steel and petroleum-based products such as asphalt have risen dramatically in recent months. For instance, a ton of 8-pound steel beam -- a material commonly used in construction -- increased 44 percent to $355 a ton between October and March, according to Purchasing Magazine.

Steelmakers such as Nucor, which has a plant in Hertford County, attribute the higher prices to rising energy costs, weakness of the U.S. dollar and strong demand domestically and in China.

The price of steel probably will influence the progress of many area building projects -- from Raleigh-Durham International Airport's $350 million replacement of Terminal C to Wake's $40.7 million Panther Creek High School in northwest Cary.

"If steel goes way up, you have to take something else out or else reduce the quality of other items," said Tim Clancy, CEO of Clancy & Theys Construction and chairman of the RDU Airport Authority. "I'd hate to do that, but you've got a budget."

Primary construction on Terminal C is to begin by mid-2005, and RDU will seek bids on steel late this fall.

Bids for Panther Creek High came in recently more than $2 million over budget. School officials have decided to use some less costly materials and to cut, for now, the school's football stadium.

Keeping watch

UNC-Chapel Hill has eight projects coming up for bid in the next three months or so, including classroom and dorm renovations, a steam plant and a global education center. The amount of steel used varies greatly from project to project -- interior renovations wouldn't require much, but any new construction would likely contain a lot of the material.

"We're watching it real closely," Kevin MacNaughton, special assistant for capital projects at UNC-CH, said of the rising prices.

The same is true at N.C. State University, where bids for several construction projects this spring came in over estimated costs.

By this summer, the UNC system is expected to spend about $70 million a month on construction. That's part of more than $4 billion in building planned or under way at the state's universities and community colleges -- $3.1 billion in state bonds approved by voters in 2000 and the rest financed by private donations, research funds and user fees.

Campus leaders did get some good news in this week's meeting. Some steel producers recently agreed to guarantee prices for 90 to 120 days, which should bring a bit of stability to the market.

The prices will be high, though.

"Steel ripples through everything," said Charles Leffler, NCSU's associate vice chancellor for facilities. "Steel is a driver, but we're seeing [increases] in everything. We're seeing it in concrete. We're seeing it in gypsum board."

Bruce Runberg, UNC-CH's associate vice chancellor for planning and construction, said the university should have enough in contingency money to cover the increases. Most bids until now have been on the low side, he said.

In most cases, campuses don't have the ability to delay construction to wait for better prices. The projects are planned so that universities will have enough classroom and dorm space to accommodate students.

Contingency money

The Triangle Transit Authority also should be able to rely on contingency funds to cover increased steel costs in the $844 million commuter rail project that is to begin service in 2007, said John Claflin, general manager. Steel will be a significant expense in the self-propelled diesel rail cars to be ordered this fall, and in 35 miles of track and bridges to be built starting next year.

Higher steel prices could force the state to cut back on some road projects, according to Steven D. DeWitt, director of construction for the Department of Transportation. He added, though, that there aren't any bids for major Triangle projects coming up in the next several months.

But things are tougher for the Wake school system, which has a contingency fund that's half the industry standard, said Burriss, the assistant superintendent.

He briefed the school board's facility committee last week and said that administrators would try to find ways to keep projects within budget. The school board is expected to discuss the Panther Creek football stadium at its meeting Tuesday.

Already, Wake officials are looking toward the next school bond issue, tentatively slated for 2006. It could include as much as $48.7 million in projects out of the current building program if the district can't generate more savings. A new pre-kindergarten center and the new Wendell Middle School could be delayed.

"There was a hope there might be enough savings based on past experiences," said Joe Durham, Wake's deputy county manager. "If there isn't, some projects may need to be rolled over into the next bond issue."

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Jordan Highway honors Montgomery's favorite son

April 27, 2004
Asheboro Courier Tribune
By Mary Anderson
 © Copyright 2004

MT. GILEAD - On Thursday, N.C. 24/27 through Montgomery County will be formally named the Bob Jordan Highway.

The public is invited to a 3:30 p.m. ceremony at the Swift Island Boating Access Area at the Pee Dee River Bridge that separates Montgomery and Stanly counties. They can help celebrate and enjoy barbecue and all the trimmings.

Robert B. (Bob) Jordan III, former state senator and lieutenant governor, will accept the honor, even though he admits to being a little embarrassed at all the attention.

"Really, I am honored. I do appreciate it, but you don't do things in life to be honored publicly," Jordan said in a recent telephone interview. "I was born and raised in a small town in a small county, and whatever I have accomplished, I had a lot of help along the way. I try to stay away from glory things."

The idea probably originated with Jimmy Haithcock, who was mayor of Mt. Gilead for over 30 years, and Rep. Pryor Gibson, who represents Montgomery County in the N.C. House.

"Once it was mentioned, a lot of local people thought it was a good idea and it just snowballed," Jordan said.

Jordan has long been Montgomery County's favorite son. Fresh out of the U.S. Army in 1957, he was elected to the Mt. Gilead Board of Commissioners, chaired the Montgomery County Planning Board for 10 years where the seed of a countywide water system was planted, served as state senator for seven years and was lieutenant governor with former Gov. Jim Martin - a Democrat lieutenant governor with the first Republican governor of the century.

In the meantime, Jordan also served on boards at UNC-Charlotte, N.C. State University, UNC Board of Governors, UNC Board of Trustees, the State Board of Education and the State Board of Community Colleges. He is still on the board of the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center and the NCSU Board of Trustees.

Jordan earned his bachelor of science degree in Forestry from NCSU with honors in 1954. Since 1969, he has been president of Jordan Lumber & Supply Inc. in Mt. Gilead where his brother, Jack, is vice president.

"You can read about all the big things he and his family do in the newspapers, but he is one of those special people who does what he can every day for everybody. People have no idea of the things he does quietly - and he doesn't want anybody to know," Haithcock said.

Jordan Hall, which houses environmental sciences, forestry and research at NCSU, was named for the Jordan family. Bob, Jack and their sister, Genie (Ussery), were all outstanding graduates of NCSU.

Genie was instrumental in the development of women's sports at NCSU, a captain of the women's basketball team and the first woman to score a basket in competition in Reynolds Coliseum.

"People would be amazed if they knew all the good Bob Jordan and his family has done for Montgomery County and countless individuals," said D.T. Scarborough, a Candor commissioner and life-long friend of the Jordan family. "His daddy (R.B. Jordan Jr.) believed in public service and giving back to the community and all his children have followed his example."

Gov. Mike Easley is the keynote speaker for Thursday's dedication.

All of the people on the program have special connections to Bob Jordan. His grandchildren will lead the Pledge of Allegiance. The East-West Harmony Singers from Montgomery County's two high schools will sing the National Anthem and the West Montgomery ROTC will post the colors. Jordan was educated in Montgomery County public schools.

G.R. Kindley, a member of the N.C. Board of Transportation who worked with Jordan to make U.S. 220 an interstate highway, will serve as master of ceremonies.

Billy Maness, chairman of the Montgomery County commissioners, a seat once held by Jordan's father, will talk about what the Jordan family has meant to Montgomery for most of the 20th century.

Mike Safley from the Meth-odist Home for Children will give the invocation. Jordan and his wife, Sarah, are strong supporters of the Home. Jordan gives Sarah credit for the Jordan House.

Their home church is First United Methodist in Mt. Gilead. Sarah and Bob Jordan raised their three children, Betsy, Robert and Janie, in the same small-town atmosphere that nourished them.

During his time in public office, Jordan led a number of educational initiatives, including the Basic Education Plan, the $3.2 billion school facilities act for school construction across the state and the N.C. Scholars Program. He was also instrumental in forming the Jobs and Economic Growth Commission which led to the Rural Economic Development Center.

"The joy of serving is being in a position to help people and to help small counties," Jordan said. "If you can solve the problems of small counties like Montgomery, you can solve problems all over the country."

Economic development, especially in rural counties, is dear to Jordan's heart. Since 1988, he has slowly limited his activities, except for the Board of Trustees at NCSU and the Rural Economic Development Center.

"Bob Jordan is a statesman. People all over North Carolina know and respect him," said Judy Stevens, executive director of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corp. "He is the one I depend on for advice on government and state issues and he is always willing to help."

Jordan said he changed his priorities when it became obvious he would not win the governor's race against incumbent Jim Martin in 1988.

"I told Sarah that we were going home and I was going to re-establish who I am," Jordan said. "She had been fussing about my having so much to do and not enough time for the family. She told me I could be in control of my schedule, and when I tried it, it worked. We enjoy our children and our grandchildren and we have two great-grandchildren now."

Jordan said the secret of time management is that his hobby is his work.

"I am primarily focused on improvements here in at the mill. We are in the process of buying a lumber plant in Georgia, the second one outside of North Carolina," Jordan said.

Golf is fun, too, Jordan admits, and he has a small boat to do a little fishing. He doesn't fly planes since he developed a hearing problem about six years ago, but had flown the company plane for 30 years. Jack, who was a U.S. Army pilot, still flies.

"Lumber plants are not near big cities," Jordan said wryly.

Jordan credits his success and his credibility beyond politics to being the product of a small town, the child of R.B. and Irene Jordan, the public schools and people who encouraged him along the way.

Notable among them are Bill Friday, the former UNC chancellor who Jordan considers "a second father," and John Caldwell, "a great educator at NCSU."

Jordan is optimistic about the future. "With the Charlotte beltway, more people will be looking this way. I have hopes for housing between Mt. Gilead and the Pee Dee River, housing affordable for young working families to have access to water," Jordan said. "Montgomery County is a great place to raise kids - and pine trees."

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'Peace meter' leads to a state award for 8th-grader

Apr. 28, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By LEIGH PRESSLEY
 © Copyright 2004

One fight at school is one too many for Courtney Lowery, a York Chester eighth-grader who recently won the Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) top middle school prize in North Carolina for a peaceful resolution project she created.

Courtney, 14, came up with the idea for a "peace meter" designed like a barometer. Taped to the cafeteria wall, it gauges how many fights result in a trip to the office for each grade. At the end of three weeks, the grade level with the least problems wins a reward -- cupcakes, a pizza party or other fun prize.

"We don't usually have a lot of physical altercations, but we're trying to get it stopped completely," she says. "Fights happen, but school is supposed to be a place where you come to learn."

The daughter of Yvette and Lamar Lowery of Gastonia, Courtney has served as treasurer of York Chester's SAVE chapter for two years. She also cheers, plays clarinet and percussion in the band and tutors younger students in the Homework Club.

Her peace meter idea was inspired by another SAVE program called Think Smart in which inmates of the Dallas Correctional Facility speak to students about life experiences and making smart choices.

"We had a guy visit who was charged with murder and served six years to life in prison," says Courtney. "He talked about how he was a troubled child, how his mom and dad were never at home, how he got into drugs and how he got into fights. That's when I thought of the idea of a peaceful resolution project."

SAVE adviser and guidance counselor Tammy Hubbard nominated her for the state award because "already as a student, she's an educator," she said. Courtney's nomination was one of more than 1,000 received. As a top four finalist, she was invited to attend the 9th Annual SAVE Summit on May 27 at N.C. State University in Raleigh.

Courtney said she thinks her idea won because of its creativity and because it gets the entire school involved.

Living by the golden rule is a lesson she learned at home and at church, and she tries to apply it to everyday life, even in tough situations.

"You can't be rude and nasty to people. Not everybody is nice and they like to talk about you or try to run over you, especially for the not-so-popular kids," she said. "Sometimes it's hard. But I try to tell people to think about how they'd feel if someone was rude or mean to them. A lot of times it works."

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Students showcase technological inventions

April 28, 2004
News 14 Carolina
By staff report
 © Copyright 2004 News 14 Carolina.

New gadgets and computer applications are on display at N.C. State University.

Students in the senior design project class are showcasing their technological inventions.

Some of the projects in the capstone computer science course include a voice-activated alarm clock, a sports reporting system and software to aid a wolf tracking project.

More than 500 students and 70 companies have collaborated on software design projects since the senior design project class started 10 years ago.

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Wake GOP hopes tide still rising

April 28, 2004
The News & Observer
By John Zebrowski, staff writer
© Copyright 2004 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

It's election season again. Candidates are pushing up through the ground, unfurling their policies and positions, establishing roots. It's a time for optimism, even dreaming.

This year, Republicans in Wake County are dreaming of a clean sweep. Nothing would punctuate the gains of the party over the past 20 years more emphatically than winning the three Board of Commissioner seats to be filled Nov. 2. That would bring a 7-0 Republican advantage.

It's an idea that would have provoked hoots of laughter only a few years ago.

"We're going to make that effort," said Marilyn Avila, chairwoman of the Wake Republican Party. "For us the key has always been to gain a majority, so we could start making changes. But if we could make a wish ... "

Each year for the past two decades, the gap between those registered as Democrats and Republicans closed in Wake County. In 1986, there were more than twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans. This year, the spread has been reduced to just 7 percentage points, attaining a level of near parity. Republicans are able to raise money at levels equal to or surpassing their rivals'.

On Friday, Commissioner Kenn Gardner, the board chairman, said he will hold a fund-raiser every day during the two-week candidate filing period that began Monday, looking to amass $50,000. The county Democratic Party has pledged to match these resources and run its two incumbents, Betty Lou Ward and Harold Webb, almost as a ticket, while mounting a campaign to oust Gardner.

"The races are going to be hotly contested," said Lorrin Freeman, head of the Wake County Democratic Party. "We know we have to answer the call and do what's necessary to win. We intend to be very aggressive raising money and spending it."

Freeman speculated that Democrats need to raise $30,000 per candidate to win. But that number might need to be greatly increased.

Gardner is shooting to have $100,000 in the bank before the primary. After two recent fund-raisers, he's already a quarter of the way there.

Ward, who has held her seat since 1988, raised only $11,000 four years ago. But she said to win this year will require more money than ever.

"How much?" she said. "I have no clue. But I intend to win."

Shift began in 1986

Two decades ago, Wake County elections were decided in the Democratic Party primaries. It wasn't until the emergence of Merrie Hedrick, a former model who entered politics to stop people from hunting on her property, that voters chose a Republican for the board post-Reconstruction.

But the 1986 victory was only half-hearted, as Hedrick proved to be one of the more liberal commissioners. She later switched to the Democratic Party. A second Republican, Gary Pendleton, who became chairman after the Republican sweep in 1994, wasn't elected to the board until 1992.

Oliver Williams, a political science professor at N.C. State University and a former Raleigh City Council member, said the shift away from the Democratic Party was already under way before then. Southern Democrats were often as conservative as any Republicans, if not more so. Williams said that beginning with the civil rights policies of President Johnson, the drift away from the Democratic Party slowly built momentum.

"But I'm not sure that the scenario that Republicans will now dominate isn't a reach," he said. "The Democratic Party runs strong in Wake County even when the state goes Republican."

So far, only Ward is facing any declared opposition.

Chris Malone, a first-term Republican Wake Forest commissioner, announced last month that he would run for his party's nomination to face Ward. He said he plans to run on a platform of cutting property taxes and reducing government spending. It's similar to the approach that helped elect Tony Gurley and Phil Jeffreys in 2002, victories that led to the current 5-2 Republican advantage on the board.

But the majority hasn't yielded a second Republican revolution. The current board has yet to reverse a single major policy of its Democratic-controlled predecessor. The vote to raise property taxes last year was backed by three Republicans, including Gardner.

A major reason, people from both parties speculate, may be that even while Republicans registered new members since Hedrick's election at a 2-to-1 rate over Democrats, the shift is less one of ideology than affiliation.

They credit much of the Republican surge to the influx of people into the county who already identify themselves as Republicans. Couple that with the huge increase of unaffiliated voters (from 17,000 in 1988 to 93,000 this year), and Wake County politics has become as muddy as the Neuse River after a storm.

Gardner has pledged not to raise taxes this year, a particularly popular position among conservative voters. But in presenting himself to the public, he is pushing issues that appeal to what he sees as the majority.

"I think I'm an incredibly strong Republican candidate," he said. "I've voted strong on the environment. I've supported schools, where we now have a better working relationship."

Freeman calls Ward and Webb similarly strong candidates. Webb is a veteran of Wake County politics who directed two successful commissioner campaigns for Vernon Malone. He filled Malone's seat in 2002 when Malone was elected to the state Senate.

But if either of their races will come to be viewed as an indication of where the county is headed, people point to Ward vs. Chris Malone. Malone said he's counting on the rise of Republicans, plus the presidential election, to help him beat Ward.

But Ward has faced strong challenges before. In 2000, she beat Ray Paquette for the second time despite being outspent nearly 7-to-1 during an election that saw George W. Bush roll in North Carolina. But she has seen her margin of victory shrink with each re-election.

Williams said he expects Ward to run well this year. If she loses, he said, it will be less of a sign of inevitable Republican domination than of the unclear situation that exists in this age of rapid growth.

"This is a two-party state now," he said. "As both parties remain strong and recruit good people for office, it's going to be hard for one to sweep the other. There might even be a slight swing away from Republicans."

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Avent answers USA Baseball call

April 28, 2004
The News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

N.C. State baseball coach Elliott Avent won't get to Greece this summer, but he will help coach a U.S. team that could end up funneling future Olympians to the Summer Games four years from now.

USA Baseball, the Triangle-based governing body that selects and trains the U.S. Olympic baseball team, announced Tuesday that Avent will serve as one of three assistant coaches on the national team competing this summer in the FISU World University Baseball Championships in Taiwan.

USA Baseball will invite 36 of the country's top freshman and sophomore college players to Durham in June to compete for a spot on the team, which will be managed by Loyola Marymount coach Frank Cruz.

The team will play four-game series against Canada and Taiwan at Durham Bulls Athletic Park this summer before going to the world university championships.

It's the most international glory that any U.S. baseball team will get this summer, because the United States failed to qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The U.S. team won the Olympic gold medal four years ago in Australia, and the U.S. team vying for a spot in this year's Olympic competition was 3-0 in pool play of the Americas qualifying tournament before it faced Mexico.

Mexico was 0-3 in pool play at the time but advanced to the single-elimination game because the Bahamas team seeded to play the United States forfeited. Mexico won the matchup 2-1 to eliminate the United States, which had won nine games against their hemispheric rival earlier in the summer.

At a brief news conference at N.C. State's Doak Field on Tuesday, Avent said he was eager to help prove that the best baseball in the world was still played "here, and as well on foreign soil."

"It was a huge disappointment to everyone that follows the sport of baseball and the Olympics," Avent said of the Olympic qualifying loss to Mexico. "I think this is an important summer to get back on track and make a statement for the future."

Paul V. Seiler, the executive director and CEO of USA Baseball, called the Olympic qualifying loss a disappointment but added that the qualifying system has flaws that need correcting.

"In my humble opinion, the three medalists from Sydney [Australia] should have been automatic," Seiler said. "If it's important to the world to have the United States and Cuba and Japan and some of the other powers at the Games, because of political reasons and so on and so forth ... let's build a system so that you know your best are going to be there. And then the second part of the system is to give the up-and-coming countries an opportunity to qualify."

Eric Campbell, the general manager for USA Baseball, said that many of the college players on this summer's team could end up on the U.S. Olympic squad three years from now.

"When we're coming around to qualifying for the Olympics in 2007, I think this pool of guys that we will interact with this summer will be the guys in the mix," Campbell said.

Continued international competition for U.S. players at all age levels will help fuel future success, he added. This summer, USA Baseball's youth national team will play in a tournament in Mexico, and the organization's junior national team will compete in Taiwan.

"I think all those athletes are getting valuable experience this year, as they will next year," Campbell said. "We're continuing to introduce our athletes, to take them out of their comfort zones, taking them to play internationally and giving them experience against your Cubans, your Asians and Canadians, whoever it may be that you're going to have to qualify against in 2007."

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Editorial: Money can buy?

April 28, 2004
News & Observer
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004

Money can't buy happiness, and there's little evidence that a lot more of it is the key to landing a top-drawer chancellor for N.C. State University. This is, after all, a highly prestigious job at a great university. Not exactly breaking rocks under a hot sun.

Some supporters of NCSU apparently fear that in attempting to replace departing Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, they'll see the best and brightest prospects turn up their noses at a Hillsborough Street mansion, a car, a country club membership and a salary around a quarter of a million dollars. So, say some, perhaps it's time to have private donors kick in money to boost the salary to a "competitive" level.

It's a bad idea, loaded with risky implications. Fortunately, one individual in the midst of the discussion has the position and the potential to put this notion to rest before its shortsighted sponsors get it rolling. That is Brad Wilson, chairman of the University of North Carolina system's Board of Governors. Wilson needs to stand against any infusion of private money into the chancellors' pay scale on the basis of a number of valid arguments against it, and he needs to take that stand now.

So, why not gild the chancellorial lily?

First, the chancellor at a public university is, or should be, an individual committed to public service -- not a private entrepreneur taking bids on a product.

Second, putting a pile of private money into a salary would raise an awkward question: does the chancellor work exclusively for the people, as should be the case, or also for the private donors, many of them likely well-meaning business people, who are kicking in?

Third, other than the premature alarms sounded by some trustees or vague warnings from UNC system officials, there is little evidence that the current compensation level is inadequate -- meaning that the pay package and other perks are anemic to the point where no one well qualified for the job is interested in it. (This point has been made by two previous UNC presidents -- William Friday and C.D. Spangler Jr., who recruited many chancellors.)

Fourth, there doubtless are fine internal candidates who would regard the chancellor's job as a true honor, not one they'd be doing the state a favor by agreeing to fill. It should be noted that some of the most outstanding chancellors in the system have come from the faculty -- Bill Aycock at UNC-Chapel Hill, Larry Monteith at N.C. State -- or have served after getting the call to return to an alma mater, as did Julius Chambers of N.C. Central.

Fifth, to raise a chancellor's pay substantially at a time when students and their families have dealt with steady tuition and fee increases would send a signal that many rightly would resent.

Public university leaders are CEOs of large, complex enterprises, but they don't serve stockholders -- they serve students and parents, their states, and the citizens whose dollars make public higher education possible.

Of course, chancellors should be well and fairly compensated. By and large that's already the case. If some enhancements were needed, they perhaps could be offered through a bonus system, tied to specific performance measures. But two overriding qualities expected of these public servants -- leadership and loyalty -- are not really for sale at any price.

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Homeland Security Selects Texas A&M University and University Of Minnesota to Lead New Centers of Excellence on Agro-Security

April 27, 2004
Department of Homeland Security
By staff report
 © Copyright 2004

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security today announces that Texas A&M University and the University of Minnesota have been chosen to lead two new Homeland Security Centers of Excellence (HS-Centers) on agro-security. The Department anticipates providing Texas A&M University, the University of Minnesota and their partners with a total of $33 million over the course of the next three years to address security in two key agricultural sectors -- foreign animal diseases and food security. Homeland Security and these universities will soon begin grant negotiations to formalize their partnerships.

"I am delighted that Texas A&M University and the University of Minnesota and their teams are partnering with Homeland Security in our efforts to address agro-security challenges," said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. "I am confident that the cooperative work of these two Centers of Excellence will help further the Bush Administration's efforts to ensure the security of the nation's food supply and protect against foreign animal diseases."

"Protecting our food and agriculture systems is a top priority for President Bush," said Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman. "Research conducted at these institutions will greatly enhance our ability to protect against animal and plant pests and diseases and food pathogens."

The Department of Homeland Security anticipates providing Texas A&M University and its partners with $18 million over the course of the next three years for the study of high consequence foreign animal and zoonotic diseases. Texas A&M University has assembled a team of experts from across the country, which includes partnerships with the University of Texas Medical Branch, University of California at Davis, University of Southern California and University of Maryland. Texas A&M University's HS-Center, which will be known as the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense, will work closely with partners in academia, industry and government to address potential threats to animal agriculture including foot-and-mouth disease, Rift Valley fever and Avian influenza. Their research on foot-and-mouth disease will be carried out in close collaboration with Homeland Security's Plum Island Animal Disease Center. The HS-Center's efforts will be headed by Dr. Neville Clark, Director, Agriculture Bio-terrorism Institute, Texas A&M University.

The University of Minnesota's HS-Center, known as the University Center for Post-Harvest Food Protection and Defense, will address agro-security issues related to post-harvest food protection. The University of Minnesota's team includes partnerships with major food companies as well as other universities including Michigan State University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, North Dakota State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, Harvard University, University of Tennessee, Cornell University, Purdue University and North Carolina State University. Homeland Security anticipates providing the University of Minnesota and its partners with $15 million over the course of the next three years to establish best practices and attract new researchers to manage and respond to food contamination events, both intentional and naturally occurring. Dr. Francis F. Busta of the University of Minnesota's Department of Food Science and Nutrition will head the HS-Center's efforts.

Agro-security is a priority for the Department of Homeland Security and the Bush Administration as a whole. The development and promotion of higher education programs for the protection of animal, plant, food supply and public health were some of the measures President Bush called for in Homeland Security Presidential Directive Nine: Defense of the United States Agriculture and Food, which was issued on January 30, 2004. The Department of Homeland Security and its academic partners will work closely with the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to ensure the success of these important efforts.

In December 2003, Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate released a Broad Agency Announcement calling for proposals focusing on research efforts to address agro-security. A team of external expert evaluators, including officials from the Department of Agriculture, Department Health and Human Services' Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and academia, reviewed the 23 proposals received based on merit. Their recommendations, along with those from experts within Homeland Security and other federal agencies, were used to assess the relevance of the proposed research to the Department's mission. This process resulted in site visits to seven different institutional sites and their partners, and the eventual selection of Texas A&M University and the University of Minnesota.

The HS-Centers program, which is operated by the Department's Science and Technology Directorate, is establishing an integrated network of university-based centers that will conduct multi-disciplinary research and develop innovative educational programs for critical Homeland Security missions. Through this program, Homeland Security and partner universities bring together the nation's best experts and focus its most talented researchers on a variety of threats that include agricultural, chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological, explosive and cyber terrorism as well as the behavioral aspects of terrorism.

In November 2003, the University of Southern California, partnering with the University of Wisconsin at Madison, New York University, North Carolina State University, Carnegie Mellon University and Cornell University was chosen to house the first HS-Center, known as the Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events. Their efforts will now also include support of these new agro-security Centers of Excellence.

In 2004, Homeland Security plans to establish additional HS-Centers across a variety of research and development areas of interest to the Department.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate serves as the primary research and development arm of the Department, utilizing our nation's scientific and technological resources to provide federal, state and local officials with the technology and capabilities to protect the homeland.

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Fact Sheet: Partnering with the Nation's Universities

April 27, 2004
Department of Homeland Security
By staff report
 © Copyright 2004

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate is harnessing the nation's scientific knowledge to protect America and our way of life from terrorists and their weapons of mass destruction. The Office of University Programs is furthering this mission by engaging the academic community to create learning and research environments in areas critical to Homeland Security.

Through the Homeland Security Centers of Excellence the Department is encouraging universities to become centers of multi-disciplinary research where these important areas of inquiry can be analyzed, debated and shared. The future of homeland security science is also being advanced by the development of the next generation of scientists in the Homeland Security Scholars and Fellows Program, which benefits students with intellectual pursuits that align with the Department's missions.

President Bush demonstrated his commitment to the Department's efforts with academia when he signed the first Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill on October 1, 2003. This measure included $70 million in fiscal year 2004 for the Science and Technology Directorate's Office of University Programs.

Engaging the academic community:

Harnessing the future of science:

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CIO: Offshore trend means innovation at home a must

26 Apr 2004
SearchWindows2000.com; SearchOracle.com; Search390.com; Search SAP
By staff report
 © Copyright 2004

How and why did offshore outsourcing happen with such speed and fury? What does it all mean? N.C. State Vice Provost and CIO Sam Averitt weighs in and explains how offshoring is truly changing what it means to be in IT. Bottom line: If you're not innovating, find another field.

How does being CIO of a university differ from being CIO of a private company? Do you have to think in business terms as well?

Sam Averitt: The decisions I make in higher education are different than the ones you'd make in some other fields, [but] the over-arching thought processes are very similar -- like correlating your investment with business decisions, being conscious of outcomes and building bridges between customers, employees, senior leadership and IT.

You've got to communicate why and how you're investing -- how that relates to the goals and outcomes that the enterprise has as its mission. We have to link our investment strategy with our desired outcomes and programmatic objectives. A lot of people say they can save a lot of money in IT by doing this or that, but in truth you want to make sure that whatever you do has a positive impact on the company's business. In our case, it's teaching and learning, research, extension and outreach. So yes, we want to save money and be accountable, but at the end of the day no matter how efficient the investment is, it's no good unless it produces good outcomes. It really is the case now that there is no single model or template for IT investing. It has to be relevant and relative to what you're trying to accomplish in terms of business.

You can no longer be doing things in a vacuum. IT has in many ways grown up, people in IT are still expected to be innovators, [and] those innovations are expected to return tangible value to the enterprise.

What's your take on the offshore outsourcing trend? Has it changed the way you teach your students?

Averitt: This is probably the most profound question of today. What we're really seeing and what we're feeling is the force of change -- the ever- increasing rate of change. I think all timelines are collapsing. Offshoring would have happened anyway, but in the past it would have happened over a generation or two. [In] the '90s, everyone thought that IT jobs were sacrosanct and the way of the future. Then suddenly IT jobs are being sent offshore. What's happened is the pace of technological change has contracted the time scale to the point where what would have happened anyway over a long period of time [instead] happened within a 10-15 year period. The next changes are likely to happen in an even shorter timeframe. The natural cycle is shortening, and the impact on people is tremendous because it's creating a chaotic churn.

The collapsing timeline disrupts our sense of normalcy. What was normal and appropriate yesterday isn't today. Maybe the new generation of kids will be much more suited to this environment than those who are older. It's hard to make changes on a continuing basis. We'd like to move to a comfort level where we've established ourselves, but in this environment, in some ways you've never arrived; you've never established yourself, and any one place is temporary. There's a transitional nature to everything. It's like a journey where you stop momentarily in any one place.

And by the way, it's going to keep changing, and the pace of that change is going to increase. We're living in a very dynamic time. I often refer to it as 'living in the flow' -- everything is flowing, and nothing is static. Our assumptions, which may have been good yesterday, may be invalid tomorrow. We must keep reassessing our practices and approaches. We are the victims, in some ways, of our own success.

Did you see the offshore outsourcing wave coming? Could you have imagined it five years ago?

Averitt: Yes, but I didn't see it coming as fast as it came. But I think it was inevitable. We all saw time being compressed and the spacing between events becoming shorter. Certain industries and methods become obsolete and others take their place. What's different is, it's happening over a shorter time span. We have a lot to learn about a technology-driven economy.

What do you think about possible laws to curb offshoring?

Averitt: Barriers are just going to make you less competitive. In the long run, that will hurt you. I think we have to make people aware of what's happening. I think there's a sort of truth in marketing -- that our successes also create disadvantages, and we need to acknowledge that everything isn't going to come up roses. We need to spend more time looking at the downside of our success and how we mitigate those downsides and prepare the workforce to move forward and be successful in the new paradigm. I think the offshoring argument is like the situation with the recording industry. Technology has become very disruptive, and the old model isn't going to work anymore, but we haven't yet found the new model. The sooner we can identify a new model or equilibrium and embrace it, the better off we'll be.

The force of change is organic, in my opinion. It is adaptive, evolved and moves around barriers -- while you think you impose conditions to stop something, there are so many ways the force of change can move around the barrier. What you have to do is learn to go with the flow and to navigate the flow to be successful in that kind of environment. The sooner we can come to grips with this new reality and learn to manage it well, the better off we'll be. That's where we'll reach stability -- when we get a new mindset and realize that this is the way things are going to be from now on.

I remember 15 years ago, getting a degree in computer science meant you were set. I guess that's no longer the case.
Averitt: You could get a degree in computer science, but if you're thinking about what you're going to do when you get out, you're going to need to challenge yourself, and maybe look at your minor and make it something other than mathematics -- branch it out in a way that's expansive and opens up opportunities.

Even researchers in a particular area now have to have a broader set of skills than they used to. You can innovate within your discipline, but the more likely job prospects are going to require innovation across disciplines. The real opportunity right now is at the verge where different themes intersect -- being able to apply IT to your business model. Where IT and medicine intersect; where IT and teaching and learning intersect -- it's at those intersections or verges where you get the greatest opportunity for creativity and profound change.

Have you noticed fewer students taking IT-related classes?

Averitt: I think we're seeing declines. I think there was this dot-com euphoria three or four years ago where if you could get a degree in IT, you could do no wrong, all the possibilities were open to you, and there were no limits. We know now that's not true. There are still a lot of opportunities, but IT is not for everyone. And the requirements are different than they were 10 years ago -- than they were five years ago. What's going to be expected of today's IT graduate is going to be different than it was of yesterday's.

Understand that graduates in India and China are extremely capable as well. But they're also going to create new markets and opportunities. There's such a differentiation in standard of living between Americans and people in places like China and India that have long-established civilizations. There's not that great a difference in the educational standards. But there is in the standard of living, and so we're seeing that disparity show up. That's why jobs are flowing so fast overseas. As those economies improve and become 21st century economies, you're going to see more balance and more equity in exchange rates, and when that happens there won't be this huge one-way flow. You're going to see innovation rewarded equally no matter where it occurs. And I think we have to prepare our society to become one of innovation because that's where the future's value will be found. The exchange rates can't remain the way they are forever, especially as societies become larger, consumer societies. When the population reaches a certain economic standing they'll be buying as much as they're selling.

What areas of IT would you recommend a graduate get into these days?

Averitt: Anything that lies on the verge between disciplines is a good one to get into now. The boom now is in genetics -- the biological sciences. There are a lot of IT requirements in that space, but it doesn't matter whether you're in city planning, education or industry -- you've got to be looking at a broader set of skills than IT. What's important is bringing IT to some activity where you're merging and innovating using technology tools to give the existing worker, activity or business value.

If a job is routine and can be completely specified, it will be offshored. Or perhaps offshored today but automated tomorrow. We will figure out how to eliminate most personnel costs. Computers are becoming more self-aware and autonomic and able to identify protective solutions.

There will always be IT jobs, but they're going to require two things. Not only are you going to have to be very highly skilled in IT, you'll have to be an innovator -- it's impossible to be successful without being an innovator. You'll have to know how to add value or prove outcomes using technology. So you have to understand IT and business and how to pull those two together.

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Network Appliance Demonstrates Regulatory Compliance Storage Market Leadership

April 28, 2004
BUSINESS WIRE; TMCnet
By staff report
 © Copyright 2004

Network Appliance, Inc. (Nasdaq:NTAP), a leading provider of enterprise network storage solutions, today announced that its enterprise customers are using over 1,000 terabytes (1 petabyte) of NetApp compliance storage, a critical milestone for the regulatory compliance storage market. As evident by widespread customer adoption in regulated data industries such as financial services, healthcare, life sciences, and government, NetApp SnapLock(TM) compliance solutions continue to empower customers with greater flexibility and choice as the industry's online data archival and preservation solution. SnapLock software and NetApp storage systems enable customers to comply with the vast amount of rules and regulations worldwide that govern how businesses need to store, protect, manage, and retrieve critical business, employee, and customer data.

"We evaluated a number of storage solutions to help us comply with regulatory mandates," said Henry Vail, systems architect for NCSU Administrative Computing. "NetApp offered a proven, relatively cost-effective data permanence solution to help us meet these requirements while also consolidating with our existing storage infrastructure. We also knew that NetApp solutions were straightforward to implement and use, allowing us to remain focused on our leading projects."

"Addressing regulatory compliance and ensuring proper management of electronic records will continue to be two of the highest priorities for enterprises as the market for compliance-related storage hardware and software solutions and professional services grows to nearly a $6.0 billion market by 2006," said Peter Gerr, senior analyst at Enterprise Storage Group. "NetApp has clearly emerged as an industry leader for companies seeking to mitigate risk, simplify data management, and reduce the cost and complexity for their regulated data storage needs."

Leading application partners for compliance data continue to ship solutions that support NetApp SnapLock. The companies that already support the software today include AXS-One, CYA Technologies, CommVault Systems, Documentum, Enigma Data Systems, FileNet, FileTek, iLumin, KVS, Legato, OpenText-IXOS, Optika, Princeton Softech, VERITAS Software, Vignette, and ZANTAZ.

"VERITAS is working closely with NetApp to deliver advanced, integrated solutions to make data management, migration, retention, and retrieval simple and cost-efficient," said Brenda Zawatski, vice president of product marketing for VERITAS Software. "Together, we are focused on driving the future of disk-based data protection and true enterprise-wide data lifecycle management."

SnapLock software utilizes open industry standard protocols, enabling third-party application vendors to experience simple and seamless technology integration. These factors distinguish SnapLock from other magnetic disk-based WORM (write once, read many) solutions, which require applications to write to proprietary, closed APIs that make access and integration more challenging.

"Protecting regulated data is a critical concern for many of our customers," said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Marketing at Network Appliance. "Widespread customer adoption and the rapid support of SnapLock by numerous industry-leading partners prove that NetApp regulatory compliance solutions are meeting the needs of our customers for maximum simplicity, flexibility, and low cost."

For more information on NetApp compliance solutions visit www.netapp.com/solutions/regulated-data.html.

About Network Appliance

Network Appliance is a world leader in unified storage solutions for today's data-intensive enterprise. Since its inception in 1992, Network Appliance has delivered technology, product, and partner firsts that continue to drive "The evolution of storage.(TM)" Information about Network Appliance(TM) solutions and services is available at www.netapp.com.

NetApp and the Network Appliance logo are registered trademarks and Network Appliance, The evolution of storage, and SnapLock are trademarks of Network Appliance Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.

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Processors use tech to track meat progression

April 27, 2004
USA TODAY
By Michelle Kessler
 © Copyright 2004

To fight mad cow disease, a Colorado slaughterhouse is using a high-tech computer system worthy of a spy movie.

Think retinal scanners. Bluetooth wireless data technology. Linux operating system. Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. Global positioning systems.

Putting such cutting-edge technology in a wet, messy slaughterhouse might seem a little strange. But Swift & Co., the nation's third-largest meat processor, says it's the best way to make sure steak is safe.

Tainted beef can kill. Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a deadly animal illness that's passed to humans who eat meat from a sick cow. The usually fatal human version of the disease has infected 155 people worldwide since 1995, the Food and Drug Administration says.

Cattle infected with mad cow usually appear ill. But healthy-looking animals can harbor pathogens such as E.coli O157:H7, a bacteria which usually doesn't hurt cattle but can kill humans. About 60 people die each year of E.coli poisoning, the Centers for Disease Control says.

One of the best ways to prevent deaths is carefully tracking cattle, says Colorado State University food science professor Patricia Kendall. A good tracking system would allow public health officials to quickly contain outbreaks and recall tainted meat.

That doesn't happen today. Most slaughterhouses in the USA process cattle about 20 at a time. Beef is usually identified with that lot number, but no more specific information about which cow it came from. Other countries, including England and Japan, have stricter regulations stemming in part from mad cow outbreaks. No one is yet believed to have caught mad cow in the USA.

If a piece of beef here tests positive for a pathogen, everything in its lot usually must be recalled — often as much as a tractor-trailer load, says North Carolina State University assistant food science professor Kevin Keener. A recall is a tiny percentage of the more than 26 billion pounds of beef U.S. processors produce annually, the Department of Agriculture says. But tracking tainted beef can be a race, since consumers usually eat beef not long after they buy it, Keener says.

Swift hopes its new system, installed in its Greeley, Colo., packing plant in November, will track a steak back to the cow it came from. That could limit the size and improve the speed of recalls, Swift Vice President Gary Acromite says.

It will also help Swift track the best suppliers, he says. Today, "I really couldn't tell you why I get really great steaks ... one week, and the next week, I don't," Acromite says. Swift hopes to someday put a special sticker on tracked beef, indicating quality. "Customers will pay a premium for that," Acromite says.

Tagged, scanned, photographed

Beef tracking is harder than it might sound. Slaughterhouses are bloody, damp places not conducive to computer systems. Cows don't come in a standard size and are cut into pieces before they're sold.

Swift is overcoming those challenges using a new handheld scanning device from Fort Collins, Colo., start-up Optibrand. The scanning device runs on the Linux operating system. It looks similar to a bar-code reader you might see in a supermarket checkout lane, with a base station and scanning wand. The device is packed with features, including:

•Retinal scanner. Workers use the wand to scan a cow's eye. The wand takes an image of the blood vessels, then uses a computer program to turn the pattern into a unique ID number.

•Digital camera. The retinal scanner turns into a regular digital camera with the push of a button, letting ranchers and processors snap pictures of their herds.

•Bar-code reader. An attachment that clips on to the wand turns the camera into a reader for the bar codes many ranchers put on plastic tags in cows' ears.

•Radio frequency identification tag reader. An optional second wand can read RFID tags, computer chips containing information that can be automatically detected by nearby sensors. Cows are occasionally implanted with RFID tags, and that's likely to become more common.

•Global positioning system. The base station is equipped with GPS, which uses a satellite feed to pinpoint its location. Optibrand's GPS system can identify the location of almost anyone on the planet, to within about 50 feet.

•Bluetooth. All data collected by the base station can be sent to a nearby computer via Bluetooth wireless data technology. Bluetooth uses radio waves to send information short distances. It is most commonly used to sync electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants, or PDAs, with computers.

Cows that come into the Swift plant might or might not have some form of ID from the ranch. Swift starts by retinally scanning every cow, so each has a unique ID number. One plant worker scans the eye of each carcass as it zips by. The plant worker also scans in bar codes, RFID tags or other information.

All that data is wirelessly transmitted to a computer in Swift's back office. That eliminates the need for wires that might not last in the rough environment, Acromite says.

Tracking gets trickier when cows are prepared for butchering. When a cow's head is cut off, Swift attaches a plastic tag with its ID number from the retinal scan to the carcass. That tag stays on until the carcass is cut into pieces.

It's too hard to attach a tag to every piece of meat, Acromite says. Swift uses probability to match a steak with the ID number of the cow it came from. If Swift is butchering one cow every minute, the company knows that steaks cut between 2:15 and 2:16 probably come from a certain cow. While not perfect, probability can narrow a steak's origin to a handful of cows, Acromite says. "Rather than having it come from a lot of 20 animals, I've now got it down to two or three," he says.

Hamburger is trickier. Typically, when cows are butchered, odd cuts of meat are tossed into a big bin, then ground into hamburger. A burger might have meat from dozens of cows. Swift is working on a probability system for hamburger, but so far hasn't come up with anything feasible, Acromite says.

Swift's system cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars," Acromite says. He won't give details, but Optibrand says a scanner costs about $1,800. Back-end computers can cost thousands more. Smaller ranchers might purchase only the handheld scanner, then upload the data to a PC as one uploads photos from a digital camera, Optibrand CEO Bruce Golden says.

Optibrand collects a fee for each cow scanned. Infrequent users pay about 90 cents a scan, while bigger ones might negotiate volume discounts, Golden says.

Swift says the money was well spent. In addition to quality controls, the system might put Swift ahead of new tracking regulations expected from federal regulators concerned about mad cow. "In the event that the government mandates RFID tags for individual animals, this technology will be able to capture it, and whatever else is coming at us," Acromite says.

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Centers for agriculture security named

April 28, 2004
Big News Network
By staff report
 © Copyright 2004

Homeland Security officials Tuesday announced Texas A&M University and the University of Minnesota will be the lead centers for agriculture security.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the universities and their partners will receive $33 million during the next three years to study foreign animal diseases and food security.

I am confident that the cooperative work of these two centers of excellence will help further the Bush Administration's efforts to ensure the security of the nation's food supply and protect against foreign animal diseases, he said.

Texas A&M and its partners expect to receive $18 million to study foreign-animal diseases and animal diseases passed to humans. The partners are the universities of Texas Medical Branch, California at Davis, Southern California and Maryland.

The University of Minnesota and its partners will receive $15 million to study post-harvest food protection. The partners include major food companies plus Michigan State University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, North Dakota State University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, Harvard University, the University of Tennessee, Cornell University, Purdue University and North Carolina State University.

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MCNC Touts JIT Optical Protocol

APRIL 27, 2004
Light Reading
By staff report
 © Copyright 2004

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Scientists at MCNC Research & Development Institute (MCNC-RDI) continue to validate the Just-in-Time (JIT) optical networking protocol for ultra-fast provisioning and management of all-optical network connections.

The protocol was recently demonstrated for the Federal Communications Commission at the Naval Research Laboratory’s Center for Computational Science.

“The JIT protocol is a new approach to light path provisioning that could significantly reduce communication delays in the networks,” said Edmond J. Thomas, FCC chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology. “JIT not only has the potential to enhance today’s network infrastructure but the technology also could potentially improve efficiency for applications bound by limited resources such as the wireless spectrum. This protocol is yet another example of technological innovation which could result in more efficient use of the radio spectrum and hopefully lead to new and affordable services for the American public”

Developed jointly by researchers at MCNC-RDI and North Carolina State University, JIT represents a significant breakthrough in the transmission of high-capacity signals by addressing the frequency, availability and data rate challenges facing current and emerging bandwidth-intensive applications. JIT signaling reduces latency and increases efficient use of the network. It is being used to create a new optical network service that features fine-grain multiplexing of wavelengths.

Although, the JIT protocol and control plane originally targeted application to optical networks, it was designed to be independent of media type. Recent analysis at MCNC-RDI shows that the JIT technology offers advantages in other types of communication networks, such as wireless and satellite.

“Standards for signaling in optical public networks are evolving and will ultimately lead to connectivity between today’s optical networking equipment and the rest of the global telecommunications network,” said John Mazur, principal analyst at Gartner, a market research firm. “Carriers must explore new signaling protocols to provide bandwidth on demand capabilities to both higher layer equipment and to end-users. Minimizing bandwidth provisioning cycles and their expense will go far in improving carriers’ profitability as well. The JIT protocol provides a migration path to tomorrow’s optical technological advances in bufferless switched networks, nano-second optical switch configuration times, inexpensive wavelength conversion technology and fine-grain lambda multiplexing.”

Since October 2002, JIT signaling protocols and hardware implementations have been successfully deployed across test-bed networks confirming the viability of ultra-fast provisioning. In January 2004, MCNC-RDI demonstrated the JIT protocol to the FCC by successfully transporting uncompressed digital 1.5 gigabits High Definition Television (HDTV) signals through an all-optical light path. The HDTV transmission required no conversion processing within the network as it remained in the all-optical data plane from source to destination.

Today’s standards for provisioning optical connections via carrier networks or through generalized multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) are not sufficient for bandwidth-intensive applications such as computational steering and visualization steering. In most cases, establishing light paths can take days or minutes, making it difficult to efficiently share wavelengths. The JIT protocol provides a mechanism to set-up and release connections at the millisecond to microsecond timeframes (depending on switch configuration times) allowing fine-grain multiplexing of the data plane. This enables on-demand, application-initiated provisioning of bandwidth.

“JIT provides a mechanism to establish end-to-end optical connections in microseconds, where data can be as small as packets or as large as long-lived light paths,” said Dan Stevenson, vice president of MCNC-RDI’s Advanced Network Research Division. “Multi-wavelength, reconfigurable optical networks offer greater capabilities than current transport SONET and IP router technologies when applications need large data units to achieve and maintain sustained data rates as high as 10 gigabits per second.”

The JIT protocol combines the valuable features of packet and circuit switched services and provides out-of-band control signal processing to maximize set up time and optical switch bandwidth efficiency. Signal messages travel in advance of the data they are describing and undergo electro-optical conversion at each intermediate node. Switching elements inside the switches are configured for the incoming data (a tell-and-go approach), thus minimizing network latency by eliminating round-trip waiting time. In JIT, data remains transparent to the intermediate network, which means data channels being transmitted on individual wavelengths can convey analog (e.g. radar) and digital traffic in any format, data rate or modulation scheme.

JIT Protocol Highlights


Out-of-band signaling on a single channel – Signaling channel undergoes electro-optical conversions at each node to make signaling information available to intermediate switches.
Data transparency – Data is transparent to the intermediate network entities, i.e., no electro-optical conversion takes place at intermediate nodes and no assumptions are made about the data rate or signal modulation methods.
Network intelligence at the edge – Most “intelligent” services are supported only at edge switches. Core switches are kept simple.
Signaling protocol implemented in hardware – To avoid bottlenecks and to achieve wire speed operations, the signaling protocol is implemented in hardware.
No global time synchronization – Time synchronization between nodes are not assumed.

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The Military-Academic Complex: Who's the Real National Champion?

April 27, 2004
ZNet, MA
By Nicholas Turse
 © Copyright 2004

Since 1961, thanks to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, we've all been cognizant of the "unwarranted influence" of the military-industrial complex in America. Later in that decade, Senator J. William Fulbright spoke out against the militarization of academia, warning that, "in lending itself too much to the purposes of government, a university fails its higher purposes," and called attention to the existence of what he termed the military-industrial-academic complex or what historian Stuart W. Leslie has termed the "golden triangle" of "military agencies, the high technology industry, and research universities."

While we might intuitively accept the existence of a military-academic complex in America, defining and understanding it has never been simple -- both because of its ambiguous nature and its dual character. In actuality, the military-academic complex has two distinct arms. The first is the official, out-and-proud, but oft ignored, melding of the military and academia. Since 1802, when Thomas Jefferson signed legislation establishing the United States Military Academy, America has been formally melding higher education and the art of warfare. The second is the militarized civilian university -- since World War II and the emergence of the national security state, civilian educational institutions have increasingly become engaged in the pursuit of enhanced war-making abilities.

In 1958, the Department of Defense spent an already impressive $91 million in support of "academic research." By 1964, the sum had reached $258 million and by 1970, in the midst of the Vietnam War, $266 million. By 2003, however, any of these numbers, or even their $615 million total, was dwarfed by the Pentagon's prime contract awards to just two schools, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University which, together, raked in a combined total of $842,437,294.

War-Making U or U Make War?
West Point, Annapolis, the Air Force Academy. The mere mention brings to mind a vision of dashing, broad-shouldered, square-jawed, straight-laced cadets in sharp uniforms (or perhaps the shadowy specter of rampant sexual harassment and rape), but if, when it comes to military education, you're only considering the big-3 service academies with the Merchant Marine Academy, the Coast Guard Academy, and private schools like The Citadel thrown in for good measure, think again!

As it turns out, the military and the Department of Defense (DoD) have an entire system of education and training institutions and organizations of their own, including the many schools of the National Defense University system (NDU): the National War College, the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, the School for National Security Executive Education, the Joint Forces Staff College, and the Information Resources Management College as well as the Defense Acquisition University, the Joint Military Intelligence College -- open only to "U.S. citizens in the armed forces and in federal civilian service who hold top secret/SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) clearances" -- the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, the Naval Postgraduate School, the Naval War College, Air University, the Air Force Institute of Technology, the Marine Corps University and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, among others. In fact, scholar Chalmers Johnson has noted in his new book on American militarism, The Sorrows of Empire, that there are approximately 150 military-educational institutions in the U.S.

While the service academies train a youthful corps of tomorrow's military officers, enrolled in the schools of the National Defense University are a group of selected commissioned officers, with approximately 20 years of service, and civilian officials from various agencies, including the Department of Defense, who are schooled in a curriculum that emphasizes "the development and implementation of national security strategy and military strategy, mobilization, acquisition, management of resources, information and information technology for national security, and planning for joint and combined operations." Further, good old' NDU sustains the golden-triangle military agencies, the high technology industry, and research universities by "promot[ing] understanding and teamwork among the Armed Forces and between those agencies of the Government and industry that contribute to national security." To this end, the school also opens spots to "industry fellows" from the private sector who, says NDU president and Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael M. Dunn, "bring ideas from industry to the Defense Department."

Joe College Gets Drafted
In 2002, NDU's budget topped out at $102.5 million -- about what MIT alone received from the DoD… in 1969. While the formal military-academic complex of service academies and DoD institutions is a massive educational apparatus, its size, scope and cost pale in comparison to those in the increasingly militarized civilian higher educational structure.

During World War II, as historian Roger Geiger has noted, educational institutions carrying out weapons development not surprisingly received the largest government research and development contracts. Six of them, in particular, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University, received the then-massive sums of more than $10 million each. Following the war, military entities like the Office of Naval Research (ONR) sought to establish, strengthen, and cultivate relationships with university researchers. By the time the ONR officially received legislative authorization to begin its work in August 1946, it had already entered into contracts for 602 academic projects employing over 4000 scientists and graduate students. Academia has never looked back.

For example, at the close of World War II, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the nation's largest academic defense contractor. By 1962, physicist Alvin Weinberg sarcastically remarked that it was becoming difficult to figure out if MIT was a university connected to a multitude of government research laboratories or "a cluster of government research laboratories with a very good educational institution attached to it." By 1968, a year after Fulbright coined the phrase "military-industrial-academic complex," MIT already ranked 54th among all U.S. defense contractors. In 1969, its prime military contracts topped $100 million for the first time. By 2003, that number had grown to $514,230,083, good enough to make the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the 48th largest defense contractor in the United States.

But MIT is far from alone. Today, the scale of interpenetratio