Laguna Blanca Students Headed to D.C. for Obama’s Inauguration
More than two dozen local youths prepare to embark on the experience of a lifetime.
Twenty-eight students in Laguna Blanca‘s Upper School will embrace an opportunity of a lifetime this month as they visit Washington, D.C., to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama on Jan. 20.
The trip’s itinerary was arranged by Laguna history instructor Martha Elliott through WorldStrides, an educational student travel company. For many Laguna students, it will be their first visit to the nation’s capital.
In the evening, the students will attend an inauguration dance, sponsored by WorldStrides, for all of the high school students visiting to witness Obama’s inauguration.
The next day, Laguna students will visit Mount Vernon, the White House, the National Archive, Capitol Hill, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Einstein Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.
“We’ll have to get up at 4:30 on Tuesday morning,” Elliott said, “because we have to go through security by 5:30 or 6 a.m. for the swearing-in, which begins at 10:30. Obama will be sworn in at noon.”
The group will attend the parade to follow. On Jan. 21, the students will take in more sights, including Arlington National Cemetery, where they will watch the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and see the Kennedy gravesites. They’ll also visit the Challenger Memorial, the Iwo Jima Memorial and the U.S. Air Force Memorial.
The group will leave for home early that evening and get back to Laguna about 2 a.m., with many memories to share with their families and classmates.
“This is certainly an historic event,” Elliott says. “Just being there to watch with 4 million Americans is a chance in a lifetime. It’s something we’ll tell our grandchildren about.”
Tara Broucqsault is public relations director at Laguna Blanca School.
Motel 6 in Goleta Evacuated After Reports of Gunfire
Police officials find no evidence of a shooting, but two people are detained on unrelated drug charges.
Law enforcement officials responded Tuesday morning to reports of several gunshots from a Goleta motel.
A sheriff’s SWAT team searched and cleared the room where it believed the gunfire came from, but found no evidence of a shooting.
Officials found drug paraphernalia, though, and a male and female occupant were detained on drug-related charges. The pair are not linked to the shooting at this time.
Traffic on Calle Real from the Calle Real Center to Fairview Avenue was blocked until 7:30 a.m. The scene was cleared by 8 a.m.
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Outdoors Q&A: Using Cattle Cutouts As Duck-Hunting Decoys
Fish & Game answers questions about that issue and others — including increases in license fees.
Question: I am in a duck club and we get geese in the field between our blinds. It is impossible to sneak up on the geese without being seen. We made a life-size cow silhouette and painted it black and white just like the cows in the field. We are planning to hide behind it to sneak up within shooting range of the geese. Is this a legal decoy? (Scott L.)
One of the most famous live decoys was a hunting steer by the name of “Old Tom.” When his owner bought him in 1914, Old Tom weighed 1,850 pounds and stood 5 feet 8 inches high. During the days of market hunting, he was utilized in practically every inland county in the state and made an excellent blind because of his training, size and build. Because of the high success of this method, market hunters were banned from this practice nearly a century ago, and sportsmen have been banned from this practice since 1957.
Click here for more on that story.
Question: I don’t get to go fishing that often. If I’m fortunate enough to get a limit of fish in the morning and I put those fish on ice in the truck, can I then go back out in the afternoon to catch more? I often travel nearly 100 miles to go fishing, and with the economy as bad as it is, I can’t go often. Is this legal? (Ron F.)
Answer: I can understand you wanting to maximize your fishing experience and harvest because of the troubled economy; however, a “bag limit” means the total you can take in one day. And “possession limit” is usually the same as your bag limit (at least in ocean waters), so you’re allowed to possess only one bag limit at any one time. To collect more, you would need to either consume or give away what you have and then fish on another day for more, up to the bag limit allowed.
Question: Why do fishing and hunting license fees and various cards and tags increase in price every year? It concerns my friends and me as we’re of the older population of California and are on fixed incomes. Hunting and fishing are some of the only pleasures we have to enjoy in our old age, but they are becoming so costly that we won’t be able to afford them if you keep raising prices. (Bill D.)
According to license program analyst Glenn Underwood, the Fish & Game code requires license fees to be adjusted in response to increases (or decreases) in costs of goods and services using an index called the Implicit Price Deflator (Fish & Game Code Section 713). This index is a gauge of the change in the cost of goods and services from year to year.
For example, as hatchery, law enforcement and wildlife management costs have increased, license fees needed to increase to keep pace with these rising costs. Essentially, license fees are adjusted to compensate for inflation. If license fees weren’t adjusted for inflation, then funding for fish and wildlife management and protection actually would decrease because the “buying power” of a dollar has declined over the years.
License fee increases in the past five years have ranged from 1.5 percent in 2005 to 6.5 percent in 2007. The average in the past five years has been 4.7 percent.
Generally, the cost of goods and services increases at a fairly steady, slow rate, with 2 percent to 3 percent per year common. In recent years, some costs have increased dramatically, particularly the cost of fuel. Because of this, the cost of goods and services jumped about 6.19 percent, and 2009 license fees increased accordingly. If the cost of goods and services were to decrease, then license fees would decrease the same percentage. However, when is the last time the cost of living decreased?
Although fishing and hunting license fees have increased throughout the years, the increase ensures that the DFG has adequate funding to manage California’s diverse fish and wildlife resources and provide the public with enjoyable fishing and hunting experiences.
Carrie Wilson is a marine biologist with the California Department of Fish & Game. Her DFG-related question-and-answer column appears weekly at www.dfg.ca.gov/QandA/. She can be reached at .
Facing $8.6 Million Shortfall, Santa Barbara Explores Potential Cuts
Wide-ranging options get an airing at a budget workshop, but officials say they're not a list of recommendations.
Santa Barbara officials Thursday gave the public a glimpse of how the worst national recession since the 1930s might look locally. It’s not a pretty picture.
During a brainstorming session with the City Council, officials bandied about ideas for closing a projected $8.6 million deficit — roughly 8 percent of Santa Barbara’s entire 2009-2010 general fund of about $103 million — through possible spending cuts, budget shifts, tax increases and additional fees.
City Administrator Jim Armstrong said the bottom line is that the level of services will be reduced.
“There’s no way around it,” he said.
Based on Thursday’s talk, the budget tempest could rip through a wide swath of city services and sectors, including, among others, the Old Spanish Days Fiesta celebration, the Santa Barbara Zoo, cable access TV, the upkeep of State Street, the tourism industry, downtown nightclubs and every city department, including police and fire.
During Thursday’s workshop, everything was on the table. Hypothetical ideas ranged from eliminating the 75 minutes of free downtown parking (generating $3.5 million) to asking voters to raise the sales tax by a quarter-cent (yielding $4.8 million) to appealing to voters to create a tax for 9-1-1 services (raising $2 million).
“These are not recommendations,” city Finance Director Bob Peirson cautioned. “They are simply a brainstorming list of all possible options, given the severity of the budget situation.”
The official recommendations, he added, will come out in April.
Specific targets for the cuts to each department have been assigned, however.
City officials have instructed department heads to prepare proposals to reduce their 2009-2010 budgets by 11 percent, with the exception of police and fire, which have each been asked to trim by about 5 percent.
“We feel that across-the-board cuts are not the way to go,” Peirson said. “We’re attempting to tilt the table away from public safety.”
Still, because the Police Department is by far the city’s largest — its $33 million budget accounts for a third of the city’s total general fund — the amount of its target for cuts in terms of dollars is the also largest, at $1.7 million.
Next hardest hit in terms of dollar amounts would be the Parks & Recreation Department, at just under $1.7 million, followed by community development ($1.1 million) and fire ($1 million).
These numbers represent worst-case scenario cuts, however, and officials said the true retrenchments — after the City Council finishes the dirty job — could be more like 8 percent for most of the city departments, and 4 percent each for the police and fire departments.
City staff members noted that departmental reductions do not necessarily mean layoffs. The city, for instance, could follow Santa Barbara County’s lead in implementing a work furlough, as well as asking unions to agree to withhold already agreed-upon salary raises.
But with 75 percent of the general fund consisting of salaries, it seems unlikely the city will be able to avoid layoffs.
On the revenue side, the biggest factor in Santa Barbara’s impending financial downturn is sales taxes, followed by building permit and planning fees. It comes as little surprise, given the nationwide slump in retail sales, and the bursting of the real-estate bubble.
Also lagging is revenue from hotel bed taxes, which, after a solid summer, plummeted in the fall.
Although Santa Barbara’s list for potential budget reductions was characterized as hypothetical, it included some specific ideas and figures. For instance, the city would save about $700,000 by terminating a contract with the nonprofit Downtown Organization to prune trees, clean sidewalks and maintain the landscaping along State Street downtown.
The city would save $133,000 by ending the longstanding practice of paying the zoo’s water bill. (The arrangement is part of a partnership between the two entities.)
City staff also showed the council how much money would be saved by reducing certain services by 8 percent, which is commensurate with the best-case-scenario cut other city departments are facing. For instance, the city would save $126,000 by reducing, by about 8 percent, the amount of money it pays the Santa Barbara Conference & Visitors Bureau and Film Commission to promote tourism.
Another $50,000 could be saved by reducing the city’s contribution to festivals such as Old Spanish Days Fiesta and the Summer Solstice Parade. And $32,000 could be saved by trimming the contribution to the local cable access station, the Santa Barbara Channels.
Officials said any new taxes must be approved by voters. In addition to a potential new sales tax and 9-1-1 tax, they mentioned the possibility of increasing the hotel bed tax by 1 percent, raising $1.3 million. Tripling the business license tax, they said, would raise up to $4.5 million.
In an illustration of how nothing seems to be off the table, when an audience member suggested placing fees or taxes on the downtown nightclubs — an item that was not included on the city’s list — some City Council members said they liked the idea.
City Councilman Das Williams said he thinks there are a few “no-brainer” items on the list, such as a medical-marijuana dispensing fee, as well as an idea to start fining people who illegally use their private homes as vacation rentals.
“You don’t even need council permission to get (taxes) for vacation rentals,” he said, “You just need to go do it.”
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UCSB Awarded Federal Grant to Expand Alcohol-Education Effort
UCSB has been awarded a $300,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Education in support of its program to prevent high-risk drinking among college students.
The grant, which covers a two-year period, will enable the campus’ Alcohol and Drug Program and its Gevirtz Graduate School of Education to expand and enhance the College Alcohol and Substance Education program developed at UCSB. The grant also includes funds to prepare a comprehensive manual on the program and conduct additional research on its effectiveness.
In accordance with federal, state and local laws and ordinances, UCSB’s policies prohibit “unlawful drinking, excessive drinking and drunkenness” in campus residence halls. Participation in the CASE program is mandated for UCSB students who violate the residence halls’ “no use” alcohol policy and those who are cited or arrested in Isla Vista for public intoxication, minor in possession of alcohol or possession of fake identification.
The program utilizes a psycho-educational approach delivered to groups of students over the course of five sessions. CASE clinicians use educational strategies to address key developmental issues associated with college-age students and alcohol use.
Ian Kaminsky, a psychologist at the UCSB Student Health Service who directs the Alcohol and Drug Program, said the CASE program was designed to help students “appreciate the risks involved in alcohol and drug use and equip them with effective strategies for reducing risk and harm.”
With the new grant funding, he said, UCSB will increase both the size of the CASE counseling staff and the number of group programs conducted per year, and reduce the size of the groups to a maximum of 10 participants. In addition, the grant will fund the development of a manual on the program that will be made available to other colleges and universities. The manual will include information on the program’s strategies, assessments and logistics. It also will suggest ways to obtain institutional commitment for a mandated program, and recommend policies that can maximize the effectiveness of such a program.
“We hope that, through the manual, this program will serve as a model that other colleges can use to address the challenging issue of underage drinking,” Kaminsky said.
The new grant also will support additional research on the program’s effectiveness in reducing high-risk drinking. An initial evaluation found that students who had completed the CASE program significantly reduced the number of drinks consumed per week and the number of incidents of intoxication.
“Our preliminary studies of the CASE program suggest that it decreases alcohol use and increases use of harm-reduction strategies by students,” said Merith Cosden, a professor in the Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology at UCSB’s Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, who heads the program’s research and evaluation component. “Assessments used as part of the program have also been able to identify those students whose drinking is more severe, and provide alternative services to them. I am looking forward to being able to study the impact of the program in greater depth.”
Cinema in Focus: ‘The Reader’
The film is a realistic — and disturbing — portrayal of the effects of sexual abuse.
3 Stars — Disturbing
The seduction of a teenage boy by a woman in her 30s is often seen as a teenage fantasy rather than sexual abuse. That a young man can be deeply damaged by such a relationship is increasingly confirmed by professional and popular wisdom. This truth is supported by Stephen Daldry‘s film The Reader.
Based on a novel by Bernhard Schlink and adapted for the screen by David Hare, The Reader covers three decades in Michael Berg’s life.
However, it is not only sexual desire that motivates her, for Hanna can’t read. Her illiteracy drives her to get others to read for her. Michael doesn’t realize that he is only one of a long list of people she has used for this purpose. The first were young Jewish prisoners she brought to her quarters when she was an SS guard of the Nazi death camps. This use of others for her own needs reveals an emptiness and inability to care for others that is a contagion Michael’s young soul can’t fight off. For the next three decades, he is inextricably bound to her and is unable to be open and loving toward his wife and daughter.
Although sexual encounters at any age bond two people together, when one is a child, the sexual experience is overpowering. Unable to protect himself, Michael remains powerless as he grows into adulthood. Keeping it all a secret, Michael is subsequently unable to get the help he needs to become empowered. It is a common consequence that makes the film a realistic study of where such immorality takes us. The Reader reads this truth so clearly that none of us can miss it.
Although the acting is superb, the lack of spiritual and community values portrayed makes this a disturbing film.
Discussion:
» The pride that Hanna protects when she will not admit that she is illiterate is also the pride that caused her to be unable to leave the prison. Have you ever experienced such an imprisoning pride?
» The simplistic attempt to do a good job as an SS guard makes Hanna’s confession all the more horrendous. What do you think you would have done if you had been Hanna?
» If you had been Michael, would you have let the court know that she was illiterate and could not have written the report that brought her such a severe sentence?
Cinema in Focus is a social and spiritual movie commentary. Hal Conklin is former mayor of Santa Barbara and Denny Wayman is pastor of Free Methodist Church on the Mesa. For more reviews, visit www.cinemainfocus.com.
Police Paying the Price as Motorists Save on Parking Citations
It's all about late fees. Fewer residents owe them, adding up to a $350,000 projected revenue shortfall in Santa Barbara.
In the summer of 2007, the Santa Barbara City Council decided to hike the fee for parking citations by $5, to $41, with an eye toward generating revenue for additional police bike patrols to combat gang activity.
Then, over the course of the ongoing fiscal year, a strange thing happened: Revenues from parking citations plummeted.
The city nonetheless beefed up the police bike patrols, particularly on the Westside. But its projected shortfall from those dreaded green envelopes has reached $350,000, or 13 percent shy of the $2.7 million expected this fiscal year, which is half over. That would be the largest parking-citation deficit in at least 20 years, according to city Finance Director Bob Peirson, who has worked at the city for that long.
Paradoxically, the number of citations issued by police has been on the rise since 2001, officials say. How can that be? City police and finance officials say it’s all about late fees — and how fewer people are having to pay them.
“This allows a quick and easy way to pay, before (the city) has had an opportunity to double or triple the late fees,” Deputy Police Chief Frank Mannix said. “Although I’m happy for the customers’ ability to pay promptly, it does have the effect of reducing our revenues.”
Also at play is deterrence: The higher the fee, the sharper the sting, the wiser the motorist.
Peirson pointed out that the fee for a parking ticket doubles to $82 if it isn’t paid on time.
“Eighty-two bucks is real money,” he said. “Back when the tickets were $25, people thought that was a lot of money, but it didn’t have the shock value of $82.”
Whatever the reason, the shortfall comes at a time of deepening financial gloom for the city, which is only beginning to feel the pain of the nationwide recession. All told, Santa Barbara is looking down the barrel of a $5.4 million deficit in 2008-09 — or about 5 percent of the general-fund budget. But the real pain is expected to set in this July — or the beginning of 2009-10 fiscal year — when the gap may widen to $8.3 million.
The biggest culprit for Santa Barbara’s impending financial downturn is sales taxes, followed by building permit and planning fees. It comes as little surprise, given the nationwide slump in retail sales, and the bursting of the real-estate bubble.
But the parking-citation deficit was less predictable, and its timing couldn’t be worse. Parking citations contribute significantly to the financial health of the police force. The revenue accounts for nearly 10 percent of the department’s $31 million operating budget.
Next fiscal year, the police department is among those that could face layoffs.
Although the newly added bike patrol officers were supposed to be funded by citation money that isn’t coming in, at least one city councilman said he wants to keep the budget knife away from them.
“Folks on the Westside have been thrilled and well served by that expansion,” City Councilman Das Williams said of the beefed-up bike patrol. “We’re going to have to tackle that issue — the fact that we don’t have all the money for it. But I will tell you it’s been very, very effective, from a gang-suppression standpoint.”
The police department isn’t the only city division that depends on parking tickets. The meter-maid-collected money also bankrolls the city’s $875,000-a-year street-sweeping program.
That, too, is experiencing a projected shortfall, albeit a less drastic one of $50,000, or about 5.5 percent below expectations.
The city’s regular parking citation program covers areas of restricted parking, such as the red-painted curbs downtown. Its street-sweeping citation revenue, on the other hand, comes from neighborhoods where street signs prohibit parking for several hours on certain days for the purpose of clearing the way for the street cleaners. Regular tickets cost $41; the street-sweeping tickets, $40.
Asked whether the citation shortfall means police will be more vigorous about nabbing speeders, Mannix said it doesn’t work that way.
“We’re much more interested in promoting traffic safety than generating revenue,” he said.
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Prescribed Burn Scheduled in Los Padres National Forest
Smoke will be visible from the burn, designed to reduce hazardous fuels and cut the effects of future wildfires.
The U.S. Forest Service will conduct a prescribed burn (weather permitting) on about 5,835 acres along Pine Canyon Road near Horseshoe Spring Campground, in Los Padres National Forest. The burn is scheduled to begin Monday, Jan. 12, and continue through the week. Smoke will be visible from the Santa Maria/Orcutt area.
The purpose of the burn is to reduce hazardous fuels, lessen the effects of a future wildfire in the area, improve wildlife habitat and enhance and protect the Lower Cuyama River watershed.
Travel on Pine Canyon, Miranda Pine and La Brea Canyon roads may be restricted periodically during the burn. Residual smoke may be visible in the area for up to two weeks.
Forest visitors are advised to call the Santa Lucia Ranger Station at 805.925.9538 to obtain information during the burn.
Joe Pasinato represents the Los Padres National Forest.
Robert Scheer: Why Do So Few Speak Up for Gaza?
No one is willing to acknowledge fault and humanity on both sides of the political equation.
Why are we so indifferent to the death and destruction in Gaza?
The major news outlets meekly accepted Israel’s ban on entering Gaza as an excuse for downplaying collateral civilian casualties; our president-elect, Barack Obama, has said not a word about an invasion that will much complicate his future Mideast peace efforts; and most commentators easily rationalize Israel’s many-more-eyes-for-an-eye killings.
It is not.
While the Hamas rocket attacks are reprehensible, they are also an ineffectual challenge to Israel’s enormous security apparatus, and the severity of Israel’s response to them is counterproductive. Clearly, the very existence of Israel is not now, nor has it ever been, seriously challenged by anything the Palestinians did. Not back in 1947, when Israel was established as a state with insignificant Palestinian military resistance, nor at the time of the 1967 Six-Day War, when Egypt, Syria and Jordan fought Israel.
The Palestinians were in no position to confront the Israeli army because those whose lands were not already occupied by Israel were living under oppressive Egyptian control in Gaza and tough Jordanian rule in the West Bank. After the speedy Israeli victory, which demolished the myth of the new state’s vulnerability, the Palestinians became imprisoned as a people by Israel for crimes they had not committed.
Even if we accept the harshest portrayal of the tactics and motives of the Palestinian movements against Israel after the Six-Day War, at what point did that terrorism represent a serious challenge to the survival of the Jewish people or the state that claims to speak in their name? Yet that survival is invoked to justify the vastly excessive use of force by the Israeli war machine, with frequent allusions to the Holocaust previously visited upon the Jewish people, a holocaust that had nothing to do with Palestinians or Muslims, and everything to do with Central Europeans claiming to be Christians.
The high moral claim of the Israeli occupation rests not on the objective reality of a Palestinian threat to Israel’s survival, but rather on the non sequitur cry that “never again” should harm come to Jews as it did in Central Europe seven decades ago.
The basic argument is that Palestinian terrorists represented by Hamas are given to an irrational hatred of Jews so profound that it invalidates their movement, even when they win elections. That was not the view of the Israeli security service when it earlier supported Hamas as the alternative to the then-dreaded PLO. Also, history is replete with examples of terrorists becoming statesmen, even within the early ranks of Jews fighting to establish the state of Israel.
Begin’s new party was then participating in the Israeli election, and Einstein and his colleagues, many of whom like him had been victims of German fascism, stated: “Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character.”
Those actions were then detailed in the letter. They included the systematic terrorizing of innocent Palestinian men, women and children in an effort to force them to flee the territory that Begin’s party claimed for the new state of Israel.
Clearly Begin and his political heirs, who include Benjamin Netanyahu, the most likely victor in the next Israeli election, evolved in their behavior. But I bring it up now to highlight the one-sided reporting of the current phase of this interminable conflict and to wonder: Where are the voices that reflect the uncompromising morality of Einstein’s generation of Jewish intellectuals willing to acknowledge fault and humanity on both sides of the political equation?
TruthDig.com editor in chief Robert Scheer‘s new book is The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America. Click here for more information. He can be reached at .
Kids Speaking Up: Expectations Rise Along with Obama
The president-elect will restore our standing as a nation and in the world.
A new year is always accompanied by expectations. Things that are expected to get better, things that are expected to get worse, or things that we expect will just be different. It is a time to rethink one’s methods, review one’s purpose, and decide upon resolutions for engendering change.
With the upcoming inauguration of our first African-American president, change is something that many people expect to see. Change from Washington insiders, the status quo, the failed policies of the last administration, political pandering, pit bulls wearing lipstick, and a whole slew of other facets of the American political system that are viewed negatively in today’s society. More important, President-elect Barack Obama represents a change in the downward direction in which our country is rapidly moving. The American people have placed in his hands their hope for a stronger economy, a more stable situation in the Middle East, and a healthier planet. But these first days of 2009 suggest that this will be a long and difficult journey, for the whole country.
Now, this does not mean that 2009 will just continue to get worse. I, as an informed citizen of the United States, firmly believe that this year, we as a nation will take our first steps back toward that shining pedestal we once occupied as the world’s greatest example of democracy, from which we suddenly appear to have fallen. A convincing majority of people believe that we chose the right man to lead us there, and with their strength behind him, Obama may find those issues more manageable, that world on his shoulders a little bit easier to bear. This year, we can pick ourselves up and take our place at the head of humanity. This year, we must be the change we wish to see in the world. And the message we must keep in our minds is one that won over a nation: Yes, we can.
Justin Morris is a freshman at Dos Pueblos High.
UCSB Scientists Among Team to Discover Cosmic Radio Noise
A team of NASA-funded scientists, including two from UCSB, have discovered cosmic radio noise that they find completely unexpected and exciting.
The finding came from data collected from a large helium-filled NASA balloon, big enough to fit a football field inside. The scientists discovered cosmic radio noise that is blasting six times louder than expected.
“It seems as though we live in a darkened room and every time we turn the lights on and explore, we find something new,” said team member Philip Lubin, professor of physics at UCSB. “The universe continues to amaze us and provide us with new mysteries. It is like a large puzzle that we are slowly given pieces to so that we can eventually see through the fog of our confusion.”
A mysterious screen of extra-loud radio noise permeates the cosmos, preventing astronomers from observing heat from the first stars. The balloon-borne ARCADE instrument discovered this cosmic static on its July 2006 flight. The noise is six times louder than expected. Astronomers have no idea why.
“The universe really threw us a curve,” said Alan Kogut, team leader from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Instead of the faint signal we hoped to find, here was this booming noise six times louder than anyone had predicted.” Detailed analysis ruled out an origin of primordial stars or known radio sources, including gas in the outermost halo of our own galaxy. The source of this cosmic radio background remains a mystery.
ARCADE stands for the Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics and Diffuse Emission. The instrument launched from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, and flew to an altitude of 120,000 feet, where the atmosphere thins into the vacuum of space.
The problem, team member Dale Fixsen of the University of Maryland said, is that there don’t appear to be enough radio galaxies to account for the signal ARCADE detected. “You’d have to pack them into the universe like sardines,” he said. “There wouldn’t be any space left between one galaxy and the next.”
The radio static ARCADE detected is much brighter than the combined radio emission of all of the galaxies in the universe. This suggests something new and interesting must have occurred as galaxies first formed, when the universe was less than half its current age.
Many objects in the universe emit radio waves. In 1931, American physicist Karl Jansky first detected radio static from our own Milky Way galaxy. Similar emissions from other galaxies create a background hiss of radio noise.
ARCADE is the first instrument to measure the radio sky with enough precision to detect this mysterious signal. To enhance the sensitivity of ARCADE’s radio receivers, they were immersed in more than 500 gallons of ultra-cold liquid helium. The instrument’s operating temperature was just 2.7 degrees above absolute zero.
Besides Philip Lubin, at UCSB, and his former graduate student Jack Singal, now with Stanford University, the NASA-funded project includes scientists and engineers from several other institutions. They are: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and the University of Maryland. More than a dozen high school and undergraduate students participated in the payload’s development.
Planned Parenthood Flags on State Street to Mark Roe vs. Wade
The flags of Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties Inc. will fly on State Street Jan. 12-22 to coincide with the 36th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision guaranteeing protections for women’s reproductive health, safety and privacy.
In addition, Planned Parenthood provides comprehensive sex education throughout the tri-counties and works to ensure that women and men of all ages have the resources and information they need to make responsible decisions about their health.
Planned Parenthood promotes honest communication between young people and parents, medically-accurate sex education in the communities, and access to affordable birth control.
Supporters wishing to dedicate a Planned Parenthood flag in honor or memory of a loved one can do so by making a donation of $50 or more to Planned Parenthood. For more information, call 805.963.2445, ext. 121. Click here for more information about Planned Parenthood programs and services.
The State Street Flag Program, organized and sponsored by the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization, promotes downtown events and celebrations. The banners change throughout the year depending on the event being highlighted.
Georgette Friedman is the marketing and sales coordinator for the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization.
UCSB Math Professor Awarded Group’s Cole Prize in Algebra
James McKernan, associate professor of mathematics at UCSB, and Christopher Hacon of the University of Utah have been named winners of the 2009 American Mathematical Society’s Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Algebra.
Presented every three years by the AMS, the Cole Prize is one of the highest distinctions in algebra. The prize was awarded Tuesday at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, D.C.
According to the prize citation, McKernan and Hacon were awarded the Cole Prize “for their groundbreaking joint work on higher dimensional birational algebraic geometry. This work concerns the minimal model program, by which S. Mori and other researchers made great progress in understanding the geometry of three-dimensional projective algebraic varieties in recent decades. The case of dimension greater than three, however, remained largely open. The work of Hacon and McKernan has transformed the study of the minimal model program in higher dimensions.”
The citation specifically notes two papers by Hacon and McKernan, “Boundedness of pluricanonical maps of varieties of general type,” Inventiones Mathematicae 166 (2006), 1-25, and “Extension theorems and the existence of flips,” in Flips for 3-folds and 4-folds, 76-110, Oxford Lecture Series in Mathematics and Its Applications 35, Oxford University Press (2007).
Click here for the full citation for the prize and additional information about AMS prizes.
Blood Bank in Need of O Negative, A Negative Donations
United Blood Services sees fewer donors this time of year, but the need is as great as ever.
Since 1970, January has been recognized as National Blood Donor Month with the hope that the increased awareness at this precarious time of year will encourage needed blood donations. United Blood Services-Central Coast is issuing an appeal for O negative and A negative blood types.
Decreased blood donations and steady local use during the last two weeks of December greatly reduced local Central Coast supplies of O negative and A negative.
“January is usually an especially difficult time as we go into the cold and flu season,” Scott Edward of United Blood Services said. “We’d ask that anyone that is feeling well, to visit us in January and in the big picture, donors to consider making a resolution to give three times in 2009. We would be especially grateful if businesses and community groups would hold at least three drives per year. That would be ideal to maintain a steady supply.”
As a special thank you to January blood donors, United Blood Services has teamed up with a number of business partners to offer donors a movie ticket or box of See’s chocolates (depending on the date of donation).
Businesses and organizations interested in scheduling a community blood drive can call the Santa Barbara Center at 805.965.7037.
Donations may be made Monday through Friday at the UBS Center in Santa Barbara, 902 Laguna St. at the corner of Cañon Perdido.
Blood donors must be older than age 16, weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health. Additional height/weight requirements apply to donors 22 or youngers. Click here to make an appointment. Walk-ins also are welcome.
Janna Nichols represents United Blood Services-Central Coast.
UCSB Reads Program Picks ‘Ethics for the New Millennium’
The UCSB Library has chosen Ethics for the New Millennium by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama as this year’s book selection for the UCSB Reads program. In his book, the revered spiritual leader and best-selling author presents a moral framework based on universal, rather than religious, principals.
UCSB Reads engages the campus and the Santa Barbara community in conversations about a key topic while reading the same book. Beginning at 8 a.m. Jan. 21, the UCSB Library will give 2,500 free copies of the Dalai Lama’s book to registered UCSB students. In addition, the UCSB Bookstore will sell the book at a 20 percent discount. The