News briefs

Campus news

ETHICS OF DIRECT POLITICAL ACTION SPEECH – Environmental activist and University of Utah student Tim De Christopher will be speaking about civil disobedience Feb. 19 from 4 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. in the Timpanogos Room in the Library. The event is part of the Utah Democracy Project and is free and open to the public. The speech will address, in part, the possible federal charges DeChristopher faces after winning bids for $1.8 million lease parcels on Utah National Parks which he had no intention of buying, in order to prevent potential oil drilling on the outskirts of the Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

WOLVERINE ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS NOMINATIONS – Nominations of members in the UVU community for Wolverine achievement awards are due Feb. 25 to SC 105. There are 15 awards given out for, among others, full time faculty of the year, adjunct faculty of the year, female and male athlete of the year, talent of the year and student of the year. Pick up a form in SC 105 or for more information go to http://uvu.edu/studentgovernment/academicsenate/awards.html.

TOP EVOLUTIONISTS AND SCHOLARS COMMEMORATE DARWIN AT UVU SYMPOSIUM – Some of the nation’s top evolutionists will meet at Utah Valley University Feb. 17-18 to commemorate the unequivocal contributions of Charles Darwin to the world of science in the days following what would be his 200th birthday.
The special commemorative symposium, titled “From Darwin to the Human Genome: A Celebration of Charles Darwin’s 200th Birthday,” will address Darwinian-inspired topics including natural selection, the human fossil record and evolution. However, UVU hopes to take the idea a step further – discussing evolutionary science over the last 150 years, from Darwin and beyond – as the premier event in the University’s year-long Evolution of Science project.

“Right here in Utah Valley we have some of the finest evolutionists in the country,” said Dan Fairbanks, associate dean of the UVU College of Science & Health. “Utah has become a leader in evolutionary biology – at the University of Utah in human DNA work, at BYU with bioinformatics and now UVU too with some first-rate evolutionary biologists.”
For this symposium, UVU has gathered a slate of top-notch scientists – from established professors who have had very long, distinguished careers, to relatively new microevolutionists who are producing the next generation of research. Among the scientists providing that new and improved view are Michael Whiting and Keith Crandall, two internationally-known bioinformaticisits, both of whom are involved in the Tree of Life
project; Duane Jeffery, whose 40-plus-year career and early vocalism regarding evolution and religion have brought high recognition to the subject; and Haagen Klaus, whose recent studies in microevolution are providing a look at the recent evolution of humans through the study of DNA and skeletons’ anatomical structure before and after the Spanish
Conquest.

For more information and the complete symposium schedule, please visit
http://uvu.edu/csh/involved/darwin.html.

National news

MICHELLE OBAMA LANDS VOGUE COVER – Vogue has announced that the first lady, Michelle Obama, will be featured on the cover of the March 2009 issue. The cover photo was shot in January by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz at the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington. The first lady will also have an eight-page spread written by Vogue’s editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley. According to the Chicago Tribune, with the exception of Bess Truman, Vogue has photographed every first lady dating to Lou Hoover in 1929. This is only the second time in Vogue’s 117-year history, however, that a first lady has won the cover. Hillary Clinton was first in December 1998.

TICKETMASTER AND LIVE NATION MERGE – Merger plans have been confirmed by concert promoter Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The plans for the merger were announced on Tuesday after the antitrust concerns took center stage. Ticketmaster Chairman, Barry Diller, defended the merger telling the press that the deal will not lead to higher ticket prices. Under the merger, the new company will be called Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.