Vol. 17, No. 24	March 19, 1998

A selection of items in the national and local media about the University-its faculty, staff and students:

Norway, Maine, Advertiser Democrat, Dec. 4. A Love of Libraries. "How libraries have changed in this age of computers! This fall we visited our grandson, Rourke, at the University of Delaware and while there we went with him to the University library. The place was filled with students with eyes glued to computer screens. There didn't seem to be anyone reading. Rourke went at once to a computer and then hurried away to the stacks. I fussed with one of the computers while we waited and managed to 'freeze' it. A nice young man with an earring who was at the next machine helped me to clear the screen. Just then Rourke returned with a pile of books and we left before I could do any more damage."

Boston Herald, Dec. 6, Questions remain on analysis of paint chips. "In the world of debunking bogus art, experts usually have both chips and a painting so they can study chemical composition and the artist's style. But with only paint chips to go on, experts can come to different conclusions about their origin. FBI and Gardener Museum officials trying to decipher an offer to return stolen masterpieces are facing a tough task comparing two sets of paint chips, art experts say. ... But even then, according to Chandra L. Reedy, director of the University of Delaware's art conservation doctoral program, the game of comparing paint chips proves a pigment puzzle of trying to match colors in a painting."

Bangor, Maine, Daily News, Dec. 6. Maine in a Greenhouse World: Increase in insect populations, heat waves, will take toll on human health. "With all the health threats around us, competing for our dread and fear, there's not a lot of worry left over for the threats of the 21st century. Already we must consider the skin cancer risk in sunlight, the artery-blocking effects of beef, the common cold germs that could be hiding on every doorknob and computer keyboard. Now we can add global warming to the health-risk checklist, according to some of the scientists convening in Kyoto this week, who say climate change has the potential to make us sick. ... Laurence Kalkstein counts himself in the concerned majority. The director of the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Delaware and the editor of the first comprehensive publication on climate and human health, he sees no doubt about the cause-and-effect relationship. 'We know climate plays a big role in affecting human health,' he said. 'It does now-we don't need global warming to prove it.' Direct effect of warming, in the form of more heat-related deaths, will most likely be seen in cities like Boston, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, Kalkstein said. A northern, rural state like Maine is more likely to feel indirect effects, like diseases that spread to places where they haven't been seen before."

Washington Post, Dec. 7. Denver Post, Dec. 14. Murdoch Empire Finds Business Not So Taxing. "In the mid-1980s, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch abruptly renounced his Australian birthright and became an American citizen. The move allowed him to comply with U.S. law prohibiting foreign ownership of television stations-and helped Murdoch build a global entertainment empire that now includes 22 U.S. TV stations, TV Guide magazine, the 20th Century Fox movie studio and a huge U.S. broadcast network. Today those U.S. subsidiaries provide Murdoch's company, News Corp., with the vast majority of its revenue and profit. But through the deft use of international accounting loopholes and offshore tax havens, Murdoch has paid corporate income taxes at one-fifth the rate of his chief U.S. rivals throughout the 1990s, according to corporate documents and company officials. ... 'Each country has its own [tax and accounting] rules and regulations, and Murdoch has the organization and talent to figure out the best way to work all of them,' said William Markell, former chairman of the University of Delaware's accounting department and an expert on international accounting. 'He's an operator. If there are advantages, he can find them.'"

Baltimore Sun, Dec. 8. Mid, Marylander are Rhodes scholars. "The Naval Academy's next brigade commander and a Maryland resident who specializes in linguistics were among the 32 Americans awarded Rhodes scholarships yesterday to study at Oxford University in England. 'I am still sort of shocked and in a daze,' said Douglas M. DeLorenzo, a 21-year-old resident of North East in Cecil County who is studying linguistic and cognitive science at the University of Delaware. 'I'm glad, I'm honored and I'm overwhelmed.'"

The Associated Press National Wire Service, Dec. 7. Literacy report spells trouble for American. This story ran in 177 U.S. newspapers the week of Dec. 7. "Problems with such basic mental chores as filling out job application, reading bus schedules and balancing checkbooks hamper nearly half of American adults, a survey suggests. 'Low literacy is a problem everywhere,' the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported yesterday in its annual look at education. ... Another researcher cautioned, however, that such surveys tend to overstate the problem by confronting test-takers with unfamiliar documents. Police aren't reporting people lost because they 'couldn't find their way to Main Street,' said Richard L. Venezky, an education psychologist at the University of Delaware."

-Compiled by Barbara Garrison