COMPRESSION
SHORT TAKES ON SHORT SUBJECTS
Space tourist
Norm Thagard, one of FSU's two faculty astronauts (the other
is Vice President Winston Scott), has defended Russia's decision
to rent out a seat on the Soyuz capsule when it heads for the
International Space Station this month.
For just $20 million, Dennis Tito of Los Angeles, an investment
fund manager, gets to go along.
"It's an experience that maybe only 400 humans have experienced,
and it's the ultimate of all adventures," Tito told the
Washington Post in February.
"There's a spiritual aspect of it - to be off the planet
and looking back at the Earth. I joke that I've been on this
Earth for 60 years; it's about time I get off and look at where
I've lived all these years."
Thagard had the experience five times and set a U.S. record for
the longest mission before he came back to Florida State as an
engineering professor.
Although he earned the privilege as an engineer, physician, pilot
and astronaut, Thagard doesn't seem to begrudge it to a man who
just paid for it.
"The only thing that would bother me about that is if they
were using a space (on the Soyuz capsule) that was already committed
or should have been committed as part of their responsibility
to the International Space Station," Thagard said. "If
it isn't - and that seat often doesn't go occupied - then I don't
particularly have a problem with it."
Music therapy
Premature infants get well, grow faster and leave the hospital
sooner if they have music to listen to, an FSU study has shown.
Recorded lullabies, or even better, a mother's singing and touching,
improve oxygen saturation levels, increase weight gain and shorten
the duration of hospital stay, according to Jayne M. Standley,
director of the Center for Music Research at Florida State.
In Standley's study of 40 premature infants, matched for gestational
age, weight and sex, baby girls treated with music therapy left
the hospital an average of 11 days sooner than those who didn't
receive music therapy, and baby boys left 1.5 days sooner with
music. Both boys and girls who received a recorded message from
their mother and heard music gained more weight.
Egyptian feminist
Women's Studies, with the support of other campus groups,
is bringing Nawal El Saadawi, an Egyptian scholar, physician,
novelist, feminist and human rights activist, to FSU April 10
and April 11. She will give a public lecture at 7:30 p.m. April
10 in the Everglades Auditorium, Turnbull Center. She also plans
to meet informally with students, faculty and staff on April
11.
Her lecture subject will be "Globalization: The Challenges
for Women." Her informal sessions will focus on women in
the Arab world and Islam and women's health and literary creativity
.
She is a foremost human rights advocate from the region.
Meeting at the airport
Following new trends of cooperation between public and private
institutions in the name of efficiency, a partnership between
Florida State University and the Dale Mabry Conference Center
at the Tallahassee Regional Airport is now official.
On March 1 FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte; Tallahassee mayor
and FSU alum Scott Maddox; Lori McCall, director of the Dale
Mabry Conference Center; and others took part in a ceremonial
ribbon cutting at the conference center.
The center is large enough to provide space and catering for
up to 500 people. New services will include meeting planning,
educational needs assessment, continuing-education program development
and more.
Correction
In the February/March 2001 Florida State Times, in an article
about Steven Sears, a television writer and producer, Dean Emeritus
Richard Fallon's name was spelled incorrectly.
APRIL/MAY 2001
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