COMPRESSION AUGUST 2001

Gift for law school

John W. Frost II, a member of the FSU College of Law's first graduating class in 1969 and a member of the school's first moot court team, has made a $100,000 gift to the college's moot court program.
Frost, a partner in the Bartow firm of Frost & Saunders, is a past president of The Florida Bar.

Hurricanes coming

The United States can expect 50 hurricanes to make landfall - 20 of them on Florida's coasts - over the next 30 years, according to FSU climatologist James Elsner. Elsner predicts that 18 of the 50 will be major hurricanes.
He expects two hurricanes to make a U.S. landfall this year. One may generate winds at more than 110 miles per hour.
"I think it is more likely to hit Florida or the Gulf Coast than the East Coast based on climate changes," he says.
In a previous projection, he said the United States in the next three decades would see a return of conditions similar to those in the 1930s, '40s and '50s when several hurricanes wreaked havoc from Texas to Maine.

Student runs for mayor

Florida State student Richard Junnier said he plans to run for Tallahassee mayor in 2002. Junnier, 20, a major in social psychology and English literature, said he will raise at least $100,000, "engage an army of dozens of volunteers" and "beat anyone else in the race."
Incumbent Mayor Scott Maddox (FSU BS '89 and JD '94) said he has not decided whether he will seek re-election or run for governor of Florida.

Research backs phonics

Florida State Professor Jo-seph Torgesen has called for a "profound rethink" about the way dyslexic children are taught, citing new research that shows that intensive phonics-based lessons are the best way of dealing with dyslexia.
Sixty dyslexic children, ages between 8 and 10, made substantial advances after eight weeks of two-hour individual lessons five days a week. Their reading levels rose to standard attainment for their ages.
At the British Dyslexia Association International Con-ference in York in April, Torgesen supported a British campaign for a change in teaching methods.
"With the intensive lessons, what we showed is that you can really have a very powerful effect on these children's reading ability," he said.

Georgia 'Noles

It's a complicated business, but the Seminoles in Georgia have done it. They've gotten state approval for a Georgia license plate with an FSU theme.
FSU fans in Georgia have bought 900 of them.
The state rules say that out-of-state colleges can't have trademarked school logos on the Georgia plates, so the plate shows an outline of Georgia pierced by a Seminole feather.
"A spear or a tomahawk might offend someone or hurt their feelings," explained David Mobley, president of the Atlanta Seminole Club.
Some alumni of other colleges - the University of Florida and Auburn, to name two - are not happy that FSU beat them to the tag.

Don't-smoke ads

FSU researchers last year surveyed 1,810 teenagers around Florida and found that an impressive 86 percent remembered the state's aggressive, in-your-face advertising campaign against smoking.
According to FSU professor David Sly, some of the teens remembered details of ads that ran two years ago.
The campaign, called "The Truth," was put together by teenagers and ad agencies and launched in 1998.
The campaign's TV commercials and billboards bluntly ridiculed cigarette companies for their deceitful history.
FSU researchers had expected to see the campaign lose its influence with teenagers as time passed. The awareness level actually increased during last year, the survey showed.
When the ad campaign started, 27.4 percent of Florida high school students smoked, but the number had fallen to 22.6 percent by last year, according to state health officials.

Bus to the sea

FSU's Saturday-at-the-Sea program has two new custom-made $35,000 buses.
The program takes sixth- through eighth-graders to the FSU Marine Lab at Turkey Point, where they learn about marine biology through field trips to salt marshes, oyster beds and seagrass beds near shore.
The buses can carry 30 students with instructors to the lab.
Saturday by the Sea serves more than 1,000 students a year in Leon and nearby counties.

New Bar president

Terry Russell, 56, a graduate in the first class of FSU's College of Law, is The Florida Bar's 53rd president.
A partner in Ruden, McClosky, Smith, Schuster and Russell, one of the state's most powerful law firms, Russell has taken office at a time when conservatives in the Legislature say the law association, and much of its membership, is too liberal.
"We're going to explain how it's best for Florida to have an independent legal profession, free from political interference," Russell said. "Things will not be easy for lawyers over the next year or so."
Less rain may spell trouble
The recent drought in Florida may mean more than we thought.
While most meteorologists have said the decline in rainfall is insignificant, they may be changing their minds.
"Reputable scientists have indicated the total annual rainfall has definitely decreased," said Jim O'Brien, state climatologist and a professor of meteorology and oceanography at FSU.
Some blame it on changes in ocean currents caused by global warming, and some say that development - draining wetlands and laying down asphalt - is the culprit.
O'Brien favors the latter.
"To me there are only two reasons it can be happening," he said. "It's either development or (changes in) ocean currents. I really think it's development."
The drought of the past three years may not continue indefinitely, he said, but it may be a warning of a long-term decline in rainfall.

Gore won?

David Coursey, 39, an FSU public administration professor, has a new yellow Porsche Boxster S.
Maybe that's not surprising. But the license plate? It says "GORE WON."
"People follow me home to ask about it," he said.
The responses vary.
"I was driving on I-10 when this van pulled next to me, the door slid open and two guys mooned me," he said. "A couple other people have yelled, 'Bush won, idiot.' I just laugh it off."
Coursey is a Democrat, but he says his license plate isn't really a political protest.
"I'm moderate on economic issues and liberal on social issues," he explained.
But he's not conventional about bumper stickers. He's against them, at least right now.
"I didn't want to damage my car bumper," he said.

Only-on-the-web experience

A Web site of FSU's National High Magnetic Field Lab is getting great reviews in Minnesota. Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a staff writer on the Minneapolis Star Tribune, recommended the Powers of Ten as her "favorite link."
"The page begins with an image of the Milky Way showing what it looks like 10 million light years from Earth," she wrote. "The site automatically begins changing the image, moving closer by powers of 10. It takes a while to get into Earth's orbit, but then the focus narrows to the United States, then to Florida, then to southwest Tallahassee and the laboratory that hosts the page. Finally, the images focus in on an oak tree, then one leaf on that oak, then eventually through the leaf itself into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.
"It's one of those only-on-the-Web experiences that can't be duplicated by newspapers, magazines or TV."
It is fascinating. See it here: (http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html).

Mrs. Florida America

Karen Nicholas, a mentor, instructor and doctoral candidate in special education at FSU, won the title of "Mrs. Florida America" May 20 in Orlando.
Nicholas is married to John Nicholas and has a son, Ryan, 5.
The Mrs. America Pageant will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Sept. 21.

Web power for students

The power of network computing is moving into classrooms at Tallahassee's southside schools, thanks to a new FSU partnership with Sun Microsystems and Leon County Schools.
Sun Microsystems will donate about $210,000 worth of equipment to FSU to provide the schools with Web-based tools and access to current curricula and reference materials.
"The most exciting part of this project is its comprehensive approach," said Laura Hassler, director of K-12 Initiatives at FSU. "The Sun project removes every roadblock in trying to make technology work for K-12 schools in the same way it has worked for businesses."
The project's real goal is to improve teaching and learning in reading, writing, mathematics and science, Hassler said.
Students will design and use Web pages for communication and development of language and literacy.

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