Fred Moshary, professor of mechanical engineering at the City College of New York on tracking pollutants in the wind. Wood Turner, project director of ClimateCounts.org, on using consumerism to fight climate change and Stephen Ezell, owner of Market Kitchen, on the the benefits of purchasing locally-grown organic produce. Featured Green Artists: Flytrap, Kingfly.
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Dr. Rohit Aggarwala, Director of New York City’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability on plans for a greener New York, Grammy Award-winning folk singer Pete Seeger on using music to promote environmental issues, and Bruce and Russell Barton of Bits Limited Manufacturers on reducing electricity consumption and costs. Featured Green Artists: Pete Seeger, Split The Bill.
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Matthew Bishop, chief business writer and US Business Editor of The Economist Magazine, addresses the global financial meltdown and how the media has failed to do its job covering it. Bishop spoke with Prof. Anthony Mancini, director of the journalism program at Brooklyn College, at the CUNY Journalism, Broadcast and New Media Conference and Career Fair at the Graduate Center. “We’ve been worried, as a magazine, about the American financial system for at least a decade,” said Bishop. “We’re at a very, very dangerous moment.”
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The Baruch Business Report offers a conversation between John Elliott, the Dean of Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business and Terrence Martell, Saxe Professor of Finance and International Business in Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business. The discussion starts with an exploration of the newly approved Troubled Asset Relief Program (T.A.R.P.) that will provide the Treasury Secretary $700 billion to buy troubled assets from failing financial institutions, and continues into a larger economic analysis including restoring depositor confidence in banks, the potential government gains from T.A.R.P., and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (F.D.I.C.) new protection plan for bank consumers, which raises basic insurance from $100,000 to $250,000 per account.
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Subcommittee meeting of the Board of Trustees, Subcommittee on Investment, Monday, October 20, 2008.
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In this 24-hour news cycle our brains are constantly bombarded with information that can make it difficult to concentrate and multi-task, says Nancy Foldi, director of the Neuropsychology Laboratory of Aging and Dementia at Queens College. For many people, those tasks may become even harder as they age. Prof. Foldi, who has studied the aging process for more than 25 years, discusses her recent work, which focuses on the ability to select and retain more important, from less relevant, information. “We are trying to learn if young people are going to be able to manage information better, in their later lives, than the elderly of today,” she says.
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Can the web support serious journalism? The answer is yes, according to Jeff Jarvis, director of the interactive journalism program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Increasingly, web-based publications are scooping traditional print and broadcast outlets, while attracting advertising and developing viable business models. In a panel discussion, Jarvis was joined by Terence Samuel, deputy editor of The Root, an online magazine published by the Washington Post Co., and Rachel Sklar, media editor at The Huffington Post, at CUNY’s 8th Annual Journalism Broadcast and New Media Conference and Career Fair at the Graduate Center. “There are huge, new opportunities.” said Jarvis.
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By using spongy tracks instead of metal ones, passenger trains could travel faster and more safely, theorizes Distinguished Professor Sheldon Weinbaum. “The remarkable part (is) that we can lift a 70-ton train car using soft, porous material just like a goose down pillow,” says Prof. Weinbaum, who retired in 2007 after 40 years at City College, where he continues to conduct research and advise. In recognition of his work in mechanical and biomedical engineering, including his revolutionary prototype for trains, he was honored by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Engineering with its 2008 Davies Medal for Engineering Achievement.
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A new study headed by the chairs of the 9/11 Commission has given the federal government a “D” for its efforts in preventing the spread of weapons and protecting the homeland. The same report awarded a B minus, its highest mark, for government efforts to combat chemical weapons. Prof. Joseph King explains the discrepancy. “I credit that panel — it’s a bipartisan commission — and they have come up with any number of recommendations, most of which the government hasn’t adopted yet.”
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Subcommittee meeting of the Board of Trustees, Subcommittee Investment, Monday, October 6, 2008.

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