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Stories for the holiday break
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December 22, 2009
Tsunami: five years later
Days after the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami, Peter Anderson visited Sri Lanka to witness the devastation. Since then, the SFU emergency communication specialist has lent his expertise to community and government officials via the Last Mile Hazard Information Dissemination project. Just back from a visit – on the eve of the tragedy’s fifth anniversary – he says local communities’ development of an early warning system will greatly improve how they deal with future disasters.
Peter Anderson, anderson@sfu.ca
Christmas – making a comeback?
It may be politically correct to say “Season’s Greetings” and “Happy Holidays” but this year Don Grayston is seeing more signs of Christmas. “Christmas is back,” says Grayston, an SFU humanities professor emeritus and ordained minister. “It may be in part because we’re realizing that so much of our seasonal music refers to Christmas.” Grayston can also talk about all things spiritual.
Don Grayston, 604.709.0883; Donald_grayston@sfu.ca
Making headway with climate, war
The Copenhagen climate talks ended with a non-binding agreement and world leaders pointing to the need to build trust between developed and developing countries. SFU political analyst Andy Hira can comment on issues related to the equity of energy consumption for developing nations. And on the war front, he can explain why long-term occupation is “the only logical road to success” for the U.S. in Afghanistan.
Andy Hira, ahira@sfu.ca (available through the holidays except on Dec.25 and 27). See his recent paper on Afghanistan: http://www.cdfai.org/
A walk in the park?
Joti Samra is a faculty of health sciences psychologist who can talk about the impact of the economic recession on families during the holiday season. She says families need encouragement to come up with non-monetary ways that they can celebrate the holidays. Samra can also talk about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and holiday depression.
Joti Samra, 778.772.7560 (cell); joti_samra@sfu.ca
Smashing atoms in 2010
For one group of SFU scientists 2009 ended with an historic bang. And that’s only the beginning for these diehard physicists as they prepare to analyze some of the first data from the global ATLAS project (underway at the CERN research facility in Switzerland). The experiment involves atoms smashing into each other in a gigantic machine at rates faster than the speed of light, all to help scientists learn the innermost secrets of matter. Ask physicists Mike Vetterli or Dugan O’Neil why we should care. (Or Jennifer Godfrey – the SFU grad student is just back from a stint in CERN’s control room).
Mike Vetterli, 604.929.0401; vetterli@sfu.ca
Dugan O’Neil; (in Paris, reachable via email or skype - duganoneil); doneil@sfu.ca
Jennifer Godfrey, 604.807.9829; jlgodfre@sfu.ca (away Dec. 26-27)
Days after the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami, Peter Anderson visited Sri Lanka to witness the devastation. Since then, the SFU emergency communication specialist has lent his expertise to community and government officials via the Last Mile Hazard Information Dissemination project. Just back from a visit – on the eve of the tragedy’s fifth anniversary – he says local communities’ development of an early warning system will greatly improve how they deal with future disasters.
Peter Anderson, anderson@sfu.ca
Christmas – making a comeback?
It may be politically correct to say “Season’s Greetings” and “Happy Holidays” but this year Don Grayston is seeing more signs of Christmas. “Christmas is back,” says Grayston, an SFU humanities professor emeritus and ordained minister. “It may be in part because we’re realizing that so much of our seasonal music refers to Christmas.” Grayston can also talk about all things spiritual.
Don Grayston, 604.709.0883; Donald_grayston@sfu.ca
Making headway with climate, war
The Copenhagen climate talks ended with a non-binding agreement and world leaders pointing to the need to build trust between developed and developing countries. SFU political analyst Andy Hira can comment on issues related to the equity of energy consumption for developing nations. And on the war front, he can explain why long-term occupation is “the only logical road to success” for the U.S. in Afghanistan.
Andy Hira, ahira@sfu.ca (available through the holidays except on Dec.25 and 27). See his recent paper on Afghanistan: http://www.cdfai.org/
A walk in the park?
Joti Samra is a faculty of health sciences psychologist who can talk about the impact of the economic recession on families during the holiday season. She says families need encouragement to come up with non-monetary ways that they can celebrate the holidays. Samra can also talk about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and holiday depression.
Joti Samra, 778.772.7560 (cell); joti_samra@sfu.ca
Smashing atoms in 2010
For one group of SFU scientists 2009 ended with an historic bang. And that’s only the beginning for these diehard physicists as they prepare to analyze some of the first data from the global ATLAS project (underway at the CERN research facility in Switzerland). The experiment involves atoms smashing into each other in a gigantic machine at rates faster than the speed of light, all to help scientists learn the innermost secrets of matter. Ask physicists Mike Vetterli or Dugan O’Neil why we should care. (Or Jennifer Godfrey – the SFU grad student is just back from a stint in CERN’s control room).
Mike Vetterli, 604.929.0401; vetterli@sfu.ca
Dugan O’Neil; (in Paris, reachable via email or skype - duganoneil); doneil@sfu.ca
Jennifer Godfrey, 604.807.9829; jlgodfre@sfu.ca (away Dec. 26-27)