Ag and Life Sciences ONLINE

COLLEGE NEWS



- Ag extension proposal available from department leaders



- Livestock producers' odor-reducing projects approved



- New Ag Council officers elected



- College to fund creative teaching ideas



- Application extended for Costa Rican study tour



- Deadlines & Reminders



COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK



- Dealing with bulk or junk e-mail



INFOGRAZING



- 'Delicious' trees grown from original, with ISU's

help



- Decent small towns off the beaten path



EXTERNAL VOICES



- What good do students get from Web surfing?



MARGINALIA



- Why paper cuts hurt like the dickens







C O L L E G E N E W S







AG EXTENSION PROPOSAL AVAILABLE FROM DEPARTMENT LEADERS



At the Ag Cabinet meeting today (Friday), Stan Johnson, vice provost

for extension, presented to college administrators a draft proposal

addressing on-campus extension and the College of Agriculture.

DEOs have copies of the proposal.



LIVESTOCK PRODUCERS' ODOR-REDUCING PROJECTS APPROVED



An external review committee has recommended funding 22 odor-reduction

demonstration projects proposed by Iowa livestock producers. Another

24 projects may be funded, pending receipt of more information

on the proposals. This year the Iowa Legislature appropriated

$400,000 for ISU to make available, on a 50/50 cost-share basis,

to livestock producers selected to demonstrate odor reduction

technologies. Project results and evaluation will be reported

to the public. The external review committee comprises representatives

of commodity groups, state agencies, producers, environmental

groups, farm organizations and others.



NEW AG COUNCIL OFFICERS ELECTED



Stacia Piggott is the new president of the Agricultural Student

Council. She's a junior in dairy science and public service and

administration in agriculture. Other officers are: Stacie Buhr,

vice president, junior, agricultural education and studies; Christa

Jensen, secretary, junior, journalism; and Dennis Holland, treasurer,

senior, agricultural systems technology. They'll begin their duties

next semester.



COLLEGE TO FUND CREATIVE TEACHING IDEAS



The new College of Agriculture Innovative Teaching Grants Program

will support creative approaches to undergraduate teaching. Grants

range from $1,000 to $4,000. Deadline for submitting proposals

is Dec. 17 to Eric Hoiberg's office, 134 Curtiss. For more information,

call 4-6614.



DEADLINE EXTENDED FOR COSTA RICAN STUDY TOUR



December 20 is the new deadline for applications for a study tour

of Costa Rica during spring break. The tour is open to five undergraduate

advisers and teaching faculty from the College of Agriculture.

The trip consists of an orientation at the University of Costa

Rica and a tour of the country that focuses on social and natural

resource management. More information: Eric Hoiberg, 134 Curtiss

Hall, 4-6614 or David Acker, 104 Curtiss, 4-8454.



DEADLINES & REMINDERS



Dec. 17: Proposal deadline, College of Agriculture Innovative

Teaching Grants, 134 Curtiss



Dec. 20: Costa Rican study tour applications due, 134 Curtiss



Dec. 21: Commencement







C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K









DEALING WITH BULK OR JUNK E-MAIL



Bulk or junk e-mail has become an annoying fact of life, but you

can do something about it, according to the ISU Computation Center.

If replying to the sender fails to solve the problem, contacting

the Internet provider may shut off the flow. Try to determine

the address where the message originated, usually found in the

last "Received:" line in the message's headers. (For

Eudora e-mail users, all the headers can be viewed by clicking

the "blah blah blah" icon on the tool bar.) Mail a message

to the username "abuse" or "postmaster" at

that site (e.g., postmaster@iastate.edu) with a brief, polite

note, the full headers of the message and the message itself.

A suggested note might read: "I received the following unsolicited

bulk e-mail, which apparently originated from your site. Please

take the appropriate action to ensure this doesn't happen again."









I N F O G R A Z I N G







'DELICIOUS' TREES GROWN FROM ORIGINAL, WITH ISU'S HELP



About 880 people from 15 states have bought trees budded from

the original Delicious apple tree, which was grown in 1870 by

an Iowa apple farmer. The project, organized by the Iowa Fruit

& Vegetable Growers Association for Iowa's sesquicentennial,

received help from ISU horticulturist Paul Domoto, who used shoots

collected from the original tree to propagate buds. About a thousand

seedlings are now being grown in a nursery and will be ready for

distribution in 1998. For more information: Lynn Fevold, Iowa

Fruit & Vegetable Association, (515) 648-9902.



DECENT SMALL TOWNS OFF THE BEATEN PATH



Geographer Everett Smith has devised an intriguing measure of

"decent" small towns to compete with popular press rankings

like the book "The Best 100 Small Towns in America."

Smith's personal preferences include things like architectural

aesthetics, a diversity of businesses and services, and a sense

of self-sufficiency. His list of 479 towns (including 37 in Iowa)

is mostly concentrated in the middle part of the country. Everett

chose towns that had at least 1,200 folks in 1950, now have 2,000-5,000

residents and didn't fluctuate wildly in the 1980s. The towns

are situated far enough from cities or other towns to ensure self-governance,

and most have a courthouse or hospital. He also notes that only

10 percent of his towns had a Wal-Mart, versus 70 percent of those

in the "Best 100" book. (Small Town, March-April 1996)









E X T E R N A L V O I C E S







WHAT GOOD DO STUDENTS GET FROM WEB SURFING?



"Everyone knows what you do with the Web: You surf, sliding

from site to site at the click of a mouse button. Exactly which

problem will Web-surfing attack? Our children's insufficient shallowness?

Excessive attention spans? Unhealthy fixation on in-depth analysis?

Stubborn unwillingness to push on to the next topic until they

mastered the last? We need less surfing in the schools, not more."

Yale University computer scientist and author David Gelerntner.

(Weekly Standard, Nov. 4)







M A R G I N A L I A







WHY PAPER CUTS HURT LIKE THE DICKENS



Ever wonder why a paper cut causes excruciating pain? Nature assumes

that your hands interact the most with the world, so you have

more pain receptors, which serve as warning signals, in your fingers,

says Alan Cowan of Temple University. He says paper cuts are an

equation of two elements that equal pain. First, the skin is being

physically cut. Next, there's a chemical reaction in which the

body releases pain-producing compounds that act on the raw nerve

endings. Emotions and circumstances also play a role in pain perception.

A paper cut can catch you off-guard because you don't expect to

be injured doing paperwork. Cowan also adds that when you're doing

paperwork there's not much excitement to distract you from pain.