Professor of Anthropology Stephen Houston, who has spent years excavating Mayan sites in Mexico and Central America, discusses how Mel Gibson’s new movie, “Apocalypto,” misinforms audiences about Mayan culture.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/08/AR2006120801815.html

Don Wilmeth, professor emeritus of theater, speech and dance, talks about the challenges 21st-century actors face in performing in 19th- and early 20th-century plays.

New research by Susan E. Short, associate professor of sociology, shows that today’s mothers with young children are getting substantially less help around the house. Even when other women are living in the household, they aren’t necessarily on hand to help with the kids. The press release was republished on several health sites around the world.
www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2006-07/06-066.html

Producers of the Jean-Paul Sartre play "The Flies" at Brown University will subject the audience to 40,000 fruit flies to bring to life the existentialist work about flies sent to plague the city of Argos in ancient Greece. This wire service article appeared in media around the world.
www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/12/09/brown_players_take_dramatic
_realism_to_a_new_level/

In a press release about Human Rights Day December 10, Brown University student involvement in campaigns to end human rights abuses is noted. Brown sophomore Scott Warren, an officer with the national Student Anti-Genocide Campaign, offers his perspective on why students are being spurred to action.
usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=December&x=2
0061208170800hmnietsua0.5485041

Mobile DNA, which inserts foreign genes into target cells, is a powerful force in the march of evolution and the spread of disease. Working with the lambda virus and E. coli bacteria, Brown University biologists have solved the structure of a six-protein complex critical to performing this gene-grafting surgery. The technique they developed could be used to reveal the structure of other critical protein complexes. This press release was republished on several science sites around the world.
www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2006-07/06-064.html

Scott Haltzman, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior, notes that couples should discuss religious beliefs before the birth of their child. “Having a family is an emotional time, and sorting out your feelings on religion on top of all the other changes going on in your life is unwise. Better to do it before the issues arises,” he says.
www.post-gazette.com/pg/06345/743539-355.stm

A columnist discusses Brown University’s invitation, cancellation, and re-invitation to lecturer Nonie Darwish. “The episode at Brown says something very disturbing about the state of things at one of America's finest universities, and presumably many other campuses as well,” he writes.
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881842124&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FS
howFull

Peter Kramer, clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior, discusses his new book, "Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind.”
www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/12/10/qa_peter_kramer/

Political Science Professor Darrell West comments on the diverse presidential field for 2008.
www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/159700

An article about the psychological benefits of exercise notes Brown studies of the effects of exercise on women who want to stop smoking. This wire service article appeared in several U.S. newspapers.
www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061210/NEWS06/612100308

The death rate in hip fracture patients is rising. Vincent Mor, chairman of the department of community health, says “its time to take a look at hip fracture the same way we've looked at heart disease and find out what we can do to ameliorate the death rate.”
www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/12/10/a_staggering_death_toll_but_limite
d_attention/

Rachel Herz, visiting assistant professor of psychiatry, discusses the associations people make with the smells of Christmas. With few exceptions, she notes, aromas mean only what we were taught, she said.
www.post-gazette.com/pg/06344/745032-323.stm

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and its director, David Barenboim, will be at Brown for four days in a visit coordinated by the University’s Cogut Center for the Humanities. This feature reviews the orchestra’s founding and purpose.
www.projo.com/news/content/orchestra_12-09-06_UC39KML.2e9d97d.html

Susan E. Short, associate professor of sociology, discusses her research showing that today’s mothers with young children are getting substantially less help around the house. Her segment aired at 11:50 a.m.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/wtwpradio/2006-12-10/Tuesday.html
See news release: www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2006-07/06-066.html

Information from “Jewish Marriage in Antiquity,” a book by Michael Satlow, associate professor of Judaic studies, is noted in this article about how Jewish mores became Christianity’s customs.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16116328/site/newsweek/

The late Milton Friedman “was the most successful radical thinker of the 20th Century, radical in the sense of going to the root source of social and economic issues, rather relying on palliatives and compromises that require continual change of direction,” Professor of Economics George Borts writes in this commentary.
www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/projo-20061208-8ctborts.a702c6c.html

UMass is one of a growing number of public universities nationwide at which officers patrol dorms in an effort to curb student drinking and rowdiness. The beefed-up police presence has led to tension on various campuses, with students arguing that universities are violating students' Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/12/12/police_walk_the_dorm_be
at/