Firefighters respond to apartment blaze, rescue cat
Oct 21st
Boulder Fire Rescue crews responded to a fire at 2805 Sundown Lane, unit 112, at the Gold Run Condominium complex at 11:23 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 20. Four engines and the ladder truck with 18 firefighters and two fire chiefs were on scene. The last engine cleared at 2 p.m.
The resident of a neighboring unit called 9-1-1 at 11:20 a.m. to report an odor of smoke and the sound of a smoke alarm in an adjacent apartment. Neighbors evacuated, and no injuries were reported to residents or firefighters.
The damaged unit was occupied by two people who were not at home at the time of the fire. The fire was contained to one unit of the multi-unit wooden structure. Damage is estimated to be approximately $50,000. The apartment is uninhabitable at this time.
One cat was rescued and resuscitated using a pet CPR mask and then transported to the Humane Society for treatment. The masks were donated to the department a couple of years ago by two young girls who sold jewelry to raise money so they could purchase and provide crews with the specialized animal equipment.
Fire Marshal David Lowrey said the fire appears to be accidental in nature.
SOURCE: City of Boulder press release
Boulder Public Library cuts, retirements, resignations, book cuts, hours cut No end in site
Oct 21st
HAMMER DROPS ON BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY
October 21, 2010 ,Boulder, Colorado is considered one of the country’s most intelligent cities. but, with severe budget cuts looming, it’s the Boulder Public Library which is suffering. According to several sources at the Library, under the previous library director, Tony Talbott, books were culled from the stacks if they weren’t used for a number of years and magazines, too.
That started the ball rolling but his resignation brought Donna Gaertman into the picture as Library Director Pro Tem. She’s retiring on December 31, 2010 along with long-standing management personnel, Assistant Library Director Lyn Reed, whose husband Judge Tom Reed is retiring, and finance director James Marshall. There’s no continuity!
According to a city source, a $100,000 budget increase was to go toward 2% bonuses for those management personnel. But, since they are leaving, where is that money going? And, according to the City and library personnel, when several full time employees took retirement, they were not being replaced. Instead, City management decided to bring in temp employees who wouldn’t require benefits. Anyone can see the stress on the faces of those long-term librarians and other library personnel wondering what will happen next.
While there is no confirmation from the City to this statement, Jennifer Miles is looking for a possible move to become Library Director. She came up in the ranks after being put into place at the library by former library Director Marcelee Graalap.
As one member of the library management recently said, “Time will tell if we will even have a library here any more considering the cuts!”
TWO CU-BOULDER FACULY MEMBERS WIN NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION CAREER AWARDS
Oct 20th
Oct. 20, 2010
Two University of Colorado faculty members have received prestigious National Science Foundation Early Career Development, or CAREER awards.
Assistant Professor Nils Halverson, who holds faculty appointments in both the astrophysical and planetary sciences department and the physics department, was awarded $875,415 over five years from NSF to support detector development and data analysis for cosmic microwave background studies with the South Pole Telescope.
Cosmic microwave background is relic heat from the Big Bang that scientists can detect with microwave-wavelength telescopes. The light is slightly polarized, much in the way sunlight is polarized when it is reflected off the surface of a pond. The polarization signal is expected to contain tiny ripples from gravitational waves set in motion a small fraction of a second after the Big Bang, said Halverson.
By measuring the signal, astrophysicists can begin to understand the physics of the universe during its birth. As part of the NSF award, Halverson and astrophysical and planetary sciences instructor Seth Horenstein will provide a graduate class focused on observations, data analysis and statistics with conceptual assessment tools, peer-instruction exercises and course notes.
Assistant Professor Amy Palmer of the chemistry and biochemistry department received $831,720 from the NSF over five years to support her research to provide a powerful new approach to illuminate disease-causing bacteria like salmonella that invade host organisms and can produce harmful and sometimes lethal effects.
Many bacterial pathogens use a set of proteins called “effectors” to invade and infect host cells, cooperatively working to hijack cellular signaling and to reprogram the host cell to enable bacterial survival. Palmer and her team are developing a new method that will directly tag a broad spectrum of effector proteins with fluorescent molecules in order to visualize their movements during infection of a host cell.
Palmer’s project also will contribute to a campuswide effort to reform undergraduate science education by developing and validating interdisciplinary, hands-on tutorials that will promote student engagement and transform student learning. She has worked with the Science Education Initiative on campus, which is part of the university’s STEM efforts, to integrate learning assistants into upper division physical chemistry classes, develop pre/post concept tests to measure learning gains and to promote active engagement in the classroom. Palmer also is a faculty member in CU’s Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology, or CIMB.
SOURCE: CU MEDIA RELEASE
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