With threats such as the 2012 prophecy, global warming, the Democrats losing the Massachusetts election and Jersey Shore looming over our heads, the apocalypse is looking more and more real each day.
What has a NASCAR race, tons of beaches and more abandoned bikini tops than Joe Francis's personal collection?
The women's basketball team has found itself free-falling down a slippery slope filled with late-game collapses and overtime defeats this season. Buffalo has struggles to bounce back from losses and has fallen victim to three losing streaks – the longest of which lasted seven games.
The UB School of Nursing caused quite a stir recently when it shut the program's doors on 300 undergraduates. As a result, many of these students must transfer to other schools or switch majors.
UB students who use the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority system as means for transportation may be provided with smoother rides in the future.
In sports, it's more difficult to defend a title than to win it. Buffalo learned that lesson this past weekend when the wrestling team traveled to Newman Arena on the campus of Cornell to wrestle in the 41st Annual New York State Intercollegiate Wrestling Championships.
While students are taking to social networking sites to voice their concerns about the decay of UB's library and computing services, university officials are insisting that plans are in the works to improve campus technology and expand learning areas.
In another announcement by a more assertive White House, President Barack Obama introduced initiatives to help fortify the struggling middle class of this country.
The literary savior of the environment, also know as one of the country's most prolific writers, has returned with a new novel.
The men's and women's indoor track and field teams entered Ithaca empty-handed, and came back with two second-place team finishes and a couple of individual records.
I'm going to tell you what CNN won't – why you should care. And I'm going to do it in plain English.
It's amazing the state of inconceivable stupidity one can be allowed to sink into.
Wake up America. Why are we donating millions upon millions of dollars to Haiti now?
After the initial shock of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and the proceeding days of aftershocks, the entire city has nearly been reduced to rubble. Yet some buildings still stand. That's where Andre Filiatrault, a UB Professor of Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering and director of Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, and a team of 10 engineers and architects have offered their expertise. The MCEER team consists of French speaking engineers to better understand the French-based Haitian Creole language of the people and government they are trying to help. While in Haiti, the team will be hard at work evaluating which buildings are safe for the hundreds of thousands of residents that were left homeless to start reusing. Filiatrault said in an interview with the UB Reporter that close to 100 percent of the Port-au-Prince population is sleeping in tents or outdoors. The team has been selected by the United Nations as its interim lead coordinating team and will be assessing infrastructure and many different buildings, including hospitals and private buildings, according the article. 'In Haiti, the damage the country has sustained to its infrastructure and to its population is so extensive that it is largely up to the international community to conduct these inspections,' Filiatrault said. 'Once we have assessed the safety of the most critical structures, then those facilities that are deemed safe can be fully utilized for relief efforts – in particular hospitals, food storage and distribution centers and ports.' Filiatrault said the lack of understanding of earthquakes in the country has added to the hardship of the disaster, adding that it is 'disturbing' to see hospitals not being utilized due to fear of aftershocks, although some of the buildings are fine. People are being treated outdoors and under tents, suffering from not only their wounds, but the Caribbean heat as well. Despite the devastated condition of the city, Filiatault and the team have been making progress and have kept busy with requests from the UN, local schools and hospitals. 'Things are going well for our team despite difficult conditions we encounter daily in the field,' Filiatrault said in the article. 'This work is pretty intense and the environment is rough, both physically and psychologically. Many cases are difficult, but at the same time inspiring.' The team consists of engineers from institutions and businesses around the country and has paired with Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, a national non-profit organization that helps with renewable energy, sanitation and clean water. Members of the AIDG-MCEER team include Reginald DesRoches from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Wassim Ghannoum of the University at Texas, Caroline Zennie of Parsons Corporation, Scott Dehollander of MRB Group and Eddy Germain of the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Established in 1986, MCEER is headquartered at UB and is 'dedicated to the discovery and development of new knowledge, tools and technologies that equip communities to become more disaster resilient in the face of earthquakes and other extreme events,' according to its Web site. MCEER has assisted in many disasters since its creation, including relief and assessment efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Members also traveled to Asia in 2004 after a tsunami off the Indian Ocean killed nearly 230,000 people. Filiatrault and the team will return on Friday. E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com
He trekked from Weston High School to the University at Buffalo and currently has a home in Indianapolis. Now, Jamey Richard will be completing his journey down the East Coast with a weekend in Miami.
Solutions by The State News
