“Visual bites” play a central role in shaping voter opinion of candidates, say two IU telecommunications professors in a recent study of the presidential elections, 1992-2004. They found that candidates were steadily shown more in individual stories on the evening news -- even as their verbal statements, or sound bites -- decreased in average length. The photo (above) of the Democratic presumptive nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, was taken by Debbie Wyeth of the Center for Public Policy and the Environment when she ran in to him at the National Institute for Fitness and Sport at IUPUI. Read what IU political scientists have to say about the primary season and the upcoming general presidential election in this story.
Today's Feature
The art of blooming
While Voltaire taught us the value of “cultivating one’s own garden,” our focus today looks beyond the metaphor, to a few of the people and institutions that make summer a bountiful harvest in Bloomington and “the best of all possible worlds.”
Additional top stories
Dateline Beijing
Check in on IU kinesiologist Joel Stager, who directs Counsilman Center for the Science of Swimming on the Bloomington campus. He’s been blogging poolside at the Olympics.
IUBCS moves downtown
Bloomington Continuing Studies has relocated downtown. Check out the new lifelong learning catalogue and consider applying to the Leadership Bloomington-Monroe County program (Deadline is Sept. 15).Gold and bronze
IU Kokomo, IUPUI and the IU Foundation are medalists in the international 2008 CASE Circle of Excellence competition. (Follow the links for a gallery of pictures by IU’s first Photographer of the Year medalist, Tyagan Miller.)
Little engine that can
A protein discovered in a bacterial flagellum (tail-like structure) may give nanotechnologists ideas about how to regulate tiny engines of their own creation. The flagellum is one of nature's smallest and most powerful motors, capable of revving up to 1,400 piconewton-nanometers of torque.
The d-word
An in-house team at IU Southeast has launched a residence hall recruitment web site that combines pizzazz, style and popular culture in a way that redefines the term “electronic bulletin” board and has caught the attention of EDUstyle. Find out what a “window cling” is and be advised, with the opening of the campus’ lodges this fall, don’t use the d-word in New Albany.
