What’s the best way to pay off debt? It’s simple. After making required payments to avoid penalties, pay down the loan with the highest interest rate. But consumers take a slightly different approach, according to a consumer behavior expert at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.
According to the United Nations, nearly 10 million people in Africa are experiencing one of the worst droughts in 60 years. Drought conditions are now leading to famine. Michael Galvin, a second-year student at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, is in the east African countryside as part of a team testing the effectiveness of KickStart, a social enterprise selling low-cost technologies such as irrigation pumps to help alleviate poverty. Galvin is blogging about the farmers and families he and team members are visiting through stories, video and photos (http://kickstartblog.wordpress.com/ ). His entries give a powerful look at how the drought is impacting lives.
Discussion of the federal debt ceiling has dominated the front page recently. Several Washington University in St. Louis faculty experts, all members of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, have offered their opinions to the news media on the history of the debt ceiling and what may happen if a deal is not reached.
High-dose vitamin D relieves joint and muscle pain for many breast cancer patients taking estrogen-lowering drugs, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
WUSTL women’s basketball coach Nancy Fahey, who has guided the Bears for 25 seasons and won five national titles, has been chosen for induction into Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Besides Fahey, the Hall of Fame Class of 2012 includes players Nikki McCray, Pam McGee, Inge Nissen, and Dawn Staley, and contributor Robin Roberts. Fahey is the first NCAA Division III player or coach to be chosen for such an honor.
After a yearlong renovation, Cupples II is now home to the College of Arts & Sciences, the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and the Office of Undergraduate Research, as well as eight state-of-the-art pooled classrooms.
University College — the adult, evening and continuing education division in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis — will host a Preview Night at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 11, in Holmes Lounge in Ridgley Hall on the university’s Danforth Campus. Preview Night will feature speakers who will discuss class and program offerings, admissions requirements and financial aid.
Analysis of new images of a curious “hot spot” on the far side of the Moon reveal it to be a small volcanic province created by the upwelling of silicic magma. The unusual location of the province and of the surprising composition of the lava that formed it offer tantalizing clues to the Moon’s thermal history. The discovery has just been published in Nature Geoscience.
Giving children intravenous fluids early in the course of an E. coli O157:H7 infection appears to lower the odds of developing severe kidney failure, according to Christina Ahn Hickey, MD, and other researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and other institutions.
The Office of Sustainability has published a 2010-11 Sustainability Annual Report at wustl.edu/sustain to help keep the university community updated on its progress toward implementing goals outlined in the university’s 2010 Strategic Plan for Environmentally Sustainable Operations.
