Arts & Sciences

Subsequent concerts will take place at 7:30 p.m. July 17, 24 and 31; attendees are encouraged to bring lawn seating.

WarrenSpending by federal regulatory agencies continues to grow at a faster pace than other nondiscretionary spending according to “Upward Trend in Regulation Continues: An Analysis of the U.S. Budget for Fiscal Years 2005 and 2006,” this year’s edition of the annual report on regulatory spending and staffing by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis.

File Photo – David KilperThe class of 2005 has good reason to be happy — overall hiring of college graduates is on the rise.Well, you’ve graduated from college. Congratulations! Now what? Unless you’re off to graduate school, it’s time to get a job. And according to a career expert at Washington University in St. Louis, you’ll probably have a much easier time finding one than students did in the past few years.

A simple way to conserve is to use compact fluorescent lightbulbs wherever possible.On June 5, mayors of some of the largest cities around the world took the historic step of signing the Urban Environmental Accords in San Francisco in recognition of United Nations World Environment Day 2005. The international treaty sets out 21 specific actions for sustainable urban living. The accords address seven environmental areas common to all the world’s large cities; including water, energy and waste. While the focus was on the mayors’ pledge to take specific actions toward making their cities greener, an environmental health and safety expert at Washington University in St. Louis says there are many things individuals can do in their own homes and offices to promote sustainable living.

Older folks can be swayed by the power of suggestion.Especially if you’re older, get everything in writing, from estimates to receipts. Psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis report that the memory function of people in their mid-60s and up is easily swayed by the power of suggestion, making them more vulnerable to memory-related scams. Their study appears in the May 2005 issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology (JEP): General, which is published by the American Psychological Association.

A team of engineers from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Colorado at Boulder has removed bioaerosols – airborne biological particulate matter — from the air of a hospital therapy pool using a new generation of hybrid filters. The bioaerosols identified in the unnamed Midwestern hospital pool had sickened nine lifeguards who had become ill with hypersensitivity pneumonitis, a lung condition that mimics pneumonia symptoms. This forced the pool to shut down. It is now reopened.

Gamers are faster than you and I.While Mortal Combat, Grand Theft Auto, or Halo may be foreign to aging generations, a new study out of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Toronto suggests that video games like these promote a kind of mental “expertise” that could prove to be useful in the non-virtual world — potentially in rehabilitation and for the elderly. Alan Castel, Ph.D., Washington University post doctorate fellow in psychology in Arts & Sciences, conducted a study to examine how video games can lead to a degree of expertise in certain domains, and how that might influence video game players’ visual search patterns.

Where have you gone, Joe Neandertal?The human fossil evidence from the Mladec Caves in Moravia, Czech Republic, excavated more than 100 years ago, has been proven for the first time, through modern radiocarbon dating, to be the oldest cranial, dental and postcranial assemblage of early modern humans in Europe. A team of researchers from the Natural History Museum in Vienna, from the University of Vienna in Austria and from Washington University in St. Louis recently conducted the first successful direct dating of the material.

As Americans celebrate independence this July 4, they may wish to consider the plight of another democracy – one that is young and struggling and whose continued success could have a dramatic impact on the world economy, the price of gasoline and other critical U.S. interests. James V. Wertsch, director of International and Area Studies at Washington University in St. Louis suggests that America needs to pay attention to developments in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia for its own sake, and for the sake of the rest of the world.

Her passions include community activism & service; she founded St. Louis Project Democracy and was involved in numerous other projects.