No. 252  January 2004

BULLYING Many adults may remember and some K-12 students may know some “tough kid(s)” in their classes. Bullies are kids who were somewhat nasty, domineering, and often teased, threatened, or tormented their fellow student(s). Research has found that the bullies are outnumbered only by their victims, and some bullies grow up and move on to a more aggressive and violent life style. Unfortunately many victims end up with psychological problems of depression and low self-esteem. “The National Institutes of Health recently reported that in the United States alone, bullying affects more than 5 million students in grades 6 through 11. One out of seven students reports being victimized. In response to this current problem, the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Center for Mental Health Services are launching a Bullying Prevention Initiative. The initiative entitled: “15+ Make Time To Listen, Take Time To Talk…About Bullying” with your children will help you determine if your child is being bullied or is a bully. Bullying is Not A Fact of Life, issued in 2003, is a 35-page publication issued by SAMHSA is found under HE 20.427: B 87 in many Federal Depository Libraries. It also may be found online at the SAMHSA 15+ Featured Publications – CMHS Programs page (http://store.mentalhealth.org/15plus/pubs.aspx). This is a very good self-awareness tool for parents who want to learn about a very old widespread problem. 

BULLYING: A SOCIAL ISSUE AND PROBLEM The National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) recently announced a survey whose results appear in the April 2003 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The NIH News Release Bullies, Victims at Risk for Violence and other Problem Behaviors summarizes the survey which shows that bullying is a nationwide problem which a recurring problem and not an isolated behavior. Bullying is a high risk behavior which can lead to other forms of violent behavior. It is a behavioral problem monitored and analyzed by social and biomedical scientists. The Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Community Oriented Policing Services also wants to prevent Bullying and has issued Bullying in Schools is a 2002 guide for law enforcement officers who encounter the daily instances and issues related to bullying. One of the latest publications on this topic, this guide is found on the DOJ website (http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS19843) as a pdf file (http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/e12011405.pdf). The problem of bullying, its forms, the social and geographic characteristics of bullies and victims, and its locations (both in school and on the way home) are surveyed in five different statistical surveys. The surveys have been reviewed and the data has been issued in Indicators of School Crime and Safety. Compiled and issued by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), bullying is viewed by the NCES as one of the Indicators of School Crime.  Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2003 http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2004004 is the latest edition of this annual compilation which started in 1998. Indicators can be found in some Federal Depository Libraries under ED 1.437: (Year) and in the Popular NCES Reports listing at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/majorpub.asp. 

THE BIGGEST CHILL The July 2003 issue of this Newsletter announced the discovery of the “hottest living microbe.” Now, 2004 sees cryogenic researchers bring us the BIGGEST CHILL. For the NASA-funded researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology brought about the BIGGEST CHILL. During their cryogenic research, the physicists at MIT have cooled sodium gas to the lowest temperature that man has yet reached in a laboratory experiment. The temperature they have achieved is one-half-billionth degree above absolute zero. At Absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius or -460 degrees Fahrenheit), all motion stops, except for tiny atomic vibrations, since the cooling process has extracted all the energy. No further cooling is possible. By improving their cooling methods, they have succeeded in reaching lower temperatures which allow for improvements in the precision measurements in atomic clocks and sensors for gravity and rotation. This research in the cooled atomic gases led to the discovery of a new form of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate, where the particles march in lockstep instead of flitting around independently. At such low temperatures, atoms cannot be kept in physical containers, because they would stick to the walls. Also, no known container can be cooled to such temperatures. To circumvent this physical container problem, the physicists used magnets to surround the atoms, which keep the gaseous cloud confined without touching it. To reach the record-low temperatures, the researchers invented a novel way of confining atoms, which they call a "gravito-magnetic trap." The magnetic fields acted together with gravitational forces to keep the atoms trapped. Lab Research Yields the Biggest Chill, (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2003/122.cfm) is the September 11, 2003 News Release about this latest development in NASA sponsored low temperature physics research. 

WORKING TREES AND THE CARBON CYCLE A tree works when it provides shade and protection from the ultraviolet rays and the heat of the sun. Of course, some trees such as oak and maple, are better than others at providing a shade. All trees are beneficial because of their storage of carbon and the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It is the trees and shrubs which maintain the world’s carbon cycle and produce social, economic, and conservation benefits which are all around us. Trees planted in rows (i.e. Windbreaks) around pastures, buildings, and along roads protect people, soils, and crops. Field windbreaks reduce evaporation and plant transpiration rates such that crop yields are improved. Trees near houses in urban areas and near farm buildings can control temperatures and save heating/cooling costs. Trees and shrubs along rivers and around lakes are the riparian zones which are rich in moisture and nutrients and in turn filter out excess nutrients, pesticides, and sediments which might otherwise pollute these rivers or lakes. Where trees are grown commercially by themselves or as part of pasturelands, they still protect the environment and continue to remove carbon removal from the atmosphere. There are farms which grow “fast-growing woody crops, like hybrid popular trees , for fuel and fiber are called Short Rotation Woody Crops (SRWC) systems. Agroforestry is the agricultural industry which promotes the use of trees, shrubs, and the plants. Trees, plants, and shrubs are Nature’s tools for maintaining Earth’s Carbon Cycle Balance, as well as providing benefits for wildlife, erosion control, waste treatment, communities, and agriculture,. To learn more about Agroforestry, the Carbon Cycle, and the Carbon Cycle Balance read Working Trees for Carbon Cycle Balance (A13.2:C 17) which is a 2 page information sheet from the USDA National Agroforestry Center, http://www.unl.edu/nac/ . This and similar publications are available at the National Agroforestry Center’s Publications & Informational Materials web page http://www.unl.edu/nac/pubs.html#displays . 

RECALLS One of the latest Recalls is the U.S. Department of Agriculture withdrawing beef products which were possibly linked to the instance of Mad Cow Disease in Washington State. The nationwide automobile and tire recalls of the past few years to repair or replace defective parts may rank as the most widespread type of Recall. Yet, the adverse effects of a new drug or defects in a medical device, can cause many Americans to experience a drug recall. There are inadequately designed toys, furniture, or car safety seats which are subject to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or Consumer Product Safety Commission mandated recalls. RECALLS and SAFETY ALERTS can be searched by Federal agency, type of recall or safety alert. Searches can include many topics such as food, vehicles, pesticides, medical devices, drugs, human and pet food products, specific companies, and specific dates. Historical information of all kinds is found on the www.RECALL.GOV your online resource for government recalls website (http://www.recalls.gov/). There are lists, search engines, databases, electronic newsletters, and most anything you might want to know about RECALLS, current and past, products, and related Federal agencies. 

FTC INSTRUCTIONS: PREVENT POP UP SPAM When your computer is online or searching the Internet, does your computer have the undesirable instances when unwanted ads, pornographic or otherwise, pop up on the screen? The instances of unwanted ads popping up on your computer screen are sometimes called Pop up spam. Ready to Pop Your Top Over "Pop Up Spam?" Here's How to Make it Stop. To quote the FTC’s Disabling Windows Messenger Service, http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/popalrt.htm “Pop up spammers are exploiting a feature of the Microsoft Windows operating systems known as Messenger Service. Despite the name, Windows Messenger Service doesn't have anything to do with instant messaging. It is designed to provide users on a local- or wide-area computer network with messages from the network administrator. For example, a company's network administrator might send a message to all its users that the company's network will be shutting down in five minutes. If your home computer is connected only to the Internet, you may not have any practical uses for Windows Messenger Service. If your computer is on a business or home network, however, shutting off Messenger Service might not be the best approach. Your network should be protected by a firewall.” The rest of the FTC page includes a step-by-step explanation of how to disable this feature of the Windows software. If you need to build a firewall in your computer, this FTC page also provides those instructions. 

MARY, MARY QUITE CONTRARY, HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW? If you know this line from the Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme, then you know may remember that “the Cockleshells were all in a row.” Mary Queen of Scots did not have any problems monitoring the plants in her flower gardens, but times have changed, as have gardens and plant counting methods. In the early 1990s in Oregon, the Alderspring Ecological Consulting firm, the Nature Conservancy of Oregon, and the U. S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) observed that many current plant monitoring projects were failing for (one or more of) five basic reasons. (1) They were never completely implemented, (2) the data were collected but not analyzed, (3) the data were analyzed but results are inconclusive, (4) the data were analyzed and found interesting, but were not presented to decision makers, or (5) the data were not used by the decision makers due to internal or external factors. Also the researchers determined it time to update the monitoring approaches and standards of the 1960s through 1980s which worked during then but were now inadequate since they did not meet the current challenges of plant population monitoring. Measuring and Monitoring Plant Populations is the Final Report, dated July, 1998 written by Caryl L. Elzinga, Daniel W. Salzer, and John W. Willoughby. This 477 page report, issued by the BLM as a PDF file on a CD-ROM is found in many Federal Depository Libraries under Superintendent of Documents Classification Number I 53.58: M46 and in microfiche under I 53.35:1730-I also in many of those same libraries.

LIFE IN THE MILITARY ACADEMIES There are four military academies, the U.S. Military Academy (AKA West Point), the U.S. Naval Academy (AKA Annapolis), the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Do you know anyone who attends one? How does he/she like it? Any person who can not ask a student directly but is interested should take a look at this GAO publication. Military Education: Student and Faculty Perceptions of Student Life at the Military Academies, issued September 2003 by the General Accounting Office as GAO Report GAO-03-1001 (GA 1.13:03-1001) is a pdf file found at http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-1001. This 103 page report contains the student and faculty views on student life in three military service academies: West Point, Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy from February 5 to March 7, 2003. Student information shows level of satisfaction with social life, campus activities, medical care, computer equipment, mess hall food, and preferential and discriminatory treatment in admission and in general. Other information covers topics such as special as women, varsity athletes, Hispanics, four racial groups in terms of preferential or discriminatory treatment in the admissions process and in terms of the overall atmosphere. Unless you can talk to any of the 3,323 students and 597 faculty at West Point, the 3,473 students and 494 faculty at Annapolis, or the 2,442 students and 505 faculty at the Air Force Academy, this report would be the best source of information. The circa 1500 civilian and military faculty at the academies were also surveyed and their opinions are included. This report is a unique bit of information for anyone who is even thinking about enrolling as a student or joining the faculty at any of the three academies. 

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