DevilWatch: cocaine and stolen popcorn

04 Dec 2011, Posted by Melissa Dalis in DevilWatch, News, 0 Comments

In the weekly blog series DevilWatch, The Chronicle‘s Melissa Dalis highlights each week’s crimes, as released by the Duke University Police Department.

With indecent exposure in Aycock, prescription fraud and stolen prescription sheets in Duke Hospital North and reported cocaine and marijuana possession across campus, November was an eventful month for DUPD.

November drug reports included cocaine in Duke Hospital North, marijuana on Pace St., Wannamaker and Craven Quad. There was also underage consumption reported in Aycock, Alspaugh, Giles,West bus stop, Campus Dr., House S Dorm, N. Duke St. and Gilbert Addams.

There were Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) arrests on East Campus, Fulton St. and Erwin Rd., N. Buchanan Blvd and W. Main St.

Additional November arrests include three counts of second trespass in Duke Hospital North, cocaine and drug paraphernalia in Duke Hospital North, unauthorized use of motor vehicle in Circuit Dr. parking lot, simple assault in Duke Hospital North, second degree trespass at the Trent bus stop, attempted robbery on Watts St. and Urban St. and second degree trespass in Perkins.

Thefts this month have included an electric skateboard, six reports of currency, four credit cards, keys, license tag, eight laptops, three bicycles, eight wallets, camera, three purses, mp3 player, three GPS’s, thinkpad, computer monitor, parking decal, computer privacy screen, projector, textbooks, license plate, black bag, cell phone, iPod, iPad, iPhone, scooter, helmet, popcorn, parking pass, prescription sheets, copper wire and control cable.

Other notable crimes were harassing phone calls in House FF Dorm and Durham Regional Hospital, weapon in Gilbert Addams,

BY THE NUMBERS:

Total number of crimes: 91

Thefts: 58

Stolen electronics: 21

Arrests: 12

Vehicle breaking and entering: 10

N.C. wrestles with AIDS prevalence

04 Dec 2011, Posted by Jack Mercola in News, 0 Comments

Sophia Palenberg/The Chronicle

Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. Despite the increasingly large effort to heighten AIDS awareness worldwide, the state of North Carolina is still affected by the disease.

North Carolina is ranked 11^th in the U.S. for the number of living black AIDS cases according to the state’s health report prepared by the health, law and policy clinic of Harvard Law School. Among all races, It has an estimated 35,000 people total living with the disease. An estimated 7,000 of those are untested and living unaware of their disease.

There are currently around 106 people on the waiting list for the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program, said ADAP’s Communicable Disease Branch director, Jacquelyn Clymore, adding that North Carolina is one of thirteen states with a waiting list for AIDS treatment.

“Due to economic recession, loss of jobs and insurance and the continued diagnosis of new infections, the need for ADAP has outstripped the available funding, both in North Carolina and in many other states,” Clymore noted.

She said North Carolina is a “moderate” state for HIV/AIDS infection when compared to other states and territories.

Founder and director of the AIDS Legal Project and clinical professor of law, Carolyn McAllaster gave both circumstantial and demographic reasons as to why North Carolina has this AIDS infection rate. She said rural areas are at higher risk for AIDS prevalence and poverty-stricken areas often fail to seek testing a treatment.

McAllaster added that there is a stigma that interferes with people being tested for HIV/AIDS and following through with medical care. Additionally, she noted that reputation of the Triangle area might attract people who are seeking treatment for HIV/AIDS.

“One reason there are high numbers of people living with HIV Disease in the Triangle may be because of the availability of high quality medical care here, for example at Duke and [University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill],” she said.

ADAP is open to all North Carolina residents who have income at or below 125 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, Clymore noted. The waiting list is open to those whose income is between 126 percent and 300 percent of the FPL.

“When new funds become available, people are moved from the waiting list in North Carolina onto active enrollment,” Clymore said. “300 people in North Carolina were moved from the list onto enrollment in October 2011, thanks to limited new federal funds.”

Clymore said ADAP is funded half by the North Carolina government and half by the federal government.

“North Carolina contributes fully half of the total budget, the other half comes from the federal funding,” she noted. “What is needed is a stronger response from the federal government, particularly since our National HIV/AIDS Strategy does call for both treatment for everyone and a reduction in the number of new infections.”

Major research universities in North Carolina and the federal government are working tirelessly, researching methods of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, said both Clymore and McAllaster. Clymore added that treatment for HIV/AIDS is quite good and is steadily improving.

“It is important to start treatment as soon as it is medically indicated, which we now believe is earlier than we used to think,” she said. “This is why it is so important to be tested regularly for HIV if you are sexually active…. Early treatment for HIV appears to suppress the virus very effectively, allowing people to live well and to live for a very long time.”

Say goodbye to cheap coffee

04 Dec 2011, Posted by Ashley Mooney in News, 0 Comments

Gary Sheng/The Chronicle

Thank climate change for your increasingly more expensive morning cup o’ jo.

In the past decades, climate change has strongly affected the coffee producing regions of the world. Although regions have experienced large adverse affects, spikes in coffee prices may actually help the farmers who supply the product.

“For a long time, coffee has been too cheap… and although recent increases have brought us closer to its true value, producers—and producing economies—need price stability in order to experience real benefit from price increases,” said Kim Elena lonescu, coffee buyer and sustainability manager at the Durham-based company Counter Culture Coffee.

Rising prices may benefit coffee growers, as well as the communities and economies of the countries where they produce coffee, lonescu said, noting that although the general trend is upward, prices sometimes plummet due to global market forces or projected harvest sizes in Brazil—the world’s largest coffee producer.

Despite potential economic benefits, climate change can have ruinous effects on coffee crops.

“Farmers everywhere are very much aware of climate change insofar as the weather has become so unpredictable over the past decade,” lonescu said. “As temperatures rise, lower-elevation farms worldwide experience increased levels of insect damage and disease first, but all coffee is susceptible to those problems.”

Central America has experienced irregular dry and rainy seasons with intense flooding during rains, lonescu said, noting that heavy rains prompt outbreaks of plant diseases that can decimate coffee crops.

“Heavy rains in Colombia two years ago prompted an outbreak of a disease called leaf rust—hemilia vastatrix—that left the whole country short of its predicted volumes,” lonescu said. “[The disease] not only prompted a spike in the price of Colombian coffee, but also a general rise in price as buyers scrambled to find coffee from elsewhere to fulfill their needs.”

Lonescu mentioned that climate-change models also predict East Africa—an area already suffering from relative water scarcity—will likely experience even more extreme water-related issues in coming years.

“The world coffee futures market, [commonly known as the C], rose sharply around this time last year,” lonescu said. “Although prices have come down from a high of more than three dollars per pound to settle at around $2.35 in recent months, climate change is one of many signs—including population growth, migration to cities and food security issues—that the C price will continue its upward trajectory in coming years.

Despite negatively impacting low-elevation areas, some speculate that warmer temperatures may also create new regions suitable for coffee cultivation. Lonescu, however, noted that the scenario oversimplifies coffee agriculture and economics.

“Cultivating coffee at higher altitudes in the tropics is more feasible, certainly, but with the exception of the Andes Mountains and a few areas of Ethiopia’s plateau, there isn’t a lot of land in the tropics that is currently too high for coffee,” lonescu said. “As nice as it is to think about growing coffee in the mountains of North Carolina, which has suitable altitude but the wrong climate, that scenario oversimplifies [the issue].”

Getting out of the Facebook bubble

03 Dec 2011, Posted by Minshu Deng in News, 0 Comments

Yvonne Chan/The Chronicle

We’ve all spent hours at a time on Facebook just going from profile to profile, looking at strangers’ awesome travel photo albums, et cetera, oftentimes just waiting for a new little notification bubble to pop up. We’ve all heard of the Duke bubble, and if you’re like me, you’ve also experienced the suffocating sense of being inside the Facebook bubble while online.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that there are other things to do on the Internet. When you finally realize that you’re not getting any new Facebook notifications anytime soon, have no fear: there are plenty of other ways to kill time on the Internet.

Here are some classics and a few of my personal faves:

THE CHRONICLE BLOG—OMG, this site is so cool.

Blogs by some of your beloved Duke peers: Blue Devils United , Me Too Blog, DevelleDish

Other Miscellaneous Blogs:

Reddit

MemeBase

Tumblr

(Some good tumblrs I follow: The Daily What, 001 Country Per Year)

Music blogs

Food porn

YouTube videos

News!!! Read it. Watch it. Listen to it. Be informed.

It’s all in the Footwork

30 Nov 2011, Posted by Walker Schiff in News, 4 Comments

Special to The Chronicle

To those who seem to think music has fallen into the mundane trap of “same old, same old,” do not lose hope—people still have creative innovations to offer.

My introduction to Footwork came a few months ago when I discovered DJ Diamond’s Flight Muzik. Because of its bizarre and unique sound, I was immediately drawn into the music. Everything from the head-rattling, hi-tempo drum beats to the oddly placed, often repetitive vocal samples seemed interesting and new to me. That being said, after a few days, I found something new to listen to and forgot about the album for the most part.

A few weeks ago, I was reminded of Footwork again when I came across Bangs & Works Vol. 2, an album of Footwork tracks compiled by Planet Mu label head Mike Paradinas. I enjoyed the album enough to be inspired to do some research on Footwork, and what I found was far more intriguing than just the music itself.

I first discovered that the music is only half of what Footwork really is. As much as Footwork is a genre of music, it is also a style of street dance. As I watched videos of Footwork online, it felt like I was finding a missing piece to the Footwork puzzle. The music is good enough to stand on its own but the dancing enhances it. It quickly became clear to me that Footwork was music for feet, rather than music for ears.

Footwork looks like tap-dancing without tap-dancing shoes and with a little hip-hop injected in. I would try to explain it further but it would be a lot easier to just show you:
Footwork

Footwork originated from house and juke music in the mid-90s in Chicago, but recently it has been getting some wider recognition. While most of the Footwork dancers and producers appear to be located in Chicago, a lot of the music has been released through the popular England-based electronic label, Planet Mu.

The two Bangs & Works compilations have garnered the attention of some large news outlets, such as NPR, BBC, and The Guardian. Despite this, the genre still feels very underground to those looking in from the outside. The Footwork that is found in online videos is almost always a battle between two gangs, and the scenery usually appears to be some crowded back-room. It is quite hard to find a video of Footwork that takes place on a stage and without a rowdy crowd surrounding the dancers.

Footwork, with its lack of bass and alarmingly fast tempo, is unlikely to ever find mainstream success. Having said this, there is something about the music that I can’t help but find futuristic. I sometimes get annoyed by the ridiculously fast and sporadic drum beats, yet I keep coming back and wanting more. Footwork is a rising genre and I believe it has yet to reach its peak.