KING COMMEMORATION BEGINS WITH "THE MEETING"
Penn State’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration will kick off on stage this weekend when civil rights leaders King and Malcolm X come together in a production of Jeff Stetson’s "The Meeting." The play details a fictitious meeting between King and Malcolm X at the Victoria Hotel in New York the night prior to Malcolm’s assassination in 1963. Directed by Charles Dumas, associate professor of theatre arts, the thought-provoking play portrays the adversarial discussion of ideas between King and Malcolm, resulting in a new-found respect between the two men. Performances of "The Meeting" will be Friday and Saturday, Jan. 12 and 13, and Jan. 19 and 20, at 7 p.m. in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Heritage Hall. A matinee will be offered on Sunday, Jan. 21, at 2 p.m. Admission is free. For more on King events, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/mlkday01.html and http://www.equity.psu.edu/mlk. 

MAGAZINE RATES ROLLS’ BOOK TOP WEIGHT-LOSS PLAN
New Year's resolutions have been made, and millions of people are searching bookstores for the fastest way to achieve their No. 1 goal for 2001 - lose weight. With hundreds of books promising instant results with little personal sacrifice, what do the experts recommend? SELF, a leading fitness and nutrition magazine, has named Volumetrics: Feel Full on Fewer Calories, written by Barbara Rolls, Guthrie Chair of Nutrition in the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State (co-authored by Robert A. Barnett), the best weight-loss plan in America. In the magazine's January 2001 issue, five leading weight-management experts unanimously voted Volumetrics as the No. 1 weight-loss plan for its healthful regimen that helps followers feel satisfied, not deprived of food, and because it delivers a slow, steady and permanent weight-loss. For full story go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/rollsbook01.html 

BUILD ALLIANCES OR GET USED TO COMPETING
In today's markets, a business can't go it alone. Firms, business units and functions, that never connected before, are finding that it makes sense to get together. "If you're not building alliances, you're certainly competing against them. New sorts of competition, new industry standards and legal issues are arising from new alliances and partnerships," says Ralph A. Oliva, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets in the Smeal College of Business Administration. "Some firms are well into alliances and building experience, while others are watching and waiting. The bottom line is that it is getting tougher and tougher for businesses to go it alone. Unusual alliances and partnerships are becoming the stuff of life," he says. Those unusual partnerships are the driving force behind an upcoming conference co-sponsored by ISBM and Georgia State University's Center for Business and Industrial Marketing. The event, Profit Through New (and Unusual) Marketing Alliances, takes place Feb. 1-4 at the Renaissance Atlanta Hotel Downtown. For more on the story by Steve Infanti, go to http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/depth/dec00/alliances.html. 

EYE CARE PROVIDERS HELP ART LOVERS SEE THROUGH SOUND
Four central Pennsylvania eye care providers have teamed up with Penn State's Center for the Performing Arts to help supply audio description to arts patrons with sight loss. The eye care professionals have contributed to a fund that will provide tickets discounted by $10 each to sight-loss patrons who want to attend selected events at which audio description is offered. The audio description service, known as View Via Headphones, enables theatergoers to expand their understanding through live verbal description of the visual elements of performances. An enhancement offered to all patrons who have purchased tickets, audio description is especially helpful to people with sight loss. It can also improve information processing for people with learning disabilities. For more on this story, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/eyecare.html. 

DANNY GLOVER TO SPEAK AT EISENHOWER, JAN. 25
Actor and activist Danny Glover will speak at Penn State's Eisenhower Auditorium on Thursday, Jan. 25, beginning at 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Tickets for University Park faculty and staff will be available on Wednesday, Jan. 17. The general public may pick up any remaining tickets beginning Thursday, Jan. 18, on a first-come, first-served basis. The Eisenhower box office is open from 8:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Limited tickets may also be available the night of the speech. For full story, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/glover01.html 

PENN STATE STUDENTS ARE WIRED
Penn State is living up to its reputation as a wired university. As of the end of the fall semester more than 14,000 students, or 82 percent of all residence hall students system wide, had activated the free, high-speed data backbone connection to the Internet now available in their rooms. This is a 23 percent increase in the number of wired students since Fall semester 1999. The connection is significantly faster than any dial-in modem and is available to all those who live at a residential campus and have a computer with an Ethernet card. This story is from TechNews-Dec. 15, a monthly newsletter from Computer and Information Systems. Students not already connected can find out how to get wired by going to: http://www.otc.psu.edu/services/student/data/sibc/sibc.html. 

MASTER GARDENERS SELECT BEST PLANTS FOR 2001
Penn State Master Gardeners have chosen two plants, "Tidal Wave Cherry" petunia and "Angel Mist Purple Stripe" Angelonia, as the Pennsylvania Gardener Selects Plants of the Year for 2001. The flowering annuals received the honor by posting consistently high marks in tests at the Horticulture Trial Gardens and in the university's Gardener Selects program, a series of growing trials at 38 Penn State-sponsored gardens in 32 counties across Pennsylvania.. "Both plants were truly outstanding," says Robert Berghage, associate professor of horticulture. "All of these plants grew and flowered well in the evaluations gardens." Fifteen other plants were named Gardener Selects varieties.

--"Tidal Wave Cherry" petunia: The co-winning plant is a spreading petunia with a vigorous upright growth habit. It forms a dense, mounding hedge of bright flowers that can grow 2 to 3 feet high. "This is a fantastic foundation plant for full sun," Berghage says. "It's a landscaper's dream come true."

--"Angel Mist Purple Stripe" Angelonia: This co-winner has purple and white flowers on tall, upright spikes. The plants tolerate heat, and dry and wet conditions. If cut, the flowers can last two to three weeks in a vase. "Angelonia should be grown in full sun," Berghage says. For more on this story and other great performers, go to http://www.aginfo.psu.edu/News/december00/plant.html 

ASTRONOMER ADDS TO SPACE.COM'S WEIRD SPACE THINGS
Neither E.T.'s snack habits nor Princess Leia's hair style made the cut, but Space.com offers a list of the Top 10 Weirdest Things in Space and visitors to the Web site can place their vote. A Penn State professor helped describe one of the finalists. Niel Brandt, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics, provided information about high-energy cosmic rays-which started out second on the list during the first week of voting. Scientists know Earth's atmosphere is regularly bombarded by a very small number of incredibly energetic cosmic ray particles, a type discovered less than a decade ago. However, no one can explain where they come from. According to Brandt: "How these microscopic particles achieve macroscopic energies is one of the most pressing questions for high-energy astrophysics." Other items on the list include: electrostatic levitation, hypernovae, neutron stars, and the black hole in the center of our galaxy. Voting at http://www.Space.com will continue through January 9 and the list will be re-ordered according to the results. For the full story, go to http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Brandt1-2001.htm