BEHREND BEACON
August 27, 2010
www.thebehrendbeacon.com
LOCAL NEWS
IDIOM
The Erie County District
Attorney is offering a $5OO
reward for any information
that will lead them to the ar
rest of two drivers who fled
the scene of a fatal crash on
Interstate 90 last Friday.
The accident occurred
when a truck driver at
tempted to pass a Volkswa
gen Passat station wagon
and clipped the rear of the
car.
The passenger Xiaoxia
Zhang, 30, of Chicago was
thrown onto the road as the
car was sent into a spin. The
driver of a second truck
then proceeded to run
Zhang's body over.
Erie County DA, Jack
Daneri, hopes the reward
money as well as the ran
dom nature of the crash will
work in investigators favor.
"You would hope that
there aren't any interests
that would want this to be a
secret," he said.
Tips can be left in his of
fice by phone (800) 4-PA
TIPS or via his office's
website, www.eriealert.com.
ERIE
"For Sale" signs might be
staying on house lawns
longer nationally. Bleak na
tional reports about sales of
doesn't mean the Erie region
is feeling the same squeeze.
The number of sales in
Erie County decreased by 95
percent from July 2009. The
values of the new and exist
ing properties sold in July
were only down slightly, ac
cording to Greater Erie
Board of Realtors figures.
In June, local Realtors
closed 568 deals worth $7B
million, compared with the
356 closings worth $43.5
million in July. Nationally,
new home sales fell 12.4
percent in July from a
month earlier to a season
ally adjusted annual sales
pace of 276,000. That was
the slowest pace on records
dating to 1963.
Tim Presta, owner of
Presta Contractor Supply
Inc., 2669 W 16th St., said
business is brisk among the
remodelers and commercial
developers.
Presta said he is also no
ticed an upswing in the
number of out-of-town de
velopers taking their busi
ness to Erie, a sign that their
hometown markets might
be depressed.
/
_ _ _
1. 'The worst is yet
to come'
PAKISTAN - Two Islamabad
women put their personal lives
on hold as they head to the re
mote village of Utror to aid
flood victims.
One of the women, Huma
Beg, documentary film maker
says the worst is yet to come.
Essential crops have been de
stroyed, clean drinking water is
a rarity, and disease is rapidly
spreading.
Some people have even be
come so terrified of the water,
they have moved to the moun-
TECHNOLOGY
MIT creates robots to cleanup o
ERIC PEIRCE
f.dirof
Up until now, the only way to
clean up oil spills involved large
equipment, workers, and
money.
On Aug. 28, an MIT team will
reveal a robot that can change
the way we deal with these en
vironmental disasters. The
robot, named the Seaswarm,
uses the idea of a treadmill to
'lift' oil off the water with the
help of a type of nonmaterial
and collect the oil into a con
tainer.
"You can imagine it like a
carpet rolling on the surface of
the water." stated Assaf Bider
man, who was the overseer of
the research team of the proj
ect.
The conveyor belt itself is
made out of material that can
absorb up to 20 times its weight
in oil. the robot can then either
burn-off the oil using a heater
connected to the robot, or bag
the oil and leave it for pick-up
later, where the oil can be even
World News
tains and are living in tents
Problems will continue to
arise of they villagers cannot
salvage enough crops to sell
and use the income to make it
through the long winter.
2. UN calls for ac
don
D.R. CONGO, AFRICA - An
emergency session of the Secu
rity Council was called to order
in response to the rapes that
have occurred after rebels oc
cupied Luvungi town and sur
rounding villages.
The Security Council said the
Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Protection
New robots could make oil spills both easier and cheaper to clean up.
The Office of Educational Equity and Diversity Programs
Local National News
meeting was "of the utmost im
portance" as they try to renew
their efforts to bring peace and
stability to the conflict-ridden
Congo.
3. Suspected terror
plot
CANADA - Three Canadians
were arrested in an alleged ter
rorist plot and bomb threat ear
lier this week.
Lead investigator and Royal
Mounted Police Chief Superin
tendent Serge Therriault be
lieved an attack was imminent
from these suspects. "This
Respect Comes Full Circle
welcomes all students, faculty, and staff to a
new and exciting academic year!
Together we can continue to create an
environment that promotes respect
for differences while fostering caring
relationships and cross-cultural
understanding throughout the campus.
Best wishes this semester!
offut of aiwtiiwvti,
Division of Student Affairs
1 Reed Union Building
(814) 898-7101
Behrend.•su.edu/e•uit
email:Diversit
~--~ ~_
group posed a real and serious
threat to the citizens of the na
tional capital region and
Canada's national security,"
added Therriault.
4. Toyota recalls
USA - Toyota has announced
yet another recall of one million
Corolla and Matrix cars made
between 2005 and 2008.
The Japanese-owned car
maker recalled 700,000 cars
worldwide and has now re
called about ten million in the
past year. The latest recalls are
due to engine failure.
be reused or recycled
The design of these robots
make it beneficial for them to
he deployed in a swarm, mean
ing thousands of the robots can
he deployed at once on the
same spill. They could then or
ganize each other by using a
GPS system to clean up the
spill in the most effective and
quickest way possible.
For example, if the robots
were deployed during the Deep
Horizon oil spill, the clean-up
costs would have been $lOO
million to $2OO million, a small
fraction of what the actual cost
One of the reasons that the
robots are so efficient is that
they operate using solar energy
and only needs about 100 watts
of power to operate, the same
amount of power used for a
light bulb to work. MIT will
continue to conduct research
on the robots for at least a year,
after which the robot technol
ogy would be ready for produc
tion and possibly a buyer.
1:)4trui:0" Progrants
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FACT OF THE WEEK
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Did You Know?
Americans, as a nation, on
average eat 18 acres of pizza
a day!
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