Marching music for the New Jersey, D.C., Montana, New Mexico, and South Dakota primaries

As I promised in Marching music for the Kentucky and Oregon primaries — Oregon Crusaders and marching bands then repeated yesterday and this morning, "I plan on the final episode returning on June 4, 2024 for primaries in the District of Columbia, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota." I begin today's music to listen while waiting for results in New Jersey with Jersey Surf | #DCI2023 | Express Yourself | Born This Way - Lady Gaga from Drum Corps International (DCI).

Camden County, New Jersey's Jersey Surf perform a segment from the corps' #DCI2023 production, "Express Yourself," during the 2023 DCI World Championships hosted August 10-12 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Camden County, NJ | 23rd Place | 75.488

By coincidence, this happened to be a great selection for Pride Month.

Normally, I'd continue with the Garden State's other DCI corps, the Raiders, but New Jersey is such a great state for all-age corps that I'm embedding 2022 DCA World Championships | Hawthorne Caballeros (World Class) - Timeless from Drum Corps Associates (DCA) next. Don't worry, I'll get to the Raiders.

Presenting selected clips from their 2022 Production "Timeless" in partnership with Box5 Media.

Fairy tales and tradition!

I'm continuing with the next official clip of a DCA corps, 2022 Fusion Core Drum & Bugle Corps - "Royals" | Drum Corps Associates.

Featuring our 2022 DCA Class A Champion, Fusion Core, presenting their program ""Royals, Competing for the Crown".

They sound great for only 16 brass!

Now for the first unofficial upload, NOT The Bushwackers World Championship Finals 2022, recorded and uploaded by John Horan.


I like the Canyon radio theme, which integrated the announcer well into the program.

Since readers have requested that I include the Caballeros Alumni in previous posts, I'm sharing Caballeros Alumni Corps @ The 2023 Plymouth Show - BFDTV. Never say I don't pay attention to reader requests!

The Caballeros perform at the 2023 Plymouth Show part of the Americas Hometown Thanksgiving Celebrations in Plymouth Ma.

I count this as a semi-official upload. Also, the sound of late 20th Century drum corps lives on!

I wrote above that I would get to the Raiders, so here is 31st Raiders 2023 from Drum Corps Library.


I enjoyed this show concept and found the performance fun!

Since this is an unofficial upload, it may not last long, so enjoy it while it lasts. I just hope the account persists until Canada Day so that I can use the videos of Les Stentors for this year's drum corps Canada Day to begin July.

I close out the New Jersey portion of today's program with Rutgers Football's The #Rutgers University Marching Band performing in the 2023 #Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade!.


Consider this the follow-up to Local news coverage of marching bands in the 2023 Macy's Parade for Thanksgiving.

Follow over the jump for the marching bands from the District of Columbia and the rest of today's primary states, including an encore from the Rutgers band.

Local news coverage of marching bands in the 2023 Macy's Parade for Thanksgiving

An early happy Thanksgiving to my readers! I begin my celebration of the long holiday weekend, which extends until Giving Tuesday with this year's version of Local news coverage of marching bands in the 2021 Macy's Parade for Thanksgiving, one of the most popular posts the past two years.*

Since a Michigan band is in tomorrow's parade, I'm opening with Jenison Marching Band heading to NYC with community support from WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids.

On Sunday, the Jenison High School Marching Band will be headed off to New York City for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

WOOD-TV found another human interest angle to the trip in A challenge times three: Triplets ready to march at Macy’s with Jenison Band.

While all of the families with children in the Jenison High School marching band have been busy fundraising for the last year and a half and preparing for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, that effort has been multiplied by three for the Milnamows.

My two sisters and I all marched in band my senior year of high school, so I can relate to that part of their experience, but we were one year apart, so I don't have an insight into being one of triplets unless being one of a set of "Irish triplets" counts. Yeah, I know that's considered offensive, but I have Irish ancestry, so I can say this about myself and my family. That written, good luck to the Milnamows and all the rest of the Jenison High School Marching Band in tomorrow's parade. Michigan represent!

Follow over the jump for more local news coverage, including from two university publicity departments, of the marching bands in tomorrow's parade.

Marching band moments

Instead of posting about something collapse-and-decline-related for my Sunday entertainment entry, I'm going to go with this month's Joy theme and post about marching band, something that brought me joy.  Here are three videos and a news item from the tip jar for last week's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Orion test flight next week) on Daily Kos about marching band.

First, Rutgers Marching Band Takes You Behind the Scenes

Can you imagine performing a new show in front of over 50,000 fans with just six hours of practice? That's what the Rutgers University Marching Band does for each home football game. Watch our video to see how 250 people become one at halftime on Saturdays.

The answer is that I don't have to imagine.  I know what it's like.  I did that for four years while I was in the marching band at UCLA.

Follow over the jump for comparable videos from the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.

Super Bowl marching band moments

I promised in KPBS on the business of the Super Bowl to "come back with my comments on commercials with science fiction, fantasy, or sustainability themes later."  This isn't that post.  Instead, I'm going to give something I care about nearly as much as all of those the attention it deserves and likely didn't get--marching band.

The marching bands from both Rutgers and Syracuse performed at pregame at the Super Bowl.  Unfortunately, I missed that performance.  However, through the magic of YouTube, I can watch the bands rehearse and, at least for now, a part of their show.  Follow over the jump for four videos that allow me to do just that.

A Thanksgiving meal from space and other food news

Happy Thanksgiving!  To celebrate the day, I'm posting the food news I've saved up, just as I did last year by posting all the food news I've collected since Food Day.  I begin with Space.com reporting on Thanksgiving in Space: Astronauts Share Their Cosmic Menu | Video.

On the ISS, NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins send down their best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving and their crewmates show off the station's galley where they will be preparing and enjoying a Thanksgiving meal.

Follow over the jump for more food news.

Educational fun with balls

Since I can't be all DOOM all the time, or even all hope about saving ourselves from DOOM, I present these two moments of educational fun with balls.  First, Rutgers University puts on The Tennis Ball Games.

What do you know about the economic principle of diminishing marginal product? Rutgers Professor Rosanne Altshuler gave her students 30 seconds to figure it out on a real-life assembly line complete with tennis balls. Take a look.

Next, Iowa State University shows us Learning the mathematics behind juggling at Iowa State

Math 595: Mathematics of Juggling. It's a new course offered at Iowa State this semester and News Service Videographer Alex Murphy visited the class to see how students are learning the science and mathematics behind juggling.

ISU has a press release as well: Math + juggling = better problem-solving tools for ISU students
Posted Nov 14, 2013 8:00 am

AMES, Iowa – Steve Butler casually tosses a ball from his left hand to his right to demonstrate his point that anyone can juggle. With just one ball it’s easy, until he changes it up and adds a second and a third ball to the mix. Still, the assistant professor of mathematics at Iowa State University says the secret to juggling is simple – it’s all about patterns.

“Anyone can juggle,” Butler said. “There are certain juggling patterns that everyone has mastered, they just don’t realize it. They are so simple that people overlook them as juggling, but they are the basic building blocks to form more interesting patterns.”

Those patterns provide the foundation for Butler’s class this fall about the mathematics of juggling. The two topics have a lot in common because mathematics is the science of studying patterns and juggling is the art of controlling patterns, Butler said. The purpose of the class is to help students understand the different patterns involved in juggling using math.

Two dance interludes on campus they're not, but they look like just as much fun in the service of getting students to learn serious intellectual concepts.  I approve.

Hurricane Sandy and the Boston Marathon Bombings in this week's health news

At the end of Health news for the week of election day, I wrote "Look for one more installment next week."  I also wrote in Kepler findings and other space news "This one will be huge!"  I wasn't kidding.

Rutgers University has the honor of going first, with Rise in Falls and Fractures Among Elderly After Superstorm Sandy.
Rutgers researcher attributes increase in injuries in older New Jerseyans to power outages
By Lisa Intrabartola
Monday, November 11, 2013

Everyone knows Superstorm Sandy left many New Jersey homes and businesses battered and bruised.

But most are not aware of the considerable toll the storm and its aftermath took on our state’s residents.

“With disasters, there are things beyond the obvious,” said Rutgers’ Sue Shapses, a professor in the department of Nutrition and chair of the Interagency Council of Osteoporosis. “There are real health hazard risks, especially falling and fracturing.  And it’s especially a problem for our elderly population.”

Based on a report Shapses wrote using data from the New Jersey Hospital Association that showed state hospitals experienced an 18 percent increase in visits related to falls and a 13 percent increase in visits related to fractures, during the week following the storm in comparison to the week prior. Of those who sought medical attention for falls and fractures after the hurricane, there was a 40 percent rise in falls and fractures in those who were 65 or older.

I couldn't resist putting a health story about Hurricane Sandy first, especially after four retrospectives last week.

Speaking of stories I've covered before, and being the exception to the rule that "if it bleeds, it doesn't necessarily lead" here at Crazy Eddie's Motie News, Boston University has a four-part video series about the university hospital's response to the Boston Marathon Bombings accompanied by a feature story in its magazine Bostonia.  Videos first.

Trauma Part 1: The Trauma Algorithm


Trauma Part 2: The Clock is Ticking


Trauma Part 3: The Lethal Triad


Trauma Part 4: Why It's Called a "Trauma Team"

Peter Burke discusses the methods his team uses to shave seconds off response time.

Now, the excerpt from the feature article Trauma.
Peter Burke spent 14 years building a surgical team that could handle the worst kind of emergencies. On April 15, that emergency arrived.
By Susan Seligson

Peter Burke had just finished the morning session of a medical conference at the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas when the news flashed on a lobby TV: two bombs had exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line, turning an annual celebration into a war zone.

Minutes later he received an emergency text message from Boston Medical Center (BMC), where he is chief trauma surgeon. The unit was inundated with the grievously injured from an attack that killed 3, among them BU graduate student Lu Lingzi (GRS’13), and wounded at least 260. Many of those rushed to BMC were battling for life, with mangled legs, collapsed lungs, and profound blood loss. Burke called his chief nurse to find out if there was any way he could help from a distance of nearly 3,000 miles. The answer was no.

When he arrived in Boston around midnight, Burke rushed from Logan Airport to BMC, one of the city’s five adult Level 1 trauma centers, all of which were scrambling to stabilize the injured. BMC received 28 bomb victims; 19 were admitted, 11 with critical injuries.

In his 14 years at BMC, Burke had dealt with hundreds of multiple admissions from car crashes or shootings. But Marathon day presented a scene more familiar to trauma program manager Joseph Blansfield, a nurse practitioner who has been at BMC since 1992. An active colonel in the US Army Reserve, Blansfield (SON’78) had run combat support hospitals in Mosul and Tikrit, Iraq. As BMC trauma surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses mobilized, Blansfield was doing what had become second nature in those war-torn places: identifying the most critically injured and getting them to the trauma bays.

Follow over the jump for the rest of this installment of health news from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Super Typhoon Haiyan).

Two dance interludes on campus

Since I can't be all DOOM all the time, I'm presenting these two dance interludes from campuses on the campaign trail that I included in the same Overnight News Digest on Daily Kos.  First, Rutgers University describes how Poi Dancing Reduces Stress and Improves Focus.

How do you relax? Rutgers students are using poi dancing, also commonly known as poi spinning, to help take the edge off the stresses of college life, while also improving focus and coordination. The real show starts when the lights are turned off and the spinning balls turn into ribbons of light. Take a look.

In a coincidence that I can't resist, Boston University posted Students Learn Aerial Dancing the very next day.

Students at Boston University learn the relatively new art of aerial dancing.

In case this dance form looks familiar, it's because I've posted a video featuring it in When fandoms collide at the auto show earlier this year.  Yes, these women can do this professionally.

That's it for these moments of grace, athleticism, fun, and escapism.  I'll return to my regular programming in the morning.

Veterans Day on campus

I uncovered a lot of colleges observing Veterans Day while collecting stories for last night's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Super Typhoon Haiyan).  The result was such a great aggregation of videos and articles that I am reposting all of them here.

Rutgers University goes first with Veterans Transition to Civilian Life at Rutgers.

When you've handled life and death in war, an exam in the classroom doesn't seem like such a big deal. But some veterans say succeeding in classes and fitting in were their biggest concerns when they came to Rutgers as nontraditional students. "Everyone has said 'thank you' and that is a huge thing," one veteran said. "It goes miles with us vets."

Here's the article that goes with it.

Rutgers University: Veterans Transition to Civilian Life at Rutgers
Rutgers student Juan Hernandez was one of first U.S. forces to touch down for Benghazi evacuation
Monday, November 11, 2013
By Fredda Sacharow

'The reality check of being in a third-world country was stark. Even the simple task of looking for clean water becomes an ordeal.' – Juan Hernandez

November 28 will mark Juan Hernandez‘s first Thanksgiving home after three years of active military duty with the U.S. Air Force, and he can practically taste his Mexican-born mother’s signature chicken tamales.

During his service abroad, the Rutgers student helped in the mission to bring American Foreign Service workers home from Benghazi after the deadly 2012 attack on their compound. He took part in humanitarian projects in Africa, dropping water bottles in Mali and Ethiopia to ensure residents had safe drinking water at hand. He trained forces in Ghana.

Now Hernandez is anticipating a series of firsts in the coming months: first birthday home after lengthy postings in Spain, Germany and Africa; first Christmas and New Year’s out of the military; and even today, his first Veterans Day as a veteran.

In his first semester at Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations, where he’s majoring in both human resource management and labor studies, Hernandez says thoughts of home and family were never far from his mind throughout his years overseas.

Follow over the jump for more from Rutgers and other campuses on the campaign trail I originally included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Super Typhoon Haiyan) with a bonus video from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (ACA and shutdown on campus) that I've been saving for the right occasion.

Rutgers on Christie's win and NJ minimum wage

I concluded last month's Election news from Rutgers by he'd win as big as he is.

It looks like Christie is going to win in a 20-point blowout, in part because he's defused some key issues, in part because the Democrats in New Jersey have not helped his opponent.  If  so, he is in good shape for his future plans.

It happened.  Follow over the jump for Rutgers University, which has the story both before and after.

Space and astronomy news for early November

I already covered some space news in NASA back from shutdown and Fall back and solar eclipse, but I haven't had a comprehensive space news entry yet.  In fact, I really haven't had one since NASA videos from just before the shutdown more than a month ago.  It's time to resume the series.

I begin with NASA Television's Mars Mission Briefed on This Week @NASA.

During a news briefing at NASA headquarters officials and scientists discussed MAVEN, the agency's next mission to Mars. Scheduled to launch November 18 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, MAVEN will study the history and change of Mars' atmosphere, climate, and planetary habitability. Also, Bolden visits Langley, Power Up, Solar Flares, A busy time!, Free flight and Ice Flight!

Follow over the jump from more news from NASA, the Hubble Space Telescope, Columbia University, Rutgers University, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Virginia originally included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (NASA back from shutdown) and Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Eclipse, Sandy Anniversary, and Fall Back) on Daily Kos.

Health news for the week of election day

It's time for the next installment of health news from campuses on the campaign trail.  I'll begin with a health issue that will become a political one, mandating that all employees be eligible for paid sick leave.  Rutgers University has the latest polling in Rutgers Study: Overwhelming Majority of New Jerseyans Support Paid Sick Days
Wednesday, October 30, 2013

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – As New Jersey’s policymakers consider establishing a minimum standard for paid sick days, the Center for Women and Work (CWW) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey has released an issue brief on the subject that finds an overwhelming majority (83 percent) of state residents of all political affiliations support paid sick day policies.

While there is a great deal of public support, results reported in, It’s Catching: Public Opinion toward Paid Sick Days in New Jersey, document a persistent need: 37 percent of state residents currently lack access to paid sick days, particularly Hispanic and Latino workers, younger workers and those who work part time or earn less than $50,000 per year.  

“Over 37 percent of New Jersey residents work in jobs with no paid sick days,” said Linda Houser, CWW affiliate fellow, assistant professor at Widener University and co-author of the report. “This proportion is significantly higher for some of New Jersey’s most vulnerable citizens – low-income earners, part-time workers and young adults. Additionally, over 50 percent of these workers cited concerns about financial affordability, job loss or bad performance reviews as having an impact on their decision about taking time off from work to recover from illness.”

In related news, the ballot measure to raise the minimum wage in News Jersey I mentioned in Election eve news from campuses on the campaign trail passed.  That's good news, but it's not for everybody, so no Professor Farnsworth.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the health-related news from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Eclipse, Sandy Anniversary, and Fall Back) on Daily Kos.

Colorado and Washington voting on hemp and GMOs

PBS NewHour reports on initiatives I've missed so far in States' voters weigh GMO labeling, marijuana tax measure.

Gwen Ifill gets an update on two states putting critical initiatives on the ballot Tuesday. Enrique Cerna of KCTS in Seattle offers insight on a Washington measure that would require the labeling of GMO foods. Megan Verlee of Colorado Public Radio talks about two tax initiatives there, one concerning recreational marijuana.

I've covered Colorado's legalization of marijuana in Meanwhile, at the bottom of the ballot, so I won't write about it more here today.  However, I do have more to say about GMOs, or rather, Rutgers University does.

Most Americans Pay Little Attention to Genetically Modified Foods, Survey Says
Lots of money, not much public awareness, in GM food debate
Friday, November 1, 2013

A national survey shows that most Americans pay little attention to the debate over genetically modified foods, despite extensive media coverage of the issue.

The survey, released by researchers at Rutgers University, found that more than half (53 percent) say they know very little or nothing at all about genetically modified (GM) foods, and one in four (25 percent) say they have never heard of them. Even with the media attention resulting from recent ballot initiatives in California (Proposition 37) and Washington State (Initiative 522) and legislative actions in at least 20 other states that would require labeling of GM foods, the Rutgers study found that only about a quarter (26 percent) of Americans realize that current regulations do not require GM products to be labeled.

“Americans do care about what’s in their food, and they do read labels,” said William Hallman, professor of human ecology in Rutgers’ School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and lead author of the study. “Eighty-two percent of the respondents told us they sometimes or frequently or always read food labels. But determining what labeling information they value is not a straightforward task. Whether consumers say they want GM food labels depends on how you ask the question, so we asked about it in several ways.”

Looks like the advocates of GMO labeling have a lot of work to do.  In the meantime, the results of the initiative in Washington should be interesting no matter how the vote turns out.

I also covered marriage equality in Meanwhile, at the bottom of the ballot.  There's a related issue on the ballot here in Royal Oak, Proposal A, the approval of the city's Human Rights Ordinance.  I have stories about the campaigns for and against that measure, but I'll save them until after I vote (yes, of course).  See you then!

Election eve news from campuses on the campaign trail

I told my readers to "stay tuned for more elections coverage" at the end of Examiner.com article on Michigan Daily endorsements.  The implied promise was for more about Michigan elections, especially those from Washtenaw County and Detroit, which I've been covering here and at Examiner.com.  I'll get to those tomorrow night, but first allow me this follow-up to Election news from Rutgers and Election news for Food Day--the election news from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Eclipse, Sandy Anniversary, and Fall Back) on Daily Kos.

First up, Rutgers University on New Jersey Minimum Wage Up for a Vote.

As New Jersey residents prepare to vote on increasing the minimum wage, Rutgers students remain divided over the issue. Some students say extra cash would help families pay bills and college students pay off debts, but others fear a boost could hurt the economy.

Next up, the University of Massachusetts has New UMass Poll Shows Walsh Taking Lead Over Connolly in Boston Mayoral Race.
State rep. comes from behind to lead city councilor 47-40 among registered voters
October 30, 2013

AMHERST, Mass. – The results of a new UMass Poll released today by the University of Massachusetts Amherst shows state Rep. Martin J. Walsh with a seven-point lead over Boston City Councilor at Large John R. Connolly among registered Boston voters in advance of the Boston mayoral election on Nov. 5. The UMass Poll confirms that voter support has swung from Connolly to Walsh in the final days of the campaign.

With leaners included, likely voters prefer Walsh over Connolly 47 percent to 40 percent, a lead that is outside the 5.9 percent margin of error for the poll. With less than a week to go in the campaign, 13 percent of likely voters remain undecided.

“No matter how you define ‘likely voters,’ our poll shows that Walsh has capitalized on a couple of strong weeks of campaigning to vault out in front as the clear leader in this race,” said Brian Schaffner, chair of the political science department at UMass Amherst and director of the UMass Poll.

The telephone poll conducted Oct. 22-26 included interviews with 600 registered voters sampled from a list of registered voters in the city of Boston. The sample included both landline and cell phones.

Finally, here's a bonus from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (NASA back from shutdown), the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato making a prediction about the contest for Virginia's Governor in The Kennedy Half Century by Professor Larry Sabato.  Look for it.


Again, stay tuned for more election coverage.  Also, if you are in a jurisdiction that is holding elections, vote.  I will, even if you don't.

Hurricane Sandy anniversary and other climate news from campuses on the campaign trail

I concluded PBS NewsHour on Hurricane Sandy one year later by writing, "I'll have more about the anniversary of Sandy's landfall from Columbia University and other sources after Midnight.  Stay tuned."  As promised, here it is.

I begin with this video from PBS NewsHour, which features a Columbia University faculty member, so I decided it counts.

Climate Change, Hurricane Sandy and How to Cope

Klaus Jacob, a special research scientist with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, explains how climate change will turn events like Hurricane Sandy into more frequent and more disastrous events."One weather event like Sandy does not make climate change. But it is a symptom with many other events that will show yes there is something going [on] and we call it climate change," Jacob said.

Columbia University proper had even more about the occasion in Hurricane Sandy, One Year Later.
October 29, 2013

The year since Hurricane Sandy blew ashore in the New York area has been one of rebuilding and searching for how best to prevent the level of destruction and death it brought with it.

Columbia, with experts across multiple schools and disciplines and broad expertise in climate science, has played an important role in the recovery. “We have 700 people in the Earth Institute working on this,” said Steve Cohen, the institute’s executive director. “The Lamont Doherty Observatory has close to 100 doctoral level scientists working on this all the time.”

Columbia students and staffers helped communities rebuild. Scores of Columbia scientists have been explaining the causes behind the storm in hundreds of media interviews. Columbia professors serve on government panels that study how to prevent future damage and make recommendations to elected officials on preparedness and infrastructure changes.

Follow over the jump for more Hurricane Sandy and other climate news from Boston University via its NPR station WBUR, Columbia University, Rutgers University, and New York University, all of which I shared in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Eclipse, Sandy Anniversary, and Fall Back), plus one story I was planning on including in that diary on Daily Kos but left out by mistake.

Health news for the week of Halloween

As I've mentioned before the research universities on the campaign trail have proven to be rich sources of health news.  While I've already posted some Halloween-related health news, I have lots more from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (NASA back from shutdown) to pass along.

Follow over the jump for health research and outreach from Boston University, Columbia University, Rutgers University, the University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech.

Spooky science for Halloween

It's time to move from the weird science of yetis and bigfoot to some real and really creepy science.

First, National Geographic presents Halloween Special: Real-Life Zombies.

In a spooky coup, a parasitic worm hijacks a snail's brain and makes the snail sacrifice itself to a hungry bird. Carl Zimmer, a contributor to National Geographic's "Phenomena" science salon and author of the book "Parasite Rex," explains how the snail's death helps the parasite perpetuate its sneaky species.

I couldn't resist a video about snails.

I complete tonight's creepy science presentation two grisly articles from Rutgers University that star the same researcher, something I didn't realize until I put the two together just now.

Rutgers University: Rutgers Forensic Scientist Shares Zombie Survival Guide
Just in time for Halloween, Kimberlee Sue Moran peels back the skin on the science of dying
Monday, October 14, 2013

Kimberlee Sue Moran recalls that she was living in London in 2002 when she and her friend went to see the new zombie flick, 28 Days Later. The film turned everything that she thought about zombies on its head, depicting the animated corpses as fast and aggressive, rather than slow, plodding figures. “My friend and I clung to each other the whole way home,” recalls the Rutgers–Camden forensic scientist.

While admitting that she still has a “slightly irrational fear of zombies,” Moran knows full well that there is nothing really to be afraid of.  “It all comes down to the science behind it,” says Moran, who serves as an instructor for the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice.

Just in time for Halloween, the Winslow resident shares her zombie survival guide, peeling back the skin on the science of dying, along with the cultural and religious traditions surrounding death. “Between rigor mortis – the body going completely rigid – and putrefaction – the body liquefying – any ‘true’ zombie, unlike the 28 Days Later variety, would be either too stiff or too sloshy to come after you!” declares Moran.

While apparitions of all forms – from wicked witches to friendly ghosts – have captivated people’s imaginations, she says that humans’ primitive fears and fascination with death can be boiled down to two simple reasons: it is a phenomenon that we don’t understand and one we can’t control.

Rutgers University: Geekadelphia’s Scientist of the Year Distinction Goes to a Rutgers Professor
Forensic anthropologist takes pride in her quirky interests and passions
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
By Carrie Stetler

Kimberlee Sue Moran is no ordinary geek. As Geekadelphia’s Scientist of the Year, her crowning achievement was blowing up a bus filled with dead animals to help first responders learn how to identify bombing victims.

“They got an understanding of debris patterns and developed a protocol where they could reconstruct what happened and recover both biological and non-biological evidence,’’ explains Moran, a Rutgers-Camden forensic archaeology professor and grant facilitator.

Her forensic exercise was a success. But what was so geeky about it?

Here's to wishing Professor Moran, and all of you, a happy, geeky Halloween!

Rutgers on Sandy anniversary and other climate news

Today is the anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Sandy, the Frankenstorm, on the Jersey shore.  To mark the event, here are the stories from Rutgers University about the event.

Rutgers University: Rutgers-Newark Report: Superstorm Sandy Recovery Short $28.3 Billion; Pain Spread Across NJ
By Stephanie Hoopes Halpin
Friday, October 25, 2013

On the one-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, New Jersey towns and residents across the state still face $28.3 billion in unmet recovery needs, according to a new report from Rutgers-Newark, School of Public Affairs and Administration.

The report finds that the storm cost New Jersey more than $37.1 billion statewide, including $13.6 billion in direct physical and economic damage, plus $23.5 billion in remediation costs. Recovery assistance has met only a fraction of these costs, according to the report’s author, Rutgers University Assistant Professor Stephanie Hoopes Halpin. Through this report, Halpin reveals that damage was far more widespread than has been understood to date, stretching beyond the coastal communities and disproportionately affecting low- and moderate-income families.

“We believe this is the most comprehensive cost analysis of the storm so far,” said Marc Holzer, founding dean of the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers-Newark. "It was our goal to give the state objective data that can be used to learn from Sandy and improve the state’s disaster response in the future."

Rutgers University: 'Jersey Shore Hurricane News' Promotes Virtues of Participatory Journalism in Tracking Disasters
Rutgers Graduate Justin Auciello might be New Jersey's biggest one-man volunteer operation
By Jen. A. Miller
Friday, October 25, 2013

If there is a natural disaster, storm, traffic accident, fire, lost pet or missing child in the Garden State, chances are the details are posted on Justin Auciello’s Facebook page, Jersey Shore Hurricane News.

Auciello, who earned his master’s degree from the university’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Public Policy in 2005, started the page just before Hurricane Irene slammed the state in August 2011.

After that storm, his page had 27,000 users. Instead of shutting it down once the hurricane blew over, Auciello kept Jersey Shore Hurricane News alive and expanded its coverage beyond natural disasters, using tips, photos and messages from the site's fans to report on the state’s other major happenings in real time.

"The Internet continues to democratize media," he said. "People are realizing they do have a stake in news reporting and are willing participants in the process."

After Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast on Oct. 29, 2013, the site was thrown into another stratosphere, and now has more than 200,000 users.

I'll have more news about the anniversary later.  For now, follow over the jump for more climate news from Overnight News Digest on Daily Kos.

Religion news from campuses on the campaign trail

It's the week of Halloween, which means I have lots of scary and silly material planned for my upcoming entries, as if the prospect of civilization collapsing, for whatever reason, and the (pop) cultural responses to the possibility weren't scary and silly enough.  Before I begin with that project, I will take a more serious look at an aspect of culture I cover irregularly, religion.  Here are the religion stories from campuses on the campaign trail I've included in the past three weeks of Overnight News Digest on Daily Kos.

I begin with Rutgers Hillel Moves Torah to New Home from Rutgers University.

Members of the Rutgers Hillel community celebrated and danced in the street as they ceremoniously moved Torah scrolls to a temporary home on Bishop Place while their new building is under construction. Rabbi Esther Reed, senior associate director of Rutgers Hillel, says the ceremony recognized the significance of the move for the entire Jewish community on campus.

Follow over the jump for more, beginning with something appropriate both for the season and to the inspiration for the name of this blog, a book about Dante's Inferno.

Election news from Rutgers

Election Day is only nine days away, and the polling is coming in fast and furious.  Rutgers alone published three polls last week  bearing on New Jersey's gubernatorial contest between Chris Christie and Barbara Buono, which I'm reposting here as an update to Election news for Food Day.  Follow over the fold for these stories I originally included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (NASA back from shutdown).