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Canyon Cinema: The Life and Times of an Independent Film Distributor written by Visiting Professor of Film History Scott MacDonald was published by University of California Press in January 2008. According to the publisher's Web site, MacDonald brings alive a remarkable moment in American cultural history and "tells the colorful story of how a small, backyard organization in the San Francisco Bay Area emerged in the 1960s and evolved to become a major force in the development of independent cinema."

"Regional differences in wage inequality across industries in China," a paper written by Associate Professor of Economics Ann Owen and Bing Yu '03, appears in the February 2008 issue of Applied Economics Letters. The paper explores the causes of very large regional differences in wage inequality in China over the period 1996 to 2001 and finds that the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) varies across Chinese provinces.

Associate Professor of Mathematics Debra Boutin recently published a research article "Thickness-Two Graphs Part One: New Nine-Critical Graphs, Permuted Layer Graphs, and Catlin's Graphs" in the Journal of Graph Theory with co-authors Ellen Gethner, the University of Colorado at Denver, and Thom Sulanke, Indiana University. A graph (or network drawing) is called thickness-two if it can be drawn in two layers in which neither layer has edges that cross. The thickness of a network is important in computer chip design. In this paper Boutin and her co-authors give new progress on an old problem concerning thickness-two graphs.

Ann Owen, associate professor of economics and director of the Levitt Center's Sustainability Program, presented a paper she wrote with economics professors Julio Videras and Stephen Wu at Brown University on Feb. 14. The paper, "More Information Isn't Always Better: The Case of the Voluntary Provision of Environmental Quality" examines how individuals' beliefs about the impact of their actions is related to their behavior.

Derek C. Jones, Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics, has been offered a fellowship from the Charles and Ulla Nyberg Fund, part of the Finnish Foundation for Economic Education, to help support his research on econometric case studies, This award will facilitate his spending part of his sabbatical leave during the 2008-09 academic year at the Helsinki School of Economics as a visiting professor in the economics department.

The opening of a trio of exhibitions on view in the Emerson Gallery was celebrated Feb.12 with a talk by William Earl Williams '73 whose work comprises two of the shows, Celebrating Unsung Heroes and Unsung Places in Photographs and Uncovering the Path to Freedom: Photographs of the Underground Railroad. The black and white photographs illustrate two aspects of African American history: largely unknown Civil War battle sites that involved black soldiers and sites in Central New York significant to the Underground Railroad.

The Buffers, Hamilton's all male a cappella group, continued a Valentine's Day tradition by delivering singing Buffergrams to people all over campus. Sporting their traditional white bucks and blue blazers, the group entertained employees and students with such classics as "Love me Tender," "Cecilia," and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered (...I'm Yours)." The group made some 150 "deliveries" on Valentine's Day, starting at 5 a.m. with Buffergrams by phone.

Publishers Weekly has announced that Maurice Isserman, James L. Ferguson Professor of History, has sold a new book titled Climbing the American Mountain to W.W. Norton & Company. According to the publication, "the book will cover the history of mountaineering in America and Americans in mountaineering, from Darby Field's 1642 ascent of Mount Washington in search of diamonds to Ed Viesturs's 2006 climb of Annapurna in Nepal.

Marco Allodi '08, a chemical physics major, has been named to USA Today's 19th annual All-USA College Academic Team third team. Each February, USA Today honors 20 undergraduate academic all-stars as its All-USA College Academic Team, plus 60 students who are selected for the second and third teams and honorable mention. The newspaper recognizes full-time undergraduates who not only excel in scholarship but also extend their intellectual abilities beyond the classroom to benefit society. More than 500 students nationwide are nominated by their colleges.

The lecture by Paul Lieberstein '89 scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 13, has been postponed. Lieberstein, an actor and writer for NBC's "The Office," is stranded in Chicago due to bad weather. The lecture will be rescheduled at a time to be announced later.