August 5, 2010
Newsmakers
COMEDY IN A RECESSION: Wages, jobs and investments are down — but laughter seems to be holding its own, according to a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor. Just as audiences flocked to silly Marx Brothers and Preston Sturges movies during the Great Depression, comedy — especially of the stand-up variety — is thriving during what’s now being called The Great Recession.
The article quoted Yoram Bauman, an instructor in the UW Program for the Environment and freelance funny man who calls himself the world’s first “stand-up economist.”
“Clubs seem to have weathered the recession reasonably well,” Bauman said, and then sketched out a theory to back his point. “Although I’m just speculating here, one of the advantages of the comedy scene is that wages are flexible,” Bauman told the Monitor. “Maybe two years ago, headliners were getting $2,000 per weekend, and now maybe they’re just getting $1,500. That kind of flexibility, not just for comics but also for ticket prices, would help the whole industry adjust to changes in overall economic conditions.” Read the story online here.
BEYOND BATTERIES: In mid-July the New York Times ran an article about using ambient radio waves to power small devices instead of batteries, and quoted two UW professors along the way. Joshua R. Smith, an engineer at Intel in Seattle and an affiliate professor at the UW, told the Times that until recently, radio waves weren’t used to power wireless electronic devices because the waves dilute quickly as they spread. “That’s changing,” he said. “Silicon Technology has advanced to the point where even tiny amounts of energy can do useful work.”
Brian Otis, UW assistant professor of electrical engineering, said there are two types of research now pushing the boundaries of low-power wireless devices — some are working to reduce the power required by the devices, while others are studying how to harness power from the environment. “One day, those two camps will meet, and then will have devices that can run indefinitely.” Read the story online here.
