I get many emails from friends and family that pass along, innocently enough, those urban legends. You know the kind: Bill Gates will send you money, Mrs. Field's cookie recipe, etc. I like to put an end to those e-chain letters, and I always rely on snopes.com. It is a great site for checking the truth behind the stories, and the vast majority are hoaxes. I pass the link onto the folks who email me.

So, imagine my chagrin at getting an email with an link to snopes.com regarding what I thought were frozen waves on Lake Huron. As snopes.com says, "real photographs; inaccurate description."

The photos, which are absolutely stunning, were actually from Antarctica, shot in 2002.

Who knows how these things get mixed up, but I was a little red faced after I got many emails about it (some are in the Email Bag).

I started thinking about hoaxes in the past and was wondering if you alums had any doozies you or someone you know fell for.

Pass them onto me, and I'll share them here.

And, in case they sound really interesting and aren't identified as myths, I hope you don't mind if I run them through snopes!

Dennis '92

Snowfall Totals (from KRC near the airport)
We have just enjoyed a couple of 50 degree days, so the snowbanks are taking a beating. More snow is supposed to be on the way, however. Great.

Total to date: 174.75"
Depth on ground: 29.5"

Total last week: 171.75"
Depth on ground last week: 33"

Total last year: 162.5"
Depth on ground last year: 20"

Michigan Tech's national championship investment team is once again flying high.

"Consistency," advisor Dean Johnson says, discussing his back-to-back champs. "One time might be luck, but two years in a row and three years out of eight, that shows we are consistently succeeding in our investment strategy."

Johnson, an associate professor in the School of Business and Economics, and the team had just returned from the University of Dayton's Redefining Investment Strategy Education (RISE) Forum. More

Graduate school rankings released today by U.S. News & World Report rate four of Michigan Technological University's graduate engineering programs in the top 50 nationwide. Nearly 200 programs were ranked.

Michigan Tech's national rankings were:
* Environmental engineering—26
* Materials science and engineering—41
* Civil engineering—43
* Mechanical engineering—48

More

General Motors needed more electrical and computer engineers. Michigan Tech’s newly established Automotive Computing Enterprise (ACE) needed a test vehicle. It was a match made in heaven.

The General Motors Foundation donated a fully loaded 2007 Chevy Suburban with a navigation system, touch screen, passenger DVD player and rear camera. Michigan Tech Enterprise Coordinator Rick Berkey calls it “the perfect sandbox for ACE.” Matt Rose, a second-year student in electrical and computer engineering, joined GM for a summer/fall co-op program, and ACE was on its way to creating the future of automotive computing. More

Bruce Seely, chair of the Department of Social Sciences, has agreed to serve as dean of the College of Sciences and Arts, effective Aug. 1.

“Bruce is an outstanding scholar and educator, but perhaps the greatest strength he brings to the dean’s position is his understanding of the University and its people,” said President Glenn D. Mroz. “The college has grown significantly in size and stature under Dean Seel, and we're confident that the college will continue to flourish. The people of the college play a key role as Michigan Tech focuses on being a national technological university. Bruce is eminently qualified to lead the sciences and arts faculty and staff as we implement the goals of the strategic plan.” More

Darrell Radson, head of the Department of Decision Science in Drexel University's LeBow School of Business, in Philadelphia, has agreed to serve as dean of the School of Business and Economics, effective Aug. 1.

Radson, an associate professor, was previously the associate dean of the Boler School of Business at John Carroll University, near Cleveland, Ohio, and was on the business faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee from 1991 to 2003. He holds PhD and MS degrees in Industrial and Operations Engineering, as well as MA degrees in Statistics and Political Science, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His BA in Political Science is from Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill. More

Michigan Tech Professor Rolf Peterson and his wife, Candy, were the special guests at the West Michigan Alumni Chapter Spring Dinner held on March 25 at the Kent Country Club in Grand Rapids. During the keynote address, Rolf shared wonderful stories, photos, and videos about the work of his team and the 50 years moose-wolf research on Isle Royale. He also signed copies of his book The Wolves of Isle Royale—A Broken Balance for alumni and friends. As always, all proceeds from Chapter events go to the West Michigan Alumni Endowed Scholarship Fund that will benefit children of MTU alumni attending Michigan Tech.

Saturday morning, April 5, alumni and friends with the Keweenaw Alumni Chapter visited the Ford Center in Alberta for a pancake breakfast (complete with maple syrup) and a tour of this unique facility including the sawmill, the sugar bush, and the sugar shack.

Forestry faculty members Jim Schmierer (left) and Jim Rivard demonstrate the maple sugaring process beginning with the tapping of maple trees right along an Alberta street.

Senior forward Peter Rouleau won the Gary Crosby Memorial Award for leading scorer and Merv Young Award for Most Valuable Player at the 2007-08 hockey awards presentation. Senior forward Tyler Shelast won the George McCarthy Performance Award for Athletic and Scholastic Achievement, and senior defenseman Mark Malekoff won the Harold Meese Sportsmanship Award. More

Mercyhurst claimed a 9-0 win at Michigan Tech in men’s tennis action at Gates Tennis Center today. The final score did not indicate the closeness of the match, as several of the individual flights could have gone either way.

Tech, which swept the doubles points yesterday, stumbled out of the blocks today. Brett Girard and Matt Tronnes were edged, 8-6, at number one doubles. Brandon Ellefson and Alan Parenteau were defeated, 8-5, at number two, while Justin Foley and Tim Viola were knocked off, 8-4, at number three. More

The Michigan Tech women’s track and field team won seven events at the Sherman-Lukoski Invite hosted by Ripon College on March 29. St. Norbert won the five team meet with 167 points while Tech was one point behind with 166.

Andrea Metz won the 1,500 meter run in 4:57.82 and set a personal best in the 5,000 meter run to finish second in 18:42.93. “It was great to see Andrea with such a strong performance this early in the season,” said head coach Margot Hutchins. More

Twenty-one Citizens Bank employees will be laid off effective July 31. Duane Aho, Citizens community bank president for the Keweenaw, said the employees are concentrated in the bank’s mortgage servicing group. The layoffs are the result of an agreement Citizens signed in December with the Mount Laurel, N. J.-based mortgage provider PHH Mortgage. Aho said the move would take advantage of PHH’s greater abilities for services. More

Michelle Boudrie came all the way from Ann Arbor to see the second Keweenawesomefest, but that was because she knew the members of one of the bands in the two-day music festival. Boudrie said the long trip was worth the effort, however. “I love it,” she said Saturday. “I thought it was great.”

Boudrie said she saw all nine bands that performed Friday at McCardle Theatre in Michigan Technological University’s Walker Building, and she expected to see most of the other nine that performed Saturday, March 29. More

The City of Houghton has tentative plans to increase its budget by 4.7 percent to nearly $3 million. The City Council held its first meeting on this year’s budget Wednesday. City Manager Scott MacInnes said the city had had to dip into its fund equity for $457,000. When the city’s energy-efficiency improvement project through Honeywell is set aside, the number drops to $125,000. More

For Derek Bradway, the construction of his Mine Shaft entertainment complex and Rock House Hardwood Grille fulfilled needs expressed by members of the community. After several months of construction, the new 30,000 square-foot facility opened March 28 without fanfare for its 115 employees and their families. “We wanted to open softly,” Bradway said. The public opening was Friday, Bradway said, and the first big event was the Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl For Kids on Saturday. More

http://beertown.org/apps/75yearsofbeer/

This year we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the modification of the Volstead Act on April 7, 1933, which allowed beer to legally flow once again in the United States of America. Not to be confused with the repeal of prohibition on December 5th, 1933, April 7 marks the date when beer was the only legal libation in the United States.

What better way to celebrate than @ Schmohz! I will plan on seeing you there to tip a few in honor of beer.

Chas '91
Jim & Laurie Schwerin '87

http://www.Schmohz.com

Dennis,

Love your updates.

Reference the article on Lake Huron Ice around Mackinac Island??

See straight scoop here.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/antarcticwave.asp

Regards,
Carl Aimone "62"

***

Dennis,

I noticed you had the photo of the frozen wave on the news letter.

I received this E-mail on the same day I got the wave pictures in an E-mail about it being on Lake Huron.

I tend to believe their from Antarctica

Bob Crump
1987

***

Good morning Dennis --

A friend and fellow Tech alumni sent me the link to the 24 March newsletter as we had recently had a discussion over the photo featured in "Lake Huron Ice." I had received the same image from another friend that still lives in the Great Lakes region, claiming the photo was taken in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Unfortunately -- and with apologies to Ann McMahon -- it is neither.

This isn't an ecological phenomenon (its cryological), but given my work in coastal Alaska I've seen a fair amount of blue ice. Blue ice forms when high pressure compresses the air out of ice. If you ever get the chance to observe glacial calving you will notice that most of the ice that is exuded from above the water line is white, wheras the ice that is released from the bottom of the glacier is blue. Consider the size of a glacier and the amount of time it takes for the blue ice to reach the terminus -- blue ice requires ~300m of ice above it for well over a decade. The glacier which I am most familiar with is ~100m high above sea level and is ~70km long. Acknowledging that the depth of a glacier changes over this length, we can conservatively estimate that 90% of the ice at 100m below the surface is white ice after >50 years at 100m and ~10 years at 5-100m.

Long story short? It is not very likely that this has happened in the Great Lakes since the Wisconsonian glaciers ~20000 years ago. These photos are mostly likely from Antarctica or Alaska (see the following website...which is not reputable but provides a viable alternative)

http://www.slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/amazingimages/icewave.htm

Considering that the substrate in which the ice waves are shown is flat, they are probably imbedded in sea ice but have either fallen from a nearby glacier or sprung up from the tongue of a glacier below the sea ice.

Sincerely, your evidentialist wildlife ecologist.
Phil (Applied Ecology & Environmental Sciences '02)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phil DeWitt, MSc Candidate
Biological Sciences
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9

Dear Alums:

Michigan Tech has agreed to participate in the Vault College Student Survey. The information from this survey may be included in the 5th edition of Vault's /College Buzz Book/ and will appear online on the Vault.com web site. Your participation will help countless prospective students make key choices during the college application process.

In completing this survey, we encourage you to be candid, as _your identity will remain anonymous_. Vault may quote your survey responses, in full or in part, in its /College Buzz Book/.

Below are instructions for taking the survey. Please read all of these instructions carefully before beginning the survey:

* Click on the link below or copy and paste it into your browser (do not add "www" or anything else to the URL):

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* Please complete the survey *ASAP*.

Many thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to complete Vault's survey.

My children all enjoyed the summer youth program in the 70's and now I would like to se my grand children doing them. Can you have someone send me the information on my email. Thanks.

Sharon Masini Suppelsa 65

Sharon: I passed your note on to the folks in Youth Programs, and they can help you. We sent our children to SYP for many years, and they routinely had fun and learned something new.

Dennis,
As a graduate student in the Forestry Dept during the late 70's, under the guidance of Dr. Marty Jurgensen, I worked on protecting poplars from their most dangerous natural enemy, a little fungus named Hypoxylon pruinatum, also known as Hypoxylon canker. I was trying to find out if fertilizing forest soils with nitrogen, phosphorus, potasium, and/or calcium would make poplars more resistant to the canker. I'm sorry to say, that every tree I infected with the canker died. However, I am glad to see that enough poplars survived to allow for all this continued research on Populus tremuloides aka Trembling Aspen. Just for the Forestry Department's information, I would like to state, that I didn't have to look up those names.

Thanks for the memories.

George Teachman
NRCS Soil Scientist - Army Liaison

George: Thank you for the memories. I count a few Twigs among my friends, and I know they loved their work in the Northwoods. Some are still lucky enough to be out there.

And, I'd love to hear from any alums working in the woods!

Hi Denny,
You may have already seen this, but I wanted to make sure and so am forwarding a PDF of the most recent Michigan Legionnaire magazine. The top story details the changes MTU has made to allow family members of servicemen to pay in-state tuition and not penalize them for being transferred out of state by their service. Very good policy decision change on MTU's part, one that should be copied by every other Michigan university or college.

Hope things are well and that spring comes to the Copper Country before May this year.

Steve 'Stretch' Williams

Stretch: Thanks for the note. Spring was here, gone, here for now . . .

Alumni can now take advantage of a new email service provided by the Michigan Tech Alumni Association in cooperation with Michigan Tech's Information Technology Services.

Alumni email accounts include:
• Comprehensive virus protection and anti-spam software tools
• 100 MB of message storage space
• Message forwarding to another email address

Sign up for your alumni email account today through the HuskyLink online community. If you are not already a member, visit www.huskylink.mtu.edu/join for details on how to join.

Once you have set up your “@mtu.edu” email account, you can access your email on the web from anywhere by visiting huskymail.mtu.edu or set up your favorite email program (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc) to use Michigan Tech's email server.

***

More Alumni Benefits & Services information <http://www.admin.mtu.edu/alumni/products/>

Class Rings
Diploma Frames
License Plates
University Images Michigan Tech Clothing & Giftware

Complete job descriptions are available by e-mailing jobs at mtu.edu.

Non-Tenure-Track Lecturer—Computer Network Systems Administration (CNSA) Program
School of Technology

For off-campus jobs, go to the alumni section of the Career Center website for alumni jobs.

Also, there is a new local job board.