President Yoweri Museveni has made it clear: In Uganda, gay is not okay.

The President signed into law on Monday tougher penalties against homosexuals and their supporters. The law:

• Allows life time sentences for “aggravated homosexuality” – this term lumps “serial offenders,” acts in which one person is HIV positive, and acts with a minor together
• Allows prison sentences for people counseling or reaching out in support of the LGBT community
• Criminalized lesbianism for the first time
• Requires citizens to denounce those suspected of being gay
• Prohibits the promotion of homosexuality

Homosexual acts are already outlawed in Uganda, like many other African countries. The bill originally included a death sentence for some acts, but the U.S. and others threatened to withdraw their aid to the country. Apparently, Museveni is unafraid that the new law will have any serious ramifications.

 ”Outsiders cannot dictate to us. This is our country. I advise friends from the west not to make this an issue, because if they make it an issue the more they will lose. If the west does not want to work with us because of homosexuals, then we have enough space to ourselves here.” – President Yoweri Museveni

 But can Uganda really survive as an isolationist country?

 In 2012, USAID sent more than $200 million to Uganda. These funds have a critical role in providing support to the country, including 400,000 antiretroviral treatments. But Uganda has plans to hit it big in oil come 2016, and the African country is an ally in the fight against al-Qaeda, contributing a large force of peacekeeping troops. The decision to cut relations isn’t so easy for a White House still concerned with a growing militant Islamic influence.

According to Ronald Kibabu, a taxi driver, the new law won’t hurt Museveni at home.

“We don’t like (homosexuality) in our culture. That can keep him as president. The election is coming.” 

It may not hurt Museveni in the election, but he is losing legitimacy in the international community. Desmond Tutu called the law an attempt to “legislate against love” and spoke out against it:

“There is no scientific justification for prejudice and discrimination, ever. And nor is there any moral justification. Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa, among others, attest to these facts.”

What should President Obama do? Can we afford to cut ties with Uganda?

Ukraine no longer has a president.

The increasingly hostile clashes between the pro-Russian government and pro-EU protestors has spilled over into the Presidential Palace.

Three days ago, security forces fired live ammunition against protestors, breaking a truce between the factions and dramatically escalating the conflict.

As a result of this escalation, protestors began to resort to more militant tactics, leading to pitched battles in areas near and in Kiev. Amidst this violence, President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital after his bodyguards refused to protect him and members of his party and the police defected to the opposition. Within a day of Yanukovch’s escape, Parliament official stripped him of power.

The military has promised not to intervene, and Yanukovych’s archrival, former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, has been released from hospital. It is widely speculated that she will run for President when elections are held in late May.

Much of this came as a surprise to outside observers, as it appeared Yanukovich and the opposition were near a deal in negotiations.

However, the violence did motivate the U.S. and other Western allies to imposed sanctions on individuals within Yanukovich’s government.

Yanukovych and his remaining allies have described this move by the protestors and parliament as an illegal coup d’état. The protestors claim that they were ousting a thuggish leader bent on using violence to maintain political power.

We here at US Democrazy want to know what you think of these development–What’s the latest you’ve heard about the events in the Ukraine?

With a heavy emphasis on encryption and strong controls over all data from your phone, Blackphone launches amid intense interest at Mobile World Congress.

A phone touted as the first to put privacy and security ahead of all other considerations launched at a packed event at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, today.

Professor Gymama Slaughter received a research award from the National Science Foundation to support her work on a self-powered biosensing microsystem that simultaneously generates bioelectricity and monitors glucose.

The four-year award in the amount of $400,000 is from NSF’s prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program, which supports junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research.

With the support from NSF, Professor Slaughter and the students in her Bioelectronics Laboratorywill fabricate and characterize a self-powered biosensing microsystem that simultaneously generates bioelectricity and monitors glucose. This will be accomplished using an inertial power scavenging design by converting interstitial glucose into energy through the coupling of enzymes and three-dimensional nanowire arrays to power implantable glucose monitors.

The self-powered biosensing microsystem will monitor sugar levels and embodies two key technical contributions: it eliminates the need for a potentiostat circuit and an external power source or batteries, leading to dramatic improvements in both speed and energy efficiency, and it demonstrates an autonomous, self-powered, low-power biosensing microsystem that can be adapted for other uses. For people suffering from diabetes, continuous, self-powered monitoring of glucose will improve their quality of life and can save lives.

Professor Slaughter notes that the educational component of the project enriches and complements other programs at UMBC designed to increase minority and female participation inSTEM fields. The exposure of these students to a real-world problem and its solution will enable them to better appreciate the contribution of scientific research.

Here in the Office of Alumni Relations, we spend a lot of time telling stories about and talking with our wonderfully supportive alums. However, we’ve decided to turn the tables and take time to get to know the people behind the scenes – the advancement and alumni relations staff members who are hard at work on behalf of our alumni. Today we’ll be hearing from Greg Simmons ’04, M.P.P., the Vice President for Institutional Advancement.

Name: Greg Simmons
Job Title: Vice President for Institutional Advancement
Focus Area: Building relationships and secure investments that help UMBC faculty, staff and students be successful
Years at UMBC: 20

Q: Where are you from originally?

A: I grew up in Southington, CT, and came to Baltimore in 1988 to attend Loyola College in MD.

Q: What do you love most about UMBC?

A: The generosity, drive and commitment of the people here.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about your job?

A: I get to tell stories about the wonderful work students and faculty do at UMBC every day, and use those stories to help people understand what is unique and special about this community.

Q: What’s the most recent book you’ve read?

A: I am half way through The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. Recently read Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow.

Q: If you could be another staff member for a day, who would it be and why?  

A: Dr. Mike Summers or Don Zimmerman. Both are nationally renowned experts in their field. And their fields are so different from the work I do on a day-to-day basis. I would love to know how it feels to be a world-class scientist and teacher, or a coach who has vision and understanding of a game and uses it to help prepare young people for success in real life.

Q: If you could be a superhero, who would you pick and why?

A: …Six words say it all…”With great power comes great responsibility.”

UMBC Hosts Media Workshop for Faculty Researchers and bwtech@UMBC Entrepreneurs

Nearly two dozen UMBC faculty researchers and bwtech@UMBC entrepreneurs attended a media workshop held in the research and technology park’s new CyberHive on Thursday, February 20th. UMBC’s Office of Institutional Advancement organized the event in collaboration with bwtech@UMBC as an opportunity for researchers and entrepreneurs to learn about media relations and strategies to gain visibility for their work.

Attendees heard from three local journalists: Sarah Gantz from the Baltimore Business Journal, Liz Gormisky from Defense Daily, and Lisa Palmer, an NSF-funded science communication fellow at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center and freelance journalist who has written for publications such as The New York Times, Scientific American and Slate.

In their talks and the Q&A session that followed, Gantz, Gormisky and Palmer discussed how to communicate and build relationships with journalists to generate interest in new research or technologies. Additional topics included how various types of publications work on different timetables and use different types of sources, and how to tailor story pitches to fit particular news outlets.