Make sure your apps take advantage of the great new features in OS X Mountain Lion when the world's most advanced operating system ships to millions of customers worldwide. Download OS X Mountain Lion GM seed and Xcode 4.4 GM seed, now available on the Mac Dev Center. Build your apps with these latest seeds, then test and submit for review. You can also submit iOS apps that take advantage of the new cross-platform Game Center Groups, so they'll be available when OS X Mountain Lion ships. Learn more.

Make sure your apps take advantage of the great new features in OS X Mountain Lion when the world's most advanced operating system ships to millions of customers worldwide. Download OS X Mountain Lion GM seed and Xcode 4.4 GM seed, now available on the Mac Dev Center. Build your apps with these latest seeds, then test and submit for review. You can also submit iOS apps that take advantage of the new cross-platform Game Center Groups, so they'll be available when OS X Mountain Lion ships. Learn more.

This week, AASHE is proud to release its second STARS Quarterly Review (SQR): Innovations in Campus Sustainability. The summer 2012 edition focuses entirely on the Innovation (IN) category, an area within STARS that recognizes innovative solutions to sustainability challenges. Entries within the IN section may include new and ground-breaking practices in higher education that are not covered by other STARS credits or that exceed the highest criterion of a current STARS credit. July’s STARS blog not only provides highlights from the SQR, but brings attention to interesting innovative practices by institutions that were not featured in the latest issue.

Innovations in Campus Sustainability explores critical linkages between education, innovation and sustainability; highlighting the unique solutions within higher education that positively impact current and future generations. With 11 institutions highlighted, readers will learn about:

• Interactive, web-based energy management systems
• A community garden with a global reach
• Positive impacts of campus innovations, including cost and resource savings
• A large-scale community revitalization effort
• Unique approaches to sustainable housing construction

The difficulty of putting together a publication that highlights sustainability innovations in higher education is the fact that there are so many innovative practices taking place, and it is impossible to highlight every single institution. For this reason, the July blog includes brief descriptions for ten additional innovation highlights with links to each STARS IN credit.

Interesting Innovative Practices among STARS-Rated Institutions:

• Student group funds and installs the largest operational wind turbine installation in North Carolina - Appalachian State University (STARS Gold, May 2012, IN #1)
• Global Climate Change Africa Mosaic features field research in Durban, South Africa - Dickinson College (STARS Gold, April 2012, IN #1)
• Sustainable Prisons Project raises awareness for science, saves tax dollars, and promotes conservation of natural resources – The Evergreen State College (STARS Silver, July 2011, IN #1)
• Research on glandless cotton seed to create sustainable feed, food, and fuels - New Mexico State University (STARS Bronze, Sept. 2011, IN #2)
• Construction of a green learning campus and charter school that will offer dual enrollment for students – Rio Salado College (STARS Silver, Aug. 2011, IN #4)
• Frugal Innovation program addresses the need for products and services to improve livelihoods in under-served communities world-wide – Santa Clara University (STARS Silver, Jan. 2011, IN #1)
• What is a tree worth? A comprehensive study to quantify the value of trees in the university community. – The University of Arizona (STARS Gold, Feb. 2012, IN #4)
• Employee suggestion program with financial incentives proportional to the amount of money saved. – University of Ottawa (STARS Silver, Aug. 2011, IN #4)
• SustainaUnity promotes collaboration among diverse and disparate sustainability groups across the university community. – University of Virginia (STARS Silver, Feb. 2012, IN #4)
• Commercial scale dry anaerobic biodigester generates renewable energy and heat. – University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh (STARS Gold, Feb. 4, 2012, IN #1)

By submitting innovation topics through STARS, institutions are encouraged to share their stories on the actions they are taking to promote positive change. Whether an institution is large or small, well-funded or under-resourced, in an arid climate or in a cold climate, each is uniquely positioned to bring about both incremental and revolutionary change.

We hope that readers will help shape future SQR releases by providing ideas on future topics or follow-up stories. Please send your ideas to stars@aashe.org or provide your comments below.

Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, will be a featured speaker at an August 11 Erikson Institute Creativity Seminar at the Austin Riggs Center on the subject of “The Brightening Glance: Creativity and Childhood.”

“The brightening glance” is a phrase taken from the title of a Spitz book in which she “returns us to the vibrant experience of childhood to explain how the imagination emerges and develops.” The seminar will explore questions such as: What is childhood creativity and what does it tell us about the creative process in general? Are the roots of adult creativity in childhood, and if so, how? What interferes with the creative process in children and what does that tell us about obstacles to creativity in our adult lives? What in our adult creative lives links us to childhood and in what ways?

Other speakers include Daisy Rockwell, a painter and writer; Kelly Smedvig, a musician, model and mother; and Ruslan Sprague, a dancer and choreographer.

More information about the seminar can be found here.

Robert Provine, professor of psychology, appeared on the Irish radio station newsTalk’s Moncrieff program July 5th to discuss laughing’s purpose and its origins in human evolution.

“Laughter is literally the sound of play,” said Provine. “In fact, the human ‘ha-ha’ evolved from the labored breathing of our rough-and-tumble primate ancestors, whereby ‘pant-pant’ became ‘ha-ha.'”

You can listen to the discussion here, in segment 3 from the July 5th broadcast, beginning at 51:20 and continuing in segment 4.

Nicole King, assistant professor of American studies, appeared on WYPR’s The Signal on July 6th to discuss her new book Sombreros and Motorcycles in a Newer South: The Politics of Aesthetics in South Carolina’s Tourism Industry

King spoke with producer Aaron Henkin about the colorful history of the roadside attraction South of the Border and its owner and creator, Alan Schafer, as well as various issues of politics, commerce, and culture which revolved around South of the Border during its early years which coincided with the Civil Rights Era.

“I think South of the Border – and recreation in general, especially in the South – is important because it’s the politicized aspect of what we do in our free time,” said King. “We often think of politics… as happening in board rooms or in political spheres, but they actually happen in places that we go everyday, and especially in the South. If you look at a lot of cases about desegregation, they were bowling alleys, they were lunchroom counters, they were places that people hung out. So I think that they offer an important narrative about how politics happen when we don’t think we’re being political, especially when we’re going on vacation.”

You can listen to the full interview here.