Tribute to a Basketball Star
He was the greatest [“A Book for Life,” Spring 2014]. I remember listening to the games on the radio, lying on the floor, cheering them on. A class act—Billy McGill. He gave me memories and the right way to shoot an unstoppable shot. Thank you.
Russ Stubbles ex’68
Maple Valley, Washington
Editor’s Note: McGill passed away in June 2014.
Questions About Air Quality
I would be very interested to see Davis County data on your graph [“Clearing the Air,” Winter 2014-15]. I suspect that the refineries located there contribute significantly to above standard levels of air pollution.
Susan Tamowski ex’85
Salt Lake City, Utah
We appreciate the commitment of the U in assembling a wider array of resident research nodes to address this problem, which also encompasses adjacent states [“Clearing the Air,” Winter 2014-15]. The other, perhaps more sensitive economic development impediment deriving from air pollution is in the Uinta Basin, where tens of thousands of jobs are hanging on ozone, on top of PM 2.5. We think there is a place for fuel substitution (i.e. natural gas for diesel) in vehicles, rigs, and electric generators serving the oil-gas industry there—and hauling product to the Wasatch Front.
Dean Dinas
Salt Lake City, Utah
Studying Air Pollution
The story on Dr. [Brian] Moench’s efforts was very interesting [“Utah’s Crusader for Clean Air,” Winter 2014-15]. The University of Utah has been addressing air pollution in Utah for several decades. In 1971, I was a student in an Honors Program course in pollution control taught by Professor Ferron A. Olson of the College of Mines. It was a natural fit for the college, because many of the major sources of air pollution in those days were mineral industries, including Kennecott Copper and Geneva Steel.
My paper for the course extracted raw data from state Health Department archives for sulfur oxide pollution levels during an extended inversion episode in Salt Lake Valley. The data revealed that the concentrations increased by the same amount every day as long as the inversion continued, showing that all the air pollution in the valley was trapped there and building without limit. In essence, inversions convert outdoor air pollution into industrial level indoor air pollution for the over 1 million residents of Salt Lake County.
In the past two decades, one of the great environmental resources for the University of Utah and the community has been the many national experts in pollution control and remediation on the faculty of the S.J. Quinney Law School and its Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment. The program has produced many attorneys working in pollution control and regulation across the U.S. and internationally.
Raymond Takashi Swenson BA’73 JD’78
Richland, Washington
I can understand the U eliminating hard copies of the Continuum for cost reduction purposes. The pdf format has been just great as a replacement as it affords one the ability to save and go through the articles, magazine style, at ones leisure – and returning to specific articles when wanted.
However, this (current) format which must be for younger generations that need everything on their phone so they can just zip through SUCKS!
Don: Print copies of the magazine are still very much available. In fact, our current annual print circulation is about 270,000. If you’d like to subscribe to the print edition, simply click on the word “subscribe” in the black navigation bar at the top of this page, for further information about how you can sign up to receive the print magazine.
Continuum also still has a pdf version of the magazine available on the homepage of this website. You can access it in the right-hand column, where we have the image of the print edition cover.
We do offer this online edition, because many readers prefer it, and we have an iPad app and responsive design for reading it on all types of devices.
Our aim is to offer Continuum in all formats, so our readers can enjoy the magazine in whichever format they prefer.