What makes the story of Steven Slater, the flight attendant who famously flipped out, interesting is this unexpected, still-unfolding development: Slater has become something of a phenomenon on the Internet. As of last night, 64,700 people had identified themselves as supporters of Slater on Facebook. Slater's situation is unique, social media experts say, because of the extra dimension users of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have added to the story by responding to it in real time, en masse. "If we didn't have the current media forms that we have, this probably would not be something we'd be talking about now, except maybe a minute or two around the water cooler," said John Edward Campbell, an assistant professor at Temple who specializes in new media.

August 10, 2010 | New York Times

The New York Times' "Vital Signs" column reported on a new study chaired by Gary Foster, director of Temple’s Center for Obesity Research and Education. In one of the longest trials to pit low-fat diets against Atkins-style diets, researchers found that participants lost the same amount of weight after two years — an average of 15 pounds — regardless of which diet they were on. Previous studies have shown mixed results. "As little as a 4 percent weight loss has been found to prevent development of Type 2 diabetes," said Foster.