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Some may find philosophy to be mind-boggling, but 28 Colorado high school students will take philosophy head on at the Summer Philosophy Institute on the CU-Boulder campus on July 25-31. Participants, who are in grades nine through 12 or are incoming freshman, will live in CU residence halls and attend six hours of class each day involving lectures, debates and readings of classical and contemporary philosophers. The classes consist of lectures and discussions on such topics as personal identity, existentialism and environmental ethics.

Nick Petry, whose company Petry Construction Co. built many commercial and public buildings on the Front Range, and his wife, Nancy, have donated $1 million to CU BoulderÂ’s Construction Engineering and Management Program. Their gift establishes an endowment which will support hands-on learning for undergraduate and graduate students in construction engineering and construction project management. "I want CU to have one of the best programs in the region that prepares students to become leaders in the construction industry," said Nick Petry.

Colorado high school students will discuss the meaning of life, existentialism and other perplexing topics at the Summer Philosophy Institute of Colorado the week of July 25-31 on the CU-Boulder campus.

EDITORS: Volunteers will be at the park on Saturday, July 17, from 10 a.m. to about 3 p.m. to build play structures, install art works and plant trees and flowers. Lafayette Gardens is at 11700 So. Boulder Road. The best way to enter the Peace Park area is by going east on South Boulder Road and take a right (south) on Avalon (which is 2 blocks east of Public Road). The very first right (which has no name) is the entrance into Lafayette Gardens. The Peace Park is immediately on the left.

Attention Westerners: the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder has a question for you. What, as a recent transplant or a longtime resident, is the information that every Westerner needs to know? In preparation for a new publication, history Professor Patricia Nelson Limerick and geography Professor William Riebsame are investigating what Westerners think about their region, using an interactive survey on the Internet and a series of community meetings.

The University of Colorado at Boulder-based BioServe Space Technologies Center will be flying experiments ranging from ladybugs and butterflies to biomedicine and water purification on a space shuttle slated for launch July 20.

MEDIA ADVISORY Ken Rutherford will appear at a July 15 news conference at the University of Colorado at Boulder as part of the Adopt-A-Minefield initiative within Colorado. Rutherford, who grew up in Boulder and attended the University of Colorado, lost both his legs when a vehicle he was driving in Somalia ran over a landmine.

Faculty, staff and students at the University of Colorado at Boulder have been selected to design and build a major instrument that will launch on a NASA spacecraft bound for Mercury in the year 2004. Known as the Mercury Space Environment Geochemistry and Ranging mission, or MESSENGER, the spacecraft will carry seven miniaturized instruments, said Daniel Baker, director of CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. As part of NASAÂ’s new Discovery Program missions, MESSENGER will be the first spacecraft to visit Mercury in more than 30 years.

As people grow older, many worry that if they exercise they may do more harm than good and perhaps even injure themselves. But that fear is simply not true even in the case of the very old, says Robert Mazzeo, a professor in the department of kinesiology and applied physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "Remaining sedentary is more dangerous than any physical activity," says Mazzeo, who also is chairman of the American College of Sports Medicine committee, which recently reported on the issue.

Editors: On Aug. 26, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Levitt will be at the Troubadour Bookstore, on Pearl Street, Boulder, reading excerpts from his book on Joe Frisco, signing copies and talking about vaudeville. Joe Frisco, a vaudeville comic and jazz dancer, was probably as famous in the 1920s and ‘30s as television comedian Jerry Seinfeld is in the ‘90s. But soon after he died in 1958, Frisco slipped into obscurity.