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Making jokes about a rape committed at gunpoint or a poor child's horrific death would be met with outrage in most cultures, but a University of Colorado at Boulder anthropologist says what appears to be tasteless humor in the slums of Rio de Janiero, Brazil, is really just a means of coping with everyday life.

A new study that aims to significantly reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired infection by providing clear data on the effectiveness of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) is getting under way at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The overall goal of the study, which is being funded by the N.G. Gilbert Foundation, is to quantify the effectiveness of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, or UVGI, in controlling hospital-acquired infections from opportunistic airborne bacteria and fungi.

James Watt, who served as President Reagan's first secretary of the interior and was a controversial figure among environmentalists, will speak at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Feb. 11. Watt will speak at 7 p.m. in the University Memorial Center's Glenn Miller Ballroom, in a conversation with CU-Boulder history and environmental studies Professor Patricia Nelson Limerick and law Distinguished Professor Charles Wilkinson. The talk is free and open to the public.

The CU Heritage Center will present a talk on the lives of bats by Rick A. Adams, founder and president of the Colorado Bat Society, on Sunday, Feb. 8. Back by popular request, Adams will lecture and present visual images at 3 p.m. in the Old Main Chapel on the CU-Boulder campus. The event is appropriate for all ages and is free and open the public. Adams will discuss his new book on "Bats of the Rocky Mountain West." He will demystify the "leather flutterers," including the long-time residents of the Old Main belfry.

NEWS TIP SHEET Following are faculty sources at the University of Colorado at Boulder who can comment on academic freedom and freedom of speech in connection with the current debate over writings and statements by CU-Boulder Professor Ward Churchill. - Richard Collins, law professor and director of the Byron White Center for the Study of Constitutional Law, is available to discuss First Amendment rights, freedom of speech and hate speech. Collins can be reached at his office, (303) 492-5493.

Essa McGinnis Byyny, mother of Richard L. Byyny, chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder, died of cancer Saturday, Jan. 31, in Long Beach, Calif. She was 86. Mrs. Byyny had been ill for about three years. Chancellor Byyny had been in Long Beach this past week, arranging for home-hospice care for his mother. He was returning to Boulder Saturday morning to address current campus issues and learned of her death upon arriving at his Boulder home.

A panel of NASA and Mars experts will gather Feb. 12 to discuss results of the current Mars Rover missions and the future of planetary exploration at a public symposium presented by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

MEDIA- PHOTO ADVISORY At 8 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31, CU-Boulder's Air Force ROTC will conduct a memorial ceremony on behalf of the Arnold Air Society for two CU alumni-astronauts who perished in the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle explosions.

Professor Margaret Eisenhart of the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Education will deliver the 96th annual Distinguished Research Lecture on Monday, Feb. 9, at 5:30 p.m. in Fiske Planetarium. The lecture, titled "Anthropologist of Education in America: A Life of Three-Sided Rooms," is free and open to the public. The talk is sponsored by the Council on Research and Creative Work through the CU-Boulder Graduate School and will be followed by a reception.

Smokers who want to quit can find support during a series of inexpensive classes offered by the University of Colorado at Boulder's Student Wellness Program. A Tuesday evening and Thursday day series of the "You Can Quit" classes will take place at the Wardenburg West Solarium, room 321. The Tuesday evening series will meet Feb. 3, Feb. 17, Feb. 24 and March 2. All sessions start at 5:15 p.m. The Thursday series meets at noon on Feb. 5, Feb. 19, Feb. 26 and March 4. The class fee is $25, and scholarships are available.