The links to the stories summarized on this page are time sensitive, so stories might no longer be online at that URL. We also include links to the original source publication itself.
Monday, 17 August 2009
1. Looking to the Source
Inside Higher Ed
August 17, 2009
Washington -- Much of the discussion of women in science -- and their relative scarcity in faculty positions -- focuses on the hiring departments. A study presented here Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society reversed that focus. The research showed that among top chemistry departments, there is huge variation in how successful their female doctoral graduates and postdocs are at landing tenure-track positions.
That finding is important, said Valerie J. Kuck, because it establishes that there may be specific policies or environments at some but not all top programs that need to be identified and replicated....
Kuck noted, in response to an audience member asking about the desire of women to have children, that "the women at Berkeley have the same biological clocks as other women, but they are getting jobs." (Details will follow on the individual institutions, but the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY bests all of its rivals in having its female Ph.D.'s in chemistry land top jobs, and women who want top positions may be advised to look West for postdocs, as Berkeley, the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University all do well for their women.)...
MICHAEL MARLETTA, CHAIR OF CHEMISTRY AT BERKELEY, was not at the presentation, but in a phone interview offered some of his thoughts on his department's success getting women on the fast track to faculty careers. Marletta said that while it is important that Berkeley has a range of policies and programs and organizations for women, he thinks the larger intellectual climate and environment also matter a lot.
For example, while Kuck noted a "pipeline leak" with women Ph.D.'s not seeking postdocs, Marletta said it is the absolute expectation at Berkeley that doctoral students -- male and female -- plan not only for a postdoc, but for "a top postdoc" and that they get them.
He also noted that Berkeley has success by having a critical mass of female graduate students (about 35 percent, less than he would like but better than many programs, Marletta said). They enter a program that has been designated tops in the nation by the National Research Council, and where "there is a tone about quality." Marletta also noted that many of the other top programs are at private institutions, and he thinks there is value in promoting diversity in the public mission of Berkeley as "a big, complicated public university."
Marletta said Berkeley faculty members believe that anyone admitted into the program can succeed and thrive in the field, and that they convey that to their graduate students -- and that attitude over time, Marletta said, is a key part to encouraging women.... Full Story
2. Science Insider Blog: Debate Today on Engineering Diversity Program at Berkeley
Science Magazine Online
August 17, 2009
Unhappy STUDENTS AND FACULTY MEMBERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, are expected to jam a campus town hall meeting this afternoon to hear the DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING explain why he's dismantling a model program for underrepresented minorities and women.
In announcing the change last month, Dean Shankar Sastry said he hopes that melding the CENTER FOR UNDERREPRESENTED ENGINEERING STUDENTS (CUES) into a new ENGINEERING STUDENT SERVICES (ESS) office will actually strengthen the college's efforts to promote diversity. The center’s three employees were told last month that their contracts would not be renewed, effective 1 September.
Although the university is under severe financial pressure, engineering officials say the reorganization is not being done for budgetary reasons and that ESS will not be jettisoning any staff positions. KAREN RHODES, HEAD OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE ENGINEERING COLLEGE, says that the school’s “yield”—the percentage of students deciding to enroll in the fall after being accepted in the spring—is much lower for incoming minority engineering students than it is for the campus as a whole. She says a study by an outside consultant also found that many engineering students were dissatisfied with the current level of services being offered. "We need to become friendlier and in tune with what they want,” says Rhodes....
"I was absolutely shocked when I first heard the news," says STANLEY PRUSSIN, A PROFESSOR OF NUCLEAR ENGINEERING AND A FORMER ASSOCIATE DEAN who oversaw CUES in the late 1990s. "It's been a model for the rest of the campus and for the entire country. The number of underrepresented minorities [within the college] is not what you would like it to be, but the problems have not disappeared. If anything, the need for a more intensive and independent approach to the problem seems to be greater than ever."
RYAN SHELBY, A DOCTORAL STUDENT IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, says that CUES was a big reason he chose Berkeley. "I wanted to make sure I had a support system, and they showed me how much they care. Their sole mission is to increase diversity and minority participation in engineering. It's not just a collection of programs; it's their entire approach." Shelby is a leader in a student group that is asking the dean to conduct a more thorough review of the center's impact before making any changes. Full Story
3. Best B-Schools: Making the M.B.A. Worthwhile
Forbes
August 24, 2009
...A recession delivers wins and losses to the M.B.A. industry. If the job market is dismal enough, some recent college grads figure they have little to lose dropping out of it for two years. That helps explain the 12% increase in the number of business school admission tests taken last year over the previous year (and a similar spike in 2002). At the same time the bad economy makes it harder to earn back the cost of going to school. Only half of the class of 2009 was offered a job three months prior to graduation, down from 62% last year, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council. Unemployment is a tough pill to swallow when tuition and two years of forgone salary at an elite program put one out $250,000.
The answer for a lot of schools is to get more students into real-world situations....
THE HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT UC, BERKELEY launched its HAAS AT WORK PROGRAM in 2006. Students have gone into service for the likes of Visa, Cisco Systems, Clorox, Walt Disney and Wells Fargo. "We want them to get their hands dirty," says program director Adam Berman. The students are expected to keep up with their other classes while consulting for the client companies.
Visa contracted with Haas this year to come up with ideas for using social networks to conduct financial transactions. Visa thought it might get one or two worthwhile ideas. The Haas students generated nine, one of which was to use a social network to allow friends to share the cost of a baby shower gift or tickets to a football game. "We were blown away in terms of the level of thinking and the creativity," says Scott Sanchez, who is in charge of Visa's global innovation strategy. The $40,000 fee Visa paid Haas was well worth it. The 1,500 hours of work might have cost ten times that with a big-name consulting firm.... Full Story
4. Japanese war dead skulls at UC museum
San Francisco Chronicle
August 16, 2009
The skulls and bones of Japanese war dead from World War II's Battle of Saipan are being kept at UC BERKELEY in apparent violation of the Geneva Conventions for the protection of war victims, The Chronicle has learned.
The remains of several Japanese soldiers or civilians removed from the island of Saipan in 1945 by a Navy doctor are housed on storage shelves maintained by the PHOEBE A. HEARST MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY ON THE UC BERKELEY CAMPUS, museum officials have confirmed....
Museum officials note that its cache of human remains from overseas is a valuable resource for osteology - the scientific study of bones. JUDSON KING, THE MUSEUM'S INTERIM DIRECTOR, said the collection of human remains is treated with sensitivity.
"We handle them with a lot of respect," King said. "We've certainly made efforts to have the storage facilities be as respectful as possible."...
"Is this ethically correct? No, because these are historical remains and war booty. They're ill-gotten goods," said UC BERKELEY MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY PROFESSOR NANCY SCHEPER-HUGHES. "They are somebody's relatives that can be identified very easily with due diligence. Why don't they do it?"...
UC officials denied a request from The Chronicle to tour the storage areas where the remains are kept, saying they are off-limits except to researchers, museum staffers and tribal members. UC BERKELEY CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU AND PROFESSOR TIM WHITE, the museum's curator of osteology, declined to comment....
[Another story on this topic appeared in the Saipan Tribune] Full Story
5. A drifting danger for Central Valley schoolchildren
Despite regulations and laws to protect children, Fresno County authorities say school buses are still being exposed to pesticide clouds once or twice a year.
Los Angeles Times
August 16, 2009
Nancy and Bryan Lara, ages 10 and 8, knew something was wrong when they saw a tractor surrounded by white clouds near their school bus stop in Caruthers....
The children hid behind a row of grapevines, but they could taste the noxious blend of liquid sulfur, gibberellic acid, insecticide and fertilizer as the rig rolled past them, billowing out its chemical cargo....
The May 14 incident was the third case in seven months in which San Joaquin Valley children were exposed to pesticides while at stops or on school buses. Despite regulations and laws in place to protect children, including programs to encourage growers to be aware of school bus routes, authorities estimate that school buses are still drifted on once or twice a year in Fresno County alone....
"Children are almost like a different species in terms of how they metabolize," said NINA HOLLAND, THE LEAD RESEARCHER OF A UC BERKELEY STUDY that found children are more susceptible than adults to organophosphate pesticides. "We are talking about a very significant difference. We really need to look at protecting children."... Full Story
6. Op-Ed: California needs health care reform
San Francisco Chronicle
August 15, 2009
If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is ill prepared to say it, then I'll say it for him: California is in a state of emergency. As the state struggles to stabilize its budget and as health care concerns now tear at the fabric of our community, with town hall meetings devolving into shouting matches, California has lost its shine....
Democrats are not calling for an Irish, or Canadian, or even French version of our health care system. We are simply calling for an affordable public option that creates competition in an overpriced and bloated market.
What would this mean for California? For one, it might mean that we stem the rising tide of uninsured burdening California's economy. Since the start of the recession, more than 500,000 working-age Californians have lost their health insurance, according to a 2009 report by the UC BERKELEY'S CENTER FOR LABOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION. That same report predicts that by 2012, the number of uninsured working-age adults in California will be 600,000, if health care reform is not accomplished by Washington.... Full Story
7. Op-Ed: The public option's last stand
We'll have no one to blame but ourselves if healthcare reform doesn't include a public option
Salon
August 17, 2009
I would have preferred a single-payer system like Medicare, but became convinced earlier this year that a public, Medicare-like optional plan was just about as much as was politically possible. Now the White House is stepping back even from the public option, with the president saying it's "not the entirety of healthcare reform," the White House spokesman saying the president could be "satisfied" without it, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius saying that a public insurance plan is "not the essential element."
Without a public, Medicare-like option, healthcare reform is a bandaid for a system in critical condition. There's no way to push private insurers to become more efficient and provide better value to Americans without being forced to compete with a public option. And there's no way to get overall healthcare costs down without a public option that has the authority and scale to negotiate lower costs with pharmaceutical companies, doctors, hospitals, and other providers -- thereby opening the way for private insurers to do the same....
I urge you to make it absolutely clear to everyone you know, everyone who cares about universal healthcare and what it will mean to our country, that the bill must contain a real public option....
This isn't just Obama's test. It's our test. Full Story
8. Misconceptions over key issues in health care debate
San Francisco Chronicle
August 17, 2009
Somewhere amid the noise and rancor of town hall meetings and political ads over the government's effort to overhaul the nation's health care system lies a rational debate.
But in recent weeks the noise has challenged the issues, widening the distance between Washington, D.C., and the town halls and putting words like "mobs" and "death panels" in the same conversation as "pre-existing conditions" and a "public plan option."...
"If somebody is going to say the public plan option is socialism, then that person is the same person who would think Medicare is socialism," said MELISSA RODGERS, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE BERKELEY CENTER ON HEALTH, ECONOMIC & FAMILY SECURITY, explaining that Medicare retains the same hybrid of a plan administered by the government but delivered by private enterprise as the public option.... Full Story
9. BART Train Operators Back Monday Strike
Disruption of San Francisco Transit System Would Strand Hundreds of Thousands and Set Back Struggling Economy Further
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
August 15, 2009
San Francisco -- The union representing San Francisco's train operators voted to go on strike beginning Monday, potentially stranding hundreds of thousands of riders and hurting the already-battered local economy.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, which represents about 900 train operators and station agents for the Bay Area Rapid Transit System, called the strike Thursday after BART officials imposed a one-year labor contract that caps health costs, reduces paid holidays and levies a 7% pay cut. A strike by BART's second-largest union could be avoided if a deal is reached over the weekend....
The nation's fifth-largest commuter rail system, BART moves about 340,000 people each day. A strike of even a few days would take an economic toll, hurting retail spending and possibly tourism, because people might decide to cancel trips to the area, said HARLEY SHAIKEN, A PROFESSOR SPECIALIZING IN LABOR ISSUES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
A strike also would boost automobile traffic, delaying deliveries, and diminish productivity as employees arrive late or miss work, he said.
"The economic impacts would be significant," said Mr. Shaiken. "It goes beyond inconvenience and stops short of catastrophe."...
[Link by subscription only. Another story quoting Professor Shaiken on this topic appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle] Full Story
10. Officials: SF rail strike could cripple commutes
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
August 14, 2009
Oakland, Calif.—With workers and management of the San Francisco Bay area's commuter rail system locked in a contract stalemate, public officials warned Friday that a threatened strike Monday would disrupt the already stumbling regional economy and cripple the commute for hundreds of thousands of residents....
"Bottom line: BART riders are on the train for a reason—BART's their best option," said ELIZABETH DEAKIN, DIRECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
"Most can find other options but if a strike stretches on, patience with these other options will begin to run thin," she said....
[This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times and Sacramento Bee] Full Story
11. Dialing back on dorm decor
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
August 14, 2009
It's easy to spot Dormzilla on "Move-In Day."
She's the college freshman who shows up with enough oversized chairs, lamps and bookcases to fill a model home, plus a year's supply of bottled water and snacks....
Depending on the Bay Area campus, you've got either a week (San Jose State and UC-BERKELEY) or a month (Stanford) to shop and plan for moving into the residential halls....
The list of what to bring hasn't changed much over the years, says MARTY TAKIMOTO, A DIRECTOR WITH THE RESIDENTIAL AND STUDENT SERVICE PROGRAMS AT UC-BERKELEY, who has been through 30 move-in days at Cal.
Students will need the basics: linens for an extra-long twin bed, a lamp for reading, towels, toiletries.
What has changed, however, is how roommates connect with each other. Instead of meeting on "Move-In Day" with each toting a TV and mini-fridge, students are now introduced to one another before their arrival. They can check each other's preferences via Facebook, phone or e-mail and decide in advance who brings what.
That's important when space is at a premium. At BERKELEY, many freshmen will find themselves in triple rooms....
Take bottled water. Although it's tempting to stockpile crates of water, Brown and Takimoto say campus officials are encouraging the use of refillable water bottles. The CAL STUDENT STORE, for example, sells bottles that are free of Bisphenol-A with Berkeley lettering on the side....
It's the dorm walls, Takimoto says, that trace the evolution of the college student. When they move in, the photos on the walls will be of high school events. As the year goes on, those photos will be supplanted by those from the college year.
Students often bring a reminder from home as well. Takimoto says that might be a stuffed animal or even a piece of a "blankie" from childhood that folds neatly under a pillow.
"Something that reminds them of home," he says, "but not too uncool to have in a college room."...
[This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune] Full Story
12. Milky Way may have a huge hidden neighbour
New Scientist
August 13, 2009
A large satellite galaxy may be lurking, hidden from view, next door to our own.
SUKANYA CHAKRABARTI AND LEO BLITZ OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, suspected that the gravity of a nearby galaxy was causing perturbations that have been observed in gas on the fringes of the Milky Way. "We did a large range of simulations where we varied the mass of the perturber and the distance of closest approach," says Chakrabarti. In the best-fitting simulation, the unseen galaxy has about 1 per cent of the Milky Way's mass, or 10 billion times the mass of the sun.
That's a lot. It means the object has roughly the same mass as the Milky Way's brightest satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).
Right now, says Chakrabarti, the galaxy is roughly 300,000 light years away from us - about twice as far away as the LMC. But the simulations suggest it follows a highly elongated elliptical path, and about 300 million years ago it swept through our own galaxy just 16,000 light years from the galactic centre - closer in than Earth - disturbing the Milky Way's outskirts as it went....
By further studying the distribution of gas, Chakrabarti hopes to pinpoint the galaxy's location so that astronomers will know where to look for it. This parallels the way astronomers in the 1840s discovered Neptune from irregularities in the motion of Uranus caused by gravitational tugs from the more distant planet. If the unseen galaxy exists, it will be the first nearby galaxy detected through its gravity rather than its starlight. Full Story
13. Op-Ed: Your Baby Is Smarter Than You Think
New York Times (*requires registration)
August 16, 2009
Berkeley, Calif.
Generations of psychologists and philosophers have believed that babies and young children were basically defective adults — irrational, egocentric and unable to think logically. The philosopher John Locke saw a baby’s mind as a blank slate, and the psychologist William James thought they lived in a “blooming, buzzing confusion.” Even today, a cursory look at babies and young children leads many to conclude that there is not much going on.
New studies, however, demonstrate that babies and very young children know, observe, explore, imagine and learn more than we would ever have thought possible. In some ways, they are smarter than adults.
...Many think that babies, like adults, should learn in a focused, planned way. So parents put their young children in academic-enrichment classes or use flashcards to get them to recognize the alphabet. Government programs like No Child Left Behind urge preschools to be more like schools, with instruction in specific skills....
But what children observe most closely, explore most obsessively and imagine most vividly are the people around them. There are no perfect toys; there is no magic formula. Parents and other caregivers teach young children by paying attention and interacting with them naturally and, most of all, by just allowing them to play.
[This op-ed also appeared in the International Herald Tribune] Full Story
14. Statistics tell parents that the world is not so dangerous for their children
Sacramento Bee
August 17, 2009
Kansas City, Mo. -- The school year's yet to begin, and Jim Kelly can see the future. It's the kind that, if reason didn't rule, could easily prompt caring parents to hide the backpacks and lock their children away....
Child abduction by a stranger, perhaps a parent's worst fear?
"Of all the dangers to children, this is the one most alarming and the most frightening and probably the least likely to ever happen," said PAULA S. FASS, A UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY PROFESSOR who wrote "Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America."
The odds are about 1.5 in a million.
"We live in a nation where dramatic things capture our attention" Fass said of our fears about children. "They are sensationalized by the media and by our imaginations.
"But if you look at the statistics," on whole, "our children are safe."... Full Story
15. Op-Ed: Open mind: the science of embarrassment
When we feel pride we are on the inside looking out, but with shame we're on the outside looking at our red-faced selves
The Times [London]
August 15, 2009
I decided on my second day at infant school that it wasn’t for me, so I made a dash for freedom during the morning milk break. I got as far as the end of the street. The next day at assembly the headmistress, the sour-faced Miss Rawlings, yanked me out in front of the school for a dressing down. Decades later the gut-gripping fear and humiliation still resonate. I see myself, head bowed and eyes welling, but there’s a purse-lipped defiance that, even now, gives me a glimmer of pride. Strangely, I see myself from the outside, or at least I do when I focus on the humiliation, almost as if I’m watching someone else. But when I remember the defiance, I experience it from the inside. The same is true for other low and high points of self-consciousness. When I think of the glowing pride I felt on holding my baby son for the first time, I’m on the inside looking out. But when I recall the excruciating shame of being caught ... (doing what, I’m not going to divulge here but feel free to imagine the worst), I’m definitely on the outside looking in on my red-faced self.
Charles Darwin paved the way for modern scientific studies of emotion. He understood that emotions evolved to solve survival-related behavioural problems. ... But Darwin never figured out what problem embarrassment solved or what adaptive function its physical expression, the blush, might have. Recent work by DACHER KELTNER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, sheds light on the enigma. Displays of embarrassment (blushing, bowing of the head, gaze aversion) have an appeasement function. Their effect is to help to reconcile social relations when a convention has been violated — breaking wind in public, for example, or making an ill-judged remark. In evolutionary terms, this is problem-solving behaviour because social rules are the basis of co-operative alliances. Embarrassment is an efficient way of signalling, “OK, I know that’s not the right way to behave, there’s no need to ostracise me”. According to Keltner, embarrassment displays kindle feelings of forgiveness and liking in the observer. So it’s no surprise that embarrassment-like behaviours also feature in flirtation — the coy glances, the smiles, face touching and the involuntary blush.... Full Story
16. How Were Social Security Numbers Given Away?
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
August 17, 2009
Concord, N.H. (AP) -- When Tropical Storm Chata'an struck the Federated States of Micronesia in 2002, the U.S. government sent 1,300 blankets, 4,000 disposable diapers, 30 cases of sardines -- and my Social Security number....
Some federal agencies collect locally-issued Social Security numbers from grant and loan applicants and report them to credit bureaus as if they were U.S. numbers, regardless of whether the numbers already are in use.
That's the beginning of the problem, which isn't identity theft but can create some of the same headaches when identities become linked in the eyes of lenders or creditors.
''This can really slow you down if there is a default or a history of bad payment,'' said CHRIS JAY HOOFNAGLE, DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION PRIVACY PROGRAMS AT THE BERKELEY CENTER FOR LAW AND TECHNOLOGY....
[This story appeared in more than 100 sources nationwide, including the Washington Post] Full Story
17. LifeLock tries to fend off legal battles
ID-theft firm accused of illegal service, dubious ads
Arizona Republic
August 17, 2009
LifeLock Inc., the identity-theft protection company that boasts 1.5 million customers, is embroiled in legal battles with critics who say its key service breaks the law and its advertising defrauds consumers....
Even some supporters of LifeLock's service take issue with the company's marketing.
"The advertising claims are a bit overheated," said CHRIS HOOFNAGLE, DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION PRIVACY PROGRAMS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY'S CENTER FOR LAW AND TECHNOLOGY.
Hoofnagle, who filed a declaration supporting LifeLock's pending motion in the Experian case, said that while LifeLock's ads are misleading, consumers should be able to hire companies to set fraud alerts.
"Identity theft refers to a broad range of crimes, including financial and medical identity theft and even impersonation," he said. "(But) even with credit-monitoring services, you can fall victim to all three types of identity theft." Full Story
18. Bits Blog: To Microsoft, Basic Research Is Good Insurance
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
August 17, 2009
In an Unboxed column in Sunday’s newspaper, I look at the continuing role and competitive advantage, if any, of large corporate research labs, given the new models of open innovation in the Internet era. The column focuses on labs with one foot in the industrial era — I.B.M., General Electric and Hewlett-Packard — that in recent years have been increasingly forced to open up.
But in the technology world, there is another huge company whose R.& D. lab is younger and doesn’t fit that mold: Microsoft.
The view of outside analysts is that Microsoft Research, founded in 1991, has taken a path more like that of the old Bell Labs — stockpiling research talent, doing a lot of basic research but remaining somewhat inward-looking.
“That’s the wrong model, I think,” said HENRY CHESBROUGH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR OPEN INNOVATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY.... Full Story
19. PDX Green Blog: Canning issue can get complicated
Oregonian Online
August 7, 2009
Canning tomatoes grown in the back yard. Pickling beans from the farmer's market. Making strawberry jam.
I'm learning it all in a monthly class at Preserve in Portland. Can it get more green and sustainable when it comes to food than canning your own? Just vegetables, some reusable glass jars and a stove top. No industrialized mass food production here.
It turns out, it's not that clear-cut....
Take energy efficiency. Mass industrialized canning at a factory is likely to be more efficient than canning a small batch of food on an open stove top, said BRIAN WRIGHT, A PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURAL AND RESOURCE ECONOMICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY.
"It's better to have big containers when you're heating things up," he said. "I would imagine it's not more environmentally friendly to do it yourself." ... Full Story
20. Book Review: 'The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business'
The retailing behemoth has created a unique corporate subculture that is rooted in its hope of Bentonville, Ark.
Los Angeles Times
August 16, 2009
The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business
Nelson Lichtenstein
Metropolitan Books: 312 pp., $25
Bentonville, Ark., may be unknown to most Americans, but it is the center of the world for some 750 corporations that manufacture consumer goods -- because Bentonville is the legendary home office of Wal-Mart, and those corporations want to sell their products to the world's largest retailer. It's also the largest private employer in the nation, operator of 4,200 stores.
Bentonville is a key to understanding the success of Wal-Mart, historian Nelson Lichtenstein argues in his terrific book, "The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business." Legendary founder Sam Walton didn't start in Bentonville, in the Ozarks in northwestern Arkansas....
Lichtenstein's sympathies lie with the workers Walton called "associates." They are recruited by the hundreds of thousands from the ranks of the retired, those willing to work part-time, and people who want a second job. Their wages are so low that a startling proportion of Wal-Mart associates are also welfare recipients. According to a 2004 UC BERKELEY study, "Wal-Mart wages -- about 31 percent below those in large retail establishments as a whole -- made it necessary for tens of thousands of company employees to rely on public 'safety net' programs, such as food stamps, Medicare . . . and subsidized housing, to make ends meet." Managers, Lichtenstein adds, "even pointed struggling associates to the appropriate government agency where they could apply" for assistance.... Full Story
21. Letter to the Editor: America the Cynical
New York Times (*requires registration)
August 14, 2009
To the Editor:
Re Matt Bai’s review of “ ‘What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?’ ” (Aug. 2): Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech remains vivid in my mind because it was the first time I was interviewed on TV about a political speech. HAVING JUST RECEIVED MY DOCTORATE IN LINGUISTICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, I was asked to drive across the Bay Bridge and offer a linguistic analysis of Carter’s address on a San Francisco news station.
The news anchor’s perspective, which she expected me to confirm, was focused not on the content of Carter’s words but on what she presumed to be his self-serving goal of improving the public’s perception of him. ... I remember thinking it odd to assume that changing one’s self-presentation is inherently suspect.
In retrospect, this brief local news item instantiated what Carter might well have regarded as characteristic of and contributing to our national malaise: the news anchor’s cynicism in ignoring the content of the president’s speech and assuming he could only be motivated by trying to raise his approval ratings. I have had many opportunities in the intervening years to observe similar disconnects between a TV commentator’s cynical assumption of cynical motives and, in Bai’s words, “how positively the speech was initially received” by the public.
DEBORAH TANNEN
Washington
The writer is a university professor of linguistics at Georgetown University. Full Story
22. On Religion Blog: Teach the Bible? Of course.
Public schools need not proselytize — indeed, must not — in teaching students about the Good Book.
USA Today Online
August 17, 2009
Having held a successful "beer-and-nuts summit" to defuse the volatile issue of race in public life, President Obama now needs to hold a "wine-and-bread summit" to tackle the equally volatile issue of religion in public schools.
Because as millions of American children return to the classroom this month, most public schools do not know how to handle the delicate issue of what to teach students about the Bible. Just ask the Texas Board of Education, which is mired in a contentious fight over how textbooks should characterize Christianity's influence on American history....
Harvard professor Robert Kiely, for one, agrees. In 2006, he participated in an academic survey of professors from many of America's leading universities — including Yale, Princeton, Brown, Rice, CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY and Stanford. The survey — commissioned by the Bible Literacy Project, which promotes academic Bible study in public schools — found an overwhelming consensus among top professors that incoming college students need to be well-versed in the stories, themes and words of the Bible.
"If a student doesn't know any Bible literature, he or she will simply not understand whole elements of Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth. One could go on and on and on," Kiely told Concordia professor Marie Wachlin and her research team.... Full Story
23. Blended family is full of surprises
San Francisco Chronicle
August 16, 2009
Life can sometimes bring surprises.
"Yes," agrees Hans Protzel, 30, in his tiny North Oakland living room filled with books and toys. He is flanked by his wife, BETINA HSIEH, also 30, and one of his adopted twin daughters, Asha Blackwell, 19. His 4-year-old son, Nate, calls from a nearby bedroom. Hans, originally from Peru, seems cool and calm.
It was just nine years ago that Hans and Betina met at UC BERKELEY, WHERE BETINA, WHO CO-DIRECTS THE BAY AREA WRITING PROJECT (FOR TEACHERS) AND IS A CONSULTANT FOR THE OAKLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT, IS NOW A DOCTORAL CANDIDATE. Both worked in the Education and Psychology Library (where Hans now works again). They'd been friends for a year; then a co-op toga party brought them closer....
"I always knew I would marry Hans," she says, "It was time to be happy." In 2004 they were married in Berkeley.
But then, surprises!
One fall day Betina, then a middle school teacher in Hayward, was approached by Asha and her sister Aisha, who were foster kids. "How would you feel if two people came to live with you?" they asked. Betina, who had hardly spoken to the girls before, was a tad shocked, but warmly replied that she needed first to ask her husband....
"The girls obviously make you happy," Hans told Betina, and by Christmas it was agreed that the twins, then 15, would move in.... Full Story
24. Bay Area Olympian's Next Big Slash: the Dance Floor Natalie Coughlin sets sights on dancing prize
NBC Online
August 17, 2009
Bay Area native and six-time Olympic Gold medal-winning swimmer NATALIE COUGHLIN will be making her next big splash on the dance floor in primetime.
The UC BERKELEY GRAD will join next season's cast of ABC's "Dancing With The Stars," the show's host, Tom Bergeron, said Monday.
If history proves true, Coughlin's athleticism will give her a big advantage over the competition....
Former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay will also be a part of the new season's antics, which kick off September 21. Full Story
25. SF Unzipped Blog: Undercover fashion PACT
Swingin' deal -- you can buy underwear, save the planet at the same time.
San Francisco Chronicle Online
Today is the online-only launch of PACT, a new brand of designer underwear from Berkeley, changes that. You'll find cool men's and women's boxers and briefs and 10 percent of every sale will always be donated to a social or eco cause.
Designed by San Francisco industrial design powerhouse fuseproject headed by Yves Behar, the high-quality organic cotton underwear will sport five shapes and three Behar-designed prints....
The idea belongs to PACT creative officer JEFF DENBY, and CEO JASON KIBBEY, BOTH UC BERKELEY GRADUATES WHOSE BUSINESS SCHOOL THESIS PROJECT caught Behar's eye in 2007.
"I've always wanted to design underwear like this," Behar said.... Full Story