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Wednesday, 19 August 2009
1. Pterosaur "Runway" Found; Shows Birdlike Landing Style
National Geographic News
August 19, 2009
The first fossil footprints of a landing pterosaur have been discovered, a new study says....
The tracks offer rare insight into a dinosaur-age mystery: How did these flying reptiles move?
Whereas walking dinosaurs left footprints, a pterosaur in mid-flight would have left little more than droppings.
This critical difference has made analyzing pterosaur flight much harder than studying the gaits of their dinosaur cousins....
"When my co-author showed it to me and said what he thought it was, it seemed both obvious and cool to me," said study co-author KEVIN PADIAN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
"It's great to have a landing track."
As exciting as the landing track is, Padian said, it's still solves only part of the mystery. "It would be equally cool to have a takeoff track."...
[Other stories on this topic appeared on MSNBC Online and the Independent (UK)] Full Story
2. SETI telescope array produces first science results
New Scientist
August 18, 2009
The only telescope array in the world that is focused on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has produced its first scientific results – but unfortunately there's still no word from ET.
Astronomers hope to continue adding telescopes to the system to search for alien transmissions, but in the meantime, they are also surveying intergalactic space for 'missing' star-forming gas and other astronomical phenomena.
The project, called the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) after benefactor and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, went live in 2007. It was designed to scan for broadcasts from alien civilisations with more consistency and a wider field of view than any previous effort.
Run jointly by the SETI Institute and the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, from a site in northern California, the ATA is ultimately intended to comprise 350 dishes. But even with its current complement of 42, it has an impressively wide field of view. It uses relatively small, 6-metre dishes that together can take in five square degrees of sky at a time – a box as wide as 10 full moons....
[Another story on this topic appeared in USA Today] Full Story
3. New Study Exposes 2007 as the Year of the Super-Rich
AlterNet
August 18, 2009
EMMANUEL SAEZ, THE BERKELEY ECONOMIST who many now consider the world’s top authority on the incomes of the super rich, has never been one for sweeping statements. He tends to let his data do the talking. But his latest data — from the crunching of just-released IRS tax records for 2007 — have wowed even Saez.
America’s most affluent, those data show, have never grabbed a greater share of the nation’s income than they did in 2007. The nation’s top .01 percent of income-earners in 2007 — taxpayers who made over $11.5 million — pulled in 6.04 percent of all income, the highest top .01 percent share of the nation’s income since the IRS started keeping records back in 1913.
The year 2007, a rather awestruck Saez noted earlier this month, “was an incredibly good year for the super rich.”
The 14,588 families who made up 2007’s top .01 percent averaged $35,042,705 in income, 1,080 times the $32,421 average income of America’s bottom 90 percent. The gap between the top .01 percent and the bottom 90 percent, before 2007, had never stretched over 1,000 times....
[Other stories on this topic appeared in the Huffington Post, Bloomberg, and Washington Post story] Full Story
4. Proposal would make more aid available to Bay Area students
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
August 18, 2009
A federal proposal would increase financial aid for college students in high-cost areas, a potential boon for Bay Area families.
The idea, being discussed by lawmakers and others in Washington, would adjust student aid based on cost-of-living expenses. Congress has not yet seen a bill that would put the plan into effect....
The report pointed out that a student whose family makes $35,000 a year in San Francisco receives the same Pell Grant — a scholarship for low-income students — as one whose family makes the same amount in Wyoming, despite dramatically higher costs of living in the Bay Area.
"We've been fighting this issue for many years," said CHERYL RESH, UC-BERKELEY'S FINANCIAL-AID DIRECTOR. "My low-income families would benefit from this change."...
[This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune] Full Story
5. State lawmakers tell UC: Return war dead bones
San Francisco Chronicle
August 19, 2009
State lawmakers have called upon the University of California to immediately return to Japan the skulls and bones of Japanese war victims from World War II's Battle of Saipan that are being stored in an ANTHROPOLOGY MUSEUM ON THE UC BERKELEY CAMPUS.
They also asked UC officials to issue a formal apology to the Japanese government for not only keeping the Saipan remains in the museum's vast collection of skulls and bones, but also for using the remains in scientific research.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has also voiced concern and made inquiries about the remains....
UC BERKELEY CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU and UC President Mark Yudof declined to comment. outrage, saying that the case presents a slew of legal and ethical issues....
[UPI also issued a story on this topic] Full Story
6. University of California Awards Degrees to Formerly Interned Japanese Americans
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
August 19, 2009
Growing up in northern California in the 1930s, GRACE OBATA AMEMIYA assumed she would attend the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. Two of her older brothers and a sister were Berkeley-educated. Why would she not be?
But Amemiya's college days were abruptly interrupted in 1942 when the United States herded her and 120,000 other Japanese Americans on the West Coast to inland internment camps amid racist sentiment during World War Two.
Thanks to a gesture by the UC Board of Regents, she is among hundreds of individuals who qualify for a special honorary degree from the same institution that had spurned them during war hysteria. "This is long overdue, but truly awesome," says Amemiya, an 88-year-old retired nurse now living in Ames, Iowa....
The UC decision marks one of the most recent public acknowledgements of the injustice against Japanese Americans. ...
UC officials are soliciting help in identifying students who were unable to graduate because of the internment. They ask former students, relatives and friends to contact them by emailing HonoraryDegree@ucop.edu or on weekdays by calling 510-987-0239.... Full Story
7. Sites pulling sneaky Flash cookie-snoop
Academics fret over privacy threat
The Register [UK]
August 19, 2009
Many websites are using Flash-based cookies to track users, but often omit to mention this in their privacy policies.
US academics have documented the little-known tracking technology and its use in practice in a paper called Flash Cookies and Privacy (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1446862). Browser-based cookies constitute a well understood and widely deployed technology that poses serious questions about privacy, depending on its usage....
A significant percentage of websites including federal government sites use this Flash-based technology to track users, the researchers discovered. The technology is sometimes used as a means to "undelete" the information in browser-based cookies that a user might have thought they had cleared from their system when they deleted their browsing history, the academics explain....
The researchers call for incorporation of Flash-cookie deletion into browsers and the inclusion of discussions about Flash cookies in the wider online privacy debate, which has recently concentrated on behavioural-targeting technology.
The research was carried out by a team of five researchers including ASHKAN SOLTANI FOR THE COMPUTING DEPARTMENT AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY AND CHRIS JAY HOOFNAGLE FROM BERKELEY'S SCHOOL OF LAW. Shannon Canty from Clemson University, Quentin Mayo from Jacksonville State University and Lauren Thomas from Louisiana State University made up the remaining three members of the team. Full Story
8. Google book project far from settled
San Francisco Chronicle
August 19, 2009
As the deadline draws near for authors and publishers to opt out of a proposed legal settlement allowing Google Inc. to forge ahead with plans to scan millions of books, more opponents of the landmark deal are stepping forward, and the local literary world is growing more perplexed....
Some legal experts believe the growing confusion will create more opposition to the deal, which could factor into the settlement hearing and potentially limit the scope of the books program. But PAMELA SAMUELSON, CO-DIRECTOR OF THE UC BERKELEY CENTER FOR LAW AND TECHNOLOGY, said it's more likely to lead to a sort of collective paralysis that prevents affected parties from taking any action.... Full Story
9. Forum with Michael Krasny
Health Care: Weighing Options
KQED Radio
August 19, 2009
The health care reform debate has taken a new turn, with some putting forward health insurance cooperatives as an alternative to a public option. But President Obama insists that a public option, which would provide competition to private insurers, is still on the table. We get the latest on the health care debate.
Guests:
...RICHARD SCHEFFLER, DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF HEALTH ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY AT UC BERKELEY]
[Link to audio] Full Story
10. KQED Radio News: Closing California's Achievement Gap
KQED Radio
August 18, 2009
According to California's newest test scores, all students made solid gains on statewide tests in math and English. But schools haven't managed to close the state's achievement gap between whites or Asian students, and their black and Hispanic peers. Superintendent Jack O'Connell says there's a moral and economic imperative to close the achievement gap, but California hasn't been able to move the numbers for years.
Guests:
* BRUCE FULLER, DIRECTOR OF POLICY ANALYSIS FOR CALIFORNIA EDUCATION AT UC BERKELEY
[Link to audio] Full Story
11. Latinos flock to New Orleans
One of the more surprising demographic changes to New Orleans was the influx of Latino workers who are rebuilding the city.
CNNMoney.com
August 19, 2009
New Orleans (CNNMoney.com) -- For the first time since it was a Spanish colony some 200 years ago, New Orleans is getting revitalized by Spanish speakers.
One of the more dramatic and immediate impacts of Hurricane Katrina has been the influx of thousands of new Latinos who have moved to the city to detoxify, renovate and rebuild storm damaged roads, flood walls, businesses and homes....
Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' Latino population hovered around 3%. Officially, it's now around 4.5%, according to a 2008 census survey.
That number is sure to grow. Nearly half of all New Orleans area construction workers are Latino, according to a 2006 population study by Tulane University and the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. And the number of Hispanic children registered in the Orleans Parish public school system reported nearly doubled, going from 3% up to 5.6%.... Full Story
12. Bay Biz Buzz: LECG buys rival, hires CEO and ousts co-founder
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
August 18, 2009
An August of turbulence has erupted at Emeryville-based LECG Corp., which disclosed plans to buy a rival in a $72 million deal, the appointment of a new CEO and the termination of its co-founder, a UC Berkeley faculty member. LECG, a provider of consulting services and expert testimony, said it will buy SMART Business Advisory & Consulting for $39.9 million in LECG stock and will assume $32.4 million of SMARTS's debt. In addition, private equity firm Great Hill Partners will invest $25 million in cash to obtain a 40 percent stake in the combined company. On Aug. 12, LECG revealed in a regulatory filing that it terminated the employment of co-founder DAVID TEECE, WHO IS DIRECTOR OF AN INSTITUTE AT UC BERKELEY'S HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS. LECG also named the chief executive of SMART Business, Steve Samek, as its new CEO. The seven-member board of directors of the new company will consist of Samek, four people nominated by LECG's current board and two representatives of Great Hill, SMART's majority owner.... Full Story
13. Obituary: Doris Walker - fought to acquit Angela Davis
San Francisco Chronicle
August 19, 2009
Attorney DORIS BRIN WALKER, a political radical who fought Cold War blacklists and helped left-wing professor Angela Davis win acquittal on charges of murdering a judge, died Thursday in a San Francisco hospital after suffering a stroke. She was 90.
Ms. Walker, known as Dobby, spent her career bucking the prevailing winds, from her days as THE ONLY WOMAN IN HER 1942 UC BERKELEY LAW SCHOOL CLASS to her sponsorship of a resolution at the State Bar's 2004 convention calling for a congressional investigation of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"She inspired many generations of progressive lawyers," said Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild, which Ms. Walker headed as its first female president in 1970-71. "When she talked, everyone listened."... Full Story
14. A Conservative’s Road to Same-Sex Marriage Advocacy
New York Times (*requires registration)
August 19, 2009
Theodore B. Olson’s office is a testament to his iconic status in the conservative legal movement. A framed photograph of Ronald Reagan, the first of two Republican presidents Mr. Olson served, is warmly inscribed with “heartfelt thanks.” Fifty-five white quills commemorate each of his appearances before the Supreme Court, where he most famously argued the 2000 election case that put George W. Bush in the White House. On the bookshelf sits a Defense Department medal honoring his legal defense of Mr. Bush’s counterterrorism policies after Sept. 11.
But in a war room down the hall, where Mr. Olson is preparing for what he believes could be the most important case of his career, the binders stuffed with briefs, case law and notes offer a different take on a man many liberals love to hate. They are filled with arguments Mr. Olson hopes will lead to a Supreme Court decision with the potential to reshape the legal and social landscape along the lines of cases like Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade: the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide....
Mr. Olson had become active in the Republican Party as a college and law student in California in the 1960s, long before the rise of the religious right and its focus on social issues. He gravitated toward a particularly Western brand of conservatism that valued small government and maximum individual liberty, becoming one of a few LAW STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY to support Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential bid....
[This story also appeared in the International Herald Tribune] Full Story
15. Bollywood dance classes are hot
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
August 19, 2009
...Bollywood dance seems to be everywhere. ISHARRA, A TEAM OF DANCERS FROM UC-BERKELEY, drew standing ovations on TV's "America's Got Talent," by dancing their interpretation of the Academy Award-winning Hindi song "Jai Ho," which was popularized in the Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire."...
While the ending dance number in "Slumdog Millionaire" brought Bollywood to a larger Western audience, Bollywood has never been a shrinking violet. The Bollywood style of moviemaking rivals Hollywood in audience numbers and moneymaking prowess, says REBECA ANSAR, A SOUTH ASIA STUDIES STUDENT AT UC-BERKELEY who teaches Bollywood fusion classes at Lake Merritt Dance Center in Oakland.
Ansar, 21, has been dancing since she was 3 years old and living in Pakistan. She says the Bollywood style of dancing is "a good cardiovascular workout because it's continuous movement."
Although, she says, many Westerners saw Bollywood dancing for the first time through "Slumdog Millionaire," she says Bollywood has been popular in the States for years, particularly with the large Indian population in the Bay Area.
"The industry is growing," she says. "We're also a global community, so a lot of culture from India has greater access to America, and America has greater access to India. Channels are opening up."... Full Story