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Tuesday, 8 September 2009
1. Regent creates panel to plan for UC's future
UC Regent Russell Gould's panel will tackle key issues.
San Francisco Chronicle
September 8, 2009
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA is one of many public institutions battered about each year by the unpredictability of the state budget and the laws that govern it.
RUSSELL GOULD- former director of the state's Department of Finance and the NEW CHAIRMAN OF UC'S GOVERNING BOARD OF REGENTS - says he's tired of it.
"We can't keep limping along," Gould said before a recent regents meeting. "We need to forge a new path."
So Gould pulled together a panel of two dozen UC people and a few outsiders - including financier Warren Hellman, and Art Pulaski of the California Labor Federation - whose task for the next six months will be to try and forge a new path.... Full Story
2. Welcoming the New, Improving the Old
New York Times (*requires registration)
September 6, 2009
For decades, companies from Cisco Systems to Staples to Bank of America have worked to embed the basic techniques of Six Sigma, the business approach that relies on measurement and analysis to make operations as efficient as possible.
More recently, in the last 5 to 10 years, they have been told they must master a new set of skills known as “design thinking.” Aiming to help companies innovate, design thinking starts with an intense focus on understanding real problems customers face in their day-to-day lives — often using techniques derived from ethnographers — and then entertains a range of possible solutions....
They tested different approaches to marketing, including subscription programs, and different ways of developing stylish products. For example, they considered letting up-and-coming designers compete to create designs showcasing particular causes....
“The practices that make for success at one time can trap firms and contribute to their downfall at a later time,” says BOB COLE, A QUALITY EXPERT AND PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT THE HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.... Full Story
3. Blog: "Ready, Fire, Aim" Market Reform
O'Reilly Radar
September 7, 2009
Previous disasters, all notably less damaging than the Great Mess of '08, have led to deep serious analysis of their causes. The general notion being that understanding the causes might be useful in avoiding nasty repeat performances. This has been Standard Operating Procedure for a long time for good reason. The alternative Ready Fire Aim approach can be hazardous to your health, yet that seems to be the plan for the newly announced Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, tasked with reporting back on the crisis that nearly broke capitalism by the end of 2010, while the legislation to avoid a financial crisis is being crafted now.... Full Story
4. UC Berkeley officer who helped uncover girl's abduction is from O.C.
Ally Jacobs, who went to Santa Margarita Catholic, 'applied herself, all of herself,' her father says.
Orange County Register
September 4, 2009
RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – A former Orange County woman played a pivotal role in the investigation that led to the recovery of a girl who disappeared 18 years ago in Northern California.
ALLY JACOBS, A UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, POLICE OFFICER, was one of two officials whose suspicions were aroused and thought to follow up on Phillip Garrido, the man authorities accuse of kidnapping 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 28.
Rancho Santa Margarita resident Robert Jacobs, Ally's father, says he's proud but not surprised by his daughter's actions.
"I'm not shocked that she would approach things the way she did, in an analytical fashion," Robert Jacobs said today. "That's always been her strong suit."... Full Story
5. Bridgeless commuters scramble for transit options
Oakland Tribune
September 8, 2009
The Bay Bridge will not open this morning as planned because of unfinished repairs on a recently discovered bridge crack, dooming the region to a traffic nightmare for at least one more day, Caltrans announced Monday.
Bridge operators said they hope to reopen the Bay Area's busiest bridge by 5 a.m. Wednesday — 24 hours later than planned — but they offered no guarantees.
"We've set Wednesday at 5 a.m. as our new target," Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney said, "and we're going to do everything we can to meet it."
But he and other officials said the precision job of fitting an 18,000-pound metal brace 120 feet in the air over a cracked bridge piece called an eyebar is too difficult to make promises of a Wednesday morning reopening.
Transportation officials urged commuters to take BART and ferries to work, work from home if possible, and stagger commute times to earlier or later than usual....
The repair plan — never done on an eyebar before but performed in several other construction applications — called for installing two 9,000-pound steel saddles above and below the cracked eyebar and joining them with long metal rods. The repair acted much like a splint, taking pressure off the broken piece.
ABOLHASSAN ASTANEH-ASL, A UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR known to be critical of Caltrans, questioned why the crack in the eyebar was not detected previously.... Full Story
6. Right on the money
The new presidential candidate must demonstrate innovative financial leadership
Cavalier Daily
September 8, 2009
As the hunt to replace President John T. Casteen III begins, the search committee should keep three priorities in mind: intellectual capital, human capital, and financial capital. The next President needs the intellectual capital to attract the human and financial capital our University desperately needs.
This is a critical time for the University — just as our public profile is increasing, the quality and resources of our institution are stagnating relative to our peers. This is extremely dangerous for the health and growth of the University when surrounded by a sea of rising competitors....
Some of our top rivals in public education are already doing this. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - BERKELEY CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU announced that his school, which obtains one fourth of its income from the state, plans to admit more non-resident students in order to improve its budget shortfall.... Full Story
7. Flash cookies: What's new with online privacy
Tech Republic
Web site hosts and advertisers do not like relying on HTTP cookies. Users have figured out how to avoid them. According to Bruce Schneier, Web site developers now have a better way. It’s still considered a cookie, yet it’s different....
Flash cookies are rampant
Another Google search brought me to a report by UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY RESEARCHERS. Flash Cookies and Privacy describes what the researchers found after capturing Flash cookie data from the top 100 Web sites. Here are the results:
* Encountered Flash cookies on 54 of the top 100 sites.
* These 54 sites set a total of 157 Flash shared objects files yielding a total of 281 individual Flash cookies.
* Ninety-eight of the top 100 sites set HTTP cookies. These 98 sites set a total of 3,602 HTTP cookies.
* Thirty-one of these sites carried a TRUSTe Privacy Seal. Of these 31, 14 were employing Flash cookies.
Of the top 100 Web sites only four mentioned the use of Flash as a tracking mechanism.
It appears many Web sites use both HTTP and Flash cookies. That surprised/confused the researchers. After more digging they found the answer, respawning.
Flash cookie respawning
UC BERKELEY RESEARCHERS determined that HTTP cookies deleted by closing the browser session were rewritten (respawned) using information from the Flash cookie... Full Story
8. Bionic brain chips – a hope for the paralysed
Computer Weekly
September, 7, 2009
A monkey sits on a bench, wires running from its head and wrist into a small box of electronics. At first the wrist lies limp, but within 10 minutes the monkey begins to flex its muscles and move its hand from side to side. The movements are clumsy, but they are enough to justify a rewarding slug of juice. After all, it shouldn't be able to move its wrist at all.
A nerve connection in the monkey's upper arm had previously been blocked with an anaesthetic that prevented signals travelling from its brain to its wrist, leaving the muscles temporarily paralysed. The monkey was only able to move its arm because the wires and the black box bypassed the broken link.
The monkey was in Eberhard Fetz's lab at the University of Washington in Seattle. The experiment, performed last year, was the first demonstration of a new treatment that might one day cure paralysis, which is typically caused by a broken connection in the spinal cord. Though much work has focused on using stem cells to regrow damaged nerve fibres, some researchers believe that an electronic bypass like this is equally viable.
The idea is to implant electronic chips in the relevant regions of the brain to record neural activity. Then a decoder deciphers the neural chatter, often from thousands of neurons, to figure out what the brain wants the body to do. These messages must then be relayed - ideally wirelessly - to electrodes that deliver a pulse of electricity to stimulate the muscles into action. Such "brain chips" are already restoring hearing to the deaf and vision to the blind, and helping to stave off epileptic fits, so the idea isn't as far-fetched as it might sound (see "Bionic medicine").
Every step of progress in tackling paralysis has been hard won. One of the early demonstrations that it may be possible emerged in 2003, when JOSÉ CARMENA [WHO IS NOW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY], then at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, successfully created an interface between brain and machine that allowed his lab monkeys to play a computer game using only their minds.... Full Story
9. Trial begins in water-drinking death
Conneticut Post
September 7, 2009
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The radio station made up the contest rules "on the spot," the plaintiffs' attorneys said, in pursuit of "sheer entertainment value" and top ratings in the Sacramento market. The result: a young mom who died trying to win a popular video game for her family.
But if the outcome was tragic, defense lawyers argued, still far from predictable was that anybody could die in a water-drinking contest. And if anybody was negligent, they said some of the responsibility has to be placed on the victim herself.
More than 2½ years after 31-year-old Jennifer Strange succumbed from the contest put on by the country's eighth-largest broadcasting company, jury selection in the wrongful death trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court.
It's a case that will determine if Philadelphia-based Entercom Communications Corp. and the general manager of its six-station Sacramento subsidiary are responsible for the contest death that left three children motherless and a husband a widower, and if so, how much the company should pay.
"She knew and they didn't? That seems unlikely," said STEPHEN D. SUGARMAN, THE ROGER J. TRAYNOR PROFESSOR OF LAW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY'S BOALT HALL. "And I'm skeptical about her awareness of the danger. How many people are going to do this if they think they're going to kill themselves?"... Full Story
10. Transcript: "Working It Out"
PBS Nightly Business Report
September 7, 2009
CAROLE & JIM FEINTECH, JOBLESS COUPLE: We were over six figures and today we're living basically off unemployment insurance. Slowly but surely we emptied out all the investments.
SUSIE GHARIB: With almost seven million jobs disappearing from U.S. payrolls since the recession began, most economists are expecting a jobless recovery. I recently talked about this with FORMER LABOR SECRETARY ROBERT REICH, CURRENTLY PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY and economist Robert Brusca of Fact and Opinion Economics. My first question to Professor Reich: is the job market recovering?... Full Story
11. Why Obama Can't Let the School-Speech Tantrum Slow Him Down
Esquire
September 8, 2009
As a top education scholar puts it, "mindless political correctness" can get the best of the bottom line. And critics of Obama's speech to students are being hysterical.
WASHINGTON--Isn't it kind of ridiculous that after years of fighting for school prayer and the ritual recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance by every child in the land, conservatives are now furious about the government indoctrinating America's school kids? I guess the whole "patriotism" thing needs major retooling whenever a Democrat becomes president.
But this fight over President Obama's encouraging kids to work hard and stay in school? Over what turns out to be pretty boilerplate, dumbed-down speechwriting about Xboxes and Michael Jordan and the first grandma? Turns out it's little more than the latest wrinkle in a very old battle. That's what I learned late last week with a bit of sane historical PERSPECTIVE FROM THE BERKELEY PROFESSOR [BRUCE FULLER] who wrote Standardized Childhood — a book about the culture war that erupted in the 1970s after masses of women started entering the workforce and, in turn, sending their kids to preschool.
BRUCE FULLER: There's an irony here. Originally it was conservatives like Thomas Jefferson who thought that public schools could introduce kids to novel ideas and scientific concepts. But now the right wing is paranoid that somehow schools are hotbeds of radicalism.... Full Story
12. Google's Book Search
KQED Forum
September 8, 2009
According to linguist Geoffrey Nunberg, Google's book search is well on its way to becoming "the world's largest digital library" -- but not without controversy. Tuesday is the last day to file comments with a U.S. District Court on a class action lawsuit between Google and several authors and publishers. Google has reached a settlement with these industry partners, and hopes to build its online library as a service to the public good. But opponents of the deal claim it gives Google a monopoly over digitized books. We discuss the settlement and what it means for authors....
Host: Michael Krasny
Guests:
* Edward Hasbrouck, writer and co-chair of the Books Division for The National Writers Union, which opposes the Google Books settlement
* James Gleick, author and board member of the Authors Guild
* PAMELA SAMUELSON, PROFESSOR AT UC BERKELEY'S BOALT HALL SCHOOL OF LAW
* Tom Krazit, staff writer for CNET.com Full Story
13. Jobless rate in U.S. up to 9.7%
Rise is more than expected, but job cuts slow in August
Baltimore Sun
September 5, 2009
WASHINGTON — - The surge in the nation's unemployment rate last month to a 26-year high underscored that the weak labor market remains a menacing threat to the economic recovery.
Employers dropped another 216,000 nonfarm jobs in August, pushing up the unemployment rate to 9.7% from 9.4% in July, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The latest losses were smaller than the 276,000 jobs eliminated in July and a third of the monthly cuts in the first quarter, a trend that apparently encouraged investors and sparked a rally on Wall Street. But on Main Street, the retrenchment by employers has been so broad and deep that more and more baby boomers in the prime of their careers are getting caught in layoffs.
During the prior two recessions, in 1990-91 and 2001, people in their mid-40s to mid-50s continued to show employment gains as younger workers felt the brunt of the cutbacks. But since the current economic downturn began in December 2007, employment in the 45-54 age group has fallen by more than 1.2 million, according to the Labor Department.
"It's an across-the-board pain," said DAVID CARD, A LABOR ECONOMIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.... Full Story
14. Seismic whispers hint at future quakes
September 8, 2009
PARKFIELD, CA--In 2004, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake ripped through central California on the San Andreas fault. It struck near the sparsely populated town of Parkfield. There were no injuries or fatalities.
During the three months before the main shock, finely tuned instruments lining the fault picked up hints of quivering. If a new study is right, these faint tremors could be a first crucial step toward predicting earthquakes....
"Is there a connection between the tremors and the Parkfield main shock? I think there is, but that's just my opinion." ROBERT NADEAU OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY said. "We still have a lot to learn about how to look at these tremors. They're a very new phenomenon." Full Story
15. AP analysis: Auto industry gains boost some areas
Google.com
September 7, 2009
Signs of life in the auto industry and an easing of the housing crisis helped reduce unemployment and kept foreclosures flat in some of the nation's hardest-hit areas in July, according to The Associated Press' monthly analysis of economic stress in more than 3,100 U.S. counties.
The latest results of the AP's Economic Stress Index showed joblessness dipped in counties where temporarily closed auto-related plants resumed production in July. Foreclosure rates, meanwhile, slowed in the Sun Belt epicenters of the housing bust. Bankruptcy rates, which respond more slowly to economic shifts, rose slightly....
But ROBERT EDELSTEIN, A REAL ESTATE PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, warned that foreclosures could rise again, especially after the effect of stimulus spending fades. He especially worries about commercial real estate foreclosures.... Full Story
16. Twitter policies come to workplace
Twitter revolutionized small talk. Now it’s rankling bigwigs.
September 8, 2009
Although the popular social networking site limits each post to 140 characters, there appears to be no limit to the anxiety it’s causing major players in sports, media, business, the courts, the military and other fields.
Attempts to regulate Twitter’s use at work, at school and on government time are soaring, and examples of Twitter jitters abound. Posts, called tweets, are resulting in fines, lawsuits, scolding and shame.
For reasons of message control, security concerns and competitive advantage, some employers are restricting Twitter use by training their employees or banning what they can say on such sites and when they can say it. Reaction to this spans from reluctant acceptance to open revolt; a tennis star called new tweeting regulations "lame" last month, and a Cincinnati Bengals football player closed his Twitter account Friday with a tweet saying the NFL’s rules had taken the fun out of it....
Ultimately, businesses and institutions have a simple choice, said HOWARD RHEINGOLD, A SELF-DESCRIBED ONLINE INSTIGATOR WHO TEACHES SOCIAL MEDIA COURSES AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY: Go with the flow or try to control it.
"Is there an advantage to having people see that we enable open communication, including criticism?" he asked. "Or do we think that there are some things that we ought to keep in the family?"... Full Story
17. Once economically insulated, public workers feeling the pain
Press-Enterprise
September 6, 2009
SACRAMENTO - Heavily unionized government workers historically have been well-insulated from economic changes and the whims of management, but the recession has battered them along with their private-sector counterparts.
Government employees, from clerks to firefighters, comprise the majority of the almost 3 million California workers represented by labor unions and covered by collective-bargaining agreements, according to the latest statistics.
They have achieved steady gains in salary and benefits and become an increasingly potent political force, contributing millions to campaigns and producing votes.
But Labor Day 2009 comes amid one of the worst years ever for members of public employee unions.
"We have not seen anything like this before," said KEN JACOBS, CHAIRMAN OF THE UC BERKELEY LABOR CENTER, which researches labor issues and offers education programs.
"Members of public-sector unions have often traded earning less than they would in the private sector for job security and good benefits, both health and retirement," Jacobs said. "But like the private sector, we've seen layoffs...." Full Story
18. Transcript: Protecting American Jobs
Notes On The News, Forbes.com Video Network
Forbes
September 7, 2009
...For workers without college degrees, the job losses were unrelenting; the opposite was true for workers with college degrees. Wages fell for the least-educated workers, but they increased for better-educated workers, with the biggest gains among manufacturing workers with advanced degrees.
The decline in wages for high school dropouts and the steep wage increases at the upper end of the income scale have driven a sharp increase in wage inequality. ANN HARRISON, AN ECONOMIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, has tested whether this loss of manufacturing jobs has been forced by trade and off-shoring. Low-cost imports indubitably cost jobs, but Harrison found that a 10-percentage-point increase in off-shoring to low-wage countries cut U.S. manufacturing employment by only 0.2%, while off-shoring to high-wage countries increased U.S. manufacturing employment by 0.8%. A similar effect applied to wages.... Full Story
19. Folic acid -- On the pill
Fortification programmes may lead to overconsumption of folic acid
Ethiopian Review
September 6, 2009
Most people who seek to lead a healthy lifestyle know that they should eat an array of fruits and vegetables every day. But when good intentions go awry, or just as an insurance policy, there are always vitamin pills....
The results of a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggest they can. Folic acid is a precursor of folate, a vitamin found in foods such as spinach and oranges. It is added to other foods because it was once thought to be the active vitamin. In fact, it is converted to folate in the liver by the addition of four hydrogen atoms.
However, Steven Bailey of the University of South Alabama and BRUCE AMES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, warn that the liver has only a limited ability to make this conversion. This discovery is consistent with reports that unmetabolised folic acid is found in human blood and urine.... Full Story
20. Antioxidise your health
Your immune system is your body’s defence system against illness and disease.
The Star Online (Malaysia)
September 6, 2009
What can we do to help our bodies cope better with infectious illnesses?
It definitely helps to have a strong and healthy immune system. Here’s how it works – the immune system is like the security system in your home. This system is continuously monitoring the environment for anything that is out of place, and when an unusual situation is detected, it dispatches the most appropriate defence mechanisms.
The immune system recognises viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and mutant cells, and it has a variety of “soldiers” (immune cells such as macrophages, neutrophils and natural killer cells), each with it own weapons and methods of attack to destroy these invaders....
DR. LESTER PACKER, PROFESSOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, department of molecular and cell biology, is among the world’s leading antioxidant researchers and has described alpha lipoic acid as very close to an ideal antioxidant. Alpha lipoic acid can also recharge other antioxidants that have been used up. In the body, it helps regenerate other antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E and glutathione.
In addition to that, alpha lipoic acid is the only antioxidant that can boost the level of intracellular glutathione, a cellular antioxidant of tremendous importance. Besides being the body’s primary water-soluble antioxidant and a major detoxification agent, glutathione is absolutely essential for the functioning of the immune system. Full Story
21. What would Walter Reuther think?
Detroit Free Press
September 7, 2009
On this Labor Day, with the world of the worker so changed, one might wonder:
What would Walter Reuther think?
Just a few months ago, as General Motors and Chrysler careened toward bankruptcy, the union faced the prospect of losing everything....
HARLEY SHAIKEN, A PROFESSOR OF LABOR RELATIONS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, agreed, saying the union "bargained skillfully and survived."
Many UAW members recognize that, too.... Full Story
22. Editorial: Workers' comp idea is another flawed fiscal ploy by Schwarzenegger
Oakland Tribune
September 9, 2009
Desperation can lead to creative solutions to problems; it also can spawn some harebrained schemes that are doomed to failure. Unfortunately, desperate attempts to balance the state's budget have produced more of the latter.
Among the more egregious efforts to raise some revenue is the Legislature's approval of a $1 billion sale of some of the State Compensation Insurance Fund's policies...
FRANK NEUHAUSER, A UC BERKELEY RESEARCHER AND EXPERT ON WORKERS' COMPENSATION, believes the plan to sell State Fund policies is reminiscent of the budget deal, nothing more than smoke and mirrors.... Full Story
23. California's solid colleges
Santa Monica Daily Press
September 8, 2009
Each year, the U.S. News and World Report guide to U.S. schools gives a few days of glamour to academia. PR departments of colleges note with pride that their college is "moving up" in the rankings. What too few parents and prospective college students understand is how distant these rankings are from reality.
Politicized courses and politicizing professors also proliferate. At UC BERKELEY, some choice offerings in recent years have included "Geographies of Race and Gender," "Transnational Feminisms," "Identities across Difference," "Alternate Sexualities in a Transnational World," and "Queer Visual Culture." What isn't political is often trivial. Other courses at the school have included "Italian Cooking," "Superman as American Mythology," "The Simpsons and Philosophy," "Exploring the Realm of Flirting," "History of Fencing," and "Profiling Serial Killers in the U.S." Full Story
24. "Green jobs czar" Van Jones resigns
Madison County Conservative Examiner
Friday, September 5, 2009, "green jobs czar" Van Jones offered his resignation. This comes as no surprise surrounding the highly controversial statements he has made years ago and in the recent past.
Glenn Beck, comedian and conservative talk show host, has outed Van Jones in a series lasting over two weeks. He repeatedly aired videos and speeches Van Jones has given in February and March of this year. A STUDENT AT UC BERKELEY asked Mr. Jones if his ideas could be considered Marxist. Jones replied, several times "How is that capitalism working for you?"... Full Story
25. Famed author Michael Pollan to speak at WSU
Winona Daily News
September 6, 2009
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
It's become the mantra of MICHAEL POLLAN and the millions of people who read his best-selling books "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" and "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto."
POLLAN, A CONTRIBUTING WRITER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE AND THE KNIGHT PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY, will speak Sept. 23 at Winona State University's Somsen Auditorium as part of its Lyceum Series. Three-hundred public tickets were available Monday at The Bookshelf. All were gone in less than 90 minutes.... Full Story
26. Who said the book business is in bad shape?
Judging from the excellent lineup of many titles coming out this fall - it may well be the most impressive list in years - one wouldn't know the industry is in the doldrums. (Then again, what business isn't in the doldrums?)
More than a few publishers and booksellers have to be crossing their fingers beside crowded stacks, praying that their busiest season will give them a needed boost. Fall is the traditional time of the year for showcasing big-name authors, and this autumn is certainly no exception....
SEPTEMBER NONFICTION
Freedom's Orator: Mario Savio and the Radical Legacy of the 1960s, by Robert Cohen (Oxford University Press). A UC BERKELEY GRADUATE takes the measure of the political activist....
Stripping Bare the Body: Politics, Violence, War, by Mark Danner (Nation Books). A collection of dispatches by the UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM....
The Book of Psalms: A Translation With Commentary, by Robert Alter (Norton). The UC BERKELEY SCHOLAR continues his work on the Bible.... Full Story
27. BLOG: Conservation ecologist Jodi McGraw reveals secrets of coastal sandhills
San Francisco Chronicle
Conservation ecologist Jodi McGraw leads a virtual tour of the Santa Cruz County sandhills. The program is at San Pedro Valley Park visitor center on Saturday, September 12 at 8 p.m. Packed with photographs of the unique communities and species, Jodi's presentation explores the amazing diversity and fascinating ecology of this nearby but little-known area. It will also highlight key efforts to protect and manage the critically endangered system that includes such elegant inhabitants as the indigenous Santa Cruz Kangaroo Rat. A large proportion of California's amazing plant diversity is found in its numerous endemic (exclusive to this area) communities associated with unusual soils. The Santa Cruz County sandhills are inland outcroppings of sand soil that support a wealth of native biodiversity, including two communities, four plants, and two insects found nowhere else in the world. They provide fascinating lessons in biogeography, evolution, and ecology, while hosting some of the most spectacular wildflower displays on the central coast.
JODI MCGRAW IS A CONSERVATION ECOLOGIST WHOSE DISSERTATION RESEARCH AT UC BERKELEY examined the endangered species and communities of the Santa Cruz County sandhills.... Full Story
28. Cal 52, Maryland 13, Off and running
Cal, Best start season with romp over Terps
San Francisco Chronicle
September 6, 2009
Cal jump-started its night by sending JAHVID BEST dashing downfield and staggering into the end zone. No great surprise there. But QUARTERBACK KEVIN RILEY also got involved, flinging four touchdown passes as the Bears rolled in Saturday night's season opener against Maryland.
Riley's effort - with ample help from his wide receivers - probably counted as the most significant element of Cal's 52-13 rout before 62,367 spectators at Memorial Stadium. If the Bears want to turn rampant preseason optimism into tangible results, they need Riley and the passing game to click.
It sprung to life on this night as Cal, ranked 12th in the nation, cruised to an impressive victory. Best ran for 137 yards (on 10 carries), Riley threw for 298 more and Cal's defense smothered the Terrapins, not allowing a touchdown until the win was safely in hand.
"I thought Kevin was really sharp," COACH JEFF TEDFORD said. "He made good decisions and didn't force passes. He played really solid tonight."... Full Story