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Wednesday, 16 September 2009
1. Walkout called over UC budget cuts
San Francisco Chronicle
September 16, 2009
San Francisco -- Hundreds of faculty, students and staff from the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA'S 10 CAMPUSES are calling for a systemwide walkout Sept. 24 to protest UC's handling of its budget crisis.
The protest is intended to disrupt classes to call attention to the deep impact of millions of dollars of budget cuts on the quality of education throughout the UC system....
UC's governing Board of Regents is meeting in San Francisco today and will hear a proposal by UC President Mark Yudof to raise student tuition by about 30 percent by fall 2010. The university says it is trying to close a budget shortfall of at least $753 million for this year and next....
"I'm absolutely supporting this walkout, and am working to educate other graduate students about it," said ANNIE MCCLANAHAN, A DOCTORAL STUDENT IN ENGLISH AT UC BERKELEY who is organizing a noon rally on Sproul Plaza on the day of the walkout against employee pay cuts and student tuition hikes.
McClanahan said she knows of many faculty members who, instead of walking out of class, say they will use the day to teach their students about UC's budget crisis.... Full Story
2. Heinz Awards honor environmental heroes
USA Today Online
September 15, 2009
Ten American who are working to create a "cleaner, greener and more sustainable planet" are each the recipients of $100,000 from the annual Heinz Awards, announced today.
The awards are given by the Heinz Family Foundation in memory of the late Senator John Heinz. (Chair Teresa Heinz, is the wife of Sen. John Kerry.) In past years the awards were given in several categories, but this year they have a single focus, the environment. The winners are:...
ASHOK GADGIL
58, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, Calif.)
GADGIL IS A PROFESSOR OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AT BERKELEY and leads a group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that works to understand airflow and pollutant transport in buildings. His work helps reduce health risks in developing countries. Gadgil is also known for creating simple inventions to solve fundamental problems in developing countries, such as an inexpensive and reliable water purification system and an improved cook stove for Darfur.
KIRK R. SMITH
62, University of California, Berkeley, (Berkeley, Calif.)
[UC BERKELEY PUBLIC HEALTH PROFESSOR] SMITH's research documents the dangerous relationships among household fuels, public health and climate. Smith was among the first to recognize and quantify the magnitude of the pollution exposure received by the poorest women and children in developing countries as a result of cooking indoors with wood and coal. He has pioneered ways to measure and compare the effects, showing both the tremendous costs of ignoring the problems of indoor air pollution....
[Stories on this topic have appeared in numerous sources nationwide, including Time Magazine Online] Full Story
3. Ear to the Universe starts listening
US radio array starts its search for extraterrestrial life.
Nature
September 16, 2009
A large array of radio telescopes has begun its first sustained search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and at rates faster than ever before. Even so, the project has scrambled to find money to stay open and reach its planned size. "We've had a chequered time here," says [UC BERKELEY ASTRONOMY PROFESSOR] DON BACKER, director of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in Hat Creek, California. "We're skating on thin ice."
The ATA has 42 six-metre dishes swivelling in the high desert, far fewer than the 350 dishes planned. In May, the array began combing the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy for alien signals across a broad slice of the radio spectrum. The effort comes 50 years after the concept of SETI was invented....
Previous searches relied on weeks-long observing runs at facilities such as the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The last major search, Project Phoenix — run by the SETI Institute of Mountain View, California — ended in 2004 and required a decade to check 800 stars across a narrow frequency range. The ATA scans the sky much more quickly, allowing a million stars to be checked in just a few decades, says astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI INSTITUTE, WHICH OPERATES THE ATA JOINTLY WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. Shostak says sampling a million stars would offer a good chance of striking on one of the 10,000 intelligent civilizations that might be broadcasting in the Milky Way, according to an estimate by Frank Drake, who in 1960 developed a formula to estimate this number....
Backer has a proposal before the NSF to double the number of dishes to 84. The request would match $6 million in NSF money with $5 million committed by five donors, including the Allen Foundation and Taiwan's Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Backer says a decision is due before the end of the year. Full Story
4. Editorial: SETI at 50
Despite the long odds against success, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has come a long way.
Nature
September 16, 2009
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), a research discipline that celebrates the 50th anniversary of its inaugural publication this week (see page 345), has always sat at the edge of mainstream astronomy. This is partly because, no matter how scientifically rigorous its practitioners try to be, SETI can't escape an association with UFO believers and other such crackpots. But it is also because SETI is arguably not a falsifiable experiment.
Regardless of how exhaustively the Galaxy is searched, the null result of radio silence doesn't rule out the existence of alien civilizations. It means only that those civilizations might not be using radio to communicate. Indeed, SETI is marked by a hope, bordering on faith, that not only are there civilizations broadcasting out there, but that they are somehow intent on beaming their signals at Earth. An alien SETI project relying on a similar faith in Earth would be sorely disappointed. It's true that a random mix of radar and television signals has been expanding outwards from Earth at the speed of light for the past 70 years. But there have been only a few short-lived attempts to target radio messages at other stars — with each attempt arousing concerns over alien reprisals. Understandably, many scientists who support SETI in spirit have instead pursued astronomical targets more likely to offer positive data — and tenure. Governments have also been averse to funding an effort so likely to turn up nothing....
Nonetheless, a small SETI effort is well worth supporting, especially given the enormous implications if it did succeed. And happily, a handful of wealthy technologists and other private donors have proved willing to provide that support. ... Full Story
5. Op-Ed: An alien concept
Fifty years ago this week, a Nature paper legitimized the idea that there could be civilizations elsewhere, able to communicate and wanting to contact us. Fred Kaplan reflects on its origins, impacts and legacy.
Nature
September 16, 2009
On 19 September 1959, Nature published an article called 'Searching for Interstellar Communication'. Speculation about life in space had been taboo in scientific circles since Percival Lowell wrecked his career in the late nineteenth century by claiming to have detected canals on Mars. Yet here was an article by two of the era's pre-eminent physicists, Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison reviving, and legitimizing, the idea that we might we not be alone in the Universe — and that we might soon discover our cohabitants....
Sceptics cite the Fermi paradox, named for the physicist Enrico Fermi, who asked: if there are intelligent civilizations out there, why haven't we seen them? Indeed, in the 50 years since the search began, nothing has been heard. (There was one signal in the 1970s, picked up briefly by 'Big Ear', but its origin remains unclear.) But Jill Tarter, director of the institute's Center for SETI Research, argues that the absence of a signal hardly constitutes a paradox. Serious data-gathering, by far-seeing radio telescopes and digital processing, has been going on for barely a decade. She likens the nay-sayers to someone who dips an eight-ounce glass into the ocean, brings it up empty, and concludes that the oceans have no fish. Full Story
6. Breaking Language Barriers in Health Care
California Progress Report
September 15, 2009
For someone with limited English, using typed medication directions instead of hand written directions can make a huge difference in understanding medical instructions.
Approximately 6 to 7 million Californians--20 percent--have limited English proficiency (LEP), meaning these individuals cannot speak English well or cannot speak English at all....
THE CALIFORNIA PROGRAM ON ACCESS TO CARE (CPAC), PART OF UC BERKELEY’S SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, recently funded a study entitled California’s Limited English Proficient Population (LEP) and Strategies to Promote Health Care Access. The study’s authors, UC BERKELEY RESEARCHERS MARY MASLAND AND LONNIE SNOWDEN, identified California’s various limited English proficient groups by language and birth country. They then assessed health care difficulties and evaluated strategies to increase health care understanding for LEP groups.
The study found that using language resources effectively for education outreach and patient-doctor communication can make a real difference in health care outcomes for limited English proficient groups. ... Full Story
7. With science journalism in retreat, universities try new strategy for informing the public
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
September 16, 2009
Concerned that journalism's economic problems are reducing Americans' understanding of science, medicine and other research, 35 of the nation's top universities — including Stanford and UC-BERKELEY — on Tuesday announced they will feed their own accounts of their discoveries directly to top news sites on the Internet.
Under the plan, the universities have formed what is essentially their own nonprofit wire service, called Futurity, to provide articles to popular Web sites such as Yahoo News and Google News, along with MySpace and Twitter....
"It's ironic that we have fewer writers in our major media focusing on science, while we have ever more issues that have a science base — from climate change to the health care debate, stem cells, evolution and swine flu — many of which are very controversial," said Cristine Russell, a former Washington Post science reporter who is president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.
As for the new university consortium, she said: "This can be a really good source of information for students and others who are looking for information. But it does not replace the independent news media."
[This story also appeared in the San Jose Mercury News] Full Story
8. In Search of Cachet
Online programs from top-notch schools gain, as students look to add luster to their résumés
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
September 16, 2009
Many people are finding there's a way to get some of the benefits of an M.B.A. degree from a top-flight school but at a fraction of the usual cost. They're heading online.
Instead of sitting in a classroom, they're taking career-specific courses and certificate programs over the Web that enable them to put a prestigious name on their résumé without breaking the bank or upending their schedule....
In addition to Cornell, such well-known schools as Boston University, Pennsylvania State University and the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY have introduced business-related certificates to their online offerings. A handful of other big schools, such as the University of Notre Dame, the University of San Francisco, Tulane and Villanova, are offering certificate programs through partnerships with University Alliance, a Tampa-based group that provides the marketing and technology for schools' online efforts....
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
9. Op-Ed Column: History shows targeting the CIA is perilous move
Philadelphia Inquirer
September 16, 2009
A young, fresh face campaigns for the presidency by attacking the CIA: "Our government should justify the character and moral principles of the American people, and our foreign policy should not short-circuit that for temporary advantage," he says. He promises to never "do anything as president that would be a contravention of the moral and ethical standards that I would exemplify in my own life as an individual."
He wins the election and begins to decimate the intelligence agencies. Barack Obama? No. Jimmy Carter.
The Carter administration's national-security record should not serve as a model for any president. But unless Obama changes course, he risks duplicating the intelligence disasters of the '70s, and endangering the nation....
[This commentary also appeared in the Sacramento Bee] Full Story
10. The Situation Room: Bi-Partisan Deal on Health Care Could Be Near...
CNN
September 14, 2009
Wolf Blitzer, CNN Anchor: ... There are signs the U.S. economy is sputtering back to life, but how much credit does President Obama deserve for any improvements? We are going to ask the former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and the Forbes CEO, Steve Forbes. They are standing by for a debate....
Joining us now, professor ROBERT REICH. He's the author of "Supercapitalism." He's a PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY, a former Clinton administration labor secretary. And Steve Forbes, he's the president and CEO of Forbes Incorporated. He's the co-author of a brand-new book as well entitled "Power, Ambition and Glory."...
How much credit does President Obama deserve for the economic improvement, shall we say, over the past year?...
Reich: Look, I -- I do agree with Steve Forbes that things are looking better. The administration does deserve credit for bringing the financial crisis back from the brink. And, also, that stimulus program does seem to have had an effect. Although the spending part of it has not really done very much yet, much of it that is out there really has stimulated the economy.
Let me just say that the health care reforms that the president is talking about will go some way to continuing to stimulate the economy, simply because Americans are now spending so much on co- payments and deductibles and premiums that, if that could be lowered, if they could actually get better deals, that would give them more money to spend on other things in the economy. And that's going to be stimulative....
[Link to transcript only] Full Story
11. Capitol Alert Blog: Senate Dems react to Schwarzenegger's renewable energy order
Sacramento Bee Online
September 15, 2009
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Pato Alto, sent a letter today to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging him to reconsider pursuing a legislative mandate for boosting the state's reliance on solar, wind and other renewable energy sources....
Dear Governor:
We are writing to request that you join us immediately and adopt an enforceable law to ensure California's global leadership in implementing a 33% renewable portfolio standard (RPS) by signing SB 14 (Simitian) and AB 64 (Krekorian) into law....
In our view, it is essential to green businesses and the renewable energy investment community which bring jobs and capital into California, that California's 33% RPS be statutorily established and not subject to the whims of changing administrations.
According to the Next 10 Report, "Energy Pathways for the CA Economy [ROLAND-HOLST UC BERKELEY June 2009]," an aggressively implemented RPS could generate over 500,000 new California green jobs and over $100 billion in payroll over the next several decades. These are high wage jobs that will help the California economy recover from its severe recession.... Full Story
12. Bill Clinton Endorses Newsom In Governor’s Race
KTVU Online
September 15, 2009
San Francisco -- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that he has former President Bill Clinton's support in his campaign for California governor....
Recent polls show Newsom trailing far behind Attorney General Jerry Brown, although Brown has not officially announced his candidacy....
JACK CITRIN, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, said Clinton's support will boost Newsom's fundraising power and may bring additional endorsements.
"From the point of view of Newsom's campaign, (Clinton is) obviously an asset," Citrin said. "But the other question really is, how big of an asset? What does it really translate into? And I think that is much harder to assess."
Asked whether Clinton's support would enable Newsom to catch up to Brown in the polls, Citrin answered quickly, "No."
"In and of itself, it's not going to make a major impact ... I doubt that many primary voters would be swayed," Citrin said. Full Story
13. Obama's stimulus money will increase traffic, but not bridge safety
SF Weekly
September 14, 2009
For the thousands of drivers forging across the Bay Bridge at 6:30 a.m., Tuesday, Sept. 8, was the day government got it right. Inspectors noticed a cracked strut amid a gargantuan retrofit project over Labor Day weekend. Round-the-clock workers did their magic. And California's oft-maligned government proved that it isn't so incompetent after all.
If only. Notwithstanding the Bay Bridge miracle, the subject of bridge repair is one that actually illustrates just how dysfunctional government has become....
In February, Democrats in the state legislature were forced to prostrate themselves before a single man, Senator Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria), to get a budget passed. This meant forgoing a 12-cent gasoline tax, despite the fact that the tax hasn't been raised since 1989 and that the money largely goes toward fixing roads and bridges. Budget negotiators said a portion of the $1.6 billion in forgone gas tax money would be replaced by money from the stimulus. The overall state budget shortfall now means borrowed stimulus money will help pay for scheduled road maintenance.
From a policy standpoint, this is outrageous. Economists disagree on many things, but not on the wisdom of raising the gas tax. "Given all the problems associated with gasoline consumption — congestion, global warming, national security, pollution, damage to roads — a sufficient tax on this activity is the most efficient way to cause people to take these costs into account," said ALAN AUERBACH, UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND LAW AND DIRECTOR OF THE ROBERT D. BURCH CENTER FOR TAX POLICY AND PUBLIC FINANCE.... Full Story
14. UC-Berkeley creates investment management unit
Pensions & Investments
September 15, 2009
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY FOUNDATION today launched an investment management subsidiary, UC BERKELEY MANAGEMENT CO., to manage the $738 million portion of the university's $2.3 billion endowment not overseen by the University of California regents, confirmed SPOKESMAN JOSE RODRIGUEZ.
The foundation's announcement, which appeared on its website today, called the launch the culmination of a “long-standing goal” to move to a professional management structure, because of the greater complexity that endowments in excess of $500 million require. The foundation had previously relied on a volunteer investment committee to oversee investments....
The investment management company is independent of the University of California, Berkeley. It was set up with the backing of a $3 million contribution from the Hewlett Foundation.... Full Story
15. Op-Ed Column: How the 'Snow-Woman Effect' Slows Women's Progress
Balancing Act Illustration Careers
Chronicle of Higher Education (*requires registration)
September 16, 2009
The percentage of college presidents who are women more than doubled in the 20 years between 1986 and 2006, according to the American Council on Education's most recent American College President Study of 2,148 colleges. That is the good news. The bad news is that women's progress has slowed in recent years. The other bad news is that only 63 percent of female presidents surveyed were married, compared with 89 percent of their male counterparts. "Twenty-four percent of women presidents are either divorced or were never married (excluding members of religious orders)," an ACE statement on the study said. "Only 7 percent of male presidents fall into these categories." The report does not mention the percentage who have children.
I applaud the strong women who have reached the top positions in their colleges and universities, sometimes at great personal sacrifice. I know that they face many challenges breaking into the male leadership culture, including walking the tightrope of being assertive while not being perceived as aggressive.
Often subtle discrimination is rooted in gender stereotypes—especially when it comes to the "leadership issue." Female candidates are purportedly passed up for promotions based on a conscious or unconscious belief that women do not have what it takes to lead men. The English reputedly have a test for that kind of leadership—"Who among you would kill the tiger if attacked?"...
Running a large organization like a college or university may be as perilous as tiger hunting. Doesn't it make sense that a group working cooperatively rather than competitively can more effectively kill the tiger and live to tell about it? And maybe a rethinking of the social networks to be more inclusive of parents with family commitments would encourage those parents to take on more leadership roles.
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
16. Hand-Washing Won’t Stop H1N1
It's become conventional wisdom that simple soap and water can protect against the flu, but the science suggests otherwise.
Newsweek
September 15, 2009
In a speech to schoolchildren last week that had some conservative opponents up in arms, President Obama delivered at least one line that seemed incontestable: "I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter." ...
...But while hand-washing has been shown to be a great defense against the common cold and other respiratory diseases, it might not actually be that helpful against the influenza virus, including the H1N1 strain.
That's because there is virtually no evidence that people can catch the influenza virus from germs that they pick up on their hands, according to ARTHUR REINGOLD, HEAD OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, and codirector of the CDC-funded California Emerging Infections Program. Instead, humans are most likely to catch influenza by breathing in microscopic particles exhaled by infected people.
Reingold and other epidemiologists don't discount hand-washing as an important tool in public health: there is plenty of evidence that it prevents other nasty bugs, including the common cold, many respiratory infections, and viruses that cause diarrhea. But Reingold is bothered by the lack of science supporting the CDC's message, and he worries that the emphasis on a simple measure like hand-washing creates a false sense of security from H1N1 and tamps down the discussion of more difficult preventive measures. He said as much in an e-mail to the CDC this May. "I wouldn't care so much that we might be getting folks to improve handwashing . . . with what is likely to be incorrect information about its ability to prevent influenza" if the media and the court of public opinion weren't so quick to embrace it as the only solution at the expense of things like surgical masks, wrote Reingold in his letter to the CDC. While Reingold admits he doesn't know if masks would reduce transmission of the virus, he hypothesizes that they're more likely to be helpful containing exposure to the airborne virus than hand-washing, and should not be so easily discounted. (Other experts are skeptical of face masks because it's difficult to ensure proper use, or that people will wear them in the first place.)...
Nevertheless, hand-washing is still your best defense against getting sick generally this fall—colds and other respiratory diseases are no fun, even if they don't sound as scary as swine flu. For that and other flu viruses, don't seek solutions at the sink: your best chance of avoiding H1N1 this fall is to get the vaccine once it becomes available. Full Story
17. Paper Trail Blog: Journalism Students Go Pro
U.S. News & World Report Online
September 08, 2009
Articles written and produced by some of the nation's top journalism students are being distributed to major media outlets including the New York Times, CNN, and Gannett through a program run by Arizona State University's journalism school, the Associated Press reports.
The News 21 initiative, which operates through ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, trains students to present news in innovative ways. Each of the 60 stories already completed involves both a "Changing America" theme and multimedia components like photo slide shows and video.
Initiative participants from Columbia University, the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY, and other schools spent 10 weeks this summer reporting on topics such as the nation's inefficient energy grid and the tough decisions college-educated young adults must make in a weak economy. This year marks News 21's fourth in operation, at a time when many major media outlets are rethinking their structure and refocusing their efforts on the Web and multimedia storytelling just as the News 21 students did. Full Story
18. Origins Blog: Ancient DNA
25 Years of Agony and Ecstasy
Science Magazine Online
September 16, 2009
In 1984, A TEAM LED BY ALLAN WILSON OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, made scientific history: It published the first partial sequences of ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), from a museum specimen of the quagga, a zebralike animal that had gone extinct almost exactly 100 years before. Thus was born the field of paleogenetics, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Over that quarter of a century, ancient DNA studies have opened new doors to our understanding of human evolution, tracked ancient diseases and the spread of farming, and unraveled the complex phylogenies of woolly mammoths and the bear family. But along with the triumphs have come setbacks and occasional disasters, as paleogeneticists have discovered to their chagrin how easily ancient DNA samples can become degraded and contaminated with modern DNA, giving rise to erroneous and misleading conclusions.
At her opening talk to an ancient DNA meeting this week in Paris,* Eva-Maria Geigl of the Jacques Monod Institute in Paris toured this tumultuous history. Geigl, who organizes an international meeting of ancient DNA experts in Paris every 3 years, pointed out that the field had a “tormented youth.” Just 3 years after extracting mtDNA from the quagga, Wilson’s team discovered that some of its sequences had undergone chemical alteration after the animal died, complicating attempts to figure out how closely related the extinct animal was to living horses and zebras. And in 1994, the claims of a research team to have sequenced dinosaur DNA—later discovered to be human contamination—nearly led to the premature death of paleogenetics. “DNA damage and DNA contamination almost killed the field,” Geigl said.... Full Story
19. Public memorial at UC Berkeley on Friday for Ronald Takaki
Oakland Tribune
September 16, 2009
Berkeley — A public memorial service for RONALD TAKAKI, WHO TAUGHT ETHNIC STUDIES AT UC BERKELEY for more than 35 years, is planned for Friday....
Takaki was a scholar of U.S. race relations who taught the first black history course in the UC system, university officials said. The memorial service is from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday in the Chevron Auditorium at the International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. in Berkeley. A reception will be from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Friday in the Ethnic Studies Library in Room 30 of Stephens Hall on the UC Berkeley campus.
Speakers will include members of Takaki's family and members of the UC BERKELEY DEPARTMENT OF ETHNIC STUDIES, as well as UC Berkeley HISTORY PROFESSOR EMERITUS LEON LITWACK. There also will be a video remembrance of Takaki. Ukulele music and the hula will be performed in honor of Takaki's Hawaiian roots.
Takaki once advised former President Bill Clinton on writing a major speech on race, and when he died earlier this year was remembered as a distinguished historian, scholar, author and speaker who helped develop an undergraduate ethnic studies major at UC Berkeley and the nation's first ethnic studies doctoral program. He also wrote 12 books.
[This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times] Full Story
20. Bee-friendly garden a hive of activity for show
San Francisco Chronicle
September 16, 2009
In one part of Shirley Watts' open-air Alameda workshop, hundreds of bees hover over a bank of potted flowers - a sea of yellow, burnt orange and gold. In another corner, a grouping of handmade, cast-concrete stools await their finishing touch: a generous splash of resin which coats the hexagon-shaped top and drips languorously down the sides before it sets. Cabinetmaker Ross Craig turns up and carefully unloads from his truck a curved redwood structure framing a honeycomb-like screen. Watts is working on the installation of a garden for the "Late Show Gardens" event Friday through Sunday in Sonoma - and there can be little doubt what the theme is going to be.
"We are designing around the theme of bees - both honeybees and native bees," confirms Watts, who adds she was keen to participate in this new garden show because of its earnest focus on sustainability....
Also on the team are architect Andrew Kudless and native bee expert JAIME PAWELEK, WHO WORKS AT UC BERKELEY'S URBAN BEE LAB. Guided by Pawelek's expertise, Watts selected a diverse mix of bee-friendly flowers. These include several varieties of sunflowers, daisies and asters, black-eyed Susans, buddleia and dahlias, as well as squash. The ground is to be left bare because most native California bees make their nests in underground tunnels and will not excavate through mulch, eco-friendly though it is, or soil blanketed in black plastic....
Watts is providing lots of seating and olive trees for shade and hopes people will stick around. And for those concerned about being stung? Listen to Pawelek who has not been stung in the three years she has worked with bees at UC Berkeley. "Their first line of defense is to fly away," she says - probably not something you will want to do once you discover Watts' garden. Full Story
21. Dorm cooking lets college kids go gourmet
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
September 16, 2009
There's more to the college experience than fascinating lectures, frat parties and pricey textbooks. There's all that ramen, for one thing.
Mom and Dad may have paid for a dorm meal plan, but dining hall hours don't always jibe with student schedules or tastes, for that matter. Many students find themselves on the wrong side of campus, or still in class, when the cafeteria closes. Late night study sessions require refueling. And a pizza-based diet gets old — and fattening — quickly.
So here are some fresh cooking ideas that will be equally at home at the big U or in harried non-college households, too.
Start, says Belmont chef Gigi Gaggero, by identifying what's available and developing a repertoire of easy to prepare dishes.
These days, that's easy to do. California's love affair with local, seasonal fare means farmers markets are popping up not just in urban centers, but on college campuses too, from UC Davis to the College of San Mateo's twice-weekly market, where students were encouraged to "Shake Your Pom Poms" — as in pomegranates — last week. San Jose State University and UC BERKELEY STUDENTS can stroll to farmers markets mere blocks off campus....
Of course, many vegetables can be cooked in their entirety in the microwave. KAREN ROGERS GRADUATED FROM UC BERKELEY last year, but the Berkeley resident still remembers slicing eggplant, drizzling it with olive oil, salt and a pinch of garlic powder.
"It was simple, healthy, and only required seven minutes in the microwave," she says. "Another favorite was sweet potatoes sweetened with brown sugar and dabbled with butter. All I had to do was poke the sweet potatoes with a fork and pop them in the oven for 10 minutes before they were soft."... Full Story