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Wednesday, 30 September 2009
1. Advertising: Two-Thirds of Americans Object to Online Tracking
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
September 30, 2009
About two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers — and that number rises once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements, according to a new survey from professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
The professors say they believe the study, scheduled for release on Wednesday, is the first independent, nationally representative telephone survey on behavioral advertising.
The topic may be technical, but it has become a hot political issue. Privacy advocates are telling Congress and the Federal Trade Commission that tracking of online activities by Web sites and advertisers has gone too far, and the lawmakers seem to be listening....
“We sometimes think that the younger adults in the United States don’t care about this stuff, and I would suggest that’s an exaggeration,” said Joseph Turow, lead author of the study and a professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. His co-authors are PROFESSORS AT BERKELEY’S LAW SCHOOL and at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania....
[A blog on this topic appeared in Adweek Online] Full Story
2. Method to monitor quake fault strength eyed
San Francisco Chronicle
September 30, 2009
Los Angeles, (AP) -- Scientists are releasing results of a study aimed at gauging the strength of earthquake faults, which could help them pinpoint weak ones at risk of breaking and unleashing temblors.
Earthquakes are caused by a sudden slip on a fault. This occurs because of stress buildup that causes the fault to fail or a weakening of the fault itself.
Until now, scientists have not been able to measure a fault's strength directly, said TAKA'AKI TAIRA OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, who led the study.
Taira and his team analyzed 20 years of data at Parkfield, which sits on the mighty San Andreas Fault halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It's the most studied earthquake zone in the world, rigged with sensitive instruments to detect minute changes in the Earth's crust....
[This story appeared in dozens of sources worldwide, including the Contra Costa Times and Sacramento Bee] Full Story
3. Scientists discover how to reverse the ageing process
Daily Mail [UK]
September 30, 2009
A way to reverse the ageing process by making muscles young again has been discovered by scientists.
They successfully rejuvenated damaged muscles by boosting a protein that increased stem cells which repaired the muscles.
Now it is hoped that a muscle-boosting drug can be developed to slow the ageing process....
The U.S. and Danish researchers studied the ability of stem cells - 'master cells' that repair damaged tissue - to build muscle....
'Two weeks of immobilisation only mildly affected young muscle, in terms of tissue maintenance and functionality, whereas old muscle began to atrophy and manifest signs of rapid tissue deterioration,' said UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY RESEARCHER DR MORGAN CARLSON....
PROFESSOR IRINA CONBOY, ALSO OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, said: 'Our study shows that the ability of old human muscle to be maintained and repaired by muscle stem cells can be restored to youthful vigour given the right mix of biochemical signals.'... Full Story
4. Study Highlights HIV/AIDS Challenge In American Prison System
Red Orbit
September 30, 2009
Researchers at MUHC/McGill and colleagues at UCSF have evaluated the effectiveness of HIV treatment in patients who enter and leave prison
HIV/Aids is up to five times more prevalent in American prisons than in the general population. Adherence to treatment programs can be strictly monitored in prison. However, once prisoners are released, medical monitoring becomes problematic. A new study by Dr. Nitika Pant Pai – an Assistant professor of Medicine and a medical scientist at the Research Institute of the MUHC – suggests the majority (76%) of inmates take their antiretroviral treatment (ART) intermittently once they leave prison, representing a higher risk to the general population....
"This research is the first observational study in American prisons to evaluate the impact of antiretroviral treatment (ART) over a nine year period. It demonstrates the need for effective community transition and prison release programs to optimize ART given in jails," explains Dr. Pant Pai.
Partners: This article was co-authored by Dr. Nitika Pant Pai, Infection and Immunity Axis at the RI-MUHC, Dr. Milton Estes, Forensic AIDS Project, Department of Public Health, San Francisco, Dr. Erica E.M. Moodie, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University, DR. ARTHUR L REINGOLD, EPIDEMIOLOGY DIVISION, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, USA, Dr. Jacqueline P Tulsky, University of California, San Francisco, Positive Health Program, San Francisco General Hospital, USA.... Full Story
5. Cal Prepared to Treat Student Gambling Addictions
KCBS Radio
September 30, 2009
Berkeley, Calif. (KCBS) -- Administrators deal with alcohol abuse on college campuses, but may often forget about the problem of gambling. Now, new recommendations are available to help the nations colleges curb gambling among students.
According to a national gambling task force, just over 20 percent of colleges in the U.S. have written gambling polices, and DEAN OF STUDENTS JONATHAN POULLARD SAYS THAT UC BERKELEY could be counted among them.
"We even have rules set up, for example, with some of the programming that our students do with their fundraising where they can't gamble, because we don't want that kind of behavior to become the norm within the campus culture," said Poullard.
Poullard says Cal's polices fall within the Berkeley Campus Regulations....
"For those individuals who are suffering from any kind of addiction, whether it's food, gambling, alcohol, sex, it can have repercussions for that person's well-being," said Poullard, who adds that on-campus counseling services are available....
[Link to audio] Full Story
6. Letter to the Editor: Dear Old Bailout U.
Washington Post
September 30, 2009
What are ROBERT J. BIRGENEAU and FRANK D. YEARY thinking ["Rescuing Our Public Universities," op-ed, Sept. 27]? The federal government is nearly $12 trillion in debt, and they want it to spend how many more billions in unrestricted grants to "a limited number of our great public research and teaching universities" for "basic operating support"?
This sounds like little more than a plea for taxpayers across the country to pony up more money for the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. If California taxpayers, parents of students and private-sector donors won't pay the bills, perhaps Mr. Birgeneau and Mr. Yeary should cut spending instead.
Charles M. Watkins
Arlington Full Story
7. Blog: Can the U.S. have its cake and eat it too, in higher education?
San Francisco Chronicle
September 30, 2009
The United States has long been a top destination for foreign students and Silicon Valley companies are filled with men and women who came for schooling and stayed to start companies.
On Thursday, a seminar at UC BERKELEY will argue that the U.S. is now losing ground in the global competition for talent and reject the notion that it is natives against newcomers when it comes to access to higher education.
In the abstract to their presentation JOHN AUBREY DOUGLASS and RICHARD EDELSTEIN FROM THE CENTER FOR STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION write that:
Attracting talent in a global market and increasing degree production rates of the domestic population are not mutually exclusive goals. Indeed, they will be the hallmarks of the most competitive economies.... Full Story
8. Schwarzenegger lauds new tax plan as business, labor groups denounce it
Sacramento Bee
September 30, 2009
As major Capitol business and labor groups denounced a tax overhaul package released Tuesday by a blue-ribbon commission, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger essentially embraced the plan, whose key components would flatten the state's income tax and install a new form of consumption tax on businesses....
Schwarzenegger stood at a Capitol press conference with two of his appointees, Chairman Gerald Parsky and Hoover Institution fellow John Cogan, as well as Democratic appointee and UC BERKELEY LAW SCHOOL DEAN CHRISTOPHER EDLEY. Nine commissioners supported the plan, but only three of seven Democratic appointees did so. The one Republican appointee who did not sign on was Bill Hauck, president of the California Business Roundtable.... Full Story
9. Q & A: How Schwarzenegger-backed tax plan would affect Californians
Sacramento Bee
September 30, 2009
Despite opposition from business and labor groups, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger embraced a blue-ribbon panel's recommendation Tuesday to flatten the state income tax, eliminate part of the sales tax and install a new form of consumption tax on most firms....
The complex tax package raises numerous questions:
...Why do I care if more firms have to pay taxes?
The presumption is that firms would pass on the new tax burden to consumers through higher prices. Because companies could not deduct salaries or benefits, unions also fear employers would cut wages, benefits or jobs.
Conservatives assert that because companies face a lower tax rate - 4 percent compared to the current 8.84 percent corporation tax rate - they would be able to create more jobs. Critics suggest that the plan provides incentive to fire employees and hire independent contractors because contractors are deductible and in-house employees are not.
Commissioner CHRISTOPHER EDLEY, DEAN OF THE UC BERKELEY SCHOOL OF LAW, said the Legislature might deal with this loophole by eliminating deductions for use of contractors who do not pay the new tax....
[UC BERKELEY LAW PROFESSOR DAVID GAMAGE was interviewed for a story on this topic on KQED Radio's California Report--link to audio] Full Story
10. Californians are paying a record 60 cents more for gas than rest of nation
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
September 30, 2009
California motorists are paying 60 cents more for a gallon of gas than motorists nationwide — apparently the biggest gap ever....
"The spread is huge," said SEVERIN BORENSTEIN, DIRECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ENERGY INSTITUTE AT BERKELEY. "This is the time of year when we go into the low driving season and refinery margins fall and prices fall.
"But we're not seeing that in California right now."...
Is there any hope of relief?
Yes, said Borenstein and others.
"This is taking longer than it usually does," he said, "but I think you will see prices in California drop over the next month or two to about 25 cents more than in other states."...
Prices dropped six cents a gallon across the country last week...
Still, said Borenstein, "this is a good time to be a refiner."
[This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune] Full Story
11. Alternative Energy Projects Stumble on a Need for Water
New York Times (*requires registration)
September 30, 2009
Amargosa Valley, Nev. — In a rural corner of Nevada reeling from the recession, a bit of salvation seemed to arrive last year. A German developer, Solar Millennium, announced plans to build two large solar farms here that would harness the sun to generate electricity, creating hundreds of jobs.
But then things got messy. The company revealed that its preferred method of cooling the power plants would consume 1.3 billion gallons of water a year, about 20 percent of this desert valley’s available water....
While water is particularly scarce in the West, it is becoming a problem all over the country as the population grows. DANIEL M. KAMMEN, DIRECTOR OF THE RENEWABLE AND APPROPRIATE ENERGY LABORATORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, predicted that as intensive renewable energy development spreads, water issues will follow.
“When we start getting 20 percent, 30 percent or 40 percent of our power from renewables,” Mr. Kammen said, “water will be a key issue.” Full Story
12. Green Retrofits Through Property Tax: The New Cash for Clunkers?
Green Tech Media
September 30, 2009
A conceivably cheap way to retrofit homes may go nationwide and then global with a little luck.
It could dwarf the Cash for Clunkers program, but, according to its backers, taxpayers won't have to pick up the bill.
PaceNow has launched an effort to popularize PACE – or property assessed clean energy – loans for retrofitting homes and commercial buildings. Unlike conventional loans, the money gets paid back through supplemental property tax assessments, a twist that provides a host of benefits.
Fifteen states including Florida, Texas and Maryland as well as 30 municipalities have already passed PACE programs. Berkeley, Calif. became the first governmental body to issue PACE bonds in January. The House and Senate included provisions inside their versions of Waxman-Markey that would permit the federal government to guarantee the bonds, which would enhance their marketability. If the complete bill fails, the housing provisions along with other sections popular on both sides of the aisles could be segmented into a separate bill. (PaceNow was created by UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR DAN KAMMEN and Cisco DeVries, an expert on alternative energy financing.) But if the federal government passes pending proposals to guarantee PACE bonds, the market could cause consumer demand to explode....
Kammen will deliver a keynote speech on Thursday at West Coast Green in San Francisco. The Hidary Foundation isn't exactly a household name, but you probably know its handiwork. The Cash for Clunkers, program which boosted car sales over the summer emerged from a presentation at the Clinton Global Initiative by Hidary last year and an article written by Hidary and Bracken Hendricks of the Center for American Progress.... Full Story
13. EPA wants more oversight on chemicals
San Francisco Chronicle
September 30, 2009
Tens of thousands of chemicals found in everyday items, from toys and cell phones to food containers and medical devices, would face high levels of federal scrutiny and control under a set of guidelines unveiled Tuesday in San Francisco by President Obama's top environmental official.
The effort to rewrite how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency evaluates and enforces the use of potentially harmful chemicals marks the most significant overhaul of the nation's chemical policies since the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976....
Some scientists, however, expressed concern that the EPA's effort could get bogged down in the Beltway morass.
"Just like climate change legislation and health care reform have not been easy to achieve, my guess is it won't be easy to achieve toxic chemical reform," said ARLENE BLUM, founder of the Green Science Policy Institute in Berkeley and a VISITING SCHOLAR WITH UC BERKELEY'S DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY. "Jackson will need a lot of support from the public, scientists and industry." Full Story
14. Media Decoder Blog: Nonprofit Journalism: Not Necessarily on the Cheap
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
September 30, 2009
Writing at Reflections of a Newsosaur, [UC BERKELEY JOURNALISM LECTURER] ALAN D. MUTTER suggests that not all nonprofit journalistic models are created equal. In a piece posted on Tuesday, he compared Pro Publica, a robust, well-funded site in New York with a budget that will reach $9 million this year with Chi-Town Daily News, a boot-strapped enterprise that never reached its goal of $300,000 and laid off its staff of five this month.
When it comes to getting on the tin-cup on behalf of civic-minded journalism, Mr. Mutter writes that Pro Publica is second only to National Public Radio, with the lion’s share of the money coming from $30 million provided by Marion and Herbert Sandler of San Francisco. (In part one of the two-part series, Mr. Mutter reported that there were several other large muscled journalistic dot-orgs coming on line, including the Texas Tribune and a new partnership in San Francisco headed up by philanthropist Warren Hellman called The Bay Area News Project with partners including KQED and the GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY.)... Full Story
15. Blog: The VC, The Professor, And The Valley Of Death
Washington Post Online
September 29, 2009
Everyone seems to be waiting for the next great discovery which will change the world. But, believe it or not, the next Internet, semiconductor, or breakthrough in MRI technology may already have been discovered. It's just languishing on the shelves of the university research labs you drive by on your way to work every day. University researchers don't know how to commercialize their discoveries and smart, hungry entrepreneurs looking to meet the next Larry or Sergey don't know how to find them. These parallel universes rarely meet (well, except sometimes at Stanford).
In 2007, U.S. universities performed $48.8 billion of research and filed 17,589 U.S. patent applications. In that same year universities received back revenues for licensing and royalties on patents of less than $2 billion. Those revenues include ongoing royalties from all of the research licensed over the past 40 years. The implication is clear. An astonishing amount of promising research is left in the lab....
The challenge is to create a bridge between these researchers and the VCs or idea-seeking entrepreneurs who know to turn an idea into an invention. Many of the ideas and breakthroughs are easy to exploit and just require enterprising minds to come together with inquiring minds. But others require the investment and support which only VCs can provide. (Hey, I never said that venture capital didn't serve an important purpose, just that VC s don't innovate.)... Full Story
16. Op-Ed: The anti-history boys
Business World Online
September 30, 2009
Berkeley — If you asked a modern economic historian like me why the world is currently in the grips of a financial crisis and a deep economic downturn, I would tell you that this is the latest episode in a long history of similar bubbles, crashes, crises, and recessions....
I will not say that this is the pattern of all recessions; it isn’t. But I will say that this is the pattern of this recession, and that we have been here before.
But if you ask the same question of a modern macroeconomist ... you will find that he says that he does not know, and that macroeconomic models attribute economic downturns to various causes....
This is not to say that the macroeconomic model-building of the past generation has been pointless. But I do think that modern macroeconomists need to be rounded up, on pain of loss of tenure, and sent to a year-long boot camp with the assembled monetary historians of the world as their drill sergeants. They need to listen to and learn from Dick Sylla about Alexander Hamilton’s bank rescue of 1825; from Charlie Calomiris about the Overend, Gurney crisis; from Michael Bordo about the first bankruptcy of Baring brothers; and from [UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR] BARRY EICHENGREEN, [UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR (ON LEAVE)] CHRISTY ROMER, and Ben Bernanke about the Great Depression.... Full Story
17. Wyndham May Buy Hotel Brands, Competitors’ Operations
Bloomberg
September 30, 2009
Wyndham Worldwide Corp., the franchiser of Days Inn hotels and Super 8 motels, plans to buy more brands or acquire the operations of struggling competitors, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Holmes said.
“There’s quite a bit of distressed real estate,” said Holmes, 52, in a Sept. 28 interview at Wyndham’s Parsippany, New Jersey, headquarters. “It’s an opportunity to add new brands or convert underperforming hotels” to a Wyndham brand.
The U.S. recession may cause as many as one in five hotel loans to default through 2010 as companies spend less on travel and perks, according to KENNETH ROSEN, WHO HEADS THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA’S FISHER CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE AND URBAN ECONOMICS IN BERKELEY.... Full Story
18. Forum with Michael Krasny: Electronic Billboards on Market St.
KQED Radio
September 30, 2009
Can electronic billboards revitalize a run-down neighborhood? That's what some Market Street corridor commercial property owners in San Francisco are claiming. They've put a proposition on the November ballot that could clear the way for new digital billboards. We talk with proponents and opponents of the measure.
Guests:
...KAREN CHAPPLE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING AND DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR COMMUNITY INNOVATION AT UC BERKELEY...
[Link to audio] Full Story
19. Throat infection may have brought down T. rex
Scientists studying Sue, the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton at Chicago's Field Museum, find evidence of a parasite that infects modern birds of prey. Sue's throat could have swollen until she starved.
Los Angeles Times
September 30, 2009
Did Sue the dinosaur die of a really bad sore throat?
An international team of scientists thinks so after studying holes in the jaw of the 13-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton on display at the Field Museum in Chicago.
"It's a distinct possibility that Sue died of starvation by a substantial infection in the back of the throat" brought on by a tiny parasite, said Ewan Wolff, a paleontologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author of a paper describing the team's findings published Tuesday in the online science journal PloS One....
"People have speculated in the past about the holes in the jaw," said MARK GOODWIN, A PALEONTOLOGIST AT UC BERKELEY. "The strength of this paper is that it presents a hypothesis and tests it."... Full Story
20. Cultivating Justice
UCLA Magazine
October 1, 2009
He's organized a hunger strike for gardeners but he's also written children's stories. He's an accomplished academic but also a passionate activist who in 2005 was honored with the Charles E. Young Humanitarian Award for creating the Gardener Leadership Development Project. ALVARO HUERTA '03, M.A. '06 is the face of the new America, bridging the gap between scholarship and social activism, bringing to both the insights and perspective of a son of Mexican immigrants.
HUERTA, CURRENTLY STUDYING CITY AND URBAN PLANNING AT UC BERKELEY and a visiting scholar at UCLA's Chicano Studies Research Center, says his goal is to understand "how people find ways to make an honest living and collect census information of undocumented workers, to figure out how they organize and how they survive in a hostile economy."
"He's heading into an entirely new type of work, what I'd call an academic practitioner," says Leo Estrada, a professor in the Department of Urban Planning, who has known Huerta for over eight years. "He conducts research, writes, and teaches, but also has a foot in the community. He's created this new kind of entity."... Full Story
21. Swiss diplomats visit 3 Americans held by Iran
San Francisco Chronicle
September 30, 2009
Washington -- The State Department Tuesday welcomed Iran's decision to allow Swiss diplomats to meet with three Americans who have been detained in Iran since being arrested for illegal entry in late July.
The move could be seen as a conciliatory gesture on Iran's part, coming two days before a high-profile meeting between Iran and five world powers seeking to persuade Iran to abandon any effort to build nuclear weapons....
The Swiss government, which represents U.S. interests in Tehran, offered few details of the visit....
The three Americans are JOSHUA FATTAL, SHANE BAUER AND SARAH SHOURD, WHO ARE ALL RECENT UC BERKELEY GRADUATES and who apparently strayed into Iranian territory while hiking in northern Iraq.... Full Story
22. Vigils planned for captive hikers in Iran
San Francisco Chronicle
September 30, 2009
Berkeley, Calif. (AP) -- Supporters of three hikers held in Iran after being arrested for illegal entry are planning vigils around the country to draw attention to their plight.
The vigils Wednesday are being held two months after JOSHUA FATTAL, SHANE BAUER and SARAH SHOURD were detained after straying over the border during a hike in northern Iraq. ALL THREE ARE GRADUATES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
Vigils are planned Wednesday evening in multiple locations including Philadelphia, Minnesota, Oregon and Berkeley....
[This story appeared in more than 100 sources nationwide] Full Story
23. Berkeley agrees to U.N. rights treaties
San Francisco Chronicle
September 30, 2009
Berkeley, Calif. -- Berkeley became the first city in the United States, and possibly the world, to agree to international human rights treaties on Tuesday night, after the City Council approved a measure usually reserved for countries.
After a brief but spirited debate, the City Council voted unanimously to allow unpaid interns to report to the United Nations on how, or whether, Berkeley complies with treaties on civil liberties, racial discrimination and torture....
The treaties contain high standards, and it is possible Berkeley does not meet those standards, backers of the plan said.
They have used as examples Berkeley's record on homelessness, achievement gaps in the public schools and JOHN YOO, the author of the Bush administration's justification for torture WHO TEACHES AT UC BERKELEY'S BOALT HALL SCHOOL OF LAW and lives in Berkeley....
[An Associated Press story on this topic appeared in numerous sources statewide] Full Story