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Friday, 9 October 2009
1. America Slips in Rankings of World Universities, Fretting Abounds
The Atlantic Wire
October 9, 2009
College rankings may be tendentious, annoying, and highly profitable, but they are also irresistible conversational fodder. The Times Higher Education's rankings--a British knock-off of the U.S. News and World Report purporting to rank colleges across the globe--once again proved the rule by announcing that U.S. colleges were losing their dominance, while Asian and U.K. schools were gaining. The top five: Harvard, Cambridge, Yale, University College London, and a tie betwen Oxford and Imperial College London.
Is there anything to it? Controversy nips at every university ranking, even ones intended to counteract the U.S. News list, such as the socially progressive one put by the Washington Monthly. But because it fits into the narrative of American decline, the Times Higher Education rankings have attracted particular criticism. Some Americans argue that the list's preference for international students rigs it for Asian schools, while others assert that the low ranking of ACADEMIC TITANS SUCH AS UC BERKELEY is self-evidently absurd. Whatever the metrics, it's clearly hitting a nerve with those who worry that vaunted U.S. universities, long the prize of the educational system, are losing their edge.... Full Story
2. From the Bell Tower: The U.S. Ministry of Higher Education
Library Journal
October 8, 2009
I previously wrote about the value of academic librarians meeting and learning from their counterparts in other countries. Not only can we learn how they approach the delivery of important services, but it’s also fascinating to learn how their systems of higher education operate.
The American higher education industry is incredibly diverse and unique. We have an amazing range of institutions, and the federal government has virtually no role in running any part of the operation. That’s one big reason why there’s no NCLB (No Child Left Behind) program for colleges and universities. When I meet academic librarians from other countries I always make a point to learn how their higher education system operates, what role the national government plays, and to what extent, if any, that impacts on the delivery of library services....
This exact question about the federal government’s role in higher education was thoughtfully raised in an op-ed by ROBERT J. BIRGENEAU AND FRANK D. YEARY, HIGH LEVEL ADMINISTRATORS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, in the Washington Post. In the aptly named “Rescuing our Public Universities,” Birgeneau and Yeary argue that public higher education institutions make an enormous contribution to American society and the economy. I did not realize that the eight Ivy League institutions educate less than one-sixth of the students that attend the nation’s top ten public universities. They also point out that our public higher education system is at great risk in the current economic crisis, and they question the long-term sustainability of the funding system.... Full Story
3. Alternative high school proposed for Berkeley
Oakland Tribune
October 9, 2009
The Berkeley school board is considering creating an alternative high school or charter school proposed by one of its high school principals for 500 kids who are falling behind.
VICTOR DIAZ, PRINCIPAL OF BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY, said the school would serve kids from grades six through 12 who traditionally fall behind: students of color scoring well below their white counterparts.
Berkeley schools have the largest gap between well performing white students and students of color in the entire State of California, according to schools spokesman Mark Coplan.
Diaz said he has developed a curriculum for the new school based partly on project-based learning and immersive technology with PROFESSORS FROM UC BERKELEY, Harvard and the University of Maryland....
Diaz, who grew up in San Jose with a single teenage mother, attended six different high schools before he was kicked out when he was 16. From that experience, he said he knows what kids like him need.
"If we can get them for six years rather than six months, think what we can do with them," Diaz said. "But when you get them in the second semester of their sophomore year or their senior year, there's not much left you can do."
Diaz, who is working on his doctorate in education from UC Berkeley, said he hopes to get the school board to approve the plan for what is called a dependent charter school by December. The school would open next fall if the board agrees.... Full Story
4. Developing a Progressive Approach to the National Deficit
Center for American Progress
October 8, 2009
“If we remain on our current course … deficits and debts will grow at unprecedented levels that jeopardize the ability of the federal government to do its job and meet critical national needs,” said Robert Greenstein, director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities at a conference hosted by Greenstein’s organization and the Center for American Progress last Wednesday. The conference participants sought ways to control the long-term national deficit.
John Podesta, president and CEO of CAP, said it was important to “come together as progressives to try to forge a shared approach to the national debt problem.” He thought that doing so would allow progressives to present a strong, unified plan for correcting the deficit in a way that aligns with progressive values....
Laura Tyson, business professor at UC Berkeley and former director of the National Economic Counsel, warned that taking action on the deficit too soon could interfere with efforts to end the recession. But she did support correcting inefficient “dis-saving” practices such as irresponsible housing loans that the “rest of the world was perfectly happy to finance.” She believed that from 2002 to 2008 the Unites States neglected to save because other countries made borrowing money easy. Tyson worried that the United States would stop growing economically if we don’t get spending practices under control.... Full Story
5. Hat Creek radio telescopes focus on lunar test
The Redding Record Searchlight
October 9, 2009
Like most scientists with a celestial interest early this morning, those working at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory had their eyes - make that radio telescopes - pointed at the moon.
NASA was set to slam a rocket into a crater on the moon's south pole at 4:31 a.m. today in an experiment to see how much water might be under the lunar surface.
At Hat Creek - where scientists search the cosmos for signs of intelligent life and create images of planets, stars and other bodies using ultrasensitive radio telescopes that pick up the radiation they emit - the focus this morning will be the moon.
"We basically are going to stare at the moon and stare at this little crater," said GARRETT KEATING, AN ASTRONOMER WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY AT THE OBSERVATORY said Thursday.
Able to detect forms of light not picked up by the human eye, radio telescopes give a view into space as much as a 100 percent better than their optical counterparts from the Earth's surface, said COLBY GUTIERREZ-KRAYBILL, A UC BERKELEY ASTRONOMICAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT THE OBSERVATORY. Rather than lenses, radio telescopes use metal dishes to focus the light.
"You can see things and features than you can't using an optical telescope," he said.... Full Story
6. Loving restoration of a piano captured on film
San Francisco Chronicle
October 9, 2009
The documentary "Miracle in a Box/A Piano Reborn" culminates with a farewell gala - tablecloths, food, wine, toasts, human emotion - in honor of an object, a 1927 Steinway Model M Grand....
In early 2008, Callahan was approached about tuning a Steinway that had been willed by Berkeley piano teacher Leone McGowan to the DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC AT UC BERKELEY. The will stipulated that the winner of a student competition be awarded the piano. Callahan was warned that the instrument "needed a little work," which he correctly took to mean it was "a dead piano" that had to be gutted, a $30,000 job, for which there was no money....
Nine people worked on the McGowan piano for nine months, and 50 hours of footage later, Korty was still there with his camera rolling when the farewell gala - the event that had attracted him in the first place - was held. The shop was dusted and polished, as were the artisans who work there - Rhys McKay, Koa Stevens, Rachel Down, Douglas Braak, Dan Nieses, Steve Willis and three Callahans.
Korty made 50 or 60 round trips of 100 miles for a finished product that runs 56 minutes. At the end, the crowd quiets as DAVITT MORONEY, PROFESSOR OF MUSICOLOGY AT UC BERKELEY, makes his remarks before announcing the winner of the First Berkeley Piano Competition. The contestants are Dinah Lu, Richard Zhu, Percy Liang, Tony Linn, Jared Redmond and Pheaross Graham.
The good-as-new piano, now worth $50,000, is on its way to back to New York, where it was built. The winning student loads it up and hauls it away at the end of "Miracle in a Box," which has its world premiere Saturday at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Full Story
7. Soniccouture Release Glass / Works For Kontakt
A sampled collection of 3 instruments which generate sound from glass
SonicState.com
October 9, 2009
The Cloud Chamber Bowls are Soniccouture's recreation of an instrument built in the 1950s by maverick American composer Harry Partch. It consists of hanging "bowls" which are sections of 12-gallon glass carboys. Both tops and bottoms of the carboys are used. Partch had 14 (later 13) bowls hanging from a large wooden frame he called a "tori." The name "Cloud Chamber Bowls" arose from the fact that Partch found the original tops and bottoms at a RADIATION LABORATORY AT UC BERKELEY in 1950. The bowls were originally used for cloud chambers used in tracing paths of subatomic particles. Full Story
8. Futurism of the past in S.F. today
San Francisco Examiner
October 9, 2009
“Futurism” is a historic artistic movement, not just a description of a forward-looking aesthetic. The avant-garde movement “obsessed with machines and mayhem” is a century old, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is at the center of marking the event.
“Metal + Machine + Manifesto = Futurism’s First 100 Years,” a series running Wednesday through Oct. 18, is a collaboration between the museum and the Italian Cultural Institute, Performa 09, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and UC BERKELEY.
Frank Smigiel, associate curator at SFMOMA, says, “Futurism ushered into being a new generation working across disciplines and together, in design, film, painting, dance, music and theater..." Full Story
9. CAL: Reassuring words, worried actions
San Francisco Chronicle
October 9, 2009
CAL COACH JEFF TEDFORD says he doesn't hear or read the criticism. QUARTERBACK KEVIN RILEY says the offense's confidence hasn't been shaken. And DEFENSIVE BACK CHRIS CONTE says all is well in Berkeley.
After being outscored 72-6 in two straight losses and falling from No. 6 to unnoticed in the AP rankings, the Bears are seemingly unified in their message.
But reality showed Thursday at Memorial Stadium, when Cal made a sweeping change from its usual bye-week pattern.
Instead of using the session as a scrimmage for inexperienced players, the Bears had a full-on practice for the veterans. Words say Cal is OK with the way the rest of the season will take shape. Actions say they're making the necessary changes to ensure the current trend won't continue.... Full Story
10. How iTunes is protecting the youth
San Francisco Chronicle
October 9, 2009
...SOCIOLOGIST SUKARI IVESTER, A RESEARCH FELLOW AT UC BERKELEY, is the daughter of the late Lester Bowie, described by Encyclopedia Britannica as "the most influential jazz trumpeter of his generation." (His influence extends beyond his music: Odwalla, the juice company, is named after one of his compositions.) Ivester is marking the 10th anniversary of Bowie's death with a tribute concert at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco tonight, featuring sax player James Carter, "who considered my father his musical father," she says.... Full Story
11. Tuned In: If it ain't Baroque, Philharmonia won't argue about it
Contra Costa Times
October 7, 2009
TOP-NOTCH TALENTS ALL: Those not headed to the Lesher Center Sunday afternoon might consider taking in the TAKACS QUARTET, PRESENTED BY CAL PERFORMANCES IN HERTZ HALL ON THE UC BERKELEY CAMPUS at 3 p.m. That is, if tickets are still available; this Grammy-winning, Colorado-based quartet is as exquisitely and intuitively "together" an ensemble as I have heard, and it tends to pack the house wherever it goes, including Carnegie Hall three times this year, I'm told. The group's Sunday program includes quartets by Haydn, Shostakovich and Schumann; if you miss the quartet this time, it will be back in February. Tickets, at $52, are available at 510-642-9988 or www.calperformances.org. Full Story