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Wednesday, 21 October 2009
1. UC Berkeley to admit more out-of-state students
San Francisco Chronicle
October 21, 2009
Starting next fall, UC BERKELEY will admit hundreds of additional out-of-state residents and international students instead of Californians as a way to make up for state budget cuts.
CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU said Tuesday that his campus will be admitting as many as 600 fewer "unfunded" California students a year to offset a 20 percent cut from Sacramento. Those slots will instead go to out-of-staters.
The problem is that the state picks up much of the university's cost of educating California students - only it's not paying for as many students as it used to. Nonresidents, on the other hand, pay their own, higher tuitions that actually cover UC's cost of educating them.
Birgeneau said he understands that people will be angry that Berkeley will be freezing out Californians in favor of students from elsewhere. But, he said, "that upset needs to be directed to Sacramento."...
"Obviously, it's not what we want to do," said UC BERKELEY MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING PROFESSOR FIONA DOYLE, a member of the faculty and administrative committee that made the admissions recommendation. "It's a compromise, very much so."... Full Story
2. Hispanic Immigrants’ Children Fall Behind Peers Early, Study Finds
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
October 21, 2009
Houston — The children of Hispanic immigrants tend to be born healthy and start life on an intellectual par with other American children, but by the age of 2 they begin to lag in linguistic and cognitive skills, a new study by RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, shows.
The study highlights a paradox that has bedeviled educators and Hispanic families for some time. By and large, mothers from Latin American countries take care of their health during their pregnancies and give birth to robust children, but those children fall behind their peers in mental development by the time they reach grade school, and the gap tends to widen as they get older.
The new Berkeley study suggests the shortfall may start even before the children enter preschool, supporting calls in Washington to spend more on programs that coach parents to stimulate their children with books, drills and games earlier in their lives.
“Our results show a very significant gap even at age 3,” said BRUCE FULLER, ONE OF THE STUDY’S AUTHORS AND A PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION AT BERKELEY. “If we don’t attack this disparity early on, these kids are headed quickly for a pretty dismal future in elementary school.”...
[Other stories on this topic appeared in the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle Online] Full Story
3. Human Condition Blog: In Defense of Permissive Parenting: Why Talking Back May Lead to Smarter Kids
Newsweek
October 21, 2009
Inside a convenience store, Xenia is battling her 4-year-old son, Paulino, over buying a soft drink. She wants him to try a small size, he wants a larger one. "That one does not work," she says, referring to the rack of big cups. "These [smaller] ones do."
Xenia eventually won the battle over beverages, but she may have lost the parenting war, according to a pair of new studies, highlighting how small differences in communication style can have a large impact on kids. And in many cases, it's minority families like this one (Xenia and Paulo are Mexican-American) that suffer the most.
Moms, dads, or caregivers who mainly talk to their offspring using commands, like Xenia, who was cited in the study, rather than reasoning may get their kids to do what they want, but they also fail to develop their children’s minds, the research out of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, and UCLA suggests....
In one of the studies due out early next year in the journal of Developmental Psychology, researchers spent more than a year studying two dozen Mexican-American families, observing real-world mother-child interactions like those between Xenia and Paulino. Mexican-American kids were found to spend around twice as much time watching television than reading. But the study's most striking results had to do with parenting techniques. Of the more than 1,400 exchanges that researchers documented of a mother wanting her child to do something, a mere 8 percent included "reasoning," while just 9 percent included clarification of what the child should be doing instead. By far the biggest category was "direct verbal commands,” which accounted for 42 percent of parenting efforts. (Incidentally, the overall success rate with these strategies was almost 75 percent.) Other studies have found that white parents deploy reasoning techniques more than a third of the time—"inviting more complex thought and language development" as they do so, according to BRUCE FULLER, A UC BERKELEY EDUCATION PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION AND PUBLIC POLICY who coauthored the research.... Full Story
4. Ten Young Geniuses Shaking Up Science Today
Popular Science
October 19, 2009
Meet PopSci's annual Brilliant 10--a selection of the brightest young researchers in the country. They're helping to keep us healthy, prevent disasters, and make green energy cheaper than coal. Lucky for us, our future is in their capable hands.
Ting Xu: The Energizer
Brilliant because: She transforms molecules into mini hard drives with massive storage capacity
Name: Ting Xu
Age: 35
Affiliation: University of California, Berkeley
Last fall, TING XU, A PROFESSOR OF MATERIALS SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, was suffering from headaches so severe that doctors worried she might have a brain tumor. But one neurologist suggested a simpler cause. How about cutting back on the 16-hour days in the lab, sleeping, and maybe even eating at normal times?
Xu has since eased her work schedule, but she’s no less productive. Earlier this year she co-authored a paper describing a new technique for coaxing tiny polymer strands to self-assemble into 10 trillion cylinders with precise patterns. The method could lead to discs the size of a quarter that store 175 DVDs’—7 terabits—worth of data. Then she tweaked the technique so it could be used to build a range of nanoparticle-based devices—super-efficient photovoltaic cells and energy storage systems, and higher-resolution flexible displays. Xu is smart, diligent and knowledgeable, says polymer physicist Thomas Russell of the University of Massachusetts, but more important, “she has imagination.”...
Xu hopes the work will give solar cells a competitive advantage over fossil fuels, for one thing, but she won’t be resting in the meantime. She’s constantly hunting for new ideas and designing experiments with the hope of surprising herself, not just confirming existing theories. “It’s important to think about science in a perpendicular way, not a parallel way,” she says. “Otherwise you end up painting other people’s houses.”
[Another story mentioning Professor Xu appeared in Wired] Full Story
5. Initial Plan for Underground SD Lab Gets $29M
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
October 20, 2009
The National Science Foundation has authorized about $29 million to develop a preliminary plan to turn a 1 1/2-mile-deep former gold mine in western South Dakota into the world's deepest laboratory.
The foundation says the plan will be a major tool in the decision whether to proceed with the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory at the former Homestake site at Lead....
About two years ago, the National Science Foundation chose the former mine to house the $550 million Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory because its depth shields experiments from cosmic radiation....
The money will be given over two years to the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, which will work with several subcontractors including the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology to develop the preliminary plan....
[This story appeared in dozens of sources nationwide, including the Washington Post, Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times] Full Story
6. A taste for bold ideas -- chewing gum to detect malaria?
Seattle Times
October 20, 2009
Add two new weapons to the potential arsenal against malaria -- chewing gum and chocolate.
They are among dozens of unconventional approaches to global health problems that won backing today from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation is giving out 76 grants of $100,000 each to researchers in 16 countries.
The awards known as Grand Challenges Explorations, smaller and riskier bets the foundation is making to encourage creativity among scientists around the world, include people in areas such as chemistry, engineering, statistics and business who have never focused on health before.
...Among the winners:
...RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY are attempting to marry a microscope with a cell phone to capture high-contrast fluorescent images of malaria parasites, with software on the phone that can count the parasites and wirelessly transmit the results to clinics.... Full Story
7. Op-Ed Column: Why So Few Doctoral-Student Parents?
Balancing Act Illustration Careers
Chronicle of Higher Education (*requires registration)
October 21, 2009
"I had my first child when I was a first-year graduate student and my second, two years later. I plan to finish this year and I am three months pregnant. They grounded me and made me focus." This young mother was beginning her seventh year of a Ph.D. program in political science at a well-known Midwestern university. But her remarks drew a skeptical reaction from the group of graduate students who had come to an informal lunch meeting to talk about babies and careers....
Not many babies are born during the graduate-student years. Exact figures are elusive, but a study we did of doctoral students at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA indicated that about 13 percent become parents by the time they graduate. Universities that offer part-time degree programs and a large number of master's programs are likely to attract older adults who have more children....
So what needs to happen for women to be able to start families during the student years? The experience of ANNA WESTERFAHL, A SWEDISH GRADUATE STUDENT AT BERKELEY, provides some insight. ...
Student life, as Anna relates, can offer a fairly nurturing environment for young mothers—particularly if they are not in the sciences—and there are signs that the climate is improving. Our university, like many others, stops the clock for student parents, who are allowed to leave for a semester and return without penalty. We also offer six weeks of paid maternity leave and a substantial grant to help student parents with their child-raising costs. ...
There are indications that attitudes are changing as well. At a recent faculty meeting, a distinguished senior scientist took me aside and proudly announced that two of his students were pregnant. He assured me that this would not hinder their careers, and that he had organized a baby shower for them....
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
8. Wired for Hypocrisy
Why it's so easy to justify our bad behavior.
Newsweek Online
October 20, 2009
It's not only the rich and famous who have made hypocrisy a fine art, though when advocates for the poor such as John Edwards build gargantuan homes, or family-values preachers such as Ted Haggard fess up to "sexual immorality", they sure make it seem so. But garden-variety hypocrisy is so rife—the "environmentalist" who bought a Hummer because, come to think of it, driving lots of kids to soccer practice would use much less gasoline than if every parent made the trip; the "humanitarian" who turns down the charitable appeal because, on second thought, it's much better for the poor to learn to fend for themselves—it seems as if the brain must have a special circuit for it.
That's pretty much the case, according to new research. Since actions cannot be undone, the only option when they conflict with beliefs—which produces the phenomenon called cognitive dissonance—is to alter the beliefs. ...
To investigate cognitive dissonance, neuroscientists at the University of California, Davis, led by Cameron Carter used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brains of volunteers who were made to experience the psychological pain of clashing beliefs and actions. ...
The result shows "how and why people change their attitudes," said CO-AUTHOR VINCENT VAN VEEN, WHO IS NOW AT UC BERKELEY. "It shows that the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance is real and is not just a figment of the imagination of social psychologists....[And] it shows that the degree to which people's opinions are subsequently changed depends on how active their anterior cingulate cortex was." The power of brain activity to change the mind is reminiscent of how thinking about one's thoughts differently—which is what people with depression, for instance, learn to do in cognitive-behavior therapy—alters subsequent brain activity, which then makes people feel and think differently.... Full Story
9. Family planning policy applauded
China Daily
October 21, 2009
China's family planning policy received cautious praise at an international conference for its positive effects on the country, and even the world's environment.
"China's constant efforts to promote reproductive health have paid off," Gill Greer, director general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, told the fifth Asian Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights which closed yesterday....
"The ethical obligation of our generation to our children and grandchildren must include slowing the rapid population growth by meeting the unmet needs for family planning," MALCOLM POTTS, DIRECTOR OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, told the conference, which closed in Beijing yesterday.... Full Story
10. AIDS Vaccine Trial Shows Only Slight Protection
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
October 21, 2009
The full results from an AIDS vaccine trial in Thailand, released Tuesday, showed that the vaccine’s protective effect might be even weaker than researchers first admitted....
The full release of data — which took place simultaneously at a medical conference in Paris and online in the New England Journal of Medicine — showed three different analyses.
The previously released one, known as the “modified intent-to-treat” analysis and showing the vaccine to be 31 percent effective, included everyone in the trial except seven people, who researchers later realized were infected before it began....
A second, the “per protocol” analysis, included only the 12,450 subjects who got the entire vaccine series or the placebo and stayed in the trial to the end....
A third, the full “intent to treat,” included the seven previously infected subjects and also showed the vaccine to be 26 percent effective. ...
PHILIP B. STARK, A PROFESSOR OF STATISTICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, said he considered the full intent to treat “the most kosher analysis.”
“Once you start modifying, you start introducing new opportunities for confounding the results,” he added.... Full Story
11. Feared flood of foreclosures in California may be averted
Lenders are working with struggling borrowers to keep them in their homes in an effort to keep a glut of foreclosed properties from further depressing the housing market.
Los Angeles Times
October 21, 2009
Signs are emerging that a much-feared escalation of California home foreclosures may not happen, as banks respond to government pressure and scale back their repossessions of troubled properties.
Statewide, the number of homes taken back by lenders dropped sharply in the three months ended Sept. 30, falling 37% over the same period a year earlier, when foreclosures were at an all-time high....
"I certainly don't think there's going to be a deluge, or second wave of foreclosures," said UC BERKELEY ECONOMIST KENNETH ROSEN, who believes federal officials will do whatever it takes to see the backlog of foreclosures clear gradually. "There's now an appetite to make sure we get this right."...
[Another story quoting Professor Rosen on this topic appeared in the USA Today] Full Story
12. Asset-price bubble risk returns amid loose policy
MarketWatch
October 20, 2009
Santa Barbara, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- The trillions of dollars in extra cash pumped into the global economy to ease the credit crisis could threaten a new asset-price bubble, finance officials say, but it's not yet time to sound the alarm bells.
"One of the things I've learned myself during this crisis is that monetary policy needs to be more sensitive and more attuned to the possibility of asset bubbles," San Francisco Federal Reserve President [and UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR] JANET YELLEN told reporters Tuesday at a conference on Asia economic policy....
Some economists, such as such as MAURICE OBSTFELD OF UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University maintain that global imbalances during the first part of the decade reflected and magnified underlying problems in the global economy that led to the past crisis.
In a recent paper, they argued a global environment of low interest rates contributed to the housing and credit bubbles that burst with such devastation last year. See story on Obstfeld-Rogoff paper.
Yellen said it's "logical and to be expected" that when there's a gap between interest rates across countries, and nations are recovering from a downturn at different rates, capital flows will rebound as investors seek higher yields.
She added, however, that she's "not by any means ready to call this a new dangerous asset-price bubble." Full Story
13. US dollar likely to remain reserve currency-paper
Reuters
October 20, 2009
Santa Barbara, Calif., Oct 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar is likely to remain the world's reserve currency for decades, a prominent economist told a conference of international monetary policy makers hosted by the San Francisco Federal Reserve on Tuesday.
"I don't think the dollar is going anywhere, and I don't think the SDR (International Monetary Fund-issued special drawing rights) will become an important rival to the dollar until we have liquid private markets in SDR-denominated claims," said BARRY EICHENGREEN, A PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY....
"The future of the global reserve system looks a lot like the past of the global reserve system," Eichengreen said.
An alternative approach to an IMF SDR currency would be to diversify reserves among the United States, the euro area, and China, Eichengreen said. That is a more likely outcome but would also be at least 20 years in the making, he said.
"The euro and the renminbi will match the dollar as an attractive form of reserves only when they possess equally deep and liquid markets," he said.... Full Story
14. Martinez eyes surveillance camera proposal
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
October 20, 2009
Martinez — Smile, you're on "Martinez PD Camera."
After more than a year of research, police have identified a surveillance camera system they believe will work in Martinez. For approximately $67,000, the city can install six cameras in hot spots for graffiti and other crime....
In December, the SAMUELSON LAW, TECHNOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY CLINIC AT THE UC BERKELEY SCHOOL OF LAW released a six-month study on the effectiveness of 71 surveillance cameras installed in high-crime areas in San Francisco.
Researchers found that the cameras did not have an effect on homicides, drug dealing, prostitution or vandalism. However, there was a significant decline in property crimes — such as pickpocketing, purse snatching and thefts from vehicles — within 100 feet of the cameras, according to the report....
JENNIFER KING, A RESEARCHER AT THE SAMUELSON LAW, TECHNOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY CLINIC who studies video surveillance systems, has said cameras are most effective in confined places with little activity that have clearly defined entrances and exits, such as a parking garage. In open, public spaces with a lot of traffic and fluid access, such as a park, the results have been mixed.
Developing guidelines for using the cameras is important so there can be public oversight, King said. She also noted that police and residents need to view cameras as a part of a broader approach to fighting crime, such as increased patrols or intervention efforts, for example.
"The first thing that will happen (after installing cameras) is you aren't going to stop people from committing crimes altogether; they are just going to do it somewhere else." Full Story
15. Liberal radio diatribes in 1990s could haunt Jerry Brown in 2010 California governor's
Sacramento Bee
October 21, 2009
More than a decade before Jerry Brown's current incarnation as undeclared gubernatorial front-runner, he hit the airwaves of liberal Berkeley radio station KPFA five days a week to speak his mind.
What he said then, as he interviewed poets, activists and the likes of leftist icon Noam Chomsky, promises to resurface this coming year as the 71-year-old former governor ponders running for a historic third gubernatorial term....
"When he ran for attorney general, people said he wouldn't win because his past would come back to haunt him," said ETHAN RARICK, DIRECTOR OF UC BERKELEY'S CENTER ON POLITICS and biographer of Brown's father, former Gov. Pat Brown. "It hasn't seemed to hurt him."... Full Story
16. Witness: Dad's confession in slaying coerced
Expert says police used isolation tactics to get Adrian Thomas to talk
Times Union [Albany, NY]
October 20, 2009
Troy -- An expert on police interrogations said Monday that admissions by Adrian Thomas that he fatally injured his infant son were psychologically coerced by police....
The court Monday held a daylong hearing, without the jury present, to determine the admissibility of expert testimony for the defense from RICHARD OFSHE, PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SOCIOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. Ofshe is an expert on coercion in small groups, confessions and police interrogations and coined the term ''false confessions.''
He testified at the hearing that the controlled setting of the nine-hour videotaped police interview of Thomas in a small room at police headquarters led to feelings of hopelessness by the defendant.
'He had no one else around, like family or friends, to confide in,'' Ofshe said. ''The police are in total control and defendants feel alone, anxious and depressed.''...
Ofshe said the Thomas interrogation, which he has reviewed, fits his model of false confession through psychological coercion.... Full Story
17. Burma sends fourth senior general to China after border conflict
BBC
October 21, 2009
One of the Burmese military government's leading generals, Secretary 1 Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, flew to Nanning in southern China on Monday, the first official visit between the two countries since the Kokang conflict in August sent some 37,000 refugees flooding into Yunnan Province....
MIN ZIN, a freelance Burmese journalist who focuses on Sino-Burmese relations at the CENTRE FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, said that the Burmese junta needs to offer a guarantee to China that the Kokang conflict was an exception and that it does not intend to wage all-out war against the ethnic groups along China's border.
"Otherwise, they will be in big trouble with China," he said. "Also, after [US Senator Jim] Webb's visit, China is losing its cool with the junta."
[Link unavailable online]
18. Op-Ed: Dear Lord: See my exit letter
The exit letter by Lord Moran, the former British high commissioner to Canada, was none too flattering
Globe & Mail [Canada]
October 20, 2009
Poor Lord Moran, having to put up with us “moderate, comfortable” Canadians. But the former British high commissioner to Canada did get one thing right in his 1984 farewell letter, made public this week: We smart at British sneers about being “boring.”...
British authorities haven't released Lord Moran's observations about Canada and the monarchy, but I'm pleased to pass on the gist of mine on this touchy topic. Being force-fed exposure to the pervasive sense of entitlement and unreality displayed by the various British palaces and their principals is bound to raise some questions in one's mind by the time one leaves.
One respects Canadians living far from the palaces who believe in a higher dignity conferred by a non-political, semi-ethereal monarchical institution lifting us above the conflicts, ambitions and dissents of everyday local life (to which Lord Moran added the “poor quality of Canadian politicians.”) They speak from honourable affection, but I can't help thinking of the sausage-lover who has never seen an abattoir.... Full Story
19. The war on waste
Tempest over a plastic bag; The debate over which bag is better for the environment rages on
National Post [Canada]
October 17, 2009
Who says fabric shopping bags are best for the environment? Among the strongest advocates are retail and grocery store owners, who, through a consortium of industry associations, are attempting to significantly wean Canadians off throwaway plastic by 2012....
Statistics Canada doesn't collect hard numbers on the shopping bags Canadians prefer, though to give an idea, 4.32 billion plastic bags circulated in Ontario alone in 2006, according to the Ontario Plastic Bag Reduction Task Group, composed of retail associations and the plastics industry.
But statistics that don't follow a product's life cycle miss the full story, warns DAVID DORNFELD, HEAD OF THE LABORATORY FOR MANUFACTURING AND SUSTAINABILITY AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY.
Mr. Dornfeld points to Ireland, which, in 2001, imposed a levy similar to Toronto's. Immediately, consumption of plastic bags nosedived, and fabric totes became the dominant means of carrying groceries. Yet five years later, plastic bag imports had zoomed by more than 5,000 tonnes annually, and sales tripled for Kitty Litter and kitchen bin liners -- purposes once fulfilled by reused plastic grocery bags.... Full Story
20. Beam Me to the Faculty Senate: Videoconferencing proves useful on campuses
Chronicle of Higher Education (*requires registration)
October 18, 2009
The days of face-to-face faculty meetings might soon come to an end. Colleges with several campuses are embracing videoconferencing systems for a range of faculty and staff meetings, to save money and fuel by reducing trips. And more academic meetings now offer the option of attending virtually, using video streams....
Research shows that videoconference meetings just aren't as good as in-person gatherings when it comes to building trust.
JOHN CANNY, A RESEARCHER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, is one of many researchers measuring remote trust building. He's set up experiments where participants play a stock-trading simulation, with some players using videoconference systems to communicate and others working together in person. Players stand to win the most money if they team up and stay true to the partnerships, though they can defect anytime for a slightly lower but guaranteed individual payoff. Players working in person consistently make more money than the video-connected partners, meaning there's more goodwill and trust in person, he says.
The key is eye contact. "You look people in the eye when you're trying to be trusted by them," he told me the other day, by old-fashioned telephone. "People tend to look away or have difficulty with eye contact when they're being evasive."
In many videoconference systems, participants are unable to look at one another directly, and so speakers end up looking around while they're talking, accidentally appearing dodgy and leading their business partners to ditch them.... Full Story
21. Darwin's geological mystery solved
Origin of odd South American boulders may have defeated the Origin's author.
Nature
October 20, 2009
In June 1833, Charles Darwin asked the captain of the HMS Beagle to delay his departure from Tierra del Fuego so that he could study a strange group of granite boulders he had found on the coast at Bahía San Sebastián....
"Darwin is known mostly for evolution and natural selection," says Edward Evenson, a glacial geologist from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania — but his interests were broader. "Darwin considered himself a geologist," Evenson said yesterday at a meeting of the Geological Society of America in Portland, Oregon....
The boulders, he [Darwin] concluded, had been scoured out of the mountains by glaciers that calved into the sea....
It was a good theory, but unfortunately, says Evenson, who recently revisited the site as part of a mapping project, it doesn't quite work....
...Evenson was able to pinpoint the source of the rockfall to one of three locations, the most likely of which was beside a tributary called the Parry Glacier, 200 kilometres from the boulders' present locations....
Other scientists were impressed. "It was quite convincing," says KEVIN PADIAN, CURATOR OF THE MUSEUM OF PALEONTOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
He notes, though, that Darwin wasn't completely wrong. "He had the general idea of where [the rocks] came from and what direction they were going, but he didn't realize they were carried by an ice field," Padian said. "He thought they were carried by icebergs." Full Story
22. Obituary: Stephen Barnett, UC law professor, dies
San Francisco Chronicle
October 21, 2009
STEPHEN BARNETT, A RETIRED UC BERKELEY LAW PROFESSOR and a prominent analyst and critic of the California Supreme Court, died October 13 of complications following cardiac arrest, the university said. He was 73.
Professor Barnett, an honors graduate of Harvard University and its law school, was a Berkeley faculty member from 1967 until his retirement in 2003, except for his service in the Justice Department from 1977 to 1979, where he argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
He specialized in media and antitrust law, and was a frequent commentator on the Newspaper Preservation Act, the 1970 federal law that allowed papers in the same market to cut costs by merging some of their operations....
He was a leader in "shaping public policy concerning the industrial structure and public regulation of both print and visual media," said RICHARD BUXBAUM, A FELLOW BERKELEY LAW PROFESSOR....
"In his scholarship, Steve was a devastating critic of the practices of the California Supreme Court and the California State Bar," said another UC BERKELEY COLLEAGUE, MELVIN EISENBERG. "He did a lot of acute, penetrating research that no one else has done regarding judicial transparency and legitimacy."...
The family is planning a private service and suggests donations in Professor Barnett's memory to the Parkinson Association of Northern California, 900 Fulton Ave., Suite 100-5, Sacramento, CA 95825-4516. Full Story
23. Obituary: Rupe Ricksen, lawyer and Cal fixture, dies at 77
Oakland Tribune
October 20, 2009
It's difficult for a sibling when another sibling passes on after a lifetime together. Imagine how hard it is for a twin to lose a twin.
"I was there on the day he died," JOHN RICKSEN said of his twin brother, Rupe. "The doctor said the last thing that goes is the hearing, so I told Rupe the good things we had done during the years, and that I was proud of his children. I held his hand and said goodbye."
RUPERT HUGHES "RUPE" RICKSEN, an Oakland attorney and FORMER UC BERKELEY BASKETBALL AND TENNIS STAR, died Oct. 12 from prostate cancer at UC Medical Center in San Francisco. He was 77....
The Ricksen twins are tied to Berkeley. They were standout athletes at Berkeley High; BOTH PLAYED BASKETBALL AND TENNIS AT CAL in the early 1950s, then they became active and loyal Cal alums for more than a half century....
Rupe, like John, was heavily involved in community activities, youth sports, and Cal basketball, sitting together at home games. Both were presidents of the Big C Society and served this year on the Big C board of directors....
FORMER CAL BASKETBALL GREAT ANDY WOLFE, 84, of Orinda, coached the Ricksens as a CAL BASKETBALL ASSISTANT. Wolfe said Rupe possessed a "tenaciousness" he kept through his cancer battle....
There will be a private family service, and a memorial reception is planned for Cal's Haas Pavilion Nov. 1 at a time to be announced.
[This obituary also appeared in the Contra Costa Times] Full Story
24. Police investigate Berkeley street explosion
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
October 21, 2009
Berkeley — Berkeley police and fire officials are investigating an explosion that occurred a few blocks from the University of California at Berkeley campus Tuesday night, a police lieutenant said this morning....
No one was injured in the blast, which occurred near Blake Street and Chilton Way, she said. Officers found a plastic jug containing some powder at the site....
Delaney said she did not have any details on what the substance might be, except that it was not hazardous. Full Story