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Thursday, 22 October 2009
1. Senate Confirms Nominees for Interior, DOE
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
October 22, 2009
Filling some of the remaining holes in the Obama administration's energy and environmental team, the Senate yesterday confirmed one Interior and two Energy department nominees.
The Senate unanimously approved Marcia McNutt to be science adviser to the Interior secretary and the first woman director of the U.S. Geological Survey; ARUN MAJUMDAR to direct the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E); and Jose Antonio Garcia to be director of DOE's Office of Minority Economic Impact....
Majumdar, who has been associate laboratory director for energy and environmental sciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will head ARPA-E, a new Energy Department agency dedicated to developing breakthrough technologies. The agency, authorized in 2007, is designed to select and fund high-risk, high-reward research into technologies that can curb energy imports and greenhouse gas emissions. It is modeled after the military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency....
At the confirmation hearing, Majumdar pledged to grow the agency into "a robust engine of American innovation" and said speed, calculated risks, internal competition and agility will be the keys to its success....
MAJUMDAR, a native of India, IS AN ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS SCIENCE PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. His areas of interest include energy efficiency technology and using nanotechnology to harness energy lost as heat during electricity production, according to the Lawrence Berkeley lab.
Majumdar took over the lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division in 2007 and has been associate lab director for energy and environmental sciences since February. He has been on the University of California's faculty since 1997. Energy Secretary [and FORMER UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR] STEVEN CHU headed the Berkeley lab before becoming secretary.... Full Story
2. Cal astronomer wins Sagan prize for planet discovery
San Francisco Business Times
October 22, 2009
U.C. BERKELEY ASTRONOMER GEOFF MARCY, who’s helped find 70 of the 100 so-called “exoplanets” — planets orbiting stars other than the sun — has won the 2009 Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization.
Marcy, 55, worked with FELLOW RESEARCHERS PAUL BUTLER AND DEBRA FISCHER on finding the planets.
The prize, which comes with $5,000, recognizes Marcy’s work popularizing the discoveries and making them accessible to the public.
Marcy will get the award Nov. 7 at Stanford University at the Bay Area science festival Wonderfest.... Full Story
3. Editorial: UC strays from its mission
Visalia Times-Delta
October 22, 2009
When the University of California system was founded, its mission was to provide the highest quality college education for all Californians, including those who might not otherwise be able to afford it.
From its actions this week, it appears UC BERKELEY has veered off course.
The university also was intended to be a place where the state's best, brightest and most privileged could obtain an education on a par with the Ivy League. ...
Along the way, Berkeley became the premier research university in the world. The UC system fulfilled its promise to offer the best college education in the nation to all Californians, from the great to the lowly....
No longer. UC Berkeley announced this week that it would admit hundreds of additional out-of-state residents and international students as a way to make up for a budget shortage.
Guess where those spots will come from? CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENAU said Berkeley will admit up to 600 fewer "unfunded" California students, in other words; students who receive aid. Instead, those spots will go to full-paying students from out of the state or the country....
As for us in the Valley, UC Berkeley will become even less accessible for the students of Valley families. It has not been that accessible for some time, but this development puts our students at a serious disadvantage, especially because many of those who might gain admission to UC Berkeley from the Valley would be "unfunded."... Full Story
4. Campus Connection: How many non-resident students is too many?
Capital Times [Madison, WI]
October 22, 2009
Some on the Left Coast are miffed at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY's plan to start admitting additional out-of-state residents and international students -- who pay higher tuition than the in-state students -- to make up for state budget cuts.
UC BERKELEY CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU told the San Francisco Chronicle that his campus will be admitting as many as 600 fewer "unfunded" California students a year to offset a 20 percent cut in state funds. Those openings then will go to out-of-staters.
Currently, about 14 percent of the 13,000 freshmen who gain admission to Berkeley each year are non-residents. The newspaper reports that a task force of UC Berkeley faculty and administrators recently recommended pushing that number to 23.2 percent for the 2010 fall semester....
Closer to home, nearly a quarter of all undergraduates on the UW-Madison campus already are paying out-of-state tuition....
[A blog mention of this appeared in the New York Times Online] Full Story
5. Real Time Economics Blog: Is Obama’s Health-Care Push Jeopardizing Education Reform?
Wall Street Journal Online (*requires registration)
October 22, 2009
The financial crisis. Double-digit unemployment. Iraq. Afghanistan. Pakistan. The Obama administration has a lot of crises on its plate. But the White House is determined to press forward with its own objectives, particularly reform of the “big three” that President Barack Obama named in his State of the Union speech in February: health care, energy and education.
It’s the latter — education — that many deem most critical. But it also appears to be last in line....
Three prominent educators voiced their frustration over the barriers to education reform Thursday during a lunch event at the New York Public Library, co-sponsored by Intel Corp. and The Wall Street Journal....
CHRISTOPHER EDLEY JR., DEAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY’S SCHOOL OF LAW, said the President’s transition team – of which he was a member – had a difficult time whittling down its priorities. “We tried to make a list of just two or three things and couldn’t do it,” he said. “The real question is...on the other side of health care, will we have a fundamental reexamining [of education]?”...
[Link to video. Another story on this topic appeared in Gotham Schools] Full Story
6. NewsHour: Yoo's Tenure Questioned Over Bush Torture Policy
Spencer Michels reports on the ongoing academic wrangling over former Bush attorney John Yoo's instruction at the University of California, Berkeley.
PBS
October 20, 2009
Spencer Michels: Since the beginning of the school year, protesters dressed as prisoners or detainees have dogged LAW PROFESSOR JOHN YOO AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. They want the university to fire him for advising the Bush administration, as an attorney in the Justice Department, that it could legally torture suspected terrorists to get information....
During those years, after 9/11, the U.S. was interrogating prisoners, suspected terrorists, at places like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Yoo wrote several memos on how far the interrogators could go in pressuring prisoners to reveal information. ...
Yoo's actions have reverberated throughout Boalt Hall, the Berkeley law school where Yoo teaches. Students and faculty are debating the bounds of academic freedom, and whether a professor should be held responsible for controversial work done outside the university....
THE LAW SCHOOL DEAN, CHRISTOPHER EDLEY, who has served in several Democratic administrations, has been besieged by messages, the majority against Professor Yoo....
Christopher Edley, dean, U.C. Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law: I have received thousands upon thousands of letters from literally all over the world.
While many students and faculty are critical of the Bush administration policies and even of some of John's actions, they think that academic freedom means that his right to be here and to teach has to be protected, until or unless there's some sort of a conviction....
[UC BERKELEY PROFESSORS CHRISTOPHER KUTZ, JESSE CHOPER, PETER SELZ, AND SEVERAL UC BERKELEY LAW STUDENTS also appeared on this program. Link to audio and video] Full Story
7. Threat Level: California Investigating Voting Machine’s Undetectable Vote-Delete Function
Wired
October 22, 2009
Los Angeles — California is conducting a months-long investigation in the state’s electronic voting systems after reports of serious flaws — including registered users’ ability to delete votes without even leaving an electronic trail.
The investigation is examining how the system’s internal audit logs actually work and whether audit records can be easily altered or deleted, according to Secretary of State Debra Bowen.
The investigation stems from a serious problem found in January with voting systems made by Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold Election Systems). That Threat Level story showed that the tabulation system used in all of the company’s touch-screen and optical scan machines fails to record crucial events, including the act of someone deleting votes from the system on election day. The logs also failed to record who performed an action on the system and listed some events with the wrong date and timestamps....
Bowen, appearing at an event Wednesday evening to discuss an open source voting project in development, told Threat Level that the state contracted with DAVID WAGNER, A COMPUTER SCIENTIST WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, to investigate fully what the logs on the Premier/Diebold system, as well as every other voting system used in the state, do and don’t record.
The draft report is being examined by Deputy Secretary of State Lowell Finley, and is “as thick as you would imagine (it would be),” said Bowen, who indicated that she has not yet read it herself.... Full Story
8. Study suggests systemic-risk charge for small banks
Reuters
October 21, 2009
Chatham, Mass (Reuters) - Large groups of small but similar banks can collectively pose a risk to the entire financial system, so it would make sense for them to pay an extra capital charge, according to a research paper presented on Wednesday.
The paper, by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp official John O'Keefe AND JAMES WILCOX, A PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY'S HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, was presented to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's annual conference in Cape Cod.
"When enough smaller institutions are similar enough ... they may also be systemically important," they wrote, citing the savings and loan crisis of the 1990s.
"One way to address otherwise-unpriced, systemic risks that might arise from the similarity of small institutions might be to impose a capital charge for the systemic risks that each engenders," they wrote.... Full Story
9. Special Report: Rebuilding the Global Economy
Lots of Stimulus Money — and Concerns About Where to Put It to Work
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
October 23, 2009
New Haven, Connecticut — When a proposal to build a sports complex at a community college in suburban Chicago failed, the developer did not give up. And when President Barack Obama signed the $789 billion American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the developer saw a new opportunity....
ROBERT G. BEA, A PROFESSOR OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, said, “These shovel-ready projects do a good job filling potholes, patching up the quilt.” But, he added, “we have a monumental mess. There’s no one with a vision, and there are so many systems that could completely collapse.”...
Politicians embrace public works projects for symbolic as much as practical reasons, said James K. Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas....
Mr. Galbraith called for the creation of new entities to invest in energy and environmental projects, while Mr. Bea argued for water projects which, he said, could revitalize U.S. urban environments.... Full Story
10. MarketPlace Op-Ed: Examining the insurer-government bout
NPR
October 21, 2009
Suddenly, it seems, the White House is blasting away at private insurers. Why? Because the insurers broke the deal the White House thought they'd agreed to last January. That deal was simple. Private insurers would support new health-care legislation -- even requiring they take people with pre-existing conditions -- because the insurers would get 25 [million] to 30 million new paying customers, and the profits that go with all these new customers....
The insurers are right to worry. If the young and healthy don't buy in, the insurers' costs are going to rise. That's because, with no limit on pre-existing conditions, a larger proportion of the insured will be older and sicker.
But if the insurers were in tough competition with each other, they'd have every incentive to find ways to keep prices down even though the population they serve may be older and sicker. ...
But the truth is they don't compete intensely in most markets. And they'd rather not....
The president could have gone a step further and committed himself to a public insurance option. That would guarantee more competition, and give the private insurers a better run for their money -- and their profits.
[Link to audio] Full Story
11. Weak dollar raises talk of alternative world currency
USA Today
October 22, 2009
Just about every day seems to bring more bad news for the dollar.
Recent months have witnessed a steady erosion in the greenback's value, down 16% since March against the currencies of the top U.S. trading partners. On Wednesday, the euro broke through the symbolically important $1.50 barrier for the first time in 14 months....
The dollar doesn't owe its global role to international affection for Americans. Investors relying on the cold logic of the marketplace are drawn to the greenback by specific advantages that make the rise of a dollar rival inherently difficult. "There's no equally attractive alternative," says ECONOMIST BARRY EICHENGREEN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY....
The shrinking dollar also carries important economic benefits for the U.S. economy as it tries to climb out of recession....
"The U.S., in the new normal, is going to have to export more because U.S. households will be saving," said Eichengreen.
For that to happen, the dollar likely has further to fall. Full Story
12. Mortgage applications drop again as rates climb
Reuters
October 22, 2009
New York — Mortgage applications fell for a second week, led by a plunge in demand for home refinancing as interest rates climbed, an industry group said Wednesday....
The Obama administration is still considering whether to back extending the popular tax credit but is concerned about the cost, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said Tuesday.
KENNETH ROSEN, CHAIRMAN OF THE FISHER CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE AND URBAN ECONOMICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, said without an extension of the tax credit, home sales could easily fall 5% to 15%.
"It is vital that we keep the first-time home buyer in the market," he said. "I recommend a nine-month extension of the first-time home buyer tax credit until we get the natural momentum going."... Full Story
13. Bay Area Biz Blog: Help Warren Hellman reinvent journalism
San Francisco Business Times Online
October 21, 2009
Wanna build a Bay Area news organization from scratch? Then Warren Hellman and the Bay Area News Project want you.
The much-ballyhoed news nonprofit, with $5 million in startup funding from the billionaire financier’s Hellman Family Foundation, and plans to link up with KQED TV and radio and the UC BERKELEY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, is looking for a CEO.
According to the Careers section of its www.bayareanewsproject.org web site, the chief executive will report to the nascent entity’s board of directors and will oversee an executive editor and “Other positions TBD.”
The posting doesn’t directly mentioned a much-written-about potential relationship with the New York Times, apparently still under discussion, but does allude to a potential “distribution arrangement with a national print organization.” (The Times launched its own Bay Area section last week, right before announcing 100 editorial layoffs at the paper.)... Full Story
14. Swine flu vaccine slowly trickles in
San Francisco Chronicle
October 22, 2009
San Francisco -- Public health authorities have been lecturing people for months to get the swine flu vaccine, but to those who actually listened: Good luck finding it....
The vaccine production delays aren't surprising to some public health experts, who say manufacturers are stumbling over heavy demand to produce both a seasonal vaccine and one for the swine flu, a form of influenza Type A, subtype H1N1.
On top of that, the swine flu vaccine seems to take longer than other vaccines to reproduce. In making influenza vaccines, the virus is injected into chicken eggs and allowed to multiply; the fluid inside the eggs is used for the vaccine, after the virus has been killed....
"I don't think anyone is at fault here with the production. There's not much you can do to hurry up the eggs," said ART REINGOLD, HEAD OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AT UC BERKELEY. "The vaccine is a little later than we would like, but to most of us, it still represents the best way to protect yourself."... Full Story
15. Parents shouldn't avoid talking about suicide
San Francisco Chronicle
October 22, 2009
Talking about suicide does not cause people to commit suicide.
That's a critical message for parents and anyone else who deals with teenagers, say mental health experts. In Palo Alto, it's an especially important message now, days after a high school junior killed himself by standing in front of a Caltrain - the fourth such suicide in that city in six months....
Certainly suicides shouldn't be sensationalized in the news, said mental health experts, but avoiding the topic stigmatizes suicide and makes it a taboo discussion, and that doesn't help people who are troubled and thinking about killing themselves. A handful of studies have shown that talking about suicide doesn't encourage people to do it, said STEPHEN HINSHAW, CHAIR OF THE PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT AT UC BERKELEY.
In the case of suicide clusters like those in Palo Alto, it's understandable that some in the community might believe that publicizing a young person's death could lead to more suicides, Hinshaw said.
"It's a mass contagion phenomenon," he said. "Kids might be thinking that this is a coping mechanism that I could use, too. But there is this totally misguided attitude that if you talk about drugs or sex or suicide, you might be encouraging it.
"People who are suicidal are thinking about it constantly. Confronting it acknowledges that someone is aware of their pain, and that can help."... Full Story
16. Peninsula Forum On Teen Stress Draws Hundreds
KTVU Online
October 22, 2009
Palo Alto, Calif. -- Upwards of 400 concerned parents and educators packed a community meeting in Palo Alto Wednesday night to discuss the recent string of four teenage suicides. They sought answers to why the teens decided to end their lives by standing in front of a train.
The most recent suicide happened on Monday at the same East Meadow Drive railroad crossing where three other teens have died since May....
A UC BERKELEY PSYCHOLOGIST said young girls may be at the highest risk for severe depression. Whereas previous generations juggled fewer roles, young women today are pushed to be studious, athletic and -- thanks to a highly sexualized pop culture -- hot. Some can collapse under the weight of these expectations.... Full Story
17. Why Is Your Boss a Bully?
Maybe He or She is Incompetent -- and Knows It. 37 Percent Say They've Been Bullied at Work
ABC News Online
October 21, 2009
Is your boss acting like a bully these days? Maybe it's because the boss is well aware of his or her own incompetence.
New research shows that personal power, coupled with a feeling of inadequacy, is a potent force that can make a boss pick on those with less power. The problem, according to research based on interviews with more than 400 persons, is that deep down inside, the lout knows he or she is a loser.
"It's the combination of having a high-power role and fearing that one is not up to the task that causes power holders to lash out," SERENA CHEN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY and co-author of the study, said in releasing the report. "Our data suggests it's ultimately about self worth." ...
The latest study, conducted by Chen and Nathanael Fast, contends that it is a feeling of inadequacy that turns a boss into a bully....
So how do you deal with that? ...
"Using flattery and affirming the boss's strengths is certainly a strategy that subordinates can and do use to alleviate bullying," said Fast, who is now at the University of Southern California, in an e-mail. "This is especially true in cases where resigning is not an option. The unfortunate caveat is that, although flattery boosts the boss's ego, it can also cause the boss to further lose touch with reality which may ultimately worsen the situation." ... Full Story
18. Morning Edition: Stadium Seats Cost As Much As Some Homes
NPR
October 21, 2009
What sports fan wouldn't enjoy the comforts of home while at a college football game? The University of Kansas is building a Grid Iron Club and investors who buy "equity seat rights" can watch the game outside or inside a luxury suite. But he comforts of home come with a home mortgage price tag....
Greg Echlin: ... The push for commitments at the University of Kansas started just this week. At the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IN BERKELEY, it's been underway since January.
MS. SANDY BARBOUR (DIRECTOR, ATHLETICS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY): And here we have the - our campaign center, if you will, and...
Echlin: Sandy Barbour, athletics director here at Cal Berkeley, is inside the basketball arena, where there's a display of Cal's football future.
Ms. Barbour: I know I'm not objective, but it's the most beautiful place in all of America to play college football. And the model here, as we enter the campaign center, shows you a fully renovated, fully retrofitted, seismically upgraded California Memorial Stadium and Student Athlete High Performance Center.
Echlin: Cal already has financial commitments for 2100 of the 3000 seats in that section, that totals a whopping $170 million. Among those buying into it is Bill Osfall(ph), a retired chief financial officer in the health and consumer products industry....
[Link to audio] Full Story
19. Storing renewable energy: Local man aims to develop technology
Monterey Herald
October 22, 2009
Frederick Schuchardt of Carmel believes there's a "missing link" in the renewable energy industry, and he has a plan to fix it.
"We've never been able to store renewable power that comes from the sun and wind," said Schuchardt, who is working on his Green Battery, a flywheel-based system for storing energy without chemicals.
The system would be the size of "a small refrigerator" for a single-family home, he said...
Schuchardt's company got a boost shortly after he filed the bid for the government grants. SETH SANDERS AND HARI DHARAN, RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY, heard about the bid and asked if they could join the effort. They were quickly welcomed.
"They are two of the most pre-eminent professors in the world" in their field, Schuchardt said.
Their inclusion brings to six the number of people involved in the project.... Full Story
20. Battery Power: Electric vehicles the ‘rational choice'
A true believer's goal for the future: Practical electric cars with clean battery power
Globe & Mail [Canada]
October 22, 2009
Shai Agassi has this stare, this intense look in his eyes, and right now it feels as though he's boring into my soul. His is the look of the truly committed, the evangelical who has the answer. ...
But while I am a huge fan of Shai Agassi's idea of a world dominated by electric cars running on batteries charged with juice from clean, renewable sources, the realist in me has doubts and the reporter is utterly skeptical. Last month, behind the Better Place stand at the Frankfurt Auto Show, my apparent lack of faith – my metaphorical wandering in the desert – seemed to irritate Agassi ever so slightly....
Certain researchers believe Renault-Nissan and Better Place may be onto something. The UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY reports that electric vehicles could go mainstream more quickly if battery price is taken out of the equation.
According to a study titled Electric cars in the United States: A new model, which gives forecasts to 2030, electric cars could constitute 64 per cent of light-vehicle sales by 2030 if battery swapping and pay-per-service-mile models are adopted. This fits with what Better Place is trying to do.
The good news for consumers: the Berkeley researchers predict that switchable battery vehicles will be $7,500 (U.S.) less expensive than similar gasoline-powered cars by 2012, and the cost of EV ownership will be 10 to 13 cents (U.S.) cheaper per mile than gasoline cars (depending on oil prices).... Full Story
21. Charlie Rose Show: Food Safety
PBS
October 21, 2009
A look at the bacteria dangerous to our health found in the foods that we eat with [UC BERKELEY JOURNALISM PROFESSOR] MICHAEL POLLAN, Michael Moss and Dr. Jeffrey.
[Link to video] Full Story
22. Obituary: Stephen Barnett, a Leading Legal Scholar, Dies at 73
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
October 22, 2009
STEPHEN BARNETT, a legal scholar who campaigned against federal law exempting news companies from antitrust legislation and who challenged practices by the California Supreme Court as secretive, died in Oakland, Calif., on Oct. 13. He was 73....
In scholarly essays and newspaper opinion articles, MR. BARNETT, WHO TAUGHT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, took aim at the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, which allowed competing newspapers in the same market to enter into production and revenue-sharing arrangements known as joint operating agreements.
The intent of the law was to help multiple newspapers survive in the same city. Mr. Barnett, a specialist in intellectual property and First Amendment law, argued that in practice it promoted the consolidation of newspapers into large national chains.
In recent years, Mr. Barnett devoted his efforts to challenging the rules under which the California Supreme Court and the state bar association operate. He regarded both as unaccountable to the public, and made a prime target of the practice known as depublication....
“Stephen Barnett was probably California’s leading analyst and critic of the way the California Supreme Court goes about its business,” said STEPHEN SUGARMAN, A PROFESSOR AND ASSOCIATE DEAN AT BERKELEY’S LAW SCHOOL....
[Another obituary of Professor Barnett appeared in the Oakland Tribune] Full Story
23. Letters to the Editor
San Francisco Chronicle
October 22, 2009
...Colleagues retire - UC Berkeley's loss
This week TWO COLLEAGUES RETIRE FROM UC BERKELEY, yielding to an offer they couldn't afford to refuse.
To stay would mean working far more for less because of pay cuts and layoffs. They take with them 70 years of intimate knowledge of how cumbersome and complex campus systems have changed over the years as well as a deep love of the university.
They are among the many who have kept the system working through bad times and good. We can't afford to lose them: They can't afford to stay. It's a great loss for the campus community.
Claire Lomax, Oakland Full Story
24. On the Block Blog: Two Berkeley homes for sale: just $1.00 each
San Francisco Chronicle Online
October 21, 2009
Two homes in a prime spot in Berkeley have been listed for sale, and the asking price on each one is a mere $1.00.
The turn-of-the century homes, at 2241 and 2243 College Ave, are owned by, and sited on the campus of, UC BERKELEY and they are probably best described as fixers. But they definitely have potential. The catch in that attractive looking purchase price is that both houses need to be moved and if you buy them that job falls to you. Another salient fact? The university requires a $100,000 deposit to demonstrate commitment.
UC Berkeley has taken out an ad on Craigslist to find a buyer for the homes, one of which is 3,000 sq ft. It describes both structures as being over 100 years old, two-story wood-frame buildings. "The campus is interested in conveying one or both of the buildings to an interested buyer for one dollar in exchange for the buyer moving the structures from the site in a timely manner," the ad reads.
As CBS5 reported, one of the challenges of moving the houses is that they are surrounded by a number of beautiful mature trees. These, it goes without saying, must remain intact. Given how vociferous Berkeleyites have been in the past about preserving their trees, this could be the biggest obstacle to securing what must count as potentially the real-estate bargain of the year.
[Another story on this topic aired on KCBS--link to audio] Full Story
25. City Brights Blog: An Experiment in the "Creativity of Crowds"
San Francisco Chronicle Online
October 22, 2009
"The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas." - Linus Pauling.
Consider the Open Source model for software, where long-distance collaboration produces innovative, effective, robust, and freely-available software and systems.
Could a variant of this model be applied to problems in healthcare, community safety, disaster response, education, energy sustainability, environmental protection, and other contemporary issues?
A group led by Ben Shneiderman of the University of Maryland is proposing to explore this. They've written a White Paper on a "National Initiative for Social Participation".
Next Friday there's a Panel on this topic with Ben and others at the ACM Creativity and Cognition Conference (Oct 30, 9-10:15 at the BERKELEY ART MUSEUM THEATER.)...
Let's see what emerges. I'll present the results (with attribution of course) at the panel. Full Story
26. Stop Making Sense: Experimental Film
Mission Local
October 22, 2009
“What’s your favorite color: concrete, feathers, plastic, or grass?” says the host of an unnamed talk show in SAM BURNETT’s short film, “Tommy Boy.” The interview subject, a fictitious rapper/actor of the same name, thinks for a minute and says “Hmmm, Imma just say ‘colors.’ I love rainbows.” Then he draws a picture of himself as a plant while a reversed laugh track plays in the background. Welcome to the world of experimental film.
“The simplest way to define experimental film is to say that it’s non-narrative in a traditional sense,” said BURNETT, A FILM STUDENT AT UC BERKELEY whose latest film, an animated short called “Breathe,” will be screening Thursday night at The ATA Film-&Video Festival, one of the few festivals in the world dedicated to short-form experimental film. Over two days 17 films will be shown.
“Experimental film basically lacks any sort of storyline that’s easy to understand. It’s definitely kind of a niche thing,” Burnett added....
The ATA Film-&-Video Festival kicks off Thursday night at 7:30 at the Artists’ Television Access screening space/gallery (992 Valencia St.) with experimental/underground film screenings from around the globe and musical performances by Newtown and Karma McCartney. For more information and tickets ($7-$10), go here. Full Story