The links to the stories summarized on this page are time sensitive, so stories might no longer be online at that URL. We also include links to the original source publication itself.
Friday, 17 September 2010
1. Cal Performances ignites an arts 'Free for All'
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
September 17, 2010
What if, in a great burst of largesse and pride, you decide to invite everyone in your address book to a big open house? But suppose you dispense with that pesky RSVP business, and then -- gulp! -- they all show up?
Where some of us might pale at the prospect of an oncoming stampede, CAL PERFORMANCES DIRECTOR MATIAS TARNOPOLSKY, entering his first full season on the UC Berkeley campus, is ecstatic. "We hope we are inundated!" he exclaims. "It's going to be a fabulous day!"
Tarnopolsky is bolting out of the starting gate Sept. 26 as de facto ringmaster of the Fall Free for All, a daylong celebration that will bring 14 performing acts in dance, theater, opera, jazz, choral, orchestral and instrumental music to four campus venues for free.
From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. that Sunday, the campus will swarm with 200-plus volunteers and nobody knows how many arts-happy festivalgoers....
A large contingent from the Cal Band will blast things off with a preperformance fanfare at 10:30 a.m.; the Men's Octet and the Golden Overtones, both UC Berkeley vocal ensembles, will stroll and serenade throughout the day and a family-friendly instrument petting zoo, staffed by many of the performing ensembles, will hold court on the Zellerbach mezzanine from noon to 5 p.m.
But the primo attractions are the artists' 45-minute performances in the fixed venues, many long-term members of the Cal Performances inner circle. Chief among those is the Mark Morris Dance Group....
The Fall for Free for All will be an annual event. "It's a chance for us to introduce our season," Tarnopolsky acknowledges. "But we really just want to show how accessible and how wonderful the performing arts are, especially at Cal Performances. It's a huge, open-arm embrace, to our existing audiences and the whole community."
[This story also appeared in the San Jose Mercury News and Oakland Tribune] Full Story
2. UC Berkeley is a special place
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
September 16, 2010
I was walking across the CAL CAMPUS last Friday past the informational tables on Sproul Plaza representing everything from Young Socialist Alliance to Campus Crusade for Christ.
Right next to Sather Gate, an undergraduate a cappella singing group was belting out sweet-sounding four-part harmonies.
And I couldn't help thinking, "How thrilling all this must be for the new freshmen!'"
The next day I was on campus again, just as the crowd was filtering out of Memorial Stadium after the football game against Colorado. (Cal won in a laugher, 52-7.) I ran into a group of Colorado students who were freaking out at the names of the campus buildings.
"Look at that!" one guy exclaimed in disbelief. "Cesar Chavez Student Center! Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union! How long has this been going on?"
"A long time," I said.
"But why?" they asked.
"This is Berkeley," I explained.
I didn't have the heart to point out the Free Speech Movement Café; I figured their minds had been blown enough for one day. But it reminded me once again what a special place Cal is -- unlike any other in the world.... Full Story
3. Gene predicts how fast Alzheimer's progresses
Reuters
September 17, 2010
Chicago (Reuters) - People with a specific genetic variation develop Alzheimer's disease at a faster rate than others, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a finding that may help in the search for drugs to keep the disease at bay....
A separate study by a TEAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, found that healthy people who took Pfizer's Alzheimer's drug donepezil, sold under the brand Aricept, improved their ability to learn a new skill.
They said healthy people aged 18 to 35 who took the drug as part of a pilot study did much better when they were asked to track dots moving on a computer screen compared with people who took a placebo.
They said the findings, published in the journal Current Biology, could help people with learning problems such as dyslexia. Full Story
4. Absent Father Might Mean Earlier Puberty for Higher-Income Girls
Findings add to previous research, but experts still can't explain link
U.S. News & World Report Online
September 17, 2010
Girls growing up in higher-income homes without a biological father are likely to reach puberty earlier than others, new research finds.
"In higher-income families, father absence predicted earlier puberty, but it did not in lower-income, father-absent [households]," said STUDY LEADER JULIANNA DEARDORFF.
"Girls in upper-income households without a father were at least twice as likely to experience early onset of puberty, as demonstrated by breast development," she said. The researchers defined higher income as $50,000 or more a year.
Early maturation in girls is linked with emotional and substance use problems and earlier sexual activity. These girls also face a higher risk for breast cancer and other reproductive cancers later in life.
Previous research has linked absent-father households and earlier puberty, but this study adds more information, said DEARDORFF, AN ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY....
The authors said they can only speculate on the reasons behind the connections.... Full Story
5. Physics arXiv blog: First Observation of a Macroscopic Quantum Jump
Physicists have watched an artificial atom jump from one state to another using a monitoring technique that could have important implications for quantum computing.
Technology Review Online
September 17, 2010
One of the defining characteristics of quantum objects is their ability to change from an excited state to a ground state without passing through any intermediate states.
The consequences of quantum jumps fill our world: chemistry, for example, is essentially the science of quantum jumps.
But while it's easy to see the consequences of quantum jumps, it's much harder to catch them in the act....
All that changes today with an announcement by RAJAMANI VIJAYARAGHAVAN AND BUDDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, that they've watched a macroscopic quantum object jump for the first time.
...The ability to monitor qubits jumping from one state to another is an enabling technology that could transform quantum computing. For example, error correcting codes, without which computers just don't work, rely on this kind of control.
What's more, Vijayaraghavan and pals say their ideas can easily be applied to other kinds of quantum systems. "Our technology can be readily integrated into hybrid circuits involving molecular magnets, nitrogen vacancies in diamond, or semiconductor quantum dots," they say.
If that turns out to be true, this could be one of those engineering breakthroughs that can turn impractical demonstration devices into practical powerhouses capable of operating in the real world. Let's wait and see. Full Story
6. Survey finds 'wage theft' at Chinatown eateries
San Francisco Chronicle
September 17, 2010
Chinatown restaurants routinely pay workers less than the minimum wage, according to a study by local activists that brings the national trend of so-called wage theft home to San Francisco.
The 30-page report being released today by the Chinese Progressive Association culminates a two-year survey of about 400 workers - more than half of whom said they were being paid less than the San Francisco minimum wage, currently $9.79 per hour.
"We believe this is the largest study of its kind in the country," said MEREDITH MINKLER, A UC BERKELEY PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT who helped train workers from Chinatown to survey their peers to penetrate the language barrier.
The reported prevalence of minimum-wage avoidance among Chinatown restaurants goes well beyond the 26 percent rate that was reported in similar, earlier surveys of low-wage workers in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York that helped establish the concept of wage theft - the nonpayment by employers of legally required pay or benefits....
One innovation in the Chinatown survey is that the interviews were conducted by restaurant workers trained by experts from UC BERKELEY, UCSF and other cooperating entities including the San Francisco Department of Health and the city's Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement.
"White, middle-class outsiders could never have gotten this," said Berkeley's Minkler.... Full Story
7. Regents move on UC pension problem
San Francisco Chronicle
September 17, 2010
San Francisco -- Angry UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA EMPLOYEES staged a mock arrest of UC President Mark Yudof on Thursday outside the regents' meeting in San Francisco, even as the regents praised Yudof for pushing an unpopular but critical pension fix.
The regents voted unanimously to increase pension contributions from the university and about 200,000 UC employees over two years - the first step in what is shaping up as a bitter debate over how the university system should wrest control over its vast unfunded retirement liability in the long term....
"This is absolutely criminal," cried KATHRYN LYBARGER, A UC BERKELEY GARDENER. "How 'corporate banker' of this university. They are forcing low-wage workers into poverty."...
"It is a pay cut for all," said Academic Senate Chairman Dan Simmons, who sits with the regents but does not vote. Yet, "failure to act would have an even greater negative impact."
"I'm very worried," a UC BERKELEY CUSTODIAN said, explaining that people with physically demanding jobs often retire in their fifties - years before Social Security kicks in. With reduced benefits, he said, "my co-workers and I will be forced to go on public assistance."...
[The Associated Press also issued a story on this topic] Full Story
8. Bay Area Biz Talk Blog: UC Berkeley J-School backs off from $5,000 fee fiasco
San Francisco Business Times Online
September 15, 2010
These could be graduates of top-notch American J-schools, circa 2010.
Check out this memo in Jim Romenesko’s online column for The Poynter Institute, a nonprofit educational program for journalists and others with an interest in the hard-pressed profession. It apparently puts to rest one of the dumbest J-school ideas in years.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY'S GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM -- yes, the one and the same batch of academics that's helping The Bay Citizen fill Bay Area-specific sections of the New York Times -- has backed away from a knuckle-headed scheme to charge J-school grad students a $5,000 “professional” fee....
Romenesko put DEAN NEIL HENRY’s entire Sept. 13 email to alumni and students online. I love the way the Dean thanks folks for the “remarkable responses” in recent weeks regarding the proposed fee, surely one of the lamest ideas in years, given the terrible job market for journalists and the prospect that it could last for many years, and maybe forever....
Maybe UCB should consider a money-back guarantee instead. Full Story
9. College Inc. Blog: New global rankings
Hopkins high, G'town low
Washington Post Online
September 16, 2010
The last of the high-profile world collegiate rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, was published Thursday with a new and reportedly improved methodology.
The London-based ranking used to publish in collaboration with Quacquarelli Symonds, but the two split last year. It used new criteria this year to reflect "three core elements of a university's mission -- research, teaching and knowledge transfer." Nearly two-thirds of each school's rating is based on its research output: the impact of academic research as measured by citations, and its reputation for research as measured by peers. Another 30 percent is based on the "learning environment," as measured through peer surveys, doctorates and student-faculty ratio.
The previous metric was criticized for leaning too heavily on "reputation and heritage," factors that are said to receive less weight now. It should be noted, though, that reputational surveys still make up about 35 percent of a school's total rating. That's 10 points higher than the weight afforded to reputation surveys in the U.S. News rankings....
2010-11 Times Higher Education World University Rankings
1. Harvard
2. CalTech
3. MIT
4. Stanford
5. Princeton
6. University of Cambridge
(tie) University of Oxford
8. University of California, Berkeley...
9. Imperial College London
10. Yale University... Full Story
10. San Bruno is part of PG&E pipeline probe
San Francisco Chronicle
September 17, 2010
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was concerned last year that liquids were corroding the metal in four of its Bay Area natural gas pipelines - including the one that exploded last week - according to a document obtained Thursday by The Chronicle....
Investigators are already looking at internal corrosion as one potential cause for the Sept. 9 blast in San Bruno that engulfed a neighborhood in flames and killed at least four people. The commission, which is investigating the incident alongside the National Transportation Safety Board, is aware of concerns about liquids in the pipeline and will examine that in its investigation....
"This document shows clearly that PG&E was alert to the problem," said UC BERKELEY ENGINEERING PROFESSOR ROBERT BEA, a former Shell Oil executive who now studies catastrophic engineering failures. The ruptured San Bruno line, he said, appeared in photos to have corrosion.
"The pictures I've seen clearly show internal corrosion," Bea said, adding that he isn't part of the investigation. "Now, whether or not it's got pits that can turn out to be failure initiation sites, I don't know."... Full Story
11. So goes the center, so goes the economy
Washington Post
September 16, 2010
It's hard to read this week's election results, and the public opinion polls generally, and not be concerned about the collapse of the political center....
...We've reached a point, however, where a vicious and self-reinforcing political and economic cycle has taken hold - one in which a lack of sustained growth and widely-shared prosperity leads to political polarization, which by paralyzing government leads to even slower growth and even less widely-shared prosperity and yet more polarization.
This interplay between the politics and the economics is the subject of a provocative new book, "Winner Take All Politics," by political scientists Jacob Hacker of Yale and PAUL PIERSON OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. While slowing growth and rising inequality have afflicted all advanced economies in recent decades as a result of globalization and new technologies and globalization, Hacker and Pierson find them to be more pronounced in the United States, as Thursday's report on the nation's soaring poverty rate attests. Conservatives like to ascribe such trends to the natural dynamics of efficiency-producing, liberty-protecting markets, but Hacker and Pierson remind us that there are no such thing as "pure" markets, and that markets everywhere are shaped by laws and regulations, cultures and the institutional arrangements that themselves are shaped by the political process.
Less convincing is the Hacker-Pierson thesis that U.S. markets have now been captured by a clever and carefully-plotted right-wing conspiracy to screw the American middle class. At the same time, it's pretty clear that the government's ability to respond to what most Americans experience as unsatisfactory economic performance has largely been thwarted by a political process rendered dysfunctional by partisan and ideological polarization....
This is the way wealthy nations become poor. There are no vibrant economies without effective political systems, and there are no effective political systems without a vibrant center. A Hatfields-and-McCoys politics produces a Hatfields-and-McCoys economy (it works the other way as well). In the end, there are no winners - except, perhaps, for the Chinese.
[Another review of this book appeared in Crooked Timber. A commentary by Professors Hacker and Pierson appeared in Politico] Full Story
12. Bernanke Shadow of Easing Limits BOJ Success With Yen Weakness
Bloomberg
September 16, 2010
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa’s success in weakening the yen may hinge on Ben S. Bernanke.
Japan said two days ago it sold yen for the first time since 2004 because the currency’s surge to a 15-year high versus the dollar imperiled the nation’s export-led recovery. Meantime, pressure is growing on U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke to print more dollars to bolster America’s flagging economy, a policy that contributed to a weaker greenback in 2009....
Further Fed purchases won’t be a key determinant of the exchange rate between Japan and the U.S., according to economists Carl Weinberg of High Frequency Economics and BARRY EICHENGREEN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY....
The economies of both Japan and the U.S. would benefit from another round of quantitative easing, said Eichengreen.
“People are viewing this as a conflict between the U.S. and Japan, but if our policy would otherwise push up the yen a little bit and thereby cause more deflation there, they can offset that by printing a few more yen, which again costs them nothing, has no negative side effects,” Eichengreen said. “I don’t see any incompatibility between the two policies.”... Full Story
13. O'Brien: Silicon Valley companies pay taxes below official rate
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
September 16, 2010
Whenever advocates for new business tax breaks state their case, you can bet they will complain that the 35 percent corporate income tax rate in the U.S. is one of the most burdensome in the world....
Here's what these folks won't say next: Almost no company pays that 35 percent rate. A 2008 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office pegged the effective rate for large U.S. corporations at 25.2 percent. ...
A note about the "effective tax rate." Companies don't have to disclose how much they actually pay in taxes, but they are required by federal securities rules to calculate the effective tax rate in their annual reports. This rate represents a combination of state, foreign and federal tax rates they paid minus various deductions, and experts say it is a useful proxy for understanding corporate taxes and comparing it to the U.S. rate.
"It's the best you can do," said ALAN AUERBACH, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND LAW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY....
And what's interesting is that in most cases, these companies have more deductions and credits than they can take in a given year. This does make me wonder just how much impact something like renewing and expanding the R&D tax credit will have.
"If you say, 'In addition to all the other deductions you can't use, here are some more,' it's not going to do any good," Auerbach said....
[This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times] Full Story
14. Robert Reich's Blog: Gingrich threatens extinct strategy: Shut down the government.
Former Rep. Newt Gingrich recycles an old ploy, forgetting that it cost the Republicans dearly in the 1990s.
Christian Science Monitor Online
September 17, 2010
Newt Gingrich is saying if Republicans win back control of Congress and reach a budget impasse with the President, they should shut down the government again. GOP pollster Dick Morris is echoing those sentiments, as is Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R. Ga), and Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller.
I am continuously amazed at the GOP’s ability to snatch defeat out of the jaws of potential victory. It is the gift that keeps giving.
I was there November 14, 1995 when Newt Gingrich pulled the plug on the federal government the first time. It proved to be the stupidest political move in recent history. Not only did it help Bill Clinton win reelection but it was a boon to almost all other Democrats in 1996 (Gingrich’s photo was widely used in negative ads), and the move damaged Republicans for years....
Now, remarkably, Gingrich is back at it.... Full Story
15. The Biz Blog: In Hyperlocal News, Where's the Urgency?
Poynter Online
September 17, 2010
Not to get all Newtonian, but let me propose Edmonds' Law of Inverse Urgency: the more local or hyperlocal the news, the less important it is to get it right away.
I would keep these musings to myself, except that ventures like AOL's Patch, with its projected $50 million investment this year in 500 sites and 500 newly-hired journalists, continue to try to square the hyperlocal circle. The hypothetical kitty -- $15 billion to $30 billion in local online marketing revenues -- continues to lure prospectors, even in the face of repeated failures.
Awhile ago I started thinking about urgency and online news more generally, asking a working group of scholars whether the current mania to know what's happening right now is a new phenomenon. No, TOM LEONARD, A LIBRARIAN AND MEDIA HISTORIAN AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, said. A generation or two ago, crowds would gather at newspaper offices to watch the news and stock market ticker or to get updates of big sports events.... Full Story
16. Alison Galloway selected for top post at UCSC: Forensic anthropologist will oversee budget, academics
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
September 16, 2010
Santa Cruz - ALISON GALLOWAY, a forensic anthropologist at UC Santa Cruz who has tackled unsolved homicides and campus budget tangles with equal rigor, was appointed Thursday to the No. 2 post on campus, where she will oversee day-to-day operations as the top academic and finance official....
Galloway's interest in archeology dates back to STUDYING AFRICAN PREHISTORY AT BERKELEY. She views her forensic work as giving "voice to the victims."...
Other candidates for the job included Stephen Thorsett, dean of the division of Physical and Biological Sciences at UCSC; William Ladusaw, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education and a professor of linguistics at UCSC; and TYLER STOVALL, DEAN OF THE UNDERGRADUATE DIVISION OF THE COLLEGE OF LETTERS AND SCIENCE AND A PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT UC BERKELEY.... Full Story
17. Venture Capital Dispatch Blog: New Venture Capital Firms In A Shrinking Industry (Part II)
Wall Street Journal Online (*requires registration)
September 17, 2010
Earlier this week we profiled several new venture capital firms that have popped up since the start of 2009 in the face of a shrinking industry. As we noted, this is an impressive feat considering even seasoned venture firms are having trouble raising capital these days.
We promised to provide part two of our list, so here are seven more new firms looking to make a mark....
Javelin Venture Partners, San Francisco
The early-stage firm was founded by TWO FRIENDS WHO GRADUATED TOGETHER FROM UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY’S HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: NOAH DOYLE, an angel investor who previously directed the enterprise product line for Google Inc.’s geospatial products, Google Earth and Google Maps; and JED KATZ, previously a managing director at New York venture firm DFJ Gotham. Javelin’s $75 million fund began investing last year, placing $1 million to $2 million in digital media, Web commerce, mobile and health care IT companies. It’s so far made at least 17 investments, including Adrocket Inc., an advertising-optimization company; Aquea Scientific Corp., a developer of technology for active-ingredient delivery; and intouch Group Inc., a platform to deliver applications and rich media to mobile phones....
Mission Bay Capital, San Francisco
The UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA doesn’t raise venture funds, but its INSTITUTE FOR QUANTITATIVE BIOSCIENCES last year set up this affiliate to invest in life sciences companies. Founded in 2000, the institute is a collaboration between three UC CAMPUSES - BERKELEY, San Francisco and Santa Cruz - and is designed to work on science that benefits the economy and spawns the development of new companies. The $7.5 million Mission Bay fund targets life science start-ups emerging from the university that have gotten past the initial research stage but still need funding to get to the point where they can receive venture capital backing. Limited partners include Pfizer Inc. and John Wadsworth Jr. of Manitou Ventures. Its lone portfolio company is biotherapeutics company Redwood Bioscience....
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
18. High - Tech Cow Earrings Mark New Path For Brazil
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
September 17, 2010
Porto Alegre, Brazil (Reuters) - Years after India broke into the hi-tech business with information technology and China by way of manufacturing, Brazil may find its entrance in an unusual place -- a cow's ear.
The South American giant is preparing to use its first locally-designed microchip in cattle earrings, a device that could eventually help authorities crack down on destruction of the Amazon rain forest caused by roaming herds.
Produced by state-funded firm Ceitec, the "Chip do Boi" or "Cow Chip" is part of home-grown innovation efforts that Brazil hopes will help it overcome challenges in its sprawling economy and over time make it an exporter of niche technology....
"Brazil has competitive advantages in areas like agriculture and clean energy, and it makes sense for the country to maintain those advantages through technological innovation," said Ceitec chief executive CYLON SILVA, A THEORETICAL PHYSICIST WITH A PHD FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
"There's no way that a country of Brazil's size and influence can go without an electronics industry."...
"I think there is a real opportunity for a country with the resources that Brazil has to become a player in this market," said Silva. "If we can manufacture planes, why not think that we can manufacture integrated circuits?" Full Story
19. Editorial: Dream Act should transcend immigration debate
San Jose Mercury News
September 16, 2010
Talking with the honors students at National Hispanic University can break your heart.
Many graduates of the private San Jose college can go on to careers as programmers or engineers in Silicon Valley industry, where educated workers soon are expected to be in short supply.
But others with valuable skills will have to go looking for work at burger joints or janitorial services, letting their degrees and knowledge go to waste. These young people have managed to achieve academic success despite the stigma of being, in the anti-immigrant parlance they despise, "illegals" -- brought here by their parents, sometimes as infants, without documentation. Without green cards, they have no hope of working for Intel or Adobe, or of getting a scholarship to a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA GRADUATE SCHOOL -- let alone gaining citizenship.
This combination of individual tragedy and work force need is the reason for the Dream Act, which U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to bring back for a vote as soon as next week, with the support of President Barack Obama. For the sake of our economy, if not for our sense of decency, it should become law.... Full Story
20. Op-Ed: A formula for foster care success
Two products of California's foster care system urge the governor to sign AB 12, which would enable the state to collect federal dollars dedicated to boosting foster kids' chances of success.
Los Angeles Times
September 17, 2010
A partner in a large Los Angeles law firm and a 17-year-old kid from Compton wouldn't appear to have a lot in common. But both of our lives have been indelibly marked by the violence and neglect in our early lives, and changed by California's foster care system. So we speak from experience when we urge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign a bill (AB 12) that would enable our state to collect federal dollars dedicated to boosting foster kids' chances of success.
MILES was kidnapped and held for days by drug dealers in Sacramento when he was 2 years old, and at just 5 years old found his mother dead of a drug overdose. He entered the foster care system at age 6 and experienced a world of upheaval in the early years before finding his way to college and eventually EARNING A LAW DEGREE FROM UC BERKELEY.
George is from gang-infested Compton, lived in six foster homes, moved from school to school and yet graduated from high school last year and now attends college.
Ours are among the few foster care stories with happy endings....
Both of us emerged from our experiences in foster care with a message of hope: Foster youth are not broken people; they are resilient and smart, with latent talents and hopes. This is why AB 12 must be signed into law if there are to be more like us. Let us put the most vulnerable among us — at-risk foster youth — before politics. Full Story