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Thursday, 23 September 2010
1. UC Berkeley plans to cut another 200 jobs
San Francisco Chronicle
September 23, 2010
UC BERKELEY, pegged by efficiency experts as bloated with too many managers, will eliminate about 200 jobs early next year to save $20 million, CHANCELLOR ROBERT BIRGENEAU has announced.
"We cannot continue with our current administrative structures and operations and be the best run public university in the country," Birgeneau said in a letter to employees Tuesday.
The job elimination will be achieved through "a combination of attrition, retirements, voluntary separations and layoffs" after January, the chancellor said.
That's on top of 600 positions already eliminated since last year.
It's not yet clear how many employees will be laid off in this round, said CLAIRE HOLMES, A UNIVERSITY SPOKESWOMAN.
But 27 departments - from the HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS and the COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY, for example, to the chancellor's office itself - have been instructed to cast a critical eye over their management structure and see where positions can be reduced and combined, Holmes said.
"This is the beginning of that conversation," Holmes said. ... Full Story
2. Indoor pollution: Silent and deadly
Smoke from cooking stoves kills poor people
Economist [UK]
September 23, 2010
New York —After vaccines and bed nets, could the humble cooking stove be the next big idea to save millions of lives in poor countries? Hillary Clinton, America’s secretary of state, hopes so. She was marking the launch on September 21st of a new alliance that aims to raise $250m to supply clean stoves to 100m poor households by 2020. It is headed by the United Nations Foundation, a charity. Among its backers are governments (chiefly America, which has put up an initial $50m), charities (the Shell Foundation) and private firms (Morgan Stanley, an investment bank).
Around two billion people have no access to modern energy, and a billion have it only sporadically. The smoky stoves that many of them use, the World Health Organisation reckons, produce particulate pollution that causes around 2m premature deaths a year. Makeshift cookers also catch fire easily, maiming and killing. And lives are not the only things wasted. Women and girls in rural villages lose time and energy walking around collecting dirty solid fuels, ranging from crop waste to cow dung (better used as fertiliser).
The appeal of a stove that produces more heat, more cleanly and with less fuel is clear. But KIRK SMITH, A STOVE SPECIALIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, points out that most efforts to promote cleaner stoves have flopped. Too much emphasis has gone on technology and talking to people at the top, too little to consulting the women who actually do the cooking. When subsidies run out, the schemes have faltered, with stoves left unused or broken. ...
Another lesson of past failures, says [UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR] DANIEL KAMMEN, who runs the World Bank’s clean-energy programmes, is the need for better data about how stoves are actually used. That is increasingly possible, because cheap sensors can be embedded in stoves. At Berkeley, Mr Smith’s team is working with Vodafone, a mobile-phone company, on a wireless gadget that allows researchers on motorcycles to download the data from stoves. Some in the alliance also hope to tap the money available to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.... Full Story
3. Early puberty in girls may be linked to absent fathers in higher-income families
Los Angeles Times
September 17, 2010
Girls are starting puberty earlier, studies show, and some researchers speculate that rising obesity rates might be a factor. A NEW STUDY [LED BY RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY'S SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH] finds there may be a link between early puberty and girls living in higher-income households without a biological father.
The study, published this week in the Journal of Adolescent Health, looked at data on 444 ethnically diverse girls age 6 to 8, 80 of whom had no biological father living at home at the time of the study. Researchers noted the girls' onset of puberty (breast and pubic hair development), body mass index, ethnicity and income. Among the 80 participants, 21% had other men living at home, including stepfathers.
Not having a biological father at home was associated with earlier breast development, but only for girls who lived in families with incomes over $50,000. Not having a father at home was linked with earlier development of pubic hair among African American girls living in higher income homes. Factoring in BMI did not change the results.
The study offered some reasons for the link: higher-income families may have weaker support systems than lower-income families; mothers working outside of the home may put extra stress on family life and relationships; and having fathers leave while kids are young may indicate early familiarity with marital discord; and children living in higher-income households may have more exposure to environmental toxins that may have an effect on puberty.... Full Story
4. Online report card shows S.F. health disparities
San Francisco Chronicle
September 23, 2010
San Franciscans who live in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood can expect to live 14 fewer years on average than people who live on Russian Hill.
Suicide is the fourth-leading cause of early death among whites in San Francisco, but the eighth-leading cause among Latinos....
These health facts, drawn from about 50 sources and using about 150 measures, are part of Community Vital Signs, an online report card on the health of San Franciscans being introduced today by a consortium of public and private health groups. The data show great disparities between neighborhoods and compare San Francisco to other counties and the state.
Health officials plan to use the report card to monitor the health status of San Franciscans and make improvements where they can.
...The Healthy Communities Foundation, which is based in Sausalito, created the software and manages the Community Vital Signs report card.
"We talk about quality of life. We talk about drug use in schools. We talk about breast cancer and whether it's in the water," said DERYK VAN BRUNT, president of the Healthy Communities Foundation and a PROFESSOR AT UC BERKELEY'S SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH. "We may talk about all these things, but this is where the data is."... Full Story
5. School meals study provides food for thought
San Francisco Chronicle
September 23, 2010
Science classes in Berkeley are taught weekly in campus gardens. English, history and math courses are held regularly in the kitchen. The cafeterias have been rid of processed food, and everything is made from scratch.
The experiment started five years ago to teach a generation reared on junk food about good nutrition, where their food comes from and the environment.
The naysayers laughed, "Only in Berkeley." ...
Now, the results are in. According to a new study, Berkeley Unified School District's School Lunch Initiative works.
A three-year UC BERKELEY STUDY shows that students fed a steady curriculum of gardening, cooking and nutrition have significantly better eating habits than children who don't get the same instruction....
The report, scheduled to be released next week by the university's DR. ROBERT C. AND VERONICA ATKINS CENTER FOR WEIGHT AND HEALTH, is one of the first to look at how an integrated approach to food education at the elementary-school level can contribute to children's health and welfare. The center's findings could prove timely as Congress prepares to vote, possibly as early as this week, on child nutrition legislation....
Many school nutrition advocates are hoping that UC Berkeley's report is instrumental in helping to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, legislation that would include a 6-cent increase in the federal reimbursement rate for school lunches, mandatory funding for Farm to School programs and national nutrition standards for food sold on campus....
[A blog on this topic appeared in the Washington Post] Full Story
6. Philanthropist sets up Phoebe Prince scholarship fund
Mass Live
September 22, 2010
Northampton - Phoebe Prince’s life ended when she committed suicide in January, but her legacy will include studies aimed at helping other young people through their troubles.
Inspired by Prince’s story, California philanthropist J. Michael Mahoney has established a scholarship fund in Prince’s honor at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. The $50,000 with which Mahoney created the PHOEBE PRINCE MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP ENDOWMENT FUND will be invested with the hope that it will provide $2,500 scholarships to graduate students at the university’s School of Public Health in perpetuity.
Prince, a 15-year-old freshman at South Hadley High School, hanged herself in her home on Jan. 14 following what investigators say was several months of harassment and bullying by classmates. Six former South Hadley High School students face felony charges in connection with Prince’s treatment. ...
Of the 50 scholarships Mahoney has created, 24 are at UC Berkeley, and three of those are in the SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH. The first recipient of the Phoebe Prince Memorial Scholarship is a DOCTORAL STUDENT NAMED LECONTE DILL, who is working with minority youth to student how they cope with their environment.
Mahoney is also the author of several books, including one on schizophrenia. He has appeared on several radio shows to talk about Prince. Those wishing to contribute to the Phoebe Prince Memorial Scholarship Fund can do so at the "Give to Cal" website.
[Another story on this topic appeared in the Irish Emigrant] Full Story
7. Editorial: An Extreme Judicial Blockade
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
September 22, 2010
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday with an agenda that includes consideration of nominees for federal district and circuit court judgeships who have already been approved by the committee once, or even twice.
They are going through the process again because Senate Republicans refused to allow a vote by the full Senate and then, having dragged things out, insisted on returning the nominations to the White House. They then invoked an obscure Senate rule that required the judicial candidates to be re-nominated....
The most prominent of the five repeaters is GOODWIN LIU, A LAW PROFESSOR AND LEGAL SCHOLAR who would be the only Asian-American serving as an active judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Mr. Liu went to Stanford, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and graduated from Yale Law School. He clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before beginning a TEACHING CAREER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, SCHOOL OF LAW....
Conservatives do not like Mr. Liu’s support for same-sex marriage rights, affirmative action and his view that the Constitution is a living document that evolves over time. But his views fall well within the legal and political mainstream. His warnings that Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito would turn out to be extremely conservative were accurate. But Mr. Liu is no rigid liberal ideologue, as his support of school vouchers and charter schools attest. Kenneth Starr, the conservative lawyer who investigated President Bill Clinton, co-signed a letter vouching for Mr. Liu’s “independence and openness to diverse viewpoints.”...
At the comparable point in the Bush presidency, the Senate had confirmed 61.4 percent of Mr. Bush’s nominees. For Mr. Obama, it’s under 50 percent. His nominees are no radicals. That description applies to Republicans holding up well-qualified choices like Mr. Liu. Full Story
8. Op-Ed: For the good of democracy, tax cuts for the rich must expire
Extreme inequality in the U.S. is the result of tax-cutting ideology, which showers largesse on the GOP's deepest-pocketed supporters.
Los Angeles Times
September 23, 2010
The richest 0.1% of Americans have seen their share of pretax national income rise from less than 3% in 1970 to more than 12% in 2007 — the highest proportion since the creation of the income tax in 1913. Yet even as the rich grew vastly richer, Washington decided they needed more help. Since 1995, the top 400 households have enjoyed a 45% cut in their federal income taxes (they paid 30% of individual income in 1995 and 16.6% in 2007). In 2007 alone, that saved the top 400 filers $46 million — per household.
In the coming weeks, you will hear a great deal of discussion about whether maintaining tax relief for the rich passed in 2001 will create jobs. You will hear much less about the real issue raised by the tax-cut debate: America's fraying democracy....
There is a widely held view that rising inequality is somehow beyond politics, a natural occurrence driven by global economic forces. The skew of tax cutting toward the rich gives the lie to this fatalistic perspective. From rules shaping chief executive pay to financial deregulation to, yes, tax policy, a political system tilted toward those at the top has greatly widened the gap between the rich and everyone else.
To close that gap and restore broad economic growth, we need to improve our democracy, not just our economy. Full Story
9. Room for Debate Blog: Where Are the Angry California Voters?
With Tea Party politics less of a factor than elsewhere, what issues will determine the outcome in November?
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
September 22, 2010
A Majority Minority State
By Lisa García Bedolla
LISA GARCÍA BEDOLLA IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION AND POLITICAL SCIENCE AND AND THE CHAIRWOMAN OF THE CENTER FOR LATINO POLICY RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
Popular commentary characterizes the Tea Party as a “grassroots” movement, a decentralized campaign that rose organically in response to the policies of the Obama administration. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Californians already know what the rest of the nation will discover with Tea Party candidates: ideology and absolutism do little to solve government's problems. The most generous interpretation is to call it a “grasstops” movement, heavily funded by conservative billionaires like the Koch brothers and mobilized, organized, promoted and supported by Fox News. I can think of no other social “movement” that can claim political patrons of this magnitude. But, even this level of support is insufficient for orchestrating a campaign in California, given the sheer scale and cost of state politics.
There also is the question of what central issue motivates the Tea Party. Interviews of the crowd at the Glenn Beck rally in Washington show how few of the “activists” can articulate any sort of coherent political program or analysis. ...
As was the case in California in the 1990s, cynical billionaires are manipulating the political debate to protect their personal economic interests. It may work in the short term, but California’s experience shows that the long-term prospects for our nation will be bleak at best. Full Story
10. Abortion an Issue in Senate Races
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
September 23, 2010
New York (AP) -- An unusually large contingent of female Republican candidates with strong anti-abortion views is heating up debate on the issue and could change the political equation in the next Congress....
Of the four new Republican challengers, only Christine O'Donnell in Delaware -- the tea party favorite who's never held elective office -- is viewed as a long shot six weeks out from the Nov. 2 election. Carly Fiorina in California, Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire and even Sharron Angle in Nevada -- the former state legislator running against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- all seem to have solid prospects....
Boxer, a liberal California Democrat seeking her fourth term, faces a vigorous challenge from Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO, in a state that traditionally has supported abortion rights. Fiorina says she favors overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling establishing a right to abortion. Boxer is one of the Senate's staunchest abortion-rights advocates.
''It's been very hard for anti-abortion candidates to win statewide in California, but so far the polls are tight,'' said BRUCE CAIN, A UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY POLITICAL SCIENTIST. ''If Carly Fiorina wins this race, that would be a shocker.''...
[This story appeared in more than 100 sources nationwide, including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Sacramento Bee, and Los Angeles Times] Full Story
11. Forum with Michael Krasny: Arms Deal With Saudi Arabia
KQED Radio
September 23, 2010
Last week, President Obama put forward a massive $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, the largest U.S. arms deal ever. But the package is less about arms to the Saudis and more about deterring Iran. Detractors say it is overkill at best, and at worst may further incentivize Iran's nuclear program. What are the risks and benefits to the proposed package?
Guests:
...STEVE WEBER, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AT UC BERKELEY and author of the book "The End of Arrogance: America in the Global Competition of Ideas"
[Link to audio] Full Story
12. Exodus Could Shift White House Tone
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
September 23, 2010
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is likely to resign in a matter of weeks, hastening a remake of the Obama White House that could lead to a lower-key, more cooperative approach after the November midterm elections....
Mr. Emanuel's departure could come even before the exit of National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers, who is returning to Harvard University at the end of the year....
The White House also is looking at several other prominent female leaders for Mr. Summers's post, including LAURA TYSON, AN ECONOMIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, and a former Clinton administration official; and Ann Fudge, former chief executive officer of Young & Rubicam. Deputy National Economic Council Director Diana Farrell has also been mentioned as a possible successor to Mr. Summers....
[Link by subscription only. A similar story, mentioning UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR CHRISTINA ROMER's resignation as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, appeared in the Economist] Full Story
13. Relativity comes down to Earth
As Einstein predicted, a slow drive or a step up a ladder is enough to warp time.
Nature
September 23, 2010
Albert Einstein's theories of relativity, which predict that relative speed and gravity affect the passing of time, have never been easy to bring home to the general public. In the early 1970s, scientists demonstrated relativity by putting synchronized atomic clocks on jumbo jets that flew eastwards and westwards around Earth. The westbound plane — the one flying against Earth's rotation — gained time compared with a fixed reference clock on the ground. But this wasn't exactly an everyday scenario.
Chin-wen Chou and his colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, have now demonstrated Einstein's theories on more mundane scales. In tests of the special and general theories of relativity, the NIST researchers show that time speeds up if you climb just one rung up a ladder, and slows down if you travel at just 36 kilometres per hour. Their results are reported in Science this week1.
HOLGER MÜLLER, A PHYSICIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, says that the study shows that relativity is no longer confined to experiments working with huge speeds and distances. "This is mainly a grand technological feat, but has an almost philosophical component," he says. "It shows that relativity is something tangible."... Full Story
14. IBM Breakthrough Advances Nanotechnology Research
eWeek
September 23, 2010
IBM scientists can now measure how long information can stay in an individual atom, getting one step closer to the goal of computing at the atomic level....
"This technique developed by the IBM Research team is a very important new capability for characterizing small structures and understanding what is happening at fast time scales," MICHAEL CROMMIE, PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY and a faculty researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, said in a statement. "I am particularly excited by the possibility of generalizing it to other systems, such as photovoltaics, where a combination of high spatial and time resolution will help us to better understand various nanoscale processes important for solar energy, including light absorption and separation of charge."... Full Story
15. A booth with a view: Oakland architects build sukkah using signs from the homeless
J Weekly
September 23, 2010
Ten years ago, architects RONALD RAEL and Virginia San Fratello started buying cardboard signs off homeless people in and around their Oakland-based firm.
The idea was to exhibit the signs as works of art, then sell them to raise money for charities that benefit the homeless.
But the project stalled, leaving Rael and San Fratello waiting for an opportunity to resurrect them from Rael’s brother’s garage.
That came this year, with the announcement of Sukkah City: NYC 2010, a new, international design competition challenging architects to re-imagine the ephemeral, elemental shelter known as the sukkah....
Rael and San Fratello, whose East Bay firm combines architecture, art, culture and environment, created the “Sukkah of the Signs,” a wooden structure clad with signs — some as small as a sheet of paper, some large enough to be a makeshift bed — made by the homeless and destitute....
A panel of jurors esteemed in the architecture realm looked at the 600 entrees and selected “Sukkah of the Signs” and 11 other entries to be built and displayed Sept. 19 and 20 in Union Square Park in New York City....
“This project reinforced something for us as architects,” SAID RAEL, A PROFESSOR AT U.C. BERKELEY. “Our designs can send a social and political message, which is often hard to deliver. Clients don’t hire you to make social commentary, but we had the chance to express that through our work.”... Full Story
16. American Hiker Wants to Meet With Iran President
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
September 23, 2010
Chicago (AP) -- An American woman held in Iran for more than 13 months and accused of espionage says she hopes to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while he is in New York this week to attend the annual General Assembly of the United Nations.
SARAH SHOURD, who was detained with two other Americans while hiking near the border of Iraq and Iran in January 2009, said on a Thursday episode of the ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' that she wants the Iranian leader to know she has ''no animosity towards him or towards any Iranian people.''...
Her fiance, SHANE BAUER, and their friend JOSH FATTAL remain in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. Shourd said she never thought she would leave Iran without Bauer and Fattal, and still is ''numb and a little bit in shock.''...
The three UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY GRADUATES were detained after Iranian officials said they intentionally crossed the country's border from Iraq. Shourd said the three had been hiking in a popular tourist area -- near a waterfall in Iraq's Kurdistan region -- and had no idea the border was nearby....
[This story appeared in dozens of sources nationwide] Full Story
17. Answer Sheet Blog: Should colleges stop legacy preference in admissions?
Washington Post Online
September 22, 2010
A new book on legacy preference in college admissions says that almost three-quarters of elite national institutions grant legacy preferences in admissions and that the advantage children of alumni can receive is often significant -- even if schools say otherwise.
The book, “Affirmative Action for the Rich: Legacy Preferences in College Admissions,” also says that legacy preferences do not result in significant increases in alumni giving, even if schools say that it does....
In the past decade or so, 16 leading institutions have abandoned the practice of giving preference to legacies, including the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. Texas A&M; the University of Arizona; the University of California, Los Angeles; and the University of Georgia)....
If universities and colleges are conferring a monetary benefit in exchange for donations, then the arrangement shatters the first principle underlying the charitable deduction, that donations to nonprofit organizations not “enrich the giver.” The IRS regulations place universities in a legal catch-22: Either donations are not linked to legacy preferences, in which case the fundamental rationale for ancestry discrimination is flawed; or giving is linked to legacy preferences, in which case donations should not be tax deductible. Full Story
18. Berkeley’s Michael conspiracy at Rep tonight
Berkeleyside
September 23, 2010
Can it possibly be a coincidence that the three most famous writers currently resident in Berkeley are named Michael? Think about it: [UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR] MICHAEL POLLAN, Michael Lewis and Michael Chabon. Somebody is hiding something.
Two of the Michaels — Pollan and Lewis — are on stage tonight at the Berkeley Rep in a fundraiser for the UNIVERSITY’S GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM. It’s billed as a “conversation about writing, storytelling, books and journalism”. There’s plenty of evidence that the J-School has lined up two of the most accomplished writers around for the evening. Lewis’ The Big Short is in the middle of a 26-week run on The New York Times’ hardcover non-fiction list, currently sitting at number seven. Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma has a 145-week run going on the paperback non-fiction list, at 17 at the moment. His In Defense of Food is 30th on the same list, and his Food Rules is number seven on the paperback advice list ...
If you want to just hear the conversation, tickets are $125 (it is a fundraiser). $500 gets you to a pre-program reception as well, and $1,000 covers the reception, the program and dinner at Revival after the program. Full Story
19. Cal Performances opens season with Free for All
San Francisco Chronicle
September 23, 2010
CAL PERFORMANCES understands that free is the best price of all - and the best way to find new audiences. Sunday, it opens its 2010-11 season with a full day of free performances by the Kronos Quartet, members of the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, Mark Morris Dance Group, Melody of China, John Santos Sextet, Pacific Mozart Ensemble, Word for Word, Teslim with Kaila Flexer and Gari Hegedus, Diamano Couras West African Dance Company, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Ensemble, classical guitarist Marc Teicholz, singer-musician Melanie DeMore and UC Jazz Ensembles.
The 14 45-minute performances will take place at Zellerbach, Hertz and Wheeler halls and on a stage at Lower Sproul Plaza from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with talks from artists, CD signings, a community sing and an instrument petting zoo. Some of the events will be interactive.
Mark Morris Dance Group will give audience members the opportunity to experience movement with company members, as they discuss and learn a section of Morris' work "Looky" (coming to Cal Performances next Thursday-Oct. 3). And DeMore will lead the community sing "Pounding for Peace" with spirituals and songs of change, and will teach the uninitiated Gullah stick pounding. For a full schedule of the Fall Free for All: www.calperfs.berkeley.edu.... Full Story