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Friday, 14 September 2012
1. US Defense Satellite Launched From California
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
An Atlas 5 rocket carrying a classified satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office was successfully launched Thursday from the central California coast. In addition to the secret satellite, 11 tiny satellites called Cubesats were launched for other organizations, including one carrying a UC Berkeley project. This story appeared in more than 100 sources nationwide. Full Story
2. QB3 powers new wave of bio startups: 'Box' knocks down barriers
San Francisco Business Times (*requires registration)
The Startup in a Box program, initiated by the Berkeley-affiliated California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, or QB3, has helped 76 startups — with 17 becoming fully operational — within a year of the program's inception. Full Story
3. SRC honors UC Berkeley’s del Alamo and MIT’s Neureuther for advancing chip technology
Semiconductor Today
Electrical engineering and computer science professor emeritus Andrew Neureuther has been honored with an SRC Aristotle Award for outstanding teaching in SRC-supported, chip-related research and education. Full Story
4. Politics Blog: SF-based U.S. Ambassador to Australia — also from Piedmont — mourns death in Libya
San Francisco Chronicle Online
Berkeley law alum Jeff Bleich, U.S. ambassador to Australia, comments on the death of Christopher Stevens, also a Berkeley alum and the former U.S. ambassador to Libya, who was killed in a consulate attack on September 11. The two had bonded over their shared Piedmont and Berkeley roots while working together to resolve an issue in concert with Australian colleagues in Libya. Ambassador Bleich says Ambassador Stevens "had a quick and searching mind, a deep appreciation of history, and a love of diplomacy as a way to bring people together and improve their lives. ... His loss, and the loss of Sean Smith and our other colleagues, is very tough for all of us. We are sending our deepest sympathies to their families and other friends around the world.” Other stories about Ambassador Stevens and his Berkeley connections appeared in the Contra Costa Times and on KGO TV (link to video). Full Story
5. The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley this weekend
Berkeleyside
A two-day conference called Demcracy Rising is wrapping up today on the Berkeley campus. Coinciding with the consulate attack in Libya, the program was organized to address democratic uprisings in the Arab world, including Libya. Key participants have been India’s former chief elections commissioner, a member of Tunisia’s Finance Committee, a senior mediation expert with the UN, and a leading Russian journalist. Full Story
6. Obama administration approves first round of work permits for young illegal immigrants
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
Berkeley alum Mayra Gomez is one of 72,000 young illegal immigrants who requested work permits from the Obama administration in the past month. On Monday she received a message from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services telling her to come to the agency's San Francisco office to get her fingerprints taken. Although ordinarily this would be a sign of imminent deportation, in this case it was a message that she is one step away from her permit. Full Story
7. U.S. News college rankings: A closer look at the D.C. region
Washington Post
A review of the latest U.S. News and World Report ranking notes: "Elite public universities are closely watched. The University of Virginia in Charlottesville, which drew a national spotlight during a leadership crisis in June, is the second-ranked public university in the country, tied with the University of California at Los Angeles and just behind the University of California at Berkeley. The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg is the sixth-ranked public university, behind the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill." Full Story
8. iTunes U: App updated just in time for back-to-school
USA Today
Apple has updated its iTunes U app, making it easier and more enticing to download free university lectures from "many of the top U.S. universities," including UC Berkeley. Full Story
9. UC to pay settlement in Davis pepper spray case
Los Angeles Times
The UC regents have approved a settlement payment to 21 UC Davis students and alumni who sued the university for violating their civil rights by using pepper spray during a protest. Also on Thursday Berkeley law dean Christopher Edley and UC general counsel Charles Robinson released a final report about campus responses to civil disobedience. In it no major changes were made to the draft report issued in May, in which administrators are charged with using mediation instead of confrontation, with pepper spray to be used only as a last resort. Another story on this topic appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education Online. Full Story
10. Renewed Debate on SAT and Wealth
Inside Higher Ed
Saul Geiser, a research associate of Berkeley's Center for Studies in Higher Education, critiques a new study claiming that SAT scores are strong predictors of first-year academic success in college for all socioeconomic statuses, especially when used in conjunction with high school grades. Geiser said that the published paper was very similar to versions he had reviewed for two other journals, which had decided not to run the paper. Full Story
11. The Education Issue: Why These Kids Get a Free Ride to College
New York Times Magazine (*requires registration)
Economics professor Enrico Moretti comments on a scholarship program in Michigan called the Kalamazoo Promise, in which wealthy donors provide free college to graduates of the Kalamazoo school district. Noting that well-educated people amplify a community’s wealth, he said that the biggest difference in salaries between highly and lesser-educated regions is not found in the salaries of the elite but in those earned by lower-skilled workers, since the spillover effects of wealth energize the economy at every level. Full Story
12. Arturo Bejar, Facebook director of engineering
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
An interview with Facebook engineering director Arturo Bejar includes discussion of the company's enlistment of experts at Berkeley and Yale to help improve the procedures Facebook users can follow when they feel harassed or dissatisfied with photos or other items posted on the website. He explains that he decided the company needed outside experts when he was introduced to Emiliana Simon-Thomas, a neuroscientist now at the Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. "The key insight she gave me was that if you know somebody is experiencing an emotion, there's a part of you that's wired to help. ... But electronic communication doesn't do a great job with emotion. (And few people made use of a blank form for sending a message asking someone to remove an offending item.) So we wondered what would happen if we provided a default message. We found more people sent that message, and more people responded. That opened the door for us to realize there are people doing research that we could tap into." Another story about Facebook-related research being conducted at Berkeley appeared in TruthDive. Full Story
13. Wealthy Base Helps Emanuel Take on Chicago Teachers Union
Reuters
Labor professor Harley Shaiken comments on the fact that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel received more campaign donations from wealthy backers of school reform than from unions, saying: "Urban Democrats have historically been closely linked with the unions, but Emanuel comes from a different place with a very different base. ... He views the unions through a different lens and is simply not that beholden to them." Full Story
14. Oakland police force handcuffed
Oakland police force handcuffed
Law professor Frank Zimring comments on failing efforts of the Oakland Police Department to accomplish 51 reform tasks identified in a 2003 court settlement of a police abuse case, saying: "Sometimes the problem can be that there are too many cooks stirring the soup — and that can be an argument in favor of a federal monitor. ... Chaotic interactions can make it impossible to steer a ship." Full Story
15. Calif. Art Work Emerges From Solyndra's Bankruptcy
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
SOL Grotto, an artwork included in the Berkeley Botanical Garden's current exhibit, "Natural Discourse," recycles glass tubes that were abandoned in a warehouse following Solyndra's bankruptcy. The tubes are also being recycled as political fodder, with conservative commentators and House Republicans ridiculing the display as the most expensive piece of taxpayer-funded artwork ever. Noting that reviews from visitors have been quite positive, garden director Paul Licht says: "If a political discourse has brought people into the garden ... then I'd say finally politics has done something useful for us." This story appeared in more than 100 sources nationwide. Full Story
16. Three Michaels: Chabon, Lewis and Pollan in conversation
Berkeleyside
"Three of the country’s best writers, all named Michael," including journalism professor Michael Pollan, will speak at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre on December 10. The other writers are Michael Chabon and Michael Lewis, and the event will be "an opportunity to gain insights into food culture, politics, the state of literature, and what makes Berkeley such a magnet for interesting people." Full Story
17. Dissecting Romney’s Vietnam Stance at Stanford
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
An article about Mitt Romney's views of the Vietnam War during his years as a Stanford student includes discussion of his efforts on the school's spirit committee — AxeComm — where his duty was to keep students at Berkeley from stealing the Stanford Axe, a prize awarded to the winner of the universities’ annual football game. Michael Roake, another Stanford freshman who joined Romney in a reconnaissance mission at Berkeley, said: “We were more concerned about protecting the ax from Berkeley students than about the war in Southeast Asia. ... It sounds silly and trivial now. But at the time, we were very earnest.” Full Story