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Monday, 11 February 2013
1. UC Berkeley's Haas school minds its manners
San Francisco Chronicle
In an effort that this reporter says might have made Miss Manners' heart skip a beat, Berkeley's Haas School of Business recently set up tables and invited students, faculty, and staff to write personalized notes to Haas donors. The school acknowledges that it depends on donors, since student fees fund only half the cost of running the program. Tyler Wishnoff, a senior in the Haas undergraduate program, says of the benefactors," "They're not just helping Haas. ... They're helping the business world." Full Story
2. Op-Ed: The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
Public policy professor David Kirp writes about the "striking achievement" of the Union City, N.J., school district, which has brought poor, primarily immigrant children into the educational mainstream. "As someone who has worked on education policy for four decades, I’ve never seen the likes of this. After spending a year in Union City working on a book [Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America’s Schools], I believe its transformation offers a nationwide strategy." Full Story
3. Economix Blog: The Family and Medical Leave Act, 20 Years Later
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
Business professor Laura D'Andrea Tyson writes about the success of the Family and Medical Leave Act, arguing it should be revisited in order to address challenges confronting working Americans today. She gives two reasons – "First, the law is not universal and many of those not covered and eligible are young adults in their childbearing years, are from minority backgrounds and are low-wage workers. Second, many eligible workers are not able to take leave because it is unpaid and they cannot afford to give up their wages." Full Story
4. Op-Ed: Labor unions raise prosperity for all
San Francisco Chronicle
Public policy professor Robert Reich argues that stronger unions are needed to turn around the economy: "Walmart should be unionized. So should McDonald's. So should every major big-box retailer and fast-food outlet in the nation. So should every hospital in America. ... That way, more Americans would have enough money in their pockets to get the economy moving. And everyone -- even the very rich -- would benefit. As the president said, America cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it." Full Story
5. Talk of the Nation: Researchers Point To The Demise of the Dinosaurs
NPR
Earth and planetary science professor Paul Renne, director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center, joins a discussion of his new study pinning down the timing of the comet or asteroid that hit the Gulf of Mexico 65 million years ago. The research offers further evidence that the impact was concurrent -- in geologic terms -- with the mass dinosaur extinction. Link to audio. Full Story
6. Talk of the Nation: Science of Slumber: How Sleep Affects Your Memory
NPR
Psychology professor Matthew Walker, principal investigator at Berkeley's Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory, joins a discussion of his new research into how sleep affects memory and cognition as we age. Link to audio. Full Story
7. SETI's Alien Life Study Finds 'No Signals Of Extraterrestrial Origin'
Huffington Post
A study led by Andrew Siemion, of Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, has determined that intelligent alien life is likely relatively rare in our Milky Way galaxy, with fewer than one in a million solar systems harboring civilizations advanced enough to send out radio signals. Stories on this topic appeared in dozens of sources worldwide. Full Story
8. Tangled in Housing Bust, FHA Seeks a Hand
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
Business professor Kenneth Rosen comments on the Federal Housing Administration's billions of dollars in potential losses, saying that FHA's role in resolving the housing crisis stands out as a bright spot compared with the federal government's response, because the FHA helped stave off worse price declines. The losses the FHA is facing today, he says, are "the price of the bubble unwinding." Full Story
9. Berkeley: What's behind 95 percent increase in reported rapes?
Oakland Tribune
Berkeley police are investigating a 95 percent increase in reported rapes in 2012. The number increased from 20 in 2011 to 39 in 2012, and last year's numbers were the highest they've been in five years. Most of the rapes were in neighborhoods around the UC Berkeley campus, where approximately 35,000 students live, and according to police about half of the cases involve drugs or alcohol, and almost all cases involved victims and suspects who know each other. A new mandatory training program begun in 2011 for all incoming students at Berkeley employs what is called "bystander intervention" for sexual assault, stalking and domestic violence, and Allan Creighton, who manages the EmpowerU program for University Health Services, says that program could be a factor in the increased number of reports. Another story on this topic aired on KGO TV--link to video. Full Story
10. Bay Area risky for identity theft, tax fraud
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
Assistant law professor David Gamage comments on the prevalence of tax fraud and identity theft in the Bay Area, where experts say two key factors are the area's dense population and international flavor. "There tends to be an underground economy of white-collar crime with those sorts of conditions," he says, adding that local law enforcement usually can't react fast enough to these types of crimes. While he advises caution -- not getting credit card statements in the mail and changing online banking passwords -- he also doesn't think there's cause for alarm, since credit cards and banks are quick to reverse fraudulent changes and the IRS has ways of helping victims of identity theft. "Sure, it ends up being a hassle," he says. "Beyond that, this is just a risk of the technology age." Full Story
11. Nicholas Castle, teacher in China, dies
San Francisco Chronicle
Recent alum Nicholas Castle, who was teaching English with the Peace Corps in rural China, died Thursday after being struck by an unidentified illness. Mr. Castle planned a career in U.S.-Chinese diplomacy and was excited when the Peace Corps stationed him in China to teach English, his mother says. He moved to southern China's Guizhou province in July, one month after graduating with degrees in political science and comparative politics. Full Story
12. When a child goes missing -- then and now
San Francisco Chronicle
History professor Paula Fass, author of Kidnapped: A History of Child Abduction in the United States, comments on the landmark child-kidnapping case of Kevin Collins. "The anxiety that was created among parents was not all a good thing," she says. "Back in the 1980s, what was being written in the media was that there were 500,000 abductions every year -- but it wasn't broken down. ... So most parents assumed they were all stranger abductions, when in fact the number of stranger abductions is actually very small. It was so severe that in the 1990s there were surveys showing that kidnapping was the No. 1 parental concern, not something like dying in car crashes, which is much more dangerous and pervasive. ... I do hope parents have relaxed somewhat since then." Full Story
13. Wired Campus Blog: Amidst a ‘Revolution,’ Publishers Are Told, Know Your ‘End Users’
Chronicle of Higher Education Online (*requires registration)
Molecular and cell biology professor Randy Schekman spoke at the annual meeting of the Association of American Publishers’ Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division last week. As editor in chief of eLife, a researcher-driven journal, he said he aims to streamline and speed the submission-and-review process. There’s a pervasive feeling among researchers that “it simply takes too much time for one’s most important work to be published,” he said, and authors who submit papers to eLife can expect to hear back quickly, generally within 60 days. Full Story
14. An Author Attracts Unlikely Allies
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
Philosophy professor Alva Noë remarks about a controversy stirred by a NYU philosopher Thomas Nagel: “He is questioning a certain kind of orthodoxy, and they are responding in the way the orthodox respond.” Full Story
15. Local stars come out for the Berkeley Public Library
Berkeleyside
Among the local authors celebrated at the Berkeley Public Library Foundation Authors’ Dinner on Saturday were Berkeley economics professor Barry Eichengreen and history professor Leon Litwack. Full Story
16. Newts return to Berkeley, looking for love
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
It's mating season for newts and one of the best places to see them now is at the Botanical Garden's Japanese pool. Garden director Paul Licht is an enthusiast of the small amphibian, after having discovered them in 1964 as a Berkeley zoology student. "People ask me why I get so turned on by newts," he says, "and I don't really know why. They are fascinating animals. Fascinating. But once people learn about them, they get fascinated, too." Full Story
17. James Hahn's run at Pebble Beach something to dance about
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
Alum James Hahn hopes to become the first Cal alum ever to win a PGA Tour event at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am this week. He is currently tied for first place, entering the final round. A video of him dancing "Gangnam Style" to celebrate a birdie at the Phoenix Open last week went viral, and many are hoping for an encore soon. Cal golf coach Steve Desimone says that if Hahn becomes the first Golden Bear to win on tour, it would be "party time" for the Cal program. Full Story
18. Bay Area theater openings, Feb. 10
San Francisco Chronicle
Circus Oz, an offbeat Australian circus, is returning to Cal Performances on Friday, with shows through Sunday at Zellerbach Hall. Full Story