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Friday, 23 May 2008
1. Third red spot erupts on Jupiter
New Scientist
May 22, 2008
A third giant red storm has flared up on Jupiter, joining the Great Red Spot and the recently developed Red Spot Junior. The spot, along with new measurements of record-high wind speeds on Red Spot Junior, come at a time when the solar system's largest planet is experiencing a time of global upheaval.
...The spot, previously a white storm, now appears red in Hubble Space Telescope images taken on 9 and 10 May. The observations were led by IMKE DE PATER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, US.
No one knows for sure what gives the three spots their red colour. But one theory is that especially violent storms dredge up material from deeper in Jupiter's atmosphere, such as phosphorus-containing molecules, which undergo chemical reactions that turn them red when exposed to sunlight....
The upheaval may be connected to a decades-long cycle proposed by PHILIP MARCUS OF UC BERKELEY, a member of de Pater's team. According to this theory, varying wind patterns periodically destabilise Jupiter's atmosphere, leading to major changes on the planet.
[Stories on this topic appeared in hundreds of sources worldwide, including a Reuters story quoting UC BERKELEY ASTRONOMER MICHAEL WONG, and another story on National Geographic News] Full Story
2. For first time, astronomers watch star turn supernova
San Francisco Chronicle
May 23, 2008
Washington - -- In a stroke of cosmic luck, astronomers for the first time witnessed the start of one of the universe's most fiery events: the end of a star's life as it exploded into a supernova.
On Jan. 9, astronomers used a NASA X-ray satellite to spy on a star already well into its death throes, when another star in the same galaxy started to explode. The outburst was 100 billion times brighter than Earth's sun....
"A star exploded right before my eyes," lead author Alicia Soderberg, an astrophysics researcher at Princeton University, said Wednesday in a teleconference.
She likened it to "winning the astronomy lottery. We caught the whole thing from start to finish on tape."
Another scientist, UC BERKELEY ASTRONOMY PROFESSOR ALEX FILIPPENKO, called it a "very special moment, because this is the birth, in a sense, of the death of a star."...
"As much energy is released in one second by the death of a star as by all of the other stars you can see in the visible universe," Filippenko said....
[This story appeared in hundreds of sources worldwide] Full Story
3. Pollution danger higher than earlier estimated
San Francisco Chronicle
May 23, 2008
Microscopic air pollutants from trucks, cars, power plants and wood burning may pose greater health problems than previously believed, according to state researchers.
The new estimates were released Thursday in response to a request from the California Air Resources Board, which was seeking up-to-date research on premature deaths associated with inhaling particles one-thirtieth the width of a strand of hair.
Based on 60 studies worldwide and advice from a team of experts, including the World Health Organization, the researchers concluded that the new risk factor for fine-particle pollution is 70 percent higher than previously estimated.
The report, also reviewed by scientists at UC BERKELEY, could serve as the basis for strengthening state - and perhaps federal - air-quality regulations.... Full Story
4. Does Academe Hinder Parenthood?
Inside Higher Ed
May 23, 2008
Numerous reports and accounts suggest that balancing parenthood and academic careers can be difficult, particularly for women. Two new studies suggest that, possibly as a result, many female academics may be opting not to have kids.
One study compares female academics to those in other professions that have substantial training time and finds professors far less likely to procreate....
The study comparing professions tracks recent household “birth events” (having a child aged zero or one) in households of physicians, lawyers, and academics — with the thinking being that all three professions require many years of training and long work hours to succeed. The study, based on 2000 Census data, finds that academics are the least likely to have experienced recent birth events, and that the gap is greatest for women. (Physicians are most likely to have had children recently, and lawyers are in the middle.)...
The study, “Alone in the Ivory Tower: How Birth Events Vary Among Fast-Track Professionals,” was presented at the meeting this spring of the Population Association of America. The authors are Nicholas Wolfinger, associate professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah; MARY ANN MASON, FORMER GRADUATE DEAN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY and author of Mothers on the Fast Track; and MARC GOULDEN, DIRECTOR OF DATA INITIATIVES IN ACADEMIC AFFAIRS AT BERKELEY. Mason and Goulden are also members of the team that leads research work at the UC FACULTY FAMILY FRIENDLY EDGE, which promotes policies to help academics with family obligations.... Full Story
5. Forum with Michael Krasny: Santa Cruz Wildfires
KQED Radio
May 23, 2008
With fire crews still fighting the Santa Cruz Summit Fire, we take a look at California's fire outlook for the summer and at the rebuilding progress following the Tahoe/Agora Fire of last year.
Guests:
...MAX MORITZ, CO-DIRECTOR OF THE UC CENTER FOR FIRE RESEARCH AND OUTREACH AT UC BERKELEY
[Link to audio forthcoming] Full Story
6. Domestic partners can wed without dissolution
San Francisco Chronicle
May 23, 2008
Same-sex couples who are registered as domestic partners do not have to dissolve that union before getting married, attorneys that advise the state Legislature said Thursday, just as county clerks and other local officials met to determine how they will enact last week's historic state Supreme Court ruling....
"Permitting this decision to take effect immediately - in the light of the realistic possibility that the people of California might amend their constitution to reaffirm marriage as the union of one man and one woman - risks legal havoc and uncertainty of immeasurable magnitude," the filing states.
An expert on the California Supreme Court said the court almost never grants rehearings.
Additionally, "It could be considered improper for the court to hold its decision for what are essentially political reasons," said STEPHEN BARNETT, PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT UC BERKELEY'S BOALT HALL SCHOOL OF LAW.... Full Story
7. American Axle Workers Approve Contract, End Strike
Bloomberg
May 23, 2008
American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. workers approved a contract that cuts wages and shuts two plants, ending a 12-week strike that idled production at its largest customer, General Motors Corp.
About 78 percent of union members who voted at five factories in Michigan and New York ratified the four-year accord, the United Auto Workers said in a statement late yesterday.
``The vote is unusually strong; I think it reflects a sense that the UAW did the best that it could, rather than satisfaction with the contract itself,'' said HARLEY SHAIKEN, A LABOR- RELATIONS PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. ``A lot of people just want to move on to retirement or find jobs in other industries.'' ... Full Story
8. Technology entrepreneurs head for 'startup camp'
Agence France Presse
May 23, 2008
San Francisco (AFP) — Backpack-toting dreamers from more than 600 startup firms spent a recent morning at an Internet-age version of summer camp brainstorming about new online waves and how to ride them to success.
Camp organizers have described gatherings as "the physical meeting of online communities, so people can shake hands, network and share what they know in specific niches."
No two camps are ever the same. There are BarCamps for technologists; PodCamps for podcasters; RootsCamps for grassroots activists, and Copy Camps for journalists....
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR COYE CHESHIRE OF THE SCHOOL OF INFORMATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY says startup camps are "about rethinking organizational structures for learning and sharing information."...
Unconferences and Barcamps are excellent for allowing people to mix ideas more freely than traditional conferences, Cheshire told AFP....
Cheshire expects the unconference and startup camp trend to endure.
"They have been quite popular and successful," Cheshire said.
"Especially in the business and startup worlds where one of the major goals is sharing big ideas and learning from many rather than a few." Full Story
9. Op-Ed Column: Spud Web
Washington Post
May 23, 2008
The songwriter Buzzy Linhart said, "You've got to have friends." Indisputable. But 5,000 friends? Questionable.
The seeming excessiveness is part of the reason the social-networking site Facebook caps the number of friends any person can gather at that lofty figure. Yet when the popular Silicon Valley blog TechCrunch posted recently that Facebook was about to end the limit, the item garnered a lot of attention and even some excitement. The report turned out to be a false alarm -- Facebook maintains a 5,000-friend ceiling, a company spokesman said, and has no plans to raise the limit....
But such online linking has deep social implications, and as one's friend list grows, so do problems. People judge each other by whom they list as friends. Inevitably, human noise finds its way into a collection of friends because people tend to cave in and agree to friendship when asked by someone they barely know or don't know at all. In real life, we are spared the explicitness of a bald request to be a friend, but there's no such luck online -- even ignoring someone's friend request doesn't gloss over the fact that you're rejecting him or her. "It's socially awkward, and very hard to draw the line," says DANAH BOYD, A RESEARCHER AT THE SCHOOL OF INFORMATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY....
Not surprisingly, hand-wringing about dealing with all these online friends is the province of a generation that grew up in the physical world. People under 25 seem to have painlessly adapted to these new rules, however unwritten. "Kids have gotten over this," Boyd says. "As a teenager, you can't reject your friends at school, but you won't wind up having 5,000 friends, either." Even on the no-limits MySpace, the average is 180 or so. And that includes potatoes. Full Story
10. Youth appeal
In efforts to recruit today's college grads, some companies excel, others fail
MarketWatch
May 22, 2008
San Francisco (MarketWatch) -- How many college students pick up a newspaper to scour the classified ads for a job? Probably not many, yet some companies still post job ads there....
Why are employers still hiring? "Demographics," said Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research at NACE, in Bethlehem, Pa.
"The baby boom generation is coming to retirement age and employers have to anticipate those potential retirements and put people into the pipeline in order to replace them," he said.
That's good news for college grads. "With the exception of the financial-services sector, we still see significant hiring by employers," said TOM DEVLIN, DIRECTOR OF THE CAREER CENTER AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY.... Full Story
11. Scholarship to be handed out in honor of slain college student
Sacramento Bee
May 23, 2008
A scholarship in honor of a slain UC BERKELEY STUDENT will be awarded Saturday during a ceremony by the Sacramento State/UC Davis MESA Center.
The scholarship is funded with contributions made to the RODRIGO "ROD" RODRIGUEZ JR. Memorial Scholarship. Rodriguez, 21, was killed in September outside an Oak Park barbershop where he worked while home on break from the university. Police determined he was killed in a case of mistaken identity. One man has been arrested in connection to the homicide. A second subject remains elusive....
The Mathematics, Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) program prepares educationally disadvantaged college-bound students for four-year college admission. Rodriguez was enrolled in MESA during his entire K-12 education, a MESA Center release states....
The memorial scholarship has received more than $7,000 in contributions.... Full Story