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Monday, 2 June 2008
1. Innovation on the Edge: Changing the World from the Edge
Our columnists show how impassioned student movements for social change can teach executives about innovation
Business Week
May 30, 2008
Forty years ago, in May, 1968, protests, demonstrations, and marches—not all of them peaceful—put STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, at the forefront of the antiwar, free speech, and civil rights movements. Today, Cal Berkeley is again in the vanguard as a new generation of student activists emerges to help address some of the most pressing social issues of our era: energy efficiency, Third World poverty and disease, and sustainable housing, among others. The quiet activism pursued by today's activists may not generate as many headlines as the actions of their well-known predecessors, but they may ultimately have greater impact as they mobilize the edge to transform the core.
A key catalyst for this new generation of student activism is TOM KALIL, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE CHANCELLOR FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AT UC BERKELEY. Kalil, formerly an official in President Bill Clinton's White House, has the specific charter of helping foster initiatives on the edge of multiple academic disciplines, including information technology, nanotechnology, and biology.
Kalil has two tightly linked aspirations. First, to transform academic institutions by mobilizing engaged and empowered students. Second, to transform society by taking on some of the most challenging social problems and connecting resources across a variety of edges to come up with innovative and high-impact solutions. From Kalil's perspective, tackling difficult social problems like environmental pollution, inadequate health care, and sustainable development will be much more successful if the energy and creativity of engaged students can be unleashed....
One example—backed by Kalil—is the BERKELEY ENERGY & RESOURCES COLLABORATIVE (BERC), a student-led initiative designed to connect academic resources focused on cleantech. This 700-member collaborative brings together students and professors from such diverse disciplines as law, chemistry, engineering, and business, and builds bridges into the larger San Francisco Bay Area cleantech entrepreneurial community. In addition to organizing an annual Energy Symposium, the student leaders of this collaborative have also persuaded Berkeley faculty to launch a new CENTER FOR ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION (CEEI)....
More than 100 other student-led innovation initiatives in such areas as microclinics for disease management, commercialization of nanotechnology research, telemicroscopy for disease diagnosis, efficient cookstove design for refugee camps in Darfur, and new financing mechanisms for investment in energy efficiency are well under way and illustrate the broad scope of innovation....
Achieving results requires making connections across multiple edges. Enormous resources are available to drive innovation, but they are fragmented and isolated within various disciplinary and institutional silos. A common theme of the innovation initiatives led by Berkeley students has been the need to inventory relevant resources and find creative ways to connect these resources. The challenge has been to move well beyond the academic institution itself and find creative ways to connect with entrepreneurial talent in companies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) of various types around the world. By bridging the edges that define our daily lives, we may indeed change the world. Full Story
2. Friends to carry on missing sailor's research
San Francisco Chronicle
June 1, 2008
Computer database wizard JIM GRAY woke up Jan. 28, 2007, at his home on Telegraph Hill, surveyed the calm, sunny skies, and decided it was the perfect day to scatter his mother's ashes at sea....
The mystery surrounding Gray's disappearance has never been solved, but almost 1,000 of his friends and colleagues - including some titans in the technology world - gathered in Berkeley Saturday to keep his memory alive and forge ahead with his research.
"He was a mountain of a person, and our community misses him immeasurably," said MICHAEL STONEBREAKER, PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AT UC BERKELEY, at a tribute to Gray held on the CAL CAMPUS Saturday. "He was a giant, interested in everything. He epitomized what it means to be a scholar."...
His work is now used in nearly all Internet retail sales, by banks and credit card companies and for airline reservations. His later work on database technology has been used by oceanographers, geologists, astronomers and the general public to map the Earth via Google Earth and TerraServer....
UC Berkeley also announced that Google, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and other technology giants chipped in to endow a chair in Gray's honor in the COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT, WHERE GRAY RECEIVED HIS UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE DEGREES....
Donations in honor of Jim Gray can be made to UC BERKELEY'S JIM GRAY CHAIR, care of Rita d'Escoto, Donor Stewardship Manager, College of Engineering, 201 McLaughlin Hall, No. 1722, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720; or the U.S. Coast Guard, San Francisco sector, 1 Yerba Buena Island, San Francisco, CA 94130. Full Story
3. Blog: A Tribute to Jim Gray: Sometimes Nice Guys Do Finish First
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
May 31, 2008
For a half-decade, the San Francisco bureau of the New York Times had a remarkable resource. Just five floors above us were the offices of Microsoft’s Bay Area Research Center and more specifically, Gordon Bell and JIM GRAY, two of the world’s legendary computer scientists....
I have frequently missed Jim’s sage advice and perspective since then, but it wasn’t until Saturday at a tribute in his honor and memory at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY that the impact of both his technical contributions and who he was as a person really struck home.
Roughly 600 friends and colleagues attended two separate events on campus intended to capture his technical and personal contributions....
…During the day’s remembrances, it was announced that the JIM GRAY CHAIR IN COMPUTER SYSTEMS will be established at UC BERKELEY, funded by more than $2 million in contributions from Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.com; Bill Gates, the chairman and co-founder of Microsoft; Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google; Mike Stonebraker, co-founder of Ingres; and the Hewlett Foundation.
In addition to being brilliant, Dr. Gray was an iconoclast. Speaker after speaker fondly told stories that reflected his disdain for bureaucracy and his independence. SHANKAR SASTRY, DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AT UC BERKELEY, noted that when organizers were planning the Saturday tribute, they felt the attire should be business casual; Dr. Gray, however, rarely wore anything but jeans and was once thrown out of the I.B.M. Scientific Center in Los Angeles for failing to meet the company’s dress code.... Full Story
4. Work of computer genius Jim Gray flourished amid research freedom
Seattle Times
June 2, 2008
Berkeley, Calif. — I'm starting to wonder if researchers, and not Bill Gates and Paul Allen, were the ones who made out the best during the computer industry's rise over the past four decades.
The river of billions flowing through companies such as Microsoft and IBM created shoals and islands where top computer scientists could play and tinker with the latest technology.
Or maybe that's just how it worked out for JIM GRAY, the industry legend lost on a sailing trip last year who was lauded Saturday in a tribute here at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, where he received the school's first Ph.D. in computer science....
Gray ended up at one of the few big tech companies that still invests heavily in advanced research. But even Microsoft's scientists may face more pressure to contribute to near-term earnings if the company's PC franchise wanes and it starts borrowing money to buy all or part of Yahoo.
Universities could fill the gap but they're getting less government funding. They've also caught the intellectual-property fever that increases the tension between old-school academic sharing and the pursuit of licensing opportunities....
[Another story on this topic appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education--link by subscription only] Full Story
5. Aliens get a new switchboard: a SETI radio telescope in Northern California
An array at Hat Creek near Mt. Shasta points an ear to the cosmos. If E.T. tries to phone on any of 10 billion channels, Earth will be ready to listen.
Los Angeles Times
June 1, 2008
Hat Creek, Calif. — In this remote volcanic valley near Mt. Shasta, 42 telescope dishes have sprouted amid the soaring ponderosa pines, listening for a voice from space.
Every few seconds the 20-foot-wide dishes, scattered over dozens of acres, pirouette in perfect synchronicity, like dancers practicing their pas de deux before opening night.
RICK FORSTER, a slight, 59-year-old astronomer with the long beard of a man who has spent years in the solitude of the forest, said that after fine-tuning the dishes over the next few weeks to function as a single, giant ear, the real show will begin: listening for E.T.
The Hat Creek Radio Observatory will be the biggest radio telescope in the world specifically designed to search for extraterrestrial intelligence when the full 350-dish array is completed in the next few years.
"It's nuts to think we're alone," said Forster. He works with the SETI Institute and UC BERKELEY, which are jointly installing the array.
"It's just a matter of looking in the right direction, at the right time, at the right frequency, with the right algorithm," he said.... Full Story
6. Quake expert shares lessons from China
KGO TV
May 30, 2008
Berkeley, CA (KGO) -- A Sacramento structural engineer who traveled to China's earthquake devastated regions is sharing the lessons he brought back.
A Sacramento structural engineer who went to China's devastated Sichuan Province spoke to BERKELEY PROFESSORS Friday about lessons from the quake.
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER KIT MIYAMOTO went to China at the request of some clients to check their buildings, but he saw much more than that and brought back a lesson for his colleagues.
"Technically speaking, we did not learn anything new. These are lessons learned over and over again," said Miyamoto.
Miyamoto says un-reinforced concrete and bricks are to blame for the destruction....
Miyamoto's colleagues at Berkeley say they are interested in the China quake because the fault is similar to our Hayward fault.
"Since we don't get magnitude 7.9 in California very often it's important we learn what happened," said YOUSEF BOZORGNIA, A UC BERKELEY EARTHQUAKE ENGINEER....
[Link to video] Full Story
7. College Alumni Magazines Struggle to Compete With Facebook
New York Times (*requires registration)
June 2, 2008
Most people read their college alumni magazines for the class notes, immediately flipping to the back to see who was married, had a baby or was promoted to an envy-inducing job. The columns tend to be meatiest at this time of year — class reunion season.
The advent of social networking on the Internet has created a quandary for these magazines, which want to maintain a conversation with alumni but have been slow to embrace the Web. Most schools have set up password-protected sites where graduates can change their contact information, drop a class note or donate money. ...
Most alumni publications depend at least in part on advertising. For instance, a third of the $1.1 million budget for California, the magazine for the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, comes from advertising, said KERRY TREMAIN, THE MAGAZINE’S EDITOR.
“Alumni magazines have been for quite a long time one of the more undervalued properties in terms of advertising,” Mr. Tremain said. “They’ve been sort of ghettoized as a kind of organizational newsletter, and not taken seriously.”... Full Story
8. A puzzle over fewer boy births
Chicago Tribune
May 25, 2008
Once there was a kids hockey team on the reservation of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Canada, just across the border from Michigan.
No longer. There aren't enough boys....
Though more boys are being born than girls in most places, their numbers are falling. No one is sure why....
When pregnant women struggle with adverse circumstances—economic hardship, poor food supply—a biological mechanism that "culls" weak male fetuses may be inadvertently deployed, said RALPH CATALANO, A PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
From an evolutionary standpoint, this would make sense, since boys require more parental effort to raise while also dying at a higher rate, Catalano explained. When times are tough, it's more advantageous to give birth to a girl, he said.
Among Catalano's thought-provoking findings: The number of boys born in New York City relative to girls fell significantly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
That result, reported in 2006 in the journal Human Reproduction, applied primarily to women in their second trimester at the time of the attacks....
Separately, in 2003 Catalano reported that the proportion of boys born in the former East Germany dropped sharply in 1991, when that area's economy collapsed....
[This story also appeared in Red Orbit] Full Story
9. UN hits AIDS treatment target two years late
The Morung Express [India]
June 2, 2008
In 2003, the World Health Organization began its ambitious ''3 by 5'' initiative to treat AIDS, promising to put 3 million infected people worldwide on antiretroviral drugs within two years.
According to a report issued on Monday, they finally succeeded last year....
''These numbers are the best we've got, but they're not necessarily that good because they may have to be revised depending on newer data,'' said JAMES CHIN, A CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. WHO's report is based largely on self-reported information from 143 governments.... Full Story
10. War not over for separated kids
16 years after civil war in El Salvador, group still fights to join 'disappeared' with loved ones
Chicago Tribune
May 25, 2008
San Salvador, El Salvador — This country's civil war ended 16 years ago, but Jacqueline Martinez didn't really start to heal until last month when she fought back laughter and tears as she enveloped a stranger in a tight embrace.
The stranger was her brother, Marlon.
Martinez, 23, like thousands of Salvadorans, was separated from her family as an infant during the conflict. She was fortunate to wind up with a loving family but spent the next two decades in the sad resignation that her blood relatives were gone forever and that her own life story would always be incomplete.
But Martinez wasn't going it alone. With a team of investigators collecting clues and DNA offering confirmation, Martinez finally tracked down her biological family....
Pro-Busqueda, the non-profit group at the forefront of reuniting families, was started in 1994 by a priest sympathetic to the leftist FMLN rebels. Today, Pro-Busqueda refuses to formally cooperate with El Salvador's right-wing government, accusing it of lacking sincere commitment to the effort....
...Pro-Busqueda matched their DNA from a database they created with the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY and Physicians for Human Rights.... Full Story
11. Bumblebees set new insect record for high-altitude flying
Scientists reveal remarkable ability of mountain-dwelling bumblebees to fly in air so thin it would kill a human
The Independent [UK]
June 1, 2008
The origin of the notion that bumblebees fly in defiance of the laws of aerodynamics is lost in scientific history. But new research suggests that, despite their apparent physical drawbacks, bumblebees are among the finest flyers of the insect world.
Bumblebees have been discovered on Mount Everest at more than 5,600 metres (18,000ft) above sea level. In scientific tests, several of the bees flew successfully in a flight chamber which recreated the thin air of 9,000m (29,528ft) above sea level, higher than the 8,848m summit of the world's highest mountain. This is thought to be a record for any insect species....
DR MICHAEL DILLON, A BIOLOGIST AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, has been studying the high-altitude bees found in the mountains, which are on the eastern edge of the Himalayas, near Tibet. He said: "We collected bees at 4,000m, put them in a chamber and sucked air out of it to simulate high altitudes. We took them to 9,000m and they still flew – that's above the height of Everest."... Full Story
12. Op-Ed: State needs innovative, aggressive water solutions
Sacramento Bee
June 1, 2008
For more than a decade, California has had relatively adequate winter rains and mostly full reservoirs. No longer. We had the opportunity to fix many of our water problems while the state had more abundant water, but that chance has been squandered. And though we've never been very good at making rational water decisions in a crisis, the time to change that is clearly and urgently here.
The fisheries of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are collapsing, farmers and cities are facing reduced water deliveries and higher prices are being imposed on heavy water users. Last year many parts of the state were critically dry and with this spring one of the driest on record, water agencies are imposing the first serious drought restrictions in recent memory. These will help, temporarily, but more permanent changes are needed.
We must put in place some of the proven, cost-effective solutions we have available to us and push forward with new approaches for a comprehensive solution to our perennial water problems. But our leaders remain deadlocked in the old, entrenched thinking that got us into our water problems in the first place....
If we are innovative and aggressive about solving our water problems now, we'll reduce the risk that more stringent, mandatory reductions will be imposed upon us during the coming droughts. Full Story
13. Editorial: Get a third opinion
Times-Picayune [New Orleans]
June 02, 2008
There's hardly anything more important to our recovery than the soundness of our flood protection. Billions in upgrades to levees and floodwalls won't have the desired effect if residents don't trust that the work will protect them during a storm.
To that end, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East is doing the right thing by seeking a third opinion on whether persistent water seepage near the 17th Street Canal floodwall repairs poses a threat.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees levee construction, maintains that the shallow pooling on the canal's Lakeview side is just water seeping through sheet piling used to repair the Katrina breach and does not threaten the levee and repaired floodwalls.
But BOB BEA, A UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY CIVIL ENGINEERING PROFESSOR and frequent corps critic, says the seepage exposes serious design flaws in that section of the canal and in much of the region's 100-year hurricane protection plans.
"We have an obligation to the public to find out who's right and who's wrong," said authority Commissioner Tom Jackson.... Full Story
14. Arctic freeze a breeze for superstrong steel
New Scientist
May 28, 2008
Steel is valued for its reliability when making everything from bolts to boats - but not when it gets cold. Most forms of steel abruptly become brittle at temperatures below about -25 °C unless they are mixed with other metals. Now, though, a novel type of steel has been developed that resists fractures at much lower temperatures, while retaining its strength and toughness - without the need for expensive additives.
Steel's fragility at low temperatures first became a major concern during the second world war. After German U-boats torpedoed numerous British ships, a 2700-strong fleet of cheap-and-cheerful "Liberty ships" was introduced to replace the lost vessels, providing a lifeline to the beleaguered British. But the steel hulls of hundreds of the ships cracked in the frigid north Atlantic, and 12 broke in half and sank.
Brittleness remains a problem when building steel structures in cold conditions, such as oil rigs....
[UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR BILL MORRIS is quoted in this story. Link to full text by subscription only] Full Story
15. Calif. asked to delay gay marriages
UPI
May 31, 2008
San Francisco, May 31 (UPI) -- Attorneys general from 10 states are urging the California Supreme Court to stay its ruling to legalize same-sex marriage in the Golden State....
California Supreme Court expert STEPHEN BARNETT told Legal Newsline that it's "not unusual" that other states would weigh in on the ruling.
"This case will clearly will have an effect on other states, so it would be appropriate that they would file amicus briefs," said [BARNETT], PROFESSOR EMERITUS FROM UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY'S BOALT SCHOOL OF LAW.
It is unlikely the justices will stay their decision, he added.
"After considering this case for a few years, California is not about to withhold its decision to give other states time to think about it," Barnett said. Full Story
16. Silver lining in foreclosure cloud
San Francisco Chronicle
June 1, 2008
In a bleak real estate market, some Bay Area residents are finding a bright spot....
Even experts who predict at least a year more of continued depreciation, such as KEN ROSEN, CHAIRMAN OF THE FISHER CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE AND URBAN ECONOMICS AT UC BERKELEY, said it can make sense for some new home buyers to jump in now.
"If you have the credit, have the cash and like the area, you can do well," Rosen said. But those are all big ifs, he cautioned. The best bargains tend to be in outlying areas like Antioch or Vallejo, which means factoring in extra costs for commuting as fuel prices soar. His other rule of thumb for new home buyers: They should plan to stay put for at least five years.... Full Story
17. Sellers, their agents suggest one-two punch
Invest in face-lift, they say, and keep your asking price moderate
San Francisco Chronicle
June 1, 2008
Before putting their Outer Richmond condo on the market, Megan Christoph and her husband, Scott Davis, repainted the entire apartment. They replaced the faucets and showerhead, replanted the yard and had the hardwood floors refinished....
"When housing prices are going up, everybody wants to buy a home and owning a home is the best thing in the world," said Christopher Thornberg, co-founder of Beacon Economics, a consulting firm with offices in Los Angeles and San Rafael. "When prices go down, no one wants to buy and owning a home is the worst thing in the world.”...
KEN ROSEN, CHAIRMAN OF THE FISHER CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE AND URBAN ECONOMICS AT UC BERKELEY, echoed Thornberg's sentiments about the role that psychology plays in the housing market....
"While housing prices have dropped a little, the Bay Area is still a very expensive place to live," Rosen said. "It's a big purchase and there is a lot of psychological uncertainty still in the market."
Rosen said that another significant challenge for sellers is finding buyers with enough cash - a down payment of at least 10 percent and in many cases 20 percent - to satisfy lenders and secure a loan.... Full Story
18. When good intentions backfire
Baltimore Sun
June 1, 2008
Pat Carter is within weeks of retiring and is coming face-to-face with the financial struggle she will encounter for the rest of her life and the risks she inadvertently took that threw her into the predicament....
Americans could avoid many of the mistakes they make if they realized how to combine types of mutual funds, and recognized the difference between real risks and perceived risks, Jones said.
Psychology also works against people, said TERRENCE ODEAN, A UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY FINANCE PROFESSOR who does research in behavioral finance, or the psychology behind investing decisions.
A common problem, he said, is "uncertainty aversion." Faced with decisions they don't understand "people throw their hands up in the air" or they blame the wrong problem.
After Carter lost money, she had to ask herself: "Was it a problem with the broker, a problem with the fund, or a problem with the Roth IRA?" Odean said. "The problem was the broker and the fund. It clearly wasn't the Roth IRA," which provides an efficient way to save without having to pay taxes when the money is withdrawn. But the Roth is where Carter landed the blame, and to avoid feeling badly about losing money, she moved away from something that was good for her.... Full Story
19. Higher education notes
Austin American-Statesman
May 30, 2008
...Public Colleges
Private schools cited in costs
The vast wealth of some private universities such as Harvard University is driving higher education costs up at public universities in Texas and other states, the Texas commissioner of higher education told state lawmakers this week.
Commissioner Raymund Paredes explained to the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Higher Education that a kind of spiraling effect takes place as the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, tries to compete with Harvard's faculty salaries. He said UC-Berkeley is considered the top public university in the nation.
In turn, other public schools such as the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia and the University of California, Los Angeles, raise their salaries in an effort to compete with Berkeley, Paredes said. And that, in turn, puts pressure on the University of Texas and other schools.... Full Story
20. Op-Ed: Investment in public education for state's students pays off
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
June 2, 2008
On June 9, 50 seniors at East Palo Alto Academy will walk across the stage at Stanford's Memorial Auditorium to receive their high school diplomas. Half of the seniors have been accepted to four-year colleges, including the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY, UCLA, UC-Santa Cruz, Occidental College, Syracuse University and Cal Poly. Nearly all of the rest of the graduates are planning to attend community colleges.
What is so remarkable about this? The academy is a public charter school in an impoverished community where only 11 percent of the adults have college degrees. Of the academy's students, 79 percent are Latino with varying levels of English proficiency, 13 percent are African-American, 5 percent are Polynesian and 3 percent are Asian Indian. The great majority have sufficiently low family incomes to be eligible for free or reduced lunch.
The students mirror the youths in their community....
The success of students at East Palo Alto Academy shows that the youths in East Palo Alto, and communities like it, want to succeed academically and are willing to work hard when given the chance. So the question is: Why do we spend so little on their education, knowing the huge economic and human costs we are encumbering? Full Story
21. Teens struggle to find summer jobs
KGO TV
May 30, 2008
Oakland, CA (KGO) -- If you have a son or daughter looking for a summer job, we have two words: good luck.
This is expected to be the worst summer in 60 years for teenagers trying to find work.
This may be the summer of the disappearing teenage job. At the Youth Employment Partnership in Oakland, they teach young people how to get and keep jobs, but lately that's been tough....
"It's the worst it's been since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping records back in 1948," said UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR HARLEY SHAIKEN. [He] blames the weak economy and consumers who have little faith it will get better. People don't spend as much eating out. Businesses in turn don't have money to hire young help....
[Link to video] Full Story
22. Commentary: State's shameful neglect of mental illness
San Francisco Chronicle
June 1, 2008
This is the issue that candidates at all levels prefer to avoid....
The issue is untreated mental illness.
Last week, hundreds of psychiatrists, social workers and relatives of people with severe mental illnesses attended a symposium on mental illness that was held simultaneously, via video hookup, at UC BERKELEY and UCLA.
The upshot of the daylong conference was that the status quo is not working. The failure of the current approach can be measured in myriad ways, each a tragedy: The $200 billion in lost earnings in this nation every year from untreated mental illnesses; the 20,000 California inmates who are receiving psychotropic medications, in all too many cases, too late to avoid an act of violence. According to one study, 48.5 percent of those with severe mental illness in the United States are not getting treatment.... Full Story
23. International Computer Science Institute renews lease in Berkeley
East Bay Business Times
May 30, 2008
The International Computer Science Institute has renewed the lease on its office in Berkeley.
The institute signed the renewal in April for 28,096 square feet at 1947 Center Street near the UC-BERKELEY CAMPUS, said Eli Ceryak, a broker with NAI BT Commercial. The rate and term were not disclosed, but Ceryak said it was in line with the downtown Berkeley submarket....
ICSI has close ties to the university and wanted to remain close to campus, Ceryak said.
The institute is an independent, non-profit computer-science research organization. It focuses on international collaboration in computer networking, speech and language processing, bioinformatics, computer architecture and artificial intelligence. Full Story
24. Obituary: Norma Schlesinger - devotee of Bay Area art
San Francisco Chronicle
May 31, 2008
NORMA SCHLESINGER, a San Francisco art maven who helped get the UC BERKELEY ART MUSEUM off the ground, wrote reviews, funded acquisitions and socialized with many artists, died at home Sunday of cancer. She was 77.
...Ms. Schlesinger was an active museum patron and philanthropist who over the years sat on the boards of the Berkeley Art Museum, the San Francisco Art Institute, the Louis B. Leakey Foundation and other organizations, as well as many committees and forums at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
"Norma was a woman who loved life and lived it very fully," said TOM FREUDENHEIM, a former director of the Baltimore Museum of Art who also held big jobs at the Smithsonian Institution and other museums.
Ms. Schlesinger recommended him for the post of ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF CAL'S THEN-NEW ART MUSEUM in the late 1960s. Her husband at the time was the MUSEUM'S FOUNDING DIRECTOR, ART HISTORIAN PETER SELZ. She and Freudenheim had met a few years earlier as fellow graduate students at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts....
"Norma always gave the place such class," said BERKELEY ART MUSEUM DIRECTOR EMERITUS JACQUELYNN BAAS. "She always showed leadership in the acquisitions area, making clear to fellow trustees that she expected them to do something similar."...
Plans for a memorial service are pending. Full Story
25. June services set for free speech activist
San Francisco Chronicle
June 2, 2008
A memorial service will be held in Kensington June 23 for MICHAEL ROSSMAN, A KEY FIGURE IN THE HISTORIC 1960S FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT AT UC BERKELEY....
The Free Speech Movement was, in effect, the progenitor of student movements and war protests on U.S. campuses during the 1960s and 1970s; Mr. Rossman was on the steering and executive committees of the movement.
The memorial service will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Road, Kensington. Directions can be found at the church's Web site, www.uucb.org. Full Story
26. B-School Life: Reading List for the Poolside MBA
Summer's a great time for MBAs to catch up on some of the latest business thinking. Here are some suggestions from B-school professors
Business Week
June 2, 2008
School is out, the sun is shining, and the temptation to forget about structured finance and pick up a trashy novel for beach reading is overwhelming. But those who are determined to get ahead of the MBA pack and beat out the competition for jobs in the increasingly competitive business world know that getting through an ambitious summer reading list is an assignment worth accepting....
DAVID LEVINE, THE EUGENE E. & CATHERINE M. TREFETHEN CHAIR IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AT UC BERKELEY'S HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, recommends The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (Oxford University Press, 2007) by Paul Collier because, he says, it offers a "realistic look at the problems faced by the poor and offers provocative advice on how to help them."... Full Story
27. Magnificent Mass
San Francisco Chronicle
June 1, 2008
Among devotees of Renaissance music, Thomas Tallis' motet "Spem in alium" holds a special place. Scored for an astonishing 40 voices, this intricate work has long been considered a unique achievement, the unmatched and unmatchable pinnacle of 16th century polyphony.
DAVITT MORONEY, if you'll forgive him, knows better.
The UC BERKELEY MUSICOLOGIST and harpsichordist has put his hands on an earlier and even bigger piece of vocal writing, a 40-voice setting of the Latin Mass that expands in one movement to no fewer than 60 voices. That's counterpoint on a scale that not even Tallis ever contemplated.
Now the "Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno," composed in the mid-1560s by the Florentine composer Alessandro Striggio, is finally coming to America. As part of the BERKELEY FESTIVAL & EXHIBITION, the biennial early-music shindig presented by CAL PERFORMANCES, Moroney will lead two performances of the work that mark its belated U.S. premiere....
BERKELEY FESTIVAL & EXHIBITION: The festival runs Tuesday through next Sunday at various Berkeley locations. Performances of Alessandro Striggio's "Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno" will be at 8 p.m. Saturday and next Sunday at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant streets. $24-$56. For information, call (510) 642-9988 or go to bfx. berkeley.edu. Full Story
28. Spreading their sound
Sunday Times [Sri Lanka]
June 1, 2008
Listening to Soul Sounds always does good things to me – the fine hair on the back of my neck literally stands on end; sometimes I get goose bumps, at other times I catch myself grinning in delight, often my feet tap involuntarily and always, always I am swept away by the pure, jubilant wonder of the music they make.
I'm with the group at their rehearsals for their upcoming concert in Wellawatte, and they sound better than ever – which is fortunate because the Choir Olympics are at hand, and after a final flurry of fund raising they plan on being in Graz, Austria for the 5th World Choir Games. The competition is going to be tough, seeing as the event is already being billed as possibly the largest competition in the history of choral music. Already, 400 ensembles from 90 nations are said to have registered....
Ranging in age from 13 to 27 years, almost all the girls are or were students at Holy Family Convent in Bambalapitiya. In more recent times, the choir has recruited members from outside the school alumni. In keeping with this expansion, they've also collaborated with several other artists over the last few years. The one they seem to have enjoyed most may have been their week with PROF. MARK WILSON FROM U.C BERKELEY. As an aficionado of Gospel music, Prof. Wilson taught them the importance of "really feeling" what they were singing, instead of relying entirely on technical expertise, say the choir, adding that it's been a lesson they've put to good use every day since.... Full Story