The links to the stories summarized on this page are time sensitive, so stories might no longer be online at that URL. We also include links to the original source publication itself.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
1. Feds to help world's largest traffic tech test
Oakland Tribune
June 26, 2008
In what is billed as the largest such experiment in the world, a consortium of academics, tech firms and government agencies will use upward of 1,000 drivers from the Bay Area to the Sierras to create a traffic monitoring system virtually overnight.
And all the drivers have to do is bring along new mobile phones as they cruise around for several months expected to begin in September or October.
The phones use global-positioning features to transmit each vehicle's location and speed, and then receive organized data telling drivers of upcoming bottlenecks and alternate routes and even alternatives to driving where available....
The test will also check the effectiveness of a collision-avoidance system that uses Wi-Fi technology to help cars sense the proximity of other vehicles.
The test will be a larger version of a successful Feb. 8 experiment involving 100 rental cars driven by UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA STUDENTS on I-880 between Hayward and Fremont....
The partners conducting the test include UC BERKELEY'S TWO TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY groups, PARTNERS FOR ADVANCED TRANSIT and HIGHWAYS AND THE CALIFORNIA CENTER FOR INNOVATIVE TRANSPORTATION, mobile phone maker Nokia, mapmaker NAVTEQ and carmaker Nissan as well as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.
[This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times. Others appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Traffic Technology Today, and KGO TV] Full Story
2. Issue Number One: ... UC Berkeley Welcoming Vets with Open Arms
CNN
June 25, 2008
John Roberts, CNN Anchor: Hello and welcome to "ISSUE #1." I'm John Roberts....
...A new G.I. bill is set to give more college benefits to vets. One college, UC BERKELEY, was once the center of anti-war protests. Now, it is welcoming vets with open arms.
RON WILLIAMS COORDINATES THE SCHOOL'S VETERAN SERVICES PROGRAM. STUART MARTIN IS A MARINE VETERAN AND NOW ATTENDS UC BERKELEY. They join us now live from campus.
Ron, let me ask you first of all, UC Berkeley making an accommodation for vets? Why are you trying to attract them to your campus?
Ron Williams, Coordinator, UC Berkeley Veterans Services: Well, there are so many reasons, not the least of which. These are folks who come and have already served -- not only served the country, but are involved with public service. Berkeley has a long-standing tradition of sending a number of folks into the Peace Corps and a number of public service agencies.
But these are folks who are coming to our university who have enhanced professional skills, life skills, and are really offering something to the university as they come here and not just only to be shaped by it.
Roberts: ... But Stewart, they also come with a set of concerns that perhaps typical students wouldn't have. What are some of those concerns?
Stuart Martin, Marine Veteran & UC Berkeley Student: Well, the number one concerns are actually generally financial. Veterans are coming from a professional workforce. So they have things like families and children, spouses, car payments, possibly mortgages that most typical students are not going to have. So these finances are a real problem....
Roberts: So, Ron, how does this program work? ...
Williams: Right. Well, there are three prime areas. The first is one that Stuart has already mentioned. Our network of campus supporters and advocates who are familiar with the issues and concerns, complexities, even, financially and otherwise, that the veterans bring to our campus. So these are folks ranging from our office of financial aid, the office of the registrar who reports veterans' benefits to the V.A., all that information.
Our Career Center, the Counseling Psychological Services, Disabled Students Programs, a number of folks throughout campus.... Full Story
3. Op-Ed: It pays to take risks in science funding
San Francisco Chronicle
June 26, 2008
When UC BERKELEY BIOCHEMIST JAMIE CATE approached funding agencies with his idea to help researchers design antibiotics to combat drug-resistant bacteria, they said it couldn't be done. But they took a gamble on Cate, a young professor, and it paid off. Today, using intense X-ray beams, Cate produces the sharpest images yet of key proteins targeted by antibiotics, paving the way for more effective bacteria killers.
In the U.S. science and technology arena, such projects are known as high-risk, high-reward research, and they are funded once in a blue moon. Thankfully, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences just published a report urging government, universities and private foundations to reverse this trend and target their dollars at young scholars' more revolutionary proposals....
The academy recommends, among other things, that federal agencies provide seed money for young researchers to explore new ideas; that universities strengthen mentoring programs to encourage early-career faculty; and that private foundations "spread the wealth and cap the number of start-up and first awards made to a single investigator."
This is a good start. As bright young researchers from China and India are lured home by greater opportunities, we face a reverse brain drain. America must take a gamble on their ideas and visions if we wish to retain our lead in science and technology. As the saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Full Story
4. Climate Change Threatens California Native Plants
KCBS Radio
June 25, 2008
Most of California’s native plant species could disappear from very large areas of the state over the next century if global warming continues at its current pace, according to maps released Tuesday by RESEARCHERS AT UC BERKELEY and other institutions.
Some 5,000 plants – about 2/3 of the state’s native species – could be forced to relocate in order to survive, said UC BERKELEY BIOLOGIST DAVID ACKERLY.
“We forecast that plants would need to move over 100 miles on average to keep track of this very rapid climate change,” he told KCBS’s George Harris. Wildflowers in particular are very sensitive to drought and prolonged heat, he said....
“Every step we can take to slow the pace of climate change will give plants and animals more time to hang on and the possibility to adjust,” Ackerly said.
[Link to audio. Other stories appeared in dozens of sources around the world, including UPI and Associated Press] Full Story
5. Blog: Dual-display e-book reader lets you flip pages naturally
New Scientist [UK]
June 25, 2008
E-book readers like the Kindle may be getting better, but still fall short of the usability of paper books. You can't turn or flip through pages, or compare different documents as you would with paper. A new prototype with two displays can do all that - as the video below shows.
The two leaves can be opened and closed to simulate turning pages, or even separated to pass round or compare documents. When the two leaves are folded back, the device shows one display on each side. Simply turning it over reveals a new page.
It was developed by researchers at Maryland and BERKELEY UNIVERSITIES, both US. It's very early days but they report that initial user reactions were positive. One downside mentioned by the testers was that the flipping and handling of the device would be better if it were lighter. That sounds reasonable; hopefully they'll put together a slimmer version next....
[Link to video. Another brief on this topic appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education--link by subscription only] Full Story
6. UC considers changes to guaranteed admissions
San Francisco Chronicle
June 26, 2008
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA is considering a major shift in the way it determines which students are eligible for admission - a formula some say is now too rigid.
The faculty proposal, to be discussed by UC's governing Board of Regents in July, is the first time that revisions have been recommended that would dramatically reduce the percentage of students being guaranteed admission to the system's nine undergraduate campuses....
Supporters say the changes would create a fairer approach and broaden access for students at inner-city and rural high schools that don't have all the college-preparatory classes required by UC or adequate counselors to advise students on the menu of courses and tests required for UC....
But UC BERKELEY JOURNALISM PROFESSOR WILLIAM DRUMMOND, who heads the UC Berkeley faculty, said the new system is going to be unpopular with Californians who support the UC system with their taxes and expect that their children will be able to go to college there.
"It is a historic change," said Drummond, who voted against it in the Academic Assembly. "The people who are now guaranteed admission ... wouldn't be given an automatic pass. Their parents have been paying for this through their taxes. ... The parents see it as an entitlement. Now you are going to go back to them and say now there is no guarantee."
He is also worried that the new labor-intensive system of individual review will be overwhelming for campuses.... Full Story
7. Two more Berkeley tree sitters come down
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
June 26, 2008
Berkeley - Two more tree sitters came down from their perches at the university oak grove late Wednesday and university officials said the move is a sign that their strategy of not allowing additional food and water into the trees is working.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY SPOKESMAN DAN MOGULOF said Bradley Costello, 20, and Mathew Marks, 24, both came down voluntarily late Wednesday....
Both reported there is food and water in the trees, where seven tree sitters remain, Mogulof said....
[This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune. Another appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle] Full Story
8. Editorial: Room service, anyone?
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
June 26, 2008
OH PLEASE! Now the Berkeley City Council thinks the protesting tree-sitters are entitled to room service.
What they really need is a wake-up call — telling them to come down, that this silly demonstration has run its course and it's time to check out.
For more than 18 months now, the rag-tag group has been trying to block UC BERKELEY's plans for a $140 million sports training center next to Memorial Stadium that would wipe out 44 redwoods, oaks, laurels and other trees. They've been illegally camped in the trees, refusing to come down until they get their way.
Meanwhile, the city and neighbors, who had reasonable concerns about the plan, took their case to court — the proper forum for resolving such a dispute. Last week, they lost. While the university has some minor legal loopholes to jump through, it appears that it is entitled to build the center. It's time for everyone to move on.... Full Story
9. State Attorney General Sues Countrywide
San Francisco Chronicle
June 26, 2008
California Attorney General Jerry Brown sued Countrywide Financial Corp. and two of its top executives, alleging they used misleading advertising and unfair business practices to dupe consumers into accepting risky home loans that would eventually force thousands of them into foreclosure....
NANCY WALLACE, CHAIRWOMAN OF THE REAL ESTATE GROUP AT THE HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT UC BERKELEY, agreed that the company's practices seem particularly pernicious.
"Most academics feel that Countrywide was very aggressive to put it politely, if not on the edge of really pushing products that were completely inappropriate for most borrowers," she said.
Still, Wallace said, the fundamental problem is that incentives are misaligned in the loan origination process. Since the risk of a defaulting loan gets continually pushed up the food chain - from the independent loan consultant who originates it, to the lender that issues it, to the investor who buys it as a security - everyone is less inclined to ensure the original customer can actually afford the loan he or she is receiving.
"It's not terribly surprising that we get terribly bad behavior along a supply chain which is very long and has a very screwed-up incentive structure," she said.... Full Story
10. Capital: Big Issues for the Next President
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
June 26, 2008
Presidents get more credit and more blame for short-term swings in the economy than they deserve. And they get less scrutiny for decisions that have long-lasting economic consequences, say the bipartisan agreement to expand Medicare to cover prescription drugs without any visible means of financial support or the price tag on the Iraq war.
Similarly, presidential campaigns -- when they move beyond coverage of the candidates' wives dresses -- can bog down in details of proposals that will never be implemented as proposed. Neither President McCain nor President Obama, no matter what he says, can do much that will make an immediate difference to higher energy prices, falling house prices, rising unemployment, sagging wages. And no matter how many briefings by learned advisers or position papers posted on Web sites, no candidate can honestly tell us exactly what he'd do in office...
Inequality. The gap between economic winners and losers in the U.S. is growing; the trend didn't begin with President Bush's election, but he didn't do much to arrest it. ECONOMISTS EMMANUEL SAEZ OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, and Thomas Piketty of the Ecole d'Economie de Paris calculate that even excluding capital gains, 75% of the pretax-income growth in what they call the Bush expansion (2002-2006) went to the best-off 1% of American families versus 46% in the Clinton expansion (1993-2000). There is significant disagreement among politicians and voters about how hard the government should restrain market forces that are widening the income gap, particularly how much the tax code should redistribute income....
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
11. California regulators unveil greenhouse gas plan
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
June 26, 2008
Ushering in a historic effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, California regulators today will unveil a landmark plan that calls for a major hike in the state's use of renewable energy, a new market to trade pollution credits and a move to force automakers to make cleaner cars....
Many of the proposed measures already are in the pipeline, but the plan - which becomes final in November - calls for new and expanded efforts as well. For example, it calls for an increase in the state's use of renewable energy sources to 33 percent by 2020, up from an existing state-mandated goal of 20 percent....
"We have to start charging for pollution. That's a hard thing to do," said DANIEL KAMMEN, AN EXPERT ON ENERGY AND PUBLIC POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY....
[This story also appeared in Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune. KCBS Radio also aired a story quoting Professor Kammen on this topic—link to audio] Full Story
12. Kill Your Air Conditioner
Time Magazine
June 25, 2008
On the weekend of the summer solstice, my wife and I went to a wedding in New England. The weather was perfect—mid-70s, sunny, with an exquisite whisper of breeze. We stayed at a classic little inn... classic except for the air-conditioning blasting through the lobby....
I will confess a bias here. I love warm weather, even when it slouches toward humidity. ... But given the energy mess we're in, I can now gild my personal preference with a patina of high-mindedness: airconditioning is bad for the planet, and for national security, and for our balance-of-payments deficit. Unfortunately, it is not as bad as I'd like it to be—in part because not all of our electricity is provided by fossil fuels (although coal does predominate). And also because air-conditioning represents a relatively small slice of our energy use, an estimated 4%.
But that's still pretty egregious. ... "A lot of utilities supplement their main power sources with quick-acting oil- or gas-driven generators on the hottest days of the year," says LEE SCHIPPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. Schipper estimates the cost of peak usage is 20 cents per kW-h, as opposed to an average of 13 cents for "baseload capacity" usage, and it is far more carbon intense because it is generated by oil or gas.
Schipper also estimates a savings of 4% for every degree warmer you push your thermostat. If you're set at 70deg.F now and move it to 75deg.—a comfortable, if slightly chilly number to my mind—you save 20% of the cost and energy of your air-conditioning bill. Schipper also says the savings from more-efficient air-conditioning systems can be enormous: in many Asian and European hotel rooms, the AC and electricity are activated only when you slip your magnetic room key into a slot near the door. A program to retrofit all public buildings with high-tech glass and insulation would save untold amounts of energy and electricity—and create thousands of green-collar jobs.... Full Story
13. Lethal Injection: A Brief History
Time Magazine
June 25, 2008
The state of Virginia is scheduled to execute Robert Yarbrough on Wednesday for the 1997 murder of elderly shopkeeper Cyril Hugh Hamby. Yarbrough would be the 100th person put to death in Virginia since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 and the eighth in the country to die by lethal injection since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that Kentucky's method of execution using a cocktail of three deadly drugs did not, in fact, constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Eighth Amendment as petitioners alleged. ... The ruling is likely to prompt another nationwide review of the policy of death by lethal injection — a method of execution that's been a subject of controversy since its inception.
The first proposal for injected drugs as a form of capital punishment came in the late 19th century, when a New York commission on capital punishment included the suggestion that it might prove a more humane death than hanging. ... During World War II, lethal injection was part of the Nazis' chilling arsenal of methods for disposing of sick, weak and disabled prisoners, along with the gas chamber and firing squad. After the war, death by lethal injection faded again from view; it was proposed in the U.K. in the 1950s, but rejected by the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment due to objections from the medical community.
Then, in 1977, an Oklahoma medical examiner named Jay Chapman proposed that death row inmates be executed using three drugs administered in a specific sequence: a barbiturate (to anesthetize inmates), pancuronium bromide (to paralyze inmates and stop their breathing), and lastly potassium chloride (which stops the heart). A simpler, barbiturate-only procedure was rejected on the grounds that the public would not support a killing method for humans modeled after that used for animals, according to TY ALPER, a lawyer who represents death row inmates and is ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE DEATH PENALTY CLINIC AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY SCHOOL OF LAW.... Full Story
14. Career Programs Stress College, Too, and Give Students a Leg Up, Study Says
New York Times (*requires registration)
June 26, 2008
Forget the old-fashioned “vocational ed” classes that sent students on a decidedly noncollege track. Over the last quarter-century, a new kind of high school program known as a career academy has proliferated, especially in low-income districts, that combines job placement, college preparation and classes beyond the vocational trades, from accounting to health care.
Now, a long-term and rigorous evaluation of nine career academies across the country, to be released in Washington on Friday, has found that eight years after graduation, participants had significantly higher employment and earnings than similar students in a control group....
“The career academies tell students that if you are willing to make the effort to succeed in a bachelor’s degree program, here’s a way to do that,” said DAVID STERN, AN EDUCATION EXPERT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, who was an early proponent of career academies. “But if you end up not wanting to apply, or start college and don’t finish, you have some work experience and training to fall back on, to give you a little edge in the labor market.” Full Story
15. Contra Costa students build their future
Contra Costa Times
June 26, 2008
Most students are happy to be out of school. Not Donelly Vasquez.
"I wish I could stay the whole summer," said Vasquez, who will be a junior at Kennedy High in Richmond in the fall. Vasquez, who is interested in becoming an architect, took part in a weeklong Engineering, Construction and Manufacturing Summer Camp put on last week by the Contra Costa County Office of Education.
The free camp at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill ended Friday after giving dozens of students a taste of the various occupations....
The students also took field trips. They saw an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers training center, a UC BERKELEY RESEARCH STATION, construction at El Cerrito High and paid a visit to USS-POSCO Industries, which produces flat-rolled steel....
The camps are put on by a consortium of businesses, high schools and colleges.
[This story also appeared in the Oakland Tribune] Full Story
16. The American Dream: Dr. Quiñones' Incredible Journey
Leading Doctor at Johns Hopkins Started Out as An Illegal Immigrant
ABC News
June 26, 2008
Today, DR. ALFREDO QUIÑONES-HINOJOSA may be living the American dream.
Dr. Alfredo Quinones went from picking fruit to becoming a top brain surgeon. As one of the nation's leading brain surgeons, he has built an exceptional career at Baltimore's legendary Johns Hopkins Hospital, surgically treating patients with brain tumors and leading cutting-edge research into cures for brain cancer. And he is one of the doctors featured on the new ABC series "Hopkins."...
Desperate for money, and with his sights set on a brighter future, he scaled a barbed border fence across from Calexico, Calif....
He worked illegally for more than a year doing backbreaking work in California's fields, mostly picking tomatoes. Like other migrant workers, he sent his hard-earned cash back to his family in Mexico.
Derided by his fellow workers as a dreamer, Quiñones-Hinojosa enrolled himself in community college to learn English. Before long, he found a professor to mentor him. This professor encouraged Quiñones-Hinojosa to seek a scholarship to attend the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
At Berkley, Quiñones-Hinojosa excelled in the natural sciences. He tutored other students, and his grades were such that Harvard Medical School was eager to recruit the young Mexican with so much drive. While at Harvard, Quiñones-Hinojosa earned his U.S. citizenship before being selected to do his residency at Johns Hopkins....
[Link to video] Full Story
17. Friend of Conscious Lifestlye wins Do Something Award!
Conscious Lifestyle
June 24, 2008
Friend of Conscious Lifestyle, DANIEL ZOUGHBIE, founder of the Global Micro-Clinic Project has been awarded the 2008 Do Something Award for his outreach to diabetics in developing countries. The UC BERKELEY GRADUATE and Marshall Scholar is currently up for the $100,000 Do Something Award grand prize for people under 25 helping change the world, which will be given out at the Teen Choice Awards....
To read more on the Global Micro-Clinic Project, which has set up community-based micro-clinics to help empower people in their treatment of diabetes in Palestine, Jordan, and India, please visit http://microclinicproject.org/ and The International Diabetes Federation.
[For more information on this topic, link to the Teen Choice Awards website, which includes video of a KGO TV story on Daniel Zoughbie] Full Story
18. Obituary: Leonid Hurwicz, 90; a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in economics
Los Angeles Times
June 26, 2008
LEONID HURWICZ, who shared the Nobel Prize in economics last year for developing a theory that helps explain how buyers and sellers can maximize their gains, has died....
Hurwicz died Tuesday of natural causes, said Mark Cassutt, spokesman for the University of Minnesota, where Hurwicz was an emeritus economics professor....
In its announcement, the academy said the three "laid the foundations of mechanism design theory," which plays a central role in contemporary economics and political science....
He began teaching at the University of Minnesota in 1951, though he had brief stints at Stanford, UC BERKELEY and other universities.... Full Story