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Monday, 30 June 2008
1. Cal names vice chancellor for student affairs
San Francisco Business Times
June 27, 2008
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, made HARRY LE GRANDE VICE CHANCELLOR FOR STUDENT AFFAIRS.
Le Grande, who is 54 and has worked at Cal since 1981, had been doing the job on an interim basis since January.
His job includes undergraduate admissions, the registrar's office, financial aid, housing, dining, fundraising for scholarships, child care services, the dean of students office and career services. As vice chancellor for student affairs he oversees some 1,300 university staff and 1,500 student workers. His salary will be $215,000.
The first things he will focus on are fundraising for undergraduate student aid and changes to Lower Sproul Plaza on campus.... Full Story
2. Possible Obama, McCain Treasury Picks Mulled
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
June 30, 2008
Washington (Reuters) - Who would President Barack Obama or President John McCain choose as the next U.S. Treasury secretary?...
"You would have to think that Phil Gramm is on the list for McCain," said Greg Valliere, chief strategist at Stanford Washington Research Group. Gramm, a vice chairman for UBS Investment Bank and a former Texas senator, is a senior McCain campaign official....
Both Valliere and Marc Chandler, a currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman, said another potential candidate for Treasury secretary in an Obama administration would be LAURA TYSON, a former top economic adviser to President Bill Clinton WHO IS NOW TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. She has recently begun advising Obama....
[This story appeared in more than a dozen sources around the world] Full Story
3. To the winner a chance of stardom
Financial Times [UK]
June 30 2008
For business school students wishing to test what they have learned in a practical setting, there are few opportunities to rival the business plan contest. The American Idol formats – multiple rounds, barb-tongued judges, intense rivalry – and the exposure to potential investors provide one of the stiffest challenges to anyone who has spent the bulk of their MBA course in classrooms or writing academic papers.
Since the late 1990s, business plan contests have blossomed and spread beyond business schools. ... For entrepreneurs who have struggled to get in front of angel investors and venture capitalists, business plan contests have turned out to be an excellent way to pitch and even raise seed capital.
...JERRY ENGLE, THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE LESTER CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION AT THE HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, draws a distinction between the big global contests and ones limited to the university where they are held. The Lester Center runs two global contests, one for technology businesses, another for social ventures. Both attract teams from around the world. But it also runs a third contest just for Berkeley. This Berkeley contest, says Mr Engle, is vital for “fostering the local, entrepreneurial ecosystem” around the university and developing the “town and gown” partnerships. Local business people get to know more about what is happening at the university and vice versa.
Last year’s winner was a plan to provide healthy lunches to schoolchildren. This year’s top three were all energy-related. Mr Engle can also point with pride to two recent Berkeley winners that are now raising millions in funding. Four years ago, Silicon Clocks won with a plan to create new, high-tech timing products. The founder spent a year after graduation working in free office space provided by the Lester Center and has since raised more than $30m in financing. Two years ago, the winner was Aurora Biofuels, a partnership between a Berkeley research scientist and MBA student to commercialise technology that converts algae into biofuels. It recently closed a $20m Series B round.... Full Story
4. UC compromises on key stadium issues
University hopes concessions set stage for athletic training center next door
San Francisco Chronicle
June 28, 2008
UC BERKELEY made key concessions Friday in its long-running standoff with the city, tree-sitting protesters and neighbors of Memorial Stadium that the university hopes will clear the way for its plans to build an athletic training center next to the stadium.
In documents submitted in Alameda County Superior Court, the university says it will scrap all non-football events at Memorial Stadium and drop plans to attach a concrete support beam to the stadium's west wall, two roadblocks cited in a judge's interim ruling in the case last week.
UC's proposed judgment also asks Judge Barbara Miller to immediately lift an injunction that prevents the university from beginning construction on the center in a grove of oak trees next to the stadium, where tree-sitters have been roosting for 18 months in protest of the university's plans to cut the trees to make way for the training center.
CAMPUS SPOKESMAN DAN MOGULOF said the university made the concessions to expedite the $140 million training center, which was the target of lawsuits filed by the city of Berkeley, a neighborhood association and a group of oak tree advocates.
"The judge's ruling last week really focused our attention on our priorities, which are clearly, and as soon as possible, to get a new facility built for the 450 student-athletes who badly need it," he said. "We also wanted to be responsive to the needs and interests of the city and neighbors."...
[Another story on this topic appeared in the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune] Full Story
5. Berkeley tree-sitters hanging on, 18 months in
Washington Post
June 28, 2008
Berkeley, Calif. -- In December 2006, protesters angry about campus expansion plans clambered into the branches of a threatened oak grove at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY....
There had been signs the protest might be coming to an end as a court case challenging a planned multimillion-dollar athletic training facility inched closer to resolution.
This month administrators, who won a court order allowing them to evict the protesters at any time, cut supply lines, yanked a few protesters out of the trees and drove the rest into a single redwood. For a while, it looked like campus officials were prepared to starve protesters out.
But after the remaining half-dozen or so tree sitters said they were a) not moving and b) rationing water, officials relented and offered sustenance to the protesters aloft.
"This misguided effort to preserve a 1923 landscaping project certainly doesn't warrant any action that could cause harm or permanent health consequences for anybody involved," said CAMPUS SPOKESMAN DAN MOGULOF....
[This story appeared in dozens of sources, including the International Herald Tribune. Another aired on KGO TV--link to video] Full Story
6. U.S. and Europe Near Agreement on Private Data
New York Times (*requires registration)
June 28, 2008
Washington — The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement allowing law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information — like credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits — about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The potential agreement, as outlined in an internal report obtained by The New York Times, would represent a diplomatic breakthrough for American counterterrorism officials, who have clashed with the European Union over demands for personal data. Europe generally has more stringent laws restricting how governments and businesses can collect and transfer such information....
PAUL M. SCHWARTZ, A LAW PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, said such a blanket agreement could transform international privacy law by eliminating a problem that has led to negotiations of “staggering” complexity between Europe and the United States.
“The reason it’s a big deal is that it is going to lower the whole transaction cost for the U.S. government to get information from Europe,” Mr. Schwartz said. “Most of the negotiations will already be completed. They will just be able to say, ‘Look, we provide adequate protection, so you’re required to turn it over.’ ”...
[This story also appeared in the International Herald Tribune. UPI ran a similar story] Full Story
7. Op-Ed: Fuel for Inequality
New York Times (*requires registration)
June 29, 2008
As if the widening wage gap weren’t bad enough, the bottom half of the American work force — everyone who will earn less than about $42,000 this year — is getting hit by the equivalent of a whopping regressive tax in the form of soaring gas prices. And fuel isn’t a discretionary item like cable TV that can be cut from the family budget....
It’s true that those on the bottom half of the economic ladder make greater use of public transportation, but they’re having a harder time finding it. Budget constraints are causing states and cities to reduce rail and bus services. A survey of the nation’s public transit agencies released last month showed that 21 percent of rail operators and 19 percent of bus operators are cutting service.
The wage gap in America continues to widen. And the gas gap is giving it additional fuel. Full Story
8. Op-Ed: How gun makers can help us
Make firearms manufacturers figure out how to reduce the 12,000 shooting deaths each year.
Los Angeles Times
June 29, 2008
This year, about 12,000 Americans will be shot to death. It's a staggering figure, and even though lawmakers have continued to pass gun-control laws to try to bring the number down, they have not significantly reduced the murder rate. Indeed, for the last decade, guns have steadily remained the cause of about two-thirds of all homicides....
On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court made the problem a little more difficult to solve, ruling in District of Columbia vs. Heller that the individual's right to bear arms is indeed protected by the 2nd Amendment -- and making it clear that some laws banning guns would have a difficult time passing constitutional muster in the future.
What is to be done? The conventional regulatory approaches seem to be failing. A more recent strategy, in which victims or municipalities bring lawsuits against gun manufacturers or retailers, seems legally and politically unpromising since the 2005 passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shields gun manufacturers from civil liability.
We propose a new way to prod gun makers to reduce gun deaths, one that would be unlikely to put them out of business or to prevent law-abiding citizens from obtaining guns. By using a strategy known as "performance-based regulation," we would deputize private actors -- the gun makers -- to deal with the negative effects of their products in ways that promote the public good.... Full Story
9. California wildfires spark call to boost resources
But there's growing recognition that more trucks won't solve the root problem of wildlands development.
Christian Science Monitor
June 30, 2008
Oakland, Calif. - It's early in the summer for California's firefighters to be outgunned, but it's an increasingly common situation in recent years....
Now, fire chiefs are sounding the alarm about the chronic shortfalls in resources. A blue-ribbon panel last week called on the state to add more trucks, helicopters, and fully staffed teams to its fire arsenal....
"Just having more trucks once the fire has started is like saying the solution to healthcare in America is to have more emergency rooms," says BILL STEWART, A FORESTRY SPECIALIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IN BERKELEY.
He has studied building patterns in the so-called wildland-urban interface. New housing there has been popping up almost twice as fast in unincorporated areas than within city limits, he says. "A lot of houses out there are in places that don't have a well-funded local fire department, and they are just hoping the state has enough resources to come and help fight the fire," he says....
The governor has proposed paying for much of the new equipment with an insurance surcharge on residential and commercial property. Those located in high-risk zones for fire, flood, or earthquake will pay 1.4 percent; everyone else 0.75 percent.
The trend signals a recognition that those who take on more risk may need to pay a premium for it, says KEITH GILLESS, A UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR OF FOREST ECONOMICS.
"There's a balance between what level of investment we want to make in fire protection as part of our overall investment in public safety, and what responsibility we want the owners of homes in risky areas to accept," says Dr. Gilless. Full Story
10. Letters to the Editor: The Digital Doctor Will See You Now
New York Times (*requires registration)
June 30, 2008
Re “Our Pen-and-Paper Doctors” (editorial, June 24), which supports a conversion to electronic medical records...
To the Editor:
The benefits of electronic patient records would extend beyond the ability to order prescriptions online and better clinical decisions. They would be a great benefit for epidemiological research requiring collection of data about disease incidence and prevalence, safety and efficacy of prescribed drugs after they have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and surgical procedures.
Without such electronic data, epidemiological research is far more time-consuming and expensive. It can take hours to go through paper records searching for cases with a rare disease or a toxic reaction to a prescribed drug, a task that would require just a few keystrokes with electronic records.
MALCOLM ZARETSKY
Berkeley, Calif., June 24, 2008
THE WRITER IS A RESEARCHER IN CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. Full Story
11. Career Couch: When the Office Gives You Chills
New York Times (*requires registration)
June 29, 2008
Q. Now that the air-conditioning is running in your office, you and some co-workers think it’s too cold. But others say they feel just fine. What’s going on?
A. The problem is that the way people experience temperature depends on a range of factors, including body type, clothing, activity level and proximity to other people and to vents, computers and windows — as well as individual preferences and expectations.
At the same time, most modern office buildings have a one-size-fits-all design that can’t possibly accommodate all these variables. “You’re almost set up to fail when you put a lot of people in a building and give them one temperature,” said GAIL S. BRAGER, A BUILDING SCIENCE PROFESSOR IN THE ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
Think of how much more control you have over your comfort at home, she said. You can open windows, turn on fans, heaters or air-conditioners, change clothes or move to a different room. At most offices, you lose that control. “Somebody else is pushing the button,” said PROFESSOR BRAGER, WHO IS ALSO ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT AT BERKELEY.
Rather than creating optimal working conditions for everyone, she added, the goal in many offices “is to minimize the number of people who might complain.” ... Full Story
12. Obituary: Joseph Frisch - UC engineering professor
San Francisco Chronicle
June 28, 2008
JOSEPH FRISCH, A UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING and pioneer in computer-aided design, still spent at least one day a week in his campus office until the last year of his life. His filing cabinets contained student exams and grades dating back to the 1950s and 1960s....
Professor Frisch died in his Berkeley home of congestive heart failure on June 15. He was 87.
"He had a great curiosity for applying technology from different fields to what was then considered grunty, dirty factory stuff," said former colleague DAVID DORNFELD, A PROFESSOR OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AT CAL.
He said Professor Frisch's laboratory was one of the first in the United States to investigate direct numerical control in manufacturing and design - a way to network multiple computer-controlled machine tools....
Professor Frisch - an adviser to the Atomic Energy Commission, NASA and the aerospace industry - came up with a methodology to choreograph the motion of a machine and a workpiece to create complicate geometries and shapes on the machine's part.
His efforts enabled technology to replace what had been a craft job, and his impact can be felt in everything from milling machines and turbine blades to robotics and vacuum cleaners....
A campus memorial will be held in autumn. Full Story
13. Marketplace: You can't afford not to vacation
Between exchange rates and gas prices, the economy is conspiring to keep us cooped up all summer long. Commentator Robert Reich tries to align his travel plans with his bank account.
NPR
June 27, 2008
...Robert Reich: After finishing what I can honestly say was a hard year's work, I decided to dip into my savings and take a vacation this summer. But when I looked into my savings, I discovered there were a lot less of them than when I last looked.
Well, the dollar so weak against the euro, that European vacation I was dreaming about would have cost me a fortune anyway....
So then I decided to hop into my car and head to one of those great USA getaways. But with gas up around $4 a gallon, I figured I could save a pile of money by canceling that plan, too....
But with food prices soaring, local restaurants are becoming much more expensive. So I figured I could save even more money by planting my own vegetable garden and eating at home....
By this time, I figured with all the money I'll have saved ... I'll just about have broken even with my losses in the stock market.
But, of course, I won't break even if the stock market keeps dropping.
So I've decided to forget about saving money this summer. I'm driving to Europe, eating at every first-class restaurant along the way and to hell with my own vegetables. Full Story
14. Slow Food Nation comes to San Francisco
San Francisco Chronicle
June 30, 2008
Pick up your forks and knives, and let the revolution start now.
That's the rallying cry of the organizers of Slow Food Nation, an event designed to change the way people eat.
Fifty thousand people, including some of the world's leading food authorities, health care experts, farmers and policymakers, are expected to attend the four-day exhibition in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend - what's being called the largest celebration of American food in history....
Slow Food, a philosophy that food should be not only savored, but also produced with a social and environmental conscience, started as an Italian protest movement in 1986.
Furious that McDonald's had come to Rome, political activist Carlo Petrini organized a demonstration against the fast-food chain.
"Rather than take the French route - driving a tractor through the building - Petrini took a more Italian hedonistic tack," said MICHAEL POLLAN, A UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR and well-known food journalist and author who, like Petrini, is scheduled to speak on several panels. "Petrini set up trestle tables in front of the McDonald's, called upon Italy's grandmothers to make their favorite dishes and served them to passers-by."...
"Unless we squeeze the fossil fuel out of our dinner," Pollan said, we won't be able to maintain a viable food supply. "We no longer can catch salmon in Alaska, fillet it in China and serve it in New York." ... Full Story
15. Hot dog-eating champ heads for Coney Island
Oakland Tribune
June 28, 2008
Kevin Ross' strategy was to compete on an empty stomach....
Ross is a competitive eater who has gulped 21 dozen raw oysters in 8 minutes, and eaten 51/2 pounds of blueberry pies with no hands in about nine minutes.
Last week the 26-year-old from Temecula ate 23 hot dogs with buns at another competition.
So it was clear to the other 10 competitive eaters that Ross, who weighs 180 pounds and stands 5 feet 11 inches tall, was the one to beat Saturday at the Shops at Tanforan....
However, one person in the audience was more interested in the anthropological and historical aspect of competitive eating in the United States. ADRIENNE JOHNSON, A STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, is writing her thesis on the phenomenon and will also attend the contest at Coney Island.
So far, her research has shown that eating contests could be used as a way to "unite people or establish group identity."... Full Story