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Monday, 19 September 2011
1. New research on tinnitus could lead to treatment
San Francisco Chronicle
September 17, 2011
UC BERKELEY SCIENTISTS believe they've found a new avenue for treating tinnitus, an often debilitating ear and brain condition that causes people to hear a constant ringing or buzzing sound — and that in most cases is untreatable.
Doctors have known for several years that the cause of tinnitus is not in the ear alone, but in the brain. In research released last week, the UC Berkeley team found that tinnitus may be similar to the "phantom limb" syndrome that amputees sometimes experience — neurons continue firing in the parts of the brain associated with hearing, even though they're getting no input from the ear.
If scientists can find a way to rewire the brain so that those areas are receiving input again, the neurons could be better regulated. Or scientists may be able to find a drug that turns off the firing mechanisms.
Either way, the result could be peace and quiet for the millions of people who suffer from tinnitus, said SHAOWEN BAO, AN ADJUNCT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR WITH UC BERKELEY'S HELEN WILLS NEUROSCIENCE INSTITUTE.
"We still need more research to gradually resolve this question of tinnitus," said Bao, co-author of the tinnitus study, which was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "But in a lot of ways, the bits and pieces are all there. People are just trying to put together a theory that explains it all. We did the same thing, and we think our conclusion is important."... Full Story
2. Seeing Inside Tears
Biomedical Assay: Using a microfluidic chip, a new method analyzes proteins in tears
Chemical & Engineering News
September 19, 2011
Tears reveal more than just emotion: The salty drops may harbor signs of disease. Researchers have now developed a speedy microfluidics-based assay that detects specific proteins in tears, which could someday help doctors diagnose and treat eye diseases (Anal. Chem., DOI: 10.1021/ac202061v).
Clinics routinely test blood or urine but not tears, says AMY HERR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, because tears are difficult to analyze. Traditional diagnostic methods, like enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA), use an immobilized antibody to capture proteins of interest on a surface. But proteins in tears are notoriously alkaline, which makes them stick to surfaces willy-nilly. The resulting data are difficult to interpret, Herr says.
So HERR AND A STUDENT, KELLY KARNS, developed an assay that doesn’t require participation of any surfaces. ...
As a test case, the researchers detected a tear protein called lactoferrin. Research has linked this protein to Sjögren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease that destroys mucus-producing cells in the body and causes, among other ills, dry eye....
Sjögren’s syndrome is just one cause of dry eye, a problem that affects millions, says Nancy McNamara of the University of California, San Francisco. Herr’s microfluidic device could help researchers diagnose, understand, and treat these conditions, she says, in which tear sources are scarce. “It’s a really interesting technology,” says McNamara. “It’s definitely something I can see having a clinical application in the future.” Full Story
3. Cool Technology Could Revive Moore’s Law
eWeek Europe
September 19, 2011
A California research team has found a way to increase power on chips without creating heat: micro-capacitors
A potentially major breakthrough has been made that promises to reduce the minimum voltage required to drive a transistor, which could extend Moore’s Law for a while longer and pave the way to ultra low-power computing.
A TEAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, has developed a way to provide localised power to processor chips’ transistors to allow less power to drive the processor and reduce heat problems significantly. Low-power, high throughput is the current challenge in green computing....
This could breathe new life into Moore’s Law, which is not really a law but an observation of integrated circuit (IC) development by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 which then became the company’s mission. He noted that the number of transistors in ICs doubled every two years or so. Intel’s obsession with maintaining Moore’s Law saw the expansion of transistor capacity from the few thousand on 1970s chips to the massive densities of today.
SAYEEF SALAHUDDIN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA’S ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCES, said there are other potential applications for ferroelectrics in electronics....
There is still research to be done to develop the Berkeley breakthrough. “This work is the proof-of-principle we have needed to pursue negative capacitance as a viable strategy to overcome the power draw of today’s transistors,” said Salahuddin. “If we can use this to create low-power transistors, without compromising performance and the speed at which they work, it could change the whole computing industry.”
[Another story on this topic appeared in Electronics News] Full Story
4. Hints of exo-Earths spark desire for a closer look Of the latest clutch reported, one is among the most Earth-like yet, another orbits two suns.
Nature Online
September 19, 2011
GEOFFREY MARCY finds it strange to turn people away from a conference about planets beyond our Solar System. "This is a field that had three of us in 1995," marvels Marcy, a PIONEERING EXOPLANET HUNTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY.
But as an organizer of last week's Extreme Solar Systems II conference, he had to decline applicants by the dozen. The Jackson Lake Lodge auditorium in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park was packed to its 330-person capacity as speakers announced a flood of new detections, and the air was alive with talk of a 'golden age' of exoplanet astronomy.
Along with the discoveries came some sobering news. Rocky, Earth-like planets may be less common than many hoped, and unexpectedly 'noisy' stars are slowing the hunt. Moreover, astronomers cannot learn much beyond the basics — mass or size and orbit — of the planets they do find. "What we need is a telescope in space that can image and take spectra of truly Earth-like planets," Marcy says. "We still need that desperately."
For now, however, indirect methods are keeping astronomers busy. One trove of discoveries came from a European team that watches stars for the slight wobble that signals the gravitational pull of an unseen planet. Their instrument, the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), which is attached to a 3.6-metre telescope at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile, yielded 41 new planets, including one of the most Earth-like yet. At 3.6 times the mass of Earth, it sits in the 'habitable zone' around its star, the Goldilocks range of distances at which a planet's surface would be neither too hot nor too cold for water to be liquid.... Full Story
5. Tech Blog: A Flying Robot Plays Catch and Holds the Key For Efficient HVAC Systems
Forbes Online
September 18, 2011
RESEARCHERS AT THE U.C. BERKELEY EECS PROGRAM have developed a flying robot that’s capable of learning how to catch a ball. That’s not completely new — I blogged about a set of researchers at the Flying Machine Arena who developed a similar robot a few months ago. But what is interesting about this robot is that the means through which its learning, which DR. ANIL ASWANI describes as “Learning-based model predictive control” or LBMPC for short.
I rather enjoy Dr. Aswani’s description for how it works:
A useful analogy for describing what LBMPC does is the difference between driving a normal car and a sports car. When a regular driver uses a sports car, they use their mental model of a normal car to make sure they do not crash. As they spend more time in the sports car, they improve their mental model of the car and can drive it more precisely....
What makes this more than just a robotics exercise, though, is that the application is robust in different systems requiring sensor control. Of particular interest is a recent paper the team published where they were able to successfully retrofit an existing HVAC system with LBMPC software. The result was pretty astonishing — they were able to save between 30-70% of energy in their HVAC system. The wide divergence is due to the lower values being on warmer days, although the team hopes to be able to improve the energy savings even further with improvements to the program....
[Link to video] Full Story
6. UC Berkeley Journalism Students Launch Online Food Magazine
The Ration is the product of a 10-week News21 fellowship program exploring food and health in America.
Berkeley Patch
September 19, 2011
JOURNALISM STUDENTS AT UC BERKELEY spent their summer obsessing about food. The result is The Ration, an online magazine exploring the business of food, nutrition, food deserts and farming.
The stories span a variety of topics and perspectives about growing, selling and eating food, from the science of food addiction to the extravagant social media marketing ploys of chip companies.
Students also tried their hand at designing a food label that would make nutrition information clearer and easier to understand, traced the roots of the superfood industry, and highlighted a corner store that is taking a chance on fruit and vegetables — rather than just candy, cigarrettes and chips....
The Ration is also the school's first iPad magazine.
"We wanted to go beyond just celebrating food to learn how it shapes our landscape, culture and economy," RICHARD KOCI HERNANDEZ, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF NEW MEDIA AT UC BERKELEY, wrote in an email. Full Story
7. Economists' Group Backs Euro Bonds
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
September 19, 2011
London — A group of leading economists on Monday backed the issuance of euro bonds, not as a way of resolving the currency area's fiscal crisis, but as way of making the global monetary system more stable.
In a report published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the economists also recommended that swap agreements between leading central banks be made permanent, that the International Monetary Fund be allowed to borrow in the bond markets to boost its lending capacity, that foreign-exchange reserves be pooled, and said capital controls should be used to curb "excessive and volatile" investment flows to developing economies.
In the report, Emmanuel Fahri of Harvard University, PIERRE-OLIVIER GOURINCHAS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, and Hélène Rey of the London Business School said that since the collapse of the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971, international monetary relationships had been governed by a "nonsystem" that may have been "an aggravating factor—or even a trigger—of the financial imbalances at the root of the recent financial crisis."
One of the key problems, they said, is that growing demand for reserve assets from developing countries isn't being matched by supply....
The three economists said that to address this problem, steps should be taken to "promote the development of alternatives to U.S. Treasuries as a dominant reserve asset in order to accelerate the inevitable transition to a multipolar system."...
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
8. Cautionary Lessons From Michigan
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
September 17, 2011
Chicago — In the search for models to navigate the nation’s unemployment misery and the states’ budget woes, Michigan is rarely mentioned....
And yet, JENNIFER M. GRANHOLM, the former Democratic governor of the state, who led it through much of its rocky last decade, says she sees a key lesson from Michigan — a warning, perhaps, more than a model — for the rest of the nation as it tries to create jobs and emerge from an economic funk.
“Everything that is hitting the country hit Michigan first,” Ms. Granholm said in an interview, reflecting on eight years in office in which the state’s economic crisis overshadowed all else. Her response to the crisis, she said, was to cut spending, cut government jobs, cut taxes — the very approach now being promoted elsewhere, particularly after Republican victories in statehouses around the country in 2010....
She added: “Laissez-faire, passivity, tax cuts, hands-off does not work. And, really, that’s the lesson from this laboratory of democracy which is Michigan.”
The only approach that showed glimmers of success, she said, came when the federal government stepped in....
In truth, even Ms. Granholm, who, along with her husband, [UC BERKELEY LECTURER] DAN MULHERN, has laid out her conclusions in a new book, “A Governor’s Story: The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future,” expressed disappointment in her own ability to fix the state’s limping economy. When Ms. Granholm, a former state attorney general, was elected the state’s first female governor in 2002, she was seen as a rising political star.
“As the person who was in charge of the state at the time and who campaigned on trying to fix it, it was very hard for me to accept myself that I didn’t have the tools to be able to wave a magic wand and fix the loss of manufacturing jobs and the loss of market share of the auto industry and the bankruptcies,” said MS. GRANHOLM, WHO IS NOW TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, and says she is “absolutely not interested” in some future political office. “It was hard for me as somebody who’s always been able to succeed at stuff to be able to accept that and move on.”...
[Another story on this topic appeared in the Los Angeles Times. An Associated Press interview appeared in dozens of sources, including the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, and Sacramento Bee. The AP story was accompanied by a biographical inset] Full Story
9. General Motors Is Said to Offer Bonuses and Reopened Plant
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
September 17, 2011
Detroit — The United Auto Workers union won $5,000 signing bonuses for its workers and a promise to reopen an assembly plant in Tennessee as part of its tentative new contract with General Motors, according to people briefed on the negotiations.
In what is being viewed as a landmark deal, the union also preserved health care and pensions and improved profit-sharing for its roughly 48,000 members who work at G.M....
“I think the U.A.W. went way beyond holding the line here,” said HARLEY SHAIKEN, A LABOR PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. “The union made some real gains in the contract in the context of where G.M. becomes a more competitive company.”
“They are bringing back work from other countries,” Mr. Shaiken added. “In this environment, to be creating jobs is not an insignificant achievement.”...
[Professor Shaiken was also quoted on this topic in the Wall Street Journal (link by subscription only), Bloomberg, UPI, Detroit Free Press, and in earlier stories in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal] Full Story
10. Dockworkers and Panama Canal pilots unions form alliance
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has been worried about the potential loss of cargo, jobs and collective bargaining power that could occur when the Panama Canal expansion opens in 2014.
Los Angeles Times
September 17, 2011
The union representing West Coast dockworkers has formed an alliance with pilots who guide ships through the Panama Canal, a link-up that could boost the bargaining power of both unions.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union represents workers in the U.S. and Canada, including 50,000 longshore and other workers on the West Coast. The union has been concerned about the potential loss of cargo, jobs and collective bargaining power that could occur when the Panama Canal expansion opens in 2014....
HARLEY SHAIKEN, A UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR specializing in labor issues, described the alliance as "a 'wow' moment" that could greatly increase the collective bargaining power of both unions.
"There has been a lot of talk about unions needing to have a much more global vision," he said. "This is one of the few times that the talk has been put into action."...
Shaiken, the professor, said the new alliance wasn't necessarily an escalation that would lead to more tensions between labor and management. It might help ensure that both sides negotiate in good faith, since neither would hold an upper hand in threatening to shift cargo or stop work.
"It could lead to improved relations rather than to more conflict," Shaiken said.
[This story also appeared in the Sacramento Bee] Full Story
11. Weekend Investor: How to Play Europe Now
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
September 17, 2011
The euro is at the center of a global market storm so severe that investors need to consider the worst-case scenario: a breakup of the European Union.
Such an event, unthinkable a few years ago, would cause chaos in the markets. But investors can take steps to limit the damage to their portfolios—and maybe even profit....
The possibility of a breakup shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. Between 1946 and 2005, 69 of the 130 countries that were part of currency unions have left them, according to ANDREW ROSE, AN ECONOMIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY....
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
12. Op-Ed: Obama's jobs plan too small to succeed
San Francisco Chronicle
September 18, 2011
Two cheers for the president and his American Jobs Act.
Cheer No. 1: In presenting it to a joint session of Congress, he sounded as passionate and determined as he's ever sounded.
Second cheer: He laid out the problem correctly and effectively. He explained why jobs and growth must be the nation's first priority now - not the federal deficit. The economy is in crisis. People are hurting. So government must act and act quickly. It's irresponsible at a time like this to suggest that government should simply close down.
But a jeer because the jobs plan he presented isn't nearly large enough or bold enough to make a major dent in unemployment or to restart the economy....
The president would have done better with a plan that was big enough to make a real difference. And then, when Republicans rejected it, campaign on it.
So two cheers — for both the president's style and his words. And one jeer: He failed on substance and strategy. Full Story
13. Calif. GOP looks to Hispanic voters for revival
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
September 17, 2011
Los Angeles—After failing to keep pace with California's shifting demographics, the state Republican Party is attempting a revival by revamping its strategy to appeal to the fastest-growing segment of the state's electorate....
Even as party leaders talked about creating a sustainable strategy for Hispanic outreach, much of the lineup at the California Republican Party convention in Los Angeles this weekend would seem to be at odds with those goals. The headliners are two conservative presidential candidates who are unlikely to appeal to mainstream voters, much less many Hispanics in California: tea party favorite Michele Bachmann and small-government icon Ron Paul, who drew hundreds of enthusiastic supporters to his morning events....
At Saturday's forum, the panelists talked about the need to connect on topics beyond immigration, but it was that issue which drew the most scrutiny.
"I would love for CRP to move forward a platform and get candidates to change their rhetoric to be more compassionate," UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY STUDENT FRANCISCO LOAYZA, 20, told the group.
Loayza, who is treasurer of the BERKELEY COLLEGE REPUBLICANS group, said GOP candidates should campaign on cutting the immense immigration bureaucracy, in which it takes people years and thousands of dollars to become Americans.
"It's the first time I've heard a Republican agree with me and say 'You know what? I think that big bureaucratic system takes too long.'"...
[This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times] Full Story
14. Prosecutor Candidates Support ‘Restorative Justice’
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
September 17, 2011
On Wednesday, Betty Renee Ricks stood inside San Francisco County Jail and told 40 inmates how she was first prostituted at age 12, and how one pimp broke her teeth, beat her with hangers until she bled and poured Brut cologne into her wounds....
The men, all charged with violent offenses, listened for an hour, jotting down on worksheets the crimes perpetrated against Ms. Ricks. The point was to help them understand how their own crimes had affected victims.
The exercise was part of a program based on a practice known as restorative justice, which brings together offenders, victims and community members to discuss the impact of a crime and help repair the damage through accountability and rehabilitation rather than punishment.
Restorative justice has long had proponents in some corners of the criminal justice system, but it is now gaining prominence in an unlikely forum: the San Francisco district attorney’s race....
[UC BERKELEY LECTURER IN RESIDENCE] DAVID ONEK, a lawyer, a former police commissioner and FOUNDER OF THE [UC] BERKELEY CENTER FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE, has led the charge, making incarceration alternatives and restorative justice the centerpiece of his campaign.
“Do you know what happens when you’re locked up?” he said. “You sleep all day and watch daytime TV. You’re watching Jerry Springer, and someone feeds you three hot meals a day. Admitting what you did, confronting your actions, hearing from a victim about the impact that things have had on them, that’s tough.”
Mr. Onek said he would start by using restorative justice techniques broadly in the district attorney’s juvenile division, in an attempt to steer young offenders away from jail.... Full Story
15. Hunger strikes at California prison renew debate over confining prison gangs
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
September 18, 2011
Crescent City — The sun rarely shines on the kingpins of California's prison gangs. To stop them from orchestrating mayhem on prison yards and neighborhoods across the state, prison officials condemned hundreds of reputed gang members to years of isolation in windowless cells.
For five years, the tough strategy worked, wardens insist. Quarantined crime bosses lost contact with their followers. No one could hear what they had to say. At least, not until July 1, when some of the most securely held prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison stopped eating and broke through their shuttered lines of communication with a mass hunger strike that spread into prisons across the state....
"There's a growing consensus that these ultra-isolation prisons are a bad mistake," said CRIMINOLOGIST BARRY KRISBERG, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AT UC BERKELEY'S EARL WARREN INSTITUTE. "The theory behind these prisons was we'll collect all the worst people in one place and that will make the rest of the prisons safer and easier to manage. But they weren't necessarily the most dangerous, violent criminals. "And the levels of violence in the other places didn't really go down."...
[This story also appeared in the San Jose Mercury News and Oakland Tribune] Full Story
16. The catch-22 of catching a rogue trader
The rogue UBS trader arrested last week raises questions about the bank's risk management practices. But the profession is so close to gambling that all traders walk a very fine line.
Fortune
September 19, 2011
Fortune — For a trader playing the market, the temptation to "go rogue" is huge. Authorized trading is like a complicated, legal slot machine and requires the assumption of major risk on a regular basis. So, then, how do you fill your company with people who have the confidence to play the market but can also fight the temptation to throw good money after a bad trade?
The latest example of this dilemma comes from UBS trader Kweku Adoboli, who was arrested on September 15 and is now facing charges of fraud and false accounting. UBS (UBS) says he covered up unauthorized trades over the past three months that lost the company $2.3 billion.
..."You haven't heard of financial scandals where a rogue trader has earned $2 billion extra for the company," says BARRY STAW, A PROFESSOR OF LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNICATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. Traders who have bet correctly on unauthorized trades are inadvertently rewarded, making the behavior tough to break.
But perhaps the biggest mental glitch at work is the temptation to make a series of irrational decisions after losing money. Almost everyone falls prey to this phenomenon, according to Staw's research; it's called "escalation of commitment."
In trading, this means that even though trades are discrete events, it is near impossible for people not to factor a previous loss into their current decisions. The result is that when we want to dig ourselves out of a hole, we make decisions that a third-party observer could clearly identify as bad ones....
One of the risks of raising the penalty for mistakes is that traders may feel less inclined to come forward with small errors that could be learning opportunities, Staw says. Then the company only sees the huge ones that are too big to hide.... Full Story
17. Jury Finds for TCW as Well as Gundlach
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
September 17, 2011
In a split decision Friday that left both sides claiming victory, a Los Angeles jury said star bond-fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach misappropriated trade secrets and violated his fiduciary duty to his former employer, Trust Co. of the West, but it didn't award damages to the firm.
The jury instead awarded $66.7 million to Mr. Gundlach for back wages for the time before he and dozens of other employees left TCW, a unit of French bank Société Générale SA, to form their own company in 2009. He had sought $496 million....
The jury didn't find that TCW was entitled to damages for breach of duty and intentional interference with business and it didn't find evidence that Mr. Gundlach acted maliciously.
"This may have been more than anything else a very unsettling divorce," said ERIC TALLEY, A LAW PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. "They ended up in an arms race of litigation."...
[Link by subscription only] Full Story
18. Post Local Blog: Getting teacher evaluation right
Washington Post
September 15, 2011
Here is an edited version of a briefing on the right way to evaluate teachers that Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond and other leading education research experts gave this week on Capitol Hill to policymakers.
...The forum was sponsored by the American Educational Research Association and the National Academy of Education.
Along with Darling-Hammond, who was the leader of President Obama’s transition team on education policy, speakers included: Stanford University Professor Edward H. Haertel, who is chair of the National Research Council Board on Testing and Assessment; JESSE ROTHSTEIN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY AND ECONOMICS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY and former senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers; and Arizona State University Association Professor Audrey Beardsley.
Getting Teacher Evaluation Right: A Brief for Policymakers
There is a widespread consensus among practitioners, researchers, and policy makers that current teacher evaluation systems in most school districts do little to help teachers improve or to support personnel decision making. For this reason, new approaches to teacher evaluation are being developed and tested. ... Full Story
19. Blog: Why Talk of a Green Jobs 'Bust' is Just Hot Air
Green Biz
September 18, 2011
Everyone's talking about jobs these days, from President Obama to the Republicans competing to take his.
Green jobs in particular have dominated recent news coverage with many of the headlines featuring a common theme: A bust....
But, while the success of federal stimulus funding — both in terms of green jobs and otherwise — is indeed debatable, the ability of the private sector to create hundreds of thousands or even millions of green jobs provides a more promising outlook for future growth.
First, although two large U.S. solar panel manufactures recently shut down their plants, the solar industry at large is most certainly not going bankrupt. U.S. solar photovoltaic installation increased by an impressive average annual rate of 64 percent between 2005 and 2010, with over 70 percent of the value produced domestically....
Second, counting similar jobs in wind power adds another 85,000 jobs to the renewable energy sector. These figures are impressive considering wind and solar energy only provide around 2 percent and less than 1 percent, respectively, of U.S. electricity today. (To compare jobs available in a renewable dominated future verses our current fossil fuel reality, labor intensities can measure the amount of jobs supported by a given amount of electricity generation. Intensities vary depending on the generation technology and are used to compare and predict job creation or loss. UC BERKELEY has published a great analysis of labor intensities in the electricity generation sector.)... Full Story
20. Solar Lasers Not Just for James Bond
Focussing the sun's energy into a super-powered laser beam gets one step closer.
Discovery News
September 19, 2011
Harnessing the sun's rays to produce a beam of pure energy has long been the goal of inventors from the ancient Greek engineer Archimedes (focused mirrors to destroy invading ships) to James Bond villains (space-based lasers of "Diamonds are Forever" and "Die Another Day").
But new research may realize the dream for a more down-to-Earth use: renewable energy.
A researcher in Uzbekistan has proposed a plan using small parabolic mirrors about 3 feet in diameter, combined with new two-layer ceramic disks to produce laser light....
ELI YABLONOVICH, PROFESSOR OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, and director of the NSF's Center for Energy Efficient Electronics Science, wrote a paper about unfocused solar powered lasers back in 1983. He says focused lasers haven't really worked out.
"They don't solve any useful problems," Yablonovich in an email. Laser energy from the sun "can be directed into a solar cell, but the added complexity is not worth it."
Yablonovich believes that advanced solar collectors are a better bang for the energy-collecting buck and co-founded Alta Devices, a Silicon Valley firm which is making high-efficiency photovoltaic solar cells.... Full Story
21. Biotech SF Blog: 'It's time to go big,' says OneWorld Health's Richard Chin
San Francisco Business Times Online (*requires registration)
September 16, 2011
Daunting science, technology and business questions aside, as OneWorld Health and its partners move closer to launching a semisynthetic version of a key anti-malaria drug ingredient, CEO Richard Chin is thinking a lot about history.
OneWorld has teamed over the past seven years with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, Emeryville’s Amyris Biotechnologies Inc. and French drug maker Sanofi, among others, to develop the “Artemisinin Project.” ...
The partnership's likely success will be a victory for so-called product development partnerships, or PDPs, that try to discover, develop and deliver drugs and devices, especially to poor regions of the globe. It should show that nonprofits, for-profits and academics can work together to solve some wide-ranging, knotty problems.... Full Story
22. Forum with Michael Krasny: A Palestinian Bid for U.N. Membership?
KQED Radio
September 19, 2011
Palestinians watch a broadcast of President Mahmoud Abbas' speech in Gaza City on September 16, 2011 in which Abbas vowed to lodge a bid for U.N. membership.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to petition the United Nations Security Council this month for full U.N. membership -- but the U.S. has vowed to veto any such bid. How might the Palestinian bid affect the stalled Middle East peace process, and the domestic political landscape?
Guests:
...BESHARA DOUMANI, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT UC BERKELEY...
[Link to audio] Full Story
23. Technology Industry's Gender Gap Seen Hampering Competitiveness
Bloomberg Businessweek
September 17, 2011
The lack of women in technology will hinder U.S. companies' global competitiveness, leaving a valuable source of female workers untapped, Cisco Systems Inc. executive Kathy Hill said yesterday at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco.
Companies should overhaul policies starting at the training level to ensure a balance between the sexes, Hill said at the APEC meeting, which was attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. APEC represents 21 economies that account for more than 55 percent of global gross domestic product....
While women hold about half the jobs in the broader U.S. economy, they account for less than 25 percent of science, technology, engineering and math positions, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce....
Just 12 percent of the students majoring in ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, are women, said CLAIRE TOMLIN, A PROFESSOR WHO OVERSEES THOSE MAJORS AT THE SCHOOL.
The college is working with middle-school girls to spark interest in engineering at a young age, and it invites females from other schools to the campus for summer programs to cultivate more interest in the field, she said.... Full Story
24. Hillary Clinton argues for end to sexism in workplace
San Francisco Chronicle
September 17, 2011
To achieve economic success, the world needs to promote women — in both the public and private sectors.
That was the message of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's keynote Friday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's Women and the Economy Summit in San Francisco, where she addressed a capacity crowd at the Westin St. Francis Hotel.
She told APEC members — business people, dignitaries, foreign delegates and economic leaders from around the world - that it is time "to unlock a vital source of growth that can power our economies in the decades to come. That vital source of growth is women."
And she urged them to open the "roadblocks to full inclusion" by stopping discriminatory practices that keep women out of positions of leadership....
ANN O'LEARY, A LECTURER AT UC BERKELEY'S LAW SCHOOL who attended Clinton's speech, was particularly impressed by how Clinton used data and research to make her point.
"It was incredibly pulled together," O'Leary said. "And her goals are realistic."... Full Story
25. San Francisco tops state’s foster care rates
San Francisco Examiner
September 18, 2011
Although child-welfare experts say that taking kids away from parents often does more harm than good — even in cases of neglect or abuse — San Francisco apparently puts kids in foster care more than almost any other California county once poverty is accounted for.
Not only that, but San Francisco repeatedly places the same children in foster care, suffering the highest rate of foster care recidivism of any large county in the state.
According to data compiled by UC BERKELEY’S CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH and analyzed by advocacy group National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, more than a fifth of the children that San Francisco places in foster care and then reunites with their families wind up back in foster care again.... Full Story
26. Best of Berkeleyside: This week’s most popular posts
Berkeleyside
September 17, 2011
This week’s most popular posts shows without a doubt that Berkeley residents care deeply about what is happening in their homes, backyards and neighborhoods.
...The announcement of a series of panels exploring the relationship between the city of Berkeley and UC BERKELEY prompted 50 comments about the pluses and minuses of having a major university smack in the middle of town. Some pointed out that Cal draws thousands of students, staff, and faculty, and they eat and live here, which adds to the tax base and cultural life. Others pointed out the university’s tax-exempt status and said it costs far more to host the institution than it brings in. There were also calls for UC to up its donation to the city.... Full Story
27. NBC Nightly News: Nnamdi Asomugha starts ACTS and takes underprivileged students around county looking at colleges and universities
NBC
September 18, 2011
Lester Holt, anchor: Before the Philadelphia Eagles take the field tonight against the Atlanta Falcons here on NBC, there's one player we wanted to tell you about. He has certainly delivered his share of big hits on the gridiron, but it turns out he's an even bigger hit with kids off the field. And as NBC's Jenna Bush Hager tells us, he's making a difference in their lives....
Jenna Bush Hager reporting: NNAMDI ASOMUGHA's soaring as one of the newest members of the Philadelphia Eagles. He's been described as fast and furious on the field. And off the field his teammates call him something else, "Senator."...
Hager: ...After earning a DEGREE IN FINANCE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY and joining the Oakland Raiders, Nnamdi started the Asomugha College Tour for Scholars, known as ACTS. Each year he takes a dozen underprivileged high school students, some who have never been on a plane, on a tour of universities across the country....
[Link to video] Full Story
28. Letters to the editor
San Francisco Chronicle
September 17, 2011
Re: Letters and the editorial ("No longer a bargain," Sept. 14) on University of California tuition.
One of the income sources that have been overlooked is alumni donations as a major source of funding.
Private universities receive substantial support from contributions from their graduates. In fact, these universities provide full scholarships for students who are unable to pay the tuition.
While some UC graduates are making contributions, there are too many who are financially well off but do not give back to the university that contributed to their success. Apparently many of these beneficiaries are not aware that the state provides such a small part (12 percent) of the university budget.
Hopefully, once they realize that the university is fast becoming a private institution in need of private donations, they will contribute in accordance with the value they received so that the following student generations can also benefit from their outstanding university.
GREGORY GOVAN, UC BERKELEY, CLASS OF 1960, Oakland... Full Story
29. The SF Mayoral Race: Paul Currier
San Francisco Chronicle Online
September 15, 2011
There are 16 candidates in this fall’s San Francisco mayoral race, and KALW News is interviewing all of them.
So far, we’ve heard from an assessor-recorder, a state senator, two supervisors (one current and one former), and an entrepreneur — all of whom boast clean rap sheets and long resumes. And then there’s Paul Currier.
Currier is a Bay Area native and a son of the ‘60s. And as KALW’s Ben Trefny discovered in this interview, Currier has an interesting story and political vision for San Francisco....
Paul Currier: ...I went to Berkeley years ago, UC BERKELEY. I grew up in Palo Alto. I was born at Stanford but earned my degree at UC Berkeley.
Ben Trefny: That must make you conflicted, a little bit.
CURRIER: It irritates the people from Stanford when you tell them, “Yeah, I was born at Stanford, but I was smart enough to go to Cal.” At Berkeley, I was trained to be the governor of the state of California in a very small program called the POLITICAL INTERNSHIP PROGRAM. It was very difficult to get in, and once I was in, I worked as a congressional aide for Ron Dellums for a couple years. I did prison casework for Ron. All of the Black Panthers were my clients and it was a lot of fun.
I graduated in ’75 and decided not to go into law, and not to go into public service as a politician and in politics, which was a dream of mine back then. But the idea of being professionally dishonest and lying to people professionally and getting paid for it ... the criminal nature of the whole system.... Full Story
30. US Religious Envoys Urge Iran to Free 2 Americans
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
September 19, 2011
Tehran, Iran (AP) — A group of U.S. Christian and Muslim envoys was returning from Tehran Monday after holding talks with Iran's president over the possible release of a pair of Americans jailed as spies for more than two years.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who appeared to be trying to get them released in time for his arrival at the U.N. General Assembly, also left Monday for New York empty handed. Complicating the $1 million bail-for-freedom proposal is a deepening internal rift between the president and the country's ruling clerics, who control the courts.
Ahmadinejad's rivals in Iran might be seeking to hold up the deal in part to deprive him of the chance to claim credit on the world stage for the release of the Americans, SHANE BAUER AND JOSH FATTAL, who were arrested in July 2009 along the Iraq-Iran border....
Last September, a third American who had been arrested with them, SARAH SHOURD, was released after a similar bail payment and a nearly identical tussle between the president and his rivals in the judiciary.
The three Americans — FRIENDS FROM THEIR DAYS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY — deny the charges. Their families say they were just hiking in northern Iraq's scenic and relatively peaceful Kurdish region when they may have accidentally strayed over the unmarked border with Iran. Iran has accused them of spying for the United States....
[This story appeared in more than 100 sources nationwide] Full Story
31. Dance Review: Mark Morris' historic 'Dido and Aeneas' still a dazzling production in Berkeley
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
September 18, 2011
A pair of lovers. An evil sorceress. A doomed affair. The plot of Henry Purcell's 1689 opera "Dido and Aeneas" is classic stuff.
And when acclaimed choreographer Mark Morris debuted his minimalist but deeply dramatic dance adaptation of Purcell's opera with a live orchestra and singers in 1989, critics said he made the tale of the ill-fated Dido, Queen of Carthage, and her lover, the warrior Aeneas, timeless.
Twenty two years after the piece's premiere in Belgium and more than a decade after it was last performed in Berkeley, Morris' sublime interpretation of Purcell's opera made its return to UC BERKELEY'S ZELLERBACH HALL Friday night.
It was the first in a three-day run and the debut of CAL PERFOMANCES' 2011-2012 season....
[This review also appeared in the San Jose Mercury News] Full Story
32. At AT&T Park, Cal Bears feeling right at home
San Francisco Chronicle
September 18, 2011
On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in the city, CAL FOOTBALL FANS found solace in transition. Some had stayed overnight, reveling in the notion of waking up downtown. Some Berkeley-tailgate regulars discovered choice taverns not far from AT&T Park.
Then there were the hidden hideaways, one of which I was lucky enough to visit before the transplanted Bears took the field for a 63-12 rout of Presbyterian. A group of influential CAL ALUMNI gathered in a stylish, fifth-floor loft South of Market, featuring elegant cuisine and an upstairs deck offering the most spectacular 360-degree view of San Francisco I've ever seen.
"Sure, I miss MEMORIAL STADIUM (currently under renovation) and the whole scene over there," one of the revelers said. "But I could get used to this."...
HEAD COACH JEFF TEDFORD had a slightly different outlook. "It was a little odd, to tell you the truth," Tedford said after the game. "We're used to hearing that big student section right behind us (most of the students are now in the north end zone), so it felt a little dead. We're looking to create that buzz that puts pressure on the opposition. Today seemed kind of weird."... Full Story