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Tuesday, 20 September 2011
1. US Scientists Testing Earthquake Early Warning
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
September 20, 2011
Pasadena, Calif. (AP) — Elizabeth Cochran was sitting in her office when her computer suddenly sounded an alarm.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
A map of California on her screen lit up with a red dot, signaling an earthquake had struck. A clock next to the map counted down the seconds until shock waves fanning out from the epicenter north of Los Angeles reached her location in Pasadena: 5-4-3-2-1.
Right on cue, Cochran felt her chair quiver ever so slightly from a magnitude-4.2 that rumbled through Southern California on Sept. 1....
After years of lagging behind Japan, Mexico and other quake-prone countries, the U.S. government has been quietly testing an earthquake early warning system in California since February....
With more testing and funding, researchers hope to build a public warning system similar to the Japanese that has been credited with saving lives during the March 11 magnitude-9 disaster.
Since earthquakes are unpredictable, supporters of early warning say it's the next best thing to prepare people and the commercial sector before the ground rocks. Even a 5-second advance notice can be precious, they contend.
"You want to get under a sturdy table before things start falling off the wall," said UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY SEISMOLOGIST RICHARD ALLEN, a project participant. "We don't want people to start running out of buildings."...
Since 2006, the U.S. has been testing three alert systems and launched a prototype internally known as "ShakeAlert" in February, a month before the Japan devastation. For now, messages are only blasted out to about 30 scientists at the USGS, California Institute of Technology and UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, where they are working out software bugs on a shoestring budget....
"It's not perfect," said Berkeley's Allen of the U.S. effort. "Frankly, it's stuck together with duct tape, but it's operational."...
[This story also appeared in the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune, Sacramento Bee, and San Francisco Chronicle. Another story on this topic aired on KQED Radio News—link to audio] Full Story
2. Arts Blog: KQED TV earthquake special visits Geysers
Santa Rosa Press Democrat Online
September 20, 2011
Japan was prepared for an earthquake of more than 7.0 magnitude, but when it got hit with a 9.0 earthquake last March, the quake and resulting tsunami left devastation in their wake.
With that in mind, KQED TV’s “Quest” series presents its new “Earthquake Special,” updating West Coast efforts to detect and predict quakes, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, on San Francisco’s Channel 9.
The 30-minute special examines the dynamics of the forces at work beneath the earth’s crust, and explores how human engineering activity can cause earthquakes.
Using a mixture of colorful graphic techniques to enhance the documentary, the show includes footage at the Geysers geothermal power plant along the Sonoma and Lake County border, and interviews with researchers from the University Washington in Seattle and UC BERKELEY.
[Link to the Quest schedule] Full Story
3. California English Proficiency Test 'Almost Guarantees' English Learner Classification, Study Shows
Huffington Post
September 20, 2011
Most four- and five-year-olds who take an English proficiency exam before kindergarten are bound to fail the test, according to a new study.
Taking the California English Language Development Test "almost guarantees" a student will be classified as an English learner, the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY'S CENTER FOR LATINO POLICY RESEARCH, study reports. Just 12 percent of kindergarten students who took the CELDT in the 2009-2010 school year were considered English language proficient, misidentifying the many others as English learners, according to the study....
The research was led by LISA GARCÍA BEDOLLA, AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT BERKELEY'S GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, and ROSAISELA RODRIGUEZ, AN ACADEMIC COORDINATOR THERE AND A RESEARCH SPECIALIST....
Bedolla said in a statement last week that if the trend continues, the number of young children classified as English learners in California "may grow exponentially." The researchers' suggestions include reassessing the classification survey, considering bilingualism a benefit to students and providing a means for families to address potential English learner misidentification.
Recent studies have also shown that children from bilingual families reap several benefits, including being more flexible thinkers in the long-run. Full Story
4. Idaho Couple's Permit Fight Drags Wetlands Back to Supreme Court
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
September 19, 2011
Priest Lake, Idaho — Sitting unobtrusively across the road from a pristine lake in the northern Idaho panhandle, the half-acre lot covered with weeds and piles of gravel isn't much to look at....
What started as a routine disagreement about whether [its owners, Mike and Chantell Sackett] needed a Clean Water Act permit to build their dream home on the site has morphed into a high-stakes legal battle that has reached the nation's highest court....
The case would likely have not made it to the Supreme Court if it weren't for the Pacific Legal Foundation, or PLF, a legal nonprofit based in Sacramento, Calif., which brings its own agenda to the table....
"I think the plaintiffs are trying really hard to make it about wetlands," said HOLLY DOREMUS, AN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, SCHOOL OF LAW.
The reality is that the question before the Supreme Court has nothing directly to do with wetlands.
The issue is one of due process under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution....
In defense of EPA, Berkeley's Doremus dismissed the notion that the agency regularly throws its weight around by initiating enforcement proceedings against individual property owners like the Sacketts.
That doesn't happen, she said, because both EPA and the Army Corps "have been stung" in the past by efforts that have backfired politically.
"In general, they don't push these compliance proceedings unless they think the landowners are thumbing their noses at them," Doremus added.... Full Story
5. Unable to reach a deal, Pleasant Hill has imposed contracts on 3 of 4 employee unions
Contra Costa Times (*requires registration)
September 19, 2011
In an unprecedented move here, the city this year has imposed contracts on three of its four employee unions.
The one-year contracts freeze salaries, increase health care and retirement contributions for current staff and set up a two-tier system of less generous benefits for future employees....
Labor experts say public employee unions across the country face a harsher bargaining climate — as proof they point to the curbing of collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin and Ohio. In California, some of the push at the local level to cut benefits has taken place in wealthier, more conservative suburbs that are under less fiscal stress, said KEN JACOBS, CHAIRMAN OF THE UC BERKELEY LABOR CENTER.
In the future, Jacobs expects public sector employees will have to contribute to their pension funds. As long as health care costs keep rising, the issue of who pays will be a continued source of conflict between workers and municipal governments, he added.
"The longer the economic downturn lasts, the more likely we are to see longer-term changes," Jacobs said. "To the extent that revenues come back up, that stocks come back up, that the worst of these problems get resolved, I think you're going to see the pressure decreased."...
[This story also appeared in the San Jose Mercury News and Oakland Tribune] Full Story
6. Does the New Patent Reform Law Shut Out Small Business?
AllBusiness
September 19, 2011
On Friday, September 16, President Obama signed the America Invents Act of 2011 after the bill overwhelmingly passed the Senate the previous week. This long-awaited legislation will result in major changes to the U.S. patent system, which has operated essentially unaltered for nearly 60 years.
Reform of what many viewed as an outmoded patent-rights system has been in the works for at least six years. With final passage, the new law begins the process of providing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with more resources to deal with a huge backlog and inefficient systems. More important in the long run, it establishes an entirely new way in which inventors and companies are granted patents. Under the new legislation, the U.S. system changes from a "first-to-invent" system to a "first-to-file" system, which is already used by the vast majority of the world's industrialized countries....
But the America Invents Act has infuriated many of those without fat corporate wallets. Independent inventors, academics, and small business owners wonder how they can beat large corporations to patent when big companies have entire departments devoted solely to technology research and intellectual property — making it possible to file much faster than their smaller competitors.
Some experts say this concern is overblown because the law includes a one-year grace period to protect academics and inventors who disclose their inventions before filing a patent. ROBERT MERGES, A PROFESSOR OF LAW AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, noted in a San Francisco Chronicle article that this provision gives inventors one year to hone their inventions after disclosure. PAMELA SAMUELSON, THE DIRECTOR OF UC BERKELEY'S CENTER FOR LAW AND TECHNOLOGY, agreed: "The 'little guy' inventor story that this rule favors big firms is really a myth."... Full Story
7. Op-Ed: Short-Term Stimulus Won’t Help U.S. in Long Run
Bloomberg Businessweek
September 19, 2011
By Glenn Hubbard
Glenn Hubbard, a former chairman of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, is the dean of Columbia Business School. He is an adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
September 19, 2011
Joblessness and sluggish growth are hampering the economic recovery and Barack Obama’s political standing. Raising taxes on the rich, as the president called for yesterday, isn’t going to turn things around....
What sort of fiscal policy can turn things around?...
The key ... to any effort to boost the economy is to craft a short-term “stimulus” in the context of a longer-term structural reform plan that clarifies the deficit and debt path for the U.S. This can be accomplished in four steps....
The fourth is to understand the centrality of tax reform to any structural reform the U.S. economy. Fundamental tax reform — broadening the tax base and reducing marginal tax rates — promotes saving, investment and economic growth. Any number of proposals have shown -- ranging from the Treasury Department’s comprehensive business income tax (which I helped design in 1992) to the Flat Tax to the X Tax to the Bowles-Simpson committee — it is possible to reduce marginal tax rates substantially if one surrenders most or all deductions and exclusions....
Indeed, research by ALAN AUERBACH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY suggests that tax reform can add between one-half and a full percentage point to GDP growth over the next decade. And tax reform is an essential precondition for any solution to use higher revenue in a substantial way to reduce future deficits. The president’s own Bowles-Simpson Commission advocated fundamental tax reform.... Full Story
8. Madeleine Brand Show: Grocery stores narrowly avoided a strike, but do strikes work?
KPCC [Southern California Public Radio]
September 20, 2011
The big grocers just avoided a strike with their workers by reaching a deal. Sixty-two thousand workers from Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons threatened walking off the job for better health benefits while the grocers countered by threatening to close dozens of stores. We'll hear the details of the deal later today when they get released. This morning we ask: How effective are strikes?
Traditionally, strikes are understood as a useful bargaining tool for workers in negotiations but is this always true? We have HARLEY SHAIKEN with us today to answer this question. SHAIKEN IS A UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR who specializes in labor issues.
[Link to audio] Full Story
9. Talk of the Nation: No Single Solution for Emerging from Poverty
NPR
September 19, 2011
[BEN MANGAN, CEO of EARN and LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS discusses getting out of poverty. Link to audio] Full Story
10. In early Obama White House, female staffers felt frozen out
Washington Post
September 19, 2011
Friction about the roles of women in the Obama White House grew so intense during the first two years of the president’s tenure that he was forced to take steps to reassure senior women on his staff that he valued their presence and their input....
The women’s-inclusion issue in the Obama White House is featured prominently in a controversial new book to be released Tuesday, “Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington and the Education of a President,” by journalist Ron Suskind....
One of the most striking quotes in the book came from former White House communications director Anita Dunn , who was quoted as saying that, “this place would be in court for a hostile workplace. . . . Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”...
Other episodes were relayed to Suskind by CHRISTINA ROMER, former chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, whose disputes with Summers have been widely reported, including in an earlier book on Obama’s White House by journalist Jonathan Alter.
Romer is quoted by Suskind saying, after being excluded by Summers at a meeting, “I felt like a piece of meat.”
On Friday, Romer offered a softer denial than Dunn, saying, “I can’t imagine that I ever said this.”
“I was told before I went to Washington that there has always been a lot of testosterone in the West Wing,” Romer said Friday. “What was different in the Obama administration is that there were so many women in important positions and, when problems arose, the president worked hard to fix them. I felt respected, included and useful to the team.”
In the book, Romer is portrayed as speaking up for herself. At one point, Suskind quotes her telling the president that if he empowers Emanuel and Summers, “you’re responsible for their actions.”
...Romer departed the following year to return to the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY.... Full Story
11. Quest Blog: Michael Pollan Says Health Insurance
Interests May Be Our Best Chance In Political Food Fight
KQED Online
September 16, 2011
UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM and hero of the "food movement", MICHAEL POLLAN, says rising health care costs may be our biggest ally in getting positive change to the agriculture industry in Washington.
In his latest article titled, "How Change Is Going to Come in the Food System", published in The Nation, Pollan argues that while a cultural revolution has taken place in American’s perception of what and why we eat, little real change has taken place at the level of policy.
“The food movement has discovered that persuading the media, and even the president, that you are right on the merits does not necessarily translate into change, not when the forces arrayed against change are so strong,” says Pollan.
However, the food movement can take a page from the fight against tobacco in recruiting a powerful ally: the insurance industry. With the passing of Obama’s Patient Protection Act and Affordable Care Act, insurance and government agencies can no longer neglect individuals with preventable, diet-related chronic diseases.
“No longer allowed to cherry-pick the patients they’re willing to cover, or to toss overboard people with chronic diseases, the insurance industry will soon find itself on the hook for the cost of the American diet too,” writes Pollan.... Full Story
12. India Real Time Blog: In Brooklyn, Writers Consider the ‘New India’
Wall Street Journal Online (*requires registration)
September 20, 2011
...Siddhartha Deb and BHARATI MUKHERJEE, who respectively have nonfiction and fiction books on India out this year, and Amitava Kumar, whose most recent book dealt with the fallout of the War on Terror, gathered on Sunday in Brooklyn to discuss the subcontinent as part of the New York City borough’s literary festival.
All three teach in the United States — Mr. Deb is a professor of creative writing at the New School in New York City, MS. MUKHERJEE TEACHES IN THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, and Mr. Kumar is in the English department at Vassar College in upstate New York.
In a discussion that was only very loosely tied together, Ms. Mukherjee spoke of India as a place where it was now possible for people to pursue individual happiness rather than putting their families or communities first. In her 2011 novel, "Miss New India," the main character of Anjali Bose, who moves from the hinterland to Bangalore for a job as a call-center worker, gets that opportunity.
These days, many Indians “are suddenly put into a situation and lifestyle where there are no prescribed rules,” she said, adding that they have to navigate “conflicts hour-by-hour in a city that is changing minute-by-minute.”... Full Story
13. Marin poet, San Francisco neurologist awarded $500,000 'genius' grants
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
September 20, 2011
The awards continue to pile up for Marin County poet Kay Ryan.
Already a Pulitzer Prize honoree and former U.S. poet laureate, the Fairfax resident won the $500,000 "genius" grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, it was announced Tuesday....
Ryan was one of only two California residents to win a MacArthur grant this year. Eight Californians won last year, including TWO AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY and one at Stanford University.... Full Story
14. 10 Colleges With Most Expensive Room and Board
These schools charge students an annual average of about $15,000 for food and housing.
U.S. News & World Report
September 20, 2011
...While a college or university's sticker price is a common talking point during the college search process, room and board is another factor that can cost a student thousands of dollars each year. To combat college costs, some students achieve commuter status and travel from home, while others secure off-campus housing that can offer cheaper living arrangements.
Many colleges and universities, though, require students to live on campus for varied lengths of time before they become eligible to live off campus....
While some students choose to live in university housing for the convenience, room and board can be pricey. The average room and board fee across all schools for the 2011-2012 academic year is $9,047, according to data reported by 1,130 schools in an annual survey to U.S. News. These are the rates a typical student would expect to pay at each school, although there may be lower or higher cost options....
Howard University, a private National University in Washington, D.C., offers the most expensive room and board option in the nation, with an annual cost of $15,341. In fact, eight of the 10 schools with the most expensive room and board fees in the country are private schools. THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA—BERKELEY and the University of California—Santa Cruz are the only public schools that made the list....
[Link to chart] Full Story
15. Business Schools Increasingly Require Students to Study Ethics
Some graduate schools have offered courses in business ethics for decades.
U.S. News & World Report
September 20, 2011
When Lee Igel's students ask him why New York University doesn't require them to take business ethics courses, the associate professor reminds them of the codes of values that every scandalized organization handed out to new hires and plastered to every available surface.
"Did it make a difference? Of course not," Igel tells his management and organizational behavior classes at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. "[Students] did not need to learn the difference between right and wrong ... [but] how to apply the difference between right and wrong to their work."...
Business students at other graduate schools across the nation—particularly in the wake of scandals surrounding Enron, Bernard Madoff, and others—can increasingly expect to take at least one ethics course. They are also likely to hear their school bicker with the competition about who is ahead of the social responsibility curve. Many of the schools listed in the Aspen Institute survey, as well as several professors and administrators who responded to a U.S.News & World Report query, cited the longevity of their ethics programs.
The University of Virginia says it houses "one of the first top-ranked business schools to establish a required, standalone first year course in ethics," and the University of Denver claims to have "one of the first interdisciplinary M.B.A. programs with a core theme of ethics and corporate responsibility." San Francisco State University flaunts a 25-year-old ethics requirement, while Allison Adams, media relations director of the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School, says the school's ethics requirement has been on the books for nearly five decades. THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA—BERKELEY goes so far as to say it has focused on preparing responsible business leaders since 1898.... Full Story
16. Long-lost artwork from Modesto's downtown post office returned
Modesto Bee
September 19, 2011
After being missing for more than 40 years, two historically significant murals from downtown Modesto's post office have been found.
The coveted artwork, created by a Depression-era public works program, has been turned over to the investment group that's buying that now-closed federal building.
"It's so extraordinary that we were able to get these murals back," said Peter Janopaul III, whose Finch Fund agreed to pay $1.02 million for the vacant building. "We found them locally, intact and in great shape."
One of the murals, done in 1936 under the supervision of artist RAY BOYNTON, shows peaches being picked and packed in wooden boxes. The other shows water pouring from a large hand, flowing into a river flanked by a miner panning for gold on one side and a farmer planting trees on the other....
"Ray Boynton is a significant figure in California art history," [Barbara Bernstein of the New Deal Art Registry] said. BOYNTON (1883-1951) TAUGHT ART AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, and his mural "Animal Force and Machine Force" is in San Francisco's Coit Tower.
[Link to video] Full Story
17. Blog Briefing Room: Gingrich promises updated 'Contract with America'
The Hill Online
September 20, 2011
Former Speaker of the House and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Monday that he would be announcing a "21st Century Contract With America" during a speech next week in Iowa.
The Des Moines Register reports that Gingrich promised a proposal "10 times deeper and more compressive than 1994," when the Republican leader's original platform propelled Republicans to retake the U.S. House for the first time in 40 years.
“One of the major themes of next year if I’m the nominee is going to be that (President Barack) Obama is the best food stamps president in American history and I’ll be the best paycheck president in American history,” Gingrich said at a campaign stop in Iowa. “And I will be happy to debate Obama on any university campus in the country, including Harvard and BERKELEY. I’m not afraid to debate this president anywhere, any time, on any topic.”... Full Story