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.
Friday, 8 March 2013
1. California Dream Act: 20,000 illegal immigrant students apply for state financial aid for the first time
Oakland Tribune
Under California's new Dream Act, more than 20,000 college-bound students are applying for state financial aid for the first time. "For many of them, it's a game-changer," said Meng So, coordinator of UC Berkeley's recently introduced Undocumented Student Program. Freshman Jesus Lopez, whose family moved from Mexico to the U.S. when he was 7, is one of the new beneficiaries of the program. The aid has helped him to move closer to campus, join clubs, sign up to volunteer, and study late in Moffitt Library. "Now I pretty much do the stuff a regular student does, because in a way, I am a regular student," he says. Full Story
2. Spinning scientific straw into gold: Steve Blank aims to bring research to market
San Francisco Business Times (*requires registration)
"Startup guru" and entrepreneurship lecturer Steve Blank is co-directing one of three "I-Node" innovation hubs around the nation. His team – from UC Berkeley, UCSF, and Stanford – will be supported by a three-year, $3.75 million grant from the National Science Foundation. According to André Marquis, executive director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship at Berkeley’s business school, the project could have significant impact on the Bay Area, where NSF provides more than $400 million to Berkeley researchers and $250 million at Stanford. Full Story
3. San Leandro's old Chrysler plant revved up for tech
San Francisco Business Times (*requires registration)
UC Berkeley’s new SkyDeck startup incubator is mentioned in a story about Lit San Leandro, a public-private partnership building an 18-mile super-fast broadband fiber loop through industrial and commercial neighborhoods in the San Leandro area. SkyDeck, the story reports, is in the final stages of gaining access to Lit San Leandro. Full Story
4. First Dreambox 3D printer vending machine heads to UC Berkeley
Gizmag
David Pastewka, Richard Berwick, and Will Drevno met at a mobile application development class at UC Berkeley in 2011, where they envisioned a network of local, accessible, automated 3D-printing vending machines. They took their idea to UC Berkeley-affiliated Skydeck incubator/accelerator program and were accepted in the fall of last year. Now, roughly six months later, they are preparing to introduce their machine –the Dreambox -- on campus. Link to video. Full Story
5. Wired Campus Blog: At South by Southwest Education Event, Tensions Divide Entrepreneurs and Educators
Chronicle of Higher Education Online (*requires registration)
Astronomy professor Alexei Filippenko addressed the South by Southwest Edu conference this past week, speaking about strategies for teaching large classes. He says he attended the conference this year to learn more about massive open online classes, or MOOCs. Regarding a heated discussion of corporate interest in MOOCs, Professor Filippenko was among those who praised companies wanting to get involved, since government cost-cutting means financial support needs to be found elsewhere. “Even nonprofits have to pay their employees,” he said. Full Story
6. Tell Me More: College Diversity Issues Continue After Admissions
NPR
Shirley Collado, dean of Middlebury College in Vermont, is co-chair of a national group called the Liberal Arts Diversity Officers. Interviewed here about her efforts to increase faculty diversity, she mentions a partnership with more than 20 colleges nationwide, including research universities Berkeley and Columbia, to address the issue. Link to audio. Full Story
7. Smart News Blog: Life on Earth May Have Been Seeded by Comets
Smithsonian Online
Astrophysicists at Berkeley and the University of Hawaii at Manoa have reported new insights into the chemistry of comets, indicating it's possible they could have brought the essential building blocks of life to Earth. Full Story
8. TED Radio Hour: How Did A Mistake Unlock One Of Space's Mysteries?
NPR
Columbia University physicist Brian Greene talks about research co-authored by Berkeley's Nobel prize-winning physicist Saul Perlmutter into the expansion of the universe. Link to video and audio. Full Story
9. Unrepresentative democracy
San Francisco Chronicle
David Broockman and Christopher Skovron, graduate students at Berkeley and Michigan, respectively, have co-authored a working paper based on a survey of state legislators about what they believe their constituents think about a range of policy issues. Their finding was that all legislators, regardless of party, believe their constituents are more conservative than they are. Conservative legislators especially overestimate constituent conservatism – by 20 percentage points. This commentator concludes: "If such ignorance and hostility continues, republican democracy will become just a meaningless slogan." Full Story
10. Economix Blog: The Sequester and Fiscal Policy
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
Business professor Laura D'Andrea Tyson writes: "The sequester … is a product of political stalemate and ideology cloaked in the language of fiscal responsibility. Despite what some of its champions proclaim, there is no economic justification for the sequester. It is the wrong medicine for what ails the economy now and the wrong cure for its future budgetary challenges." Saying that the thinking that produced the sequester will rule out more profitable solutions, she concludes: "Perhaps when the sequester’s costs become apparent, Congress will be forced back to the negotiating table." Full Story
11. Mock funeral at UC Berkeley to support campus workers
Berkeleyside
Berkeley students and staff held a rally on campus yesterday to show their support for workers on campus who are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union, currently in contract negotiations with the university. The rally was part of a day of action observed across the UC system. Another story on this topic aired on KTVU—link unavailable online. Full Story
12. Arrest Raises Issue of Where to Try Terror Suspects
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
Law professor John Yoo comments on the arrest of Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, which has reignited a debate over whether prominent terrorism suspects should face trial in U.S. civilian courts. "It does and should reopen the debate about the proper place to try high-ranking Al-Qaeda members," he says, adding that if there is a rush to send suspects to civilian courts, it could inhibit the government's ability to fully exploit any intelligence gathered through their capture. Furthermore, he says a civilian trial could expose classified intelligence-gathering techniques to the U.S.'s enemies. Full Story
13. Dot Earth Blog: Scientists Find an Abrupt Warm Jog After a Very Long Cooling
New York Times Online (*requires registration)
A new study by researchers from Oregon State University and Harvard has added detail to a graph produced by Robert Rohde, a lead scientist on the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project. The graph tracked global temperature trends since the last ice age, and the new study projects onward to the future. Rohde commented on the work, concluding that "since their methodology suppresses most of the high frequency variability, one needs to be cautious when making comparisons between their reconstruction and relatively rapid events like the global warming of the last century." Full Story
14. More can afford a home, but lenders remain tight-fisted
Los Angeles Times
Business professor Ken Rosen comments on the growing affordability of housing. Nationwide, two-thirds make enough to afford payments on the median-priced house, compared with about 40% in 2006, he says. Full Story
15. The Experts: Are Higher-Than-Average Fees Worth It for Funds With Great Track Records?
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
Business professor Terrance Odean is on a panel of experts answering financial questions for the Wall Street Journal. Today's question is: "Should investors accept higher-than-average expenses to get a fund with a great track record?" He responds with one word, all caps: "NO." Full Story
16. The Crime of His Childhood
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
Forty years ago in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a four-year-old boy named Josh Miele suffered a horrific attack from a neighbor, who poured acid on his head. His life was saved by a dramatic military rescue, but he was blinded. Josh lives today in Berkeley with his wife and children, and his amazing life story includes a Berkeley Ph.D. in psychoacoustics. He has helped develop software to help blind people navigate graphics-based computer programs, and he's worked for NASA on software for the Mars Observer. Full Story
17. Video: “Temporary” 1945 UC Berkeley housing demolished
Berkeleyside
The Smyth-Fernwald housing complex at the top of Dwight Way is being demolished. Built as “temporary” housing for married students after World War II, it was occupied for 68 years until last June. Spokeswoman Christine Shaff says there are no plans for the site, other than landscaping and erosion control. Full Story
18. Cal vs. Stanford basketball has a wild finish
Los Angeles Times
A fight broke out between the Cal and Stanford basketball players Wednesday night toward the end of Stanford’s 83-70 upset win at Haas Pavilion. The dispute began with 5:04 left, when Cal’s Allen Crabbe and Stanford’s Aaron Bright wrestled over a loose ball. Stanford center Dwight Powell intervened and appeared to elbow Crabbe out of the way, after which all the players on the benches joined in. The rule is that only head coaches can run out on the court. Link to video. Full Story
19. The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley this weekend
Berkeleyside
The journalism school is displaying photographs by Ken Schles documenting life in a Lower East Side neighborhood in New York for a decade. A reception, talk, and book-signing will accompany the exhibit this evening, Friday, March 8. Full Story
20. Cal Berkeley mascot, Oski, delights children at David Weir
Daily Republic (Fairfield-Suisun)
Second graders at Fairfield's David Weir Elementary School were visited by Oski, UC Berkeley's mascot, Wednesday morning. Each class at the school has adopted a different college as part of their No Excuses University program, and this class chose Berkeley. Their teacher, Julie Victor, prompted them to ask Oski to visit them, and they got their wish. Oski was welcomed with cheers, high-fives, hugs, and smiles. Zuez Soto, who found Oski to be “nice, funny, cool and awesome,” said, “I want to go to college at UC Berkeley.” Full Story