2013 Summer A New Deal
The Surprising Mr. Smith: What Really Drove Him to Try to Transform Oakland Schools?
Update: On May 1, 2015, Tony Smith will become Illinois’ state superintendent of schools, due chiefly to the support of a Republican governor who insists the school system needs a “transformational” leader. The hire is controversial, but that, of course, is nothing new for Smith. Tony Smith sports the physique of Buzz Lightyear yet speaks […]
The Harvard Humblebrag
The lovely young woman has been admitted to the master’s program at Berkeley’s School of Public Health and she is seeking my advice. She’s also been accepted to Harvard and several other top schools, she says, and is weighing her options. I make the appropriate comments. I have nothing negative to say about Harvard, or […]
5 Questions for: David Card
1. In 1994 you published a study with Alan Krueger that found that raising the minimum wage would not create higher unemployment. Given the more recent economy and the growing number of fast food and retail workers demanding a $15 per hour wage, do you believe your findings from 20 years ago still apply? David […]
The Fold-Up Boat
Anton Willis reinvents the kayak for urban dwellers. Tell people you’ve invented “the world’s first origami kayak,” and you’re likely to be met with wry grins and chuckles. The mind runs to images of paddlers astride giant paper gewgaws, sodden and sinking in the surf. But, rest assured, the Oru Kayak is no joke: It’s a […]
Keeping the Lights On
Cal baseball’s future is brighter but still punctuated with a question mark. Fans who attended the Cal baseball game against USC on March 28 did something that no one had ever done before in the team’s 121-year history: They walked into a ballpark illuminated by artificial light to watch the Bears play a home game at […]
Troubled Bridge
Berkeley engineers question the fitness of the new Bay Bridge. When close to three dozen anchor rods snapped on the nearly completed new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge this spring, it was just the latest in a series of controversies that have dogged the $6.4 billion project since the start. If the bridge were a person, you […]
Work in Progress
Joe Blum’s two loves, storytelling and physical work, come together in his distinctive photographs. View the rest of the photos here When I first got to know Joe Blum nearly 40 years ago, he was a union boilermaker working as a shipfitter and welder in the fabrication shops and shipyards of the Bay Area. Joe was […]
Outsourcing The Middle Kingdom
As China expands into global markets, inevitable culture clashes occur. The flight from Johannesburg to the Namibian capital of Windhoek is typically brief and uneventful: a two-hour hop across desert, salt pan and thornveld, then an easy approach and touchdown at the small airport carved out of the bush east of town. Still, the short flight […]
Administering Change
The career of incoming Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks has led him out of the classroom in order to influence what happens within it. As he is inaugurated Nov. 8, we explore the man and his mission for Cal. The year was 1996 and Nicholas Dirks, now Berkeley’s newest chancellor, had just traveled from the University of […]
The Heart of Everything
For 40 years, C.K. Ladzekpo has taught Berkeley that music and dance are one. C.K. Ladzekpo never intended to stay in Berkeley. Now in his 40th year on faculty at Cal, the pioneering drummer, choreographer, and teacher didn’t foresee leaving West Africa at all. But a temporary teaching position abroad started to look more attractive after […]
Bittersweet Conclusion
New evidence says sugar is causing diabetes worldwide. In 2010, clutching a cup of coffee, Paula Yoffe ’11 faced a dilemma. Should she add sugar? “And then I thought, oh my gosh, of course not,” Yoffe recalls. The beverage’s intended recipient, Dr. Robert Lustig of UCSF, had become famous when his lecture on the detrimental health […]
Cleaning Up Contaminated Waters
Constructed wetlands could help save the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea, a 376-square-mile lake in Southern California’s Imperial Valley, is an important stop for migratory birds, though it formed accidentally as a result of a river diversion project in the early 20th century. But selenium runoff from agricultural fields now threatens to contaminate this lake. In […]
Greening the Commute
A new app makes commuters more aware of their environmental impact. If you knew how much C02 you emitted during your daily commute, would you change your travel habits to something more ecofriendly? Researchers are hoping that the answer is yes. To find out, students and professors at Berkeley’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering developed […]
Stormy Weather
If the past is any indication, we may be in for some rough weather. During a terrible storm in the winter of 1969, Berkeley professor Lynn Ingram, just 8 years old at the time, remembers looking out her window and seeing her backyard disappear. The rain-drenched earth of her Santa Barbara home was sliding down into […]
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