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Early earthquake warnings come to California. This fall, the Seismology Lab at UC Berkeley launched ShakeAlert 2.0, Californiaâs first earthquake early warning (EEW) system. It employs a West Coastâwide network of sensors to detect the quakes before they hit, in hopes of spreading the word as far and wide as possible. On October 8, just […]
Kids donât play like they used to. For one thing, they are too often locked to their screens. For another, weâve got âem on tight schedules, shuttling from play dates to practices, music lessons to ball games. When I was growing up in the 1970s, we had some of that as well, but what I […]
All you need is a priest, a bandanna, and a strong stomach. âI blame Hemingway. Looking for something to read last year, The Sun Also Rises fell into my unwilling hands. Iâd never understood why so many people lived and died by his writing, so I decided to offer him a second chance. There it […]
âWhen I heard that the theme for this edition of California magazine was play, my thoughts turned to music and sports. Both are forms of self-expression, closely linked in ways that are at once intuitive and surprising. We have many campus programs in eachâanother way we seek to embrace the fullest possible range of human […]
26-year Army veteran Jim Knowlton wants to make major changes at Cal Athletics in the next year. In May, new UC Berkeley Athletic Director Jim Knowlton took over a tough job, spearheading a department in upheaval. Cal Athletics currently finds itself burdened with about $439 million in debt from the Memorial Stadium renovation, including millions […]
A newly commissioned work gives voice to student stories. Cal Performances isnât in the habit of weighing in on topical controversies, but when it comes to defending Cal students, the organization decided it was time to raise a voice. Make that many voicesâCal Performances has assembled a stellar roster of artists to create an oratorio […]
Eureka! The Diving Bell and the Bullet Wound On August 4, 1919, Berkeley chemist Joel H. Hildebrand (above, right) was shot and wounded by a lab assistant who accused the professor of opposing his application for appointment. Hildebrand survivedâfortunately for the Navy. Twenty years later, in 1939, his work on the properties of gasses being […]
Five Questions for Galen Cranz, Professor Emerita of Architecture. Youâve been working on ethnography and space. What are some examples of other culturesâ uses of space that we could learn from? The English pub offers a wide range of ways to sit or stand while socializing. The English have barstools at perching height that support […]
So youâre in Vegas at the penny slots, and you promise yourself youâll only play a dollar. Thatâs it! No more. Just enough to have the Vegas experience. If you win, you may regret not wagering a ten-spot to get a bigger jackpot. If you lose, youâll probably regret sitting at the machine at all. […]
For all the loose talk about the Singularity and Skynet, itâs pretty clear we have a long way to go before weâre in the thrall of a malign artificial intelligence (AI) intent on harnessing us for our precious mammalian bio-electricity, Ă la The Matrix. Still, some of the robots at the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research […]
A century ago, football was in big trouble. History has a way of repeating.
Back already? Okay then, read on. It was during the Great Malaise of the Jimmy Carter years that Zippy the Pinhead, clown prince of non sequiturs, first wondered, âAre we having fun yet?â The questioner was a simpleton, but time has endowed his question with the ring of profundity. Or is that an alarm bell? […]
