Results tagged “berkeley”

Oliver Williamson, a professor at UC Berkeley, won the Nobel economics prize on today. Along with Elinor Ostrom, Williamson nabbed the award "for their analyses of economic governance - the way authority is exercised in companies and economic systems."

Ah, yes, this is what we like: people apologizing for football games. So scary and confusing and lacking climactic eleventh-hour numbers, they are. What are we talking about? Well, actually, it seems Sandy Barbour, Berkeley’s Director of Athletics, sent out a letter, dolling out a huge mea culpa for Saturday's big homecoming game against (the vile) USC. Crowd control was lacking, rendering the game an uncomfortable one for fans.

While an estimated 5,000 students and faculty packed Sproul Plaza at U.C. Berkeley yesterday to protest a whopping 32-percent fee hike in the next year, thousands of different students were distracted by other things. The protest on the plaza was thought to be one of the largest since the Free Speech movement of the 60s, but it's possible the numbers were skewed by those gathered at Sather Gate where the Ellen show producers were giving away free Samsung cell phones live on the air (see video above) via a Twitter alert. Also, the show was offering $1,000 and free trips to L.A. to any students who stripped off their clothes in the campus bookstore and sent in a picture. Ah, college. Ah, Millennials.

He says it was "a long-shot," but Berkeley professor Ken Light was hoping Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would take a moment out from invoking Allah and predicting the downfall of global capitalism at the U.N. General Assembly to mention the fates of three former Berkeley students who have been sitting in an Iranian jail since July. Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd were, for reasons that the more sedentary and warzone-averse among us cannot understand, hiking in the mountainous Kurdistan region of Iraq when they wandered mistakenly over the border into Iran. They got arrested, and now they're being used as political pawns, much like Laura Ling and Euna Lee were in North Korea.

Big but vague protest sign, lots of small text.

Socialist democratic republic of Berkeley birdhouses? Sounds about right.

Looks exciting.

Zombietime will not be pleased.

For the 75892432th year in a row, UC Berkeley was named the number-one university when it comes to undergraduate education at a public university. At least according to U.S. News & World Report's 2010 "America's Best Colleges" list, it is. Overall, Cal came in sixth 21st, placing well below the more elite and classier schools like Harvard, Princton, Yale, MIT, and Stanford. This year, a total of six University of California campuses ranked in the top 50 schools -- Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, Davis, Santa Barbara, and Irvine. (Put down the pipe and pick up a book, banana slugs.) Read more about the list here.

While j-schoolers at Cal are busy bemoaning the state of the Journalism and perfecting that well-worn journalist look (hint: spiral notepad, unkempt hair, elbow patches, lots of chin scratching), a hacker breached UC Berkeley's School of Journalism server in July. According to the Daily Cal, "500 applicants to the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism were notified [Tuesday] that their Social Security numbers and other private data may have been compromised in a recent campus security breach." This most recent hacking affects "people who applied to the school between September 2007 and May 2009." While, most likely, no one is at real risk of any serious identity damage -- real journalism students have neither a hefty bank nor decent credit -- students were notified weeks after the actual attack. According to Shelton Waggener, the school's "associate vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer," a delay in notification is typical in these situations. "It just takes time to do the investigation," he said. "Once we were certain of as much info as we could be, we began the notification process and developing the notification strategy."

Three hikers (Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal) were captured by Iranian authorities last week, "after they strayed across the border while hiking in Northern Iraq in a tourist area." Two of the three hikers placed under arrested in Iran have Bay Area connections. Bauer and Shourd are both UC Berkeley graduates who worked as freelance journos with New American Media. According to Bauer's website, he is a freelance journalist and photographer based in the Middle East." Bauer was "born in Minnesota and graduated with honors from UC Berkeley with a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies." Shourd was an English major and describes herself as a "teacher-activist-writer." Former First Lady and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now on the case. According to Associated Press, "Clinton said that Swiss diplomats who represent U.S. interests in Iran are asking officials from the Iranian Foreign Ministry for details but have not yet gotten official confirmation of the trio's arrest. She asked that Iran determine the facts of the case and to 'return them as quickly as possible.'"

You may recall this study that was released a couple weeks back by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty in which San Francisco was named the 7th meanest city to the homeless, and LA was named first. Well, you may have also noticed that our little liberal sister city to the east, Berkeley, came in 10th, and The Berkeley Daily Planet is having none of it! Reporter Riya Bhattacharjee spoke to a number of Berkeley's proud homeless and local homeless advocates, all of whom swear up and down that Berkeley is actually super awesome to its homeless and this ranking must be rigged!

A woman and a teenage girl were sexually assaulted in two separate incidents inside two Berkeley homes on Thursday morning. First, reported around 2:30 a.m. on the 2100 block of Cedar Street, a teenage girl "woke up with a man straddling her and lifting her shirt." The victim's mother, who was asleep in the same bed, "reported waking up and fighting the suspect until he fled." According to Bay City News / CBS 5, the suspect was described as "a male, 16 to 20 twenty years old, between 5 feet 7 inches and 6 feet tall, and was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt." The second assault, reported a little before 7:30 a.m., happened on the 2600 block of Hillegas Avenue. BCN goes on to report that a "college-aged woman told police she woke up with a man on top of her," who ran off after she fought back. The second suspect has been described as "a black man around 19 to 22 years old, around 5 feet 6 inches tall, and was wearing a gray sweatshirt with no hood and blue jeans." If anyone has any information on either creep, pleas contact Berkeley police at 510-981-5734 or Bay Area Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS. Also, both attackers made their ways inside each home via unlocked doors or windows.

A few days after a Vallejo toddler was shot while sleeping in her parents' bed, Berkeley played host to another kids-meet-gunfire incident. Two children aged 3 and 6 were shot inside their home at around 5 a.m. this morning on the 1500 block of Oregon Street. Their wounds, thankfully, were not life-threatening. According to the Chronicle, "responding officers found a home on the block had been hit by multiple bullets." Police do not suspect that the shooting was random. Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to call the Berkeley Police Department homicide unit at 510-981-5741 or 510-981-5900. For those who want anonymity, please call the Bay Area Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 800-222-8477.

Following on the heels of this week's Caltrain suicides, "a pedestrian was struck and killed by an Amtrak train in Berkeley Thursday morning, the third person to be struck by a train in the Bay Area in a 24-hour period.," according to CBS 5. Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said that the unidentified male intentionally jumped out in front of the southbound train heading to Oakland near the Grayson Street crossing. On Wednesday night, just a few hours prior to the Amtrak death, a man hurled himself "into the side of a moving Caltrain at the Menlo Park station." He is expected to live. The Amtrak victim, however, died at the scene.

For anyone who's ever shopped there -- be it noon on a Tuesday or 6 p.m. on payday -- Berkeley Bowl has pretty much always been a shitshow. Bulk granola-buying hippies elbow aside gourmet grannies in the ultra-narrow aisles, and hundreds of shopping carts squeak by one another in the endless stock exchange of Asian pears and celeriac. And forget about Thanksgiving week. Well now, Berkeley denizens will have yet another gourmet grocery to fight over (to add to four Andronico's, a Whole Foods and a Wild Oats soon-to-be Trader Joe's) as Berkeley Bowl opens a second store, Berkeley Bowl West, about 15 blocks west of the current store on Ashby Ave (map).

Lamar Franklin, 21, was charged with the shaking death of his infant son last week. According to reports, Berkeley police responded to a call around 4:40 p.m. on Friday regarding 'a choking infant" over in the in the 1300 block of Ward Street. After the 5-month-old infant was whisked away to Children's Hospital in Oakland, he later died in Tuesday. Franklin was charged with murder and assault with a deadly weapon. If convicted, this would make Berkeley's fourth homicide of the year.

BERKELEY-OAKLAND/SATURDAY: Three people died after a murder and car chase through the East Bay Saturday night. "It all started at 6:35 p.m. when Berkeley Police responded to reports of gunfire near Allston Way and 10th Street in West Berkeley," according to reports, where offices found an unidentified male suffering from 10 gunshot wounds. He later died. Police then chased the kmurder suspects up to North Oakland, where the they crashed their Cadillac "into two other vehicles at the corner of Aileen Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way -- killing two innocent bystanders, one in a car, and one who was walking down the sidewalk." A 26-year-old Sunnyvale man, whose Mazda got caught up in the crash, died as well.

A magnitude 3.0 earthquake, according to CBS 5, "has struck near Berkeley at 3:34. There are no immediate reports of damage or injuries." Tell us, readers, where were you during the Great '09 Quake?

On Saturday, the arrival of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, along with an Earth Day festival and "special farmer's market celebrating the elimination of plastic bags" (chortle), means that you'll want to stay as far away from Berkeley streets as possible. For his visit, the city will shutdown Allston Way between Milvia Street and Martin Luther King, Jr., Way from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. At 2 p.m. he'll be at the Greek Theatre, and at 3:45 he'll chat at the Berkeley Community Theater. Also, according to SFGate, "expanded bike parking will be available at Civic Center Park, and the city's car-share fleet will be relocated to the south side of Center Street, east of Milvia, for easier access." What's more, the Earth Day Festival is scheduled to part hard from noon to 5 p.m. at Civic Center Park, 2151 Martin Luther King, Jr. Taking public transit is strongly encouraged. You've been warned.

Inexplicably managing not to spray the room with gunfire or hurl himself out of the nearest open window, TMZ's Harvey Levin spoke to students enrolled at the "elite" Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. TMZ, for the few of you not in the know, is a fantastic celebrity news site where you can find images of a beaten Rhianna or a postmortem Anna Nicole Smith; and Levin, a former lawyer and television producer, runs the joint. A few revelations Levin unveiled at Wednesday's talk? He doesn't hire writers, prefers to employs reporters who look like this; was asked by a J-schooler if he would be doing "more serious stories" at TMZ (answer: no); and declared "local news is dying, newspapers are dying."

Thousands of students lined up in Berkeley on Wednesday to get tickets to see professional celebrity and sometime activist, the Dalai Lama, scheduled to appear April 25 at the Greek Theater. According to Daily Clog's Alex Bigman, "we haven’t seen lines like this since Star Wars: Episode I came out." He goes on to say the Lama's appearance is the "coolest thing to take place at the Greek since that Steely Dan show." Tickets for the general public go on sale on March 23.<

Due to installing the "most solar systems per 1,000 citizens by any city in the Bay Area," the city of Berkeley has won a coveted the "City Solar Award" sponsored by NorCal Solar. Berkeley trampled Oakland (1.2 systems per 1,000 people), San Francisco (0.84), and San Jose (0.73). In addition to bragging rights, Berkley has also won the ire of PG&E. Congratulations, you crazy kids!

What with the "skirt creeper" attacking two more females over the weekend, the kids over at UC/Berkeley have decided to hold a skirt rally. According to Christine Borden at the Daily Clog, "the rally’s designed to let women 'feel safe wearing whatever we choose,' which is important considering that the Daily Cal states that the most recent victims were not wearing skirts."

SFist's thinner, younger, and more attractive brethren over at UC-Berkeley want you to be on the lookout for this guy (at left) who has been sexually assaulting dames near Greek Row (or whatever it's called) near Cal. He preferred method is to approach the female prey from behind and lift their skirts.

A sexual predator has stuck a 10 times in an area south of the University of California at Berkeley campus. In each reported incident, the suspect "approached the victim from behind, lifted her skirt and tried to sexually assault her." Taking place between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., most of the assaults have occurred when fraternity and sorority parties are finishing up. The females describe him as "a white male in his early 20s who is about 5-foot-10 with a medium build and short dark wavy hair." If you see or know this person call the Berkeley Police Department's sex crimes detail at 510-981-5735 or Bay Area Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS. Or, you know, just shooting and killing him would be no great loss. So there's always that.

     

Last year Berkeley paid realist artist Scott Donahue "$196,000 to install two sculptural groups at either end of a new pedestrian bridge across the freeway on the city’s waterfront." Donahue came up with a works depicting angry protesters, oak grove tree sitters, Critical Mass, and scenes from public parks -- namely, dogs shitting, fucking, and ass-sniffing.

The kids over at The Daily Clog bring to our attention this festive Bollywood film, Vaaranam Aayiram (2008), that was shot in Berkeley, the Cal campus, and San Francisco. While the English dubbing barely masks some sort of nonsense language, the real treat here is the seamlessly-choreographed and air guitar-infused Tamil song and dance number featuring Berkeley landmarks and the SF waterfront.

Police are warning women in Berkeley that an attacker in on the prowl near the UC Berkeley campus. So far three "college-aged" women have been attack just south of the UCB campus. In one case, according to reports, "the suspect approached the victim from behind, lifted her skirt and tried to sexually assault her." The creep is allegedly focusing "on women who are wearing skirts." Happening last Saturday, the first reported assault was at 12:30 a.m. at Bowditch and Channing, the second at 1:30 a.m. at Channing Way and Piedmont Avenue, and the third at 2:30 a.m. in the on Warring Street. The dude is described as "a white male between 20 and 30 years old who is between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-9 and is of medium build with short dark hair." A $2,000 reward is being offered for info leading to his arrest. Call Berkeley PD at 510-981-5735 or 981-5734.

You know how Berkeley prides itself on, among other things, being a nuclear-free zone? Well, not so much these days. See, the Berkeley's city council voted today to let the Berkeley public library eschew the twee Nuclear Free Berkeley Act "in order to get its checkout machines serviced." Berkeley citizens passed the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act in 1986, which bans any and all "nuclear weapons-related activity and to boycott companies involved in the United States nuclear infrastructure." That is to day, a fine will be imposed on anyone attempting to build a nuclear warhead on Telegraph Avenue, or whatever. Anyway, the library can now sign a contract with 3M, a multinational technology company, to clean those machines that go "boop!" when you check a book out, even though 3M "refused to sign a form promising it does not engage in nuclear research or development."