Equal Pay Day passed us by with few fireworks here in Berkeley (though lord knows our friends in Oakland got enough of those on Sunday), which surprised me because it also seemed like one of those juicy red meat... er... blue meat issues for the left. Regardless of the merits, concern over the gender pay gap ought to be entirely palatable to moderates and even right-of-center women. But what of those pesky merits? Well, I'm of two minds. The cold-hearted-bastard economist in me appreciated the way Reason Magazine diffused some of the alarmism of the equal pay debate. Yes, on...

On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon at Clark Kerr Stadium, first year super-squad Sparkle Motion rallied to defeat second year all-star team Shadow Pricing 9-5 in a game which many analysts have described as "a passing of the torch." It was an important victory for Sparkle Motion, who got embarrassed by Shadow Pricing last term. Shadow Pricing led for much of the game, playing solid defense, getting timely hits, and looking great doing it. Pitchers-by-committee Adam Lang and Keith Lucas kept Sparkle Motion relatively quiet until the 7th, when left-handed monster and team captain Tony "Chicken Toes" Chicotel mashed a solo...

Is there a more charged American event in the past 50 years than September 11th? Probably not... Yet we have surprisingly little to say about it. Other than an excellent book by Ken Kalfus, there has not been much by way of a national expression of what September 11 meant to us (unless you consider Jonathan Safron Foer and Adam Sandler cultural barometers... and god help you if you do). Perhaps that's because we haven't quite healed; or maybe it's because we're not yet quite sure what really happened. Regardless, from this vacuum of dialog has emerged a panoply of...

I thought this was an interesting example of unintended policy consequences. . . New Jacobson study on potential increased smog fatalities from ethanol Ethanol is widely touted as an eco-friendly, clean-burning fuel. But if every vehicle in the United States ran on fuel made primarily from ethanol instead of pure gasoline, the number of respiratory-related deaths and hospitalizations likely would increase, according to a new study by Stanford University atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson. His findings are published in the April 18 online edition of the journal Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T). "Ethanol is being promoted as a clean and...

Interesting article in the Washington Post about international reaction to the Virginia Tech massacre including reactions from Iraq particularly after bombings that killed at least 158 people in Baghdad today....

Today, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. Read about it here, and please use the "Comments" section to offer your thoughts and analysis....

Berkeley is about to enter a contract with BP (nee British Petroleum) that is supposed to lead to alternative energy development. I don't know anything about the deal and was hoping the policy community could help me understand. All I do know is historical, in that the Novartis contract a few years back riled quite a few people. It had a flawed patent sharing agreement that basically gave Novartis free access to patents that had been developed heavily through public funding. In other words it was like subsidizing the profit making apparatus of an already profitable drug company. Please use...

A 2003 study from Germany's Landau University may provide some clues to the mystery behind our nation's disappearing honeybee population. Landau's Jochen Kuhn placed the receivers to cellular phones within honeybee hives, exposing the bees to the radiation that the phones give off. Kuhn found that as many as 70% of the bees would refuse to come back to the hive, speculating that it somehow effected the waggle dance which bees use to communicate foraging information with one another. Researchers studying Colony Collapse Disorder, now familiar with Kuhn's work, believe this same radiation may effect a honeybee's natural navigation, which...

Assuming that we’re sexually active, 80% of us will be infected with one or more strain of human papillomavirus (HPV) at some point in our lives. HPV does not have negative health impacts for men; but 10 of the 30 detectable genital HPV strains (there are dozens of undetectable strains) can, in rare cases, lead to cervical cancer in women. Regular visits to the gynecologist and pap smears are the best defense against HPV’s cancer risk, and Merck is now offering a vaccine. HIV/AIDS affects an estimated 1,000,000 Americans. It is a horrible disease which impacts all corners of society...

Have you seen the new calendar feature. It lists all the major Policy events at UC Berkeley. The link is on the right side. Or you can get to it here. It's one of many new changes to the site we plan to roll out in the coming months....

A few months ago Berkeley and BP signed what may be the largest public-private research partnership ever. Over the next 10 years BP will provide $500 million to the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) which will conduct basic and applied research into the “problems of global energy production, particularly the development of next-generation, carbon-neutral transportation fuels”. As examples of industry penetrating into research are increasingly common, the effects this has on what research is funded and how the results are ‘distributed’ are increasingly being scrutinized. While science has never been as isolated from business as we have believed during much of...

The Supreme Court today handed down its judgment on Massachusetts v EPA, the first case the Court has heard regarding climate change. At issue in the case is the EPA's role in monitoring and regulating automobile emissions. Section 202(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7521(a)(1), requires the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA ") to set emission standards or "any air pollutant" from motor vehicles or motor vehicle engines "which in his judgment cause[s], or contribute[s] to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare." The EPA and the Bush Administration,...