Eco Factor: Hydrogen-generating plant relies on solar energy.
Hydrogen is often touted as the fuel of the future. However, even after being the most abundant element in the universe, producing hydrogen that can later be used as fuel is in itself a dangerous process. SolarLab Research and Design has come up with the Hydrogen Powerplant, a concept powerplant that can be one of the safest and the most efficient ways to create hydrogen.
President announces decision in major speech at West Point
President Barack Obama announced Tuesday night that he will send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, escalating the United States’ eight-year military operation in the region.
The soldiers will deploy in early 2010, bringing the total number of American soldiers in Afghanistan to approximately 100,000.
The speech ends weeks of speculation about the precise decision President Obama would reach regarding strategy in Afghanistan for 2010 and beyond. The President argued for the deployment’s representing “the resources that we need to seize the initiative while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan.”
Obama announced the increase in front of 4,000 cadets at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. His speech also outlined and defined objectives for what the White House is calling “a new way forward.”
The decision raises the likelihood that the war in Afghanistan will be as defining to the Obama presidency as the Iraq War was to the terms of President George W. Bush. Conscious of this and the gravity of the increase, the President used much of the speech to explain the urgent necessity he saw for the move.
“I do not make this decision lightly,” he said. “I make this decision because I am convinced that our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by al-Qaeda. It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted as I speak. This is no idle danger, no hypothetical threat.
“This danger will only grow if the region slides backwards and al-Qaeda can operate with impunity,” he added. “We must keep the pressure on al-Qaeda, and to do that, we must increase the stability and capacity of our partners in the region.”
The President also used the speech to clarify military strategy in Afghanistan, and said the United States’ “overarching goal” remains constant: “to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to prevent its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future.”
Obama explicitly listed three main objectives that will define achieving that goal.
“We must deny al-Qaeda a safe haven,” he said. “We must reverse the Taliban’s momentum and deny it the ability to overthrow the government. And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan’s security forces and government so that they can take lead responsibility for Afghanistan’s future.”
The President said the newly-deploying troops will return home beginning in 18 months.
Saying that the price of two ongoing wars can no longer be ignored, Obama also said he will work to monitor and control the costs of the increase and the continued conflict. Funding the new approach in Afghanistan will cost $30 billion in 2010, he said.
At the start of the President’s term, 32,000 American troops were deployed in Afghanistan. Earlier in the year, Obama also approved a longstanding troop increase request, but Tuesday’s announced increase emerges from an entirely new strategic review.
Obama closed his half-hour speech with a direct address to the American people.
“America, we are passing through a time of great trial,” he said. “And the message that we send in the midst of these storms must be clear: that our cause is just, our resolve unwavering. We will go forward with the confidence that right makes might, and with the commitment to forge an America that is safer, a world that is more secure and a future that represents not the deepest of fears but the highest of hopes.”
Sony has recently identified a minor quality issue involving a small percentage of the VAIO JS Series all-in-one desktop computers sold since October 22, 2009. When powering on or resuming from hibernation in a low temperature environment, the JS4 may not start properly. You may want to think twice about bringing your JS out into the cold next time, especially those of you living in igloos. The VAIO JS4 is sold in many countries around the world, including the USA, Europe and most of Asia Pacific.
Models affected:
Asia Pacific:
VGC-JS45GF/P, VGC-JS45GF/Q, VGC-JS45GF/S, VGC-JS45LF/Q, VGC-JS43LF/P, VGC-JS45TF/P, VGC-JS45TF/Q, VGC-JS45SF/S, VGC-JS45SF/P
North America:
VGC-JS410F, VGC-JS410F/S
VGC-JS430F, VGC-JS430F/Q, VGC-JS430F/S
VGC-JS450F, VGC-JS450F/Q, VGC-JS450F/S
Sony will be providing free repair for customers of the affected models if such models exhibit the above-mentioned symptoms. Please contact the nearest Sony Service Center (in Asia Pacific) (1-877-643-1219 the USA) if you have any of the models stated above. We were unable to find a European notice of this issue at time of writing.
For owners of latest Walkman E series, Sony is offering NWZ-E445, NWZ-E443, NWZ-E444, NWZ-E444K, NWZ-E443K owners firmware update version 1.01 for fixing audio compatibility with several Sony products and improving functionality with Windows. A new Content Transfer program is also mentioned.
Target products
The followings are the target products of this service, whose firmware version should be 1.00.
Fixed symptoms
With the above products, customers may experience the following symptoms. The symptoms will be fixed with this firmware update.
Additional function
By updating the firmware, you can experience new features:
How to confirm the Model and the Firmware version
Please confirm the Model and the Firmware version from the steps below.
/ 
/ 
/ 
button to select 
Settings, and then press 
button. / / / button to select Common Settings, and then press button. / / / button to select Unit Information, and then press button.
Eco Factor: Zero-energy residential concept based around sustainability.
A project collaborative of a group of architecture firms, Team+, has been chosen as winners to construct a zero-energy residential concept in Aalborg, Denmark that is based around sustainability and high architectural quality. Dubbed the Bolig+, the design maximizes sun exposure, while protecting the building from unnecessary heat gain.
It’s amazing the turnaround in response Sony is getting with the PS3 these days – especially when SCEA’s Sr. Corporate Communications director Patrick Seybold revealed 440,000 Playstation 3 consoles were sold to eager shoppers in the last month of November taking advantage of special holiday sales. Sony really had a good presence during Black Friday which fell within this week and accelerated sales greatly. Consumers jumped at the chance of any retailers offering PS3 bundles with several games or other accessories. I can only imagine the numbers Sony had for Cyber Monday as well, which many analysts have stated was a bigger draw for consumers then retail experienced during Black Friday.
Perhaps it would be advantageous for Sony to bundle games or include vouchers for free game downloads to maintain this momentum. Now is the time to build the army.
On another note, it’s interesting is that Sony didn’t offer word on that PSP sales looked like. Seybold merely stated,
“The 2009 holiday season got off to an amazing start for PlayStation, with all key retailers showing a significant increase for PS3, PSP and key holiday titles over Black Friday and the holiday weekend.”
Meanwhile, Nintendo announced that American consumers bought more than 1 million units of its Nintendo DS and DSi portable consoles during the week of the Thanksgiving holiday, along with more than half a million Wii consoles — for the week ending November 28th.
Rival Nintendo offered sales figures as well by stating more than 500,000 Wii’s were sold, as well as 1 million units of its Nintendo DS and DSi portable consoles were sold in the same period. Microsoft’s Director of Product Management Aaron Greenberg stated the company saw the Xbox 360 console move two times as many units over the holiday week as the previous one, making it the biggest sales week on the year so far. Some reports have lauded that Microsoft may not have met the same numbers that Sony and Nintendo did.
Very interesting, though – is it becoming more obvious that there is more value at this point and time (not discounting Natal, but it’s not here right now thanks) in a Sony and Nintendo console experience? I think the XBOX360 is a great value and has incredible community-driven features (including movie watching, social media, etc) and much more. However, I really think consumers are shifting to two things – motion control and simplicity in the Wii (as well as unique software IP’s), or HD gaming and movies with the PS3. The XBOX360 is a weird in-between of this. Maybe Natal will make it more relevant again, but if Microsoft doesn’t implement Blu-ray soon I think that sales will deteriorate faster than you think. Sure you can implement streaming 1080P, but Blu-ray games are also nice. Maybe Microsoft will do a power play and the next XBOX will have a humongous (1TB+) hard drive and you’ll just download everything.
Eco Factor: Efficient turbine engine for extended-range hybrid car.
Israel’s ETV Motors has unveiled a proof-of-concept extended range hybrid vehicle, in the shell of a Toyota Prius, which the company claims can run for 50 miles on a single charge. Unlike other extended range vehicles that rely on convention piston engines to refuel the batteries, ETV’s car features a small, clean, quiet, efficient and inexpensive jet turbine engine.
Political science student Daniel Shih ’10 last week was named one of 32 American 2010 Rhodes Scholars heading to Oxford University. Shih will begin studying there next fall.
Shih, who was born and raised in Naperville, Ill., is also a 2009 Truman Scholar.
“I’m still figuring out exactly what I’m going to study. I’m interested in a few things, mainly the intersection between grassroots activism and government,” Shih said. “I’m interested in how we can create space for grassroots activists and allow people’s voices to be heard without having to be elected to government.
“I think I might be studying comparative government and political science,” Shih added. “Something in the Department of Politics and International Relations.”
Shih has taken significant time off from Stanford to pursue both field research interests and to work on the campaign trail. He took over a year off school to work for the Obama campaign, eventually working as a field organizer in five states and, during the general election, becoming the regional field director in Albuquerque.
“It’s really important for me to take charge of my own education, to pursue opportunities that will help me grow as an individual, help me grow as an activist and a scholar,” he said. “With that belief in taking some risks and trying new things, graduating in four straight years was not the most important thing to me.”
Shih received a Chappell Lougee grant his freshman year to research the social programs of Hugo Chavez. He continued the research into this quarter, which he took off to conduct field research on the Sino-Venezuelan political and economic relationship.
On campus, Shih is involved with the Stanford Progressive Association and helped launched the Stanford Sweat-Free Campaign to get Stanford to join the Worker Rights Consortium.
As for his future after Oxford, Shih admitted that he’s long flirted with the idea of becoming an academic.
“But I want to consider the social impact that my work as an academic could have as well,” he said. “I’ve always thought about how to make my work relevant to the people that I want to help — the people marginalized by government and by society.”
Shih applied to the Rhodes Scholarship at the encouragement of a colleague that he worked with at the Obama campaign.
“She talked about her experiences in Oxford, and it made a big difference in my deciding to apply for the Rhodes Scholarship,” Shih said. “I wasn’t aware that I even had a legitimate shot in any way.
“You never see yourself as a Rhodes Scholar,” he added. “It’s a little scary.”
The controversy and paranoia around jet contrails have led some to believe this condensation left by airplanes is “actually chemicals or biological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for a purpose undisclosed to the general public”. Whether this conspiracy theory is true or not, Britain’s Met Office has discovered contrails reduce sunshine. The Telegraph reports:
Analysis of contrails from one large military aircraft circling over the North Sea showed the creation of a thin layer of cloud that, at its peak, covered an area of more than 20,000 square miles…Globally, vapour trails are thought to cut sunshine levels by less than one per cent, but this figure could rise to 10 per cent in areas under busy air corridors, such as the south-east of England, according to The Sunday Times.
Given this new information, I wonder if busy flight paths will be considered when selecting solar array sites in the future.
Stanford students, faculty and staff will be among an estimated 15,000 participants from 192 countries attending the 15th United Nations Climate Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark, this month.
The Conference will work toward the goal set by over 180 nations in the Bali Road Map of 2007, which called for the international community to agree by 2009 on a binding framework for future climate change mitigation.
Among those attending the event, which takes place Dec. 7 to 18, will be at least 33 students as well as 13 University faculty and staff. While delegates from participating countries are at the negotiating table ironing out the specifics of the accord, these faculty, staff and students from a variety of departments at the University will be involved in other aspects of the conference.
As part of a non-governmental organization (NGO), members from the University have observer status at the conference. This gives representatives the opportunity to speak with delegates, network with other policymakers and scientists, and discuss problems and possible solutions with like-minded individuals.
“It’s a huge opportunity for faculty and students to network with people in the community they are interested in continuing research with, and also it’s a great education opportunity for all those involved,” said Sarah Jo Chadwick, a staff member in the department of biological sciences who helped organize the trip to Copenhagen.
Side events such as panels and talks will be held by many NGOs, including Stanford’s representation, for those interested.
“There will be many side events… on human health, on economic risk, agricultural risk and human disease risk associated with different elements of climate change,” said Robert Dunbar, professor in the School of Earth Sciences and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment.
Dunbar, who is also part of the management committee at the Center for Ocean Solutions, will present at a panel entitled “Ocean Acidification: The Other CO2 Problem,” in which he hopes to raise awareness of a lesser-known problem stemming from carbon emissions.
“Because of ocean acidification, we have a very good reason to think oceans will be impacted [by carbon emissions], and it’s going to be a completely separate impact from global warming,” Dunbar said. “I’m hoping that thinking about the oceanic involvement will help convince people that this is an urgent issue that needs to be dealt with now.”
Stephen Schneider, professor of interdisciplinary environmental studies and a well-known expert in the field of climate change, will also give talks about his latest book, “Science as a Contact Sport,” which covers the four decades he spent in the “climate change battle.”
Schneider, who is currently teaching a course called “Copenhagen Climate Protocol: Interpreting the Chaos,” is also responsible for bringing many students to Denmark by offering those enrolled in his class the opportunity to go with him to the conference. The opportunity to attend the conference was not limited to students who took Schneider’s class, however. In early September, both undergraduate and graduate students had the opportunity to apply for COP15.
In general, students heading to Denmark have a special interest in some aspect of climate change. Ansu Sahoo, a Ph.D. student in management science and engineering, for example, hopes to learn more about energy technology research and development at the conference.
“I’m interested in talking to delegates in both the United States and China to understand what their perspectives are on the potential for research and development that can accelerate the development and deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technology,” Sahoo said.
Students interested in public policy also look forward to gaining something from the experience.
“I’ll be volunteering with a couple of different organizations,” said law student Bruce Ho. “There will be a delegation representing the interests of the California government, so I’ll be working with them, and I’m also likely to work with a couple of nonprofits involved with the state.”
Regardless of the outcome of the negotiations, both students and faculty seem to believe they will benefit from the networking and learning experience offered by the conference. At the same time, delegates and other attendees will benefit from the research and ideas that these members of the Stanford community will bring.
“This attempt at making binding international commitments is pretty tough and fascinating to watch,” Dunbar said. “I’m excited to go see the process.”
In a series of long and embittered fights in the Florida court system, a judge’s recent ruling may prove vital for smokers’ lawsuits against the tobacco industry. Yet for a Stanford professor who has been at the center of more than one case against big tobacco, the decision may have greater implications in preserving his work and academic freedom.
Last month, in the case of Castleman v. R.J. Reynolds Co., Judge Charles Mitchell of the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court in Duval County ruled that Prof. Robert Proctor, a key witness for the plaintiffs, did not have to turn over a manuscript of his unpublished book to R.J. Reynolds’ lawyers for the purpose of cross-examination. Proctor, who has appeared as an expert witness in lawsuits against tobacco companies since 1995, is only one of two historians to regularly testify against the industry.
However, this ruling reveals a number of legal disparities and uncertainties, as a judge presiding over an earlier case — Koballa v. Philip Morris U.S.A. — had come to the exact opposite conclusion: In October, Seventh District Court Judge William A. Parsons approved defense lawyers’ requests for a subpoena of the professor’s unfinished work, entitled “Golden Holocaust: A History of Global Tobacco.”
At the time of that decision, the plaintiffs immediately reacted, arguing that a court-backed seizure of any unpublished work was a direct violation of First Amendment rights. Developing an argument against a ruling that they believed would have a “chilling effect on academia,” Proctor and a team of lawyers filed a motion to block the subpoena.
The University also filed an amicus curae brief in support of Proctor’s motion, the first time it has ever done so to protect a professor’s unpublished research.
“For them to have access to notes before they are finished impairs ability to conduct research,” Proctor told The Daily for an earlier article.
The decision in Castleman, however, will give some support to the professor’s arguments. And while it is still uncertain how the recent Fourth Circuit decision will apply to other smoking lawsuits, Proctor and representatives of the plaintiffs claim it is a step forward in their cases against a multi-billion dollar industry.
“It is a big victory for academic freedom, but it remains to be seen how it will be applied in other counties… and how this argument is carried over in other cases,” Proctor said. “I’m hoping it will establish a certain protection for these manuscripts.”
Florida up in smoke
The case of Castleman v. R.J. Reynolds Co. is just one of hundreds of Florida smoker lawsuits that Prof. Proctor could become embroiled in. Even he has lost count.
“It’s all confused in my mind, with the same defendants in every case making this argument,” he said of the lawsuits he’s currently involved in. “It’s several [cases] — I don’t know how many.”
In the Sunshine State, these individual lawsuits brought against big tobacco are the result of a 1994 class action lawsuit, Engle v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.. Arguing that the industry had knowingly sold a product that caused injury to consumers, former smoker and pediatrician Howard Engle sued on behalf of more than 500,000 state smokers for punitive damages of nearly $145 billion.
While the case was originally decided in favor of the plaintiffs, higher state appeals courts later overturned the decision on the basis that the state smokers were too dissimilar to constitute a class for a class action lawsuit. The Florida Supreme Court, however, ruled that smokers could try their cases on an individual basis.
This has prompted the emergence of thousands of tobacco lawsuits, known as “Engle Progeny,” the first of which are coming to a head now.
“There are 8,000 potential plaintiffs that have to be tried one by one,” Proctor said. “I testified in the very first Engle case in December of 2008, and ever since then, I’ve been called in a couple of other cases.”
Since September, nine Engle cases have been tried with seven judgments in favor of smokers and their families, and the others ruled for the tobacco industry.
“We thank the jury for taking the time to consider all of the evidence presented and for making the right decision,” said J. Jeffery Raborn, vice president and assistant general counsel for R.J. Reynolds, in a statement following a March 2009 ruling for big tobacco. “Their verdict demonstrates that despite the flawed decision of the Florida Supreme Court to allow these cases to proceed in this fashion, we have strong defenses to them, and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously.”
Proctor and the ‘Engle Progeny’
As Engle cases begin to materialize 15 years after the original lawsuit, Prof. Proctor can expect to be more heavily involved in tobacco lawsuits.
Attorney C.K. Hoffler, who represents the plaintiffs in Castleman, stated that her law firm will pursue 420 other smoking cases in the state. She hopes to use the professor’s statements in each of these lawsuits.
“Dr. Proctor is testifying as an expert,” she said. “He will be giving generic testimony that is not case-specific.”
Proctor and lawyers for the plaintiffs can take confidence in the Fourth District Court’s ruling in Castleman, which prevents the professor from turning over his work, and allows him to testify freely as a witness in the case.
“Hopefully [other counties] will follow suit and will deny the disingenuous attempts [of tobacco companies],” Hoffler said. “Other judges, if it comes up in other counties, may follow suit or may make their own ruling.”
Yet, as confirmed by Hoffler, the issue surrounding the subpoena is by no means settled, and, according to lawyer Bill Ogle, will remain a point of contention in Florida smoking cases.
“There are tobacco cases that are spread throughout the different counties, and the issue will probably come up again and again and again,” he said. “Tobacco companies could raise it again in another court system and could be decided by appellate courts, the Florida Supreme Court, then the U.S. Supreme Court. These are constitutional issues.”
With the majority of fraternities and sororities operating without houses, Greek life at Stanford refutes the stereotype of purely residence-based Greek organizations. While some un-housed organizations hope to move toward their own housing in the future, others are content to remain in their current un-housed state.
Of the 28 frats and sororities recognized by Stanford, only 10 chapters are housed. The housing situation is by no means permanent, however, and there has been some fluidity in Greek housing in the past.
“There was significant fraternity turnover during the 1990s and early 2000s,” wrote Nate Boswell, associate director of Residential Education (ResEd), in an e-mail to The Daily. “I believe Theta Xi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Phi Delta Theta, and Delta Tau Delta all lost their houses.”
According to Boswell, the University treats housing as a “profound privilege” that must be earned.
“In recent years, in the absence of a robust review process, adherence to housed Greek criteria has varied widely from chapter to chapter,” Boswell said.
“Moving forward [Greek organizations] will need to regularly and actively demonstrate their leadership and positive campus contributions in order to retain housing,” he added.
To enter the process for housing, Greek organizations must submit proposals to ResEd and the Office of Student Activities and Leadership (SAL). Boswell said housed criteria include “effective stewardship,” “student leadership plans,” “contribution to the Residential Education Mission,” “adherence to Student Housing policies” and “campus service contribution.”
There has been some interest expressed by more fraternities and sororities to have housing, according to Boswell, although he did not specifically indicate which groups these are.
Housing status has an effect on group dynamics, and housed and un-housed organizations appeal to different groups.
“All the girls that are in those houses seem to love it,” said Merit Webster ’10, president of the housed sorority Pi Beta Phi. “To be in an organization where we have a home base and a place of belonging, it’s a nice thing. You get to know the girls in the house by going to events together, you see them, their good times and their bad times—when people are stressed out and when they’re celebrating.”
Another advantage of separate housing is readily available meeting space. By having their own space, housed Greek organizations do not have to worry about finding meeting locations.
Laura Hansen ’12, a member of the un-housed Chi Omega sorority, said the lack of a single space can make planning events challenging.
“It’s probably harder to plan meetings and events logistically because we have to reserve a room either in the Quad (for meetings) or in one of the girls’ houses,” she wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.
On the other hand, having a residence can restrict the size of the rush class for housed Greek organizations, as there are only so many spaces within a fraternity or sorority house.
Not every member of a housed organization is able to live in her or his respective Greek house due to capacity: generally, sophomores are given preference as new arrivals, while juniors live elsewhere.
Seniors, too, have preference in order to spend their last year on campus within the house, but there are occasionally conflicts over living arrangements.
In Pi Beta Phi, the solution is a points system to help choose between the seniors, and also to act as an incentive.
“It’s a bummer we can’t have all the seniors in the house,” Webster said. “In a lot of Greek systems, it’s only sophomores that live in the house… sometimes the presidents have to have a fake room because they are required to live in the house but it’s not cool to if you’re the only upperclassman.”
While un-housed groups do not need to worry about fitting everyone into a house, this can sometimes lead to disagreements between housed and un-housed frats and sororities.
“As I understand it, in the past the housed sororities have tried to force the un-housed sororities to take more girls during rush because they don’t have to worry about a space crunch,” Hansen said. “This is fine with me—as long as all the girls we are taking are girls that truly fit with Chi Omega’s values.”
Despite the differences in housing situation, Anthony Bestafka Cruz, vice president and dean of membership intake for the un-housed fraternity Gamma Zeta Alpha, argued that a house is not necessary to build community. For example, he said the six chapters that belong to the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC) and the five chapters of the African American Fraternal and Sororal Association (AAFSA) build a family that is not just focused on housing.
“Because we are un-housed, our brotherhood (or sisterhood) is really focused in the time we spend together,” Bestafka Cruz ‘10 wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.
“We take vacations together, we visit each other’s homes and know each other’s families,” he added. “We are each other’s friends and family at Stanford, and I can’t say I’ve ever heard members of organizations that are housed say the same.”
Hundreds of former UC-Berkeley Japanese-American students whose educations were interrupted by World War II and Japanese internment will graduate this month alongside current students.
The product of Assemblymember Warren Furutani’s Assembly Bill 37, signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger last October, the legislation calls upon University of California schools, California State Universities and California Community Colleges to issue degrees to anyone whose education was interrupted by Japanese incarceration.
“The main motivation is that it’s under the heading of ‘unfinished business,’ tying up loose ends,” Furutani said. The Japanese assemblymember has been working toward granting degrees to the former students for decades.
Serving on the Los Angeles Board of Education before being elected to the State Assembly, Furutani organized a high school cap and gown graduation for hundreds of Nisei—the children of emigrants from Japan, in this case second-generation Japanese Americans—who similarly had their high school educations interrupted.
“I’ve always thought: ‘what about those folks who were in college and then they got pulled out of college by Executive Order 9066 and were not given the opportunity to finish?’” he said. “For me, the motivation is that our Nisei are almost gone, and this was something to correct past wrongs.”
Legislation Long Overdue
Duncan Williams, who serves as associate professor of Japanese Buddhism and chair of the Center for Japanese Studies at UC-Berkeley, believes the legislation is long overdue.
“Of course I think it [AB 37] should’ve come a long time ago,” Williams said. “In my opinion, I would have hoped and thought that the UC system… would be a leader, but it seems like we’re at the tail-end.”
However, Williams points out that the UC system has a history of abstaining from issuing honorary degrees of any kind. In order to issue said degrees, the UC regions had to additionally vote to suspend the regulations. With the degrees approved, approximately 400 former students or families of students—UC-Berkeley had the largest population of Japanese students pre-WWII—will be among the first people in decades to be issued honorary UC degrees.
The ceremony will run jointly with the regular undergraduate graduation; Williams, who serves on the ceremony’s campus planning committee and who will be reading the names of the Japanese graduates, hopes the university’s undergraduates will be able to learn something from the Nisei.
According to Williams, a number of private schools on the West Coast have already issued similar degrees. However, Furutani states that private schools, not falling under governmental jurisdiction, cannot be mandated to do so.
It is Stanford’s policy not to issue honorary degrees. Japanese students who formerly attended Stanford during WWII and were forced to leave were honored at a ceremony in fall of 1993, but no honorary degrees were given.
“I can’t recall having received such an honorary degree,” said former Stanford student Eric Andow (’48), who was forced to leave campus when he was incarcerated in Colorado and subsequently sent overseas as part of the Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
The ceremony was “just to reunite some people that were at Stanford at the time,” Andow said, and was attended by then-University President Gerhard Casper. Although a much larger population of students were forced to leave Stanford, only nine made it to the ceremony. Among the nine, several were able to re-matriculate post-war and finish their degrees—a course that UC-Berkeley students were unable to take.
“I was taking an engineering course, so it’s hard to try to continue from that point when you left… but I managed somehow because I was interested in getting the degree more than anything else,” Andow said. He returned to achieve a degree in engineering.
Mixed Emotions from Former Berkeley Students
For former UC-Berkeley freshman Jim Yamasaki, the honorary degree he will receive this winter is worth less than the hardships he overcame by having his education interrupted.
“Having received my B.S. degree in engineering at Northwestern in 1949, the honorary degree for my freshman year is nice PR for somebody and is appreciated as a gesture but really… why bother?” he said.
Originally from San Joaquin County-Tracy, Yamasaki was an excellent student, receiving nearly all As in school and working toward becoming the breadwinner of his family. His studies were interrupted, however, when his father’s liquor license was suspended, disabling the family business of running a tavern in Tracy. Curfew restrictions then forced him to return home.
“There were bigger problems than [the] interruption of my education… I had no time to worry about school,” he wrote in an e-mail. Shortly after returning home, Executive Order 9066 uprooted his family and relocated his life to the horse stables of the Turlock county fair grounds, and eventually to Gila Rivers Relocation Center in Arizona.
Yamasaki was unable to return to UC-Berkeley but found other methods of finishing his education. He emphasizes there were many, such as himself, who overcame them and found different paths to success.
From inside Gila Rivers Relocation Center, Yamasaki applied for a scholarship to leave camp and resume his studies elsewhere. He was accepted on a scholarship to the University of Utah, where he was subsequently drafted despite boasting the best grades in his classes among white students who were allowed to defer.
He became a 2nd Lieutenant and was transferred to military intelligence, ending up in Japan on occupation duty in counter intelligence. He spent the next year writing secret reports from field information for General MacArthur’s staff.
When Yamasaki returned to the states, he struggled to find a school that wasn’t already packed with GIs from the GI Bill or that would accept Nisei students in the post-war prejudice.
Yamasaki managed to matriculate into Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., thanks to the admission interviewer, who graduated from UC-Berkeley the same year he was forced to leave. He became the first Japanese American to go to Northwestern tech school and earned a B.S. in 1949 in Electrical Engineering.
Cedrick Shimo was faced with numerous challenges as well, but unlike Yamasaki, had his graduate education at UC-Berkeley interrupted by the draft. Shimo received his Los Angeles draft notice the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but was ironically refused passage on the train to L.A. because he looked like the enemy.
Shimo eventually volunteered for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and was transferred to Camp Savage in Minnesota. Just before graduating from the MIS language school, he was expelled for protesting a rejected furlough. He had asked for one in order to say goodbye to his mother before being sent to the Pacific Front, since no Japanese Americans were allowed on the West Coast.
He was transferred to the 525th, a special unit for “troublemakers,” demoted to the rank of a private, and eventually was reorganized into the 1800th, a similar unit for “malcontents.” When the war ended, he received an honorable discharge.
Shimo has spoken about his experiences of defying authority at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and UCLA, where he previously earned his undergraduate degree.
Though he is unable to attend the Berkeley graduation ceremony, he appreciates the degree.
“At least I got proof that I was in graduate school in case somebody doubts it,” he said.
While there is no deadline for California public institutions included in AB 37 to issue the degrees, Furutani stressed that time is of the essence.
“As you know, the average age [of Niseis] is 86 or 88—there’s no deadline, but literally they’re passing away, and if we don’t get this done right away, more and more are going to have to be given away posthumously.”
The first of the ceremonies will be held by UC-San Francisco on Dec. 4, followed by UC-Davis on Dec. 12, UC-Berkeley on Dec. 13 and UCLA in the spring.
Eco Factor: Concept car to be powered by a low-emission engine.
Honda has unveiled the Personal-Neo Urban Transport (P-NUT), an ultra-compact and sophisticated city couple. The three-seater vehicle is designed to be powered by an ecofriendly low-emission engine that can include a low-emission IC engine, hybrid-electric or an all-electric setup.
The White House is decked out for the Obama family’s first Washington Christmas. Part of the fun includes a 390-pound replica of the White House, complete with a marzipan presidential dog Bo and the First Lady’s kitchen garden. White House pastry chef Bill Yosses spent six weeks making the replica from gingerbread covered in white chocolate.
CNN reported that this year is the first time the annual gingerbread White House replica has included an interior view of the State Dining Room, including furniture fashioned from dark chocolate.
Other White House Christmas decorations include the official White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room, an 18.5 foot Douglas fir lit with LED lights and decorated with large gold ribbons. The White House is also decorated with six other trees which will be replanted after the holiday.
The Obama Christmas theme is “Reflect, Rejoice, Renew.” The First Lady said during the holiday preview on Wednesday that the theme was chosen because Christmas is a time that her family reflects on blessings, rejoices with family and friends, and renews commitments.
Resources for Making Your Own Gingerbread House
If you’re dreaming of building your own gingerbread house, visit Wilton for instructions on how to build several festive gingerbread house models, including Chocolate Wonderland, Fantasy Land, Holiday Chalet or even the High-voltage Christmas.
For more inspiration, visit the Sweetopia blog post, Gingerbread House Ideas, or for a small-scale, kid-friendly gingerbread house craft, visit Kaboose. Even the experts at BobVila.com have joined in with the fun of building gingerbread houses with their online instructions: Building a Gingerbread House. Plus, Cory at allrecipes.com has a recipe, supplies list and plenty of tips for making your own gingerbread house masterpiece.
(Image credit: Newscom)
Post from: Blisstree
Eco Factor: Air purification system removes 99.97% of pollutants in air.
Sanyo has launched a new home-use air purification system that according to the company can remove airborne pollen, allergy-causing dust, bacteria and germs. Dubbed the Air Washer Plus, the system features a unique electrolyzed water technology that works in tandem with a HEPA filter to remove 99.97% of particles 0.3 micrometers in diameter from the air.
We’ve been seeing a ton of stories in the last year concerning collection societies around the world increasing their efforts to collect money from any sort of entity that plays music ever — even if it actually ends up causing significant harm to new and up-and-coming musicians. The efforts usually focus on two areas: (1) increasing the fees they’re able to demand from venues (usually set by the government) and (2) getting places that barely play any music at all to pay up at exorbitant rates. SOCAN, up in Canada, is supposedly working on both of these fronts, with reader Adam Bell pointing out that it’s been going after gymnastics clubs because a small number of kids who use them practice routines done to music. But, of course, SOCAN wants to calculate fees not based on the small number of people who actually use music (which is usually intended for themselves, anyway, not for others — which should exclude the usual “ambiance” reasoning that collections societies claim), but the “average number of persons per week per room multiplied by $2.14.” This can really add up for small businesses, and many gymnastics clubs are refusing to pay, recognizing that they might not be able to afford it at all if they want to stay in business. It’s difficult to see how that helps anyone.
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Eco Factor: Energy-saving data center relies on energy-efficient servers and on-site power generation.
Syracuse University has announced the development of the Green Data Center, which has been built with partners IBM and New York State. The $12.4 million, 12,000-square-foot data center, dubbed the Green Data Center, is designed to be one of the greenest data centers in the world, with an expected energy savings of up to 50%.
I’m completely in love with these adorable illustrations by mid-century-modern-loving artist and illustrator Jenn Ski. Eight different breeds represented here, each with their own unique characteristics beautifully captured for the Moderncat lover. The Maine Coon looks just like my Mackenzie!
The print is available from Jenn’s Etsy shop and it looks like you can contact her if you would like to get one of the individual images by itself.
Despite the steady stream of columns I’ve been writing, life in Barcelona has been a bit more complicated than one easily reduced, column-ready anecdote per week. Now, in a month it will all be over, and I’ve thought of one last topic about which I never quite got around to writing about: endings. About coming home.
I remember it was one of the first long weekends in September or October, and people from the program had scattered to the four winds, or rather the winds going to Amsterdam, Oktoberfest and Rome. I stayed back. I felt like I barely knew where I was in Barcelona. I didn’t feel much up to hopping on a plane bound for another country.
The first night, I was cooking in my room. More specifically, I was washing potatoes in the sink and heating oil on the stove while I watched television on my computer. I had the door open and the windows cracked, hoping to avoid the guy at reception calling to ask if I was dying in a blaze, since it seemed like every time the stove was on it tripped the fire alarm. I was so engrossed in my multitasking that when I registered that the open door creaking, a girl I had met but barely ever spoken to was already sitting on my bed and striking up conversation.
I was drying the potatoes and beginning to attempt to peel them with a knife while I evaluated the situation. This girl was in the program, but she’d maybe been in my room once? After that, I’d only noticed her because of how hung over she always seemed in our nine o’ clock class. She was very short, so I worried about it less. After all, if she did fall asleep in class, her head would not have far to fall to the desk.
That night she was drinking a beer, and having that special sort of “conversation” that amounts to a monologue with pauses for breathing which an interlocutor might misinterpret as an invitation to participate. Her topic? She’d been scheduled to stay a year and was seeking some justification for cutting her stay here short.
“It’s just, I know I could make a life for myself here,” she said, and paused, taking a sip from her Heineken, “but why bother when I’m just going to rip it all up in eight months time?”
At first I tried to give her real advice. I talked about how connections made had their own intrinsic worth, how the focus on a relationship couldn’t be the end date, whether it was with a person or a city. Blah, blah, blah. She didn’t care much for what I said though, of course. Finishing her beer, she looked up and asked me if I’d like one. I said sure, and she went off to her room to fetch it. I walked out into the hallway and realized my door had probably been the only open one she’d found on all three floors. There wasn’t anyone else to listen.
Of course, I had been having the opposite debate with myself–whether or not to extend my stay. I’d avoid spending a painful five-month stretch before my 21st birthday in the States, for one, but it was more than that. More than anything, it was that I love this place. Unlike the girl in my room, I would have loved more time here, no matter how much harder it would have been to leave it in the end. There was a variety of reasons why I ended up deciding not to stay–cost, timing, legal status in the country–but most of all, I have spent enough time outside of things. Because that is what being nine hours out of sync with my friends and six with my family has been like: a world apart.
Back home, you, dear reader, are getting ready for finals. Me, too. All that reading and writing, all that thinking and living–it comes to an end. No matter how long I stayed here, that’s inescapable. No number of extensions and incompletes will get you away from it. Time moves forward, and we move with it. Always another phase beginning before the one that’s ending starts making any sense. Always a newer, shinier brass ring at which to grasp.
Impermanence.
After the plane peels off the runway here, so close to the ocean that it seems like the wheels must be grazing the water, it will finally creep up into the sky. It will roll back over the city, across the coast, and I will see the tangled mess of streets in the ciutat vella, behind the remnants of old medieval walls. Beyond that I will see the clunky, expansive regularity of what the city has since become. And I will be home. And I will be gone.
