A Sampling of Clips for August 26, 2011

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

Think Again: Kochs: Life Is Good
The Huffington Post, Aug. 25 -- Warren Buffett pays taxes on a smaller percentage of his billions in income than his cleaning lady. He thinks this to be both morally wrong and practically misguided, and he said so in a New York Times op-ed recently, complaining that he and his fellow gazillionaires have been "coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress." Buffett's argument was refuted by the right-wing billionaire and funder of extremist organizations, Charles Koch, who justifies his puny tax rate with the argument that government spending often "does more harm than good.” (Mentions Naomi Oreskes, a professor of history and science studies at the UC San Diego.) More

Rethinking a Law School for UCSD
SignonSanDiego, Editorial, Aug. 26 -- On April 6, UC San Diego and the California Western School of Law announced a “pause” in discussions that had been going on for more than a year about a possible merger that would create a UCSD School of Law. Officials cited the state budget crisis as the primary obstacle. But in early June, at a memorial service for the late John Davies, a prominent San Diego lawyer who had been one of the strongest proponents of the merger, the idea was revived by Pete Wilson, a former governor and San Diego mayor who had been a close friend of Davies. If a merger were to come about, Wilson said, the law school should be named for Davies. And a month after that, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders sent a letter to UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and Kenneth Greenman, board chairman of Cal Western. Sanders called the UCSD-Cal Western merger “a win-win with tremendous potential for San Diego.” More

Why Increase Education Spending? Countless Billions Wasted
Examiner.com, Opinion, Aug. 25 -- Some at The New York Times are now questioning the massive spending increases on education that have occurred over the last generation in a discussion entitled “Spending Too Much Time and Money on Education?”:  In the Times, PayPal co-founder and technology investor Peter Thiel pointed out that “College Doesn’t Create Success,” noting that college graduates make more money than non-college graduates partly only people who are more creative or productive by nature are “more likely to complete college” than less creative people, even if going to college doesn’t make them any more creative or teach them much of value. (Mentions plan to hire a vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion at UC San Diego.) More

How Do You Feel About Spoilers?
KPBS, Aug. 26 -- By now most people know that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father. For those that didn’t….Oops! Spoiler. According to a recent UCSD study, I actually didn’t ruin the "Star Wars" franchise for you. By spoiling this major plot point, I’ve actually improved your chances of enjoying it. Nicholas Christenfeld is a professor of psychology at UCSD and co-authored the spoiler study. He says, 'Knowing that Hamlet dies doesn’t ruin it because one can still be deeply involved and say 'No, no! Don’t do that, step back.' (Includes quote by Alain Cohen, a professor of literature at UCSD.) More

Alzheimer’s Drug Development At UC San Diego Gets Federal Boost
KPBS, Aug. 25 -- Researchers at UC San Diego have been awarded a federal grant designed to get new drugs into development. The $1 million award will be used to develop a potential therapy for Alzheimer's disease. For years, the National Institutes of Health has funded university researchers to explore new compounds. This new grant will help pay for the process of moving promising drugs into clinical trials. More

Book Review: 'Just One Catch' and 'Yossarian Slept Here'
San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 21 --There is a famous story about Joseph Heller, in which an interviewer baits him, saying that he had never written anything in his life as good as "Catch-22." Heller replies, "Who has?" It's a good question. Heller exemplified that cohort of American Jewish men whose sensibilities were formed in the Depression, who went to (or avoided) war, who read voraciously and who reshaped American literature in the mid-20th century. (Book review by Seth Lerer, dean of Division of Arts and Humanities at UC San Diego) More

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