DBD 2.7.2012 Puppies!

A new Lower Sproul, long a dream, is taking shape

BERKELEY — Berkeley has 35,000 students, but you’d never know it from wandering through the stark, gray emptiness of Lower Sproul Plaza on a typical evening.

The planned overhaul of Lower Sproul — long desired and now moving forward — intends to change all that.

The redesigned complex is envisioned as the true and beating heart of student life on campus, a hub, a central meeting place where students can congregate, socialize, study, work, discuss, debate and cross-pollinate.

Architects’ renderings for the $223 million renovation show a light-filled area that’s open, inviting and bustling with activity 24/7. Eshleman Hall, currently closed off with walls of concrete, will be replaced by a lower building veiled in glass to expose the busy hive inside — students meeting, studying, dancing, eating, meditating and just hanging out. The transparency and permeability will carry through to the design of an addition to the plaza side of the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, where walls of glass will put a new campus living room, café and multicultural center on full view. Spaces in Cesar Chavez that frame the north edge of the plaza would be enlivened by visible study centers available to students late into the night.

Glad to see not just the athletic facilities are getting make-over and some updating.

Most importantly…

TIMING

Student groups are expected to start moving out of Eshleman this summer. The old Eshleman is currently scheduled to come down in spring 2013.

The new Lower Sproul is scheduled to be complete in summer 2015.

California Student-Athlete Muscle Milk of the Week

Brittany Boyd carried the Cal women’s basketball team to a pair of crucial road wins that keeps the Bears in second place in the Pac-12, making her this week’s California Muscle Milk Student-Athlete of the Week.

Boyd willed the team to a comeback and overtime against Arizona with 15 points, six assists, six rebounds, and four steals.

Link

Dogs Get Cancer Like People, and Hold Clues to Cures .

Researchers hoping to develop a promising new approach to treating cancer in people are trying it in another group: pet dogs.

The aim of personalized medicine is to design an optimum cancer therapy after analyzing genes in a patient’s tumor. Dogs, which have strong genetic similarities with humans, get many of the same types of cancers as people and have similar responses to cancer-fighting drugs. When diagnosed, dogs often have a shorter survival time than humans, allowing researchers to see if a drug is making a difference in a shorter period.

In people, it can take three to five years from the time they are diagnosed until the disease reaches an advanced stage. But in dogs, trials testing whether novel drug therapies extend survival can be finished in six to 18 months, says Melissa Paoloni, director of the Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium at the National Cancer Institute.

The Search for Biomarkers That Flag Fatigue Before We Know We’re Impaired.

It’s a puzzle that has long plagued scientists: How to easily measure sleepiness before we notice it ourselves. Researchers in labs around the world are making headway and envisioning a future in which testing sleepiness is considered part of general good health.

The hunt is on for a so-called biomarker, a characteristic or substance—or, more likely, several substances—in the body that will indicate if someone is sleepy and, if so, how sleepy. These researchers want to measure acute sleepiness in order to identify the risk of “performance failure” before it happens. That could apply to a morning commuter about to nod off on the freeway, a surgeon preparing for a complicated procedure or a pilot settling into the cockpit before a trans-Atlantic flight.

Research is also looking at chronic sleepiness, which people can feel after just days of less-than-adequate sleep. A growing number of studies have found that not sleeping enough night after night raises the risk of health problems, including obesity, diabetes and heart disease. A biomarker could change the way people view the role sleep plays in their overall health, says Paul J. Shaw, an associate professor of neurobiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "If people knew they were sleepy, they might say ’I’m going to turn off Leno and go to bed.’ "

Silver & Black Pride is excited!

It is Official: The Raiders Have Hired Jason Tarver

Now, this is exactly what we need in Oakland. A young, hard working football rat with a deep knowledge of all areas of the Pro Game and that is exactly what the Raiders are getting by hiring Jason Tarver.

This is a HUGE upgrade over “The Bad Chucky”.

Tarver has worked on both sides of the ball and has worked extensively with Inside Linebackers while ascending to Assistant DC over the past two years. You hear that Rolando? This guy worked under Nolan and Singletary and coached Patrick Willis. Watcha got big boy?

It’s a new dawn, it is a new day!

Because I’m sick of the Australia series

Just over 10 months have passed since that Wankhede night, last April. Within that period, the fates of the two teams that brought the best out of each other in that memorable World Cup final have nose-dived in bizarre style. India have been mercilessly stripped of their No. 1 Test ranking, the sunset on their golden generation of batsmen hastened by eight successive away drubbings. But their one-day outfit still holds promise, with the energy of fresh legs and the power of broad bats, for the moment at least, masking the worry of poor techniques on quick pitches.

Sri Lanka have had it worse. Finishing second-best in two successive World Cup finals is a tragedy in itself, but even that pales in comparison to what has transpired since. They have endured series after wretched series, home and away, against Australia, Pakistan and South Africa, with no silverware to show for their efforts except in the Twenty20 format. Their players haven’t been paid by a board that is now bankrupt. Battered on the field and off it, Sri Lanka are already under their third captain since the World Cup. Mahela Jayawardene led them in the 2008 edition of the CB series, and his reluctant return to the musical chair gives rise to the uneasy feeling that Sri Lanka haven’t progressed in four seasons.

Both teams are desperate for the familiarity of better times, and their first encounter since Wankhede will provide them just that. No two sides have played each other more often in ODI history, especially in recent years – 34 of their 129 clashes came between 2008 and 2010. This series kicks off another glut of games between these thick foes, with the Asia Cup and a bilateral series in Sri Lanka to follow in quick succession. Establishing early supremacy in Australia could prove integral in determining which side heals better in the coming months.

They’re getting good at this not losing thing…sort of.

Kings 100, Hornets 92: Isaiah Thomas Provides the Spark That Ignites the Big Comeback Win

Thomas proved to be key difference in this game, waking up the seemingly lifeless Kings, who got off to a terrible start. Sacramento was down by as much as 18 points in the 1st half, and only went 13 for 40 from the field. That all changed after the break however, as Thomas had a career performance. He came off the bench to play 26 minutes, and ended up scoring 17 points (6-11 from the field, 3-6 from three), to go with 6 assists, 5 rebounds and a steal. His energy seemed to perk up the other Kings as well, particularly DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins was just one rebound away from a 2nd consecutive 20-20 game, and finished with a game-high 28 points, 19 rebounds, 3 blocks, a steal, and only two fouls and two turnovers. Isaiah may have been the match, but Cousins was the fire, just destroying the Hornets inside and out, and gobbling up every rebound like Jon Brockman in an IHOP.

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China’s decision to veto a condemnation of Syria’s regime at the United Nations Security Council is just the latest signal that illustrates the need for a fundamental change in Chinese foreign policy.

The question is no longer whether officials in Beijing will abandon the principle of non-interference in other countries’ affairs to protect their expanding interests around the globe. The question is when.

China joined Russia in vetoing last weekend’s resolution partly for fear that backing the UN’s rebuke of a government’s brutal suppression of its people may come back to haunt China itself, given its treatment of Tibetans and of Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang autonomous region.

Yet China’s economic growth and associated need to secure resources increasingly have been at odds with this long-standing policy of being aloof. That’s especially true in the resource- rich region that stretches from the Atlantic coast of Africa to Central Asia and the subcontinent, much of which is now in revolt.

Horrendously racist picture!

Billups ruptured his Achilles which sounds really painful

They did win the game in OT

On the face of it, this is nothing but good news for the Los Angeles Clippers. An away win against a tough, big, unfamiliar opponent, against a team with one of the two or three best players in the NBA. They used their skill, and their guile to construct an unlikely, hard won, overtime victory against the Orlando Magic, a foe who seemed to have them stopped on multiple occasions.

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2012 NFL Draft Compensatory Picks: 49ers Likely To Receive None

The NFL usually announces compensatory draft picks in March, but it is not too difficult to at least figure out whether the 49ers will receive compensation picks in the meantime. A team is eligible for compensatory draft picks when it loses “more or better free agents than it acquires in the previous year.”

With all that math, it basically comes down to the 49ers gaining five free agents and losing five free agents. The five they lost did not come close to matching the combined performances of the five they gain (or four plus Braylon Edwards), so compensatory picks are likely not in the 49ers immediate future. That leaves them with their normal seven draft picks.

a “the server timed out message” when accessing SBN? If I reload the page comes up, but it’s been doing this for a few hours now, and logged me off once too. I blame Twist.

I wonder how much I need to donate to have a “ikoolykedat porcelain throne ’o fun” in Dwinelle.

As first reported by Above the Law, Harvard Law School recently opened the Falik Men’s Room. Like tuition, bathrooms seem to cost more in Cambridge. William Falik told Above the Law he received the honor – if you want to call it that – after donating $100,000 to his alma mater to create a public interest fellowship in his father’s honor.

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/02/06/colleges-sell-naming-rights-bathrooms

SilverScreenandRoll talks measuring stick games:

Tonight the Lakers played the Philadelphia 76ers, the team with the 4th best record in the association. Neither team was playing on the second night of a back-to-back, something that is a rarity in this compressed season. In a hostile environment against a very good team with fresh legs, this was a measuring stick game. A chance to see how the Lakers would stack up should the playoffs begin now. The answer: not very well. All the strengths and weaknesses of this Lakers team was on full display tonight. Unfortunately for the Lakers, their weaknesses are simply too many to overcome against a playoff caliber opponent.

The Lakers biggest strength is their big three of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum. The trio of stars is as good as any in the league, even the team from South Beach. Tonight the big three showed just what they can do. Kobe played superb (at least during the first 44 minutes, more on that to come) as he lit up Philadelphia for 24 points in the first half on 8 of 14 shooting. In the second half, the 76ers sent constant double teams at him, forcing the ball out of his hands and asking him to put faith in his teammates. To Kobe’s credit, he did not force the action but took what the defense gave him and typically made the right plays

FearTheFin talks playoffs:

This time I included the last column which shows the change in playoff probability from last week. The biggest gains in the west are NSH and DAL increasing the playoff probability by 7.0% and 3.3% this week respectively, while COL dropped a remarkable 12.8%. The east is looking to be a much tighter race, with TOR (12.76%) and NJ (12.56%) gaining the most ground, while WSH (-8.26%), MTL (-12.32%), and OTT (-16.78%) collapsing since last week.

The race for the Atlantic division crown is the most competitive divisional race this year with 3 teams locked up in battle. PIT, NYR, and PHI are all but tied, winning the division in 35%, 34%, and 26% of sims respectively. I thought the central would be really competitive down the stretch, but it looks like DET is starting to pull away, winning it in 65% of sims.

New York Knick Jeremy Lin has been tearing it up lately – posting 25 points in his first extended minutes on Saturday, then turning around and putting up 28 points yesterday.

Being of Taiwanese descent, it wasn’t a big leap to think that Next Media Animation would put something together.

ANd here it is. I’m not sure if I should be offended, or amused, or .. . well, this is just amazing.

Prop 8 ruling expected today. Doesn’t REALLY matter in the sense that whoever loses is gonna prolly go straight to the Supreme Court (although they could ask the entire 9th Circuit to rehear it, only a 3 judge panel heard it the first time. However, neither side would probably want that additional delay, esp. since the loser THERE would just go to the Supeme Court anyway still).

Controller: America’s Cup needs "significant additional fundraising"

A committee of philanthropic and community leaders raising donations to help offset San Francisco’s projected costs for hosting the renowned sailing race so far has only $8.8 million raised to cover costs for the current fiscal year, and $8 million of that came from a single source: race organizers, according to a new memo from the city controller.

The fundraising group, the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, does have written pledges or agreements totaling $12 million – the target amount listed in the initial agreement with race organizers to have on hand by Jan. 31, Controller Ben Rosenfield wrote.

But $3.2 million of that is pledged for 2012, 2013 or 2014, the memo indicates. The fundraising committee has only $800,000 cash on hand plus an $8 million agreement with the America’s Cup Event Authority for expenses in the fiscal year that ends June 30, the memo says.