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UC Berkeley Student Arrested on Suspicion of Assault, Hate Crime

By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN)
Wednesday February 19, 2014 - 09:22:00 PM

A University of California at Berkeley student has been arrested on suspicion of robbery and aggravated assault and hate crimes for allegedly making homophobic statements to another student, taking the other student's cellphone and then beating him late Tuesday night. -more-



UC Berkeley Student Robbed by Armed Man Near Campus

By Sasha Lekach (BCN)
Friday February 14, 2014 - 11:19:00 AM

A 25-year-old University of California at Berkeley student was robbed while walking south of campus early this morning, according to UC police. -more-



Features

Tim's Vermeer: A Tricky, Magical Film from Penn and Teller
Opens February 14 at the SF Embarcadero and February 21 at the Elmwood in Berkeley

Preview by Gar Smith
Saturday February 15, 2014 - 11:46:00 AM

The new film from Penn and Teller (the multitasking Odd Couple behind the X-rated comic-doc, "The Aristocrats") is an irresistibly entertaining film about a self-effacing Texas inventor and his obsession with the 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.

There is a mystery that drives this film. But, in this case, it's not a question of "Whodunnit?" It's more a matter of "Howdunnit?"

There was always something special about Vemeer's masterpieces —a certain heightened clarity and illumination that give canvases like "Girl with a Pearl Earring" an eerie, almost photographic presence.

More than eight years ago, a Texas tinkerer named Tim Jenison became hooked on the idea that there was a special trick at work behind Vermeer's paintings. Jenison became fixated on trying to prove his suspicions. Bolstered by his experience as a pioneering designer of desktop video and CGI imagery, Jenison believed he knew Vermeer's secret: It was all done with mirrors—some 150 years before the invention of photography, Vermeer had found a way to capture living images by projecting them on canvas.

This theory clearly appealed to a pair of professional magicians like Penn and Teller. -more-


Public Comment

New: Why the UAW Lost In Tennessee

By Harry Brill
Monday February 17, 2014 - 04:58:00 PM

We just learned about the defeat of the UAW in Tennessee by a vote of 712 to 626. What really happened? The politicians and corporate leaders in the vicinity engaged in a vigorous campaign to defeat unionization. But UAW failed to be as vigorous as their opponents were. Although Volkswagen remained neutral, it imposed a serious constraint on the Union. It insisted that as a condition for being neutral, the Union should refrain from visiting workers at their home. UAW should have never accepted this condition. As experienced organizers know, visiting workers in a relaxed environment on a one on one basis is a powerful tool for winning support. Second, UAW decided against reaching out to the community. What a disastrous mistake! Unfortunately, a social movement approach is foreign to the current union leadership. -more-


Valentina's Dream

By Elena (Petrova) Gold
Saturday February 15, 2014 - 11:54:00 AM

On the chilly morning of St. Valentine’s Day, when their western sisters dig their pretty noses into outrageously expensive bouquets of red roses, dutifully delivered to their city offices by stressed couriers, most Russian women will be lucky to get a card and a chocolate rose from a supermarket.

Valentine’s Day in Russia is a reason to party and celebrate (read: drink and dance till early hours of the morning) but flowers will have to wait until March 8, International Women’s Day, an official public holiday in Russia when men try to be gentlemen and let women relax from home chores.

Probably, the only Russian ladies enjoying courier-delivered roses will be members of online dating services and the flowers will be sent by their overseas boyfriends. I am using the term “boyfriends” loosely here, as most online romances only flourish in cyberspace, with splashes of courier-delivered roses and chocolates being the only real things women might get.

Russia, fresh from Perestroika, opened its borders in the early ’90’s. It meant Russians no longer needed exit visas from the government to leave the country. Straight away, a whole universe of dating services started to offer introductions to beautiful Russian women who wanted to marry western men.

To an outsider, this might have looked like a way for women from a poor country to find a better life, but in truth what these women really wanted was to find a husband and start a family. Surprisingly enough, given Russia’s history of equal rights for men and women since the Revolution of 1917, Russian family paradigms remained rigidly centered around a man’s role as provider, and a woman’s role as wife and mother, so much so that successful career women feel inadequate if they do not have a husband and kids, and no amount of career success can make them feel good about themselves. -more-


Light the Bike

By Harry Brill
Saturday February 15, 2014 - 11:56:00 AM

Too many bicycles and autos collide, often resulting in serious injury and even death for the cyclist. Although all bikers are at risk, according to the California Highway Patrol teenage cyclists were involved in more traffic collisions than any other age group. It is urgent that our elected officials, both at the state and local levels, take notice and do something about it, particularly addressing the high risk of night cycling. -more-


Ukraine and the F-Bomb

By Tejinder Uberoi
Saturday February 15, 2014 - 11:58:00 AM

All the brouhaha over Russia’s alleged leak of a tapped phone conversation between America’s top diplomat and a US State Department official has more than a touch of irony. While our National Security Agency have their electronic spooks in every corner of the world taping emails, phone conversations which has outraged many of our more ‘cherished’ allies, we feign outrage that the naughty Russians may have been listening to our diplomatic communiques. -more-


Obituaries

Charles Fillmore Dies at 84
He Figured Out How Framing Works

By George Lakoff, Reader Supported News
Tuesday February 18, 2014 - 04:37:00 PM

Charles J. Fillmore, one of the world's greatest linguists -- ever -- died last Thursday, February 13, at the age of 84 in San Francisco. He was the discoverer of frame semantics, who did the essential research on the nature of framing in thought and language. He discovered that we think, largely unconsciously, in terms of conceptual frames -- mental structures that organize our thought. Further, he found that every word is mentally defined in terms of frame structures. Our current understanding of "framing" in social and political discourse derives ultimately from his research, whose importance stretches well beyond linguistics to social and political thought -- and all of intellectual life. The world has lost a scholar of the greatest significance. -more-


Editorial

What's Left Behind Us on the Beach

By Becky O'Malley
Saturday February 15, 2014 - 10:51:00 AM

In the last couple of weeks a verse that my sixth grade teacher induced me to memorize has once again popped into my brain. I’ve written about this before, when Molly Ivins died, but for those of you who didn’t go to the kind of school that featured memorizing nineteenth century poetry, here it is once more: -more-


Columns

THE PUBLIC EYE: Growing Up Liberal

By Bob Burnett
Friday February 14, 2014 - 08:27:00 AM

I’m a middle-aged, affluent, prototypical WASP. I was born in Los Angeles and raised in Orange County where my father and grandfather were small businessmen and Republicans. Knowing all this you’d expect me to be a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. But I’m not. I’m unabashedly liberal. -more-


ON MENTAL ILLNESS: Blind Faith and Clinging to Hope

By Jack Bragen
Wednesday February 12, 2014 - 08:03:00 PM

I once heard a psychiatrist assert that consciousness is probably an illusion. He was an extreme example of being polarized toward the medical model of mental illness.

There are some psychiatrists and others who worship science and believe it is the whole answer to life. They don't realize that their dogmatic clinging to the belief that today's science must account for everything (or else it doesn't exist) is a religion too. It is arrogant to believe that human knowledge is anything but in its infancy.

The reader shouldn't construe that I am siding with creationists, who I believe to be deluded members of a Christian cult. I am simply saying that physical science isn't nearly advanced enough yet to justify the level of faith in it that some people have. A good scientist ought to agree with this. -more-


Odd Bodkins: Roy (Cartoon)

By Dan O'Neill
Saturday February 15, 2014 - 11:36:00 AM

Arts & Events

Behind the Swings: Produced by The Berkeley Youth Institute

Wednesday February 12, 2014 - 08:00:00 PM

Parks are where children grow up, homeless people live and communities come together. We have created a documentary film to show the role of parks in the Berkeley community and present it to the public. The documentary follows the stories of a variety of people and their experiences in parks. Behind the Swings focuses on safety, park activity, and park histories. In the end, we hope that the viewer will understand why parks are such powerful and appealing environments to so many different people. -more-


Around & About Comedy: Comedy for Valentine's Day—& After—Johhny Steele at East Bay Media Center

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday February 12, 2014 - 07:56:00 PM

Some laughs for Valentine's Day—or the night after? Try riotous Johnny Steele's "Good Juju—Mongrel Saves Man"at the East Bay Media Center Performance Space, 1939 Addison (between MLK & Milvia), in the Downtown Berkeley Arts District. 8 p. m. February 14-15, Friday-Saturday nights. $25. Online at johnnysteele.com or 843-3699. -more-


Back Stories

Opinion

Editorials

What's Left Behind Us on the Beach 02-15-2014

Cartoons

Odd Bodkins: Roy (Cartoon) By Dan O'Neill 02-15-2014

Public Comment

New: Why the UAW Lost In Tennessee By Harry Brill 02-17-2014

Valentina's Dream By Elena (Petrova) Gold 02-15-2014

Light the Bike By Harry Brill 02-15-2014

Ukraine and the F-Bomb By Tejinder Uberoi 02-15-2014

News

UC Berkeley Student Arrested on Suspicion of Assault, Hate Crime By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN) 02-19-2014

UC Berkeley Student Robbed by Armed Man Near Campus By Sasha Lekach (BCN) 02-14-2014

Tim's Vermeer: A Tricky, Magical Film from Penn and Teller
Opens February 14 at the SF Embarcadero and February 21 at the Elmwood in Berkeley
Preview by Gar Smith 02-15-2014

Charles Fillmore Dies at 84
He Figured Out How Framing Works
By George Lakoff, Reader Supported News 02-18-2014

Columns

THE PUBLIC EYE: Growing Up Liberal By Bob Burnett 02-14-2014

ON MENTAL ILLNESS: Blind Faith and Clinging to Hope By Jack Bragen 02-12-2014

Arts & Events

Behind the Swings: Produced by The Berkeley Youth Institute 02-12-2014

Around & About Comedy: Comedy for Valentine's Day—& After—Johhny Steele at East Bay Media Center By Ken Bullock 02-12-2014