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Rand Paul wowing them at Berkeley

A 24-year-old geography major is the first Wikipedian-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley. His announcement can be found - where else? - but on his own Wiki page. Cal hired Gorman, according to a February announcement, to advise students and professors on the complex task of editing articles for Wikipedia, the user-generated online encyclopedia that gets 500 million monthly visitors. Until now, Wikipedians-in-residence have been assigned to cultural institutions, such as the British Museum, the Gerald Ford Presidential Library and the U.S. National Archives. In a statement, Cal calls Gorman a "hardcore Wikipedian" since his undergraduate days at Berkeley,...

Any visitor to North Carolina and California will know that the two states have their differences. The former is a typically “red state”; California is staunchly “blue.” Each has certain geographic, ethnic and cultural peculiarities, different demographic makeup, family income levels, and more. Yet perhaps the most surprising divide, one many wouldn’t expect, is that North Carolina appears to be a hotbed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD—especially when compared to California. A child who lived in North Carolina instead of California in 2007, according to U.S. academics Stephen Hinshaw and Richard Scheffler, was 2½ times more likely to...

Thousands of San Francisco Bay Area residents may have been exposed to measles last week when an unvaccinated student at the Unversity of California, Berkeley, attended classes and rode the area's BART transit system. Public health officials in Contra Costa County, outside of San Francisco, said anyone riding BART from Feb. 4 to Feb. 7 during the morning or late evening commutes could have been exposed to the highly contagious respiratory virus. The young man in his 20s lives in the county and was confirmed to have measles on Wednesday. He was likely infected while traveling recently in Asia, health...

The Nazi-like march of Islamic supremacists into influential positions of power in media, politics and academia sank to a new low this week (and that bar was already conspicuously low ). Tarek Fatah received a  panicked message from a student enrolled at the University of California Berkeley, who along with 100 kids in his class is being forced to tweet on“islamophobia” as a course requirement by a notorious antisemitic, terror-supporting professor, Hatem Bazian: [The student} wrote: “I’ve been told by one of my professors I will be required, as part of my grade, to start a Twitter account and tweet weekly onIslamophobia. I can’t help but feel this is unethical. This is...

Though it’s been well documented that opposition forces in Syria are mostly run by Islamic terrorists—mainly Al Qaeda—Congress has secretly approved U.S. weapons flow to what officials describe as “moderate” Syrian rebel factions. The problem with this is that there are no “moderate” rebel forces in Syria, according to a number of reputable news reports, both domestic and international. In fact, the New York Times published a piece last spring that confirms Islamist rebels—including the most extreme groups in the notorious Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda-aligned force—are running the show in Syria. “The Islamist character of the opposition reflects...

There once was a popular Indian teacher named Papa G, who drew students from far and wide. People flocked to see him and hear his words of wisdom. One lucky man who was able to attend one of his retreats spoke to Papa G, with camera in hand. The visitor asked the guru what he’d like to say to the multitudes all around the world vying to come to India to see him. Papa G smiled an impish grin and said, “Stay home.” Papa G’s words remind me a bit of Dorothy, who journeyed all around Oz, only to find...

Last week, ABC 7′s I-Team produced a troubling report about a surge in extreme drinking so far this year at UC Berkeley. According to the investigation, UC Berkeley has seen an increase in the number of students who get so drunk, often at frat parties, that they need to be taken to the hospital for care. This has, at times, put a significant burden on the city’s ambulance services, leaving other city residents waiting for care, or requiring the Berkeley Fire Department to call for help from other paramedics in the region. It also puts pressure on the hospital closest...

November 8, 2013 12:38 PM UC-Berkeley Students Ban Use of 'Illegal Immigrant' By Andrew Johnson The University of California–Berkeley student government unanimously passed a resolution banning the term “illegal immigrant” from the body’s official discourse. The resolution is the second such measure to be passed since former Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano took over as president of the UC system. The Berkeley student government showed its support for the “drop the I-word” campaign, deeming the term “racially charged,” according to the College Fix. “The ‘I’ word is legally inaccurate since being out of status is a civil rather than criminal...

When you cover ersatz intellectuals day in and day out as we do here at Accuracy in Academia, it is refreshing to meet genuine scholars. About the only opportunity we get to do so is at meetings of the Philadelphia Society, a group of conservative intellectuals formed in 1964 in the wake of the defeat of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. The ladies and gentlemen who belong to the society gathered in Atlanta in October for a regional meeting. Among the many insights shared by the august line-up of speakers who addressed the gathering, here are a few highlights: “Whenever I...

The swimming pool at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, Calif., was shut down last Wednesday, after city officials said the level of chemicals in the water exceeded normal operating conditions, Berkeleyside reported. The decision was made after parents delivered a letter to the school’s principle the day before, expressing concern over the health of students on the water polo team. According to the letter, the players were displaying some disturbing symptoms, such as burning eyes, bleached hair, and even the disappearance of body hair.

<p>Regents consider $620,000 in seismic upgrades and other fixes to Blake House that could ultimately mean UC executives' return to living in the Contra Costa County mansion.</p> <p>Blake House, the Northern California mansion that is intended to be the official residence of the University of California system president, may be coming back to life.</p>

The Los Angeles Times recently published a devastating case study in the malign effects of academic racial preferences. The University of California, Berkeley, followed the diversocrat playbook to the letter in admitting Kashawn Campbell, a South Central Los Angeles high-school senior, in 2012: It disregarded his level of academic preparation, parked him in the black dorm — the “African American Theme Program” — and provided him with a black-studies course. The results were thoroughly predictable. After his first semester, reports the Times: [Kashawn] had barely passed an introductory science course. In College Writing 1A, his essays — pockmarked with misplaced...

The illiberalism of student radicalism in the 1960s shaped the world we live in today.SDS leader Mark Rudd at a Columbia University protest, 1968It is now 45 years since that momentous year 1968, one of the turning points of contemporary world culture, if not quite of contemporary politics. Not unlike 1848–49 in Europe, 1968 was marked by events that involved student and political protests in several places. There was a dire sense of crescendo and momentum: the heightening of protest against the Vietnam War, the violent turn of the civil-rights movement, the assassination of Martin Luther King, the utopian libertinism...

ItÂ’s commencement season. College seniors across the country are donning mortarboards, getting misty-eyed and preparing to face the realities of President Barack ObamaÂ’s sparkling economic recovery. The Daily Caller is a little misty-eyed, too, because college students will soon disperse from campuses for a long summer, which likely means far fewer stories about stupid and otherwise outrageous occurrences on campus. The time is right, then, to celebrate the academic year that was. Here are the 20 stupidest, most outrageous and most cringe-worthy campus moments of 2012-13. Florida Atlantic University: Worst university in AmericaWhat an embarrassing year for Florida Atlantic. The...

Earlier this week, readers reacted with skepticism after Berkeley City Councilman Gordon Wozniak suggested that taxing email might be one way to raise money for the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service. … But there’s a history to this idea, however outlandish as it might sound to some. The United Nations Development Program examined such a tax in its 1999 Human Development Report, Globalization With a Human Face, as a way to fund “the global communications revolution.” UNDP calculated that in 1996, such a tax would have raised $70 billion globally. The New York Times took a brief look at the concept...

A troop of turkeys goes house-hunting in Berkeley While the suburban residents of Concord try to deal with that wayward camel at commute time, the folks in quiet Albany are battling their own random creatures. We came across this fun news item this morning from CBS, which explains how a dozen or so wild turkeys are overrunning the small town of Albany with their annoying gobbles, clucks, and cackles. Interestingly enough, the turkey troops showed up after Thanksgiving and have overstayed their welcome. Parents are worried these wild birds will try to take on their children (sounds like a Stephen...

BERKELEY, Calif.—The University of California, Berkeley says a $1 million gift will help provide scholarships to nearly 200 students who are illegal immigrants

The student government at the University of California-Berkeley (CAL) passed a resolution last month that would ban Salvation Army bell ringers and their iconic red kettles from campus this Christmas because of the Christian organization’s alleged bias against homosexuality. UC Berkeley is "reviewing" whether or not they will prohibit the Salvation Army from operating on campus this Christmas, after students passed a resolution condemning the charity. The resolution, cleared on November 14, accuses the charity of openly discriminating against gay individuals. “Salvation Army church services, including charity services, are available only to people ‘who accept and abide by the Salvation...

Debate 1 is over, and the pundits have declared Mitt Romney the victor. The only remaining question is: was his victory overwhelming, or did Romney only win because Obama didn’t? That is today’s story. But will it be the way we tell it after November 7? On the surface it seems set in stone: Romney was crisp, Obama slow on the uptake. Romney made jokes, Obama swallowed them. Romney was the man with the plan. But…could it be that, in the end, what happened on October 3 will stay on October 3, and have no effect on the future? Could...