Author: admin

  • |

    We’re sure there are no risks or they wouldn’t go ahead. Right?

    Byadmin

    Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, UCLA Health System and long-term care provider Select Medical announced today a partnership to open a 138-bed acute-care rehabilitation hospital in Century City in 2015. The aim “is to develop a world-class regional rehabilitation center providing highly specialized care, advanced treatment and leading-edge technologies to treat individuals with spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, strokes, amputations, neurological disorders, and musculoskeletal and orthopedic conditions,” a statement said… The new facility will be operated by Select Medical, a provider of long- term acute care services with hospital and outpatient locations in 44 states, including at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation…

  • | |

    Three Open-and-Shut Events on the Late Night 405 Near UCLA

    Byadmin

    The San Diego (405) Freeway will undergo full directional closures in West Los Angeles this week to accommodate roadway widening work that is part of the ongoing Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project.  All southbound lanes will be closed between Sunset and Wilshire boulevards from midnight to 5 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Metro.  All northbound lanes will be closed between Santa Monica Boulevard and Moraga Drive from midnight to 5 a.m. Thursday, according to Metro.  Lanes will begin to close at 10 p.m. and ramps will close as early as 7 p.m. in advance of all three closures, according to…

  • | |

    We’re Not Alone in Pointing to the Risks of Open-Ended Capital Projects

    Byadmin

    Vannevar Bush From: The Endless Frontier: Reaping what Bush Sowed?   by Paula Stephan (pp. 33-34)* NBER working paper 19687 (Nov. 2013) Excerpt: Overexpansion of research facilities In recent years, universities have gone on a building binge, constructing a substantial amount of new research space which led to a 30 percent increase in net assignable square feet for research between 2001 and 2011. Most of this increase is for facilities in the biological, biomedical and health sciences—a response of universities to the doubling of the NIH. Some of this space has been paid for by private philanthropy. At MIT, for…

  • | | | | | | | |

    Lessons from Berkeley’s White Elephant Stadium for UCLA, the Regents, and UC?

    Byadmin

    People keep noticing Berkeley’s White Elephant money-draining stadium – one of the grand capital projects that the Regents routinely approve based on pretty slides and business plans offered by the campuses.  Peter Schrag in the San Francisco Chronicle today ties the low graduation rates of Berkeley athletes with the stadium: …Fueling the… issue is the chronic matter of cost – what the university kicks in to the sports program – and what someone called “its gold plated” spending. Brian Barsky, a Berkeley computer science professor and vocal critic of the athletics program, says between 2003 and 2011, athletics “drained campus…

  • | |

    Unsolicited Suggestion for the Traffic Stop

    Byadmin

    We have been offering unsolicited advice to Murphy Hall about what to do about the traffic stop “problem” that arose a week ago.  Before the lawyers get hold of this matter and make it complicated (think, for example, about the Japanese Garden affair), how about just starting with an apology to Judge Cunningham?  It’s been done before and we offer a modest proposal below:

  • | |

    Unsolicited Follow-Up for Our Unsolicited Traffic Stop Advice

    Byadmin

    Devoted blog readers will recall our unsolicited advice of last Wednesday to the folks in Murphy Hall.  We suggested that they spend their Thanksgiving weekend trying to figure out what happened when a UCLA police car stopped a motorist in Westwood for driving without a seatbelt buckled.  According to the Huffington Post, African-American Judge Superior Court Judge David Cunningham exited L.A. Fitness Gym around 10 am on Wednesday. [“Start” on the map above.] Presumably, he pulled out of the garage you can see above in his Mercedes – beltless – and proceeded north on Gayley.  According to the press release…

  • |

    Reviving Westwood

    Byadmin

    Westwood went into decline after a visitor was killed in a shooting between rival gang members in 1988.  Since that time, various efforts have been made at reviving the area which still features empty stores up and down Westwood Blvd. Warren Olney on KCRW’s “Which Way LA?” did a segment on “Will Westwood Every Be Hip Again?” on Nov. 26, 2013.  The program notes the empty stores and the decline of Westwood as a popular destination since the late 1980s.  Yours truly had trouble downloading or playing the segment so we provide an alternative link to it below. (function(d, s,…

  • |

    Monday Visit

    Byadmin

    From the Daily Bruin: University of California President Janet Napolitano and actress Eva Longoria will visit UCLA on Monday to discuss how to improve educational outcomes for Latinas. The speakers are expected to reveal new initiatives of their own to enhance Latinas’ educational opportunities, according to the UCLA Graduate School for Education and Information Studies, which is hosting the panel event…  Only those who RSVP’d can attend Monday’s panel. The event is currently full… Full article at http://dailybruin.com/2013/11/27/napolitano-longoria-to-discuss-latina-education-at-ucla/

  • Unsolicited Advice for All UCLA and UC Faculty

    Byadmin

    Yesterday, we provided some unsolicited – and maybe unwelcome? – advice for the folks in Murphy Hall.  Today, we provide some advice for all UCLA and UC faculty.  Actually, it is a reminder of advice that we give from time to time.  We live in an age where the word “transparency” has taken on an aura of unmitigated goodness.  In practice, transparency – at public universities – can mean invasions of privacy when it comes to emails.  Emails at public universities are subject to public documents requests.  From time to time, groups that don’t like what some faculty has said…

  • |

    Unsolicited Thanksgiving Advice for Murphy Hall

    Byadmin

    Dear Murphy:  The Judge Cunningham affair is a real turkey for you.*  You might want to spend your Thanksgiving weekend finding out what happened.  A good place to start might be by asking why campus police would be bothering with a minor off-campus traffic infraction unrelated to UCLA.   Katehi apologizing It’s not a question of having jurisdiction, so let’s not get entangled with legalities of whether it was technically OK to stop the judge.  It’s a question of priorities and common sense.   Remember the Pepper Spray Cop affair at UC-Davis and how the chancellor there spent months apologizing, investigating, testifying,…