News

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    Advice from the Beatles on the Japanese Garden

    Byadmin

    In earlier posts, we have noted advice from Fredric March and Winston Churchill to UCLA on the sale of the Japanese Garden – now halted by court order.  The local newspaper for the Japanese-American community in LA, Rafu Shimpo, has a lengthy article today on the sale and the court decision which also suggests the sensitivity of this matter to the Japanese-American community.  Example: …One garden supporter commented that choosing Aug. 15 — V-J (Victory over Japan) Day — as the day to open the bids “tells us how they are culturally senseless as a world-class educational institution.”… Full article…

  • What Management Thinks

    Byadmin

    Inside Higher Ed has provided an interesting survey on how management at universities (national survey) thinks about financial circumstances.  The chart above gives some indication of what you can find out.  It indicates that both financial officers and provosts are skeptical about faculty understanding of financial issues.  CFOs are more likely than provosts (academics) to think more spending cuts can be made without an impact on quality although only a minority of CFOs feel that way. You can find a lengthy article on the survey with a link to the actual document athttp://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/business_officer_2012 Since there is skepticism about faculty understanding…

  • Something to keep in mind from our colleagues at UC-Irvine

    Byadmin

    People with exceptional memory recall, have different brains People who can easily recall every moment of their lives have different brains than others, a new study has claimed. University of California-Irvinescientists have found fascinating differences in the brains and mental processes of an extraordinary group of people who can effortlessly recall every moment of their lives since about age 10, the ‘Science Daily’ reported. The phenomenon of highly superior autobiographical memory first documented in 2006 by UCI neurobiologist James McGaugh and colleagues in a woman identified as “AJ” has been profiled on CBS’s ’60 Minutes’ and in hundreds of other…

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    The Tax Battle Begins

    Byadmin

    The tax initiative battle seems to be beginning. A couple of weeks ago, we posted a YouTube ad favoring the governor’s tax initiative.* It was longer than a typical 30-60 second TV ad, but probably provided a clue to what the TV pro-initiative ads would emphasize. We now have a radio ad from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. which suggests that the anti side will emphasize public pensions, public-sector unions, and the cost of the governor’s high-speed rail plan. The radio ad doesn’t specifically name the governor’s tax plan and could just as easily be seen as opposition to any…

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    UCLA’s Capstones Reviewed in Chronicle of Higher Ed

    Byadmin

    Every UCLA undergrad with a dollar bill can see a capstone. Indeed, that particular capstone can see him/her, or so it appears.  However, the Chronicle is reviewing capstone courses and their merits and demerits. College Too Easy? UCLA Makes It TougherBy Dan Berrett (excerpt): During a review of undergraduate programs at the University of California at {sic] Los Angeles, Judith L. Smith was struck by an uncomfortable realization: Too many majors demanded too little from students. Some students could graduate without ever taking a senior seminar or completing a substantial research project. The result, says Ms. Smith, vice provost for undergraduate education, is that students could “be pedestrians…

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    Taxes, Taxes: News on the Tax Front

    Byadmin

    The Sacramento Bee today is reporting various news on the tax front.  As readers of this blog will know, there are three tax measures on the ballot: the governor’s plan which the Regents recently endorsed, the Molly Munger school tax (Prop 38), and a close-corporate loophole tax (Prop 39). Folk wisdom has it that where there are too many measures on the same subject, voters may reject all of them in confusion. In part to overcome that confusion, the legislature passed a bill that effectively put the governor’s plan as the first initiative on the ballot (Prop 30). In order…

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    Don’t Click

    Byadmin

    You may receive an email which starts with:Dear Bruin OnLine E-mail user,This is to inform all users that our server upgrade/maintenance is scheduled for August 30 2012. You may experience login problems during this period. We are having congestion due to various anonymous account registrations and on this note, we are deactivating some accounts that are no longer active and your account may be deactivated if no action is taken…It gives you a link to click.  Don’t do it.  It is spam and may be malicious.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLRPJEoQBQQ?feature=player_detailpage]

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    Solar Power Breakthrough Reported at UCLA

    Byadmin

    The LA Times carries an article today on a new solar film being developed at UCLA: (excerpt) One of the holy grails of solar cell technology may have been found, with researchers at UCLA announcing they have created a new organic polymer that produces electricity, is nearly transparent and is more durable and malleable than silicon. The applications are mind-boggling. Windows that produce electricity. Buildings wrapped in transparent solar cells. Laptops and phones – or even cars or planes – whose outer coverings act as chargers. It might even be sprayed on as a liquid. The promise of cheap and easy-to-apply site-generated…