Each quarter, we give you the alternative of reading the last three months of the UCLA Faculty Assn. blog as a kind of online book. In that mode, you don’t get the audios and videos. And the formatting sometimes comes out oddly. But, nonetheless, you can find a link below to the compendium for the fourth quarter of 2012. Open publication – Free publishing – More ucla
LAObserved and KCRW seem to have discovered the Westwood equivalent of watching the ball descend in Times Square at midnight, New Years. The smoking deaths sign resets to zero, apparently attracting a crowd. Of course, if you are reading about this ritual today, you will have to wait until next year to partake. But you don’t have to go far from UCLA to be a participant. The LAObserved article is at:http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/12/new_years_eve_at_the_smok.php The KCRW program can be heard at:
U of Chicago Economics Professor Steven Levitt, co-author of the Freakonomics books, radio programs, blog, etc., made some interesting comments about business and MBA education in the context of a larger discussion of confirmation bias. Basically, he says that willingness to admit ignorance and non-expertise is not part of the business culture and that MBAs learn confidently to provide answers to questions for which they don’t know the answers. Admitting you don’t know is unacceptable. You can hear his comments at the link below. One suspects that the problem is not just one of business but of management of all…
Lots of news stories are appearing at this time of the year summing up events of 2012. John Myers, who writes a Capitol Connection blog for a Bay Area TV station, including various photos of such events. From the presidential campaign, he included a picture of Ron Paul speaking at UC-Berkeley on April 5, 2012 and leading audience chants of “End the Fed.” So maybe the image of UC-Berkeley as exclusively leftist needs some qualification if Paul could have a successful rally there. Or maybe the photo and event just reflect the fact that there are those on the left…
As a recent post noted, one of the few deli options near UCLA – Junior’s on Westwood Blvd. near Pico – as about to close. The original story indicated that the closure was due to a rent hike. But apparently the landlord doesn’t want to be the villain and says the true culprits are the owners of Junior’s who inherited the business and are not operating it effectively. In any event, no one is saying it isn’t closing. All we can do is look on with a rye sense of humor. Updated story is at http://centurycity.patch.com/articles/landlord-blames-owners-for-impending-closure-of-junior-s-deli?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001
…The University of California system estimates it would lose $335 million in federal research funding this fiscal year, according to Christopher Harrington, spokesman for UC’s Washington, D.C., office. That represents roughly 8 to 9 percent of UC’s research portfolio from such agencies as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy… And on the state budget:…Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Forecast, said he believes the U.S. would experience a “mild recession” absent a fiscal cliff deal, largely because of lower consumption. He also warned that reduced profits in 2013…
In an interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air” program with Terry Gross, Dr. Oliver Sacks notes that he started experimenting with drugs that can induce hallucinations while doing his residency at UCLA: …GROSS: What was the first time you tried a drug that induced perceptual distortions? SACKS: I think it was in 1963, and I was in Los Angeles, at UCLA, doing a residency in neurology, but I was also much on the beach, on Venice Beach and Muscle Beach. And there, there was quite a drug culture, as there was also in Topanga Canyon, where I lived. And one day,…
Above is a phote of the opening in 1930 of the Sepulveda tunnel north of UCLA. A story in the LA Daily News describes grand plans, nowhere near fruition, for such options as a new tunnel under the pass, a rapid busway, or a rail system. Of course, while construction on such options occurred, there would be gridlock of the type we currently have with the 405 widening. The story can be found at:http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_22265223/tunnel-beneath-sepulveda-pass-or-widen-405-freeway
There are not a lot of deli options near UCLA. If you go down Westwood Blvd., however, toward Pico, you come to Junior’s. According to the LA Times, however, Junior’s is going to close by the end of the year – which doesn’t give it much time to do so. According to the LA Times‘ story, the rent was upped and business is down, resulting in the closure. Junior’s Deli, a 53-year-old Westside staple, will close at the end of the year, narrowing the ranks of Jewish delis in Southern California. Employees, some of them multi-decade veterans of the business,…
As a previous post noted, this is the season in which there are leaks about the governor’s upcoming budget proposal for 2013-14 which will be presented officially in early January. Given the timing, the budget is already prepared, or 99% prepared. So far, there has been no leak about higher ed. However, there is an item today in the Sacramento Bee about K-12 (a much larger chunk of the state budget) that suggests the governor will propose revamping the K-12 allocation formulas to give more assistance to disadvantaged children and districts with concentrations of such children. He pushed for changes…
