miscellaneous

Worried about the money in your UC 403b or 457b plan?

Byuclafaculty

  Yours truly was particularly impressed with the forecast carried in the Westwood-Century City Patch today: “Financial Expert Warns of Market Ups and Downs in 2013” (http://centurycity.patch.com/articles/financial-expert-warns-of-market-ups-and-downs-in-2013) J. Pierpont Morgan Actually, that advice is a bit stale.  Consider the forecast of J.P. Morgan some time ago  When asked what the stock market would do, he said, “It will fluctuate.”  (http://www.memorable-quotes.com/it+will+fluctuate+,a1192.html)

Java Warning

Byuclafaculty

Warnings are circulating in the news media about a computer security threat from Java plugins in your browsers.  I am no computer expert but here is a link to one such article:http://business-news.thestreet.com/daily-news/story/experts-urge-pc-users-disable-java-citing-security-flaw-1/1 And here is a link to an article that tells you how to disable Java in your web browsers:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2414191,00.asp

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Crime Issues at UCLA

Byuclafaculty

UCLA Police Dept. building Winter quarter seems to have opened with some crime issues according to the Westwood-Century City Patch:  UCLA students were being warned Tuesday to be on alert after reports of two students being the victims of separate crimes about 90 minutes apart early Monday on or near the campus. About 12:05 a.m. Monday, a male student was walking north on Veteran Avenue from Gayley Avenue—adjacent to the west side of the campus—when a man approached him from behind, “placed a handgun in his back, and demanded his property,” according to UCLA police…The second crime occurred between 1:15…

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It does no good but we’ll say it again…

Byuclafaculty

From time to time, we have complained about newspapers that feel compelled to print public payrolls – pay and names – on the grounds that the information is available.  We have noted that with some exceptions for top executives, such publication is an invasion of privacy and invites identity theft.  The newspaper answer is always some combination of a constitutional right – freedom of the press, etc. – plus the fact that the info is public.  Yes, the info has been public all along but before the internet came along, it was de facto private in that you had to…

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UCLA History: Davies

Byuclafaculty

Actress Marion Davies writes a check to establish the UCLA Children’s Health Center in 1952 – still there and named after her.  Davies was famously portrayed in the highly fictionalized film classic “Citizen Kane” as a no-talent, alcoholic floozy/mistress of the William Randolph Hearst character.  That was but one of the elements of the film that infuriated the real Hearst and led to his attempts to suppress the film. Apart from the mistress element, however, there was no similarity between the film character and the actual person.  As it happens, the City of Santa Monica now operates the Marion Davies…

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Don’t Miz This

Byuclafaculty

A group of college students – reported by Inside Higher Ed to be from Boston University – produced a YouTube commentary on the state of the job market faced by graduating seniors.  You can see it embedded in the Inside Higher Ed article at http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/01/02/les-mis%C3%A9rables-college-parody or below:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkGuKcuczKM?feature=player_detailpage]

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The Blog Compendium: 4th Quarter of 2012

Byuclafaculty

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

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The Local Equivalent of Dropping the Ball in Times Square on New Years

Byuclafaculty

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:

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UC Recent History: Appalled at the Fed

Byuclafaculty

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…