miscellaneous

More Compare and Contrast

Byuclafaculty

Readers of this blog will know that public vs. private pay has been in controversy over the last few years.  There is a large literature on the subject which points out that differences between the public and private sector need to be adjusted for factors such as occupational composition and size of employer.  I would characterize the literature as indicating rough adjusted comparability; some studies say public pay is somewhat more; some say the reverse.  Benefit valuation – particularly pensions – is the trickiest part. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out quarterly unadjusted data on private sector pay…

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More on the Hot Potato: Assembly May Reconsider

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, we posted a hot potato item concerning a state assembly resolution dealing with anti-Semitism and anti-Israel demonstrations on California campuses.  Issues were raised about free speech implications of the (non-binding) resolution. Readers will recall from that posting that UC declined to comply.  Now apparently the assembly may reconsider, although in the future – not now:=== A state lawmaker is promising to introduce a fix to an Assembly resolution that stirred controversy because it urged California universities to crack down on demonstrations against Israel.  Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal said Wednesday that she would work on a resolution that would affirm First…

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UCLA History: Rheingold Loser

Byuclafaculty

Rheingold was a regional beer in the New York City area for decades until the brewery went out of business in the mid-1970s.  As a promotion, it sponsored a “Miss Rheingold” contest as the pictures on the left indicate. (The label was revived by another company in the 1990s and apparently the contest is being revived, too.) In the 1963 contest, a UCLA grad was one of the six finalists. She is one of the six in the black and white photo. Which one is not known.  And she didn’t win. (The actual winner is shown in the picture on…

You might want to check out the cheap textbook website for errors

Byuclafaculty

The San Francisco Chronicle today has an article about a website that is supposed to give students alternative options, i.e., cheaper prices, for buying assigned textbooks.  But the article notes that the site has some problems.  It may give a price for other than the latest edition of the assigned book.  And it omits Amazon as a possible source. I tried the website for my two departments, management and public policy.  For whatever reason, it had listings for the former but not the latter.  It picks up any assigned books for the departments and courses it does list, whether they…

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Good News/Bad News

Byuclafaculty

The good news is that reading this blog every day will keep you informed about UCLA and UC concerns. The bad news, according to our friends down the road in Santa Monica at the Milken Institute, is that it can make you fat:===== Waistlines of the World: The Effect of Information and Communications Technology on Obesity Summary: Information and communications technologies have improved living standards around the world. But the increased amount of time that people devote to using computers, watching TV and playing video games- so-called “screen time” -is a significant factor in the global rise of obesity. In Waistlines of the World:…

Verify the Feds

Byuclafaculty

We have been providing some hints about avoiding email fraud/spam being sent to UCLA folks.  Here is some more general info courtesy of your friendly feds: Every day, the federal government uses social media services like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to communicate and provide easy access to government benefits and services. But unlike most government websites, which are hosted on a .mil or a .gov domain, social media sites are hosted on commercial domains. Without the .gov or the .mil, it can be difficult to determine which social media accounts are official government sources of information and which are impersonators….

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UCLA’s Tech Spinoffs

Byuclafaculty

The LA Business Journal has a section this week on tech-type firms that have been spun off by UCLA.  Well, not exclusively UCLA; Caltech and USC are also part of the story.  An excerpt from the UCLA portion: UCLA: Enabling Campus Entrepreneurs UCLA spun out 19 startups during its 2011 fiscal year, making it the leader among the University of California campuses in technology transfer. About 90 startups have come out of the campus in the last five years. Some of the startups to come out of UCLA in the past several years show the wide range of the school’s…