UCLA

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Your Flyover is Open

Byuclafaculty

From those doing all the I-405 construction in the UCLA area comes this word: Reaching another milestone for the for the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project, Metro, Caltrans and contractor Kiewit Infrastructure West have opened a brand new, longer and safer “flyover” ramp at the Wilshire/I-405 interchange in Westwood.The southbound I-405 offramp to eastbound Wilshire Boulevard officially was open for its very first work-day rush-hour commute this morning (Monday, Sept. 23), and is a whopping 300 percent greater capacity than the previous off-ramp. The original ramp, built as part of the Wilshire Interchange in the mid-1950s, was only 1,330 feet….

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UCLA History: Library

Byuclafaculty

Above is Powell Library in the late 1940s.  If you were on campus late last week, you saw the latest crop of undergraduates arriving or returning.  At around the time that this photo was taken, Maurice Chevalier – someone none of today’s undergraduates could identify – had thoughts about being age 20, as it was seen from that era: [Link courtesy of the unofficial Facebook page of the UCLA Emeriti Assn.and its custodian Yousee Elayemeriti who is looking for friends, but only of members of the Emeriti Assn.]

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UCLA Water: Then and Now

Byuclafaculty

As the photo below suggests, there used to be a lot of water around UCLA. Nowadays, there is some remnant of that earlier state to be found between Anderson and UES.  You can find a creek, sometimes dry (as it is right now), in a kind of nature preserve at that location.  The creek is channeled underground as it runs south of the preserve.  See the photos below.

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Time Off at the Grand Hotel?

Byuclafaculty

View from the ground. View from above. Yours truly went past the worksite of the UCLA Grand Hotel early Friday afternoon and as the photos above indicate, he found no one there and nothing happening. That was a surprise since – as blog readers will know – we recently had the grand groundbreaking for the Grand Hotel.  On the other hand, across the street at the engineering building construction site, work was clearly in progress for another building, as the photo below shows. Engineering: Click on the photo for a better view of the workers. Enlarged view of the previous…

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Golden Goose

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed pointed me today to the “Golden Goose” awards established by some folks in Congress and in major educational groups as an antidote to other listings that are made to put research in a bad light.  Old timers will remember the Golden Fleece awards of Senator William Proxmire – back in the day –  which made fun of research that seemed silly.  From time to time, such seemingly-silly research continues to be highlighted by Proxmire’s successors.    Of course, there is silly research and there are silly academics.  But not everything that seems silly, or abstract, or just…

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More Traffic Headaches in the UCLA Area This Weekend

Byuclafaculty

A well-traveled but short section of Sepulveda Boulevard will be closed this weekend to accommodate work on the Sunset Boulevard interchange — part of the larger San Diego (405) Freeway carpool lane project.  Starting about 10 p.m. Friday, Sepulveda will be closed in both directions between Church Lane and Montana Avenue, according to Metro, which is overseeing the freeway construction. Sepulveda, often used as an alternative to the 405, is scheduled to be reopened by 5 a.m. Monday.  The work includes using heavy equipment to install of girders for the Sunset Boulevard off ramp from northbound freeway lanes… Full story…

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Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps…

Byuclafaculty

… in this petty pace from day to day.   Actually, Macbeth, it is not the daythat will creep tomorrow and the next few days.  It is the traffic around UCLA that will creep due to students arriving in their dorms for the fall quarter.  From Facilities Management: What: Residence Halls Move In When: Thursday, September 19 through Sunday, September 22. 8 am to 10 pm daily.  Where: Residence Halls area Impacts: Over 10,000 students will be moving in, along with their belongings, over this 4 day period. The current one-way condition on De Neve Drive will be extended to include…

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Listen to the Second Half of the Regents Meeting of 9-17-2013

Byuclafaculty

Our earlier post had the Regents audio for the first part of the meeting of 9-17-13.  There was then a closed session.  The audio link below picks up the meeting again when the public component resumed.  We also noted in the previous post that there was a inadvertent hot mike at the beginning of the meeting in a supposedly closed session which transmitted sensitive material online.  We have not archived that portion.  However, when the meeting reopened in a public session, apparently some Regents were not sensitive to what was going out.  The audio begins with one Regent telling another…

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Please sir, can I have some more?

Byuclafaculty

From the Daily Bruin: Wolfgang Puck, a casual dining restaurant in Ackerman Union, is scheduled to open to the public on Wednesday. The restaurant is offering a sample service for select people or groups in the days leading up to the opening so that the staff can gain some experience… The restaurant’s patio furniture will not arrive until a few days after the opening and restaurant officials are still finalizing the liquor license, but Wolfgang Puck will open without them so that the restaurant staff can train before school starts… Wolfgang Puck will have full service, including patio seating and beer and wine…