UCLA

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Trouble Brewing

Byuclafaculty

From the Daily Bruin: Two first-year students recently chose not to participate in part of a sex education presentation offered at UCLA’s freshman orientation for religious reasons, prompting confusion about whether the presentation is mandatory.  Bella and Angelica Ayala, twin first-year biology students, said they wanted to be exempt from part of UCLA’s mandatory sex education presentation in late August because of moral objections to contraception. New Student Orientation lasts three days and includes informational sessions on extracurricular activities, academics and class enrollment procedures at UCLA, as well as discussions about topics like sex and alcohol… Angelica Ayala said she and her sister…

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A bad patch of news for UCLA’s patent on the nicotine patch?

Byuclafaculty

From Time:…The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently evaluating the safety of e-cigarettes, which are battery-powered versions of cigarettes that can contain varying amounts of nicotine but don’t expose users to the potentially harmful byproducts of tobacco smoke such as tar and carbon monoxide. Instead, they inhale nicotine vapors, which the device’s advocates say is safer than smoking conventional cigarettes, and makes e-cigarettes a viable way to kick the habit as well. And the latest study on e-cigarettes, published in the journal Lancet, supports that claim. In the first clinical trial comparing e-cigarettes and nicotine patches in helping people to…

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The Mustache Should Have Been the Clue

Byuclafaculty

From the Daily Bruin: University police issued a warning on Friday about men attempting to sell counterfeit Armani jackets in Westwood, according to a police report. UCPD has received five reports since February about suspicious men driving around Westwood Village and the UCLA campus, asking students for directions to the Los Angeles International Airport, and offering to sell them the fake designer jackets at a reduced price, said Brian Washburn, a university police detective…  One of the two men was described in the police report as white, about 35 to 40 years old, with black hair and a thin mustache. The other man…

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The Mysteries of Rolfe

Byuclafaculty

If you enter Rolfe Hall from the south entrance, you come across what appears to be a model of the Old Globe Theater.  There is no label indicating who made it or why it is there. Across from the model is an electrical panel of some type with a light indicating there is “trouble.”  It blinks on… …and off and beeps each time like a truck backing up.  No one seems to be troubled by the trouble.  Finally, the one non-mystery is the identity of Rolfe which is explained on a plaque near the model: As you can see, there…

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UCLA: Westwood tomorrow and back then

Byuclafaculty

Westwood in 1929 If you look at the bottom-right corner of the photo above, you can see Wilshire Boulevard at the point where the Federal Building now stands.  What’s the relevance?  There is an alert being circulated that tomorrow (Saturday, Sept. 7), there will be demonstration that will possibly involve Westwood Village itself and will be heading to the Federal Building.  Could affect traffic.  No indication from the announcement about what the demonstration will be about. Traffic Notice Walkways – Pathways Description What: Demonstration/MarchWhen: Saturday, September 7, 2013. 1:00pm to 6:00pm.Where: Westwood Federal Building and Westwood Village  Impacts: The march is expected…

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UCLA’s Ziman Center Weighs in on Chairing the Fed

Byuclafaculty

UCLA’s Ziman Center for Real Estate – a unit of the Anderson School – publishes an op ed on who should be the next chair of the Federal Reserve.  The author is Stephen Oliner, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a senior fellow at the Ziman Center, and formerly an associate director in the Division of Research and Statistics at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.If you have been following the issue in the popular news media, you know that the choices for President Obama are said to be Larry Summers and Janet Yellen. (“Are…

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Only half as grand – and yet big!

Byuclafaculty

From time to time, we report on the “progress” of the UCLA Grand Hotel.  Sometimes, it’s helpful to illustrate just how grand it will be.  According to the official website for the Grand Hotel, it will have 250 rooms and 25,000 square feet of conference space.  So how big is that?  We have in past postings compared it with hotels in the local area.  It’s big!  Below is another comparison.  A developer in Santa Monica is proposing a hotel with 136 rooms at 5th and Colorado.  The proposal is drawing opposition which you can read about at http://www.smmirror.com/articles/News/Santa-Monica-Churches-Speak-Out-Against-Proposed-Hotel-At-5thColorado/38323.  But here…

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The Secret of Groundbreaking

Byuclafaculty

Apparently, there can be big secrets in groundbreaking as the headline above indicates.  And the big secret of the Sept. 10 groundbreaking for the UCLA Grand Hotel is that you have to break ground before the groundbreaking.  So although not much seemed to happen on the site of the Grand Hotel at the Ackerman bus turnaround and parking structure #6 after it was blocked off last July 8, now work actually seems to be occurring.  I wouldn’t say that I saw feverish activity when I passed by yesterday, but there was work being done. A view of the Great Wall…

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No clear outcome from court hearing on UCLA Japanese Garden

Byuclafaculty

This seems to be the season for uncertain outcomes of court proceedings, as our prior post notes.  The Beverly Hills Courier is reporting that a hearing on Aug. 28, apparently about continuing the current injunction barring the sale of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Bel Air by UCLA, resulted in claims by opposing attorneys but no outcome. Blog readers will know that the garden, once the property of a former Regent – Edward Carter – was given to UCLA which at a later point said it would maintain it in perpetuity.  An associated residence on the property was occupied…

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Unclear Consequences of Ruling on VA Uses for UCLA Sports & Other Events

Byuclafaculty

There is a news report today that a court has ruled that the VA property that is almost adjacent to UCLA has been improperly used for purposes other than veterans’ health care. UCLA rents space at the VA for sports programs. Over the years, there have been uses for theaters and other events for the general public.Some commercial businesses have also rented space. Recently, there was a Shakespeare theater group at the VA in an open-air venue.  Exactly what the ruling – which is temporarily stayed for 6 months – might mean for such uses, including those by UCLA, is…