INDEX
2006
February 7 , 2006
(Vol. 26, No. 9)
NEWS
BRIEFS ONLINE
PLUSES AND MINUSES FOR LATINO'S HEALTH: Los Angeles County suffers from an acute shortage of culturally competent doctors to treat the area's Latino community, compounding the problems Latinos experience accessing medical care, according to a UCLA study.... WHO'S PREPARED: Just one-third of Los Angeles County residents have prepared for the aftermath of a terrorist attack, with the highest levels of preparation among African Americans and Latinos, according to a report issued by researchers from the RAND Corporation, UCLA and Los Angeles County..... ALZHEIMER DEFECT TRACED: A new UCLA/Veterans Affairs study implicates defects in the machinery that creates connections between brain cells as responsible for the onset of Alzheimer disease....KEEP YOUR HEART HEALTHY: With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it’s a great time to take a look at the state of your heart. UCLA Medical Center will hold National Heart Failure Awareness Day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16, in the 200 Medical Plaza lobby..... NANO-MOTOR: With NSF funding, chemists at Italy’s University of Bologna, UCLA and the California NanoSystems Institute have designed and constructed a molecular motor that is powered only by sunlight.
NEWS IN BRIEF
CHAMPIONS OF FAIRNESS: The Academic Senate’s Committee on Diversity and Equal Opportunity is currently accepting nominations for the Fair & Open Academic Environment Award, which is presented every other year to two or three individuals — students, faculty, administrators or staff — who have been highly successful in furthering a fair, open and diverse academic environment at UCLA.... STAFF ADVISER TO THE REGENTS: All eligible UC staff and non-Senate academic employees who are interested in serving as the 2006-07 staff adviser to the regents have until 5 p.m. Feb. 15 to apply..... REPERCUSSIONS OF DISASTERS: Having seen the devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami, followed months later by Hurricane Katrina, more college freshmen across the nation are feeling a stronger commitment to social and civic responsibility, according to UCLA’s annual nationwide student survey.... ADVENTURES IN LEARNING : Students who excel in math and science can spend four weeks in residence at a UC campus this summer learning about astronomy, marine mammal biology, robotics, earthquake engineering, advanced mathematics and other fields.
DID YOU KNOW?
In the 1920s when the campus was still on Vermont Avenue, Jumbo, a Barnum & Bailey Circus elephant, suddenly became ill and died as the circus was about to end its visit to Los Angeles. When circus officials asked both UCLA and USC if they wanted Jumbo’s carcass as a biology class specimen, both universities replied yes. To find out how this weighty dilemma was resolved, go to www.uclahistoryproject.ucla.edu and click “Bruin Stories.” The Jumbo incident is one of many colorful anecdotes that the UCLA History Project is collecting for posterity.
CAMPUS SOON TO OFFER LEGAL DOWNLOADING
Digital pirates will have more good reasons to go legit this spring when Apple iTunes, CDigix and Mindawn offer the UCLA campus a spectrum of alternatives to illegal downloading of music, movies, videos and game software. These vendors will offer discounts and other benefits to the faculty, staff and students via B-Legal, a collaboration among Communications Technology Services, Housing, Office of Information Technology and Student Affairs.
RAISING MATH'S 'COOL' FACTOR
What’s the highest-rated television show on Friday nights? If you guessed “NUMB3RS,” a drama about an FBI agent (Rob Morrow) who recruits his mathematical-genius brother (David Krumholtz) to help the bureau solve a wide range of crimes in Los Angeles, you’re absolutely right. The popularity of the show — which is only in its second season — has surpassed many people’s expectations, especially given the fact that its plot lines often involve complex mathematical formulas.
PROF MAY RESOLVE DILEMMA OVER PRIVACY VS. NEED TO HUNT TERRORISTS
In Russian, there is no word for “privacy.” That never sat well with St. Petersburg native and former citizen of the Soviet Union Rafail Ostrovsky. Now a UCLA computer science professor at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, Ostrovsky is an expert in computer security and cryptography, the head of UCLA’s Center for Information and Computation Security — and a fighter on the front lines of the war against terrorism.
GLOBAL LEADERS OFFER WAYS TO IMPROVE MIDDLE EAST ECONOMY
Doha, Qatar — To foster economic diversification and create businesses in the Middle East, practical solutions must be found to increase educational and training opportunities, integrate more women into the skilled workforce and promote greater freedom of expression, association and the press, said participants attending a high-level international conference Jan. 29-31 co-sponsored by UCLA’s Burkle Center for International Relations.
FIRST TIME ANCIENT FOSSILS SEEN IN 3-D
Since his first year as a Harvard graduate student in the 1960s, UCLA paleobiologist J. William Schopf had wanted to analyze the chemistry of an individual microscopic fossil inside a rock. But the tools didn’t exist to do that.
PEOPLE
PROF'S PERSPECTIVES ON ASIA REACH MILLIONS
Tom Plate is two-finger typing in his Hershey Hall office, hurrying to file his syndicated newspaper column, “Pacific Perspectives.” The décor here is contemporary and tasteful: a black-leather couch where Plate meditates before writing, a flat-screen TV, framed art and silk orchids.
IN MEMORIAM
Sherman Ferguson, Peter Ladefoged.
OUT & ABOUT
WINTER SURVIVORS
In late November, while Americans prepared to give thanks, UCLA neurologist Zeba Vanek and her L.A.-based Pakistani friends were raising almost $100,000 to buy sleeping bags and medicine to help survivors of the devastating Oct. 8 earthquake that struck Northern Pakistan live through the ferocious Himalayan winter.
PROTECT YOUR HOME COMPUTER FROM EVIL INVADERS
Ever feel like tossing your home computer right into a recycling bin because it’s been crippled by viruses, worms and spyware?
Are you pestered by toolbars that mysteriously show up in your browser? Or have you noticed changes to your home page settings, a sudden increase in pop-up ads or computer malaise? These are all signs that spyware or adware may have penetrated your machine, recording your online activities in order for the spies to target you with customized ads.
NOT TO BE MISSED:
Globalization and Human Trafficking. You’ve read the headlines — now hear from activists, artists, scholars and public officials about what they are doing to bring an end to human trafficking and the enslavement of sweatshop, farm and restaurant workers, prostitutes and domestic workers. Internationally renowned stage director Peter Sellars, a professor of World Arts and Cultures, will give a keynote address on modern-day slavery, social activism in the arts and his Mozart opera project. This symposium, open to the campus community, will be held Feb. 10 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Glorya Kaufman Hall. For more information, go to www.wac.ucla.edu.
VOICES
IS TORTURE EVER RIGHT?
Last June, I watched 40 students receive their Master of Public Policy degrees. I’m proud of their hard work. But am I proud of what I’ve taught them? These students will be policy professionals. What they get from our teaching affects us all. What they’ve gotten from mine, I fear, is the impression that torture might be all right.
'LOST IN TRANSLATION' IN FRANCE
The French republic considers all citizens equal and indistinguishable. The government maintains no official records about ethnicity, although minority populations are consistently subjected to racist practices; they are thus not only legally invisible, but government housing policies have also literally forced the underprivileged into the banlieues projects located at the periphery of urban centers.
PARENTS ANXIOUS TO START EARLY ON GETTING KIDS INTO TOP COLLEGE
Now that the college application period for hundreds of thousands of high school seniors is over, the stressful part looms over their heads like a dark cloud as they await the acceptance notices. No more dreaded applications, embellished personal statements, exaggerated GPAs and SAT prep courses, not to mention countless volunteer hours worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
CARTOON BY MATTHEW HENRY HALL
CAMPUS
SUPREME COURT JUSTICE IMPARTS ADVICE ON BEING A FEMALE LAYWER AND JUDGE
When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduated with flying colors from Columbia Law School in 1959, such was the national climate of gender inequality that not a single law firm in New York City was willing to employ her — and some had the gall to suggest she should apply for work as a secretary.
HOARSE PATIENTS GET SOUND ADVICE
Don’t be surprised if you run into a celebrity or two going up or coming down from the fifth floor of the Bank of America building in Westwood, where the UCLA Voice Center for Medicine and the Arts recently opened.
SHORTTAKES
$1M gift honors prof, More funds available.
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