(date: 2023-11-05 13:02:39)
date: 2023-10-31, from: The LAist
Pasadena and South Pasadena are go-to destinations for film location scouts on the lookout for stand-ins for the Midwest and East Coast.
https://laist.com/from-halloween-to-back-to-the-future-why-filmmakers-love-pasadena-and-south-pas
date: 2023-10-30, from: The LAist
The data set is for a three-week period tracking the controversial policy.
https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/early-data-appears-to-show-zero-bail-policy-effects
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 31 at 8:03 p.m. Julia Montoya’s floral shop is in full bloom. In May, the second-year political science student opened Floral Fantasies, a business in which she said she designs and assembles bouquets, after discovering her passion for the craft when she created one for her 18th birthday.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 31 at 10:12 p.m. In front of a packed stadium, 2,000 fans collectively held their breath. The Bruins had a penalty kick against their main competition at a critical point in the race for their 9th Pac-12 conference championship.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The LAist
A web series that’s a love letter to queer and undocumented communities, with a message about mental health.
https://laist.com/news/how-to-la/destigmatizing-mental-health-through-youtube
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 31 at 10:08 p.m. The Bruins’ gameplay continuously scaled new peaks as the weekend unfolded. Their head coach said this pattern was reminiscent of the team’s hopes for the rest of their Pac-12 play.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
The Bruins dashed into their postseason last Friday. On Friday afternoon, UCLA cross country took to University Place, Washington to run the 2023 Pac-12 Championships. In what would be the team’s last time running the meet before it transfers to the Big Ten, the women’s and men’s teams finished seventh and eighth overall, respectively.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The LAist
Journalist Hadley Meares had written about LA’s extensive haunted history. But then she experienced it for herself.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Sundail (CSUN Student Newspaper)
Inside the CSUN Library Exhibit Gallery, Eating the Archives is a display that explores the many ways we interact with food throughout our lives. The exhibit showcases books, documents, cookware, and more, straight from CSUN’s special collections and archives. It weaves an overlooked connecting thread that is fed through our understandings of history and societal…
date: 2023-10-30, from: The LAist
There’s a red flag warning through tonight.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The LAist
The Forest Service is charged with maintaining 650 miles of trails in the Angeles National Forest. They don’t have the staff or funding to do it alone.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The LAist
Parts of the trail have been washed away due to last winter’s storms, and the ongoing closure of nearby trails due to the 2020 Bobcat Fire is bringing even more traffic.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The LAist
Half of all Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep tracked by scientists died last winter, leaving a total population of around 360 animals.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The LAist
As Israel continues to push into Gaza, it says its forces freed an Israeli soldier who had been held by Hamas since the Oct. 7 attacks.
https://laist.com/news/israel-presses-into-gaza-as-pro-palestinian-protests-spread-worldwide
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
McCarthy Quad hosted one of the Asian Pacific American Student Assembly’s biggest and brightest events of the year Thursday night.
The post APASA Night Market celebrates food, fun, togetherness appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/30/apasa-night-market-celebrates-food-fun-togetherness/
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 31 at 11:13 p.m. Two UCLA professors were named as recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship – which is awarded to leading artists, scholars and entrepreneurs across the nation – on Oct.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 29 at 8:41 p.m. The Undergraduate Students Association Council held its fourth meeting of fall quarter Tuesday. USAC is the official student government representing the undergraduate student body at UCLA.
https://dailybruin.com/2023/10/29/usac-recap-oct-24-2/
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
As COVID-19 transitions from a daily concern to an endemic backdrop in the lives of Bruins, there’s danger in complacency. For the 2023-2024 academic year, UCLA Housing has reduced the number of isolation dorms, causing concern among students regarding their safety.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 29 at 8:37 p.m. Los Angeles County ended cash bail for many low-level and nonviolent crimes Oct. 1. The decision – enacted by the LA Superior Court – created a new pre-trial arraignment protocol that allows individuals to remain in their communities before appearing in court, said Ysabel Jurado, a community lawyer and candidate for LA City Council District 14.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 31 at 4:14 p.m. I love Google. I love the sleek, minimalist and colorful aesthetics of its products and the convenience of a centralized, easily accessible cloud.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 29 at 8:36 p.m. For Gaurav Varma, returning to the Hill during Halloween season after moving off-campus earlier this year was a frightening experience.
date: 2023-10-30, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 29 at 8:18 p.m. UCLA – perhaps better known as “Under Construction Like Always” – has welcomed a new project to Westwood.
https://dailybruin.com/2023/10/29/ucla-mens-basketball-builds-up-team-around-focal-point-adem-bona/
date: 2023-10-29, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
UCLA walked off the field in its final conference game in 2022 with two losses, handing the Pac-12 title to Stanford up north. One year later, as coach Margueritte Aozasa competed against her former program for only the second time at the helm of the Bruins, her team was the one hoisting the trophy.
date: 2023-10-29, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 29 at 8:14 p.m. Coach Adam Wright said defense anchored his team’s sweep over the Golden Bears. “Defense was much better today than last week,” Wright said, referring to UCLA’s matchups against Princeton and UC Santa Barbara.
date: 2023-10-29, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
Winter is coming, and the trees are losing their leaves. But for the Bruins, they’re entering a season of blossoming. Seven members of the UCLA men’s tennis team traveled to Pepperdine to compete in the ITA Southwest Regional Championships from Thursday to Monday.
date: 2023-10-29, from: City of Santa Clarita
Tips for a Spooky and Safe Halloween By City Manager Ken Striplin Halloween is just a few days away and with a number of spirited and spooky activities, there is something for everyone to enjoy in Santa Clarita. Whether you’re dressing in costume to take the kids trick-or-treating or gathering with friends, family and neighbors […]
The post Tips for a Spooky and Safe Halloween appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2023/10/29/tips-for-a-spooky-and-safe-halloween/
date: 2023-10-29, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 29 at 8:19 p.m. Upon a back-to-back champion’s return, a three-peat slipped through the Bruins’ fingers. The youth were left to try and keep the trophy in-house – but they didn’t.
date: 2023-10-29, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Hosts Thomas Johnson and Kasey Kazliner sit down and debate whether or not the Trojans and Golden Bears are “real” rivals. Staff writer Jack Hallinan also briefly caught up with a football writer from the Daily Californian, and the hosts discussed USC basketball’s newfound recruiting success.
The post Last chapter in the USC-Cal rivalry appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/28/last-chapter-in-the-usc-cal-rivalry/
date: 2023-10-29, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 29 at 8:12 p.m. Logan Loya brought grace to the gridiron along the sidelines in the third quarter. With a pirouette-esque toe drag, the senior wide receiver’s one-handed grab was eventually ruled a catch as the tip of his left foot grazed the turf moments before his right landed out of bounds.
https://dailybruin.com/2023/10/28/ucla-football-recovers-from-early-turnover-woes-to-best-buffaloes/
date: 2023-10-29, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Both teams suffered from uninspiring defensive performances, but USC’s second-half rush attack saved the day.
The post Football scores 21 straight, defeats Cal in chaotic fashion appeared first on Daily Trojan.
date: 2023-10-28, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
The Bruins won 12 events in the first joint dual meet for the swimmers and divers. UCLA swim and dive (3-0, 1-0 Pac 12) claimed a 167.5-73.5 victory over Illinois (1-2) on Friday afternoon at Spieker Aquatics Center.
https://dailybruin.com/2023/10/28/ucla-swim-and-dive-claims-victory-in-first-joint-dual-meet/
date: 2023-10-28, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
This post was updated Oct. 29 at 7:19 p.m. Hip-hop and musical theater are blending together in alumnus Mélia Mills’ self-proclaimed “hip-hopsical.” In “The Allure of Thug Life,” the audience follows the coming-of-age story of a high school student who dreams of becoming a gangster rapper.
date: 2023-10-28, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Jack Hallinan and Kasey Kazliner report live from California Memorial Stadium.
The post USC at Cal — as it happened appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/28/usc-vs-cal-live-updates/
date: 2023-10-28, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
No. 23 UCLA football (5-2, 2-2 Pac-12) will host coach Deion Sanders and Colorado (4-3, 1-3) in its homecoming game at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
https://dailybruin.com/2023/10/28/gameday-predictions-ucla-vs-colorado-8/
date: 2023-10-28, from: The Daily Bruin (UCLA Student Newspaper)
UCLA Transportation announced Oct. 16 that it is bringing back its Earn-A-Bike program, which will allow employees and graduate students to trade their parking permit for a free bicycle.
https://dailybruin.com/2023/10/27/ucla-transportation-reintroduces-earn-a-bike-program/
date: 2023-10-27, from: Catalina Islander
Local jewelry maker and marathon runner Stephen Weber is also a medieval combat competitor. Competitors don suits of armor and fight each other with medieval style weapons. Weber recently returned from the Armored Combat Sports North American Championships at Legion Sports Fest in Reno, Nevada. Weber won the Armored Combat Sports North American Championships Gold […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/jewelry-artisan-takes-metal-to-battlefield/
date: 2023-10-27, from: Catalina Islander
Catalina Museum for Art and History welcomes the colorful Mexican tradition celebrating life and death while honoring family members and friends who are no longer with us at the Dia De Los Muertos Family Festival on Nov. 1, from 6 – 9 p.m.. The evening will feature an art project for the kids, a tequila […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/5th-annual-dia-de-los-muertos-family-festival-at-museum/
date: 2023-10-27, from: Catalina Islander
As of 1:09 p.m., Friday, Oct. 27, the change.org petition to “Stop the Slaughter of Mule Deer on Catalina Island” had gathered 11,463 signatures. The Coalition to Stop The Slaughter of Catalina Deer has also launched a fundraising drive on gofundme.com to finance their efforts. “We have attracted an incredible team of volunteer professionals who […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/deer-petition-gathers-more-signatures/
date: 2023-10-27, from: Catalina Islander
Second of two parts. Following the Conservancy’s Oct. 17 presentation on the restoration plan for the Island, City Council questioned the Conservancy’s representative. Space wasn’t available in last week’s paper for details about that part of the meeting, so here it is. The restoration plan has become controversial because part of the plan calls for […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/city-council-questions-conservancy/
date: 2023-10-27, from: CI View (CSCI Student Newspaper)
By Ash Tolteca and Allen Monge
date: 2023-10-27, from: Catalina Islander
The following is the Avalon’s Sheriff’s Stations significant incidents report for the period of Oct. 18 to Oct. 25, 2023. All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Many people who are arrested do not get prosecuted in the first place and many who are prosecuted do not get convicted […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/sheriffs-log-oct-18-to-oct-25-2023/
date: 2023-10-27, from: CI View (CSCI Student Newspaper)
By Ryanne Slagiel and Aileen Lawrence Picking out a movie to watch for Halloween can be hard, especially if you are not fond of paying […]
date: 2023-10-27, from: Catalina Islander
Appalled As a long-time visitor to Catalina, my family, friends and I are appalled at the idea of the slaugtering/murder of the mule deer on the Island. Who thought of this? Are they crazy? Why do they think visitors come to Catalina? We come to see wildlife, the beach, clean air, and other things that […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/letters-to-the-editor-published-oct-27-2023/
date: 2023-10-27, from: CI View (CSCI Student Newspaper)
By Aileen Lawrence On Nov. 18, 2022, CI students came together to protest for Title IX reform. The CI View met with the two student […]
date: 2023-10-27, from: City of Santa Clarita
“TOUCHSTONES – TRANSITIONS – TRANQUILITY” BY FRANK ROCK AT THE MAIN The City of Santa Clarita is proud to present “Touchstones – Transitions – Tranquility” by celebrated local artist Frank Rock at The MAIN in Old Town Newhall. This captivating exhibition will be on display from Monday, October 30, through Tuesday, November 28, 2023, with […]
The post “Touchstones – Transitions – Tranquility” by Frank Rock at The MAIN appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
date: 2023-10-27, from: CI View (CSCI Student Newspaper)
By Deborah Mitchell-Moore The sensational Barbie (2023) stole our hearts in theaters, and now it has taken over our hearts here at CI! The blockbuster […]
date: 2023-10-27, from: The LAist
There is no question that the student demand for housing is high. But much about a plan to build hundreds of beds for community college students remains tentative.
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Students and faculty laid in front of Bovard Auditorium to protest violence against Palestinians.
The post Students stage ‘die-in’ protest for Gaza appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/students-stage-die-in-protest-for-gaza/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
USC professor Dr. David Agus is transforming medicine with artificial intelligence cancer research.
The post The wizard of interdisciplinary science turns to AI appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/the-wizard-of-interdisciplinary-science-turns-to-ai/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
A closer look at course learning surrounding AI, ChatGPT and generative machines in the classroom.
The post Can artificial intelligence write your academic paper? It depends appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/can-artificial-intelligence-write-your-academic-paper-it-depends/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Explore what USC and South Los Angeles has to say about AI learning.
The post Five events to attend for intelligence on AI initiatives appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/five-events-to-attend-for-intelligence-on-ai-initiatives/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Members of the School of Cinematic Arts, Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, and Thornton School of Music spoke on the future of AI in the creative workforce.
The post AI rattles creative fields like never before appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/ai-rattles-creative-fields-like-never-before/
date: 2023-10-27, from: Pepperdine Beacon (Pepperdine Student Newspaper)
Many people, including students at our Christian-oriented Pepperdine University, have altogether given up on dating because it has become impossible to differentiate between who is seeking to date long-term and who is not. Regardless of one’s stance on topics like hook-up culture, society’s lack of setting boundaries between what type of dating people want has […]
The post Is Dating Hopeless? appeared first on The Pepperdine Beacon.
date: 2023-10-27, from: Pepperdine Beacon (Pepperdine Student Newspaper)
On September 16, 2023, hundreds of Pepperdine students, faculty, alumni, and visitors gathered for the annual worship summit in Firestone Fieldhouse. Jonathan Evans, Dallas Cowboys Chaplain and former NFL Fullback gave the message with celebrated artists United Voice Worship and Phil Wickham performing. Wickham is a two-time Grammy-nominated contemporary Christian artist with hundreds of millions […]
The post Award-Winning Musician Phil Wickham Gives Insight into Worship appeared first on The Pepperdine Beacon.
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Daily Trojan features Classified advertising in each day’s edition. Here you can read, search, and even print out each day’s edition of the Classifieds.
The post Classifieds – October 27, 2023 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/classifieds-october-27-2023/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toluse Olorunnipa spoke about the life and times of Floyd.
The post At USC, “Let’s Talk About George Floyd” appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/at-usc-lets-talk-about-george-floyd/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Pac-12 foes will square off one final time before realignment next season.
The post Cal vs. USC, a 108-year tradition, gets its final chapter appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/cal-vs-usc-a-108-year-tradition-gets-its-final-chapter/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Following back-to-back wins, Women’s volleyball shifts to sweeping the Buffaloes.
The post Women’s volleyball set for Colorado appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/womens-volleyball-set-for-colorado/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Trojans need a wake-up call on both sides of the ball, and this is the perfect game.
The post Football heads to Berkeley to battle the Bears appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/football-heads-to-berkeley-to-battle-the-bears/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
We must fulfill all of our moral obligations, even if we can’t do it all at once.
The post The urgent and the important: How to talk about Israel and Gaza appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/the-urgent-and-the-important-how-to-talk-about-israel-and-gaza/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The language queer people use to describe their lived experience is important.
The post Identity labels matter in the queer community appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/identity-labels-matter-in-the-queer-community/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
In her first solo exhibition, photographer Angel Itua delves into L.A. culture.
The post Student debuts exhibition ‘I’ve Seen LA’ appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/student-debuts-exhibition-ive-seen-la/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Chinese Filmmakers’ Voices on the Pandemic screened four moving short films.
The post Filmmakers shed a new light on the pandemic appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/filmmakers-shed-a-new-light-on-the-pandemic/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Despite the many challenges of studying abroad, it only makes one appreciate the experience more.
The post Studying abroad gives confidence appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/studying-abroad-gives-confidence/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Reuben de Maid said his anti-bullying work helped earn him the recognition.
The post Student honored in Teen Vogue’s ’20 under 20 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/student-honored-in-teen-vogues-20-under-20/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Charlotte Korchak, a senior educator with StandWithUs, spoke about the Jewish community and Hamas.
The post Hillel hosts speaker on Israel-Hamas war appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/27/hillel-hosts-speaker-on-israel-hamas-war/
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Despite a very dominating performance, USC failed to score against No. 4 Stanford.
The post Soccer’s missed chances headline draw with Stanford appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/26/soccers-missed-chances-headline-draw-with-stanford/
date: 2023-10-27, from: Laloyolan (LMU Student Newspaper)
As true crime becomes more popular, fans should remember that the stories they consume aren’t fictional. Time to rethink your Ted Bundy costume.
date: 2023-10-27, from: Laloyolan (LMU Student Newspaper)
As citizens in Gaza become devastated by military attacks, we examine American policy and public opinion on the conflict in the Middle-East.
date: 2023-10-27, from: Laloyolan (LMU Student Newspaper)
Freshman outside hitter Kayla Lopez is one of three freshmen on the team this year and looks to continue development with the program.
date: 2023-10-27, from: Laloyolan (LMU Student Newspaper)
LMU women’s volleyball has hit its stride going into the second half of conference play, which should help the program in its push toward the NCAA tournament.
date: 2023-10-27, from: Laloyolan (LMU Student Newspaper)
Ellie Treon, a senior international relations major and copy editor at the Loyolan, and Noopur Barve, a sophomore biology and political science major, introduced the speakers at 60 Second Lectures.
date: 2023-10-27, from: Laloyolan (LMU Student Newspaper)
Michael Genovese, Ph.D., professor of political science and international relations, highlighted the importance of striving for a destination, even if the destination changes.
date: 2023-10-27, from: Laloyolan (LMU Student Newspaper)
Bryant Keith Alexander, Ph.D., dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts, discussed the intersection of performance and culture just within the one-minute time frame.
date: 2023-10-27, from: Laloyolan (LMU Student Newspaper)
Mian Adnan Ahmad, lecturer of screenwriting, emphasized the importance of self-discovery in the search for a destination.
date: 2023-10-27, from: Laloyolan (LMU Student Newspaper)
Kawanna Leggett, Ed.D., senior vice president for Student Affairs, talked about her journey from her hometown to LMU to relieve the stress of finding a purpose.
date: 2023-10-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Host Jonathan Park dives deep with assistant news editor Benjamin Gamson on what it was like interviewing the two elected state officials representing the districts containing USC: California State Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer.
The post On interviewing elected state officials with Benjamin Gamson appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/26/on-interviewing-elected-state-officials-with-benjamin-gamson/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Canyon News (COC Student Newspaper)
By: Shalisa Krualphan MEMBERS OF THE SANTA CLARITA VALLEY PACKED UP THEIR…
The post SCV Pride Celebrated The LGBTQIA2+ community with a picnic in the park. appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/scv-pride-celebrated-the-lgbtqia2-community-with-a-picnic-in-the-park/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Canyon News (COC Student Newspaper)
By: Zander Grable Circle of Hope held its 19th annual tea event…
The post Circle of Hope held its 19th Annual Royal Tea event to support patients diagnosed with cancer. appeared first on Canyons News.
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Canyon News (COC Student Newspaper)
By: Sam Rabadi Right about now you might be asking yourself, what…
The post Ex-Marines Turn a Survival Training Exercise into a New Sport appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/ex-marines-turn-a-survival-training-exercise-into-a-new-sport/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Canyon News (COC Student Newspaper)
By: Luke Harris Millions of people in the US are diagnosed with…
The post One Million Steps for OCD held its third annual walk to bring awareness to the condition. appeared first on Canyons News.
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Canyon News (COC Student Newspaper)
By: Aja Haskin The Metrolink station in Vista Canyon is open for…
The post Vista Canyon Metrolink Station Opens New Paths for Traveling Throughout the Valley appeared first on Canyons News.
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Canyon News (COC Student Newspaper)
By: Katherine Brook Toning the technical skill of players and, more importantly,…
The post Coach Ellen continues to score goals on the field and with the players she connects with. appeared first on Canyons News.
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Canyon News (COC Student Newspaper)
By: Elijah Dixon An exciting and emotional day for the people that…
The post COC Basketball Court gets a name change to honor a Historic Former Coach appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/coc-basketball-court-gets-a-name-change-to-honor-a-historic-former-coach/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The LAist
The Israel-Gaza conflict is likely to leave people in the region struggling with trauma-related mental health symptoms for a long time to come.
https://laist.com/news/the-middle-east-crisis-is-stirring-up-a-tsunami-of-mental-health-woes
date: 2023-10-27, from: The LAist
Rhode Montijo debuts a Día de los Muertos-inspired story told with just two words.
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Daily Trojan features Classified advertising in each day’s edition. Here you can read, search, and even print out each day’s edition of the Classifieds.
The post Classifieds – October 26, 2023 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/26/classifieds-october-26-2023/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The fall of Nagorno-Karabakh displaced hundreds of thousands of Armenians. How can poets help us grieve?
The post The poetic world of Hovhannes Tumanyan appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/26/the-poetic-world-of-hovhannes-tumanyan/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Video game lovers should buckle up for a month full of diverse, quirky releases.
The post Bluey with a side of RoboCop: November’s top games appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/26/bluey-with-a-side-of-robocop-novembers-top-games/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Fellow USC fans, it’s time to fill up the Coliseum.
The post Stadiums are as important as players appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/26/stadiums-are-as-important-as-players/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Trojans hit the road for another Top-10 matchup against Long Beach State.
The post Men’s water polo looks to get back on track appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/26/mens-water-polo-looks-to-get-back-on-track/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Trojans aim to defeat an elite Cardinal team after three games without a win.
The post Women’s soccer looks to upset Stanford appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/26/womens-soccer-looks-to-upset-stanford/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
A report explores L.A.’s landscapes through the eyes of Indigenous people.
The post New report examines L.A.’s native landscapes appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/26/new-report-examines-l-a-s-native-landscapes/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Panelists said there is a path forward for those interested in diverse higher education.
The post Expert panel discusses the implications of US college admissions post-affirmative action appeared first on Daily Trojan.
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Our experiences are not, and will not ever, be the same — so let’s not pretend.
The post We must address white privilege in activism appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/26/we-must-address-white-privilege-in-activism/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
A lot can change once you get legally married in the United States.
The post What to know before you put a ring on it appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/26/public-disclosure-4-marriage-laws/
date: 2023-10-26, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
El equipo de fútbol americano de banderas femenino de Eagle Rock High School se desplaza como un conjunto tanto en el campo como fuera de él. En el terreno de juego, se apoyan entre sí en la banda, siguiendo la acción, con los lazos de sus cabellos ondeando al viento mientras se animan mutuamente. Fuera […]
The post El fútbol americano de banderas femenino en Eagle Rock High abre nuevas oportunidades para las mujeres en el mundo del deporte appeared first on The Occidental.
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
This week on “The Soapbox”, host Fabián Gutiérrez welcomes assistant opinion editor Antonio Wu, who delves into his assessment of the idea of coming out and some of its significant flaws, alongside other ways in which queerness can be expressed and celebrated in the context of LGBTQIA+ History Month.
The post The pros and progress of coming out with Antonio Wu appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/the-pros-and-progress-of-coming-out-with-antonio-wu/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Sundail (CSUN Student Newspaper)
On this audio feature, CSUN’s Armenian Studies Program Director Vahram Shemmassian explains the historical significance of Nagorno Karabakh to Armenians, and how recent events will go down in history.
https://sundial.csun.edu/176548/news/whats-happening-in-nargorno-karabakh/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The LAist
Nearly a quarter of Americans believe that “patriots may need to resort to violence to save the country,” while an overwhelming majority think democracy is at risk in a new PRRI survey.
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
As students begin to register for classes Oct. 30, new courses make their way to Course Counts. Among the variety of new courses offered next semester are “Grim Tales: The Fairy Tales of Brothers Grimm,” “Indecent: Liberation in Latin America” and “Islam and Capitalism.” Comparative Studies in Literature & Culture (CSLC) professor Alex Gardner said […]
The post New Spring courses are professors’ passions appeared first on The Occidental.
https://theoccidentalnews.com/culture/2023/10/25/new-spring-courses-are-professors-passions/2910053
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
Occidental’s men’s water polo flew to Boston and played in four non-conference games from Oct.14 – 15 in the team’s first competition on the East Coast. They played against Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Connecticut College, Salem University and Brown University. Tate Miller (junior) noted the importance that this trip provided for the team. “We grew […]
The post Men’s water polo takes on the East Coast appeared first on The Occidental.
https://theoccidentalnews.com/sports/2023/10/25/mens-water-polo-takes-on-the-east-coast/2910070
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
Twelve members of the Occidental College cross country teams competed at the 2023 NCAA DIII Pre-Nationals Invitational Oct. 7 at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The men’s team placed 16th overall out of 38 teams, and the women’s team placed 20th overall out of 39 teams. According to the Occidental Athletics website, Amir Barkan (junior) […]
The post Cross country finishes strong at pre-nationals appeared first on The Occidental.
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
Founded in 2017, the Latine Student Union (LSU) is a club dedicated to creating a safe space for Latine-identifying students to thrive on campus and aims to provide them with a community of peers from across the Latine diaspora, according to co-president Taliha De Ochoa (senior). Previously known as the Latinx Student Union, LSU recently […]
The post Latine Student Union provides students a home away from home appeared first on The Occidental.
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
The Green Bean, Occidental’s student-run cafe, resurrected ideas to collaborate with student organizations after the COVID-19 pandemic paused these opportunities, Green Bean scheduling manager Libby Anderson (senior) said. Before the pandemic, the Green Bean crafted themed beverages to raise money for specific causes or used the cafe as event space. The current managing team decided to […]
The post Green Bean revives collaborations with student organizations after COVID-19 appeared first on The Occidental.
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
On any given evening, Sam Landis takes her Black Russian terrier, Kylo, on a walk around Occidental’s campus. Landis said she and Kylo moved to the Eagle Rock neighborhood last March and quickly discovered how comforting and relaxing it was to walk on campus. Landis, who works from home, said she enjoys the wide sidewalks […]
The post Local residents treat Occidental campus like a walk in the park appeared first on The Occidental.
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
The Uptown Gay Alliance (UGA) was founded in 1983 after Bobby Brown, a gay man, was murdered as he was leaving a gay bar in Highland Park, organization President Carl Matthes said. According to Matthes, the organization started as a form of resistance for gay people in NELA, and began to grow as more members […]
The post Uptown Gay and Lesbian Alliance continues to fight for LGBTQ+ community in NELA and beyond appeared first on The Occidental.
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
Dance Production (Dance Pro) is the largest student-run organization at Occidental with 220 dancers currently signed up for the Spring 2024 show, according to choreographer and e-board member Raja Bella Hicks (junior). According to choreographer Zuriyah Smith (sophomore), Dance Pro can serve as an introduction to a healthy world of dance for experienced and especially […]
The post Dance Pro rehearsals begin with 252 members appeared first on The Occidental.
https://theoccidentalnews.com/news/2023/10/25/dance-pro-rehearsals-begin-with-252-members/2910046
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
More than two years after the Occidental College Commission on Athletics (OCCA) released a report detailing a roadmap on how the college’s athletic teams can become competitive in their respective conferences, the athletic department has hired new coaches, increased employment periods for full-time coaches, made various facility improvements and created a Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) […]
The post OCCA recommendations boosts morale and experience of student athletes appeared first on The Occidental.
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Daily Trojan features Classified advertising in each day’s edition. Here you can read, search, and even print out each day’s edition of the Classifieds.
The post Classifieds – October 25, 2023 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/classifieds-october-25-2023/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The new rules will provide designated time for public comment prior to debate.
The post USG reforms meeting rules, hears project updates appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/usg-reforms-meeting-rules/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Trojans dominated in the crucial ITA Southwest Regional Championships.
The post Emma Charney takes first place for the Trojans appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/emma-charney-takes-first-place-for-the-trojans/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Trojans have a mediocre weekend at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships.
The post Men’s tennis comes up just short in Malibu appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/mens-tennis-comes-up-just-short-in-malibu/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Gambling can negatively impact finance, relationships and mental health.
The post The unfortunate ugly side of sports gambling appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/the-unfortunate-ugly-side-of-sports-gambling/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
People should see aging beyond the physical and look to the beauty within.
The post Natural aging needs to be more accepted appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/natural-aging-needs-to-be-more-accepted/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Politics should never be more important than the law itself.
The post Government affairs are not personal affairs appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/government-affairs-are-not-personal-affairs/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The song was performed at the halftime show Oct. 21 by USC students and alumni.
The post Alumni compose new Coliseum theme appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/alumni-compose-new-coliseum-theme/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Young filmmakers exhibited their short horror films at Zemeckis Center Sunday.
The post 50/50 Horror Fest debuts with scares appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/50-50-horror-fest-debuts-with-scares/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Out with the old doesn’t have to mean it’s immediately tossed out the window.
The post A growth mindset for your vision board appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/a-growth-mindset-for-your-vision-board/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The USC Student Cookbook aims to ease cooking for students with quick recipes.
The post USC Student Health releases cookbook for college meals appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/25/student-health-cookbook/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg spoke to USC students Tuesday at a virtual event.
The post Secretary Buttigieg discusses future of American politics appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/secretary-buttigieg-discusses-future-of-american-politics/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
International students are often left out of festivities, but it isn’t bad.
The post Spending Family Weekend without my family appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/191802/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Constantly obsessing over academic performance is unhealthy and unproductive.
The post Stop comparing yourself to others in school appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/stop-comparing-yourself-to-others-in-school/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Sundail (CSUN Student Newspaper)
If one were to look for an extravagant and elaborate time machine to go back to the early days of COVID-19 in 2020, “The Killing Game” would be an immaculate example of it. Based on Eugène Ionesco’s play “Jeux de Massacre” (“Killing Game”), written almost half a century ago, the story reflects modern society. In…
https://sundial.csun.edu/176541/arts-entertainment/review-the-killing-game/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Confidence turned to cockiness, costing USC a perfect at-home record.
The post Attitude over algorithms: Why USC football loses winnable games appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/attitude-over-algorithms-why-usc-football-loses-winnable-games/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Unable to capitalize on its scoring opportunities, USC lost one and tied another.
The post ‘Ties feel like losses’: Soccer leaves Arizona winless appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/ties-feel-like-losses-soccer-leaves-arizona-winless/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Daily Trojan features Classified advertising in each day’s edition. Here you can read, search, and even print out each day’s edition of the Classifieds.
The post Classifieds – October 24, 2023 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/classifieds-october-24-2023/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
OpenAI is facing a stern reality check as legal and ethical quandaries loom.
The post USC experts weigh in on ChatGPT and OpenAI’s meteoric rise appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/usc-experts-weigh-in-on-chatgpt-and-openais-meteoric-rise/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Newspaper)
Pierce College made a contract with virtual service Timelycare this year, intended to provide well-being and mental health access for students. Given recent
The post New virtual center to care for students appeared first on The Roundup.
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
USC came from behind for the second straight game to sweep the weekend.
The post Women’s volleyball fights off Huskies appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/womens-volleyball-fights-off-huskies/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The thrilling book is an irresistible page turner.
The post ‘All That Consumes Us’ spooks this season appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/all-that-consumes-us-spooks-this-season/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Mexican band captivated the Angeleno audience for four nights.
The post RBD revolutionizes Los Angeles appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/rbd-revolutionizes-los-angeles/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Imagine if casinos had no age limit and could be accessed from anywhere in the world.
The post The kids have gambling addictions, Mr. President! appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/the-kids-have-gambling-addictions-mr-president/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
USC can learn from how UF handled the growing problem of antisemitism.
The post USC is failing its Jewish students, UF does better appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/usc-is-failing-its-jewish-students-uf-does-better/
date: 2023-10-24, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The County is now facing a profound crisis of disparity in quality healthcare access.
The post LA’s healthcare needs an intervention appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/24/las-healthcare-needs-an-intervention/
date: 2023-10-25, from: The LAist
Under a new law that goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024, workers and their partners can get up to five days of leave for a miscarriage, stillbirth, failed adoption, and other types of reproductive loss.
date: 2023-10-24, from: The LAist
For Filipino American History Month, we dig into the rich history of the Filipino communities of SoCal.
https://laist.com/news/la-history/exploring-the-history-of-filipinos-in-southern-california
date: 2023-10-23, from: The LAist
The case has profound implications for almost every aspect of American life, especially at a time when there are great national security concerns about false information online.
date: 2023-10-23, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Daily Trojan features Classified advertising in each day’s edition. Here you can read, search, and even print out each day’s edition of the Classifieds.
The post Classifieds – October 23, 2023 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/23/classifieds-october-23-2023/
date: 2023-10-23, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Dining halls may be more focused on making money than students’ well-being.
The post USC meal plans exploit students appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/23/usc-meal-plans-exploit-students/
date: 2023-10-23, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
“When We Danced” was screened for attendees at Norris Cinema Theatre.
The post Short film honors Filipino American experiences appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/23/short-film-honors-filipino-american-experiences/
date: 2023-10-23, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Martin Scorsese explores Oklahoma’s Osage Nation amid the “Reign of Terror.”
The post ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is a harrowing look into America’s past appeared first on Daily Trojan.
date: 2023-10-23, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Musical Theater Repertory’s production of “Fun Home” celebrates representation.
The post LGBTQIA+ identity thrives in ‘Fun Home’ appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/23/lgbtqia-identity-thrives-in-fun-home/
date: 2023-10-23, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The food culture of sports reveals rich customs.
The post Exploring culinary traditions in sports appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/23/exploring-culinary-traditions-in-sports/
date: 2023-10-23, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Fast food employees in California will earn $20 an hour starting April 2024.
The post Students, experts talk new fast food minimum wage appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/23/students-experts-talk-new-fast-food-minimum-wage/
date: 2023-10-23, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Joanna Maniti credits a USC class with inspiring her to launch the nonprofit.
The post Marshall alum creates nonprofit, builds orphanage in the Philippines appeared first on Daily Trojan.
date: 2023-10-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Mishaps on both sides of the ball terminated USC’s perfect Pac-12 record.
The post Football just cannot defeat the Utes appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/22/football-just-cannot-defeat-the-utes/
date: 2023-10-22, from: City of Santa Clarita
State of the City 2023 – Event Extravaganza By City Manager Ken Striplin Santa Clarita is more than just a City; it’s an experience. It’s where families thrive, businesses prosper and community spirit is strong. You don’t need to look further than the City’s roster of top-tier events to see why. Be it the rhythmic […]
The post State of the City 2023 – Event Extravaganza appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2023/10/22/state-of-the-city-2023-event-extravaganza/
date: 2023-10-22, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Newspaper)
Teachers should be able to share their political views with their students. According to the Hechinger Report by Charlotte West, studies show that teachers’ political
The post Pro: Teachers should express their political views in the classroom appeared first on The Roundup.
date: 2023-10-22, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Newspaper)
Teachers have a great amount of influence to the benefit or the detriment of the students in the classroom. For that reason, teachers should not
The post Con: Teachers should not express their political opinion in the classroom appeared first on The Roundup.
date: 2023-10-22, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Newspaper)
Community colleges are known for being beneficial to a wide demographic of people, from those learning new skills, to others looking to cut costs and
The post Make Pierce College more accessible to students appeared first on The Roundup.
date: 2023-10-22, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Newspaper)
This is the story of a 22-year-old young man who graduated from university with a bachelor’s degree, and he thought the degree could earn him
The post Mentorship program would help students be job-ready appeared first on The Roundup.
date: 2023-10-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Trojans were unable to get revenge in their fourth straight loss to the Utes.
The post Football endures another heartbreaking loss to Utah appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/21/football-endures-another-heartbreaking-loss-to-utah/
date: 2023-10-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Assistant sports editor Leila MacKenzie and staff writer Daniel Palmore report live from Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The post USC vs. Utah — as it happened appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/21/usc-vs-utah-live-updates/
date: 2023-10-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Hosts Jack Hallinan, Kasey Kazliner, Marcus Partida and Darren Parry talk about their reactions (and overreactions) to USC’s 48-20 loss against Notre Dame, along with a preview of men’s and women’s basketball.
The post USC football suffers its first defeat: Is all hope lost? appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/usc-football-suffers-its-first-defeat-is-all-hope-lost/
date: 2023-10-20, from: CI View (CSCI Student Newspaper)
By Ashley Tolteca and Allen Monge Graphic by Ashley Tolteca
date: 2023-10-20, from: Catalina Islander
On Saturday, Oct. 14, a Benefit Golf Tournament was held at the Avalon Golf Course. This event was a fund raiser for six families from Avalon who now live in Lahaina on the Island of Maui that had their homes destroyed by wildfire. Most of the six transplanted Catalina Island families flew back to their […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/lions-club-donates-25k-to-islanders-now-living-in-maui/
date: 2023-10-20, from: CI View (CSCI Student Newspaper)
By Emily Chang Graphic by Javier Vargas On Sept. 8, President Richard Yao announced in a campus global a $30 million gift to CI – […]
http://civiewnews.com/news/6596/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=6596
date: 2023-10-20, from: Catalina Islander
The Council Chambers were full for this week’s meeting. The public and the Catalina Island Conservancy both argued their cases to the Oct. 17 Avalon City Council meeting. The public spoke for about two hours. At least 155 people saw the video on YouTube; 314 comments were posted on the city’s Facebook page. The public […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/council-flooded-on-deer-eradication-conservancy-states-its-case/
date: 2023-10-20, from: Catalina Islander
The first game of the night was between Coyote Joe’s and Straight Up Builders. Both teams were scoreless after one inning. The second inning saw Coyote Joe’s get on the board with four runs off a base hit, two errors, a walk and a double from Melissa Schafer. Straight Up Builders answered with a walk […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/coyote-joes-bravos-landscaping-victorious/
date: 2023-10-20, from: Pepperdine Beacon (Pepperdine Student Newspaper)
On Tuesday night, seniors Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams were killed by a vehicle as they walked alongside Pacific Coast Highway. The following day, the university announced the names of the students lost upon confirmation with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD). Vice President for Student Affairs Connie Horton said […]
The post Pepperdine Mourns Loss of Four Seniors appeared first on The Pepperdine Beacon.
date: 2023-10-20, from: Catalina Islander
To “gaslight” someone means to manipulate another person into doubting their own perceptions, experiences or understanding of events. As a former resident of Avalon, I know CIC is famous for it. Manipulating information to make people believe what their own eyes and personal experiences tell them is untrue. First, in the spirit of transparency, CIC […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/letter-to-the-editor-open-letter-to-the-catalina-island-conservancy/
date: 2023-10-20, from: CI View (CSCI Student Newspaper)
By Ryanne Slagiel Graphic by Javier Vargas Student research is not just for graduate students! CI has a student research center right here on campus […]
date: 2023-10-20, from: City of Santa Clarita
MOBILE SPAY AND NEUTER SERVICES COMING TO SANTA CLARITA Spay and Neuter Clinic to be located at the Newhall Community Center The City of Santa Clarita, in partnership with our contractor, the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC), is excited to announce that Simi Valley Non-Profit Spay and Neuter Clinic […]
The post Mobile Spay and Neuter Services Coming to Santa Clarita appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2023/10/20/mobile-spay-and-neuter-services-coming-to-santa-clarita/
date: 2023-10-20, from: City of Santa Clarita
JOIN US FOR MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY AND HELP BETTER OUR COMMUNITY Give Back and Make a Difference! The City of Santa Clarita is preparing for Make A Difference Day on Saturday, October 28, and we’re looking for enthusiastic residents to join us on this incredible day of community service. Make A Difference Day is […]
The post Join Us for Make a Difference Day and Help Better Our Community appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Daily Trojan features Classified advertising in each day’s edition. Here you can read, search, and even print out each day’s edition of the Classifieds.
The post Classifieds – October 20, 2023 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/classifieds-october-20-2023/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Trojan football has a lot of season left, but many tough games remain.
The post Sports staff’s predictions for USC’s win total appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/sports-staffs-predictions-for-uscs-win-total/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Trojans will take on No. 4 Washington State and Washington at Galen.
The post Women’s volleyball to face Washington schools appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/womens-volleyball-to-face-washington-schools/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
While the loss may have been embarrassing, USC has plenty of time to make up for it.
The post You’re overreacting to the Notre Dame loss appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/youre-overreacting-to-the-notre-dame-loss/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
USC was 0-2 against the Utes last season, the only USC losses in Pac-12 play.
The post USC seeks revenge against Utah appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/usc-seeks-revenge-against-utah/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Why the Trojans haven’t conquered in more than five years.
The post USC’s elusive Pac-12 championship appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/uscs-elusive-pac-12-championship/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
USC students need to tell the truth about Israel’s history of violence and colonialism.
The post We won’t stop until Palestine is free appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/we-wont-stop-until-palestine-is-free/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
I’m not having a “marginalization olympics” with you.
The post Life as the elephant in the room appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/life-as-the-elephant-in-the-room/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The exhibition marks Blake’s first major international loan on the West Coast.
The post Getty Center opens ‘William Blake: Visionary’ appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/getty-center-opens-william-blake-visionary/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Humor is a constant in my life that reminds me I will be OK.
The post Comedy fatigue is a funny feeling appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/column-comic-relief/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Officials discussed support of affirmative action, college affordability and destigmatizing mental health.
The post USC-area lawmakers talk student issues appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/20/usc-area-lawmakers-talk-student-issues/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Sundail (CSUN Student Newspaper)
The California Faculty Association (CFA) plans to hold a strike authorization vote between Oct. 21 and Oct. 27, which could allow professors, lecturers, counselors and coaches of the California State University system to strike. The vote is an authorization to allow the union the decision to call for a strike if negotiations fall through. CFA…
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Sundail (CSUN Student Newspaper)
After a delayed release from Sept. 22 to Oct. 8, Drake has released his much anticipated eighth studio album, “For All the Dogs.” Since he was on the “It’s All A Blur” tour, Drake had to postpone the initial album release date by two weeks, announcing on Instagram that the album still needed to be…
https://sundial.csun.edu/176503/arts-entertainment/review-drakes-for-all-the-dogs-spin-or-skip/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
This week on “The Soapbox”, hosts Fabián Gutiérrez and Zaynah Waseem unpack Los Angeles County’s new zero-bail policy with associate managing editor and opinion columnist CJ Haddad, who spoke on its background, implications, and what it can teach about the future of policy in the United States at local and federal levels.
The post Understanding LA’s zero-bail policy with CJ Haddad appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/understanding-las-zero-bail-policy-with-cj-haddad/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The Sundail (CSUN Student Newspaper)
Mexican cinema boasts an outstanding repertoire of movies from the past: “Macario,” “Nosotros Los Pobres,” “El Topo,” “Rojo Amanecer,” and “Y Tu Mamá También,” to name a few. Surely, great filmmakers make great movies. However, the current stagnation of Mexican cinema is undeniable. It’s been a while since the world has heard about an exceptional…
https://sundial.csun.edu/176498/opinions/why-mexican-cinema-goes-unseen/
date: 2023-10-20, from: The LAist
Butler was appointed to the Senate seat earlier this month by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
https://laist.com/news/politics/sen-laphonza-butler-will-not-run-for-us-senate-seat-in-2024
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Sundail (CSUN Student Newspaper)
The Pride Center hosted its weekly Coffee Nights event on Tuesday, Oct. 3rd, in the Sol Center of the University Student Union. Students took part in conversation, games, and art alongside the LGBTQ+ community while enjoying coffee and tea. The Pride Center is CSUN’s LGBTQ+ safe space, which is open to all queer students and…
https://sundial.csun.edu/176493/featured/pride-centers-coffee-nights-bring-community-together/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Sundail (CSUN Student Newspaper)
Back for the first time since COVID-19, the 28th Annual Central Avenue Jazz Festival rocked the streets of South Central Los Angeles. Tradition and reunion was the festival’s vibe, featuring soothing, euphoric jazz music by some of the genre’s top artists. The festival was held at the intersection of Central Avenue and 43rd Street. Councilman…
date: 2023-10-19, from: City of Santa Clarita
Next Stop, Vista Canyon! By Councilwoman Marsha McLean We are closing in on the completion of a project that I have been waiting for since its inception. Tomorrow, we will cut the ribbon and officially welcome commuters and residents alike to the Vista Canyon Multi-Modal Center! Located on the east side of Santa Clarita (27550 […]
The post Next Stop, Vista Canyon! appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2023/10/19/next-stop-vista-canyon/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Sex Week kicked off last week, featuring events aimed at promoting sex positivity, wellbeing and education.
The post Toys and tips: Sexploration tent returns appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/toys-and-tips-sexploration-tent-returns/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Money raised will go to Magen David Adom, a healthcare service in Israel.
The post Students gather at Hillel to fundraise, bake cookies appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/students-gather-at-hillel-to-fundraise-bake-cookies/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Attendees learned about consent and agency’s applications to kinks.
The post No blurred lines: ‘Sexpert’ teaches consent appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/no-blurred-lines-sexpert-teaches-consent/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Daily Trojan features Classified advertising in each day’s edition. Here you can read, search, and even print out each day’s edition of the Classifieds.
The post Classifieds – October 19, 2023 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/classifieds-october-19-2023/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The German midfielder has already excelled for club and country at just 20 years old.
The post Rising Ballers: Florian Wirtz is here to stay appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/rising-ballers-florian-wirtz-is-here-to-stay/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
As a Catholic, I’ve noticed my faith’s perpetuation of a toxic self-sacrifice culture.
The post Exploring the link between Catholic guilt and people-pleasing appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/exploring-the-link-between-catholic-guilt-and-people-pleasing/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
USC will need to bounce back from a disappointing draw in their last match.
The post Soccer looks to bring the heat to Arizona appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/soccer-looks-to-bring-the-heat-to-arizona/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
USC is the reigning singles and doubles champion at the Southwest Regionals.
The post Men’s tennis to defend Malibu appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/mens-tennis-to-defend-malibu/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Last year’s crowd crush in Seoul shows the need for better crowd management.
The post Halloweekend warrants strict crowd control appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/crowd-control-at-parties/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Visions and Voices honors
underground club culture with multimedia
theater.
The post ‘UNDERSCORED’ connects generations appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/underscored-connects-generations/
date: 2023-10-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Shared music taste with my family has kept me sane through college.
The post To quote Nancy Sinatra: ‘There’s no place like home’ appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/19/to-quote-nancy-sinatra-theres-no-place-like-home/
date: 2023-10-18, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Daily Trojan features Classified advertising in each day’s edition. Here you can read, search, and even print out each day’s edition of the Classifieds.
The post Classifieds – October 18, 2023 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/18/classifieds-october-18-2023/
date: 2023-10-18, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The Student Adventure Pass program will be available for six months.
The post Metrolink passes now free for students appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/18/metrolink-passes-now-free-for-students/
date: 2023-10-18, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Teams should search for non-conference rivals.
The post Non-conference rivalries are here to stay appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/18/non-conference-rivalries-are-here-to-stay/
date: 2023-10-18, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
A new lineup hopes to bring a sense of urgency ahead of the upcoming tournament.
The post Women’s golf shakes up its roster appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/18/womens-golf-shakes-up-its-roster/
date: 2023-10-18, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
The University’s treatment of legacy student transfers shows its hidden priorities.
The post Trojan Transfer Plan isn’t for all Trojans appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/18/trojan-transfer-plan-isnt-for-all-trojans/
date: 2023-10-18, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Markgong’s Spring 2024 collection was a corporate-fashion wonderland, but why does it still feel slightly unfulfilling?
The post A 9 to 5 in Shanghai appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/18/a-9-to-5-in-shanghai/
date: 2023-10-18, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Newspaper)
Working shouldn’t be a requirement to eat, but that’s the bleak future for recipients of SNAP, including college students at USC and in the South.
The post The government is letting college kids go hungry appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/10/18/the-government-is-letting-college-kids-go-hungry/
date: 2023-10-17, from: Theodore Paine Foundation
It’s Oaktober! And yes, Seedtember just finished – we’re very fond of calendar puns here at Theodore Payne Foundation. For me, of all the CA native plants out there, oaks are probably most deserving of their own pun of the month. They are the workhorses of Southern California landscapes, providing an abundance of food to […]
https://theodorepayne.org/oaktober/
date: 2023-10-17, from: The LAist
On Oct. 16, 1923, Margaret Winkler agreed to produce and distribute Alice Comedies, a new series by Walt Disney. That contract is considered the founding document of The Walt Disney Company.
date: 2023-10-17, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
It’s the beginning of term, and the new frosh class are met with their first challenge of the year: attempting to socialize with random upperclass students. Each night for their first week at Caltech they rotate, attending events from all the houses, trying to find the perfect fit for their four years at Caltech. Then comes the cannon fire, and rotation comes to an end. The end of rotation brings every frosh a new housing assignment they have to move into. A very exhausting day follows as frosh move across campus, the dread of the boat problem and the first week of sets lingering overhead all the while.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/17/bechtel-room-codes/
date: 2023-10-17, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
John Darnielle, lead singer for The Mountain Goats
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/17/divorce-drinks-and-long-drives-the-mountain-goats-experience/
date: 2023-10-17, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
While Caltech is able to house all undergraduate students who wish to live on campus, this is not the case for graduate students. Only G1’s are guaranteed housing from the Housing Office; thereafter, graduates must enter an extremely competitive lottery to live in Caltech-owned apartments.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/17/apartment-building/
date: 2023-10-17, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
A common concern heard among the undergraduates on registration day these past few terms is “there aren’t enough hums!”. Broadly referring to all Humanities and Social Science (HSS) courses offered in a given term by the word ‘hum’, what specifically does the statement mean? That there aren’t enough advanced humanities courses being offered in any given term (i.e. not enough_ total HSS courses)? That there isn’t enough breadth of courses to satisfy their interests (i.e. not enough “interesting”_ HSS courses for any given student)? That there aren’t enough courses that fit into their schedule (i.e. not enough HSS courses at a given time)? The Academics and Research Committee (ARC) has compiled the following data to understand the source of the concern.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/17/hss-course-offerings-an-analysis-of-the-past-five-years/
date: 2023-10-17, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The Caltech Men’s Water Polo and Men’s Soccer teams saw success on Friday, October 13th and Saturday, October 14th – a strong start to the weekend for Caltech athletics.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/17/mens-soccer-and-mens-water-polo-start-the-weekend-strong/
date: 2023-10-17, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
At the start of 2023, students began to hear rumors of major renovations coming to Braun Athletic Center and Scott Brown Gym. We heard that the distribution of gym equipment would be changing, that the athletic training office would be moving, and circulating most of all, that the locker rooms were to see major renovations. For students and members, athletes and otherwise, this was an exciting change. The locker rooms had been outdated for a long time, both in their facilities and the ideas they reflected, and in April 2023, this much needed change began.
date: 2023-10-17, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Q I’m a grad student looking for club funding. How do I go about applying for money? -Madeline Hatter A Simple! Just follow this 4-step plan:
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/17/question-the-quail/
date: 2023-10-17, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Tik Tak… Tik Tak, it is almost 1 PM.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/17/the-calai-odyssey/
date: 2023-10-17, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
After arriving at Caltech, one of the first things I noticed about the campus once I finally had time to wander around was that, from what I could tell, this place lacked a consistent architectural style. There’s a mix of Spanish-style architecture like Beckman Institute, more modern-looking buildings like Chen, and silly guys like the Beckman Hall (and also ugly ass ones like Downs-Lauritsen). This mixing of styles continues inside, with some buildings like Bridge keeping their old-fashioned style but Gates-Thomas deciding to modernize. That’s all neat and cool, but it goes a little further than what you see walking up and down the halls. The place I noticed these tiny details is a sacred place where you have time to yourself, a place free of distraction, a place of relief: the bathroom.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/17/the-unstandardization-of-caltech-bathrooms/
date: 2023-10-17, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
On Friday, September 29, 2023, the Caltech Graduate Students and Postdocs United (C/GPU) hosted a rally to celebrate reaching a majority of signed union authorization cards. For those unfamiliar or just confused about the process, this was not a vote. Those in charge of the union effort made it clear that according to their recorded numbers, enough graduate students and postdocs currently support moving forward to a vote to force the issue. These same leaders have also been very vocal about the fact that a vote would not have needed to be forced if the administration had simply consented early on to let us hold one.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/17/to-unionize-or-not-to-unionize/
date: 2023-10-16, from: The Sundail (CSUN Student Newspaper)
The University Student Union at CSUN hosted a Cultural Welcome event in honor of its Latinx student body on Tuesday, Sept. 19, in the Grand Salon as a means of representing and celebrating the cultural identities that make up the campus community. The event hosted numerous cultural clubs and sororities that students could join, along…
https://sundial.csun.edu/176413/news/communities-malone-latin-welcome-event/
date: 2023-10-16, from: The Canyon News (COC Student Newspaper)
By: Eli Kern The 2023 writers strike lasted 144 days and the…
The post The WGA Strike is Officially Over appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/the-wga-strike-is-officially-over/
date: 2023-10-16, from: The Sundail (CSUN Student Newspaper)
Universal Studios Hollywood Horror Nights is an event that draws in upwards of 30,000 attendees each night during the fall season. I had to stop to wonder, is it really worth it? Before answering the big question, it is necessary to understand the two types of people who go to this kind of event: those…
https://sundial.csun.edu/176408/opinions/is-halloween-horror-nights-worth-the-cost/
date: 2023-10-16, from: City of Santa Clarita
2023 SIDEWALK POETRY WINNERS Bringing Artistic Expression to City Streets The City of Santa Clarita is proud to announce the Sidewalk Poetry Winners for 2023. This year, poets were tasked with invoking The Senses of Home, delving into the sights, sounds, smells and more that define a person’s home within the community. Congratulations […]
The post 2023 Sidewalk Poetry Winners appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2023/10/16/2023-sidewalk-poetry-winners/
date: 2023-10-16, from: The Canyon News (COC Student Newspaper)
By: Nareg Charkhedian Green hills and blue skies on campus at College…
The post War in Artsakh appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/war-in-artsakh/
date: 2023-10-15, from: The Canyon News (COC Student Newspaper)
By Katherine Brook Defying odds and tradition. this past summer Valencia High…
The post Local Pitcher Earns Herself a Spot On Team USA appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/local-pitcher-earns-herself-a-spot-on-team-usa/
date: 2023-10-15, from: City of Santa Clarita
SENSES: A Main Street Monster Mash By City Manager Ken Striplin It seems as though we were just announcing the transformation of Main Street in Old Town Newhall into a one-night Saint Patrick’s Day party, but time flies when you’re having a great time at SENSES Block Party. This event series has become a City-wide […]
The post SENSES: A Main Street Monster Mash appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2023/10/15/senses-a-main-street-monster-mash/
date: 2023-10-13, from: CI View (CSCI Student Newspaper)
A Letter To The Editor: As some of you may know, this past week the terrorist organization Hamas committed an unspeakable act of mass terrorism against […]
date: 2023-10-13, from: CI View (CSCI Student Newspaper)
By Destiny Caster As graduation approaches, the excitement and anticipation of completing your college journey can be overshadowed by the looming question: “What’s next?” Landing […]
date: 2023-10-13, from: CI View (CSCI Student Newspaper)
By Ashley Tolteca and Allen Monge
date: 2023-10-13, from: Pepperdine Beacon (Pepperdine Student Newspaper)
Late last year, during the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdowns that kept musicians off the road for more than two years, superstar Taylor Swift announced her Eras tour. In a self-proclaimed act of generosity, tickets for the concerts were priced extremely low with VIP packages costing just $900 and other tickets selling for as little […]
The post The High Cost of Cheap Concert Tickets appeared first on The Pepperdine Beacon.
date: 2023-10-13, from: Pepperdine Beacon (Pepperdine Student Newspaper)
Pepperdine University, once nearing the pinnacle in higher education rankings a few years ago, now finds itself in uncharted territory, ranking 76th of National Universities in the 2023 U.S. News and World Report (USNWR) rankings. This unexpected and substantial drop has sent shockwaves through the Pepperdine community and beyond. But what exactly led to this […]
The post Pepperdine Rankings Drop from 55th to 76th Nationally appeared first on The Pepperdine Beacon.
date: 2023-10-13, from: Transiting Los Angeles
Boyle Heights is one of L.A.’s oldest neighborhoods, full of interesting history, wonderful art, and great places to eat, all very accessible by a Metro rail line.
https://transitinglosangeles.com/2023/10/12/boyle-heights/
date: 2023-10-16, from: The LAist
Dennis Block runs what he says is California’s “leading eviction law firm.” A judge said legal citations submitted in Block’s name for a recent case were fake. Six legal experts told LAist the errors likely stemmed from AI misuse.
date: 2023-10-07, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
After over two decades ofcontinuous operation, Caltech Administration has banned the firing of the potato cannon as part of Blacker Hovse’s rotation events. Built in 2002 as part of a Ditch Day stack, firing it has been a Blacker Hovse tradition ever since. “The potato cannon was my favorite rotation event last year. I’m disappointed that this year’s frosh [weren’t] able to have the same experience as I did,” says Ethan Labelson (EE ’26, Blacker/Dabney).
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/blackers-potato-cannon-banned-after-over-20-years-of-use/
date: 2023-10-13, from: The LAist
Baker Commodities Inc. in the city of Vernon is suing the government agency that oversees it for $200 million in damages. Neighbors had celebrated its temporary shutdown. Now an upcoming court decision could allow a full reopening.
date: 2023-10-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
While houses throw a significant portion of the social events during the year, ASCIT throws events open to the entire student body every term. We’ve listed an overview of the events that we both host and help out with, often with our advisor, Tom Mannion, the Senior Director of Student Activities and Alumni Engagement.
https://tech.caltech.edu/ascit-social-calendar-2023-24/
date: 2023-10-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Over this summer, the blazing-pink cinematic nuclear warhead that is Barbenheimer – the sobriquet of the dual releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer – hit theaters worldwide.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/barbies-aka-feminism-101/
date: 2023-10-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Following Dabney Boat Tours, Chill at Page, and Ricketts Open Mic Night, the team-based, tournament-style competition centered around the promise of a massive water fight at the end, which participants could use their tickets to prepare for. Up for sale were water guns, tubs of water balloons, and defensive materials like mattresses and cardboard. To earn tickets, participants competed against each other in a series of games - ranging from lock picking to tug of war.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/the-frosh-perspective--blacker-olympics/
date: 2023-10-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Click here to read the comment: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/caltech-adventures/cowtech/viewer?title_no=875189&episode_no=1
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/caltech-adventures-cowtech/
date: 2023-10-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The Caltech Men’s Soccer team has been having a groundbreaking season this year, displaying a level of excellence and resilience that has made the institute proud. Their prowess on the field has been nothing short of phenomenal, displaying a level of excellence and resilience that has resonated across the campus.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/caltech-mens-soccer-rising-to-the-top/
date: 2023-10-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
In the mystical realm of Yosemite National Park, where towering sequoias whisper tales of centuries past and granite giants stand as stoic sentinels to the whims of time, a brave band of Caltech students - prefrosh, returning undergrads, and grad students - embarked on a four-day backpacking and camping odyssey as a part of the annual Caltech Y hiking trip.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/caltech-y-annual-yosemite-hike-an-odyssey/
date: 2023-10-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Last Wednesday, September 27th 2023, the Caltech Grad Researchers and Postdocs United (CGPU) held a New Year, New Union rally to demonstrate that a supermajority of graduate students and postdocs at Caltech support forming a union.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/cgpu-holds-new-year-new-union-majority-rally/
date: 2023-10-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
[TW: Eating disorders, starvation] For me, it was a comment from my dad that planted the seed. My friends watered it. Social media gave it light. I nurtured it myself at times, until it broke through the one thing I swore I would protect: my curiosity, my joy, my desire to learn.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/the-truth-about-not-eating-when-youre-hungry/
date: 2023-10-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
What a lovely 3-D surface plot. You can really tell that there’s data there and some of it is different from the other data. Place your bets now about what data it is!
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/10/today-on-how-badly-can-i-represent-this-data/
date: 2023-10-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The firing of the Fleming Cannon is a tradition that is supposed to bring pride and joy to the hearts of students every year and mark the progression of time from the end of rotation to the end of every term. However, for many students, the sound of the Fleming Cannon carries a heavy burden, evoking memories of a past they had hoped to leave behind when they came to Caltech.
date: 2023-10-02, from: The LAist
The actors union, SAG-AFTRA, is hoping to cut as good a deal with the studios as the writers union, WGA, did last week. But the negotiations, starting Monday, could be more complicated.
date: 2023-10-01, from: Port Hueneme
September 30, 2023 Download Press Release [Port Hueneme, CA] — Yellow banana wigs, boat rides, sounds of a tropical steel drum band and perfect late summer weather got the party started at the Port for the 10th Annual Banana Festival! Welcoming people inside the Port, Oxnard Harbor District President Jess Herrera stated, “The Banana Festival Read More
https://www.portofhueneme.org/10thbf-9-30-23/
date: 2023-09-30, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Newspaper)
Correction: The event was organized by Administrative Operations Technician Grace Ochoa and COVID-19 Reporting & ADA Accommodations Safety Officer Raquel Matosic and only faculty attended.
The post In the event of an active shooter appeared first on The Roundup.
date: 2023-09-29, from: Pepperdine Beacon (Pepperdine Student Newspaper)
Prior to undergrad, life past the age of twenty-two seemed unfathomable. Now, as a proud class of 2022 Pepperdine alumna, the harsh realities of rental payments, personal finances, and the probability of wrinkles have proven to become constant threats to my personal pursuit of happiness. Though I once fell subject to the false promises of […]
The post The Case Against Higher Education and Other Post-Grad Revelations appeared first on The Pepperdine Beacon.
date: 2023-09-29, from: Pepperdine Beacon (Pepperdine Student Newspaper)
Eyes of students, faculty, and Pepperdine community members glued upon the celebrity actor and producer, Chris Pratt, as he took his seat in the 16th annual September 11 Remembrance Ceremony. Over the course of the morning, special remarks were shared and the national anthem was sung; each portion of the ceremony operated familiarly to the […]
The post Chris Pratt Revisits American Patriotism on 9/11 appeared first on The Pepperdine Beacon.
date: 2023-09-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Newspaper)
The Lady Brahmas earned their second win of the season at Shepard stadium against Victor Valley College, advancing their overall record 2-2. LA
The post Victory over Victor Valley appeared first on The Roundup.
date: 2023-09-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Newspaper)
For the first time in more than 40 years Pierce College men’s soccer has returned. Pierce men’s soccer coach Julio Castillo started playing soccer
The post A castle on the field appeared first on The Roundup.
date: 2023-09-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Newspaper)
The Fall Dance Concert auditions were held at the North Gym on Saturday. The auditions were held by choreographers Brian Moe and Denise
The post Dancing with style and variety appeared first on The Roundup.
date: 2023-09-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Newspaper)
College districts across LAUSD have helped provide students who are not currently housed with living spaces for safety and studying. Pierce College teamed up
The post Pierce tucks in unhoused students appeared first on The Roundup.
date: 2023-10-09, from: The LAist
“We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional—with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” says the WGA.
date: 2023-09-22, from: Pepperdine Beacon (Pepperdine Student Newspaper)
Imagine that your professor divides your class into small groups to discuss a particular question. Perhaps you are discussing a social challenge like homelessness or discrimination, or perhaps you are discussing a controversial essay concerning sexual identity or gun rights. After twenty minutes, your small group will report your group’s opinion with supporting arguments back […]
The post Pursuing the Truth at Pepperdine appeared first on The Pepperdine Beacon.
date: 2023-09-22, from: Pepperdine Beacon (Pepperdine Student Newspaper)
As a student enrolled in a Christian university, a specific question constantly circulates in my mind: How can I represent Jesus to individuals who know the story of Christ like the back of their hand, who attend church services, and who identify themselves as Christians? In Mark 16:15, Jesus states, “Go into all the world […]
The post Being a Beacon of Faith to College Students appeared first on The Pepperdine Beacon.
date: 2023-09-21, from: Port Hueneme
September 21, 2023 Download press release [Port Hueneme, CA] — The Port of Hueneme is working with local fire departments on various training exercises to better prepare for a variety of emergency situations. This week, crews from Ventura County, Oxnard and the Naval Base fire departments boarded the Wallenius Wilhelmsen (WW) car carrier vessel Read More
https://www.portofhueneme.org/anchored-9-21-23/
date: 2023-09-21, from: The LAist
All over California, people with serious mental illness are living in nursing homes that experts say weren’t meant to care for them — an investigation by LAist, APM Research Lab and The California Newsroom reveals. Some call it “warehousing” and say the practice might violate federal laws. The consequences have been deadly.
https://laist.com/news/specials/mental-illness-nursing-homes-california-what-we-found
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Profile on Beth Larranaga
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/09/a-chat-with-beth-larranaga/
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
It has often been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Does this ring true for Caltech undergrads?
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/09/caltech-dining-scoop-early-bird-gets-the-cds-breakfast/
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
On January 21, the Caltech graduate student body received an email entitled “Campus Poll to Protect Wildlife”. The email, for those unfamiliar, provided a link to a poll where students could report concentrations of Fox squirrels on campus so that “yield to wildlife” road signs could be put up in strategic squirrel locations.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/09/censorship-and-squirrels/
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Dear Orange, What is this column about? I’m new to Caltech and don’t know much about this paper, or Caltech at all for that matter. Please tell me more. Sincerely, Curious
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/09/dear-orange-column/
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Last year, members of ASCIT, which is the entirety of all undergraduate students at Caltech, voted to raise dues from $33 per an academic term to $40 per an academic term by an overwhelming margin.
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The Caltech experience for women and non-binary folks is undeniably influenced by the fact that the majority of people at this school are men. Only in the past few decades has the undergraduate gender ratio at Caltech approached some semblance of balance. Enrollment statistics for Fall 2022 show that 55% of undergraduates are male. Not too shabby for an all-STEM institution.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/09/lets-talk-about-the-title-ix-situation/
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
In local news of the past n months.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/09/local-news-beat/
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Following up on the success of the first two films (which premiered in 2002 and 2016), My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 cashes in on fans’ nostalgia and the chemistry the cast possesses.
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
In 1988, Mobil Oil Field foreman Michele Judd stood on top of an oil platform in Paso Robles, California. She did not give much thought to the day ending or the stars coming out. To Judd, this simply signified that the workday was finishing and most of her workers would be heading home, leaving just a skeleton crew to work through the night. But years later, she remembers looking up into the darkening sky, wondering what it would be like working on projects high in space rather than working with materials deep in the earth.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/09/profile-michele-judd/
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
An advice column about life, love, classes, and everything in between! Brought to you by the one and only California Tech.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/09/question-the-quail-6/
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
SPECTRE library has long featured a life-sized mannequin of Anakin Skywalker. Short, remarkably detailed, and notoriously startling, Anakin is an iconic part of Caltech’s sci-fi library and well-known among South Hovse students.
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The Caltech Turtle Club is happy to showcase the turtle-y terrific winning entries from our Spring 2023 Photo Contest!
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/09/the-turtle-club-photography-contest/
date: 2023-09-19, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Of course none of this matters because you’re reading it online.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/09/what-to-do-with-the-tech-after-youve-read-it/
date: 2023-09-19, from: CSUN Library Blog, Cited
Each year from September 15 to October 15, we get together and observe Latinx Heritage Month to celebrate the contributions of Latinx Americans. During this…
date: 2023-09-18, from: Santa Clarita Public Library
Here is a list of books from our catalog to assist you will end-of-life planning.
https://www.santaclaritalibrary.com/2023/09/18/end-of-life-reading/
date: 2023-09-15, from: Pepperdine Beacon (Pepperdine Student Newspaper)
What is academic freedom? To whom does it apply and where? What is its purpose and scope? What are its limits, and who determines its boundaries? Are academic freedom and the First Amendment right of “freedom of speech” identical concepts? If not, how are they related? These questions are probed by Daniel Gordon, professor of […]
The post Academic Freedom and the Politicized Classroom appeared first on The Pepperdine Beacon.
date: 2023-09-14, from: Theodore Paine Foundation
Happy September, or should I say Seedtember! This month, we are celebrating all things seed at TPF. To say that 2023 has been a special weather year is an understatement. With rainfall way above average across Southern California, wildflowers proliferated throughout the region, creating vistas of unbroken color that plant lovers usually only dream about. […]
https://theodorepayne.org/seedtember/
date: 2023-09-14, from: The LAist
Thousands of picketers gathered to walk the mile down Van Ness Avenue from Netflix on Sunset Boulevard to Paramount Studios on Melrose Avenue.
date: 2023-09-04, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Courtesy of C/GPU
Viewpoint articles are a vehicle for members of the Caltech community to express their opinions on issues surrounding the interface of science and society. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Caltech or the editorial board of Caltech Letters. Please see our disclaimer.
Science is a labor of love—love of discovery, and love of pushing the limits of current human knowledge and ability. As graduate student and postdoctoral workers at Caltech, we nourish our cell culture lines on weekends, stay up all night observing through telescopes, spend hours welding devices, and travel long distances to study our world. We care deeply about our science, and we want the best environment in which to do that science.
Some aspects of our environment support our ability to do strong science, such as access to cutting-edge technologies, brilliant colleagues, and compelling classes and seminars. Other factors hinder or harm that ability, particularly for colleagues disadvantaged by our current system: for example, wages that fall short of the cost-of-living year-after-year, unexpected changes or cuts to our health insurance, unsafe laboratory environments, and a history of institutional failures to address mistreatment by faculty. To address these issues and create the best environment in which to do our science, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars across the Institute are in support of forming a union (known as Caltech Graduate Researchers and Postdocs United, or C/GPU). Unionization will allow us to collectively bargain for better working conditions and codify them in an enforceable contract.
Unfortunately, administrators leading Caltech are actively opposed to graduate students and postdoctoral scholars forming a union. In an email to graduate students in May 2023, Dean of Graduate Studies David Chan bluntly wrote, “As Institute leadership, we believe that unionizing is not in the best interest of our students or community”. Provost David Tirrell expressed a similar sentiment, writing in March that unionization would alter the “direct” and “collaborative” relationship between administrators and students.
Why is Caltech against us unionizing? A union will better position us to negotiate for the best conditions to do our science by challenging the current power dynamic where Caltech administrators unilaterally control all aspects of our working conditions. Case-in-point: year after year, the Graduate Student Council has presented Caltech with data-driven, explicit, well-formulated requests for stipend increases that meet the rising costs of living. Each time, Caltech has given marginal increases. Then, after the public debut of Caltech Grads and Postdocs United in December 2022, Caltech announced a sudden $5,000 increase in the graduate student stipend. In a message to faculty, Provost Tirrell explained that this stipend increase would be funded without impacting research budgets. Despite years of pleading from the Graduate Student Council, it took the specter of a union and a possible shift in power to finally persuade Caltech to increase stipends, and prove that they could do so without burdening lab funds. It is no wonder that on May 10th, 2023 the Caltech Graduate Student Council released a statement of support for C/GPU!
Caltech administrators have repeatedly sent graduate students and postdoctoral scholars a link to a website which provides supposedly unbiased “facts about, and resources for, current discussions about the potential Caltech graduate student and postdoctoral scholar unionization.” We were dismayed that much of the information in Caltech’s “Know the Facts” page lacks evidence, and worse, some of the “facts” are blatantly misleading. For example, they provide an example where “if only 100 out of 500 eligible people vote, 51 voters would determine the outcome for all 500 people in the bargaining unit, as well as future graduate students and postdocs”, which would suggest that graduate student and postdoctoral scholar union elections often have low (20%) participation. Twenty percent participation is far lower than any graduate student worker and postdoctoral scholar union election in recent history. Examples include USC, Johns Hopkins, and Yale, where union elections saw participation by 60%, 67%, and 63% of the voting body, respectively, with over 90% voting in favor in all three elections.
In fact, much of the language on Caltech’s webpage is similar to anti-union webpages at other universities. Several of these institutions have hired top-dollar law firms to prevent graduate students from unionizing; Duke University famously funded a legal campaign to challenge the law that graduate students are workers with the right to unionize. Curiously, large sections of the Caltech administration’s webpage are identical to a page about graduate student unionization published by Duke. Caltech graduate students and postdocs have taken the time to research, fact-check, and write critical clarifications to Caltech’s “Know the Facts” webpage.
A side-by-side comparison of the language from the respective anti-union pages from Duke (left) and Caltech (right). Exact language matches are highlighted.
Courtesy of C/GPU
Graduate student and postdoctoral workers drive the research and discovery happening at Caltech. We put all of our intellect (and most of our waking hours) into the generation, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of critical scientific advances. We do this work because we love science and discovery, but at the same time many of us struggle to pay for rent, healthcare, childcare, and international scholar visa and legal fees. Some of us deal with unsupportive or abusive advisors, and work in research settings with very real health hazards. Unionization can address these challenges and enhance our ability to do the scientific work that we love.
The undersigned graduate student workers and postdoctoral scholars have collectively contributed over a century of research and teaching years at Caltech. We have seen the serious hardships many fellow researchers have faced while trying to do their science at Caltech. We came here to work with and learn from Caltech’s world-class faculty, and we believe that a union will allow us to achieve more together. Many faculty, having once been junior researchers themselves, have expressed support for graduate students and postdocs unionizing at Caltech. We advocate not only for ourselves, but for all of our colleagues, especially those in more vulnerable positions. With a union, we will have the ability to bargain for long-overdue improvements and protections, such as:
We have done our homework and made the decision that forming a union is necessary to ensure that we and future scholars at Caltech are best positioned to make discoveries that can positively change our world.
In support of Caltech Grads and Postdocs United (C/GPU):
Alexander Viloria Winnett, BBE, 5 years
Ranjani
Murali, BBE/GPS, 6 years
Tom Naragon, CCE, 6
years
William Denman, CCE/GPS, 6 years
Ryan
Rubenzahl, PMA, 5 years
Varun Wadia, BBE, 6
years
Mike Greklek-McKeon, GPS, 4 years
Ashay
Naren Patel, PMA, 5 years
James Williams, EAS, 3
years
Lambda Moses, BBE, 6 years
Richard
Horak, BBE, 3 years
Sasha Alabugin, CCE, 3
years
Sam Ponnada, PMA, 3 years
Tessa
Rusch, HSS, 3 years
Rahma Elsiesy, BBE, 2
years
Natasha Reich, CCE, 2 years
Simona
Miller, PMA, 2 years
Nadia Suryawinata, BBE, 2
years
Elina Sendonaris, EAS, 2 years
Jasmine
Emtage, BBE, 2 years
Ruby Byrne, PMA, 2 years
Quinn Morgan, EAS, 2 years
Matt
Ratanapanichkich, CCE, 2 years
Talya Klinger, PMA, 1
year
Elisabetta Benazzi, CCE, 1 year
Daniel
Utter, GPS, 2 years
Jessics Spake, GPS, 3
years
Abdullah Farooq, BBE, 6 years
Joel
Chacko, EAS, 2 years
Emma Cosner, CCE, 1 year
Korbinian Thalhammer, GPS, 3 years
Ethan Klein,
EAS, 2 years
John Chapman, CCE, 3 years
Nikolaus Prusinski, PMA, 3 years
Evie Harel,
CCE, 2 years
Ruth Moorman, GPS, 3 years
David
Abramovitch, EAS, 2 years
Himanshu Chaudhary, PMA, 4
years
https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/we-do-our-homework
date: 2023-08-28, from: CSUN Library Blog, Cited
Fall 2023 is here! Whether you are a first-time freshman, a returning student, graduate or undergraduate, the Library is here to support you! If you…
https://library.csun.edu/blogs/cited/2023/08/28/welcome-to-the-library/
date: 2023-08-17, from: Port Hueneme
The Port of Hueneme operations team hosts a training event with 20 partner agencies as part of a Countywide effort to prepare for potential Tsunami weather events August 17, 2023 Download press release [Port Hueneme, CA] — The Port of Hueneme’s operations team joined by security partners, NAVSEA, Amergent Tech, Oxnard Emergency Services, VCFD, ILWU Read More
https://www.portofhueneme.org/augustwave/
date: 2023-08-14, from: Port Hueneme
A much-anticipated return of a community wide loved Port event. Download press release [Port Hueneme, CA] — The Port of Huenemes’ annual Banana Festival is back! This 10th annual festival will take place on Saturday September 30th, 2023, from 10am-5pm.This family-friendly free admission festival will provide a day filled with entertainment, vendors, port tours, banana Read More
https://www.portofhueneme.org/10thannualbananafestival/
date: 2023-07-31, from: Port Hueneme
California Secretary of Transportation leads delegation for meetings in Washington, D.C. with USDOT leadership advocating for federal funding to California ports. Download press release [Port Hueneme, CA] — On the heels of the historic state funding for the Port of Hueneme earlier this month, Port of Hueneme CEO Kristin Decas alongside California Transportation Secretary Toks Read More
https://www.portofhueneme.org/federalfunding-7-31-23/
date: 2023-07-29, from: Transiting Los Angeles
You all knew it was coming. Join us as we discuss the 1994 action classic “Speed”, and see how well the movie holds up nearly thirty years later.
https://transitinglosangeles.com/2023/07/29/podcast-6-speed/
date: 2023-07-20, from: Theodore Paine Foundation
As we head into the long, hot stretch of Southern California summer, things typically start to slow down in the native plant world. Leaves fall, flowers turn to seed, and the soil dries, changing the landscape dramatically. One of my favorite things to do during this time of year is to walk around the grounds […]
https://theodorepayne.org/conversations/
date: 2023-07-15, from: CSUN Library Blog, Cited
The CSUN University Library is here to keep you cool and connected this summer. While the hours may be shorter, the library remains your go-to…
https://library.csun.edu/blogs/cited/2023/07/15/summer-updates-and-digital-connections/
date: 2023-07-13, from: Port Hueneme
Download press release [Port Hueneme, CA] — It’s official! The Port of Hueneme’s annual Green Marine certification results are out, and the Port was certified in June 2023 with its highest scores ever during the annual Green Marine re-certification process. These high scores are an acknowledgement of the Port of Hueneme’s commitment to leadership in Read More
https://www.portofhueneme.org/green-marine-7-12-23/
date: 2023-07-11, from: Transiting Los Angeles
Downtown Glendale is most famous for its malls, but the curious visitor will find more, like a dazzling neon museum and great places to eat.
https://transitinglosangeles.com/2023/07/10/glendale/
date: 2023-07-08, from: Port Hueneme
Governor Gavin Newsom Delivers Transformational Funding Award Download press release [PORT HUENEME, CA] – Governor Gavin Newsom delivers a historic $80,000,000 to the Port of Hueneme for projects that generate social and economic equity while providing substantial revenue streams to help transform the Port to a zero-emission hub. California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) served as Read More
https://www.portofhueneme.org/80m-7-9-23/
date: 2023-06-29, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
LOS ANGELES, CA / Highland Park (June 29, 2023) – UC Berkeley Biologist Gabriel Richard Trujillo was shot and killed on June 19, 2023 in the mountains of Sonora, Mexico, as he gathered plant samples for his Ph.D. research on the evolutionary origins of Buttonwillow and how the plant could be used for wetland habitat restoration. He was originally from Arizona, and moved as a child with his family to Michigan.
date: 2023-06-27, from: Port Hueneme
Recently an outbreak of a naturally occurring domoic acid has been resulting in the illness and death of many large ocean predators off of Southern California including local marine mammals like dolphins and sealions as well as seabirds like loons and cormorants. If you see a dead or sick animal do not approach it, Read More
https://www.portofhueneme.org/update-6-27-23/
date: 2023-06-23, from: Tatavium Tribal News
“We are Still Here.” A Report on Past, Present, and Ongoing Harms Against Local Tribes In recent years, the County of Los Angeles has been active in both uplifting the true histories of what is now known as Los Angeles County and in prioritizing equity for its communities. On July 13, 2021, Supervisors Hilda
https://www.tataviam-nsn.us/published-report-harms-against-la-tribes/
date: 2023-06-23, from: Port Hueneme
Direct Link: https://youtu.be/aByttZZwGTc
https://www.portofhueneme.org/portofhuenemehistory/
date: 2023-06-19, from: Tatavium Tribal News
The Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians (FTBMI) is a sovereign Native American Nation that is state recognized, located within northern Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County in the State of California. The Education and Cultural Learning Department (Department) established by FTBMI legislative body, Tribal Senate, to provide higher education, cultural learning, cultural
https://www.tataviam-nsn.us/job-posting-director-ecld/
date: 2023-06-16, from: Transiting Los Angeles
The Regional Connector opens tomorrow! See our guide on Metro’s new rail service and what you can find around the new downtown stations.
https://transitinglosangeles.com/2023/06/15/regional-connector/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The Office of Residential Experience in partnership with Student Faculty Programs announces the 2023 Caltech Summer Ambassador Cohort
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/2023-sfp-summer-ambassador-cohort/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
2023 Undergraduate Acacdemic Awards Jin Ming Koh, a senior in Physics and Computer Science will receive the 2023 George W. Housner Prize for Academic Excellence and Original Research at commencement. This award is given to seniors in the upper 20% of their class for an outstanding piece of original scientific research. Elsa Palumbo, a senior Astrophysics and Physics, and Pavlos Stavrinides, a senior in Applied and Computational Mathematics will share the 2023 George W.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/2023-undergraduate-student-awards/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
As a Caltech student, I do tend to eat at least some of my meals on-campus. And, like any other living person, I have likes and dislikes. Being the chair of the Food Committee, I feel the urge to give some shout-outs to the best food on campus served recently, so I thought I’d write an article for the Tech doing so.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/a-column-from-the-foodcomm-chair/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
I start this article the way I will end it - with a huge thank you. It’s as simple as that. You see, I was asked to write an article – we all were – and I appreciate that the Tech has included this new section in your newspaper.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/admin-corner-felicia-hunt/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Click here to fill out our feedback form and enter this week’s Amazon Skymall Raffle!
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/amazon-skymall---june-13-2023/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Last weekend, Blacker Hovse sought a takeover of the Eastern Sierras over the course of their two-night stay. Through attempting to summit dangerous icy peaks, establishing campsite populace dominance, thwarting frostbite whilst collecting pristine slabs of ice, and feeding duckies – memories were made and aesthetic photos were taken.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/blacker-hovse-takes-over-the-sierras/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Attention all fans of fresh produce! On June 1st, Caltech Dining Services (CDS) hosted their first ever Pop-Up Farmers Market in the Little Browne Dining Room!
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/caltech-dining-scoop-plant-yourself-at-the-farmers-market/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
On Wednesday, June 7, 2023 at 2:12 p.m., Caltech undergraduates received the following email: Caltech Notification System This Timely Warning Bulletin is being issued in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Act. The purpose is to provide preventative information to the campus community to aid members from becoming the victim of a crime. Summary: On June 7, 2023, at around 7:30 a.m., while unlocking the Tournament Park parking lot, south of the Braun Athletic Center, Caltech Security officers observed a red Chevy utility van parked in the parking lot.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/caltech-timely-warning-crime-bulletin-aggravated-assault/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
ChatGPT has revolutionized our world, so how does this impact Caltech, especially in regards to the humanities and the honor code.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/chatgpt-vs-the-honor-code/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
I spent my first night at Caltech deciphering runes.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/choosing-caltech-a-frosh-retrospective/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
While Techer culture boasts many peculiarities in the form of zany pranks, Ditch Days, interhouses, LN2 dipped pumpkins shattering at terminal velocity, and many more activities contributing to the “quirkiness” of a Caltech undergraduate experience, unbeknownst to most is the existence of the Aero Association of Caltech (AACIT).
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/club-spotlight-aero-association-of-caltech/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
A couple months ago, on the front page of my very first issue of the Tech as Editor-in-Chief, I ran an article titled ‘Fizz Asserts Control’. This was meant to be a hilarious callback to previous years’ “April Fools” issues of the Tech.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/editorial-fizz-continues-to-assert-control/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Caltech Students: Please fill out the IHC’s feedback forms about Housing and Rotation before July 1st, 2023! thanks :) When the news broke that 271 students committed to Caltech for the Class of 2027, current students and faculty panicked. How would Caltech accommodate around 40 more freshmen than expected? Suddenly, the rules for upperclassmen picking rooms on campus were changing and students scrambled to update their plans. But why did so many students feel cheated, and is there really a housing crisis on campus?
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/is-the-housing-crisis-really-a-crisis/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
This issue contains a review of several so called “tasty” food options on campus. While I cannot speak to most of them as my pallet tends towards the cautious and new things frighten and scare me, one item mentioned made me extremely opinionated.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/letter-to-the-editor-bread/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Dear Editor, Seeing the Magic Eye illusion (AKA autostereogram) in the May 31st issue of the Tech brought back a lot of fun memories!
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/magic-eye-illusion-or-delusion/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
A summary of Caltech Y’s 2023 Make a Difference (MAD) day.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/make-a-difference-day/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
With the end of term fast approaching and the taste of freedom on the tip of the tongues of Caltech students, the knowledge of having free time for the first time in months is undeniably tantalizing. But what to do with that free time is a question that has yet to be answered.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/minecraft-120-update-review/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
It’s a beautiful day outside… the birds are singing, flowers are blooming… and it’s cloudy??? That’s right people, it’s cloudy here in beautiful Southern California. Where is the “almost 365 days of sunshine” I was promised by the Admissions Office in my acceptance letter a year ago?
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/my-frosh-year-2022-23-a-reflection/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Dear Quail, In your holy infinite wisdom, can you answer the question: Is Caltech worth it? Best, A.S. Muncher
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/query-the-quails-june-13-2023/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
At around 9:10 PM on Wednesday, May 17th, the façade of our beloved Red Door Café was damaged by a piece of thrown debris. This author got to the scene in time to interview key witnesses, take photos of the incident, and grab a smoked tofu sandwich before 10 PM.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/rock-and-roll-broken-glass-pane-at-red-door-briefly-causes-chaos/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
“Go to a Nordic country and commit a crime that will get you a school term of jail time… do your work remotely from there in luxury and comparative extravagance,” says Josiah Miller (Ay ’24, Venerable).
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/surviving-a-year-in-marks-house/
date: 2023-06-13, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is currently on strike. The last time this happened was in 2008 and lasted around 2 months.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/writers-strike/
date: 2023-06-09, from: Port Hueneme
Stakeholders focus on the crucial role of the ocean and ways to help protect it Download press release [Port Hueneme, CA] — In celebration of World Oceans Day, the Port of Hueneme held a “Sustaining the Seas Summit” on Thursday, June 8 at the Channel Islands Maritime Museum in Oxnard. The event was an opportunity Read More
https://www.portofhueneme.org/wod-6-8-23/
date: 2023-05-31, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The Caltech Alpine Club takes a trip to the desert and into the great outdoors.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/caltech-alpine-club-visits-red-rock-canyon/
date: 2023-05-31, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
“Go to bed, frosh, Ditch Day is tomorrow!” Reflections on a missed day of classes.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/ditch-day-was-indeed-tomorrow/
date: 2023-05-31, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Joe interviews Doris, a 87-year-old very accomplished bike thief.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/interview-with-a-bike-thief/
date: 2023-05-31, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
I got paid!!! Parting thoughts from the previous Tech Editor.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/kenny-got-paid/
date: 2023-05-31, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
“I can say that when I was first asked about it, it obviously seemed like a challenging role, but I genuinely believe that I can stand up to the challenge,” chimed Dr. Jennifer Jahner, newly appointed Dean of Undergraduate Students.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/new-undergraduate-dean-appointed/
date: 2023-05-31, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Reflections of Study Abroad student Lulu Kwan.
date: 2023-05-31, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
A new advice column about life, love, classes, and everything in between! Brought to you by the one and only California Tech.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/question-the-quail/
date: 2023-05-31, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Several Houses hosted Interhouses recently, including Lloyd, BDR, Blacker, and Fleming
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/spring-interhouvse-spotlight/
date: 2023-05-31, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
As we barrel towards the end of another academic year and prepare to say “au revoir” to our soon-to-be-graduates, I hope we can all take a moment to appreciate the time that we have been able to spend together and reflect upon what we have overcome in the past few years, both as individuals and as a community.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/the-admin-corner---lesley-nye/
date: 2023-05-31, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Caltech’s mascot finally has a democratically elected name: Bernoulli, or Berni for short. This name was unveiled in a short ceremony on Sunday, May 21st.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/update-on-bernoulli-the-beaver/
date: 2023-05-31, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Caltech’s meal plan is mandatory for all students living on campus and the default plan will cost $8,259 next year. Joe Kim takes on why this should not and does not need to be the case.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/why-caltechs-mandatory-meal-plans-need-to-change/
date: 2023-05-25, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Pasadena, CA (AP) - The world is on the brink of an unprecedented cataclysmic event known as “Ditch Day,” set to occur tomorrow.
date: 2023-05-24, from: Transiting Los Angeles
Last week saw the most hilarious transit debacle in recent memory, and we needed to talk about it. Join us as we discuss the fallout over the ill-conceived “La Sombrita,” take a closer look at the consultants who brought it to us, and share some insights into how something like this comes to be.
https://transitinglosangeles.com/2023/05/23/podcast-5-la-sombrita/
date: 2023-05-23, from: CSUN Library Blog, Cited
Thank you to Lynn Lampert for this contribution to Cited at the Library May is Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM), which recognizes the more than…
https://library.csun.edu/blogs/cited/2023/05/23/celebrating-jewish-american-heritage/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
ASCIT Board of Directors 2023-24: Election Results
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/ascits-hot-new-bod/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Fruit! Trinity explores the fruit options Caltech Dining Service (CDS) provides.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/caltech-dining-scoop-i-would-berry-much-like-some-fruit/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The numbers are in! We’ve got just over 267 committed freshmen in Caltech’s Class of 2027.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/discotech-a-reflection/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
“Esprit de corps” literally translated means a feeling of pride or a common loyalty. This phase interpreted into an educational setting means something more common, and simple. It is school spirit!
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/esprit-de-corps--be-a-beaver/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
“I sold $2,500 worth of FRB shares, for $41,” admits Cristian Ponce (BioE ’25, Blacker). “I knew it was a risky investment, it didn’t work out.”
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/first-republic-bank-sale-student-loses-2400/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
“I planned accordingly.. based on the rules of the lottery”, says Hannah Fisher (ME ’24, Unaffiliated) “If they had stuck with the original rules, I would have gotten housing in Bechtel. But now I don’t have on-campus housing.”
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/high-yield-rate-for-co-2027-leaves-students-with-no-housing/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The unprecedented high level of freshman enrollment has spurred a housing shortage on the Caltech campus. Therefore, we propose the following locations as new options for undergraduate housing:
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/proposed-solutions-to-the-housing-crisis/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
A new advice column about life, love, classes, and everything in between! Brought to you by the one and only California Tech.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/question-the-quail-3/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Where do you go when you’re hungry and it’s 2 am on a Friday? Well, if you ask me, it’s Arturo’s taco truck.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/review-arturos-taco-truck/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Is a beaver statue the way to add school spirit to the Caltech Campus? Reflections on naming the beaver mascot and the new beaver statue.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/so-we-have-a-beaver-statue-now/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
TCT Crossword - “Classic Arcade” | Enric Adillon and Madeline Hicks
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/06/the-california-tech-crossword/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
TCT Crossword - “Places” | Lilia Arrizabalaga
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/the-california-tech-crossword/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
In my almost two years as an undergraduate at this school, I have had two bikes stolen from me on campus.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/two-years-two-bikes/
date: 2023-05-16, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
For the first year since COVID, the Caltech Y and the International Student Programs (ISP) successfully held World Fest 2023. With 22 different countries and regions represented, this year’s annual spring event was sure to brighten the days of the hundreds of community members that came to indulge in diverse foods and music.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/05/world-fest-2023/
date: 2023-05-02, from: Transiting Los Angeles
On this day exactly 100 years ago, the City of Los Angeles held an election that resulted in the creation of the city’s first extensive bus network. In this episode, John talks about the early history of LA’s transit system and the strange events that led to the city’s first bus system.
https://transitinglosangeles.com/2023/05/01/podcast-4-the-first-buses/
date: 2023-04-28, from: CSUN Library Blog, Cited
The Library wouldn’t be what it is without the staff, specialists, and information professionals that work there. Every year (usually the end of April),…
date: 2023-04-24, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The 2023 ASCIT formal was a resounding success. Held at the LA Natural History Museum, their famous dioramas and dinosaur bones set the ambiance.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/2023-04-25-2023-ascit-formal/
date: 2023-04-24, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Minutes for April 16, 2023. Taken by Jonathan Booker.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/bod-meeting-minutes-april-16-2023/
date: 2023-04-24, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Regardless of whether you’re an early bird or a night owl, you have probably noticed a difference or two in the Red Door menu this term.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/2023-04-25-caltech-dining-scoop---new-red-door-items/
date: 2023-04-24, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
On Tuesday, April 18th, Caltech held its biannual Student Faculty Conference (SFC), an all-day forum between students and faculty.
date: 2023-04-24, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
SE: The good way to make nachos is to use shredded cheese and put it in the oven, not the liquid cheese AdP: Seconded. Who uses liquid cheese? TW: Red door
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/ihc-meeting-minutes-april-9-2023/
date: 2023-04-24, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Saturday 4/29 4:30-7pm – Beckman Lawn – Enjoy a show celebrating a diversity of cultures through clothing, music, performances, and food.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/multicultural-fashion-show-april-29th/
date: 2023-04-24, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
This term, 3 new bylaws amendments have been proposed by Board of Directors of the Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/ascit-bylaw-amendments/
date: 2023-04-24, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
A new advice column about life, love, classes, and everything in between! Brought to you by the one and only California Tech.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/question-the-quail-april-24-2023/
date: 2023-04-24, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Flashback to 1965. The integrated circuit was already heralding a revolution in computation, empowering Fairchild Semiconductor to become its sole profitable manufacturer in the United States.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/legacy-moore-law/
date: 2023-04-24, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
It’s spring, and with the changing of the season comes the fantastic sight of turtles zooming around campus. It can be very amusing to see turtles out as far as the Atheneum or swimming in the Caltech Hall Pond. But why do they do this, and should they be stopped?
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/2023-04-27-whats-with-the-turtles/
date: 2023-04-24, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Standing tall on Caltech campus, an Engelmann Oak towered over Hameetman Center right outside of the Red Door café exit. Then it fell on March 2.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/red-door-tree/
date: 2023-04-23, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The voting period for the ASCIT Spring 2023 Elections closes at 11:59 PM on Monday, April 24th. You can vote here: https://donut.caltech.edu/1/surveys
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/candidate-statements-ascit-spring-2023-elections/
date: 2023-04-12, from: Transiting Los Angeles
Claremont is an exceptionally charming college town, with art museums, gardens, lovely architecture, and a cute downtown surrounding a convenient Metrolink stop.
https://transitinglosangeles.com/2023/04/12/claremont/
date: 2023-04-11, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
“Space, Love, Loss, Jellyfish, and lots of Vanilla Coke.” Tickets available here
date: 2023-04-11, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
After a 3 year hiatus due to COVID, the Caltech Y hosted their 7-day Alternative Spring Break (ASB) trip to the Hawaiian islands. Attendees included graduate and undergraduate students alike, all with varying backgrounds, countries of origin, and courses of study.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/hawaii/
date: 2023-04-11, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Well folks, let me tell you something just awful and terrible that the stupid FRICKS at Ricketts Hovse have been hiding. Gerard Decker (’26, Ricketts), a fantastic guy, a really great guy, was robbed, yes robbed, of becoming the Unilateral Excomm of Ricketts Hovse.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/2023-04-11-gerard-for-unilateral-excomm/
date: 2023-04-11, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
My research work at Caltech is trying to precisely address the most fundamental questions that have ever been posed by a human being: “How did the universe begin?”
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/imaging-the-beginning-of-time/
date: 2023-04-11, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Now with interactive crossword puzzles! Also: submit your Questions for the Quail!
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/2023-04-11-puzzles/
date: 2023-04-11, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
March 13, 2023, 8PM | The scene is set: it’s a mild night with a soft breeze. The runners take their marks around the track. 3, 2, 1, and they’re off!
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/2023-04-11-rolling/
date: 2023-04-11, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
According to a recent estimate, more than 250 students at Caltech receive some form of disability accommodation – academic, housing, dietary, or otherwise.
date: 2023-04-11, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Springtime is here, and the Tech is back on campus. The Tech’s photography team has been out and about, capturing the beauty of the season on campus.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/springtime-campus-photography-feature/
date: 2023-04-11, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
For the first time in four years, the 2023 Student Faculty Conference will be held in-person on April 18th in Ramo Auditorium. The Student Faculty Conference (SFC) is an all-day forum discussion between students and faculty.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/student-faculty-conference/
date: 2023-04-11, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Many South Hovse denizens over the past few months have gone to shower only to be disappointed by lukewarm or cold water temperatures. This is their story.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/hot-water/
date: 2023-04-11, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
I’ll make no bones about it. The Super Mario Bros. Movie was easily the most anticipated movie of the year, if not the last decade.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/super-mario-bros/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
˙ᴉdʎʇɐld ƃuᴉpnlɔuᴉ ‘ǝɟᴉlplᴉʍ ǝsɹǝʌᴉp ʎllɐuoᴉʇdǝɔxǝ sʇᴉ ɹo ɟ uʍouʞ-llǝʍ sᴉ ‘ǝɹǝɥdsᴉɯǝɥ uɹǝɥʇnos ǝɥʇ uᴉ ʎɹʇunoɔ ƃuᴉʞɐǝds-ɥsᴉlƃuƎ uɐ ‘ɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/magic-australia/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Ah, bananas, the fruit that comes in its own convenient packaging. It’s nature’s way of saying, ‘Here, have a snack on the go.’ But have you ever stopped to think about the humble banana and all the things it can do?
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/2023-04-05-banana-99/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
What do you do when the cure is worse than the disease?
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/dabney-lies-dangerous-crossroads/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Since the very first day I stepped foot on campus for winter term, I knew Fizz was going to be nothing but trouble. No worthwhile product has ever been advertised with colorful cardstock flyers delivered to doorsteps.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/fizz-asserts-control/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
I love the little shops they have in museums and places. They’re the best thing in the whole world. Every time I go into a new place I look and see if there are any little shops.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/gift-shops/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
I aim to keep the general public informed about this dangerous individual as well as garner information which will help lead to his capture.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/2023-04-05-investigation-into-crimes-against-the-california-tech/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The Caltech undergraduate population has, despite its small size, a diverse variety of species that make up the techer population. This week we’ll embark on an in-depth analysis of a peculiar invasive species of Techer that has emerged in the Caltech ecosystem: the iPad Kid.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/2023-04-05-the-critter-corner-analysis-of-the-ipad-kid-species/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
November 2021 – I was but a young naïve frosh, getting my dinner from open kitchen. I sighted orange disks of vegetables and was full of hope, sweet potatoes iare some of my favorite foods. However, my hope quickly turned to confusion when the person in front of me ordered “yams”.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/yam-controversy/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Are you a REAL CALTECH STUDENT if you have never attended one of the Undergraduate Admission Office’s HOT, FACTUALLY-CORRECT, and VERY FUN tours lead by the current generation of Caltech students???
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/transcript-admissions-tour-leaked/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Je ne peux pas continuer comme ça. J’ai essayé très fort de faire cette relation travailler entre nous, mais ce n’est plus possible. J’espère que tu le vois aussi. Si tu ne comprends pas, permets-moi de l’explique.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/lettre-de-rupture/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
#8 will SHOCK you!
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/power-hum/
date: 2023-04-04, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
In the leadup to the third feature film in the Sonic the Hedgehog cinematic universe, the Sonic fandom eagerly awaits the answer to one of gaming’s most prominent questions: who will be Sonic’s relationship partner?
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/04/2023-04-05-who-will-sonic-end-up-with-in-the-next-movie/
date: 2023-04-02, from: Transiting Los Angeles
Metro is currently building a lot of projects that will dramatically expand our city’s rail system by the end of the decade. In this (somewhat goofy) episode, John covers each one in detail and gives his thoughts.
https://transitinglosangeles.com/2023/04/01/podcast-3-the-future/
date: 2023-03-29, from: Tatavium Tribal News
Interested in becoming a Tiuvac’a’ai’ Tribal Conservation Corps (TTCC) corpsmember? TTCC is now accepting applications.
https://www.tataviam-nsn.us/corpsmember/
date: 2023-03-29, from: Tatavium Tribal News
JOB DESCRIPTION Job Title: Crew Supervisor Reports to: Program Manager, Tiüvac’a’ai Tribal Conversation Corps Compensation: $19.11 per hour to $22.93 per hour DOE/DOQ, Grant Designated Job Type: Non-exempt; Regular full time Location: San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles County; in-person, office and project worksites Job Summary Pukúu Cultural Community Services is looking for a Crew
https://www.tataviam-nsn.us/crew-supervisor-tiuvacaai-tribal-conversation-corps/
date: 2023-03-15, from: Tatavium Tribal News
The City of LA’s Climate Emergency Mobilization Office (CEMO), with the support of the Liberty Hill Foundation, is launching the 2nd Annual Climate Equity LA (CELA) Series. Invited guests include Mayor Karen Bass, Deputy Mayor for Energy and Sustainability Nancy Sutley, Council President Paul Krekorian, Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, and Tribal President of the Fernandeño
https://www.tataviam-nsn.us/save-the-date-climate-equity-la/
date: 2023-03-13, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
by Liz Leshin
Young Juliet Drinkard with her parents in 1951.
Juliet Drinkard has always loved history, so much so that at the age of 16, she entered an essay-writing competition to highlight a significant African American in history. She chose mathematician and surveyor Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), won the contest, and was crowned Queen of Los Angeles’ “Miss Negro History Week” in 1969.
Then there’s the tour she organized and scripted for a family reunion in 1986 large enough to fill two tour buses that caravanned through many of Los Angeles’ historic areas, starting at Watts Towers, ending in Hollywood, and of course allowing for a shopping stop at Santee Alley. And although she moved out for years-long stretches, she still lives in the huge South Central house she was raised in, purchased by her parents in 1954, which she describes as “looking like a big ship.”
Although living in the home can be bittersweet now that her folks are gone, she has special memories of eating family meals looking out of the big picture windows of the breakfast room into the backyard at her father’s lush garden, which she says was “like being in a professional nursery.”
The Drinkard Family Home.
Juliet’s family home was built in 1910, like many of the other houses in the neighborhood. She describes her parents trying to modernize the house, painting the dark wood white, removing the coffered ceilings and some of the built-ins. Juliet tried to convince her parents not to make these renovations. She says that “Even at 11, I liked looking at older buildings,” both her own house and those of her relatives. Juliet especially likes the opportunities that participating in Conservancy events offers to get inside of homes and other buildings that she wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
Her parents both moved to Los Angeles from the south, her mother from Louisiana her father from Alabama. Her father and his brother lived with their uncle, who “bought a tiny house on a street called “Success” in Compton,” notes Juliet. Her parents met through an uncle on her mother’s side; they dated for a year and got married, spending their honeymoon night at the Clark Hotel on Central Avenue. Juliet describes the special experience of being able to visit the Clark Hotel in the 1980s.
Juliet’s commitment to historic preservation intensified when she started working in downtown Los Angeles in the 1970s. “I went over to see the Bunker Hill area, and learned that the Victorian-era homes had been bulldozed. I felt sick. That area should have been preserved… something should have been done,” she says, adding “It’s important – that’s a part of the history of Los Angeles.”
Newspaper clippings of 1969’s “Negro History Week” where 16-year-old Juliet was named Queen.
With her passion for Los Angeles history, it was inevitable that Juliet would find her way to the Los Angeles Conservancy as a member and volunteer (her first assignment was the 2014 special tour We Heart Garden Apartments). She supports the organization “to make a difference in preserving Los Angeles’ history.” She loves to explore Los Angeles, and take friends and visitors to many places around town, with a special affection for historic locations. She observes, “there’s so much to do and see in our own hometown!”
One of Juliet’s favorite historic places to visit is Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House. She went to visit three times in a 7-year period before Covid. She said every time she went, she saw something different, and just loved standing in the space and looking around to get the feeling of the place.
Two of her other favorite historic locations in L.A. are Union Station and the Farmers Market, both formative places in her childhood that she still loves to visit. She describes going to the Farmers Market in the early 1960s as an 11 year old. Her mother “worked for a lady whose apartment overlooked the Farmers Market,” and one time her mom gave her five dollars and let her explore the shops on her own. She remembers how exciting that was. “I bought a little box of pastel chalks for $4.95,” which she says she still has to this day.
She describes going to Union Station frequently with her parents when she was young, “starting in the 1950s; relatives were always coming and going.” As a child, she would look through the window at the Fred Harvey restaurant – she wanted to go in but never did. It was a real pleasure for her to volunteer when the L.A. Conservancy held an event to celebrate the grand opening of the Imperial Western Brewing Company in 2018, in the former Fred Harvey restaurant space, which had sat empty for decades. She says, “My dream came true. Over 60 years later, I’m walking through the door, sitting and eating inside.”
Our sincere thanks to Juliet for sharing so many wonderful memories and family photos.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/711694699439800320
date: 2023-03-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
In November 2022, the Caltech Center for Inclusion and Diversity (CCID) welcomed a new Program Coordinator, Meri Makhmuryan, to join the staff.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/03/chat-meri-makhmuryan/
date: 2023-03-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
2022’s Frosh Camp Counselors attempted rallied in support of getting all incoming frosh orange crewmate plushies from the video game Among Us.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/03/2023-04-04-making-the-case-for-the-orange-crewmate/
date: 2023-03-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
On the first day of winter term, on-campus students woke up to find small glossy flyers outside their doors, advertising an app called “Fizz”…
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/03/fizz-comes-to-campus/
date: 2023-03-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
For almost as long as Caltech had undergraduate students, the institute has guaranteed its students housing on campus for four years. Almost.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/03/growing-student-body-leads-undergraduate-housing-shortage/
date: 2023-03-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
It was a simpler time three years ago.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/03/kenny-pay/
date: 2023-03-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Interview with Hima Vatti, Caltech’s Title IX Coordinator and Director of the Equity and Title IX Office.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/03/title-ix-interview/
date: 2023-03-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
A new advice column about life, love, classes, and everything in between! Brought to you by the one and only California Tech.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/03/question-quail-1/
date: 2023-03-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Last Friday, on the 24th of February, a group of about 40 Caltech graduate students and postdoctoral researchers delivered a petition signed by over 400 of our colleagues, in support of an international graduate student.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/03/reinstate-it-cannot-wait/
date: 2023-03-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
It’s no exaggeration to say life as we know it would not be possible without the Honor Code. We often take this implicit trust between students, faculty, and staff, for granted. But as in any relationship, this trust can start to degrade over time if it is not reassessed and reaffirmed.
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/03/the-crc-is-back/
date: 2023-03-03, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Tom Mannion is the Senior Director of Student Activities and Programs at the Office of Residential Experience and the instructor of Caltech’s cooking class. These are two recipes from his collection!
https://tech.caltech.edu/2023/03/mannion-recipes/
date: 2023-03-01, from: Transiting Los Angeles
Join us as we explore the Glendale Narrows, a soft-bottomed stretch of the L.A. River that holds trees and wildlife, and serves as the focal point of efforts to revitalize our much maligned waterway.
https://transitinglosangeles.com/2023/03/01/la-river/
date: 2023-02-09, from: Transiting Los Angeles
What was happening in the ’80s and ’90s that brought about the end of the RTD, and why did one of its top officials feel compelled to call Foothill Transit a bunch of wusses?
https://transitinglosangeles.com/2023/02/09/podcast-2-foothill-transit/
date: 2023-02-08, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
Congratulations to the selected recipients of the L.A. Conservancy’s Legacy Business Grant! The five legacy businesses of the first round of our $5,000 grants have been selected and we’re thrilled to introduce them to you:
From an essential neighborhood shop selling everything from houseware items to plants to a rare, affordable single-screen movie theatre, these locally-owned businesses boast a combined age of more than 200 years in operation in their neighborhoods and communities. They also represent the essence of L.A.’s legacy businesses: long-standing neighborhood anchors where people connect, memories are made, and a sense of community is nourished.
We hope that their stories demonstrate the value of longtime businesses and that you hurry out to patronize their business in the very near future!
88 Gifts Shop
Photos courtesy 88 Gifts Shop
311 Ord Street Los Angeles, CA 90031
For over 30 years, the original location of 88 Gifts Shop (88 Gifts) was at 711 North Broadway in BC Plaza. In 2020, owner Annie Ma was forced to relocate her business to its present location.
Ma’s shop sells housewares, plants, and a variety of Lunar New Year gifts to neighborhood residents and tourists. Perhaps most notably, 88 Gifts sells Chinese-language newspapers to Chinatown’s elders, allowing them to remain in touch with news events both here and abroad
Still feeling the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, this grant will make it possible to pay for rent increases and avoid another relocation.
CANDELAS GUITARS
Photos courtesy Candelas Guitars
2724 E Cesar Chavez Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Brothers Porfirio and Candelario Delgado-Flores moved from Mexico to Los Angeles in 1947 and brought with them a burgeoning music business that specialized in custom guitar marking. The store’s clientele includes famous artists like José Feliciano but it’s also a source of community pride, giving back to Boyle Heights in many ways including the creation of a 501c(3) nonprofit that provides free music lessons to local youth.
After closing for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Candelas was thankfully able to re-open but is still facing the residual effects of the shutdown. The grant will go towards payroll for the business and operating expenses.
El Aguila Bakery
Photos courtesy El Aguila Bakery
5028 Huntington Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90032
El Aguila Bakery was established by Apolinar Casillas in 1973 and has been a beloved fixture in L.A.’s El Sereno community ever since. With a loyal, multi-generational clientele, El Aguila prides itself on its authentic Mexican sweet breads, cakes, tamales, and so much more! The bakery also supports the community by giving back to local institutions such as the city, schools, and places of worship.
But the bakery’s authentic flavors come at a cost. When ingredient prices rose more than 200%, the bakery had to increase its prices, causing sales to slump. This grant will allow them to cover increased costs and make payments to necessary vendors.
GARDENA CINEMA
Photos courtesy Gardena Cinema
14948 Crenshaw Boulevard, Gardena, CA 90249
Gardena Cinema is a single-screen movie cinema built in 1946 and operated by the Kim family since 1976. It’s the only such theatre located Gardena and has provided affordable entertainment options for more than four generations. It’s a place where families can enjoy a film together and have meaningful experiences: in addition to their unique film slate, Gardena Cinema also hosts cinema potlucks, popcorn happy hours, and more.
A combination of the pandemic and personal health challenges forced the cinema to be closed for 32 months. The grant will provide them with a much-needed cash infusion toward daily operating expenses.
SIKA
Photos courtesy SIKA
4330 Degnan Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90008
Sika, an institution of Leimert Park Village, has been specializing in custom jewelry, African art, clothing, and other goods for 30 years. Sika, the store’s owner, weathered a downturn in the economy in the 2000s when many businesses left the Village. His resilience has commanded the love and respect of the Leimert Park community and, today, despite concerns about gentrification and displacement Sika remains at the heart of the neighborhood as a cultural gathering place.
This grant will be used toward business marketing and community jewelry-making workshops.
When we first announced the grant program in November of 2022, it was the culmination of more than two years of advocacy, dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of legacy businesses throughout Los Angeles County.
Longtime businesses add to our rich history and culture. These community anchors have long been one of the focal points of the Conservancy’s work, from responding to threats of demolition to providing technical assistance. We saved the original McDonald’s from demolition in the ’90s, brought funding for the rehabilitation of the Formosa Cafe’s Pacific Electric Red Car, and rallied to designate Norms on La Cienega, Tom Bergin’s on Fairfax, and Otomisan Japanese Restaurant in Boyle Heights as Historic-Cultural Monuments (HCM). In late 2019, we proudly launched a Legacy Business initiative to raise awareness about and support for these important places in L.A. County.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we understood the immediate threat and unthinkable challenges facing longtime business owners. Thanks to Wells Fargo, we’ve been able to expand our legacy business initiative to include a grant program. This grant provides $5,000 to ten (10) eligible small businesses that have operated and contributed to their community’s history and/or identity for at least 20 years and have less than 25 full-time employees.
So far, the response has been overwhelming. Nearly 400 owners applied for the first round of grants, making the task of choosing just five winners almost seem impossible. Please join our Legacy Business Network and follow us on social media to learn more about our winners and to stay up-to-date on Round 2 of the L.A. Conservancy’s Legacy Business Grant Program!
Visit laconservancy.org/grant to learn more.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/708725818621313024
date: 2023-01-27, from: Tatavium Tribal News
Serve on the FTBMI Youth Council if you are a citizen between 12 - 24 years old!
https://www.tataviam-nsn.us/opportunity-for-youth/
date: 2023-01-25, from: Tatavium Tribal News
The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy announced today the election of its new officers for 2023.
https://www.tataviam-nsn.us/first-native-american-chair-in-the-history-of-the-smmc/
date: 2023-01-17, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Jennah Colborn for Caltech Letters
Viewpoint articles are a vehicle for members of the Caltech community to express their opinions on issues surrounding the interface of science and society. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Caltech or the editorial board of Caltech Letters. Please see our disclaimer.
Every Friday, I run a Dungeons & Dragons adventure at my local game shop. It’s one of my favorite ways to meet people outside of Caltech. Armed with bags of dice in every color imaginable, I guide players through zany high-fantasy tales and lay out puzzles for our team of intrepid heroes to solve.
But tonight’s D&D session isn’t your standard lair-crawling, monster-slashing module. Tonight, I’m running an adventure that doubles as science outreach. I still have plenty of classic D&D hijinks planned, but as a battery chemist, I’ve put my own spin on the story. I’ve written different types of real-world batteries into the game mechanics, and I’ve plotted a tale that will show my players how those batteries work as they use a battery-powered device to defeat this week’s villain. As people start to join my table, introducing themselves or chatting about their characters, I’m excited to see how they’ll approach the science-themed adventure I’ve laid out.
The author’s “Dungeons, Dragons, and Batteries” game setup, complete with multicolored dice.
Skyler Ware
My battery-based D&D module was developed with the assistance of the STEM Ambassador Program (STEMAP), an outreach training program that helps scientists design their own community engagement activities. I had a little experience leading community outreach, though mainly through programs developed by someone else. STEMAP taught me to design my own outreach program, and their approach surprised me in its difference from the work I’d done previously.
STEMAP prioritizes building trust between scientists and the community, instead of a strict focus on teaching science. Rather than reaching out to conventional places of learning like schools, libraries, or museums, STEMAP encouraged us to look for places where science outreach doesn’t usually happen, like game stores or tattoo parlors, among others. Looking beyond the obvious venues allowed us to reach people who don’t, or can’t, engage with science in those spaces. And instead of showing up with a demonstration already planned out or with activity kits already in hand, we spent time talking to leaders and representatives of the focal group—the group we wanted to work with—about the best way to present scientific material before we even began planning our program.
STEMAP’s approach encourages science outreach in less conventional places, like tattoo parlors or breweries.
Illustration by Jennah Colborn for Caltech Letters
This relationship-centered model seems simple, but it fosters an empathic approach to outreach that seems to be lacking in the modern scientific community. Too often, scientists fall into the trap of the “deficit model”: the belief or assumption that skepticism of science stems from a lack of scientific understanding, and that we do outreach to teach science to people who lack scientific knowledge. But that approach devalues the sociocultural factors that influence attitudes toward science, ignores what people might already know about the topic from their own lived experiences, and erases the group’s agency in deciding how and why they want to learn more. The deficit model alienates people whose science knowledge draws from experiences outside of formal education, who have historically been undervalued by scientific institutions, or whose attitudes toward science stem from deeply held values and beliefs that are challenged by scientific advances. In contrast, a more empathic, value sharing approach increases public interest in science and improves scientists’ connections to their communities.
The deficit model sees scientific outreach as a didactic practice, providing scientific knowledge where it was previously lacking. The relationship-centered model recognizes and draws on the lived experiences and existing knowledge of community members.
So how can we, as scientists, build authentic and trustworthy relationships with the communities we want to reach? Below are a few considerations that we can implement at any stage of the engagement process.
Get to know your audience. When communicating our science, trainees are encouraged to “consider your audience,” usually to get us to think about our audience’s education level. Dig deeper. Consider your audience’s interests, the tools and resources they have (or need), and the knowledge or skills they might already have acquired outside the school system. Use those interests, tools, and knowledge to build common ground.
Talk to community leaders. Build your outreach and engagement programs in collaboration with people who already know your audience. Ask what the group wants to learn. Listen to, and learn from, how they already engage with science. Spend time in the space you’ll be occupying. Resist the urge to guess (or to assume you already know) what your audience cares about or how they want to engage with the material.
Be your full self. Engage with your own community, whether that community is built around shared identities, interests, or values. That shared connection can be as deep or as frivolous as you want it to be, but bonding over something important to both you and your focal group builds trust and invites the public to see you as more than just your lab coat. Building that trust is just as worthy and important of a goal as sharing the science, and it will open doors to more effective and long-lasting relationships with our communities.
I encountered a powerful example of these principles in action at a conference in the summer of 2022. I met a researcher from South Africa who was working with rural and tribal groups to find more climate-friendly alternatives to coal mining. Her efforts weren’t focused on educating those groups on climate change though; as she explained, they already knew a lot about the effects of climate change on agriculture from their own lived experiences. They understood the science of climate change through a different lens, and they knew that closing coal mines would help fight both climate change and mining-related illness. But closing the mines would destroy the economies of their mining towns. Rather than hammering home the negative impacts of coal mining on the environment, her work focused on building trust and open conversations with the residents of those towns to ensure that alternatives to the coal mines would meet their economic and public health needs.
These principles can be applied just as easily in less politically charged situations, like classroom outreach or my battery D&D adventure. Though the stakes are much lower, there are clear parallels in how our focal groups respond when given the freedom and agency to direct their own engagement with a topic. When we approach outreach with empathy and openness, we build stronger, more trustworthy relationships with the communities we want to reach.
As our party of heroes defeats their last imaginary foe, I look out across the table at the smiling faces of a team that were strangers to each other, and to me, not three hours before. Even if they don’t remember a single thing about batteries, I’ve taken the first steps towards building an outreach relationship based on trust and mutual interest. I’ve shown that I’m more than just a scientist, and that I see them as more than just people who don’t know about batteries. Building trust through shared values might not be a typical focus during outreach, but I’m hopeful that by prioritizing those relationships, we can grow lasting, authentic, and impactful educational partnerships.
https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/dungeons-dragons-outreach
date: 2023-01-11, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
Photo by: Tim Soter
Sonya Kolowrat joined the Conservancy this year, and jumped in feet first, participating in our Community Leadership Boot Camp and joining the Last Remaining Seats committee. Development Director Liz Leshin recently checked in with her.
LL: How did you learn about the L.A. Conservancy, and what compelled you to join?
SK: A few years ago, a friend and I were talking about Downtown LA and all the stunning buildings there, the theaters in particular, and she told me that her father-in-law (Herb Silverman) is a docent for the Conservancy-led tours. That was my initial introduction to the Conservancy.
I’ve also been exploring downtown a lot and recently started an Instagram account dedicated to Los Angeles Terrazzo (@losangelesterrazzo), and when I post about the amazing terrazzo I find, I try to research the building and area, and nearly every time, I am led to the Conservancy website. It was probably my obsession with the old theaters, and the possibility of exploring inside of them that led me to join the Conservancy
LL: You participated in the Conservancy’s Community Leadership Boot Camp this year; what did you get out of the experience?
SK: I LOVED my Boot Camp experience! I learned so much – it’s hard to even encapsulate. I learned about all the amazing resources and research tools available. I know the process of landmarking a building and what it takes to do that. I know what city agencies control what, and I know that the Vista Hermosa neighborhood has way too many uncapped oil wells. I made friends too! Most importantly, I learned about what I can do as a citizen of Los Angeles to make my voice heard and help advocate to raise awareness of historic spaces.
LL: Which neighborhood do you live in? And what do you think makes it distinct?
SK: I live in Eagle Rock. I love it for the community feel and I love the location - this unique little pocket between the rest of LA and Pasadena. It’s got two lovely main streets in Colorado Blvd and Eagle Rock Blvd that are filled with really special independent retail shops and restaurants that really seem to support each other. Of course we have our literal Eagle Rock.
LL: You also became a member of the Last Remaining Seats committee. What attracted you to that, and what is your favorite part of LRS?
SK: Last Remaining Seats is such a special and magical series. I work in the music industry, but I LOVE film and old theaters – the glamour they hold, the golden age of cinema, and this is such a great merger of that.
I met Lia, the Conservancy’s volunteer coordinator at the in-person Boot Camp meeting, and when we started chatting about the volunteer opportunities I learned that I could volunteer on this committee, so I did! It was great timing, and I can’t wait for the next season. I’ll be at every screening, and part of the appeal for me was really just being able to be inside these lovely spaces. A film I suggested will hopefully be shown, and I’m really excited for the entire potential slate, TBA!
LL: What case would you make to others for joining and supporting the L.A. Conservancy?
SK: If you love your city, it’s important to take an active role in its upkeep. No matter the cause, one voice CAN make a difference. It can be something as small as writing a letter. Los Angeles is unique, magical, diverse and HUGE. There is a lot of work to be done, and it’s so important to protect these spaces and neighborhoods. The saying “if these walls could talk” really could define preservation in Los Angeles, and I feel like the Conservancy is really working hard to make sure that the future of LA also includes the past, and they can’t do it without us!
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/706184835916513280
date: 2022-12-20, from: Tatavium Tribal News
The Fernandeño Tataviam Administrative offices will be closed from Friday, December 23, 2022 to Monday, January 2, 2023.
https://www.tataviam-nsn.us/ftbmi-administrative-office-holidays-closure/
date: 2022-12-20, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Jennah Colborn for Caltech Letters
Viewpoint articles are a vehicle for members of the Caltech community to express their opinions on issues surrounding the interface of science and society. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Caltech or the editorial board of Caltech Letters. Please see our disclaimer.
As an incoming freshman in 2016, I received my first orange, Caltech-branded T-shirt during orientation. In cheerful comic sans, it proclaimed “Study, Eat, Coffee, All-Nighter, Repeat.” The facilitators waxed poetic about how we would bond spending long nights studying under the bright fluorescent lights of the library, running problem sets over to their drop boxes at 3 a.m. together, and enjoying the beautiful sunrises before finally going to sleep. The next four years were a whirlwind as I desperately tried to stay on top of my assignments, and it was only in the year after I graduated that I realized the extent to which I was burnt out by my time at Caltech. I realized the habits of overwork I developed as a student were working to my detriment outside of college. As it turns out, I wasn’t alone.
The “Study, Eat, Coffee, All-Nighter, Repeat” T-shirt the author received during freshman orientation.
Jadzia Livingston
In preparing for this article, I interviewed several recent alumni from various majors, houses, and extracurricular groups at Caltech. They all described experiencing burnout, an occupational condition characterized by exhaustion, lack of passion, and reduced productivity due to chronic workplace stress. Everyone felt it; we all agreed that overworking students makes them dislike what they are doing and makes them less effective at doing it. Each interview underscored an unfortunate truth: the Caltech undergraduate experience is structured in a way that puts students at a high risk of burnout and encourages bad work habits that will serve them poorly as they enter the workforce.
Every graduate I talked to remembered struggling to find time for everything. If their life was in perfect order, if every moment was scheduled, showers and meals were carefully timed, and leisure activities were used as a chance to do some of the easier work, only then was it possible to get all of the coursework done. There wasn’t a margin for error. There was never a moment to take for yourself, to think about what you were learning and what it all meant. There was always another set to do, another experiment to run, another recitation to go to. If something went wrong, if you got sick or injured, your whole life tumbled out of control.
The appearance of undergraduate success often masks unhealthy habits and feelings of stress and burnout.
Illustration by Jennah Colborn for Caltech Letters
I thought I flourished in that environment, having deadlines that pressured me to succeed in a short time. If every moment was carefully structured, then my productivity must have been maximized. If I spent every spare moment learning, then I must have learned a lot. To an outside observer, I was successful — I led two clubs, did publishable research, and kept a high GPA — but under the surface I was always exhausted, never slept enough, and felt like things were about to fall apart.
Many alumni I spoke to expressed concern that the students at Caltech were chronically sleep deprived. Some alumni worried that students aren’t aware of the negative effects of poor sleep habits, including reduced attention span, difficulties with memory formation and critical thinking, and increased depressive symptoms. Others worried that students—unaware of the consequences of poor sleep—were not putting in effort to fix their sleep schedules. Even though I knew the cost of sleep deprivation during my time at Caltech, I was still unable to maintain a healthy sleep schedule while also fulfilling my academic duties. The students I spoke to who did manage to cut enough time out of their work schedule to sleep often had to give up research, networking, teaching, or extracurriculars and deal with unbearable stress to make up the time “lost” to sleep. They didn’t feel they had the opportunities afforded to students who gave up sleep to get everything done.
Many students seem to take a perverse pride in — or at least have a grim acceptance of — this toxic culture. Students and professors alike look with awe at those students who are able to excel without appearing to struggle. This attitude plays into widespread impostor syndrome (the feeling of being academically out-of-place) among the student body (as described in the 2022 Co-Curricular Group Report). Students feel that they “don’t belong here” if they don’t force themselves to maximize their accomplishments at the expense of their physical and mental health. As a result, poor sleep habits and poor work-life balance are marks of pride, representing the sacrifices we make to succeed. They demonstrate how much harder we are working than everyone else and “prove” that we aren’t impostors. A selfless devotion to the pursuit of knowledge at the cost of physical and mental health is the hallmark of the mythical (and perhaps unduly venerated) “Caltech Genius.”
The mythical “Caltech genius.”
Illustration by Jennah Colborn for Caltech Letters
Proper sleep hygiene is made even more challenging by work expectations that force students to prioritize completing their work over healthy sleep habits. At Caltech, most problem sets are expected to be done collaboratively. They are intentionally made more difficult than what one person can do on their own so that they are suitable for a group, which incentivizes students to work together and penalizes students for working alone. This system, paired with undergraduate work culture, promotes work habits that make healthy sleep patterns impossible. Groups are generally only available at night due to daytime classes and extracurriculars, so most work gets done between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. In addition, many sets incorporate information taught up to the due date, so it often isn’t possible to work ahead of time. Classes at Caltech are also chronically “under-unitted,” meaning that the actual hours spent by students on the class far exceed the hours listed in the course catalog. While intending to create a collaborative environment, the assignment structure at Caltech inadvertently causes students to spend more time struggling through homework than thinking critically about what they have learned.
The time pressure undergraduates experience at Caltech forces students to choose between central aspects of the traditional college experience. A lot of undergrads at Caltech don’t go to lectures, and many that do are late or exhausted. I always found this puzzling — here we are with some of the most accomplished scientists in the world teaching us the secrets of the universe, and yet we can’t bother to get out of bed for class. But when every moment has to be strictly scheduled, and lectures aren’t essential to learn the material, it often becomes a choice between going to lecture or getting the work done. An hour of lecture could be used to edit a paper, work on a problem set, or even just catch up on the sleep missed because of a paper or problem set for a different class.
The culture of burnout at Caltech isn’t the fault of any one person or group. It’s systemic, and the students and faculty are complicit. The bad habits that students internalize and often glorify are both encouraged and taken advantage of by the way classes are structured. There is a general assumption that students will sacrifice sleep and career opportunities to get their coursework done, which in turn allows professors to assign more work. This environment of chronic stress and poor sleep makes learning that much harder, which makes assignments take longer, which creates more stress and worse sleep; the result is a cycle of unhealthy conditions.
The culture of burnout at Caltech leads students to question their value and sense of belonging within the establishment.
Illustration by Jennah Colborn for Caltech Letters
These habits don’t magically disappear with an easier workload or a different institution. I still find myself working at strange hours, struggling to get up in the morning, and taking on more than my share, even when my supervisors encourage me to put my mental health first. Without ingrained healthy work habits, I often find myself ignoring signs of fatigue and illness to get more work done. Having now worked at other institutions, I’ve seen how environments that intentionally prioritize the health and wellbeing of students and staff actually increase productivity and quality of work. I’m still unlearning the work and sleep habits I developed at Caltech, but I’m lucky to be surrounded by coworkers and supervisors who not only encourage me to take care of myself but model healthy work habits themselves. I’m grateful to have the experience I gained from Caltech, but it came at the cost of my health.
One night at freshman orientation, in 2016, an admissions officer got up in front of the assembled class of 2020 and told us that all of us belonged here, even though we might not feel that way. This school would be better served if the students and faculty believed this. That means structuring classes with the goal of most effectively teaching the information, rather than trying to weed out students who “don’t have what it takes.” That means both students and faculty recognizing unhealthy work habits as detrimental and encouraging and modeling healthy work habits. That means reevaluating class curricula to ensure that students are not expected to spend more than their unit load worth of hours doing work for classes. That means mindfully structuring classes such that students can easily understand the concepts rather than being mired down in busywork. Caltech is one of the most selective universities in the country, and everyone here has earned their place. Students deserve an environment where they are free to learn without sacrificing their health.
https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/study-eat-burnout-repeat
date: 2022-12-05, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Have you ever wondered where the particles we are made of come from? In the words of the late, great Carl Sagan, ‘We are made of star stuff.’ The hydrogen and oxygen in water, the carbon in every life form, the nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our bones and teeth, the iron in our blood, and the gold we wear were all made in exotic places in the Universe. To understand how this came to be, we need to zoom out of your room, city, and even Earth and take a journey to the edge of the Universe.
Before starting this journey, we will detour to some basic science. What makes carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and all other elements different? To answer this question, we have to take a look inside the structure of the elements. The constituent particles of an element are called atoms, which are the smallest building blocks of all matter. Atoms are made of positively charged protons and chargeless neutrons packed tightly into a highly compact nucleus that is orbited by negatively charged electrons. The number of protons in the nucleus determines the elemental identity of the atom. For example, eight protons combine with eight neutrons and eight electrons to create oxygen, twenty of each combine to form calcium, and so on. From a pool of a little over one hundred different elements comes your body and everything we know on Earth. But where and how did these elements, the basis for our entire existence, originate?
Schematic of an atom showing the general arrangement of protons, neutrons, and electrons
Let us start with the simplest element, hydrogen, which is made of one proton in the nucleus and one orbiting electron. Hydrogen is present in the water we drink, the food we eat, and the fuels we put in our cars. To see where hydrogen first formed, we need to travel back to the start of time, to the birth of the Universe itself. Astronomers have theorized that the Universe began with the Big Bang—an explosion with extremely high energy. Immediately after the Big Bang, bits and pieces of matter and energy rapidly expanded into the Universe. In these early moments, however, the environment was far too hot, dense, and chaotic for larger structures—like atoms and molecules—to form. Hydrogen didn’t appear until the Universe had spread out and subsequently cooled down—enough for the first protons, neutrons, and simple atoms to form. Electrons were formed within the first microsecond (one-millionth of a second) after the Big Bang. Protons and neutrons began forming shortly after, within a single second. About three minutes after the Big Bang, conditions had cooled enough for these protons and neutrons to form a hydrogen nucleus. This is called the era of nucleosynthesis (i.e., the synthesis of atomic nuclei). As the Universe cooled down further, these hydrogen atoms came together under the influence of gravity to form the first stars of the Universe. Continuing our journey to understand the basis of our existence, we now turn to these twinkling stars.
Humanity has looked at the stars and wondered about our place under them for hundreds of years. In the bellies of these stars—seemingly serene dots in the sky—a high-pressure inferno begins to squeeze together atoms of lighter elements and combine them into heavier ones. Because all protons are positively charged, they tend to repel each other. However, the extreme conditions of stellar interiors make them one of the few places in the Universe where protons can be forced to fuse into a heavier nucleus. Let’s examine this fusion process more closely. When two protons and two neutrons are squeezed together, they form the nucleus of helium. This nuclear fusion process releases enough energy to power the Sun. Then, three helium nuclei can combine in a multi-step process to form the nucleus of carbon, a 6-proton element. The fusion of carbon and helium nuclei leads to an oxygen nucleus containing 8 protons. The process continues. Through successive fusion reactions, the nuclei of most elements lighter than iron (26 protons) can be formed. The atomic factories inside stars continuously churn day in and out, generating all the carbon and oxygen atoms in the Universe. In fact, all the organic elements inside plants, animals, and even humans once came from the bellies of stars.
The extremely high pressures and temperatures in the interiors of stars provide ideal conditions for the generation of atoms of elements like carbon and oxygen.
Illustration by Sarah Zeichner for Caltech Letters
While lighter elements are created in living stars, heavier elements originate in magnificent, explosive stellar deaths. When a star dies, it explodes in a phenomenon known as a supernova, an explosion so bright that it may even look like a second sun in the sky. In the few seconds of a supernova, more energy is released than during a star’s billion-year lifetime. In 1054 AD, Chinese astronomers discovered such a second ‘sun’ visible in the daylight for nearly twenty days. This energy provides ideal conditions for heavy atomic nuclei to bind together and form even heavier elements, such as calcium and iron. My own research involves scanning the night sky to discover new supernovae. We then study how they evolve over time with the hope of understanding the physics driving the explosion itself, and the processes involved in making these heavy elements.
An artistic rendering of a supernova
Illustration by Sarah Zeichner for Caltech Letters
There are much heavier elements of course, like gold, that even supernovae can’t create. So where do these elements form? You might understand the game by now: we need to travel to places in the Universe that are even more exotic. After a supernova explosion, what’s left is an extremely high-density object called a neutron star. It’s so dense that a spoonful of a neutron star weighs more than the Himalayas! These highly compact objects provide a gigantic reservoir of neutrons essential for the synthesis of heavier elements. But to access this neutron reservoir, we need a way to tear it open. In this pursuit, we now turn to binary neutron stars. While we started our journey in a single star, like our Sun, most stars are actually binary (double): two stars orbiting each other. After both stars in a binary system explode, the two dense neutron stars left behind eventually spiral into each other and collide, releasing neutrons heated to billions of degrees. Heavy elements form in under a second. In 2017, observations made by Caltech scientists and others helped astronomers discover such a merger for the first time. The color and brightness of the merger provided direct evidence for the presence of gold and platinum—it was like observing alchemy in action!
Two neutron stars spiral in moments before merging, resulting in a highly energetic explosion that created the first gold and platinum atoms.
Illustration by Sarah Zeichner for Caltech Letters
How did these elements, formed billions of years ago, finally make their way to us? As stars die and explode as supernovae, they release all the elements they made into space. Similarly, mergers of stellar corpses also produce explosions that expel all synthesized elements, forming a cloud of gas and dust. This stardust later forms new stars, like our Sun, and new planets, like Earth. Astronomers believe that our solar system formed from one such cloud of stardust called the Solar Nebula around 5 billion years ago.
The origin story of the atoms that make up our muscles, bones and blood, the jewelry we wear, and the smartphones we use, a story that predates us by billions of years, is identical for each and every one of us. It is a story independent of one’s caste, race, religion, or country. Times are uncertain. No matter what you are going through, remember that we all are connected by this incredible, better-than-science-fiction story. You are made of stardust; every bit of you is glorious star stuff. Go out there and shine!
https://caltechletters.org/science/star-stuff
date: 2022-11-15, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
“What is its name? Can I pet it?”
“That wasn’t the right response,” I thought to myself, my hands sweating inside my blue nitrile safety gloves. But instead of saying anything, I just smiled back at the volunteer, who by this point was far too enamored with the test animal to pay attention to instructions from me.
And the animal in question?
A palm-sized, three-ounce adult tarantula.
Surprised? Well I was, too. This was meant to be an experiment on fear and anxiety, and my eight-legged lab partners were supposed to help us understand how those emotions work by eliciting them from volunteers.
Of course, as I learned that day, nothing in an experiment ever goes exactly according to plan…
Still, it was strange that I was getting this many volunteers who seemed unafraid of my test animals. The fear of spiders is called arachnophobia, and it is the most common fear among humans. Around 5% of the human population have this phobia, and in a study run by Graham Davey at City University London, 75% of the people interviewed were at least somewhat afraid of spiders.
So what exactly was I trying to test with this experiment? Long story short, I was trying to see how fears could affect how humans make decisions, and perhaps use the findings to come up with practical ways to use our emotions to guide our own decision-making.
Let’s say that someone is afraid of spiders: Could money incentivize them to kiss their fears goodbye and touch a spider? Or, in the reverse sense, could the presence of a spider impede them from collecting money? We were interested in investigating how fear could control a person’s decision-making.
In the Mobbs Lab, we constructed large black boxes with holes that allowed people to stick their entire arms into them. We then placed Easter eggs that represented different amounts of award money within those boxes. During each trial, the subject would reach their arm into a box and try to collect as many of the four Easter eggs as they could. The caveat? There was a 25% chance the box had a tarantula in it, acting as a stimulus to induce fear and stopping people from collecting all the eggs.
The “black boxes” constructed by the Mobbs lab.
Illustration by Julie Inglis for Caltech Letters
When I first toured the lab, the members showed me the tarantulas, which were alive, awake, and ready to scare their next subject. As a proud member of the 75% that feel mildly uncomfortable with spiders, I shivered as I saw them stretch their legs out and zip around in their cages. Lab members showed me how to handle them: they noted that wearing lab gloves was important, and they even fed the tarantulas live crickets. They told me about not only the spider experiments, but also other experiments, including one where the fear stimulus was in the form of a haunted house with actual electric chairs, cockroaches, and rooms designed for suffocating visitors.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work on these experiments. I knew that I wanted to be a part of cool experiments where I could handle tarantulas and use them to scare subjects, and see how their fear could affect how they act. Usually, labs performing psychology and neuroscience experiments on human subjects have resorted to using fake stimuli for convenience. For example, in past experiments looking at arachnophobia, subjects were simply shown images of spiders on a flat computer screen.
Later, I learned that the lab wasn’t working with real stimuli just because it sounded cooler than using fake stimuli. Looking at an image of a spider simply does not engage the same brain areas and fear pathways in the brain as actually interacting with a moving, real-life spider. Two behavioral scientists at Caltech, Professor Colin Camerer and Professor Dean Mobbs, contended in a 2017 paper that using real stimuli is important for obtaining meaningful experimental results when studying fear.
Real versus fake stimuli.
Illustration by Julie Inglis for Caltech Letters
In addition to using realistic stimuli, we designed mini questionnaires that we gave the subjects before each “spider box” trial, in which we asked how many eggs they were planning on collecting and how anxious they felt, since anxiety is the feeling that you experience before a fear-inducing event. After each trial, we would ask the subject to rate the fear they had felt while collecting eggs. Along with those questionnaires, we planned to take an automated, constant stream of objective biological measurements of the subjects during each trial. One measurement was a subject’s sweat level, taken using a Fitbit-like gadget at the subject’s fingertips. Another measurement was the blood flow in a subject’s face, computed using computer vision techniques on video recordings taken throughout the experiment.
I worked with the team to advertise the research study and recruited an initial fourteen volunteers to come into our lab to undergo the experiment.
To thoroughly assess our volunteers’ fear of spiders, I gave them thick packets of questionnaires to fill out, including the Spider Fear Questionnaire (SPQ) and Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) when they first entered the lab. After that, I led the volunteers into the experiment room for them to undergo the experiment. It was at this point when some volunteers would make comments that revealed how eager they were about meeting the spiders! It was clear that they would be willing to stick their hands into the boxes just for the opportunity to pet the spiders, even if the boxes didn’t contain any money.
In a final survey after the volunteers underwent the experiment, we asked them what their strategies were for grabbing the Easter eggs from the box. I had naively prepared myself to read about strategies to dodge the tarantula. Instead, I ended up reading about the strategies that they used to help protect the spider from their hands, such as by curling their fingers to stop themselves from poking the spider.
Naturally, every subject managed to pick up all the Easter eggs and thus the maximum amount of money from each box. And what I found when I took a close look at the results of the spider fear questionnaires was that none of our volunteers were actually arachnophobic, confirming my suspicions.
Although none of my study participants were fearful enough of spiders to be classified as arachnophobic, some subjects did show signs of mild fear. One person jumped up when they felt their hand had rubbed against the spider when their arm was in the box.
Even though there was some variation among the fear scores, we couldn’t find a relationship between the amount of money people collected and the spider fear scores; the subjects who had the lowest fear scores and the subjects who had the highest fear scores collected the same number of Easter eggs – all of them. And although we had also eagerly collected reams of physiological data, like sweat levels and blood flow, we couldn’t correlate the number of eggs collected with any of it either.
This was a great example of self-selection bias, where those who volunteer to participate in an experiment don’t reflect the general population and lead to skewed results. In my case, those who were less prone to be fearful of spiders were more likely to sign up for the experiment. Not having any arachnophobic people in our volunteer pool became a huge obstacle to eliciting findings from our study.
But we weren’t done just yet.
Remember those mini questionnaires we painstakingly issued before and after each trial? It turns out there were patterns within them!
By simply looking at the survey data we had collected both before and after each trial, we could see if the levels of anxiety and fear that each subject experienced had changed over time, over all the trials.
First, we looked at anxiety, which was the fear that subjects felt before reaching their hand into the box. We found that it decreased the more trials the subject participated in, which could mean that if you repeat a scary action over and over again, you could feel less anxious about performing the action the more you’ve done it before.
Meanwhile, our surveys also revealed that fear during egg collection stayed the same over all the trials. This meant that the actual feeling of fear did not change with the amount of egg-collecting experience a subject had.
Our findings show that although we failed to answer our question of how fear could affect decision-making because of selection bias, we could still find meaningful patterns of anxiety and fear even among people who do not have very high levels of fear.
A similar analysis on the physiological measurements that we took could teach us something about how the levels of blood flow or sweat changes between trials as well. The next step we have planned is to take a look at our biological measurement data and find out!
What are some practical applications of understanding how anxiety and fear work in humans? It turns out that there are quite a few! For instance, if we understood better how strong emotions influence how we make decisions, we might be able to create tools that trigger specific emotions within us and help us perform better decision-making.
In the spider experiment, I wanted to see how fear could deter people from collecting monetary rewards. This didn’t work out perfectly since all of our volunteers were undeterred, but we still found out about how repeated exposures to fear-inducing stimuli could affect fear and anxiety.
This finding could be extended to people with higher baseline levels of fear, and this fact could help us with coming up with tools that help people with decision-making.
Since doing this experiment, I have tried to apply my learnings to help with my own decision-making. To reduce the time I spent on my phone on entertainment such as social media and YouTube, one day I decided to change my phone background to a picture of holes. Since I have mild trypophobia, the fear of holes, every time I wanted to turn on my phone that day, I was too scared to do so. Unfortunately, it made me scared of using my phone even when I really had to for non-entertainment purposes, so I changed the phone background back to what it was originally by the end of that day.
Clearly, we still have a long way to go before the lessons learned from this study can be used for practical applications! But I am confident that continued research into the complex nature of fear could one day yield deep insights into human behavior, allowing us to better understand and control our decision-making in the real world.
https://caltechletters.org/science/science-of-fear
date: 2022-11-01, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Cecilia Sanders for Caltech Letters
Viewpoint articles are a vehicle for members of the Caltech community to express their opinions on issues surrounding the interface of science and society. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Caltech or the editorial board of Caltech Letters. Please see our disclaimer.
If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood, and don’t assign them tasks and work. Instead, teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “Wisdom of the Sands”
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness…
—Allen Ginsberg, “Howl”
For a short time when I was six years old, I was really into rocks. Armed with a notepad, ruler, and magnifying glass, I’d march to the neighborhood park to catalog its geology in as much detail as possible. I still remember the rush of excitement that came each time I “discovered” a new stone, like no one had ever set eyes on it before. It was the first time I ever felt like a scientist.
That kind of wondrous, wide-eyed exploration is the reason I decided to pursue research in the first place, albeit more recently as a biology student (my passion for pebbles has since subsided). This is the realm of what we call “basic” science, which is termed for its focus on curiosity-driven discovery rather than any inherent simplicity. Yet the closer I get to becoming a card-carrying academic, the more I’m forced to ask myself whether my motivations should be more pragmatic. We urgently need to solve real-world problems, from global pandemics to climate change. Why bother developing abstract theories when we could spend that effort creating new medicines? Even if those theories later prove to be prerequisites that yield practical dividends, getting there by curiosity alone seems slower, riskier, more circuitous, and harder to control.
This debate is as old as science itself—and yet I can’t help but feel suspicious of those who deride basic research as foolishly romantic. I’m reminded of the apocryphal story about Michael Faraday who, when challenged by an audience member to justify the value of some discovery, retorted: “Madam, what is the use of a newborn child?” Clearly, it would be ridiculous to judge a person’s future potential based solely on their defenselessness as an infant. Similarly, when science aggressively optimizes for immediate utility above all else, it risks missing a wealth of mysteries we have yet to understand or even conceive. How much is a fact really worth? What’s the going rate for a flash of insight, a new model in biophysics, or an entire branch of mathematics? Why did Newton invent calculus, Darwin follow finches, and Einstein ponder gravity? The most impactful advances in human history were born of curiosity alone. And while their initial value is difficult to formulate in dollars and cents, their ensuing practical ramifications have revolutionized our lives. “People cannot foresee the future well enough to predict what’s going to develop from basic research,” says George Smoot, a 2006 Nobel Laureate in Physics. “If we only did applied research, we would still be making better spears.”
On its own, applied research is a fundamentally myopic endeavor. We cannot see the future, and we will never know the answers to our questions unless we ask them first. We’ll never know which new discoveries will be made—or how, or when—until we find them, lurking at the edges of our perception, and yank them into the light. This is the reality of our existence, as inescapable as death, or entropy, or taxes. It’s the reason science must always be a defender of curiosity-driven inquiry.
Nonetheless, today’s academia leaves less room for basic science than ever before. Only 17% of total U.S. R&D expenditure is devoted to basic research—and while universities performed 58% of it in 2007, that proportion has since dropped to just 48% in 2017. Even federal support for basic research has stagnated over the past decade (in absolute dollars), as reviewers and funding agencies become increasingly risk-averse. Taxpayers and policymakers bristle at the idea of underwriting esoteric research without obvious practical impact. Scientists, forced to devote a growing portion of their time to chasing vital grants, are incentivized to pursue the kinds of projects that are more likely to be funded: low-risk proposals with clear, short-term results. Together, these forces leave curiosity-driven science in a quiet crisis. Society demands progress, but in the words of Lewis Thomas, “we’d like to pay less for it and get our money’s worth on some more orderly, businesslike schedule.”
A breakdown of federal R&D funding from 2000-2017. While the U.S. government remains the single largest backer of science, it no longer bankrolls the majority of basic research. Since this graphic was published, federal support for applied research has surpassed that of basic science (in absolute dollars).
The State of U.S. Science and Engineering 2020 (NCSES report).
The resulting trickle-down effects are pernicious. In a country where just 3.6% of total R&D funding reaches universities, competition for those research dollars is intense. Tacitly or overtly, trainees are encouraged to frame, upsell, and twist their research into the most “fundable” version possible. In the life sciences—which account for more than half of all academic research expenditure—it is a common practice to contort grant proposals until they offer some tenuous translational relevance, so that they might be considered by the monolithic National Institutes of Health. Even if a basic project is funded to completion, it can be an entirely different battle to publish the findings. Peer review at the most prestigious journals—Cell, Nature, and Science—emphasizes groundbreaking results with broad applicability, which naturally incentivizes authors to play up the importance of their work. Those who publish successfully in “high impact” journals bring in more grant money, boosting their academic careers. Researchers unlucky enough to be interested in unfashionable questions have little recourse; when they fail to publish “well” or to obtain further funding, they are promptly ejected from the scientific establishment.
The system now favors those who can guarantee results rather than those with potentially path-breaking ideas that, by definition, cannot promise success… Many surprising discoveries, powerful research tools, and important medical benefits have arisen from efforts to decipher complex biological phenomena in model organisms. In a climate that discourages such work by emphasizing short-term goals, scientific progress will inevitably be slowed, and revolutionary findings will be deferred.
—Alberts et al., Rescuing US biomedical research from its systemic flaws
Despite these monumental pressures, pockets of resistance still exist. New communities are emerging with the goal of establishing alternative ecosystems outside of academia, where basic science can flourish. Alternative publishing platforms could help address the limitations and misaligned incentives of modern peer review. A growing number of private and philanthropic organizations are starting to invest in riskier, exploratory projects, which might help to pick up the slack as federal funding slows. These are all welcome efforts, but we also need fundamental reform—which is where trainees are uniquely equipped to fight back.
To my fellow graduate students: resist the deforming gaze of today’s academia, which compels the commodification of your innate curiosity. You have the freedom to direct your research; this is a unique privilege. Do work that fascinates you, even if you can’t justify its immediate utility. Share your passion with the world, instead of letting the world beat it out of you. Tell old friends and first dates about your work. Blog about it. Present it at conferences. You will feel pressure to defend your interests in terms of technological advancement or practical impact, but remember that your curiosity is always worth your time. Following it isn’t some recreational or ivory-towered pursuit; it’s the beating heart of what science is all about.
After all, basic science is the original science. Since our earliest sapient ancestors first gazed up at the stars in wonder, we have been fighting to make sense of the universe. In the same way, our childhood fixations—whether rocks, space, dinosaurs, or something else entirely—reveal that there is something universal about our desire to understand. This search for meaning has been the engine of progress for our species throughout history. Curiosity is humanity’s most valuable compass—we must protect it in order to protect our future.
Thanks to Skyler Ware for many rounds of thoughtful edits (and remarkable patience while I struggled to meet my deadlines); Cecilia Sanders for an incredible illustration that’s way out of my writing’s league; Niko McCarty, Alexey Guzey, Divesh Soni, and countless other friends for reading and critiquing my drafts; and the entire Caltech Letters team for helping bring this little piece to life.
https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/in-defense-of-basic-science
date: 2022-10-17, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Here at Caltech Letters, we’ve wrapped up another fantastic year of bringing science out of the lab and into context.
With campus commotion returning to pre-pandemic levels, we’ve continued to grow and expand our site. In the 2021-2022 academic year, we celebrated our fifth year since launch, the third year of our Viewpoints section, and the publication of our 60th feature-length article.
Here are a few of our favorite articles from 2021-2022:
Illustration by Jennah Colborn for Caltech Letters
You might be familiar with the idea of quantum mechanics—maybe from a physics class or your favorite superhero movie. At small scales, the everyday physics we’re accustomed to starts to break down, and light and matter take on strange properties.
What if we could tap into those properties and harness them for our own purposes? That’s the idea behind quantum information, which could dramatically increase the power of our computers and networks in the coming years.
According to graduate student Piero Chiappina, quantum technologies are poised to revolutionize the way we store and share data, in applications ranging from chemical modeling to information security.
In this far-reaching explainer, Piero gives a crash course in the physics behind quantum information and offers a peek at the exciting opportunities these tools might offer in the coming years.
Illustration by Siobhán MacArdle for Caltech Letters
If you’ve ever had a glass of cabernet sauvignon or a cup of oversteeped tea, you’ll likely be familiar with the dry feeling they leave in your mouth. That dryness comes from tannins, a type of molecule found in the leaves and fruits of many plants.
But how do tannins cause that drying sensation? Where do tannins come from, anyway? And what does that mean for your next trip to the wine aisle?
Siobhan MacArdle (PhD ’22) explains how tannins interact with our mouths, why some wines have more tannins than others, and how to choose a wine that gives you the perfect mouthfeel.
Illustration by Sarah Zeichner for Caltech Letters
Science is often viewed as objective, impartial, and absolute. But humans are inherently subjective, and the ways we perform and interpret science can change with contemporary social climates and attitudes.
What does the influence of sociocultural factors mean for the scientific method? What happens when cultural and scientific views clash? Can scientific understanding ever be separated from the social environment in which that understanding arises?
Graduate student Fayth Tan grapples with these questions and examines the role of cultural context in scientific discovery through the lens of orchids, femininity, and colonialism in Victorian England.
Illustration by Isabel Swafford for Caltech Letters
There are many ways we can reduce our carbon footprints. Small lifestyle changes like carpooling, taking public transit to work, or ditching single-use plastics can all add up over time. But some changes, like switching from natural gas to electric appliances, can have even farther-reaching impacts.
In Los Angeles, building energy use makes up a staggering 40% of carbon emissions, most of which comes from natural gas appliances. Transitioning away from natural gas in buildings in favor of universal electrification, according to recent graduate Cora Went (PhD ’22), is the only practical way to eliminate this source of greenhouse gas.
Cora notes, however, that natural gas providers in California have been broadly opposed to electrification initiatives—all the while advertising their support for renewable energy research at universities like Caltech.
In this incisive commentary, Cora details her experiences fighting for local building electrification and urges scientists to critically examine the implications of accepting funding tied to fossil fuel companies.
llustration by Isabel Swafford for Caltech Letters over “Braun Laboratories at Caltech”, captured by Lev Tsypin
In 2019, Stewart and Lynda Resnick—billionaire owners of agriculture conglomerate The Wonderful Company — pledged a record $750 million to Caltech to support energy and sustainability research, including a brand-new 80,000 square-foot research building.
This eye-popping figure—the second-largest private donation ever made to a US university—spurred a range of commentary, from excitement over future breakthroughs enabled by the Resnicks’ largesse to newfound scrutiny and criticism over the environmental practices of the Resnicks’ own companies.
In a world of scarce research funding, how should researchers grapple with the dilemma of accepting donations from controversial sources? Should scientists accept support from organizations whose practices don’t align with their values?
In this thought-provoking Viewpoint, graduate student Lev Tsypin examines these challenges at the heart of scientific funding and proposes new ethical approaches to tackling them.
Caltech Letters is currently recruiting. If you’re part of the Caltech community and are interested in joining our team, please contact letters@caltech.edu.
https://caltechletters.org/science/year-in-review-2022
date: 2022-10-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We will have brief talks about the Southern California Linux Expo and about the open source projects developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Stick around to talk one-on-one with the guest speakers.
Agenda: 6:45pm Announcements
7:00pm Southern California Linux Expo Call for Papers and call for volunteers
7:15pm Michael Starch will give a tour of the newly released F’ system reference. The F´framework was developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to make spacecraft control and embedded software simpler to design, develop, and test. F´ was released as Open Source in 2017 and has continued to grow as a project and community.
7:30pm Lini Mestar and interns Victor Jimenez and Jack Cheng will talk about the current work they’re doing with the JPL Open Source Rover at JPL. The OSR was developed by JPL summer interns as an inexpensive project for high school and college classes to exercise mechanical and electronics and software engineering. It is currently being developed by the https://github.com/nasa-jpl/open-source-rover, but the OSR has proved to be a useful robotics platform at universities and at JPL.
7:45pm Achille Verheye will talk about the Open Source Rover community and the work they’ve been doing on a complete redesign of the OSR.
8:00pm Lan Dang will be soliciting advice and interest in restarting work on the SGVHAK Rover, which was part of the pilot for the Open Source Rover, but has evolved to its own design.
8:05pm Break up into individual discussions
8:45pm Wrap up
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About the speakers
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About Connect Week
Innovate Pasadena launched Connect Week as a festival of independently organized talks, workshops, and social events produced by independent organizers and hosted in venues all across Pasadena. During Connect Week we invite entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, scientists, educators, businesspeople, designers, and students to unite and celebrate the creativity and ingenuity that’s right here in our own backyard.
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NOTE: The SGVLUG meetings are primarily organized on Meetup. We have had regularly monthly meetings from July 2020 to current day, but we had not been doing a good job of keeping the website up-to-date.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2022/10/13/connect-week-sgvlug-rovers-and-fprime-and-scale/
date: 2022-09-23, from: Theodore Paine Foundation
As we gazed upon thousands of poached plants that had recently been repatriated into a remote botanical garden just south of the Namibian border in South Africa, the complexity of our current environmental moment really struck me. In one of the most undeveloped and remote places I’ve ever experienced, the Richtersveld Transfrontier Park, the human […]
https://theodorepayne.org/nearandfar/
date: 2022-08-23, from: Theodore Paine Foundation
A few weeks ago, I shared some info and opinion on the drought in Southern California (available to watch on our YouTube channel if you missed it.) In preparation for that talk, I was more attuned than normal to the state of our landscape here in Los Angeles. As I went about my life, traveling […]
https://theodorepayne.org/professionaleducationportal/
date: 2022-07-26, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
Etan Rosenbloom, photo by Salvador Ochoa
Etan Rosenbloom is a blogger on L.A. history, a lifelong Angeleno, and a new L.A. Conservancy member! His blog Etan Does L.A. follows his journey to visit all of the L.A. County landmarks listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
We recently asked him to share his “L.A. story” with us and how the Conservancy’s resources have enriched his life and work.
Note: an edited version of this interview appeared in the L.A. Conservancy’s July/August 2022 newsletter.
As a lifelong Angeleno, tell us a bit about where you are from and what sparked your passion for Los Angeles history?
My family lived in Silver Lake in the early ’80s, back before it was hip. My parents like to tell the story of the unstable neighbor next door who enjoyed throwing statues into our pool! We moved to Altadena when I was 4, where my parents still live. After college I moved into the infamous Alexander Ruler of the World apartments, right across from Paramount Studios – I was “lucky” enough to move in just a couple months before the owner started painting it dark magenta. Since then, I’ve lived in Echo Park, Highland Park, and now Valley Village.
Whenever I moved to a new neighborhood, I would read a book or two about local history. But my passion for Los Angeles history really took off in September 2021, when I launched my Etan Does LA project (more on that later). As I dug into the backstories of the LA landmarks I was visiting, it became clear very quickly that there were giant gaps in my knowledge of how this city became itself. I’ve been hooked ever since.
How did your love of L.A. history and Last Remaining Seats motivate you to join the L.A. Conservancy?
It felt natural to join an organization that does so much important work educating people like me about L.A. history. The endless resources on your website and social media feeds have informed my blog, Etan Does LA, and helped to make connections for me that I might not have made on my own. For that alone, the cost of membership is far more than worth it! My first year of membership was a gift from my mom for my 40th birthday. Couldn’t have asked for a better present.
Last Remaining Seats was actually how I first heard of the L.A. Conservancy. Back in 2014 a good friend of mine invited me to an Last Remaining Seats screening of Citizen Kane at the Orpheum. I had never seen the film before, so to be able to see the genius cinematography and all that incredible visual framing on the big screen was an absolute privilege. Plus, I was seated in the balcony – so I quite literally had a different perspective of Citizen Kane than most people will ever get!
Why do you think it’s important for folks to experience classic movies inside historic theatres?
Going to a movie in a theatre is a wholly different experience than streaming it at home, no matter how immersive your system is. I love the idea of moviegoing as an experience, something you get dressed up for, something as exalted as seeing a play or a concert, something you talk about before and after the film is over. That experience is enhanced immensely by being in a theatre as dramatic and artful as what’s on screen. It encourages you to engage with the building and its history, and also gives you a sense of what moviegoing was like back before we all had 4k TVs.
Tell us about your blog and what prompted you to start it.
My blog, Etan Does LA, documents my quixotic attempt to visit each of the Los Angeles landmarks on the National Register of Historic Places (there are around 600 of them). It started off in September 2021, a time when the pandemic had me feeling pretty disconnected from my city, and I was looking for a safe way to feel like a part of it again.
I was setting off on a short bike ride to the Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation in Burbank, and figured I’d look up a bit of information about it first (fun classic movie fact: the Portal features ornate sculptures by Federico Giorgi, who designed the epic Babylonian sets in DW Griffith’s Intolerance). I noticed the Portal was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which got me thinking about all the other things that might be on the list. If a lifelong Angeleno like me has never heard of many of these places, I bet I’m not the only one, right?
What started as a few photos and a few sentences of history for each site, posted on my Instagram page, has expanded to a website with written histories, videos, and photo galleries. I’ve visited eyepopping modernist homes and humble post offices, missions and bridges, fire stations and funeral homes, craftsman bungalows and Hollywood high-rises, churches and adobes, plus playgrounds, libraries, Civil War-era mountain passes and of course, historic theatres. Every single visit fills in a detail about Los Angeles history that I didn’t know, and more often than not, learning about one site will send me down a joyous research rabbit hole. Like, when you learn that Grammy-winning record producer Joe Henry owned Greene & Greene’s Lucretia Garfield home for over a decade, you want to know which albums he recorded there, yeah? And if you can hear anything craftsman-y on those records?
How is the Los Angeles Conservancy a resource for you, as well as Angelenos in general?
I do a lot of research on L.A. landmarks for my blog posts and videos. The information you find online is often too poorly researched to be reliable, or so impenetrably dense with facts and figures that it’s hard to decide where to start. The L.A. Conservancy’s backgrounders on historic sites and architects are consistently the most accurate and concise that I’ve found. They’ve helped deepen my understanding of the importance of the buildings I visit, and they ground each site in aesthetic and social contexts. I reference your website all the time in my blog posts.
It’s super important that Angelenos experience L.A.’s history as living history. Buildings change over time, and old ones continue to be relevant to different communities in different ways. So I value all the programs that the L.A. Conservancy offers to help people engage with historic sites – whether it’s your regular walking tours, Last Remaining Seats, or one-off events like the Griffith Park 125th anniversary celebration last year. I went to a couple stops on that, learned a ton, and met some fellow L.A. history buffs that I’ve kept in touch with.
I also love how the Los Angeles Conservancy comes into all of this with a preservation mindset. That wasn’t necessarily the outlook I had when I embarked on my project. But I’ve come to understand how fragile history can be, even when it’s embedded in massive buildings of brick and steel! And the L.A. Conservancy plays such an active preservation role – not just through education and advocacy, but also by holding conservation easements. I recently posted about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Harriet and Samuel Freeman House, which was bought in February by a developer who we hope will invest in a complete restoration. The easement that L.A. Conservancy holds on that home is a vital way of preserving its integrity and holding the owner accountable, so that the public can learn from this building for generations to come.
Do you have a favorite historic theatre in Los Angeles and/or a favorite Last Remaining Seats experience?
It’s a tossup between the Mission Playhouse in San Gabriel, and the Alex Theatre in Glendale. In addition to its swoonworthy architecture, the Mission Playhouse was built as a permanent home for a single production, the Mission Play, a three-hour epic about the history of the California missions, written by LA Times columnist, poet and politician John S. McGroarty. I love the idea of an entire building constructed to house a single work of art!
The Alex Theatre just screams classic with every fiber of its Greek/Egyptian-inspired look, and that giant floral spire erupting from its marquee. I’ll admit it though, this is a nostalgic pick…my high school graduation was held at the Alex Theatre. I wore a skintight silver disco outfit and performed Chick Corea’s “Armando’s Rhumba” on piano onstage. The Alex hasn’t been the same since.
As for my favorite Last Remaining Seats experience, I have to say that Blade Runner in July 2022 stands out. It’s not just a classic sci-fi film, it’s a classic Los Angeles sci-fi film. It was so fun to spot famous LA landmarks like Union Station, the Bradbury Building and the Million Dollar Theatre in the film, especially at a time when I’m thinking a lot about how we use and reuse old buildings. And I was sitting at the Orpheum Theatre, just blocks away from all those spots! Unforgettable.
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https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/690861472963854336
date: 2022-07-12, from: Tatavium Tribal News
On July 5th, the Office of Tribal Citizenship is accepting to applications for tribal citizenship….
https://www.tataviam-nsn.us/tribal-enrollment-open-to-those-with-fernandeno-lineage/
date: 2022-06-30, from: Theodore Paine Foundation
As we head into the hottest and driest part of the year, drought is at the forefront of many conversations at TPF. In my last blog post, I described the very existential reality of our current water situation, and how this could play out in terms of Southern California landscaping. Since then, it’s been a […]
https://theodorepayne.org/summertime/
date: 2022-06-20, from: Tatavium Tribal News
On Friday, June 10, at the new CNRA Headquarters building, California Department of Conservation Director David Shabazian joined California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot to celebrate Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians (FTBMI) in the launch of their new Tiüvac’a’ai Tribal Conservation Corps Program. Read more: https://calconservation.blog/2022/06/14/california-conservation-resources-agency-launch-tribal-conservation-corps-program/?fbclid=IwAR1G_Pu04gvt3gSOLEKrbJ6uYkNYmoxNpwhhkiHZYwGjpZTfz-qKvzs1wIU
date: 2022-05-20, from: Theodore Paine Foundation
This winter started with a deluge in much of Southern California. Over nine inches of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles in December 2021, more than three times the monthly average. We were ecstatic here at Theodore Payne Foundation, looking forward to super blooms at homes and in the wild, waterfalls overflowing in the mountains, […]
https://theodorepayne.org/landscapes-of-drought/
date: 2022-05-11, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
CBS Television City. Photo by Adrian Scott Fine/L.A. Conservancy
Television City (TVC) is an iconic place in Los Angeles, both for its commanding presence and stature in the Fairfaix District at the southeast corner of Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, and for its undeniable lead role in making television history. As a place that helps define this city, and a touchtone to our roots dating to the early ’50s, TVC also illustrates just how vulnerable our heritage can be as part of the ongoing surge in growth and new development throughout L.A.
The potential for loss is the reason the Conservancy had Television City designated as a Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) in 2018. It is also why we have worked so hard for the past year to ensure proposed new development surrounding TVC is compatible and does not overwhelm this historic place.
In April, after nearly a year of continuously meeting and working through various aspects, the Conservancy and Hackman Capital Partners, owner of TVC, jointly announced a new, revised plan and win-win solution that provides a balance for preservation and new development at the site.
“Television City is one of the great Hollywood studio lots,” says Michael Hackman, Founder and CEO of Hackman Capital Partners. “We are committed to investing in this important historic resource while ensuring it remains a robust job creator and world-class studio for decades to come. We are pleased to have worked with the Conservancy to find a win-win solution that preserves and celebrates the historic building while putting forth a plan that enhances TVC’s production operations and expands its production capacity.”
CBS Television City’s iconic front entrance. Photo by Adrian Scott Fine/L.A. Conservancy
The refined plan and solution emerging from our collaboration preserves historic TVC and allows for significant new development at this legendary studio property. A comprehensive framework for a state of-the-art modernization will preserve the historic complex and maintain the 430- foot Beverly Boulevard viewshed.
The new proposal for TVC results in the following modifications – all intended to reduce the proximity, bulk and mass of the intended new construction and impact on the historic TVC complex:
This proposed project is still in the early phases of the development and approval process. The Conservancy will remain involved and ultimately a part of the formal review process regarding the design and materiality of the proposed new construction. The Conservancy’s goal has been to preserve TVC, though not freezing it in time, but kept in a way where new development does not fundamentally harm this conic L.A. landmark.
Through compromise and working together with Hackman, we think this solution ensures the studio’s much-needed modernization while protecting this historic building and maintaining eligibility as a City of Los Angeles HCM. We are grateful to Hackman Capital Partners for not only listening, but also working hard with us to achieve a good balance.
After nearly a year of collaboration, the solution now moving forward significantly reworks a previous design concept released publicly in March 2021, a design concept where the Conservancy had raised strong concerns. Environmental review for the Television City 2050 Specific Plan (TVC 2050) is now underway and we anticipate the release of a Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) soon.
Newspaper clipping announcing the CBS Television City model
In early 2018, the Conservancy started work to protect TVC by initiating the HCM process. This effort followed earlier news that CBS Corporation was interested in selling the twenty-five-acre property. Announcement of a potential sale raised widespread concern over the fate of the architecturally and culturally significant campus, which was identified as National Register-eligible in Los Angeles’ SurveyLA (a citywide inventory of potential historic places in L.A.).
Opened in 1952 and known as CBS Television City, it was the first large-scale facility in the United States designed specifically for television production. CBS hired the local architecture firm Pereira & Luckman. Among the architects on the project team were acclaimed architects Gin Wong, James Langenheim, and Charles Stanton. The campus integrated soundstages, studios, editing rooms, offices, rehearsal halls, shops, and storage, all with expandability in mind. On the interior, flexibility was key then and now: studio walls and even some exterior walls can be moved and rearranged to accommodate the needs of specific productions.
For more than six decades and counting, Television City has been the portal for some of America’s most beloved television shows. From within its modern and custom designed stages, television broke new ground, from variety/sketch comedy television shows like The Carol Burnett Show to the life of Archie Bunker and the controversial issues of the day in All in the Family. Today, it is home to such popular newer productions like The James Corden Show as well as longtime shows such as The Price Is Right.
For more about the history of this preservation issue, please visit our website.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/683973783948771328
date: 2022-03-07, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
On #InternationalWomensDay, March 8th, 2022, the Conservancy is taking a closer look at the women’s movement here in Los Angeles. Our FREE virtual conversation “People + Places: ’70s Women Spaces and Places” shines a light on the courageous women who fought for their rights and the spaces where they could thrive.
Moderated by Adrian Scott Fine, the Conservancy’s Senior Director of Advocacy, our distinguished panelists are a group of women historic preservationists and academics who are passionate about telling these stories and saving the places associated with them: The Woman’s Building in downtown L.A., the Alcoholism Center for Women in Westlake, and The Crenshaw Women’s Center.
Panelists lineup: Kate Eggert (Co-founder Gosney-Eggert Historic Preservation Consultants); Lindsay Mulcahy (Neighborhood Outreach Coordinator, L.A. Conservancy); Evanne St. Charles, LEED AP O+M (Senior Associate, Architectural Historian & Preservation at Architectural Resources Group), and Sian Winship (President Society of Architectural Historians/Southern California Chapter).
In advance of the event, we asked them to share a few brief thoughts on women’s history in L.A. and the people that have inspired them in their work! Read on to learn more.
The Woman’s Building in 1975. © The Getty Research Institute, Maria Karras, BFA, RBP, MA
Is there a particular woman that you learned about during your research that inspires your work? Why?
Evanne St. Charles: I don’t think I could choose just one woman! I think it is the thousands of women who came to The Woman’s Building in search of belonging and purpose. Their ability to work collectively for change is what inspires me.
Lindsay Mulchay: I not only learned about inspiring women but was lucky enough to get to know several, like the writer and activist Carolyn Weathers, who reminds me to lead with my heart.
Sian Winship: Alice Stebbins Wells (1853-1957) was the first full-time uniformed policewoman in the country. What a game-changer! And Carol Downer (1933-present), founder of the Women’s Self Help Clinic Movement, as an alternative to the male-dominated medical profession. What a visionary!
How has your experience studying sites of women’s history shaped your personal life or identity?
Sian Winship: I happened to be researching the Women’s Rights Context during the #MeToo movement. It was shocking and disturbing to see how history repeats itself.
Lindsay Mulchay: It affirms for me that organizing is based in relationships and that those relationships flourish in spaces that foster safety, self-expression, and community connection.
What aspect of The Woman’s Building’s history is timely to understand today?
Evanne St. Charles: The Woman’s Building was an institution created by women, for women. Its goal was to give women – and underrepresented communities more broadly – a place where their voices could be heard. Organizations that lift up the voices of underrepresented peoples continue to be central to the creation of a more just and equitable society.
What aspect of women’s history is timely to understand today?
Lindsay Mulachy: The strongest movements are intersectional – they cast a wide net and center the most marginalized.
Sian Winship: We’ve been taught that Northern California led the way. This is not true. California women would have had the right to vote in 1896 if it had solely been the votes of Southern Californians…
Many of the most important sites from Second Wave Feminism were not purpose-built buildings. They don’t give up their significance to the casual observer. Once they start talking, however, their importance is undeniable.
The Alcoholism Center for Women in the 1970s. Photo courtesy the Carolyn Weathers Collection.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/678090681231851520
date: 2022-03-03, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
Alan Merson has been a Conservancy member since 1990 and supports the organization in multiple ways. Director of Development Liz Leshin explores why.
How did you first get involved with Los Angeles Conservancy?
I became a member of the Los Angeles Conservancy while working for Morley Builders, focusing on historic seismic upgrade projects. One of these projects was the Powell Library at UCLA which won a Los Angeles Conservancy Preservation Award.
Why is it important to you to support preservation?
For me, it began growing up in Carthay and attending Carthay Circle Elementary School. At that time, the Carthay Circle Theater was demolished by a wrecking ball. My early introduction to preservation was on the playground, watching a wrecking ball demolish the historic theater.
The earlier preservation awareness and neighborhood education begins, the better. I think there is a huge opportunity, through public education, to highlight neighborhoods where schools are located. This could include informing students how the adjacent neighborhoods were developed, designed by architects, built by contractors, etc. Public educators can speak about the architecture of the schools they teach in and the adjacent neighborhoods where the students and their parents live.
Supporting preservation coincides with the need for greater public education and awareness of relevant preservation issues. Through greater education and awareness, will hopefully inform more of the public to care more about the areas in which they live and work.
What compelled you to become a member of the Pillar Society?
Los Angeles Conservancy has been included in my estate planning for many years. Once the Pillar Society was created, joining became a very easy decision. The Pillar Society recognizes and makes public what I was already doing. Hopefully, the public recognition will incentivize and motivate others to do the same.
Why do you think others should consider becoming members of the Pillar Society?
See above.
You very generously provided a matching gift to the Conservancy’s Preservation Advocacy Fund in 2021. What motivated you to do this?
Supporting the matching gift initiative is a great way to leverage funds, which increases the effectiveness of the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Advocacy efforts.
You have been a Conservancy member since 1990, working your way up to being a Granite Cornerstone member; why do you feel membership support is important?
As a long-term Los Angeles Conservancy Member, my support has increased in multiple ways over the years, including LAC’s recent support of the nomination of the Carthay neighborhood as a National Register Historic District through the Carthay Neighborhoods National Register Nomination Fund.
As property values rise, the tension between development and preservation also increases, as does the need to support the LAC and other preservation groups.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/677722802245255169
date: 2022-03-03, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
Linda Dishman (center) and Conservancy volunteers celebrate the Palace Theatre’s 100th birthday in 2011 as part of Last Remaining Seats. Photo by Gary Leonard.
Happy thirtieth anniversary to Linda Dishman, the Conservancy’s president and CEO! Focused and fearless, Linda has been a force of leadership for the Conservancy and the historic preservation movement throughout California.
Linda joined the Conservancy as executive director in March 1992. Since then, the organization has grown to 5,000 members—the largest membership of a local historic preservation organization in the country—and our budget is now $3 million.
From all of us at the Conservancy, a heartfelt congratulations and thank you! We asked Linda to reflect on her time at the Conservancy.
What do you love about working at the Conservancy?
It’s the people! I have a poster on my wall that says, “People make history, people preserve it.” That really encapsulates why our work is so meaningful. We save historic buildings because they mean something to people.
The best part is when I talk to people and they [talk about] a building that has meaning to them. Sometimes it is a school they went to, a little neighborhood store they visited every Saturday with their grandmother, or the house where they grew up that holds their memories. And, sometimes we hear stories about buildings that we all know and celebrate, like City Hall and the Central Library.
We respect that people’s stories reside in many places throughout Los Angeles. They’re what makes Los Angeles so special!
How has preservation changed in the last thirty years?
There is greater public awareness and appreciation for historic buildings and what they do for communities. We can point to many examples that showcase the value of historic preservation on a project. Take the Tower Theatre, for example. It was vacant for over thirty years. Then, Apple came in with a strong vision to adaptively reuse the space in a way that celebrated its historic character on par with its cutting-edge technology.
How has the Conservancy changed since you started?
The Conservancy has more members and staff, more experience, and more great work under our belt! We’re doing more to celebrate the full story of Los Angeles, including nominations of culturally significant sites, community outreach, and a wildly successful legacy business campaign. I’m excited for us to expand this work further. The Conservancy also has more tools and has developed best practices we’re now sharing with the public through our Community Leadership Boot Camps. Win or lose, there is much to be learned from every advocacy effort.
Our work to specifically tell a broader, more inclusive story through our advocacy and educational work has grown the perception of what’s worth saving in truly meaningful ways.
How has the Conservancy stayed the same?
We remain rooted in our values to find win-win preservation-minded solutions. When we’re working on advocacy issues, we focus on options that preserve the historic building and also meet the project’s end goals, whether it is adding housing units or turning a commercial building into office space. The Conservancy is eager to demonstrate how historic preservation can be a tool in helping Los Angeles address critical issues, like housing or climate change.
What was one of your greatest losses at the Conservancy?
It’s really tough to lose a building, especially a building you’ve worked a long time to try and save. That was certainly the situation with the demolition of the Ambassador Hotel in 2005 and 2006. We were sad. I was sad. We did everything possible to provide an alternative to demolition. We’d never had the capacity to do that before. We exhausted every resource and idea. By the time we lost, we lost. But we looked at the effort and thought: how do we use this loss as we look to the future? We learned a lot.
It’s interesting, people still tell me how sad they are about the loss of the Ambassador—even those who were not that supportive at the time.
What is one of your most memorable moments in a historic building?
In talking about the Ambassador Hotel, it brings back the memory of being in the pantry where Robert Kennedy was assassinated.
It was a place of great sadness and being there in person was very powerful. It really resonated as a sacred place. What happened in that pantry changed the direction of our country. The Conservancy wanted the pantry to be preserved for that reason, so students could understand the assassination in a broader context, understand the history of our nation, and be inspired.
What is something people may not know about you?
People think I’m from Los Angeles, but I actually grew up in Sacramento. My mother was from South Pasadena, so I was raised hearing stories of her going to the Broadway theatres, riding the streetcars downtown, and ice cream sundaes at Chatam’s in Westwood Village. She went to UCLA. Even before I came to L.A., I had a strong sense of the history of Los Angeles.
One of my most precious memories is when I was five and came down to Los Angeles with my mom. My grandmother took me to the Ambassador Hotel and we had lunch at the patio there. Maybe that’s why it was poignant when we lost the building.
What is one of your favorite preservation moments?
The evening when the Downey McDonald’s reopened. Saving the Downey McDonald’s was a really hard fight because we were up against one of the biggest corporations in America, who for a variety of reasons didn’t want this building to survive. Thankfully, they changed their trajectory and decided to restore the building. At the opening event, there was a big black-tie affair in the parking lot. The servers came out with platters covered by silver domes for each person. When they opened the silver dome, there was a Quarter Pounder with fries. It was the perfect way to celebrate McDonald’s reopening!
Linda’s interview with Preservation Magazine in 1992, not long after she became the new executive director of the L.A. Conservancy. Photo courtesy Preservation Magazine
Linda at the 1993 rally to save “The Town House.” In response, the City Council approved Historic-Cultural Monument designation. Photo: L.A. Conservancy Archives.
Linda at a 1994 rally to save the historic McDonald’s in Downey. The rally gained international publicity and the building was saved. Photo: L.A. Conservancy Archives.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/677722326956212224
date: 2022-03-01, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Isabel Swafford for Caltech Letters over ‘Braun Laboratories at Caltech’, captured by the author.
Viewpoint articles are a vehicle for members of the Caltech community to express their opinions on issues surrounding the interface of science and society. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Caltech or the editorial board of Caltech Letters. Please see our disclaimer.
Caltech recently received the second-largest gift ever donated to a US university, a whopping $750 million from the Resnick family, meant to support research into sustainable technologies and means of combating climate change. This money will be used to erect a new building, bolster Caltech’s endowment, and fund environmentally-oriented research. Researchers who receive these funds will retain full self-determination over their work. It is tempting to unquestioningly celebrate this gift and the freedom to use it, but I believe that it is not ethical to pursue research using these funds without critically examining our relationship with the Resnicks. As scientists, we mold our work, our speech, and our way of interpreting the world in pursuit of objectivity. However, we often end up deluding ourselves and each other into believing that we actually are objective beings. Such beliefs are dangerous when we encounter ethical dilemmas: a person who believes themself to be objective can always justify their actions as “right.” As we consider how the Resnick gift should be employed, we need to be clear about how we judge the ethics of its use.
When we think of moral dilemmas, we usually think of dramatic scenarios: for example, the trolley problem or, in the case of scientific research, how long artificial embryos should be allowed to develop. But the vast majority of ethical choices scientists face are mundane. These choices are typically not even related to experiments, but rather to funding: from whom to procure it and how to compete for it. In the US, scientists usually turn to a combination of government agencies and private organizations. The government agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), usually have a very broad scope and support many diverse scientific ventures. The private foundations typically have very concrete missions, such as developing treatments for a particular disease. Despite the differences in breadth of focus between public and private sponsors, US scientists typically justify their applications for funding by claiming that their research will contribute to the “Greater Good”. These contributions are codified in grant and proposal guidelines and are sometimes termed the “broader impacts” of the work. For example, the Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS) developed a guiding document to advise grant reviewers and program managers on how to evaluate NSF grant applications, underscoring the importance of the quality of their proposed broader impacts. This document states that a key factor in evaluating a given proposal is its potential “to benefit society or advance desired societal outcomes.” In other words, while scientific research directions are typically driven by myriad human motivations like aspiration, ego, and curiosity, they have to be recontextualized and sold as socially beneficial.
Relying on the strength of the broader impacts of their research, scientists make a utilitarian claim. Maximizing utility, broadly defined as achieving the most good for the most people, is an important motivation and should be at the foundation of public policy. But I contend that it can never be an objective goal. There is no universal definition of “Good,” and, for most definitions, this Good cannot be evaluated within our lifetimes. Utilitarianism usually cannot be a moral basis for a scientist to pursue their work ethically because the work’s utility cannot be guaranteed. In applications for funding, utility often emerges as either an afterthought or an assertion provided solely to procure funding. Unless a different, non-utilitarian moral ground underlies the work, the scientist’s ethical obligations as a human being cannot be satisfied by their proposed research alone.
To give a concrete, admittedly dramatic, example of the tension between utilitarianism, funding, and social values, I present the case of Martin Couney:
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the burgeoning eugenics movement held “Better Babies” contests (e.g., which blue-eyed white baby is “scientifically best?”), and most doctors advocated that premature infants be left to die, Martin Couney developed incubators that saved thousands of these children, including his own daughter1. Couney did this as a showman who continually lied about his credentials: In 1898, he began traveling to expositions and fairgrounds in the US, with infants on display in his incubators as sideshows, all the while claiming to have a European medical license and training under Dr. Pierre Budin, a founder of modern neonatal care, neither of which was true2. In 1903 and 1904, respectively, Couney established permanent expositions on Coney Island and in Atlantic City that both ran for nearly forty years3. By charging the peeping public for admission, Couney was able to fully cover the cost of the medical care, sanitation, and nurses’ wages at no cost to the desperate parents who brought him their newborns. When the infants matured, they were returned to their families. Couney saved roughly 85% of the premature babies in his shows, in contrast to the roughly 25% that were surviving standard care. Gradually, Couney garnered enough respect to win over the medical establishment. His influence went beyond saving the preemies to proving that they could grow up to be indistinguishable from those who had been born at full-term. As one example, possibly due to the simple fact that oxygen was too expensive to provide in excess in Couney’s sideshows, infants under his care avoided developing retrolental fibroplasia, blindness that plagued children who were given too much oxygen in hospital incubators4. The approximately 6,500 people saved by Couney’s enterprise grew up to have children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of their own; there are likely tens of thousands of people alive today because of him. Couney’s work made him a kind of anti-eugenicist, aligning him against the utilitarianism of his time: the reason why the medical establishment did not bother trying to develop means of saving premature infants was that those children were deemed to not be worth the effort. Preemies were considered weaklings who would be inferior to the “better babies.”
This story underscores the capricious nature of utilitarianism. Back then, as it would now, the way that Couney funded his work delegitimized his efforts5. However, the fact that there was no social ethic, no “legitimate” establishment that would support saving premature infants, created the possibility for Couney’s success. Couney wanted to save those children, to spread “preemie propaganda”6, and found an unorthodox way to do it, while also accruing significant wealth. Today, after the fact, it is tempting to explain why what Couney did was right by making a utilitarian argument, that the ends clearly justified the means, but this retroactive argument is misleading. We now think that the ends have justified the means because our social values have changed (for the better), and we, as a society, agree that the lives of premature infants are worth saving. This change in values is not due to us having followed a utilitarian ethic. It is due to the non-utilitarian work of people like Couney.
This example may seem incomparable to a gift of $750 million from one established group (the Resnicks) to another (Caltech), but Couney’s revenue was actually millions of dollars in today’s value7. The connection that I want to draw between the two cases rests on their shared dissonance between utility, funding, and social values. To paraphrase one of Lily E. Kay’s opening arguments in The Molecular Vision of Life8, by participating in the given funding system, the scientist also participates in forming a consensus of values and priorities with the funder9. This happens even when the scientist’s motivations—such as general curiosity, desire for social progress, or self-interest—have nothing to do with their relationship with the sponsor. This consensus of values and priorities, which constitute the social program of the funder, is more beneficial to the funder than the scientist. While a funding agency provides an individual scientist a sort of legitimacy (evidence that the scientist was able to convince someone to give them money), the fact that the agency unified a whole field of research solidifies that agency’s influence on society. Thus, uncritically using money from a given group strengthens it, regardless of what the funds are used toward. Neither a utilitarian claim nor a successful procurement of funding can serve as evidence of ethical work.
So, in order to use the Resnick gift ethically, we must critically consider their values and priorities, as evidenced by their practices. The Resnicks made their fortune through questionable business practices, such as shipping drinking water from Fiji to the US and taking control of a previously California-owned waterbank. Accepting their donation raises questions about where the line between reputation laundering and reparation is drawn. For example, by conducting research with their money, are we justifying the way in which they accrued their wealth? Have the Resnicks given enough money directly to Fiji (via taxes, donations, investments, or reparations) to qualify as having made a restitution? Such questions are not restricted to the Resnick gift and apply generally to issues of accepting money for research from harmful enterprises, such as from fossil fuel companies. However, the Resnick gift is unique in its size and intention, being the first of its magnitude to directly aim for environmental improvement. It will cause reverberations in donations to other universities, and so it behooves us to establish a system of ethics for using it from the outset.
We already know part of how Caltech will use the gift: $400 million will go into Caltech’s endowment, $100 million will go towards a new building, and $250 million will be applied toward research via the Resnick Sustainability Institute (RSI). The RSI has four interconnected initiatives: “Sunlight to Everything”, which aims to use solar energy to combat pollution and greenhouse gasses; “Climate Science”, which aims to mitigate the effects of global warming; “Water Resources”, which aims to improve the availability of drinking water; and “Ecology and Biosphere Engineering”, which aims to understand and mitigate negative human impacts on ecosystems. This mass project is uniquely poised to involve every branch of science found at Caltech. There is no doubt in my mind that research funded through the RSI will lead to applicable, beneficial, and interesting outcomes. But this research is unlikely to undo the direct harm done to the environment by the Resnicks’ companies, despite all the freedom that a private donation allows. Undoing this harm would require Caltech to start an explicit program to assess and address environmental damage done to Fiji, the Pacific Ocean, and California’s freshwater reserves by Caltech’s biggest donor.
‘Baxter Hall at Caltech’, captured by the author.
Lev Tsypin
The question stands before every scientist at Caltech who is, or wants to be, funded through the RSI: Do you support the Resnicks’ practices? If you use their money and do not actually resist their business ethic, then it does not matter what your reflexive answer is; you are participating in the formation of the consensus that these practices are okay. As a member of society, you should feel free and welcome to follow your curiosity, invent new solutions to social problems, and pursue the work that you believe in. But you should also remember who is allowing you to do so. Scientists stand to gain from clarity about how funding shapes research and about how to formulate an ethical system in a changing world, and demonstrating this clarity will serve to increase public trust in science. There are several key questions that each scientist should engage with:
It is almost always easier to keep doing what you have been doing, and it is sometimes right to do so. Ultimately, different people will have different tolerances for how much cognitive dissonance they can bear when their work supports a social program that they stand against. When I ask myself the above questions, I find myself where I believe most scientists are: the opaque moral gray. I find my own work interesting and worthwhile, insofar as all fundamental, creative pursuits are important human practices. But I do not believe that, during my PhD, I will be able to pursue research that compensates for the social programs of some of my funders (e.g., the Army Research Office). I have to live with this fact, and how I do so is the ethical choice before me. The way I see it, sticking to my research and doing nothing outside of it to improve my environment would be wrong.
In the case of the Resnick gift, my non-utilitarian stance is that money should be used to pursue sustainability research and combat climate change, as the gift was intended to be used, but that this cannot be done innocently. Guided by a non-utilitarian ethic, our use of the money ought to be paired with action that is separate from the exchange that the Resnicks and Caltech have made. This action should serve to subvert the aspects of the Resnick companies’ social programs that we disagree with and move us beyond a zero-sum moral accounting.
If you find yourself in a similar position to mine, the call to action is three-fold: improve the immediate social space around us, improve the institution(s) we are a part of, and improve the society we find ourselves in. It is not possible for an individual to address or work on all scales at once, but there are a lot of issues that can be addressed on an approximately local scale through collective advocacy. In the case of Caltech, an obvious small-scale example is to combat food waste (it is absurd that we received $750 million for sustainability research without any infrastructure for composting on campus). More generally in academia, we should move to involve trainees in decision-making (e.g., admission, hiring, tenure, and curricula, which would foster increased trust and understanding between faculty and their mentees). Graduate students, postdocs, and staff should collectively advocate for more equitable working conditions, grievance procedures, and compensation. Labs, be they in academia, non-profit organizations, or industry, should have explicit conversations about their values and how they align or conflict with those of their funding sources. These are opportunities to supplement research in a way that centers actual, subjective values and thus sculpts the norms of scientific conduct. These are opportunities to do something good.
This piece has been in the works for a year, and has been shaped by many people. I want to thank Audrey Massman for introducing me to Martin Couney’s story during a tabletop role playing game. I’ve had many conversations about the ethics of scientific funding, including with members of the Newman Lab antiracism discussion subgroup, with whom I read Lily E. Kay’s Molecular Vision of Life, and I want to particularly thank Elise Tookmanian and Georgia Squyres as co-leaders of that group. I’ve had long discussions about how to improve Caltech with many of my friends and colleagues, which influenced the tone and direction of this piece, and I want to thank Fayth Tan, Krystal Vasquez, Aditi Narayanan, and Hannah Weller for helping me crystalize my perspective on the systems of power that are at play within academia. I’m hugely grateful to my adviser, Dianne Newman, who has been nothing but supportive of me when I have come into conflict with Caltech, who finds the humor within our personal disagreements, and who has ensured my success as a PhD student even as I have gotten increasingly active on campus outside the lab. Thank you to the editors, Melba Nuzen, Nicole Wallack, Skyler Ware, and Heidi Klumpe for their careful and constructive criticism of this piece. Most of all, I’m grateful for my fiancée, Yana Zlochistaya, who has read, thought about, and discussed this piece with me since its inception.
1: Prentice, C., 2016. Miracle at Coney Island: How a sideshow doctor saved thousands of babies and transformed American medicine. p. 32
2: Ibid. pp. 51-55
3: Ibid. p. 23, p. 29, and p. 70
4: Ibid. p. 67
5: Ibid. p. 27
6: Ibid. p. 65
7: Ibid. see, for example, p. 29
8: Kay, LE. 1996. The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the rise of the new biology. Oxford University Press, USA
9: Ibid. p. 10
https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/nonutilitarian-scientific-ethics
date: 2022-02-08, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Isabel Swafford for Caltech Letters
Viewpoint articles are a vehicle for members of the Caltech community to express their opinions on issues surrounding the interface of science and society. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Caltech or the editorial board of Caltech Letters. Please see our disclaimer.
My favorite place on Earth is a secluded tributary to the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park, California. In the fall, the river becomes a trickle of water between emerald pools carved into the granite—the perfect swimming holes. I have gone backpacking there most years since high school. Yet for the past few autumns, raging wildfires, driven by climate change, have forced me to cancel the trip. With climate change, it has become hard to imagine a future in which I am able to return to this yearly tradition. If this future exists, it depends on a steep drawdown of carbon dioxide emissions driven by a combination of policy changes and technological innovations.
A picture of my favorite place on Earth, now threatened by climate change.
Cora Went
As a Caltech scientist, I have long struggled with how I can personally work to abate the climate crisis. The impacts of climate change fall hardest on the most disadvantaged communities, which places a responsibility on me to act. For now, I have landed on a combination of technology research and organizing. In the lab, I research new materials for capturing solar energy. Outside of the lab, I organize with the Los Angeles chapter of the Sunrise Movement Los Angeles (Sunrise LA), a group of young people fighting to stop climate change through direct action, electing Green New Deal champions into office, and working on local policy.
I represent Sunrise LA on the SoCal Building Electrification Coalition, which aims to pass building codes that transition both existing and new buildings to all-electric appliances. We don’t hear much about buildings in the context of climate change, but, in California, they comprise a full quarter of our carbon emissions. In Los Angeles, that number exceeds 40%. Much of this comes from natural gas appliances—mainly gas hot water heaters, gas stoves, and gas furnaces. On top of emitting carbon dioxide, natural gas appliances also come with significant health risks: growing up in a home with a gas stove increases asthma risk for children by as much as 40%.
Fortunately, there are alternatives: electric heat pumps can provide both heating and cooling to a home and are at least three times as efficient as traditional furnaces. For new buildings, they are less expensive over their lifetime than traditional furnaces and air conditioners. Crucially, electric heat pumps emit less carbon dioxide, and the benefits will only compound as we add more renewable energy sources to the electric grid.
Across all sectors, experts are coming to a consensus on the cheapest and most equitable path to a zero-carbon future. This consensus can be summed up in two words: electrify everything. We already know how to make cheap, abundant renewable electricity, and whatever runs on electricity is as clean as the grid. Not only will our buildings be all-electric, but so will our cars, our trucks, and our public transit. A wide range of energy models have demonstrated that to achieve net zero by 2050, we will use at least twice the amount of electricity we currently do, while our total energy use (electricity plus other sources of energy, like liquid fuels) will decrease.
This graph shows how much we can decrease US CO2 emissions with various changes. Decarbonizing our power generation alone only reduces emitted CO2 by 30%. When combined with electrification, 71% CO2 reductions are possible.
Cora Went, data from the Rocky Mountain Institute
These same energy models show that the market alone won’t get us there quickly enough. We need to use all of the policy tools at our disposal to accelerate electrification, from investing in electric public transit and electric vehicle charging infrastructure to subsidizing heat pumps and ensuring new buildings are all-electric.
Electrifying everything also means that, for our survival, the fossil fuel industry must shrink dramatically.
Many have said that the fossil fuel giants—Chevron, Exxon, BP, Shell—will simply become energy companies, providing the wind, solar, and other renewables that we need in a zero-carbon future. This is misguided: they missed their chance to make that transformation decades ago. Instead, they dug in their heels, becoming the purveyors of climate denial and the opposers of climate legislation. Today, they are still extracting huge quantities of fossil fuels.
The “Victory Memo,” written in 1998 by a group of fossil fuel industry representatives (including Exxon, Chevron, and the American Petroleum Institute), showed clear intent to promote climate change denial in the general population.
Climate Files
In the past five years, fossil fuel companies and utilities have taken a more subtle approach, trying to convince politicians and the public that they are part of the solution to climate change rather than denying its existence. The fossil fuel industry now argues that we need more innovation, so we should wait to eliminate fossil fuels. This is misleading—energy modeling shows that we already have most of the technology we need to stop climate change. It is also a false dichotomy, suggesting that we cannot innovate at the same time as we work to eliminate fossil fuels. Not only can we, but we must.
On the local level, our SoCal Building Electrification Coalition is coming up against these same tactics and talking points. Our natural gas utility in Los Angeles, SoCalGas, is threatened by the electrification ordinances that we are advancing, since 80% of their revenue comes from selling natural gas to residential customers. Following the fossil fuel industry’s playbook, they are trying to position themselves as the solution while delaying the phase-out of natural gas to maximize their own profits.
In public, SoCalGas has pledged to achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2045. They heavily advertise their research on renewable natural gas and hydrogen. In private, they’re fighting tooth and nail against the climate progress we need to make immediately to solve this crisis, which is electrification and shrinking their industry.
SoCalGas sued the California Energy Commission when the commission tried to reduce gas use in the state. They got in trouble with California regulators last year for misusing customer money to lobby against energy efficiency standards. Recently, Santa Barbara residents received a mass text from SoCalGas encouraging them to call and oppose a building electrification ordinance. The utility has responded to these ordinances by pushing localities to adopt “balanced energy resolutions” across the state.
Perhaps most egregiously, SoCalGas was found to have launched and funded a front group, Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions (C4BES), to advocate for continued natural gas use in the state. This organization poses as a group of natural gas consumers, with pictures of families cooking on gas stoves and messaging about “energy choice” and the “right to use natural gas” on their website. The principles on the C4BES website even match those on the SoCalGas website nearly word-for-word. This is a classic example of “astroturfing,” where a corporation creates a front group which poses as a grassroots organization in order to boost their political voice.
Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions recently took down their website. However, their Facebook page still contains frequent references to SoCalGas as well as calls for residents to oppose building electrification ordinances (above).
Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions, via Facebook
Just last week, the California Public Utilities Commission levied a $10 million fine against SoCalGas for continuing to use ratepayer money to lobby against stronger rules for buildings and appliances. This lobbying included efforts to weaken 2022 updates to the state building code, which moves California towards all-electric new construction. Despite multiple sanctions and negative press coverage, SoCalGas, a company that derives its power from being a state-sanctioned monopoly, continues to use that power to keep us hooked to an energy supply that is damaging our health and the planet.
In light of this, the public pledges that SoCalGas has made to achieve net zero by 2045 ring hollow. Further, their plan to rely on energy sources like hydrogen and renewable natural gas to achieve their goals is unrealistic. These sources have an important role to play in a zero-carbon future, particularly in hard-to-electrify sectors such as aviation, parts of industry, and long-duration energy storage (storing energy for days to years). However, neither is poised to take the place of natural gas in buildings. Renewable natural gas is not abundant enough, hydrogen is inefficient, and both are expensive. Electrification remains by far the cheapest and the safest way to decarbonize buildings. The talk of hydrogen-powered homes is a classic example of greenwashing, or misleading the public to think that a company is more climate-friendly than it is.
Given their history of underhanded tactics around Southern California, and their nefarious reputation in the building electrification world, I was surprised to learn that SoCalGas funds research on renewable natural gas, carbon capture, and hydrogen at Caltech. They recently partnered with Caltech on a hydrogen demonstration project. At first glance, this could seem like a good thing: the profits gained from polluting our environment are being reinvested into necessary research and development.
But this funding should not be welcomed, and we can look to the parallels with the tobacco industry to see why. Cigarette companies have long funded cancer research, using the profits from their deadly products to create a public relations smokescreen. They claim to be solving the problems they have caused, while pursuing covert legal and political tactics to keep the sales coming in. Many cancer researchers now eschew funding from tobacco companies, understanding that this money merely perpetuates the cycle of harm done by the industry.
Armed with the reputational benefits of their collaborations with Caltech researchers, SoCalGas has the credibility today to make false claims to government officials and the public that we should not pass all-electric building ordinances, because they are funding research on technical solutions like hydrogen that are just around the corner. They can pump the brakes on the affordable and realistic solutions that are already here.
Both tobacco and fossil fuel companies could take substantive steps towards solving the problems they claim to care about by supporting efforts to regulate their industry. Of course, under capitalism, a private company will never have internal incentives to support regulation that hurts their bottom line. But we, as energy researchers, can follow the example of cancer scientists and stop feeding into the industry’s cycle of harm.
It’s time for scientists at Caltech, and other research institutions, to reject funding from SoCalGas. This would decrease SoCalGas’s credibility and political power, which would get us closer to passing the building electrification ordinances that we need in Southern California.
I know this isn’t simple. Government funding can be hard to come by, and we need to drastically increase federal support for climate-related research—the $45 billion over 10 years of science funding included in the initial draft of the Build Back Better plan would be a good start. Additionally, many academic funding sources are dubiously ethical, and perhaps that money would just go to another institution if not Caltech. But the benefits gained from that research funding are outweighed by the costs of enabling SoCalGas as they slow political action on the climate crisis.
I dream of one day being able to journey back to the emerald pools in Yosemite without fear of wildfires. But for me, this is a privilege. The climate crisis threatens the entire lives and livelihoods of Black, brown, and working-class people on the frontlines of climate change. At Caltech, our mission—to expand human knowledge and benefit society through research integrated with education—has embedded within it a commitment to improving people’s lives through our research. If we are serious about this mission, we need to take a holistic view of our research, from funding sources to new technologies. For Caltech researchers working on climate solutions, upholding our mission means rejecting funding from the fossil fuel industry. The stakes could not be higher.
https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/dirty-money-green-science
date: 2022-01-31, from: Theodore Paine Foundation
2022 is underway, and we’re gearing up for a fantastic year of native plants, Indigenous ecology, and community building here at Theodore Payne Foundation. We’re seeing some glimmers of hope that the need to stay distanced may subside this year and allow us to get back to the thing that we as gardeners love the […]
https://theodorepayne.org/2022-native-plant-garden-tour/
date: 2022-01-25, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Siobhán MacArdle
If you’ve ever drunk wine with a wine aficionado (don’t call them snobs!) you’ve probably heard them describe what they smell—maybe dark fruits, baking spices, freshly cut grass—and also note whether or not the wine has tannins and how much. To understand what people mean when they talk about tannins in wine, we can start with an experience that has nothing to do with wine: drinking oversteeped tea. When you finally take a sip of the tea you forgot about 20 minutes ago, your soothing afternoon ritual is now stripping the inside of your mouth of all its moisture, causing you to recoil and shiver. You are feeling astringency, like your mouth is being dried out. This astringent experience is caused by molecules called tannins—chemicals found in many foods such as tea, dried fruit, and chocolate, but perhaps most famous for their presence in wine. In a good wine, tannins cause a more subtle drying sensation than in your forgotten oolong, providing complexity and structure, which adds another dimension to the tastes and smells we get from these chemical solutions.
The astringent sensation caused by tannins makes your mouth feel dry. However, tannins aren’t actually drying out your mouth–this is just how our brains perceive the interaction between tannins and our saliva. The chemical structure of tannins makes them particularly good at sticking to things and clumping them up. Think of tannins like those burrs that get stuck to your clothes when you go for a walk in nature. Just like burrs, the interactions that tannins make are nonspecific; they will stick to many different types of molecules (whatever they happen to bump into). In our mouths, they bump into saliva proteins. The saliva in our mouths is full of proteins that keep our digestive tracts lubricated, but after taking a sip of wine or that neglected tea, the tannins in these beverages will bind to our saliva proteins and clump them up. All clumped up, these proteins are no longer dissolvable in our saliva and they become more like tiny pieces of sand—not big enough to see, but big enough to feel. We experience the friction of these tiny bits of sand-like protein-tannin clumps as astringency, or dryness, in our mouths.
So, what is it about tannins that makes them so prone to clumping? Tannins are a subcategory of a broader class of molecules called polyphenols. Phenols are carbon rings decorated with oxygen atoms and polyphenols are many of these phenols joined into one big molecule. Phenols have many double bonds, which carry lots of negatively-charged electrons that aren’t married to any particular atom. The oxygens on the phenols are electronegative, which means they pull electrons toward themselves. This combination of lots of double bonds and lots of oxygen atoms creates many areas of polarization in the molecule, which means certain parts carry slight negative charges and other parts carry positive charges. This polarization makes the tannins more likely to form attractive interactions with things that they bump into than if they were neutral molecules.
For example, when a negatively-charged part of the tannin comes into contact with another molecule, the negative charge will repel the electrons of that molecule, causing that part of the other molecule to be slightly positively charged. Now you have a slight negative charge in the tannin and a slight positive charge in the other molecule, which causes attraction! These attractions are called van der Waals forces and they are relatively weak, way weaker than the bonds that bind atoms in molecules: if bonds between atoms in a molecule are superglue, van der Waals forces are maple syrup. Long story short, tannins are sticky1. They are likely to glom on to chemicals that they find, and when we’re talking about tannins in wine, the largest class of chemicals that they find are the proteins in our saliva.
Our saliva proteins are well equipped to interact with tannins as well. All proteins are made up of a combination of 21 different amino acids stuck together in a long chain and folded into a unique structure. The proteins in our mouths contain a lot of a particular amino acid called proline. Proline is special because it forces a kink in the protein structure. So lots of prolines means lots of kinks and bends in the protein, which makes for a disordered squiggly mess. This open and unstructured shape of the proteins in our saliva provides many spots for tannins to bind. Although there are no specific bonds that happen between tannins and saliva proteins, both are perfectly suited for many non-specific interactions, thus resulting in clumping.2
The interaction between tannins and saliva proteins.
Illustration by Siobhán MacArdle
But why did our saliva evolve to have all these squiggly proteins? Let’s imagine that we didn’t have these proteins in our saliva—the tannins would have nothing to clump to in our mouths and would make it to our stomachs and intestines all on their own. There, they would find the important digestive enzymes—chemicals that we need to get nutrients from our food. If free tannins made their way to these enzymes, they would bind and clump them up, taking them out of commission and disrupting our digestion. You might have experienced this if you stubbornly drank that over-steeped cup of tea anyway and gave yourself a stomach ache. We probably evolved to have these squiggly proteins in our saliva as sacrificial tannin sponges to protect our digestive enzymes from the tannins in our diet.
There is immense range in the levels of tannins in wine, and wines are commonly described as having low, medium, or high tannins. If you start paying attention to the level of astringency you experience from certain wines, you might develop a preference for wines with a particular level of tannins. And then you might actually have an answer at the wine store when they put you on the spot with, “are you looking for anything in particular?”
Most of the tannins in wine come from the skins of the grapes used to make wine3. These skins and the winemaker’s choice of what to do with them are how we end up with wines of such varying tannin levels. If the winemaker chooses to include the skins during fermentation, the tannins dissolve into the grape juice and the resulting wine will have tannins. The extent of tannic character depends on the length of time the winemaker chooses to keep the skins around. Just like a tea bag, the longer the skins are “steeped,” the more intense the astringent experience caused by tannins will be. In addition to time with the skins, the other variable affecting tannin levels is the type of grape. Certain grapes are thicker-skinned than others, so they will impart more tannins to the wine than wines made from grapes with thin skins. Pinot Noir, for example, is notoriously thin-skinned, so these wines will always be low in tannins. Nebbiolo grapes, on the other hand, contain a lot of tannins in their thick skins, so wines made from these grapes will have an intense tannic character.
Even within a grape variety, there can be variation in the levels of tannins depending on the conditions used to grow the grape. Tannin molecules may serve as a sort of “sunscreen” for the grapes, absorbing UV rays from the sun that could be damaging to the grape cells (all those double bonds in tannins that were mentioned earlier are also great for absorbing UV radiation!). Thus, grapes that are grown at higher altitude and in more direct sunlight, where they are more prone to harmful levels of UV radiation, will produce more tannins to protect themselves than grapes grown in the shade and at lower elevation.
You might have noticed that red wines tend to have more tannins than white wines. This is because traditionally, red wine is made from red grapes and the skins are included in the fermentation, while white wine is made from white grapes and the skins are separated out before fermentation. With no skins around during fermentation of white wine, there are no tannins to be had. Rosé is made from red grapes, but the skins are separated before fermentation, as they are for white wines, which is why rosés are lighter in color and tannins than red wines4. A fun tasting experiment is to try to find a red wine and a rosé from the same producer of the same grape (something to ask about the next time you’re at the wine store!). Tasting these wines side by side will give you a sense of what flavors and sensation come from the grape juice vs. the grape skins.
There is a fourth variety of wine growing in popularity in the US called “orange wine” or “skin contact white wine.” Just like how rosés are made from red grapes in the style of white wines, orange wines are made from white grapes in the style of red wines. That is, orange wines are made by fermenting white grapes without separating out the skins. Therefore, these wines have some of the color and tannic complexity of red wines, with the brightness and acidity of white wines. They come in varying shades from light yellow to deep amber depending on how long the skins were kept mixed into the juice during fermentation. You can ask at your local wine store how much skin contact a particular orange wine has. If they say 6 months, you’re getting a more tannic and dark orange wine, whereas if they say 24 hours, you’ll be drinking something more akin to a traditional white wine.
You don’t need to know any of this to consume and enjoy the complexity that tannins bring to wine, but it is fun to think about how much more our mouths can do than just taste. Because the drying sensation we get from tannins happens in our mouths, we often talk about tasting them; however, the sense we use to detect tannins is actually touch. By feeling the clumping of saliva proteins in your mouth you’re getting a glimpse into the story of the wine, starting from the conditions of the grape growing in the vineyard, through the fermentation of the grape juice, and finally, into the bottle. And understanding the mechanism behind our perception can help us bring awareness to the tannins and other features of great wine. You might get so focused that you start to notice differences in the astringency feeling you get from some wines versus others. In fact, people might describe different types of tannins in wine as soft, fine or even velvety.
Finding tannins in food, even beyond wine, can be an effective mindfulness practice. The next time you eat or drink, try to distinguish between what your mouth is feeling versus what you are tasting, and you’ll likely discover many more tannins in food!
1: Polyphenol molecules are also what gives peated whiskey its smoky taste, which is another example of how sticky these molecules are. In this case, the polyphenols come from the peat that is burned to dry the barley before fermentation. They stick to the barley throughout fermentation, distillation, and decades of aging, allowing us to taste that peat smoke many many years later.
2: This is called “aggregation” in chemistry-speak.
3: There are some tannins that come from the seeds and stems of the wine, but they are often less prominent than the skin tannins. If a wine is described as “whole cluster”, that means it was fermented with the stems and therefore will have stem tannins. Barrel-aging is another source of tannins—if a wine is aged in barrels, especially new barrels, it will extract tannins from the wood.
4: The compounds that give wine most of their color, anthocyanins, are also found in the skins of grapes.
https://caltechletters.org/science/feeling-wine
date: 2022-01-11, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Sarah Zeichner for Caltech Letters
Viewpoint articles are a vehicle for members of the Caltech community to express their opinions on issues surrounding the interface of science and society. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Caltech or the editorial board of Caltech Letters. Please see our disclaimer.
There are such queer things about orchids. Such possibilities of surprises.
—“The Flowering of the Strange Orchid” H.G. Wells, 1894
In 1862, three years after The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin published On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids Are Fertilized by Insects. Using the mechanics of orchid pollination, Darwin sought to provide empirical evidence for his new theory of evolution. Specifically, since orchids attract pollinating insects with nectar, traits of orchids and insects should have evolved together. When Darwin was sent an orchid from Madagascar with a nectar tube almost a foot in length, he surmised that there must exist an insect with a proboscis—an elongated tubular mouthpart—long enough to reach the nectar. The insect in question was discovered 21 years after Darwin’s death. The moth Xanthopan morganii praedicta (translating to “predicted moth”) has a proboscis up to 14 inches long and exclusively pollinates the Madagascar orchid. Darwin’s accurate prediction that the orchid’s floral morphology was adapted to extremely specific pollinators vindicated natural selection as not just metaphysical speculation, but a principle able to generate hypotheses and guide experimentation.
Xanthopan morganii praedicta
Esculapio, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
In his studies, however, one genus of orchid baffled Darwin. Orchids of the genus Ophrys rarely produced nectar but were clearly adapted to insect pollination. Most curiously, they resembled insects enough to be given common names such as bee orchid or fly orchid. Why these orchids had adopted insectiform mimicry, however, remained unclear. Only sixty years later, in the early 20th century, would naturalists Maurice Pouyanne, Edith Coleman, and Masters John Godfery separately answer this question. All of them observed that Ophrys orchids are indeed pollinated by insects, despite not producing nectar to attract them. Rather, the central petal at the base of the bee orchid specifically resembles the abdomen of a female bee, both in texture and in coloration. Males of the species mistake the orchid for a female bee, land on the petal, and attempt to mate with the flower. As the bee does so, its movements dislodge the orchid’s dense packets of pollen onto the bee, which will fertilize the next Ophrys flower the unwitting insect attempts to mate with. Unlike other orchids that leverage insects’ hunger for nectar, the Ophrys orchids leverage their hunger for sex.
Ophrys apifera labellum, the bee orchid
Hüseyin Cahid Doğan, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
Intriguingly, interactions between insects and these orchids were documented by Darwin himself. There are accounts of Ophrys being “attacked” by bees in his 1862 book, though his records read, “The meaning of these attacks, I cannot conjecture.” Though Darwin was making the same observations as the naturalists who would make the discovery sixty years later, he was unable to interpret their significance.
Darwin’s original 1862 illustration of Ophrys.
Public domain
Darwin’s struggle to understand Ophrys orchid was likely colored by the “orchidelirium” seizing broader Victorian society at that time. These rare flowers were a luxury commodity accessible only to the very wealthy, with desirable varieties selling for over $20,000 in today’s money. Demand produced a new professional class of orchid hunters, explorers commissioned by rich patrons to go on expeditions into the tropics. While “delirium” implies fevered psychological compulsion, the Victorian appetite for orchids can also be understood as an exercise in wealth, power, and control. Orchid ownership not only signified riches, but connections, education, and taste—a material avenue through which the hierarchies of Victorian England could be expressed.
Nineteenth-century English society was highly stratified along lines of gender and culture, and the principles underlying Darwin’s own work were extrapolated to justify its social hierarchies. The philosophy of Social Darwinism suggested, rather conveniently, that the current social hierarchy was simply the “natural” outcome of applying natural selection and evolution to human society. The philosopher Herbert Spencer, coiner of the phrase “survival of the fittest,” used the metaphor of the body to describe the Victorian hierarchy of gender and class. Upper or middle-class men were the Head, the seat of reason, and thus suited to rule and govern. Women were the Heart, keepers of emotion and spirituality. Notably, botany, particularly the study of flowers, was a culturally sanctioned science for women, intended to socialize them into rationality and industriousness, and away from feminine frivolity. Cultural hierarchies were also used to justify British colonialism as a “civilizing mission” necessary to “assist” colonies to develop sufficiently sophisticated governments and societies. Therefore, orchids, from yet-unexplored regions beyond the empire’s reach, were seen as passive objects to be acquired and cultivated to English tastes.
The process of acquiring orchids only reinforced their place in Victorian hierarchies as exotic objects. The expeditions were dangerous, and orchid hunting was a hypermasculine arena, far from the feminine associations of botany. Orchid hunters ventured to far-flung locales, lured by the promise of fortune and repute, but often met grisly ends. Moreover, the journey of the intrepid orchid hunter into the tropics was not only a physical danger, but a moral one as well. Explorers were entering a space unregulated by English societal norms and morality, with only their own self-control preventing them from being corrupted away from Victorian gentility. While lurid stories of murder and betrayal among orchid hunters resulted from financial competition rather than any tropical corruption, the idea of the tropics as an inherently transgressive space captured the public imagination. Surviving an orchid hunt acted out a cultural narrative of the triumph of civilization over chaos, of English propriety over deviant morality. In return, victors were rewarded with their own personal part of the tropics, a personal stake in the colonial machine. As the empire expanded with growing networks of colonists, missionaries, and traders, exploring and exploiting the tropics became easier. Maps were drawn, dangers were cataloged, and routes were constructed, enabling increased varieties and numbers of orchids to be shipped to England. The once-unattainable orchid was now safely contained in English greenhouses, stripped of its perilous origins, a tamed and civilized ornament.
This view of the orchid, submissive to male impulses and receptive to “civilizing” forces, could certainly present an obstacle to understanding its actively deceptive and manipulative pollination strategies. In fact, the gradual understanding of its actual biology coincided with and may have benefited from a shift in Victorian society. As the reach of the British empire expanded rapidly through the 19th century, so too did cultural anxiety. The Victorian social hierarchy was being challenged both at home and abroad. The word “feminist” entered English usage in the 1890s, with women campaigning for the rights to their own bodily autonomy, such as sexual consent within marriage and the ability to use contraception. Organized anticolonial movements escalated in the latter half of the century, including years-long armed resistance throughout the African continent and mass political mobilization in South Asia. The assured status of the patriarchal empire no longer seemed so certain, and the exoticizing fascination in cultural narratives took on a distinct element of fear.
These growing fears around gender and loss of empire were conflated in a common literary archetype in tropical journey narratives of the 19th century: the “native woman.” She was Other in both race and sex, uncannily seductive, dangerously sensuous, and irrevocably foreign. Previously exotic and passive through the lens of white male protagonists, the “native woman” evolves into something more ominous by the end of the century, often with the help of the orchid. In the pulp magazine story, “The Orchid Horror”, the protagonist is seduced by an unnamed native woman called the Goddess of the Orchids, who sends him to collect an orchid she does not yet have. Upon finding it, he realizes the orchid’s scent is a powerful narcotic, entrapping those who inhale it to the Goddess’s will. Other stories describe secretly carnivorous orchids worn around the necks of native women, or in more literal presentations, monstrous hybrid orchid-women endemic to the tropics. The orchid took on the recurring image of the provocative Other, capable of undermining and subverting hierarchy and social order—the flower as exotic seductress, as femme fatale. The ending of the 1894 short story, “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid,” by science fiction author H.G. Wells lays these anxieties bare: the unsuspecting protagonist is overwhelmed by the orchid’s sickly-sweet scent and is seized by its bloodsucking roots. The orchid he had assumed was a harmless beauty turns out to be a vampiric predator, and he is only saved by his housekeeper, who was suspicious of the overtly foreign bloom. The creeping unease is obvious: what if the subjugated are no longer truly within our control? In this space, so far from the assumptions of Darwin’s Victorian England, an orchid pollinated by providing false sexual promises is no longer far-fetched.
Interior illustration, Amazing Stories, March 1928 by Frank R. Paul
Public domain
The slow discovery of Ophrys pollination illustrates the dialectic of scientific discovery: social context continuously influences the way we do and understand science. Ophrys pollination had to be observed, but it also had to be interpreted. Exactly how it was interpreted was dependent on the social and cultural narratives surrounding it. As science historian Jim Endersby concisely puts it in his book Orchid: A Cultural History, “There is no stable boundary between the natural and the cultural.” For Ophrys pollination to be understood as an act of sexual deception, three intertwined cultural ideas—femininity, foreignness, and flowers—had to be simultaneously reimagined as active subjects instead of passive objects. The destabilization of Victorian society was a powerful catalyst for this reimagination: the greater emancipation of English women and the emergence of organized anticolonial movements challenged what were once thought of as “natural” hierarchies, inspiring reactionary consternation and manifesting as sublimated fears in popular culture like “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid.”
Femininity, seduction, and deception remain entwined with Ophrys pollination even today, and the orchid continues to report on changing, though not necessarily improved, cultural hierarchies: tellingly, some botanists still refer to the bee orchid by another common name: the prostitute flower. While we may prefer to believe that the empirical process of science is completely separated from our sociocultural beliefs, the parallel shifts in the cultural and scientific understanding of orchids tell another story. Like an insect enticed by Ophrys, we labor under a compelling belief, but ultimately an illusory one.
https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/orchids-science-and-culture
date: 2022-01-03, from: Santa Clarita Public Library
https://www.santaclaritalibrary.com/?p=6981&preview=true Looking to put a little thrill to your chill? Need some suspense to spice up the winter season? Then here’s a list of titles from the cold front all set to take you for a spin…
https://www.santaclaritalibrary.com/2022/01/03/no-time-to-get-snowed/
date: 2021-11-10, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
Think you know what’s up with the proposed redevelopment of the West L.A. Civic Center? The November 9th, 2021 West L.A. Commons community meeting shed some light and details on the project but few on preservation, much like the project itself.
Here’s the scoop:
Built between 1957-1965 to meet growing demand for government services, the West L.A. Civic Center is significant for its Modernist architecture and role in expanded government services following WWII. More recently, it’s become hallowed ground for L.A.’s skateboarding scene, attracting skaters worldwide with its stairs and ledges. In January 2021, the County and City selected Abode Communities and AvalonBay Communities to redevelop the site.
As currently planned, the 1960 Courthouse, 1961 branch City Hall, 1962 Community Center (Senior Center), and 1965 Amphitheatre are to be demolished.
(Only the 1956 library will stay–for now–and is not a part of this project scope.)
This means an eligible historic district marking an important part of West L.A.’s growth will be erased.
Two facades of the branch City Hall were planned to be kept (which is not preservation) yet that is now being reconsidered, citing soil conditions. The same goes for the now-doomed Googie style Amphitheatre, despite being marked for preservation in the proposal that was selected by the City and County.
As a public-private venture between the City, County and the developer (AvalonBay and Abode Communities), preservation was supposed to be a priority, at least it was in the official Request for Proposals (RFP) process, stated as one of ten key aspects to be addressed.
So … what is happening here?
Preservation through adaptive reuse is readily achievable in this project, and can complement the proposed new mixed income housing. New buildings of the same footprint are to replace the branch City Hall and Courthouse. The existing Amphitheatre can be repurposed and kept.
It is easier to demolish everything and build subterranean parking over the entire site than build around the historic buildings. Yet easy does not equal better. Until someone in leadership steps forward and presses for an alternative that successfully marries the old with the new, this development team will continue to seek the easy way out. As a familiar pattern that keeps repeating itself across this city, L.A. can do and deserves better.
Please join the L.A. Conservancy in pressing City Councilmember Mike Bonin and County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl for another alternative! Email them at: councilmember.bonin@lacity.org and sheila@bos.lacounty.gov. Be sure to cc afine@laconservancy.org so that we can track!
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/667501561362137088
date: 2021-11-03, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Jennah Colborn for Caltech Letters
Some of the greatest technological advancements in history have come from exploiting the laws of physics. With further mastery of each set of laws came a new chapter in the history of mankind. Newton’s laws unlocked the secrets of motion. We have used his discoveries to build bridges and skyscrapers, and send rockets to the moon. The laws of thermodynamics brought about the engines that make our cars run, the refrigerators that preserve our food, and the machinery of the industrial revolution. The laws of electricity and magnetism taught us how to power our cities, to build the electronics in our cellphones and laptops, and to communicate with people halfway across the globe. But there is a set of laws in physics that we have not yet learned to fully exploit, and these are the laws of quantum mechanics. These laws describe very small things like atoms and molecules, and very cold things, hundreds of degrees below freezing. At these extremes, the physics of everyday life completely breaks down, and light and matter behave in very bizarre ways.
To understand this behavior, let’s take a crash course on quantum physics.
You’re probably familiar with the idea of a state. Traffic lights can be in one of three states: green, yellow, or red. Coins have two states: heads or tails. In the quantum world, objects exist in states with very specific physical properties. Atoms, for example, have energy states, where their energies take on specific values—we say the energies are quantized, hence the term ‘quantum mechanics’. In each energy state, electrons move around the atom with different speeds and spatial patterns. This is like if you were driving a car, but instead of gradually speeding up when you step on the gas, you jump spontaneously to different speeds: 10mph to 20mph to 50mph.
But it’s more complicated than that: quantum objects behave wildly differently when we’re not looking at them. Before we look at a quantum object, it has no well-defined physical properties like energy, position, or speed. Instead, a quantum object exists in a combination of all of its possible states simultaneously, until someone looks at it. At that moment, the object pops into existence in a single state (there are other interpretations of this effect involving multiple universes, but we’ll leave that for another day). The very act of looking at a quantum object changes its state.
That’s like a car approaching a fork in the road, but instead of going down one path or the other, it exists in two different locations at once and travels down both paths. But the moment someone clocks the car’s speed, it pops into existence at a single place. It sounds ridiculous, but this is the reality of the quantum world. When we’re not looking, the tiniest objects like electrons can be in multiple places or move in different directions at once (though in reality it’s a bit more subtle). We call this behavior superposition.
A car traveling down a path that splits. If the car obeyed quantum physics, then it does not go down one path or the other; it partially goes down both paths at once while no one is looking. As soon as someone looks, the car randomly appears on one of the two paths and the version of the car traveling down the opposite path disappears.
Jennah Colborn
Perhaps weirdest of all is that multiple quantum objects can behave in a coordinated way, where the state of one object seems to affect the state of another, no matter where they are in the universe. Imagine having a pair of coins that always land on the same face when you flip them. If one coin lands on heads, the other coin will land on heads, even if they are on opposite sides of the galaxy. It sounds like wizardry, but this is the essence of a real phenomenon called entanglement, one of the most powerful resources of the quantum world. We observe entanglement in how electrons spin, how light propagates, how atoms move, and much more.
Two coins that were brought to opposite sides of the galaxy. If the coins are entangled, then no matter when or where the coins get flipped, they will land on the same face.
Jennah Colborn
What if we could tap into these strange properties? What could we do with them? This question is the foundation of quantum information, an emerging frontier of science. After a few decades of research, quantum information is poised to have a dramatic impact on science and technology.
To understand how, let’s look at the simple idea that kickstarted today’s information revolution: all of the information in our computers is stored as a string of 1’s and 0’s. The text you just sent? Your recent bank transaction? The color of the pixels on your screen? All have a special code in your computer made of a specific combination of 1’s and 0’s. Each digit of this code is called a bit, and they are the fundamental building blocks of today’s information.
Of course, 1 and 0 are just mathematical abstractions, so these bits are encoded in real life through the voltage in tiny electrical switches. ‘0’ corresponds to the switch being OFF, and ‘1’ corresponds to the switch being ON. Each computer chip contains billions of these switches, flipping on and off in a desired way to store and process information. The essence of solving a problem on a computer is flipping these switches into a final configuration that represents the answer to the problem.
Crucially, the way information behaves depends on the physical object that carries the information. In today’s computers, our information carriers can only do one of two things: turn on and turn off. What if we could store information inside something else, something that behaves fundamentally differently? That’s where quantum information comes in.
Instead of electrical switches, the 1’s and 0’s in quantum information are stored in the quantum states of light and matter. This could be, for example, the energy states of an atom. ‘0’ corresponds to one energy state, and ‘1’ corresponds to a different energy state. Because of this, information behaves in a much richer way than before: information can exist in superposition and be entangled. The bits in quantum information, called qubits, can be 1, 0, or a superposition of 1 and 0 simultaneously.
Add more qubits, and the complexity increases. Two bits can have four states: ‘00’, ‘01’, ‘10’, or ‘11’. A superposition of two qubits allows them to be in all four states simultaneously. A three-qubit superposition has eight states, four have sixteen, and so on. Just 60 qubits in superposition have over one quintillion possible states, more than the world’s biggest supercomputers. A quantum computer made of 60 qubits could store and manipulate all of that information simultaneously.
The caveat is that we can’t access all of that information. Just like the car approaching the fork in the road, as soon as we look at the qubits, the superposition is destroyed and only a single state out of the one quintillion is revealed to us. This is bad for computation: how do we know that the one state revealed to us contains the right answer? It boils down to the mathematics, but scientists have found clever ways to control qubits in some algorithms to get around this problem. The result is that these quantum computers have the potential to solve certain problems that are far beyond the capabilities of conventional computers.
One example is quantum simulation, where we program a computer to replicate the behavior of the atoms, electrons, and nuclei in a chemical or material. Quantum simulation helps us understand how atoms and electrons interact to give chemicals their properties. This could pave the way for developing life-saving drugs, new energy sources, and a better understanding of the universe itself. Today’s computers are surprisingly bad at quantum simulation, because it requires keeping track of all possible quantum states of a complex arrangement of atoms. A typical drug like penicillin has more quantum states than the number of atoms in the universe. We couldn’t simulate its full quantum structure on a conventional computer within our lifetime. Quantum computers are uniquely poised for this task, because qubits obey quantum physics exactly the same way the states of a molecule do. A quantum computer with roughly 100-1000 qubits could simulate molecules like penicillin within a few days. Quantum computers aren’t all-powerful, though. This type of magnificent speedup is only possible for a few problems, but these problems have enormous implications for a wide range of industries.
We can also use qubits to send information more securely through a quantum internet. We’re constantly sharing important information online: credit cards, social security numbers, and more. Ensuring information is secure online is a crucial aspect of the internet. As computers get smarter and faster, it becomes easier for hackers to access your important information without you knowing. In fact, an alarming problem that a large (thousands of qubits) quantum computer would be very good at is breaking RSA encryption - the method that protects most of your information on the internet.
Quantum information is much trickier to hack. It hinges on the idea that looking at a qubit changes its state. Imagine you want to share information stored in qubits. If a hacker tries to read the message, the qubits containing the message will change their state, revealing random gibberish. Scientists have developed quantum encryption protocols based on this idea. It’s a guaranteed way to know if a hacker is tampering with sensitive information. For this reason, a quantum internet has the attention of banks, governments, and schools.
But perhaps the most exciting answer to what quantum information will be useful for is this: no one really knows. 50 years ago, we could never have predicted the enormous impact computers and the internet would have on our daily lives. The explosion of the Information Age came about through decades of experimentation. It’s likely we’ll see the same with quantum information: the most exciting applications may only reveal themselves once the technology starts maturing.
So where are we in this grand vision? We have quantum devices with 50-100 qubits, but we can’t control them accurately enough to really do anything useful with them yet. This is because quantum states are incredibly sensitive to their environment. Remember that looking at a quantum object changes its state, but it’s not just us humans that do the looking. Everything in the environment can “look” at a qubit by interacting with it, from static charge to vibrations in the ground to molecules in the air. Even the tiniest disturbance can alter the state of a qubit, which leads to corrupted information. It’s like trying to balance a pencil on its tip: even the slightest push can topple the pencil. It’s why scientists are building intricate protective machinery to isolate qubits from the outside world. Even then, it’s not enough.
Fortunately, scientists have spent years developing protocols for detecting and correcting these errors. These protocols are known as quantum error correction codes, and they are the reason we believe quantum technology is feasible even in the presence of errors. In a quantum error correction code, the 1’s and 0’s aren’t the qubits themselves, but how the qubits are entangled. Let’s go back to the pair of entangled quantum coins. There are two possible ways they can be entangled. In one way, the coins always land on the same face. In the other way, the coins always land on opposite faces. We can call ‘0’ the state where the coins land the same, and ‘1’ the state where the coins land opposite. The stored information is protected because even if one of the coins is disturbed, the information about how the coins are entangled remains hidden to the environment unless both of the coins are disturbed.
This protection comes at a cost: you need two qubits to encode one ‘protected’ qubit. Practical error correction protocols are more extravagant and require tens, hundreds, even thousands of entangled qubits per protected qubit. This means that quantum technology of any practical use requires control of thousands, even millions of qubits, far off from the number we have today. No need to worry about quantum computers breaking the internet any time soon.
But we’re making progress: over the last 20 years we’ve gone from pen and paper ideas to functional intermediately-sized quantum machines. We’re playing with atoms, light, and ultra-cold electronics in the lab, learning to harness their properties. We’re beginning to demonstrate the first quantum error correction protocol, sending qubits over hundreds of miles, and doing calculations on quantum computers that surpass the capabilities of our traditional computers. That said, large-scale quantum technology with practical relevance to our lives will likely only arrive once we figure out how to implement quantum error correction. How long will that take? No one really knows for sure: it could be 5 years, 5 decades, or more, but the work we do now will pave the way for that long-term vision.
https://caltechletters.org/science/quantum-revolution
date: 2021-10-18, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Karena Cai for Caltech Letters
Viewpoint articles are a vehicle for members of the Caltech community to express their opinions on issues surrounding the interface of science and society. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Caltech or the editorial board of Caltech Letters. Please see our disclaimer.
When I signed up to tutor underserved high school students at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I had tutored before, but never through a computer screen, and I was anticipating challenges. However, when teaching a high school biology module on population genetics, I discovered a koi pond simulation1. The student and I watched as the fish in our virtual pond changed from orange to white over simulated generations, with young fish appearing and old fish disappearing. With just a few buttons, the student could adjust the parameters that affect the rates of evolutionary change in the koi population, like the number of fish and rate of genetic mutation, and rerun the simulation. As the koi changed from orange to white faster or slower, I saw the principles of evolution and genetics begin to click into place for the student. While this koi pond simulation may not have the aesthetics and user experience of today’s most popular video games, I was still impressed. The use of interactive virtual games was certainly not a widely available learning tool when I was a high school student, but over the past year of tutoring, I repeatedly discovered that virtual games are an effective way to teach.
I might not have found the koi pond simulation if the COVID-19 pandemic had not forced me to meet with my student remotely. During the pandemic, many teachers turned to new virtual tools out of necessity, but even as many students return to the classroom, interactive and engaging virtual worlds could continue to be a valuable resource for teaching.
The video game industry and the rise of virtual reality (VR) have laid the groundwork to make science education virtual. People who play video games spend an average of 7 hours a week in the virtual world2. In America, 60% of 18-29 year olds are gamers3. Not only do more young people play video games, but they also spend the most time, averaging 8 hours per week with a preference for strategy and puzzle games2, 3. Young gamers demonstrate incredible focus, persistence, attention to detail, patience, and creativity as they conquer each challenge and improve towards mastery. These are some of the same traits that are key to excelling in a different arena: science4,5. By adopting techniques successfully used in gaming, science education could more effectively captivate the interest of young people in primary and secondary school to improve scientific literacy and preparation for careers in science.
Immersive design is a key element that keeps people playing. Gamers are engrossed by well-developed characters and stories that require constant interaction6, 7. But it’s not just the story that keeps people hooked—background music8 and interactive, aesthetic graphics9 engage people in the virtual world. Elements of achievement and competition, such as the use of progress bars, level advancement, fake currency, prizes, and increased challenge as the user advances, help to keep gamers motivated and provide feedback6, 7.
While the use of virtual interactive environments is starting to trickle into classrooms, the immersive design of technologies like video games and VR could purposefully be applied towards making science education more engaging. Scientific objectives could be part of a story where the student is a key character that actively participates by advancing through the material. Through engaging music and graphics9, the virtual format could bring abstract ideas to life or create more authentic and inspiring visualizations of cells or ecosystems.
Unlike a large classroom, the video game experience can be very individualized. The gaming interface makes it possible for learners to receive instantaneous, personalized feedback on their progress toward mastering scientific concepts through repetition. Students come from varying backgrounds and skill levels, and with the customized options of a video game, students can complete side quests for supplementary material to reward curiosity, spend more or less time on topics catered to their unique strengths and weaknesses, and progress towards mastery in a way not possible in a traditional classroom. The video game format could make education more immersive, individualized, and therefore, effective9.
The design and mechanisms used in popular games can serve as inspiration to guide the gamification of scientific concepts. Take Tetris, a tile-matching game in which the user manipulates tiles to fill gaps under increasing time pressure as the user advances. A similar setup could be used to teach DNA transcription to RNA, as the user matches complementary base pairs of DNA and RNA nucleotides. Alternatively, inspired by Mario Kart, blood cells could race through the circulatory system, refueling with oxygen at the lungs and even delivering medications to treat obstacles like clots. For a more creative or survival themed game, the user could ward off viral or bacterial infections by producing an antibody response or applying therapeutics while learning how they work.
Illustration by Karena Cai for Caltech Letters
Video games demonstrate a long-established ability to engage the public in everything from education to exercise. Wii Sports and Pokémon Go got users moving, off the couch and into the neighborhood respectively, gaining attention not only for their interactive formats, but also for their fitness benefits10,11. On the education front, Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego? incorporates history, geography, and culture as players follow the titular character on her global crime-solving missions12. The Oregon Trail similarly educates players on the harsh trials of the U.S. westward migration in the 19th century13. Both of these games have persisted in public consciousness years after they were first used in schools. The science-based television shows Bill Nye the Science Guy and The Magic School Bus and disease-combating board game Pandemic have also achieved mainstream popularity14,15. These successes show it is possible for broad science education to be engaging—perhaps now through a video game format.
Promising efforts to use virtual worlds to enhance science research and education are already underway. In the video game InCell VR16, the player races to save a human cell from destruction by a virus while learning biology concepts along the way. Use of VR technology in InCell VR and other games shows promise for making science education even more interactive and collaborative17,18. Use of VR for training in science-related professions is also expanding: neurosurgeons can now practice operating on a virtual brain19, and scientists at Purdue University are developing VR courses for training in cryo-electron microscopy20, the topic of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Such applications demonstrate the value of immersive virtual learning environments for technical education.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers have had to adapt to a new age of “Zoom learning”. However, this isn’t the only way to approach remote learning. Since 2018, Caltech has also been developing a software prototype for a VR teaching space to provide a virtual environment for college-level education. In this virtual classroom, students have streamlined options to interact with the instructor, other students, and 3D scientific models, all with the click of a button21. Science teachers can use this technology to instantaneously assess understanding of the materials and rapidly customize activities to each student’s needs, creating a more personalized and immersive educational experience. Likewise, students can instantly and privately indicate confusion and get extra practice on difficult material, promoting inclusivity. Development of these new educational tools could not only facilitate more effective remote teaching during the current pandemic, but also expand the capabilities of future classrooms to tackle persistent challenges.
Illustration by Karena Cai for Caltech Letters
Despite the potential benefits of incorporating this immersive technology into schools, this objective faces the same major hurdle as most educational endeavors: money. Video gaming is a massive industry that generated $120 billion in revenue in 201922, but production costs can range in the millions for games with advanced graphics and modern software-development tools23,24. It is not clear if the government, schools, individuals, or some combination would contribute most to profits that drive production. Nevertheless, The Oregon Trail generated around ten million dollars in revenue annually by 1995, demonstrating the potential profitability of educational games25. The rising U.S. learning-based game market is also promising: valued at $2.4 billion in 2018, the value is projected to exceed $4 billion by 202426. Heavy collaboration between educators and game developers seems critical to create games that are both educational and engaging (and therefore profitable)27. However, the impact of even a great science game will only extend as far as the number of people it reaches. While games like The Oregon Trail show us that popularity and revenue are possible for educational games, disparities in technology access and public school funding remain a hurdle for video games to be a truly equalizing force in science education.
Combining immersive and entertaining virtual worlds with instructional design that meets learning objectives is key for this educational strategy to be successful. Using the interactive format of video games and VR in the classroom could not only increase engagement but also make science education more personalized, inclusive, and therefore, effective. Gamification of education to reach a diverse audience of young people may lead to a more informed world, increased appreciation for science, and preparation for a career in STEM. It is time VR headsets and game controllers made their way into the classroom, giving education an overdue technological upgrade to immerse students in science.
1:PopGen Fishbowl - Virtual Biology Lab.
2: The State of Online Gaming – 2019. Limelight Networks (2019).
3: [Brown, A. Who plays video games? Younger men, but many others too. Pew Research Center (2017)](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/11/younger-men-play-video-games-but-so-do-a-diverse-group-of-other-americans/ (2017){:target=”_blank”}.
4: Burke, K. What Makes a Good Scientist? American Scientist (2017).
5: Jensen, D. G. & 2018. The core traits of career success. Science (2018).
6: Huotari, K. & Hamari, J. Defining gamification: a service marketing perspective. in Proceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference 17–22 (Association for Computing Machinery, 2012). doi:10.1145/2393132.2393137.
7:Hamari, J. & Eranti, V. Framework for Designing and Evaluating Game Achievements. in DiGRA Conference (2011).
8:Mehta, R., Zhu, R. (Juliet) & Cheema, A. Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise on Creative Cognition. Journal of Consumer Research 39, 784–799 (2012).
9:Becker, K. & Parker, J. An overview of game design techniques. in Learning, Education and Games 179–198 (ETC Press, 2014).
10:Althoff, T., White, R. W. & Horvitz, E. Influence of Pokémon Go on Physical Activity: Study and Implications. J Med Internet Res 18, (2016).
11:Anders, M. As Good as the Real Thing? ACE Fitness Matters (2008).
12: Riviere, L. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? In the Classroom! Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2019).
13: Farber, M. Oregon Trail as an Anchor for Interdisciplinary Learning. KQED (2017).
14:Council, N. R. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. (2009). doi:10.17226/12190.
15:Jolin, D. The board games turning science into playtime. The Observer (2019).
17: Zimmerman, E. K–12 Teachers Use Augmented and Virtual Reality Platforms to Teach Biology. Technology Solutions That Drive Education (2019).
18:Thompson, M. M., Wang, A., Roy, D. & Klopfer, E. Authenticity, Interactivity, and Collaboration in VR Learning Games. Front. Robot. AI 5, (2018).
19: Erickson, M. Virtual reality system helps surgeons, reassures patients. Stanford Medicine News Center (2017).
20: Gonzalez, B. et al. CryoVR: virtual reality training and outreach tools for cryo-EM. Acta Crystallographica Section A: Foundations and Advances vol. 75 a66–a66 (2019).
21: Lombeyda, S. ERT: an Enhanced Reality for Teaching. Open Virtual Reality for Art and Sciences at Caltech.
22: 2019 Year In Review. SuperData, a Nielsen Company (2020).
23:C, T. Why video games are so expensive to develop. The Economist (2014).
24: Koster, R. The cost of games. VentureBeat (2018).
25:LaFrenz, D. E. Oral history interview with Dale Eugene LaFrenz. (1995).
26:ltd, R. and M. Game-Based Learning Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2019-2024. Research and Markets (2019).
27:Buday, R., Baranowski, T. & Thompson, D. Fun and Games and Boredom. Games Health J 1, 257–261 (2012).
https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/video-games-stem-education
date: 2021-10-05, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
This past year has been a remarkable one for Caltech Letters. As the pandemic slowed and the campus gradually sputtered back to life, we celebrated the publication of our 40th feature-length science article and the second year of our viewpoints section. In the four years since our launch, we’ve published work by over 70 Caltech scientists and exponentially grown our audience to hundreds of thousands.
Here are a few of our favorite reads from 2020-2021’s lineup:
Illustration by Sarah Zeichner for Caltech Letters
Genomes are the “blueprints” of life. Their building blocks are billions of tiny nucleotides—denoted by the letters A, C, T, G—which form instructions for cells to grow, die, or behave in certain ways. This story, of course, is well-known to folks who remember high school biology.
But how do cells actually read and interpret the contents of a genome? Given an almost endless list of instructions, when do cells know which ones to follow, and in what order? Enter the realm of gene regulation. Although they may seem like a static jumble of letters, genomes in fact operate dynamically and—like a novel—are richly infused with their own grammar, punctuation, and plot.
Graduate students Suzy Beeler (PhD ’21) and Nicholas McCarty explain how today’s biologists and physicists decode the beautiful, chaotic language through which genes express themselves.
Illustration by Sarah Zeichner for Caltech Letters
Objectivity is frequently viewed as a core tenet of the scientific method. But what does it mean to be objective in science? And what happens when the process of conducting research clashes with the surrounding environment and community?
Unlike science, art makes no pretenses of independence, but also naturally incorporates the complex cultural, political, and social contexts in which it lives. Can researchers produce better science by accounting for subjectivity and the oft-entangled relationships their work has with the broader world?
Graduate student Sarah Zeichner examines these questions as she studies landscapes from her perspectives as both a geochemist and an artist.
Illustration by Casey Yamamoto for Caltech Letters
For over two decades, the opioid epidemic has silently burned through the US, leaving only a mounting death toll and devastated communities in its wake. But until recently, detailed, distributor-level data on sales of opioids has been kept behind closed doors, posing challenges to researchers who have sought to reconstruct the epidemic’s path. Armed with data recently made public by a federal lawsuit, graduate student Shiyu Zhang and a classmate track how misuse of name-brand oxycodone fell after a major manufacturer was pressured by regulators to make its pills harder to abuse.
Illustration by Usha Lingappa for Caltech Letters
Robert A. Millikan is a venerated man.
A physicist and Nobel laureate, Millikan is known for his namesake 1913 oil drop experiment and—during a 26-year tenure as Caltech’s first president—his role in transforming the Institute from a small vocational school into a top-flight research center.
Nearly a century later, however, that legacy has come under fire, both on campus and across Southern California.
In an emphatic viewpoint, Sophia Charan (PhD ’21) challenges readers to re-examine Millikan and several of Caltech’s key benefactors in light of their staunch promotion of eugenics, segregation, and racial redlining throughout the early 20th century. Amid a national reckoning over racial injustice, Charan explores how we can reconcile this sordid history with visions for a more just, inclusive future at Caltech.
Illustration by Cecilia Sanders for Caltech Letters
“What is life?”
It’s a deceptively simple question, but attempting to answer it can lead to long-winded, inconsistent, and maybe even downright paradoxical definitions. For centuries, philosophers and scientists have struggled to come up with a set of universal, easy-to-understand criteria for this fundamental phenomenon.
Clearly, bacteria and insects are alive, and an inanimate rock is not. But what about self-replicating machines or viral ideas, like Internet memes? Could those be “alive?”
How about creatures—if they are to be found—on other planets? Will they satisfy any known definition of “life” that we have here on earth?
As planetary scientist and astrobiologist Mike Wong (PhD ’18) explains, truly understanding life and its origins might require a new framework that moves beyond familiar precepts of earth-bound biology.
Caltech Letters is currently recruiting. If you’re part of the Caltech community and are interested in joining our team, please contact letters@caltech.edu.
https://caltechletters.org/science/year-in-review-2021
date: 2021-08-22, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
Interview by Gabriela Philo
Helen Tocco recently spoke to us about her experience in the Conservancy’s Community Leadership Boot Camp, and why she is a Conservancy member.
Which neighborhood do you live in?
And what makes it distinct? I live in Palms. It is a wonderful walkable community with tons of great restaurants and local businesses, a Metro stop, good freeway proximity, and you can even find street parking here.
You’ve been a Los Angeles Conservancy member since 2018. What compelled you to join?
I learned about the Conservancy when they got involved to try to help save the Tabor House, which was a historic home in Palms. Unfortunately, the building was demolished, but it led me to want to learn more about the Conservancy and L.A. historic buildings.
This Spring, you joined the Community Leadership Boot Camp. What did you get out of the experience?
I am an architect in my day job and I work on historic easement and historic tax credit projects around the country, so I am always looking to expand my learning and the Boot Camp seemed like a great opportunity. I also wanted to learn how to be more prepared to save the few remaining historic buildings in Palms if any more face demolition like the Tabor House did.
You’re on the Board of the Palms Neighborhood Council; why do you think it’s important to be active in neighborhood activities?
L.A. is such a big city that Neighborhood Councils are crucial to help our city government keep tabs on specific local concerns and build community engagement.
Which programs of the L.A. Conservancy do you like and why?
The Conservancy’s walking tours are fun and educational, and I am so happy to see that they are back! The Conservancy has also done a great job with virtual tours and presentations during the pandemic so that we could stay engaged with historic preservation from the comfort of our homes.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/660174070332145664
date: 2021-08-22, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
Local advocates of First Baptist Church of Venice. Photo courtesy Mike Bravo
Interview by M. Rosalind Sagara
The First Baptist Church of Venice and adjacent parking lots located at 671-685 and 686-688 East Westminster Avenue are among the last remaining significant historic resources associated with the history and development of Oakwood, an early African American neighborhood in Los Angeles. These properties tell the story of pioneering African Americans who financed and built an important center of spiritual, cultural, and social life in Venice.
In 2018, the Cultural Heritage Commission denied the Historic-Cultural Monument nomination of the church property. The community persisted and with newfound support from Councilmember Mike Bonin, a new application for landmark designation was considered by the Cultural Heritage Commission on June 3, 2021. The Commission unanimously recommended listing and the nomination now heads to the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee and then to the City Council for final approval.
Naomi Nightingale, Venice resident, community organizer, and recent graduate of the Conservancy’s Community Leadership Boot Camp, helped gather new information for the nomination. In addition, she has had a front-row seat to the nearly four-year journey the community has been on to landmark the church property. Naomi spoke to Neighborhood Outreach Manager M. Rosalind Sagara in June about what she’s learned about the landmarking process and her community through her work on this preservation issue.
RS: When did you get involved in preserving the First Baptist Church of Venice?
NN: In 2017 when I saw Laddie Williams sitting in front of the church. I stopped and asked her why she was there. I learned the church had been sold and it shocked me. I also learned there were some people who were members of the church who had filed a lawsuit to prevent the sale and to keep the church, but they were not successful. The judge ruled that the sale of church was legitimate; the court would not rescind the sale. So, at that point, the community decided we were going to fight to preserve it. Then owner Jay Penske had filed a permit for an adaptive reuse with the intent of making the church his personal home and the community was affronted and appalled by that.
RS: How did you secure support for the nomination from the Council District and others?
NN: I think Councilmember Bonin saw that the community was adamant, that we were relentless, and that our efforts for the church were coming from a place of history, significance, bonding, and ties, for our grandparents and other people that we knew. While we are talking about the church, we’re seeing the erasure of our history through the destruction of buildings and the removal, or the exodus of people and families. I think he thought we were not going to go away. We pressed our Councilmember, “What support have you given us? What recognition and acknowledgement of the contributions and the culture of this [African American] community have you given us?” I think from that point forward, there was a shift. He saw us as a formidable force in reference to the church and what we said made sense in terms of the historical significance of the church and the community.
We felt that not only the Councilmember, but developers, and other people in other parts of the community didn’t have an understanding about what the church meant to the African American community. To them, it was like “What’s the big deal?” These were people who actually lived here in the community, Caucasian people, who may not have really paid attention, or had no connection with what was going on. The more that we were able to put the word out, spread the news so to speak, and engage people about what the church meant and who Arthur Reese was, the more we found support. There had not been a lot of information out there about him except for he was the guy who did the amusement parks, or was the guy who helped with the decorations, but being a homeowner, a land owner, civically engaged, that was not information about Reese that people knew.
RS: In your research for the nomination of the church was there a story that stood out to you?
NN: I was ecstatic to learn about the church’s architect George Williams. It seemed that so much hung on who the builder or architect of the church was. It seemed that because people were not able to name him previously, there was less importance or significance to the church because Paul Williams, the architect of the congregation’s previous church, was so huge. When I discovered information about George Williams from the AIA and newspaper clippings, that brought absolute joy to my heart!
RS: What has kept people motivated to stay involved over the years?
NN: The real desire to not allow our history to be erased. That was at the top of the list. To take the church away and to make it into someone’s personal living room, bedroom, or living quarters was just sacrilegious. We just could not allow that to happen. To lose the church would be to lose so much more in terms of our history, the personalities of our community, the hard work that we knew, the stories that were told about our family members who lived on that street, people who went to that church, and people that we still know today. To us, even though the church was sold it was still a living, breathing, important piece of our lives. And there just wasn’t the will to let it go.
RS: What activities did you organize to help keep people engaged?
NN: We met on those church steps every single Sunday for almost four years. We passed out fliers and engaged people as they passed by. We invited other people. We had radio and T.V. appearances. This was early on when we were going before the Westside Commission and I think I was asked at the time what will you do, what’s next? “We’re not giving up.” I was raised with the idea that if you had the fire in your spirit, that meant you were still supposed to go. As long as there is any spark of possibility, then you don’t accept no. I didn’t know just like a lot of us did not know what the outcome was going to be, what the next step was going to be, but we all knew that whatever it was going to be, we were not going to stop.
RS: Could you talk about how the Black Lives Matter Mural in front of the church came to be and how it’s related to the community’s effort to preserve the church?
NN: When we met with Councilmember Bonin, we said we needed to not only preserve the church, but we needed to also have an imprint within the Oakwood community that also acknowledged the significance of the community. And we thought the Black Lives Matter mural would do that. We had a big rally there following George Floyd’s death and we had probably at least 400 people, or more out there. We held a march and that raised the importance of the church to the community and to lots of other people, White, Black, Brown. Not just in the Venice community, or the Oakwood community, but from outside, people from the beach, from Santa Monica, students from USC, and other parts of the city. The church was on the map of the Oakwood community as being the first African American church in the community and its longevity was known, but it helped us get widespread acknowledgment. People from Alabama were writing and inviting me to other meetings about rural communities in the South! I was able to get information about how other people are going about trying to save or resurrect their communities.
RS: At the June 3rdCultural Heritage Commission meeting, Councilmember Bonin requested that the parking lots adjacent to the church and those across the street where the earlier church building had stood be included in the Historic-Cultural Monument nomination. Can you tell us more?
NN: The City staff findings recommended the church for designation, but the parking lots were excluded because they believed they had no significance to the structure itself. We were not in agreement with that recommendation. From the beginning, we wanted the lots to be included. I was prepared to make a case for including both the adjacent lots and those across the street on the day of the hearing. Arthur Reese owned the lot where the previous church stood. The land was deeded to him. He donated the lot to the church and was a deacon there. The church was built on the land. And then across the street, that used to be a boat yard. The community purchased that land, some of them giving up their deeds or monies to help build collateral for the purchase of the land, and then the church was built. So how anyone could say there’s no connection or historical significance? To me it’s just a land grab and we’re not going to accept that, and I told them why. The people that established the Oakwood community, that worked it, made it what it is, that gave to the land, that brought their families here, all of that is part of the richness of the Oakwood community and land is wealth. And, so as the erasure of the community continues it means that the wealth that was built here is also being erased. For the community, there was never a separation between the seven lots. We always spoke in terms of the seven lot ties to the church’s history.
RS: What’s next?
NN: I’m in the process of writing a plan for the future use of the church. I know the property is still owned by a private party, but I’m writing it anyway. It’s based on ideas that the community has talked about. I will present it to the community and we’ll see how it goes.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/660173780663058432
date: 2021-08-20, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
The Conservancy’s longtime friend and former staff Volunteer Coordinator Connie Humberger died on May 25 at the age of 91. The only child of Maria Rivas and Andres del Tiempo, her birth name was Concha Dolores del Tiempo. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Connie graduated from Manual Arts High School in 1947, attended Los Angeles City College, and went to work for Pacific Telephone. In 1951, she married William Humberger and moved to Glendale, where she resided until her death. She was predeceased by her husband, and is survived by her daughter, Andrea Humberger.
Connie began working for the Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) in the late 1960s. Fluent in Spanish, she taught English as a Second Language at Horace Mann Elementary School, and later worked with bilingual education programs.
Connie had a deep love for the city of Los Angeles and its built environment, especially City Hall and the downtown theatres. So, after leaving GUSD, she spent more than 20 years working for the L.A. Conservancy. She managed the Downtown Walking Tour program, and was a founding member of the Last Remaining Seats Committee.
Warm, positive, generous, and enthusiastic, Connie was known as the heart and soul of the Conservancy. Several of her L.A. Conservancy co-workers and friends shared memories of Connie.
Linda Dishman: Connie had an amazing ability to connect with everyone. She especially loved her volunteers. That said, she expected everyone to perform their assigned duties. One time on a tour, I was covering for someone as a line monitor at Connie’s site. It was great to meet and talk with members. Connie told me afterwards that I couldn’t be a line monitor again because too many people wanted to talk with me which distracted me from my assigned duties.
I learned a great deal from her and I am grateful for the many years we worked and laughed together.
Bruce Scottow: A long time ago (“a hundred years ago” as Connie was often given to defining long-past events) I paid a visit to the Conservancy’s downtown office to check out their library. I was doing some research work on historic buildings and heard their resources were excellent. A short time after settling in at the table, a woman came into the room, introduced herself as Connie. Well, my research came to a halt as over the next hour, we launched into stories about just everything under the sun. I recall that the receptionist had to ask us to “keep it down,” So began our 20-year friendship.
Within a short time, I became a volunteer with the Conservancy, helping as a walking tour docent, LRS volunteer, and special tours volunteer. No matter what my role, Connie made me feel welcomed and valued, as she did all volunteers. This was something that proved an essential lesson as I later replaced her as Volunteer Coordinator on her retirement. I “channeled” Connie dozens of times through my career at the Conservancy, but try as I might, I quickly knew that nobody could ever fill her shoes. She was unique and I miss her every day.
Annie Laskey: I was hired at LAC in 2000 to run the Walking Tour program so that Connie could go to part time and focus on volunteers (although anyone who knew Connie knew that she never ever could do anything part time!). Stepping into a job that has been run for years by an adored, amazing, and smart woman is daunting – who could possibly replace Connie?! I’ll never forget how she used every ounce of her loving, forceful nature to essentially tell all the docents, “Annie is taking over the program for me, you had better love her or you will answer to me!”
She had the heart of a lion and the soul of a hostess: along with advice, there were always flowers on the table and food for the guests. I was lucky to be friends with her for 20 years, and never stopped being amazed by her energy and joy.
Connie at a 1987 Volunteer party. Photo and scanned party invitation courtesy Ed Trosper.
Cindy Olnick: Connie got such a kick out of Southern “salads,” which consist mainly of dairy products. I’d send her photos when visiting family. Her favorite was pear salad with mayo and cheese, dyed red and green for Christmas. This delightful treat will always remind me of La Doña.
Trudi Sandmeier: Connie was one of my heroes - a model of empathy, compassion, and understanding, she had a gift for seeing the special part of all of us. I learned a great deal about how to be a better human from her. Her vibrant personality will live on in my memory, but she will be profoundly missed.
Gregg Davidson: I met Connie as a volunteer at the Lafayette Square house tour in 1987. That summer Connie was on the planning committee for the inaugural Last Remaining Seats series and from that point on we became dear friends for the rest of her life. No matter which LA landmark we discussed there would be a Connie anecdote or story connected to it.
Kevin Geary: I had the privilege of working with Connie Humberger at the LAC for two years. Anyone who knew Connie can testify to how well organized she was…most of the time.
Once, Connie and I had to attend a community meeting to give people details about a possible tour in their neighborhood. I was not only new to the LAC, I was also new to LA. I had no idea where we were heading. Connie gave me the directions but also suggested I follow her in case she left out anything. Thank goodness I was able to follow closely without losing her! We ended up taking what seemed like five different freeways, and three of them were not even part of her directions! But we made it! Connie remained one of my closest friends for 25 years. I will miss her terribly.
Rory Cunningham: Connie and I met at the very first meeting of what became the Last Remaining Seats Committee at John Miller and Richard Mouck’s beautiful home. We subsequently served as co-chairs for the final night of the very first LRS at the Los Angeles Theatre in 1987. Her grace, charm and great humor endeared her to everyone who had the honor of knowing and/or working with her and it’s why she became such a revered friend of mine for more than 3 decades.
Christy McAvoy: Friend, mentor, collaborator, teacher. Connie and I shared a deep appreciation for the value of educational experiences in preservation. The level of commitment and the extraordinary quality of the docent core is a living embodiment of her achievements.
Jan Westman: I met Connie when I came to the Conservancy as a volunteer docent, she was always available whenever I needed help. We remained close friends after her retirement until her passing. I miss her greatly.
Tom Sutherland: Connie Humberger was one of the brightest stars in the Conservancy Constellation. I worked with her many times over the last 25 years; every time was a pleasure, especially those with the LRS Committee. I shall miss her greatly in the days to come.
Kari Fowler, Historic Resources Group: I looked forward to seeing Connie every year at the LA Conservancy luncheon so we could discuss our shared affection for Spongebob Squarepants.
Mary Ann Lovato: I have had the utmost pleasure to know Connie Humberger for over 25 years. She was my instructor for the Volunteer and Docent Program in 1995. Connie was devoted to the L.A. Conservancy’s preservation efforts and highly valued each and every docent. She was very knowledgeable of every building, neighborhood, boulevard, avenue, courtyard, et. al. in Los Angeles. She loved Los Angeles and made a sincere effort to preserve its evolving history. The L.A. Conservancy lost a true gem. Connie Humberger will be dearly missed.
Ed Trosper: Whatever the event, whether it was a hot day, a cold day, or a rainy day, when you heard Connie’s laugh, you knew you were going to have fun. When holding court at an afterparty, it seemed there was always a group around her. She remembered every story of triumph or face plant, and would share them with a guffaw at the end.
Kevin Geary: I had the privilege of working with Connie Humberger at the LAC for two years. Anyone who knew Connie can testify to how well organized she was…most of the time.
Once, Connie and I had to attend a community meeting to give people details about a possible tour in their neighborhood. I was not only new to the LAC, I was also new to LA. I had no idea where we were heading. Connie gave me the directions but also suggested I follow her in case she left out anything. Thank goodness I was able to follow closely without losing her! We ended up taking what seemed like five different freeways, and three of them were not even part of her directions! But we made it! Connie remained one of my closest friends for 25 years. I will miss her terribly.
Connie with Trina Escartin. Photo courtesy Trina Escartin.
Trina Escartin: Connie was a kind and loving spirit who genuinely cared about people. I am one of many who adored Miss Connie and it was an honor to know her.
Marcia Hanford: In decades of warmly remembering details about every volunteer, Connie kept a watchful eye that clear expectations and working conditions were well managed for all events. Her bilingual skills were precious. At the time of the first Last Remaining Seats, the Broadway theatres featured mostly Spanish-speaking films, and some movie house staff could only communicate through Connie. She kept those wheels in motion, and the film reels turned on time.
Tom Gardner: I have known and loved Connie since meeting her at the Conservancy about 35 years ago, she as the new Volunteer Coordinator, and I as an active volunteer, and we have socialized throughout the years. Connie’s Easter Party was always one of the highlights of our year. We always enjoyed our outings together and our many phone calls (always filled with laughter even near the end).
Mary Alice Wollam and Bob Brennan: Connie was curious, funny, vivacious, and loved Los Angeles, but I think her greatest talent was being a friend. Connie used that talent to offer the volunteers encouragement, a sounding board, sometimes under the most hilarious circumstances. I have a bucket of Connie stories from so many LAC tours and events, but what I cherish most is the years of friendship that she gave Bob and me.
Memorial gifts may be made to the L.A. Conservancy or the Maria and Teresa Rivas Scholarship fund at the Glendale College Foundation.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/660053965307838464
date: 2021-08-10, from: Santa Clarita Public Library
Our July pick for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Bookclub, Worlds of Whimsy. All Systems Red by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #1) In the future, vast solar system spanning corporations control the majority of the galaxy. Anyone who wants to explore new worlds must get approval from these establishments, and use only company […]
https://www.santaclaritalibrary.com/2021/08/10/worlds-of-whimsy-book-club-review-all-systems-red/
date: 2021-08-02, from: Santa Clarita Public Library
Indulge in some Eye Candy Reading… A few months ago Book Riot wrote an article about the one and only Fabio and his shirtless Romance book cover craze that sizzled the shelves (and book bags) during the 80’s. You can read it here: https://bookriot.com/fabio-romance-novel-covers/ Let’s face it “Eye Candy” sparks interest, anything visually appealing usually does. […]
https://www.santaclaritalibrary.com/2021/08/02/fun-fiction-finale/
date: 2021-06-22, from: Santa Clarita Public Library
Reading Colors Your World! The Santa Clarita Public Library has several craft programs for all ages for our yearly Summer Reading. Pick up this free Grab N Go Kit from any of our three branches on Tuesday, June 22nd. Also, if you feel comfortable sign-up for limited in-person programming to join the library and make […]
date: 2021-06-21, from: Santa Clarita Public Library
This month we discussed Unmasked by the Marquess by Cat Sebastian. This is the story of Charity Church, a former housemaid masquerading as her deceased- and male- employer in order to act as his younger sister’s guardian. Charity- or Robert Selby- enjoys the freedoms that come with being a man even though she knows her role […]
https://www.santaclaritalibrary.com/2021/06/21/paper-hearts-book-review-unmasked-by-the-marquess/
date: 2021-06-01, from: Santa Clarita Public Library
The month of June is the start of summer, but it is also Pride Month. If you stop by Old Town Newhall Library, check out one of the books on display for Pride month. If you don’t feel comfortable coming into the library, we have eBooks and audiobooks that can be checked out using a […]
https://www.santaclaritalibrary.com/2021/06/01/lgbtqia-pride-month-books-and-movies-and-more/
date: 2021-06-01, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
The clock is ticking on the Historic-Cultural Monument nomination for Taix French Restaurant and Los Angeles’ local landmark program!
On Wednesday, June 2nd, the Los Angeles City Council is poised to make a decision on a recently amended Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) nomination for Echo Park’s Taix French Restaurant that protects merely two exterior signs and a bar top; not the Taix building.
But this isn’t just about Taix.
As currently proposed, Taix’s HCM nomination not only undermines the L.A.’s Cultural Heritage Commission but single-handedly devalues the city’s entire preservation program, established in 1962. By designating fragments of Taix restaurant, the City is completely disregarding the demolition of the historic building and allowing the developer to circumvent environmental laws. The developers would even be able to use a streamlined process to get the project built.
The narrowed scope resulted from a recent proposal by District 13 Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell—and unanimous support by the City of Los Angeles’ Planning & Land Use Management (PLUM) committee. (Please read Emily Reyes’ piece in the Los Angeles Times for more.)
This isn’t historic preservation. It is architectural salvage.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
After Echo Park’s Taix French Restaurant was sold by the family to developer Holland Partner Group in 2019, the Los Angeles Conservancy was in conversation with new owners about plans for the legacy business and its historic building.
Recognizing the uncertain future of Taix, the Friends of Taix was formed and wrote a Historic-Cultural Monument nomination with the Conservancy’s support.
There is no debate; Taix is a historic resource. The City identified Taix as an eligible historic place through its SurveyLA program, as did Holland Partner Group, through a study they commissioned. Everyone agreed it is historic.
Early schematics developed by Holland Partner Group retained a portion of Taix as part of their development plans. Yet, the project unveiled in May 2020 called for the building’s demolition, replacing the historic restaurant building and surface parking lot with a planned, majority market-rate housing and retail development.
The L.A. Conservancy stands up for historic places and supports new housing and greater density where it makes sense—especially when it involves much-needed affordable housing.
What the City and the Holland Partner Group are offering, in this case, is a false choice, claiming we either save Taix or build housing. Through some creative design and a willingness to think outside the box, we can do both. Otherwise, it’s a ‘lose-lose’ proposition, not only for Taix and Echo Park but all of Los Angeles as we continue to confront these growth challenges.
WHY DOES SAVING TAIX MEAN SAVING L.A.’s LANDMARK PROGRAM?
In December 2020, the Cultural Heritage Commission concluded that Taix was a historic resource, recommended approval of its nomination, and forwarded it to the City Council. It also rejected Holland Partner Group’s request to designate only signage and the bar top; essentially, Councilmember O’Farrell’s modification.
Historic nominations are sometimes modified or reduced in scope, especially as part of the political process. We have never seen it done to this extreme, where a designated monument no longer represents a place but instead just architectural fragments.
The Conservancy and community partners are pressing for a win-win alternative, which we firmly believe is possible with creativity and collaboration.
The Holland Partner Group wants to gain approval for its project through the City’s streamlined Sustainable Communities Project Exemption (SCPE) process. Their problem is this cannot happen if there is an adverse impact on a historic place through demolition. Calling the modified Taix nomination, essentially architectural salvage, a Historic-Cultural Monument does not give Holland or the City the ability to circumvent the process.
The Conservancy and community partners are concerned about the dangerous precedent this sets for future nominations. This power play opens the door for Historic-Cultural Monument nominations to be hijacked and manipulated for purposes other than heritage conservation, which devalues a program that until now has helped preserve well over 1,200 historic places throughout Los Angeles.
Would saving two signs and a counter from the Cinerama Dome or Grand Central Market be the same as preserving the places where people build lasting connections?
Of course not.
Would you call THIS historic preservation?
Whether you support saving Taix or not, the issue is now much larger and consequential. This decision will have a lasting, detrimental impact on L.A.’s historic preservation program.
Demolition is forever. It cannot be undone. Act now before historic places in Los Angeles are a thing of the past.
Let your City Councilmember know that you disagree with the precedent of salvage designation and you don’t want that concept to come to your neighborhood.
On June 2nd, the Los Angeles City Council must vote to keep our preservation program intact by designating the full site of Taix French Restaurant.
HOW TO HELP:
FIRST, contact Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell where this project is locate and your city council member.
Email him at mitch.ofarrell@lacity.org and call his office at (213) 473-7013. Also, contact Planning Director Craig Bullock in O’Farrell’s office at craig.bullock@lacity.org. Also, contact/share/tag on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CouncilmemberMitchOFarrell and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mitchofarrell/
SECOND, contact the owner, the Holland Partner Group (HPG). Email CEO and Chairman Clyde Holland at clyde@hollandpartnergroup.com and call their office at (562) 285-5300. Also, contact/share/tag on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HollandPartnerGroup/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/holland_partner_group/
THIRD, please copy Adrian Scott Fine at the Conservancy, afine@laconservancy.org, so that we can track progress.
FOURTH, join the Friends of Taix to support their efforts, https://www.facebook.com/groups/friendsoftaix/ and support through GoFundMe.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/652830964670758912
date: 2021-06-01, from: Santa Clarita Public Library
At our May meeting of Paper Hearts, we discussed An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole. Unlike last month’s book, this one included some “spicy” sections- quite a few of them. The plot follows Elle, a free black woman during the Civil War with an eidetic memory who poses as a slave in order to spy on the […]
https://www.santaclaritalibrary.com/2021/06/01/paper-hearts-book-review-an-extraordinary-union/
date: 2021-06-01, from: Santa Clarita Public Library
Welcome back to the Library. The Summer Reading Program has begun and so has our crafting fun! This weeks Grab N’ Go kit for Adults is crafting with clay and is sure to bring out your colorful creative side. Pick up your kit in person at either of our three branches. Join the fun. Painted […]
date: 2021-05-29, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
Photo credit: M. Rosalind Sagara
Named one of the top 20 iconic murals in Los Angeles by
L.A.
Weekly, “Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana” (“A Glorious
History, A Golden Legacy”) in
Historic
Filipinotown’s Unidad Park turned 25 years old last year.
Commissioned by the Social and Public Art Resource Center
(SPARC) and created
by artist Eliseo Art Silva in 1995, the mural tells a story of the
awakening of Filipino national and political consciousness, and pays
tribute to Filipinos, both locally and nationally.
In May, the L.A. Conservancy’s Neighborhood Outreach Manager M. Rosalind Sagara interviewed artist Eliseo Art Silva about the mural, Historic Filipinotown, and how the two contribute to our growing understanding and appreciation of Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) heritage in Los Angeles.
RS: What inspired Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana?
ES: Chapter eight of Jose Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere is titled “Recuerdos,” and it depicts a scene wherein the main protagonist encounters a kind of inverted telescope which converges Europe and Manila in one scene. Rizal calls it “The Spectre of Comparisons”: a charged space where nationalism, art, and the imagination emerge from. It was the kind of space I wanted to recreate in the expansive “Great Wall of Pilipinotown” so that ultimately, we can emerge both a Creative Economy and Ethnic Economy within the Filipino enclave of Los Angeles. At that time (1994-1995), the area was not yet designated as HiFi. Filipino leaders Uncle Roy Morales and Joel Jacinto have said that the Filipino mural was integral to the successful designation of the district as Historic Filipinotown.
RS: How does the mural fit in to the story of Historic Filipinotown?
ES: There were four murals in Filipinotown painted by Filipino Americans with a Filipino theme prior to “Gintong Kasaysayan,” and two more painted after, but only “Gintong Kasaysayan” has been preserved. Three of the murals were lost to demolition and the other three were painted over without protest or resistance. The other artists that painted Filipino murals within the neighborhood are Faustino Caigoy, Orlando Castillo, and Papo De Asis.
Since previous attempts to Filipinize Filipinotown were largely limited to Bahay Kubo (“Nipa Hut”) aesthetics and the mentality it generates of minimizing the achievements of pre-colonial Philippines as a major player of The Filipino Story, “Gintong Kasaysayan” shifts the Filipino perspective. From one largely shaped by the Americanization movement, designed to rid the Philippines of Filipinos, to one that takes The Filipino Story as the main protagonist. It elevates Filipinos as a major player in America’s cultural landscape so our own Filipino community can earn and deserve that equal seat at the table of power and influence. Why have a seat at the table if all that we bring to the table is the stories of foreigners in our country told “on their behalf”?
What the “Gintong Kasaysayan” mural offers to the city is what the Filipino community can offer and why they deserve that equal seat at the table. What the mural provides is The Filipino Story. It challenges people to answer the question: What is “Filipino” in Historic Filipinotown?
At times, it aims to make people uncomfortable that they do not know
enough about the story of Filipinos in this country and city, along with
making Filipinos uncomfortable that they themselves do not take their
own Filipino Story seriously enough to make it the main event in their
own lives and humanity.
Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture, 2020
RS: Has the mural encountered challenges over its lifetime and how have these been addressed?
ES: Yes, many challenges have surfaced throughout the more than 25 years that the mural was in public view in that area of the city.
First of all, the Filipino community had not held an annual event in front of the mural until I initiated the Larry Itliong Day celebration in 2015 at Unidad Park. Because “Gintong Kasaysayan” was largely ignored by our own community for most of its two decades in the neighborhood, there were several instances when we almost lost the mural or the cultural integrity of the site.
When I moved to the East Coast in 2000 and lived there for 15 years, the mural came to a point when the residents around the mural wanted to cover the it with a 15-foot-tall fence to accommodate 25 community garden beds which would have obstructed the entire length of the wall. Had I not happened to visit the site while the meetings were being conducted, that community garden would have completely covered the entire length of the mural.
My personal protest produced the current mural signage for the public to recognize the significance of the mural and the site to the City of Los Angeles and the Filipino community. There was also a time when the neighborhood came close to erecting a life-size full figure monument honoring Bishop Romero at the center of the dap-ay space.
(Author’s note: The dap-ay is circular in form and intended to create a communal gathering space. It is a character-defining feature of Unidad Park and is believed to be the first of its kind outside of the Philippines.)
RS: What is your favorite part of the mural?
ES: The shifts in meaning. I like the parts intended to be ambiguous, challenging and uncomfortable.
RS: How do murals link the past to the present?
ES: I believe that murals are the best way to document communities. At its best, art and murals are not didactic, yet reveal core truths. I see murals as a kind of palimpsest intended to build upon previous stories and images which have ceased to be relevant, active and engaging.
RS: Do you have favorite mural in L.A.?
ES:
América
Tropical by David Siqueiros is my favorite mural in L.A
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/652553762817409024
date: 2021-05-27, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
Los Angeles is one of the most, diverse cities in the world and it’s never too early to start teaching kids about its incredibly rich history. The L.A. Conservancy preserves the historic places and make L.A. County unique, and we’re dedicated to bringing local history to life through a variety of interactive programs and online resources that connect kids to the city around them.
For Asian American Pacific Islander Month, we’ve created a list of resources and tools for kids that highlight the vital contributions of Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in Los Angeles County? These tools connect places with people and stories, encouraging kids to discover historic places through arts and exploration.
DISCOVER
Discover L.A.’s historic Chinatown and Koreatown with a self-guided walking tour! As with so many neighborhoods in L.A., Chinatown and K-Town are home to multiple community identities (for example, Little Bangladesh borders four blocks of Koreatown to the north) which leave an imprint on the blocks, buildings, and architecture.
Download these self-guided walking tour maps, then get outside and visit some cool historic places like Cathay Bank in Chinatown and the Da Wool Jung gazebo in Koreatown. Interested in a guided experience with an L.A. Conservancy docent? Take your kids or students on a virtual field trip: “A Woman’s Place: Union Station and Chinatown!” On this interactive, virtual outing, you’ll learn more about important female figures in Chinatown such as Yiu Hai Seto Quon, one of the founders of Chinatown, as well as historic structures found there!
Recommended for grades 3-12.
**************
CREATE
Create specially designed crafts or do fun activities to learn about historic people and places. Download the “People of Chinatown’’ word search which includes short biographies of historical figures like actress Anna May Wong and Peter Soohoo, one of the founders of L.A.’s Chinatown. For younger kids, download the coloring page featuring people who impacted L.A.’s historic Chinatown. Kids can also watch a video on how to make a biography cube for one of these historic figures. Download the cube template here and watch the how-to video below:
BONUS ACTIVITY! Check out this fun craft shared by our partners at the Chinese American Museum (CAM) in Downtown Los Angeles. Download the instructions to make your own more lantern and learn more about CAM’s work here.
Recommended for grades 3-8 but fun for all ages!
**************
CONNECT
In addition to the rich histories of downtown L.A.’s Chinatown and Koreatown, the AAPI community’s contributions to L.A. span the whole breadth of the county. After all, L.A. is home to a number of the largest AAPI communities outside of their native lands. (For example, did you know that Little India in the South Bay is home to the largest Indian community in Southern California?)
Celebrating our shared cultural heritages extends beyond a month on a calendar, so below is a selection of institutions here in L.A. where kids can connect with AAPI stories and learn about the community’s histories year-round:
Additional Resources: For more on AAPI heritage and history, we suggest checking out the L.A. Public Library’s collection of videos, crafts, and book lists as well as the L.A. Department of Cultural Affairs’ guide to AAPI Heritage month events and activities.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/652368014224867328
date: 2021-05-18, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Viewpoint articles are a vehicle for members of the Caltech community to express their opinions on issues surrounding the interface of science and society. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Caltech or the editorial board of Caltech Letters. Please see our disclaimer.
I first met Cassidy in the fall of 2014. I was a freshman and she was a junior, and we were the only two women majoring in physics in Avery House. My first impression of Cassidy was that she was a little awkward, but nice. I remember being a little surprised when I got her email about participating in an Avery House Secret Santa: I hadn’t expected her to be involved in house-wide activities. As I got to know Cassidy better, she became like the older sister that I never had. I may not have been her closest friend, but she always offered help when I was struggling with problem sets, needed a ride to a play when I felt too anxious to ask anyone, or working on my graduate school applications. To remember who Cassidy was to me, I reflect back on the days I spent with her at Princeton in late March of 2018.
Cassidy Yang (Caltech class of 2016) and her sister Angel passed away in a car accident in December 2020.
Cassidy was my host when I made an unofficial visit as a potential graduate student in her program. When I arrived at her apartment on the night of March 26, Cassidy told me that she was going to sleep on the couch and that I should take her bed. I asked if she was sure—I was only there to meet people, while she had to go to the lab early the next morning—but she insisted. That was so typical of Cassidy as a friend, always worrying about others first. She was even concerned that she would wake me up while getting ready in the morning.
Cassidy was in the second year of her PhD and my visit was only a day after she had flown back from a conference in Los Angeles. While I was visiting her place in Princeton, she told me about her research on the collective behavior of social bacteria called Myxococcus and showed me her slides and some cool movies she had taken of the bacteria. I was amazed by Cassidy’s research on these droplets full of thousands of cool, little bugs.
Cassidy presenting her research on Myxococcus at a conference.
I remember asking Cassidy what she liked to do outside of research, and she told me she enjoyed inviting people over for dinner and making food for them. At a Princeton memorial on December 8th, 2020, several of Cassidy’s friends talked about her love of hosting, describing Friendsgiving gatherings and dumpling-making events at her apartment.
Cassidy also told me what it was like to be a graduate student at Princeton, and not all of her comments were positive. She told me how frustrating it was when the WiFi was broken in a graduate residence hall, and how it took a ridiculous amount of time to get it fixed. She complained about not getting enough mentorship in the department. But what I admire most about Cassidy is that she didn’t just complain about things. She understood what needed to be changed, and she never stopped taking actions to make those changes happen—often behind the scenes.
She reached out to the administrators of her department to work on making the Quantitative and Computational Biology (QCB) program better and more inclusive. Whenever there was a new member in her lab, she was the one who made sure they got to know everyone and made them feel comfortable in a new environment. She shared ideas with her colleagues, gave helpful feedback, and practiced talks with people. She was also in charge of the QCB happy hours and mentored undergraduate women in physics throughout her PhD. Cassidy knew that people needed a better support network, especially in graduate school, and she helped create one. When I told Cassidy I’d accepted a position at Harvard, she wished me the best for my PhD career. Even though I went to a different school, we knew we would keep seeing each other, since we were in the same field.
Cassidy (front row, center) was heavily involved in Avery House activities while at Caltech, including this group trip to the Getty Center. Jiseon is on the right of the front row.
Cassidy changed me as well. At the end of my first year in the Harvard Molecules, Cells, and Organisms program, I had my own recruit. He had to visit on his own, since he missed the official recruitment week. When my program director told me about this, my first thought was that I should organize a dinner with my recruit and invite all my classmates, just like Cassidy had done for me. When I had visited Princeton, I had been worried because I had missed the department’s official recruitment events. But after Cassidy had invited more than 10 grad students to a dinner for just a single recruit—me—I had felt welcomed, and I hadn’t felt awkward anymore. Normally, I would have been too overwhelmed to organize an event like a big group dinner, but Cassidy made me step out of my comfort zone because her kindness and consideration had meant so much to me.
The last time I met Cassidy in person was at the American Physical Society’s (APS) March meeting in Boston in 2019. I missed her talk because I had a class that day, but she came to mine. I regret so much that I missed her presentation. We were supposed to meet again at last year’s March meeting in Denver, but the conference was cancelled at the last minute due to concerns over COVID-19. I wanted to make it to her talk this time, ask her about a new exciting paper on Myxococcus that her group had published, and hang out with all of the Avery physics folks. I had no doubt that when she defended her thesis next year, we would all get together and celebrate all the great things she achieved during her PhD and what an amazing friend she was to everyone.
It has been really difficult to cope with losing Cassidy and her sister Angel so suddenly, and I can’t imagine how heartbreaking it has been for the people who spent more time with her. Yet I am truly grateful that I had Cassidy in my life. She inspired me in so many ways, and even now I am discovering more and more incredible things that she gave us by reconnecting with all the amazing people who knew her.
Cassidy and some of her friends from Princeton after successfully completing an escape room in Boston while at the March 2019 APS meeting.
I want to close by sharing a story about a beautiful Sunday I spent with Cassidy and two of our Avery housemates, Joseph and Yubo, during the APS meeting in March 2019 in Boston. In the morning, we were going to have brunch at Cafe Luna, but it was too crowded. Instead, we went to a cafe called Juliet. During the Lyft ride to the cafe, Yubo left his phone in the car. The driver was kind enough to drive back to return his phone. Cassidy offered to pay for the lost item fee, although Yubo wouldn’t let her. After brunch, we hung out at Joseph’s place, playing board games and hanging out with Joseph’s roommate’s cat, Marbles. Cassidy brought a cute board game called Root, Yubo and I brought some desserts from a bake sale at Harvard, and Joseph baked a cake for us. We were already full from all the desserts before heading to Spring Shabu Shabu, one of the best restaurants in the city. We wanted to have an early dinner because Cassidy had signed up for an escape room that night with her Princeton friends. The restaurant was jam-packed as always, so we walked through the Petco next door while we waited. I still have a video of a guinea pig sleeping with its mouth open, which I found hilarious. We ate so much (including the ice cream for dessert) and Cassidy left early to have fun with her other group of friends. During that week, we had a big snow storm after a very warm winter. Nobody could stop complaining about the weather, but it was the most beautiful week I have ever had in Boston. And Cassidy was there.
https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/memory-of-cassidy
date: 2021-05-07, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
In Chapter 4 of Not My Thesis, Jane Panangaden explains the abstract world of pure math and the delights of exploring it, as well as her work advocating for tenants’ rights in Pasadena. While dividing her time between writing proofs and legislation, Jane grapples with how we apply our skills, technical or otherwise, to bring a different world into existence. She asks us to consider: why do math?
You can find out more about the Pasadena Tenants Union, including the ordinance they wrote here. Read about what the Socialists of Caltech are up to here.
To learn more about the history of eugenics at Caltech, check out this Caltech Letters viewpoint article. In recognition of this history, Caltech recently decided to remove the names of some of the eugenicists from campus buildings. Hear Jane and others in conversation with the Caltech Archives in this video.
Find us on Caltech Letters, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. The transcript is available here. You can contact us by emailing notmythesis@gmail.com. Music for this episode was provided by Blue Dot Sessions, and our artwork is by Usha Lingappa.
https://caltechletters.org/podcasts/not-my-thesis/nmt-4-jane-panangaden
date: 2021-05-04, from: Santa Clarita Public Library
For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I put together adult book recommendations available at one of our libraries. If you prefer eAudiobook or eBooks you will also find a curated list created by our Public Services Librarians. You will also find a list of books currently on display at the Old Town […]
https://www.santaclaritalibrary.com/2021/05/04/asian-american-and-pacific-islander-heritage-month/
date: 2021-04-30, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
(“Hollywood Jazz — 1945-1972” by Richard Wyatt Jr.)
By Carley Michelle Hildebrand
Charles Mingus, Nat “King” Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Ornette Coleman
lived here. Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dave
Brubeck recorded here. Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie
Parker jammed here. But most importantly, a crucial chapter in jazz
history played out here.
While cities like New Orleans and New York City are where jazz music was born and bred, Los Angeles was the beating heart of the West Coast Jazz scene. From the late 1920s to the 1950s not only was L.A.’s jazz scene influential to the art of jazz itself, it brought pride and power to L.A.’s Black community.
The epicenter of it all was the historic Central Avenue corridor, from
Little Tokyo to Watts, with some jazz joints springing up as far away as
Hollywood. Central Avenue was the economic and social center of a
segregated Black community. A cultural mecca, the scene was constant and
electric. As the only integrated section of L.A., people of all races
and classes—from blue-collar workers to Hollywood stars—mingled together
to watch, to dance, to drink, and…to listen.
For #InternationalJazzDay, get ready to cut a rug while we take you on a tour of some key killer diller locations that played an important role in jazz history, from swinging Central Avenue to swanky Old Hollywood. You dig?
4225 S Central Avenue Los Angeles
Any trip through L.A.’s jazz history must start at the Dunbar Hotel.
Originally built as the Hotel Somerville, the Dunbar played a key role
in L.A.’s Black community for decades. Doctor John Somerville built the
hotel for the first West Coast convention of the NAACP in 1928 and it
provided first-class accommodations for African Americans in a
segregated Los Angeles. At the heart of the Central Avenue jazz scene,
many prominent jazz musicians stayed or performed there, including Louis
Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Bessie Smith. Other notable
guests included Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Hern Jefferies, Langston
Hughes, Joe Louis, Arthur B. Spingarn, and W. E. B. Du Bois. As the
epicenter of Black L.A.’s social and cultural life, a number of jazz
clubs and theaters sprang up along Central Avenue and the district began
to flourish as a popular nightlife destination.
After a herculean restoration, today the Dunbar Hotel provides affordable housing for seniors and offers a beautiful gathering space for the community. (More recently, the Dunbar also made a cameo appearance in 2019’s My Name is Dolemite.)
4215 Central Avenue
Perhaps the most famous club along Central Avenue was Club Alabam, known as the “Finest Harlem Cafe in America.” Hints of the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove (which was segregated at the time) could be seen with its rich furnishings and interior palm trees. Saxophonist Art Pepper recalled that “the bandstand was plush and gorgeous with curtains that glistened.” Club Alabam, which had an integrated audience like all of the clubs along the corridor, became the center of L.A.’s jazz scene boasting some of the finest jazz artists in the country. At its most glorious, wrote jazz historian Steven Isoardi, it was kind of a shining star, the premier spot on the Avenue.
Club Alabam may have been the star, but its neighbors were also just as popular: the Downbeat at 4201 S Central Avenue was a major hot spot and, at one point, was home to an all-star jazz band that included L.A. native, the legendary Charles Mingus. Further along, the Elks Hall at 4016 S Central Avenue was said to have been the biggest Black-owned building in Los Angeles. Able to fit from five to six hundred people, it had three floors, which offered flexibility for a wide variety of acts and events.
2300 Central Avenue
Opened in 1927, the Lincoln Theater was the largest of five theaters along the Central Avenue corridor that provided entertainment to the Black community. While the 1920s boasted the era of the grand movie palaces on Broadway, African Americans were segregated if allowed at all. The Lincoln, built between 1926 and 1927, was the first theatre built by African Americans for African Americans and was easily the most important. A beautiful example of Moorish Revival Architecture, the California Eagle called it, “the finest and most beautiful theater in the country built exclusively for race patronage.”
The Lincoln was a key venue in jazz history, and its stage welcomed icons like Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis Jr. and so many more. It’s listed in the National and California Registers.
724 E. 52nd Place, South Los Angeles
“It Don’t Mean a Thing (if it ain’t got that swing)” was the battle cry of the swing era, and Ivie Anderson’s vocals on the 1932 Duke Ellington recording is nothing less than iconic. Anderson hailed from Gilroy, but called Los Angeles home for much of her life and lived at 724 E. 52nd Place from 1930 to 1945. During this time Anderson toured heavily with Ellington’s band, whom she sang with for a decade.
(You can even watch her with Duke’s band in the classic Marx Brothers film A Day at the Races, where she performs “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm.”) Anderson’s former home is listed in both the national and state historic registers as a contributor to the 52nd Place Historic District, which is also an HPOZ.
3260 West 8th Street, Los Angeles
You’d never guess as you speed past the low-rise market at West 8th
Street and Normandie Avenue that a litany of jazz greats once played
there in the 1950s. Dave Brubeck, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Helen
Forrest, Nat King Cole—the list goes on and on.
(Chet
Baker and Stan Getz’s set was recorded and definitely worth a
listen.)
In 1952, the great Louis Armstrong headlined the club with an all-star band that included Earl “Fatha” Hines and Jack Teagarden. It was an integrated audience, as you can see in this famous photo taken in 1954 of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe at the Tiffany. Monroe was a huge fan of Fitzgerald and the two women became friends. Monroe actively promoted Ella by attending her performances, which guaranteed press coverage.
1319 E 41st Street, Los Angeles
Not all jazz greats hailed from the East Coast. Many were born right here in Los Angeles. Most notable, Charles Mingus and Buddy Collette, who both attended Jordan High School in Watts. (Mingus, in fact, grew up steps from the Watts Towers and often saw Simon Rodia as he worked on building his menagerie of glass and scraps.) But it is Thomas Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles that nurtured the talent for the largest number of future jazz artists.
Dexter Gordon and Don Cherry are perhaps its most famous graduates, but for many the real star was teacher Samuel R. Browne: the first Black music teacher in the Los Angeles public school system. After receiving advanced degrees from USC in music and education, he eventually took a job at Jefferson High School where, in 1936, he became the first Black teacher to integrate the school. He often accompanied his students to Central Avenue jazz clubs and, as part of their music education, took them to rehearsals where at any given time they’d see Lionel Hampton, Stan Kenton, or Duke Ellington at work. He’d also bring talent to the classroom—stars like Nat “King” Cole and Jimmie Lunceford—for recitals and master class seminars.
2301 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles
The enduring, much beloved L.A. icon has long been a friend to jazz musicians…even when the critics weren’t. (When Frank Sinatra made his Bowl debut in 1943 to sellout crowd of Bobby Soxers, the Times sneered about swing: “is it possible that there is no alternative in this country?”) In 1954, Louis Armstrong performed “The Whippenproof Song” on The Colgate Comedy Hour which became the first ever live telecast from the Bowl. Two years later, the Bowl hosted the jazz event of the decade: an all-star concert Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl. With Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald headlining, the concert was an extraordinary who’s-who of jazz greats, among them Oscar Peterson, Roy Eldridge, Buddy Rich, and Art Tatum.
It’s hardly surprising that the Playboy Jazz Festival has called the Bowl home since 1979, making it one of the longest-running jazz festivals around.
4731 W. Washington Boulevard
The It Club (which was across the street from today’s Nate Holden Performing Arts Center) was owned by John T. McClain, a man who would go on to become an executive and huge force in the L.A. as one of the most powerful figures in the world of Black music. McClain’s father rubbed shoulders with ganger “Bugsy” Siegel and his mother, an accomplished pianist, appeared with Lena Horne in Hollywood during the ’40s.
During the 1950s and ’60s, it was common to see huge jazz stars play the It Club. Miles Davis and John Coltrane were returning guests, and jazz legend Thelonious Monk recorded here in 1964, resulting in the album “Live at the It Club.”
1358 Vine Street, Hollywood
The Parker Room, which recently closed, opened in 2017 to pay homage to
its famous history. During its heyday in the 1940s, Billy Berg’s was one
of the hottest jazz joints in L.A. and the country. Its claim to fame
was being the site of Charlie Parker’s first West Coast engagement.
(Hence the name “The Parker Room.”) In 1949, Billie Holiday threw an
extravagant New Year’s Party in the club.
But Billy Berg’s is also emblematic of a change in the L.A. jazz scene. In postwar L.A., Black musicians were making inroads at previously all-white clubs and theaters in places like Hollywood and downtown L.A. Jewish impresario Billy Berg became a prominent player in running integrated jazz joints. As KCET reports, in “less than twenty-five years, Berg came to own at least six different clubs in the Los Angeles area: Trouville, The Swing Club, Waldorf’s Cellar, Club Capri, The 5-4 Ballroom and the most famous, Billy Berg’s.”
Integrated Hollywood clubs also signaled a change in the tide. The scene on Central Avenue began to fade as white audiences no longer needed to head south to Central Avenue. Likewise, the desegregation of some jazz clubs in L.A. opened up more opportunities for Black musicians outside of Central Avenue.
423 S. Muirfield Road, Hancock Park
Nat “King” Cole was among the many jazz musicians who “jumped ship” in L.A. while on tour, choosing the city as home. Despite being one of the most successful and popular entertainers of the 20th century, Cole and his family still faced racism. Discriminatory housing covenants enforced by homeowners’ associations across L.A. made his celebrity status irrelevant. In 1948, when Cole and his family purchased this $85,000 property, they were the first Black family to move into exclusively white Hancock Park.
The Cole’s were met with an affidavit by an angry group of white homeowners claiming that 50-year-old covenants restricted homeownership to non-Caucasians. After they refused to move, an ambitious plan to oust them was launched, including threats to his family and their real estate agent. But the law was against the homeowners’ association: that very year, the Supreme Court Decision of Shelley v. Kraemer had deemed restrictive covenants unconstitutional.
The Cole family would continue to endure intimidating acts of overt racism from the neighborhood over the years, but they loved their home and weathered the storms. Cole would live here until his untimely passing in 1965 and in 2003, Hancock Park —an HPOZ—dedicated the post office at 265 South Western Avenue in his honor.
1750 Vine Street, Hollywood
And any tour of L.A. jazz history wouldn’t be complete without a stop at
the iconic Capitol Records building in Hollywood. The Capitol Records
label was home to such legends like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole,
which is why the label’s headquarters in Hollywood—a cherished
Historic-Cultural Monument—proudly celebrates its connections to jazz
history with its gorgeous mural “Hollywood Jazz — 1945-1972” on the
south wall of the tower.
Created by legendary L.A.-based muralist Richard Wyatt, Jr. in 1990, the
mural was commissioned at the request of the Los Angeles Jazz Society,
and in 2013, it received a loving restoration from Capitol Records. An
ode to titans of jazz music, the mural is also as beautiful as it is
personal. “Nat King Cole’s widow [Maria] asked me if I would show him
wearing his favorite tie,” Wyatt recalled in 2013.
30 Pier Avenue, Hermosa Beach
Because we probably wouldn’t hear the end of it otherwise …
The last stop on our trek through Jazz Land is Hermosa Beach’s
Lighthouse Cafe which figures prominently in Damien Chazelle’s La La
Land (2016). Like it or loathe it, the film La La Land
certainly did much to trigger interest not simply in L.A. locations, but
the L.A. jazz scene. To its credit, the jazz club at the center of the
film is an actual historic jazz club. The Lighthouse Café in Hermosa
Beach has been in business since 1949, when an experimental Sunday jam
session turned into a success. Over the decades, it welcomed greats like
Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, but dozens of West Coast jazz artists
from Art Pepper to the Jazz Crusaders recorded here.
Thanks to the popularity of the film La La Land, The Light House Café remains a popular destination and is one of a handful of historic, legacy businesses still operating in L.A. that serve up jazz. Others include the Catalina Club, the Baked Potato, Herb Alpert’s Vibrato, and LACMA’s popular Friday night jazz series.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/649934652719693824
date: 2021-04-06, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Emma Sosa, Graduate Student in GPS, for Caltech Letters
Viewpoint articles are a vehicle for members of the Caltech community to express their opinions on issues surrounding the interface of science and society. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Caltech or the editorial board of Caltech Letters. Please see our disclaimer.
At Caltech, there are many opportunities to hear people talk about their science, but we seldom learn about speakers’ career paths beyond the thirty-second introductions listing awards and alma maters. One of the rare chances to hear someone’s full career trajectory is at a series of events hosted by Caltech’s Women in Chemistry group. These wonderfully low-key breakfast events take place in the historic Gates Chemistry Library. I’ve heard many different women share their stories over the space of an hour, yet even these conversations never seem to fully explore their paths. The career paths described sometimes seemed incredibly straightforward: I have loved science since I was five years old, I went to graduate school, and finally, I got my dream job as a professor. They might mention a departure from the typical trajectory or hardships encountered along the way, but these conversations, like the thirty second-introductions, are still a compressed version of the facts.
A photo in the Gates Library after a Women in Chemistry breakfast event with Professor Corrina Hess (seated, white shirt) in 2018. The author is seated on the far right.
Elise Tookmanian
Let me tell you my thirty-second introduction.
I grew up outside of Philadelphia and graduated from high school near the top of my class with a deep love of learning and science. I attended Franklin & Marshall College, a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania with superb undergraduate research opportunities. After working hard in a lab there for three years, I published two first-author papers and received awards from the Chemistry department. I applied to several schools for graduate school but chose Caltech for its top-tier chemistry department. There, I joined Dianne Newman’s lab to do exciting interdisciplinary research in the field of geobiology. While at Caltech, I became an editor for Caltech Letters and plan to pursue a career in science communication after I graduate.
It sounds nice, right?
It’s all true, but it certainly isn’t the full story. This thirty-second introduction obscures my privileges, my struggles, and even my good luck. These details can easily become invisible because, especially in the United States and in academia, society constantly reinforces the idea that the world functions as a meritocracy. In a meritocracy, wealth, power, and opportunity are distributed to individuals based on talent and effort alone. It’s the tempting idea that race, class, or your family background don’t affect your future, that you can do well in life if you work hard. Meritocracy perpetuates the false beliefs that you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps, that every kindergartener could be President one day, and that SAT or GRE scores are predictive of academic success. The data consistently show the opposite. Race and background play demonstrable roles in measures of success—especially in the context of STEM higher education. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen that even the economic fallout of the pandemic and the virus itself disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minority groups. Meritocracy would have us believe that any of these failures are due to character flaws—laziness or lack of intelligence. In reality, these statistics are the fallout of systemic discrimination that cannot be overcome by determination alone. Meritocracy preserves the status quo of white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, and class divisions by simply saying that they don’t exist. We’re all just blank slates with the same world of opportunities at our feet.
The story of my life that more accurately accounts for the factors outside my control goes something like this.
I grew up outside Philadelphia in a family of six. We were comfortably middle-class and never worried about necessities. Both of my parents graduated from college, so it was always assumed that we would have the opportunity to do the same. My mom didn’t have to work and chose to homeschool my siblings and me for a few years instead. She gave me a lot of specialized attention as I was learning to read and write, but also the freedom to explore whatever was interesting to me. These experiences fostered my love of learning, reading, and writing. My high school was well-funded and offered many AP classes. Taking these AP classes boosted my GPA and prepared me to take the same courses again in college. When I was accepted to different colleges and received the financial aid packages, I chose a school that was slightly more expensive because it was a good investment. I didn’t have to worry about going into debt. I had my family to fall back on, and I didn’t need to financially support them. Beyond that, I simply assumed that I would be able to get a good job and pay off my student loans without any problems. My background, growing up middle-class with two parents who graduated from college, normalized these assumptions.
As a white woman growing up in a majority white town, I never felt that I didn’t belong. I chose to attend Franklin & Marshall College and later Caltech without a single thought to my race. The note on Caltech’s application encouraging students from underrepresented groups to apply didn’t give me pause. I could choose these schools because I knew I would feel comfortable there. Their reputations as “elite” schools were positive features; I didn’t have to consider that the descriptor is often correlated with whiteness. Even choosing to continue in academia and attend graduate school was a comfortable decision. My whiteness allowed me to move through these white academic spaces easily, never doubting that I belonged there.
Beyond my privileges, I also had some good old-fashioned luck along the way. When I started doing research, I was given a project that turned out to be relatively straightforward. When other students spent weeks trying to get their proteins to crystallize, my protein happened to crystallize on my very first attempt. I published this project with my advisors, and I spent the next year expanding on this work to publish a second paper. I worked hard, but I was also very lucky to be given that specific project in that particular lab.
The author stands in front of her poster titled Development of a Vibrational Hydration Ruler at the 2015 Biophysical Society Meeting.
Elise Tookmanian
This second version of my story is longer. And it accounts for only some of the luck, circumstance, and privileges that got me to Caltech. It is difficult to reconsider my accomplishments in the broader context of my privilege—I can no longer take full credit for my success. However, this version doesn’t negate my hard work or talents or drive. This version simply recognizes that there was more at play in the opportunities that presented themselves and my decision-making along the way.
In the same way that meritocracy gives meaning to our success, it also gives meaning to our failure. When I got to graduate school, meritocracy flipped on its head. What had previously buoyed my belief in my belonging and success now became a source of deep insecurity and shame. My struggles became evidence that I didn’t belong at Caltech or even in graduate school, a reflection of my inadequacy. Within the framework of meritocracy, everything I did reflected my innate worth: my faults, my merits. When the problem is you, how do you escape it? Meritocracy puts all the weight on the individual: both success and failure. If you succeed, it’s because you are talented, but if you fail, it is because you are broken.
These harsh dichotomies are not a fair or truthful way to view ourselves or the world. Outside of meritocracy, there are more realistic ways to understand failure. I failed because science is a place where things should fail most of the time. I failed because I was learning. I failed because I beat myself up for failing, making it harder and harder to try again. I failed because I was struggling with anxiety, a condition that surfaced during grad school and takes a lot of effort to manage. I failed because maybe graduate school wasn’t exactly right for me. Not because I am not smart or talented, but because it wasn’t a good fit. I missed the concrete goals and the opportunities to try new things that I had during my liberal arts college experience, and I learned how much I enjoyed writing and having an impact in my community. No hard feelings. It’s not me, it’s just, well, graduate school.
I say “failed,” but my time in graduate school hasn’t been a failure. “Failed” may be the first word that comes to my mind because meritocracy is hardwired into my very neurons, but it (again) isn’t the truth. I may not have a thesis full of experimental data, but my contributions are still valuable. I’ve learned so much about myself and even discovered what I want to try next. The truth is graduate school was a really hard time for me, and that doesn’t define me as a person.
The author sits in front of her laboratory bench at Caltech in the fall of 2016.
Elise Tookmanian
I try to hold these truths together as a way to bring form to this invisible force in the world. I can be hardworking, benefit from white supremacy, and find it difficult to start working some mornings. This isn’t always an easy task. But, maybe it is getting easier. According to a Pew Center Research report in 2020, 65% of adults in the United States say that some people are rich because they have had more advantages in life, rather than due to hard work. This erosion of the myth of meritocracy gives me hope.
Now, when I listen to the thirty-second introductions before seminars, I try to remember that I’m listening to a story. Stories help us better understand ourselves and our world. Stories simplify and make sense of information. But they undoubtedly lose some complexity in the telling. They are only an approximation of reality. We don’t always have time to get into all the details. Our stories about ourselves or others rely on shorthand and tropes in the same way that a movie or book does. And just as we should critique and analyze the media we consume, I think it is time to critique the stories we tell about ourselves.
By taking into account our privileges and our roadblocks, we can take control of our personal narratives. This empowering act decouples our worth and our “success” or “failure” by reevaluating our efforts within the bigger, more complex landscape that surrounds us. As we take control of our personal narrative, we can fight off our imposter syndrome and extend empathy to those around us. We can change how we read other people’s stories. When hiring a new faculty member, admitting the next class of graduate students, or giving out awards, we can use this knowledge of our inequitable world to give someone a bit of good luck. In recognizing the myth of meritocracy, perhaps we can change the landscape to create the more just world we desire.
https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/meritocracy
date: 2021-03-09, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
Johnie’s Coffee Shop (1956). 📸: George Rose
March is #WomensHistoryMonth! In honor of the occasion, we’ve collected some of L.A.’s most influential–if unsung–pioneering women architects, designers, and entrepreneurs, whose contributions to our built environment can still be seen and felt today.
***
The former Harvey Company restaurant at Union Station (1939). 📸: Elizabeth Daniels
Fans of the classic Judy Garland musical The Harvey Girls need look no further than Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to walk in the shoes of the famed chain of railroad rest stop eateries: the Fred Harvey restaurants. The Harvey Company, along with the Santa Fe Railway, boosted the Southwest as tourist destination during the late 19th century, and the famous “Harvey Girls”—waitresses “of good character” and adventurous spirit—helped popularize Southwest travel.
The Union Station location was designed by the pioneering Mary Colter, who was an architect for the Harvey Company from 1904 to 1949. She was one of the earliest architects—male or female—to give American buildings a sense of place and one of a very few number of women architects working during the early 20th century.
Best known for her buildings at the Grand Canyon, she’s been called “the best-known unknown architect in the national parks.” And her signature Southwest spirit is on full display at her Union Station location. Opened in 1939, the restaurant features both Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco designs— reflecting the spirit of Union Station itself—while still incorporating Southwestern elements, including the floor, which was designed to resemble a Navajo rug. Its distinct tiled walls display a parrot motif; Valencia Spanish Tile Company manufactured these tiles especially for this building.
The former Fred Harvey Restaurant space reopened on October 2018 as the Imperial Western Beer Company.
***
Pann’s Restaurant (1958). 📸: Stephen Schafer
Few women, let alone Chinese American women, were practicing architects in postwar America. But Helen Liu Fong not only excelled at her art–her works remain among some of the most loved among Angelenos even to this day. Fong was born in Los Angeles’ Old Chinatown in 1927. She received a degree in city planning from UC Berkeley in 1949.
Upon graduation, she moved back to Los Angeles and got her first job working as a secretary for architect Eugene Choy, where she learned the administrative side of architecture. Two years later, she began working for Armet and Davis, located in the same office building as Choy’s firm, where she remained until the late 1970s. Best known for her Googie-style design work, Fong seamlessly integrated interior and exterior elements. (The rich reds you’ll find in many of Fong’s designs, for example, were strategic: the color could register from the roadside.)
Fong also commissioned a variety of talented artists to custom create artwork, murals, and clocks, among other things. Perhaps her most popular work—and certainly the best preserved—is the iconic Pann’s Coffee Shop on La Tijera Boulevard in Westchester. (But you’re guaranteed to find some of her other designs, namely Norms on La Cienega Boulevard and Johnnie’s Coffee Shop, pop up regularly on your Instagram feed. ;)
***
The Greta Magnusson-Grossman residence (1948). 📸: Hilton + Hyland
Greta Magnusson Grossman was one of the few female professionals to play an integral role in the Los Angeles Modern movement.
From the 1940s to the 1960s, she was the only female architect to own an independent practice in Los Angeles. Grossman had been an award-winning designer in her native Sweden, but fled to America to escape the Nazi regime. She and her husband settled in Los Angeles in the late ’40s where she wasted no time in setting up her own studio, launching a cutting-edge brand of Swedish Modernism.
She was a hit among a progressive set of Angelenos, with clients including powerful women in the film industry like Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman—fellow Swedes, both—and was lauded by contemporaries and critics. She designed 14 residences in Los Angeles, all based on the Case Study House design principles, including the Nelson Houses in the Hollywood Hills. With their simple Mid-Century Modern lines and their breathtaking views, the Nelson Houses are an excellent example of Grossman’s residential designs, and proof that she undoubtedly helped define California Modernism.
Although her work has gained the recognition it deserves over the years, her architectural legacy lies in jeopardy with only a scant handful of her work remaining.
***
The Biddy Mason Memorial. 📸: L.A. Conservancy
Bridget “Biddy” Mason is an American hero. Born a slave, Mason endured decades of hardship before winning her freedom and becoming one of Los Angeles’ wealthiest citizens, and most celebrated philanthropists. In 1847, at almost thirty years old, Mason walked more than 2,000 miles behind her owner’s wagon, from Mississippi to Utah and then California … her small children at her side.
When she arrived here in 1851, California had been a state for less than a year. It had been admitted into the Union as a free state. Even so, many slaves, including Mason, were not free. Black settlers had a tight-knit community in Los Angeles, ensuring newcomers, like Mason, knew their rights under California law.
With their support, Mason sued for and won her freedom in a landmark court case in 1856. Mason became a midwife and parlayed her earnings into real estate, establishing a homestead on what is present-day Broadway and Spring Street in 1866. She continued to invest in land and accumulated a relatively large fortune, carving for herself a prominent place in the community. “Aunt Biddy,” as she was lovingly known, founded the First AME Church in her home, opened schools, and was a constant source of support to the growing settlement of Black Angelenos.
The Los Angeles of Mason’s day is all but gone, but you can follow her legacy and remarkable achievements at Biddy Mason Memorial Park. Behind the Bradbury Building, where her original homestead was built, the artwork “Biddy Mason’s Place: A Passage of Time” commemorates her incredible journey.
***
The Marion Davies Guest House (1929). 📸: The Annenberg Community Beach House
Julia Morgan was one of California’s most influential architects. Truly ahead of her time, she was California’s first licensed woman architect and one of the most influential–and prolific– architects in the state: By the time of her death in 1957, she had designed an estimated 700 buildings, mostly in California.
Perhaps most famous for her work for magnate William Randolph Hearst–namely, Hearts’s Castle in San Simeon–Los Angeles is home to some of her most significant structures: The Herald Examiner Building (1914) and the Marion Davies Estate in Santa Monica (1929), both for W.R. Hearst. The Examiner building was the first large-scale project she would design for Hearst, designed in the Mission Revival style of architecture popular throughout Southern California in the early twentieth century. The red tile roof and blue and yellow tiled domes make the building a visible landmark on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.
Out in Santa Monica, the Annenberg Community Beach House occupies part of what was Morgan’s spectacular estate for actress Marion Davies. Commissioned by Davies’ life partner W.R. Hearst, Morgan designed an estate befitting the major movie star: it was a mansion of 100- plus rooms, featuring an ornate marble swimming pool. As was the case with Hearst Castle to the north, the Marion Davies Beach was a popular and exclusive destination for Old Hollywood’s biggest stars.
The main mansion was demolished in 1956, but the Beach House thrives today as a year-round public beach facility.
***
The Pacific Design Center (1975). 📸: WikiCommons
Dubbed “the Rosa Parks of architecture,” Sklarek’s courage, talent, and ambition led to a trailblazing career that forged a place for herself in an industry dominated by men. When she received her B.Arch from Columbia in 1950, Sklarek was just one of two women and the only Black person in the graduating class.
With both her gender and race against her, Sklarek’s self-described “stick-to-it” attitude resulted in her becoming the first Black woman to join the American Institute of Architects, in 1959. In 1960, Sklarek moved to Los Angeles and joined the firm Gruen and Associates.
Later, after becoming California’s first Black woman to be a licensed architect in 1962, she became the firm’s director of architecture—the first woman in the company to hold that position. The California Mart (1963) was one of her earliest projects and she also worked on such iconic projects as the Pacific Design Center’s “blue whale” (1975).
In 1985, Sklarek scored another “first” as co-founder of what was then one of the largest woman-owned firms in the country: Siegel, Sklarek and Diamond. She became a mentor to many aspiring young women architects and architects of color:
“In architecture,“ said Sklarek,”I had absolutely no role model. I’m happy today to be a role model for others that follow.”
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/645141252909711360
date: 2021-02-25, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
The Garris Residence (1958) by Paul Revere Williams. Located at 1070 N. Hillcrest Road, Los Angeles. (Photo courtesy Hilton & Hyland)
When the great Paul Revere Williams joined the Southern California
chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1923, he became
the AIA’s first Black member. This kicked the door open for Black
architects across America, and especially right here in Williams’
hometown of Los Angeles.
Inspired by Williams’ high-profile success, a small but mighty group of Black architects overcame intense racism with talent and determination, working regularly throughout the mid- 20th century.
Black architects may have been overshadowed in the history books by their more famous white colleagues, but for every Richard Neutra and R.M. Schindler there were Black architects designing buildings that were just as creative and ambitious, and they left a Modern imprint that is still visible here in L.A. … if you know where to look.
Here’s a brief look at some of L.A.’s unsung Mid-Century Modern beauties, and the Black architects behind them.
The Gregory and Ain Office (1950). Located at 2231 Hyperion Avenue, Los Angeles. (Photo Credit: Michael Locke)
This lovely Mid-Century Modern style office building in Silver Lake was once home to the architectural firm of Ain & Garrott. James H. Garrott (1897 - 1991) was the second Black architect to be admitted to the American Institute of Architects (AIA), thanks to the support of his mentor, Paul R. Williams, who sponsored his application. Garrott, originally from Montgomery Alabama, graduated from Los Angeles Polytechnic High School in 1917 and got his architect’s license in 1928.
Garrott worked for Williams during the 1920s, during which time he made a huge contribution to the Black community by designing the first Golden State Mutual Life Insurance building (1928). But Garrott’s career really began to take flight when he met visionary architect Gregory Ain: the two began a loose partnership in the 1940s, around the same time that Garrott designed his own residence for him and his wife, Fanny, in Silver Lake. It is located next door to another Garrott design, the Loren Miller Residence, which was designed for the powerful Civil Rights attorney, responsible for helping end racist housing covenant deeds both here in Los Angeles and nationwide.
The James H. Garrott Residence (1940). Located at 653 Micheltorena Street, Los Angeles. (Photo Credit: Michael Locke)
Gregory Ain’s progressive politics influenced his approach to Modern architecture, which then inspired Garrot’s own work: he has since been described as a “pivotal Black avant-garde modernist of the 1940s.“
Together, they designed a small office building in Silver Lake in 1950 and worked on a number of private residences, including the Ben Margolis Residence (1951). Margolis was a famous L.A. attorney, most remembered for defending “The Hollywood Ten”: the ten writers and directors blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) over alleged Communist sympathies. In 1951, one year before courageously testifying before the HUAC, Margolis commissioned a home from Ain, with Garrott as partner.
Ben Margolis Residence (1951). Located at 5786 Valley Oak Drive, Los Angeles. (Photo Credit: Michael Locke)
The Westchester Municipal Building (1960). Located at 7166 W. Manchester Avenue, Los Angeles. (Photo credit: Modernista L.A.)
Garrott would design some 200 buildings over the course of his career, including twenty-five churches and several public buildings like the striking Westchester Municipal Building (1960). Later in life, Garrott became a mentor to emerging Black architects. In 1975, he was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Minority Architects and Planners of Los Angeles, and also became an emeritus of the American Institute of Architects.
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1958 post-and-beam located at 9032 Wonderland Park Avenue, Los Angeles. (Photo credit: DeasyPennerPodley)
Nestled in the affluent enclave of Beverly Crest lies this Mid-Century Modern gem, designed by the trailblazing Robert A. Kennard (1920 - 1995). It’s a post-and-beam beauty with vaulted ceilings, paneled walls, a sunken living room, and as recently as 2015, sold for nearly $1.5 million.
Kennard was a SoCal native, hailing from Monrovia, and attended Monrovia High School where a teacher first introduced him to the work of Paul R. Williams. Thanks to the GI Bill, Kennard was able to attend the USC School of Architecture after serving in World War II, becoming part of the second generation of Black architects in L.A. who were buoyed by the success of Williams.
Despite being paid half the rate of his white colleagues, Kennard’s drive resulted in the founding of his own practice in 1957. (One of his earlier works, the Zieger Residence [1958] in Laurel Canyon, was designated in 1989 as City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #416.) But his work on privately commissioned homes, like the Garrett-Hansford Residence (1964) was relatively short-lived. Starting in the mid-1960s, Kennard shifted his focus to public work. The Kennard Design Group would work on some 700 projects in Southern California, including the City of Carson City Hall in 1976 (in partnership with Robert Alexander and Frank Sata) and the Van Nuys State Office Building in 1985 (in partnership with another L.A.-based Black architect, Harold Williams).
The Garrett-Hansford Residence (1964). Located at 2076 Redcliff Street, Los Angeles. (Photo credit: Michael Locke)
The Carson City Hall (1976). Located at 701 E. Carson Street, Carson. (Photo credit: Carson Chamber of Commerce)
He also focused on becoming a mentor to young people of color who aspired to make their mark in a predominantly white architectural community. Remembering the countless doors closed to him because of his race, he recruited Black students and formed the Minority Architecture and Planning organization: a precursor of the National Organization of Minority Architects. “It was an inspiration to know that such prominence was not beyond the reach of people of color,” Kennard later recalled. “Life is a two-way street, and it is rewarding to be able to give back a little of what one was fortunate enough to receive.”
Each year, the AIA celebrates his legacy with the Robert A. Kennard Award for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, honoring his “commitment to mentorship and encouraging young people, especially underrepresented ethnicities and women, to pursue careers in architecture.”
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The Seaport Marina (1963). Formerly located at 6400 East Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach. Demolished in 2017. (Photo credit: Larry Underhill)
For more than 50 years, the Seaport Marina Hotel in Long Beach was a distinctive mainstay along the Alamitos Bay Marina. Designed by Roy A. Sealey (1917-2008), the prominent and prolific Black architect, the hotel might be better remembered by its original name: the Edgewater Inn Motel. Sealey’s design included such Mid-Century features as Y-shaped supports, a diamond-patterned roofline, and decorative concrete block screens.
The motel was part of the "garden motel” trend, a style influenced by the bungalow court styles so popular throughout L.A. County. With its fashionable interiors, cocktail lounges, and ballroom, the Edgewater quickly became a "destination” hotel.
The City of Long Beach originally commissioned the Edgewater in hopes that it would be the destination for the World’s Fair for 1963. While that never happened, the lavish new lodging opened anyway in June of 1963. The papers touted it as an important addition to the Long Beach hospitality business.
The Edgewater Inn’s iconic Y-shaped supports. Date unknown. (Photo copyright Peter Samarin, Samatrix.Digital )
By that time, Sealey had been a successful, respected architect for many years. Born in Gatun, Panama, Sealey immigrated to the United States in the 1920s, eventually settling in Los Angeles. While studying architecture at USC in 1939, he went to work for Paul R. Williams. Sealey left Williams’ practice in 1945 to open his own office where he specialized in Mid-Century Modern and Googie style buildings.
Success came quickly for him. By August 1950, Sealey was profiled by
Ebony magazine in an article called “Architect for the Wealthy.” His
notable projects included the East L.A. Department of Social Services
(1967) and the expansion of the County USC Medical Center of 1968 -
76.
And while he mainly worked in Los Angeles, his one project in Long Beach, the Seaport Marina/Edgewater, would be his most famous. Sadly, in later decades the Seaport Marina fell into disrepair. After years of threatened demolition, Sealey’s historic hotel was finally destroyed in 2017.
The Cockatoo Hotel (1958). Formerly located at 15100 Acacia Avenue, Hawthorne. Demolished in 2004. (Photo courtesy Syntherix.com)
A similar fate befell another hotel Sealey was involved with: the famous Cockatoo Inn Hotel and Restaurant in Hawthorne, which the architect worked on in 1961. The Cockatoo, a big destination spot for Hollywood stars, politicians, and gangsters like Bugsy Siegel, featured a charming Old English style exterior and a decadent, European interior with grand banquet halls and a popular, eccentric bar. But after falling into disarray over the decades, it was sold to developers and demolished in 2004. (A Candlewood Suites and Holiday Inn Express now stands in its place.)
With stories of Black architects in Los Angeles County so seldom told, the loss of their physical work is all the more devastating.
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Lincoln Place Garden Apartments (1951). Located at 1077 Elkgrove Ave. Los Angeles. (Photo credit: David Lauridsen)
Ralph A. Vaughn (1917 - 2000) was an award-winning Black architect and proponent of the postwar Garden City Movement and Modernist architecture. Vaughn helped to bring about the Mid-Century image for which Southern California would become known during a time that offered few opportunities to Black architects.
Vaughn received his bachelor of science in architecture from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1932 and briefly worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Resettlement Administration as a draftsman. In 1935, Howard University hired Vaughn to teach architectural drawing which led to an offer from Paul R. Williams to join his firm in L.A. as an “efficiency expert.”
Vaughn worked with Williams on such local landmarks including the Saks Fifth Avenue building and the grand MCA Headquarters in Beverly Hills, not to mention celebrity homes for the likes of Tyrone Power and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.
Vaughn also worked as a set designer on a number of feature films, working with legendary MGM art director Cedric Gibbons. It was during his time at MGM that he met architect and fellow set designer Heth Wharton. The two became friends, and in the late 1940s they formed the agency, Wharton and Vaughn Associates.
Chase Knolls Garden Apartments (1948). Located at 13401 Riverside Drive, Sherman Oaks. (Photo courtesy Chase Knolls Apartments)
Their partnership was brief, but together they completed North
Hollywood Manor,
Chase
Knolls Apartments in Sherman Oaks, and their biggest and most
lasting contribution to public housing architecture: the Lincoln Place
Garden Apartments.
With sprawling grounds and fifty-two buildings, Lincoln Place Apartments epitomized Vaughn’s Modernist tenets and practical approach. The project was so successful that the Federal Housing Administration reportedly saw it as a model for sophisticated yet cost-effective design throughout the 1950s. (After a heated preservation battle spanning more than a decade, Lincoln Place thrives today with a mix of historic and new buildings.)
He was also an in-demand architect for local restaurants and bars that required his film industry-era expertise in mood and tone. He created the Mardi Gras Room in the Park Wilshire Hotel, Melody Cocktail Bar, Hi-Hat Club, Oyster House Restaurant, and other famous places. In total, Vaughn contributed forty-seven Mid-Century Modern structures to the Los Angeles landscape throughout his decades-long career.
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The Beverly Hills Hotel (1912), 9641 Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills. Paul Revere Williams’ own handwriting style adorns the façade and he made some iconic Mid-Century additions to the hotel in the late 1940s. (Photo credit: Canva)
By any measure, architect Paul Revere Williams (1894 - 1980) was a master architect whose accomplishments are astounding. A native Angeleno, his barrier-breaking career spanned almost six decades. As the first Black member of the AIA, he designed more than 3,000 structures and mastered a range of architectural styles. He broke racial barriers, prevailing over racism to attend USC’s School of Engineering.
After working for a number of important L.A.-based architects, he began his own practice in 1923 and would go on to design everything from glamorous Hollywood estates to affordable homes, public housing, and a host of civic, commercial, and institutional buildings. Regardless of style or use, his work shared the common threads of elegant composition and perfect proportion.
Aptly nicknamed the “architect to the stars,” Williams’ navigated a multitude of architectural styles to fit the whims of a wealthy, glittery clientele. Whether it was Hollywood Regency (the Jay Paley house), Traditional (the Marlon Brando residence) Mid-Century Modern (the Frank Sinatra house), Georgia Revival (the Tyrone Power house), or French Normandy (Barbara Stanwyck’s estate), Williams deftly guided his clients through the process with the aid of a strong in-house design team, headed by his daughter Norma.
The Frank Sinatra Residence (1956). Formerly located at 2666 Bowmont Drive, Beverly Hills. Demolished in 2004. (Photo courtesy The Paul Williams Project.)
At the time, Los Angeles still implemented racist housing covenants which meant that many of Williams’ homes were located in neighborhoods where he himself was not allowed to live. One such example is Seaview: a Mid-Century Modern tract community that Williams designed in 1960. Made to appeal to the breezy suburban lifestyle so popular in the early ‘60s, Williams’ homes were bursts of colorful greens, pinks, and blues, and the richly detailed interiors offered some 41 unique styles: from space-age light fixtures to stone fireplaces. True to the times, the Seaview HOA initially refused to allow Black residents even though the community’s architect was one of the most sought-after in the country.
Seaview Housing Tract (1960), located in Rancho Palos Verdes Estates. (Photo courtesy Esotouric.)
Williams’ Mid-Century residential work is among his finest and in Trousdale Estates you’ll find some of his most eye-catching residential designs, such as the Garris House (1959). Michael J. Garris—a prominent L.A.-based electrical engineer—had worked with Williams on multiple projects over the years, during which the two colleagues became good friends. After purchasing an ambitious plot of land in much sought-after Trousdale, Garris commissioned Williams to build what would be his family home.
The result was a Mid-Century beauty reminiscent of some of Williams’ celebrity homes. The home remained in the Garris family for 50 years and stayed faithful to Williams’ original design, making it a living time capsule.
The Garris Residence (1958). Located at 1070 N. Hillcrest Road, Los
Angeles. (Photo courtesy
Hilton
& Hyland)
———————————————
Cited Sources:
James H. Garrott Sources:
Robert Kennard sources:
Roy A. Sealey Sources:
Ralph A. Vaughn Sources:
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/644134020445323264
date: 2021-02-23, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Casey Yamamoto, Graduate Student in GPS, for Caltech Letters
There is a saying in Chinese that translates to “every medicine is thirty percent poison.” I was brought up in a family that subscribed to this philosophy. When my doctor prescribed me a buffet of pain relievers after I got my wisdom teeth removed in the US, my parents urged me not to take them. They believed taking pain killers would burden my liver, and the temporary disappearance of pain would mask any symptoms of a potential complication. Their reasoning is rooted in the belief that medication is not needed for every discomfort—you do not need to take pain medication, unless the pain is life-threatening. Raised in this environment, I was shocked when I arrived in the US and saw the casual attitude people have toward pain relievers, as well as the prevalence of pain medication misuse among Americans.
I reflected upon the different attitudes the US and China have towards medicine as I began my most recent project characterizing opioid misuse in the United States. Opioids are a class of drugs widely abused in the United States and are typically prescribed to treat moderate to severe pain. Opioids cause a sense of euphoria, a “high” that not only dulls the pain of the body, but also has psychoactive side effects. Long-term use of opioids creates dependencies and can lead to addiction. The United States has more people with opioid use disorder than any other country in the world. In 2017, 1.7 million Americans suffered from substance use disorders related to prescription opioids and approximately 47,000 died as a result of an opioid overdose. The issue is more severe today than ever, as the pandemic and isolation exacerbates feelings of loneliness and despair, causing some people to turn to drugs as a coping mechanism.1
Top: Overdose death rates in the United States involving opioids. Bottom: Countries consuming most opioids from 2013-2015.
Data from the CDC and the UN International Narcotics Control Board (see references 2 and 3)
There are many brands of prescription opioids that are manufactured and sold, but OxyContin is by far one of the most popular. OxyContin was launched in 1996 by Purdue Pharma (also known as “Purdue”), one of the major culprits behind the opioid crisis. OxyContin was a unique approach because it provided round-the-clock pain management from a single pill. One pill contained enough medication for several hours, but the innovative extended release formulation slowly delivered oxycodone, the active ingredient. Purdue spent a huge amount of money marketing OxyContin, and the company became a financial success in the 1990s and 2000s. In 2009, OxyContin accounted for 34.3% of all oxycodone pain relievers sold in the United States and 83.3% of all high-dosage pain relievers.4 While the drug was intended to optimize patient care, the large amount of oxycodone packed in a single pill made the drug one of the most popular opioid products to abuse. Users could crush and snort the OxyContin pills to get an instant high.
Trend in Oxycodone Sales: Sales of all prescription oxycodone increased substantially from 2000 to 2010, with per-person sales quadrupling in the 10 year period. The sales of oxycodone declined from 2010 to 2015 as a result of the OxyContin reformulation and aggressive measures taken by the states and the federal government to counter opioid addiction.
Shiyu Zhang and Daniel Guth (see reference 4)
In August 2010, under pressure from policymakers, Purdue reformulated OxyContin to make it “abuse-deterrent.” The reformulated OxyContin is almost impossible to crush and inject, so OxyContin lost its attraction among recreational users. However, it wasn’t clear if those recreational users were abusing opioids less as a result of the reformulation or turning to other opioids besides OxyContin (such as heroin) that was still easy to abuse. The reformulation provides a unique opportunity for social scientists like myself to study what policies are effective in reducing opioid misuse. My colleagues and I wanted to know if the OxyContin reformulation was successful in reducing the recreational use of OxyContin and opioid abuse and whether it led to any unintended consequences.
While the aim of our study was straightforward, the execution was more complicated. A lot of people have the misconception that social science research is qualitative in nature. In reality, gathering, processing, and making sense of data are all very important parts of our job. Real-world data is high-dimensional and complex, and we create mathematical models to mirror these complex, real-world scenarios. The process of finding the right framework to answer our research question reminds me of what my undergraduate econometrics teacher used to say about models. In his opinion, all models are wrong, but some are useful. All models, by definition, are simplifications of reality, but they allow us to focus on the most critical aspects of the data relevant to our research question. Simplifications that ignore the less important parts of the overall picture are useful for identifying the main factors that affect the world around us.
For the first few months of our study, my coauthor Daniel Guth, a fellow graduate student from Caltech’s Humanities and Social Sciences Department, and I sifted through over 500 million records of prescription opioid shipments, read books and papers chronicling the opioid epidemic, and built several mathematical models in an attempt to understand how opioid use disorder takes hold and evolves in a community. Much of the data we relied on for this study was only available because of a court case in 2019 that made half a billion records of opioid transactions from 2006 to 2014 publicly available. Before the publication of this data in the new ARCOS (Automated Reports and Consolidated Ordering System) database, researchers were unable to break down the sales of opioids by brand (OxyContin vs. non-OxyContin) or disaggregate the sales to specific locations beyond the state level. The new publicly available ARCOS data supplied a level of detail that enabled us to look at exactly where the OxyContin reformulation had the most impact with respect to misuse and overdose and compare use of the new abuse-deterrent OxyContin with other brands.
This detailed dataset showed that the sales of OxyContin went down after the reformulation, and the sales of alternative oxycodone went up. Upon seeing this pattern, it is tempting to conclude that the reformulation caused users to switch to a different brand of oxycodone. However, correlation is not causation. Just because two events happened at the same time does not prove that the first event caused the second event. Let me use a simple example to illustrate this point: if you look at the number of people who drowned after falling out of a fishing boat and the marriage rate in Kentucky from 2000 to 2010, you will realize that the two numbers move together over time. Despite what the data shows, it is hard to believe that an increase in marriage rate would cause an increase in drowning or vice versa. Similarly, just because the sales of OxyContin went down and the sales of oxycodone went up after the reformulation does not imply that the changes are caused by the reformulation. To make our claim stick, we need to investigate whether these two events are correlated purely by chance or whether one event causes the other.
An example of spurious correlation.
http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlation
In order to go from correlation to causation in the case of OxyContin reformulation, my team used a common mathematical model in my field called the difference-in-difference (DID) framework. To use the DID framework, we categorize all US states into two bins: those with either a high or low percentage of people misusing OxyContin before the reformulation. If the reformulation truly impacted how people misuse opioids, then the high-percentage misuse group would experience a bigger change in OxyContin usage since there are more people affected by the reformulation. However, if the reformulation had no impact on opioid abuse, then the low-percentage misuse group should experience the same amount of change during this period as the high-percentage misuse group. Hence, by comparing changes in OxyContin usage in both groups we can better assess whether the reformulation was successful in reducing OxyContin use.
Using the difference-in-difference framework to analyze the ARCOS data revealed that our hypothesis was correct.4 The reformulation did indeed cause OxyContin sales to decrease. Additionally, the same model established that the sales of alternative prescription oxycodone went up to compensate. Specifically, in locations where OxyContin misuse was high pre-reform, OxyContin sales dropped a greater amount than where misuse was low, and alternative oxycodone sales went up a higher amount. Because the OxyContin reformulation was a national change uncorrelated with local conditions, this difference-in-difference model provides causal evidence that reformulation caused individuals to switch to a different brand of oxycodone.
Difference-in-difference Framework Example:
Scenario 1: Let us imagine that a state in the U.S., State A is
exactly the same as State B except for its OxyContin misuse level in
2009. After the reformulation, State A experienced a higher drop in
overdose death than State B. Since everything else between A and B are
identical, the difference is likely caused by their initial OxyContin
misuse level. Hence, the OxyContin reformulation likely played a part in
reducing overdose.
Shiyu Zhang
Although we are addressing very specific questions concerning the OxyContin reformulation, the findings from our study can be applied to develop more effective ways to control opioid abuse. Understanding how OxyContin users responded to the reformulation, a specific example of reducing the supply of an abused drug, can be incredibly informative for researchers and policy makers. These results can shed light on how recreational users of other drugs will respond to reductions in drug supply more generally, whether it is a raid on drug dealers or a change of formulation, as was done for OxyContin. Our study suggests that partial restriction on access to drugs is not effective in curbing use, and a strategy to combat addiction needs to be holistic. It needs to not only cut the supply of illicit drugs, but also connect addicted individuals with the right resources to fight addiction and withdrawal symptoms.6 Even the most well-intentioned interventions may be unsuccessful in curbing drug use, and teams of policy-makers, sociologists, and physicians must join forces to tackle this issue that continues to plague our country.
I would like to think that the research I do at Caltech is both retrospective and forward-looking. In contrast to the work many of my friends do in other departments at Caltech, my research involves building quantitative models to make inferences about social phenomena. While the data I work with and the questions I try to answer concern the past, the inferences I make concern the future. Doing this research for the past year has made me cognizant of the fact that cultural differences in how Chinese and Americans perceive pain medication is not the only driver of the opioid crisis in the US. Rather, the market for prescription painkillers in China is much smaller because it started with stronger regulations. America’s current landscape of opioid use stems from a combination of government policies, pharmaceutical companies, and market forces. In each country or state, the drivers of addiction are complex, and mathematical models can precisely identify those drivers and therefore distill meaningful lessons from our past. The sooner we learn those lessons, the more lives we can save.
1: “Overdose Deaths Accelerating During COVID-19.” CDC, December 18, 2020.
2: “Opioid Data Analysis and Resources.” CDC, January 25, 2021.
3: “The U.S. Opioid Epidemic.” Council on Foreign Relations, July 16, 2020.
4: Zhang, Shiyu and Daniel Guth. “The OxyContin Reformulation Revisited: New Evidence From Improved Definitions of Markets and Substitutes.” ARXIV, 2021.
6: Sordo, Luis and et al. “Mortality Risk During and After Opioid Substitution Treatment: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Cohort Studies.” BMJ, vol. 357, issue no. 0959-8138, doi: 10.1136/bmj.j1550..
https://caltechletters.org/science/opioid-crisis
date: 2021-02-09, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
Illustration by Emma Sosa, Graduate Student in GPS, for Caltech Letters
Viewpoint articles are a vehicle for members of the Caltech community to express their opinions on issues surrounding the interface of science and society. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Caltech or the editorial board of Caltech Letters. Please see our disclaimer.
When I was in elementary school, my mom volunteered to help with Math Olympiad. I already knew that I was good at art, so I was excited to show off my math skills for her. I would not be able to articulate why until much later in life, but for some reason I just thought that I should and would be good at math. But on Math Olympiad day, I couldn’t do any of the worksheets, and my humiliation grew until the hour was over. To this day, being asked to calculate something on the fly ties a knot in my stomach.
We’ve all heard the stereotype—Asians are good at math. This casual statement is a manifestation of the Model Minority Myth, the idea that certain non-white minorities can serve as a successful assimilation “model” for other non-white minorities. The myth may seem benign, even beneficial for Asians, but it stems specifically from anti-Black racism and contrasts the cherry-picked successes of certain East Asian Americans against stereotypes of Black, LatinX, and Native Americans as a justification for their continued marginalization. It centers Asian American and Pacific Islander narratives around East Asians, despite the rich history of many other Asian groups in the U.S. since the 1800s. It is also a direct product of the American myth of meritocracy, the idea that power and privilege are allocated by individual merit alone, blind to social and economic class1. As a Caltech scientist, and as an Asian American✝ who used to believe in the Model Minority Myth, I believe we must subject this stereotype to the same level of critical examination we demand in our research.
In order to dismantle this racist myth, we need to understand that “race” is a social construct with no scientific basis, based on perceived differences in physical appearance among human beings2. In the American colonies, race was used to justify why certain people—enslaved Africans and colonized Indigenous Peoples of North America—were denied the rights and freedoms that European colonizers took for granted2. Race was written into the legal system of the colonies, and later the United States, starting in the 17th century in order to grant exclusive rights and freedoms only to those considered “white,” like Virginia slave owners and other European colonizers.3 In the United States, race was explicitly set up as a hierarchical system with white landowners at the top and enslaved Black people at the bottom. The social, political, and economic forces that protect and reinforce this hierarchy are “white supremacy.”
A racist cartoon from 1899 called The Yellow Terror in All His Glory. This cartoon encapsulates ‘Yellow Peril,’ the idea that Asia and its people represent an existential threat to the Western World. The cartoon depicts an anti-colonial Qing Dynasty Chinese man astride a fallen white woman, who represents the Western world.
Image from Ohio State University.
It is against this backdrop that Asian Americans were racialized. Asia has been consistently viewed as the West’s “other” throughout history, simultaneously fascinating and terrifying. Until after World War II, Asians living in the United States were primarily seen as “Forever Foreigners”—a homogeneous group primarily loyal to a monolithic “Asia” instead of the United States4,5. Starting in the 1800s, thousands of Asian immigrants—primarily Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino — came to the United States to work in agriculture, construction, and other low-wage jobs5,6. Despite the diversity of this group and their hard work, they were dismissed as backward, submissive, and inferior5. Their perceived lack of loyalty to the United States and their “otherness” were used as evidence to restrict Asian immigration and reject Asian immigrants. Regulations were put into place that barred them from becoming naturalized citizens, prohibited them from owning or leasing land, and crowded them into ethnic enclaves like Chinatowns that were considered “depraved colonies of prostitutes, gamblers and opium addicts.”7
U.S. Asian population over time with notable legislation affecting Asian immigrants or immigration. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first immigration law to prevent an entire ethnic group from immigrating to the United States and becoming eligible for citizenship. Later, the Immigration Act of 1917 established an Asian Barred Zone of countries from which no immigrants were admitted, and the Immigration Act of 1924 supplanted that law to effectively ban all immigration from Asia. Finally, note the rise in population after the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act and the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act.
Data from the 2010 U.S. Census and the 2012 Pew Research Report “The Rise of Asian Americans.”
Asian immigrants’ failure to thrive because of restrictive and racist laws began a feedback cycle that perpetuated their perceived inferiority and exclusion between the 1870s and World War II. This included passing increasingly prohibitive immigration policies to keep the Asian population low (<1%). The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first immigration law to prevent an entire ethnic group from immigrating to the United States and becoming eligible for citizenship.6 Citizenship was even taken away from certain subgroups, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1923 that Indians were not white and therefore ineligible for citizenship8. Later, most Asian immigration was barred with the passage of the 1917 Immigration Act. The stereotype of the “Forever Foreigner” continued through WWII with Japanese internment, a federal policy where people of Japanese descent were uprooted from their homes, forced into internment camps, and required to complete “loyalty” questionnaires9. California even ruled that only “1/16th” of Japanese heritage was enough to qualify10. Though the United States was also at war with Germany, sweeping demands for the internment of German Americans never materialized.
An article from the December 22, 1941 issue of Life Magazine that was written during WWII in response to violence against people of Chinese descent, based on them being perceived as people of Japanese descent. This article encapsulates the “Forever Foreigner” stereotype—note that the article does not attempt to dissuade people from attacking those of Asian descent, but instead tries to help you do it more accurately. This article also illustrates debunked “race” science, masquerading as “physical anthropology,” used to distinguish the “friendly Chinese” from the “enemy alien Japs.”
After WWII, a split between “good” and “bad” Asian Americans emerged. A select subset of Asian Americans—mainly U.S.-born and -educated Chinese and Japanese Americans—were held up as Model Minorities. Economically and academically successful, these Model Minorities allegedly achieved success due to their adherence to “traditional American values”—respect for authority, nuclear families, and adherence to strict gender roles5,11. As historian Ellen Wu has shown, the Model Minority Myth was so successful in the 1950s because it was used as anti-communist propaganda, arguing Chinese American success was due to American freedom and democracy that was not available to them in communist China7.
The Model Minority Myth then evolved in the 1960s in response to the ongoing Civil Rights movement. William Petersen, then a professor of sociology at UC Berkeley, argued in an influential 1966 New York Times Magazine article titled “Success Story: Japanese American Style,” that Japanese Americans were the hard-working antithesis to what he termed “problem minorities, specifically the ‘American Negro.’”12 Those same “traditional American values,” he argued, had allowed them to overcome discrimination after World War II and achieve some success in the U.S. This idea immediately caught on in popular culture and academic literature to apply to all Asian Americans, resulting in an infamous 1987 TIME Magazine cover that proclaimed, “Those Asian-American Whiz Kids.”13 When explicitly compared to Black Americans, Asian Americans were said to have achieved success “the old-fashioned way” through quiet hard work and perseverance—validating the myth of American meritocracy—instead of protesting in the streets as Black civil rights leaders were5. This myth held despite the history of activism within the Asian American community, from the 1800s to the present. After all, it was only after the concerted activism of East, South, and Southeast Asian American groups that all people of Asian descent fully secured the right to vote and become U.S. citizens in 195214,15. Even the term “Asian American” was only coined in the 1960s by a collective of college students and activists in order to unite disparate Asian identities in the fight for political and social change16.
Time Magazine cover from 1987 proclaiming “Those Asian-American Whiz Kids.” Note how the students shown on the cover appear to be racially homogenous and of East Asian descent.
Asian Americans were held up as Model Minorities to justify the enduring divide between white and Black Americans, and to gloss over the consequences of slavery. A 1966 article in U.S. News & World Report noted, “At a time when it is being proposed that hundreds of billions be spent to uplift Negroes and other minorities, the nation’s 300,000 Chinese-Americans are getting ahead on their own, with no help from anyone else.”17 This statement is willingly blind to the fact that the wealth of this country comes from the subordination of Black people, an unrepented sin that can be traced all the way from slavery, through segregation, to mass incarceration and police violence today. It also uses the Model Minority Myth to prevent policies of restorative justice. Today, it is used to scale back another legacy of the Civil Rights movement: affirmative action in university admissions. One example is the 2014 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard lawsuit, which was filed not by an Asian American, but by an organization founded by a politically conservative legal strategist18. Asian Americans have consistently been used as an ideological tool to suggest that other minorities, particularly Black Americans, have only themselves to blame for their historical and structural marginalization19,20.
Ironically, it was the Civil Rights movement, led by Black Americans, that shaped the Asian American population that we see today. The Civil Rights movement led to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished restrictive immigration policies that allowed the Asian American population to grow. The Asian America that we see today is largely the product of this post-1965 immigration, with 20 million Asian Americans tracing their roots to more than 20 countries in East and Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent6. My parents are part of this post-1965 wave; they left China in the early 1980s to pursue PhDs at Columbia University, became naturalized U.S. citizens, and at this point have lived in the United States longer than they have lived in China. Today, Asian Americans represent 6% of the U.S. population and are the fastest growing racial group in America6. This group is majority immigrant, with 74% of all Asian American adults born abroad6. Although Asian Americans are traditionally thought of as East Asian due to Japanese and Chinese Americans being the dominant Asian subgroups prior to 1965, it is projected that the 2020 census will show Indian Americans as the largest subgroup21. Asian Americans are also multiracial and the most likely racial group to marry across racial lines6. One example is Vice President Kamala Harris, who has an Indian-born mother and a Jamaican-born father.
2010 Demographics of Asian Americans (in blue) and Pacific Islanders (in orange). Information on ‘Other Asian’ for Asian Americans is shown in bar graphs to the right of the pie chart. Asian Americans make up ~6% of the U.S. population, while Pacific Islanders make up ~0.5%.
Data from the 2010 U.S. Census and the 2012 Pew Research Report “The Rise of Asian Americans.”“
However, as in the past, modern Asian immigration is highly restrictive. The 1965, and subsequent, Immigration Acts have all preferred family-based and high-skilled immigration, which has led to the phenomenon of “hyper-selectivity” in Asian immigrants where many are better educated than the general American public and their home country populations22. For example, 51% of Chinese immigrants have at least a bachelor’s degree while only 9% of Chinese citizens do6,23. Given the design of these immigration laws, it is not surprising that Asian Americans, as a whole, have the highest annual household incomes and highest household wealth in the U.S.6 It seems today that U.S. immigration policies, not “traditional American values,” are responsible for the Model Minority Myth.
Top panel from left to right: a) Percentage (%) of Adults Foreign Born, b) Of those foreign born adults, percentage (%) that arrived in the past 10 years, c) Percentage (%) of people of Asian descent employed in Science and Engineering fields. Bottom panel, left from right: d) Median Household Income, and e) Percentage (%) of Adults (age 25 and older) with a college degree or higher, f) Percentage (%) of Adults living in poverty. Detailed information was only given for the six largest Asian subgroups.
Data from the 2010 U.S. Census and the 2012 Pew Research Report “The Rise of Asian Americans.”“
And yet, that is not the full story either. The Model Minority Myth flattens the diverse Asian American population into a monolith. In reality, each Asian and Pacific Islander subgroup has a unique history and faces distinct challenges. Although some have arrived as highly skilled workers, many have also arrived as refugees, notably Vietnamese immigrants as a result of the U.S.-backed Vietnam War. Today, Asians are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. undocumented population24. A growing number of Asian immigrants are also arriving with minimal education and job training, one factor that has led to Asian Americans displacing Black Americans as the most economically divided racial or ethnic subgroup in the U.S.5,25 These immigrants include my aunts, who have worked in Chinese restaurants, as home aides, and as Amazon warehouse workers. Even academic success is not guaranteed: two-fifths of Chinese Americans (either born or raised in the U.S.) do not graduate from college, and in the first year of college, Asian American and Black students have the highest enrollment rates in remedial education courses22,26. And despite the higher median income and education of Asian Americans as a group, they are underrepresented in leadership positions in government, corporate America, academia, and popular media27.
Finally, the Model Minority Myth denies the historical and ongoing racism that Asian Americans face. In truth, the “Forever Foreigner” trope never died, but continually resurfaces in response to American geopolitics. This includes the alarming rise of hate crimes against South Asian Americans, notably Sikh and Muslim Americans, since the 2001 September 11 attacks30, and assaults against a variety of Asian Americans in the age of the novel coronavirus28,29. Asian Americans are also the least likely group to seek and receive treatment for mental illnesses or report domestic violence30,31. The Model Minority Myth obscures the reality of who Asian Americans really are, the challenges they face in their daily lives, and encourages their silence about it2.
The Model Minority Myth is a difficult thing to talk about among Asian Americans, perhaps because some feel that it benefits them, and because some have whole-heartedly embraced it. I thought I was a Model Minority for a long time, too—growing up in a wealthy suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area surrounded by successful Asian Americans, it was easy for me to assume that we had all gotten here by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. It was much more difficult for me to question those assumptions and educate myself about the tortured history of race and “success” in America. Clearly, the Model Minority Myth was never meant to be pro-Asian. Instead, it is used to justify white supremacy and minimize the continued effects of slavery on Black Americans. The racialization of Asian Americans is complex and nuanced, and needs to be viewed within the broader history of race in the U.S.—in fact, the constantly shifting perceptions of Asian Americans so clearly illustrate how race is a social construct, a blank screen onto which individuals with various political agendas project7. Buying into the Model Minority Myth only reinforces false narratives of race and success, and thwarts the efforts of all groups to finally make the U.S. equitable for all.
There have been many terms the community has used to try and label themselves, including (but not limited to): Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI), Asian Pacific American (APA), and Asian Pacific Islander (API). These changing labels reflect the ongoing dialogues that these communities are having as they grapple with their identity, as well as the continually changing demographics of this community. For the purposes of this piece, I will use the term “Asian American” because: 1) The history of Pacific Islanders is heavily shaped by colonization, which cannot be explained in this short piece, and 2) Pew Research Center data on “Asian Americans” is referenced, which is defined as people who self-identify with one or more of the following Asian groups: Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Malaysian, Mongolian, Nepalese, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Thai, and Vietnamese.
Los Angeles Times: “Asian Americans and the ‘model minority’ myth,” by historian Ellen Wu.
Wu, Ellen D. The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority. Course Book ed. Princeton University Press, 2013. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/book/46441.
Lee, E. (2015). The making of Asian America: A history. Simon and Schuster.
1: Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 2018. “The myth of meritocracy: who really gets what they deserve?” The Guardian, October 19.
2: Tatum, Beverly Daniel. Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?: And other conversations about race. Basic Books, 2017.
3: DiAngelo, Robin. White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon Press, 2018.
4: “Yellow Terror in all His Glory”. Ohio State University. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
5: Lee, Erika. (2015). The Making of Asian America: A History. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
6: Social, Pew, and Demographic Trends. “The Rise of Asian Americans.” Pew Social & Demographic Trends (2012).
7: Ellen D. Wu, “Asian Americans and the ‘Model Minority’ Myth,” Los Angeles Times, January 23, 2014.
8: United States v. Thind, 261 U. S. 204 (1923).
9: Catherine Collins (2018). Representing Wars from 1860 to the Present: Fields of Action, Fields of Vision. Brill. p. 105. ISBN 9789004353244. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
10: “WWII Japanese Relocation Center and Internment Camp Newspapers.” California State University, San Bernandino.
11: William A. McIntyre, “Chinatown Offers Us a Lesson,” The New York Times Magazine, October 6, 1957.
12: William Petersen, “Success Story, Japanese-American Style,” The New York Times Magazine, January 9, 1966.
13: Time Magazine (1987). Those Asian American Whiz Kids. Aug, 31, 51.
14: Minnis, Terry Ao & Moua, Mee (2015). “50 Years of the Voting Rights Act: An Asian American Perspective.” Asian Americans Advancing Justice, August 4.
15: Cheng, Cindy (2014). Citizens of Asian America: Democracy and Race During the Cold War. NYU Press. p. 177.
16: Kambhampaty, Anna Purna (2020). “In 1968, These Activists Coined the Term ‘Asian American’ – And Helped Shape Decades of Advocacy.” Time Magazine, May 22.
17: “Success Story of One Minority Group in U.S.,” U.S. News & World Report, December 26, 1966.
18: Hinger, Sarah (2018). “Meet Edward Blum, the Man Who Wants to Kill Affirmative Action in Higher Education.” American Civil Liberties Union, October 18.
19: Chen, G. A., & Buell, J. Y. (2018). Of models and myths: Asian (Americans) in STEM and the neoliberal racial project. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(5), 607-625.
20: Chow, Kat. 2017. “’Model Minority’ Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians and Blacks.” Code Switch, April 19. 21: Hsu, Hua. 2020. “Are Asian Americans The Last Undecided Voters?” The New Yorker, October 26.
22: Lee, Jennifer, and Min Zhou. The Asian American Achievement Paradox. Russell Sage Foundation, 2015.
23: Communique of the National Bureau of Statistics of People’s Republic of China on Major Figures of the 2010 Population Census1 (No. 1), 2011-04-28; and Communique of the National Bureau of Statistics of People’s Republic of China on Major Figures of the 2010 Population Census1 (No. 2), 2011-04-29.
24: Ramakrishnan, Karthick and Shah, Sono (2017). “One out of every 7 Asian immigrants is undocumented.” AAPI Data, September 8.
25: Kochhar, Rakesh and Cilluffo, Anthony (2018). “Income Inequality in the U.S. Is Rising Most Rapidly Among Asians.” Pew Research Center, July 12.
26: “Initiative on Asian American Pacific Islanders: Issues and Facts.” Obama White House Archives, 2016.
27: Johnson, Stefanie K. and Sy, Thomas (2016). “Why Aren’t There More Asian Americans in Leadership Positions?” Harvard Business Review, December 19.
28: “Our Campaigns: Hate Crime Tracking and Prevention.” The Sikh Coalition. 2021.
29: Escobar, Natalie (2020). “When Xenophobia Spreads Like a Virus.” Code Switch, National Public Radio, March 4.
30: Kam, Katherine (2020). “Why domestic violence calls are surging for Asian American women amid the pandemic.” NBC News, Oct. 1.
31: “Asian American/Pacific Islander Communities and Mental Health.” Mental Health America..
https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/model-minority-myth
date: 2021-01-19, from: Caltech Letters (a student blog)
It’s 1:00 a.m. and my Uber is winding its way home along a twisting freeway through the heart of Los Angeles. My driver seems in a talkative mood.
“So, what do you do?” he says.
I shake my head to clear the fog after a long evening.
“I’m a seismologist,” I respond, “I study earthquakes.”
“Earthquakes?” he says. “So can you tell me when the Big One is coming?”
The Big One. He’s talking about the massive earthquake that California is “overdue” for. Whenever I tell people what I do, this is the one burning question they have. Knowing when the Big One is coming feels like it could give us some control over our lives—lives every Angeleno spends on the unpredictable and uncontrollable ground that lurks beneath our feet.
California lies on the boundary between two giant tectonic plates. These blocks of the Earth’s crust are on the move, sliding about the same speed as your fingernails grow. But, along the 800-mile long San Andreas Fault where they meet, friction causes the plates to get stuck. As they try to slide past each other, the stuck plates bend, storing up energy like a coiled spring. When the pressure becomes too great, the fault slips; the plates move rapidly, violently shaking the ground.
The San Andreas Fault runs from the Salton Sea in the south to well north of San Francisco. Each part of it produces big earthquakes, causing the ground to slip tens of feet, every one to two centuries on average. When the last Big One hit Northern California, in 1906, it reduced San Francisco to rubble. Meanwhile, the southern end of the fault hasn’t ruptured in roughly three hundred years.
The San Andreas Fault at the Carrizo Plain, central California.
Illustration by Usha Lingappa for Caltech Letters
I study earthquakes, using supercomputers to simulate an event like the Big One. From the safety of my desk, I create ruptures that break a digital version of the San Andreas Fault to explore how the earthquakes start and what makes them stop. But even when I try to tame earthquakes in my computer, they’re still unruly beasts: fascinating, terrifying, and full of surprises. Centuries of studying the Earth has taught us that earthquakes are as inevitable as they are unpredictable. We don’t know when, but we do know the next Big One is coming.
“I’m sorry to disappoint,” I say to my driver, “but they’re random. We can’t predict them. Although we know it’s not a question of if, but when.”
Perhaps it’s the thought of the next earthquake, or perhaps the winding of the freeway, but I start to feel nauseous. My fingers make for the window switch to let in some slightly fresher air. Despite the late hour, my driver wants to know more. “That sounds pretty scary! What’s going to happen?” he says.
My driver’s question pushes my mind’s eye high above the ground, giving me a view of the whole of Southern California. The San Andreas Fault is a slice through the landscape, separating the San Gabriel Mountains from the Mojave desert. Crossing this scar in the ground is a thin vein that carries the blue lifeblood of our desert city: the Los Angeles Aqueduct, bringing us water from the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This aqueduct, and others that also cross the fault, are the source of over 70% of the city’s water. One big slip of the San Andreas severs the city’s lifelines.
This map shows the three aqueducts that supply over 70% of LA’s water, all of which cross the San Andreas Fault. An earthquake on the San Andreas could sever these aqueducts.
I imagine the Big One starting, miles underground. The fault breaks, and once broken it starts to slip, one side sliding relative to the other at several feet per second. As it moves, the San Andreas sends out seismic waves in all directions, shaking the ground and everything on top of it. In a matter of seconds, the fault slides 20 feet.
The consequences are immediate. LA loses access to more than 70% of its water as seismic waves rupture gas mains and bring down power lines, sparking thousands of fires. Roads are broken, and cell towers overloaded. At the end of it all, the potential destruction to our city is immense: hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, families fleeing their ruined homes, and two thousand lives lost. The U.S. hasn’t seen an earthquake this bad in over 100 years.
Vital roads, pipelines and aqueducts cross the San Andreas Fault just north of Los Angeles.
Adapted for Caltech Letters by Usha Lingappa
Such a bleak future seems unreal to the human mind, when we can turn on our tap and have clean water, and I can hail a ride on my phone within minutes.
My car hits a bump, bringing me out of my head and crashing back into my seat. For a moment, I catch the driver’s concerned eyes in the rear-view mirror; he’s still waiting to hear what the Big One will do.
I hesitate for a second, trying to order my thoughts. Even though I study earthquakes, my scientific work has given me only a tiny piece of a puzzle that’s immeasurably complex, ranging from geophysics to infrastructure safety to disaster planning. We know where the big faults are, and the kinds of earthquakes they’ve caused before, but we don’t know how close to breaking they are now. We know how to make buildings safer, but we don’t know which buildings will suffer the strongest shaking. Here and now, all I can do is translate a tangled web of knowns and unknowns into the clearest possible answer. But we need an answer that’s not just a tale of destruction, leaving us powerless in the face of disaster. Instead, we need to tell the story of the progress that we’ve made and the steps we, as individuals and as a society, can still take to get ready for The Big One.
“There will be an earthquake, and it will hit us hard” I say, “but it’s what we do right now that determines just how bad that earthquake will be.” I recite the age-old words of earthquake safety: purchase supplies; have an emergency plan for meeting with loved ones; drop, cover, and hold on when the shaking starts. But I also tell him just how far we’ve come: a network of seismic sensors now watching the fault 24 hours a day, ready to send out precious seconds of warning when the Big One starts. The better mapping of dangerous faults, and the strengthening of buildings and pipelines.
Science won’t let us predict every random geological event, but it can teach us how to understand and prepare for those events. The catastrophe that I imagined is only one possible path; as a society, we can avert disaster. Preparation lets us tame the fear that uncertainty creates in our minds, and tame the threat that earthquakes pose to our lives. Generations of research mean that we’ve never been more prepared for earthquakes.
As our ride nears its end, I realize I’ve forgotten something, perhaps the most important thing we can do to get ready. Being prepared isn’t just a question of medical supplies and bottled water. “We need to get to know our neighbors.” I say. “Who lives nearby, who might need help after the quake. We can recover if we work together.”
I thank my driver as I step out into the cool night air.
A few weeks later, I find myself in a bar in Palm Springs. As I sit down, a woman next to me greets me and asks: “So, what do you do?”
If you’d like to find out more about how you can get ready for earthquakes, visit earthquakecountry.org
Note: This story was originally written before the 2020 pandemic. An earlier version was delivered at a live storytelling event at Caltech.
https://caltechletters.org/science/the-big-one
date: 2020-07-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We are continuing to be virtual this month on Google Hangouts Meet. If you’re new to this platform: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9303069
The Hangouts Meet link https://meet.google.com/myv-zoid-tgh
Please be patient, as Lan may have to approve each connection. Please turn on video during introductions. Mute unless you’re speaking.
This month’s topic is informal.
A brief survey of web exploits By Jackie B.
Jackie will cover a few basic exploits using PortSwigger Academy for labs.
Why saving Section 230 is crucial to protecting free speech online
By Jess Bermudes
In recent years, people from all areas of the political sphere have sought to curb the protections provided to online platform operators by Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, including most recently a congressional bill that would have hampered end-to-end encryption and an executive order by President Trump to investigate and draft legislation to repeal the act itself. This is a mistake that will severely inhibit free speech online. We’ll talk about the history of legislation in this area, common misconceptions about these Internet laws and what we can do to protect a free and open Internet.
Agenda:
6:45 - Introductions, chat
7:05 - Announcements.
7:15 - Talk starts
https://www.sgvlug.org/2020/07/11/web-exploitscda-section-230-and-free-speech/
date: 2020-06-29, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
This list was compiled by the L.A. Conservancy’s Last Remaining Seats Committee—the volunteers who select the LRS lineup each year, and help produce the film series. Rest assured, they know their movies—as well as their classic L.A. architecture! If you’re pining to visit the places that make our city special, consider watching one of these classic L.A. stories—and enjoy seeing them on the small screen, instead.
Streaming: N/A
“This was such a great coming of age movie that it took me years to
realize it was an adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma.” One of my
favorite scenes is when Cher is being robbed at the Circus Liquor store,
on a bad day I like to drive to that location and quote “You don’t
understand. This is an Alaia… It’s like a totally important designer.”
-Helen
Streaming: Hulu
Los Angeles locations plus a great Film Noir story. You can’t go wrong with a movie that has lines like “How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle.” -Scott
Streaming: YouTube
Not a historic movie, but is there any film that better captures the beauty of living in the city of angels? A musical with songs that will keep you cheery while sitting in traffic, La La Land is peak modern Los Angeles. -Sam
Streaming: Netflix
Michael Connelly’s LAPD homicide detective, Harry Bosch, travels all over L.A. There is enough detail (in the books) to follow his travels. He lives on Woodrow Wilson just off Mulholland. He eats at Chinese Kitchen, Nickel Diner, Musso and Franks, Pacific Dining Car, etc. -Paul
Streaming: N/A, but on DVD on Amazon
Great shots of 1951 Bunker Hill before it was redeveloped, plus, this is a great atmospheric Film Noir. -Celeste
Streaming: Amazon Prime Video, and also on STARZ
Noir Los Angeles in the 1950s, but from an African American perspective.
-Celeste
Streaming: Amazon Prime
I know it isn’t an older film though it completely changed the meaning of “once upon a time” for us… -Caroline
Steaming: N/A
“Kiss Me Deadly” is one of my top ten movies. It also features some scenes with great footage of Bunker Hill and Angel’s Flight going up and down. Later, the world seems to come to end, but not without a lot of tough guys talking wise first and dames manipulating them behind their backs. -Tom Dailey
Streaming: Amazon Prime
One of my favorite recent discoveries! It stars Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, and a pre-Fantastic Beasts Katherine Waterston. It features so many great L.A. locations. Director Paul Thomas Anderson loves LA and it comes through on film. -Traci
Streaming: N/A
Depicts transplanted American Indians from SW reservations, living in the Bunker Hill area of Los Angeles during the late 1950’s. Directed by Kent MacKenzie, a USC film student, it was lost for 50 years and rediscovered by Director Thom Anderson in his movie “Los Angeles Plays Itself”. It is important to me because of my Native American roots. -Elizabeth Night
Streaming: Amazon, Google Play, ITunes, VUDU
Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a driven young man desperate for work, discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem. -Tracy Jackson
Streaming: Google Play, YouTube
Jesse (Elle Fanning) moves to Los Angeles just after her 16th birthday to launch a career as a model. The head of her agency tells the innocent teen that she has the qualities to become a top star. Jesse soon faces the wrath of ruthless vixens who despise her fresh-faced beauty. On top of that, she must contend with a seedy motel manager and a creepy photographer. As Jesse starts to take the fashion world by storm, her personality changes in ways that could help her against her cutthroat rivals. I love this film because it’s very weird but beautifully shot. It’s a slow-building thriller that shows LA in a creepy, neon light! -Megan Bennett
Streaming: Available to rent on Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube
P.I. Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is hired by a wealthy general to discover who is blackmailing his daughter over gambling debts and stop them. Marlowe finds himself deep within a web of love triangles, blackmail, murder, gambling, and organized crime, not to mention falling in love with the general’s other daughter, Vivian (Lauren Bacall). Marlowe goes all over L.A. looking for clues, including the Hollywood Public Library and up into the Hollywood Hills. Author Raymond Chandler was rumored to have based the General’s home on the Greystone Mansion. This film is one of my favorites because it has the best dialogue I’ve ever heard in a film. The one-liners and quick exchanges are awesome, and every scene with Bogie and Bacall is exquisite. - Liz Highstrete
Streaming: Amazon Prime, Hulu, iTunes, Google Play
I know this title is radioactive due to its connection with Polanski. But, as the recent book by Sam Wesson, The Big Goodbye, points out, Chinatown was a significant collaboration of many creative forces, including Robert Towne, Jack Nicholson, Robert Evans, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Diane Ladd, John Alonzo, Richard Sybert, and others. Their work can still be admired. Plus, there are scenes shot on location throughout L.A. city and county. https://la.curbed.com/maps/chinatown-filming-location-map -Tom
Streaming: Netflix
L.A. Confidential is a 1950’s Hollywood crime drama of corrupt cops and mobster bad-guys filmed at historic locations across Los Angeles. In particular, the movie showcases Richard Neutra’s “Lovell Health House” on Dundee Road in Los Feliz as the supposed home of the local pimp, who runs a prostitution ring of women who have taken on the appearances of famous movie stars. Kim Basinger stars as Veronica Lake look-alike. Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey and Guy Pearce star as three very different cops. Danny DeVito writes the local tabloid news. Originally built and named for a health-and-fitness guru, the Lovell Health House has just been put on the market, according to Curbed Los Angeles, and the current owner “wants to find a buyer who will appreciate the home’s architecture—and either preserve it or restore it”. Any takers? -Leslie
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/622303089595138048
date: 2020-06-18, from: L.A. Conservancy Blog
At a time when societal inequity is heightened, places like Rancho Los Amigos Historic District remind us of our humanity and the importance of providing medical care to those who are most vulnerable.
Yet, the road to health care in the United States and Greater Los Angeles is a complex story with highs and lows throughout history.
Communities have generally adapted, and our built environment evolved, in response to public needs—establishing new types of hospital facilities, zoning laws to ensure to fresh air and light access and separation of incompatible land uses, and sanitation infrastructure providing clean water and sewer systems.
Various health scares over the years have also left their physical imprint, whether it be the polio epidemic or tuberculosis (TB), both contagious and infectious diseases. The 1902 Barlow Sanatorium and Respiratory Hospital, for instance, provided patients with TB a slow recovery treatment centered on the clean, dry air of the West. Tucked in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Echo Park, Barlow continues today in its original location and historic bungalows, which are listed as an L.A. Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM).
One of the oldest places representing local public health care is the currently endangered Rancho Los Amigos in Downey. From poor farm to a nationally renowned medical facility, Rancho’s campus tells the stories of the thousands of people who passed through their doors—people who have been traditionally marginalized and forgotten, including those with medical and mental health issues, and those who are elderly or experiencing destitution.
Today, Rancho Los Amigos (south campus) is threatened with nearly wholesale demolition, as the County seeks to fast track its effort to use portions of the site for a massive expansion of operations for the county and a Probation Headquarters. Please help us preserve this part of L.A.’s history before it is too late.
A Rarely Told Chapter
In Los Angeles County, the public health system traces its roots to 1878 with the opening of the first county hospital. Ten years later, the County opened a Poor Farm—later renamed Rancho Los Amigos.
The poor farm system was based on the simple idea to offer people experiencing destitution access to work, housing, and medical care. Throughout the U.S. various state and county administrations assumed this role and responsibility, especially prior to the establishment of the Social Security safeguard.
While some are unfamiliar with poor farms, there are many others for whom ‘ending up on the poor farm’ has negative connotations. One reason is that poor farms shared the County’s responsibility for treating patients with psychiatric diagnoses, something they were ill-equipped to handle. Poor farms established themselves as early examples of sustainable, self-sufficient living, with residents—then referred to “inmates”—providing the labor to run the agricultural operations, raising livestock and growing food. In many ways, poor farms were early forms of the American welfare system.
With its initial 124.4 acres of rural farmland, Rancho operated as a classic poor farm. As its medical operations and the number of people served grew, its agricultural roots and farming operation decreased. The farm became more of a convalescent hospital than a traditional county poor farm. In the early 1930s, the Poor Farm officially changed its name to Rancho Los Amigos (“ranch of the friends”).
Contagious outbreaks, now and then
By the late 1940s and early ’50s, the U.S. was experiencing a surge in polio outbreaks, including L.A. County. Like COVID-19, there was no known vaccine at the time for the infectious disease. Polio was also referred to as the “invisible enemy” with the virus spreading through person-to-person contact. Social distancing was employed, as were travel and commerce restrictions in hot zones.
The difference between now and then is polio primarily affected the young, children who could catch the virus and ultimately experience death or paralysis and a lifetime of crutches, wheelchair, or being placed in an iron lung (respirator allowing them to breath). During the summer season polio flared up with swimming and wading pools feared especially as transmitters for the virus. Concerned parents pressed on civic leaders to drain or fill in the pools. Today you can still find remnants of this remedy.
To address the growing epidemic Rancho adapted its focus in the mid-1940s and operation as a polio respiratory center, expanding to a northern campus and eventually becoming one of the leading post-polio respiratory centers in the world. By 1955 polio was finally addressed through a vaccine developed by Jonas Salk. Rancho would then slowly transform itself into a respected rehabilitation center.
Throughout its history, Rancho Los Amigos ebbed and flowed in terms of its operation, with a constant theme of overcrowding, expansion periods with new facilities, and evolving its focus and mission. It would grow to well over 500 acres in size and serve nearly 3,000 patients at its peak. By the late ’40s, it was primarily operating as a hospital with minimal agricultural operations, prompting the selling off of the property.
Planned demolition of a historic district
By the early 1990s Rancho’s south campus was whittled down to 74 acres and effectively abandoned with most of its 100+ buildings vacant. For well over a decade, the Conservancy has been working closely with various County representatives in regards to Rancho and its future, with numerous reuse and redevelopment proposals coming and going. During this time Rancho has been listed on the California Register and determined eligible as a national historic district.
Without adequate security and maintenance Rancho has been allowed to deteriorate and buildings fall into accelerated disrepair. In recent years, contributing buildings within the historic district have been destroyed due to neglect, vandalism, and a recent spate of numerous arson fires.
The current deteriorated conditions and neglect which have occurred under the County’s stewardship are now cited by the County as a health and safety concern and justification for the proposed demolition of the historic district. Despite not planning to redevelop the entire site or impact all the remaining historic buildings, the County is planning to virtually demolish it all.
Under a new proposal by the County, the historic district would be lost; 105 structures and resources, including 61 historic buildings. Even buildings not impacted by the proposed project are planned to be removed with no meaningful alternatives, a failure by the County to adhere to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Overall, the project would retain just five contributors to the current historic district: the 1926 Administration Staff building;1930 Casa Consuelo patient; 1913 water tower; 1909-26 Power Plant building; and a Moreton Bay fig tree.
We strongly believe there is a “win-win” scenario available to the County where both preservation and new construction is possible. The opportunity exists to modify the County’s plans by pairing new construction with adaptive reuse, and a potential public-private partnership.
Our job in preservation is to unpack and better understand our public health care past, and show how places like Rancho help make this story real and, if lost, so much more difficult to understand. If we do not stand up for the places and people that represent our public health care past and show us how we got here, we stand the risk of forgetting where we have been and how far we have come.
Rancho Los Amigos and all it represents to our public health care past and present is deserving of a better fate than demolition. Help us convince the County that we can do better.
https://laconservancy.tumblr.com/post/621226330822934528
date: 2020-05-15, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We are going virtual this month on Google Hangouts Meet. We’ll see how things go with this format. If you’re new to this platform: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9303069
Please be patient, as Lan will have to approve each connection. Please turn on video during introductions. Mute unless you’re speaking.
This month’s topic is informal.
Lan Dang will do a brief intro to shells and shell scripting before going through both easy and advanced uses of bash constructs to get work done. If you don’t know anything, this will help you get started. If you know a little shell scripting, you might pick up some advanced techniques. This is also a good opportunity to ask questions. Lan spends most of her time on the Linux command line using advanced features of bash, awk, and sed.
Agenda:
6:45 - Introductions, chat
7:05 - Announcements, discussion about future LUG meetings.
7:15 - Talk starts
https://www.sgvlug.org/2020/05/14/a-pragmatic-approach-to-bash-scripting/
date: 2020-04-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We are going virtual this month on Google Hangouts Meet. We’ll see how things go with this format. If you’re new to this platform: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9303069
Please be patient, as Lan will have to approve each connection. Please turn on video during introductions. Mute unless you’re speaking.
This month’s topic is informal.
Many SGVLUG members volunteer with the A/V team at the Southern California Linux Expo. Part of what we do is enable video streaming of most of the talks on YouTube. After the conference, we try to edit the daylong streams into individual videos per talk. https://www.youtube.com/user/socallinuxexpo
Vincent Wong will go over his scale-av-cutter software, which was developed this year to support this post-processing. Depending on which A/V team members are available, we may talk more about the rest of the process.
Agenda:
6:30 - Introductions, chat
7:15 - Announcements, discussion about future LUG meetings.
7:30 - Talk starts
https://www.sgvlug.org/2020/04/09/postprocessing-videos-for-scale/
date: 2020-03-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We will have our usual meeting. It will be at IHOP in Pasadena. Topic: a discussion of the LUG, thoughts on the future of LUG, and social time.
Covid-19: We thought about it, and the current (March 10) CDC recommendations are to not cancel events unless there is community transmission in your area. Pasadena, at this time (March 10), has one “case under investigation”, which is not “community transmission”.
Still, please remember: - Do NOT come if you or someone you know is vulnerable to the disease
Do NOT come if you or someone you know is sick, or showing flu-like symptoms
Wash your hands regularly
Feel FREE to skip this LUG should you choose
Watch for other announcements, the situation might change
https://www.sgvlug.org/2020/03/12/general-meeting/
date: 2020-03-06, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Join us at the SCALE! SCALE is the largest community run open source tech / FOSS / pro-EFF conference and expo in North America. It is family-friendly and caters to a diverse audience of IT professionals, hobbyists, educators and students. https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/18x/
You can use promo code SGVLG to get 50% off the registration cost of the full conference pass.
You can generally get in for free if you volunteer with SCALE. See their website. Many of the SGVTech folks help out with the SCALE A/V team. If you’re interested, please visit their website http://socallinuxexpo.github.io/scale-av-web/
We will have a community booth at SCALE for SGVTech, so please leave a comment if you are interested in helping to man the booth (Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon) and represent SGVTech or any of its subgroups.
Also comment if your talk got accepted at SCALE :)
This year there will be a ton of presentations and workshops on topics like Container and Virtualization, Observability, Embedded, Kubeflow, Open Government, PostgreSQL, DevOps, LibreGraphics, MySQL, openSuse, Security, Cloud, Mentoring, Developer, Open Data, Open Source in Enterprise, SysAdmin, HAM Radio. There is a co-located Ubucon, Open Embedded Summit, DevOpsDay, OpenSUSE Summit
https://www.sgvlug.org/2020/03/05/scale-18x/
date: 2020-02-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
There won’t be any food at the venue aside from some cookies in honor of Valentine’s Day. Eat beforehand or bring your own dinner/beverage.
This month, James Mertz is giving a sneak preview of a talk he will be giving at an upcoming conference. Come prepared to give feedback.
TOPIC
Today, developers and users of Python are being attacked on a daily basis, most of the time, without their knowledge. We need to be more aware of these attacks and weaknesses to make more educated design decisions for our Python code.
In this talk we’ll go over some of the major vulnerabilities we face when it comes to developing Python application and cybersecurity principles. We’ll also cover different ways to protect yourself from these attacks.
BIO
James grew up staring at the stars with awe wondering what opportunities await to be discovered. Now he works at his dream job for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory helping to further our understanding of the cosmos. When he isn’t working (aka building robots), James can be found studying for his second master’s in Cyber Security, writing articles for RealPython.com, or teaching Intro to Python at the local community college in Pasadena. He is frequently seen at Disneyland, the beach, and the dog park alongside his wife of 10 years, 2 kids, and trusty dog SamWise.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2020/02/13/protected-python-its-time-we-had-the-talk-about-security/
date: 2020-01-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
There was a last-minute cancellation by our speaker.
We ended up having a good round-the room discussion about various topics, including bash scripting. Michael Starch gae an impromptu lecture on various levels of software testing. We gae some new members advice regarding what professionals think about certifications.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2020/01/09/anything-goes/
date: 2019-12-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We’re ending the year with a great venue and some light refreshments and hot tea and hot chocolate. In addition to coming for the presentation, please come and share your ideas about SGVTech and SGVLUG for 2020.
The venue is open by 6:30pm, but our meeting will start at 7pm. The conference facility is behind the restaurants on Lake, between Citibank of Del Mar and Urban Plates. We will have a sign in front of venue.
This is a joint meetup with Write the Docs LA
Presentation
Kate Sammons and Spencer Sullivan will present on the work they did to improve the documentation for the open source NASA/JPL Hybrid Cloud Science Data System (HySDS). They participated in the JPL Student Independent Research Internship (SIRI) program.
Discussion
We will talk about how to contribute to open source, our plans for SCaLE, and what kinds of talks we want for SGVLUG for 2020.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/12/12/open-source-documentation-scale-2020/
date: 2019-12-07, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Join us at the DTLA Mini Maker Faire at the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles.
It is shaping to be a huge event with nearly a hundred makers–many of them from the San Gabriel Valley–who will be exhibiting, doing workshops, giving talks, and even performing.
There will be exhibits inside the beautiful Central Library and outside in Maguire Garden. Part of 5th Street will be closed off to support more booths. https://dtla.makerfaire.com/
Please RSVP on Eventbrite for free tickets. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2019-dtla-mini-maker-faire-registration-78303406597
The list of makers is here, including Roger & Sawppy. Lan is helping out at the JPL booth and the CodeDay LA booth. We’ll be in the Children’s Courtyard. https://dtla.makerfaire.com/makers-exhibits/
The schedule of workshops, talks, and performances here: https://dtla.makerfaire.com/schedule/
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/12/07/dtla-mini-maker-faire/
date: 2019-11-15, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We’re mixing things up this month with a different venue and a different format. We’re doing a joint meetup with Write the Docs LA, the local Write the Docs chapter of technical documentarians.
We’ll spend some time learning about each other’s groups. Topics will include static site generators and an update on Sean Marquez’s exploration of SpaceMacs for text editing and project management. (This was presented at SGVLUG back in July.)
Please see the WTD LA meetup link for more details. https://www.meetup.com/Write-the-Docs-LA/events/265804790/
Sean’s presentation will appeal directly to: - software developers who are opinionated about text editors - developers & writers who are curious about text rendering to diagrams, i.e., PlantUML: https://gist.github.com/capsulecorplab/99f6518ab42fd55f95e69186c784ccb7#orgmode-meets-gtd
Sean’s presentation will also provide insight to: - people who have a thousand things on their TODO lists - anyone who is interested in Getting Things Done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/11/14/joint-meetup-with-write-the-docs-la/
date: 2019-10-19, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
NOTE: Please RSVP on the PCC Maker Festival Eventbrite! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pasadena-city-college-maker-festival-tickets-75408120719
More info here: https://www.innovatepasadena.org/events/maker-faire-at-pasadena-city-college
As part of Connect Week, SGVTech is exhibiting at the PCC Maker Festival to promote all our subgroups and projects to the Pasadena City College community. There will be other maker groups and businesses as well as the PCC student clubs. There will be rovers, 3D printers, coders, electronics and their awesome Fab Lab. There will also have an exclusive performance by the Blender Boyz - Pasadena’s premier, all-appliance, bad-boy, blender band who will be grinding out their unique machine melodies!
Exhibitors include: JPL Open Source Rover Nonscriptum reDiscover Center PCC Electronics SGV Tech Meetup Los Angeles Public Library PCC Fab Lab She.Codes Mesa MAKEit 3D Microduino PCC Motorsports and more!
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/10/19/sgvtech-at-pcc-maker-festival/
date: 2019-10-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Informal talk by Steven Doran covering various topics from a discussion of recent news regarding Project Raven to Ada Lovelace. It was fun.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/10/10/surprise-topic/
date: 2019-09-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Topic
With the ubiquity of cameras, photography is everywhere! If you’d like to improve the looks of your photographs, post-processing is an effective way to give your work the umph and sparkle that they are missing. In this talk we’ll cover the basics of darktable, a Free Software application for processing raw photographs. There will be an introduction to some photographic concepts and a tutorial covering the basics of the must-use darktable modules.
Bio
Mica Semrick has been a desktop linux user since 1998. He’s been making photographs since 1995. In his free time, he’s a community manager at PIXLS.US, a community centered around Free Software for Photographers.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/09/12/darktable-for-beginners-improving-your-digital-photography/
date: 2019-08-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Note: This is a lightly edited reprise of a talk given a few years ago at LUG
Topic
Many good, experienced high-level language programmers do not learn C or C++ well until they suddenly need to write an FFI extension, make an emergency patch to an existing C or C++ codebase, re-implement the bottleneck component in the application stack in a fast language, take an attractive job with a low-level programming component, or otherwise move from their comfortable language of choice and swallow the Red Pill of coding closer to the machine. If you are already a programmer, you don’t need to be taught how to program, and your google-fu is strong for looking up detailed syntax. Instead, this will be a crash course in leveraging skills you learned in a high-level environment and transferring them to these low-level tools, acquiring some new skills you simply never needed before, and a building a mental picture of where the road to expert, idiomatic mastery lies. We will focus on plain C because C++ is too complex to cover well in a single talk, but much of the material will apply directly to C++. Perhaps surprisingly, some of it will even make you a better programmer in your favorite comfortable, higher-level language.
Bio
Some little-known facts about Dustin Laurence:
His first exposure to computers was playing Colossal Cave
Adventure and the bootleg Fortran IV version of Zork on his cousin’s
work mainframe using a glass teletype and a modem with a cradle for the
handset.
His first good programming language was C. He lies and pretends that C is where he learned to program because 8-bit BASIC is embarrassing.
He once gave up trying to learn the libc low-level I/O functions from the Ultrix man pages because he thought a buffer must be some kind of abstract data type provided by the C library and he couldn’t find any documentation.
He once confidently predicted that Linux was a temporary fad that would be replaced by BSD for serious work once the Berkeley codebase was completely free. It’s probably a good thing he doesn’t gamble.
He avoids social media for the same reason he doesn’t do crack cocaine.
These days he happily hacks Python for Spring Labs.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/08/08/the-young-man-and-the-c-swallowing-the-red-pill/
date: 2019-07-20, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The SGVLUG & SGVHAK potluck BBQ will be on Saturday, July 27th from 5pm to 9pm to Lan’s house in the city of San Gabriel.
Please RSVP on the Google form below by Thursday, July 25th. The form will automagically update with RSVP count and what people are bringing.
https://forms.gle/sk5CQu3Z4JQnS4Lv9
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/07/20/sgvlugsgvhak-bbq-7/
date: 2019-07-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Org-Mode with Spacemacs
The best editor is neither vim nor emacs, it’s Vim and Emacs! Spacemacs is a community-driven Emacs distribution that comes built-in with many popular packages, including Evil-Mode - a vim layer for Emacs, and Org-Mode - a tool for note taking and/or project management that utilizes a rich plain text markup language. This presentation will be a live demo of some of orgmode and spacemacs’ features and capabilities.
Bio
Sean Marquez graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in design of dynamic systems, from UC Irvine. During his undergrad, he project managed a CubeSat program where he developed a passion for space exploration. He worked for an OEM aerospace consulting firm for over a year as an associate mechanical design engineer. In 2015, he joined and collaborated with an online team, performing numerical simulations & control systems design, for rLoop – a non-profit global think tank that won the innovation award for the first SpaceX hyperloop pod competition. Sean is currently a worker-owner at Space Cooperative Inc., involved with development and testing of smart contracts to be utilized by the Space Decentral network, collaborating on Coral - an open source robotic space mission to mine lunar regolith for in-situ resource utilization, and leading efforts on the adoption of the Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodology.
Webhooks and Slack
In this presentation, Ashok Modi is going to use Slack events as a guide to describe what webhooks are, how they are different from a traditional API, and some of the ways you can deal with data coming from webhooks. This talk will involve looking at code, along with learning about middleware and queues.
Bio
Ashok is currently a Software Engineer for the CARD. His primary duties involve working on the core CARD product and intimately working with various technologies to bring their goals to fruition. Outside CARD, he dedicate some of his time contributing back what he learns and/or creates back to the open source community.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/07/11/org-mode-with-spacemacs-webhooks-and-slack/
date: 2019-06-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This month is open mic night with three short talks.
Claire on Hack for LA The two biggest levers for improving people’s lives at a scale are through technology and government. At Hack for LA, we bring together coders, designers, entrepreneurs, students, government staff, activists, and other civic-minded people to solve the LA region’s biggest challenges through technology. We are a network of people making government work for the people, by the people, in the digital age. Claire will share a brief overview of some civic-hack projects that are currently being built at Hack for LA, which she has been attending for 3 months.
Claire has many interests but there are two things she always gravitates to: community service and tech! She holds a B.S. in Public Policy and Law from the University of Southern California (Fight on!) and has experience working as an IT Project Coordinator. She is now pursing a career in software development and loves that as a new developer, she can immediately combine her love for community service and computer programming at Hack for LA. On her free time, she volunteers at various tech meetups and conferences. She aims to be part of something bigger than myself by building meaningful technologies that connect people and create communities.
Lan on sed and regular expressions Sed is a Linux stream editor that enables text manipulation on the command line. It makes a great introduction to regular expressions, which are used as search patterns to find or find-and-replace text.
Lan spends the majority of her working hours monitoring and troubleshooting data processing systems on Linux-based computer clusters. She has accumulated a number of tips and tricks to deal with the command line. Her arsenal includes: GNU screen, awk, sed, shell scripting, remote ssh command execution, bash command history, and a variety of system utilities
Jess on Linux kernel boot process Most of us don’t pay attention to the text that scrolls by during bootup, or maybe our distros hide it from us. We know we can dual boot OSes with a menu, but what else does that menu do? We’ll take a brief survey of how the Linux kernel boots, and how GRUB helps configure an appropriate environment for the kernel.
Jess is a software developer who regularly emcees the SGVLUG meetings and keeps us entertained with a fun spin on Linux in the news.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/06/13/hack-for-la-sed-and-regular-expressions-linux-kernel-boot-process/
date: 2019-05-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
PyCon 2019: A Brief Overview
James Mertz will give a brief overview of PyCon 2019 held in Cleveland, OH. He’ll cover some of the interesting talks, some cool announcements, show off some swag, and more.
About James
James is a Software Assurance Engineerng at Jet Propulsion Laboratory by day and author at RealPython.com by night. In his spare time he also volunteers as a Scout Master for a local Pasadena Scout Troop.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/05/08/pycon-2019-a-brief-overview/
date: 2019-04-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
ZeroMQ: Connect ALL The Things
Writing applications in a multi-core, multi-threaded, multiprocess, networked world means communicating between many threads and processes over shared memory, IPC, and the network. This often involves multiple low-level libraries (e.g. most languages’ built-in threading, unix IPC, Berkeley sockets) with different programming paradigms, and may require a potential a scaling bottleneck in the form of a central server or broker to make it all manageable. ZeroMQ claims to be a better alternative, providing a single, higher-level message-passing toolkit across threads, processes, and networks, and languages, and specifically supports decentralized messaging. That should make it a slower, clunkier compromise for any one task, but it claims to be both better and easier to use for any one of those problems than a dedicated library. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so we’ll examine how it compares to standard threading and networking facilities and see how easily we can just connect all the things like Lego bricks, regardless of type or underlying transport. Of course it wouldn’t be any fun without including some very informal performance smackdowns.
About Dustin Laurence
Intending to become a programmer (“developer” hadn’t been invented by the marketing department yet), Dustin got sidetracked and spent more time than he cares to admit doing theoretical physics, a background filled with continuous mathematics almost entirely irrelevant to computer science. He eventually returned to his original love of software. He avoids social media for the same reason he doesn’t do crack cocaine.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/04/11/zeromq-connect-all-the-things/
date: 2019-03-17, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
SGVHAK and Santa Susana HS will have a booth at the Caltech Science for March showcasing the rovers we built as part of the JPL Open Source Rover (beta build group. We’ll also feature rovers that were inspired by the process, like Dave Flynn’s Mr. Blue and Roger Cheng’s Sawppy.
If you are interested in attending, please RSVP on their Eventbrite page. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/caltech-science-for-march-2019-tickets-56488578860 http://scienceformarch.sites.caltech.edu/
More info on the rovers below: https://bit.ly/sgvhak_rover https://sawppy.com
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/03/16/caltech-science-for-march-ii/
date: 2019-03-15, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This is half social meeting, half SGVLUG housekeeping matters.
After dinner, Lan is sponsoring 2 or 3 pies for dessert.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/03/14/scale-recap-and-housekeeping/
date: 2019-02-15, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Lan and Roger will be giving a preview of our SCaLE 17x talk about the SGVHAK Rover. Any feedback will be extremely helpful. We’ll also be talking about SCaLE, volunteering for SCaLE, and plans for our booth at SCaLE.
Dinner begins around 7pm and the presentation will start after most people have received their food or 8pm, whichever comes first. Buying dinner is optional.
The Trouble with Rovers
The JPL Open Source Rover is a relatively inexpensive and accessible project for high school and college classes to exercise mechanical and electronics and software engineering using parts that could be easily sourced from hobbyist stores.
JPL beta-tested their build instructions at a few schools and with the SGVHAK maker group. The ultimate goal was to refine the build instructions and grow a community of experienced builders to help provide support once the rover documentation and code were open sourced.
https://github.com/nasa-jpl/open-source-rover
We will go over the experience of the SGVHAK maker group in building the SGVHAK rover and being inspired to build rovers of our own design. The SGVHAK maker group built the rover over the period of 3 months while giving JPL significant feedback and build photos. We diverged from the original design most significantly in the wheel design, motor selection, and software.
We were able to exhibit the SGVHAK rover at SCALE, the Caltech Science for March, and the DTLA Mini Maker Faire. We were recently interviewed for the Command_Line Heroes podcast. Building rovers is a never-ending process. The SGVHAK rover itself is always under construction. We have plans to add a robot arm, pan-tilt webcam, and maybe even lidar. Our members have already started coming up with their own rover designs and builds. All the code and 3D printer files are on GitHub. Come join us in our rover-building adventures.
About Lan
Lan Dang is an Operations Engineer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, specializing in science data systems operations and large scale data processing. Her contributions to open source focus on community-building and evangelism. In her spare time, she is active in the San Gabriel Valley tech community as a leader of the SGVLUG and its sister group, the SGVHAK hardware hacking group, mentors new hires at work as well as local high school and college students, and volunteers with various STEAM groups and events. She is the volunteer coordinator for the SCALE A/V team.
About Roger
An active member of the San Gabriel Valley Hardware Hackers group (SGVHAK) and member of Linux User’s Group (SGVLUG) Roger is interested in many topics around the intersection of mechanical hardware and intelligent software.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/02/14/the-trouble-with-rovers/
date: 2019-01-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Bring tech books and leftover conference swag to exchange with other members, or put towards a swag pile for our SCaLE booth, if we have one. Anything that nobody wants could be brought to Repair Cafe this weekend.
We also have a double-feature for this month’s presentation, both given by new member Sean Marquez.
How (and Why) to Choose an Open Source License
There is a common misconception that just because your code is public on GitHub that it is open source, but unless there is a license in your codebase, then it is by default copyrighted. This talk will cover an introduction to copyright, open source, the types of open source licenses, how to go about choosing an open source license for your project, and why should you choose to open source your project.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Markdown
Markdown is the most commonly used lightweight markup language on the internet. However, lately it has been adopted by the technical writing community as a solution for writing documentation. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
BIO
Sean Marquez graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in design of dynamic systems, from UC Irvine. During his undergrad, he project managed a CubeSat program where he developed a passion for space exploration. He worked for an OEM aerospace consulting firm for over a year as an associate mechanical design engineer. In 2015, he joined and collaborated with an online team, performing numerical simulations & control systems design, for rLoop – a non-profit global think tank that won the innovation award for the first SpaceX hyperloop pod competition. Sean is currently a worker-owner at Space Cooperative Inc., involved with development and testing of smart contracts to be utilized by the Space Decentral network, collaborating on Coral - an open source robotic space mission to mine lunar regolith for in-situ resource utilization, and leading efforts on the adoption of the Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodology.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2019/01/10/mini-talks-on-open-source-licenses-and-markdown/
date: 2018-12-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Bin Feng, the co-founder and CEO of Microduino, will talk about lowering the barrier of entry and inspiring creativity for STEAM education.
“I was monitoring a server room’s temperature, but getting tired of going to the room every, single, time. I used Arduino to create a device that would do the job for me. However, it involved messy wiring, dangerous soldering, and complicated coding. And so an idea was born. I wanted to create something that anyone could use to imagine a product and immediately just build it. The very first set of Microduino modules was designed to lower the barriers to creativity for everyone. We’re giving people the freedom to give shape to their ideas.”
The company creates the world’s smallest Arduino-compatible smart modules. These modules are flexible, stackable and powerful, and can be used to create a limitless amount of DIY projects for all ages.
To date, Bin has raised over $500,000 across four Microduino crowdfunding projects and built up Microduino’s community from 0 to 1,000,000+ members and students. Bin is dedicated to making Microduino a significant international success by creating an educational platform that fits seamlessly into the global STEM/STEAM education discipline.
Bio:
Bin Feng is the Co-Founder and CEO of Microduino, an international company of makers and creators aimed at bringing easy-to- use electronics hardware to makers, designers, engineers, students and curious tinkerers of all ages and levels. Microduino presents the world’s smallest series of Arduino-compatible smart modules that are small, flexible, stackable and powerful, and can be used to create a limitless amount of DIY projects.
With over 15 years’ experience in technology and business, Bin has a passion for Microduino and is highly motivated to make the Microduino a huge success.
Bin holds Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Materials from Fudan Univ. , and Master’s degree in ECE from UCSD. His graduate research was in semiconductor device design, fabrication, and characterization.
Bin resides in Los Angeles, California.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/12/13/everyone-is-an-inventor/
date: 2018-12-01, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
SGVHAK, Repair Cafe, and the JPL Open Source Rover will have collocated booths at the DTLA Mini Maker Faire. We will be located on the lawn of Maguire Garden close to library entrance.
It is shaping to be a huge event with nearly a hundred makers–many of them from the San Gabriel Valley–who will be exhibiting, doing workshops, giving talks, and even performing. There will be exhibits inside the beautiful Central Library and outside in Maguire Garden.
https://dtla.makerfaire.com/schedule/
Please RSVP on Eventbrite for free tickets, whether you’re coming as an attendee or to help us at our booth. They had a group registration option, so I made an SGVHAK group.
https://dtlamakerfaire2018-register.eventbrite.com?team_token=2211552-2q28o
What to expect:
JPL Open Source Rover booth will feature
Additionally, there will be talks on the JPL Open Source Rover and Sawppy from 2:30 to 3:30pm at the KLOS’s Children’s Theater (Children’s Literature, 2nd floor) .
Also, JPL will have STEM activities and swag, and IPAC has a 4-minute Trappist-1 VR experience on the Oculus Rift. There will be a demonstration of the science behind the OCO-2 mission.
SGVHAK and Repair Cafe hands-on activities
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/12/01/sgvhak-repair-cafe-jpl-open-source-rover-dtla-mini-maker-faire/
date: 2018-11-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Join us for a humorous conversation about JavaScript sins and how to write better code. If you enjoy these types of talks, please see Michael and Carlos afterwards about more meetups on good software design.
TOPIC
JavaScript, like all computer languages, has its flaws. It at times subtly encourages programmers to commit unabsolvable crimes against the computing world. It drags new programmers into the abyss of bad practice with the madness of Lisp and the folly of QuickBasic. Together we shall journey into the darkness surrounding JavaScript and shine our light into it.
Attendees should expect to learn a bit about the downside to JavaScript and some of the bad practices that arise. We will then improve our JavaScript code by establishing good patterns using modern JavaScript and an understanding of software design principles. If nothing else attendees shall be thoroughly entertained, and all will rag on JavaScript just a wee bit.
BIO
Michael Starch in an Engineer. He has used JavaScript professionally for many years, and has committed every sin in JavaScript’s tomb of Evil. He has often searched for order amongst the chaotic statements of JavaScript, and brings his methods for your consideration. He is by no means an authority on JavaScript, but he will step up and speak with authority anyway. You shall be entertained.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/11/08/javascript-sucks-and-so-do-you/
date: 2018-10-26, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Please join us at our Open House and find out more about our individual groups, our regular meetings and upcoming projects. This is part of Connect Week Oct 20-28.
SPONSORS
Pizza is sponsored by Goldstar. Drinks and venue provided by Corporate Center Pasadena.
WHAT TO EXPECT
This is your chance to satisfy your curiosity about all our Meetups.
It’s also a great opportunity to:
Learn more about the Southern California Linux Expo – participate, volunteer, speak. Reminder that the Call for Papers ends Oct 31st!
Learn more about the SCALE A/V team and check out our custom computers. We are recruiting.
Get a demo of the recently upgraded SGVHAK rover.
Get free t-shirts from previous SCALEs
ABOUT SGVTech
We are an umbrella Meetup group that includes:
San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group has a presentation-style monthly meeting and regularly helps organize the Southern California Linux Expo.
SGVHAK maker group builds various things and participates in the DTLA Mini Maker Faire and some educational outreach events.
Ubuntu Hour is a casual monthly meeting over coffee to talk about Linux and other technology
SGV-AI, the San Gabriel Valley Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Group just started up.
Infosec Syndicate is interested in information security
Repair Cafe Pasadena does pop-up repair events in the local community and recruits tinkers and participants from SGVTech
You can join us on Slack using this invitation: https://bit.ly/sgvtech_slack
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/10/25/sgvtech-open-house-connect-week-2018/
date: 2018-10-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Join us for a stimulating discussion on what it means to be open source.
TOPIC
“My code is available online on github.com so it’s open source”.
Is that really true ?
This talk aims to cover what does it mean to be truly open source, including topics like:
BIO
Sujen, an open source enthusiast, got involved with contributing to open source projects while pursuing his masters at USC and currently works at JPL.
He is a member of the Apache Software Organization and in the Project Management Committee (PMC) of Apache Nutch and Apache OODT projects.
Over the past couple of years he has been involved with contributing towards open source efforts within JPL and projects at DARPA.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/10/11/how-to-bring-a-project-to-open-source/
date: 2018-09-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Meet us for dinner and a presentation, with dinner beginning at 7pm and presentations starting around 7:45 to 8pm.
Chime Hart will present on using Linux while blind:
I want to explain a 25-year journey of using computers while blind. In reality, a better way of understanding would be just navigating with only keyboard-and-speech for an hour or more.
I will go over the challenges and the many joys along the way - from discovering DOS, being dragged through windows, and finally 15 years as a Linux user.
I look forward to any questions along the way
| Chime worked 35 years at GTE/Verizon, originally helping them with inconsistencies in dialing related with translations. He is an ‘extreme news-junkie’, and enjoys diverse types of music. Earlier he did some College Radio in New Jersey and Boston. Radio has always been in his blood, especially formatics and many jingles. |
| https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/09/13/using-linux-while-blind/ |
date: 2018-08-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This month, we are hosted by Everbridge at their training center. Everbridge is also sponsoring food and drink.
ABSTRACT:
The software lifecycle does not end when the developer packages their code and makes it ready for deployment. The delivery of this code is an integral part of shipping a product. Infrastructure orchestration and resource configuration should follow a similar lifecycle (and process) to that of the software delivered on it. In this talk, we will discuss how to use Terraform and Ansible for automating your infrastructure and software delivery.
Terraform is an Infrastructure-as-Code tool for building, managing and versioning your infrastructure. It allows you to provision and orchestrate your resources effectively while ensuring that all your resources configured the way you defined in your code. We will see a practical example of deploying a complete AWS environment using Terraform.
Ansible is an automation tool that excels at configuration management and application deployment. We will use Ansible and AWX (the open source version of Ansible Tower) to configure our resources, deploy applications and perform patch management.
SPEAKER:
Rami Al-Ghanmi - Principal Software Engineer, Symantec Corporation
Rami is a virtual member of SGVLUG and the DevOps technical lead for Endpoint Protection Cloud products at Symantec Corporation where he works on building, deploying and managing security infrastructure and services on AWS. Also, he is an outspoken advocate of Open Source Software, tools and practices within Symantec.
DIRECTIONS:
The building is on Hudson Ave, between Colorado and Green St. The meeting room is off Hudson, next to the first floor gym with the classic glass walls and gym equipment. You are responsible for your own parking. The onsite parking is very expensive. Please check the Parkopedia link for your options or take public transit.
TIMETABLE:
7:00pm - People start to arrive and socialize
7:30pm - SGVLUG meeting begins with announcements, Linux in the News, and then the presentation
9:00pm - End meeting, clean up, and then head over to Du-Par’s (214 S Lake Ave, Pasadena) to socialize further.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/08/09/cloud-automation-using-terraform-and-ansible/
date: 2018-07-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Join us for our monthly LUG meeting, featuring some very interesting shell data tools written by this month’s speaker, Dima Kogan.
The UNIX shell is a useful environment to get work done. There’re a number of standard, simple tools that talk to each other via a universal interface: the pipeline. This talk focuses on methods to manipulate and visualize data directly in the shell, without moving to specialized environments (numpy, matlab, etc). Specifically I will demonstrate and describe
These are independent tools that are useful standalone, but with shell piping are EXTRA useful together and in conjunction with other standard UNIX tools. This unification of data processing and normal shell usage enable powerful workflows that are otherwise unavailable.
SPEAKER
Dima Kogan - Robotics Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Dima is a long-time user and contributor to various Free Software projects. He lives in the shell inside Emacs on his Debian box, and is constantly looking for ways to save keystrokes. He plays with robotics tools during the day, and tries to give away as much of his work as possible.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/07/12/working-with-data-in-the-unix-shell/
date: 2018-06-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
You and your friends and family are invited to the SGVLUG & SGVHAK potluck BBQ on Saturday, July 7th from 4pm to 9pm to Lan’s house in the city of San Gabriel.
Details on the Google form. Please RSVP before July 5th: https://goo.gl/forms/LuFdd1zaAMfCsVJg1
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/06/14/sgvlugsgvhak-bbq-6/
date: 2018-06-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Michael Starch will give an informal talk about OpenVPN, SSH agents, and the recent VPNFilter vulnerability in routers. You are welcome to share your own security tips.
Dinner begins around 7pm and the presentation will start after most people have received their food or 8pm, whichever comes first. Buying dinner is optional.
Bio
He’s a red-headed baker,
a tinker, a maker,
an engineering
fool
who can learn any tool.
He’s a teacher who inspires
the next generation who aspires.
He’ll be teaching us security to avoid the woes
of leaving our
devices open to any foes.
He totally did not write this bio.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/06/13/openvpn-ssh-agents-and-vpnfilter-vulnerability/
date: 2018-05-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Eric Junkins, a Software Systems Engineer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will talk about the JPL Open Source Rover. SGVHAK is one of the beta build groups for this project, so we have lots to discuss and show off.
TOPIC
The JPL Open Source Rover is an open source robotics project aimed at STEM education at the high school level. The robot is designed to have the same mechanical suspension and steering mechanism that the Mars rovers employ. This project teaches many aspects that go into robotics, with aspects in mechanical and electrical design/engineering, and software development. At this point we have had a few beta test groups on our build instructions, and after refienment of those are quickly approaching the release date. Eric will be talking about the project, its’ background, and is hoping to get feedback from some members who have had lots of experience in the Open Source realm.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/05/10/jpl-open-source-rover/
date: 2018-04-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Dr. Sam Coleman will share his experiences with the Raspberry Pi.
TOPIC
The raspberry pi computer has become one of the most versatile computer platforms in the world. However few people truly understand what can be done with this $35 single board computer. In this presentation I’ll share with you a few of the projects that I have put together using this inexpensive ARM based computer. The presentation will conclude with a brief Q and A session.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/04/12/raspberry-pi/
date: 2018-03-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Get your tickets at: https://register.socallinuxexpo.org/reg6/
Promo code “SGVLG” will get you 50% off full SCALE pass.
SGVLUG/SGVHAK/Repair Cafe will be at booth #701 in the Expo Hall, and you’ll see a lot of familiar faces staffing, speaking, or just attending the conference.
Join us at the SCALE! SCALE is the largest community run open source tech / FOSS / pro-EFF conference and expo in North America. It is family-friendly and caters to a diverse audience of IT professionals, hobbyists, educators and students.
This year there will be over 180 presentations and workshops. Topics covered: Container and Virtualization, Cloud, Developer, DevOps, Embedded, General, interesting Keynotes, LibreGraphics, Mentoring, Monitoring, MySQL, Next Generation ( under 18 presenters ), Open Data, Open Source in Enterprises, PostgreSQL, Security, Sponsored, SysAdmin, Ubucon ( a colocated Ubuntu Conference )
Special tracks and workshops
Legal & Licensing ( $150, 5 MCLE credit hours ), LPI certification exams ( $99 ), Embedded Apprentice Linux Engineer workshop, Capture the Flag, Game Night, and more..
On Saturday, there is a youth track known as The Next Generation, that includes a hands-on activity room known as The Next Generation Playground.
Birds of a Feather
Rooms are available Thu-Sat night for user groups and round table discussions.
Job board and BOF ScaLE 16x will have a job board and job BOF onsite.
Expo Hall
Fri Mar 9 2-5PM; Sat Mar 10 10AM-5PM; Sun Mar 11 10AM-2PM
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/03/08/scale-16x/
date: 2018-02-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The wonderful folks at OpenX are hosting this meeting, and they are also providing pizza. We need to provide a list of names to building security. RSVPs will be capped at 60. Contact Lan if you have questions.
Also, the Southern California Linux Expo is a month away. We’ll talk about what to expect and where we need help.
TOPIC
Open source is vital towards our future in technology development and is being promoted across government institutions and within the private sector. In this talk he will cover the who, what, where, why, and how’s of open source based on his life experience. This talk will seek to inform and recruit the audience to engage and contribute in open source by providing answers to the simple questions. Together we will discuss lowering the barrier to entry into the open source world. And if you’re already contributing to open source then we will share life experiences and camaraderie and plans to infect more people with the open source bug.
BIO
Mr. Paul Ramirez has worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the past 17 years and is currently a group supervisor (i.e. hiring manager) for the Science Data Systems Operations Engineering and Computer Science for Data Intensive Applications groups. He holds a BS in Computer Science from Cal Poly Pomona and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Southern California. Mr. Ramirez has developed, advocated, and help drive policy for Open Source at NASA. Mr. Ramirez has been involved with the Apache Software Foundation as a committer and mentor.
DIRECTIONS
OpenX is located in the One West Bank building @ 888 E Walnut St. Pasadena CA, 91101. Entrances to the building are eastbound on Walnut, right hand side before the Lake St. intersection or southbound on Lake St. right hand side after the Walnut St. intersection. Once through the driveway, please park in the 888 Lot that has the OpenX logo displayed out front. Pull a ticket and bring it with you to the Meetup, we will validate your parking.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/02/08/the-5w1h-of-getting-involved-with-open-source/
date: 2018-01-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Lan will be giving a preview of her SCaLE 16x talk on AWK. Any feedback will be extremely helpful. We’ll also be talking about SCaLE, volunteering for SCaLE, and plans for our booth at SCaLE.
Dinner begins around 7pm and the presentation will start after most people have received their food or 8pm, whichever comes first. Buying dinner is optional.
Practical AWK - AWKwardly Dealing with Data
AWK is a text processing programming language developed at Bell Labs in the 1970s. It was originally used for data extraction and reporting. It inspired the creation of Perl and can, for the most part, be replaced by Python. It is still incredibly useful on the Linux command-line, both for one-liners or for short, powerful scripts.
Most people have used AWK in one way or another, but they use it without understanding the language. AWK syntax can seem strange. But once you understand that it is a data-driven pattern action language where the data is automatically parsed into predefined variables, it becomes a powerful and intuitive tool.
This talk seeks to take the mystery out of AWK by giving a quick introduction to the language and its features. There will be examples where it provides functionality that a dedicated utility like grep or cut or head might not. There will also be more complex examples where a few lines of AWK result in useful summarization of large amounts of raw data.
AWK is a great Swiss Army knife if you spend a lot of time on the command- line.
Lan Dang Bio
Lan Dang is an Operations Engineer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, specializing in science data systems operations and large scale data processing. She spends most of her time on the command line of various remote Linux systems. Her favorite tools are screen, awk, vim, and git. In her spare time, she is active in the San Gabriel Valley tech community as a leader of the SGVLUG and its sister group, the SGVHAK hardware hacking group.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2018/01/11/practical-awk-awkwardly-dealing-with-data/
date: 2017-12-15, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Abstract:
The Unix Operating System has been around since the 1960s and has provided the backbone for the modern “Internet.”
The core of the Unix and Linux experience is the command line shell. This powerful text based interface can be leveraged to automate tasks and solve problems that would be too tedious to tackle. The Born Again Shell is available on all Unix and Linux platforms. A clear understanding of the features of the shell along with a basic set of commands can improve your productivity and change the way you implement solutions to text based problems.
Eric will provide an overview of how his Unix/Linux classroom has evolved over 26 years. From the blackboard handwritten lecture in a room without computers to modern classroom with a computer on every desk. Through it all, the common set of command line capabilities has remained a staple in the Unix/Linux mindset. sed, grep, cut, tr, and awk are tools that can be combined to transform the simplest of users into a “Power User”.
Bio:
Eric Danielson was first exposed to FORTRAN as part of a Saturday high school program at JPL. Before that, he hadn’t been exposed to computers except for watching his father open up a briefcase sized modem to transfer files using the house phone handset. The Saturday class would walk onto the JPL campus and sit at someone’s desk to log into a VAX terminal to edit, compile and run FORTRAN77 code.
Eric has since earned a B.S. in General Engineering from Harvey Mudd College and a M.S. in Computer Science from USC. Eric started working at JPL as a summer student. At that time, he was running radiative transfer code (FORTRAN) and supporting a science team. After the brand new Sun Microsystem workstations were installed in the Science Division computer lab, Eric took some evening classes at Glendale College that included C Programing and Unix Shell Programming. Soon after, a co-worker and mentor at JPL encouraged Eric to take over his teaching workload at Glendale College. An increase in his JPL travel schedule was making it difficult to continue teaching. Eric started teaching BASIC Programming and FORTRAN in 1989. He eventually took over the Unix class and has since added the Unix/Linux System Administration class to the Glendale College curriculum.
Eric is currently the Science Data System (SDS) System Engineer for the Multi- angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on the Terra Earth Observing System satellite and the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) instrument currently in development.
Eric enjoys tinkering with Raspberry Pis and Arduinos in the creative realm of “Makers”. His recent projects include a portable air quality monitor and a time-lapse camera with a Raspberry Pi.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/12/14/26-years-of-teaching-unixlinux/
date: 2017-11-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The wonderful folks at OpenX are hosting this meeting, and they are also providing pizza. We need to provide a list of names to building security. RSVPs will be capped at 80. Contact Lan if you have questions.
Topic
In this talk Dr. Corbett Moran will discuss the challenges and rewards of instructing a mixed skill class in an apprenticeship style learning environment.
On June 26-August 4, 2017 she led a summer program, Summer App Space, for LA students and teachers to learn programming while getting paid to do fun space-related projects. Her work on this was supported by NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship award AST-1501208. Summer App Space is a paid apprenticeship where high school students are paid to attend a six week school learning to program in Python and the fundamentals of Linux, 20 hours per week. Four weeks are lecture and lab based, and the last two weeks are project based incorporating a deliverable product and entrepreneurial style teams.
Bio
Dr. Corbett Moran is the lead curriculum designer, recruiter and instructor for the Summer App Space (SAS) 2017 program. She brings to the table extensive experience in running such programs from a teaching, technology, organizational, scientific and industry connection perspective.
She taught introductory and advanced courses in MIT MEET: Middle East Education Through Technology for two summers. MEET is a gifted high school program in which she taught Java programming and mobile app development in a project, lecture, and guest speaker format. MEET’s mission is creating a common professional language between Israeli and Palestinian young leaders. Dr. Corbett Moran served as the lead technical instructor in MIT’s Global Startup labs in the Philippines for a summer to students from a variety of backgrounds and socio-economic status in the Manila area in a highly similar format to that planned for SAS. She has organized speakers and technology for TEDxZurich as well as hackathons for Open WhisperSystems and a site of the NASA Space Apps Challenge, on which she is basing SAS projects.
Dr. Corbett Moran dually majored in Physics and Computer Science at MIT, obtained a Master’s and Ph.D. focusing on Computational Astrophysics at UZH, and her NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship research is at the intersection of the two. She has worked for SpaceX as an intern in Propulsion Analysis and has over 10 years of industry programming experience in cutting-edge web and mobile technologies. Dr. Corbett Moran has served as a teaching assistant and lab assistant for 8 courses, spoken around the globe as a highly praised public speaker, and mentored several students. Dr. Corbett Moran’s participation has been enabled by NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship award AST-1501208.
DIRECTIONS
OpenX is located in the One West Bank building @ 888 E Walnut St. Pasadena CA, 91101. Entrances to the building are eastbound on Walnut, right hand side before the Lake St. intersection or southbound on Lake St. right hand side after the Walnut St. intersection. Once through the driveway, please park in the 888 Lot that has the OpenX logo displayed out front. Pull a ticket and bring it with you to the Meetup, we will validate your parking.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/11/09/summer-app-space/
date: 2017-10-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This month, we are hosted by Everbridge at their training center. Everbridge is also sponsoring food and drink.
ABSTRACT:
Rust is a new and exciting systems programming language promising strong typing, cost free abstractions, and fearless concurrency. Some of these hard problems have plagued all programming languages for years. We’ll talk about why Rust helps you think about other programming languages more accurately, why Rust helps you communicate with your team, and how you can help test some actual Rust code every day to help the Mozilla foundation improve Firefox.
SPEAKER:
Clint Byrum - Senior Cloud Engineer, GoDaddy
Clint has spent decades in the tech industry, using, developing, and maintaining Free and Open Source software. He is an active member of the Ubuntu, MySQL, Gearman, Debian and OpenStack communities. If it’s not in version control, Clint does not know it exists. When not evangelizing continuous delivery, writing tests, automating deployments, and developing code in Python, C, Rust, Ansible, and/or Bash, he spends time raising his 4 children, playing Roller Hockey and doing CrossFit in Los Angeles.
DIRECTIONS:
The building is on Hudson Ave, between Colorado and Green St. The meeting room is off Hudson, next to the first floor gym with the classic glass walls and gym equipment. You are responsible for your own parking. The onsite parking is very expensive. Please check the Parkopedia link for your options or take public transit.
TIMETABLE:
7:00pm - People start to arrive and socialize
7:30pm - SGVLUG meeting begins with announcements, Linux in the News, and then the presentation
9:00pm - End meeting, clean up, and then head over to Du-Par’s (214 S Lake Ave, Pasadena) to socialize further.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/10/12/rustlang-for-your-brain-rustlang-for-your-team-rust-for-justice/
date: 2017-09-15, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The Young Man and the C Reloaded
What if I told you that most or all nontrivial C and C++ programs you have ever written were just illusions? Most such programs contain undefined behavior, and undefined behavior is at the heart of most C and C++ security problems, yet few programmers understand how far down that rabbit hole goes. We will swallow the red pill and study the nature and extent of undefined behavior in C and C++, techniques for writing more secure, reliable C and C++ in spite of the reality of undefined behavior and other mischief, and little-used compiler flags and other tools to detect and/or eliminate bugs.
Dustin Laurence Bio
Intending to become a programmer (“developer” hadn’t been invented by the marketing department yet), Dustin got sidetracked and spent more time than he cares to admit doing theoretical physics, a background filled with continuous mathematics almost entirely irrelevant to computer science. He eventually returned to his original love of programming, and though they probably won’t admit it currently hacks code for Whitemoon Dreams, Inc. He avoids social media for the same reason he doesn’t do crack cocaine.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/09/14/the-young-man-and-the-c-reloaded/
date: 2017-08-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Abstract:
One of the many strengths of Linux is that it runs on commodity hardware from an extensive PC ecosystem. We have the freedom to assemble components in a way that is customized for our own specific needs. And now we can easily continue our customization to the physical form factor, thanks to recent advances lowering the cost of fabrication technologies like 3D printing and laser cutting. Not just the cosmetic art of the “case mod” audience, either: motivated tinkerers can build functionally useful creations and share them with the world.
We will walk through several custom computer projects, starting with the “Luggable PC” seen at recent SGVLUG meetups. Each project has its own motivation, design constraints, and undergo several iterations to refine the idea. The latest version of each project will be available for hands-on examination, some accompanied by their predecessors to show design evolution.
Bio:
Roger Cheng grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and studied Computer Science at UCLA. Upon graduation he moved out of town for a 16 year career in (closed- source) commercial software development. Seeking a change of pace, he quit and moved back. Now he is having a great time exploring the world of open-source and meeting local enthusiasts.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/08/10/custom-computer-projects/
date: 2017-07-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Abstract:
The Raspberry Pi has become a favorite of Amateur Radio operators world-wide. Although most of the development on projects is occurring outside of the United States, there are a significant number of products and hacks available. Repeater controllers, VOIP servers, and even turning your Pi into a transceiver is possible and is being done.
Bio:
Paul J. Wilkinson, K6IG, holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Durham University (UK), and is currently a Professor of Computer Science at Pasadena City College. During the course of his career, he has worked for “think tanks,” the United States Navy, law enforcement, did consulting, and has over 35 years experience in higher education. Since obtaining his first license over 30 years ago, he has been involved in several Amateur Radio clubs, amateur TV, and supported communications for the Rose Parade (TORRA) for about 20 years until it was disbanded.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/07/13/raspberry-pi-voip-and-amateur-radio/
date: 2017-06-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
You and your friends and family are invited to the SGVLUG & SGVHAK potluck BBQ on Saturday, June 10th from 4pm to 9pm to Lan’s house in the city of San Gabriel.
Please RSVP on the Google form by Thursday, June 8th.
https://goo.gl/forms/ur1RpuzBd1A9cOHH2
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/06/10/sgvlugsgvhak-bbq-5/
date: 2017-06-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This month, we are hosted by Everbridge at their training center. Everbridge is also sponsoring food and drink.
TOPIC:
NASA World Wind is an open source virtual globe that makes it easy to build 3D geospatial applications. World Wind provides APIs for Java, Android, and JavaScript, and includes a powerful set of capabilities for visualizing and interacting with spatial data and imagery. In the first part of this presentation I will discuss some the main features of World Wind, as well as the World Wind team’s development philosophy. The second part of the evening will be an interactive workshop, in which we will build a simple geo application using the Web World Wind JavaScript API.
BIO:
Parker Abercrombie is a senior software engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and is the project lead for OnSight, a mixed reality tool that allows scientists and engineers to work virtually on Mars. Parker is also the lead developer of the science targeting software for the upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission. Prior to joining JPL, Parker worked on geovisualization software for NASA’s Ames Research Center and the U.S. Department of Energy, including World Wind, winner of the NASA Software of the Year Award in 2009. Parker holds an M.A. in Geography from Boston University, and a B.S. in Creative Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara (which he swears is more technical than it sounds).
DIRECTIONS:
The building is on Hudson Ave, between Colorado and Green St. The meeting room is off Hudson, next to the first floor gym with the classic glass walls and gym equipment. You are responsible for your own parking. The onsite parking is very expensive. Please check the Parkopedia link for your options or take public transit.
TIMETABLE:
7:00pm - People start to arrive and socialize
7:30pm - SGVLUG meeting begins with announcements, Linux in the News, and then the presentation
9:00pm - End meeting, clean up, and then head over to Du-Par’s (214 S Lake Ave, Pasadena) to socialize further.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/06/08/nasa-world-wind/
date: 2017-05-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Topic
Enterprises have learned that Open Source is the way to develop great and mature software. Leveraging open source tools and packages allows the enterprise to go to market faster and have stronger applications. Therefore, using Open Source tools is a no brainer for developers. The lawyers on the other hand don’t see it the same way.
The speaker had the privilege of working with the Open Source approval and review process in a large security firm. In this talk, he will share lessons learned from this process and some best practices that developers should do to make the Enterprise Lawyers happy as much as the developers are.
Each organization that uses Open Source software – even in an unedited form – has a list of FOSS licenses that are acceptable and some that are not. Also, has strict requirements on how to handle the software and how to incorporate it in the distribution of the company’s products. In this talk, we go through some of the lessons learned and pitfalls that some Open Source packages have, such as:
Not inserting a copyright clause in project code or homepage
Asking the user to alter the code in order to change the license from GPL to MIT, for example
Using dependencies that could be outdated or have CVE’s against it
Not providing enough information to build the code from scratch
Bio
Rami Al-Ghanmi is a Principal Software Engineer at Symantec Corporation. He is the DevOps technical lead for Endpoint Protection Cloud products at Symantec Corporation where he works on building, deploying and managing security infrastructure and services on OpenStack and AWS-based platforms. Also, he is an outspoken advocate of Open Source Software, tools and practices within Symantec. The technology stack that Rami works with every day includes: Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift and automation tools on AWS.
DIRECTIONS
OpenX is located in the One West Bank building @ 888 E Walnut St. Pasadena CA, 91101. Entrances to the building are eastbound on Walnut, right hand side before the Lake St. intersection or southbound on Lake St. right hand side after the Walnut St. intersection. Once through the driveway, please park in the 888 Lot that has the OpenX logo displayed out front. Pull a ticket and bring it with you to the Meetup, we will validate your parking.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/05/11/lawyers-vs-developers-the-fight-over-foss-in-enterprise/
date: 2017-04-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This month, we are hosted by Everbridge at their training center. Everbridge is also sponsoring food and drink.
Topic
Protecting your digital identity, passwords, and browsing activity is difficult in the world of open Wifi networks, freeware, and advanced advertising techniques based on tracking users across the web. While complete privacy is not possible while connected to the internet, there are many things you can do to make access to your personal data more difficult. This presentation will focus on the basics of internet security, how to begin protecting your network and your data, and why it’s so important. We will focus on the two most prominent (and easiest to fix) security vulnerabilities: encrypting your browsing on external networks using OpenVPN, and blocking advertising and tracking as early as possible using Pi-Hole.
Bio
Andrew Witchger is the Chief Technology Officer at Federal Hearings and Appeals, Inc. (FHAS), the largest independent provider of medical appeals services nationwide. Andrew has lead new initiatives to incorporate software solutions to the aging medical appeal systems. His current projects aim to disrupt the way healthcare and insurance firms process claims by leveraging machine learning techniques. Prior to FHAS, Andrew was a research scientist focusing in cryogenics and particle physics.
DIRECTIONS:
The building is on Hudson Ave, between Colorado and Green St. The meeting room is off Hudson, next to the first floor gym with the classic glass walls and gym equipment. You are responsible for your own parking. The onsite parking is very expensive. Please check the Parkopedia link for your options or take public transit.
TIMETABLE:
7:00pm - People start to arrive and socialize
7:30pm - SGVLUG meeting begins with announcements, Linux in the News, and then the presentation
9:00pm - End meeting, clean up, and then head over to Du-Par’s (214 S Lake Ave, Pasadena) to socialize further.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/04/13/intro-to-internet-security-with-pi-hole-and-openvpn/
date: 2017-03-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We will be socializing until 7:30am and then we’ll do our usual LUG announcements and Linux in the News and talk about last weekend’s Southern California Linux Expo. Presentations usually start at 8pm.
If we have at least 30 attendees, we will raffle off leftover booth swag. Every attendee gets a free ticket and you will be able to buy additional tickets at $1 apiece. Funds raised go towards SGVTech expenses, which are primarily Meetup fees and domain name and webhosting.
Topic
The open science movement calls for open sharing of research findings and greater trust, transparency, and reuseability in making claims and reporting results. A researcher-to-researcher training community known as Carpentry (Software Carpentry, Data Carpentry, and others) has emerged to prepare researchers to practice open science using more open and collaborative practices; open source tools; and openly licensed and distributed methods, data, code.
In this program, the Head of Research Services at the Caltech Library will describe the Carpentry movement; illustrate how lesson development and delivery takes place; and lead participants through a sample interactive lesson from Data Carpentry.
There will be an interactive lesson. Please bring a fully charged
laptop.
Installation instructions and lesson outline will be
posted ahead of time. OpenX has guest wifi. We will comment in
the Meetup, if there are any updates.
Bio
Gail P. Clement (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5494-4806) is a Library Administrator and science research librarian who serves as Head of Research Services at the Caltech Library. She leads a team of subject librarians, repository, metadata and licensing specialists who develop knowledge management resources, publishing services, and authorship programs for the Caltech community. In this role she also represents Caltech Library on the Organizational Advisory Assembly for the Research Data Alliance, the Committee on Publication Ethics, and the Overleaf Steering Committee. She is a certified Data Carpentry Instructor, specializing in research data cleaning and enhancement; data sharing; and citation and publication of all research outputs.
As Coordinator of Author Carpentry - a researcher training program in 21st century authorship and publishing - Gail collaborates with developers and researchers to create practical, hands-on, and useful lessons in responsible, reproducible, and reuseable research publication. Author Carpentry builds on a pilot lesson from Software Carpentryon Scientific Authorship. Author Carpentry workshops are offered at Caltech and through professional groups such as the CODATA-RDA Summer School in Research Data Science and the Association for Artificial Intelligence 2017 Tutorial Forum.
Gail’s professional leadership includes membership on the Research Data Alliance-CODATA Legal Interoperability of Research Data Interest Group, mentoring researchers from developing nations via AuthorAid; and service on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication (JLSC) where she co-edited the 2015 special issue on data sharing, data publication, and data citation. She also serves on the License Review Committee and the Scholarly Communication Taskforce of the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium
DIRECTIONS
OpenX is located in the One West Bank building @ 888 E Walnut St. Pasadena CA, 91101. Entrances to the building are eastbound on Walnut, right hand side before the Lake St. intersection or southbound on Lake St. right hand side after the Walnut St. intersection. Once through the driveway, please park in the 888 Lot that has the OpenX logo displayed out front. Pull a ticket and bring it with you to the Meetup, we will validate your parking.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/03/09/data-carpentry-and-open-science/
date: 2017-02-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
There is no formal presentation this month. We will have adhoc talks and discussions. We’ll also talk about SCALE 15x.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/02/09/scale-open-mic-night/
date: 2017-01-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
There is no formal presentation this month. We will have adhoc talks and discussions including:
SCALE 15x - registration, discount code, booth, SCALE A/V volunteers needed
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment
Experiments with BeagleBone Black and ESP8266 wifi chip
(tentative) Raspberry Pi project
Survey of desired SGVLUG talks for 2017
https://www.sgvlug.org/2017/01/12/scale-open-mic-night/
date: 2016-12-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The wonderful folks at OpenX are hosting this meeting, and they
are also providing food. We need to provide a list of names to building
security. RSVPs will be capped at 40. Contact Lan if you have questions.
See end of description for OpenX map
Note: Our original speaker, Christian Weber, had to cancel, but he sent us another speaker, Jennie Ohyoung, who is also a Solutions Engineer at GitHub. The topic has changed slightly.
Final Note: Our actual speaker was Michelle Unger who was gracious enough to fill in at the last minute. Jennie Ohyoung was unable to make it due to flight cancellation. Much thanks to Jamie Wetzel for coordinating on GitHub side.
Topic
We will be covering the new features that were announced at GitHub Universe as well as how GitHub and other organizations use the GitHub’s webhooks and API to enhance their existing workflows within GitHub.
Bio
Timetable:
7:00pm - People start to arrive and socialize
7:15pm - SGVLUG meeting begins with announcements, Linux in the News
7:30pm - Presentation. (NOTE: Speaker may have to leave early.)
8:45pm - End meeting, clean up
Directions
OpenX is located in the One West Bank building @ 888 E Walnut St. Pasadena CA, 91101. Please note that due to construction, there is only one entrance for parking and the Meetup entrance has changed to be off Walnut St. Entrance to the parking structure is currently available only on Lake Ave. Once through the driveway, please park in the 888 Lot that has the OpenX logo displayed out front. (If you park in the wrong structure, we will not be able to validate.) Pull a ticket and bring it with you to the Meetup, we will validate your parking. See map below for details.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/12/08/github-new-features-and-webhooks-and-api/
date: 2016-11-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This month, we are hosted by
Everbridge at their training
center.
Everbridge is also sponsoring food and drink.
Note: The GitHub Webhooks talk with Christian Weber originally scheduled for tonight is posponed to Dec. 8th (next LUG meetng) due to speaker illness. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Mike Weilgart graciously agreed to be our last-minute substitute with his well-received “Git Foundations: Basic Concepts and Definitions,” which was presented at UUASC and LOPSA-LA.
Topic
Dozens of commands! Hundreds of options! Git has dumbfounded sysadmins and developers alike since its appearance in 2005. And yet, this ingenious software is among the most fantastically useful ever developed. Learn Git from the ground up and the inside out with Git Foundations Training! This talk explores Git’s internals in depth.
Bio
Mike Weilgart has loved maths and computers all his life. Graduating high school at the age of 13, he thereafter worked in a variety of positions including software QA, calculus teacher, and graphic design, before resolving to put his love of computers to professional use as a Linux sysadmin and trainer. Mike currently consults at a Fortune 50 company as an automation specialist, and enjoys nothing more than training people to full mastery of their tools.
Timetable:
7:00pm - People start to arrive and socialize
7:30pm - SGVLUG meeting begins with announcements, Linux in the News, and then the presentation.
9:00pm - End meeting, clean up
Directions
The building is on Hudson Ave, between Colorado and Green St. The meeting room is off Hudson, next to the first floor gym with the classic glass walls and gym equipment. You are responsible for your own parking. The onsite parking is very expensive. Please check the Parkopedia link for your options or take public transit.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/11/10/git-foundations-basic-concepts-and-definitions/
date: 2016-10-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This month, we are hosted by New Matter, a new 3D printing company incubated at Idealab. Please RSVP on Meetup or email Lan (L dot Dang at ymail dot com). We’ll head out to Du-Par’s Restaurant and Bakery (214 S Lake Ave, Pasadena) around 9:15pm for a late dinner.
Abstract:
Dave Flynn will share his extensive experience with 3D printing from the past 4 years, as well as his motivations for designing and building his own 3D printer. Specifically, his experience is with the RepRap style of 3D printers.
The presentation will be short as Dave much prefers answering questions.
We welcome the 3D printing community–whether they are experts or neophytes– to share the things they’ve printed and spark a conversation about what we can do with 3D printing, how to get started, and how 3D printing can be used for art, home, hobby, and work.
Please contact Lan if you are bringing something for show and tell or want to do a lightning talk.
Bio:
David M. Flynn
Engineer, Technician, Maker
1985 BA Industrial Arts (Metal Technology) CSULA
1987 Paper tape reader emulator, Apple //e, Pascal, 6502 assembly, Wire- wraped I/O Card
1991 Single spindle PCB driller w/ automatic tool change, Mac SE30+, Galil 730
1995 Oxford V.U.E., Inc., Cupric chloride etcher controller (Vis-U-Etch 5), TTL logic
1999 Vis-U-Etch 7, PIC16F877 based w/ ethernet
2012 First 3D printer (Bukobot 1, Deezmaker), Cable drive, Arduino Mega based.
2012-2015 Lots-o-stuff, Tank, Nerf cannon, Robots, etc.
2015 Designed and built a screw drive rep-rap 3D printer, Arm M3, Smoothieware.
2016 Update and upgrade of 3D printer. Beaglebone (Arm A8), Replicape, Redeem.
DIRECTIONS
Idealab is located is located on Union Street near Pasadena Avenue in Old Town Pasadena. Parking is not provided; you advised to park at one of the Pasadena city lots. You can also check Parkopedia for more detailed parking options.
Idealab is host to many companies, including New Matter. We are meeting in the large open are known as Darwin; you will be escorted by New Matter employees.
TIMETABLE
6:30pm - Setup
7:00pm - People start to arrive and socialize
7:30pm - SGVLUG meeting begins with announcements, Linux in the News, and then the presentation
9:00pm - End meeting, clean up, and then head over to Du-Par’s
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/10/13/3d-printing-what-is-it-good-for-anyway/
date: 2016-09-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Abstract:
Text is everywhere but not always in a useful form. On any given day we encounter dozens or hundreds of data formats. Some formats are focused on presentation while others focus on structure at the expense of presentation. Many times the information we need has to be found, disentangled and manipulated before it is useful. The easier we can navigate across these boundaries, the more freedom we have to find new uses and insights.
Linux offers a rich array of commands and tools for text processing at the command line. This talk proposes a classification for different types of command line processing tasks and then explores some of the common tools available within each category. Many of these tools have a host of options. Some useful but lesser known options will be highlighted. The tools will then be applied to a number of examples covering data extraction, processing and presentation.
Bio:
Joel Steres spends most of his time at the command prompt. He is still amazed at how small specialized building blocks can be combined to achieve big results.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/09/08/text-processing-at-the-linux-command-line/
date: 2016-08-20, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
You and your friends and family are invited to the SGVLUG & SGVHAK potluck BBQ on Saturday, August 20th from 4pm to 10pm to Lan’s house in the city of San Gabriel.
More details about the BBQ can be found here:
https://goo.gl/forms/sDJZPbZUTPcyQ7bA3
Please RSVP no later than August 18th. Some Google scripting magic automatically updates the form with how many people are expected and what people say they are bringing.
Upon submission of RSVP, you will be directed to a confirmation page with directions to Lan’s house, as well as contact info. You can submit an updated RSVP at any time. Lan regularly updates the spreadsheet back-end to keep things accurate and will contact you if you have questions.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/08/20/sgvlugsgvhak-bbq-4/
date: 2016-08-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Abstract:
What do amateur radio operators, small businesses, giant corporations, E911 systems, and Linux hobbyists all have in common?
Well, besides using Linux, they all are using an application called Asterisk, in one of its many forms, to handle telecommunications.
Amateur radio operators can interlink plain old telephone systems with repeaters, small businesses can appear to the world to be a large corporation with custom interactive voice response menus, and hobbyists can lower their home phone bill to as little as a $1.00 per month with $0.0015/minute call charges.
Not to mention to have a phone number virtually anywhere in the world termin ate at your home,
The presentation will introduce Asterisk, its applications, basic Python scripting, and many other things.
Bio:
Dr. Paul Wilkinson holds a PhD in Computer Science from Durham University, one of England’s foremost, and third oldest, universities. His also holds undergraduate degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Physics as well as a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics. During the course of his career, he has worked for a “think tank” doing mathematical modeling, then the U.S. Navy, thins the senior civilian, and reserve, for one of the largest police departments in California.
Now he is a Professor of Computer Science at Pasadena City College. He holds and Extra Class amateur radio license and is very active within the hobby as well as integrating Linux and amateur radio into one cohesive unit.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/08/11/how-to-make-the-world-ring-for-you/
date: 2016-07-15, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This month, SGVLUG and InfoSec Syndicate member Ray S will give a brief history on P2P software technology, applications and implementations.
Abstract:
The P2P and the World of Tomorrow presentation will address a brief history on the development on P2P software technology, applications and implementations by the end user. Applications such as Audio Galaxy, Napster, Direct Connect, Gnutella, Freenet, eDonkey2000, Kazaa, Morpheus, BitTorrent and Soulseek will be discussed in the presentation. End user usage patterns based on net cultural behavioral norms will be addressed as well as the development of conflict as result of practicing such norms on a end user case-by-case basis. Media attention and changes in policies of governance in relation to P2P technology and usage are topics that will be touched on in the presentation. New changes in P2P technology being made to maneuver difficulties that have arisen from changes in governance policies are addressed later in the presentation. The presentation’s conclusion addresses technological responsibility and safety practices the audience can use to prevent themselves from becoming a marginalized end user as in the cases discussed earlier in the presentation.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/07/14/p2p-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/
date: 2016-06-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Topic
Many good, experienced high-level language programmers do not learn C or C++ well until they suddenly need to write an FFI extension, make an emergency patch to an existing C or C++ codebase, re-implement the bottleneck component in the application stack in a fast language, take an attractive job with a low-level programming component, or otherwise move from their comfortable language of choice and swallow the Red Pill of coding closer to the machine. If you are already a programmer, you don’t need to be taught how to program, and your google-fu is strong for looking up detailed syntax. Instead, this will be a crash course in leveraging skills you learned in a high-level environment and transferring them to these low-level tools, acquiring some new skills you simply never needed before, and a building a mental picture of where the road to expert, idiomatic mastery lies. We will focus on plain C because C++ is too complex to cover well in a single talk, but much of the material will apply directly to C++. Perhaps surprisingly, some of it will even make you a better programmer in your favorite comfortable, higher-level language.
Bio
Some little-known facts about Dustin Laurence:
His first exposure to computers was playing Colossal Cave
Adventure and the bootleg Fortran IV version of Zork on his cousin’s
work mainframe using a glass teletype and a modem with a cradle for the
handset.
His first good programming language was C. He lies and pretends that C is where he learned to program because 8-bit BASIC is embarrassing.
He once gave up trying to learn the libc low-level I/O functions from the Ultrix man pages because he thought a buffer must be some kind of abstract data type provided by the C library and he couldn’t find any documentation.
He once confidently predicted that Linux was a temporary fad that would be replaced by BSD for serious work once the Berkeley codebase was completely free. It’s probably a good thing he doesn’t gamble.
He avoids social media for the same reason he doesn’t do crack cocaine.
Directions
OpenX is located in the One West Bank building @ 888 E Walnut St. Pasadena CA, 91101. Entrances to the building are eastbound on Walnut, right hand side before the Lake St. intersection or southbound on Lake St. right hand side after the Walnut St. intersection. Once through the driveway, please park in the 888 Lot that has the OpenX logo displayed out front. Pull a ticket and bring it with you to the Meetup, we will validate your parking.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/06/09/survival-at-c-swallowing-the-red-pill/
date: 2016-05-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We are doing informal, short presentations this month.
Lan will provide a basic introduction to Git and GitHub
Joel S. will do a survey of commandline text processing tools.
Drew, our resident openSUSE guy, will also get the floor.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/05/12/gitgithub-cli-text-processing-tools-opensuse/
date: 2016-04-15, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The wonderful folks at OpenX are hosting this meeting, and they are also providing pizza. We need to provide a list of names to building security. RSVPs will be capped at 50.
Topic
In this talk, Zhangfan Xing will present webification (w10n), a data virtualization technology that simplifies use of resources on the web platform.
He will discuss science data challenges and share his experience on developing open source solutions for NASA/JPL. In particular, he will use webification for science (w10n-sci) as an example to demonstrate how one can bring together a diverse set of data and visualize them, using modern web browser, in a rapid and effective fashion.
He will also introduce the audience to the rich data collections available at NASA data centers and elaborate on their potential values to web data innovators.
Bio
Zhangfan Xing is a technical lead at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For over a decade, he has been architecting and developing Information Technology solutions for many NASA funded mission operations and research projects. He is specialized in search technology, data analysis, web services and their application to mission critical information and massive scientific datasets. His recent work on webification has lead to novel web-based applications that have had impact on NASA’s mission operations and opened doors for the creation of advanced data access and visualization technologies. He is among the first in realizing the potential of the Web Platform as it applies to science data.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/04/14/webification-w10n-and-nasa-data-collections/
date: 2016-03-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The wonderful folks at OpenX are hosting this meeting and
providing pizza and drinks. We need to provide a list of names to
building security. We require RSVPs by 5pm on Tuesday, March 8th. Please
keep RSVPs up-to-date, particularly if we have a waitlist. RSVPs will be
capped at 70.
Topic
OnSight is a tool that allows scientists to work on Mars through the power of virtual reality. The Mars terrain displayed in OnSight is produced from real images sent back by the Curiosity rover, and rendered at 1:1 scale, as if the user were actually standing on Mars. Behind this exciting user experience is a powerful backend infrastructure that continually produces 3D terrain reconstructions as new images are sent back by the Curiosity rover.
The terrain build system automatically detects when new images are available, dynamically starts and stops computing instances to handle the workload, and presents dashboards to view the progress of terrain builds. The system runs on Amazon’s cloud services platform, using a mix of Linux and Windows virtual computing instances. The system leverages a variety of open source projects including NodeJS, LoopBack, Ansible, Jenkins, AngularJS, and BootStrap. In this talk will focus on the cloud computing aspects of the terrain system, rather than on image processing. I will present a detailed look at the parts of this system, and discuss the team’s experience adapting a desktop data processing workflow to a cloud architecture. Please join me for an applied look at how data processing challenges can be addressed in a cloud computing environment.
Bio
Parker Abercrombie is a software engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he builds software to support Mars science missions. He has a special interest in geographic information systems, and has worked with teams at NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy on systems for geographic visualization and data management. Parker holds an M.A. in Geography from Boston University, and a B.S. in Creative Studies with emphasis in Computer Science (which he swears is more technical than it sounds) from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In his spare time, Parker enjoys baking bread and playing the Irish wooden flute.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/03/10/a-cloud-based-architecture-for-processing-3d-mars-terrain/
date: 2016-02-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The wonderful folks at OpenX are hosting this meeting and
providing pizza and drinks. We need to provide a list of names to
building security. We require RSVPs by 5pm on Tuesday, Feb 9th. Please
keep RSVPs up-to-date, particularly if we have a waitlist. RSVPs will be
capped at 70.
Big thanks to Bobby at OpenX for making the arrangements.
Topic
Liz Krane started the Learn to Code LA meetup group in 2015, and with perseverance and some luck, the community grew to over 2200 members in less than a year. In this talk, she will share what she learned by building a community from scratch in a field she knew nothing about.
How do you build a community? From small open-source projects to international movements, communities amplify our individual motivations and enable us to create meaningful changes in the world. And on a personal level, communities are essential for our well-being as social animals. What makes for a successful community, and how do you persuade other people to get involved?
Bio
Liz Krane is the founder of Learn to Code LA, a community that introduces new people to computer science and programming with classes and fun events.Liz is a professional dabbler who dreams of learning something about everything. Previously a research assistant at USC Annenberg, she currently works as a freelance web developer, writer, photographer and designer, exploring the intersections between technology, education and journalism.
Plan
At about 7:30pm, we’ll start the meeting with LUG business and Linux in the News. The talk will start shortly afterwards.
Since we didn’t get to raffle off much stuff at our booth at SCALE, we’ll be doing some raffles during the next few meetings. We will draw for the raffle before and after the talk. You will get a raffle ticket just for showing up. You may earn extra raffle tickets for audience participation.
Directions
OpenX is located in the One West Bank building @ 888 E Walnut St. Pasadena CA, 91101. Entrances to the building are eastbound on Walnut, right hand side before the Lake St. intersection or southbound on Lake St. right hand side after the Walnut St. intersection. Once through the driveway, please park in the 888 Lot that has the OpenX logo displayed out front. Pull a ticket and bring it with you to the Meet-Up, we will validate your parking.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/02/11/building-a-community/
date: 2016-01-15, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This month, SGVLUG member Carlos Meza will preview his SCALE 14x talk on DNSSEC. Why should you care?
“DNSSec is an absolute requirement if we want to … use the Internet for anything non-trivial.” - Cricket Liu, Leading expert on the Domain Name System (DNS)
“The Internet needs this technology and it needs it now” - Vint Cerf, Father of the Internet
“It is arguably one of the most important security improvements to the Internet ever.” -Steve Crocker, Internet Pioneer and Chair of the Board of ICANN
Abstract:
DNS (Domain Name System) is used by everyone who is a consumer of the Internet. It is a core component of the Internet, yet it is completely insecure. This puts us all at risk. DNSSEC offers a solution to address the vulnerabilities of DNS . For this reason I hope stir up demand and motivation to deploy DNSSEC.
We will go over the basic of DNS and its vulnerabilities. Then we will go over how DNSSEC works and the solution it provides. As users, we will look at why it is important for our safety to require that our service providers (ISPs, Registrars, Hosted Services (banking, commerce, etc)) provide DNSSEC. And we will also look at some user-end tools available to advantage of DNSSEC today. We will go over reasons why companies would want to make the effort and investment. For sysadmins, we will go over tools to aid with deployment and some considerations to be aware of.
At its essence, DNS translates names, that humans understand, to IP addresses, that computers understand. This is how we are able to find other computers on the Internet (webpages, email servers, etc). But DNS does not provide a way to validate the answer we receive. This exposes all of us to a large vulnerability. Exploits such as DNS hijacking and DNS cache poisoning miss direct us and can lead us to potentially malicious computers. DNSSEC provides a solution to this by allowing authentication of DNS data through a chain-of- trust. Being able to trust DNS goes a long way to creating a safer Internet.
When we can trust DNS other things become possible. We can now leverage DNS to store other information such as cryptographic keys. This means we can store and trust self signed SSL certificates in DNS because it is now a trusted source. This eliminates the need for certificate authorities and the issues with them.
DNSSEC is a great improvement on a fundamental component of the Internet we all us.
Biography:
Carlos has worked many years as a system administrator. His interest include InfoSec, site reliability and automation, and open source development. While volunteering as an Interop Team Member, he was introduced to the significance of DNSSEC.
Links:
https://www.sgvlug.org/2016/01/14/dnssec/
date: 2015-12-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
There is no formal presentation this month. We will go for adhoc talks and discussions including:
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/12/10/year-in-review-scale-and-open-mic-night/
date: 2015-11-15, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
SGVLUG is turning 20 and the entire Southern California Linux community is invited to share in the celebration with fun, food, and prizes! Whether you’re a new or a veteran user, there’s something for everyone as we reflect on what we’ve accomplished together and envision where we’re going – all powered by our favorite operating system.
We welcome former members who may have lost touch and want to reconnect with us see and some familiar faces (and some new ones too). We also would love to meet others Linux users from other groups around SoCal and hear what other groups are up to. Food and drinks will be provided, graciously sponsored by our venue host OpenX.
We have some great things planned for a night of fun:
RSVP @ Eventbrite
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/11/14/twentieth-anniversary/
date: 2015-10-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Abstract:
We will cover how to set up and define your home IT services from code. Topics covered will range from installing the puppet master service, through setting up the agent service, to defining common service modules in a RedHat based environment. Cross platform topics, including writing modules to support Windows and Ubuntu, will be covered in as much detail as interest permits.
Biography:
Matt Campbell has been active in technology and electronics since the late 80s in a variety of roles. His background spans technical expertise in Unix OS and kernel design, the marriage of art and technology in feature film special effects, and delivery of solutions on cloud, database, virtualized, and mobile platforms.
Matt’s first company was founded on principles similar to modern dev-ops practices. Defining the data structures of DVD authoring by developing a language describing the desired layout and interaction allowed the studio to deliver products for a fraction of the cost of competitors while supporting interactivity unavailable to the major studios at the time.
Currently a corporate technology strategist, he is defining services for a post cloud world with a 200,000-employee organization facing billion dollar technology budgets and rapid growth.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/10/08/automating-basic-it-functions-with-puppet/
date: 2015-09-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
You and your family are cordially invited to the SGVLUG & SGVHAK potluck BBQ on Saturday, September 19th from 3:30pm to 10pm in the city of San Gabriel.
Please RSVP by September 17th by filling out this Google form.
You will receive directions to the venue after you submit the RSVP. You can revise your RSVP at any time. Some Google scripting magic automatically updates the RSVP with how many people are expected and what people say they are bringing. Obviously, the earlier you RSVP, the more accurately we can plan.
Hope to see you there!
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/09/14/sgvlugsgvhak-bbq-3/
date: 2015-09-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This month, long-time SGVLUG member Dustin Laurence reprises his SCALE 13x talk. We’ll also be talking about the SGVLUG BBQ for September, the 20th anniversary party plans for November, and SCALE 14x.
Abstract:
The details of how cryptographic algorithms are designed, implemented, verified, and assembled into cryptosystems requires expert knowledge. Fortunately, the big picture of how the resulting cryptosystems are used does not. For most users and even most programmers, the underlying algorithms are black boxes that they do not and need not understand, while the language and conceptual framework of modern cryptography are very useful in putting those algorithms to practical use.
We will sketch out that conceptual framework at action-movie speed using the simplest of classical cryptographic algorithms to represent the modern black boxes for concreteness while studing everything but the algorithms themselves. After the presentation you should understand: elementary cryptographic language, security as a probabalistic rather than absolute guarantee, why the size of the keyspace matters, why practical security depends on choosing keys randomly, what side-channel attacks are, what public-key cryptography is, and what a digital signature is. You should also have the basic conceptual framework and vocabulary for further study or self-study. The presentation should be accessible to beginners of all ages.
Biography:
Intending to become a programmer (“developer” hadn’t been invented by the marketing department yet), Dustin got sidetracked and spent more time than he cares to admit doing theoretical physics, a background filled with continuous mathematics almost entirely irrelevant to computer science and cryptography. He eventually returned to his original love, and these days writes cryptographic and embedded software for Gem, Inc. He believes that every programmer and indeed every citizen must be cryptographically literate in the world he and many, many others are busy creating. He avoids social media for the same reason he doesn’t do crack cocaine.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/09/10/action-movie-crypto/
date: 2015-08-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Retired schoolteacher John “Juan” Slayton will share his cool hardware/software project, Desknet, which is aimed at allowing children to do computer-aided drills using one laptop and multiple wireless keyboards.
Behavioral Objectives:
Biography:
John Slayton is a native of Kansas City (Missouri side), but mostly grew up in California. He received an MA from UCLA in Linguistics.
In the early 80’s he became increasingly dissatisfied with his kids’ experience in the public schools and went back to school (Cal Poly Pomona) to get a California teaching credential. He tried to get a job with El Monte City Schools, and wound up spending the next 21 years teaching bilingual classes at LeGore School. His class became his lab in which he could try new things, not all of which turned out well. But some worked. The Desknet project is one of these.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/08/13/desknet-computer-aided-math-drills-for-children/
date: 2015-07-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The old saying goes that “everyone has a book inside of them”, and advances in technology have made publishing more accessible than ever. The opportunities in traditional and independent publishing are wide open. But writing a book remains a daunting task, and new authors will encounter many steps along the way.
What does it take to publish information in the digital age? Hybrid author Nathan Haines discusses working with traditional publishers that use proprietary software and formats, and describes the self-publishing process from start to finish. From ebooks to print, is Free and Open Source Software up to the task?
Biography:
Nathan Haines is an author, instructor, and computer consultant who fell in love with Ubuntu in 2005, and helped found the Ubuntu California Local Community Team to share that excitement with others. As a current leader of the California team and a member of the Ubuntu Local Community Council, he works to help others support and share Ubuntu worldwide.
His mission to educate and excite people about Free Software and Ubuntu continues with his upcoming book, Beginning Ubuntu Linux for Windows and Mac Users.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/07/09/writing-and-publishing-books-with-free-software/
date: 2015-06-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
TOPIC
Docker is a hot trend in today’s tech community, making it easier than ever to containerize and deploy modern, and legacy software applications. While often mistaken for virtualization, containers take a new, lightweight approach to abstracting and isolating the runtime environment, dependencies and networking required by modern software.
This talk will cover how to get started with Docker, best practices for containers and example workflows for developing and deploying containers locally and in cloud environments. After this talk you should have the essential building blocks for building a containerized environment and application stack.
BIO
Dan is an IT Data Scientist in the Office of Chief Technology and Innovation at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he is using the latest software and open hardware technology to bring new ways of working with big data and computing infrastructure to space missions. In the past, Dan has worked for a handful of startups and has been an avid Linux user for many years.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/06/11/docker/
date: 2015-05-15, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The wonderful folks at OpenX are hosting this meeting and providing pizza and drinks. Consequently, we require RSVPs 48 hours in advance. RSVPs are currently capped at 35. We may open it up if there is demand. Please keep RSVPs up-to-date.
We will socialize and eat around 6pm, and the talk will start at 7pm. Big thanks to Bobby at OpenX for making the arrangements.
TOPIC
Andrew Hamilton will go over the basics of Ansible and discuss why it’s a great tool for running simple commands, complex tasks and workflows across a group of systems.
Ansible is a powerful but simple automation tool. Ansible is simple enough that most developers and administrators will be able to understand the scripts without much trouble. With this simplicity, Ansible is great for organizations looking for a tool that both dev and ops can use together. The YAML based syntax of Ansible is also much easier to understand than the DSL that some other tools use.
BIO
Andrew is currently a Systems Architect at Prevoty where he focuses on automation and infrastructure. Previously he was an SRE for Search @Twitter and a system administrator for Eucalyptus. Andrew is passionate about cloud computing and automation.
DIRECTIONS
OpenX is located in the One West Bank building @ 888 E Walnut St. Pasadena CA, 91101. Entrances to the building are eastbound on Walnut, right hand side before the Lake St. intersection or southbound on Lake St. right hand side after the Walnut St. intersection. Once through the driveway, please park in the 888 Lot that has the OpenX logo displayed out front. Pull a ticket and bring it with you to the Meet-Up, we will validate your parking.
MORE ON ANSIBLE:
Ansible has many features common to configuration management systems such as Puppet and Chef. Ansible uses a simple execution model compared to Puppet and Chef that is much easier for new users to understand. The majority of the modules it provides are indepotent so a playbook can be run multiple times without causing problems by running a change multiple times if it isn’t needed. The use of YAML to describe your playbooks also makes creating and editing Ansible playbooks much easier.
Interacting directly with services such as AWS, GCE, Azure or OpenStack is easy through a set of provided modules. Ansible allows you to create an entire deployment framework with one tool that can provision hosts, configure and install software, add and remove servers from a load balancer and finally terminate the old instances. Ansible can also use dynamically generated lists of hosts making it easy to work in highly dynamic environments.
One of the most powerful features of Ansible is that hosts are accessed over SSH. There is no need to install additional daemons or to open up additional ports. You can simply write a playbook, give it a set of hosts to run against, provide a set of credentials and watch Ansible do what you’ve told it to do.
You also don’t need to give Ansible access to root unless it is required for the playbook. Ansible can use either sudo or su to escalate privileges for single tasks or entire playbooks.
Ansible core is written in Python so it’s easy to run and extend. If Python is your language of choice, Ansible provides you with a set of modules that make writing your own modules easy. If you’re not a Python developer, Ansible allows modules to be written in any language that can accept JSON through STDIN and then return JSON back to through STDOUT. Ansible can also be used as a library in Python that allows you to easily take advantage of some of its features in custom scripts. Ansible is a flexible tool that allows users to easily perform both adhoc remote command execution and configuration management across a group of hosts. Getting started with Ansible is easy and has relatively low overhead. Ansible playbooks are simple enough that they can be compared with shell scripts. We’ll go over the basics of Ansible and discuss why it’s a great tool for running simple commands, complex tasks and workflows across a group of systems.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/05/14/ansible/
date: 2015-04-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Dan Buthusiem will help you get an idea of what Linux is, and how to get started with it in a totally non-committal way. Learn how to use Linux the same way you would use your computer of choice to do non-nerd things, like email, along with a few potentially nerdy things along the way.
Recommended Materials:
1 laptop
1 empty USB drive of at least 4 GB (8 or more preferred)
Speaker: Dan Buthusiem
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/04/09/getting-stared-with-linux-a-non-nerds-guide/
date: 2015-03-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
OpenSCAD is a free software program for 3D CAD modelling. Instead of an interactive environment it uses a descriptive description language to build objects. Dave Flynn will explain this and more:
What is Open SCAD?
What type of project is Open SCAD and 3D printing good for?
Organizing the part so it will be printable.
What is manifold anyway?
Building a complex part from simple objects.
In a demo of the process I will recreate a wheel from my Tank project.
Speaker: Dave Flynn
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/03/12/openscad/
date: 2015-02-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Streaming-OODT was originally conceived to overcome the limitations of traditional big-data processing and management systems. It is based on an open source data processing framework called OODT (Object Oriented Data Technology) and was funded by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Big Data Research & Technology Development initiative “Archiving, Processing and Dissemination for the Big Data Era”. The vision behind the project is to combine state-of-the- art technologies into an easy-to-use big-data processing system prepackaged to allow users to quickly process big-data without the need to patch together individual technologies.
Streaming-OODT provides both traditional batch processing as well as in-memory MapReduce processing for use on general computing clusters. Cluster management and multi-tenancy is provided via Apache Mesos, which manages batch processing as well as the Streaming-OODT’s underlying technologies. This ensures that multi-tenancy is applied to both the system and the user’s processing.
Apache Spark provides in-memory MapReduce processing enabling processing at speeds hundreds of times faster than Hadoop MapReduce. This system is augmented by Apache Kafka used to manage streaming data. This enables the user to process streaming data alongside traditional data in Apache Spark and thus tackle data-sets too large to persist en-masse to disk, while not losing the ability to process data sets that already exist on disk.
Tachyon, an in-memory distributed file system, provides lightning-fast distributed access to data files and streams on all nodes of the cluster. Persistence is provided by Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) thus allowing the user both fast data access and persistence to disk.
The purpose of this talk is to demonstrate Streaming-OODT, which will enable the audience to use Streaming-OODT and supporting technologies to quickly tackle their own big-data problems. The talk will introduce Streaming-OODT, show how to quickly install and configure the system, explain the value added by the underlying technologies, and walk through a working example of big-data processing. Finally, benchmarks will be presented so that the audience can see the benefit of these technologies and their combination.
Speaker: Michael Starch
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/02/12/streaming-oodt-an-open-source-platform-for-big-data-processing/
date: 2015-01-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Come to this meetup to understand more about Red Hat and OpenShift, Red Hat’s multi-language platform-of-a-service solution.
About Red Hat:
As you can imagine, Red Hat has grown from a single Linux distribution to a 20 year old, 1.5+ billion USD company with a portfolio of products in Operating System, Virtualization, Storage, Middleware and Cloud. We’ll do a general overview of the company and talk about where the company is going to in the future.
About Red Hat OpenShift:
OpenShift is Red Hat’s award winning, #1 leader on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that allows developers to quickly develop, host, and scale applications in a cloud environment.
Speaker:
Albert T. Wong is a solution architect at Red Hat. Jack of all trades in JavaEE, Red Hat and IBM Software and open source. Has a deep background in eCommerce and building, deploying and scaling very large websites. Albert is a UC Irvine Information and Computer Science alum.
Presentation Material:
https://www.sgvlug.org/2015/01/08/red-hat-and-open-shift/
date: 2014-12-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
AROS is an open source re-implementation of Amiga OS 3.1. This year with the Directory Opus 5 bounty, the ABI V1 on-trunk merge and the release of Icaros v2, that will be covered, it has been a very significant year for the project.
Simone Bernacchia is a web developer with a background as graphic artist and musician on a couple of Amiga games. He also has a blog where he writes about retro Amiga games, protracker music composing and AROS.
Speaker: Simone Bernacchia
Presentation Material: PDF
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/12/11/aros-research-operating-system/
date: 2014-10-30, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This talk will cover the stories and engineering challenges faced by the Null Space Labs High Altitude Ballooning team and how they designed, analyzed, and flew hardware and software to survive the harsh conditions of near space. Recent flights include CUBEX, a payload capable of live image transmission, solar changing, power management, and position reporting, as well as the HABEXpico flight which flew half way across the United States.
Presenter: Arko
Links mentioned in the talk:
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/10/29/amateur-high-altitude-ballooning/
date: 2014-10-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Git is a popular distributed version control system, and GitHub is a platform for Git users to share their code and projects with others, among other things. Lan will share tips and tricks for Git and GitHub that will be useful to users of all levels. Feel free to come and share your own tips.
Presenter: Lan Dang
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/10/08/git-and-github-tips-and-tricks/
date: 2014-09-06, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
PostgreSQL is the only open source database that supports identifying users with either of the non-password standards, and the ability to do it on both Windows and Unix platforms. Henry Hotz will illustrate how to make use of each, and discuss the security implications of using better authentication mechanisms.
Presenter: Henry Hotz
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/09/05/postgresql-authentication-mechanisms/
date: 2014-08-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Christefano Reyes and Lee Vodra will present: Building Droplabs: A Business Model for the Open Source Community
Founded in 2011, Droplabs is a coworking space, classroom and makerspace in Downtown Los Angeles. Our community is made up of members who support each other personally and professionally in a positive environment.
The coworking services and developer programs we offer, like Free Coworking Days, Coders with a Cause, Mobile Device Lab and Developer Boot Camps, were made possible because of our love of open source and a passion for learning.
We’d love to see more places like Droplabs, and we’re happy to talk at SGVLUG about how others can replicate our success - and avoid or overcome the challenges we’ve had over the years:
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/08/11/building-droplabs-a-business-model-for-the-open-source-community/
date: 2014-07-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
James McDuffie gave a presentation on his Raspberry Pi Camera project. He has hollowed out a film camera and put in a Raspberry Pi, camera, and some other electronics to make a retro-looking camera that actually takes digital photos -and- allows ssh access.
He had close-up pictures of the electronic components and detailed explanations of why he chose a particular component, why he modified it, and how it fit into the project. James’ particular focus was on energy efficiency, so he went through a lot of trouble to modify the board to use 3.3v power from a cellphone battery. He also looked for low-power components and ways to save power. Because there is no leds or lcd, he used beeps to provide feedback from the camera during operation. He also has a six-position knob that allows him to do things like turn on the system, turn off the camera portion, or to send the halt command to the Raspberry Pi. There is room for more features.
He has set up a webserver on the Raspberry Pi using nginx and Flask. This allows access to the photos on the Pi. Aside from a serial connection and the controls from the camera, the only way to “talk” to the Raspberry Pi is through the webserver or ssh. The Raspberry Pi is set up to automatically connect to known networks in the wpa supplicants file. The actual camera operation is handled through a Python library called picamera.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/07/09/raspberry-pi-retro-camera/
date: 2014-06-05, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
After over 12 years trying to get the video games studio industry to both create and use more open source software and unrestricted hardware, Jared Hardy finally gave up on those proprietary-minded fools, and started building NELA-ISC.Net instead. In the process of bootstrapping this Northeast LA community utility cooperative (still in progress), he discovered the catch-22 of funding nonprofit community projects that can never take any tax deductible donations or returns-based investments. He then started the deductible- donation accepting Data Roads Foundation to help solve that catch-22 investment problem – among other issues inherent to all cooperatively owned networks. More about that and his other yak shaving projects are available in the links below:
If the content in these links create more questions than answers, that will provide good conversation fodder for Thursday night 6/12!
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/06/04/data-roads-data-flow-centric-networks-and-dafodel/
date: 2014-05-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
You and your family are cordially invited to the SGVLUG & SGVHAK potluck BBQ on Saturday, May 17th from 11am to 6pm in the city of San Gabriel.
Please RSVP by May 15th by filling out this Google form: https://bit.ly/QpLJeP
You will receive directions to the venue after you submit the RSVP. You can revise your RSVP at any time. Some Google scripting magic automatically updates the RSVP with how many people are expected and what people say they are bringing. Obviously, the earlier you RSVP, the more accurately we can plan.
Hope to see you there!
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/05/13/sgvlugsgvhak-bbq-2/
date: 2014-05-05, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
This month we will have a focused sort of open mic night. We will be featuring a sort of show and tell for projects. If you have been working on something in your spare time then we can find time for you to tell us about it. Bring hardware, pictures or slides, whatever you need to let us know the cool things you are doing. After getting our dinner orders in we will informally invite people to share.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/05/05/show-off-your-projects/
date: 2014-03-01, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Caryl Bigenho presents: Adventures in OSSIE-land with olpc 2.0
Now that MIT has closed the OLPC Foundation office and the OLPC Association in Miami has slowed production of the XO laptops, what lies in store for folks interested in Open Source Software In Education?
Adventure! Come find out how you can get involved, traveling to exotic places, meeting interesting people, and/or developing and testing hardware and software to continue to grow the OSSIE movement. Deployments large and small around the globe would love to have your help. Come find out what is happening and how you can get involved in your own OSSIE-land adventure!
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/02/28/open-source-in-education-and-one-laptop-per-child-20/
date: 2014-03-01, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Curt Thompson and James Murdza, both recently back from trips to Haiti, will talk about the evolution of the One Laptop per Child Project into Unleash Kids, their successes and failures working with schools, establishing a lasting infrastructure, and the technology behind it all.
Some of the projects they will talk about are a mission school using OLPC laptops and a school server providing internet caching/filtering servers, a remote off-the-grid school using only solar power to charge ten laptops, an orphanage with twenty computers and miniature solar panels, and several schools using Internet-in-a-Box, an offline source of Wikipedia, Khan Academy, and Open Street Map.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/02/28/unleashing-kids-and-teachers-in-haiti/
date: 2014-01-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We will cover group business at the beginning then go through a series of quick talks. These talks will be 2-5 minute long.
Richard will report status on social media effort
James will demonstrate how to update the SGVLUG website using Pelican and Github.
Jess will talk about GStreamer
John K. will present the history of open source
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/01/13/lightning-talks/
date: 2014-01-06, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
NOTE: We are no longer meeting at Caltech. Please check each meeting notice to see where we will be meeting.
This month we are meeting at Burger Continental, not just for dinner but for the whole meeting. We will be in the back room that is on your left just as you walk in from the back parking lot. The meeting will be focused on organizing future meetings and group business. The topics for discussion are:
https://www.sgvlug.org/2014/01/06/reorganizing-meeting/
date: 2013-11-27, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
GitHub Enterprise for JPL is a new collaboration center that aims to improve the state of software development by promoting collaboration between software developers. Come hear the story behind how this new service came into being and how state-of-the-art software development tools are being promoted on the grounds of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Bio:
David Mittman is Deputy Manager for Planning and Execution Systems at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he leads the development of the Section’s portfolio of software for planning and monitoring the execution of activities on JPL’s robotic spacecraft. David has developed software and operated space flight missions for over 25 years and has recently started concentrating on modernizing the state of software development at JPL.
Brett George is a Software Engineer in the Data Services group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Brett got his start writing instrument control and data acquisition software for neutron spectrometers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Since coming to JPL, he has been part of a core group of engineers leading the research and development of cloud technology to empower missions across the lab and beyond.
Robert Witoff is the IT Data Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a Y Combinator startup founder. His background includes development lead for interplanetary data visualization software and space station systems lead for the experimental OPALS laser communication satellite. Rob is NASA’s first IT Data Scientist and his data science team is incubating solutions to Big Data problems for spacebound explorers, earthborn assets and the people that make them possible.
Speaker: David Mittman, Bret George, Robert Witoff
Date: Thursday December 12, 2013 @ 7pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 107.
The Downs building
is across from the tennis courts on California at Arden
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/11/27/github-enterprise-for-jpl/
date: 2013-11-17, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
You and your family are cordially invited to the SGVLUG & SGVHAK potluck BBQ this Saturday, November 16th, from 1-6pm. It will be in San Gabriel.
This is a joint effort: + Steven Doran is bringing bratwurts and beer. + Michael Starch will be in charge of grilling. + Lan will be providing the venue and organizing.
Please RSVP using the Google form: https://bit.ly/17oDrvK
You will receive directions to the venue after you submit the RSVP. You can revise your RSVP at any time. Some Google scripting magic automatically updates the RSVP with how many people are expected and what people say they are bringing. Obviously, the earlier you RSVP, the more accurately Lan can plan.
Hope to see you there!
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/11/16/sgvlugsgvhak-bbq-1/
date: 2013-10-21, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
JPL’s Airborne Snow Observatory is an integrated imaging spectrometer and scanning LIDAR for measuring mountain snow albedo, snow depth/snow water equivalent, and ice height (once exposed), led by PI Dr. Tom Painter. The team recently wrapped our “Snow On” campaign where over a course of 3 months, we flew the Tuolumne River Basin, Sierra Nevada, California above the O’Shaughnessy Dam of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir; focusing initial on the Tuolumne, and then moving to weekly flights over the Uncompahgre Basin, Colorado.
To meet the needs of its customers including Water Resource managers who are keenly interested in Snow melt, the ASO team had to develop and end to end 24 hour latency capability for processing spectrometer and LIDAR data from Level 0 to Level 4 (“ish”) products. Fondly referring to these processing campaigns as “rodeos” the team rapidly constructed an open source data processing system at minimal cost and risk that not only met our processing demands, but taught the entire team many lessons about remote sensing of snow and dust properties, algorithm integration, the relationship between computer scientists, and snow hydrologist; flight and engineering teams, geographers, and most importantly lessons about camaraderie that will engender highly innovative and rapid data systems development, and quality science products for years to come.
Chris Mattmann is the Compute Lead for the ASO project and he will humbly tell the story of the Compute processing capability on behalf of the larger team, highlighting contributions of its key members along the way
Speaker: Chris Mattman
Date:
Thursday November 14th, 2013 @ 7 pm
Location:
Caltech - Downs 107.
The Downs building is across from the tennis
courts on California at Arden.
date: 2013-10-03, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Please note that the previously advertised presentation “BIG DATA! 24 hour near real time processing and computation for the JPL Airborne Snow Observatory” is being rescheduled for another time. Big thanks to Dmitriy and Tom for being willing to put together a presentation for us on short notice. Cookies have been promised.
Tom and Dmitriy will present on how they use open source tools at JPL in their line of work. These tools include: Raspi, GStreamer, Mercurial/Trac, Wireshark, vi, and others.
BIO: Dmitriy Bekker and Thomas Werne are currently staff engineers in the Instrument Flight and GSE Software group in the Instrument Electronics and Sensors Section at JPL. They are working on FPGA-based data acquisition and processing designs for multiple prototype science instruments for ground, space, and airborne applications as well as technology development for small satellites. Their projects have been deployed to the Mojave Desert, on high altitude aircraft, at observatories, and on CubeSats.
Speaker: Dmitriy Bekker and Thomas Werne
Date: Thursday October 10th, 2013 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 107.
The Downs building
is across from the tennis courts on California at Arden.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/10/03/using-open-source-tools-for-hwsw-development-at-jpl/
date: 2013-09-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We will demonstrate 4 basic security topics, all using the Rasberry Pi computer.
Topcs include:
Come to learn a taste of security, or simply enjoy the show.
(You can also come for the cookies and/or pie, which was what the presenters demanded as a bribe.)
Speaker: Michael Starch and Steven Doran
Date: Thursday, September
12th, 2013 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 107
NOTE: For those of you who skip the meeting but come to dinner, please be aware that Burger Continental has been shut down by the health department. Even if it were to reopen in time, there have been some rumblings about picking another post-LUG dinner place.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/09/10/introduction-to-security-using-raspberry-pis/
date: 2013-08-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We will have short presentations/discussions
Thanks to Junaid for reserving Downs 107.
Speaker: SGVLUG
Date: Thursday,
August 8, 2013 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs
107
The Downs building is across from the tennis courts on
California at Arden.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/08/08/open-micmike-night/
date: 2013-07-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Lan will talk about distributed version control systems (DVCS) with a focus on Mercurial. The talk will be suitable for both beginners and advanced users.
She will go over the basic concept behind DVCS, such as directed acyclic graphs. She will highlight some of the differences between Mercurial and git, the other popular DVCS. For the beginners, she will go over some basic Mercurial commands. For the advanced users, she will share some interesting case studies from work.
Speaker: Lan Dang
Date:
Thursday, June 13th, 2013 @ 7 pm
Location:
Caltech - Downs 107
The Downs building is across from the tennis
courts on California at Arden.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/07/09/distributed-version-control-mercurial/
date: 2013-06-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We will have a few mini presentations:
Also if time permits there will be a presentation on Python for Scientfic Computing.
Date: Thursday, June 13th, 2013 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 107
The Downs building
is across from the tennis courts on California at Arden.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/06/12/mini-discussions-python-for-scientific-computing/
date: 2013-04-29, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Christefano Reyes presents on Redmine, a free and open source project management and issue tracking system written in Ruby on Rails. Prior to this presentation, attendees are welcome and encouraged to download it, use a shared demo or try a private, one-click install.
Popular with (but certainly not limited to) the Ruby on Rails developer community, Redmine is a full-featured system used by companies, open source projects, governmental agencies, and individual developers around the world. Big users of Redmine include open source projects such as Ruby, Puppet, Gentoo, Lighttpd, TYPO3, and the Redmine project itself.
This presentation will focus on how Redmine is used from the perspectives of developers, tech leads and project managers at a software development company. Features that will be demonstrated include:
Christefano is one of the founders of Exaltation of Larks, a Drupal strategy, development and training company; and Droplabs, a coworking space and classroom near Downtown Los Angeles. As an advocate of open source software, he helps organize meetups and conferences all over the Greater Los Angeles Area. In his spare time, he trains as an amateur acrobat and gymnast at the Original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica.
Speaker: Christefano Reyes
Date:
Thursday May 9th, 2013 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech -
Downs 107.
The Downs building is across from the tennis courts on
California at Arden.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/04/29/redmine/
date: 2013-03-27, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
We are building the Internet-in-a-Box - A small, inexpensive device which provides essential Internet resources without any Internet connection. It provides a local copy of half a terabyte of the world’s Free information.
The device includes Wikipedia in a dozen languages, a library of 40,000 e-books, most of the world’s open source software and source code, hundreds of hours of instructional videos, and world-wide mapping down to street level.
We can deploy a “knowledge hotspot” anywhere in the world - even under solar power.
This Open Source project is being developed by SGVLUG and SGVHAK members.
Speaker: Braddock Gaskill (braddock .at. braddock.com)
Date: Thursday April 11th, 2013 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 107.
The Downs building
is across from the tennis courts on California at Arden.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/03/27/the-internet-in-a-box-project/
date: 2013-03-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Steven Doran will discuss network router and wireless security, including replacing the stock routers firware with an open source alternative called DD-WRT.
Speaker: Steven Doran
Date:
Thursday March 14th, 2013 @ 7 pm
Location:
Caltech - Downs 107.
The Downs building is across from the tennis
courts on California at Arden.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/03/12/wireless-security-and-dd-wrt/
date: 2013-02-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Lan Dang will demonstrate some of her favorite tricks for the Vim text editor as well as useful vi key bindings. She welcomes everyone to contribute their own tips. At the end, we hope to gather our tips and use cases into a document, which will be linked through the website.
Whether you use Vim as seldom as possible or you use it every day, you will learn something from this session.
Update: The Vim Roundtable presentation (with updates and notes) can be found here
Speaker: Lan Dang + SGVLUG
Date:
Thursday February 14th, 2013 @ 7 pm
Location:
Caltech - Downs 107.
The Downs building is across from the tennis
courts on California at Arden.
Bio: Lan Dang spends the majority of her working hours monitoring and troubleshooting data processing systems on Linux-based computer clusters. She has accumulated a number of tips and tricks to deal with the command line, including extensive use of vim and vi key bindings.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/02/09/vim-tips-and-tricks-a-roundtable-discussion/
date: 2013-01-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Since the dawn of the internet, men have tried to restrict the freedoms of other men. Amongst those bound by the restrictions of the technocracy, enlightened individuals created technologies to sidestep the restrictions placed upon them. These technologies, although effective, remain cryptic to the bound masses of the technologically illiterate. What follow is a brief introduction to ssh tunnels and proxies…
Bio: Michael Starch was born in the far-frozen Northlands of the American Midwest. After being enlighten through a university education in Computer Engineering he set sail for the warm coasts of the Californian Southland. He is currently employed and has yet to die.
Speaker: Michael Starch
Date: Thursday, January 10th, 2013 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 107
Note: There will be a brief presentation before the talk where Lan Dang will share her experiences rooting the Nook Simple Touch.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2013/01/08/proxies-and-tunnels-to-freedom/
date: 2012-12-03, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Please note that we are in a different room this month. Signs will be posted, but please check out the directions given under Location:
A modern day Linux Infrastructure should be flexible, scalable and able to deal with the constant changes any business will require. Automation is key to a reliable and consistence server infrastructure, Automation also allows for easy integration of new changes.
The DevOps movement melds two traditionally siloed teams; Application Developers and Operations Engineers. Writing infrastructure as code presents a number of challenges and potential pitfalls, Operations Engineers need to write code (something they may not be familar with) and Developers need to have a strong understanding of the system (many Developers don’t want to be considered with anything other than web applications). There are several major projects related purely to the management of infrastructure as code.
We will examine Opscode Chef and make a strong use case for the implementation of Opscode Chef in a Linux Environment. David will demonstrate many techniques to utilize Chef quickly and efficiently to minimize the time of implementation. Although Opscode Chef can be run on Solaris, FreeBSD and even Windows, the presentation will discuss Linux and only Linux. David will also discuss the techniques to operate Chef on various Linux Distros which can provide a layer of abstraction from the package management systems (apt & yum). Finally David will discuss how Chef can be used to rebuild an Entire infrastructure (regardless of size or complexity) in a time previous thought impossible. The only limitation in speed of deployment is the hardware.
Speaker: David Rodriguez
Date: Thursday, December 13th, 2012 @ 7
pm
Location: Caltech - Lauritsen 269. Lauritsen is connected to
Downs; the room is a lecture hall on the 2nd floor towards northeast
end. The buildings are located across from the tennis courts on
California at Arden. If you enter near our usual room (Downs 107), go
down the hallway, hang a right, go past the elevators, and take the
stairs up one level. As soon as you come out on the 2nd floor, the
classroom is on the left hand side. If you take the elevator, you will
want to head left after getting off the elevator. (There is a map taped
next to elevator on the 2nd floor that shows the layout of Lauritsen.)
date: 2012-11-06, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
There is no scheduled speaker. We will have open discussion, continued afterwards at Burger Continental.
Please note that we are in a different room this month.
Speaker: You!
Date: Thursday, November 8, 2012 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 119
https://www.sgvlug.org/2012/11/05/open-discussion-november-2012/
date: 2012-10-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
strace: Practical Application Troubleshooting…
using the tool we
all love to hate.
The Presentation will cover the Linux command line utility ‘strace’ and some of it’s many uses. It will cover the basics of Linux System Calls and their use. The presentation will use examples throughout to provide genuine use-cases for the tool. The Presentation is focused on Practical Application Troubleshooting, it will not be an in-depth guide to the various System Calls. I will demonstrate many techniques that can help you to gain a deeper understanding of application execution flow on a Linux system.
Speaker: David Rodriguez – otherwise known as… ‘D Rod’
Currently
working as Linux Systems Engineer – managing various types of Linux
servers (Web App, DB, Chef, Nagios, etc.)
3+ years as a Linux
Systems Engineer
5+ years as a Windows Systems Engineer
10+
years as a Linux User
B.S. in Information Systems Security &
A.S. in Computer and Electronic Engineering
Strong Advocate for
Open Source
I like to break web applications… :-)
Date: Thursday, October 11, 2012 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2012/10/11/strace-practical-application-troubleshooting/
date: 2012-09-20, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
If you are interested in the group, please sign up for the [SGVHAK mailing list] (http://sgvlug.org/mailman/listinfo/hak “SGVHAK Mailing List Sign Up”). We will continue to crosspost announcements to the SGVLUG mailing list. We are in the process of setting up a website or subpage.
Do you like working on hardware projects? Did you just get a Raspberry Pi/Arduino/Kinect with the intentions of doing something cool? Did you wish that there was a local meetup group where you can meet up with like-minded folks and actually make progress with your projects?
Come to our kickoff meeting on Thursday to discuss starting up this special interest group. Connect with your fellow hardware geeks and share some of the projects you’ve been working on. And if we can decide on a name for the SIG, we can set up things like a mailing list, website, and wiki.
We have been kindly granted access to a room at Caltech for this meeting only. It is a small classroom with about 30 student desks and a teacher desk. We will have access to a projector and power. There is an open wireless network.
Date: Thursday, September 20, 2012 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech -
Downs 119 (around the corner from usual LUG meeting room)
https://www.sgvlug.org/2012/09/20/sgvhak-sig-kickoff/
date: 2012-09-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Its time to face the music: There’s only a couple guys in Ops, and a lot of infrastructure to set up and it was all due yesterday. If only you could clone all the sysadmins of the world to get all of their expertise and know-how in deploying open source applications, you could actually get it done. Perhaps there is a way: Juju and Charms! Juju encapsulates services in a way that promotes sharing and collaboration the same way packages have done for open source software. If you are a sysadmin or a developer who is looking to get an infrastructure of databases, loadbalancers, and webapps up to speed rapidly, Juju may be interesting. If you are looking into deploying something massively scalable, like OpenStack or Hadoop, Juju is built to handle that task.
Speaker: Clint Byrum is a member of the Canonical Ubuntu Server Team,
bringing years of Ops and Development experience in web environments to
the task of making Ubuntu Server shine.
Date: Thursday, September
13, 2012 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2012/09/13/cloning-sysadmins-with-the-cloud-and-juju/
date: 2012-08-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Doug Vargas will talk about programming for the Kinect motion sensing input device by Microsoft.
Speaker: Doug Vargas
Date: Thursday, August 9, 2012 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2012/08/09/kinect-programming/
date: 2012-07-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
No scheduled speaker. Open discussion continued afterwards at Burger Continental.
We will have a brief overview of Git.
Speaker: You!
Date: Thursday, July 12, 2012 @ 7 pm
Location:
Caltech - Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2012/07/12/open-discussion-july-2012/
date: 2012-06-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Ruby on Rails is an open source framework for developing database driven websites. Git is a source control management tool. Heroku is web hosting in the cloud. In this talk Homan Chou and David Ferril will give a brief overview of each of these tools and give a case study of a real working social network.
Speaker: Homan Chou and David Ferril
Date: Thursday, June 14, 2012
@ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 107
date: 2012-05-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The Raspberry Pi is a $35, 256MB educational computer that runs Linux. Dan Kegel will demonstrate how the Pi can be used as a simple sensor network node, reporting observed Bluetooth addresses to a central server, running on 4 AA batteries.
Speaker: Dan Kegel
Date: Thursday, May 10, 2012 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2012/05/10/rasberry-pi/
date: 2012-04-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The two dominant python-based web frameworks are Django and Pylons. They can be used to deploy web applications such as news sites, online ticket tracking systems, or wikis. An overview and comparison of Django and the recently reinvented Pylons Project will be presented. Individual dependencies of the Pylons Project will be described including the Pyramid WSGI engine, the SQLAlchemy database Object Relational Mapper (ORM), and the Mako HTML template generator. A very simple blog engine will be implemented as an instructive example.
Speaker: Braddock Gaskill (braddock .at. braddock.com)
Date:
Thursday, April 12, 2012 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2012/04/12/python-web-frameworks-django-and-pylons/
date: 2012-03-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Unity is the new desktop environment for Ubuntu, having first premiered
in
version 11.04, significantly enhanced with version 11.10, and
very much the
cornerstone of the upcoming 12.04 release.
A striking departure from Gnome 2, Unity has been seen as a source of
controversy in the Linux world.
This talk will outline some of the design goals that Unity addresses,
noting
strengths, weaknesses, and improvements across the three
versions of Ubuntu in which it’s been included.
While Unity offers many usability affordances, some Ubuntu users prefer
to
customize it for their specific workflows. Linux is famous for
its
customizability, and Unity is no exception if you know which
tools to look
for.
This presentation will outline some of the tools available through the
Ubuntu
Software Center to show you how to customize the Unity
interface.
Speaker Bio: Richard Gaskin is President of Fourth World, a software
design
and development consultancy in Los Angeles. Since founding
the company in
1994, he’s developed dozens of commercial and open
source applications used by a wide range of organizations, including
FedEx, AOL, the US Library of
Congress, and hundreds of
universities around the world.
Although he started his career with Mac OS, Richard has since delivered
applications for Irix, every version of Windows, and has been
developing for
Linux for the last two years.
Richard has spoken at more than a dozen tech conferences, including
UbuCon,
LiveCode Developer Conference, and MacTech where he had
the distinction of
being the only presenter using Linux.
Date: Thursday March 8, 2012 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2012/03/08/march-2012-meeting/
date: 2012-02-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Matt Cambell and Miguel Hernandez will talk about Drupal and their experiences with using it to revamp the SGVLUG website.
Date: Thursday February 9, 2012 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2012/02/09/february-2012-meeting/
date: 2012-01-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Topic: Horror Stories and Trouble shooting!
The idea is to have a fun meeting with some scary stories and trouble
shooting lessons to be learned. Depending on how quickly the
presentation goes we may
have time to share more, so please feel
free to bring your horror story and
what you did to resolve it.
Date: Thursday January 12, 2012 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2012/01/12/january-2012-meeting/
date: 2011-12-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Topic: Virtual Private Servers: On a Budget
Christefano who was going to present Redmine is unavailable so we will
try to
reschedule.
Virtual Private Servers: On a Budget - We will discuss a class of
virtual
private servers available at a low price point allowing
individuals to get
many of the benefits of dedicated hardware
without the cost thanks to
virtualization technologies and a
competitive marketplace.
James McDuffie has worked for JPL for over 10 years and has been using
Linux
since at least kernel version 1.3.
Date: Thursday December 8, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/12/08/december-2011-meeting/
date: 2011-11-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Topic: VPN: Keep the Spies away!
PPTP (with a demo on DDWRT) along with OpenVPN, L2TP, and IPsec Presenter: Dan Buthusiem
Date: Thursday November 10, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/11/10/november-2011-meeting/
date: 2011-10-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
SGVLUG meeting 9/8 7-9pm
Command Line “Tips and Tricks”
Lan Dang spends the majority of her working hours monitoring and
troubleshooting data processing systems on Linux-based computer
clusters. She
has accumulated a number of tips and tricks to deal
with the command line. Her arsenal includes: GNU screen, awk, sed, shell
scripting, remote ssh command
execution, bash command history,
and a variety of system utilities. This talk
will cover useful
one-liners and the small set of useful commands that will
get you
started using these tools or using them in new ways. Whether you’re
a
newbie or a command line guru, you’ll probably pick up something
useful for
the next time you’re at the command line.
Date: Thursday October 13, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/10/13/october-2011-meeting/
date: 2011-09-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
SGVLUG meeting 9/8 7-9pm
Topic: Disaster Recovery and Backups in the era of the cloud
Presentation and
Discussion
Please bring your questions, opinions, and solutions for discussion!
Date: Thursday September 8, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/09/08/september-2011-meeting/
date: 2011-08-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly Meeting.
Take your Drupal sites to the next level with the free, open-source
Webmin
control panel and its powerful Virtualmin plug-in. Add as
many features as you want, including unlimited domains, mail accounts,
Subversion repositories,
mailing lists, and more with a
point-and-click web interface.
Webmin and Virtualmin are similar to cPanel and WHM, respectively, and
can
manage dozens or even hundreds of domains. They are the
perfect tools for
creating test and development sites, hosting
client websites or even managing
a full-blown online
infrastructure for running a business.
Did we forget to mention, Webmin and Virtualmin are free* and
open-source?
Compared to site licensing costs of cPanel, WHM,
Plesk and other proprietary
control panels, Webmin and Virtualmin
cost only as much as a basic
$10-20/month VPS account.
Bio: —– Christefano is CEO and Co-founder of Exaltation of Larks, where
Virtualmin has been a key ingredient for rapid website
deployment. He is a
sysadmin for LA Drupal and the DrupalCamp LA
website (which uses Virtualmin)
and has been on the Drupal.org
and groups.drupal.org webmaster teams since
2008. Exaltation of
Larks, which provides Drupal consulting, development and
training
http://www.larks.la
Date: Thursday August 11, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/08/11/august-2011-meeting/
date: 2011-07-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
APRS is a amateur radio network where small packets of data such as
position
reports, messages or telemetry are transmitted to other
radio operators and
eventually propagated to the Internet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Packet_Reporting_System
The proliferation of small, low power and easily hackable ARM devices
opens up many possibilities for setting up unobtrusive computing
solutions. Amateur
radio operator and long time Linux user James
McDuffie (K6JLM) explores using
the Seagate GoFlex Net along with
surplus amateur radio equipment to build a
APRS digipeater for
helping to relay packets both over RF and to the Internet.
Date: Thursday July 14, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: 107
Downs Lab
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/07/14/july-2011-meeting/
date: 2011-06-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The Caltech team participating in the U.S. Department of Energy 2011
Solar
Decathlon will present their project, for which they are
using various
open-source technology.
“The Solar Decathlon is a U.S. Department of Energy Sponsored
competition
which challenges teams of college and graduate
students from around the world
to design and build solar-powered,
net-zero houses. Inside the SCI-Arc/Caltech entry, code named CHIP, a
sophisticated home automation system monitors every
watt of
electricity consumed and visually communicates the information to
homeowners. It also plays a central role in optimizing the behavior of
the
house at all times, such as by controlling operation of the
active thermal
mass, shutting down appliances or lights that are
no longer used, and of
course giving the homeowners an instant
understanding into how their own
behaviors affects their energy
use and in turn their energy bill.”
http://chip2011.com/
Date: Thursday June 9, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: 107 Downs
Lab
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/06/09/june-2011-meeting/
date: 2011-05-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly Meeting.
Date: Thursday May 12, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/05/12/may-2011-meeting/
date: 2011-04-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Topic: Todd CC will discuss the impact of a world with rapidly changing
technologies, radical fluctuations in staffing needs, and changes
in the
employer/employee dynamic and how you can be best prepared
for your next job
and/or career. During this presentation, the
relatively new catchphrase
“DevOps” will be discussed as it
pertains to job advancement and career
opportunities.
Presenter: Cranston-Cuebas, Todd With 13 years of experience in
technology
staffing in Los Angeles, Todd has been through the
dot-com boom and bust, the
housing boom and subsequent recession,
and through it all, has kept a close
eye on employment trends in
technology.
Date: Thursday April 14, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: 107
Downs Lab
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/04/14/april-2011-meeting/
date: 2011-03-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly Meeting.
Date: Thursday March 10, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/03/10/march-2011-meeting/
date: 2011-02-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly Meeting.
Topic: How to program your own smart phone Matthew Campbell and Rae Yip
will
walk us through the steps needed to get a basic “hello
world” application on
an Android phone.
Continuation from the January meeting.
Matthew will cover the following: Android programming overview.
Installing the development environment (Eclipse 3.5.2), the Android SDK
and the Eclipse ADT
development tools. Writing your first hello
world application. Compiling and
emulating the application.
Installing the application on your phone. Using the Google APIs.
Publishing your application.
Rae will cover more details of the Android operating system including
the
filesystem layout third party libraries Open Intents
Date: Thursday February 10, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/02/10/february-2011-meeting/
date: 2011-01-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly Meeting.
Topic: How to program your own smart phone Matthew Campbell and Rae Yip
will
walk us through the steps needed to get a basic “hello
world” application on
an Android phone.
Matthew will cover the following: Android programming overview.
Installing the development environment (Eclipse 3.5.2), the Android SDK
and the Eclipse ADT
development tools. Writing your first hello
world application. Compiling and
emulating the application.
Installing the application on your phone. Using the Google APIs.
Publishing your application.
Rae will cover more details of the Android operating system including
the
filesystem layout third party libraries Open Intents
Date: Thursday January 13, 2011 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2011/01/13/january-2011-meeting/
date: 2010-12-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Steven will be doing a presentation on “Software Complexity.”
Date: Thursday December 9, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/12/09/december-2010-meeting/
date: 2010-11-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Dan Kegel will show off a bunch of popular games running on Linux and
explain
how to install them. This will be a very informal event
and will last about 30 minutes, plus questions.
Date: Thursday November 11, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/11/11/november-2010-meeting/
date: 2010-10-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Filling the Digital Divide with Offline Content: Six ways to deliver a library anywhere for under $90
SUMMARY
Off-line content is reading material, educational texts, and other
reference
materials delivered on media such as SDCards, DVDs,
custom hardware, or hard
drives so that it can be used without
internet access. A typical deployment
can deliver the equivalent
of tens of thousands of printed books. The cost to
deliver large
off-line libraries has fallen below the cost to deliver online
internet access in most areas. Off-line content thus provides a cost
effective way to provide access to the world’s knowledge before
affordable internet
infrastructure is available. This
presentation reviews six emerging projects
which aim to provide
off-line hardware and libraries, including the author’s
creation,
the $20 Humane Reader
Braddock Gaskill is CEO and co-founder of Dockside Vision Inc, an
advanced
information visualization and human-computer interface
company. Prior to
founding Dockside Vision, Mr. Gaskill had over
ten years of experience as a
technology consultant in both the
defense and commercial sectors. His
expertise spans the fields of
information visualization, collaborative
systems, electronics
design, machine vision, information assurance, and
robotics
control, and includes publications in ballistics simulation, a patent in
crytographic authentication, and multiple pending patents in
visualization
techniques.
Date: Thursday October 14, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/10/14/october-2010-meeting/
date: 2010-09-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting
Date: Thursday September 9, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/09/09/september-2010-meeting/
date: 2010-08-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Simone Bernacchia will be speaking about AROS which is a free and open
source
implementation of the AmigaOS.
Date: Thursday August 12, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/08/12/august-2010-meeting/
date: 2010-07-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Topic: “NoSQL” practical experience: use of Hadoop, Cassandra, CouchDB,
and
other open source distributed technologies instead of
relational databases.
When to use SQL and when to not use it.
Presenter: Michael Lum Head of Engineering at OpenX.org Prior to that
Michael
was the Director of Architecture for the Search and
Advertising Technology
Group at Yahoo, the group responsible for
web search, sponsored search, and
display advertising, and was
the group that incubated grid computing
technologies such as
Hadoop, ZooKeeper and YTS (Yahoo Traffic Server). Michael joined Yahoo
via the Overture acquisition. He has work experience from IBM and
various startup companies.
Date: Thursday July 8, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/07/08/july-2010-meeting/
date: 2010-06-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
Date: Thursday June 10, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/06/10/june-2010-meeting/
date: 2010-05-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
Topic: Business and design of open source products, Version 2
Bio: Stephan Cunningham is the Head of Product and Market Design for
OpenX.
OpenX builds both open source and proprietary digital
advertising
technologies. Prior to joining OpenX he held product
and engineering roles at
Yahoo!, The New York Times, and IBM
Microelectronics.
Date: Thursday May 13, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/05/13/may-2010-meeting/
date: 2010-04-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
April 2010: An open-source 8-bit computer to save the world Braddock is back!
Braddock Gaskill will discuss and debut his open source hardware and
software
project designed both for hobbyists and as an e-book
reader for developing
nations.
The device can store a 5,000 book library or the better part of
Wikipedia and
display it on any TV set in a developing-world
village library - all for under $20. It is also a fun general purpose
8-bit computing platform comparable in
raw capability to the
Apple II and built, in part, for experimentation and
hobbyists.
The entire system is open sourced, and uses GNU toolchain cross
development under Linux with heavy OSS throughout.
The presentation will work through the design, schematic, PCB fab,
assembly,
and software dev. Braddock will walk the audience
through each stage, cover
which tools were used, ponder major
design considerations, and pay special
attention to open source
solutions.
Date: Thursday April 8, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/04/08/april-2010-meeting/
date: 2010-03-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
Topic: Data Ownership - How I (mostly) wrestled control of my data from
evil
corporate overlords
Speaker: Charles N Wyble
Charles Wyble is a systems and security engineer. His focus in 2010 is
security research, with a particular emphasis on improving
performance of
automated analytic systems. In support of this, he
does a lot of networking
stuff and is in the process of building
a malware lab.
He lives in sunny southern California, with his wife Patricia and 2 dogs
ISIS
and OSPF. Yes they are named after routing protocols. He
frequently hosts
hacker parties, where all sorts of cool stuff
gets built. You will often find
him at various hot startups doing
consulting, and at numerous user group
meetings throughout the
southwestern United States.
Charles Wyble will be joining the SGVLUG group once again and discussing
the
topic of data ownership / private cloud.
Owning ones data is a critical and often overlooked part of security. As
such, he will discuss how he maintains numerous web properties on a
Linux server at
his residence, connected to the best DSL ATT has
to offer.
He has recently completed moving all his data onto his own server,
freeing it
(mostly) from the control of google,yahoo etc. It was a
relatively
straightforward process, encompassing 4 major phases.
He will talk about the
tools he utilizes, and
advantages/disadvantages to his setup and some of the
problems he
encountered.
Date: Thursday March 11, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/03/11/march-2010-meeting/
date: 2010-02-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
Topic: Internet security for the rest of us
Speaker: Rae Yip
Date: Thursday February 11, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/02/11/february-2010-meeting/
date: 2010-01-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
A Case Study in Open Source Software Development
For three years the speaker ran a small technology startup company
developing
new ways of visualizing and exploring huge datasets,
like, for example, the
entire routing structure of the internet,
or tens of thousands of documents.
This talk will cover real-world experiences with the broad variety of
Open
Source software which made the project possible.
Dependencies included Boost,
CMake, OpenSceneGraph, khtml, gecko,
Firefox plugins, GraphViz, lighttpd,
Xerces DOM, and more. Theses
building blocks were in many cases pushed to (and beyond) their limits,
deployed in a cross-platform Linux and Windows
environment, and
compiled with GCC and MSVC++. We will cover lessons learned,
better alternatives, and other findings.
Braddock Gaskill is CEO and co-founder of Dockside Vision Inc, an
advanced
information visualization and human-computer interface
company. Prior to
founding Dockside Vision, Mr. Gaskill had over
ten years of experience as a
technology consultant in both the
defense and commercial sectors. His
expertise spans the fields of
information visualization, collaborative
systems, machine vision,
information assurance, and robotics control, and
includes
publications in ballistics simulation, a patent in cryptographic
authentication, and multiple pending patents in visualization
techniques.
Date: Thursday January 14, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2010/01/14/january-2010-meeting/
date: 2009-12-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
If the FC12 speaker is not available, the topic will probably be about
security in general.
Date: Thursday December 10, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2009/12/10/december-2009-meeting/
date: 2009-11-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Topic for November: Answering the Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE
Challenge
The Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander X Prize Challenge, a NASA space
competition
prize contest, is intended to foster the commercial
development of a vehicle
capable of launching from the surface of
the moon into lunar orbit and then
land back on the moon.
Consisting of two levels of difficulty, a prize is
given to the
1st and 2nd place winners of each level. Unreasonable Rocket, one of
three teams that competed at this year’s event, attempted to claim
purses
from both competition levels.
Come listen to the team from Unreasonable Rocket share their experience
in
this year’s event.
Date: Thursday November 12, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2009/11/12/november-2009-meeting/
date: 2009-10-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Topic: Open Street Map: What, Why, and How
Presented by: Blars Blarson, from Open Street Map
Date: Thursday October 8, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2009/10/08/october-2009-meeting/
date: 2009-09-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Date: Thursday September 10, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2009/09/10/september-2009-meeting/
date: 2009-08-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Possible topics include Defcon.
Date: Thursday August 13, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2009/08/13/august-2009-meeting/
date: 2009-07-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Topic summary: Fedora 11, code named Leonidas, is the latest offering
from
Fedora. With over 60 improvements and new features, Fedora
11 will be
demonstrated at the meeting.
About the speaker: Larry Cafiero is the Regional Ambassador for the U.S.
West
Coast for the Fedora Project. He is also a senior partner at
Redwood Digital
Research in Felton, California (Santa Cruz
County), which is a small
business/SOHO computer maintenance and
networking firm utilizing FOSS
programs. He also blogs as “Larry
the Free Software Guy” at
https://larrythefreesoftwareguy.wordpress.com.
Date: Thursday July 9, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2009/07/09/july-2009-meeting/
date: 2009-06-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Linux Virtual Server by Solomon Chang
WordPress plugin by Braydon Fuller (time permitting)
Solomon is a MySQL certified DBA and the current acting director of
LAMPSIG.
He works as a professional Database Administrator for
Vantage Media in El
Segundo, and is a co-author of the MySQL
Cluster Certification Study Guide.
When he’s not pulling
all-nighters in the office, he plays piano, poker, and
Warhammer
40K, although not always all at the same time.
Date: Thursday June 11, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2009/06/11/june-2009-meeting/
date: 2009-04-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Looking for a new tech related job? Want to get a peek into the head of
a
headhunter? Come listen to Todd Cranston-Cuebas talk about the
current state
of the job market in the Los Angeles area, with a
special emphasis on tech
roles and how to land that perfect job.
Todd Cranston-Cuebas has been leading technology hiring at Ticketmaster
for
over 5 years. He specializes in working with candidates with
a background in
open-source tools and technologies. He has spoken
at BOF sessions at a number
of large technology conferences
including ApacheCon, OSCON, USENIX, and of
course at SGVLUG
meetings!
Date: Thursday April 9, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2009/04/09/april-2009-meeting/
date: 2009-03-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Learn and Discuss Linux security and forensics issues.
From the computer novice to the computer expert, we hope to make this
meeting
useful for everyone. Novices, please be prepared to take
notes and follow up
with references. Experts, please bring us
your favorite Linux computer
references/tips, as we plan to have
a very active discussion.
Bio: Matti has been working in the computer industry since the 1980s and
has
been responsible for IT infrastructure and mission critical
operations for
nearly two decades, and has attended more
conferences on IT
operations/security than he can remember.
Date: Thursday March 12, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2009/03/12/march-2009-meeting/
date: 2009-02-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
In a talk called “Mapping Wireless Access Points,” Peter J. Sprenger
will talk about making a small toughbook into a Linux car navigation
system. He also
enabled GPS integration to enhance wireless
access point findings by combining GPS information with a Google map
overlay and Kismet data dumps to map out
existing wireless access
points.
Sprenger has used Linux for the past 13 years. Currently running LFS as
main
desktop system, with a FreeBSD shell server and Slackware
Media PC. He is
leads a Cal Poly team for CCDC (Collegiate Cyber
Defense Competition),
concentrating in network defense. Special
attention to security research and
Information Warfare studies
with experience in several different continents
performing
missions occasionally oriented in that direction.
Date: Thursday February 12, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2009/02/12/february-2009-meeting/
date: 2008-12-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
In a talk called “How to Crack WEP and WPA Using Debian GNU/Linux,” Jeff
Henbest, the president of Cal Poly SWIFT of California State
Polytechnic
University, Pomona, will explain the easy of cracking
WEP and WPA using tools
available on linux. Information:
http://cppswift.ath.cx/meetings/wepwpa.html .
Date: Thursday December 11, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/12/11/december-2008-meeting/
date: 2008-11-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
“Shakin’ It up at Caltech” Rae Yip and Shang-Lin will give an overview
of the
open-source software in use at the Caltech Seismology Lab.
Date: Thursday November 13, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/11/13/november-2008-meeting/
date: 2008-10-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Eric Hammond will be leading an Amazon EC2 Beginners Workshop. EC2 is Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud that provides virtual Linux computers rented by the hour. (https://aws.amazon.com/ec2)
This workshop will provide a brief overview/intro to EC2 followed by a step-by-step walkthrough to creating an Amazon EC2 account and starting your first EC2 instance (server) running Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, or CentOS (others may also be available).
Bring a laptop and a credit card with the ability to charge up to $0.25 in EC2 service fees.
Eric is a veteran EC2 user, maintains a popular series of Ubuntu and Debian machine images for EC2 at https://alestic.com and fosters a global EC2 Ubuntu community at https://groups.google.com/group/ec2ubuntu.
Date: Thursday October 9, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/10/09/october-2008-meeting/
date: 2008-09-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Michael Proctor-Smith will give an update on MythTV (the Mythical
Convergence
Box), the open-source alternative to TiVo or Windows
Media Center. More than
just a digital VCR, which provides basic
“time shifting” capability, Digital
Video Recorders change the
way people watch television by providing the
ability to pause
live TV, instantly replay interesting scenes, and skip
commercials. With an up-to-date TV schedule, the DVR can automatically
record
shows based on user preferences.
Michael will talk about his strange MythTV setup and a small portion of
MythTV’s features including Recording HDTV, streaming to a Cell
Phone and
using an AppleTV as a MythTV Front-end.
Michael Runs The San Gabriel Valley Linux(R) Users Group (At least he
has been told that by others). He spends an unhealthy amount of his time
watching
MythTV and plotting how he can never be without access
to MythTV.
Date: Thursday September 11, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/09/11/september-2008-meeting/
date: 2008-08-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Ubuntu is the said to be the biggest thing in desktop Linux at the
moment, but Neal and Nathan are here to cut through the hype and show
you how Ubuntu can
simplify your life and make your computer more
fun and simple to use for
everyday tasks. They will discuss
various aspects of Ubuntu, from the basics
of everyday system
maintenance to how to customize your system. They will also cover the
differences that make Ubuntu unique from Debian and other distros;
and the differences and benefits of the various flavors that make
up the
Ubuntu family.
Nathan Haines is a computer consultant and instructor who enjoys
programming
in Python and is a member of the California Ubuntu
LoCo team. Neal Bussett is
an Electrical Engineer and leader of
the California Ubuntu LoCo team. Both are Ubuntu Members and advocates
of Free software.
Date: Thursday August 14, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/08/14/august-2008-meeting/
date: 2008-07-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
In a presentation called “Geotagging with Linux and Free Software,” Tom
Emerson will describe geotagging, the process of adding
geographical
information to images, which can later be searched.
Emerson will show how he
has geotagged photos from his recent
vacation and can search for them using
various search engines,
including Google Earth.
Date: Thursday July 10, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/07/10/july-2008-meeting/
date: 2008-06-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Date: Thursday June 12, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/06/12/june-2008-meeting/
date: 2008-05-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Wilfred Nilsen will present the BarracudaDrive, a secure Web application
server for the Linksys NSLU2 (Network Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk
Drives) using the
Unslung Linux firmware replacement. Using an
external USB Flash memory for
storing the database files, it
should be possible to create an application
server that is
virtually maintenance free.
Wilfred will be here to give a demo of the NSLU2 running BarracudaDrive,
including the many practical features of BarracudaDrive and how
some users use
BarracudaDrive for many non traditional Web server
tasks.
For more information on the BarracudaDrive for Linksys NSLU2
http://barracudadrive.net/blog/2008/03/BarracudaDrive-for-Linksys-NSLU2.
About the presenter:
With over 15 years experience as a software engineer, Wilfred Nilsen is
a part
owner of Real Time Logic which provides software tools for
embedded software
engineers. He has been working on the Barracuda
Embedded Application Server
since 2001.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/05/08/may-2008-meeting/ Date: Thursday May
8, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/05/08/may-2008-meeting/
date: 2008-04-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Charles Wyble has his hand in many pots - running LiLAX, installing
wireless
for all of L.A., and teaching “open source” using
“moodle,” which is a free
software e-learning platform.
Charles Wyble is a systems engineer with 7 years of experience. He runs
a
professional services firm called Known Element Enterprises and
has
contributed to a number of high profile open source projects
(OpenOffice/Wine/Gnumeric) and proprietary software (most notably
VmWare
Workstation).
Date: Thursday April 10, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/04/10/april-2008-meeting/
date: 2008-03-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Ronald Stewart, creative director of the Trinity Audio Group will speak
at the next San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group. He will present the
yet-to-be-released InDaMixx appliance, a full-featured, hand-held
recording
studio built on Linux (a customized version of
64Studio, to be more specific). He will go over topics such as why Linux
was chosen, the future of music in
the open-source community and
will demo some of the great features of
InDaMixx.
Ronald’s background in the music industry goes back to the late 80’s as
a DJ & Remixer for Factor 3 Records, Tommy Boy Records, Bullet Proof
Records & one of the first beta testers for Digidesign’s Pro Tools.
Ronald decided that he
needed a full-featured device that he
could take with him, along with all his
music only to find out
nothing like this existed. Ever the frontiersman,
Ronald decided
to blaze the trail, chose all open-source applications and
hasn’t
looked back ever since.
Date: Thursday March 13, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/03/13/march-2008-meeting/
date: 2008-02-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Chris got his kid an “OLPC” laptop and thinks he can wrestle it away
from him
long enough for some “show-n-tell”…
OLPC is the “One Laptop Per Child” initiative, aimed at providing
full-fledged laptop computers to every child in developing nations.
Their goal is for a
$100/unit price point, and they are quite
close (actually, the price is about
$150)
Date: Thursday February 14, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/02/14/february-2008-meeting/
date: 2008-01-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Dan Kegel of Google, a longtime Linux user and developer, will present a
grab-bag of interesting topics:
Quick Picasa 2.7 for
Linux demo. (Picasa is Google’s photo management
software for
Windows and Linux, but many people don’t know about the Linux version)
Quick Wine status report. (Wine is Linux’s implementation
of Win32; it
lets you run many Windows applications.)
*
Introduction to Zumastor. (Zumastor is Linux’s answer to ZFS, kind of;
it
lets you take atomic snapshots of any filesystem, and easily
replicate
those snapshots to remote systems.)
Dan is a developer for all three projects and was elected the release
manager
for the upcoming 1.0 release of Wine, so feel free to ask
all the technical
questions you like.
Date: Thursday January 10, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2008/01/10/january-2008-meeting/
date: 2007-11-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Asterisk is an open-source PBX program that provides automatic call
distribution, voice mail and interactive voice response menus.
X10 is a
power-line carrier protocol for controlling lights and
appliances. What can
you do when you combine them? Claude
Felizardo will give us an update on his
home-automation system
and how integrating Asterisk has moved his home closer
to what is
depicted in popular science fiction.
With over 15 years as a Unix developer, Claude got his start with Linux
in the late 90s when he built his own firewall. Most of his friends and
family think
he has too many gadgets, but he’s always looking for
something new to play
with, especially if it can be integrated
into his system at home. His previous presentations include an Intro to
Home Automation, Hacking TiVo and Monitoring the Weather with Linux.
Date: Thursday November 8, 2007 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2007/11/08/november-2007-meeting/
date: 2007-10-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Kris Bergstrom will give an introduction to the extremely powerful LaTeX
typesetting system and its application to real-world document
production. He
will explain how he uses it in the creation of
essays, books, and letters
incorporating graphics. He will also
demonstrate the use of LaTeX in his
band’s annual fund drive
which requires the creation of personalized letters
(mail merge)
and envelopes.
Initially designed to typeset mathematical formulae, the LaTeX system
incorporates world-class fonts with international symbols. The
system
successfully handles the automatic typesetting of
complicated textbooks with
thousands of images and internal page,
chapter, and figure references. The
line-breaking algorithm used
by LaTeX (or more accurately, by the more basic
TeX engine) is
the industry leader (eventually adopted by Adobe for its
commercial program, InDesign).
About the presenter:
Kris Bergstrom was first exposed to
GNU/Linux in electronic music courses at
Stanford’s Center for
Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. In 2000,
excited by the
ideals of Free Software, he tried to switch his desktop from
Windows to Debian but with limited knowledge of networking and basic
admin
tasks, was unable to get a basic system up and running.
Soon after moving to
Los Angeles in 2002, he joined a Linux Users
Group and found the support he
needed to do all his personal and
business computer tasks with free software.
Date: Thursday October 11, 2007 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2007/10/11/october-2007-meeting/
date: 2007-09-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Kerry Garrison is back to demo the new trixbox Pro product from
Fonality. This latest incarnation uses the hybrid-hosted model developed
by Fonality for
PBXtra, but gives installers the control over the
hardware and phone
provisioning that they enjoy with trixbox CE.
Kerry Garrison has been in the IT industry for over 20 years with
positions
ranging from IT Director of a large multi-site
distribution company to
developing a large hosted web server
platform for a major ISP, to running his
own IT consulting
business in Southern California. Kerry was introduced to the world of
Asterisk by a friend and began installing Asterisk-based phone
systems for his small business clients. He wrote articles about Asterisk
and
trixbox that became extremely popular on the net, and
eventually published the definitive book on trixbox, “trixbox Made
Easy.” Today, Kerry is the senior
product development manager for
trixbox at Fonality. Kerry regularly speaks at trade shows, user groups,
and radio programs. He is also the publisher of both
http://www.voipspeak.net and http://www.asterisktutorials.com [dead].
Kerry is an
avid amateur photographer who writes tutorials and
product reviews for his
photography blog site at
http://L7Foto.com.
Date: Thursday September 13, 2007 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2007/09/13/september-2007-meeting/
date: 2007-08-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
X509 and SSL are complicated topics. While they share the basic PKI
infrastructure that PGP and others do, X509 (and SSL by
extension) are more
complicated. Extending beyond the basic
encryption, signing, decryption, and
verification of basic PKI,
X509 includes a variety of extra pieces and
information enabling
more features. This talk will cover what X509 and SSL
are, how
they relate, how to use them, and how to learn more. It will
discuss
PKI from both an certificate end-user perspective as well
as from a
Certificate Authority perspective. If time permits, a
small comparison to PGP
will also be included akin to the one at
the end of my PGP talk.
Phil Dibowitz is a Senior UNIX Systems Administrator for the Web Systems
team
at Ticketmaster. Web Systems manages the Ticketmaster.com
infrastructure:
roughly 2000 linux systems organized in four
independent, redundant, and
geographically separate clusters
across the US. Phil has worked in IT for 9
years and has worked
as a Linux, Solaris, and Network Administrator, and has a BS in Computer
Engineering and Computer Science from USC. He is also the
author
of iptstate(8), mime_dump(1), and check_x509(1), co-founder of the
MSS
Initiative, and works on IP Filter and the USB Storage driver
in the linux
kernel. Find out more about Phil Dibowitz at
https://www.phildev.net/
Date: Thursday August 9, 2007 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2007/08/09/august-2007-meeting/
date: 2007-07-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Date: Thursday July 12, 2007 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2007/07/12/july-2007-meeting/
date: 2007-06-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
At this meeting Thomas Chung will give a short presentation on the
“State of
the Fedora Project and FC7.” Chung is a Fedora
Ambassador for Southern
California and has worked on such
projects as Open Webmail, OpenAFS, Mplayer
plug-in, X-CD-Roast,
QEMU and the Helix Player.
Date: Thursday June 14, 2007 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2007/06/14/june-2007-meeting/
date: 2007-05-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Date: Thursday May 10, 2007 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2007/05/10/may-2007-meeting/
date: 2007-04-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Short presentation on Port Knocking and Wake-On-LAN.
Date: Thursday April 12, 2007 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2007/04/12/april-2007-meeting/
date: 2007-03-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Date: Thursday March 8, 2007 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2007/03/08/march-2007-meeting/
date: 2007-02-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
At this month’s meeting, the group will discuss what to have on display at the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) this weekend at the Los Angeles Airport Westin.
Date: Thursday February 8, 2007 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2007/02/08/february-2007-meeting/
date: 2007-01-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Kerry Garrison, Senior Product Manager for Trixbox, will be on hand to
demostrate installing and setting up a complete PBX system with
their new
Trixbox 2.0 package. Trixbox 2.0 makes it fast and
simple to get an enterprise class PBX system up and running.
Date: Thursday January 11, 2007 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2007/01/11/january-2007-meeting/
date: 2006-12-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Why Linux needs to be more like Windows -or- Impediments to enterprise
Linux
adoption
Our speaker is Steve Friedl, a software consultant in Orange County
who’s been using UNIX since the early ’80s, using Windows since the late
’80s, and has
more than 20 years of cross-platform consulting and
commercial software
development experience. He has taught
advanced C/UNIX at Bell Labs, and is the only Microsoft MVP with “unix”
in his domain name (unixwiz.net).
He’ll be making the case that Linux has some stumbling blocks that make
enterprise management and deployment much more difficult than
they need to be, and what road there might be to make some progress on
these fronts.
Date: Thursday December 14, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/12/14/december-2006-meeting/
date: 2006-11-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monitoring the Local Weather with Linux
There are plenty of websites that will give you a weather report for
your
city, but what about your neighborhood? Ever wonder how hot
your attic got
during the summer or how well your air conditioner
is working? Claude
Felizardo will describe his 1-wire weather
station and how it has grown from a simple kit with a single temperature
sensor, wind speed, and direction to
multiple sensors located
throughout his house and publishes the measurements
to the
Internet.
About the Presenter:
Claude has over 15 years experience developing software on Unix
platforms and
has been playing with Linux since the late 90’s. His
friends and family think
he has too many gadgets, but he’s always
looking for something new to play
with, especially if it works
with Linux.
Date: Thursday November 9, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/11/09/november-2006-meeting/
date: 2006-10-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
MySQL replication. MySQL Replication is the means by which one or more
MySQL
databases can keep data synchronized with a master server.
The scope of
replicated data can cover any range, whether a
single table, or
indiscriminately all the databases on the master
server. MySQL Replication is
beginning to find progressively more
exposure in corporate production
environments, where it sees use
from providing hot backups, to distributing
access load amongst
large numbers of users. Solomon Chang will cover four main topics:
Requirements of MySQL Replication
Concepts of
MySQL Replication
Configuring MySQL Replication
Troubleshooting MySQL Replication
Soloman will provide a master to replicate from, so attendees are
encouraged
to bring their own computers running MySQL (4.1 or
later, please) to configure as a hands-on slave. Attendees will also
have full access to Solomon’s master. If there is time, more advanced
topics will be discussed:
Pyramid Architectures
Dual Masters
Circular Replication
Circular
Replication of Masters
About the Speaker.
Solomon Chang, a MySQL-certified DBA, practices his skills at
PriceGrabber.com and has been involved with LAMPsig since its inception
in 2003. He is also
currently co-authoring the MySQL Cluster
Certification Guide by MySQL Press.
Date: Thursday October 12, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/10/12/october-2006-meeting/
date: 2006-09-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Open Forum.
Alex Rosten will talk about some of his Linux projects.
Date: Thursday September 14, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/09/14/september-2006-meeting/
date: 2006-08-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Date: Thursday August 10, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/08/10/august-2006-meeting/
date: 2006-07-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
Chris Smith will, for the third time, attempt to present a “slice of
life at
Yahoo!” – an insiders guide to the fun and frivolity that
goes on at one of
the world’s largest content providers on the
Internet.
Date: Thursday July 13, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/07/13/july-2006-meeting/
date: 2006-06-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
A couple of “Core OS” developers from Linspire will be our guest
speakers, and they’ll talk about the interesting languages and
technologies they use in
their distribution. When asked what they
will present in detail, Clifford
responded, “The core OS group at
Linspire recently announced that we are
standardizing on Haskell
as our primary development language, whenever
appropriate. In
reality, we have been using both O’Caml and Haskell for years. Projects
include:
hardware detection and configuration,
creation of installation CDs,
package dependancy checker,
translation utilities for IRMA, and
* many internal
CGI/Web applications.
“In the whirlwind of diversity that characterizes the Open Source
development
model, functional programming provides us an eye of
tranquility. In
particular, static typing has proven invaluable.
We will discuss the benefits
of systems programming with
functional languages using the management of a
Linux distribution
as an example.”
Date: Thursday June 8, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/06/08/june-2006-meeting/
date: 2006-05-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
The topic for the evening will be “Getting a job in 2006: Is it the
dot-com
bubble all over again?” This event will include a
presentation on the current
state of the job market in Los
Angeles, with special emphasis on tech roles
and open-source
fields. There will also be a primer on how to prepare yourself to land
the best job possible. Whether you are a linux guru or a newbie,
this
session will provide valuable information on how to land a
great job. A major
theme will be how to think like a corporate
recruiter.
About the presenter:
For over 5 years, Todd Cranston-Cuebas has
led technology hiring at
Ticketmaster. He specializes in working
with candidates who have backgrounds
in open-source tools and
technologies. He has spoken at BOF sessions at a
number of large
technology conferences, including ApacheCon, OSCON, USENIX,
and,
of course, at SGVLUG meetings. He also is the scheduler and host for
this year’s monthly perl-centric “Tech Talks” for the LA.pm.
Date: Thursday May 11, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/05/11/may-2006-meeting/
date: 2006-04-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
PGP is an amazing tool for verification and encryption. However, many
people
don’t fully understand it-even people who use it. This
talk mostly will cover
uses and effects of PGP. The discussion
will focus on PGP and e-mail, and
other topics will be covered as
well. How cryptography works and the math
behind it will not be
covered.
Keysigning party
One of the key features of PGP is the “web of trust” that grows out of
individuals signing each other’s keys as a way of validating that
the
keyholder is indeed the “owner” of the key. We encourge you
to create a key
(if you don’t already have one), post it to a
public keyserver, and bring your “fingerprint” to the meeting for a
keysigning party.
About the presenter
Phil Dibowitz is a UNIX systems administrator for the web systems team
at
Ticketmaster. The web systems team manages the
Ticketmaster.com
infrastructure: roughly 1500 Linux systems
organized in four independent,
redundant, and geographically
seperate clusters across the United States. Phil has worked as a Linux,
Solaris, and Network Administrator, and has a BS in
Computer
Engineering and Computer Science from USC. He is also the author of
iptstate(1), co-founder of the MSS Initiative, and works on IP
Filter and the
USB Storage driver in theLlinux kernel. Find out
more about Phil Dibowitz at
https://www.phildev.net/.
Date: Thursday April 13, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/04/13/april-2006-meeting/
date: 2006-03-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
Due to a scheduling conflict, Chris was unable to present this last
November,
so we’ve asked him to return this month.
Chris Smith of Yahoo! to present a slice of life-on-the-inside of the
world’s
largest content provider.
Chris will demonstrate some of the cutting edge work being conducted at Yahoo! Research Labs, all of which is powered by UNIX and open source computing.
A member of Yahoo!’s Research Technology team, Chris has more than 10
years of experience developing enterprise software solutions for both
Internet
start-ups and as a Senior Java Architect for Sun
Microsystems.
Date: Thursday March 9, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/03/09/march-2006-meeting/
date: 2006-02-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
When you mention “running more than one operating system” on a computer,
most
people will think “dual boot”, and for a wide variety of
tasks that is quite
appropriate. But how many of you have thought
of running more than one system
at the same time? Sure, you’re
only “one person,” so why should the computer
act like you were
two people doing different things?
Well, you might not want to reboot your machine – especially if you have
a
long-running task going on such as “seti at home” (since
rebooting will cause
the “work unit” to be lost.) You might be a
developer, and you’re working on
something intended to be “cross
platform” – if every “rebuild-and-test” cycle included “reboot the
machine”, you’d tire of it rather quickly. Or perhaps you have two
programs, each of which runs under a different OS, but you need to
refer to the output of one program while working on the other.
If this describes you and you haven’t heard of VMware, then you need to
attend the February SGVLUG meeting. This month we’ll have Phil Anthony,
a Sr. Systems Engineer from VMware, here to talk about what VMware has
to offer – he plans
to talk about the entier line – from the ESX
server to the workstation to
their newest offering, the “free”
VMware player. (this is “free as in beer”,
folks…)
Date: Thursday February 9, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/02/09/february-2006-meeting/
date: 2006-01-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
Charles Finley of Transformix will be here to show off the Eclipse IDE
by IBM. By popular vote, the presentation will be targeting the
beginner, but there
will be plenty of opportunity to dig into
deeper subjects.
Mr. Finley has extensive software development and consulting experience
on the HP 3000, as well as on a variety of large-scale computers,
minicomputers, and
personal computers. He has over 30 years of
combined experience in the data
processing industry and has held
both technical and management positions. He
has conducted over 70
computer-related seminars throughout the U.S. and Canada and is a former
faculty member of the Industrial Relations Center at the
California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) in Pasadena. He studied
management at UCLA, received a Certificate in Data Processing
(CDP) from the
Data Processing Management Association, and holds
a B.A. in business economics from the University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Date: Thursday January 12, 2006 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2006/01/12/january-2006-meeting/
date: 2005-12-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
CinePaint is an open source software application primarily used for
motion
picture frame-by-frame retouching and dust-busting. Many
films, such as Harry
Potter and Spider-Man, use CinePaint. It was
used by Flash Film Works to add
flying arrows in The Last
Samurai, work that helped them win a VES award for
Best
Supporting Effects. CinePaint is the most popular open source
application in motion picture production.
CinePaint project leader Robin Rowe will talk about the new Glasgow
architecture, what’s implemented, and what remains to be done.
CinePaint
Glasgow is scheduled for release on December 31, 2005.
Glasgow runs on Linux,
Windows, and Mac OSX. Robin Rowe has led
CinePaint since 2002. He’s the
founder of LinuxMovies.org. He’s a
partner in motion picture technology
company MovieEditor.com.
http://linuxmovies.movieeditor.com/
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/12/08/december-2005-meeting/ Date: Thursday
December 8, 2005 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/12/08/december-2005-meeting/
date: 2005-11-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Monthly meeting.
Chris Smith of Yahoo! to present a slice of life-on-the-inside of the
world’s
largest 1
content provider.
Chris will demonstrate some of the cutting edge work being conducted at Yahoo! Research Labs, all of which is powered by UNIX and open source computing.
A member of Yahoo!’s Research Technology team, Chris has more than 10
years of experience developing enterprise software solutions for both
Internet
start-ups and as a Senior Java Architect for Sun
Microsystems.
Dustin Laurence will also give a short “Cool Tools” talk on monitor
adjustments at the start of the meeting.
Date: Thursday November 10, 2005 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/11/10/november-2005-meeting/
date: 2005-10-13, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
SGVLUG General Meeting
Topic: Elizabeth Fong from Three Rings will talk about Puzzle Pirates –
a
cross-platform multiplayer RPG
Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates (Y!PP) is a java-based persistant world RPG that
has
been quietly gaining accolades for the past three years. Come
join us for our
October meeting where intern/developer Elizabeth
Fong will tell tall (and not
so tall) tales about life in the game
industry and how it relates to Linux.
About the presenter: Elizabeth has been programming for nearly 10 years
and
started with linux four years ago when she began hosting
sites from her home
server. Starting this semester, she will be a
freshman here at Caltech.
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/10/13/october-2005-meeting/ Date: Thursday
October 13, 2005 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/10/13/october-2005-meeting/
date: 2005-09-08, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Matt Ingenthron from Sun Microsystems will review Sun’s involvement in
the
various open source communities and talk a bit about the
latest, greatest hunk of intellectual property Sun’s released to the
wild: OpenSolaris.
Matt will discuss OpenSolaris’s goals, how licensing works (and why you
shouldn’t be afraid of it) and how to get involved. This meeting
will also
cover what OpenSolaris is (and isn’t) and have a brief
demo. Take a look at
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/about/ before
attending to develop your own
questions about the project.
Matt is a Technical Specialist for Sun Microsystems and supports a
variety of
customers across the Western US. Based in Los Angeles,
Matt has worked with a
number of customers on Linux and Solaris
adoption and migration from other
platforms. Matt is part of the
Web Services practice of the Client Solutions
organization which
specializes in use of Java Enterprise System software use
by
customers on both platforms.
Date: Thursday September 8, 2005 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/09/08/september-2005-meeting/
date: 2005-08-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Orv Beach has been messing with computers for over 20 years. His first
experience with computer operating systems was with CP/M, in the
early ’80s.
His first Linux was Slackware, in 1996. Since then
he’s moved to Red Hat Linux and then Fedora Core. While not a
programmer, he’s actively involved in the
Linux community.
He’s a principal member of the Simi-Conejo Linux Users Group, the
Marketing
chair for the Linux Expo of Southern California, and is
currently employed as
the Information System Director at Simi
Valley Hospital.
Orv will demonstrate various command line commands and utilities that
are
useful for administering a Linux system. He’ll throw in a few
basic bash
tricks as a bonus.
Date: Thursday August 11, 2005 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/08/11/august-2005-meeting/
date: 2005-07-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
“Ubuntu: Linux from Outer Space,” Jana Lingo.
What does an Internet pioneer and tycoon do when he still has too much
money
after paying the Russians to take him to the International
Space Station? If
you’re Mark Shuttleworth, you start a Linux
Company.
Jana Lingo will discuss the past, present, and future of one of the
hottest
current Linux distributions. Topics will include
Ubuntus goals, philosophy,
history, and technology, as well
as Janas personal experiences with Ubuntu
and its derivates.
Ms. Lingo has over 15 years of Information technology experience, both
as a
programmer and as a manager. She is currently working as a
contract programmer for Unisys Corporation / Los Angeles County, in El
Monte.
Note: New website is http://sgvlug.net
Date: Thursday July 14, 2005 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/07/14/july-2005-meeting/
date: 2005-06-09, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
“Linux and JPL’s Mars Exploration Rover Project: Earth-based Planning,
Simulation, and Really Remote Scheduling,” Scott Maxwell and
Frank Hartman,
NASA JPL.
NASA/JPL’s Mars Exploration Rover project is the first time a JPL flight
project has used Linux systems for critical mission operations.
Scott Maxwell
and Frank Hartman, two of MER’s rover drivers, also
wrote the Rover Sequencing and Visualization Program (RSVP), the
Linux-based software used on Earth to
drive Spirit and
Opportunity. Scott and Frank will discuss the software they
developed, as well as their experiences using Linux to drive two
vehicles
across the Martian terrain, a hundred million miles from
Earth.
Date: Thursday June 9, 2005 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/06/09/june-2005-meeting/
date: 2005-05-12, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Please join us Thur at the sgvlug meeting (7-9pm at Caltech - please see
www.sgvlug.org for directions)
Giz (active member of lampsig.org) will present “A Whirlwind
introduction to
PHP development basics and best practices.”
Date: Thursday May 12, 2005 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs 107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/05/12/may-2005-meeting/
date: 2005-04-14, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Adam Loughran from Novell/Suse will be presenting:
Novell Linux Roadmap
With the completition of Novell’s acquisition of Ximian and SuSE Linux,
Novell now stands as a major advocate of Linux and of Open Source
inititives. This
month’s San Gabriel Valley Linux Users Group
meeting will host Adam Loughran,
Linux Corporate Strategist for
Novell in So. California. Adam will be
discussing Novell’s recent
moves into the Linux market including:
Novell’s acquisition of Ximian and where XD2, Red Carpet, Evolution and
Mono
fit into the Novell family of products and solutions
Novell’s recent releases
of Novell’s Open Enterprise Server and
what it means to the Linux community
Novell’s acquisition in SuSE Linux and what Novell is doing to
accelerate the
adoption of Linux into the enterprise
A look at Novell Linux Desktop v9 and the latest news on Desktop Linux
in the
enterprise.
Novell’s strategy in open source and how Novell will contribute to the
community
A discussion of other Novell products that leverage the most universal
operating system on the market (Linux) including Identity
Management, Resource Management and Web Services.
Novell will be providing a few give aways, so don’t miss out on this
opportunity to learn what Novell is doing to accelerate the
adoption of Linux
and exchange ideas with those in the community.
Bio: Adam Loughran, Linux Strategist Novell inc
Date: Thursday April 14, 2005 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/04/14/april-2005-meeting/
date: 2005-03-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
“Linux is the dominant OS for motion picture industry desktops and
servers.
Most of the blockbuster films in theaters today were
produced using Linux. How did this happen? Why are all the large studios
using Linux as their preferred
platform for creating feature
animation and visual effects?”
Robin Rowe is the founder of LinuxMovies.org, launched in 2002 for the
advancement of Linux motion picture technology. He’s the project
leader for
CinePaint, free open source software used to create
visual effects in THE LAST SAMURAI and other feature films. He’s a
former Linux Journal columnist.
Date: Thursday March 10, 2005 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Downs
107
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/03/10/march-2005-meeting/
date: 2005-02-10, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
Mark Echeverri, who has years of experience in traditional software and systems engineering, says: “For the past couple of months, I’ve been working with Plone. It’s an impressive system, and not exactly something you pick up in a Saturday. Previously, I had never done any Web-related development; Plone is a Zope tool that allows you to juggle Web portals like bowling pins…provided you know how to take advantage of it. Quite powerful.”
About Zope and Plone:
“Zope is an open source application server for building content management systems, intranets, portals, and custom applications….Zope is written in Python, a highly-productive, object-oriented scripting language.”
For more information, see http://www.zope.org/
“Plone is an out-of-the-box ready content management system that is built on the powerful and free Zope Application server. It requires minimal effort to set up, is deeply flexible, and provides you with a system for managing web content that is ideal for project groups, communities and intranets.”
For more information, see https://plone.org/
Date: Thursday February 10, 2005 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Location: 117 Downs Laboratory
https://www.sgvlug.org/2005/02/10/february-2005-meeting/
date: 2003-09-11, from: San Gabriel Valley Linux User Group
At this month’s meeting of the SGVLUG, Tim Frichtel will tell how his
company
uses Postfix and Spamassassin to manage spam and provide
reliable email for
600 Lotus Notes users. Using low-cost Linux
servers, this configuration stops
thousands of junk messages every
day without downtime.
8310
Date: Thursday September 11, 2003 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: 101 Guggenheim Lab, Lees-Kubota Lecture Hall
https://www.sgvlug.org/2003/09/11/september-2003-meeting/
date: 0001-01-01, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
Vol. CXXVII, Issue 4 | October 31, 2023 View full PDF Vol. CXXVII, Issue 3 | October 17, 2023 View full PDF Are Privacy and the Honor Code Compatible? Divorce, Drinks, and Long Drives: The Mountain Goats Experience Housing in Pasadena: A Zero-Sum Game? HSS Course Offerings: An Analysis of the Past Five Years Men’s Soccer and Men’s Water Polo Start the Weekend Strong New Changes in Caltech Athletics and Recreation to Fix Old Problems Question the Quail The CalAI Odyssey The Unstandardization of Caltech: Bathrooms To Unionize or Not to Unionize Vol.
https://tech.caltech.edu/issues/latest/
date: 0001-01-01, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The California Tech aims to publish biweekly except during vacation and examination periods by the Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology, Inc. The opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the authors and advertisers. Letters and submissions are welcome; e-mail submissions to tech@caltech.edu as plain-text attachments, including the author’s name, by Thursday of the week before publication. If you would like to write for The Tech, please join our Discord server – it is the editorial team’s main method of communication.
https://tech.caltech.edu/about/
date: 0001-01-01, from: California Tech (Caltech Student Newspaper)
The advertising deadline is 12 pm on Friday; all advertising should be submitted electronically or as camera ready art, but The Tech can also do simple typesetting and arrangement. All advertising inquiries should be directed to the business manager at tech@caltech.edu
https://tech.caltech.edu/advertising/
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Tuesday, October 31, 2023What & Who: Caltech Library is offering a hands-on workshop on automated version control using Git. We'll cover managing a Git repository on your local machine and using Git to work with collaborators. You don't need to have experience with Git, but should have experience working on the Unix command line such as taking our Unix Shell workshop.
First preference for attendance at this workshop is for members of the Caltech Postdoctoral Association. There is a limit of 20 attendees.
When: Tuesday, October 31, 2023, 9:30am to 12 noon.
Where: Multimedia Conference Room (328), Sherman Fairchild Library
Registration: This event is open to all members of the Caltech community. Please register using the link below.
For more information, email library@caltech.edu
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11293415
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Thursday, November 2, 2023Tableau Public is a free software program that can allow you to see and understand your data in an interactive way through visualization. It is used by data analysts, data scientists, students, teachers, businesses, and many more types of disciplines and organizations.
In this session, we will show you how you can take a sample data set and turn it into a visualization using charts and graphs, as well as creating a dashboard and displaying it to the web using Tableau Public's online interface. If you’re interested in having data ‘tell your story,’ Tableau Public can help you do that.
"Introduction to Tableau Public" is being offered online via Zoom. Participants must be pre-registered.
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11192383
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Monday, November 6, 2023What & Who: Caltech Library is offering a 4-day Python programming workshop to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop, spread over four days, will cover basic concepts and tools in the context of scientific data analysis, including working in Jupyter notebooks, basic plotting, programming structures including loops and lists, working with files and conditionals, functions, and defensive programming.
We expect that you have attended the Library's Introduction to Shell workshop and/or know how to navigate your computer on the command line.
When: Monday–Thursday, November 6–9, 2023.
Where: Online via Zoom
Schedule:
9:45am-10am: Setup, discussion,
troubleshooting (as needed, optional)
10am-11:15am:
Instruction (approximately 15 mins at end for optional review,
discussion, troubleshooting)
Registration: This event is open to all members of the Caltech community Please register using the link below.
For more information: If you have any questions about the workshop please contact the Library (library@caltech.edu).
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11294723
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023What & Who: Caltech Library is offering a 4-day Python programming workshop to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop, spread over four days, will cover basic concepts and tools in the context of scientific data analysis, including working in Jupyter notebooks, basic plotting, programming structures including loops and lists, working with files and conditionals, functions, and defensive programming.
We expect that you have attended the Library's Introduction to Shell workshop and/or know how to navigate your computer on the command line.
When: Monday–Thursday, November 6–9, 2023.
Where: Online via Zoom
Schedule:
9:45am-10am: Setup, discussion,
troubleshooting (as needed, optional)
10am-11:15am:
Instruction (approximately 15 mins at end for optional review,
discussion, troubleshooting)
Registration: This event is open to all members of the Caltech community Please register using the link below.
For more information: If you have any questions about the workshop please contact the Library (library@caltech.edu).
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11294724
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2023The Office of Technology Transfer and Corporate Partnerships presents an overview of different kinds of intellectual property (IP) and how they are managed at Caltech, with a particular emphasis on patents as a means of protecting inventions developed in the course of Caltech research. Ownership and licensing of Caltech IP is also addressed. This will be followed by a Caltech Librarian presenting a brief overview of patent searching, locating English language patent equivalents, legal status issues, and current awareness techniques.
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11398042
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Wednesday, November 8, 2023What & Who: Caltech Library is offering a 4-day Python programming workshop to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop, spread over four days, will cover basic concepts and tools in the context of scientific data analysis, including working in Jupyter notebooks, basic plotting, programming structures including loops and lists, working with files and conditionals, functions, and defensive programming.
We expect that you have attended the Library's Introduction to Shell workshop and/or know how to navigate your computer on the command line.
When: Monday–Thursday, November 6–9, 2023.
Where: Online via Zoom
Schedule:
9:45am-10am: Setup, discussion,
troubleshooting (as needed, optional)
10am-11:15am:
Instruction (approximately 15 mins at end for optional review,
discussion, troubleshooting)
Registration: This event is open to all members of the Caltech community Please register using the link below.
For more information: If you have any questions about the workshop please contact the Library (library@caltech.edu).
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11294725
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Thursday, November 9, 2023What & Who: Caltech Library is offering a 4-day Python programming workshop to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop, spread over four days, will cover basic concepts and tools in the context of scientific data analysis, including working in Jupyter notebooks, basic plotting, programming structures including loops and lists, working with files and conditionals, functions, and defensive programming.
We expect that you have attended the Library's Introduction to Shell workshop and/or know how to navigate your computer on the command line.
When: Monday–Thursday, November 6–9, 2023.
Where: Online via Zoom
Schedule:
9:45am-10am: Setup, discussion,
troubleshooting (as needed, optional)
10am-11:15am:
Instruction (approximately 15 mins at end for optional review,
discussion, troubleshooting)
Registration: This event is open to all members of the Caltech community Please register using the link below.
For more information: If you have any questions about the workshop please contact the Library (library@caltech.edu).
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11294726
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2023What & Who: Caltech Library is offering an introductory Databases and SQL workshop designed for researchers working with data. This hands-on workshop, spread over two days, will cover selecting, sorting and deduplicating data, creating subsets, calculating derivative data and data aggregations, data formats, and accessing databases from Python programs. The workshop is designed to complement the Managing Data with Pandas workshop.
When: Tuesday November 14 & Thursday November 16, 2023.
Where: Online via Zoom
Curriculum:
Tue, 11/14: SQLite command line and
data browser, data selecting, sorting, duplicating, filtering,
calculations, data aggregation, joining data tables
Thu, 11/16:
data formats, creating and modifying tables, programming with Python
Daily schedule:
11:45am-12:00noon: Setup,
discussion, troubleshooting (as needed, optional)
12:00noon-1:15pm: Instruction (approximately 15 mins at end for optional
review, discussion, troubleshooting)
Registration: This event is open to the Caltech community. Please register using the link below.
For more information: If you have any questions about the workshop please contact the Library (library@caltech.edu).
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11295422
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2023Do you know copyright rules are important considerations if you are including published or borrowed content in your thesis?
This class will give an overview of techniques useful in the production and publication of Caltech electronic theses, including tips on formatting and submitting. It will also touch on intellectual property considerations and access, as well as thesis dissemination policies. Additional topics may include author identification (ORCIDs) and preservation of thesis-related research data.
More information regarding theses is available anytime through the Caltech Thesis Libguide.
'You and Your Thesis' is being offered online only via Zoom. Participants must be pre-registered.
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11348397
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Wednesday, November 15, 2023QGIS is an open-source geographic information system (GIS) software program that has been popular for many years now. In this introduction, you’ll get an overview of QGIS’s interface, see where to download spatial data, along with three examples of what you can do with QGIS. This class is for beginners using a GIS system, no previous knowledge of a GIS system is required. Highly recommended for first-year geology students, but all are welcome.
As part of GIS Day, this class is being offered as a special in-person session in the Geology Library, 201 N Mudd. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.
There is a limited number of registration spots available.
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11192546
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Wednesday, November 15, 2023ArcGIS Online is a geographic information system (GIS) that is used to create, edit, visualize, and analyze spatial data—all in an online cloud-based system, using only your browser. In this introduction, you’ll get an overview of its features, how to access your organization and how to connect to data sources, along with examples on how you can create and share a map. Some basic knowledge of GIS concepts, such as basemaps, layers and shapefiles is recommended, but not required. This class is only open to members of the Caltech community that have a valid and current access credential log-in. A log-in link to the Caltech GPS GIS organization will be provided.
As part of GIS Day, this class is being offered as a special in-person session in the Geology Library, 201 N. Mudd. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.
There is a limited number of registration spots available.
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11192559
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Thursday, November 16, 2023What & Who: Caltech Library is offering an introductory Databases and SQL workshop designed for researchers working with data. This hands-on workshop, spread over two days, will cover selecting, sorting and deduplicating data, creating subsets, calculating derivative data and data aggregations, data formats, and accessing databases from Python programs. The workshop is designed to complement the Managing Data with Pandas workshop.
When: Tuesday November 14 & Thursday November 16, 2023.
Where: Online via Zoom
Curriculum:
Tue, 11/14: SQLite command line and
data browser, data selecting, sorting, duplicating, filtering,
calculations, data aggregation, joining data tables
Thu, 11/16:
data formats, creating and modifying tables, programming with Python
Daily schedule:
11:45am-12:00noon: Setup,
discussion, troubleshooting (as needed, optional)
12:00noon-1:15pm: Instruction (approximately 15 mins at end for optional
review, discussion, troubleshooting)
Registration: This event is open to the Caltech community. Please register using the link below.
For more information: If you have any questions about the workshop please contact the Library (library@caltech.edu).
https://libcal.caltech.edu/event/11295423
date: , from: Caltech Library Events
Date: Friday, November 17, 2023What & Who: pandas (Python Data Analysis Library) is a fast, powerful, flexible and easy to use data analysis and manipulation tool, built on top of the Python programming language. This one-hour, hands-on workshop will cover a variety of techniques for selecting, sorting, creating subsets, calculating derivative data, etc. The workshop is designed to complement the Databases and SQL workshop.
When: Friday, November 17, 2023.
Where: Online via Zoom
Daily schedule:
11:45am-12:00noon: Setup,
discussion, troubleshooting (as needed, optional)
12:00noon-1:15pm: Instruction (approximately 15 mins at end for optional
review, discussion, troubleshooting)
Registration: This event is open to the Caltech community. Please register using the link below.
For more information: If you have any questions about the workshop please contact the Library (library@caltech.edu).