SoCal Minds

Does Beijing-LA class merit apple for iPodium?

From USC

If the heavens didn't part and the earth failed to tremble with the introduction of the tablet-sized computing device known as the iPad, well, another technological development may bear close watching and it's called the iPodium. It takes advantage of videoconferencing and other high tech tools to let a dozen handpicked students in Exhibition Park and at Peking University participate together in the same groundbreaking class on innovation. The students will not only share lectures, materials and discussions, they will team up to identify and to try to solve an environmental problem afflicting both the campus in Los Angeles and its counterpart 16 hours away. Advocates say the students will learn as much from each other and their experiences together as they will from the class, which is its own test of distance learning technologies and models.

Tech advances let handpicked students jointly study innovation

Haiti aid: Bruin medics, Matador coins, shoes

From UCLA & CSUN

Good to see that campuses throughout the region aren't letting the dire needs of the Haitian quake victims slip from concern and action. A dozen Bruin medical personnel, both specialists in emergency care and operating room experts, will head to Port-au-Prince this week for a two-week stay, helping to man a U.S. Navy-established field hospital. The school, where there will be a major on-campus fund-raiser on Thursday, says this medical aid will only be the start from Westwood. Meantime, in Northridge, student athletes have taken two steps to assist the needy in Haiti, by collecting hundreds of pairs of athletic shoes for quake victims and joining in a Big West athletic conference pledge that proceeds of an annual coin drive will go to address the huge needs on the island nation caused by the recent temblor.

Tame from Westwood will help staff U.S. Navy field hospital in Port-au-Prince

In Northridge, a shoe donation program, pledges of annual coin drive to aid Haitians

A decidedly contrarian view about the economy

From Zocalo

If 10% U.S. unemployment, trillions of dollars in national indebtedness and a grid-locked and ferociously partisan political system don't seem bolster the positions of Panglossian readers of tea leaves, well, take heart: a prolific contrarian pundit has looked out on the present economic wreckage and pronounces it a momentary hiccup before the next astonishing global flourishing. Gregg Easterbrook, author of 'Sonic Boom: Globalization at Mach Speed,' will make his case Wednesday in a free program on the Westside why technology, inter-connectivity and the shrinking globe will lead to greater prosperity but maybe not world peace. Space is limited, reservations are required.

What lies ahead for economy after current crisis ends? Author sees a boom

Two takes on taking better care of youngsters

From RAND & the Milken Institute

Catching up on some worthwhile videos posted recently that address issues concering the health and welfare of children. Researchers in Santa Monica examine a mound of data to try to tell what's working and what's not in the area of child care, with some noteworthy findings on the array of offerings that are called teacher education or professional development and how these affect kids. Meantime, in Beverly Hills, baseball legend Joe Torre talks with moving frankness both about his own bout with cancer and how he and his wife decided to start the 'Safe at Home' foundation dedicated to ending the cycle of domestic abuse and violence that harms kids at home. Torre, the former Yankee manager and now the Dodgers' on-field boss, describes how growing up in a troubled home scarred him. Neither the RAND nor the Milken Institute sites allow others to embed the video so here are the links.

Photo: Ali and Joe Torre discuss 'Safe at Home' foundation / Milken Institute

A webinar on promising child care practices

Baseball great Joe Torre on 'Safe at Home'

A fast, inexpensive genetic study of brain cancer

From UCLA

To those who envision the day when physicians will treat patients in a highly tailored fashion, depending on their individual biology and unique aspects of their disease, a $35,000 research project holds intriguing promise. That's what it cost Bruin researchers in less than a month to figure out the genetic sequence -- the sui generis signature, if you will -- of a much-studied brain cancer. That compares with the decades of work by hundreds of researchers at a cost of billions of dollars to undertake the breakthrough science that produced the sequence of the human geonome. With the latest data in hand, researchers say they can better treat this form of brain cancer, targeting therapies and determining crucial elements of the disease, such as knowing much earlier its possible recurrence and figuring if and when often harsh measures can be halted because the cancer, effectively, has been killed.

Genetic sequencing will let doctors target treatment, know of cancer's recurrence, defeat

Chapman law dean resigns to pursue AG bid

From Chapman University

He's a constitutional scholar with a conservative viewpoint that had attracted considerable attention to his law school. He's been a frequent author of Op-Eds, a longtime and prominent intellectual voice on the right and recently has provided a philosophic foil to his Orange County liberal friend and fellow dean of the brand new UC law school down the road at Irvine. Now, though, John C. Eastman has heard the siren call of statewide politics. He's stepped down after three years as the law school dean, will remain on the faculty and will pursue, he has announced, a bid to become California Attorney General. There's a crowded early field, especially on the Democratic side, in the race to replace Jerry Brown, with at least one GOP legislator from Orange County contending. Eastman has deep conservative bona fides, as a University of Chicago law school grad, law clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, Federalist Society member, director of the Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, editor of the Claremont Review of Books and co-author of works with Justice Antonin Scalia and Pepperdine prof and now U.S. envoy Douglas Kmiec. He's also jousted, in recent humorous fashion, with Irvine law dean Erwin Chemerinsky, brought vilified Bush administration lawyer John Yoo to Orange and been a frequent guest of right-yakker Hugh Hewitt. A faculty colleague will serve as interim dean as a national search is under way for Eastman's replacement.  

Photo: law deans Chemerinsky , l, and Eastman enjoy a point in recent joust / Chapman University

As prominent conservative voice, dean had boosted attention for Orange law school

Focusing on assistance for, study of the disabled

From UCSB, CSUN & UCLA

Getting to and through college can be a challenge for traditional students, who hit their studies, typically, with youth, energy and at the peak of their physical prowess. But for those who with serious illnesses or other disabilities, campuses around the area are paying more, welcome attention to their struggles. In Santa Barbara, Jack Johnson -- a singer, songwriter and alum -- and his wife have donated $50,000 in memory of a cousin, who, the family says, was undeterred by brain cancer from pursuing his studies. The gift will aid seriously ailing undergrads. In Westwood, a mom has funded prizes for seniors in disability studies, a minor that her late daughter and a late professor helped to create; the academic program now spans courses in 20 departments and seeks to get students and scholars to reexamine their thinking on the body, society and culture. Finally, in Northridge, the university is announcing the programming for its annual conference of entrepreneurs and tech industry executives, thousands of whom will gather next month in San Diego with other experts in the area of assisting the disabled.

A $50,000 memorial to aid undergrads with serious illness

Memorial prizes honor daughter's push for disability studies

Thousands expected for annual conference on disabled, technology, entrepreneurship  

Half of Haiti quake victims estimated to be kids

From USC

With the Haiti toll rising by the day to new, tragic levels, experts in Los Angeles estimate that half of the temblor's victims are children, 110,000 of them who have suffered broken bones, head injuries or other traumas or severe psychological shock. Trojan researchers, using computerized statistical programs developed especially for disasters, say they hope their new data will help relief efforts in the quake-ravaged Caribbean nation, guiding medical personnel there and donors outside of Haiti as to the needs for care and resources. They examined Haitian demographics to determine that, with an extraordinarily youthful society, the toll of quake victims among children would be giant. Based on early reports from medics in Haiti, the researchers can project the number and types of injuries and they have posted this information, along with recommendations about what drugs, in particular, and other resources will be needed to treat the young wounded and sick.

Trojans tap computers to estimate medical needs in Haiti

Click here for blog on pediatric emergency action plan

A timely jobs summit; data on gays in military

From CSULB & UCLA

Since President Obama put the topics on the table with his nationally televised State of the Union address, here's two timely developments from area schools on the topics of jobs, infrastructure, higher education and gays and lesbians in the military:

• In Long Beach, an array of experts will gather early next week for a summit to consider whether the region and nation can meet the demands for the highly skilled workers who will design, build and run the transportation infrastructure of tomorrow. Can California colleges and universities, in particular, look past their current fiscal nightmares to think about how they will produce, say, the transportation engineers who not only are savvy about the latest construction thinking but also broad concerns like their work's effect on global warming? The Golden State's demands will be particularly acute with demographics driving big changes -- the retirement of the Baby Boom generation, en masse, will drain many public and government agencies dealing with transportation of their expertise and experience, experts say. There is a fee to attend and registration is required. for the sessions, which will occur even as the Obama administration announces that California will get billions of dollars in stimulus aid to plan a high-speed rail system from Anaheim to San Francisco.

Summit set on state's huge needs for tomorrow's transporation experts

Click here for registration, more information on transportation summit

• In Westwood, Bruin experts provided swift data in response to the president's call for his administration, Congress and the military to end the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy affecting gays and lesbians in the U.S. armed forces. They estimate that 66,000 gays and lesbians, including 13,000 in active duty and 53,000 in the National Guard and reserve, now serve in the military, struggling under the Clinton era compromise policy that constrains LGBT personnel. If that policy were reversed, the researchers estimate that almost 37,000 gays and lesbians would join active duty service and 12,000 would become part of the guard and reserves. They cite others' estimates that the current policy has cost a half billion dollars to enforce and say there would be significant budget savings if "Don't Ask" was repealed. 

What might happen if 'Dont' Ask, Don't Tell' policy went away?

Cleaner air found to curb ear infections in kids

From UCLA

Cleaner air contributes greatly to cutting down on frequent ear infections among children, a bane that, directly or indirectly costs as much as $5 billion annually, researchers say after studying more than 100,000 youngsters and finding that improvements in pollution levels between 1997 and 2006 had beneficial effects. They examined kids who had three or more ear infections, as well as those with allergy problems and seizures. Ear infections fell as air quality got better, though the other conditions were unaffected by lessened pollution. Researchers said their data supports moves to rid the environment of airborne pollutants -- carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous dioxide and particulate matter -- such as through the Clean Air Act of 1990.

Decade's data on 100,000 kids backs efforts to curb pollution, researchers say