SoCal Minds

Fun and games take on a global, serious spin for these 2

From Harvey Mudd & LA Trade Tech

Sudoku's a relatively simpler part of it; they take on knottier intellectual pastimes. And now, in a reflection of the robust kinds of activities that kids undertake on campuses across the area, a national team of competitors that includes a Mudder will travel to Warsaw next month to try to bring home the big prize at the World Puzzle Championship. Go figure. Palmer Mebane, a junior math major out in Claremont (shown at right), concedes in his online bio that he studies a lot, socializes little and may be about as introverted as he can be. But he's a puzzle-meister who placed third in the country in solving complex logic games that include but far exceed the ordinary, newspaper published Sudokus, putting him on the Poland-bound team.

A puzzle-meister from Claremont heads to Poland for world competition 

Click here for Mebane's personal puzzle site

And speaking of making the team, there's good news and a positive message from a downtown Los Angeles student who has been picked for the 2012 U.S. Paralympics team. David Rios, the youngest member of an L.A. Clippers-sponsored wheel chair basketball squad, now will travel to London to compete in the international games. He says the athletics have been great for him, but equally or more so, has been his academic experiences, which he notes, started with a despairing online search several years ago after he was disabled in an accident. He talks frankly about growing up in a tough neighborhood, taking up with gangs, doing prison time -- and why no one should ever give up on himself. He hopes to get a four-year degree, works now in the school's writing center helping others and urges people to reach high and dream big.

From Trade Tech to 2012 London games, life looks up for an L.A. scholar-athlete

At L.A. campuses, ways to make money matter, too

From Loyola Marymount & LA Trade Tech

While academics matter a ton, in grisly economic times like these, it's also good to know that campuses around the region also help students in another critical area of accomplishment: finding real world talents and skills that lead to work, jobs and careers. In Westchester, for example, just a small, nice yarn about two guys who convert their wish to scribble homework formulas on a wall to a burgeoning entrepreneurial enterprise providing Whiteyboards, a stick-on, peel-off white writing surface. And downtown, the first, all-female graduating class of electrical line workers has gotten a lot of attention, some of it a little shocking in its negativity. But the video, in case the widely publicized story didn't already catch the eye, gives a taste of the hard work in and need for those who help power our lives.

Photo: Lion entrepreneurs Saachi Cywinski, l, and Jason Wilk / Whiteyboard

A hair-raising flip: student wins big styling contest

From LA Trade Tech

Here's a reminder that Southland schools get amazing results and change lives in all manner of ways, as often as not with what all kinds of students learn and take in -- and not always at big name places that offer fancy degrees. Take, for example, this instance of a local cosmetology student, with her high quality coiffures, who came away from a national competition with $56,000 in cash and prizes, including the chance to work with leading lights in her business in expense-paid appearances across the country. Her teacher also gets a nifty award. The humble winning student, by the way, is a single mother of three who hopes to earn her four-year degree in East LA, then return to her current school as an instructor.

Local student captures national award with $56,000 in prizes

We Have a Winner! from LATTC on Vimeo.

Policy experts offer a focus on LA's big issues: safety, energy, environment, transportation

From RAND, UCLA, Oxy & LA Trade Tech

What four items cry out more in Los Angeles for political  acumen and action than public safety, transportation, the environment and energy? And Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's getting an earful on these topics from experts at institutions across the city:

• In Santa Monica, the think tank folks have scoured the heavy-lifting, published but often thick academic scholarship on the costs and benefits of police officers, forces and crime, and, guess what: Paying for cops can be a really smart investment, they say, supporting, among other things, hizzoner's long quest to boost -- and to keep -- the LAPD at 10,000 officers. Researchers scoured an array of complex analytic means that scholars employ to calculate that the larger LAPD costs the city from $125 million to $150 million but results in a $475 million benefit and savings. How? Well, crime may not pay but it proves extraordinarily pricey in its economic consequence, in prosecution, investigation, lost work time, victim care and other items. A single homicide can run up more than $1 million in costs, researchers say, noting that even residential burglaries and larceny can tally up to thousands of dollars. That more cops stems costly wrongdoing also has been borne out in the thicket of research that only scholars usually dare to wade into. By the way, this study also estimates the sheriff's savings with added deputies could amount to more than $150 million. And, of course, the work by the folks in Santa Monica underscores the too frequent disconnect between valuable scholarly research and its accessibility and utility in public policy areas where it could be both crucial and useful.

Quantifiable benefits found to paying for boosts in police forces

Click here to get the full RAND study 

• In Westwood, the Bruins are boasting about their research role in the mayor's newly announced initiative on more environmentally conscious energy generation, specifically some potentially painful increases in charges by the Department of Water and Power to fund a smarter grid and more solar and other green energy. While proponents argue that this is the smart, long-term course to make the giant city utility more efficient, clean and green and to generate potentially thousands of new jobs, the 'carbon surcharges' or 'feed-in tariffs'  or whatever the rate increases to support the plan get called, well, they're not going to go down easy in a city with soaring unemployment, a whopping budget deficit and already announced wide-scale municipal layoffs and service reductions. And, of course, the DWP has never ranked up there as the most popular, populist or beloved city agency anyhow, right?

Mayor's green power plan has roots in Westwood, Bruins say

• In Eagle Rock, there's lots of two-wheel fervor building this week as a top East Coast transportation policy expert with LA ties heads here to help peddle a pedal-power push with proponents, enthusiasts and even over at City Hall. Janette Sadik-Khan, the New York transportation commissioner, has seen success in Manhattan with initiatives to create more on-street bike lanes, reduce cycling injuries and deaths and to open more fully to pedestrians both Times and Herald squares. As an alum who is about to receive an honorary degree, she also is familiar with Los Angeles traffic and transportation woes. She'll give a free, public talk Thursday night on improving transportation, then will participate on Friday in a public ride with the school's president from the main entrance of the campus to a nearby Gold Line station, then on to City Hall to meet with the mayor. She'll also be a keynoter on Saturday at the downtown Trade Tech campus for the 2010 LA Street Summit, which examines transportation alternatives, including 'biking, walking and beyond.'

A focus on improved urban transportation via alternatives -- biking, walking

LA Street Summit 2010 keys in on 'biking, walking and beyond'