SoCal Minds

In 1 green day, 800 advocates, a 600-megawatt plan

From Oxy & UCLA

Think 800 and 600 -- that's people and megawatts -- just to followup on that big green day last week. In Eagle Rock, more than 800 people showed up to participate in an Obama administration 'listening session' with all kinds of ideas on what policies this country should put in place for conservation, recreation and preservation of the great outdoors. The speakers, who came from Santa Barbara to Mojave, told Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, among other things, that it's crucial for the country to get more young people and people of color involved in saving the environment. Over in downtown L.A., meantime, green energy advocates unveiled Bruin research that argues for a city initiative  to let businesses and residents invest in solar panels, then to sell any excesss power generated back to the city through a 'feed-in tariff program.' That program, at a cost of $25 million to $35 million, would be more cost-effective than other Department of Water and Power plans to obtain sustainable power, advocates say. They also contend it would create 11,000 green jobs and help Los Angeles meet ambitious goals for sustainable energy by creating one of the nation's largest such solar programs.

In Eagle Rock, hundreds offer environmental ideas to Obama officials

Bruins back plan for big Los Angeles sustainable power plan

A higher-ed peoloton offers a look-see at SoCal minds

From Oxy

Phew, it's summer and an ostensible pause in the seasons of anxiety for collegiate aspirants. But some work never ends, and, for some fun-seeking college counselors, a work-vacation offers an opportunity to see up-close what's on SoCal Minds via a rolling, 400-mile tour of regional campuses. The folks over in Eagle Rock are hosting a stop on the bicyclist look-see, a grownups' peloton aimed at getting a personal-professional view of what's new at spots like the Claremont collective, the universities of Redlands and LaVerne, Oxy, Caltech. LMU and USC. So what, in hyper-conscious fashion, should the schools know about what the 19 visiting pros from 13 states have to say about them as they undergo their seventh annual cycling whistle-stop tour of schools? Because this is the age of blogging, the East Coast Gray Lady offers a big forum for the observations of group members...

College counselors cycling 400 miles in tour of area campuses 

Click here for NYT 'Choice' blog, with dispatches from biking counselors

It's a green day with top Obama officials listening, a focus on solar

From Oxy & UCLA

It's a red-letter day for the higher-ed environmental crowd, as the Obama administration administers a big dose of love and attention on the president's Eastside alma mater and outdoors types and the Bruins and the Villaraigosa administration and allies go big about solar with Southland business leaders.

• While the Westside typically gets the high-powered political affection, particularly since that's where the moneyed and donating Hollywood folks dwell, it will be Eagle Rock hosting Cabinet level officials for a 'listening' session this afternoon as to what America ought to do about its great outdoors. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (shown at left) and EPA Secretary Lisa P. Jackson (shown at right) will be joined by Ag undersecretary Harris Sherman and Jo-Ellen Darcy, an undersecretary from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in hearing comments to shape future national environmental, conservation and recreational policies. The free, public and open program, at which there will be break-out sessions for citizens to share ideas, is part of the America's Great Outdoors Initiative with similar 'listen-ins' scheduled around the nation.

In Eagle Rock, top Obama officials to alight for 'listening' session on great outdoors

• In downtown this morning, the Los Angeles Business Council, city officials, green advocates and policy-makers will gather to discuss new Bruin data on the solar potential of the city of Angels, particularly how it could best be tapped by a 'feed-in tariff program.' Proponents have stressed that governmental actions are needed to spur business and residential customers to make the often hefty investments to go solar, thereby creating jobs, economic growth and helping the city reach Mayor Villaraigosa's articulated, ambitious goals of adding big new sources of renewable energy while reducing the city's reliance on less-green power supplies. Bruin researchers previously have examined how utilities around the globe have set up sensible rate programs to let big and small customers install solar panels on roofs and open spaces like parking lots and sell back energy they generate; they are to report back on how Los Angeles might make similar accommodations at the Department of Water and Power -- the giant utility already under public fire for its creative and slippery accounting.

In downtown, Bruins, business leaders, city officials press forward with solar plans

Click here for LA Business Council info on 'feed in tariff' plan on solar power 

What do Americans want from great outdoors in 21st Century?

From Oxy

He's a guy who's better known for his fast feet roaming up and down an indoor basketball court or for his sharp maneuvering through Washington's corridors of power. But President Obama's alma mater has taken up his challenge to let the public give him and his administration an earful about what Americans want to see accomplished in the 21st Century in the areas of conservation, recreation and the Great Outdoors. Thursday is the deadline to sign up for a scheduled July 8 forum in which administration officials will listen and take in ideas on these topics from such varied interested parties potentially as tribal leaders, farmers, ranchers, sportsmen, foresters, business people, educators and representatives of parks, recreation and conservation groups, as well as state and local governments. Similar sessions will be put on in venues across the country, with the president saying they will help set the outdoors, conservation and recreation agenda through the century. 

RSVP deadline nears for forum to tell Obama administration views on conservation, recreation

Click here to learn more about 'America's Great Outdoors Initiative'

A weekend for books, gardens, history, eccentrics

From UCLA, the Arboretum, the Huntington, Cal State Dominguez Hills & Occidental

On a weekend with promises of no rain, brisk temperatures but plenty of sunshine, here's to the ample opportunities to explore and experience what once would be an idyllic, ideal scholarly life awash with books, history, gardens and plenty of other diversions.

From Westwood to Arcadia, of course, there are the pillars and posts of the spring season: on the Westside, there will be the big Los Angeles Times Book Festival attracting tens of thousand of bibliophiles and an array of authors, including Bruin faculty; and on the eastside, there's the Los Angeles County Arboretum's annual garden show, one of the largest such outdoor events on the West Coast with plenty of plants for sale and a focus this year on environment friendly gardening. Snatch the kids' wagon and take it to both events to bring home piles of autographed tomes and lots of great new greenery to add to the lushness of the area's rain-soaked yards.

Click here for more info on the Times' 'Festival of Books'

Bruin authors at the book fest in Westwood

In Arcadia, Arboretum stagest one of the largest garden events on West Coast

The Golden State, then as it sometimes feels now, might only have been a far imagining in the farthest distance of the frontier. But for some reason, on a contemporary basis, the Revolutionary period of the nation rides triumphant this weekend in the Southland as a major exhibit opens in San Marino, examining not the 1776 American divorce from Britain as a crown colony but the crucial predecessor stirrings on the new continent as colonists, including a young soldier named George Washington (shown at right), took on French interlopers in 1754 and set a tone and tenor in the Seven Years War that would be critical for then British America and all that would follow. That New World conflict, experts say, had a huge effect on shaping not just what would become the United States but it also ended up involving and affecting many of what then were global powers. The result? Well, a key document that would spring forth from the rabble-rousing set makes a West Coast stop in a national tour and will be available for a free, public but restricted viewing Saturday. It's a historic pressing of the Declaration of Independence, printed by colonial craftsman John Dunlap just hours after Thomas Jefferson had finished his writing. This rare copy moldered behind and hid in a junky picture frame until it was discovered in a flea market and later changed hands to a Norman Lear-supported foundation that paid $8.1 million for it.

In San Marino, opening of exhibit focused on Seven Years' War, British America

In South Bay, a chance to view historic Declaration

If the clamor for getting out of the house or tackling something fun don't encompass, well, say, chowing down on entries in the annual Grilled Cheese Invitational or maybe roaming downtown to collect pointers so as to win hotel stays in an online trivia contest, well, then perhaps the thing to do is to hie over to Eagle Rock for an eccentric, eclectic, free, public event that hearkens to a time when it is said the arts and sciences weren't separated and even more weirdness than can commonly be found in zany Southern California often prevailed. Intellectual impressario Lawrence Weschler (shown at right) will be putting on his day-long cavalcade of art, film, chat, PowerPoint, music, performance and whatever else fits into the ol 'Wonder Cabinet.' Hmmm.

In Eagle Rock, a day-long cavalcade of art, science, music, performance

Time for thinking and talking about Obama, God

From Oxy & Pepperdine

If the environmental fervor associated with Earth Day just doesn't grip and grab so tightly that all other intellectual endeavors for the day get squeezed out, well, there are other passtimes of the mind planned for this evening. In Eagle Rock, the folks at his alma mater will discuss and dissect one of the school's best-known and notable alums, a onetime multiracial student then-named Barry. The always smart, lively and entertaining Patt Morrison (shown at right) of the LA Times and KPCC will be part of a panel with faculty and pundits from the NY Times and Huffington Post in a free, first-come program at 7 tonight on 'Deconstructing Obama.' In Malibu, the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College at 4 this afternoon will take off on a thought-provoking topic titled, 'Is God Dead?' That session is free and open to the public but space is limited.

In Eagle Rock, alma mater examines a top alum's leadership, reaction to it

In Malibu, a provocative topic for Claremont McKenna scholar

Bah, which schools are happy, stressful, got buzz?

From Claremont McKenna, Pomona & UCLA

What's with the zeitgeist in Claremont? Or maybe the question should be, What's with the American fascination about ratings, rankings and lists -- aside from the media manufactured attention grabbing that these gigs generate? Just in time for the academics to boast about or belittle the various annual ratings and rankings by certain publications, there are a couple of cyber lists that are worth a mention for Friday water-cooler fodder. Says the Daily Beast, based on criteria that barely eke beyond the risible, Southern California campuses, especially those out in Claremont, are among the Happiest, while others are the most Stressed Out. Let's cut to the chase: Claremont McKenna tops the bliss list, followed by Harvard, Pomona, Harvey Mudd and Scripps, with Caltech (8), Oxy (12), UCLA (13), UCI (16), Pitzer (22), UCSB (28) and USC (31) following. On the other hand, the high anxiety crowd is said to be topped by Stanford, Columbia and MIT, with Caltech (9), USC (18), UCLA (30) and UCSB (41) following. Not quite sure of what to make of another set of measures that are said to tap the 'buzz' detectable online, in social media and other ways about schools, though Pomona shows up No. 6 on this list, which also mentions Oxy (45), Claremont McKenna (66), Harvey Mudd (80), Pitzer (92) and Scripps (93), allegedly following the tops of Wellsely, Williams, Colorado College and Oberlin; among the universities, UCLA hits this list at No. 14. And while deciding what to make about the U.S. News & World Report and other such list-mania that's popping up, well, a good dose of perspective from the Bruins on the topic, put together by the always readable Claudia Luther. By the way, we're not linking here to every school's post on this topic, just a sample few.

In Claremont, just one of the kvelling reports on the Happiness list 

From Pomona, a favorable nod from monitor of the 'net 'buzz' about schools

Click here to see the 'Beast' list of Happy schools

Click here for the 'Beast' list of Stressful campuses

Bruins put magazine, publications' school ratings in perspective

Three takes on science: of history, fraud and fun

From Occidental, Caltech & the Huntington

Science can be serious but never stuffy stuff in Southern California, where it's the topic of some serious thinking about its potentially fradulent aspects and also where it will be dished up this weekend on  the wry, as well as by international scholars focusing on its 19th Century history.

In Eagle Rock, Bill Nye, the 'science guy' who also happens to be an engineer, author, inventor and comedian, will take on the topic, 'Our Planet Isn't What It Used to Be, So Let's Change the World!' in a free, public talk on Saturday morning at 10. No reservations are required but space will be limited for his fun, free-wheeling chat, which is part of the school's Phi Beta Kappa series. Nye, who has won multiple Emmys and is hosting three science and environment related television series, continues to work on his inventions (like the device to help people throw a baseball better) and has expanded his interests to the exploration of space.

Click here for more info on free lecture in Eagle Rock by the 'science guy' 

In San Marino, scholars from across the country and the globe will gather Friday and Saturday for a conference that explores the relationships among empires, territorial expansionism and colonialism and the rise of technology and science in the 19th Century. Reservations are required for the program and there is a small registration fee. Among the topics that experts will take on will be scrutiny of how long ocean voyages for exploration, trade and territory led to advances in cartography, astronomy, time-keeping and intellecutalism.

Click here for full 'empires, science' program, registration info

In Pasadena, an academic chief and prominent physicist with deep experience and expertise on scientific misconduct has taken up the topic in a new book with some fascinating history and lots of insight as to what constitutes research fraud. David Goodstein, the school's vice provost, the drafter of a formal policy on proper research practices, and now a co-instructor in a high-level course on science fraud, says he hopes 'On Fact and Fraud' will help lay people as well as scientists understand the complexities of scientific investigation done well -- and badly. He uses cases from the school and outside, including a scrutiny of long-standing claims that the institute's first president cooked data for his Nobel Prize-winning work (the author decides not). He cites ego, career pressure, time concerns and competitiveness as some of the causative factors that can push scientists into research wrong-doing, though the nature of the field, with its emphasis on collaboration and replication of experimental results, holds down the number of egregious cases. Goodstein previously wrote a best-seller, 'Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil.'

An investigation as to what constitutes scientific fraud

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'

Local colleges get low marks on sustainability

From Claremont McKenna College

Here's a way to either demonstrate research independence or maybe how to tee-off the homeys: The folks at the Roberts Environmental Center have turned their scrutiny from corporations, industries and even nations and focused now on the sustainability practices of top liberal arts colleges nationwide. They gave top marks for green thinking and doing and social consciousness and vision to Williams (A+), Bucknell (A-), Amherst (B+), Colorado (B+) and Gettysburg (B+) colleges. But the researchers zinged local institutions, giving mediocre marks, at best, to: Pitzer (C), Harvey Mudd (C-), Scripps (D) and Occidental (D-). Ouch. To be clear, in methodology terms, the study relies on publicly available information on sustainability issues, particularly as places post it on web sites. Nations, industries and corporations have gotten clued in to internet reporting of this information because of an international, industry-supported initiatives. Colleges have their own similar programs but the researchers criticized schools for their haphazard, fuzzy efforts on sustainability and transparency. By the way, U.S. News and World Report rankings were used to determine which were the top 50 liberal arts colleges. And the researchers left their own institution out of the study and they clearly say why.

Criticism for haphazard, fuzzy public reporting of work on green, social consciousness issues 

The Chronicle of Higher Education take on sustainability study