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Yahoo! to Acquire Tumblr

May 20, 2013, 5:00 am
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Promises not to screw it up
 
SUNNYVALE, Calif. & NEW YORK -- Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Tumblr announced today that they have reached a definitive agreement for Yahoo! to acquire Tumblr.
 
Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business. David Karp will remain CEO. The product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators.
 
With more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, Tumblr is one of the fastest-growing media networks in the world. Tumblr sees 900 posts per second (!) and 24 billion minutes spent on site each month. On mobile, more than half of Tumblr's users are using the mobile app and do an average of 7 sessions per day. Its tremendous popularity and engagement among creators, curators and audiences of all ages brings a significant new community of users to the Yahoo! network. The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo! is expected to grow Yahoo!'s audience by 50 percent to more than a billion monthly visitors, and to grow traffic by approximately 20 percent.
 
The deal offers unique opportunities for both companies. Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!'s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they'll love. In turn, Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts (and 75 million more arriving each day) to Yahoo!'s media network and search experiences. The two companies will also work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance the user experience.
 
Total consideration is approximately $1.1 billion, substantially all of which is payable in cash.
 
"Tumblr is redefining creative expression online," said Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. "On many levels, Tumblr and Yahoo! couldn't be more different, but, at the same time, they couldn't be more complementary. Yahoo is the Internet's original media network. Tumblr is the Internet's fastest-growing media frenzy. Both companies are homes for brands - established and emerging. And, fundamentally, Tumblr and Yahoo! are both all about users, design, and finding surprise and inspiration amidst the everyday."
 
"I've long held the view that in all things art and design, you can feel the spirit and demeanor of the creator. That's why it was no surprise to me that David Karp is one of the nicest, most empathetic people I've ever met. He's also one of the most perceptive, capable entrepreneurs I've ever worked with," continued Mayer. "David's respect for Tumblr's community of creators is awesome. I'm absolutely delighted to have him join our team."
 
David Karp, CEO of Tumblr, addressed the Tumblr community, "Our team isn't changing. Our roadmap isn't changing. And our mission — to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve — certainly isn't changing. But we're elated to have the support of Yahoo! and their team who share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. Tumblr gets better faster with more resources to draw from."
 
The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the second half of the year.
 
Conference Call
 
Yahoo! will host a conference call at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time today to discuss this announcement. A live webcast of the conference call can be accessed through the company's Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/events.cfm?CalendarID=8. In addition, an archive of the webcast will be accessible for 90 days through the same link.
 
About Tumblr
 
Tumblr is a media network powered by an army of independent creators and home to an audience of more than 300 million unique visitors. Founded by David Karp in 2007, Tumblr is headquartered in New York City.
 
About Yahoo!
 
Yahoo! is focused on making the world's daily habits inspiring and entertaining. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, and has offices located throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific (APAC) and the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com).
 
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Yahoo!'s proposed acquisition of Tumblr (including without limitation the statements contained in the quotations from management in this press release), as well as Yahoo!'s strategic and operational plans. Actual events or results may differ materially from those described in this press release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the possibility that the transaction will not close or that the closing may be delayed; and that the anticipated benefits to Yahoo!, including projected growth in audience and traffic, and benefits to users and advertisers may not be realized. More information about potential factors that could affect Yahoo!'s business and financial results is included under the captions, "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2013, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.
 
 
 
 
 
Media Relations Contact:
Yahoo! Inc.
Sara Gorman, (408) 349-4040
sgorman@yahoo-inc.com
or
Investor Relations Contact:
Yahoo! Inc.
Joon Huh, (408) 349-3382
investorrelations@yahoo-inc.com
 
Source: Yahoo! Inc.
 
 
 
News Provided by Acquire Media
 
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Renaissance RoboCop

May 20, 2013, 8:49 am
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On Tuesday last week, a middle-aged scholar lectured in a Royce Hall conference room on the role of Padua as the true cradle of the Italian Renaissance. Later that day, that same Ph.D. candidate stepped into a different world. He walked the red carpet on Hollywood Boulevard at the premiere of "Star Trek Into Darkness," which took home $70.6 million over the weekend in Hollywood's high-stakes box-office race.
 
Robocop.The UCLA Ph.D. candidate in Italian Renaissance art history is none other than Peter Weller, or Starfleet Admiral Marcus in the latest "Star Trek" movie. He's better known as RoboCop, in which he played the title role in the 1987 action thriller. He's also made appearances on the smaller screen in "24," "Dexter," "Fringe," and "House." Among his credits: Weller did a History Channel documentary on Roman engineering in ancient times.
 
"My career was always full of risks one way or another, and that's the way I like it," Weller once remarked.
 
In a recent interview with Bilge Ebiri of the website, "Vulture," Weller reminisced about the day he presented 45 minutes of his dissertation before an audience of scholars from the European history department at UCLA as "one of the most beautiful days I ever had in my life."
 
His transition from one world to another was "a 'Stark Trek' white light experience," he said "It's like I've been lifted into a parallel world," he told Ebiri of his presentation at Royce. "I do this thing, and it's fantastic, and the questions afterward are fantastic. I go out, on cloud nine, right to the 'Star Trek' premiere."
 
The scholar-actor hopes to complete his Ph.D. degree later this year.
 
To read more about his dual roles off- and on-screen, read this piece by Mary Daily for UCLA Magazine Online.
 
 
 
 
 
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National Trails Day group hike June 1

May 20, 2013, 12:33 pm
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On Saturday, June 1, the City of Carlsbad will commemorate National Trails Day, the country’s largest celebration of trails, with a 3.5 mile group hike on one of the city’s newest trails.
 
Hikers will meet at 8:30 a.m. at the Robertson Ranch trail head just off of Wind Trail Way (directions below) for a two and a half hour hike and tour that will include stops at points of interest and presentations by naturalists and other speakers who can address the unique nature of the trail and its surroundings.  Hikers will begin at Robertson Ranch and head north on the new trail toward Lake Calavera and Mount Calavera, an old volcano.
 
Participants should wear close toed shoes, a hat and sunscreen.  Water and healthy snacks will be provided.
 
National Trails Day began in the late 1980s and is organized as a national commemorative day by the American Hiking Society. 
 
“Trails are one of the most unique and cherished aspects of the Carlsbad community,” says Liz Ketabian, City of Carlsbad park planning manager.  “Every year we have hundreds of volunteers who help to maintain our wonderful trail system for all to enjoy.  We are excited to have this specific day to hike and introduce the newly completed trail at Robertson Ranch into the citywide trail system, as part of Carlsbad’s 46 miles of trails.”
 
Directions to Robertson Ranch trail head
I-5 to Cannon Rd. Exit
East on Cannon Rd. to El Camino Real (approx. 3 miles)
Cross El Camino Real and continue on Cannon Rd. approx. ¼ mile to Wind Trail Way
Turn left on Wind Trail Way
Follow event directional signs to Robertson Ranch Park for parking and hike sign-in.
 
 
For more information, visit www.carlsbadca.gov/trails
 
For more information
Liz Ketabian, 760-434-2978, or liz.ketabian@carlsbadca.gov
 
City media contact
Kristina Ray, 760-434-2957, kristina.ray@carlsbadca.gov
 
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Many people with implantable defibrillators can participate in vigorous sports

May 20, 2013, 1:00 pm
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Study Highlights:
  • Many people with implantable defibrillators may safely participate in a number of vigorous sports.
  • The study challenges some current science recommendations advising against vigorous competitive sports for people with implantable defibrillators.
  • People with implantable defibrillators should decide, with their physicians, about whether they can participate in vigorous competitive sports.
EMBARGOED UNTIL 3 p.m. CT/4 p.m. ET, Monday, May 20, 2013
DALLAS, May 20, 2013 — Many people with implantable defibrillators can safely participate in vigorous sports according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in the chest is somewhat similar to a pacemaker, delivering one or more electrical shocks to restore a normal heartbeat when it detects a dangerous rhythm.
Some science recommendations advise people with ICDs not to participate in competitive sports more vigorous than golf or bowling.
“But these recommendations were based on the best judgment of physicians, not actual data looking at the safety of more rigorous sports,” said Rachel Lampert, M.D., lead author of the study and associate professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn.
Researchers followed 372 ICD recipients, ages 10-60, for an average of two-and-a-half years each. They included competitive athletes, high school and college athletes and others who participated in vigorous sports such as running, basketball, soccer, tennis, volleyball, skiing and snowboarding.
In this prospective multinational registry, researchers found that although some athletes received shocks during sports for life-threatening and non-life-threatening heart rhythms, there were no injuries or deaths related to the shocks or the underlying abnormal rhythms.
Seventy-seven people received 121 shocks during the study. Of the total study population:
  • 10 percent received shocks while participating in competition or practice.
  • 8 percent received shocks during other physical activities.
  • 6 percent received shocks while resting.
The rate of shocks among those studied was similar to those reported in previous studies for less active people with implantable defibrillators, Lampert said.
These data suggest that athletes should decide, with their physicians, whether to return to vigorous sports after discussing their specific situation and preferences, Lampert said.
Co-authors are: Brian Olshansky, M.D.; Hein Heidbuchel, M.D.; Christine Lawless, M.D.; Elizabeth Saarel, M.D.; Michael Ackerman, M.D.; Hugh Calkins, M.D.; Mark Estes, M.D.; Mark S. Link, M.D.; Barry J. Maron, M.D.; Frank Marcus, M.D.; Melvin Scheinman, M.D.; Bruce L. Wilkoff, M.D.; Douglas P. Zipes, M.D.; Charles I. Berul, M.D.; Alan Cheng, M.D.; Ian Law, M.D.; Michele Loomis, APRN; Cheryl Barth, B.S.; Cynthia Brandt, M.D.; James Dziura, Ph.D; Fangyong Li, M.S. and David Cannom, M.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.
Boston Scientific, Medtronic and St. Jude Medical funded the study.
Read more from the American Heart Association about abnormal heart rhythms and living with an ICD.
For the latest heart and stroke news, follow us on Twitter: @HeartNews.
For updates and new science from Circulation, follow @CircAHA.
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Statements and conclusions of study authors published in American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the association’s policy or position.  The association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability.  The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events.  The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content.  Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at www.heart.org/corporatefunding.
For Media Inquiries: (214) 706-1173
Tagni McRae: (214) 706-1383; Tagni.McRae@heart.org
Bridgette McNeill: (214) 706-1135; Bridgette.McNeill@heart.org
Julie Del Barto (broadcast): (214) 706-1330; Julie.DelBarto@heart.org
For Public Inquiries: (800) AHA-USA1 (242-8721)
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Free tours offered at Leo Carrillo Ranch

May 20, 2013, 1:51 pm
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Discover the history and tranquil beauty of a former working ranchero during the City of Carlsbad’s free weekend tours of Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park, located at 6200 Flying Leo Carrillo Lane in southeast Carlsbad. The 90-minute, docent-led tours are held Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and Sundays at noon and 2 p.m. Wear comfortable walking shoes or boots. Tours depart from the parking lot. Reservations are not required.
 
Once owned by actor and conservationist Leo Carrillo, the ranch is secluded in the heart of a magnificently landscaped 27-acre canyon. The historic park features hand-crafted adobe buildings, antique windmills, a reflecting pool and many other beautiful historic structures where visitors can explore and experience California history. Nature-lovers delight in gorgeous agave, bougainvillea, Birds of Paradise, plentiful trees and the company of dozens of brilliant peacocks who call the ranch home. Leo Carrillo Ranch is a designated Historic National Landmark that was opened to the public by the City of Carlsbad in 2003. It is connected to the citywide trails system via the four-mile long Rancho Carrillo trail.
 
The Ranch was established in the late 1930s by Leo Carrillo, best known for his Hollywood role as “Pancho” in The Cisco Kid. Some of the visitors back in the day included Clark Gable, along with other legends shown in exhibit photos throughout the ranch detailing the history of the property and its owner. 
 
According to City of Carlsbad Recreation Supervisor Mick Calarco, “Leo Carrillo Ranch gives us the opportunity to create a getaway within an urban setting. People can drive just a few miles from their homes or businesses in Carlsbad, and once they pass through the ranch entry gate and come down into the canyon, away from the traffic and city life, they will be absorbed by the beauty of nature, preserved adobe buildings and all of the historical richness that takes you back in time.”
 
In addition to the docent-led weekend tours, self guided walking tours of the building exteriors and park grounds are available during normal park operating hours. A free, self guided walking tour brochure is available in the parking lot, visitor center and hacienda. Tours are also offered by special advance arrangement for persons with special needs or mobility requirements, groups and organizations.
 
Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park is open Tuesday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

Visitor advisory: Leo Carrillo Ranch is a 27-acre historical park with irregular earthen and paved surfaces including, without limitations, stairs and trails. It is recommended that visitors wear appropriate shoes for the uneven terrain within this historic park. Be prepared to walk extended distances up and down moderately sloping hillsides on uneven decomposed granite trails. Wear cool, comfortable clothing and sturdy walking shoes or hiking boots. Wear a hat and sunscreen. Bring drinking water. 
Find out more about Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park at www.carlsbadca.gov/parksandrec
 
For more information
Mick Calarco, 760-434-2859, or mick.calarco@carlsbadca.gov
 
City media contact
Kristina Ray, 760-434-2957, kristina.ray@carlsbadca.gov
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UC student graduation rates hit a 20-year high

May 20, 2013, 2:12 pm
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Despite budgetary constraints brought on by years of declining state funding, the University of California continues to outpace many of its peer institutions on critical measures of student success.

UC — and UCLA in particular —  have made significant improvements on overall graduation rates in the last few years, and both freshmen and transfers are graduating more quickly than in the past.

Lecture hall istock"This is one of the untold stories," said UC provost Aimée Dorr. "Graduation rates for undergraduates have risen dramatically over the past 20 years, and it is taking less time than ever for them to complete their degrees." The trends were outlined in a report presented May 15 to the UC Board of Regents.
 
UC improved its student outcomes even while serving the needs of an economically diverse student population and juggling an increasing number of students per faculty member.

Graduation rates have increased across all undergraduate campuses, according to the report. More than 80 percent of students who enter UC as freshmen graduate within six years, a time frame widely considered as the de-facto measure of college completion.

At UCLA, graduation rates are even higher in comparison. The latest data from the UCLA Office of Analysis and Information Management show that 92 percent of students who enter UCLA as freshmen graduated within six years.

In fact, the percentage of UCLA students graduating in four years (12 quarters) has been rising in recent years and is at its highest point in university history.

Of the students who entered UCLA as freshmen and graduated in 2011-12, 81 percent finished in 12 or fewer quarters. The percentage rises to 89 percent for those in the same class who graduated in 13 quarters or fewer.

UC's graduation rates exceed the average for flagship public research universities and approach those of the county's leading private institutions. UC campuses account for six of the top 10 public research universities with the highest graduation rates.

UC also has seen big improvements in how long students take to complete their studies. The number of freshmen completing their degree in four years has almost doubled, from 37 percent in 1997 to 60 percent today. Of those students who don't earn a degree in four years, most are able to complete their studies with just one additional academic term.

A beacon for opportunity and access

These outcomes are even more remarkable given that UC — unlike many elite research universities — enrolls large numbers of low-income and first-generation students, who typically take longer to graduate than their peers.

The ability of America's system of higher learning to serve low-income students recently has become an issue of widespread concern. Nationally, these students are less likely to enroll in college and more likely to drop out or fail to complete their studies.

UC stands in noteworthy counterpoint to this trend, according to figures Dorr presented to the regents.

More than 40 percent of UC undergraduates receive Pell Grants, federal financial aid given to low-income families - almost twice the percentage at other highly selective public universities, and more than double that at elite private institutions.
 
"These students are not only getting accepted to and enrolling at UC campuses. They are succeeding here," Dorr said.  At UCLA for 2012-13, the percentage of undergraduates receiving Pell Grants is 39 percent, according to the UCLA Financial Aid Office.

While Pell students at UC take a bit longer to complete their studies than do their peers whose families do not qualify for Pell grants, the majority — 78 percent — graduate in six years. "There is still a gap between the graduation rates for UC's Pell and non-Pell undergraduates, but it's not a very big gap," Dorr said. "It's a much narrower gap than exists at other elite public universities and is quite similar to that at elite private institutions."

Preserving academic excellence

UC campuses have been able to maintain these outcomes in the face of painful budget cuts, in part by asking more of its faculty.

The average number of classes taught by faculty has increased steadily over the last 20 years. So has the average number of student credit hours per faculty member — a measure administrators say better accounts for the increased instructional and advisory activity required to support a growing number of students per faculty member
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"UC faculty have shouldered an increasing workload — and have done so while maintaining their commitments to cutting-edge research and public service that bring innumerable benefits to the state and its residents," Dorr said.

UC does have room to improve, particularly in the number of undergraduates who complete their studies in four years and in boosting graduation rates at individual UC campuses, Dorr said.

In discussing the report during the regents’ meeting, Dorr and others noted that there are numerous factors that influence how long it takes students to complete their studies. Some of these, such as the difficulty of getting into required courses or overly complex major requirements, may be well within the university's power to address. Others, such as financial pressures that require students to balance their studies with jobs, may not.

"To ask someone working half the week at another job to graduate in four years is perhaps too high a burden," said UC Regents Chair Sherry Lansing.

Regent Eddie Island cautioned against putting too great an emphasis on how long it takes students to graduate, saying that the drive to have students graduate more quickly eventually could translate into pressure to admit fewer low-income students
 
"UC's strength is its willingness to enroll and see through to graduation so many of our young people from low-income, first-generation families in California. ...We need to stay focused on this mission."
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Fowler Museum celebrates 50th anniversary with year of special exhibitions, programs

May 20, 2013, 2:18 pm
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The Fowler Museum at UCLA will honor its 50th anniversary with a series of special exhibitions and programs beginning in fall 2013 and running through fall 2014.
 
A suite of intimate, thematic exhibitions mounted this fall will highlight more than 800 artworks from the Fowler's vast, acclaimed global collections.
 
One of the hallmarks of the Fowler Museum since its inception has been its expansive attitude toward collecting examples of the boundless creativity of humankind — whether the sculptures and masks that have largely defined non-Western art in most art museums or the personal, popular and textile arts found worldwide.   
 
"By transcending the barriers long established to separate and privilege certain categories of artistic production over others, the Fowler has invented a distinctive and ambitious niche for itself, positioned between the usual territories of 'art museums' and 'ethnography museums,'" said Marla C. Berns, the Shirley and Ralph Shapiro Director of the Fowler.
 
FOWLER AT FIFTY
 
Opening to the public on Oct. 13, 2013, are eight small-scale exhibitions installed in two large galleries, which spotlight particular strengths in the Fowler's collections of art from Africa, the Pacific and the Americas and feature works shown for the first time.
 
Each takes a distinctive curatorial approach, demonstrating that collections are dynamic resources, open to interpretation and reinterpretation over time and to multiple innovative perspectives. Three of these exhibitions include interventions by contemporary artists whose practices resonate with the Fowler's permanent collections.
 
From the Sepik River to Los Angeles: Art in Migration
Oct. 13, 2013–Feb. 23, 2014
 
The Fowler Museum's collections today include more than 4,500 masks, figural sculptures, shields, architectural elements, ritual objects and other items from the South Pacific island of New Guinea. Three-quarters of these were acquired through private donations in the short period from 1963 to 1969, and most originally came from the Sepik River region, now part of the nation of Papua New Guinea. What factors, both here and in distant New Guinea, conspired to drive this surge of so-called "primitive" art to Southern California?
 
This exhibition showcases, for the first time since 1967, more than 50 of the finest examples of Sepik art to arrive on our shores in such short order. It also explores how this massive migration changed both the art itself and the ways we think about it.
 
(Curator: Roy W. Hamilton, senior curator of Asian and Pacific collections at the Fowler Museum)
 
 
Double Fortune, Double Trouble: Art for Twins Among the Yoruba
Oct. 13, 2013–Feb. 23, 2014
 
This exhibition explores the power and prevalence of "two-ness" in Yoruba art and thought with an impressive display of more than 250 carved-wood twin memorial figures known as ere ibeji. The Yoruba, who live in southwestern Nigeria, as well as Togo and Benin, have one of the highest rates of twinning in the world, and special attention is paid to twins, both during life and after.
 
These works from the Fowler's extraordinary collection display a remarkable stylistic range and illuminate issues of apprenticeship and mastery, local innovation and invention; their surfaces and adornments show how they were treated and transformed once they left the sculptors' hands and moved into the hands, hearts and minds of family members.
 
A newly commissioned installation by contemporary artist Simone Leigh will incorporate hundreds of the West African plastic dolls, which sometimes substitute for the carved figures, in a dramatic suspended work that further comments on the Yoruba concept of doubling.
 
(Guest curator: Henry John Drewal, the Evjue-Bascom Professor of African and African Diaspora Arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison)
 
 
Powerful Bodies: Zulu Arts of Personal Adornment
Oct. 13, 2013–Feb. 23, 2014
 
In 19th-century southern Africa, highly individualized arts of personal adornment experienced a florescence among isiZulu speakers, who today are known as the Zulu. Personal objects worn on or carried around the body were made with considerable aesthetic investment, and they announced status and identity. Intimate objects like ivory hairpins and snuff spoons were worn in elaborate hairstyles; beautifully crafted snuff bottles were worn against the body, suspended from belts and necklaces; and finely sculpted staffs and clubs carried by all adult men were prized possessions.
 
Men and women wore intricately sewn, jewel-colored beadwork to accentuate bodily "zones of power": Necklaces drew attention to the head, beaded fringes and belts highlighted the reproductive organs, and bracelets and anklets emphasized the hands and feet. "Powerful Bodies" includes 79 fine examples of such objects, which are often imbued with the physical traces of their former users.
 
(Guest curator: Anitra Nettleton, chair and director of the Centre for the Creative Arts of Africa and faculty of humanities/Wits School of Arts at South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand)
 
 
Maori Cloaks, Maori Voices
Oct. 13, 2013–Feb. 23, 2014
 
When the ancestors of the Maori people sailed to Aotearoa (New Zealand) roughly 900 years ago, they became the first Polynesians to settle a land outside the tropics. Previous generations of Polynesians had little need for clothing and made thin, beaten barkcloth, more for ceremonial purposes than for warmth. In Aotearoa, Maori women abandoned barkcloth and turned instead to the harakeke plant (New Zealand flax), developing new techniques to twine its fibers into garments by hand, without the benefit of a loom. The finest cloaks, including some covered with stunning, iridescent feather-work, transcended practical needs and became treasured markers of prestige.
 
This exhibition features 13 rare and beautiful 19th- and early 20th-century cloaks, shown publicly for the first time since their arrival in Los Angeles in 1965 as part of the major gift from the Wellcome Ethnological Collection in London (see "History of the Fowler" below). To celebrate this event, the museum has invited a panel of Maori artists and scholars to comment on the cloaks and their ongoing meaning and relevance, and will screen in the gallery a video of excerpts of their fascinating discussions.
 
(Curator: Roy W. Hamilton, senior curator of Asian and Pacific collections at the Fowler Museum)
 
 
The Peruvian Four-Selvaged Cloth: Ancient Threads/New Directions
Oct. 13, 2013–Jan. 26, 2014
 
The tradition of weaving textiles with four finished edges — selvages — characterizes the creative process of the ancient weavers of Peru, known for their mastery of color, technique and design. Without cutting a thread, each textile was woven to be what it was intended, whether a daily garment, royal mantle or ritual cloth. This approach to weaving required the highest level of skill, even for the simplest of plain, undecorated cloth, and reflects a cultural value in the integrity of cloth — not only in its design and function but in the way in which it was made.
 
This exhibition highlights selections from the Fowler Museum's noteworthy collection of pre-Columbian textiles and includes masterworks that demonstrate the extremely high level of artistic achievement of Peruvian weavers. These range from ancient ritual textiles from the early Chavin and Paracas cultures (500–100 B.C.E.) to the extraordinary garments of the Inca empire (1485–1532). While exploring the origins and development of this approach to weaving, the exhibition will also examine its influence on three contemporary artists ― Shelia Hicks, John Cohen and Jim Bassler — each of whom, through his or her own artistic path, has considered and transformed ancient weavers' knowledge and processes into new directions.
 
(Guest curator: Elena Phipps, independent scholar and curator)
 
 
New World Wunderkammer: A Project by Amalia Mesa-Bains
Oct. 13, 2013–Jan. 26, 2014
 
Chicana artist Amalia Mesa-Bains is working with the Fowler Museum's collections to create "New World Wunderkammer," which will include three "cabinets of curiosity" representing Africa, the indigenous Americas and the complex cultural and racial mixture (mestizaje) that typifies the New World.
 
Over two decades, Mesa-Bains has created installations that intervene in and disrupt the conceptual foundations of European museum collecting and display. "New World Wunderkammer" will be the first time she has utilized the holdings of a major museum to recontextualize hundreds of objects within the themes of memory, struggle, loss and wonder.
 
Following both a personal and professional trajectory, Mesa-Bains will weave elements from her previous installations into this work. The space will be completed by eight new prints made by the artist based on key pieces from the Fowler collection; images of artifacts will be layered with botanical, cartographic and historical photographic references. This "theater of wonder" will animate the cultural landscape and human geography of the New World through objects of beauty and narratives of power.
 
 
Chupícuaro: The Natalie Wood Gift of Ancient Mexican Ceramics
Oct. 13, 2013–Jan. 26, 2014
 
Purchased for the museum in 1969 by the late actress Natalie Wood, the Fowler's Chupícuaro holdings are its most important collection of ancient Mesoamerican art. A selection of more than 100 ceramics (out of a total 620) will be exhibited to represent crucial phases of Chupícuaro history (600 B.C.E.–300 C.E.) and to illustrate key categories of the ancient society's material culture. Necklaces and other forms of personal adornment, musical instruments, tripod serving vessels, and elegant containers, many of which feature striking animal and human imagery, are juxtaposed with majestic polychrome hollowware female figures and delicate miniature anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines for which the culture is increasingly celebrated.
 
This installation will feature the full breadth of Chupícuaro's remarkable ceramic accomplishments. The Fowler's Natalie Wood Collection of Chupícuaro ceramics is the largest and most important group of objects existing outside of Mexico from this important site, which was flooded and destroyed in 1949 by the building of the Solis Dam.
 
(Guest curator: Francisco Javier Martinez Bravo, archaeologist at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico)
 
 
From X to Why: A Museum Takes Shape
Oct. 13, 2013–Feb. 23, 2014
 
"From X to Why" focuses on the Fowler Museum's formative history through its earliest acquisitions. These works reveal the strength and breadth of the collection and foreshadow the Fowler's role as one of the premier museums for preserving and exhibiting works of art from cultures around the world. The installation begins with the very first object to enter the collection, a magnificent Balinese ceremonial textile, and continues with 35 objects, including African masks, American Indian pottery and basketry, Latin American ceremonial dress, Peruvian vessels, Indonesian puppets, and European Carnival masks, some from a spectacular gift that changed the course of the Fowler's history: 30,000 items from the Wellcome Ethnological Collection in London.
 
The exhibition also addresses how objects assumed new lives in the museum context. The Fowler staff assigns a number with the prefix "X" to every object that enters the collection. "X" signals the transition to a new identity and marks the point of contact between cultures and disciplines facilitated by the Fowler through its exhibitions, publications and programs.
 
(Guest curators: Graduate students Peter L. Haffner, Elyan Jeanine Hill, Dana L. Marterella, Elaine E. Sullivan, Tommy Tran and Rita M. Rufino Valente from UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, with faculty mentor Mary (Polly) Nooter Roberts)
 
 
Fowler in Focus: 50 Years/50 Gifts
 
In addition to the exhibitions listed above, the Fowler in Focus gallery, which is inside the long-term display "Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives," will feature two rotations of new gifts made to the Fowler in honor of this 50th anniversary milestone. The first installation will highlight textiles and dress from Asia, among other things.
 
 
History of the Fowler Museum
 
The museum was established in 1963 by then–UCLA Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy as the Museum and Laboratories of Ethnic Arts and Technology. Its first home was in the lower level of Haines Hall on the UCLA campus. In addition to active collecting, the museum initiated research projects, fieldwork, exhibitions and publications.
 
Within two years of its founding, the museum received a transformational donation that propelled it into the top tier of museums holding African and Pacific arts: 30,000 objects from the celebrated collection of Sir Henry Wellcome. Wellcome, a noted businessman, philanthropist, patron of science and co-founder of the British pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome, was a passionate collector of medical artifacts and objects relating to life-cycle rituals and wellness. Prior to his death in 1936, he amassed a vast and diverse collection of more than 1 million objects.

Over the past five decades, the Fowler collections — focusing on Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the indigenous Americas — have grown to more than 120,000 objects (with additional archaeological collections of more than 4 million items), and the museum has become one of the nation's premier repositories of world arts. To date, the Fowler has presented more than 258 exhibitions and published 132 books, most of them major scholarly volumes.
 
The current facility, built especially for the museum in UCLA's north campus area, features approximately 20,000 square feet of exhibition space. It opened in September 1992 and was named in recognition of lead support by the Fowler Foundation and the family of collector and inventor Francis E. Fowler Jr.
 
To commemorate this landmark anniversary the Fowler will publish a lavishly illustrated book featuring more than 250 objects that are the highlights of the museum's collection. (Hardcover, ISBN 978-0-9847550-6-6).
 
The Fowler Museum at UCLA is one of the country's most respected institutions devoted to exploring the arts and cultures of Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas. The Fowler is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The Fowler Museum, part of UCLA Arts, is located in the north part of the UCLA campus. Admission is free. Parking is available for a maximum of $11 in Lot 4. For more information, the public may call 310-825-4361 or visit www.fowler.ucla.edu. 
 
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
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Free document shredding event June 8

May 20, 2013, 2:32 pm
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The City of Carlsbad and its trash hauler, Waste Management, will host a free document shredding event to give residents an opportunity to destroy sensitive documents, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 8, at the city’s fleet maintenance yard at 2480 Impala Drive. 
 
No appointment is necessary, and proof of City of Carlsbad residency will be required.  Residents may drop off up to three standard size storage boxes of sensitive documents to shred, and all shredding will be performed on-site.
 
Event details
Name:  City of Carlsbad document shredding event
Date:  Saturday, June 8, 2013
Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Location:  City of Carlsbad Fleet Maintenance Yard, 2840 Impala Drive
Cost:  Free; no appointment necessary
Requirements: Must show proof of Carlsbad residency
Contact: 760-602-4646
 
For more information
Call 760-602-4646 or email trashservice@carlsbadca.gov
 
City media contact
Kristina Ray, 760-434-2957, kristina.ray@carlsbadca.gov
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Take me out to the courthouse

May 20, 2013, 2:35 pm
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SbannerhedshotUCLA professor Stuart Banner teaches property law as well as the law school’s Supreme Court Clinic and has clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Banner is also a lifelong baseball fan, who uses cases involving baseball in his teaching as stark examples of the court sticking with precedent even though everyone agrees that the issue would be decided differently today.
 
Banner has written eight books about topics ranging from the death penalty to the struggle to control airspace since the Wright brothers took to the skies. In his latest book, "The Baseball Trust: A History of Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption" (Oxford University Press, 2013), he examines the history of baseball through its important court cases. Banner, who as a 5-year-old went with his dad to watch the Mets take on the Oriole in the 1969 World Series, maintains that those who long for a return to the more innocent days of our national pastime might be surprised when they read about the game’s litigious history.
 
What team did you grow up rooting for? What’s your favorite team now?
 
I grew up rooting for the Mets, and I’m still a Mets fan. When our kids were born, we lived in St. Louis, and we took the kids to Cardinals games, so I became a Cardinals fan too. And now I’ve been at UCLA for 12 years, and we’ve been taking the kids to Dodgers games, so I’m a Dodgers fan too. That’s three teams — all in the National League — but at least they’re all in different divisions.
 
 
Why did you want to write this book?
 
Baseball’s exemption from antitrust law is something that is well-known to sports fans, because it’s mentioned in the media a lot. It always struck me as a puzzle: Why does baseball have this legal advantage over other sports? I wrote the book because I wanted to figure out how this situation came to be.
 
 
What do you think about baseball’s exemption from antitrust law?
 
It doesn’t make any policy sense. If baseball deserves an exemption, so do the other sports. If the other sports should be subject to antitrust law, so should baseball. The exemption can only be explained as a historical artifact — the outcome of a series of court decisions and strategic decisions by baseball’s lawyers.
 
 
How has baseball’s exemption from antitrust law worked to its advantage?
 
For much of the 20th century, baseball’s exemption shielded the reserve clause from antitrust attack. The reserve clause was a standard term in player contracts that, in effect, bound the player to the team for his entire career. Teams could trade or cut players, but players could not sell their services to the highest bidder. That ended in the 1970s with the advent of free agency. But baseball still receives advantages from the antitrust exemption. The two most important are: (1) baseball can prevent teams from changing cities, a practice that would likely violate antitrust law if antitrust law applied to baseball; and (2) baseball can operate its minor leagues, which have a structure that would be susceptible to antitrust challenge if antitrust law applied.
 
 
How has baseball’s exemption made it different from the other leagues?
 
These days, the main difference is that the other sports leagues can’t prevent teams from changing cities. For example, when the Rams moved from L.A. to St. Louis, the NFL at first tried to stop the move. But the league backed down when the Rams threatened an antitrust suit. In the past 40 years, only one baseball team has changed cities — the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals. During that same period, football has seen seven moves, basketball has seen eight (not even counting the Nets, who have moved twice within the New York metro area), and hockey has seen nine.
 
 
Baseballtrustbookcover2Which case do you think had the most impact on how fans view or interact with the game?
 
The most well-known of the Supreme Court’s baseball antitrust cases is Flood v. Kuhn, because it is the most recent (from 1972), and because it is the only one that involved a star player (Curt Flood, who was one of the best outfielders of the 1960s). Flood had been traded from the Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies, but he wanted to decide for himself which team he would play for. He sued Bowie Kuhn, the commissioner of baseball, and alleged that the reserve clause (which required him to play for the Phillies) violated antitrust law. But the Supreme Court once again reaffirmed that baseball is exempt from antitrust law.
 
 
How long did it take you to write the book?
 
Two or three years. One of the best things about the process was getting to do research at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, which has an excellent research library with lots of manuscript collections from early baseball officials. [The research center] is just one room, so you end up talking to the other people. One day I was working next to Babe Ruth’s granddaughter and her husband, who were writing a play about Babe Ruth. The archivists brought out one of Ruth’s bats — it was enormous, much thicker and heavier than any other bat I had ever seen.　
 
The archivists think that Ruth only used it in batting practice, because it would have been so hard to use it in a game.　Another day, I met a woman who had played in the All-American Girls Baseball League, a women’s league that existed for about a decade in the 1940s and 1950s (it’s the league depicted in the movie, "A League of Their Own"). Her family had brought her there to see if they had any news clippings from her playing career, and they did — they brought out a big folder of clippings.
 
 
What kind of reaction have you received thus far?
 
Usually my books are only reviewed in academic journals. When the New York Times review came out, I started getting emails from all sorts of people I hadn’t been in touch with for years. It was like a substitute for Facebook.
 
 
Did anything surprise you when researching and writing the book?
 
Here’s something I found in some unpublished court transcripts in the archives at the Hall of Fame. In the first serious antitrust suit against baseball, filed in 1915 by a competing league called the Federal League, the judge simply sat on the case, and did nothing for an entire year until the Federal League ran out of money and had to settle with baseball. Only then did the judge admit to the lawyers on both sides that he had intentionally refrained from deciding the case because had he decided, he would have found that baseball was violating antitrust law, and he didn’t want to harm baseball. The judge was named Kenesaw Mountain Landis. A few years later, the grateful team owners made him baseball’s first commissioner.
 
 
What do you think baseball fans would find most surprising in the book?
 
With all the stories in the news about legal disputes and squabbles over money, baseball fans are sometimes nostalgic for an earlier era they imagine was less litigious and less money-focused. But one message of the book is that players and team owners were arguing over money, often in court, from the 1870s on.
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No-treatment approach may be best choice for older prostate cancer patients

May 20, 2013, 3:35 pm
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Older prostate cancer patients with other underlying health conditions should think twice before committing to surgery or radiation therapy for their cancer, according to a multi-center study led by researchers from the UCLA Department of Urology.
 
The study reports 14-year survival outcomes for 3,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1994 and 1995. The results suggest that older patients with low- or intermediate-risk prostate cancer who have at least three underlying health problems, or comorbidities, are much more likely to die of something other than their cancer.
 
"For men with low-to-intermediate–risk disease, prostate cancer is an indolent disease that doesn't pose a major risk to survival," said the study's first author, Dr. Timothy Daskivich, a UCLA Robert Wood Johnson fellow. "The take-home point from this study is that older men with multiple underlying health problems should carefully consider whether they should treat these tumors aggressively, because that treatment comes with a price."
 
Aggressive treatments for prostate cancer, including surgery, external radiation and radioactive seed implants, can result in major side effects, including erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence and bowel problems. Also, the survival advantage afforded by these treatments does not develop until approximately eight to 10 years after treatment.
 
In many cases, Daskivich said, either "watchful waiting" or active surveillance — monitoring the patient's cancer very closely with regular biopsies and intervening with surgery or radiation if the disease progresses — is better than hitting the disease with everything in the treatment arsenal.
 
The study appears May 21 in the early online issue of the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
 
The study looked at men diagnosed with prostate cancer in two age ranges: those between 61 and 74, and those 75 and older. The men completed surveys within six months of their diagnoses, documenting the other medical conditions they had at that time. Researchers then determined survival outcomes 14 years after diagnosis using information from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database. 
 
"This was a great opportunity to get a glimpse at the long-term outcomes of these men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the mid-1990s," Daskivich said. "What we were most interested in was their survival outcomes. We wanted to prove that in older men with other health problems, the risk of dying from their cancer paled in comparison to the risk that they'd die from something else."
 
The study examined patients who had three or more comorbidities, such as diabetes, hypertension, congestive heart failure and arthritis. The researchers found that the 10-year risk of dying from causes other than prostate cancer was 40 percent in men aged 61 to 74, and 71 percent in men 75 or older. In comparison, the 14-year risks of dying from low- or intermediate-risk prostate cancer were 3 percent for and 7 percent, respectively, which Daskivich characterized as low.
 
"If you're very unlikely to benefit from treatment, then don't run the risk and end up dealing with side effects that can significantly impact quality of life," he said. "It's important for these men to talk to their doctors about the possibility of forgoing aggressive treatment. We're not talking about restricting care, but the patient should be fully informed about their likelihood of surviving long enough to benefit from treatment."
 
However, Daskivich said, older men with high-risk, aggressive prostate cancers may benefit from treatment so that they don't die of their cancers. The risk of death from high-risk prostate cancer was 18 percent over the 14 years of this study.
 
Daskivich said that prior to this study, there was very little long-term data on which patients could base these crucial decisions. The study will result in patients who are much better informed on the risks and benefits of treatment, he said.
 
As they age, many men will develop prostate cancer and not know it because it's slow growing and causes no symptoms. Autopsy studies of men who died from other causes have shown that almost 30 percent over the age of 50 have histological evidence of prostate cancer, according to a study published in 2008 in the journal Urology.
 
In 2013, prostate cancer will strike 238,590 men, killing 29,720. It is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men aside from skin cancer.
 
The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson/VA Clinical Scholars Program, the Urology Care Foundation of the American Urologic Association, the American Cancer Society, and the National Institutes of Health.
 
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
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UCLA Health System takes steps in anticipation of strike

May 20, 2013, 5:53 pm
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UCLA Health System has taken numerous steps to protect patient safety in anticipation of a strike expected to begin at 4 a.m. on Tuesday, May 21.

In anticipation that hundreds of AFSCME and UPTE employees would not come to work, the UCLA Health System postponed twenty-five percent of the surgeries scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. In addition, the patient census, which is normally at or above 100 percent of capacity, has been lowered to about 80 percent. Approximately 550 replacement workers and redeployed administration staff will fill in for striking workers in positions ranging from housekeeping staff to respiratory therapists and nursing assistants. The estimated cost of the two-day strike to UCLA is more than $5 million, which reflects lost revenue and expenditures for replacement workers.

Patient care areas that would be impacted include Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, UCLA’s Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, the David Geffen School of Medicine, Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA and its community and outpatient clinics.
"We sincerely regret any inconvenience this strike may cause our patients, their families and friends," said Dr. Tom Rosenthal, chief medical officer, UCLA Hospital Systems. "However, every effort is being made to ensure that the hospitals and clinics that are part of the UCLA Health System remain open and continue to deliver the highest level of patient care and safety through the duration of the strike."

The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) represent about 5,000 UCLA Health System employees.

On May 20, the California Superior Court issued an injunction, which prohibits a very limited number of union employees at UCLA from striking because of the threat to public health and safety. The highest priority at UCLA Health System’s hospitals and clinics is to provide patients with safe, high quality care.
 
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27th Annual Jazz Reggae Festival

May 20, 2013, 1:16 pm
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Jazz-Reggae festival 3The 27th Annual Jazz Reggae Festival will be held on Memorial Day Weekend, May 26 and 27, and will feature artists such as Common, Santigold, Ziggy Marley, Jhene Aiko and others. Jazz Reggae is a two-day festival, the largest student-run music festival in the country, and highlights the art, music, and culture of jazz and reggae music. Sunday, the first day of the festival, is known as Jam Day and is dedicated to jazz music. The second day, Monday, showcases reggae music. Both days run from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Intramural Field. For UCLA students, staff and faculty, tickets are $25 for each day. For more info, visit: http://www.jazzreggaefest.com.
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UCLA School of Law kicks off monthlong commencement celebration

May 21, 2013, 8:37 am
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law-gradTeachers, family members and friends of more than 300 jubilant J.D. graduates and approximately 96 master of law graduates attended commencement ceremonies Friday at Dickson Court North. The UCLA School of Law graduation was the first of more than 60 degree-conferring ceremonies, receptions and celebrations planned at UCLA. Hilda Solis, who is a nationally recognized leader on the environment and environmental justice legislation, gave the keynote address. She served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009, representing districts that included portions of East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley. A reception was held at an adjacent courtyard following graduation. See the master commencement schedule here.
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How health care is learning from lawsuits

May 21, 2013, 9:25 am
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JSchwartzhedshotJoanna Schwartz is an assistant professor at the UCLA School of Law, who has a forthcoming article in the New York University Law Review that shows how medical malpractice claims help play a role in improving patient safety. This op-ed was originally published in The New York Times on May 21.
 
Much of the discussion over the Affordable Care Act has focused on whether it will bring down health care costs. Less attention has been paid to another goal of the act: improving patient safety. Each year tens of thousands of people die, and hundreds of thousands more are injured, as a result of medical error.
 
Experts agree that the best way to reduce medical error is to gather and analyze information about past errors with an eye toward improving future care. But many believe that a major barrier to doing so is the medical malpractice tort system: the threat of being sued is believed to prevent the kind of transparency necessary to identify and learn from errors when they occur.
 
New evidence, however, contradicts the conventional wisdom that malpractice litigation compromises the patient safety movement’s call for transparency. In fact, the opposite appears to be occurring: the openness and transparency promoted by patient safety advocates appear to be influencing hospitals’ responses to litigation risk.
 
I recently surveyed more than 400 people responsible for hospital risk management, claims management and quality improvement in health care centers around the country, in cooperation with the American Society of Health Care Risk Managers, and I interviewed dozens more.
 
My interviewees confirmed that while hospitals historically took an adversarial and secretive approach to lawsuits and error, that has begun to change. In recent years, hospitals have become increasingly open with patients: over 80 percent of hospitals in my study have a policy of apologizing to patients when errors occur. And hospitals are more willing to discuss and learn from errors with hospital staff.
 
What accounts for these changes? Several factors appear to have overcome historical resistance to transparency, including widespread laws requiring disclosure to patients and confidentiality protections for internal discussions of error. Hospitals have also found that disclosing errors to patients and offering early settlements reduces the costs and frequency of litigation.
 
My study also shows that malpractice suits are playing an unexpected role in patient safety efforts, as a source of valuable information about medical error. Over 95 percent of the hospitals in my study integrate information from lawsuits into patient safety efforts. And risk managers and patient-safety personnel overwhelmingly report that lawsuit data have proved useful in efforts to identify and address error.
 
One might think that hospitals would have little to learn from lawsuits, given other requirements that hospitals report, investigate and analyze medical error. But participants in my study said that lawsuits can reveal previously unknown incidents of medical errors — particularly diagnostic and treatment errors with delayed manifestations that other reporting systems are not designed to collect.
 
Lawsuits can also reveal errors that should have been reported but were not — medical providers notoriously underreport errors (although studies have shown that the threat of litigation is not responsible for this underreporting) and lawsuits may fill these gaps.
 
Moreover, litigation discovery can unearth useful details about safety and quality concerns. Analyses of claim trends can reveal problematic procedures and departments, and closed litigation files can serve as rich teaching tools.
 
True, malpractice litigation data also have many flaws: too few malpractice claims are filed to reflect an accurate picture of a hospital’s shortcomings, and the amount awarded in litigation may not reflect the merits of the claims. Yet hospitals say they recognize and account for these flaws in their review.
 
The assumed negative effects of malpractice litigation on patient safety have been used to justify numerous proposals for reform, including damages caps and "health courts," administrative bodies that adjudicate malpractice claims outside the tort system. Politicians, patient safety advocates and medical providers argue that such reforms will encourage more open discussions of medical error by removing the specter of liability.
 
My study suggests, however, that hospitals can — and have — found ways to increase openness and transparency without these dramatic interventions. Moreover, because lawsuits help to identify incidents and details of medical error, limitations on lawsuits may actually impede patient safety efforts.
 
The Affordable Care Act pours millions into patient safety for research centers, demonstration projects and other programs. Proposed reforms and initiatives should not rely on conventional wisdom about the negative effects of malpractice litigation. Medical-malpractice lawsuits do not have the harmful effects on patient safety that they are imagined to have — and, in fact, they can do some good.
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Campus community to honor veterans on Memorial Wall

May 21, 2013, 10:41 am
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With the three-day Memorial Day weekend coming up, veterans and their supporters on campus want everyone to take a moment to reflect on the many contributions made by service men and women, both those who have passed and those who are with us.
 
"In preparation for the Memorial Day holiday, we wanted to highlight how veterans touch the lives of the UCLA community as current and former students, family members, friends and community members," said Andrew Nicholls, a UCLA senior and veterans coordinator at the Veterans Resource Office in the Bruin Resource Center on campus.
 
Veteran.child.croppedOn Wednesday, May 22, in the Court of Sciences and on Thursday, May 23, in Bruin Plaza — from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on both days — organizers will be asking members of the UCLA community to write the names of service members or words of support for the veteran community on a six-foot-high Memorial Wall. Made of plywood and painted black, the wall will be built as three connected panels to accommodate as many people as possible who wish to sign. It was inspired by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.
 
"For Memorial Day, we wanted to provide something interactive, something that people could connect to," added Nicholls.
 
For passersby who do not know a service member, they can "adopt" one by choosing a name from an available list of service members associated with UCLA who have died.
 
"Adopting a veteran may be even more powerful, because maybe the person signing has never thought about this before," said Nicholls.
 
The Memorial Wall is a project organized by UCLA’s Military Veterans Organization, the KIA WIA Foundation, UCLA Red Cross, the Community Emergency Response Team, UCLA Army ROTC and Operation Mend's undergraduate student support group.
  
Organizers are hoping this can become an annual event, with panels being added to the Memorial Wall each year.
 
"We’re hoping that people connect to the fact that there are veterans on campus and that they probably know someone who has served. We should remember that on holidays like Memorial Day," Nicholls said.
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For more information on UCLA programs, services and research supporting veterans, visit www.veterans.ucla.edu.
 
 
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WOMP volunteers engage community

May 21, 2013, 10:42 am
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UCLA volunteers plant a treeUCLA volunteers planted 22 new trees on Sunday in Westwood Village as part of the fourth annual WOMP, the Westwood Organized Meaningful Projects service day. WOMP aims to clean and beautify the Village and engage with the community, said Rachel Corell, director of the UCLA Volunteer Center. The more than 300 students also created hygiene kits for the homeless and worked with the residents of two local senior homes, where they played board games, taught a yoga class and told stories. Outdoors, they re-painted curbs and light posts, removed graffiti, cleaned up litter and more.

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Professor Jason Speyer named first holder of Ronald and Valerie Sugar Chair in Engineering

May 21, 2013, 11:02 am
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Jason Speyer, a distinguished professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been named the inaugural holder of the school's Ronald and Valerie Sugar Chair in Engineering.
 
The chair was established with a $1 million gift from UCLA alumni Ronald D. Sugar, former chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman Corp., and his wife, Valerie Sugar.
 
"Jason Speyer is a recognized leader in guidance and control systems for aviation and aerospace craft, as well as an excellent educator," said Vijay K. Dhir, dean of UCLA Engineering. "I am pleased he has been named to this prestigious chair and am grateful for the generous contributions of Ron and Valerie Sugar, who have long been friends of the school."
 
Ron Sugar, currently a director at Apple Inc., Chevron Corp. and Amgen Inc., graduated summa cum laude in engineering in 1968 from UCLA, where he received his master's and doctoral degrees in the same field. He was subsequently honored as a UCLA Engineering Alumnus of the Year. Valerie Sugar, who formerly worked at the Aerospace Corp. and the RAND Corp., graduated magna cum laude in history from UCLA in 1971.
 
Ron Sugar said UCLA's support of his and his wife's studies led to their decision to fund the chair.
 
"Many years ago, Valerie and I were both extremely fortunate to be granted UC Regents Scholarships, which made it possible for us to attend UCLA," he said. "We feel it is fitting to show our gratitude by supporting the work of an excellent UCLA professor in educating the next generation of our nations' engineers."
 
Speyer has worked on the guidance, navigation and control systems of vital aerospace and military craft for 50 years. He contributed to the autonomous navigation system on several of NASA's Apollo missions to the moon. He determined the sequence of star, Earth and moon horizons used by astronauts to make angle measurements with a sextant in order to obtain the best estimate of their craft's position. This system was tested on Apollo 8 in 1968 and used in several subsequent Apollo missions.
 
Speyer also formulated the guidance laws for the U.S. Army's Patriot missile system and developed the longitudinal control laws for the U.S. Air Force's Advanced Fighter Technology Integration F-16 aircraft.
 
Speyer holds joint appointments in UCLA Engineering's mechanical and aerospace engineering department and electrical engineering department. He joined the UCLA faculty in January 1990 after nearly 14 years as a member of the engineering faculty at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to that, he served as a senior aerospace engineer and analyst for a number of firms, including Boeing, Raytheon Co. and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory.
 
"Being named to the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Chair is a great honor," Speyer said. "It presents the opportunity for me to do more work in my focus areas and explore areas I have thought about in the past."
 
Speyer added that he felt a kinship with Ronald Sugar, who devoted his distinguished career to automotive, aviation and aerospace engineering.
 
"The people who influenced him at the beginning of his career are the people who influenced me at the beginning of mine," he said.
 
Speyer has received many professional honors, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Aerospace Guidance, Navigation, and Control Award in 2012; election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2005; the Third Millennium Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2001; and fellowships in IEEE and AIAA in 1985.
 
He currently is working with the U.S. Air Force, NASA and others on projects ranging from fundamental stochastic estimation and control theory to air-traffic management at high-volume airport terminals.
 
Chairs are reserved for the most distinguished teachers and scholars. UCLA Engineering received the $1 million gift from Ronald and Valerie Sugar as part of the school's Enhancing Engineering Excellence (E3) initiative, a fundraising effort aimed at generating newly endowed faculty chairs, graduate fellowships, undergraduate scholarships and capital funds.
 
The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, established in 1945, offers 28 academic and professional degree programs and has an enrollment of more than 5,000 students. The school's distinguished faculty are leading research to address many of the critical challenges of the 21st century, including renewable energy, clean water, health care, wireless sensing and networking, and cybersecurity. Ranked among the top 10 engineering schools at public universities nationwide, the school is home to eight multimillion-dollar interdisciplinary research centers in wireless sensor systems, wireless health, nanoelectronics, nanomedicine, renewable energy, customized computing, the smart grid, and the Internet, all funded by federal and private agencies and individual donors.
 
For more UCLA news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
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'Dreamscapes' debuts at UCLA Anderson

May 21, 2013, 2:00 pm
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Gottlieb-art-receptionUCLA Anderson recently hosted a reception last week to celebrate the opening of ‘Dreamscapes,’ the celebrated artwork of Jane Gottlieb that will be on view at the school for the next decade. The collection includes 25 hand=painted and digitally enhanced large-scale photographs of dream cars and vistas from around the world. The paintings are available for sale with a portion of the profits going to support the arts at the UCLA Lab School. Standing near two artworks are artist Jane Gottlieb (from the left), Don Morrison, professor emeritus and the William E. Leonhard Chair in Management; Judy Olian, dean of UCLA Anderson; David Obst, film and TV writer and producer and the artist's husband; and Rachel Moran, dean of the UCLA School of Law.
 
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UCLA life scientists present new insights on climate change and species interactions

May 21, 2013, 3:10 pm
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UCLA life scientists provide important new details on how climate change will affect interactions between species in research published online May 21 in the Journal of Animal Ecology. This knowledge, they say, is critical to making accurate predictions and informing policymakers of how species are likely to be impacted by rising temperatures.
 
"There is a growing recognition among biologists that climate change is affecting how species interact with one another, and that this is going to have very important consequences for the stability and functioning of ecosystems," said the senior author of the research, Van Savage, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and of biomathematics at UCLA. "However, there is still a very limited understanding of exactly what these changes will be. Our paper makes progress on this very important question."
 
Climate change is causing global increases in mean temperature, as well as more fluctuations and greater variability in temperature. Growing evidence suggests these changes are altering when and how species interact, and even which species are able to interact without going extinct, Savage said.
 
Already, climatic warming is rapidly altering the timing and rate of flowering in plants, as well as breeding and migration in animals — changes that are likely to disrupt interactions between species.
 
"These changes may bring about novel and potentially unstable species interactions by causing warm-adapted species to seek out geographic regions and to experience seasonal periods that have historically been too cold for them until temperatures begin to rise," said lead author Anthony Dell, a former UCLA postdoctoral researcher now at Germany's University of Gottingen.
 
Such changes could destabilize entire ecosystems, such as rainforests or coral reefs, said co-author Samraat Pawar, a former UCLA postdoctoral researcher currently at the University of Chicago, who noted that although biologists are becoming increasingly aware that changes in species interactions are likely to be one of most important biological impacts of climate change, they have found it challenging to understand and predict.
 
Savage's research team has recently made significant progress on this front by developing a biotraits database. This massive dataset has been compiled from the literature and has been standardized and organized so that data can be combined and compared. This group has already used statistical analysis and mechanistic mathematical models to provide information on how various biological traits of organisms respond to changes in temperature and other environmental factors.
 
In particular, Savage and his team have looked at the impact temperature changes can have on the rate at which an organism uses energy, known as the metabolic rate. This fundamental process governs many aspects of an organism's life, including how much food it will eat, how fast it can move, how much it sleeps and how fast its heart beats. The team makes predictions about how an organism's activity — and thus the broader ecology — are affected by temperature.
 
In the current research, Savage and his colleagues examined how organisms' different physiological responses to rising temperatures could impact what are known as consumer–resource interactions. These are interactions between two organisms that lead to a "feeding" event — a prime example being a predator (consumer) and its prey (resource). Taken as a whole, a collection of consumer–resource interactions constitutes the food chain or food web that drives the diversity, dynamics and stability of particular communities and ecosystems.
 
Their model accounts for the fact that a change in temperature is likely to result in some predators becoming better at capturing prey while some prey animals become more efficient at evading capture, leading to imbalances in the food chain and potential repercussions for ecosystems.
 
A key biological trait driving different responses to temperature change among consumers and resources is body velocity — the speed at which an animal moves. Cold-blooded animals, for example, tend to move faster as their body temperature increases. The biologists predict that one of the primary impacts of global warming will be increasing the amount of time and speed with which organisms move around a landscape and thus encounter and interact with one another.
 
Specifically, the researchers say, the effects of climatic warming will be determined by the ways in which predators seek their prey — by moving around the landscape in search of mobile prey (active-capture), by remaining stationary and waiting for moving prey (sit-and-wait) or by moving around in search of immobile prey (grazing) — as well as by whether interacting predator–prey species are both cold-blooded, both warm-blooded or one of each.
 
Because of the effect of temperature on body velocity, biologists predict that encounter rates between predators and prey will increase with rising temperatures if the foraging strategy is active-capture (both predator and prey moving through the landscape), as with an eagle hunting a fish. However, if both species respond to temperature in identical ways, these changes may not lead to significant shifts in their interactions.
 
With a sit-and-wait strategy, often used by snakes and lizards, the effects of temperature change would arise primarily via the moving prey species, potentially creating a very strong asymmetry between predator and prey. In this case, the asymmetry may profoundly alter the nature of the interaction, so that the two species have much higher or lower abundances and may no longer be able to coexist in the feeding relationship without one or both going extinct.
 
Similarly, increasing temperatures are likely to have significant impacts on interactions between warm-blooded and a cold-blooded animals, such as warm-blooded birds that feed on cold-blooded lizards, or snakes that feed on squirrels. In these cases, the internal body temperature of the cold-blooded animal — the lizard or snake — will vary when the climate changes. As a result, the organism's physiology will change and, in turn, influence its body velocity, activity and reaction rates. In contrast, warm-blooded animals, whose body temperature is largely independent of external climate, will not experience much change, again creating an asymmetry between species.
 
Using the biotraits database, the authors show that trait-specific asymmetries exist in organisms' responses to temperature change and are likely to be a major factor in determining the effects of climate change on species interactions.
 
Naturally, the researchers say, it is impossible to study all the species on the planet, but with their new mathematical model, predictions can be made about effects of warming on different types of consumer–resource interactions.
 
"The large diversity of species that make up natural ecosystems mean it is logistically infeasible to study every species interaction in a community and make predictions about how these interactions will be affected by climate warming," Savage noted. "However, models that assume all species respond to temperature in the same way will both miss the large diversity in ecological systems and therefore miss the most important consequences that arise from differential and asymmetric responses to temperature among species."
 
"In this paper we forge a middle ground between these two extremes," Dell said. "We allow different species to have different thermal responses and show this is essential for predicting species responses to climate change, while also having our categories be much broader than every species on the planet. This new model can help form the foundation for a more predictive framework for understanding the effects of climate change on communities and ecosystems."
 
The research was federally funded by the National Science Foundation (grant DEB 1021010.)
 
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and six faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
 
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
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Graduating M.B.A.s take top prize with website for bridesmaids

May 21, 2013, 3:19 pm
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Kelsey Doorey and Anna Baxter, two M.B.A. students at UCLA Anderson School of Management, see nothing wrong with always being a bridesmaid — never a bride. To make the experience more pleasurable and more affordable, they are launching a website this fall where women can rent designer bridesmaid dresses for someone else’s big day.
 
winner.cropped
Along with Cleon T. "Bud" Knapp (far right), Betsy Wood Knapp (from the left) presents Anna Baxter and Kelsey Doorey with a first-place check for $15,000.
Their big day came May 14 when their business venture, the "Vow To Be Chic" website, took first place in the 32nd Annual Knapp Venture Competition at UCLA Anderson School of Management and took home a $15,000 check.
 
The competition was hosted by the Harold and Pauline Price Center at UCLA Anderson and the Entrepreneur Association. This annual, student-run event is designed to provide UCLA Anderson students with the opportunity to enhance and develop their new business ventures. The competition is named after Cleon T. "Bud" and Betsy Wood Knapp, entrepreneurs and philanthropists whose endowment supports the annual event and other initiatives.
 
Doorey and Baxter’s business idea "made such an impact that the team was approached by angel investors and venture capitalists to discuss potential investments in the company," according to the Anderson School website. The two women graduate in June.
 
To read more about the competition and other business ventures judged by a panel made up of successful entrepreneurs, business executives and UCLA Anderson alumni, go here.
 
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