UCLA In the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. Some articles may require registration or a subscription to view. See more UCLA In the News.
50 years after internet conception, dark side stirs fear | Agence France-Presse
“We were not the social scientists that we should have been,” [UCLA’s Leonard] Kleinrock said of the internet’s early days. He regretted a lack of foresight to build into the very foundation of the internet tools for better authenticating users and data files. “It wouldn't have avoided the dark side, but it would have ameliorated it,” he said. He remained optimistic about the internet's woes being solved with encryption, blockchain or other innovations…. “I still feel that the benefits are far more significant; I wouldn't turn off the internet if I could.”
What ‘deepfakes’ are and how they may be dangerous | CNBC
Such videos are “becoming increasingly sophisticated and accessible,” wrote John Villasenor, nonresident senior fellow of governance studies at the Center for Technology Innovation at Washington-based public policy organization, the Brookings Institution. “Deepfakes are raising a set of challenging policy, technology, and legal issues.” In fact, anybody who has a computer and access to the internet can technically produce deepfake content, said Villasenor, who is also a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The Great American cannabis experiment | Politico
Researchers in legal states also have found their reliance on the federal government frustrating. The University of California, Los Angeles is just blocks from Farmacy Westwood, a licensed dispensary in the state of California. But Jeff Chen, director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, can’t walk down to the dispensary to buy the kinds of vape pens that consumers are purchasing if he wanted to do, say, a study on how consuming cannabis through vape pens impacts cannabis users—the kind of research that might have helped prevent the current rash of vaping-related illnesses. Instead, Chen has to wait for federally approved cannabis to be sent to him from the only federally approved grow facility in the U.S.: the University of Mississippi.
Hans Haacke, firebrand, gets his first U.S. survey in 33 years | New York Times
“He’s been a major influence on me, and an inspiration,” said Ms. [Andrea] Fraser, chair of the art department at University of California, Los Angeles, and the most eloquent of institutional critics.
California has a new law against mandatory arbitration — but it doesn’t cover everyone | San Francisco Chronicle
Katherine Stone, law professor at University of California at Los Angeles, said ending mandatory arbitration was a way for tech companies to “get goodwill” with employees and a “good gesture and a good start” that they weren’t going to put up with sexual harassment.
Is melanoma suspected? Get second opinion from specialist, study says | U.S. News & World Report
Melanoma is the most lethal type of skin cancer, and a new study finds that the diagnosis of a suspect lesion gains accuracy when a specialist pathologist is brought on board. Many patients with melanoma are first diagnosed by general practitioners, dermatologists or plastic surgeons. A biopsy sample of the suspect lesion might then be sent to a general pathologist for further diagnosis, explained a team from the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
O’Rourke: Conversion therapy ‘should be illegal’ and is ‘tantamount to torture’ | CNN
The practice continues despite public opinion polls at the national level and in several states finding majority support for ending the use of conversion therapy on youth, according to the study by The Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law. (Also: NBC News)
Chicago teachers may test unions’ ‘social justice’ strategy | Washington Post
The Chicago union wasn’t the first to use that strategy. But its leadership, including then-President Karen Lewis, acted when teachers nationwide felt unions’ political power and clout had been severely weakened, said John Rogers, a professor of education at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Chicago was a dramatic moment, when this set of ideas coalesced and was enacted and then caught the attention of other unions,” Rogers said.
Periodic sobriety’s supposed health benefits, explained | Mic
Committing to a long-term lifestyle change will probably result in greater health improvements than simply swearing off booze for 30 days, says Timothy Fong, director of the UCLA Addiction Medicine Clinic. “We wish we could go to Jiffy Lube for our bodies, but it just doesn’t work that way.” But while you may not experience long-term health benefits, if you stop drinking, even momentarily, “your body is going to start feeling better,” Fong says.
Governor signs AB 68 into law, effectively ending single-family zoning statewide | Long Beach Post Opinion
“Single-family homes are luxury housing.” These are the words of Shane Phillips of UCLA’s Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies (and creator of the condo versus single-family home cost map below) — and it is something that Gov. Gavin Newsom and a handful of adamant policy makers are hearing loud and clear, with Newsom signing AB 68 into law this past Wednesday.
California turns off power to millions to prevent wildfires | Agence France-Presse
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA in Los Angeles, tweeted that the power shutoffs were “a necessary bad idea in the short term” that shifts the financial costs from the power companies to the public.
A story of cultural incompetence in American schools | Medium Opinion
According to a recent study published by the University of California, Los Angeles and Penn State, which analyzed the changes in our educational landscape over the past 65 years, schools have actually become more segregated at the expense of public education.
Santa Ana winds culture | KPCC-FM’s “Take Two”
“There are these very strong, dry and hot winds that start to blow right around October. They can kick up really big fires, and that creates a kind of an apocalyptic atmosphere sometimes, here in Los Angeles,” said UCLA’s Alex Hall. (Approx. 40:30 mark)
