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Film Producer’s “Pi” in the Sky Dreams Become Reality

By Guest PostJanuary 17, 2013Entertainmentacademy award, best picture, best visual effects, biggest movies, chipmunks, chronicles of narnia, computer generated image, digital filmmaking, director, django unchained, east grand films, fantastic worlds, film supervisor, hollywood, hues, lee berger, life jacket, life of pi, los angeles, maryland radio, movie studios, oj, oscar nomination, quentin tarantino, rhythm, robert kolker, seamless, snow white, the hunger games, the huntsman, the orangutan, visual effects movie, work

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – You may not know Lee Berger by name, but you may have seen the work of his production teams in many of 2012’s biggest movies: “Django Unchained,” “The Hunger Games,” “Life of Pi” and “Snow White and the Huntsman.”

Berger ’76 is president of the film division of Rhythm & Hues Studios, a Los Angeles-based company that does everything from animating the Chipmunks to creating fantastic worlds (“The Chronicles of Narnia”).

“This is a very competitive industry,” says Berger. “We don’t normally get to pick and choose, and we’re lucky that Ang Lee chose us (for ‘Life of Pi’).” (more…)

More than Half a Million California Adults Think Seriously about Committing Suicide

By Guest PostDecember 20, 2012Generaladult, alaska natives, american indians, bisexual, california, californians, chis, committing suicide, david grant, ethnic groups, gay, half a million, health interview survey, lesbian, los angeles, mental health services, prevention, risk, sacramento area, sierra counties, smokers, statistics data, suicidal behavior, suicidal thoughts, suicide ideation, suicide rate, ucla

More than half a million adults in California seriously thought about committing suicide during the previous year, according to a new study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

The study, which uses data from the 2009 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), is the first by the center to focus on suicide ideation.

In California, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death, the researchers noted. An average of nine deaths by suicide occur each day in the state. (more…)

Transforming America by Redirecting Wasted Health Care Dollars

By Guest PostOctober 30, 2012Generalalternative, ambitious plans, americans, childhood education, congressional, county department, economic sector, Environment, fraud, frederick zimmerman, Health, health care, health industry, jeffrey mccullough, jonathan fielding, los angeles, myriad, public health, quality, social value, spending, steven teutsch, super committee, system, Washington, waste, wasteful, well being

Eliminating excessive spending could mean windfall for U.S., study suggests

The respected national Institute of Medicine estimates that $750 billion is lost each year to wasteful or excessive health care spending. This sum includes excess administrative costs, inflated prices, unnecessary services and fraud — dollars that add no value to health and well-being.

If those wasteful costs could be corralled without sacrificing health care quality, how might that money be better spent? (more…)

Nettles — it’s what’s for dinner!

By Guest PostOctober 27, 2012Culture, Generalada de santis, american cooks, ancient egypt, arugula, bay leaf liquor, blackberry semifreddo, blackberry shoot, california, capers, chamomile, chicory, culinary history, dean, deluca, edible plants, english, escarole, Europe, fats domino, fennel, fennel field, gianpiero doebler, god apollo, greek mythology, greek word, italian, italian cuisine, italian gastronomy, john evelyn, los angeles, luigi ballerini, mallow, marathon, medical science, milan, myrtle berries, new york, nymph, point mugu, rosemary, salad, southern california, swiss chard, topanga canyon, united states, university, viagra, wild, wild asparagus, wild mint

UCLA scholar, culinary historian champions foraged foods in new book

Today, delicacies like capers, arugula and fennel are at home at Dean & Deluca, Whole Foods and fancy restaurants, but they haven’t always lived the high life.

These and other darlings of the foodie set started out as peasants’ fodder, foraged from rocky outcroppings, empty fields and roadsides, according to a new book by a UCLA professor.

Luigi Ballerini revisits this distant past in “A Feast of Weeds: A Literary Guide to Foraging and Cooking Wild Edible Plants” (University of California Press), which celebrates the foraged foods that are currently enjoying a renaissance in Italy and elsewhere. (more…)

Foster Kids do Equally Well when Adopted by Gay, Lesbian or Heterosexual Parents

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2012Generaladoption, california, children, clinical psychologist, county, foster care, gay, heterosexual, high risk, iq score, jill waterman, justin lavner, lesbian, letitia anne peplau, los angeles, multiple, national science foundation, parents, premature birth, psychologist, risk factor, ucla, united states

High-risk children adopted from foster care do equally well when placed with gay, lesbian or heterosexual parents, UCLA psychologists report in the first multi-year study of children adopted by these three groups of parents.

The psychologists looked at 82 high-risk children adopted from foster care in Los Angeles County. Of those children, 60 were placed with heterosexual parents and 22 were placed with gay or lesbian parents (15 with gay male parents and seven with lesbian parents). (more…)

State-Mandated Planning, Higher Resident Wealth Linked to More Sustainable City Transportation

By Guest PostOctober 13, 2012Environmentanna mccreery, columbus, ecosummit 2012, environmentally friendly, income, index, las vegas, los angeles, metropolitan area, new orleans, ohio, per capita, pittsburgh, population density, public transit, seattle, socioeconomic factor, solo commuter, span, state university, sustainability, time, transportation ecoefficiency, transportation practice, transportation system, US, wealthier

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Transportation practices tend to be more environmentally friendly in wealthier metropolitan areas located within states that mandate comprehensive planning, new research suggests.

The study involved an examination of 225 U.S. metropolitan areas between 1980 and 2008 to gauge how sustainable their transportation practices were and determine what kinds of socioeconomic factors appeared to influence those practices. (more…)

CU Mathematicians Show How Shallow Waves May Help Explain Tsunami Power

By Guest PostSeptember 19, 2012Scienceboulder, colorado, douglas baldwin, earthquake, interaction height, Japan, los angeles, low tide, mark ablowitz, mathematical equation, Mexico, nonlinear, nonlinearity, nuevo vallarta, ocean wave, pacific ocean, physics, tsunami, university, venice beach, wave height, wave watching

While wave watching is a favorite pastime of beachgoers, few notice what is happening in the shallowest water. A closer look by two University of Colorado Boulder applied mathematicians has led to the discovery of interacting X- and Y-shaped ocean waves that may help explain why some tsunamis are able to wreak so much havoc.

Professor Mark Ablowitz and doctoral student Douglas Baldwin repeatedly observed such wave interactions in ankle-deep water at both Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, and Venice Beach, Calif., in the Pacific Ocean — interactions that were thought to be very rare but which actually happen every day near low tide. There they saw single, straight waves interacting with each other to form X- and Y-shaped waves as well as more complex wave structures, all predicted by mathematical equations, said Ablowitz. (more…)

More Than Matters of the Heart

By Guest PostJuly 18, 2012Health, Sciencecause of death, chronic disease, complicated grief scale, death, genetic code, genetic variation, Germany, hannover medical school, Health, inflammation, journal brain, los angeles, mary frances oconnor, pro inflammatory, spouse, stress, symptoms of loss, university of arizona, university of california, university of ulm, widowhood effect

A team of researchers, including Mary-Frances O’Connor at the UA, has found a genetic variability linked to stress and inflammation that may impact the health of some widows and widowers.

The death of a spouse can be one of life’s most distressing events, and for many years bereavement researchers have noted increased mortality risk in some widows and widowers. This has been called the “widowhood effect.”

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Hannover Medical School in Germany, the University of Ulm in Germany and the University of Arizona have found a genetic variability linked to stress and inflammation that may impact the health of some widows and widowers. (more…)

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