UCSD Landmark Condemned

This message just in:

UCSD
CAMPUS NOTICE
University of California, San Diego

OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR -
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT & PLANNING

June 28, 2004

ALL ACADEMICS AND STAFF AT UCSD (including UCSD Healthcare)

SUBJECT: University House

University House, the official residence of UCSD chancellors since 1967, has been closed due to structural deficiencies and code compliance. A recent investigative study found serious deficiencies in major system components of the 54-year-old building. This extensive review of the house and grounds was initiated earlier this year at the request of University of California President Robert C. Dynes, who resided at University House when he was UCSD chancellor.

A work group to consider options for the possible renovation, restoration or replacement of University House was recently appointed by University of California Senior Vice President Business and Finance, Joseph Mullinix. This group is being chaired by Wayne Kennedy, Senior Vice President Emeritus of the University of California and former Vice Chancellor at UCSD and includes representatives from the UC Office of the President, faculty, staff, students and the external community. The work group is being supported by Island Architects and the staffs from UCSD Resource Management & Planning and Business Affairs offices.

The work group is expected to deliver its recommendations to the Office of the President by August 2004, but the final solution could be several years away. Since University House cannot be occupied, an exception to University of California policy on university-provided housing was approved.

Chancellor-Designate Fox, who is expected to arrive in August, has been informed that University House could not serve as the Chancellor's residence at this time and that the University would be accommodating her and her spouse in interim housing close to the campus. Given that the temporary residence is not sufficiently spacious to accommodate large University events, functions typically held at University House will be scheduled at various other UCSD venues.

We recognize that University House has great significance to the UCSD and the La Jolla communities and will make a special effort to keep everyone informed of the status of the project as it progresses.

John Woods
Vice Chancellor
Resource Management & Planning

Joseph Mullinix
Senior Vice President
Division of Business and Finance

I'd been to University House a couple times in my undergrad days. Always as a servant, never as a guest. It's a scrawny little single-level ranch-style house on a massive lot above Blacks Beach with a patio that has one of the best views in all La Jolla. I suspect a ploy to replace it with some grander and less ranch-style with a minimum of interference from sentimental preservationists.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit...

Need text?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Sed tristique tempor eros. Sed in elit. Aliquam viverra erat et eros. Ut ut massa. In tortor. Duis viverra imperdiet arcu. Mauris odio felis, elementum vel, rutrum ac, tincidunt quis, sapien. Maecenas tristique feugiat felis. Vivamus pede. Morbi pellentesque pede sed mi fermentum fringilla. Nam vestibulum. Vivamus aliquet, tortor sit amet ullamcorper commodo, sem tortor placerat nunc, eget tincidunt nunc elit a arcu. Fusce pharetra metus sit amet lorem. Nulla turpis velit, viverra non, pharetra quis, nonummy at, tortor. Suspendisse molestie, ante feugiat vehicula commodo, quam est fringilla dolor, sit amet pharetra augue lectus lacinia nibh. Ut at lorem ut ante tincidunt bibendum. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Cras in lacus eu pede tempus ultricies. Nunc consequat tincidunt lectus. Cras arcu.

Morbi accumsan justo volutpat sem. Praesent felis. Pellentesque at massa in lectus blandit vulputate. Praesent vitae magna mattis nisl rhoncus ornare. Maecenas viverra est vel dui. Donec lacinia. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Morbi ornare. Morbi erat. Maecenas nonummy. Vestibulum aliquet arcu quis dolor. Donec congue mollis metus. Etiam at enim id justo pretium bibendum. Nam et urna ut enim bibendum suscipit. Praesent odio. Donec odio velit, vulputate sit amet, convallis eget, tempor at, lectus. Cras malesuada ligula id lacus. Vivamus ligula mi, facilisis quis, pellentesque in, volutpat quis, nunc.

Now know what lorum ipsum means (sort of):

"There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."

Little Boxes

A stylish and informative site on page layout.

CSS Positioning

Reviewing the fundamentals:

1. Absolutely positioned elements are positioned relative to the positioning context in which they are located.

2. Relatively positioned elements create their own positioning context based on their static (original) location.

Funny how two things so different in reality can, when put into words, sound so much alike.

Some other concepts to review:

XML - An Introduction

PHP and XML: Parsing RSS 1.0

Build your own Web Service with PHP and XML-RPC

Farenheit 9/11

Caught the noon showing of the film at the local flop house. I wasn't especially anxious to see the film until I read the A.O. Scott's review in the New York Times.

I don't imagine even Bush's most naive supporters will be surprised by the portrait of Bush that emerges from the film. The most damning segments -- those in which Bush is cracking a prepared joke -- are taken out of context. I came away with the impression with which I entered: Bush is so far in over his head, it's hard to hold him responsible for his decisions. As with Reagan, I can't even believe that they are his. Of course, in Texas, that would not spare him conviction and execution. But he's a Bush. Kerry, on the other hand, can't get away with excuse of not knowing any better. Kerry, like Gore, projects a strong sense of knowing what he's doing. It is probably one of his greatest liabilities as a candidate. The diehard backers of his opponent take it for granted that what he's up to is no good. But more damning still, it's all very calculated.

Bush's reputation is secure. But the movie may spell the end of Brittney Spears's aura of prescience.

I was surprised at the end to realize that this is the first Michael Moore film. Despite the Oscar tirades and the weight problem, I found the film pretty well restrained. It's not much of an argument -- a more nuanced critique for instance would have probed the conflicts and contradictions in Powell's position. But it's a sharp polemic. You get barraged with images of Bush team members curtseying to Saudi royals. But the impact, I suspect, is ultimately more subliminal. What do the Bushies see in all these weird Arabs in robes? (A lot of money.)

The movie's greatest revelation is the things that we had already heard and seen and knew. It's a shock to find how easily we've let the details wash over us. Taken together, even superficially, it's enough to arouse a reaction from anyone who sees it. And Moore mentioned in an interview swing voters in test audiences who saw the film having their support swung away from Bush. And I suppose people even moderately firm in their support of Bush could have their opinion swayed. The question is how many people in this group will pay $9.25 to see this film.

Plaids

Looking for a particular kind of plaid. I thought it was known as Stuart tartan, but there are two dozen different Stuart tartans (not to mention the Stewart tartans) and none resembles the one I'm looking for.

And unfortunately, there are about as many kinds of tartan as there are colors of paint. So many that the online tartan catalogues are useless.

Usonian Design

Just finished an article about an interesting tract of homes in Ohio all design in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. What really distinguishes the place is what the author mentions not in the article in the linked slide show: the people really take pride in their homes and devote a lot of time to their preservation and upkeep. The elements of this style must be in good repair else -- like many buildings I see from the 50s and 60s poorly preserved, the strip malls, high schools, civic centers -- they look tacky and outdated.

From the article:

There, in Rush Creek Village, they found a near perfect relic of midcentury Usonian design, a split-level dominated by ribbon windows, board-and-batten siding and earthy cypress fascias in strong horizontal lines. At $210,000 for 1,900 square feet, the house was not only reasonably priced, but also spectacularly sited on a one-plus-acre hilly lot.



Another design reference to file away.

Touchstone : The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood

"You should not be sad," he said, gazing at me with his melancholy, leathery walrus eyes. "It must be the love. But you are young and pretty, you will have time to be sad later." The French are connoisseurs of sadness, they know all the kinds. This is why they have bidets. (p. 304)

Aha, I thought. Despite your jogging and the hairiness of your legs, the shoe of aging is beginning to pinch. Soon you'll regret all that sun-tanning. Your face will look like a testicle. (p. 372)

Illuminated Manuscript

Hatching an idea:

Bodleian Library

Gothic Drop Caps

Web Page Design

Illuminated Manuscripts For Sale

Vellum Tutorial

More Samples

Wired Scriptorium Article

Bg1 | Bg2

Cops and Robbers Story

Sounds like a scene worthy of Moliere. Or The Simpsons.

Immunizations

Second in a series:

Hep A
Hep B
Rabies

At least no tetanus. That aches. Next installment: two weeks.

Emails to a Young Surfer (2)

Glad to hear things are going well out in the lineup. I think I may have surfed for the last time this summer this morning. At Scripps at least.

More crowded this morning with noticeably more Slim Shadies in the water. I was getting waves, but always leftovers, while I'd just be out of position on the best waves. I noticed that this one guy and girl were getting the best waves by waiting more patiently on the outside. So I decided for my last wave I would wait outside and try to get a good one in.

Well, after 15 minutes or so, I finally spot my wave. A sweet head-high left. I'm right there, in position, mine alone. I swing around, start to paddle, and... right in front of me -- some slack-jawed yokel on a banana yellow longboard caught on the inside. The only consolation was he didn't make it over the wave and must have got worked. I didn't see him back outside after that.

But fucking idiot, it still pisses me off. My foul temper helped me grab a few more waves that I probably wouldn't have caught if I had been in a more civil mood -- and certainly wouldn't have caught had I caught that wave in. And I finished with a pretty good right. But still nothing like that left. I felt like Sunny Garcia after a couple mojitos. (Which, curiously enough, is how I used to feel most the time I surfed -- when I was younger and at my peak.)

The funny thing is I had noticed that guy 10 minutes before that sitting about 10 yards away from me. And I thought, "that guy really doesn't look like he belongs out here. At least he's out of the way."

Of course, I should just take a deep breath and let it go. But the thing is, I probably won't get another wave like that all summer. (Especially not without that attitude.)

Ok, thanks for listening to that. The other side of surfing I was telling you about.

Immunizations

First in a series:

Hep A
Hep B
Dip-Tet
Rabies

Expensive: almost $200, and this was only the first of 3 parts.

Did not opt for the Twinrex, or whatever the Hep A-B combo is, though $50 cheaper all together. You get better protection with the regular shots. Though I probably should have asked what it really means when they say you have 80%-90% protection. Does that mean you can expect to be exposed to the virus several times before being infected, or that 80-90% of people who get this immunization never contract the disease. I probably don't want to know.

Lecture : Progress in Human Genome Therapy (Theodore Friedmann)

Happened to notice an announcement for a lecture today on human genome therapy in the Salk lecture series mailing for this week. Theodore Friedmann, a professor of medicine at UCSD and a pioneer in gene therapy at Salk back in the early 70s, was the speaker. Interesting timing, as I am just completing a paper on the Human Genome project. Well, completing may be too strong a word. But I have been reading quite a bit this quarter on the subject. This lecture affirmed my recent realization that the roots of the HGP are deep within the War on Cancer.

Friedmann observe the when gene therapy first emerged, as with the genome project, advocates had what he called a naïve model for genetic disease – basically, the central dogma. Bad gene –> bad protein –> disease. Indeed, it is probably inaccurate to suggest that there were two different camps that shared a erroneous view. Gene therapy and the genome project branched off from a common root in the 70s and early 80s where they shared a common paradigm and similarly over-optomistic expectation.

As research expanded, scientists started discovering all that complicated stuff about gene function and progress with gene therapy stalled. I guess things are moving forward, but there are still challenges with basic elements of therapy such as the delivery vectors being used to transfer genes. Jesse Gelsinger’s death it seems was not caused by anything associated with the genetic disorder itself that was the object of his treatment but was a result of a fatal massive immune response triggered by a protein associated with the vector transporting the genes.

Incidentally, Friedmann noted that there has been one successful study with gene therapy with SCID patients (bubble boys – it’s x-linked) in France. This was completed after Gelsinger’s death. The first success in over 600 clinical studies. Another medical school professor asked if the slow progress was because of shortage of funds. Friedmann said no, not really – it’s just a difficult process. He thinks that more successes are around the corner. He had a good slide at the end of his presentation showing Athena’s birth, fully formed, from Zeus’s head as a reminder that advances won’t happen all at once but will be more incremental. He was frank in conceding scientists’ responsibility for generating this sort of expectation.

I wonder if gene therapy won’t end up getting superseded by prenatal genetic screening – which I imagine will be much simpler and more cost-effective and more appealing to prospective parents (even as everyone wrings their hands over designer babies.) An ounce of prevention… I guess it will depend in part on how fast the respective technologies develop. That's my operating paradigm in any case: technology will dictate the ethics or values on this matter, not the other way around.

Re: Stoke -- and surf rage

An email to a friend learning to surf:

> I was really rude to this sweet Japanese woman
> who was just a little gunshy. I was so impatient with
> her - I think because she reminded me of how I was
> last year when I first started surfing.

Now you know the real power of surfing: dominating those in the lineup pecking order weaker than you. What I always find interesting -- and perhaps you've begun to notice this with yourself -- is how I figure out my place in the lineup almost as soon as I paddle out. Before even someone takes off on a wave many times. I've talked about this with my brother. You can just feel it. Somedays, you're the man -- the alpha ripper -- and get every good wave that comes through. Other days, it will be going off, and you know you won't get squat. It's on these days that I'll paddle off away from a pack just so I can get a wave. Then I'll notice some longboarder starting to paddle my direction three lifeguard towers down. And I just know, as soon as that motherfucker gets next to me, a good wave's going to come in and he's going to be in position to take it from me. Happens more than mere probability alone would allow.

On the other hand, you'll happy to know, these arrangements aren't fixed. When you get a good wave -- you can sense your status among the lineup flotsam rising. Another good wave and you're paddling around people for waves, giving hoots to other people as they're taking off, and (as you know) yelling at others when they get in your way. (Of course, you shouldn't yell at sweet little Japanese women.) If you want a real baboon-stress-hormone-rush, paddle out down at Newport Beach during the next fun swell.