Profit in a digital age
Merrielle Spain
It's up to you. No really, it's up to you. Says Radiohead about the price of their new album. They let you choose how much the album is worth to you, and pay that amount. It's an interesting reaction to file sharing; while many entities are up in arms about copyright infringement, Radiohead takes the Honor Code approach.Within a week of Radiohead's monetary statement that people are inherently decent, Google swung the other way, albeit to shield itself from copyright infringement lawsuits. Google introduced a system to prevent copyrighted clips from being uploaded to YouTube. The system takes video files and produces a digital fingerprint to match against potential uploads. Why would a copyright holder not be pleased about such a system? Google needs to access the copyrighted clips that are to be barred.
Will the digital world move to omniscient policeman or individual morality? Or are both too extreme for us to handle?
Art
Warning! This is preposterous.
Dali: Painting and Film aims to illustrate the cinematic influences and elements that are present in Dali's work as well as the contribution he made to cinema.LACMA
October 14-January 6
Tickets $12-$17
What is it about Dali? When I was in high school, only table infinity in art class knew about surrealism. Suddenly, in undergrad my new friends couldn't get enough of Dali and Magritte--especially the scientists. Why does playing the with concept of reality attract us more than, say, toying with light, or dimensionality?
Restaurant Review
Laurence Yeung
The Crepe Vine36 W. Colorado Blvd. #1 (on Mills Pl. next to Jake's), 91105
(626) 796-7250
$$-$$$ (Reservations recommended)
Lunch: Su 10:30 am-2:30 pm, Tu-Sa 11:00 am-2:30 pm
Dinner: Su 5:00 pm-10:00 pm, Tu-W 5:30 pm-11:00 pm, Th-Sa 5:30 pm-Midnight
Live Music: W-F and Su at Dinner
Bottom Line: The next time you are in Old Town, skip on past Kabuki, Pinkberry, and Louise's Trattoria, and head on over to Mills Place for a refreshingly new taste of the old world.
Over the past couple years, I've noticed that our beloved Old Town slowly becoming more active, more upscale, and, unfortunately, more Hollywood.
Now, I don't mean big-budget-special-effects-walk-of-fame Hollywood, or even the gentrified Holly-Trolley Hollywood. I am concerned about an ominous symptom far more pervasive than we would ever like to admit: trendiness. On weekends it's not unusual anymore to see young people like ourselves strutting about in their skinny jeans, engulfed in a cloud of Hugo Boss, texting on their pink Razrs and iPhones with their Kate Spade bags held close as they pass the inevitable crowd that gathers outside the Cheesecake Factory. PA systems, in-menu ads, and sushi are taking the place of the simple pleasures we once took for granted, like a plate of good, honest food.
Call me old-fashioned, but that is why I like the Crepe Vine. Amidst the bar-hopping, movie-going, Banana Republic shirt-wearing scenesters, the Crepe Vine exists as somewhat of an oasis-comfortable, laid back, and uniquely Californian-off the beaten path in a place where the tastes and demands of a shifting clientele are becoming ever more homogeneous.
Sharing a small alleyway with other remnants of "turn-of-the-century" Old Pasadena-Jake's Billiards, Equator Coffeehouse, and Johnson Motors-earns the Crepe Vine some street credit, as the only traffic you'll typically see here on a Friday night is bipedal. Except for the occasional passing of a small supply van, patio seating here indeed offers a front-row view of all those souls in the area willing to step out of their fancy sports cars with 10-inch monitors and custom rims to have some fun. Finally! People-watching that actually involves people!
Inside, the wine bar and dining tables share equal billing in the ruby red-and-black space. It is unlike any bistro in France I've been to, though obvious homages like classic bent-wood chairs and intimate, round tables give a nod to the restaurant's cultural roots. Service is kind, if slow, but I'll let it slide because it resonates so well with the atmosphere that's been established. In fact, the only aspect of the operation that betrays its mood-lit interior is the high volume level-though it is typical of any restaurant in the area-which may be more of a by-product of the increased diner density in recent years than anything else.
Thankfully, no such criticisms can be had for the food. The menu boasts a generous selection of classic sweet and savory crepes ($7-$9 for sweet, $9-$12 for savory, with nutella & banana being my personal favorite), and they are sure to sate your appetite for gastronomic variety. However, as is often the case with a good restaurant, what reels you in may not be the thing that ends up keeping you around.
For me, it was the garlic fries. Their secret, I believe, is the thinness of each fry; a larger surface area facilitates dehydration, even cooking, and ultimately, that satisfying crunch and aroma Whether on the side of a main dish or bursting out from inside a bowl as an appetizer, those delicate potato fingers come out from the kitchen surprisingly fresh, oil still glistening from an encounter with a deep-fryer in the not-too-distant past. Ouch! They're so hot and flavorful I'll ruin my appetite-but of course I can do that all I want, now that I'm all grown up.
For you it might not be the garlic fries, but it could just as easily be the mac & cheese, the croque monsieur, or the duck breast with mushroom ragout and polenta. "To each their own," I suppose, but rest assured that each and every dish is done with classic flair and a modern touch that lets you know that there's a real pro in the back, someone who knows what real bistro food should taste like.
What's wrong with scientific publishing, and how do we fix it?
Daniel Taylor, Caltech Librarian
The first in a planned series of panel discussions on the state of scientific discussion took place September 19th to an audience of close to one hundred students, faculty, and librarians.
Engineering Librarian George Porter moderated the event with CNS graduate student John Delacruz, University Librarian Kimberly Douglas, and Professor of Biology and CNS Gilles Laurent serving as panelists.
Douglas addressed 2 broad areas of concern: The Scientific Publishing Industry and Authors' Rights. The convergence of a vastly increasing volume of papers plus super-inflationary (7-12%) annual price increases has produced a $7 billion industry, the burden of which is borne largely by library subscriptions. This is no longer financially sustainable. With regard to authors and copyright, Douglas noted that the author owns the rights for reproducing, copying, creating derivative works, distribution, and public performance.... UNTIL those rights are expressly given away. It has been the standard operating procedure for an author to give those rights away to a publisher for the service of peer-review, editorial improvement and distribution. Once the rights are given away they can be regained only by express agreement with the current copyright holder.
Laurent focused on reviewing and the charade it's become. The volume of publishing, the pecking order of journals, subjectivity at the time of review, and the expectation of judging value, collectively result in extremely arbitrary decisions by peer reviewers on whether or not to publish a paper. A paper resulting from 3-6 years of work gets reviewed by 2 or 3 people, rarely 4, so the odds that this process will be fair are poor. In addition, anonymity protects those doing a shoddy job. Laurent then presented a new journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, an experiment that's to appear next month.
Delacruz characterized his presentation as Science Meets Web 2.0. While publishers have been accustomed to controlling content, technology now is providing us with alternatives such as blogs, YouTube, Connotea, and social networking options such as Digg.com and del.icio.us. Thus the web can facilitate and improve 1. scientific discussion, 2. assessment of scientific merit, and 3. the process of finding relevant information. Delacruz went on to describe and demonstrate a project he's working on, and now in beta testing, Journalfire.org which enables scientists to rate and discuss published journal articles.
The second half of the program featured lively audience discussion. Douglas suggested legislative activism regarding a proposed NIH mandate and on the Federal Research Public Access Act. Professor Richard Flagan, who has been actively involved in issues regarding scientific publication for the last decade, expressed concerns about the viability of Frontiers in Neuroscience, adding that the current peer review system works and that young scientists can't afford to sign their reviews. Flagan also expressed worry about the usefulness of scientific blogging and the quality of those commenting.
Professor Pietro Perona pointed out that publication and peer review system in Engineering is quite different than that in Biology. In Engineering work is first published in conferences and reviewed there for 2 months, with prizes given for the best papers. He also noted that the awarding of prizes at the time of publication often did not correlate with the number of citations a paper received 5-10 years later.
The next panel discussion will be held at the end of the term and will focus on the successes and failures of past initiatives to improve scientific publication.
For more information about the discussion series and details on how you can get involved, visit the library and journal fire.
Nightlife
Merrielle Spain
Dive bar?It's easier to say what a dive bar isn't. A dive bar is the opposite of your prototypical hollywood club experience. While in hollywood the emphasis is on glamour and ostentation, a dive bar is cheap and comfortable. I love dive bars, but I find that my friends use the term to broadly. Two bars that my friends call dives are the Colorado in Pasadena and Little Joy in Echo Park. Both fine establishments come equipped with pool tables, vinyl booths, dim lighting, a juke box, and (most importantly) cheap beer. However, when you look beyond these essentials they are markedly different.
On one hand there's the Rado. The first thing you notice (past the signs warning you of $200 smoking fines) is something that forces itself into your consciousness rather than vaguely flickering in--an almost impenetrable cloud of smoke. Once your eyes adjust to the dim lighting and strain past the smoke, you notice the clientele: dirty old men, cougars, and occasionally a 300 pound woman. If you're lucky, you might be eyed hungrily by a latino gangster-looking type. All the while this colorful set of characters ash on the floor. Moving past the mix (if you can get around) you meet the delightfully fowl-mouthed old bartender. After you buy your $2.75 beer or $3 purple hooter (which never moves from the specials board), you may score a vinyl booth. They look fine, but a third of the springs gave up the will to live before I started frequenting the place.
In stark contrast we have Little Joy. Depending on whether you look up or eye level as you wander in, you'll notice broken ceiling panels or nasty old mirrors in the flickering fluorescent light. Yet the place is spotless. The ceiling boards are broken to perfection, maximizing the abandoned warehouse aesthetic and minimizing the risk of falling. The crowd is of the attractive twenty something indie rocker variety; strangely resembling the bar in their well-manicured unkept look. If you make it past the crowd of skinny hipsters you can score a $3 PBR from one of the attractive bartenders, but it's cash only.
When we put Little Joy side by side with the Rado, it seems to be working fairly hard to approximate what the Rado is. Little Joy is posing as a dive bar. To be a dive, you have to mean it.
Campus life survey
George Cadena
The quality of life committee is putting together a survey addressing campus morale, student happiness, and gender and race issues; it has been four years since such a survey. This is the first of four short surveys to be distributed this academic year. This survey will impact the direction of the graduate student coucil, funding allotment, and adminstrative support. Send input to George Cadena at gcadena@caltech.
Everhart Lecture Series - Seeking Applicants
Do you know anyone who is a really great speaker? Someone who can explain anything to anybody, and always seems to make even the driest of topics extremely interesting? Someone who has done excellent research and would love an opportunity to explain their work to their colleagues? Do you think you might be such a person? If so, nominate someone or yourself for this year's Everhart Lecture Series.
The Everhart Lecture Series selection committee is seeking applications and nominations for speakers for the 2007-2008 lecture series. The Everhart Lectures provide a forum to encourage interdisciplinary interaction among graduate students and faculty; to share ideas about recent research developments, problems and controversies; and to recognize exemplary presentation and research abilities. Lecturers discuss scientific topics at a level suitable for graduate students and faculty from all fields while addressing current research issues. Each fall, three graduate student Everhart lecturers are selected to present their work to the Caltech community in the winter and spring terms. Speakers receive a $500 honorarium and recognition at graduation. Applications are due on Tues., November 13. Selections will be made by the end of November. Email the search committee chair, Celia Shiau (ceshiau@caltech) for inquiries and application instructions. more
Chili Cook-Off
Like chili? Like beer? Come sample one or all of our 8 great chili
recipes. We will have chili as varied as a Kentucky Fried Chicken
Chili, a Canadian-Hungarian Chili, and we'll have a few vegetarian
Chilies. We'll also provide several kegs of good beer to wash down the
burn. Avery Courtyard on Friday, November 16, 6-10pm. This event is
sponsored by a Moore-Hufstedler grant.
Evans Boney
First, we need to plan 1-2 more off campus trips by the end of this fiscal year (October 1). Previous meetings have suggested such trips as Magic Mountain and Dave and Buster's. We decided I'd put together a Dave and Buster's trip with the remaining off-campus trips money. The trip filled to capacity and was a great success, with the GSC providing about 2 hours of free gameplay. Secondly, we planned and carried out a summer term party a couple of days before NSO. There is about $800 in the Social Committee budget for this, so we decided on a masquerade (masks optional). It was off the chains. Finally, many of you know we've been in contact with the Pasadena Arts Center, USC, CGS, and UCLA about doing joint events. The social and steering committees, primarily George on this issue, is planning several joint events, under the auspices of being in the same place at the same time. Possible dates and events were discussed at the meeting.Learn to Tango
Tango is a social dance originating from Argentina which emphasizes improvisation and a strong connection between leader & follower. No partner or experience necessary. moreBeginner Tango
8 Sundays, from October 14 to December 2
Class: 8-9:30pm Practica: 9:30-10pm
in Winnett Lounge (2nd floor)
Instructor: Fabienne Bongard-Mose
free for Caltech students (with ID)
$5/class or $35/series for Caltech affiliates & other students (with ID)
$8/class or $56/series
Hip-Hop
Thursday 9-10pm, October 11-November 29Braun Gym multipurpose room<29> Instructor: Aukai Cain
$25/term students, $5 trial fee. $50/term non-student, $10 trial fee.
Hip-hop grew out of the street dance movements in LA and New York. It has a high-energy, free-form style that is suited to dancers of all levels. Our professional instructor, Aukai Cain, has appeared on American Idol and Good Morning America. Come in comfortable clothing and tennis shoes or dance sneakers and be ready to jam with Aukai and the Dance Troupe!
Jazz and Lyrical
Sunday 7-8:30pm, October 7-November 25Braun Gym multipurpose room
Instructor: Valerie Scott
free
Jazz is a dynamic, expressive form of dance marked by movement isolations and complex, propulsive polyrhythms. Lyrical dance is typically performed to contemporary music, deriving its name from the fact that dance movements express the lyrics and emotions of the music. This class will feature beginning-level jazz and lyrical styles of dance, and will focus on building core strength in the process.
Floorball
Floorball is a lightweight, non-contact version of indoor hockey played in tennis shoes-no skates. Pickup games are in Brown gym on Monday nights from 10pm to midnight during the Fall term. We're always happy to get new players-no experience is necessary. There's a lot of running, so dress comfortably. Questions? Email Andrew at bandy@its.caltech.
Fall at The Athenaeum
The Rathskeller is open for food service Monday through Friday, 5pm to 9pm. Bar service is available Monday to Thursday from 5pm to 9pm and Friday 4:30pm to 10pm.
October
| 17 | Wine & Spirits Tasting (featuring international Beers) |
| 19 | Rath al Fresco closes |
| 20 | Chef's Cooking Class (learn to prepare great Hors d'Oeuvres) |
| 22 | International Night (featuring Filipino cuisine) |
| 22-30 | Haunted 'Skeller, special bar menu |
| 22-2 | 'Skeller open to entire campus 4-6pm Monday-Friday |
| 27 | Halloween for the Family (costume contest begins at 3pm) |
| 31 | Halloween in The Rathskeller (costume contests-4pm-10pm) |
| 8 | International Night (featuring Portuguese cuisine) |
| 7 | Afternoon Tea |
| 14 | Wine & Spirits Tasting (featuring French White Wines) |
| 17 | Chef's Cooking Class (learn the art of preparing Thai cuisine) |
| 21 | Thanksgiving Eve Buffet and Thanksgiving To Go |
more
| provided by http://www.hit-counter-download.com |
Articles
Profit in a digital ageArt: Dali at LACMA
Restaurant Review: The Crepe Vine
What's wrong with scientific publishing, and how do we fix it?
Nightlife: Dive bar?
Student events/notices
Campus life surveyEverhart Lecture Series - Seeking Applicants
Chili Cook-Off
Social Committee Report
Oktoberfest GUSH
USC CIT Mixer
Prufrock Halloween Party
Athletics
Left: Other events/notices
Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith And Dreams of A Mexican President
Tuesday, October 16, 8pmBeckman Auditorium
Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico, will give this Voices of Vision talk, followed by a book signing. Presented in collaboration with Vroman's Bookstore.
Hubbert's Peak: The Question of Coal And Climate Change
Wednesday, October 17, 8pmBeckman Auditorium
David Rutledge, professor of electrical engineering at Caltech, will give this Earnest C. Watson lecture.
Rockapella
Saturday, October 19, 8pmBeckman Auditorium
Student Admission: $5
A blend of tunes and melodies are performed in Rockapella's trademark a cappella style.
California String Quartet
Sunday, October 21, 3:30pmDabney Lounge
The program for this concert will feature Borodin's Quartet No. 2 in D Major. This is a Lagerstrom Chamber Music Concert.
Facing Hard Truths About Energy
Tuesday, October 23, 8pmBeckman Auditorium
Matthew R. Simmons will give this Lauritsen Memorial Lecture.
The Darwin Awards: Giving Their All To Improve The Gene Pool
Thursday, October 25, 8pmBeckman Auditorium
Wendy Northcutt, creator of the Darwin Awards, will give this Voices of Vision talk.
Luma-Theatre of Light
Sunday, October 28, 3:30pmBeckman Auditorium
Student Admission: $5
An original form of performance arts that fuses the genre of a light show with the dynamism of live, human performers.
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Thursday, November 1, 1:30-3pmSFL 328
Are you working on your thesis? Did you know that both paper and electronic copies of theses must be submitted? Are you aware of the formatting requirements for theses? You are encouraged to attend a brief overview of techniques useful in the production and publication of Caltech electronic theses. The session will include tips on: format guidance, Intellectual Property considerations, submitting a thesis and availability issues (who can see it and when). register
Discovery Gate
Thursday, November 1, 3-4:30pmSFL 328
A search/display interface to a multi-database collection of more than 20M structures, 11M reactions and 350M calculated and reported physical properties, that includes both Beilstein and Gmelin. Many of the databases can be searched either individually or as a group. register
Collegiate Inventors Competition Awards
The eleven finalists, who include several teams of two or more students, will present their inventions to a Blue Ribbon Panel of judges. National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductee inventor judges that will be present include: Steve Wozniak (Apple II computer), Ted Hoff (Microprocessor), Don Keck (Optical Fiber), George Smith (CCD Imaging), and Edith Flanigen (Molecular Sieves). The winners will be announced at an evening awards ceremony at 7pm November 1 in Ramo Auditorium. An undergraduate winner and graduate winner will each receive $15,000, and the overall grand prize winner will receive $25,000. more
Olive harvets festival
November 2
Vishten
Friday, November 2, 8pmBeckman Auditorium
Student Admission: $5
Vishten's show recalls the energy of an Acadian "kitchen party" with a musical mixture of French, Irish, and Scottish styles.
Blue Planet-The Seas of Life: Ocean World
Saturday, November 3, 2pmBeckman Auditorium
Student Admission: $5
The screening of this high-definition film will be immediately followed by a discussion led by Alex Gagnon of Caltech's department of chemistry and chemical engineering. This event is part of Caltech's Science Saturdays series.
Isaac Newton, Solomon's Kingdom, and The Origins of Civilization
Wednesday, November 7, 8pmBeckman Auditorium
Jed Buchwald, the Dreyfuss Professor of History at Caltech, will give this Earnest C. Watson Lecture.
Guarneri String Quartet
Sunday, November 11, 3:30pmBeckman Auditorium
50 free tickets for students
This Coleman Chamber Music Concert will include works by Beethoven, Borodin, and Brahms.
Life Sciences and Information Resources
Thursday, November 15, 2-3:30pmCovers various bibliographic databases to consider for interdisciplinary information retrieval related to life sciences, as well as options for automatically updating yourself on new literature on your topic, use of subheadings in PubMed/Medline, and other database functions and features. register
E-Waste Roundups
Thanks for participating in our first e-waste roundup. The roundup was such a success that it will be held the first Wednesday of every month. The Safety Office has arranged with the campus e-waste vendor, E-Cycle Environmental, to pickup at the campus recycling center (north of the Lura parking lot between Wilson Ave. and Michigan Ave.) from 8am to noon.e-waste: Batteries, Cassette Players, Cell Phones, Computers, Copiers, Docking Stations, DVDs, Fax Machines, Flat Screens, Keyboards, Laptops, Mice, Monitors, PDAs, Phones, Printers, Scanners, Servers, Shredders, Stereos, Tape Drives, VCRs
Amnesty International
Sunday, Oct. 21, 6:30pmHuman-rights book discussion group meets at Vroman's Bookstore (695 E. Colorado Blvd in Pasadena), 2nd floor. This month our book is "The Attack" by Yasmina Khadra, a novel about an Arab-Isreali surgeon in Tel Aviv at the crossroads of two troubled societies. Come and join the discussion, even if you haven't read the book.
Thursday, Oct. 25, 7:30pm
Monthly meeting in the CalTech Y (on San
Pasqual between Hill and Holliston, on the south side behind the two
curving walls). We will be discussing the current state of issues on
which we are working and plans for the coming month.
Tuesday, Nov. 13, 7:30pm
Letter-writing in the Athenaeum. The exact
meeting location is TBD (since the Rathskeller is closing), please check our website closer to the date.
Join us for actions on human-rights violations around the world, talk,
and refreshments.