UCLA in the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. Some articles may require registration or a subscription. See more UCLA in the News.
Western U.S. megadrought worst in 1,200 years | Associated Press
“Climate change is changing the baseline conditions toward a drier, gradually drier state in the West and that means the worst-case scenario keeps getting worse,” said study lead author Park Williams, a climate hydrologist at UCLA. “This is right in line with what people were thinking of in the 1900s as a worst-case scenario. But today I think we need to be even preparing for conditions in the future that are far worse than this.” (UCLA’s Daniel Swain was also quoted. Also: USA Today, CNN, CNBC, CBS News, Bloomberg News, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bay Area News Group, ABC News, National Geographic, Guardian, The Hill, Gizmodo, Axios, KABC-TV and KCBS-TV.)
The tangled history of a Nike sneaker | NPR’s “Morning Edition”
The Nike Cortez’s name is a reference to the atrocities of colonization … Even amongst conquistadors, the tactics Cortés used were particularly brutal … “Cortés stands out for the scope of the violence and warfare that he organized and led, making Columbus look tame by comparison,” says [UCLA’s Kevin] Terraciano.
Reassessing ‘The Cosby Show’ | Los Angeles Times
Darnell Hunt, dean of social sciences and professor of social sciences and African American studies at UCLA, said, “I don’t feel we should push the show into a corner because of what happened with Bill Cosby decades after it was off the air. Historically, it’s one of the most important shows that’s ever been on the air for Black people. It also recruited many Black writers who went on to successful careers.”
Rams parade and COVID risks | Los Angeles Times
Because the parade is outdoors, “we know that it’s a lower-risk event. But we also anticipate that there’s a chance that people could be in fairly close proximity,” said Shira Shafir, an associate professor of epidemiology and community health science at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health … If people are shouting and singing, “breath is being exhaled more forcefully, which necessitates greater distance between individuals.”
Can we get smarter about disinformation? | New York Times
The implication was that these voters had somehow been tricked by right-wing messaging to abandon the Democratic Party or, at the very least, its ideals. A 2018 paper from the UCLA Civil Rights Project, for example, argued that Asian American voters who opposed affirmative action had fallen for misinformation.
2,700-year-old figurine revives weighty mystery | New York Times
It was the Egyptian belief that after a person died, Anubis, the jackal-headed god of embalming, led the deceased to the judgment hall of Osiris, where the dead heart was weighed against a feather of Maat, the personification of truth, justice and the cosmic order … under the balance, Ammut the devourer — head of a crocodile, forepart of a lion, hindquarters of a hippopotamus — sat ready to consume the damned. “Balance had to be reached so that your heart didn’t get eaten by dear Ammut,” said Kara Cooney, a professor of Egyptian art and architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Korean TV romances winning over U.S. viewers | Los Angeles Times
At the heart of this emotional response is what Suk-Young Kim, a professor at the school of theater, film and television at UCLA who studies Korean popular culture, calls “mildang”: a Korean-language word for the prevailing rhythms of a romantic encounter, and one that captures why audiences can’t seem to stop watching a romantic K-drama once they’ve begun. “It’s like pulling and being pulled by your potential romantic interest in a very tantalizing and cliffhanger way,” Kim said.
New rules on teaching of race confuse teachers | Washington Post
A study published by UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access surveyed 275 teachers who belong to organizations that address equity and tolerance and found the majority reported efforts to block teaching on issues of race. Some teachers also said their districts were pulling away from previously announced equity efforts.
Why a Hollywood union’s diversity push got complicated | Los Angeles Times
“I’ve been on sets and behind the camera it’s usually completely white,” said Darnell Hunt, professor and dean of social sciences at UCLA. “This is reflective of a culture that has excluded people of color. There are improvements in diversity in front of the camera, but we are not seeing the same effort to diversify below the line.”
Racial bias in retail stores is real | Chicago Tribune
(Commentary by UCLA’s Meirav Furth-Matzkin) But are retail stores really free from racial bias and discrimination? My new study reveals that, at least in the context of product returns, the answer is a resounding no. Retail stores are still dominant sites of race discrimination. For example, Black shoppers are 22% more likely to have their returns rejected, and 9% less likely to receive refunds than are whites returning the same (unopened) products while following identical scripts.
Cal State’s revised plan for student housing | CalMatters
Looking ahead, [UCLA’s Paavo] Monkkonen said the state should better coordinate the student housing construction efforts of California’s public colleges and universities to share financing and other ideas. “This is a very obvious place for knowledge sharing,” he said. “We’re all on the same team.”
The benefits of probiotics | Prevention
To those who study the intersection of nutrition and health, the gut is of particular interest, explains Dana Ellis Hunnes, Ph.D., M.P.H, R.D., an assistant professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and author of “Recipe for Survival.” “Therefore it’s paramount to keep the gut healthy to maintain a strong immune system and overall well-being,” she says.
