Hydras can regenerate their heads and feet—and that's good, somehow

UC Irvine finishes [sequencing] genome vital to improving people’s health (Gary Robbins; OC Reg’s ScienceDude)

An international team of researchers led by UC Irvine is today publishing the genome of the Hydra, a primitive organism that’s been important in medical research since the 1740s, when Abraham Trembley discovered that the freshwater polyp could regenerate its head and feet.

Researchers found that the Hydra, which is less than a half-inch tall, has roughly as many genes as humans (about 24,000) and that some of its genes are linked to two of the most dreaded illnesses in humans — Huntington’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

The genome is being published online today in Nature, one of the world’s most influential scientific journals.

“This could potentially open up Hydra as a model system for Irvine researchers,” said Rob Steele, chairman of biological chemistry at Irvine and one of the leaders of UCI’s first major sequencing effort….(Continued)

The always-fabulous OC Reg readership has already commented on the news. For instance, "BoogerBoy" says:

Yay for science! Old timer’s disease just weirds me out....

Good Lord. It's too bad BB can't regenerate his head. —Oh yeah. It would be the same head, wouldn't it? Never mind.

SOCCCD HEAD REGENERATION:

I haven't heard anything new about the SOCCCD's efforts to regenerate, or replace, its Chancellor. [See 2nd comment below.] Now, if a professional consultant does the hiring, then there's no need for a search committee, right? One of the reasons that one might be assured that everything's on the up and up is that the right (honest) people are on the search committee. And groups can hold each other in check.

I'm not sure what stays and what goes now that we're taking the consultant route. [See below.] But can Don Wagner continue with his assurances that the process will be transparent and honest, etc., if it's being done by some professional organization?

Do you have any ideas on the matter? [See first comment below.]

UPDATE:

Board Policy 4011.6 ("employment procedure for chancellor”) can be found here at the district website (a pdf file) or HERE on this blogsite (as a blog post).

The term “consultant” is mentioned only once in the policy, in the section concerning “recruitment”:

SECTION II: RECRUITMENT
. . .
2. The Board of Trustees may consider employment of a professional consultant to assist with the Chancellor search process.
. . .

It seems to me that the policy is not explicit about the consultant’s relationship to the rest of the process defined by 4011.6. I suppose that the policy implies that the consultant would assist during the recruitment process only since consultants are mentioned only in the "recruitment" section and since the rest of the policy outlines a formal process involving such entities as the search committee, etc., that mentions no role, or possible role, for a consultant. <END UPDATE>

Comments:

Anonymous‬ said...
Roy, you've provided links to the chancellor hire policy. Read it. The consultant helps with the job description and recruiting, and brings objectivity to the process. But the policy is clear that the committee does the screening once the search is completed and the board does the hiring. The consultant doesn't do any hiring.
12:36 AM, March 15, 2010

Anonymous said...
Apparently the *special* meeting last week was quite the heated affair, with Fuentes coming down hard on Padberg at every turn. He is not a happy camper at the moment.
8:06 AM

Anonymous said...
The hiring policy remains intact and will be implemented under the oversight of a consultant who will be charged with keeping Raghu out of manipulating or stalling the process. The hiring of a consultant is an excellent move and happens routinely in hiring college presidents in single college districts as well as chancellors in mutlicollege districts.
9:23 AM

Anonymous said...
Consultants are routinely hired to oversee important search processes such as the hiring of a chancellor. This is a GOOD thing. The consultant will oversee the entire process ensuring that the entire policy is implemented in a fair and objective manner. These are companies that specialize in implementing hiring procedures across the state. Go online and google these companies for a clearer picture of what they do. This is a sign that the board majority wants to ensure a fair and open process. Without a consultant, Raghu and Fuentes would make sure that no one is hired. Fuentes has made it public and clear that he is going to bring Mathur back the minute the board changes. If there is no permenant chancellor in place when the board changes, Fuentes will bring Mathur back. The board majority is doing everything they can to make sure there is a permenant chancellor in place, hired through a fair and open process. This is the first great thing that has happened in the district for a long time. Let's get on board.
3:37 PM

Anonymous said...
Baron: Did they film the Special Meeting for our entertainment?
4:16 PM

B. von Traven said...
The special meeting was, I fear, a closed session. Hence there will be no record, aside from the memories of those who attended. And those are feeble. Feel free to put on puppet shows of what likely occurred. Fuentes is the ugly puppet in the corner.
10:53 PM

Anonymous said...
The meeting was public and recorded. It'll be on the district's web site. And well worth the watching.
11:04 PM

B. von Traven said...
If video will be made available, it will appear here. Usually, it takes 4 or 5 days (the meeting was 4 days ago).
12:15 AM, March 16, 2010

The last of the White Stripes

Seven or eight years ago I got to know this cute--and smart--girl who was the part-time secretary for another school. Her office was just down the hall. She had ambitions. And ambivalence.

One day we were talking about music and, the next day, she handed me a CD she had burned, something called "Elephant." "You'll love this," she said.

Well, she was right. Blew me away.

Jack and Meg don't seem to be together anymore. I think their little band--somehow that seems like the wrong word--is no more. But already it seems clear that Jack needs to play with Meg, needs that simple drumming, her peculiar presence, and her shy charms.

Was some kinda muse, I think. With her, he seemed always hungry, desperate, bizarre. Now, he's just a musician. Well, maybe he's more. But that old magic can be no more, I think. Strikes once, if you're lucky. Then no more. May as well go home and watch TV.

Stupid Texans rewriting history for schoolchildren everywhere

Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change (New York Times)

After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.
. . .
The board, whose members are elected, has influence beyond Texas because the state is one of the largest buyers of textbooks….
. . .
Since January, Republicans on the board have passed more than 100 amendments to the 120-page curriculum standards affecting history, sociology and economics courses from elementary to high school. The standards were proposed by a panel of teachers.

“We are adding balance,” said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. “History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left.”
. . .
Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state’s large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, “They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”

… There were no historians, sociologists or economists consulted at the meetings, though some members of the conservative bloc held themselves out as experts on certain topics.
. . .
“I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state,” said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. “I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.”
. . .
Dr. McLeroy, a dentist by training, pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the nonviolent approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also made sure that textbooks would mention the votes in Congress on civil rights legislation, which Republicans supported.
. . .
…Conservatives passed one amendment, for instance, requiring that the history of McCarthyism include “how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government.” The Venona papers were transcripts of some 3,000 communications between the Soviet Union and its agents in the United States.

Mavis B. Knight, a Democrat from Dallas, introduced an amendment requiring that students study the reasons “the founding fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring the government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion above all others.”

It was defeated on a party-line vote.
. . .
Even the course on world history did not escape the board’s scalpel.

Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was founded on Christian beliefs, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”)
. . .
“The Enlightenment was not the only philosophy on which these revolutions were based,” Ms. Dunbar said.

U. of California Must Refund $38-Million in Fees to Students, Judge Rules (Chronicle of Higher Ed)

The University of California must pay a total of $38-million to thousands of former students who say the university illegally raised their fees after it had promised not to do so, a judge ruled on Wednesday…. (continued)

Comments:

Anonymous said... ~ Oh, how I hate this. —ES ~ 12:54 PM, March 13, 2010

B. von Traven said... ~ I think that, when the likes of Texans and Rush Limbaugh threaten to separate from the rest of the country, we should immediately take 'em up on it.
I know some great people from Texas. Gotta remember that, I guess. ~ 4:53 PM

Anonymous said... ~ I lived in Texas for a while. Even had a boyfriend with a gun rack in his truck. He was not a redneck – the family was wealthy and had a big ranch we used to go hunting and stuff on...anyway, trivia. Still have cousins in Texas. They are pretty conservative, so I have no idea what they would think of this. 2/3 of my Face Book friends are Texans; I should post a link to the article and see what comments come up... ~ 5:54 PM

Anonymous said... ~ Ok, I put up the link on FB – now to see what the Texans say. I bet they like it. – ES ~ 5:57 PM

Anonymous said... ~ One thumbs-up already, but that was from a Californian...
– ES ~ 6:12 PM

Anonymous said... ~ This is pretty much what I expected (and now my brain hurts): –Lisa Jordan
Texas Conservatives Win Vote on Textbook Standards - NYTimes.com
www.nytimes.com
Because Texas is a large buyer of textbooks, the changes approved by the school board will have a broad influence.
31 minutes ago · Comment ·

Jamie Rudolph likes this.

Lisa Jordan
I'm not sure this is all good...
15 minutes ago ·

Jamie Rudolph
"stressing the superiority of American capitalism and questioning the Founding Fathers... See More’ commitment to a purely secular government" as the article says they want to do is good. Capitalism is the most prosperous economic model, America has been superior in freedom and prosperity and after just finishing "The 500 Year Leap" a history of the founding of our country, I can tell you that the majority of our founding fathers believed that America had to keep a focus on God and Godly principles in governing. ~ 6:31 PM

B. von Traven said... ~ Academia's grip on the culture is weakening. No longer respected, often hated, the professorate can yammer all they want, but the mob is making its move to grab the steering wheel. It thinks it has a destination. Silly me. Like I could ever do a thing about it. I'm beginning to wonder if I would if I could. ~ 7:22 PM

Quisling boy pulls papers

Well, the always mediocre Matthew Cunningham of Red County/OC reports that Dave Lang has pulled those dang papers afterall:

OC Treasurer Candidate Field Keeps Growing

Today, South Coast [sic] Community College District Trustee David Lang pulled candidate papers [for OC Treasurer]. A source had told me Lang, who withstood a faculty union challenger to his 2008 re-election, had ambitions for the OC Treasurer-Tax Collector seat, and the source was correct. Lang is closely allied with fellow SOCCCD Trustee and former OC GOP Chairman Tom Fuentes. That should prove immensely helpful to the relatively unknown Lang, since Tom Fuentes' has a wide and deep network he's built over the course of 40 years.

About five years ago, after consistently opposing Raghu Mathur (since 1996), Lang suddenly did an about face, becoming a staunch Mathur supporter. His closest faculty friends confronted him, asking him what he was up to. He never seemed to have an answer. He smiled his insipid smile.

Soon thereafter, the word was out that Lang had hooked up with Fuentes, who, of course, had embraced Mathur from the very beginning--in 2000, if not earlier. So Lang would support Mathur, and Fuentes would further Lang's political ambitions, which (according to the story) included securing the OC Treasurer/Tax Collector gig.

Nevertheless, for the election of 2006, Fuentes worked to get Chriss Street elected as OC Treasurer; no doubt Fuentes purred into Lang's ear: "not yet, my son." Street was elected, but, right away, his Fruehauf  Trucking troubles surfaced, and he commenced spending extravagant bucks on his County digs.

It soon became clear that he was a typical pal-o'-Fuentes: corrupt, unprincipled, self-serving.

So now Street's out. Will Tom finally come through for Lang?

Trustees decide to hire a consultant for the Chancellor search

Consultant to find Chancellor Raghu Mathur replacement (OC Reg)

South Orange County Community College District trustees voted in a special meeting Thursday night to hire a consultant to aid in the search for a new chancellor.

Chancellor Raghu Mathur will leave the district June 30, after nearly eight years at the helm of both Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges. Mathur's departure was announced in late January after Mathur and trustees reached an agreement to terminate his contract early.

Consultants will be interviewed at the March 25 board meeting, SOCCCD spokeswoman Tracy Daly said.

Mathur has alleged his early departure is the result of being forced out by board president Don Wagner over the creation of a new dean position at Irvine Valley College.

The IVC Tortoises

Here’s an update on the effort to change IVC’s mascot, the Laser.

I communicated with a reliable source who informs me that the process continues but has taken longer than expected for a variety of reasons. My source assures me that the people involved in this process are doing everything they can to avoid the “lame,” the “racist,” and the “illegal.” (My source is funny.)

It is better to do things right, deep throat says, than to do things quickly.

Students—including student government—are the chief players in the process. So, there you go.

Apparently, the team’s goal is to put the matter to a vote right after Spring Break, if possible. Students will be presented with many nominations.

Bobcats, anyone? Aphids?

Rinos!

Street of no return?

Supervisors: Strip Chriss Street’s investment powers (OC Reg)

(*The article has been updated: "Orange County Treasurer Chriss Street will not seek reelection and has recommended that supervisors “temporarily suspend” his investment authority while he weighs his legal options." Among other things, this means that the deadline for pulling papers to run for Treasurer has now moved to the 17th [Wednesday].)

Orange County supervisors are moving forward with a plan to suspend embattled Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street’s authority to invest county funds, Supervisor Bill Campbell said late Thursday.

The move comes a week after a federal judge ruled that Street breached his fiduciary duty when he attempted to build an empire instead of protecting the assets of a trust he was hired to liquidate. He was ordered to pay more than $7 million in damages to the End of the Road Trust.

Campbell and board Chairwoman Janet Nguyen are sponsoring an emergency agenda item that calls for transferring Street’s investment authority to county Chief Financial Officer Bob Franz.

“We just don’t believe it’s proper to have someone found guilty in court of breaching his fiduciary duty to be responsible for managing the county’s investment funds,” Campbell said. “It’s our obligation to protect the assets and reputation of the county’s investment pool.”

All four county supervisors would have to approve the emergency action, which would remove Street’s authority 15 days after they vote.

Meanwhile, Street has not responded to calls for his resignation. Supervisor John Moorlach, his predecessor as Orange County treasurer who endorsed his election bid in 2006 but who later became one of his most vocal critics, reiterated earlier calls for his resignation the day U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Richard M. Neiter handed down his decision last week.

Campbell said he met with Street Monday and asked for his resignation. On Tuesday, Street’s lawyer Phil Greer* called Campbell to say that Street would propose suspending his investment authority instead. Campbell was expecting a memo from Street memorializing that position, but still hadn’t seen it late Thursday.
. . .
It’s still unclear whether Street will run for reelection. The filing deadline is today, and while he paid his $1,730.98 filing fee the same day Neiter handed down his judgement in the civil case, Street still hasn’t completed the paperwork required to run. The political blog Red County published an unattributed report this week that Street doesn’t intend to stay in the race, but so far he’s been silent on the issue.

It’s also unclear whether Street will appeal the ruling. On Thursday, Greer said they were “looking at the options” and would likely have an announcement today or Monday….

*Recently, Greer has represented Trustee John Williams and Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur.