Think Tank LA tag:kcet.org,2008-10-20:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41 2009-11-13T18:23:10Z Think Tank L.A. is a slow-boil chronicling of the goings-on at policy centers, research institutions, and the like in and around the Southland – and beyond. The blog covers the tanks themselves, the people who work at them, and the big ideas so often born at tanks. It is written by Jeremy Rosenberg. Movable Type Pro 4.2-en Gold Line Extension: Sneak Peak tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2224 2009-11-12T02:45:33Z 2009-11-13T18:23:10Z TTLA's blogger boarded an MTA Gold Line train earlier this week, part of a group taking on an advance tour of the long-awaited "Eastside Extension." Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51 goldlinebody.jpg

TTLA's blogger boarded an MTA Gold Line train earlier this week, part of a group taking in an advance tour of the six miles of track and eight new stations that make up the long-awaited "Eastside Extension."

TTLA's predictions: The bridge out of Union Station and over the 101 Freeway will be written about on this website; next year's Self-Help Graphics Dia De Los Muertos event at the East L.A. Civic Center will have 50,000 attendees; and the Extension will exceed ridership estimates, barring fare increases and a continuation of nonsensical inter-line ticketing policies.

]]> The new route opens to the public Sunday, November 15. As many as 40,000 people are expected for a celebration at Mariachi Plaza.

(The Plaza's been more or less shut down for way too long. Here's a brief piece from the summer of 2008.)

Journalist Alissa Walker was also on board the gold line advance trip and filed this smart dispatch for the Architect's Newspaper blog.

And ex-L.A. Times transportation beat writer Steve Hymon -- now working for the MTA -- wrote up his observations from a ride he took two weeks ago.

Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user waltarrrrr. It was used under Creative Commons license.

]]> A Different Schuller Daughter tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2196 2009-11-11T15:27:40Z 2009-11-12T18:17:42Z TTLA's blogger spoke back then to a different Schuller daughter, Carol Schuller Milner. The subject? Creation, the new Cathedral pageant she was helming. Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51 crystalcathedralbody.jpg

Patt Morrison's current Asks L.A. Times Q&A features a chat with Sheila Schuller Coleman, the recently ordained pastor who is the co-head of her famous father Robert's Reformed Church in America, headquartered at the Crystal Cathedral.

Four years ago, TTLA's blogger spoke to a different Schuller daughter, Carol Schuller Milner. The subject? Creation, the new Cathedral pageant she was helming.

The resulting O.C. Weekly feature is here.

]]> Here's a brief excerpt:

"Throughout Creation, the word "God" is never spoken.

"Instead, Milner has substituted "the presence." She says the George Lucasian phrasing is intended as a term of intimacy.

"It's also supposed to be a term of endearment," Milner says. "My husband is named Tim, and I probably call him Tim three times a year. Otherwise I call him 'Honey.'"

Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user BK59. It was used under Creative Commons license.

]]> An Ex-Pat's Berlin Years tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2206 2009-11-10T16:04:33Z 2009-11-11T18:38:29Z "The heart of the city is now firmly in the hands of west Germans, who have transformed much of the derelict east into a vibrant playground." -- James Weekes Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51 berlinbody.jpg

James Weekes was TTLA's longtime Berlin Bureau Chief. Now based stateside, Weekes e-mailed us his reflections on what's happened since the Fall of the Wall:

"Twenty years have now passed. The skin heads still roam much of the far eastern parts (just mention Marzahn to any foreigner), now joined by the more menacing Russlanddeutsche contigent who joined the scene thanks to the quirks of Germany's past (Catherine the Great, no less, played a role here). The heart of the city is now firmly in the hands of west Germans, who have transformed much of the derelict east into a vibrant, if somewhat generic, playground. And, after all those years of isolation, it is now even possible to seek refuge from the crushing uniformity of German gloom. New and innovative architecture is sprouting up around the city, unlike the path taken by Manhattan to create its very own Charlotte-on-the-Hudson. Some mistakes have been made, like the current attempt to relive past imperial glory in rebuilding the Stadtschloss on the site of East Germany's former parliament (itself built on the ruins of the Kaiser's former residence), but overall the city has done an admirable job.

]]>
"For an American, the most amazing part is the level of solidarity with which all was accomplished. For all the comments and complaints about the German lack of social graces, they did something this country will never accomplish: form a cohesive and (somewhat) unified national identity, while leaving aside gripes about the tremendous costs involved to raise up a poorer neighbor. To sum it up, the city gave me a decade of entertainment where, had I stayed here, I would be complaining that my Wall Street bonus was down 10% off last year's number. For that I will be ever thankful."

Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user werkunz1. It was used under Creative Commons license.

]]> Tanks on the Fall of The Wall tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2197 2009-11-09T16:12:08Z 2009-11-10T23:12:03Z RAND on RAND, and around the tanksosphere for more commentary on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the come-down of the Berlin Wall. Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51 berlinwalllabody.jpg

Today, November 9, 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

RAND's website notes the occasion by showcasing a publication from the org's RAND Reprints series: "The Cold War, RAND, and the Generation of Knowledge, 1946-1962."

Written by David Hounshell, the volume tells of the think tank's early, Cold War days, prior to a subsequent branching out to working on social issues. The abstract and a free-of-charge download of Hounshell's work are each here.

]]> From the .PDF:

"The Cold Ware had profoundly altered the course of national development in both he United States and the Soviet Union as vast sums were expended to create national security complexes that insinuated themselves into virtually every corner of American and Soviet societies with profound behavioral and psychological consequences. This was especially true in the realms of science and technology where the pursuit of knowledge became increasingly an instrument for ensuring national security. At no time in human history had such abundant resources been devoted to scientific and technological research and development, albeit it the pursuit of largely military interests."

Also available from RAND online: "Morale in West Berlin After 'The Wall,'" by H. Hurwitz.

    And, a few selections from elsewhere in the local and national tankospheres:

  • Reason's post marking the wall's fall begins, "Communism was the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century...."
  • American Enterprise has Newt Gingrich co-authoring a feature.
  • And Brookings has Strobe Talbott on "The Four Who Ended the Cold War."

    • Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user aharvey2k. It was used under Creative Commons license. ]]> Think It Like Beckham tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2187 2009-11-06T02:30:19Z 2009-11-09T18:21:11Z

    A TTLA reader points out that, yeah, we noted Baseball's Think Tanks and Basketball's Think Tanks in a recent post, but asks, "What about Soccer?" Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51 soccerbeckhambody.jpg

    A TTLA reader points out that, yeah, we noted Baseball's Think Tanks and Basketball's Think Tanks in two recent posts, but asks, "What about soccer?"

    That was a rhetorical question, as it turns out, since the same reader notes the publication of Soccernomics, said to be a cross (not the kind you head in, far post low) between Freakonomics and Moneyball.

    ]]> The New York Times' Goal blog had this report last week.

    By the way, the New Republic's Franklin Foer wrote this book a couple years back about the beautiful, global game -- if memory serves, Barca comes out a winner.

    And, if only we'd known, we could have joined in. Pick-up soccer and a Roman think tank.

    P.S. -- Mia Hamm on a Milken panel.

    Photo Credit: The David Beckham image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user pink_fish13. It was used under Creative Commons license.

    ]]>     Happy Birthday, Rachel Rothenthal tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2181 2009-11-05T22:33:53Z 2009-11-06T02:26:58Z A grand dame of the Los Angeles performance art and avant theater scene is scheduled to be feted Saturday night, November 7, at "Rachel Rosenthal's Birthday Bash 83." Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51

    A grand dame of the Los Angeles performance art and avant theater scene is scheduled to be feted Saturday night, November 7, at "Rachel Rosenthal's Birthday Bash 83."

    The fundraising happening will take place at Track 16 Gallery, in Bergamot Station. Ticket information is here.

    The ever-conceptual Rosenthal famously retired from the stage a dozen or so years back, but continues to mentor emerging talent. Saturday's 'Bash' is to serve as the coming out for her new troupe, the TOHUBOHU! Extreme Theater Ensemble. (It's pronounced just like it's spelled, we figure.)

    ]]> Eighty-three mostly L.A.-based visual artists have donated portraits of Rosenthal, which will be auctioned to raise money for TOHUBOHU!, via the umbrella non-profit, Rachel Rosenthal Company. The artworks are by the likes of Mike Kelley, George Herms, two great Saars, Patssi Valdez, and Ed Ruscha.

    Also on the bill: Performance by John Fleck, live music, cake, and champagne. Presumably, no meat for the well known vegan and animal activist.

    Related: Here's what Steven Leigh Morris, the LA Weekly's theater critic, wrote this week about Rosenthal.

    Photo by Annie Liebowitz, courtesy Green Galactic.

    ]]>     Yes Sushi, No Sushi tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2171 2009-11-04T19:50:38Z 2009-11-05T18:38:54Z If it's a 'yes', then consider the "Ocean Friendly Sushi" guide, a wallet-sized foldout offering advice on how to consume sushi in an environmentally-friendly manner. Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51

    Planning on going to Little Tokyo or Sawtelle or your neighborhood convenience store tonight?

    Thinking of ordering Unagi?

    Or Hamachi?

    Consider, then, the "Ocean Friendly Sushi" guide produced by the Blue Ocean Institute, an advocacy org founded by MacArthur winner Carl Safina and author Mercedes Lee.

    ]]> The wallet-sized foldout offers advice on how to best consume sushi, and then, when flipped over, has a simple red / yellow / green key showing which regional varieties and fishing and farming techniques lead to BOI-approved dining.

    Here's an example from the guide, of the red-flagged Kuro Maguro (Atlantic Bluefin Tuna):

    "Highly valued by sushi connoisseurs, Atlantic Bluefin Tuna have been exploited heavily since the 1970s and are extremely depleted. Since 1996, the World Conservation Union has listed the western population of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna as critically endangered and the eastern population as endangered. Bluefin Tuna can also be caught as juveniles and fattened in net pens. This "farming" method prevents the fish from spawning, further reducing Bluefin numbers."

    Here's the word about Sake (Alaska Wild Salmon) a green-lit morsel, complete with a Marine Stewardship Council logo:

    "With good management and a fairly healthy habitat, Wild Alaska Salmon remain abundant. There are concerns, however, that more needs to be done to protect natural spawning habitat and to properly manage hatcheries. This ranking also applies to roe from these fish."

    The Institute (motto: Fresh Inspiration for Ocean Conservation) also has a text messaging service and cell and smart phone apps that do the same as the paper guide.

    Find all the info. here at the Institute's website.

    Illustration copyright and courtesy Richard Neilson, 2009]]> The MAK's 'Polymath' tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2140 2009-10-31T23:49:15Z 2009-11-03T21:20:24Z

    From the press release: "it is fascinating to contemplate the career of little-known Austrian sociologist, Otto Neurath (1888-1945), a polymath whose intellectual and moral compass - forged in the embers of World War I - led him to predict..." Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51 makbody.jpg

    The exhibition, "Otto Neurath. Gypsy Urbanism," opens this Tuesday, November 3, at the MAK Center in West Hollywood. The show runs through the end of January, 2010.

    From the particularly interesting press release:

    ]]>
    "At a time when contemporary culture is dominated by mass media and we are all glued to many screens, it is fascinating to contemplate the career of little-known Austrian sociologist, Otto Neurath (1888-1945), a polymath whose intellectual and moral compass - forged in the embers of World War I - led him to predict the dramatic growth of the knowledge economy and to develop tools for a universal pictorial language. Ever in the interest of advancing participatory forms of democratic exchange, Neurath was by turn an academic, economic minister, housing administrator, museum director and philosopher of science. He collaborated with the leading planners, designers and artists of his time, - among them Adolf Loos, Josef Frank, Le Corbusier, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and key New Deal intellectuals - and his work had a profound influence on a range of disciplines, including architecture, philosophy, economics, urbanism and graphic design."

    The MAK Center is famously located at the Schindler House. The MAK team are also the curators of the ongoing Urban Future Initiative, of which TTLA is a longtime fan.**

    Image courtesy MAK Center

    **Disclosure: TTLA's blogger has, at another gig, booked various UFI fellows to give public presentations.

    ]]>     Basketball's Think Tanks tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2129 2009-10-28T17:27:17Z 2009-10-28T22:46:21Z Here's our starting five -- plus the rest of our rotation -- of think tanks and theorists devoted to the study of pro hoops. Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51

    A wise man asks, "Is there a game tonight?"

    A wiser man replies, "There's always a game."

    With that in mind, while it seems like only last week TTLA noted a handful of baseball-related think tanks, now the Aybars and the Loneys are all done and the Bassy's and Mbengas and their fellow NBA'ers have started another regular season.

    So, the day after the Clips at least held their road opener close, here's a quick starting five of baller-related tanks and theorists:

    ]]>
    • 82games.com, where work like this resides: "College to NBA: Which Schools Deliver?" and "Individual Defensive Ratings."

    • APBRmetrics (motto: The statistical revolution will not be televised"), cousin to baseball's SABRmetrics.

    • Basketball Reference, which is the CHIS of roundball, quantitative not qualitative.

    • John Hollinger and his Player Efficiency Ratings.

    • And, of course, Bill Simmons, thanks in part to his 'Dork Elvis' obsession.

      • The rest of our early season rotation:

    • Via Freakonomics, from Wired, a profile of hoops' Bill James. (R.I.P., Sonics.)

    • "The Economics of Discrimination: Evidence from Basketball."

    • Reason on eminent domain and the would-have-been owner of the New Jersey Nets.

    • Prometheus on "Athletes' Salaries Reflect the Market."

    • And video from Duke University and U.S. Olympic coach Mike Krzyzewski at the Milken Institute's most recent Global Conference.

      • P.S. -- Hall of Fame status to author, thinker, and Foundation leader Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

      Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user K.Luu. It was used under Creative Commons license.

      ]]> $50 Million From Soros For New Tank tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2136 2009-10-26T23:01:48Z 2009-10-28T23:14:24Z George Soros will give $5 million annually for the next ten years to the Institute of New Economic Thinking, a new tank. Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51 George Soros will give $5 million annually for the next ten years to the Institute of New Economic Thinking, a new think tank.

      Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs are among the luminaries affiliated with the org.

      More from the Financial Times is here.

      ]]> From the press release, it would appear that INET will be based in Budapest, with an initial event scheduled for next Spring in England.

      At first glance, the closest INET comes to a direct Calif. connection is A. Michael Spence's time at Stanford. Spence is a fellow at the Hoover Institute.

      And again, the official INET site is here.

      ]]>       Before Balloon Boy tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2093 2009-10-22T00:21:16Z 2009-10-23T21:26:58Z Sixty years before Falcon Heene, thirty-eight years before Baby Jessica fell down a well, came the tragic Southern California story of Kathy Fiscus. Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51 balloonboybody.jpg

      Like many people around the web, our KCET.org colleague Ophelia Chang astutely followed the recent new media circus saga of Balloon Boy & His Reality Show Familiy.

      Sixty years before Falcon Heene, thirty-eight years before Baby Jessica fell down a well, came the tragic Southern California story of Kathy Fiscus.

      ]]> As USC Professor Bill Deverell recounts in an incredibly riveting lecture he's given at the Huntington and Farmlab* and hopefully elsewhere, Fiscus fell into a shaft and died.

      From this death, Deverell posits that live, eyewitness television was born.

      From the 'About the Salon' information provided last April by Deverell to Farmlab for his talk, titled, "Little Girl Lost: The Kathy Fiscus Tragedy and Modern California":

      "On a bright Southern California day sixty years ago, a little girl playing in a field tumbled into an old well. Kathy Fiscus was three years old. Her tragic ordeal caught the attention of the world, as would-be rescuers worked around the clock to save her. Any number of unusual ideas were posed, tried, or discarded in the feverish hours of digging rescue shafts. Hundreds, if not thousands, of spectators came to the site, and television cameras and reporters invented live t.v. from the scene of the accident. This talk will explore the Fiscus tragedy in all its fascinating detail, as well as pose some questions and ideas about how post-World War II California saw itself and was in turn seen by the nation."

      Deverell is Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. If memory serves, his Fiscus lecture is soon to be a book.

      Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user Dave Friedel. It was used under Creative Commons license.

      *Full disclosure: TTLA's blogger was the longtime co-organizer of the Farmlab Public Salon series, including the Deverell program mentioned here.

      ]]>       Baseball's Think Tanks tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2056 2009-10-20T00:56:10Z 2009-10-20T13:42:30Z If original and independent research, statistical analysis, and position papers are among the hallmarks of think tanks, then the national pastime is lousy with tanks. Let's start with Bill James. Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51 dodgersthinkbluebody.jpg

      If original and independent research, statistical analysis, and position papers are among the hallmarks of think tanks, then the national pastime is lousy with 'em.

      Let's start with Bill James, the sort of one-man-RAND of hardball wonks.

      ]]> James -- and certain substances and naked pull-ups -- helped bring the Boston Red Sox two recent World Series titles. In think tank terms, that's like the Center for American Progress getting national health care reform through.

      James and the people he influenced also led to this Michael Lewis book, and of course, to the drafting of Nick Swisher and the Greek God of Walks.

      In addition to James, other key baseball tanks might be said to include: Elias Sports Bureau, Baseball Prospectus, Daniel Okrent and the advent of Rotisserie, and the Society of Baseball Researchers*. On a less quantatative bent, up in Pasadena, there's the Baseball Reliquary.

      Related: Reason's editor-in-chief Matt Welch has written plenty about various nines, including this quick paen to Howie Kendrick and this deeper piece about Cuba.

      Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user jondoeforty1. It was used under Creative Commons license.

      *Disclosure: TTLA's blogger wrote a chapter in this baseball book which is posted at sabr.org.

      ]]>       Milken's Big State Conference tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2062 2009-10-19T18:23:51Z 2009-10-19T18:30:48Z The Milken Institute's 2009 annual State of the State Conference is scheduled to take place Tuesday, October 20. This year's theme is, "California's Road to Recovery." Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51 The Milken Institute's 2009 annual State of the State Conference is scheduled to take place Tuesday, October 20. This year's theme is, "California's Road to Recovery."

      Outgoing LAPD chief William Bratton is listed as the keynote speaker. Politicos past and present including Gavin Newsom, Pete Wilson, and Gray David are among others on the bill.

      For more information about State of the State, see the Milken site.

      ]]>       UCSB Tank on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2055 2009-10-16T00:41:49Z 2009-10-16T19:38:28Z The Palm Center (motto: Blueprints for Sound Public Policy) at UCSB is all over the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51 abstractwaterbody.jpg

      The Palm Center (motto: Blueprints for Sound Public Policy) at UCSB is all over the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which has been much in the news this week.

      Here’s a link to the free-of-charge .pdf download for “How To End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’: A Roadmap of Political, Legal, Regulatory, and Organizational Steps to Equal Treatment.”

      ]]> Here’s a blog post from Palm’s director, political science professor, Aaron Belkin, from earlier this week.

      More about Palm is here.

      Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user Fr Antunes. It was used under Creative Commons license.

      ]]>       Thursday is Great Shake Drill tag:kcet.org,2009:/local/blogs/think_tank_la//41.2032 2009-10-14T13:04:34Z 2009-10-14T19:14:53Z Thursday morning at 10:15am is the "Great California Shake Out," a mass earthquake preparedness and response drill. Jeremy Rosenberg http://kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=51

      Editor's note: For more on how to get ready for the Big One, visit KCET's Earthquake Preparedness resource area.

      Thursday morning at 10:15am is the Great California Shake Out, a mass earthquake preparedness and response drill.

      A handful of past seismic-related research by Calif. tanks and guilds include:

      The image associated with this post was taken by flickr user isotaupe.

      ]]>