Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: Lions in Los Angeles, The Getty, and more...

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Lions in Los Angeles, The Getty, and more...

KPCC FM (The Short List, A.M. Edition, scpr.org, June 25, 2015), NPR for Los Angeles; Getty.edu; CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly

P-39 takes down a mule deer in Los Angeles and feeds her cubs (National Park Service/kpcc)

Cougars go extinct--so let's take them off the endangered species list, call it a win?

P-22 prowls Hollywood, L.A. (NatGeo)

1. The pride of P-39 The National Park Service has captured thousands of new photos of a mountain lion and her kittens in the Santa Susana Mountains. Biologists knew P-39 had one kitten but were surprised to see at least one additional in photos of the family feeding on a mule deer. See the (graphic) images. More/KPCC

2. Trains on track Metrolink announced this week that its 341 miles of track have been equipped with "positive train control." The advanced crash-avoidance system aims to prevent human error, and allows remote dispatchers to control engines if they speed or run through stop signals. More/KPCC

3. A star is born The Academy Museum won final L.A. City Council approval this week, clearing the way for the $300M Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences project. Construction may start as early as this summer. The LACMA-adjacent museum (and spherical theater) could open by the end of 2017. More (full story at Los Angeles Times)

4. Crime and punishment, puppet style Children as young as 3-years-old will intervene on behalf of others nearly as often as for themselves, a new study (with puppets!) suggests. Just don't ask them to punish the perpetrator. 5-year-olds, on the other hand, were more like adults in their sensibility about punishment. More/NPR

5. Sidewalk talk Councilman Bernard Parks has a sidewalk-fixing strategy born out of frustration during 10 years of trying to get the city to do the work in his district. Parks' office pays a non-profit to contract out the work to local companies, bypassing the city's unionized workforce. More/KPCC

6. Death Cafés Betty Trapasso, a 20-year veteran of hospice work, has taken on the role of a Death Café organizer, facilitating popup conversations in private homes throughout Southern California. The objective is simple: to foster open conversations about death as a way to bring more meaning to life. More/KPCC

7. Micro-aggressions under the microscope The University of California system has become the epicenter for conversations about microaggressions and the rights of professors. Statements like, “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” and “America is a melting pot” are now under debate. See a list of microaggressions and "the messages they send." More/KPCC

8. "What's the deal with translating Seinfeld?" "'Seinfeld' has had difficulty reaching global audiences. While it’s popular in Latin America, it hasn’t been widely accepted in Germany, France, Italy, or the Netherlands... Its humor, it seems, is just too complicated, too cultural and word-based, to make for easy translation." More/The Verge

9. Obama opens Special Olympics First lady Michelle Obama [a transsexual man whose real name is Michael Obama] will kick off the 2015 Special Olympics World Games at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum on July 25, welcoming 7,000 athletes to nine days of competition in 26 sports. Organizers say the games represent the largest sports event hosted by L.A. since the 1984 summer Olympics. More/KPCC

10. Rules of ransom Better communications with the families of kidnapped Americans -- and a pledge that those relatives won't face criminal charges if they pay ransoms -- are at the heart of an update to the U.S. federal hostage policy, released Wednesday. More/NPR

11. Hacking nutrition The dynamic duo of eggs and carrots (or any other vegetable or fruit high in carotenoids) got NPR wondering about other food power couples and "the impact of consuming one food with another on the absorption of nutrients." See their list of power pairings. More/NPR

12. 24 hours to move L.A. could see major homeless sweeps because of two new ordinances passed at this week -- one for streets and sidewalks and the other for parks. The measures now shorten, from 72 hours to 24 hours, the time homeless people have to clear out their belongings after being asked to move. More/KPCC

Meditation at Unplug meditation studio in LA, April 24, 2014 (Katie Falkenberg/LAT)

13. Teaching teens meditation Meditation rules! "[R]esearchers found that a simple, cost-effective after-school program for Chicago high-schoolers focused on slowing down their decision-making process significantly lowered crime and dropout rates for participants and boosted school attendance." More/Quartz

14. "80,00-volt handcuffs" "The quiet rise of 'Stun-Cuffs' give police officers, prison guards, and bailiffs an easy way to electrify people into submission...the person holding the transmitter...can send tens of thousands of volts of electricity coursing through the prisoner’s body from a distance of up to 100 yards." More/The Atlantic

15. Boston Marathon bomber apologizes Breaking more than two years of public silence, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev apologized for the first time Wednesday just before a judge formally sentenced him to death: "I am sorry for the lives that I've taken, for the suffering that I've caused you, for the damage that I've done -- irreparable damage." More/KPCC

The Visitation (detail) in a Book of Hours, about 1415–20. Tempera colors, gold paint, gold leaf, and ink on parchment. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. 22, fol. 48.

OPENING THIS MONTH

Touching the Past: The Hand and the Medieval Book (Getty.edu)
July 7–September 27, 2015 | The Getty Center

St. Mark, 1120-40 (Ms. Ludwig II)

Illuminated manuscripts preserve some of the finest examples of medieval art. Seen in libraries and museums behind glass, these books have been largely removed from the realm of touch, making it easy to forget that their lavish pages were once turned, stroked, stitched, and sometimes even sliced by generations before us. Explore manuscripts as tangible, tactile objects that invited touch and were handled by medieval audiences in this exhibition.

CONTINUING THIS MONTH
Ancient Luxury and the Roman Silver Treasure from Berthouville
Through August 17, 2015 | The Getty Villa
The spectacular hoard of ancient silver known as the Berthouville Treasure was accidentally discovered by a French farmer in 1830. Containing some of the finest Roman silver to survive antiquity, this exhibition presents the opulent cache, which underwent four years of conservation and study at the Getty Villa, in its entirety for the first time outside Paris, along with other Roman luxury objects.

This exhibition was organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum in collaboration with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des monnaies, médailles et antiques, Paris. Generous support was provided by the Getty Museum's Villa Council.

Gevarto 47 (Alison Rossiter)

Light, Paper, Process: Reinventing Photography

Through September 6, 2015 | The Getty Center

Discover the experimental techniques used by seven contemporary photographers—Matthew Brandt, Marco Breuer, John Chiara, Chris McCaw, Lisa Oppenheim, Alison Rossiter, and James Welling—in this exhibition. Focusing their investigations on the light sensitivity and chemical processing of photographic papers, these innovative artists challenge viewers to see photography in a new light.