Latest news with #CalTech
New York Times
05-08-2025
- Science
- New York Times
Fly Fans Won't Keep Bugs From Crashing Your Barbecue. But Here's What You Can Do.
If these fans do work, the radius for efficacy is extremely limited. While dining outdoors with a Fly Fan, my colleague Rose Maura Lorre saw a fly land on the corner of a pack of hot dog buns. She got out a tape measure and found that the distance between the outer edge of the fan's blades and the fly's location was about 8 or 9 inches. Rose Maura Lorre/NYT Wirecutter Wirecutter bought a set of four fans for $49.99, a not-insignificant amount of money. I used the fly fans during some lake-adjacent dining with my colleague Rose Maura Lorre, and then I left two fans with her to continue testing. We found that even though the area directly under the fan's blades might be fly-free, you need to set up too many of them to make a difference across a table that seats six people. In fact, based on my experience, you'd probably want at least eight of these fans for a family of four. 'If I'm serving a family-style meal, the table top will already be crowded with plates, glasses and dishware,' Rose said. 'Adding three or four Fly Away fans to that clutter, with everyone passing dishes or reaching for condiments, I just think it could turn comical really fast.' Rose went so far as to measure the distance between the edge of the fan blade and the spot where she saw an offending critter alight on her table; it was about 8.5 inches. These fans have several positive aspects: They're quiet and portable, and they don't use chemical pest control. But all two of the bug researchers I contacted were dubious about the efficacy of fly fans. The theory is that a fly fan disrupts the visual and olfactory senses of flies, and that prevents them from wanting to land on the delicious-smelling food. But this may be only a temporary blocker, Michael 'Fly Man' Dickinson, who researches how flies fly at CalTech, said in a video interview. The air movement generated by the fly fan isn't fast enough to throw them off-course. 'Flies are attracted to food,' Changlu Wang, whose research at Rutgers University focuses on developing urban pest-management technologies, explained in an email. 'It is hard to prevent them [from] coming when you have attractive food around.' Even if the flies are initially deterred, their motivation to access the yummies is likely stronger than the spinning obstacle. And when flies do manage to land on your burger, the slowly circulating blades may actually stop them from taking off again. 'Flies can only fly so fast, so if they know there's going to be headwinds that they can't deal with, they won't take off,' Dickinson explained. The experts I consulted aren't aware of a peer-reviewed scientific study that verifies a fly fan's efficacy, and my observed results were anecdotal.
Los Angeles Times
08-07-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
CalTech settles class-action lawsuit and will drop controversial online ‘boot camp' partner
CalTech said Monday that it would end its relationship with an e-learning company after a class-action lawsuit alleged the firm and the university misrepresented a cybersecurity boot camp and misled students by suggesting the course had close ties to the Pasadena campus and instructors, even though the connection was minimal. In an email to the CalTech community, President Thomas F. Rosenbaum and Provost David A. Tirrell said the university would halt its connection to the firm Simplilearn after current courses finish in November. They also said CalTech would launch a faculty oversight committee for other learning programs under its Center for Technology and Management Education, which offers dozens of courses for professionals, to 'guide and inform future initiatives' and 'advise on strategy, curriculum, and education programming.' The move by one of the nation's most prestigious universities was a significant win for students and advocates who have made complaints nationwide over colleges lending their names to online courses that have few ties to campus faculty or typical university oversight. Online university programs have grown by the hundreds since 2011, when the Education Department released guidelines that allowed revenue sharing among universities and third-party course providers to proliferate, prompting backlash and scrutiny. Last year, the California state auditor cited UC, saying it made 'limited use of online program management firms' yet should have 'increased oversight' of them. Two states, Ohio and Minnesota, have passed laws regulating 'online program managers' that partner with universities. New America, a liberal think tank that has tracked the growth of such courses, wrote in a recent report that the quality of online program managers 'can be questionable. Students have complained of low-quality instruction and programs that do not fulfill the promises made by recruiters.' Students can often earn certificates issued by the course providers and 'graduate deep in debt, only to find their credential carries little or no weight in the job market, or that they lack the skills needed for their chosen career,' the New America analysis, published last month, said. The Caltech Cybersecurity Bootcamp, which each year enrolled roughly 500 people across eight classes, became the center of a lawsuit in 2023 after a student who had enrolled three years earlier said the university used its name recognition to sell classes taught by people unaffiliated or loosely affiliated with the CalTech brand. Named plaintiff and former student Elva Lopez filed the suit in state court in San Francisco before it was approved as a class-action legal proceeding. She alleged the university and Simplilearn violated consumer-protection laws and that the program she enrolled was part of CalTech 'in name only.' She said she took out $14,000 in loans for classes where one instuctor was someone whose credentials included graduating from the same program. As part of the settlement they signed last week and released Monday, CalTech and Simplilearn agreed to not 'hire or use boot camp instructors whose only credentials for teaching cybersecurity are that they have graduated from a cybersecurity boot camp.' They also said they wouldn't 'represent that boot camp students have access to CalTech services that they do not have access to,' create a 'directory page listing all current boot camp instructors and their affiliation,' and require Simplilearn recruiters to use Simpilearn email addresses. The settlement, which still needs judicial approval, also said Simplilearn would refund tuition to 263 people who paid a total of $2.4 million. On top of legal fees, the settlement said Simplilearn would pay $340,000 and Caltech $60,000 to be distributed to class members. A spokesperson for Simplilearn did not respond to a request for comment. While some parts of the agreement have little practical effect after CalTech's Monday announcement that the partnership would soon end, a lawyer who represented the plaintiffs said it was a 'great playbook' for other schools with similar programs. 'This settlement provides meaningful relief to Elva Lopez and other CalTech bootcamp participants. It achieves their goals of accountability and transparency for students who attended the Caltech Cybersecurity Bootcamp or will in the future,' said attorney Eric Rothschild of the National Student Legal Defense Network. 'The changes CalTech and Simplilearn agreed to are a great playbook for other schools offering these kinds of programs to follow.' While it is distancing itself from Simplilearn, CalTech said it still prided itself on its other professional and executive-level programs under the Center for Technology and Management Education. Each year, the center 'administers more than 40 distinct extended education programs, which are available as open-enrollment courses for individuals as well as customized certification programs developed in collaboration with corporate partners,' including ARAMCO, Boeing, John Deere, NASA, Northrop Grumman, and Toshiba, Rosenbaum and Tirrell wrote Monday. The programs, they said, have 'a strong reputation for delivering certification programs and training that enhance professional skill-sets and prepare the workforce to meet the increasingly complex technological demands of modern industry.'
Daily Mail
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
How Albert Einstein found refuge from the Nazis in NORFOLK: Jewish physicist's letter reveals what he got up to during stay in log cabin amid 'plans for my assassination'
A fascinating letter by Albert Einstein revealing how he was enjoying the 'enviable solitude' of Norfolk while in hiding from the Nazis has emerged 92 years on. The genius mathematician first fled to Belgium after Adolf Hitler came to power and Jewish people began to be targeted. Although he had police protection, Einstein was still deemed under threat there, so he travelled by boat to Dover and was then driven to the Norfolk coast. His alien new surroundings as a guest of Conservative MP Oliver Locker-Lampson consisted of a tiny 9m sq hut consisting of a single room. But despite the lack of luxury in the cabin on Roughton Heath, near Cromer, Einstein informed son Eduard that he was enjoying his new surroundings and was spending most of the time doing maths. He added that, whenever he was cold, he would run around outside to warm up. Einstein started his letter to his son by confiding in him that he was aware of 'plans for my assassination'. He then cuttingly described the Nazi takeover of Germany as 'a revolution of the stupid against the rational'. Einstein added with gallows humour: 'It's a shame that an old fellow like me cannot have his peace and quiet. 'When you're dead, you don't get to enjoy it, unfortunately.' Einstein was on a visiting professorship at the California Institute of Technology CalTech the Nazis assumed power in Germany early in 1933. He was immediately personally targeted, with several raids on his flat and country house. When he landed in Antwerp on his return to Europe on March 28 he formally renounced his German citizenship. He remained in Belgium over the summer, but the threat of violence from the Nazis increased, particularly after the assassination of the philosopher and anti-Nazi figurehead Theodor Lessing in Czechoslovakia in August 1933. In early September, Einstein secretly escaped to England, where he was given shelter by Locker-Lampson. Although his whereabouts were intended to be secret, photographs of Einstein, guarded by locals with shotguns, were published in the newspapers. He received a small number of visitors at Roughton, including the sculptor Jacob Epstein who he sat for for a bust. On October 7, Einstein boarded a ship for the US, where he had been offered a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He never returned to Europe before his death in 1955. The two-page letter in German, signed 'Papa' and sent from Cromer on September 23, 1933, reads: 'Times have been rather turbulent since my last letter. 'It was actually reported in the newspapers that there were plans for my assassination. 'As a result my police protection in Belgium was increased so much that I did not want to bother any more. 'So for more than three weeks now I have been near the English coast in enviable solitude. 'My little house, in which I live alone, has an area of roughly 9 m2 and consists of a single room. 'Outside the door you have immediate access to Mother Nature. I spend most of the time doing mathematics and run around outside when I get cold.' The letter, which remained in the Einstein family until 2001, is now being sold by a private collector at London-based auctioneers Christie's with a £20,000-£25,000 estimate. The auctioneers say this is one of a very small number of letters Einstein wrote while temporarily resident in England. Thomas Venning, books and manuscripts specialist at Christie's, said: 'It's a lovely example of Einstein's sense of humour, even in the most stressful possible circumstances. 'He is at serious risk of being assassinated by the Nazis, but still gets in a joke about how you get plenty of peace and quiet when you're dead, but sadly don't get to enjoy it. 'His opposition to the Nazis was significant: the line in the letter about the victory of Nazism being the 'revolution of the stupid against the rational' was one that he reused in later years, and the Nazis knew that his international prominence and unstinting criticism of them was a threat. 'The other theme in the letter is his love of peace and quiet and his love of nature: in some ways being stuck in the middle of nowhere in a one-room that is quite a dream scenario for Einstein. 'He really asked nothing better than being left alone to think about science, with the minimum of creature comforts. 'Of course, there is something slightly incongruous about a world-famous figure like Einstein hiding out in a hut in the Norfolk countryside, and there is something slightly Dad's Army-like about the photographs of him sitting outside his hut, guarded by locals with shotguns. 'The fact that these were published in the British press at the time somewhat reduced the effectiveness of his 'top secret' hideaway.' The sale takes place on July 9.
MTV Lebanon
18-02-2025
- Science
- MTV Lebanon
Groundbreaking Discovery on Mars Could Be Proof of Life
New evidence of rippling water on Mars could change our understanding of the planet's history. Planetary astronomers and geologists studying Mars have known for decades that water was once present on the planet. The Red Planet is now known as a dusty and cold world, but billions of years ago water flowed on the planet's surface. Its atmosphere thinned over time, causing water to evaporate. Scientists believe this was likely due to the planet losing its magnetic field which left it vulnerable to solar radiation, causing the planet's water to evaporate into space. The new discovery adds further context to the ongoing debate about the form Martian water took and how long it lasted. Some models suggest that any liquid water on the Martian surface would have been covered by sheets of ice before it vanished into the atmosphere. However, the new findings suggest a different scenario that is very exciting as the search for alien life continues. Pictures taken by NASA's Curiosity rover show patterns known as wave ripples. They're small structures that resemble ridges that form along the shores of lakebeds, suggesting that liquid water must have flowed across the planet's surface at some point in its history. The ripples were found in two separate lakebeds in Gale Crater, which Curiosity has been exploring since August 2012. Both dry lakebeds likely formed around 3.7 billion years ago, suggesting that the Martian atmosphere was both dense and warm enough to support liquid water for much longer than previously thought. Why is this so exciting? Because life as we know it needs water to thrive and evolve and its therefore a key component in searching for evidence of ancient life on Mars. If living organisms were ever present on Mars, the new findings indicate they had a longer window in which they could have evolved. The study's first author, sedimentologist at CalTech, Claire Mondro, said: "Extending the length of time that liquid water was present extends the possibilities for microbial habitability later into Mars's history.' Mondro added: 'The shape of the ripples could only have been formed under water that was open to the atmosphere and acted upon by wind.' The study was published in the journal Science Advances. Scientists recently discovered more about the origins of Marsquakes and NASA's Curiosity rover snapped pictures of iridescent twilight clouds in the Martian sky.
The Guardian
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Sidelined: The QB and Me review – hot cheerleader meets star quarterback movie is streaming-age bubblegum
Dallas (Siena Agudong) is a hot cheerleader with dreams of auditioning for CalTech. Drayton (Noah Beck) is a cute star quarterback whose dad is adamant he follow in his footsteps and attend his alma mater with a football scholarship. Surely this very well-matched chalk and chalk couple will never overcome their complete lack of differences and get together? Only time will tell. A slickly made, nicely shot high-school movie adapted from a Wattpad story with an Instagram-ready cast, the biggest surprise here is James Van Der Beek popping up in a thankless role as the humourless dad. We know from The Rules of Attraction and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 that Van Der Beek's tastes are on the edgier side, but don't tune in if you're expecting any subversive humour; this is a straightforward and edge-free romance for younger teens. The script is laden with examples of what execs will be hoping is authentic Gen Z argot, though lines such as 'I am sick and tired of your main character energy' sound like they've been plucked from A Handy Guide to Understanding Your Teen. Visually the film has a bit more to offer, effortlessly adopting the onscreen grammar of countless high-school movies before it, so we get all the slow-motion corridor walks and flawlessly executed cheer-squad routines we could hope for. It's all pleasant enough, in a glossy, wallpapery kind of way, but it's hard to get caught up in a plot with so few surprises and dialogue so relentlessly sincere. Frank Lloyd Wright famously described television as chewing gum for the eyes, but what's less discussed is that Henri Peyre, professor of French at Yale University, coined a similar phrase a little earlier in 1944, in relation to cinema: 'They dutifully chew their gum to keep from yawning, while absorbing the chewing gum for the eyes of the movies.' This applies here: in the era of streaming, there's a vast amount of ocular movie gum being pumped out, including this little piece. That's not even necessarily a bad thing: who doesn't love a stick of bubblegum every now and then? Still, we cannot live on gum alone – it's hard not to long for the bonafide hits of the high school genre, which manage to be be both bubblegumesque and have a flavour that lasts. Sidelined: The QB and Me is on digital platforms from 17 February.
