Uc Riverside

James Cameron's science-fiction blockbuster "Avatar" takes place in 2154 on the lush moon Pandora. To help make the set believable, Jodie Holt, chairwoman of the department of botany and plant sciences at UC Riverside, was approached to consult on the film's plant life, as well as how a botanist would study such flora. Holt, a plant physiologist, talked about her involvement in the film and the "Pandorapedia," a detailed catalog of the moon's features, including its many plants. How did you become involved in the film?

Elected student leaders at UC Berkeley passed a resolution early Thursday that urged the UC system to divest from companies said to profit from anti-Palestinian Israeli policies. The controversial resolution was passed in the student government's Senate after being debated Wednesday night and into the morning. The vote was 11 in favor and 9 opposed, according to the Daily Californian student newspaper. The resolution calls for the UC system to end investments in such companies as Caterpillar and General Electric that provide technology, weapons or other products that the Israeli military uses in the Palestinian territories.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers took part in a massive sweep against the leadership of Riverside's most notorious gang Wednesday, making 50 arrests and confiscating armor-piercing bullets, assault rifles, knives and two caged rattlesnakes. "The weapons you see are a small sample of what is out there on the street," said Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach, standing by a table displaying guns, machetes and bullets at a Riverside news conference. "The gangs don't run the streets, the citizens do."

The 23-year-old Chinese woman who was a graduate student at Boston University and the third victim killed in the Boston Marathon bombings was also a former UC Riverside Extension student, according to school officials. Jane Close Conoley, the interim chancellor for the university, said in a statement Wednesday that Lu Lingzi was a visiting student from China's Beijing Institute of Technology. Lu had studied business and math through UCR Extension -- a for-credit program -- as part of her 2010 study abroad semester before moving to Boston, Conoley said.

at UC Riverside 69, Long Beach State 67 (OT): Larry Gurganious' lay-in with 1.3 seconds left in overtime gave the Highlanders (7-6, 1-0 Big West) the victory over the 49ers (6-8, 0-1). at UC Irvine 57, UC Santa Barbara 55: Sophomore forward Eric Wise made eight of 11 points and scored 21 points to lead the Anteaters (7-6, 1-0 Big West) over the Gauchos (5-6, 0-1). at UC Davis 67, Cal State Fullerton 63: Dominic Calegari scored 20 points as the Aggies (5-8, 1-0 Big West)

at Nevada 71, UC Riverside 47: Kareem Nitoto scored 11 points for the Highlanders (4-6), but Phil Martin, who had 25 points in each of his previous two games, was held to nine. Malik Story and Olek Czyz scored 15 points each for the Wolf Pack (8-3), which extended its winning streak to five games. at Cal State Fullerton 86, La Verne 44: Orane Chin and Kwame Vaughn scored 18 points apiece, Isiah Umipig had 17 and the Titans (7-3) won their fourth in a row. Trevor Woodland scored 23 points for the Leopards but missed 17 of 25 field-goal attempts.

Re "A medical school? Not now," Editorial, July 19 The Times fails to recognize the severe physician shortage in inland Southern California that UC Riverside's new medical school will address. The assertion that there are not enough doctors here because poor people can't afford medical care is just plain wrong. Our community-based medical school is designed expressly to meet the healthcare needs of this region. Our innovative approach will save the state millions in healthcare costs among the underserved.

"Student's Triumph Offers a Lesson," March 20. Sandy Banks' column profiling a member of El Camino High School's championship academic decathlon team included the statement that "the brainiacs know it may spell the difference between getting into UCLA or winding up at UC Riverside." As a 1981 graduate of UC Riverside, I strongly object to this oddly disparaging comparative reference. Yes, UC-Riverside's student body is small and the campus is on the fringe of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

MEN at UC Riverside 85, Berry College 53: Brandon Dowdy scored 14 points, Lateef McMullan and Larry Gurganious each scored 11 and Konner Veteto scored 10 to lead the Highlanders (6-3). Tim Miles had 19 points for the Vikings (3-6). Utah State 68, at Cal State Bakersfield 51: A 27-2 run over a 12-minute span in the first half gave the Aggies (6-3) a commanding lead and the Roadrunners (1-7), who got 11 points from Stephon Carter and 10 from Trent Blakley, could not recover.

After much debate that brought the passions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts to campus, UC Riverside's student government has reversed itself and revoked a prior resolution that urged the UC system to divest from companies that have contracts with Israel's military. The student leaders moved to drop the controversial divestment policy after approving it just a month ago because they came to see how it made Jewish students feel “marginalized,” according to Armando Saldana, the Associated Students' executive vice president.

Mark Yudof likes to point out that he was the first real outsider in more than a century chosen to run the sprawling University of California system. And he often jokes that, as a result of his leadership, it is likely to take a hundred years more before UC hires another. Maybe not. But the comment does represent a dilemma facing the UC regents as they look for his successor: No obvious heir apparent is lined up inside the system. So experts predict the search for a new president will concentrate on large public university systems elsewhere in the country that dealt, like UC, with dramatic declines in state support.

With no obvious inside candidate to be the next president of the University of California system, experts predict a wide search that will concentrate on similar university systems elsewhere but could also stretch beyond academia. Whoever replaces Mark Yudof will take a job that comes with intense political and financial pressures. UC has an annual budget of $24 billion, 230,000 students, 191,000 faculty and staff members, 10 campuses, five medical centers and three national laboratories.

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details Elected student leaders at UC Santa Barbara voted down a resolution early Thursday that would have urged the UC system to divest from companies said to profit from anti-Palestinian Israeli policies. The controversial resolution failed after being debated through Wednesday night and into the morning.  The vote was 11 opposed and 10 in favor, with one abstention. The proposed resolution would have called for the UC system to end investments in such companies as Raytheon and General Electric that provide technology, weapons or other products that the Israeli military uses in the Palestinian territories.

After much debate that brought the passions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts to campus, UC Riverside's student government has reversed itself and revoked a prior resolution that urged the UC system to divest from companies that have contracts with Israel's military. The student leaders moved to drop the controversial divestment policy after approving it just a month ago because they came to see how it made Jewish students feel “marginalized,” according to Armando Saldana, the Associated Students' executive vice president.

Announcements of a well-funded research project at a major university often elicit, welcome or not, professional and amateur advice. But those messages usually don't recount a dead cat's spirit flitting into the afterlife. UC Riverside philosophy professor John Martin Fischer has been besieged with hundreds of such unusual missives for the last few months as word spread that he had won a $5-million grant to study something that, in the end, is probably unknowable: immortality. Under his direction, scientists and theologians will be digging into such mysteries as whether humans should even aspire to eternal life in this world or another - and whether everlasting might just prove to be ever-boring.

at Long Beach State 75, UC Riverside 35: The balanced 49ers shot 53% and handed the Highlanders their seventh loss in a row. It was the fewest points Long Beach (16-9, 12-2 Big West) has given up since UC Irvine scored 26 in 1980. Tony Freeland scored 14 points and James Ennis had 12 for the first-place 49ers, who had a 31-19 halftime lead and closed the game with a 28-5 run. Riverside (5-20, 2-11) shot 24%. St. Mary's 61, at Loyola Marymount 50: The Gaels used an early 14-0 run to hand the Lions their 10th consecutive loss.

It will come as news to many, no doubt, that there is a Warhol on the moon. And a Rauschenberg and an Oldenburg - a whole "Moon Museum," in fact, containing the work of six artists in all, in the form of drawings inscribed on the surface of a ceramic chip roughly the size of a thumbprint. Conceived by the artist Forrest Myers in 1969, the chip was fabricated in collaboration with scientists at Bell Laboratories and illicitly slipped by a willing engineer between some sheets of insulation on the Apollo 12 lander module.