Helicopter crashes on Medical Center
A helicopter crashed on the Medical Center landing pad as it
attempted to take off after an organ delivery Saturday at 1 a.m. No
one was injured.
The helicopter, carrying a five-person UCLA heart and lung
transport team, returned from a trip to Fresno with a lung to be
transplanted into a UCLA student. The team and lung arrived safely,
but when the helicopter tried to takeoff again, it crashed.
“It was a hot landing ““ the rotar was still
on,” said team member Paul Litwin, a 2001 microbiology
alumnus. “We went downstairs, and he crashed.”
Helinet Aviation Services could not be reached for comment.
According Litwin, there are two probable scenarios explaining
the cause of the crash: the rotar broke or the helicopter took off
on its own as the pilot checked an open door.
UCPD is still investigating the cause.
Debris was scattered at the scene and a small fire was
extinguished, though the pilot sustained only minor injuries.
Driver of victims unable to find ER
A driver of a shuttle van was unable to locate the UCLA Medical
Center emergency room while attempting to transport four shooting
victims to the hospital earlier this month.
According to Los Angeles Police Department Detective Ron
Phillips, someone in an unknown vehicle fired several shots into
the victims’ shuttle van at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Monday
July 9 on Century Park East and South Santa Monica.
One 26-year-old victim died and three others were injured.
Phillips confirmed that the driver of the shuttle van said he
could not find the ER entrance but could not say whether the victim
would have survived if he had arrived at the hospital earlier.
According to Phillips, the van’s driver stopped at the
Jules Stein Eye Institute after searching for the emergency
room.
The victims were transported from there to the emergency room
for treatment.
The shooting occurred after a fight in the Century Club, a
popular Century City night club, but officials do not know if the
two events are related, Phillips said.
But the club’s general manager, Brian Sayers, said the
shooting stemmed from an argument in the parking lot of the
club.
Emergency Medical Services Director Marshall Morgan said he has
never heard of a similar situation when people could not locate the
emergency room.
“The best thing to happen when someone is injured is to
rely on the paramedic system,” Morgan said. “Most
members of the public know about the pre-hospital care
system.”
The LAPD is still investigating the shooting and does not have
any suspects yet.
Mexico City next site for UC office
The UC regents decided July 19 to erect an international UC
office in Mexico City to strengthen ties with the university in
Mexico.
“The creation of the Casa de California will enable the
university to enhance its relationships with Mexican universities,
government and industry,” said Juan-Vicente Palerm, director
of UC MEXUS, a multi-campus research establishment that centers on
Mexico, Mexican Americans and U.S. relations with the country.
“Casa de California will be an excellent place for the
best minds from both nations to work together to research and solve
issues of common concern,” Palerm added
The new office will be the site for an Education Abroad Program
for global student constituents and a UC Relations office to kick
start an alumni association.
UCLA dictionary has the word
“˜yo’
“Chillax,” the most recent UCLA slang dictionary is
on the shelves at the campus bookstore.
“UCLA Slang 4,” the latest edition in the UCLA
Linguistic Department’s long-running Slang Project, is put
together every four years in part by Pamelo Munro’s Slang
seminar students.
For a quarter, the mostly undergraduate class members rack their
brains for expressions as well as question their peers to produce
in a 130-page dictionary.
Words like “wifebeater” and “sin” are
common expressions among the student population and are documented
in the dictionary.
Munro said in a statement that many of the words and phrases
that first appear in “UCLA Slang” resurface in movies
and spread across the country.
“A lot of slang originates on the West Coast and migrates
eastward,” said Munro, the dictionary’s editor and an
expert in more than 23 Native American and pre-Columbian
languages.
For example, “monet,” an adjective for a female who
““ like an Impressionist painting ““ looks better at a
distance than up close, appeared in the film “Clueless”
two years after being published in the dictionary in 1993 and then
reappeared in 1997 edition.
Trying to define the 1,100 current slang expressions in the new
dictionary gave the student authors a grammar lesson as well, Munro
said in a statement.
UCB studies vision loss of diabetics
Small, barely detectable, changes in the retina may predict the
onset of vision loss in people with diabetes and allow for early
treatment, if a study beginning this summer at UC Berkeley’s
School of Optometry, is successful.
Preliminary tests have found a striking relationship between
these small changes and existing eye damage.
Eye complications caused by diabetes are the leading cause of
blindness in the United States among adults ages 25-74.
Compiled from Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.