The Atheneum at Caltech

The week before last, I had the pleasure of returning to the place I grew up, Pasadena California. This is the Caltech Atheneum, probably the nicest faculty club I know of. Staying here for a short work visit to LA was full of memories–this place was my family’s first temporary home, back in 1969 when my Dad moved from Ann Arbor to take a job here. But for a few modernizations (such as the student lounge with flat screens in the basement) it’s pretty much the same.

For those with cinematic memories, you may recognize the Atheneum from the movie, Beverly Hills Cop!

Brain Training Resesarch

From Nature via the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Last month Nature published a study that said training your brain was pretty much useless. While practicing a particular task might make you better at that task, the improvement was nontransferrable. Doing crosswords doesn’t make you smarter, it just makes you better at doing crosswords. Those sad findings were reported all over the place.