/tags/vol.-cxxix-issue-12/ Recent content in Vol. CXXIX, Issue 12 on The California Tech Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/2026-san-gabriel-valley-food-passport--fourth-round-of-reviews/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/2026-san-gabriel-valley-food-passport--fourth-round-of-reviews/ Hello Tech readers! Time for another round of reviews where I explore the San Gabriel Valley food scene with the 2025 MySGV Food Passport. There remains only a few places in Pasadena still to explore: Birria Master, Edwin Mills, O’Seyo Shabu Shabu, All India Café, and Star Leaf. /2026/05/19/a-midsummer-night-s-dream-at-ramo--shakespeare-with-heart-and-laughter/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/a-midsummer-night-s-dream-at-ramo--shakespeare-with-heart-and-laughter/ On May 1, 2, and 3, Caltech EXPLiCIT brought another Shakespeare classic to the Ramo Auditorium stage: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s always a pleasure to watch this play, no matter how many versions you’ve already seen. /2026/05/19/ai--ethics--and-the-art-of-culpability--an-evening-with-bruce-holsinger-at-caltech/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/ai--ethics--and-the-art-of-culpability--an-evening-with-bruce-holsinger-at-caltech/ On a warm California evening this past Monday, May 11th, the Dabney Lounge at Caltech became an unlikely intersection of medieval scholarship, literary fiction, and cutting-edge artificial intelligence ethics. In a campus that feels so arid and scientifically focused, escaping for one hour in literature and fancy words was extremely beneficial! /2026/05/19/all-22-national-science-board-members-removed/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/all-22-national-science-board-members-removed/ All 22 members of the National Science Board (NSB), which oversees the National Science Foundation (NSF), were removed on April 24 without explanation. Members were notified by email that their positions were “terminated, effective immediately.” They included Aaron Dominguez (BS ’92), the board’s vice chair and provost of the Catholic University of America, and board member Matthew Malkan (PhD ’83), a UCLA professor. /2026/05/19/blacker-raises-the-neon-pyramid/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/blacker-raises-the-neon-pyramid/ On the night of May 19, Blacker Hovse summoned students to quite the chimerical Interhovse: Ancient Egypt by way of glowstick fever dream. The invitation arrived less as an announcement than an incantation — “The pharaoh’s curse beckons you” — calling partygoers to “flood the courtyard at 10pm sharp” for what it promised would be a “body thumping blood pumping rave inside the neon pyramid.” /2026/05/19/caltech-alumnus-accused-in-washington-correspondents--dinner-attack/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/caltech-alumnus-accused-in-washington-correspondents--dinner-attack/ Federal authorities have identified Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old Torrance man, as the suspect in the April 25 shooting incident at the Washington Correspondents’ Dinner, where President Trump and senior administration officials were in attendance. Allen has pleaded not guilty to charges including attempting to assassinate the president, after prosecutors alleged that he traveled from California to Washington, D.C., checked into the Washington Hilton, and tried to breach security near the ballroom while armed. /2026/05/19/caltech-students-in-boulder--co--apartment-hunting/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/caltech-students-in-boulder--co--apartment-hunting/ Many know that two CCE research groups are moving from Caltech to CU Boulder. This column will be a way that I keep the Caltech students (myself included) a part of the Caltech community as we finish our PhDs in Colorado. /2026/05/19/canvas-breach-prompts-caution--limited-use-guidance-at-caltech/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/canvas-breach-prompts-caution--limited-use-guidance-at-caltech/ A recent cybersecurity incident involving Canvas, the learning-management system operated by Instructure and used throughout Caltech, disrupted universities during exams week and raised concerns about the possible exposure of user data. Instructure claims it detected unauthorized activity on April 29 and additional related activity on May 7, when some users saw altered Canvas pages; the company temporarily placed Canvas in maintenance mode and later tied the access path to its Free-For-Teacher account system. /2026/05/19/fleming-celebrates-2016-nostalgia-at--flemchella-/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/fleming-celebrates-2016-nostalgia-at--flemchella-/ On the night of May 16, Fleming House staged its own festival revival with “Flemchella,” a 2016/Coachella-themed Interhouse that invited students to “Blast From the Past” in the Fleming courtyard from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. The announcement promised a return to something relatively precious: to flower crowns, festival fits, overexposed desert aesthetics, and whatever collective psychic residue still clings to our shared concept of 2016. /2026/05/19/how-did-i-learn-to-say-goodbye-/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/how-did-i-learn-to-say-goodbye-/ The first thing you learn is how to say goodbye. Again. And again. And again — until the word frays at its edges like the hem of a coat worn through too many winters. /2026/05/19/late-spring-greetings-from-housing-and-dining-services/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/late-spring-greetings-from-housing-and-dining-services/ Hello again from Housing and Dining Services! We hope everyone has been having a great term. We wanted to take a moment to drop in and provide some quick information as we head into the final stretch of the academic year. /2026/05/19/old-darb-alum-speaks-out/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/old-darb-alum-speaks-out/ Like many in the greater Caltech community, I’m sure I’m not the only one who was stunned when I heard that Caltech alum Cole Tomas Allen attempted to assassinate President Trump. Already the conspiracy theories have spread throughout the internet. A false flag? After the moon landing was faked, NASA wants us to believe we flew a helicopter on Mars? /2026/05/19/robert-indiana-s-love-to-join-the-huntington-s-collection/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/robert-indiana-s-love-to-join-the-huntington-s-collection/ Robert Indiana’s LOVE, one of the most recognizable works of 20th-century American art, is set to be part of The Huntington’s permanent collection later this year. Originally created as a drawing in 1964, LOVE turned the everyday word into an iconic symbol. /2026/05/19/spring-wildlife--parenting/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/spring-wildlife--parenting/ As Mother’s Day has just passed and Father’s Day is coming up, this issue will talk about parenting in the nonhuman animal world. While all but one photo was taken off campus, a lot of the animals (mostly birds as I am a bird expert) mentioned in this article can be found in the adjacent Pasadena area, so keep your eyes out for spring activity! /2026/05/19/the-strange-attractor---did-caltech-host-the-world-s-first-successful-gathering-of-time-travelers-/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/the-strange-attractor---did-caltech-host-the-world-s-first-successful-gathering-of-time-travelers-/ Most parties don’t become history. But the ones that do tend to share a quality: the people who were there can’t quite agree on what happened, and the people who were not there can’t stop wondering. /2026/05/19/to-san-francisco--and-nowhere--tacit-s-incorrigible-three-sisters/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/to-san-francisco--and-nowhere--tacit-s-incorrigible-three-sisters/ The production’s immediate triumph is visual: a gorgeous, impressionistic mountain range splashed across a collage of canvases, less backdrop than psychic weather. It made the high-desert setting feel both immense and airless, a place with too much sky and not enough future. /2026/05/19/what-s-with-the-dead-grass-on-south-wilson-/ Tue, 19 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 /2026/05/19/what-s-with-the-dead-grass-on-south-wilson-/ Frequent passersby of southwest campus will have noticed a recent shift in the landscape along Wilson Avenue. Large areas of grass have turned brown and crispy, in apparent contrast with the springtime bloom of the surroundings (Figure 1). While it may look unsightly now, this is only the first step in a multi-year project by the Caltech Facilities department to restore this land’s original, natural beauty.