Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, May 6, 2023

7

ALTADENA - SOUTH PASADENA - SAN MARINO

Mountain Views-News Saturday, May 6, 2023 

San Marino Upcoming 
Events & Programming

Video Shows Team Working 
on NASA’s Europa Clipper

Portantino Honored with 
Prestigious Armenian Medal

 

 Senator Anthony Portantino 
was presented with the 
Pontifical Encyclical of His 
Holiness Karekin II, Supreme 
Patriarch and Catholicos of 
All Armenians and honored 
with the prestigious St. Nerses 
Shnorhali Medal in recognition 
of his years of support of 
the Armenian American 
community. The Senator 
received the honor on April 27 
during a reception held at the 
headquarters of the Western 
Diocese of the Armenian 
Church. His Eminence 
Archbishop Hovnan Derderian 
bestowed the medal, with 
public officials, friends, and 
representatives of Armenian 
organizations in attendance. 
Senator Portantino is the first 
non-Armenian in the Western 
Diocese to receive St. Nerses 
Shnorhali Medal.

 “I am humbled to receive this 
special honor and grateful to have 
the privilege and opportunity to 
be part of the spiritual center 
of the Armenian community,” 
Portantino said. “I have always 
been proud to represent this 
vibrant constituency in our 
state’s capitol and I cherish the 
deep connection I have with 
my Armenian neighbors and 
friends.”

 “State Senator Anthony 
Portantino has been a close 
friend of the Armenian 
community whose support and 
dedication has been immensely 
appreciated by the members 
of the Armenian community 
of North America,” stated 
Archbishop Derderian. 

 Senator Portantino has 
been a steadfast supporter 
of the Armenian American 
community and the Armenian 
cause for decades. He has 
visited Armenia and Artsakh on 
a number of occasions. In 2021, 
Senator Portantino became 
the first state or federal official 
to visit Artsakh after the 44-
day war. The Senator has also 
authored countless legislation 
and resolutions recognizing 
the Armenian Genocide and 
has been a strong proponent 
of including the Armenian 
Genocide as part of the state’s 
curriculum.

California has the largest 
population of Armenian 
Americans in the country, with 
the 25th Senate District having 
the largest concentration. 


LA Opera Talks

Sunday, May 7 at 2 PM, Barth Community Room

 Community educators from LA Opera present fascinating 
facts and musical excerpts from the operas that are playing 
downtown at the Music Center. This Talk focuses on Otello. 
He’s a beloved leader, a distinguished military commander, 
and a devoted husband. But when an envious subordinate 
introduces the notion—just the slightest whispered hint—
that Otello’s wife Desdemona might possibly be unfaithful, 
it’s enough to send him into a downward spiral of fury and 
murder. Registration is not required.

Huntington Nurses Health Screening

Wednesday, May 10 from 10:00 – 11:30 AM, Barth 
Community Room

 The Huntington Nurses offer free blood pressure and 
glucose screenings. Please plan to fast 2 hours prior to 
having glucose checked. These blood pressure and glucose 
evaluations can lead to prevention and early detection of the 
“silent killer” diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, 
and diabetes. Health screenings will be held every second 
Wednesday of the month. Registration is not required.

Button Vase Art (Ages 3 and up)

Thursday, May 11 at 3:30 PM, Barth Community Room

 Get ready for Mother’s Day by making a beautiful and 
unique button vase art craft! This activity is a great example 
of mixed-media art for kids. All materials will be provided. 
Registration is not required.

Old Mill Happy Hour on May 12

 Come join us at The Old Mill to kick off our spring and 
summer social season and kick off Mother's Day weekend 
too on Friday, May 12 from 5 PM - 7 PM. Bring your mom or 
someone else's mom for a festive happy hour with botanically 
infused spritzes and live music! Come enjoy the Mill, view 
our current art exhibit, and stroll our gardens while sampling 
the quintessential Californian take on aperitifs. We hope to 
see you on May 12! $10 suggested donation.

Recent Happenings

 Over the past week, Parks and Public Works maintenance 
staff also worked on the following tasks: removing fallen 
tree branches, palm fronds, and other debris from the 
public right-of-way; replacing streetlight bulbs and street 
signs; performing minor trimming of hanging tree limbs; 
repairing pavement; and picking up fallen street light 
globes. Public Works staff also filled in numerous potholes 
that appeared as a result of the frequent heavy rain that fell 
over the past few months, which will improve driver and 
pedestrian safety in those areas. Residents who wish to 
report non-emergency issues in the public right-of-way or 
City streets may do so via the San Marino Service Request 
Center: www.cityofsanmarino.org/report.

DID YOU KNOW?

The War Memorial at Lacy Park was dedicated on November 
11, 2007.

 San Marino’s War Memorial plaza honors individuals 
who lost their lives in service. The Memorial includes seven 
engraved granite panels, a statue of a kneeling soldier, a service 
recognition, an attractive plaza, beautiful landscaping, and a 
Veteran’s Walk area that recognizes those who served in the 
Armed Forces. Their names are etched in the walk curving 
around the Memorial. Join us for this year’s Memorial Day 
Service on Monday, May 29 beginning at 9 AM.

Meetings

Recreation Commission Meeting

Monday, May 8 at 6:00 PM; Barth Room and Zoom (Public 
Access)

City Council Meeting

Wednesday, May 10 at 6:00 PM; City Hall Council Chambers 
and Zoom (Public Access)

Public Safety Commission

Monday, May 15 at 6:00 PM; City Hall Council Chambers 
and Zoom (Public Access)

 Led by NASA’s Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory, 
the short videos take 
audiences behind the 
scenes to learn more 
about how space 
missions come together.

 Destined for Jupiter’s icy 
moon Europa, the Europa 
Clipper spacecraft – the largest 
NASA has ever flown on an 
interplanetary mission – is 
being readied to launch in 
October 2024. Between now 
and then, thousands of hours 
of work will go into assembling 
and testing the spacecraft to 
ensure it’s hardy enough to 
survive a six-year 1.6-billion-
mile (2.6 billion kilometer) 
journey and sophisticated 
enough to perform a detailed 
science investigation of this 
mysterious moon.

 The new video series “Spacecraft 
Makers: Europa Clipper” offers 
quick updates on the mission’s 
progress and lifts the curtain 
on the exacting work that goes 
into making sure the spacecraft 
reaches the Jupiter system in 
2030. Europa Clipper aims to 
help answer questions about the 
ocean that scientists strongly 
believe lies below Europa’s icy 
crust.

 The spacecraft will fly by the 
moon about 50 times while 
orbiting Jupiter. (It can’t orbit 
Europa because doing so would 
bring Europa Clipper too close 
to the gas giant’s brutal radiation 
belts. Learn more in the video.) 
On each flyby, a suite of science 
instruments will gather data 
on the depth of the subsurface 
ocean, the thickness of the 
ice crust, and, potentially, the 
characteristics of any plumes 
that may be venting subsurface 
water into space. The goal is to 
find out whether Europa has the 
potential to support life.

 The series’ premiere episode 
features Europa Clipper Project 
Manager Jordan Evans, who also 
has worked on NASA’s Curiosity 
Mars rover and the agency’s 
Hubble Space Telescope. In the 
video, he joins Deputy Science 
Manager Trina Ray, who worked 
on NASA’s Cassini and Galileo 
missions. They venture into 
JPL’s storied High Bay 1 clean 
room, where Europa Clipper is 
under construction – and where 
all of NASA’s Mars rovers, the 
twin Voyager spacecraft, and 
other historic spacecraft were 
assembled.

 While you’re digging into the 
nuts and bolts of the spacecraft, 
check out a 24-hour live feed of 
assembly in progress in High 
Bay 1.

 Additional episodes of 
“Spacecraft Makers” will include 
more activity inside other clean 
rooms where components of 
Europa Clipper are coming 
together. Future seasons of the 
series will cover other missions 
under construction at JPL.

 Europa Clipper’s main science 
goal is to determine whether 
there are places below the 
surface of Jupiter’s icy moon, 
Europa, that could support life. 
The mission’s three main science 
objectives are to understand the 
nature of the ice shell and the 
ocean beneath it, along with 
the moon’s composition and 
geology. The mission’s detailed 
exploration of Europa will help 
scientists better understand the 
astrobiological potential for 
habitable worlds beyond our 
planet.

 Managed by Caltech in 
Pasadena, California, JPL leads 
the development of the Europa 
Clipper mission in partnership 
with the Johns Hopkins Applied 
Physics Laboratory (APL) in 
Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s 
Science Mission Directorate 
in Washington. APL designed 
the main spacecraft body in 
collaboration with JPL and 
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight 
Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 

 More information and the 
video can be found here: europa.
nasa.gov

Free Caltech Events for May

Watson Lecture: Making 
Wearable Materials Smarter

Chiara Daraio, G. Bradford 
Jones Professor of Mechanical 
Engineering and Applied 
Physics, Heritage Medical 
Research Institute Investigator

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, at 7:30 
p.m. PT

In person: Beckman Auditorium

Online: caltech.edu/watson

 Advances in materials 
science, manufacturing, and 
computer science have enabled 
transformative innovations 
in wearable materials, with 
designs that that can monitor 
metabolic activity, change 
stiffness on command, and even 
interpret our mood. These new 
materials will allow garments 
and fashion to bring together 
the physical and digital worlds. 
In this lecture, Daraio will show 
examples of how these materials 
will help us stay healthy, how 
they will revolutionize the way 
we communicate, and how 
they will adaptively support our 
everyday needs.

 Friends of Beckman Auditorium 
are invited to the Beckman 
Lounge beginning at 6:30 
p.m. to enjoy complimentary 
refreshments before the lecture. 
RSVP to fob@caltech.edu or 
(626) 395-6400.

 This lecture will be presented 
in a hybrid format, allowing 
for both virtual viewers and in-
person attendees. No advance 
registration is required for 
either format.

Caltech Seminar Day

SATURDAY, MAY 13, at 7:30 
a.m.–5 p.m. PT

In-person: Beckman 
Auditorium

Online: alumni.caltech.edu/
seminar-day

 Caltech’s Seminar Day 
tradition continues, with the 
86th annual one-day event on 
May 13, 2023. Seminar Day 
brings together Caltech alumni, 
faculty, students, staff, and the 
community from around the 
world to learn about the latest 
research and discoveries from 
Caltech faculty and alumni 
across various fields of science, 
technology, and engineering.

 This year, Seminar Day will 
be a hybrid event with a single 
track so you can return to 
Beckman Auditorium for a full 
day of talks and Q&A or join 
virtually and catch all sessions 
from wherever you may be.

William & Myrtle Harris 
Distinguished Lectureship in 
Science and Civilization

On Meerkats and Marmots: 
Long-term Research and the 
Birth of Behavioral Ecology

Erika L. Milam, Charles C. and 
Emily R. Gillispie Professor 
in the History of Science and 
Professor of History, Princeton 
University

 THURSDAY, May 18, at 5 p.m. 
PT

Noyes 147 (J. Holmes Sturdivant 
Lecture Hall)

 By investing in long-term 
projects, ecologists have crafted 
living archives of animal 
behavior that now constitute 
decades of data on chimpanzees, 
marmots, scrub jays, meerkats, 
bottlenose dolphins, and more. 
Through a historical lens, this 
talk explores the importance 
of such long-term thinking 
in a world that exalts quick 
innovation.

Francis Bacon Keynote Lecture: 
Babylonian Horoscopy and 
Genethlialogy

Francesca Rochberg, Francis 
Bacon Visiting Professor of 
History, Caltech; Catherine 
and William L. Magistretti 
Distinguished Professor of Near 
Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley

FRIDAY, MAY 19, at 4 p.m. PT

Baxter Lecture Hall

 This talk addresses the question 
of horoscopy in late Babylonian 
astral sciences and discusses its 
place in the larger framework of 
the history of astrology.

Watson Lecture: Artificial 
Intelligence: The Good, the 
Bad, and the Ugly

Yaser Abu-Mostafa (PhD 
‘83), Professor of Electrical 
Engineering and Computer 
Science

WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, at 7:30 
p.m. PT

In person: Beckman Auditorium

Online: caltech.edu/watson

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) 
is a fast-evolving technology 
with stunning success stories 
such as the recent application 
called ChatGPT. AI now beats 
humans at many of their own 
games. How did this happen? 
In this lecture, Abu-Mostafa 
will explain how AI works 
and will describe the scientific 
journey of AI since the 1980s, 
including Caltech’s foundational 
role in its development. He 
will also address the hype that 
surrounds AI, both positive and 
negative, and put it in scientific 
perspective.

 Friends of Beckman Auditorium 
are invited to the Beckman 
Lounge beginning at 6:30 
p.m. to enjoy complimentary 
refreshments before the lecture. 
RSVP to fob@caltech.edu or 
(626) 395-6400.

 This lecture will be presented 
in a hybrid format, allowing 
for both virtual viewers and in-
person attendees. No advance 
registration is required for 
either format.

Behind the Book: Caltech 
Magazine Edition

Jess Adkins, Caltech’s 
Smits Family Professor of 
Geochemistry and Global 
Environmental Science and 
CEO of Calcarea

Julie Schoenfeld, Caltech’s 
Entrepreneur in Residence for 
Physical Sciences

in conversation with

Lori Dajose (BS ‘15), Caltech 
Science Writer

WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, at 5 
p.m. PT

Online

 “From Scientist to CEO” is 
the inaugural Behind the Book: 
Caltech Magazine Edition panel 
discussion. This new event 
series aims to delve deeper into 
the issues and stories included 
in each print issue of Caltech 
magazine, which is published 
in the spring and fall of each 
calendar year. During the event, 
Adkins and Schoenfeld will 
discuss the process of taking 
an idea from the lab into the 
commercial sector, the learning 
curve involved with running 
a company after working in 
academia, and the ways in which 
Caltech can assist entrepreneurs 
across campus.

 Sign up at: events.caltech.edu 
to receive event reminders and 
to be notified when registration 
for this online event opens in 
early May.


Child Camp 
Safety Bill 
Passes 
Committee

 Assemblymember Chris 
Holden’s legislation 
Assembly Bill 262, which 
directs the Department of 
Social Services (DSS) to 
lead a stakeholder group to 
develop recommendations 
through a report to the 
Legislature on future 
regulations that will protect 
children while attending 
day and overnight camps, 
passed the Assembly 
Committee on Human 
Services on Tuesday.

 “When parents take their 
children to day camps 
throughout the year, it 
is under the assumption 
that they will be protected, 
make friends, and return 
home safely afterwards,” 
said Assemblymember 
Chris Holden. “We want to 
give parents and guardians 
a peace of mind to ensure 
they know their child is 
cared for.”

 AB 262 would direct DSS to 
report to the Legislature with 
guidance on establishing 
an appropriate licensing 
program for camps, 
ensuring camp counselors 
and staff are appropriately 
qualified, and providing 
parents and caregivers with 
accessible and transparent 
information on camp safety.

 “While we do our best as 
parents to help guide and 
protect our children, it is 
not their responsibility 
to worry about their own 
safety, it is the responsibility 
of the adults providing 
supervision while their 
parent or guardians are at 
work,” said Holden.

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