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“Just to see the looks on their fat conservative faces.” Robert Reich did not say this. However, in view of his radical new solution to UC’s budget problem, we can’t help but feel that the sentiment was probably there.
At the UC’s Commission on the Future panel, Reich suggested that the UC abolish student fees altogether and instead read more »
For those of you who frequently find yourselves delivering defensive knee-jerk monologues concerning the vast merits of public education to all your bratty private liberal arts school friends who major in things like “Hobism” and “Mermaid Semantics,” you’re not alone. In fact, here’s s’mo fuel for the fire.
Turns out, a number of Bay Area private schools are starting to feel the pressure from President Barack-ccidental to improve lagging (below 20 percent) graduation rates. This presents an interesting paradox for said schools, forced into the challenge of keeping enrollment up while simultaneously keeping the slackers at bay.
Look, we all know how malleable stats can be. And we don’t mean to be catty, or hate on advocates of liberal arts education. Having said that, we can’t help but feel slightly validated with our average *ahem* 90 percent grad rate.
Image Source: wackystuff under Creative Commons
Focus on graduation could be rough for small private colleges [Inside Bay Area]
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At the Lawrence Hall of Science, it’s an exhibit completely unrelated to particle acceleration called “Race: Are We So Different?” Sounds fun. Interactive things to put it all in perspective —matching voices with races, scanning your skin to see how its color really compares. The relationship to science seems marginal, but what is science, really? Where particle accelerators aren’t involved, it all gets hazy.
In any case, it just opened and will stick around through May 2. Geek out this Wednesday for a tour of the exhibit and a talk with Ethnic Studies lecturer Victoria Robinson and the authors of a book called Blended Nation.
Image Source: C G-K under Creative Commons.
Lawrence Hall of Science [site]
After discovering the latest omen of the world’s coming demise, the Clog encourages Berkeley students to put down their books and enjoy their short-lived time on Earth.
We guess it doesn’t get much more straightforward than that. The massive Mid-Atlantic blizzard that has forced the capital and surrounding areas to a grinding halt has been compound-worded with the end of days–and if the president says it, then you know it’s got to be true.
You thought the weather in Berkeley has been crappy. What with that dirty tease of a sun and all that awful sprinkling? Try trudging through two feet of snow to Crossroads, which might be closed anyway because workers can’t get there, leaving you stranded food-less in your frozen jammies. Ugh. Well, at least all those East Coast schools don’t have to worry that their entire campus will collapse at any moment in an earthquake. There’s always that for us, right?
Image Source: paul+photos=moody under Creative Commons
How Are Colleges Faring in Mid-Atlantic Blizzard of 2010? [The Ticker]
Earlier: Ball Tapping
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Smoking is bad for you. So is secondhand smoke, and our world would be much healthier without it. You know this. And now thanks to a new Berkeley Lab study, we know that third-hand smoke is bad for you, too.
Hugo Destaillats, a chemist with the Indoor Environment Department of Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, described it this way:
“The burning of tobacco releases nicotine in the form of a vapor that adsorbs strongly onto indoor surfaces, such as walls, floors, carpeting, drapes and furniture. Nicotine can persist on those materials for days, weeks and even months.”
And when it stays, it reacts with “ambient nitrous acids” to form things called TSNAs.
Not scared yet? Do you scoff at the read more »
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Sunday Shout-Out picks out the week’s stories that simply slipped our minds.
Those “I got used at Ned’s” stickers that they attach to your textbooks have always worked in more ways than one. But with their new rental program, you’ll still get screwed, but it’s kinda like a phone call saying “I had fun last night” the next day. [Daily Cal]
Reason the recession sucks number 392: UC endowments have dropped 20 percent in the last fiscal year. But if it makes you feel any better, Harvard’s lost over $10 billion in endowments last year, and they no longer serve breakfast in their dining commons. [Daily Cal]
Muni’s a little late hopping on the Twitter bus but since when has it ever been on time anyway? And they’re now “offering a free fast pass to anyone who can guess how much money the agency has lost in the last 3 years.” Uh, fun? [SF Appeal]
This is the last piece of Dave Eggers news, we swear. Eggers has just revealed the identity of the McSweeney of his journal, Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. The man was real, in fact he was a mentally ill member of Eggers’ family who recently passed away. [SFist]
Earlier: The Most Dangerous Games
Image Source: quinn.anya under Creative Commons
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All right, here’s the straight poop: The UC Berkeley campus has got a crappy problem on its hands–or, rather, in its restrooms. Thieves have been sneaking into campus buildings and stealing the flushometers from the toilets, rendering them unusable and costing the university around $8,000 so far, a sum that, for this campus, is nothing to poo-poo.
What’s worse is they’re not dealing with just any ol’ common crooks, here. These Johns are apparently toilet-crippling criminal masterminds. “But, why?” you ask, “Why would anyone sh*t all over others’ rights to sanitation, especially when the university is piss-poor?” The answer, friends, is greed. Turns out, one can make a pretty penny selling crapper parts as scrap metal and … used crapper parts. Gross.
In any case, UCPD is pissed off. Contact them if you see anything suspicious or if you know anything about this rash of crimes. (We’d try to crack more jokes, but we’re a bit drained. Please forgive the Clog.)
Image Source: Connie Chen, Daily Cal
Money Going Down the Drain with Recent Thefts [Daily Cal]
UCPD Hopes to Flush Out Bathroom Burglar [Daily Cal]
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You may have heard of cuts to campus recycling, much to the enthusiasm of “local entrepeneurs” who have picked up right where campus custodians left off. And with some making up to $10 an hour, competition has gotten fierce.
But the campus can’t rely solely on these recycling veterans, especially if we hope to reach our goal of becoming a zero-waste campus by 2020, one set by the former UC President in 2007. But it seems that the spirit of environmental enlightenment that we’ve always prided ourselves on is still alive, at least at FSM.
At first we noticed what seemed to be a kitschy neon rainbow tube smack dab in the center of the cafe. But upon closer inspection the thing turns out to be monitoring our energy usage: color-coated according to the source of the consumption. The bar also doubles as a distraction from your studying. Oooahhh.
Also, there’s now a permanent partition between FSM and Moffit, perhaps to deter non-purchasing energy consumers. Congrats, FSM, for making an effort to make our campus a little more environmentally conscious. Now maybe you can work on that sludge that you call coffee.
Image Source: Ruby Lee
Cuts Curtail Campus Recycling [Daily Cal]
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If you’re like us, you have only a vague notion of what UC Berkeley’s urban design school actually does. Well, based on this project by professor Nicholas de Monchaux, you were basically exactly right. His team hopes to take San Francisco’s neglected nooks and abandoned crannies and … make them better.
Here’s the lowdown: dense cities tend to have a lot of unused space. Dingy, awful space. We’re talking the allies behind buildings, stretches by freeway on-ramps, concrete stretches near industrial parks—space that is technically owned by the city but is not able to be sold and serves no purpose beyond rat real estate. read more »
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If you happen to be riding around Elmwood today, you might want to swing by 2603 Benvenue Avenue for a little Patty Hearst pilgrimage. Today marks the 36th anniversary of Hearst’s 1974 kidnapping from her Benvenue apartment by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Other ways to pay tribute to Patty:
1. Get brainwashed.
2. Tweet to all your friends and relatives that you will from this point forward respond only to the name “Tania.”
3. Rob a bank in the Sunset.
4. Spend 7 years in jail.
5. Marry your bodyguard.
Image Source: Comandante Agi under Creative Commons
Kidnapped Heiress: The Patty Hearst Story [msnbc]
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