The “let’s turn science-y stuff into a form of entertainment that people will actually want to watch in their free time” approach has been successful in the past with shows like Bill Nye the Science Guy, the Magic School Bus and Carl Sagan’s series “The Cosmos.”
So it’s no surprise that the latest video from the campus musical group the Sounds of Science has become an instant YouTube hit. Since their last video, “The Nano Song,” they’ve really stepped it up on special effects, lyrics and editing. Lawrence Lab even blows up in the video.
Only one problem: “The Safety Song” isn’t actually that safe: a radioactive fluid is cleaned up with a paper towel (no puppet evacuation, tisk tisk) and safety glasses are worn instead of safety goggles. So LBL’s asking for a few revisions before they use it as part of their safety demo.
The Safety Song [YouTube]
Students Turn Sounds of Science Into YouTube Hit [Daily Cal]
While perusing Berkeley LiveJournal, we came across this question from a user who calls him/herself “hippie_patrol”:
Why are we so passively tolerant of our fellow citizen’s shenanigans?
Picture some undergrad who has long hair and hasn’t shaved in weeks, playing badly on his guitar “Stairway to Heaven* somewhere on campus, creating nothing but grating noise because every note it out of tune, and distracting everyone who’s just trying to get to class and pass their midterms.
Why do we tolerate such behavior? It’s clearly detrimental to public health, and disrupts the general harmony of society. Maybe we believe too much in individual freedom. Maybe it’s time to reign back in some of these freedoms. read more »
The Beavers really slaughtered the Bears in this week’s game against Oregon State, but tailback Jahvid Best almost made it literal with his “serious concussion” he received after landing hard on the back of his head and neck. We wish you the best, Mr. Best. [Daily Cal]
You know what would really help solve this budget crisis: just getting rid of the professors. Don’t get something? Just press the “I don’t understand” button on your chair. [New York Times]
There’s a lot of Shakespeare going on in Berkeley, folks. Check out the BareStage production of “Othello” or The Globe Theatre’s production of “Love’s Labour’s Lost” at Zellerbach. The Clog has seen both and we can vouch that both are excellent. [Cal Performances]
If, for some reason, you have the mid-fall urge to go ice skating, then too bad. Just kidding—you can head over to the Embarcadero rink or the Safeway Rink in Union Square in SF to get your skate on. [7x7]
There’s a lot a student must deal with on a typical walk through Sproul: dodging flyerers, putting on your “non-composting Republican” face for the Greenpeace recruiters, deciding whether to make eye contact and/or greet casual acquaintances and finally, enduring the impassioned shouts of campus eccentrics.
Our favorite colorful campus character has to be “Bible Man” (we just made that up), found near the steps of Sproul reading Bible passages in a soothing monotone. We like him because his tranquil voice makes him easy to tune out, unlike the confrontational tirades of Yoshua or the “F*ck You Technology” dude.
We always figured he was reading passages out of Deuteronomy or Genesis, but we’d never actually stopped to listen to him. Turns out the open Bible’s just for looks. He’s talking about religion, kinda, but mostly he’s just talking. Here’re some excerpts: read more »
Have you ever seen the crazy long tongues on bats and wondered what it would be like to get a blow job from them? Haha, yeah, … neither have we.
But male bats know. Just like with us homo sapiens (at least in porn), it’s common courtesy to go down, or up, as it may be with bats (how would that work hanging upside down?) before having sex, according to a new study in the journal PLoS ONE.
But unlike with us, it’s not all about pleasure. Oral sex in fruit bats may increase the chances of fertilization, kill bacteria on the penis or protect both parties from sexually transmitted diseases. We bet last last one would get a lot more girls to give head if it was true of humans as well.
It also helps the male last longer: “A positive relationship exists between the length of time that the female licked the male’s penis during copulation and the duration of copulation.”
Here’s the part where we try to work this into a Halloween theme. So this information is pretty creepy right? And we talked about bats. Well, we tried.
It’s that time of year again: the holiday where people dress up in ridiculous costumes, hand out free food and stuff themselves. We’re talking about Chipotle Free Burrito Day of course.
“Come in on Halloween dressed like a Chipotle burrito, taco, bowl or salad and we’ll complete your costume with a FREE BURRITO. Saturday, October 31, 2009 6pm- closing.” read more »
The trailer above really captures the dramatic, spastic and somewhat incoherent film style of the documentary “Power Trip: Theatrically Berkeley,” by filmmaker Emio Tomeoni. The showing—Monday at the PFA—was attended by Tomeoni himself and an oddly boisterous crowd of twenty or so Berkeley residents in their forties.
The film claimed to be about Measure G, passed in 2006 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent in the city by 2050. According to the pamphlet handed out at the showing: “This film intended to follow Berkeley leadership from City Hall to the grass roots as they blaze a path to success, and set an example for the nation.” The only part of that statement that we could really agree with is the word “blaze.” read more »
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of one of the Clog’s favorite books, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” will be at the Multicultural Community Center (in the MLK Student Union Center) on Friday, Nov. 6.
He’s coming to promote his first nonfiction work, Eating Animals, a book about why people shouldn’t eat animals. It really seems to be a theme in Berkeley this year. Seriously, when’s Ingrid Newkirk gonna come and speak? read more »
Those of us of the “recession generation” will most likely remember college as a time of budget cuts, walkouts and copious amounts of Top Ramen. And chances are, we won’t be too hasty to invest in the stock market any time soon after graduation, at least according to a recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper.
Ulrike Malmendier of UC Berkeley and Stefan Nagel of Stanford looked at the investment propensity of “Depression babies” and found that they were more than a little hesitant to do their shopping at the stock market. As it turns out, the mental trauma of financial shocks are long-lasting, especially for those who endure them in their formative years (18-25).
According to their research:
… individuals growing up during recessions tend to believe that success in life depends more on luck than on effort, support more government redistribution, but are less confident in public institutions.
So long after the recession has receded, it’ll still leave a bad taste in your mouth (probably the stench of metal left from all that penny pinching).
Will Recession Forever Scar Young Investors? [Wall Street Journal] Image Source: waɪ.tiː under Creative Commons
We reckon that every UC Berkeley student has probably asked themselves at some point in their college career – “what won’t CALPIRG do to get a pledge?” – and we can now check “getting naked” off the list.
Life isn’t easy for CALPIRG. You know, the kids with the orange stickers. The statewide group founded “to win concrete results for our health and our well-being” is required to meet a pledge quota of 20 percent of the student body or else they lose their pledged funds.
So we guess we can’t blame them for plastering their semi-nude selves all over campus to earn a buck. Though we figure the campaign would be more effective if they disrobed on Sproul instead of on paper. Just an idea.
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While perusing Berkeley LiveJournal, we came across this question from a user who calls him/herself “hippie_patrol”:
The Beavers really slaughtered the Bears in this week’s game against Oregon State, but tailback Jahvid Best almost made it literal with his “serious concussion” he received after landing hard on the back of his head and neck. We wish you the best, Mr. Best. [
There’s a lot a student must deal with on a typical walk through Sproul: dodging flyerers, putting on your “non-composting Republican” face for the Greenpeace recruiters, deciding whether to make eye contact and/or greet casual acquaintances and finally, enduring the impassioned shouts of campus eccentrics.
Have you ever seen the crazy long tongues on bats and wondered what it would be like to get a blow job from them? Haha, yeah, … neither have we.
Those of us of the “recession generation” will most likely remember college as a time of budget cuts, walkouts and copious amounts of Top Ramen. And chances are, we won’t be too hasty to invest in the stock market any time soon after graduation, at least according to a recent 
