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Over the past couple of days local blog InBerkeley has posted not one, but TWO somewhat terrifying visuals of Berkeley succumbing to natural disaster. read more »
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Few things pose more pressing threats than rampant pot-smoking and disillusioned hippiedom. At least that seems to be the general consensus, considering Berkeley now apparently ranks as the 43rd most dangerous city in the country. read more »
And by “on the cheap,” we mean for totally free. US News’ Professors’ Guide just posted some tips on how to take classes from top universities (ours included, nah-turally … ) via the interwebs. A couple of high rollin’ philanthropic foundations partnered with the OpenCourseWare Consortium to put course materials online, accessible to anyone with the cojones to undertake something requiring this much self-discipline. read more »
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Up alongside “You win some, you lose some,” “No good deed goes unpunished” hovers over the city of Berkeley’s progressive policies these days. You try to keep the Earth clean, and you wind up with starving South East Asians and an ozone worse for wear, city officials have found. Their switch to biodiesel in city trucks and machinery came to a humble end following the realization that overall, biodiesel is a net negative for the environment and agriculture.
The switch was instated four years ago under the assumption that crop-based biodiesel would be read more »
While many were hypothetically concerned with metaphorically sawing the allegorical tree on Wednesday, the UC Board of Regents was deciding on whether to chop the university-wide student body by 10,000 (or some other high number, probably in the thousands). Literally.
That the regents’ 8-2 vote to “send a message” to state legislators warning of the “possible” enrollment cut happens now should come as no surprise, especially given “the” current financial situation: Nobody has any money. Nobody.
But whenever a nontrivial decision has to be made, there will probably be dissenters. In this case, it comes with the affected parties in mind: poorer applicants and underrepresented minorities, according to regent Eddie Island.
What a sticky-icky situation.
Image Source: crimfants under Creative Commons
Without More Funding, UC May Cut Enrollment [Daily Cal]
While the debate over the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis—also known as the linguistic relativity hypothesis—has been raging for untold billions of seconds, Tuesday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has a report that details research on how learning a color’s name changes its perception, in a way.
Quoth the Berkeley linguist, “It appears, as far as we can tell, that somehow the brain, when it has categories such as color, it actually consults those categories.”
Specifically, before one learns—for example—that yellow is called yellow, his or her brain handles greenness on the right side of the brain, while adults think about color with the left side.
Similarly, learning what to call an animal changes perception from right to left.
So … the ancient Greeks were actually pretty childish?
Image Source: fensterbme under Creative Commons
Color perception shifts from right brain to left [Associated Press]
The Beatles “Yellow Submarine” [YouTube]
We may have much for which to be thankful this year, but in Berkeley, the familiar counter-phrase “thanks-taking” takes on a second meaning.
Early stats from the farm bureau (whatever that is) reveal that costs for your hearty, heart-attack dinner come Big Thursday are up from last year. And, despite the Berkeley “to-hell-with-’em” attitude for one politically incorrect holiday or another, Berkeley and Oakland clock in as the highest surveyed spenders nation wide at an average of $59 per family Thanksgiving meal. Dinner is served. read more »
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On Monday, Macy’s and Sears were gleaming with celebratory discount sales, the Post Office didn’t deliver our mail, and the bratty kids next door were home from school all day singing something about an “ocean blue.”
What’s going on? South Dakota is celebrating Native American Day and Venezuela is partying it up for Day of the Indigenous Resistance, but that doesn’t help us.
Google’s ever-morphing logo is usually a good indicator of what happened today in history:
Paddington Bear? read more »
Yep, it’s that special time of year that’s like every other special time of year—Homecoming is back! (Though we could have gone with midterm season.) Berkeley has a Homecoming you can take pride in: Unlike other campus festivities like Caltopia, you can get lots of free things during Homecoming.
And unlike Cal Day, there will be tons of lectures by Berkeley professors that will make even the most balanced jack of all trades feel inadequate. And unlike the Big Game, read more »
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We couldn’t make it over to the “How Berkeley Can You Be?” parade earlier today, but we sent spies in our stead. And now, for your viewing pleasure: Berkeley. In full form.
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