Leave it to Berzerkley. The University of California at Berkeley, AKA The People's Republic of Berkeley.
According to several news reports (H/T to Daily Caller), Activists at the University of California at Berkeley got naked on Saturday to show their love for nearby trees that authorities are planning to cut down.
About 50 people showed up at a grove of eucalyptus trees on the campus of UC-Berkeley, stripped off their clothes, and began to intimately interact with the trees in the grove for the benefit of photographer Jack Gescheidt.Eucalyptus trees? They're an invasive species in California, and are targeted for control by UC Berkeley, the city of Oakland and the East Bay Regional Park District. We had a pair of them here at "Castle Graybeard" when we first moved in and for our first 10 years or so, eventually cutting them down and replacing them with a native oak tree. Eucalyptus trees are messy, dropping sheets of bark, and lots of branches of all sizes on a regular basis. My final incentive to remove them was when a branch about 3" in diameter came falling down and bounced into our old sliding glass doors. It didn't break one, but would the next big branch? Chopping these trees down in California is part of fire mitigation efforts. Ever heard of eucalyptus oil? It's flammable.
It gets better (if you like to laugh at tree huggers).
The nudity was organized by (Jack) Gescheidt as part of his Tree Spirit Project, an effort to create fine art photographs by, well, taking pictures of naked people while they cavort about in nature. The project’s website describes it as an attempt to “raise awareness of the critical role trees play in our lives, both globally and personally.”Naturally, I had to take a look at that Tree Spirit Project webpage, and all I can say is he's either really interested in trees, or he really likes getting people to take their clothes off so he can photograph them ... interacting on, around, and sometimes in trees. There's a word for that, and it involves mandatory reporting and registering when you move around the country.
Eucalyptus trees are good pup wood for toilet paper.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note (although maybe it IS related in some way, being diametrically opposed to this kind of lifestyle), when was the last time you had to solve a differential equation? Or calculate the gradient of some field function?
ReplyDeleteI'm sort of bummed, because I stumbled into IT, and I haven't had to do that for decades (since school). Reading about Heinleinien astrogators as a kid, I had this idea that I would have my hands on all this cool stuff much more than it all turned out.
At this point, for me, I might as well have taken classes in Art History (or tree-f*cking)...
But if they don't save the eucalyptus trees, what are all the poor koala bears going to eat? Tofu???
ReplyDeleteAnon 1110PM - the last time I had to solve a diff eq by hand was a few years ago, because I generally do that by computer. It's always about productivity, of course, so while I may set up the problems by hand or figure out the approaches by hand, I solve them in the most expedient way. For calculating EM fields, I use 3D EM field solvers, or the awkwardly-named 2 1/2D solvers. That's expensive software, but when program success depends on it, they want us to get it right the first time.
ReplyDeleteIn both cases, they're paying for answers.
The surprising part is that at the lower levels of design, it's more analysis and math. When you sit in the "guru seat", it's generally something that depends on judgement. "Which approach is better?" or "Do you think a problem with X could be the cause of the symptom we're seeing?" kind of questions. You know the old story that they don't want you to use judgement because you make mistakes; you learn judgement by making mistakes. God's honest truth.
BTW, Mark Matis - that struck me really funny. Thanks.