ucsc student gets stuck in tree. smokes weed. runs out of snickers bars. story at 11.

so it seems the time of year has come for the protesters to come out of hiding and scurry up into the trees. typically, i'm all for dissent, however, this year the target of protest happens to be 30 feet from my lab, and i'm forced to intervene. it's not that they are wrong. nor that they are uninformed. the protesters are both. according to one of the spokespeople for the tree-sit-in the rally is supposed to inform the students about the "corporatization (no, it's not a word and, yes, i can't spell)" of the university. something about research for money and all the patents the scientists are taking out and not letting publicly researched information out into the mainstream. also, it's about the Long Range Development Plan and the bio-medical building slated for where the trees are now. i hate to tell them this, but i haven't been able to get a hold of our patent attorney for about three years now. either he's rotting in his office, or we don't have one. either way, i'm missing out (and so is the university that gets greater than 60% of the royalties) on some patents and some cash. lastly, the bio-medical building has been postponed indefinitely due to a poorly drafted EPA EIR. i don't think we'll even be seeing them think about breaking ground for another five years. to quote my friend, "it's six p.m. and students are still dipshits." well, anyway, at least they're trying. here is some local media with pics if you want to see some students in trees or getting pepper-sprayed.

struggle on science hill - scim

arrests and photos - scim