A Series of Tubes

The Tree sit officially ended apparently. The treesitters went into talks with the University. The talks did not end with either side agreeing to anything. The treesitters just came down. So at the end of 13 months the University got everything it wanted and the treesitters got none of their demands met.  Below are the official statements released by the treesitters and the University.  I really don’t see how the treesitters can spin this as a positive development.  The University cut the trees down this weekend.  Here are the official announcements of the end of the treesit:

Santa Cruz, CA — After 13 months as a symbol of community resistance to UCSC’s destructive expansion plans, the Science Hill Tree Sit ended around 9 am this morning. The end of the Tree Sit was peaceful and no one was hurt, though one person was arrested. The Tree Sit was one aspect of a larger movement opposed to the University’s plans to destroy 120 acres of campus, and that resistance will continue. An official Tree Sit statement will be made at 2pm at the site of the former Tree Sit on Science Hill. Tree Sitters and Tree Sit supporters will be available for questions.

Later on the treesitters issued another press release as did the University:

Read more

So Prop 8, the amending of the state constitution to make same sex marriage illegal, is most likely going to pass and there have been various responses.  There have been protest marches in LA and San Francisco and these marches have spread throughout California.

Prop 8 has not been officially certified, but counting the absentee ballots does not look like it will overturn the current support for the proposition.  Opponents of prop 8 are already filing legal challenges should prop 8 pass.  It looks like the city council in Santa Cruz will join the fight against prop 8.

Some organizers are attempting a boycott of pro prop 8 businesses.

My favorite response is organizing people to file complaints to the IRS to revoke the Mormon church’s tax exempt status.  The Mormon Church was instrumental in funding the yes on 8 campaign, including Internet ads that I saw show up on this blog.  Their support of prop 8 is why they have been specifically targeted in protests in Oakland and other areas.  The definition of a 501c3, a tax exempt organization such as a church, states that: “no substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation”.  It is this portion of the 501c3 definition that the Mormon church has allegedly violated.

The theory is that if enough people complain, the church will have to start paying taxes because they are operating as a lobbying firm and not as a church.  I think I’ll spend part of my afternoon filing some papers with the IRS.  Check out http://lds501c3.wordpress.com/ if you have some time.

Well the treesitters had their 1 year anniversary today. They celebrated by having a gathering of people in the parking lot where the tree sitters are. There was a gathering of about 30-40 people and there was also some UCSC administrators observing from a distance away from the crowd. I ate my lunch on one of the benches over by where the gathering was being held. People would go in front of the crowd and try to explain why they supported the tree sit. There was a steady stream of people walking by the parking lot.

The people in the gathering appeared to be like minded and would clap at the end of each speech.  The people that passed by didn’t really know what was happening and I had to explain to more than one passerby that it was the 1 year anniversary of the treesit.  After I told people passing by that it was a treesitter gathering, none of them expressed support.  One person started yelling “get a job” as she walked by.  Another, after being told that it was a rally for the treesitters asked “Is that still going on?”

Read more

The election is over and here is how Santa Cruz Voted with my comments at the end:

After Barack’s win there was literally dancing in the streets of Santa Cruz.

Read more

I post information about the treesitters from time to time.  This is one of those updates.  They are still up there.  The banners that they hung in the trees are twisted up by the wind and made unreadable by the elements.  Someone associated with the treesit set up a blog.

You can read a speech made on October 7th at the treesit outlining the treesitters current manifesto.  I think they would save everyone some time if they had just written the following:

As treesitters we believe in the following things.  First off, Europeans are jerks who killed the Native Americans that used to live in the area, the Ohlonean people.  As a group mostly comprised of descendants of white Europeans, we refuse to recognize the irony that we are attempting to speak on behalf of the Ohlonean people today.  We are going to stay in our tree until everyone agrees to turn back the clock of time about 500 years and put things back the way they were.

We don’t like things that sound technical because we don’t really know what they are, and therefore hate them.  These things include but are not limited to: biotechnology, nanotechnology and advanced computing.  (By the way, I hope you guys like this nifty blog I set up with wordpress.  I hear the servers for this website run Intel’s processors that are made with a 45 NANOmeter design giving me, a treesitter, access to the latest computing technology).  If we are not successful in rolling back the clock then at least we created this wonderful space for people to come together and have a dialog.  By dialog I really mean you can talk to us unless you are the University, anyone linked to the sciences, anyone who wants research to cure and treat diseases, or anyone that wants a rational discussion of the LRDP.  This treesit will probably fail but at least we are a huge pain in the ass, and when you get us out of these trees we promise to be a pain after we come down too.

-signed Owl, Raven, woodpecker, treebark or whatever part of nature I decided to name myself to make this whole treesitting endeavor lose its legitimacy in the eyes of the public

Read more

I always have trouble determining who to vote for in local elections. The only information I have previously used is the small blurb that I get in the official election material. I decided to hunt down information on the people running for city council and post my thoughts on their campaigns. I think the best place to start is the candidate forum videos below. I found the videos on the Santa Cruz Community TV website and the Forum is put together by Santa Cruz Next:

Read more

I got a mailer about the California propositions a little bit ago and I also realized that absentee voters will start getting their ballots.  It takes me a while to read up and collect information about the propositions and local candidates so I figure I’d post what I’ve found to make other people’s lives easier.  Here is how I am currently leaning on the California ballot initiatives along with audio of debates on many of them.  I’ll post more about local Santa Cruz County elections later:

Read more

Everyone gets junk mail.  Most people groan and are disappointed when they receive junk mail.  Not me.  Junk mail is kind of like a treasure hunt for me.  I’m looking for that envelope that says “no postage necessary if mailed in the United States”.  Yesterday’s junk mail included one from Taste of Home Subscription Fulfillment Center:

So why do I care so much about this envelope? Read more

If you haven’t heard yet there have been 2 firebombs set off at 2 UCSC researcher’s houses. The firebombs were set off in order to terrorize anyone doing animal research. One of the two researchers whose house was firebombed was Professor Feldheim who taught a Neuroscience course that I took. The firebomb that was set off at his house was at his front door requiring him, his wife and his child to escape out of some sort of fire ladder from a second story window.

If you have read my blog before you will note that this is not the first act from animal rights activists (I think animal rights terrorists is a more appropriate name) targeting researchers at UCSC . I’ve been pretty busy so I didn’t have the time to post this earlier or write more about it.

Yesterday there was a rally in support of the researchers and currently there is a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest of the individuals involved.  I hope that the people behind this are stopped before they make another attempt to attack a researcher or their family.

Update:

NPR forum had a segment on the firebombings.  In it they talk to someone who agrees with the tactics used.  It is both interesting and frustrating:

The engineering honor society at UCSC recently became a part of Tau Beta Pi.  I recently joined and went through the initiation ceremony.  It was a little weird and the whole time I was there I kept thinking of the episode of the simpsons where he joins the stonecutters: