It’s a good sign

Berkeley is full of people who have strong opinions, and thus, full of various types of signs. First off, if your car does not have an Obama sticker, it is understood that you’re either a) sceptical of Obama because he’s so moderate he’s basically a crypto-fascist or b) somewhat of a crypto-fascist yourself. (Exception: If you drive a Prius or a Subaru, you’re not required to use any additional stickers, it’s already clear you’re a Lib’rul or worse.) Further stickers that are beloved by Berkeleyans: the COEXIST, the KPFA, and the Darwin Fish. If you have collected lots of political opinions over the decades, your car will slowly turn into this – a common sight on Berkeley parking lots. (Up in the hills, one bumper is still telling us to “END APARTHEID NOW”). There’s lots of lawn signs, murals, and signs in windows. Signs on bikes declaring “NO WAR FOR OIL – BIKE FOR PEACE”.

And then, there’s the “YOU’RE PERFECT” guy:

(Note the North Face fleece vest – the Berkeley uniform!)

Some see this annoying abundance of signage as a signal to fight back. My favorite meta-stickers adorn our neighbor’s Honda: “BRUSH YOUR TEETH, IT’S THE LAW” and “Vote YES on NO and NO on YES”. The most incendiary and controversial sign in Berkeley at the moment, however, must be this:

Looking for spring

So that’s why all my horoscopes were wrong!

“The ancient Babylonians based zodiac signs on the constellation the sun was “in” on the day a person was born. During the ensuing millenniums, the moon’s gravitational pull has made the Earth “wobble” around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars’ alignment.” (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

And thus, according to Parke Kunkle of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, your astronomically “correct” zodiac sign might be different from what astrologers usually tell you. These are the new zodiac dates, corrected for the stars’ actual current alignment:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16. Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11. Pisces: March 11-April 18. Aries: April 18-May 13. Taurus: May 13-June 21. Gemini: June 21-July 20. Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10. Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16. Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30. Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23. Scorpio: Nov. 23-29. Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17. Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.

I’m a Libra now instead of a Scorpio! So next time someone takes offense with my habitually grating personality, I will tell them to shut up because there’s SCIENTIFIC PROOF for the FACT that I am of extremely agreeable, diplomatic and charming character.

Posted in Fröhliche Wissenschaft, Kollektivneurose. Comments Off on So that’s why all my horoscopes were wrong!

Pinocchio

Look at this huge pinecone we found on a recent trip to Mt. Diablo! I’m so glad we have a SUV because we couldn’t have brought it home in a compact. In addition to football-sized dimensions and considerable weight, the cone also has hooked spurs that were still pointing outwards when I plucked it from the tree – it looks much less threatening now that it’s opened up. Thanks to the helpful and adorably Comic-Sans-ish page Pining for Pines by J. Zimmerman, Ph.D., I’ve identified it as a Big-cone Pine (well, duh!) or Pinus coulteri. Wikipedia happens to have a fitting name for it as well:

The large size of the cones has earned them the nickname “widowmakers” among locals. (Wikipedia: Coulter Pine)

This is not really an exaggeration because they can weigh up to 10 pounds – which makes them the heaviest pinecones in the world. (The world’s largest tree Sequoiadendron giganteum has disappointingly tiny cones, by the way.)

Music: meh.

The BBC lets you assess your musicality in a quite extensive test (Registration required). It was fun but my results are a bit strange:

I got 98% in “Musical Perception” even though I got all of the genre matching snippets wrong. I mean, literally all of them. 15 out of 18 in the “match the beat” section and moderate results in the “tap the beat” test. 12/12 in melody memory was enough to still arrive at 98% overall…so I guess everybody who’s not deaf is a Beethoven for the BBC. Very nice of them.

Now for the bad part of the test: my “emotional connection”, “enthusiasm” and “curiosity” scores are dismal – 1%, 1% and 2%, respectively. Doesn’t that sound terrible? I have to admit it’s true, I just don’t like music that much. I love my Christmas present though.

(I wonder whether there are people who get the reverse – 1% in perception, 99% in enthusiasm. They are probably very lonely. UPDATE: I think I found one!)

Once the rockets are up…

You know you’re in the West when on NPR, the local police chief advises the inhabitants of your (densely populated) surroundings not to “celebrate the New Year by firing their guns in the air” because “the bullets will come down somewhere and might do harm”. Hardly any rockets around here, by the way, they are much too dangerous. All this reminded me of a song about a fellow German expat, who put it so well: Once ze rrrrockets are up, who cares where zey come down? Thatz not my department, says Wernher von Braun.

Happy New Year!