But what was Steve Wozniak’s Cal experience really like? We at the Daily Clog sat down with the Wizard of Wozillia himself to find out.

The Daily Californian: Can you tell us a little bit about how you arrived at UC Berkeley? Why did you choose to transfer here for your junior year?

Steve Wozniak: My parents had me apply to the University of California because it was an awful lot less expensive. So I applied. Berkeley really was the school I would have wanted to go to, because it had a reputation for intellectual free-thinking. Civil liberties and the politics and economics of war were being challenged. Freedom of speech was being brought up as a subject. So I really admired Berkeley in that sense. I just wanted to be among great thinkers. So in my third year of college, I transferred into Berkeley.

DC: After your first year at UC Berkeley, you left and founded Apple with Steve Jobs. But you made sure to return to UC Berkeley to finish your degree. Why? Why does a college degree matter to you?

SW: I had done a lot outside of Cal that would have been equivalent to Master’s and PhD projects, but having a symbol to represent these accomplishments is very important. Also, just being able to tell your kids what college you went to is going to encourage them to go to college. And college is just the most fun four years of your life.

DC: Where, in your experience, is the best place for experiencing what it means to be a Golden Bear?

SW: Oh my gosh. The first place that comes to mind is the rallies before the Big Game. As part of Berkeley itself, Sather Gate stands out in my mind as the most prominent feature of the university.

DC: Sproul Plaza has always been a center of campus activity. Any memories, strange encounters or lessons that you learned there?

SW: I often saw musicians sitting down and playing the guitar. I was into that kind of folkish approach. Sometimes, I’d sit down and listen to them — and even skip class for it.

DC: Do you still like the same kind of music? What’s playing on your iTunes right now?

SW: [laughs] Usually something a little bit country. A little bit folk. Ariana Gillis is one of my favorites. Let’s see, I like The Airborne Toxic Event, Train, Counting Crows — oh my gosh — Counting Crows. Right out of Berkeley! I love them so much. We got to meet the guitarist and we go out with him and his girlfriend all the time.

DC: Do you have a favorite song from Counting Crows?

SW: “Round Here,” “Mr. Jones,” … actually, all their songs. They are just so incredible. I actually take most songs I like and go online, read the lyrics and think about them. This kind of thinking is what college is about and it means a lot to me. Music was a big part of my life in learning how to live.

DC: Cool. Other than music, Sproul is known for its demonstrations. Was this true when you were at Cal?

SW: We had sit-downs in those days. But there was one protest where marchers went to Bancroft and Shattuck and smashed every window. We had large demonstrations; the police would show up and start firing tear gas and everyone would run. The cops would be shooting rubber bullets, so the kids in the dorms would love to go looking for them. I kept hoping … to get a picture taken next to a tear gas canister spewing out smoke. But I never achieved that. I never found a rubber bullet either — but thank God I never got a hit by one. Although, one time I was at a payphone on Bancroft and Telegraph and all of a sudden cops pulled up in “blue minis.” They started shooting their guns; the crowd started running but I was trapped in the phone booth, waiting for an operator to get back to me. I was ducking down. The windows were already broken on that pay phone. I was so scared I was going to get hit. But I didn’t. They left me alone. [laughs]

DC: While living in Norton Hall, Unit 3, you describe phone phreaking. Can you tell us a bit more? What experience stands out?

SW: Wow. I discovered, the day before coming to school at Berkeley, this whole idea that you could put little tones into a phone and dial calls anywhere in the world. It was  a bug in the phone system. I was talented enough to build tone makers — I did this with Steve Jobs — and I was excited that we would be able to make a device that would make calls all over the world. We were honest enough to tell our parents what we were doing. They just said not to make any of the calls from their phones. So we would mostly do it from the dorm rooms.

I had read about phone phreaks that were great engineers. They would hook into payphone cables in Arizona and set up worldwide networks. They were smarter than phone company engineers and drove around with vans full of equipment. And oh my gosh, they were just like science fiction heroes — except they were real.

DC: Tell us about the Blue Box. We know it’s a device that you used to make international calls for free, but what did you do with it?

SW: It was never my idea to sell a Blue Box — just to make one to show off. But Steve Jobs said, “Why don’t we sell these to students?” He was always short on money. So we would set up demonstrations in dorms around campus. We would knock on doors until we found someone that looked cool … so, you know, they wouldn’t turn us in. Then we would set up an appointment to come back that night. Usually a group of about 12-20 people would be in the room. I would be the master of ceremonies. I’d tell stories about what phone phreaks have done and what they could do. I’d make a demonstration Blue Box call and we would wind up calling around the world. At every single demo, we sold a Blue Box.

DC: Wow, it sounds like you could do some crazy stuff with the Blue Box. Did you pull any pranks with it?

SW: We called the Pope. I pretended to be Henry Kissinger with Richard Nixon at a summit meeting in Moscow. I said that I wanted to talk to the Pope. I reached the Bishop, who going to be the translator, an hour later — but he had called the real Henry Kissinger. So, I was busted. We didn’t have caller ID in those days.

DC: That’s awesome. Are there any other wild experiences you had because of your phone phreaking hobby?

SW: One day, we had a Blue Box to sell to somebody in the dorms. We stopped at a pizza parlor and demonstrated it to some people there. Then they came up to our car and robbed us of it at gun point. But they left their phone number so that we could call and tell them how to use it. They wanted to pay for it but just didn’t have the money.

DC: Wow, that’s intense.

SW: [laughs] We did a lot of incredible interesting things that people couldn’t believe.

DC: Looking back, what advice would you give graduating seniors?

SW: Don’t expect that right away — even though you’re smarter than someone else — you’re going to stand out and have better ideas and approaches. It takes a while to learn that.

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org.

The post The Clog interviews Steve Wozniak appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Meet Cal’s Goalball. Having only finished its first semester, the sport is already making national news.

“UC Berkeley is the first university in America to offer Goalball as an academic class for credit,” Matt Grigorieff, the architect behind the project, proudly tells us. “And that is fantastic.”

The class is a two-unit supplement to “American Sport, Culture and Education,” a class that fulfills the campuswide AC requirement. Each session is split into half theory and half playtime. After students discuss their readings, they engage in a rousing game at the RSF’s Blue Gym, a massive indoor court on the third floor. The game pits two teams of three against each other, and players score by throwing  balls into the opposing team’s goal.

The catch?

All players wear blindfolds.

Playing on a different team

For junior Alec Sundly, D-1 center midfielder for Cal’s men’s soccer team, maintaining leadership on his side of the court is paramount for victory. He nods at his two teammates, completely confident in their game. But this is the first time either player has ever been to the RSF (to say nothing of the fact that neither teammate has never played a sport before in his life). Sundly grins. He whispers a quick strategy, stretches his legs and then leaps into position. He can already feel the win.

The two teams wait for the command from the referee: “Eyeshades down. Quiet, please! Center! Play!”

In a rapid exchange, the bell-containing ball is tossed from one end of the court. Players duck, jump and dive into each other in an effort to protect the goal. Special tape on the floor helps the crawling players to “feel” where they are in the absence of their eyesight. If the team succeeds in blocking a score, possession changes.

Sweat glistens. Lungs expand. In the final score, Sundly’s team edges a narrow triumph of seven points to six. For a varsity Golden Bear, Sundly has a particularly even game. He scores two points! His two teammates, self-described as “athletically challenged,” divide the five. On this court, the playing field is equal.

Fitness for all

Ann Kwong is the internal president for the Disabled Students Union. Unlike Sundly, Kwong is visually impaired and travels around with a cane. Before Berkeley, athletics were the last thing on her mind.

“When I was a child, I never really understood the fascination my sighted peers had with sports,” she admits. “I didn’t feel like I was able to connect with them.”

All of this changed in the past year. Members in the Disabled Student’s Union expressed discontent with being unable to participate in sports teams. From able-bodied basketball to football, disabled students readily acknowledged the lack of athletic opportunities available to them. Then came the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program’s support in establishing Goalball — Berkeley style.

Goalball player makes a pass. Notice the eyeshades.

Grigorieff and Jessica Adams, both sighted Cal seniors, paired up to organize the discussion part of the class. Teaming with two BORP Goalball coaches, Brandon Young (nonsighted) and Jonathan Newman (sighted), the four have worked to create the most inclusive athletics class in the university’s history. With the guidance of Professor Derek Van Rheenen, the class has attracted students of all abilities.

Kwong beams, “Now, I realize sports are fun. It’s something you have to experience firsthand to understand — the feeling of belonging when you are part of the team or the sense of achievement when you are able to score a goal.” Her voice softening, she adds, “That’s something that rarely happens in reality.”

Fighting stereotypes

Grigorieff incorporates scholarly texts regarding issues within the disabled community in regular discussion. Textbook problems, he has come to realize, are alive in society today.

“A lot of times people, with visual disabilities are sort of seen by the sighted world as a totally helpless person, but that’s not true,” he argues.

Adams adds, “We learned that society tends to polarize nonsightedness. They think it’s black and white. They don’t realize that blindness is a spectrum.”

According to Professor Rod Michalko of the University of Toronto, 97 percent of people with visual impairment can still see. A person is defined as legally blind if he or she cannot recognize the biggest E on an eye chart from 20 feet away.  In this manner, not passing the test really can change a person’s life, as nonsighted individuals undergo such marginalization. One function of Goalball is to address this social stigma head-on. By including input from the entire sight spectrum, participants in the class gain thought-provoking perspectives.

“I feel like it’s the nonsighted students who are teaching the class,” Adams says. “They teach the class by the way they relate to the text.”

Sundly agrees. Input from his nonsighted classmates has challenged his preconceptions and inspired him.

“You build more respect of what (nonsighted people) have to go through on a daily basis, (and) what society is doing is being too judgmental. You learn in playing Goalball that we are all human beings and that we are always equal.”

The feeling of equality is echoed by almost everyone. Kwong says, “I feel like the No. 1 thing I appreciate is everyone is on an equal playing field. I can participate in the same activity with the same ability. Instead focusing on “the strongest” or “the fastest,” goal ball (emphasizes) skills, practice and teamwork – which is a new way to think about sports.”

Sundly’s team blocking a shot

This is not to say that Goalball is not physically demanding. Nonsighted senior Erik Elveback warns against the misconception that Goalball is “easy.” Teammates must coordinate movements through foot-tapping to prevent players from going out of bounds or wandering off the court.

“This sport is very difficult for everybody that plays because for most students, they have never used hearing as the main method of playing a sport,” Adams explains.

Winning off and on the court

Sundly translates skills from Goalball into new techniques to improve his soccer performance. As a midfielder, he lists blocking farther and throwing harder as valuable interdisciplinary lessons Goalball has taught him. Because the ball used in Goalball is heavier than a soccer ball, Sundly has benefited from weight training in a completely unexpected manner. As for foot-tapping, Sundly points out that Goalball has taught him to position himself better on the soccer field as well as give clearer communication to teammates.

Soccer skills were not the only gifts players gained from Goalball. For Young, it is the scale of bonding that has been “mind-altering.” On the last day of practice, Goalball players celebrated with cheers and heartwarming hugs.

Newman points out that the camaraderie is a sign of the game’s success.

He explains, “What I really enjoyed about this class is how much they all liked Goalball. Every single one of them.”

“It creates new friendships that students hadn’t imagined before,” Adams expresses. “I think its true for everybody in the class.”

The future

For Grigorieff, Goalball is set to thrive. His far-reaching plans aim to help everybody involved.

Matt Grigorieff, the architect behind Goalball, with a player

“Some people are not included in sports, and that’s something we at UC Berkeley want to change,” he says. “I think Berkeley can lead the way to promote inclusion. Goalball is not only a class but could be a club team for the campus. One day, (it could) turn into a varsity sport with scholarships. We want inclusion at the highest level in varsity sports.”

In the fall semester, Goalball will be available for everyone to play. Many players this semester were so touched that they have indicated they are returning to grow a community.

“I love Goalball and I want to continue assisting it — I believe in the cause,” Adams says, firmly. Then, with a laugh, she admits: “Goalball is pretty tight.”

To see Goalball in action, check out the video here.

Image sources: Eric Craypo, courtesy.

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org.

The post Introducing Goalball, Cal’s most inclusive sport appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Over the last month, many students have noticed — and shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — the bold and thought-provoking series of wire sculptures that sit, crouch or lean on benches throughout the UC Berkeley campus. And while Halpern’s identity as an artist was unknown at first to the wider campus — leading the Clog to dub her the “Banksy of Berkeley” — the graduating senior has finally revealed her inspiration for the mysterious sculptures.

“The title of these pieces together is ‘Connected Disconnect’ because while we are all connected to our devices in the same space, we are also disconnected from each other and from the present,” Halpern said. “I’m not saying that computers and phones are bad and that we shouldn’t use them at all (I use my computer every day, its great), I just think that it’s become too much.”

Using chicken wire as a base, Halpern interweaved recycled cords disposed of by Berkeley co-opers. She used the inside as well as the outside of the cords, a process that reveals surprisingly bright colors that are rarely seen. Walking throughout campus, a student can run into Robert, Chip, Gretel, Martha and Derek Derekson. We personally love Chip’s laid-back demeanor.

While some passersby were clearly puzzled by the sculptures, others read her message loud and clear.

“My first thought was wondering who put them there,” said freshman Katrina Hall. “My second thought was that someone had way more artistic talent than me.”

Senior Sarah Falter said she felt they were just representations of students doing everyday activities, such as looking at their iPods and laying around campus.

Each sculpture is positioned to be focusing intently  on Apple products in hand, representative of her message of human disconnect. Halpern explained that her everyday observations of disconnect inspired her sculptures. She points to one memory in particular.

“I was in the Boston Airport and the first thing I saw waiting for my connecting flight to LA was a family sitting in a line waiting for their flight and they were all on their iPads,” she said. “They didn’t even notice me take two pictures of them.”

This concept of lack of interaction and conversation has been the bulk of Halpern’s art influence for this project. In fact, “Connected Disconnect” was born out of this drive to engage people all around the world.

“[The sculpture series] is not applicable to just one place,” she explained. “It could be anywhere, because it is everywhere. It could go to any university campus, any city. It’s not just Berkeley specific.

Moreover, conversation has been the fuel for Helpern’s art. She recalls two encounters that deeply affected her:

“I met Auschwitz Holocaust survivor Judith Simon, who I sat with for a while. I heard her story, took photographs, and then painted a portrait of her in honor of her and her story. I also did a portrait of my aunt, Jorgia Bordofsky, who dropped out of college at age 19 to join the Freedom Riders to go to segregated restaurants in the South and do sit-ins. She was arrested, let me emphasize at age 19, and spent a month in prisons in Jackson, Mississippi. I painted one of my favorite photographs of all time, which is her mug shot,” Halpern recalled.

Her lifelong passion for creating art and her goal to promote greater human interactions have even influenced her time at Cal.

Throughout college, Halpern had taken art classes for her own personal enjoyment, but it wasn’t until her last year at Cal that she considered it for a profession. She switched majors her senior year —from “society and environment” to Art Practice — a radical feat only a Golden Bear could achieve.

“Having the label ‘artist’ is a very new thing for me,” she admits.

Her senior project received growing attention. Though its debut was over two months ago, her wire sculptures still garner campus-wide recognition whenever they sprout up. It was even the subject of what the Clog dubbed the “Art-Napping of 2013.”

“I placed three sculptures on the grass outside of Kroeber on Cal Day for three hours. When I came back, one was gone,” Halpern said. “It was very upsetting.”

With the help of a friend, missing posters — reminiscent of FBI wanted signs — were placed around campus. After about a week of searching, Halpern finally got a call from a student who found the sculpture in the DKE parking lot. It looked disheveled, as most do leaving fraternity property, but Halpern was soon reunited with the missing sculpture.

“I came to pick her up. (Gretel) had lost her form and was pretty damaged, but I fixed her and she’s back. I’m so thankful,” Halpern said. Gretel opted not to press charges against her alleged kidnapper.

With UC Berkeley conquered, Halpern has big dreams for her sculpture series, adding that she would love to teach others to make them as well to spread the message.

“Ideally, I would like there to be 20 or 30 sculptures in a public space, taking over, ‘occupying’ a space,” Halpern said.

We predict that #OccupyDisconnect will become the newest Twitter trend.

For Halpern, her work aims to relay her passionate message of human connection to a greater audience.

“Art has endless meanings. Art can just be beautiful. Art causes discussion and gives people experiences,” she said. “The importance of art is to connect people through all backgrounds and all sides.”

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org.

The post Meet Cal’s mysterious wire sculptor appeared first on The Daily Californian.

There’s always frat and co-op life, but how about the apartment hunters? We at the Clog have the top websites to help you live like you’ve never lived before — off campus.

Berkeley Cribs: The ASUC-sponsored website is one of the best kept secrets for Cal Bears searching for a den. It lists all the closest apartments to the UC Berkeley campus on Google Maps, allowing you to easily peruse to accommodate your lifestyle. Apartments are reviewed like Yelp and usually come with a price range. Berkeley Cribs also lists tenant’s rights information under “Resources,” an important pit-stop in case you ever have legal disputes.

Trulia: Think of Trulia like Apple. Its easy-to-learn web interface and slick graphic design makes it a powerful tool. All kinds of housing are listed, so be sure to check “rent” to limit your search. Trulia provides detailed information on amenities, nearby restaurants and grocery stores. It also displays the closest public transportation lines to any dwelling and has a very active blog community.

Zillow: Think of Zillow like Microsoft. It packs tons of information about each dwelling, including pet allowance and year of property construction. Houses are arranged on maps by “zestimated” prices, allowing you to roughly compare your rent with other rents in the neighborhood.

Apartment Hunterz: For those of us who always wanted to live in a studio apartment, Apartment Hunterz has hundreds. Specializing in California rental properties, the site is especially useful for the out-of-college, into-the-work-world fare. Hourly updated, the website features extremely recent housing findings — a useful tool at this stage of the semester.

This post is the first of a week-long “Housing for Dummies” series. Stay tuned for the next installment.

Image Source: Thomas Huston under Creative Commons

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org.

The post Housing for dummies, part 1 appeared first on The Daily Californian.

“But Clog,” you ask us, “I really don’t know a lot about Arbor Day. How can I celebrate Arbor Day here at Berkeley? Can you provide a short but thorough list to speed things up?”

Sure.

Why Arbor Day is not Earth Day

The first Arbor Day was celebrated as a city planting movement in 1872 for the then treeless Nebraska City. Compared to Earth Day, which was born after a 1969 San Francisco UNESCO conference, Arbor Day’s historical origins are born from a more localized time.

Arbor means “tree” in Latin. The goal is that every person plants at least one tree by the end of the day. To celebrate Arbor Day, everyone needs a shovel, a small sapling and plenty of energy. Although every state celebrates the day in its own way, only Nebraska made Arbor Day a civic holiday.

Earth Day is a celebration of environmentalism and environmental protection. Unlike the down-in-the-dirt Arbor Day, Earth Day typically is celebrated in large fairs and conventions. Moreover, Earth Day is overseen by the Earth Day Network, an international mobilizing organization.

On Earth Day, phrases like “carbon-neutral” and “fossil fuels” are tossed around. On Arbor Day,  terms like “alkaline soil” and “pruning” spring up.

We at the Clog like to think of Earth Day as the “preach” and Arbor Day as the “practice.”

Make Berkeley a Tree City

In 2010, Berkeley was named an official member of Tree City USA. Last year, Berkeley fell off the list. To up the attitude, the Clog gathered some tree-planting opportunities.

The University of California Botanical Garden offers plenty of tree-planting opportunities with its extensive volunteer program. Volunteers are asked to clean seeds, prepare specimens for research and propagate needy plants. Rewards come for those who celebrate Arbor Day all weekend. Volunteers who put in 30 hours receive a nifty Garden Badge (and a 20-percent discount at the garden store).

Just want to admire trees instead? Check out this interactive map of historic trees on Cal’s campus.

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org.

The post Celebrate Arbor Day at Berkeley appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Fret not, we at the Clog have composed a short list of some off-the-record things not included in your Cal Day tour that define why Berkeley’s students are among the happiest in the country.

You’re a wizard, Harry

Born with a lightning scar on your forehead? UC Berkeley celebrates Potter culture as much as Neville Longbottom snacks on chocolate frogs. Voted “Best DeCal of 2012,” Cal’s “Wonderful Wizarding World of Harry Potter” lets students teach other students how to read tea leaves, make makeshift wands and compete in the Triwizard Tournament — all for college credit.

Quick, did you see the Snitch? Cal’s very own Quidditch team just finished intense an competition at the World Cup last week. If straddling a broomstick while running like mad to avoid getting tackled seems like your ballpark, Berkeley has a sport for you. And if you have always dreamed of living in Hogwarts, Bowles Hall comes pretty close. With some of the largest rooms dorm living has to offer, Bowles Hall is unique in having rich endemic traditions (see serenading Stern ladies, Haunted House) and having its own alumni class. Be warned. It’s all-male, nearly 100 years old and sitting directly on top of the Hayward fault line. Wingardium leviosa!

If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate

We did a double take at the class called “Introduction to Bonding Theory.” Um, eye contact? Being friendly? Did a wave of anti-sociality hit the Cal Bears? Then we glanced at the department: chemistry. Oh, our bad …

Cal offers one of the largest communities to pursue research as an undergraduate. Sixteen chemical elements were discovered here at Berkeley labs. That is ridiculous. Too much time titrating, you say? The Chemistry Sports Club is eager to prove that bodies in motion stay in motion. Fan of Archimedes? Celebrate that Greek life at Alpha Sigma Chi, a fraternity dedicated to chemists! Hungry? “The Chemistry of Cooking” DeCal seeks to fill brains, stomachs and transcripts with edible goodness and plenty of credits.

As for bonding theory, we took a leaf from the professionals: “The name’s Bond. Ionic Bond. Taken, not shared.”

A Zerg Invasion

For Hydralisk hunters, UC Berkeley is a prominent breeding ground. Resident gaming superstar Conan Liu led Cal’s eSports team to fame last month by winning the world championship for the Collegiate StarLeague. With an ample supply of competitive gamers in League of Legends and StarCraft, Cal offers a virtual community like no other. Sound suspiciously like The Matrix? Several of Berkeley’s eminent computer researchers developed Overmind, an artificial intelligence agent for StarCraft. And for those of us who wish psionic powers could help in real life, you guessed it, there is a DeCal for that.

No Parking

There is one catch to the life of the lucky Golden Bear with a four-wheel drive. All Berkeley professors who nab a Nobel Prize also get a snazzy parking space in their honor. The fact that 71 Nobel Prizes have been won by Berkeley faculty, alumni and researchers translates to a brain aneurysm-inducing routine in finding parking during rush hour. We think the impressive professors are worth the lack of parking spaces.

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org

The post So you got into Berkeley appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The Clog is super psyched to share this list of all things all-natural, biodegradable, carbon-neutral, energy-efficient, fair-trade-certified, green-designed, hybrid, locally sourced, organic, pesticide-free, recycled, sustainable, wind-powered, vegetarian and zero-emission. There — that’s the alphabet soup for going green in 2013.

Downtown Berkeley Scavenger Hunt

Liveable Berkeley is sponsoring a photo scavenger hunt this Saturday to get local residents acquainted with the past, present and future of Berkeley’s environmentally sustainable Downtown. Meet at the Downtown Berkeley BART station for instructions, and be sure to bring a camera and walking shoes for the 90-minute event. At the end, prizes will be awarded for Berkeley’s best photos.

Annual Vegan Berkeley Earth Day 

For the kale and kombucha feasters, check out the fair hosted by the San Francisco Vegetarian Society at the David Brower Center. The full-day Saturday event features film screenings, food expert seminars, cooking demonstrations and a variety of detoxifying munchies to chow on. We Cloggers could not resist, so come live all agrarian by chowing like a vegetarian.

Spring Cleaning at Shorebird Park

Feeling altruistic? Shorebird Park, on the Berkeley Marina, is asking for volunteers for April 20 to help clean up the grounds. Stop by the Shorebird Nature Center for more instructions, and be sure to register with naturecenter@cityofberkeley.info. Once you have finished a day well spent in park beautification, be sure to enjoy a celebratory picnic with a view of one of the best sunsets the Bay Area has to offer.

Earth Day SF

Need some fresh air before finals kick in? Cruise over the Bay Bridge and spend Earth Day in the “greenest city in North America.” San Francisco’s popular festival invites dozens of prominent speakers and a host of Northern Californian musical bands to motivate and inform through speech and song. Free to everyone, Earth Day SF also includes eco-fashion shows, nearly 100 Earth-conscious vendors, an “Artists Grove” and a “Bike Build.” This year, the festival-only eco-village will host DIY classes ranging from extracting vinegar from fruits to raising a garden without ever watering it. Kids and college students each have their own festival zone, so don’t be afraid to mingle with a ton of young green activists.

“Slow Down for the Planet”

The San Francisco Zoo is offering an incredible opportunity to reconnect with the natural world this Sunday. In the morning, avian masters will host a bird-watching tour of the spring migration. Throughout the day, zookeepers will lecture on conservation efforts for endangered species such as the lion and the Asian rhino, as well as animal favorites such as the American river otter and the Navajo four-horned sheep. And don’t forget to check out the urban hive demonstration by the San Francisco Beekeeper Association for an enlightening opportunity to learn about the world’s busiest pollinator.

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org

The post What to do for Earth Day in the East Bay appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Here at the Daily Clog, we have a special dedication to finding the best things Berkeley offers, which coincidentally are often free. So for all you potential Cal and current Cal students who are looking to ditch the Cal Day planned tours, here are ten Berkeley museums you should put on your to-do list as you explore the den of California’s Golden Bears this weekend.

1. Habitot

Berkeley’s premier children’s museum celebrates its quinceanera April 20. With dozens of exhibits including a popular art studio, model firehouse and interactive waterworks play area, Habitot embraces the inner kid in everyone. And be sure to try the face-painting crayons, a famous Habitot favorite.

2. Lawrence Hall of Science

Perched atop the hills of the UC Berkeley campus, the Lawrence Hall of Science is well worth the excursion for the innovator at heart. The center offers a dizzying array of interactive areas like the Animal Discovery Room, the Insect Zoo and a multi-sensory fun zone KidsLab. A fully-functional planetarium, a Nobel Prize display and Nano — a cutting edge exhibit on the future of nanotechnology — offer plenty of fun for seasoned scientists. For everyone else, check out the life-sized replica of Pheena the fin whale on the outside plaza.

3. Berkeley Art Museum

The geometric oddity across the street from UC Berkeley houses an elaborate and eccentric art gallery. Housing a diverse collection ranging from Andy Warhol to ancient Himalayan sacred mandalas, the Berkeley Art Museum is sure to be a sentimental destination for the aesthetically-inclined. The museum also houses the work of Cal’s Hans Hoffman, one of the most definitive modern art masters of the 20^th century.

4. Pacific Film Archive

Located on Berkeley’s campus, the Pacific Film Archive offers moviegoers an assortment of films from indie to anime and Hitchcock in a revolving exhibition. The archives also contain the largest collection of Japanese films outside Japan as well as over 10,000 videos.

5. Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

The expansive Museum of Vertebrate Zoology finally opens to the public on Cal Day. Situated across the giant Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton in the Valley Life Science Building, the museum boasts an enormous display of stuffed taxidermy, live animals (this year snakes, bats, and raptors) and an animal origami collection by paper master Bernie Peyton. A full panel of leading biologists and researchers will deliver free seminars throughout the day. As for the kids, park them at the puppet show or have them take a leap in the “Tree Frog Treks.”

6. Museum of Paleontology

Also nestled in Berkeley’s Valley Life Science Building, the Museum of Paleontology will feature guided tours of the extensive amassment of fossils and specimens. On Cal Day, lectures will be held by professors and grad students on every extinction from the dinosaurs to sea otters in the San Francisco Bay. Also be sure to check out nearby Essig Museum of Entomology for bug displays or the Jepson Herbaria for pressed plants.

7. Sake Museum

The museum at Takara Sake near the Bay is a quaint historical gem for the “Japanophile.” Showcasing 19^th century sake-making with authentic Japanese artifacts and displays, the sake museum offers an alternative experience for the wine enthusiast.

8. Bade Museum of Biblical Archaeology

Showcasing artifacts from Mesopotamia to Egypt, the Bade Museum of Biblical Archaeology is a treasure collection for Indiana Jones aspirants. Located on the campus of the Pacific School of Religion, the museum even houses 300-year-old historic bibles, antique cuneiform tablets and relics of everyday life in the Mediterranean Levant.

9. Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life

With vast archival holdings of the global Diaspora, the museum at the Magnes Collection offers a comprehensive collection of cultural relics. More than 30,000 objects from around the word rest behind numerous glass walls, making the museum a definitive experience. The library hosts ancient books and music holdings, offering a glimpse into the cosmopolitan past of Jewish history.

10. Lacis Museum

For the fashionista, the Lacis Museum contains a huge collection of vogue trends throughout human history. Textile and lace comes from as far back as Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and samples from high 17^th and 18^th century European clothing are richly displayed. Needles and sewing machines are carefully catalogued as well as a over 10,000 books on the textile industry are neatly contained in the library and museum. For an incredible visual journey into embroidery, needlework and wearable design, the Lacis Museum is sure to delight.

Image source: Joe Parks under Creative Commons.

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org.

The post 10 Berkeley museums to visit this weekend appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Assembly Required, the brainchild of Haas seniors Eduardo Aparicio and Jeremy Watson, is a card game with a quintessential Cal story. Incorporating the ubiquitous mobile device into its decade-old inspiration Apples to Apples, Assembly Required is radical in design, raunchy in nature and rooted firmly in the community that bleeds blue and gold and the zany characters of the creators who made it.

Berkeley-born

Their story started at CalSO, where they met as transfer students. Both gamers as kids, the duo never considered gaming as a viable career path. Then they took a DeCal — Introduction to Entertainment Gaming — separately and credited two guest speakers as triggering their passions: Sybil Chen, managing director of Crystal Entertainment, and Rez Graham, AI engineer at Electronic Arts.

“I thought you made money first and played games on the side,” Jeremy said. “At Cal, I discovered you can do both of them at once.”

Jeremy can often be found in Doe Library. Describing UC Berkeley as intense — a typical thought for Haas majors, we think —  Jeremy still wishes he could have taken more classes at Cal before he graduated.  Surprisingly, he has never met Oski during his time here, but we at the Clog still consider him a Golden Bear.

Eduardo always dreamed of making games.

“Until I came to Cal, I thought dreams were for dreaming,” he later admitted, “I didn’t know I could make my own games.”

If he could choose, he would be a redwood tiger mixed with Notch, the creator of popular video game Minecraft. Never pausing to take a second thought, Eduardo calls toilet paper the greatest invention, names “detestable” as his favorite word and “Renaissance Italy or somewhere in space” as the place he would most want to revisit in history. But when pressed with describing himself in one word, Eduardo draws a blank. Jeremy chimes in with … “creative.” They laugh.

Becoming game creators

Assembly Required was hatched on a December night at PIQ Bakery and Cafe last year. While discussing winter plans, Jeremy turned to Eduardo and asked, “Why not make a game?”

Assembly Required, they decided, was to incorporate “the essence of everything we like most in games,” according to Eduardo. He added that, “We wanted to make something for ourselves. This was not an exercise in what was popular or the latest trends — it was between us as gamers and what games we would have the most fun playing.”

Jeremy, who interned at Intel, used his work experience as inspiration for the idea of going mobile.

“People are fixed on the game’s hybrid aspect,” he said. “Why not supplement (the game) with something we all carry around in our pockets?”

How it works

Each player is dealt four action cards and four subject cards. The player with the funniest combination of cards for the game’s prompt — accessed on its website or on any Internet-connected device — is voted winner of the round by surrounding players.

The phone localizes the experience. Because college students are the target audience for this game, the use of phones allows students at NYU to play a game totally unique from that of students at Cal. Users can generate their own content on the website database, which can hold limitless prompts with subjects ranging from current events around the world to current events happening on campus.

Each player gets four subjects cards and four actions cards to build sentences

Players get the prompt for each round at play.getassembled.com

By college students, for college students

Lessons learned from community engagement at UC Berkeley are at the core of Assembly Required’s mission.

“If people like the game enough, we want to create a scholarship fund,” Jeremy said.

Eduardo concurs, saying that, “We feel this game should have its own scholarship — to help college students.”

Their mission stems from learning made after class. Jeremy mentors transfer students transitioning into UC Berkeley. As for Eduardo, he now teaches the very DeCal that inspired him to pursue gaming and in the past year has taught nearly 100 students. Keeping students in mind, he hopes that “for every future venture we want to have fun and create games, but we also want (the games) to do more.”

For a limited time only

Right now, the only way to purchase Assembly Required is on Kickstarter from March 11 to April 21.

Should their game succeed, they plan on expansions packs and international versions. But at the end of the day, Assembly Required is as much a game as it is a networking device. Comedy is social currency.

“The game is not about winning,” Eduardo emphasizes. “It’s about making friends and having a good time. I think its a great tool to to know even strangers better. It gives a ton of insight into people — after an hour, you feel like you know this person. You feel their humor. Everyone leaves with a huge smile.”

For more information on how to play Assembly Required, check out this video filmed on Cal’s campus.

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org

The post Two Cal undergrads revolutionize card gaming appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The design follows careful attention to public outcry made online last year. “The most common concern was that the logo only had a yellow C. ‘Where was the U?’ people kept asking, over and over again,” said an anonymous UC spokesperson. “We made sure that the logo would feature a U and a C, fitting for the world-renowned UC system.”

Responding to the new look, publicists and designers opted for a more simplistic design. “The old logo featured a book, a shining star and a fluttering ribbon. This is not law school, you know? It’s college. It should not be so complicated,” said a UCOP director of marketing and communication. The spokesperson added that “by the time you are 18, you should learn the alphabet. We wanted to make that very clear.”

The new logo features the UC letters in gold before a royal blue background. “It’s a wonderful design,” said another UC spokesperson. “I mean, the other logo was called so many things. A pull-tab was one. The loading icon for Apple computers was another. A blue tongue slurping spaghetti, for heaven’s sake! This logo fights against all of that.”

For the director of marketing and communication, the logo marks a new path in UC history: “Onward California. When people think of best public universities in the world, this logo is what should come to mind. I cannot wait to hear its reception.”

The Clog would also like to add our own thoughts about this new UC logo: “April Fools!” No one comes up with a logo this janky. Have a good prank-filled day, readers!

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org

The post New UC logo released appeared first on The Daily Californian.