Curtis's Ninth Post

"I took Nikki to the East Bay for part of one day. My partner Sue did some shopping and I followed around with camera in hand putting Nikki to work. Here are some photos taken in Berkeley, which some call “Bezerkeley...” Politics in this university town can be quite contentious. Berkeley has declared itself a “nuclear free zone” despite the fact there is a cyclotron on the U.C. campus and a number of renowned physicists are on the faculty. There are five Nobel Prize winners in physics on the current faculty. The University is also associated with Lawrence Livermore Laboratory where much research is done in nuclear weaponry. Here is a video created by students telling the history of the “nuclear free zone.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyHjucoqMig

Berkeley is perhaps the pre-eminent public university in the United States but the politics in the town is brutal. I worked for many years in public administration and it was well understood that taking a job in Berkeley was not wise. Their city council meetings often go late into the night. 

 

Sue turned around at one point as we walked on Solano Avenue and gave me a wave.

When we visited Fourth Street I noticed these police officers in front of the Apple store.  I don’t know what the man in handcuffs I encountered later had done, but it was clearly serious business.

Next we’ll head back to Marin for a visit to Muir Woods, a National Park on the south slope of Mount Tamalpais.  I live to the north of the mountain."