Aside from a freshly-packed bong and high-sodium meals, college students love nothing more than to protest something bad. The most recent something bad to move the UC system to protest is, of course, the severe budget cuts affecting the quality of education. But this protest will be done walkout-style. According to SF Chronicle, "What began in recent weeks as a proposed faculty walkout coinciding with the first day of school next Thursday at some campuses - including UCSF, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz - has grown to include graduate and undergraduate student groups, and labor unions representing thousands of employees." Combine the recent budget cuts and forced furlough days with the fee increase and we will (hopefully) see an explosive mass walkout of indignation and righteousness. In related news, everybody else is poor and/or losing their jobs too.

You want another car fire? Well, we've got another car fire for you. An auto was set ablaze early this morning outside the Oakland Hills home of UC President Mark Yudof. The fire was started sometime before 2 a.m., and the bomb squad was also called in since it was right across the street from where the UC President lives. No arrests have been made. Yudof's home, as many of you know, has played host to a myriad of protests in the past, most recently due to UC budget cuts.

More time is being wasted over in Berkeley over those damn oak trees. This time the Berkeley City Council voted last night that they it "will not seek a stay of a judge's order allowing UC Berkeley's athletic center project to proceed," according to CBS 5. Good. Also, many of the protesters, who awesomely are starting to view themselves as Christ-like figures as of late, held a small rally outside Berkeley City Hall last night. And this is our favorite quote from one of the pro-oak grovists:

The court system was set up for the rich and wealthy, and it's up to us now, the people on the ground! We do have the power! That is why the trees are still standing! It's because of human beings who sleep there, and stay there day and night.

OK, sure. The court system was "set up for the rich and wealthy." We'll give you that only because we watch a lot of Law & Order: SVU. And we really have no idea what we're talking about. But we doubt any (lucid) poor person gives a crap about some oak trees on the UC Berkeley campus.

In other news, the trees along Third and Harrison streets are scheduled for demolition soon. Any guesses on when we'll see media-whore/"activists" Dumpster Muffin climbing those leafy gifts from God? (Hint: never)

Photo credit: Brian Brooks/Flickr

UCB's plans to mow down an oak grove and put up a sports training facility were put on hold. It seems a judge halted the plans until "the university can prove the project would not violate state earthquake-safety laws, a judge ruled Wednesday," says the Gate. The university, though, thinks it's a rule in their favor, keeping "their plan alive, arguing that the center would not violate state law because it would not touch any fault lines."

But the tree-sitters, who have been nesting in the oaks since last year, are thrilled:

"We are ecstatic," said Stephan Volker, attorney for the California Oak Foundation, which sued the university two years ago. "We believe this project is now dead." The city of Berkeley and a group of neighbors living near the stadium also filed lawsuits to block the project.

Oddly enough, Dumpster Muffin's crying fit atop one of the trees yesterday afternoon -- as if daddy were taking away her AmEx -- did not manage to get her forcefully pulled from the oak. (What's more, her non-baptismal name is currently our favorite among the tree squatters.)

In the end, though, the ruling will most likely favor the university. Presumably they just need to wait until the last activist scurries out of the grive, and then they'll bring in the chainsaws. Stay tuned.

The battle to save an oak grove on the UC-Berkeley campus turned even uglier yesterday. Protesters sang bizarre Native American-ish sounding songs (seriously, check this out) and threw buckets of urine at police and arborists (where "an acrid tang hung in the air afterward." Ew.)

One female tree-sitter was forcibly and understandably removed and placed into custody after she bit an arborist. Millipede, as she now goes by, was arrested and might possible be booked on for assaulting a police officer. Check out footage of her throwing a major temper tantrum as she's yanked from the mighty oak by police officers.

According to the Save the Oaks site, they would like you to "do whatever you can to save the Oak Grove, no matter what the 'Court' says. Come to the Grove! Bring your friends and help us stop any attempt to extract tree sitters and tear down our Trees!” Chortle.

As of now there remains anywhere from 8 to twelve protesters sitting in the trees. No word yet as to how the university plans on removing them all. But stay tuned. It sure will be fun to watch.

Five remaining tree climbers over at the University of California at Berkeley -- you know, the ones who have been protesting the school's plan to tear down the Memorial Oak Grove to put in a shiny new ball-throwing stadium -- are being threatened to come down via 25 police officers and a cherry picker. According to UCB officials, the tree protesters might have to come down as early as today, Tuesday, or be removed by the long arm of the law. Literally.

Save the Oaks spokesman Doug Buckwald, he received an urgent call on an "emergency phone network" (wait, you mean, a cell phone?), saying, "they are coming in to get them right now." This might be the end of the tree huggers, people we assumed came down a long time ago. Alas. Stay tuned.

Photo by mrmatthew/Flickr

Mark Woods, an 18-year-old UC Davis economics major, was arrested today after authorities found a couple of pipe bombs in his dorm room, going well above and beyond the school's no hot plate policy.

More than 400 students were quickly evacuated from their dorm rooms last night after a n anonymous tipster called the police about the explosive materials. Woods, now facing two felony charges, including possessing explosives to make a bomb, meant no harm, according to his roommate:

Woods' roommate Robert Chao says that Woods wasn't plotting to do harm to anyone. "He had no intention of blowing anything up. He had no ill intentions as a person. That's not him."

Poor kid. We'd normally rail against him for acting so foolish, but seeing as how there's little to do in Davis aside from huffing glue and giving cows makeovers, we feel bad for Woods. But only a little. Anyway, goes on to report that "[a]uthorities believe it was an isolated incident and said there was no need to detonate any devices." And the evacuated students? They pulled "couches together in the dining hall and passed the time with movies." Ah, the college life.

*FILM: The 5th Annual San Francisco Irish Film Festival kicks things off with by director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Mark O’Halloran. This is followed by a reception with the Consul General of Ireland, Emer Deane. According to LS, "other highlights include Speed Dating, a romantic comedy about a lovelorn amnesiac; the award winning Irish-language feature film Kings, and finally The Undertaking, a documentary about Irish American undertaker and poet Thomas Lynch, who is famed as the inspiration for hit HBO series Six Feet Under. Thomas Lynch and film director Cathal Black will be at the screening for a Q &A. Plus, the ever popular, Magners n’ Shorts Program (Magners Irish Cider is served for free during the film program) and Irish TV Night will also return to this year’s festival."

LECTURE: Yeah, yeah, you can go listen to Greil Marcus prattle on endlessly about the Magnetic Fields and the outback, or whatever, later this month at teh JCCSF. Or better yet, you can hear Family Ties creator Gary Goldberg talk about what it was like working with Michale J. Fox (his second choice to play Alex P. Keaton), Stephen Spielberg (who Goldberg tried to talk out of doing E.T.), on the set of Spin City, and more. He speaks tonight at the Jewish Community center of San Francisco. (Also, according to IMDB, he doesn't own a computer. The hell?)

DANCE: While the members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater probably can't bust out "Turkey Lurkey Time" to save their lives, they're still not half bad. Check out the famed dance troupe across the bridge over UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall.

The listed events were chosen by the editors of SFist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla.