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Bears in the air
Following in the grand tradition of student-engineering projects like the concrete canoe and the Human Powered Vehicle, Cal undergrads Mike Kasper, Mike Hatch, Travis Dejournett, and Marcus Monticelli (above) created "Super Paper Airplane II Turbo Championship Edition"--an odd contraption made up of a giant eight-and-one-half by eleven-foot size of "binder paper." Last fall, in front of thousands of viewers, the team folded the paper into an enormous airplane and sailed, perhaps not-so-gracefully, into San Francisco Bay. The stunt was part of "Flügtag," in which competitors and their human-powered flying machines are judged on three categories: creativity, showmanship, and distance--though the latter seems to be the least important criterion.
She will survive
Cal grad Shii Ann Huang '96 (below) is a contestant on the All-Star version of the grandaddy of all reality shows, Survivor. When Shii Ann became the seventh person voted out in the Survivor: Thailand series, she admitted: "I committed the classic error of plotting and scheming too much." That's a girl we can really root for. But you know what we like best about her? She proudly lists CAA membership in her online biography.
Flower power
Like psychedelic crop circles, colorful mandalas of petals, berries, pods, and grass clippings have been appearing mysteriously on the banks of Strawberry Creek, sometimes continuing to grow and change over several days. Some observers have suggested they might be the work of aliens, a frustrated botanist, or the ghosts of flower children past--but the real force behind the flowers is local artist Scott O'Keefe. "A lot of people don't even notice; they're totally oblivious," he says. "But I love it when people build on or change things, and sometimes I'll even do maintenance, which is of course counter to the whole idea that it is temporary." So what's his inspiration? "It's all about connecting with the energy that makes the grass grow." --Linda Schmidt
Non-conscious objectors
Joe Letteri '80, visual effects supervisor for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, oversaw the team that created scenes with as many as 40,000 virtual warriors: fully realized, three-dimensional, computer-generated characters capable of independent behavior. Each individual could react to their surroundings, identify and engage enemies, and exhibit aggression or fear. But initial tests showed a surprising number of orcs and elves running away from the field of battle. The official explanation is that they were running to find enemies, but we're guessing that every epic conflict creates its share of pacifists--even in Middle Earth.
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