These are dark times for nerds, as a federal judge just put up another roadblock for UC Berkeley's proposed Computational Research and Theory facility. According to the project's opponents, a group pleasantly called "Save Strawberry Canyon," the area is prone to fires and earthquakes and mudslides, and is home to such valuable species as the "cow parsnip, a plant that is probably not actually as funny as we are imagining.
Also, apparently the project failed to perform sufficient environmental reviews, which in the Bay Area means that they are literally Hitler.
The judge in the case is William Alsup, and he seems to have a fairly interesting career. Among other weird cases, he presided over a dust-up between Apple and a company called "Psystar," which sounds like a videogame villain, and also a case involving sham marriages. Neato. Also, we are LOLing at a local TV's station's choice of image for this story, a stock photo of a trackpad from the mid 90s. You can click on it to enlarge, just FYI.
· Judge Bars Construction Of Cal Computer Center [A Television Station]
· Environmentalists Force New Review of LBNL’s Proposed Computer Lab [Berkeley Planet]