Columnists

“The Supreme Lord said: I am death, the mighty destroyer of the world, out to destroy.” -more-

Given the almost universal community and political opposition inside Oakland to the proposed deal between State Superintendent Jack O’Connell and a group of east coast developers for the sale of the Lake Merritt-area Oakland school properties, it shouldn’t be surprising that there was almost universal relief expressed in Oakland with the announcement last week that the deal had been killed. -more-

In March 1933, the Long Beach Earthquake destroyed 70 schools, and another 120 suffered major structural damage. The Great Depression was at its height, leaving 25 percent of the nation’s work force unemployed. Things couldn’t have looked grimmer, but one creative mind was busily churning out solutions. -more-

I have a terrible confession to make. I feel really bad about it, but it’s probably not going to change any time soon. I don’t care if your roof leaks. O.K., I know that I’m supposed to make a big deal about this sort of thing but I’m not going to. There, I said it and I feel a whole lot better. -more-

It was just over a year ago that neighbors of Ashby BART rose up in protest against plans to put a 300-unit “transit village” on the station’s west parking lot. At stake in the ensuing, nearly yearlong struggle was something more basic than land use, namely citizens’ right to have a meaningful say in the public decisions that affect their lives. -more-

People keep giving me advice. It is useful and appreciated. (Well, maybe I exaggerate just a little, but I’m in a charitable mood.) -more-

A few columns back I touched on the chemical arms race between newts and garter snakes: the newts loaded with a fugu-like toxin to which the snakes have evolved resistance. Well, there are complexities to that story that I wasn’t aware of, some of which are described in a 2004 Journal of Chemical Ecology article entitled “A Resistant Predator and its Toxic Prey: Persistence of Newt Toxin Leads to Poisonous (Not Venomous) Snakes.” The lead author, Becky Williams, is a UC Berkeley graduate student; she collaborated with Edmund Brodie, Jr. of Utah State University and Edmund Brodie III, now at the University of Virginia. -more-