Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Man sits in tree to protest cutting plans

ENCINITAS, Calif., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- An Encinitas, Calif., protester says he's not coming down from a tree until it's spared from city plans to cut it down.

Andrew Watkins climbed into a platform he had built in the tipuana tipu tree in Encinitas' Orpheus Park Friday, telling the San Diego Union-Tribune he'll stay up there until the mayor tell him the shade tree won't be coming down as part of an agreement with the neighboring Coast Point condominium complex.

City workers removed 10 other trees and began planting 22 replacements along the park perimeter, keeping a verbal agreement made with condo owners to preserve their views when the park was built in the early 1990s. But Watkins said Saturday he's not budging from his perch.

The founder of a grass-roots group called Local Power San Diego told the newspaper that sheriff's deputies haven't bothered him, while Encinitas City Manager Phil Cotton said he has no plans to oust Watkins.

"Let's let him sit up there," Cotton said.

Scientists produce smallest-ever printing

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- California researchers say they have broken a key barrier in the realm of small writing, engraving letters that are sub-atomic in size.

Two Stanford University physicists have succeeded in writing two letters -- an "S" and a "U," in honor of their employer -- small enough that if used to print out the 32-volume set of Encyclopedia Britannica 2,000 times, the contents would fit on the head of a pin, the San Jose Mercury News reported Sunday.

The nanoscribes, Hari Manoharan and Chris Moon, say the accomplishment, in which they used electron beam lithography, has no practical purpose but proves that information can be stored at small sizes below the level of the atom, giving theoretical backing to continued efforts to reduce the amount of time and space necessary for computers to store and retrieve data, the newspaper said.

"Writing really small has a long history," said Manoharan, assistant professor of physics. "We wondered: What are the limits? How far can you go?"

Car thieves' pix of own crime recovered

MILWAUKEE, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Young thieves who stole a Milwaukee family's car took pictures of themselves during the crime and left the camera in the car, officials say.

The disposable camera was still in the car after police found the vehicle with a 15-year-old boy driving it. Owner Jerry Kasprzak developed the film and found it contained a visual record of four teens taking his car on a joyride, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Sunday.

"I couldn't believe it," he told the newspaper. "I was just blown away."

Milwaukee police collected the photos, but said they can't identify or round up any more of the boys suspected in the theft. Officials said the thieves probably intended to take or toss the camera before police caught up with the car, the newspaper said.

Labradoodle owners push for First Dog

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- A Washington marketing executive says he's organizing a campaign to put a Labradoodle in the White House.

"Labradoodles for Obama" aims to make one of the half-Labrador retriever and half-standard poodles First Dog while raising money for the Washington Humane Society, said Greg Nelson, who owns a Labradoodle named Arbo.

President Barack Obama has said his children's first choice for their first dog is a Labradoodle or a Portuguese water dog, neither of which is found in many shelters, from where the Obama family has pledged to get their dog.

Nelson said he also wants his letter-writing campaign to raise awareness about the many puppies and adult dogs in need of adoption in shelters across the United States, the Chicago Tribune reported Sunday.

"Beyond that, if Arbo is invited for a play-date on the South Lawn, well, that would be a great bonus," Nelson said.