News Pix: Big Storm, Big Hearts and Oysters

The platform at Oakland’s MacArthur BART station, shot from San Francisco-bound train during Friday morning commute in the middle of a the latest in a series of storms. (Dan Brekke/KQED)

Delleon Brown strikes his opponent during a bout at the boxing exhibition hosted by the Richmond Police Activities League on Saturday, November 17th, 2012. (Erik Reyna/Richmond Confidential)

Volunteers and staff from The Watershed Project counted Olympia oysters along a transect line on Sunday, November 11. The Richmond-based environmental nonprofit was assisting the National Estuarine Research and Reserve System with a study on the effects of climate change on oysters. (Sean Greene/Richmond Confidential)

Menbere Aklilu hosted her second annual Thanksgiving meal for the homeless at her restaurant, Salute, in Richmond.  Her restaurant prepared 600 meals this year.  "They've never been treated this way," Aklilu said of those she's serving.  "So I treated them with dignity." (Rachel de Leon/Richmond Confidential)

At the University Herbarium, tucked inside the basement of the Valley Life Sciences building at U.C. Berkeley, seaweed expert Kathy Ann Miller is leading a team of students to digitally photograph 76,000 stunning specimens of seaweed collected from the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington. Many of the red, green and brown seaweeds date back to the 1800s and most of the specimens have been preserved on paper and annotated with handwritten collection notes. The project will culminate next summer with the creation of a database featuring not only the high-resolution photographs, but also a Google map to reveal the geographic coordinates where each specimen was collected. Miller hopes that the database will be a valuable scientific tool. (Sheraz Sadiq/KQED Science)

Yarn bombing is an art form involving outdoor installations, covering existing urban objects with yarn, and adding color, coziness, and a handmade touch to urban landscapes. Bay Area artist and yarn bomber, Street Color, decorates everything from bike racks to BART seats. (Kristin Farr/KQED Arts)

Local artist and former America’s Got Talent contestant Manuel Romero belts a holiday song on Friday, Nov 23, in downtown San Jose. The city kicked off its 33^rd annual Christmas in the Park with an opening night Tree Lighting Ceremony for a 60-foot Community Giving Tree. (Melissa Pandika/Peninsula Press)