March 3, 2022

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UC DAVIS PRIMATE LAB SUED TO RELEASE DOCUMENTATION OF NEURALINK EXPERIMENTS The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed a lawsuit against the university over its treatment of primates in relation to Elon Musk’s Neuralink project

BY ISABELLA KRZESNIAK campus@theaggie.org

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VOLUME 140, ISSUE 19 | THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022

YOLO COUNTY MAKES CHANGES TO MASK GUIDELINES FOR VACCINATED PEOPLE; MASKS STILL RECOMMENDED INDOORS UC Davis continues to require masks in indoor settings for vaccinated individuals

BY SHRADDHA JHINGAN city@theaggie.org

California National Primate research center. The facility is the location of Elon Musk’s Neuralink Trials. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie) On Feb. 10, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine submitted a complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) against UC Davis for allegedly violating the Animal Welfare Act in its research with Neuralink, a company owned by Elon Musk. Additionally, the Physicians Committee filed a lawsuit against the university with Yolo County to release documentation related to the research in accordance with the California Public Records Act (CPRA) on the same day.

From 2017 to 2020, Neuralink worked with the university at the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) and experimented on primates to develop technology that would enable users to interact with computers using their mind. The Physicians Committee previously filed a lawsuit for the release of research documentation for these experiments in 2021, and the committee based its USDA complaint this year on the information that the university disclosed following this initial suit.

The Physicians Committee is requesting documentation from experiments in which 23 monkeys were said to be mistreated in the committee’s press release. According to the lawsuit, researchers implanted electrodes in their brains, removed parts of their skulls, used unapproved substances on them and did not provide sufficient veterinary care.

People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty through Education (PEACE), a club at UC Davis that advocates for animal rights, stated that the university should take responsibility for its actions. In 2019, ASUCD approved PEACE’s Sentience Resolution, which called on the university to recognize animals as conscious beings.

“UC Davis and the CNPRC should take accountability for their violations and admit how they are disregarding the Sentience Resolution,” PEACE said in a statement on Feb. 20. “The CNPRC needs to be reformed to end their cruel experiments on non-human animals and utilize modern methods of experimentation, valid in the twenty-first century.”

According to the Physicians Committee’s most recent lawsuit, UC Davis is withholding information in order to prevent a “chilling effect” on future academic research. Amanda Banks, the president of the California Biomedical Research Association, said that research prospects could experience a dampening effect as a result of the empathy that people feel for primate test subjects.

“The general public has a sense of familiarity and love for primates, but it also creates a real sense of unease about the use of primates in medical research,” Banks said. “It’s really going to make the general public uncomfortable with the idea of research, which can affect research funding and can affect how people react to primate research in general.”

According to PEACE, the university is using this effect as a pretext for animal abuse.

“The ‘chilling effect’ the university claims to be concerned with is simply an excuse to hide the horror that has gone on behind closed doors,” the PEACE statement reads. “Releasing some visual information to the public at the very least should not invalidate or halt any research.”

Third-year sustainable agriculture and food systems major Emma Talbot, who has worked with non-primate animals for her courses in the past, said the university’s lack of discussion of these events seems secretive.

“This could really ruin a school that prides itself on animal science and being very connected with animals,” Talbot said.

The Physicians Committee argues that since the university is a public institution, all animal research documentation is public pursuant to the CPRA. According to Andy Fell, the news and media relations specialist at UC Davis who responded on behalf of the CNPRC, the university fully complied with the CPRA in response to the Physicians Committee’s request.

NEURALINKTRIALS on 11

AGGIES’ BASEBALL 2022 SEASON PREVIEW The Aggies’ rough start to the season spurs hope for team

BY GABRIEL CARABALLO sports@theaggie.org Despite an 0-4 record to start their campaign, three losses by the hand of Saint Mary’s team and the most recent by the hand of the University of San Francisco with an average deficit of 3.5 runs, the coaches and players of the UC Davis Baseball team will continue to keep their heads up for the remainder of the season.

This is a young team of ball players with a new head coach, as the Aggies recently hired Tommy Nicholson, who was formerly the coach of Stanford’s baseball team. An investigation into the baseball program in the second half of 2021 found violations of hazing and a culture of drinking within the program and eventually led to the resignation of previous head coach Matt Vaughn after 10 years.

Nicholson was introduced on Dec. 16, 2021.

“Tommy has brought a standard for us,” senior infielder Kyler Arenado said. ”He wants us to have good comradery, pick each other up, never keep your heads down and keep that head up… that’s the mindset he’s brought to us.”

Arenado has played all four years at Davis and has faith in the culture Coach Nicholson has brought with him. The slow start shows that there are going to be “growing pains” with a young team and a new coach.

“We’re a really young team so we got a lot of growing to do, but all our young guys look great. I think they’re going to be great ball players,” Arenado said.

Arenado and the team are confident in the young players. They believe in the offense and think pitching is one of their strengths.

Coach Nicholson has seen some signs of potential that they hope can contribute to winning in the long run.

“I think we’ve played real good defense on the infield and we play hard,” Nicholson said. “We’re doing a good job of staying locked in pitch to pitch… if we’re going to make mistakes we’re going to be aggressive.”

They are hoping these strengths will manifest wins later in the season, but there is always work to be done according to Nicholson and Arenado. A common trend for the Aggies these past few games were landing base hits but failing to capitalize on runs.

“The difference in the game is that [opposing teams have] been getting those clutch hits, we haven’t. In every game we’ve played they’ve had one big inning,” Arenado said.

However, the players aren’t the only ones to have noticed this pattern. Coach Nicholson shared his insight as well.

“We haven’t been able to come through with the runners in scoring position and get a hit for whatever reason; sometimes it just takes a guy at bat to come through,” Coach Nicholson said, regarding that weakness for the team.

The players and coach understand this trend and hope it fades with time and hard work. However, this has not deterred Coach Nicholson and the team from learning from their mistakes and

UC Davis Pitcher Jake Spillane (31,right) pitches to Brock Rudy (2,left) of Utah during a game against the University of Utah on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2020 at Dobbins Stadium in Davis, Calif.

(Aggie File) staying positive. Nicholson emphasized the learning process of baseball and what that means for the team.

“It’s important to understand that it is about learning and in these times of struggles or mistakes that we’re making, if we learn from them, we right those wrongs, down the line we’re going to be a better team and learn how to win,” Nicholson said.

Nicholson brings this philosophy to the team, knowing that the benefit is winning. Learning from mistakes and keeping their heads high will allow the team to maintain their confidence despite losing. There will be a slight break for the players until they play Saint Mary’s on March 1. This gives the team time to put in some hard work and prepare for the ball game.

UC Davis was projected as 11th in the Big West Conference Preseason Coaches Poll after finishing in 11th last season. They will face their first Big West opponent in a three game series from March 18 to 20 when they travel to play UC Irvine — a team ranked second in the poll. They then play host the following week against UC Santa Barbara, the third ranked team in the poll.

On April 26, they will host San Jose State, and the following week, they will travel to play Stanford in their first matchup since 2019. They will not play the projected number one seed, Long Beach State, until the final series of the season. Throughout the year, they will play no more than four straight-away games, so the toll of being on the road will not be as high.

The players play hard, remain optimistic and are confident in themselves. There is no doubt this will be an exciting season of baseball.

“I believe when conference [play] comes around it’ll be a turnaround… You know we’re a young team but a good team,” Arenado said after the game.

Masks (Isabella Smithuvan / Aggie) In a press release published on Feb. 28, the State of California changed masking requirements to a strong recommendation for vaccinated and unvaccinated people to remain masked in indoor public places. This announcement signaled the ending of the mask mandate, but as of March 3, masks are still required in “health care, long-term care, correctional, childcare and K-12 school, emergency shelter, and public transportation settings.” The mask mandate will be lifted for childcare and K-12 school settings on March 12, though they are still strongly encouraged.

These changes in guidance amended the requirements recently implemented in Yolo County on Feb. 15, when the universal face covering requirement ended in certain settings to align with guidance on masking indicated by the state of California, according to a press release on Feb. 9.

“Universal masking shall remain required in only specified settings, including public transit, K-12 schools, childcare, healthcare, correctional, shelter, and long-term care settings,” the press release from Feb. 9 read. “Only unvaccinated persons are required to mask in all indoor public settings. Fully vaccinated individuals are recommended to continue indoor masking when the risk may be high.”

With the updated guidelines as of Feb. 28, masking requirements are the same for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in public settings: strongly recommended. Both of the press releases mark a shift in public health guidance from requirements to recommendations.

Public Information Officer for Yolo County John Fout explained the changes that the mask mandate adjustments would bring. According to Fout, because the number of COVID-19 cases is still considered high by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), masking indoors is still recommended. As of Feb. 25, the weekly trend for COVID-19 cases in Yolo County indicated 24.9 daily cases per 100,000 people.

The State of California has introduced four tiers for “masking guidance depending on risk.” These include “required, strongly recommended, recommended, and optional.” According to the press release, the transmision of COVID-19 has been decreasing in Yolo County as of late, but any changes in this trend may lead to mask requirements being instituted again.

In a press conference on Feb. 17, Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials discussed the next steps forward for California’s pandemic response. Dr. Mark Ghaly, the secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, discussed the use of masks.

“Let’s not just talk about optional versus required, let’s talk about recommended and strong[ly] recommended,” Ghaly said.

“In California, we strongly recommend you decide to keep your mask on when you’re in indoor high-risk places, and that’s going to continue until we see the signals that it’s okay to recommend it and then make it optional, so it’s not just a single level.”

According to the press release, people are recommended to wear a tightly fitting mask.

“The end of a masking requirement does not signal that masks do not work,” the press release reads. “Masks work. We recommend that anyone who feels unsafe in any situation wear a mask that fits and filters well, such as an N95, KN95, or KF94 respirator or double mask with a cloth mask over a surgical mask.”

Fout said that with the changes in the mask mandate, most universities, including UC Davis, will continue to require masks as masking helps prevent the spread of COVID-19, particularly in settings such as indoor classes.

“So yes, in this case, so UC Davis is sort of a unique case in a sense because obviously there are a lot of indoor classes,” Fout said. “[...] Many students have masks and there’s HEPA filters, it still could be a situation where it just makes more sense for the moment to maintain masks, particularly with transmission of high levels. So UC Davis certainly can choose how they want to mask separately, most colleges and universities are following that to continue the masking.”

Dr. Daphne Darmawan, a pediatrician at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, explained ways to reduce transmission indoors at home in a video, such as opening windows, minimizing visitors and more.

“90% of COVID-19 transmission occurs indoors [....], so it’s really important to improve the ventilation in your home, especially when you’re having visitors,” Darmawan said.

Fout also explained that this change was possible since there are less hospitalizations and more vaccinations.

“But the reality is that something different has happened that we haven’t seen before,” Fout said. “With the Omicron variant, [...] we saw a decoupling between cases and hospitalizations. So while we hit all time highs for cases and broke through our all time high for a previous surge very easily, we actually had fewer hospitalizations.”

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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

ANNUAL STUDENT HOUSING ENERGY AND WATER CHALLENGE PROMOTES SUSTAINABLE CHANGES ACROSS CAMPUS

ASUCD SENATE HOSTED ITS QUARTERLY TOWN HALL MEETING ON FEB. 24 SB #54, #55, #56 and #57 passed unanimously

UC Davis Student Housing and the Arboretum and Public Garden work toward creating a more eco-friendly campus through water conservation

BY ANGELINA ANGELO campus@theaggie.org UC campuses hold the annual Energy & Water Challenge to promote sustainability among university residents. This year, the sustainability team for UC Davis Student Housing tested Cool Campus, an online platform used to track all UC campuses’ challenges. The website allowed participants to score points by completing simple sustainable tasks and answering questions. It also presented rankings via a weekly scoreboard.

The challenge ran from Feb. 7 to 27 across all resident halls and on-campus housing. There were a total of 38 possible teams divided by housing location, but only 13 teams chose to participate this year.

“We are [...] promoting sustainability through small, sustainable practices that students can start on campus and then apply to apartment living and other aspects of their life,” Liz Shepherd, the Student Housing and Dining Services sustainability specialist, said.

Beyond sustainability goals in UC Davis Student Housing, the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden is also working to conserve water, according to Andrew Fulks, the assistant director of the Arboretum and Public Garden.

“This has been a long term effort beyond the current drought, though efforts are certainly advancing in ways that will deal with our current climate reality,” Fulks said via email.

The Urban Tree Stewardship team, the

Sustainable Landscape team and the Arboretum staff are working together to develop a campuswide plan entitled the Living Landscape Adaptation Plan (LLAP) that includes converting turf areas to drought-tolerant landscaping and creating a healthy tree canopy.

“The LLAP will be the roadmap toward a sustainable future as it pertains to the campus urban ecosystem,” Fulks said.

According to Shepherd, the Sustainable Housing Team saw significant participation and involvement in the water and energy challenge.

“As of Feb. 15, there are 182 users across 13 teams from the residence halls and apartments, with hundreds of actions being completed,” Shepherd said.

Malia Reiss, a second-year environmental science and management major and a student sustainability educator, echoed Shepherd’s statement.

“Hundreds of actions have already been taken, and many are quite simple,” Reiss said.

“From taking a shorter shower, turning the water off while brushing, washing your clothes in cold water, or properly sorting your trash — there are many ways to earn points.”

Students could complete other tasks like attending resident garden hours, signing up for the sustainability newsletter and unplugging any devices once they are fully charged.

“Students can take small actions to make big differences and see a change in the environment,” Reiss said.

KELLIE LU / AGGIE

AGGIE FILE

BY JENNIFER MA campus@theaggie.org The Senate meeting was called to order at 6:10 p.m. on Feb. 24 by Vice President Juliana Martinez Hernandez, who recited the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.

The quarterly Town Hall began, and the public asked the senators questions.

A member of the public asked Senator Owen Krauss about his goals for making UC Davis a more LGBTQ+ inclusive environment.

Krauss said he is working on ASUCD’s first Pride Festival at UC Davis, which is scheduled for June 2022.

The Town Hall took a new format this quarter, where senators individually chatted with members of the public. According to the senators, this is in hopes of making Town Hall meetings less intimidating, as it allows members of the public to ask questions without speaking in front of everyone.

Following the Town Hall, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion gave a presentation regarding its impact reports for the past year.

The Student Sustainability Career Fair Committee followed up with confirmations of committee members.

Chairperson of the Gender and Sexuality Commission Ashley Chan then provided the commission’s quarterly report. The report went over new additions to the commission, legislation that was seen, winter quarter events, internal projects and spring projects.

Chan also discussed Christian Baldini, the orchestra conductor at UC Davis, who was temporarily removed without pay in 2017 after substantiated allegations of sexual harassment.

Chan stated that Baldini cannot be tried for the same offense twice, and since he was previously put on probation, no further action can be taken unless more information about the original case comes to light.

The Academic Affairs Commission also provided its quarterly report. Most notably, this quarter, the commission has been working to

implement wellness days as a part of the quarter system schedule. This would “allow students to utilize a Wellness Day if they are not feeling mentally prepared to attend a lecture.” A survey asking for student input is currently open.

Next, the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission gave its quarterly report. The report mentioned collaborative events and internal projects as well the commission’s future plans.

The Housing Advising for Undergraduate Students then followed with its quarterly report.

Housing week, which will take place between Feb. 28 to March 4, was the primary highlight.

The week will have events every day that cover everything from personal finance advice and insurance advice to finding housemates or a home for next year.

Next, senators provided their elected officer reports, detailing what they did during the week.

In Public Announcements, Senator Ambar Mishra brought up implementing wellness days in the quarter system and urged the student body to complete the aforementioned survey.

In Public Discussion, Krauss touched on the current crisis in the Ukraine. He urged the table to work with him to write a letter to the chancellor and UC Regents about education visas to help Ukranians.

Martinez Hernandez then gave a presentation about ASUCD Payroll and emphasized the importance of senators logging hours for their work.

The Senate table then moved on to legislation. SR #23 is a resolution in support of the movement to make the UC Davis mascot a cow and SR #24 demands an institutional commitment to the end of fossil fuel usage on UC Davis campuses by 2030. Both resolutions were tabled and are to be on the following Senate meeting’s agenda.

SB #48 allocates $2,015.77 to the Office of ASUCD Senator Dennis Liang for marketing materials for a Senate project and task force. It failed to gain approval from the Internal Affairs Commission and has been tabled indefinitely.

SENATE on 11

LEADING ANTIRACISM ACTIVIST IBRAM X. KENDI SET TO GIVE LECTURE FOR CAMPUS COMMUNITY BOOK PROJECT “How to Be an Antiracist” author Ibram X. Kendi will speak about the Campus Community Book Project’s theme of “social justice in practice”

BY KAYA DO-KHANH campus@theaggie.org Ibram X. Kendi, a renowned Boston University history professor and the author of “How to Be an Antiracist,” will visit UC Davis to talk about his book and its relation to social justice in practice at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 31, at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

The event is organized by the Campus Community Book Project at UC Davis, an initiative out of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) that came about in response to 9/11 to bring the campus community together and promote dialogue about specific issues. “[It does this] by encouraging diverse members of the campus and surrounding communities to read the same book and attend related events,” the program’s website states.

The 2021-2022 project features leading antiracist activist Kendi’s book, “How to Be an Antiracist.” The facilitators of the project have hosted lectures, discussions and film viewings related to the book’s themes. There have been discussions about social justice, racism and antiracism across various disciplines, with programs from the Stand-Up Comedy Club to the School of Veterinary Medicine.

“We’re trying to be comprehensive in recognizing that racism is so deeply steeped in everything we do in every structure, and that applies to the various academic disciplines,” Program Co-Director Megan Macklin said.

“We’ve been really grateful for all the partnerships we’re able to build to encourage folks and to provide a space for folks around the campus and the community to talk about what social justice means in their particular field while also again having that unifying vision of what does this really mean when we’re thinking about UC Davis as an institution.”

Before his talk in the evening of March 31, Kendi will take part in a non-ticketed panel

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

discussion that is open to the public at 4 p.m. in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center. It will be a live, in-person discussion, but it will also be available via livestream for members of the UC Davis community as well as for other UC schools.

“Now that we’re doing a lot of [programming] virtually and we have those video recordings available, I think that it creates a lot of longevity to the conversation,” Macklin said.

The Campus Council on Community and Diversity, which is made up of representatives from across the UC Davis campus, chose the

project’s 2021-2022 theme to be the topic of “social justice in practice.”

“They were very, very intentional in having that ‘in practice’ component be attached to our discussion of social justice,” Macklin said. “We are not talking about how social justice might look at a very high level or how we might want it to look in the future. We wanted to have an opportunity to talk about what social justice looks like right now and what it looks like for our particular community.”

Associate Chief Diversity Officer in the Office of DEI Mikael Villalobos said that the

book project strongly aligns with the office’s mission.

“The community-building aspect of the book project is important in supporting the goals of the Office of DEI, because we have a community relations part,” Villalobos said, “and it is an avenue that really brings faculty, student, staff and the greater campus community to engage in the importance of dialogue and also explore the topics that impact us collectively in a way that is a part of supportive learning.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022 | 3

HOMELESS HIRING TAX CREDIT PASSED IN AN EFFORT TO ALLEVIATE HOMELESSNESS IN CALIFORNIA Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will pay businesses to hire individuals experiencing homelessness

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

BY SOFIA BIREN city@theaggie.org The Homeless Hiring Tax Credit (HHTC) was passed last year, became effective on Jan. 1 and will continue until Dec. 31, 2026. This initiative, passed through California Assembly Bill 150, outlines a system in which employers will be granted a tax credit if they hire an individual experiencing homelessness.

Through this program, employers can get anywhere between $2,500 and $10,000 annually in tax credits. The exact amount of the tax credit is dependent on how many hours the employee works. According to the California Franchise Tax Board, a maximum of three individuals experiencing homelessness may be employed each year, and employers can therefore be granted a maximum tax credit of $30,000.

The state has set an annual budget of $30 million for the HHTC. Any employer who

wants to participate can do so as long as they meet the criteria to hire an eligible employee.

However, the program is designed in a way that the $30 million acts as a threshold for the number of employers who can sign on. In other words, employers are able to participate until employers have collectively received $30 million in tax credits.

Every year, employers can opt to continue the program, and if they choose not to, any extra credits can roll over to the following year.

Furthermore, new employers can choose to participate in the HHTC every year until the $30 million threshold is reached.

The tax credit benefits more than just the employer. In order for the employer to participate in the program, they are required to pay the employee at least 120% of state minimum wage. Housing Policy Manager for the City of Sacramento Danielle Foster said that the tax credit is an exciting initiative, not just for the Sacramento area, but for the whole state.

“It’s really to provide a bridge from the training programs that we do in the homeless community to getting some more job experience or reentry experience into the workforce so that they can move on to the next thing or maybe move up with that same employer,” Foster said.

According to the California Franchise Tax Board, a person experiencing homelessness is eligible if they are “currently or recently homeless (within 180 days of hire) or [will] be receiving services from a homeless services provider” and be verified by a participating organization.

The HHTC relies on “certifying organizations” to connect the potential employee to an employer. These establishments are

government or community organizations that can connect people experiencing homelessness with a variety of resources. Their role is to confirm the person’s living situation, guide them through the process and finally connect them with an employer.

The implementation of the tax credit coincides with the labor shortage in the country.

HSA Coordinator for Yolo County Erica Johnson said that the tax credit came at a time when it can be beneficial to both parties.

“I think [this is an] opportunity where you have the ability to put two groups together to be able to benefit from each other,” Johnson said.

“Job seekers will be able to benefit from working with an employer and also employers will be able to benefit from getting employees and hiring from the unhoused community. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Since this is a fairly new program, many employers are still not aware that the tax credit exists. Both Yolo County and the City of Sacramento have been holding webinars for interested employers to learn about the benefits available for them.

As of 2019, the population of individuals experiencing homelessness in Yolo County was at 655, with 29% residing in Davis. According to statistics from the county, this is a 34.4% increase from 2009.

Foster and Johnson both believe that the HHTC is a promising initiative that will benefit people experiencing homelessness and will give businesses an incentive to hire individuals experiencing homelessness and pay them above the minimum wage.

CITY OF DAVIS TO INVEST IN ENVIRONMENTAL INFRASTRUCTURE AS YOLO COUNTY WORKS TOWARD GREEN ENERGY The first phase includes electric vehicle fleet procurement as part of the Electrify Yolo Project

BY CHRIS PONCE city@theaggie.org

The city of Davis has been undergoing environmental changes under the first phase of Electrify Yolo. This regional project is being led

by Davis and one of its major goals is to expand the electric vehicle fleet, as explained by Mayor Gloria Partida.

“The City of Davis is committed to doing its part to reaching carbon neutrality,” Partida said.

“Part of that is finding ways to electrify its fleet.

As part of the Electrify Yolo regional Project, of which the City of Davis is the lead agency, we have initiated the first phase of making this a reality exploring ways to install electric vehicle infrastructure. This is the first part of a phased approach to electrify Yolo.”

On Feb. 9, the city met with Jim Provenza and Don Saylor of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors to discuss the electric vehicle “fleet procurement” and other climate initiatives.

The discussion items included climate action initiatives, the adult day health center and the long range planning center. Early into the meeting, Mayor Partida spoke on the importance of cooperation between county and city efforts.

“That’s the one thing I am interested in, figuring out ways that we can align some of our efforts with the county’s efforts,” Partida said.

“Maybe we can both save some money around the efforts we are putting out.”

During the meeting, members of both the city and county expressed the benefits that can be seen from working together to implement such environmental policies. Both parties have a close relationship working together to achieve their goals of being carbon negative by 2030, according to the Director of Yolo County Community Services Department, Taro Echiburu. Echiburu described the actions that need to be taken first.

“We’re thinking that it might be advantageous for us to put together an actual electric vehicle fleet plan, to really understand what comes first,” Echiburu said. “Do we buy the vehicles first or do we [install] the charging stations first?”

The meeting also mentioned Unitrans’ plan to move to all electric and how charging stations were mapped out for its transportation. The city of Davis is making other plans to advance and encourage environmental responsibility as well.

On Feb. 16, Davis announced that it is seeking

KATHERINE FRANKS/ AGGIE nominations for the 28th Annual Environmental Recognition Awards.

Moves are also being made by the local community and county to move to green energy and combat climate change. On Feb. 23, Davis City Council announced that Valley Clean Energy is opening applications for two “at-large seats” for the Community Advisory Committee (CAC). Valley Clean Energy is responsible for providing green electric energy as part of Yolo County’s green climate initiatives. This agency includes Davis, Woodland and Winters. In an official statement, CAC member Christine Shewmaker explained the importance of the CAC and the impact it has on the environment.

“As a scientist and someone who loves the outdoors, the urgency to address climate change is clear,” Shewmaker said. “Being on the CAC

allows me to help VCE succeed in its mission: to provide clean electricity, taking real action on climate change while reinvesting in the community.”

Meetings for CAC are scheduled for the fourth Thursday of every month. Virtual meetings are available in response to the pandemic. Members will also be appointed for a three-year long term.

The CAC is responsible for advising members of Valley Clean Energy and reflecting the thoughts and opinions held by the communities that they represent (communities across Yolo County). A statement from Valley Clean Energy details each VCE jurisdiction will have two representatives (11 members for the VCE in total).

The city of Davis is encouraging applicants from diverse communities. The application

open to all residents 18 years and older can be found on a PDF listed on the Valley Clean Energy website. Applications can be submitted by mail to Valley Clean Energy at 604 2nd Street, Davis, CA 95616 or via email to Alisa.Lembke@ ValleyCleanEnergy.org The Davis community is taking strides towards green energy. Both Davis and Yolo County are continuing to work hand in hand to achieve these goals together. County Supervisor Don Saylor emphasized that the county is taking bold actions in order to achieve their plans.

“The work that the county is doing with our climate action commission, we have an aggressive goal, and a deliberate process to achieve it,” Saylor said.

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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

UC DAVIS COMMUNITY WEIGHS IN ON WORDLE CRAZE Wordle’s popularity sparks conversation about community and cognitive benefits of word games

KELLIE LU / AGGIE

BY MAYA SHYDLOWSKI features@theaggie.org In six guesses of five letters, people can test their linguistics skills daily thanks to Josh Wardle and his internationally-played word game, Wordle.

Similar to a crossword puzzle, players are given six rows of five blank letter tiles. They guess a five-letter word, receive feedback about whether the letters they chose are present in the word of the day and repeat that process until they guess the correct word — or use up all six guesses, after which they must wait until the next day for a new puzzle.

Originally, Wordle was designed by software engineer Josh Wardle for his partner, Palak Shah.

According to a New York Times article, Wardle created a prototype of the game in 2013 that didn’t pass his friends’ standards, so in 2020,

he re-coded the game after spending a lot of pandemic time playing the New York Times Spelling Bee and crossword puzzles. Wordle was first released on the internet in October 2021 and now has over 300,000 daily players and a seven-figure worth, since being purchased by the New York Times earlier this year.

Wordle’s popularity has inspired many “copycat” games with the same general outline but different rules and themes, like Absurdle and Letterle. The Davis community even has an Aggie-themed iteration: Dwordle.

The UC Davis Student Affairs Marketing and Communications (SAMC) team launched its own version of Wordle that strictly uses Davisaffiliated five-letter words like ‘barns,’ ‘dairy’ or ‘exams.’ The Davis Wordle, or Dwordle, was launched on Feb. 10 after the team noticed how big the original game was getting on social media.

Justin Ling, the associate director of SAMC, was

in charge of coding the site.

“After deciding this might be a fun thing to do, I found an open-source Wordle clone package on GitHub as the base code,” Ling said. “From there it was just a matter of people in SAMC brainstorming the list of words, rewriting some of the code, designing the layout, swapping the colors and then testing to make sure everything worked.”

For anyone interested, Ling said the code of the clone package and its author are referenced on Dwordle’s “About this game” link.

The game has gained steady popularity since its release. Via email, the SAMC team said that as of Feb. 23, the game has had about 24,000 cumulative visits, about 90% of which have been from mobile devices. The site averages about 2,000 visits per day, but the team said there is usually a small decline in numbers the day after a particularly difficult word. Their hope is that Dwordle provides students and other Aggies with a fun and challenging short break in the middle of their busy days that is specific to the Davis community.

Although Wordle does require a bit of luck, a strategy and wide vocabulary can help. Some studies even claim that these types of brain games can improve memory and attention, but that isn’t always the case, according to Joy Geng, a professor in the Department of Psychology, who explained how games like Wordle affect the brain.

“It’s not that the games don’t give your memory and attention a workout, but the question you have to ask is, ‘In what way do they improve memory and attention and relative to what?’” Geng said. “A lot of brain training games make you better at that game, but very few, or none, improve memory and attention across the board.”

These games, she said, are like workouts for the brain — as long as they’re challenging. Doing activities that are mentally challenging is like playing an instrument or even a video game; they

use your brain like a muscle. When people “work out” their brains, the cells don’t get bigger like muscles do during physical workouts, but they do form new neural connections.

“When you are challenged by something, your brain has to work hard to make an outcome happen,” Geng said. “Doing so will force your brain to make new connections.”

Geng said that different areas of the brain process different challenges, like mathematics, linguistics or even motor skills. When doing word games, you “call upon” a specific region of the brain and build connections there. Geng said that the best way to keep a brain sharp is to have new experiences and differing challenges, which unfortunately means that merely doing a Wordle every day won’t keep brains mentally sharp.

It is yet to be seen whether Wordle — and Dwordle — will retain their popularity or fade away like past internet fads, but for now, many students are enjoying playing the games.

Nicole August, a fourth-year psychology student, said that she plays Wordle daily, despite her opinion that it has gotten more challenging in recent weeks. “[Wordle is] something fun to look forward to day after day, but the New York Times has made it harder than the original creator intended,” August said.

Many students have expressed that both Wordle and Dwordle words seem to be of varying degrees of difficulty, but Christina Randall, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, said that the harder Wordles and Dwordles are what keep the games interesting.

“Some of the word choices are funny, but they can also be so hard,” Randall said. “It’s satisfying to guess the right word on the first couple of tries, but the challenging words are what makes it fun.

Plus, my friends and I share our results, so it’s funny to hear everyone complain about the extra tough days.”

UC DAVIS LECTURER, STUDENT DISCUSS ROMANTIC STEREOTYPES, HETERONORMATIVITY A gender studies lecturer and a student point to potentially harmful tropes and more inclusive plotlines that they hope to see in future romantic comedies

BY SOPHIA PLACHE-CREECH features@theaggie.org

Every Valentine’s Day, many of us curl up on our sofas and watch — and day dream about — romantic comedies from our childhood, but many of these early 2000’s romantic comedies are now being discussed and reframed as problematic because of some of their sexist and heteronormative plotlines.

Some students believe that romantic comedies portray false narratives of women and paint them in a negative light while reinforcing and adding to stereotypes about the way women act in relationships. They can also create unrealistic expectations about how relationships should be and write gender roles for men and women, according to second-year gender studies major Sachi Gunderia.

“When you’re looking at the different types of women in these movies, you can put each one into boxes,” Gunderia said.

“Ten Things I Hate About You” characters Kat and Bianca are examples of some of these tropes. Bianca is a more “conventionally feminine” character whose actions often revolve around boys. Kat is more moody and a passionate feminist. These characters exemplify the stereotypes that feminists are angry and standoffish and that more feminine women aren’t intelligent.

Gunderia explained that women are far more complex.

“I can be a feminist and love pink and not be angry all the time,” Gunderia said.

KELLIE LU/ AGGIE Furthermore, Gunderia said that in many movies, female characters’ arcs often revolve around men, which she said is backed by the Bechdel Test. The test evaluates sexism in movies by checking for three criteria: (1) two female characters (2) having a conversation about (3) something other than a man.

“It requires so little of a movie,” Gunderia said. “Just two women speaking to each other about anything other than a man. So many movies do not pass this test. For the reverse Bechdel Test with men, [more] pass, which is a great representation of how messed up the media

is.”

Dr. Sarah Thompson, a lecturer on film in the gender, sexuality and women’s studies department, shared a similar sentiment regarding the Bechdel Test. “[It] is such a low bar to clear and yet so many films fail to clear that bar, and this realization gives you a starting point to ask why that might be,” Dr. Thompson said via email.

The romantic comedy “Love Actually” does pass this test, with a single conversation between a mother and daughter about a lobster costume.

But Gunderia pointed out that even some of

the movies that pass do so with conversations revolving around topics stereotypically discussed by women, like babies, marriage or wine.

“How hard is it to have two women talking about literally anything else?” Gunderia said.

Gunderia said that these movies also construct narratives about how women should act in relationships, which can lead to self doubt and make women change their behavior to appear more “attractive” to men.

“Men like the unattainable, cold women in movies,” Gunderia said. “Why are these men so attracted to the word ‘no’?”

Another concern that Dr. Thompson pointed out is that many rom-coms are fairly heteronormative.

“The assumption is usually that everyone is heterosexual and must be monogamously paired off, probably with marriage and children in the works, before life is complete,” Dr. Thompson said via email.

In “Love Actually,” although there are nine relationship story lines, each one involves a man and a woman and most of the characters are white — the only character that isn’t doesn’t have any dialogue.

Gunderia said that even in recent movies that include more queer relationships and diverse casts, a lot of the representation makes that representation the focal point ofthe plot or seems like tokenism. Dr. Thomson expressed the ways in which they hope future rom-coms will show more realistic relationships.

ROMCOMS on 11

UC DAVIS STUDENTS, PROFESSOR WEIGH IN ON U.S.’ DIPLOMATIC BOYCOTT OF THE WINTER OLYMPICS The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing spark conversation about the role of politics in sports and the effectiveness of boycotts

BY ALINA ISSAKHANIAN features@theaggie.org Much conversation around the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, has been focused on the current human rights crisis in the country.

Globally, governments and international entities have chosen to diplomatically boycott the games, citing harsh human rights violations committed by the Chinese government in recent years.

In March 2021, the Biden administration declared China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims a genocide, officially categorizing it as a crime against humanity. According to the Human Rights Report discussing the poor treatment of Uyghur Muslims, China was involved in the imprisonment, torture, enforced sterilization and persecution of Uyghurs, as well as members of other religious and ethnic groups.

The U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada have diplomatically boycotted the games in an effort to call out the human rights abuses in China.

While each country has its own definition of

boycotting, generally, it includes that dignitaries representing the country’s government do not attend the games while athletes still get to compete.

UC Davis professor of political science and Department of International Relations director Ethan Scheiner explained that international power dynamics play a large role in who does and does not boycott in situations like these.

“The United States, in particular, is one of the few countries that has less to fear from Chinese retaliation than other countries,” Scheiner said.

“The fact that the United States is such a big country is a big factor. Also, the United States actually has a much stronger stake in pushing for democracy and has done so for a longer period of time, whereas others have been less inclined to do so.”

Many believe that the U.S. should have taken a stronger stance in opposition to China’s human rights violations, since they are classified as crimes against humanity. Scheiner said that he does not believe that the diplomatic boycott will be very effective, and that both the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics could

have been opportunities for the U.S. to make a more impactful statement.

“What China learned in 2008 when it hosted the Summer Olympics was, ‘Hey, we can do whatever we want, and nobody’s gonna make us change,’” Scheiner said. “We saw that carryover where China became increasingly aggressive between 2008 and 2022. Nobody ever called them on it and so now the problem still exists. So in many ways, either in 2008 or in 2022, [this] was sort of a lost opportunity to send a stronger signal.”

However, Scheiner explained that most likely, the U.S. did not take any other steps because of international power dynamics and economic concerns.

“If China wanted to, it could lash out at the United States in various economic ways,” Scheiner said. “American companies and sports leagues — especially the NBA — are terrified of losing the Chinese market [...] If China wanted to boycott the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, and not show it on television or market it at home, that would have an economic impact on the ability of people trying to hold

AMY YU/ AGGIE

those Olympics and athletes competing in them to make money using the Chinese market.”

OLYMPICBOYCOTT on 11

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THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022 | 5

OPINION KEEP WEARING A MASK IF IT MAKES YOU FEEL SAFE

THE

C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

EDITO RIA L B OA RD ANJINI VENUGOPAL Editor-in-Chief

As mask mandates relax in California, it is important to continue practices that make you and your community comfortable Sometimes it’s hard to remember a time when we did not wear masks in populated spaces. With two years passed since the start of the pandemic, grabbing a mask on our way out the door has become a part of many of our daily routines.

This could soon change with California’s latest mask mandate revision. As of March 1, California no longer requires unvaccinated individuals to wear masks in indoor public settings. Additionally, by the end of the day on March 11, masks will no longer be required by the state of California in K-12 and childcare settings. The California Department of Public Health, however, still “strongly recommends” individuals to keep wearing masks in these indoor settings even when the universal requirement ends, regardless of vaccination status.

Yolo County is aligning with these guidelines, as the mask mandate at K-12 schools and childcare facilities will switch to a strong recommendation on March 12. But some other school districts have not followed suit: San Francisco public schools announced “no changes” to their indoor mask regulations for the month of March.

Chancellor Gary May has stated that the indoor mask requirement will remain at UC Davis at least through the end of winter quarter. Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Croughan announced that she hopes and expects the campus will resume normal operations in the fall. So, will indoor mask mandates be lifted at UC Davis in the near future? It’s not clear yet, but as the university continues to work with Yolo County’s Public Health Officer Aimee Sisson, these requirements could change.

While the “maskne” benefits to ditching face coverings do sound enticing, some people are probably not quite ready to bare their naked faces once again in classrooms, grocery stores, gyms and other public places. Many have come to trust and find security in the protection that masks provide us — as proven by science.

When the majority of people in public settings are correctly and consistently wearing masks, the transmission of COVID-19 is slowed. Wearing masks, especially tight-fitting N95s and KN95s, reduces the chances of infection by 83%, according to a study published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention. It’s these benefits that make some people — including members of the Editorial Board — hesitant to forgo masks in some situations, especially indoors.

Also, this isn’t the first time that mask requirements have been removed from most indoor settings. While it’s true that circumstances are different now, let’s not forget about June 2021 when California attempted to lift indoor mask mandates to allow its economy to fully reopen. Now, almost a year later, we all remember how that went: Cases surged over the summer. A universal indoor mask mandate was reinstated six months later in Dec. 2021 when a new, extremely transmissible variant emerged in California.

With that in mind, it’s reasonable to feel hesitant about removing masks right now. While we trust health officials to make the best decisions for the safety of the community at large, individuals can make their own decisions for when they are ready to remove their masks (while continuing to follow health guidelines, of course). And they should not feel judged by their decision to keep wearing masks in places they are no longer required. People’s comfort levels may differ, so remember not to judge others as long as they’re following guidelines.

It’s also necessary that people respect others around them. If businesses or schools are still requiring masks, people must still wear them. By entering public spaces, individuals are agreeing to whatever rules are set in place. But regardless of the regulations, we encourage everyone to be thoughtful of those around you. Even if masks are not required at a certain place, consider putting on a mask if those around you are uncomfortable by your lack of face covering.

Let’s not forget that masks are still strongly recommended in all indoor spaces. In the end, it’s your decision as to whether you feel comfortable taking off your mask inside, but don’t take this as a cue to make unsafe decisions. We must continue being considerate of everyone around us to ensure we all stay safe.

WRITTEN BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

MARGO ROSENBAUM Managing Editor SOPHIE DEWEES Campus News Editor MADELEINE PAYNE City News Editor EDEN WINNIFORD Opinion Editor KATIE DEBENEDETTI Features Editor ALLIE BAILEY Arts & Culture Editor OMAR NAVARRO Sports Editor MICHELLE WONG Science & Tech Editor

KATHLEEN QUINN New Media Manager BENJAMIN CHENG Photo Director KATHERINE FRANKS Design Director JOELLE TAHTA Layout Director ANNE THISELTON-DYER Copy Chief SABINE LLOYD Copy Chief DARSHAN SHIVAKUMAR Website Manager ANTHONY NGUYEN Social Media Manager JOSHUA GAZZANIGA Distribution Manager JENNA HEATH Marketing Manager JELENA LAPUZ Outreach Director LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

I’LL TAKE GROCERY SHOPPING IN PERSON OVER INSTACART, ANY DAY How the grocery store is my personal oasis

BY NADIA ANEES nsanees@ucdavis.edu

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

One of my favorite activities is taking a trip to the grocery store. It’s a place where I feel safe and content. A place where being alone doesn’t feel strange. A place where asking for help is normal. A place where striking up mundane conversations is commonplace.

I think the grocery store is one of the best ways for people to unplug in their daily lives.

Why? Well, having food is a necessity for us to survive, so making the trip to get your fuel for the week becomes a mini-escape from your everyday tasks.

When we’re not eating, we’re probably at work, studying, staring at screens or stressing over something. The grocery store is the one place that we can be doing something other than attending meetings and staring at multiple screens. There, we can tune out the world and tune into our

senses. You can smell the fresh flowers as soon as you walk in, the scent of coffee roasting at the coffee shop inside; you can feel the produce to pick the best-looking ones and absorb the bright colors and patterns of the produce and products lining the tall aisles.

I fully understand the convenience and ease of ordering groceries online, and admittedly, I’ve benefited from these services myself.

Instacart is extremely convenient. Instacart was also especially helpful when I was living with immunocompromised people while COVID-19 cases were soaring since it meant avoiding the anxiety-inducing grocery store trip. Many people have health concerns that lower their incentive to go grocery shopping in person, and so they will most likely continue to prefer using online grocery services.

Although online grocery shopping is convenient, the satisfaction of having crossed items off your checklist when ordering groceries online isn’t there. Oftentimes, there’s uncertainty over whether you’ll even receive the items you had selected, or if they will look like they’re in a usable condition.

Grocery shopping in the physical supermarket can prompt inspiration and ideas for someone, while grocery shopping online can start and end within five minutes, which usually doesn’t provide the same outlet for creativity and time to be present. In an already stressful environment between work and school, for me, the grocery store is a safe place for me to slow myself down, even for the short duration of the trip.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.

A CASE FOR TAKING NOTES BY HAND Handwritten notes can help cut down on study time

BY OWEN RUDERMAN opruderman@ucdavis.edu Like many students, I despise studying. I’ve looked up every trick in the book to try to help me stay focused and motivated, but to no avail. I always end up being sucked into the YouTube rabbit hole or doom-scrolling endlessly on my phone. But it turns out that you don’t have to do all of your studying after your lecture, back at your distraction-filled home. Instead, you can fight half the battle right in the classroom. And it starts with taking notes by hand.

I understand the appeal of taking notes on a laptop, trust me.

It was so much easier and more convenient to take notes on the computer during the Zoom era of schooling. And it’s so much faster to type than it is to handwrite notes (at least for me). Also,

I can easily access Canvas or my files if I have my laptop with me, and I can easily search the notes that I’ve written for key words or phrases.

But the thing is, writing notes on a laptop is a dangerous game.

It’s so much easier to be distracted when you’re taking notes on a laptop. I can play a game or watch a video in class instead of taking notes, just like I do at home when I should be studying. And because it’s so much easier and faster to type on a laptop, I find myself simply transcribing what the lecturer is saying and copying down what appears on the slides, instead of actually engaging with the material.

NOTES on 11 KELLIE LU / AGGIE

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.

HUMOR

AN OPEN LETTER TO PEOPLE WEARING SWEATSHIRTS WITH THE NAMES OF BETTER SCHOOLS ON THEM Just go to Harvard and stop blocking the bike path But probably the same amount of Machete Men. rate). Columbia (ranked No. 2 by U.S. News) That’s why whenever I see someone wearing has literally nothing on UCD (ranked No. 38). merch from a better school, I yell, “No!” and spell I know this because at least twice a quarter, a out “University of California, Davis” with my professor who went to Stanford tells me not to I’m not here to fashion-bash nor trendarms. Yes, including the comma. Unfortunately, worry about the fact that I’m not at Stanford, defend. I have a simple question. People here I often get confused and start doing the YMCA, even though I had expressed no worries about who wear clothes emblazoned with other schools’ which really sends mixed signals. At this point, not being at Stanford. I was just asking about names on them: Do you know where you attend the person has usually just walked past me, and the syllabus. Please grade my Week 3 midterm. college? It’s UC Davis. UC, like “you see”. Juicy locals start offering me coins for what they assume Please. without the “j”. Davis as in “Daviscardia,” the is an interpretive dance performance. Obviously, I’m just saying if you want to wear a UPenn famous genus of moths. That’s an easy trick to I take them, but it’s not what I wanted. hoodie on your way to failing a psychology help you remember.

Look, I’m not saying that Princeton (average midterm, please incorporate a sense of irony. Also I see a lot of confused people on campus every graduate income $72,700) is in any way better maybe don’t, because UPenn merch is mostly day who don’t seem to remember where they go than UC Davis (average graduate income ugly. to school. I know you mumble the “D” in UCD $42,600). I would never imply that there is any Think of your peers. I have very poor spatial when you talk to your Ivy League friends, but noteworthy difference between Brown (5.4% awareness and directionality, so I might get this is not Los Angeles. They have fewer cows. acceptance rate) and UC Davis (49% acceptance confused and think I’ve walked to Pennsylvania Disclaimer: (This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.)

BY ANNABEL MARSHALL almarshall@ucdavis.edu

CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE instead of the CoHo. And you don’t know me like that, but being in Pennsylvania is actually my nightmare.

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SCIENCE AND TECH UC DAVIS ELECTROPHYSIOLOGIST PERFORMS MINIMALLY INVASIVE NOVEL PACEMAKER PROCEDURE IN CHILDREN The Micra is the smallest leadless pacemaker in the world to be implanted in children as young as two years old

KELLIE LU / AGGIE

BY BRANDON NGUYEN science@theaggie.org Congenital complete heart block, a rare condition that disrupts rhythmic electrical conduction responsible for regular pumping of the heart, affects about one in 15,000 to 22,000 children. Owen Clark’s 10-year-old daughter Avery was affected by this condition as a result of a rare mitochondrial disorder, requiring medical attention and the implementation of a pacemaker to restore rhythmic, physiological heart pumping.

Dr. Daniel Cortez, a pediatric electrophysiologist at the UC Davis Medical Center, offered the Clarks two types of pacemakers: the traditional pacemaker and a small leadless pacemaker about the size of a battery.

“The choice was pretty straightforward,” Clark said. “We wanted the smaller one, without

all of the leads and cords. It could be implanted directly into her heart without surgery.”

The small leadless pacemaker created by Medtronic, also known as the Micra, is the world’s first leadless pacemaker and was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2016. According to Medtronic’s website, “Micra’s accelerometer detects mechanical atrial activity and uses this information to deliver AV [atrioventricular] synchronous ventricular pacing. [The Micra] delivers an estimated average battery longevity of 8–13 years, depending on the patient’s degree of AV block.”

Cortez made notable comparisons between the traditional pacemaker option and the Micra.

“For a super active kid, the problem with traditional pacemakers is that the wires break all the time,” Cortez said. “Even if you’re able to place it through sort of a regular adult way, which is through an incision in the chest and putting wires into the heart connecting to the battery,

children still deal with issues like erosion of the skin and tissue because it’s just so big for a little kid. And the little kid is going to grow, so their wires are going to get stretched out, and they’re going to break.”

Replacing the leads or wires connected to the pacemaker right underneath the skin can be a dangerous procedure. Cortez said that lead extraction, which involves surgically opening the patient’s chest, has a risk of death, as high as one in every 100 people.

Fortunately, with the Micra, the procedure is minimally invasive, involving the threading of the small pacemaker with an IV tube through a blood vessel before eventual release inside the right ventricle of the heart.

“Recently, we had to get a little more creative, so there’s actually a handle mechanism that involves a little cup in the tube that you use to push it out, so the pacemaker sits in a little container as part of the catheter,” Cortez said.

“A bending mechanism that I do with my hands three feet away from the patient holding the tubes helps push the pacemaker out. The pacemaker actually has a line, so it’s essentially like a fishing line that it’s [the Micra] still connected to after you deploy it. That’s a retrieval and so if you need to get it back, you just have to align the cup to the back of the device and then put the larger sheath over it.”

Cortez is the first physician in Northern California to insert the pacemaker through a neck vein, as most typically thread the pacemaker through a leg vein. In pediatric patients like Avery, on whom Cortez operated, the leg vein is too small for the Micra pacemaker and risks rupture of leg veins. Though the leadless pacemaker presents advantages in terms of size and its lack of cords, Cortez did provide insight into some of its current disadvantages.

“So one issue is really retrieval, where we know we might have to abandon the device and there are studies, where if you abandon the device for several years, nothing really happens, and the heart just goes around it and encapsulates it,” Cortez said. “But if it presents problems, we have to go in and open up the chest to extract the pacemaker, which is why I don’t use it all that often. The other thing is it’s hard to do physiologic pacing or the normal conduction system with the Micra compared to the traditional pacemaker with leads.”

Nonetheless, the leadless pacemaker is an alternative to traditional pacemakers, especially in the right patients who present potentially shorter life spans or serious heart conditions.

Following her procedure, Avery has been able to resume normal physical activities. The pacemaker will last her for the next 12 to 20 years before a follow-up procedure with the traditional pacemaker, depending on how often her heart requires synchronous pacing. Cortez is able to monitor pacemakers remotely to ensure they still work in between routine checkups.

“For a minimally invasive pacemaker procedure where patients can come in the same day, I put one stitch on the neck afterwards; I take that stitch out the next day; they go home and that’s the whole procedure,” Cortez said.

“There’s no risk of infection here and no big incision where they don’t have to have their chest cut open. I think the Micra will help push forward the safety and ability to use these leadless pacemakers in different ways that had been traditionally thought.”

COMMUNITY SCIENCE INITIATIVE THE SEED PILE PROJECT STUDIES NATIVE SEED GROWTH IN HUMAN-DOMINANTED ENVIRONMENTS The project, which dispersed seeds by way of community participation, is led by Miridae Living Labs in collaboration with the UC Davis Department of Human Ecology

BY SONORA SLATER science@theaggie.org Urban areas aren’t known for being kind to plants: herbicides, lawnmowers and landscape management teams often interfere with the germination of native, local seeds. But The Seed Pile Project, a citizen science initiative by Miridae Living Labs and the UC Davis Department of Human Ecology, is researching which species of plants are able to thrive in human-dominated environments, how they do it and why human disturbances might actually help some of these species establish themselves.

Miridae Living Labs is a nonprofit shoot-off of the Miridae sustainable landscape architecture company. According to their website, they aim to “develop [the] best practices for the landscaping industry and [restore] native biodiversity in humandominated areas.”

Billy Krimmel, one of the co-founders of Miridae and a leader of The Seed Pile Project, said that the idea for the project sprung out of his experience with native plant landscaping.

“One of the challenges I’ve always had is how to incorporate some of these seed-dispersed species that I really like,” Krimmel said. “Tarweed is my favorite plant, and it’s super important habitat-wise, but it’s too messy for a typical residential design.

There’s a lot of super important habitat plants that are just difficult to integrate into design landscapes; they don’t stay put, or a lot of them are annuals and they die off every year.”

According to Krimmel, he sees this project as an opportunity to “embrace establishing seed-dispersed species in urban areas.”

“Along Highway 50, you see tarweed growing along the side of the road, or there’s native sunflowers growing,” Krimmel said.

“Some of these are really hard to even establish in a garden or in your backyard, but they’re great in these areas, so why does that happen? There’s a lot of questions about how we can embrace disturbance in cities as an opportunity.”

For the first iteration of the project last year, Krimmel and Haven Kiers, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Ecology at UC Davis, dispersed the seeds themselves, kept track of their locations and monitored their germination and growth over time.

This year, they scaled it up by inviting the public to participate in the seed dispersal. The first year, around 50 seed piles were monitored — this year, that number grew to 2,000.

One of the ways the seeds were distributed was by flyers posted around the Davis and Sacramento areas, along with plantable seed paper.

“The seed starters are made with custom seed-mix,” the flyer reads. “Please take a sheet of Plantable seed paper and look for an overlook spot in your neighborhood, parking lot, empty lots or your garden and drop the paper with a little bit of water.”

Caroline Larsen-Bircher, the second co-founder of Miridae, elaborated on how they collected community data.

“Participants get their free packet of native seeds, register online, dump their seed packet in an urban environment like an alley, sidewalk, bike path, along a highway, etc., then each month fill out a data form checking for how many of each type of plant is

A flyer for the Seed Pile Project hangs on a pillar in downtown Davis, along with several pieces of plantable seed paper strung up above it (Sonora Slater / Aggie). sprouting,” Larsen-Bircher said via email. “We’ve been blown away by the enthusiasm from different communities. Families with kids of all ages have used it as a [COVID-]friendly activity. Educators have used it as a science and data lesson for their classes.”

This year, the project utilized Google Forms to collect information, according to Krimmer. However, in the future they hope to develop an app to streamline and simplify the project.

“Next year, we’re hoping to expand the project to a greater area in Sacramento, the Bay area, and the Los Angeles area,” LarsenBircher said. “We will be moving to a web-based community science platform with a mobile app, which we think will greatly improve the user experience both from a data entry and data management perspective.”

Larsen-Bircher said that they’re beginning to analyze the data from this year’s experience and talked about what they hope to learn. “[We] are excited to learn about which types of native plants can survive and even thrive in extreme environments,” LarsenBircher said. “If we are able to identify native species that can help restore areas such as along highways in a low-cost, low-energy manner like passive seeding, we can greatly increase the overall proportion of native plant habitat for the other species that depend on them, such as insects and birds.”

Krimmer said that many of the plants they’re studying do poorly in competition with other species, and in this way, urban

disturbances can actually help them.

“For example, turkey mullein germinates late in the season,” Krimmer said. “A lot of the city managers who are doing road control, they apply herbicides in the early spring so it kills a lot of their early-germinating competitors, and then turkey mullein is able to germinate.”

He went on to describe what they’re hoping to learn in the long term.

“We’re looking at this as a study that we’ll do every year, you know, forever,” Krimmer said. “The project is all about figuring out which of these species could be best suited for urban existence and then what human disturbances influence their existence.”

Larsen-Bircher added that, in addition to their goal of research, the team is just as interested in the opportunity to use the project as a tool to engage the public.

“We love that the Seed Pile Project is fun, educational, and valuable research,” Larsen-Bircher said. “But [it’s] also a very low barrier entry point into learning about plants, biology, and the natural world around you. Anyone can participate regardless of age, education background, or where they live.”

Krimmel offered some final thoughts on the positive benefits of dispersing native seeds.

“Even if we don’t learn a thing,” Krimmer said, “we’re putting down 70 pounds of native, locally grown seeds in the area in places where they might otherwise not exist.”

ARTS & CULTURE THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022 | 9

DAVIS ART MARKET: A BOLD EXAMPLE OF ARTIST EMPOWERMENT But the future of the art market is uncertain

BY CORALIE LOON arts@theaggie.org

A vendor selling handmade items at the Davis Art Market.

(Coralie Loon / Aggie).

The Davis Art Market is a community-organized street vending market that takes place every Saturday on 3rd and B street. A block away from the more “formal” Davis Farmers Market, local artists, students and creators set up every weekend to sell paintings, jewelry, tarot card readings, clothes, stickers, music, zines and more. But in the past few weeks, the future of the well-loved community has been uncertain.

The Art Market started a year and a half ago when Heron Rana, its current facilitator and social media manager, decided to

spontaneously sell art with her friends on the street. After that day, she said, “it just boomed and more people kept showing up. A lot of new artists would show up every week.”

Amber Parks (@feralgaycrafts on Instagram), a UC Davis evolutionary anthropology alumn, started making and selling animal bone jewelry at the market last year, and is now beginning to sell their products on Etsy. The Art Market has been a big inspiration for them.

“When I was a student, I never did anything creative… because at the time I didn’t think that I could,” Parks said. “But then I was talking to other people that sold there and they were like, ‘Yeah, you can just start doing whatever and people will like it and vibe with it.’”

For Parks and many others, the Art Market is about finding a creative community that will support you. Independent artist Q Ezekiel (@q.creationz on Instagram), who has sold colorful accessories and “wearable art” at the market since last year, reflected on the people who sell at and visit the market.

“That’s one of my favorite things, is to see people who I would just want to know,” Ezekiel said. “They’re not just customers, you know.”

The self-sustaining and community-organized quality of the market is what makes it stand out from similar markets: There’s no one to ask permission from, and there’s no need to pay fees or sign up weeks in advance. The market’s spirit can be summed up in three simple words: Just show up.

This is why, according to Rana, when the Davis Business Association threatened the market due to complaints from the Farmers Market and local businesses a few weeks ago, many vendors and artists were concerned. However, California State Senate Bill 946 (SB-946) protects vendors selling on sidewalks,

which means that the city has no legal precedent for shutting down the market.

Still, Rana said that the Davis Business Association wants to “work with” the Art Market by making it an official event, which would mean restrictions, permits and location and time changes.

The Davis Business Association was contacted on Feb. 21 and did not respond for comment as of Feb. 27.

Toni Rizzo (artifulworld.com), a local artist who sells acrylic pour paintings and stickers at the market and online, has gone to other markets but appreciates the freedom of this one.

“I love doing any market, but there’s all these fees and permits and things that you have to do, and it can be really hard, especially when you’re just getting started selling art or if it’s not your fulltime job,” Rizzo said.

Despite SB-946, Rana’s recent conversation with the Davis Business Association revealed that there are ways they may try to work around the law and force the market to comply, although the specifics of such regulations have not been discussed.

While she is willing to move forward with an open mind, to Rana, the magic of the market rests in its lack of formal organization, in the fact that it happens simply because people decide to show up. In her eyes, the market is often misunderstood as profit-based, “and that’s not what it’s about,” she said. “From my perspective, we are building community, and we’re supporting each other.”

For now, the Art Market continues to fill Davis with vibrance and creativity every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. More information can be found on their Instagram (@davis_street_ market).

COMMENTARY: CROCHET’S EVOLVING RELATIONSHIP TO FEMININITY How this once “domestic” activity is being reclaimed and becoming more popular

BY CORALIE LOON arts@theaggie.org Crocheting, a textile technique that involves using a hook to turn loops of yarn into intricate cloth patterns, has been around for centuries, but thanks to social media, it has had a recent resurgence in popularity. While it is still a gendered craft, the relationship between crocheting and femininity has changed in some important ways.

According to a Martha Stewart article, Mademoiselle Riego, often referred to as the “Mother of Crochet,” published the first book on Irish crochet in 1846, which inspired a surge in crocheting in Ireland and England before its expansion to America.

With the Industrial Revolution in the mid19th century, crocheting became a popular hobby as middle and upper-class women had more free time to twiddle their thumbs. Thus, the image of a Victorian housewife busy crocheting garments for her and her children was born.

Tasks such as quilting, sewing, crocheting or doing needlework have been traditionally tied to domestic conceptions of femininity. The portrait of a woman doing meticulous craftwork is not only prevalent in historical media but intrinsically tied to definitions of femininity that rely on concepts of service, domesticity, delicacy and beauty.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s 1875 painting, “Woman Crocheting,” depicts the soft and romanticized figure of a woman doing exactly what the title suggests — crocheting, but also posing for the man who is theoretically painting

her, as if fulfilling his expectations of femininity.

Of course, a lot has changed between then and now. As a Reno News & Review article explains, crochet fell out of popularity with the rise of second-wave feminism, ditched as an old-fashioned, leftover piece of the patriarchy.

Women were in the process of rewriting femininity, pushing for new spots in the workplace that had been denied to them for so long, and sitting home and crocheting colorful blankets just seemed to have lost its previous appeal.

Femininity, however, is still being rewritten.

As the backlash to the recent M&M redesign, in which the infamous green M&M’s go-go boots were replaced with sneakers, showed us, ditching traditionally “feminine” elements in favor of traditionally “masculine” ones is a feminist tactic that is being questioned, and the mainsteamification of crochet could be an example of this.

Crochet has experienced a spike in popularity since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic: a few YouTube searches or scrolls through TikTok and you will inevitably find a tutorial on how to crochet all sorts of items, from bags to gloves to water bottle holders. Ironically enough, for many, the beginning of lockdown mimicked the historical experience of many middle-class European and American women: stuck at home without a traditional job and a minimal social life.

Like then, modern crochet trends are deeply intertwined with femininity. The community of crochet-creators (whether selling their products on Etsy, writing crochet patterns or posting video tutorials) is dominated by women who create

CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE mostly feminine pieces, seeing as popular crochet clothing sold on Etsy tends to be cropped, bikinistyle tops, skirts and the occasional cardigan.

Despite this, the craft holds a much different relationship with femininity than it once did.

Male or gender non-conforming crocheters (and customers) break the perception of who can participate in traditionally female activities, and items such as oversized sweaters, bucket hats and beanies are popular in part for their gender neutrality. Most importantly, young people today are exploring the world of crochet not because it is expected of them, but because they enjoy it and because it is a creative form of self-expression

that counters the suffocation of participating in a traditional workforce.

It comes as no surprise that younger generations, increasingly well-versed in capitalism’s grip on social attitudes, may find value in art or traditionally “domestic” activities as they question why these activities have been societally undervalued.

While current crochet trends could benefit from being more gender-inclusive, the practice serves to reclaim and rewrite “femininity” as something that is useful for all genders and all people interested in expanding creative autonomy.

IN LOVING MEMORY OF DAFT PUNK Remembering the electronic music duo’s biggest hits, and honoring their lesser known but just as groovy tracks

BY ANGIE CUMMINGS arts@theaggie.org It has been approximately one year and a week since we lost the world’s most beloved French robot musical duo: Daft Punk.

Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, the artists behind the masks, announced the end of their decadespanning musical career together on Feb. 22, 2021, and as we go into March 2022, their songs have not lost any cultural relevance.

While the depths of their vast discography might not be well known to everyone, Daft Punk is anything but obscure. The first songs of theirs that come to mind are typically their collaborations with huge names in music over the past 20 years or so, most notably Pharrell, Kanye West and The Weeknd. These include some radio and Billboard hits that we have grown up with and deserve to be revisited again and again.

Going all the way back to 2001 (were you even born yet?), Daft Punk released a piece of music that arguably rivals Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in its historic levels of auditory perfection and general impact. This song is none other than “Harder Better Faster Stronger,” with a whopping 12 unique words repeated in different orders, tones and speeds. Listening to this song has been known to cause anything from a slight head nod or a shoulder bounce to a full mind-body-and-soul ascension into another dimension. The song builds up, taking twists and turns that never cease to excite and somehow metaphysically scratch that itch at the back of your brain. “Harder Better Faster Stronger” is a perfect song in every way. It is at this point that I must disclose that I personally know next to nothing about the technicalities of music production.

While this almost five minute long loop of a few words may not have affected the vast majority of listeners, it is almost impossible to have not heard the sound before as it was prominently used in Kanye West’s hit “Stronger” (2007). Of course, West is an incredibly controversial figure today, but there is no denying his knack for making music — especially on his critically acclaimed third album, “Graduation,” on which this is one of the top songs.

This song solidified Daft Punk’s place in the burgeoning future of genre-transcending music in the 21st century.

Perhaps the next huge Daft Punk song that was played far past enjoyment on the radio and at school dances was “Get Lucky”

Daft Punk at global premiere of Tron: Legacy in Los Angeles, 2010. (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license) featuring Pharell & Nile Rogers (2013). Having almost a decade of respite since that song took over, and revisiting it with fresh ears, there is no wonder why it basically achieved world domination for a while. Pharrell really could not have said it better: We are all in fact “up all night for good fun.” Maybe it is just odd middle school nostalgia, but the groove of this song makes you feel light and airy with a nice sprinkling of swag.

From the same album as “Get Lucky” came another impeccable song that might not have had the same immense cultural impact, but still seamlessly blended Daft Punk’s genius with the vocals of a big name in music. “Instant Crush,” featuring Julian Casablancas, the lead singer of The Strokes, is one of those songs that you can listen to once, suddenly realize it is almost over and need to replay it just because there is too much goodness in (what feels like) such

a short time. As it happens with many Strokes songs, just listening to the sound of Casablancas’ voice makes for a full yet relaxed experience, but choosing to pay attention to the lyrics makes the song cut that much deeper.

Most recently, Daft Punk returned to the collective consciousness with their features on The Weeknd’s show-stopping singles “I Feel It Coming” and the album’s titular track “Starboy” (2016). Similar to what happened with “Get Lucky” three years earlier, it was incredibly hard to escape the clutches of these singles for most of 2016 and 2017 — and again, this was for good reason.

This album marked the beginning of The Weeknd’s distinctly ‘80s and synth-filled R&B style that he has continued to evolve for the past six years, and with Daft Punk’s expertise on all things synth and electronic, these two singles are some of the most delicioussounding songs to flood our airwaves in a long time.

Even in their very first album from 1997 there are classics like “Around the World” and “Da Funk” — a lyricless, electronic and funky five and a half minutes of fun. In all honesty, there are countless other Daft Punk songs from the depths of their discography that I could praise for far too long, but the point is Daft Punk has hits worth the hype as well as some equally strong hidden gems.

After a long year of grieving our loss of any future Daft Punk releases, the duo took to social media on the anniversary of their breakup, which also happened to be the 25th anniversary of their debut album, “Homework” (1997). They posted cryptic messages before re-releasing a new edition of “Homework” as well as posting a special streaming of a concert from 1997 (sans helmets) to their now vacant Twitch account.

This momentary return begs the question: Will we be lucky enough to hear new Daft Punk creations in the future? Whether or not they return, the world is forever indebted to these French robots for some of the most delectable and fresh mixes, collaborations and original creations.

10 | THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

ARTS & CULTURE

COUCH CONCERT: CARPOOL TUNNEL Meet the San Francisco-based band with a laid-back Californian quality, complemented by an indierock sound

Members of the band Carpool Tunnel. From left to right: Ben Koppenjan, Bradley Kearsley, Spencer Layne and Junior Reed. (Carpool Tunnel / Courtesy)

BY CLARA FISCHER arts@theaggie.org Carpool Tunnel’s career began like any great modern love story — on Tinder. Well, not exactly Tinder: The group initially met on the app Vampr, which lead singer and rhythmic guitarist Ben Koppenjan described as a “Tinder for musicians.”

One van and a clever name (courtesy of a friend in Santa Barbara’s whiteboard crowded with ideas) later, the band has made waves in the music scene with a laid-back sound described by lead guitarist and backup vocalist Bradley Kearsley as “a blend of modern and vintage, like classic 70’s rock… very California.”

The group is composed of Koppenjan, Kearsley, bassist and high harmonist Spencer Layne and drummer and backup vocalist Junior Reed.

“We kind of clicked instantly,” Koppenjan said. “[We] started focusing on Carpool Tunnel, came up with the name within a week, and then within a month or two we had already bought a van and played our first couple shows.”

His statement about the band’s cohesive nature isn’t self-righteous, either. Even over Zoom, the chemistry between the bandmates was clear to see, and their collective laughter and apparent delight at each other’s stories testified to the fact that they actually have a genuinely good time together.

More than just a natural fit, though, Carpool Tunnel has put hard work into their journey to get where they are today.

“We would drive to San Diego just to play one show and drive back the next day to go to work,” Kearsley said. “The best way to grow as a band is to play as much as possible.”

As far as the creative process goes, finding the perfect sound can vary in difficulty. “The toughest

thing sometimes is just finding inspiration, especially during times when it’s just hard for us,” Koppenjan said. “At the beginning of the pandemic, we all went to Brad’s grandma’s house in Santa Cruz, and [being in] a really beautiful house with beautiful nature all around us, songs came really easily to us because we were trying to shift our focus away from everything that was going on in the world.”

Kearsley agreed, building on Koppenjan’s point and describing his personal process.

“Sometimes I’ll just be feeling something for a couple of weeks and it builds up inside to the point where I have to sit down and just play some music and something usually comes out of that,” Kearsley said. “Music is a comfort for us — to write a song about something is to get it out of your head and put it into the real world and have it be its own thing.”

When asked about the expectations versus reality of being on tour, the four shared a laugh.

“Growing up, you kind of think of bands touring as this glamorous thing, but there’s definitely cheap hotels,” Koppenjan said. “But it’s so worth it when we get to a new city that we’ve never been to before and there’s people that show up to see us play music — that’s the most amazing part about it and makes all the other stuff in between worth it.”

They all joked about the abundance of John Denver being played on the journeys through mountain passes, proving that there are still plenty of good times on the road. After a lengthy story detailing a typical day in the life on tour (including frozen windshield wipers, a broken hotel sink, a cockroach in a Taco Bell crunchwrap and — naturally — more John Denver) all the members agreed that life on tour has been treating them well so far.

“It’s the ultimate highs and the ultimate lows, and at the end of the day, it’s just a great

experience,” Kearsley said.

One of the aforementioned ultimate highs of their time with Carpool Tunnel has been putting their records on vinyl.

“I tried so hard to get our music on CDs, and I have literally hundreds left because nobody bought them,” said Kearsley with a laugh. “So to be able to have vinyl and also sell has been really cool.”

It’s easy to see why seeing a physical representation of their hard work is so important to Carpool Tunnel. The foursome cited The Eagles, The Strokes, Wallows and more as some of their musical influences — all highly-acclaimed

groups that made their way onto vinyl as well.

Even though Reed has only recorded one single with the band (their most recent, “I’m Always Thinking About You”), he says that their 2019 hit “Better Now” is one of his personal favorites.

“There’s something about the original recording they did in their house that is so charged, and everyone’s working together in a tighter way than previous to that,” Reed said.

CARPOOLTUNNEL on 11

Shows, speaker events, live music and more to check out in Davis this March

BY JACOB ANDERSON arts@theaggie.org “On the Slant – A MiniSymposium” (Manetti Shrem Museum, Friday, March 4, 11 a.m.

- 5:30 p.m.): This symposium explores the curious fame of a step stool purchased at a thrift store in 1965. William T. Wiley and Bruce Nauman, enamored by the eponymously slanted object, spurred an artistic movement among those who found something beautiful and inexplicable in it, culminating in a 1966 exhibition at San Francisco’s Berkeley Gallery, which brought national notoriety to the stool.

The symposium will accompany an exhibition at the museum titled “William T. Wiley and the Slant Step: All on the Line.” If you can’t make it in person, they are also offering a virtual livestream of the event.

“Clouds from a Crumbling Giant” (Wright Hall, March 3 through March 5): This upcoming collaborative piece between Granada Artist-inResidence Shinichi Iova-Koga and the UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance promises to be a musical experience that “follows the birth and death of a species, an empire, a universe, a flower,” according to the show’s website. “Time unfolds on stage like a wheel revolving, seeming to follow a path that becomes the snake eating its own tail. Behind the curtain, vibrations emerge to shape the earth, the rocks, the people.”

Iova-Koga, the director of the physical theater and dance company inkBoat, fuses elements of Japanese and Chinese stage tradition, from Noh theater to Daoist internal arts, in his works. This new production promises to innovate even further — check it out.

“UC Davis Symphony Orchestra: ‘Pastoral Moods’” (Jackson Hall, Sunday, March 5, 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.): Come see UC Davis’ orchestra if you’ve got an itch for something classical: Christian Baldini, director and conductor, will be leading our own musicians in Antonín Dvořák’s “Symphony No. 8” and the premiere of Miguel Farías’ “Violin Concerto.”

If you haven’t had the opportunity to catch the university’s orchestra yet, this is a fantastic chance to see what the buzz is about.

Bill Smith Lecture: ACLU Staff Attorney Taylor Brown (UC Davis School of Law, Wednesday, March 9, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.): Taylor Brown, an attorney with the ACLU specializing in LGBTQ matters, will be speaking later this month at the School of Law. Brown fights against discrimination towards transgender people in employment, schools and health care, pushing back against decades of embedded transphobia in America’s public institutions. She has also helped support and defend those living with HIV. Her talk is sure to be interesting, and will also be available online on March 9.

“Tremble Staves” (UC Davis Arboretum, Saturday, March 12, 12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.): UC Davis’ Department of Music will be offering a unique performance on March 12. “Tremble Staves,” a multi-movement work by Raven Chacon, will move between various locations in Davis in a narrative inspired by Navajo creation stories.

Numerous instruments will be on display, including dowsing rods, broken mirrors, an amplified fishing rod, an oxygen tank and even water.

The performance will be free, so anyone interested in the unique experience will have the opportunity to attend.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022 | 11

NEURALINKTRIALS

ROMCOMS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “Additional materials have been supplied to the Physicians Committee since the conclusion of the research agreement with Neuralink,” the university said in its official statement.

Banks said she believes the university is a model for sharing research.

“The university has been very transparent,” Banks said. “I certainly don’t think they’re hiding anything.”

According to the Physicians Committee’s second lawsuit, Neuralink has consistently shared their research. During Neuralink’s time at the CNPRC, they released footage of primates, including a monkey named Pager, who played the video game “Pong” using its mind.

Regarding the treatment of primates, in its official statement, the university said that all animals were provided the best possible care.

“UC Davis staff provided veterinary care including round-the-clock monitoring of experimental animals,” the statement reads.

“When an incident occurred, it was reported to the [Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee], which mandated training and

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 protocol changes as needed.”

Every research institution has its own Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), which reviews all proposed experiments using animals. The research that took place from 2017 to 2020 was approved by the UC Davis IACUC. “Ethical questions are considered all throughout the animal research process,” said Jim Newman, the director of strategic communications from Americans for Medical Progress.

“In short, the research community constantly asks itself whether the benefits of the information we are trying to obtain outweigh any negative impacts on animals.”

In Banks’ view, animal research is often the subject of public scrutiny.

“If it’s sensational or horrific, it gets more press,” Banks said. “Certainly, we don’t know enough now, and the USDA is investigating. The loss of animal life is tragic, but sometimes it’s necessary as part of research.”

OLYMPICBOYCOTT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 He also said that this is not the first time that the U.S.has boycotted an Olympics. The U.S. actually implemented a full boycott of the 1980 Moscow games, during which the U.S. did not even send athletes to compete. According to Scheiner, some believe that even a full boycott — like that in 1980 — is not very effective.

“The main lesson that people draw about boycotts they draw from 1980,” Scheiner said. “[After the 1980 games], when everybody came away with ‘oh, boycotts don’t work,’ if you boycott all you do is hurt the athletes. And so I think the United States is always coming back to that example and saying, ‘Okay, we shouldn’t boycott because all it did was have our athletes lose their opportunity, and everybody’s mad about it.”

First-year psychology student Michell Bancks, a volleyball player and co-captain for Davis second club team, said that athletes often see the Olympics as a career-defining moment, and some believe that those spots should not be lost due to politics.

“Many Olympic athletes can only perform at the Olympic level for a few Olympics,” Bancks

said. “I think it’s rare for an athlete to attend more than three Olympic Games, and between those competitions, it’s even more rare for an athlete to medal more than once. There are athletes who are at their prime for this Olympics and won’t be as competitive in four years, so they should be given the chance to try for a medal.”

However, Scheiner pointed out that others believe that it’s not possible to keep politics and sports completely separated.

“It’s sort of like saying let’s keep life out of sports,” Scheiner said.

First-year American studies major Nic Sardo agreed with Bancks that the loss to the athlete is great if they do not compete, but he said that choosing to do so sends a strong statement.

“An athlete can sacrifice so much and spend years training for the Olympic games so if that same athlete decides that their energy is put to better use by boycotting those games, I believe that is very brave. By boycotting or speaking out against one’s own country, or against the host country, that athlete is putting a lot at risk and may have their whole life disrupted because of that one decision.”

SENATE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 Lastly, SB #54 structures the composition of the Office of the International Student Representative. SB #55 allocates $4,966.75 to the Exploratory Board on an ASUCD Pride Festival for the Pride Festival. SB #56 allocates $1,000.00 to The Pantry for the purpose of purchasing. The last Senate Bill to be introduced was SB #57,

which requires the ASUCD Volunteer Award Committee to distribute the ASUCD Volunteer Award twice during an academic year. All four bills passed unanimously.

Martinez Hernandez adjourned the meeting at 12:04 a.m.

Gunderia said that even in recent movies that include more queer relationships and diverse casts, a lot of the representation makes that representation the focal point ofthe plot or seems like tokenism. Dr. Thomson expressed the ways in which they hope future rom-coms will show more realistic relationships.

“I’d like to see more and different kinds of rom-coms,” Dr. Thompson said via email.

“Queer romcoms that don’t revolve around coming out, polyamorous romcoms, romcoms with body diversity that don’t present that as an obstacle to overcome or overlook, romcoms where a short term relationship [that] can end and still be considered meaningful.”

Overall, Dr. Thompson said that many people can recognize that these movies are not real life.

“Spectators are not unthinking sponges who just absorb everything we see,” Dr. Thompson said via email.

She suggested instead of refraining from watching these movies, viewing them with the ability to critique their tropes and stereotypes.

“We can watch a film and ask, what do I like about this, and what feels wrong about it?” Dr. Thompson said via email. “If you’re able to do that, and romcoms give you pleasure, I say watch them.”

NOTES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 This is where handwriting your notes comes into play. According to a 2014 study, students who took notes by hand ended up learning more effectively than those who took notes on their laptop. This research says that taking notes by hand allows students to summarize and organize information in their own words, ensuring a more organic understanding of the material. Because it’s harder to write fast, and because the physical action of writing with your hands requires you to actively condense and summarize, handwriting notes forces you to absorb the information in your own way and compress it into the core concepts.

Of course, taking notes by hand is not an option for all students. And everyone learns differently and has methods for taking notes that work best for them. It’s entirely possible that the best way to take notes for some is on a laptop. The main idea behind the research is that improvements in learning result from engaging more personally and intentionally with the material. For me personally, I’ve found that taking notes by hand has improved my ability to do that.

Since coming back to in-person classes, I’ve personally experienced the benefits of taking notes by hand. I bought notebooks for each of my classes, and forced myself to physically write. I noticed that handwriting notes made it much easier for me to study. I had already begun memorizing and understanding the material during the lecture, instead of having to go back

and review notes that I mindlessly transcribed from slides.

I’m not saying you have to rule out all technology when it comes to note-taking, though. In fact, I think there is a better alternative to writing on paper that strikes the perfect balance between writing by hand and using a laptop: tablets. I haven’t seen this discussed anywhere, but it seems like common sense. If it’s the physical act of writing notes by hand that improves learning, then it shouldn’t matter what surface you write the notes on. And it’s always handy to be connected to the internet to bring up any readings or to answer any questions. All you need to do is download a free note-taking app and you’re good to go.

Tablets come with a variety of benefits but can be cost-prohibitive for many students. Cheaper tablets go for around $150, but higher quality tablets like iPads go for anywhere between $500 to $900. And if you want to take handwritten notes on an iPad, an Apple Pencil will cost you another $130. In light of this, UC Davis should implement a tablet loaner program for students, similar to their laptop loaner program in 2020.

Everyone should give physical note-taking a try, especially if they are struggling with comprehension or studying. However, everyone learns differently and for some, the benefits outweigh the costs. It just doesn’t work for me.

The core thing to take away here is: handwritten notes or not, engaging thoughtfully with the material is what matters.

MERCH

CARPOOLTUNNEL

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 And that’s exactly what makes Carpool Tunnel such a compelling musical act: They have undeniable chemistry that shines through the speaker. Their sound is reminiscent of rock days already past, while still pulling themselves forward in a new direction for the modern age — a blend of old and new that’s perfect for the ever evolving, historically reverent city of San Francisco.

When asked further about the city, Reed, a San Diego local, says that the music scene in San Francisco is “unlike anything I’ve seen.”

“People are just super hungry in such a condensed area,” he said. “It’s a big community.”

For readers in Davis, the band recommends

The romantic comedy “Love Actually” does pass this test, with a single conversation between a mother and daughter about a lobster costume.

But Gunderia pointed out that even some of the movies that pass do so with conversations revolving around topics stereotypically discussed by women, like babies, marriage or wine.

“How hard is it to have two women talking about literally anything else?” Gunderia said.

Gunderia said that these movies also construct narratives about how women should act in relationships, which can lead to self doubt and make women change their behavior to appear more “attractive” to men.

“Men like the unattainable, cold women in movies,” Gunderia said. “Why are these men so attracted to the word ‘no’?”

Another concern that Dr. Thompson pointed out is that many rom-coms are fairly heteronormative.

“The assumption is usually that everyone is heterosexual and must be monogamously paired off, probably with marriage and children in the works, before life is complete,” Dr. Thompson said via email.

In “Love Actually,” although there are nine relationship story lines, each one involves a man and a woman and most of the characters are white — the only character that isn’t doesn’t have any dialogue.

going to concerts at Turtle House, a collective that often hosts shows with local artists, where they’ve played themselves.

And to any aspiring musicians out there, local or not, they have one thing to say: keep trying.

“A lot of people are going to tell you not to,” Kearsley said. “People still tell us not to — but we’re still going!”

Carpool Tunnel will be featured in an upcoming Couch Concert with The California Aggie. You can find out more on our Instagram page, and a video of the performance will be posted to our YouTube channel.

Having a sibling who went to that school is not a valid excuse. You are your own person, even though your mom calls their name, your other sibling’s name and the dog’s name before she remembers who you are. Having a parent who went there is definitely not an excuse and not because I’m bitter about not having an Ivy League legacy.

From now on, I will only be accepting the following: One: fictional schools and companies. But let’s get some deep cuts going. Yeah, Dunder Mifflin and Greendale Community College are cool. But what about South Central Louisiana State University from Adam Sandler’s 1998 smash-miss, “The Waterboy”? A 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, y’all. And how come I’m not seeing more references to the lost-but-not-forgotten UC, UC Sunnydale of “Buffy the Vampire

Slayer”? I think it’s near Santa Barbara. Less UCLA, more ULA (University of Los Angeles, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”).

Two: misprints. Give me Harvart. Yail.

Stanfart. That’s something we can all get behind.

This could bring the nation back together, honestly. Congress would get so much more done if they spelled it “Cogeress”. Just a suggestion.

Three: UC Davis merch! Where did your Davis pride go? Did it leave when you tried to make an advising appointment and they had nothing available for the next two months? Or when a Unitrans driver made full eye contact with you as you were running toward the bus stop and drove away one minute before the scheduled time? Yeah, me too. Just because I’m doing the YMCA at a full sprint doesn’t mean I don’t deserve to ride the bus.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

12 | THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022

SUDOKU Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row, column and 3x3 square must contain each digit. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing.

Answer to previous puzzle 2/24/2022

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie CROSSWORD

Answer to previous puzzle 2/24/2022

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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022 | 13

14 | THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS

AGGIES LOSE A HEARTBREAKER IN OVERTIME; WIN ON SENIOR NIGHT IN LAST HOME GAME OF THE YEAR Elijah Pepper and Ezra Manjon carried the Aggies down the stretch, but the Gauchos proved to be too much in the final minutes. Still, they sent off their seniors with a win

BY MARLON ROLON sports@theaggie.org

The UC Davis Men’s Basketball team came into the University Credit Union Center hot, riding a three-game win streak prior to Thursday night’s Big West showdown against UC Santa Barbara, who had won four of their last five games.

Because this is a conference game, they typically play each team in the Big West twice during the season. The first matchup between the Aggies and Gauchos was slated on Jan. 22 in Santa Barbara; however, the game was canceled due to COVID-19. UC Davis has played only 19 games throughout the season, a league low, due to eight being called off because of COVID-19 issues.

The Aggies’ last loss came at the hands of Long Beach State on Jan. 29, then beat the likes of UC Riverside, Hawaii and CSU Bakersfield by no more than five points. With momentum building as they near the end of the season, both teams are fighting for seeding implications — the top six seeds earn a first round bye in the Big West tournament.

However, the Gauchos, who rank #3 on offense and #4 on defense in the conference, had a significant size advantage — four of their players measure a staggering 6 ’10” and another who’s right under at 6’ 9”. After the opening tip, it became evident that UC Davis would struggle matching up to UCSB’s size, especially with starter Caleb Fuller out due to injury.

The visiting team were quick to score a put back dunk by forward Miles Norris the 6 ‘10” 220-pound junior. Then, Josh Pierre-Louis, the third-year guard, followed up by splashing a three pointer, making it a 5-0 start. Rebounding looked to be an issue from the start as the home team lacked a physical presence inside the paint.

After Santa Barbara got off to a 9-4 lead, UC Davis secondyear guard Elijah Pepper took advantage of a turnover eliciting a spin move for the easy bucket that sparked a 6-0 run for the Aggies giving them their first lead of the game off a one point margin. The high-flying guard Ezra Manjon facilitated the ball to teammates, Kane Milling and Aaron Murphy as they scored off open looks.

Manjon’s elusive handles and ball movement gave the opposing defense problems.

Second chance buckets became the narrative — forward Amadou Sow became a factor, bullying his way on the inside and taking advantage of the pick and roll mismatches. The Gauchos led 15-12 with Sow being responsible for eight of those points.

“We weren’t physical enough blocking out and that hurt us,” UC Davis Head Coach Jim Les said after the game.

Manjon decided to insert his offensive presence with a quick stepback jumper. The Aggies’ defense stood their ground deflecting the ball with Manjon tracking down the rock running full speed down the court with a beautiful behind-the-back pass to Pepper for the easy two causing a standing ovation from the crowd. A few plays later senior Cameron Ba contributed with a three pointer making it a 7-0 run. Once again, the hosts took the lead 19-15.

The pace slowed in the final minutes of the first half, allowing Santa Barbara to regroup as the Aggies went into the locker room leading 31-25.

“I thought the rebounding [was an issue], especially in the first half,” Les said. “We held them to 25 points but they got 10 of those points off second chances, rebounds, put backs and that size and athleticism.”

UC Davis shot 13-27 from the field, 40% from the three-point line, committed five turnovers, and picked up 17 rebounds. Pepper led the team with 12 points and two steals with Milling not too far back, adding seven points of his own being efficient with his shot selection. Manjon had five points with five assists as well at the break.

Santa Barbara shot 11-36 from the field, 1-7 (14%) from beyond the arc, committed four turnovers with 24 rebounds. They dominated the offensive boards with 12, which is what kept them in the game.

The Gauchos swung the ball around until finally first-year Ajay Mitchell opened the second half scoring a 16-foot jumper over Milling. Suddenly, it became the Mitchell show, as he scored seven straight points with a pair of and one’s. He became the focal point of the offense for the Gauchos doing what he wanted whenever he wanted, pushing the ball down the court while shooting at will.

There was a scoreless drought for two and a half minutes until third-year forward Christian Anigwe made a much-needed layup.

Pepper and Manjon had open looks but the ball would not go in the hoop with the Aggies desperately needed buckets to stay within striking distance. However, Mitchell kept knocking down contested jumpers, continuing his dominance. The visitors once took the lead 39-38 with about 10 minutes left in the second half.

UC Davis Men’s Basketball team in February 2022. (Benjamin Cheng / Aggie)

“Mitchell got hot; he’s a good player, and he kinda just went one on one,” Les said. “He went one on one against our best defender with Ade hanging all over him, [Mitchell] made [shots on] some tough looks.”

Both teams would keep trading baskets, but the difference was Mitchell and Pierre-Louis drawing shooting fouls and going to the line knocking down free throws. With 6:22 remaining, PierreLouis would score on a fast break turnover bumping their lead to 47-42. Just as Santa Barbara began to pull away, Manjon finally made a cameo scoring his first points of the half with a jumper over Sow. Over a minute later, Mitchell once again was clutch splitting two defenders shooting a rainbow shot over the 6’ 8” forward Caleb McGill, 51-46. Regardless, the Aggies would not go away with Murphy scoring his free throws and a drive into the paint from Manjon to rally the crowd and cut the deficit to two, 52-50.

One of the biggest plays of the game happened off an inbound pass from Ba to Pepper on a quick catch and shoot from the threepoint line over a defender. Finally, Pepper made his presence felt as the Aggies trailed by one, 54-53 with 1:55 remaining. A few lead changes later, the home team led by one with a pair of free throws from Pepper. However, with 25 seconds remaining Mitchell scored a step-back three over Adebayo putting the Gauchos on top 59-57.

The first-year scored 18 points in the second half alone, shooting 7-10 from the field, 1-1 from 30 feet and going 3-4 on his free throws.

The intensity turned up, and the home team would not go away without a fight. In the last 16 seconds remaining the drama unfolded, Manjon took over, scoring over Mitchell and getting fouled in the process; however, he would go on to miss the crucial free throw. Luckily for the Aggies, Adebayo powered through and rebounded the ball but Coach Les would call a timeout to regroup.

An inbounds pass to Manjon saw him run underneath the basket for a quick layup over Sow to tie the game at 59.

The game was on the line — Mitchell took a step back and shot the ball as time expired, narrowly missing with the ball bouncing off the rim. There would be an extra five-minute quarter to decide the winner in overtime.

“Those guys are really big time competitors. They had a refuse to lose attitude and they just kept coming back making plays.

[Manjon and Pepper] those guys were awesome. They put us on their back and carried us through that second half and into overtime,” Les said about his dynamic duo on offense.

In overtime, the Aggies took the lead 61-60 after Pierre-Louis dunked the ball but got called for a technical for hanging on the rim, which resulted in a free throw shot by Pepper and a stepback jumper by Manjon. The game was close again. Both teams

exchanged lead changes until Mitchell once again threw up a dagger from beyond the arc to go up 66-64.

After two missed free throws by the Gauchos, the Aggies caught a break getting a rebound off their missed shots until the ball was kicked out to Pepper who hammered a corner, three causing an eruption of cheers from the crowd — once again, Pepper was the hero making the most of his opportunities. That was the last time UC Davis led, eventually falling to Santa Barbara 76-69.

“I thought we fought really hard, and we had some great opportunities. Some nights, the ball just doesn’t go in. We had great shots, we had the right guys shooting the shots and they just didn’t go in and they made some tough shots. So you got to give them credit too; I thought our defense was really good all game, but they hit some tough contested shots,” Les said after the game.

“We had some good looks, and they didn’t go in, and that was just enough for them to get separation, but I thought it was a heck of a basketball game.”

Pepper led the Aggies with 21 points and four threes followed

by Manjon’s 19, five rebounds and six assists. Milling was efficient throughout the game adding 11 points going 5-8 from the field.

The home team scored 38 points from the paint; however, they shot 7 for 12 from the free throw line which ended up hurting them in the end.

Santa Barbara’s Mitchell scored a season-high 31 points while his teammate Sow finished with a double-double 17 points and 11 rebounds. Pierre-Louis contributed with 14 points. The Gauchos success came behind their 46 rebounds and their 14 second chance points.

UC Davis’ overall record dropped to 11-8 and 4-4 in conference play. They are tied with UC Santa Barbara for the sixth seed in the Big West Conference standings. The Aggies hosted CSU Northridge in their last home game of the season (2/26) .

This particular game held meaning as it was senior night, Caleb Fuller, Cameron Ba, and B.J. Shaw would suit up for the last time at home for UC Davis. The home crowd sent them off with a standing ovation, but the celebration didn’t end there. The Aggies beat CSU Northridge 68-49 sweeping them for the season series.

Up next, they travel to Long Beach on (3/3) and conclude their season against CSU Fullerton on (3/5).

After the game coach Les was asked about his preparation and what he is looking for in the final games of the season before the tournament in Henderson, Nevada.

“Momentum, we want to continue to play well,” he said. “We want to get healthy and develop a game rhythm. We had some stops and starts with our down time and it’d be nice to string some games together that we can play and develop some continuity and go into Vegas with some confidence.”

TOPIC OF DUAL CITIZENSHIP REVIVED AT THIS YEAR’S WINTER OLYMPICS Eileen Gu, along with other American-born athletes, represented China for the Beijing Olympics 2022

Winter Olymics art installation. (Wikimedia Commons)

BY KATHERIN RAYGOZA sports@theaggie.org The Winter Olympics kicked off on Feb. 4 and recently, there have been headlines regarding nationality and an athlete’s ability to compete for two different countries. News stories have emerged about 18-year-old Eileen Gu, who was born in the U.S. and won gold representing China’s Olympic team. She is one of many Chinese-American Olympians straddling between two countries, and some people have questioned whether athletes are allowed to do this or why they would do this.

“There are those who love her, moved by her ability to soar over treacherous slopes with ease,’’ wrote Ashley Wong from The New York Times. “Others are inspired by her efforts to navigate

the uneasy political tension between two countries and cultures.

Some believe she chose to represent China simply to cash in on the lucrative opportunities it has afforded her.”

Gu or Gu Ailing — “Snow Princess,” as she is known in China — was born in San Francisco to a Chinese mother and an American father. She began skiing at the age of eight on weekend trips. American-born Gu has talent that allowed her to grow as a skier and was finally able to land the double cork 1620 — a move in which skiers spin 4 ½ times while rotating 20 plus feet in the air.

Chinese fans have been very supportive of Gu’s success and are proud to watch a Chinese win gold for their country, as opposed to her birth country which criticizes her decision.

“It’s very cheering. She’s of Chinese origin and has returned to China. I feel proud of her,” said Jiang Yu, a Beijing resident and a Gu fan.

This is a great accomplishment for the skier, as she became the youngest freeski Olympic gold medalist in history and the first action-sport athlete to win three medals at the same Olympics.

Despite her accomplishments, she is being called a traitor and ungrateful.

She has also received backlash on social media because users are arguing that she cannot be American if she competes for China. Some are saying that she must pick between identifying as American or Chinese.

“I’m an 18-year-old out here living my best life. I’m not going to waste my time trying to placate people who are uneducated, and don’t experience the gratitude and love I have on a daily basis,” Gu told The Guardian.

Some dual citizens face the same challenges as Gu, and it has been seen all throughout sports, especially during the Olympics.

That is why there has been a set of rules created which indicate that if a competitor who is a citizen in two or more countries, they have the freedom to represent the country they desire. They cannot represent a country if they play for a different country in other

events like the Olympic Games, continental or regional games or world or regional championships. Once they compete in those games, they cannot change the country that they represent.

An athlete can be exempt from these rules under certain circumstances. For instance, if an athlete has gained a new citizenship or wishes to change their Olympic status, they can do so if three years have passed since they competed for their previous country.

There is an especially large controversy with China because they have 30 foreign-born athletes competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics. Olympians in China must follow specific rules since they do not allow dual citizenship. So the question remains whether American-born athletes are following the rules or simply have been exceptions to compete. Are they allowed to be U.S citizens while competing for Team China?

It has appeared that the Chinese Government has loosened their strict laws on nationality to attempt to win more medals.

Other than Gu, about half of the Chinese Men’s Hockey Team are American and all maintain their U.S citizenship.

“I told China that I’ll never give up my [U.S.] passport, and they said that’s fine,” said goalie Jeremy Smith, a Michigan native who’s eligible to represent China due to a stint with Chinese club Kunlun Red Star.

Other countries have used naturalized foreign athletes for decades, but very few have laws as strict as China’s. Regardless, China is slowly relaxing their rules, but it seems they still require a particular allegiance, such as Chinese players using Chinese names and not speaking in English during interviews.

Competing for a country that is not where the athlete was born is not a new concept. Many Olympians take pride in having a diverse background and are given an opportunity to compete for a national team that can utilize their talent. Still, it seems as though the topic will always stir headlines.