Detect earthquakes with your laptop An assistant professor at UC Riverside has developed an intriguing new way to detect earthquakes. Elizabeth Cochran, part of the department of earth sciences, proposed that a network of personal computers be used to help detect oncoming seismic disturbances in real time, according to a press release from UC Riverside. Currently, there is a slight gap between earthquake detecting equipment gathering information and the information being received, Cochran said.

The University of California tested a new Google software that allows users to gain greater access to millions of books and records from UC and other libraries throughout the nation Mar. 13. Through a partnership between the UC and Google in August 2006, books from the UC libraries were scanned and made available to the public through Google Book Search. Users can view and download entire non-copyrighted books online at no cost. For copyrighted books, users are given background information on the book, are shown ideas of where to buy or borrow and can search within the book to evaluate its content. According to the California Digital Library (CDL), the UC has one of the largest research libraries in the world.

The Pepper Peddler, a local sustainable coffee roasting and delivery business, began operation Tuesday. A company founded three years ago by UC Davis graduate Alex Roth initially roasted peppers, hence the name, but this year converted to coffee bean roasting and delivery. Along with the change of product, in January the Pepper Peddler took on a new partner in UC Davis alumnus Jake Lorber. The Pepper Peddler is trying to make an impact in the coffee industry by using unconventional and sustainable methods in a town that is conducive to both.

It’s the start of a new quarter, and spring is in the air. The sun is shining, flowers are blooming; a new season is upon us. Why not take the chance to capture the spirit of spring with a hyphy show right on campus? The ASUCD Entertainment Council is presenting a show featuring Bay Area hip-hop group The Federation. The show is free and will take place Friday on the Quad at noon. In the case of rain, the show will be moved to Freeborn Hall. For anyone who has lived in northern California over the past couple of years, the hyphy subgenre of hip-hop has established itself as a Bay Area mainstay. Rapper Stressmatic of the Federation described the appeal of hyphy music.

Even though the tournament fell on April Fool’s Day, the UC Davis women’s golf team wasn’t fooling around – it came to play some golf. After being tied for seventh place Apr. 1, the Aggies jumped three spots on the final day to finish in a fourth-place tie with UNLV at the Regional Preview in Lincoln, Calif. Led by freshman Chelsea Stelzmiller, who earned an eighth-place finish with a total score of 221, the Aggies finished ahead of ranked opponents No. 45 San Francisco and No. 48 Washington State as well as the three other Big West Conference teams in the 19-team field.

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Sally, Woodstock, Shroeder, Linus and Lucy – do these names revive a feeling of childhood nostalgia? Starting tonight, Studio 301 will be giving everyone the chance to revisit those days by performing You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown at the Wyatt Pavilion Theater on Old Davis Road. The student theatre company will perform a series of musical vignettes best described as a day in the life of Charlie Brown, starring sophomore theater and communication major Matt Escarcega.

he Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently released a revised version of its rule outlining employers’ legal obligations when an employee is identified by the Social Security Administration as a possible illegal immigrant. The revised rule shows few changes from a previous version that was stopped by a Northern California district court judge in 2007. The rule requires employers to follow a specific set of procedures if they receive a letter from the Social Security Administration(SSA) stating one of their employees’ tax forms did not match his or her Social Security records. The Social Security Administration for years has put in their letters sent to employers that receiving the letter is not meant to make any implication on the immigration status of the employee, said Evelyn Sanchez, advocacy coordinator for Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition.

Rating: 5 Super Smash Bros. Brawl picks up where its predecessors left off: your favorite Nintendo characters jumping around familiar Nintendo places using their special moves to fling their enemies into the distance. The gameplay has not changed appreciably. In fact, the controls are so similar that Brawl is not only backwards compatible with the Gamecube controller, but one might also be hard-pressed to find players who are willing to play with the Wii remote. I grant you that I am not the most skilled player of Super Smash Bros., but when I tried to play with the remote I found that the majority of the match was given over to asking which button did what. Sticking with the Gamecube controller is far easier for those who have played even a small amount of Melee.

Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV Self-Released Rating: 5 Nine Inch Nails’ creative architect Trent Reznor consistently works to shake the norms of the music industry, whether it be through strategic resistance to the clutch of major record labels or an indirect jab at Fred Durst’s musical capability. Reznor has similarly worked to alter the direction of his own projects, and NIN’s seventh and latest release Ghosts I-IV, released Mar. 2, offers no evidence to the contrary. Reznor’s style has developed ever since the angst-filled years of Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral, and Ghosts expresses a positive and mature shift to a new brand of experimental, minimal and predominately electronic industrial music. Ghosts is largely a conceptual album, consisting of 36 nameless instrumental tracks broken into four volumes and spanning a length of nearly two hours – a time that would surely bring miserable tears to a 21st century MTV loyalist.

Counting Crows Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings Geffen Record Rating: 4 After a six-year-long disappearance, Counting Crows front man Adam Duritz seems ready to take on the musical world with the band’s first full-length release since Hard Candy. Aptly titled Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, the release is cleverly divided according to the soul-searching late-night forays and early-morning regrets that usually compose the weekend. The first six tracks are predominantly up-tempo tunes while the final eight consist of softer, introspective rock ballads. However, despite this attempt at an even distribution of Duritz’s signature unthreatening wail, the first half of the CD outshines the latter and ultimately generates its strongest tracks.

21 Directed by Robert Luketic Rating: 2 Perhaps you’ve seen the tantalizing trailers – dangerous action, clever counting and an evil Kevin Spacey in the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas. Sounds exciting, right? Too bad 21 was nothing like the movie the marketing team pretended it would be. 21 follows the plight of MIT star student and goody two-shoes Campbell (Jim Sturgess, Across the Universe), who, after receiving his acceptance letter to Harvard Medical School, finds that he is unable to pay for the school’s high tuition fees. Luckily, Campbell manages to impress his professor Mickey Rosa (Spacey) in his non-linear equations class and is recruited by Rosa to join his blackjack team. Using a system of counting cards, verbal codes and secret sign language, the team is able to strategically win gobs of money from the casinos – so much, that it’s only a matter of time until they are caught by the menacing loss prevention specialist Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne).

They used to be symbols of the future, but they’re about to be a thing of the past. Some of Davis’ fleet of Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) vehicles are on their way out. On Tuesday, the City Council discussed options for the future of its fleet of 27 electric cars, leaving the final decision with the city staff. Twenty-five of the vehicles were granted to the city in 2002 by Daimler-Chrysler. Two were donated by the National Parks Service. The cars were loaned for free to Davis residents through a program that lasted from 2003 to 2006. They have also been used by different city departments and city councilmembers.