Three point five millimeters, or .138 inches, is approximately one-third the size of a pencil eraser. Now image packing 31,000 genes – 200 million base pairs – into that size. The water flea, Daphnia pulex, has managed just that, with a genome larger than any animal ever sequenced, including humans, which have only 23,000 genes.

Senate Bill 8, which addresses the issue of transparency for the University of California (UC), California State University (CSU) and community colleges in California, is still sitting in Senate. Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) updated and reintroduced the bill on Dec. 6.

If you think you’ll be having a crazy Picnic Day, just ask Jim Sochor and Mark Champagne what they will be doing. Sochor and Champagne have been selected as this year’s Picnic Day marshals.

Waiting rooms at the doctor’s office are stressful places; you wait nervously for your name to be called as you flip through the provided reading materials and compulsively check your watch, wishing you could be anywhere else except on the receiving end of a devilishly long needle. Now imagine that the waiting room you are in has 18,000 other patients in it, all of you have chronic liver failure and only a quarter of you get a transplant. That is the hell endured by everyone on the liver transplant list.

After 11 years as a prominent political party in ASUCD, the Leadership, Empowerment, Activism and Determination (LEAD) party seems to be coming to an end.

I’ve got a riddle for you: Who’s got bulgy eyes, leathery skin and a libido on over-drive?

Since 2009, David Breaux has had a mission. Also known as the “Compassion Guy,” Breaux wants to raise awareness about compassion. Monday through Saturday, he stands on the corner of Third and C Street, across from Crepeville, and asks passersby about their concept of the word. He has complied a book called Compassion Davis, CA: A Compilation of Concepts on Compassion from a portion of the thousands of anonymous entries he gathered from June to December of 2009.

While boys may only have denim, corduroy and khaki to choose from, girls have a wide variety of materials to clad their gams with. One of the female’s recent favorites has been the legging.

Language helps us define our world: the objects around us, the ideas we have and our sense of self. Although they are usually misleading, labels and stereotypes are especially useful when we’re trying to determine where we belong. The one label I hear the most is “hipster.”

Don’t plagiarize and harass; Copycat; Get it right the first time.

What’s an average day like for you?

Interview Basics Workshop; R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Protecting Your Personal Boundaries; Botany and Environmental Horticulture Club; Second Third Street Workshop; African Diaspora Cultivating Education Cultural Event; Relay For Life Team Captains Meeting.