Column

Non-profit organizations have a role in solving the public health crisis of gun violence There’s a mixed sense of eye-opening wonder and clarification when you learn about something that you’ve never been exposed to before. Coming from an ethnocentric, relatively sheltered bubble in my hometown, I was frankly stupefied when I attended a conference called […]

What the Chance the Rapper controversy says about our growing culture of victimhood If there was any question of whether UC Davis is immune from caustic division along lines of race, class and gender, it was answered when the event page for October’s Chance the Rapper concert erupted into a furious debate over the politics […]

GMO benefits greatly outweigh the fictitious costs   Have you ever walked through the grocery store, picked up a piece of food, ranging from milk and fresh vegetables to dried pasta and rice, and seen that bright green label with the nice butterfly in the corner that reads “Non GMO Verified?” Upon seeing this label, […]

Björk’s Biophilia combines music, technology to create an educational app During indie harpist Joanna Newsom’s concert at Los Angeles’s Orpheum Theater last March, I wasn’t exactly surprised to see a crowd of peculiar characters. Glancing around, my friend and I took turns pointing out the most unusually-dressed audience members. My friend nodded towards the balcony, […]

Will comedians elect the president of the United States? Satire has been perhaps the most powerful force in this year’s election build-up. With every absurd Donald Trump remark, Hillary Clinton email and Republican candidate’s endorsement (or lack thereof), every talk show and light-night comedian has reacted with gusto. Like Tina Fey’s celebrated impersonation on Saturday […]

A bad day, impulsivity, easy access to guns makes for a deadly combination Suicide, which is the 10th leading cause of death in America, has increased by 17 percent since 2010. And more than half of the 42,773 Americans who killed themselves did so with guns — a number that is far greater than the […]

Understanding who’s living in poverty is the first step to alleviating its effects Hillary Clinton released a child tax plan last week that the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a progressive Washington, D.C. think tank, has estimated will help over 14.2 million families currently living in poverty. Clinton proposed a change to the […]

As our country remains as socially divided as ever, the hate and violence stemming from these divisions seems to become more frequent and pervasive, especially in the communities that are most often overlooked. The LGBT community knows the consequences of this violence all too well. Crimes committed against this community are often hate-driven or bias-motivated […]

Gun-rights advocates not all redneck Republicans; gun-control proponents not all peace-promoting hippies Contrary to popular belief, not all gun-rights enthusiasts are white-trash, redneck extremist Republicans who only care about their latest hunting adrenaline rush. Rather, advocates of gun rights are subconsciously motivated by a multitude of underlying factors that have little to do with personal […]