On Thursday, Interim Police Chief Matthew Carmichael was sworn in as the UC Davis police chief. Carmichael will hold the position for one year, after which UC Davis will release a national recruitment call for someone to permanently fill the position.

Carmichael is taking on a difficult job. Former Police Chief Annette Spicuzza retired last Wednesday after five months of paid leave in the wake of the Nov. 18 pepper spraying of students. The relationship between the student body and the campus police force has soured since that event, particularly with the release of the Reynoso Task Force Report.

“My top priority in the next few months is going to be rebuilding the relationship between the police and the campus community,” Carmichael said at the swearing-in ceremony.

A new police chief is not a solution, but an opportunity to enact the solution. If Carmichael keeps his word that officers will be going into the student community to listen to our concerns, then this personnel change could be the beginning of a positive relationship between the campus police officers and students.

However, this all depends on how the administration views its own role in the events of Nov. 18. Spicuzza was not the only person listed as at fault in the Reynoso report; the entire police force and Katehi herself faced a great deal of criticism for their own failures on that day.

Katehi announced at the ceremony that some administrative changes are being made as well. Oversight of the campus police will be moved from the office of Vice Chancellor of Administrative and Resource Management John Meyer to the office of Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter.

We recognize Carmichael’s courage in taking on this position at such a difficult time. Though he’s only committed for a year, Carmichael needs to build a relationship with students.

This transition is not the time to celebrate. It is an opportunity to work at legitimately fixing student-police relations on this campus.

Responses to my last column included “not as inappropriate as I expected” and “needs moar buttseks.” I’m going to ignore both of those comments (for now…) and write as per a suggestion I got from a reader earlier this spring. Today, my unconventional conventionalists, I bring you a Spotter’s Guide to Grad Students! A look at the weird and wonderful cast of characters you will meet on your journey toward your degree, whatever it may be.

The Prisoner — Caught in a bad project (Google that phrase, now!), this student rarely leaves the lab, venturing out only for seminars and their allotted caffeine ration. Some are enslaved by their advisor’s draconian work ethic. For others, their research funding and lust for life are linked and both ran out after their first winter quarter. High risk of dropping out and becoming happy, healthy and successful.

The Hipster — Grad student of lore and stereotype. Can often be seen reading poetry at the Beer Shoppe or TA-ing your “Bi-curious Malagasy Transcendentalism” class. Can be distinguished from hipster undergrads in that they actually have read Kerouac. You probably never heard of his/her thesis topic, but that’s okay because nobody will ever read it.

L’Étranger — Bane of intro science classes: the TA with the indecipherable accent. Depending on the culture of the home country, will spend all of their time either in lab working alone or in lab drinking with everyone. Values the UC Davis brand far more than you ever will. May also be a Prisoner, but willingly so because they know no alternative.

The Two-Body Problem — A pair of post-baccalaureates in a committed relationship, with or without metal finger bands. Equal in interest and IQ, they exude relationship success. Smooth sailing ahead as long as they both graduate at the same time and find a job in the same university, or at least the same state. Future three-body problem.

The Golden Boy/Girl — Hate to borrow a term from Ph.D. Comics, but it’s an apt descriptor. Constantly winning awards and fellowships, Golden Boy’s every exhalation is published in a high-impact-factor journal. Will do more in the three or four years it takes him to graduate than most academics do by the time they’re tenured. Also better than you at sports and has his own rock band and/or fragrance line.

The Sleeper — Never at seminars unless they are catered, the nocturnal Sleeper can’t be bothered to wake up early or maintain a reliable presence in labs. Can be seen wandering aimlessly at anyplace other than its cubicle. Easily lured with food, but can’t pay attention and digest at the same time.

The Humanist — Having graduated with a useless degree in a pointless subject and having no job prospects outside a Starbucks, the Humanist hopes to change their fortune by graduating with another useless degree in the same pointless subject and then be overqualified to work at Starbucks. Can and will use “post-structuralism,” “menstruation” and “Paul Revere” in the same thesis proposal/playbill/pickup line.

The Overgraduate — Indistinguishable from the undergraduates in habit if not in appearance. Still parties, drinks and does extracurricular activities as if they were still in college and didn’t have better things to do like research and aging. Will buy you beer, but you bring the snacks.

The Mountain — Fixed and unmoving, the Mountain has been in your lab for so long even the professor can’t remember. The Mountain is the rock on which the lab stands, for it’s the only one who still knows how to use the archaic and essential equipment that no one else ever trained on. Has elevated writer’s block into an art form. Legend has it the record holder’s thesis topic is the breeding of apterous porcines, and they won’t graduate until it’s done!

MATAN SHELOMI hopes he has represented/offended everyone equally, and can be reached at mshelomi@ucdavis.edu.

The term “arms race” might seem a bit archaic at first glance. After all, the quest for bigger bombs and missiles with longer range was the mechanism that made MAD, or mutually assured destruction, a real possibility. Yet the notion of an arms race is not just an ancient relic, a throwback to a time when grade-schoolers practiced huddling under desks and the Commies were our arch-nemesis. The arms race is alive and well.

Last week, India announced that it had successfully tested a missile with a range that put Shanghai within reach. Called the Angi V, it can hit targets in a 5,000 kilometer radius.

Now why would India do this? One obvious reason is to establish a sense of parity with China. Now China has made no secret of its desire to become a major military power. In recent years, it has announced double-digit increases in military expenditures, tested advanced tactical jets and beefed up its navy. Whatever China’s intentions may be, they have India glancing warily at the creeping sphere of Chinese influence. This missile is one way for India to push back.

India is not alone in reacting in a less-than-positive way toward Chinese ambitions. Burma, now Myanmar, has turned strongly toward the West and away from its Chinese patron over the last year — an outcome that has surprised many international observers. Vietnam is conducting navy exercises with the West this week. Countries in the region, while not openly clamoring for an increased American military presence, certainly didn’t complain when President Obama announced a renewed commitment to maintaining strength in the Pacific.

So India’s missile test heralds the beginning of an Asian arms race, yes, but it also reflects the underlying wariness of other Asian countries to the prospect of a dominant China. However, India’s test also brings other issues into play.

The first is the issue of Pakistan. Long bitter enemies, it probably won’t be long till Pakistan tests its own long-range missile in an effort to match India’s capabilities. The prospect of two nuclear-armed neighbors with long-range missiles who also happen to be rivals with a history of armed conflict is not a pretty one.

Another issue is the ongoing efforts to negotiate with Iran. Why shouldn’t Iran say, “Well, hey, if India can acquire these weapons, why can’t we?” An extension of this argument might be,

“Well, hey, if India and Israel and (insert nuclear-armed country here) can have nuclear weapons, why can’t we?” And, quite honestly, they would have a point. A distinction can be made about the fact that India is a democracy and Iran is not, and further that India is a less threatening, more stable country. Yet an arms race in Asia will certainly not help negotiations with the Iranians, and there’s a good chance it will hurt these efforts.

Finally, there’s the simple question of why a nation with close to 40 percent of its citizens living in poverty would want to be devoting enormous sums of money into an arms race. The idea that the best way to achieve parity is through weapons has plenty of holes. Wouldn’t the best way to maintain parity be to build a nation that has a burgeoning economy, a highly educated populace and a high standard of living? I don’t know about you, but spending all that money on, say, a better higher education system in India or an infrastructure program just seems like a better idea.

Of course, all this logic applies here in America, as well. We spend over $500 billion a year in defense-related expenditures. I’ll let you figure out all the other things we could be doing with that money (hint: one of them is reversing the gutting of our higher education system throughout the country).

So congratulations, India. You’ve managed to make the world that much less safe, all with one simple missile test. Talk about a big bang for your buck — no pun intended.

JONATHAN NELSON can be reached at opinion@theaggie.org.

It looks like our spring quarter is shaping up to be a hot one, considering this past weekend’s scorching temps. The outlook for the technology industry couldn’t be any more different, with trends suggesting that we’re in for a future of overcast skies. This forecast has nothing to do with weather, of course, unless it’s referring to tech mecca San Francisco, which is a cloudy place indeed.

I’m talking about the explosion of “cloud storage” in recent times, otherwise known as online file systems. Think of it as a cyber hard drive. All of the digital information you keep on your computer – documents, photos, movies, etc. – can be stored online, in the “cloud,” accessible anywhere, at any time, as long as you have internet access.

Web-based storage is moving people away from the idea of being tied down to a laptop or a desktop computer, yet another indication that this “post-PC” era has arrived and is here to stay.

The business of cloud services is very competitive, and it will only get more so in the coming week. Google is expected to release GDrive, their own cloud-based storage service, any day now. The site is giving away 10 gigabytes free, and extra space at their very low current rate of 25 cents per gigabyte — a better offer than anything available on the market. Dropbox, the leading online storage provider, should be shaking in its boots.

With all that data leaving our local hard drives, it’s important to understand where it’s going, how it’s getting there and what is being done with it. Even if you haven’t consciously chosen an online backup service, you are probably already storing a lot of your files in the cloud. Your entire e-mail history is in the cloud, and you’ve probably e-mailed attachments to yourself as a quick way to back up documents and images.

But what about bigger files like videos or applications? That’s where cloud services come in. You install the service’s application onto your computer, which essentially creates a folder on your desktop. You drag and drop files into that folder, and those files are sent to a remote database. Your files will go through a data server, where they will be copied and stored on multiple machines. In geek speak, this is called “redundancy,” and it’s a precautionary measure in the case that power supplies fail or a server needs maintenance.

You can access these files from a browser on any computer by logging in to the service’s website. These sites will probably offer applications for smartphones and tablets too, giving you the option of viewing those files on the go.

All your stuff, in one place, accessible anytime, anywhere — it sounds like a heaven for hackers. The two largest concerns with cloud storage are reliability and security. If you’re in the market for an online backup provider, safety is key. Are their servers under 24/7 surveillance? Do they offer client-side data encryption, wherein the service provider or government will not have access to your data without your password? The answers to these questions should be yes — surveillance and encryption are basic amenities.

The security risks are worthy of concern, but I’m all for the cloudy days ahead. The ability to store and work on files online facilitates sharing information and collaboration. How many times have collaborative Google Docs helped you study for an exam? Exactly. Which brings me to my next point.

Academics will be changed by these online storage networks. MIT’s OpenCourseWare is a public database of elite-level courses offered online, for free. Lecture notes, assignments, solutions, powerpoints, exams and multimedia can be downloaded by anyone on the web. We see the benefits of web programs right here on our campus with SmartSite.

Keeping our files online will enhance the ability to share and collaborate with our peers. Cloud storage will also be the thread that connects our desktop computers with our phones and tablets. As Dropbox CEO Drew Houston puts it, “There needs to be a fabric that connects all these devices. That’s what we do.” But make sure you are taking precautions, as you should with all of your personal data.

NICOLE NGUYEN wants to know about all the atmospheric science knowledge you picked up from Picnic Day at niknguyen@ucdavis.edu.

I love “Star Trek.” I love it so much. People, I love “Star Trek” so much that I even sat through most of the Scott Bakula ones just for the love of the Federation, and if you know “Star Trek” you understand how painful that was.

So clearly, I know a lot about most of the series (except the original series which is rarely worth watching, and GO AHEAD and send me hate mail because I don’t even care). You know what I know almost nothing about? Science.

So for this column, I thought I’d combine one of my great passions with one of my most appalling areas of ignorance. Ladies, gentlemen and others, I here present a few “Star Trek” inventions, the “science” behind them and a celebration of their awesomeness.

OK, let’s start with the most recognizable item to “Star Trek” noobs — the communicator. You totally already know what I’m talking about. It’s the thing that goes “boop-boop” when you flip it open and with which you talk to your fellow space adventurers.

Later in the series, communicators turned into this badge on your chest that you just tap and talk in to. They could reach any crew member and the ship’s main computer and even transmit through the cold vacuum of space. The tech behind it had something to do with wave frequencies and creating standing waves I think. Whatever.

But the coolest part about communicators is that if you set them to a special frequency, and turn them way up, the resulting sound waves could tear down solid objects. So rad!

Ready for something even cooler? Boom! Tractor beams! These actually show up in lots of space-opera-type TV shows and movies. They’re responsible for the iconic image of a spaceship picking up a car or cow with a beam of light. For example, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In “Star Trek,” they often use tractor beams to snag other ships and hold on to them, like a crazy laser vacuum cleaner.

And guess what. They’re a real thing now! Some wonderful nerds at MIT created “optical tweezers” that can pick up cells and things, just with the power of light. How can anything be that cool?!?

I know I said I’d stick to hard pseudo-science here, but I want to delve real quick into some social science as well, because this would be a poor article indeed if I didn’t talk about the Prime Directive. Have you ever taken an intro-level anthropology class? If you have, then you’ve probably talked about cultural relativity. This is the argument that it’s inappropriate to try to interpret and judge the practices of one group through the ideology of another.

In the world of “Star Trek” this gets taken to a whole other level. See, the “Star Trek” series are set in a universe where a group of planets and civilizations have banded together to essentially be the boss of the universe. The resulting Federation has given itself the task of sending spaceships all over the galaxy to do science (ugh), and to seek out new life and new civilizations (awesome).

But sometimes those new civilizations are not as technologically advanced as the Federation. Actually, sometimes the shows portray them as not as civilized either, which is usually just a result of the messed-up racist allegories the writers sometimes indulged in.

So a Federation ship comes upon this less advanced society, sneaks in disguised to collect data on the civilization and realizes that on this planet they do something totally abhorrent. What’s a crew to do? According to the Prime Directive, exactly nothing.

This vitally important rule states that unless the Federation is directly threatened (or you find an Omega molecule, but we’ll get into that another time) you absolutely do not interfere in another culture’s development. That means no flashing anachronistic technology, no interfering with repressive governments because they seem unfair and no getting freaky with green chicks and leaving behind half-human babies, Kirk.

Of course, every captain has bent the Prime Directive at one time or another, because you don’t get to be a Star Fleet captain by not being a stone-cold badass willing to break the rules for the greater good. Yet another reason why “Star Trek” is the awesomest thing ever.

And by the way, KATELYN HEMPSTEAD’s favorite captain is unequivocally Benjamin Sisko, and if you have a problem with that then by all means, come at me bro — via e-mail at khempstead@ucdavis.edu.