Students react to in-person class cancellations due to global pandemic
As spring break arrived and the COVID-19 pandemic continued its tear across the globe, many Humboldt State University students wondered what to do as HSU canceled face-to-face instruction until at least April 17. Some students stuck around while others went home. The pandemic, directly or not, has affected all students.
“I feel like it’s a very serious outbreak and people need to take it seriously. I do think it’s getting blown out of proportion in some ways and people are panicking before they need to, but it’s just something I’m kind of trying to roll with, essentially.”
Ashley Bailey, molecular biology major
Ashley Bailey, a junior molecular biology major, planned to travel home. She admitted feeling stressed.
“I feel like it’s a very serious outbreak and people need to take it seriously,” Bailey said. “I do think it’s getting blown out of proportion in some ways and people are panicking before they need to, but it’s just something I’m kind of trying to roll with, essentially.”
Kiera Price, a junior journalism major, also said she would travel home. She thought both academic and national leaders should be more vigilant.
“I feel like instead of limiting social interaction, they should do more to prepare for it,” Price said. “Like, for example, the fact that there isn’t more of a stricter way to limit survivors from coming in.”
Price recognized there isn’t a lot to be done, but still expressed a longing for something more.
Tim Arceneaux, a senior English major, looked forward to staying in Humboldt. With a sigh, Arceneaux said he understood the measures taken by HSU.
“I think the precautions that the University is taking here and all around the country make sense, but at the same time, I find them to be really frustrating,” Arceneaux said. “I hope that this issue will bring the global community together and allow people to realize the importance of universal healthcare.”
Journalism major Kiera Price on March 13. | Photo by Gabe Kim
Film major Norbert Rodriguez on March 13. | Photo by Gabe Kim
English major Tim Arceneaux on March 13. | Photo by Gabe Kim
Arceneaux said there was one key thing HSU could do to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“They could try to alert students more about the health resources on campus,” Arceneaux said. “Because I feel like at this point, it’s almost an inevitability that someone is going to contract the coronavirus, and I’m not sure exactly what health resources are going to be available to students that contract the disease.”
Norbert Rodriguez, a junior film major, had planned to travel to Southern California to visit family, but decided to stick around once the coronavirus broke out. He said he thought HSU took too long to respond to the pandemic compared to other universities.
“At the moment, there aren’t any test kits [in Humboldt], so there’s really no way of knowing that there are any confirmed cases,” Rodriguez said. “I feel like it should’ve been a bit more proactive.”
Editor’s note: St. Joseph and Redwood Memorial Hospitals have set up screening tents for patients with COVID-19 symptoms.
Businesses capitalize on gender-based price discrimination
Gender-based price gouging often goes unnoticed, even though it affects the most basic items like clothing, menstrual products and toiletries.
The pink tax, also known as the tampon tax, refers to women’s products that frequently cost more than equivalent male products. These taxed items aren’t necessarily centered around female hygienic products, but they often target that audience.
March is dedicated to Women’s History Month, where past actions, sacrifices and challenges advocating for equal rights are respected and celebrated. The pink tax furthers gender discrimination and promotes the patriarchal setup of our society.
Women pay more for products solely based on the product being used on a female body. This contributes to the suppression of female rights by unrealistically charging women more for the same products.
The tax allows companies to take advantage of women’s products and manipulate the pricing to further profit. The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs conducted a study of the price differences between products which had male and female versions. The study found, on average, women’s products cost 7% more than men’s products.
There are only five states which don’t tack on an additional tax for any women’s products—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon.
Research shows the female version of products like razors, clothes, shaving cream, facial cleanser and even children’s toys cost more on average than their nearly identical male counterpart products.
Pink taxes still exist in 35 states in the United States. There are only five states which don’t tack on an additional tax for any women’s products—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon.
Both New York and California look to join the five states of pink tax exemption by eliminating gender-based pricing discrimination. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York is leading a campaign against the pink tax with a budget plan to remove all gender-based pricing. California State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson motioned for the same action and argued for the removal of the tax through a demonstration provided in a press conference. Jackson placed two basically identical soccer balls on a table, one with a pink stripe priced at $8.99 and the other with a blue stripe priced at $6.99. Jackson showed gender-based pricing to be simply ludicrous.
The essence of the pink tax is to further discriminate by gender and sexuality to create immense profit off of the subtle product differences. This makes money for corporate manufacturers and hinders the progression of gender equality.
To participate in the pink tax revolution and help the gender equality cause, we advocate boycotting products that target women or supporting companies who fight against gender-based pricing. We encourage people to purchase from companies that don’t produce gender-specific products. Collectively, this allows us to retaliate against the existence of the pink tax in the first place.
Ask Evergreen is a weekly advice column by the students of The Lumberjack
Dear Evergreen,
How do I productively procrastinate?
Dear productive procrastinator,
It’s about that time in the semester where many of us students hit our wall and feel the need to distract ourselves from our priorities. Don’t get comfortable in this phase—we still have eight more weeks of school left. There are a few things you can try to motivate yourself to work more and to keep you focused while still keeping some time to decompress.
Stay organized and prioritize your work. You can try to create daily to-do lists. If you can visualize what you have to do, you might have more motivation to get the little things done before tackling your bigger assignments.
Set realistic goals for yourself that you know you can complete. Chip away at your work bit by bit. You’re less likely to get overwhelmed. Read the required chapters for your classes one at a time and take breaks when you feel the need, but only after getting through a good chunk first.
Study with a purpose. Set aside your phone or just shut it off completely so you don’t get distracted with notifications. Power through the work you have without putting things off. You’ll feel much more relieved and relaxed in your free time if you get your responsibilities out of the way first.
If you really don’t feel persuaded to work after these tips, you can try productively procrastinating in other ways.
Tidy up your house while you put off contributing to a group project. Do the dishes while you think of how to start a report that’s due in a week. Scrub your toilet bowl and strategize your study plan for an upcoming midterm.
Allow yourself to have some time away from your school responsibilities before you buckle down and get to work. This will help you refresh your brain, giving you a better mindset to work with, while also hopefully kick-starting some brainstorming.
As long as you aren’t staring at a wall watching paint dry, you’re bound to be doing something productive while you put off your priorities.
I believe in you!
Sincerely,
Evergreen
If you have any questions you’d like to send in, email us at contactthejack@gmail.com. We won’t publish any names and you don’t need to use one.
Verbal harassment toward women is about control and the assertion of gender discrimination
Overall, 81% of women have experienced sexual harassment or assault in their life, according to Stop Street Harassment. This comes in the form of unwanted touching, being followed, being hollered or whistled at or vulgar gestures.
People often minimize the effect catcalling has, usually through now-tired and almost memetic clichés.
“What were you wearing?” some might ask. Or, “How late was it?”
As explained by HS Insider of the Los Angeles Times, the downplay of the effects of catcalling reinforces rape culture.
“Although catcalling is street harassment, it can be really difficult to report the perpetrator, which also creates the mindset of getting away with something and trying to see what else one can get away with, which can be more violent forms of sexual harassment,” author Karen Rodriguez wrote.
Even if catcallers claim they’re simply having fun or messing around, they demonstrate disregard for the safety and rights of women.
Men who catcall use the institutional power they hold that protects them from behaviors that should be seen as inappropriate. They reinforce the idea that men should hold a level of control over women and that women should be subservient. They see resistance to such unsolicited advances as a negative reaction to their exercise of that power.
“The issue of catcalling and street harassment isn’t an issue on security and protection,” Rebecca Meluch wrote for The DePaulia, the student newspaper at DePaul University. “It should be an issue on the way society shapes people to view groups of bodies as accessible and degradable.”
“Having to double-check the people walking behind me shouldn’t be routine for me.”
Paula Ortiz Cazaubon
HuffPost published a video in which men attempt to explain why they catcall. Most of their responses can be simplified to a man finding a woman attractive and the man instinctively calling out to her. The same men who defended their behavior instantly said they wouldn’t like if women they personally knew were victims of harassment.
The attitude that men are simply having fun as long as they’re personally and emotionally removed from the victim, reinforces stereotypes of gender inequality and power dynamics. The asserting of one’s power is the real intention behind catcalling, regardless of what perpetrators claim.
These actions are far from harmless, and they are damaging to women in the long run.
“Having to double-check the people walking behind me shouldn’t be routine for me,” Paula Ortiz Cazaubon wrote for The Beacon, the student newspaper at the University of Portland.
This is why education on street harassment is necessary. It starts with holding men accountable for their behavior. Rape culture is not something to be fetishized or taken lightly.
Arcata High CyberTigers face off against the Novato High Hornets
With 15 minutes until start time, Rocket League players sectioned themselves off into corners of a combined Humboldt State University computer lab and classroom in their respective Arcata High School CyberTiger, CyberTiger B and CyberTiger C teams as their coach Jason Sidell turned on some “get psyched” tunes. Sidell isn’t incredibly well-versed in Rocket League, but he is quick to compare it to other sports.
“When people think of esports, they think video games, and I think that they would be surprised if they were to observe our practices,” Sidell said. “Esports is to video gaming what a basketball team is to a pick up game.”
Rocket League players for the CyberTigers faced off against the Novato High School Hornets Feb. 27.
Rocket League, as described by the California Interscholastic Federation, is a fantastical sport-based video game that can be summed up as soccer with cars. It features a competitive game mode based on teamwork and outmaneuvering opponents.
The teams are each made up of 3 players, with the CyberTiger team being more like a varsity team and the B and C teams being more like junior varsity. The matches are best-of-five games, with each game lasting a little over five minutes.
Complete with pizza and La Croix, the HSU Gaming Club hosted a meet and play event for the Arcata High esports team earlier that month that brought an evening full of laughter and good old fashioned competition. The meetup was organized by HSU Gaming Club President Sarah Kanga Livingstone and advisor David Marshall, who reached out to the Arcata High esports team.
“We’ve been trying to reach out more and more to see if we can get more ways of bringing (high school) students on to campus,” Livingstone said.
The CyberTigers and their opponents are registered through a service called PlayVS, which is partnered with the CIF to provide the tournament brackets and infrastructure to run a state-wide league.
The teams are each made up of 3 players, with the CyberTiger team being more like a varsity team and the B and C teams being more like junior varsity. The matches are best-of-five games, with each game lasting a little over five minutes.
Within 20-30 minutes, both the B and C teams’ games were drawing to a close, but the CyberTigers’ Seth Simmons, Jonah Moore and Marley Thrift continued on in a dynamic match against the Hornets, with their coach cheering them on.
“Don’t say nice,” Simmons said as Sidell mistakenly complimented a shot that looked like it was going to go in. “Don’t say anything.”
Remarkably, the C team won while being down a player, and the B team swept their opponents 3-0. The CyberTigers, however, lost their match 3-1.
Vice President of Enrollment Management Jason Meriwether stopped by to welcome the high schoolers as well. Due to the success of the event, the HSU gaming club is currently in the process of planning a gaming tournament for local high school students in mid-April.
Inoue confronts the supremacist ideas within American academia
From unkind flyers to nasty messages written on bathroom walls, Humboldt State University has dealt with its fair share of acts of hatred and racism.
Asao B. Inoue, a professor and associate dean at Arizona State University, studies student writing assessment, race and racism. In a Social Justice Summit talk and an exclusive interview with The Lumberjack, Inoue pondered how a university can be anti-racist and address white supremacy.
“I was asked to come here and give a talk at a workshop, and I love doing that—it feels like an important part of the public work that I do in the academy,” Inoue said. “I help teachers think about ways to do social justice projects in their class, particularly around literacy classrooms and the grading evaluation and feedback of student literacy projects or writing.”
Inoue’s objective is to change the ways professors think about language and white language supremacy, and to start a revolution within the American grading system.
“My scholarship and research is in writing assessment and racism studies and the intersection of those two things,” Inoue said. “This [workshop] is an extension of that by trying to engage with writing faculty, English faculty and the curriculum.”
Inoue described white supremacy as a condition in which a particular group’s dialogue dominates others.
Inoue said white supremacists are often middle to upper-class people from the East Coast that attended an elite school. Inoue said these conditions collectively make up the identities of white supremacist perpetrators.
“It’s rarely, if ever, anybody else but that group of people from their particular material conditions in life that produce a certain language, which we tend to call standard or proper English,” Inoue said.
Inoue called out academia for actively perpetuating racist standards. He said the American grading system reaffirms racist ideals and practices through assigned curriculum.
Inoue said proper English can be especially problematic in academic settings.
“There’s lots of research that shows that we don’t actually agree about what that standard looks like,” Inoue said. “But I’m talking about when the rubber meets the road and you have to grade a paper based off of this, or decide whether something is consumable for the public. That’s where we start to have a lot of disagreements.”
Inoue called out academia for actively perpetuating racist standards. He said the American grading system reaffirms racist ideals and practices through assigned curriculum.
“I don’t want one to confuse me calling the system racist, with me calling people racist,” Inoue said. “[Professors] are thinking about the disciplines they have to teach and they’re not always thinking about, ‘How do I teach this?’”
One of the structural flaws within the educational system that Inoue noted was that professors fail to question the academic system and how it reaffirms practices of white language supremacy.
“It’s difficult to be critical of a system that has really benefited you,” Inoue said. “It seems like everything is working.”
Inoue said the façade of the education system being equally supportive can be convincing enough that people don’t see the flaws. Inoue said many professors inherit the practices that were inflicted upon them, and because those practices worked for them, they assume they work for others.
“It’s a fairly narrow economic and social bandwidth of people, so that means that all those practices are fairly narrow and the language practices are fairly narrow,” Inoue said. “So it doesn’t really leave a lot of room for considering differences or changes or being critical about those things.”
Editor’s note: members of The Lumberjack staff have been and are currently part of KRFH, including the current KRFH student station manager. The author of this story had no previous affiliation with KRFH, but our coverage is inevitably biased by this crossover.
Students expressed a range of emotions in response to a recent slip-up from their radio production teacher, Cliff Berkowitz.
In a conversation that followed an interview with the Times Standard for his then-upcoming election for the First District Board of Supervisors, Berkowitz said the N-word in a comment he thought was off the record.
When asked to chime in on the conversation surrounding a racist joke that had been made by his opponent in the election, Berkowitz did a Richard Pryor impersonation using the N-word—but he said the complete N-word. Berkowitz requested the reporters not print his slip-up, but they were well within their rights to do so.
In the wake of the interview, Berkowitz lost his primary election by a landslide, although it’s not clear what impact the interview had. Berkowitz issued a public apology to the press that he also read to his students.
“There are words that are so steeped in hate and racism, that they inflame our community when uttered; I am grateful to live somewhere that holds people accountable for what they say and do,” Berkowitz said. “While I did not wield that word as a weapon nor did I direct it at anyone, it does not remove the harm of saying the word. Nothing excuses what I said. There are people who have trusted me and for them this is a betrayal.”
Mikayla Moore-Bastide, first-semester KRFH student, described her experience at the station leading up to Berkowitz’s remark as a welcoming family environment.
“Whether he was on record or not, I still don’t understand why he felt he even had the right to say it anyways,” Moore-Bastide said. “Like, I’m a black person. I don’t even say it. I don’t even say the word at all. Anybody who knows me knows I don’t even say it, ’cause of the history behind it.”
Moore-Bastide intends to return for another semester of KRFH in the fall, not because she forgives Berkowitz, but because of her passion for radio.
“I don’t think I really forgive him yet,” Moore-Bastide said. “It’s gonna take a long while for me to forgive anyone who would just say the N-word around people who feel comfortable to say it.”
“If I’m being totally honest, I was super hurt.”
Delaney Duarte
Moving forward, Moore-Bastide believed Berkowitz has done all he can to repair the damage his statement caused.
“He knows what he did wrong, he knows that he hurt people, he’s not oblivious to that fact—he’s very aware,” said Moore-Bastide. “It’s one of those things where you kind of have to just put it behind you and then just kind of realize that people are probably gonna remember you for that, and you kinda have to accept it.”
Delaney Duarte, manager of KRFH’s TALX program, has been at the station for three semesters.
“If I’m being totally honest, I was super hurt,” Duarte said. “The whole day when I found out I was just like, I don’t know, I couldn’t wrap my mind around someone who I look up to so much to say that.”
Duarte wanted it to be made clear that KRFH is a student-run radio program, and that Berkowitz’s role does not go beyond instruction in the classroom.
“His apology in my opinion was just complete crap, if I’m being totally honest,” Duarte said. “It just seemed like he’s just saying sorry cause he has to. He got caught. You have to say sorry.”
Duarte expressed sympathy and concern for the African-American students in class, feeling a great deal of pain, herself, as a Latinx student.
“I wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t want to join because of that,” Duarte said. “Because, I mean, who wants to be taught by someone who doesn’t respect their students?”
It’s not just the students of color that feel uncomfortable in the classroom.
“People in our group, they’re just like really uncomfortable even going to the booth, like knowing that he’s either upstairs teaching his class, or like, his office is literally in the radio station,” Duarte said. “So it’s kinda hard to not run into him.”
“You have to take into account the perspective of the people that would potentially be offended by these kinds of statements in that regard.”
Elliott Portillo
Elliott Portillo has been a part of KRFH for three semesters, and doesn’t think this single incident should overshadow the good Berkowitz has done for students and the community.
“I think the joke was in bad taste,” Portillo said. “I think it came from more of a position of ignorance rather than of blatant hatred. I don’t think Cliff is a racist in any way, just based on the interactions he’s had with students and his passion for students.”
Portillo pointed out that his perspective should be taken with a grain of salt, as a self-described “white-washed” Mexican.
“You have to take into account the perspective of the people that would potentially be offended by these kinds of statements in that regard,” Portillo said. “But in my personal preference, I think he’s done so much that it’s hard for me to warrant lasting damage or lasting punishment.”
Duarte said students have come forward to request Berkowitz’s replacement because of an unsafe learning environment.
“As much as it hurts to say—I’ve always looked up to Cliff—but now at this point I’m kinda just bummed out and really hurt,” Duarte said. “So, I’d probably want to see a replacement. Someone who’s more respectable to our students of color.”
Entire Statement from Cliff Berkowitz:
I am writing this to formally apologize. I am truly contrite that my words caused pain or anyone to feel less than. I was wrong, it was stupid, and I should not have done it. We all commit harm, and when we do, it is only right to both apologize and work to make things better. I know I harmed people. I am sorry.
I have been asked over and over again about my opponent’s racist comment, which he has attributed to a Cheech and Chong joke. While that may be true, it is still unacceptable. I foolishly compared that to quoting Richard Pryor, trying to make the point that even quoting someone saying the wrong thing is unacceptable, and in making my example, I too said the unacceptable.
There are words that are so steeped in hate and racism, that they enflame our community when uttered; I am grateful to live somewhere that holds people accountable for what they say and do. While I did not wield that word as a weapon nor did I direct it at anyone, it does not remove the harm of saying the word. Nothing excuses what I said. There are people who have trusted me and for them this is a betrayal.
I have spent the past decades of my life trying to facilitate conversations that include rather than exclude. I have used my position to try to give voice to those who often don’t get to talk about their lived experiences. However, that is not enough. I formally, and contritely apologize. I apologize to all those hurt by my words, my friends, my family, the community, and my students. My past actions to help People of Color do not absolve me for the harm I committed. I still said that word. It is still not okay.
As I continue to reflect on how I have harmed people by saying that word, I will work towards a more just society. I will not stop activism or working to dismantle racism, and I will continue to interrogate how racist ideology has worked its way into my own mind. I will continue to work to make things better. I will uphold my promise to make sure all voices are heard and that there will be a place at the table for everyone, especially People of Color.
I am deeply grateful to those people in my life who have held me accountable and shared their personal experiences and knowledge about racism. Thank you to the community for also holding me accountable.
Classes will be taught in alternative modes starting March 26 to April 17.
The campus will remain open and all student services will be available.
Humboldt State University will suspend face-to-face instruction and move to alternative modes of instruction on March 26. This will follow the regularly scheduled Spring Break and an extended three-day faculty preparation and development period (March 23-25) during which instruction is canceled. Based on the parameters set forth by the CSU system, this suspension of face-to-face instruction is temporary and currently scheduled to remain in place through April 17.
The schedule and agendas for three days (March 23-25) of mandatory faculty preparation and development is forthcoming. Lecturer faculty will receive a stipend for participation.
The schedule and agendas for three days (March 23-25) of mandatory faculty preparation and development is forthcoming. Lecturer faculty will receive a stipend for participation.
Alternative modes of instruction will include use of Canvas, Zoom, and other instructional technologies. For more information on preparing to use alternative modes of instruction please see the Keep Teaching website.
Students: Please look for email and Canvas-based communications from your instructors about plans for individual courses. Please also see the FAQ page on the HSU COVID-19 web page: https://covid19.humboldt.edu/faqs for general information.
The decision is intended to mitigate spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), and is based on current guidelines from the CSU system, Office of the Governor, as well as local and state health officials. It was made following consultation and meetings of the academic department Chairs, Deans, Provost and Chair of the University Senate.
The decision was not made lightly. The goal of these changes is to minimize the need to gather in large groups or spend prolonged time in close proximity in spaces such as classrooms.
The University remains open. Residence halls, dining, student support services, health, counseling, disability services and other related offices remain fully available in support of all students. Students who need computers, Wi-Fi, or other technological support can continue to use the Library and computer lab spaces on campus. A social distancing policy is likely to be in place on campus following Spring Break. More information on HSU’s social distancing policy is forthcoming. All staff are expected to report to work. Student employees should return to their normal work as scheduled following Spring Break unless alternative arrangements are made with their supervisors.
There is currently no community spread of COVID-19 in Humboldt County. There have been no cases of COVID-19 on campus. Because information about the virus is changing rapidly, please check your humboldt.edu email and HSU’s COVID-19 websitefrequently during the break for announcements from HSU and California State University system.
Wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your face and eyes, nose, mouth.
Routinely clean your home, particularly high touch surfaces like doorknobs.
Consider limiting attendance at optional large gatherings because this is where colds, flu, and other respiratory viral infections are spread.
It’s important to remember to treat each other with care, respect, and empathy as the virus continues to disrupt daily life.
Please know that support and health and wellbeing services are available on campus. Students who would like to talk with a counselor can contact Counseling & Psychological Services in Student Health & Counseling at 707.826.3236 anytime. Staff or faculty seeking additional support may call the Employee Assistance Program at 707.443.7358.
Humboldt State University acknowledges its important role in the North Coast in bringing thought-leaders, visitors, artists, musicians, and entertainers to campus and the local community. In an effort to mitigate the possible spread of COVID-19, HSU continues to assess the impact of hosting large events on campus.
There is no one response that works for all events. HSU understands that each event is different.
HSU leadership, consistent with CSU guidelines and guidance from local health officials, continues to assess events and their relationship to HSU’s core mission. This ongoing assessment looks at event outcomes and whether postponement or other alternative modalities (such as virtual) can be used, participants’ ability to travel, participants’ relationship to high-risk areas or populations, local health standards, size of the event, fiscal and opportunity costs related to the event, and any other unique campus contexts that warrant consideration.
Subject to change, effective Saturday, March 14 until Friday, April 17 all on-campus large events (greater than 150 attendees) are suspended. Event planners will be asked to cancel, postpone, or use an alternative modality (virtual). Events after April 17 will continue to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, with additional information and campus decisions made as more information becomes available.
All HSU-sponsored athletic events are scheduled to continue. However, based on strong guidance from CCAA, events will now be “fan-less,” meaning there should be no fans at the events and only essential personnel are permitted for the event.
The campus continues to assess the most appropriate guidelines for smaller events, and will communicate new guidelines when available.
This is a difficult decision, but the University asks the community and event planners to support these efforts in trying to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Please consider staying in Humboldt during Spring Break.
Campus discussion touches on importance of traditional knowledge
Students, faculty, friends and family packed the Native American Forum March 5 to listen to author Kari Norgaard and Karuk environmentalist Ron Reed discuss Norgaard’s most recent book, “Salmon and Acorns Feed our People: Colonialism, Nature, and Social Action.”
Before the speakers began, Cutcha Risling Baldy, assistant professor of Native American studies, announced the NAS department’s 25th anniversary at Humboldt State University.
An introduction followed, led by Reed’s son, Charlie. Charlie Reed, a recent alumni from HSU’s NAS program, has continued as an environmentalist to help battle climate change. Before the talk began, Reed said it was important to give proper acknowledgement to the lands of Indigenous peoples. HSU sits on ancestral Wiyot land, and recognizing the land’s history is of utmost importance.
“There is a symbiotic relationship between our environment and our people.”
Charlie Reed
“Whether you are a faculty member or student or just a community member, it starts with a conversation,” Charlie Reed said. “You never know who is in the room who has something to offer or give back the things that have been taken from Indigenous people.”
Growing up with his father, Reed learned about his culture and the traditional ceremonies that tied in not just physically, but spiritually with the environment.
“There is a symbiotic relationship between our environment and our people,” Charlie Reed said.
With a warm thank you to the Reed family and the community, the floor was given to author Norgaard and Ron Reed. Reed introduced himself and what he learned as a child. Reed said learning the traditional ways of his people at a young age taught him how to sustain the environment.
“That’s where it all begins, ladies and gentlemen, when you have the ability to be taught things that you don’t even know you’re being taught,” Ron Reed said. “That will stay with you the rest of your life.”
In one of Norgaard’s chapters, she mentions an Indigenous tradition of using fire to cleanse or manage the land. Western science has given us the narrative that fire is dangerous and destructive. Thanks to “Smokey the Bear” and other forms of wildfire prevention advertisements, fire is seen as something to fear.
Even though fire can be seen as scary, Norgaard argued it’s also a way to help manage landscapes by getting rid of invasive species and even enhancing plant growth. Indigenous peoples used fire to help the environments they lived on, not to destroy or cause damage. Reed stressed the importance of bringing that narrative to our attention.
“We’re trying to get back to an intact world. Climate change can be a vehicle for that because of the awareness it brings to so many.”
Kari Norgaard
“We Native Americans—we the family—cannot let that narrative go,” Ron Reed said. “I don’t need some lone ranger to tell me the way. I know the way.”
With Indigenous knowledge and science being pushed to the side when it comes to environmental issues, Norgaard said settler colonialism is still causing misinformation about the knowledge base of Indigenous peoples. Norgaard said this is changing.
“Indigenous concepts and ideas have been making their way into academic spaces,” Norgaard said.
Climate change is perhaps the most pressing modern issue, but Norgaard and Ron Reed agreed it would help bring more awareness in our communities.
“We’re trying to get back to an intact world,” Norgaard said. “Climate change can be a vehicle for that because of the awareness it brings to so many.”
The consensus of the talk was that combining Indigenous knowledge with western science can change the way we view the world as well as how we take care of it. Coming together and working with each other on both sides of science can also help combat climate change. From the ways of the rivers to the fires of the forests, Indigenous knowledge can teach us more about our world.
“We need all the community on the river, but don’t forget us,” Ron Reed said. “Don’t forget the first people on this nation, on this ground that has created the environment that we’re trying to reestablish in this world today.”
Cold clouds creep on the horizon, waiting for students to flee Arcata before dumping rain on the city. The days of sunny skies and warm weather may come to a damp halt at the beginning of spring break.
Spring is here, and it’s wet. This coming weekend, rain is forecasted to fall on Humboldt State. Break is just around the corner and inclement weather may be a downer for partying students, so be sure to check the weather before the rager starts.
This helpful graph, built by weatherspark.com, shows the average daily chance of rain in Arcata throughout the year. | Graph by Weatherspark
To prepare for the break, The Lumberjack science section reached out to the National Oceanic and Aeronautic Administration office and asked a meteorologist what we can expect. It may get cold.
According to Brad Charboneau, one of those NOAA meteorologists, we’ve still got a couple more cold months ahead of us. We’re not out of the chill yet, even though the spring season is when temperatures start warming up.
“I check the weather often either with the NOAA weather app or by looking at the sky. If it looks questionable or if the sky is darker than usual, check it.”
Mattea Roberts
For curious weather geeks, the NOAA station uses a number of sensors and measuring devices to record weather events. For example, they use a tipping bucket rain gauge that measures hundredths of an inch. Each time the bucket fills, the bucket tips over and records a tic. The more tics, the more water. Easy as that.
Mattea Roberts probably appreciates meteorological instruments like the tipping bucket. A freshman studio artist at HSU, Roberts takes advantage of NOAA science by using their weather app. She said it was a good idea to check the weather if the sky looked questionable.
“I check the weather often either with the NOAA weather app or by looking at the sky,” Roberts said. “If it looks questionable or if the sky is darker than usual, check it.”
Roberts also said she brings a rain jacket or an umbrella to school every day, just in case it does rain. She’s probably going to be prepared for whatever the climate has to throw at her this weekend.
“I can tell you right now, it’s gonna be nice and warm up until Friday,” Charboneau said. “On Saturday, believe it or not, we’re gonna have a shift to cooler, more showery weather that will last through the weekend.”
Charboneau said the rain isn’t going to be very intense from the perspective of the rivers, but the conditions may make the weekend less than ideal if students have outdoor plans.
One of Charboneau’s colleagues, Meteorologist Ryan Alyward, explained how NOAA forecasts weather. He said as a meteorologist, his job is to pay attention to what’s going on in the sky and diagnose the conditions. Understanding what’s happening now allows him to make a prognosis of what weather conditions will be.
Using a program he called Ensemble, meteorologists input real-time data and get a large number of weather predictions. The predictions are future weather patterns that may or may not happen, and it is his job to use these to make a forecast of the weather. The trick is to look at the similarities in each model, because together, those similarities make the most likely prediction.
The current models, beyond the wet weather forecasted in Arcata, include snow in the mountains east of the city. Charboneau said although snow is more common in January and February, it’s not unheard-of in March.
“We’re looking for the potential of snow—low-level snow—which will impact the passes going east,” Charboneau said. “It is likely to see some snow over the weekend. Those are the main threats over the weekend.”
Claire Till of HSU receives lucrative award to aid her research and academics
Humboldt State University’s top-ranked chemistry program is home to a professor researching how plankton in the ocean interacts with heavy metals in the water.
“There are lots of people who are doing fantastic research and have awesome awards and grants on campus. So I’m glad for the opportunity to highlight some of the work that we’re doing at HSU and lots of people are doing lots of great work at HSU.”
Claire Till
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Claire Till recently won the Cottrell Scholar Award, a $100,000 award honoring trailblazing science professors or researchers who have made large strides in their respective fields.
“There are lots of people who are doing fantastic research and have awesome awards and grants on campus,” Till said. “So I’m glad for the opportunity to highlight some of the work that we’re doing at HSU and lots of people are doing lots of great work at HSU.”
Till looks forward to allocating the funds toward her personal research and her classroom. She’s using the funds to support field trips to gather more data and to hire student researchers.
“We’re going to go sample some rivers this summer,” Till said. “And then we’re going to do a couple of day trips on the research vessel, the Coral Sea, next summer, and some students will be hired throughout that.”
Till’s research is about iron, a vital nutrient for humans and phytoplankton in the ocean. Unfortunately, in the ocean, there are extremely low concentrations of iron, and as a result, phytoplankton are not growing as much.
“It’s really interesting—I think at least—to study how the iron gets there and how the phytoplankton uses it,” Till said. “What I proposed, and the work that we’re going to be working on, is to study iron using a new tool, which is another element called scandium.”
Till elaborated on the relationship between scandium and iron and what she hopes will come out of her research in relation to that.
“Scandium and iron have some parallels in chemical reactivity,” Till said. “There’s no real reason to expect them to behave similarly based on their chemical properties, and so I’m really interested in figuring out exactly in what ways are they similar and in what ways are they different.”
The second area Till will be putting funding toward is academics, specifically in her own classroom.
Ben Freiberger, a senior research student for Claire Till, has worked under her for a considerable amount of time.
“The money is now helping us to be able to get more accurate numbers and be able to determine more about scandium.”
Yasmin Zambrano
“We collect seawater samples, pre-concentrate them, and then measure them,” Freiberger said. “We just finished measuring all these samples from a cruise that went from Alaska to Tahiti. I started measuring those samples at the beginning of summer and I’m just getting finished with a couple hundred of those.”
He also went on a cruise last summer and is measuring samples he collected on the trip. His research may benefit from Till’s award.
“It’s good for the research group and it’s great that Claire can get money to keep doing this,” he said.
Yasmin Zambrano, a junior undergraduate research student for Till, was recently hired to work with her on her iron research.
“Right now, we’re just reading a lot of articles and trying to find how the treatments change within the different temperatures to see when it’s the best time to do the experiments and stuff,” Zambrano said.
Zambrano, too, is hopeful for the outlook of the chemistry program with the arrival of the award and subsequent funding.
“The money is now helping us to be able to get more accurate numbers and be able to determine more about scandium,” Zambrano said. “And again it’s going to be for at least three more years, so that’s three more years that she can do stuff, especially during the summer when students want to work in this field —and it looks good.”
Personal accountability paves way for future of transformative justice
Writer, educator and community organizer for disability and transformative justice Mia Mingus attended Humboldt State University March 6 as the keynote speaker for the Social Justice Summit. As a queer, physically disabled, Korean, transracial, transnational adoptee, Mingus faces adversity in all major facets of life and advocates for dignity and the end of violence, harm and abuse.
Mingus took the stage for an hour, discussing everyday transformative justice and how to achieve transformative justice on a societal level. Transformative justice is about finding alternative solutions to violence, harm and abuse outside of our punitive system.
“The system that we have is so based in, ‘You’re a bad person, so bad things deserve to happen to you,’” Mingus said. “Rather than, ‘We are all human, and human beings make mistakes, and we are all flawed, and we are all living in incredibly violent conditions.’”
“If you’re not proactively building accountable relationships in your life, you’re proactively building an unaccountable life.”
Mia Mingus
Instead of focusing on big picture questions, like what will replace our current system and how to end violence, Mingus insisted to focus on the ways that transformative justice can improve our own lives, and in return, impact the world.
“We can start small, because it’s just like building a muscle,” Mingus said. “You don’t go into the gym and start bench pressing 400 pounds immediately, or if you do, you’re gonna get really hurt.”
Mingus walked the audience through her four steps of accountability.
“If you’re not proactively building accountable relationships in your life, you’re proactively building an unaccountable life,” Mingus said.
“It doesn’t matter how good of an apology you gave or how well you repaired the relationship. If you keep doing the harm, what does it matter?”
Mia Mingus
For the first step of accountability, Mingus said we must possess self-reflection, without which you can’t achieve any transformative justice.
Second, we must be capable of genuine apology, demonstrating our remorse and understanding of our improper actions.
Third, we must be willing to repair and mend broken relationships and earn back trust.
Finally, we must change our behavior.
“It doesn’t matter how good of an apology you gave or how well you repaired the relationship,” Mingus said. “If you keep doing the harm, what does it matter?”
Transformative justice operates under the belief that acts of violence are deeply connected to the conditions that helped create and perpetuate those incidences of violence.
“That violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” Mingus said. “They are connected to the conditions that we live in, and we all participate in creating those conditions, and we all have a collective responsibility for ending violence, harm and abuse.”
“It’s not enough just to change the systems that we’re up against. We also have to change ourselves, and I really appreciate that.”
Mia Mingus
As a society, Mingus said we need to practice preventative actions, rather than respond with punishment.
“When we publicly shame people, or when we shame and blame people in general, it doesn’t actually get the violence to stop,” Mingus said. “It usually just teaches people how to hide the violence or harm better. It doesn’t actually make the kind of deep fundamental change that we actually want.”
After her lecture, Mingus elaborated on fundamental change in an exclusive interview with The Lumberjack.
“It’s not enough just to change the systems that we’re up against. We also have to change ourselves, and I really appreciate that,” Mingus said. “And vice versa, you know, it’s not enough just to change yourself. You have to also help change the world too because I think that’s where the magic lives.”
Mingus said transformative justice focuses on the fundamental improvements that must be made along the way.
“We’re working on a micro level but we’re doing it with a macro perspective because we’re actually trying to interrupt generational cycles of violence and harm,” Mingus said. “That’s the goal.”
Mingus gave a final piece of advice for helping with world progression.
“Learn as much as you can, give as much as you can,” Mingus said. “But like, generally, just start from where you are, with what you have, and don’t get overwhelmed by trying to change the whole world.”
With COVID-19 spreading, HSU plans post-spring break response
Humboldt State University is planning for a possible partial or full campus closure in response to the spread of COVID-19.
HSU has sent multiple emails since March 4 to students and faculty communicating the steps and measures the campus is taking to address the spread of COVID-19. In addition to creating a website with updates on the virus, HSU has organized the Pandemic Planning Committee.
In the most recent email, sent out March 10, HSU suspended all international and non-essential domestic university-related travel. Communication Specialist Grant Scott-Goforth clarified to The Lumberjack that students are free to travel where they wish outside of school. Scott-Goforth said HSU would send out more messages in the coming days to define essential travel.
“The idea is that we’re creating a flexible solution, and our main goal is to ensure that we can provide services and instruction.”
Kris koczera
The Lumberjack spoke with the emergency coordinator at HSU, Kris Koczera, who sits on the PPC. Koczera said the PPC is meeting weekly, but that is subject to increase if the outbreak becomes more severe locally. She was hesitant to talk specifics due to the committee’s confidential status and the pandemic’s shifting nature.
“The idea is that we’re creating a flexible solution, and our main goal is to ensure that we can provide services and instruction,” Koczera said.
Graphic by Jen Kelly
Representatives from Dining Services, Housing and even the Dean of Students have attended meetings to address concerns about how the pandemic will impact their departments. Much of what the PPC is doing is modeled after other campuses in the California State University system and is advised by direct communication from the Chancellor’s Office of the CSU.
“We have the benefit of kind of looking at what they are doing, the timing of what they’re doing and using that as almost a case study for us to move off of,” Koczera said.
As of March 10, several college campuses including the University of California, Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, San Francisco State and Stanford have suspended most of their in-person classes and will be offering all lecture courses through online instruction services like Zoom and Canvas.
HSU has advised faculty to create a contingency plan in the event of a full campus closure. Koczera says life is first and foremost for the PPC and that they’re aiming for a fluid-but-reactive approach.
“It doesn’t matter how great instruction is,” Koczera said,” if we have no students to instruct.”
In 2018, In-N-Out Burger announced the start of construction for a new location in Eureka. Now at the beginning of March, the new restaurant located at 2616 Broadway Street nears completion.
The upcoming restaurant currently seeks job applicants for entry-level positions, suggesting the location will be opening soon, but an exact date is currently unavailable. They plan to interview applicants on March 2 and 3.
Why I don’t think marijuana is everything it’s cracked up to be in baseball
Major League Baseball is an organization that prides itself on having great talent on and off the field. Players are drug-tested fairly regularly and subject to different levels of punishment if caught with opioids or other banned substances. That is all changing with the legalization of marijuana in baseball.
Marijuana graces the covers of magazines and virtually everything in sight in modern culture like a groundbreaking scientific discovery. Seemingly everyone will go to great lengths to defend the devil lettuce’s honor if one attacks it. In general, marijuana is looked at like a god. Sure, people have benefited from it, but its usage has gotten out of control and the relaxed restrictions of marijuana in baseball are just more nails in the coffin.
With the increase in American marijuana users comes the increase of ramifications. While there are many compelling arguments for normalizing marijuana usage, there are also legitimate health concerns around it.
As a matter of fact, marijuana-induced emergency room visits have jumped up, particularly in more left-leaning states.
According to the Colorado Hospital Association, a collection of more than 100 hospitals in the state of Colorado, “the prevalence of hospitalizations for marijuana exposure in patients aged nine years and older doubled after the legalization of medical marijuana,” and “emergency department visits nearly doubled after the legalization of recreational marijuana.”
That is scary stuff. Maybe marijuana can wash away anxiety or depression temporarily, but to risk the added side effects is foolish.
Returning to the realm of Major League Baseball, we find ourselves in the midst of an organization that is trying to appeal to a younger audience by making games more enjoyable and watchable. After all, the kids are the future of the sport.
Yet the idea that loosening the grip on marijuana in baseball will do no harm couldn’t be more wrong. It is common knowledge that youth look up to ballplayers as role models in many different facets.
If marijuana is more debilitating to one’s health than beneficial, we should be making it clear that any, and I mean any, drug or substance will not be tolerated in baseball no matter how harmless it may be marketed as. I certainly wouldn’t want my kids to form the idea that they can get away with smoking weed like it’s no big deal. Marijuana and e-cigarettes are already being passed around like packs of gum in middle and high schools and it’s only getting worse.
“Drugs work very well, at first, for mentally ill people. If you’re anxious, it’ll go away with a couple of hits, a beer. It’s like magic. But then, the tolerance sets in. So, not only do they need to drink more to relieve the anxiety, but every single time they try to stop, the underlying anxiety comes back worse.”
Dr. Alex Stalcup
Beyond setting a bad example for the younger generation, people are using marijuana for non-medical purposes and leaning on it like another shoulder. Especially in Humboldt County, people are socially smoking marijuana and claiming it’s saving their lives.
I recognize there are some individuals who actually need it to function, but nonetheless, it’s spread like a wildfire and now it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t smoke it or consume edibles.
Mental health issues affect the extent to which people get addicted to marijuana or other substances, according to Dr. Alex Stalcup, medical director of the New Leaf Treatment Center in a 2016 interview with Healthline Magazine.
“Drugs work very well, at first, for mentally ill people,” Stalcup said. “If you’re anxious, it’ll go away with a couple of hits, a beer. It’s like magic. But then, the tolerance sets in. So, not only do they need to drink more to relieve the anxiety, but every single time they try to stop, the underlying anxiety comes back worse.”
Stalcup went on:
“Fifty to sixty percent of the people with an addiction to marijuana whom [my] clinic treats have some sort of underlying mental health condition,” he said.
Granted, it is only one clinic, but the point is an overwhelming amount of people across the country who abuse weed are dealing with a mental health crisis of some kind.
I will admit that I am in the same boat with a lot of these folks, but I will never use weed as a solution to my problems. There is an abundance of other remedies and treatments available to cure internal issues.
I can’t control what you do. I can’t control what Major League Baseball does. But I hope that baseball will go back to looking at marijuana as a banned substance that could incur fines and treatment.
Ask Evergreen is a weekly advice column by the students of The Lumberjack
Dear Evergreen,
I’m a sensitive sleeper. How do I stay asleep all night?
Dear Sensitive Sleeper,
Falling asleep and staying asleep can be challenging, especially if you live in a community environment like dorms or apartments. There are a few things you can try before heading to bed that may help you sleep through the night.
Use earplugs or other noise-cancelling items. Earplugs are a blessing when you have noisy neighbors. Pop a pair in your ears and listen to your heartbeat and breathing. The rhythmic melody of these two sounds may help distract you from outside noise.
Use white noise to help you sleep. The Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine Division of Rhode Island conducted a study on the effects of white noise on patients’ sleep in intensive care unit environments that are a cacophony of noise. The study found white noise facilitates less sleep disruption. You can conduct a similar study on yourself. Try turning on a fan or downloading a white noise app and see how it affects your sleep.
Have a warm drink. Old wives’ tales suggest having a warm glass of milk to help you sleep. For those who don’t drink milk, try having a hot cup of non-caffeinated tea. There are even specific tea blends to aid restful sleep. I recommend a tea blend with chamomile, mint or lavender elements.
Get all your priorities out of the way so you don’t worry about them. If you don’t have assignments to worry about, you might sleep better and skip those crazy school panic dreams. Try completing as much work as you can to put your mind at ease. Give yourself some time before bed to relax away from your work to let your brain have a chance to disconnect.
Don’t use your phone before bed and avoid screens. A study by the Lighting Research Institute in New York found blue light from phone screens and other digital devices can disrupt your body’s natural melatonin release habits. Give your body and mind a decompression period away from screens before trying to fall asleep.
Get a heart monitoring device. Fitbits and Apple Watches can record your sleep patterns and resting heart rate. While these devices can be pricey, they also offer other life applications that can make them worth it. If you already have one, start paying attention to that sleep data.
Sweet dreams!
Sincerely,
Evergreen
If you have any questions you’d like to send in, email us at contactthejack@gmail.com. We won’t publish any names and you don’t need to use one.
Shifting the blame of loneliness from individuals to institutions
There’s an epidemic of loneliness in modern America. It’s a trauma encompassing political, economic and social realms. We’re all alone, but it’s not any one person’s fault.
Imagine the stereotypical millennial: they moved home after college, unable to find a job or afford a home of their own. It may sound pathetic. But maybe they’ve found the home they need.
The alternative for the millennial generation is living alone in an overpriced closet. It leaves them fragile and alone. A 2018 national survey by the healthcare provider Cigna found 46% of Americans felt alone some or all of the time. Adults aged 18-22 responded as the loneliest age group. A 2010 AARP survey had similar findings.
Lonely people are vulnerable. Alone, a small problem becomes a crisis. That crisis festers and becomes a trauma that stays with a person for life. Without a support network, a minor issue can snowball into an avalanche. Studies have linked loneliness to depression, distress, suffering, poor sleep, high blood pressure and death.
Loneliness almost feels normal in a society that sees the world in terms of the individual. Privacy can feel like success. Appearing independent is an achievement. And we see weakness in a cry for help.
We weren’t always this way. Prior to modern industry, humans often lived in close-knit communities, whether related by blood or not. Fast-forward to the 1950s, and the nuclear family emerges. There’s the working husband, the stay-at-home wife and the two or three kids. It might have been romantic then, but a 2020 article from The Atlantic by David Brooks shows this small, private family wreaked havoc on our social lives.
Jump forward 60 more years and you get the loneliness epidemic. One could criticize nuclear families for pages—read Brooks’ piece for a full account. But as they relate to loneliness, they popularized small families and mistrust of anyone outside of those families.
Small families can produce lonely individuals. Imagine a single child. Imagine their parents pass away. That child then has to live on their own, without the support of a family around them. Financial, personal or professional stresses can lead to a free-fall when you have no safety net.
Small, nuclear families disintegrate, and children are left on their own.
Youth are finding new ways to survive the aftermath of a nuclear family disaster.
The good news is we seem to be adapting. We are, in some sense, valuing extended families again. Pew Research Center found a record 64 million Americans living in multigenerational households in 2018. In 2016, Pew found the most common living arrangement for the 18-34 age group to be living with parents.
We’re also expanding families beyond biological boundaries through shared housing units and groups for single parents. These new arrangments provide a way forward that doesn’t necessitate stay-at-home wives or gender discrimination. We’re finding ways to balance our want for individual freedom with our need for a family.
Living together doesn’t necessarily make for less lonely people. We should be cautious about praising housing arrangements that can be born out of economic necessity, but research suggests many are choosing less lonely housing by choice. Living together is a good first step toward a more stable society.
Youth are finding new ways to survive the aftermath of a nuclear family disaster. Make fun of the millennial in their parents’ garage if you want. But it looks to us like they might have found shelter from modern loneliness. They’re going to be OK.
This cannabis-infused brownie recipe uses coconut oil as a butter substitution and base for a vegan cannabis butter.
Photo by Rachel Marty
Coconut oil is a great replacement for butter and absorbs cannabinoids in the same manner.
The first step is to make the “cannabutter.”
Depending on how much marijuana you use, your brownies can have a higher or lower dosage of THC. When making cannabis-infused products, always be cautious of your dosage and measurements.
Start by decarboxylating the marijuana.
Photo by Rachel Marty
The decarboxylation process is simple: spread marijuana out on a tray and place it in an oven preheated to 245 degrees for 30 minutes.
Photo by Rachel Marty
Photo by Rachel Marty
This is an essential step. Decarboxylation heats up the cannabis flower and allows the body to absorb the cannabinoids, essentially activating the cannabis. This process happens instantly when marijuana is smoked, but when making edibles it must happen slowly to preserve the product and not burn it.
The next and longest step is to infuse the coconut oil with the decarboxylated marijuana.
Throw the coconut oil and decarboxylated marijuana in a sauce pan and let it simmer on the lowest heat setting for three hours.
Photo by Rachel Marty
Photo by Rachel Marty
Heat on the lowest heat setting ensures your oil will be fully infused and that the baked marijuana will not burn.
Don’t leave the house or kitchen when you are infusing your oil. Three hours is a long time, but leaving your stove unattended is dangerous and could potentially start a fire.
After three hours your coconut oil will no longer be clear and will have a deep green color to it.
Photo by Rachel Marty
The next step is to separate the cannabis-infused oil from the actual cannabis. To do this, use a cheesecloth.
Photo by Rachel Marty
A regular strainer’s holes are too big and will leave you with little bits of marijuana in your oil. Using cheesecloth on top of a strainer is the best course of action and will ensure your oil is as pure as possible.
Photo by Rachel Marty
Next, measure out however much oil you need for your brownie recipe.
Photo by Rachel Marty
It’s important that the coconut oil does not sit out for too long or the oil will become dense and harder to incorporate into the mix. No worries if your oil does set up. Just reheat it.
As for eggs, almost every brownie recipe out there calls for them, but just like butter, there are some great substitutes you can use. Applesauce is a good substitute, which is what this recipe uses, but you can also use mashed-up bananas or yogurt.
Photo by Rachel Marty
Finally, mix all of your ingredients together, pour it out into a pan and put it into the oven.
Photo by Rachel Marty
When your brownies come out of the oven, they may look soft or even underdone, but let them rest in a cool space for 10-15 minutes and they will set. Fresh out of the oven, the coconut oil will be very apparent on the top of the brownies and make them look oily, but as they cool the oil will absorb and become denser.
Photo by Rachel Marty
Again, be careful of your dosage when consuming any cannabis-infused product.
Edibles or cannabis-infused foods are a common way to consume marijuana. The process of making edibles, just like baking brownies, is a science. The primary psychoactive compound in marijuana is called cannabinoids. When making edibles, you infuse a fat with cannabinoids to activate the chemical.
Mark Wilson, a Humboldt State University professor with a Ph.D. in microbiology, genetics and toxicology explained that cannabinoids are fat soluble and don’t break down in water.
“Some substances are water soluble and some substances are fat soluble,” Wilson said. “THC is primarily composed of carbon-carbon bonds and carbon-hydrogen bonds, so it can’t interact well with water, but it can interact well with fats and oils.”
This characteristic of THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, limits what can be turned into an edible. THC can’t steep in hot water for weed tea. Marijuana would need to be steeped in hot milk instead, where the THC would break down and bond with the milk fats.
“Things that dissolve into our fat tend to remain in our system much longer. That is, they slowly diffuse into fat, and slowly diffuse out. The fat acts as a sort of absorption compartment. That makes it detectable in drug tests for weeks.”
Joseph Szewczak
Many people use butter as the main fatty ingredient in edibles. Dairy-based fats are a good option for infusing cannabinoids, but lactose-free alternatives are also solid options, including coconut and olive oil. Bacon fat can absorb cannabinoid infusions too, if you’re looking for a savory option.
Joseph Szewczak, an HSU professor who studies and teaches comparative physiology and physiological ecology explained the physical changes to the body when people eat cannabis-infused fats rather than smoking cannabis plants.
“Things that dissolve into our fat tend to remain in our system much longer,” Szewcxak said. “That is, they slowly diffuse into fat, and slowly diffuse out. The fat acts as a sort of absorption compartment. That makes it detectable in drug tests for weeks.”
Whether inhaled or eaten, the THC enters the blood stream and messes with brain-cell functions in a unique way. Since THC is shaped like a chemical in the brain, the brain recognizes the chemical and allows to alter normal brain function. That chemical usually tells brain neurons to rest, but THC forces the brain to keep firing, which leads to deep thoughts, increased creativity and anxiety.
In light of these effects, it’s important to understand what’s going to happen after eating an edible. First, since the body takes some time to digest edibles and since their THC is stored in fat, the high lasts longer. Second, the nature of THC and marijuana may lead to discomfort or anxiety, or may lead to creativity and fun, but that’s dependent on many factors.
Co-Director of the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research Josh Meisel is researching the significance of set and setting, or who you’re with and where you are, and how those things impact a high.
“People’s negative experiences may be influenced by edible use,” Meisel said. “But set and setting may be as influential or more influential than the psychoactive properties of the substance itself.”
The United States needs better regulations on rear car lights
There is a frightening flaw in American car design clearly visible during every trip to the grocery store. United States auto regulation does not require brake lights to be a different color than turn signals. They should be.
The colors and positions of rear lights may seem like a small detail, but it has deadly consequences. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 36,560 people died in motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2018. Given this statistic, one would hope we are doing everything possible to ensure the safety of drivers and their passengers.
Tight and statistically informed regulations on the auto manufacturing industry are important when making something so necessary but so dangerous for the modern worker’s everyday life.
The lights on the rear of a car are designed to do a lot of jobs, the most important of which are to indicate when the driver is braking, when they’re turning and when they’re reversing. Seeing as communication between drivers is one of the most important requirements of safe driving, these signals must be as clear as possible. A simple system designed to effectively communicate these three actions already exists.
A three-color system makes driver intent clear. Red brake lights indicate a driver is slowing, white back-up lights indicate a driver is reversing and amber turn signals indicate a driver will be mixing up their position a bit. This is where America stumbles. Back-up lights are required to be white and brake lights must be red, but turn signals can be either amber or red. Worse, they do not have to be separate from the brake lights.
Turn signal color and separation may seem trivial, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found in a 2008 study that cars with amber turn signals may be up to 28% less likely to be struck while maneuvering in a way that involves the turn signal.
A 1995 study by the same agency found reaction time to brake signals decreases significantly when the braking driver possess amber turn signals. This remained true even when the braking driver wasn’t using their turn signals.
Even using the most conservative estimates in safety increase, there is no doubt amber turn signals would save lives.
We’ve known for at least 50 years red lights aren’t the best choice for communication. Red light can appear to be further in the distance than it really is. It is also difficult for the human eye to see differences in red light intensity. A blinking red light is less noticeable than a blinking amber light, which is something that should be taken into consideration when creating fast, metal death-boxes.
There are more studies with similar results. The weight of the evidence for better turn signals is overwhelming. Most other countries require amber turn signals. Cars sold in the United States without amber turn signals have them in other countries. The United States and Canada stand virtually alone on this. The question is clear: why are American cars not required to have amber turn signals?
Is it cost? It’s tempting to think this is yet another example of the auto industry cutting corners. In this case, it’s probably not. Amber turn signals are not significantly more or less expensive than red turn signals.
Even using the most conservative estimates in safety increase, there is no doubt amber turn signals would save lives.
It could also be aesthetics. Nothing says boring like safety. The fear of death is just part of what makes driving exciting, apparently. We want sleek, sexy cars. Our most expensive cars look angry and aggressive. They aren’t designed to pick up kids or run to the store. They are accessories or fashion statements, not tools.
Maybe Americans just enjoy the freedom to refrain from changing simple things that would increase the quality of life for everyone around them. The rest of the world may do something in a way that’s objectively better and uses the same amount of effort, but we’re Americans and we’ll be damned if we let the United Nations tell us what to do.
Maybe it doesn’t matter. Driving around Humboldt County, one wouldn’t know turn signals are mandated at all. If we do away with turn signals altogether, this isn’t an issue. American ingenuity triumphs again.
The hype is real for the new Animal Crossing game after their recent presentation
The first console Animal Crossing game since 2015 is less than a month away from its March 20 release date. Nintendo just announced a list of new features for the upcoming Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch.
Animal Crossing is a series that puts you in control of a small town filled with anthropomorphic animal villagers. In this edition, you have bought the Deserted Island package, which gives you an island to build your town on. Despite being put into debt immediately by Tom Nook, the owner of the company that you bought the package from, there is no need to pay back the loan. There is no time limit or interest—pay it back whenever.
That’s one of the main draws of the series. There is no push to play it one way or the other. Whether you want to spend your days fishing or collecting fossils, or just decorating your home, the game will never push you. You’re free to play at your own pace and relax with the other villagers that populate your town.
On Feb. 20, Nintendo aired Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct. The press conference, given by Tom Nook, the series’ resident loan shark, was broken up into three parts. It gave a refresher of what had been shared before along with new developments that will appear in future updates to the game. It ended with a FAQ section.
The main addition this iteration of the peaceful life simulator brings is customization.
When you’re first put into the game, you’re told to choose from four different island layouts for your town and to choose your hemisphere. This will help accurately portray which seasons are happening in your town at their specific times. You’ll also be able to terraform your island so you aren’t limited to the exact layout you choose at the start for the whole game. You can add hills and create new rivers and waterfalls. The island will be truly yours.
Another big addition is the ability to determine where villagers move in. In past games, villagers just moved in where they saw fit, even if it was on your flower bed or on top of your favorite apple tree. This time you get to map out exactly where villagers move in and shape your town around that.
The game now allows eight people to live on your island at the same time—not just non-playable villagers, but your friends and family. The game even adds four-player co-op, where you and three friends can explore your island together on the same console.
Later updates to the game will be for holidays. The first announced update, for Bunny Day in April, will be released the same time as the game, March 20.
A few weeks ago, two little piggies went wee-wee-wee all the way home to the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology. On-campus dining services like The J are working with CCAT by delivering their compost to feed the pig project. Instead of the food waste going to the bin, it can fill the bellies of the pigs.
CCAT acquired the two baby kunekune pigs from Tule Fog Farm in an attempt to reduce Humboldt State’s organic carbon footprint.
Ben Nguyen, the primary animal caretaker, farmer, project manager and a co-director of CCAT, explained that, depending on their nutrient demand, the pigs will eat as much or as little as they need in order to maintain healthy growth.
“Usually what we pick up from The J is around 10 pounds of food a day,” Nguyen said.
The kunekune pig is a small grazing pig that can survive on a low-calorie diet and can weigh anywhere from 150 to 400 pounds. Although different breeders may breed for a smaller size, the pigs from Tule Fog Farm average around 200 to 300 pounds, making them the ideal size for an on-campus composter.
The pigs will probably be on campus at CCAT eating food waste for the next semester unless someone wishes to keep the project going through the summer and so-on, since Nguyen will be graduating in May.
Some students are against keeping the pigs and are seeking to purchase the pigs and send them to a sanctuary. But for now, after the completion of the project, the pigs are arranged to be returned back to Tule Fog Farm.
Before they were adopted by CCAT, Shail Pec-Crouse, Tule Fog Farm owner and farmer, introduced the pigs to a diverse diet. Tule Fog Farm pigs ate compost as a nutritious supplement to their natural grazing diet of fresh grass.
“We take kitchen waste from a couple of local restaurants like Slice of Humboldt Pie and Los Bagels,” Pec-Crouse said.
Pigs are omnivores and need a diverse diet consisting of grains, fats, protein and greens. This diverse diet makes them an excellent option for getting rid of food waste or any organic waste in general.
According to Oxymem, a DuPont brand, when food waste is thrown in the trash and decays unnaturally among plastic and other non-biodegradable things in landfills, a toxic liquid called leachate is produced, which has a high ammonia concentration that isn’t easily biodegraded. Compost solves this problem by keeping biodegradable materials out of landfills so that it can continue its life cycle and be returned to the ground naturally.
Robert Just, a local livestock veterinarian, described the relationship between human trash and pig diets as an evolutionary interaction. He explained that since humans and pigs have lived symbiotically for so long, their gut biomes may have adjusted to eating our over-ripe food waste.
Pigs have digestive tracts that are unique to livestock animals, but are similar to the human gut. They have one simple stomach, just like people. Pigs are omnivores and need a diverse diet consisting of grains, fats, protein and greens. This diverse diet makes them an excellent option for getting rid of food waste or any organic waste in general.
“Pigs aren’t indestructible though,” Just said. “And they are still susceptible to illness from molds and some fungus, but this can be easily avoided by cooking the food into a slop.”
This project is one more step towards increasing sustainability on campus and problem-solving to reduce food waste.
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