Sophomore pitcher Richard Brereton sends the ball to Brandeis University (Mass.) on April 13. Brereton threw six innings giving up two runs on five hits, three walks and six strikeouts in a losing effort against the Huntingdon College (Ala.) Hawks on April 20. Ayushi Agarwhal/Photo Editor

Emory’s baseball team faltered in a two-game set against the Huntingdon College (Ala.) Hawks on April 20 and 21. After dropping the weekend series, the Eagles fell to a 17-17 overall record.

The Hawks shut the Eagles out, earning a 4-0 victory in the first game of the series, on the Hawks’ home turf on April 20.

Victorious in his prior three starts, sophomore pitcher Richard Brereton began the game for Emory. Brereton threw six innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits, three walks and six strikeouts.

Despite Friday’s loss, Pitching Coach Ryan Mossman praised Brereton for his leadership and the elite work ethic he displayed throughout the season.

“[Brereton] has been the catalyst for our team, playing at elite level pitching and hitting,” Mossman said. “He is one of the best leaders that I have been around, and he sets the bar high for others to follow.”

Hawks sophomore pitcher Brooks Freeman dominated the Eagles, holding them scoreless in eight and two-thirds innings pitched. Emory posted only seven hits in the afternoon and committed three fielding errors.

Mossman commended Freeman’s strong repertoire of pitches and his ability to keep Emory off the scoreboard.

“Offensively we struggled, but [Freeman] kept us off balance with a good slider and fastball,” Mossman said. “He was one of the better pitchers that our team has faced this year.”

Traveling home for the team’s Senior Day, Emory suffered a 7-5 defeat to Huntingdon on April 21. Senior pitcher Rhett Stuart began the game on the mound for Emory, allowing three runs in three innings pitched.

Mossman said his pitching staff did not have the best control of their pitches and, as a result, put themselves into too many stressful situations.

“Between walking eight batters and giving up 11 hits, we put on too many baserunners,” Mossman said. “On the mound, we could not keep them off base by either committing errors or throwing bad pitches.”

Playing center field, Brereton tore apart Huntingdon’s pitching in the batter’s box. Brereton drove in two runs on two hits, including his second home run of the season.

Emory went into the ninth inning of the game down 7-3, after yielding two runs in the top of the inning. Despite a late two-run charge, the Eagles ultimately fell short and failed to retaliate.

“Defensively, we could not quite get a stop towards the end,” senior first baseman Bubby Terp said. “We had a couple of guys that were also thrown out of the basepaths, which in a close game is really hard to overcome.”

The Eagles and Hawks were scheduled to play a third game on April 22, but the game was canceled due to inclement weather.

Emory will play in its final series of the regular season at New York University on April 27-29 for a chance to boost their University Athletic Association (UAA) record.

The post Two Birds, One Ball: Eagles Fall to Hawks appeared first on The Emory Wheel.

Peter Edgar

Josh Earnest, the former White House Press Secretary under President Obama, spoke to three audiences at Florida Southern. One was a group of political science students on the basement floor of the Christoverson Humanities building, and the largest-attended was the official Child of the Sun Distinguished Speaker Series lecture in Annie Pfeiffer Chapel.

The third talk—the second chronologically—was with me, in a small office room on the third floor of Christoverson next to Dean Hollingshead’s office. The setting was calm, and the office was bare except for a few old copies of the Southern and a small selection of fruit and nuts for Earnest.

My Encounter

We sat down on opposite sides of the desk. Earnest took off his jacket and laid it across the back of a seat adjacent to him and crossed his legs. Earnest is tall, but sitting down we saw almost eye to eye. He measures his words carefully—sometimes there were more than 10 seconds between a question I asked him and his response to it—but his words were genuine and honest.

I began by asking him whether the office of Press Secretary has changed since he served in the position, considering that there have been two press secretaries since President Obama was in office. Earnest echoed some of his response in his talk later that evening.

“The biggest difference is…. that President Trump was missing an opportunity that is afforded to every president, and it’s an opportunity that gives them a great advantage in our political system,” Earnest said, “which is a platform for making an argument” that he believes Trump hasn’t taken advantage of.

“What we hear from President Trump are assertions that often turn out not to be true, promises that he can’t really hope to keep: pronouncements that many people find totally offensive, and that’s not really a coherent argument,” Earnest said.

A Change in the Office

Earnest then described what he perceives as a disconnect between Trump and his team. I asked him whether the president’s relationship with social media—with Twitter—affected the office of Press Secretary.

“It’s not uncommon for President Trump to use that Twitter feed to contradict things that people say or to tweet things that make it clear that other people that are on his staff who are supposed to be in the loop are out of the loop,” he said.

It’s important to keep in mind that Earnest served in the Obama White House, meaning that many of his explanations for what’s going on in 2018 are informed and compared to his own experience. This contextualizes his statements but also provides the ethos necessary to an onlooker.

One comparison that Earnest made was to a moment even before he took the job as Press Secretary. He said that President Obama brought him into the Oval Office and said, “I’m not going to watch your briefing every day, but if there’s ever anything you need to know before you walk into the daily briefing, then you need to come here into my office and ask me.”

Earnest perceives that that kind of communication and on-the-same-page-ness isn’t happening in the Trump White House, to the detriment of the abilities of former Press Secretary Sean Spicer and current Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to perform effectively and to handle questions from the press.

Regarding the challenging questions that he received from the press, Earnest said, “Every day I got lots of questions that were intended to undermine our argument… what I tried to do is try to collect information and have a marshall of facts, and present them in a compelling way that what the president was doing was a genuine priority, that it was well thought out, that it was likely to succeed.”

I asked him whether the role of press secretary was like marketing the President’s decisions and policies to the press and the public. Earnest disapproved of that label. “Marketing has that connotation of wanting to make it sound good, and the responsibility that a press secretary has is bigger than that.”

“Journalists have a responsibility to ask probing questions and to be skeptical and to demand accountability and transparency,” he said.

So, I asked, would Earnest be satisfied if someone with his exact ideals and “press secretary-ness” were in the position today, in the Trump Administration? “Well, I would not… I could never work

In my view advocacy is about collecting facts… and able to make a compelling case based on substance and not a slogan.
-Josh earnest, former WH press secretary

in the Trump White House,” he said. Setting aside all of his current personal differences he has with Trump and his beliefs, Earnest said there are two things that would keep him from working there.

The first, Earnest says, is “the President’s willful disregard of truth and facts.”

The second, he described, was similar to his anecdote about the Obama administration earlier in our conversation: that Trump seems to keep his team at such a distance that he would feel unequipped for the job. “That’s not the fault of the press staff,” he said, “that’s the fault of President Trump.”

On the topic of Florida

Our conversation swiveled from the present to the past. Earnest’s talk at Florida Southern marked a return to Florida, not a visit. Earnest was part of Jim Davis’ gubernatorial campaign in 2006. The campaign lost to Charlie Crist.

Crist, who ended up leaving the Republican party, ran as an Independent candidate and eventually joined the Democratic Party. I asked Earnest whether that sort of ideological swing was viable in our current political environment.

“Yes,” Earnest said, “I do think that people can change parties.” He described how disruptive of a political force Trump is, and said that he believes that facilitates party shifts.

He doesn’t, however, foresee the creation of any competitive, new party: “The parties are so entrenched that I think it would be very hard for there to be a national third party, and it’s just a function of the way that our system works.”

Earnest contrasted our politic to that of France, which saw a major shift with the dominance of current president Emmanuel Macron’s self-designed party, which also gained a majority in the legislature, saying “I think that’s as much a function of how different their system is than ours.”

Sean Spicer

My final question for Earnest was inspired by a question prompted by one of my professors at FSC: does he feel sorry for Sean Spicer?

“No,” he said, almost immediately. “He sought that job, and had a good idea, even if it wasn’t a complete idea, of the kind of challenges of it before he took it.”

He doesn’t pity, either, the pressure he guessed Spicer was under to prove his loyalty on day one to Trump’s claim about inauguration crowd size.

“It was clear that President Trump put him up to it and that he was demonstrating his loyalty and commitment to Trump in a way that was disappointing and embarrassing for pretty much everybody involved.”

There was one moment, though, when he “felt a twinge of sympathy” for Spicer. The day after his claims regarding the size of the crowd at Trump’s inauguration, the New York Times reported “buried 12 or 14 paragraphs into the story” that a White House official said that Trump disapproved of Spicer’s performance.

“The job of press secretary is challenging enough even in the most ideal circumstances, when everybody who’s on the team is rooting for your success, and to see in such a public way at the very beginning that there were some prominent members of the team who were not rooting for his success and were in fact actively trying to undermine him was something that made me feel a twinge of sympathy for him,” he said.

Our time was up. Dean Hollingshead had allowed me 15 minutes, and I felt content getting away with 16 and a half. We shook hands; I left.

There’s something remarkable about looking back on another time. A widening time difference from the Obama administration, in the eyes of many, has offered new perspectives on his time in office, and it’s also revealed much in terms of context and comparison.

Nevertheless, I felt like Earnest was still somewhat in the mindset he was in as press secretary, one that tirelessly speaks in favor of the President he served.

“If there are some people who, despite their own political instincts, was able to hear me out and found that compelling, that means that at least once or twice I did a pretty good job.”

UC Berkeley students organize in response to current Venezuelan crisis

Venezuelan students at UC Berkeley organized an event Wednesday on Sproul Plaza in response to the recent Venezuelan humanitarian crisis.

The event showcased food, artwork and the Venezuelan flag rising in the wind — upside-down in response to the crisis.

According to campus junior Walter Jove, an organizer for the event, the crisis involves severe food and electricity shortages and a “mass exodus” of Venezuelans, particularly young college graduates.

“It’s been the worst for young people too, especially students,” Jove said. “I have a lot of friends in Venezuela who graduated and fled because there are no opportunities there for them. And that’s really bad for Venezuela, because who is supposed to build the country if the brains and talent are leaving?”

While Venezuela has the largest oil reserves and is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, poverty, violence and infant and maternal mortality rates remain high, according to a pamphlet given out at the event.

“We’re hoping that this is the first of a series of events, both fundraising and awareness type of events,” said campus freshman Manuela Abenante, another organizer for the event. “We’re doing whatever we can from here at UC Berkeley.”

According to one of the artworks, the flag is held upside down by many protesters and activists in Venezuela in opposition to alleged violence by the Venezuelan Armed Forces.

The art exhibition also showcased artwork on the narratives of college students in Venezuela, as well as the international political climate in response to the Venezuelan crisis. The event also had “Facts 4 Venezuelan Snacks” in the form of plantain chips and arequipe, which is dulce de leche on sweet bread.

“Our main goal of today was to raise awareness about all of the issues going on in Venezuela,” said campus freshman Ashley Lopez, an organizer of the event. “It’s an informational art exhibition. We don’t want to lecture people or force them to learn about it, but rather show them this in an artsy way.”

According to Lopez, Venezuela has one of the highest inflation rates in the world.

A misconception about Venezuela is that the country is a socialist democracy, according to Abenante and Jove. They added that health care subsidies in Venezuela and funding for public schools are lower than in America.

“I think the main thing, without taking a political stance, is the humanitarian crisis,” said campus senior and event attendee Armando Gonzalez. “People are fleeing, families are starving. The idea of the human condition truly is unattainable for a lot. People are losing their livelihoods and lifestyles by relocating to another country. It’s something that truly is tragic.”

Contact Mariam Zagub at mzagub@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter at @MZagub.

The Daily Californian

The Black Bears headed down to Kingston, Rhode Island to face the Rhode Island Rams this past Wednesday, April 18 for a doubleheader. The first game began at 2:30 p.m., and fourth-year pitcher Molly Flowers, who had not given up a run in each of her last four appearances, took the mound for Maine.

Coming off of a three-game win streak, the Black Bears looked to capitalize on their momentum. In the first inning, they did just that, with third-year third baseman Alyssa Derrick bringing in a run with a single, followed by an RBI double from fourth-year first baseman Kristen Niland.

The Rams came back and scored one run in the second, and then exploded for four runs in the third inning. First-year utility infielder/outfielder Hannah DeSousa singled home a run on a liner to right, while third-year infielder Rebecca Simms collected two RBIs on a double. Second-year outfielder Caileigh Holland hit an RBI single and that ended the scoring for the Rams.

The Black Bears were able to muster up one run in the sixth inning. Niland collected her second RBI of the game on a fielder’s choice single that scored third-year infielder Laurine German. The Black Bears were able to get on base throughout the game but could never put together the runs to come back from the three-run deficit. The final score was 5-3 with Rhode Island coming out on top in the first game of the doubleheader.

Game 2 had a first pitch time of 4:50 p.m., and Maine got the scoring going in the first inning once again. Third-year infielder Maddie Decker singled home fourth-year centerfielder Rachel Carson, and Maine went into the bottom of the first with a 1-0 lead.

First-year pitcher Lilly Volk took the mound with an early lead and did not allow the Rams to answer in either of the first two innings, holding them to only one hit. However, Rhode Island was able to put up three runs in the bottom of the third. Fourth-year outfielder Paige Julich got an RBI off of a bunt. Second-year infielder Erica Robles singled home another run. Second-year infielder Erika Yeager punctuated the inning by driving home a run on the very underrated sac fly.

The Black Bears had an immediate response to the quick runs put up by the Rams. Derrick launched a solo home run to center field to cut the lead to one run, 3-2. This was her fourth home run of the season, which is the highest on the team.

The fifth inning came and went with no runs from either side. Volk continued to control the Rams after their three-run third inning, and in the bottom of the sixth it was still 3-2 Rams. The Black Bears seemed to be putting a run together. The tying run was on base, but they were unable to drive home the run and went into the bottom of the sixth still down a run.

The same situation arose in the bottom of the seventh, where the Black Bears were able to get the tying run to third base but could not drive it home. The final score was 3-2, and the Black Bears went home winless in the doubleheader. They look forward to another doubleheader on Saturday at home against Sacred Heart.

Maine sweeps Pioneers

On another cool Saturday in Orono, April 21, the Black Bears faced the Sacred Heart Pioneers at Kessock Field. They were slated for a doubleheader, the Black Bears’ second in a row and the first pitch was thrown at 11 a.m. with fourth-year pitcher Annie Kennedy taking the mound to start the game.

Sacred Heart was able to get the leadoff hitter on second, but two strikeouts from Kennedy ended the top of the first without any damage. Decker and German were both walked in the bottom of the first, but with one out and fourth-year outfielder Erika Leonard at bat, the Pioneers were able to get a 6-3 putout and end the inning unscathed.

Kennedy came out throwing gas in the second. It was three up, three down for the Pioneers and the score remained 0-0 heading into the bottom of the second. The Black Bears were again able to get two runners on base but could not gather the momentum to drive the runners home.

Kennedy continued to mow down the Pioneers, but the Black Bears were also unable to put any offense together. The Pioneers’ first hit didn’t come until third-year infielder Stephanie Mangiameli hit a bloop single in the top of the fourth. They were able to collect another hit, but Kennedy was able to start a 1-6-3 double play and then struck out the next batter to make sure the score remained 0-0.

This game was dominated by pitchers, as the fifth and sixth inning featured almost no action on the basepaths. However, in the bottom of the seventh, Maine was able to put second-year outfielder Emily Gilmore on third base. She was thrown out coming home and then a fly out  ended the inning, but Derrick came through with an emphatic walk-off two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth, ending the game with a score of 2-0.

Game 2 of the doubleheader began at 1:45 p.m., and first-year pitcher Kyleigh O’Donnell took the mound for the Black Bears. She also came out throwing with confidence and put together a 1-2-3 inning to start the game. Maine was also unable to get going in the first, and it was 0-0 after one.

Game 2 was very similar to Game 1; the pitchers were dominant. Maine was able to collect one hit from innings two through six, and Sacred Heart was unable to get the bats going as well, also collecting one hit over the same time frame. In the bottom of the seventh, Gilmore made an effort to beat out a throw at home on a fly ball to left, but it was caught, and the game went to extras yet again.

Sacred Heart got their second hit in the top of the eighth, but the runner was stranded. Maine’s late-game execution came through again, when first-year utility player Shanna Scribner hustled all the way from first to home on a throwing error to score the winning run. Maine walked off again, and the final score was 1-0, completing the sweep against Sacred Heart.

The Black Bears’ next game is Wednesday, April 25 in Lowell, Massachusetts, where they will take on the UMass-Lowell River Hawks. First pitch is slated for 3 p.m. Sacred Heart will play again on Tuesday when they take on Fairfield at 3:30 p.m.

After their most successful regular season since 2005, the Colorado State women’s tennis team will head to the Mountain West Women’s Tennis Championship in Boise, Idaho at the Appleton Tennis Center on April 26. The Rams’ record of the season against Mountain West teams is 1-5, with the sole win coming against Air Force. The […]

NOTICE: There are NO SPOILERS in this review.

There’s a lot to be unpacked here, and I’m not going to sit here and pretend like all of my feelings are lined up perfectly in a row for careful analysis. Nor do I really think it’s a film that requires that as its main goal here is to be entertaining, but you knew that it would be out of the gate. The Russo Brothers have taken over the helm of the “Avengers” series from originally helmer Joss Whedon. The rip-roaring success of “The Avengers” in 2012 was slightly taken down by the simply good “Avengers: Age of Ultron” in 2015. It’s not that “Age of Ultron” was bad in any way, it just had a lot to live up to now that the novelty of the first film had passed. After the immense success of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Civil War,” generally both received as the best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (along with “Black Panther,”) the Russo Brothers took the helm from Whedon and fans could not have been more excited. Marvel’s hand also couldn’t have been more well-played at this point in time due to the immense success that “Black Panther” has brought on the MCU bost critically and financially, becoming its highest-regarded and highest-grossing installment in all 31 films. But where does “Avengers: Infinity War” fall?

After films upon films have been built up to it, Thanos (Josh Brolin) is finally personally out for blood looking for the remainder of the infinity stones to help purge the world of most of its citizens to bring it to a more manageable state, mercilessly slaughtering anyone in his way to stop him. Unfortunately for him, those in his way include Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Vision (Paul Bettany), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Okoye (Danai Gurira), Shuri (Letitia Wright), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Heimdall (Idris Elba), Wong (Benedict Wong), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Drax (Dave Bautista), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Groot (voice of Vin Diesel), Rocket (voice of Bradley Cooper) and Star Lord (Chris Pratt).

Of course, there’s technically more to the plot than that, but I describe it as such for two reasons: 1. I don’t want to even tread close to anything that could be considered a spoiler, and 2. I really wanted to illustrate just how jam-packed this film is…I mean, it is stacked. Even in its 159 minute runtime, the film still often feels like no one really gets the center stage treatment, which I was unsure of at first, but I then found myself used to the idea of Iron Man or Captain America taking center stage, but without a set focal point of a “main character,” the film really does feel like a true anthology film of superheroes. Are there too many heroes? Sure, but the fact that the Russo’s pulled it off with relative success is a feat all its own.

Where do we even begin? Let’s jump in with the tone of the film, which is an absolute stark contrast from the more light-hearted tones that the previous films have spun. I spent most of “Avengers: Infinity War” with a pit in my stomach, one I couldn’t shake for the life of me. I wouldn’t consider myself someone who actively concerns myself with these characters, but the fact that my body was physically tensing up at the thought of anything bad happening to them is something else. And that’s no joke, “Avengers: Infinity War” is dark, darker than most blockbusters could ever dare to be. Thanos is a power that has been teased for many, many films up to this point, and he delivers; he delivers in the way you feared he might. One might think that the filmmakers would make Thanos less powerful so the Avengers could defeat him with a little elbow grease, but no. Thanos did not come to play, he came to slay, and the tone that “Avengers: Infinity War” spins with that is one of sinister beauty.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t a ton of fun to be had in “Avengers: Infinity War,” because there is. The humor is as present as ever, and many characters who have never met before coming together with their respective senses of humor works really well for the laughs. I need to go back and watch the film again knowing what happens to truly appreciate the humor the film has without being so damn nervous the whole time.

The direction of the Russo’s is different than their previous films in the past, as it’s less rooted in reality and far more in the stars (both literally and physically), and for the most part, it works. The challenge here is that the filmmakers basically have to combine all the respective styles of the individual films into one big cohesive image of a film. When combining films like “Captain America” and “Iron Man” together, that’s not too terribly hard, but when you begin to incorporate “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Doctor Strange,” you’re dealing with different beasts that take a lot of molding to mesh nicely with everything else. There are times where the vibes of each world don’t always match up with the characters on screen, primarily in that of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” sequences and scenes on Wakanda. For the most part, it works, but not 100%.

And this is where a few of the issues I have with the film come in. With so many characters, the film is overstuffed, and while I liked the idea of not having a central character, there are just so many characters at a point that I hardly could keep focus at some points. I get that the “Avengers” films are supposed to be a huge culmination of everything the MCU has to offer in one film, but there are still too many characters that simply don’t need to clutter the screen if they don’t have to. This is why something like “Captain America: Civil War” worked so wonderfully, because they got to pick and choose who to include in the film, and cut out everyone they didn’t need to. “Avengers: Infinity War” feels like a family reunion with so many people that you can’t talk to all of your cousins before the end of the day.

The film, though not specified anymore in the title, is a part one of a bigger finale piece set to be released next year. This leaves the film to work its way up to something huge to be left unanswered until next year. The reason I find this to be an issue is that they changed the title of the next film to avoid the “Part 1 | Part 2” stigma that has come to many blockbuster films of late. With the suggestion by the Russo’s that this film is not a part one chapter at all, one might expect it to act differently, but it doesn’t. Without a specification that this is to lead to something bigger, it could lead to some disappointment when the film simply ends after spending a ton of time setting itself up.

And it spends a long, long time doing so. The film really does, for the most part, feel like one big set up, that really only resolves itself in its final act where everything finally meshes. Once the film can be viewed in its entirety with its second chapter, I’m sure it will feel much more organic, but without it, it can often feel a bit slow. This being said, the world that these characters inhabit is interesting as hell even in its slower parts, and I could watch people in simple dialogue scenes all day. It’s a double-edged sword that is objectively fine, but when put into context, might feel a bit rote.

Shot entirely on IMAX cameras, this film is made to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Disney elected to only screen the film for press in 2D, but even then, the visual experience at hand here is unparalleled. Pair this with Marvel’s typically strong showing in the 3D market, and you have what might possibly be the most fitting film to see in IMAX 3D yet. Accept no less.

But here’s the thing overall: I like “Avengers: Infinity War” in the same way that I like “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.” It’s an incredibly well-made film with a ton of merit and a lot of fun to be had. I’m mostly just frustrated because I know I sat through something to get me to something better which requires a wait time. This doesn’t reflect on the film in any way other than its structure set forth by the studio. With the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” nearly all of my frustrations with the first part were resolved when my questions were answered, my anxiety was mostly gone, and the experience as a two-part whole felt very organic and deserved. I expect this to be the same with “Avengers: Infinity War” and its as-of-yet unnamed follow-up. I think keeping the “Part 1 | Part 2” monikers would’ve helped the film overall, but that doesn’t change that, despite being incredibly overstuffed, “Avengers: Infinity War” is a fun, epic and beautiful film that brings us all the things we love about the MCU together. It also brings forth a lot of character juggling, pacing issues, and a cliffhanger so maddening I thought I had dissociated through the final 10 minutes of the film. It’s not without its issues, but “Avengers: Infinity War” is one sturdy prologue.

4/5

Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios (Disney)

Directed by: Anthony and Joe Russo
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Peter Dinklage, Benedict Wong, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, featuring Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, with Gwyneth Paltrow, with Benicio Del Toro, with Josh Brolin as Thanos, and Chris Pratt.
Runtime: 156 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, language and some crude references.
Also available in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX and IMAX 3D.

Marvel Studios presents, “Avengers: Infinity War”

Strip away the names. Take out the conferences. Now make a snap judgement. Which of these two teams would have a better shot at beating No. 1-ranked Florida (34-8, 14-4 SEC)?

On Thursday, April 12, democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams invited student media organizations to a roundtable event during which she discussed her policy points that would affect high school and college students should she be elected.

Formerly, Abrams served as the Georgia House of Representatives Minority Leader. If Abrams is elected governor of Georgia, she will be the country’s first black female governor.

One of her key action points is to pilot what she calls “HOPE 2.0”, a need-based addition to the existing merit scholarship for in-state students. As another component of her overall plan to allow student to graduate without debt, she intends to introduce a student loan bill of rights and other strategies to ensure that students are aware of federal programs that can forgive debt from student loans.

The financial plans that she has in place will cost upwards of $100 million in the first year, but Abrams says she has plans to make the programs economically viable. Some of these plans include collecting a tax previously claimed as tax credit for private education or collecting sales tax on all online retailers instead of allowing them to collect but not remit.

In addition, Abrams is adamant about the immediate repeal of House Bill 280, which makes it legal to carry firearms on college campuses, should she be elected. She also wants to push for mandating background checks in all circumstances and banning assault weapons.

“I am the only candidate who has consistently been on the side of gun safety,” said Abrams. “I have never gotten a B from the NRA. I’ve gotten Ds and Fs, the only bad grades my parents are proud of.”

Abrams’ story of how she got to be a Georgia gubernatorial candidate is an extensive one, and it begins with her grandparents. She came from a family that has roots in Mississippi and was “between working class and working poor,” despite the fact that her mother was the first of her siblings to graduate high school.

“We were working poor, but my mom didn’t like that,” said Abrams. “She called us genteel poor, meaning we watched PBS and read books.”

After the family moved to Atlanta, Abrams attended Spelman College, one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the area. She got her masters’ from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. from Yale Law School.

Some of the points in her action plan stem from the pain and trouble that her family members have endured. She wants to expand mental health support and substance abuse treatment options, decriminalize marijuana and traffic violations, and decrease the high mortality rates for mothers.

Abrams has a detailed plan with many things she wants to accomplish should she be elected governor. However, she says that the most challenging goal to achieve will likely be the expansion of Medicaid.

“Medicaid expansion is the crux of changing the trajectory of our state. We have the worst uninsurance rate in the nation. We have 15 rural hospitals on the verge of closing at any given minute. We have half a million people who do not have health insurance.”

She says that through the process of expanding the Medicaid program in Georgia, other conversations will naturally take place. She believes that many of the other issues she is passionate about, like mental health and substance abuse treatment and the decriminalization of poverty, will be addressed either directly or indirectly from changes to that program.

Abrams was not fazed by the hurdle of winning an election in a state that has been red for the past few decades, saying that the demographics of Georgia have changed a great deal in the past fifteen years, the last time Georgia had a black governor.

“I am absolutely certain that democrats have not lost the last few elections because we didn’t have the right message,” said Abrams. “We’ve lost because we haven’t spoken that message aloud, and we’ve lost because we have not done the work of turning out our voters.”

The primary election will be held on May 22. Abrams is running against Stacey Evans in the democratic race. The general election will be held on Nov. 6, 2018.

Psypher is a dance group that merges both mental health and dance. Matthew Diep, the founder and a fourth-year psychology student, speaks about the goal of the group and this quarter’s topic: relationships.

Jonathan Seto wants to use his design perspective and creativity for solving real-world problems. | Cristobella Durette/The Cougar

Industrial design senior Jonathan Seto originally wanted to pursue a degree in accounting but sacrificed a guaranteed desk-job to pursue a profession that would allow him to explore his creative side.

This exploration of creativity during his undergraduate career earned Seto the 2018 Industrial Designers Society of America Southern District Student Merit Award. He’s only the third Cougar to be given the award, which will be formally presented in September.

The award, given to five graduates in the United States for 2018, recognizes the creativity, problem solving and design skills across five areas that ISDA defines as design districts.

Seto spoke with The Cougar about his design perspective, what he learned finishing the program at UH and his passion for creativity, which allowed him to step outside of the mold of his family’s expectations.

The Cougar: Why did you decide to come to UH?

Jonathan Seto: My brother, who’s a computer engineer, got me interested in coming here when I was in high school. He worked with some industrial designers on a collaborative project between the College of Technology and industrial design.

Originally, I was in accounting, so it’s two different realms: desk-job versus being more creative. Being from Mississippi, there’s only two design schools within reach, Houston and Auburn. Between the two, they both have bachelors of science in industrial design, so as far as my mother was concerned, UH was where my brother was.

TC: You recently won a prestigious award, the IDSA SMA. What projects and activities did you do to get that award?

Seto: It’s a culmination of four years here at UH, including projects that I was given and my senior thesis, which was a free-roam. You can do whatever you want, as long as you apply what you’ve learned during your undergraduate.

It’s representations of your work, creativity, thought processes and your approach. That’s how you present it to the Southern Districts, which is a competition between nine schools that shows different approaches to how schools teach industrial design. It’s very eye-opening to see other schools’ approach versus ours.

UH is a process-oriented school. From beginning to end, results vary between being research heavy while some are sketch and idea heavy.

TC: What is industrial design? What does it entail?

Seto: It’s the shoes on your feet, the phone that’s in your hand, the products you use every day. We have an impact on the interaction of design and the actual, physical products. It’s expanding to user interface and experience, also operating systems, layouts and how things look. 

Industrial design gives you a wider realm of what you want to do. It’s more creative and a lot of hands-on work. Growing up, I was very hands-on, so I wanted to be able to touch physical products.

TC: Why is industrial design important?

Seto: It’s fixing social issues or actual physical problems that we face in the real world, whether it be medical or social. People always want innovation. They want to see the next great thing, and that’s where we come in. It’s about making an impact to other consumers who always demand new things.

TC: How does creativity, problem solving and design intersect in the process of being self-driven in industrial design?

Seto: It’s a lot of learning on your own. Not only university teachings, but a lot of (the creativity) is your interest in that topic area and learning, wanting to continually learn. It’s more about learning on your own, aside from school. That’s where I excel, too. I had a passion for something, so I really wanted to learn that on the side.

The thing about creativity is that you always question what’s around you and always want to find the answers.

TC: Speaking of passions, are there any specific topics you’re really interested in and plan on pushing in the future?

Seto: One of the main things I’ve always had a passion for is footwear. My senior thesis right now involves exploring the trends of 3D manufacturing and printing technologies and how that can be applied to users while accommodating a more unique consumer experience. I’ve always had a passion for fitness and nutrition. Those two realms are heavily what I explore my design interests in and figuring out how I can implement them in real world situations. 

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“Q&A: Award-winning industrial design student taps into his creative side” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar