Golden Nuggets: Ice Cream, Speed Puzzling, and Unsolicited Opinions on Amsterdam

We got it all this week baby.

Hello and welcome to Golden Nuggets! In this weekly write up, we try our best to cover all things Cal, Berkeley, Bearkeley, UC Berkeley, University of Cal Berkeley, University of Berkeley at Cal, BerkeleyInspire, and California Berkeley University that happened more or less in the last week! Let’s dig in!

URSINE UPDATES: One scoop, or two?

Courtesy the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office

In the second ice cream-related bear story we’ve covered here on Golden Nuggets this year, a bear broke into a Tahoe Ice Cream store two Sunda(e)s ago. I mean look at him. I’d let him serve me some cookies and cream with a few marshmallows on top. Maybe a little fudge. Sure it’d make his paws a little dirty, but I’d tip well. Do you think he touched the speaker over to the left? Maybe he wrote that note. Anyways, great service would go back.

ROBOT UPDATES: BUG EDITION

As promised when I joined the Golden Nugget beat, I’m here now to talk about ROBOT UPDATES out of UC Berkeley. This past week, Berkeley News profiled Victor Ortega-Jiménez, a UC Berkeley assistant professor of integrative biology and lead author of a paper exploring how ripple bugs move and navigate in the water which inspired a fan like appendage to help an insect-size robot move around the water. Man, what will they think of next!

Oregon State Watch Party

For those of us not driving up to Corvallis (yuck), you can join us on campus at the new Headlands on Campus (in the new old Bear’s Lair spot) for a watch party, and partake in some Oski’s California Gold should you choose. See you Saturday!

Hot Links

• The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has selected Patrick Gonzalez, UC Berkeley Climate Change Scientist and Forest Ecologist as the lead author for its next assessment!

• Forbes profiled a UC Berkeley professor who is also a billionaire (pssst Ron give this guy a call).

• UC Berkeley PhD Candidate Hannah Doyle is headed to the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship in Spain and the San Mateo Daily Journal profiled her.

• Halftime Card Stunts got a mention in ESPN’s “Our favorite college football game-day traditions”

• SF Gate launched a new mini-crossword puzzle! Try it out here.

• Ron Rivera is going to be a regular on KNBR on Wednesday mornings appearing on the Murph and Mac show at 8:50 AM PT. Catch him next week!

• Aidan Keanaaina built a computer with his NIL earnings as part of a series on “what their best purchase was with their NIL money”

• In a bit of corporate restructuring news, Peet’s (or rather the company that own’s Peet’s) has been acquired by Dr. Pepper Keurig in a move that will split the new company into a beverage company and a coffee company.

  • Unprompted, one unnamed W4C Contributor said “The cool thing about Amsterdam is that you can just pee on the street” (The original holding company is located in Amsterdam).

  • Another W4C Contributor further speculated: “Deep State Theory: Dr Pepper saw how effective the Calgorithm was for college football hype generation, and decided they needed a part of the action. So they bought Peet’s, the biggest Berkeley-centric thing they could find. Expect Peet’s cafes to open up in Fansville next season.”

Golden Bear Honors

• Cal Football is ranked 10th in the Sickos Preseason Poll.

• Cal Women’s Soccer Coach Neil McGuire logged his 200th win

• Elle Scott (Swimming) set a personal record in the 50m breaststroke at the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Romania this past week

• Cade Uluave was named the Captain of the Cal Football team

• Carter Kim and Khalen Curry were named captains for Men’s Gymnastics

• Cal Men’s Soccer is ranked 17th in the United Soccer Coaches first poll of the season.

• Cal Women’s Tennis claimed 4 rankings in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s rankings

Cal Athletics Recap

• Women’s Soccer beat University of San Francisco (3-2) but lost to Pepperdine (0-1)

• Men’s Soccer beat Saint Mary’s (3-2) and UCLA (1-0) with a solid header at the 90th Minute.

Cal Pros Recap

NBA

• Jaylen Brown is in China promoting his shoes and toured an electric vehicle maker

MLB

• ESPN profiled Cal alum and Royals Relief pitcher Lucas Erceg as he visited a prison to speak on his sobriety journey

• Dylan Beavers his Home Run #1

Rugby

• Ieremia Ieremia was drafted in the first round of the Major League Rugby draft

• Charlie Walsh was drafted in the second round.

NWSL

• Alex Morgan played Tennis?

NFL

• Daniel Scott had a Pick Six in the preseason, and kept his spot on the Colts Roster.

• Cal will have 16 former players in the NFL this fall

PGA

• Colin Morikawa tied for 19th at the Tour Championship this past weekend.

Next Week in Bear Territory

What’s that? Could it be? SPORTS ARE BACK.

• Men’s Soccer plays USF (8/28) and UC San Diego (8/31)

• Women’s Soccer plays Utah Valley (8/28) and Arizona (8/31)

• Field Hockey opens at Monmouth (8/29) and Delaware (8/31)

• Cross Country starts their season at the USF Invitational (8/29)

• Volleyball opens the California Tournament against San Diego State (8/29) and San Francisco (8/30, 8/31)

• Men’s Water Polo competes in the Rare Air Challenge against the University of Redlands and US Air Force in Colorado Springs (8/30) and Salem and Mount St. Mary’s (8/31)

• Football starts the 2025 Campaign against FCS Northwestern Wazzu Oregon State

Well, thanks again for reading all of that. As always, if I forgot something, please let me know in the comments! Starting to get busy again, and lord knows there’s lot of Cal content out there. Hope to see you at Headlands, and Go Bears!