OPINION
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Hudson: Twins share experiences that make them unique.
**Gentry:** Internet and cell phone lingo ruins students' English proficiency.
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WWW.KANSAN.COM MONDAY NOVEMBER 26.2007 PAGE 7A
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2007
PAGE 7A
SHARING STORIES AND FORGETTING TIME
Dress on campus should be practical
Class is no place to look like you just walked out of a bar or off a fashion runway
This is the second part of a two-part series about things that really annoy me when on campus. The first column was about how to avoid people on campus that you would rather not have a conversation with. I've now had numerous encounters with people while walking to class who purposefully pretend to talk on their cell phone every time they see me. It has been positively delightful.
I'm not sure when the switch occurred, but it was probably somewhere around my third semester here at old KU when
I began not to give a rat's patato about what I wore to class each day. The days of getting up, showering, putting on makeup and picking out an outfit became a vague disturbing memory, and the days of a pair of jeans and a tee with the same sweatshirt every day emerged and were going nowhere fast.
After having the epiphany that dressing up on campus was completely ridiculous, everyone else's outfits became an obsession, leading to borderline hysteria at what was traipsing around on our fine campus sidewalks.
Rule number one: If you wear it to the Hawk, it is absolutely unacceptable campus wear. Unless you didn't have time to change before class after a late night rendezvous, but if that's the case you should expect ridicule for being such a philandering drunk.
Rule number two: The whole,
"Oh look, I just rolled out of bed in a form-fitting pair of sweatpants with perfect hair and makeup" look makes me want to projectile vomit all over that person. You're not fooling anyone. It's obvious you tried really hard, and P.S. velour is OVER.
It's done, over, fini. J-Lo ruined it for everyone. Please, if you didn't get the memo, consider this a personal invitation to give your matching sweatpants to the Salvation Army. Let someone homeless and cold benefit from your obsolete $300 ugly sweat suit, because it sure as hell isn't doing you any favors.
Rule number three; this is for the fellas. You can't wear a visor backwards; it completely defeats the purpose of the visor and makes you look like you might have learning problems. At least a backwards cap keeps your head warm. What does a backwards visor do? I think the only thing it accomplishes is
making a guy look like a huge tool shed. And what's with the basketball shorts and collared shirts? Just wear a T-shirt, or put on some jeans and spare us all the unwanted view of your junk when you're slouching down in your desk during class. It's revolting. Also, those T-shirts with the anime chicks with huge jugs straddling surfboards are really lame, too; don't wear those either. And shower. Really, I think it's awesome that you were so wasted last night, but I don't want to smell your drunk musk. Period.
So I guess the message is, well, I forgot what the message was, but I do know that I really hate velour and drunk musk and caries because they smell like cabbage.
BITSO'WISDOM
Simmermon is a Leawood senior in journalism.
GUEST COLUMN
As it continues, the Iraq War takes its toll Sustained combat, lack of a foreseeable end offer grim prospects for the future
MATTHEW FOSTER
I'm terrible with birthdays.
I remember only three:
My dad's, my wife's and
my son's.
My son's is easy for two reasons: I'll never forget the rainy morning we brought him home and I pondered how anyone could be so small and fragile; and, he was born the day the war started in Iraq.
Being a veteran, this connection started pulling at me immediately, especially when I realized I was the same age as the average soldier serving on the front lines in World War II. The difference between the average age of a World War II soldier, 27, and the average age of a soldier in Vietnam, 20, is one factor explaining a high occurrence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Vietnam veterans. The argument holds that a 27-year-old, which happens to be the average age of a casualty in Iraq, is better equipped, psychologically, to handle war. Currently the average age for military members is 25. The average age of a soldier in Iraq could be lower, since the average infantry soldier is only 19.
Another difference between World War II and Vietnam that may contribute to a
high occurrence of P.T.S.D is the time served in combat zones. World War II soldiers experienced about 60 days of combat spread through a few years while an average Vietnam soldier saw 240 to 300 days of combat in a single year.
In the Iraq War, preliminary numbers indicate a routine similar to Vietnam. Around 50 percent of the servicemen in Iraq are on their second tour and 25 percent are on their third. This many deployments can easily add up to years away from home for soldiers. If a child was born around the time of their deployment, those soldiers would miss out on practically every major event of the child's early development—their first words, first steps and if it had been me on my second 18 month tour, I would have missed my son's first day of preschool.
Up to 90 percent of the soldiers in Iraq have been in a fire fight because, unlike in World War II, there are no front lines. Fighting can happen anywhere.
Dustin Crook, a KU junior,
fought in Iraq for a year when
he was 20. He provided security
to convoyes going in and out of Iraq from Kuwait. He said attacks were sporadic, with numerous close calls happening in one month and then a month or two with none. The attacks included 10 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and numerous small arm and rocket propelled grenade fire fights. He said overall he experienced 10 "really close calls."
Crook was diagnosed with P.T.S.D when he returned from Iraq and simple activities, such as driving or smelling red meat as it cooks, began to trigger emotional episodes. This caused him anxiety at friendly barbecues when he suddenly thought of dead bodies.
The Pentagon's current troop deployment policy deviates from a long standing, informal policy of giving soldiers two months home for every one month in combat, according to Larry Korb, former assistant secretary of defense. He said by not honoring this "social contract," our country is failing to fulfill its moral obligation to its soldiers.
Korb said the Iraq War has depleted military resources and manpower, undermining efforts against terrorism elsewhere such as on the Pakistan-Afghanistan
border where Al Qaeda has reconstituted itself.
He said the War on Terror should not include occupations of countries as large as Iraq and America should either get a bigger force or not wage war. Korb said a military draft would be one way to solve the problem.
When the war started, I chose not to rejoin the military because I wanted my son to grow up with a father in his life. But now, my son and the war Donald Rumsfeld said would take only six weeks are both going on five year and I wonder if losing my son to a military draft in 14 years is becoming a plausible fear. President Bush said the War on Terror will take years, which if you apply the Rumsfeld coefficient equates to us fighting terrorism for decades. Factoring in that the Iraq War may be undermining the true War on Terror and that tensions are rising with Iran, I'm left wondering: Will my four-year-old son get drafted?
Foster is a Lawrence junior in journalism and creative writing.
Now it's much easier being green
Facebook groups, hybrid cars, fluorescent lights offer new ways to be environmentally friendly
BEN COHEN
A curious thing popped up on Facebook recently. A glut of new applications have sprung up over the last year, giving everyone the chance to show everybody else their favorite funny picture of two cats fighting, or tell people they like a certain friend slightly more than them. Among these many new applications, however, is something peculiar called Greenbook.
Apparently, when somebody adds this new application, they help curb carbon dioxide emissions. Surprisingly, it doesn't work by taking embarrassing drunken pictures of well known polluters, as most things on Facebook basically do. Rather, it takes money from advertising, which increases whenever people join, and uses that money to pay for renewable energy credits, which are meant to offset pollutants. The idea may not be airtight, but the intentions are good. Almost 10,000 people have added the application thus far, meaning if it actually has any real potential, we'll get to see it soon enough.
New additions to Facebook aside, the concept of "going green" finally seems to be catching on with a lot of people. Hybrid cars are not seen as telling signs of pompous liberals with too much money on their hands anymore. Similarly, compact fluorescent light-bulbs, which are more expensive than incandescent bulbs, but far more energy efficient, have become extremely popular. In general, it appears that it has finally, to reference Kermit the Frog, started to get easy to be green.
Energy Awareness Week, a recent event sponsored on campus by several student-run environmental organizations, also highlighted the emergence into the mainstream of the so-called green movement. People walking across Wescoe Beach were given information regarding the
amount of energy used and/or wasted in America, and were given reusable shopping bags so that they would not have to use traditional plastic bags, which take a great deal of petroleum to produce, when out at the store.
Part of the success of the green movement is that the methods to take part are not all that difficult. Little changes in our day-to-day lives, like unplugging appliances that are not currently in use, have proven to be a notable factor in the increased willingness of people to take part in environmentally sound practices.
Beyond just looking for greener lifestyles, people have become more willing to speak out against environmentally hazardous practices. One only need look to the many people who openly protested the construction of two coal-fired power plants that Sunflower Electric proposed for western Kansas. Concern over issues related to pollution, such as toxic water supplies and the spread of greenhouse gases, which in turn contribute to global climate change, motivated even people who are not typically activists to object to the building of the plants. Public opinion eventually played a key role in the Kansas Department of Health and the Environment denying Sunflower's request to build the plants.
In summation, people are going green in different ways. Some are going the activist route, protesting environmentally hazardous corporate efforts. Some are trying to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions via Facebook. Others are simply adopting seemingly minor, but effective lifestyle changes to reduce their contributions to energy consumption. No matter what, the reckless attitude that most people once held towards their effect on global climate change, and the environment in general, is fading away fast. People are taking notice of the world around them, and what they can do to help it. That is something that can never hurt.
Cohen is a Topeka junior in journalism and English.
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To whoever made the Facebook group "You May Have Won the Game, But You Still Go to Mizzou," thanks for making me laugh.
If you are ever going to hold the game at a neutral site again, split it down the middle, not sprinkled throughout the stadium, and don't give students nosebleed seats.
Even in the shadow of a loss, we have to look at the season as a whole and revel in just how wonderful it really was! Unbelievable!
proud.
I need a female to encounter me while I'm in the stacks.
Aww shucks!
Where was the student section?
Thanks for screwing KU from a home football game!
This has truly been one amazing season. Kansas is freaking 11-1. Good job boys, you've made us
can't buy happiness. It's just GREAT that KU made a bunch of money by moving the Border Showdown to Arrowhead, too bad it cost us the national championship in the
guys.
Memo to Lew Perkins: Money
end!
It's not about Mizzou—it's about our boys having a phenomenal season. We're so proud of you
It's times like this where we need to have a Sports Free for all again. Yes, not! Yes! Oh well.
Even though he didn't play to his fullest potential, Reesing is still my future husband.
I wonder if Lew Perkins will fly to New York to help hand Chase Daniel the Heisman Trophy.
TALK TO US
Thanks for the great season Jayhawks! And still so happy that I don't live in Missouri.
Be proud anyway. It's been an awesome season.
Erick R. Schmidt, editor 864-4810 or eschmidt@kansan.com
Eric Jorgensen, managing editor
864-4810 or ejorgensen@kansan.com
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Erick R. Schmidt, Eric Jorgensen, Dara Slipe, Kelsay Hayes, Bryan Dykman, Brandon T. Minister, Angelique McNaughton and Benjamin R. Smith
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