THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2014
PAGE 4
To the fratter that pees outside the school halls; we are like a Shakespearean theater, if we don't like your performance, we throw food.
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
I got to the 4096 tile five times.
Get on my level.
I really want to be an astronaut,
but just so I can call up every girl
I've dated to make them upset that
they broke up with an astronaut.
Text your FFA submissions to (785)289-8351 or at kansan.com
Seriously, KU, invest in more buses for the 36 route. I live all the way across town and don't want to have to wait 30 minutes every time my professor talks an extra 12 seconds.
Did people at the UDK get bullied by professors to make the crossword harder to fold and do in class?
To set the record straight, park and ride only stops on Daisy Hill from 7:00-8:00 in the morning, and from 5:30-10:30 at night.
Get rid of shampoo? This is why hippies always smell funny.
Are tomatoes really vital to the integrity of a crunchy chicken cheddar wrap? NO. #nomorstoma-oesplease
In all seriousness what is a Nerdfighter group? Nerds that fight each other? Or normal people that fight nerds?
$3.50 crunchy chicken cheddar wraps are what dreams are made of.
Is it possible to overdose on cough drops?
The only person I ever pocket dial is 911.
To put down the Nutella and stop watching OTH and go to class ... Or to keep eating Nutella and watching OTH. That is the question.
F*** you parking department! I hope you are ready to count 2500 pennies.
To the dude who pees on schol halls: only poor performers perform for free.
To the urinator: Touché. I'll bring my camera.
Did anyone else see the unattended, empty white van sitting on the sidewalk by Fraser with the sliding door open? It was like a postcard for the word sketchy.
ENERGY
Not to worry dear students, they take the flags down when its really windy. They'll be back soon.
ANYWHERE YOU GO LEFT ME GO
TOO! CHRISTINE, THAT'S ALL I ASK
OF YOU!
No long-winded discussion on wind energy repeal
Sen. Robert Olson, a Republican from Olathe, was recently quoted in the Wichita Eagle saying, "When I drive through western Kansas and see these wind turbines, it just puts my heart out, to see that beautiful land with all them turbines, some of them turning, some of them not." The comment was made in response to the Senate vote on March 25 to repeal Kansas' Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). A couple of things came to mind after I read this quote. First, this guy knows exactly how I feel when I see the smoke stacks of the Lawrence Energy Center from the windows of the KU Memorial Union and second, if the House votes down this repeal I would be both shocked and impressed.
Here I sit, shocked and impressed. On March 26, just one day after the Senate voted to repeal the 2009 RPS, which requires all Kansas utility companies to provide 20 percent renewable energy by 2020, the Kansas House voted down the repeal 44-77.The bill was pushed by a Heartland Institute (a famously conservative think tank funded by the Koch brothers and known for its efforts to debunk anthropogenic climate change) analysis that named the renewable energy mandate as the cause of increased utility rates in Kansas. Watchdog groups and some Kansas decision-makers have since debunked this claim, naming increased federal controls on coal pollution as the culprit.
meanwhile, the House saved Gov. Brownback from either approving a bill that goes against his pro-wind stance, or vetting the bill and royally ticking off members of his own party.
The move by the Kansas House is important for many reasons. First, RPS has pushed the demand for energy in an otherwise coal-dominated market. The subsequent boom in construction of wind farms brought roughly 4,000 jobs to Kansas and 2,713
megawatts of electricity. That's enough energy to power 800,000 residences according to a 2013 article in the Kansas City Star. Second, if RPS were repealed, Kansas would more than likely lose its rank as the ninth largest supplier of wind energy in the country. That ranking, coupled with our superior terrain for wind capture is what makes us appealing to wind companies. Third, the decision to protect RPS protects us from further ridicule as a backward state, moving the opposite direction as the rest of the country in social and environmental issues. Essentially, we showed the nation that we are here to play ball in the renewable energy industry.
That being said, I will
not fail to mention that the majority of our power in Kansas still comes from coal-fired power plants. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 61 percent of our electricity generation comes from coal-fired power plants, which account for 31,692,844 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. As a state we have made a progressive step toward sustainability but we need to take more. Because we are the newly dubbed "Saudi Arabia of wind energy," we must focus on what our landscape has given us, rather than exploiting the coal and natural gas that lies beneath.
SOCIAL ISSUES
Think before you speak: questions can be dumb
Gabrielle Murran is a sophomore from Pittsburg studying environmental studies.
In my everyday life I try to always live by the notion that there are no dumb questions. Sometimes, though, that's just too hard to do. You see, in certain instances there are questions that are inappropriate or rude to ask. In other instances, there are questions that are just plain thoughtless. Regardless, most awkward situations can be avoided if one stops to think for a moment.
Here's an example. I have unilateral coloboma, an unusual deformity of the eye that I have had since birth. It can cause a lot of horrible side effects, but in my case, the only negative thing it really causes is a key-hole shaped pupil and slight vision impairment. Basically, if both eyes were like my affected eye, I'd need glasses. The other consequence of the pupil being abnormally shaped is that my unaffected eye is blue while the affected eye is green.
It's natural that people are curious about my eyes, as they're pretty unusual. I've never met someone else who has coloboma or eyes that are two different colors, so I'm not surprised when friends and acquaintances have questions. I always prefer someone ask questions directly than gossip with others when I'm not around. I don't even have an expectation of people being politically correct when they ask about my eye. As long as their intention is good and their words are thought
through, I don't really mind answering. However, there has always been an interesting tendency for people to forget the second part — to act as if thinking through your question before asking isn't important.
I remember adults coming up to my mom and I when I was a kid, and after seeing my eyes, the adults would ask questions like "What's with her eye?" and "Why is her eye so weird?" I was certainly old enough to understand them, and my mom frequently had to remind them that my vision was impaired, not my hearing. Kids would tease me at school for having a "freaky eye" or a "cat eye." Even now, at college, people notice my eyes and ask some pretty uncomfortable, loud questions.
The thing is, I don't mind awkward questions,
I mind stupid questions.
One friend confessed that they had wondered about my eye since we met two years ago, but they didn't want to ask about it and offend me. That's not what I want, and I don't think it's what anyone really wants.
Having an open dialogue is the only way to really understand something new.
More than anything, I want my friends to all notice
and ask about my eye so that they won't spend years of our lives together wondering.
However, I also want people to stop and think for a moment before asking. The most common question I am asked about my eye is "Did you know your eyes are two different colors?" It takes all of my strength not to roll my eyes and reply, "Wow, if only I'd looked in a mirror before now!" I've been asked worse than that, though. I've had people I've never spoken to stop me in a crowd and start the conversation with, "Woah, look at her eyes!" as they glance at all their friends. I've had a woman ask me about my eyes, and after I told her, say she was curious since coloboma was a trait she breeds out of her dogs. Wow, thanks.
What I'm really getting at here is that we are adults. We are educated college students, and we know how to ask a proper question. I don't mind when a 6-yearold stops me and asks me if I know that my eyes are "weird," but I definitely mind if a classmate of mine stops and asks the same question. Questions are an important step to understanding. Just be sure when you open your mouth to ask a question, that it's a question worth asking. Sometimes, it really is what you say, not how you say it.
Anna Wenner is a junior from Topeka studying English and history.
LITERATURE
Literature on Twitter pushes boundaries
Can Twitter be an artistic medium for literature? Twitter has been around for a while now, and those that joined early have seen it grow and mature (or become less mature, depending on your opinion). Twitter has progressed from mundane "status updates" to celebrity accounts to news. Users have continued to innovate, from the comedy of @robdelaney to the non sequitur of @Horse_ebooks. Despite the restrictive 140 character limit (or possibly thanks to it), the range of creativity that spans Twitter is enormous. Recently Teju Cole (@tejucole) has pushed the boundaries of literature by publishing two works via Twitter.
The first began on January 8 with a retweet: "... to the subway, I saw a man on the ground. He sat on the sidewalk, under trees, with his feet out to the quiet street." Over time the story, entitled "Hafiz," developed tweet by tweet from seemingly unconnected accounts. The tweets were collected into a coherent narrative by retweets on Teju's feed, while each contributor drew readers to the story with their out-of-the ordinary narrative fragments. The second is a nonfiction piece entitled "A Piece of the Wall," which documents Teju's observations and conversations with people concerning immigration in Nogales, Arizona on the Mexican-American border. Specific accounts were made for each character to handle dialogue, and Cole's photography was interspersed throughout to accentuate the narrative.
Follow us on Twitter @KansanOpinion. Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them.
What is remarkably innovative about these two pieces is that Cole could have just as easily published them in a medium like The New
Besides the merit of the writing itself (and I urge you to read both; they are excellent), I think that these works are worthwhile because of the statement that Cole is making about the universality of art and literature. By making them widely accessible, he wishes to connect with as many readers as possible: "A lot of the people I want to be read by, a lot of the people I want to speak to, are not people who have subscriptions to The New Yorker or The New York Times, so it's important for me to speak to them in this way also" (NPR Interview). The theme that I return to time and again in my columns is how literature can speak to you, and Teju is at the forefront of finding new ways to do so. Get out there and read something you can connect to.
Yorker, but he chose to use Twitter, forgoing the monetary compensation that would have come with publishing elsewhere. Making these items available on Twitter fundamentally changed their audience. Where before, the pieces would have been read by a given publication's subscribers—most likely predominantly middle class and highly literate—instead anyone who is drawn into the narrative by a (re)tweet can read.
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
LETTER GUIDELINES
Katie Kutsko, editor-in-chief
kkutsko@kansan.com
Allison Kohn, managing editor akohn@kansan.com
Length: 300 words
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larmendariz@kansan.com
Send letters to opinion@kansan.com. Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the email subject line.
Anna Wenner, opinion editor awenner@kansan.com
Jason Bates is a senior from Overland Park studying chemical engineering.
Sean Powers, business manager spowers@kansan.com
Kolby Botts, sales manager kbotts@kansan.com
@KansanOpinion If the wind from today wasn't enough to convince you, then I think you should see a doctor.
@m2marcus
@Ben Samson
@KansanOpinion if by focusing on wind energy you mean harvesting methane from my roommate's atrocious farts, then yes.
CONTACT US
Brett Akagi, media director and content strategist
bakagi@kansan.com
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jschitt@kansan.com
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kannan Edition Boat are Katie Kutko, Alison John. Lauren Armendariz, Anna Winner, Sean Powers and Kelly Botts.