4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
THURSDAY,APRIL3,2003
TALKTOUS
editor
864-4854 or khanderson@kansan.com
Jenna Goopeert and Justin Henning
managing editors
864-4854 or jgoopeert@kansan.com and
jhenneng@kansan.com
Leah Shaffer
readers' representative
864-4810 or lshaffer@kansan.com
Amanda Sears and Lindsay Hanson opinion editors 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
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Sarah Jantz
retail sales manager
864-4358 or adales@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson
general manager and news adviser
864-7667 or mglibson@kansan.com
Matt Fisher
Matt Fisher sales and marketing adviser 864-7666 or mfisher@kansan.com
EDITORIAL BOARD
Find tree that lives to protest sprawl
Sihka has graced Lawrence with her presence. This free-spirited individual spent a short time lending her considerable — if sedentary — talents to the defense of one dead tree.
The limbs had been removed, and it was obvious the tree was not long for this world.
Perhaps in the future she could select more appropriate trees, preferably ones that are still alive, to sit in.
As our cities expand with the effects of urban sprawl, countless trees are bulldozed every week to make space for new Wal-Marts and Home Depots.
What was the significance of that one tree, especially in an area of Lawrence that is not overly developed and in fact is surrounded by many green areas?
Aperson does not need to go far from downtown to find a nice park. It hardly seems appropriate to label the picturesque Massachusetts Street district a "concrete jungle."
This self-described nomad should probably wander away from 8th and New Hampshire streets and find new trees to defend, preferably ones that have not yet shuffled off this mortal coil.
Matt Pirotte for the editorial board
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E-mail: opinion@kansan.com Hard copy: Kansan newsroom 111 Stauffer-Flint
Jennifer Wade for The University Daily Kansan
PERSPECTIVE
Spacecraft's peaceful message lost on those who launched it
Humankind did one of its most memorable acts in our bloody and banal history on March 2, 1972. The spacecraft Pioneer 10 was launched.
With it, we sent a message: We are here. We come in peace.
This message is debatable, as the most cursory reading of human history shows. Has a day passed in our thousands of years of that was not marked with murder, torture and war?
Pioneer 10's task was to gather information about Jupiter and Saturn and beam that data back to Earth. Remarkably, it was also intended to escape our solar system, fly away and never return. Dreaming that this space probe might someday be discovered by intelligent extraterrestrials, Pioneer 10's creators attached to it a gold plaque, illustrating what humans look like and where our planet is located.
The plaque shows the position of our sun relative to 14 pulsars — spinning stars whose regular bursts of radiation could serve as beacons for determining the Earth's location — and to the center of our galaxy. It shows the position of Earth relative to the other planets in our solar system.
And it shows a naked man and woman, carefully drawn to reflect evolved human features, circa 1972. The man's right hand is raised and open, symbolizing humanity's peaceful intentions toward the eventual discoverers of the spacecraft.
Pioneer 10 was the first object ever sent into space bearing an explicit message to otherworldly species.
Rachel Robson opinion@kansan.com
When Pioneer 10 was launched, our
COMMENTARY
Back on Earth, the Soviet Union and United States threatened each other with firepower sufficient to destroy all human life, several times over. Pioneer 10 kept phoning home, reporting its latest discoveries.
nation was at war in Vietnam. As the craft completed its two-year Jupiter mission and headed to Saturn, Saigon fell. Crossing the orbit of Neptune in 1983, Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave our solar system.
Regular signals from Pioneer 10 provided astronomers with an example of what an intelligent transmission from space might sound like. Scientists with Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence trained their radio telescopes on Pioneer 10's signals to practice distinguishing meaningful messages from the random noise that reverberates through space.
Hutus dismembered their Tutsi neighbors with machetes in Rwanda. Attempts at genocide resumed in the Balkans after a brief hiatus. Although it would still respond to telegraphed commands from home, in 1997 Pioneer 10 stopped sending signals on its own.
The anodized gold tablet easily could last a billion years in the vacuum of space. That's 10,000 times longer than Homosapiens have existed. Given the uncertainties of life, and our penchant for violence, it is possible that Pioneer 10 and its message will outlive the species who created it.
On Earth, the killing never stopped.
The last signal Pioneer 10 sent to us was received on Jan. 22. It did not respond to commands in February or March, and was subsequently declared lost by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Pioneer 10 speeds ever farther from its home planet, with a plaque that speaks to our hopes for the future.
We will never hear a message from Pioneer 10 again.
首
It makes no comment on Saddam Hussein or the "Shock and Awe" offensive. It is silent on the usual bloody business of human life. From the perspective of our short human lifespan, Pioneer 10 is practically immortal.
At that time, it was almost 8 billion miles away. We have gone to war, again, but Pioneer 10 is innocent of that.
Perhaps it will persist long enough to see humans fulfill the promise we sent out to the stars.
Pioneer 10 bears to an uncertain future a message so rare and beautiful it is hard to believe that it is our own. "Here we are," the plaque proclaims. "We come in peace."
Robson is a Baldwin City graduate student in pathology at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
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There's a drink they're serving in Key West right now called the Stomp. Apparently this thing advertises that it can get you bombed in 15 minutes.
Ah, with spring comes warm weather,
and with warm weather comes girls in skimpy outfits. God love spring.
I have a friend who has a gallon of pee in his refrigerator.
I am the Justin Timberlake of metal.
I happen to know that my SAT score was over 200 points higher than President Bush's, but my daddy couldn't pay to get me into Yale. Does that mean I should be making the country's decisions?
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Apparently putting my roommate in a box and trying to get rid of her in front of a grocery store was also a bad idea. Survey says the creature in the box should be cute and cuddly.
Major props to Catherine Bell for keeping the Student Senate elections in perspective. Go KUnited! Oh, and I'm not Greek. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.
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as Mesopotamia. Six thousand years ago, people there were domesticating animals, beginning to use agriculture and giving rise to some of the earliest known cities such as Ur, Babylon, Kabala and Nineveh. Many scholars throughout the world believe that writing, accounting and even bureaucracy were born in this ancient land.
Next week the city of Columbia will vote on whether or not to legalize marijuana. I guess Mizzou doesn't suck as bad as we all thought.
I'd just like you to know, AE Pi had three cop cars buzz up to their house. Busted!
--as Mesopotamia. Six thousand years ago, people there were domesticating animals, beginning to use agriculture and giving rise to some of the earliest known cities such as Ur, Babylon, Kabala and Nineveh. Many scholars throughout the world believe that writing, accounting and even bureaucracy were born in this ancient land.
as Mesopotamia. Six thousand years ago, people there were domesticating animals, beginning to use agriculture and giving rise to some of the earliest known cities such as Ur, Babylon, Kabala and Nineveh. Many scholars throughout the world believe that writing, accounting and even bureaucracy were born in this ancient land.
Easter falls on 4-20 this year. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
as Mesopotamia. Six thousand years ago, people there were domesticating animals, beginning to use agriculture and giving rise to some of the earliest known cities such as Ur, Babylon, Kabala and Nineveh. Many scholars throughout the world believe that writing, accounting and even bureaucracy were born in this ancient land.
My roommates and I were sitting around wondering how exactly do you attach boobie tassels?
I would just like to say that even the Preview Channel is rooting for KU. Just check out their new colors.
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You know you're a freshman when it's 2 in the morning and you're making a fake ID instead of working on a paper that's due in 12 hours.
My veins are blue. The blood comes out red. Coincidence? I think not.
as Mesopotamia. Six thousand years ago, people there were domesticating animals, beginning to use agriculture and giving rise to some of the earliest known cities such as Ur, Babylon, Kabala and Nineveh. Many scholars throughout the world believe that writing, accounting and even bureaucracy were born in this ancient land.
PERSPECTIVE
I pledged Phi Kap this semester, but it really sucks. I'm dropping out.
Bombing Iraq destroys ancient artifacts that can never to be recovered, replaced
Most people who are opposed to the war have many reasons why they stick to their beliefs, but I am here to present one that doesn't get a lot of press coverage in this era of 24-hour, live war coverage from the front lines.
This idea goes back to a document that was drafted on May 14, 1954, at The Hague. The document came to be known as the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. It is a clear outline of what should be done with artifacts and archaeological sites in the event of military conflict. The war in Iraq is a perfect example of why this document was drafted.
GUEST COMMENTARY
Ford Inbody
opinion@hansan.com
With every explosion of a bomb, missile or even the firing of a rifle, the armed forces risk destroying a piece of culture that can never be reclaimed. Iraq sits in the "Cradle of Civilization," once known
The past decade has not been kind to this area, the site of military action spearheaded by the United States. After Desert Storm in 1991, there was a surge
We find ourselves in a similar situation today. The Iraq Museum in Baghdad contains many irreplaceable artifacts such as cuneiform documents from Uruk and Sumerian texts dating from at least 2,500 B.C.
in looting of national artifacts from archaeological sites and museums, which found their way into the hands of private collectors by way of the black market. In 2001, the Taliban destroyed the huge Bamiyan Buddhas believed to be as old as 1,300 years.
The American population needs to wake up and help preserve these priceless and irreplaceable artifacts in danger by simply raising awareness of the situation. Right now, the United States has no plan to help rebuild these sites after our war on Iraq. The country still hasn't recovered from the post-Destert Storm exodus of scholars out of the country. We have to plan for the future to help Iraq rebuild its cultural and archaeological programs, and to help get knowledgeable people who know how to help protect and rebuild these wonderful sites.
The Hague Convention of 1954 has a list of 88 countries that support the protocols for protecting cultural property. On that list are countries such as Australia, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and yes—even Iraq. The United States is not on the list.
The United States needs to become aware that Iraq has a culture and heritage that unites all of humankind. This area witnessed the birth of human civilization, but it shouldn't also have to witness the death of it. We need to think twice before we destroy it. We must protect our history, and we must remember our past.
- Ford Inbody is a Shawnee sophomore in anthropology.
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